Wildlife SOS
Four elephants who were rescued in early June have returned to the hellish existence they came from, after their former owners from the Rambo Circus showed up to take them back. "We were ready and able to give them lifetime freedom and care," Wildlife SOS, the group who tried to save them, wrote in a Facebook post. "Yet this was not enough to protect them from their abusers." Wildlife SOS Nicknamed the Precious Four, the animals - one a blind 52-year-old - have spent their lives performing in a circus and shackled in spike chains between shows. But just weeks ago, in what welfare group Wildlife SOS called one of its most "dangerous, exhausting and complicated rescues to date," the elephants experienced freedom for the first time as they were taken from the Rambo Circus and transported to a facility in Pune, India, where they were resting and receiving medical attention. Dodo Shows Odd Couples Kitten Isn't Sure About His Pittie Brother At First Wildlife SOS "The elephants in this circus were a priority [for our team] as they were in terrible distress," Geeta Seshamani, cofounder of Wildlife SOS, previously said in a statement. But now, due to a loophole in the law, a court in Pune has ordered the elephants to be returned to the circus, who turned up Wednesday to reclaim them. "This is the darkest day for improving the welfare of elephants that we have ever seen," Nikki Sharp, executive director for Wildlife SOS USA, told The Dodo. "We were making such progress treating them. And the law was on our side. But today justice failed to protect these vulnerable creatures." Wildlife SOS The Rambo Circus told The Dodo in early June that any allegations of abuse were "false accusations," and said, "We never mistreated any animals." But Wildlife SOS refers to the circus' actions as an "illegal infliction of cruelty upon the elephants" and notes that the circus is no longer recognized by the Central Zoo Authority and banned by the Animal Welfare Board of India. Wildlife SOS "The court was provided with detailed health reports on all of the elephants that explained in great detail the amount of brutality and suffering they had undergone, as well as injuries to their legs, rotting footpads, overgrown toenails, severe debilitation, wounds on their mouths and swelling from circus beatings," Wildlife SOS said in a press release on Wednesday. Wildlife SOS "Statements submitted to the court also highlighted and confirmed that the elephants were chained in their own dung and urine for months," it noted. Two of the elephants during their brief respite with Wildlife SOS | Wildlife SOS Darren Kao has two apps on his Sony Xperia Android phone WeChat, to stay in touch with his Chinese clients, and the Starbucks wallet, for his morning caffeine fix. For everything else, hes got his trusty BlackBerry. Kao is one of a shrinking tribe of diehard BlackBerry fans dedicated to navigating modern life with what most consider an obsolete appliance. Echoing many BlackBerry devotees, he says iPhones and Androids just cant match BlackBerrys voice sound quality, centralized notification hub and physical keyboard. Id rather use my old BlackBerry than a brand-new phone, he said. To outsiders, its an increasingly perverse lifestyle choice. After all, BlackBerry Ltd. has committed to updating the BB10 operating system only through the end of the year. It has no stated plans for another BB10 phone and is accelerating a pivot to handsets running Googles Android. Even President Barack Obama, who famously fought to keep his BlackBerry despite security objections from the Secret Service, told Jimmy Fallon he finally ditched his Berry earlier this year (reportedly for a Samsung). Some on Wall Street would like BlackBerry to move on, as well. Macquarie analyst Gus Papageorgiou, who has covered the Canadian company on and off since 2002, said in May that ditching hardware altogether would actually help the bottom line and cheer the market. Chief executive officer John Chen has said hell do that if he cant make the handset unit profitable by September. He can probably expect renewed pressure when BlackBerry reports earnings on Thursday. On average, 21 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg expect the company to post a loss of 7 cents and pull in $471 million in revenue. BlackBerry reported just $2.2 billion in revenue last fiscal year, its lowest showing since 2006. The shares have fallen about 20 per cent in the last 12 months. At the end of March, about 23 million people around the world were using BlackBerrys, including the Priv Android phone, according to a company filing. Three times as many people were using the handsets two years earlier, but the continued loyalty is striking all the same. Getting non-BlackBerry applications onto a BB10 phone requires patience and some technical skill. Friends and family often find themselves adding BlackBerry Messenger to their roster of messaging apps to keep in touch with the few remaining BlackBerry users in their life. Kao, an IT consultant who runs a mobile software startup in Ottawa, keeps the Wi-Fi hotspot of his BlackBerry on at all times to allow WeChat to function on his Android. He refuses to message with his wife and friends through anything other than BlackBerry Messenger. Hes currently using a Classic, an updated version of the legendary BlackBerry Bold. It was released more than two years ago. Even my girls were brought up playing with BlackBerrys as toys, he said. Kim Kardashian has said she buys old BlackBerrys on eBay to ensure a steady supply. Other members of the tribe painstakingly follow online tutorials on workarounds that will make popular apps like Snapchat and Instagram work on BB10. The results are often glitchy, says Howard Mesharer, a 23-year-old BlackBerry fan from Columbus, Ohio. When Chen chose to make phones running Android instead of BB10 last year, it opened a rift in the BlackBerry community, according to Chris Parsons, editor in chief of CrackBerry.com, BlackBerry fandoms central gathering place. It caused a little bit of chaos because they essentially made people make a choice at that point, are you a BlackBerry user or are you essentially an Android user, said Parsons, whos known as Bla1ze online. One CrackBerry user, known only as Cobalt232, found a way to rework Androids source code, stripping out certain elements that stop Android apps from working on BB10. Hes allowed the diehards to download apps from Googles store that dont otherwise work on BB10, Parsons said. Mesharer, who works as a server at a restaurant, used Cobalts hack so he could Snapchat with his friends, up until about a month ago, when he finally caved and bought an LG phone running Android. Why do you need to do so much just to get an app that anybody can get in five seconds? You have to work for 45 minutes to keep Snapchat, he said. No developer wants to develop for BlackBerry. Its over. Mesharer, who used the square-screened BlackBerry Passport before he made the switch, said people sometimes mistook the phone for a Nintendo Gameboy. Ask him which BlackBerrys hes used over the years and he launches into a litany of names and numbers: Curve 8520, Curve 8900, Bold 9900, Bold 9700, Curve 8320, Z10, Classic, Q10, Passport. Kao does the same. He got his first one in 2003, when he landed his first job out of university at IBM. He recalls being the envy of all his friends. It used to be a badge of honour to be able to carry BlackBerrys, and now its almost a shame, he said. People look at it like its a dinosaur, a museum piece. Read more about: SHARE: PHILADELPHIABill Cosby will return to a Pennsylvania courtroom next month as he tries again to question his accuser in a sexual assault case before it is sent to trial. The entertainer is slated to be in a suburban Philadelphia court on July 7 over the decade-old complaint involving former Temple University employee Andrea Constand. Cosby is accused of drugging and molesting Constand in 2004. He insisted their encounter was consensual. A lower-court judge upheld criminal sex-assault charges last month after prosecutors offered Constands 2005 police statement as evidence at the preliminary hearing. Pennsylvania law currently allows the use of such hearsay testimony early on. However, the state Supreme Court is reviewing the issue. Defence lawyers want the right to cross-examine Constand at the pretrial stage. Common Pleas Judge Steven T. ONeill has agreed to weigh the request, scheduling the hearing to determine if Cosby was properly held for trial. Prosecutors in a filing Monday said the defence has no right to prematurely attack Constand at a preliminary hearing. They noted that an accusers credibility is not an issue at that stage. Cosby, 78, remains free on $1 million bail. ONeill has not yet set a trial date. Also Monday, the state Supreme Court again turned down Cosbys appeal over the legality of the charges. Cosby argued that he had a deal with a former prosecutor that he would never be charged over Constands complaint. A new prosecutor reopened the case last year, and filed charges, after new evidence emerged from Constands civil lawsuit and dozens more accusers came forward with similar complaints about Cosby. Read more about: SHARE: LOS ANGELESSelma Blair is apologizing for her outburst on a flight. The actress says in a statement to Vanity Fair that she mixed alcohol with medication which caused her to black out and make statements that she regrets on a Monday flight from Cancun to Los Angeles. TMZ reported Blair was crying and talking about an abusive man. The site says she was attended to by nurses on the plane and taken off on a stretcher at Los Angeles International Airport. Blair says her son was asleep with headphones on with his father and did not witness the incident. A spokeswoman for the Cruel Intentions and Legally Blonde actress has not responded to requests for comment about the incident or statement. SHARE: VANCOUVERThe University of British Columbia says the chair of its creative writing program is no longer employed by the school over what it calls an irreparable breach of trust. In a statement, the school says acclaimed writer Steven Galloway was suspended in November of last year while an investigation was completed over what it said were serious allegations of misconduct. Addition complaints were also received after he was suspended and former B.C. Supreme Court justice Mary Ellen Boyd was appointed to conduct an investigation. Details of those allegations werent released, but the school says Galloway did not dispute any of the critical findings. Philip Steenkamp, the vice-president external relations at UBC, wouldnt say if Galloway quit or if he was fired. He noted that when the president recommends termination of a faculty member it needs to be approved by the board and that approval was given on Tuesday. Galloway could not immediately be reached for comment. Steenkamp says all of the complainants who came forward have been offered support and counselling services by the university. Galloway is the author of three novels, including The Confabulist and The Cellist of Sarajevo and was nominated for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and the Scotiabank Giller Prize. Read more about: SHARE: A recent Made in Italy dinner, cooked by graduates of George Brown Colleges Italian program, set the stage for a summer of good eating. As chef school director John Higgins handed out cheques from the Italian Trade Agency to students who cooked the winning dishes, he noted that cooking in Italy over the next few months will change their relationship with food forever. So true! Italians are masters at transforming simple, high-quality ingredients, particularly vegetables, into amazingly delicious dishes. Take the zucchini, the long, mild green summer squash non-Italians tend to ignore. When I asked Sandra di Carlo, ITAs new deputy trade commissioner, for her favourite zucchini recipe after the event, she sent a rustic pie of browned onion and cubed zucchini piled onto thawed puff pastry and topped with beaten eggs and grated Italian cheese before baking. Easy, delicious and quintessentially Italian. Alitalias new Toronto airport manager, Francesca Farris, also newly arrived from Rome, says she likes to boil whole zucchini until tender, cut them in half lengthwise and remove the pulp with a spoon. Fill the boats with the pulp and its juices combined with tuna or ham, then top with bread crumbs and cheese (for ham) or capers (for tuna). Five minutes in the oven and youve got dinner! says Farris. A favourite summer dish from Piero Titone, assistant trade commissioner at Torontos Italian Trade Commission, is spaghetti tossed with circles of fried zucchini, fresh mint and grated Parmigiano-Reggiano. The zucchini-mint combo was seconded by another guest, Andrew Eade, chef de cuisine at Pusateris, whose high-end repertoire includes blackened salmon with sauteed zucchini and black quinoa. Im thinking its time to ditch the zucchini bread and give this neglected summer squash the Italian treatment. Name Game What we call zucchini comes from the cocozelle or Italian vegetable marrow introduced here in the late 1800s. California growers began calling it zucchini in the 1920s, and the rest of North America followed suit. Italians will recognize the Roman version, costata romanesca, with its mottled skin and pale raised ribs. The rounded, light green vegetable marrow, or cousa, my Lebanese grandmother stuffed is also a type of zucchini. Buy & Store Choose squash with taut, shiny skin without dents, gashes or soft spots. Ontario zucchini is available for the next few months, with imports year-round. Though they can grow into monsters, harvest when small to medium-sized. Refrigerate in a plastic bag up to 3 days. Prep Before cooking, scrub lightly under running water. Cut off both ends and serve raw or cooked. Theres no need to peel zucchini or other thin-skinned summer squash. Cut in any shape: rounds, cubes, sticks or tiny dice Strips: Cut long thin slices down the length of each unpeeled zucchini or use a mandolin. Make zoodles with a spiralizer for salad or cook briefly for pasta. Stuff: Cut in half lengthwise and scoop out flesh with a spoon to make boats. Add flesh to your filling and bake. Serve Because zucchini contains a lot of water, saute or fry on high heat to help evaporate its natural juices and concentrate the flavour. Pan-fry: Cut in -inch (1 cm) circles, dust in seasoned flour and fry in hot olive oil until tender and golden brown. Drain on a paper towel. Green and yellow zucchini make a pretty presentation. Grill: Brush long flat strips with a little olive oil, salt and pepper and grill 4 minutes per side or until tender with grill marks. Zucchini loves garlic, parsley, mint, thyme, rosemary, savory, sage and oregano. Farfalle with Zucchini Cut up sauce ingredients before you cook the butterfly pasta and youll have a fresh, summery supper in no time. 12 oz (375 g) dried farfalle (butterfly) or fusilli pasta 1 cup (250 mL) fresh or frozen green peas 1/3 cup (85 mL) extra virgin olive oil 1 large sweet or yellow onion, thinly sliced 1 small garlic clove, finely chopped 2 tbsp (30 mL) chopped Italian parsley 2 medium zucchini (1.5 lb/675 g), cut into sticks 2 inches (5 cm) long and -inch (.5 cm) wide 2 tbsp (30 mL) shredded fresh basil 1 tbsp (15 mL) finely chopped fresh mint Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste cup (125 mL) grated Parmigiano and/or Pecorino Romano cheese cup (125 mL) pine nuts, toasted (optional) Bring a big pot of water to a boil, Add salt and pasta; cook according to package directions. Add peas 2 minutes before pasta is done. Drain well, reserving cup (125 mL) cooking water. Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-low heat. Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until it softens and turns golden. Raise heat to medium-high and add garlic. Cook, stirring frequently so it doesnt burn, for 1 minute, then stir in parsley and zucchini. Cook, stirring occasionally, 5 to 10 minutes or until zucchini are tender and lightly browned. Stir in basil and mint and season with salt and pepper to taste. Remove pan from heat. Add drained pasta and grated cheese to pan and mix well, adding a little pasta water if too dry. Sprinkle with pine nuts and serve immediately. Makes 4 servings. Cynthia David is a Toronto-based food and travel writer who blogs at cynthia-david.com SHARE: It takes David John Langdon exactly 33 steps to get from one end of his apartment to the other. The 81-year-old Burlington resident knows this because he was diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) last year, a time when walking from his bedroom to the kitchen counter felt like choking to death. Today, Langdon makes the short strides in no time, thanks to a national initiative that saw his care move from the hospital into a nearby community centre close to home. There, respiratory specialists taught Langdon how to manage flare-ups of his disease, all without having to visit an emergency room. Now that I have control over the COPD, I never slow down, he said. I walk fast. The kids tell me to slow down. The Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement released a new report Tuesday that shows the number of COPD-related hospitalizations can be cut by up to 80 percent when healthcare is provided to patients and their families at home. The primary cause of the conditions is either smoking or long-term exposure to second-hand smoke. The condition can also stem from air pollution such as industrial dust and chemical fumes. Symptoms range from recurring mucus-filled coughing to wheezing and chest tightness. According to CFHI, COPD is now the number one reason for hospitalizations in Canada and accounts for the largest number of return visits to emergency departments. In Ontario, more than 27,000 COPD-related hospitalizations were logged in 2013 to 2014, the most of any province, according to data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information. The average length of hospital stay for these patients was 6.4 days and carries a price tag of roughly $1,000 daily. Between the high rate of admissions, readmission and longer lengths of stay, the numbers really add up, said Stephen Samis, CFHIs vice-president of programs. Treating people in their homes, community and out of the hospital, he explained, can save health-care dollars and lead to more effective treatment. We are very proud of our publicly funded healthcare system in Canada, but it was designed in the 1950s and 1960s, at a time where there were far fewer people living with chronic conditions, he said. But the hospital isnt necessarily the best place to treat conditions like COPD. There is a risk of hospital-acquired infections, along with a whole series of other care issues. Thats where a Halifax-created program called INSPIRED, which stands for Implementing a Novel and Supportive Program of Individualized Care for Patients and Families Living with Respiratory Disease, comes into play. The hospital-in-the-home approach is designed to slash the chance of readmission after COPD patients have gone home. Collaborating with pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim Canada, CFHI rolled out the INSPIRED initiative at 19 hospitals across Canada from September 2014 to October 2015. Patients with advanced COPD were identified by healthcare teams and offered the chance to enroll. Of the 45 patients who participated at Joseph Brant Hospital in Burlington, none was readmitted within 90 days after they returned home. Melanie Potvin, the hospitals director of medicine services, said the program empowered patients to take control of their disease. Four phone calls and two in-home visits from nurse educators covered hot topics such as how to use an inhaler, when to take medication, physical exercise, nutrition, and tips for managing depression. According to Potvin, this support system created a soft landing for patients returning home from hospital. They never felt alone in the initial stages of their discharge, she said. CFHI reports the program costs about $1,000 per patient per year to implement but over the next five years would net $263 million in savings on COPD-related hospital care in Ontario alone. Langdon told the Star he hasnt visited the hospital for COPD-related care since completing the program. Hes since mastered exercises that can be performed sitting down and can use the little blue inhalers he keeps in the kitchen, bedroom and TV room with ease. This gave my life back, he said. I sleep at night and I breathe fine. - COPD BY THE NUMBERS 290,000: Ontarians living with COPD 17% Of Ontarians are smokers. 25%: Of Canadians older than 35 are expected to develop the disease in their lifetime. $1,000: Estimated cost (per day) for hospitalizing a single COPD patient $1,000: Annual cost for enrolling a single COPD patient in the INSPIRED program 885: Number of Canadian patients enrolled in the INSPIRED COPD Outreach Program (Implementing a Novel and Supportive Program of Individualized Care for Patients and Families Living with Respiratory Disease) At Joseph Brant Hospital in Burlington, ON 0: Number of hospital readmissions among 41 patients enrolled in the program (measured at 30 days, 60 days, 90 days and six months after patient enrollment) 5.7 days: Median length of stay, reduced from 7.5 days SHARE: OTTAWAThe federal Liberal government has enlisted the independent Public Policy Forum to assess the state of Canadas struggling news industry as it mulls over potential policy options. A rash of newspaper closures and newsroom layoffs this past winter, combined with a looming debt bomb for Postmedia Network Canada Corp., Canadas largest newspaper chain, has added a sense of urgency to a decade-long disruption of the journalism that Heritage Minister Melanie Jolys office says plays a central role in a healthy democracy. The Commons heritage committee has already begun hearings on how Canadians, and particularly local communities, are being served through news, broadcasting, digital and print media, according to a February committee motion. But specific government policy prescriptions for the digital news age are not within the expertise of the federal public service. Nor, for that matter, are they something any government wants to be seen imposing or offering up to the journalists and organizations who report on it. Its a sensitive area of policy making, Ed Greenspon, the president of the Public Policy Forum and former Globe and Mail editor and reporter, told The Canadian Press in an interview. Were not, if you will, hired by the government. But were doing this in co-operation with the government. Joly was unavailable over several days for an interview on the policy study but her office offered up a statement confirming the Public Policy Forums mandate. Journalism plays a central role in a healthy democracy, from holding governments accountable to providing a platform for citizen engagement, spokesman Pierre-Olivier Herbert said in an email. We acknowledge that newspapers are facing industry-wide challenges as they adapt to changing technology, demographics, audience preferences and competition for advertising dollars. The government, he added, has contracted the Public Policy Forum to provide an analysis of recent changes in the Canadian newspaper industry and identify policy options. Greenspon said hell begin the first of six roundtables starting next week, where invited experts will debate the state of play and share ideas for potential government action. The forum will also hire pollsters to research how Canadians view the news media and its role in democratic society. Theyll wrap things up with a final symposium next fall. The project was spawned in January after the Guelph Mercury and Nanaimo Daily News closed their doors after more than a century of publishing, Postmedia announced another big round of newsroom layoffs, Rogers announced layoffs and the Toronto Star closed its printing plant. For an industry thats seen a decade of incremental retreats, it was a brutal month. The simple problem for most news media is that advertising no longer pays the cost of producing journalism. Digital ad rates are a fraction of old newspaper ad rates, and platforms like Google and Facebook have become dominant in attracting ad dollars while producing no journalism themselves. Thats become a major flashpoint in Europe, where Google has been battling copyright lawsuits from beleaguered news organizations for years. In Canada, government policy-making for the news industry is not unprecedented. A 1965 income tax section, for example, treats advertisers in Canadian-owned media differently than advertisers in foreign-owned media coming into Canada, to the benefit of Canadian-owned media. There have been royal commissions and major government studies on the news media, and a generation ago todays mass concentration of media ownership would have been considered a national scandal. Its all grist for the mill. The roundtables will gather together people who are already deeply immersed in grappling with these issues. Now, with an apparently ready audience among policy-makers, says Greenspon, there is an opportunity to put some ideas into action. Hes hesitant, at the beginning of the review process, to state any policy preferences but he does reveal his reporters bias. One of the challenges we have is the way the media landscape is evolving theres more and more people processing and commenting on news that we already know about, and fewer and fewer hunters and gatherers of the news. That cant be a good thing, said Greenspon. We need to make sure theres still hunting and gathering going on. Torstar Corp., the owner of the Toronto Star, Canadas largest daily newspaper by circulation, holds an investment in The Canadian Press as part of a joint agreement with a subsidiary of the Globe and Mail and the parent company of Montreals La Presse. SHARE: MONTREALA 54-year-old Montrealer who allegedly ordered his pit bull to attack his girlfriend was released on bail Wednesday. Mark Leonard was freed under strict conditions and is due back in court in November, said Crown prosecutor Isabelle Major. Leonard has been charged with assault and assault causing bodily harm after allegedly ordering the dog to bite his partner. The woman allegedly suffered bites to her arm and back on Sunday. He has the obligation not to communicate with the plaintiff directly or indirectly, Major said outside the courtroom. He (also) cant be within a radius of her domicile, workplace, school and cant be within her physical presence. Leonard is also forbidden from possessing or being responsible for any animal. Major said she didnt know the condition or location of the pit bull. Pit bulls have been in the spotlight in Quebec recently after a series of high-profile attacks by the animals throughout the province. Montreals mayor recently announced a plan to ban pit bulls and other breeds considered dangerous after a woman died from an attack. Quebec Citys mayor has announced similar measures. Premier Philippe Couillard said this week his government will likely follow Ontarios example and adopt a provincewide ban on the breed. SHARE: VICTORIAA mother who says her baby is hospitalized with whooping cough in Victoria is warning parents who dont vaccinate their children that there can be consequences for other kids. Annie Mae Braiden says her 10-week-old daughter has been in the pediatric intensive care unit at Victoria General Hospital for more than a month after contracting the disease. What you do with your kids is your choice, but do not tell me that not vaccinating your kids isnt hurting anyone but your own kids, Braiden wrote in a Facebook post that had been shared nearly 24,000 times by Tuesday. Isabelle is proof that it harms the other little babes who arent old enough to get their vaccines yet. Braiden told her story and posted photos of the tiny girl with tubes taped to her face in an emotional Facebook entry on Friday. She expects her child could be hospitalized for another two months. 'It harms the other little babes' Braiden, who declined an interview, said in her post that Isabelle was on a ventilator for three weeks. The girl has had to learn to eat again, and has endured withdrawals from morphine and sedatives, she wrote. On one occasion, the mother watched a nurse pick up Isabelle and run down a hall to the intensive care unit because it appeared the girl might die, she wrote. It never crossed my mind to not vaccinate. I want to protect my children and other children, Braiden said. Please vaccinate your kids, its not fair that my little girl is in the (hospital) coughing and not being able to breath from a disease that shouldnt be around in this day and age. Dr. Jeff Bishop, a pediatrician who is treating Isabelle at Victoria General Hospital, said whooping cough is incredibly infectious and spreads easily through contact with anyone who is inadequately vaccinated. He said that anecdotally he has noticed over the past year the hospital has treated more children with whooping cough than usual. A small number of children have died during the past five years, he added. Its a hard topic. It does bring up such emotions, said Bishop, who could not speak about Isabelles case directly for privacy reasons. He said immunization has been studied extensively and the research concludes that the benefits of vaccinations far outweighs the risks. These are diseases that kill children and were lucky that in Canada we see them very rarely. But were seeing them come back. Were seeing measles, were seeing babies die from whooping cough where previously we werent. Bishop said the current available vaccine provides about 80 per cent coverage, but that still means 20 per cent of people with a full course are susceptible. He said there was a change to the vaccine in 1997 that made it much safer, but possibly less effective at providing long-term coverage. He also noted there is a fairly low rate of complete vaccination in B.C. and on Vancouver Island. SHARE: OTTAWAIf Prime Minister Justin Trudeau really is a data geek, he couldnt have been encouraged by what some federal departments had on hand. Internal documents obtained by the Star suggest years of belt tightening has led to a data deficit in Ottawa, gaps that may create challenges in delivering on the Liberal governments priorities. Early childhood learning and child care, expanding parental leave, increasing youth employment, and expanding training for apprentices and post-secondary students all figured prominently in the Liberals election platform. But as of November, the department responsible for making good on those promises was worried they didnt have enough concrete data to deliver. Spending on surveys has been reduced over the last several fiscal years and has been concentrated on priority areas to help manage financial pressures, read documents prepared for the senior public servant at Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC). The Liberals have made evidence-based decision-making a watchword for their early days in office, and senior staff in the Prime Ministers Office are known for their attachment to data-driven strategy. A spokesperson for Families, Children and Social Development Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said the issue is government-wide, not isolated in their department. This is an issue that all ministers are facing right now. We do know that there are gaps in the data the government owns, Mathieu Filion told the Star in an email. There are many discussions on the matter with different ministers offices as to see what will be done to acquire more data. According to the November documents, Statistics Canada was largely preoccupied with the restoration of the long-form census, but had identified a number priority files. Along with ESDC, StatsCan was looking to revive longitudinal surveys to fill in gaps. Longitudinal surveys are more expensive and time consuming than other methods of collecting data, but the documents suggest they can give greater insight into the dynamics of life events and have a greater payoff when continued over a number of years. StatsCans wish list includes greater labour market information (specifically aboriginal participation, unpaid internships, temporary foreign workers, and worker mobility), better information on childrens physical and mental health development, and more data on Canadas aging population and the resulting effect on the economy and the health-care system. The agency says the digital economy remains largely in the dark, as well. The use of digital technologies is an important and growing phenomenon and stakeholders are increasingly demanding statistical products to address questions on the topic, the documents read. While the agency has been doing some feasibility work on Internet use by children, the incidence of cybercrime amongst Canadian businesses, and has developed some questions for the inclusion in various surveys, there remain important data gaps. ESDC is also interested in learning more about Canadians computer literacy and use of the Internet. Ready or not with the data to back policy, the Liberals have begun moving ahead on a number of files ESDC identified. On Monday, Employment Minister MaryAnn Mihychuk detailed new projects funded through the federal government aimed at improving job skills of 700 youth and 400 people with disabilities. In February, Trudeau committed to spending an additional $113 million over three years on the Canada Summer Jobs program, which subsidizes wages for Canadians aged 15 to 30. In 2015-16, the program cost $106 million and created more than 34,000 summer jobs. The government has also changed Canadas child-care benefits, combining four separate benefits into a single monthly payment. That change has been the costliest so far, projected to have a $22.4 billion price tag over five years. The Liberals first budget also committed to spending $500 million in 2017-18 on a National Early Learning and Child Care Framework, to be designed with input from the provinces, territories, and indigenous communities. SHARE: They had a Conservative caucus party at Stornoway the other night. Rona Ambrose, the partys interim leader, had a mechanical bull set up in the backyard. For a while the guests circled the thing warily. Fortunately, Simcoe-Grey MP Kellie Leitch seems drawn to long shots. She lasted as long on the fake beast as anyone does not long but it was all Ambroses spouse, J.P. Veitch, a former rodeo cowboy, needed to shame Leitchs likely rivals for the Conservative leadership into following her example. Eventually they all got up there. Even Mike Chong with his tie on. A good time was had by all. By the time Ambrose welcomed me to Stornoway yesterday, the mechanical bull was gone from the back yard. But since last years election the Conservative party has faced a similar ride: rough, with slim chances of a comfortable landing. But Ambrose was poised and on message as she fielded my questions. On her opponents across the aisle: This Liberal government is not what they sold Canadians on. They told Canadians they were going to be fiscally responsible and approach Parliament differently. They have been arrogant in their approach to Parliament and how they treat the opposition parties. They have broken almost every single promise when it comes to fiscal responsibility. On last years election defeat: People were by and large happy with the way things were. Lowest taxes in 50 years, free trade agreements with 51 countries . . . . But then if you also ask Canadians, Are you ready for a change? People say, Yeah, maybe Im ready for a change. On the qualities the next Conservative leader should have: Any political leader of a national party, first of all, has to be bilingual. And second, there is nothing more important for any political party, but particularly ours, than to be focused on unity. And to make sure that we have someone that can bring the whole country together, from coast to coast. Wow, that really doesnt sound like Kevin OLeary, the TV huckster, who brags that he has no time to learn French and whos called the party he (maybe) hopes to lead losers. But when I pressed the point, Ambrose backtracked. OLeary is an important voice, she said. Listen, hes not bilingual, but again, that will have to be up to our members to decide whether thats a deciding factor. Has she talked to Jason Kenney, the Calgary MP who has flirted with running for leadership posts in both the federal and Alberta Conservative parties, about his plans? Of course. Does she think hell be a leadership candidate at one level or the other? I dont see how he wouldnt be. What Ive said to him is, the Conservative movement needs Jason Kenney. So will it be federal or provincial? The thing that I appreciate about Jason is, hes not ego-driven. He will do what he thinks is right for the Conservative movement. He will go where he thinks he can make the biggest impact. Whether thats federally or provincially will be up to him. And hes starting to think about that. I had hoped to lure her further from her careful prepared messages. She has a unique position at a difficult time in the young history of the Conservative party. Stephen Harper was the only leader the young party has had. He won three elections, lost one, and these days a lot of people seem to believe the Conservatives should be ashamed to exist. But Ambrose was not in the mood for a confessional. She remained poised and wary. Twice she seemed to suggest she had hurried to put the Harper years behind her. We promised to change our tone, she said. We listened to Canadians and we did that. We changed our tone. And then, a few minutes later: I think part of this comes with opposition, and maybe its my style of management, but there is more freedom in our caucus (now) to pursue issues that people care about. Its important for our Conservative members of Parliament to feel that they have a voice. So is she less strict than Harper? Does she wish hed been more accommodating? Perish the thought. Its hard for me to comment on that because, to be honest, I had nine portfolios and I was given free rein. So when people used to say things about him being controlling, I never understood it. Her vision for her partys future? Upbeat. The next election will offer such a great contrast, she said. The answer to every question (the Liberals) have is to create a new program or take more money out of the pockets of Canadians to put it into another government program. And I think what that shows is a lack of confidence in Canadians. Anyone wanting the Conservatives to forsake their decade in power, or hoping theyll congratulate Justin Trudeau on a job well done, would be disappointed by Ambroses remarks. Anyone afraid she might do either would be reassured. Her ride at Stornoway will last just short of one more year before she hands off to the next permanent leader. Read more about: SHARE: OTTAWAPrime Minister Justin Trudeau affirmed his desire Wednesday to see Britain remain in the European Union, on the eve of a historic vote marked by fierce campaigning and fond remembrance of a slain British lawmaker. Trudeau said he wants to see Britain continue to be a strong voice in support of trade and economic prosperity as the countrys voters decide Thursday whether to remain part of the 28-country bloc. Canada needs British support to move forward with the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, he added. Great Britain has always been a strong and positive voice around the European table in support of CETA, Trudeau told a news conference. So we certainly hope that the outcome of tomorrow will continue to assure that CETA has as many strong voices in support of it as we move forward towards ratification and implementation of an important deal for Canadians, for jobs and for our shared future. The trade deal is a potentially lucrative one that both sides want to see ratified and in force by early next year. Trudeau said hell be watching the referendum closely, but it will be up to the British people to decide their future. He made it clear, however, he is not in favour of the so-called Brexit campaign to leave the EU. Ive made no bones about the fact that I always believed that we are stronger together. Last week, the top Canadian diplomat in Britain, High Commissioner Gordon Campbell, told The Canadian Press that if Britain votes to leave the EU it would have generational economic consequences that would ripple across the globe. Trudeaus remarks came on the final feverish day of campaigning in Britain. Prime Minister David Cameron made impassioned pleas for Britain to stay, saying the EU was in recovery and is the largest single market in the world. His main opponent on the leave side, former London Mayor Boris Johnson, said the time had come to break away from the failing and dysfunctional EU system. Meanwhile, thousands gathered in London and across the world to pay tribute to the slain British MP Jo Cox, who would have turned 42 on Wednesday. Her husband, Brendan, said the killing last week by a man who gave his name in court as death to traitors, freedom for Britain was political and an act of terror designed to advance an agenda of hatred toward others. He reminded the crowd that his wife was an ardent campaigner for Britain to remain in the EU. In Ottawa, more than 100 people crammed the sidewalk in front of the British High Commission to pay tribute to Cox, placing pink and white roses at the foot of an improvised memorial. The killing in Coxs northern England constituency temporarily stopped referendum campaigning and was seen by some as a potential blow to the Brexit side. There was no direct mention of the referendum by those who came to pay tribute to Cox in Ottawa, but the values she embodied, including her firm desire to remain in the EU, were celebrated by those in attendance. Her message is one of tolerance, not of polarization; of respect for each other; of finding our common things, not our difference, said Oxfam Quebecs Lina Holguin, who became friends with Cox after living with her for a year during a work assignment in Britain. She was the most brilliant campaigner I ever met so energetic, so committed. Rookie Liberal MP Karina Gould said Coxs killing deeply touched parliamentarians around the world. For me personally, it was very numbing, said Gould, one of several Canadian politicians who was on hand to pay respects to Cox. All of us being here today is a symbol. Its a rejection of hatred. Its a rejection of violence. More on the star.com: Brexit breaks betting record as high-stakes EU vote grips nation Brexit explained, in 13 simple points Flamboyant Boris Johnson makes his move toward 10 Downing St. SHARE: Whats known about the victim of the latest fatal Toronto police shooting can be contained in a few scarce facts. He was killed by Toronto police. He died along a dusty rail corridor in North Toronto. He was 42. Nearly a week since the mans death, he remains nameless and faceless. Ontarios Special Investigations Unit, the civilian oversight agency that probes deaths involving police, said Tuesday the mans identity is being kept secret in accordance with the watchdogs naming policy, which requires consent from family to release the name of the victim of a police-involved fatality. The watchdogs policy means the mans name may not be released for months, years or ever and the practice has come under fire from critics who say that the name is critical to scrutinizing a police-involved death and ensuring accountability. But the policy will now be closely scrutinized as part of Justice Michael Tullochs review of Ontarios police oversight bodies. Launched in the wake of public outrage about the SIUs probe into the police shooting death of Andrew Loku, Tullochs review is examining current policies surrounding what information the provinces three police watchdogs keep secret including the names of those killed by police. He will address as a priority ways in which the transparency of the SIU can be enhanced while preserving fundamental rights, including whether more information than is currently released to the public about an SIU investigation should be released and what form that should take, said Jenna Mannone, spokesperson for the Ministry of the Attorney General. According to the SIU, the fatal shooting occurred around 9 a.m. Friday, after numerous police officers and member of the Toronto police Emergency Task Force arrived on a stretch of rail between Weston Rd. and Highway 400, just south of Sheppard Ave. W. When police tried to arrest the man for trespassing under the federal Railway Safety Act, there was a confrontation and an officer shot him. A Taser was also deployed. The man was confirmed dead on scene. The SIU has not released any information about whether the man was armed at the time of the shooting. Once the SIU takes over an investigation, the Toronto police cannot provide any information about the incident. Police later cordoned off an area that contained what appeared to be a makeshift shelter along the railway. Asked last week if the man was living there, an SIU spokesperson said police were still investigating. The SIU has said its policy requiring family consent to release the name of a relative killed by police was adopted in 2012 as a result of concerns brought forward by complainants or their family members. It was developed after research into the practices of other police watchdogs, which vary from province to province. The policy is in contrast to the usual police practice of routinely releasing the names of homicide victims, even if its against the wishes of family. In homicide cases, the release of the victims name can elicit valuable information. The SIUs policy remains in place even after the investigation into the shooting is completed meaning the mans name will never be released by the watchdog. The name could ultimately come out if a coroners inquest is called into the mans death, but inquests into deaths resulting from an interaction with police are not always mandatory. The policy was revisited by the watchdog last year as a result of criticism, according to the 2015 annual report. That included consultation with mental health professionals, a review of what experts had proactively shared with the SIU in past cases, and conversations with SIU investigators to get a sense of what families wanted and needed. The review determined that the 2012 naming policy should be maintained. Based on the analysis, we made the decision to only release names of complainants with consent, unless there was an investigative purpose to release the name, says the SIU in its annual report. Lisa Taylor, a Ryerson University journalism professor and former lawyer, says she doesnt understand how the SIU can determine when a case wont benefit from the release of the victims identity. How can they know what they dont know? We cant know when people might have information thats relevant to an investigation until people have enough information about the deceased, she said. Its very chicken-and-egg. When names are withheld, so too are the fuller narratives that provide greater understanding of the societal problems that lead to police shootings, Taylor added. She doesnt believe the families should have the power to withhold that from the public. I think families, especially in (police shootings) are quite frankly not well positioned to ever be able to detach their own vested personal interests, she said. Karyn Greenwood-Graham, who runs a support group for families of those killed by police, said the group met with Tulloch Monday to discuss the changes they want to see made. For the group, the issue of whether their relatives name is released is divisive. Some appreciate the current SIU policy, while others believe its important that the name be public, says Greenwood-Graham, whose son Trevor was killed by Waterloo Regional Police in 2007. Some families wish after the fact that their loved ones name had been public, she said. But if they are asked for consent to release the name shortly after learning of their relatives death, the automatic, knee-jerk reaction is to say no. Why would you say yes? When you get to the point where you want to say yes, its at a time when you get a little angry. And you want the public to know. Wendy Gillis can be reached at wgillis@thestar.ca Read more about: SHARE: The Toronto Zoo, Parks Canada and the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority set 36 baby Blandings turtles free into the Rouge National Urban Park on Tuesday. Blandings turtles are a species thats provincially and nationally threatened. They were introduced to their new home in Canada's largest urban park to promote the species conservation. Close-up of Blandings turtle Thirty-six baby Blandings turtles, raised in a controlled environment at the Toronto Zoo, have found a new home in the wilds of Rouge National Urban Park, which lies on the Toronto-Pickering border. Volunteer holding turtle The Toronto Zoo, Parks Canada and the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) reintroduced the little turtles into the park Tuesday. Blandings Turtle spots Baby Blandings turtles are on average 10 cm. long with a smooth, black upper shell with small yellow flecks, and a bright yellow chin and throat. Blandings turtles can live up to 80 years and have inhabited the Rouge Valley for thousands of years. Despite being a long-lived species, two years ago, they came close to being classified as endangered. Turtle crawling through the grass Blandings turtles are a flagship species representing a group of animals facing a variety of threats said the Toronto Zoos curator of reptiles and amphibians, Dr. Andrew Lentini. Blandings turtles are threatened by increased human interaction, habitat loss, and nest predation by raccoons, skunks, foxes and other wildlife. Blandings turtle close up As few as six Blandings turtles remained in the wild in the Rouge Valley region in 2014. They have been reintroduced into the park each spring for three years in a row now. While there are more than 300 turtle and tortoise species in the world, the Blandings turtle is among seven species listed in Ontario as threatened, endangered, or a special concern. Volunteer holding turtle "Seven of eight turtle species in Ontario are at risk and need our help, Lentini said, urging Canadians to play a part in preserving them by visiting the Toronto Zoos Adopt-A-Pond website and by reporting sightings to the zoos Ontario Turtle Tally. Turtle pokes its head out 21 baby Blandings turtles were released in June 2015 and 10 the year before. Like all turtles, they are largely aquatic and live in wetlands. Blandings turtle stretches its neck The Zoo and TRCA have been collecting information on and monitoring Blandings turtles in the Rouge Valley in 2005. The zoo collected Blandings turtle eggs from a stable source population elsewhere in southern Ontario in 2014 and has been raising them in a protected environment for reintroduction to the wild ever since. SHARE: TORONTOA prominent Toronto lawyer who pursued a frivolous action on behalf of a client was found personally liable Tuesday for the legal costs incurred, a decision he said could deter lawyers from taking on tough cases. In upholding the $84,000 costs award against Paul Slansky, the Ontario Court of Appeal faulted his conduct for his involvement in the vexatious proceeding. Slansky, the Appeal Court said, had wasted money unnecessarily by acting on unreasonable instructions from, or providing unreasonable advice to, his client. In response, Slansky said he disagreed with the ruling. Lawyers who act in good faith for a client in difficult cases must now be concerned that if the case is lost, they may be found liable for costs if a judge thinks that the action was not well-founded, Slansky told The Canadian Press. This creates a chill on all lawyers, deterring them from taking on difficult cases. The situation began in 2007, when Donald Best sued 62 defendants for negligence and economic loss. The action was stayed in 2009, and Best was later found in contempt for failing to comply with court orders. In 2012, he accused the defendants and their lawyers of perjury, conspiracy, fraud, obstruction of justice and fabrication of evidence accusations a judge rejected as baseless. Best served 60 days in prison for contempt. He then engaged Slansky to appeal. In doing so, Slansky tried to force the opposing lawyers to step down by repeating Bests allegations of serious misconduct against them. That attempt failed and a court awarded costs against Best, who tried unsuccessfully to get the Supreme Court of Canada to intervene. He didnt pay up. While this was going on, Best also launched a new suit through Slansky against 39 defendants. He again made serious allegations of misconduct against opposing lawyers, police and private investigators. A judge eventually found Best had used the rules to create the need for an unnecessary and time-consuming motion and that his behaviour had been reprehensible, unnecessary and unreasonable. On several occasions before and after that decision, lawyers for the other side warned Slansky they would seek costs against him personally for his various legal delays and manoeuvres. Your approach to this litigation has been abusive and continues to waste an astonishing amount of money on legal costs, they wrote. You personally have caused these costs to be incurred without any reasonable cause by either acquiescing to absolutely unreasonable instructions from your client, or worse, by advising your client to take the unreasonable steps he has taken through you. Last fall, Justice Susan Healey dismissed the various actions brought by Best, saying they were without a scintilla of merit and that it was the most vexatious and abusive claim ever to come before her. In October, Healey found Slansky liable for $84,000 in costs. Slansky turned to the Court of Appeal, which on Tuesday rejected his argument that the costs award was unfair and flowed from his pursuit of a weak case. The Appeal Court also ordered Slansky to pay $30,000 more for the costs of the appeal. SHARE: Toronto police Chief Mark Saunders made history Wednesday when he expressed regret for the police forces treatment of the gay community in the past, especially extensive raids on gay bathhouses in 1981 that led to the mass arrest of hundreds of gay men. The Toronto Police Service expresses regret for those very actions and for treating those communities as not fully part of society, Saunders said during the annual Pride reception at police headquarters Wednesday. Saunders said lessons from the raids continue to inform how police reach out to the LGBT community, and in light of Orlando, police must continue to support and protect those marginalized because of their sexual orientation. Policing requires building trust, Saunders said. It is a good and appropriate time to acknowledge something in our community that was wrong, Mayor John Tory said before introducing Saunders. It is timely, it is right and it is necessary. Rev. Brent Hawkes, a gay activist and pastor, helped Saunders craft the statement. My intention was to honour the people who went through the horror of that night, he said, adding that he approached Saunders months ago about the possibility. Saunders did not mention the 2000 raid on Club Toronto on Mutual St., during a womens bathhouse event known as the Pussy Palace, which left many women feeling violated. Police settled a civil suit in 2005. https://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2016/06/21/toronto-police-to-apologize-for-1981-bathhouse-raids.html The 1981 raids on four downtown bathhouses END were carried out after complaints that underage youth were having sex there, says Howard Morton, then director of Ontarios Crown office. Police humiliated and outed gay patrons of the private clubs, and arrested hundreds of men. When no evidence was found, the men were instead charged with being found-ins in a common bawdy house, or house of prostitution. In more than 90 per cent of cases, the charges were dismissed in court. At the time, most men were deep in the closet and viewed the private clubs as safe spaces to have sex during a period of widespread homophobia. They did wrong, Dennis Findlay, president of the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives, said in an earlier interview. This was their attempt to slap us into the closet, big-time . . . but it didnt work. Instead, the raids launched the Canadian gay rights movement. Rumours still persist that the province was involved, but Morton says that when he found out about the arrests he personally told then attorney-general Roy McMurtry. He was flabbergasted, says Morton. He was the most anti-homophobic guy you could find. Attorney-general Roy McMurtry, who has said he was shocked by the raids, was roundly criticized for allowing the prosecutions to go ahead. Metro police carried out the raids after seeking legal advice from the local Crown attorneys office, and Mortons office was never alerted. We were homophobic, says Morton, who is now with the Law Union of Ontario. Anybody who says we werent is lying. SHARE: The cash-strapped Ontario government is not banking on a financial windfall from the looming legalization of recreational marijuana, says Finance Minister Charles Sousa. With officials at Queens Park preparing for Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus federal legislation next year, Sousa emphasized that no cannabis tax bonanza is anticipated. I have not taken into consideration any of the possible receipts into our budget plans, the finance minister, who hopes to eliminate a $4.3-billion deficit next year, said Tuesday. Asked if marijuana will be a cash cow for the treasury, Sousa was firm: Not at all. Thats not something that I have been speculating on, he said. Even when it comes to the revenue, its not the overriding factor because Im sure theres going to be a lot of costs involved in terms of making sure that we administer it properly. According to Sousas February budget, the Ontario government expects to take in $1.2 billion in tobacco taxes this year, plus $611 million in beer and wine taxes, and an additional $2 billion from the LCBO. But provincial officials have not yet calculated how much revenue legalized recreational marijuana would bring into their coffers. Some economists have estimated it could be similar to the amount gleaned through tobacco taxes while others predict it will be far lower. Health Minister Eric Hoskins is concerned about the toll of increased marijuana smoking. There are legitimate health concerns of consuming particularly smoking marijuana, said Hoskins, a physician and public health expert. Its important that the public be aware of that and that we strike the right balance with regards to the legalization, but in a . . . regulatory environment . . . which protects the most vulnerable, he said. Hoskins emphasized that its important to socialize Ontarians about the potential harmful effects of smoking recreational weed. From a health perspective as we go forward our contributions to the discussions focus on harm reduction and the potential negative impact of marijuana Im not talking about medicinal marijuana here, which is a legal substance. Premier Kathleen Wynne has said she would like the government-owned Liquor Control Board of Ontario to oversee the sale of recreational weed. But government officials say that does not mean the LCBOs 650 stores across Ontario would be stocking Super Lemon Haze cannabis next to bottles of Limoncello liqueur. They note that the Crown agency is also a wholesaler whose mission includes controlling access to booze to limit underage Ontarians from drinking. As provincial bureaucrats from several ministries begin work on a weed strategy, they are wrestling with what kind of a retail model is looming. Wynne and Sousa have expressed their opposition to the illegal dispensaries that have sprung up in Toronto in recent weeks. Hoskins said the storefront weed shops present a difficult problem. Its challenging because were in that interesting time between the (federal) government indicating its intent and actually creating a legislative framework, the health minister said. So there are proponents of making marijuana more readily available that are . . . anticipating these certain changes yet we are in a legislative environment that still prohibits it, he said. Weve seen at the municipal level the challenges not just in Toronto or Vancouver that the municipalities have faced in this interesting time. SHARE: A historic national deal to bolster the Canada Pension Plan is the long-awaited payoff for two of Kathleen Wynnes biggest strategic investments since becoming premier: Her made-in-Ontario pension. And her just-make-Justin-PM gambit. After fighting and winning the 2014 provincial election on her Ontario Retirement Pension Plan, Wynne gained extra leverage with her fellow premiers. With a looming mid-July deadline to scale up the ORPP, Wynne threatened to go her own way if the other provinces didnt buy into a bigger CPP. First, though, Wynne laid the groundwork by going on the campaign trail to appear with Justin Trudeau in the 2015 federal election. As a sitting premier, she invested major political capital by talking up the future prime minister in joint election rallies. Her unprecedented intervention raised eyebrows. In the aftermath, many wondered how Wynne would be repaid for that campaign debt. Now the results are in from the prime minister and his finance minister, Bill Morneau, for whom Wynne also campaigned relentlessly (he had previously served on Wynnes ORPP advisory panel). Working closely with Ontario, the federal government set the table for pan-Canadian pension improvements that many thought impossible. Trudeau huddled with Wynne in a private meeting room at Womens College Hospital earlier this month, and Morneau held a three-hour working dinner with Ontario Finance Minister Charles Sousa at an Ottawa restaurant. With time running out, the two tag teams Trudeau-Wynne and Morneau-Sousa discussed who would call whom among the provincial outliers, and how far Ontario would go in diluting its own robust pension proposal. Ottawa laid out its secret weapon a willingness to enhance the Working Income Tax Benefit to offset any increase in premiums for low-income workers. Sousa laid down his bottom line, firing off a letter warning the other provinces the ORPP would move forward in July, after which CPP reforms would be off the table. In his written proposal, Ontario offered to scale back its ORPP to 70 per cent of the original target, but it needed a firm commitment now or never. Sousa compromised further at a meeting of finance ministers in Vancouver this week, settling for 66 per cent of his initial target. While the final CPP deal doesnt go quite as far or as fast as Ontarios original plan it will take a few more years to phase in it will endure for decades. It is an unexpected triumph for Trudeau and Morneau, a big win for Wynne and Sousa, and a shared victory for the provincial politicians from different parties who came round in the end. Above all, it is a winner for working Canadians who can now look forward to a more secure retirement especially the two-thirds of Ontario workers who lack a private pension. A half-century after the inception of the Canada Pension Plan, whose paltry payouts are exceeded by most other industrialized countries, it was overdue for an overhaul. Decades from now, when private pensions will have virtually disappeared from the workplace displaced by glorified RRSP savings plans with high fees and unreliable returns this weeks improvements to the CPP will be seen as a turning point. Until this week, reform faced four daunting obstacles: Ideological rigidity from former prime minister Stephen Harper, who scuttled CPP talks in 2013 and tried to sabotage the ORPP; a CPP amending formula more complicated than constitutional change (Ottawa plus seven provinces with two-thirds of the population); public indifference to pensions, especially the idea of paying premiums now for payouts far off in the future (always a political challenge); and open hostility from business interests that are phasing out workplace pensions while refusing to backstop their workers retirements through a public plan. Wynnes pension determination not only forced the other premiers to make up their minds on the CPP alternative (which was always Ontarios first choice), it also rattled and rankled the business community. In that sense, the ORPP was a stalking horse for the CPP, persuading many business leaders to embrace a pan-Canadian plan as an alternative. Had we not continued to put this issue on the table squarely with our colleagues across the country, I firmly believe that we would not be here today, Wynne said Tuesday, describing herself as a thorn in the side of her counterparts. The ORPP made it clear to the other provinces that if we dont act soon, Ontario will proceed, Sousa said in an interview. Beyond the tangible benefits of CPP expansion portability, sufficiency, efficiency, affordability and scalability there may not be any big political payoff for Wynne. She can and will claim credit for driving the agenda, but the issue will have waned by the time of the next election. All the more reason to acknowledge the political risks she has taken to date on the ORPP, and the questions she will face about the costs of winding down its embryonic bureaucracy a cost of doing business in the range of a few million dollars, but a price worth paying for a CPP that will yield billions of dollars for Canadian workers retirements. While Wynne can take credit for helping to midwife a new CPP, she can also breathe a sigh of relief that she is now off the hook for the ORPP avoiding the execution risk of building a pension bureaucracy from scratch (more expensive than first thought) at a time when voters have little tolerance for more Liberal bungling or boondoggles. By offloading the ORPP onto the CPP, she has done a good political deed and dodged a bullet. Martin Regg Cohns political column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. mcohn@thestar.ca , Twitter: @reggcohn Read more about: SHARE: SEOUL, KOREA, REPUBLIC OFIn a remarkable show of persistence, North Korea on Wednesday fired two suspected powerful new Musudan mid-range ballistic missiles, U.S. and South Korean military officials said, its fifth and sixth such attempts since April. Five of those launches failed, many exploding in mid-air or crashing, and the sixth flew only about 400 kilometres, South Koreas Joint Chiefs of Staff said, an improvement but still well short of the missiles potential 3,500-kilometre range and not long enough to be classified as intermediate. Despite the repeated failures, the Norths determination in testing the Musudan worries Washington and its allies, Tokyo and Seoul, because the missiles range puts much of Asia and the Pacific, including U.S. military bases there, within reach. Each new test apparently linked to a command from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un also likely provides valuable insights to the Norths scientists and military officials as they push toward their goal of a nuclear and missile program that can threaten the U.S. mainland. Pyongyang earlier this year conducted a nuclear test, its fourth, and launched a long-range rocket that outsiders say was a cover for a test of banned missile technology. A statement from South Koreas Joint Chiefs of Staff said a suspected first Musudan launch from the east coast city of Wonsan failed early Wednesday morning, but there were few other details. Later Wednesday, the JCS said the North fired another suspected Musudan, which flew about 400 kilometres. Seoul didnt immediately classify this launch as either a success or failure, but the reported distance is well short of past tests of other mid-range missiles. A U.S. official also said the first launch appeared to be another failure, adding that the U.S. was assessing exactly what had happened. The official wasnt authorized to comment publicly and requested anonymity. Another American official said the first launch was a suspected Musudan but initial indications were that it failed in flight over the Sea of Japan, which the Koreas call the East Sea. The U.S. Strategic Command in Hawaii said its systems detected and tracked two suspected North Korean Musudan missiles that fell into the Sea of Japan. It said in a statement that they didnt pose a threat to North America. In April, North Korea attempted unsuccessfully to launch three suspected Musudan missiles, but all exploded in mid-air or crashed, according to South Korean defence officials. Earlier this month, North Korea had another suspected Musudan failure, South Korean officials said. Before Aprils launches, North Korea had never flight-tested a Musudan missile, although one was displayed during a military parade in 2010 in Pyongyang, its capital. The launches appear to stem from Kim Jong Uns order in March for more nuclear and ballistic missile tests. The order was an apparent response to springtime U.S.-South Korean military drills, which North Korea views as an invasion rehearsal. Since the end of those military drills, Pyongyang has repeatedly called for the resumption of talks with Seoul, even as it pursues new missile development, but the South has rejected the overtures. Seoul wants the North to first take steps toward nuclear disarmament. Pyongyang says its rivals must negotiate with it as an established nuclear power, something Washington and Seoul refuse to do. The string of recent launch attempts shows the North is pushing hard to upgrade its missile capability in defiance of U.S.-led international pressure. The North was slapped with the strongest UN sanctions in two decades after its nuclear test and long-range rocket launch earlier this year. These provocations only serve to increase the international communitys resolve to counter (North Koreas) prohibited activities, including through implementing existing UN Security Council sanctions, State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement. We intend to raise our concerns at the UN to bolster international resolve in holding (North Korea) accountable for these provocative actions. North Korea has recently claimed a series of breakthroughs in its push to build a long-range nuclear missile that can strike the American mainland. But South Korean officials have said the North doesnt yet possess such a weapon. The North, however, has already deployed a variety of missiles that can reach most targets in South Korea and Japan, including American military bases in the countries. The Korean Peninsula remains in a technical state of war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty. About 28,500 U.S. soldiers are stationed in South Korea to deter possible aggression from North Korea; tens of thousands more are stationed in Japan. Read more about: SHARE: LONDONCampaigners on both sides of the crucial vote on whether or not Britain should remain in the European Union crisscrossed the country Wednesday, their last day to win support from the undecided. Prime Minister David Cameron outlined his vision for a future with Britain retaining its place in the 28-nation bloc, bristling at the notion that the country would be headed in the wrong direction if it stayed in. He flatly rejected the notion that the institution is moribund. We are not shackled to a corpse, Cameron told the BBC. You can see the European economys recovery. Its the largest single market in the world. The most notable figure in the leave campaign, former London Mayor Boris Johnson, kicked off a whirlwind tour of England as he pushed for a British exit or Brexit. Touring the Billingsgate Fish Market, Johnson mugged for the cameras with fish in hand a not-so-subtle reminder that this is an island nation and one very proud of its independence and self-assurance. Its time to have a totally new relationship with our friends and partners across the Channel, Johnson said. Its time to speak up for democracy, and hundreds of millions of people around Europe agree with us. Its time to break away from the failing and dysfunctional EU system. Britain goes to the polls Thursday after a campaign that has been both heated and complicated. The reach of the EU into every aspect of life has meant that all sorts of groups from scientists to CEOs have registered opinions on whether to stay or go. The stakes are high as the vote is final unlike an election in which the results can be reversed in the next term. Amid the uncertainty, the fierce campaign within Britain has also spread to continental Europe. On Tuesday evening, Warsaws Palace of Culture and Science was illuminated in the colors of the Union Jack accompanied by the hashtag: Vote Remain. Perhaps the strongest support for Britain remaining in the European Union has come from Germany. Germans fear that a Brexit could become a precedent for other countries with similar movements, and could have a negative impact on trade relations. Last week, a group of young entrepreneurs flew from Berlin to London to hand out free bratwurst on the streets of the British capital, apparently unaware of British campaigning rules which prohibit giving out food or beverages. Bratwurst against Brexit, attracted some curious looks but will likely not have a decisive impact on the outcome of the referendum on Thursday. A similar initiative of French campaigners, who wanted to give out free croissants on Wednesday, was adapted after police informed them about the strict British rules. Instead, the French campaigners handed out postcards at Kings Cross station signed: with love, from Paris. Much of the debate has hinged on the economy. From the international banks in the skyscrapers of Canary Wharf to the traditional home of Britains financial industry in the City of London, business has largely awaited the referendum with trepidation and caution. Many fear a vote to leave would undermine Londons position as the worlds pre-eminent financial centre and damage an industry that underpins the British economy. Leaders of about half of Britains largest companies made a last-ditch appeal to their employees to vote for remaining in the European Union. In a letter to the Times on the eve of Thursdays vote, some 1,285 business leaders include representatives of half of the FTSE 100 businesses argue that a vote to leave will hurt the British economy. Similar letters have been released in the course of the acrimonious campaign. But Wednesdays letter is clearly meant to make the 1.75 million people employed by the signatories think twice about their vote. Britain leaving the EU would mean uncertainty for our firms, less trade with Europe and fewer jobs, the letter said. Britain remaining in the EU would mean the opposite: more certainty, more trade and more jobs. EU membership is good for business and good for British jobs. Thats why, on June 23, we back Britain remaining in the EU. The companies represented include Barclays, Standard Life and Anglo-American. Stock markets and the pound continued to rise, indicating that investors think the remain side will win. Markets are likely to be jittery, however, as the vote is expected to be tight and a vote to leave would create huge uncertainty. U.S. Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen warned Tuesday that the upcoming vote could have significant economic repercussions. The head of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, also said the consequences of a vote to leave would be difficult to assess. This lack of precision from two of the most eminent central bankers in the world with respect to the global consequences of a vote to exit was a refreshing outbreak of honesty in contrast to the very precise warnings that the U.K. public has been bombarded with, said Michael Hewson, the chief market analyst of CMC markets, citing warnings from the International Monetary Fund, the Bank of England and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development all of which signalled dire consequences if the country were to exit. Read more about: SHARE: CALGARYA Canadian-owned Twin Otter turboprop plane arrived in South America on Wednesday with two sick workers who were picked up during a medical rescue mission from a remote U.S. science outpost at the South Pole. After making a stop for a few hours at a British station on the edge of Antarctica, the two workers were flown to Punta Arenas, Chile. From there, the sick workers were to be transported to a medical facility. The National Science Foundation said that location will not be disclosed, and no details of the patients medical conditions would be released out of privacy concerns. A crew in another Canadian Twin Otter had flown from the British station, Rothera, 2,400 kilometres to the Amundsen-Scott station at the pole, to pick up the sick workers on Tuesday and finished the round trip Wednesday. Both Twin Otter planes are owned by Calgary-based Kenn Borek Air. Peter West, spokesman for the NSF, which runs the polar station for the United States, said the nine- to ten-hour flight between the South Pole and the British station on the Antarctic Peninsula was perilous. Its cold. Its very dark. Its Antarctica, so theyre crossing a huge and empty territory. Antarctica itself is the size of the U.S. and Mexico combined, so there are many factors that theyre dealing with, West said earlier Wednesday while the first Twin Otter was still making the round trip to the South Pole. West said the two support crew being airlifted out are employed by logistics contractor Lockheed Martin. The foundation said they needed medical attention that could not be provided on the remote continent. Normally planes dont use the polar outpost from February to October because of the dangers of flying in the pitch dark and cold. It was -60 C on Wednesday at the South Pole, according to the stations webcam and weather gauges. The first day of winter in the Southern Hemisphere was Monday and the sun will not rise at the South Pole until the first day of spring in September. The extreme cold affects a lot of things on planes, including fuel, which needs to be warmed before takeoff, batteries and hydraulics, West said. The Twin Otter can fly in temperatures as low as -75 C, he said. The air and Antarctica are unforgiving environments and punishes any slackness very hard, said Tim Stockings, operations director at the British Antarctic Survey in London. If you are complacent, it will bite you. Things can change very quickly in the area with ice from clouds, high winds and snow, he said. West said there was no tarmac at the South Pole station to land on, but there was a landing strip on the ice. All the ice shifts about 30 feet a year away from the pole because of the way the ice drifts, but the skiway is maintained in a constant location. The foundation decided last week to mount the rescue operation because one staffer needed medical care that cant be provided there. The station has a doctor, a physicians assistant and is connected to doctors in the U.S. for consults, West said. There are 48 people 39 men and nine women at the station. There have been three emergency evacuations from the Amundsen-Scott station since 1999. The 1999 flight, which was done in Antarctic spring with slightly better conditions, rescued the stations doctor, Jerri Nielsen, who had breast cancer and had been treating herself. Rescues were done in 2001 and 2003, both for gallbladder problems. Scientists have had a station at the South Pole since 1956. It does astronomy, physics and environmental science with telescopes, seismographs and instruments that monitor the atmosphere. The foundation runs two other science stations in Antarctica. SHARE: NEW YORKDonald Trump launched a broad rebuke of his presidential rival Hillary Clinton Wednesday, accusing her of being a world-class liar who personally profited from her tenure at the State Department. She gets rich making you poor, Trump said. Seeking to steady his campaign after a difficult stretch, the presumptive Republican nominee cast himself as the White House candidate best positioned to address Americans economic interests. This election will decide whether were ruled by the people or the politicians, Trump said during an address at his hotel in New Yorks SoHo neighbourhood. He made his arguments in a pointed yet measured tone, less loud and strident than has been typical in most previous campaign speeches. Yet his remarks included erroneous statements and distortions about Clintons record, and he frequently referenced sources of information that have been widely questioned, including the book Clinton Cash by Peter Schweizer. The speech marked an opening salvo against Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, in the general election campaign. It came as the real estate mogul faced growing questions about his readiness not just for the presidency, but for the campaign he will need to run to get there. Trump made a direct appeal to supporters of Clintons primary rival Bernie Sanders, urging them to help him fix a rigged system. He also argued his trade and immigration policies would be more beneficial than Clintons for blacks and Hispanics, two groups that have overwhelmingly voted for Democrats in recent presidential elections. Still, the central goal of Trumps speech appeared to be uniting the Republican Party and appealing to people who may be skeptical of him but vigorously oppose Clinton. He unleashed a grab bag of Republicans favourite criticisms of Clinton, including her use of a private email server while she was secretary of state, her response to the deadly 2012 attacks on Americans in Benghazi, Libya, and accusations that she and former president Bill Clinton profited from their family foundation. Hillary Clinton may be the most corrupt person ever to seek the presidency, Trump said. Some of Trumps charges come from Schweizers book, which has been criticized for failing to provide evidence of direct connections between business dealings by foreign interests, sometimes involving the Clinton Foundation, and decisions by Clinton when she was secretary of state. The Republican candidate also argued that Clintons opposition to a massive Asia-Pacific trade pact was an example of her political opportunism, noting that she had worked on the agreement while at the State Department and has previously backed free trade accords. And he took aim at her immigration policies, saying her call for providing those in the U.S. illegally with a path to citizenship amounted to mass amnesty. Trumps remarks came one day after Clinton launched her own blistering attacks on her White House rival. She moved to undercut Trumps argument that his business record would help him create jobs as president, arguing instead that he had been reckless with his companies and shouldnt have his hands on our economy. Trump also tried to turn Clintons strengths into negatives. He spent much of his speech trying to undercut her foreign policy record, highlighting her early support of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, which she now says was a mistake, and linking the policies she promoted at the State Department to the rise of the Daesh (also known as ISIS or ISIL) terror group. The Hillary Clinton foreign policy has cost America thousands of lives and trillions of dollars and trillions of dollars and unleashed ISIS across the world, Trump said. Trumps speech came on the heels of his firing Monday of campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, a controversial figure who was seen as an impediment to efforts to build out a more robust campaign organization. A new fundraising report released hours after Lewandowskis firing underscored how much ground Trump has to make up: he started June with just $1.3 million (U.S.) in the bank. Trump allies cast Lewandowskis firing this week as the start of a new phase for the campaign. Paul Manafort, the campaign chairman and Lewandowskis internal rival, signalled on a conference call with aides that a rapid staffing expansion would be coming soon. Tennessee Republican Sen. Bob Corker, who has been seen as a potential vice-presidential pick, said he was pretty excited to learn of the changes. I think that what appears to be occurring over the last 24 hours is a movement in a direction that I think could be very, very positive, Corker said. Read more about: SHARE: PITTSBURGHA Pittsburgh newscaster fired after her comments in a Facebook post about a shooting were deemed racially insensitive sued her former employer, saying the television station let her go because she is white. Wendy Bell said in her federal lawsuit on Monday that WTAE fired her on March 30 because of her race, violating her civil rights. Had Ms. Bell written the same comments about white criminal suspects or had her race not have been white, Defendant would not have fired her, much less disciplined her, the lawsuit reads. Ms. Bells posting of concern for the African-American community stung by mass shooting was clearly and obviously not intended to be racially offensive. But for her being the race that she is, the decision would have been very different, Bells attorney, Sam Cordes, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The comment was not intrinsically racially pejorative. It was interpreted to be that way. A message left with station management was not immediately returned. Bell is seeking back pay, punitive damages and her old job. In a Facebook post, Bell commented on the March 9 shooting of five black people in the poor Pittsburgh suburb of Wilkinsburg. You neednt be a criminal profiler to draw a mental sketch of the killers who broke so many hearts, Bell wrote March 21. They are young black men, likely in their teens or in their early 20s. They have multiple siblings from multiple fathers and their mothers work multiple jobs. These boys have been in the system before. Theyve grown up there. They know the police. Theyve been arrested. No arrests have been made in the case. Bells comments sparked a backlash from some who saw her words as racist, but also drew defenders who found her post honest. Bells post continued, claiming she found HOPE after watching a young, African-American bus boy hustling at his restaurant job while Bell was out to eat with her husband and sons. She complimented the teen through his manager, who later passed the praise onto him. It will be some time before I forget the smile that beamed across that young workers faceor the look in his eyes as we caught each others gaze, Bell wrote. I wonder how long it had been since someone told him he was special. Almost immediately, critics called her words racist and accused Bell of having a white savior complex. Two days later, the anchor removed the Facebook post and apologized. Seven days after that, on the same day as a meeting between the station management and the Pittsburgh Black Media Federation, the TV station fired her. The WTAE determined her remarks violated the companys journalism and ethics standards. In an interview with The Associated Press on the day she was fired, Bell said she did not get a fair shake from the station, and that the focus on her comments was a distraction from the issue of African-Americans being killed by other African-Americans. Bell joined WTAE in 1998 and has won 21 Emmy Awards. Cordes, Bells attorney, told the Post-Gazette on Monday that he plans to add a gender discrimination claim to the lawsuit once he receives the okay from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. With files from Washington Post SHARE: Donald Trump regularly boasts that he is self-funding his presidential bid, but new campaign finance filings show that he is also shifting plenty of money back to himself in the process. According to documents submitted to the Federal Election Commission, Trump, whose campaign has just $1.3 million (U.S.) cash on hand, paid at least $1.1 million to his businesses and family members in May for expenses associated with events and travel costs. The total represents nearly a fifth of the $6 million that his campaign spent in the month. The spending raised eyebrows among campaign finance experts and some of Trumps critics who have questioned whether the presumptive Republican nominee, who points to his business acumen as a case for his candidacy, is trying to do what he has suggested he would in 2000 when he mulled making an independent run: Its very possible that I could be the first presidential candidate to run and make money on it. He could end up turning a profit if he repaid himself for the campaign loans, said Paul S. Ryan, a campaign finance expert with the Campaign Legal Center. He could get all his money back plus the profit margin for what his campaign has paid himself for goods and services. While most candidates list an array of vendors providing goods and services on their FEC filings, Trumps is packed with payments to his various clubs and buildings, his fleet of planes and his family. The self-proclaimed billionaire is required by law to account for his spending this way to prevent his companies from making illegal corporate donations to his campaign. In 2015, about $2.7 million was paid to at least seven companies Trump owns or to people who work for his real estate and branding empire, repaying them for services provided to his campaign. In May, the biggest-ticket item was Trumps use of the Mar-a-Lago Club, his Florida resort, which was paid $423,000. The campaign paid $350,000 to TAG Air for his private airplanes, $125,000 to Trump Restaurants and more than $170,000 to Trump Tower, the Manhattan skyscraper that houses the campaigns headquarters. Trumps family also profited from the campaign last month, with his son Erics Virginia wine business taking in about $1,300. And Trump, who has said he will not take a salary if he is elected president, paid himself $3,085 in May. The disbursements are related to travel expenses, according to the filings. Ryan said that the extent to which Trump was utilizing his own businesses for his run was unprecedented and that because of his unique financial circumstances, he was wading into territory that went beyond the FECs guidance. We dont have clear answers, Ryan said. Historically, candidates would separate themselves from their business interests when running for office. Trump has done the opposite by promoting his businesses while running for office. While candidates often gain notoriety from running for president, they are barred from enriching themselves directly from their campaigns. When a campaign buys copies of a candidates book in bulk and distributes them, for example, the candidate cannot accept royalties from the purchases. However, Ryan notes that the FEC does allow candidates who own commercial property to rent it from themselves at fair market rates, as Trump has regularly done. Trumps use of his branded water and steaks at one event falls into something of a grey area. Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, an election law expert at New York Universitys Brennan Center for Justice, said that Trump did not appear to be violating any campaign finance laws, but that he could face more scrutiny over the use of his businesses for campaign purposes now that he is more explicitly asking supporters to donate money for to campaign. It is something to keep an eye on, because as soon as you start using campaign money that has come in from donors, not just the money that he has loaned to himself, and he uses it for something that he will personally keep, or his family will personally keep, that is what crosses the line. Whether Trump could end up profiting from his campaign remains a subject of speculation; some have questioned if he will eventually ask for the more than $40 million that he has lent to his campaign to be repaid. The eventual effect of the campaign on Trumps personal brand, which he has said represents a large part of his wealth, also remains unclear. Democrats on Tuesday tried to seize on the payments Trump made to his businesses as evidence of hypocrisy. Commenters on the liberal website Daily Kos ridiculed Trump for running a scampaign and overstating the personal investment he was making in his campaign by funneling the money back to his empire. Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee and Trumps main rival this fall, also piled on, taking to Twitter on Tuesday to jab him over the expenditures and his relatively paltry fundraising sum in one swipe. What is Trump spending his meagre campaign resources on? she said. Why, himself, of course. Read more about: SHARE: Perhaps enough time has gone by since the homophobic slaughter in Orlando to slice through some of the rhetoric and speak truth to privilege. Or to put it another way, to try to shake some of the complacency out of the whole damned thing. One evangelical pastor in the U.S., for example, recorded a message lambasting those Christians who had described the Florida atrocity as Gods wrath against homosexuals. He was rightly angry and more than 10 million people watched him online, many of them no doubt Christian and probably feeling newly generous and clean in their faith-based kindness. Sorry, it wont do. The extreme views arent relevant, we can deal with the salivating brutes. No, its the more mainstream Christians who are the issue, those otherwise generally good people who continue to condemn homosexuality as sinful, who believe that one can reject same-sex relationships as leading to damnation but still love gay people; and as a consequence gay kids kill themselves. This is not hyperbole. Even in allegedly civilized North America, teenagers attempt and complete suicide, fall into profound depression, self-harm and live in fear and desperation because of what myriad Christians, yes Christians, still think and do. I dont care how many photo ops Pope Francis conducts where he hugs a gay person or stresses that love is all that matters. He also describes those who promote gender theory Catholic shorthand for same-sex marriage and full gay equality as being similar to the Hitler Youth and hasnt changed a word of the Catholic catechism that speak of homosexuality as being sinful and disordered. Imagine for a moment how a vulnerable boy or girl would feel hearing and reading that. Its difficult enough being a teen today, without being told that what and how you feel is unnatural, repugnant and wrong. Conservative Protestants are no better. They cherry-pick the Bible so as to confirm their own fear and loathing. Divorce can be dealt with, the odd bit of lust is not such a big deal, making a fortune while others cant eat is just one of those things, but those homosexuals have to saved from the fires of hell. Im an orthodox Christian and I say every word of the creed each Sunday with absolute conviction. Sorry atheists and cynics, Im not your man. But its my faith in Christ and His endless, constant, relentless, inexorable, till-the-end-of-time calls for love, inclusion and acceptance that hold me glued to Christianity, not the man-made judgment fetish that infects so much of the church. Please, do not send me emails quoting the mere handful of verses in Scripture that mention homosexuality. Ive read them many times, studied them, even written a book about them. Theyre ambiguous at best and often not even about gay love at all. Instead, ask why out of all of the Biblical teachings there are still so many followers of Jesus the revolutionary who misunderstand and then obsess about this particular subject. The genealogy of gay suffering has roots deep in church history. Just as Christians have in the past 50 years revised their understanding and attitude toward the Jewish people, the same has to happen with the LGBTQ community. That by necessity will involve contrition, apology and the opening wide of arms, mind and soul. You will be amazed how many gay Christians come forward in glorious liberation, how many loved ones, and how many people previously reluctant to enter a church building. Good God, it could well begin a great, new awakening. The criteria for marriage is not gender but love, openly gay men and women must be fully welcomed into churches, and no person should be told they are sinful merely for being who and what they are. Public outrage at a gun massacre is easy but putting a halt to centuries of harmful teaching is much more difficult and in many ways much more significant. Jesus utters not a word about homosexuality, even though it was as common in His time as in ours but He had so much to say about those who judge others and think themselves Godly. Its not that I say homophobes are sinful but that homophobia is I think making the distinction is, well, the Christian thing to do! Michael Corens new book is Epiphany: A Christians Change of Heart and Mind over Same-Sex Marriage. mcoren@sympatico.ca SHARE: Two decades ago, a woman who was deeply involved in the right-to-die movement, died at home in Toronto after a long, gruesome illness. She was surrounded by her family, her doctor and her closest friends. Some days later, her obituary appeared, noting that cremation had taken place and a memorial service would be announced on a future date. The next week, my wife, who is a physician, received a knock on her office door. Dr. Marmoreo, her medical secretary said: There are two Toronto homicide detectives in reception. They want to speak with you. They wanted her to confirm that she was the family doctor of the woman from the right-to-die movement. Yes, she was. Was she at her bedside when she died? No, she wasnt. Could she prove that? Yes, she could. Did she know who the doctor was at her bedside? No, she didnt. The police then took the patients medical records and left. When my wife got home that night and told me the story, she said she thought what got the officers suspicions up was not only the womans high profile and obvious desire to have her life ended, but the fact the cremation happened so quickly after her death, making an autopsy impossible. For days I scanned the news waiting to hear some doctor was being charged with murder. But no doctor was. The news this month that an Ontario judge has ruled patients who want doctor-assisted death have to get permission from the court beforehand is outraging critics. Having to petition a judge costs money, time and dignity, assets that many dying patients lack. But doctors arent happy either. Who wants to go to prison not just for taking a patients life, but for disobeying a court order? This got me to thinking: How many doctors have been prosecuted for helping their patients die? It turns out, hardly any. In fact, across Canada only seven doctors and one nurse have been charged, even fewer have been prosecuted, and only one has served time behind bars. In 1982 in Calgary, Dr. Nachum Gal, a pediatric resident visiting from Israel, ordered extra morphine for a newborn baby with severe brain damage. The baby had been removed from life support at her parents request. Dr. Gal returned to Israel and the government of Alberta unsuccessfully fought his extradition. But the nurse who injected the lethal dose of morphine and the supervising nurse were both suspended for one year. In 1992 in Toronto, nurse Scott Mataya was charged with first degree murder in the death of a dying patient. He pleaded guilty to a lesser charge, receiving a suspended sentence and lost his nursing license. Also in 1992 an unnamed Ontario surgeon administered morphine and potassium chloride to his seriously ill patient who died of cardiac arrest. The surgeon was originally charged with second-degree murder, but a year later the murder charge was withdrawn and he was given a three-year suspended sentence after pleading guilty to the charge of administering a noxious substance. In 1993 in Toronto, surgeon Dr. Alberto De La Rocha was charged with second-degree murder after a cancer patient received an injection of potassium-chloride. De La Rochas sentence was suspended and his penalty was a license suspension of 90 days. He was permitted to avoid that suspension by writing a guideline about withdrawing life support from terminally ill patients. In 1996 in Toronto, Dr. Maurice Genereux prescribed a lethal dose of medication to two HIV-positive men. Mark Jewitt took a lethal dose but managed to survive after a friend called him and then called 911. Aaron McGinn died in 1997 from an overdose of sleeping pills provided by Genereux. The doctor went to prison for two years less a day and lost his medical licence. He is the first doctor in Canadian history to be convicted of assisting suicide. In 1997 in Halifax, Dr. Nancy Morrison was charged with first-degree murder in the death of a terminally ill patient, who had been removed from life support. The judge refused to commit her to stand trial. In 2006 in Vernon, B.C., Dr. Ramesh Kumar Sharma was charged with helping a 92-year-old woman in a nursing home commit suicide. Her attempt was interrupted by nursing home staff. Sharma was sentenced to house arrest for two years less a day and is currently practicing medicine. Drs. De La Rocha, Morrison and Sharma all appear to be practicing today. When I asked my wife, who is now becoming a palliative care doctor, if she feels comfortable practicing in this new and still murky and topsy-turvy legal environment around assisted-death, she replied: Its about time. Bob Ramsay is a Toronto communications consultant and founder of the RamsayTalks. SHARE: Nobody knows who told Toronto police to launch raids on gay bathhouses back on Feb. 5, 1981. Nor does anyone know why the raids were ordered, since homosexual acts were decriminalized in Canada in 1969. Shamefully, no one has ever taken responsibility for the brutal arrests, during which police smashed their way through doors and hauled about 300 men into police vans. But 35 years later police Chief Mark Saunders will take some of the sting out of the memory of the raids when he formally apologizes for them at his annual Pride reception at police headquarters on Wednesday. Its a sensitive gesture from the chief to those who were assaulted and arrested in the raids, as well as those who were intimidated by the events. It should go a long way to healing past police wrongs. Saunderss acknowledgement of the past and commitment to do better in the future comes at a bittersweet time for Torontos LGBTQ community. On one hand, for the first time the community is celebrating a full month of Pride festivities, rather than the traditional week. On the other, the festivities are marred this year by the horror of the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history, when 49 people were slaughtered at a gay nightclub in Orlando. Thinking about the massacre in Orlando 35 years later reminds me that we were not safe in 1981 and that is still the case today, Ron Rosenes, who was arrested in the bathhouse raids, told the Star. Still, there is much to celebrate. LGBTQ rights have come a very long way since 1967 when then-justice minister Pierre Trudeau introduced legislation to decriminalize homosexual acts and famously declared that the state has no place in the bedrooms of the nation. And theyll come further, still, when Chief Saunders marches in the Pride Parade on July 3, becoming only the second police chief to do so after Bill Blair. It will be a proud moment for the chief and the LGBTQ community. SHARE: Its a strange feature of living in a complex federation like Canadas that modest, imperfect policy improvements can sometimes seem like indeed, can be historic victories. So it is with the intergovernmental deal to expand the Canada Pension Plan reached this week. Perfection, we know well, is elusive in areas of shared responsibility and conflicting interests. Inaction, on the other hand, is all too common. Yes, the agreement falls short of the doubling of benefits many advocates were calling for. But it far exceeds the outcome that seemed most likely going into Mondays meeting of finance ministers in Vancouver: another failed attempt to secure adequate pensions for millions of future retirees. Any update to the program requires the approval of seven provinces representing at least two-thirds of the population. Given that high bar, and the public reluctance of several premiers, there was good reason to doubt that progress would be made. But in the end, every province with the exceptions of Quebec, which will pursue its own plan, and Manitoba, which may yet come on board, agreed to the first CPP expansion in two decades. Its a modest boost, to be phased in slowly, which nonetheless has the potential to significantly improve the lives of future generations of retirees. In fact, the plans modesty appears to have been the key to achieving consensus. Both employers and employees will be asked to pay slightly higher premiums, which will be introduced over seven years beginning in 2019. The existing plan aims to replace about 25 per cent of income up to a cap of $54,000. Under the new plan, the coverage would be increased to 33 per cent and the cap to $82,700. The payout will be up to 50 per cent higher for most recipients, and will yield significant benefits for middle-income earners. Its about time. In recent years, economists observed that the growing ranks of middle-income Canadians without a workplace pension were falling through the cracks. While high-earners were saving enough and low-earners were protected by other programs, those in the middle were retiring with nowhere near the nest egg or coverage they needed to preserve anything like the sort of lifestyle to which they were accustomed. Without government action, the problem promised to deform into a crisis. Fewer and fewer workplaces offer traditional pension plans, and more and more workers, especially young ones, face a combination of precarious, low-wage employment and high housing costs that makes saving all but impossible. Yet the Harper government refused to entertain the idea of expanding the CPP, effectively putting a decade-long moratorium on the subject. The Tories view at the time was that higher taxes or premiums meant not only less money in the pockets of employees, but also pressure on employers to reduce wages and cut jobs. These arguments persist to this day despite the fact that the previous increase in contributions in 1997 produced none of the predicted disasters. The Tories offered instead a number of incentives to promote voluntary savings, which for a variety of economic and psychological reasons, did not work. A Bank of Montreal report revealed that fewer than six in 10 Canadians voluntarily contributed to a retirement savings plan in 2014, and even those, on average, invested a paltry $3,700. During the same time, just one in 10 put away the maximum $5,500 in a tax-free savings account. The failure of these solutions confirmed that the best way to forestall the looming retirement income crisis was an expanded mandatory pension program. Thats why Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne vowed in 2014 to go ahead with her own version, the Ontario Registered Retirement Plan, in the face of federal recalcitrance. But the new deal, achieved through the leadership of a more co-operative federal government, seems to have obviated the need for the provincial program. Thats for the best. While Ontarios plan offered more generous benefits than the expanded CPP proposal, the resulting fragmentation would have undermined the portability and parity of the pension system. As Ontario Finance Minister Charles Sousa said on Tuesday, a national solution provides many benefits to Ontarians, including cost effectiveness, while providing coverage to more people. Inevitably, questions remain about how these changes will play out and whether theyve effectively targeted the right people and adequately protected the most vulnerable. But messy and uncertain as it is, the agreement struck in Vancouver promises to become a milestone that will benefit generations of retirees. Read more about: SHARE: Police have extraordinary powers over the rest of us, including the use of deadly force. That is why when police use that force they should be fully accountable. Only then can the public judge whether the killing was justified. Surprisingly, though, that is not the case in Ontario. Here the provinces Special Investigations Unit, which oversees deaths involving police, does not even have to release the name of a person who has been killed. The SIUs policy requires consent from the family to do so, even though that policy is contrary to normal police procedures. When someone is killed by anyone other than police, the name is released to the public even when it is against their familys wishes. Thats important because the release of a name, by itself, can prompt people to come forward with valuable information. That is how it should be with police killings. No officer who has shot a civilian should be able to hide behind a veil of secrecy, which is what withholding a victims name amounts to. The need for transparency should trump any family demands for privacy. The issue arose again this week after police shot and killed a 42-year-old man along a rail corridor in North Toronto. As the Stars Wendy Gillis reported, nearly a week after his death he remains nameless and faceless. The case is particularly heart-rending because it appears that the man may have been homeless and living in a makeshift shelter along the railway. The policy of not naming victims without family permission, then, is especially perverse in this incident. What if there is no family to be contacted to give permission? Does this man remain forever nameless and faceless? And how can anyone come forward to speak on his behalf if no one is informed of his death? The current policy is being studied as part of Justice Michael Tullochs review of Ontarios police oversight bodies. But he is not due to report until March 31. In the meantime, it remains true that all police shootings require extraordinary oversight. For that to occur, the SIU should release the name of the victim. Read more about: SHARE: Re: Guilty, July 18 Guilty, July 18 Rarely in the Canadian justice system is there such a mountain of circumstantial, forensic and digital evidence amassed in such a relatively short time in a murder trial. Such was the case in the Bosma trial of some five months duration in a three year ordeal that resulted in a guilty verdict coming after five days jury deliberation. But what is significant about that long-awaited outcome is that it is justice being served for the entire community. It was an ordeal that captured and touched the hearts of so many in an inconceivable, incomprehensible loss of life that would see a loving family man murdered for the sake of a motor vehicle. It is difficult to imagine the agony and heartache of loved ones left behind in such a senseless crime even more to imagine the strength with which they had to endure. That justice was indeed served can only be seen as one of the justice systems finest hours. Claude McDonald, Kitchener Dellen Millard and Mark Smich have been convicted of Tim Bosmaa murder and been sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years. So what possible purpose can be served by sending Millard to trial again for two more murders, other than to handsomely reward a bunch of lawyers totally on the public purse? He cannot be sentenced to death. Is it possible to tack a second 25 years on to the first 25, or would any sentence be served concurrently? It seems like an entire waste of taxpayer money to provide cash for life to the lawyers in this case. Edward A. Collis, Burlington SHARE: Re: Senate passes assisted dying bill, June 18 Senate passes assisted dying bill, June 18 The Senate had the opportunity to redeem and reaffirm itself as a vital and valuable cog in the wheel of Canadian democracy. Bill C-14 is flawed and initially the Senate agreed. But in an act of cowardice, a majority rule put the rubber stamp on the legislation as dictated by the Liberal government, granting the right to physician-assisted death for only those whose death is imminent. Shame on the Senate for letting down Canadians, again. Julia Bowkun, Toronto SHARE: Students at Torontos newcomer high are scrambling to file a human rights complaint as the board gets set for a final vote on whether to close down and move their one-of-a-kind school into nearby Danforth Tech. The fate of Greenwood Secondary which nurtures and educates newly arrived refugees and immigrants will be decided by trustees at a meeting Wednesday night, and it is unclear how a human rights complaint could affect the boards plans. Greenwood was discussed at a committee meeting last week, but the two students spearheading the fight to keep it open say they could not attend because of Ramadan. They also say the board did not provide them with appropriate translators during a number of area review committee meetings, and that unlike students at other schools, their parents were not able to advocate for them because of language barriers and long working hours. We know that the last chance is with us, with a human rights case, said Tolin Abuaziza, who said she and student council president Zahra Afshar plan to file as soon as their exams are over. This is the only school for newcomers and with help for newcomers. We are all hoping the same thing, we dont want to move, Abuaziza added. Students now feel like nothing will happen, they have just kind of given up. They tried, but no one heard them. Board chair Robin Pilkey said interpreters were present at the meetings, and noted more than 90 people were involved in the area review process. While she acknowledged that students are disappointed with the recommendation, we are not closing their school there are lots of examples of schools-within-schools in the TDSB. To me, whats more important is the teacher and classroom experience, not the location. Pilkey said she is unsure what impact a human rights complaint would have on the process. Meetings to decide the fate of a cluster of schools in the East York-Danforth Ave. area of Toronto began last fall, with a decision by the committee to uproot the students at Greenwood, even though their school, that also houses an alternative school, is at almost 100 per cent capacity. Danforth Tech, by comparison, is at just 41 per cent capacity and even with the Greenwood students, will still only be at an estimated 57 per cent capacity by 2025. Some have wondered why Eastdale Collegiate, which serves special needs students, was not considered to move despite running at just 35 per cent capacity. Greenwood students have said they believe their school was targeted for closing right from the start, and have accused the board of dismissing their concerns about the condition of the proposed space at Danforth, as well as worries about their safety, given some were targeted by Danforth students in violent altercations this school year. If trustees vote to close Greenwood, the program will move to Danforth Tech in the fall of 2017, and the building is expected to be sold. Some have accused the board of choosing Greenwood because of its real estate value. Greenwood is unique in that it serves newly arrived immigrants, with supports and settlement services as well as a number of English-as-a-Second-Language classes they wont find elsewhere. They remain at the school until they are ready to move to their area high school, typically one to three semesters. Area superintendent Mike Gallagher has previously told the Star the board is under orders from the provincial government to make better use of our space so the status quo isnt an option. And while Greenwoods enrolment is healthy, he said Danforth has specialized facilities, such as expensive commercial kitchens and an auto body shop so it doesnt make sense to close it, and Eastdale students are too vulnerable. Former area trustee and community activist Cathy Dandy submitted a letter to last weeks committee, saying the board did not follow its own equity policy in terms of working with the kids and families and that she ended up acting as a stand-in for their parents who could not attend (meetings) due to work commitments. It was at this point that I became aware of the discriminatory bias of the process. Students were not familiar with the process and there was no interpreter working with them to help them understand it. They assumed that if they represented their school and said no to moving, they would be listened to as students at other schools were. They suffered serious distress that they were failing their fellow students. While students at other schools were not considered to move because they are vulnerable, Greenwood teens were not. The students at Greenwood Secondary School go to that school because their English is non-existent and they cannot be accommodated in regular ESL programs in high schools. They often are coming directly from war-torn countries and are dealing with the trauma of conflict, the trauma of leaving home and the trauma of relocating (both for themselves and their families as they find lodging, jobs and adjust to a completely different culture). The population at Greenwood is a vulnerable population but also one that has no political voice, she wrote. She also accused the board staff of talking down to the students and told them that they misunderstood certain parts of the meeting (which they had not). Long-time Greenwood teacher Sally Bliss said I know my community cares deeply about how newcomers are treated. The (committee) decision to relocate Greenwood School to Danforth contradicts this commitment This decision is about making cuts and it does so to the people we promise to support when they come to our country. Standing up for Greenwood: From a letter submitted to the board by former area trustee Cathy Dandy, who has been supporting the students at Greenwood in their fight to keep their school open: The Greenwood student reps have been in Canada one year each and they were not offered an interpreter. Their English is quite good but they were not able to understand what was going on all the time and sometimes did not understand the nuances of the discussion. The Greenwood student reps were not familiar with the process and there was no interpreter working with them to help them understand it. They assumed that if they represented their school and said no to moving, they would be listened to. They suffered serious distress that they were failing their fellow students. The Greenwood student reps both had fathers that were attending the meetings. They were not offered interpreters nor were the meetings altered to accommodate their job schedules. The two parent reps stopped attending. The population at Greenwood is a vulnerable population but also one that has no political voice. They were not allowed the voice to say no as other Canadian students were and their vulnerability is being ignored. One staff member said that it wasnt a big deal because lots of TDSB students have that kind of trauma and they deal with it. This is a clear sign that they were being dismissed. In the two meetings I attended in support of the Greenwood student reps, the TDSB staff talked down to the students and told them that they misunderstood certain parts of the meeting (which they had not). SHARE: Analysts like Norwegian Cruise Line (NCLH) and we think you should, too. The stock doesn't have a single sell rating, and it boasts the following strengths: Shares are available at a price-to-earnings ratio of less than 9; analysts expect earnings will grow an average of 36% for the next five years; and there's plenty of room for share price appreciation. This undervalued gem is a red-hot growth opportunity right now. Ever experienced Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises or Regent Seven Seas Cruises brands? All of these belong to Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. With a combined fleet of 23 ships, Norwegian's brands offer itineraries to more than 510 destinations worldwide. With the inclusion of Prestige in 2014, Norwegian Cruise Line's capacity has bumped up to more than 40,000 berths, making it an increasingly relevant competitor in the cruise industry. The company plans to introduce five additional ships through 2020. Its competitors include Royal Caribbean Cruises and Carnival. Besides the usual markets, Norwegian Cruise Line has its eye on the burgeoning Chinese and Australian cruise markets. Norwegian Cruise Line has solid innovator status in cruise travel. The company gained prominence with introduction of Freestyle Cruising. Its various cruise lines are targeted at different sets of customers. For instance, the Norwegian Cruise Line offers The Haven by Norwegian, a luxury enclave with suites, private pools, etc. Oceania Cruises offers the great cuisine at sea and immersive destination experiences. On the other hand, Regent Seven Seas Cruises is an all-inclusive cruise line that provides all-suite accommodations, round-trip air transportation, among others. The boom in travel business and rising wallet spends has obviously driven stupendous growth for cruise operators. Between 2006 and 2015, Norwegian Cruise Line more than doubled yearly revenue to $4.34 billion. Net income is on a strong upward trajectory. Bigger rival Royal Caribbean Cruises hasn't doubled annual sales in the past decade, and although it's still profitable, growth has been lacking. The largest cruise operator, Carnival, has dealt with similar problems in the past decade with annual profits shrinking to $1.8 billion in 2015 from $2.2 billion in 2006. Going forward, Wall Street analysts expect Norwegian Cruise Line to deliver 36% growth in adjusted earnings per share each year for the next five years. Sales growth is projected to hit double digits as well. Analysts expect rivals Royal Caribbean Cruises and Carnival to deliver 20% and 16% adjusted EPS growth rates respectively for the next five years. If recent results are anything to go by, Norwegian Cruise Line has been pulling in customers by the droves. Passenger ticket revenue is on the rise. The occupancy rate is inching up. Vacationers are taking to the high seas in a big way. While low energy prices have helped all cruise operators, Norwegian Cruise Line has been smart enough to add new fleets at a time bigger rivals were busy replacing vessels. Remember, cheap fuel is a one-time benefit scenario. What matters more is fleet utilization, an area where Norwegian scores handsomely. Plus, it is now spending $400 million to update its older vessels in 2016. The excessive bearishness on airport and metro explosions in Brussels, confusion over Cuba cruise rules and other factors have made the stock cheaper by more than 24% this year. This offers a solid opportunity to buy this underappreciated growth play at a forward P/E of 9. That compares with forward P/Es of 12 for Carnival, 10.3 for Royal Caribbean and 16 for Lindblad Expeditions. Norwegian Cruise Line stock could reach $65 in the next 12 months, according to the average price target from analysts who cover the stock. That's 46% greater than recent levels. --- Five Years From Now, You'll Probably Wish You'd Grabbed This Opportunity:As we've just explained, Norwegian Cruise Lines is a great buy now. If you're looking for other growth opportunities, we've found a genius trader who turned $50,000 into $5 million by using his proprietary trading method. For a limited time, he's guaranteeing you $67,548 per year in profitable trades if you follow his simple step-by-step process. Click here now for details. This article is commentary by an independent contributor. At the time of publication, the author held no positions in the stocks mentioned. Trade-Ideas LLC identified SolarCity ( SCTY ) as a post-market leader candidate. In addition to specific proprietary factors, Trade-Ideas identified SolarCity as such a stock due to the following factors: SCTY has an average dollar-volume (as measured by average daily share volume multiplied by share price) of $133.8 million. SCTY is up 26.6% today from today's close. EXCLUSIVE OFFER: Get the inside scoop on opportunities in SCTY with the Ticky from Trade-Ideas. See the FREE profile for SCTY NOW at Trade-Ideas More details on SCTY: SolarCity Corporation designs, manufactures, installs, monitors, maintains, leases, and sells solar energy systems to government, residential, and commercial customers in the United States. Currently there are 9 analysts that rate SolarCity a buy, no analysts rate it a sell, and 5 rate it a hold. The average volume for SolarCity has been 5.7 million shares per day over the past 30 days. SolarCity has a market cap of $2.1 billion and is part of the utilities sector and utilities industry. The stock has a beta of 1.64 and a short float of 49.1% with 5.23 days to cover. Shares are down 57.1% year-to-date as of the close of trading on Monday. EXCLUSIVE OFFER: See inside Jim Cramer's multi-million dollar charitable trust portfolio to see the stocks he thinks could be potential winners. Click here to see his holdings for 14-days FREE. TheStreetRatings.com Analysis: TheStreet Quant Ratings rates SolarCity as a sell . The company's weaknesses can be seen in multiple areas, such as its generally high debt management risk, poor profit margins, weak operating cash flow, generally disappointing historical performance in the stock itself and feeble growth in its earnings per share. Highlights from the ratings report include: The debt-to-equity ratio is very high at 4.26 and currently higher than the industry average, implying increased risk associated with the management of debt levels within the company. Along with this, the company manages to maintain a quick ratio of 0.38, which clearly demonstrates the inability to cover short-term cash needs. The gross profit margin for SOLARCITY CORP is currently extremely low, coming in at 10.95%. It has decreased significantly from the same period last year. Along with this, the net profit margin of -20.38% is significantly below that of the industry average. Net operating cash flow has decreased to -$193.12 million or 12.74% when compared to the same quarter last year. In addition, when comparing to the industry average, the firm's growth rate is much lower. Looking at the price performance of SCTY's shares over the past 12 months, there is not much good news to report: the stock is down 62.62%, and it has underformed the S&P 500 Index. In addition, the company's earnings per share are lower today than the year-earlier quarter. Naturally, the overall market trend is bound to be a significant factor. However, in one sense, the stock's sharp decline last year is a positive for future investors, making it cheaper (in proportion to its earnings over the past year) than most other stocks in its industry. But due to other concerns, we feel the stock is still not a good buy right now. SOLARCITY CORP's earnings per share declined by 13.6% in the most recent quarter compared to the same quarter a year ago. This company has reported somewhat volatile earnings recently. We feel it is likely to report a decline in earnings in the coming year. During the past fiscal year, SOLARCITY CORP continued to lose money by earning -$0.61 versus -$0.63 in the prior year. For the next year, the market is expecting a contraction of 1536.9% in earnings (-$9.99 versus -$0.61). You can view the full SolarCity Ratings Report. EXCLUSIVE OFFER: See inside Jim Cramer's multi-million dollar charitable trust portfolio to see the stocks he thinks could be potential winners. Click here to see his holdings for 14-days FREE. Tesla Motors (TSLA) made a surprise stock offer of up to $2.8 billion for struggling solar energy company SolarCity (SCTY) after the markets closed Tuesday in a bid that would combine two-thirds of entrepreneur Elon Musk's empire under one corporate roof. Tesla in a blog post said it was offering $26.50 to $28.50 per share for SolarCity, which like Tesla counts Musk as owner of more than 20% of its shares. In after-hours trading, the news powered SolarCity shares to a 16.1% gain at $24.60, while Tesla shares plummeted 11.7% to $194.01. The offer, which is subject to due diligence and a final agreement, represents a premium of 21% to SolarCity's Tuesday close of $21.19. A bid would be subject to approval of a majority of "disinterested" stockholders in both companies, with Musk and Antonio Gracias, like Musk a board member in both companies, recusing themselves from voting on the proposal at Tesla and SolarCity board deliberations. Tesla said it was disclosing the bid publicly because of Musk's capacity as a shareholder in both companies but said it intends to proceed with the bid "only on a friendly basis." SolarCity in a regulatory filing said it would evaluate the proposal carefully, with CEO Lyndon Rive telling employees "there are tremendous synergies between these two companies." Rive and Musk are cousins. SolarCity is a San Mateo, Calif., provider of solar power systems for homes, businesses and governments, while Tesla is a Palo Alto, Calif., maker of electric cars and residential energy storage systems. Unlike Tesla, which remains a Silicon Valley darling, SolarCity has fallen on hard times of late, with the shares losing more than half of their value in the past 12 months before the Tesla offer. The solar vendor in May reported a larger-than-expected quarterly loss and issued cloudy guidance for the full year. Famed short seller Jim Chanos around that time predicted financial difficulties for the company this year, including more than $500 million in quarterly cash burn in the quarters to come, and called SolarCity a "subprime" finance company. Tesla in its blog post said buying SolarCity and adding solar power generation to its suite of products would "complete the picture," offering a vision of the future where customers can drive Tesla cars and use residential battery packs recharged by SolarCity's panels. The company sees opportunities to cross-sell SolarCity panels at Tesla stores and have SolarCity installers work with Tesla residential batteries. The company said it would be "the world's only vertically integrated energy company." Though Tesla is best known as an automaker, Musk has spoken repeatedly about the potential for energy generation and storage, saying last month at the automaker's annual shareholders meeting that he believed the potential for Tesla's energy storage business could one day exceed demand for electric cars. The deal, however, is fraught with risk from a Tesla perspective. Musk already has set an audacious timetable for the automaker to begin rolling out its lower-priced Model 3 vehicle, setting a deadline of producing 500,000 vehicles by 2018 and 1 million vehicles annually by 2020. The company earlier this year raised $1.4 billion in a stock sale to fund Model 3 development and production, but analysts have warned Tesla still could need further funding to build out its capacity. Adding money-losing SolarCity seemingly only would add to the pressure on Tesla's balance sheet, and the integration could distract Tesla management from its auto goals. But Musk, who is also CEO and founder of privately held rocket maker Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, is already one of the busiest CEOs in corporate America, and reducing his responsibilities from two publicly traded companies to one larger one would by some argument give him more time to devote to Tesla. The uncertainty surrounding the outcome of the Brexit vote this week has spooked anxious investors, but refraining from overreacting will prevent the sale of stocks at the wrong time. Long-term investors should expect volatility in the markets to occur ahead of the Brexit vote and avoid trying to time the market even if they own international stocks. "It's important to understand what's at stake with the U.K., but it's also important to keep a level head and not overreact," said Paul Jacobs, chief investment officer of Palisades Hudson Financial Group, a Scarsdale, N.Y. financial planning firm. "We don't expect Thursday's vote to have a dramatic impact on a diversified portfolio over the long term, and we're not seriously considering making long-term changes to client portfolios due to the vote's outcome either." If the Brexit Occurs Ignoring market volatility after the vote helps investors avoid the "emotional temptation of trying to time the market," said Mike Loewengart, vice president of investment strategy of E-Trade Financial, a New York-based online brokerage firm. "While polls indicate a 'leave' vote is unlikely, investors should remember that stranger things have happened, and even if Britain does leave, it's possible that markets could rebound soon thereafter," he said. "While most diversified portfolios already have some market exposure that the Brexit could negatively impact. Many also have assets that could benefit. It's far too early to make sense of the longer-term implications of this historic event and how markets will react over time." If the Brexit occurs, the impact to financial stability could be severe and result in a "substantial upheaval for global markets, financial firms and businesses that would likely leave London," wrote Aaron Klein and D.J. Nordquist of economic studies at the Brookings Institution, a Washington, D.C. non-profit public policy organization. The relationships with the EU and other countries will be affected, altering rates of return and asset prices, they wrote. The markets are already nervous as U.S. and global stocks are "slumping, and money is pouring into safe haven sovereign debt: the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note is approaching record lows, while Germany's 10-year note broke a new record low - a negative yield," said Klein, a fellow, and Nordquist, chief of staff. "Brexit would lead to a global fall in equity prices as investors fear the impact the vote could have on Britain's economy and could spell the first falling domino of European Union disintegration." The immediate result of a Brexit is the additional volatility that will impact international currency and debt markets, said Charlie Smith, chief investment officer of Fort Pitt Capital Group, a Pittsburgh-based investment management firm. "Longer term, the effects on the U.S. economy are not likely to be material," he said. Even if the U.K. votes to leave the European Union and the market reacts resoundingly, the risks could remain minimal over a longer duration, said Jacobs. "No one knows exactly what an exit would look like or how it would work," he said. "We're not overly concerned with the risks and cooler heads should prevail over the long term. There's no reason to expect a mass exodus of wealth or talent from the U.K. if it leaves the EU." Short-term losses might be painful for investors who own equities in the U.K. and Europe, but people saving for retirement should view this as a "non-event," said Robert Johnson, president of The American College of Financial Services in Bryn Mawr, Pa. "Retirement investors should do nothing in anticipation or as a result of the Brexit vote," he said. "The only market participants it really affects are speculators - those investors making short term bets on market moves. Long-term investing is about committing to a disciplined strategy no matter what headwinds or tailwinds may be present in the market." What To Skip Investors should avoid mutual funds and ETFs that are primarily invested in Europe, said Bill DeShurko, a portfolio manager for Covestor, an online investment marketplace based in Boston and London, and founder of 401 Advisor, a registered investment advisor in Centerville, Ohio. Less risk averse investors could purchase any U.K. specific investments because of the short-term benefits if they remain in the EU and long-term benefits if they leave, he said. "Otherwise, hold the course," DeShurko said. "Moms will continue to buy diapers for their babies whether the U.K. stays or leaves. The same can be said for about 99% of the products and services made and provided by domestic companies." The sale of European fixed income or equities should occur before the vote, not afterwards when the market has already reacted, said Scott Hanson, a senior partner of Hanson McClain Advisors, a Sacramento based financial advising firm. How Volatility Can Help Investors After the vote on Thursday, the volatility in the market can give investors an opportunity to take advantage of purchasing less expensive European equities if the British decide to exit the EU. "A vote to leave the EU could lead to short-term declines in British stocks, the pound and the euro and investors can take advantage of this by harvesting capital losses in taxable accounts that hold European equities," Jacobs said. "Investors should also be prepared to rebalance their portfolios and add to European stock exposure in order to take advantage of lower prices." If voters chose to remain in the EU, a short-term rally in the markets could arise, and investors should be prepared to rebalance and "sell European equities if they appreciate significantly," he said. "For investors who remained disciplined throughout the 2008-2009 bear market and fears of contagion in Europe due to Greece's fiscal issues, Thursday's vote should look more like an opportunity than a threat." Sell-offs in the market and certain sectors will occur if voters approve leaving the EU, said Hanson. Long-term investors should not react to the declines in the market by selling their assets. "I've watched people make poor decisions in response to fear," he said. "People typically sell at the exact wrong times. There will be some fear in the European markets, but this will not be the time to react to that fear." Analyze the investments in your portfolio to determine which ones are risky ones and take the opportunity to purchase cheaper stocks, Hanson said. "Most investors don't have their entire portfolio in risky assets," he said. "The best time to purchase things on sale is when nobody else wants them. This may represent a fantastic buying opportunity." In the long-term, the U.K. leaving the EU could produce a positive effect, because the county would have more independence concerning its regulations and governance, said Jacobs. "The EU is far from a perfect union and being a member of the EU means having to deal with the baggage that comes with it," he said. Volatility in the European stock markets could persist for years because a successful Brexit will not be determined for awhile, DeShurko said. "While markets may be volatile in the short term, there is some real long term risk," he said. "Most European economies have been a mess since the financial crisis." Tesla Motors (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk took to the podium early Wednesday morning to explain the rationale for his company's $2.8 billion bid for SolarCity (SCTY) . He was met by a skeptical Wall Street audience. Shares of Tesla dropped more than 10% in after-hours trading Tuesday and premarket trading Wednesday after Tesla disclosed its bid, costing the company more in market capitalization than the total value it is offering to pay for SolarCity. The offer would combine two-thirds of Musk's current corporate empire under one roof, combining Tesla's business manufacturing electric cars and battery storage products with SolarCity's solar power systems for homes and businesses. Early Wednesday, Tesla shares fell 8.6%. Tesla, in a blog post late Tuesday, said it was prepared to offer between $26.50 and $28.50 a share in stock for SolarCity, which like Tesla counts Musk as its largest shareholder. The offer, which is subject to due diligence and a final agreement, represents a premium of 21% to SolarCity's closing price Tuesday. Given the overlap between the two companies, Tesla and SolarCity are making efforts to ensure any deal would be free of conflict. An offer would be subject to approval of a majority of "disinterested" stockholders at both companies with Musk and Antonio Gracias, like Musk a board member at both companies, recusing themselves from voting on the proposal. Tesla said it intends to proceed with the bid "only on a friendly basis." SolarCity said in a regulatory filing it would carefully evaluate the proposal, with CEO Lyndon Rive telling employees "there are tremendous synergies between these two companies." Musk, in addition to serving as CEO of Tesla, is chairman of SolarCity, and Rive and Musk are cousins. Tesla is pitching the deal as creating a one-stop shop for green-minded customers who would like to use SolarCity panels to generate enough energy to power their vehicles and, via Tesla storage units, power their homes. The company sees opportunities to cut costs and boost revenue by selling SolarCity gear in Tesla showrooms, and using SolarCity installers to set up battery storage units. "I have zero doubt about this," Musk said on an investor call Wednesday morning. "Arguably we should have done it sooner." But even if Musk has no doubts, a lot of people not involved in either company do. Tesla holder Ross Gerber, head of an investment management firm, said on Twitter Wednesday morning following the call that the firm is against the merger, saying, "We will not vote for this and we will encourage other Tesla shareholders." SolarCity has struggled of late, its shares losing more than half their value in the past 12 months prior to the Tesla bid after missing earnings and warning of weakness in the quarters to come. Critics including famed short-seller Jim Chanos has predicted cash burn above and beyond the $400 million SolarCity analysts expect this year, with Chanos calling SolarCity a "subprime" finance company due to the way it offers financial support to customers buying its units. Given Tesla's ambitious plan to ramp up production of its automobiles and bring its Model 3 to market in the quarters to come, the company seemingly doesn't need either the management distraction or the added debt burden of SolarCity. The company raised $1.4 billion in a secondary offering earlier this year to fund Model 3 development but some analysts have warned Tesla could face further capital needs even before adding SolarCity's $3.2 billion in debt and money-losing operations. Barclays auto analyst Brian A. Johnson in a note said he saw "little in the way of synergies, much in the way of cash burn" from the proposal, making an additional Tesla capital raise more likely. "Given limited access to capital for SolarCity, we believe the core rationale for this deal is for SolarCity to take advantage of Tesla's relatively favorable access to and cost of capital," Johnson wrote. "However, the combined entity is likely to magnify the losses and cash burn that both were seeing individually." Patrick Jobin, who covers SolarCity for Credit Suisse, in a note predicted Tesla will be challenged to convince its shareholders the deal has merit. "We are unconvinced of the strategic and financial rationale of the proposed transaction," he said, putting a 20% to 40% probability that a deal gets done. Even analysts who buy into Tesla's logic for the deal seem to be worried about execution. Piper Jaffray analyst Alexander Potter wrote that the combination is an interesting idea "but Tesla may be asking too much of itself," while Oppenheimer's Colin Rusch said investors are likely to view the transaction as "a bailout for SolarCity and a distraction" to Tesla. "While we remain bulls on the solar industry, we do not view this acquisition as the best and highest use of Tesla's capital and human resources," Rusch wrote. Then again, raising money has never been an issue for Tesla, as shown with its recent secondary, and most bulls and bears already agree that the automaker's Model 3 rollout schedule is unrealistic so a deal distraction that leads to delays wouldn't necessarily sink the stock. Musk, in attempting to combine Tesla and SolarCity, is laying out his long-term vision of a world where consumers would generate, store and consume their own electricity. His task now is to convince shareholders to buy into his plan to make that vision a reality. NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- A Wyoming federal judge blocked a White House ruling for higher regulations for fracking on public land. David Deckelbaum, oil and gas equity research director at KeyBanc Capital Markets, believes that today's ruling was expected by the oil industry. "This was a temporary block put in place by the judge against the Obama administration's proposal for the Bureau of Land [Management]," Deckelbaum said on CNBC's "Power Lunch." "I think now a year later they're making everything permanent." Only 10% of oil production in the U.S. currently is on federal or tribal lands and the rest is controlled by the states, Deckelbaum says. This sets a very "comfortable precedent for oil and gas companies that they are going to have a fairly benign regulatory environment going forward." The proposed regulations were estimated to increase the average cost per oil well by $100,000 and "could have shaved a couple percent off returns and slowed this potential recovery as we've seen oil prices come back up the high 40s from the low 20s in the beginning of the year," Deckelbaum concluded. The market expects the Delaware Chancery Court to rule in favor of Energy Transfer Equity's (ETE) effort to terminate its $23 billion merger with Williams Cos. (WMB) . Williams is expected to appeal such a decision, however. Delaware Vice Chancellor Sam Glasscock is expected to rule Friday on the legal battle over whether either Williams or Energy Transfer breached their best efforts to close the transaction between the natural gas pipeline companies. The core of the matter has been whether Energy Transfer's counsel at Latham & Watkins LLP was independent and acting in good faith when refraining from offering an opinion that the merger satisfied a tax-free treatment under Section 721(a) of the tax code. The Deal's view of the trial is that there was no smoking gun to show that Energy Transfer pressured Latham to withhold the relevant tax opinion. Against all odds, it looks like the judge is going to rule that Latham was acting in good faith when it decided it was unable to render the Sec.721 opinion, a tax expert said. This seems to be the case even though, implausibly, we are supposed to believe that Latham only saw the Sec.721 problem nine months after the deal was announced and only after being apprised of it by Energy Transfer's inside tax counsel, he said. If the judge makes that finding, it would appear that the merger is dead, he said. The termination date for the merger agreement is June 28. Energy Transfer is not expected to extend the merger contract, but termination could be held off by an appeal of a Chancery Court decision that favors Energy Transfer. A decision in favor of Williams, which runs counter to the market sentiment, could require the deal close under its specific performance clause. The deal terms include cash and Energy Transfer shares but market conditions have made the cash portion of the transaction onerous for Energy Transfer. Williams shares traded Wednesday at $20.92, down 75 cents, or 3.5%, and at a spread of $9.63, or 44%, to their value in the deal. Williams did not return a call. Williams is going to appeal, a risk arbitrageur said. The court was dealing at trial with a tax issue that it may not have grasped, he said. Latham presented that they were acting impartially, but the Delaware Supreme Court, to which Williams would appeal might not accept that position as easily as the Chancery Court seems to be doing, the arb said. Success on an appeal might not be a good bet, another arb said. At this stage there is a view that Williams should trade at $20 to $21 on a stand-alone basis. It's also a bet that Energy Transfer will trade up if the Delaware Court decides in its favor, so the trade might be to be long both Williams and Energy Transfer at this juncture, the arb said. In the Delaware case, Williams is using Sandra Goldstein and Antony Ryan of Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP in New York and Kenneth Nachbar of Morris, Nichols, Arsht & Tunnell LLP in Wilmington. Energy Transfer retained Michael Holmes, John Wander and Michael Charlson of Vinson & Elkins LLP in Houston and Rolin Bissell of Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor LLP in Wilmington. For the merger, Williams took financial advice from Barclays' Gary Posternak and Barbara Byrne and Lazard Ltd.'s Albert Garner and Doug Fordyce. For legal advice Williams tapped a Cravath team led by Minh Van Ngo and Richard Hall with Andrew Needham and Christopher Fargo on tax and a Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP team led by Steven Talley, Eduardo Gallardo and Robyn Zolman. Energy Transfer's outside legal advisers were led by Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz's David Katz, David Lam and Alison Preiss with T. Eko Stange on tax and a Latham team led by Bill Finnegan, Ryan Maierson and Mark Gerstein and Laurence Stern and Tim Fenn on tax. This article originally appeared in The Deal, a sister publication of TheStreet.com focused on deals and dealmakers, on [June 22]. For more information about The Deal click here. A Boeing Growler electronic warfare aircraft lands on the USS John C. Stennis aircraft carrier at sea in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region. (Agence France-Presse via Getty Images/U.S. Navy/Ethan T. Miller) As production of its F-15 and F/A-18 lines could draw to a close by the 2020s, Boeing faces a future where its role as a prime military fighter jet manufacturer is uncertain. But as it celebrates its centennial, Boeing is committed to remaining a major player in the business, even as it looks to invest in other areas, including unmanned systems, satellites and space travel, Boeing chief executive Dennis Muilenburg said in an interview. We expect to be a prime in the fighter jet business for the long run, he said. This is not a business were getting out of at all. Boeing has deals pending with Kuwait, which wants to buy 28 Super Hornets, and Qatar, which has ordered 36 F-15s. Muilenburg said he was confident those sales, which combined could reach $7 billion, would be approved by the U.S. government. That would allow the company to maintain a healthy production line as it courts Canada and other countries for additional sales. Canada is a partner in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, but its new prime minister, Justin Trudeau, has indicated that the government may want to look for other options. The country has a fleet of F/A-18s that Boeing maintains. Lockheed Martins F-35 has a single engine, and some have said theyre concerned that if it fails over the vast expanse of the country, there would be no backup. We have very close relationships with our Canadian customers, Muilenburg said. The Hornet fleet that they operate today has been very successful for them. Theyve shown that in the kind of operations that they have, especially harsh environments, polar environments, theres a real benefit to having a two-engine aircraft. Richard Aboulafia, a defense analyst with the Teal Group, said Boeing is under competitive pressure in the combat aircraft business. But there are opportunities out there. It seems premature to give up hope. Last year, Boeing, which had teamed up with Lockheed Martin, lost an $80 billion contract to build a new U.S. Air Force bomber to Northrop Grumman. Now, Boeing is intensely focused on building a new trainer aircraft for the Air Force, Muilenburg said, and developing the technologies that would be used in a sixth-generation fighter jet, one that would follow the F-35 many years in the future. It also recently signed a multibillion-dollar deal to sell commercial airplanes to Iran in what would become the biggest sale of U.S. goods to Iran since the easing of economic sanctions last year. The company turns 100 this summer, and Muilenburg said it is looking toward the next 100 years, to a future where a combination of efficient air travel and efficient space travel can be offered to customers around the world. That would involve space tourism, he said, noting the habitats that Bigelow Aerospace are developing. As you begin to create more destinations, that will naturally create a stronger economic pipeline for space, he said. And just as we have been the leader of commercial air travel for the first century, as we look to the second century of aviation, I would expect Boeing to be the leader in both air and space travel. Along with SpaceX, Boeing has a NASA contract to fly astronauts to the International Space Station. The first unmanned flight is scheduled for late 2017, with the first crew set to fly in early 2018. Boeing has begun training NASAs astronauts on simulators. The company is also one of the prime contractors on the massive Space Launch System that NASA is developing. It is expected to launch for the first time in 2018. Muilenburg said he envisioned a day when space could become a self-sustaining economy that is not just propped up by NASA. Now, the company is looking at building hypersonic aircraft, which would travel at Mach 5 or five times the speed of sound. Brian Tillotson, a senior technical fellow at Boeing, said the aircraft could be used to get passengers to a station in whats known as low Earth orbit, or even for super-fast transcontinental flight: An hour and a half anywhere in the world. But Aboulafia was skeptical of what he called techno-utopianism. Civil space thats risky, he said. Techno-utopianism can get you in an awful lot of trouble in this industry. Richard K. Irish, a Washington-area executive recruiter who wrote self-help guides on thriving in professional life, among them the popular 1973 volume Go Hire Yourself an Employer, died June 17 at his home in Marshall, Va. He was 83. The cause was complications from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, said his wife, Pat Reilly. Mr. Irish was the founder of Leadership Search, a Marshall-based consultancy that he ran from the mid-1970s until a decade ago, specializing in the recruitment of executives for nonprofit organizations. His first book, Go Hire Yourself an Employer, offered strategies for scouting positions that suit ones strengths and sold more than 800,000 copies, his wife said. It was described by respondents to a 1982 Forbes magazine survey as instrumental in making successful job shifts. Mr. Irishs later books included If Things Dont Improve Soon I May Ask You to Fire Me: The Management Book for Everyone Who Works (1975) and How to Live Separately Together: A Guide for Working Couples (1981). In a 1972 interview with The Washington Post, Mr. Irish described the traits of good and bad resumes. Bad resumes are all the same: tendentious, long-winded, mendacious, self-serving (in the worst sense) and written in federal prose that curls the hair of the most carbuncled bureaucrat. Good resumes are as different as the people who write them, he continued. They are lively, readable, human documents based not on your employment history, but rather on the skills, achievements and contributions the job candidate has made to society, employers and most of all to himself. Richard Keith Irish was born in Salt Lake City on June 26, 1932. After attending a boarding school in Switzerland, he received a bachelors degree from Georgetown Universitys School of Foreign Service in 1954. He spent the next two years serving with the Army in France as a German-language interpreter. He and his first wife, the former Sally Goldsmith, were among the first Peace Corps volunteers, serving on the Philippine island of Mindanao from 1962 to 1964. She died in 2003 after 45 years of marriage. Survivors include his wife of 10 years, of Marshall, and a sister. After his service abroad, Mr. Irish worked at the Peace Corps headquarters in Washington, rising from the mail room to recruitment. He later co-founded TransCentury, a Washington-based international economic development consulting firm, and was vice president of Career Planning Consultants in Charlottesville, where he assisted the unemployed with job searches. He belonged to the National Peace Corps Association and the Cosmos Club in Washington. Smithsonian Secretary David Jan Skorton asked Congress for $726 million to renovate Air and Space, and said the Smithsonian would raise another $250 million from private sources. (Kate Patterson/for The Washington Post) In the most costly project it has ever undertaken, the Smithsonian will need almost $1 billion to renovate and upgrade the National Air and Space Museum and to make its 22 galleries more innovative and engaging. The 40-year-old building one of the most-visited museums in the world needs new mechanical systems and a new exterior, Smithsonian Secretary David J. Skorton told a congressional oversight committee Wednesday. About half of the building would be kept open during the six to seven years it would take to repair it, officials said. The project would require $676 million from Congress for the construction and $50 million more to build storage space that would protect the collection as the repairs and upgrades are made, Skorton said. He pledged the Smithsonian would raise $250 million from private sources to transform all 22 galleries to be more imaginative, stimulating and technologically capable. We will basically have a new museum without having all the costs and loss of revenue that would occur by tearing it down, Skorton said. [The money has landed: Kickstarter for Armstrongs space suit is successful] The Smithsonian wants to begin construction in 2018 and complete the repairs in seven zones to avoid losing the retail and food revenue it brings in from its 7 million visitors each year, he said. The buildings mechanical systems air handling, plumbing and electrical need to be replaced, as does the buildings exterior. The marble that covers the building was cut too thin and cannot be reused. Replacing it adds $49 million to the budget, Skorton said. Smithsonian officials estimate the cost of demolishing and rebuilding the museum would top $2 billion and would take about nine years. Air and Space would lose $131 million in revenue during the closing. The museum cost $41 million when it opened in 1976. The project far exceeds the cost of constructing the $540 million National Museum of African American History and Culture, set to open Sept. 24. Congress provided half of the budget for that museum, and private donations covered the other half. Members of the Committee on House Administration, which oversees the worlds largest museum complex, pressed Skorton on the decision to fix the building rather than demolish it and rebuild. They also asked him what other projects were in the wings, and what would happen if Congress couldnt provide the funds. [Smithsonian asks Congress for $922 million for 2017] Are you going to be able to leverage private-sector investment if were not able to get the [amount] youre asking? Rep. Rodney Davis (R-Ill.) asked. Skorton said parts or all of the building may be closed without federal funding. It is very difficult to raise private funds for the replacement of mechanical systems . . . and those sort of things, he said. We do intend to raise funds completely from private sources to change the interior, to bring the museum into the 21st century. Rep. Juan Vargas (D-Calif.) asked about the life expectancy of the renovated building and how the committee can be sure it will be around long enough to justify the expense. Unfortunately, it was not built to last for the ages, Vargas said. Skorton said the renovated building should last 100 years. But thats very dependent on having sufficient funding to do important maintenance, he said. Originally, the project was projected to cost $250 million, and in March it was under $600 million. Skorton said the rising cost comes from a clearer understanding of the scope of the work. Currently, the Smithsonian has completed about 35 percent of the design work; it expects that to be finished next summer. [Smithsonian outlines $2 billion plan for South Mall renovation] Rep. Gregg Harper (R-Miss.) asked about other projects in the pipeline that would require congressional funds, and how this project affects the Smithsonians deferred maintenance backlog. In March, the Smithsonians inspector general estimated the institution has $785 million in deferred maintenance projects. Skorton did not name any projects or mention the maintenance work that is part of the $2 billion South Mall plan currently under preservation and environmental review. Included in that 20-year plan are the renovation of the administration building, known as the Castle, replacement of the roof of the underground Quadrangle building (which houses the African and Asian art museums and the Ripley Center) and a joint mechanical system that would be shared by several of the buildings. We do anticipate in years to come that further renovations will be necessary, he said. The deferred maintenance backlog for the Smithsonian is a very large and daunting figure. There is nothing surprising about that. With so much square footage and so many visitors, wed expect that wed have a backlog of some sort. The following exchange, between Washington Post art and architecture critic Philip Kennicott and classical music critic Anne Midgette, is part of a series of conversations about local musical and art events, seen from the perspective of two different writers. Philip Kennicott: Karel Appel, born in 1921, was a Dutch artist who emerged after the Second World War determined to make art with expressive power commensurate to the pain, loss and destruction that shattered Europe when he was a young man. The Phillips Collection has acquired seven works by Appel, bold and often crudely figurative paintings that may remind some viewers of Jean Dubuffet. The new acquisitions join 15 other pieces in a small exhibition of highly charged paintings and sculpture. I wish I could like it all better, but I am both exhausted by and impatient with art that derives its energies from the expressionist pool of angst, rage and aversion to formal tradition. Exhausted because expressionism too often takes artists not to some dark, uncharted place, but back to the same old wellsprings of violence and desire explored by artists for well over a century. In paintings such as the 1959 Wounded Nude, the buxom figure seems violently constrained by the edge of the canvas, which cuts her legs off at the knee. And in the 1964 Big Head, full of primary colors in a bright and garish ensemble, a primitive face is contorted in a Munchlike scream. But mainly, Im impatient with this kind of art. We live in a world that is full up on the emotions channeled here, which makes me crave more temperance and measured contemplation. Appel was capable of that on occasion, but those works seem, here, mainly peripheral. Anne Midgette: I enjoyed the show on a didactic level: It was a nice cross-section of a deliberately uneven oeuvre. I say deliberately uneven because Appel embraced figuration on the one hand and made a point of prioritizing medium over content on the other, which leads to a kind of contradictory standoff in which figures on the canvas are consistently undermined by the goopy squiggles and sweeps of inch-thick paint, asserting itself as an almost sculptural entity. Compare Appels Woman With Flowers No. 1 from 1963 or Wounded Nude from 1959 with one of De Koonings Women (from the 1950s), and Appels lack of sensuality jumps out at you: where a De Kooning woman is exuberantly fleshy, Appels is hacked apart and suffocated in a web of paint. In Woman With Flowers, the paintings very surface is pierced with garish plastic flowers that pierce the figure and affix it to the canvas. Karel Appel. "Head as a Tree," 1959. Oil on canvas. (Copyright Karel Appel Foundation, c/o ARS New York/The Phillips Collection) Appel also deliberately rejected the idea of a consistent style, leaping from one mode of expression to another, and the show does a great job of contextualizing the various phases of his output. It juxtaposes works in interesting ways (like the 1959 Head as a Tree, with its intriguing use of paint, and the Owlman No. 1 from 1960, a large exuberantly painted chunk of an olive tree trunk). It also effectively documents the way that an artist preoccupied with the primacy of paint and the visceral expressions of childrens art becomes victim of a creeping tendency toward prettifying his work. I think that Appel sells out with his 1979 and 1980 paintings Still Life and Landscape With Wheel, which are both executed in tasteful, pretty strokes of paint in candy colors. And by 1989 we get what I might term restaurant art with a white Nude Figure on a black ground, sullenly pushing against the edge of the canvas, or the Magnolia of the Night, black flowers on a black ground. [Raw and brutal: Pollock, Dubuffet and Ossorio at the Phillips Collection] Kennicott: We were both drawn (and repelled) by the same works. But I feel slightly different about them. I think Head as a Tree is some of his strongest work precisely because it is entirely (as far as I can tell) abstract. I understand what youre saying about the standoff between figuration and the pure love of paint, but I dont find it as compelling as you do. I think the fundamental tension in Appels work is between the desire to say things within and the need to say things beyond the limits of painting. Which is one reason those turning-point works from around 1979 and 1980 are among the most satisfying in the show. The restaurant art, from 1989, left a sour taste in my mouth. The Nude Figure shows him not much advanced from the violently contained works made decades earlier, while Magnolia of the Night reminded me of the trajectory of a composer we both know: Krzysztof Penderecki, who composed one of the most violently expressionistic works of the middle 20th century, then gravitated to a mostly anodyne romanticism later in life. This is the danger of this kind of expressive language: It can only be amplified, or rejected, and the rejection often feels like, as you put it, a sellout. Midgette: Oh, I dont find the work particularly compelling, either. Appels basic stance is pretty facile yes, he was deliberately avoiding the traditional profundity of the European past and embracing naivete, but that leaves you with a slender veneer over not much substance. Also, however much he tries to reject the traditional constructs of Western art history, his work is mired in traditional European values and references: You cant have this work without Cezanne, Picasso, Braque, Bonnard, Miro and Klee. And when Appel does try to reject those values, it comes out as a facile quip, like his repeated clever attempts to mix up figure-painting and landscape. In Landscape With Tree, he rotates the traditional landscape horizon so that the green and blue, sky-ground, are vertically (figuratively) rather than horizontally oriented. Or take Head as a Tree: I dont agree with you about it being totally abstract, since the title makes its subject pretty clear: Its another portrait/landscape mash-up. But, like him or not, and we seem not to, Appel, and the CoBrA group of which he was a founding member, are significant names in postwar European art. And as an introduction to his work, and a way of making a case for his inclusion in this collection, I think the show succeeds from the moment you walk up the stairs to the second floor and see a Calder bird, a Mondrian canvas, and then Appels Tree, which is given context historically and literally, through these two other works in direct dialogue with it. [Two critics on a powerful, horrifying opera] Kennicott: The stairwell at the Phillips is one of my favorite spaces and always seems to draw out some whimsy from the curators. I put this show in my worth seeing category: Its useful, and it leaves you with a good, clear sense of an artist. And who knows, if the historical wheel turns, and we find ourselves living in a more buttoned-down and socially restrained age, perhaps Appels rejection of style and expressionist excess will seem necessary and powerful once again. Karel Appel: A Gesture of Color is on view at the Phillips Collection through Sept. 18. For more information visit phillipscollection.org. Dear Dr. Fox: As a 37-year fancier and responsible breeder of Belgian Tervuren shepherds, I was very upset by the letter from a reader in St. Louis that appeared in your column recently. She detailed a story of a sickly Belgian shepherd purchased from a breeder by a friend. The writer went on to say, People need to stop buying from breeders; adopt from shelters to put breeders out of business. Responsible breeders breed only from health-tested, temperamentally and structurally sound dogs, to produce puppies to better the breed. Most of us show our dogs and participate in performance activities such as obedience, agility, herding, etc. to demonstrate that our dogs are good examples of our breed and can perform the job they were bred to do. My dogs are tested and certified with the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals for hip and elbow dysplasia, eye diseases and thyroid diseases before being bred. I take great pride in the fact that I have produced many fine Belgian Tervuren shepherds, many of which are champions with lots of performance titles, and also those that are cherished family pets. A tremendous amount of time and love goes into the planning, whelping and raising of each litter. I have a two-year waiting list for my puppies, and litters are spoken for before they are even born. Although I have a website, I do not need to advertise. People interested in a puppy from me have to fill out a four-page application, be interviewed and sign a sales contract. They must come get their puppy; I will not ship the dogs. They must agree to remain in contact for the life of the animal and return the puppy to me if they can no longer keep it, no matter the age. It is a fine thing to adopt a dog or puppy from a shelter, but there are people who choose to own a purebred dog. People need to do their research when buying a purebred dog and find a responsible breeder. Talk to them and visit, if possible. A responsible breeder will follow the practices I mention above and is more than happy to help you in your search. I am sorry that the readers friend had a bad experience with a breeder, but please do not condemn all of us. K.K., Pleasant Valley, N.Y. DF: Yes, there are many responsible breeders, and you are a devotee of one of my favorite breeds. The issue, which you recognize, is how would-be purchasers of a purebred puppy find a reputable breeder, many being quite unaware of potential pitfalls and costly health problems. Teri Vetter is developing a website to help in this regard: unethicalbreederawareness.com. You may wish to share your invaluable experience on that site. My advice: Never buy a purebred pup online or in a pet store, regardless of whether it has American Kennel Club registration papers, because it probably came from one of the puppy mills that blight many rural counties but are protected by agribusiness interests. LOSING FAITH Dear Dr. Fox: I have visited your website, and many of your writings move me deeply. Perhaps you can help me. I am an animal lover. I have two old dogs, and I am, or was, a devout Christian. But my faith is being tested by all the cruelty I learn about toward animals and our own kind. The world is in chaos, and religious wars between fundamentalists of various faiths are escalating. The environment is going to hell, and wild species are becoming extinct at an alarming rate. I am bordering on despair. Perhaps you can help restore my faith. E.L., Silver Spring DF: You have my sympathy. Many feeling and thinking people like you are indeed experiencing hopelessness and despair. As more than one philosopher and humanitarian has opined, all religious dogma must be transcended in the name of peace, freedom and justice for all. True religion is in the spirituality of compassion-in-action and reverential respect for all living beings and the natural environment. This is ultimately enlightened self-interest. I am heartened that several Christian denominations are addressing environmental and animal welfare issues, as are some scholars of Islam and Judaism. For details, see my book The Boundless Circle: Caring for Creatures and Creation. A HOTFOOT IS NO FUN Dear Dr. Fox: We live in an adult community where we are not allowed to fence our yard, so we must walk our dog on the black asphalt streets. In the summer, the asphalt becomes so hot that you can feel the heat rising off the street. Please remind dog owners of this danger. When walking dogs on the street, remember that they are closer to the hot tar, which makes them feel much hotter than you realize especially smaller dogs, whose entire bodies are close to the ground. Also, a lot of inside dogs do not have tough calluses on the pads of their feet to protect them. Take off your shoes and stand on the asphalt to get an idea of just how hot the pavement feels to your dog. The problem is worse for dogs that are jogging with their owners or running alongside a bike. They dont get a chance to stop and cool down. When its too hot to walk on the street, we load the dog into the car and head for the nearest park. You can imagine how much cooler it is, walking along the tree-lined trails. And its a treat for dogs to spend extra quality time with their favorite person. Just remember to take water for the dog. K.W., Whiting, N.J. DF: Thank you for your letter, which I hope all people with dogs will read and take to heart. Not being mindful about hot sidewalks and roads when out walking and jogging or leaving the dog in a hot car even for a few minutes is an all-too-common error of judgment and perception. Loving ones dog calls for mindfulness and empathy. DONT DRINK THE WATER Dear readers: Dont let your thirsty dog drink from or play in stagnant pools of pond or lake water. Take fresh water and a bowl with you wherever you go. Dogs need to drink water to cool down and may need forcible restraint to be kept out of an inviting pool of water in which blue-green algae have proliferated. Blue-green algae cause illness in people and pets. In Minnesota, weve seen two human illnesses last year and many dog deaths after they either swallowed contaminated water or groomed themselves after swimming. Dogs exposed to the algae can experience gastrointestinal distress, rash, respiratory difficulty, weakness, liver failure and seizures, and certain cases can be fatal. Michael W. Fox, author of a newsletter and books on animal care, welfare and rights, is a veterinarian with doctoral degrees in medicine and animal behavior. Send letters to animaldocfox@gmail.com or write to him at United Feature Syndicate, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, Mo. 64106. If going to the farmers market isnt on your weekly to-do list, you might be inclined to forget about all the fruit and vegetable growers, meat producers, cheesemongers, egg sellers, beekeepers and others who bring fresh, local products to your area. Well, we can jog your memory! Its farmers & markets week in Food, and heres whats spread out on our table: Domenica Marchetti travels to Esmont, Va., where goat dairy owner Gail Hobbs-Page is making a name for herself and helping to advance the states growing artisan cheese industry. Tim Carman sees a new generation of farmers market customers who are more interested in prepared foods than in fresh, local produce a serious challenge for farmers. Phaedra Hise explains why youll probably pay more at the farmers market than at the grocery store, but why many shoppers do it gladly. Tamar Haspel looks at indoor vertical farming, which offers several advantages over traditional farming but some disadvantages, too. Cathy Barrow offers farmers market shopping strategies for the home canner. Becky Krystal reveals why prices are higher at farmers markets in urban areas. Food section staffers highlight 14 favorite items that bring them back to the market week after week. And, as always, weve got recipes that will put your market purchases to good use. [More Chat Leftovers: Saving scraps for broth; want culinary school students to cook for you?] So get ready to talk markets and anything else that strikes your fancy during todays Free Range chat. In addition to the usual bunch, we expect to be joined by the aforementioned Domenica Marchetti, Cathy Barrow, Tamar Haspel and by Cara Mangini, whose book The Vegetable Butcher inspired Weeknight Vegetarian Joe Yonans column this week. So pull up a chair at noon sharp, and you might consider submitting questions or comments early. Im hoping for a busy week, so therell be plenty of leftovers for me. Like this one, from last weeks chat: During a recent haircut, I overheard another patron discussing an arugula sauce for ravioli that hed learned to make in Italy. It sounded fantastic, and simple to make, but I cant remember the ingredients or the process. It may have been as simple as arugula, garlic and olive oil. Any thoughts for how best to re-create it? Because I wasnt a fly on the wall, theres no way for me to know for sure. But what I do know is that our Recipe Finder includes five ways to make arugula pesto, which I suggest is the same as the arugula sauce youre asking about and which will all be terrific on pasta. Of the five, my favorite is the lemony, cheesy version thats part of our recipe for Marbled Potato Salad With Arugula Pesto. You can make the pesto by itself, of course, sans spuds, but they are so good together that it would be a shame. And even after draping the pesto over the potatoes, therell be plenty left over for the pasta of your choice. Im also partial to Pappardelle With Arugula Pumpkin Seed Pesto. The pumpkin seeds add great flavor. Three others to try: Pasta With Arugula Pesto, Spaghetti With Baby Clams and Arugula Pesto and Spaghetti Squash With Almond-Arugula Pesto; if youre not a spaghetti squash fan, just use regular pasta. They were ALL good. Hope one or all of them will work for you. Marbled Potato Salad With Arugula Pesto. (Deb Lindsey/For The Washington Post) Spaghetti With Baby Clams and Arugula Pesto. (Deb Lindsey/For The Washington Post) This review appears in The Washington Posts 2019 Fall Dining Guide as No. 4 on a list of the years top 10 restaurants. Tomato agedashi crispy silken tofu, mandarin tomato and pine nut marmalade, yuzu kosho sorbet and smoked tomato broth at Metier. (Deb Lindsey/For The Washington Post) 4. Metier (Superlative) The pinnacle of fine dining in Washington tends to involve moving from one room to another during the night, tasting menus that blend old ideas with the new, tableside service, a sense of humor and the luxury of quiet. Metier offers all those frills and more in an underground space that opens with drinks and hors doeuvres in an intimate salon and continues in a dining room graced with old paintings, well-spaced tables, a candlelit chandelier and a view of the talent behind a big window into the kitchen. A highlight reel from September would start with a brilliant chilled carrot consomme so clear you can read through it. (For proof, its glass bowl is set on a place mat cut from the pages of The Washington Post.) A few dishes pair first-rate if familiar ingredients with exceptional flourishes: garden-fresh basil broth with sauteed branzino and a bracing Dijon mustard sorbet with rosy grilled Virginia lamb loin. Other combinations find chef-owner Eric Ziebold making a sauce before your eyes or reminding you hes as adept at Japanese cooking as he is at French. Garnished with a pale green sorbet ignited with yuzu chile paste, cubes of lightly fried, melt-in-the-mouth tofu set in hot smoked tomato water will go down as one of the most extraordinary things I ate all year. Gianduja chocolate torchon with churros, cinnamon ganache and corn milk ice cream (Deb Lindsey/For The Washington Post) Mini ice cream sandwiches. (Deb Lindsey/For The Washington Post) The chefs equal in the pastry department is Anne Specker. Gianduja chocolate torchon with corn milk ice cream and a side of the best churros in memory has me seeing stars four, to be precise. 4 stars Metier: 1015 Seventh St. NW. 202-737-7500. metierdc.com . Open: Dinner Wednesday through Saturday. Price: Seven-course tasting menu at $200. Sound check: 65 decibels / Conversation is easy. The Top 10 restaurants of 2019: 10. Thamee 9. Anju 8. Three Blacksmiths 7. Mama Chang 6. Poca Madre 5. The Restaurant at Patowmack 4. Metier 3. Pineapple and Pearls 2. Rooster & Owl 1. Seven Reasons -- The following review appeared in The Washington Posts 2018 Fall Dining Guide. Frozen smore at Metier. (Deb Lindsey /For The Washington Post) Metiers menu feels like a flight of fancy (Excellent/Superlative) Diners will find plenty to entice them on the menu of the hautest underground dining room in the city, starting with a garden of icy minced vegetables that constitutes a bracing ratatouille and ending with a small stove atop which patrons can retrieve hot chocolate cookies with a tiny spatula. Diners begin the evening with a welcome drink and an elegant snack in a salon with a fireplace before moving into a dining room with tables spaced to afford maximum privacy and a window that captures the kitchen action. Chef Eric Ziebold shares his fascination with Asia, sending out snowy halibut encircled in coconut-sweetened corn with compressed mango. Foie gras teetering on a bundle of savoy cabbage stuffed with duck confit is French to its core, while a reimagined root beer float, based on sarsaparilla cake, suggests a fantasy state fair. The missing ingredient right now? Service to match. For $400 a person, wine pairings and gratuity included, customers deserve more than rapid-fire descriptions of dishes and drinks followed by turned heels. Especially given the competition, where staff makes you feel as if youre the only diners in the room. The following review appeared in The Washington Posts 2017 Fall Dining Guide as No. 5 on Toms Top 10. Grilled Moulard duck foie gras with tomato jam and Darden ham mouillette at Metier. (Deb Lindsey /For The Washington Post) No. 5 Metier (Superlative) Isnt it civilized to start dinner with canapes and drinks in a salon before moving into the dining room? Isnt it nice to share a meal with someone and not have to read lips or shout to be heard? Isnt it a treat to eat the refined and frequently playful cooking of Eric Ziebold, also the creator of the upstairs Kinship? Even the staff will tell you they raised their eyebrows at the idea of pairing bananas with sea urchin, but I swear, the roasted fruit and the ocean-scented delicacy come together magically with the aid of shaved truffles in a first-course bavarois. Background stories accompany each dish. Ziebolds bright and icy ratatouille of minced vegetables was inspired by working in his garden; the chefs olive-oil-poached black bass, served over soft couscous and finished with saffron broth, pays homage to a trip to Tunisia with his wife and co-owner, Celia Laurent, who is as polished a host as any. At no moment are you eating anything ordinary. With the steak, a cut from Martin Ranch, comes a blue cheese sticky bun that almost makes us forget about the restaurants prized Parker House rolls, and one of the two desserts shows the affinity between tomatoes and pink peppercorns. Grill stripes on the foie gras are mimicked on its plate, with bands of toasted brioche crumbs, and a tribute to Gateau St. Honore by the pastry chef, Anne Specker, is ferried on a green Parisian street sign. Did I mention the discreet service and the wine gems? The many polished details add up to an exceptional evening and a revised rating. Welcome to the four-star club, Metier. The Top 10 of 2017: No. 10 Sfoglina No. 9 Salt Line No. 8 ChiKo No. 7 Tiger Fork No. 6 Bad Saint No. 5 Metier No. 4 Minibar No. 3 Himitsu No. 2 Pineapple and Pearls No. 1 Inn at Little Washington Salted caramel creme diplomate and coffee semifreddo served on a map of Paris and a St. Honore street sign. (Deb Lindsey /For The Washington Post) --- The following review was originally published as part of The Washington Posts 2016 Fall Dining Guide. (Excellent/Superlative) The elevator opens below ground, and you find yourself in a little jewel box, where you start your evening with drinks and snacks. This being the fine-dining lair of chef Eric Ziebold, the bites include a clear tomato consomme poured over sparkling herb granita and petite corn falafel, crumbs of which are brushed away with a thick Garnier-Thiebaut napkin. Any reservations I had about Metier in its early months were erased by a return dinner in September, seven courses that affirm Ziebolds role as one of Washingtons premier talents. Does avocado toast need a makeover? The chef, visible behind a window in the dining room, adds a nicely chewy Japanese rice cake and a frame of dashi jelly. Until I tasted the combination, I didnt know pork jowl and osetra caviar had such an affinity for compressed watermelon. Nor did I consider barbecue an appropriate application for lobster, tingling bites of seafood paired with white corn pudding and a garnish of okra tempura. Ziebolds affection for Japan continues with a finger of premium kuroge beef, its richness foiled with shiso chimichurri and flattered with an elegant syrah (the 2014 Domaine Vincent Paris Cornas La Geynale). A dessert of early fall fruits gathers marbles of apple and pear, and small scoops of Concord grape sorbet and hazelnut ice cream, that together put autumn on a pedestal. As you depart, a server proffers a gift of kitchen-made honey-thyme vinaigrette (a big step up from the previous parting gesture, a bottle of water). Consider it a chance to dress your salad like a star back home. -- The following review was originally published June 22, 2016. Chef Eric Ziebold and his wife and partner, Celia Laurent, in the salon at Metier. (Deb Lindsey /For The Washington Post) Metier review: Eric Ziebolds newest attraction tickles more than it transports (Excellent) The only question I had after eating at Kinship, the suave, a la carte American restaurant introduced by Eric Ziebold last winter: How would the chef try to top the experience at Metier, his more exclusive dining retreat that followed downstairs this spring? Kinship, after all, made an uncommon three-star impression, with dishes such as lobster French toast and a setting whipped up by a noted interior designer, Washingtons own Darryl Carter. Now, with several meals at Metier under my ever-tighter belt, I can tell you the differences between the siblings are many and rich, sometimes even surprising. With Metier, for instance, you get an elevator ride from street level to basement thats so slow and deliberate, you imagine your party ending up somewhere in China, tomorrow. Instead, the doors open to a high-ceilinged, softly lighted room that suggests a noblemans salon replete with low couches, flickering hearth, tables that fit together like pieces of a puzzle and men in jackets. Metier, named for the French word for skill in ones job, is the rare restaurant that asks you to dress up for dinner. The first face you are likely to see is that of Celia Laurent, the chefs wife and business partner, who asks if youd like a drink and a preview of the menu, then returns with canapes that have included a delicate falafel dabbed with cumin yogurt and a two-bite lobster roll: seafood heaven. While theres no rush to leave the cocoon, the sumptuous snacks whet a diners curiosity for what awaits next door; soon enough, youre led to a hushed dining room, fewer than 40 seats, where the chef and his crew are on display behind an expanse of glass. Notice a pattern? Ziebold hopes the elevator ride and a spell in the salon allow guests time to decompress, while the sight of a band of cooks forges a bond between kitchen and customer. As the chef sees it, luxury dining is based, in part, on a sense of intimacy. Pre-dinner hors d'oeuvres served in the salon at Metier. (Deb Lindsey /For The Washington Post) Poached Alaskan halibut, coconut rice, cilantro, curried mousse and sea urchin butter at Metier. (Deb Lindsey /For The Washington Post) Unlike at Kinship, Metier doesnt ask you to make food decisions. Most diners get the same seven-course, $200 dinner, part of which you pay for when you make a reservation. (No worries if you dont eat meat or gluten; the kitchen can accommodate you.) The meal begins with theatrics: waiters bearing smoke-filled glass cloches that contain butter-braised fingerling potatoes on a puddle of lemony creme fraiche, a duo decked out with smoked bonito shavings that appear to wave from the plate. Caviar lends shine and a saline edge. Your brain recognizes the flavor profile, and you nod in amusement when a server says the dish is a riff on (yes!) a loaded baked potato. A chef with aspirations knows conveyance vies with cooking for a diners attention these days, hence the little log that serves as backdrop for the second course: a salad composed of juniper-spiked meringue mushrooms and tiny mushroom fritters sprouting from the wood, with pickled mushrooms and smoked ham nestled in a flat bowl on one end of the limb. Equally clever and luscious is an ivory bar of poached halibut sharing its bowl with fragrant coconut rice and balls of foamy curry, a subtle tropical medley embellished by a pitcher of melted sea urchin butter. The hot stream explains the vessel, a black ceramic bowl modeled on the spiny shell of a sea urchin. Sure, the recipes for some of these dishes would be nice, but Id be just as happy with the contacts for Metiers imaginative plate-makers. The four-star Inn at Little Washington features a painters palette of vivid sorbets in tiny jars, presented with a thin cookie brush. Metier does something similar, albeit savory, with its fourth course, a round of maple decked out with shaved raw kuroge beef and contrasting condiments. A bite of the cool marbled beef, so pink you could mistake it for a watermelon radish, makes for heady feasting, especially when followed by the application of one of four accents (my favorite is a horseradish mousse). A palette of kuroge beef with spring garlic tapenade, shiso chimichurri, horseradish mousse, smoked beef butter and Bolivian pink salt at Metier. (Deb Lindsey /For The Washington Post) Next comes a trolley with lamb rib-eye, because fancy dining means at least one course is going to be fussed over by a waiter, even if it doesnt need to be. In this case, the roasted meat, fragrant from the hay in which its been cooked, is carved into succulent slices and presented with silken roasted peppers and an olive sauce. The dish is perfectly pleasant, but frankly, the lamb (rack, sausage and ballotine) I enjoyed at Kinship, flanked by similar peppers and dreamy grits, trumped this rendition. Dessert is spread across two courses: brown sugar shortcakes with rhubarb sorbet followed by a frozen riff on smores using graham cracker cream and chocolate semifreddo. The first can be disappointing when the star attraction tastes overbaked. The latter, an elegant, not-too-sweet version of the campfire classic, keeps diners entertained as they watch their waiter singe marshmallow ice cream with a small blow torch. Dessert plates are removed and replaced by just the bill. Almost anywhere else, thats understandable. At a destination restaurant where youve already put down $150 per person and wine upgrades can double the tab the transaction feels as abrupt as when The End appears before you expect it, or the lights go up at a club in mid-rave. Metiers in-town rival for our fine-dining dollars, Pineapple and Pearls, has solved the tricky problem by having diners pay for their $250 meal before they even show up for dinner. Metiers competition on the Hill also sends diners home with a sweet treat for future enjoyment, a generous stroke. Here near the convention center, you just get up and return to the elevator. Okay, the gesture waiting in your valet-parked car is a nice detail, but who wakes up after a big-deal dinner feeling delighted by a bottle of water? Morel and king trumpet mushroom salad, Italian parsley, ham, caramelized sunchoke puree and Juniper meringues served on a log at Metier. (Deb Lindsey /For The Washington Post) Ask the chef to differentiate upstairs from downstairs, and hell tell you that Kinship is meant to feel like dinner in his home while Metier was created to be a restaurant pulling out all the stops. Cooking at the late CityZen in the Mandarin Oriental, Ziebold garnered four stars, my highest rating, for his efforts. But then the bar for fine-dining shifted. Make no mistake. Metier is an impressive addition to the landscape. But for a place thats asking a lot of its customers, patrons deserve to be more than tickled. They want to be transported. 1 of 44 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad Pack the perfect picnic View Photos Whether its a chic post-work gathering in the park or a family-friendly Fourth of July, weve got a spread for you. Caption Whether its a chic post-work gathering in the park or a family-friendly Fourth of July, weve got a spread for you. Urban For a post-work picnic at Yards Park in Southeast Washington, Amanda McClements , owner of the Districts Salt & Sundry stores, selected stylish and trendy items (modeled by employees at her store). Read the full story here. Jennifer Chase/For The Washington Post Wait 1 second to continue. With summer unfolding, its time to up your picnic game. Whether its finding tufted floor cushions to lounge on, stylish unbreakable dishes or a game to keep the kids occupied while you savor the moment, were on it. Picnics take a bit of planning and preparation, but once you lay out the blanket and everyone climbs on board, you know you will create memories, says Christen Bensten, an Arlington design blogger and furniture painter. We asked four tastemakers to come up with accessories for an Instagram-worthy meal alfresco. Theres something for everyone: a chic post-work gathering in a city park, a hunt-country repast, a laid-back beach picnic and a kid-centric Fourth of July party. Check out our delicious buffet of unexpected picnic gear, including boho cotton sari rugs, festive glasses with silicone sleeves and tops, jute totes with waterproof linings and more. Add a vase of fresh flowers, lanterns, mosquito repellent and some straw fans, and youll be ready to picnic until the stars come out. [Lets get this party started: How social media has changed entertaining] Urban An urban picnic in Yards Park in Southeast Washington styled by Amanda McClements, owner of the Districts Salt & Sundry home boutiques. (Jennifer Chase/For The Washington Post) On a warm summer evening, you might find Amanda McClements spreading out a colorful Indian kantha quilt and picnicking on Logan Circle. The owner of the Districts Salt & Sundry stores, two stylish home boutiques in Union Market and off 14th Street NW, says cities are among the best places to toss out a blanket. With all these large expanses of grassy spots and parks, they are wonderful for enjoying the outdoors, says McClements, who lives a few blocks away from the circle. We asked her to imagine an after-work gathering for a group of friends at Yards Park, the riverfront expanse in Southeast Washington with cooling fountains and green terraces. McClements chose a black-and-white palette, taking a cue from a round Australian-designed terry-cloth blanket. She added black-and-white vintage-inspired enamelware and melamine plates. Her favorite tip: Enlist friends to carry a lot of things to make you more comfortable at your picnic. The more pillows, the better, she says. Imagine you are creating a living room outside. [9 recipes for packing the perfect summer picnic] Instead of a traditional basket, she used a jute District of Columbia-inscribed market bag by Apolis she picked up at Redeem on 14th Street NW. Apolis also makes totes celebrating other locations, including Detroit, Austin and the Fort Greene neighborhood in Brooklyn. McClements says, You can show off your city pride. (Jennifer Chase/For The Washington Post) From left to right: 1. Lumily pillow ($68, Salt & Sundry, 1309 Fifth St. NE, shopsaltandsundry.com); 2. Acacia wood triangle serving bowl ($37.50, Hills Kitchen, 713 D St. SE, hillskitchen.com); 3. Bamboo flatware (three-piece set $5, Home Rule, 1807 14th St. NW, homerule.com); 4. District of Columbia jute tote with waterproof lining by Apolis ($68, Redeem, 1810 14th St. NW, redeemus.com); 5. 12-inch, white-dipped acacia wood servers ($15, Home Rule); 6. Block print napkins ($38 for a set of four, Proper Topper, 1350 Connecticut Ave. NW); 7. Enamelware cups and bowls (bowl $10, tumblers $8-$10, Salt & Sundry); 8. Melamine plates (set of four dinner plates $46, set of four appetizer plates $38, Salt & Sundry); 9. Naked Botanicals Lavender bug spray ($18, Salt & Sundry); 10. Tiny tin lanterns ($18, Proper Topper); 11. Tulum Roundie towel by The Beach People ($110, Salt & Sundry). Country Great Meadow in The Plains, Va., is known for its Twilight Polo matches. (Tracy A. Woodward/The Washington Post) Dana Gibson, a product designer and artist based in Richmond, grew up in the 1970s enjoying rural picnics by the James River on wool tartan blankets. We would catch the fish, and my parents, who looked like preppy hippies around the Volkswagen van, would grill them up, she says. Gibson, whose line of boldly patterned ginger jar lamps and tole trays tends toward the traditional, still likes a little boho style in her country picnics. I like to think of country today as more modern, not campy. I lean toward mixing a little preppy with a little bohemian. We asked Gibson to style a picnic with a hunt-country polo match in mind Great Meadows summer Saturday Twilight Polo matches in The Plains, Va., perhaps. She said shed start with some vibrant rugs made of upcycled saris that shed spread out Moroccan-style. A rustic wood tray would hold a vase of flowers and a plate of deviled eggs. Shed make fried chicken to enjoy on Kate Spade candy-colored striped plates. And to give the whole thing a true hunt-country vibe, shed top it off with a silver-plated candelabra. (From left to right: GODINGER; LINEN FEAST; LINEN FEAST; DANA GIBSON; POTTERY BARN; MOUNTAIN METALWORKS & WOODWORKS; PERSONALIZED FAN STORE; WORLD MARKET; KATE SPADE NEW YORK) From left to right: 1. 5-light candelabra 16 ($99, godinger.com); 2. Linen decorative pillow ($28, linenfeast.com); 3. 4-by-6-foot repurposed sari area rug ($65, linenfeast.com); 4. Navy striped pen cup ($40, danagibson.com); 5. Daytrip large lidded basket ($79, potterybarn.com); 6. Shabby Chic decorative tray ($60, etsy.com/shop/MtnMetalWorks); 7. Premium straw hand fan ($2.50, personalizedfanstore.com); 8. Coral kantha patchwork pouf ($130,worldmarket.com); 9. Melamine dinner plate, multi-stripe ($16, bloomingdales.com). Beach Rehoboth Beach makes a beautiful backdrop for a summer picnic. (Astrid Riecken/For The Washington Post) Designer Erin Paige Pitts , whose specialty is coastal homes, likes to host beach picnics in the late afternoon, when temperatures are cooler and the light is more gentle. We asked her to imagine a gathering by the ocean somewhere in Delmarva. Pitts, who has offices on Gibson Island, Md., and Delray Beach, Fla., always provides lots of soft Turkish beach blankets, plus floor cushions for lounging. She likes to create ambiance by lighting a path to the picnic location with lanterns and then having candles around the spread as evening descends. She says picnics are meant to be relaxed gatherings that are easy and laid-back, not too contrived. We keep the menu simple: cheese and crackers, some nuts and wine and other drinks. Maybe some pre-sliced salami. She says melamine is better than paper plates in a beach setting. (Think wind and dampness.) And because picnic baskets can let in sand, a roomy tote is a better option for a picnic by the shore. There is something about the light at this time of day that gives everything a warm glow, Pitts says. Its a great time to take photos of family, kids and the dog. (From left to right: SERENA & LILY; TERRAIN; ZAZZLE; YETI COOLERS; TARGET; SAND CLOUD TOWELS; URBAN OUTFITTERS; THOMAS FUCHS) From left to right: 1. Fouta beach towel in aqua ($48, serenaandlily.com); 2. Filigree sphere lanterns in turquoise ($28-$68, shopterrain.com); 3. Turquoise ombre teal plate ($25, zazzle.com); 4. Yeti leakproof Hopper 20 cooler ($300, yeticoolers.com); 5. Womens chevron structured tote ($35, target.com); 6. Seafoam XL beach blanket ($59, sandcloudtowels.com); 7. Tufted corduroy floor pillow in dark gray ($39 each, two for $70, urbanoutfitters.com); 8. Roly Poly glass ($100 for set of four, tfc-nyc.com/collections). Family Fireworks near the Washington Monument on the Fourth of July last year. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post) When my husband and I were first dating, we went on picnics all the time, says Christen Bensten, who writes the design blog Blue Egg Brown Nest. Its a simple gesture but so meaningful when you sit under a big blue sky and unpack the goodies in the picnic basket with someone you care about. Now that she has three kids, she still loves picnics, but they are a little different. When it comes to picnics, kids care about food and fun, she says. Dont forget either. We asked her to consider a picnic on the Mall for the Fourth of July. She recommends using paper takeout containers so there is no smelly Tupperware to bring home in a hot car. And she always brings along fans for when kids complain its too hot. She also suggests packing a bag of fun stuff, including a Twister picnic blanket thats also a game, a portable radio and a joke book. And dont forget the red, white and blue pinwheels to festively mark the perimeter of your blanket. (From left to right: SAVE ON CRAFT; PAPERMART; NORDSTROM; CRATE & BARREL; GOVERRE; AMAZON; HAYNEEDLE; ORIENTAL TRADING; SUNNYLIFE; AMAZON; URBAN OUTFITTERS; PAPER SOURCE ) From left to right: 1. Red diagonal striped 5-by-7-inch treat bags ($10 for set of 100, save-on-crafts.com); 2. Disposable star take out containers (A set of 12 for $6, papermart.com); 3. Beach Sounds portable water-resistant speaker and radio ($49, shop.nordstrom.com); 4. Outdoor Tic Tac Toe ($60, crateandbarrel.com); 5. Portable wine glass in red ($24, goverre.com); 6. Pencil-shaped stainless steel thermos ($30, amazon.com); 7. Picnic at Ascot Bold Deluxe picnic cooler and accessories for a family of four ($154, hayneedle.com); 8. Stars & Stripes pinwheels ($10 for 36 pinwheels, orientaltrading.com); 9. Ice cream cone fan ($14, sunnylife.com); 10. Laugh-Out-Loud Jokes for Kids by Rob Elliott ($3, amazon.com); 11. Fujifilm Instax Mini 8 instant camera ($70, urbanoutfitters.com); 12. Twister game blanket ($37, papersource.com). Dear Amy: My boyfriend of two years was raised in a doomsday cult. Yep, the real deal. It wasnt traumatic, exactly, but he grew up believing that the end of the world is nigh and when certain signs are presented, he and the other church members would flee to Jerusalem to wait out the End Times. My boyfriend left the church several years ago. He sees this church as a fear-mongering, destructive environment. However, his parents and older brother are still a part of it. They are packed and ready to flee at any moment. My boyfriends father, James, is very paranoid. He and his wife are terrified for my boyfriends soul, so periodically this is what happens: 1. James starts to talk about all of these awful things: government conspiracies, the end of the world, how he heard on one of his many fear-mongering podcasts that things are being put in vaccines to control us, etc. 2. My boyfriend makes it clear to him, both verbally and by limiting their time together, that these conversations are inappropriate and he will not tolerate them. 3. James persists. 4. Finally, we cut off all contact for as long as is necessary. 5. Eventually we start to see him and his wife again. However, after a while James starts the pattern (again), and there we go again. Amy, I love my boyfriend dearly and want to marry him, but I am worried about the stress of dealing with his family. It has distressed my boyfriend for years. James still wants to try and convert me. We are moving out of state for graduate school soon. Are we handling this well? Do we need to set better boundaries? If there is anything I can do to not be plagued by this cycle of dysfunction for the rest of my life, I will do it. Worried Soon-to-Be Daughter-in-Law Worried Soon-to-Be Daughter-in-Law: You and your boyfriend seem to be doing a good job of trying to retrain his family to stop proselytizing when they are with you. Responding in a firm and consistent manner (and then keeping your distance) is exactly what you should do. I quibble with one thing: I believe your guy did grow up in a traumatic environment. He escaped it, but the lessons taught to him as a young child would have set him up for a lifetime of deep insecurity. Fortunately, he seems to be resilient. You two should see a counselor together, to check your feelings and reactions to this extreme situation. It is vital to be on the same page. Cutting off contact might be his ultimate response, but dealing with the guilt and grief of that loss is something he should talk through with a professional and/or a support group. Dear Amy: I am part of a very large family (10 brothers and sisters). I have some nieces who very seldom show up at family celebrations, such as showers, birthday parties, etc., but when it comes to their childrens parties, they expect everyone to show up by inviting people via Facebook or through word of mouth. How can someone tell them how their absence to our parties is causing others not to show up at their parties without causing hard feelings? Frustrated Family Frustrated Family: Issuing invitations on Facebook does not mean that these nieces expect everyone to show up at their kids parties. Facebook invitations are a handy way for people to respond quickly and for the hosts to get a head count. These family members are attempting to be inclusive. If your feelings are hurt by their inattention to other family celebrations and life-events (completely justified, by the way), you should honestly convey this message: I have noticed your inattention toward other family members. It is time for you to step up and behave as a full member of this big family. We know you cant show up for everything, but sometimes you have to give (and celebrate) in order to get (and be celebrated). Dear Amy: Curious Guy innocently asked why women dont shave their forearms. You followed up by asking why men dont shave their underarms, as women do. The reason we dont shave is because no one taught us that this should be the norm. Thank God. I have to admit that I prefer it when women shave, but I also understand why they might not want to. Another Guy Another Guy: Shaving is a gender norm, and I think it is wise to question it. Amys column appears seven days a week at washingtonpost.com/advice. Write to Amy Dickinson at askamy@tribpub.com or Ask Amy, Chicago Tribune, TT500, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, Ill. 60611. The Arlington County Board has given historic district designation to the first public school to integrate in Virginia, where there were significant efforts to stop black and white children from attending school together. The designation for the Stratford School means school district officials have to seek approval from the county board before making changes to the building, which now houses the H-B Woodlawn magnet program and special-needs students but is set to undergo renovation and expansion as it transforms into a county middle school. The community is very proud of this school and its legacy, and shares the school boards dedication to providing all our children with an excellent education, said Emma Violand-Sanchez, the school boards chair. The school was integrated in February 1959 after a lengthy court battle. On that day, four black middle school students entered the school trailed by a scrum of reporters and under the watchful eye of police, marking the first integration of a public school in Virginia. In the hours that followed, black students across the state took their first steps into all-white schools as racial barriers fell. [How should Arlington preserve the history of desegregation] The exterior of Stratford Junior High School in September 1959. (Warren K.Leffler/Library of Congress) The rapidly growing Arlington County school district plans to renovate and expand the Stratford building, on Vacation Lane, to make room for a new middle school that is slated to open by 2019. Concerned that the buildings history would be lost, a group that included some of the black students who integrated the school filed a petition last year to give the school historic designation. The group won a recommendation from the Historical Affairs and Landmark Review Board (HALRB), and some school board members feared that the designation would slow the renovation and make it too costly. While the school board also voted to recommend historic status, school officials negotiated a new process with the county board: Renovations will now have to be approved by the county board instead of the HALRB, which will serve in an advisory role. Under the new arrangement, the county board also will approve or deny any future petitions for historic designations of public school buildings. Five people, including two children and a firefighter, were treated for burns and smoke inhalation at area hospitals Wednesday after a fire in an apartment in Southeast Washington, according to department officials. Firefighters rescued three people trapped in an apartment, and one teenager jumped out from the third floor. None of the injuries were described as life-threatening, according to spokesman Vito Maggiolo. Twenty-eight people in nine families were displaced. The fire was reported about 7:40 a.m. in the 2900 block of Second Street SE, just off I-295 and south of St. Elizabeths Hospital. Firefighters arrived to find smoke and fire coming from a second-story apartment. Maggiolo said the three trapped occupants were in a third-story apartment directly above the fire. He said a woman and two boys, ages 5 and 12, were taken down an aerial ladder on Truck 16. They were taken to area hospitals for observation to check if they suffered smoke inhalation, the spokesman said. The teenager who jumped also was hospitalized. His precise injuries could not be determined. Maggiolo said a firefighter who was closest to the fire with a hose suffered burns on her hands. She has been released from the hospital. Firefighters arrived at the scene in about four minutes and had the fire extinguished in under 30 minutes. Officials said the cause of the fire has been ruled accidental. It was not clear if the occupants of the second-floor apartment where the fire started were home at the time. A man who flagged down a taxi in Northwest Washington early Wednesday stole the vehicle at gunpoint in Southeast, according to D.C. police. The incident occurred about 4:20 a.m. The taxi arrived at the passengers destination in the 3900 block of Pennsylvania Avenue SE. Police said the passenger, who had hailed the cab in the 1100 block of Massachusetts Avenue NW, then directed the driver to the 2100 block of Suitland Terrace SE, about a block away. Once there, a police report says, the cab driver told the man the fare was $18.97. The report says the man asked the driver if he had change for a $20, and while the driver was reaching for his wallet, the man pulled out a gun and took the drivers cellphone. Give me all your cash and get the [expletive] out of the car, the assailant said, according to the report. The driver got out, and police said the man sped away in the cab, a red Dodge Durango with Cab No. J887. Police did not disclose the name of the taxi company. Authorities did not have a detailed description of the assailant. Police have identified five of six people killed in a van crash on Interstate 95 in Virginia last week. At 12:30 a.m. Saturday, a 1998 Dodge van headed north from North Carolina to New Jersey and carrying 16 people ran off the left side of the highway in Caroline County, Virginia State Police said in a statement. The driver overcorrected, which caused the van to swerve back across the northbound lanes and strike a 2016 Toyota Camry, according to the statement. The collision caused the Toyota to spin around and the van to roll over as many as six times, police said. [Driver charged with involuntary manslaughter in I-95 van crash that killed six] Six of the vans passengers four men, a woman and a child were ejected and died at the scene, police said. They were identified as Epifanio Texmoxtle, 33, of Mexico; Elvira Montiel, 40, of Mexico; Elvira Montiels son, Jose Montiel, 5, of Mexico; Andres F. Francisco, 36, of Guatemala; and Juan Diego, 37, of Guatemala. One of the victims was not named pending notification of relatives. A spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said the named victims did not have legal immigration status in the United States. The driver of the van, Wenceslao Cruz-Marquez, 50, of Chicago, and nine passengers were taken to hospitals for treatment of serious injuries, the police statement said. The driver of the 2016 Toyota was not injured. The vans adult passengers were not wearing seat belts, and the 5-year-old boy was not secured in a booster seat as required by Virginia law, the statement said. Only the drivers and front-seat passengers seat belts were functioning properly, according to the statement. Cruz-Marquez was charged with reckless driving and six counts of involuntary manslaughter, police said. They said the crash remains under investigation. An ICE spokesman said the agency had lodged an immigration detainer on Cruz-Marquez. D.C. police have arrested a 24-year-old man in a June 2 fatal shooting in Northeast Washington, according to the department. Hakeem Burroughs of Northeast, who was arrested Tuesday, was charged with second-degree murder while armed and could make an initial appearance in D.C. Superior Court on Wednesday. [Man fatally shot in Northeast Washington] Police said Burroughs is charged with killing Jarrell Walker, 22, of Suitland, Md. Walker was shot about 11:50 p.m. in the 3700 block of Hayes Street NE. He died at an area hospital. Police did not disclose a possible motive, but more information is expected to be released when the suspect appears in court. Calvert County These were among reports received by the Calvert County Sheriffs Office and the Maryland State Police. Anyone with information about these crimes is asked to call the Criminal Investigation Division at 410-535-2800 or 301-855-1194, the Crime Solvers line at 410-535-2880 or the state police Prince Frederick Barrack at 410-535-1400. st. leonard AREA ASSAULTS St. Leonard Rd., 4900 block, 9:40 p.m. June 5. Investigating a reported stabbing at an apartment, police found a man being attended by emergency personnel. He was taken to a hospital for treatment. A warrant was issued for a St. Leonard woman, 64. LUSBY AREA THEFTS/BREAK-INS Laurel Dr., 9 p.m. June 1 to 1 p.m. June 2. A purse and its contents were stolen from a vehicle. Mesa Trail, 6 to 6:30 p.m. June 6. Medication, DVDs and a flashlight were stolen from a residence entered by breaking a window. Rousby Hall Rd., June 8. A man tried to leave a store without paying for groceries. A Lusby man, 63, was charged. OWINGS AREA THEFTS/BREAK-INS Fifth St., 9 a.m. June 3 to 9 a.m. June 7. License plates were stolen from a vehicle. PRINCE FREDERICK AREA ROBBERIES Sheridan Point Rd. and Chinquapin Ridge Ct., 5:02 p.m. June 13. Responding to a report of an altercation, police found that a man, 18, had shot another man, 21, in the neck with a pellet gun and then robbed him of property with two male juveniles. As they fled from the scene, the 21-year-old shot a 16-year-old in the head and torso. The juvenile was taken to a trauma center by helicopter. Another male youth, 15, was found suffering from a drug overdose. The man later turned himself in to police and was charged with assault. The 18-year-old and the juveniles were charged with robbery. THEFTS/BREAK-INS Hallowing Point Rd., June 8. Two bicycles were reported stolen from a back yard in April. One of the bicycles was recovered. Solomons Island Rd. N., 100 block, June 8. A woman was seen placing items in her handbag. A Huntingtown woman, 40, was charged. Solomons Island Rd. N.,100 block, June 8. A shoplifting incident was reported. A Prince Frederick woman, 27, was charged. Solomons Island Rd. N., 100 block, June 11. A woman tried to steal clothing. A Lusby woman, 35, was charged. st. leonard AREA THEFTS/BREAK-INS Calvert Ave., 10:30 p.m. June 10 to 4:30 a.m. June 11. A purse and its contents were stolen from a vehicle entered by shattering a window. Oakcrest Dr., 8 p.m. June 11. A man tried to remove cleaning products from a garage. A St. Leonard man, 55, was charged. SOLOMONS ISLAND AREA THEFTS/BREAK-INS Sunderland Park and Ride and N. Solomons Island Rd., 5:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. June 8. License plates were stolen from a vehicle. Charles County These were among reports received by the Charles County Sheriffs Office and the Maryland State Police. For information, call 301-932-2222 or 301-870-3232. The website ccso.us has crime statistics and information on crime prevention programs. REWARDS FOR INFORMATION Crime Solvers will pay a reward for information leading to an arrest and indictment. The 24-hour hotline is 866-411-8477. Callers may remain anonymous. WALDORF AREA THEFTS/BREAK-INS Bryant Ct., 1500 block, 9:20 p.m. June 6 to 8:30 a.m. June 7. A wallet and credit cards were stolen from a vehicle. Charles St., 11000 block, June 10. Two benches were stolen from a barn in a farm. MOTOR VEHICLE THEFTS Crain Hwy. and Fairgrounds Rd., 9:18 p.m. June 9. Police briefly pursued two motorcycles traveling at high speed. Police apprehend one of the riders, whose motorcycle stalled. It was discovered that the motorcycle had been reported stolen in Fairfax. A Waldorf man, 31, was charged. Crain Hwy., 2200 block, June 8. A 2016 Cadillac Escalade was stolen from a dealership. It was recovered in Bridgewater, N.J. VANDALISM Indian Hills Pl., 11400 block, 9:15 p.m. June 11 to 12:30 p.m. June 12. Tires on two vehicles were punctured. Circle Ave., 100 block, midnight to 9 a.m. June 13. A window, a tail light and door frame on a vehicle were damaged. St. Marys County These w ere among reports received by the St. Marys County Sheriffs Office and the Maryland State Police. For information, call 301-475-8008. To submit a tip, call Crime Solvers at 301-475-3333. The Leonardtown Barrack of the state police has an anonymous tip line at 301-475-2936. CALIFORNIA AREA THEFTS/BREAK-INS Miramar Way, 45400 block, June 11. Responding to a report, a deputy located a woman leaving a store with unpaid merchandise. A Park Hall woman, 30, was charged. West Patuxent Beach Rd., 23000 block, June 12. A door of a vacant house was damaged. A California man, 18, was charged. LEXINGTON PARK AREA ASSAULTS Ronald Dr., 21000 block, June 11. During an argument, a man pushed someone to the ground; the person was injured. A Mechanicsville man, 40, was charged. Ventura Way, 22000 block, June 12. During an argument, a woman scratched a victims face. A California woman, 34, was charged. THEFTS/BREAK-INS Spring Hill Rd., 20000 block, June 12 to June 13. Property was stolen from a shed that was forcibly entered. MOTOR VEHICLE THEFTS Berne Way, 47000 block, June 13. A vehicle that was stolen from outside a home was found abandoned, with keys in the ignition. ST. INIGOES AREA THEFTS/BREAK-INS Post Oak Rd., 48000 block, June 13. Property was stolen from a vehicle. VALLEY LEE AREA ASSAULTS Farm Lane, 19000 block, June 8. During an argument, a woman closed a laptop computer on someones finger and pushed down on it. A 33-year-old Valley Lee woman was charged. A Silver Line train runs in Reston, Va., on its opening day in 2014. Zoning changes approved Tuesday by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors will allow higher density development near new Metro stations. (Yue Wu/The Washington Post) The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors has approved changes to zoning requirements that allow for higher buildings near Metro stations and in aging commercial areas targeted for redevelopment. The changes, which the board unanimously approved Tuesday, allow for denser development in 22 areas of the county, including Reston, Seven Corners and the Richmond Highway corridor. [Fairfax activists challenge zoning plan for higher density] The new zoning guidelines increase the maximum allowable floor-area ratios, or FAR a measurement used to determine density in buildings that accounts for ground-level retail stores and parking garages. Under the new rules, the maximum FAR for most of those neighborhoods rises from 2.0 or 3.0 to 5.0. A 5.0 FAR is equivalent to a 10-story building with 50,000 square feet on each level. The board carved out an exception for downtown McLean, which will have a maximum FAR of 3.0, officials said. During a public hearing Tuesday, Fred Selden, director of the countys Planning and Zoning Department, said the new density limits comply with planning guidelines already in place for the targeted neighborhoods. The overall idea is to allow for more buildings in those areas that have ground-floor retail stores and underground parking, Selden said. Thats the direction were asking developers to go in for those areas, he said. Were talking about small parcels of land in some of these neighborhoods. [Mall-centric no more: Aging suburb targeted for sweeping changes] Residents in Seven Corners, Reston and some other affected areas argued that the changes will open the door to high-rise apartment buildings in neighborhoods that are already overwhelmed by traffic congestion. These are not insignificant changes, said Rob Whitfield, an activist in Reston, where residents are seeing more traffic resulting from new townhouse complexes recently built near the areas two Silver Line Metro stations. The result of the high-rise buildings that will come under what is now allowed is certainly not conducive to family upbringing. Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, shown here during a recent signing ceremony, is defending his order restoring voting rights to more than 206,000 felons. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post) One of the best-known anecdotes from Gov. Terry McAuliffes colorful memoir has him wrestling an eight-foot-long alligator intended to show that he never backs away from a fight. That never-give-up, dont-look-back approach has been on display in recent weeks as he tries to bat away opposition by Republicans and some Democratic to a signature achievement of his term: restoring voting rights to more than 200,000 felons. Using polling data, heartwarming stories, fiery speeches and town halls, McAuliffe has launched a robust public relations campaign to answer critics who say the flawed implementation of his clemency order outweighs his good intentions. In the latest offensive, McAuliffe criticized 43 commonwealths attorneys who signed a brief supporting a GOP lawsuit seeking to reverse his order. The elected prosecutors among them five Democrats, three of whom are from Fairfax, Arlington and Prince William counties worry that once felons civil rights are restored, they could serve on juries and more easily win back their gun rights. The states attorneys would have to intervene to prevent those things from happening. Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe made a decision to allow convicted felons to vote ahead of elections in November. Heres how the executive order works and why it has lead to a legal fight. (Claritza Jimenez/The Washington Post) This is where some of the commonwealths attorneys say, Oh, I have more work to do now, McAuliffe said in a mocking tone Wednesday during an appearance on WRVA, a Richmond radio station. Its not our responsibility, he said. It is the sole responsibility of the judicial system whether to return someones gun rights. Its their job. I tell them, Do your job. Radio host Jimmy Barrett interjected, They are government workers I mean, come on. McAuliffe replied: Well, Im sorry. Work a little harder. The situation puts Democratic prosecutors, including Arlington Commonwealths Attorney Theo Stamos in the awkward position of supporting McAuliffe, the de facto head of the state party but opposing his major policy initiative. Stamos said that she applauds the intent of the clemency order but that there have been too many administrative hiccups. She was referring to errors in data the administration is using to restore the rights of more than 200,000 felons who are no longer in prison or under supervised release. Its not political, she said in a phone interview. Its a practical and legal concern. . . . I respect the governor, and I respect what he was trying to do. I just wish perhaps there could have been a little more consultation with us down here in the mud to see if we could have avoided some of these pitfalls. On April 22, when McAuliffe announced the order from the south portico of the Capitol, he encouraged felons to check their restoration status using a website maintained by the secretary of the commonwealth. If their rights were restored, they were immediately directed to a link to register to vote. But some individuals whose rights McAuliffe did not intend to restore were mistakenly included in the database. That included criminals in prison and on supervised probation in other states and others under federal supervision. Then Terry J. Royall, the commonwealths attorney in Nottoway County, noted that 132 sex offenders under involuntary supervision were among those whose rights were restored. A McAuliffe spokeswoman accused Royall, an independent, of joining a Republican effort to demagogue this issue. This is yet another partisan attempt to spread misinformation and hysteria, spokeswoman Christina Nuckols said. Royall fired back in a news release, saying her integrity and competence should not have been questioned for simply exposing problems with the governors order. Roanoke Commonwealths Attorney Don Caldwell, a Democrat who signed the brief, said the incident shows that McAuliffes staff did not properly research the clemency order. When you have some embarrassment associated with something that youve done, one of the easiest ways to take attention off yourself is to attack someone else, he said. McAuliffe spokesman Brian Coy said there are no plans to revise or replace the April 22 clemency order, which was written by the governors counsel. The problem is with how the order is being carried out, he said. The administration is responsible for implementing the order. [Democrats pan Trump at state party convention] State officials say the public supports McAuliffes action. A Roanoke College poll from May, before most of the loopholes were reported, found that 61 percent of likely voters agreed with the clemency order. In an automated survey asking a different question, the Democratic Public Policy Polling group found more than 6 in 10 support the policy even after revelations about some imprisoned felons getting their rights reinstated. One of McAuliffes closest allies, Levar Stoney, defended the order last weekend at the state party convention. Stoney helped develop the policy as secretary of the commonwealth but resigned shortly before it was announced to run for Richmond mayor. Even though there are people who have done their time and served their sentences, there are some people who would rather keep them in the shadows, he told 1,400 party loyalists. What is wrong is wrong, and Governor McAuliffe did the right thing. The state Supreme Court will hear the Republican challenge to McAuliffes order on July 19. Scott Clement contributed to this report. NORTH KOREA Pyongyang launches two more missiles In a remarkable show of persistence, North Korea on Wednesday fired two suspected powerful new Musudan midrange missiles, U.S. and South Korean military officials said, but at least one of the launches apparently failed, Pyongyangs fifth such reported flop since April. Despite the repeated failures, the Norths determination in testing the Musudan worries Washington and its allies, Tokyo and Seoul, because the missiles potential 2,180-mile range could target much of the Asia-Pacific region, including U.S. military bases there. Pyongyang earlier this year conducted a nuclear test and launched a long-range rocket that outsiders say was a cover for a test of banned missile technology. A statement from South Koreas Joint Chiefs of Staff said a suspected first Musudan launch from the eastern coastal city of Wonsan failed early Wednesday morning, but it gave few other details. Later Wednesday, the JCS said the North fired another suspected Musudan, but it was not immediately clear if it succeeded. Associated Press SYRIA Islamic State regains large areas in Raqqa The Islamic State has retaken large areas in the northern Syrian province of Raqqa that the militant group had recently lost to government troops, opposition activists said Tuesday. Syrian troops have been on the offensive for nearly three weeks and had advanced to within four miles of the Tabqa air base near Raqqa city, the de facto capital of the Islamic States self-declared caliphate. But the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that regime forces lost all the territory they had gained in the province since launching the offensive June 2, adding that troops have been pushed back to about 25 miles from Tabqa. Meanwhile, Jordan sealed its last entry point for Syrian refugees Tuesday after a cross-border suicide attack killed six members of its security forces, wounded 14 and exposed the pro-Western kingdoms growing vulnerability to spillover from the Syrian conflict next door. The closure raised questions about the fate of tens of thousands of Syrian refugees who are stranded in remote desert areas along the border. Associated Press SOUTH AFRICA Anger over mayoral candidate spurs riots Rioters blocked roads, looted shops and burned vehicles in the South African capital in a show of anger over the selection of the ruling partys mayoral candidate. The violence in Pretoria raised concerns about security ahead of local elections in South Africa scheduled for August. Nineteen buses were burned in one area, the Transport Ministry said. Some residents said they had not been adequately consulted over the selection of Thoko Didiza, a former cabinet minister, as mayoral candidate for the African National Congress for the metropolitan area that includes Pretoria. They want incumbent Kgosientso Ramokgopa to stay. Associated Press ICC sentences former Congo vice president to prison: The International Criminal Court sentenced the former vice president of Congo, Jean-Pierre Bemba, to 18 years in prison for murders, rapes and pillaging committed by his troops in the Central African Republic in 2002 and 2003. Bemba will get credit for the eight years spent in ICC detention since his arrest in May 2008. Swedish lawmakers tighten asylum rules: Swedish lawmakers approved legislation to tighten regulations for asylum and family reunification in their country, which received a record 160,000 asylum seekers last year. Under the new law, some asylum seekers who earlier had been granted permanent residency will now get only temporary residence permits. The legislation also newly requires that sponsors are able to support family members who come to Sweden. The measures will come into force on July 20 for an expected three-year period. Egyptian court rejects island transfer to Saudis: A court in Egypt rejected as unconstitutional a border agreement that would have transferred two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia, a deal that had sparked protests in Cairo. The ruling was a rare rebuke of the governments foreign policy by the judiciary and could strain ties with Riyadh, a major donor. The government, which said the deal would bring economic benefits to Egypt, has appealed the ruling. From news services ON MONDAY, the Senate voted down several gun control measures. Is that news? Well, in some ways, more than you might think. Those votes may not be the end of the story. One option defeated Monday was backed by the National Rifle Association and most Republicans and would have made it difficult for the government to deny firearms sales to those on terrorism watch lists. Another, backed by most Democrats, would have made such denials the norm. After neither got the needed 60 votes, Democrats could bash Republicans for ostensibly letting terrorists buy guns, and Republicans could bash Democrats for wanting to infringe on a constitutional right without due process (because such watch lists are assembled by the goverment, in secret). So far, so predictable. But there is a chance that, for once, Congress will not just leave it at that. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and a bipartisan group of lawmakers are hashing out a compromise that would limit the number of people who cannot purchase firearms to those on the most serious watch lists. Additionally, the FBI would be given notice when anyone who has been on a terrorism watch list within the past five years attempts to buy a gun, even if they are no longer listed. That would be an improvement over the status quo. And the bill would allow those who have been denied a firearm the right to appeal to a federal judge, relieving due-process concerns. Though details, for example on the judicial review process, remain contentious, Ms. Collins and her colleagues deserve credit for attempting to forge a viable compromise that, if passed, might do a bit of incremental good. Compared with the challenge of gun violence in the United States, it would be only a minuscule step. Some 33,000 people die from gunshot wounds every year in the United States, many in heartbreakingly avoidable ways. That is a public-health crisis, but Congress has constrained the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from researching the phenomenon in an orderly way. The result is a lack of good data on gun violence that could help lawmakers design policies to save lives without violating rights. Even with these restrictions, hard research and common sense suggest several reforms that would make a big difference. Background checks real, comprehensive and universal background checks, not the sham, loophole-ridden system we have now could help. Even if someone would be ineligible to buy a gun under Ms. Collinss plan, that person could still go to a gun show or buy firearms online without a real background check system. Nationwide gun permitting, which might require gun buyers to register, give fingerprints, have their picture taken and undergo an interview before being allowed to purchase a gun, would discourage dangerous people from obtaining firearms. Banning gun sales to domestic abusers and those guilty of violent misdemeanors should be on the table. And smart gun technology, which would keep guns from being fired by anyone but their legitimate owners, would save lives, too. Congress is still a ways from such sensible moves. But with gun reform on the presidential campaign agenda for the first time in many years, and reform opponents in Congress on the defensive, a bit of optimism is not out of order. Ana Garcia is an Emmy award-winning TV journalist based in Los Angeles. I am on a watch list. And I dont like it. Its not fair. I havent done anything, but my name is apparently the same as that of a wanted terrorist. The authorities wont tell me what bad Ana Garcia has done, but based on the facial expressions of the numerous immigration and customs officers who have questioned me, shes bad. Technically, I am on a Transportation Security Administration selectee list. Thats one down from the no-fly list. I dont have a constitutional right to board a plane, or reenter the United States without a secondary screening. I will be the first to tell you, it sucks. It interferes with my ability to do my job as a reporter. I can walk into a jail to have a cup of coffee with the sheriff, but I cant get on a plane with the same ease. What sense does that make? My watch list challenges have been documented through news stories. Privately, the Department of Homeland Security has cleared me, but it will not take me off the list. Instead, DHS issued me a redress number. Its yet another government ID that proves I am not the person the authorities are looking for. Still, in my view, the debate over whether it is unconstitutional to ban people on watch lists from buying guns is absurd. I have heard emotional arguments from conservatives who are worried innocent people wrongfully placed on watch lists will be denied their Second Amendment right to buy a gun. All of a sudden, politicians not so worried about my status on a watch list are apparently paralyzed with fear that I might not have the freedom to buy a gun. Thats awfully thoughtful, but save the sympathy for the families of the victims in Orlando. Heres the thing: Innocent people will sometimes be wrongfully put on these lists. I am an example of that. I have a work-around. Its not ideal, but ultimately I get on that plane. When I go into secondary screening at the Los Angeles airport, I am always confident that I will get to go home. It costs me a few more minutes of my time. It annoys me. Its not fair, but I have not lost the right to fly. It just makes sense that if you are a terrorist on a watch list, you should be banned from buying weapons. And if you are innocent like me, I am sure the government can come up with a redress number specifically to protect your Second Amendment right. Will it work perfectly? Of course not. Fair doesnt mean everyone will be happy, but maybe we will all be safer. As the war against the Islamic State in Iraq shows signs of fragile progress, U.S. military leaders there are preparing to ask President Obama for the one thing he is resisting above all else in his final months the deployment of hundreds more U.S. troops. Military leaders directing operations against the terrorists in Iraq are readying requests for more troops and equipment they feel are needed to solidify and quicken progress toward defeating the Islamic State. These proposals have not yet been formally submitted to the White House for approval, and would first be vetted by the Pentagon leadership, but key generals have already told many in Washington they need hundreds more U.S. personnel to do the job right. According to several senior military, congressional and administration officials, the generals on the ground, including Army Lt. Gen. Sean MacFarland, commander of coalition forces in Iraq, have been frustrated by what they see as arbitrary caps on troop levels set by the White House and a process that discourages them from directly asking for what they need. That may affect the numbers in the requests that are sent to Washington. What MacFarland is trying to do is again make another change, said retired Gen. Jack Keane, former vice chief of staff of the Army. When MacFarland is talking about increasing the numbers again dramatically, thats what he needs to do. After the White House approved 200 more troops in Iraq in April, MacFarland told reporters the generals would ask for more if we need to. Keane said MacFarland and other generals on the ground need more tactical air controllers and advisers embedded with units closer to the fight. But they havent formally requested hundreds more troops due to pressure from their superiors, he said. They know what not to ask for because its not going to happen, Keane said. It gets cut off because the White House is not going to approve it. The level of frustration over this has really been quite extraordinary. The White House has incrementally raised its cap on U.S. troops in Iraq several times since the war on the Islamic State began. Officially, there are just under 4,100 U.S. troops deployed there. Military and congressional officials said about 900 more U.S. soldiers in Iraq are not counted in official numbers because they are Special Operations forces, who are often not acknowledged, or they are deployed on a temporary duty status as a way to fudge the statistics. Gen. Daniel B. Allyn , vice chief of staff of the Army, told me the White Houses caps on troop numbers in Iraq have forced the Army to break up units and supplement deployed forces with contractors, which harms Army operations and adds costs. The number of U.S. contractors supporting the military in Iraq is unknown but estimated to be in the thousands. When you look at our deployment of our advise and assist formations [in Iraq], they are very leader heavy . . . what we leave back is the rest of that formation, which often limits what we can do with that force, Allyn said. A continued requirement to deploy formations without all their organic capability and outsourcing that through contractors has significant downside risks for the Army. Allyn traveled to Baghdad last month and met with MacFarland and the other generals on the ground. The generals are right now preparing detailed requests for what they believe would be necessary if the fight in Fallujah succeeds and the United States must help the Iraqi forces surround and eventually take Mosul. General MacFarlands sensing, when I was with him, of what he needed, was in the works, Allyn said. They have a good feel for what they need and the sequencing of what they need. Generals involved in the mission have also been telling lawmakers and congressional staffers behind closed doors that they need more troops sooner rather than later, given the fragility of the current process and the time lag between requests and when the troops are able to contribute to the fight. Can the generals request an increase to the troop levels? Yes, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-Tex.) told me. But before that, the feelers go back to the National Security Council and they find out what the reaction is going to be. They understand the White House wants to keep the numbers to a minimum. Weve been slowly adding troop strength, its like pulling teeth to get more resources. Its frustrating to people who are engaged in the battle, said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). Graham said that U.S. military planners in Iraq have told him they have insufficient troops and resources to accomplish their mission. Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr. are said to be sympathetic to requests for more resources in Iraq but also wary of pushing the White House beyond what it is comfortable with. One senior administration official who was not authorized to speak on the record told me that there is a sense of urgency in prosecuting the war that comes directly from the president, but that large increases of U.S. troops in Iraq carry political risk for the Iraqi government. Theres a certain amount of support that we can provide to the Iraqis that is essentially politically sustainable for them, the official said. That limits the type of support we can have in some situations. A spokesman for the military operations command in Iraq offered no comment in response to my request. Senior administration officials maintain that the current campaign plan is working and that all formal requests that reach the president receive serious consideration. They also say the president insists that the fight against the Islamic State be resourced in a way thats sustainable given the expected length of the mission and Americas other military commitments. More of everything is not a strategy, said Derek Chollet, a former Obama administration White House and Pentagon official. In every single military campaign in history, the military has wanted more. They are trying to do a job. Its the natural impulse. Retired Lt. Gen. James Dubik, who was commanding general of the Multi-National Security Transition Command-Iraq during the surge in 2007 and 2008, said that even if the military gets the extra troops it wants, the Islamic State will never be defeated until the United States commits to larger diplomatic and political engagement as well, to shore up the Iraqi state and provide for long-term stability. Weve been giving military assistance, which is necessary but insufficient, he said. We want to defeat ISIS, but merely running them out of Iraq will not defeat ISIS. They will be back. To critics of the Obama administrations Iraq policy, White House reluctance to approve more troops and resources to fight the Islamic State is another example of the presidents determination to build a legacy around ending two wars started by his predecessor and removing the United States from bloody Middle Eastern conflicts. He doesnt want his legacy to be that he went back into Iraq, said Graham. The next president is going to have to finish the job and is going to have a mess on their hands. If Obama decides not to fulfill the generals wish for more resources in Iraq, he may preserve his personal legacy by keeping troop levels low. But that comes at the cost of the Iraqis and U.S. security, and it will only pass on those tough calls to whoever succeeds him. A man waves a flag as he attends a rally for Britain Stronger in Europe, the official Remain campaign group seeking to avoid Brexit, in London on June 19. (Ben Stansall/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images) Imagine a young Margaret Thatcher, a politician who deeply mistrusts the political establishment and identifies on a gut level with the frustrations of the middle class. Thats shorthand for what Britain will need as it picks up the pieces after Thursdays Brexit referendum. Friends of Britain (and Europe, too) need to stop pretending that support for withdrawal from the European Union is simply a product of xenophobic right-wing nationalism. Nearly half the country supports a British exit, according to prereferendum polls, and these people are not all deluded reactionaries. The European Union is unpopular in Britain for the same reason it is in many other parts of Europe: Its seen as the project of a financial and political elite that often operates without regard for public opinion. Nationalism may be a tarnished, retrograde sentiment, but the fact remains that many people feel deeply attached to their countries. This patriotic feeling cant be expunged. But it should be modernized. And thats where a modern Maggie could do wonders. Think of a restless, mildly rebellious British politician who could find common cause with like-minded Europeans who are tired of being lectured by Brussels. Thatcher took a wrecking ball to an earlier generation of entrenched, elite opinion in Britain. When she became prime minister in 1979, Britain was still encased in a class system that maintained the conservative status quo at both ends the power of the aristocratic Tory elite and the Labour Party trade-union bosses, who in tandem resisted any reforms that might challenge their power. On June 23, Britain faces a fateful decision: whether or not to leave the European Union. And the world will be watching. (Daron Taylor,Jason Aldag,Danielle Kunitz/The Washington Post) Thatcher, a grocers daughter, despised this status quo. She defied a bitter 1980s strike by the National Union of Mineworkers where previous prime ministers, Labour and Tory, had caved. She deregulated the financial sector, in what was called the Big Bang, restoring London to global primacy. Britain in recent years has seemed to be slipping backward. David Cameron, the Conservative leader, is an Old Etonian who, in form and function, is a latter-day embodiment of the Tory elite. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, similarly, is a throwback to the left-wing, union-cosseted yesterday of his party. The most hopeful aspect of the Brexit debate is that most young British people seem to be instinctively European. They have grown up in a global economy in which people move from job to job and country to country. A recent poll by ICM for the Guardian found that 56 percent of voters age 18 to 34 want to remain in the E.U., while just 39 percent favor leaving. By contrast, 55 percent of those over 65 favor withdrawal. Other surveys make the same point: The older people get in Britain, the more they mistrust the E.U. Thats the biggest danger of the pro-Brexit campaign, beyond the economic damage it has risked. It would tie the countrys future to the oldest, most conservative cohort of its population. The E.U. leadership in Brussels deserves its bad reputation. Lacking the instruments of real governance, the Eurocrats have nibbled around the edges with rules and regulations that imply a common destiny but leave to others the hard questions, such as border security and fiscal discipline. Germany sits uneasily atop this shaky enterprise. The Germans are lucky to have a chancellor who, no matter how wealthy and privileged her country may be, still acts like the Lutheran pastors daughter who was raised in East Germany. Asked once what was distinctive about Germany, she gave this sturdy, if unlikely, answer: No other country can build such airtight and beautiful windows. Her power comes in part from her ability to appear ordinary. Europe is only beginning its process of change. A senior German official told me a few months ago that the strange thing about the Brexit vote was that the best case and the worst case are so close together. What he meant was that Germany understands that Europes institutions must change, regardless of whether Britain is in or out. E.U. purists may still dream of a tighter federalism, but that would involve a surrender of national power that nobody, least of all the Germans or French, really wants. Whats more likely is a core E.U. that runs at German speed and allows the periphery some of the leeway that Cameron won for Britain in the negotiation that preceded the wretched Brexit campaign. Rather than crying crocodile tears for the old version of the E.U., modernizing politicians in Britain and on the continent should be thinking about change. Its time for Maggie redux. Bring on the wrecking ball. Read more from David Ignatiuss archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook. If you turned on cable TV news Monday, chances are good that you caught Corey Lewandowski fibbing that he doesnt have a clue why Donald Trump fired him as his campaign manager. Of course he knows. In a series of interviews on several shows, Lewandowski dodged every question, including from CNNs Dana Bash on whether Trumps daughter Ivanka and her husband had anything to do with his dismissal. Tensions among them were well-known to campaign followers, but Lewandowski shrugged off such concerns as typical of all campaigns. No doubt. But Lewandowski was a special case he looked and acted more like a bodyguard or bouncer than a campaign manager. At one Trump event, he was accused of assaulting a female reporter. On Monday night, however, there was no evidence of the tough guy. Rather, Lewandowski portrayed a humble, thoughtful, soft-spoken, gee-whiz guy who only wants to do the right thing for his country and get Trump elected. Naturally, people wondered: How big is his golden parachute? And speculators wagered: He must have signed a confidentiality agreement. This is highly probable. Usually, when high-profile employees are escorted from the building, as Lewandowski was, they tend to leave with two things: a check and a promise never to speak ill of the company. Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump fired embattled campaign manager Corey Lewandowski on June 20. The Fix's Chris Cillizza breaks down what comes next. (The Washington Post) And Trump is the company. Theres no disagreement that Lewandowski had become a liability. His brash style, which reflected that of his employer, rubbed many the wrong way. Moreover, Trumps campaign is in dire straits. His poll numbers are slipping and are below any candidates, Democrat or Republican, in the past three election cycles. Adding to his travails, Trumps campaign cupboard is relatively bare, with just $1.3 million compared with Hillary Clintons $42 million. Something had to change, and somebody had to take the fall. Or so the obvious theories have gone. Another plausible theory is far more cynical and seems more Trumpian. It wasnt money or campaign discord at least not exclusively that got Lewandowski the boot. He was fired as a sacrifice to one of the few constituencies Trump hasnt thus far insulted directly, and one he desperately needs: evangelical Christians. Could it be mere coincidence that just one day later on Tuesday Trump was scheduled to meet in New York with a congregation of about 900 Christian leaders to sort things out in advance of likely endorsements? Thats a rhetorical question. Those gathered wanted to know more about the real Trump, to find a way to support him despite his un-Christian behaviors and attitudes. And Trumps purpose was to assure them that hes really a good guy who loves the Lord, believe me, and just wants to make America great again. The meeting was closed to media, especially The Post, which Trump has banished from all events. It seems he doesnt like the way the paper is covering him. Richard Nixon felt the same way. But one imagines that his metamorphosis mirrors Lewandowskis. Remember Lewandowski, the humble, soft-spoken, gee-whiz-I-just-love-my-country fellow? Just add and-Jesus after country and youll have a fair idea of how a new, improved Trump might appear. Not so much presidential as born-again. This is how I imagine Trumps handling of the meeting: Look, I never meant any of those things I said, not really. Sure, we need to secure our borders and be smarter about immigration, but this doesnt mean I dislike Mexicans or think theyre rapists, even though, I assume, some of them are. I just get carried away sometimes because Im so passionate about making this country great again. God willing. Plus, to be perfectly honest, I was getting some really bad advice from my campaign manager and thats why I had to let him go. Bada bing. Lewandowski, not Trump, was the problem all along, you see. He told Trump to act like a raging misogynistic xenophobic racist. Cleansed of Lewandowskis influence, hes liberated to be his presidential self. And, in this new light, the evangelical community can justify supporting this unlikely bearer of civilizations torch. Christians love the penitent sinner who has sought forgiveness and been reborn. Not all will buy Trumps reinvention, no matter what sort of incantations transpired Tuesday. Indeed, just across town on the same evening, another group of faith leaders gathered for dinner with members of Better for America, a new organization aimed at finding and funding an alternative to Trump and Clinton. Barring divine intervention, theyre probably too late. Then again, miracles can happen. A penitent, born-again Trump would certainly be one. Read more from Kathleen Parkers archive, follow her on Twitter or find her on Facebook. This was the Donald Trump that Republican leaders have been waiting for: focused, systematic and, despite spraying a stream of falsehoods, ruthless in trying to destroy one person Hillary Clinton. Absent from a Trump campaign speech here Wednesday were references to a federal judges Mexican American heritage or ethnic slurs such as Pocahontas. The presumptive GOP presidential nominee also left out the colorful play-by-play of his exploits in the primaries and did not threaten his fellow Republicans; in fact, he never mentioned them at all. Instead, Trump zeroed in on the rigged (a word he uttered 10 times) economic and political systems. The billionaire mogul promised to be a fixer, making America richer, bigger, better and stronger. And he portrayed Clinton, the likely Democratic nominee, as a world-class liar and a danger to the country. In a 42-minute performance reading from teleprompters, Trump moved closer Wednesday to being the kind of general-election standard-bearer Republican leaders have been pleading with him to become. The bombastic candidate had been somewhat tamed, or so it appeared. The question was whether the same Trump would show up for the next 139 days before the November election. One day does not make a streak, said Ari Fleischer, a White House press secretary under President George W. Bush. In order for Trump to win, he has to make this election a referendum on Hillary and not on his own antics. Today, he made an effective and powerful case against Hillary. . . . [But] its the distractions and the sideshows that are killing him. Trump and his advisers hoped Wednesdays address, delivered before family and friends at the Trump SoHo hotel, would help him gain solid footing after what generously can be described as a challenging first seven weeks as presumptive nominee. [GOP leaders alarmed by Trumps devastating fundraising start] With less than one month until Republicans gather in Cleveland for their national convention, Trump is struggling to unify his fractured party and convince his doubters that he can be a disciplined general-election candidate. He also has been locked in a defensive crouch thanks both to his own stumbles and attacks from Clinton and her Democratic allies over his temperament, policies and business record. Trump sought to engineer a course correction by effectively hurling the opposition-research book at Clinton. In Wednesdays speech, he hit the former secretary of state, senator and first lady on her decision-making surrounding the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya; her and her husbands paid speeches; her use of a private email server; her deep ties to Wall Street; and her past support for trade deals. Trump also explicitly blamed Clinton for the death of J. Christopher Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to Libya, and for general unrest there and in Egypt, Iraq and Syria. No secretary of state has been more wrong, more often and in more places than Hillary Clinton, he said to applause. Her decisions spread death, destruction and terrorism everywhere she touched. But some of what Trump said about Clintons record was exaggerated or untrue. He charged falsely that Clinton wants totally open borders and that she would admit hundreds of thousands of refugees from dangerous countries without vetting them. 1 of 45 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad What Donald Trump is doing on the campaign trail View Photos Businessman Donald Trump has become the Republican Partys presumptive nominee for president. 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. Trump also incorrectly stated that Clinton supports the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade deal she has opposed since last year. And he said that Clinton has spent her entire life making money for special interests when in fact she spent much of her career in government service or at nonprofit organizations. After making a vague reference to his proposal to ban Muslims from entering the United States, Trump said, Hillary Clinton wants to bring in people who believe women should be enslaved and gays put to death. Clinton has been a vocal advocate for global human rights, but Trump cited payments or donations that she, former president Bill Clinton or their family foundation accepted from oppressive regimes in Brunei, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar. Campaigning later Wednesday in Raleigh, N.C., Clinton briefly responded to Trumps attacks by accusing him of peddling outlandish lies and conspiracy theories. Hes going after me personally because he has no answers, Clinton said. All he can do is try to distract us. Trumps Republican critics pointed to his misstatements as proof that he lacks discipline. Even in a teleprompter speech, he still has to include conspiracy theories and grossly exaggerate the case against her rather than sticking to the credible facts, said GOP strategist Tim Miller, who worked for former Florida governor Jeb Bushs presidential campaign. So then you spend all afternoon talking about his lies and his conspiracy theories rather than the real, fair criticisms of her foreign-policy record and of the Clinton Foundation. As for whether Wednesdays speech would turn the page on Trumps troubles, Miller an organizer of the Never Trump movement said it would not. I dont understand how many times the Republican political class has to be fooled into thinking hes going to change, Miller said. Hes never going to change. Trump knows that there is no greater common enemy among Republicans than Clinton. By training his rhetorical fire at her, he hopes to paper over the self-induced controversies that have stymied his efforts to rally the party behind him. For a lot of conservatives, delivering an indictment against Hillary Clinton is something theyve wanted him to do, said Michael Steele, a former Republican National Committee chairman. But does he step on that message in his next interview? Does he devolve into more name-calling or alienating more groups important to building the coalition for victory? [Hillary Clinton says anger and anxiety are driving people to Trump] Trump also focused on big economic themes that Republican strategists believe can help him broaden his now-limited appeal to independents and disaffected Democrats. He argued that the economic system had failed too many people and the political class was incapable of fixing it and he made a direct plea to supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont to join his coalition. For a politician known for simple declarations, Trump also had rare oratorical flourish, for a moment, as he described how he felt the country had lost its ambition. Americans are the people that tamed the West, that dug out the Panama Canal, that sent satellites across the solar system, that built the great dams and so much more, Trump said. Then we really started thinking small. Something happened. . . . We stopped believing in what America could do and became reliant on other countries, other people and other institutions. We lost our sense of purpose and daring. But thats not who we are. Fleischer said this was a message that could carry Trump to the White House if he sticks to it. It wasnt just a rant. It wasnt just anger, he said. There was something uplifting about his notion of what America used to be for people who want to move up. Rucker reported from Washington. Britain careened toward a historic choice Wednesday as voters heard final pitches on both sides of a bitterly fought referendum showdown that could rock the global economy and deeply unsettle the Western political order. After months of campaigning that sharply divided the country over questions of immigration and identity, final polls showed Britons almost exactly split over whether the country should exit the 28-member European Union. Voting takes place Thursday, and the results are expected early Friday (Thursday evening Eastern time.) Although leave had been leading the polls recently, remain has caught up since pro-E.U. member of Parliament Jo Cox was fatally shot and stabbed last week, jolting the country and prompting calls for an end to some of the campaigns more hateful rhetoric. [3 reasons why Americans should care about British vote] On June 23, Britain faces a fateful decision: whether or not to leave the European Union. And the world will be watching. (Daron Taylor,Jason Aldag,Danielle Kunitz/The Washington Post) The referendum marks an existential decision that could dramatically reshape Britains global role in a way not seen since London shed its empire after World War II. It could also lead to another push on Scottish secession, the further unraveling of the European Union and the fall of Prime Minister David Camerons government. Advocates for a British exit popularly known as Brexit argue that tossing off the shackles of E.U. bureaucracy will restore Britains sovereignty. A powerful selling point for many votes is the claim that a farewell to E.U. ties could give the country the latitude to dramatically reduce immigration, which has hit record highs as Poles, Hungarians, Romanians and others from across Europe have flocked to the relative prosperity of the British economy. I really think tomorrow can be independence day, former London mayor Boris Johnson told supporters Wednesday as he posed for photos with fishmongers and waved copies of the virulently anti-E.U. Sun newspaper. But opponents say a vote to leave could be a grievous self-inflicted wound from which it would take years, if not decades, for Britain to recover. [Mission to London: Operation Croissant] We dont solve our immigration challenge by leaving the European Union, but we do create a massive problem for our economy, Cameron told the BBC on the eve of the vote. This is irreversible. You cant jump out of the airplane then climb back in through the cockpit hatch. Most economic, political and defense authorities including nearly all foreign leaders have joined the call for Britain to stay, and they have issued dire warnings about the consequences of Brexit. Supporters hold banners as former London mayor Boris Johnson attends a "Vote Leave" rally in Selby, England, on Wednesday. (Ed Sykes/Reuters) Economic forecasters have said a British break could push the country back into recession, with the rest of the globe vulnerable to the ripples. Many geopolitical strategists also warn that a vote to leave could divide the Western alliance and be a boon to others such as Russian President Vladimir Putin. But many of the 46 million Britons eligible to vote have paid little heed, with surveys showing that anxiety over immigration is trumping all other voter concerns. The leave campaign has played on those fears, arguing with little supporting evidence that Turkey will soon join the European Union and intensify the flood of migrant workers arriving on British shores under the blocs free-movement rules. It has also dismissed warnings from independent experts as part of an elitist plot, what it terms Project Fear. [An unlikely star emerges in British debate] Two of the top Brexit campaigners Johnson and Justice Secretary Michael Gove have invoked provocative Nazi comparisons. Johnson has suggested that E.U. ambitions mirror those of Hitlers Germany, and Gove has painted Brexit critics as akin to Nazi propagandists who sought to discredit Albert Einstein. The remain side has returned fire in recent days. London Mayor Sadiq Khan castigated the anti-E.U. camps anti-immigrant message as Project Hate. Meanwhile, former prime minister John Major on Wednesday called Johnson and Gove, both fellow Conservatives, gravediggers of our prosperity. Another former prime minister, Gordon Brown, decried the overall tone of a debate that has been marked by xenophobia and nativism. This is not the Britain I know, he said. Whichever side wins Thursday will have to reckon with the profound and emotional schisms in British society that have come to the surface during the campaign. When Cameron promised a referendum in January 2013, he had hoped the vote would put to rest a debate over Europe that has bedeviled Britain for decades and that has generated particularly deep fault lines in his Conservative Party. Instead, the campaign appears only to have made those divisions worse, while also layering the debate with the added complexity of personal ambition. Several prominent campaigners especially Johnson are thought to be jockeying for Camerons job if the country defies the prime minister and votes for an exit. [Finally a compelling reason to talk about the British weather] Even if remain wins, Britains angst is unlikely to be resolved. Some leave campaigners have said they will press for another referendum if they come up short in a close vote. Thursdays vote also has the potential to reawaken another fundamental question of British identity. Scottish leaders say that if Britain votes to leave the European Union against the will of the pro-European Scots, they will renew their push for independence just two years after losing a referendum vote. The outcome will be watched closely in capitals around the globe. President Obama has weighed in strongly for the remain side, saying he thinks Britain is a more valuable ally from within the European Union. All of Britains E.U. allies have said they, too, want Britain to stay. To illustrate the point, European landmarks from Paris to Warsaw have been bathed in the colors of the Union Jack this week, along with the message Vote Remain. In an op-ed in Britains Guardian newspaper Wednesday morning, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi wrote that a vote to leave would be the wrong choice. It would be a mistake for which you, the voters, primarily would pay the price, he wrote. Because who really wants Britain to be small and isolated? European allies also have their own interests to protect. If Britain leaves, it could set off a chain reaction of defections and attempted defections across the continent as Euroskepticism surges. This is all unknown territory for the European Union, which has steadily expanded over past decades. Under E.U. rules, a departing member has two years to negotiate the terms of its exit. But, in reality, most experts think that the divorce proceedings would last far longer and that Brussels-based negotiators would have little incentive to give Britain a good deal. Cameron on Wednesday warned voters not to allow Britain to be downgraded from a place at the table to press for British interests in Europe, and instead wind up standing outside, ear pressed to the glass. But in the febrile environment of British politics, it was not clear that voters would care whether they have a voice in the European Union, an organization that inspires little love even among remain backers. In his final speech of the campaign, pro-leave firebrand Nigel Farage said Wednesday that the vote was a chance to liberate the country from European bureaucrats and other continental elites. This referendum, said Farage, head of the U.K. Independence Party, is about the people versus the establishment. And thats what worried Cay Schroder, 72, a painter who was in Trafalgar Square late Wednesday afternoon along with thousands of others for an emotional memorial to Cox on what would have been her 42nd birthday. The event featured a speech from Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan, a video message from Irish rock star Bono and a school choir featuring the classmates of Coxs young son. The crowd was heavily for in, but Schroder said he knew that was deceptive. Ive been campaigning for a fortnight, and I think London is mainly in and the rest of the country is mainly out, said Schroder, who proudly sported a Remain T-shirt. Young voters, he said, were in but may not vote. The out voters were older, and determined to recover a bygone time for Britain that cannot be re-created. They long for something, he said, that doesnt exist anymore. Karla Adam contributed to this report. Read More: Analysis: Would break from Brussels also splinter Britain? Probably not. Why North America wont copy European unity World mourns death of British lawmaker The Colombian government and FARC guerrillas have reached an agreement on a bilateral cease-fire and the rebels disarmament, two of the last major hurdles to ending 50 years of bloodshed. The deal announced Wednesday is not a final peace accord, but it is a breakthrough that essentially amounts to an end to the fighting. It means the two sides have worked through some of the most sensitive aspects of their negotiations, particularly the nuts and bolts of getting 7,000 heavily armed FARC fighters to come down from the mountains, lay down their guns and begin a transition to civilian life under the protection of Colombias security forces, their lifelong enemies. After this accord, its very hard to imagine the government and FARC ever fighting on the battlefield again, said Adam Isacson, a Colombia expert at the Washington Office on Latin America. This was the last substantive item on the negotiating agenda, and they appear to have figured out the very thorny issues of managing FARCs disarmament. Supporters of the peace process celebrated the news on social media with the hashtag #ElUltimoDiaDeLaGuerra, calling Wednesday the last day of the war. Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and FARC leader Timoleon Timochenko Jimenez will be joined by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and other Latin American heads of state at a ceremony in Havana on Thursday to announce the agreement. U.S. diplomats also were en route to the Cuban capital, where the rebels and Santoss negotiating team launched formal talks in 2012. Embattled Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who has a sometimes-tense relationship with Santos, will attend Thursdays ceremony. His country is one of the observer nations at the Colombia talks. An informal cease-fire with FARC, or the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, has already been in effect for six months, and despite scattered clashes, violence in rural Colombia has fallen to its lowest level in decades. But with Santoss approval ratings sliding and Colombians growing increasingly frustrated with the slow pace of negotiations, the government has been under pressure to show progress and close out the talks. FARC leaders are in less of a hurry and are deeply worried about their personal security as civilians, given the risk of retributive attacks by any number of enemies. [Colombias rebels survived war. Now they worry about surviving peace.] Santos said this week that a final peace deal could be signed by July 20, Colombias independence day. But previous attempts to put deadlines on the negotiations have been a bust. In September, Santos and Timochenko shook hands on a pledge to wrap up talks within six months, but that timetable broke down as negotiations dragged on. Timochenko said on Twitter this week that the two sides should not repeat the mistake. Experience has shown that setting deadlines is damaging to the process, especially when we dont have a deal, he tweeted Tuesday. Were making progress, but there are still loose ends. Whatever deal the two sides reach will have to clear a significant final hurdle: approval by the Colombian public. The government has been pushing for a referendum that would subject the final peace accord to a simple yes-or-no vote. FARC hasnt agreed on the form such a plebiscite would take, nor is it clear what would happen if the public which dislikes the group by a wide margin rejects the deal. Campaigning hard against it is powerful senator Alvaro Uribe. During his 2002-2010 presidency, Uribe debilitated the guerrilla ranks and killed several top rebel leaders with help from the United States through the $10 billion Plan Colombia. [Covert action in Colombia] But Uribe was unable to finish off the rebels on the battlefield. He has become the biggest critic of Santos and the peace process, depicting it as a shameful capitulation to a terrorist group widely condemned for drug trafficking, extortion, kidnapping and other crimes. Details of the latest agreement were not released Wednesday, and still unknown are the critical logistical elements of the FARC demobilization. The guerrillas have insisted all along that their emergence from Colombias jungles and mountains should not be treated as a surrender. Instead, they will gather in concentration zones to begin handing over their weapons but to officials from the United Nations, not the Colombian military. The zones will be in rural areas where FARC is a potent force and, in some cases, supplants the government. The latest polls of Colombian attitudes toward the peace negotiations underscore the contradictory feelings the talks have stirred in a country whose entire modern history has been marred by civil war. Although Santoss approval rating has slipped to about 20 percent and a majority of Colombians think the talks are on the wrong track, recent surveys indicate that once a peace deal is on the table, voters will take it, even if they have to hold their noses to do so. The government also has entered talks with the ELN, the countrys second-largest rebel group. The ELN, or National Liberation Army, retains an estimated 1,500 to 2,000 fighters and has staged deadly ambushes this year against security forces. From Cosmopolitan A man in Feasterville, Pennsylvania, has been arrested and charged with sexual assault after police discovered that he'd fathered two children with an 18-year-old woman living in his home. Officials believe the 18-year-old had been sexually abused by 51-year-old Lee Kaplan for years, resulting in the 3-year-old and infant children. At least 11 other females, ranging in age from 6 months to 18 years, were also found in Kaplan's home Thursday and Friday. It is unknown at this time if he assaulted any of the other girls living in his home. According to ABC, police believe that the 18-year-old was first "gifted" to Kaplan by her parents, Daniel and Savilla Stoltzfus, after he bailed the family out of debt when she was 14. Daniel and Savilla Stoltzfus are reportedly also the parents of several other children that were found in Kaplan's house, and were a part of the Amish community before being kicked out for unknown reasons. CBS reports that Kaplan has been charged with sexual assault, corruption of minors, indecent assault, and other related charges. The 18-year-old's father was charged with criminal conspiracy and endangering the welfare of a child, while her mother was only charged with endangering the welfare of a child. Both Kaplan and the victim's parents are currently being held at Bucks County Jail on $1 million bail each. Police are interviewing the other children to see if they were held against their will and in order to find out what their living conditions were. Follow Gina on Twitter. Five years after 11-year-old Celina Cass's lifeless body was found wrapped in a blanket in a New Hampshire river, her stepfather has been officially implicated in her death. New Hampshire Attorney General Joseph Foster's office announced Monday that Cass' stepfather, Wendell Noyes, now 52, has been arrested and charged with second-degree murder, the Associated Press and other outlets report. Although Cass' mother, Louisia, initially avoided the media spotlight surrounding her daughter's disappearance and death, she spoke to New Hampshire news outlet WMUR on Monday night, shortly after news of Noyes' arrest broke. "Why? That word, 'why,' has run through my head for the last five years. Why would anyone want to go and take my baby girl away from me?" Louisia said. Louisia claimed she knew all along that Noyes (now her ex-husband) was responsible for her daughter's death and she has spent the last five years praying for an arrest. " 'Don't give up, Louisia. Don't give up, Louisia.' I could hear her saying, 'Mommy, don't give up on me,' " she said. "I want him to rot so bad." 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. Cass went missing from her Stewartstown, New Hampshire, home on July 25, 2011. A week later, her body was found wrapped in a blanket in the Connecticut River, near a hydroelectric dam between Stewartstown and Canaan, Vermont. Noyes was not named a suspect in the case at first, though police seized his pickup truck in their initial search of Cass' home. In the weeks following Cass' disappearance, Noyes was hospitalized twice: He was first taken away by an ambulance on August 1 after dropping onto the ground, lying face down and flailing, and on August 5, he checked into a mental health facility. According to court documents obtained by the Associated Press, Noyes had a history of psychiatric issues. In 2003 he was reportedly found unfit to stand trial after he was charged with breaking into an ex-girlfriend's home and threatening her. UPDATED: A Delaware judge said Wednesday that the state of Sumner Redstones mental capacity is key to determining the legality of the move last week to replace five Viacom board members, including company chairman and CEO Philippe Dauman. Chancellor Andre Bouchard of Delaware Chancery Court told lawyers representing Viacom and Redstones National Amusements that he would put a hold on discovery in the case while the issue of Redstones mental competency is sorted out in a related case pending in a Massachusetts probate court. Bouchard said he would not force a parallel process of evaluating Redstone in the Delaware court out of compassion for the 93-year-old mogul. There are questions of human dignity to a very elderly person, said Bouchard. Thats treacherous ground to dive into too quickly. And so I am going to be cautious in that respect, particularly in light of the other proceedings that are ongoing at this point. Viacom filed suit against National Amusements last week after the board replacements were unveiled. Viacom and Dauman have argued in both cases that Redstone is being manipulated by his daughter, Shari Redstone, and does not have the mental capacity to call the shots regarding his media empire. Dauman and another ousted Viacom director, George Abrams, filed suit in Massachusetts last month after both were also removed from the board of National Amusements and the trust that will oversee Sumner Redstones holdings after his death. The widening legal battle over control of Sumner Redstones $40 billion empire has the effect of pitting Viacom, of which Redstone is chairman emeritus, against Redstones private National Amusements holding company. In the Delaware case, both National Amusements and Viacom last week asked the judge to affirm the fact that the existing Viacom board remains in place while the legal fight over the proposed replacements unfolds. The sides have been trying to negotiate a compromise agreement governing what the incumbent board can and cannot do until the legal fate of the replacements is settled. Bouchard said if the sides cant reach an agreement by Friday he may call them back to the court for a hearing. Story continues The incumbent board is going to be in place in the interim period while this case works its way out, he said. The judge also said he would allow the Redstone camp to file a motion to dismiss the Viacom suit entirely. If that happens, a hearing would likely be set for July. Bouchards focus on Sumner Redstones mental competency was seen as significant because National Amusements filing included a written declaration from the mogul. But the judge made it clear that Redstones capacity is a concern for him. The underlying issue of competency may well be relevant and, if it werent proceeding elsewhere, would be a legitimate issue here, he said, adding that he wanted to be notified of developments in the Massachusetts and California cases. If discovery proceeds there, I want to know about it, said Bouchard. If discovery is shut down there, I want to know about it. I want to be kept abreast of whats going on in the other litigations that bear on the status of competency issues in play. Redstone and National Amusements have argued that even if Redstones capacity was found to be compromised, the removals of Dauman and Abrams and the three other Viacom board members were valid because they were approved by a majority of the board of National Amusements, which include Sumner and Shari Redstone. Lawyers for Redstone argue that, if the mogul is deemed incapacitated, authority over his controlling interest in Viacom shifts to the National Amusements board. And a majority of the board Shari Redstone, her son Tyler Korff and long-time family advisers Leonard Lewin and David Andelman have already signed declarations saying they support the Dauman/ Abrams ouster. So even a finding that Redstone cannot control his own affairs would no alter the outcome, they believe. The afternoon hearing lasted just over an hour. James Rainey and Brent Lang contributed to this report. Related stories Viacom's Ongoing Woes Come After a Long Series of Corporate Missteps Sumner Redstone Asks Judge to Dismiss Philippe Dauman Lawsuit Legal Battle Over Viacom Board Shake-Up Headed to Delaware Court Beirut (AFP) - Warplanes have bombed the Islamic State group's de facto Syrian capital Raqa, killing at least 25 civilians, after the jihadists drove pro-government forces out of their bastion northern province. Twin offensives aimed at severing the jihadists' supply line from the Turkish border to Raqa city appear to have largely stalled as IS mounts a fierce defence using suicide bombers. Six children were among the 25 civilians killed in bombing raids on Raqa city Tuesday, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. "Dozens more were wounded, some of them critically," said the British-based monitor, adding they were likely carried out by regime ally Russia. The Syrian government, Russia and a US-led coalition have all carried out air strikes against IS in Raqa. The Observatory said fresh raids, apparently by the coalition, also hit the city Wednesday. Raqa is Being Slaughtered Silently (RBSS) -- an anti-IS activist group which gathers news on atrocities in the city -- posted photos of what it said were the aftermath of Tuesday's strikes. They show a concrete balcony hanging off the damaged facade of a residential building as a large fire engulfs a white minivan. The group has accused IS of preventing civilians from leaving the city in order to use them as human shields. RBSS activist Abu Mohammad told AFP that Tuesday's wounded were struggling to get proper medical treatment as IS has recruited most doctors in the city to treat its own fighters. - 'Disastrous' retreat - Raqa city was seized by IS in early 2014 and regime forces were expelled from the entire province that year. Backed by Russian warplanes, government forces re-entered the province this month as part of an offensive to retake Tabqa, a key town on IS's supply route from Turkey to Raqa city. But after advancing to within seven kilometres (four miles) of Tabqa airbase, they were driven back late Monday in a jihadist attack that killed 40 loyalists. Story continues A tribal militant who had fought alongside government forces recounted how the army had first been slowed down by mines planted by IS. "Then Daesh used a huge number of rockets and other explosives to attack the army," which was forced to withdraw from its main outposts, he told AFP, using the Arabic acronym for IS. Pro-government website Al-Masdar said the IS offensive had led to a "disastrous turn of events" and "a disorganised retreat that left behind weapons and several soldiers". Washington-based analyst Fabrice Balanche said the pullback could be attributed to a lack of "elite forces" engaged in the battle. "At the first suicide attacks, they retreated," he said. "The Syrian forces were spread too thin to be defendable." Further west in the adjacent province of Aleppo, another assault aimed at blocking IS supplies has stalled. The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces encircled the jihadist-held town of Manbij on June 10 but have since faced a barrage of IS suicide attacks. Abu Ibrahim, an SDF field commander stationed near Manbij, said IS attacked two villages east of the town on Wednesday morning. "They used a car bomb and tried to break through our lines of defence, but the SDF was able to block the attack," he said. Coalition warplanes "weren't leaving the sky" and had quickly responded to the SDF's call for help, he added. - 'Civilians are starving' - On Wednesday, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad named electricity minister Imad Khamis as the new prime minister and tasked him with forming a cabinet. The 54-year-old engineer replaces Wael al-Halqi who had held the post since August 2012. Syria's conflict began in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government demonstrations. It has killed more than 280,000 people and displaced millions. Peace efforts have failed to end the violence, and a truce brokered by the US and Russia has all but collapsed. UN mediator Staffan de Mistura hopes peace talks can resume in July, but has warned they cannot proceed "while hostilities are escalating and civilians are starving" Negotiations could restart if the truce was reinforced, humanitarian aid was increased, and a "common understanding of a political transition" was reached, he said Tuesday. "Then we can have, hopefully in July, inter-Syrian talks that are not about principles but about concrete steps to a political transition." The main Syrian opposition body -- the High Negotiations Committee -- has called for a transitional government body without Assad. But Syria's regime says Assad is a "red line" and it would only be willing to broaden the government structure to accommodate some opposition figures. Jerusalem (AFP) - Four Palestinians were on Wednesday handed life sentences for the killing of an Israeli couple as they drove in the West Bank with their children last year, the army said. "The military court in Samaria handed two life sentences and another 30 years to each of the four members of the Hamas cell that carried out the attack in which Eitam and Naama Henkin were murdered in front of their children," a statement read. The Palestinian assailants were named as Yahya Haj Hamed, Amjad Aliwi, Samir Kusa and Kerem Razek. The October 1 attack on the settler couple marked the beginning of a wave of Palestinian attacks. The violence has since killed at least 209 Palestinians, 32 Israelis, two Americans, an Eritrean and a Sudanese. Israeli authorities say most of the Palestinians were killed as they carried out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks. Others were killed in clashes with security forces or by Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip. According to the army statement, the assailants had planned on apprehending the Henkin couple, but when their attempts to do so failed, they shot them from close range in front of their four children. Three of the four Palestinians sentenced were also involved in two previous shooting attacks on Israelis which lightly wounded one, the army said. Another three Palestinians involved in the Henkin attack were still facing sentencing. Days after the October attack, which shocked Israeli society, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a package of new measures against Palestinian assailants. They included swifter demolitions of their homes, which Netanyahu said was "one of the most efficient tools" in discouraging Palestinian attacks. The homes of three of the four Palestinians sentenced on Wednesday had been demolished in November. Last month, Israeli forces demolished the Nablus home of Zeid Amr, accused of staking out the site of the attack before other members of the Hamas cell shot the Henkins. [Photo: Monkey Business Images/REX/Shutterstock] Youd think going on holiday with mates would be plain sailing: book holiday, have fun, job done. But succumbing to the seduction of a getaway with folk you love without paying attention to a few important details can lead to a vacation thats the very antithesis of R&R. Weve put together a few simple rules to help you plan the best holiday with your homies. 1. Assemble the perfect crew Lets face it, holidays are a rare luxury and you want them to go as smoothly as possible so assembling the right group of mates is in everyones best interests. Couples with kids and couples without are probably not going to be on the same schedule. Same goes for folks who like to be active all day and those who want to do nothing but read on the beach. Choose friends youve gone on holiday with before or mates with similar interests. Shared holiday goals is what its all about. 2. Do a bit of planning You dont have to militant about it but a meet up at home before you go away so that everyone can express their hopes or worries about the trip is a great idea. Some folks like to plan some like to see how it goes, having a casual chat before can help you meet in the middle. 3. There will be cock ups Accept this. Youre far away from home and mistakes happen. I just got back from a holiday in Spain where we unwittingly drove two hours in the wrong direction. It sucked and it knocked a day off our holiday. It would have been easy to blame the driver but in the end we all had maps on our phones and could have taken responsibility for the journey.* Thankfully we all dealt with it extremely well because we were a crew of perfectly assembled mates. *We all agreed not to share this story so keep it under your hat, yeah? 4. Be direct Decision making is always tricky in a group. Nobody wants to suggest a restaurant or activity that turns out not to live up to expectations. Its a lot of pressure for one person. The truth is, you can never be sure how things will go but dithering and being too polite to make a choice is just as exhausting. Speak up, its for the good of the group. Story continues 5. Dont be afraid to talk about money Its easy to slip into Ill pay for the next thing territory but this can sometimes make things uneven. To avoid resentment or confusion keep a note of who has covered what or try to split things evenly there and then. Apps like Splittr can help you with this. Some people are genuinely forgetful, or have a different budget or just care less. Either way its perfectly fine to be frank about cash. 6. Alone time is fine Not everyone enjoys hanging round in groups 24/7. If youre an introvert who needs to take some time for yourself make sure you do. Have a wonder to the shops to get supplies or take recharging siesta. Recognising and managing your own needs is important and will ensure you have a lovely time. 7. People will have off moments Just like at home nobody is going to be in an amazing mood every waking moment of the holiday and thats fine. Whether its you or your mates getting hangry, feeling too hot, tired or hungover, its not personal, its just humans. Dont sweat the small stuff. Women Unite Against Street Harassment With Hashtag #nowomanever 14 Indisputable Truths Only Girls With Sisters Will Understand Daniel DiTomasso has exited Conviction, ABCs upcoming drama series from the Mark Gordon Co. and ABC Studios, which is slated to debut this fall. Co-created by Liz Friedman, who wrote the script, and Liz Friedlander, who will direct the pilot, Conviction stars Hayley Atwell as Carter Morrison, the brilliant but neer-do-well daughter of a former President who is blackmailed into taking a job as the head of Los Angeles newly created Conviction Integrity Unit. She, along with her team of lawyers, investigators and forensic experts, work together to examine cases where theres credible suspicion that the wrong person might have been convicted of a crime. DiTomasso played Jackson Morrison, Carters younger brother and the familys golden child, who also happens to be a top-end lawyer. Initially conceived as a guest star, the role was upgraded to a series regular in the pilot and cast with DiTomasso. The character now has been taken in a different direction. It has been a very quiet recasting season this year, with only a handful of actors being replaced on the new broadcast series. Related stories Nicole Ari Parker To Co-Star On New ABC Series 'Time After Time' In Recasting 'Black-ish': Peter Mackenzie Upped To Regular On ABC Comedy Series 'American Crime': Regina King Set To Return, Details About Season 3 Revealed On Thursday, June 23rd, Accenture Plc (ACN) will release its third-quarter fiscal 2016 earnings results. The company is currently a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) and shares are up over 13% on the year. In our latest live earnings preview, Dave Bartosiak took a look at Accentures past earnings results, its recent estimate revision activity, and everything else you need to know before the company reports. Dave also looked into some potential trade opportunities for investors looking to make a play on Accenture ahead of earnings. ACN in Focus Accenture Plc is a management consulting, technology services, and outsourcing company. Measured by revenues, Accenture is the worlds largest consulting company. The company works with major players in both the private sphere and the public sphere, and in recent years it has taken over jobs such as maintenance on HealthCare.gov and the Department of Defenses health records project. Accenture is coming off of a slight earnings surprise last quarter, as the company beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 13.56%. Over the trailing four quarters, ACN has beat on earnings three out four times by an average of 5.58%. ACCENTURE PLC Price and EPS Surprise ACCENTURE PLC Price and EPS Surprise | ACCENTURE PLC Quote Heading into this earnings report, our Most Accurate Estimate for Accenture is a penny higher than the Zacks Consensus Estimate, giving the company an Earnings ESP of 0.71%. Companies with positive Earnings ESPs and a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) or above are more likely to beat on earnings. Accentures recent success is being propelled by a series of moves that the company has made to improve its product offerings. The company has added products in the analytics application space and invested heavily in digital and marketing capabilities. Accenture has also recently teamed up with GE Healthcare, a division of General Electric (GE), to introduce a new offering to help improve medical claims processing and related cash flow for healthcare providers. Story continues Accenture Plc Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise Subscribe to our channel to be notified of future live streams. And make sure to check out our other videos for more stock information. David Bartosiak is the editor of the Momentum Trader and Home Run Investor service. He has over a decade of experience in the financial services industry. He has traded forex, futures, stocks, and options. Mr. Bartosiak is a frequent guest on popular business news TV channels such as Bloomberg TV. Hes also the host of a light-hearted, Millennial-minded series of videos called Trending Stocks. Zacks Equity Research provides the best of quantitative and qualitative analysis to help investors know what stocks to buy and which to sell for the long-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 ACCENTURE PLC (ACN): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research NEWARK, DE / ACCESSWIRE / June 22, 2016 / Accurexa Inc. (the "Company") (ACXA), a biotechnology company focused on the development of novel neurological therapies to be directly delivered into the brain, announced today that it has submitted a request for a pre-IND (Investigational New Drug) meeting to the U.S. FDA (Food and Drug Administration) for its ACX-31 program for the local delivery of temozolomide as adjunctive therapy to BCNU, both chemotherapeutics, in the treatment of brain tumors in conjunction with surgery and radiation. A pre-IND meeting typically occurs within 60 days of the FDA receipt of the written meeting request per FDA's own guidance. "The pre-IND meeting is an important step for us to continue our ACX-31 program towards the path of clinical development required to obtain U.S. FDA approval. We look forward to the FDA's responses and are preparing ourselves for the initiation of a first-in-human clinical trial. Given the limited options that brain cancer patients and their physicians still face today, unfortunately, we are committed to moving our ACX-31 program as fast as possible," said Dr. George Yu, Accurexa's President & CEO. The IND (Investigational New Drug) application is the vehicle through which a sponsor (that develops a new drug) advances to the next stage of drug development known as clinical trials (human trials). A pre-IND meeting enables early interactions with FDA staff and can provide a sponsor information that will assist it in planning a drug development program and preparing to submit an IND application, and thus can reduce time to market through more efficient drug development. About Accurexa, Inc. The Company is focused on developing novel neurological therapies to be directly delivered into specific regions of the brain. It is developing its ACX-31 program for the local delivery of temozolomide as adjunctive therapy to BCNU, both chemotherapeutics, to brain tumor sites. The ACX-31 program is based on an issued patent licensed from Accelerating Combination Therapies LLC which is co-owned by Prof. Henry Brem, Director of the Neurosurgery Department at Johns Hopkins University. The Company is collaborating in the development of its ACX-31 program with Prof. Henry Brem who built one of the largest brain tumor research and treatment centers in the world at Johns Hopkins University. Prof. Robert Langer, who is the David H. Koch Institute Professor at MIT and the most cited engineer in history, has also advised the Company in the development of its ACX-31 program. The Company engaged the Yissum Research Development Company of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Ltd. ("Yissum") to develop and supply polymeric formulations of a combination of temozolomide and BCNU. Professor Avi Domb leads the development efforts provided by Yissum. Prof. Brem, Prof. Langer and Prof. Domb are pioneers in the development of local drug delivery treatments, and invented and developed Gliadel (carmustine implant) which is a FDA approved, local chemotherapy for the treatment of glioblastoma multiforme. Oral temozolomide is a generic, FDA approved, first-line chemotherapy drug that is indicated for the treatment of adult patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma multiforme concomitantly with radiotherapy and then as maintenance treatment. Before oral temozolomide became generic, it generated US sales of approximately $420 million and global sales of approximately $910 million under its brand name Temodar in 2012. However, current standard of care of delivering temozolomide to tumor sites through oral administration is limited by the blood-brain-barrier and oral temozolomide increases patient survival by 2.5 months from a 12.1 months median overall survival. Animal studies at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine[1] have shown that local delivery of temozolomide increased concentrations of the drug in the brain threefold and increased survival up to fourfold compared with oral administration. The percentage of long-term survivors for groups receiving local delivery of temozolomide ranged from 25% to 37.5% while there were no long-term survivors with orally administered temozolomide. Further animal studies at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine[2] have shown that the additive effect of combined delivery of local temozolomide with local BCNU, especially in combination with radiotherapy, was significantly more effective than delivery of either drug alone or one systemically and one locally, either with or without radiation. Groups treated with combination of local temozolomide, local BCNU and radiation therapy had 75% long-term survivors. Additional information about the Company may be found on its website, www.accurexa.com. Notes: 1 Brem S, Tyler BM, Li K, Pradilla G, Legnani F, Caplan J, et al. Local delivery of temozolomide by biodegradable polymers is superior to oral administration in a rodent glioma model. Cancer Chemother Pharmacol 2007; 60:643-50. 2 Renard Recinos V, Tyler BM, Brem H, et al. Combination of intracranial temozolomide with intracranial carmustine improves survival when compared with either treatment alone in a rodent glioma model. Neurosurgery 2010; 66:530-537. Safe Harbor Statement This release contains certain "forward-looking statements" relating to the business of the Company. All statements, other than statements of historical fact included herein are "forward-looking statements" including statements regarding: the ability of the Company to successfully submit an IND application and conduct clinical trials, develop and commercialize novel neurological therapies based on U.S. Patent No. 8,895,597 B2, or its ACX-31 program and execute its business plan; the business strategy, plans, and objectives of the Company; and any other statements of non-historical information. These forward-looking statements are often identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "believes," "expects" or similar expressions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, they do involve assumptions, risks, and uncertainties, and these expectations may prove to be incorrect. Investors should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this news release. The Company's actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of a variety of factors, including those discussed in the Company's periodic reports that are filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and available on its website (http://www.sec.gov). All forward-looking statements attributable to the Company or persons acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by these factors. Other than as required under the securities laws, the Company does not assume any duty to update these forward-looking statements. Contact Investor Relations: David Burke The Ruth Group Tel.: 646-536-7009 dburke@theruthgroup.com Accurexa Inc. info@accurexa.com Tel.: 302-709-1822 SOURCE: Accurexa Inc. London (AFP) - Actor Liam Neeson warned that Britain leaving the European Union would have a dire impact on his native Northern Ireland in a statement released to AFP on Wednesday. "A UK exit would have the worst ramifications for the island of Ireland," said Neeson, known for his roles in films from "Schindler's List" to the "Taken" series. "Economically, this would be a backwards step." A vote for a so-called Brexit would bring Northern Ireland out of the EU along with the rest of the United Kingdom, while independent Ireland would remain a member. The border between the two would then become Britain's only land border with the world's biggest trading bloc, something Irish prime minister Enda Kenny has said would cause "extra costs to governments, to business, to consumers". Neeson warned Brexit could reverse progress made by a peace process to end decades of violence known as the Troubles, which pitted mostly Protestant pro-British unionists against largely Catholic nationalists in favour of a united Ireland. "Border controls would be implemented to allegedly stop illegal immigrants coming into the UK through the back door. Trade will be enormously impacted," he said. "It would be truly a shame to sacrifice all the progress that has been made by the peace process regarding border controls." The border between Ireland and Northern Ireland has become near-invisible under common membership of the EU single market, and since a 1998 peace deal brought an end to the Troubles. During the worst years of the conflict, locals had to travel through military checkpoints to reach jobs or visit family on the other side of the border. Neeson, 64, a native of Ballymena who began his acting career in Belfast, declared his support for the "Irish4Europe" campaign to encourage Irish people living in Britain to vote in favour of EU membership. "There is strength in unity. A BREXIT vote will make us weak," Neeson wrote. "I urge you to go out and vote to remain in the EU." China's mutual fund market grows in May Updated: 2016-06-22 16:47 (Xinhua) BEIJING - Assets managed by China's mutual funds increased by 359 billion yuan (about $54 billion) last month to 8 trillion yuan. The amount remained below the record level of 8.4 trillion yuan set at the end of December, according to the Asset Management Association of China. The May increase was attributed to 293 billion yuan invested in money market funds. The safer bond funds also grew by 44.3 billion yuan, while riskier stock funds shrank by 527 million yuan as the equity market is still vulnerable and volatile. Actress Jacqueline Fernandez irked the Sikh community after she was spotted wearing a mini dress with a kirpan tied around her waist, in the teaser of the song, Sau tarah Ke in Rohit Dhawans upcoming film, Dishoom. The complainant, Manjinder Singh Sirsa, general secretary of the Gurudwara Management Committee, wrote a letter to Pahlaj Nihlani, chairperson of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), instructing him to remove the song from the movie, and also demanded an apology from the cast and the director of the film. A number of Indian actors have been accused of misrepresenting or hurting religious sentiments, and have been charged under section 295A of the Indian Penal Code (outraging religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious belief) for their actions in various films. Here are nine actors who have been accused of hurting religious sentiments: Kiku Sharda: In January 2016, stand-up comedian and film and television actor, Kiku Sharda, who plays Palak in Comedy Nights with Kapil, was arrested at 1 a.m from his home in Mumbai and sent to a 14-day judicial custody, by the Haryana Police, for allegedly mimicking Dera Sacha Sauda chief, Baba Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh. The case, under Section 295-A of the IPC, was registered on the basis of a complaint filed by a follower of the organisation, Uday Singh. Sharda later apologised for hurting religious sentiments, stating that he was only following the script. Ali Asgar: Actor comedian Ali Asgar, who plays Daadi in Comedy Nights with Kapil, was also booked under Section 295-A for mimicking the Dera chief. He, along with Kiku Sharda had acted in a skit on a programme titled Jashn-e-Ummed which was aired in December last year. After Shardas arrest Asgar had moved the Bombay High Court, and was granted anticipatory bail. Hrithik Roshan: The actors controversial, alleged relationship with Kangana Ranaut landed him in legal trouble, after he was sent a notice under Section 295-A of the IPC, for a tweet that he had made referring to the Pope. In January this year, Roshan had tweeted, There r more chances of me having had an affair with d Pope dan any of d (I m sure wonderful) women d media hs ben naming. Thanks but no thanks (sic). This remark was made after Ranaut allegedly referred to him as her silly ex-lover. The legal notice was sent by former Vice-Chairman of Maharashtra Minority Commission, Abraham Mathai. Story continues Salman Khan: Controversys favourite child, Salman Khan found himself in trouble when a model walked the ramp at a fashion show organised by Khans Being Human charity, wearing a T-shirt with an Arabic word inscribed on it. The complaint was filed by Mumbai resident Mohammad Arif. In another incident, a complaint was filed against Khan for entering a makeshift temple which was erected on the sets of Bigg Boss 9, wearing shoes. Advocate Gaurav Gulati had sought the registration of an FIR against Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Colours Channel and the director and producer of the show. The complaint was, however, dismissed by a Delhi court. Shah Rukh Khan: In 2012, a case was filed against the mega-star and his wife and co-producer, Gauri Khan, in the Muzzafarpur district in Bihar over the song, Radha on the Dance Floor from the film Student of the Year. The case, under Section 295(A) and 120 (B) (on grounds of hurting religious sentiments) of Indian Penal Code (IPC), was filed by Shrivision Social Empowerment and Welfare Association, an NGO, amid claims that, in the song, Radha was referred to as sexy, hence hurting religious sentiments. Aamir Khan: While the 2014 satirical comedy was one of the highest grossing Indian films, it faced a lot of slack with activists of Hindu organisations such as Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal protesting against the film, which they said hurt religious sentiments. In one of the sequences, an actor had to dress up like Lord Shiva and pull a rickshaw, with two burqa clad women sitting on it. Residents of the Old Delhi locality, where the scene was being shot, objected to this and filed a complaint with the local police station against Aamir Khan and others in the film. Sunny Deol: The release of Mohalla Assi, a satirical film starring Sunny Deol, loosely based on Dr Kashinath Singhs popular novel, Kashi Ka Assi, was stayed by a Delhi court in June 2015, for allegedly hurting religious sentiments. Deol plays a Sanskrit teacher in the film, which is set in Varanasi and is a satire on the commercialisation of religious cities and fake gurus. The films trailer was released on 12 June, 2015, and, shortly afterwards, an FIR was filed against Deol and the director of the film, Chandra Prakash Dwivedi, for allegedly using abusive words in the film. Mohalla Assi was banned by the CBFC in April, 2016. Kamal Hassan: The actor has repeatedly found himself in loggerheads with religious groups over his various films. After Muslim civic organisations called for a ban of the 2013 spy thriller film, Vishwaroopam on the grounds that the film was defamatory to Islamic ethos and would hurt Muslim sentiments, the Indian National League (INL), a Muslim organisation, joined hands with the VHP in a petition against the release of the Kamal Hassan starrer Uttama Villain. VHP had sought a ban on the film in April, this year, stating that it hurt the sentiments of Hindus. They specifically mentioned that the lyrics of the song, Iraniyam Naadagam, will upset the followers of Lord Vishnu as it belittles the conversation between mythological figures Prahalad and Hiranyakashipu. Akshay Kumar: The 2012 satirical comedy-drama, OMG-Oh My God!, which is an adaptation of the Australian movie, The man who sued God, whose storyline is based on the Gujarati stage-play Kanji Virudh Kanji, generated controversy over its depiction of Hindu gods and spiritual traditions. Nimisha Mehta, Jalandhar State Mahila Congress Vice President, lodged a complaint against actors Akshay Kumar and Paresh Rawal, director Umesh Shukla and the producers of the film, for hurting Hindu sentiments. By Hamid Shalizi KABUL (Reuters) - On a bright day in downtown Kabul, Jagtar Singh Laghmani was in his traditional herb shop when a man turned up, drew a knife and told him to convert to Islam or he would cut his throat. Only bystanders and other shopkeepers saved his life. The incident earlier this month was the latest attack on a dwindling community of Sikhs and Hindus in Afghanistan, a deeply conservative Muslim country struggling with growing insecurity caused by an Islamist insurgency and economic challenges. Once a thriving minority, only a handful of Sikh and Hindu families remain. Many have chosen to flee the country of their birth, blaming growing discrimination and intolerance. "This is how we begin our day - with fear and isolation. If you are not a Muslim, you are not a human in their eyes," said Jagtar Singh, speaking in his tiny shop in the bustling center of Kabul. "I don't know what to do or where to go." For centuries, Hindu and Sikh communities played a prominent role in merchant trade and money lending in Afghanistan, although today they are known more for medicinal herb shops. According to Avtar Singh, chairman of the national council of Hindus and Sikhs, the community now numbers fewer than 220 families, compared with around 220,000 members before the collapse of the Kabul government in 1992. Once spread across the country, the community is now mainly concentrated in the eastern provinces of Nangarhar, Ghazni, and the capital Kabul. Although Afghanistan is almost entirely Muslim, its constitution, drawn up after U.S.-led forces drove out the Taliban government in 2001, theoretically guarantees the right of minority religions to worship freely. But as the conflict drags on, Avtar Singh said conditions were worse than under the Taliban, which imposed strict Islamic laws, staged public executions and banned girls from schools. Hindus and Sikhs had to wear yellow patches that identified them in public, but were otherwise seldom bothered. "The good old days have long gone when we were treated as Afghans, not as outsiders," Avtar Singh said from a temple in Kabul, all the while keeping an eye on visitors using monitors linked to security cameras. "Our lands have been taken by powerful figures in the government, especially by the warlords. We are facing threats, and this small community is getting smaller and smaller every day," he added. Last week, dozens of Hindu and Sikh families left Helmand, where Taliban insurgents, who have a presence in much of the southern province, sent a letter demanding 200,000 Afghani ($2,800) a month from the community. HOSTILITY Tensions have surfaced in Qalacha, an area on the outskirts of Kabul where the Sikh and Hindu community owns a high-walled crematorium. As the capital has expanded in recent years, the neighborhood has become densely populated and some newer residents oppose Hindu and Sikh cremations, a practice foreign to Muslims, who bury their dead. "When they burn the body the smell makes our family sick and we don't want this to happen here," said Ahmad Timor, a Muslim resident in Qalacha. The Sikhs say local Muslim hardliners have stirred up hostility against them, and the community now requires police protection for their funeral rituals. "They throw stones and bricks at us, at the bodies of the dead, whenever there is a funeral," said Avtar Singh, pointing to a newly built house next to the crematorium. Dahi-ul Haq Abid, deputy minister for Haj and religious affairs, said the government had done what it could to improve the livelihood of Hindus and Sikhs. "We agree that conflicts pushed them out of the country, but their condition is not as bad as they claim," Abid added. "We have allocated them a place to burn their bodies because inside the city people complained about the smell, but they did not agree," he told Reuters. Harassment is also common. Jasmeet Singh, eight, stopped going to school because of what he said was daily harassment. He and other children from the community now either go to private schools or study inside the temple. "While I was at school, other students were making fun of me. They were removing my turban, hitting me and calling me Hindu and kaffir (infidel)," said Jasmeet Singh, as other boys nodded their heads in agreement. Increasing numbers of Sikhs and Hindus have moved to India, their spiritual homeland, but some say they remain foreigners wherever they go. "When we go to India, we are known as Afghans, but when we are here, we are seen as outsiders even if we are native Afghan," said Baljit Singh, a shopkeeper in Kabul. "We are lost between both worlds." (Editing by Mike Collett-White) The past week saw United Continental Holdings, Inc. UAL issuing an improved outlook with respect to passenger revenue per available seat mile (PRASM: a key measure of unit revenue) for the second quarter of 2016. The company, at an investor call, also highlighted its plans to improve financial performance and operations. The announcement found favor with the investors and the stock gained 3.36% on Jun 21 to close at $44.86. Low-cost carrier Spirit Airlines SAVE also rallied following its upgrade by Credit Suisse. On the traffic front, Latin American carrier GOL Linhas Aereas Inteligentes S.A. GOL revealed disappointing numbers for the month of May. Load factor (% of seats filled by passengers) declined as the contraction in traffic was more than that in capacity. Meanwhile, according to the employment data for passenger airlines, there was a substantial year-over-year increase in full-time equivalent (FTE) employment this April. On the price front, the NYSE ARCA Airline index gained only 0.26% to $82.98 over the past week. Read the last Airline Stock Roundup for June 15, 2016. TRANSPORTATION-AIRLINE Industry Price Index TRANSPORTATION-AIRLINE Industry Price Index Recap of the Past Weeks Most Important Stories 1. Chicago-based United Continental Holdings, which has been struggling for long, recently revealed plans to boost revenues, trim costs in a bid to improve its financial performance and gain customers. The company also unveiled an improved PRASM outlook for the second quarter of 2016. The company now expects the metric to fall in the band of 6.5% to 7.5% (earlier forecast had called for a 6.5% to 8.5% decline). Through the proper execution of its initiatives, the carrier aims to generate additional revenues of $3.1 billion by 2018 ($300 million through operational improvement, $1.5 billion through commercial betterment and $1.3 billion by trimming cost structure). 2. GOL Linhas, weighed down by weak economic conditions and currency headwinds, reported dismal traffic numbers in May with all three key metrics viz. traffic, capacity and load factor moving south. Traffic measured in revenue passenger kilometers (RPK) stood at 2.80 billion, down 7.8% from a year ago. Story continues Also, on a year-over-year basis, consolidated capacity (or available seat kilometers/ASKs) was down 6.6% to 3.74 billion mainly because of declines of 6.3% and 8.8% in domestic and international capacity, respectively. Load factor contracted 90 basis points to 74.9% in May 2016. Furthermore, in the month, the carrier witnessed a 21.3% decline in the volume of departures. 3. According to data released by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, there was a 3.6% increase in the number of workers employed by U.S. scheduled passenger airlines. This marked the 29th consecutive month of year-over-year increase. The report also stated that the number of FTEs (407,763) for Apr 2016 was the highest since Jul 2008. According to the update, the most number of FTEs in the month were employed by the American Airlines Group AAL, among the network airlines. Southwest Airlines LUV took the honors in the low-cost carrier category. 4. Good news flowed in for Spirit Airlines as analysts at Credit Suisse upgraded the rating on the stock to Outperform. The firm also raised its target price on the carrier as analysts are bullish on its 2017 prospects despite increasing oil prices. Not only 2017, analysts expect performance of the low-cost carrier with respect to unit revenue to be better than its peers in the second half of 2016 as well. 5 In a bid to expand further, Alaska Airlines, the wholly owned subsidiary of Alaska Air Group, Inc. ALK, announced its decision to launch daily nonstop flights connecting Portland and Orlando starting March next year. Alaska Air Group will be operating flights on The Boeing Companys 737 fuel efficient jets. Performance The following table shows the price movement of the major airline players over the past week and during the last 6 months. Company Past Week Last 6 months HA -1.62% -2.78% UAL 5.65% -22.66% GOL 16.26% 35.83% DAL -1.60% -25.28% JBLU -3.03% -30.08% AAL -3.05% -30.02% SAVE 0.74% 2.88% LUV 1.25% -6.94% VA 0.18% 50.68% ALK 0.08% -26.02% The table shows that most of airline stocks traded in the green over the past week although the gains were mostly muted. Shares of GOL Linhas appreciated the most (16.26%). Over the past six months majority of the airline stocks lost value, leading to a 7.19% decline in the NYSE ARCA Airline index. Shares of JetBlue Airways Corp. JBLU lost the maximum at 30.08% over the same period. What's Next in the Airline Space? All eyes will be on Southwest Airlines investor day presentation, scheduled on Jun 23. The Brexit vote on the same day is also much awaited. 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 SOUTHWEST AIR (LUV): Free Stock Analysis Report JETBLUE AIRWAYS (JBLU): Free Stock Analysis Report GOL LINHAS-ADR (GOL): Free Stock Analysis Report ALASKA AIR GRP (ALK): Free Stock Analysis Report UNITED CONT HLD (UAL): Free Stock Analysis Report SPIRIT AIRLINES (SAVE): Free Stock Analysis Report AMER AIRLINES (AAL): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research By Dan Williams and Suleiman Al-Khalidi JERUSALEM/AMMAN (Reuters) - A new airport planned by Israel near its border with Jordan is clouding the usually businesslike relationship the two neighbors have built since making peace in 1994. Due to open next April, Ilan & Asaf Ramon Airport at Timna, in Israel's desert south, will be 10 km (6 miles) from Jordan's King Hussein International Airport. They will serve Eilat and Aqaba, the adjacent Israeli and Jordanian resort cities on the Red Sea. Citing worry the proximity could spell dangerous disruptions to its air corridors, Amman last year complained to the U.N. International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). Israel said Ramon would abide by ICAO regulations and pose no safety risk. The ICAO later said Israel and Jordan were addressing the matter directly "as one would expect from two countries with a peace treaty and a wide scope of cooperation in many fields". Israeli Transport Minister Yisrael Katz played down the dispute with Jordan, one of two Arab states with full ties with Israel. "There is no confrontation," he told Reuters in an interview. "There have been discussions (and) it was agreed that we will hold a professional-level meeting. The (Ramon) airport will open, and there will be coordination of air traffic." Jordan sounds less upbeat, however. "We do not want to stand in the way of Israeli projects, but we have our concerns regarding our own airport, and there is also the matter of keeping the spirit of our peace agreement," said a Jordanian official who declined to be identified. The official was referring to a proposal, discussed in conjunction with the treaty, of building a joint Israeli-Jordanian airport. Katz said such a facility was an "option" that had gone unexercised. Opened in 1972, King Hussein underwent expansions after the 1994 peace accord to meet what the airport's website said was the rising demand of air traffic. Katz said Israel was therefore free to open Ramon on its side of the border. TOURISM Jordan's concern, he suggested, was over the prospective loss of tourists to Israel. Ramon will have a 3.6-km (2.2-mile) runway able to accommodate the largest airliners while King Hussein's runway length is a more limiting 3.1 km (1.9 miles). King Hussein currently handles around four to six takeoffs and landings a day. Israel is planning for 10 times that capacity at Ramon. "The thing is, this (Ramon) is a big international airport, representing a mass of tourists, which is seen as possibly competing with them in tourism and such things," Katz said. "We will propose to them that large planes that can't land there (King Hussein) will land here. I have no problem with people going to Aqaba from there (Ramon). They can cross at Arava crossing," he said, referring to an overland border terminal north of Eilat, a 15-km (9-mile) drive from Ramon. Peace with Israel was never popular among ordinary Jordanians, many of whom are Palestinian, and Amman officials sometimes lament what they see as the sluggish dividends from economic cooperation with their richer neighbor. One Jordanian official based in the Aqaba area accused Israel of building Ramon airport to "market Petra" - the nearby archaeological wonder in Jordan - for excursions by tourists who would spend the bulk of their vacation in Eilat. "We are protecting our national tourism industry from any invasion and from selling it illegally," said the official, who also requested anonymity. "Now we have imposed on those coming from the (Arava) crossing to either pay sixty dinars ($85) for a one-day (visa) or spend two nights in the kingdom," with the fee refunded, the official said. Eilat is currently served by a small municipal airport whose planned demolition will free up real estate within view of the beach. Named after an Israeli astronaut lost in the 2003 space shuttle disaster and his eldest son, who died in a 2009 air force accident, Ramon is envisaged as an emergency alternative to Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, Israel's main international gateway. Ben Gurion was briefed shunned by most foreign carriers due to incoming Palestinian rockets during the 2014 Gaza war. (Additional reporting by Victoria Bryan in Frankfurt and Alison Lampert in Montreal; Editing by Jeffrey Heller and Andrew Roche) Alex Garcia, an editor-turned-sales agent who helped transform the film industry fortunes of Latin America, died May 26 of complications from lung cancer. He was 56. Born and raised in Miami by Cuban parents, Garcia studied at UCLA and graduated in film studies from Columbia College. He spent 25 years as a film editor, working with Steve Spielbergs three-times Oscar winning editor Michael Kahn and on independent productions. Meeting Sandro Fiorin, who became his partner in business and life, in 2006 Garcia and Fiorin launched FiGa Films hence its moniker to discover and distribute the best of young Latin American talent, distributing their films in the U.S. and selling them to international markets. Nowadays, many sales companies try to have at least one Latin American title on their books. But when Fiorin and Garcia launched FiGa Films at the Sundance Festival in 2006, the idea of a sales company focusing on Latin America was almost unknown. FiGa Films proved, however, to be one of the earliest instances of industry recognition towards the export viability of films from Latin America, to which it lent its own momentum. As wave after wave of films from new Latin American directors hit festivals from mid-last decade, FiGas core specialist business proved almost inevitably to be the first features or early films of up-and-coming talent. Films Garcia took on included Mexican Yulene Olazoilas 2008 Intimacies of Shakespeare and Victor Hugo, 2010s A Useful Life and 2015s The Apostate, both from Federico Veiroj, as well as Anna Muylaerts 2011 Smoke Gets in Your Eyes and Kleber Mendonca Filhos Neighboring Sounds, released in 2012. FiGa soon gained a reputation for taking on films which other sales agents might love but never think of selling, and spreading its net wider to than other agents to Bolivia (Martin Boulocqs Los viejos), Central America (Costa Rican Paz Fabregas 2015 Tribeca hit, Viaje) and regional Brazil, whether Pernambuco (Neighboring Sounds, August Winds) or Puerto Alegre (Castanha). Story continues The six titles in a 2013 tribute by Ventana Sur to FiGa Films, the first of its kind, represent something new, an unknown director, a novel narrative, something different, Garcia wrote with Fiorin in an introduction to the homage. A former teacher of editing at Columbia College, and a self-confessed admirer of classic films, Broadway musicals and cats, Garcia took on films which straddled the borders between documentary and film (Marimbas in Hell, Castanha), explored social setting in preference to character (August Winds) and avoided traditional story drive. FiGa Films placed their films in such festivals as, just in the U.S., Sundance, SXSW, and Tribeca. They won multiple festival plaudits, from San Sebastians top Golden Shell for Bad Hair in 2013 to a Rotterdam Tiger for Thursday Through Sunday a year before. The last prize for a film Garcia handled came at Cannes this May, the best documentary Prix de lOeil dOr for Eric Rochas Cinema Novo. Five of the 10 last winners of Toulouses CineLatino Festival were FiGa titles. They were rarely easy sells. Some broke out, however: Bad Hair sold 32 territories in all. But Garcias contribution to Latin American films was larger. Considerably older and far more experienced than most of the young tyro directors he worked with, he served as a mentor to many young filmmakers. bringing his editors experience to help mould their films. He also helped Figa transform rapidly into a company which was far more than a simple sales agent, helping filmmakers to find production partners, advising through the post-production process, finding further funding at work-in-progress competitions, securing vital festival slots and advising on films releases, working sales on a film for years, down to second TV windows. Doing so, he helped dozens of filmmakers hone their craft as well as develop a consciousness of a world which was avid for their films, however niche the audiences, beyond their native countries. The explosion of world cinema on the world stage is one of cinemas most recent revolutions, in which Garcia played his part. Alex Garcia was a generous and kind-hearted person, a lover and supporter of cinema who championed filmmakers and their films, who, along with his partner of many years, Sandro Fiorin, devoted his life to cinema and culture, said Diana Sanchez, the Toronto Festivals programmer for Spain, Portugal and Latin America and Panama Festival artistic director. Garcia is survived by Fiorin, his spouse, plus an older sister and brother. Related stories Breaking Glass Pics Takes North American Rights to 'The Apostate' (EXCLUSIVE) Rotterdam-Berlin: FiGa/Br Introduces 'Where I Grow Old' (EXCLUSIVE) Mar del Plata: FiGa Rolls Out 'The Apostate,' Latin American Slate (EXCLUSIVE) (Reuters) - Allegiant Travel Cowill@cvradio.com Transnational media cooperation: #BrexitDebate Published on June 22, 2016 Story by cafebabel DE en fr es it de pl Analysing the UK referendum on EU membership. Together with our European media partners, we are producing content to explain, deepen and understand the different perspectives of the UK referendum. WHO WE ARE A pan-European network of media outlets, independent portals, journalists and activists, sharing the belief that a forward-looking media is key to framing political debates for an open, fair, and democratic Europe. OUR AIM Together, we aim to establish an alternative media network in Europe able to speak and organise ourselves beyond borders in what is still a primarily national media landscape. We aim to connect our already existing audiences at the national level towards setting a shared European agenda. We aim to be an online space for a more connected generation of active citizens that engage with current events and social issues. We are engaged, which means that we challenge the status quo, and raise questions and demands on issues we consider as vital for democracy in Europe. FIRST SHOT - #BrexitDebate For our first months of collaboration, we are producing and disseminating content to explain, deepen and understand the different perspectives of the UK referendum. We want to bring together a whole variety of articles, interviews, videos, events, talk-shows, debates, conversation, reports and more, that are happening in every country. The UK referendum on the 23rd of June 2016 will be the first time in a generation that British and Commonwealth citizens will have the chance to decide whether or not they should stay in the European Union. No matter what the result will be, there is a need to debate and re-think the Europe project. PARTNERS and PRODUCTIONS Find Novara Media's production about #BrexitDebate here Find AthensLive's production about #BrexitDebate here Find European Alternatives' editorial about #BrexitDebate here Find Krytyka Polityczna's production about #BrexitDebate here Find ROAR's production about #BrexitDebate here Find openDemocracy's production about #BrexitDebate here Find eldiario's production about #BrexitDebate here Find The Wedge's production about #BrexitDebate here Find Precarious Europe's production about #BrexitDebate here Find Transform!'s production about #BrexitDebate here Find red pepper's production about #BrexitDebate here Story by cafebabel DE [Podcast] Belgrade: Dubai of the Balkans? Published on June 22, 2016 Story by Cafebabel en it pl de fr es The Belgrade Waterfront project a completely futuristic urban landscape on the banks of the Sava River and financed by Emirati millionaires has strongly divided the citizens of the Serbian capital. Balkans and Beyond presents its first ever podcast. I was born in Belgrade in 1981 and belong to the so-called last generation of Titos Pioneers of Yugoslavia. In 2000, I was one of hundreds of thousands of youths who decided to leave Yugoslavia to move abroad. Ever since then, Ive been living in Rome, capital of art and beauty. Little to nothing has changed in the Eternal City, compared to my hometown. Vracar, the historical district of Belgrade where I grew up, is famous for its small houses and green hills. Now it has been completely reshaped with brand new, tall buildings. Every time I came back over the last 15 years, something had been changed, reshaped, demolished, reorganised, or modernised. For many expats, scepticism and frustration about changes to urban areas are very common. But a much bigger change has been taking place in the very heart of the city: the construction of the Belgrade Waterfront. A completely futuristic urban landscape, right on the banks of the Sava, will rise up towards the sky in its completed state by 2019. Costing a total of 3.5 billion euros, the project is being financed by Emirati billionaire Mohamed Alabbar. Belgrade Waterfront will include the construction of a new business district, which will stretch across nearly 2 square kilometres, including apartments and luxury premises, shopping malls, hotels, parks, a 200 metre skyscraperthe tallest in the Balkans and the Serbian Champs Elysees. The citizens of Belgrade are still divided about the project. Some see the Waterfront as a necessary step towards progress and modernity in the Serbian capital. Others are terrified by the prospect of becoming citizens of the "Dubai of the Balkans". Since 2015, civil unrest has been growing, with activists denouncing the projects corruption and lack of transparency. Podcast: Belgrade, the Dubai of the Balkans? --- Text and Audio: Marina Lalovic Photography: Jasmin Brutus --- Beyond cliches. Beyond hate. Beyond the past. 25 years after the start of the Balkans War, cafebabel Berlin's Balkans & Beyond editorial project, showcases original stories that beautifully illustrate life and politics in Bosnia, Macedonia, Croatia, Kosovo, Slovenia, Serbia, and Montenegro. It's financed by Allianz Kulturstiftung and Babel Deutschland with moral support from the Babel International network. Story by Cafebabel Britain out, Balkans in? The view from EU candidate states Published on June 22, 2016 en it de fr es pl In the Balkans many countries are still trying to become members of the European Union, yet the United Kingdom could be on the verge of slamming the EU door. How is Brexit perceived by countries that have been asking to join for years? Even if, in the meantime, they continue to shop around. "I can tell you right away that nobody here is talking about it." Nedim Hadrovic is quick to interrupt me as soon as we broach the subject of Brexit. Seen from Sarajevo, European issues have been at the heart of economic and political reforms in Bosnia and Herzegovina for more than a decade, but they don't attract much public debate. Even as the date of tomorrow's referendum on the UK's possible exit from the EU approaches, there are countries who are still asking to enter the Union. Bosnia Herzegovina is one of them. In February 2016, the country submitted its formal application with the objective of obtaining the status of candidate country before the end of 2017. The mood in the Balkans Nedim Hadrovic, a 25-year-old freelance journalist, returned to Sarajevo after growing up in Germany, the Middle East and Asia. He explains that a large part of his country's prioritised reforms derive from the intention of becoming a EU member. "Economically, there are great differences between the states that are aspiring to enter the European Union," explains Nedim. "But parliamentarian debate is mostly favourable to changing national legislation in order to meet community rules." Counterbalancing these European winds of change, Bosnia and Herzegovina remains a country paralysed by an intricate and stratified administrative structure a system based on nationalism and ethnic quotas, sanctioned in the Dayton agreement of 1995. "Bosnian foreign policy is neutral for reasons of internal conflicts of interest, and the political caste rarely discusses Brexit above all with local elections just around the corner," explains Rasid Krupalija, editor at Bosnia Daily. Even the 2013 census has been transformed into an obstacles course. It turns out the results haven't been published yet because of "methodological divergences" with Eurostat. Around 500 kilometres south of Sarajevo, at the crossroads of the Balkan Route travelled by incoming refugees, Macedonian people are a little more interested in a potential UK walkout. "The Macedonian mass media discusses Brexit, but they don't pay great attention to it," argues Dragi Pavlovski (27) from Bistola, a financial coordinator for an NGO. "Perhaps online and on TV it's discussed a bit more." Macedonia also wants to become an EU member, and it already obtained the status of candidate country in 2005. But its entry was blocked by Greeces veto over a dispute about the official name of the former Yugoslavian republic. "The more time passes, the more Euroscepticism grows here, since negotiations with the EU have been going on for more than 10 years and there's still no progress," Dragi complains. Political instability, recent protests against the government, and corruption, only fuel feelings of distrust "towards the West in general", in Dragi's words. "Perception seems to be changing and we seem to be becoming closer and closer to Russia." This was witnessed last year when the country adhered to the Russian pipeline project, named Turkish Stream (then blocked because of the tensions between Moscow and Ankara). Even if, after a more detailed analysis, this can be put down to realpolitik decision-making on Skopje's part. Towards alternative models? "In my view, it would be stupid if the English voted for Brexit, it would be a disaster for the European unit," says a concerned Dragi. "But they are the only ones aware of what's best for them." Nedim elaborates on this point. "The problem is not Brexit in and of itself, but the threat of a potential EU collapse. The feelings behind Brexit may be noble, even logical, but it stirs up anger and encourages decrying the views of Conservatives and anti-EU supporters. Because of this the Union becomes a 'common enemy', a perception that has emerged from frustration and from the economic decline of the Old Continent. Though also from the refugees crisis." Bosnian people have always resorted to irony, comments Rasid: "When we finally get in, the EU will already have fallen to pieces." Up to now people referred to a lack of progress in Bosnia, but today we can speak of insufficient progress in the Union as well. "There's no doubt that Brexit would be a heavy blow to the very idea of European integration," says Nenad Stojanovic, a political expert from the University of Lucerna, born in 1976 in Sarajevo. Besides strengthening Eurosceptics in the Balkans, it's feared that Brexit will weaken the European membership prospects of "outsider" candidate countries. Stojanovic moved to Switzerland in 1992 and was made a member of parliament from 2007 to 2013. From here, the professor suggests an unusual hypothesis. "The creation of a group of countries that don't belong to the EU, but that are part of it structurally [and economically, ed.], could be an interesting solution for Great Britain, Switzerland, Turkey or Norway," he argues. "At that point, any European leader could feel tempted to include the non-EU member Balkan countries in such a group." But he goes on to say that if the "Swiss model" of bilateral relations with the EU "could be extended to other economically strong countries", for Bosnia, Macedonia and their neighbours, "Such a solution would be less favourable than a genuine adhesion." So do western Balkan states feel closer or further away from Europe? "By what measure?" Stojanovic asks. "Honestly, it's difficult to say. In 1990, the Yugoslav Federation was just one step away from entering the European Economic Community, well in advance of Poland and Hungary. The EEC made a historic mistake by not offering this prospect immediately. Today, the citizens of the countries of the former Yugoslavia don't have other prospects be they political and economic if not to join the EU. Provided that the EU wants them." --- We've officially been banned from quoting The Clash, but the question nevertheless invokes the famous song. On the 23rd of June 2016, citizens of the United Kingdom will vote on whether or not they want to remain a member state of the European Union. We've a few Babelians who have a thing or two to say about that... Story by Lorenzo Bellini Translated from La Brexit, i Balcani e l'UE: si viene e si va? Map of the week: Generation Eurosceptic? Published on June 22, 2016 Story by cafebabel DE Translation by: Emily Spencer en de fr pl it es Young people on the Old Continent still have a positive view of the EU, according to a study published last week by the Pew Research Centre. Unfortunately, the same can't be said of their grandparents. If Great Britain decides to turn its back on the European Union in this Thursday's referendum, there will be serious consequences for young people in the country. Secretary of State for Education Nicky Morgan, who in March called on all those eligible to vote to choose "internationalism over isolation" on the 23rd of June, echoed this concern. Should parents and grandparents decide to vote for Brexit, Morgan warns, they would be putting the future of their children, and grandchildren, in jeopardy. Even David Beckham has agreed, announcing that he's backing Remain, "For the future of our children." In a recent Spring 2016 study titled Euroscepticism beyond Brexit, conducted by US organisation the Pew Research Centre, young people between the ages of 18 and 34 are on average more favourable towards the Union than older generations aged 50 plus. The survey interviewed 1,000 people from ten EU countries, over the phone. There is a stark generation gap in the EU debate, but nowhere is it more pronounced than in France, where there is a staggering 25% gap between the number of older people who feel favourable towards the EU and those young people who share the same sentiment. Similar trends can be seen across Europe. There's a 19% gap in Great Britain, 16% in the Netherlands, 14% in Poland and Germany, and 13% in Greece. Unfortunately, it's the older generations who are much more likely to vote tomorrow (about 80% are predicted to go to the polls), compared with a mere 50% of under 35s, who are thought to be casting their ballot. Source: Pew Research Centre --- This article is part of our Map of the Week series: charting the stats that matter to Europe, one map at a time. Story by cafebabel DE Translated from Map of the week: Generation euroskeptisch? Contributed photo Thomas Coleman's mansion, built on his ranch, was meant to out-lavish the Fulton mansion, the home of his rival, George W. Fulton. The Coleman mansion was 15 miles north of Taft on the south side of Chiltipin Creek. Thomas Coleman and George Ware Fulton founded one of the great ranches of South Texas, the Coleman Fulton Pasture Company. Coleman and Fulton became rivals for control of the company. Fulton, who made his fortune from beef packing plants, built a mansion he called Oakhurst. We know it today as the Fulton Mansion. Among the guests at the housewarming party in 1877 were Thomas Coleman and his wife. On the way home Mrs. Coleman complained to her husband, "If she can have one (meaning Mrs. Fulton's home) then I want one twice as big." Coleman lost no time in meeting his wife's demands. Construction began on a new home on his ranch on the south side of Chiltipin Creek (15 miles north of today's Taft). When it was finished it looked like a grander version of the Fulton mansion, but it was out in the country, in the middle of nowhere. At the Colemans' housewarming party in 1880 guests left Corpus Christi at sunrise to cross the reef road in buggies. They carried a change of clothes for the two-day party. The gateway was a mile from the house. Servants were posted along the route to offer refreshments to the guests. Some 25 acres were landscaped. There were stables and a racetrack. Among the marvels of the new home was an acetylene lighting plant, indoor bathrooms with water supplied by cisterns, a billiards room, music room, and quarters for maids. There were beautiful hand-carved mantels and specially made furniture of ebony and walnut. Guests ate barbecue spiced with the little peppers that grew along Chiltipin Creek. That night they danced on the veranda surrounding the mansion. The Coleman mansion cost $150,000, compared to $80,000 of the Fulton mansion. That $150,000 would amount to $3.5 million today. The fierce rivalry between Coleman and Fulton reached a point where one of them had to go. Coleman sold out to David Sinton from Cincinnati whose son-in-law, Charles Taft, took over the ranch operations and the Coleman-Fulton Pasture Company became known as the Taft Ranch. Coleman kept his great mansion on Chiltipin Creek. This was where the White children grew up after their parents died in the yellow fever epidemic in 1867. Thomas Coleman was the nephew of Edward White and brother Frank who settled at White Point across Nueces Bay from Corpus Christi. When Edward White and wife died in the epidemic, their four children became wards of Thomas Coleman. There were two sons and two daughters, Thomas, Frank, Alice and Eddie. In time, Eddie White married Edwin Atlee McCampbell in Corpus Christi. Her son, Coleman McCampbell, wrote the well-known history of Corpus Christi, "Saga of a Frontier Seaport." After Thomas Coleman died in 1896, the house was sold to John Welder and used briefly as a summer house then stood vacant until it was demolished in 1930. It was built as a result of wealth, envy and one-upmanship. After they were gone it was torn down. A big deal on King Ranch A British consul reported in 1837 that Corpus Christi Bay would never be of any consequence as a harbor because extensive sandbars hampered navigation. When Zachary Taylor's army arrived in 1845 transport ships had to be lightered and even shallow-draft lighters had to be dragged over the mud flats in the bay. Corpus Christi founder Henry Kinney bought a steam-powered dredge in 1848 and hired a crew to deepen the channel at the entrance to the bay. After this effort languished John Moore headed an effort to dredge a channel. His dredge boat was burned to the water line by federal ships during the Civil War. What was left of the dredge, tied up at a wharf at Corpus Christi, gradually disappeared as people ripped it up for firewood. In the early 1870s Augustus Morris and James Cummings dredged an eight-foot-deep channel across the bay. The Morris & Cummings Cut allowed the first oceangoing vessel, the Gussie, to dock at the Central Wharf on May 31, 1874, which was a big day for the city. After the 1919 storm wrecked the new port on Harbor Island, Corpus Christi's struggle to get a deepwater port reached a critical time. After years of lobbying, Congress authorized the Corps of Engineers to make a recommendation on where a new port should be located. The Corps at Galveston had to choose between Port Aransas, Aransas Pass, Rockport, and Corpus Christi. The recommendation would be made to Congress by the district supervisor of the Corps, Maj. L.M. Adams. Corpus Christi advanced several arguments. The other coastal cities were more vulnerable to hurricanes than Corpus Christi, which was hard-hit in 1919 but mainly in the low-lying areas of the city. Much of Corpus Christi was built on high bluffs, the highest elevation on the Gulf Coast. Another point in Corpus Christi's favor was its size, compared to its rivals, and the fact it was served by three railroads while Port Aransas had no railroad link and Rockport and Aransas Pass had one. Roy Miller, Corpus Christi's former mayor and most influential booster, took the Corps' Maj. Adams on a hunting trip to King Ranch on a hot day in December 1920. They drove around until Adams shot a buck. That night at the King Ranch's Big House, Miller got a bottle of whiskey and took it to Adams' room. After a few drinks and some conversation, Miller came out and whispered to Richard King, the banker and grandson of the ranch founder. Miller told him, "We got it." Sure enough. Adams made his report to Congress and recommended Corpus Christi over the other coastal cities as the best place for a new port. Whether that was the basis of an impartial assessment or whether a deal was made will never be known for certain. In 1926, on the anniversary of the 1919 storm, Corpus Christi residents watched the first ships enter the turning basin of the new port. It was the culmination of 75 years of effort. In 1930, when Maj. Adams retired as district supervisor of the Corps of Engineers, he was named director of the Port of Corpus Christi. If eyebrows were raised it went unreported, but perhaps a deal was made over a bottle of bourbon at the King Ranch. Murphy Givens is the retired Viewpoints Editor of the Caller-Times. Email him at givens.murphy@gmail.com. Be careful what you wish for. Maybe that's the lesson to be learned from what has emerged from the desire of Hispanic advocates to teach schoolchildren more about the history of Mexican-Americans. What they have gotten is a textbook now being reviewed by the Texas Education Agency that presents a decidedly one-sided view of the Hispanic experience in the Western Hemisphere. The textbook, "Mexican American Heritage," if approved by the TEA, would be available for use in Texas high schools. If so, those students, of which the majority are of Hispanic descent, would be reading a history that sees the Hispanic experience through very skewed lenses. Take this example. Comparing on the political foundations of democracy in the United States and in Mexico, the authors opine that the United States was built on a legacy of Protestant self rule, freedom of religion, and parliamentary government. But for Mexico? "Most Mexicans weren't literate, they could not own land and had been given the message that they should be subdued, not lifted up," the authors write. "How would they invent a system from nothing that depended on participation in political and economic life?" Score one for viewing the United States as exceptional. There is a subliminal message here: Only the Anglo Protestant heritage, not the dark-skinned Catholic, has the franchise on democracy. Never mind that the U.S. heritage is not strictly a Protestant one. Nor does that view account for the fact that the Spanish were creating a society atop indigenous peoples Aztecs, Incas who were living in urban, highly populated societies. The first arrivals in the United States, however, encountered relatively small indigenous populations. Recreating English society became easier once those native populations were eliminated. No wonder the proposed textbook has stirred up objections from scholars. They say the book presents a simplistic view of Native Americans, says the 1960s Chicano movement was out to "destroy" American society and largely whitewashes an American history of racism and ethnic hostility. That's not what advocates had in mind in 2014 when they pushed for a Mexican-American studies curriculum. That idea was defeated by a conservative majority on the State Board of Education, but it did decide to recommend textbooks that school districts could use in their own ethnic studies courses. The only offering so far is "Mexican American Heritage," a book that has been linked to a former member of the SBOE, Cynthia Dunbar, who was known for ideological zealotry during her tenure. One of her aims was to integrate the Bible into public school teaching. It's easy to see how the disastrous aftermath of the Mexican War, at least for Mexicans living on newly acquired U.S. lands, can be so easily dismissed. "Mexicans who were already over the border, who were living in territory suddenly American, had the best chance for a better life," the authors write airily. Any claims that Mexicans had lands stolen from them, they write, though the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo guaranteed their titles, are groundless. Much closer to the truth, however, is the description by British historian Felipe Fernandez-Armesto in his "Our America, A Hispanic History of the United States." "The easiest way to appropriate Mexicans' land was to kill them off under cover of war and create an atmosphere of terror that would send refugees fleeing in panic," Fernandez-Armesto writes. Despite the promises, "men on the spot never intended to honor those parts of the treaties ... 'Popular tribunals,' self-elected or appointed by interested parties administered discriminatory 'justice,' sometimes reinforced by lynchings." But Texas high school students won't read anything in the textbook about lynchings, about Texas Rangers indiscriminately killing Hispanics in South Texas or of towns that segregated Mexican-Americans into the most neglected sections of their communities, bereft of adequate educational resources or even sanitary plumbing. The pity is that scholarship on the history of minorities in the U.S. has made a lot of progress in recent years. The story of Hispanics in the United States is intertwined with the very beginnings of the country, whose presence even predates the first English colonists. That is a story that today's Texas high school students need to read in their textbooks. Unfortunately, the book now under consideration by the Texas Education Agency doesn't seem to be that book. Nick Jimenez has worked as a reporter, city editor and editorial page editor for more than 40 years in Corpus Christi. He is currently the editorial page editor emeritus for the Caller-Times. His commentary column appears on Wednesdays and Sundays. SHARE By Beatriz Alvarado of the Caller-Times Students who skipped the most days of school at Driscoll Middle School were given special attention this year. The campus was the site of a pilot program putting a truancy prevention strategy to the test. The partnership with the city's Juvenile Assessment Center, which helps families connect with social services, among other services, was prompted by a change to state law that decriminalized truancy last year. The pilot program at the school, which has one of the highest absence rates in the district, launched in March. David Prado, who is the agency's superintendent, said the services could be helpful for Nueces County schools to begin implementing uniform changes to adhere to the changes in the law. "We have really good connections that can help," Prado said. City council officials Tuesday were presented with the same recommended routes to comply with the law as county leaders were earlier this month. Implementing the recommendations is voluntary for city, county and school districts. Texas was one of two states for which truancy was a criminal violation before the law's changes took effect in September. A report on the implementation of the recommendations and compliance with the law are due to state officials Dec. 31, 2017. Adhering to changes to in the law only can be reached through extensive collaboration among school districts, city and county agencies, said John H. Milam, who is the deputy director of special programs for the Nueces County Juvenile Department. Milam gave the presentation to the city council. "Truancy is now a civil action that needs to be intercepted," Milam said. "The challenge now is trying to identify what case management services haven't been utilized and link (youth and parents) to them. Many don't know what is out there. There are resources that can help bring some stability to their lives." According to the old law, truancy cases for students with at least 10 unexcused absences in a six-month period were heard by justices of the peace or municipal judges and schools could opt to send students with three unexcused absences within a four-week period to the adult courts. Punishments could include jail time for students 17 and older. According to the new law, schools can no longer send students with three unexcused absences in a four-week period to truancy courts. Schools must notify parents of the absences and discuss consequences, which could be a fine or a loss of driving privileges. A face-to-face meeting between school officials and parents is being asked from school districts, and students have to enroll in a truancy prevention program. Now, for students 12 or older, 10 unexcused absences in a six-month period could lead to school officials focusing resources to determine the cause of the absences. If the absences are because the student is homeless, pregnant, in foster care or is a primary earner for the family then the school is to offer support. Driscoll Assistant principal Kimberly Craig said the collaboration between the campus and Juvenile Assessment Center led to needed, one-on-one interventions for students missing the most days of school. She said the partnership has helped lighten the load for campus staff. Driscoll has received subpar academic ratings from the state three consecutive years and staff was already being spread thin to work on improving academics. "This becomes another intervention," Craig said. "This collaboration gave families an opportunity to find help." Twitter: @CallerBetty Associated Press photo SHARE By Fares Sabawi of the Caller-Times Four undocumented immigrants and one juvenile abandoned by smugglers were rescued during the weekend by U.S. Border Patrol agents, according to a news release. The first rescue happened early Friday morning when agents found a Mexican man abandoned on a ranch near Falfurrias. The man was severely dehydrated, so agents gave him water and he was treated at a hospital. Later that day, agents found another man abandoned by smugglers and left without water. The man declined medical attention, according to the release. On Saturday, Kingsville agents received a call about a juvenile, whose age and gender were not provided, getting lost after smugglers left. The juvenile was treated for stomach cramps and dehydration. Agents found two other people later that day who were dehydrated in the brush near Sarita. According to the news release, Border Patrol agents from the Rio Grande Valley Sector have seen a 47 percent increase in rescues compared to the same period the previous year. Twitter: @Caller_Fares CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Duke Canchola SHARE By Fares Sabawi of the Caller-Times The Kingsville Border Patrol Station has a new agent in charge. In a news release, the agency announced that Duke Canchola will be the new Patrol Agent in Charge. Canchola has been with the Border Parol since 1997. He previously served in several other positions, including Acting Assistant Chief Patrol Agent and Patrol Agent in Charge the of Laredo Sector Special Operations Detachment. Canchola is a Carroll High School alumnus who attended the Marine Military Academy in Harlingen. Canchola earned a bachelor's degree from The Military College of South Carolina and graduated from the marine Corps Officer Candidates School in Qunatico, Virginia. Twitter: @Caller_Fares SHARE You'd think that if there was one step both parties in Washington could support in the wake of the nation's worst mass shooting, it would be to close a yawning gap in federal gun background checks a strategy supported by nearly 90% of Americans. Yet in an extraordinary act of cowardice on Monday evening, 56 senators 53 Republicans joined by three Democrats threw away yet another opportunity to keep guns out of the hands of more felons, fugitives, the mentally ill or people prone to domestic violence. These spineless lawmakers voted against advancing a commonsense measure to expand background checks to virtually all sales of guns, not just those sold by federally licensed dealers. The existing gap allows buyers who purchase from private sellers at gun shows, online or from newspaper ads to simply avoid the federal background check system. That system, run by the FBI, is efficient for buyers: More than nine of 10 gun buyers get a yes or no within minutes. And the system is effective for screening out those barred by federal law from buying firearms: It has denied guns to 2.4 million prospective buyers since it was created in 1994. The largest category is felons and people who've committed serious misdemeanors. This was the third time since the fatal shooting of 20 first-graders in Newtown, Conn., in 2012 that the Senate has derailed similar measures. (Senators also rejected three other gun amendments on Monday.) Would expanding background checks be a panacea? Of course not. The Orlando killer, a security guard, was able to purchase his guns legally. But no one should buy into the absurd notion, pushed by the gun lobby, that to be worthwhile a measure must demonstrate that it could have prevented the most recent atrocity or all mass murders. You don't have to go far to find shootings where the killers exploited this well-known loophole: n In 2012, Radcliffe Haughton killed his estranged wife and two co-workers at a Wisconsin spa, even though he was under a restraining order that would have prevented his buying a gun if there'd been a background check. Instead, Haughton found a willing private seller after posting a "want to buy" ad on an Internet site. n In 2009, Tyrone Adair, twice convicted of battery and under a restraining order, bought a 9mm Glock handgun by responding to a Wisconsin newspaper ad. The unlicensed seller jokingly asked: "You're not going to go out and kill someone, are you?" Within weeks, Adair's two daughters and their mothers were shot to death. Wanted by police, Adair was found dead of a gunshot wound. n In 1998, the students who killed 13 and then shot themselves at Columbine High School got their weapons through a friend who bought them from an unlicensed seller at a gun show. They bought another from a pizza shop worker who knew they were too young to make the purchase but sold it to them anyway. In the face of Washington gridlock, some states are tightening background checks on their own. Since 2012, legislators in six states Connecticut, Colorado, Delaware, New York, Oregon and Washington have shown the will to make this sensible, lifesaving change. California has had expanded checks for all guns since 1990, and voters in Maine and Nevada will vote on similar measures this fall. Seven states have also banned the sale of military-style assault weapons of the type used in Orlando, and on Monday the Supreme Court rejected challenges to assault weapons bans in Connecticut and New York. The court's action suggests that states may be the best avenue for sensible gun restrictions consistent with the Second Amendment. Those who want to prevent future mass killings apparently will need to look outside Congress for help. Monday's votes showed, once again, that too many members are too cowed by the gun lobby to take the actions necessary to save lives. USA TODAY's editorial opinions are decided by its Editorial Board, separate from the news staff. SHARE Rachel Denny Clow/Caller-Times file State Sen. Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa, D-McAllen, represents District 20, which includes the Corpus Christi area. I do not understand why there is so much hate for people who are "different." The shooting in Orlando was a horrific tragedy and a senseless act of hate and violence. I felt sad and angry at the same time. My first thought was my daughter. As a proud father of a gay daughter, that shooting could have happened anywhere. The nightclub could have been in San Antonio or South Texas. That could be anyone's son or daughter next time, simply because he or she is gay. In just the last year we have come so far. The U.S. Supreme Court declared same-sex marriage legal in all 50 states. Finally, marriage equality the freedom to marry. Yet at the same time, I feel we have gone backward with the hate and violence escalating. While those in the LGBT community may have the freedom now to marry, they still do not have the freedom to live without fear of hate or violence against them. In our country's history we have discriminated, and often continue to do so, against women, Hispanics, African-Americans, people of Jewish decent and other religions. Our LGBT community experiences the same discrimination. But why? They are human beings just like you and I. There is a disconnect in those who champion religious views but speak against gay rights. In the name of God, they discriminate against human beings. But God loves everyone. God does not discriminate. Same-sex couples are part of our communities, culture and country. They live in our communities, work in our communities, attend church in our communities, and volunteer for our military where they sacrifice and fight for our freedom and liberty. They are our sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, friends and neighbors. As a society we must not tolerate acts of discrimination, hate or violence for any reason. We must all work to build safer communities, to lead by example, and to be part of a solution that will safeguard the future of us all. I remain committed to equality and to treating every human being with dignity and respect. We must remain vigilant against terrorists, domestic or foreign, that threaten our community, and we must oppose violence and hate simply because people are different. State Sen. Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa, D-McAllen, represents District 20, which includes the Corpus Christi area. Four conventions signed Friday to the tune of FCFA 76 billion are expected to propel the already existing cordial ties to higher heights. ADS Bilateral relations between Cameroon and France, especially in the economic domain, are shooting for the skies judging from recent developments between the two countries. The visit of the President of the Republic of France, Francois Hollande to Cameroon on July 3, 2015 will certainly go down the annals of history of the two countries as one which bolstered long-standing relations between Cameroon and France. Coming some 14 years after the last French President visited Cameroon, President Francois Hollande had a package to grease the economic ties between France and Cameroon. Four Agreements Signed The visit paved the way for the signing of four accords between Cameroon and France. As Presidents Hollande and Biya looked on, Cameroons Minister of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development; Emmanuel Nganou Djoumessi for Cameroon and the Director of the French Development Cooperation, Anne Paugam, for France, penned four agreements. The Director of the French Development Agency in Cameroon, Herve Cona says the four accords amount to about FCFA 76 billion. The first of the accords, a loan agreement amounting to FCFA 42.6 billion is aimed at developing secondary towns of Cameroon, notably the regional capitals of Bafoussam for the West, Betoua for the East and Garoua for the North Regions. The second loan accord to the tune of FCFA 29.5 billion is for the construction of a new access road to second bridge on River Wouri in Douala, the extension of the SCDP roundabout in Douala and the creation of a new underground railway line in the port city of Douala. Meanwhile, the third convention is to support small and medium-sized enterprises especially those involved in agriculture to the tune of FCFA 3.3 billion in order to boost production in quality and quantity. The least of the agreements was not the fourth, this time around a subvention to the investment projects of the Diaspora amounting to FCFA 655 million. Analysts hold that the sectors selected in the new-found Cameroon-France economic cooperation speak of a common vision of the two Statesmen to make tomorrow better than today. This is more so as they tie with the growth objectives of Cameroon with pride of place position to infrastructure development, self-reliance agricultural production, a facelift to the small and medium-size sector and substantial and sustainable contributions of the Diaspora. Added to these conventions was the experience-sharing forum that grouped business people from the two countries on the sidelines of the Francois Hollande visit. Some 25 business executives from France took time off to listen to investment opportunities in Cameroon and the legal and administrative instruments in place to guarantee win-win investments. Pundits hold that an idea of that nature raises hopes of better things to come. As Cameroon relishes the new thrust in her economic cooperation with France therefore, it is hoped that potential investors will take advantage of the rich and varied resources in place and the laws available to set up mutually-beneficial investments. These include especially the revolutionary April 18, 2013 law on private investment incentives in the Republic of Cameroon with fiscal, customs and administrative advantages coupled with some of the investment-yearning sectors in the country like mining, agriculture, forest management et al. ADS | BY Martin Trevaskis | Paul Yole has attended the Cannes Lions Festival as a delegate every year for the past 10 years. Here he reports from Cannes for Campaign Brief, on why the case for creativity never ends. The case for Creativity. With a title like that, I had no option but to attend. And it was very worthwhile. James Hurman, founder of Previously Unavailable and former planning chief at Colenso BBDO New Zealand, talked through some of the highlights from the updated version of his seminal creative effectiveness book, The Case for Creativity. The book is based upon three decades of international research by universities, scientists, consultants and Hurman himself. It was motivated by his realisation that most of the work that we produce is, in fact, not very creative. Perhaps this is caused by a lack of confidence in the power of creativity or by the fact that any brand idea often needs many, many people to say yes, but it only takes one person to say no and the idea could be doomed. So Hurmans mission is to help people believe in creativity, not just by proving its efficacy, but also by providing the stimulus to keep creative effectiveness on the agenda. Hence the handing out of free copies of his book at the Festival. I agree with Hurmans view that it is perfectly fair for clients to ask us to prove that creative work is more effective, and his research goes a long way towards helping that cause (along with the work of people like Peter Field and Donald Gunn). About ten years ago, McKinsey undertook a study into the effectiveness of advertising in Germany after one client claimed, Creativity is irrelevant at best. Often it is harmful to advertising success. I suggest that many clients may share that view and even believe that high creativity is too risky. In fact, the opposite is proven to be true. High creativity is actually the safest way to grow a brand. As McKinsey concluded in the study, Other things being equal, creativity is an advertisers best bet. Every report James Hurman researched reached the same conclusion. Peter Fields rigorous study of advertising that has been recognized for proven effectiveness and ROI suggests that creatively awarded work can be up to 11 times more effective. Good planners around the world will relate to Hurmans assertion that a planners sole job is to help make the work more effective, and the best way to do that is to help make it more creative. So what do clients think? Because after all, they have the pivotal role in this. Two acclaimed former Cannes Creative Marketers of the Year, Jim Stengel (P&G) and Jonathan Mildenhall (Coca Cola and now CMO of Airbnb) shared some encouraging insights. To summarise some key take-outs from their advice: 1. The case for creativity never ends 2. Client companies need deep cultural change that puts creativity on the business agenda, and it needs to be socialised 3. To achieve culture change you need to go where the energy is 4. Keep the spotlight on those who are courageous 5. One person can make an enormous difference, even if they are relatively junior 6. Young marketers do not have to follow the beat of the drum from their leader if it is incompatible with creativity. But they do need to seek out like-minded people in their organization 7. Build a learning agenda and culture 8. Share the risk (agency and client) Finally, I really like the mantra that Jonathan Mildenhall relates every day to his people: Make this the best work of your career to date. With pristine reefs and abundant marine life, these serene remnants of an extinct volcano were named after British ship HMS Conflict which charted them in 1886. The 21 islands ranging from 1ha to 97 ha gathered in a pear shape around a sheltered lagoon are about 150km from Alotau at the eastern tip of Papua New Guinea. P&O Cruises Pacific Jewel has made history by becoming the first cruise ship to visit the remote Conflict Islands, putting the idyllic atoll and their fascinating owner briefly in the spotlight. SOME people dream of buying an island. Australian Ian Gowrie-Smith bought an entire archipelago sight unseen. In 1978 the uninhabited islands were purchased by Lu Nevels, a part-Native American based in Hawaii who was an American circuit court judge and global real estate speculator. In 2003 British-based Australian entrepreneur Ian Gowrie-Smith bought the islands on a whim without actually seeing them. Mr Gowrie-Smith has something of a Midas touch in business, with successes in pharmaceuticals, mining and the oil and gas industry. He went to PNG in the 1966 as Prince Charles travelling companion when the pair were classmates at Geelong Grammar. I purchased the Conflict Islands from the Nevels in 2003, more or less on a whim, sight unseen, he told me. The islands are part of my portfolio of various follies I have acquired around the world, including a game farm in South Africa and a castle in Lithuania. Conflict Islands are archetypical tropical islands white sand, palm trees, warm trade winds, beautiful sunsets over the water of the sheltered inner reef with turtles popping their heads up into the dusky evening air. Current development is confined to Panasesa, one of the largest islands. I have built a small private resort and restored the airstrip. It has been used primarily by my family and friends. Mr Gowrie-Smith is working towards a sustainable future for the islands including renewable energy, a turtle hatchery, a marine research centre and urging local fishermen from nearby islands to shift from unsustainable fishing practices including hunting turtles. The visit by Pacific Jewel will provide an income stream and guests disembark via a new $1 million deep water jetty. Passengers can look forward to activities and facilities including a new glass bottom boat, kayaks with glass bottoms, and stand up paddle boards for the more energetic, Mr Gowrie-Smith said. There will be drinks, music and BBQ food, island tours and we have our own native sailing canoe called a sailau. Our permanent staff of 10 will swell to 46 on the day. My aim in providing alternate employment opportunities is to reduce pressure on over fishing, shark finning, beche de mer fishing and turtle harvesting. I hope by building stronger relationships with my neighbouring island communities they will support conservation efforts, including creation of a marine protected area which requires their endorsement. Todays visit by Pacific Jewel is one of 17 inaugural calls to ports this year by P&O Cruises following the expansion of the lines fleet to five ships. These includes maiden calls at Wewak, Stewart Island in New Zealand, Ujung Pandang, Jakarta, Sabang and Probolinggo in Indonesia, Langkawi, Koh Chang and Koh Samui in Malaysia, Krabi and Phuket in Thailand, Sihanoukville in Cambodia, Gizo and Honiara in the Solomon Islands and Gladstone and Fraser Island in Queensland. Tuesday, June 21, 2016 at 8:05PM The crowd gathering in Yonge-Dundas Square for YouTube FanFest Its that time of the year again. YouTube will be bringing in some of its biggest Canadian and international stars at this years YouTube FanFest. Itll be held on August 13th at the Molson Canadian Amphitheatre. Some of the big names to appear at the event include Torontos own Lilly Singh (a.k.a. ||Superwoman||) alongside the likes of Mike Tompkins, Humble the Poet, and AsapSCIENCE. You can expect musical performances from the likes of Sam Tsui, Megan Nicole, Tiffany Alvord, KRNFX, and Max Schneider. Also hoping to get the crowd up on their feet is Marquese Scott (WHZGUD2) and Poppin John. Lauren Toyota, former MuchMusic VJ and host and now co-host at her YouTube channel Hot for Food, will be hosting the event alongside My Life as Evas Eva Gutowski. A limited number of ticketholders will even get a chance to meet and greet their favorite starts the day before the show. If this is something you want, you have to make sure you grab your tickets when they go live. Ticket prices are at $30 for front section seats and $25 for middle and back section seats. They go on sale on Tuesday, June 21 at 10 a.m. at all Ticketmaster outlets. Wednesday, June 22, 2016 at 2:16PM This fully illustrated guide shows how to create and program all kinds of fun and innovative gadgets with your Raspberry Pi. Raspberry Pi Electronics Projects for the Evil Genius features 10 complete projects that showcase cool RasPi applications in computing, communications, robotics, photography, and video. Each inexpensive Evil Genius project includes a detailed list of materials, sources for parts, schematics, and clear, step-by-step assembly and programming instructions. This entertaining, easy-to-follow book gets you up-and-running quickly on C, Java, and Python, and covers "all" RasPi versions, including the latest A+, B+, and B model 2 units. Learn how to: Explore the capabilities and features of your Raspberry Pi Display scrolling text and graphics on an RGB LED matrix screen Handle RasPi-to-RasPi communications using MQTT Incorporate interesting software defined radio (SDR) features Build your own super computer from eight RasPi model B+s Make a robotic car from Legos and control it with your RasPi Configure the RasPi to control a basic robotic arm through the I2C bus Assemble and program complex 3DOF and 6DOF robotic arms Construct a hi-res point-and-shoot and a digital single lens reflex (DSLR) camera Engineer a complete infrared video surveillance system using the Pi Noir camera About the Author: Donald Norris is an experienced engineer and adjunct professor at Southern New Hampshire University. He is the author of Programming the Intel Edison: Getting Started with Processing and Python, Raspberry Pi Projects for the Evil Genius, Build Your Own Quadcopter: Power Up Your Designs with the Parallax Elev-8, and The Internet of Things: Do-It-Yourself at Home Projects for Arduino, Raspberry Pi and BeagleBone Black. One international candidate could not be wooed to Australian shores despite being offered the position, and insiders say there is little interest from qualified candidates to take on the job given the full extent of industrial unrest at the school. Meanwhile, Dr Royston Gustavson has been the acting head while the search goes on. "Electrotechnology is a key industry for the ACT and will be increasingly so with the ACT government's focus on renewable energy. We want to make sure apprentices have the skills the industry requires," she said. TRUFFLE FESTIVAL Canberra's truffle season is in full swing, with the festival running until the end of August. There's local black truffles on the menu at restaurants around town, plus special dinners, events, cooking classes and of course hunts with the dogs to unearth truffles. For the full program and tickets, visit trufflefestival.com.au. If you see any accidents or have any info on the morning commute, let us know whenever it is safe to do so. Email morningblog@canberratimes.com.au or tweet us @canberratimes. An Iowa Republican's attempt to prevent Harriet Tubman from becoming the new face of the $20 bill has been rejected by the House Rules Committee. U.S. Rep. Steve King filed an amendment to a financial services spending bill that would block the Treasury from putting Tubman on any U.S. paper currency. King, R-Iowa, told Politico that it wasn't about Tubman. It was about his support for keeping the $20 bill the way it is with former President Andrew Jackson on the front. "Why would you want to change that?" King said while holding up a $20 bill. "I am a conservative, I like to keep what we have." But according to Politico, King did say he believes it's "racist" and "sexist" to suggest that a person of color or a woman should appear on U.S. paper money. He blamed President Barack Obama for "trying to identify people by categories, and he's divided us on the lines of groups." The House Rules Committee, though, didn't see it that way. Since King's amendment wasn't made in order, it won't be voted on by the full House. Laurel Ullyette, president of the Harriet Tubman Boosters Club in Auburn, said King's amendment was racist. "I don't think there's any other explanation for it," she said. "It's a complete waste of time. He's just showing his true colors." Treasury Secretary Jack Lew announced in April that Tubman would appear as the face of the redesigned $20 bill. Other changes to paper currency were revealed, including adding five women's rights leaders to the back of the $10 bill and three prominent Americans Marian Anderson, Martin Luther King Jr. and Eleanor Roosevelt to the rear of the $5 note. Alexander Hamilton and Abraham Lincoln will retain their spots on the $10 and $5 bills, respectively. The Treasury Department wants to release the new bills by 2020 the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment that gave women the right to vote. News of Tubman's addition to the $20 bill was celebrated in Auburn, where the abolitionist lived during the latter part of her life. U.S. Rep. John Katko, who represents Auburn in Congress, doesn't share King's view on whether Tubman should appear on the $20 bill. He lauded Tubman as an "incredible woman" and noted that Cayuga County will soon be home to a national park honoring the civil rights icon. "I had previously introduced bipartisan legislation to feature her likeness on a Federal Reserve note, and I continue to strongly support the U.S. Treasury's decision to feature Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill," Katko, R-Camillus, said. The precise content of Mr Barr's conversation with Mr Turnbull remains undisclosed. In March, Mr Barr said he had raised the issue with Mr Turnbull and NSW Premier Mike Baird and "neither have indicated support". Asked to clarify, Mr Barr said he had asked for "financial support for a process that looks at the history of the issue", but it had "not been forthcoming". "We think [950 jobs] is a realistic goal and we think once we can turn that many jobs back into the town centre that it can start to become self-fulfilling in terms of the growth and the stable long-term employment which provides that amenity and allows those long-term smaller businesses to operate and flourish," Mr Quinn said. "We absolutely welcome it, we know the community want it, we have people in our offices every day of the week asking how they can access it and the fact that a trial is going to be available in the ACT is brilliant," she said. None of this may happen given the recent powerful attacks on him. There have been various targets, including his record on Senate voting reform, his allegedly protectionist, anti-free trade policies, his public campaign against an Adelaide Catholic priest for alleged sexual abuse, his alleged populism, and the apparent anonymity of the other members of his Senate team. Senior local members of the major parties, Christopher Pyne (Liberal) and Senator Penny Wong (Labor), are now called upon to explain the popularity of the NXT. They flounder around in fear of contributing to a further backlash against the governing parties they represent. DEWITT It's a question central New Yorkers, particularly those in Syracuse, have been asking for a few years now: What should be done with the Interstate 81 viaduct that stretches through the city? The three Democrats vying to unseat U.S. Rep. John Katko addressed the topic at a debate Tuesday organized by the Central New York Alliance for Retired Americans, League of Women Voters and the New York State United Teachers Retiree Council 7. Two of the candidates Eric Kingson and Steve Williams reiterated their support for tearing down the existing elevated portion of I-81 and constructing a boulevard. The boulevard is one of the options being considered by the state Department of Transportation, which is overseeing the project. Kingson, D-Manlius, said such a byway is the "only viable" option. "I think the boulevard is going to be the best thing for our city and our community," he said. Williams, D-Baldwinsville, acknowledged that a boulevard might make it more difficult for motorists to travel into Syracuse. But he cited the benefits for the city, which he called "the heart of this district." "I think a boulevard is a sound and reasonable way to go," he said. Deacon, D-Syracuse, noted that she's the only Syracuse resident running for Congress. She didn't state her support for one proposal over another, although she would later say the boulevard is a "great option." At the moment, though, she doesn't believe there's enough information to make a decision on which plan is best for the I-81 viaduct replacement project. "We have to be bold," she said. "We have to be visionary. This decision has to be from the bottom up." Williams was quick to point out that Deacon previously stated her support for the boulevard option. The candidates were asked during a lightning round at the Time Warner Cable News debate Monday whether the I-81 viaduct should be replaced with a boulevard. Deacon tried to explain her response before being reminded that it was a yes or no question. She answered yes. At Tuesday's debate, Williams accused Deacon of not answering the question. Deacon defended her stance saying that all the options, including the boulevard, should be considered. "We need to look at the data," she said. The debate was the second in as many days for the Democratic candidates in the 24th Congressional District race. There is one more scheduled for this week a televised debate that will air at 7 p.m. Saturday on WSYR NewsChannel 9. The Democratic primary is Tuesday, June 28. Local officials say no public money was involved in an Albany man's alleged scheme to defraud investors in a multimillion-dollar cheese company once planned for Cayuga County. The state Attorney General's Office has charged Lawrence D. Rosenbaum with 27 felonies, alleging that he fraudulently solicited more than $1 million in private investments for several companies including the Saratoga Cheese Corp. He is also accused of diverting investor funds for his personal use and failing to file state personal income tax returns since at least 2008. Rosenbaum, a 64-year-old Albany insurance broker, served as the former chair of the Albany County Independence Party until resigning in 2004 amid questions about how he handled party donations that went directly to him. With the indictment announced Monday, the attorney general's office said Rosenbaum duped investors some whom he knew through his insurance job that their money was going to production facilities for kosher and halal cheese as well as bio-energy companies with services across New York state and Costa Rica. Investors were also promised substantial returns and stock shares. The facilities, including a much-publicized venture proposed in Aurelius, were never built. Instead, Rosenbaum could now face upward of 20 years in prison if convicted on charges including grand larceny, tax fraud and scheme to defraud. He pleaded not guilty Monday in Albany County Court and was remanded to Albany County Jail on $250,000 cash bail or bond. 'Seemed like it was on the up and up' Rosenbaum had founded the Saratoga Cheese Company around 2001 with the intention of developing a halal and kosher cheese plant in the Capital Region using local dairy products, according to the attorney general's office. That company was reformatted in 2006 into the Saratoga Cheese Corporation, and it was targeted for the Cayuga County Industrial Park in Aurelius before its eventual failure. Whereas private funding was subject of the attorney general's investigation, Saratoga Cheese received two public grants toward its development: An Empire State Development grant for $400,000 secured by state Sen. Michael Nozzolio in 2008, and another federal allotment for $196,514 through former U.S. Rep. Michael Arcuri. Nozzolio held a press conference in 2008 to announce the grant for Saratoga Cheese. In a statement Tuesday, Nozzolio said the state Empire State Development Agency is responsible for the management, administration and expenditure of those funds as well as the oversight of all aspects of job development projects. Tracy Verrier, interim executive director of the Cayuga Economic Development Agency, said those funds were all properly appropriated and monitored through the Cayuga County Industrial Development Agency. Further, the county did not invest any public money into the project beyond staff time, she added. The county board, which is staffed by CEDA, was asked to provide project documentation by the attorney general's office in February, Verrier said, which was provided "without question." Rosenbaum and his board worked with CCIDA members through the process of developing Saratoga Cheese, signing an initial land development agreement in 2010. That agreement was extended at least twice as company leaders struggled to secure suitable financing for further project development. Cayuga County Planning and Economic Development Director Steve Lynch, who worked on the Saratoga Cheese project between roughly 2008 and 2012, declined to comment Tuesday. "At the time the project was happening, everything seemed like it was on the up and up," Verrier said. "They wouldn't have done all this work if they had suspicions." CCIDA board members finally moved on from the project around June 2013, Verrier said. By that point, Verrier noted that much of the project grant funding had gone toward site surveys and studies of the land at the industrial park, which was later translated for other, separate agricultural opportunities namely, Cayuga Milk Ingredients, which was fully established in 2015. "The (CCIDA) has cooperated to the best of their ability," Verrier said. "I think it's just worked out quite well for the community to have that groundwork done for other reasons." 'Nobody really knew what was going on' Gregory Bell, a former board member with Saratoga Cheese, worked as a consultant during the development of the Aurelius-based cheese company. Bell said he resigned from his roles in January 2013 during an investor meeting after "it became obvious of what was going on." He said there had been suspicions six months prior to his own resignation, though Bell declined to detail specific observations in light of potential legal action against Rosenbaum. The indictment details charges committed against seven named individuals, while also alleging that Rosenbaum additionally defrauded 10 or more individuals to obtain property by false pretenses. Bell said the company raised about $2.4 million through 60 to 70 investors before it came to an end at the close of 2013. Parts of those investments funded site studies and other development initiatives for Saratoga Cheese, Bell said. Finding funding, he noted, was always difficult for the project given the state of the economy at the time. Following Bell's resignation, he said there were other consultants who wanted to continue the company with a reduced scope, which did not gain much traction. Investors, meanwhile, "were demanding accountability and they weren't getting it," Bell said. Bell, himself, said he was not an investor. "Nobody other than Larry was able to see the books," he said. "Nobody really knew what was going on." Regarding public funds, Bell also said that the grant funding was properly appropriated. Bell said the grant funding was administered by the Cayuga County Industrial Development Authority and never came into any Saratoga Cheese bank accounts. Rather, the company would submit vouchers to the firms they had worked with over the course of the project's development, he said. "There was no fraud at all in that money," Bell said of the public funds. "The fraud was in private money." After Saratoga Cheese came to an end, Bell said Rosenbaum approached investors to start up a new cheese company, Rosenbaum Cheese. Rosenbaum has websites for two separate cheese businesses: Rosenbaum Cheese, which focuses on kosher products; and Rose Tree Cheese, which emphasizes halal products for the Islamic faith. Bell said previous investors were sent an email around a year and a half ago vetting interest in supporting his new venture. "It was ridiculous," Bell said. "People, the investors with the company were quite angry with him because their money vanished." Owasco officials will host a public meeting in July for residents and business owners to review and give feedback on an ongoing update to the town's comprehensive plan. The meeting is scheduled for 5 p.m. Thursday, July 14 at the Owasco Town Hall, 2 Bristol Ave. An online review period of the draft comprehensive plan will continue through that date, while a hard copy can be viewed at the town hall. Officials said the plan update will include a conservation land and trails plan designed to address changes in land use, population and development and environmental resources. The update has been spearheaded by the town's Comprehensive Planning Committee, which was formed in 2014 of residents and municipal leaders. Assisting in this process are consultants from the Central New York Regional Planning and Development Board. The upcoming public meeting comes after officials gathered public input through a survey sent to town residents in December. Amanda Mazzoni, a representative with the CNY development board, said residents returned 411 completed surveys, or 27.8-percent response rate. To view the plan online, visit cayugacounty.us/towns/H-P/owasco. For more information, contact Mazzoni at (315) 422-8276 ext. 215 or at amazzoni@cnyrpdb.org. 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. He says his rival has "put political correctness above common sense, above your safety and above all else." She says his views are "shameful" and he is "temperamentally unfit and totally unqualified" to be president. So much for unity in the face of tragedy. The race for the White House is entering a new, vital phase. The formal end of the primary season and the eclipse of Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont have removed even the slightest diversion from the beginning of the general-election campaign. The massacre in Orlando has removed even the slightest doubt that terrorism would be a major theme in the presidential election and in the American story for 2016. Both factors seemed to liberate both candidates, and the two responded with unusual vitriol. Herbert Hoover hit Franklin Roosevelt at his most vulnerable in 1932 when he described the New York governor as a "chameleon on plaid," and Ronald Reagan taunted Jimmy Carter in 1980 with his "there you go again" repartee. But those were faint jousts and parries compared with Donald Trump's remarks that his rival "is in total denial" and Hillary Clinton's response that the Manhattan businessman's rhetoric was "a recruiting tool for ISIS." With the conventions only weeks away, it is impossible to ignore the prospect that the tone and timbre of this presidential race will spin out of control, that a campaign that already has defied every expectation and every custom will veer into dangerous new territory of incivility and indecency. At the same time, the success of Trump in becoming the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party and the persistence and strength of Sanders in challenging Clinton combine to produce serious threats to both parties and to the American political system. Conversations with two thoughtful political figures who a half-generation ago were considered outsiders themselves one a Republican and one a Democrat underline the severity of the tests facing the two major instruments of political life in our country. "Trump is making the party into something different, and a lot of us Republicans are troubled," said former Rep. Vin Weber of Minnesota, who was considered a 1980s Republican reformer and whose grandfather was a GOP president of the Minnesota Senate. "None of us wants to turn our backs on the party, but you can't assume we will fall in line." That sense of crisis also reaches into the Democratic Party, which is less likely to be torn asunder this summer but which is in search of an identity and ideology if no longer in search of a nominee. "The ideal I was working on to use the revolutions of globalism and information to expand the economic pie and thereby finance our social agenda got blurred over the years," said former Sen. Gary Hart of Colorado, who twice sought the Democratic presidential nomination in the 1980s and who, as the campaign manager for Sen. George McGovern in 1972, is an unusually appropriate bridge figure in the party. "It never made its way into the public policy of our nation." These frustrations broke into the open this year, perhaps because of economic issues, perhaps because of the constant fear of terrorism, perhaps because of the cumulative effects of disappointment, even a sense of betrayal, in both parties. Indeed, a comparison of Wall Street Journal/NBC News polls in the spring of 2012 and the spring of 2016 shows that Trump and Clinton are less popular than Barack Obama and his last opponent, Mitt Romney, were at the same time in the campaign cycle. Obama's favorability rating among his own party members in 2012 was 33 percentage points above Clinton's this year. Romney's ratings among Republicans were 19 percentage points above Trump's this year. This was the campaign, after all, in which a fellow Republican, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, said of his party's front-runner, "Donald, you're a sniveling coward," and in which Sanders said that Clinton, a former senator and secretary of state, wasn't "qualified" to be chief executive. That, plus repeated survey results showing that Republicans felt betrayed by their own party, speak of a deep unease among American voters. That unease is particularly strong on the terrorism issue, which shows every indication of gaining increased prominence as the campaign continues. Earlier this spring The Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll showed that only 1 in 5 Americans gave Trump good ratings for handling an international crisis. Clinton's 37 percent was better but not so much so that she could feel reassured. An ABC News/Washington Post poll less than a month ago showed that about 53 percent of voters had an unfavorable view of Clinton while 60 percent viewed Trump unfavorably. This is an era of broad rebellion against party elites a parallel phenomenon exists in Britain as Thursday's European Union referendum approaches and both Sanders and Trump have drawn strength from that impulse. Trump, to be sure, has star power of his own; so much that Clinton's efforts to extinguish or even dim it have been unavailing thus far. The best comparison to Trump may be to Theodore Roosevelt, himself a party rebel. "He was his own limelight," said Owen Wister, the author of "The Virginian," the 1902 novel considered the first Western, and a friend of Roosevelt's, "and could not help it: a creature charged with such a voltage as his became the central presence at once, whether he stepped on a platform or entered a room." That is the force Clinton now faces in a contest she could not have contemplated a year ago. And that is why she needs the forces assembled by Sanders, who won the heart of Democrats but not their nomination. Her cause may also depend on emphasizing that she was for a dramatic overhaul of health care before anyone knew Sanders' name, and that she is not an extension of either Obama or her husband. That may explain her emerging views on terrorism, which break from both men. But even as Clinton calibrates her position on terror, emphasizing a no-fly zone in Syria that Obama has resisted, Trump is doing some recalibrating of his own, particularly on guns for people on a terrorist watch list. A campaign that has changed everything is itself changing. Throughout our nation's history we have seen presidents such as Bill Clinton who was definitely lacking in character but was knowledgeable and had great leadership abilities. We have also seen presidents such as Ronald Reagan who was considered by most to have been a likable man of good character but, beyond that, merely an amiable dunce who barely knew what was going on around him. In presumptive candidate Trump we have the worst of both worlds extremely low character residing within a man who knows virtually nothing in regards to foreign and domestic policy. Trump's ignorance on issues was on display even in short time he had to speak during the multiple candidate debates. That is why he refused to debate Cruz one on one (too much time) and why he will likely refuse to debate Hillary Clinton. In regards to Trump's character (or lack thereof) we have seen his bullying and name calling on display throughout the debates and all of his rallies. After the New York Times story came out documenting his horrible behavior and attitude toward women, he and his minions tried to refute the story. Did Donald think we all forgot about his recently televised behavior toward Meghan Kelly and Carley Fiorina? We have also seen Trump openly mock a disabled reporter which, in and of itself, should have been a deal breaker for anyone. His words have debased virtually every group except his those in his hard-core base poorly educated white males. But now, aside from his ignorance and bigotry, voters have a third and perhaps even more important reason to not support Trump. Hillary calls it lack of temperament but that's code for what many are now beginning to realize Donald Trump is nuttier than a fruitcake. ACCC takes Heinz to court over nutritional claims The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has initiated legal proceedings against Heinz over nutritional claims made on its Little Kids Shredz infant food range. Little Shredz have been sold in major Australian supermarkets since at least August 2013. The ACCC is alleging Heinz made false and misleading representations on the packaging and engaged in conduct liable to mislead the public. According to the ACCC, images and statements on the packaging could lead consumers to think the food has the equivalent nutritional value of fruit and vegetables, the ACCC says this is not the case. Little Shredz packaging features images of fresh fruit and vegetables, statements such as 99% fruit and veg and Our range of snacks and meals encourages your toddler to independently discover the delicious taste of nutritious food. The ACCC says these features could lead a consumer to believe Little Shredz are a healthy nutritious food for children between one to three years which it disagrees with. The ACCC has brought these proceedings because it alleges that Heinz is marketing these products as healthy options for young children when they are not, said ACCC Chairperson Rod Sims. These products contain over 60 per cent sugar, which is significantly higher than that of natural fruit and vegetables for example, an apple contains approximately 10 per cent sugar, Sims said. Court case follows CHOICE investigation Although the ACCC said the legal action follows a complaint from the Obesity Policy Coalition on toddler foods which make health claims but are made mostly from fruit juice concentrate, consumer advocacy group CHOICE also reported on one of the Shreadz products produced by Heinz in May 2016. CHOICE had criticised Heinz Little Kids Fruit & Chia Shredz saying the product comprises of 35 per cent apple juice concentrate and a 18g serving contains the equivalent of more than three teaspoons of sugar. ACCC alleges products are likely to inhibit the development of a childs taste for natural fruit and vegetables Chairperson Rod Sims also said: We also allege that rather than encouraging children to develop a taste for nutritious food, these Heinz Shredz products are likely to inhibit the development of a childs taste for natural fruit and vegetables and encourage a child to become accustomed to, and develop a preference for, sweet tastes. The ACCC wants to make clear that major companies have an obligation under the Australian Consumer Law to ensure products health claims do not mislead the public. As part of the ACCCs current focus on consumer protection issues arising from health claims by large businesses, we are particularly concerned about potentially misleading health claims for products being marketed for very young children, Sims said. The ACCC is seeking declarations, injunctions, pecuniary penalties, corrective notices and costs as part of the legal proceedings. Australian Food News attempted to contact Heinz Australia but did not receive any comment on the matter prior to publication. France has a strange New Years tradition of torching cars and that happens especially in the largest cities, which compete every year for the No. 1 spot that is the highest number of torched cars. To fight this disturbing phenomenon, which cannot compare to isolated incidents like the one in Vancouver in 2011, the French government sent a record 53,000 law enforcement officers to patrol major cities from 6 pm on December 31 to 6 am on January 1. The result? The number of torched cars dropped by 10 percent compared to last year. While authorities may see progress in these figures, try telling the owners of the 1,067 torched cars across the country that things are going in the right direction French Interior Minister Manuel Valls held a press conference last Wednesday highlighting that December 31 was one of the years most important events in terms of public security. He also reported the deaths of three people that were stabbed in separate incidents. The embarrassing tradition of vehicle arson started in the poor suburbs near big cities and its mostly concentrated in these areas. In particular, it started in Strasbourg in the northeast of France in the late 1980s, growing into an alarming phenomenon during the 1990s. In 1997, national media began to obsessively cover the phenomenon , with local government official Patrice Magnier saying at the time that he saw a clear correlation between the media focus on the phenomenon and the rise in incidents. In fact, vandals from rival neighborhoods were competing for the media spotlight. Soon the tradition spread across France, with a new peak in New Years car burning being observed between 2005 and 2009. Observers say youths from poor communities burn cars as a form of protest against the state, blaming it for their lack of economic opportunities. Note: Video and print-screen are from 2012, courtesy of Tele/YouTube By Dan Mihalascu VIDEO A truck chock-full with more than half a dozen damaged BMW M3sor M3 F80 clones, believed to have been used for the upcoming movie Mission: Impossible 5, was photographed in Spain. A reader of Spanish website Motor shot the pictures just before he crossed into Gibraltar. A couple of weeks ago, The Mirror spotted actor Tom Cruise on set in the Kasbah of the Udayas near the Moroccan capital Rabat driving around in F80 M3s or modified 3-Series sedans made to resemble the performance model. This wouldnt be the first time that BMW is involved in the Mission: Impossible franchise, as the Bavarian firm promoted the i8 through the Vision EfficientDynamics Concept in the 4th installment of the series named Ghost Protocol in 2011. Mission: Impossible 5 is scheduled for a release on December 25, 2015. Hat tip to Juan Macias! / Photos Courtesy of Motor.es Photo Gallery Land Rover CEO Dr Ralf Speth said LandWinds X7 SUV qualifies as an Intellectual Property theft and will approach Chinese officials about the matter at the Guangzhou Auto Show. The fact that this kind of copying is ongoing in China is very disappointing. The simple principle is that it is not something that should happen; the Intellectual Property is owned by Jaguar Land Rover and if you break that IP then you are in breach of international regulations that apply around the world, Speth told Autocar magazine. The executive said Land Rover has invested heavily in China with its joint venture partner Chery and what LandWind has done with the X7 damages its business in China. I will talk to our officials and I will talk to our partners at Chery to find a way around this situation. I cannot imagine Chinese officials will be happy at any actions that undermine the credibility of the country. What we have seen today is not correct, Speth added. The LandWind X7 looks very similar to the Range Rover Evoque, a model that Land Rover recently started producing in China. While the Evoque is priced from around 40,000, the LandWind X7 will go on sale later this month for just 14,000. The Chinese lookalike is powered by a 188hp 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine, mated to a six-speed manual or an eight-speed automatic gearbox. LandWind is a Chinese carmaker created as a joint venture between Changan Auto and Jiangling Motors Corporation. RANGE ROVER EVOQUE Land Wind X7 When it was launched at the 2015 Guangzhou motor show, the Landwind X7 was accused of blatantly copying the Evoque and kickstarted an intense legal dispute between Jaguar Land Rover and Jiangling Motors. The copycat (just look at it) was unveiled just as JRL launched a Chinese-made Evoque in collaboration with car manufacturer Chery. Soon after, Land Rover took legal action against Landwind and its parent company, but its complaints were dismissed by the Chinese authorities to which it responded by filing new legal actions. Now, according to The Financial Times, the local authorities have decided to cancel both companies patents, designating the Evoques and X7s exterior design filed patents as invalid by the State Intellectual Property Office at the beginning of this month. This was central to JLRs lawsuit against Jiangling for copyright infringement and unfair competition, putting the British car maker on a difficult legal footing. Once patents are invalidated, lawsuits based on external design often come down to a question of consumer confusion. It starts to get very subjective, explained Matthew Murphy, a partner at law firm MMLC Group. In Land Rovers case, the patents were cancelled on grounds that the Evoques design was put on public display a year before the patent was filed. The board also chose to invalidate Jianglings Landwind X7 saying that it strongly resembled the Evoque. Both car makers could appeal the boards ruling on the validity of the patents, but JRL is still continuing with litigation against Jiangling Motors. It could argue that Jiangling is competing unfairly by confusing customers or that the Evoques design is automatically protected under copyright law as a piece of music or other creative work would be, according to Chen Jihong, a Beijing-based intellectual property lawyer at Zhong Lun Law Firm. Given how the Chinese protect their own automakers, we wouldnt expect anything to come out of it though. via Automotive News PHOTO GALLERY River blindness is an infection that causes intense itching, skin discoloration, rashes, and eye disease that can lead to visual loss and permanent blindness. It is spread by the bites of infected black flies that breed in rushing rivers. River blindness is so pervasive in Africa that many global experts have believed it could only be controlled, not eliminated. But Uganda intends to rid itself of the parasite that causes the disease, and its using one of its greatest resources to do it: women. When it comes to eliminating disease, sometimes its not only what you know, its also who you know. In this photo from several years ago, a community volunteer in Abu Hamad, Sudan, measures a man to determine proper dosage of Mectizan, which prevents and treats river blindness. Today, the area is free from the parasitic disease. (Photo: The Carter Center/ M. Katabarwa) Christopher Olanya lost his sight to river blindness, but now that his Ugandan community is receiving ongoing treatment, he may be one of the last to do so. (Photo: The Carter Center/ E. Echwalu) A family walks to a community gathering in Lamwo district, Uganda. Women there have been asked to take charge of ensuring their families receive river blindness treatment. (Photo: The Carter Center/ E. Echwalu) River blindness nearly robbed Christine Akello of her sight. With treatment, the Ugandan womans vision is returning, little by little. (Photo: The Carter Center/ E. Echwalu) Ugandas Family Ties Almost every family I know has someone fighting this disease, said Christine Akello, a river blindness patient in Uganda. She survived decades of civil war in Uganda only to become infected during peacetime. What is tough is thinking that you made it through a long, grueling war, that you can rebuild your life, raise your family well and have a little peace, only to be confronted with another war in your very own backyard, she lamented. The good news is Akellos sight is returning after treatment with the medicine Mectizan , donated by Merck. Twice-yearly doses effectively treat the disease and halt its transmission. Ugandas government had been working with The Carter Center since 1996 to educate communities and distribute Mectizan, but the male-dominated volunteer distribution system failed to take advantage of traditional kinship structures and roles, Dr. Moses Katabarwa, the Carter Centers senior epidemiologist, found. However, when the program shifted its strategy in 2014, everything changed. The new approach moved away from village health teamsusually men appointed by health workersto community-selected drug distributors, with an emphasis on selecting women. These drug distributors were asked to make sure everyone within their own extended families received river blindness information and Mectizan. This solved several challenges, including volunteer turnover, social taboos, and program penetration into all households. In Ugandas Lamwo district, the proportion of the population covered by Mectizan treatment soared from 36 percent in 2013 to more than 90 percent in 2014. When The Carter Center in August 2014 celebrated its 200 millionth dose of Mectizan worldwide, the ceremony was held in Lamwo. It is believed that 2.7 million Ugandans are no longer at risk for contracting this disease, and that transmission of river blindness has been halted in 15 of Ugandas original 17 focus areas. With the Carter Centers help, the country hopes to eliminate river blindness from within its borders once and for all by 2020. The kinship approach has since been adopted by the Ugandan government as national health policy and has boosted other programs such as malaria control and reduction of infant mortality. Success in Sudan The isolated endemic community of Abu Hamad in northern Sudan was declared free of river blindness after implementing a similar kinship approach. Abu Hamad stopped transmission of the disease in 2012 and hasnt had a case since. The program relied on local volunteers particularly women to educate their own communities and see that each family member received a dose of Mectizan every six months. Overcoming river blindness in Abu Hamad is a historic achievement that all Sudanese can celebrate, said Alkhair Alnour Almubarek, minister of health in Sudans Federal state. I hope this success will further inspire us to do more, and encourage our African neighbors to tackle river blindness elimination. Dr. Frank O. Richards, director of the Carter Centers River Blindness Elimination Program, said Sudans decision to try to eliminate the disease rather than just control it made all the difference. Once elimination becomes the goal, it is no longer business as usual, he said. A program and its partners must ratchet up interventions, and thats exactly what Sudan did in Abu Hamad. This initiative, called Andimation, is designed to kickstart animation production in the Andean region. Using combined strengths to create story universes for animated TV series that can resonate across the territories, participants will communicate about common references and create new ones, [while revealing] local identities and values, and facilitate knowledge sharing, the organizers said in a statement. In doing so, Andimation will encourage cooperation, co-production, and the pursuit of ambitious international projects by local creative voices. Sign up for Cartoon Brew's weekly briefing The most important news stories of the week, curated by Brew editors, delivered every Monday. Please leave this field empty. You are now tuned into Cartoon Brew Thank you, you have been added to our mailing list. You will soon receive an email to confirm your subscription to our newsletter. Artists and producers in those five Andean countries are encouraged to apply by next months July 15 deadline. And theres a great reason why eligible artists in the region should apply: the program is completely free. All expenses are covered for the 15 participants, including flight, housing, and food while living for two months in Denmark, and the same for travel to Peru to pitch in December. Further, the team behind the winning pilot will receive all expenses to live in Bolivia while making the pilot, and will also receive a salary during production. For more details, visit Andimation.dk. In addition to The Animation Workshop, Andimation is supported by the Simon I. Patino Foundation of Geneva, and the Danish Embassy in La Paz, Bolivia. The Animation Workshop has been helping grow animation in the Andean region since 2009, when they launched Bolivianimation, which resulted in the production of Abuelo Grillo by Denis Chapon, who actually came up with the idea for this new program, Andimation. Watch Chapons short below: Artistically the fest has been enriched with an extensive focus on vr, showcasing two brand-new 360 experiences every day. They also stepped up their game when it comes to networking, establishing a section called Meet the Festival Programmers, where international festivals and film commissions come together to exchange catalogues, further promoting the art of animation all over the world. Less great was the festivals new pass strategy, forcing attendees to choose between a reasonably prized festival accreditation giving one access to the film screenings, and a more expensive meetings accreditation, allowing one to attend events like work-in-progress sessions, making-ofs and keynotes speeches. Especially unfortunate was that even with the meetings accreditation, you arent sure of securing a seat at those special events. With over 9,000 badgeholders this year (a 10% from last year), Annecy is really bursting at the seams. Unless you manage to make a few online reservations beforehand, prepare to miss out on much of your wishlist or spend half of the festival waiting in line. Spending three hours waiting just to get into the premiere of Finding Dory (or any other American feature film that will be theatrically released later) really doesnt surprise anyone anymore. Personally, I find it a bit disappointing that these blockbuster events are the most anticipated ones in the once indie-centered Annecy festival. Despite the increasingly persistent presence of the big American studios though, Annecy might still be the best place to promote small indie films. This years hidden gem was the sweet My Life As a Courgette. The Swiss/French co-production generated quite the buzz throughout the week, earning praise from directors like Tomm Moore. While it was easy to get a seat at the movies premiere on the opening day of the festival, by Wednesday its screenings were completely sold-out. Concluding the festival beautifully, Courgette took home both the Cristal for a feature film and audience award during Saturdays awards night. A studio that balances blockbuster and indie (and frequent Annecy guests), Aardman Studios from England, celebrated its 40th birthday in style, participating in signing sessions and panels, winning MIFA & Varietys Animation Personality of the Year Award, sharing their wisdom with Cartoon Brew readers, and presenting a keynote retracing the studios exciting journey. Annecy has made it a habit in recent years to publish presentations and Q&As online, so definitely check out their YouTube channel. With feature films garnering most of the presss attention, youd almost forget Annecys roots lie in the short film format. Over 100 shorts were selected from a record-breaking 2,700+ submissions. There seemed to be much enthusiasm for this years experimental Off-Limits section, even from colleagues I wouldnt expect to enjoy those type of works. It showed that as long as you frame them well, non-narrative and experimental works can live happily alongside more straightforward, narrative films. Below, you can watch one of the experimental shorts that competed at Annecy: Tracheal Shave by American filmmaker Gina Kamentsky. Perhaps the most discussed happening of the week was French president Francois Hollandes visit to the MIFA, which is Annecys business-minded segment, a market with 555 exhibitors from 63 countries. Accompanied by security all the way from the door to the roof, he walked around the market to chat with some of the exhibitors and get a feel of the event. While brief, Hollandes visit brought attention to the business of animation and shows just how seriously France takes it animation industry. (It was the first time a French president has visited Annecy in its 56-year history, putting the event on a par with the Cannes film festival, which has also been visited once by a French president.) Where Annecy failed to give its visitors the usual sunshine this year, it succeeded in pretty near everything else. Like usual, it has been an exhausting week full of inspiration, parties, and massive crowds, and despite some issues, theres nothing else like it. Im quite sure I wont be missing another edition for years to come. To see more photos from this years festival, go here. Photo: Deborah Pfeiffer During special events BC Transit and the City of Penticton will be providing free special event shuttle service to and from the South Okanagan Events Centre. The shuttles will operate for the following events, with more to be added: -Event: Don Henley Concert -Date: July 13, 2016 -Pick-up: 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. -Drop-off: 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. -Event: Rob Thomas Concert 'Date: August 31, 2016 -Pickup: 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. -Drop-off: 9:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. For more information and to see the route, go here. While we won't see the Martin Mars fighting fires this summer, you could get a chance to fly the plane yourself for only $32,000. Pegged as a "once-in-a-lifetime" experience, the Ultimate Aviation Experience is a two-day course that includes time in the cockpit of one of the only two Martin Mars aircraft left in the world The Martin Mars aircraft are truly amazing pieces of WW2 history as the largest aircraft ever built. These aircraft hold numerous world records during this era and before they are retired we are offering aviation enthusiasts a chance to fly this incredible piece of aviation history, says Wayne Coulson, CEO and president of Coulson Flying Tankers. Your experience includes orientation and systems overview, lunch each day and, of course, training for the pilot. The unique experience may be of special interest to Okanagan aviation enthusiasts, as the historic aircraft means a lot to the people of the Okanagan. The Martin Mars water bombers played a huge role in fighting the Okanagan Mountain Park forest fire in 2003. The Martin Mars flying boats were built in the 1940s for the U.S. Navy and served during the Second World War as long-range patrol craft and transports. It was the largest Allied flying boat to enter production, and only seven were ever built. After the war, the surviving aircraft were converted for civilian use and were operated for decades by a consortium of B.C. forest companies as water bombers. Now, only two remain the Philippine Mars and Hawaiian Mars, purchased in 2007 by Coulson Flying Tankers, based out of Port Alberni. Photo: Pete Solymosi Vernon's Sunshine Festival last Saturday attracted approximately 10,000 people to the city's main street, according to the Downtown Vernon Association. Although it poured in mid-afternoon, organizers say the rain held off for much of the day allowing young and old to listen to live music and take part in events that spanned about six blocks in the downtown core. The DVA says 150 vendors, artisans and non-profits took part. Photo: Getty Images Therapy apps have been coming ever since the invention of the smart phone. Really, since the Internet age began, so its been simply a matter of time before we figured out how to do mental-health care online. Today, there are a growing number of apps and websites offering various forms of therapy for mental-health issues. In many ways, this is in response to the way we communicate via social media or text message. It makes sense for established mental-health organizations to reach out by these media, especially for younger clients who are comfortable communicating by phone or computer rather than in person. The rise in online mental-health services also has the potential to make this kind of care much more accessible both here and abroad, where there is often a real shortage of trained, healthcare professionals. Most effective treatments for mental-health conditions recommend an element of psychological therapy led by a highly qualified professional, such as a clinical psychologist or psychiatrist. Unfortunately, even in North America, we have a shortage of these professionals and it is difficult for those who need health care to get it in a timely fashion. In developing countries, the situation is often much worse. For example, in India, there are roughly 5,000 mental-health professionals to service 1.2 billion people. Obviously, this is nowhere near sufficient. Although we need to continue training more specialists, this will not be the only solution to the problem of accessing mental-health services. Creating a new clinical psychologist or psychiatrist takes years and a lot of resources; we simply cant catch up to demand. Some countries are looking into task shifting training less qualified people to take on a specific task in therapy. This is interesting and may prove useful in certain settings, but there is a concern about compromising quality of care. Moving mental-health services online will perhaps prove to be the most effective way to dramatically improve access to these services and to stretch professional expertise through program-led treatments. Therapist-free interventions have been around for a while in the form of self-help books and some have good evidence to show they can be effective. Now, with smartphones and high-speed Internet, these resources can be enhanced to be more interactive and expanded. The development and use of these therapy apps and other online mental-health resources will need to be monitored and researched more fully, but studies show promise particularly for depression and anxiety disorders. One consistent finding is that these programs are most effective when there is additional external support. Ideally, this support would come from a call centre or non-specialist to ensure the intervention is still program led. Online resources have the potential to be a useful tool if they are developed by professionals with a nuanced understanding of the complex issues involved in mental-health conditions. I would also caution that although online, program-led treatments may be useful for some issues, they will likely not replace the need for thoughtful, professional care in many cases. Another difficulty will likely be sifting out the good, quality programs from cheap imitations, which may not be helpful, and could be damaging. This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet. Photo: The Canadian Press Aboriginal artwork, regalia and ancestral remains taken over centuries from British Columbia First Nations and placed in museums, universities and private collections must come home, Premier Christy Clark said Tuesday. Clark chose National Aboriginal Day to announce a joint government, First Nations and Royal B.C. Museum effort to repatriate aboriginal items that were removed from the province. The premier said there is a treasure trove of artifacts and ancestral remains from B.C. First Nations scattered around the world and she wants to help get them back. Flanked by about a dozen First Nations chiefs and aboriginal leaders, Clark said cultural items, of which many are human and grave remains, are trapped and crying to return to their homes. "It is long past time that those items of such spiritual significance to First Nations in B.C. found their way home to those communities," Clark told a news conference at the museum. "It is time for those institutions that have taken them away to give them back." Clark said when she visits museums around the world and sees B.C. aboriginal items she wonders why and how they left the province. "First Nations in B.C. over many centuries saw grave robberies, saw ceremonial regalia, shamanistic materials, grave goods and human remains taken from their territory and their homes and (moved) into public museums, private collections and universities all over the world," Clark said. The premier has written to U.S. President Barack Obama asking him to extend to B.C. the rights under the Native American Grave Protection Act that makes it law to return human remains. She said the law should also include items beyond human remains. "These items and remains should be returned to their original home, according to the wishes of indigenous peoples," Clark's letter stated. "It is the moral thing to do." First Nations Summit Grand Chief Ed John said many treasures were wrongfully taken and in some cases stolen, including the sacred burial remains of ancestors. He said many First Nations people have been mourning the loss for years. "Sometimes when it is housed in a place (museum) like this, as beautiful as it may look, you know that those spirits are feeling locked up and crying," he said. "This step around returning and repatriation some of these items is important, some of these are sacred objects." Jack Lohman, chief executive officer of the Royal B.C. Museum, said the museum will work with the province and First Nations to identify items and have them returned. He said the museum has offered to store the items on a loan-only basis for the First Nations. Some items have already been returned, including ancestral remains to the Victoria-area Tseycum First Nation from the American Museum of Natural History in New York and a totem pole to the Haisla Nation on the northern coast from the Museum of Ethnography in Stockholm. Photo: Contributed Lightning has killed 74 people, mostly farm labourers working in fields, across eastern and northern India over the past 24 hours, officials said Wednesday. A majority of the deaths occurred in the eastern state of Bihar, where 57 people died after being struck by lightning, a state official said. At least 24 others were injured when thunderstorms and monsoon rains lashed 14 districts of the state. Ten people were killed by lightning in neighbouring Jharkhand state, six in northern Uttar Pradesh state, and another in Maharashtra, police said. Bihar disaster management official Vyasji said scores of cattle also perished in the state after being struck by lightning. The dead included at least eight shepherds watching their sheep, said Vyasji, who uses only one name. He told reporters that he expected the death toll to go up as reports come in from remote districts of the state. Lightning strikes are common during India's monsoon season, which runs from June to September. However, the recent toll is unusually high. At least 2,000 people have died in lightning strikes in India every year since 2005, according to the National Crime Records Bureau. Cooler, wetter weather gave at least some temporary help Wednesday to crews battling dangerous wildfires in Southern California, while other blazes across the West were on the move. Improved weather in the aftermath of a severe heat wave allowed firefighters to make progress against two fires in the steep San Gabriel Mountains 20 miles northeast of Los Angeles. Some evacuations below in the foothill city of Duarte were being lifted, but the calm was not expected to last. "We will have stronger winds, so it could push the fire," incident commander Mike Wakoski said. He expected gusts of up to 25 mph in the afternoon and evening, posing additional problems for hundreds of firefighters attacking the flames. A fleet of helicopters and air tankers and other resources are helping fight the fires totalling about 7 1/2 square miles. "They're starting to make good progress, but there's a lot of line to put in, and it's in a real inaccessible area," Wakoski said. "It's very hard for the firefighters to engage the fire safely, but they are out there doing so." No homes have been lost, though flames have come close at times. More than 700 homes were ordered evacuated earlier this week, but it was not immediately clear how many were cleared for return Wednesday. Near the Mexican border, a wildfire that forced the evacuation of some 600 homes about 40 miles southeast of San Diego grew to just over 10 square miles and was only partially contained. Falling temperatures, rising humidity and cloud cover has helped, said Capt. Kendal Bortisser of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. But firefighters still must deal with rough terrain and vegetation that has not burned in decades, he said. Weather also helped on the rugged coast west of Santa Barbara. Fog moved into the area scorched by a blaze that began more than a week ago, and most mandatory evacuations were called off. With the more than 12-square-mile fire almost fully surrounded, firefighters shifted focus to battling hot spots within containment lines. Elsewhere in the West, firefighters were bringing in more help after a forest fire near the Colorado-Wyoming line exploded in size and forced campers to evacuate. The blaze grew to about 5 square miles overnight from about 1 square mile Tuesday, fire spokesman Chris Barth said. It was reported late Sunday in a heavily forested area with no permanent residents. Trees killed by a beetle infestation were fueling the flames 140 miles north of Denver and 2 miles from Wyoming. Campers and those staying in cabins were told to evacuate because of heavy smoke, high winds and spreading fire. It was not clear how many people fled. In southwest Utah, officials evacuated about 100 people Tuesday as a wildfire moved down a rocky slope toward the mountain town of Pine Valley. The blaze was about a square mile but moving dangerously close to homes in difficult terrain, officials said. In eastern Arizona, firefighters expected to keep a wildfire spanning some 67 square miles from moving any closer to a rural town. The flames threatening the community of Cedar Creek made no significant movement in the last 24 hours thanks to sparse vegetation. Residents of Cedar Creek, two mountain communities and surrounding areas have been told to prepare to evacuate. Gov. Doug Ducey declared a state of emergency to free up state funds to help. In central New Mexico, more evacuees were expected to return home as firefighters inch closer to snuffing out a massive wildfire that ignited last week. The nearly 28-square-mile blaze in the mountains south of Albuquerque is more than halfway contained after destroying at least two dozen homes. Photo: Contributed Penticton council voted this week to support the bid to bring the 2018 Scotties Tournament of Hearts to the city. Although there was some staff objection, with the Winter Olympics happening the same year, council felt it was important to jump on the opportunity, said Mayor Andrew Jakubeit. "We feel we have a great local host committee, we know we have a great reputation for putting on world class events, and we have the venue, the volunteers and the community support," he said. The Rock the Bid committee has been working tirelessly to bring the tournament to the city. For more information on how you can help the cause, go to the Rock the Bid Facebook page. Photo: CTV A Vancouver fire investigator will be busy this morning trying to piece together what caused an East Vancouver home to catch fire twice. Flames were tearing through the second floor of the home in the 1500 block of East 11th Avenue when fire crews arrived just before midnight. Reports indicate the fire originated in the kitchen area, although it's not clear if the fire is suspicious. CTV reports that no one was injured, but a person claiming to live in empty home was on scene. "We've been told there was one person claiming they lived in the house, but this person has fled the scene," Vancouver Fire and Rescue Chief Peter Bridge told CTV Morning Live. Crews were able to knock down that blaze, but it flared up again several hours later. Neighbours once again picked up the phone and called 911 at about 5 a.m. when they heard crackling and spotted flames shooting from the windows of the home. Firefighters were called back to the scene and managed to knock those flames down within a few minutes. As of this morning city workers had boarded up broken windows and the front door. Photo: CTV Who says there is never a cop around when you need one. On June 16 at 1:50 p.m., several on-duty Surrey RCMP plainclothes officers were in the 10600 block of King George Boulevard in multiple unmarked police cars. The officers were alerted to an armed robbery in progress at a retail store in the area, said Cpl. Scotty Schumann. Officers saw a male matching the suspects description fleeing on a bicycle and gave chase. The suspect eventually abandoned his bicycle and continued fleeing on foot with police close behind. Police captured the suspect in a nearby ravine. While trying to escape on foot, the suspect dropped a black replica handgun. The male suspect has been identified as 47-year-old Mark Sutherland of Surrey. Sutherland has been charged with robbery, disguising face with intent to commit offence and use imitation firearm while committing an indictable offence. Sutherland remains in custody pending his next court appearance. At any given time, our plainclothes officers are active around the city following up on any number of investigations and special enforcement projects, said Schumann. Most of the time the public wont even realize they are there, but they certainly do enhance community safety and complement our uniformed officers by responding to emerging crimes when appropriate. A New Jersey black bear that walks upright on its two hind legs and has become a social media darling has re-emerged and has been captured on video months after its last sighting. The bipedal bear nicknamed Pedals was spotted in the town of Oak Ridge, NJ.com reported Wednesday. The bear appeared to be in relatively good health and was moving briskly in a video posted to Facebook featuring the bear. The man who posted the video wrote that he spotted the bear Monday. Pedals apparently has an injured leg or paw that doesn't allow it to walk comfortably on all fours, according to experts. Prior to the latest video, there had been no reported recent sightings and officials asked the public for help in locating the bear. Lawrence Hajna, spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Protection, said officials expect the bear to make it through next winter. "The bear has an indomitable spirit," Hajna said. The bear first gained fame after it was spotted ambling around neighbourhoods and was caught on videos that were posted on social media and shown on national television. Last year, supporters pushed for Pedals to be moved to a sanctuary in New York state, but New Jersey officials have said they won't allow the bear to be captured and transferred to the facility. Hajna said at the time that the bear would do better in its natural habitat and the agency would step in if its condition deteriorated. Photo: Contributed Teachers in School District 23 voiced their frustration this weekend after the system used to log report cards went down. John Rever, director of instruction at SD23, said he received several messages from local principals on Saturday about the service provider for MyEducationBC not working. It was down Saturday from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. and an error message came up on screen when teachers went to log in, he explained. While the problem was quickly rectified, the normal system maintenance that occurs early Sunday morning threw teachers in a tizzy once again. I dont think they realized that the system maintenance is usually done every Sunday, and is usually back online by 6 a.m., explained Rever. However, this Sunday I think it was 7 a.m. so teachers probably thought the system was down again. He says most schools will not hand out report cards for another week or so and there is still plenty of time for teachers to finish their grading online through MyEducationBC. I am sure this was an irritant for teachers because it is a busy cycle right now, he said. MyEducationBC is hosted by a service provider, but overseen by the Ministry of Education, according to Rever. There is criteria in place to make sure issues like this are resolved quickly otherwise the service provider could face financial penalties, or something similar, Rever explained. He notes that teachers are sensitive to outages with the online grading system after the Ministry switched from an old program to MyEducationBC last fall. We switched systems in September and there were some issues with data at the beginning and we have had some outages and difficulties over the year with the new system, said Rever. There has been a build up of frustration on the teachers' part, but there is still lots of time to finish the report cards for this year. Several teachers contacted Castanet on the weekend to explain their annoyance with not being about to update report cards during the busy end of school year. Photo: Marmot Recovery Foundation Experts monitoring the critically endangered Vancouver Island marmot say three dozen of the animals have died over the winter in the central island region of Strathcona. Biologist Adam Taylor, executive director with the Marmot Recovery Centre, posted an update on the centre's website saying the deaths amount to half of the entire population of the unique species in that area. He says biologists are trying to track several other marmots in the area, but the fate of those large, groundhog-like mammals is unknown. Despite the losses, Taylor says marmots in the Nanaimo Lakes and Mount Washington areas, west and north of Nanaimo, survived the winter very well. He says the centre is still trying to determine what caused the deaths, but adds that the drought last summer reduced the fall foliage marmots need to eat before hibernation. Fewer than 30 animals were found on Vancouver Island in 2003, but numbers had improved to about 300 by last fall, so Taylor believes the latest deaths won't push the rodents to the brink of extinction again. Photo: Getty Images The sun is shining, the mercury is rising and many people are letting the fresh summer air into their homes, but they may also be allowing unwanted guests in. The arrival of summer brings opportunities for criminals to prey on properties left unprotected with unlocked doors and windows. RCMP are reminding residents to protect their property by always keeping windows and doors locked. The reminder comes after a call was received by the police on June 4 from a resident in the 8900 block of Edward Street in Chilliwack who reported their automobile keys missing. There was also loose change and property stolen from her vehicle. Police attended the residence to investigate and determined the vehicles key was likely taken by someone who walked through the unlocked front door, said Cpl. Mike Rail. Doors and windows are often left unsecured in the heat to lower the temperature of a home. In this instance, the owner was home during the day with the front door left partially open to cool the apartment. It only takes a moment for a thief to strike. Police are asking the public to consider the following theft prevention tips: Photo: skylar noe-vack Firefighters in Penticton pounced on a grass fire this morning. Crews were called out at about 10 a.m. for a Rank 2 grass fire that was starting to spread up a small hillside. They were on scene for about an hour, putting out the fire and mopping up hot spots. The cause is still unclear. However, it may have started near a walking trail. Photo: CTV The University of British Columbia says the chair of its creative writing program is no longer employed by the school over what it calls an "irreparable breach of trust." In a statement, the school says acclaimed writer Steven Galloway was suspended in November of last year while an investigation was completed over what it said were serious allegations of misconduct. Additional complaints were also received after he was suspended and former B.C. Supreme Court justice Mary Ellen Boyd was appointed to conduct an investigation. Details of those allegations weren't released, but the school says Galloway did not dispute any of the critical findings. Philip Steenkamp, the vice-president external relations at UBC, wouldn't say if Galloway quit or if he was fired. He noted that when the president recommends termination of a faculty member it needs to be approved by the board and that approval was given on Tuesday. Galloway could not immediately be reached for comment. Steenkamp says all of the complainants who came forward have been offered support and counselling services by the university. Galloway is the author of three novels, including "The Confabulist" and "The Cellist of Sarajevo" and was nominated for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and the Scotiabank Giller Prize. Photo: Getty Images In the wake of concerns over skyrocketing housing prices in Vancouver, the City of Vancouver has announced plans to tax vacant homes in the city, regardless of support from the province. Rental vacancy in Vancouver currently sits at 0.6 per cent, and Mayor Gregor Robertson says something needs to be done to pressure home speculators into renting out properties. Rental housing is almost impossible to find in Vancouver right now, Robertson said at a press conference Wednesday. We know that during this affordability crunch there are over 10,000 empty homes year-round in the City of Vancouver. Those empty homes would add a badly needed supply to our rental housing stock. Robertson urged Premier Christy Clark last year to implement a similar tax, but he now says the city will do it without the provinces support. He said while a provincial tax would be the best option, the city can establish a new business tax on empty homes that are held as investment properties. The citys new tax will be implemented by August, if the province refuses to take action. "If a home is basically being held as a business, as an investment, and it's empty 12 months a year, that's certainly where we want to intervene and take action," Robertson said. Housing is first and foremost about homes, its not just a commodity to make money with. The rate of the potential empty home tax has not been announced yet, but Robertson said it would be significant. - With files from CTV Vancouver Photo: The Canadian Press Donald Trump launched a blistering attack Wednesday on Hillary Clinton's record and character, slamming his presidential rival as a "world class liar" who raked in personal profits from her tenure at the State Department. The billionaire businessman claimed, "She gets rich making you poor." Trump's broadside marked his opening salvo in a general election faceoff with Clinton that has already turned bruising and deeply personal. The presumptive Republican nominee called Clinton the "most corrupt" person to ever run for president and accused of her of spreading "death, destruction and terrorism" while serving as the nation's top diplomat. Clinton, campaigning in North Carolina, called Trump's charges "outlandish lies." "He's going after me personally because he has no answers on the substance," Clinton said. "All he can try to do is try to distract us." Trump's tone was pointed yet measured as he ticked through several of Republicans' favourite critiques of Clinton, including her use of private email as secretary of state and her role in responding to the attacks on Americans in Benghazi, Libya. Several of his claims were inaccurate or exaggerated, including incorrectly saying she wants to spend hundreds of billions to resettle Middle Eastern refugees in the United States. Wednesday's address came at a pivotal moment for Trump's presidential campaign. The political novice has struggled with the transition to a general election race, getting bogged down by self-created controversies and failing to invest in the staff and infrastructure needed for the fall campaign. Earlier this week, Trump abruptly fired his campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, a move widely viewed as an acknowledgment of a need to recalibrate his organization. A new fundraising report released hours after Lewandowski's firing underscored how much ground Trump has to make up: He started June with just $1.3 million in the bank, a stunningly paltry amount for a major party nominee. Even as Trump blasted Clinton, he returned to some of the core themes that first powered his surprising presidential campaign. He railed against professional politicians and urged Americans to seize an opportunity to shake up a "rigged" system. "This election will decide whether we're ruled by the people or the politicians," Trump said, standing before a friendly audience in a ballroom at his hotel in New York's SoHo neighbourhood. While he assailed Hillary Clinton in personal terms, Trump did not make any mention of former President Bill Clinton's indiscretions, despite raising those issues earlier in the campaign. The real estate mogul did make a direct appeal to supporters of Clinton's primary rival Bernie Sanders, reminding voters that the Vermont senator, too, has raised questions about her judgment. Like Trump, Sanders also generated enormous enthusiasm among voters frustrated with Washington. Turning to his own plans as president, Trump argued that his opposition to a major Asia Pacific trade pact and his hard-line immigration position would be more beneficial than Clinton's for blacks and Hispanics, two groups that have overwhelmingly voted for Democrats in recent presidential elections. The Republican said Clinton has pledged to "end virtually all immigration enforcement and thus create totally open borders in the United States." While Clinton has called for a pathway to citizenship for millions of people living in the U.S. illegally, she has also called for focusing enforcement on "detaining and deporting those individuals who pose a violent threat to public safety." Trump frequently referenced sources of information that have been widely questioned, including the book "Clinton Cash" by Peter Schweizer. The book argues Clinton and her husband used the State Department to enrich their family, but it does not provide evidence of direct connections between business dealings by foreign interests, sometimes involving the Clinton Foundation, and decisions by Clinton when she was secretary of state. An Associated Press review of State Department calendars did show that she opened her office to dozens of influential Democratic party fundraisers, Clinton loyalists and corporate donors to her family's global charity. The AP found no evidence of legal or ethical conflicts in Clinton's meetings. Trump's remarks came one day after Clinton launched her own blistering attacks on her White House rival. She moved to undercut Trump's argument that his business record would help him create jobs as president, arguing instead that he had been "reckless" with his companies and "shouldn't have his hands on our economy." Photo: Getty Images It was an 'un-bear-able' situation for a North Vancouver resident after a hungry bruin tore open their car to get a meal. It's the second car in suburban Vancouver to be ransacked by a bruin. Police say a bear smashed into a vehicle that was parked in front of a home in North Vancouver to get the protein bars inside. The owners woke up Wednesday to find the car's windows broken, the interior ripped apart and pry marks on the door. North Vancouver RCMP say the bear left paw prints, claw marks and evidence of an empty box of protein bars. The break-in comes just days after a similar incident in nearby West Vancouver, where a bear destroyed a luxury vehicle when it broke in to access food inside. North Vancouver RCMP Cpl. Richard De Jong says bears have a very keen sense of smell and incredible strength, so people should not leave any food in their vehicles. Photo: Facebook A Michigan woman has called for gun control after finding her 3-year-old daughter standing on a toilet. MLive.com reports that Stacey Wehrman Feeley first thought it was a cute photo. The Traverse City woman said she broke down when her daughter told her she was practicing for a lockdown drill at her preschool. "I took this picture because initially I thought it was funny. I was going to send it to my husband to show what our mischievous little three-year-old was up to. However, The moment she told me what she was doing I broke down," she said. The photo was posted after a gunman killed 49 people and injured dozens of others at a gay nightclub in Orlando. Feeley's Facebook post referenced a registration database for gun owners, a ban on high capacity magazines for civilians and mental health. The post has been shared nearly 34,000 times and has more than 38,000 likes. Photo: The Canadian Press Florida wildlife officials believe they've captured the alligator that dragged a 2-year-old Nebraska boy into the Seven Seas Lagoon at Walt Disney World. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said in a news release Wednesday that it has suspended alligator trapping activities in the area. The release says officials have based their conclusions on expert analyses and observations by staff with extensive experience in investigating fatal alligator bites. A total of six alligators were removed. Authorities say an alligator pulled Lane Graves into the water June 14, despite the frantic efforts of his father. Lane's body was recovered the next day. An autopsy showed the boy died from drowning and traumatic injuries. The beach at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort and Spa is across a lake from the Magic Kingdom. In the wake of the Orlando, Fla., nightclub atrocity, President Barack Obama has admonished us to do some soul-searching about how easy it is in this country to obtain firearms. Just so. But if we are to do an honest examination of conscience, we must begin with the facts. Omar Mateen, the Orlando jihadist, slaughtered his victims with a Sig Sauer MCX rifle, an AR-15-style rifle, and a Glock handgun. Contrary to mainstream media hysteria, neither is a machine gun, a category of weapon that has been illegal to purchase or possess since 1934. Each is, instead, a semiautomatic firearm, i.e., one pull of the trigger fires but a single round of ammunition. From that standpoint, as a matter of substance as opposed to cosmetics, the Sig Sauer MCX is not different from the millions of semiautomatic rifles that Americans have owned and possessed since the early 1900s. While the Sig Sauer may look like a military-grade machine gun, it is not. Think of it as a Volkswagen Beetle dressed up to look like a Maserati. This is not to deny that Mateen was able to cause tremendous mayhem using these semiautomatic weapons. They are most certainly dangerous implements capable of spreading death and carnage. But they are no more dangerous than any other semiautomatic gun. How was Mateen able to obtain such dangerous weapons? He bought them at a gun store. Commercial sales of firearms are regulated by federal and state law. A firearms vendor must hold a license issued by the federal government and must in conjunction with federal law enforcement authorities conduct a background check of anyone attempting to purchase a gun. A purchaser must verify in writing and under penalty of law that, among other things, he is not under criminal indictment; a convicted criminal; a fugitive from justice; a drug addict or user of controlled substances; an adjudicated mental defective; a former inmate of a mental institution; someone who was dishonorably discharged from the Armed Forces; or subject to a court order restraining him from stalking, harassing or threatening his child or intimate partner. He must also verify under oath that he has never been convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence, has never renounced his U.S. citizenship and is not an illegal alien. All of the foregoing sworn information is then checked against the FBIs records. If the purchaser is cleared by the FBI, then the sale may be completed. The seller, however, may also decline to make the sale for any reason up to and including the purchasers looks, behavior or demeanor. Moreover, in the Orlando case, Mateen held a concealed-weapons license issued by the state of Florida. To obtain that, he had to be fingerprinted and photographed and to undergo a background investigation by Florida authorities. Also, in a bit of stomach-churning irony, he was required by Florida to undergo firearm safety training. Since he purchased his handgun in Palm Beach County, he was subject to a five-day waiting period before he could take delivery. Finally, Mateen was a security officer employed by a private firm that holds contracts with the Department of Homeland Security. Presumably his employer took additional measures to determine Mateens fitness for duty and possession of a weapon, but, as of publication, the nature and extent of that vetting have not been made public. In light of these facts, it is fair to ask what further safeguards, procedures or restrictions on the purchase, ownership or possession of firearms would have prevented the Orlando carnage. For example, advocates of what they call commonsense gun control argue that anyone on a terrorist watch list should not be permitted to legally buy a gun. Fair enough, but would such a prohibition be effective? Or would a determined terrorist such as Mateen simply resort to using a straw purchaser, a practice that has been used successfully by felons, drug users, wife beaters and others to evade existing legal restrictions? Should we follow Europes example of banning possession of firearms by civilians? If so, isnt it fair to ask how the Paris jihadis were able to gun down and murder 129 infidels and wound another 368 at the Bataclan nightclub in November? Putting aside the mandate of the Second Amendment, we must recognize that there are 90 million law-abiding Americans who legally possess an estimated 300 million firearms and who pose no demonstrable threat to their fellow citizens. Are they to be turned into outlaws by legislative or executive fiat? And are these newly minted criminals then to be stripped of their weapons? If so, how would that be done? By force of arms? If even a fraction of that 90 million were to resist confiscation of their weapons, does the government have the police, military, judicial and penal resources to search, disarm, arrest, prosecute and punish that vast legion of otherwise law-abiding citizens? Would the law-enforcement establishment willingly undertake such punitive actions? We have already seen substantial numbers of gun owners in Connecticut and New York openly defy hastily enacted antigun laws imposed in the wake of the Sandy Hook tragedy. Faced with other more pressing threats to public order, police and sheriffs departments in those states have wisely elected not to risk the mayhem that could very well result if they attempted to arrest and disarm defiant gun owners. And even if the government somehow managed to confiscate all 300 million legally owned firearms, what about the untold and uncounted millions of firearms already in the hands of criminals? So far, law enforcement has been unable to effectively prevent the possession and use of guns by our domestic criminal class. Should we expect a different result when dealing with bloodthirsty jihadis hell-bent on mass murder? These are but some of the questions that must be answered. To ignore them is to engage in magical thinking whereby the very real threats posed by armed terrorists and criminals can be defeated by simply passing a law. If only life were that neat and easy. ABOUT THE WRITER George Parry (lgparry@dpt-law.com If a restaurant has print out a calorie count for most meals on the menu, why not a letter grade for how safely it prepared its food? Thats one of the reactions to our story earlier this month reviewing the Coconino Countys food inspection procedures and listing some of the more serious offenders. We found that although most eating establishments were being inspected twice a year and some even forced to close temporarily, diners were kept largely in the dark. A closed restaurant must post a notice but is not required to give a reason, and the public health departments bimonthly report usually comes out well after any violations large or small -- have occurred. On the other hand, most restaurants never come close to being closed and their violations are relatively minor and fixed almost immediately. What benefit is it to diners to have outdated information about infractions that dont rise to the level of a health threat? We suppose that if a letter grade was the only information available to diners, it could be misleading. But in the age of the Internet, the Health Department can post a lot more information if diners are interested. They just have to know where to look. But unfortunately, Coconino Countys website has no portal through which citizens can obtain information about the results of a restaurants inspection or even lodge a complaint. Even when a restaurant like China Star, which has been forced to close twice in the past five years, posts a notice of closure, there is no way for diners to find the 16 complaints it received since 2009 or the multiple critical violations it accumulated. A brief tour of the Internet turns up dozens of cities with web sites containing interactive public databases of restaurant inspections and enforcement actions. Many have explanations of the scoring and ranking methods, the most commonly cited critical and noncritical violations and the risk associated with different types of violations. The sites dont say how the interactive databases are being paid for, but its likely the restaurants themselves pay an inspection fee that covers public recordkeeping. Its part of the cost of being entrusted to sell food to the public theres a health and safety component here that deserves not only more oversight but more transparency and public education than, say, selling carpets or painting houses. As it turns out, the safety record of Coconino County food establishments is extremely high. Of 1,929 regular inspections last fiscal year, 1,357 had no violations. Twenty-two percent had two violations or fewer. Which left just 8 percent or 147 with three or more violations. But with Coconino County and Flagstaff in particular attracting millions of visitors a year, those 147 could do a lot of damage to the tourism industry if word got around the Internet that the county was covering up for the bad actors. We dont believe that is the case, but right now it is impossible to know. We urge county health officials to put a restaurant inspection public database on the fast track. Rwanda: Cimerwa calls for protection from illegal exports 22 June 2016 Cimerwa, Rwanda's sole cement producer, has asked the government for protection, saying local dealers are exporting its cement illegally, affecting its key markets in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi. All Africa reported that Busisiwe Legodi, the Cimerwa CEO, said the problem is made worse by the fact that some of the local dealers buy cement at subsidised prices for the Rwandan market, but sell it on in small quantities to the DR Congo and Burundi, making it hard for the cement manufacturer to sell. "Local bulk buyers get the cement at subsidised prices and sneak it out of the country to our target markets," she said, adding that illegal cross-border trade remains a challenge, not only for Cimerwa, but all exporters in general. The Rwandan government and the private sector have intensified campaigns at encouraging Rwandans to consume locally-made cement, as well as broadening the country's exports base. Domestic cement demand currently stands at about 450,000tpa, driven by the increasing demand for cement by the local construction and real estate sectors. The surplus output is targeted for the export market in the region, especially Burundi and the DR Congo. The firm has also cut factory prices to attract clientele in the highly competitive regional cement market. Cimerwa reduced the factory price for bulk buyers (more than 700 bags of cement or about 30,000t) by RWF1200 (US$1.59) per 50kg bag of cement to RWF7300 from RWF8500. However, Busisiwe said retailers benefitting from low prices export to regional markets, which has eaten into the firm's export markets. "We we have raised the matter with the Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA) customs department, but they yet to respond to our grievances," she said. Rwanda's cement imports fell to US$82.7m in 2015 from US$85.6m in 2014, according to the central bank statistics. Published under It is easily the consensus of the Hamilton County taxpayers that the idea of each of our nine County Commissioners having a $100,000 discretionary fund is ridiculous. County Mayor Jim Coppinger omitted the $900,000 line item from the budget last summer and when six commissioners then successfully conspired to steal the money from our rainy-day fund, we should have impeached some otherwise good people on the spot. Next Wednesday the 2016-17 budget should be easily approved without the hugely unpopular discretionary spending included but, very sadly, commissioner Tim Boyd is trying a last-ditch effort to revive it and his actions are flagrantly appalling. Tim just leveled discretionary charges on County Mayor Jim Coppinger in an effort so bizarre it makes your eyes run and your nose itch. Are you kidding me? Among the 10 items Boyd called out of the impending budget are the Humane Educational Society ($620,970.00), the countys Volunteer Fire Departments ($438,348.00), the Urban League ($50,000) and our READ 20 program ($295,091.00). Anyone who believes the Humane Society, which tends to our countys lost dogs and cats, is a discretionary item surely suffers from a strain of hoof-and-mouth disease where you open your mouth and insert your hoof. This is absolutely ludicrous all 10 items Tim contested in a misguided news release were approved in full public view by the County Commission Boyd was there while Coppinger had nothing to do with it -- and to insinuate the County Mayor has his own list of favorites is both unfair and degrading to the entire Hamilton County staff that does it right. Boyds desperate ruse stinks to high heavens and he should apologize to his fellow commissioners, if for nothing else, his aggrandizement and unsportsmanlike conduct. If youll look at the proposed budget the first thing you see is no tax increase. Not one person has publicly thanked or acknowledged that Coppinger has avoided a tax increase for six straight years while elsewhere across America tax hikes appear unavoidable. (Privately, Im for an increase; our schools are visibly desperate, and we are sadly underfunding some other basic services in the county that we shouldnt.) The two biggest gainers in the new budget are the Hamilton County Schools, now at $417 million with $10-plus million in new funding, and Public Safety (our Sheriffs Office and EMTs) with an over $2 million boost. The budget is tight, it always is, but it is universally agreed by those who have combed it time and time again that it is fair, it meets most of our needs, and makes the best use of taxpayer dollars. The best new addition? The county will open a Veterans Service to better care for our heroes who fought for freedom. It is believed there is ample money now available in various state and federal programs but it has gone unspent because no one is in charge of it, thus none of us knows what exactly is available. The county will soon pay the salaries of a veteran who will identify needy veterans and seek a myriad of solutions that they deserve. Lets call it what it is: Discretionary spending is a dinosaur in modern government. Sure, if youll go out to East Ridge you can see signage that some flagpole, for instance, was made possible by Commissioner Tim Boyd but that is pure bunk. Any spending is made possible with taxpayer dollars, not Boyds, but it is a ruse to gain favor and assure votes. Anybody can go online (hamiltoncounty.gov) and see that Boyd used $3,250 of taxpayer money to buy tutus for Chattanooga Ballets Nutcracker performance. Are you happy with that? You can also see where Boyd delivered $4,399.00 of county taxpayer money to the city of East Ridge (a municipality, mind you) for a flag and flagpole at Camp Jordan. Are you easy with over $4-grand of Hamilton County money buying a flag and flagpole for the city of East Ridge? That is clearly East Ridge governments responsibility. It is so stupid it defies reason. And it is clearly wrong. What is right is the fact that any of the nine commissioners, at any time, can request funding for a project in their district that discretionary money might have covered in years past. But the beauty of such a request is that it must pass a majority vote rather than meet the whim of one commissioner who wants a bumper sticker or senseless plaque to say, Hey, look at me! When six of the commissioners raided the countys rainy day fund last year, the sad fact is there is no way the $900,000 can ever be replaced. And because of a huge public outcry, the feeling is the days of the discretionary fund are long gone. A Hamilton County commissioner is paid approximately $24,000 a year. There is a mileage/expense addendum of $12,500 that each gets a year and, of course, health insurance is a real perk. I am solidly of the opinion any public servant definitely earns their money but when I hear Tim Boyd didnt attend any of the four budget workshops that carefully explained this years allocations, and then goes off like some loose cannon accusing Mayor Coppinger of $1.5 million in discretionary spending of his own, that is irresponsible and markedly untrue. Our County Commission think about this has no oversight but it should be held accountable to the taxpayers. How on earth could we install and series of checks and balances where the Humane Educational Society, the volunteer fire departments across our county and our marine rescue service will never be questioned for what they and other organizations under the county umbrella do for the common good? Any other notion is absurd. Unfortunately, we have to wait until 2018 for our true voices to be heard. royexum@aol.com You have permission to edit this collection. Edit Close With temperatures rising in the Tennessee Valley, many are turning to The Salvation Army for relief from the heat. To meet this need, Salvation Army caseworkers are distributing free box fans and water to low-income individuals and families affected by the heat. The Salvation Army also has its Day Center open for the homeless and is providing a hydration station outside for those who need a cool drink of water. For those in need of a fan, call 305-6200. Those in need of a cool drink of water may visit the hydration station at 800 McCallie Ave. Passersby will be able to quench their thirst from 9 a.m.5 p.m. every day that the temperature exceeds 90 degrees. In just two weeks we have already distributed over 50 fans," said Director of Marketing Kimberly George. "The East Lake Salvation Army has also seen over 100 children each day swimming to try to get relief from the heat. Overwhelming the largest need we have in the summer is relief from the heat. To meet these needs, The Salvation Army asks for new box fans and monetary support to provide utility assistance for low-income families. Monetary gifts for box fans and utility bill assistance should be marked Beat the Heat and mailed to 822 McCallie Ave., Chattanooga, TN 37403. Donations are also accepted online at www.csarmy.org or by calling 1-800-SAL-ARMY. For more information about The Chattanooga Salvation Army, please visit www.csarmy.org, Facebook, and Twitter. Physicists from the Technological Institute for Superhard and Novel Carbon Materials, the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, and the Siberian Federal University have mathematically modelled diamond-based microstructures for producing compact high sensitivity sensors. The researchers' study investigates the problem of selecting a useful acoustic signal taking into account the excitation of Lamb waves in promising microwave microresonators with substrates of synthetic diamonds. The scientists proposed a mathematical model and experimentally studied acoustic waves in the piezoelectric layered structure, described their dispersion and proposed a number of ways of decreasing the effects of spurious peaks. In the future, diamond crystal based structures may be able to be used as high sensitivity sensors to detect pressure, acceleration, temperature, the thickness of ultrathin films etc. "I think that the results we have obtained from a piezoelectric layered structure based on synthetic diamonds are ahead of world-class research in this field. Our microresonators were used to obtain resonances at record high microwave frequencies in a range of up to 20 GHz, with the quality factor remaining at several thousand. The behaviour of diamond as a substrate for the acoustic microresonator was very significant and I hope that using diamonds in acoustics and electronics will lead to more exciting discoveries," said the corresponding author of the study, Boris Sorokin, in an interview with MIPT's Communications Office. The quality factor is a feature of an oscillating system. It describes how quickly oscillations die down in a system; the higher the quality factor, the smaller the energy loss. A piezoelectric layered structure is a "sandwich" of various different materials with a piezoelectric effect. This term means that under compression or tension an electric field occurs around the material - and when an electrical voltage is applied, the material itself changes shape. Non-scientists will have seen the piezoelectric effect in lighters (pressing the button compresses the piezoelectric, which provides enough voltage for a spark). However, aside from lighters, the effect is used in microphones, precise micromanipulators, and many kinds of sensors for pressure, humidity, temperature etc. Another very important application of piezoelectrics is in highly stable piezoelectric resonators, which enable quartz clocks to display time accurately, for example, or computers to run programs smoothly. The effect of an electric field on a piezoelectric, in this case a thin film of aluminium nitride AlN, leads to deformation and causes elastic waves which pass to the substrate in the same way that an elastic wave falling on the piezoelectric film causes an electric field. When it reaches the edge of the substrate, the wave is reflected and within the layers of several materials a number of oscillations occur at the same time - this effect resembles an echo that can be heard when you shout in a tunnel or into a wide tube. Diamonds and waves Diamond substrates were not chosen by chance. Piezocrystals are ideal for such devices, as they have a combination of properties such as low acoustic absorption, a high electromechanical coupling coefficient, and a high speed of sound. Diamonds satisfy all these requirements except for one - there is no piezoelectric effect. This is why the devices needed the aluminium nitride film. Engineers are, of course, slightly apprehensive regarding the price, but synthetic diamonds are now becoming more affordable. The properties of synthetic diamonds are superior to those observed in natural diamonds, particularly in terms of their impurity profile and reproducibility, however large natural gem-quality diamonds are much more expensive. The authors of the study believe that synthetic single crystal diamonds are most promising for developing new acoustoelectric devices. Voluminous waves excited in the layered structure are able to resonate, creating both the basic type (mode) of oscillations, and also generating additional modes. In the substrate and piezoelectric film, in addition to the useful longitudinal-type oscillations, Lamb waves also occur under certain conditions. The spectrum of these waves is in separate branches with the phase velocity dependent on the frequency. Lamb waves are a complex combination of elastic oscillations occurring in thin layers of elastic media and were first described by the British physicist Horace Lamb. Interestingly, the particles in these waves follow an elliptical path. There are symmetric and antisymmetric (bending) Lamb waves. Phase velocity is the velocity at which a point moves from a predetermined phase - e.g. the crest of a wave; the phase velocity of waves in a particular medium often depends on their frequency and this effect is called dispersion. In this case it is geometric dispersion of waves in two-dimensional acoustic waveguides. On the one hand, excitation of Lamb waves is not useful in terms of the quality factor of the acoustic resonator in the main (longitudinal) mode, however these types of waves themselves may be of special interest. Using mathematical modelling, researchers studied in detail the spectrum of various acoustic modes occurring within the diamond structure, using a visualization of the areas of acoustic displacement. They paid particular attention to resonances that occur as a result of there being a whole spectrum of natural oscillation frequencies in the layered "sandwich". In the simplest case, this frequency corresponds to the frequency at which an elastic system would oscillate in the absence of external influences. If, for example, you touch and release an ordinary pendulum, it will swing with a natural frequency and applying force with this frequency is most effective for its swing. Resonance is when the natural frequency and the excitation frequency coincide - the oscillation amplitude increases sharply. Natural frequencies depend on the properties of the materials, as well as the geometry of the structure. This means that detectors can be made that are able to detect even individual bacteria that have become attached to their surface - the bacteria slightly increase the mass of the entire system and shift the resonant frequency. One of the main results was that the researchers succeeded in selecting and identifying different types of waves and forming dispersion laws for them. The results obtained will be useful in the development of microwave acoustoelectronic devices. Acoustoelectronics is a science combining solid-state physics, semiconductors, and radioelectronics that studies the principles of building devices to detect, convert, and process signals. Acoustic resonators are widely used in science and technology as sensing elements in various physical and chemical sensors and in medical devices. Cavity resonators are popular because of their miniature size and high quality factor, while resonating at high and ultra-high frequencies. The higher the operating frequencies, the smaller the cross-sectional dimensions of resonators are required (~100 microns for a frequency of ~10 GHz). The acoustic properties of these sensitive elements are developed and studied at MIPT's Department of Physics and Chemistry of Nanostructures, which is based at the Technological Institute for Superhard and Novel Carbon Materials. It was at this institute where scientists from a number of Russian organisations worked together to develop a method of creating a material harder than diamond; it was also the place where the secret of the abnormal stiffness of polycrystalline diamonds was uncovered - it was found that they are more rigid than single crystals. Celebrating jailhouse recovery Audio Article Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle Sears paid a visit to the Chesterfield County Jail last week, meeting with over 50 of the men and women participating in the HARP (Helping Addicts... An icons legacy memorialized Audio Article Enon Library was dedicated in memory of the Rev. Wyatt Tee Walker on Friday, Oct. 21. Board of Supervisors Chair Chris Winslow, right, was joined by Walkers daughter, Patrice Walker... Now is the time to purchase a new home at Meadows Edge at Highland Woods in Elgin where buyers who sign a contract between now and July 31 will receive a $10,000 cash rebate after closing.* "This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for new home buyers at Highland Woods," says Chris Coleman, Chicago Division president for William Ryan Homes. "The offer is good for to-be-built and quick delivery homes. Buyers simply need to sign a contract and place their deposit by July 31. The $10,000 cash rebate is issued after closing. What better way to start off in a new home than with $10,000 cash to spend on new furniture, decorating or whatever else may be on your family's wish list." Advertisement Highland Woods is a master-planned community featuring the multimillion dollar Owners Club and water park, 154 acres of open space with natural preserved areas, lushly landscaped green space, an 18-acre lake, seven parks and playgrounds, and over five miles of nature trails and bicycle/walking paths. William Ryan Homes offers eight floor plans, including two ranch plans, in the Meadows Edge neighborhood. Homes, which are priced from $274,990 to $359,990, range from 2,008 to 3,785 square feet in size with three or four bedrooms, 2.5 to 3.5 baths, basements and two or three-car garages. Advertisement One of the most popular plans at Meadows Edge is the two-story, 2,935-square-foot Jericho, which is priced from $319,990 and showcased as a professionally-decorated model. The home includes four bedrooms, 2.5 baths, full basement and three-car tandem garage. The model is shown with the optional William Ryan Homes Signature morning room. A two-story central foyer opens to the two-story living room on one side and the dining room with available coffered ceiling on the other. A graceful staircase with a landing separates the formal areas from the expansive informal living area. Family living and casual entertaining will have the advantage of plentiful space in the large family room, breakfast room, and spacious kitchen with walk-in pantry, and available butler's pantry. The morning room has three walls of window space. The first floor also includes a powder room and convenient mud room with access to the garage. Upstairs, the Jericho features a lavish master bedroom with available tray ceiling, his and hers walk-in closets and a deluxe compartmented bath with double vanities, corner soaking tub and separate shower. Three other large bedrooms have walk-in closets and a second-floor laundry room and compartmented hall bath complete the plan. The model and sales center are located at 3510 Gallant Fox Drive in Elgin. The sales center is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday, Tuesday and Thursday through Saturday, 1 to 6 p.m. Wednesday and from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday. To visit, take Randall Road to Lake Street (US 20) west two miles past Coombs Road to Highland Woods. The entrance is on the right. Call 847-305-3931 for more information or visitWilliamRyanHomes.com. * See a William Ryan sales associate for terms and conditions for $10,000 cash rebate offer. The Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago announced a multimillion-dollar donation from philanthropists Pat and Shirley Ryan on Wednesday that will put her name on an innovative new research hospital in Streeterville. (RIC photo) The Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago announced a multimillion-dollar donation from Pat and Shirley Ryan on Wednesday that will put her name on an innovative new research hospital in Streeterville. The AbilityLab, a $550 million, 1.2-million-square-foot research hospital under construction at 355 E. Erie, will be named the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab after the donation from the founder and former executive chairman of Aon and his wife. Pat Ryan said the gift is the couples largest single gift ever but would not disclose the amount, nor would the RIC provide details. Recent naming gifts at major institutions, including the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago and the Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, have reached the $100 million mark. "We've had people we know, friends, who have had serious traumas in their life who were able to be treated at RIC saved their lives, changed their lives, made this dramatic difference in what their outcomes would have been," Pat Ryan said. "We've had this passion for RIC and the work that it does. So it makes us very proud to be a part of expanding that." The RIC also received a $10 million gift from the Harris Family Foundation and an eight-figure gift from Mike and Lindy Keiser earlier this year. Advertisement RIC President and CEO Dr. Joanne Smith said the donation from the Ryans will allow the RIC to increase its overall capital campaign goal to $350 million from $300 million by the end of 2017. Two months ago, it said the campaign had reached $213 million. The new hospital, expected to open in March 2017, will aim to bring together clinicians, scientists, technologists and others to improve patient outcomes. The facility will include Innovation Centers that will focus on research on subjects including the brain; spinal cord; and nerve, muscle and bone. Human labs in other spaces will focus on specific functions for patients, like strength or walking. If you came in with a stroke, you would have a physician and a clinical team of therapists and others, but youd also see and work with a research team that was surrounding you 24/7, with which you could participate in clinical trials or research activity, Smith said. But more importantly, that research team would be guiding us and literally integrating with patients to help us understand what problems we need to identify first and solve better and faster. Smith said the center will be an experiment itself prompting scientists and therapists and others who dont traditionally interact to work together in collaborative spaces. RIC worked with Gensler, HDR Architecture and Clive Wilkinson Architects to design the space. We are embedding the researchers and their teams right around the patient, she said. It will be spicy, it will be cultural collision, but we think through that, great things and innovation and great outcomes will happen. Ryan said he and Shirley were very interested in supporting translational research, the practice of "translating" discoveries to studies in humans. "Weve had a very strong belief for a long time of the importance of great clinical care blended with great research ... (which) gets outcomes for society that not only are innovative but are really profoundly impactive," he said. "Thats why were doing it." Dr. Julian Solway, Director of the University of Chicago Institute for Translational Medicine, said such spaces speed up innovation and tailor medicine to patient's needs. "This type of environment is the medical communitys version of the startup worlds open-office coworking spaces, where the physical design encourages organic collaboration," he said in an email to Blue Sky. "The new AbilityLab is part of a rich translational science ecosystem in Chicagoland, where many academic medical centers are integrating research with health care, and it's one of the first buildings specifically designed to meet the needs of researchers, physicians, and patients without the physical walls that often separate everyone," he said. RIC also announced that Pathways, the Glenview-based outpatient pediatric therapy clinic and educational website founded by the Ryans in 1985, will become part of the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab. The not-for-profits 38 employees will become part of the RIC network, Shirley Ryan said. She will remain chairwoman of Pathways and will join RICs governing board. She said the integration of Pathways into RIC will help her organization build on its original mission. She said more than 7,000 people each day view the groups educational videos, which seek to help parents understand subjects like developmental milestones. Its correct that every parent has access to this knowledge, she said. Pat Ryan said the partnership between the groups will help Pathways and RIC continue the work Shirley Ryan has done with the organization. Its sort of like the work shes been doing, but on triple steroids, he said. After six days of testimony from insurance executives, hospital CEOs and industry experts, the federal government's attempt to block the proposed merger of Advocate Health Care and NorthShore University HealthSystem came down to one witness. Steven Tenn was hired by the Federal Trade Commission to do an analysis of the Chicago area hospital market. He is well-qualified to evaluate the competitive effects of mergers. He has a doctorate in economics from the University of Chicago and even worked as an economist at the FTC. Advertisement The FTC relied on Tenn's expert opinion for a crucial part of its case, identifying the geographic market in which the merged hospitals might exercise monopoly power to raise health care prices. But U.S. District Judge Jorge Alonso said Tenn's analysis was "flawed" and the key reason the commission lost its challenge. The judge spent most of his 13-page decision, which was released late Monday, dissecting Tenn's rationale. The FTC was concerned that an Advocate-NorthShore combination would reduce competition for consumers who live in Cook and Lake counties because the two systems have overlapping hospitals in that geographic area. Advertisement Tenn helped the commission define the relevant market. He constructed an area that included six of the merging hospitals Lutheran General in Park Ridge, Condell Medical Center in Libertyville, Evanston Hospital, Skokie Hospital, Glenbrook Hospital in Glenview and Highland Park Hospital. Tenn's market also included Vista East Hospital in Waukegan, Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights, Presence Resurrection Hospital in Chicago, Swedish Covenant Hospital in Chicago and Northwestern Lake Forest Hospital. But he didn't count as competitors what he called "destination" hospitals, including academic medical centers such as Northwestern Memorial and Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. He also excluded hospitals such as Presence St. Francis in Evanston because it didn't overlap with more than one of the merging hospitals. Advocate and NorthShore disagreed with Tenn's market, especially the exclusion of Northwestern Memorial. They argued that Northwestern has numerous outpatient facilities in Cook and Lake counties, which help drive admissions to its academic medical center. Alonso agreed. The judge cited numerous witnesses who testified that physicians significantly influence a patient's choice of hospitals. Tenn's exclusion of destination hospitals ignores "the commercial realities of this industry," Alonso wrote. The FTC plans to appeal Alonso's ruling. Pending the appeal, Advocate and NorthShore are not allowed to close their merger. asachdev@tribpub.com Twitter @ameetsachdev This Chicago metropolitan area is one of 27 geographic "hot spots" identified by an analysis of Medicare claims data by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General. (David McNew / Getty Images) Chicago's home health care industry has a big fraud problem and a federal study released Wednesday suggests more scrutiny may be warranted. The metropolitan area is one of 27 geographic "hot spots" identified by an analysis of Medicare claims data by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General. The examination found dozens of home health agencies and physicians in the Chicago area whose recent Medicare claims have characteristics similar to those observed in cases of fraud. Advertisement Federal authorities are paying close attention to home health because it is playing a growing role in U.S. health care as insurers and physicians increasingly seek to manage patients with chronic conditions and keep them out of emergency rooms, hospitals and nursing homes. In 2015, the Medicare insurance program for the elderly paid $18.4 billion to more than 11,000 home health businesses. At more than $900 million, the Chicago region had the most home health payments last year, according to the report. Advertisement Chicago has been long recognized as having high rates of home health fraud, so much so that in 2013 the federal government imposed its first moratorium on new home care businesses in the six-county region. Federal authorities in Chicago also have pursued fraudsters aggressively. Dozens of physicians, nurses, home health agency owners and marketers have been charged and convicted in recent years. The investigations have revealed many problems, including doctors taking kickbacks for referrals and approving home nursing visits for patients who were not homebound. The indictments keep coming. On Wednesday, the Justice Department announced charges against a physician with an office in Buffalo Grove, Dr. Yevgeny Odessky, who is accused of taking cash kickbacks in exchange for referring patients to a home health agency in the north suburbs. Odessky was not immediately available for comment. In addition, the owners of two home health providers, Schaumburg-based Axis Health Care Services and Glenview-based TLC Healthcare Services of Illinois, have been charged with paying kickbacks to recruiters in exchange for referring elderly patients. The charges were part of what officials said Wednesday was the largest crackdown on Medicare fraud since a federal health care investigations team was started nine years ago. Federal agents have arrested about 300 suspects around the country, on charges ranging from taking illegal payments to false physical therapy claims that allegedly cost Medicare about $900 million. Despite numerous successful prosecutions, home health fraud remains an issue, said Adam Freeman, a leader of the study by the Office of Inspector General. The study flagged 37 home health providers and 257 physicians in the Chicago area as having suspicious Medicare claims. It didn't identify any of them by name. asachdev@tribpub.com Advertisement Twitter @ameetsachdev Chicago-area home prices continue to rise moderately as tight supply pushed the median home price in May up 6.1 percent over the previous year, according to Illinois Realtors. In the nine-county Chicago area, there were 11,664 homes sold in May, up 7.5 percent from a year earlier. Advertisement The median price was $234,500, an increase over $221,000 over the same month a year ago. Despite continuing gains, it will be more than two or three years before prices throughout the metropolitan area regain 2008 levels, according to Geoffrey J.D. Hewings, director of the University of Illinois' regional economic applications laboratory. In Cook County alone, prices are rising more modestly, with the median price of homes sold at $245,000 in May, a 4.3 percent gain over a year earlier. Condo prices dropped 1 percent to $243,000, while single-family homes rose 7.9 percent. Advertisement McHenry County experienced the largest local gains, with the median home selling at $200,000, a 13 percent increase over the previous May. Grundy County was the only county to experience price declines. Its median home sold dropped 6.3 percent to $155,500. Lake County homes appreciated moderately to $235,000, a 3.2 percent gain. The city of Chicago saw a 5 percent increase with 2,887 sales, up from 2,750 a year earlier. The median price was $291,000, up 3.6 percent compared with May 2015 when the median was $281,000. For the Chicago area as a whole, average prices are drifting higher as fewer foreclosures occur at ultra low prices. Only 14.2 percent of home sales in the metro area were foreclosures, the lowest since 2009, according to Illinois Realtors. The median price of foreclosed properties in the Chicago area was $152,777 compared with $245,000 for regular properties. As prices rise relatively slowly for homes generally, foreclosed properties are experiencing the largest jump. The median price has climbed 12.6 percent over the last year, while price appreciation for regular properties was only 1 percent. "We are going into a more normal market," said Mike Drews, president of Illinois Realtors. Yet, with many homeowners still waiting for homes to appreciate more before selling them, or simply comfortable staying in existing homes and remodeling, Drews said extremely tight inventory is creating a seller's market. If homes are priced right, he said, sellers are getting multiple offers. The typical home is on the market for just 40 days in Chicago, he said. "That's very short, like the heydays of the 2000s." But before the housing crisis, homes were moving quickly amid a mania. Drews said now it's "because inventory has shrunk and so there is competition for those on the market." Advertisement Still, the greatest movement is among mid- and lower-priced homes. Hewings notes that inventory has been building among homes priced over $700,000. He said he continues to note "fence sitting" among buyers and sellers. That may be because of uncertainty over the fall elections and also over Illinois' budget, he said. He is forecasting "moderate annual growth" in prices in Illinois and the Chicago area during the summer selling season. He predicts prices will rise 8.4 percent in June, 10.2 percent in July and 11.1 percent in August. In the Chicago area, the median price in 2008 was $250,000. To be fully recovered, the price now would be $278,115 in today's dollars, according to Hewings. Some areas of Chicago, such as Lincoln Park, have fully recovered now. Matt Silver, president-elect of the Chicago Association of Realtors, said he has noted nice increases in the West Loop, Logan Square, Lincoln Park and Rogers Park neighborhoods. "Areas close to the lake, both north and south, are the areas that recover quicker and then it moves from there," Silver said. Advertisement Hewings said the suburbs generally have lagged the recovery in the hot areas of the city. gmarksjarvis@tribpub.com Twitter @gailmarksjarvis Developer Sterling Bay unveiled plans for McDonald's Fulton Market headquarters June 22, 2016. The burger chain is slated to move to the site in spring 2018. The area where it is located is variously known as Fulton Market, West Loop and West Town. (Sterling Bay rendering) McDonald's planned new Chicago headquarters will bring a nine-story building, stores, green space and about 2,000 suburban office workers to the Near West Side, and not everyone is happy at the prospect. Residents of the area known alternatively as the West Loop, Fulton Market and West Town expressed their concern at a community meeting Wednesday night as developer Sterling Bay unveiled a plan for the new headquarters, a massive two-building, 608,000-square-foot structure to be built on the site of Oprah Winfrey's former Harpo Studios. The complex, nine stories at its tallest point, will be the most significant development to hit the rapidly gentrifying neighborhood yet. It will feature a public plaza, bike storage, first-floor retail and 300 underground parking spaces. The headquarters operation is relocating from McDonald's longtime home in Oak Brook. Advertisement Sterling Bay Managing Principal Andy Gloor, who led the packed meeting that was also attended by Ald. Walter Burnett, 27th, said there's a plan to build several hundred more parking spaces nearby in addition, but some worry that's not enough. Developer Sterling Bay unveiled plans for McDonald's Fulton Market headquarters June 22, 2016. The burger chain is slated to move to the site in spring 2018. The area where it is located is variously known as Fulton Market, West Loop and West Town. (Sterling Bay rendering) "There's been a bit of a parking shake-up in the community lately," said Roger Romanelli, executive director of the Randolph/Fulton Market Association, noting that two large parking lots recently shut down, making the lack of parking for residents a bigger problem. Romanelli said the McDonald's development seems to have a balance of transit options with parking, bike storage and a planned CTA shuttle but said the area is still in need of more parking and public safety improvements to prevent the flood of development from leading to more people circling blocks for hours or getting hit by cars. Advertisement "I think it's important to have everyone in the community put their heads together as we go forward," Romanelli said. There is an effort underway to get the city to create more diagonal parking spaces in the area, which take up less room. The association is also planning to add more green space in the areas surrounding the development on Randolph Street, Romanelli said. "The ward is concerned about it, the neighborhood is concerned about it, the whole city is concerned about it," said Burnett, adding that he's working to ease issues like the lack of green space and parking in the area. The McDonald's complex is expected to cost about $250 million. Demolition, pending a permit from the city, is expected to start next month. People listen to a presentation about plans for a new McDonald's corporate headquarters in Chicago during a public meeting June 22, 2016, at Revel Fulton Market in Chicago. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune) McDonald's will occupy just under 80 percent of the complex, allowing room for other tenants that have not been identified, Gloor said. In a nod to those future tenants, the main entrance to the complex at 1045 W. Randolph St. will be on Carpenter Street, a side street, a move that saves the more visible space along Randolph for retail use. The main entrance on Carpenter also will be closer to public transportation, Gloor said. The company will operate a shuttle bus between the complex and the nearest CTA station at Morgan Street, on the Green and Pink lines. And in a nod to the old tenant, Winfrey and Harpo will be memorialized in some way in the new building, Gloor said, adding that his mother and brother had both worked there. He didn't say exactly what that commemoration would be. The building will be notably different from the suburban headquarters campus McDonald's currently occupies in Oak Brook, which includes a hotel and an internal McDonald's restaurant. Neither of those features will be a part of the downtown site. The property is expected to generate approximately $4 million annually in property taxes, Gloor said, compared with current taxes of about $240,000 generated by the Harpo Studio site. Advertisement Officials representing the fast-food giant did not attend the meeting, and one neighbor questioned the lack of participation by corporations like McDonald's in community meetings. McDonald's said it will offer details about a neighborhood meeting at a later date. Earlier Wednesday, an ordinance was introduced at City Council that would increase the allotted density of the Near West Side space. If the expansion is approved by the city, developer Sterling Bay will pay more than $4 million to the city's Neighborhoods Opportunity Fund, Adopt-A-Landmark Fund and Local Impact Fund. More than $3.2 million of it will be directed to the Neighborhoods Opportunity Fund, which aims to direct money from downtown development projects to Chicago's depressed neighborhoods. McDonald's officially announced last week its intention to move to downtown Chicago. The move is part of the company's effort to court more young, tech-savvy workers who prefer urban living. McDonald's also has an office in River North that houses its digital staff. It's not yet clear whether those employees will move west once the new headquarters building is completed in 2018. Burnett said that McDonald's officials have informed him that they expect other companies to follow them downtown, but he did not elaborate on which companies, and McDonald's didn't immediately respond to a query on that point Thursday. Google was the first major employer to move to the West Side when it relocated its Midwest headquarters from the Loop late last year. The Google building is about two blocks north of Harpo. Sterling Bay bought the Harpo site in 2014 for $30.5 million. Harpo ended production at the site last year. Advertisement sbomkamp@tribpub.com Twitter @SamWillTravel It takes two hands to handle a whopper of a wine bottle, like this double magnum. It holds four standard bottles, which means about 100 ounces, which will get you a party's worth of servings (20!) from one bottle. Go. (Michael Tercha / Chicago Tribune) When I was a kid, and all books were made of paper, it was cause for celebration when the new Guinness Book of World Records (new Guinness World Records) started showing up in stores. The globe-adorned paperback cover promised new records in everything from feats of endurance to hard-to-believe natural oddities. I wondered where they found those people, and eventually I understood that many of those people found them. Who wouldn't want to be a certified world-record holder in something? Maybe not world's longest fingernails but something, right? I can recall the huge respect and slight tinge of envy I felt when I learned as an adult that a friend's brother had held a world record in pogo sticking. Damn! Why didn't I set my mind to that? Advertisement RELATED: 25 GREAT SUMMER COCKTAILS Pogo sticking records come and go (and with any luck, the Guinness longest fingernail category has been retired). But one entry that I knew I could count on, new edition after new edition, was that of Robert Wadlow, who was born in 1918 and raised on the eastern bank of the Mississippi River in Alton, Ill. At 8 feet, 11.1 inches, he was and decades after his death remains the tallest human ever to live. Advertisement Big bottles of wine, like the "Alton Giant," capture our attention. Just the look of an oversize bottle tells us that something beyond the ordinary is afoot. The shape is basically the same as a regular bottle, but it is so much bigger. What gives? It's a party that's what gives. This will be a night (or day) to remember. An oversize bottle says, "Soon we will partake in the same collective bounty." You have been lucky enough in your life to attend a pig roast? Part of that ritual's appeal is the apple in the mouth, I will give you that. But more than that is the idea that when that fine sacrificial beast is portioned, it will feed everyone within hollerin' earshot. A standard wine bottle holds about 25 ounces of wine, or 750 milliliters, and there is a school of thought that says it is the perfect amount for two people to share. Another school of thought says that it is the perfect amount for one person to not share that it is just enough for one. Then again, I know some people who might suggest that a bottle per person is a good start to an evening. On some nights, I might agree with them. But the really big bottles, the ones we refer to as large-format? They are built for sharing. Unless you consume like the late professional wrestler and "The Princess Bride" scene-stealer Andre the Giant, who once told David Letterman that after cutting back on drinking he still occasionally enjoys "two or three bottles" of white wine with dinner, large-format wines are for sharing. The big bottles start with the magnum, which holds the equivalent of two standard bottles (1.5 liters). After the magnum, some large-format bottle sizes have different names depending on their shape and the type of wine they hold. So, a Marie Jeanne holds three bottles (2.25 liters), and a double magnum probably doesn't need an explanation, since you can do simple math, but I'll give you one anyway, just for the sake of being thorough: four bottles in one (3 liters). When a bottle of this size has sloping shoulders, it is called a Jeroboam. Eat. Watch. Do. Weekly What to eat. What to watch. What you need to live your best life ... now. > A high-shouldered bottle that holds six bottles is also called a Jeroboam, and its slope-shouldered partner is a Rehoboam. An Imperial holds eight bottles, the equivalent of 6 liters. A Methuselah holds eight bottles, too, but has sloping shoulders, and is usually used for sparkling wine. Besides being festive, large-format bottles are better for aging wine than standard-size bottles. This is because the air-to-wine ratio is lower in bigger bottles. Large-format bottles can present challenges, too, but put into perspective they are similar to the problems you might face if you were to rent a dunk tank for a party. "Where are we going to put it?" "How long will it take to fill?" They are not problems that will keep you up at night. Advertisement With big bottles, it's mostly about getting the wine into the glasses and keeping it off the tablecloth. The pouring difficulty increases with the bottle sizes, eventually requiring two hands instead of one, and then possibly employing your hip for stability, and ultimately relying on the precision of a decanting cradle. The first time I witnessed this ritual, in which several grown men Iwo Jima-ed a giant bottle onto a table and into a tilting cradle, I wanted to clap my hands like a baby and shout, "Do it again!" Now for the really big ones, which are increasingly rare. A Salmanazar holds 12 bottles (an entire case of wine), which equates to 9 liters; a Balthazar holds 16 bottles (12 liters), and a Nebuchadnezzar holds 20 bottles (15 liters). Also, somewhere out there, in limited numbers, there are even a few more sizes, ranging from the 24-bottle-equivalent Melchior to the Melchizedek, which contains a stunning 40 bottles or 200 glasses of wine (figuring 5 ounces per glass). On the other end of the size spectrum are the half bottle (375 milliliters), and the split (187 milliliters). While these little cuties don't inspire awe and mirth the way the big bottles can, they do hold a certain appeal of their own. As I recall, the tiniest human in the Guinness Book also captured my attention on several occasions. For the record, the honor currently belongs to Nepal's late Chandra Bahadur Dangi, who stood 1 foot, 9.5 inches tall. Twitter @pour_man Official soundtrack for "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" is in the works as part of its 30th anniversary celebration. (Paramount Pictures) The official soundtrack for "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," John Hughes' teenage drama set in a fictional Chicago suburb, will finally be released later this year, according to Salon. The site reports La-La Records made a deal with Paramount Pictures to release the authorized official soundtrack, 30 years after the premiere of the 1986 movie. Advertisement John Hughes, who lived on the North Shore, directed the film, which starred Matthew Broderick as Bueller. Lake Forest hosted Ferris Fest earlier this year in celebration of the film. "Ferris Bueller" is scheduled to be featured Tuesday as part of at the free Millennium Park film series. Advertisement MOST READ ENTERTAINMENT NEWS THIS HOUR 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) Judith Stein talks with Julius Tucker, left, and his mother, Jennifer Tucker, before a jazz performance at Room 43 on June 19, 2016, in Chicago. (Brandon Chew / Chicago Tribune) You may not know her name, but if you've attended a jazz show or two in the past few years, chances are you've seen her and maybe even met her. She's the tall, striking woman handing out postcards, shaking your hand, looking you in the eye and rhapsodizing about her favorite music: jazz. Advertisement She'll find you at the Hyde Park Jazz Festival, Chicago Jazz Festival, Jazz Showcase, Green Mill, Andy's, Room 43, Orchestra Hall, the University of Chicago's Logan Center anywhere and everywhere jazz rings out in this city. You can run, but you cannot hide. Advertisement If you listen to jazz, Judith Stein will locate you. Which has been a boon to music in Chicago. For without being paid a cent for her considerable efforts, Stein a retired high school English teacher and English education professor who won a Golden Apple award in 1992 has enriched an already dynamic scene. As co-founder of the Hyde Park Jazz Festival, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this September, she has helped conceive, produce and promote the city's most creative jazz soiree. And the Sunday-evening jazz sessions she emcees and champions at Room 43 perhaps the friendliest jazz gathering in a city crowded with them long since emerged as a pillar of an expanding South Side scene. No wonder the Hyde Park Jazz Festival will be honoring her at its gala and benefit concert Thursday evening at the Logan Center, on East 60th Street. "She does so much for the Chicago jazz community writ large," says Kate Dumbleton, executive and artistic director of the festival. "Her contributions as a volunteer are quite extraordinary. I'm not sure people really know just how much she does, in particular at the Hyde Park Jazz Festival. In addition to all the early concept development, she continues to do an enormous amount of work on the actual producing of the festival. She writes every single bio you see on the website, which is roughly 40 programs. "She's an unbelievable fundraiser, like nobody I've ever met," Dumbleton says. "And then, of course, she can hand out more fliers and postcards than anybody on planet Earth. I literally give her about 10,000 postcards for the festival, and she hands out every single one." Yes, many jazz lovers have told me about encountering Stein in clubs, concert halls, festivals and on CTA buses, having a Hyde Park Jazz Festival postcard tucked in their hands and hearing a soliloquy about that year's lineup. Advertisement So why does she do it? "It happened by accident," says Stein, recalling the moment in 2005 when she ran into her old friend James Wagner. Wagner, a graduate of DuSable High School and a retired public health administrator, had been working for years to rejuvenate jazz on the South Side. "It was just one of these passing things on the street where he says, totally out of the blue: 'You don't happen to like jazz, do you?'" Stein said. "I says: 'Jim, we've known each other since 1965 how in the world don't you know that that's my favorite music?'" Indeed, Stein had grown up in the South Shore neighborhood and at age 15 discovered the allures of jazz, "not at home and not in my culture but from the radio," she says, "where Daddy-O Daylie and Mike Rapchak and Marty Faye, all these guys used to be on the radio, and I started listening, and I was hooked. Advertisement "When I was in college, you didn't go into clubs unescorted, so I would hope to find dates who would go to jazz with me." A distinguished career teaching at DuSable High School, Kenwood Academy High School, Roosevelt University, Columbia College and elsewhere intervened, but running into Wagner offered Stein an opportunity to direct her considerable energies into music. She soon joined the board of the Hyde Park Jazz Society that Wagner built, found herself involved in the planning for what would become the Hyde Park Jazz Festival and has been unstoppable ever since. In effect, Stein found not only a magnificent cause but also a reimagined identity belatedly shaped by the music of her youth. "I had always been Miss Stein and the schoolteacher and all that," she says. "And all of a sudden when walking down the street, instead of getting: 'Oh, Miss Stein, you taught my daughter,' I got: 'Oh, you-hoo, Miss Jazz Lady.' Advertisement "People started calling me Jazz Lady! I loved it. It was a reinvention that was serendipitous." Stein's personal transformation has been of significant benefit to the rest of us, her labors helping to make possible performances that might not have happened without her. Though she says she "never doubted" that the Hyde Park Jazz Festival would be successful in its first year, she's "stunned" that it has reached its 10th anniversary. "I figured it would be one year, maybe two years, and then we'd move on," she says. Instead, the event steadily has grown in stature and importance, its emphasis on new ideas in jazz with commissions of major young artists such as saxophonist Miguel Zenon and trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire illuminating the future of the music. Wagner, who laid the groundwork for all of this, died in 2009, at age 75, his dream now a reality. Advertisement "I think he would be amazed," says Almarie Wagner, his widow and a board member of the Hyde Park Jazz Festival. "I'm so pleased and so grateful that his vision has been fulfilled more than he could have ever imagined." In part, we owe that to Stein. The Hyde Park Jazz Festival Gala honoring Judith Stein starts at 6 p.m. Thursday, with concert featuring the Ken Peplowski Quintet at 7:30 p.m., at the University of Chicago's Logan Center for the Arts, 915 E. 60th St.; for tickets and other information, go to www.hydeparkjazzfestival.org/benefit. Howard Reich is a Tribune critic. hreich@tribpub.com Advertisement Twitter @howardreich RELATED STORIES: Thirty years later, Green Mill owner Dave Jemilo thrives at his jazz club One-handed pianist Norman Malone's triumphant concert debut Watch the latest movie trailers. Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 122 Sophie Turner as Jean Grey, anger management student, in "Dark Phoenix." The film, the latest in the "X-Men" franchise, costars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Jessica Chastain. Read the review. (Twentieth Century Fox) Andriana Chuchman as Boonyi and Sean Panikkar as Shalimar perform in the world premiere of Shalimar the Clown for the Opera Theatre of St. Louis. (Ken Howard) ST. LOUIS Giuseppe Verdi knew a thing or two about creating powerful operas around credibly human characters thrown into violent conflict. So, as it turns out, does the creative team responsible for adapting Salman Rushdie's "Shalimar the Clown" for the Opera Theatre of St. Louis. It is something of a happy accident, then, that the adaptation by composer Jack Perla and librettist Rajiv Joseph of the British-Indian author's 2005 novel commissioned for this, the company's 41st season should be playing in repertory with Verdi's "Macbeth," another operatic tragedy with flawed figures confronting their darker natures. Advertisement Each work gets a gripping production that exemplifies what this envelope-pushing, opera-in-English company does best: high-gloss music theater that speaks to the cultural and political issues of today. "Shalimar the Clown," the opera theatre's 25th world premiere, is the latest in a series of company commissions of new works that weave together diverse cultural strands to tell contemporary stories that are topical, risky, complicated, sometimes controversial. General director Timothy O'Leary has made these pieces an essential part of the company's mission of relevance. Advertisement The OTSL's 2011 restaging of John Adams' "The Death of Klinghoffer" revived a great American opera based on the murder of a wheelchair-bound Jewish man by Palestinian terrorists aboard a cruise ship. Terrence Blanchard's "Champion," mounted here in 2013, was about a gay African-American boxer. Neither work has been staged in Chicago, but they really should be. So should "Shalimar." As is the case with "Klinghoffer," a deep sense of our common humanity resonates across the increasingly grim narrative of "Shalimar," splendidly performed in a brilliant staging by James Robinson, the company's artistic director, with Jayce Ogren conducting members of the St. Louis Symphony. "Shalimar" the opera, like "Shalimar" the book, is about the loss of paradise the province of Kashmir at the far north of the Indian subcontinent, once peaceful but since its postwar partition a battleground of ethnic and religious strife between India and Pakistan. Rushdie, whose family hailed from that spectacularly beautiful region, grieved for the destruction of a stable interfaith and multicultural community and regarded with horror the radical religious fundamentalism that filled the political vacuum. The age-old Kashmiri conflict underscores another kind of loss, the loss of innocence, that is the two-act opera's real business. In Perla and Joseph's skillful condensation of the 300-page novel, with a story told largely in flashback, we learn how naive love can morph into murderous obsession. Shalimar, a young Muslim tightrope walker, meets and falls in love with Boonyi, a young Hindu dancer, while they are performing with a folk theater troupe in the idyllic Kashmiri village of Pashigam. Although she has misgivings about committing to wedlock, their wedding is blessed by the village elders, tolerant of the young couple's religious differences. Before long, Boonyi grows restless and longs to escape the arranged marriage in hopes of training as a dancer in the outside world. She leaves Shalimar and takes up with a married man, Max Ophuls, the U.S. ambassador to India, who promises help but only seeks selfish carnal comfort. In a situation redolent of many an Italian verismo opera, the distraught Shalimar can think only of avenging himself on his wife and her lover. Fueled by rage and despair, Shalimar is putty in the hands of a fundamentalist mullah, who enlists him as a jihadist assassin in the Islamic fight against the Indian army. Meanwhile Boonyi, having given birth to a girl by Ophuls, returns to Kashmir only to find Pashigam destroyed. She is ostracized by the surviving villagers and killed by Shalimar. The opera's epilogue suggests that the avenger meets his own violent end at the hands of India, Boonyi's aptly named daughter. This is risky, uncomfortable stuff how could it not be, given the issues raised? The important thing is that the opera works. Perla's accessible, eclectic, conservatively tonal music helps to soften the grim narrative, rescuing it from bald melodrama. The San Francisco-based composer comes out of a background in alt-jazz and cross-cultural musical performance. His score incorporates the local color of Indian ragas, played on the sitar and tabla (drums), conspiring with Joseph's taut libretto 31 scenes, including a prologue and epilogue to invest Rushdie's heartbreaking lament with the dramatic resonance of modern Shakespearean tragedy. If touches of Broadway kitsch inform Shalimar's love song, this is, on the whole, a most accomplished piece of music theater. Advertisement Director Robinson and his usual team of designers Allen Moyer (set), James Schuette (costumes), Christopher Akerlind (lighting), Greg Emetaz (video and projections) bring a difficult, complicated subject to life with fluidity and flair, right down to the Bollywood-style wedding party for Shalimar and Boonyi (choreography by Sean Curran). The vocal ensemble could hardly be better. Sean Panikkar's smooth, resilient tenor is equal to the strenuous vocal challenges of the title role. Former Lyric Opera/Ryan Opera Center soprano Andriana Chuchman sings, dances and inhabits the dual roles of Boonyi and India with equal parts vocal luster and charismatic stage presence. Both Gregory Dahl as the womanizing ambassador and Katharine Goeldner as his long-suffering wife are quite fine, as is the supporting cast. New operas come and go, but "Shalimar" is a keeper. I hope it travels to Chicago one day soon. Director Robert Ainsley's well-prepared chorus, integral to the success of "Shalimar," sounds like a bigger body of voices than it actually is in the fine new "Macbeth." This completes the trilogy of Verdi's Shakespeare-inspired operas at OTSL. It also completes conductor Stephen Lord's tenure as the company's music director, a role he has held with distinction and is doing so again with "Macbeth." He draws robust, incisive playing from the orchestra in support of a solid cast and a lean and mean production by Lee Blakeley. Here Verdi's chorus of witches, representing the forces of primeval nature, assumes greater than usual presence in the drama. Foretelling Macbeth's rise and fall, the crones arrange bare wooden branches in an incantatory circle. Those same branches are used throughout the action, eventually borne by the army of Macduff and Malcolm as it advances toward the castle of the usurper Macbeth. The production is elemental in its starkness and simplicity, making resourceful use of the intimate thrust stage. Mark Bouman's ancient-modern costumes are a symphony in black, their gloomy monochrome offset by crimson smears of stage blood. A configuration of shifting panels defines scene changes as director Blakeley goes about probing the twisted psyches of grand opera's most famous regicidal couple. Advertisement We see Macbeth and Lady Macbeth eating dinner in morose silence at opposite ends of a banquet table while, in the foreground, Macduff laments his slain family and vows vengeance. We later glimpse Macbeth crouching beside his throne during his wife's sleepwalking soliloquy another telling dramatic touch. The leading roles are splendidly taken by Roland Wood and Julie Makerov. The British baritone looks like a young Bryn Terfel and sings Macbeth like a young Sherrill Milnes, with a firm, burnished sound and absolute verbal acuity a discovery indeed. Verdi didn't want a beautiful singing voice for Lady Macbeth, and, to be sure, the California-born soprano emitted some paint-peelers at full voice. That said, her middle register was warm, her legato admirable and her dramatic sense sure-footed. Tenor Matthew Plenk made a plangent Macduff, and Robert Pomakov's sepulchral bass as Banquo capped a "Macbeth" of true international festival caliber. Space unfortunately permits only a capsule critique of the other show I caught in St. Louis, "Ariadne on Naxos." Richard Strauss' wry love letter to the theater, with its seriously absurd prologue and absurdly serious opera-within-an-opera, is another OTSL show prominently cast with Lyric alumni: Soprano Marjorie Owens brings a voluptuous soprano to the Prima Donna/Ariadne; Cecelia Hall sings stylishly as the put-upon Composer; and Levi Hernandez makes an admirable Music Master. Even so, director-choreographer Sean Curran keeps the emphasis on commedia dell'arte farce, and it's the comedians that dance away with the show. Leading them are So Young Park's pretty and charming Zerbinetta (agile in her coloratura although she spikes her high notes) and John Brancy's nimble Harlequin. Tenor AJ Glueckert copes well with Bacchus' cruelly high tessitura. Keeping things crisply animated in the pit is conductor Rory Macdonald, who draws an elegant, polished account of Strauss' miraculous score from the orchestra. Puccini's "La Boheme" completes the current repertory. Advertisement Next year's festival promises Puccini's "Madame Butterfly"; Mozart's "La Clemenza di Tito"; the American premiere of Philip Glass and Christopher Hampton's adaptation of Franz Kafka's "The Trial"; and the premiere of a new performing version of Ricky Ian Gordon and Michael Korie's "The Grapes of Wrath." The 2016 Opera Theatre of St. Louis season runs through Sunday at the Loretto-Hilton Center in suburban Webster Groves; 314-961-0444. www.experienceopera.org. John von Rhein is a Tribune critic. jvonrhein@tribpub.com Twitter @jvonrhein MOST READ ENTERTAINMENT NEWS THIS HOUR Watch the latest movie trailers. Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 122 Sophie Turner as Jean Grey, anger management student, in "Dark Phoenix." The film, the latest in the "X-Men" franchise, costars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Jessica Chastain. Read the review. (Twentieth Century Fox) Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti, Africa, is as spartan as a U.S. military encampment gets, Mary Roach writes in her new book, "Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War." Other than a few shrubs struggling to grow under leaking air conditioners, the landscape is barren. And indoors, it's not much better. "Interior decor takes the form of emergency instruction placards ('Stop and listen to the Giant Voice ') and framed chain-of-command portraits," Roach writes. But she does find one deluxe extravagance in this luxury-free zone Charmin Ultra Soft. It makes sense in light of what goes on here, she says, pointing out a sign that reads, "Diarrhea Clinical Trial." Advertisement Welcome to military research as viewed through the eyes of America's funniest science writer. "Grunt" is Roach's sixth book of oddball exploration, and it's a swift and engrossing romp through topics that few would treat with anything other than grim solemnity penis repair, for instance. But Roach has a knack for making the horrific fascinating, fueled by delightfully nutty curiosity and a slightly off-center perspective. She long ago proved that she can make very unfunny topics laugh-out-loud material dead bodies in her 2004 book "Stiff"; digestion and all its unpleasant eruptions in "Gulp" (2013); and space travel in "Packing for Mars" (2010). In each outing, she scouts out the unexpected science and the delectable (or the exactly anti-delectable) morsels others would have missed or run from. She is never obvious. For instance, she mentions only one weapon in the entire book on military research: a gun that shoots dead chickens at airplanes to test aircraft for the ability to withstand fowl obstacles. Anyone can write about weapons. But who else would track down a Special Ops guy in Djibouti to discuss pooping, and the impact of biological urgency on military operations? Altogether, it's quite a performance. She's treading on near-sacred ground when she takes on the lives of those who put themselves in harm's way for their country. And watching her pull this off left me a little breathless. She manages to convey both respect for the soldiers and humor, often by making herself the punch line. In the chapter, "Leaky SEALs: Diarrhea as a threat to national security," the Special Ops guy she interviews advises her to go to Somalia if she wants the real story on diarrhea. She writes, "Yes, let's picture it middle-aged American with her cork-bed comfort sandals and wheelie bag, wandering the desert redoubts of the local al-Qaeda affiliate. 'Yoo-hoo! I'm looking for the Navy SEAL safe house?'" Advertisement Her humor often works because she is such a sharp observer. She describes a speaker as having "a wide superhero jaw and muscles so big that when he walks in front of the slide projector, entire images can be viewed on his forearm." She explains why NASCAR safety precautions can't help the Army protect personnel carriers and their human contents: "Race car drivers are packed in their seats like mail-order stemware." She writes about trying to hear orders shouted by a guy with a voice like a bullhorn while wearing standard military hearing protection. He sounded "like someone shrank him down and put him inside a mason jar." She describes a small laser-energy burst used to test fabrics as "a teacup IED." Roach's footnotes could be published all by themselves. Often only tangentially related to the topic at hand, they say a lot about how her mind works and reveal something about her devotion to detail. For instance, one footnote explains that the U.S. Army is so concerned about hook-and-loop fasteners, it has a Hook and Loop Task Group, a subcommittee of the Combat Clothing Utility Subcommittee. She doesn't use a footnote to tell us military button regulations cover 22 pages, but she does to explain appended to a discussion on Kevlar underwear that a codpiece has "nothing to do with genital protection or fashion, for that matter, or cod." She wanders away from the topic of flame-proof fabrics to investigate, in a footnote, the number of burns caused annually by melting pantyhose. Sadly, no such data exist in the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System she was searching. "I ran out of patience, somewhere around the thirty-seven-year-old man who tried to iron his pants while wearing them." On the way we learn how combat medics are trained, what maggots can do for wound healing, what sharks really want despite reports to the contrary, it's not you and sleep deprivation on submarines. I said earlier that Roach is America's funniest science writer, and while that's true, it sells her short. No other nonfiction writer so consistently manages to be both hilarious and informative. Even when she makes us utterly squeamish. Jenni Laidman is a frequent Printers Row contributor. "Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War" By Mary Roach; W.W. Norton, 285 pages, $26.95 Governors from the eight Great Lakes states agreed Tuesday to allow a Wisconsin city to start pumping millions of gallons a day from Lake Michigan, marking the largest diversion of water from the lakes since Chicago reversed the flow of the Chicago River in 1900. The unanimous decision favoring Waukesha, a Milwaukee suburb of 70,000 about 17 miles west of the lake, is the first test of a 2008 legal compact intended to prevent thirsty communities or countries outside the Great Lakes region from dipping into the world's largest source of fresh surface water. Advertisement Like parts of Chicago, Waukesha is just outside the subcontinental divide separating areas of the Midwest that drain into the Great Lakes from those where water flows toward the Mississippi River. Waukesha's request challenged politicians, scientists and advocates who feared it would set a precedent that cleared the way for potentially bigger diversions, such as pipelines connecting the lakes to Las Vegas or other arid, fast-growing cities. What the Wisconsin city ended up getting is considerably more limited. Several officials and observers involved in the long-running debate think the deal could discourage others from attempting a bid for access to water that the Great Lakes region zealously guards as its own. Advertisement Before the eight states approved the new pact, Waukesha agreed to recycle all of the water it draws from Lake Michigan and return it to a river that flows into the lake. Another provision limits the amount pumped to the city to an average of 8 million gallons a day, down from the original request of 10 million. Perhaps even more important is the area served by the new source of water is restricted to Waukesha's current borders, meaning the city can't use it to advance suburban sprawl. "They've set a very high bar," said Peter Annin, co-director of a Northland College water center and author of "The Great Lakes Water Wars." "If you are a water manager in another suburb or rural community, this just doesn't seem like an attractive or inexpensive option." Waukesha sought access to Lake Michigan water because some of its community wells are contaminated with naturally occurring radium a problem also faced by several Chicago suburbs. Great Lakes governors were swayed in part by research showing some of the groundwater now being drawn by Waukesha would flow toward Lake Michigan if it no longer is used by the city. Another argument in Waukesha's favor was that access to Lake Michigan water would free the city of having to treat water from its radium-contaminated wells, which creates radioactive sludge. "The vote today means the City can now move forward in providing a reliable, sustainable, and safe supply of drinking water for its residents," Waukesha Mayor Shawn Reilly said in a statement. More than a decade in the making, the Waukesha diversion was authorized under a limited exception to the water protection agreement between the eight states and two Canadian provinces on the Great Lakes: Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, Ontario and Quebec. Regional officials brokered their compact after an Ontario firm unveiled a plan in 1998 to ship 158 million gallons a year from Lake Superior to Asia, intending to create a global market for fresh water. Given the rapid growth of many drought-plagued states and countries, some planners and financial analysts say water will be become more valuable than oil during the coming century. Advertisement Unlike what Waukesha is planning to do, Chicago doesn't return water to the Great Lakes. The city fended off challenges to its 1900 diversion from Lake Michigan and under a 1967 Supreme Court decree draws up to 2.1 billion gallons a day while discharging treated sewage into waterways that drain toward the Mississippi. Lawsuits could still delay the Waukesha diversion. Officials in Racine, for instance, have vehemently opposed the proposal because Waukesha's treated wastewater would flow through their community before reaching Lake Michigan. Waukesha estimates its project will cost $334 million and add hundreds of dollars a year to residential water bills. The city had no reasonable alternative, Reilly said. Environmental groups that opposed the deal were still studying the final agreement but applauded restrictions on the amount of water to be drawn by Waukesha and the area served by the diversion. "In the end you've got a city that's going to pay a lot of money for clean water," said Molly Flanagan, vice president for policy at the nonprofit Alliance for the Great Lakes. "What kind of victory is that?" mhawthorne@tribpub.com Advertisement Twitter: @scribeguy Governors from the eight Great Lakes states agreed Tuesday to allow a Wisconsin city to start pumping millions of gallons a day from Lake Michigan, marking the largest diversion of water from the lakes since Chicago reversed the flow of the Chicago River in 1900. The unanimous decision favoring Waukesha, a Milwaukee suburb of 70,000 about 17 miles west of the lake, is the first test of a 2008 legal compact intended to prevent thirsty communities or countries outside the Great Lakes region from dipping into the world's largest source of fresh surface water. Advertisement Like parts of Chicago, Waukesha is just outside the subcontinental divide separating areas of the Midwest that drain into the Great Lakes from those where water flows toward the Mississippi River. Waukesha's request challenged politicians, scientists and advocates who feared it would set a precedent that cleared the way for potentially bigger diversions, such as pipelines connecting the lakes to Las Vegas or other arid, fast-growing cities. What the Wisconsin city ended up getting is considerably more limited. Several officials and observers involved in the long-running debate think the deal could discourage others from attempting a bid for access to water that the Great Lakes region zealously guards as its own. Advertisement Before the eight states approved the new pact, Waukesha agreed to recycle all of the water it draws from Lake Michigan and return it to a river that flows into the lake. Another provision limits the amount pumped to the city to an average of 8 million gallons a day, down from the original request of 10 million. Perhaps even more important is the area served by the new source of water is restricted to Waukesha's current borders, meaning the city can't use it to advance suburban sprawl. "They've set a very high bar," said Peter Annin, co-director of a Northland College water center and author of "The Great Lakes Water Wars." "If you are a water manager in another suburb or rural community, this just doesn't seem like an attractive or inexpensive option." Waukesha sought access to Lake Michigan water because some of its community wells are contaminated with naturally occurring radium a problem also faced by several Chicago suburbs. Great Lakes governors were swayed in part by research showing some of the groundwater now being drawn by Waukesha would flow toward Lake Michigan if it no longer is used by the city. Another argument in Waukesha's favor was that access to Lake Michigan water would free the city of having to treat water from its radium-contaminated wells, which creates radioactive sludge. "The vote today means the City can now move forward in providing a reliable, sustainable, and safe supply of drinking water for its residents," Waukesha Mayor Shawn Reilly said in a statement. More than a decade in the making, the Waukesha diversion was authorized under a limited exception to the water protection agreement between the eight states and two Canadian provinces on the Great Lakes. Regional officials brokered their compact after an Ontario firm unveiled a plan in 1998 to ship 158 million gallons a year from Lake Superior to Asia, intending to create a global market for fresh water. Given the rapid growth of many drought-plagued states and countries, some planners and financial analysts say water will be become more valuable than oil during the coming century. Advertisement Daywatch Weekdays Start each day with Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox. > Unlike what Waukesha is planning to do, Chicago doesn't return water to the Great Lakes. The city fended off challenges to its 1900 diversion from Lake Michigan and under a 1967 Supreme Court decree draws up to 2.1 billion gallons a day while discharging treated sewage into waterways that drain toward the Mississippi. Lawsuits could still delay the Waukesha diversion. Officials in Racine, for instance, have vehemently opposed the proposal because Waukesha's treated wastewater would flow through their community before reaching Lake Michigan. Waukesha estimates its project will cost $334 million and add hundreds of dollars a year to residential water bills. The city had no reasonable alternative, Reilly said. Environmental groups that opposed the deal were still studying the final agreement but applauded restrictions on the amount of water to be drawn by Waukesha and the area served by the diversion. "In the end you've got a city that's going to pay a lot of money for clean water," said Molly Flanagan, vice president for policy at the nonprofit Alliance for the Great Lakes. "What kind of victory is that?" mhawthorne@tribpub.com Advertisement Twitter: @scribeguy A pet pig seen playing on Montrose dog beach on June 18, 2016, has raised questions about whether pet pigs could pose a health hazards to the dogs. (Bethany Roeschley / Handout) A pig has been hogging some of the spotlight at Montrose dog beach recently. No, really. Advertisement Bethany Roeschley was about to leave the North Side beach this past weekend when she saw the bristly black-haired, red collar-wearing pig make a beeline to Lake Michigan on Saturday afternoon with a pack of dogs and their owners following behind. "It laid down in the sand and was basking in the sun and letting all the water wash over it and it was closing its eyes and relaxing," said Roeschley who along with her wife took their adopted 4-year-old rat terrier mix named Ollivander to the beach. Advertisement The pet pig hammed it up for the cameras as Roeschley and others snapped and posted photos to Instagram and other social media sites. While the pictures drew some chuckles, they also sparked serious conversation on Facebook with some questioning whether pigs should be allowed at the dog-friendly lakefront area. Some dog owners said they are fine with the pig if owners keep an eye on their pets, but others raised concerns about the potential for scuffles at the beach. It's not unheard of for owners to pry apart their dogs in an off-leash area. And it's technically against the Chicago Park District code to bring any animal other than a dog to the lakefront beach. Whether dogs and pigs can play together in such an environment is a concern, one expert says. Pigs and dogs are different species and communicate in very different ways, said Kelly Ballantyne, veterinary behaviorist at Chicago's Veterinary Behavior at Illinois, a clinic that is part of the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine. Although pigs and dogs can and do live together, that relationship usually takes time to build, starting with gradual introductions and careful supervision and, typically, without a whole group of dogs it does not know, she said. The dog beach presents a scenario that is unpredictable because it's unknown how the city dogs will interact with the pig and how the pig will react to the dogs, she said. Getting approached by larger animals could make the pig feel threatened and, in turn, act aggressively or try to run away and that could start a chase, she said. It's possible for some dogs to view the pig as prey if they're unfamiliar with the animal and it's making noise and moving fast, she said. "I totally agree with them that it is a dog beach and it's not a pet beach. I think bringing a pet pig there really puts that pig at risk for serious injury or it could be serious injury or death and puts the dogs at risk for injury as well," Ballantyne said. At the beach, the pig rested on the sand for a bit as dogs sniffed it, Roeschley said, before the pig got up and walked along the edge of the water. She said she saw one dog try to hump the pig and another overly interested dog nudged the pig to play. The Tribune was unable to find out who the owner is. Meanwhile, Roeschley's 15-pound dog was mostly confused. "He could tell it wasn't a dog, but he didn't know what it was. He didn't go near it at first and then we encouraged him to give it a sniff and he did but he backed away," said Roeschley, 25, who lives in Albany Park. So far, Bill Sonntag, chairman of the Montrose dog-friendly area committee, a volunteer group that helps keep the beach clean and provides information to beach users much like a park advisory council, was not aware of any reported mishaps. Advertisement Daywatch Weekdays Start each day with Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox. > "Personally, I think it's cute as hell and I love pigs," Sonntag said. "It's not that I'm against interspecies relations, it's just against the rules. Unfortunately, there's no way to enforce it. But if a citizen on the beach wants to complain, they could call the police." The Chicago Park District said that the dog beach one of two in the city is designated for dogs only and the Chicago Police Department is the enforcement agency. According to the Park District's code, fines can be as much as $500 for a violation. Dog owners concerned about potential health risks posed by the pig don't have much reason to worry because it's easier to transmit diseases within a species, said Jim Lowe, associate professor of veterinary clinical medicine at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "A pig housed by itself as a pet is not likely to be infected with disease," he said. That's because the pig would not be exposed or have contact with other pigs if living as a domestic animal. Parasites tend to be species specific as well, meaning, for example, worms that infect pigs don't infect dogs, he said. Roeschley doesn't have a problem sharing the dog beach with the pig. "As long as the owner is watching out for him and other owners are watching out for their dogs and as long as the pig isn't carrying any diseases that can be passed on to dogs," she said, "I think it's fine." lvivanco@tribpub.com Advertisement Twitter @lvivanco Neighbors pitch in to clean up a damaged trailer on June 23, 2016, following a tornado that touched down in Pontiac the previous night. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune) Members of the Maierhofer family of Seneca hunkered down in their basement with several of their neighbors as tornado-producing storms roared through north-central Illinois on Wednesday night, causing extensive damage to their 260-acre farm and elsewhere. At first, "it was really calm," Jenna Maierhofer said. "And then all of a sudden our house was being bombarded. Our house was shaking." As of 8:45 p.m., tornadoes had swept through portions of Lee, LaSalle and DeKalb counties, said Ed Fenelon, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. Advertisement By the time the storm had passed Seneca, a grain bin had fallen on the Maierhofer house and a second house on the property was destroyed, as were several other structures. Debris from the grain bin that hit the house blocked a door, and firefighters had to remove it to help the people who were inside the house get out, according to the family. Advertisement The storm packed 60 mph winds and quarter-size hail and moved southeast at about 30 mph, spawning a funnel cloud in Harvey and quarter-inch hail in Chicago's Rogers Park neighborhood. About 50,000 fans at a soccer game between Chile and Colombia at Soldier Field in Chicago had to clear the stands. By Thursday afternoon, six tornadoes were confirmed, according to the weather service. A tornado near Pontiac has been rated as EF-2 with estimated peak winds of up to 125 mph, which the weather service lists as "significant." A tornado near Ottawa has been ranked as an EF-0 with winds of up to 85 mph, which is classified as "weak." "One (grain bin) is still standing, one is on the house and the other we don't know where it is," said Jeffrey Maierhofer, who was not home during the storm. The bins hold 3,000 to 4,000 bushels each. Four sheds also were destroyed, he said. Seven neighbors joined Jenna Maierhofer and her two sons in the basement. The Maierhofers have always told neighbors who live in trailers in a nearby campground to come to their house for shelter during violent weather. The neighbors began arriving when the rain started, and those in the basement ranged in age from 11 to 82. "Once we got the last person down there out of that doorway, I thought we were going to be OK," Jenna said. They remained in the basement for about a half an hour, she said. Their house, built in 1882, is inhabitable, Jeffery said. They were still trying to determine the cost of damage to all of their property. In addition to Seneca, which is about 75 miles soutwest of Chicago, damage was also reported near the towns of Marseilles and Pontiac. A Serena man said he drove through the area and saw damage in the areas of Serena, Earlville and Troy Grove. Daywatch Weekdays Start each day with Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox. > "We physically saw two" tornadoes, said Nate Hermann, of Serena. "We were in between the one in Troy Grove and the one in Earlville at the same time." Hermann said was in his pickup truck and drove for 10 square miles in those areas describing the rural communities as "wiped out everywhere, it's bad." "Lines are down, trees are down, corn is flat everywhere," he said. Hermann said every road he saw showed signs of damage, and ditches were flooded. Roads were blocked and emergency vehicles are out, he said. Advertisement Scott Runyon, the fire chief in Pontiac, about 30 miles south of Seneca, said about 12 homes sustained moderate to severe damage in his town and throughout Livingston County. A retail strip center was destroyed. Two children who were in a bathtub in a mobile home were unharmed when the tub was tossed 20 feet, but their parents were injured, one with a broken pelvis and the other with a broken arm, Runyon said. Runyon said what was believed to be a tornado picked up strength when it crossed Interstate 55 near Illinois Hwy. 116. The retail strip, on an area 20 feet by 60 feet, was destroyed, and a semi tractor-trailer at a nearby gas station was tipped over onto its side. Two people in the gas station suffered non-life-threatening injuries. Nearby, a Wal-Mart sustained damage to its garden area. At least two hotels, and a car dealership also sustained structural damage. Map: Where tornadoes were seen by National Weather Service spotters (As of 5 a.m. Thursday, multiple reports can refer to the same tornado) In rural Livingston County, a number of homes are uninhabitable and residents are displaced, Sheriff Tony Childress said. "We have quite a bit of destruction," he said, noting there also was damage to metal sheds and metal grain bins. Within Pontiac city limits, a mobile home park was struck first and storm continued down Ray Street. Most of the damage there was caused by downed trees and power lines, he said. During a news conference Thursday morning, a ComEd spokesman said about 99 percent of power had been restored. Crews were still working in the area of Ray Street removing trees in order to access the remaining power lines. Russell said about 500 feet to the north of the tornado's path, there was no damage. He said in his home, which is on the north side of Pontiac, the lights did not even flicker. Pontiac police Chief Jim Woolford credited the fire department for sounding the sirens, which gave people about a 15-minute lead time. He said the area is in "pretty decent shape" considering the strength of the storm. As of 8:30 a.m., ComEd officials reported about 90 percent of the 26,000 customers affected by the storm power has been restored. For more updates, check the Chicago Tribune's weather page. Peter Nickeas, Liam Ford and Marwa Eltagouri are Chicago Tribune reporters. Erin Gallagher is a freelance reporter. Attorney Jon Loevy, left, and Thaddeus Jimenez speak to the media in 2012 after Jimenez was awarded $25 million for a wrongful murder conviction. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune) A reputed gang leader accused of using a whopping $25 million verdict for his wrongful murder conviction to pay bonuses to recruit new gang members pleaded guilty Wednesday to a federal gun charge stemming from a brazen daylight shooting on Chicago's Northwest Side that was allegedly caught on video. Thaddeus Jimenez, 37, who prosecutors allege heads the Simon City Royals gang, pleaded guilty to one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm. He faces up to about seven years in prison when he is sentenced in September. Advertisement Jimenez also is facing pending state charges alleging he shot a former gang member who had refused Jimenez's recruitment efforts. According to Jimenez's plea agreement, he and an accomplice, Jose Roman, drove around the Irving Park neighborhood on the morning of Aug. 17 armed with a .380-caliber pistol and a rifle while Roman shot video of their travels on his cellphone. During the drive, Roman, who also pleaded guilty to a weapons charge, could be seen patting the rifle with his left hand while saying "Yes, I had got that ... ready, one in the chamber, where they at?" Advertisement At one point, the pair encountered a man driving a white car. Roman yelled out to the man, "What you is? You ain't (expletive)? All right, this is Royals' hood, homie," according to Roman's plea agreement. After the man drove away without answering, Roman panned the camera back to his left hand, which was lowering the rifle while saying, "Ooh-ee, I got thirsty," according to the plea. About 11:30 a.m., Jimenez pulled up to the 33-year-old victim, who had gone outside to move his car in the 3500 block of West Belle Plaine Avenue, pointed the handgun at the man's head, and said, "Why shouldn't I blast you right now?" the plea filings show. After a brief verbal exchange, Jimenez shot the victim once in each leg while Roman continued to film. Daywatch Weekdays Start each day with Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox. > As Jimenez sped from the scene, he ran a red light, prompting a police chase that ended when Jimenez crashed into a parked car on St. Louis Avenue, prosecutors said. He ran and dropped his handgun in a yard before he was arrested in the 3800 block of North Elston Avenue. Roman also ran but was arrested nearby after tossing the .22-caliber rifle, according to prosecutors. Jimenez was an alleged gang member with a lengthy history of arrests when he was arrested at 13, accused of fatally shooting a teenager in 1993. He was convicted and sentenced to 45 years in prison. Jimenez spent more than 16 years in prison before he was exonerated and released in May 2009. Prosecutors alleged that Jimenez was using his $25 million jury award from his wrongful conviction lawsuit to pay $50,000 recruitment bonuses along with guns and cars to bring new members into his gang. Roman faces up to about six years behind bars after pleading guilty in federal court Wednesday to being a felon in possession of a firearm. State charges against him are also pending. jmeisner@tribpub.com Advertisement Twitter @jmetr22b A man who was fatally shot on Lake Shore Drive downtown over the weekend and then driven to near Chicago police headquarters and left on the street has been identified. The man was identified as George Morgan, 21, of the 6200 block of North Richmond Street, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office. Morgan was pronounced dead at 11:13 p.m. Sunday at Northwestern Memorial Hospital after being found shot in the first block of East 35th Street, according to the office. Advertisement The man was shot about 10:40 p.m. Sunday in the 600 block of South Lake Shore Drive, police said at the time. He was then dropped off in the first block of East 35th Street in Bronzeville, where emergency crews found him, police said. Advertisement Morgan died of a gunshot wound to the torso, the medical examiner's office determined after an autopsy. Chicago police investigate after an officer shot and wounded a person who was allegedly pointing a gun at him in the 1600 block of North Washtenaw Avenue near Humboldt Park on June 19, 2016. (Alexandra Chachkevitch / Chicago Tribune) A judge set bail at $250,000 for a 19-year-old man who was shot by a Chicago police officer after he allegedly pointed a gun at him Sunday evening near the Puerto Rican festival at Humboldt Park. Angelo Dixon was charged with a felony count of aggravated assault to a police officer with a weapon and a felony count of aggravated unlawful use of a loaded weapon without possessing a firearm owner's identification card, according to court records and the Chicago Police Department. Advertisement Police were patrolling the perimeter of the Puerto Rican festival at Humboldt Park when they saw a large group of people about 9 p.m. Sunday. Dixon was in the group and the officers noticed he "was exhibiting behavior consistent with carrying a weapon," according to police at the time. Officers approached Dixon to investigate, but he ran away from the officers. The officers then saw that the suspect was carrying a gun in his hand and ordered him several times to drop his weapon, police said. Advertisement Once Dixon went around the corner of North and Washtenaw, he turned toward the officers with a gun in his hand. One officer discharged his weapon at least once, striking Dixon in the legs, police said. An officer administered emergency first aid and applied a tourniquet on Dixon until an ambulance took him to Stroger Hospital, where he was listed in serious condition, police said. Dixon remained at the hospital Tuesday. No officers were hurt, and a gun was recovered. Cook County Judge Laura Sullivan set Dixon's bail at $250,000 at a hearing Tuesday. Dixon, of 2200 block of West Diversey Avenue, is scheduled to appear in court again Monday. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel speaks after touring a new Whole Foods Market in the Hype Park neighborhood on June 21, 2016. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune) Chicago police Lt. Raymond Hamilton identifies as a Republican, but when Mayor Rahm Emanuel was running for office in 2011, Hamilton spent dozens of hours volunteering to drive the Democratic candidate to campaign events, he testified Tuesday afternoon. But Hamilton didn't do the volunteer work hoping to land a prestigious job with Emanuel's security team. Advertisement "It's a very tough job and, in many ways ... it's just not a great job," he testified in U.S. District Court. "It's a lot of hours. There are hours you can't control. The mayor has an extremely hectic schedule and his schedule becomes your schedule. That's not something I was interested in." Hamilton was one of several Chicago police officers who have appeared in federal court in Chicago recently to testify about how a group of officers went from volunteers with the mayoral campaign to full-time members of Emanuel's security team once he was elected. Advertisement The hirings are at issue in court because four officers have sued the city, claiming they lost their long-held positions because of politics a violation of the Shakman decree that restricts political hiring. The officers were part of former Mayor Richard M. Daley's security team and claim they lost millions of dollars in salary and benefits when they were transferred to other positions. The case has garnered attention because it's the first in which Emanuel will be forced to testify. Emanuel is expected to be questioned about the hirings Wednesday afternoon, attorneys said. A transcript of his deposition will be presented in court Thursday and written closing arguments will be filed by Friday. U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber said he would make a decision on the case early next week. For three days, police officers, administrators and members of Emanuel's administrative team have testified, answering questions about how officers were selected for the security team. The lawyers representing the officers suing the city have leaned on emails between the officers and Emanuel's staff. While none of the emails presented in court specifically promises jobs or discusses paid positions, they have given a small window into some matters encountered during the campaign. At one point, for instance, Emanuel's assistant asked an officer in an email if he could check the plates of two "sketchy" cars parked outside the downtown campaign office. Police officers are not supposed to use department resources for nonpolice matters. In another email, Officer Hakki Gurkan said he was so eager to serve the campaign that he would make himself available whenever needed. "Hakki loves Rahm," one of Emanuel's campaign aides wrote to another, when sharing Gurkan's desire to volunteer more. "Adores," the other campaign officer wrote back. Advertisement Daywatch Weekdays Start each day with Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox. > Hamilton testified that he was encouraged to volunteer for the campaign by Gurkan one of the officers who later was hired for the full-time security detail. Hamilton said he started out driving Emanuel to appointments and campaign stops. Hamilton volunteered on his days off from work and at times took vacation and furlough days to help, he said in court. "At the time I volunteered," he testified, "I believed he was the candidate of choice that would be an effective mayor." Once Emanuel was elected, several officers were bumped up to work as his body guards. Hamilton was asked in the months before Emanuel formally took office to make a list of officers he'd recommend working as security guards. Once Emanuel was sworn in, several of those officers were placed on his full-time security team. The posts come with an increase in salary and special training. Hamilton did not go on to serve Emanuel. He is on leave from the Police Department, he said, and working for the Cook County Department of Homeland Security. "I was quite content that I helped put in place a strong, effective, transitional team," he said. "I was perfectly content going back to the Chicago police SWAT team." lbowean@tribpub.com Advertisement Twitter @lollybowean Chicago 43rd Ward alderman Michele Smith, who has been fighting for tougher Airbnb rules or "investor schemes," says Airbnb's are taking over her tony neighborhood by turning condos into hotels for partying out-of-towners, on June 22, 2016. Chicago city council also approved Uber and Lyft regulations despite complaints. (Phil Velasquez / Chicago Tribune) Mayor Rahm Emanuel-backed online home rental rules passed the City Council on Wednesday despite concerns from some aldermen that the attempt to regulate the new online economy epitomized by Airbnb does too little to protect residents from the proliferation of the business in Chicago residential neighborhoods. The 43-7 vote came after extensive debate. Lincoln Park Ald. Michele Smith said the new rules do too little to limit the number of commercial renters and give local residents too little say on the makeup of their own neighborhoods. Advertisement The 43rd Ward alderman, who has been fighting for tougher rules to prevent "investor schemes" she says are taking over her tony neighborhood by turning condos into hotels for partying out-of-towners, said the new rules are trying to cope with a situation that is already out of control. "This is about the new economy, and Chicago is racing to catch up with a runaway short-term rental train in our city," Smith said. Advertisement But Ald. Proco "Joe" Moreno, 1st, said residents in his hip Northwest Side ward are using the online rental platform to help make ends meet so they can afford to stay in their homes. "This is the 'Jetsons.' We're not going back to the 'Flintstones,'" Moreno said. Downtown Ald. Brendan Reilly, 42nd, said he would support the package after standing as an opponent of the plan for several months. But he predicted Airbnb would flout the new rules, "and we'll be back in a few months" trying to pass tougher regulations. Emanuel employed a familiar legislative strategy with the online rental ordinance, introducing it this spring, playing up a fee on the industry to help homeless people as evidence the rules would do good, and confidently predicting publicly that the City Council would back his plan. But the legislation stalled last month amid confusion and various interests loudly fighting for their version of the new rules on the rapidly evolving industry. The house rental package that passed Wednesday has undergone repeated changes as Airbnb mounted a well-funded lobbying and advertising campaign to pressure city officials not to adopt tough standards, aldermen in neighborhoods inundated with the rentals complained the city needed to bring the company to heel, Airbnb hosts said their livelihoods were being put at risk and city officials attempted to strike some kind of a balance with the rules. The version aldermen voted for is dizzyingly complex, setting various kinds of limits and ways to get around those limits for different types of residences in neighborhoods around the city. Buildings of fewer than five units will be allowed only one unit listed online at a time. Larger buildings will be capped at six units or 25 percent of the total number of units, whichever is less. But people who want to exceed the limit in the smaller buildings will be able to try to show the city Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection they are suffering "an extraordinary burden" because of it. In areas of the city with single-family homes, a late change allows residents in individual precincts to gather signatures on petitions to either outlaw new listings in those types of houses altogether, or to allow them only in the "primary residences" of the people listing the properties. If the petition gets signatures from 25 percent of registered voters in the precinct, the alderman for the area will be able to introduce a City Council ordinance enacting the language on the petition for four years. But the ordinance also includes a trap door for that process, granting residents within the precinct who oppose the petition language the right to get signatures on their own petition to overturn it. Advertisement In addition, various fees will be assessed to Airbnb. There's a 4 percent tax on each rental to fund services for homeless people, which Emanuel added early last month as he tried to play up the broader benefits to the city in setting new rules for the industry. Also included is a $60 charge for each Chicago address listed on the website, money the city intends to use to help cover the cost of enforcing the unwieldy new rules. And there's a $10,000 license Airbnb will need to buy to operate in Chicago. Much will depend on how well the city polices the new standards. It will be up to inspectors to identify violators and bring them to the company's attention. Airbnb will then be responsible for removing bad actors from its site. Critics say the different taxes amount to a pittance for a multinational company valued at billions of dollars that easily could have afforded to pay much more. And they accuse Emanuel of having passed far too lenient standards at a time major cities in Europe and elsewhere in the U.S. are taking a much harder line against online home renting. jebyrne@tribpub.com Twitter @_johnbyrne Lyft driver Michael O'Connor tries to draw customers at an official ride-hailing pick-up zone at Chicago's Navy Pier on June 22, 2016. The Chicago City Council approved ride-share regulations that critics say are too lenient. (Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune) Chicago aldermen adopted watered-down regulations on ride-hailing companies Wednesday despite critics complaining they hardly had time to consider the latest version of a proposal they worry will allow wealthy corporations like Uber to basically regulate themselves. The 36-12 vote came after much procedural wrangling, with Mayor Rahm Emanuel even threatening to adjourn the City Council meeting amid the chaos. Advertisement There was plenty of back and forth over the particulars of the contentious bill, with taxi industry supporters saying it does too little to even the regulatory playing field and supporters of the package arguing it's a good compromise. Northwest Side Ald. Scott Waguespack said the rules "don't do anything" to control the ride-hailing industry. And Northwest Side Ald. John Arena, 45th, said the watered-down rules will lead toward a "Wal-Mart economy" in Chicago, where "everything is cheaper, but you're not safer." Advertisement "Stop letting corporations write our laws to the detriment of our communities," Arena said. Ald. Leslie Hairston, 5th, likened the last-minute changes to the much-reviled parking meter deal that then-Mayor Richard M. Daley rammed through the council without giving aldermen time to digest it. But Ald. Joe Moore, 49th, said the ride-hailing rules have been sufficiently vetted at a series of meetings on the topic though the ink was barely dry on the copies of the new version of the ordinance when the vote took place. "We have been discussing this issue for months, years even," Moore said. Supporters said the growth of the ride-hailing industry is an example of how the economy is changing, saying new technology like the phone apps that allow people to offer rides for hire in their personal cars are a boon to minorities who can supplement their incomes and get rides in neighborhoods where cabs are scarce. Ald. Walter Burnett Jr. said the new industry is the reality in the city now. "I'm not trying to advertise for Uber, but this is the 21st century," the 27th Ward alderman said. Aldermen need to look out for what's best for constituents rather than worrying about the feud between the cab industry and ride-hailing companies, Burnett added. "Let those guys fight," he said. Chaos reigned in City Council chambers before the vote, with aldermen resorting to various procedural maneuvers and Emanuel threatening to adjourn the council for the day. Advertisement Waguespack, 32nd, moved to temporarily put off a vote on the proposal. Usually, that provides one month until the next regular meeting for both sides of an issue to press their case. But in response, Ald. Edward Burke, 14th, scheduled a City Council meeting for 1 p.m. Friday so aldermen could vote on the rules then. Emanuel then recessed the council meeting for the day. Waguespack withdrew his blocking maneuver, since the vote would happen Friday anyway. But he complained the new version of the ordinance had just been handed to aldermen. "That is not the way to run the City Council," Waguespack said. Emanuel was forced to deal with the ride-hailing issue after Far South Side Ald. Anthony Beale, 9th, brought forward his own proposal he said was meant to even the regulatory playing field with traditional cab companies that have seen their business take a big hit as Uber's popularity has swelled. Beale got a tougher version of the ordinance through committee last week, requiring fingerprint background checks for ride-sharing drivers and that ride-hailing companies provide a certain level of handicapped-accessible vehicles. But while he insisted he had enough support to get it through the full council, it was unclear whether a majority of his colleagues would join him in opposing Emanuel. Beale and other aldermen met this week behind closed doors with Emanuel administration officials, and emerged to say they had agreed to compromise language that had been watered down. Fingerprinting, which Uber officials have said is an ineffective burden that would likely force them to stop operating in Chicago, will now be studied for six months. And the companies will have a year to implement a plan to offer handicapped accessible rides. Advertisement The package would require all ride-sharing drivers get special chauffeur licenses specific to the industry. But the drivers would be able to fulfill their training requirements online rather than attending expensive classes like cabbies must do. The ordinance also eliminates the requirement that anyone applying for a public chauffeur license cabbies or ride-sharing drivers get an upfront drug test and physical exam, instead allowing the city's license commissioner to seek those for specific drivers when people complain. Though he would have preferred no new ride-hailing rules, Emanuel can claim a victory by preventing the council from enacting an ordinance with real teeth. Emanuel has repeatedly asserted 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. Emanuel's brother, Hollywood superagent Ari Emanuel, is an Uber investor. jebyrne@tribpub.com Twitter @_johnbyrne Chicago Teachers Union members including Christopher McDaniel, center, chant during a rally at Thompson Center in the Loop on June 22, 2016. (Michael Tercha / Chicago Tribune) The Chicago Teachers Union and groups calling for an elected police oversight board teamed up to pack City Hall on Wednesday in a show of force aimed at pressuring Mayor Rahm Emanuel and aldermen for their respective causes. The teacher's union promoted its work as a call for city leaders to approve a series of local tax hikes, which it contends would avert the worst of the latest financial crisis besetting Chicago Public Schools and looming threats of a strike in the coming school year. Advertisement At the same time, the union employed its strategy of joining allied populist groups to reinforce its numbers. "We want an elected school board and an elected police board," CTU Vice President Jesse Sharkey said into a megaphone outside City Council chambers. "There needs to be accountability at all levels to stop racism and defend the future of our children." Advertisement Hours before the rallies were set to begin, CPS tried to get out front with an announcement it would challenge union efforts to discipline members who refused to participate in the union's April 1 work stoppage. The latest protest didn't rival that one, which saw thousands of demonstrators from several community groups flooding downtown streets to broadcast similar calls for an elected school board and dramatic changes to the way the city's police are supervised. Still, the several hundred protesters on hand Wednesday pushed their way through City Hall's doors, carrying signs and chanting slogans outside council chambers as aldermen geared up for a heated monthly meeting. Others crammed part of a hallway on City Hall's first floor, where chants of "banks got bailed out, schools got sold out" echoed. Signs written in Spanish and English called for "City funding for a fair contract," said "Teachers and students have already sacrificed enough" and suggested "The rich must pay their fair share." "We are terribly underfunded," said Gayle Gibbons, who said she has taught in Chicago for 34 years. "We aren't getting the money we need from the state, the city is misspending funds that could go toward education." In the absence of action from Springfield, the CTU demands that Emanuel and aldermen approve a "revenue recovery package." That includes a new tax on financial transactions, higher fuel and hotel taxes, plus a tax on ride-share services. Emanuel has taken a dim view of those proposals, however. During Wednesday's meeting of the Chicago Board of Education, district CEO Forrest Claypool criticized both Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and the teachers union. "CTU leadership is asking instead that Chicago taxpayers make up for Gov. Rauner's failure to meet the state's constitutional obligation to fully and fairly fund our schools," Claypool said. "A half-billion dollars in new taxes for Chicago taxpayers is not the answer." Advertisement Rauner has noted Democrats had unfettered control of state government for a dozen years but failed to change the school funding formula. CPS' planned "unfair labor practice" charge to the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board repeated district arguments that the union's one-day strike violated state law. The district asserted the union "restrained and coerced" employees who did not participate in the action "by threatening to expose employees and hold them up to ridicule by their colleagues," telling employees that they would have to forfeit their pay for April 1 and "denying them rights as members of the CTU." The union retorted that CPS' move was a CPS effort to "thwart growing news coverage of today's Loop actions." Joining the CTU at the City Hall protest were members the Civilian Police Accountability Council, which wants an elected police oversight panel to replace the much-criticized Independent Police Review Authority. Mark Clements, who was released from prison in 2009 after receiving four life sentences for a 1981 arson that killed four people when he was 16, said a lack of accountability has degraded the community's trust in law enforcement. Advertisement "We're in 2016 and we're still operating as if we're still in bondage," Clements said. "The mayor needs to appoint crime victims to any board. I'd be willing to sit on that board." Also targeted by the union were wealthy and influential Chicagoans, including Ken Griffin, the state's richest man, Citadel hedge fund founder, Emanuel ally and frequent target of populist politicos. "We're here because we are advocating for progressive income tax, (and) the LaSalle Street tax," said Tony Johnston, president of the Cook County College Teachers Union, while protesting outside Citadel's headquarters. Griffin, a major Rauner campaign donor, "is advocating for a 'squeeze the beast' policy of public education," he said. The union also demonstrated at River Point Plaza at Lake and Canal streets. That was aimed at Larry Levy, a restaurateur and developer. Yet another effort unfolded outside Willis Tower targeting David Vitale, the former Chicago Board of Education chairman who sits on the board of United Airlines, which is headquartered in the building. "If there's one message that we want everyone to take away from this today, it's that we cannot have more cuts to our public schools," said Sharkey, the union vice president. "They've been cut too much already. We're not talking about cutting fat. Now we're talking about cutting bone, muscle and sinew." jjperez@tribpub.com Advertisement gwong@tribpub.com tjdavis@tribpub.com Members of the Chicago Teachers Union, shown during an April 1, 2016, march, will protest at five downtown locations June 22. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune) Welcome to Clout Street: Morning Spin, our weekday feature to catch you up with what's going on in government and politics from Chicago to Springfield. Topspin That sound you'll hear downtown Wednesday is a clamor for higher taxes led by the Chicago Teachers Union. Advertisement The union plans to protest at five sites, including at CPS headquarters prior to a Chicago Board of Education meeting. Demonstrators will call for an elected school board outside CPS offices, while another group is scheduled to converge on City Hall to back activists' demands for elected civilian police oversight. Yet another effort is set to happen outside Willis Tower targeting David Vitale, the former school board chairman who sits on the board of United Airlines, which is headquartered in the building. Advertisement The other two protests are aimed at wealthy and influential Chicagoans. One is Ken Griffin, the state's richest man, Citadel hedge fund founder, Emanuel ally and frequent target of populist politicos. That protest will take place at 131 S. Dearborn St. The union also will demonstrate at River Point Plaza at the northeast corner of Lake and Canal streets. That's aimed at Larry Levy, a restaurateur and developer. Later in the morning, CTU President Karen Lewis is expected to preside over a rally at the Thompson Center -- the center of state government in Chicago. The big union push is for money. The CTU wants action from Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the City Council, and it wants gridlocked state government to approve a financial rescue of CPS. The union wants a financial transaction tax, higher fuel taxes, a tax on ride-share services and a bump to the city's hotel tax. Emanuel's taken a dim view of the proposal, and called for Springfield lawmakers and Gov. Bruce Rauner to blink first. Lewis has said the impasse is borne from "a failure on the part of leadership." "We really feel that it's not right to just blame Springfield," Lewis told reporters this month. "The blame is in City Hall on the fifth floor, not asking and not being consistent or coherent or having a real plan for funding." While the union has said both city and state government need to pay more for school funding, Lewis has said the CTU is willing to accept a contract without some annual pay hikes. In case you're wondering why CTU members plan to protest instead of work: Wednesday is the second of three furlough days Chicago Public Schools imposed earlier this year for teachers and school-based workers. The days were supposed to be professional development days following the end of the regular school year when students would not be in the classroom, but CPS instituted a forced vacation it said would save $30 million. The protests are set to begin at 8:30 a.m. (Juan Perez Jr.) Advertisement What's on tap *Mayor Emanuel will preside over the Chicago City Council meeting. *Gov. Bruce Rauner has no public events. *A full agenda at today's jampacked City Council meeting: Ride-sharing rules showdown, Airbnb regulations, paid sick leave, Wrigley Field plaza booze rules, a Towing Bill of Rights, dog poop cleanup ordinance, resolution on assault weapons hearing and introduction of a CPS lead testing resolution. There will also be a protest (see our lead item above). What we're writing *Latest version of Emanuel's Airbnb rules on track for City Council approval. *Ricketts gets less than he wanted in Wrigley Field plaza booze rules. *A city Towing Bill of Rights on way to Chicago would require tow truck drivers to record their tow jobs. Advertisement *Chicago crossing guards want their badges back. *Latest twist in Lucas Museum saga: A deadline denied. * Officer testifies Emanuel security detail wasn't political post What we're reading *Former Tribune editor, publisher Jack Fuller obit. *OMG! "Hamilton" tickets. Did you get any? *Front-runner emerges in Tribune Tower sale. Advertisement From the notebook *All quiet on the budget front: For the third week in a row, Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan has canceled a planned Wednesday session day in Springfield, saying lawmakers' time would be better spent in closed-door working group meetings. "The bipartisan working groups of legislators will meet three times this week, continuing their efforts to achieve a compromise on the state budget," Madigan said in a statement. "Gov. Rauner has been supportive of these groups' efforts, and I agree with his recent comments that until there is a compromise budget, lawmakers should not be brought back to Springfield." When Madigan canceled the session last week, Rauner was asked why he hadn't exercised his power to call the General Assembly into a special session. The governor said then that it would be a "waste of time" to call lawmakers back "when they're not ready to vote." Now he's saying he'll start "evaluating" his options, as just over a week remains before the state enters a new budget year, though that traditional deadline didn't seem to matter much last year. The governor signed the schools budget and vetoed the rest. This time around, Rauner wants lawmakers to approve a six-month spending plan to keep universities, government operations and human services afloat through the November election, and a full-year funding bill for K-12 public schools. The short-term spending plan was first suggested by the governor on the final day of the legislative session, a few days after Democratic Senate President John Cullerton floated the concept and Rauner's GOP legislative allies shot it down. Madigan handed it off to the working groups, which had been working on negotiating a larger budget compromise. Advertisement The governor now contends the working groups have been hijacked by Madigan, and he disputes the speaker's claim that the groups are making progress. "I believe what's being done is the leadership on the other side of the aisle is using the working groups as an excuse not to do anything, to delay and create a crisis," Rauner said Tuesday as he called on lawmakers to return to the Capitol and take votes on his short-term spending solutions. (Kim Geiger) *Chamber goes for Dold in IL-10: Republican U.S. Rep. Bob Dold picked up two endorsements Tuesday in his contest against former Democratic U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider. Dold won the backing of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Illinois Chamber of Commerce. "Bob Dold is a proven, effective problem-solver who is not afraid to reach across the aisle to get things done in Illinois' 10th district," said Rob Engstrom, national political director of the U.S. Chamber. "At a time when partisan rancor is at an all-time high, Rep. Dold works with his peers to provide commonsense policies that provide certainty for all Illinoisans," said Todd Maisch, president and CEO of the Illinois group. The Nov. 8 election is the third match-up between Kenilworth's Dold and Schneider, who is from Deerfield. Each candidate has won once. (Katherine Skiba) Advertisement *A Mount Sterling example of budget impasse pain: The City Council in the tiny western Illinois community of Mount Sterling may have voted to keep the water on at the local state prison despite Illinois' budget impasse, but the payment battle may not be over. Vada Yingling, city administrator in the community of about 2,000 people, said in an interview with WFMB-1450 AM in Springfield that officials may discuss organizing with other towns also faced with nonpayment of bills from the state. Mount Sterling's City Council voted 6-0 on Monday not to shut off water to the prison, which employs about 400 people, despite being owed about $320,000. That came after a threat from the governor's office. "I think that, you know, as a city, our biggest fear is that our governor would make an example out of the first city who would make a stand," Yingling said, noting about 100 people packed into the council chambers, many associated with jobs at the prison. "We had gotten some phone calls from the governor's office not from he, himself, but from (the) governor's office saying that, you know, 'Well, it's a possibility if we have to move those inmates out because of the water being shut off, they may not be moved back and those jobs could be compromised. Do you understand that?'" she told the radio station. Yingling said Mount Sterling buys water from a local water district, and almost half the water the community purchases is for the prison. On the day of the vote, she said, the town shut off seven homes for nonpayment and "their bill is nowhere near the prison's and the prison is still getting water, so that's hard to justify." Advertisement Yingling said Mount Sterling has received calls from other communities also awaiting payment from the state. She said the Mississippi River city of Chester, home to the Menard Correctional Center, is owed "millions" from state government. "I would like to see if it's somehow possible for all of us (owed money) to come together as a unified front and stay together that we could somehow join forces and make a mightier stand together rather than individually," she said. "Maybe the governor can't say 'no' if we stand unified." (Rick Pearson) Follow the money *Track campaign contribution reports in real time with this Tribune Twitter account: https://twitter.com/ILCampaignCash Beyond Chicago *Republican leaders alarmed by Trump's fundraising start, but maybe he'll self-fund? *Clinton rips Trump's economic plan. *Trump vows to appoint anti-abortion judges. Advertisement *Why the Trump assassination attempt isn't bigger news. Keith Richards, left, walks Feb. 26, 2016, through the lot at Lincoln Towing to pick up his car that had been towed from the parking lot of his Evanston apartment building. (Nancy Stone / Chicago Tribune) Towing companies operating in Chicago would have to record their tow jobs and make the video available to city officials and people whose vehicles were towed under a Towing Bill of Rights that's poised for city approval. The new ordinance also would require that towing companies provide police with a list of all parking lots at which they have contracts to tow and whether those contracts permit towing only upon owner notification or whether they allow the company to patrol the lot. Advertisement And towing company signs posted at lots would have to include a number for the Illinois Commerce Commission, where complaints could be directed. The ordinance proposed by Ald. Ameya Pawar, 47th, and Ald. Ariel Reboyras, 30th was endorsed Tuesday by the City Council License and Consumer Protection Committee and is slated for routine approval at Wednesday's full council meeting. Advertisement "We all know about the tow companies that take advantage of the people that they tow," Pawar said. "If you get towed, I don't think it's too much to ask that you're not beaten up, threatened, have items from your car stolen, have your car damaged, etc., etc." Pawar was reacting to reports about alleged abuses by Lincoln Towing Service, a longtime North Side operator once dubbed in song as the "Lincoln Park Pirates." In the wake of a flood of complaints, the state Commerce Commission plans to determine if the company is "fit to hold a license to operate in Illinois," according to an agency news release. In one case that led to criminal charges, two Lincoln Towing employees allegedly knocked a 55-year-old worker off a 16-foot ladder as they towed away his truck, then mocked him while he was down on the ground with a broken leg. The commission's decision to consider stripping Lincoln Towing of its license came after 3,100 people signed a petition urging Pawar to work to suspend the company's business license. "I hope that the Illinois Commerce Commission takes action against Lincoln Towing," Pawar said. "I think it's time for them to go. They are the regulatory body, but we as a city are doing what we can to regulate tow trucks and ensure that there is proper consumer protection." The commission also plans to make the same determination for Rendered Services, which operates on the South Side. In November 2014, Chicago police seized computers, documents and vehicle keys from the company's offices. Pawar's measure would require towing companies to have video cameras on all tow trucks to document front and rear views, with audio. The video would have to be maintained for one year and be provided upon request without charge to the owner, city regulators or aldermen. "The city already requires tow truck companies to take a photo of every tow," said Pawar, who added that the idea was offered up by Rendered Services. "This just takes it one step further." Advertisement hdardick@tribpub.com Twitter @ReporterHal An Uber sticker is displayed on the front windshield of a parked car on Irving Park Road in Chicago on Wednesday, June 22, 2016. (Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune) Chicago aldermen on Wednesday easily passed Mayor Rahm Emanuel's plans to regulate two major parts of the online sharing economy, but the new rules for home rental platforms and ride-hailing sites aren't likely to calm the roiling controversy over what role city government should play in directing the behavior of companies like Airbnb and Uber. Strong feelings on how to handle the fast-evolving, person-to-person businesses erupted during a lengthy City Council meeting, which briefly descended into chaos as Emanuel threatened to adjourn the proceedings when aldermen tried to block a vote on the Uber ordinance. Advertisement The issues have been hot-button ones for Emanuel, aldermen and the public not only because the city is trying to get its arms around quickly growing businesses but because the ordinances touch on the sensitive topics of race, class and segregation in Chicago. And like similar fights taking place elsewhere, the debate has played out with the well-funded companies threatening to leave Chicago and fighting for less regulation by hiring high-powered lobbyists and launching advertising campaigns calling on residents to tell elected officials not to put in place heavy controls. Advertisement Emanuel tried to cast the council's approval as evidence City Hall can negotiate to get things done, drawing a contrast to the gridlock that's gripped Springfield. "Now, not everything is picture-perfect, but compromise, consensus, common ground has worked for Chicago today. And I would call on Springfield, after 385 days without a budget, where the basic culture is one of demonization rather than dialogue, that this is an example of where we're working together," he said. But opponents saw in the way Emanuel dealt with the issues echoes of the worst tendencies of his predecessor, Mayor Richard M. Daley, particularly on the ride-hailing rules. Ald. Leslie Hairston, 5th, compared the fact council members were expected to vote on an ordinance that was still getting amended Wednesday morning to the much reviled 2008 parking meter lease, which aldermen had little time to read before Daley called it for a vote. Ald. Scott Waguespack, 32nd, said, "The council should not operate this way," and briefly tried to use a procedural move to block a vote, which usually means an ordinance doesn't get voted on until next month's council meeting. But the mayor and 14th Ward Ald. Edward Burke countered by saying they would bring back the ride-hailing measure for a vote at a special meeting Friday afternoon, and Emanuel announced he was taking the highly unusual step of ending Wednesday's session with many agenda items yet to be addressed. Waguespack then dropped his objection rather than wear the jacket for dragging the entire council back to City Hall on the cusp of a summer weekend. Emanuel has tried to make the case that ride-hailing companies are a boon in minority neighborhoods where residents can make money driving part time and people who have long dealt with a shortage of cabs can more easily get rides. And he has defended Airbnb as a way for visitors to find places to sleep and spend money in less flashy neighborhoods outside the downtown hotel zone. Nonetheless, the companies pushed back hard against what they say is an overreach, arguing the past several months that various parts of the proposed rules would make it difficult for them to operate here. Both hired high-powered lobbyist Michael Kasper, who defended Emanuel in his 2010 residency fight to stay on the mayoral ballot, to represent their interests at City Hall. Kasper spoke on behalf of Airbnb at a hearing this week and worked the room behind City Council chambers Wednesday prior to the votes on the ordinances. Advertisement Arrayed on the other side of the legislative fight was a coalition of deep-pocketed legacy businesses like the cab and hotel industries, their aldermanic allies and residents who worry the laissez-faire attitude exhibited by City Hall toward the online economy is giving the hugely profitable companies too much say. "Stop letting corporations write our laws to benefit them at the detriment of our communities that are suffering," said Ald. John Arena, 45th. "We are letting them self-regulate themselves, and we continue to see what that does to our economy. It drives us further toward the Wal-Mart economy. Everything's cheaper, but you're not safer and the service is not better." The fact both ordinances came before aldermen Wednesday was somewhat happenstance. Emanuel backed a plan to regulate Airbnb and other online rental platforms early this year, then announced last month that the ordinance would require the company to pay a 4 percent surcharge on each rental. The $2 million a year the city estimated would be raised would go toward services for homeless people, allowing Emanuel to try to position the package as a way to get a wealthy corporation to kick in for the social good. But the mayor then watched as a handful of aldermen began complaining loudly that their hip North Side neighborhoods were getting transformed into ad hoc hotel zones for partying tourists thanks to investors renting out condos through online agencies year-round. Lincoln Park Ald. Michele Smith, 43rd, said the Emanuel plan was "throwing aside decades of zoning rules in order to turn over the keys to our neighborhoods to this $25 billion multinational company." Advertisement Downtown Ald. Brendan Reilly, who had been one of the staunchest backers of a tougher Airbnb ordinance, voted in favor Wednesday, but predicted the council would need to come back and tighten the rules in a few months when the company started flouting them. During negotiations, Airbnb threatened a lawsuit over language in the plan company officials said illegally made them responsible for the behavior of hosts who used the platform. And a lobbying group for the online rental industry aired TV ads, playing up the most sympathy-inducing type of online renting, featuring regular Chicagoans in different neighborhoods saying they use the extra money from hosting visitors in their homes to make ends meet. But after Wednesday's approval, Airbnb senior adviser Will Burns, who resigned as 4th Ward alderman this year to work for the company, released a statement saying, "The City of Big Shoulders is giving a big welcome to home sharing." City officials tried to balance the competing positions, leading to a dizzying number of proposed ordinances. It got so confusing that last month aldermen balked at voting on Emanuel's plan, with several saying they couldn't keep track of the specifics. The version that eventually passed includes a new clause to give residents in parts of the city zoned for single-family homes the ability to pass petitions to restrict the home rentals in those areas. But it gives no such possible local control in denser neighborhoods with larger rental buildings and condominium complexes. The mayor's efforts to placate various interest groups resulted in incredibly complicated rules. Even the petition clause comes with a trap door: Residents unhappy with precinct-level restrictions can get signatures on their own petition to overturn it. Advertisement In some ways, the ride-hailing ordinance was even more vexing to the mayor. Emanuel has been steadfastly arguing ride sharing is beneficial to Chicagoans, saying it increases competition and gives riders more choices, especially in minority neighborhoods where cabs have long been scarce. The mayor would rather there be no additional local regulations on Uber whose investors include his brother, Hollywood super agent Ari Emanuel and other such companies, like Lyft. The push to regulate ride-hailing companies, which compete with traditional taxi companies by allowing people to use phone apps to call for rides in drivers' personal cars, originated with Far South Side Ald. Anthony Beale. The 9th Ward alderman said he's acting on behalf of cabbies, trying to even the regulatory playing field between the two industries. Last week, Beale succeeded in getting a tough version of his proposed Uber rules through council committee, including fingerprint background checks and requirements that the companies provide handicapped-accessible vehicles. It was unclear whether he had 26 votes to pass the full council over Emanuel's wishes, however. And this week Beale reached agreement with the mayor on a watered-down version. The city now only has to conduct a study on the need for fingerprinting and gives the ride-hailing companies a year to implement plans to accommodate disabled riders. Uber spokeswoman Brooke Anderson released a statement saying the ride-hailing regulations showed the wishes of "hundreds of thousands of Chicagoans" were honored "thanks to Mayor Rahm Emanuel's leadership and good-faith efforts by many aldermen." Advertisement Beale and Emanuel slapped hands on the dais at the front of council chambers after the ordinance passed, and the mayor later characterized the new rules in both industries as examples of Chicago leading the way. "In both of these cases, Chicago now has new regulation, things totally different that have not been done in other cities, from licensing to revenue for homelessness, setting a new template where other cities will look to and mimic what Chicago has done," he said. "And for the first time, have new regulations on an emerging industry, which I think will stand the test of time for Chicago." jebyrne@tribpub.com hdardick@tribpub.com Displaced families at a refugee camp in western Fallujah, Iraq. More than 85,000 refugees have fled the fighting against the Islamic State and many people have been forced to sleep in the open desert as supplies have run low. (Nawras Aamer / EPA) HABBANIYAH, Iraq Families fleeing the battle for the Iraqi city of Fallujah have been forced to sleep in the open desert for almost a week, with aid agencies warning that people are at risk of dying as supplies of tents and water run dangerously low. More than 85,000 people have escaped the city and its surroundings in recent weeks as Iraqi security forces battle to recapture the city from the Islamic State. About 4.4 million people in the country are now internally displaced, one of the highest totals of any country. Advertisement The United Nations said the pace of new arrivals caught it off guard, even though tens of thousands of people were known to be trapped in the city before the operation began last month. The Iraqi government, meanwhile, under political pressure to launch an offensive quickly, appears to have prepared little assistance for the fleeing families. In one hastily expanded camp 15 miles west of Fallujah near Habbaniyah, Mihal Adnan and her four children sat next to their meager belongings. It was their fourth day without shelter of any kind, exposed to dust storms and temperatures in excess of 110 degrees. Advertisement Adnan cradled her 13-year-old disabled son, massaging his cramping muscles as he cried in pain. He had soiled himself, but there were no latrines or water tanks installed that she could use to wash him. The family had missed out on a recent government tent delivery and complained that with supplies running low, priority is given to those with money or connections. "We'll sleep here tonight," she said, indicating the one gray blanket they had between them. "What else can we do? We are desperate. We don't have anything." Nearby, men scuffled over a pack of bottles of water as a truck drove around throwing them out to families. "We've been treated like dogs," said 72-year-old Mohammed Jassim Khalil. "What's my guilt in all this?" His family had been sleeping out for six days and had just managed to get a tent. "I wish a mortar shell had landed on my house in Fallujah and killed me," added Ismail Mohammed Hussein, 51. "It's better than living like this." The Norwegian Refugee Council said conditions in the camps are getting worse. Pregnant women, children, the elderly and those with disabilities are particularly vulnerable, with some collapsing from exhaustion, relief workers say. "The situation is deteriorating by the day, and people are going to die in those camps unless essential aid arrives now," said Nasr Muflahi, the organization's director in Iraq. "What we're seeing is the consequence of a delayed and heavily underfunded response with an extreme toll on the civilians fleeing from one nightmare and living through another one." Advertisement The United Nations says it is severely underfunded as it deals with an unprecedented number of people displaced globally, with 1out of every 113 people in the world unable to safely return home. Iraq has claimed victory in Fallujah, but only a third of the city has been cleared of the militants, according to the U.S.-led coalition, and no one knows exactly how many people remain trapped inside. The United Nations has warned that more may flee as Iraqi forces progress, adding strain in the already underserved camps. U.N. officials have appealed for $17.5 million in emergency funding. Families arrive at the camps with harrowing stories of life under the rule of the Islamic State militants, who controlled the city for nearly 2 1/2 years. Food supplies were low for months, with the city besieged by security forces and bombarded with artillery and airstrikes. The journey out was a perilous one; Islamic State gunmen initially shot at those leaving. Falah Hussein Ali held up his arms to show the deep bruises from where he said he had been whipped with electric cables. Advertisement He said he was in an Islamic State prison when the operation began and was freed by Iraqi security forces. He said he was arrested and held for 20 days as men in the Nazzal neighborhood were rounded up after an Iraqi flag was raised in the area overnight. "We didn't want [the Islamic State] there," he said. "But they brought us from one death to another kind of death. What kind of life is this?" Ghassan Abou Chaar, an emergency coordinator for Doctors Without Borders, said that the toll in the camps is both physical and mental. "People are at breaking point," he said. Adding to the stress for families is that all men of fighting age are detained for security screening, leaving women and children to cope by themselves until male family members are released. Adnan's husband and 17-year-old son are still in detention. Advertisement "If the government can't help us, they should at least release our men," said one woman from the Mualimin neighborhood of Fallujah, declining to give her name as she criticized the government response. "We ran away from Daesh, from the bombing, from the hunger, and we find this," she said, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State. Many complained that they are not allowed to leave Iraq's Anbar province, even for medical treatment or even if they have family in Baghdad, 40 miles east. With residents from the largely Sunni province considered a security threat, access is severely restricted. In a more established camp outside the nearby town of Khaldiyah, families are given a cooked meal each day, and there were limited latrines and water tanks. Some families said that despite the hardships, life was better than it was under the Islamic State. "Life here is like a prison," said 94-year-old Mehdi Saleh Abed, sitting in the shade of a tent. "But living here in the dust is better than Daesh." An aid group was delivering 100,000 pounds of food supplies, with dust whipping through the barren rows of tents as people lined up to collect it - but families did not have basics such as portable stoves to make use of the sacks of flour and rice that were being handed out. Advertisement "It's a complete disaster," Jeremy Courtney, founder of the Preemptive Love Coalition, the aid group that was doing the distribution, said of the level of planning. "The government and the international organizations failed to do what they needed to do." Facing mass street protests against his government in Baghdad, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi unexpectedly announced a Fallujah operation in late May in what some analysts said was an attempt to distract from his political problems. But despite the fact that the battle was launched as a "hasty face-saving exercise" that caught everyone off guard, it was obvious there would be mass displacement as soon the operation was announced a month ago, giving groups time to prepare, Courtney said. Out of the 85,000 people who have fled, some 60,000 arrived in just three days last week, overwhelming aid agencies. "No one can be prepared for such a magnitude," said Bruno Geddo, the Iraq representative for the United Nations' refugee agency. U.N.-administered camps can house just 16,830 people, he said. Though government camps and large temporary tents that sleep 30 families are making up some of the shortfall, 20 camps are still needed, he said. On Saturday, three days after the influx began, Abadi said he had ordered a fleet of drinking-water tankers to the camps and asked the Ministry of Health to create an "accurate plan" for how to allocate medics to the area. Advertisement The slow response raises concerns about what will happen in the aftermath of a planned offensive to retake the much larger city of Mosul from the Islamic State. The United Nations expects between 600,000 and 1.2 million people to be displaced in that operation. "I lose sleep over Mosul," Geddo said. The Washington Post's Mustafa Salim contributed to this report. A Pennsylvania man who lost his daughter to a heroin overdose earlier this year was arrested with two other people after they were stopped while trying to drive through the Holland Tunnel with a cache of weapons on their way to "rescue" a teenage girl involved with drugs in New York, according to officials and social media posts from two of the men. One of the people told investigators that they were headed to Brooklyn to "rescue" a teenage girl before they were stopped in Jersey City, according to a law enforcement official. The official spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation. Advertisement John Cramsey, 50, and Dean Smith, 53, both of Zionsville, Pennsylvania, and Kimberly Arendt, 29, of Lehighton, each face several weapons charges. They remained in custody Tuesday night and could not be reached for comment; officials say they didn't know if any of the three had retained an attorney who could speak on their behalf. Cramsey wrote on Smith's Facebook page early Tuesday morning that he was driving to New York to "do an extraction" of a 16-year-old girl from a hotel room in Brooklyn after an issue involving drugs. Smith replied, "I'm there." It was unclear what, if anything, the weapons had to do with their plans. Advertisement Cramsey's 20-year-old daughter died from a heroin overdose four months ago Tuesday and he has since attended town hall meetings around the Allentown area to voice his concerns over the drug epidemic, The Morning Call newspaper in Allentown, Pennsylvania, reported. "This is a plague and we are losing our brightest and most brilliant minds," Cramsey told the newspaper shortly after his daughter was found dead of an overdose with another man inside an Allentown home. Port Authority of New York and New Jersey police officers stopped the van around 7:40 a.m. in Jersey City for a cracked windshield, the agency said. An officer saw a weapon on a seat, and a subsequent search uncovered two rifles, five handguns and knives. Some of the weapons were loaded, authorities said. A Port Authority photo, obtained by media outlets, also showed officers found a large amount of ammunition, a military-grade helmet and night-vision goggles. A bag with the words "Firearms Instructor" and box with the phrase "Shoot Your Local Heroin Dealer" were also in the vehicle. The brightly colored Dodge van carried the name of a Pennsylvania gun range. The gun shop is registered to the same Zionsville address listed as Cramsey's address, according to records. Attempts to reach the business Tuesday were unsuccessful. The Port Authority said there was no link to terrorism. Associated Press Jim Stachowiak specializes in provoking strong reactions. In the past, he has called for the U.S. military to bomb Mecca. He made a point of standing outside a military recruiting office in Georgia with a rifle in his hands to provide the center with protection, he said, but was also accused of harassment. Advertisement Almost a year later, the former police officer and ardent Donald Trump supporter has put out a "clarion call" for "lone wolf patriots" to join him at the GOP convention in Cleveland this summer to confront Black Lives Matter demonstrators. "I am encouraging patriots and Trump supporters and those that support liberty and freedom to come lawfully armed with lethal and non-lethal weaponry," Stachowiak said in a video posted on his YouTube over the weekend. Advertisement Stachowiak has a lengthy criminal history, according to ABC affiliate WJBF. In 2008, while working as a public safety officer at Augusta State University, his certification was revoked after three years following a misconduct investigation, the station reported. Two years later, WJBF noted, Stachowiak was arrested and charged with criminal defamation for stealing a man's picture from a social networking site, posting it elsewhere and labeling the individual a terrorist. By his own admission, he's been banned from Facebook at least four times. In his latest video, Stachowiak accused activists with Black Lives Matter - which he refers to as "Black Lies Matter" - of threatening to kill Trump and planning to disrupt the gathering of Republican leadership. "They have threatened to cause riots in Cleveland and nationwide," Stachowiak said. "It is our sworn duty and obligation for all those like me and many of you who have taken the oath to defend this country against all enemies foreign and domestic." A spokesman for the Cleveland Police Department told The Washington Post that she had no information about Stachowiak or what sort of precautions the department might take in light of his plans. Audrey Scagnelli, national press secretary for the Republican committee organizing the convention, offered The Post the following statement when asked about Stachowiak's video. "For the past year planners have been working closely with the Secret Service, the FBI, and additional state, local and federal partners to make sure delegates, attendees and residents of the city of Cleveland are safe during the Convention. Law enforcement partners are monitoring and investigating threats and information related to building and implementing a security plan." Advertisement The Southern Poverty Law Center considers Stachowiak a member of the resurgent "Patriot Movement," whose members subscribe to a conspiratorial, anti-government ideology based on the belief that federal authorities seek to confiscate people's guns, impose martial law and force the United States into a socialistic "New World Order." Mark Potok of the SPLC called Stachowiak a "loose cannon" who is "not quite in contact with reality," but noted that he should still be considered dangerous. "People like him make these kinds of statements very frequently and sometimes it leads to real trouble," Potok told The Washington Post. "When you're encouraging an armed confrontation -- even if you're supposedly keeping it legal - you're inviting trouble." In his latest video, Stachowiak says he's hoping to "spark a revolution," but in the past he told the SPLC that his actions are always defensive in nature. "I'd rather go to a movie or make payments on a jet ski, but I have to buy ammo," he said in 2010. "I'm concerned about civil unrest, my neighbors going crazy, round-ups, foreign troops, the New World Order." Despite their anti-government impulses, Potok told The Post that many in the Patriot Movement have rallied around the candidacy of Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, because of his stances on several issues. Advertisement "Unlike the white supremacists that support Trump, the core of their support isn't based on racism, but they certainly are opposed to immigration, very much in favor of the 2nd Amendment and they think that big government is a wicked thing," Potok said. "They're sort of Republican beliefs on steroids. They're nationalists and Trump is certainly a super-nationalist." When it comes to Black Live Matters supporters, Stachowiak said in his YouTube video that he believed they "want to attack those of us for merely supporting a candidate." He added: "Let's answer the call, people." His opinions aren't limited to the Black Lives Matter movement, according to reports. On his Internet radio show, WJBF reported, Stachowiak accused Mohammad of being a child rapist and called Islam a "mental disorder." Last year, a Muslim woman who identified herself as Hawwa told WJBF she saw Stachowiak standing outside the military recruiting center. He followed her into a nearby store to get her to notice his shirt, she told the station. "On the front it says, 'Burn the Koran,' " she said. "On the back, it said something really bad about Allah." Advertisement The Richmond County Sheriff's Office told the station at the time that Stachowiak had done nothing illegal. "You don't egg on somebody like that," Hawwa told the station. "Ultimately, you should feel sorry for him." A man watches a TV news program reporting about a missile launch of North Korea, at the Seoul Train Station in Seoul, South Korea. (Lee Jin-man / AP) North Korean leader Kim Jong Un trumpeted the success of a powerful new midrange ballistic missile test that state media said Thursday propelled one of the weapons more than 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) high, saying it would allow strikes on U.S. forces throughout the region. That ability would back up years of threats and boasts from North Korea and has long been a worry for the United States and its allies, Tokyo and Seoul. It explains in part North Korea's tenacious testing of the Musudan missile, which was only a success after five failures in about two months. The missile's potential 3,500-kilometer (2,180-mile) range puts much of Asia and the Pacific within reach. Advertisement After observing the launch, Kim said it gives his country the "sure capability to attack in an overall and practical way the Americans in the Pacific operation theatre," according to the official Korean Central News Agency. Other governments said North Korea fired two Musduan missiles on Wednesday, after suffering four previous launch failures since April. Advertisement The first launch ended in failure again. But Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani said the second launch demonstrated a "certain level of capability," and could lead to a further strengthening of North Korea's ballistic missile capabilities that can cover Japanese territory. Each new test apparently linked to a command from Kim likely provides valuable insights to North Korea's scientists and military officials as they push toward their goal of a nuclear and missile program that can threaten the U.S. mainland. Pyongyang earlier this year conducted a nuclear test, its fourth, and launched a long-range rocket that outsiders say was a cover for a test of banned missile technology. A statement from South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the suspected first Musudan launch Wednesday from the east coast city of Wonsan failed. It didn't elaborate, but Japan's Defense Ministry said the missile fragmented and pieces fell into waters off the Korean Peninsula's east coast. Later on Wednesday, the South's military said the North fired another suspected Musudan, which flew about 400 kilometers (245 miles). Japan's Defense Ministry said that its radar analysis found that the missile reached an altitude exceeding 1,000 kilometers (620 miles), which suggests it was a Musudan missile. The KCNA report said the missile flew to the maximum height of 1,413. 6 kilometers (878.3 miles) before landing 400 kilometers away in waters the North had targeted. It said the launch was carried out by a high-angle fire system. "We have to see it as a success," Lee Choon Geun, an analyst at South Korea's state-funded Science and Technology Policy Institute, said of the second launch. "No other (previous) missiles fired by North Korea have ever flown that high." The U.S. Strategic Command in Hawaii said Wednesday its systems detected and tracked two suspected North Korean Musudan missiles that fell into the Sea of Japan. They didn't pose a threat to North America, it said. In April, North Korea attempted unsuccessfully to launch three suspected Musudan missiles, but all exploded midair or crashed, according to South Korean defense officials. Earlier this month, North Korea had another suspected Musudan failure, they said. Advertisement Before April's launches, North Korea had never flight-tested a Musudan missile, although one was displayed during a military parade in 2010 in Pyongyang. Musudan is named by outsiders after a village near its test site. The KCNA report called it a Hwasong-10. The launches appear to stem from Kim's order in March for more nuclear and ballistic missile tests. The order was an apparent response to springtime U.S.-South Korean military drills, which North Korea views as an invasion rehearsal. In the KCNA report, Kim said North Korea must bolster its pre-emptive nuclear attack capability to cope with U.S. threats and continue the development of strategic weapons systems. The string of recent launch attempts shows the North is pushing hard to upgrade its missile capability in defiance of U.S.-led international pressure. The North was slapped with the strongest U.N. sanctions in two decades after its nuclear test and long-range rocket launch earlier this year. "The impact of these provocations will be to only strengthen the resolve of the international community that has such serious concerns with North Korea's behavior," said White House spokesman Josh Earnest. "The United States will do what we have done in the past, which is work with the international community, particularly our allies in South Korea and Japan." Advertisement South Korea's Unification Ministry called the launches a "clear provocation." In Tokyo, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was also critical, saying, "We find it utterly unforgivable." Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said that Beijing didn't consider the missile launches to be an act of defiance against China, North Korea's long-time ally with whom its relations have cooled substantially in recent years. "To say such an act taken by North Korea shows disapproval against China is reading too much into it," Hua said at a press briefing. North Korea has recently claimed a series of breakthroughs in its push to build a long-range nuclear missile that can strike the American mainland. But South Korean officials have said the North doesn't yet possess such a weapon. The North, however, has already deployed a variety of missiles that can reach most targets in South Korea and Japan, including American military bases in those countries. The Korean Peninsula remains in a technical state of war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty. About 28,500 U.S. soldiers are stationed in South Korea to deter possible aggression from North Korea; tens of thousands more are stationed in Japan. Advertisement Associated Press A man who says he was the former lover of the Pulse nightclub shooter tells Univision News that Omar Mateen was acting out of revenge when he killed 49 people and put many more patrons of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender nightclub in the hospital. "The thing that makes me want to tell the truth is that he didn't do it for terrorism. In my opinion he did it for revenge," said a man identified simply as "Miguel." Advertisement The man, who lived in Orlando until December, wore a disguise for the exclusive interview with Univision News anchor Maria Elena Salinas. Miguel said in the interview: Advertisement He met Mateen on the gay dating app Grindr and described their relationship as "friends with benefits." They got together at least 15 times during the two-month relationship, which ended in December when Miguel left Orlando. Mateen was "terrified" of being HIV positive and felt rage toward Puerto Rican gay men possibly because of a sexual incident. Mateen had sex with two Puerto Rican men, and one later said he was HIV positive, Miguel said. "He adored Latinos, gay Latinos, with brown skin but he felt rejected," Miguel told Univision. "He felt used by them there were moments in the Pulse nightclub that made him feel really bad. Guys used him. That really affected him." Miguel recalled a conversation with Mateen. "When I asked him what he was going to do now, his answer was 'I'm going to make them pay for what they did to me,'" he told Univision. The FBI confirmed that it had interviewed Miguel, Univision said. Sitora Yusufiy, Mateen's former wife, has suggested he might have been gay. In an interview with Time, she said: "He might have been homosexual himself and lived that lifestyle but could never ever come clean about it because of the standards of his father, because of the obligation to be a perfect son." The thunderous chop of helicopter blades echoes from the glassy facades of skyscrapers as top bank executives return from weekend beach jaunts. The ear-splitting migration is heard most Sundays in the financial district of Sao Paulo, South America's biggest metropolis. But if Uber has its way, helicopter commutes will no longer be exclusively for Brazil's most elite financiers. The San Francisco-based ride-hailing company has chosen Sao Paulo, Brazil's congested financial hub of 20 million people, to test its helicopter service, appropriately named UberCopter. The company has toyed with helicopters during events such as the Cannes Film Festival, but Sao Paulo represents the first time UberCopter has gone live full-time, according to Gui Telles, Uber's Brazil manager. Advertisement The city is fertile ground for experiments in urban mobility. Gridlock is rampant, traffic jams can stretch for hundreds of kilometers, and the country is in the midst of an auto boom, thanks to tax incentives from President Dilma Rousseff. The excessive number of cars gives Uber a large pool from which to draw willing drivers. Despite early scuffles between Uber drivers and local taxi unions, Brazil is set to eclipse Mexico as the top market in Latin America for the company. It may get a further boost if the city decides to allow the use of public transport travel cards for Uber rides. Uber in the skies works in much the same way as Uber in the streets. Advertisement I opened up my Uber app and selected the UberCopter option. The app even gives users the ability to share helicopter rides with others going their way, similar to UberPool. An UberX driver wearing black sunglasses picked me up. The UberCopter concierge called three times during the drive to coordinate my departure from the helipad. I was dropped at an air taxi company whose website markets "heligourmet" trips to the beach for 2,400 reais ($707). A receptionist served me espresso in a spacious lounge with plush couches until a porter grabbed my bags and whisked me into the helicopter. It took about 15 minutes for clearance, a minor drawback for someone on deadline but not nearly as agonizing as Sao Paulo traffic. The "paperwork" was minimal - I punched in a few personal details in two minutes in the app on my smartphone. Once airborne, the flight from Campo de Marte in northern Sao Paulo to the Guarulhos International Airport took 10 minutes and cost 211 reais ($63), plus 30 reais ($9) for the car ride from house to helipad, or about twice what the trip would have cost by cab alone. The same trip in a cab, however, could have taken an hour or two in rush-hour traffic. UberCopter won't always make sense. In my case, I could've made it to the airport in less time at lower cost if I had grabbed a cab.The helicopter could probably save time for people who live or work in neighborhoods with a high concentration of helipads, such as the financial district. Nonetheless, the service might make sense for Uber. It turns out that Sao Paulo has a glut of helicopters, not just cars, and an oil bust has meant less work for air taxi companies that cater to the oil industry. The average helicopter is used 400 hours per year but has capacity for 2,000 hours, meaning that Uber has room to quintuple usage without adding a single helicopter to its 400-strong fleet, according to Uber's Telles. Early signs indicate demand can fill at least some of those available hours. My pilot said he had already shuttled too many Uber users to count. Telles said the program, which Uber launched in partnership with Airbus, has already attracted strong demand. Uber announced last week that customers could catch rides among four airports and five heliports around the city for promotional prices of as little as 66 reais ($20). Critics have accused the company of offering the service at an unsustainable discount, but Telles says that isn't the case. "We are always looking for the best price which is sustainable for partners and helicopter owners," Telles said. "The helicopter taxi industry has been around and idle here for ages, and we are just using technology to make better use of it." Advertisement Taking a helicopter is seen by most Brazilians as an ostentatious display of wealth. For a few bucks a ride, however, this luxury for the mega-rich may quickly lose some of its standing a status symbol. Bloomberg INDIANAPOLIS FBI agents arrested an 18-year-old from suburban Indianapolis as he tried to board a bus to New York and join the Islamic State terror group overseas, federal authorities said Tuesday. Akram Musleh of Brownsburg was arrested without incident, FBI spokeswoman Special Agent Wendy Osborne said. Advertisement Musleh was in the custody of federal marshals at an undisclosed location, spokesman Tim Horty of the U.S. Attorney's office said. Musleh made an initial appearance Tuesday in U.S. District Court to hear a charge of providing material support to the Islamic State read to him, Horty said. He faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, a lifetime of supervised release and a $250,000 fine if convicted, prosecutors said. Musleh has a detention hearing scheduled for Monday. Advertisement FBI agents apprehended Musleh at a Greyhound bus terminal in Indianapolis while he tried to board a bus to New York, where he was to fly to Morocco and on to territory controlled by the Islamic State, prosecutors said. A criminal complaint alleges Musleh intended to provide material support to the terror group also known as ISIL by joining it. On May 2, Musleh read an article about more than 8,000 potential terrorist targets in Indiana and then days later searched online for information about pressure cookers, which the court documents said could possibly be used to make an explosive device, FBI Special Agent Michele Denise Holley said in a 30-page criminal complaint. He also searched for information on dynamite, flash powder and other explosive materials, it said. Tuesday's bid was not Musleh's first attempt to travel to the Middle East. He made five different reservations last year to travel to Iraq or to Turkey, allegedly as an attempt to reach territory controlled by Islamic State fighters, the complaint said. According to the complaint, Musleh's travel plans last year included trying to fly from Chicago's O'Hare International Airport to Iraq and booking three separate one-way tickets from Chicago to Turkey. Last June, customs officials stopped him in Chicago and said he could not take a flight to Turkey because his travel documents were not in order. Law enforcement made contact with Musleh and Brownsburg High School officials in 2013. The FBI identified him as someone who posted several videos featuring an al-Qaeda leader online, the complaint noted. Federal agents and school officials "took steps to dissuade Musleh from engaging in radical extremism," it said. But nine months later, Musleh bought an Islamic State flag online and later photographed himself with it, the complaint said. "The radicalization of American citizens by terrorist organizations like ISIL is a threat to our safety here and abroad," said U.S. Attorney Josh Minkler said in a statement. "I am committed to using the full authority of the United States Attorney's Office to identify, investigate and prosecute those that materially support terrorism." Musleh's attorney, federal community defender Michael Donahoe, said he had no comment on the case. Advertisement Associated Press NEW YORK Donald Trump launched a blistering attack Wednesday on Hillary Clinton's record and character, slamming his presidential rival as a "world class liar" who raked in personal profits from her tenure at the State Department. The billionaire businessman claimed, "She gets rich making you poor." Trump's broadside marked his opening salvo in a general election faceoff with Clinton that has already turned bruising and deeply personal. The presumptive Republican nominee called Clinton the "most corrupt" person to ever run for president and accused of her of spreading "death, destruction and terrorism" while serving as the nation's top diplomat. Advertisement Clinton, campaigning in North Carolina, called Trump's charges "outlandish lies." "He's going after me personally because he has no answers on the substance," Clinton said. "All he can try to do is try to distract us." Advertisement Trump's tone was pointed yet measured as he ticked through several of Republicans' favorite critiques of Clinton, including her use of private email as secretary of state and her role in responding to the attacks on Americans in Benghazi, Libya. Several of his claims were inaccurate or exaggerated, including incorrectly saying she wants to spend hundreds of billions to resettle Middle Eastern refugees in the United States. Wednesday's address came at a pivotal moment for Trump's presidential campaign. The political novice has struggled with the transition to a general election race, getting bogged down by self-created controversies and failing to invest in the staff and infrastructure needed for the fall campaign. Earlier this week, Trump abruptly fired his campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, a move widely viewed as an acknowledgment of a need to recalibrate his organization. A new fundraising report released hours after Lewandowski's firing underscored how much ground Trump has to make up: He started June with just $1.3 million in the bank, a stunningly paltry amount for a major party nominee. Even as Trump blasted Clinton, he returned to some of the core themes that first powered his surprising presidential campaign. He railed against professional politicians and urged Americans to seize an opportunity to shake up a "rigged" system. "This election will decide whether we're ruled by the people or the politicians," Trump said, standing before a friendly audience in a ballroom at his hotel in New York's SoHo neighborhood. While he assailed Hillary Clinton in personal terms, Trump did not make any mention of former President Bill Clinton's indiscretions, despite raising those issues earlier in the campaign. The real estate mogul did make a direct appeal to supporters of Clinton's primary rival Bernie Sanders, reminding voters that the Vermont senator, too, has raised questions about her judgment. Like Trump, Sanders also generated enormous enthusiasm among voters frustrated with Washington. Turning to his own plans as president, Trump argued that his opposition to a major Asia Pacific trade pact and his hard-line immigration position would be more beneficial than Clinton's for blacks and Hispanics, two groups that have overwhelmingly voted for Democrats in recent presidential elections. Advertisement The Republican said Clinton has pledged to "end virtually all immigration enforcement and thus create totally open borders in the United States." While Clinton has called for a pathway to citizenship for millions of people living in the U.S. illegally, she has also called for focusing enforcement on "detaining and deporting those individuals who pose a violent threat to public safety." Trump frequently referenced sources of information that have been widely questioned, including the book "Clinton Cash" by Peter Schweizer. The book argues Clinton and her husband used the State Department to enrich their family, but it does not provide evidence of direct connections between business dealings by foreign interests, sometimes involving the Clinton Foundation, and decisions by Clinton when she was secretary of state. An Associated Press review of State Department calendars did show that she opened her office to dozens of influential Democratic party fundraisers, Clinton loyalists and corporate donors to her family's global charity. The AP found no evidence of legal or ethical conflicts in Clinton's meetings. Trump's remarks came one day after Clinton launched her own blistering attacks on her White House rival. She moved to undercut Trump's argument that his business record would help him create jobs as president, arguing instead that he had been "reckless" with his companies and "shouldn't have his hands on our economy." Associated Press Mary Sawers had been a volunteer nurse with the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Program for just two years when Hurricane Marilyn slammed the Caribbean island of St. Thomas in September 1995, closing its hospital and leaving 13 dead, about 100 injured and more than 11,000 homeless. The former longtime Evanston resident was sent by the agency to the devastated island, where among the victims she aided was a woman in her eighth month of a high-risk pregnancy, and Sawers helped deliver a healthy baby girl. Advertisement "The woman was so grateful that she named her baby Mary, after my mother," said her daughter, Emily Berlinghof. The two women kept in touch, and over the years Sawers sent packages of clothes and supplies to help the woman care for her child. Advertisement "My mother was someone who just never stopped caring about people," her daughter said. Sawers, 81, who later became a volunteer team leader with the American Red Cross, died June 9 at The Vi at the Glen, an assisted living facility in Glenview, after a series of illnesses. "Mary's whole mission in life was to help as many people as she could," said Barb Juliar, a close friend who first met Sawers through their community involvement 50 years ago. "She helped people on a broad perspective, but also on a personal level. She was a warm and wonderful friend, who was always there for you." Following the attacks of 9/11, Sawers was sent by the American Red Cross to New York, where for four weeks she coordinated efforts to relocate people living in the area near Ground Zero, particularly those with disabilities and in need of medical equipment, such as wheelchairs and oxygen tanks. ) "She worked under horrendous conditions and put in 12-hour days," her daughter said. As a team leader, Sawers also was on hand in 2003 to help victims of Hurricane Isabel in North and South Carolina, and again, in 2005, to help those displaced by Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana. "There really wasn't anywhere she wouldn't go if she was needed," her daughter said. Born Mary Howell and raised in Providence, R.I., Sawers earned a bachelor's degree in nursing from Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., in 1956, and worked as a hospital nurse in New York. Advertisement In 1959, she married her husband of 57 years, Peter Sawers, in Rhode Island, and the couple then moved to Evanston. While raising her family, Sawers was a member of the Junior League of Women in Evanston and the League of Women Voters of Evanston. She also served on the Evanston Human Relations Committee, where she was assigned to the Housing Task Force aimed at providing fair and affordable housing for residents. After working as a paralegal in Chicago during the 1980s, she enrolled in courses to renew her nursing certification. "When her oldest son found out she was trying to renew her nursing license, he told her: 'Mom, you bringing your nursing credentials up to date is like trying to teach Wilbur and Orville Wright how to fly a 747,' " Juliar recalled with a laugh. In the early 1990s, Sawers joined Remote Area Medical, a Tenn.-based nonprofit, relief group aiding people in remote areas of the U.S. and abroad, and volunteered on Native American reservations in North and South Dakota. She became a volunteer with the American Red Cross in 1993. "She believed strongly that to whom much is given, much will be required," her daughter said. Advertisement In addition to her husband and daughter, Sawers is survived by two sons, Greg and Andy; and eight grandchildren. A memorial will be held at 11 a.m. Friday at Alice Millar Chapel, 1870 Sheridan Road, Evanston, with a reception to follow. Joan Giangrasse Kates is a freelance reporter. A crucial question about anyone who runs for president is: When the stakes are high, will the interests of the country come first? Or will political considerations dominate? On matters of foreign policy, the Supreme Court or the economy, though, we can only guess and hope. But one major decision can't wait until after the election. It has to be made and revealed long beforehand, offering an excellent preview of a presidential candidate's priorities, judgment and maturity. It's the designation of a running mate. Advertisement Not that this test applies to Donald Trump, whose unsuitability is beyond redemption by anyone who would consent to run with him. But it applies to Hillary Clinton, whose choice is especially important because she would be the second-oldest person ever to enter the White House. The traditional approach is to find someone to balance the ticket with respect to various attributes. The youthful New Englander Jack Kennedy enlisted the older Southerner Lyndon Johnson. Conservative Californian Ronald Reagan picked moderate George H.W. Bush, who was transplanted from Connecticut to Texas. Advertisement Often, however, this selection has been given far less weight than it warrants, on the assumption that the vice presidency is an inconsequential office that can be filled with an inconsequential person. The 19th century Senate giant Daniel Webster declined it, saying, "I do not propose to be buried until I am dead." Richard Nixon chose Spiro Agnew, a little-known first-term Maryland governor who eventually resigned the vice presidency in disgrace. George H.W. Bush went with Dan Quayle, who instantly gained a reputation as a laughable lightweight. But it's hard to think of a more appalling choice than the one John McCain made in 2008: Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Shallow, uninformed and erratic, she was a deafening refutation of the commitment McCain claimed: "Country First." "I think the notion of Sarah Palin being president of the United States is something that frightens me, frankly," McCain campaign strategist Steve Schmidt later said. She was chosen, he confessed, because the campaign principals "were fueled by ambition to win." Americans also had dodged a bullet in 2004, when John Edwards ran on the Democratic ticket with John Kerry. The senator from North Carolina was later embroiled in a scandal after fathering a child in an extramarital affair while his wife was fighting cancer. He also was indicted on campaign finance charges, and his acquittal only marginally diminished his disgrace. Palin's nomination came after Barack Obama had chosen someone who, whatever his flaws, was eminently qualified for the presidency. Joe Biden was a veteran senator with broad experience on domestic and foreign policy. He had the essential trait: plausibility as president. Nor could Dick Cheney be faulted on his credentials. He had been a House member, White House chief of staff and secretary of defense during the first Iraq war. He turned out to be a regrettable choice only because of his atrocious judgment. So Clinton has a high standard to meet. While a presidential nominee can't afford an electoral liability on the ticket, political factors can't be allowed to substitute for essential attributes that make a vice president valuable even if he or she never has to succeed the president. Advertisement None of the people reported to be on Clinton's list of prospects is seriously unqualified, but some are merely adequate, such as Labor Secretary Thomas Perez, whose elective experience consists of one term on a county council, and Julian Castro, who spent five years as mayor of San Antonio and two as secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Elizabeth Warren has yet to serve a full term in the Senate, and at 67, she is nearly as old as Clinton. At 47, Cory Booker is young enough, but he too has a slightly thin resume, having been mayor of Newark before arriving in the Senate less than three years ago. There are better alternatives on Clinton's purported list, including Rep. Xavier Becerra, 58, of California, who has been in Congress since 1993; Sen. Sherrod Brown, 63, of Ohio, who arrived on Capitol Hill that same year; and Sen. Tim Kaine, 58, a former Virginia governor and Richmond mayor. None has quite the heft of Biden or Cheney, but all pass the qualification test with high marks. Choosing a running mate, Walter Mondale recently told The New York Times, is "like getting married without any divorce proceedings possible." That makes it important for Clinton and even more important for the rest of us. Steve Chapman, a member of the Tribune Editorial Board, blogs at www.chicagotribune.com/chapman. schapman@tribpub.com Advertisement Follow Steve Chapman on Twitter @SteveChapman13 and Facebook. The No. 1 trending question related to Donald Trump on Google at the time of this writing is "Who tried to shoot Trump?" Which means a lot of people don't know the answer. Which is probably because the assassination attempt on the presumptive Republican presidential nominee hasn't been covered as a major news story. The answer, authorities say, is Michael Steven Sandford, a 20-year-old British citizen who was in the United States illegally after overstaying his visa. Sandford allegedly tried to pull a gun from the holster of a police officer at a Trump rally in Las Vegas on Saturday. He was arrested and later told the Secret Service that he had driven to the event from California and had been planning to kill the candidate for a year, according to a criminal complaint filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Nevada. Advertisement Police remove Michael Steven Sandford as Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at the Treasure Island Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas on June 18, 2016. (John Locher / AP) News outlets have certainly reported on the incident, but it hasn't gotten anything resembling wall-to-wall coverage. Cable news shows devoted little time to Sandford Tuesday morning and afternoon. Trump's dismal fund-raising report from May and his recent firing of campaign manager Corey Lewandowski received far more attention. Trump called in to the Trump-friendly "Fox & Friends" morning show and wasn't even asked about the attempt on his life. It's worth noting that the real estate magnate didn't bring it up, either. Trump hasn't so much as tweeted about it, which suggests he doesn't consider it a huge deal or doesn't want to talk about it. Advertisement The most obvious explanation is that Sandford doesn't appear to have come particularly close to completing his alleged mission. He didn't even succeed in arming himself at the Trump rally, where he unsuccessfully attempted to grab an officer's gun. Sandford's plot seems to have been feebly unsophisticated; he told authorities the extent of his training was a visit the day before the rally to a gun range, where he fired 20 rounds from a 9mm Glock pistol, a common service weapon, to learn how to use one. In short, calling Sandford a legitimate threat might be giving him too much credit. A rough analogue might be Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez, who tried to kill President Barack Obama in 2011, but came nowhere close to doing so. Ortega-Hernandez got off shots but fired aimlessly at the White House from 750 yards away and hadn't done enough research to know that the president was in San Diego at the time. From Trump's perspective, Sandford doesn't fit neatly into his campaign narrative. The billionaire has positioned himself as a staunch defender of the Second Amendment, so he certainly won't use the failed assassination attempt to push for gun control. Sandford is an illegal immigrant and Trump is all about deporting illegal aliens but the candidate's focus is on building a wall to keep out Mexicans and barring foreign Muslims from entering the United States. A Briton who overstayed his visa isn't a very good poster boy for the cause. If Trump wanted to make this episode big news, he could do it. He's proven his ability to set the agenda over and over again. But he doesn't seem interested, and the media doesn't either. And indeed, to both sides, that could simply be because they don't want to give a poorly conceived assassination plot more attention than it's due. But some on the right see a double-standard at play. The conservative news site Hot Air posed a hypothetical on Tuesday: "Can you imagine the coverage we'd be seeing if someone had attempted to shoot Hillary Clinton? The same could be said if it had happened with Barack Obama in the summer of 2008. Questions would be debated on air for weeks on end about the evil lurking in the hearts of men and why someone would be so desperate to prevent the election of the first black or female president. But when someone plots for more than a year to kill Trump, travels across the country to find an opportunity and then launches his attempt, it creates barely a ripple in the media pond." Then there's this common sentiment from Trump supporters: Blaming Glenn Beck and Brad Thor. Glenn Beck, a prominent conservative commentator who opposes Trump, was recently suspended for a week by SiriusXM after Brad Thor, who writes political thrillers, made comments on Beck's radio program that some listeners interpreted as a call for Trump to be assassinated. Advertisement "If Congress won't remove him from office, what patriot will step up and do that if, if, he oversteps his mandate as president?" Thor said. Thor and Beck both said later that the remark was not about assassinating Trump. But for anyone already convinced that the media hates Trump, the coverage of Sandford's assassination attempt (or lack thereof) will probably only strengthen their belief. Washington Post Callum Borchers covers the intersection of politics and media for The Fix. How would you explain Donald Trump to a foreign audience? Could it be done in a coherent way? Could it be done at all? To citizens at home, this may be merely an intriguing exercise. But to our country's diplomats it is a daily challenge. As part of their jobs, especially if they are public diplomacy officers, as I was, they are charged with "telling America's story to the world," and this includes describing the leading figures and issues in an election year. Advertisement During my 32 years in the State Department, ending in 2011, I had to explain the Nicaraguan Contras to skeptical Brits, Ross Perot to stunned Bolivians, and the 2000 election mess to dumbfounded Italians. But I never had a task as difficult as that facing our Foreign Service officers today how Trump has come to be the presumptive presidential nominee of one of our two national parties. Reflecting on how I might approach the assignment, I imagine myself today among those foreigners I saw frequently over the course of my career. I spent a lot of time with journalists and co-workers. I met often with politicians, professors and artists of one kind or another. All tended to be well-informed and curious, just the types who would want to know more about Trump. Advertisement In Baghdad, for example, I'd have to explain to the dozen or so Iraqis who worked in the press office why Trump wanted to prohibit them and their families from entering the United States. These Iraqis, all of them Muslim by birth but few of them observant, waited for hours to pass through security to get into the protected Green Zone and the embassy where they worked. While in line, withering under a relentless sun, they might be atomized by a suicide bomber or mortar shell. Or they might be identified by one of the many groups who opposed America's presence in the country. If so, they might get an unwelcome visitor some night who would order them to quit helping the occupiers or pay a price. The embassy barber had such a visit. When he ignored the threat and returned from work a few days later, he lost his right hand to a butcher knife. What would the Italians make of Trump? Might the jut of his jaw and the narrowing of his eyes, the exaggerated gestures and bombastic rhetoric, recall Il Duce Benito Mussolini himself? And being attentive to manners and style, the "bella figura," Italians might find the candidate's breezy vulgarity offensive. And what would they make of his cantilevered hair and its day-glo color? They might ask, do you really want this man to represent America to the world? The Bolivians, at least those of a certain age, might find in Trump a familiar figure. Back in the 1960s, when plain-talking Gen. Rene Barrientos engineered a coup and took office, he advised Bolivians to travel with their last will and testament, even when walking down a city street, because they would never know when a bullet might find them. Now there was a man who spoke his mind, just like Trump. What about the Central Americans? I lived in three countries on the isthmus for a total of eight years. With the exception of Costa Rica, Central America has suffered from political instability and pervasive poverty, although conditions are now improving. Still, many Central Americans have a fragile self-image. To them, Mexico is the colossus of the North. If Trump thinks that most Mexicans are criminals and layabouts, they must ask themselves, what could he possibly think of us? We're poorer, weaker, smaller. They would want answers, some reassurance. The British, it is true, have an active appreciation for the silly and absurd, but it tends to show itself in subtle ways. And there is nothing subtle about Trump. But when the British go for blatant political humor, they leave no doubt as to what they think. One of their parties, now defunct but much in the news when I was there in the late 1980s, was called The Official Monster Raving Loony Party. Perhaps partisans could be persuaded to invite The Donald to lead the ticket, even though some of Britain's kill-joy politicians want to ban him from the country for his hate speech. The Greeks, like the Bolivians, have their own historical reference point for Trump. In 1967, as the other members of NATO were strengthening democracy and building strong economies, several Greek colonels led a coup d'etat, which distinguished them among their generation of Europeans, even those in the Soviet Bloc. Advertisement The colonels, among other bizarre initiatives, ordered that the language be altered. They had the schools jettison demotic Greek, which had been around for centuries, and begin teaching "Katharevousa," or purified Greek, a weird amalgam of the classic and the modern. If you can change by fiat the way the people speak, the colonels might argue, then it's perfectly logical to believe you can build a wall along the Rio Grande and make the Mexicans pay for it. One of those Greek colonels still lingered in prison when I lived there in the late-1990s. He would have surely admired the Republican nominee's penchant for intimidation, his fondness for water-boarding, and his readiness to see autocratic regimes acquire nuclear weapons. Come to think of it, if he's still alive perhaps the colonel can explain Donald Trump's appeal. I can't. Robert J. Callahan, a retired diplomat and former Chicagoan, served as U.S. ambassador to Nicaragua. A bustling downtown Gary is shown in this 1959 photo. The U.S. Steel Gary Works plant is in the background. When looking at how industry helped shape portions of Northwest Indiana, particularly Gary, East Chicago and Whiting, the steel mills and oil refineries play a huge role. Some might even say that these two industries were the main economic engines driving growth within these communities. Advertisement With Indiana celebrating its bicentennial this year, historians would be remiss to not point out the economic impact the refineries and steel mills had on the region. The refineries and steel mills played a critical role right from the start in these communities. The history and the importance that these industries had on the region is outlined in a book published in 2012 by Northern Indiana Public Service Company (NIPSCO) on the celebration of its 100 year anniversary titled, "These Responsibilities are Ours: The First One Hundred Years of Northern Indiana Public Service Company." Advertisement An excerpt from the book outlines the region's industrial history, "By 1889, the Standard Oil Company built a refinery in Whiting. East Chicago was incorporated the same year. Two years later the Inland Steel Company began operations there. Finally in 1906, the United States Steel Corporation began the construction of one its great mills amid the sand ridges along the lakefront in the area now known as Gary." NIPSCO President Kathleen O'Leary says in its 100-plus year history: NIPSCO has been powering some of the largest industries in the world and ensuring local businesses and homes have safe and reliable gas and electric services. "With advancements in technology and evolving customer expectations, NIPSCO has continued to adapt. Today, we are focused on modernizing our energy infrastructure so that we will be able to meet the energy needs of our customers for the next 100 years," O'Leary says. Stephen McShane, co-director and archivist/curator for the Calumet Regional Archives and Anderson Library at Indiana University Northwest, says prior to the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Gary and East Chicago didn't exist and Whiting was a small railroad settlement known as Whiting's Crossing. "With the American Industrial Revolution, however, all that changed in 1889 when John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company needed to build a refinery in the Midwest to meet market demand. He chose Whiting's Crossing, later shortened to Whiting," McShane says. East Chicago is actually two sections, an eastern section and a western section, also known as "twins," since East Chicago is known as the Twin City, according to McShane. The Western Twin, named East Chicago, was platted in the 1880s by a real estate group headed by General J. T. Torrence. "They advertised heavily in the national press, inviting industries to locate in East Chicago," McShane says. "They succeeded in attracting a number of industries to the new town." The Eastern Twin, named Indiana Harbor, was platted by another real estate developer, who also advertised, including offering to build a harbor, a belt-line railroad, and a company town for any manufacturer willing to locate there and spend at least $1 million to build a manufacturing plant. Inland Steel Company, founded in 1893 and located in Chicago Heights, Illinois, took up the offer and broke ground for its Indiana Harbor Works in 1901. The town of Indiana Harbor, the Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad, and the Indiana Harbor Ship Canal were constructed at the same time. Advertisement "I often say East Chicago was a 'companies town,' with more than 50 industrial operations in a town of 11 square miles," McShane says. In 1905, Judge Elbert H. Gary announced the building of a new Midwestern steel plant complex and city. Ground was broken for the mills and city in spring 1906. By 1910, Gary had a population of nearly 17,000. By 1930, population was more than 100,000 and later became the second largest city in the state. "I think it's safe to say that these three cities' economies were based on heavy manufacturing, pretty much from their beginnings," McShane adds. He says there is no doubt that the significance of these industries focuses on their dominance of the local economy for almost 100 years and evidence of that dominance is in the hard times suffered by East Chicago and Gary when the steel industry shrank in the last quarter of the 20th century. "These steel cities," McShane says, "also shrank" as a result of this downturn. Whiting, he adds, was able to do better because the petroleum sector didn't go through the changes that faced the steel sector and the BP's Whiting operations have become a "major part of the global petroleum industry." As to why this region was so attractive to these industries, McShane points to eight factors that came together at a particular time in this particular place. These included low taxes, cheap land, abundant land (for these sprawling complexes), a large railroad network, a supply of labor in Chicago, Lake Michigan (for transportation and cooling purposes), local incentives (such as tax breaks or free land), and the proximity to Midwest markets (which were the hottest market for industrial products at the time). Advertisement The heydays for steel started in 1901 with Inland, followed by U.S. Steel Gary Works in 1905, Mark Manufacturing (later known as Youngstown Sheet and Tube/Jones and Laughlin/LTV/ISG, etc.) Inland's East Chicago rival; Midwest Steel in Portage in 1959; and Bethlehem Steel in 1962. The Lake County plants' heydays began to end in the 1970s and really downsized in the 1980s. The Porter County plants also downsized, but not nearly to the extent of the Lake County mills, according to McShane. "BP," he says, "has fared better and even expanded its Whiting operations in the last few years." All five of Northwest Indiana's major steel producers are still operating, McShane adds, albeit with dramatically smaller workforces (in the case of the Lake County mills). Inland Steel is now Arcelor Mittal Indiana Harbor East; LTV is now Arcelor Mittal Indiana Harbor West; US Steel Gary Works is still a major part of the corporation; Midwest Steel is now US Steel Midwest Division; and Bethlehem Steel is now Arcelor Mittal Burns Harbor. "Northwest Indiana is still the steelmaking capitol of the nation," McShane says. For more than a century, the steel mills and oil refineries provided a strong local economy, with plentiful, good-paying, middle-class jobs, McShane adds. "They also attracted thousands of European and Mexican immigrants, Puerto Ricans and Asians, as well as African-American migrants from the South, resulting in a diverse, regional population," McShane says. Dr. Michael Nirenberg founded Friendly Foot Care in 1992 in a small two-room office and now is proud to offer patients the highest level of professional care in a custom-designed 4,000-square-foot state-of-the-art facility at 50 W. 94th Place in Crown Point. He is not only a podiatric physician and surgeon, but also an educator, writer, researcher and one of a handful of forensic podiatrists in the world. His long career of dedicated public service in the Chicago area has seen him assist law enforcement in criminal investigations that involved foot-related evidence at crime scenes. He has had the honor and privilege to treat many thousands of patients, including area doctors, nurses and their families, and has been featured on a wide variety of national media. Advertisement Nirenberg's paper "Forensic Methods and the Podiatric Physician," published in the Journal of the American Podiatric Medical Association, earned him the prestigious Distinguished Podiatric Writing Award while he was a medical student. He was the first podiatry student to have a paper published in the journal without a co-author. The History Channel's "MonsterQuest" asked Nirenberg to examine footprints that may belong to the mysterious creature known as "Big Foot" in a remote area of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Advertisement Nirenberg is a Student Mentor for the American Podiatric Medical Association (APMA), and is active in a considerable number of academic and outreach programs. Nirenberg has also spoken at Chicagoland events organized by St. Mary Medical Center, the Kiwanis, the Y-Me Cancer Support Group and the Chicago Arthritis Foundation. He is a regular lecturer to salon and pedicure students on how they can spot foot and ankle problems on their clients. Nirenberg's caring approach to assisting patients is to treat each of them as a member of his own family. "I take a very thorough approach to each patient's foot or ankle problem," Nirenberg says. In fact, in one case, he was so thorough he discovered a young man's foot pain was due to a tumor in his neck. The case was published in the Journal of the American Podiatric Medical Association. Nirenberg studied podiatric medicine in Chicago and completed a residency in foot and ankle surgery. He is board certified in Podiatric Medicine and Surgery, and holds both a Bachelors of Science Bachelors of Arts degree. For 15 years he served as a Podiatric Residency Instructor, teaching new podiatrists the art and science of treating their patients. He is a member of the APMA, the Indiana Podiatric Medical Association, and the American College of Forensic Examiners. He has served on the board of directors of the American Society of Forensic Podiatry, and on the APMA's Podiatric Seals Committee that determines which foot products would earn the coveted Podiatric Seal of Approval. Originally from Toronto, Canada, Nirenberg married his wife Miriam in 1992, and enjoys spending time with his family. The family parlor of the Waukegan History Museums Haines Farmhouse is furnished as it would have been in the 1870s, including the musical instruments and period furnishings. Home to the Waukegan Historical Society for more than 30 years, the historic Waukegan History Museum at the Haines Farmhouse has been transformed back to the era of the 1870s when gracious living and elegant furnishings were the order of the day. Owned by the Waukegan Park District and leased to the Society, the house has been occupied by several prominent owners. The original farmhouse was built about 1843 for Lake County pioneer James Montgomery, and consisted of what is today the northernmost section of the present house. The two-story Greek Revival structure was similar to many early residences built in what was then known as Little Fort. In 1857, the house and surrounding acreage was sold to John C. Haines of Chicago for use as a summer retreat. The following year he was elected mayor of Chicago, and he served for two years. During the 1870s, Haines significantly enlarged the house, which he made his permanent year-round residence in 1879. The addition included two parlors, a dining room, large entry hall, and additional bedrooms. He and his family continued living here until his death in 1896. Advertisement In 1909, Fred Buck was elected mayor of Waukegan and he acquired the property in the hopes of creating a park for the city. A grand celebration was held that summer celebrating the opening of "City Park," however city officials felt that the location was too far removed from the city, and the park never materialized. Finally, in 1912, Louise deKoven Bowen and Hull House founder Jane Addams identified the site as the location for the Joseph Tilton Bowen Country Club, after visiting more than 60 sites around Chicago. Addams said of the property, "In this place all desirable things seem to have been combined without the interference of man." Advertisement The property was purchased by Bowen and donated to Hull House for use as a summer vacation camp for underprivileged children from Hull House, many of whom had little if any opportunity to leave the congested conditions of the inner city. It was called a country club so as to remove the stigma of a charity, and make the residents feel as if they had a club of their own. In its heyday, the 72-acre parcel included playgrounds, a swimming pool, recreation hall, large commons and several dormitories that could accommodate up to 200 children. Lilac Cottage was constructed in 1928 adjacent to the Haines House and was used by Addams and Bowen when they visited the club. The Waukegan Park District acquired the property in 1963, renaming it Bowen Park. It was subsequently listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. In 1973, the Haines House was leased to the Historical Society, and the building continues to be maintained by both organizations today. The decision was made to restore the house to the 1870s, when Haines enlarged the house to its current size. Period furnishings, including many pieces from important Waukegan families, have transformed the house back to the high-Victorian opulence of the late 19th century. Additional rooms are used as exhibit spaces, showcasing items from the Society's collection of Waukegan and Lake County memorabilia. Boldly printed wallpapers, elegant carpets, vintage and reproduction light fixtures, and lush window treatments adorn all the main rooms on the first floor. The two parlors are furnished as they would have been at the time one for family use with musical instruments, and one for formal entertaining, featuring a suite of walnut furniture upholstered in rich red velvet. Both rooms contain ornate white marble mantels. The dining room features an elegant Renaissance Revival table and chairs. The library features several important paintings by Waukegan native Kate Cory, who lived with and studied the Hopi Indians at the turn of the last century. The kitchen contains a large coal burning stove, china cupboard, dry sink, icebox and a multitude of late 19th century cooking items. The second floor contains several bedrooms, two of which have been furnished to the period. The large front bedroom is known as the "Lincoln Room," for in it is found the sleigh bed in which Lincoln slept while visiting Waukegan during his campaign for president in 1860. At that time it was located in the Ferry home. The other bedroom has been furnished with an abundance of children's items including toys, games and dolls. The Society continues restoration work on the Waukegan History Museum as funds and new acquisitions become available. A great deal has already been accomplished, allowing visitors to truly step back in time and view one of Waukegan's finest residences exactly as it would have appeared more than 100 years ago. After Jack Aiello's eighth-grade graduation speech went viral, the Arlington Heights teen, left, was invited to perform his impersonations of the 2016 presidential candidates this week on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon." (NBC / Handout) After an Arlington Heights student's wickedly funny eighth-grade graduation speech went viral, garnering more than 2.1 million views on YouTube, the teen will perform his spot-on impersonations of the 2016 presidential candidates on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" Wednesday night. In addition to performing in a sketch, Thomas Middle School graduate Jack Aiello will also sit down on the "Tonight Show" couch for an interview with Fallon, officials at NBC said in an email on Tuesday. Advertisement Even before Jack's appearance this week on "The Tonight Show," the video of his graduation speech had already garnered a shout out from former Republican candidate Sen. Ted Cruz, who tweeted "Ok, this kid is funny! Nicely done, and congrats on graduating!" "When I first saw the speech title, I started to get nervous," Thomas Middle School Principal Brian Kaye recalled. "But when we were down to the final 20 speeches, and I saw the reactions of the adults in the room who were judging, they were all positive. My only request was that Jack go last, as I knew he was going to kill it on graduation night." Advertisement Launching his speech with a spirited impersonation of presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, followed by his spot-on imitations of President Barack Obama, Cruz and presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, like a savvy stand-up comic, the teen whipped the crowd into a frenzy, while saving his best material for last an impassioned plea from Democratic candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, who praised the middle school cafeteria food, "things like pizza, tacos and chips, you name it, and some of the best cinnamon rolls I've ever tasted. But I do have one improvement for them though: They need to make them free! What we need is a cinnamon roll revolution!" Given the tragedies unfolding nationwide this month, Kaye said he was pleased that one of his student's graduation speeches was bringing a bit of cheer to the internet. "He's the most humble kid in the world he's always been a strong student, but I've never seen this side of Jack," Kaye said. "I honestly just feel a lot of pride that his speech became a national story, and is giving people an opportunity to laugh at this difficult time." kcullotta@tribpub.com Twitter @kcullotta These are among the dogs being helped through the Always Room 4 More Paws group. (Always Room 4 More Paws / Handout) Macy, a terrier/hound mix and her 4-week-old puppies - Penney, Tiffany, Jewel, Carson, TJ and Maxx - now are resting comfortably in the home of their foster mom South Elgin resident Lydia Turgeon. "When Macy came to me, she didn't know how to climb stairs, was afraid of a leash, and was somewhat shy around strangers," Turgeon, who sometimes like to name her rescued dogs with different themed names, said. Advertisement Retrieved from a kill shelter in Eastern Kentucky, Macy had been a stray before she was eventually rescued by Turgeon's newly-formed nonprofit, Always Room 4 More Paws. Seeing the need and knowing the unconditional love that dogs give to humans, Turgeon decided to form her own nonprofit in November 2015 with a goal of rescuing dogs from kill shelters. Advertisement "I have a passion for animals," she said. "When I moved out at 21, I got a puppy and within two months, I had a second one." Some of the Always Room 4 More Paws rescues have been retrieved from kill shelters in Southern Illinois, but most have come from shelters in Eastern Kentucky. There is a huge need in some parts of the country for dogs to be rescued from kill shelters, she added. First starting out volunteering as a dog walker at a local animal shelter 16 years ago, Turgeon eventually began fostering dogs in her home. "I really like the ability to get to know the dogs when they are in your home," she added. "When it is time for the dogs to be adopted, knowing their personalities leads to a better fit when placing them in a home." Partnering with Paws Aboard Rescue Transport which works with shelters in Eastern Kentucky, Always Room 4 More Paws has placed 35 rescue dogs in homes since March of this year, group officials said. Paws Aboard visits kill shelters every other week, evaluates the dogs, and sends photos and bios of the available animals to rescue groups in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. Turgeon meets the transport in Belvidere every other Saturday to retrieve the dogs that she has agreed to rescue which is based on the availability of her volunteer foster families. Advertisement Working at a local bank with Turgeon, Wendy Corcoran agreed to fill in at the last minute as a Always Room 4 More Paws foster parent. Corcoran's family began fostering Daisy, a terrier/corgi mix dog with no intention of adopting another dog. Within two weeks, Corcoran said, her family fell in love with Daisy as did the family's 11-year-old dog, Emma, and they decided to adopt Daisy. "We are a foster failure," Corcoran joked. Turgeon said she is currently in need of more volunteers to serve as fosters for rescued dogs from shelters in Kentucky. The organization provides food, bedding, collars, bowls, and leashes for the rescued dogs. Advertisement "All we ask is that fosters give them love and a home until they are adopted," she added. One of Turgeon's long-term goals is to start a spay and neuter program in Kentucky and other areas where there is a need so that eventually "there is no need for me." More information about available dogs and volunteer requirements can be found at http://www.alwaysroom4morepaws.com/ Cathy Janek is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News Here are five things to do in the western suburbs June 24-30. The Fox Valley Park District Premiere Theatre Company presents the world premiere of "A Perfect Age" June 25-26 at the Prisco Community Center. Tickets are $8-$10. At 150 W. Illinois Ave., Aurora. Go to foxvalleyparkdistrict.org/tickets. Advertisement Center Stage Theater and Solemn Oath Brewery host Naperville Sound Stage, a concert featuring three Chicago-area bands June 25 at Center Stage Theater. Tickets are $10-$20. At Go to brownpapertickets.com/event/2549051. "The Next Thing You Know" continues through July 3 at Steel Beam Theatre in St. Charles. Tickets are $23-$28. At 111 W. Main St. Call 630-587-8521 or go to steelbeamtheatre.com. Advertisement Western author Larry Watson will be do a reading and book signing at 7 p.m. June 29 at Anderson's Bookshop in Naperville. Book purchase of "As Good As Gone" required for signing. At 123 W. Jefferson Ave. Call 630-355-2665 or go to andersonsbookshop.com. Former Chicago Bear Matt Forte will speak at 5 p.m. June 25 and 9 and 11 a.m. June 26 services June 26 at Christ Community Church in St. Charles. There is no charge to attend the service. At Randall and Bolcum Roads. Go to ccclife.org/forte. Do you have something going on we could include in Five Things to Do? Email your item, with time, date, place, price and contact information, to wweber@tribpub.com at least two weeks before the event. Dr. Tom Brooks (left), owner of the Fox Valley Veterinary Clinic in North Aurora, and his 38-year employee Dr. John Whitney, who will retire from the clinic July 1. (David Sharos / The Beacon-News) Pets almost invariably become part of the family they live with, but often so do the people who take care of them. After nearly 40 years of practicing veterinary medicine, it's safe to say Dr. John Whitney, of the Fox Valley Veterinary Clinic in North Aurora, has become a member of a lot of families. Advertisement Whitney, 67, plans to step down July 1 after 38 years of working at the clinic. Dog owners like Carolyn and Bob Middleton of Geneva say despite being in good hands at the clinic, things aren't going to be the same. Advertisement "Dr. Whitney has taken care of our basset hound Lillie for nine years, and if we weren't happy with his care, we'd have made a change," Bob Middleton said. "He's very gentle with her, and though she's had surgery everything turned out successfully and we're pleased with the results. She's been knock on wood a healthy dog." "I always felt he had a good sense of humor and he puts people at ease," added Carolyn Middleton. "He tells you things and gives advice without being too much of a teacher." A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Whitney said he went to college at Cleveland State expecting to major in history until he took a "prerequisite biology class" late his freshman year and decided to switch majors. "I can't say I got into veterinary practice because I lived on a farm and my family raised horses," Whitney said. "It was just about taking a science class, and I wound up getting involved with the department there which was very small." Whitney has worked side-by-side along with Dr. Tom Brooks, 70, who operates the local clinic which services almost exclusively dogs and cats. The doctors met in Detroit back in 1976, and have worked together here in Aurora since 1978. Brooks said the two have been joined together over the years "by a common ideology." "We've been able to work together the whole time and while no two people are exactly the same, we've been able to get along well at the practice, and John has spent his whole career here which is very unusual," Brooks said. "Thing have changed a great deal since we started as the standards of care have risen. Back then when we were still young, we had to take our own emergency calls in the middle of the night." Brooks describes Whitney as being "dedicated to his clients, a doctor with a good depth of knowledge, and a professional who has stayed current." Advertisement Victoria Moore, who has worked at the clinic for just over a year, said the veteran doctor appeals to patients "because of his personality and having a sense of humor." "He's wonderful when it comes to explaining things to owners and he takes the time and has a lot of patience," Moore said. "I think he has a lot of people skills when it comes to dealing with the owners, who can be more challenging at times than the patients. He knows how to handle them." Brooks said a local doctor raised in Aurora, Dr. Nicole Gillham, who has practiced for two years, will be taking over Whitney's position at the practice. "She has training in more of the exotic animals, which will allow us to expand our practice as well as bring a more extensive base of knowledge," he said. Whitney said for now, his retirement plans include helping volunteer at a local school where his wife still works as well as completing her "honey do" list. And he'll likely reflect on the many patients and stories spun over the years like that of Grace Merrill, a case he inherited when he and Brooks took over their original practice on State Street in Aurora near the old fire station. "Grace was in her 80s, and had this really mean Chihuahua, and she'd drive in from her farm, jump the curb, and come in with bite marks and be bleeding from bite wounds," Whitney recalled. "One day Grace took ill and had to go into this nursing home and I offered to take the dog for her. We had two of our own, and I'd go and visit her once a week and bring the dog with me." Advertisement Despite the dog's aggressiveness, Whitney swears the two were joined together inseparably as owners and pets often are. "These visits with 'Tinker' went on for about a year, and then Grace moved to another nursing home that was farther away," Whitney said. "Finally, Tinker died, and two days later so did Grace. Somehow, they were really connected." David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News A Chicago man has been found guilty of traveling to Aurora to pay for sex with a teen girl, according to the Kane County State's Attorney's office. Marek P. Gaciarz, 34, of the 3700 block of North Octavia Street, was convicted Wednesday of involuntary sexual servitude of a minor, a Class X felony; traveling to meet a minor, a Class Three felony; and grooming, a Class Four felony. Advertisement Gaciarz waived his right to a jury trial and was convicted by Kane County Circuit Judge Donald M. Tegeler Jr. On Jan. 8, 2015, Gaciarz traveled from Chicago to an Aurora hotel with the intent to pay to have sex with what he believed would be a 15-year-old girl, according to evidence presented by Kane County prosecutors. When Gaciarz got to the hotel, he met a person he thought was the girl's mother, confirmed he wanted sexual favors, paid the person $150, and was then arrested by Homeland Security Investigations and Aurora police officers, according to officials. Advertisement "This conviction is a step toward ending human trafficking, and specifically child sex trafficking," said Kane County State's Attorney Joe McMahon. "These unconscionable crimes take place across the Chicago suburbs much more often than the general public could possibly know. Law enforcement nationwide, at all levels, is committed to ending the exploitation of children." Gaciarz is next scheduled to appear in court for motions and sentencing at 1:30 p.m. Aug. 26 in Courtroom 311 of the Kane County Judicial Center. He faces a minimum sentence of six years in state prison. In addition to whatever sentence is decided, Gaciarz must also register for 10 years as a sexual offender, in accordance with the state sex offender registration act. Gaciarz, who had been free on $12,500 bond before his conviction, is now in custody with bond revoked. hleone@tribpub.com Pepper Construction Superintendent Kevin Lally (left) and Tom Campagno, District 220 director of buildings and grounds, meet at Hough Street Elementary, near what will be the school's new main office. (Brian O'Mahoney / Pioneer Press) The summer construction season at Barrington School District 220 is busier than usual largely because of $1.3 million in renovations to Hough Street Elementary School, school officials said. The project, which started May 25, includes building upgrades that should make students safer and addresses security issues parents at the elementary school have sought to change. When people visit the school later in the fall, they'll have to be buzzed in at the main entrance and also at an adjacent main office, said Tom Campagna, district director of buildings and grounds. Advertisement If office workers do not recognize a visitor, they can scan the person's state identification card or driver's license, and the technology will check for past sexual predator information, Campagna said. Under the old design at Hough Street Elementary, the main office was located farther from the main entrance, and a staffer often would accompany unknown visitors to the office, he said. The new security measures also include laminated glass doors. Advertisement "The glass is not bulletproof, but it's shatter resistant that causes a delay in a forcible entry, allowing the police more time to respond," Campagna said. Construction workers at Hough Street Elementary also are remodeling the faculty lounge, making an accessible bathroom in the nurses' office that can accommodate disabled people and adding more bathrooms for staff. The renovation should be completed by Aug. 12, Campagna said. Elsewhere in the district this summer, the Sunny Hill Elementary cafeteria is undergoing a complete renovation and expansion for $228,500. The facility will receive new plumbing and updated electrical work, while the kitchen will be expanded with more storage and a new cafeteria serving line, Campagna said. "It's one of the busiest elementary cafeterias in the district, serving breakfast and lunch," he said. "This will really enhance the kitchen worker's ability to prepare meals and get them ready more efficiently." Work on the cafeteria will be done in early August, according to the district. At Lines Elementary School, crews recently started replacing drainage pipes near outdoor loading docks and adding new drainage materials for $218,500, Campagna said. "It floods with very heavy rains, like 2 to 3 inches," he said. Advertisement The Lines Elementary project should wrap up by Aug. 1, Campagna said. tshields@pioneerlocal.com Twitter @tshields19 Mondays will be late start days in Hinsdale High School District 86 this coming school year. The school board and faculty agreed to give teachers an hour and 20 minutes for collaboration and preparation on most Mondays. Advertisement Mondays will not be late start days if any of the following apply: the Monday is the first day of the first or second semester; it's in an already shortened week for student attendance; it is during finals week. On the late start Mondays, teachers and administrators will start work at 7:30 a.m., but classes will not start until 8:50 a.m. Advertisement The past school year, students started late on many Wednesdays to give the staff time for collaboration and professional development. The new arrangement gives students three hours fewer total instructional time than they had last year, but allows every class period to be at least 40 minutes long. On late start days the past school year, some periods were shortened to 25 minutes, which limited the activities and experiments students could tackle during that time, administrators said. A standard class period is 50 minutes. Freshman Orientation Day this year is Wednesday, Aug. 10 and the first day for all students is Monday, Aug. 15. Winter break begins Dec. 22 and students will not return until Monday, Jan. 9 for the start of the second semester. The last day of school will be May 31, with June 1-7 reserved for making up days schools are closed for emergencies or bad weather. Students will be in school for a total of 180 days, with 88 in the first semester and 92 in the second semester. The school board voted 5-2 to approve the calendar. Board members Edward Corcoran and Claudia Manley voted against it because they did not support the decrease in instruction time. Manley said she understands the reason for the change, but said instructional time is crucial. kfornek@pioneerlocal.com Twitter @kfdoings Anyone who watches "Game of Thrones" knows there's strength in numbers. In the popular HBO show, bands of people form alliances and unite to face a common enemy. They have to raise armies and muster enough fighting power to have any hope of survival. The ultimate goal in the fictional story is to rule the seven kingdoms. Advertisement Illinois government is feeling more and more like a storyline from "Game of Thrones." The year-long budget impasse is like a castle siege with each side entrenched for a prolonged stalemate. Hopes fade for a negotiated settlement. The objective seems to be gaining political power instead of governing. Mayors of nine south suburban communities are taking a stand on an issue related to the state budget crisis. They're hoping that collectively their message will carry more weight than if they spoke out individually. Advertisement The mayors attached their names to a June 19 letter to Gov. Bruce Rauner. They're calling on the governor to act on school funding reform. "Our current school-funding system penalizes the children from our communities," the letter states. "Many of them come from families in poverty. This is both morally indefensible and a threat to the future of Illinois." That's strong language from a band of top elected officials representing communities in the south suburbs and other areas. They know high property taxes are killing economic opportunity in their villages and small cities. Economic inequality diminishes the quality of schools in their towns. Population and business growth suffer. Property values are depressed. It's a vicious cycle created by an unfair, broken system of funding schools. "Our school districts must rely on local property taxes for the majority of their funding," the mayors wrote to the governor. "The result for many children is that their ZIP code becomes their destiny. None of us as elected representatives can accept this reality." Letter signers include mayors Jerry Bennett of Palos Hills, Dan McLaughlin of Orland Park, Eugene Williams of Lynwood, Charles Tokar of Chicago Ridge, Robert Kolosh of Thornton, John Ostenburg of Park Forest, Don De Graff of South Holland, Domingo Vargas of Blue Island and Vernard Alsberry of Hazel Crest. The mayors must know Rauner wants to be known as a leader who values public education funding as his top priority. They acknowledge the imbalanced system has existed for decades and isn't Rauner's fault. But they appeal to his ability to fix the inequitable formula instead of just increasing total funding. "Many of our school districts across the state have reached a tipping point," they wrote. "Hard-won academic progress is endangered by a lack of state support and the resulting over-reliance on property taxes. Maintaining the current funding formula for another year will only exacerbate this crisis." Advertisement The mayors made it clear that now is the time to tackle school funding reform. Rauner has said he'd prefer to wait to take on the issue until the state budget crisis is resolved. "Your full support for fair and equitable school funding in this session is necessary to offer hope and opportunity to millions of children while helping to secure a more prosperous future for our state," the mayors wrote. In some respects the mayors signal their allegiance by signing the letter. A total of 17 mayors signed the letter. At the top of the list is Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. By signing the letter, the mayors could be seen as choosing a side in the state budget battle. They could be viewed as aligning themselves with Emanuel and the supermajority Democrats led by House Speaker Michael Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton. At least that's one way Rauner might interpret the message. McLaughlin, the Orland Park mayor, said he didn't see it that way. "I don't see this as a Democratic or Republican issue," McLaughlin told me. "I think it's about the message of the letter. That the state has to come up with a more fair system of funding education." Advertisement There has been a lot of name-calling between Democratic and Republican state leaders since the legislative session ended May 31 without a budget agreement. Rauner recently said Emanuel's refusal to stand up to Madigan was a major disappointment of the governor's first term to date. The governor also doubled down on calling Chicago Public Schools "crumbling prisons" and told downstate constituents that Democratic-backed efforts at school funding reform amounted to a bailout of Chicago schools. Emanuel accused Rauner of driving down Chicago's economy and compared the businessman-turned-politician to Donald Trump, saying Rauner uses a "playbook of demonizing one group of people for his political advantage." State leaders are playing a political blame game. I think local mayors risk repercussions from Springfield by aligning themselves with the Chicago mayor. Never mind that it's the morally correct stand to take, and one I fully support. Politically, they risk becoming an enemy of the governor. "The intent wasn't to take sides with Chicago," Bennett, the Palos Hills mayor, told me. The letter was discussed at a recent quarterly meeting of the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus, he said. Is Rauner above exacting any sort of political revenge upon the mayors or their communities? He has deep pockets, after all, and has financially supported campaigns of challengers to his political opponents. Advertisement "Maybe the governor will look at it like that," Tokar, the Chicago Ridge mayor told me. "It shouldn't be about that. It should be about compromise. They ought to sit down and figure out some middle ground." Irony abounds in political warfare. My enemy's enemy can be my friend. Sunday's letter from mayors reminded me of another letter, sent to the governor on June 6 by 15 school superintendents, including Chicago Public Schools CEO Forrest Claypool. "The status quo is unacceptable when the future of our children is at stake," they wrote. "As superintendents we stand united in saying that Illinois can never fund its education system in the same way again." The messages of the two letters were similar, but there was a big difference in terms of the geographic representation of the signers. The mayors were almost exclusively from Chicago-area communities and especially the south suburbs. People around here disproportionately feel the negative effects of school funding inequality. Daily Southtown Twice-weekly News updates from the south suburbs delivered every Monday and Wednesday > Some of the superintendents signing the other letter to the governor serve Chicago-area districts, but many signers are from downstate. They represent towns like Taylorville, Harrisburg, Granite City, Peoria, Pana, Vandalia and Sandoval. Wait, aren't these places like the downstate towns the governor recently visited when he was trying to find friendly ears for his message? The governor essentially said increasing state funding for Chicago schools would be unfair to people in central and southern Illinois. Advertisement And now you're telling me that superintendents of downstate districts also are calling on the governor to do something about school funding inequality? Hmmm. It's a tangled web, this business of choosing sides. Public officials from Chicago, the suburbs and downstate appear united in their pleas for the governor to work toward resolving education funding inequality in Illinois. If he wants to be known as the governor who values education, Rauner should heed the calls for reform. tslowik@tribpub.com Twitter @tedslowik Four guns laws were shot down by the Senate. One would've required the attorney general to investigate any gun purchase by someone on the terror watch list. That, to many of us, seems rational and should've been OK'd immediately. How could it not have passed, for the public safety alone? Which side is our government on? Bob, Oak Forest Advertisement I believe that the financial records of the Chicago Public Schools should be audited or investigated because I'm curious to see just how much money has slithered away over the last 25 years or so. I bet that there's a ton of cash that's unaccounted for. It's been shuffled around, stolen, hidden and wasted on inappropriate or unnecessary purchases. Oh yes, I'm very curious. How refreshing to wake up to front-page headlines on a Sunday morning that is a feel-good story. Congrats to Allan, the graduate ,and his parents. Congrats to Reavis and their superintendent, and especially the Southtown for printing this story. It helps start the day with a more positive outlook on life. There really are good things going on in our world. Just dig a little deeper. They are there. Advertisement Linda, Burbank Where are Sean Penn, Oliver Stone, Michael Moore, Danny Glover and other Hollywood wonks when the Venezuelans need them, now that socialism has collapsed? I guess the photo ops won't be so self-promoting now. Tom, Evergreen Park I am responding to the guy waiting for an appointment at the VA hospital. First of all, thank you for your service and making our country a little safer. Secondly, at the VA some specialists have morning hours and some afternoon hours. There are so many specialties and so many patients to see, that they have to do it this way. These doctors do not set their own hours, the VA does it. I receive treatment at the VA and know that they can be very accommodating to patients, and they do the best that they can to accommodate to your needs. We would all love to have morning appointments so we have the rest of the day to do what we need to do. Do you think it's great to travel from Orland Park to the Hines VA for a 1 or 2 p.m. appointment? I do it because I am receiving some of the best medical care. So my suggestion to you is, maybe you should lose the attitude of "You owe me," and be a little accommodating yourself. Linda, Orland Park I can't figure out why people think that just because someone is able to get rich in the business world, their business expertise will translate into a good leader in government. Business and government are two different creatures with two different purposes for existing. One's purpose is to earn a return on investment for the owner(s) to make a profit, and the other's is to set rules and provide services that enable groups of people (large or small) to live together without total chaos. The compromises of those with opposing ideas is necessary to make government work in a democracy. There is no democracy in business. Whoever has the most money and is the biggest bully is usually the most successful. A government run this way would be a dictatorship. Is this what people really want, a dictator? El, Hegewisch Sen. Dick Durbin has a very short memory. Speaking of al-Qaida, he said, "They know that assault weapons can wreak more havoc in a short period of time than any plane might, sadly, if it were sabotaged. That is a reality." Let's see, Orlando 49 dead. On 9/11, 3,000 dead. Not a shot was fired. Advertisement Linda, Evergreen Park Where is our Sunday crossword puzzle? Once more you have changed the format of the Daily Southtown, not necessarily for the better. I liked it much better when you printed the answers to the puzzles the following day, not the same day like now. I do not see the need for more comics that are not even funny anymore. What we had was sufficient. The TV programming seems to be better now. But, no crossword puzzle on Sunday is not good. I do think there are customers that would like the additional puzzles, but please do not omit the crossword puzzle. I really liked the old, smaller-sized pages to the paper. It was much easier to handle. I am a longtime subscriber. Yvonne, Bridgeview After all these years of summer concerts at the outdoor music venue in Tinley Park, why has the Police Department not figured out a better management of traffic? Cadets manually controlling traffic lights, and officers blocking roads with their cars and flares, and pointing drivers in the direction to send traffic is not working any better than it did from the start. In fact, it's markedly worse. Tinley Park In response to Billy T's comments about Sweden taking in over 100,000 refugees and asking who is paying. I have family that lives in Sweden and they pay 78 percent of their salary in taxes due to socialism. So that's who is paying. Advertisement Linda, Orland Park About violence in Chicago and all that: You're putting too many guys out on parole. All you're doing is putting gasoline on fire. I don't care if anybody is white, black, yellow or whatever. There's no reason for this. We all should get along together in this world. Walk down the street. Don't be afraid to cross the street, and I won't be afraid to cross the street. You don't gain anything by hurting anybody. You hurt other people, and the repercussions go on forever and ever. Please be nice to each other. Learn to live with each other, please. You don't have to live with each other, but you have to respect each other as people. I hope so. A third-trimester pregnant woman infected with the Zika virus came to the United States from a foreign country and, one week later, gave birth to a microcephalic child. The child, an American citizen by birth, is in a pediatric intensive care unit. The child may need lifelong assistance. Who will pay the child's medical bills? I ask because my dad was a native-born, 84-year-old World War II Purple Heart veteran who needed 24/7 care. We could get no help, so I quit my profession to care for him. I don't care. I think it's disgraceful to have these people asking for $15 an hour to flip a hamburger. Give me a break. Every hamburger in the United States would be $7.99. Get real. Get a life. You want $15 for that minimum wage job? Never, never, never. RC, Oak Lawn Whereas, I think it was a horrible disease that boxer Muhammad Ali had and I don't think the man should have suffered like that with that horrible Parkinson's disease, I don't agree that he's some great American hero. Back during the Vietnam War days, he was a draft-dodger. I think it's a shame that we're immortalizing him like he's some great American hero when he avoided the draft. I think it's a slap in the face to our Vietnam veterans and the people who lost their lives in Vietnam. Advertisement Emily Get this. I went to the cemetery the other day to visit my family. At the gate, they asked, "Where is your passkey?" Come on now. When funeral parlors send the dead body to the cemetery or to the undertaker, do they say, "Oh, don't you have a passkey?" I think people make people have to have a key because money is money. My money will buy anything. This garbage of a passkey doesn't mean anything other than money. You can do anything for money. House Speaker Mike Madigan, shame on you and all the Democratic House members beholden to you. These career politicians are afraid to cross Madigan and lack the integrity to stand up to this powerful man. There was an opportunity to make history and help our state back on the long road to financial recovery. However, Madigan and his political munchkins said no and looked the other way. Rather than rolling up their sleeves and fixing the budget problems, these do-nothing politicians talk the talk and make promises only to get re-elected. As long as Madigan and his allies remain in office, Illinois will continue to erode. There will be a cure for cancer before the state budget is ever passed. Bob I would like to respond to a comment made by Judy stating that fair is fair, and she thinks we should lose the Barack Obama Presidential Center because she doesn't want a personal reminder of a president who screwed up our world. Sorry, Judy, but building a President Obama library isn't about you. Secondly, if you are so strongly against the building, then simply go after Friends of the Parks because, like it or not, money is coming in by the millions to build this library. One more thing: Why shouldn't he have the library built here in Chicago? This is where he started his political career. BJ, Hazel Crest Advertisement Daily Southtown Twice-weekly News updates from the south suburbs delivered every Monday and Wednesday > More about the Cincinnati Zoo incident: It's so stupid to kill an innocent animal. This kid decided to go by the gorilla. That mother should be shot. It sounds terrible, but it's no wonder our animal population is dwindling when they're endangered and get killed. Wake up, people. Watch our kids more. I'm sure that gorilla wouldn't have hurt the boy when he got in the enclosure. The gorilla probably would've put him down or got bored. Gorillas have saved kids who fell in. It's like a bad case of the movie "King Kong." I watched that the night before the zoo incident. It was sad. Then we lost a gorilla in real life who just had his 17th birthday. Pat, Chicago Ridge With the budget crisis in Illinois, both sides have to compromise. The main problem is Gov. Bruce Rauner. Rauner is so stern on his union-busting and pro-business ways that he's not looking at how he's hurting the little people. He doesn't care. He's hurting the poor seniors, the sick and our schools. Yes, the Democrats have to compromise somewhat too, but the main thing is he won't even budge unless his union-busting ways are accepted. He won't accept anything. Give it up, Rauner. It's not going to happen in a strong union state. Why don't you pick up your toys and go back to one of your 10 homes, or however many homes you have? We don't want you here. Kara I was watching the weather. Old Farmer's Almanac is printed a year ahead of time. They're right about 90 percent. Meteorologists are right about 50 percent. They've got all this equipment. Once they said a tornado was in Elgin. I was at 86th Street and Western Avenue in Chicago. A tree came at me. The tornado went right through. This guy said the tornado was 60 miles away. I almost got killed. Stick your head out the window. Any good farmer knows the weather by looking out the window. Weathermen don't do anything. Also, you ruined my vacations by saying everything was going to be fine and it wasn't, or saying it wasn't going to be fine but it was. What's Speak Out? Advertisement Speak Out allows readers to comment on the issues of the day. Email Speak Out at speakout@southtownstar.com or call 312-222-2427. Please limit comments to 30 seconds or about 120 words and give your first name and your hometown. Employees at Wal-Mart's new Carpentersville store prepare for the grand opening on Wednesday. The store is opening despite an ongoing lawsuit the village of East Dundee filed against Wal-Mart and Carpentersville. (Gloria Casas / The Courier-News) On the eve of the grand opening of a new Supercenter, a lawsuit the Village of East Dundee filed against Wal-Mart and Carpentersville is heading back to court. Illinois Second Appellate Court Justices this week vacated a Kane County judge's order dismissing the complaint, according to an appellate opinion. Advertisement Justice Kathryn Zenoff wrote the opinion with Justices Susan Hutchinson and Ann Jorgensen concurring which vacated 16th Circuit Judge David Akemann's decision based on a motion he denied for substitution of judge in the lawsuit. The appellate court opinion found East Dundee had a right to request and get a new judge assigned to the case so the case should be sent back to the circuit court, according to the documents. Wal-Mart moved ahead with constructing a new building in Carpentersville at 365 Lake Marian Road, and it is scheduled to open Wednesday. A ribbon cutting is planned at 7:30 a.m. The East Dundee store closed Tuesday evening. Advertisement The ruling "vindicates the village," East Dundee Village President Lael Miller said Tuesday. "The judge has thrown out all the rulings of the previous judge so we're excited to hear that," Miller said. "We'll have to get together with our legal team and decide what our steps moving forward are. But this puts us back at the beginning and I look forward to seeing where we go." Akemann had ruled against the village, which appealed based on the substitution of judge issue. The Appellate Court's decision means Akemann's ruling is void, East Dundee Attorney Tom Gardiner said. The case must be litigated again, he said, calling the opinion a "victory" for East Dundee. East Dundee's lawsuit arose from Wal-Mart's decision to close its store in the village and open a Supercenter in Carpentersville, which established a Tax Increment Finance (TIF) District offering Wal-Mart tax incentives to move to town, the lawsuit states. The lawsuit argues the Tax Increment Allocation Redevelopment Act, the basis of a TIF District, "provides that redevelopment costs may not include costs that would provide 'direct finance support' to a retail entity that is commencing operations in the redevelopment project area while simultaneously terminating operations at another location within 10 miles of the redevelopment project area but outside the boundaries of the municipality," the lawsuit states. An exception is if closing the operation is beyond the retailer's control, the lawsuit states. Carpentersville approved giving Wal-Mart $4.3 million in TIF funds to help the store move from its location in East Dundee to the new site. "It's a meritless lawsuit and it's a moot point" because the store is opening, Carpentersville Village Manager Mark Rooney said. The lawsuit is "wasting tax dollars for the village and its neighbor." Advertisement Justices ruled on a "procedural issue," a motion to substitute the judge, not on the substantive merit of the case, Rooney said. He said he thinks a new judge will be put in place and rule like Akemann. He does not understand why East Dundee continues to pursue the lawsuit, he said. Wal-Mart officials could not be reached for comment late Tuesday. Gloria Casas is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News. Employees of the Kane County Forest Preserve District are in line to receive merit raises of an average of 3 percent, putting the total compensation for executive director above the maximum for the salary range. Following a recent vote by commissioners, the executive director's salary range is now $114,500 to $171,800, records show. Advertisement Executive Director Monica Meyers' salary increased by 3 percent effective this month, per her contract, and her base salary is now about $159,000, director of human resources Tracey Smith said. Meyers' total compensation package includes a vehicle stipend along with a county contribution to her Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund account, Smith said. Her total compensation package is about $175,000, according to county documents. Advertisement Meyers said the district does not give cost of living increases and only offers merit-based increases based on performance. Employees undergo an evaluation annually and the average 3 percent is based on performance, Smith said. The district offered 2 percent increases during the 2007 recession, she said. The commission also approved a 2 percent pay range increase to bring salaries in line with the market. The district hired consultants to study the pay structure 10 years ago, Meyers said. Consultants recommended increasing the scale by 2 percent each year to keep salaries competitive, she said. The increase that adjusts the salary range does not mean employee salaries automatically increase to amounts within the range, though, Smith said. Commissioners unanimously passed the resolution increasing the scale without any discussion this month. The executive director's salary is contractual and Meyers signed a new five-year contract last year, Smith said. Meyers is the highest paid executive in the district followed by Standish, whose total compensation with benefits is about $105,800, and Smith, whose total salary compensation is about $91,300, county documents show. Director of planning and development Gerald Culp's total compensation is about $91,000, according to records. Meyers' salary is higher than the salaries of some countywide elected positions, including the Kane County sheriff, treasurer, county clerk, circuit clerk, recorder, county auditor and the chairman. Earlier this year, the county board voted against increasing those salaries by 2 percent. The Forest Preserve District of Kane County is its own taxing body. Property taxes make up 68.4 percent of all revenue within the general fund, based on the current fiscal year, finance director Ken Standish said. This fiscal year, the district received $5.4 million in property taxes and had $7.9 million in the general fund in total revenues, Standish said. Advertisement Salaries make up 47.9 percent of all expenses in the general fund for this fiscal year, or about $3.7 million, and total revenues are $7.9 million, he said. Kane County Sheriff Donald Kramer's base salary is about $129,500 and his total compensation with insurance and other benefits is about $153,800, according to data from 2015. The data is based on a 27 payroll period, which happened in 2015, county officials said. County Clerk Jack Cunningham's base salary is about $103,800 with a total package of about $129,600, the data shows. Treasurer David Rickert's base salary is about $103,800, and with benefits it is about $139,000, the data shows. County Clerk Thomas Hartwell's base salary is about $94,100 with total compensation of about $127,300, according to the data. Recorder Sandy Wegman's base salary is about $92,900 with a total salary package of about $123,000, while Auditor Terry Hunt's base salary is about $91,600 and total compensation is about $121,400, the data shows. Kane County Coroner Rob Russell's base salary is about $91,600, and total compensation is about $114,400, according to the data. Chairman Chris Lauzen's salary is about $104,000 but was slightly higher in 2015 due to the extra payroll, according to county documents. He does not have benefits. Advertisement The salary ranges of the district's executives range from $77,200 to $115,000, according to the resolution. Gloria Casas is a freelance reporter. Beginning April 1, 2017, the South Elgin Police Department will be dispatched through St. Charles-based Tri-Com. The South Elgin Village board approved the contract this week on a 3-1 vote, with trustees Greg Lieser, Mike Kolodziej and Jennifer Barconi voting in favor, and Lisa Guess voting against. Trustees Scott Richmond and John Sweet did not attend Monday night's meeting. Advertisement South Elgin began looking at its dispatch services earlier this year. Its five-year contract with KaneComm, the emergency dispatch center operated by Kane County and located in Geneva, is set to expire on April 30, 2017, said South Elgin Chief of Police Chris Merritt. The Tri-Com contract will begin before the KaneComm contract ends to allow time for transition, Merritt explained. Advertisement After the first, 13-month contract, the contract will be renewed annually, Merritt said. South Elgin signed a five-year contract with KaneComm in 2012. At the time, South Elgin dispatched for both the police and South Elgin and Countryside Fire Protection District, but was facing a potential $1 million upgrade. The fire district signed a contract with the city of Elgin to dispatch through the Elgin 911 center. While South Elgin had approached Elgin about also dispatching for police, Tri-Com approached the village to consider the St. Charles-based dispatch center. Tri-Com is now celebrating its 40th year as a joint dispatch center, and includes Batavia, Elburn, Geneva, St. Charles and Sugar Grove's police departments, as well as those community's fire departments and the North Aurora Fire Department. The first year's dispatch contract will cost South Elgin $260,299. An additional $94,874 operational reserve contribution will be split into two payments, due March 31 of 2017 and again on March 31, 2018. South Elgin will also pay for the radio equipment needed to switch to Starcom radios, at the cost of $106,704. With South Elgin coming on board at Tri-Com, Merritt will also sit on the board for the dispatch center, he said. Advertisement The contract will automatically renew, and be renegotiated, on a yearly basis, Merritt said. At the June 6 meeting, some police officers had asked the village board reconsider going to Elgin for dispatch services. That service, however, called for an annual contract just shy of $400,000 annually. Going to Tri-Com solves one of South Elgin's most pressing needs a radio system that can penetrate large, big-box stores on Randall Road and South Elgin High School, Kolodziej said. The radio system used by KaneComm had caused problems for officers, often not penetrating those buildings, village officials said. That lack of radio coverage led to police officers in South Elgin filing a grievance with the police union, Merritt said. Kolodziej said part of the reason he preferred Tri-Com is because it is not run by a municipality, but by a consortium of the users. "Elgin (dispatch) belongs to Elgin. KaneComm belongs to Kane County. This is strictly there to serve this purpose," of dispatching for several communities, Kolodziej said. Advertisement In voting against the agreement, Guess said she was in favor of going to Elgin, as some officers had requested. All 911 calls in the village will automatically route to Tri-Com. If the calls are for fire or ambulance services in South Elgin, dispatchers there will then send those calls to Elgin. "With Tri-Com, there will be a delay in fire calls," Guess said. Janelle Walker is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News. District U46 School Board members cast their approval, 5 to 2, Monday to extend the contract of interim superintendent Kenneth Arndt. Arndt, who retired in 2014 as superintendent of Carpentersville-based Community School District 300, will be paid $700 per day, which includes a $5,000 pay increase. His contract states he is limited to just 100 days of work in order to not violate the Illinois Teachers' Retirement Pension Code. Advertisement The contract further states Arndt will not receive sick pay, vacation or personal days, health insurance or any other perks. His new contract begins July 1 and runs until June 30, 2017. Advertisement School Board President Donna Smith and the four board members who voted in favor of the extension said they were happy with the work Arndt has been doing in the district along side Chief Executive Officer Tony Sanders. "He has done a great job," said Smith. "Him and Tony have made a great team." The former permanent U46 Superintendent Jose Torres resigned in August 2014 to head up the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy in Aurora. Since Torres's exit, Sanders, who had long worked as the district's chief of staff, has continued to tend to the day-to-day operations of the district. However, due to state law, the district cannot officially give him the title of superintendent. Though he has extensive experience as an administrator he lacks experience as a classroom teacher or school principal, a requirement in earning the title. So, Arndt was hired to tend to the various tasks which can only be done by certified superintendents, according to district officials. However, should state law be amended and the Illinois State Board of Education grant Sanders a superintendent or provisional superintendent certificate, Arndt's contract would be "immediately" terminated, according to the contract. The new contract reflects a raise of little over 7 percent, an increase that School Board Members Jeanette Ward and Cody Holt objected to. Advertisement Both said they were pleased with Arndt's work, but because they are concerned with the district's budget and the unknown wranglings in Springfield, they had to object to extending the contract. School Board Member Traci O'Neal Ellis said Arndt has done an "outstanding job" and she is "happy to vote yes in spite of the budget concerns." Amanda Marrazzo is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News. Work on a railroad crossing that will go over Washington Street in Grayslake is among the construction projects being impacted by the Illinois budget stalemate. (Dan Moran / Lake County News-Sun) The first step in halting transportation projects across Illinois because of the state budget impasse started Wednesday when contractors were notified to secure construction zones by June 30 for a possible long-term shutdown, according to transportation officials. "We have started to inform our industry partners that all of our projects in both construction and engineering phases will be shutting down starting June 30 due to the majority party in the legislature's failure to pass a balanced budget," the Illinois Department of Transportation said in a statement. "The conversation about how individual projects will wind down is continuing." Advertisement IDOT officials said they have identified projects totaling $665.5 million underway in Cook, DuPage, Will, McHenry, Kane and Lake counties. The total includes $495.7 million in state projects and $169.7 million in local projects. Gov. Bruce Rauner and House Speaker Michael Madigan have been sparring over the construction, school funding and others issues as part of the budget stalemate. Rauner visited the IDOT offices this week to reiterate the danger of not coming to an agreement and shutting down the roadwork. Advertisement Work on a railroad crossing that will go over Washington Street in Grayslake is among the construction projects being impacted by the Illinois budget stalemate. (Dan Moran / Lake County News-Sun) "Transportation is one of the cornerstones of our state's economy," Rauner said in a statement released Tuesday. "The employees of IDOT are working hard day in and day out to keep our roads safe for all Illinois travelers and at a good value for taxpayers. "Without a safe, reliable system of transportation, people don't get to work. Goods and services do not get to where they need to go. Strengthening IDOT will continue to be one of my top priorities so Illinois is an even better place to live, work, raise a family and do business." Rauner added that all transportation projects "will be suspended unless the General Assembly passes the stopgap budget proposed by the GOP Leaders," saying that a stopgap funding solution backed by his office "will allow important projects and programs to continue past June 30 without interruption (and) will keep IDOT's summer construction program moving forward without delay." Steve Brown, Madigan's press secretary, said the negotiations on a budget are continuing, and he blasted Rauner and IDOT, saying, "Their strategy is create panic." According to Brown, a downstate city asked when the state would pay its water bill for rest stops, and IDOT immediately sent crews out to post signs saying it was closed when the city didn't say it would cut off the water. "We don't want (IDOT) to waste a lot of money on PR stunts when it is still under negotiations," he said. In a Wednesday statement, IDOT officials urged state legislature to return to Springfield and vote on the GOP funding bill backed by Rauner. Work on a railroad crossing that will go over Washington Street in Grayslake is among the construction projects being impacted by the Illinois budget stalemate. (Dan Moran / Lake County News-Sun) "The stopgap proposal is a fiscally responsible solution proposed by the Republican leaders that can be voted on today," the statement said. "There will be no interruption in our projects and programs if the General Assembly returns to Springfield and passes (the bill)." Advertisement Lake County officials also weighed in, saying the standoff could close down four Lake County road projects by the end of the month, including the Washington Street underpass at the Canadian Pacific Railway tracks in Grayslake. "In addition to human services and other state programs, transportation projects are the latest victim of the state's budget impasse," said Aaron Lawlor, chairman of the Lake County Board. "It's unfortunate the state work has to stop, but the county projects will continue," he added, referring to $111 million slated for transportation projects in the county this year. Lawlor said IDOT was expected to send a notice on Wednesday to its state contractors that all active construction must stop immediately and all contractors must work to make the sites safe for a possible "long-term" shutdown by June 30 due to lack of a budget, he said. "Construction workers work very hard during the construction season and they rely on this (income) during the off-season," he said. "I think its hard to find a person not impacted by what's going on in Springfield." According to IDOT, current work zones eyed for shutdown include the Jane Byrne Interchange reconstruction in Chicago; Interstate 55 and Lake Shore Drive in Chicago; Illinois 171 at I-55 in Cook County; 159th Street (Illinois 7/U.S. 6) from I-355 to U.S. 45 in Will County; I-55 at U.S. 6 in Channahon/Minooka; U.S. 30 from I-55 to Illinois 59 in Joliet/Plainfield; Illinois 19 and York Road in Bensenville; and Torrence Avenue over the Grand Calumet River in Chicago. Work on a railroad crossing that will go over Washington Street in Grayslake is among the construction projects being impacted by the Illinois budget stalemate. (Dan Moran / Lake County News-Sun) IDOT also listed projects that may not be awarded for the coming year, including part of the Jane Byrne project and lane expansion and bridge projects on the west end of the Kennedy Expressway in Chicago. Advertisement In Lake County, future projects that could be impacted include the Route 45 Millburn Bypass in Lindenhurst and Old Mill Creek, and improvements on Grand Avenue at Route 41 in Gurnee. Current Lake County projects identified by Lawlor and county transportation officials include not only the Washington Street grade separation but also an intersection improvement at Ela Road and Route 12; storm sewer and repaving on Deerfield Road in Deerfield and Highland Park; and technology improvements on Waukegan Road (Route 43). Brooke Hooker, spokesperson for LCDOT, said that the Washington Street overpass is unique in that it is being done in separate parts, so work on the overpass will be suspended, but road improvements on either side can continue. Hooker added that LCDOT will work with its engineers and contractors to make sure that the roadways are as safe as possible for the traveling public. Road construction projects that are locally funded will continue as scheduled. Lake County has a five-year plan calling for $550 million in transportation improvements. Lawlor said the shutdown won't affect the Hawley Street improvements in Mundelein or the many resurfacing projects. "Hopefully the state gets their act together," he said. Advertisement fabderholden@tribpub.com Twitter @abderholden native speaker An apple a day keeps the doctor away is a popular expression in the United States. It may be a common saying, but it is not scientifically confirmed. However, a new study adds to evidence that suggests taking a small amount of aspirin can help to keep the doctor away. Researchers have known for some time that a small daily dose of aspirin can be good for your health. Aspirin can lessen the risk of developing heart disease and even colon cancer. New findings suggest the painkiller may also increase survival in cancer patients by up to 20 percent. That is, if those patients are receiving chemotherapy as a cancer treatment. Chemotherapy uses drugs to destroy cancer cells. Peter Elwood is with Cardiff University's School of Medicine in Britain. Forty years ago, he was involved in the first study to explore the effects of aspirin in the prevention of heart disease. Elwood's team examined 47 studies for evidence that aspirin helped cancer patients. And they found some. "And there's fairly consistent evidence of a 15 to 20 percent reduction in death and a reduction in metastatic spread, by low dose aspirin." By low dose, he means 81 milligrams. The study followed cancer patients for five years. Elwood says the evidence is strongest that aspirin delays death among colorectal cancer patients. His team found that aspirin also helped people being treated for breast and prostate cancer. The reason appears to be the chemical salicylate. Elwood says many people have small amounts of salicylate in the body. In about 20 percent of patients, researchers have found a genetic mutation that may interact with the chemical. The mutation is known as PIK3CA. This change in the structure of genetic material could explain the reduction in colon cancer. Elwood says he was excited with the studys findings. He adds that it is not a cure but a small sign of better things to come, what he calls a glimmer of hope and encouragement. "Well, I feel very gratified because given the diagnosis of cancer. It's not a cure but it's a glimmer of hope and encouragement to them. So, I am thrilled to have this evidence from the study." Elwood says that if doctors told him he had cancer, he would not delay in taking aspirin once a day. But he says that decision is up to the individual. "If you asked me personally what I would do if I had a diagnosis of cancer, I would say I would have no hesitation in taking it. But I do not recommend it to people. I want them to have the evidence and take (make) their own decision." The only major risk is that aspirin can cause stomach bleeding. But Elwood says it is usually does not cause death. He adds that the evidence points to big health benefits of taking a daily aspirin. So, for some people, the pros might outweigh the cons. Elwood and his team published the findings in the journal PLoS One. A Chicago woman was killed Saturday night when the car in which she was traveling was hit while turning on a red light near Horseshoe Casino in Hammond, according to a witness. Dana Lukauskas, 85, sustained blunt force trauma in a crash at Indianapolis Boulevard and Casino Center Road, according to a release from the Lake County Coroner's Office; she was the front seat passenger. Lukauskas resided in the 2700 block of West 71st Street in Chicago. Advertisement Lukauskas was unresponsive when paramedics found her at the scene. She pronounced dead at 8:07 p.m. at Franciscan St. Margaret Health in Hammond. A Hammond Police report said the crash occurred around 7:14 p.m., when the car Lukauskas was traveling in a 2008 Chevy Cobalt was headed south on Indianapolis Boulevard. The driver, Felix Lukauskas, was waiting to turn left into a gas station, but there was a red light, according to police. Advertisement A second car a 2006 Chrysler 300C driven by 20-year-old Alejandro Ortega of Chicago was traveling north on Indianapolis Boulevard. Ortega approaching the intersection in the far right lane and his light was green, police said. A witness said that the left turn light was still red, but Felix Lukauskas started to turn left in front of oncoming traffic, police said. Ortega's car struck the passenger side of Lukauskas' car, which came to rest at the northeast corner of the intersection. Each driver showed no signs of impairment, and a portable breath test showed that alcohol was not a factor, according to police. Felix Lukauskas complained of chest pain and was transported to Franciscan St. Margaret Health in Hammond for treatment. Two of Ortega's passengers complained of pain, but it is unclear whether they were transported for treatment. cnance@post-trib.com Lisa Harris, from left, Julie Watherspy, and Bertha Talley prepare lunch items to hand out at the 151st Sreet. Recreation Center in East Chicago Tuesday, June 21. (Suzanne Tennant / Post-Tribune) For some children, finding a good meal during the summer isn't as easy as opening up the refrigerator. "Locally, we have school districts with very high free and reduced lunch rates," said Arleen Peterson, executive director of the Food Bank of Northwest Indiana. "But what happens in the summertime? Parents may arrange for their kids to stay with grandma while they work, but what if she's on a fixed income and is struggling to make ends meet?" Advertisement More than 20 percent of children in Lake and Porter counties 33,280 have limited access to nutritious food at some point during the year, according to Feeding America's most recent Map the Meal Gap report. The Food Bank of Northwest Indiana is helping to fill that gap by providing breakfast and lunch for more than 400 children this summer at a dozen sites across Lake County. Advertisement The Summer Food Service Program, part of a national initiative sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, runs through Aug. 5 at sites in Merrillville, Hobart, Gary and East Chicago. Any child 18 and younger can access the meals at the sites. The aim of the program is to serve many of the kids who received free and reduced lunch and breakfast during the school year. Peterson said the centers provide not only meals but a safe place and programming for kids. "They're a great place to engage and learn about the community," Peterson said. "You don't have to be enrolled at the site to receive the meals. We encourage the sites to invite adults who are with the kids in to eat with them as well." Peterson said a grant from Albertson's is covering the cost of summer staff. Chanda Dixon, program and volunteer manager for the food bank, said the number of kids served by the program could potentially grow as the summer progresses. "Usually by July, we're hitting higher numbers and the sites have told us how many kids they're anticipating," Dixon said. Meals on Wheels prepares both a hot and cold lunch option, while the food bank's four summer interns prepare a brown bag breakfast, typically cereal bars, fruit cups and other items. Advertisement The four interns said their work consists of putting together breakfast for the Summer Food Service program and loading it on pallets, as well as boxes of food for low-income seniors and other programs. "I haven't really thought about it, but I probably have served one of my classmates through the program before," said intern Myles Peterson. Dixon said the interns might not realize the impact of their work. "They might not think that they're doing much, but they're actually doing a lot," Dixon said. "They're feeding kids during the summer; kids who don't know where their next meal is coming from in a lot of cases. So it benefits a lot of families." cnance@post-trib.com The latest issue of China Briefing Magazine, titled Understanding Mergers and Acquisitions in China, is out now and available to subscribers as a complimentary download in the Asia Briefing Bookstore through the months of June and July. Contents An Introduction to Chinas M&A Market Anatomy of a Takeover: Conducting a Company Acquisition in China The Importance of Due Diligence in the M&A Process The environment for mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in China has fundamentally changed in recent years. Affected in part by the global economic crisis and wavering Chinese growth, the rate of foreign acquisitions in the country has fluctuated considerably over the past ten years, going from 42 deals worth approximately RMB 30 billion in 2008, to 39 worth 78 billion in 2013, to 61 deals worth 35 billion in 2015. Conversely, Chinese outbound acquisitions have experienced an unprecedented upsurge in the last two years. A sharp rise in capital outflows resulted in Chinese outbound investment surpassing that of major developed economies in 2015, while Q1 2016 saw China record its largest ever quarterly share of global acquisitions, making up a sixth of all M&A activity. Find Your Next M&A Opportunity Search now on The contrasting dynamics of outbound and inbound M&As in China has served to transform the M&A market landscape in the country. While the acquisition is still undoubtedly a swift and effective means for foreign companies to enter the Chinese market, there are now a host of new considerations for firms to take into account prior to committing to any investment, including uncertain market conditions, bigger domestic players, and new regulatory frameworks. In this issue of China Briefing magazine, we set out to guide foreign investors through the mergers and acquisitions process, from initial market research, to set-up procedures and regulatory hurdles, and finally thorough important due diligence considerations. With experience in Chinas M&A market since 1992, Dezan Shira & Associates is perfectly positioned to ensure that the M&A is the right investment vehicle for your companys venture into China. About Us Asia Briefing Ltd. is a subsidiary of Dezan Shira & Associates. Dezan Shira is a specialist foreign direct investment practice, providing corporate establishment, business advisory, tax advisory and compliance, accounting, payroll, due diligence and financial review services to multinationals investing in China, Hong Kong, India, Vietnam, Singapore and the rest of ASEAN. For further information, please email china@dezshira.com or visit www.dezshira.com. Stay up to date with the latest business and investment trends in Asia by subscribing to our complimentary update service featuring news, commentary and regulatory insight. Human Resources and Payroll in China 2015 This edition of Human Resources and Payroll in China, updated for 2015, provides a firm understanding of Chinas laws and regulations related to human resources and payroll management essential information for foreign investors looking to establish or already running a foreign-invested entity in China, local managers, and HR professionals needing to explain complex points of Chinas labor policies. Labor Dispute Management in China In this issue of China Briefing, we discuss how best to manage HR disputes in China. We begin by highlighting how Chinas labor arbitration process and its legal system in general widely differs from the West, and then detail the labor disputes that foreign entities are likely to encounter when restructuring their China business. We conclude with a special feature from Business Advisory Manager Allan Xu, who explains the risks and procedures for terminating senior management in China. Internet Challenges & Solutions When Doing Business in China In this special edition of China Briefing magazine, we highlight how and why foreign companies will be negatively affected by Chinas internet, and provide methods to help solve these problems. We discuss ISP selection, internet connection types, CDNs and VPNs, and internal control systems. Finally, we examine the importance of network security in China and how it can help augment a companys internet connection. Guo You (2nd, L), chairman of China Construction Bank's board of supervisors and Eduardo Frei (1nd-R) Chile's extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassador to the Asia-Pacific, participate in the inauguration of China Construction Bank's Chilean branch, China's first bank in Chile, in Santiago, capital of Chile, on June 20, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua] China Construction Bank (CCB) has opened the first clearing bank for transactions in renminbi in South America in Chile's capital Santiago, the CCB said on Tuesday. The branch was inaugurated Monday night, after receiving all the needed permits from Chile's banking authorities. More than 200 guests attended the inaugural ceremony. Guo You, president of the CCB's Supervisory Council, expressed his appreciation for the support the entity received in the South American country. The South American branch of the CCB, one of the world's top 10 banks, will not only help boost economic and trade exchanges and financial collaboration between China and Chile, but also help the bank expand its services in Latin America, said Guo. Initially, the branch will provide corporate banking services and actively promote cross-border yuan transactions, which will help facilitate trade, Guo said. "The inauguration of this bank in Chile is a fundamental milestone in ties between the two countries," former Chilean President and current Senator Eduardo Frei told the opening ceremony. While Chile-China ties have been close, Chinese investment in the country has lagged behind, said Frei. Opening a bank branch in Chile is the most important Chinese investment in the country to date, he said. "It's going to be the first renminbi clearing bank not just for Chile, but also for South America," said Frei. During Chinese Premier Li Keqiang's visit to Chile in May 2015, the presidents of the two countries' central banks signed an agreement that paved the way for the opening of the CCB branch, recalled Frei, underscoring the importance of having a banking entity in Chile capable of carrying out direct transactions in the Chinese currency. "The financial losses from currency exchange operations were significant, and carrying out operations directly in China's currency, the renminbi, is going to particularly benefit Chile and China's small and medium-size companies," said Frei. The CCB, said Frei, is one of the world's largest companies and by establishing itself in Chile, it is demonstrating not just the high level of ties between the two countries, but also its trust and confidence in Chile's development, and in becoming an economic platform for all of Latin America. Chilean Economy Minister Luis Felipe Cespedes said the CCB's entry into Chile was a reflection of the country's robust business climate. The branch, said Cespedes, "allows us to tighten and strengthen ties between the two countries, which today are strong because China is our leading trade partner and, with the establishment of the bank, we can raise the financial channels and investment in our process of integration with the world." Rodrigo Vergara, Chile's central bank chief, stressed the importance of the 2015 monetary agreement that facilitated the use of the renminbi in Chile, and allowed Chilean investors to invest in China's stock market. Chinese ambassador to Chile Li Baorong said: "The opening of the branch is not just about a Chinese bank expanding operations abroad, but also about the deepening of substantial cooperation between the two countries, and of the confidence that Chinese financial institutions have in the future of our sister country, which is Chile." In 2015, Chile and China celebrated the 45th anniversary of diplomatic ties, while 2016 marks the 10th anniversary of their free-trade agreement. China has launched its first dark sky reserve in the Tibet autonomous region's Ngari Prefecture. Ngari is among the best sites for astronomical observation on earth, due to its high altitude and large number of cloudless days throughout the year.[Photo by Wang Xiaohua/for chinadaily.com.cn] The reserve covers an area of 2,500 square kilometers and aims to limit light pollution by stepping up protection of dark-sky resources for education and tourism development. It was jointly launched by the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation and the regional government of Tibet. Wang Wenyong, head of the legal affairs department with the foundation, said in a news briefing on Tuesday that the launch of the preserve is only the first step in protecting the area from light pollution. The reserve will also try to seek accreditation from the International Dark-Sky Association, a nonprofit organization based in the United State that is devoted to preserving and protecting the night time environment and dark skies globally. Wang Xiaohua, head of the Chinese branch of the International Dark-Sky Association and a leader of the Ngari reserve program, said such areas were important for promoting astronomy. Ngari is among the best sites for astronomical observation on earth, due to its high altitude and large number of cloudless days throughout the year. However, the recent inflow of people from other areas has given rise to increasing urbanization, and thus the associated risk of more light pollution. "If we do not take action now to preserve the area, we risk losing one of the best astronomical sites on earth," said Wang at the news briefing. The foundation has also signed an agreement with authorities in Tibet's Nagchu prefecture to establish a night sky park, which will feature limited lighting facilities and a special area for astronomical observation. Follow China.org.cn on Twitter and Facebook to join the conversation. Thousands of homes were flooded in Poyang county, Jiangxi province, late on Monday after Bintian Reservoir overflowed as torrential rain continued to wreak havoc in South China. A rescuer escorts a sleeping 10-month-old infant to safety on Tuesday in Xiaba, a village in Guizhou province that has been left submerged by consecutive heavy downpours. [Photo/China Daily] The overflow forced the relocation of 5,600 residents in three villages late on Monday as the floods submerged homes, roads and farmlands, the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters said in a news statement on Tuesday. No casualties were reported. The Jiangxi provincial government said on Tuesday that the water is slowly receding. There are still more than 4,000 people mobilized in flood prevention efforts. It added that it could take at least three days to repair the riverbanks. Hu Guoyi, a villager from Jianyang who was forced to relocate, said the banks overflowed in a matter of hours. "The water level rose quickly to more than 2 meters and soon submerged the gate of our home," he told China News Service. After the floods, he and his wife took their two children to stay with relatives and then returned to the village to look after their home. In Hunan province, a flooded river in Longshan county forced about 18,500 residents to leave an ancient township. Torrential rains and floods have affected 213,800 residents and forced the relocation of 32,800 people in the province, according to provincial authorities. In neighboring Guizhou province, rescuers saved more than 150 residents who were stranded after their villages were flooded in Yanhe county. More than 1,500 people were relocated, local media reported. In Haozhang county, a landslide triggered by the rainfall hit a session of highway linking Bijie and Weining in the province, according to the provincial civil affairs authority. The National Meteorological Center on Tuesday continued a yellow alert for heavy rain in South China for the next 24 hours. China has a four-tier weather warning system, with red representing the most severe warning, followed by orange, yellow and blue. According to the State forecaster, rainstorms are expected across a vast region along the Yangtze River, including the provinces of Jiangsu, Anhui and Hubei. Some parts of Jiangsu and Anhui will see up to 15 centimeters of rain within 24 hours. Heavy rain is also expected in Tibet, Yunnan, Sichuan and Chongqing in the southwest and in Heilongjiang in the northeast, according to the forecaster. Floods triggered by heavy rain have left 22 people dead and 15 others missing in South China since Saturday, according to the authority. Hero, 2 others die in rescue attempt About 100,000 people lined the street in the county seat of Liping, Guizhou province, on Monday to bid farewell to Liu Shanping, a grassroots Party chief who lost his life while trying to save two fellow villagers. In the early hours of June 10, Jiuchao town in Liping was flooded, and Liu, head of Qiuchao village, received a desperate call from Wu Bingzhi, another resident, for help, as Wu and his daughter were stranded in their house by floodwaters. Liu managed to get near the home, along with 16 other villagers, and planned a daring rescue. Another resident wanted to help, but Liu told him to stay away because the man was an only son. Liu had a brother who could take care of his own family if he perished in the rescue attempt, Liu told the man. Liu waded into the rushing water with one end of a rope tied to his waist and the other held by residents. He managed to reach Wu's house and Wu's daughter climbed onto his back. As he was returning, the flood rose dramatically and washed away the pair, and then Wu. All three died. Liu's body was discovered on Saturday evening, two days after the bodies of the father and daughter were found. Cremation took place on Monday. As Liu's body was carried to the cremation, the way was lined by some 100,000 people with banners, calling him a hero, guardian of the village and a good Party chief. All Chinese living below the poverty line in rural areas will have access to basic medical care and other health services "close to" the national average by 2020, according to a guideline released by 15 central government departments on Tuesday. The government will mobilize various social resources and take more precise measures to support the development of health and medical care services in poor areas, the guideline said. The health poverty alleviation project is part of a national strategy to ensure that all people living below the poverty line in China climb out by 2020, the guideline said. Of the 55.7 million people living in poverty in rural China as of 2015, about 44 percent were impoverished because of expenses related to health, Hong Tianyun, deputy director of the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development, said at a news conference on Tuesday. The current poverty line in China is 2,800 yuan ($425) per person a year. To tackle health-related poverty with precision, several ministries, including the National Health and Family Planning Commission and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, have organized a nationwide investigation into the major health conditions responsible for the poverty of the rural population, said Wang Pei'an, vice-minister of the commission. The investigation, to be conducted by grassroots health workers, will cover every household that fell into poverty because of health expenses, and a record will be created for each in a database after the investigation is completed in July, he said. A report will be made based on the investigation and database to help authorities provide assistance to different groups according to need, Wang said. To help impoverished regions gain access to more health resources, the government will increase subsidies for insurance for the rural poor and encourage the private sector and nongovernmental organizations to invest in poor regions, Wang said. Medical resources such as hospitals and doctors are seriously lacking in the 832 counties with the largest number of poor people, a major gap between supply and demand, Wang said. Despite China's universal coverage for basic health insurance, a person with low income can easily go bankrupt because of out-of-pocket expenses. For example, a person may be reimbursed for 80 percent of a medical procedure, but the remaining 20 percent can gobble up a year's earnings or more. Nearly 30 million Chinese are in poverty because of this sort of basic math, according to the Chinese Red Cross Foundation. The foundation has partnered with an IT company to launch an online crowdfunding website to give poor patients direct access to donations for lifesaving medical care, the foundation said on Tuesday. A Chinese panda expert on Tuesday expressed concern for a giant panda at California's San Diego Zoo which was reported to be suffering from heart disease after a physical examination. Gao Gao is 26, old for a Panda, said Wang Chengdong, director of the veterinary hospital at the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda in southwest China's Sichuan Province. Wang said he saw Gao Gao at the zoo last September when he was in good physical condition with a good appetite at that time, Wang said. "When giant pandas become older, they are prone to age-related disease," Wang said. As Gao Gao is old, it is hard to cure his heart disease. Medicine and rest are indispensable, according to Wang. Pandas in China rarely suffer heart disease, Wang said. "Gao Gao is too old to have an operation so we suggest he receive conservative treatment instead," Wang said. Gao Gao was found in a nature reserve in Sichuan in April 1993 when he was a cub. He was separated from his mother and had suffered serious injuries. Panda researchers saved him and took him to the center. He was sent to the United States in January 2003 as part of a 12-year research cooperation program between the two nations. Wild giant pandas' life span is usually 15 to 20 years while the life span of captive pandas can reach 30 years. Kelsang, 62, is delighted to see more tourists visiting his hometown. For the past 20 years, he has made a living by providing horses to Buddhists and tourists wanting to make the mountainous journey to Yumbulagang, Tibet's first temple, in Shannan Prefecture. He makes more than 300 yuan ($45.6 dollars) a day during peak season. "Much better than toiling in the fields," he said. Kelsang said his income increased after the Qinghai-Tibet railway opened 10 years ago, and more tourists could access the plateau area in southwest China. Since July 1, 2006, the 1,956 kilometer railway, which at its highest point is 5,072 meters above sea level, has linked Xining, capital of Qinghai Province, to Lhasa, capital of Tibet. It is the world's highest and longest plateau railroad and the first to connect Tibet Autonomous Region with the rest of China. In 2015, 20.2 million tourists visited Tibet, 11 times more than before the railway opened. Moreover, tourism revenue last year exceeded 28 billion yuan, 15 times more than a decade ago. Liu Wengang, a train operator, said train tickets sold very quickly. Often, during the peak season from April to September, they sell out a month in advance. To meet demand, six passenger trains run every day. The number of cargo trains has also doubled to 10 trains daily. "The Qinghai-Tibet Railway has activated the potential of Tibet, which was untapped for years, and attracted investment," said Liao Yidong, vice chairman with Tibet Federation of Industry and Commerce. Chinese dairy giant Mengniu announced earlier this month it would invest 200 million yuan in to a dairy farm and processing project in Lhasa. Yang Haijiang, a planner with Qinghai-Tibet Railway Co., said the line now has 18 loading stations, including industrial zones and coal bases, with trains transporting industrial salt, fertilizers, alkali, coal, aluminum, and iron ore out of the plateau from these stations. According to Yang, more railway lines are also planned on the plateau, such as one connecting Nyingchi, Tibet, with Ya'an, Sichuan Province. "With these lines forming a network, 'the roof of the world' will become more accessible," said Yang. According to Tibetan government statistics, GDP surged from 25 billion yuan in 2005 to 102.6 billion yuan in 2015, with an annual growth rate of over 10 percent. The figures in Qinghai also rose, from 64 billion yuan in 2005 to 241.7 billion yuan in 2015. China plans to launch its new generation Long March-7 carrier rocket between Saturday and Wednesday from a new launch ground in south China, according to the manned space engineering office on Wednesday. China plans to launch its new generation Long March-7 carrier rocket sometime from Saturday to Wednesday from a new launch ground in South China, said the manned space engineering office on Wednesday.[Photo/CNTV] The rocket was vertical when taken to the launch pad in journey that took three hours this morning. The Long March-7 is a medium-sized rocket using liquid propellant that can carry up to 13.5 tonnes to low-Earth orbit. It will transport cargo for China's planned space station and is expected to become the main carrier for space launches. The rocket arrived at Wenchang in south China's Hainan Province in May for final assembly and testing. This will be the first launch from Wenchang, the fourth launch site in China. Its construction was completed in November 2014. According to the local tourism department, all hotels are fully booked until Sunday. The city can only provide accommodation for 80,000 people and suggested tourists avoid the maiden launch, as there will be more in the future. Deb Shelden's attorney, Paul Korslund, got appointed to represent her on a murder charge late on a Friday afternoon in April 1989, started working on it on the following Monday and pleaded her to aiding and abetting eight days later. With the quick plea, Shelden became the first of the Beatrice 6 to fall, starting what the prosecutor, former Gage County Attorney Dick Smith, later would call the "domino effect." By the end of the year, five others -- Joseph White, Ada JoAnn Taylor, Tom Winslow, James Dean and Kathy Gonzalez -- would be convicted for the rape and murder of a 68-year-old Beatrice widow in 1985. In 2008, the case would unravel after DNA testing tied another man, Bruce Allen Smith, to Helen Wilson's brutal killing. White's conviction was overturned, and Shelden and the others later earned pardons. Then, they all sued Gage County, then-Sheriff Jerry DeWitt and the deputies involved in the cold-case investigation. The first trial ended in a mistrial after the jury deadlocked. On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court let an appeals court decision stand that said Gage County can be tried civilly for the investigation. Representing Gage County, attorney Jennifer Tomka had filed a petition asking the high court to review an Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals decision last August reinstating the county. In it, she asked the court to consider whether a Nebraska sheriff is a county policymaker for purposes of liability when supervising a criminal investigation if there is no evidence presented of a policy, custom or practice of unconstitutional conduct. Without elaborating, the Supreme Court denied the petition in its Monday order, issued about the same time a second jury trial in the civil rights case was moving into its third week in a Lincoln courtroom. Korslund, who retired this spring as a Gage County District Court judge, took the stand, and Shelden's new lawyer, Maren Chaloupka, questioned him about the quick plea in such a serious case. She asked him if his billing reports, which showed he had pleaded his client after doing 14 hours of work on her case, were right. Korslund said they were. "On a first-degree murder case with multiple defendants and forensic evidence?" Chaloupka asked. Correct, he said. She pointed out that Korslund didn't yet have serology reports or know that Shelden only confessed after multiple hours of being interrogated without an attorney present, and couldn't have checked out all the ways the statements didn't match up with the crime scene evidence. Korslund said the main thing he relied on was Shelden herself and what she told him. Shelden started having nightmares when she lived briefly in the apartment where Wilson, her great aunt, had been killed. Working with Dr. Wayne Price, also a part-time deputy, she came to believe the nightmares were memories of what had happened. "I never had any doubt, at that time, that she was present," Korslund said. He said Shelden was one of the most honest clients he ever had and didn't think she even was capable of lying. He believed what she told him. Korslund also said he remembered being struck by the fact that her own husband, Cliff, had named her as a suspect, and directed the jail at one point not to allow her mother and stepfather to visit her. "The only person she really had to stand up for her was you?" Chaloupka said. Yes, Korslund answered. After Shelden pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting second-degree murder, four more entered pleas. A jury found White guilty at trial. On cross examination, Korslund told Tomka that under the circumstances Shelden was in, "I definitely felt that (a plea) was the best option for her." And, to do it quickly, he said. Korslund said he knew there would be an advantage to being the first one to offer cooperation. On the day of her sentencing, Shelden testified Monday, she thought she was going to get two years of probation and cried when she got 10 years, a sentence that ultimately meant she would serve 5 years in prison. Chaloupka said less than a week later Korslund, who had represented the local Crime Stoppers when it put out a press release looking for information on Wilson's killing six weeks before the arrests in 1989, sent a newspaper clipping to Deputy Burdette Searcey, the head investigator, congratulating him on the fine job he'd done. On President Xi Jinping's current tour of the western-central sector of the proposed New Silk Road, he has decided not only to make bilateral visits to Serbia and Poland, but also to the Central Asian state of Uzbekistan. President Xi will, of course, be attending the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent; but his decision to precede the summit with a full-dress bilateral visit sends a signal that China attaches particular importance to relations with Uzbekistan, a staunchly supportive partner of China throughout the quarter-century of the country's existence. Since Uzbekistan's independence, relations with China have steadily grown. In order to prevent the emergence of a dangerous vacuum in the Central Asian region following the break-up of the Soviet Union, China has made every effort to engage the new countries to her immediate west. Since then, both countries have assumed a rising significance in each other's regional and international objectives. A Declaration of Strategic Partnership was signed in June 2012, and a permanent intergovernmental commission has been put in place to discuss the practical details of the cooperation program. As the region that is now Uzbekistan was a key link in the original Silk Road linking China with Europe, it's logical that the present nation has been sought out by China to play a similar role in the modern project. The groundwork for President Xi's current visit was laid down by a preparatory visit by Foreign Minister Wang Yi last month. Minister Wang met Uzbek President Islam Karimov as well as his Uzbek counterpart, confirming President Xi's plans to focus on the particular position of Uzbekistan within the "Belt and Road" program and to deal with SCO issues. In the last two years China has become Uzbekistan's leading trading partner, with trade figures reaching US$4.7 billion in 2014. This position was taken over by Russia following the rouble's devaluation, which was brought on by the slump in global oil prices. Uzbekistan produces some materials of use to China, such as mineral fertilisers, cotton fibres, non-ferrous metals and, most importantly, natural gas. China, which places great significance on diversifying her supplies of natural gas, has worked hard at establishing pipelines to bring Uzbek gas to the Chinese consumer. The fourth of these pipelines is close to opening up. However, trade between the two countries so far has been highly asymmetric. Though the amount of Uzbek trade going to China is approaching 20 percent, only a very small proportion of China's foreign trade is with Uzbekistan. Moreover, as regards the total Chinese trade with Central Asia, Uzbekistan still lies well behind Kazakhstan, China's main trade partner in the region. President Xi's visit aims at establishing Uzbekistan as a serious challenger to the larger countries of the region in terms of trade with China. In the political sphere, Uzbekistan has become one of China's most reliable supporters on global security issues, quite apart from the two nations' cooperation in the SCO forum. As a sufferer from the recent wave of terrorist activity in the Central Asian region, China has worked with Uzbekistan on counter-terrorism, counter-extremism and opposition to the separatism that China fears in the context of her western regions. Additionally, Uzbekistan has consistently expressed full endorsement of a "one-China" policy and opposition to "Taiwan independence." In return, China has expressed support for Uzbek concerns over trans-border river flows; in the water-deprived Central Asian region, rivers are a subject of great anxiety, and the diversion of water resources for hydro-electric projects has the potential to upset the ecological balance, even to the point of creating security problems. China supports Uzbekistan in supporting fair regulation of water resources in the region. However, China does not want the political aspect of the relationship to become too dominant. Although Uzbekistan's relations with both Russia and the USA include mutual security commitments, China does not want to go down that route. In accordance with the clearly laid-down path of modern Chinese diplomacy, partnerships with other countries are set firmly within the context of economic and developmental cooperation, rather than looking towards political alliances in the security field. This visit shows that both China and Uzbekistan take their bilateral relationship very seriously. China sees in Uzbekistan a reliable and supportive partner, and wishes to underpin the political relationship with solid and mutually beneficial economic links; Uzbekistan, without prejudice to her existing security commitments, clearly sees China as her key partner in the revival and underpinning of her own economic development and her integration into the regional economic structure. Tim Collard is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit: http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/timcollard.htm Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is holding an important summit this week in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent. The major highlight of the meeting is the expected induction of India and Pakistan as members. When India and Pakistan bitter rivals who both have nuclear weapons are admitted as full members, the working of the SCO may become more cumbersome, but at the same time its decisions will be more significant. It will be an organization with four nuclear states as members, though Pakistan and India are still not formally recognized as nuclear countries, because they have not signed the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty or the NPT. India and Pakistan have a common past as part of united India until 1947, when the country was divided by British colonists at the demand of Muslims who wanted to have a separate homeland due to the fear that, being in minority, they would be dominated by the Hindus. Unfortunately, communal violence broke out on the eve of partitioning of the country and thousands of Muslims, Hindus and people from other communities perished. Instead of having a sobering effect on the two new states, the killings set a hostile tone for their future relationship. The two sides went to war in 1984 over the former princely state of Kashmir. Another two major wars, several border skirmishes and intense suspicion about each other have defined their relationship over the past seven decades. Despite having a huge potential to benefit from bilateral trade and commercial ties, they have not normalized economic links with each other. Caught in the middle of distorted facts and fierce nationalism, it is not easy for any analyst to apportion blame and decide which country is more responsible for the strained ties. While fate of Kashmir is still undecided, a new challenge has emerged in the shape of militancy. Both recognize it as major threat but differ over how to meet the challenge. Rather, both accuse each other of involvement in subversive activities. The two countries are also the founding members of the South Asian Association of Regional Countries (SAARC), which was founded in the mid-1980s to increase economic cooperation among the countries of South Asia. However, the organization failed to make any substantial headway, primarily due to differences between India and Pakistan. Despite difficulties ahead, there is a greater likelihood that India and Pakistan will behave more responsibly as members of the SCO. There are several reasons for this optimism. First, the SCO is different from SAARC, as it will not be dominated by Pakistan or India. Second, its objective is much larger and it has already done considerable work against militancy and towards close economic cooperation. India and Pakistan know the groups objectives and understand its challenges. Hence, there is no space for them to carry out their own agendas in the meetings of the SCO. Third, the group offers a very good forum for the leaders of Pakistan and India to meet on the sidelines and discuss issues away from domestic pressures exercised by media and opposition parties. Fourth, the SCO will provide them a good platform to discuss the issue of terrorism and evolve a broader perspective on it than they can at a bilateral level. Fifth, they can become part of the economic cooperation mechanism that transcends bilateral fixations. Sixth, great interaction and cooperation may pave the way for the resolution of political issues, including Kashmir. Their joining of the SCO will also have a positive impact on the group and will increase its acceptance in the Western world. The presence of India especially, the worlds biggest democracy, will make it more prestigious institution. Sajjad Malik is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit: http://china.org.cn/opinion/SajjadMalik.htm Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn. Flash Greece has received 7.5 billion euros (8.5 billion U.S. dollars) in new bailout funds, European Stability Mechanism (ESM) Managing Director Klaus Regling announced Tuesday after meeting with Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos. Regling also assured that European partners remained committed to providing further assistance to Greece in coming years, although the extent of the financing needs were yet not clear. The ESM head insisted in statements to the press that Greece should stick to the 3.5 percent GDP primary surplus target in 2018, as agreed with its international lenders last year, although Athens and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are calling for a "more realistic" 2.0 percent goal. Also on an official visit to Greece on Tuesday was European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker who said the country was now on the right path to economic recovery. "Today, Greece is on the right path. The results are encouraging," Juncker stated during a meeting with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, urging Greek people to continue on this path of reform. "Europe is incomplete without Greece, eurozone is not complete without Greece and Greece cannot be complete without euro and the EU," Juncker stressed during a televised joint press conference. For his part, the Greek prime minister underlined "Greece can turn page and after six years of recession and austerity, it can design the structural changes needed to achieve fair development and a more optimistic prospect for Greek people." Regarding the next steps after the conclusion of the bailout review and the disbursement of the new aid tranche to Athens, Tsipras said an agreement on debt relief should not take long. Flash Manipulation of opinion by the United States and its allies lies behind the arbitration being sought unilaterally by the Philippines against China on South China Sea issues, according to a British legal expert. Tony Carty, professor of public law at the University of Aberdeen and Cheng Yu Tung Chair of Public International Law at Tsinghua University Law Faculty, spoke with the arbitration tribunal expected to deliver a ruling soon. Carty said China should have a "clear strategy" and embark on "a massive and very effective international publicity campaign to show that the tribunal has been biased in its judgment about jurisdiction". In the likely event of an unfavorable final judgment against China, Beijing must get its message across effectively to world opinion on why it disagrees with the tribunal's decision, Carty said. China has refused to be any part of the arbitration since the proceedings were launched in 2013 under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. This month, Carty was among an international group of legal experts and lawyers who signed a legal opinion document questioning the tribunal's jurisdiction. Carty spoke of concerns about "a flagrant interpretation of the Convention" ahead of the tribunal's ruling. "It is a question of China articulating the complex nature of the manipulation of international law that is going on here," he said. Carty added that some politicians in the US and Britain, as well as some media outlets, had said that the tribunal is permanent and "some kind of final court of appeal". "But in fact it is merely arbitration, in which one of the parties is not prepared to participate." Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said on Monday that the forthcoming ruling will be politically motivated and Cambodia will not support it. Flash China sees the upcoming 16th Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit as a new starting point to enhance cooperation among members, President Xi Jinping said on Tuesday as he arrived in Uzbekistan. Chinese President Xi Jinping (R,front) and his wife Peng Liyuan are greeted by Uzbek Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyoev (L,front) and Governor of Bukhara Province Muhiddin Esanov upon their arrival at Bukhara International Airport, Uzbekistan, June 21, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua] Xi is visiting the country and attending the summit, which is scheduled for Thursday and Friday. The summit coincides with the 15th anniversary of the six-nation group that works together on anti-terrorism, security and other issues. In a signed article published in a local newspaper, Xi said this year's summit is of great significance in summarizing experiences and charting future cooperation plans. The major document to emerge from the summit is expected to be the Action Plan for 2016-20. This includes specific measures in areas such as politics, security, economic affairs and culture, according to Uzbekistan's Deputy Foreign Minister Anvar Nasirov. Li Jinfeng, a senior researcher on SCO, Russian and Central Asian studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the members are facing problems such as terrorism, separatism and extremism penetrating Central Asia, and cracking down on these three threats should be prioritized. Sun Zhuangzhi, an expert on Russian studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that although the SCO is 15 years old, internal economic cooperation remains inadequate. The Silk Road Economic Belt which links China with Europe through Central and Western Asia will inject new momentum into members' economies, Sun said. The accession of Pakistan and India to the organization will be another key issue at the summit, according to officials from member countries. Founded in 2001, the SCO comprises China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan as full members, with Pakistan and India as observer states. Nasirov said that a memorandum of obligation will be signed by India and Pakistan to obtain SCO member status. Kyrgyzstan's Minister of Economy Arzybek Kozhoshev told Xinhua News Agency this month that after the two nations join the SCO, the total population of its members will comprise "more than half of the global population". An annual report on the SCO released on Tuesday by leading Chinese think tanks on Eurasian studies said the first expansion of its membership should be made discreetly and cautiously. The expansion is complicated and difficult, because it "matters to the future definition of the organization itself and its future path of development", said the report by institutes affiliated to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the State Council's Development Research Center. Flash At least 20 fighters of the Shiite Houthi group were killed Tuesday when they launched armed attacks on government-controlled areas and a strategic airbase in Yemen's southern province of Lahj, a military official told Xinhua. He said the attacks were unleashed in the early hours of Tuesday by scores of Houthi fighters and their allies, with the aim to advance towards the government troops based inside the country's biggest airbase in Lahj province. According to the military source, the Houthi fighters captured a mountain overlooking the strategic military airbase of Al-Anad which is located about 60 kilometers away from Yemen's temporary capital of Aden. The Yemeni military source said the pro-government army troops responded with heavy shelling, triggering intense battles that left about 20 Houthi fighters dead. An army commander in Lahj told Xinhua the Houthi militants attempted to infiltrate into areas surrounding the military airbase at dawn on Tuesday, but the pro-government army repelled the attacks, after carrying out Saudi-led airstrikes against them. Pro-government troops backed by armored vehicles of the Saudi-led coalition arrived in the area and engaged in more gunbattles with Houthis, leaving 10 soldiers injured, the commander said. Witnesses said warplanes of the Saudi-led coalition launched heavy air raids and struck several plateaus seized by Houthi fighters outside Lahj province in an attempt to impede them from making more ground advances. Tuesday's fighting occurred despite the cease-fire that came into force on April 10 and was supposed to pave the way for the Kuwait peace talks, but both warring sides have complained of violations by each other, along with continuing heavy shelling and airstrikes. The UN-brokered negotiations began in Kuwait on April 21 under the auspices of the United Nations to seek a reconciliation end to more than a year of civil war in Yemen. The talks is the third of its kind since the conflict began after Houthi militias stormed the capital Sanaa and expelled the government into exile in September 2014. Previous peace negotiations had failed to end hostilities. More than 60 days passed of ongoing consultations in Kuwait, but rival negotiators have so far failed to agree on the agenda in line with the UN Security Council Resolution 2216. The resolution orders Houthi militias to withdraw from Sanaa and all other cities, hand back weapons and release political prisoners before forming new sharing transitional government. Houthi and Saleh delegates have been insisting on forming a new transitional government before discussing other topics. Both rival delegations keep trading accusations of cease-fire breaches all over the three weeks of talks that progress slowly. The civil war has drawn in Saudi-led coalition on March 2015, in response to President Hadi's call to restore his internationally recognized government to the capital, Sanaa. The civil war has killed more than 6,000 people, half of them civilians, injured more 35,000 others, and displaced over two millions, according to humanitarian aid agencies. Yemen's conflict began after 2011 massive popular protests that demanded an end to the 33-year rule of then President Ali Abdullah Saleh. After struggling through major droughts and legal battles over water rights, Nebraska is moving forward with an effort to keep the state's water drinkable and abundant. The Nebraska Natural Resources Commission tapped the state's new water sustainability fund for the first time in April, awarding nearly $11.5 million to 16 projects throughout the state. The next round of applications runs July 16-31. Lawmakers created the fund in 2014 and approved an initial $29 million investment, followed by $11 million a year, to help local governments deal with floods, water shortages and water quality issues. They also expanded the Nebraska Natural Resources Commission from 16 to 27 members, adding gubernatorial appointees to represent cities, agriculture, power districts and other interested groups. In the initial round of funding, several local natural resources districts received money to create more detailed maps of their groundwater. The North Platte Natural Resources District was given $900,000 to buy out farmers who irrigate their crops after the Scottsbluff area overused its share of water. The largest grant, $4.4 million, will help Hastings with a project to clean nitrates out of the city's groundwater supply. The nitrate concentration in the city's aquifer has surged in recent years and is now coming close to the state and federal limits of 10 parts per million, said Steve Cogley, a spokesman for Hastings Utilities. The city's utility service plans to install pumps into the aquifer to remove top-level water where nitrate concentrations are highest. That water will go into a storage lagoon for later use in irrigation. A second pump will draw cleaner water from the bottom of the aquifer and reinject it at the top, diluting the nitrates. Cogley said the $46 million project is cheaper than building a conventional water treatment facility, which would cost an estimated $75 million. The state funding approved in April will help pay for one phase of the project, totaling $7.3 million, and the utility will likely apply for additional state water funding in the future. Without the money, Cogley said the utility would have to raise water rates beyond the 12 percent increase that was approved earlier this year. And the project the first of its kind in Nebraska could serve as a template for other cities with similar problems. "The knowledge we gain will be very applicable to other communities, and we're more than willing to share that information," Cogley said. "We aren't looking for the Natural Resources Commission to take us off the hook for our responsibilities. But we are looking for partners that might benefit from the information." The Hastings project would have been "extraordinarily hard for the city to finance on its own," said Commissioner Don Batie, a Lexington farmer. Batie, who was appointed to represent farm and ranching interests, said some commissioners expected to see urban members pitted against rural representatives, but it hasn't happened so far. Under the law that created the water fund, Omaha is expected to receive a 10 percent cut each year for its $2 billion sewer system overhaul. "The commissioners recognized that this was going to be a challenge, and they worked hard to ensure there wasn't an urban-rural split," said Rex Gittins, the state's natural resources administration director. Still, the commission has faced some contention. Commissioner Jim Thompson of Omaha said he was "extremely frustrated" that members haven't tapped all of the money that was available for projects this year. Thompson serves on the Papio-Missouri Natural Resource District's board of directors, and a Sarpy County dam project within that district wasn't approved. Commissioners scored each project based on a series of criteria, but Thompson said the cutoff for which projects made it was arbitrary. "It was mind-boggling, in my opinion," he said. Commission Chairman Kevin Fornoff said members didn't approve some of the proposals because applicants didn't answer all of the commission's questions, but they're free to reapply. Now that applicants have seen how the process works, he said he expects more will win approval when the next round of funding becomes available. Commissioners approved projects in different parts of Nebraska, and many of the grants will let local governments experiment with new ways to improve water quality or recharge their water supplies, Fornoff said. He said he expects more cities to apply in the future as they move to comply with federal clean water mandates. "The first time, we were trying to be cautious," Fornoff said. "We didn't want to just throw money around." Flash Kenya's security forces on Tuesday arrested eight wanted terror suspects in an ongoing counter-terrorism operation in the coastal region following reports of possible attacks during the month of Ramadan. A police officer said four terror suspects were arrested in a mosque in the coastal town of Lamu on Monday while four others were arrested in Kwale town. The four suspects arrested in Lamu have been moved to Malindi, where they will be charged over terrorism activities. The four were allegedly planning attacks in Lamu county, which has previously seen bloody attacks by Somalia's Islamist group Al-Shabaab. "We arrested the four after locals alerted security agents of strangers in one of the mosque who were holding secret meeting," said an anti-terror police unit officer in Lamu. The suspects were arrested just hours after five police officers were killed by suspected Al-Shabaab militants in Mandera county near the Somali border. The police officer said the other four were being interrogated over planned terrorist attacks in Kwale county and killing of three government officials. The four -- Ibrahim Mohammed Abdi, Hamisi Kassim, Idris Aden and Shadrack Mondao Kaya -- are believed to be Al-Shabaab members who have undergone military training in Somalia. They were arrested during a dawn operation in Kabigoni area, where another terror suspect identified as AlI Salim was gunned down on Monday. Flash Clashes with the Islamic State in Libya's Sirte, some 450 km east the capital Tripoli, killed 16 presidential guards and injured 60 others on Tuesday, a medical source told Xinhua. "The clashes killed 16 and injured 60 of the government's troops," said Aziz Isa, media official of Misrata's central hospital. A military source of the government forces said that heavy clashes with heavy weapons and air forces took place in western Sirte. The source also said that dozens of IS fighters were killed in the clashes. The clashes since May between the Libyan government's forces and IS affiliates in Sirte have killed and injured hundreds of the government troops, according to Misrata's central hospital. The presidential guards said earlier that they had managed to control most of Sirte. The UN-backed government has formed the presidential guards service, which is composed mostly of militias of Misrata, to fight against the IS in Sirte. Flash 17 fighters from an armed group were killed and more than 30 others were injured when they had clashes with UN peacekeepers in Central African Republic (CAR) capital Bangui Monday, according to a report by CAR Red Cross on Tuesday. A team from the UN peacekeeping troops faced violent resistence from the armed group Monday afternoon when they went to PK5, a Muslim area in Bangui, to try to secure the release of 6 policemen who were taken hostages on Saturday during patrolling in the area, said the report. The exchange of the gunfire with the peacekeepers brought big casualties to the armed group. CAR Red Cross told Xinhua they recovered 11 bodies from the fighters on the site. The Red Cross said 36 injured fighters were taken to the General Hospital in Bangui, and out of them, 6 died later. It is reported the 6 policemen were liberated on Tuesday afternoon after the negotiations conducted by Hamadou Bakirou, a MP from Bambari in central CAR. Flash A Chinese official has called for relevant countries to carry out pragmatic cooperation and add impetus to Belt and Road Initiative. At the opening ceremony of the two-day "Silk Road International Forum 2016", which ended on Tuesday, Li Wei, President of the Development Research Center of the State Council, China's cabinet, hoped the forum could promote awareness and understanding of the initiative and enhance friendship among participating countries. The Belt and Road Initiative, proposed by China in 2013, 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 other Asian countries, Africa and Europe by sea routes. It is a development strategy and framework that focuses on inter-connectivity and cooperation among countries primarily in Eurasia. At the forum, vice minister of Poland's Ministry of Economic Development Radoslaw Domagalski expressed his support to further Poland-China cooperation. He hoped Poland could become China's most important partner in Central and Eastern Europe and cooperate with China in energy, infrastructure projects. Participants at the forum also discussed new mechanisms of financing, sustainable development, and the impact of the Belt and Road Initiative on the development of the regions involved. A total of 13 international organizations, 34 think tanks from 33 countries and more than 100 entrepreneurs attended the forum. Flash Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe on Tuesday told visiting Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Ming that Zimbabwe backed China on the South China Sea issue. "President Mugabe has made it clear that he supports the position of the Chinese side on the South China Sea," Zhang told reporters after the meeting. He said Zimbabwe is also firmly supporting China in settling the dispute through bilateral talks and peaceful negotiations. Since 2013, the Philippines has been headstrong in bringing its maritime dispute with China to an international tribunal. It filed a compulsory arbitration against China at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague with respect to the two sides' dispute. China maintains that the tribunal handling of the arbitration proceedings has no jurisdiction over the case, which is in essence about territorial sovereignty and maritime delimitation. Territorial issues are beyond the scope of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), and China has excluded maritime delimitation from compulsory arbitration in a declaration it made in 2006 in accordance with Article 298 of UNCLOS. China, therefore, has made it clear it will not accept or get involved in those proceedings. "The so-called South China Sea issue is an issue between China and littoral countries of the South China Sea," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said earlier this month, adding that China has opposed the internationalization of the South China Sea issue from the very beginning. According to China's foreign ministry, by mid-June this year, some 60 countries have announced their approval of China's stance. Flash Cooperation between Argentina and China on security has led to a "reduction" in crime, especially within supermarkets, according to a senior police source. A recent operation by the Argentinean Ministry of Security, which was backed by Chinese security forces, has led to the dismantling of a criminal gang that targeted Chinese supermarkets. The senior police source told Xinhua that the investigation has led to 22 searches and the arrest of 40 suspects. "We need to deepen cooperation in order to tackle crimes such as extortion, which is at worrying proportions. We cannot allow people who go to work to face this," said the source who chose to remain anonymous. The type of cooperation began in 2011 when Chinese police officers first visited Argentina, followed by a similar visit in 2013. "We have seen a drop" in crime against Chinese supermarkets through this intervention, the source told Xinhua. "We should also have greater exchanges with the police from other countries. We should be globalized. If we do not exchange officers and information, we will always be a step behind," said the source, who added that police officers should receive language training. Argentinean police involved in this operation received lessons in the "Fujian dialect of Chinese" and the Chinese were taught Spanish. On June 13, the Ministry of Security announced that "an intelligence operation allowed us to infiltrate elements ... involved in extortion and intimidation. They identified targets before threatening supermarkets and attacking those who delayed payment or ignored their demands for money." The operation, known as "Dragon Head", also netted 40 criminals, including three high-ranking leaders of the criminal gang, while a fourth narrowly escaped, Xinhua learned. They will face charges of extortion, illegal possession of firearms and resisting arrest. Meanwhile, 14 guns, cash worth 15,000 U.S. dollars, four vehicles, chemicals used to manufacture drugs and various documents were seized. Flash At least five people were killed and 13 others injured in an attack by an armed group in Sudan's Central Darfur State, Sudan Tribune reported Tuesday. "The attack took place at Tour area, some 80 km southeast of Zalingei, the capital city of Central Darfur State," the report said. "An armed group, ridding on motorcycles, camels and horses, launched attacks on Monday and Tuesday against Tour area, which resulted in the killing of five people and injuring of 13 others, some of them suffering from serious wounds," the report quoted an eyewitness as saying. The attack forced hundreds of citizens to flee to the jungles, the eyewitness said, adding that the fate of many children who fled from their families is still unknown. No comment on the incident has been released from the Sudanese government authorities yet. Tribal conflicts have become a nagging concern for local population and the authorities of the troubled region, where all popular and official efforts have failed to end the phenomenon which negatively affected the social fabric of the Darfur population groups. Darfur region lies on the far west region of Sudan with estimated around 500,000 square km. It is considered Sudan's western gate, which shares joint borders with Libya, Chad and Central Africa Republic. Flash Iran's Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi said on Tuesday the intelligence services of the country arrested 10 Takfiri terrorists who intended to target the capital and other cities in the country, official IRNA news agency reported. The terrorists were arrested in Tehran and three other provinces of Iran over the past six days, from June 15 to 20, Alavi was quoted as saying. Iran said on Monday its intelligence services thwarted "one of the biggest" terrorist plots targeting Tehran and other cities. "In this criminal plot, the anti-Islamist Takfiri terrorist group had schemed to carry out a series of bombings in different parts of the country, including in Tehran, on the occasions to come," state IRINN TV quoted the Intelligence Ministry as saying in a statement on Monday. A Takfiri is a derogatory term referring to a Muslim who accuses another of apostasy. Alavai said Tuesday that "the operations planed by the terrorists included bombing, distant explosion, suicide attacking, and car explosion on the crowded areas of the cities." They had identified 50 locations for carrying out the explosions, he said, adding that however, before any evil action, they were all arrested by Iran's intelligence agents. "So far, some 100 kilograms of explosives have been seized," he said. The Iranian minister urged the people to report any suspicious move in the society to the Intelligence Ministry's News Bureau through the telephone number of 113 inside the country. Flash The head of the Independent Commission of Inquiry on Syria warned Tuesday that ongoing fighting and systemic human rights violations were a matter of extreme concern for the country's desperate population and attempts to broker a political end to the five-year conflict. Paulo Pinheiro (C), head of the Independent Commission of Inquiry on Syria, gives an oral update to the Human Rights Council (HRC) which is currently holding its 32nd session in Geneva, Switzerland, June 21, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua] "We briefed the council about the violations and war-crimes concerning the daily lives of the population," Paulo Pinheiro said in stakeout after giving an oral update to the United Nations Human Rights Council which is currently holding its 32nd session here. "We affirmed our support to both the humanitarian and cessation of hostilities taskforces. Despite all the problems we think there is no other way to reach peace than by the process promoted by the UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura," he added. Against the backdrop of reported child recruitment by Jabhat al-Nusra and other al-Qaeda affiliated groups, the use of sieges as a war tactic and unlawful attacks carried by government forces, armed factions and terrorist groups, Pinheiro reminded the Council that more than half of Syria's population has been displaced as a result of protracted violence. He also recalled the commission's findings that genocide was being perpetrated by the Islamic State against the country's Yazidi population. IS controls large swathes of Syrian territory, the report noted. This was particularly concerning for delegations who called for an investigation into the crimes as well as a more proactive stance by the UN Security Council. In light of the crisis which has killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions, Pinheiro voiced the need for all states to support Syria peace talks which have been on hold since April, while calling for unconditional humanitarian access to be granted to reach all those in need of assistance. He believed this could be achieved by implementing a number of confidence-building measures. This would include putting an end to indiscriminate bombardments, releasing those prisoners who have been arbitrarily detained, setting up independent monitoring of detention centers and establishing mechanisms to deal with instances of missing and disappeared persons. "We need all states to insist time and time again that influential states and the Security Council unconditionally support the political process. That they facilitate and foster dialogue amongst the warring parties. That they do not compromise for anything less than long lasting peace," he said. Established in August 2011 by the UN Human Rights Council, the Commission of Inquiry's mandate is to investigate all alleged violations of international human rights law since March 2011 in the war-torn country. Flash Iraqi security forces on Tuesday extended their grip in the city of Fallujah, sweeping neighborhoods for pockets of Islamic State (IS) militants in the northern part of the city, a security source said. A member of Iraqi government forces flashes the sign of victory in the back of 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. [Photo/Xinhua] The troops, backed by U.S.-led coalition and Iraqi aircraft, managed to free the neighborhood of Shurta and the adjacent Jughaifi and raised the Iraqi flag on some buildings, said the source on condition of anonymity. Fighting is still underway against pockets of IS resistance in the remaining several neighborhoods in the northern part of the city Fallujah, some 50 km west of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, the source said. "Most of the city is now under the control of Iraqi forces after days of fierce fighting with IS militants," it added. Meanwhile, an army force and allied paramilitary units, known as Hashd Shaabi, recaptured the village of Mukhtar, just north of Fallujah after driving out IS militants, according to the source. Late last Friday, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared substantial victory against IS group in Fallujah after the recapture of the government compound. "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. Nasir Nuri, spokesman of the Iraqi Defense Ministry told local media that "Fallujah will be freed completely within days, depending on the resistance of the remaining pockets and the number of roadside bombs and booby-trapped buildings." Government troops and allied militias have currently been fighting for months to reclaim key cities and towns in Anbar province from IS militants, who attempted to approach Baghdad after seizing most of the province. Iraq has been witnessing a wave of violence since IS militants controlled parts of its northern and western regions in June 2014. OMAHA, Neb. The Omaha school district is considering updating its anti-discrimination policy to include gender identity or gender expression. Omaha Public Schools board member Marian Frey said at a Monday meeting that the district should also directly address accommodations for bathrooms, locker rooms and other areas that affect transgender students. The district's policy was written in 2014 and bans discrimination on the basis of race, gender, religion, disability and age. Board member Katie Underwood said there had been a lack of leadership from the state on the issue and that comprehensive anti-discrimination policies are the bedrock of public schools, while board president Lou Ann Goding expressed concerns about student privacy. President Barack Obama's administration earlier this year issued a directive to public schools to allow transgender students to use bathrooms and locker rooms matching their gender identity. Gov. Pete Ricketts has said that the directive is a federal overreach and should be ignored by schools. The Nebraska State Board of Education resolution calling for the rejection of federal guidance ended in a deadlock earlier this month. According to board member Lacey Merica, students and staff should be surveyed to see how current policies can be made stronger. Resident Ben Perlman said at the meeting that children would not be put at risk if students were allowed to use facilities that are consistent with their gender identity, but Gwen Easter said she would not be comfortable with her nieces and nephews using the bathroom with transgender students. "I don't want my nieces and nephews growing up believing all this stuff is normal when it isn't," Easter said. Eris Koleszar, a transgender woman, said inaction would reinforce transgender students' fears that there is no room for them in the school district. The board took no action Monday. The board's policy committee is scheduled to meet June 29 and is expected to discuss the matter further. Flash A veteran Pennsylvania congressman was convicted in Philadelphia on Tuesday on corruption charges, including racketeering, fraud and money laundering, multi TV networks reported. Chaka Fattah, who had been in Congress since 1995 and served on the powerful House Appropriations Committee, was found guilty of all counts against him, including allegations that Fattah borrowed one million dollars from a donor during his unsuccessful campaign for Philadelphia mayor and later repaid part of the loan by using federal grants and non-profit funds. The Justice Department further alleged that Fattah used funds from his mayoral and congressional campaigns to help pay off his son's student loan debt, said a The Hill news daily report. He was also charged with accepting financial bribes while trying to secure an ambassadorship or appointment to the U.S. Trade Commission for former Philadelphia Deputy Mayor Herbert Vederman. Defense lawyers acknowledged Fattah might have gotten himself in financial trouble after a costly 2007 mayoral bid, but they said any help from friends amounted to gifts, not bribes. "The nanny, the Porsche and the Poconos, they weren't part of a bribery scheme," Fattah lawyer Samuel Silver argued in closings. "Those were all overreaches by the prosecution." Fattah, a 59-year-old Democrat, lost both the primary in April and his bid for his 12th term. His current term ends in December. He will remain free on bail until he is sentenced on Oct. 4. Flash The European Union (EU) on Monday announced to extend until July 27, 2017 the mandate of the EUNAFOR MED Operation Sophia, the EU naval operation to disrupt the business model of human smugglers and traffickers in the southern central Mediterranean. A Libyan coastguardboat carrying mostly African illegal migrants arrives at the port in the city of Misrata, Libya, on May 3, 2015, after the coastguard intercepted five boats carrying around 500 people trying to reachEurope. [Photo/Xinhua] According to a press release issued by the Council of the EU, the EU reinforced the operation's mandate by adding two supporting tasks: training of the Libyan coastguards and navy and contributing to the implementation of the UN arms embargo on the high seas off the coast of Libya. It said that legitimate Libyan authorities requested support in capacity building and training of their coastguards and navy. The mission's objective is to enhance their capability to disrupt smuggling and trafficking in Libya and perform search and rescue activities to save lives so that security in the Libyan territorial waters improves. With regard to countering illegal arms trafficking, the operation will contribute to information sharing and support implementation of the UN arms embargo on the high seas off the coast of Libya. This will increase maritime situation awareness and limit arms flows to Daesh (the Islamic State) and other terrorist groups, the EU statement said. EUNAVFOR MED Operation Sophia was launched on June 22, 2015. The operation entered its active phase in October 2015, which enables the identification, capture and disposal of vessels used or suspected of being used by migrants' smugglers or traffickers. Since then, the operation has contributed to the arrest and transfer to the Italian authorities of 71 suspected smugglers and traffickers and neutralized 139 vessels. In addition, the operation has helped save close to 16,000 lives. Flash The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has not confirmed the suspected test-launch of two missiles on Wednesday morning The state-run KCNA news agency told Xinhua over the phone that it was not aware of the missile launches and asked Xinhua to wait for official news. South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted the Joint Chiefs of Staff as saying that the DPRK launched a second missile, which was believed to be a Musudan, at about 8:05 a.m. Seoul time (2305 GMT Tuesday) from Wonsan on the east coast, two hours after the DPRK test-fired a ballistic missile, which Seoul said was presumably a failure. The latest intermediate-range missile launch was the sixth test-firing of its kind by Pyongyang after the five earlier launches were all believed to have failed. The South Korean military said it is not clear whether Pyongyang's second launch on Wednesday was a success or not. It is believed that a ballistic missile is required to fly at least 300 km to be considered successful in test-firing. The second missile launched on Wednesday flew about 400 km. In case of a successful missile launch, the KCNA usually reports the news in the following early morning. In case of a failure, the DPRK will simply keep silence. The first test-launch on April 15 failed as the missile exploded in mid-air several seconds after take-off. The April 28 launch also failed as those exploded in mid-air or crashed in waters. The fourth test was estimated to have exploded on its mobile launcher even before take-off, according to the South Korean military. The missile launches came ahead of June 25, the 66th anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War. And the DPRK is scheduled to convene the fourth session of the 13th Supreme People's Assembly, the country's highest legislative body on June 29. Flash The international community should support Afghanistan in the field of security and increase assistance to prevent setbacks in the security situation, said a Chinese envoy on Tuesday. Liu Jieyi, China's permanent representative to the United Nations, made the remarks at a Security Council meeting on the situation in Afghanistan. He emphasized that improvement of the security situation is the basis for Afghan stability. Liu said the recent security situation in Afghanistan has taken a turn for the worse, and domestic armed clashes have been escalating with rising civilian casualties. "We hope that the United Nations will do more in assessing the security situation in Afghanistan, promote cooperation between Afghanistan and regional countries in the fight against terrorism, drugs and cross-border crimes, and jointly create enabling conditions to improve the security situation in Afghanistan," Liu said. On Monday, bomb attacks took place in in the Afghan capital of Kabul and in Badakhshan in the north of the country, killing at least 22 people. "China strongly condemns the multiple terrorist attacks in Afghanistan," said Liu. "China firmly supports Afghanistan's efforts in fighting terrorism and will continue to provide assistance to Afghanistan to strengthen its security and capabilities." Liu also noted that the promotion of economic and social development is a necessary condition for Afghan prosperity and stability. He said the international community must support the Afghan government in stopping its economic downturn, promote comprehensive economic and social development, and strengthen regional cooperation in infrastructure, trade, and investment. "China firmly supports Afghanistan's integration into regional cooperation," he said. "We will integrate the Belt and Road Initiative with Afghanistan's national transition and development strategy, and we will continue to contribute to Afghanistan's early attainment of sustainable peace and development." Flash China urged parties to avoid actions that will escalate tension on the Korean Peninsula following the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)'s two suspected missile launches on Wednesday. "Given the complicated and sensitive situation on the Korean Peninsula,all parties should avoid moves that escalate tension on the Peninsula and work to maintain regional peace and stability," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said when asked to comment on the issue. The DPRK fired what were believed to be two Musudan intermediate-range ballistic missiles on Wednesday, Yonhap news agency reported, citing military authorities, but the DPRK has not confirmed the report. The Korean Peninsula nuclear issue has complicated roots, which require a package of measures to resolve. Peace and stability there serve the interests of all parties and deserve unremitting joint efforts, Hua said. "We have explained our stance to the DPRK and the rest of the world," Hua said. A healthy and stable relationship between China and the DPRK is conducive to solving the nuclear issue on the Peninsula and maintaining peace and stability there, she said, adding that China will continue to work in this direction. Hua called on all sides to make constructive efforts to help ease the situation and resume dialogue. Flash Chinese President Xi Jinping's signed article in a leading Uzbek newspaper has won wide praise from Uzbeks, who expect further development of bilateral relations and cooperation. Ahead of his visit to Uzbekistan, Xi on Tuesday published a signed article in Narodnoye Slove titled "A Glorious New Chapter in China-Uzbekistan Friendship." Anvar Sharipov, a former professor at the Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan, said he thoroughly read the article, in which Xi spoke highly of bilateral relations and appreciated the role of Uzbekistan in Central Asia and the international arena. "The publication of the signed article shows the strategic value of bilateral relations, the long-time friendship which has passed from generation to generation, as well as the similar traditional culture and spirit (of our two countries)," Sharipov told Xinhua. "We believe that bilateral ties would keep developing and cooperation in different fields would flourish under the leadership of Uzbek President Islam Karimov and Chinese President Xi," Sharipov said. Vice President of the Uzbekistan-China Friendship Association Bekmurodov Ismatulla noted that the signed article presented a blueprint for the future of bilateral relationship. Joint efforts to build up the Silk Road Economic Belt are giving strong impetus to and will become the cornerstone of bilateral cooperation, Ismatulla said. In recent years, under the Belt and Road initiative proposed by China, dozens of cooperation projects have been implemented in industry, air and railway transport and other fields in Uzbekistan, Chinese and Uzbek officials say. The Pengsheng Industrial Park, located southwest of the Uzbek capital of Tashkent, currently houses nine companies manufacturing tiles, leather, shoes, cellphones and other products, contributing to local economic development and improving local people's livelihood. The completion of Qamchiq, the longest railway tunnel in Central Asia, is expected to significantly improve the transport network of Uzbekistan and inject fresh impetus into local economic development. Uzbek merchant Botir Zhuraev told Xinhua that he hoped the Silk Road Economic Belt would open new prospects for business, trade and entrepreneurship in all areas. President Xi attaches great importance to the two countries' interaction on international affairs and security issues, as major economic projects cannot be fulfilled without a stable and safe environment, Zhuraev noted. "Peace and stability in the world is the key to business success," Zhuraev said, echoing President Xi's idea. In 2015, two-way trade reached 3.5 billion U.S. dollars, up by more than 70-fold compared with the early days of diplomatic relations between the two countries, according to Chinese official figures. Other Uzbeks pay more attention to the fast-growing cultural links with China. Tilovo Ozod, a Chinese-language postgraduate student, expressed his keen interest in the Chinese culture. He cannot agree more with President Xi's appraisal of the traditional and cultural links of the two countries and the deep mutual understanding between the two peoples, Ozod told Xinhua. College teacher Gulnora Azimova also noted that more and more young Uzbeks want to learn Chinese and study Chinese culture. In recent years, tremendous progress has been made in student exchange, language training, joint archaeological projects, translation of literary works and other cultural programs between China and Uzbekistan. China has established a Uzbekistan Research Center in Shanghai for studying Uzbek history and social customs. The Uzbek language is also being taught and learnt in Chinese colleges. You are here: Home Flash Chinese President Xi Jinping called for building a "green, healthy, intelligent and peaceful" Silk Road while addressing the Uzbek Parliament Wednesday as China is promoting its Belt and Road Initiative. A funeral Mass for Lane Thomas Graves was Tuesday in west Omaha, a week after the 2-year-old was dragged into the water by an alligator at Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. He was on vacation with his family and drowned despite his father's frantic efforts to save him. The funeral Mass at St. Patrick's Catholic Church was limited to family and friends. In a statement, Matt and Melissa Graves thanked the "friends and strangers who share in our loss and who have shown us profound compassion." Also Tuesday, the audio tapes from two 911 calls made moments after the alligator attacked the boy were released. The first came from the "drop phone" at a nearby lifeguard stand at Walt Disney World's Seven Seas Lagoon, and no voice could be heard. The second, about four minutes long, was made by a woman who did not witness the attack, said spokesman Tim O'Toole at the Reedy Creek Improvement District, which handles calls at Disney World and released the recordings. "Come to the Grand Floridian please," the woman says. "Someone's drowning in the Seven Seas Lagoon." The dispatcher asks if she means a pool. "No, lake," she replies. The dispatcher tells her to stay on the line while he answers another call, then returns a few seconds later. "Do you see the person right now?" "No, I didn't." "Was someone being pulled out of the lake?" "Yes." The dispatcher says authorities have no information, and asks if she could see the person pulling the boy out. "No," because she's on the phone, she says. The dispatcher then asks her to get closer to the lake and call back from a cellphone. "We are on our way right now," he says. Rescue crews arrived shortly thereafter, but it would take more than 15 hours to recover Lane's body, which was found in murky water just yards from the beach where he had been wading. Real economy to be supported with reasonably sufficient liquidity, stable exchange rates China will strengthen the financial sector's role in supporting the real economy by providing reasonably sufficient liquidity and achieving stable exchange rates for the renminbi, according to Premier Li Keqiang. Li made the vow on Monday during a visit to the headquarters of the People's Bank of China the central bank and to China Construction Bank in Beijing. Amid a volatile international financial market, China's financial reforms have been progressing smoothly to mitigate risks and keep renminbi exchange rates stable, effectively supporting domestic economic growth, Li said. However, some regions and industries in the real economy are facing growth difficulties, "and prudent monetary policies must better coordinate with proactive fiscal policies for flexibility and accuracy in financing," Li said. Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the central bank, said prudent monetary policies have provided reasonably sufficient liquidity to prop up the real economy. Guo Tianyong, head of the China Banking Research Center at Central University of Finance and Economics, said, "The destination for loans is consistent with China's macroeconomic and industrial policies. But banks should further enhance accuracy in lending to targeted business sectors to better serve the real economy." Li said the financial sector must also support the new economy, which features in integration with the internet, innovative enterprises and smart manufacturing. He called on financial institutions to back small and medium-sized enterprises and private businesses at lower cost. "Commercial banks should support the development of the real economy by financing major infrastructure projects, SMEs and innovation-driven companies," he told China Construction Bank employees. As of Monday, the bank had 2.8 trillion yuan ($427 billion) in loans for infrastructure projects, including new loans of 110 billion yuan in this field for the first quarter, a year-on-year increase of 86 percent. Li called on banks to continuously finance companies purchasing agricultural produce and to back agricultural manufacturing as a way to increase farmers' income. The international market has questioned if China intentionally manipulated the renminbi's depreciation after the exchange rate to the US dollar fell by 2 percent following a reform on Aug 11 last year. Li said the exchange rates for the renminbi should be kept at a reasonably stable level instead of fluctuating unilaterally. Wu Qing, deputy director of banking research at the State Council's Development Research Center, said Chinese banks have limited measures to support the real economy, as they are under pressure from the regulatory authority and other government departments. "Traditional means such as collateral loans cannot satisfy the financial demands of SMEs, which are pinning their hopes on financial innovation," Wu said. "But most financial institutions lack the ability to innovate, partly due to regulatory restrictions and a widespread copycat culture. There is a gap between the desire and the reality to serve the real economy." But Wu said there is still hope for better-regulated internet finance companies after an industrywide cleanup. Jiang Xueqing contributed to this story. Nebraska could keep more inmates from returning to prison if improvement programs and access to them were upgraded, a study by analysts from the Council of State Governments Justice Center concluded. Justice Center analysts, who have been studying Nebraska prisons since 2014, were asked to do a separate, more in-depth study of the programs state prisons provide. Those programs are crucial to keeping people from committing more crimes once they are released and returning to prison. In 2014, the Council of State Governments made multiple recommendations on how to use alternatives to avoid sending about 1,000 offenders a year to prison, to reduce crowding and keep from having to build new prisons. As a result, senators passed major legislation in its next session to reform sentencing and reduce the repeat of crimes. This analysis, which ran from November to May and included site visits, interviews and the study of 75,000 offender records, showed not enough staff are providing needed programming, and inmates face persistent barriers to accessing them. Gov. Pete Ricketts said the top priority of his administration is public safety, and keeping inmates from committing more crimes after release is one way to keep people safe. The study can show the department how to go about doing a better job of delivering services, such as focusing on high risk offenders and getting inmates the programs they need earlier, Ricketts said. The good news, said Bree Derrick, program manager for the Justice Center, is that Nebraska has a number of good, state-of-the-art programs, some of the best in the country. But the prisons unnecessarily stretch program delivery out over time, the report said. That leads to inefficiencies that increase costs to the state by delaying parole readiness. One third of inmates within a year of parole eligibility are not getting a parole hearing for a variety of reasons, including their own refusal to set a hearing date, not completing programs or not having access to programs needed for parole. Numerous prisoners leave without supervision, known as "jamming out." The Department of Corrections misses opportunities to identify risks and needs of inmates, and target program resources accordingly, the Justice Center report said. Nebraska Inspector General for Corrections Doug Koebernick said The Council of State Governments has laid out an impressive plan for building upon the existing programs within the department. "It is essential to provide quality programming earlier rather than later for inmates that can be connected to a strong continuum of services in the community," he said. Also, it's important, he said, that the Board of Parole has confidence in programming so inmates can be successfully transitioned back into the community while under supervision by the parole administration. The study showed that factors that most predict criminal behavior are antisocial attitudes, peers and personalities; lack of stable employment and education; stress in families or marriages; substance abuse and lack of social activities. Programming and mental health treatment in prisons target risk factors and address some of the most significant public safety threats. Photo taken on Jan 29, 2016 shows the UK and EU flags outside the European Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. [Photo/Xinhua] While a United Kingdom exit from the European Union would almost certainly cause turmoil in Europe, its effects on Asian economies including China, the region's largest, may be much more benign. That's according to a note by London-based Capital Economics, which said a Brexit would cause at most a GDP drop of 0.2 percent across Asia. The research company based its finding on a worst-case scenario estimate by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, a London-based think tank, which said Brexit would reduce British imports by 25 percent worldwide within two years. Exports to the UK presently account for only 0.7 percent of Asian countries' GDP, according to Daniel Martin, senior Asia economist at Capital Economics. "Even a 25 percent decline in UK imports would knock less than 0.2 percent off from regional GDP." Only a few economies in Asia would see a noticeable effect on growth, Martin said. Examples include Cambodia and Vietnam, which have stronger trade ties with the UK. Martin said that Brexit would have only a limited impact on emerging Asia, and the main risks to the region lie elsewhere. In a separate paper, Capital Economics said the effects of Brexit would be equally subdued in the region's largest economy. China's exports to the UK are equivalent to just 0.5 percent of Chinese GDP, Chang Liu and Julian Evans-Pritchard wrote in a note published on Friday. "China is also well-placed to weather any post-Brexit selloff in financial markets," they said. "Because China's capital account remains largely closed, the financial linkages between China and the rest of the world are fairly limited. Meanwhile, large foreign reserves mean the authorities could support the renminbi in the event that it came under renewed downward pressure." Nevertheless, an array of Asian companies have made their preferences clear in favor of Britain remaining. Eric Delomier, an investment specialist at Capital Group's Singapore office, said there would be geopolitical and trade implications for the region. "The UK leaving the union would be seen overall negatively from a trading perspective by most Asian countries," he said. Li Ka-shing, chairman of CK Hutchison Holdings and Cheung Kong Property Holdings Hong Kong's richest man said the Chinese mainland's economic outlook is bright in the long term, casting a vote of confidence in the economy that has witnessed slower growth in the past quarters. China continues to have a trade surplus, the services industry is generating income and foreign money is flowing in, billionaire Li Ka-shing said in his first interview with international media since 2012. He also indicated that investors focusing on the country's rising debt levels are missing out on the larger picture. "The long-term outlook for the mainland is good," the 87-year-old chairman of CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd said from his office atop the Cheung Kong Center building in downtown Hong Kong. "People only see the debt in the State-owned enterprises and in households, when they need to recognize that China is a big exporter." Those export receiptsa "positive for China" according to Lihelped the trade surplus swell to 3.7 trillion yuan ($560 billion) last year, providing a buffer as the weaker yuan spurred capital outflows. Li's confidence in the world's second-largest economy comes amid signs of stabilization thanks to government stimulus measures. Li, who was born in the southeastern Chinese city of Chaozhou, has much at stake in the mainland. His real estate unit, Cheung Kong Property Holdings Ltd, counts about half its revenue from there and has dozens of properties in the mainland. His flagship company, CK Hutchison, generated 14 percent of its earnings before interest and taxes from the mainland, where he operates about 2,500 Watsons and ParknShop stores. Also during the interview with Bloomberg, Hong Kong's richest man stepped up his calls for Britons to vote in favor of staying in the European Union as the world braces for the outcome of this week's vote. "If Brexit happens, it will be detrimental to the United Kingdom and it will have a negative impact on the whole of Europe," Li said. "Of course I hope that the UK doesn't leave the EU." As one of the UK's biggest investors, Li has much at stake in the June 23 referendum and his concerns echo those voiced by business and market leaders worldwide as they prepare for the possible fallout from Britain leaving the 28-nation bloc. Workers assemble switchgears in the plant of Schneider Electric Infrastructure Ltd on the outskirts of Vadodara in Gujarat, India. [Photo/Agencies] Move to help company gain more quality technologies from selected Chinese enterprises French electric equipment and automation company Schneider Electric SA will invest in more small and medium-sized high-tech companies in China through a specialized investment fund, and provide training and learning materials to up to 100 vocational schools this year, its China president said. Zhu Hai, who is also the electric automation company's global executive vice-president, said these activities would help the company gain more quality technologies from selected Chinese SMEs, as well as enhance the company's ability to diversify its business. With revenue of 27 billion euros ($30.6 billion) in its 2015 fiscal year, Schneider has 160,000 employees in more than 100 countries and regions. China is now the company's second-biggest market. It operates 26 plants, eight logistics centers, three research and development centers and 40 branches in China. Schneider has transferred up to 2,500 jobs from China's coastal areas to major cities in the central and western regions such as Xi'an and Wuhan. That is to help expand market share in the regions, which have surging demand in the power, infrastructure and manufacturing sectors. Zhu said even though many global companies are confronting difficulties such as declining demand and rising labor and production costs, smart manufacturing will continue to be the key factor in determining competitiveness. Many countries have identified digital, intelligent and green sectors in the drive to develop high-end manufacturing, he said. "Smart manufacturing has distinct developing trendssmart equipment, smart control, the internet of things, and IT hardware and software," Zhu added. A visitor consults a medical service agency for overseas treatment and healthcare at an international tourism expo in Beijing. [A Qing/For China Daily] More and more Chinese from well-to-do quarters in need of advanced medical care are going abroad, particularly to the United States. They are the consumers of the global medical tourism industry. The number of such consumers globally doubled to 40 million in six years since 2006. In 2013, their total spending reached $438.6 billion, or 14 percent of the global tourism industry. Next year, it is projected to reach $678.5 billion or 16 percent of the global tourism industry, according to a survey by the Stanford Research Institute. Cai Jiangnan, director of the Center for Healthcare Management and Policy with China Europe International Business School, attributed the trend to three reasons: better medical environment and service abroad, state-of-the-art technology and availability of latest medicine. Wu Ming, 65, will probably agree. A two-month medical trip to California helped him to bounce back to good health and work from cancer. Wu had lost two years after starting to feel physical discomfort in 2012. A medical examination at a local hospital in Shanghai showed nothing abnormal. It was not until September 2013 that he was diagnosed with late-stage prostate cancer. Learning that traditional treatment would do little to tame the disease, Wu turned to a Shanghai-based overseas medical treatment service provider in September 2014. Two months later, he received a particle therapy treatment in the US. "Only 3 percent of the wealthy in China could go abroad for medical treatment in 2011. That figure jumped to 40 percent in 2015. The number of Chinese seeking overseas medical services increased threefold in the October-December quarter of 2015 compared to the early part of the year," Tang Heng, executive partner of GTJA Investment Group, told China Business News. There are no official figures for Chinese medical consumers overseas. Yet, quite a few foreign medical players are extending their business to the Chinese market. According to Fan Tailai, general manager of MEGA Healthcare, at least 3,000 Chinese may have availed of modern healthcare services in the US by flying out of Shanghai in 2013. "The actual number could be higher. As new visas are valid for 10 years, people can go on a medical tour even if their visas are for pure travel or visiting reasons," Fan said. The average cost of medical treatment for a serious illness works out to about $150,000 in the US.Most of the Chinese patients visiting the US come from major cities such as Beijing and Shanghai. Chen Jiaye, 37, and her family went to the US for a one-month visit last year. She spent around 20,000 yuan ($3,036) for a physical examination in Los Angeles. She is now considering regular health checks abroad. A man fixes a display in the aisle at a Wal-Mart store in Miami, Florida. [Photo provided to China Daily The new alliance between Wal-Mart Stores Inc and JD.com Inc is expected to give Wal-Mart wider customer access and offer a fresh start to its struggling retail business in China. Wal-Mart said the alliance expands its opportunity in e-commerce and provides its stores and Sam's Clubs with potential traffic from JD's huge customer base and also will allow it to use JD's same-day delivery network. Wal-Mart will receive about 5 percent stake in JD and the companies will partner in several strategic areas. Sam's Club China will open a flagship store on JD platform, vastly expanding the availability of Sam's Club's imported products across China. It will offer same- and next-day delivery through JD's nationwide warehousing and delivery network, which covers a population of 600 million consumers. Doug McMillon, CEO of Wal-Mart, said earlier that the company needs to succeed in China, where it estimates that 25 percent of global retail growth will be in the next five years. Wal-Mart's net sales globally fell slightly in 2015. According to Jason Yu, general manager of Kantar Worldpanel China, Wal-Mart continues to experience losses in shoppers as it strives to maintain profitability and close stores in areas where they are not competitive. In 2015, Wal-Mart took full ownership of YHD, its online retail business in China, but this didn't help much strengthen its competitive edge over players in the e-commerce space or achieve the desired synergies, Yu said. "I don't think it will necessarily give up its own e-commerce offer, which is more based on an O2O (online-to-offline) operational model and a mobile app," he said. However the partnership with JD will definitely broaden its consumer base beyond its current city-scope and will let the company leapfrog its expansion, though not necessarily under the Wal-Mart banner. "The vast scale of JD means that its products can go far beyond eastern China, YHD's stronghold, and provide a delivery network that will enable it to satisfy growing middle-class aspirations for high-quality imported products," said Yu. A doctor removes glass from a patient's hand in Xiamen,southeast China's Fujian Province, Jan 15, 2015.[Photo/Xinhua] Last year, in a desperate move, Gu (not his real name) and his wife sent their 5-year-old daughter to Germany after she was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma, a highly aggressive and malignant form of cancer. "We don't have other choices," said the businessman from northeast China who is in his 30s. His daughter needed proton therapy that is too sophisticated to be available for children in China. While the outcome of the treatment in Germany remains uncertain, Gu said it has already cost his family "close to 1 million yuan". Gu's daughter is not alone. Many Chinese patients, old and young, have chosen a hospital outside China as their second option or the last resort. However, some medical professionals believe such patients and their families might be too optimistic. "Patients who choose to go abroad will certainly have more access to advanced medical technologies and new medicines that are unavailable in China," said Tai Jun, who is in charge of international cooperation at Beijing Children's Hospital, one of the finest of its kind in China. "Foreign hospitals have sufficient funds and time, which they spend on medical research and development. But, in terms of medical practices, Chinese doctors are doubtlessly more experienced." Hu Xingsheng, an internal medicine specialist at the Cancer Institute and Hospital, under the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, said, "For a tumor patient, there is only one scenario where medical tourism is meaningful patients specifically target certain kinds of medicines or therapies that are inaccessible in China. Otherwise, it's not necessary for patients to spend millions on overseas medical care." Medical environment and the quality of service in foreign hospitals might be better, but the transfers from Chinese medical facilities to foreign ones could be a major problem for many. To address this logistical problem, consulting companies have come into being. They claim to offer professional services ranging from translation to overseas accommodation arrangements. Tai said, patients could find the right hospitals abroad by consulting with such companies. However, they need to be careful because only a handful of consulting companies are qualified. "Overseas medical care initiated by reliable Chinese hospitals, like remote medical consultation, is always the best option," he said. Ni Yuchen contributed to this story. A baby born at a private maternity hospital in Beijing. More and more well-off Chinese are turning to privately owned hospitals for their high-end conditions and services. [Wang Yuyi/For China Daily] Asian countries, particularly Japan and Thailand, have become popular destinations for medical tourism for their cost-effectiveness and well-matched tourism as well as medical resources, said market experts. One of Thailand's major attractions is infertility treatment centers where tourists can receive in vitro fertilization treatment, or ovulation induction and assisted insemination. There are about 100 such centers in Thailand, many of which are based in Bangkok where tourists can relax in resorts and visit the treatment centers only when needed. The cost of such treatments, including a one-month stay, ranges between $7,000 and $30,000, which is about one-third of what it might cost in some developed countries, said Zhang Fangyue, a customer service officer with Wuhan-based De Bao Overseas Health Tourism. Li Hailun, 34, from Wuhan said she had tried IVF at domestic hospitals but that did not help her conceive. She thinks that may be because she tends to be "nervous" and "pressured" amid friends, family members and relatives. The latter, she said, often ask her about the treatment's effectiveness. This does not help her to rest and relax enough. "The domestic hospital I went to actually has a great team, and advanced technologies, and I do trust the doctors and nurses there. However, one problem was that my relatives often asked me about the results, and that put a lot of pressure on me," said Li. So, Li and her husband decided to shift to a foreign destination that is not too far from home. They went to Bangkok in December 2015, and Li is now expecting - her baby is due in October. "Thailand is a good choice. Fortunately, I could rest in a beautiful resort in Bangkok. I felt more like a tourist than a patient receiving treatments. Only, my husband is with me so we can just relax. He cooks for me, and that was perhaps the longest quality time we have had together after getting married," said Li. The trip cost the couple about 150,000 yuan ($22,800), almost three times that of their previous attempts in their hometown, but they said it was worth the money. "For a mother-to-be, perhaps the most important thing is to relax and to rest well, and Thailand's treatment center and environment can offer these," said Li. Japan is a destination in Asia that combines hot spring therapy and medical treatment which are particularly appealing to elderly patients. Hu Xinyu, a 78-year-old retiree in Shanghai, was diagnosed with a tumor in her left lung, and was prescribed radiation treatment. After her grandson Liu Dong did some research, the family decided to go to Japan for treatment. "We consulted some relatives who work in hospitals and medical research centers, and they told us that proton treatment and heavy ion treatment may help my grandmother the best. "We could have done it in a hospital in Shanghai, but my grandmother said she wished to appreciate Sakura (cherry blossoms) in March and visit some hotsprings in Japan because many of her friends had done so already. So, Japan was a natural choice for a medical tour," said Liu. Thus, the grandmother and the grandson went to Tokyo in March for treatment, and visited some hot-springs, avenues and parks famous for Sakura. Hu visited the treatment center when needed on certain days, and Liu took her to her favorite restaurants, parks, shopping malls and hotsprings on other days. The two-month tour cost the family about 6 million yen ($56,400) including some 4.2 million yen for treatment and health checks. "The result of the treatment is quite good. My grandmother is quite happy that she isn't suffering from much pain. She feels she can still enjoy life - a sentiment that's quite positive for her recovery. We can't say we've seen the last of her tumor, but at least we tried our best to minimize its impact on our lives," said Liu. Note: Names of the patients and their family members discussed in the story have been changed to protect their identity and privacy. WARSAW - A Chinese official has called for relevant countries to carry out pragmatic cooperation and add impetus to Belt and Road Initiative. At the opening ceremony of the two-day "Silk Road International Forum 2016", which ended on Tuesday, Li Wei, President of the Development Research Center of the State Council, China's cabinet, hoped the forum could promote awareness and understanding of the initiative and enhance friendship among participating countries. The Belt and Road Initiative, proposed by China in 2013, 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 other Asian countries, Africa and Europe by sea routes. It is a development strategy and framework that focuses on inter-connectivity and cooperation among countries primarily in Eurasia. At the forum, vice minister of Poland's Ministry of Economic Development Radoslaw Domagalski expressed his support to further Poland-China cooperation. He hoped Poland could become China's most important partner in Central and Eastern Europe and cooperate with China in energy, infrastructure projects. Participants at the forum also discussed new mechanisms of financing, sustainable development, and the impact of the Belt and Road Initiative on the development of the regions involved. A total of 13 international organizations, 34 think tanks from 33 countries and more than 100 entrepreneurs attended the forum. Li Ke, general manager of Synutra International, speaks to the media in Qingdao, Shandong province on June 21, 2016. [Photo/chinadaily.com.cn] The processing equipments and methods of China's dairy product companies are world-class, but the companies still lack trust among domestic consumers, according to an industry insider on Tuesday. "China's dairy product companies have developed to a 'Louis Vuitton' level in the world dairy product industry in terms of processing equipment and methods", said Li Ke , general manager of Synutra International, a leading infant formula company in China. The country's baby formula market is estimated to be worth 65.7 billion yuan ($10 billion) this year and is forecast to rise to 133.7 billion yuan by 2020, according to an earlier report citing Euromonitor International. However, China's public trust of its domestic dairy industry has been quite fragile since 2008, when infant formula produced by Sanlu Group, a leading domestic dairy firm, was found to contain melamine, said Li during a meeting with the media on Tuesday. In that scandal, six Chinese infants died and tens of thousands were hospitalized after drinking domestically produced milk powder contaminated by melamine. At present, even a tiny flaw in any domestic dairy firm, such as a small mistake on a product tag, could be unreasonably magnified by sensitive consumers as a fault of the whole industry, with the result of degrading the whole domestic industry, according to Li. In fact, China is tightening its supervision of baby formula. The food safety watchdog has issued a regulation, which will take effect this October, to do so. Both domestic and overseas baby formula producers must register and secure permits from the China Food and Drug Administration if they want to sell their products in China. In April, police arrested nine people implicated in the production and sale of fake baby formula for the brands "Similac" and "Beingmate". However, the industry still has a long way to go to regain public trust. The Chinese dairy industry needs the "spirit of the craftsmanship" and to train more professionals to safeguard food safety and provide better products, said Li Shengli, a professor at China Agriculture University and director of Sino-Dutch Dairy Development Center, in March. Now, the industry should not focus so much on the number of producers, but instead ensure that the threshold of industry access is high enough to guarantee quality, said Li Ke. An outlet of China Construction Bank (CCB) in Yichang, Central China's Hubei province, June 16, 2016. [Photo/IC] SANTIAGO - China Construction Bank (CCB) has opened the first clearing bank for transactions in renminbi in South America in Chile's capital Santiago, the CCB said on Tuesday. The branch was inaugurated Monday night, after receiving all the needed permits from Chile's banking authorities. More than 200 guests attended the inaugural ceremony. Guo You, president of the CCB's Supervisory Council, expressed his appreciation for the support the entity received in the South American country. The South American branch of the CCB, one of the world's top 10 banks, will not only help boost economic and trade exchanges and financial collaboration between China and Chile, but also help the bank expand its services in Latin America, said Guo. Initially, the branch will provide corporate banking services and actively promote cross-border yuan transactions, which will help facilitate trade, Guo said. "The inauguration of this bank in Chile is a fundamental milestone in ties between the two countries," former Chilean President and current Senator Eduardo Frei told the opening ceremony. While Chile-China ties have been close, Chinese investment in the country has lagged behind, said Frei. Opening a bank branch in Chile is the most important Chinese investment in the country to date, he said. "It's going to be the first renminbi clearing bank not just for Chile, but also for South America," said Frei. During Chinese Premier Li Keqiang's visit to Chile in May 2015, the presidents of the two countries' central banks signed an agreement that paved the way for the opening of the CCB branch, recalled Frei, underscoring the importance of having a banking entity in Chile capable of carrying out direct transactions in the Chinese currency. "The financial losses from currency exchange operations were significant, and carrying out operations directly in China's currency, the renminbi, is going to particularly benefit Chile and China's small and medium-size companies," said Frei. The CCB, said Frei, is one of the world's largest companies and by establishing itself in Chile, it is demonstrating not just the high level of ties between the two countries, but also its trust and confidence in Chile's development, and in becoming an economic platform for all of Latin America. Chilean Economy Minister Luis Felipe Cespedes said the CCB's entry into Chile was a reflection of the country's robust business climate. The branch, said Cespedes, "allows us to tighten and strengthen ties between the two countries, which today are strong because China is our leading trade partner and, with the establishment of the bank, we can raise the financial channels and investment in our process of integration with the world." Rodrigo Vergara, Chile's central bank chief, stressed the importance of the 2015 monetary agreement that facilitated the use of the renminbi in Chile, and allowed Chilean investors to invest in China's stock market. Chinese ambassador to Chile Li Baorong said: "The opening of the branch is not just about a Chinese bank expanding operations abroad, but also about the deepening of substantial cooperation between the two countries, and of the confidence that Chinese financial institutions have in the future of our sister country, which is Chile." In 2015, Chile and China celebrated the 45th anniversary of diplomatic ties, while 2016 marks the 10th anniversary of their free-trade agreement. An employee prepares brochures at the stand of Chinese real estate website Fang.com, formerly called Soufun.com, during a real estate fair in Shanghai, China, March 20, 2015. [Photo/IC] Thailand's leading property developer Sansiri Public Company Limited announced its partnership with SouFun Holdings Limited, China's biggest property portal, on Tuesday. The agreement is to launch a website for investment in Thailand's real estate market specifically for Chinese investors. The website thailand.fang.com will provide information on investment as well as serving as a channel to promote and sell Sansiri projects among Chinese customers throughout the country. Sansiri's sales to Chinese grew 300 percent in 2015. And it is expected that the online sales plus sales through property agents will boost Sansiri's sales to Chinese customers this year to as much as 187 million yuan ($28.7 million), or 230 percent higher than that in 2015. "More and more Chinese tourists are visiting Thailand each year. As Thailand becomes one of the most popular destinations for Chinese tourists, the demand for lodging that can be used as a second home, or as an investment has been growing too," said Cobby Leathers, Head of International Business of Sansiri Public Company Limited. BEIJING - Assets managed by China's mutual funds increased by 359 billion yuan (about $54 billion) last month to 8 trillion yuan. The amount remained below the record level of 8.4 trillion yuan set at the end of December, according to the Asset Management Association of China. The May increase was attributed to 293 billion yuan invested in money market funds. The safer bond funds also grew by 44.3 billion yuan, while riskier stock funds shrank by 527 million yuan as the equity market is still vulnerable and volatile. China is to take strong measures to further unlock business potential in the private sector and encourage private investment. This vow was made at a State Council executive meeting on Wednesday, chaired by Premier Li Keqiang, after he was briefed on a report resulting from extensive inquiries about private investment nationwide. Li also urged governments at all levels to heed problems revealed during the inquiries, especially private companies' difficulties in obtaining financing, and excessive administrative charges. A month ago, the State Council launched a nationwide fact-finding mission, covering 30 provinces and regions. An independent evaluation of the results was carried out by the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce and other research institutions. The inquiry covered 500 enterprises and involved more than 10,000 surveys on private investment policies. Major factors leading to slowing growth in private investment include ongoing efforts to reduce excess capacity, insufficient policy implementation and difficulty in obtaining financing for small private companies at the local level. Li said private investment is critically important for China to maintain stable economic growth, job security and economic structural reform. In November 2014, the State Council published 39 policies to support private investment. However, these policies encountered setbacks at lower levels and suffered from a lack of consistency, the inquiries found. Some private entrepreneurs complain that although the government has done much to ease institutional barriers obstructing them in recent years, they are still far from being treated equally with State-owned enterprises and are sometimes denied market access. These companies are calling for more transparency. High costs and difficulty in obtaining finance are also key culprits in restricting private investment growth. Huang Qunhui, director of the Institute of Industrial Economics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said financial institutions must treat private enterprises and SOEs equally in granting loans and on the charges for loans. Contact the writers at huyongqi@chinadaily.com.cn Mark Ruffalo praises the Beijing subway. [Photo/workercn.cn] Now You See Me 2 star Mark Ruffalo showed up in Beijing on June 19 at the movie's press conference. In the following days, Ruffalo posted his little tour around the city on his Facebook page. Ruffalo posted that he tried to live as a local Beijinger. But in fact, he is more like a tourist experiencing pretty much everything the city has to offer: climbing the Great Wall, visiting the Imperial Palace, practicing tai chi, eating Beijing roast duck and Chinese hotpot. Aside from that, he went out of his way to take a subway ride, showing approval for his experience, "Not so different than NYC except nicer, newer, cleaner and about 10% the price for a fare".(sic) As reported, Ruffalo took his son and his family to Beijing this time, as his son's birthday falls on June 19. "I love Beijing, so I must bring him along," he said. Ruffalo is an American director, actor and film producer, he was known for his portraying of Bruce Banner in the movie Hulk. Michael Jackson projected on the LED screen of Citigroup Tower. [Photo provided to China Daily] Shanghai-based Xu Hao and his friend Zhao Yongbin have brought the King of Pop to the city's biggest outdoor screen. Estimated to cost at least 500,000 yuan ($76,000), the LED screen covering the Citigroup Tower on the Bund is about 140 meters tall and 43 meters wide. "Michael Jackson has never performed on the mainland. So, to mark the 7th anniversary of his death, we tried to arrange for fans to dance with him," Xu told China Daily. "It's a dream come true," he added. June 25 is an important day for Jackson's fans in the country and they hold events to express their love for the idol. Explaining how the idea came about, Zhao said Xu was not content with flash mobs and candle-lit nights and was thinking about "something big". They then spent time collecting money, not only for the LED screen but for a video shoot with the Chinese fans. They plan to release the video clip worldwide on Saturday, together with special events in Beijing and Shanghai. "We're glad if the world sees Chinese people act, motivated by their love for their idol," Xu said. According to head of Jackson's Chinese fan club Zhang Rui, known as Keen, on MJJCN.com, the news of the giant screen reached some of Jackson's friends in the United States. Michael Prince, Jackson's long-time recording engineer, called the idea superb, and beyond amazing, Zhang said. Related: Jacksons theme park to be built in Shanghai All Chinese living below the poverty line in rural areas will have access to basic medical care and other health services "close to" the national average by 2020, according to a guideline released by 15 central government departments on Tuesday. The government will mobilize various social resources and take more precise measures to support the development of health and medical care services in poor areas, the guideline said. The health poverty alleviation project is part of a national strategy to ensure that all people living below the poverty line in China climb out by 2020, the guideline said. Of the 55.7 million people living in poverty in rural China as of 2015, about 44 percent were impoverished because of expenses related to health, Hong Tianyun, deputy director of the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development, said at a news conference on Tuesday. The current poverty line in China is 2,800 yuan ($425) per person a year. To tackle health-related poverty with precision, several ministries, including the National Health and Family Planning Commission and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, have organized a nationwide investigation into the major health conditions responsible for the poverty of the rural population, said Wang Pei'an, vice-minister of the commission. The investigation, to be conducted by grassroots health workers, will cover every household that fell into poverty because of health expenses, and a record will be created for each in a database after the investigation is completed in July, he said. A report will be made based on the investigation and database to help authorities provide assistance to different groups according to need, Wang said. To help impoverished regions gain access to more health resources, the government will increase subsidies for insurance for the rural poor and encourage the private sector and nongovernmental organizations to invest in poor regions, Wang said. Medical resources such as hospitals and doctors are seriously lacking in the 832 counties with the largest number of poor people, a major gap between supply and demand, Wang said. Despite China's universal coverage for basic health insurance, a person with low income can easily go bankrupt because of out-of-pocket expenses. For example, a person may be reimbursed for 80 percent of a medical procedure, but the remaining 20 percent can gobble up a year's earnings or more. Nearly 30 million Chinese are in poverty because of this sort of basic math, according to the Chinese Red Cross Foundation. The foundation has partnered with an IT company to launch an online crowdfunding website to give poor patients direct access to donations for lifesaving medical care, the foundation said on Tuesday. Shan Juan contributed to this story. Rapid growth of mobile internet platforms leading to disputes with traditional outlets Copyright disputes between new and traditional media are growing, and require a mature copyright protection system, according to a new report. The annual report, released by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, China's top think tank, on Tuesday, looked into the development of new media in China. "Copyright infringement has restrained new media's development," said Tang Xujun, lead researcher of the report and director of the Institute of Journalism and Communication at CASS. This week, Beijing News, a newspaper with a reputation for investigative reports, sued dzwww.com, a Shandong-based news website, for illegally using more than 1,000 stories produced by the newspaper. The case was filed at the Dongcheng District People's Court. Toutiao, a headline news application, claims that it does not produce news but only transfers news to the platform. Toutiao was sued by many traditional news media organizations in 2015. Newspapers in Hubei and Jiangxi provinces sued Toutiao in August, accusing of the application "stealing" their intellectual property. The two papers also reported how the application infringes their intellectual property. "Toutiao does not have a team to produce news, but as a news collection platform it gathers many news products. Is it innovation or theft? There are many different views," Tang said. "It is a commonly agreed that copyright protection needs to be boosted to enhance the development of new media," said Tang, adding that Toutiao, for example, is making efforts to sign agreements with traditional media to use their content legally. "Social platforms are also becoming a breeding-ground for copyright infringement," the report said. Tencent, parent company of Wexin, China's most popular social platform, released copyright infringement statistics in January. It found that nearly 60 percent of complaints against public accounts were for copyright infringement. Many traditional media organizations have expanded their business to the internet, the report said. Last year media organizations accounted for more than 26,000 accounts. Of those, more than 17,000 were owned by traditional media, including newspapers, television and magazines, according to the report. "The internet has infiltrated every aspect of China's social development, becoming a new engine for the media's emergence. The internet has also become an important communication platform for China's voice and to enhance soft power," said Li Peilin, vice-president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. "I get all news through my mobile phone, including Weixin accounts and news apps," said Peng Bin, a 31-year-old government employee in Beijing. "It is more convenient, I can read news on the subway and I do not need to pay," she said. Dog lovers holding photos against dog abuse call for people to protest the Yulin dog meat festival, in Pingliang, Gansu province, on Monday. [Photo by Zheng Bing/China Daily] The dog meat festival in South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region arrived as usual on Tuesday but at a reduced size, as the local government pledged to take action to avoid public dog slaughtering. Peter Li, China policy specialist at Humane Society International, has visited Yulin frequently in the past three years and said he felt the atmosphere in Yulin this year was less tense than before. "I've seen hardly any abuse or slaughtering on the street," Li said. "At least for today, it is neither a nightmare nor a festival." In response to Hong Kong legislator Michael Tien Puk-sun's petition to end the festival, the local government promised to ban dog slaughtering in public and to check the health certificates of dogs transported to Yulin. Food safety and the problem of stolen pet dogs are the major objections. The festival is held annually in Yulin around the summer solstice, a day on the Chinese lunar calendar after which the hottest days of the summer are expected. Under pressure both domestically and abroad, the Yulin festival has shrunk in recent years. According to Humane Society International, the dog slaughtering peak was in 2012 or 2013, when more than 10,000 dogs were killed in three days. The number dropped to 2,000 dogs in 2015. Ever since the festival became a lightning rod for critics in 2012, the local government has said little beyond reiterating that there is no "organized festival" and that it's just a local people's gathering. Li Tingsheng, a local publicity official, said dog meat is a valid food choice, not a bad habit as some activists say. "We have made an effort to address public concerns over food security as well as the safety of pets," Li said. "However, there is no legal basis for preventing people from eating dog meat." A recent poll conducted by Horizon, a Chinese polling company, found more than half of Chinese want the local government to ban the festival, saying it tarnishes the country's image. When asked whether the central government should pass legislation to outlaw the dog meat trade, nearly 56 percent of respondents from outside Guangxi voted yes. Only 16 percent of respondents from Guangxi agreed. Qin Xiaona, director of the Capital Animal Welfare Association, said, "It is embarrassing to us that the world wrongly believes the brutally cruel Yulin festival is part of Chinese culture." Zhang Li in Nanjing contributed to this story. Contact the writers at huoyan@chinadaily.com.cn and suzhou@chinadaily.com.cn A rescuer escorts a sleeping 10-day-old infant to safety on Tuesday in Xiaba, a village in Guizhou province that has been left submerged by consecutive heavy downpours. KE YOUCHUAN/CHINA DAILY Rainstorms are expected across region along the Yangtze River Thousands of homes were flooded in Poyang county, Jiangxi province, late on Monday after Bintian Reservoir overflowed as torrential rain continued to wreak havoc in South China. The overflow forced the relocation of 5,600 residents in three villages late on Monday as the floods submerged homes, roads and farmlands, the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters said in a news statement on Tuesday. No casualties were reported. The Jiangxi provincial government said on Tuesday that the water is slowly receding. There are still more than 4,000 people mobilized in flood prevention efforts. It added that it could take at least three days to repair the riverbanks. Hu Guoyi, a villager from Jianyang who was forced to relocate, said the banks overflowed in a matter of hours. "The water level rose quickly to more than 2 meters and soon submerged the gate of our home," he told China News Service. After the floods, he and his wife took their two children to stay with relatives and then returned to the village to look after their home. In Hunan province, a flooded river in Longshan county forced about 18,500 residents to leave an ancient township. Torrential rains and floods have affected 213,800 residents and forced the relocation of 32,800 people in the province, according to provincial authorities. Students from the Qiang ethnic group study the regional textbook in Sichuan province. CHINA DAILY Former editor is driven to educate students about their ethnic identities and inspire them Wang Xiaoping says she quit her job in 2002 at the age of 55 when she came under pressure after working as commissioning editor on a controversial novel. Ten years later, that novel's author, Mo Yan, had won the Nobel Prize in Literature. Wang remembers that day as a crossroads. She said she told a friend who called up to comfort her: "Don't worry. I already have a new job." That new job, for a nonprofit organization called the Beijing Brooks Education Center, started out as wetland protection. But it was not long before, "spurred by an editor's instinct", she was finding people in remote areas in need of books. Along with several editor friends, she applied for support from foundations at home and abroad, and raised money to start building village libraries. A year later, she had helped establish more than 30 in some of China's least developed areas. But a 2005 visit to Jishou, a less-developed part of western Hunan province, gave her new inspiration. The mountainous region that had been a water transport hub for hundreds of years was home to several ethnic minorities. "But many locals, particularly the children, were not aware of the history and origins of the unique Jishou culture," Wang said. So, she started a new projectto compile cultural regional textbooks for children. During the past 10 years, with the help of local education authorities, schools, friends and charities, she has published 10 such books for primary and junior middle school students in the provinces of Hunan, Yunnan, Sichuan, Gansu, Guizhou and Heilongjiang, and the Inner Mongolia and Guangxi Zhuang autonomous regions. "The loss of regional culture is heartbreaking to me," Wang said. "If the children's knowledge always comes from afar and they are utterly ignorant of their hometown, how can they love the land of their birth and know about themselves?" The compilation of a regional textbook starts with obtaining funding from donors, then field research and a detailed outline, before Wang finds writers among friends and local teachers. Bao Guohua and his family in Wuhan. CHINA DAILY Migrant construction workers help build all the skyscrapers in China's big cities, but they typically cannot afford to buy an apartment in any of them. Bao Guohua, a 51-year-old carpenter from the small Hubei province village of Xiao Gan, bucked the trend. After 35 years of toil, he finally bought a house of his own in Wuhan. Bao left his hometown at age 16. Bright and diligent, he soon became a skilled laborer, which initially paid him 1.27 yuan ($19 cents) per day. "At that time, things were not as expensive as today. For example, one steamed bun only cost 2 cents. But to buy a house, that was too much to expect in my life," Bao said. In the ensuing years, he traversed China from south to north in search of better pay. In faraway Heilongjiang province, he overcame the cold and earned a reputation as a leader of a small team. He began to calculate his savings in the tens of thousands of yuan, but homeownership still proved elusive. "About 10 years ago, my brother still made jokes about me," Bao recalled. "He said, 'You may have built a lot of mansions, but not even a tile in this city is yours.'" Stung by those words, Bao decided to buy an apartment. But the dream faded when he calculated the mortgage payment. Still, with the encouragement of his only son, he persevered. A job as chief of woodwork in a State-owned construction company, with a salary of 7,000 yuan a month, made a difference. Last year, Bao thought it was finally time to make the dream come true. He found the ideal house for 800,000 yuan, and this time managed to obtain a mortgage. For this single shot at homeownership, he used all his savings, 230,000 yuan, as a down payment, leaving his son, Bao Jiaheng, who has worked with his father since graduating from a construction college in 2011, to pay the mortgage. "The south-facing apartment has three bedrooms, which is enough for a family. I will try my best to decorate it, because it will also be the marriage room for my son," he said. Although also in the construction industry, Bao's 24-year-old son has little in common with his father's hardscrabble life. Absorbed in social media, such as microblogging and text messaging on WeChat in his spare time, Bao Jiaheng is more eager than his father to integrate into city life. "To have our own house in Wuhan makes our life more promising," he said. Even though Bao Guohua has fulfilled his dream, he continues to work. "It's a new beginning in my life," he said. Zhang Li contributed to this story. LHASA -- Kelsang, 62, is delighted to see more tourists visiting his hometown. For the past 20 years, he has made a living by providing horses to Buddhists and tourists wanting to make the mountainous journey to Yumbulagang, Tibet's first temple, in Shannan Prefecture. He makes more than 300 yuan ($45.6 dollars) a day during peak season. "Much better than toiling in the fields," he said. Kelsang said his income increased after the Qinghai-Tibet railway opened 10 years ago, and more tourists could access the plateau area in southwest China. Since July 1, 2006, the 1,956 kilometer railway, which at its highest point is 5,072 meters above sea level, has linked Xining, capital of Qinghai Province, to Lhasa, capital of Tibet. It is the world's highest and longest plateau railroad and the first to connect Tibet Autonomous Region with the rest of China. In 2015, 20.2 million tourists visited Tibet, 11 times more than before the railway opened. Moreover, tourism revenue last year exceeded 28 billion yuan, 15 times more than a decade ago. Liu Wengang, a train operator, said train tickets sold very quickly. Often, during the peak season from April to September, they sell out a month in advance. To meet demand, six passenger trains run every day. The number of cargo trains has also doubled to 10 trains daily. "The Qinghai-Tibet Railway has activated the potential of Tibet, which was untapped for years, and attracted investment," said Liao Yidong, vice chairman with Tibet Federation of Industry and Commerce. Chinese dairy giant Mengniu announced earlier this month it would invest 200 million yuan in to a dairy farm and processing project in Lhasa. Yang Haijiang, a planner with Qinghai-Tibet Railway Co., said the line now has 18 loading stations, including industrial zones and coal bases, with trains transporting industrial salt, fertilizers, alkali, coal, aluminum, and iron ore out of the plateau from these stations. According to Yang, more railway lines are also planned on the plateau, such as one connecting Nyingchi, Tibet, with Ya'an, Sichuan Province. "With these lines forming a network, 'the roof of the world' will become more accessible," said Yang. According to Tibetan government statistics, GDP surged from 25 billion yuan in 2005 to 102.6 billion yuan in 2015, with an annual growth rate of over 10 percent. The figures in Qinghai also rose, from 64 billion yuan in 2005 to 241.7 billion yuan in 2015. Li Shurong (right), 79, meets with her elder sister Ai Shuzhang, 81, at the Baiyun Airport in the southern city of Guangzhou on June 21, 2016. [Photo/IC] A woman finally met with her elder sister in the southern city of Guangzhou on Tuesday after years of search since she was abducted 73 years ago. Li Shurong, 79, was born in North China's Hebei province, and was abducted from her hometown and sold in Northeast China when she was six years old in 1943. Though Li was leading a happy life with her children and grandchildren, her sole aim in life was to find her family members. Through the help of volunteers she recently tracked down her elder sister Ai Shuzhang, 81, living in Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong province. On Tuesday, Li flew on a four-hour journey from Changchun, Jilin province, to Guangzhou, and met with her sister at the Baiyun Airport in the southern city. BEIJING - China's meteorological authority on Wednesday issued a yellow alert for high temperatures in North, Central and Southeast China, urging people to reduce outdoor activity. In the southern part of North China, central provinces and a major part of South China, temperatures will exceed 35 degrees Celsius on Wednesday afternoon, the National Meteorological Center (NMC) announced. Some parts of Fujian, Hebei, Henan, Hunan, Jiangxi, Shanxi and Zhejiang provinces will experience an extremely hot day of up to 39 degrees, the center said. China has a four-tier color-coded weather warning system, with red representing the most severe warning, followed by orange, yellow and blue. The center warned that people - especially the old, young and infirm - to avoid outdoor activity around noon, and asked local authorities to take precautions against of fires that may come from excessive electricity use for air conditioners. The NMC also issued a blue warning for storms from Wednesday to Thursday in some areas of northeast, east and northwest China. HONG KONG - A firefighter was killed Tuesday night in a deadly fire that broke out in an industrial building in Hong Kong. Seven other firemen were injured when battling the blaze, which has been lasted for over 24 hours. The fire broke out on Tuesday morning at a multi-storey industrial building in Hong Kong's East Kowloon area. It was upgraded to No 4 alarm on Tuesday night. Firefighters continued to battle the blaze on Wednesday morning, shooting water into the third floor as smoke kept billowing out. Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying on Tuesday expressed sadness over the death of Fire Service Department Senior Station Officer Thomas Cheung. The officer left behind a wife and a four-month-old baby, said Leung, who pledged to provide support for Cheung's family. The Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance has made its debut in the Financial Times' annual ranking of the best Masters in Finance programs in the world, coming second in Asia and 28th in the world. For value for money, SAIF ranked 1st in Asia and 2nd globally. The FT rankings for Masters in Finance programs, started in 2011, are calculated according to information provided by business schools and their alumni. Ranks are based on a total of 16 criteria, including salary, value for money, and diversity of faculty and students. The 2016 edition saw 55 schools included in the ranking. SAIF is a new entrant following its accreditation in February by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International, the oldest and one of the most prestigious global accrediting bodies for business schools. In addition to value for money and its overall score, SAIF also outshone its Asian peers in terms of international mobility, international course experience, and faculty with doctorates. SAIF was established in 2009 as part of the Shanghai Jiao Tong University with the goal of supporting the development of Shanghai into a global financial center. SAIF boasts a faculty composed of about 60 professors all with PhD degrees from overseas universities and more than 40 with tenured positions from top business schools in North America and Europe. The Masters in Finance program is a flagship of SAIF with an average acceptance rate of lower than 5 percent since it first opened to students in the fall of 2009. "The FT ranking affirms our efforts to offer the best education in finance to the young talent of tomorrow and recognizes the achievements we have made on the journey to becoming the best in the world," said Chun Chang, executive dean of SAIF. The program provides students with a curriculum rooted in modern financial theory, which delivers sophisticated quantitative and analytical tools and imparts state-of-the-art practical knowledge and skills to meet the rigors of a profession in finance. The program is committed to fostering exceptional leadership and communication skills, the highest levels of professionalism, and an exemplary sense of social responsibility, according to Chun. A photo shows the derailed train in Taiwan on June 22, 2016. [Photo/Sina Weibo] At least two people were injured when a train running from Kaohsiung to Hualien derailed in Taiwan on Wednesday afternoon, according to media reports. The train, No 307, was running along the tracks in Ruisui township of Hualien county when the trains seventh, eighth and ninth cars derailed at 2:49 pm. The two injured, including one with severe facial injuries, have been sent to hospital. A local resident who lives near the site said that high temperature twisted the shape of the tracks, causing the train to derail. But another said it might be caused by falling electric poles. Because the railway line was one-way at the section, the traffic has been blocked after the accident. Taiwan railway authorizes have sent rescuers to the site, and the trains other cars were connected together to leave the site. A train also derailed near the site on June 4 at the section after high temperature twisted the shape of the tracks. Six cars of the train derailed, but miraculously no one was injured. A Sino-French program run by Sun Yat-Sen University and Sino-French Institute of Nuclear Engineering and Technology in Zhuhai holds a graduation ceremony in Guangdong province on Monday. [Photo/provided to China Daily] A Sino-French program run by Sun Yat-Sen University and the alliance for civil nuclear engineering education in France held a graduation ceremony on Monday for its first 72 master's degree graduates, who are expected to be a driving force in China's fast-developing nuclear industry. The alliance consists of four higher education schools and the technological research institute under the national supervisor of nuclear safety. Having completed six years of study, the graduates received nuclear engineer certificates that are acknowledged by the French government. The Sino-French Institute of Nuclear Engineering and Technology in Zhuhai, Guangdong province, was founded in 2009, aiming to meet China's urgent demand for talent in new energies such as nuclear power. It now has more than 500 students. France is strong in nuclear technology and has been cooperating with China since the Dayawan nuclear plant in Shenzhen 30 years ago. "As an important player in globalization, China will certainly cooperate with foreign partners, including France, to develop the new generation of nuclear power technology. I believe that IFCEN graduates will make great contributions to the process," said French Ambassador to China Maurice Gourdault-Montagne, who attended the graduation ceremony. "IFCEN graduates will become China's elite nuclear engineers in the future, managing the country's nuclear power stations and pushing forward technological innovation," he said. The Sino-French institute has a busy curriculum to get students prepared in language and professional skills. The final three years of the program adopt the French training model for engineers, with teachers sent from French partners and experts in nuclear enterprises invited to give lectures. Students need to accomplish three rounds of internships during this phase, progressing from blue-collar jobs to tasks as an engineer. Students can choose to graduate with a bachelor's degree after finishing four years of study, but most of them endeavor to get a master's degree. Most of the 72 IFCEN graduates have landed a job at China General Nuclear Power Corporation, a leading clean energy company headquartered in Shenzhen. Three of the remaining signed contracts with Electricite de France and two with AREVA, both major nuclear power enterprises in France. Six graduates will pursue a PhD. "IFCEN has built an international platform for us and provides diversified career choices," said student Li Yang. "I had the opportunity to work at the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission for my graduation practice, which helped me win a full scholarship for my Ph.D. studies in France," Li said. Wang Qishan (C), a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and secretary of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, attends a meeting on anti-graft inspection in Beijing, capital of China, June 22, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua] BEIJING -- China's next round of anti-corruption inspections, which will run over the next few months, will focus on the Party leaderships of 32 state and Party organs, the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) said Wednesday. Inspection teams will be dispatched to the National People's Congress, China's top legislature, and the top political advisory body, the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the CCDI said in a statement. They will also visit the Foreign Ministry; the Ministry of Public Security; the Ministry of Finance; the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development; the National Audit Office; as well as State Council organs in charge of legislative affairs and work related to Hong Kong and Macao, and overseas Chinese. Party organizations, such as the United Front Work Department of the CPC Central Committee, the International Department of the CPC Central Committee, and a central leading group for the prevention and handling of cults, will also be scrutinized. In addition, this round of inspections will include a reexamination of Tianjin Municipality and the provinces of Jiangxi, Henan and Hubei, all of which have been inspected in previous rounds. At a meeting Wednesday on the new inspections, Wang Qishan, head of the CCDI, highlighted the role the inspections play in intra-Party supervision. Inspectors should conform with the CPC Central Committee "in both thoughts and actions," and focus on party building, anti-corruption work and policy implementation . They should also inspire institutional innovation to improve the Party, he said. Yu Jianchun shares his calculations at Zhejiang University in June. ZHANG BINGQING/CHINA DAILY A 33-year-old worker at a logistics company's packaging shop in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, made headlines when he shared his calculations about number patterns with mathematics PhD candidates at Zhejiang University recently. The worker, Yu Jianchun, is from mountainous Xinxian county in Henan province. He graduated from a technology training school in Zhengzhou, Henan province. Although he had little higher education and was a migrant worker after graduation, Yu maintains his interest in mathematics and spends almost all of his spare time studying it. Over time, he developed an interest in Carmichael numbers, a kind of pseudo-prime numbers that occur as positive integers about 255 times per 100 million. Yu came up with five formulas that Cai Tianxin, a math professor at Zhejiang University, found inspiring. "I made my discoveries through intuition," Yu said. "I would write down what I thought when inspirations struck about the Carmichael. I have hard work and make a hard living, but I insist on my studies." Yu was a migrant worker in many places, and everywhere he went, he would visit the math professors at the local university, hoping to get confirmation of his formulas. Yu said he spent eight years developing the Carmichael formulas. He has reached out to academics through emails. Cai was the first to respond. Cai found a formula proposed by Yu to be a more efficient way of identifying Carmichael numbers and invited him to share his thinking at the university with faculty members and doctoral and postdoctoral students in a class on June 13. Six professors and advanced students in Zhejiang University's math department listened to Yu's lecture. Some of the experts considered Yu's idea to be a "novelty", while some said "his results have a certain depth". Cai decided to include Yu's formula with his latest work in English, and he gave Yu a book to help the logistics worker in further study. New law would allow online self-help legal document services to operate in North Carolina consumers a means of viewing a blank template or a completed document before finalizing a purchase of the document; an attorney licensed in North Carolina to review each blank template offered to North Carolina consumers; the provider to inform consumers that the forms are not a substitute for getting advice from an attorney; the provider to disclose to consumers its legal name and physical location and address; the provider not to limit consumers' options to recover damages or other remedies; the provider to have a consumer satisfaction process. RALEIGH The General Assembly has codified many of the provisions of a 2015 consent judgment between LegalZoom.com Inc. and the N.C. State Bar, allowing the online self-help service to provide routine legal documents to consumers in the state. If Gov. Pat McCrory signs the legislation, it would end a battle that has lasted more than a dozen years.Both the House and the Senate approved a conference report that redefines the state's statute governing the unauthorized practice of law. House Bill 436 , approved on Thursday, will go to McCrory.The bill ends a long-running squabble between LegalZoom and the State Bar dating back to 2003 when the State Bar's Authorized Practice Committee opened an inquiry into whether LegalZoom's online documents constituted unauthorized practice of law.The new law is actually broader than the consent agreement between LegalZoom and the State Bar. It applies the provisions in the consent order to online legal services that are similar to LegalZoom.said Rep. Leo Daughtry, R-Johnston, who sponsored the bill.Daughtry continued.Not all companies are as easy to work with as LegalZoom, he said. "For example, some of these providers say that if there is a dispute, you [have to] mediate it in California," Daughtry said. "We don't want that. That's not good for anybody. We wanted to make sure that all the other providers were treated the same as LegalZoom."To address that concern, one provision of the bill prohibits online legal providers from requiring its customers to agree to resolve disputes in any state other than North Carolina.Other provisions of the bill require:Providers also must register annually with the State Bar. The initial registration fee can be up to $100. Annual renewal fees of up to $50 can be charged.Daughtry said.After the State Bar's 2003 inquiry, LegalZoom responded by saying its legal document service was simply an online version of off-the-shelf software widely available throughout the United States. Later in the year, the State Bar Committee wrote Legal Zoom, saying it had dismissed the complaint, citing insufficient evidence to pursue the matter.In January 2007, the committee initiated a second inquiry geared toward the company's documents for forming corporations. Again, the State Bar committee asserted that LegalZoom was engaging in an unauthorized practice of law. LegalZoom replied that its practice had not changed materially since the 2003 inquiry was closed.The State Bar sent a cease-and-desist letter to LegalZoom in May 2008, reasserting the claim of an unauthorized practice of law. The State Bar also threatened to seek an injunction against LegalZoom. The company responded by saying there were inaccuracies in the State Bar's assertions.The State Bar never responded to the 2008 LegalZoom letter, other than acknowledging its receipt. But it didn't pursue an injunction either.When LegalZoom tried to register its prepaid legal plans for individuals and businesses in North Carolina in July 2010, the State Bar refused to consider the application, citing the 2008 cease-and-desist letter and requesting more information.After further attempts to resolve the conflict proved unsuccessful, LegalZoom filed a lawsuit against the State Bar in September 2011.The case ended in October 2015 when the N.C. Business Court entered a consent judgment in the litigation. The consent judgment could have remained in effect for as long as two years had the legislation not been adopted. BEIJING, June 21 (Xinhua) -- Senior official of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Zhao Leji met with Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Tuesday. China-India ties are at a new stage since the leaders of two countries reached consensus to foster a closer development partnership, said Zhao, a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and head of the CPC Central Committee Organization Department. Zhao said the CPC is willing to enhance friendly communication with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and have more people-to-people exchanges. Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who is also a senior official of BJP, called for more cooperation between BJP and CPC, and he hopes the two countries will have more pragmatic cooperation, especially local cooperation. Xinhua News Agency released a short film Monday to commemorate the 95th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC). The nine-and-a-half-minute video profiles the pursuit of independence and state prosperity. It features photographs and footage from Xinhua's China Photo Archives, a repository of more than 10 million images from 1892 to the present day. The film begins with "Internationale," sung in Russian by 95-year-old Qu Duyi, the only daughter of Qu Qiubai, a key leader of the CPC in its early days. Qu Duyi and her husband co-founded Xinhua's Moscow bureau, the agency's third foreign bureau. Eighty-one years ago, Qu Qiubai sang the same song on his way to his execution after being captured by the Kuomintang. "My father had a faith in communist society and fought for it," said Qu Duyi in the film. The video also features footage and images of outstanding CPC members across the years, including Lei Feng, a soldier who was known for selflessly devoting his time and money to those in need; Jiao Yulu, a local-level official role model; and Wang Jinxi, a model-oil worker who was dubbed "iron man." "For a person, 95 years is a very long time, but to a Party, which is ahead of the times, it is its prime. Our dreams, and those of our fathers, are in the distance," the narrator says at the end of the film. The Beijing International Book Fair has grown into a significant event where Chinese and foreign publishers display their latest books and seek opportunities for cooperation.[Photo/VCG] Despite being relatively new to the international book market, Chinese publishers are trying hard to sell their titles to overseas readers. They have made remarkable progress since the China Book International project was launched a decade ago. "We've developed overseas fans for Chinese works as books by Nobel laureate Mo Yan, Hans Christian Andersen award-winning Cao Wenxuan and sci-fi author Liu Cixin are widely read," Cui Yuying, deputy director of the State Council Information Office, said at a conference of the CBI project in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, earlier this month. Readers outside China have seen a flood of Chinese works since last year, instead of the formerly scattered appearance of books on qigong (meditative exercises), cuisine and Confucius. The project was jointly launched by the State Council Information Office and the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television in 2006. It was a first-of-its-kind attempt of "crossing the river by feeling the stones" to push the country's publishers to compete and cooperate globally, says Cui. "Then, we were unsure of where to go and how to go, but we knew we were going to offer opportunities to the world to read and understand China better," she says. The project sponsors translation and promotion fees for Chinese publishers and their foreign partners to render and publish Chinese titles overseas. Its 38 members, including publishing groups, have sold the copyright of 4,375 book titles to more than 500 publishers from 70 countries over the past decade, almost quadrupling the 2007 figure of 1,132 titles, says Cui. The initiators of the project have worked closely with 35 top publishing experts from foreign agencies and publishing houses. Speaking of the progress the project has made, Cui says the change is not only in the numbers. She says Chinese publishers are now making bigger strides in the global market, and she sees more confidence at every level. Li Yan, a vice-general manager of China Publishing Group, says the group sees internationalization as one of its key strategies. It has built a team of 50 professionals from scratch for international trade and cooperation. "Formerly, we waited for foreign publishers to select what they would like to buy from us. Now we take the initiative and plan with them and for them," Li says, adding that her group focuses on Chinese development, literature, arts and children's books. Li Xueqian, the president of the China Children's Press and Publishing Group, says taking Chinese writers to international book fairs and working with world-renowned illustrators are key factors that helped Cao to win the Hans Christian Andersen Award. Albert Tsui has recently published Hong Kong Memory Since 1977 to promote mutual understanding between people from the two sides. [Phpto/amazon.cn] Born and raised in Hong Kong, Albert Tsuia fourth-generation descendant of a mainland immigrant familyhas recently published a book to offer mainland readers a glimpse of the real life and thoughts of a Hongkonger from a grassroots point of view. Titled Hong Kong Memory Since 1977, the book written in Chinese chronologically recounts both key events in Hong Kong's history and personal anecdotes and comments relating to the events. "I have always believed that people on the mainland and in Hong Kong will understand each other more as time passes," says Tsui. "But the misunderstandings between two sides seem to have increased in recent years." Based in Beijing for the past nine years, Tsui says he can understand both points of view more easily, especially as controversies arise. One of the issues he takes up is the row that erupted after Hong Kong put a quota on milk power purchases for mainland visitors in 2013. Another deals with the issue of a mainland parent allowing a toddler urinate in a Hong Kong street in 2014. "Hong Kong people say mainlanders have no culture, and mainlanders accuse Hong Kong people of regarding themselves as superior," says Tsui. "But labeling or overgeneralization is what causes conflicts." The book is Tsui's bid to bridge the gap. Tsui believes that the first step toward mutual understanding is getting to know each other. "I will be happy if my book can make people on the mainland get a sense of what life for common Hong Kong people is like," Tsui writes in the preface. Tsui, who works in an IT company in Beijing, speaks fluent Mandarin with slight Cantonese accent, and uses WeChat, the popular instant-messaging app on the mainland, to communicate with his mainland friends. Tsui says that the book was inspired by Taiwan author Liao Hsin-chung, who wrote We Taiwan Over These Yearsa popular read on the mainland for those interested in Taiwan's modern history. "We (Tsui and Liao) were both born in the same year, have experienced changes in our hometowns and have worked on the Chinese mainland," says Tsui. "So when I read Liao's book, I felt inspired to write a similar one about Hong Kong from an ordinary person's perspective." The book starts in 1977, the year Tsui was born, and ends in 2015, when his manuscript was accepted by the publishing department of Chinese National Geography. In May, Tsui toured seven cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou, to promote his book. "I guess most readers will turn to this page once they open this book," Tsui writes in the chapter on 1997, the year the United Kingdom handed Hong Kong back to China. In that chapter, Tsui shows understanding of the happiness felt by people on the mainland during the handover. He says that, due to his interactions with friends from the mainland, he sees that Hong Kong's colonial past is considered a historical shame by most mainlanders and its return is seen as a mark of the revitalization of China. But Tsui also depicts the scene of the last British governor Chris Patten and his family leaving Hong Kong as the Royal Yacht Britannia sailed from the harbor. Besides political events, Tsui also focuses on cultural aspects. He writes about his alma mater Hong Kong University, Hong Kong's popular crime film series of the '90sYoung and Dangerousand the competition between Disneyland and Hong Kong's Ocean Park. Tsui, who worked for Yahoo in Silicon Valley in 2000 and studied law in Britain in 2002, also uses the book to compare how Americans and Britons view Hong Kong. "In general, ordinary people in the United States and the United Kingdom don't pay too much attention to tiny Hong Kong," writes Tsui. "But Englishmen are more concerned about how Hong Kong is doing after it was returned to China." Tsui, who moved to Beijing in late 2006, took the National Judicial Examination in 2010. Recalling the difficulty he faced while trying to remember laws and concepts of the mainland's legal system, which is mainly a civil-law system, he also explains the common-law system used in Hong Kong. The book is mainly based on archived newspapers published in Hong Kong. Documentaries on YouTube and video-streaming websites also helped Tsui to recall and write about events he did not witness. Responding to criticism of his effort, Tsui says: "Some Hongkongers criticize me for speaking in favor of the mainland, but all I wrote are words from my heart. "Everybody has a different understanding of the same historical events. My suggestion to those who disagree with me is to write a book themselves." Tsui says originally he did not plan to stay in Beijing for too long but gradually changed his mind. "The mainland is undergoing tremendous change, and one reason I chose to stay is to witness the change in person," says Tsui. Contact the writer at @chinadaily.com.cn A mother is showing her daughter how to draw a grain painting. [Photo by Wang Zirui/asianewsphoto] Shoudong village, formerly designated as a poor provincial level village in Central China's Hebei province, is no longer so thanks to its grain art economy. By introducing a grain art enterprise, unemployment has greatly reduced - over 200 women were hired as "painters" to produce grain paintings. In only two years, the village has been listed by China's Ministry of Culture as one of the top 10 most beautiful villages, and a 3A tourist site in Hebei province. China's Sunway TaihuLight, which is capable of performing 93 quadrillion calculations per second (petaflop/s), has replaced the country's Tianhe-2 as the world's most powerful supercomputer. The Top500 supercomputer list has been ranking supercomputers across the world every six months since 1993. Tianhe-2 had been heading the list for the past three years, and the basic difference between China's top two supercomputers is that Sunway TaihuLight uses chips made entirely in China while Tianhe02 uses Intel chips made in the United States. More surprisingly, the latest Top500 list also shows that with 167 China has more supercomputers than the US which has 165. China did not have a supercomputer till 2001, but within 15 years it has surpassed the US to have the highest number of supercomputers in the world, which shows the rapid development of supercomputers in the country. China has been deeply worried about being over-reliant on foreign technology, especially after the US announced an export ban on all high-performance computing chips to China last year. Experts say China's success in the supercomputers field, the indigenously developed Sunway TaihuLight in particular, marks a great step forward in the country's technological advancement. It also means China has mastered the core technologies of building supercomputers and can compete in this field globally. Chinese President Xi Jinping visits an Ecological Economic Development Zone in Yichun, Northeast China's Heilongjiang province, May 23, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua] NORTHEAST CHINA, comprising Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning provinces, received only four angel investments totaling 7 million yuan ($106,000) last year, according to a recent report on China's investment market. Beijing News commented on Tuesday: That angel investors have little interest in the northeastern provinces has a lot to do with the exodus of young talents from the region, the rapidly aging population and the unfavorable atmosphere for innovation. But it would be unfair to say the region has no future, because a majority of northeast residents, be they civil servants, scholars or entrepreneurs, are neither narrow-minded nor against market-based competition. True, the old development mode, which is highly reliant on State-owned enterprises and labor-intensive heavy industries, appears to be an anachronism in these times of intensive market-oriented reform. That explains why local talents keep leaving home in search of better careers. Over a decade ago observers emphasized the need to revitalize Northeast China's economy, which still remains sluggish because the focus has been on making the traditional industrial bases "great again", not introducing market-oriented competition. On the other hand, as the central government has stopped issuing stimulant economic policies, traditional industries including coal and nonferrous metals will have to endure an institutional overhaul to tide over the current crisis. But not all employees of SOEs in Northeast China are willing to go through the pains of losing some of their "comfort". Some have decided to resign and restart their career elsewhere, while those who have chosen to stay are not happy with the ongoing reform. As a result, private fixed asset investment in the region has declined by almost 30 percent from January to May on a year-on-year basis. The truth is, Northeast China still has the potential to relive its glorious past as the country's economic powerhouse thanks to its abundant natural and labor resources as well as pivotal location for cross-border trade. But to fulfill that potential, local governments have to grant wider access to private enterprises instead of painstakingly sustaining the region's outdated growth model. Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro speaks during a national TV broadcast in Caracas in this March 9, 2015 picture provided by Miraflores Palace. [Photo/Agencies] Some Western media outlets have reported that China recently sent an "unofficial envoy" for talks with Venezuela's opposition party to ensure its loans to the country are recognized after President Nicolas Maduro steps down and claimed the move marks a shift in Beijing's attitude toward Caracas. The continuous political turbulence in Venezuela has made the international community pessimistic about the Maduro government's survival. So it is natural for Chinese people to be worried about the safety of China's loans to Venezuela. But it is wrong to interpret China's gesture as a shift in attitude toward Venezuela, because Beijing is unlikely to reverse its friendly ties with Caracas. China has for long kept in touch with opposing forces in other countries. So even if China has contacted the Venezuelan opposition, there is no reason to brand it a "hurried move" to retrieve its loans. Also, it is not unusual for one country to keep in touch with different political parties in another country. Considering Venezuela's huge oil reserves, the oil-for-loan deal Caracas has signed with Beijing is basically safe. Friendly cooperation with China is Venezuela's strategic choice and goes beyond partisan interests. And most Latin American countries use their ties with China to geo-strategically balance their ties with the US. Even should Venezuela suffer a collapse, the loans extended by China and other international lenders will be secure, although the possibility of the resource-rich Latin American country collapsing is extremely remote. Recovering oil prices indicate Venezuela will overcome its ongoing economic hardship. And since China has generally received more benefits than losses from its all-round economic cooperation with other countries over the past decades, it would be myopic to consider the loans China offers to other countries as squandering of State money. Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) meets with President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov in Beijing, Sept. 2, 2015.[Photo/Xinhua] When Xi Jinping launched the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in a pair of speeches in September and October 2013, it was clear that at the forefront of his mind was the need to further develop China's links economic, political and cultural with the Central Asian states (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan) which, along with Russia and China itself, form the membership of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). It is no random event that the first of these two speeches, which outlined Xi's vision for a 'Silk Road Economic Belt' (SREB) stretching via land from East Asia to Europe, was given at Nazarbayev University in Astana, Kazakhstan. The other, concerning the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, was given in Indonesia one month later, demonstrating the intent to link land and sea routes in a wide-ranging trade, transport and infrastructure network, the BRI (also called 'One Belt, One Road' (OBOR)), which is meant to connect all corners of the Eurasian landmass with each other as well as with Africa. On land, the SREB is supposed to stretch via rail and road links from China's east coast all the way to Germany and Spain via Central Asia and the Middle East. At sea, the 'Maritime Silk Road' is intended to connect the Pacific with the Indian Ocean, the Mediterranean and the Baltic in a network of shipping routes which are to be integrated with the overland routes of the SREB. China's president made clear, even at the launching of the BRI initiative, that Central Asian states were key players in his grand plan. After all, Central Asia lies directly on the path between East Asia and Western Europe, directly astride the ancient Silk Road whose name has been taken for the new initiative. Without close cooperation between the Central Asian states and China, neither the SREB nor the overarching BRI within which it is to be placed can come to fruition. Xi also explained in his September 2013 speech that the SREB is to be based on the work done within the SCO framework to establish closer ties between the six founding members since the founding of the group in 2001. Nobody is in any doubt that the SCO has been remarkably successful in cementing political and economic relationships between its members since its inception. As a result, the organization has begun to alter the geo-economic and geopolitical landscape of Central Asia in what some observers have termed a 'new great game'. One consequence of the growing impact of the SCO on international relations has been that a number of other countries have sought either to join the organization, to observe its discussions, or to become dialogue partners. Most notably, Pakistan and India are due to be accepted into the SCO ranks at some point in 2016. Other significant local players such as Iran, Turkey, Azerbaijan and Armenia are waiting in the wings, monitoring developments. As regards Uzbekistan, which is hosting the latest round of talks between heads of state within the SCO framework, this nation is clearly a key partner for China in Central Asia, not only in terms of transport connections, but also in terms of trade and natural resources. Uzbekistan has large gold and uranium deposits, meaning that the state-owned Navoi Mining and Metallurgy Combinat is one of the world's ten largest producers of these commodities. Uzbekistan also has considerable oil and natural gas reserves. China National Petroleum Corporation has been working in conjunction with Uzbekneftegaz, Uzbekistan's national oil and gas company, to develop oil fields in the country since 2006. The Central Asia-China gas pipeline, vital for Chinas natural gas supplies, runs through Uzbekistan via three pipelines, while a fourth is under construction. All of these facts mean that President Xi's visit to Tashkent for the latest round of talks on June 23-24 is far from ceremonial. Uzbekistan, Central Asia and the steadily expanding SCO all constitute vital cogs in Xi's vision of a new interconnected Asia-to-Europe economic zone unified under Chinese leadership. Consequently, the latest meeting of the SCO in Uzbekistan is likely to be followed with interest by both experts and lay observers alike. 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." A mother plays with kids at the beach in the seaside city of Qingdao in Shandong province. [Photo by Wang Haibin/China Daily] Nian Dai didn't want to travel during the Dragon Boat Festival from June 9 to 11. But a small person gave him a big reasonhis 9-year-old son. "I knew it'd be very crowded everywhere during the holiday," Nian says. "But my son would complain if I didn't take him somewhere. He has been busy with tests and homework and expects to go out." So the father brought the boy to the Beijing Badaling Wildlife Parkandto the family's surprisethey had a wonderful time. They saw lions and tigers and bears from cars and they hand fed herbivores. His son asked many questions. They chatted the most they had since the previous time he'd taken the boy out. Nian's family is representative of a trend: an increasing number of trips is made for Chinese children's sake, says Li Mengran, publicity manager of major outbound-travel operator Beijing Utour International Travel Service Co. "Parents are busy at work and only have time for their children during holidays," Li says. "Many feel they should spend more time with their kids and take them to see the world as much as possible." Bookings are set to surge as schools start summer vacation. In 2015, the overnight stays of Chinese in Dresden were more than 43,400, four times of that in 2008.[Photo provided to China Daily] German National Tourist Board recently held trade events in Beijing and Shanghai, with six German companies, including Steigenberger Hotels and Lufthansa, participating in them. The two fairs were aimed at strengthening ties between tourism industries of the two countries. The German companies, and local tourism offices of Berlin and Dresden, discussed with Chinese travel agencies ways to enhance integration of the two markets over the internet. According to the German government, the overnight stays of Chinese tourists in Germany were more than 2.54 million in 2015. In the first quarter of this year, the overnight stays of all foreign tourists in Germany was 15 million, up by 7 percent for the same period last year. Ralf Ostendorf, director of Berlin Tourism Bureau, said his city offers lots to offer from operas to museums, clubs, food and medical tourism. Related: Scenery of Dajiu Lake in Shennongjia, Central China's Hubei Passengers on Chinese high-speed trains will be able to keep up with their social networking and browse the internet when Wi-Fi service is made available in the coming years. The service will be accessible through an app passengers can download to their cellphones when they board a train. China Railway Rolling Stock Corp, the country's largest train maker by revenue, displayed the technology at the Modern Railway 2016 exhibition in Beijing, which ended on Wednesday. Xu Houguang, deputy director of the press office at CRRC's headquarters in Beijing, said the company is able to install a Wi-Fi system on its bullet and regular trains. CRRC's subway and bullet train factories such as Qingdao Sifang Co, CRRC Changchun Co and CRRC Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Co can offer the service on products exported to overseas markets such as Malaysia and Malta, said Yao Kaijun, a researcher at the China Academy of Railway Sciences. China has the world's largest mobile internet population, which last year numbered 594 million users. However, commercially operated Wi-Fi service on bullet trains may still be years away, analysts said. "The project requires telecom companies and train makers to upgrade networking solutions step by step until they cover all routes," said Xiang Ligang, an independent telecom analyst and founder of the industry website cctime.com. Wi-Fi service on high-speed trains differs from that used in homes and offices, with the instability of Wi-Fi signals in tunnels and interference from mobile and static signals over the lengthy routes posing major obstacles, Xiang said. There are also many administrative procedures to go through before running this program, and permits and licenses from the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will be needed, Yao said. Last year, three Chinese airlines received approval to provide in-flight Wi-Fi service. Ma Si contributed to this story. Contact the writers at lvchang@chinadaily.com.cn DPRK fires 6th suspected Musudan missile, 2nd in a day (Xinhua) Updated: 2016-06-22 08:35 SEOUL - The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Wednesday fired the sixth suspected Musudan intermediate-range ballistic missile, the second in the day, after the fifth test-launch had failed, Yonhap news agency reported citing military authorities. The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) was quoted as saying that one more missile, which was believed to have been a Musudan missile, was launched at about 8:05 a.m. local time from its Wonsan area in the east coastal region. It has yet to be known whether the DPRK's sixth test-launch of the missile, which is known to be capable of hitting part of the U.S. territory such as Guam and the outer reaches of Alaska, was successful. Earlier in the day, the DPRK test-fired what was believed to have been a Musudan missile near Wonsan area at about 5:58 a.m., but it appeared to have failed as the missile flew in an abnormal trajectory in a distance short of what a normal ballistic missile can fly. People walk along the river Thames past a 'Vote Remain' projection onto the exterior of Tate Modern, in the lead up to the EU referendum, in London, Britain June 21, 2016.[Photo/VCG] LONDON -- The latest polls showed the "Leave" camp was tied with the "Remain" camp in the EU referendum to determine whether or not Britain should stay in the 28-member bloc. The number of Remain supporters has grown just two days before the EU referendum. According to a poll conducted by market research firm YouGov for The Times newspaper, the Leave side is now two points ahead of Remain, at 44 percent to 42, with the Leave camp gaining one point compared with the last poll results, while the Remain camp lost two points. The poll by ORB International for The Telegraph newspaper showed Tuesday that 53 percent would vote stay, up five percentage points than a week ago to the 46 percent voting leave, down three points. San Diego Zoo's male giant panda, Gao Gao, goes to town on his birthday cake on Jan 21, 2009 in San Diego, California, US. [Photo/IC] CHENGDU -- A Chinese panda expert on Tuesday expressed concern for a giant panda at California's San Diego Zoo which was reported to be suffering from heart disease after a physical examination. Gao Gao is 26, old for a Panda, said Wang Chengdong, director of the veterinary hospital at the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda in southwest China's Sichuan Province. Wang said he saw Gao Gao at the zoo last September when he was in good physical condition with a good appetite at that time, Wang said. When giant pandas become older, they are prone to age-related disease," Wang said. As Gao Gao is old, it is hard to cure his heart disease. Medicine and rest are indispensable, according to Wang. Pandas in China rarely suffer heart disease, Wang said. "Gao Gao is too old to have an operation so we suggest he receive conservative treatment instead," Wang said. Gao Gao was found in a nature reserve in Sichuan in April 1993 when he was a cub. He was separated from his mother and had suffered serious injuries. Panda researchers saved him and took him to the center. He was sent to the United States in January 2003 as part of a 12-year research cooperation program between the two nations. Wild giant pandas' life span is usually 15 to 20 years while the life span of captive pandas can reach 30 years. SEOUL - The Republic of Korea (ROK)s presidential office said on Wednesday it will hold a national security meeting to discuss the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea's latest missile launches, soon after Pyongyang launched two intermediate-range missiles. Jeong Yeon-guk, a spokesman for the presidential office, said the meeting was scheduled for later on Wednesday morning and would be headed by the president's chief adviser for national security. Democratic US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton smiles during a campaign rally in Columbus, Ohio, US, June 21, 2016.[Photo/Agencies] NEW YORK - Democrat Hillary Clinton's lead over Republican rival Donald Trump has slipped by about five percentage points since mid-June, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday, bringing the race for the White House to within nine points. The poll showed that 44.5 percent of likely voters supported former secretary of state Clinton while 35.5 percent backed businessman Trump. That compares with 46.6 percent support for Clinton and 32.3 percent for Trump on June 12, a date that marked her widest lead for the month. Trump has focused much of his energy in recent days on the mass shooting in Orlando, Florida by a US-born gunman pledging allegiance to Islamic State militant group. Trump vowed to ban people from entering the United States from countries with links to terrorism against America or its allies. Hardline national security proposals have help Trump win increased support from voters in the past, including after the shootings in San Bernardino, California and Paris late last year. Clinton responded to the Orlando attack by calling for increased intelligence gathering and air strikes on Islamic State forces, while warning against demonizing American Muslims. She has also criticized Trump's positions on foreign policy and the economy, saying a Trump presidency would be a "disaster". The June 17-21 poll of 1,100 likely voters has a credibility interval, a measure of accuracy, of 3.4 percentage points. BEIJING - The United States likes to think of itself as a force for peace, law and justice, and the deployment of two aircraft carriers on a "training mission" in East Asia obviously backs up that aspiration. Or does it? The timing of the operation -- just ahead of a ruling on South China Sea disputes -- is surely a deliberated one. The United States has dressed up the illegal, unilateral arbitration instigated by the Philippines as a noble act of homage to international law, while China's complete ambivalence toward irrelevant proceedings in The Hague is painted as disrespectful and a violation of that same international law. Why the big show of strength now? After countless promises not to take sides in South China Sea disputes, the arrival of the warships is presumably just another aspect of the "peaceful resolution based on international law" which the Obama administration has so consistently advocated. Since the Philippines took it upon itself to open the arbitration, China has been drawn as the neighborhood bully who wants to militarize the region, but facts speak louder than hollow words and now more than 60 countries openly support China's stance. Could that be what all these warships, fighter jets and troops are about? To the United States, these moves might look like "peace, law and justice," but to everyone else they appear to be exactly what they are: militarization. Even the Philippines smells a rat. On Tuesday, Rodrigo Duterte, the Philippines' president-elect, said that he had asked the U.S. ambassador whether Washington would support the Philippines in a confrontation with China. "Are you with us or are you not with us?" asked Duterte. "Only if you are attacked," the ambassador replied. There's the rub. Is US support for the arbitration really for the sake of the Philippines? Or is it all about China? If there are any lessons to be learned from the past, the Philippines would know that bringing outsiders into any dispute invariably complicates matters, and never calms things down. To paraphrase "Game of Thrones," the Philippines may well ask themselves whether it is worthy "to fight for the master who would never fight and die for you?" As a new president preparing to assume office, Duterte would do well to give a thought to returning to the negotiating table. China will welcome him there. RALEIGH Although the debate about education policy is robust, complicated, and sometimes vitriolic, there is actually broad agreement about the bottom line: if our students were better prepared for college, careers, and the responsibilities of citizenship, North Carolina would reap tremendous benefits.Liberals and conservatives disagree about means, not about the ultimate ends - and often, even our disagreements on the means of school improvement are more about priorities and details, not about basic concepts. I know these spirited policy debates will continue for years to come. That's fine with me. I welcome them.In the meantime, however, it's worth devoting more attention to those ultimate ends. What would it mean for North Carolinians as a whole if our education system vastly improved? Indeed, what does "vast improvement" look like?In the latest edition of the journal EducationNext, three scholars reported the findings of a fascinating study they recently conducted of student performance and economic growth across all 50 states. Eric Hanushek of Stanford University, Jens Ruhose of Leibnitz University Hannover, and Ludger Woessmann of the University of Munich constructed a model to estimate the long-term effects of raising performance to specified benchmarks.Their model found that differences in student performance - measured both by test scores and by years of schooling completed - can account for between a fifth and a third of the differences in state economic performance. Most other empirical studies show comparable results. To be more specific, of the 221 studies published in academic journals on this issue over the past 25 years, about 60 percent have found a statistically significant correlation between average educational attainment or student achievement and state economic growth.Some politicians, activists, and interest groups draw the wrong conclusions about this body of work, however. They assert that because the level of education and skill in the labor force is associated with economic growth, more government spending on education and training will lead to more economic growth. That doesn't logically follow, and isn't confirmed by empirical research. Over the past 25 years, there have been some 119 academic studies probing potential relationships between state education spending and subsequent economic growth. Only 32 percent found a positive correlation.In other words, the successful formation of human capital, through education and training, is critical to the success of any modern economy. It's at least as important as other forms of capital formation, such as building new plants, upgrading software, or repairing roads and bridges. But its value isn't determined by how much is spent, at least not within the variations that are typical across the states.What Hanushek, Ruhose, and Woessmann have done is to quantify what kind of return each state can expect to receive from education reform. This is not an argument about short-term effects, by the way. There is no practical way for better education for a first-grader today to translate into significantly higher economic growth within a few years, or even a decade. In the long run, however, the effects could be quite substantial.Here's what it looks like for North Carolina. If we improved the performance of our students to that of the highest-achieving state in our region, that would translate into an increase in gross domestic product of nearly $600 billion by 2095 - a 9 percent gain in real terms. If we improved the performance of our students to that of the highest-achieving state in the country, our GDP would rise by $2.1 trillion above the baseline, or 34 percent.And what if we focused on low-performing students rather than average scores? If North Carolina raised all of our students to at least a "basic" level of competence in reading and math, the study found, our economy would be nearly $800 billion larger by 2095 than the baseline, an increase of 12 percent.Achieving the required gains in student performance to yield such results would require hard, innovative work on all fronts - from state and local policymakers to the students themselves, their parents, educators, and other service providers. But the work would pay off handsomely. Let's proceed. BEIJING - China urged parties to avoid actions that will escalate tension on the Korean Peninsula following the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)'s two suspected missile launches on Wednesday. "Given the complicated and sensitive situation on the Korean Peninsula, all parties should avoid moves that escalate tension on the Peninsula and work to maintain regional peace and stability," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said when asked to comment on the issue. The DPRK fired what were believed to be two Musudan intermediate-range ballistic missiles on Wednesday, Yonhap news agency reported, citing military authorities, but the DPRK has not confirmed the report. The Korean Peninsula nuclear issue has complicated roots, which require a package of measures to resolve. Peace and stability there serve the interests of all parties and deserve unremitting joint efforts, Hua said. "We have explained our stance to the DPRK and the rest of the world," Hua said. A healthy and stable relationship between China and the DPRK is conducive to solving the nuclear issue on the Peninsula and maintaining peace and stability there, she said, adding that China will continue to work in this direction. Hua called on all sides to make constructive efforts to help ease the situation and resume dialogue. The Union Jack (R) and the European Union flag are seen flying outside The Rock hotel in the British Colony of Gibraltar, May 19, 2016. [Photo/Agencies] On Thursday, Britons will vote for or against UK's remaining in the European Union. These are the milestones which have led to the creation of a single market, grouping 500 million citizens from 28 countries, and hosting some of the world's most advanced economies. 1. Birth of Founding Treaty After the Second World War(1939-45), France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands signed the Treaty of Paris, establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), which subsequently became part of the European Union. This founding treaty of the European Community, came into force on 23 July 1952 and expired on 23 July 2002, exactly fifty years after it came into effect, it was seen as producing diplomatic and economic stability in western Europe after the Second World War. Some of the main enemies during the war were now sharing production of coal and steel, the key-resources which previously had been central to the material side of the war effort. 2. Treaties of Rome The Rome treaties establish the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Economic Energy Community (Euratom). The first meeting of the Council of the EEC takes place on 25 January 1958 under the chairmanship of Victor Larock, the Belgian Foreign Affairs Minister. 3. Enlargements of European Union On January 1st, 1973, Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom join the community, raising the number of member states to nine after the original six countries established European Economic Community. Membership of the EU reaches double figures when Greece joins in 1981. Spain and Portugal become EU members on1986 January 1st. On January 1st, 1995, Austria, Finland and Sweden join the EU and the 15 members now cover almost the whole of western Europe. And on May 1st 2004, ten countries, including the Czech Republic, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia, joined EU, which is the EU's largest single enlargement in terms of people and number of countries. Bulgaria and Romania join the EU on 2007 January 1st and Croatia becomes the second country from ex-Yugoslavia to join the EU, after Slovenia, on July 1st, 2013. The EU now has 28 member states. 4. Evolution of European summits Following the Copenhagen summit in December 1973, which made provision for summits to be held whenever necessary, the Paris summit of December 1974 creates the European Council. It was created with the intention of establishing an informal forum for discussion between heads of state or government. First meeting of the European Council in Dublin on 11 March 1975. Since 1996, the European Council has met at least four times a year. Before that, only two meetings a year were required. And since October 2003, all formal European Council meetings take place in Brussels. In December 2009, for the last time, the European Council meeting is chaired by a president or prime minister of the member state holding the rotating Council presidency. At an informal meeting in Brussels on 19 November 2009, EU heads of state and government unanimously agree to appoint Herman Van Rompuy as the first permanent President of the European Council. The president chairs European Council meetings. A woman reads a newspaper on the underground in London with a 'vote remain' advert for the BREXIT referendum, Britain June 22, 2016. [Photo/Agencies] Britons are edging closer to voting in favour of remaining in the European Union in June 23's referendum, a result that would please many of the UK's closest allies, including China. An opinion poll by the Daily Telegraph, a consistent supporter of leaving the EU, showed that of those who say they will definitely vote the Remain campaign, headed by Prime Minister David Cameron, is leading with 53 percent, against 46 percent for the Leave campaign, headed by former London mayor Boris Johnson and Secretary of State for Justice Michael Gove. Many other polls in recent days have shown the Remain camp easing ahead, although many commentators here say the result is still too close to call. Ladbrokes, the giant UK betting company, said based on the wagers being placed, the company was forecasting a 78 percent chance of remaining, with only a 22 percent chance of leaving. Ladbrokes correctly forecast the result of last year's General Election, which saw a surprise clear majority for Cameron's Conservative Party, despite the opinion polls having predicted either a loss or a hung parliament, with no single party in power. The murder last week of a well-respected young Labour member of parliament, Jo Cox, by a man shouting "Britain First", the name of a small ultra right-wing nationalist group, is being seen by many here as being linked to the referendum campaign, which has become increasingly acrimonious. Her killing, when she was stabbed and shot on the street in her constituency, shocked the nation. Cameron called a temporary halt to campaigning out of respect. Cox had been an active Remain supporter and several commentators believe her death changed the momentum towards remaining in the EU. Much hangs on this vote in China, Juwai.com, an international property portal, said a recent survey showed 51 percent of the 411 respondents to the questionnaire said they had temporarily put on hold property transactions in the UK pending the outcome. Only 25 percent said they intended finishing deals before the vote. JLL, a global real estate services company, said its survey of 100 investors showed a similar trend, with 45 percent of investors questioned saying they would adopt a wait-and-see attitude. Chris Ireland, chief executive for UK at JLL, said that more and more people are taking this attitude, as they will decide after the referendum, especially for the commercial market in London, and it has little to do with the market. Many of Britain's allies, including China, would be expected to welcome a decision to stay in the EU. Chinese official pronouncements have been cautious President Xi Jinping reportedly indicated to Cameron during a state visit here last October that China would prefer the UK to remain in the EU, which was backed up by a later Foreign Ministry statement. During Xi's visit, deals with 40 billion pounds with Chinese companies were announced. US President Barack Obama says he would prefer UK to remain a member of the EU, as would major European players such as France and Germany. On Tuesday over 30 major French businesses took out full page advertisements in leading UK newspapers, headlined "S'il Vous Plait, Amis Britanniques, Remain! (If you please, British friends, remain). The text concluded with the words "Ne nous quittez pas! Vos amis Francais" (Don't go! from your French friends." Li Ka-shing, one of the richest men in Asia, told Bloomberg Television in an interview on Tuesday that he was urging Britons to vote to remain, because a decision to leave would cause "great damage to the country and the EU. He said a vote to leave would not be the end of the world, but as a major investor in the UK, he would continue to maintain his business interests in the country, as well as Europe in general. Bloomberg reported earlier remarks by Li, in which he said he didn't believe the exit vote would happen, but if it did, he would consider reducing his investment in the UK. Li has a fortune of 28.6 billion US dollars, according to both Forbes and the Bloomberg Billionaire List, making him the third-richest man in Asia. His CK Hutchison company operates the Superdrug and Savers stores in Britain, as well as port operations, the 3 mobile phone network, and energy providers. UK business accounts for 37 percent of CK Hutchison's earnings before tax. Many Chinese companies that operate in the UK see the country as a bridgehead into Europe, a function that would suffer in the event of a vote to leave the EU. That view was backed up by Yao Lin, deputy director of a research center under China's Ministry of Commerce, who warned in a paper than many Chinese companies investing in Britain as a way into the EU single market would see the "bridgehead curtailed" in the event of a vote to leave. John Zai, founder and CEO of Cocoon Networks, a Chinese-funded company based in London, told China Daily last week that a vote to leave would be bad. On June 23, the polling booths will be open from 7 am local time and close at 10 pm. Local counts will be announced from about midnight onwards, with predictions that a firm result may be known around 4 am on Friday. Some private exit polls are planned in order to give investors an idea of trends after the ballot boxes close. The official result is expected to be made public at 10 am on Friday. Contact the reporter at chris@mail.chinadailyuk.com Br itish Prime Minister David Cameron is flanked by a Brexit opponent (left) and a supporter. Cameron leads the campaign to remain in the EU. Photos by Reuters Britons are edging closer to voting in favor of remaining in the European Union in Thursday's referendum, a result that would please many of the UK's closest allies. An opinion poll carried out before the referendum by The Daily Telegraph a consistent supporter of leaving the EU showed that of those who say they will definitely vote, the Remain campaign is leading with 53 percent, against 46 percent for the Leave campaign. The Remain campaign is headed by Prime Minister David Cameron, while the Leave campaign is headed by former London mayor Boris Johnson and Secretary of State for Justice Michael Gove. Many other polls in recent days have shown the Remain camp easing ahead, although many commentators in Britain are saying the result is still too close to call. UK betting company Ladbrokes said that based on the bets being placed, it is forecasting a 78 percent chance of remaining, with only a 22 percent chance of leaving. Ladbrokes correctly forecast the result of last year's general election, which saw a surprise clear majority for Cameron's Conservative Party, despite opinion polls having predicted either a loss or a hung parliament, with no single party in power. Much hangs on this vote. In China, Juwai.com, an international property portal, said a survey showed 51 percent of the 411 respondents said they had temporarily put on hold property transactions in the UK pending the outcome. Only 25 percent said they intended completing deals before the vote. "The overall picture here is one of uncertainty," the site's UK head Bernie Morris said. JLL, a global real estate services company, said its survey of 100 companies showed a similar trend, with 45 percent of investors questioned saying they would adopt a wait-and-see attitude. Many of Britain's allies, including China, would be expected to welcome a decision to stay in the EU. Chinese President Xi Jinping started his state visit to Poland on June 19 after concluding a Serbia visit. Poland deployed fighter jets to escort Xi's plane when it entered into Polish territory. Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan visited the Palace Belwederski, Poland's presidential residence, where Xi and Polish President Andrzej Duda discussed China-Poland friendship and developments. On June 20, Xi attended a grand welcoming ceremony hosted by Duda at the presidential palace in Warsaw. Ahead of his visit, Xi published an article on the leading Polish newspaper, Rzeczpospolita, entitled, "Setting Sail for Full Speed Progress of China-Poland Friendship," which aroused much support from the Polish people. Poland is located at the heartland of Europe is where the Amber Road and the Silk Road meet. And Poland is a "bellwether" of East European members of the European Union. China and Poland have a long tradition of friendship. Bilateral ties have sailed into a "fast track" mode since establishing a strategic partnership in 2011. Xi's visit was highly-appreciated by Poland. Polish people are hoping to bring a historical opportunity to deepen development of bilateral relations, and usher in new prospects for the docking of the Belt and Road Initiative and China-CEE(Central East Europe) "16+1" cooperation. They look forward to China-Poland friendship setting sail at full speed ahead with a win-win approach to open a new chapter for an upgraded strategic partnership. By Xu Xiujun, deputy director of International Politics and Economics Department, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; cartoon drawing by Liao Tingting, Chi Ying ( The opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Panview or CCTV.com. ) President Xi says China willing to work with Poland to promote closer cooperation with CEE President Xi Jinping attended a ceremony to mark the arrival in Poland of the first China-Europe Block Train on Monday. Accompanied by Polish President Andrzej Duda, Xi traveled to Marywilska in Warsaw for the event. China currently has 39 rail lines to Europe. They start from 16 cities, including Chongqing, Suzhou, Chengdu and Zhengzhou and terminate in 12 European cities, including Warsaw, Madrid and Hamburg. On June 8, China Railway Corp brought the 39 rail lines together under the umbrella name China-Europe Block Train, giving the trains the same type of locomotive and uniform decoration. On the same day, eight trains set off from China to Europe. The train bound for Poland arrived on Monday afternoon during the ceremony attended by Xi. On Monday, Xi also attended an economic and trade forum attended by entrepreneurs and government officials in Warsaw. Xi said at the forum that China and Poland should make full use of Europe's advantage in technology, China's excellent production capacity, as well as Poland's unique geographic location and rich human resources. As an important member of the European Union, Poland leads the Central and East Europe region in many ways, said Xi, adding that China is willing to promote China-CEE and China-EU cooperation by working with Poland. Cui Hongjian, director of the Department for European Studies at the China Institute of International Studies, said China attaches great importance to its ties with Poland. "President Xi has positioned Poland at a high level. He said Poland is the bellwether of the CEE region," Cui said. "I believe this not only means that Poland is the largest country or the largest economy in the region, but is also an expression of hope that Poland will play a leading role commensurate to its economic size in fields including China's cooperation with the CEE countries." President Duda said at the forum that Poland supports the Belt and Road Initiative, the China proposed Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, and is dedicated to Europe-Asia cooperation. The Belt and Road Initiative is a huge geostrategic project for global change and Poland is an active supporter of it, said Jacek Bartosiak, an expert with the Centre for Analysis of the Jagiellonian Club. Sun Yuxi, former Chinese ambassador to Poland, said that Poland is an important transportation hub in Europe, and the geographic location makes it a good partner for the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative. Many CEE countries including Poland need to renovate their railways, while China has top-class technology, excellent construction workers and sufficient capital. The two sides can work together in railway construction, he said. Wang Qingyun in Beijing contributed to this story. anbaijie@chinadaily.com.cn (China Daily 06/22/2016 page3) President Xi Jinping will attend the 16th meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Tashkent on June 23 and 24 to end his eight-day visit to Serbia, Poland and Uzbekistan which started on Friday. At the Tashkent meeting, he is also expected to discuss with other SCO leaders the applications of India and Pakistan to join the bloc, as well as other key issues including the fight against terrorism and transnational cooperation in the Beijing-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. Celebrating its 15th anniversary this year, the six-nation SCO was among the first regional organizations to address the issue of cross-border terrorism. In fact, before Uzbekistan joined the organization in 2001, the other five SCO members had already agreed to establish a routine communication mechanism involving their defense and law-enforcing departments. And on the day of its official founding, the heads of the six member states signed a pact on battling terrorism, separatism and extremism. The Regional Anti-Terrorism Structure was set up in Tashkent in 2004 as a permanent SCO organ, followed by the establishment of the Secretariat in Beijing. Regularized exchanges, including annual meetings of security authorities and joint anti-terrorism training exercises such as the "Peace Mission-2014" and the "Tianshan-2-2011" have also contributed to the coordination among the member states on the military front. Despite the United States-led anti-terrorism alliance, the Islamic State terrorist group has been threatening regional peace and exporting its extremist ideas to Central and Western Asia. And to counter the IS group's threat, all SCO member states have to abide by the new security concept of mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality and cooperation, and improve their joint enforcement and communications to better deal with emergencies. As a whole, the organization should also seek to play a bigger role in rooting out extremism from Afghanistan and helping the peaceful reconstruction of the country by taking measures to cut off the financial support to terrorists and reduce drug-smuggling and money-laundering. The possible inclusion of India and Pakistan, some observers say, may further complicate the situation - even deal a blow to the bloc's unity - because the two nuclear powers are in constant conflict with each other and often adopt very different foreign policies. So discussing the pros and cons of taking in more members is an essential task for the existing SCO members and in line with the "Spirit of Shanghai". The inclusion of new members in the SCO, however, will enhance the group's international reputation, expand its geopolitical reach and facilitate more multilateral exchanges, which will likely give it a bigger say in regional affairs. Primarily focused on Central Asian affairs, the SCO has now added South and Western Asia to its agenda. That means it has to deal with increasing frictions within the group, because its members are at various stages of economic development and will thus adopt different approaches to safeguard their interests. The Belt and Road Initiative, which basically covers all SCO countries - the six member states, six observer countries and six dialogue partners - is conducive to their pursuit of a community with shared destiny. For that to happen, however, all the countries involved need to make more efforts for the success of key demonstration projects while seeking closer cooperation in multiple fields, such as connectivity in Central and South Asia, trade and investment, and cross-border financing. The author is secretary general of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Research Center affiliated to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Chinese President Xi Jinping (C,front) and his wife Peng Liyuan visit a carpet and silk workshop in the old city of Bukhara as accompanied by Uzbek Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyoev, in Bukhara, Uzbekistan, June 21, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua] BUKHARA, Uzbekistan - Chinese President Xi Jinping toured the Uzbek city of Bukhara, which he called a "shining pearl on the ancient Silk Road" on Tuesday after arriving here for a state visit. Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, accompanied by Uzbek Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyoyev, took a detailed tour of the UNESCO World Heritage Site in central-southern Uzbekistan with great interest. The Historic Center of Bukhara, situated on the Silk Road, is more than 2,000 years old. It is one of the best examples of well preserved Islamic cities of Central Asia with an urban fabric that has remained largely intact. Standing on the Ark fortress of Bukhara, Mirziyoyev told Xi history of the city during its prime time on the Silk Road trade corridor. "The kids in the city were playing with golden coins, in stead of playing with stones like kids elsewhere," the prime minister said. Now a city culture museum, the Ark fortress, once residence of Bukhara's ancient rulers, hosts a series of antiques and relics including manual scripts of the Koran, art crafts, ancient coins and old weaponry that witnessed the stretching history of the city. Bukhara was long an important economic and cultural center in Central Asia and served as a major center of Islamic culture for many centuries. China and Uzbekistan agree to intensify joint action amid increasing fears over extremists Chinese President Xi Jinping (L) meets with Uzbek President Islam Karimov in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, June 22, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua] China and Uzbekistan agreed on Wednesday to deepen their fight against terrorism amid rising concerns over extremists in Central and Western Asia. The joint decision was reached during President Xi Jinping's state visit to Uzbekistan. The two countries have reached consensus on jointly combating the "three forces of terrorism, separatism and extremism", combating cross-border organized crime, and jointly maintaining regional peace and stability, Xi said after talks with Uzbek President Islam Karimov. Xi also said the two nations pledged to deepen energy cooperation and ensure the safety of the China-Central Asia gasoline pipelines which are vital for China's energy security. Xi began his state visit to Uzbekistan his second since 2013 on Tuesday. He will also attend the 16th meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Council of Heads of State on Thursday and Friday in Tashkent, the Uzbek capital. China and Uzbekistan share concerns about terrorism, with extremists in the two countries sometimes conspiring together. Uzbekistan is also a key point for terrorists wanting to penetrate China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. Karimov said at a news briefing that Uzbekistan firmly supports China's fight against terrorism, separatism and extremism. Describing China as "a great neighbor" with huge advantages in its economy, innovation and talent, he called for ties with Beijing to be enhanced. (Photo : Getty Images.) Alibaba Group on Monday announced that its annual Gross Merchandise Value for the current fiscal year has exceeded 3 trillion yuan. Advertisement China's richest man wants to see his company in the ranks of the world's richest countries. Jack Ma, chairman and founder of retail giant Alibaba, spoke before investors last week last in Hangzhou, telling them that he foresees Alibaba's 2020 revenue equalling the world's fifth largest economy, that of Great Britain. Like Us on Facebook Advertisement To achieve that goal, Ma underscores the need to double the company's revenue from last year, which was over 3 trillion yuan ($463 billion). Aside from e-commerce, Ma also wants Alibaba to see growth in its cloud computing and big data unit, Aliyun. Ma explains that Alibaba "is not [just] a retail business," but also a data business "that is why it explores in collecting consumer data." Ma, nevertheless, is still not sure how to generate higher revenue from data. But he foresees that, in the future, data will be a key player in every person's life. Ma also told investors not to be to quick to evaluate Alibaba based on its gross merchandise volume (GMV). He considers this factor to be irrelevant. He said that in the past he was having problems with investor capitalists because they kept asking about Alibaba's page views, which were then the business model. After page views became irrelevant, he was asked about the company's click rate, then followed the GMV in 2005. "We started giving something called GMV that we learned from eBay," he said. Investors asked for it, so the Ma "gave it to them and it became standard." However, Ma knows that GMV is not the only basis in determining the company's value. Ma also expressed his plan of expanding Alibaba's operations outside China so it can cater to over 2 billion people by 2020. Alibaba already has its eyes on nearby countries, and it has already poured money into such e-commerce sites as Lazada and Paytm. Note: As of June 21, 2016, US$1 is worth approximately 6.58 Yuan. Advertisement TagsAlibaba, china, Jack Ma (Photo : Hu Guolin/Getty Images) Citizens walk in flood caused by rainstorms on June 15, 2016 in Jiujiang, Jiangxi Province of China. Heavy rainstorms continued to fall in many parts of China causing floods in Hunan, Henan, Guangxi, Guizhou, Guangdong and other places these days. Advertisement China's disaster relief authorities have been deployed to the provinces of Hubei and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region due to the floods that killed 22 and displaced more than 140,000 citizens. According to Xinhua, the National Commission for Disaster Relief and the Ministry of Civil Affairs have begun responding to the citizens of the two aforementioned provinces. The two areas are ranked with the level-four emergency status. Different teams have also been deployed to carry out the relief operations work. Like Us on Facebook Advertisement Heavy rains and floods in the past days caused 22 deaths and has left 16 others missing. Six deaths were recorded in Hubei while Xinjiang reportedly has three casualties. The other deaths occurred in the other affected provinces. 15 people are missing in the Hubei Province while one person is still being searched for in the other aforementioned affected province. Around 140,000 have been displaced and relocated. Authorities have provided the people in Hubei with 1,000 tents and 1,000 folding beds. Hubei Provincial officials have also deployed four work teams to guide the disaster relief efforts. As for Xinjiang, two work teams have been sent to the areas affected and allocated a total of $142,000 for food and drinking water as well as tents. In Hubei, at least 2,400 houses and 20,900 hectares of crops were destroyed due to the disaster. It is believed that the damaged properties and crops amount to a total of $407.9 million. A total of 3.7 million residents in China have been affected due to the floods and heavy rains. Six more provinces were hit the hardest during the heavy rainfall, and they have been identified as Sichuan, Guizhou, Jiangxi, Yunnan, Zhejiang and Anhui. China has been hit by natural disasters in the past most of the time by earthquakes and floods. Flooding is an annual problem in the country due to poor drainage infrastructure and the increase of urban life extension. Advertisement TagsEmergency responders, flood, Chinese provinces, Hubei, Xinjiang, 22 deaths, 8 provinces, displaced citizens (Photo : Getty Images/Kevin Schafer) Picking a movie on Netflix on the iPad mini Advertisement Netflix is making a move on their branding strategy. On Tuesday, the streaming giant unveiled a new icon for its mobile app and social media channels with a redesigned look from its popular red and white-themed logo. Like Us on Facebook Advertisement The latest icon now looks like a bold, red letter "N" embedded on a black background. While the changes made are far from the company's inherent design, the company said that the old logo is here to stay. "We are introducing a new element into our branding with an N icon," a spokesperson told The Verge. "The current Netflix logo will still remain." The company will still incorporate the text-based "Netflix" logo for their promotional postings, including photo and video teasers for their web series like House of Cards. The same goes for their home page, but the N icon will still be used in some capacity. "The icon will start to be incorporated into our mobile apps along with other product integrations in the near future." The changes in the logo of the popular tech company has been a source of debate for users worldwide. A few weeks ago, Instagram tweaked its overall vintage design and replaced it with an icon constituting bright shades of pink, purple, orange and yellow. The alteration spurred a global debate, even mocking the Facebook-owned photo sharing app by calling the move amateur. While Netflix did not suffer the same backlash, social media users still had their share of mixed opinions about it. Netflix has a new logo and it's ugly. pic.twitter.com/Ha1BRPOXDG Punjai Kumaarasaamy (@arunk_) June 20, 2016 Besides the aesthetics, the company is still looking to expand its digital platform by picking up new movies and TV series to join its bigger slate of programming. Recently, British comedian Ricky Gervais announced that The Office spinoff movie has been acquired by Netflix and will begin streaming in 2017. Advertisement Tagsnetflix, new app icon, House of Cards (Photo : Reuters) One of the 2016 Google Nexus smartphones could sport the Snapdragon 821 chipset. Advertisement The tech community is abuzz with rumors that the 2016 Google Nexus phones will be made, once again, by Taiwanese company HTC. While a handful of indications support that rumor, there are some speculations that one of the 2016 Nexus devices will sport the unreleased Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 chipset. Like Us on Facebook Advertisement HTC has allegedly tasked to create two flagship Nexus devices which have been codenamed S1 Sailfish and M1 Marlin. Both of these devices are believed to be based on HTC's latest flagship device, the HTC 10. Many tech analysts believe that the Sailfish will be a slightly redesigned HTC 10. On the other hand, the Marlin is expected to sport the Snapdragon 821 chipset. Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820 is widely held as one of the best chipsets currently out in the market. In fact, it is at the heart of several flagship devices from major smartphone manufacturers including the HTC 10, LG G5, Galaxy S7 and the OnePlus 3. The Snapdragon 821 is the successor of the Snapdragon 820. There are speculations that the former will just be a tweaked and revised version of the Snapdragon 820. Nontheless reports indicate that the 2016 Nexus devices will be faster compared to other Android flagship devices. While some in the tech community are excited about the recent rumors, some are not totally convinced about it. It is important to note that almost a month ago, Huawei General Manager Charlenne Munilall hinted that Huawei is once again working with Google to make the next generation of Nexus devices. While both Google and Huawei are yet to confirm this, the success and accolades received by the Huawei Nexus 6P are enough to fuel speculation about a new Nexus device manufactured, again, by Huawei. Advertisement TagsHTC, Nexus, 2016 Nexus, htc nexus, Snapdragon, Qualcomm, 2016 HTC Nexus, Google Nexus (Photo : Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) Tesla has allegedly signed a deal with Jinqiao Group to set up a manufacturing base in Shanghai, China. Advertisement Tesla Motors Inc. is reported to have signed a non-binding agreement with Jinqiao Group to set up a production base in Shanghai. According to a Bloomberg report, the investment is worth $9 billion. Both Tesla and Jinqiao Group, a Shanghai-based state-owned company, will invest $4.5 billion (30 billion yuan) each. Jinqiao's share is likely to be in the form of land. Like Us on Facebook Advertisement While Tesla has refused to comment on the news, Jinqiao chose not to corroborate it. However, Tesla has been scouting for opportunities in China for quite some time. Several Tesla executives have allegedly visited different locations in the Suzhou region. They have allegedly also conducted talks with potential manufacturing collaborators. Setting up a manufacturing base in China would help Tesla to avoid a 25 percent import tax levied by the Chinese government. China has emerged as the second biggest market for Tesla as the country accounted for the largest number Model 3 reservations after the United States. The company's Vice President of Asia-Pacific Ren Yuxian said that Tesla received a "flood of pre-orders" for Model 3 from China. The country is also at the forefront of world automotive market. Tesla has long expressed its interest in China. In October last year, the company CEO Elon Musk tweeted, "Model 3 is due in [approximately] 2 years. A China factory for local demand could be as soon as a year after." As per the latest count, about 373,000 customers have pre-booked the Tesla Model 3. In its SEC filing, Tesla claimed that it "could further increase the number of Model 3 reservations with minimal effort." Advertisement TagsTesla, Model 3, Elon Musk, Jinqiao Group (Photo : Getty Images.) The highly controversial annual dog meat festival began on Tuesday in the southern Chinese city of Yulin. Advertisement Around 10,000 dogs and cats will be rounded up and killed during the controversial 10-day dog meat festival, which began in Southern Chinese city of Yulin on Tuesday. Annually, thousands of Chinese people flock to the Yulin festival to buy dog meat to eat. One supporter of this controversial festival claimed that the tradition of eating dog has been around for 500 years in China, South Korea, and other countries. However, critics challenge this claim, alleging that this tradition is only a recent invention, serving to drum up the local meat industry. Like Us on Facebook Advertisement "It's embarrassing to us that the world wrongly believes that the brutally cruel Yulin festival is part of Chinese culture," said Qin Xiaona, director of the Capital Animal Welfare Association Charity. Critics have further alleged that dogs are mercilessly killed in full public view and sometimes even beaten to death or cooked while still alive. Other critics, including doctors. claim that eating dog meat is extremely unhealthy, as it causes diseases like trichinellosis, rabies, and cholera. The Chinese government maintains that the dog meat festival has no government backing and it is purely run by private businesses. Meanwhile, animal right activists have once again raised their voices in forms of various petitions against the festival, a practice that activists have been passionately following since the festival came into being in 2009. This year, the petition seeking for permanent ban of the festival has garnered 11 million signatures from across the world. According to a recent poll published by state news agency Xinhua, a whopping 64 percent of Chinese people between the age of 16 and 50 said they supported a permanent ban on the festival. Advertisement TagsYulin Dog Meat Festival, china, Yulin, Dog Meat Festival See the entire speech to North Carolina Liberals /Socialists below. You may wish to fast forward through the long winded Jim Hunt introduction speech: Should Americans be thankful for North Carolinians setting precedent in taking a stand for their state's right to manage the safety of their public facilities, where separation of the sexes remains, or should they follow Bruce Springsteen's lead and boycott the state as bigots since they will not allow grown Transgender men to use the same bathrooms /locker rooms as pre-pubescent girls? North Carolina is right to control the separation of the sexes as a matter of decorum and safety. North Carolina is a bigoted state to not require that children of opposite sexes share the same public facilities with adults of the opposite sex, although misidentified - the Transgender. I generally prefer the natural environs of the vacant, although rather public, large tree. 236 total vote(s) What's your Opinion? poll#95 What should be the priority of the Federal Government after the "Pulse" massacre: Should we turn our attention toward destroying, earadicating ISIS as Candidate Trump suggests, or, as Democrats' President Obama suggests, broaden our efforts to effect stricter Gun Control laws to limit "Gun Violence?" 88.24% After many years of trying to degrade and contain the murderous ISIS, we should make it the nation's policy to destroy ISIS immediately. 3.68% Gun Violence in America can be eliminated by limiting access to guns for all American citizens. 8.09% I don't care either way; I just live here. 136 total vote(s) Voting has Ended! Standing behind the podium at a staged campaign stop in Raleigh, North Carolina , June 22, 2016, Hillary B. Clinton promised to 'return North Carolina back to the days of Democrat Control, after this recent detour (McCrory administration and Republican legislature)', when North Carolina suffered its first deficit budget - a three billion dollar big red hole.She continued by slamming businesses and Wall Street on one hand, while during this same week, Hillary Clinton will hold /attend three fund raisers by wealthy Wall Street millionaires /billionaires and super rich Hollywood Producers. Considering Hillary's chronic struggle with everyday truths, and her factual reality as a pathological liar from a long term perspective , this is just her Socialist face to a liberal North Carolina cheering mob, and nothing more.As she continued speaking, as a pattern socialist, Ms. Hillary B. Clinton spoke to one Liberals' pathetic understanding of real World situations to another, using Socialist buzz words, buzz phrases, and then continued to play to the Liberal simple perceptive constructs of real World truths by emphasising that she had no real understanding of House Bill 2 , by pandering to the "LGBT Community" at the expense of any semblance of common sense, which Hillary has more than demonstrated that she has none - remember the facetious 'wiping a server, like with a rag' comment.Hillary droned on about: free college (debt free was the code word here), free community college , free health care, free child care, free food, free housing ... free, well free everything. With over 19 trillion dollars in national debt, 11 trillion accrued under Obama, an administration that Hillary B. promises to emulate ( so that she may not be indicted by Hussein Obama's corrupt Justice Dept. on a multitude of current felony investigations by the FBI), Hillary never mentioned how we would pay for more free stuff for Liberals ... those that would vote for her, and others like her.Never, during the entirety of her speech on: unfunded free stuff for Democrat voters, the racism /bigotry of Whites /Patriots, etc., did she discuss the keeping of communities safe, or our nation defended from Radical Islam. It was a speech for liberal Democrats /Socialists. It was not a speech for an American patriot. (Photo : Neil P. Mockford/Getty Images) Sandi Thom, Lucy Watson, Carrie Fisher, Marc Abraham, Jenny Seagrove, Anneka Svenska and Victoria Stilwell attend a photocall as campaigners submit an 11 million signature petition calling for an end to China's Yulin dog meat festival at Chinese Embassy London on June 7, 2016 in London, England. Advertisement The Yulin dog meat festival in China has kicked off and had a low-key opening as there have been many protests from animal rights activists and residents asking the government to pass new measures about the matter. The event is an annual happening in the southern China city and it features the consumption of thousands of dog's meat. Around 10,000 dogs are said to be slaughtered this year. Animal rights activists earlier this month has forwarded a petition to Beijing authorities including 11 million signatures protesting against the festival. The dog meat festival has been regarded as cruel. Like Us on Facebook Advertisement According to NBC News, some of the dogs that were supposed to be killed for the annual event were bought by the human rights activists in an attempt to save them. One animal rights activist named Yang Yuhua flew from Chongqing to Yubin in order to buy the dogs. He said, "Dogs are man's best, the most loyal friend. How could we eat our friends? You tell me." Yang had to spend $150 to buy two caged dogs at the market of Yubin. Although some dogs have been bought, a dog vendor said that he hopes for a good business during the annual festival. He added that there are a lot of people who lie eating dog meat and it has become a habit for others. Dogs are sold openly in the market but dog meat is not being served in restaurants. A resident named only as Min said about the low key opening of the festival this year, "Why won't they (let us openly celebrate the festival)? The city government came out and told (the vendors) not to let restaurant owners sell (dog meat). The city government is always (handling this issue) this way." The local government of Yulin said that they do not back the festival and it was funded by private businesses and people who support the dog meat festival. The ten-day festival started on June 21. The annual festival has been held for a decade now. International stars such as Simon Cowell and Matt Damon have voiced their opinion via Twitter regarding this matter. Advertisement Tagschina, Dog Meat Festival, Dogs, dog meat, annual event, ten days, opening, Yulin (Photo : Getty Images.) China on Tuesday made a u-turn from its earlier statement, saying that NSG members are now open to hold discussion on inclusion of India in NSG. Advertisement Just hours after Washington reiterated its support to India's candidacy for Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), China softened its opposition to India's admissions into the elite nuclear club. China said that NSG members are now open to hold discussions on including India and other members that have not signed the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). Like Us on Facebook Advertisement "The door is still open within the NSG for non-NPT members to join," foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said. "There is always room for discussion." China's stance on Tuesday marks a complete shift from its earlier stance that India's application to join the 48-member nuclear club should not be on the agenda of the NSG's plenary meeting in Seoul, which is scheduled for June 23-24. "We did not target any country, India or Pakistan. We only care about the non-proliferation treaty," she said, suggesting that China's stance on NPT remains unchanged. Hua said Beijing fears that if Non-NPT members like India are admitted into NSG, then it could have adverse effect on the Iranian nuclear deal and the North Korea situation. China's tough stance against India on NSG issue is believed to be at the behest of its close ally Pakistan, which has also applied for NSG membership. Pakistan is also not signatory to NPT. China has constantly maintained that if India is included in the NSG, Pakistan must be granted membership as well. However, many countries are opposed to Pakistan's inclusion in NSG, owing to its poor track record on the nuclear proliferation front. Meanwhile, New Delhi is not leaving any stone unturned in convincing other nations to support India's candidature. The Indian government has reached out to Austria and Ireland, which reportedly have reservations about non-NPT members' inclusion in the exclusive nuclear club. However, India is more focused on China, as it remains the biggest stumbling block to India's inclusion in NSG. Sources from the Indian government have claimed that India is constantly negotiating with China and other opposing members through closed-door meetings and phones calls. Last week, India's top diplomat, S. Jaishankar, made an unannounced visit to Beijing and met China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi. The main agenda of that meeting was to convince China to soften its stance against India's NSG membership. Advertisement TagsIndia, NSG, china, Nuclear Supplier Group (Photo : Greg Baker-Pool/Getty Images) Czech Republic Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka (L) is greeted by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in Beijing on June 17, 2016 in Beijing, China. Advertisement China's financial sector will play a stronger role in boosting the nation's real economy by creating sufficient liquidity and establishing a stable exchange rate for the renminbi. This was the commitment made by Premier Li Keqiang during his visits to the headquarters of the People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, and the China Construction Bank in Beijing on Monday, the China Daily reported. Like Us on Facebook Advertisement The Premier noted that despite the volatility of financial markets, the reforms being carried out by the Central government have been progressing smoothly and were instrumental in supporting domestic growth. "Prudent monetary policies must better coordinate with proactive fiscal policies for flexibility and accuracy in financing," Li said, as he cited the challenges being confronted by some regions and industries in the real economy. Li stressed that China's financial sector must be geared towards supporting the new economy, which is highlighted by the nation's integration with the internet, as well as the rise of innovative enterprises and smart manufacturing. He likewise called on local financial institutions to provide support to small and medium-sized enterprises and private businesses at a lower cost. "Commercial banks should support the development of the real economy by financing major infrastructure projects, SMEs and innovation-driven companies," Li said, as he addressed China Construction Bank employees. To date, the bank has given out 2.8 trillion yuan ($427 billion) in loans to finance infrastructure projects, including new loans of 110 billion yuan for the first quarter of this year, which reflects a year-on-year increase of 86 percent. The premier also called on domestic banks to continuously provide assistance to companies that are purchasing agricultural produce, and to support agricultural manufacturing as a strategy by China's financial sector to help increase the income of farmers. Advertisement TagsPremier Li Keqiang, China Finance Sector, China Finance News, china, China Financial Sector (Photo : Andrew Burton/Getty Images) Advertisement Jack Ma believes that the biggest mistake in his life was making Alibaba. That's what China's richest man said during the 20th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on June 20. "My biggest mistake was that I made Alibaba," he said. "I never thought this thing would change my life." Like Us on Facebook Advertisement Ma shared that all he did was simply run his small business until it grew bigger and bigger. Alibaba is now China's biggest e-commerce business. The immense success eventually "brought so much trouble," Ma said. Jack Ma then revealed that if he could have a second chance at life, he would not build another business as big as Alibaba, preferring instead to be his "own self" and enjoy his life. While in St. Petersburg, Ma also met with a Russian government representative to discuss the possibility of getting Alibaba more business in Russia. "I think the development of e-commerce will bring more job opportunities there," he explained. A source revealed that the Russian government is in talks with Alibaba and Tmall to get the companies to set up offices in Russia. Alibaba is currently eyeing strategic growth in Russia, Europe, and Southeast Asia to achieve its goal of boosting its revenue to the point that it would be as big as the world's fifth largest economy. Ma sees the opportunity for Alibaba's expansion in those regions, particularly the countries that lay along the "one belt one road" area. These countries have tremendous potential for getting their products to the world but are having a hard time selling them because of poor infrastructure and technology. Advertisement TagsJack Ma, Alibaba, 20th st. petersburg international economic forum (Photo : Getty Images.) American electric car maker Tesla Motors is reportedly in talks with Jinqiao Group to set up a manufacturing plant in Shanghai city. Advertisement American electric car maker Tesla Motors is planning to invest close to 59.1 billion yuan ($9 billion) to set up a manufacturing base in Shanghai city, a person familiar with the matter said. An anonymous source said that Chinese construction company Jinqiao Group has signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Tesla Motors to construct an assembly plant in Shanghai city. Like Us on Facebook Advertisement However, Shanghai Jinqiao Export Processing Zone Development Co - a publicly traded unit of Jinqiao Group - said it has not signed any MOU with Telsa. Telsa Motors has also not confirmed the agreement. Khobi Brooklyn, a Tesla spokeswoman, said the company won't comment on "rumor and speculation." But unconfirmed reports suggest that negotiations are already in process between the two companies. Reports indicate that both parties will invest nearly 30 billion yuan ($4.5 billion) in the joint venture, with Jinqiao's investment comprising mostly land. Setting up a manufacturing base in Shanghai would give Tesla Motors an exemption on import levy tax, which would help Tesla's electric motor vehicles to become more cost effective against luxury-brand rivals such as BMW and Audi. It would also help the company to compete with electric cars offered by homegrown Chinese companies like BYD Co and BAIC Motor Corp. The decision would also help Tesla to expand its market share in China. Currently, most of Tesla's customers are affluent. China is the biggest market for Tesla after the U.S, and therefore the country assumes immense importance for company's future growth. Advertisement Tagstesla motors, china, Tesla China, Jinqiao Group, Shanghai (Photo : Getty Images.) China is planning to start a civilian cruise service to the Spratly Islands in the disputed South China Sea by 2020. Advertisement China is planning to offer the first regular civilian cruise service to the Spratly Islands in the disputed South China Sea by 2020, Chinese state media said on Wednesday. The cruise service will run from Hainan province to the Spratly Islands, in response to increasing demand from commuters. "The province (Hainan) plans a pan-South China Sea cruise line and cruise trips business covering countries along the Maritime Silk Road," state-owned newspaper China Daily said. Like Us on Facebook Advertisement Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said she does not have much information about the information, but stated that it was normal for Hainan to develop its tourism industry in Chinese territory. Experts claim that the Chinese government's plan to start the cruise service to the Spratly Islands would give China its first permanent presence in the maritime heart of Southeast Asia. It is not known whether or not foreign citizens would be allowed to use the cruise service. Beijing's latest plan is likely to further infuriate all other claimants in disputed maritime territory, as well as the U.S. China's construction activities in contested areas of South China Sea have already caused immense tension in the region. China has built many military facilities, airfields, and non-military facilities on various artificial islands over the recent months. China's excessive construction activities on artificial islands is widely seen as a symbol of China's assertiveness over the South China Sea. However, the Chinese government has always maintained that construction activities on artificial islands are purely for civilian purposes. China claims most of the South China Sea as its own, but its claim is challenged by other counries in the region - Malaysia, Philippines, Brunei, Taiwan, and Vietnam. Advertisement Tagschina, spratly islands, South China Sea, south china sea news Russia authorities raid more than a dozen Scientology sites 22 June, 2016 by Gregory Tomlin , | MOSCOW (Christian Examiner) Russian police have raided more than a dozen sites associated with the Church of Scientology, an organization regarded by both the government and the Russian Orthodox Church as a cult. The FSB (federal security service) launched the raids to conduct "simultaneous searches" at 14 sites in Moscow and St. Petersburg, both hubs of the organization's effort in the country. Police claimed they were looking into the church's financial practices, which allegedly include fraud and embezzlement. "Objects and documents were found and seized that proved the investigators' version [of events] about the marketing functions for goods and services of the Church of Scientology of Saint Petersburg in violation of the law," a police statement carried by the RIA Novosti news agency said. Police also took hard drives, notebooks and other materials from the sites. At least 10 people were arrested in St. Petersburg alone. Police hope the arrests will dampen support for the church, which was dealt a severe blow in November 2015 when a Russian court said the group could not operate in Moscow because it was only registered as a U.S. organization. "Parishioners are working for the good of the country, actively involved in an anti-drug awareness campaign, through which hundreds of thousands of young people and adolescents refused to take drugs. Hundreds of young people, volunteers of the church, are engaged in cleaning of streets, parks and squares. This is only a small part of what we do together for the prosperity of our country. Why the hands of law enforcement are trying to stop this useful activity for society remains a mystery. Natalia Alekseev, director of public relations for the church, told a Russian-language news service that the group was "outraged" by the raids and that "worshippers and servants of the Church of Scientology did not understand what had happened." "Parishioners are working for the good of the country, actively involved in an anti-drug awareness campaign, through which hundreds of thousands of young people and adolescents refused to take drugs," Alekseev said in the statement. "Hundreds of young people, volunteers of the church, are engaged in the cleaning of streets, parks and squares. This is only a small part of what we do together for the prosperity of our country. Why the hands of law enforcement are trying to stop this useful activity for society remains a mystery." Scientology has gained adherents in the metropolitan areas of Russia, but is increasingly unpopular among traditionalists in the government. That is why this is not the first time the church's offices have been raided. The first raids came in 2011 when police literally had to saw doors in half to enter the inner rooms of Scientology centers. They were also searched in January 2015 in an investigation on the illegal sale of land and, in August, police raided another venue and found hidden cameras and microphones. The "church" was apparently listening to what its members said when leaders were not present. The most recent raids were part of a continued investigation into alleged money laundering. According to authorities, Ekaterina Zaborskikh stole 130 million rubles ($2 million US) from 2012-2014 when she funneled money from her construction company to the church. She was selling high-end apartments "affordable castles" to people, taking their money but never building the living spaces. Scientology is based on the science fiction writing of L. Ron Hubbard, whose book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health was published in 1950. The church was founded in 1954 and was led by Hubbard until his death. It is now led by David Miscavige, who critics claim is a cult leader who demands absolute devotion and is abusive of church members. Scientology is also publicly represented by actor Tom Cruise. Scientology has established centers throughout Europe and the European Court of Human Rights has said Russia is violating the rights of its adherents by refusing to register its centers as religious organizations. Russia's Orthodox Church, the faith home of most Russian churchgoers, considers Scientology a cult. In 1994, the Council of Russian Orthodox Bishops called the science-fiction based religion a "pseudo-religion" from the West which was meant to decieve the people. Korean Community Presbyterian Church of Atlanta held a ceremony on Sunday for the ordination of one of its youth pastors, John Park. "I commit to carry on the ministry that has been given to me in obedience to Christ, and to follow Jesus in my daily life, loving my neighbors and promoting peace, unity, and purity within the church," said Park in his ordination vows. The ceremony consisted of praise and worship, a time for prayer, a sermon preached by Dr. Kevin Park, an associate dean at Columbia Theological Seminary, a word of commendation for the ordained pastor, the ordination vows, words of encouragement, and musical performances, among others. "Moses confesses that he will not act before God," said Dr. Kevin Park during his sermon. "This is referring to walking with God. Let us learn what it means to be intimate with God through Moses," Dr. Park continued. "Just as God exists in a relationship in the trinity, it's important to have intimacy and good relationship with our Lord." "It's difficult for the Korean immigrant church to raise up the EM [English ministry]," said Rev. Hyun Sung Cho of Canaan Korean Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, who gave a word of encouragement at the ceremony. "And it's even more difficult to raise up an ordained pastor in a bigger church. But I congratulate you on this ordination. I hope you will continue to support Pastor Park and pray for him. I hope that you will not look at him through a first generation Korean's perspective, but that you will always pray for him in the Holy Spirit. And I hope that you will partner with himso that he would be a pastor that invests in and nurtures the next generation in the faith." Park moved to the U.S. from South Korea in high school, and studied Christian education in college. Thereafter, he ministered in Florida and Virginia, and received an M.Div. from Columbia Theological Seminary. 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. Ninth Circuit to Hear Argument on Counseling Restrictions Today Contact: Brad Dacus, Pacific Justice Institute, 916-719-9510 SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., June 22, 2016 /Christian Newswire/ -- Pacific Justice Institute is taking the next major step in challenging a law that restricts the constitutional rights of mental health providers and their clients, including ordained clergy and their parishioners. The next major step in the litigation takes place today and members of the media are welcome to attend. When: Wednesday, June 22, at 3:00 p.m. What: Oral argument challenging SB 1172. PJI represents Dr. Donald Welch, Dr. Anthony Duk, and Aaron Bitzer. Where: Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals at 95 7th St., San Francisco, CA 94103 Who: Pacific Justice Institute attorney Kevin Snider Pacific Justice Institute represents plaintiffs prohibited by SB 1172 from giving counsel to minors struggling with same-sex attractions and gender identity. SB 1172, signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown in September 2012, restricts mental health professionals from using "change therapy" as an option for helping minors. In December 2012, the United States District Court sided with Pacific Justice Institute by granting a preliminary injunction against SB 1172. However, the Ninth Circuit reversed that injunction in August 2013. At that time, the Ninth Circuit considered only these plaintiffs' free speech claims. The court will now consider religious freedom and privacy implications of the law. Kevin Snider will be available to media at the courthouse immediately following his argument. Brad Dacus, the Founder and President of PJI, will also be available for comment at 916-719-9510. Ahmadi Muslim shot dead as 'relentless' attacks on religious minorities in Pakistan continue An Ahmadi Muslim doctor was shot dead this week in the latest attack on Islam's minority sect. Chaudhry Khaliq Ahmad was killed in Karachi on Monday as he attended to his patients. His death follows a long line of similar incidents targetting Pakistan's Ahmadiyya community, which most Muslims hold to be blasphemous. Another Ahmadi doctor, Hameed Ahmed, was shot dead outside his house in Darul Islam Colony in Attock on June 5. And on 25 May, Daud Ahmad was killed near his home in the same Karachi neighbourhood as Ahmad. Pakistan's 1974 constitution declared Ahmadiyyas as "non-Mulim" and a subsequent ruling made it a criminal offence for them to be called Muslims. A spokesman for the Ahmadiyya Muslim community in Pakistan, Salim ud Din, said: "I am shocked and saddened at the news of Chaudhry Khaliq Ahmad's murder. Words cannot describe the sorrow felt not only by myself, but all Ahmadis in Pakistan and throughout the world on account of this heinous act. "It seems that there is no respite for Ahmadis even in the holy month of Ramadan. It appears that Ahmadis are being targeted in a clear and methodical way. The authorities need to act quickly to put an end to these indiscriminate murders." Mervyn Thomas, chief executive of the religious persecution charity Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), said: "CSW extends our heartfelt condolences to Mr Ahmad's family. We continue to be dismayed by the relentless targeting of the Ahmadiyya community in Pakistan and the environment of impunity which promulgates such attacks. "We urge the police to apprehend and prosecute the perpetrators of this and other attacks. We also urge the government of Pakistan to amend discriminatory legislation and to take proactive steps to reduce the vulnerability of the Ahmadiyya community and other religious minorities in Pakistan." Boko Haram: Militant group fractures over ISIS allegiance Boko Haram has suffered an internal split after a group rebelled because leader Abubakar Shekau failed to adhere to guidance from Islamic State, a senior US general said on Tuesday. There is a concern that the splinter group might work more closely with ISIS, including by adopting its transnational focus, which has been absent from Boko Haram so far. Marine Lieutenant General Thomas Waldhauser, the nominee to lead the US military's Africa Command, suggested the internal division was illustrative of limits of ISIS' influence over Boko Haram so far, despite the West African group's pledge of allegiance to it last year. "Several months ago, about half of Boko Haram broke off to a separate group because they were not happy with the amount of buy-in, if you will, from Boko Haram into the ISIL brand," Waldhauser said at his nomination hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee. Shekau, he said, had not fallen into line with Islamic State's instructions, including by ignoring calls for Boko Haram to stop using children as suicide bombers. "He's been told by ISIL to stop doing that. But he has not done so. And that's one of the reasons why this splinter group has broken off," he said, adding Islamic State was trying to "reconcile those two groups." Reuters reported on June 9 that US officials had seen no evidence that Boko Haram has so far received significant operational support or financing from Islamic State. The assessment suggested Boko Haram's loyalty pledge had so far mostly been a branding exercise. Waldhauser acknowledged differing opinions about how much influence Islamic State has actually had so far over Boko Haram, which won global infamy for its 2014 kidnapping of more than 250 schoolgirls. "They certainly have not given them a lot of financial assistance. So the point being is that perhaps improvement in tradecraft, in training and the like," he said. While it is estimated to have killed more than 15,000 people since 2009, Boko Haram has not attacked US interests and has deep roots in Nigeria's Christian-Muslim divide, which long predates the Syrian-based Islamic extremist group. Waldauser noted Shekau's local focus and voiced concern about whether a splinter group might act more in concert with Islamic State's transregional ambitions. "What concerns me is the breakoff group of Boko Haram who wants to be more ISIL-like, and consequently buy into the ISIL-brand of attacking Western interests," he said. "That would concern me." The Nigerian army is making significant inroads in its offensive against Boko Haram. On June 3, 245 hostages were rescued from the Islamist militant group. Last month, more than two years after 276 Chibok schoolgirls were abducted by Boko Haram, two girls were recovered among a further 97 abductees, raising hopes for the remaining group. On May 14, French President Francois Hollande told a security summit in Nigeria that "[Boko Haram] has been weakened, it's been pushed back, it's been chased around and has given up the territories it was controlling, and as a result it's being even better targeted and fought. However, this terrorist group remains a threat." Additional reporting by Reuters. Donald Trump's new evangelical advisers reveal political calculations It's hard for Brits to understand the relationship between politics and religion in the US. On this side of the Atlantic, faith is generally considered to be a liability when it comes to the ballot box. In America, meanwhile, every candidate for president will spend time trying to woo church leaders and display their Christian credentials. So it is for Republican candidate Donald Trump, who has been hard at work this week trying to improve his standing among evangelical Christians in the US. He announced a list of conservative Christians who will advise him, including televangelists Paula White, Kenneth Copeland and Jerry Falwell Jr, the Liberty University president who is the son of the famous founder of the 'Moral Majority'. The group has been described as the "old guard religious right" from the 90s, and it certainly reflects the standard conservative branch of the US church a branch whose power has waned in recent years. The 'Evangelical executive advisory board' will offer counsel on "those issues important to Evangelicals and other people of faith in America". It includes former congresswoman Michele Bachmann, and president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Coalition Samuel Rodriguez, Jr. The announcement preceded a meeting on Tuesday with hundreds of evangelicals, where Trump apparently received a "standing ovation". Unusually for a Republican candidate, Trump has got quite a bit of work to do, as many Christians strongly oppose his candidacy. This is partly due to his inflammatory rhetoric regarding groups such as Muslims and Mexicans, but more often, it's for his sometimes liberal views on moral issues and his previous support of abortion rights. Then there are his claims to have a "great relationship with God" while at the same time declaring he doesn't need forgiveness. Last year at the Values Voter Summit, Trump was booed. Earlier this month, 49 per cent of evangelicals said that they have a negative view of him. This month has been an especially bad one for the property tycoon, particularly following remarks deemed racist towards the Hispanic judge Gonzalo Curiel, who happens to be involved in a civil case involving Trump University. However Trump does appear to have stalwart support from certain parts of the Christian community. Falwell Jr recently called Trump a "breath of fresh air" after he made noises about protecting Christianity, and added: "In my opinion, Mr. Trump lives a life of loving and helping others... as Jesus taught in the New Testament." Other members, such as White and Ralph Reed of the Faith & Freedom Coalition, have openly supported Trump. In an interview with CBN, White said she has been friends with Trump for the past 15 years, after he called her to praise her preaching. (White is a well-known 'prosperity preacher'). She said she has had "private times of prayer with him" and she defended him from scepticism about his professions of faith. The members of the board are not all Trump supporters, by any means. James Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family, and Richard Land, have been openly critical. Land wrote an article entitled "Donald Trump is a scam." Dobson's comments last December betray the dilemma the religious right faces. "I am very wary of Donald Trump," he said, citing Trump's business in gambling. "I would never vote for a king pin within that enterprise. Trump's tendency to shoot from the hip and attack those with whom he disagrees would be an embarrassment to the nation if he should become our Chief Executive. I don't really believe Trump is a conservative. Finally, I would never under any circumstance vote for Hillary Clinton." So the choices Trump made were probably political, knowing that he doesn't have great credentials when it comes to the more conservative voters. Some of the members of the board may have accepted, believing that they were being given an opening to influence the presidential candidate for the better. But for many Christians on social media, their membership gives evangelical endorsement to someone who really isn't on their side. For Trump there may be other more tactical considerations at play. The Atlantic notes: "One-third of the board members run churches or organizations that have campuses in Texas or California. Perhaps the Trump campaign is looking ahead to general-election math." Christians have been given a key role in the next US presidential election. But will they use it wisely? Facebook accused of restricting free speech after 'removing atheist pages' A coordinated campaign by fundamentalist Islamic groups has led to Facebook shutting down a number of Arabic atheist pages, according to The News Hub. The site reported that the social media platform has removed more than 16 Arabic-speaking atheist pages due to "violations" of its 'Community Standards'. The closure has left more than 100,000 atheists in Muslim dominant countries without a platform to share with other non-religious people. A campaign under the tag #FacebookVSFreeSpeech has been launched to challenge Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg by Atheist Alliance Middle East and North Africa (AA-MENA). The social media platform does not usually police reports of violations of Community Standards as they will vary around the world. Instead the site makes an automatic decision based on the number of complaints. If a post or groups gets enough reports of violations, Facebook will shut down the content and delete it. This leaves vulnerable groups open to being targeted by so-called "cyber jihadists" who urge their large following to flood Facebook with complaints. It is part of a wider online campaign in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) to quell expressions of atheism or anything other than the socially conservative Islamic norm. But the abuse is not just online. Yemeni activist Omar Bataweel was shot outside his home on April 22, according to The News Hub. The outspoken critic of Islam had shared his views on Facebook, which led him to receive death threats prior to his killing. His case remains open. The AA-MENA campaign has tracked the tracked the progress of Arabic-speaking atheist groups and pages and frequently criticises Facebook's approach to freedom of speech. The group has three goals for its campaign; reactivate the pages, convince Facebook to respect the rights of irreligious people in the MENA region and; convince Facebook to reform its procedures so a just evaluation is made of any alleged violation of Community Standards. Maryam Namazie, spokeswoman for the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain, tweeted she had been blocked by Facebook after she shared an ex-Muslim's page that depicted Zuckerberg as an ally of ISIS. Blocked for 7 days by @facebook for criticising its censorship of ex-Muslim/Arab atheist pages @rayhana @CEMB_forum pic.twitter.com/aD02zImSx7 Maryam Namazie (@MaryamNamazie) April 21, 2016 There remains a severe punishment for renouncing Islam in many Middle Eastern countries. Even if it allowed legally, ex-Muslims often face severe persecution and harassment from family and locals. Gains against ISIS 'not yet enough' and could backfire, US officials warn President Barack Obama and some administration officials have hailed recent military gains against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, but other US officials and outside experts warn that the US-backed air and ground campaign is far from eradicating the radical Islamic group, and could even backfire. While Islamic State's defeats in Iraq and Syria have erased its image of invincibility, they threaten to give it greater legitimacy in the eyes of disaffected Sunni Muslims because Shi'ite and Kurdish fighters are a major part of the campaign, some US intelligence officials argue. A second danger, some US officials said, is that as the group loses ground in the Iraqi city of Falluja and elsewhere, it will turn increasingly to less conventional military tactics and to directing and inspiring more attacks against "soft" targets in Europe, the United States and elsewhere. One US intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, warned that in response to losing Falluja and other cities the group likely would turn more to guerrilla tactics to disrupt efforts to restore government services. "We can expect ISIL to harass local forces that are holding cities it previously controlled, thereby drawing out battles into protracted campaigns," he said. The territory held by ISIL has enabled it to build up revenues through oil and taxes, provided it a base to launch attacks on Baghdad, and acted as a recruiting tool for foreign fighters drawn to the self-proclaimed Islamic caliphate. President Barack Obama said on June 14 -- two days after a gunman pledging allegiance to Islamic State killed 49 people in Orlando -- that the militant group was losing "the money that is its lifeblood" as it continues to lose territory. Brett McGurk, the presidential envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL, told a White House briefing on June 10 that the group has lost half the territory it had seized in Iraq, about 20 percent of its self-proclaimed caliphate in Syria, and at least 30 percent of its oil production, which accounts for half its revenue. But Islamic State fighters in Iraq are already showing signs of adapting a guerrilla war-style strategy, Seth Jones, an analyst with the RAND Corp, told Reuters. "It looks like the areas that the Islamic State has lost, they are generally abandoning, and that would mean preparing to fight another day," he said. Despite the progress against ISIL on the battlefield and in the financial realm, CIA Director John Brennan told the Senate Intelligence Committee last week: "Our efforts have not reduced the group's terrorism capability and global reach." "The resources needed for terrorism are very modest, and the group would have to suffer even heavier losses of territory, manpower, and money for its terrorist capacity to decline significantly," he said. Encouraging lone wolves Hassan Hassan, a terrorism expert at the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London, told the US Senate Homeland Security committee on Tuesday that the Orlando attack showed the group's territorial losses hadn't diminished its broader appeal. "The Islamic State's international appeal has become untethered from its military performance on the ground," he said. Sunnis in Iraq no longer view the ISIL radicals as liberators, and the Shi'ite role in the fighting is less important than it was a year ago, officials in Baghdad told Reuters. As a result, they said, the Iraqi army has gained Sunni acceptance and is seen less as a Shi'ite-led sectarian force than it was under former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. But the risk that offensives against ISIL involving Shi'ite forces could foment sectarian tensions and help the group have been underscored by allegations that 49 Sunni men were executed after surrendering to a Shi'ite militia supporting the army offensive to retake Falluja. Such reports "feed into ISIL's narrative," the US intelligence official said. Former US ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker, who visited the country in March, wrote last week in the Cipher Brief, an online intelligence publication, that extremist Shi'ite militias are on the scene in Falluja. Iranian Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani has underscored Iran's role in the conflict by appearing publicly on the battlefield. As ISIL has faced military setbacks, the flow of foreign fighters traveling to Iraq and Syria has dropped significantly, according to the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL. European counter terrorism officials said some 300-400 already have returned to Britain, raising concerns about what they called an increasing convergence of IS ideology and mentally unstable individuals. So called "lone wolf" attackers like the Orlando shooter are Islamic State's way of "overwhelming their enemies with threats that have to be run to ground," Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert at Georgetown University in Washington, told Reuters. "That is the true intention beyond the lone wolf attacks -- to distract and overwhelm the attention of law enforcement and intelligence." Eliminating the threat ISIL poses will require coupling the military gains in Iraq and Syria with political and economic reforms, say US officials and outside experts. "They became a strong organisation because of the political failure," Hassan said. "My fear is that there's so much focus on the military component, rather than on the political, and social and religious dimensions." India: MP accuses Mother Teresa of 'conspiracy for Christianisation of India' An Indian MP has accused Mother Teresa of being part of a "conspiracy for [the] Christianisation of India". The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Yogi Adityanath said the Nobel laureate had conspired to convert Hindus to Christianity. "Incidents of Christianisation had led to separatist movements in parts of North East, including Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland," the Gorakhpur MP said, addressing a crowd in Uttar Pradesh. "You all are unaware of the situation in the North East. You should visit there to see the real situation." This is not the first time Mother Teresa, a nun who served the poor in India for the majority of her life, has been accused of conspiracy. In 2015, the head of the Hindu nationalist NGO Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Mohan Bhagwat, said Mother Teresa's service to the poor was aimed at converting them to Christianity. BJP is the political wing of RSS, which also has a religious wing the World Hindu Council, Vishwa Hindu Parishad. It uses nationalist ideology to promote Hinduvata, which equates being Indian with having a Hindu faith. Boasting almost seven million members, it regularly holds "reconversion" programmes, where Indian minority communities are encouraged to turn to Hinduism. The group has claimed that conversion to faiths other than Hinduism, including Christianity, is "the root of terrorism". The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom released a report last month highlighting a "negative trajectory" with regards to religious freedom in India. "Minority communities, especially Christians, Muslims, and Sikhs, experienced numerous incidents of intimidation, harassment, and violence, largely at the hands of Hindu nationalist groups," it said. "Members of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) tacitly supported these groups and used religiously-divisive language to further inflame tensions. These issues, combined with longstanding problems of police bias and judicial inadequacies, have created a pervasive climate of impunity, where religious minority communities feel increasingly insecure, with no recourse when religiously-motivated crimes occur." Mother Teresa worked in Indian slums with the goal to aid "the unwanted, the unloved, the uncared for." She started the Missionaries of Charity, which by the time of her death in 1997 worked with over 4,000 people, along with many thousands of volunteers, with 610 foundations in 123 countries on all seven continents. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 in recognition of her work "in bringing help to suffering humanity." Kenya: Christian leaders concerned over closure of world's largest refugee camp Christian clergy and humanitarian workers have warned the closure of the world's largest refugee camp this year could cause a humanitarian crisis. They have called for the Kenyan government to treat the refugees facing expulsion from Dadaab refugee camp with dignity, while fearing that infringement on their rights might well be inevitable considering the time frame. Dadaab was established in 1991 for 90,000 refugees fleeing warfare in Somalia. It is now comprised of five camps, home to 350,000 displaced people and has become a commercial hub in the region. There are make-shift cinemas, businesses, schools and hospitals. Kenyan Interior minister Joseph Nkaissery announced its closure last month, saying the settlement harbors terrorists. The camp is around 60 miles from Garissa University in northeastern Kenya, where 147 people including 142 students were killed last year in an attack by militant Somalia-based Islamist group al-Shabab. "Due to Kenya's national security interest, the government has decided that hosting of refugees has to come to an end," said Nkaissery. "The government acknowledges that this decision will have adverse effects on the lives of refugees. The international community must collectively take responsibility [for them]." Despite the UN urging the government to delay the closure, Kenya seems determined to go ahead with its plans. "Since they have decided to go ahead with it, we are now trying to see that the exercise is carried out with dignity and a humane manner," said Roman Catholic bishop Joseph Alessandro of the Garissa Diocese, where the camp is situated. The government has committed to providing security and social services to ensure that the refugees' rights are maintained. "They have made the promise," said Alessandro. "We hope the process will be smooth." The head of advocacy at Jesuit Refugee Service, Beatrice Mumbi, said she was concerned over the speed with which they plan to move the refugees. "The speed at which the camp is being closed is our main concern. We are not sure if this is logistically possible without infringing on the rights of the refugees," she said. "They said it will be done, but there is still very scanty information on how it will be carried out. Are they going to move them with buses?" Dadaab is not officially a city, but if it were it would be Kenya's third largest after Nairobi and Mombassa, according to the World Bank. Last diocese in the West Indies votes in favour of women priests Women are now able to be priests in every Anglican diocese of the West Indies, after the church in Guyana voted to allow the ordination of women yesterday. The synod of the diocese of Guyana voted without dissent to amend the diocesan canon to permit the ordination of women on June 21 at their 145th meeting at St George's Cathedral in Georgetown. "God calls all of us and empowers all of us and at some point in the life of the church our eyes are opened and we recognise that there is something we weren't doing that we should be doing," said the Bishop of Guyana, the Rt Rev Charles Davidson, speaking to local radio station Demera Wave. Davidson served for 20 years in the Episcopal Church of the USA where women have been allowed to be priests for more than 40 years. "I have worked with female priests for the last 20 years so I have no issues with working with anybody who will do God's work," he said. Davidson said that although change can be uncomfortable in the church, it is important to continue to move forward, and trust in God. "Because people are accustomed to tradition, it tends to cause uneasiness but trust God and decisions that we make prayerfully and studied, God is always with us," he said. The synod also discussed ways the church could serve the poor in the region and engage with its wider context. "We are hoping to change the public face of our church in a kind of a way that will allow people to want to become members of our church and that happens when our members are more involved, they are willing to invite people to be part of our church," Davidson added. #LoveLikeJo: Thousands mark death of Jo Cox MP Thousands of people took part in memorial events for MP Jo Cox on Wednesday afternoon under the banner #LoveLikeJo. The former MP for Batley and Spen was killed last week in an attack in her constituency town of Bistall, West Yorkshire. The mother of two would have celebrated her 42nd birthday today. Tributes from musician Bono and actor Bill Knighy were among dozens throughout the afternoon as the campaign on the EU referendum entered its last day. Cox's family travelled to the event in Trafalgar Square on a memorial boat on the Thames that bore the name "Yorkshire Rose". Cox's husband Brendan said his wife was opposed to extremism in all its forms and said she had become a symbol for tolerance. "Jo's killing was an act of terror designed to advance hatred against others," Brendan Cox told thousands gathered in Trafalgar Square. But "it has advanced an outpouring of love". Faith representatives laid 42 white roses at the event, to symbolise her age and Yorkshire heritage. Some of Cox's favourite songs were played live as central London paused to mark the first death of a sitting politician in more than 20 years. Malala Yousafzai also spoke at the Trafalgar Square event, which was called #MoreInCommon. The name was taken from an excerpt of Cox's maiden speech where she said what unites us is far more than what divides us. Malala, who was shot as a schoolgirl in Pakistan, said the phrase was not just a line from Cox's speech but a principle that she lived her life by. As well as the thousands in Trafalgar Square, another 2,000 gathered in the market square in Batley, according to local police, and hundreds of others met in other locations including Edinburgh, New York and Paris. Pope Francis: Death penalty 'violates God's merciful justice' Criminals are as much entitled to the "God-given right to life" as non-criminals, Pope Francis said yesterday. The Pope, in a message to the Sixth World Congress Against the Death Penalty in Oslo, Norway, said the curent Jubilee Year of Mercy was an "auspicious occasion" for promoting worldwide more evolved forms of respect for life and for the dignity of each person. "It must not be forgotten that the inviolable and God-given right to life also belongs to the criminal," he said. Pope Francis added that he drew hope from growing public opposition to the death penalty. "The death penalty is unacceptable, however grave the crime of the convicted person," the Pope argued. "It is an offence to the inviolability of life and to the dignity of the human person. "It likewise contradicts God's plan for individuals and society, and his merciful justice. "Nor is it consonant with any just purpose of punishment. It does not render justice to victims, but instead fosters vengeance. The commandment 'Thou shalt not kill' has absolute value and applies both to the innocent and to the guilty." He called on everyone to work towards the abolition of the death penalty and improved prison conditions. "There is no fitting punishment without hope. Punishment for its own sake, without room for hope, is a form of torture, not of punishment. "I trust that this Congress can give new impulse to the effort to abolish capital punishment. For this reason, I encourage all taking part to carry on this great initiative and I assure them of my prayers." The Pope has spoken many times in recent months on this issue. Last September he told the US Congress that he wanted the "global abolition" of the death penalty. He said then: "Every life is sacred, every human person is endowed with inalienable dignity, and society can only benefit from the rehabilitation of those convicted of crimes." More than 1,400 prisoners have been executed in the United States since 1976 although there has been a fall in numbers in recent years. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says the death penalty can be used "if this is the only possible way" of defending a life or lives. It also says criminals cannot be denied the possibility of redemption. It says: "The cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity are very rare, if not practically nonexistent." Prison Break Season 5 release date: Release date confirmed for early 2017, filming to start August After sorting out scheduling conflicts with Warner Bros. Legends of Tomorrow and Fox's revived Prison Break series which both feature main stars Wentworth Miller and Dominic Purcell, Fox has finally confirmed a release date for the series' fifth season. According to the network, the show will air in early 2017 and filming will start this August. When the studio earlier confirmed the revival of the series, there was a need to adjust the target air date as both Miller and Purcell were involved in the superhero franchise. Miller was Captain Cold while Purcell plays Heatwave on Legends, and the show could not proceed without the Michael Scofield and Licoln Burrows on board. It was not only the two lead stars who had to juggle schedules as Sara Wayne Callies, who played Sara Tancredi in the original series was also contacted to return but already had commitments to another show, Colony. Luckily, she committed to return to the franchise early this year. Amaury Nolasco, Rockmond Dunbar, Paul Adelstein and Robert Knepper have also been confirmed to return to the franchise to reprise their major roles that made the show the cult hit that it was. New faces will also add to the excitement of the series as Royal Pains star Mark Feuerstein who will play Scott Ness, who is married to Sara so fans of Michael and Sara may have to deal with that blow when the show returns. "Obviously we left off [the original series] with Michael presumably dead - he wasn't, he ended up working for this organisation. It got to the point where he couldn't do it anymore, and they threw him in a jail in Yemen to change his mind. "He didn't change his mind, they set him up...," Purcell said in an interview. It's expected that that Michael will call upon his old friends to help plot his escape and this will set the course for a fresh new conflict that the show has become known for. Original series creator Paul Scheuring will reportedly write all nine episodes of the limited edition revival. Raqqa: Air strikes 'kill 18 civilians' in ISIS stronghold At least 18 civilians have been killed in the ISIS-capital of Raqqa, Syria, according to local activists. The monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said dozens more were injured in raids on Tuesday night. The British-based group said it was not able to verify who had carried out the strikes although another group said Russian warplanes were to blame, according to the BBC. Six children were among the dead, the SOHR said as it warned the number was likely to rise due to dozens of injured civilians being in a critical condition. Another activist group, Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently (RBSS), listed the names of the 18 dead and said 28 others were wounded. The strikes came after Russian-backed government forces were dealt a blow by ISIS in fighting around the town of Tabqa, 40km west of Raqqa. Two days of intense clashes forced the Assad-army back in a setback to the campaign to recapture the Syrian city. The ISIS controlled Amaq news agency released a video that purportedly showed jihadis in control of the Thawra oil fields after Assad's army had recaptured them on Sunday. ISIS militants face a two-pronged attack in Raqqa and neighbouring Aleppo from both the Russian-backed Syrian forces and the US-backed Kurdish and Arab fighters. Meanwhile Assad has asked his electricity minister Emad Khamis to form a new government, according to state media agency SANA. No details were given on why Khamis would replace Wael al-Halaki as prime minister, or whether Halaki would be included in the new administration or had left government. Halaki himself replaced a prime minister who defected to the opposition. The EU referendum code: What Christians say, and what they really mean Those of us who are Christians know that words matter, and those who have been observing the EU referendum debate know that how they are said matters, too. As I observe the Christian responses ahead of Thursday's vote, I see how we as Christians so often use our words badly. Some are less than subtle. I heard of one Irish Presbyterian minister who warned his congregation not to vote for the EU, which he called the "whore of Babylon". Then there's the Anglican vicar who suggested those who vote to leave are "a bit racist". Not to mention church leaders who struggle to decide whether Jesus actually died for our sins but seem to have no doubts that he would definitely have been pro-EU. However, most Christians are more subtle than that and I have noticed that evangelical Christians have developed a particular code that I will attempt to decipher, and offer an alternative in plain English... "God is a God of love and unity" I doubt any Christian is going to disagree with that truth. But it's the implicit application that is made which concerns me. The Trinity and love of God is not a reason to support the political project of the EU. Indeed to suggest it is, is somewhat blasphemous, just as it would be to suggest the opposite. It also manages to combine virtue signaling ('look how loving I am') with passive-aggressiveness. Those who vote to leave the EU are clearly not the kind and loving person that Jesus would want us to be. "I want to work together with our neighbours" In the Scottish referendum we witnessed the same passive-aggressiveness: We are 'better together'. Those who vote to leave are narrow-minded nationalistic separatists who hate the French, despise the Germans and want to abandon the Greeks. But this referendum is not about leaving Europe (despite all the misquotes of John Donne), and it is not about whether we should work with our neighbours, but rather the best way to do so. What if being part of a undemocratic corporate political entity is not the best way to work together? "As children of God we should not find our identity in nationality" Well, amen to that. But does that mean that those who believe a nation should govern itself are finding their identity in nationality? And why so Eurocentric? One of the reasons that I am voting to leave is because as a Christian I don't want to see Fortress Europe, where there is freedom of movement for (mainly white) Europeans, while Africans, Asians, Arabs and Americans are restricted. "I am for peace" Whereas those who don't want to join a European army are for war? Is it really the case that the EU is the cause of peace rather than the result of it? Maybe Nato had something to do with it? Perhaps the creation of world superblocks is more likely to lead to serious conflicts than the continuation of separate smaller sovereign states? "No one is perfect" Often used to defend the EU from those who would point out its many faults, as though they were claiming perfection was elsewhere. The doctrine of original sin can be easily misused. "They are not very nice" The reverse of 'no-one's perfect'. This time we forget the doctrine of sin and instead point out how horrible it is to identify with nasty people such as Farage/Gove/Boris. I personally don't know these men and so can't really comment on their characters, but then I'm not voting for them in the EU referendum. I'm voting for whether my country should be governed by those we elect, or by those who are appointed from elsewhere. "Think of the poor" Amen. Preach it brother. But what were you thinking? That the reason most of the major multi-national corporations, billionaires and elites are for the EU is because they are concerned for the poor? Hallelujah, the Millennium has arrived. The Kingdom of God is here. Or maybe those of us who are voting to leave is because we too are concerned for the poor, for the increasing atomisation of society into the haves and have nots, and about the development of a Europe where the rich can get their wage slaves ever cheaper, without having to import people from far away countries? "Think of the gospel" Of all the reasons I have heard this is the most surreal and out of touch. Does the gospel need the EU? Is the Holy Spirit restricted by British Christians having to get visas (the worst case scenario)? Does the Roman road mean Easy Jet flights to Milan, or is it not about the power of the gospel to overcome all obstacles? We are not voting for a mission strategy for the church, we are voting for a political deal for all the peoples of Europe. I realise that there are Christians who disagree with my stance. That's fair enough. I don't want Britain to be part of an anti-democratic, autocratic, European Super State designed for the benefit of the corporations and the elites, while they think we are leaving EU Utopia for a little nationalistic island. Let's make our votes prayerfully, humbly and considerately, but please spare me the passive-aggressive Christian jargonese! The Lord's will, will be done! David Robertson is the moderator of the Free Church of Scotland and director of Solas CPC, Dundee. Follow him on Twitter @theweeflea. Trump pleas for evangelical vote: 'America's leaders are selling Christianity down the tubes' Donald Trump questioned the sincerity of Hillary Clinton's faith as he warned America's leaders were "selling Christianity down the tube" in a private meeting with evangelical leaders on Tuesday. The presumptive Republican nominee asked for the support of several prominent faith leaders as he called himself a "tremendous believer" and assured them: "I'm so on your side". In clips of the behind-doors meeting posted on social media, Trump also boasted of picking up "massive majorities" of evangelical votes. "The thing about Hillary in terms of religion is that she's been in the public eye for years and years, and yet there's nothing out there," he said in one clip. "There's like nothing out there. It's going to be an extension of Obama because with Obama you had your guard up. With Hillary you don't." The New York billionaire went on to tell the leaders not to be politically correct and pray for all American leaders because many had damaged Christianity. "People were saying pray for your leaders, and I agree with that ... but what you really have to do is pray for everybody to get out to vote for one specific person. "And again, we can't be politically correct and say pray for all our leaders because all of your leaders are selling Christianity down the tubes, selling the evangelicals down the tubes, and it's a very, very bad thing that's happening." The meeting is one of a number of efforts by the Trump campaign to secure the support of key Christian leaders who command widespread influence in the US. Trump's newly announced evangelical advisory board is one such move and is expected to "provide advisory support to Trump on issues important to Evangelicals and other people of faith in America," according to a statement from his campaign. The 25 members were "not asked to endorse Mr. Trump as a prerequisite for participating on the board." "But Christianity; I owe so much to it in so many ways through life, through having incredible children. But I also owe it for, frankly, standing here," said Trump. Outside Trump's event, other Christians protested his bid for evangelical votes. Rev Emily Scott, a pastor who joined the protest, said: "My opinion is that you cannot support Trump and also support Jesus," according to Business Insider UK. "I think that we know a lot about Donald Trump's religion, and it has a lot to do with hatred and greed, which is contrary to biblical teachings." Hundreds of yoga practitioners covered the lawn at Discovery Green Tuesday evening to celebrate International Yoga Day in Houston, June 21, 2016. The Consulate General of India and Pralaya Yoga hosted the free event with several community partners and other yoga studios. A group session featured three yogis led by Robert Boustany in an hour long yoga session in the park. A separate group of acro yoga practitioners also invited visitors to try their hand at the acrobatic form of yoga. After the yoga session, the celebration ended with the throwing of seven traditional colors into the air. Each color represents a different virtue from love to peace to power. An executive with the Houston Technology Center will help guide the International Business Innovation Association with its efforts to promote business incubation and entrepreneurship around the world. Maryanne Maldonado, vice president and chief operating officer of the Houston Technology Center, has been elected to the association's board of directors for a three-year term. The LGBT community has made historic strides in the past few years, including a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case that legalized same-sex marriage throughout the United States. But along with the victories have come crushing tragedies, such as the mass shooting at the Orlando gay night club earlier this month. That makes this month's gay pride celebrations all the more important: It's a time to reflect on how far the community has come, and how much further it has to go. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Texas kids who got schooled in the history of the Lone Star State are surely familiar with Washington-on-the-Brazos, where in March 1836 a group of delegates met to make a formal declaration of independence from Mexico. That chunk of Texas history is the inspiration for a new restaurant to be called 60 Pioneers, named for the folks who helped birth the Republic of Texas. The restaurant, coming from the owners of Southern Goods, is under construction at 911 W. 11th St. at Herkimer. It's set to open in mid-August or early September, according to Southern Goods partners Lyle Bento and Charles Bishop. The space, the former Java Java Cafe, will be home to a 3,200-square-foot restaurant with a 3,000-square-foot back patio. The owners plan to also install a 1,000-square-foot front patio. And, a bonus for any restaurant, the space comes with parking for 50. Bento said he and Bishop weren't actively looking for a new spot to expand their business but their Southern Goods landlord owns the Java Java Cafe space and approached them about a lease. "All the factors came together," Bishop said. "Where are you going to find a space in the Heights with 50 parking spaces? We couldn't afford to pass it up." Southern Goods, not even a year old (its first anniversary is in August), will operate as a more chef-driven restaurant while 60 Pioneers will serve as a more casual version of the partners' popular first venture at 632 W. 19th St. The menu will be inspired by even more Texas history. Think of the flags over Texas, especially French, Spanish and Mexico, as well as historical cultural influences (German, Czech, Cajun/Creole) that's a wealth of possibilities for chef Bento to work from. "You can find these influences all over Texas," he said. The menu could include barbecue, Cajun dishes, bratwurst, chicken-fried steak, enchiladas and kolaches in addition to burgers and salads. About 25 items total, which is about double the offerings at Southern Goods. The new restaurant also aims to be very kid friendly, family friendly and even dog friendly. Bishop and Bento described the restaurant has having a large open kitchen with a large bar (it's in the "wet" part of the Heights) where craft cocktails will be served. About 20 taps for beer are planned as well as a wine list with an emphasis on Texas wines. Bento said he's excited to have another outlet for his culinary creative energy. He's even planning a gooey Texas riff on macaroni and cheese: a dish with four different Texas cheeses smothering Texas-shaped pasta. In the end, Ramsay Bolton got what he deserved. Well, that may be overstating things - it's hard to imagine a demise dire enough to adequately punish the scourge of the North, whose atrocities over nearly four seasons on "Game of Thrones" included rape, patricide, infanticide, Fat Walda-cide and castration. But - spoiler alert, if you haven't watched the most recent episode - his long-awaited extermination this past Sunday night, which began with a fevered bludgeoning by Jon Snow and ended with his hungry hounds making a meal of him, "was a really justified way for him to die," Iwan Rheon, the man who played Ramsay, said Monday. "He's been talking about those hounds for long enough, and he's been torturing and killing people with them for long enough," he said. Craving and predicting the manner of Ramsay's end had become an online parlor game in recent weeks, a testament to the sublime loathsomeness Rheon cultivated in Ramsay. Not only did he do terrible things, he did them with relish - the Welsh actor has described his portrayal as a mashup of Heath Ledger's Joker, Liam Gallagher and Dennis the Menace. True to form, Ramsay remained wry and arrogant up until the moment one of his "loyal beasts" tore into his face. More Information 'Game of Thrones' When: Sixth season finale at 8 p.m. Sunday Network: HBO See More Collapse Rheon discussed the mechanics of Ramsay's demise and why it was time for him to go, along with some of his favorite Ramsay moments. The sixth season finale of "Game of Thrones" airs at 8 p.m. Sunday on HBO. Q: Were you satisfied with Ramsay's death? A: He got a just end, didn't he? I wanted dragons, but you can't have everything in this life, can you? Q: Did you know going into this season that this would be it for the character? He'd reached a point of no return. A: Yeah, I had a feeling. I sort of thought last year I'd go, actually. A character like Ramsay is so extreme, and he's done such extreme things. What can you make him do next? He'd reached his natural conclusion. And also in terms of the story line, it's so important that the Starks get Winterfell back. That good kind of comes back into the world a little bit, before it all kicks off in the end. Q: People don't always stay dead on the show. Any chance Ramsay will be back? A: I made a bit of a joke to David (Benioff, one of the creators) about how he could be a White Walker now that he's been eaten by dogs. And David went, "No!" (Laughs.) So yeah, not to give away any spoilers, but Ramsay's done. And good riddance, I'm sure everyone would agree. Q: What was your final day like? A: That was my actual last day, that scene. That was the last thing we shot. So it was kind of fitting, really. And to be honest, at the end of that day, all I really wanted to do was go and get all the (grime) washed off me. I was covered in all manner of it, and it was quite uncomfortable. So that was my priority, as opposed to having a big round of applause and being sentimental. Q: Yes, you were covered in all sorts of stuff. How long did you have to sit in that? A: All day. Eating was a challenge. Q: The dog attack began with a pretty brutal strike to the face. How was that shot? A: I'd love to tell you it was me with some big scary dogs, but it was all CGI. There's very little contact with the dogs - they're trained to be brutal guard dogs. They're not pets. You're not allowed to make eye contact with them because they might think you're threatening them. It's just not safe to be anywhere near them. We did one shot where there was a real dog behind me in a cage. But the rest of them were digitally put there. It also adds extra pressure to shooting when you throw in a few dogs - you can't really ask them to be quiet. Q: Now that you've had some time to look back on it, do you have a couple of favorite moments from the show? A: What's so great about this show is that every season there seems to be one scene that stands out for an actor. This season, it was great to do that big parley scene on the horses, finally getting to meet Jon Snow. Also, the dinner-table scene with everyone was really cool. And the shaving scene in Season 4. That was probably one of the best scenes I've ever got to be a part of. Q: What do you think was Ramsay's most despicable act? A: So, so many. I think (castrating) Theon was pretty bad. But then, so is raping Sansa Stark. Killing his own brother and stepmother - that was probably not the nicest way to do that. There are so many. Q: What will you miss the most about being on "Game of Thrones"? A: Just that feeling of being part of the show. It's wonderful to be in something that you know is good. Everyone's really proud of the work, and it raises the level, I think. That time of the year when we get the scripts and it's time to start again, when July comes. I'll be very sad. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate At approximately 4:30 Tuesday evening, authorities arrived at the Carrington Court apartments at 7900 Westheimer Road. The authorities found a man and woman in their mid-50s in the apartment, both with gunshot wounds, according to Ivan Ulloa, a HPD homicide detective. So far in the investigation, the evidence shows that the female wounded the man with a handgun before taking her own life. The man survived the attack and was transported to Ben Taub Hospital to undergo surgery. Detective Ulloa said that the investigation is still ongoing. Come back for further updates to the story as the investigation continues. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate An undercover sting operation snared 19 men for child pornography and online solicitation of children in Fort Bend County. Dubbed Operation Broken Heart, the multi-agency sting occurred from April 11 through April 13 and from May 4 through May 6, according to the Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office. The operation was part of an effort to identify and arrest persons engaging in the online sexual exploitation of children. These 19 men were among 126 alleged predators in a four-county area, whose arrests were announced Friday by a Houston-area task force. Those arrested in Fort Bend County included Johnny Lee Hidrogo, 55, of Houston, who was taken into custody for online solicitation of a minor. Hidrogo was working at a children's clothing donation drop site in Fort Bend County when authorities learned he was communicating improperly with a child. Also arrested, deputies said, was John Davila, 34, of Mount Vernon, a volunteer fireman and an oil-and-gas industry worker. Davila communicated online with an agent he believed was a child and arranged to meet her while he was at work-related training in Houston. His was charged with online solicitation of a minor and attempted sexual assault of a child. Also nabbed in the sting, deputies said, was Brad Bostick, 46, of Needville, a former reserve deputy with the Fort Bend County Precinct 1 Constable's Office. Bostick faces three charges of possession of child pornography. It's still dark when the sound of chopper blades cuts through the crisp morning air in Houston's Texas Medical Center. A rumble of boots hit the pavement as the Life Flight team of pilots, nurses and paramedics file in for duty. In under seven minutes they pile into a red twin-engine EC145 "air ambulance" helicopter. The team is off in the blink of an eye, racing at 150 miles per hour to the scene of a car accident. Gliding above Houston's traffic gridlock, the crew is directed to land by firefighters, where they take care of the critically injured and rush them back to the nearest Memorial Hermann trauma center. Inside the chopper, patients receive blood transfusions as crew use on-board ultrasound machines to scan for undetected internal injuries. The scene is just one of 3,000 similar rescue missions the Life Flight crew tackles each year and part of a typical workday for Houstonian and Braeburn Valley resident Aaron Young, 43. Young has been a paramedic for more than 20 years, eight of which have been with Life Flight. Young always knew saving lives was his calling, and he remembers as a boy watching Life Flight director Dr. James "Red" Duke's nationally syndicated "Texas Health Report" on television. But as a boy growing up in Galveston, Young thought he would one day save lives from a beach-side lookout post as a professional lifeguard. Born in Minnesota, Young's parents moved him to Austin when he was an infant when they started a yoga center. When he was about 5 years old, Young's father accepted a position with Galveston's University of Texas Medical Branch as a respiratory therapist and the family relocated to the Gulf Coast. It was there that Young learned to love the sea, though he held a respect for the danger it poses. He saw the lifeguards on the beach as heroes saving and protecting the public, and that became his dream. Young's path eventually took a different turn, but his mission remained. Young left Galveston after high school and headed for St. Cloud State University in Minneapolis, Minnesota. There, he followed a yearlong course of several certificate programs, hoping to complete an emergency medical technician program and land a lifeguard position in Los Angeles, California. Partway through his studies, an instructor said that he had a knack for working with patients and suggested that he should continue further with the program and become a paramedic instead of a lifeguard. Young took heed, and completed the paramedic program in 1994, returning to Texas when he was hired by the Montgomery County Hospital District. It was through this position he met his future wife Sandra, another MCHD paramedic. In 2008, a co-worker who had left MCHD to work for Life Flight phoned Young about an opening. Young knew that because of the critical nature of Life Flight calls, only the best and brightest in the nation join the Life Flight team. "It was something I had always pondered, but Life Flight was sort of the gold standard in care, and I wasn't sure if I was good enough," Young said. Young applied and was accepted. The trauma level of patients treated by Life Flight paramedics was a change from his years riding in the MCHD ambulances. In his new role with Life Flight, most patients would be classified as intensive care unit patients, many of them unable to communicate. On board the air ambulance helicopters, Young and his colleagues have to anticipate the unexpected. "Maybe they're unconscious and can't say 'Hey my stomach hurts,' which might mean they have a ruptured liver," Young said. "You have to be a detective." Today, eight years later, Young continues to work with a close-knit team he considers a second family. Together they've sacrificed some of the special moments of their individual lives so that they can be on call for 12-hour shifts to save strangers. "We've all missed birthdays, anniversaries, holidays," Young said. "9-1-1 doesn't get turned off for Christmas." But Young said he wouldn't have it any other way. "The people we're taking care of have families. We work hard so that we can help people survive a horrific event and have another holiday with their families," he said. "I would hope that someone would be there to do that for me." And as within any emergency medical profession, there are some patients that don't survive. Young said the heartache of not being able to save them all is tempered by the high success rate. "We save a lot more than we don't save, and that's what keeps me coming back," Young said. "We're really advancing pre-hospital health care and to be a part of that is very exciting." Young said he couldn't imagine doing anything different, and his only goals for the future are to further his medical skills and one day to teach incoming paramedics. "They say if you love what you do, you won't work a day in your life," he said. "Well I feel like I haven't worked in 20 years." Young and his wife, now also employed by the Texas Medical Center, have a daughter, Kathleen, 17, who attends Lamar High School. Young was featured in the six-episode docudrama series "Life Flight: Trauma Center Houston," which followed actual Life Flight crews and aired in 2015 on the Lifetime Television Network. A group of Heights residents calling themselves the Friends of the Yale Street Bridge Bricks are on a crowd-funding mission to keep one heaping pile of broken rubble out of a landfill: 30,000 bricks from the historic Yale Street Bridge. Built in 1931, the original Yale Street Bridge is one of seven bridges in Houston on the National Register of Historic Places, and carries Yale Street across the White Oak Bayou south of Interstate 10. The group is seeking donations from the public to raise $100,000 by June 30 to save the bricks. The bridge is being demolished after being given the poorest safety rating in the state in 2012, only slightly rising in 2013 after the addition of carbon strips. The bridge will be rebuilt by the Texas Department of Transportation for $2.8 million but will retain the historic look of the original, with completion scheduled for late 2017. In September 2015 when the demolition of the structure was first announced, locals and members of the Houston Heights Association decried the move. TxDOT considered several alternative plans to save the structure but ultimately the bridge demolition plans won out. Bill Baldwin, a Heights resident since 1998 and owner of Boulevard Realty, said TxDOT worked in some special provisions to salvage and reuse pieces of the original structure, but left a lot of perfectly good historic materials destined for the landfill. He and other concerned preservationists in the area wanted to do more, but they were running out of time. The bridge was closed to traffic just ahead of a scheduled April 18 demolition start date by TxDOT subcontractor Lone Star Road Construction. The April 15 Tax Day Flood halted progress unexpectedly for the preparations and gave the preservationists enough time to hatch a new plan. Baldwin said it was during this delay that he and several colleagues really began looking at what parts of the bridge could be saved, getting cost estimates and researching what could be salvaged. The original demolition plan for the bridge included saving 30 square yards of bricks, or about 1,200 individual bricks, as well as six light fixtures and two placards, said Danny Perez, a spokesman for TxDOT. These items were to be reincorporated into the new bridge. Baldwin and a group of residents considered many aspects of the remaining bridge features, though determining which parts were original and what fundraising was achievable in short order he said, was no easy task. On April 26, Lone Star estimated that for $100,000, it could save 30,000 additional bricks by changing the method of asphalt demolition to light scraping and hand removal and could do so without adding any time onto the bridge replacement project. From there, the Friends of the Yale Street Bridge Bricks was formed and their mission was clear. The previous preservation successes of many of those involved in the group allowed them to convince the city to go along with their plans, even before funds had been raised. Mecom initiative Baldwin and some of the other members were involved with the Friends of the Mecom Fountain initiative which fought to stop historically inaccurate changes slated to reface the iconic fountain with limestone. Sitting at the gateway to Hermann Park and the museum district's large round-about, the fountain was originally built in a mid-century modern style with clean lines of concrete. The limestone and new ledges planned by the City project were out of character for that time period, according to Baldwin. So the FMF convinced the City to stop mid-renovation on the fountain, and then set out to crowd-fund $60,000 to undo work already underway and restart the restoration in a historically appropriate way. The FMF ended up raising $104,000, more than twice the funds needed to restore the fountain in its original mid-century modern fashion. They convinced the city to stand behind them, and a new direction for the Mecom Fountain restoration began in May using the funds they raised. The excess money raised will also be put into the fountain, and will be used to restore the interior and plaza, covering the bill for a future project the City had earmarked taxpayer funds for, saving the City $40,000. Baldwin said crowd-funding is a brand new model for historic preservation, but one that is working and surpassing all expectations. He said through small denomination donations combined with large sums, 330 people banded together to save the Mecom Fountain. "The fountain was dear to peoples' hearts, but we don't have that same type of feeling for a bridge," Baldwin said. "What I am hoping is that we find the passion in the adaptive reuse of the materials keeping them out of the landfill." The the Friends of the group began its fundraising campaign April 29 through Generosity.com, an arm of the crowd-funding platform Indiegogo. All funds raised in the campaign will be held securely by the nonprofit Houston Parks Board. Baldwin said the total amount raised will determine the ultimate plans for the salvaged brick, which TxDOT, the city of Houston and the group will determine together. Baldwin said in a best-case scenario, the money raised would be enough to use the bricks in public projects around the Heights and other areas of Houston. His back-up plan if the crowd-funding efforts don't meet its goal is to sell enough of the historic bricks, which are in demand by landscapers and developers, to ensure the city will not be left paying the removal bill. "I will guarantee the city will not be out any money," Baldwin said. Janice Evans, a spokeswoman for the mayor's office, said the city has not made any guarantees regarding the future of the bricks once they are removed, but for now Lone Star has begun the hand removal sought by the group. The crew is saving 3,000 to 6,000 bricks per day, filling 1,200-pound pallets of bricks that are being stored under the bridge until later removal by the Parks Department. "We have confidence in their ability to fundraise to protect historic assets," Evans said. "The recent effort to restore the Mecom Fountain is a great example of their ability to fundraise." Local artist and bridge expert Kirk Farris, 67, a Montrose resident, placed the Yale Street Bridge on the National Register of Historic Places in 2014. Farris said the bridge was accepted on the register based on engineering uniqueness - namely the twisted support beams called "bents" which may add extra stability to the structure. Farris says he believes the entire bridge could have been saved, but that effort failed following a TxDOT decision to demolish the bridge in September 2015, saving as much of the bridge materials as can be re-purposed is an effort worth undertaking. "It is highly recyclable and they have a value," he said. "It's good that they're saving the bricks, and why not." Mayor Turner said, speaking to the group's crowd-funding efforts. "I knew this would be successful because Houstonians are always willing to step in and help when it comes to an important cause. "Given the city's tight budget right now, we would not otherwise be able to accomplish these 2 projects and that would be a shame. "We all benefit when we work together to make Houston better." Want to join? Those wishing to join the Friends of the Yale Street Bridge Bricks can make a tax-deductible contribution at www.yalebricks.org, or in-person or by mail to Boulevard Realty, 1545 Heights Blvd. The Humble school board confirmed Elizabeth Fagen as superintendent of schools at its June 14 meeting, despite objections from a group of parents and residents who circulated a petition appealing to trustees to reconsider appointing Fagen. Nia Hoyt, who was part of that group, expressed her disappointment at the board's decision. "We can be thankful that this controversy has brought awareness to our community," she said. "The best thing we can do is give our dissenting opinion and move forward." The board of trustees named Fagen as the lone finalist May 24 to replace Guy Sconzo, who has served Humble ISD for 15 years. Fagen's first day on the job will be July 5. She was offered a five-year contract with a base salary of $298,000, which is comparable to the base salaries in other Houston suburban districts. Fagen brings 20 years of experience in education, including eight as a superintendent. She earned her doctoral and master's degrees and her education specialist degree from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, and her bachelor's degree from William Penn University in Oskaloosa, Iowa. She comes to Humble ISD from the Douglas County School District in Colorado. Sconzo announced his retirement in December after more than 40 years in the education field. His last day will be July 4, and he will begin serving in a transitional role when Fagen officially begins her duties. He has vowed to remain in his transitional role to Fagen and the board, through the remainder of 2016. "I look forward to our community warmly welcoming Dr. Fagen," Sconzo said. "Like me, she advocates against excessive state testing and focuses on educating the whole child. As the grandparent of an Humble ISD student, I feel really good about Dr. Fagen leading the district. She has my full endorsement." Trustees, many of whom have been on the board for many years, expressed their gratitude to Sconzo for his service to the district. "A lot of folks don't remember what this district was like when Dr. Sconzo was hired on," said trustee Keith Lapeze. "He came to a fragmented district." Lapeze recalled that there was division between schools in Kingwood and Humble, the schools were overcrowded and there wasn't money to add schools and deal with the growth. Lapeze credited Sconzo with not only helping to unite the district, but with providing effective leadership. "He was the right guy at the right time for us," he said. Trustee Heath Rushing, one of the newest on the board, thanked Sconzo for his mentoring and his guidance. "You've shown me how to treat colleagues; you've shown me how to treat the community I will forever be grateful to you for that," he said. "I won't stop looking up to you." Sconzo appealed to those who have voiced concerns about Fagen's leadership, to give her there the same consideration he received in 2001. "Fifteen years ago, before I started, there were only seven people in Humble ISD who knew Guy Sconzo existed on earth. When I finally came, I couldn't have felt more welcomed by everyone, more supported by everyone, and I was an unknown quantity so I very much appreciate people then giving me the benefit of the doubt," he said. "I ask that you do the same for my successor." Fagen, who was present when she was named the lone finalist, didn't attend the June 14 meeting, but plans to meet residents and staff at three scheduled town hall meetings in July. Lapeze hopes to create a dialogue in the Humble ISD community that will allow everyone the opportunity to meet Fagen and see why the board said she was the right fit to be the new superintendent. "They will be able to ask any question they want," he said. "It is our hope that through these town halls, that you will understand what we as a board saw, and do see, in Dr. Fagen during our (selection) process, and gain the excitement that we have regarding the future of Humble ISD." Meet and greet Humble ISD town hall meetings have been set to allow staff and the public to meet new superindent Elizabeth Fagen. When: 6 p.m. July 19 at Kingwood High School Performing Arts Center, 2701 Kingwood Drive When: 6 p.m. July 21 at Humble High School Performing Arts Center, 1700 Wilson Road When: 6 p.m. July 28 at Atascocita High School Performing Arts Center, 13300 Will Clayton Parkway Flying a plane was something Delmer Jones, 91, thought he might never do again. The resident of Arbor Terrace at Kingwood Town Center had not taken the controls of an aircraft in 50 years, but he was able to try it again aboard a Boeing Stearman biplane thanks to the Ageless Aviation Dreams Foundation. The nonprofit gives seniors, mainly veterans and pilots, a chance to fly again. Foundation pilots take the seniors up and depending upon the situation, they may be able to take control. The group travels across the country to provide residents of long-term care facilities this opportunity, and recently invited seniors from Arbor Terrace at Kingwood Town Center in Kingwood and from Arbor Terrace Cinco Ranch in Cy-Fair to participate. More Information At a glance Ageless Aviation Dreams Foundation: www.agelessaviationdreams.org Arbor Terrace at Kingwood Town Center: 2807 Kings Crossing Drive. www.arborcompany.com/locations/texas/kingwood See More Collapse "The Arbor Company started their relationship with Ageless Aviation by happenstance," said Laura Ellen Christian, vice president of engagement for the Arbor Co. "One of their members reached out several years ago with the opportunity for residents living in an Arbor community in Greenville, South Carolina. After taking a chance and signing folks up, we quickly realized what a great experience ageless aviation offers veterans. "We were hooked and developed our relationship over the last three-to-four years to now offer flights for residents in most of our communities." Jones joined Armando Mares and Philip Howard from Arbor Terrace at Kingwood Town Center and Howard Davis, Anita Hughes and Barbara Baron from Arbor Terrace Cinco Ranch in Cy-Fair on May 9 for an air adventure. Each flew a short trip on their own with a pilot. "I enjoyed the flight immensely," Jones said. "It was really nice of them to put this on for us. "I think it was really good for the old pilots who went to remember what they did many years ago." He recommends other seniors sign up for the opportunity. Armando Mares agreed. "I think it was wonderful," he said. "It just felt good. The sun came up, and the wind stopped. We really enjoyed it." Jones said the trip is something the residents will remember. "It was great to get this chance. It was really morale-building for some of us," he said. That's a primary goal for Darryl Fisher, who established the foundation, located in Carson City, Nevada. He grew up with grandparents, William L. and Dorothy Fisher, who were pilots and who owned a senior living facility. "I was raised essentially around airplanes and seniors," Fisher said. "It was unusual, and I developed a passion for both." He started flying in his late teens and received his degree in aviation and earned a commercial pilot's license. "But I never made a living in flying," Fisher said. "I just did it personally." Instead, he got involved in the family business, caring for seniors. When his grandparents sold their business about 20 years, Fisher ventured on his own center and now has opened Mission Senior Living facilities around the west. In 2011, Fisher got a call from his father William, who bought a biplane that needed to be restored. "It was a dream for me and my dad," Fisher said. "We had talked about flying across the country together, a father-son thing." Once the plane was ready for pick-up, the duo decided to make an addition to their trip. They would offer seniors in long-term care communities an opportunity to fly in their newly restored Boeing Stearman. "Just because you get older doesn't mean you lose your dreams," Fisher said. "We thought how cool would it be to give seniors a free flight, but we didn't know how we'd get people in the airplanes or any of the details. "I had never done anything like it before." But it turned out to be a huge success. Fisher and his father gave 25 flights on their trip. Fisher was so moved by the experience that his wife Carol encouraged him to do it more often and to establish a nonprofit organization. The foundation was up and running a year later. "It's grown every year," Fisher said. Last year, the group tallied 650 flights, giving about 100 a year. There are now three airplanes and more than 30 volunteers who help make it happen. "It's been a remarkable journey," Fisher said. He said that every time he takes a senior on a flight has been an emotional experience. "It's a magic mission,' he said. "We want to give people the experience of a lifetime." A new student-driven literary skills partnership between Houston ISD's Westside High School and Askew Elementary school, both in the Briar Forest neighborhood, will be featured during the upcoming 2016-17 school year. The program is called "Beyond the Cover," and pairs volunteer high school students with elementary pupils at Askew who are struggling with reading comprehension. Westside students Heather Lucas, 17, along with her friend Lindsey Staskus, 17, created and facilitated the program. Pam Whitson, an intervention specialist at Askew, said the school has a large population of pupils who aren't getting reading support at home, leaving them behind grade standards. She said Beyond the Cover's extra help was just what these struggling pupils needed. Every Thursday morning during the school year, alternating groups of 12-to-15 high school volunteers sacrificed their late-start morning to carpool to Askew before class. The students were then paired with an elementary pupil, selected by teachers, for 30 minutes of individualized reading time. By the end of the school year, Whitson said the teachers had seen a notable difference in the reading skills and confidence of the students who went through the program. "A lot of those children benefited just from a little buddy coming and giving them one-on-one attention," she said. "They love it and want more, more, more." Spike in enrollment Whitson said she saw a spike in Askew pupil enrollment in the English as a Second Language program during the 2015-16 school year. She said many of the pupils were newly immigrated from places like Syria, Haiti and the Congo. She said these pupils immediately go into the ESL program where they work to catch up to their grade level. All elementary pupils must pass a word test, which includes 75 words frequently featured in grade level appropriate reading materials, but in some cases these pupils could only identify a handful of words. The test is a factor in grade promotion, so getting them on track was a top priority, though a formidable challenge. Adding to Askew's plate, Whitson said the school has many pupils from low-income households, where pupils statistically receive less after-school support. The school district reports that 62 percent of Askew pupils are economically disadvantaged. "We're a Title I school," Whitson said. "A lot of these economically disadvantaged students are coming from single-parent homes, and they're not getting help with the homework." Gold Award project At the same time Askew was facing these challenges just ahead of the 2015-16 school year, Heather Lucas, a then-junior at Westside High School, was brainstorming ways to give back to the community. A 12-year member of the Girl Scouts, Lucas wanted to develop an idea that would leave a lasting impact on the community in order to earn her Gold Award, which is the Girl Scout equivalent of becoming an Eagle Scout. She thought about doing something for the environment, but the Gold Award requires an ongoing or lasting impact from a recipient program, and Lucas said that figuring out ways to leave an ongoing impact proved a challenge. Lucas' mother, Sally Lucas, is a teacher at Askew and mentioned the reading comprehension challenges facing her colleagues to her daughter. Lucas saw the opportunity to help, and she knew she had a new mission to get high school students to help the Askew students with their reading comprehension. "Once I came across this idea, I really wanted to do it," Lucas said. "I didn't care if it met the Gold Award standards, it was something that needed to be done and I wanted to do it." Lucas enlisted the help of classmate and longtime friend Lindsey Staskus. They approached Askew administrators to pitch the idea and received overwhelming support. Spanish teacher helped In order to form an official club, Lucas and Staskus knew they had to find a teacher to sponsor their efforts, per HISD requirements. They approached their Spanish teacher Jennefer Aliaga, the director of languages at Westside High. "Heather explained it with a lot of passion. How could I resist that passion?" Aliaga said. Lucas and Staskus took to social media to spread word of their new club, and they gained approval from the National Honor Society to count club participation hours toward the 80 NHS service hours required for membership. About 30 high school students started with the Beyond the Cover the program, and Whitson said about 50 Askew Elementary pupils have benefited from the extra help. Staskus said working with the program has been beneficial for the high school kids just as much as the elementary students. Confidence grows She recalls one of her mentees, whom she began working with on October. "She spoke Spanish primarily at home; so she wasn't understanding the words or punctuation," Staskus said. "When we first started we were reading mostly picture books with few words, and then by May, she was reading chapter books. "You can see their confidence grow." Staskus said the program has influenced her to consider more community-service based careers after graduation next year. "I realize now that the reward of giving back is much bigger than a paycheck," she said. Lucas did earn her Girl Scouts Gold Award for the Beyond the Cover program, and she and Staskus plan to grow and continue "Beyond the Cover" next year, and their hope is that the popular club will after they graduate in 2017. Those interested in starting an HISD club like Beyond the Cover can get more information at www.houstonisd.org by locating the "clubs and organizations" tab for each individual high school. More than 300 people - including 22 in the Houston area - have been charged with stealing more than $900 million in what federal investigators say is the "largest Medicare fraud takedown in history." The 301 people charged with health care fraud include 61 doctors, nurses and other licensed medical professionals, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. "As this takedown should make clear, health care fraud is not an abstract violation or benign offense it is a serious crime," said U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, in a news release from the justice department. "The wrongdoers that we pursue in these operations seek to use public funds for private enrichment," Lynch said. "They target real people many of them in need of significant medical care." The U.S. Health Department's Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has stopped payment to a number of providers under the Affordable Care Act, according to the news release. Twenty-two people in the Houston area face federal charges in 11 cases brought by U.S. Attorney Ken Magidson and the Justice Department's Medicare Fraud Strike Force in the Southern District of Texas. The local defendants are accused of fraudulently billing more than $136 million. Among those indicted in Houston is Dr. John Ramirez, 62, who was charged in an alleged scheme to bill the government $18 million for home health care visits that were not necessary or never provided. He is charged with four counts of conspiracy to commit health care fraud. In a related case, Ramirez was indicted along with Ann Sheperd, 60, and Yvette Nwoko, 27, both of Houston, on charges they conspired to commit health care fraud and committed health care fraud by improperly billing Medicare $20 million. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate PATTON VILLAGE - The chief of Patton Village's 20-person police force on Tuesday defended his officer's decision to pursue a suspect in a high-speed chase that left the officer and an 11-year-old dead. At a news conference in this Montgomery County hamlet, Chief Leon "Pete" Verot declined to comment further and discuss or release the department's policy on chases. With a black band across his badge, Verot confirmed the 6-mile chase began after Sgt. Stacey Baumgartner, 39, responded Sunday night to a 911 call about a man urinating and exposing himself at a Valero gas station at U.S. 59 and Texas 242. The chief said Baumgartner called out to the suspect and tried to detain him. Baumgartner gave chase west along Texas 242 until a 1998 Chevy Suburban carrying a family of seven collided with his cruiser in the intersection with FM 1485; the posted speed limit on both roads ranges from 50 to 60 mph. A child from the SUV, Adan Hilario Jr., died at the scene. "He decided he did not want to be detained," Verot said of the suspect, identified as 29-year-old Garrett William Nee, of Kingwood. Police have said that Nee also tried to strike Baumgartner's marked cruiser. Verot placed blame for the accident on Nee. "All the guy had to do was stop," he said, adding that he did not think the officer could have done anything to prevent the wreck. Tyler Dunman, of the Montgomery County District Attorney's office, said Nee returned to the scene after seeing the crash. He was arrested, taken to the Montgomery County jail and charged early Monday with murder, two counts of intoxication assault with a vehicle, and six counts of intoxication manslaughter with a vehicle causing serious bodily injury, jail records show.He is being held on $1.3 million bail. While many metropolitan police departments, including HPD, have adopted pursuit policies limiting when an officer can participate in a high-speed chase, Verot did not discuss whether the small Patton Village department had a written policy. "We just let this guy get away?" Verot said, calling the pursuit an example of "cause and effect." 'Questions should be asked' This is not the first time Nee has been arrested for a similar type of offense. He was arrested in February 2015 on felony charges of evading arrest in a motor vehicle, according to Harris County criminal court records. The arrest by Houston police, was later dismissed by a Harris County district judge after prosecutors said there was not enough for lack of evidence. The circumstances of the pursuit are part of an ongoing investigation by Texas Department of Public Safety troopers. Law enforcement experts say an extensive review of the Father's Day pursuit is warranted. "Any time there is an incident that results in this kind of outcome, questions should be asked," said professor Phillip Lyons, the dean of the college of criminal justice at Sam Houston State University. "It is quite common to have a debriefing to determine whether mistakes were made, and if so, what we might do to avoid those.'' Lyons said the inquiry should determine if the officer's decision to start the chase was warranted by the severity of the crime, and whether the chase could have been called off once there was enough information to arrest the driver at a later time. "The best practice would be one that balances the costs and benefits - the benefits of apprehending the suspect versus the costs of initiating and maintaining a pursuit," Lyons said. In Sunday's accident, the family of the boy who died was transported to Memorial Hermann at The Woodlands; two were admitted, hospital officials said, and 9-year-old Andrea Hilario remained in the hospital Tuesday in stable condition. In the incident, Baumgartner's vehicle was thrown against a utility pole. He was pronounced dead en route to the hospital, authorities said. Dunman said Tuesday the results of Nee's blood-alcohol test on Sunday night were not yet public. He added that Nee was charged with first-degree felony murder despite his indirect role because Texas law allows charges for anyone who, while committing a felony, commits a dangerous act that leads to a death. At the press conference, Dunman and Verot declined to go into detail about what happened, saying DPS is conduct the investigation. "The investigation is rightly not their (police) focus," Dunman said. Verot added the department is focused on funeral arrangements for Baumgartner, a husband and father of two. Funeral arrangements On Tuesday, area police departments joined a convoy of two-dozen police cars that escorted the officer's body to a funeral home, city secretary Joy Dawson said. Baumgartner had been on the force since 2012. The viewing and visitation will be 5-8 p.m. Thursday at Kingwood Funeral Home, Dawson added. The funeral will follow at 10 a.m. Friday at Fellowship of the Woodlands church. The 100 Club said it is giving a $20,000 check to Baumgartner's widow for immediate expenses. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate A south Texas woman alleges she was sexually assaulted by a former La Joya police officer after she was arrested, according to media reports and court documents. The woman, identified as Autumn Renee according to the lawsuit posted by Buzzfeed, was arrested May 29, 2014, for a misdemeanor probation violation and booked into the La Joya City Jail. The lawsuit, filed May 27 in U.S. District Court in McAllen, states that Felipe Santiago Peralez, then-communications officer for the La Joya City Police Department, conducted an "all-night invasion of plaintiff's body." SEE ALSO: Bollywood's Salman Khan causes uproar with rape remark Peralez inserted his fingers and hands into Renee's private areas, according to the lawsuit. It also states he forced her to perform oral sex on him. Renee suffered injury to her private areas and that she was, "in staunch fear of further brutal, sadistic and invasive acts causing severe bruises, scratches, irritation and soreness... for repeated hours." The lawsuit calls Peralez's actions "malicious and (a) sadistic use of force." RELATED: Attorney says Ex-Baylor coach Art Briles broke promise to apologize to rape victim La Joya police Lt. Ramon Gonzalez reviewed the video recording on May 30, 2014, and "obtained (Renee's) statement, offered her a taco, declined her request for medical attention" the lawsuit reads. According to the lawsuit, La Joya Police Officer Nancy Venecia knew about the assault the same day Gonzaelz reviewed the video recording but did not request that Renee be transported to an emergency room for examination. Buzzfeed reports Peralez resigned after being suspended from the police department May 30, 2014. SEE ALSO: Former Vanderbilt football player again convicted of rape Renee's lawyer, Tammy Peden of Houston, cited the incident as a violation of the Prison Rape Elimination Act passed by U.S. Congress in 2003, which establishes a zero tolerance for rape and sexual assault. The lawsuit also highlights violations of the Eighth Amendment, which forbids "cruel and unusual punishment" and "prohibits excessive use of force and guard brutality." In addition to Peralez, Venecia and Gonzelz, the lawsuit is filed against the City of La Joya and the City of Penitas as she was originally arrested by the Penitas Police Department. The lawsuit states Penitas police conducted the follow-up investigation to the alleged sexual assault and failed to act against La Joya officers involved in the incident. Renee is seeking $5 million in damages and emotional distress. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate A New Hampshire police department has shared a photo of what appears to be a coyote near an elementary school, New England Cable News reports. Or was it a coyote (Cue X-Files music)? Merrimack, N.H., police officers claim they saw the animal Tuesday morning off Baboosic Lake Road near Upper Elementary School. Some Facebook users commented the decrepit-looking creature resembled the legendary chupacabra, an ugly beast with a penchant for goat blood. Other, more grounded individuals, said it looked like a red fox with mange. RELATED: Creature believed to be a Chupacabra in Oregon is actually a really big rat In case you didn't know, the Chupacabra is an animal/urban legend that reportedly lives in parts of South America. According to observers, the creature is said to be reptilian in appearance with grey, leather skin. It hops about on two legs and is around 3 to 4 feet tall. The earliest reported sighting of the creature was in Puerto Rico around 1995. It has since been spotted around the U.S. and even overseas in Ukraine and the Philippines. Scientists have dismissed the creature as an urban legend. More often than not, what people believe to be a Chupacabra is actually a canine suffering from mange, a skin disease brought on by parasitic mites. The disease often causes the victim's skin to appear crusted and grey. RELATED: Houston 'Chupacabra' sighting could be real animal purposely bred And if you're itching for more information about Chupacabras, we've included a compilation of facts about the mythical creature. You can access them all in the gallery above. -- THE LATEST: Dump Trump movement preparing fight at convention, by the AP. Several hundred Republican delegates are organizing to oppose Trump at the convention. That's not enough delegates to topple Trump. But it's more than enough to create turmoil at an event that is typically used to bring a political party together in support of a presidential candidate. There could be floor fights over convention rules and the party's platform. And instead of a coronation, the roll call to nominate Trump could be an opportunity for delegates to voice their displeasure on national television. >> WashPosts Ed OKeefe reports that the anti-Trump forces have about 400 delegates in their ranks. MORE -- As we wait on the SCOTUS, read this: Obama immigration victory could help Trump, by the Chronicles Lomi Kriel.The U.S. Supreme Court will decide in the next few days whether President Barack Obama can implement one of the most sweeping changes to the nation's immigration system in decades. Oddly, a ruling in favor of the administration could also benefit Donald Trump if he wins the presidency, boosting a legal argument that he has the authority to suspend immigration from largely Muslim countries with a proven history of terrorism, as he said last week after the Orlando mass shooting. -- Texas Monthlys Erica Grieder Meanwhile, back with the Democrats: I cant imagine why Texas Democrats wouldnt take every opportunity they can, over the next five months, to point it out. Julian Castro, who eventually gave the keynote speech on Friday evening, was among the few Democrats to explicitly say that he hopes to see Clinton win the states electoral votes in November. It sure seems to me that they might at least try. This might be fact-challenged optimism,as the Austin American StatesmansKen Herman puts it, but whats the worst-case scenario? By competing to win they might, at least, narrow the margin between themselves and the Republicans, and pick up a few seats in the Texas Legislature. Or they can preemptively declare defeat, and wait for the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that Trump represents to ever come around again. >> Heres every way this years STAAR test screwed Texas schools (so far), The Texas Observer -- Trumps bigotry is a drug to Texas Republicans, by Chris Hooks for Rolling Stone. But unlike his first Texas visits, Trump's appearance last week made clear that he's synced, finally, with some significant portion of the Republican Party in the state, and that bodes ill for both the state and the country at large. For a long time, Texas, despite its far-right reputation, had a gentler approach to undocumented immigrants than might be expected. The guiding principle was economic growth. A growing population, and cheap labor, were felt to be beneficial to the state. CAPITOL DAYBOOK no meetings scheduled SPEED READ Texas Take: From not being vetted to the short list, Houston Chronicle Garcia: Trump-Clinton race a study in negativity, San Antonio Express-News Greg Abbott makes unfounded claim about ISIS running through border, Houston Chronicle More specifics revealed on budget losses to Texas Racing Commission, Quorum Report ($) House Republicans offering proposals for health care changes, Associated Press Childrens well-being remains low in Texas, study finds, Houston Chronicle Adios, GOP, The Texas Observer Chase Towers 60th floor Sky Lobby closes to public, Houston Chronicle VA Houston wants to hear from veterans at town hall, Houston Chronicle We dont know about Hillary in term of religion, Associated Press In speech, Trump to ramp up critique of Clinton as failure, Associated Press RACE TO THE WHITE HOUSE -- Coming attractions: As Donald Trump gears up for his all-out war on Hillary and Bill Clinton, the presumptive Republican nominee on Wednesday is planning to draw ammunition from the controversies that have dogged the family, and particularly its Clinton Foundation, for years, per Politico. >> Paul Ryan has no plans to raise money for Trump, Politico >> Convention cities prepare for large protests, The New York Times -- What Clinton learned from Trumps GOP rivals, by CNN. The presumptive Democratic nominee and her formidable cavalry including President Barack Obama, Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden are hitting Trump fast, hard and often. And they aren't making jokes about his hands. Instead, they are questioning his temperament, his business acumen and his fundamental values as an American in a nonstop bid to make him unpalatable to voters. The effort was on full display Tuesday when Clinton delivered stinging rebukes of Trump's business competence, which are at the heart of his public persona. 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. Warriors end season with win over Rebels SIOUX RAPIDS - The Alta-Aurelia football team traveled to face Sioux Central for their final game of the season and... Cherokee takes down Generals to finish season CHEROKEE - The Cherokee football team hosted Sibley-Ocheyedan on Friday and won 35-28 to finish out their season. The... Warriors suffer heartbreaking end to season ALTA - The Alta-Aurelia volleyball team hosted Lawton-Bronson last Wednesday and suffered a nail-biting 3-2 loss to end their season.... Unity ends Cherokee volleyball season ORANGE CITY - Out of sync early, Cherokee's volleyball squad fell hard in the first set 25-8 to ranked Unity... Theres an underappreciated side to the now-infamous New York Times Magazine story about Ben Rhodes, President Obamas deputy national security advisor for strategic communications. As shallow and self-important as Rhodes comes across in the article, he clearly knows his audience. The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old, and their only reporting experience consists of being around political campaigns, Rhodes said. Thats a sea change. They literally know nothing. Rhodes, like much of the media he spins, is a well-educated member of the upper middle class. He is a product of the same progressive cultural and ideological milieu, and he thus has keen instincts for what he can get away withand no shame about revealing it. Rhodes has good reason for such confidence. Surveying Americas elite liberal arts institutions, with a focus on Oberlin College, The New Yorkers Nathan Heller illustrates just how unhinged most institutions of higher education have become. Schools like Oberlin have for decades rejected the tenets on which they were foundednamely, that exposing young minds to the Western canon would teach them to think critically and yield productive, well-rounded members of society. Instead, Oberlin and many other once-prestigious schools have become cauldrons of radical leftism. Heller describes students who simply refuse to talk with classmates of other races; scholarship students who view the same college that provides them with free world-class educational opportunities as a tool of capitalist oppression; and students who feel they are being oppressed because their classwork distracts them from social activism. Hellers account confirms what critics of campus environments have been chronicling for years: that trigger warnings must be slapped even on the greatest books to protect students from ideas that might upset them, and that identity is treated as a kind of knowledge in itselfclassic literature, not so much. Students at many of todays leading institutions no longer study the classics. What do dead white males know about microaggression or cultural appropriation, anyway? At Stanford University, students recently voted down an initiative to institute a two-quarter Western Civilization requirement for undergraduates. Todays academy replaces the knowledge and wisdom gleaned from Plato, Aristotle, and Herodotus with political correctness, multiculturalism, and infantilizationto devastating effect. Supposedly liberal and tolerant campuses create safe spaces limited to certain identity groups and those of a certain ideological inclination. In reality, safe spaces are safe only from the diversity their inhabitants claim to cherish. Activist students decry institutions based in imperialism, white supremacy, capitalism, ableism, and a cissexist heteropatriarchy, as one group of aggrieved black students at Oberlin described it. One cant escape the impression that liberal arts schools are more focused on coddling the next generation of community-organizing social-justice warriors than on educating them. The end product is a cultural and political elite made up of entitled leftists ill-equipped to deal with the realities of a competitive world. As Ronald Reagan would say, the problem with Americas elites is that they know so much that isnt so. They see things as they wish them to be rather than as they actually are. They can be easily manipulated because theyve never examined their own assumptions. And this makes them ripe for the plucking by Ben Rhodes and his ilk. The progressive academy impairs the minds of Americas elite, leaving them lacking in both knowledge and judgment. This miseducation permeates the culture, which feeds back into our political system in a vicious cycle. Conservatives thus face a deep challenge. Our ideas are losing, and increasingly are not even being considered. We need our own long march through the institutions. Without one, we will continue to lose the country. For ideas truly do have consequences far beyond any one election cycle. Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images A divisive issue has arisen in Hillary Clintons tony adopted hometown of Chappaqua (population 1,400), in New Yorks Westchester County: affordable housingspecifically, whether to permit the construction of subsidized apartments for low-income families near the train station. In 2009, the county reached a settlement with the federal government of a lawsuit alleging that it had failed to remove racial and income-related barriers for poor residents seeking better housingin effect, that it had discriminated. Since then, HUD has doggedly pushed Westchester, including its wealthy localities, to finance hundreds of new units of subsidized housing and to market them aggressively, particularly to minorities. Whats at stake goes beyond Westchester County. Through its expansive fair housing policies, the Obama administration wants to ensure that poor minorities, who have historically clustered in low-income urban neighborhoods, can avail themselves of the better schools and greater safety of high-income suburban locales. As HUD puts it: No childs ZIP code should determine her opportunity to achieve. Support for deconcentrating povertythat is, reducing the percentage of poor people within specific localities by relocating them elsewherehas gained additional momentum from a recent Supreme Court decision and new social-science research. Its far from clear, though, that black or other minorities will benefit from such policies. An aggressive deconcentration push could introduce race and class tensions into hundreds of communities by overriding the powerful dynamic of the American housing market, in which residents earn their way up the socioeconomic rungs of a housing ladder. Deconcentration policies also undermine the achievements of minorities who have moved to more affluent communities through their own hard efforts. A better course would be to enforce an older view of fair housingsimply ensuring access for everyone who can afford to move to a neighborhood and aggressively prosecuting violationsand, crucially, to encourage a culture of upward mobility, in which people take advantage of opportunity. Since the 1930s, the federal government has subsidized housing for low-income households. But the various forms of such subsidized housing have all run into trouble of one kind or another. Public-housing projects have become the locus of crime and long-term poverty. Housing-voucher holders have tended to concentrate in lower-income neighborhoods. The original goals of subsidized housingto provide safe and sanitary living conditions as well as an environment that would increase the likelihood of upward mobilityhave proved elusive. Enter the Obama administration, with an approach that inverts the traditional approach to subsidized housingseeing relocation of still-poor families to wealthier areas as a key to economic advancement and favoring housing subsidies for these purposes. In its recently issued rule for affirmatively furthering fair housing, the administration has formalized this goal: HUD will provide publicly open data for grantees to use to assess the state of fair housing within their communities and to set locally-determined priorities and goals. . . . HUD will provide open data to grantees and the public on patterns of integration and segregation, racially and ethnically concentrated areas of poverty, disproportionate housing needs, and disparities in access to opportunity. This improved approach provides a better mechanism for HUD grantees to build fair housing goals into their existing community development and housing planning processes. Recent research, at least at first glance, suggests that neighborhood segregation is still holding blacks back. A Stanford Graduate School of Education study released in June 2015 and based on census data found that even affluent blacks are likely to live in communities in which average incomes are lower than their ownand that poor whites are likely to live in neighborhoods in which average incomes are higher than their own. Blacks earning $50,000 a year live in neighborhoods where the annual median income is just $42,000. White families with incomes as low as $13,000 a year, by contrast, live in neighborhoods in which the annual median income is $45,000. As the Stanford study summarized: [M]iddle-income black and Hispanic households are much more likely to live in poor neighborhoodswhich tend to have weaker schools, more crime and bigger social problemsthan whites or Asians who earn the same amount of money. This segregation may be constraining the upward mobility of black and Hispanic children compared with their white and Asian peers. The recent work of Harvard economists Raj Chetty, Nathanial Hendren, and Lawrence Katz, in turn, suggests that using federal programs to relocate poor minorities to wealthier areas could boost the upward mobility of disadvantaged kids. Their 2015 paper, The Effects of Exposure to Better Neighborhoods on Children, upended previous research on the Moving to Opportunity program, a HUD initiative that used vouchers to relocate poor families living in public-housing projects into more affluent areas of Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York. Earlier studies found virtually no benefits from these efforts. Some families were offered a housing voucher to move to a less poor neighborhood, others a voucher that let them move to any neighborhood they wished. Using IRS records to track the earnings of voucher recipients over time, the Harvard researchers, however, found that life prospects of young children whose parents moved to better-off, high mobility areas did improve: The findings imply that offering families with young children living in high-poverty housing projects vouchers to move to lower-poverty neighborhoods may reduce the intergenerational persistence of poverty and ultimately generate positive returns for taxpayers. Overreliance on public housing deprived blacks of one of the key means of upward mobility: home-value appreciation. On closer inspection, though, it isnt so clear what story the Harvard and Stanford studies are telling. The Stanford study doesnt answer a key question: Are people self-segregating? Nothing in its findings precludes the possibility that some minority households, whatever their income, simply choose to live in predominantly minority neighborhoods. That may, of course, reflect their view of likely white animosity, but it may also suggest their sense of where they will have more in common with neighbors. Nor do the findings rule out that a family may prefer not to move, even if HUD thinks that doing so is in its best interest. Blacks often lack financial resources to move to wealthier areas; by some estimates, blacks have less than eight cents in assets for every dollar in whites assets. Liberals often cite this racial wealth gap as evidence that historical discrimination continues to play a role in putting blacks at a disadvantage. But the idea that the wealth gap reflects only a history of housing discrimination ignores the role that public and subsidized housing has played in limiting the growth of African-American assets. The arrival of large numbers of African-Americans in northern cities in the 1940s and 1950s coincided with the dramatic expansion of public housing, which many of these newcomers moved into. Blacks overrepresentation in public housing continues today; the most recent HUD data show that blacks occupy 44 percent of HUD-subsidized rental housing. This long-term overreliance on public housing deprived blacks of one of the key means of upward mobility available to waves of immigrants: home-value appreciation. The Harvard study also merits skepticism, especially because of its call for a dramatic expansion of deconcentration programs. In fact, the United States already has broadly deconcentrated poverty: some 77 percent of poor black families live in nonpoor neighborhoods, according to Rutgers public-policy professor Paul Jagowski. (He also finds that the chance that a low-income white family will live in a high-poverty neighborhood has, since 2000, increased more than that for black families.) A disproportionate rate of black poverty has persisted, however. This is not to dismiss entirely the Harvard findings on the benefits that young black children enjoyed from living in wealthier areas, but data from a limited sample shouldnt be given equal weight with the much broader evidence that relocation is not a silver bullet for black advancement. The case for dispersing the poor through subsidized housing remains shaky, at best. Americas residential communities are not, as the HUD worldview implies, divided along a bright line between the poor inner city and wealthy suburbs. They can be thought of instead as rungs on a ladder, encompassing a series of neighborhoods where housing costs move up incrementally and where residents share many common characteristics, from socioeconomic status to the belief that they have earned that status. Though this phenomenon is often referred to as socioeconomic segregation or stratification, it can also serve to encourage tolerance, including among different races and ethnicities. As the sociologist Herbert Gans observed in his 1961 book The Levittowners, Experience with residential integration in many communities, including Levittown, indicates that it can be achieved without problems when the two races are similar in socioeconomic level and in the visible cultural aspects of class. So it was that ethnic groups that were rivals in the cities, such as the Irish, Italians, Jews, and Polessome not even considered white by nineteenth-century nativistsmade common cause in the postwar suburbs. They understood that they were joined in a virtuous conspiracy of shared values: maintaining public order, good schools, safe streets, and clean parks. Where todays HUD implicitly views such good communities as the creation of money and privilege, these residents saw the fruits of self-sacrifice and constructive life decisionsmarriage and education, as well as careful local governance. The converse of the Gans formula for tolerance is also true: forcing social classes together can generate considerable tension. As with affirmative action, it inevitably raisesfairly or unfairlythe question of whether new minority recipients are deserving. Nobody understands the risks of such a policy better than middle-class minorities. They have often sacrificed to move up and out of poor neighborhoods, in just the way that HUD once sought to encourage. As an African-American who happily resides in one of the aforementioned towns targeted for this deplorable lower-income housing, I am appalled at this decision to reward those individuals who . . . chose the easy way out instead of dedicating oneself to hard work, said a black resident of the affluent New York suburb of Larchmont, in response to the Westchester County settlement. My wife and I worked hard to be able to purchase a home and PAY TAXES in one of these towns, just like everyone else who resides in them. Another said: As an African-American, I am tired of the practice of placing government housing in otherwise middle-class and affluent neighborhoods. . . . All it does is reinforce a stereotype that all African-Americans are laggards when it comes to educating ourselves, rising socially and advancing economically. It is not as though there arent African-Americans already living in these neighborhoods in Westchester. These black residents of Westchester are yearning for a truly postracial America, where African-Americans are no longer a special case for social policy and where their own accomplishments matter. (See Housing as Busing, Autumn 2009.) They understand that good communities are neither inevitable nor inherited; they must be built and maintained day by day. But doing so requires a sense of commonality. America has had considerable success in achieving this, but HUDs approach threatens to alter, by fiat, the spontaneous ways in which Americans form tolerant, diverse communities. Based on their incomes, African-Americans are not underrepresented in Westchester County, even in the wealthiest communities. As of the 2000 census, Scarsdale was 1.5 percent black; Pound Ridge, 1.2 percent. That may sound low, but there simply arent many affluent blacks in the entire county. Only 2 percent of black households in Westchester earned more than $200,000 in 2000a total of 911 familiescompared with 12.6 percent of white households. What such figures dont show is any intent to exclude on the basis of racethe fundamental violation of fair housing, at least in its traditional interpretation. That interpretation has come under fire. In a June 2015 decision, the Supreme Court effectively affirmed HUDs right to interpret fair housing far more broadly. By a 5-4 vote, the Court agreed with a group called the Inclusive Communities Project that the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs had reinforced segregated housing patterns by allocating too many tax credits to housing in predominantly black inner-city areas and too few in predominantly white suburban neighborhoods. The case stemmed not from private-housing discrimination but from the application of the low-income housing tax credit, a government-subsidy program that supports the construction of low-cost rental units. Texas had chosen to subsidize more units in poorer neighborhoods rather than fewer units in affluent, more costly neighborhoodsas would inevitably be the case any time HUD pushed to locate subsidized units in wealthier suburbs, where property is more expensive. Under the Courts ruling, even if the state were not acting explicitly to deny individual households the right to rent or buy in nonminority communities, the disparate impact of its policy supported the case for change. Is HUD seeking to help the pooror to make sure that the rich cannot insulate themselves from the poor? In his dissent, Justice Samuel Alito noted that the ruling ignored the old-fashioned requirement to prove intent to discriminate. The Cato Institutes Walter Olson suggested that the ruling could encourage the Obama administration to turn disparate-impact law into an engine of revolutionary changes in local government and housing practice, introducing, for example, such concepts as a local government obligation to pursue subsidized federal housing grants and to enact laws forcing private landlords to accept Section 8 tenants. Such a push would mean more bad news for those minority homeowners who have worked hard and moved to better neighborhoods by making good life choices. Is HUD really seeking to help as many of the poor as possibleor to make sure that the rich cannot insulate themselves from the poor? Limited numbers of black (or Hispanic) families can afford to move to affluent suburbs. HUD gets the question right: How best to encourage poor African-Americans, and the poor generally, to advance themselves? But it gets the solution wrong. In fact, HUD proposes to send a pernicious message to African-Americans and other minority groups: a neighborhood in which you are the majority population must not be a good neighborhood. Moreover, isolated public-housing projects going up in the far corners of affluent suburbs could easily become new ghettosand with no guarantee that the relocated families will see their childrens lives improve meaningfully. Even if a program of emptying poor neighborhoods were a poverty cure, it can hardly be considered practical. Indeed, at some point, minority elected officials, losing constituents in poor districts, would likely object. The Moving to Opportunity and other relocation-first approaches are far from the only imaginable ways to encourage upward mobility among public-housing residents. Other ways might be found to use the rent-payment system to reward work. As it is now, when public-housing tenants incomes go up, so do their rentsby 30 cents on every dollar. Also helpful would be a time limit on new tenanciesperhaps five years, as with cash public assistance. An open-ended promise of an inexpensive apartmentmade more expensive if one works harder and succeedshardly seems like the way to encourage upward mobility. But thats our current policy. The most effective way for the American poor to improve their prospects is to embrace a culture of upward mobility. Such a culture would be based on constructive life choices supported by public policy that should seek to encourage and reward work and improve public education. As Nathan Glazer wrote in 2010: To frame a self-help policy narrative based on what is generally understood as the American immigrant path may be the best choice available: acceptance of how hard it is to get ahead in America, but recognition that ones efforts can and often will succeed. That approach, after all, does have the merit of being largely true. It may not be altogether fair to suggest that African-Americans compete on similar terms with other poor ethnic groups. But as the complications that quickly arise when considering HUDs new approach to fair housing make clear, theres simply no practical alternative. Photo: Downtown Chappaqua, in New Yorks Westchester County, where federal officials are trying to force the construction of affordable housing. (Hearst Connecticut Media/Greenwich Time, Tyler Sizemore/AP Photo) 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 Experimentation is often more helpful in highlighting what doesnt work than what does. Take a sponsored post from February 2015 that Deseret Digital Media produced for the Utah Transportation Coalition. Utah: A national model and blueprint for the future, reads a piece extolling the virtues of a plan to bolster the states transit system. Yawn, right? says Matt Sanders, senior director at Deseret Digital Media. It was A) a terrible headline; B) the wrong copy; and C) my goodness.We did mega-boring, useless content. And it failed. And thats a good thinga lesson for branded content efforts that the media organization has consistently expanded and sharpened. The company that owns the Deseret News, Salt Lake City NBC affiliate KSL, and FamilyShare.com has created native ad campaigns for several dozen businesses over the past three years en route to a seven-figure stream of new revenue. In 2014, it began a pilot program selling similar marketing services to other local publishers. That initiative was formally christened on Tuesday as BrandForge, a native advertising studio aimed at helping local media nationwide get a foothold in the fast-growing market for branded content. Local media companies have very different challenges than Manhattan media groups, which have Madison Avenue at their fingertips, Sanders says. We have a lot of empathy for and battle wounds in common with those [local] companies. A handful of innovative efforts notwithstanding, metro and local news organizations have generally fallen behind their nationally facing counterparts in this arena. Smaller outlets often lack both advertisers with advanced digital marketing strategies and the startup cash required to build branded content capabilities internally. Local media companies have very different challenges than Manhattan media groups, which have Madison Avenue at their fingertips. Sign up for CJR 's daily email Global-facing media companies such as The New York Times and BuzzFeed can build out large teams to produce branded content sophisticated enough to jive with their organizations editorial quality and sensibility. The same is true to a lesser extent with large newspaper chains, some of which have begun trying to package their disparate audiences into cohesive blocks for native advertising online. Gannett launched its own branded content studio in March, and in April it debuted a Honda-sponsored virtual reality video that was part of a reportedly seven-figure ad campaign. Podcasts have also proven a natural vehicle for transmitting native ads to highly engaged digital audiences. Smaller shops generally dont have such advantages. The quandary puts local news organizations at the heart of the foundational controversy of native advertising: a tug-of-war between publishers and advertisers respective brands. Deseret Digital Medias creation of a native advertising studio-for-hire is an attempt to bridge these divides and help local media get a piece of the action before its too late. The Utah-based company itself occupies a middle ground in terms of audience scale and geographic reach, which should help it blend local sensibilities with digital know-how for clients. DeseretNews.com drew 2.4 million unique visitors in May, according to comScore, while KSL.com attracted roughly 3 million. But coupled with the social Web-focused FamilyShare venture and other digital properties, Deseret Digital Media has a relatively long digital reach. You have to get to a certain scale before its worthwhile to create your own content studio, Sanders says. Over the past two years, the BrandForge pilot landed 30 contracts covering about 60 publishers, including the Midwestern newspaper chain Schurz Communications and the Pacific Northwest chain Pioneer News Group. The Utah-based team both trains local staffs on the minefield between editorial and advertising, Sanders says, and then works with them to produce specific campaigns for local advertisers. For the smaller organizations, theres a lot of tension between quality and costwhat they can get advertisers to pay, says Michele McLellan, who published a report on native advertising in May for the Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism. The problem is that some publications are still doing advertisements masquerading as stories. And I think thats to the detriment of their credibility. A number of additional local and regional players have attempted to overcome those competing factors. Their efforts dont mirror Deseret Digital Medias exactly, but they do illustrate growing energy to pursue native advertising revenue by non-national players. In Dallas, decidedly toward the heftier end of the spectrum, the flagship Dallas Morning News joined with a local advertising agency in 2012 to create a standalone firm, Speakeasy, for digital marketing and native advertising services. The setup allowed both founding partners to leverage what theyre good atand avoid what they arent. The independence definitely helps us out, says Mike Orren, president of Speakeasy. But theres no way we would have grown at the pace we did without The Dallas Morning News sales force. Speakeasy, a particularly ambitious venture that employs about two dozen, primarily produces content for advertisers own sites and manages their social media strategies. Weve done some native on the Dallas News site, Orren says, but on the low scale it doesnt have the impact wed like it to have. (ComScore puts DallasNews.coms May audience at 11.7 million unique visitors.) With roughly 60 clientsOrren says annual retainer fees range anywhere from $60,000 to more than $1 millionSpeakeasy is profitable and is likely to continue growing. A couple of newspaper groups have reached out to us and asked how to do Speakeasy in their markets, Orren says. Were also in some very early stages of trying to do some syndication of branded content across newspapers. A few far smaller organizations have likewise incorporated branded content into their businesses. In the Washington metro area, Local News Now, a group of four hyperlocal sites, counts on columns by local businesses and freelancer-produced promoted posts for between 40 percent and 50 percent of total revenue, founder Scott Brodbeck tells CJR. Brodbeck argues that native advertising, if done correctly, makes even more sense for local brands than it does for national companies. How effective can it be [nationally]? he says. Its such a fragmented landscape out there. Here, in our areas, we have very high geographic penetration. So when we publish sponsored content, we know that a large percentage of the target readership is going to see it. Despite that potential, the psychological hurdles to branded content remain high among local media. In a February webinar on native advertising for Local Independent Online News Publishers, Brodbeck attempted to dispel this aversion in the second slide of his presentation. Readers like relevant, interesting local information, whether thats coming from editorial content or branded content, Brodbeck adds in an interview. Thats what makes native advertising attractive. And thats what led Deseret Digital Medias sponsored post from the Utah Transportation Coalition to fail last year: It wasnt particularly interesting and didnt feel authentic. Every user now has a really strong radar for when theyre being pitched something, says Sanders, the companys senior director. Now, he adds, if the company were to tackle the same project, it would produce a video on a day in the life of a Salt Lake City light rail line operator. Many of the companys native ads are simple text pieces geared toward mobile reading and social distributionlisticles aplentybut more multimedia offerings are on the way. Company brass claim such branded content often draws equal or greater audience engagement than editorial content. Deseret Digital Medias venture, BrandForge, aims to balance costs and quality by relying on a team of about 70 freelancers to produce most of clients content, and another half-dozen or so to focus on strategy. Company staff will provide coordination and support, along with shouldering some video and infographic production duties. The goal is to sell services to hundreds of publishers by the end of the year. Were very confident in our ability to scale, Sanders says. One of our key advantages is that we get to field test everything as a publisher. We have end-to-end vision of the entire value chain. Or, to put it another way, the ability to experiment. Small publishers cant often afford such a luxuryits welcome news that Deseret Digital Media, and potentially other entrants, are doing this legwork. Revenue from native advertising wont be enough to save local journalism alone, of course, but even modest new cash flows may be able to save individual journalists. Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today David Uberti is a writer in New York. He was previously a media reporter for Gizmodo Media Group and a staff writer for CJR. Follow him on Twitter @DavidUberti. With the nation spending billions on medical and indemnity expenses for employees injured on the job, as well as patients facing illnesses or surgeries, workers compensation carriers, group health insurers and Third Party Administrators (TPAs) are looking for innovative solutions to providing better and less costly health services. Two Thought Leadership papers one for workers compensation payers and one for group health organizations from PTPN, a national network for independent rehabilitation specialists, examine the role and benefits of physical therapy in both group health and workers compensation cases in the face of major changes in the American healthcare system. As they adapt to new value-based care models, health plans and workers comp carriers require new solutions to meet their needs and those of injured workers, says Michael Weinper, PT, DPT, M.P.H., president of PTPN. These papers show how a different approach to the changes in the nations workers comp and group healthcare can not only improve the delivery of health services, but also deliver better outcomes for a wide range of patients at a lower cost. According to The New Paradigm for Better Quality, Lower Costs papers Leveraging the Power of PT for Workers Comp and Leveraging the Power of Ancillary Services, workers comp carriers and health plans and may be missing an important ally in their efforts to meet the goals of healthcare delivery today: providers of physical therapy services. Studies show that bringing physical therapy into an injured patients treatment early can have major benefits, including better patient outcomes, reduced use of pain medicine, improved patient satisfaction, reduced re-admissions and lower medical and indemnity costs. Key points to consider from the PTPN papers include: While imaging often is used to diagnose patients with chronic and or acute back pain, it may not be the best first step. A 2015 study in Health Services Research Journal found that for patients who were first treated with physical therapy, costs were an average of $4,793 less than patients first sent to imaging. A landmark 2012 study in Spine reported that prompt referral of patients from primary care physicians to physical therapy resulted in decreased use of advanced imaging, surgery, injections and prescription pain medications. Savings were an average $2,736.23 less for patients receiving early physical therapy. The Workers Comp Research Institute reports that 65 to 85 percent of injured workers getting a pain medication are prescribed an opioid. Industry analysis of best practice data indicates that close to 90% of those injuries are more appropriately treated with over-the-counter pain medications and PT. Avoiding opioids can reduce the possibility of reliance or even addiction to the powerful drugs, a concern in the United States today. According to the American Hospital Association, organizations should seek to develop preferred relationships with post-acute providers that have demonstrated good outcomes and are willing to collaborate on performance improvement. The PTPN papers offer steps to finding PT providers who meet these criteria as well as what to expect from a quality independent PT network. These benchmarks include innovation in care pathways and readmission risk reduction; the highest credentialing and quality standards; and outcomes measurement. By collaborating with independent physical therapists who hold themselves to the highest standards of care, says Weinper, health plans and workers comp carriers can achieve the vision and promise of todays value-based healthcare programs. Source: PTPN Jimmy "Duck" Holmes, the Last of a Dying Breed, Says 'It Is What It Is,' Blue Porch [REVIEW] 'It Is What It Is' by Jimmy "Duck" Holmes (Photo : courtesy Blue Front Records) Jimmy "Duck" Holmes just may be the last of a dying breed. Straight out of the Mississippi Delta, his seventh album, It Is What It Is, is the premiere release on the new Blue Front Records out of Bentonia, Mississippi. It's filled with the real Delta blues, no rock'n'roll here, this one's for purists. Accompanied only by his three guitars-electric Harmony Stratotone, 12-string and acoustic Epiphone-plus his mouth organ and various percussive sounds he makes with his foot on the floor of the juke joint that housed the session, Holmes sings such traditional tales of terror like "Evil" and "It Had To Be The Devil" with the kind of holler that will seep into your soul. His originals are as low-down as anything by Son House, Charlie Patton or even Robert Johnson. Holmes is the heir to such blues and deserves a pedestal so more people can hear the real thing. It's the kind of blues that will bring your arm hairs to attention. It's so low-down that it cannot help but lift you up. As primitive as the moans and wails of the slaves who sang themselves into at least some semblance of happiness in the face of despicable circumstance, the cries, shouts and exclamations of this natural-born soulful vocalist are punctuated with drama and flair when he pounds out those minor-tuned chords and trilling lead notes on his ax. The cumulative effect, as with all great classic blues, especially the pre-WWII stuff, goes right through your defenses to the point where you can only nod your head, take a deep breath, and get down with what he's puttin' out. In listening to these tracks one after another, you get a sense of the Blue Front Cafe in Bentonia, one of the oldest juke joints in Mississippi. The place was owned by Jimmy's parents since 1948, and he's run it since 1970. Between its steel barrel stove, cinderblock acoustics and walls that have witnessed the legendary Skip James [1902-1969] himself performing on that small stage, it reeks of blues validity. Close your eyes. You can feel it. 2016 The Classical Art, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. TagsJimmy Duck Holmes, Blue Porch Records, REVIEW, Skip James MILWAUKEE, Wis. - This city has plenty to brag about when it comes to redeveloping polluted industrial wastelands and creating new jobs for city residents. Over the past 15 years, Milwaukee has turned the Menomonee Valley, where tanneries and meatpacking plants once fouled the air and water, into a gleaming 21st-century zone for work and play with 39 businesses that employ 5,200 workers. The valley also boasts Miller Park Stadium, home of the Brewers; the new Harley Davidson Museum; the Potawatomi Hotel & Casino; seven miles of recreational trails; and scores of acres of green infrastructure designed to capture storm runoff and reduce sewer overflows into Lake Michigan A two-day visit to Milwaukee last week left a group of Cleveland civic leaders duly impressed by the valley and other projects that are reshaping the city's Lake Michigan waterfront, lining its riverfronts with thousands of new apartments and condo units, and lifting impoverished neighborhoods. Convincing impressions The visit also convinced them that they need to ramp up their commitment to planning for Opportunity Corridor, a 400-acre redevelopment zone on Cleveland's East Side, where the Ohio Department of Transportation is building a three-mile, $331 million boulevard that could spur a Menomonee-style rebirth. The danger is that without planning, zoning and land assembly to control development, the road could become what skeptics and even some planners fear: a suburban commuter junk-scape lined with fast food joints, gas stations and payday lenders that extends from the stub end of I-490 at East 55th Street to employers in Cleveland's dynamic University Circle district including the Cleveland Clinic. The nonprofit Fund For Our Economic Future co-organized the Milwaukee trip with the Gund Foundation, the Greater Cleveland Partnership and the Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland to examine Milwaukee's successes and to see how they might apply to planning for Opportunity Corridor. Some 29 Clevelanders attended, including members of the Opportunity Corridor Steering Committee, foundation officials, City Councilwomen Phyllis Cleveland and Mamie Mitchell, and directors of Cleveland community development organizations. More than anything, the trip emphasized the central role in Milwaukee redevelopment projects played by the administration of Mayor Tom Barrett, recently elected to a fourth term. Stand by your plan Rocky Marcoux, Milwaukee's commissioner of development, said for example that Barrett staunchly backed his planners when they turned down proposals for the Menomonee Valley from companies that wanted to build warehouses or distribution centers that wouldn't meet a minimum threshold of creating 22 jobs per acre. "At some point, the leader of the city has to say no," Marcoux said during a panel discussion with the Cleveland visitors in a renovated 19th-century coal gasification plant that now hosts the offices of Zimmerman Architectural Studios Inc. "The first time you get a 'yes' [to something] that doesn't fit, everything goes like dominoes," Marcoux said. "You better have folks willing to stand by the plan." Marcoux's description provided a sharp contrast to Cleveland, where Mayor Frank Jackson has refused for months to engage in planning for Opportunity Corridor. He's holding back while he negotiates with ODOT and Jobs Ohio, the state's nonprofit economic development agency, over issues including the installation of utilities along the boulevard, hiring commitments for city residents and companies in construction of the roadway, and money to clean brownfields. Holding out for jobs, utilities, money He hasn't allowed staff to attend meetings of the Opportunity Corridor Steering Committee, the goal of which is to help the city leverage the road project to recruit new industries and produce jobs. And he didn't send staff members to Milwaukee, even though the trip's organizers invited the city to participate. On Friday, after the Clevelanders had returned from Milwaukee, Jackson said in an impromptu interview at City Hall that he feels he's making progress in negotiations with ODOT and Jobs Ohio. But he also said that spending hundreds of millions of dollars on Opportunity Corridor would not have been first his choice about how to use such a sum. And he said he's not participating in any future planning for the area until his conditions are met. "I refuse to have a $300 million job go through impoverished neighborhoods without direct benefits," he said. For their part, ODOT officials say they are meeting if not exceeding hiring goals for participation by city residents and local firms. And they say they've found $3.1 million in a discretionary fund to complete utility construction on the boulevard without the city matching funds. ODOT's vow "This road's going to get built, we're going to meet our commitments, and I feel our relationship with the city is a good one," Myron Pakush, ODOT's District 12 deputy director, who attended the Milwaukee trip, said in a recent interview. Jobs Ohio did not respond to a request for comment on the negotiation over the $10 million the city wants for brownfield soil cleanup. In Milwaukee, descriptions of the Barrett administration's active role in the local development projects underscored the absence of members of the Jackson administration in the Cleveland delegation. "The city [of Milwaukee] and its partners here were intentional about what they wanted to happen," Chris Alvarado, executive director of the Slavic Village Development Corp. in Cleveland, said in a debriefing session at the end of the Milwaukee trip. "That's something we need to do better in Opportunity Corridor." The issue raised by Jackson's stance on Opportunity Corridor is whether bargaining for scores or hundreds of short-term construction jobs could jeopardize the chance to create thousands of long-term permanent jobs in the future. Ready or not, here it comes Because the project is nearly fully funded by Ohio through bonds backed by turnpike tolls, with strong support from Ohio Gov. John Kasich, the Opportunity Corridor boulevard will be finished by 2020, whether the city is prepared or not. The question is whether the city's current refusal to lead the planning energetically risks causing an outcome that would make Opportunity Corridor's name a joke. Planning consultant Paul Brophy of Columbia, Maryland, who helped lead the Milwaukee trip for the Clevelanders, concluded the event with advice and admonitions after lunch and a debriefing session at the Miller Inn, part of the historic Miller Brewing complex in the city's rejuvenating 30th Street Industrial Corridor. "You've got something really hot," he said, referring to Opportunity Corridor. "Frankly, guys, don't blow this." Brecksville Council B.JPG Brecksville City Council has agreed to hire a Richfield engineering firm to evaluate the VA hospital property. (Bob Sandrick, special to cleveland.com) BRECKSVILLE, Ohio - The city has hired a Richfield engineering firm to evaluate the 102-acre site of the former U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs hospital. The city will pay McCabe Engineering & Contracting $135,500 to determine the conditions of the hospital's 34 buildings, look for asbestos and mold and identify hazardous and medical waste. McCabe will then estimate how much it would cost to demolish the buildings and remove hazardous materials. That estimate will help the city decide whether to obtain the VA property from the federal government for redevelopment, or perhaps transfer the land directly to a developer. "Part of our due diligence is to determine if we will accept VA terms, plus what it will cost afterward to remove environmental (problems) and the buildings," Mayor Jerry Hruby said in a Tuesday email to cleveland.com. "These factors combined are necessary to make our decision." Earlier this month, the city announced plans to convert the VA property, at the northwest corner of Brecksville and Miller roads, into a multi-use district. The development might include restaurants, stores, offices, laboratories, manufacturing plants, warehouses, second-floor apartments over shops, a hospital and/or a hotel. McCabe, in a preliminary study for which Hruby said the VA paid, said it suspects the VA property has environmental issues. "There are reasons to believe that releases of hazardous substances and/or petroleum may have occurred on, (are) underlying or are emanating from the property," McCabe wrote in its report. In a February proposal to the city, McCabe said it will inventory hazardous waste - left in containers like 55-gallon drums - but would not analyze the waste. The firm will keep an eye out for pesticides, equipment containing mercury, discarded batteries and industrial products and chemicals, among other materials. Contaminated sections of the VA property might include an area with concrete debris and "unknown fill material," a former pond, a hazardous waste management unit, a FirstEnergy substation, a universal waste management unit, a former coal storage area, a diesel fuel tank farm, an above-ground ethanol storage tank, a coal and ash handling area inside a building, a paint shop, a former underground gasoline storage tank, a maintenance shop, a former water tower, emergency generator rooms and electrical transformer rooms. zika.jpg The first sexually-transmitted Zika virus case has been identified in Lucas County. (James Gathany, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) CLEVELAND, Ohio-- A 61-year-old Lucas County woman infected with Zika virus by her husband is the state's first sexually-transmitted case of the mosquito-borne virus. The woman's husband traveled to a country with active Zika transmission, according to a release from the Ohio Department of Health. It's the state's 15th travel-associated case, and the woman's husband's case brings the state total to 16. "Travelers to areas with active Zika virus transmission should take precautions to prevent mosquito bites, which is the primary way you can contract the virus," Dr. Mary DiOrio, medical director of ODH said in the release. "When travelers return home, they should follow [Centers for Disease Control] guidance to prevent sexual transmission of the virus, especially to pregnant women or women or may become pregnant." There are now 755 travel-associated Zika cases nationally, with another 12 cases acquired through sexual transmission, according to the CDC. No one in the U.S. has been infected with the virus locally through the bite of a mosquito. The CDC has provided the following guidance on sexual transmission of Zika: Men who have traveled to or reside in an area with active Zika virus transmission and their pregnant sex partners should consistently and correctly use condoms during sex (i.e., vaginal intercourse, anal intercourse, or fellatio) or abstain from sex for the duration of the pregnancy. Men and their The guidance is based on evidence that links certain birth defects to Zika virus. As of early June, 234 pregnant women in the U.S. had been infected with Zika, according to the CDC. Last week, the CDC reported that six women with the virus had delivered babies with birth defects. Three of the six pregnancies were lost or terminated due to brain damage from the virus. "We have been preparing to make sure we are ready in case something like this happened," Dr. David Grossman, Health Commissioner of Toledo-Lucas County Public Health said in the release. "It's important to take the necessary precautions to protect yourself from mosquito bites and control the mosquito population by eliminating standing water, wearing insect repellent along with long sleeves and pants, and have intact screens on doors and windows." Unlike the Ebola virus, which is transmitted through close contact with bodily fluids and is highly contagious, Zika is passed along when a mosquito bites an infected person, feeds, and carries the infected blood to another person. State officials say they have been preparing for Zika since January. For more information from the state's health department, go to www.odh.ohio.gov. IMG_0312.jpeg Throngs of RTA riders crowded Tower City following the Cleveland Cavaliers' victory parade. (Eric Heisig, cleveland.com) CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Commuters are experiencing lengthy delays leaving downtown Cleveland following the Cavaliers' victory parade. The county estimated that more than 1 million people attended Wednesday's parade and rally. The crowds caused delays on trains, buses and highways. Keep checking cleveland.com throughout the afternoon commute for updates on parking, traffic, road closures and public transportation. If you're experiencing delays, please tweet photos at twitter.com/kriswernowsky. 7:02 p.m. RTA buses have returned to their normal routes, a spokeswoman said. Buses through downtown had been rerouted to interim terminals on Prospect Avenue near East 22nd Street and the intersection of Superior, Prospect and Huron avenues. 6:51 p.m. The RTA is adding buses for Green and Blue Line services. Riders can board the buses outside the Jack Casino. 6:07 p.m. Heavy traffic at other RTA stations. RTA Rapid platform full @ W. 25/Ohio City station, and line wraps up the station & around the block pic.twitter.com/uIqJrHYEYZ Jane Morice (@janemorice) June 22, 2016 6:06 p.m. Tower City has reopened and RTA trains and buses are running, police said. 5:46 p.m. Lots are still full at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, officials said. 5:37 p.m. Car traffic leaving the city is slow during rush hour following the parade. Officials are asking motorists to be patient. 5:26 p.m. Traffic is still backed up leaving downtown. There are delays on the Shoreway near FirstEnergy Stadium, per cleveland.com reporter Chanda Neely. 5:21 p.m. Update: One woman was shot twice in the leg near Public Square. Suspect in custody. 5:08 p.m. The shooting near Public Square has shut down RTA service at Tower City, according to police scanner traffic. 5:08 p.m. Two women were injured in a non-fatal shooting near Public Square, police are reporting. The shooter is in custody. Ontario and Euclid, 2 females shot, non fatal, E. 4/Euclid male suspect is in custody. EMS enroute please avoid area. Cleveland Police (@CLEpolice) June 22, 2016 4:58 p.m. There's a long line of cars on Superior Avenue headed toward I-90. 4:51 p.m. The RTA has temporarily closed the entrance to the Tower City station due to overcrowding. Unclear when it will reopen. Tower City Trains are operating however due to large crowds the entrance to Tower City from Public Square has been temporarily closed. Greater Cleveland RTA (@GCRTA) June 22, 2016 4:53 p.m. Heavy traffic on city streets. Traffic totally gridlocked @ E. 13 + Superior Ave. as of 3:45 p.m.; not much has changed as of 5 p.m. pic.twitter.com/co1HWFGLFt Jane Morice (@janemorice) June 22, 2016 4:46 p.m. Witnesses told cleveland.com reporter Robin Goist that the person who pepper sprayed the woman during a fight was arrested. Police at the scene would not offer additional details. 4:36 p.m. More information on the report of someone being pepper sprayed: A woman was pepper sprayed during a fight, according to police scanner traffic. #CLE EMS taking care of young woman who was maced in Subway (restaurant) pic.twitter.com/Hwpb1nA69j Robin Goist (@robingoist) June 22, 2016 4:30 p.m. Overheard on police scanner: Report of someone being pepper-sprayed at Tower City, but not by a police officer. Cleveland EMS en route. 4:18 p.m. The RTA said on Twitter it hopes to resume normal bus routes by 7 p.m., but that is subject to change due to parade traffic. 4:18 p.m. There are significant delays on I-480 east to I-77 south due to a serious crash, according to ODOT. There is a medical helicopter at the scene. Here's a look at traffic in the area. Here's a look at traffic on I-480 east near I-77. pic.twitter.com/Kf9zkNdN5D Evan MacDonald (@evanmac3) June 22, 2016 4:16 p.m. Traffic heavy in downtown Cleveland, particularly on the East Side, per Google Maps. pic.twitter.com/DfbVsw4eYE Evan MacDonald (@evanmac3) June 22, 2016 4:13 p.m. The I-90 east and I-77 north ramps to East 9th are now open, according to ODOT. 4:08 p.m. Long lines at the Green Road RTA station. Photo by @PeterKrouse pic.twitter.com/QEqdytl0jq Evan MacDonald (@evanmac3) June 22, 2016 4:02 p.m. More updates from Tower City. 3:46 p.m. Officers are now estimating a three-hour wait for trains at the Tower City RTA station, per cleveland.com reporter Eric Heisig. 3:44 p.m. Heavy traffic on the I-90 ramp to Chester Avenue. Traffic from 90 E onto Chester is abysmal. Traffic also moving slow on 90 W. #cavsparade #ALLinCLE pic.twitter.com/z5P9Gj8QVR Cory Shaffer (@cory_shaffer) June 22, 2016 3:27 p.m. The line of riders waiting for the RTA at Tower City stretches out the side of the building facing Public Square, according to cleveland.com reporter Eric Heisig. One RTA police officer at Tower City estimated an hour-long wait to board the train. The station remains open but officers are allowing riders to enter in groups, an RTA spokeswoman said. The RTA has established two interim terminals for all buses leaving downtown. The terminals are expected to be in use through the evening commute, an RTA spokeswoman said. Bus riders heading east can catch a ride near the Stephanie Tubbs Jones Transit Center on Prospect Avenue near East 22nd Street. Those heading west can board a bus near the intersection of Superior, Prospect and Huron avenues. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The first truckload of boxes containing 75 years worth of Superman memorabilia from superfan Mike Curtis arrived at the Cleveland Public Library, and now the work begins. Curtis, 63, of Greenbrier, Arkansas, donated his collection of about 17,000 pieces to be used in a permanent exhibit at the downtown library honoring the Man of Steel and his creators, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. When it opens in 2017, it will be the closest thing to a Superman museum the city is likely to get. Curtis, writer of the syndicated Dick Tracy comic strip, said he wanted his collection to be enjoyed and appreciated, and felt that the birthplace of Superman was the perfect spot. Amy Dawson, manager of the library's literature department, said they will categorize every piece of paper, every magazine article about Superman, every lunchbox, every game, every glass, every toy and then preserve it the best way possible. "There is a lot here," she said, looking at the dozens of boxes in a library storage area. "We will apply for a grant to get money so we can preserve and restore the pieces. There are some valuable pieces here that people will want to look at." The job of doing the physical, painstaking labor involved goes to Michael Olszewski, president of the Siegel and Shuster Society. Olszweski is working toward a master's degree in library science, and working with this collection qualifies as work toward his degree. He is officially an intern with the Cleveland Library. He said it will take until the end of the year to categorize and describe each item. Dawson said they will work with specialists to clean up and preserve many of the pieces. "How do you get stains off of a Superman picture on a 40-year-old glass?" she mused. "I don't want to damage it, we have to talk to people who have done this before we go any further." Olszewski and Dawson carefully opened box after box and removed the items inside for examination. Olszewski, who has quite a Superman collection himself, would occasionally stop to ooh and ahh at a particular treasure. "This is a poster for the 1950 'Atom Man vs. Superman' serial and it's signed by Kirk Alyn, who played Superman. This is beautiful. This is a Superman 45 rpm record player from 1978, which is something you don't see very often. And it has Superman records on it." The serials would run before the regular movie feature at movie theaters for months. They would often end on a cliffhanger, designed to bring the audience back for the next Saturday matinee. Much of the Curtis collection is from the 1970s and later, including toys, games, dolls, costumes and other projects readily available at the time. All have value, some more than others. These will be the pieces that people will remember buying for themselves back when they were kids. Then there are the treasures like the 1942 hardback book "The Adventures of Superman" by George Lowther, complete with original Joe Shuster drawings. It is signed Kirk Alyn and Noel Neill, who played Lois Lane in the 1950's Superman television series starring George Reeves. There is also an odd-looking Superman costume that is part of the Superman costume George Reeves wore on the 1957 "I Love Lucy" show with Lucille Ball. Dawson said she hoped to put together a Superman exhibit using a selection of the items this November, to give people a taste of what the full display would look like. She also wants to show how carefully the library treats its possessions, to encourage other Superman collectors to make donations or loans of Superman items. "We would love more items to add to the collection," she said. "We will only be able to show portions of the collection at a time, and we will rotate it to keep it fresh. If there are other collectors out there who wish to loan us an item for a while, we would be happy to display it." Another reason is that Curtis is planning a trip to Northeast Ohio in November to be a guest at the Akron Comiccon, Nov. 5 and 6 at the John S. Knight Convention Center. Dawson said she would like to show Curtis how well they are treating his donations. Curtis will be brought back to Cleveland in 2017 for the official opening of the Superman display. There are many items of Superman (and Supergirl) inspired clothing, including pajamas, capes, costumes, raincoats, pants, shirts and shoes. Some are just a couple of decades, others go back to the 1950s. There are also some interesting non-sanctioned items that DC Comics never approved. Many of them are foreign interpretations of Superman like "Supermagnifico," featuring a man who wears a similar costume but facially bears no resemblance to Superman. Toys from Japan, Mexico and other places that feature a character that looks almost, but not quite, like Superman were in the boxes. Olszewski said it would be fun to put together a display of the knock-offs. The Superman exhibit will be the crown jewel of the library's already massive comic book and graphic novel section. The library has a Siegel and Shuster Reading Room in honor of the Superman creators, who spent so much time at the library in the 1930s. With the Superman statue promised for 2018, the 80th anniversary of the first appearance of Superman in "Action Comics" No. 1, Cleveland will look worthy of calling itself the birthplace of Superman. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A teen was shot outside Tower City shortly after the end of the Cavs victory parade in downtown Cleveland. The shooting happened shortly after 5 p.m. near Euclid Avenue and Ontario Street. Cleveland police said that a 13-year-old girl was shot and that a 15-year-old was taken into custody shortly after the shooting. Police said that two witnesses told investigators that the teen taken into custody was not the shooter. Police are searching for a second suspect. The shooting came toward the end of a mostly peaceful day in downtown Cleveland that saw an estimated 1 million people visit to revel in the Cavaliers championship victory. Lauren Harrison was inside the Euclid Arcade charging her phone when the shooting happened. "We heard screams, and a couple of people thought maybe the players came through," she said. "People looked nervous, scared. I found my daughter and the cops came running through...people were running up the steps to the [hotel] and tripping over each other." Tensions rose around Tower City as people leaving the parade were met with hours-long delays on RTA trains. The shooting brought transit out of Tower City to a standstill. Officials have not discussed a possible motive in the shooting. A cleveland.com reporter at the federal courthouse said that several traumatized witnesses walked into the courthouse after the shooting. I'm at the fed. courthouse. Security let people panicked from the shooting in from safety. There are a few dozen people here. #cavsparade Eric Heisig (@eheisig) June 22, 2016 SWAT officers searched nearby restaurants Harry Buffalo and Hyde Park after several calls reported possible shooters in those buildings. Officials later determined that those claims were unfounded. Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams said the initial report reported that the shooting happened inside the Jack Casino, but police cleared the building. The chief said the casino was expected to reopen later Wednesday evening. Another cleveland.com reporter who was outside Tower City said that she heard about four gunshots and saw people screaming and running away from the building. Mothers held their children. Reports of robbery at Harry Buffalo are false. No additional incidents to report. Cleveland Police (@CLEpolice) June 22, 2016 No one shot in casino. No shooting in casino. Cleveland Police (@CLEpolice) June 22, 2016 Cleveland.com reporters Cory Shaffer and Eric Heisig contributed to this story. If you would like to comment on this story, please visit our crime and courts comment page. Has the country's greatness faded? america from A1 Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine on Wednesday rejected a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow prayer in public schools. (David Goldman, Associated Press) COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Attorney General Mike DeWine on Wednesday rejected petitions from a group proposing a constitutional amendment giving Ohio children the right to pray in public schools and requiring schools to display the U.S. Bill of Rights. The Coalition to Return Prayer to Our Public Schools turned in 1,402 signatures to DeWine's office, 402 more than needed at this stage. DeWine's job is to certify whether the summary that will appear on future petitions is a fair and truthful summary of the proposed amendment. But DeWine didn't even get that far; the group's submission contained only the summary and lacked the actual proposed amendment language DeWine's office compares the summary to. "This deficiency is a fatal error that requires me to reject the submission," DeWine wrote in a letter to the group. The group made the same error and a few others in a 2013 submission for the same proposed amendment. Henry Johnson III of the Coalition to Return Prayer to Our Public Schools said the group plans to resubmit the language in the future but does not have a target election date. Johnson, senior pastor at Union Grove Baptist Church in Columbus, said the amendment was intended to give Christians the right to pray in schools. But he said it would not prohibit people of other faiths from praying "their way." "When I was coming up, it was quite different than what it is today," Johnson told cleveland.com. "We didn't have a problem of having prayer in school. We didn't have a problem with having Christmas plays and Easter plays. We feel like as Christians, our rights are being deprived" The summary says the amendment would express: That the right of Ohio citizens to express their religious beliefs shall not be infringed upon. That school children have the right to pray and/or acknowledge their religious beliefs voluntarily in their schools. That all public schools shall display the Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution. The attorney general's certification is the first step in a long, often expensive process to put a constitutional amendment before voters. If approved by DeWine, the bipartisan Ohio Ballot Board then decides whether the amendment should be one issue or multiple issues on the ballot. After that step, petitioners can start collecting the 305,591 signatures of registered Ohio voters needed to qualify the measure for the ballot. The pro-independence Scottish National Party's (SNP) move to ally with British Prime Minister David Cameron in rallying voters to stay in the European Union (EU) is coming under fire from an influential Scottish politician. Earlier this month, Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister of Scotland and SNP leader, warned a British exit from the EU would place Edinburgh at the "mercy of the most right-wing Tory government in modern history." If the leave camp prevails at Thursday's vote, speculation is high that Cameron will resign and be succeeded by one of the right-wing figures behind the campaign, such as former London mayor Boris Johnson. Should that happen, Sturgeon said a number of rights, such as maternity leave or vacation leave, could be dismantled. But such arguments are deceptive and amount to scare-mongering, former SNP deputy leader Jim Sillars told CNBC on Wednesday. "Whoever forms a Tory administration after Thursday only has a majority of 12 in the House of Commons. No government with a 12 majority will ever start to try to undo the various benefits we have in British law in terms of maternity pay, paternal leave and the right to holidays." The SNP has also warned that a Brexit could hit Scottish trade with the rest of Europe "At the moment we are part of a free market where we have access to 500 million other consumers...If we voluntarily withdraw from that free market, we will no longer have access to trading with that free market," SNP politician Joanna Cherry said this week, according to the BBC. watch now McDonald's has received more than half a dozen bids for its planned sale of China and Hong Kong stores, including offers from Beijing Tourism Group, Sanpower and ChemChina in a deal worth about $3 billion, people familiar with the matter told Reuters. McDonald's is offering a 20-year master franchise agreement to buyers as part of the deal, but has placed restrictions which has discouraged some private equity firms from participating in the process, the people added. Still, some global buyout firms including Bain Capital, TPG Capital and Carlyle Group have entered the auction with a view to team up with some of the Chinese strategic bidders, the people added. Other bidders who were preparing to place first-round bids ahead of Monday's deadline include, Beijing Capital Agribusiness Group, McDonald's China partner, and GreenTree Hospitality, the people added. It was not immediately clear if the last two suitors proceeded with the bids. watch now Oak Brook, Illinois-based McDonald's has hired Morgan Stanley to run the sale of about 2,800 restaurants in China, Hong Kong and South Korea, Reuters previously reported. The sale of South Korea is being run separately and it was not known if the same parties have expressed interest in the South Korean sale, the people added. The China and Hong Kong business had about $200 million in earnings before interest, depreciation and amortization, and could be sold for about 15-16 times its core earnings, taking the deal value to about $3 billion, one of the people said. ChemChina and Sanpower officials were not available to comment immediately, while Beijing Tourism Group said it did not know about the matter. An official at Beijing Capital Agribusiness Group said the company did not participate in the bidding. A spokeswoman for GreenTree said the company was not bidding currently. watch now watch now North Korea launched what appeared to be a second intermediate-range Musudan missile on Wednesday that flew about 400 km (250 miles), in what appeared to be its most effective test yet, hours after another launch failed, South Korea's military said. It was not immediately clear if the second Musudan launch, about two hours after the first, was considered a success or failure, or how the flight ended. However, the distance it covered was theoretically more than halfway towards the southwest coast of Japan's main Honshu island. The first missile was launched from the east coast city of Wonsan, a South Korean official said, the same area where previous tests of intermediate-range missiles were conducted, possibly using mobile launchers. Yonhap, quoting a government official, said it disintegrated mid-air after a flight of about 150 km (95 miles). The launches were in continued defiance of international warnings and a series of U.N. Security Council resolutions that ban the North from using ballistic missile technology, which Pyongyang rejects as an infringement of its sovereignty. watch now Wednesday's first launch would have been the fifth straight unsuccessful attempt in the past two months to launch a missile that is designed to fly more than 3,000 km (1,800 miles) and could theoretically reach any part of Japan and the U.S. territory of Guam. However, Jeffrey Lewis of the California-based Middlebury Institute of International Studies, said failures were a normal part of testing and that North Korea would fix the problems with the Musudan sooner or later. "If North Korea continues testing, eventually its missileers will use the same technology in a missile that can threaten the United States," Lewis told Reuters. watch now Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani told reporters in Tokyo that North Korea's repeated missile launches were a "serious provocation" and could not be tolerated. He said further provocative action from Pyongyang could not be ruled out, and suggested the twin launches could have been timed to coincide with the 66th anniversary of the start of the Korean War in 1950. Japan had indicated after the first launch that it would protest strongly because it violated a United Nations resolution. While the launches posed no threat to Japanese security, Nakatani also said repeated failures indicated possible problems with the missiles' engines. In Seoul, South Korea's presidential office said a national security meeting would be convened later on Wednesday morning to discuss the latest missile launches. The U.S. military detected the two missiles, most likely Musudan, from North Korea, the U.S. military's Pacific Command said. A Pentagon spokesman said the missiles both fell into the Sea of Japan. Japan put its military on alert on Tuesday for a possible North Korean ballistic missile launch. South Korea's Yonhap News Agency, citing an unidentified government source, said the North had been seen moving an intermediate-range missile to its east coast. watch now Silicon Valley company 23andMe is a pioneer in personal genetic testing. The decade-old, privately held company based in Mountain View, California and backed by Alphabet 's Google Ventures, made a name for itself through direct-to-consumer "spit" tests, kits sent directly to customers at home who ship back a sample of their saliva for genetic analysis to determine whether they are carriers for a range of diseases. For $199, customers curious about their ancestry, physical traits, personal wellness, and carrier status for certain diseases have access to more than 60 genetic reports offered by 23andMe through genotyping, which is different from full-on DNA sequencing. "It's like going through the library but opening up each book to certain pages and looking at certain lines," said Erynn Gordon, 23andMe's director of clinical development. "We're looking at specific spots in the genome that we know are more frequently changed in carriers." The 23andMe spit kit, packaged for the mass market for genome sequencing Source: 23andMe But how useful or necessary these sorts of genetics are for consumers is still an open question. A recent poll commissioned by STAT News and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health found that only 50 percent of Americans know about genetic testing, and only 6 percent of adults surveyed said they had undergone genetic testing themselves. Of that number, 81 percent said the testing was "helpful" for determining their or their children's future health problems, or for digging into their ancestry and 10 percent said it wasn't. "Direct-to-consumer genetic testing is a different realm. It's relatively big and still relatively controversial over whether or not that should be done in the medical system," said Lawrence Brody, director of the Division of Genomics and Society at the National Human Genome Research Institute. Among companies that offer personal genetics testing, there is a split in belief as to how those tests should be offered to people. According to 23andMe, which has raised a total of $241 million in venture capital, consumers should have direct access to personal genetic information as it relates to whether they are carriers for certain diseases like cystic fibrosis or sickle cell anemia. "If we're going to have this genomics revolution, it's going to be driven by the consumer," said 23andMe CEO and cofounder Anne Wojcicki at Future of Genomic Medicine IX in March, which was No. 6 on the 2016 CNBC Disruptor 50 list. Wojcicki is the former wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin. The Food and Drug Administration disagreed with 23andMe on how far it could go in putting the consumer first in the genetic information boom. In 2013, the FDA ordered 23andMe to stop marketing the health data of their genetic analysis kits, however, the product stayed on the market offering ancestry data that enabled customers to identify DNA relatives and explore their ancestry. At the time, the federal agency said 23andMe was selling a medical device directly to consumers without marketing authorization, and therefore needed to go through the FDA approval process. The FDA won some considerable concessions from the Google-backed company. In 2015, 23andMe received FDA approval for a scaled-back suite of tests. For this reason other companies such as Color Genomics and Counsyl that also make genetics tests for consumers involve people's primary care physicians from the start. Counsyl, for example, says that 85 percent of its carrier-screening tests are performed by drawing blood at the doctor's office. But even the saliva samples that are sent to Counsyl by customers for analysis begin with a doctor conversation. "Direct-to-consumer testing is a model for addressing certain issues, but we think that our model is stronger in the sense that it's partnering with health care providers who can have a direct relationship with the patient," said Eric Evans, Counsyl co-founder and chief science officer. Anne Wojcicki, co-founder of 23andme. Getty Images Whether physicians find any sort of clinical utility in a patient getting information about their own genome is questionable. A survey of physicians conducted for STAT News found that 74 percent of doctors think analyzing a patient's family medical history will offer them and their patients better clues than genome sequencing in gauging the likelihood of a heritable cancer. And whether customers fully understand the results of their own genetic tests and what to do with that information is another question entirely. It's important to note that carrier-screening tests are not diagnostic tests. They're more like risk assessments: the probability that a woman carrying a BRCA gene mutation will likely develop breast cancer. "I think we learned that patients really want their physicians involved in these kind of tests and the decisions that ensue thereafter," said Shivani Nazareth, director of women's health at Counsyl and a board-certified genetic counselor. "If you want genetics to be accessible and consumer-friendly, you can't just give them the data." If we're going to have this genomics revolution, it's going to be driven by the consumer. Anne Wojcicki 23and Me CEO and co-founder This is where 23andMe disagrees. The company says its genetics reports it prepares for customers are thorough and clear. When it received the go-ahead from the FDA, 23andMe had to show that 90 percent of its customers were able to comprehend their own genetics reports. Even so, 23andMe has its own seven-member medical team to answer physicians' questions, and it's currently producing webinars to educate physicians about the questions their patients might bring to them after completing a 23andMe test. But Gordon also points out there are reasons for people to have genetic tests done that are totally independent of their healthcare providers. Some people might want ethnic or ancestral information, and others "are interested in pursuing more than what their doctor is willing or able to offer." What is likely is that more and more people will be having their personal genomes examined. So far, about 600,000 people working through 6,000 health care providers have taken a Counsyl test. And 1.2 million customers have received genetic information from a 23andMe test. Of those, 80 percent have even given 23andMe permission to use their genetic data for the company's new internal therapeutics team. "We are trying to understand what predisposes someone to developing a certain kind of disease," said Joyce Tung, vice president of research at 23andMe. The splicing of big tech and big pharma The free movement of people is a key principle of the European Union, but it is being tested to the limit by the migrant crisis and the U.K's referendum on its future in the 28-country bloc. Meanwhile Africa is taking steps to establish the freedom of movement on its own continent. The African Union (which consists of 54 African countries and was launched in 2002) announced this month that it planned to launch an electronic passport scheme in July. The electronic passport will facilitate visa-free travel among all the countries of the African Union. Initially, only heads of state, government ministers and representatives of African Union will receive the passport. However, the intention is that each member state will be motivated to implement the laws and procedures required for visa-free travel and later issue an African passport to citizens. The African Union aims for visa-free travel for all African citizens within the continent by 2020. London's office buildings may become a lot less crowded if the U.K. votes to exit the European Union in its referendum Thursday, a new survey found. A survey of corporate occupiers found that nearly half expected to review their U.K. business space in both the short- and long-term in the event of a "leave" vote, global property agent JLL said Wednesday. "A third believed it will reduce leasing activity in the short-term and lead to reduced headcount in the longer term," JLL said in a statement. "Only around one in five think it will have no impact on strategy in the short term, a figure that falls to 13 percent in the longer term." The survey included 31 occupier respondents, which included major international companies and some of the country's "most significant institutional investors," JLL said, adding that 41 out of 53 property investors surveyed believed London offices were the most vulnerable. The London office market was seen as the most likely to be affected "by far," as the financial services market is the "most immediately vulnerable" to a Brexit, JLL said. "The most obvious issue is the potential withdrawal of 'passporting' rights allowing [financial service companies] to offer services throughout the EU from London," JLL said. Britons will head to the polls on Thursday, June 23, to determine the future of the U.K. within the 28-member trade bloc. A telephone poll conducted by Survation for IG on Monday showed the remain and leave camps were neck-and-neck, compared with a series of weekend polls that suggested momentum tilted in favor of the remain campaign. The results of JLL's survey jibed with previous comments from large global investment banks. First of all the EU has meant a more peaceful neighborhood. We well remember the time when we had little or no contact with our neighbors to the north in the Balkan region. The break-up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s brought horrifying ethnic cleansing, mistrust and artificial barriers around issues of religious differences. With our region steadily moving into the European Union we reversed that lack of co-operation, military build-up and ethnic tensions. Now there is trade, people-to-people cultural activities, co-operation in areas of infrastructure, energy and education that give meaning to our region. We established a road map for all that would guarantee the respect of human and minority rights as well as good neighborly relations. We can envision a common future together based on common values rather than a future of animosity and hatred. In the past few years, Cramer watched as the Federal government has turned violently against these deals and the repercussions are wreaking havoc on stocks. Companies are no longer automatically given higher price-to-earnings multiples based on an acquisition. For a long time the free market was able to take care of itself. Companies would merge to take out costs, and the market would respond. "Nothing can be done about it except survival of the fittest," the " Mad Money " host said. As stocks fell on Wednesday, Jim Cramer could not dismiss the notion that there is too much of everything. Too many stores, trucking companies, airlines, banks and oil companies among many other goods. The clock is ticking. The bids should be made, but it sure doesn't look like that will happen. "I think some of this is a backlash to the Justice Department's willingness to bless too many airline mergers, with the straw that broke the camel's back being the American Airlines -US Airways deal. That raised prices big-time across the entire group," Cramer said. Mergers have been in the doghouse ever since. Cramer thinks there are too many oil and oil service companies out there. Halliburton and Baker Hughes recognized this, but the merger was blocked. The oil patch itself has had many opportunities to combine, but nothing happened. Meanwhile, there are also a large number of big pharma companies. Yet, when Pfizer tried to merge with Allergan , the government shot down the deal. The combination of the two companies would have allowed it to stop paying taxes in the United States, so Cramer understood why it did not go through. "Boy did it ever freeze mergers in the pharmaceutical space," he said. Cramer also had the Dow -DuPont deal, Walgreen's takeover of Rite Aid the Anthem-Cigna merger on his radar. Those don't seem to be getting done, either. "Put all these blocked or stalled deals together and you can see there is something big going on here, big and bad for stocks," Cramer said. The government's increased resistance to M&A deals is a large overhang for the market. It prevents new money from flowing into stocks and creates record-high cash positions. Buybacks can help shrink the existing supply of stock, but it is not enough. Takeovers are the answer. "We need mergers that let these retailers sell real estate, while giving them more pricing power versus their suppliers and creating tremendous opportunities for cost cutting," Cramer said. Companies aren't taking a chance, though. Perhaps they also think their deals will be blocked. While there isn't a likelihood of large companies like Lowe's and Home Depot merging any time soon, Cramer did spot a few opportunities. He recognized media companies, auto parts, and Twitter as all being ripe for deals. "The clock is ticking. The bids should be made, but it sure doesn't look like that will happen," Cramer said. Disney CEO Bob Iger is focused on running one of the world's largest media corporations. But the media chief isn't ruling out running for elected office someday. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Iger said he is interested in politics and many people have encouraged him to seek office. "I will not be specific about any office. I wouldn't rule in or rule out," Iger said. "Honestly, I'm interested in politics, I'm interested in giving back in some form, performing some sort of civic duty. But I'm not exploring a run for governor or senator or anything along those lines. I'm focused on running Disney." Iger talked to the trade publication as part of its "Power 100" issue, in which Iger was named the most powerful executive in Hollywood. Iger, who started his career as a weatherman in Ithaca, New York, is a Democrat and Hillary Clinton supporter this election cycle. During his 11 years as Disney CEO, he has overseen acquisitions of Pixar and Lucasfilm, and the company's stock has risen substantially. Iger is not the first media executive to be mentioned as a possible political candidate. Former Time Warner CEO Richard Parsons, once a top aide to New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller in the '70s, was frequently rumored to have political ambitions, and his name was even floated as a possible Cabinet member appointee under President George W. Bush. Check out which companies are making headlines before the bell: Winnebago The recreational vehicle maker earned an adjusted 53 cents per share for its latest quarter, 9 cents a share above estimates. Revenue also beat forecasts. Winnebago's results were helped by strong growth in its towable products. SolarCity Automaker Tesla offered to buy the solar company for $2.8 billion in stock. Tesla CEO Elon Musk is the chairman and majority shareholder in SolarCity. Priceline Group Barclays upgraded the travel website operator's stock to "overweight" from "equal weight," saying current valuation reflects undue pessimism about the company's prospects. Adobe Systems Adobe reported adjusted quarterly earnings of 71 cents per share, 3 cents a share above estimates. The software tools maker's revenue matched forecasts. However, Adobe gave a weaker-than-expected forecast for the current quarter. FedEx FedEx beat estimates by 2 cents a share, with adjusted quarterly profit of $3.30 per share. Revenue also came in higher than analysts' forecasts. However, FedEx reported an overall quarterly loss due to pension adjustments and costs related to its acquisition of Europe's TNT. KB Home KB Home reported quarterly profit of 17 cents per share, 3 cents a share above estimates. The home builder's revenue easily topped forecasts. KB's home deliveries increased a better-than-expected 30 percent and new orders were higher by 8 percent. Fortune Brands Home & Security The provider of home security products will join the S&P 500 after the close of trading tomorrow. The stock will replace Cablevision Systems, following the completion of that company's acquisition by Europe's Altice. Racetrack operator Churchill Downs will replace Fortune in the S&P MidCap 400. McDonald's The restaurant chain has gotten more than six bids for its China and Hong Kong stores, according to Reuters, which said the sale of those stores could bring in up to $3 billion. Separately, Nomura downgraded the stock to "neutral" from "buy," based in part on slowing restaurant same-store sales trends in the U.S. Walt Disney Disney sued three China-based firms in a copyright dispute involving Disney's hit movie "Cars" and a locally produced animated film called "The Autobots." Facebook Facebook signed nearly 140 deals for more than $50 million, paying celebrities and media companies to create videos for its live-streaming service, according to The Wall Street Journal. Post Holdings The cereal maker held talks recently to combine with the frozen potato business of food producer ConAgra , according to The Wall Street Journal. The paper said the talks stalled but could resume. United Continental The airline is reviewing how it uses its eight hubs at large airports, as it seeks ways to be as profitable as its rivals. United has a smaller market share at those hubs than those its competitors like American and Delta operate. Here is a fact-check of some of the claims in Donald Trump's speech . This post will be updated as our team researches more of Trump's claims. Donald Trump delivered a speech Wednesday billed as a broadside attack on presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton's foreign policy and economic record. Trump called the address an opportunity to "discuss the failed policies and bad judgment of Crooked Hillary Clinton." Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump delivers a speech during a campaign event at the Trump Soho Hotel in Manhattan, New York City, on June 22, 2016. CLAIM: "Now, because I have pointed out why [TPP] would be such a disastrous deal, she is pretending that she is against it. She has even deleted this record of total support from her book." The facts: After Clinton walked back her support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership last October saying the final deal wasn't what she'd hoped for when she advocated for it during negotiations as Secretary of State-- longer passages supporting the partnership were edited out of her book Hard Choice's paperback edition. The cuts were part of 96 pages of cuts made to account for the paperback's smaller size, according to a publisher's note. But not all of them were cut: there's still two pages praising the deal, or at least the idea of it. "It's safe to say that the TPP won't be perfect - no deal negotiated among a dozen countries ever will be - bit its higher standards, if implemented and enforced, should benefit American businesses and workers," she wrote. Trump has adamantly opposed TPP since before his campaign began; there's no indication that his remarks changed her mind. CLAIM: Hillary Clinton "is a world class liar" The facts: According to PolitiFact, 59% of Trump's checked claims have been deemed false or "Pants on Fire" false, versus 12% for Clinton. Donald Trump: True: 2% Mostly True: 7% Half True: 15% Mostly False: 17% False: 40% Pants on Fire: 19% Hillary Clinton: True: 23% Mostly True: 28% Half True: 21% Mostly False: 15% False: 11% Pants on Fire: 1% CLAIM: "It all started with her bad judgment in supporting the War in Iraq in the first place. Though I was not in government service, I was among the earliest to criticize the rush to war, and yes, even before the war ever started." The facts: Politifact ranks this oft-repeated claim False. More: In September 2002, Trump said he supported the Iraq invasion during an interview with Howard Stern. Then, in September 2003 - several months after the invasion, he said "It wasn't a mistake to fight terrorism and fight it hard, and I guess maybe if I had to do it, I would have fought terrorism but not necessarily Iraq." CLAIM: "Under her plan, we would admit hundreds of thousands of refugees from the most dangerous countries on Earth - with no way to screen who they are or what they believe." The facts: A screening system is in place that usually takes about two years, according to federal authorities. More, from Politifact: "While there are concerns about information gaps, a system does exist and has existed since 1980. It involves multiple federal intelligence and security agencies as well as the United Nations. Refugee vetting typically takes one to two years and includes numerous rounds of security checks." CLAIM: "She ran the State Department like her own personal hedge fund - doing favors for oppressive regimes, and many others, in exchange for cash." The facts: Trump is citing the claim by "Clinton Cash" author Peter Schweizer, who alleged that Clinton took direct action to benefit a Clinton Foundation donor from sale of a uranium mining company. But as Schweizer told NBC's Savannah Guthrie in April 2015, he had not direct evidence of a quid-pro-quo. "No, we don't have direct evidence. But it warrants further investigation because, again, this is part of the broader pattern. You either have to come to the conclusion that these are all coincidences or something else is afoot." CLAIM: "If I am elected President, I will end the special-interest monopoly in Washington, D.C." The facts: The person who is now leading Trump's campaign, Paul Manafort, is founder of the former lobbying/public affairs firm Davis Manafort. (Manafort also has deep ties to pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine.) What's more, Bloomberg News recently reported that Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner approached GOP megadonor Robert Mercer to establish an anti-Clinton Super PAC. Georgia congressman John Lewis deployed a strategy from his days as a civil rights activist and the viral nature of social media to stage a dramatic sit-in Wednesday on the House floor with his fellow Democrats to force a vote on gun control. "Sometimes you have to do something out of the ordinary, sometimes you have to make a way out of no way," said Lewis, one of the last living icons of civil disobedience during the civil rights movement. "There comes a time when you have to say something, when you have to make a little noise, when you have to move your feet. This is the time. Now is the time to get in the way. The time to act is now. We will be silent no more." Lewis and roughly 40 fellow House Democrats recited the Pledge of Allegiance as a couple dozen visitors in the gallery looked on and vowed "to occupy the floor of the House until there is action." Other Democrats began chanting: "I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired!" and "No bill, no break!" More from NBC News: Congressman loses bid to block Tubman from $20 bill Marco Rubio to seek re-election to Florida Senate seat Feds arrest 275 in nation's largest health care fraud bust "We will be sitting-in until the House is allowed an opportunity to vote," Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland said in a statement. "This is an issue that ought to transcend party it's about saving lives and keeping our communities safe." Rep. Keith Ellison posted on Facebook that he learned about the sit-in when a staffer handed him a note that read: "Your Mom called and wants you on the floor!" "Couldn't say no," the Minnesota Democrat wrote. "Don't worry, mom. I'm there." Soon they were joined by Democratic reinforcements from the Senate side, including Bob Menendez of New Jersey, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, and Patrick Leahy of Vermont Lewis later told NBC News that "sometimes you are moved by history." It is unusual for members to disrupt the functioning of the House to this degree. If members do not leave the floor and no compromise is reached, it is largely up to Speaker Paul Ryan to decide whether to use the authority of the House to seek to clear the floor and/or sanction members, or to keep the House in recess and wait out the issue. The protest is not being televised because the House has not formally gaveled into session. So Rep. Scott Peters, D-California, has been using the video streaming app, Periscope, to share footage of the sit-in. C-Span has been broadcasting Peters' video feed. The protest is not being televised because the House has not formally gaveled into session. House members took to social media to lodge their protests using the hashtags #NoBillNoBreak, #NOMORESILENCE and #goodtrouble. @repjohnlewis: We are one people, one family, one America. We must come together to fight the senseless plague of gun violence. @RepJohnLarson: They can turn off the cameras but they can't keep us quiet. #NoMoreSilence. We want a vote on gun reforms @RepJohnYarmuth: I'm on the House floor with @repjohnlewis & Dems staging a sit-in to demand action on commonsense gun legislation Outside, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi made sure the rest of the country knew about what was going on inside the chamber with a hastily-arranged press conference on the Capitol steps . "Once again we are fighting an uphill fight to bring legislation to the floor," Pelosi said. "We truly believe that if there was a vote, we would win the vote." The merging of old school protest movement tactics such as sit-ins and speeches and new school social media protests helped ensure that the House Democrats' revolution on gun policy reform was indeed televised. The move led by Lewis, who was jailed and repeatedly beaten back in the 1960s when he helped lead the battle for equal rights for African-Americans, took the Republican leadership by surprise. And it came after Lewis wrote House Speaker Paul Ryan a letter demanding that he keep the House in session instead of going into recess so there could more debate on gun control legislation in the wake of the Orlando massacre. "As the worst mass shooting in our nation's history has underscored, our country cannot afford to stand by while this Congress continues to be paralyzed by politics," Lewis wrote. The House sit-in came on the heels of a dramatic showdown over gun policy Monday in the Senate. Four gun policy measures failed to pass the 60-vote threshold to move forward in the Senate on Monday in a dramatic showdown over gun policy. The votes came in the wake of the deadly shooting spree in a gay nightclub in Orlando the nation's worst mass shooting in modern history and a subsequent 15-hour filibuster by Senate Democrats who demanded action on gun control. The four amendments two filed by Democratic Sens. Dianne Feinstein of California, and Chris Murphy of Connecticut, and two other, less restrictive measures filed by Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and John Cornyn, R-Texas addressed background checks of prospective gun buyers and the sale of guns and explosives to people on terrorist watch lists. Murphy, who led last week's 15-hour filibuster by Senate Democrats who demanded action on gun control applauded the House's moves. @ChrisMurphyCT: Just watched House Republicans shut down House as @HouseDemocrats began to sit down on floor to say #NoBillNoBreak. Amazing. So did former President Bill Clinton and President Barack Obama who in a Tweet thanked Lewis for "leading on gun violence where we need it most." Vice President Joe Biden called Lewis " the keeper of the nation's conscience at times of challenge and controversy." @billclinton: This is leadership. As the day wore on, the gallery seats began to fill as curious onlookers watched the impassioned speeches. Care packages with snacks and letters from supporters began pouring in for the lawmakers. Democratic Senators such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, and Sen. Mark Warner, D-Virginia, joined their House colleagues as did former members of Congress. The lawmakers, some of them wiping away tears, shared stories of constituents killed as a result of gun violence. This is a developing story. Please check back for updates. California's stressed-out power grid was handed another blow this week, when the state's last operating electricity-generating nuclear power plant said it plans to go offline in less than a decade. PG&E , owner of the Diablo Canyon Power Plant and a major provider of power for northern California, said Tuesday that it plans to shut down the facility when its current operating license expires in 2025, to meet the state's renewable energy policy goals. Though the plant has been in operation since 1985, it has come under criticism in recent years due to seismic risk concerns. PG&E spokesman Blair Jones said there are earthquake faults nearby but indicated the plant is designed to withstand quakes likely for the area, and that Diablo Canyon wouldn't be in operation today if that weren't the case. The company's announcement comes at an already tumultuous time for California's energy grid, which is facing early summer stress and a risk of rotating power outages down south. Indeed, thousands of customers were without power Monday and into Tuesday, as temperatures topped 110 degrees in some areas. On Monday, the state's power grid operator declared a Flex Alert for Southern California, warning that "demand on the power grid can be strained, as air conditioner use increases." A Flex Alert asks residents to conserve energy. While that strain is expected to lessen when temperatures cool later this week, the region's wildfires are adding another complication. Flames from a fire in the Angeles National Forest on Tuesday tripped a series of high-voltage lines, forcing the state grid operator to re-route electricity to make up for the impacted lines. California's heavy reliance on natural gas for more than half of its electricity generation has created vulnerabilities for the state, especially during the summer months. In particular, problems at Aliso Canyon a key natural gas storage facility and site of the nation's worst gas leak have become a concern for Southern Californians. "The likelihood of a power outage during a heat wave this summer is heightened because of the gas leak that," the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power said last week. "Aliso Canyon is the only gas storage facility that can immediately respond to rapid changes in gas supply for 17 gas-fired generating plants, including four generating stations operated by LADWP in the Los Angeles basin." Ed Rendell, former Pennsylvania governor and Democratic National Committee chairman, threw a glass of ice-cold water on Donald Trump's attack on Hillary Clinton. Trump on Wednesday lashed out at the presumptive Democratic nominee, saying she was a "world class liar" and alleged that she used the State Department as her "own personal hedge fund." Rendell, a frequent Clinton surrogate, said voters are unlikely to be swayed. "[For Trump] to say Hillary Clinton's against the LGBT community, to say Hillary Clinton's against African-Americans, you might as well try to convince people that Hillary Clinton's a vampire. I mean, it's just not going to work," Rendell told CNBC's "Squawk Alley." And while Trump cited few sources in his attacks on Clinton, Rendell said the former secretary of state was taking a different approach. "Hillary Clinton has used, specifically, quotes from Donald Trump himself, and every quote is backed up with a citation. So these are Trump's words that she's using to categorize Trump himself," he said. In Trump's speech, he said he would lower taxes and "build the greatest infrastructure on planet Earth" among other things. Rendell said those promises might be hard to keep. "You don't lower taxes, and then get money to fund a massive infrastructure and redevelopment program. So of course Donald Trump hasn't told us how he would fund that all," he said. Bernie Sanders acknowledged Wednesday that he will likely not be the Democratic nominee for president, as aides privately conceded that his future in the race remains in flux. When asked in an interview with C-SPAN's Steve Scully if he would be speaking at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia this July, Sanders paused before answering. "Well, you know it's hard to say, it doesn't appear that I'm gonna be the nominee, so I'm not gonna be determining the scope of the convention," admitted the Vermont senator, two weeks after former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was projected to be the Democratic Party's presumptive nominee. Read more from NBC News: 'Spirit of history': House Democrats hold sit-in on gun control Breyer, Roberts, Ginsburg are richest Supreme Court justices Celebrities pick sides over U.K.'s 'Brexit' referendum on EU It's the closest Sanders has come to conceding the prolonged Democratic primary race to his opponent. A question that continues to linger, however, is when and if the insurgent candidate will endorse Clinton in the weeks ahead of the convention. Aides tell NBC News that officials with both the Sanders and Clinton campaigns are in conversations about ways to incorporate some of Sanders' main issues -- like college affordability, expanding Medicare and minimum wage -- into the party platform. Also on the table is a possible endorsement of Clinton before the Democrats convene in Philadelphia, but the timeline for voicing such support remains open. "Where we are right now with Secretary Clinton, we're negotiating, and negotiation goes two ways," Sanders said on C-SPAN when asked if he would endorse his Democratic rival. Sanders said that while there was no agreement in the works to exchange a coveted speaking slot at the Democratic convention for a formal endorsement, he does expect to speak. Aides confirmed that both camps have discussed a speaking slot. Although the Democratic primary season wrapped up on June 14, Sanders still has the benefit of a Secret Service detail. The Sanders camp says that that protection could extend to the Democratic convention in July. (Ultimately, the decision rests with Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, but it could be hastened by Sander's determining an exit from the race or an endorsement of Clinton.) On Wednesday, Sanders did praise Clinton as well, contrasting her to presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump. The presidential hopeful emphasized that Clinton's "command of public policy" is in a "different world" from Trump's and argued that Sanders supporters would not flock to Trump. "I suspect he ain't gonna get too many of those," he said. In the wide ranging interview, Sanders also said if he were to return to his Senate job in the fall, he would seek the chairmanship of the Health, Education, Labor and Pension (HELP) committee, if the Democrats were to take back the Senate. At the end of the primary season, Senator Sanders had earned 1,880 delegates (super and pledged) to the Democratic National Convention, to former Secretary Clinton's 2,809, according to NBC News estimates. SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son's surprise plan to remain firmly at the helm of the internet and telecoms giant for possibly 10 more years was warmly received on Wednesday, with investors unfazed by the loss of his high-profile heir apparent. Son, 58, had planned to retire at 60 and last year named Nikesh Arora, a former Google executive as his successor. Arora announced late on Tuesday that he was resigning as president, just two years into his stint after Son made clear that he was unwilling to relinquish the reins in the near future. Arora had earned praise for bold investments and his efforts to improve SoftBank's balance sheet with large asset sales. But his bumper pay, over $200 million in compensation in the last two years, had rankled with some investors who contrasted it with the firm's overall weaker performance. Masayoshi Son, CEO of SoftBank. Adam Jeffery | CNBC The decision by Arora, who was in charge of the company's overseas investments, to move on, however, made it crucial that Son clarify the company's long-term plans, said analysts who also noted slow progress in turning around unit U.S. wireless carrier Sprint. Son has in the past outlined a "SoftBank 2.0 strategy" to further expand in new business areas ranging from robotics and artificial intelligence to the "internet of things." "With uncertainties now cast upon the investment business...and with the firm back to square one in identifying a successor, the biggest risk factor, we think Son needs to outline his medium- to long-term vision once again," said Mizuho Securities analyst Kei Takahashi. For the immediate future, investors seemed happy to see that Son would be sticking around, with shares in the company climbing to end up 2.6 percent on Wednesday. "The share rise today reflects investors' hopes that Mr Son will be in charge for much longer," said Shigeru Kanno, a pensioner and one of over 2,000 investors at a shareholder gathering where Son's decision was greeted with loud applause. Son told shareholders he had too much energy to go soon. "I just felt I wanted to continue on as CEO for longer," he said. Shares of Tesla Motors shed more than 10 percent Wednesday after the company proposed to buy out SolarCity for about $2.8 billion. Some Wall Street analysts saw the acquisition bid as a negative for Elon Musk's electric car company, including analysts at Oppenheimer and RBC Capital Markets. Oppenheimer downgraded Tesla shares to perform from outperform and removed its price target of $385. "While we remain bulls on the solar industry, we do not view this acquisition as the best and highest use of TSLA's capital and human resources given the potential return on capital possible in the electricity industry (typically ~8%-9%) versus the potential leverage of the TSLA auto platform which we believe could demonstrate [return of invested capital] of 15%-20%+," they said in a Tuesday note to clients. Meanwhile, RBC Capital Markets analyst Joseph Spak said in a note Tuesday that while Tesla sees a number of synergies from the transaction, it will not be well received by shareholders. "We suspect the market will be more skeptical of the strategic rational and the financial/cash flow strain this could add to the TSLA story. By owning the asset, we believe TSLA may be trying the investing partner approach they have taken with shareholders and asking them to stick with them for something they potentially didn't sign-up for," Spak said. Trump said that during Clinton's tenure as America's top diplomat, she "managed to almost single-handedly destabilize the entire Middle East." He cited the loss of a friendly government in Egypt and an aggressive military approach that he said handed Libya to ISIS. "She doesn't have the temperament, or as Bernie Sanders said very strongly, the judgment to be president," Trump said, using a word she hurled against him recently in raising questions about his emotional stability. The presumptive Republican nominee said Clinton ran the State Department like her "own personal hedge fund," and he criticized trade deals negotiated during her tenure. He also called on Sen. Bernie Sanders' voters to support him. Donald Trump lit into Hillary Clinton on Wednesday, calling her a "world class liar" and criticizing her time as secretary of state as the tycoon looked to reset his presidential campaign after several rocky weeks. He also criticized the gifts he said she accepted from foreign donors, and the email scandal that has haunted the Democrat's campaign. He said foreign actors "totally own her." In his nationally televised comments at the Trump SoHo hotel in New York, he focused on Clinton's foreign policy, as well as her trade and immigration policies, and offered an alternative if vague and rambling set of reforms. "We'll stand up to countries that cheat on trade," Trump said, adding that he'll lift restrictions on energy production and rules that send jobs abroad. He also lambasted Obamacare, vowing to repeal and replace it, calling it "a total disaster." He also said he would increase available technology for the military, rebuild inner cities and infrastructure, and create jobs. "Hillary's massive taxation, regulation, and open borders will destroy jobs," he said. "Our country is going to start working again." The remarks came as Trump seeks to pivot toward the general election and quiet a growing wave of criticism from Democrats and Republicans that he does not have the temperament or campaign to win the presidency. Trump's salvo came a day after Clinton tore into Trump's business record. "Every day we see how reckless and careless Trump is. He's proud of it," Clinton said in Columbus, Ohio. "He's written a lot of books about business. They all seem to end at Chapter 11." Trump's speech had originally been planned for last week, but he pushed it back after the mass shooting in an Orlando, Florida, nightclub. On Monday, he fired campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. Hours later, a top campaign aide resigned. On Tuesday, Trump made headlines for a dismal May fundraising report that revealed an extremely low war chest, especially compared with Clinton. Republicans have expressed optimism that Lewandowski's departure marked a turning point for Trump's campaign. The candidate has also begun to ramp up his fundraising for the general election, holding an event in New York City on Tuesday evening co-hosted by several high-profile financiers, including John Paulson. Near the beginning of Donald Trump's nationally televised anti-Hillary Clinton speech today was a short pitch to Bernie Sanders fans asking for their support. And Trump even made sure to quote some of Sanders' harsher slams against Mrs. Clinton later in the address. So that begs the obvious question: Can Trump actually win over Sanders' supporters? It seems like a long shot based on the facts. Trump may be a different kind of Republican, but it's hard to believe anyone from the ardently progressive/socialist Sanders camp would get behind Trump. And Sanders has even said many times that he will work as hard as possible to ensure that Trump is not elected. The real answer isn't that simple. For the Sanders supporters who really researched and liked his specific proposals, Trump has no chance to win them over. But for the significant number of people who were attracted to Sanders because of the legitimate changes he was calling for, it's a different story. That's because love him or hate him, Trump now stands alone as the "change candidate" in this election. And when the public wants change, the change candidate almost always gathers together a lot of people who otherwise wouldn't be voting together. Trump will grab some Bernie supporters if he maintains this image; it's just a question of how many and in which states. Bernie's voters in the primaries were demographically a lot like Trump's supporters in two key ways; they were white and not necessarily earning high incomes. In swing states like Ohio and Pennsylvania, they are winnable votes for Trump now. But to understand why that's true, you have to understand how strong the change movement is in America right now. Consider the fact that third party candidates like Gary Johnson and Jill Stein are collectively polling at or above 10 percent in most polls. That's extremely unusual and something we haven't seen the likes of since Ross Perot's first run for the presidency in 1992. Remember that Perot won 19 percent of the popular vote that year in the strongest sign of all that Americans wanted change that year. My fellow conservatives who still believe Perot's support "stole" the election from President George H.W. Bush don't get it. He didn't steal anything. What he did was prove that people wanted a new president, and had he not run, Bill Clinton would have won a bigger majority, not a smaller one. By comparison in 1996, when the voters weren't so hot for change, Perot only polled 7 percent of the popular vote. A key part of Trump's "change message" that resonates with some of Bernie's "change voters" is free trade. Sanders and Trump have sounded eerily the same about trade deals like NAFTA and the TPP for more than a year. Trade deals are usually not very exciting to talk about and carry none of the emotional cache you need to win voters. But Trump and Sanders have both successfully made these deals emotionally charged issues, conjuring up images of millions of unemployed Americans suffering at the hands of Wall Street-controlled Washington fat cats. There are plenty of facts to separate Sanders and Trump voters forever, but this emotionally-charged issue of trade unites them in a way more powerful than dry facts. Another emotionally charged issue that binds Trump and Sanders supporters is a visceral dislike for Hillary Clinton. Trump has been unloading on Clinton exclusively for weeks now, focusing mostly on the kind of financial chicanery and ethical questions Sanders raised throughout the primaries. This will resonate emotionally for at least some of the people who were very literally "feeling the Bern." And one more final factor to consider is that Trump has a very low bar to meet here. He doesn't need to win over most of the Sanders supporters, half of the Sanders voters, or really even 25 percent of them. 10 percent of the newly registered and mobilized Sanders army going over to Trump in even just two or three swing states could make a huge difference and Trump knows it. You know the old saying: Politics makes strange bedfellows. It's a popular saying because it's true so much of the time. And it may not seem stranger than a joining of Sanders and Trump voters, but it could happen again and tip this election to a place not many thought possible. Even the notoriously uncompromising German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble promised to change, saying in a statement: "We won't simply be able to go on as before." Take European Council President Donald Tusk urging U.K. voters: "Stay with us. We need you. Together we will cope with future challenges. Apart it will be more difficult." Is this the international diplomacy version of: "Think of the children"? Breaking up is hard to do and the European Union has been treating the U.K. like it's a spouse on the verge of leaving a long, discordant marriage. But why is the U.K. so important to the EU? With U.K. voters wavering over whether to stay or go and the latest opinion polls suggesting a close race to the finish, we look at what the country on Europe's Atlantic fringe has brought to the trading bloc. To begin with, it was the famous U.K. war leader Winston Churchill who was one of the first to call for a "United States of Europe", back in 1946. Today, the U.K. makes a substantial financial contribution to the trading bloc's budget: 11.342 billion euros in 2014 ($12.78 billion) set against total EU spending in the U.K. of 6.985 billion euros. Yet aside from the euros and cents, the U.K. also adds extra legitimacy to the European project, and has historically helped balance the region's two other biggest economic and political players, France and Germany. "Many of the EU's liberalizing achievements are due to the role the U.K. has played, with like-minded countries, for example in pushing for the single market program, the liberalization of goods and services markets, and enlargement to 28 countries," according to Simon Hix, professor of political science at the London School of Economics and Political Science. "If the U.K. withdraws, the liberal democratic project for Europe will become marginalized, as the EU will become dominated by the corporatist and bureaucratic instincts of some of the French and German elites and the politics of the growing populist right movements." Much has been said about how a U.K. exit from the EU could hurt the British economy. But the bigger point confronting investors may be what it does to the rest of the world. If there's one near-definite result that experts can safely predict around a Brexit, it's this: A U.K. vote to leave the EU would increase the amount of uncertainty in markets. Since no concrete precedent exists for a Brexit or anything like it, market-watchers are predicting a global flight to safer assets. And that, in turn, would likely include an investor pullback from the world's emerging economies. "We believe there is significant room for downside in the event of a leave vote," Yianos Kontopoulos, strategist at UBS, wrote to clients Wednesday. In terms of which emerging markets, economic research consultancy Capital Economics says the nations likely to be hardest hit are those with the highest current account deficit as a percentage of GDP. Names that fit the bill include Colombia, South Africa, Peru and Turkey, which run deficits in excess of 4 percent of GDP. "These are the economies that are most reliant on external financing and capital outside of their country for spending. Any acceleration in foreign outflows could really hurt these countries," Capital Economics said. Others that could take a hit include Mexico, Argentina and Brazil, all of which run a deficit of more than 2 percent of GDP. Simon Quijano-Evans, the head of emerging-market research at Commerzbank, agrees. Latin America "is next in line with regard to export exposure to the EU, while the whole of [emerging markets] and particularly the more open economies of Asia would be hit by secondary effects from any negative spillover a Brexit scenario would have on global growth," Quijano-Evans said. Created for T-Mobile For many entrepreneurs, identifying a need in the market is what fuels their business and its growth. In 2009, Donna Lomazini and Bryony Zasman were working in the promotional product distribution industry when they recognized that it was grappling with a fundamental problem: the issue was efficiency. "Manufacturers were shipping out thousands of catalogs every year to their distributors," says Zasman. The duo saw a better way. They created a cloud-based library that would allow their clients to store and send catalogs digitally. This was the genesis of their small business, ZOOMcatalog. We met Lomazini and Zasman at the Denver stop on the 2016 iCONIC tour. iCONIC is a joint creation of CNBC and Inc., and is sponsored by T-Mobile. The conference series draws together some of the most enterprising small businesses in the nation. Lomazini and Zasman, who attended iCONIC to learn more about how to drive their company forward, were selected as the winners of the T-Mobile Un-Leash Your Business Contest. The prize provides valuable assets for a small business it includes complimentary wireless and mobile services, as well as devices. Lomazini and Zasman have been experiencing both the thrills and challenges of sudden success. "We have to be all over the place, go to different trade shows all the time, and staying connected is really important," Zasman explained. "The T-Mobile package that we won is definitely going to help our company stay connected." To learn more about how ZOOMcatalog is using connectivity to grow, check out the video above. Click below for more entrepreneurial stories: Want to start a small business? Check out Denver Innovation that disrupts your business and moves it forward Six team-building tips that work for small businesses The power of an elevator pitch: distilling your value Austria concludes its Austria By Its Children series of silver 10 coins with a coin celebrating Upper Austria. The Proof example is presented in a red velvet case with a cardboard sleeve. Austria concludes its Austria By Its Children series of silver 10 coins with a coin celebrating Upper Austria. Austria concludes its Austria By Its Children series of silver 10 coins with a coin celebrating Upper Austria. The Special Uncirculated version comes in a colorful blister pack. Austrias final silver coin in the series honoring each of the nations nine provinces is now available. This Austria By Its Children series features designs that were created by 9- and 10-year-old schoolchildren of Austria. The final .925 fine silver 10 coin celebrates the province of Upper Austria. The obverse of the 10 coin was designed and engraved by Herbert Waehner. It depicts the UNESCO World Heritage site of the picturesque town of Hallstatt. An Evangelical church in the foreground is balanced by the Catholic church on the hill located in the upper right side. Connect with Coin World: Houses cling to the shoreline and are tightly packed together on narrow streets. In the foreground is a flat-bottom boat built in a traditional design and steered by the bootsman at the stern. The obverse of the coin also features the country of issue, REPUBLIK OSTERREICH (Republic of Austria), the year of issue 2016, the face value expressed as 10 EURO and the name of the town, HALLSTATT. The reverse of the coin was designed by Klara Baumgartner of Dachseberg school, and engraved by mint engraver Thomnas Pesendorfer. The reverse shows the church of Linz on Poestling hill and the coat of arms of the province of Upper Austria in the center capped by the crown of the former duke of Upper Austria. To the right of it are three participants of the annual Gloeckler parade wearing Gloeckler costumes, with elaborately decorated handmade hats. In the background on the right side is Traunstein mountain on the edge of the clear blue water lake known as Traunsee, located in the Salzkammergut. Inclusion of several participants in the Gloeckler parade in the reverse design recalls the annual tradition taking place on Jan. 5, also known as Epiphany. People dress in light- or white-colored costumes, wear belts with a loud bell attached and elaborate hats that are decorated with lit candles. The medieval belief was that this would chase away the evil spirits of the dark months, bringing salvation and blessings to the area. The Upper Austria silver coin is legal tender and is available in either Proof or Special Uncirculated versions, each weighing 17.3 grams and measuring 32 millimeters in diameter. The Proof coins maximum mintage is 30,000 pieces. Each is encapsulated in a presentation case with a numbered certificate of authenticity. The certificate includes all the technical details as well as background information about the series. The Special Uncirculated coin has a mintage limit of 40,000 pieces and is available in a blister pack with an Upper Austria design on the sleeve. Collectors in the United States and Canada may purchase the Upper Austria coin by visiting the Austrian Mint's website. In addition, two distributors offer the coins in North America: American Precious Metals Exchange, online; and Downies, at its website. The governor said he received almost 4,000 messages from residents opposed to Senate Bill 656, which will become the subject of the General Assembly's veto session in September. Nixon said he could not support eliminating protections such as background checks and training requirements for people who want to carry and conceal firearms. What you need to know ahead of mandatory CWD sampling in Missouri January 9, 2014 - Electrolux Plant Manager George Robbins (left) and President and CEO of Electrolux Major Appliances North America Jack Truong give Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam (third from left) a tour of the newly opened Electrolux plant. Local goverment representitives, Electrolux executives and the media were given a behind-the-scenes look at the city's newest manufacturing facility. (Jim Weber/The Commercial Appeal) SHARE By Ted Evanoff of The Commercial Appeal Corporate tax breaks have long been controversial in Memphis, where some taxpayers argue tax cuts have riddled the amount of money available to pay for city services. Now a new report shows the Memphis area isn't the state's tax cut queen. The Bluff City trails Nashville and Chattanooga by a wide margin in the total volume of tax cuts and grants. Companies in the Nashville area have received $887.1 million in state grants and local tax breaks since 2005, compared to $862.5 million in Chattanooga and in third place $318.8 million in the Memphis area. The report was posted online today by the Beacon Center of Tennessee, a libertarian think tank in Nashville, using data provided by the liberal-leaning Washington research organization Good Jobs First. The report is available online at http://endcorporatehandouts.com/ Scaling back public incentives is a two-year goal of Beacon Center, which intends to inform Tennessee taxpayers in hopes they will pressure legislators to do away with the corporate handouts, said Mark Cunningham, spokesman for the think tank. In the old days if you wanted to expand and it made good sense you expanded, Cunningham said. Now if you want to expand you put your hand out first and ask for cash and threaten to leave if they dont give you the cash. Were not blaming the CEOs. Were blaming the government for giving them the money. Cunningham contends tax breaks for companies such as Ikea, the European furniture retailer opening a store in Memphis, are detrimental to rival furniture stores unable to attract tax cuts. Taxpayers shoulder the burden although the companies most likely would have expanded even without tax breaks, he said. We give them this money and it goes directly to the CEO but they would have hired these people anyway, Cunningham said. In Memphis, leaders say tax breaks are needed to attract companies and create jobs in a region where there are still fewer jobs now than before the recession hit in 2008. In April, 591,400 residents reported they were employed in full- or part-time jobs, compared to almost 604,400 in 2007, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows. The city-county EDGE Board, the primary economic development agency, reports tax abatement has totaled $292.5 million on 47 projects since 2011 that resulted in 11,337 new and retained jobs and $827.7 million in new tax revenue. Cunningham concedes legislators could be reluctant to dial back tax breaks. Philosophically they may agree with us but its hard to stop what they are doing when they can say theyre bringing jobs to their district and theyre getting (campaign fundraising) donations from the companies in a lot of cases, Cunningham said. We want to focus on the state handouts and get people to understand what these are. Theyre hurting any small business or any competing business that doesnt get that money but is paying taxes. The report could also fuel debate among Memphis civic leaders who insist the state legislature and the governors have been stingy in Memphis compared to Nashville. That argument was heard last fall when local leaders urged Gov. Bill Haslam to commit state money to the expansion near Downtown of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, which has begun the first phases of what is expected to total $1.1 billion in new construction. Haslam this spring earmarked about $12 million for infrastructure work around St. Jude although local officials say they could use in excess of $70 million for what is regarded in Memphis as a major economic development project. Its not clear the data on the Beacon Center's web site is complete for each economic development project. For example, the 1,240-employee Electrolux appliance plant shows $135.1 million in public incentives on the Beacon Center site, while The Commercial Appeal separately studied government data in 2011 on the project. The newspaper concluded the incentives totaled $188.3 million, or about $152,000 per job, with most of the public money coming from the state. June 22, 2016 - Shandrian Guinn, a licensed advanced practice social worker, is the supervisor of the newly formed Parent Support Warm Line. (Brandon Dill/Special to The Commercial Appeal) SHARE By Kevin McKenzie of The Commercial Appeal The new, free telephone service offering parenting advice and resources to residents of Memphis and Shelby County isn't a traditional crisis hot line. It's called the Parent Support Warm Line, a service providing professional advice for parents, caregivers and others with difficult parenting situations and questions. Answered from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday through Friday, the telephone number is (844) 877-9276, or (844) UPP-WARM. The ACE Awareness Foundation in Memphis is providing the funds and Le Bonheur Children's Hospital the organization to help avoid "adverse childhood experiences" that research finds triggers life-long problems. "Research shows adverse childhood experiences (ACE) have a lasting negative impact for children that in many cases impact everything from health to professional earnings potential when they grow up," Ellen Rolfes, ACE Awareness Foundation regional director said in a statement. "Our goal is to transform our community by helping parents and caregivers limit or prevent a child's chronic exposure to trauma," Rolfes said. The warm line extends the reach of support services that parents can receive at two Universal Parenting Places that the ACE Awareness Foundation funds in Memphis with Baptist Memorial Hospital for Women and Knowledge Quest as partners. Those sites are at the hospital at 6225 Humphreys Boulevard and Knowledge Quest at 990 College Park Drive. The voice answering the Parent Support Warm Line will most often be that of Shandrian Guinn, warm line program supervisor and a licensed advanced practice social worker. Guinn has been with Le Bonheur for seven years and previously spent 23 years working in child welfare at levels of the state Department of Children's Services. "I believe there's data to show the most cost-effective way to address a lot of the concerns and illness that present with children and anyone, even adults, is prevention," Guinn said. "And so Le Bonheur is expanding their prevention work, in all directions to support healthy outcomes for families and children." Technology allows calls to be transferred to her mobile phone, home or elsewhere, and to two part-time licensed therapists or counselors to be hired. As a "warm line," it won't be available at all times like a crisis hotline. While non-urgent matters ranging from adolescent detachment to divorce and acting out will prompt calls, Guinn said she also expects more serious issues also will be common. "In Memphis and in Shelby County, families commonly face issues around violence between adults, concerns around substance abuse issues and emotional abuse," as well as emotional issues following sexual abuse, she said. "But I'd love to hear from parents who are just starting out, who just want to know about the latest science and information about child rearing," Guinn said. She said all calls are confidential, recorded for quality assurance purposes and that families will be asked for identifying information that will help pinpoint resources, including the Universal Parenting Places. Allegations suggesting child abuse or neglect by law must be referred to the Department of Children's Services and can also be reported to local law enforcement, she said. "While we do not stand as a crisis line, because if you need police intervention, that's crisis level, if something comes up, because of our experience we do know to funnel those calls to the most appropriate agency," Guinn said. Growth in calls to the Tennessee Breastfeeding Hotline operated by Le Bonheur with a grant from the state Health Department provides evidence that the Parent Support Warm Line will work, said Sandra Madubuonwu, maternal-child director for Le Bonheur. The ACE Center Task Force for Shelby County reported last year that 52 percent of adults in the county have experienced at least one adverse childhood experience. Those with four or more are at greater risk for negative social and health outcomes as adults. Shelby County also has worse childhood sexual abuse and violence between adults in the home than the state or nation. June 22, 2016 - Melanie Keller, chief executive of Meritan, a nonprofit agency that serves seniors and children, stands inside the future home of the organization at 345 Adams Ave. The $2.5 million project will relocate Meritan from its current East Memphis office into the 17,000-square-foot building near Downtown. (Mike Brown/The Commercial Appeal) By Thomas Bailey Jr. of The Commercial Appeal Meritan has purchased a long-vacant lab building in the Edge District and plans to spend up to $2.5 million renovating the structure for its new Memphis headquarters. The move bolsters the budding re-investment in the old industrial and automotive district sandwiched between Downtown's core and the Medical District. In addition to more primary reasons for the move, Meritan chief executive Melanie Keller said Tuesday, "We want to be part of the Downtown renaissance. We think we can make a difference on the landscape of Downtown.'' The nonprofit organization, which provides health and social services to seniors and children, plans to move by July 2017 to 345 Adams Ave., just east of Danny Thomas Boulevard and across Adams Avenue from the Memphis Fire Department Maintenance Shop. Vacant for more than six years, the 63-year-old building last housed Woodson-Tenent Laboratories. Memphis Bioworks sold the 17,000-square-foot building on nearly 1.5 acres to Meritan for $120,000. Meritan will move from its longtime Memphis headquarters at 4700 Poplar Ave., near White Station High School. About 50 people work in the office, but about 200 Meritan employees report to the Memphis region headquarters. Meritan provides home health care, employment services for seniors, care for those with intellectual disabilities, residential- and day-care services, and foster care. The impetus for the move was the coming expiration of a land lease Meritan holds at 4700 Poplar Ave., Keller said. The 4 stories of the existing headquarters were not ideal for Meritan's senior clients, and the East Memphis location was not as close to many of Meritan's partner organizations such as the Family Safety Center, Shelby County Crime Victims Center, Plough Foundation and Metropolitan Interfaith Association (MIFA), she said. The old lab building of tilt-up concrete walls is structurally sound, Keller said, but the interior will be demolished and transformed. While $2.5 million is budgeted for the renovation, she said the goal is to spend less. The architectural firm archimania is designing the renovation. "You can kind of feel that excitement, the renaissance goinig on down there,'' Keller said of Downtown and the Edge District. "I never worked in that neck of the woods. I'm really excited about that.'' Matt Weathersby and Luke Jensen of the commercial real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield/Commercial Advisors represented Meritan in finding the new space. "It's almost a blatant case of the obvious,'' Commercial Advisors chief executive Larry Jensen said of the budding redevelopment of the Edge District. "Because it's between two of the most vibrant areas with the Medical Center and Downtown.'' Just a few blocks away at 652 Jefferson Ave., the suburban-based network of veterinary clinics, The Pet Hospitals, is renovating a building for a veterinary clinic. The University of Tennessee Health Science Center has long-range plans to develop housing in the Edge District, and the commercial building at 400 Union is undergoing a multimillion renovation for recording music and other activities. "It looks like that blossom is on (the district) all of a sudden,'' Jensen said. The old lab building at 345 Adams Ave. is hardly impressive looking, with broken and boarded up windows. Meritan and Commercial Advisors investigated whether the old industrial-type building could be turned into nice office space. "We brought the architects in,'' Jensen said. "It's an interesting process,'' he said. "You are seeing something that was really nothing become something.'' June 22, 2016 Salandria Stevenson, with the Riverview-Kansas Community Development Corp., shoots video with other onlookers as an abandoned home at 1370 Mississippi Blvd. is demolished. The home is the first in Memphis removed through the Blight Elimination Program. Stevenson hopes to get resources to remove blighted properties in the Riverview-Kansas area. (Mike Brown/The Commercial Appeal) SHARE June 22, 2016; Don Berryhill uses a backhoe to knock down a blighted abandoned home on Mississippi Boulevard through the Blight Elimination Program. (Mike Brown/The Commercial Appeal) June 22, 2016; Signs warn people not to enter the abandoned home at 1370 Mississippi Blvd. The home was demolished through the Blight Elimination Program. (Mike Brown/The Commercial Appeal) By Linda A. Moore of The Commercial Appeal The late Victorian house with the wrap around porch at 1370 Mississippi Blvd. went up, county records show, in 1900. On Wednesday, it came down, the first house in the state demolished under the Tennessee Housing Development Agency's new Blight Elimination Program, which provides money to six counties for strategic blight eradication. The program targets individual problem houses in otherwise stable neighborhoods for demolition. "I call it addition by subtraction," said Ralph Perrey, THDA executive director. "You're taking out the one blighted, abandoned property that's dragging down everybody else's property values and is probably a magnet for trouble and troublemakers." This program is a departure for THDA, which focuses on affordable housing opportunities. "The city has been interested in getting our help in addressing blighted properties for some time," Perrey said. "We finally found a way to help fund that." The effort involved working with partners at the U.S. Department of Treasury, which allowed the state to re-purpose $6 million left over from the Keep My Tennessee Hope foreclosure program toward blight eradication. Most of the money is earmarked for Memphis, in part because the need is obvious, Perrey said. Also, he said, various partners, like nonprofit United Housing, the Shelby County trustee's office, the city of Memphis' Blight Authority, neighborhood groups and others have already started the work. The program was announced last August and United Housing, a nonprofit affordable housing agency, was the first to apply, spending $4,000 to tear down the house on Mississippi Boulevard. Total expenditures are capped at $25,000 per property. "New stuff with the government always takes a long time," said Tim Bolding, United Housing executive director "Is it everything we wanted? Probably not. Is it going to fit ever situation? No. It isn't the miracle pill, but it sure is something to work with. Quite frankly I'm glad to see it happening." So is Talbert Fleming, owner of nearby restaurant Jim & Samella's House. He's made videos of drugs being dropped off at the abandoned house and later retrieved by folks in cars with out-of-state license plates. "I think it's a good thing," Fleming said of the blight eradication effort. "It's good to see this because we've had to call the cops on many occasions." He watched from across the street while city, county, state and federal officials spoke before the excavator moved in to make short work of the structure. "This is more than just a demolition of property today, it's about stabilizing neighborhoods. It's about enhancing and hopefully improving property values. But also, it's about cleaning up the neighborhood and building neighborhood pride," said county Mayor Mark Luttrell. Once the lot is cleared, the plan is to make it a pretty community green space, Bolding said. United Housing will continue to look for other blighted properties in the area and eventually build new houses there, he said. "You've got to get the bad out and come back with something good," Bolding said. Democrat members of Congress, including, front row, from left, Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., Rep. Joe Courtney, D-Conn., and Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., participate in sit-down protest seeking a a vote on gun control measures, Wednesday, June 22, 2016, on the floor of the House on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Rep. Chellie Pingree via AP) SHARE This photo provided by Rep. Chillie Pingree,D-Maine, shows Democrat members of Congress, including Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., center, and Rep. Elizabeth Esty, D-Conn. as they participate in sit-down protest seeking a a vote on gun control measures, Wednesday, June 22, 2016, on the floor of the House on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Rep. Chillie Pingree via AP) This photo provided by Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine shows Democrat members of Congress, including, front row, from left, Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., Rep. Joe Courtney, D-Conn., and Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., participate in sit-down protest seeking a a vote on gun control measures, Wednesday, June 22, 2016, on the floor of the House on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Rep. Chellie Pingree via AP) By Michael Collins of The Commercial Appeal WASHINGTON Furious that Republican leaders have refused to allow a vote on gun-control legislation, U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen and dozens of other Democrats staged a sit-in Wednesday on the House floor, bringing business to an abrupt halt. Led by U.S. Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, the Democrats took control of the chamber around 11:30 a.m., just as the morning's proceedings were getting under way. Chanting "no bill, no break," they sat down on the House floor as the GOP quickly gaveled the chamber into recess. Democrats demanded a vote on measures to prevent suspected terrorists from buying firearms and to expand background checks in the aftermath of the June 12 massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla., that killed 49 people and wounded 53. It was the nation's worst mass shooting. "Moments of silence have grown old and seem hollow," said Cohen, a Memphis Democrat, referring to what's become Congress' typical response to mass shootings across the country. "The American people want a bill to prohibit gun sales to suspected terrorists to come to the floor and pass. If there is a reasonable threat to prohibit an individual from flying, they shouldn't be allowed to buy a weapon. In addition, gun show and internet loopholes need to be closed when purchasing guns." Democrats are pushing for a vote on gun-control legislation before the House adjourns later this week for the July 4 recess. Wednesday's protest began with a fiery speech from Lewis, who asked fellow Democrats to join him on the floor and then blasted GOP leaders for refusing to even allow debate on the gun-control measures. Lawmakers "have turned a deaf ear to the blood of the innocent and the concern of our nation," said Lewis, a hero of the civil-rights movement. "Where is our courage?" he asked. "Those who pursue common-sense improvement are beaten down. Reason is put aside ... What is the tipping point? Are we blind? Can we see? ... Give us a vote! We came here to do our job!" Lewis demanded a vote on the legislation "not next month, not next year but now." Following his speech, Lewis and some 40 Democrats sat down in front of the podium and pledged to remain there until House Speaker Paul Ryan agreed to a vote. As the day wore on, more than 80 Democrats joined the protest. Ryan spokeswoman AshLee Strong said, "The House cannot operate without members following the rules of the institution, so the House has recessed subject to the call of the chair." As for whether Ryan would allow a vote, Strong pointed to his remarks earlier Wednesday that the House would wait to see what the Senate does on the issue. Senators on Monday voted down four partisan gun measures and were working on a compromise Wednesday. Cohen called the sit-in "inspiring" and said it stirred up memories of similar protests during the civil-rights era. "It's absurd we don't pass some gun laws," particularly a measure that would bar terror suspects on the "no-fly" list from purchasing guns, he said. The proposals wouldn't restrict the Second Amendment, Cohen said, but are a legitimate attempt to keep guns out of the hands of terrorists. "We're not going to take away every gun, and we don't want to," Cohen said. "(But) somebody who can't fly on an airplane should not be able to buy a gun." Contributing: Donovan Slack and Deborah Barfield Berry, USA TODAY Trumpet player Wayne Jackson (left), died Tuesday at age 74. His longtime musical partner Andrew Love died in 2012. The pair, known as the Memphis Horns, performed at the "Soul Comes Home" concert at the Orpheum in 2003. (file photo) By Bob Mehr of The Commercial Appeal Trumpeter Wayne Jackson was part of the famed Memphis Horns, a member of the influential R&B group the Mar-Keys, and a key cog in the Stax Records machine throughout the 1960s. Jackson died Tuesday night from congestive heart failure at Methodist University Hospital. He was 74. His wife of 25 years, Amy Jackson, confirmed the news to The Commercial Appeal. Along with saxophonist Andrew Love, Jackson made his early reputation as part of the house unit at Stax. He and Love later struck out on their own, billing themselves as the Memphis Horns, working with local institutions like Hi Records and American Studios, and eventually becoming the most in-demand horn section in the world. The pair was essential in providing parts for hit records by Elvis Presley, Neil Diamond, James Taylor, and U2, among many others. The duo would be recognized with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in early 2012. Love died later that year at the age of 70. In a statement posted to Jackson's Facebook page, Amy Jackson said of her husband, "He was a beautiful soul who touched the world with his trumpet. As we mourn his passing, we also celebrate his incredible musical legacy, which he leaves us with. God gave him a gift, and he used it to the fullest He loved his family, his friends and his fans the world over." "For all the decades he played, he never lost the joy in the music," said Robert Gordon, author of the Stax Records history "Respect Yourself." "You could always hear his delight, and I think that's part of what made all those songs he played on into the hits they became." Born in Memphis in November 1941, Jackson's path to music started in the clubs of West Memphis, where he was raised, then at the University of Stax, as it were, where he became part of the foundation of the iconic soul label, and a member of the hit-making instrumental group the Mar-Keys. In 1965, Mar-Keys/Stax saxophonist Packy Axton left the label fold, forcing Jackson to find a new horn section partner. "We didn't have a tenor (sax) player, and they weren't just hanging around, you had to know where to go get one," recalled Jackson in a 2012 interview. "Somebody told me there was a real good young saxophone player at the Manhattan Club. I went out there and I saw Andrew; he knocked me out." The next day, the two men played together for the first time, cutting a Rufus Thomas record. "It was like magic," said Jackson. "It was fate." It did almost seemed destined that the two men would find each other. They were born just days apart; each had their first horns purchased for them by their mothers; and music was the clear path from the start. On the surface the two seemed a study in contrasts: Jackson, a short, white spitfire on trumpet; Andrew Love a lanky, laid-back African-American on sax. But the music they made together yielded a beautiful union. "His individual tone and mine blended in a certain way that was unique," said Jackson. "We realized it from the start." Jackson and Love soon became musical partners, friends, and eventually grew to be like brothers. "You got to remember too, that was way back yonder, so it wasn't the usual thing for a black guy and white guy to be hanging out, running together like that," said Jackson. "But we did. We were sorta welded at the hip. We loved each other, and loved the way we sounded." "There were ingredients at Stax that made it a magical place and those ingredients encompassed several individuals, black and white," said Stax songwriter and producer David Porter. "Color was never a part of any of the great things that were done at Stax. The universal love we had for each other was way beyond any superficial differences like that. And Wayne was a symbol of that. Not only was he a great player, he was a great person. He had so much love in him." Although Stax wanted Jackson and Love to stay exclusive to the label, in 1969 they incorporated as The Memphis Horns, and went freelance. For the next 30 years they would become the pre-eminent set of horns in popular music. They were among a group of players whose brass sounds would help define classic records including Elvis Presley's "Suspicious Minds," Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline," Al Green's "Let's Stay Together" and Dusty Springfield's "Son of a Preacher Man." In total they played on 80 gold and platinum albums and 52 No. 1 records during the course of their career. Later they hit the road, touring with Rod Stewart, Stephen Stills, the Doobie Brothers, Jimmy Buffett, Joe Cocker and Robert Cray, among others. As the '80s and '90s rolled on, they continued to color hits for the likes of Willie Nelson and Steve Winwood. Even after Jackson decided to relocate to Nashville in 1996, they remained in demand recording with Sting, Bonnie Raitt and Marc Knopfler helping bring the soul out of everyone with whom they worked. "That's what people were hiring us for," Jackson would say. "And they all got a little Memphis on them." Jackson and Love continued to play and perform together until 2004, when Love was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and was forced to retire from music. In 2010, Jackson and his wife returned to Memphis. During the final decade of his life, Jackson was a regular presence at the Stax Museum, giving tours and working with the students of the Stax Music Academy and other school bands in the city. He also wrote a three-volume memoir of his life in music called "In My Wildest Dreams." Plans for memorial services are pending. SHARE By Max Boot The world is transfixed by Britain's referendum Thursday over whether to stay in the European Union. Some of the most interested and anxious spectators of the "Brexit" debate are in the Baltic republics, where I recently spent a week meeting with political and military leaders as part of a delegation from the Jamestown Foundation. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania know what can happen when Europe isn't united. Their freedom ended in 1940 when Soviet troops marched in, followed by Nazi troops the next year. Britain and France were too busy fighting for their own survival to offer assistance. The United States was still pursuing isolationism. Nor was the West able to do anything when, in 1944, the Red Army reoccupied the Baltics, imposing a brutal dictatorship that would last until 1991. The Balts are prosperous and free now, but for how long? With a total population of just 6.2 million and just 56,000 military troops, the Baltic states sit next door to Russia, with 142 million people and more than 3 million troops in its active duty and reserve forces. Already Russia's dictator, Vladimir Putin, has invaded Georgia and Ukraine. What is to stop him from marching into the Baltics? The immediate deterrent is provided by NATO: All of the Baltic states are NATO members, and other NATO members, including the United States, are pledged to come to their defense if they are attacked. But the Balts are also members of the European Union, and they are convinced that a strong and vibrant E.U. is also necessary to maintain their prosperity and security. The E.U. enforces economic sanctions on Russia and provides the financial support needed for its more vulnerable members in Eastern Europe to withstand Russia's economic pressure, such as threats to shut off the flow of natural gas. That is why the Balts are alarmed at the prospect of Brexit passing. Their message for Britons is: "Lead, not leave." The Balts admire the Brits and believe that with their shared devotion to free trade, British membership in the E.U. serves their interests, because it counterbalances the more statist and protectionist impulses of Germany and France. Britain is also in favor of a stronger anti-Russian stance than are Germany and France. If Britain left the E.U., the Balts fear that Scotland, which is more pro-E.U. than the rest of the United Kingdom, would leave Britain. Scotland just happens to be where Britain's nuclear deterrent is based aboard four Vanguard-class submarines. The naval base at Faslane could be relocated, but it would be costly to do so at a time when the British defense budget has already been cut to the bone. Odds are that a Britain outside the E.U. would be smaller and weaker than it is today. Moreover, if Britain does vote for Brexit, it will lead to a period of turmoil with Brits and other Europeans debating the nature of their future relationship. Britain and the E.U. will have to pass a trade treaty, and the terms are sure to be contentious. While the negotiations are going on, Europeans will be focused inward not at the external threat to the east. The Balts fear, finally, that a British exit could set off a chain reaction of other exits. There is great unhappiness with the E.U. in many member states, and Putin has been supporting anti-E.U. parties in Europe of both the far left and far right. Nigel Farage, leader of the UK Independence Party and a leading pro-Brexit voice, has harsh words for Brussels and nothing but kind words for Moscow. He has expressed admiration for Putin and been a regular guest on the Russia Today propaganda channel. France's far-right National Front, led by Marine Le Pen, has admitted receiving tens of millions of euros in "loans" from a Kremlin-linked bank. Russia is also supporting in various ways other extremist parties, including the far-right Jobbik in Hungary, the far-left Podemos in Spain, the far-left Syriza in Greece and the far-right Freedom Party in Austria, that are pro-Russia and anti-E.U. And Putin goes out of his way to praise Donald Trump, who has called NATO "obsolete" and vowed to improve relations with Russia. It's clear that the Russians are hoping to promote disunity in the West by breaking up the two alliances that oppose them NATO and the E.U. The Balts are concerned, and so should we be, that a British vote for Brexit would play into Putin's hands. The last thing the West needs is to see Europe divided, allowing Putin's Russia to use a divide-and-conquer strategy. British voters may not care what anyone else thinks, but there's a good reason their allies want them to stay in the E.U. Max Boot is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He wrote this for the Washington Post. Microsoft believes its refusal to turn over email held in Ireland to the U.S. government got a boost from an opinion of the Supreme Court on Monday, which upheld that U.S. laws cannot apply extraterritorially unless Congress has explicitly provided for it. In a decision Monday in a separate case on the extraterritorial application of a provision of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), the Supreme Court set out the ground rules for its analysis, pointing out that absent clearly expressed congressional intent to the contrary, federal laws will be construed to have only domestic application. The court was applying a canon of statutory construction known as the presumption against extraterritoriality. It stated that the the question is not whether we think Congress would have wanted a statute to apply to foreign conduct if it had thought of the situation before the court, but whether Congress has affirmatively and unmistakably instructed that the statute will do so." The statements by the Supreme Court, which were cited on Tuesday in a notice of supplemental authority in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit by Microsofts lawyer, E. Joshua Rosenkranz, appear to be in accordance with Microsofts own argument that nowhere did the U.S. Congress say that the Electronics Communications Privacy Act "should reach private emails stored on provider's computers in foreign countries." The proceedings in this high-profile lawsuit have been rather slow, although a decision by the court is eagerly awaited because of its far-reaching implications. Microsoft provided non-content information held on its U.S. servers in response to the search warrant, but tried to quash the warrant when it concluded that the account and the content of the mails were hosted in Dublin. The company favors instead an inter-governmental resolution to the U.S. demand for access to the emails, through the use of "mutual legal assistance treaties" that the U.S. has with other countries including Ireland. In an earlier decision, U.S. Magistrate Judge James C. Francis IV of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York had ruled that the warrant under the Stored Communications Act, a part of the ECPA, was "a hybrid: part search warrant and part subpoena." It is executed like a subpoena in that it is served on the Internet service provider, which is required to provide the information from its servers wherever located, but does not involve government officials entering the premises, Judge Francis ruled. The government has argued that the MLAT procedure through inter-government collaboration is time-consuming, even though Ireland has offered to consider a request for the data under the treaty. Microsoft wants that Congress should be asked for a decision on whether warrants under the ECPA can be executed abroad. The Supreme Court in its opinion on Monday also adopted a view that appears to tally with the stand taken by Microsoft and its backers on the international implications of a decision against the company. The court noted that there are several reasons for the presumption that a statute does not have an extraterritorial implication if it gives no clear indication of one, including that it serves to avoid the international discord that can result when U.S. law is applied to conduct in foreign countries. Although the risk of conflict between an American statute and a foreign law is not a prerequisite for applying the presumption against extraterritoriality, where such a risk is evident, the need to enforce the presumption is at its apex, the court observed elsewhere in its opinion. Tech companies are worried that if the appeals court decides against Microsoft, it would scare European cloud and other customers who would be wary of the long arm of U.S. law, particularly after revelations by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden about large-scale domestic and foreign surveillance by the U.S. The case before the Supreme Court arose from allegations that tobacco and food company RJR Nabisco and related entities participated in a global money-laundering scheme in association with various organized crime groups. The European Community and 26 of its member states first sued RJR in the Eastern District of New York in 2000, alleging that RJR had violated RICO. Nothing in the text of RICO establishes that Congress meant to allow a provision for private lawsuits to recover for injuries outside the U.S., the Supreme Court ruled. A private RICO plaintiff therefore must allege and prove a domestic injury to its business or property, it added. There are countless "as-a-Service" offerings on the market today, and typically they live in the cloud. Back in 2014, startup BlueData blazed a different trail by launching its EPIC Enterprise big-data-as-a-service offering on-premises instead. On Wednesday, BlueData announced that the software can now run on Amazon Web Services (AWS) and other public clouds, making it the first BDaaS platform to work both ways, the company says. "The future of Big Data analytics will be neither 100 percent on-premises nor 100 percent in the cloud," said Kumar Sreekanti, CEO of BlueData. "Were seeing more multicloud and hybrid deployments, with data both on-prem and in the cloud. BlueData provides the only solution that can meet the realities of these mixed environments in the enterprise. BlueData's EPIC (short for "Elastic Private Instant Clusters") platform taps embedded Docker container technology to let businesses spin up virtual Hadoop or Spark clusters within minutes on their existing infrastructure, the company says, giving data scientists on-demand access to the applications, data, and infrastructure. BlueData has offered a free community edition of BlueData EPIC running on AWS since last year, but until now the enterprise edition was available only for on-premises deployments. With the new flexibility to run in hybrid and multicloud environments, customers can eliminate data movement by keeping data on-premises while running compute in the cloud. At the same time, there's a "single pane of glass" for creating and managing big-data environments, BlueData says. The Docker images for Hadoop, Spark, and other big data applications will be the same regardless of the underlying infrastructure or cloud service. As of Wednesday there's limited availability on AWS, with general availability there - as well as on Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and other public cloud services - due in the coming months. Pricing on the public cloud will include usage-based and annual subscription options. Also on Wednesday, BlueData introduced the summer release of its EPIC platform. With roots at VMware, BlueData last year forged a partnership with Intel and announced a fresh $20 million in funding. The BDaaS market is expected to be worth $7 billion by 2020, according to research firm MarketsandMarkets. Instead of worrying about AI bringing about Skynet and the end of humanity, Google wants to find ways to stop artificial intelligence from hacking its reward system. Thats just one of five practical research problems proposed by scientists at Google, OpenAI, Stanford and Berkeley in a paper called Concrete Problems in AI Safety (pdf). Others included safe exploration issues, or how to stop a curious cleaning robot from sticking a wet mop in an electrical socket, and avoiding negative side effects such as a robot breaking grannys vase when cleaning in a rush. The problems may seem a bit silly, when compared to an AI-induced doomsday, but Google researcher Chris Olah wrote, These are all forward thinking, long-term research questions minor issues today, but important to address for future systems. A particularly interesting portion of the paper was devoted to avoiding reward hacking, or how to stop AI from gaming its reward function. Imagine that an agent discovers a buffer overflow in its reward function: it may then use this to get extremely high reward in an unintended way. Examples included a cleaning robot clamping its eyes shut to avoid seeing messes that need cleaned or creating messes intentionally so it can earn more rewards. Thankfully there was no mention of robots killing off humans to stop messes to begin with and gaining additional reward for keeping a place spotless. There were numerous ways an AI agent could try to game the reward system. For example, modern reinforcement agents already do discover and exploit bugs in their environments, such as glitches that allow them to win video games. The researchers added: Once an agent begins hacking its reward function and finds an easy way to get high reward, it wont be inclined to stop, which could lead to additional challenges in agents that operate on a long timescale. While describing the pursuit of reward hacks that can lead to coherent but unanticipated behavior which has the potential for harmful impacts in real-world systems, the researchers gave six broad examples of how the problem could occur. They added, The proliferation of reward hacking instances across so many different domains suggests that reward hacking may be a deep and general problem, and one that we believe is likely to become more common as agents and environments increase in complexity. Today those problems can be corrected, but it might become more difficult as AI agents get more complicated reward functions and work for longer periods of time. The paper suggests that one solution to AI trying to hack its reward function might involve trip wires; if triggered, a human would be alerted and could stop the AI. Then again, the AI might see through the trip wire and intentionally avoid it while taking less obvious harmful actions. Big red button method Since AI agents are unlikely to behave optimally all the time, Google DeepMind and University of Oxford researchers previously proposed (pdf) a big red button method; if a human is supervising an AI agent and catches it continuing a harmful sequence of actions, then the human hits the whammy button to stop the harmful action. The AI might attempt to disable the red button so it is not interrupted and still receives its reward; the research paper looks at ways to stop AI from learning how to stop a human from interrupting its actions. Housecleaning robot is an OpenAI technical goal Earlier this week, the Elon Musk-backed OpenAI announced that building a reliable housecleaning robot is one of its technical goals. OpenAI doesnt intend to build actual cleaning robots, but to develop general learning algorithms that will help it build better agents that are more capable according to OpenAIs metric. Concrete Problems in AI Safety Besides avoiding negative side effects the broken vase scenario avoiding reward hacking, and ensuring safe exploration the curious cleaning bot sticking a wet mop into an electrical socket scenario, the researchers behind Concrete Problems in AI Safety believe other problems need to be addressed; those include scalable oversight and ensuring AI systems behave robustly in environments that are different from where they were trained. The researchers concluded: A Geneva Convention on cyberwar: That's how a panel of experts proposes to deal with the growing threat to critical infrastructure posed by the possibility of cyberattack. With control systems in dams, hospitals, power grids and industrial systems increasingly exposed online, it's possible that nation states could seek to damage or disable them electronically. But building electronic defenses to prevent such attacks is expensive -- and often ineffectual, given the myriad ways in which they can fail or be breached. That's why the Global Commission on Internet Governance recommends that in any future cyberwar, governments should pledge to restrict the list of legitimate targets for cyberattacks, to not target critical infrastructure predominantly used by civilians, and to not to use cyberweapons against core Internet infrastructure. While a gentleman's agreement might not seem like much protection, for a nation to break such a taboo would be to risk an all-out attack in retaliation, the commission suggested in "One Internet," a new report on the future of the Internet. An agreement won't eliminate all risks of cyberattack for civilian infrastructure, of course: Just as with the protection afforded hospitals and the like under the existing Geneva Conventions, there will always be those willing to ignore the rules. "For some sub-state terrorist groups and rogue states, making daily life difficult for their enemies is already their policy and they have less to lose as they already regard themselves as being in a state of conflict," the report said. "Sporadic attacks on vulnerable systems and markets are to be expected." The report is not just about cyberwar. Its whistle-stop tour of Internet ethics also takes in surveillance, privacy, anonymity, censorship and child protection, with additional chapters on reducing online crime and the threat that blockchain technologies pose to the established order. The Global Commission on Internet Governance is chaired by former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt and was set up by two think tanks: Chatham House in the U.K. and the Centre for International Governance Innovation in Canada. CIGI was founded by former BlackBerry co-CEO Jim Balsillie. Judy Terry is a marketing professional and a former local councillor in Suffolk. People in public life routinely suffer some form of abuse in todays high tech world. This applies to politicians, whether national or local, who put their heads above the parapet to do or say something even mildly contentious which they believe is in the best interests of their community, and attracts attention. Objective criticism has always been a factor in such peoples lives, but there is something insidious and threatening in the vitriol which is so ruthlessly, and often anonymously, deployed most frequently against women. Were told to ignore it and not to be a wuss. Having a bucket of stinking slurry thrown over your car, or someone stabbing your hand as you put a leaflet through the door is just part of everyday life. Dont worry, its a one-off. A district councillor told me how she was intimidated by an opposition councillor for years. Using his blog and twitter, as well as facebook, libellous literature and even badly chaired official meetings he tried to humiliate and defame her, despite her successful campaigning on behalf of local residents. She was told that he was jealous, and it was his idea of having a bit of fun. Only recently, a female Suffolk County Councillor decided to stand down, citing the difficult political environment. Its not easy finding people to stand for election to local authorities, which is why so many belong to more than one council! So, things have to change, or the pool of potential candidates will dry up completely. Regrettably, it has taken the tragic murder of a universally admired, young Labour MP who was, first and foremost, a wife and mother, and a charity worker, to focus attention on the implications arising from the hatred and ignorance which prompts intimidation, and the fortunately much rarer verbal and physical violence directed at politicians at all levels. Acres of newsprint will undoubtedly be devoted to analysing the reasons behind Jo Coxs murder, as the Police continue their investigations. And she will be remembered as a role model for all young people, proving that, however modest your background, a good education can revolutionise employment prospects and ambitions; her intelligence and hard work took her to Cambridge and a selfless career devoted to helping others. Friends and colleagues have emphasised her ability to work across political boundaries, without rancour, so one legacy from this tragedy is likely to be the revival of respect. Respect for each other, whatever the disagreements. The importance of moderate, rather than toxic, language, when passions are aroused as they inevitably are in the political arena. As has been said by many commentators, we are fortunate to live in a democracy, which gives anyone the right to make contentious comments, highlighting issues which may raise the temperature in debate, but there is no excuse for the targeted personal abuse, defaming the opposition, which so many members of the public find offensive and serves merely as a distraction from those issues. As Sir Nicholas Soames said on the Marr Programme, there has been a general coarsening of public discourse. When emotions run high, poor behaviour can ensue, directed at individuals, either fellow MPs, councillors or even members of the public, who disagree. This can, in turn, act as a stimulus for others to troll, stalk and otherwise abuse. Lively debate is valuable: it makes us think and even change our own views when we listen to a contrary argument. But those in public life whoever they are, and whatever they do should set an example and be more polite to each other. There should also be greater sympathy and understanding when councillors raise concerns about incidents which, in isolation, could be regarded as insignificant, but are a constant worry when protracted. It may simply be straightforward bullying from someone wanting to provoke a reaction from their victim, and ignoring the behaviour by deleting emails/texts unread can sometimes be the safest option because the abuser gets bored. However, this doesnt always work and can lead to an escalation which may be dangerous if not investigated and addressed. Enforcing standards of conduct to avoid anyone denigrating colleagues is another must. Clever people use humour to emphasise the quality of their argument, without making it personal. The rough and tumble of politics at all levels is what drives many people; they enjoy scoring points, and theres nothing wrong with that. Its the way you do it thats important. SHARE Omar Mateen By John Bacon, USA TODAY A friend of mass murderer Omar Mateen says he tipped the FBI about suspcicious behavior Mateen displayed two years before his brutal shooting spree in an Orlando nightclub. Mohammed Malik, in a commentary piece provided to Treasure Cost Newspapers and The Washington Post, wrote that he became concerned about Mateen in 2014 after a young man from their mosque killed himself and several Syrian troops in a suicide bombing. Malik said Mateen began listening to recordings of militant Islamic cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, whom suicide bomber Moner Mohammad Abu-Salha had called his inspiration in a video he left behind. Al-Awlaki, who was born in New Mexico, was accused by the U.S. of planning terrorist strikes before he was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Yemen in September 2011. "Omar told me he had been watching videos of Awlaki, too, which immediately raised red flags for me," Malik wrote. "He told me the videos were very powerful." Malik, 43, said he met Mateen at a Ramadan meal an iftar in 2006. Mateen was a quiet teen then, he said. They chatted infrequently over the next eight years, until the Syrian suicide bombing in the summer of 2014 rocked their Florida Muslim community. "Everyone in the area was shocked and upset," Malik wrote. "We hate violence and were horrified that one of our number could have killed so many." Malik discussed the case with several members of their mosque, and Mateen expressed his own interest in Al-Awlaki. Malik said the FBI was looking for information on people who might be self-radicalizing, so Malik volunteered what little he could provide. "We had all known Moner; he was jovial and easygoing, the opposite of Omar," Malik wrote. The FBI has said it received tips about Mateen in 2013 and again in 2014, but in both cases found no information sufficient to pursue an arrest. Malik said he loves the U.S. and is proud to be an American. But he is hurt and concerned by the suspicion surrounding Islam. "I am not the first American Muslim to report on someone; people who do that simply dont like to announce themselves in to the media," Malik wrote. "For my part, Im not looking for personal accolades. Im just tired of negative rhetoric and ignorant comments about my faith." SHARE By John Martin of the Courier and Press Evansville's two hospital CEOs say collaboration and transparency are key elements of a new communitywide approach to lingering problems such as infant mortality, substance abuse, obesity and cancer. Deaconess Health System and St. Mary's Health System on Wednesday presented the Community Health Needs Assessment 2016, a refreshed look at data in Vanderburgh and Warrick counties. The website, healthyswin.org, lists all information that was collected. Much of it is sobering. Southwestern Indiana's rate of infant mortality is highest in the state, a fact officials attributed to mothers smoking and not using prenatal health services. Tobacco use has dropped a bit, but the region is still too heavy 33.3 percent of adults in Vanderburgh and 29.4 percent in Warrick are considered obese. In that area, "we haven't made progress," said St. Mary's CEO Keith Jewell, who presented the report at Central Library along with Linda White of Deaconess. "In fact, we're heavier today than we were three years ago." Vanderburgh's death rate due to drug poisoning and its age-adjusted emergency room visit rate due to alcohol abuse soar above statewide averages. Warrick's age-adjusted death rates to breast and prostate cancer are slightly higher than statewide averages. One example of success cited in the Community Health Needs Assessment was increased accessibility of youth mental health first aid. Officials said that is a key piece of suicide prevention, although they emphasized suicide remains a concern. Deaconess Cross Pointe used grant funding to expand youth mental health first aid training. "The reason that's so important is there is a lot of evidence showing the sooner you can intervene with someone with a mental health concern, the better the outcome," said Janie Chappell, manager of community services at Deaconess Cross Pointe. "The median age of when someone develops a mental health concern is about 11 years. We have a lot of little kids who are struggling." However, many do not receive help they need that early in life. "The average amount of time it takes for someone to seek help if they a mental health concern is 10 years," Chappell said. " ... Most 21-year-olds aren't going to seek help on their own, and they've lost out on a lot of things they need to learn, such as coping skills and problem-solving skills." The Community Health Needs Assessment identified four priority areas behavioral health (including substance abuse, tobacco use and mental health) in both counties; exercise, weight and nutrition in both counties; child health in Vanderburgh; and cancer, specifically breast and prostate, in Warrick. Officials said the approach will include outreach to nonprofits and other individuals with interest in the four focus areas. The healthyswin.org website will a portal for how people and groups can become involved, while also viewing action plans and giving feedback. The website is to be updated with fresh community health statistics as they become available. "We don't want people to think, oh, here we go again," White said. "It's really a re-emphasis, and making sure we have the priorities right for the next three years. You don't have to be a nonprofit. We want people engaged who are passionate about these priorities. We will get community citizens involved who have very good ideas. It is a work in progress." Jewell said, "No individual or organization can improve the health status of the community. These are really huge issues. I think as we look back over the last three years, what we learned more than anything is that this community is willing to learn and collaborate on these issues. We're thankful for that energy and support. I think what we will do differently in the next three years is try to be more transparent about where the issues are and what we're doing about them." The website "will allow you to connect in any way you see fit," Jewell said. SHARE By Zach Osowski, zach.osowski@courierpress.com INDIANAPOLIS A group of experts from Indiana's judicial and legal system know they have their work cut out for them as they try to change the nature of the state's criminal justice system. On Tuesday, those experts from all over the state came to Indianapolis to see how their pilot counties are progressing with a new evidence-based approach to punishment and incarceration as well as mull what the state's goals should be moving forward. In 2015, Indiana was one of three states picked for a grant from the National Institute of Corrections to look at the Evidence-Based Decision Making approach to criminal justice. The approach is an attempt to shrink crime rates, reduce recidivism and promote a fair justice system. Indiana picked six pilot counties Bartholomew, Hamilton, Hendricks, Jefferson, Porter and Tipton to try the new system and identify changes that can be rolled out to the entire state. The state steering committee is chaired by Indiana Supreme Court Justice Steven David, who said the members were aware of the daunting nature of overhauling the state's criminal justice system, something he likened to making changes to an airplane while it was rolling down a runway. "You can't say, 'time out, no crimes committed for the next six months,'" David said. "But we have a lot of representation here from many different agencies that realize that (changing on the fly) is the only option." Judges, police, prosecutors, defense attorneys, lawmakers and mental health experts were all in attendance to discuss goals going forward. One of the possibilities raised by Sara Cozad, with the Indiana Division of Mental Health and Addiction, was making sure people who need treatment are going to health centers instead of prison. Cozad said she would like to see fewer people with a serious mental illness or a substance use disorder go to jail when treatment is a better option for them. She said arresting officers or defense attorneys can do a better job in Indiana of identifying who might be better served at rehab than jail, and she said once individuals with a mental illness do get proper treatment, they are less likely to get into trouble with the law again. The point of the evidence-based system, David said, is realizing one size doesn't fit all when it comes to criminal justice and lots of ideas on how to make that idea work in Indiana were tossed around. Citations for minor offenses instead of arrests, no bail for low-risk offenders and more pretrial diversion options were some of many things the group looked at on Tuesday. Ultimately, David said, this is going to be a very long process with some goals looking 15 years or more down the road as Indiana continues to change. But, he said the work done at the county level is already showing small changes are occurring. "There are already a number of initiatives under way," he said. "This is not 'stay tuned in 15 years.'" Elders paint grim picture of future Yalata Elders from South Australia are calling for resistance against two proposed nuclear waste dumps. In February last year, Labor Premier of South Australia Jay Weatherill launched a nuclear Royal Commission. Warnings at the Taranaki Blast Site, Maralinga. This month, Royal Commissioner Kevin Scarce recommended that SA import and store international high-level nuclear waste. This plan is in addition to the federal governments recently announced proposal to have a national nuclear dump in Adnymathanha Flinders Ranges country. From 1998-2004, the Kupa Piti Kungka Tjuta, senior Aboriginal women from Coober Pedy, led a successful national campaign against a dump to store national intermediate- and low-level waste in SA with eventual strong support from Premier, Mike Ranns SA Labor government. And Yalata Elders are hoping a new campaign can similarly change government plans. On May 14, 60 years after the first Maralinga bombs, the Maralinga Painting was launched at Yalata, at the Head of the Bight, 1,000 kilometre northwest of Adelaide. Yalata long-serving past chairperson Mima Smart, the lead artist for the community project, is incensed at this latest nuclear plan, particularly given the history of the Yalata/Maralinga people, who were moved from their country in 1952 to make way for the British nuclear tests. That Maralinga painting that I painted on the canvas was about the bomb. And the bomb means a lot of bad things, she said. The bomb brought death to our people on the land when they were still wandering in the desert; when they were still travelling from rockhole to rockhole. And all our families were told to go south. They came to Ooldea Tank when they settled and they seen that bomb. It was really sad whats happened to that land. Looking at the painting. It was a beautiful place with nice sceneries and animals around and birds and people around. And the people were gathering food on the ground. But after that bomb, people kept moving away and knew that place was destroyed by the bomb. But before that, they didnt understand the danger. But the white people knew. Why didnt they blast it in their own country? Why bring it to a beautiful country like Maralinga? The nuclear waste dump is not the best thing for us. The Minister is saying to bring the waste and dump it in South Australia. We dont want that waste dump either in Yalata, or around Maralinga, or Ooldea or Watson. Because the roads that are going across to Western Australia is the place we always be using for funerals, for visiting families and business. Please take it away and dump it in your country. The damage has already been done with us there are no old people in Yalata today. We teach all our children what the damage from the bombs is about. Immediate past chairperson of Maralinga Tjarutja, Keith Peters, called for support to fight the dump. We need everyone to respond to the government, to the royal commission, he said. The government needs to understand we need a good environment in our country. We are not going to have this disaster. We already fought for the (Maralinga) clean-up and the Maralinga Royal Commission. We need to stand up together, Anangu (Aboriginal people) and non-Anangu. If the government wants to put a nuclear dump in SA, all Australians, all South Australians should stand up and say no. Because its going to damage our country, our environment; its going to bring sickness to people. If we can say no, we can stand up together and we can win. After the Premiers announcement, environmental groups together with SA traditional owners launched the Alliance against the Dump. For more information go to www.nodumpalliance.org.au Koori Mail Defeat the Coalition CPA Statement on the Federal Election The Communist Party of Australia warns there are several urgent questions for the working class and other exploited people at the forthcoming federal elections. The Communists will be registered for the next elections but, unfortunately, on this occasion the choice for left and progressive voters is limited to political forces lacking in working class ideology. While the CPA recognises that parliaments have limited control of the political process due to the dominance of transnational corporations, differences on key policy issues make voting in this federal election a particularly important choice for left and progressive Australians. The main question before us is to defeat the Coalition government and conservative forces and to continue the process of breaking the two-party system. The main policy thrust of the Abbott/Turnbull government on key issues such as industrial relations, including the Australian Building and Construction Commission, the funding of public education, public health, environmental measures, etc is clearly dangerous enough for the CPA to recommend putting the Liberals and Nationals last. The Greens have proven to be better on these questions and those of health, education and industrial relations and deserve our support along with other progressive and left forces. Because of their position on questions like penalty rates and some other issues concerning industrial relations, the CPA recommends putting the ALP above the various right-wing candidates and the Coalition. Members and supporters should apply the same guidelines when voting in the Senate to secure the balance of power for the Australian Greens and other progressive candidates. In view of the new voting system in the Senate, members and supporters are urged not to preference the Coalition parties at all. The CPA recommends 1 to 6 above the line with the Greens in number 1 position followed by left and progressive parties and independents. Regardless of the outcome of the election, the CPA will continue to build working class power and left and progressive unity in action. We will continue to advocate the busting of the two-party system and to fight for our own policies on public health, public education, the environment, land rights, refugee rights, a foreign policy based on cooperation and peaceful relations, and an end to the US military alliance and involvement in imperialist wars. In sharp contrast to the current crop of pro-capitalist candidates, we will continue to campaign against the hugely wasteful military spending endorsed by the major parties. A 20 percent cut to military spending would restore neglected services and projects in public health care, public education, environmental protection, climate change, Indigenous services and other urgent needs. The CPA is convinced the main danger for the immediate future is the re-election of a Coalition government and the pursuit of fascist-like legislation directed against the trade unions. Workers relying on penalty rates face extreme challenges when penalty rates are removed. For these reasons we urge members and supporters to vote for left, progressive and Green candidates, put the ALP next ahead of the various reactionary parties and put the Liberals and Nationals last. In the Senate, do not preference the Coalition at all. Theory and Practice Socialism and human development today In his book The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State Frederick Engels presents a brilliant summary of the development of human society up to the present time. He wrote: what had originally been a naturally grown democracy (in the gentile associations) was transformed into a hateful aristocracy. The gentile constitution had grown out of a society that knew no internal antagonisms, and was adapted only for such a society. It had no coercive power except public opinion. But now a society had come into being that by the force of its economic conditions of existence had to split up into freemen and slaves, into exploiting rich and exploited poor; a society that was not only incapable of reconciling these antagonisms, but had to drive them more and more to a head. Such a society could only exist either in a state of continuous, open struggle of these classes against one another or under the rule of a third power which, while ostensibly standing above the classes struggling with each other, suppressed their open conflict and permitted a class struggle at most in the economic field, in a so-called legal form. The gentile constitution had outlived its usefulness. It was burst asunder by the division of labour and by its result, the division of society into classes. Its place was taken by the state. Engels explained: [The state] is a product of society at a certain stage of development; it is the admission that this society had become entangled in an insoluble contradiction with itself, that it has split into irreconcilable antagonisms which it is powerless to dispel. But in order that these antagonisms, classes with conflicting economic interests, might not consume themselves and society in fruitless struggle, it becomes necessary to have a power seemingly standing above society that would alleviate the conflict, and keep it within the bounds of order This public power exists in every state; it consists not merely of armed men but also of material adjuncts, prisons and institutions of coercion of all kinds, of which gentile society knew nothing. In concluding his analysis of the history of the development of human societies Engels quotes American anthropologist Lewis Morgan who devoted his life to a study of American Indian society. Morgan wrote: The time which has passed away since civilisation began is but a fragment of the past duration of mans existence; and but a fragment of the ages yet to come. The dissolution of society bids fair to become the termination of a career of which property is the end and aim, because such a career contains the elements of self-destruction. Democracy in government, brotherhood in society, equality in rights and privileges, and universal education, foreshadow the next higher plane of society to which experience, intelligence and knowledge are steadily tending. It will be a revival, in a higher form, of the liberty, equality and fraternity of the ancient gentes. On the same theme Engels writes: The highest form of the state, the democratic republic, which under our modern conditions of society is more and more becoming an inevitable necessity, and is the form of state in which alone the last decisive struggle between proletariat and bourgeoisie can be fought out the democratic republic officially knows nothing any more of property distinctions. In describing the differences between gentile society and civilisation, Engels writes that: while among barbarians hardly any distinction could be made between rights and duties, civilisation makes the difference and antithesis between these two plain even to the dullest mind by assigning to one class pretty nearly all the rights, and to the other class pretty nearly all the duties. And, Naked greed has been the moving spirit of civilisation from its first day to the present time; wealth, wealth and wealth again; wealth, not of society, but of this shabby individual was its sole determining aim A study of this work by Engels, particularly the chapter entitled Barbarism and Civilisation, is essential reading for all communists. It is socialist society and socialist society alone, which inscribes the principles of democracy in government, brotherhood in society, equality in rights and privileges, and universal education on its banners. In innumerable references Marx and Engels and other communist writers have outlined the principles of the future socialist society. The proletariat seizes the public power and by virtue of this power transforms the social means of production, slipping from the hands of the bourgeoisie, into public property. By this act, the proletariat frees the means of production from the character of capital they have thus far borne, and gives their socialised character complete freedom to work itself out. Socialised production upon a predetermined plan becomes henceforth possible. Lenin emphasised the importance of philosophical materialism: Marxs philosophical materialism has alone shown the proletariat the way out of the spiritual slavery in which all oppressed classes have hitherto languished. And, Not a single victory of political freedom over the feudal class was won except against desperate resistance. Not a single capitalist country evolved on a more or less free and democratic basis except by a life and death struggle between the various classes of capitalist society. Engels speaking at the graveside of Karl Marx, who died in March 1883, said that: Marx discovered the law of evolution in human history the simple fact, hitherto concealed by an overgrowth of ideology, that mankind must first of all eat and drink, have shelter and clothing, before it can pursue politics, science, art, religion, etc His real mission in life was to contribute in one way or another to the overthrow of capitalist society and of the state institutions which it had brought into being, to contribute to the liberation of the present-day proletariat, which he was the first to make conscious of its own position and its needs [and] of the conditions under which it could win its emancipation. This rather long introduction is necessary to put into perspective the millennia-long and often painful struggles of humankind to win its liberation. Today this struggle is taking its next strides forward with the creation of socialist societies, where the working class and its allies are becoming the ruling class and where the capitalist system is being relegated and replaced by socialist economic, political and social institutions and structures. The writings of Marx, Engels and Lenin in particular, show that the historic changes taking place do not arise as a consequence of the ideas of these great scientists but are the inevitable result of the progression of human society. It is on the basis of their scientific discoveries that we assert the inevitability of the transition on a world scale of capitalist societies into socialist ones. It is not yet even 100 years since the first socialist societies came into existence a mere snap of the fingers in terms of the first historical formation and development of human societies. (This year [2007] marks only the 90th anniversary of the November 7th, 1917 Great October Socialist Revolution in Russia and the subsequent formation of the USSR the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics). But it is sufficient time to allow a first evaluation of the achievements of these societies and to ascertain whether humanity has generally taken the road that Marx, Engels and Lenin expected. The Russian revolution brought to power the working class of Russia in alliance with the peasantry. It proceeded to bring about the public ownership of the means of production and turned all land into collectively owned public property. On this basis it became possible to introduce economic planning and to rapidly improve the living standards of the people of both town and country. For the first time ever, poverty was being eliminated, education and health services became available to all, equal rights for women in society were implemented, national and ethnic antagonisms were in the process of being eliminated and a policy of international peace became the foremost principle in international relations. It fell to the Soviet Union to play the principle part in the destruction of Nazism in Germany, a historic achievement that will reverberate down through time for centuries to come. The victory over Nazism was an enormous blow against capitalism and imperialism and against all class societies. This victory led to the destruction of the colonial system and the subjugation of the less developed countries by the powerful imperialist industrial states. It also opened the way for the victory of the Chinese revolution which, in the modern era, is rapidly overtaking the developed capitalist countries in the field of production and demonstrating for all to see the advantages of the socialist form of society. The socialist form of society in Russia and China both demonstrated that socialist public ownership achieves a much more rapid rate of economic development than has been achieved by any of the capitalist states. Furthermore, their industrial development did not lead to the pauperisation of the working people but to a much greater proportion of the value of production going to lift the living standards of the people. These achievements were not free of difficulties and setbacks as have overtaken the USSR and the other socialist countries of Eastern Europe. In China, the period of the Cultural Revolution also seriously delayed the development of the socialist economy of the Peoples Republic of China for many years. The communist parties throughout the world are learning from the setbacks and errors of these first efforts to build socialist societies. There are many issues in this regard the overestimation of the rapidity of change and an underestimation of the resources and determination of the overthrown capitalist power, insufficient attention to the educational work necessary to root out the centuries of ideological indoctrination by all previous class societies, developing correct relationships between the party, the state, the working class and the people, how to develop new institutions and forms which draw all the working people into becoming the real masters of society while controlling bureaucratic forms of government as well as corruption, the long struggle to overcome national and ethnic differences which have been fanned by the previous class power, etc. Without slipping into nationalistic positions we must recognise that each country has its differences and historical experiences and will build the new socialist society taking into account these characteristics. This is what is meant when the Communist Party of China speaks about building socialism with Chinese characteristics. But, the same principles of historical materialism that allow one to conclude that the transition from capitalism to socialism is inevitable, so it is also inevitable that the construction of socialism will not be free of difficulties, errors and setbacks. Initially, the centre of the world-wide revolutionary movement resided in the USSR. It then shifted to Asia with the Chinese and Vietnamese revolutions and the struggles of the colonial countries for their national liberation. Today it is centred on the continent of Latin America with the victory of peoples governments in Venezuela, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Argentina, Uruguay and several other countries. In the transformation of the world situation, the remarkable role played by the leadership of socialist Cuba cannot be underestimated. It is reflected in the answers implemented by the Communist Party of Cuba to the many questions which arise in the construction of a socialist society. It is also reflected in the epic struggle waged by the Cuban people and government against the continual interference and threats by its near neighbour US imperialism. Conversely, the centre of counter-revolution, which formerly resided in the power of British, German and French imperialism in the 18th, 19th and in the first half of the 20th Century, has now passed to the United States as the most powerful economic, political and military power in the remaining capitalist world. The new governments of both Venezuela and Bolivia have proclaimed their objective to be the building of socialist societies although they are only at the very beginning of this process. However, already these countries are proceeding to turn the private ownership of enterprises into public ownership and to implement fundamental land reform programs. They are developing new institutions which express the democratic participation of the ordinary people as the owners of the economy and the political masters of society. The rich resources and other forms of wealth of these countries are being channelled to the working class, the peasantry and the indigenous peoples. Nothing (except a nuclear war or dramatic climate change) is now capable of stopping the forward march of human society towards a socialist outcome. This is more and more apparent as the deep crisis of capitalism and imperialism becomes the main characteristic of the capitalist and imperialist societies. This process of disintegration is also inevitable although it will occupy several centuries once again, only a small period in the total life of human society. The Communist Party of Australia has attempted to take the past experiences of socialist states and the finest objectives of humanity into account in formulating its Program, recognising that a socialist society in Australia will take into account the particular progressive characteristics of the Australian people and Australian society so far achieved. Our Program says that the idea that a society should be developed on the basis of everything for the good of the people and on a co-operative basis started to become a reality [in the 20th Century]. In the 20th Century a number of states showed that it was possible to build a new society in which the working class became the ruling class. The means of production were turned into public property and the exploitation of working people by capital was abolished and fundamental steps taken to end racial and sexual discrimination. Unemployment was reduced or eliminated, illiteracy was eradicated and free education made available to all. Extensive public health and social security services were created and national identity and culture promoted. Socialist states gained a foremost place in space technology and in other fields of science says the CPA Program. New concepts of democracy socialist participatory democracy were advanced. Priority was given to the right to work and leisure, the right to an education and health care, the right of women to economic and social equality. New forms of international economic relations based on mutual benefit and assistance, co-operation, specialisation and integration were established. The countries of the socialist world, through mutually beneficial trade arrangements, greatly assisted the economic development of many developing countries. The party Program says that for the first time in history, a number of states arose which adopted the struggle for peace as a responsibility of the state itself with their foreign policies being based on the concept of the peaceful co-existence of states having different social systems. The socialist states repeatedly advanced proposals to eliminate the danger of war, settle disputes without recourse to arms and to scrap all weapons of mass destruction as a step towards complete disarmament. These policies are motivated by the highest human aspirations that once existed, but only in primitive forms, before the advent of private property in slave ownership, land ownership and then in the form of the private ownership of the means of production, money supply, natural resources and so on. On this basis an exploiting class arose which accumulated vast wealth and power by exploiting the majority of the population. The American anthropologist Lewis Morgan, foresaw future developments when he wrote, more than 100 years ago, the lines already quoted: Democracy in government, brotherhood in society, equality in rights and privileges, and universal education, foreshadow the next higher plane of society to which experience, intelligence and knowledge are steadily tending. It will be a revival, in a higher form, of the liberty, equality and fraternity of the ancient gentes. This new period in human society will probably be called socialist civilisation. Humanity has already put its foot on the ladder to this higher order. * This article first appeared in the Australian Marxist Review in 2007. Union leaders outrage at Orlando massacre Union leaders expressed horror and outrage at a gunmans mass killing of 49 people, and wounding of 53 more, at an Orlando, Florida, club that catered to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. Several leaders again demanded increased gun control. The unionists, including Randi Weingarten, the openly gay president of the American Federation of Teachers, joined other leaders across the ideological spectrum in condemning the massacre and expressing sympathy for the victims and their families. The exception: Donald Trump, the presumed Republican presidential nominee, in a harsh speech, spewed hatred of Muslims, instead. Other statements included: Hatred and violence have no place in a civilised society, said Jerame Davis, executive director of Pride@Work, the AFL-CIO constituency group for gay-lesbian-bisexual-transgendered unionists. Our hearts break for the families of the Orlando massacre as we wait for more information about this horrific attack. Until then, we can only honour the victims and their families by working to make sure this never happens again. AFTs Weingarten added the carnage in Orlando again proves the need to curb the availability of such weapons of mass destruction. One of the large prior massacres occurred in an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, she noted. I dont know where to begin, she said. Fifty dead, many more wounded, in the worst mass shooting in American history. I am sick and heartbroken. I pray for the recovery of those who are wounded, and my heart goes out to the dead and their families and loved ones. While we wait for the details, we must find the courage to extend compassion to one another, not expand hate. Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick and others are already trying to divide us by insinuating that the victims because they are part of the LGBTQ community deserved to die. Others have seized on the gunmans name to promote hate against Muslims. Patrick, like Trump, is a Republican. The victims are not to blame. Our Muslim neighbours are not to blame, Weingarten continued. If we want to assign blame, let us look to the culture of radicalisation and fear that creates hatred. Let us look to the outrageous laws that make it easier for gunmen to acquire assault rifles than it will be for members of the LGBTQ community to donate much-needed blood for the victims of this crime. The weapon used in Orlando is a kind of military-style assault rifle, a type of semi-automatic weapon that was also used by Adam Lanza when he murdered innocent children and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. That style of weapon was also used in San Bernardino, California. In Aurora, Colorado. In Portland, Oregan. Let us find the political courage to pass common sense laws to make it harder to commit these crimes. And let us find the moral courage to use this tragedy to build bridges and open our hearts, not to build walls and further hatred. We express our deepest condolences for everyone affected by the deadly shooting, including the victims, their families, the police force and the medical professionals, said Steelworkers President Leo Gerard. In the labour movement, we live by the fundamental belief that an injury to one is an injury to all. This event was not just an attack on the LGBT community or on the attendees of the Pulse nightclub; it was an attack on all Americans who have the right to be free. As a union, we pledge to continue working to secure the right of everyone in this nation and in this world to live their lives free from violence and hatred, regardless of race, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, or religion. In the words of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. There is no room in our country for such hatred, yet such tragedies are occurring far too often, the Communications Workers said. However, its clear that LGBTQ people were targeted by the gunman. We call on this country to replace hate with love. Shamefully, some elements already are using this horrific tragedy to push their political agenda and are condemning President Obama for his call to our nation to respect all people and all faiths. We stand with the President who has called this massacre an act of terror, in this case directed at LGBTQ Americans, and join all Americans who are sickened by the continuing carnage and loss of innocent life in our nation. ...We join in the demand for changes that will restore responsible gun ownership to communities across the nation. This was an attack on all of us, said Hector Sanchez, Executive Director of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, the AFL-CIO constituency group for Latino workers. Many of the Orlando victims are Latinos, as the club was hosting a Latin American-themed night. Service Employees President Mary Kay Henry said her union also stands in solidarity with the lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender community and that it will renew its efforts for stringent gun controls. We are reminded that the LGBTQ community has long been the target of hate and violence in their fight for freedom to love, said Henry, who is gay. In the past year alone, African Americans in a church, health care workers in a womens health clinic and our unions members attending a holiday party have lost their lives. We must all stand united against all forms of hatred and violence. Together, we demand our nation does everything to ensure that no more families have to feel this pain, sadness and loss ever again. Its long past time for our nation to do something about gun violence in our communities. We stand in solidarity with the LGBT people who were the direct targets of this terrorist attack, and the larger communities they represent, sadly, by this most recent act of terrorist violence, said Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Jewish Labour Committee. This was not just an attack on the LGBT communities of Orlando, but on freedom itself, on the basic principles of cultural openness, diversity and tolerance. Indeed, our way of life, added Appelbaum, who is also president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. Appelbaum, who is gay, said standing with the victims is not enough and must be followed by serious state and federal gun control laws despite the gun lobby and that homophobia, racism, anti-Semitism, and Islamophobia must be all be challenged wherever they rear their ugly heads, and we call on leaders in our communities and organisations to speak out clearly and consistently on this. Internationally, Islamist extremism, with religious and political components, provides inspiration to as well as support for terrorist acts such as that in Orlando. The full weight of the free world must be brought to bear to break its hold without, however, demonising Islam or legitimising Islamophobia. Radical Islamism is an extreme minority movement, Appelbaum pointed out. Peoples World Sussex News Story Saved You can find this story in My Bookmarks. Or by navigating to the user icon in the top right. I. Overview Tunisia faces a jihadist threat that arises as much from its own national territory as from neighbouring Libya. To confront it the authorities must urgently publish a counter-terrorism strategy that adopts a multidimensional approach, prioritising prevention and including a mechanism for wide consultation. This would enable a coordinated response and help build broader national consensus around it. The priority is to overcome the mostly institutional and bureaucratic obstacles that have delayed the launch of a strategy since a new constitution was adopted in January 2014. Publishing and implementing a strategy against jihadist violence, which could destabilise the country and encourage an authoritarian drift, will mean revitalising security governance. Failing to respond coherently would allow some of the most vulnerable segments of Tunisian society to continue to radicalise, a primary goal of jihadist groups. Jihadist violence in Tunisia has expanded and diversified since the 2010-2011 uprising against the regime of then President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali. While the government is determined to tackle this security challenge, it has yet to implement a multidimensional strategy that would enable it to address the root causes of violence thereby preventing it and appropriately increase the capacity of security forces to anticipate the threat, react quickly and coordinate and adapt their responses. Releasing a national strategy would clarify the requirements and priorities for a fight of this kind, and would enable a public debate, encouraging popular buy-in and thus pre-empting resistance to its application. It would also improve security collaboration between Tunisia and its regional and international partners, which are keen to see their financial and technical support integrated into a clear strategic vision. Political actors agree more or less on the strategic direction needed to tackle the problem, despite some divergence on the level of control over spaces of religious teaching and the balance between prevention and repression. The main problem is that the government has not yet published or implemented a responsive strategy one whose operational components can evolve to become more effective. The context is unfavourable: Tunisias security challenges are urgent and tend to provoke a repressive response; coordination between the heads of state and government is poor; numerous administrative obstacles remain between and within ministries; and the multiple ad-hoc counter-terrorism commissions often underperform and even fragment policymaking. Two strategic documents were prepared in 2014 and 2015, but never published. These should now serve as a base for the drafting and dissemination of a new text that should reflect a deep understanding of jihadist groups. Two elements will be essential for its success: better cooperation between public institutions and a mechanism for evaluating the strategys effectiveness with a view to making the necessary adjustments. The agency best placed to produce this type of document in coordination with the relevant ministries is the new National Counter-terrorism Commission, established on 22 March 2016, which brings together various parts of the government, including from the security sector. It could also put in place a mechanism for consultation across a broad spectrum of political and civil-society actors. As a first step, to give new impetus to the finalisation and dissemination of this strategy, the head of state and the head of government should agree on their respective roles in the security sector. Secondly, the head of government should strengthen its inter-agency coordination mechanisms, in particular the National Counter-terrorism Commission and the Security Management Follow-up Cell, and create the position of high commissioner for counter-terrorism, who should be given the status of minister without portfolio. His task would be to improve coordination between the two heads of the executive, the relevant ministries, other government agencies (both inside and outside the security sector) and the various ad hoc counter-terrorism commissions. The high commissioner should have the appropriate profile and status to be able to support the National Counter-terrorism Commission in the analytical aspects of its work, namely the completion of the strategy, and help revitalise security governance. To finalise a multidimensional strategy emphasising prevention and based on a solid understanding of jihadist groups, and to ensure its effective application: The National Counter-terrorism Commission should draw on the two previous strategic documents to complete a new text, ensuring the active participation of all ministries and government agencies. The commission should present a public version of this new text and put in place a participatory evaluation mechanism that would allow consultation with a broad range of political and civil-society groups representing Tunisias many political and regional sensibilities, specifically those of border regions most affected by violent groups. Their perspectives should be taken into consideration to enable the adaptation of the documents operational elements in response to an evolving threat. The head of State should take charge of publicising the strategys guiding principles and encourage a process of public consultation. To revitalise governance mechanisms and improve inter-agency coordination to enable the implementation of the strategy: The heads of State and government should define their respective roles in the security sector, without necessitating a change in the constitution. The head of government should strengthen its inter-agency coordination mechanisms, in particular the National Counter-terrorism Commission and the Security Management Follow-up Cell, in order to overcome the bureaucratic resistance and cronyism that are weakening the chain of command within each ministry, especially the interior ministry. The head of government should appoint a high commissioner for counter-terrorism, with the status of minister without portfolio, who is politically independent and has the relevant legal expertise and experience in security management. This person should be tasked with supporting the National Counter-terrorism Commission and improving coordination between the heads of state and government, as well as between different ministries, government agencies and ad hoc bureaucratic structures involved in counter-terrorism policy both inside and outside the security sector. II. A Constantly Evolving Jihadist Threat Since the departure of President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali on 14 January 2011, jihadist violence in Tunisia has taken different forms and, though of low intensity, has expanded steadily. During a first phase, in 2011 and 2012, the Salafi-jihadist movement tried to structure itself as a political force around the Ansar al-Sharia group, but soon turned to violence. Its proselytising in favour of violent acts against atheists and infidels proliferated on social networks and through preaching in prisons, high schools, universities, mosques, public spaces, sports clubs and elsewhere. It established vice squads in certain disadvantaged areas, and several suspected Ansar al-Sharia militants desecrated and burned various zawiyas religious shrines that belong to Sufi brotherhoods and serve as tombs or mausoleums for their walis, or saints. After the attack on the U.S. embassy in September 2012, organised in part by Ansar al-Sharia, the Troika began to take a more severe security approach to radical Islamism. As a Salafi-jihadist noted in 2013, the measures taken at that time restricted Ansar al-Sharias freedom of movement, which thwarted its social activities, designed to win the sympathies of the people and take root throughout the country. The discourse of Abou Iyad al-Tounisi, the groups leader, became more threatening toward the state, suggesting that Tunisia might become a land of jihad like Syria or Iraq. Jihadist violence intensified and diversified in 2013. According to a researcher, the Salafi-jihadist movement then entered a new phase, seeking to: Strike the state, its representatives and its interests, and exhaust security forces. Its strategy was to weaken institutions in order to better organise itself, while diverting the democratic process to show Tunisians that this non-Islamic state is tyrannical in essence and encourage them to join the movement. In February and June 2013, two leftist political figures were killed; the Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for both assassinations in December 2014. In May 2013, the Troika established stronger security measures, targeting in particular Ansar al-Sharia. The police and the National Guard uncovered several weapons stockpiles in different parts of the territory. Skirmishes between security forces and small jihadist brigades intensified in the countrys western border areas and have not stopped since. In August 2013, the interior ministry classified Ansar al-Sharia as a terrorist organisation, and within a year, the group appeared to have been eradicated. After parliamentary and presidential elections in late 2014, Tunisia became a privileged target of IS just as it was increasing its international terrorist operations. In March and June 2015, more than 60 foreign tourists were killed in the Bardo Museum in Tunis and at the Marhaba Hotel in Port el Kantaoui (an east coast touristic area) in attacks claimed by IS. In November 2015, a dozen members of the presidential guard died in a suicide attack also claimed by IS. More recently, in March 2016, a commando squad of 60 mostly Tunisian jihadists attempted to seize the city of Ben Guerdane, 30km from the Libyan border in the countrys south east, by storming the military barracks and the National Guard post. Although Tunisian armed forces successfully thwarted the operation and Ben Guerdane locals several of whom are known to have taken part in armed conflicts across the Middle East and North Africa did not join the insurrection, the threat remains prevalent at the national level. A large number of Tunisian citizens, between 3,000 and 6,000 depending on the source, have joined the ranks of IS in Iraq, Syria and Libya; nearly 600 are thought to have returned home. Given the weakness of the external intelligence services, the justice system cannot prove that they have blood on their hands, a former director general of National Security said. So they are merely put under house arrest and monitored closely by the police. Some of these returnees, still active in IS, could organise violent operations in Tunisia. This would complement ISs scattering strategy from its strongholds in neighbouring Libya, a French expert on jihadism argued. Another strike on Tunisia would be a way for IS in Libya to threaten Algeria on its eastern border while also boosting the groups propaganda, given the international media attention garnered by each new attack on Tunisian soil. Jihadist groups in the country can rely on significant networks (isolated jihadists, small groups either autonomous or linked to larger movements). Several sleeper cells, some of which are in contact with al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and IS, reportedly exist throughout the country in both urban and suburban areas. Moreover, nearly 150 armed jihadists from Oqba Ibn Nafaa, a group close to AQIM that has been significantly weakened by the army and the national guard, and from Jounoud al-Khilafa (close to IS) still operate in the mountainous and forested areas near the Algerian border. Jounoud al-Khilafa enjoys support among disadvantaged fringes of the population within a 100km radius in the direction of Sidi Bouzid (centre-west). Given the strengthening of their strategic capabilities in Libya, jihadist groups could in the future be a step ahead of security forces (the police, National Guard and army), who despite their success in Ben Guerdane are at risk of being overwhelmed. IS militants, among others, would then be in a position to carry out simultaneous attacks in several parts of the country. This would be a way for the group to show that it is capable of destabilising the state while pushing security forces to overreact, to highlight the frailty and fundamentally unfair nature of the godless state. In the wake of the three 2015 attacks, arbitrary arrests and police brutality and violence have already increased. The countrys main media outlets have also intensified their pro-security message, taking to task human rights advocates. The presidency has declared and repeatedly prolonged a state of emergency. To be effective, the states response cannot be limited to security measures; it should also take into account the strategy of jihadist groups, which have exploited citizens growing sense of injustice. As hatred for police spreads in some fringes of the population during periods of heightened security clampdowns that follow attacks, it is crucial not to give credence to jihadist propaganda in Tunisia, according to an expert on jihadism. III. Toward a Multidimensional Strategy Against Jihadist Violence A. The Case for a Dynamic, Multidimensional Strategy In order to cope with the evolving jihadist violence, which authorities should neither under- nor over-estimate, the state should implement a multidimensional strategy, whose operational aspects must be dynamic to allow for a coordinated response and avoid the pitfall of a security-only approach. A broad spectrum of ministries should help with its development youth, religious affairs, culture, education, justice, interior, defence, employment, etc. Around 20 per cent of the public budget is devoted to security in 2016, twice as much as in 2011, when Ben Ali fled the country. But thus far no strategy going beyond security in the narrowest sense (defence, interior, justice) and including mechanisms for fine tuning based on an evaluation of impact in the field, has been made public or implemented. As an international expert said, such a strategy would make it possible to address the terrorist phenomenon upstream (prevention) and downstream (repression) by optimising the countrys limited security resources (equipment, budgets) depending on the effectiveness of the mechanisms in place and the evolution of the threat. In other words, ministries that do not deal with security could jointly tackle the causes of jihadist violence, and the capacity of the security system to anticipate, coordinate, react and adapt would improve distinctly. Such a strategy would also encourage foreign partners to significantly increase the level and quality of their technical support in the framework of regional and international cooperation. Despite their commitment to the fight against jihadist violence, these partners have been reluctant to increase financial support to Tunisia in the absence of a clear vision of the states doctrine and strategic and political objectives in this realm. A large part of the aid cannot be delivered as long as the Tunisian administration has not carried out a concrete assessment of the needs at the national level through a detailed and budgeted strategy, a foreign aid worker said. B. Finalising and Publishing the Strategy Since 2014, two strategic documents have been prepared. The task now is to use them, in particular the sections describing the jihadist phenomenon and prevention measures to be implemented, as a foundation for drafting a new more inclusive and operational text, an advisor to the head of government said. A group in charge of monitoring and policy planning under the authority of former Prime Minister Mehdi Jomaa coordinated the drafting of the first document in 2014. The governments Crisis Cell, the Tunisian Institute for Strategic Studies (Institut tunisien des etudes strategiques, ITES), several national and international NGOs and the main concerned ministries were involved in the production of this several hundred-page text. It established five strategic principles in the fight against terrorism: balance between the implementation of effective security measures and consideration for human rights; sustained political consensus; preservation of the Tunisian societal model; strengthening of regional and international cooperation; and the need to adapt the security policy to the evolving jihadist threat while anticipating it. At the beginning of 2015, with Beji Caid Essebsi taking office as president and the formation of a new coalition government that brought together Nida Tounes and An-Nahda, development of a national security strategy began again from scratch. Six weeks after his swearing in, the new head of state convened the presidents National Security Council, which set up a National Commission Against Terrorism and Violent Extremism within the foreign affairs ministry. This ad hoc commission, which was composed of eighteen representatives from security bodies, ministerial departments (mainly the justice and interior ministries) and advisers to the president, drafted a new strategic document. Without contradicting the principles defined in the document developed under Jomaa, the new text proposes a set of measures against jihadist violence based on four pillars: prevention, protection, prosecution and response. Several experts and senior officials, including international specialists involved in the G7+3 dialogue, have said in its support that the document is less theoretical than the previous one and more oriented toward international collaboration the UN Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC) took an active role in its drafting. But this new document does not take into account the political nature and strategic dimension of jihadist violence; furthermore, unlike the text prepared under the Jomaa government, its development was not sufficiently inclusive given that certain ministries didnt want to collaborate, according to a Tunisian security expert. The text includes a certain number of mechanisms for public action to tackle recruitment networks, radicalisation and operationalisation. It argues in particular for improved regional and international intelligence coordination, heightened border controls, establishment of support mechanisms for victims of terrorism and compliance of Tunisian anti-terrorism legislation with international standards; the document also stresses that, for the fight against terrorism to be effective, it must respect human rights. At the time of writing, neither of these strategic documents had been made public or implemented. Authorities should draw on both documents to produce a new text that is as precise as the first one in its description of the jihadist phenomenon and as concrete and oriented toward international collaboration as the second. It should be drafted in a collaborative manner between the different ministries. To this end, use should be made of existing institutional mechanisms, including the National Counter-Terrorism Commission set up by the head of government on 22 March 2016 in accordance with the Counter-Terrorism Act of 7 August 2015. The commission reports to the head of government who, as the immediate supervisor of the various ministers, is better equipped than the head of state to ensure the cooperation of the administration. Composed of twenty representatives from most security and non-security ministries and directorates, it has extensive powers, including to conduct a national study to diagnose the terrorist phenomenon and to coordinate efforts and gather information, data and statistics on the fight against terrorism. Despite its name, the commission is focused more on improving inter-agency coordination and commissioning studies than on actively countering the jihadist threat, and it is theoretically in a position to ensure that all ministries take an active role in developing a text that is more complete than both existing documents. Such collaboration is essential; as an employee of a company specialised in strategic action said, you can have the best strategy in the world, but if it is not recognised and approved by all the administrations in charge of its implementation, it is difficult to apply. The same problem would arise if the countrys main political actors and NGOs rejected it. C. Involving Political Parties and Civil Society in Evaluating and Improving the Strategys Operational Elements The major political parties generally agree on the guiding principles of the fight against jihadist violence as outlined in the existing strategic documents, but differences remain on specific points. After publishing a strategic framework, it will be important to consult a wide spectrum of political players and NGOs and involve them in a participatory evaluation mechanism; this would allow for the adjustment of the strategys operational elements to make it more dynamic, and facilitate implementation of its major provisions. Broad public consensus exists with regard to the major areas of intervention in the fight against jihadist violence: integrated and community-led border management, economic development of border areas and poor regions, provision of leisure activities for youth, promotion of messages of peace and tolerance in spaces of religious education, improvement of prison conditions, strengthened coordination between security forces (police, army and National Guard) and development of cyber and human intelligence capacities. The main political parties recognise the need to respect human rights while combatting the jihadist threat, but in practice often neglect to report abuses. Some differences of opinion remain nonetheless. For supporters of zero tolerance, some of whom are nostalgic for the fallen regime, the country is at war and the emergency necessitates going beyond theoretical considerations and taking firm action. On the other hand, several experts and activists, notably those who took an active part in the drafting of the first strategic document under the Jomaa government, hold that preventive measures should be given priority over punitive ones. According to a former ITES researcher close to the Troika, it is necessary to avoid security-only responses and put in place fundamental reforms: Tunisias identity that is, a tolerant and moderate country with a democratic constitution is in itself a way to fight jihadism. Addressing this phenomenon cannot be limited to increasing the capacity of the security apparatus. A bad reaction from the security forces could fuel the sense of injustice. The strategy must include economic development of marginalised regions and increased participation in public affairs among youth. These differing views on the balance between prevention and repression are not necessarily linked to ideological stances, but Islamists and anti-Islamists disagree on the definition of religious extremism and on the intensity with which the state should combat it, especially when it comes to organisations, mosques, prayer rooms, Quranic schools and private nursery schools. These disagreements have grown in the wake of jihadist attacks, which have revived resentment between the two camps. The National Counter-Terrorism Commission should make public the first draft of the new document defining strategic lines. It should also provide an evaluation mechanism allowing for different types of actors to participate in public forums on the subject; involvement should extend well beyond those traditionally entitled to give their opinions on issues of jihadist violence, such as members of the security forces and high-ranking politicians. This approach would permit to take into account the views of grassroots activists (especially Islamists and leftists), members of associations active in a range of sectors (youth, culture, security, religion, human rights, etc), and representatives of regions, especially border governorates that have had to deal with armed groups. These consultations would enrich and adapt the operational elements of the strategy, making it more inclusive and dynamic, which would increase its probability of success. IV. Strengthening Inter-ministerial Coordination to Implement an Effective Strategy A. Clarifying the Roles of the Two Heads of the Executive in the Security Sector in a Consensual Way As a Nida Tounes deputy said, the problem is not the strategy but its effective implementation. Indeed, serious questions remain regarding the ability of different ministries to follow strategic directions with regard to security policy in a coordinated way. According to several security sector reform specialists, a central problem that needs to be addressed has to do with obstacles facing governance, notably within the security-related ministries of defence, interior and justice. It appears most clearly in the lack of coordination between agencies; for a number of activists across the political spectrum, this problem is of a constitutional nature, and amending the constitution would be necessary to overcome it. The Tunisian constitution, enacted on 27 January 2014 and heralded internationally as the most democratic and liberal in Arab world, stops short of ascribing clear responsibilities to the head of state and head of government with regard to national security, a term that is used but not defined anywhere in the text. Security is thus a shared area, constitutionally speaking, and has to be managed jointly by the two heads of the executive. The roles of the head of state and head of government can thus vary depending on the political context. With the change of government after the 2014 presidential and legislative elections, a kind of jurisdictional dispute between the presidency and the prime ministry emerged. This has stood in the way of the publication of a counter-terrorism strategy, a security expert said. Under the so-called technocratic Jomaa government (January 2014-February 2015) put in place after the political crisis of 2013, caused in part by accusations of laxity, or even complicity, against the An-Nahda-led coalition government with regard to the jihadist movement the division of labour on security issues between the heads of state and government was clearer. The main political forces agreed to marginalise then President Moncef Marzouki. Jomaas Crisis Cell edged out the presidents National Security Council, and the head of government enjoyed greater initiative in matters of security governance. At the end of 2014, the political configuration changed. Essebsi enjoyed solid legitimacy as the new president; he was the first head of state elected by direct universal suffrage in a democratic context and presided over the leading party in the Assembly of Peoples Representatives (APR). According to several deputies, from the get-go Essebsi used all the leeway offered by the constitution to presidentialise the regime. He proposed an independent head of government whom the APR quickly endorsed and whom he has tended to regard as a chief of staff, and reconvened the presidents National Security Council. But he has not been able to fulfil his ambitions with regard to inter-ministerial security coordination. The difficulties he has faced can be explained partly by the split that occurred within his party in January 2016; as a deputy recalled, the Nida Tounes split weakened the president, with the group losing its position to An-Nahda as the leading party in the APR. To get past this impasse, which also manifests itself beyond the security sector, a growing number of political analysts and leaders, especially those stemming from the parties that make up the coalition government, have proposed revising the constitution; advocates of such a reform have suggested creating either a purely presidential regime or, more rarely, a purely parliamentary one. The constitution outlines a hybrid regime and a system of proportional representation that prevents an outright political majority. This has led to a fragmentation of power centres that has weakened institutions. A kind of three-headed executive between the president, the head of government and the APR has impeded the adoption of major strategic directions and paralysed political will in the area of counter-terrorism, a former senior interior ministry official said. Those advocating for constitutional reform, and to some extent for the return of a strong man, have used blockages that impede governance, particularly in the security sector, as an argument. While many political analysts argue that amending the January 2014 constitution, which has been the symbol of a successful transition, is not on the agenda, it remains a possibility that could, according to a legal expert, open a Pandoras box. To be sure, from a strictly constitutional perspective, a parliamentary system with a head of government enjoying broad powers and an administratively and financially autonomous parliament could strengthen governance while maintaining sufficient democratic guarantees. But calls for order from several segments of the population that are nostalgic for the old regime and its strong presidency might move constitutional reform toward placing all control in the hands of a charismatic leader. Such a president would face difficulties in obtaining support from a civil society and public administration that have been divided since the 2010-2011 uprising, which would produce the opposite of the intended result. It would thus be preferable for the presidency and the prime ministry to work together in divvying up security roles and defining their respective prerogatives without modifying the constitution. For example, the presidency could play a key role in developing a strategic framework, as it did during the drafting of the 2015 document, as well as promoting that strategy nationwide and even help implement a participatory evaluation mechanism together with the National Counter-Terrorism Commission. B. Strengthening Inter-ministerial Coordination Administrative blockages both between and within ministries have become increasingly harmful to the countrys economy and security. Overcoming them will be essential in order to implement a strategy against jihadist violence that is capable of tackling root aspects of the phenomenon. Indeed, ministerial directives do not circulate easily between agencies and departments. Senior officials are sometimes reluctant to pass on instructions from a minister who might be ousted within a year. Some engage in obstructionism and passive resistance to protest against the legal proceedings launched against them in 2011 and 2012 regarding embezzlement under the previous regime. As Crisis Group observed in July 2015 with regard to the interior ministry, the administrative chain of command appears broken. A senior official explained that given the weakness of political parties, with the exception of An-Nahda, some ministers have become isolated: The administrative personnel is hostile to them, and they find themselves in the crossfire between interest groups linked with unions, businessmen and former ministers who have kept their followers. As a former director general of National Security said: You get the impression that no one is in the right place. Senior public officials who should be overseeing planning and coordination do not have the adequate stature. Given the contentious climate that prevails among the political class and public administration, ministers prefer to hire their supporters instead of competent officers. In this context, ensuring implementation of a multidimensional strategy against jihadist violence would mean significantly revitalising the head of governments mechanisms for inter-ministerial coordination, namely the National Counter-Terrorism Commission and the Security Management Follow-up Cell (which evolved from the Jomaa governments Crisis Cell). A close and active collaboration between these two bodies would short-circuit the administrative resistance and cronyism that have weakened the chain of command within each ministry, thus creating a dynamic similar to that inspired by Jomaas now-defunct Crisis Cell. The latter met roughly 100 times in one year. Despite its flaws and some hasty decisions, it managed to move forward on a number of sensitive issues, such as the Port of Rades. It also significantly improved security governance, particularly by encouraging better collaboration between different operational units fighting armed groups in the border regions. C. Appointing a High Commissioner for Counter-Terrorism The numerous ad hoc bureaucratic structures created to confront the terrorist threat in 2013-2014 have not allowed for better administrative and inter-agency coordination, which is essential if a strategy against jihadist violence is to materialise. On the contrary, a legal expert noted, the proliferation of all kinds of commissions that do not actually serve much purpose has disrupted the decision-making process. We are lost in this limbo. Appointing a high commissioner for counter-terrorism, with the status of minister without portfolio, would help to significantly improve administrative and inter-agency coordination and revitalise security governance more generally. Coordination between the many commissions is often insufficient, or even non-existent, and some of them resemble hollow shells. As a lawyer explained, creating a new commission to coordinate existing commissions would serve little purpose and would add to the prevailing administrative confusion; but a high commissioner for counter-terrorism who is politically independent, a legal expert, capable of following the twists and turns of the administration, and has experience in security governance would create a new dynamic. As minister without portfolio enjoying the firm support of the two heads of the executive, the commissioner could bring different agencies together. He would be better able than any collective structure to encourage close cooperation between security and non-security ministries, counter-terrorism agencies and ad hoc commissions. This high commissioner would also support the more analytical work of the president of the National Counter-Terrorism Commission, who is in charge of finalising an inter-ministerial strategy. In short, the commissioners task would be to strengthen collaboration between the offices of the president and the head of government and to improve coordination between the different ministries and administrative entities both strategically and in terms of operations. V. Conclusion With an inaugural call scheduled from Disney Cruise Line in 2017, the port of Charlottetown on Prince Edward Island is also looking at a potential build out of a second berth at its port facility. The engineering piece is happening now, it would be a win-win if we add another berth, said Corryn Clemence, business development manager for Charlottetown Harbour Authority/Port Charlottetown. The project would include major land reclamation and produce a mixed-use berth if plans proceed. In other news, the port finished its redevelopment project in 2015, adding 20 dedicated bus lanes for tour operators and cleaning up the port area in general. Inside the ports cruise facility are new desks for shore ex operators to sell dockside tours, said Morrissey. These are the same excursions from the same providers sold on the ships, as contracted to the cruise lines. The ports new look includes a pedestrian plaza, a giant maple leaf and various sculptures. Pullmantur Cruises and Wamos Air made history on Saturday when Wamos landed a Boeing 747 in Rostock, with more than 500 passengers and 19 crew onboard, according to a released statement. The passengers were transferred to the Monarch for a Northern European cruise, while the plane became the biggest to land at Rostock since U.S. President George W. Bush landed in Rostock on Air Force One in 2006. The arrival of the Boeing 747, piloted by Commander Alberto Blasco, was witnessed by the Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Minister of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Christian Pegel, and the Mayor of Rostock Roland Methling. That night the Boeing 747 headed back to Madrid full of passengers freshly off a cruise with Pullmantur, which will do seven turnarounds in Rostock this year. Last month I examined how machine learning could be used to detect low and slow insider threats. In this, the final installment of my trilogy on real-world use cases from the recent Verizon Data Breach Digest, Ill discuss how remote access threats can be exposed with the machine learning techniques Ive covered in my two previous blogs. In this example, a manufacturing company experienced a breach of a shared engineering work station in its R&D department. A phishing email resulted in a Remote Access Trojan (RAT) backdoor being downloaded onto the system, which enabled the threat actors to escalate privileges and capture user credentials for everyone who had used the system. By the time the breach was discovered, a significant amount of information had been leaked out via FTP to a foreign IP address. Most companies understand that data breaches are inevitable. Its no surprise that spending on cyber security tools has expanded from traditional prevent and protect technologies to include post-breach detect and respond solutions in an attempt to control and manage unavoidable cyber-attacks. In addition, cyber-attacks are becoming more targeted, resulting in companies experiencing more damaging compromises that have a bigger impact on their business. [ MACHINE LEARNING SERIES: Part 1 and Part 2 ] The Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) has been tracking security breaches since 2005, looking for patterns, new trends and information to educate businesses and consumers on the importance of protecting identities and personally identifiable information. From 2005 through April 2016, the ITRC recorded 6,079 breaches, covering 862,527,023 identity records. Thats a lot of compromised identities! Todays attacks compromise identity as a primary vector to pull sensitive information from an organization for financial gain or social notoriety. These attacks are sophisticated, better funded, more organized than ever before making it imperative for organizations to immediately analyze potential threats and risks related to anomalous and suspicious behavior. In addition to monitoring how identities are being both used and managed, other critical data sources within an organizations computing environment should be examined to provide more context beyond who and what. Some example data sources include network access, event and flow data, DLP data, sys logs, vulnerability scanning data, log files from IT applications, etc. In many cases, this data may already be consolidated into a log event management or SIEM solution. This vast array of data, when combined with information on how identities are being used by both humans and machines, creates a rich source of context that can be mined using threat analytics and anomaly detection. When we view identity as a threat plane, hundreds of attributes can be modeled in machine learning algorithms to predict and remediate security threats. Machine learning is a force multiplier. Rules-based detection alone is unable to keep pace with the increasingly complex demands of threat and breach detection. Primarily because rules are based on what (little) we know about the data, and generate excessive alerts. Since humans lack the ability to predict what future cyber-attacks will look like, we cant write rules for these scenarios. In contrast, machine learning and statistical analysis can find anomalies in data that humans would not otherwise recognize or detect. For example, they can leverage useful and predictive cues that are too noisy and highly dimensional for humans and traditional software to link together. Going back to our Verizon Data Breach Digest example, lets consider how machine learning could detect a RAT. First, lets clarify what were talking about. A Remote Access Trojan (RAT) is malicious malware software that runs in the background on a computer and gives unauthorized access to a hacker so they can steal information or install additional malicious software. Hackers dont even have to create their own RATs, these programs are available for download from dark areas of the web. Trojans have been around for two decades, yet the term RAT is relatively new. RATs usually start out as executable files that are downloaded from the Internet, which are often masked as another program or added to a seemingly harmless application. Once the RAT installs, it runs in system memory and adds itself to system startup directories and registry entries, so each time the computer is started, the RAT starts too. How can machine learning help here? RATs generate anomalous data conditions from several system resources. Machine learning algorithms would detect this activity as atypical, since they represent system services or resources that are not normally running. In this case, machine learning algorithms can perform anomaly detection for machine-, not user-, based access and activity. Machine learning models can even compare self versus self and self versus peer group access and activity for machines and users using historical baselines to determine anomalies with high accuracy. If its not a normal condition, its an anomaly, and machine learning will uncover it and catch the RAT by the tail! U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., has decried two potential mega-mergers involving Connecticut insurance companies as job killers and anti-consumer. However, he wouldnt offer an opinion on charges of conflict of interest made against the states insurance commissioner. On Wednesday afternoon, Blumenthal hosted a conference call criticizing the proposed acquisition of Bloomfield-based Cigna Health Insurance by Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, and of the Humana insurance company by Hartford-based Aetna. Earlier in the day, Blumenthal wrote a letter along with six other U.S. senators urging the U.S. Department of Justice to block the proposed mergers. We are deeply concerned by the detrimental impact that both of these mergers would have on premium prices, jobs and health care costs for consumers and businesses, the letter read. During the call, Blumenthal echoed those worries, saying reducing the number of major national health companies from five to three would be potentially disastrous. We need thriving, independent competitors in the insurance market, he said. Competition is vital. Neither merger is final, and the state insurance department is slated to have a public hearing on the Anthem-Cigna deal in the near future. Though Aetna, like Cigna, is based in Connecticut, the hearing on that merger wont take place here, because Humana doesnt participate in the states insurance market. The mergers have ignited a firestorm of controversy, including multiple calls for state Insurance Commissioner Katharine Wade to resign due to conflict of interest. The $54 billion Cigna deal is a particular concern, as Wade was previously a Cigna vice president and her husband is now an associate chief counsel for the company. Blumenthal was asked during the call if he was concerned Wades ties would corrupt the states approval process, but he declined to comment. The decision about the states review process should be left to state authorities, he said. Joining Blumenthal on the call were Matthew Katz, CEO, Connecticut State Medical Society and Tom Swan, Executive Director, Connecticut Citizens Action Group. Those two organizations, along with the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, have formed the Campaign for Consumer Choice, which has been a vocal advocate against the mergers. Katz said he and others in the state medical society share the concerns expressed through the senators letter, but he added that he was also concerned by the state review process, which he said lacks transparency and public involvement. The Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut also issued a statement echoing the support and concern voiced by other advocates. We applaud Connecticuts Senator Blumenthal and his colleagues for calling on the Department of Justice to turn down these two health insurance mega-mergers, Lynne Ide, the foundations director of program and policy, said in the statement. Evidence shows that such deals never benefit everyday people. Its about time that government regulators put the health and financial security of people first. BRIDGEPORT Four nursing homes around the state, including one in the city, have been fined in connection with residents who broke bones, required surgery or wandered away. On Aug. 24, Bridgeport Health Care Center was fined $640 in connection with a resident who left the facility Aug. 1 and was found at a store down the road. A video showed the resident climbed over a patio wall. The person made it seven-tenths of a mile before being returned safely to the home about an hour later, the citation said. The home failed to follow its policy of having a photo of every resident who needed one-on-one monitoring at the front desk, the citation said. The director of nursing told state inspectors that a licensed practical nurse should have asked one person to watch the resident, the home should have called a special code and the supervisors should have met to plan a search for the resident, the citation said. In response to the incident, a plan was put in place involving residents who were at risk for wandering, and all of the staff members were retrained, the citation said. In two separate citations on April 8, Cassena Care at Norwalk was fined a total of $5,370 for a case in which a now-former director of nursing blocked a resident from going to the hospital to maintain the resident count at the home, state records show. A day after the incident, on Oct. 10, the resident needed emergency cranial surgery and then was placed in hospice care, a citation from the state Department of Public Health said. DPH officials did not have information on whether the resident had died, department spokeswoman Maura Downes said. The home was fined $3,000 in one DPH citation that said the resident had a change in mental status, was lethargic and difficult to arouse, but an ambulance call was cancelled. A registered nurse said the former nursing director had ordered the staff to try to keep residents at the home to maintain the resident census, the citation said. A doctor had ordered the resident sent to the hospital and received a text that the director had refused to do so, the citation said. The doctor did not follow up, thinking the resident had been hospitalized, the citation said. The home was fined $2,370 in connection with the same residents care, a second citation said. A doctor said he should have been notified that the resident had not gone to the hospital as ordered on Oct. 9 and should have been told of the change in the residents mental status, the citation said. Officials from the home could not be reached for comment. On May 23, Meadowbrook of Granby was fined $1,815 in connection with a resident who rolled out of bed Jan. 23 and broke a hip. After the fall, the resident was hospitalized, but returned to the home with no documentation showing that the hips had been X-rayed, the citation said. Two days later, the person was in pain and was sent back to the hospital, where X-rays showed a broken hip, the citation said. The resident underwent surgery to repair the hip. The state found that a nurses aide had raised the bed to care for the resident, but went to a bathroom and should have lowered the bed before leaving the residents side, the citation said. The aide was retrained about the importance of lowering the bed, the citation said. Administrator Rachel DeMaida declined to comment. On April 20, Greenwich Woods Rehabilitation in Greenwich was fined $630 in connection with a resident who fell on March 6 and broke a thigh bone. The resident was found on the floor and initially did not appear to be injured. Two days later, a registered nurse changed the electronic medical record to say that on March 6, the resident was in pain and the injured leg appeared to have shortened by one inch, the DPH citation said. The nurse did not notify a doctor, did not obtain an order for an X-ray and changed the record at the direction of a director of nursing services who is no longer at the home, the citation said. After an advanced practice registered nurse ordered X-rays on March 7, the fracture was diagnosed and the resident was hospitalized, the citation said. Administrators at Bridgeport Health and Greenwich Woods could not be reached for comment. This story was reported under a partnership with the Connecticut Health I-Team (www.c-hit.org). This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate STAMFORD Organizers plan to take precautions as 400 children get ready to attend summer camp just a few blocks from the center of what police have described as a violent feud between residents that has spanned months and has left three people seriously injured by gunfire. If something were to happen the night before, we would be more inclined to keep the children inside the building the next day in case theres retaliation, said Michael Cotela, executive director of the Boys & Girls Club of Stamford. This summer marks the first camp season since the Boys & Girls Club took over operations at the financially troubled Yerwood Center last year. For decades, the Yerwood Center on Fairfield Avenue served the low-income community on the citys West Side, where 11 shootings have occurred since March 25. Police have traced the gunfire to rival groups from Spruce Street a block from Yerwood and Connecticut Avenue. I dont think its something that lives in the front of everybodys mind, but theres always a level of concern, Cotela said Tuesday. The Yerwood Center founded in 1943 by Dr. Joyce Yerwood, Fairfield Countys first black female physician closed in 2014 after it fell behind paying its bills. The Boys & Girls Club took it over before the center could declare bankruptcy. West Side residents met with community leaders, including Mayor David Martin, Tuesday night at Yerwood to discuss the violence that has rattled the neighborhood. I believe the children will be safe, Police Capt. Richard Conklin told The Advocate Tuesday afternoon. Most of our shootings have been taking place in the evening and early-morning hours. The latest shots were fired early Sunday morning in the area of Fairfield Avenue and Young Dixon Way just a few hours after police said a couple was ambushed after driving away from Sweet Water nightclub on Greenwich Avenue. The man was shot six times and his girlfriend was wounded twice during the shooting police believe occurred in the downtown area. Police do not know if this shooting is related to others on the West Side. Another man was seriously injured over Memorial Day weekend in a shooting at the La Quinta Inn and Suites on Harvard Avenue. Police said the man, one of two shot, was so intoxicated he did not realize he had been hit in the stomach and shoulder until the next day. Shots were fired closer to the Yerwood Center and the Boys & Girls Clubs headquarters on Stillwater Avenue earlier this year. In April, a man fired 12 times, sending bullets through a church window, near Spruce Street and Stillwater Avenue. A lot of (the children) dont know anything about whats going on, said Loni Joyner, who lives on the West Side and will be a camp counselor at the Yerwood Center beginning July 5. The club plans to keep children inside most of the day at Yerwood, where camp for kindergartners through third-graders is held. Fourth grade and up will attend camp down the street at Stillwater. I dont feel safe with them outside, even when theyre with us, said Joyner, who added she will not take children to the Jackie Robinson Park of Fame across the street. Wed like to be able to walk over there, Cotela said, but you never really know where things are going to happen. Cotela said children will be allowed in the Yerwood Center parking lot in the afternoon, following the mornings educational programs. Well limit the number of kids out there and make sure theyre well-supervised, he said. Children at Stillwater will still be able to use neighboring Lione Park, where a woman was killed last year in an early evening shooting that occurred during a social gathering. Its hard to keep kids indoors all day, Cotela said. eskalka@scni.com This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 3 1 of 3 Contributed photo / Hearst Connecticut Media Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Contributed photo / Hearst Connecticut Media Show More Show Less 3 of 3 FAIRFIELD Police are asking for the publics help in finding a woman suspected of stealing a wallet and later using the credit cards in Bridgeport. The wallet was taken from an unlocked car parked on Pequot Avenue June 8 around noon. The credit cards that were in the wallet were used a short time later in a variety of businesses near Park Avenue and State Street in Bridgeport. Copa Airlines continues to expand in Cuba The first flight of Copa Airlines to the Cuban city of Holguin, about 774 kilometers east of Havana, took place from Panama City on Tuesday with some three and a half hours duration. The Embraer 190 aircraft arrived at the Frank Pais International airport of the eastern city at approximately 12:56 p.m., after its first flight to what is as of June 21 the third destination of the airline in Cuba, since Copa already officially flights to Havana and the central city of Santa Clara. As the company had announced earlier this year, the northeastern territory of the Caribbean archipelago opened its doors to the airline, with two weekly frequencies scheduled for Tuesdays and Saturdays. Pedro Heilbron, Executive President of Copa Airlines, recently announced that the company's commitment with this new route is to contribute to the increase of the profile of Cuba as a tourist and cultural epicenter in the region, reported the copaair.com Web site. After 20 years of service to Cuba, Copa Airlines has expanded to seven daily flights its operation to Havana and since 2014 it flies four times a week to Santa Clara. The airline, which is part of the global airline network Star Alliance, is considered to be one of the most punctual in the region, flies to 74 destinations in 31 countries of The Americas. Holguin province is considered the third most important tourist destination in Cuba for its important attractions, among which we find the resorts of Guardalavaca, Pesquero and Esmeralda, on the north coast of the territory. (acn) US Small Business Administration Chief concludes visit to Cuba US Small Business Administration (SBA) Chief Maria Contreras-Sweet concluded yesterday her working visit to Cuba. During her stay here, Contreras-Sweet met with Foreign Trade and Investment minister Rodrigo Malmierca, who briefed her on the update of the Cuban economic model, the National Economic Development Plan up to 2030 and the performance of different economic sectors on the island, as well as on the impact by the US embargo on Cuban economy and on the relations with the United States. The visitor also met with deputy ministers from the Domestic Trade and the Labor and Security ministries. She visited the Special Development Zone in western Mariel harbor, where she learned about opportunities for investment, and she was also briefed about development plans for the historic section of Havana. STORY LINK Pound Sterling US Dollar Exchange Rate GBP USD Fluctuates on Investor Fears Dovish Janet Yellen Speech Weighs on US Dollar Exchange Rates Yellen Optimistic about the Domestic Economy but Uncertain regarding the Global Economic Outlook Like this piece? Please share with your friends and colleagues: The Pound has made significant fluctuations in its exchange rate against the US Dollar today, owing to mixed levels of confidence being seen among GBP investors.The US Dollar has been an unstable option recently, and the looming EU Referendum vote promises to only amplify this unsettled nature.The Chair of the worlds premier central bank provided a broad-ranging testimony regarding the state of the world economy yesterday afternoon and global investors sat up and took note. Janet Yellen delivered a prepared statement to the US Senate Banking Committee during yesterdays North American equities session and she had some particularly significant comments to make regarding the possible fall-out from a decision in favour of Brexit from UK voters tomorrow.The Feds head honcho warned the assembled US lawmakers that, one development that could shift investor sentiment is the upcoming referendum in the United Kingdom. A U.K. vote to exit the European Union could have significant economic repercussions.Support for the Pound Sterling (currency : GBP) held up well during late trading yesterday, with the Pound US Dollar exchange rate jumping to its highest level since the first week of the year at 1.4767 GBP USD and leading betting exchange Betfair (PPB.L) now implies a 25% chance that Britain will vote to leave the EU.However, Yellens concerns regarding the future performance of the global economy were not limited to the possible effects of a Brexit. She went on to assert that,Of course, considerable uncertainty about the economic outlook remains. The latest readings on the labor market and the weak pace of investment illustrate one downside risk that domestic demand might falter. In addition, although I am optimistic about the longer-run prospects for the U.S. economy, we cannot rule out the possibility expressed by some prominent economists that the slow productivity growth seen in recent years will continue into the future.'She went on to observe that, 'vulnerabilities in the global economy also remain. Although concerns about slowing growth in China and falling commodity prices appear to have eased from earlier this year, China continues to face considerable challenges as it rebalances its economy toward domestic demand and consumption and away from export-led growth.Notwithstanding these downbeat comments, Yellen stated that she believes that Americas economy will avoid plunging into recession. The Buck is therefore forecast to trade on a neutral to positive footing in the near-term. International Money Transfer? Ask our resident FX expert a money transfer question or try John's new, free, no-obligation personal service! ,where he helps every step of the way, ensuring you get the best exchange rates on your currency requirements. TAGS: American Dollar Forecasts Pound Dollar Forecasts Pound Sterling Forecasts Teams and players to watch in the District 5 boys soccer playoffs Check out the teams and players to watch and the District 5 Class 1A and 2A boys soccer playoffs open. Lake County's latest restaurant inspections: 1 hit with 19 violations Eight restaurants in Lake County failed to meet health and safety standards last week. One restaurant received 19 violations. Opinion Wordle The next day I woke to find myself in a WhatsApp group titled Quordle is Awesome!! A small group of three. There was no getting out of it now. Today, the country has the chance to return the Government of Britain back to the UK. More than that, we have the chance to end the corruption of our politics. This corruption of the democratic process is best exemplified by how our leaders have reacted to Turkey's wish to join the EU. Although he now claims there is no chance of Turkey joining (allowing its 77 million citizens free movement to the UK), why did the Prime Minister refuse on FOUR occasions to say he'd use the British veto to stop it happening? There are several other contradictions. On the buses: David Cameron laughs with Isabella Queen bags founder Isabelle Ugochukwu and Labours Harriet Harman yesterday If Turkey won't join 'until about the year 3000' (as the PM has said), why is there a special team at the British embassy in Ankara helping Turkey to join? And why are hundreds of millions of pounds of British taxpayers' money being spent to support the accession of Turkey (as well as Albania, Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro) to the EU? Equally, why are Brussels officials busy negotiating key financial aspects of Turkey's accession before Christmas? All this confirms the fact that Turkey's accession to the European Union is both British and EU policy. Furthermore, the PM knows that the deal struck with the Ankara government earlier this year to stop migrants using Turkey as a jumping-off point to pour into Greece and thus enable them to travel to any other EU country was done in exchange for the Turkish government getting 4.6billion in aid (1billion from the UK), visa-free access for Turks to mainland Europe and accelerated entry to the EU. The truth is that Turkey has the European Union over a barrel and the British Government knows it, says Iain Duncan Smith, pictured The Prime Minister is also fully aware that if we try to pull out of the deal, Turkey would inevitably start to allow migrants travelling to EU countries from its shores again creating similar chaos to that which occurred last year. The truth is that Turkey has the European Union over a barrel and the British Government knows it. Most cynically, the Brussels Commission has been holding back announcements about Turkey until after the UK referendum on membership of the EU. But yesterday the fact was leaked that it will start negotiations on Turkey's entry into the EU a week today after the British people have voted. We're on the verge of an extraordinary event,' cried Boris Johnson, heaving his weary bones into the last day's campaigning. He was right. At a 6am campaign stop at Billingsgate Fish Market he was handed a freshly landed salmon. Normally Boris needs no encouragement to give a glistening beauty a kiss. Ladies, those chops have seen action over the years. But as fish merchant Greg Essex encouraged him to plant a smacker on the fish's head, Boris kept his puckering lips a tiny distance from their target. They quivered like a whippet's flank. 'Go ON, Boris!' scoffed Mr Essex. There was buccaneering Boris, audacious enough to want us to set our nation free from the Brussels crab-pot today, yet hesitating to kiss this gorgeous fish. Perhaps he feared that it might sell its story to the Sunday Mirror. Boris Johnson kicked off his frenetic last round of campaigning at London's famous Billingsgate Market this morning The de facto leader of the Leave campaign had not had much kip, having on Tuesday night taken part in the big TV debate at Wembley arena, concluding with his line about how today could become our 'Independence Day'. A long finale of campaigning had him out of bed early. Soon after Billingsgate he was on a small aircraft heading to Maldon, Essex, followed by further points north. Fish merchant Greg, we learnt, was the uncle of Joey Essex, a TV celebrity, m'lud (further details of his career elude me). 'SAVE BRITAIN'S FISH' read a pro-Leave banner behind Greg. Someone arrived with an enormous turbot, wide and flat as a Morris Minor's hubcap. Boris told the lads a story about fishing in ancient Rome. Cod Latin? 'It's time for a totally new relationship with our friends across the Channel,' he declared. 'This is a big moment for democracy.' If Remain wins, it could be a big day for unelected technocrats. The EU is so undemocratic, it's strange that it was never invaded by George W Bush. Boris Johnson gives a thumbs up as he leaves Selby, North Yorkshire, on a hectic day of campaigning Down in Bristol, David Cameron was visiting a skateboard factory. The Prime Minister later stood by his In battle bus alongside Harriet Harman. The two of them, lucky devils, soon had to listen to a long speech by Sir John Major. 'I represent the grey vote,' squawked Major. Oh yes. He claimed that if we vote for Brexit, we will have to apply for visas before going to France. As they say in Calais, quelles conneries. Miss Harman: 'We're Labour because we hate unemployment. The EU means jobs.' You wonder how that one would go down in Spain and Greece, where unemployment levels have zoomed off the graph thanks to the Euro disaster. Elevenses, and it was time to head to an evangelical church centre in Westminster, where Ukip leader Nigel Farage was about to make his last speech of the campaign. First we were treated to a doleful poem by his colleague Steven Woolfe. 'As the sun fell on Scapa Fell, I heard the news and final death knell, of England's broken heart,' intoned Mr Woolfe. A later verse chimed 'their grand lie' with 'why oh why'. Guardian scribes for some reason started sniggering, but Woolfe for Poet Laureate, says I. At least it rhymed. A video followed which showed Ian Botham, Churchill, Steven Gerrard, and snapshots of Mr Cameron schmoozing unelected Eurocrats. The basement room was less than glamorous and barely filled, only by a few elderly Kippers and international TV crews. Was there a pessimistic air to it all? At the end Mr Woolfe was so emotional, he almost started blubbing and I feared he might embrace Mr Farage. But Nigel himself was still rooting away, still punching the issues. A Norwegian (Norway is not in the EU) asked him a question. Mr Farage: 'You're richer than us, freer than us and you can catch your own fish. It doesn't look too bad to me.' YouTube star Chloe Morello and former NRL star Braith Anasta are fans As a beauty treatment, they are being used for hydration and cell renewal IV treatments on the rise as a hangover or jetlag cure, and for energy New 'Drip and Chill' lounge at Face Plus MediSpa has opened in Bondi Kim Kardashian is rumoured to have an IV treatment for glowing skin When Kim Kardashian stepped on to the red carpet at the Met Gala last month, it wasn't just her glittering Balmain dress that turned heads. The star's skin glowed under the flashbulbs, her flawless complexion laid bare by her slicked back hairstyle. At the time, rumours circulated that Kim's luminous appearance wasn't just down to excellent make up, but that the 35-year-old had some help of the intravenous variety, too. Beauty beyond skin deep: A visit from a New York IV treatment service is understood to be responsible for Kim Kardashian's glowing complexion at the Met Gala As Daily Mail reported last month, Kim, 35, is understood to have had a visit from New York service The I.V. Doc for a hydration treatment just hours ahead of the star-studded gala. Kim reportedly chose the USD $399 'Beautify' treatment, containing a mix of B vitamins, electrolytes, and anti-inflammatory medication to help with healthy skin and hair, 'leaving you looking beautiful and radiant.' 'She wanted to have a glow for the red carpet,' a source told Page Six at the time. They added: 'So she ordered a treatment with plenty of vitamins along with the fluids and electrolytes.' Drip and chill: A new 'Drip and Chill' Lounge at Face Plus MediSpa at Bondi Beach offers IV vitamin treatment Intravenous vitamin infusions to boost energy, immunity and for rehydration are nothing new, but they are gaining popularity as an alternative and souped-up jetlag and hangover cure, and now, as a speedy and effective beauty treatment, with Kardashian leading the way. Skin rejuvenation and cell renewal are some of the benefits promised by Face Plus MediSpa's new Bondi Beach branch, which features a 'Drip and Chill' Lounge. 'IV therapy delivers nutrients such as vitamins and antioxidants directly into your bloodstream,' Facial Cosmetic Surgeon & Founder of Face Plus Medispa, Dr William Mooney, told Daily Mail Australia. Roadtest: FEMAIL tried a cocktail of Hartman's solution and IV-B Dose, made up of vitamins B1, B2, B3, B5 and B6 Before and after: Delivered by a registered nurse or doctor, the treatment aims to provide a more radiant and healthy appearance. I experience more energy and my skin felt bright and 'glowy' afterwards (right) 'Bypassing the gut, the nutrients are not only detoxing but also have a positive influence on your skin.' Local fans of Drip and Chill lounge include YouTube star Chloe Morello and Braith Anasta, who called the treatment 'a life changer'. On a mission to replicate Kim's glow, I signed up for cocktail of Hartman's solution and IV-B Dose, made up of vitamins B1, B2,B3,B5 and B6. Inside the sleek monochrome Drip and Chill lounge at FacePlus Medispa, clients lounge in comfy recliners after a doctor or registered nurse inserts an IV drip. A snack of trail mix, sliced apple and grapes is provided, while iPads, headphones and magazines are on hand to keep you entertained. Fans: YouTube star and beauty blogger Chloe Morello is a fan of the IV treatment 'Life changer': Braith Anasta gushed that he'd 'finally found the perfect recovery for my body' Afterwards, I certainly felt more energised, and noticed a subtle boost in my complexion. 'Before and after' selfies don't reveal a significant transformation, so I asked a friend's opinion, who agreed I looked 'nice and glowy'. 'Studies have shown that after IV Nutrient therapy, patients skin appears to be less dry and more radiant,' Dr Mooney told me. 'Vitamin C has a key role in the production of collagen. When it is given intravenously, much higher blood levels are produced saturating our tissues. 'This creates a more radiant healthy appearance. IV C, together with other nutrients such as Vitamin Bs, Glutathione, Alpha Lipoic Acid helps the liver remove and eliminate harmful toxins. 'Glutathione, a powerful antioxidant, also reduces melanin production and assists with skin hydration.' Giving your baby a good night kiss or blowing on their hot food could be putting their oral health at risk. Dental Health Services Victoria are warning that parents could be passing on cavity-causing bacteria to their children. Dr Paula Bacchia, chief oral health adviser for the DHSV, said that parents with dental decay could be putting their little one at risk of developing cavities. Kisses: Parent's with poor oral health, particularly high levels of streptococcus mutans, could be putting their little one at risk when the kiss them or blow their hot food 'If the mother's got active dental decay in their mouth they're going to have higher levels of the bacteria streptococcus mutans, and they pass that along to the child,' Dr Bacchia said in a report by the Herald Sun. Streptococcus mutans is a bacteria that causes tooth decay, according to the journal of young investigators. Over 2014 and 2015 the DHSV reported 1,050 children were put under general anesthesia for tooth decay treatments, fillings and tooth extractions in Victoria, according to Bite Magazine. To combat the growing dental problem the DHSV have developed a strategy for the next five years aimed at improving oral health across the state. Under the program mid-wives and nurses will be trained to recognise the early signs of dental issues. Spreading germs: Dental Health Services of Victoria recorded 1,050 children were put under general anesthesia for tooth decay treatments The plan, which is currently under consultation, will also target expectant mothers and giving them support to improve their oral health education before giving birth. This comes as new DHSV statistics have revealed that two thirds of expectant mums in Victoria are presenting at public dental clinics with untreated tooth decay. As Claire and Benjamin Martin sat in a medical clinic waiting to terminate their first baby, they were gripped by a fear of the unknown. They knew there was no coming back. Then just weeks after being told that their unborn son had Down Syndrome and only days after coming to the decision to have an abortion, the couple had a last-minute change of heart. Last minute decision: Claire and Ben Martin made a last minute decision not to terminate their unborn son who had been diagnosed with Down Syndrome while sitting in a medical clinic waiting room 'Id made an appointment to have a termination and we were sitting there but then my husband dragged me outside,' Mrs Martin told Daily Mail Australia. 'He said, "What are we doing? Lets go home, we cant kill this baby". 'I was relieved, I needed someone to say they were on my side.' Now, eight weeks into their parenting journey with Xavier, they say they have absolutely no regrets. A few months earlier at what was an otherwise routine 15 week scan, the doctor delivered the news that their unborn baby had Down Syndrome. In between heavy sobs they discussed their options with doctors. That was the first time the possibility of a termination was raised to the Martin's. Beautiful: The couple chose to go through with the birth of Xavier despite admitting they initially feared the unknown No regrets: Mrs Martin said that as soon as she held her son for the first time she knew she'd made the right decision 'My doctor was wonderful. He was very factual, he left emotion out of it and said "Your baby does have Down Syndrome" and my husband and I were both crying,' Mrs Martin said. 'He said "Go home tonight and be with people who love you" and so we went home and just spent the night crying, I wont lie.' Every pregnancy has its ups and downs, but the Martin's experience was nothing short of a roller-coaster. After talking with doctors the couple spoke with family, friends and even strangers about what would be best for both them and their unborn baby. Eventually after weeks of discussion they reached a decision to terminate the pregnancy, which would be the couple's first together and Mrs Martin's fourth overall. The mum-to-be said being hugged and told that people were 'sorry' heavily influenced their decision. Adorable: 'I was relieved, I needed someone to say they were on my side,' Mrs Martin said of the decision to keep Xavier Heartbreak: Mrs Martin told how her and her husband cried when their doctor told them their son would have Down Syndrome 'I found that the people that gave me the most grief, although not intentionally, were some times those closest,' she said. 'I told all my family I was pregnant with a baby with Down Syndrome and they would say "I'm so sorry" and would cry and then hug me. 'I even had one person say to me, "If this was a dog what would you do?" 'But I think it was their lack of education about Down Syndrome and I understand that, because I probably would've done the same thing as well.' Adding to the ever changing dynamic of their pregnancy were further complications caused as a result of Xavier arriving prematurely. But Mrs Martin said that despite her pre-pregnancy concerns, the moment her son was born she instantly fell in love. 'They held him up and said "Hes beautiful" but then I had to wait for him to cry which probably took about 10 seconds - that was easily the longest 10 seconds of my life,' she said. 'I just remember feeling nothing but love. It was almost like everything that we'd been through over the past nine months didn't matter because we had a perfect little baby.' Loving: 'I just remember feeling nothing but love. It was almost like everything that we'd been through over the past nine months didn't matter because we had a perfect little baby,' Mrs Martin said Cute: Now eight weeks old there is no doubting the cuteness that has made little Xavier the apple of his mum's eye Gorgeous girl: Last week a Canadian mother told of her joy when a stranger called her daughter 'beautiful', a far cry from the normal reactions of passersby Just last week a mother in Canada told of her joy when a stranger sat down and told her how beautiful her 18-month-old daughter with Down Syndrome was. The mother shared the story about her daughter Sophia, saying it was an amazing change from the cringes and shocked looks her daughter often received. Mrs Martin said that while strangers regularly dote over Xavier and the couple's family had 'instantly fell in love with him', not all have been so accepting of the gorgeous youngster. 'Most people in the street have been great, but I have heard a few rude comments,' she said. Celebrate: Mr and Mrs Martin married last year and say their decision to keep the baby was definitely correct Big decision: The Martin's were first told that their unborn son had Down Syndrome 15 weeks into the pregnancy Relief: The couple admit that they regularly feel relief at their decision to walk away before the termination procedure 'There was a woman at a school dance who thought I couldnt hear her and turned to her friends and said "Thats the most hideous baby that I've ever seen". 'There's a lot of support for women and men who have children with Downs, but the only thing that worries me is the reactions of some people in public. 'But Xavier has me and other people who will protect him forever, so that's OK.' As the whirlwind begins to settle and having Xavier in their lives begins to become the norm, Mrs Martin said the couple regularly feel relieved. Life-changing: 'I'm going to love him no matter what - I'm completely over the moon to be his mum,' Mrs Martin said They know their decision to walk out of the waiting room at the last minute was the right one. 'I have no regrets at all. I have no idea what I was so scared of, but I was absolutely terrified and I did not know what to expect,' Mrs Martin said. 'I hate the word 'normal', but he's the same as any normal baby. Student first began experimenting with makeup last Halloween A self-taught makeup artist has showed off her incredible skills with her mesmerising - and terrifying - creations. Saida Mickeviciute, 19, who is originally from Lithuania but now lives in London, can transform herself into a whole host of eery characters inspired by director Tim Burton. The fashion and textiles student began posting snaps of her creations on Instagram last October and has already earned herself nearly 10,000 fans. Saida Mickeviciute, 19, has displayed her incredible skills with these mesmerising - and terrifying - creations The fashion and textiles student began posting snaps of her creations on Instagram last October In a particularly impressive creation, Saida makes it look like there's a frog hanging out of her mouth Other looks include a nutcracker, which sees her looking scarily doll-like Saida, who is inspired by horror films, began experimenting with makeup last Halloween and says each look takes up to two hours to complete. 'I watch a lot of YouTubers like drag queens and makeup artists and try out things on myself,' she said. 'Even my daily makeup is quite experimental, I like to see what works for me, how other people react to it.' 'I'm a huge horror fanatic and watch a lot of movies. That's why most of my looks are what people call "scary".' Saida, who is inspired by horror films, began experimenting with makeup last Halloween In a particularly clever optical illusion, Saida makes it appear that there is a gnome coming out of a large mouth Saida has also transformed herself into Coraline from the movie directed by Tim Burton Another creepy snap shows Saida as a character with her heart ripped out One of the gory looks creates the illusion that the skin on half of her face has been peeled back, while another features a creepy porcelain doll. In a particularly impressive creation, Saida makes it look like there's a frog hanging out of her mouth. She captioned the picture: 'A kiss isn't always the way to become a princess.' Explaining how she created the look, Saida said: 'I used some special wax to mold the leg and to paint it mainly used snazaroo paint.' Saida turns herself into circus jester in this fun look. She says each look takes up to two hours to complete This very-blue look shows Saida transformed into Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas Jigsaw from the horror movie Saw is another character that she creates using cosmetics Saida says she gets inspiration from Youtubers and then tries things out on herself She says she has received a positive response, despite some people finding her looks creepy Other looks include a nutcracker, which sees Saida looking scarily doll-like, and a tribal-inspired face. In a particularly clever optical illusion, Saida makes it appear that there is a gnome coming out of a large mouth - while her eyes are painted on her forehead. Another snap shows a character with her heart ripped out, while one snap sees her transform herself into a creepy jester at the circus. Saida has also transformed herself into Coraline, Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas and Jigsaw from the horror movie Saw. Other looks include the Snow Queen, a creepy doll with stitched up lips and a skull. Saida has already gained herself 10,000 followers on Instagram since starting to post her creations The student transforms herself into the Snow Queen in this striking look She says even her every-day makeup is fairly experimental - although not quite as dramatic as this look Celebrities, charities and the public have come together to grant the 10 wishes of a 10-year-old girl with cystic fibrosis who is awaiting a double lung transplant. Elle Grace Morris, from Nantwich in Cheshire, who was diagnosed with the life-limiting condition at just 15 months old, is on oxygen full time, has four daily nebuliser treatments, is on a nightly ventilator, and has two suspension medications as well as inhalers and almost countless tablets. In an attempt to boost her morale, her mother Becky asked Elle to come up with a list of 10 things she really wanted to do - and so far, the little girl has met Olly Murs, Rita Ora and Dynamo, been to Florida, completed a charity bike ride - and released a single. Brave Elle Grace Morris was diagnosed with the life-limiting condition cystic fibrosis at just 15 months Elles mum Becky, 29, explains how an idle conversation during one of their countless hours in hospital led to Elle creating a wish list (pictured) which would capture the nations hearts Becky revealed that last year saw Elle take a turn for the worse, after contracting various infections, doctors at Great Ormond Street (GOSH) found while Elles lung capacity had fallen to around 30 per cent, shed also picked up a bug called Micro bacterium abscesses. This meant that her chances of having a successful transplant, if a suitable match could be found, are just 50-50 - and her chances of surviving without one are almost nil. The mother said she was told that other relatively healthy patients who have contracted the same bug and gone rapidly downhill within a year - sparking Becky to ask Elle to create her wishlist. These included: Watching X Factor live as a VIP; meeting Rita Ora and Olly Murs; having a big sleepover with lots of friends; promoting organ donation; being a princess for a day; getting a dog; making a music video; going on holiday; doing a bike ride for cystic fibrosis; and having a party for her 10th birthday. She even has her own hashtag - #elleswishes. Elle met Dynamo in the Green Room at the Lorraine studio - he also promoted her wishlist campaign Elle got to meet Olly Murs and Rita Ora after going to watch X Factor live - pictured together in the celebrity dressing room On February 29, Elle released a charity single called Life Unlimited made using an instrumental backing with the sound of breaths from Elle along with 35 A-list celebrities from Jack Whitehall, to Pete Doherty, Sophie Ellis-Bextor and James Corden. The little girl has just two wishes left to complete - a sleepover and getting a dog - but Becky says she's now too sick. But despite their gruelling daily regime and devastating prognosis, Elle and her family has refused to give up hope, making the most of every day by creating amazing memories and also raising funds and awareness to save others lives. Here Elles mum Becky, 29, explains how an idle conversation during one of their countless hours in hospital led to Elle creating a wish list which would capture the nations hearts as well as support from swathes of celebrities including Olly Murs, Rita Ora and James Corden. 2015 was the worst year yet for Elle, she said. She was diagnosed with Micro bacterium abscesses and told her chances of surviving the double lung transplant that she needs are now just 50-50. The doctors said we should seriously consider not opting for transplant because of the severity and risks of the surgery. But we also knew Elles time was limited without that. We just couldnt give up. On the wishlist written by Elle, pictured, was going on holiday, getting a Cockapoo and going to watch X Factor On December 5, Elle cycled two miles with the Nantwich Cycle Group to raise money for the Trust, but it was so windy Elle really struggled and we needed a police escort to finish So last November at yet another hospital visit to Alder Hey, I sat by Elles bed and we got chatting about the trip to Florida wed had organised by the charity Starlight. To make that holiday extra special wed fibbed and told Elle we were going to Spain, and not wanting to ruin the surprise, I asked her what 10 wishes shed want for her 10th birthday in February. I just wanted her to choose anything after so much bad had happened, to focus on some dreams. So she picked up a piece of paper and a pencil and wrote a list. Amongst other perhaps predictable wishes for a 9-year-old girl going on holiday, getting a Cockapoo, going to watch X Factor as a VIP, and being a princess for a day - she added in promoting organ donation for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust as well as doing a bike ride for the charity. The fact that my poor little girl who was so terribly ill was thinking of others made me well up, and I had to pretend Id seen something so I could walk away from her bed and not let her see my tears. With the holiday already about to be ticked off, I contacted our local paper and asked if they could try to sort X Factor tickets - they liked Elle's story so ran a feature about her. So on our second day in Florida I got an email from Barry saying Elles story was on the front page and also a big spread inside the paper. Darren Teale from Junction Video Productions got in touch with a few contacts and arranged for Elle to shoot a music video of her favourite song. That happened on December 21 and 22, followed by a huge paint fight (pictured) with her school friends who featured in the video Crucially my email was at the bottom, so I got inundated with offers to help Elle including two amazing mums from Elles school Stapeley Broad Lane Primary - called Lucy and Helen who set up the Go Fund Me page as well the Elles Wishes Facebook page and Twitter. That was the start of an amazing new chapter in all our lives. That seven-day trip to Florida was magical Disney Land, Universal Studios and Seaworld, but the best part was a medieval night where Elle was picked out by the king after being thrown a rose and crowned the queen of the evening. Seeing her so happy for the first time in so many months made my heart melt. Little did I know how that would be the first of countless magical moments in the coming weeks and months. We got home to news that through the article we had managed to get tickets to see the X Factor live final one of the teachers at school had managed to use a contact to get them for us. Elle pictured with Lorraine Kelly after going on the Lorraine show ELLE'S 10 WISHES 1: Watch X Factor (VIP) 2: Meet Rita Ora and Olly Murs 3: Big Sleepover, lots of friends 4: Promote organ donation (Cystic Fibrosis Trust) 5: Be a princess for a day 6: Get a dog 7: Make a music video 8: Go on holiday 9: Do a bike ride for cystic fibrosis 10: Have a party for my 10th birthday Advertisement Through the Facebook page we then got a call out of the blue from Ollys Murs promoter saying we would get to meet Olly and possibly Rita Ora too. So many people were pulling strings in the background to help us. Of course I kept that a secret from Elle until the last minute, and the moment I walked her into Ollys back-stage dressing room to meet him was beyond special. Olly then said he had something to show Elle, and carrying her oxygen machine for her, took her to Ritas room. They had photos taken with Elle, did autographs for her and really made her feel special. On December 5, Elle cycled two miles with the Nantwich Cycle Group to raise money for the Trust, but it was so windy Elle really struggled and we needed a police escort to finish. But Elle never complained once, helped as always by her amazing little sister Cara who has been such a brilliant support for so many years. Then about a week later, Darren Teale from Junction Video Productions saw the Facebook page, got in touch with a few contacts and arranged for Elle to shoot a music video of her favourite song - Fight Song by Rachel Platten - at a studio in Stoke, ticking off the 7th wish. Elle with Rachel Platten after going to watch her sing on the Lorraine show Elles 10th birthday party was on January 31, two days after her actual birthday, at Peckforton Castle That happened on December 21 and 22, followed by a huge paint fight with her school friends who featured in the video. Then Helen Jones from Chilli PR emailed me in mid-January saying Elle could actually get to meet Rachel Platten in the flesh at a studio in London, as she was performing on the Lorraine show. So on January 21 we went and watched Rachel live, then met her in her dressing room. Rachel did an intro for the video and about a week later that video was put on YouTube and got more than 80,000 hits in just a few days They had a singalong and Elle sat on her knee, Rachel signed a CD and even wrote a note to Elles teacher at school excusing her from class, saying: 'She is busy singing with me. Oops! Sorry for any inconvenience. Love Rachel Platten and Elle.' We also met Dynamo who gave us tickets to his show, and also Lorraine came to have a chat and give Elle a hug. Rachel did an intro for the video and about a week later that video was put on YouTube and got more than 80,000 hits in just a few days. The manager of the local leisure centre, Dom Crisp, organised for us to do a bigger bike ride which we hoped could become an annual thing. That happened on January 23 when Dom got around 80 cyclists to tackle a 55-mile route. Elle managed the last five miles with a few helpful pushes, raising more than 1,500. Dom also organised for a local bakery to make biscuits for all the riders in the shape of stars with Elles logo on them, while another local shop donated a bike specially adapted to carry an oxygen tank for Elle to ride. Again, the good will of our local community was staggering. Later on around 50 friends and family joined the party, also in fancy dress, along with actors playing Cinderella, Prince Charming, Queen Elsa and Princess Anna from Frozen With a six-foot chocolate fountain and loads of fun and games, Becky said it was the most amazing day ticking off wishes five and 10 Elles 10th birthday party was on January 31, two days after her actual birthday, at Peckforton Castle. She was chauffeur-driven in a Bentley to the Grade 1-listed castle dressed as a princess, then driven around the grounds in a horse and carriage, cheered along the way by all the royal pageants and courtiers! CYSTIC FIBROSIS - WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW Cystic fibrosis directly affects just over 10,000 people in the UK but the faulty gene is carried by more than two million people most have no idea. The average wait for adults on the lung transplant list is 412 days. One in three people with cystic fibrosis on the lung transplant list today will die before receiving a transplant. Just 58% of families consent to their loves ones organs being used even if theyre on the donor register. For more information about cystic fibrosis go to: cysticfibrosis.org.uk. Advertisement Later on around 50 friends and family joined the party, also in fancy dress, along with actors playing Cinderella, Prince Charming, Queen Elsa and Princess Anna from Frozen. With a six-foot chocolate fountain and loads of fun and games, it was the most amazing day ticking off wishes five and 10. With growing contacts at record labels and celebrities, on February 29 a charity single called Life Unlimited was released made using an instrumental backing with the sound of breaths from Elle along with 35 A-list celebrities from Jack Whitehall, to Pete Doherty, Sophie Ellis-Bextor and James Corden. Elle was too unwell to travel, so couldnt make it to a studio, so everyone sent in their breaths separately. Despite not meeting all those celebrity supporters, just knowing they wanted to give their time to this cause was amazing, that Elles predicament was creating something so positive. So now we have just two wishes to tick off the sleepover and the Cockapoo, both of which are seen as too much of a health risk right now with Elles immune system so low. Weve actually been offered over a dozen Cockapoo puppies by strangers, generosity which staggers me, and Elle went on a two night school trip at the end of April, but were constantly reminded how ill Elle is and how we shouldnt get carried away. Weve raised many thousands of pounds for the CF Trust, as well as covering costs for Elles experiences and banking funds to pay the expenses when a new pair of suitable lungs is found But its more just than the wish list now weve created a massive fund and awareness-raising campaign and community which is gaining momentum every day. Weve raised many thousands of pounds for the CF Trust, as well as covering costs for Elles experiences and banking funds to pay the expenses when a new pair of suitable lungs is found. And the generosity to keep Elles spirits up with more amazing experiences isnt stopping. We went to Harrods for the weekend recently where Elle was professionally made-up to look like a princess. She looked stunning, but we wanted to remind everyone the background to this, so spread all the medication she needs for one night on the hotel bed next to her, and you could hardly see the bed covers. We dont want anyone to think this is a series of frivolous freebies, its a serious campaign. Weve been to a total of five X Factor shows now, Elle has been asked to be the star judge at a local dog show in May, she was a mascot at Stoke City at the start of April, weve been to the new Jungle Book film premier in Leicester Square, weve been to see Dynamo live and also Little Mix as VIPs, we met the chef Simon Rimmer at his restaurant in Manchesterits endless and amazing. Becky and Elle went to Harrods for the weekend recently where Elle was professionally made-up to look like a princess But while my phones constantly ringing with offers of amazing trips and calls of support, theres actually only one call I want, and thats the one saying suitable lungs have been found to get my little girl better. So I have just two wishes. I want Elle to have a successful transplant, which has to happen in the next year. And I want more people to sign up to the organ donor register to save so many lives which are needlessly wasted. Feeling blase about cleavage? You're in luck! Thanks to the likes of A-list stars Ariel Winter, Kylie Jenner and Bella Thorne, all 18, the underboob is now a thing. But what exactly is the underboob? Instead of the bottom half of the breast being covered to lift the chest up and over a neckline, the top half of the chest is covered to expose the bottom portion. FEMAIL rounds up the Hollywood stars that have no problem showing off their assets - and selects a stylish collection of fashionable pieces that will allow you to copy their rather risque style. Time to celebrate: Ariel Winter showcased a considerable amount of underboob in a pale pink bodycon at her graduation party this past weekend Night on the town: Kylie flashed some serious underboob in a House of CB second skin jumpsuit First up is Modern Family star Ariel, who showcased a considerable amount of underboob in a pale pink bodycon at her graduation party this past weekend. Having undergone breast reduction surgery a year ago, the TV star is clearly feeling confident about her less ample bosom. When the girls have nowhere to go but south, a skin-tight dress like Ariel's is a good option, as the material will hold the chest in place. Beach babe: Barely there makeup and a cropped tee made for an effortlessly sexy look on Bella Thorne White hot: Supermodel Karlie Kloss took the trend to the red carpet in an off-the-shoulder sheath dress Seeing green: Nicki Minaj added interest to her monochromatic look by exposing some serious underboob Kylie Jenner flashed some serious underboob in a House of CB second skin jumpsuit on a night out in Los Angeles. While the youngest Jenner known for her often-striking sartorial choices sported the trend looking glam, actress Bella Thorne opted for a more laid-back approach. Barely-there make-up and a ripped tee made for an effortlessly sexy beach look on the Shake it Up star as she enjoyed a day at the beach back in March. While the sultry trend is gaining momentum now, it has been done before by a number of daring celebrities including Rihanna, Jennifer Lopez and supermodel Karlie Kloss (shown above). The 23 year old beauty proved back in 2013 that you can happily flash a hint of underboob while wearing couture too when she took the trend to the red carpet in a Cushnie Et Ochs off-the-shoulder white dress. And then there's British reality star-turned-model Ashley James, who opted for a two-tone sheath that allowed the blonde bombshell to show off her slender frame and ample assets. Peekaboob: A two-tone cutout sheath allowed blonde bombshell Ashley James to show off her slender supermodel frame and ample assets Too hot to handle: Model Lily Donaldson, 29, slipped her statuesque figure into a leg baring, underboob exposing Balmain number, while Abigail Breslin struck an ultra sexy pose in her peek-a-boo crimson dress Blonde bombshells: Actress Hilary Duff and Reality star Aubrey O'Day gave a little peek of their under cleavage in cutout dresses What's the trick to pulling off a monochromatic look? Add visual interest to break up the solid blocks of color. Nicki Minaj, 34, did this with some serious underboob. After walking the Balmain fall/winter 2016 runway, model Lily Donaldson, 29, slipped her statuesque figure into a leg baring, underboob exposing number from the French label. Proving Little Miss Sunshine is all grown up, former child star Abigail Breslin, 20, struck an ultra sexy pose sporting a crimson bodycon featuring in a peek-a-boo chest cutout. Both Younger actress Hilary Duff, 28, and Famously Single star Aubrey O'Day, 32, flashed just a hint of flesh in their cocktail attire. From not-so-scandalous garments to overtly sexual separates, this trend is a true attention-grabber. A new mother who was diagnosed with cancer just weeks after she gave birth to her daughter had seen three doctors who told the lump in her breast was 'hormonal'. Alex McKay, from the Sunshine Coast, now faces a 12-month stint of chemotherapy and radiotherapy to bring her aggressive breast cancer, known as invasive ductal carinoma, under control. The 28-year-old's tumour measures about four centimetres in diameter and doctors hope to shrink it in order to remove it. New mother Alex McKay (right with her husband, Rhys) who was diagnosed with cancer just weeks after she gave birth to her daughter had seen three doctors who told the lump in her breast was 'hormonal' Ms McKay first came across the lump months ago but her doctor initially told her it was hormonal, the Sunshine Coast Daily reported. She noticed it again as she was pumping breast milk when Indiana, who is now 11 weeks old, was born premature and had to be fed through a tube. The new mum sought another doctor's advice who told her it was a 'blocked duct'. But the lump remained weeks later and this was when Ms McKay went to a third doctor who ordered her to undergo an ultrasound. Ms McKay, from the Sunshine Coast, now faces a 12-month stint of chemotherapy and radiotherapy to bring her aggressive breast cancer, known as invasive ductal carinoma, under control. Pictured with her daughter The new mum has chopped off her locks before she loses them to chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment Radiologists did not think it was anything to worry about, saying it was most likely a benign tumour, but a biopsy revealed something else. Ms McKay got the bad news as she was enjoying time away on the Gold Coast. 'My doctor asked me if i was sitting down, she said "I am so sorry but it's breast cancer",' she said. Friend Terri Cheree started a gofundme campaign to help out Ms McKay's family and describes the young mum as 'gorgeous' and 'bubbly'. Ms Cheree said the 28-year-old's loving husband, Rhys, was 'doing his very best to make ends meet' but they needed extra help as the young mum can no longer go back to work. 'They were doing their best but now with the added cost of medical expenses on top of everything else... It's just too much,' Ms Cheree wrote. 'Alex's biggest heart break is not being able to provide the necessary development toys or clothing for Indiana. 'She is scared they will lose their family home that they worked so hard for.' Over the past few days, thousands of fathers have taken on the 'Cheerios Challenge'. Amused dads from all corners of the globe have been stacking Cheerios on their children's heads, before photographing their handywork and sharing it on social media. One father, from Melbourne, Victoria, has taken the challenge to the next level by stacking Cheerios on his five sleeping children. Scroll down for video Competitive: Over the past few days, thousands of fathers have taken on the 'Cheerios Challenge' Impressive: One father, from Melbourne, Victoria, has taken the challenge to the next level by stacking Cheerios on his five sleeping children, including triplets 'Cheerios Challenge part two,' the father said as he filmed himself creeping into their rooms and proudly showing off the stacks of cereal. 'Triplets, plus two.' The father first films his eldest daughter and son who both have Cheerios stacked on them in neat piles, before filming his three triplets who all have Cheerio towers on their heads. No idea: The father first films his eldest daughter and son who both have Cheerios stacked on them in neat piles, before filming his three triplets who all have Cheerio towers on their heads Amused: The so-called Cheerios Challenge began on social media after a picture was posted on the blog, Life of Dad Hilarious: Amused dads from all corners of the globe have been stacking Cheerios on their children's heads, before photographing their handywork and sharing it on social media All the children are fast asleep and have no idea just how much fun their father is having at their expense. The so-called Cheerios Challenge began on social media after a picture was posted on the blog, Life of Dad. Patrick Quinn, founder of Life of Dad, told BuzzFeed that he got the idea for the challenge from playing with his 3-week-old son, Maxton. Good effort: This skillful father was able to stack 20 Cheerios on this child's head during their slumber Getting creative: Some fathers managed to rest Cheerios on their children's nose and forehead as part of the challenge Solid effort: Fathers have been taking to Twitter and Instagram and posting under #CheerioChallenge 'I put one Cheerio on his nose, and then tried to see how many I could stack, and it kind of just went from there,' Quinn said. Fathers have been taking to Twitter and Instagram and posting under #CheerioChallenge. At her worst she asked them to help her pay for her wedding dress Carol was due to get married and asked her bridesmaids to contribute An anonymous woman has written about her bridezilla friend, 'Carol' Wedding planning can bring out the best and worst in people. From pre-wedding jitters to full-scale meltdowns, brides either reveal themselves as totally chilled or absolute 'Bridezillas'. Now one bride, known as 'Carol', has taken things to a whole new level. Between asking her bridesmaids to supply Excel spreadsheets with cake makers' details to making them 'contribute' to her over-budget $10,500 wedding dress, it's fair to say Carol is one of the worst brides ever. Smiling through the pain: This bridal group may look all smiles, but sometimes weddings bring out the worst in brides-to-be - one woman writes about her friend, Carol, becoming a monster as she planned her Big Day Carol was so bad that one of her best friends (who has chosen to remain anonymous) opted to write about her outrageous behaviour on the website Mamamia. I felt my blood start boiling. Was she serious?! 'At first, I thought Carol was just being a little overzealous when the group emails asking for input on everything from bridesmaid dress colours, hairstyles, make-up looks, bridal dresses, buttonholes for the groomsmen (something I had to Google) and table decorations came flooding through [sic], quickly taking up a large chunk of my day,' the anonymous writer posts. But then, she realised that this was how her friend, Carol, was going to act throughout her extensive wedding planning. The anonymous woman soon started receiving emails at work, in which Carol asked her friends to supply spreadsheets with cake maker details including contact details, price brackets, flavours and an idea of how 'prestigious' each cake would be. 'I had to read the email about three times to gauge what she was asking me,' the anonymous writer says. 'After the third disbelieving scan, I felt my blood start boiling. Was she serious?!'. Organisational nightmare: One of the outrageous things that Carol requested of her bridesmaids is that they send her Excel spreadsheets filled with their ideas for cake makers for the wedding, including price brackets, flavours and a mass of more information However, that wasn't even close to the worst of this Bridezilla's outrageous behaviour. When her friend didn't supply the spreadsheet until the weekend, the bride wrote back saying it would have been more helpful to have the document a day earlier. A couple of months later, the dutiful bridesmaid received the mother of all requests from Carol. Takes the biscuit: Her worst behaviour was asking her bridesmaids to contribute to her $10,500 'dream' wedding dress - this was over budget for her and so she wanted her friends to help out When the bride finally found the wedding dress she liked - a stunning satin Marchesa gown that retailed at a staggering $10,500 - her friends soon received another group email. She would really love it if we could 'pitch in' around $150 each towards her 'dream dress' - that it'd mean so very much to her This one was entitled 'Bridesmaid dress contribution.' which made her break out in a cold sweat. The long email outlined how the couple were now really over budget after the expensive outlay for the dress. 'It was "totally fine if you can't" but she would really love if we could "pitch in" around $150 each towards her "dream dress". That it'd mean so very much to her and would mean that as she walked down the aisle, she'd be wearing something we'd all had a part in.' As the writer bluntly posts, Carol was 'essentially asking her bridal party to chip in for her dress'. Aside from their own $550 bridesmaid outfit, the accommodation for the wedding, the hen's party, bridal shower AND three spa days planned, Carol's bridesmaids were also expected to chip in for Carol's dress. 'I nearly threw my phone across the room, such was the rage that consumed me,' the anonymous poster says. 'I'm starting to think I might have to bail on this wedding, and friendship.' Advertisement To Jessica Jackson there is nothing more beautiful or empowering than a woman giving birth. The Tasmanian photographer works to capture the incredible moment for new parents, her photos praised for giving a 'real' representation of childbirth. But Ms Jackson of Itty Bitty Photography was left devastated when a photo she took of a baby being born was deleted by Instagram for being in breach of the sites 'community standards'. Taken down: This photo taken by birthing photographer Jessica Jackson was deleted by Instagram for being in breach of the sites 'community standards' Taking precautions: The photo was taken four years ago by the Hobart photographer, and cropped and flipped before being shared online Incredible moment: The original image showed a woman on all fours giving birth Beautiful: The photo showed the little boy (pictured) with amniotic fluid dripping from his nose The banned black-and-white photo showed a: 'Squishy baby half born earth side, with amniotic fluid dripping from his nose'. The image was taken four years ago and originally showed a woman on all fours giving birth. Ms Jackson cropped and flipped the photo before she shared it online in the hopes that no one would find it offensive. But within eight hours the photo had been deleted off Instagram and Ms Jackson blocked from her account until she read and accepted Instagram's terms and conditions. Taken offline: The photo was deleted within eight hours, and Ms Jackson was blocked from her account until she read and accepted the terms and conditions of the site Heartwarming: A newborn suckles on their mothers finger as she holds them tenderly in her arms Taking a stance: Ms Jackson said in 2016, we should not be censoring photographs of childbirth 'I was furious, I was so angry and upset,' Ms Jackson said. 'How could someone be offended by this image? Why would someone report it? I could not believe that we are in 2016 and we are censoring a babys head.' Ms Jackson shared a video on Instagram to urge people to stop censoring childbirth before uploading the photo a second time. Again, within eight hours, it was deleted. Sharing her work: Ms Jackson said she did not believe the photo breached any of Instagram's community guidelines Speaking out: 'It fostered meaningful and genuine interactions, it was not spam, I followed the law, it was respectful and It did not contain violence,' she said of her photograph In their guidelines Instagram said they do not allow nudity on Instagram but: 'Photos of post-mastectomy scarring and women actively breastfeeding are allowed'. Ms Jackson said her photo was removed as it did not follow Instagram's 'community guidelines', but upon reading the guidelines herself believes the photo was not in breach. 'It contained no sexual intercourse, no genitals, no buttocks, no nipples,' she said. 'It fostered meaningful and genuine interactions, it was not spam, I followed the law, it was respectful and It did not contain violence.' Adorable: A newborn opens their eyes as they suckle on a finger, their hair standing up on their head Touching moment: A mother shares a special moment with her child as she labours in a pool before giving birth Keeping it real: 'I want people to be able to see, look at and admire real, wholesome images of birth,' she said Ms Jackson reported the problem to Instagram and shared the image a third time, where it has since stayed. 'Sharing birth imagery like this online is so important to me, as a young mother (16 years old when I fell pregnant) I was terrified of birth, I had no experience of birth other then scenes in big Hollywood films, and we all know how unrealistic that can often be,' she wrote. 'I want people to be able to see, look at and admire real, wholesome images of birth. 'Images that show them strength and power and that birth is normal and natural. Making a stance: Ms Jackson, who is a mother of three herself, said it was important to show the strength and power in childbirth 'Birth is beautiful': 'Birth can be calm, relaxing, pleasurable, beautiful, It can be whatever you want it to be, regardless of if you deliver vaginally or via c-section,' she said Standing strong: Ms Jackson said she would continue to go forward and share her photos of childbirth 'They show that birth can be calm, relaxing, pleasurable, beautiful, It can be whatever you want it to be, regardless of if you deliver vaginally or via c-section. Birth is beautiful. 'It doesn't have to be scary or painful. My aim is to use my images to educate the population that birth can be whatever you want it to be. 'Birth is a normal process, yet it is portrayed as an unnatural one, it has been portrayed in such a negative light for such a long time now; It is something that has always been private, rarely talked about. I want to put a stop to this.' Devon Berryann, a mother from Spring Mount, Pennsylvania, recently wrote a post about her six-year-old son that has since been shared close to 12,000 times. The proud mother also shared a snap of her little boy wearing a tutu on her Facebook post, where she urged the world to be more accepting of people and their personal choices. 'My six year old son likes to wear nail polish. He likes to wear girls' clothes and tutus. He tells me about the boys he likes at school. He says he will marry them and adopt babies,' Ms Berryman wrote. 'He likes to wear girls' clothes and tutus': Devon Berryann, a mother from Spring Mount, Pennsylvania, recently wrote a post about her six-year-old son that has since been shared close to 12,000 times 'Maybe he will outgrow it. Maybe not. I love and accept him for who he is. I always thought that doing that would protect him from the pain of hurtful words and bullies, and I didnt worry.' Ms Berryman said her son was being teased at school for wearing nail polish and when she found out, said it was the first time she had considered 'talking him into taking it off' and 'hiding that part of himself.' 'Because for the first time ever I was scared that he would be gunned down one night when he was out having a good time with his friends. In that moment I was so terrified that I wondered if it would be better to stop appeasing him,' she wrote. 'Then I remembered all the reasons I let him be who he wants. Because it makes him happy. Because nothing hurts more than seeing your child truly sad. 'Because pretending to be someone youre not to please other people only leads to self-loathing. To depression and to suicide.' Ms Berryman questioned why she had to fear for her son simply because of what he likes and who he cares about, asking: 'Aren't we past all this yet?' 'I want this world to change. To be better for him. To DESERVE him. Because he is a wonderful, amazing person. He wants to be president. He thinks he is a ninja,' Ms Berryman continued. 'I would love him no matter what': The post has earned Ms Berryman praise from close to 100 people - each of them thanking her for her words, and many backing her call for more compassion in the world 'He listens when you explain things and remembers it forever. He notices when youre sad and tries to cheer you up. He has a light about him that just cant be put out, no matter how hard some people have tried.' The passionate mother said she was aware that the world wasn't going to change 'with more fear' and said instead, the world 'needs more love and acceptance.' Ms Berryman concluded her post by saying she and her little boy went out and purchased more nail polish and on the day she wrote her post, they both wore tutus. 'So here he is world. See my boy for the amazing person he is. Show him love. Show him acceptance. Help us change the world into one that deserves him,' she wrote. In the meantime, many brides-to-be have requested to meet with Regina He also has one more daughter, who is showing interests in photography Ms Wyllie's father couldn't be more proud of his talented little girl She has just in April shot her own wedding shoot, at home in Scotland Nine-year-old Regina Wyllie, from Scotland, has always loved taking photos. When she was just three, she picked up her father, Kevin Wyllie's camera, and asked him how it worked. But rather than just being a curious child or a girl with an inability to leave anything alone, Ms Wyllie, from Ayrshire, Scotland, is in fact a professional wedding photographer. Snap happy: Regina Wyllie (left and bottom right) has always loved taking photos - and the nine-year-old from Scotland is now a professional photographer like her dad, Kevin Wylie (right) Great day: Little Regina Wyllie recently captured her first wedding, on April 15 (pictured) Going it alone: While doing so, nine-year-old Regina shot the bride (pictured), groom and all of the guests completely un-assisted - she set up all the shots and choreographed every professional photograph Clever girl: This was one photo that Regina conceived totally by herself Brilliant debut: Nine-year-old Regina first picked up a camera at age 3 - and this was one of her first 'Trash the Dress' shoots at age 7 'Regina became interested in photography at a very young age,' her father, and fellow professional photographer, Mr Kevin Wyllie, tells Daily Mail Australia. I just answer questions when she asks them, and when she wants to do some shooting she can 'She first started asking questions about how to use my cameras.' Mr Wyllie then started to nurture his daughter's interest in photography in the best way possible, by encouraging Regina while also letting the nine-year-old develop and mature in case her love of the camera was just a phase. 'Regina has never been on a regimented training plan,' Mr Wyllie tells Daily Mail Australia. He goes on to explain that he has never forced his daughter to take photos like her dad does for his job. 'I just answer questions when she asks them, and when she wants to do some shooting she can. 'Over the years she's tagged along to quite a lot of shoots, so her skills just grew through experience.' Simply stunning: Regina took this beautiful photograph, and Mr Wyllie is keen to nurture his daughter's talent without forcing her into becoming a photographer How it began: Mr Wyllie explains that Regina's start in photography came when she first asked her father how to use his professional cameras - little Regina grew up in a world of photo shoots and was very curious Photo shoot: Regina Wyllie was asked to shoot this comedian once for a local magazine - the resulting photo was a huge success These skills culminated on April 15 this year, when Regina shot over 400 photos at her first wedding. She is quite a quiet girl, but when she has that camera in her hand she is super-confident and had no problem dealing with people or setting up shots throughout the day As well as being completely unassisted behind the lens, she discussed ideas for the shoot with her father, before choreographing, setting up and shooting photos that she took herself on one couple's big day: 'She absolutely loved it,' Mr Wyllie says. 'She is quite a quiet girl, but when she has that camera in her hand she is super-confident, and had no problem dealing with people or setting up shots throughout the day. 'Regina's next wedding is on July 1 and several of my other brides have called to ask if she can come along as they love her work. 'I honestly don't have words to describe how proud I feel,' he concludes. Culmination of skills: Most recently, Regina shot her own wedding (above) - for this she took over 400 un-assisted photos and came up with her own photographic concepts Comes out of her shell: While her dad says that Regina is usually quite shy, he says that she is super-confident behind the camera and has no problem dictating what she wants from a photo Artfully done: She carefully manages to stage shots such as this one Regular clients: Little Regina (left) has already been booked for her next wedding on July 1 - with lots of Mr Wyllie's clients showing interest in the talented kid Good feeling: Mr Wyllie says he doesn't have the words to describe how proud he is of his daughter While, at present, Mr Wyllie says that neither he nor his daughter are certain where Regina's talent as a photographer will lead, Mr Wyllie says that: 'Regina has said she intends to definitely keep her photography going... 'In the past, she's said a few times that she just wants to keep it as a hobby, but over the past few days, upon seeing some of the response her work is getting and some of the nice messages she's received from people all over the world, she has said she might like doing this when she's older.' And it seems that photography is something that runs in the family. Mr Wyllie's other daughter, Alba, is six, and already has a passion for taking photos. 'All she wants to know now is "When can I shoot a wedding, Dad?",' Mr Wyllie laughs. And with one child who already has a career in the notoriously tricky industry before she's even hit double digits, you wouldn't put it past the Wyllie family. You can visit Kevin Wyllie's photography website here, and read his blog post on Regina Wyllie shooting her first wedding here. Choosing a school for your children can be hard. No matter if you, your partner or your older children have gone there before, or however many open days you've attended, how do you really know if it's the right place for your kid to spend seven (or even thirteen) years? Leading children's expert and former school counsellor Pauline Haycraft, from Sydney, has made the task a bit easier, telling Daily Mail Australia the things parents should look for to ensure that their child is getting the most out of their education. Schoolyard secrets: Education expert Pauline Haycraft has laid out the keys to make sure that your child is making the most of their time at school PREPARATION MAKES PERFECTION Outside of the family home, school is the first environment where your child will learn to deal with the real world. According to Mrs Haycraft, just throwing your child in the deep end and hoping they'll swim isn't the answer when it comes to education. She believes that preparation is crucial to children succeeding in the classroom, no matter if it's primary school or tertiary education. 'With better preparation there are fewer troubles at school,' Mrs Haycraft said. 'You have to prepare them for school, you can't just say "You're off to big school next week, isnt it exciting?", because its not, its terrifying and it's the same with High School.' Preparation: Mrs Haycraft said properly preparing your child for school can ensure they settle in to their routine quickly and can also stop the daily waterworks TEARS AREN'T ALWAYS BAD It's normal for your children to experience nerves early on and tears aren't an uncommon site either. But Mrs Haycraft said that waterworks don't necessarily mean your child doesn't like their school, however there are a number of hidden signs to look out for. 'At the beginning, tears are common among new school starters and also for younger children,' she said. 'It's important that parents are aware of changes in the behaviour of their children such as becoming withdrawn, cantankerous, rebellious, sick and refusing to go.' Lines open: Keeping communication between home and school constant ensures things don't get missed KEEP COMMUNICATION CONSTANT Unfortunately, kissing kids goodbye at the school gate means parents are unable to keep an eye on their child anymore. Ms Haycraft said it was important to keep communication channels between the school and home open to ensure that any issues can be addressed 'There has to be a dialogue between parents and school, if there's no dialogue parents have to be on the school to find out what's happening,' she said. 'They may have gotten in with a group of kids at the senior school who escape down the back and smoke or who climb out their bedroom window and go down the local park - it does happen, but parents have no idea it has happened a lot of the time.' Enable them to excel: While grades are important sacrificing their dreams to achieve high scores is not a good move Mrs Haycraft said DON'T SACRIFICE THEIR DREAMS FOR GRADES According to Mrs Haycraft, many high schools pigeon hole their bright students into doing certain classes. She said that just because students are getting good marks doesn't mean they want to be a doctor, lawyer or any certain profession. 'Parents have to assess if your child's school is sensible enough to give your kids the option of what they want to do in life?' Mrs Haycraft said. 'A lot of high schools say the bright kids will sort out into this, this and this, and they'll push them into advanced maths but they won't let them do classes like drama, or arts or the like. 'I know a girl who wanted to be a vet but had to do advanced math because thats how the timetable worked. Well excuse me, fix your timetabling.' Parenting tips: Mrs Haycraft (pictured) said that if things aren't going well and you are considering switching schools for your child, don't put the burden of making a decision on their shoulders PARENTS SHOULD BE PARENTS While parents are unable to watch over their kids 24/7, if they notice something is wrong, it's their reponsibility to act Mrs Haycraft said. She believes that if it is reaching the point where moving schools is becoming a possibility, then that's a call for the parents. 'To me the major issues are not ignoring it if there's a problem, you should pursue the school so there's dialogue and if you dont like those answers then theres other thoughts to be had,' Ms Haycraft said. 'But dont ask the child if they want to change schools, because if they are depressed or unsure about their environment the last thing they want is to have the burden of that thought too. 'As a parent you have to play the role of parent.' She made headline news after being sensationally stripped of her Miss GB title following her steamy Love Island antics - and now Zara Holland has hit back at the organisation. The 20-year-old, whose Miss Great Britain 2015/16 title has been revoked after she was seen having sex with fellow contestant Alex Bowen, 24, on the ITV2 show, describes the ordeal as 'horrific.' Speaking to The Sun, the model and boutique director from North Ferriby said: 'I havent committed a crime, so why should I have my title taken from me? Its horrific.' Dethroned Miss Great Britain, Zara Holland, questions why her title was revoked after she had sex on Love Island and describes the ordeal as 'horrific' Zara was originally paired with Scott Thomas and the pair enjoyed a steamy kiss. He then ditched her for Kady and she was unlucky in love on the show from then on - until Wednesday when shared a steamy romp in the bedroom with newcomer Alex. She was initially said to have 'disappointed' pageant bosses but the organisation confirmed that Zara would no longer represent them on Thursday. The official statement said: 'Following recent actions within ITV2 show Love Island it is with deep regret that we, the Miss Great Britain Organisation, have to announce that Zara Holland has formally been de-crowned as Miss Great Britain.' 'As an organisation we have not taken this decision lightly, we are close to all of our winners and wherever possibly stand by them during their rein. 'That said, we feel we have no choice but to make this decision under the circumstances. '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.' Retaliating to the news, Zara said: 'Ive done nothing wrong. All women have needs.' 'All the things Miss GB claims to stand for have been used against me. I sacrificed my work, my own personal savings, I worked my ass off,' added Zara, who says all everyone else does the same on a weekly basis. Speaking to The Sun , the model and boutique director from North Ferriby said: 'I haven't committed a crime, so why should I have my title taken from me? It's horrific' The 20-year-old saw her Miss Great Britain 2015/16 title revoked after she was seen having sex with fellow contestant Alex Bowen, 24, on the ITV2 show Love Island host Caroline Flack even leaped to the defense of dethroned Zara, after she was mocked for losing her Miss Great Britain title. Caroline, 36, questioned pageant organiser's old fashioned standards after they confirmed that she would no longer be promoted as a role model because she had sex on television. And while Caroline was in the Love Islander's corner, other famous viewers including Vicky Pattison and Sam Reece saw the funny side of Zara's misfortune. Caroline 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?'. And it seems that Caroline isn't the only one rooting for Zara after a petition calling for her crown to be reinstated has been launched and signed by 16,000 people. The campaign on website change.org, Give Zara Holland Her Miss GB Title Back, was started by Dell Bennett from Newcastle. Dell writes: 'I think it is a harsh punishment stripping her of her title for a silly little mistake and for only being human. 'I am aware that having a title like that comes with responsibilities and I for one think she has been absolutely amazing, she has shown she is a strong positive person, we have to remember she is still a young lady and what happened was only natural. I think she should be given a second chance as Miss Great Britain!' The petition needs 8,799 more votes to reach its 25,000 target when it will be put before the Miss Great Britain Organisation. A petition calling for her crown to be reinstated has been launched and signed by 16,000 people - it needs 8,799 more votes to reach its 25,000 target Prior to her illness, Zara Holland's mum Cheryl Hakeney spoke out about her daughter's steamy romp, which led to her being dethroned as Miss Great Britain in a devastating turn of events. The 20-year-old beauty queen was left bereft after losing her title following a move which Cheryl insisted to Heat magazine was 'not her proudest moment'. Former beauty queen Cheryl told Heat: 'I'm really surprised by Zara's behaviour - it's definitely out of character. But although it's not her proudest moment, she hasn't committed any crime.' The blonde beauty, who acts as an antiques expert on Dickinson's Real Deal, added: 'I'm disappointed they took her title away - I hoped they would understand that all young women make mistakes.' Then, Deone Robertson, 28, who was promoted to Miss Great Britain after Zara was dethroned had her say on the event bosses' controversial decision to strip Zara, 20, of her title in an interview with the Mirror Online. The beauty said: 'We are supposed to be role models for young girls and represent our chosen charities - [Zara] knew this. Everyone is briefed before entering a pageant. It's drummed into your head. There are contracts in place. You can't be be seen naked or topless and you definitely cannot have sex on TV.' Zara was crowned Miss Hull last year, and for proud mother Cheryl, 51, right, her daughter's victory was extra special - because she herself held the Miss Hull title in 1984, when she was just 19 Zara was crowned Miss Hull last year, and for proud mother Cheryl, her daughter's victory was extra special - because she herself held the Miss Hull title in 1984, when she was just 19. The blonde fledgling star then went on to win Miss Great Britain 2015/16, as well as the bikini round and the charity round, raising over 3,000 for Cancer Research in the process. The similarity between the pair in their pageant photos is striking. Cheryl, from Hull, East Yorks, said at the time: 'It was totally incredible when Zara won. I was seeing it from a different angle. 'When it is your child, you just want them to do well and I was really rooting for her to win. 'There were so many pretty girls that entered. When they announced Zara had won, I thought I was going to faint.' Since finding fame as a pageant queen, Zara's life has taken a much more star-studded turn. The model and boutique director from North Ferriby regularly attends celebrity events, has appeared on Hollyoaks and has become a social media star in the process The sultry star, who says her real 32DD breasts are her favourite body part, also has a penchant for raunchy selfies, which attract plenty of male admirers Zara, an aspiring actress who has appeared in Hollyoaks, Coronation Street and Emmerdale, was able to ask her mother for advice on the competition, after Cheryl was crowned Miss Viking Radio, the equivalent to what is now Miss Hull and District, when the competition first started. Immediately after her win, Zara found herself invited to the glitziest events and quickly became friends with A-listers, which she duly documents on her Instagram page. The fledgling star saw herself being invited onto ITV's Lorraine, David Gest's dinner galas and to glitzy showbiz events with Alesha Dixon and Michelle Keegan. Whilst she hasn't had much luck with the men on the show and admits she's been single for two years, Zara was in fact linked to The Apprentice star and Celebrity Big Brother winner, James Hill. The pair were often spotted getting close at parties and mingling in the same circles. The sultry star also has a penchant for raunchy selfies, which attract plenty of male admirers on her social media channels. Zara followed in her mother's high heeled footsteps - by clinching the same beauty pageant title as she did 30 years earlier. The pair credit their honed figures to lots of Pilates, walking and the odd glass of champagne Zara won Miss Great Britain 2015/16, as well as the bikini round and the charity round, raising over 3,000 for Cancer Research The similarity between the mother, pictured, and daughter in their winners' photos is striking A SPOKESPERSON FOR MISS GREAT BRITAIN'S COMMENT IN FULL 'We feel it important to explain that we have no problem at all with sex and our contestants/winners being sexually active and exploring their sexuality with another consensual adult; this has never, and will never be a problem, however we simply cannot condone a reigning title holder doing so on TV. 'To put it into context, for those outside of the pageant industry, if a school teacher took part in the show, that person would have a level of responsibility they would be expected to uphold because of their role, and are certain they would face similar consequences if they took part in similar actions on National television. For those saying going into Love Island, its inevitable that she would have sex, that is not true, it is not a prerequisite of the show that you have sex. We gave our permission for Zara to enter, as our current winner, under the stipulation that she did not have sex on TV. Zara fully agreed to this and knowingly went against our wishes. 'Those stating we are "slut" shaming: we have never, and would never ever use this word to describe Zara, it is a huge shame that people are attempting to put words into our mouth. Zara is a lovely girl, we understand that this is out of character for her and that she truly regrets her actions; however the decision simply comes down to the fact that she has broken the rules of the competition. 'Miss Great Britain works with charities, children and young, impressionable people; our title holder must be an ambassador and this public behaviour does not support the ethos of our brand. For people claiming : "You wouldnt do this if it was Mr Great Britain" and "No ones said anything about Alexs part in this", We most certainly would take the exact same course of action had our brand representative been male and this is why we have not mentioned Alex, as he is not an ambassador of our brand. The same goes for the other people within the villa (men and women), we wouldnt pass comment on their actions or decisions as they are not there as a representative of Miss Great Britain, in a "current" position. 'We did not take the decision to make this announcement whilst Zara was still in the show lightly, and agonised over it for almost 24 hours. We fully understand peoples feelings regarding this. But we had to act quickly with our statement as the press were already made aware of the decision and were going live. Of course, ideally we would have preferred to let Zara know face to face, but as we are allowed no contact with her whilst she is in the villa, this was taken out of our hands. 'Zara could potentially be in the show for another 3 or 4 weeks, we could not leave this amount of time before making an announcement. We wholeheartedly agree, that other than the incident that has forced our decision, Zara was, and is handling herself very well on the show and we still hold her in the highest regard as a friend, and are thrilled to see the support she is now receiving. 'We genuinely hope she goes on to win the show; she is a lovely girl with a great future ahead of her. Whilst we fully expect Zara to be upset when she learns of our decision, she also knows the pageant industry well and were confident she will completely understand why we have taken this course of action in time. Zara is not going to be erased from our history, she will always be one of our winners, but her reign has been cut short at this time and we will be standing by our decision.' Advertisement The stylish star enjoys mingling with A-listers such as Alesha Dixon, left, as well as soapstars like Georgie Porter, right, at glittering showbiz events Zara has been working the showbiz circuit in recent months. Left: with Apprentice star and Big Brother winner, James Hill, and right, at Michelle Keegan's Lipsy launch Advertisement The Queen was met by hundreds of well-wishers this afternoon as she arrived at Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool this afternoon, however, it seems that not everyone was pleased to see her. Three-year-old patient Lewis Connet was tasked with presenting Her Majesty with a bouquet of flowers as she arrived to officially open the hospital today. However, it appeared that the task proved a little overwhelming for Lewis, who burst into tears shortly after the monarch collected her colourful posy. Scroll down for video The Queen visited Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool this afternoon for its official opening, however it appears not everyone was pleased to see her as patient Lewis Connet (pictured with mother Donna) was left in tears after her arrival Lewis, who suffers from Apert Syndrome - a genetic disorder characterised by malformation of the skull - retreated to the comfort of his mother Donna's arms as the royal attempted to comfort the youngster with a smile, but to no avail. Joined by the Duke of Edinburgh, the royals officially opened the 237m hospital by unveiling a plaque. Hospital chairman David Henshaw greeted the Queen and Prince Philip on arrival in order to show them around the out-patients garden. Following their tour they will visit the oncology unit before meeting staff and patients in the Teenage Cancer Trust Common Room. Next stop is an inpatient ward where they will be introduced to staff and patients before greeting donors in the entrance atrium. The Queen, 90, arrived in Liverpool earlier today wearing a pretty pink coat and dress by Stuart Parvin and matching hat, which she first sported at Royal Ascot three years ago. It may appear that she's been taking thrift tips from her daughter-in-law the Duchess of Cambridge. Three-year-old Lewis Connet, who is a patient at the hospital, was tasked with presenting Her Majesty with a bouquet of flowers as she arrived at the hospital However, it appears that the task was a bit overwhelming much for little Lewis, who burst into tears shortly after the monarch collected her colourful posy After his upsetting encounter Lewis, who suffers from Apert Syndrome, retreated to the comfort of his mother Donna's arms, but the Queen did not seem offended The Queen took a tour of the inpatient ward where she greeted members of staff who seemed thrilled to greet her majesty Prince Philip was seen chatting to patients in ward 3C as he took a tour of the children's hospital with the queen this afternoon The Queen, 90, arrived in Liverpool wearing a pretty pink coat and dress by Stuart Parvin and matching hat, which she first sported at Royal Ascot in 2013 The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh (background) are greeted after alighting the Royal Train at Liverpool's Lime Street Station Her Majesty seemed to be in especially good spirits as she laughed while chatting to members of the public Eager royal fans gathered at Liverpool's Lime Street station to greet the VIP guests After lunch at the town hall, the Queen appeared on the balcony to greet well-wishers However, the monarch has long been known to recycle her outfits - often wearing ensembles multiple times over the course of a decade. Her Majesty arrived at Liverpool Lime Street station to begin a day of engagements, accompanied by her husband Prince Philip. Royal fans were lined up outside the station to greet the monarch, who was accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh. And while official celebrations of her milestone 90th birthday might be complete, good wishes continue to pour in. The royals were joined by the Mayor of Liverpool after enjoying a two-course lunch at the town hall Prince Philip gave a cheerful wave to the crowds after enjoying lunch at the town hall Crowds of well-wishers had gathered in the hope of catching a glimpse of the royal couple The Queen teamed her summery pink floral dress by Stuart Parvin with white gloves The Queen views the ExoMars Rover at Exhibition Centre Liverpool A group of children dressed in prince and princess outfits, complete with gold crowns, had made a poster stating: 'Happy birthday from Little Explorers'. First stop on the royals' itinerary was a visit to the International Festival for Business. The Queen toured exhibits at the event which runs for three weeks and brings together thousands of companies from around the world for networking and deal-making. The Queen greets crowds from the town hall balcony This afternoon the Queen will visit Alder Hey Children's Hospital where she will be introduced to staff and patients People peer out the windows of Town Hall, hoping to catch a glimpse of the royal guest Her Majesty looked delighted to be spending a day in the city, where a busy schedule of engagements is planned Afterwards, she formally opened the Pullman Liverpool hotel and Exhibition Centre Liverpool, where she viewed the ExoMars Rover. At lunch time, she and Prince Philip sat down to a meal with representatives from a variety of community and charitable organisations at the town hall. including the Merseyside Refugee Network and the Southern Neighbourhood Council. They enjoy a two-course lunch prepared by Darren Wynn, director of Carringtons Catering, adapted from the menu for Queen Victoria's visit in 1886. The Liverpool Echo reported that the royals dined on fillet of Mawdsley beef with peppercorn and cognac sauce, served with potato dauphinois and asparagus. Prince Philip, 95, joined his wife for a day of engagements which will see them have lunch with representatives of various organisations at the town hall and officially open the new 237m Alder Hey Childrens Hospital The monarch waved to well-wishers who had gathered at Lime Street station to greet the royal couple The Queen was presented by a bunch of purple flowers While official celebrations of her milestone 90th birthday might be complete, good wishes continue to pour in Snap! The Queen first wore the pink Stuart Parvin coat and dress to Royal Ascot in 2013 The Queen unveiled a plaque to officially open the Exhibition Centre Liverpool Dessert was apple and cinnamon tart with vanilla ice cream and creme anglais, followed by coffee and petit fours. Afterwards, the royal couple made an appearance on the balcony to greet well-wishers. She had taken off her coat to reveal the dress underneath with a summery pattern of pink, blue and orange flowers, but her hat remained firmly in place. However, the monarch did swap her brooch from the lapel of her coat on to the dress. Royal protocol often dictates that an encounter with a member of the monarchy will be quite a formal occasion. But the Duchess of Cornwall today proved she's a good sport by snapping a selfie with staff member Biffy Mackay, 27, at the Social Bite cafe in Edinburgh, which feeds, trains and employs members of the homeless community The Rose Street shop hosted Clooney, who praised its work, last November and staff are expected to welcome fellow actor and campaigner Leonardo DiCaprio later this year. Scroll down for video But the Duchess of Cornwall today proved she's a good sport by snapping a selfie with staff member Biffy Mackay, 27, at the Social Bite sandwich shop in Edinburgh The Duchess proved that she's a good sport by posing for a selfie Prince Charles looked in equally relaxed form as he enjoyed a cup of tea while visiting the 'From Harris to Paris' exhibition Biffy Mackay, who took the selfie used to be homeless and said Social Bite has given her 'something to look forward to every day'. Camilla, who is a patron of Emmaus UK, a charity which tackles homelessness, spent time hearing from Social Bite staff who have themselves experienced homelessness. Josh Littlejohn, co-founder of Social Bite, said: 'It was nice to have another high profile visitor to the shop, it was just a really good experience. 'The Royal Family's office approached us and asked if she could come and visit. The Duchess handed over a donation to Bonnie Burton The Duchess of Cornwall, known as the Duchess of Rothesay while in Scotland, speaks to Big Issue seller George Whyte (left) and volunteer Zakia Moulaoui (right) Camilla examines the produce at the cafe, which will welcome Leonardo Di Caprio later this year 'Maybe they saw it in the media when we had George Clooney here, I'm not quite sure how they heard about us. And we said of course come and see what we're doing.' The Duchess offered an impromptu invitation for staff to visit Dumfries House in Ayrshire, where Prince Charles is opening a youth employment hub. Sunny Murray, 36 who used to be homeless but now works with Social Bite, said: 'It was good. I never thought I'd meet a royal to be honest, but she was really nice. Prince Charles examining exhibits at the From Harris To Paris show, part of the Edinburgh International Fashion Festival Prince Charles is shown a vintage sewing machine by Martin Scott 'She was quite interested in what we used to do before Social Bite. I used to be homeless, and I used to use Social Bite and then fortunately enough I got a job with them. 'We asked her where she was before this and she said she was in Dumfries with Charles, and she's invited us to go down.' The Duchess purchased sandwiches and cakes and then forward paid meals for other homeless people and received a Social Bite loyalty card. Prince Charles meets Deborah Chapman who helps people with mental health through her puppet during a visit to the Princeis Trust Wolfson Centre Prince Charles makes pancakes as head chef Willie McCurragh His attempt at flipping went wrong when he dropped his pancake Bonnie Burton, the staff member who served her, said: 'She was really nice. A nice wee woman. Really polite and lovely. 'She got a loyalty card and she promised she's coming back.' The visit by the Duchess of Rothesay, as Camilla is known in Scotland, comes on the second day of a full week of engagements north of the border. Charles also opened The Prince's Trust's youth employment and enterprise hub in Glasgow, where he met Deborah Chapman who helps people with mental health through puppetry. Prince Charles toured the HMS Prince of Wales and spoke to the construction team and crew members The Prince chatted to (left to right) Des Clarke, Sanjiv Kholi and Carol Smile at the Prince's Trust Wolfson Centre Giving a speech at the Prince's Trust Wolfson centre He also tried his hand at making pancakes with head chef Willie McCurragh, but his attempt at flipping went awry when he dropped it on the floor. He will then be joined by his wife at Dumfries House near Cumnock in East Ayrshire, the 18th-century stately home whose future was secured following intervention by the Prince in 2007. The couple will attend a sewing bee challenge and open a new maze before watching pets go through their paces in the annual Dumfries House dog show. Tuesday saw Charles praise the skills of workers assembling a new aircraft carrier bearing his name at Rosyth dockyard on the Firth of Forth. He toured the HMS Prince of Wales and spoke to the construction team and crew members before watching crane operators lower the final 570-tonne section into place. The 280-metre carrier, the eighth ship to be named after the heir to the throne, is expected to start sea trials in 2019. Stephanie Seymour may not consider Kendall Jenner a supermodel, but Marc Jacobs certainly does. The 20-year-old has joined Cara Delevingne, her musician girlfriend St. Vincent, and Courtney Love as one of the many stars who posed for the designer's Fall 2016 campaign. And while Jacobs has a penchant for all of his models, he clearly holds Kendall who made her runway debut during his Fall 2014 show near and dear to his heart. When Jacobs took to Instagram on Wednesday to proudly share an image from Kendall's latest shoot, the 53-year-old took a moment to gush about her and her 'incredible' career, dubbing her a 'supermodel'. 'Supermodel': Kendall Jenner is one of the many stars featured in the Marc Jacobs Fall 2016 campaign. The designer praised the reality star for her impressive career when he shared the new ad on Instagram 'Womanchild': Jacobs recalled Cara Delevingne wearing an 'animal onesie' when he met her for the first time when he shared her latest ad for his eponymous label 'KENDALL, Supermodel,' he wrote. 'I will always remember the first time I met Kendall during castings for our Fall 2014 fashion show.' Jacobs went on to explain that he first met Kendall when British fashion editor Katie Grand invited her to come by his studio for an introduction before she was photographed for the model boards. 'At the time, I knew very little about Kendall' he admitted. 'As history now has it, her very first fashion show was for Marc Jacobs Fall 2014. Kendall has since been a part of every show along with being featured in our Spring 15 ad campaign (also shot by David Sims).' Jacobs continued: 'It goes without saying that Kendall has gone on to establish an incredible career for herself and every bit of it is a testament to her hard work, passion and desire.' In his touching post, he recalled that when he and his team were casting the Fall 2016 show, they had to make sure each girl was able to safely walk because of the 'enormous height' of the boots they had designed. 'Brains and Beauty': Jacobs said he met Marilyn Manson on Halloween in 1996, right after he released his album Antichrist Superstar 'R(evolution)': The 53-year-old designer called Courtney Love a 'Grunge Goddess' 'Kendall slid those boots on and walked around the studio as if she was in a pair of running shoes: statuesque, confident and just as enthusiastic and excited to be doing the show as if it was her first one,' he noted. 'For me, it is the ability of a model to effortlessly transform into a look and character that makes her so appealing and inspiring.' Jacobs ended his message by noting that the reality star is 'the sweet, kind and ultimate professional'. And the brunette beauty certainly has range. For her latest campaign, Kendall took on the role of a 'Goth Goddess', posing in a voluminous slate gray dress featuring long sleeves and a large bow around her neck for the edgy new ad. The gothic image sees the star pulling up her dress to show off her sky-high platform boots. Her eyes are heavily rimmed with liner, and her usually sleek locks are crimped and teased to epic proportions. Working together: Cara's musician girlfriend Annie Clark, who is known by her state name St. Vincent, is also featured in the star-studded campaign Full of praise: Jacobs gushed that he had fallen head over heels in love with Juno Temple (pictured) 'Femininity': Jacobs said he became 'enamored' with Kembra Pfahler after her band, The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black released their album, The Anti Naturalist, in 1995 Kendall also took to Instagram on Wednesday to share the image, writing: 'Thank you for everything Marc and Katie!' Jacobs' remarks about her supermodel status come less than two weeks after Stephanie Seymour said Kendall and fellow star Gigi Hadid aren't supermodels like she was. The '90s supermodel went on to dub the girls 'b****s of the moment', leading Kendall to write a scathing response on her subscription-based app and website, insisting that Stephanie get out of her moment. Over the past week, Jacobs has been unveiling the stars of his new campaign, sharing kind words and admiration for each of those featured in the dramatic shoot. Big break: Kendall made her runway debut during the Marc Jacobs Fall 2014 show (left). The now-seasoned catwalker strut her stuff in giant platform boots during the designers Fall 2016 show in February (right) Support system: Jacobs (left) called Kendall (center) a 'supermodel' less than two weeks after Stephanie Seymour claimed she and fellow model Gigi Hadid (right) weren't supermodels like she was Style stars: Cara is pictured with St. Vincent in September during London Fashion Week When posting an image of Cara, Jacobs affectionately called her a 'womanchild' as he waxed poetic about her larger than life personality. 'Every once in a blue moon I am fortunate enough to meet a model with a personality so huge it almost overshadows even the strongest of looks the most dramatic fashion,' he wrote. Like with Kendall, Jacobs said he met Cara through Grand, calling her 'the girl in the animal onesie with boundless energy, great humor and in perpetual motion'. 'Watching Caras growth and evolution into a dynamic, outspoken, independent woman is a true joy, just as she is herself,' he added. 'Her generosity and care in wanting to get a job done right (even if it means missing a flight!) is a testament to her professionalism and true character.' Cara's girlfriend, Annie Clark, who is known by her state name St. Vincent, also stars in the campaign, and Jacobs noted that he was 'really taken' by the comment Annie had made in an interview with Rolling Stone. Model body: Kendall showed off her nipple ring during an outing in New York City's East Village on Tuesday Girls' day out: The model was joined by Gigi Hadid (center) and Hailey Baldwin (left) 'She described queerness as a transcendence of sexuality and as a banner for being other". It was thoughtful, relevant and poignant,' he explained. 'Theres a certain maturity thats inherent in Annie that transcends her age and while her music is a direct reflection of her intellectual curiosities and musical prowess, it was when I had the privilege of meeting Annie in person that I experienced her magnetism.' As for Courtney, Jacobs dubbed her a 'Grunge Goddess' and called her style the great inspiration behind is 'now infamous grunge collection show in 1992'. Marilyn Manson, Missy Elliott, Sissy Spacek, Kembra Pfahler, Julia Banas, Willy Morsch, and Kiki Willems are also featured in the campaign. In an Instagram post shared lats week, Jacobs noted that the individuals in the ads 'represent a collective embodiment of love, honesty, integrity, courage, strength, curiosity and inspiration'. It was a case of how many Spanish queens can you fit on one stage. Letizia joined her mother-in-law Sofia this afternoon as the Spanish royals helped celebrate the 30th anniversary of the FAD at the Real Casa de Correos in Madrid, Spain. The mother-of-two cut a stylish figure in a pale pink shirt dress that was fronted with sheer black stripes. Scroll down for video Stylish orator! Queen Letizia opted for a minimalist pale pink shirt dress with black stripes to address the audience at the Real Casa de Correos as part of the 30th anniversary celebrations of the Help for Drug Addiction Foundation (FAD) Two queens, one stage: Letizia stood shoulder to shoulder with Sofia, glamorous in a cream paisley skirt suit and gold heels, to help the FAD mark its milestone birthday Wearing her highlighted hair in loose ringlets, Letitia finished the look with nude heels, a smokey eye and deep pink lipstick. Not be outdone in the fashion stakes was former Queen Sofia, who opted for a cream paisley skirt suit with gold heels. In contrast to Letizia, who wore no jewellery except some oft-seen ornate cluster earrings, Sofia was dripping in gold. With rings on both hands, Sofia wore a matching three-chain necklace and bracelet. Letizia looked happy to be introducing her mother-in-law to the stage and the royals shared a tender embrace. They were honouring a milestone birthday for the Help for Drug Addiction Foundation (FAD), a charity which the Spanish Queen is president of. Letizia showed off her toned arms as stood on the stage before introducing former Queen Sofia Respect: The mother-of-two applauds as Sofia accepts a commemoration trophy marking the charity's foundation in 1986 While Letizia opted for a minimalist approach to jewellery, Sofia wore a three-chain necklace and bracelets on both of her wrists Affection: The family members smiled as they embraced at the event Sofia leans in to kiss her daughter-in-law, who has two children with King Felipe VI And there's even time for a chat; both Spanish royals looked delighted to be supporting a charity that is clearly close to their hearts Letizia appeared to make a passionate speech before introducing Sofia, the charity's original patron with a trophy which marked the charity's foundation in 1986. It's been a busy week for the Spanish royal; last Wednesday Letizia joined her husband King Felipe VI at the Royal Palace of El Pardo to meet with members of the Boards of Trustees of the Princess of Asturias Foundation - a non-profit private institution which aims to promote scientific, cultural and humanistic values core to the country. Queen Letizia looked high fashion in sexy leather trousers and a fuchsia blouse as she joined her husband in Madrid for a Princess of Asturias Foundation meeting The duo listened as a report on the work carried out throughout 2015 was recounted. According to the foundation's website, the most significant activities comprise the granting and presentation of the Princess of Asturias Awards and the arrangements for the cultural week surrounding the Awards Ceremony. Last year, these included 40 free events open to the general public, which were attended by around 11,000 people. The 43-year-old royal showcased her sartorial prowess for the occasion, donning sexy leather trousers and black stilettos The King and Queen were at the Royal Palace of El Pardo to meet with members of the Boards of Trustees of the Princess of Asturias Foundation and the duo listened as a report on the work carried out throughout 2015 was recounted A stylish Queen Letizia greets BBVA's president Francisco Gonzalez at the Princess of Asturias Foundation Annual meeting in Madrid, Spain A report was also given on the work of the Music Department, which organised 42 concerts by the Foundations three choirs, as well as a new edition of the International Music School Summer Courses. These were opened by Queen Letizia and attended by over 148 students from ten different countries. As always, Queen Letizia has been keeping busy with royal duties in recent weeks. Prior to that, the royal had paid an emotional tribute to the victims of the Orlando night club massacre during an official visit to Salamanca. The 43-year-old royal looked sombre during a ceremony to deliver the Spanish flag to the Regiment of Engineers. During her visit to the town in the north west of Spain Letizia took the opportunity to say a few words in support of the victims of the Orlando massacre that has shocked the world. The monarch made a speech where she condemned the deaths of 49 people at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando and said that such atrocities can only be combated by 'working together'. An activewear retailer, co-founded by Hollywood star Kate Hudson, has come under fire after several shoppers were signed up as fee-paying members without their knowledge. US exercise clothing business Fabletics, co-founded by the actress, has vowed to make membership fees clearer on its website in Australia after the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission were inundated with complaints. The watchdog raised concerns about inadequate disclosure of ongoing costs of its 'VIP' membership program after customers claimed they were unaware of the monthly subscription fees. Following their first purchase of discounted active wear clothing, customers were charged a monthly US $49.95 (AU $66.60) subscription for VIP membership - and found it difficult to cancel. Scroll down for video An activewear retailer, co-founded by Hollywood star Kate Hudson (pictured), has come under fire after several shoppers were signed up as fee-paying members without their knowledge 'The ACCC has seen a spike in complaints from unhappy consumers regarding the use of the relatively new "subscription trap" model by online retailers,' ACCC chairman Rod Sims said. 'This involves online retailers treating a consumer's decision to make a single purchase as consent to signing them to a paid, ongoing subscription service without adequately disclosing that the subscription service involves ongoing fees. 'We are putting online retailers on notice that they must clearly and prominently display any ongoing membership fees and we are warning consumers to look out for them when shopping online.' Online discount retailer ScootPrice, based in Singapore, was also forced to be clearer about its 'Premium' membership after several customers were signed up without being fully aware of the fees payable for this service. Australian Competition and Consumer Commission were inundated with complaints from Fabletics shoppers The US exercise clothing business Fabletics has vowed to make membership fees clearer on its website The watchdog raised concerns after customers claimed they were unaware of the monthly subscription fees The ACCC has warned shoppers not to fall into 'subscription traps' - which involves consumers making a purchase as consent to signing up to an ongoing subscription without their knowledge. Generally, this involves consumers being enticed into the membership option with a discounted price offer for an initial purchase of goods or services. The ACCC and consumer regulators around the world consider subscription traps to be an emerging issue. Complaints show that consumers making purchases online have been automatically signed up to membership programs believing they were free to join. She took a photo of the girl on her phone and when she showed it to her art teacher she suggested she use it as inspiration for a painting Cliffannie, who graduated from high school today, spotted the subject of the painting, a young girl, on a missionary trip to Uganda The teenager from Brooklyn, New York, was selected from over 1,000 submissions to be in an exhibition dedicated to the city's young people Cliffannie Forrester, 18, was overjoyed after her painting, Uganda, was selected to feature in an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art An 18-year-old girl has achieved her 'life goal' before even graduating from high school after her painting went on display at one of the world's most prestigious art galleries. Cliffannie Forrester, from Brooklyn, New York, was selected from more than 1,000 submissions to have her Uganda painting displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art as part of an annual exhibition, P.S. Art 2016: Celebrating the Creative Spirit of New York City Kids. Such was her joy that she tweeted: 'Who just completed their life goal at age 18? Me. As of 6/14/16 my piece is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.' Euphoric: High school student Cliffanie Forrester, 18, pictured with her painting Uganda, was overjoyed after her work was selected to go on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York Dream: Cliffanie, from Brooklyn, New York, wrote on Twitter that it was her 'life goal' to have her work hung at the prestigious art gallery, pictured Creative: Cliffannie, pictured in front of her painting projected in Times Square, New York, wants to pursue a career as an artist Her tweet has been liked more than 87,000 times and Cliffanie has been inundated with messages of congratulations and praise. Cliffannie, who graduated from high school today, created the painting after a missionary trip to Uganda when she spotted a little girl who she said 'was just standing around, admiring everything'. She took a rushed photo of the girl on her phone which she showed to her art teacher Maria Jimenez when she got home to New York who suggested she use it as inspiration for a painting, she told Elle.com. Cliffannie said the subject of the painting made her feel 'like I was at ease, or at home' when she saw her. She said she likes to 'capture an emotion' through her art finds creating artwork an 'escape'. She added: 'Whenever I feel down, I try to draw, to ease my mind.' Cliffannie hopes to pursue a career as an artist when she has finished studying and plans to go to college to study a degree in fine art later this year. Busy: Cliffannie, pictured left and right, graduated from high school today Work in progress: Cliffannie said she 'struggled a lot' with the painting that took her one month to complete Ambition: Cliffannie, pictured in front of her painting at the Met, said now she wants to get a second work into the gallery While she may have already achieved her 'ultimate goal', she is not giving up now. 'People think I'm stopping here bc I achieved my ultimate goal... Lol, I'm getting another piece in the MET one day & nothing will stop me,' she wrote on Twitter. Cliffanie, who also saw her work projected in Times Square, said it is a 'big deal' to be in the same museum as greats such as Degas and Van Gough. Her painting is one of 89 works that were chosen to be featured in The Met exhibition dedicated to the city's students, which is in its ninth year. Sandra Jackson-Dumont, of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, praised Cliffanie's work. 'It's well painted, the composition is wonderful, the foreground, middle ground, background, all of those things associated with this object are exceptional,' she told ABC7. Cliffanie said she 'struggled a lot' with the painting, which took her a month to complete, She painted the background multiple times with different weathers and scenes. An estimated 80 per cent of the 700,000 women who fall pregnant in England and Wales each year - including the Duchess of Cambridge during both her pregnancies - get morning sickness, typically occurring in the first three months Women with morning sickness are to be routinely prescribed drugs by GPs rather than being dismissed and left to suffer in silence. Many women struggle through pregnancy with debilitating nausea and vomiting as treatments are not widely prescribed to ease the condition, with doctors often reluctant as they can cost the NHS up to 400 a month. But in major new guidelines announced today, GPs are to be urged to help women even with mild morning sickness that prevents them getting on with their daily routines. They have been drawn up following concerns by charities that hundreds of thousands of women are suffering and, at worst, every year hundreds abort their babies as their sickness is so severe. An estimated 80 per cent of the 700,000 women who fall pregnant in England and Wales each year get morning sickness, typically occurring in the first three months. Of these, about one in 50 (2 per cent) have a severe form, hyperemesis gravidarum (HG). This affected the Duchess of Cambridge during both her pregnancies and even saw her hospitalised while pregnant with Prince George in 2012. Todays guidelines by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) are the first of their kind to specifically address morning sickness and urge doctors to routinely prescribe pills. Experts say it is currently pot luck as to whether women are offered treatment and many are told to just not think about it by GPs and midwives. But even offering drugs to only those with the most severe symptoms for three months would cost the NHS tens of millions of pounds each year. Dr Manjeet Shehmar, a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at Birmingham Womens Hospital and lead author of the guidelines, said: Its pot luck as to the kind of care you receive. There is a lack of understanding and an element of dismissing the symptoms as just a bit of morning sickness. There are many women who suffer in silence. It is a significant number. These guidelines will make a huge difference to the way a lot of women are treated. The guidance tells doctors to prescribe anti-sickness pills including doxylamine which costs 400 a month. It also recommends eating raw ginger, or ginger biscuits a natural remedy which eases symptoms. Caitlin Dean, 33, who set up the charity Pregnancy Sickness Support after suffering from HG, said: These guidelines put to rest the notion you just need to not think about it or think positively. Increasingly, research shows that without effective treatment the condition can have life-long effects for mum and baby, which is why the early, effective treatment advocated in these guidelines is so vital. Professor Alan Cameron, vice-president of RCOG, said the condition affected many women at a crucial time in their lives. He added: This will ensure they receive the best possible care and support. Experts say it is currently pot luck as to whether women are offered treatment and many are told to just not think about it by GPs and midwives - The UK must do more to prevent deaths among pregnant women and new mothers, leading doctors have warned. The nation faces a challenge in reducing deaths from pre-existing conditions such as heart defects that are not directly related to pregnancy, RCOG experts said. Family doctors are seeing 150,000 more patients a day than seven years ago, a leading GP has warned. Surgeries are struggling to cope with the combined pressures of the increased demand blamed on an ageing population, migration and a recruitment crisis of family doctors. It has led to calls for patients being able to bypass GPs and cut out the 'middle man' to get help from physiotherapists and for mental health problems such as stress. Dr Chaand Nagpaul, chairman of the British Medical Association's (BMA) GP committee, said more must be done free up GP appointments for other patients. GPs are seeing an additional 150,000 patients a day than seven years ago, the chairman of the BMA's GP committee, Dr Chaand Nagpaul, says. However, the numbers of GPs are rising fast enough The London GP said some areas offer direct access to services but more must be done to roll out the service around the country. 'Patients have direct access to extended scope practitioners, so patients who have got back pain, musculoskeletal problems, will go to a physiotherapist directly,' he said. 'But it is staggering how many patients we see only to get the referral to the physio, that happens commonly. 'There are areas that have got direct access to minor mental health services so instead of a patient coming to the GP to say they have work-related stress or are going through a difficult time there is access directly.' It follows the BMAs call to increase the number of days people can self-certify sick leave from one week to two, without needing a doctor's note. They believe employees can be trusted to declare themselves as unfit for work and said writing out the letters takes too much time. But campaigners warned that the system would become a skivers charter with patients signing themselves off to have a two week holiday or if they felt mildly unwell. Dr Nagpaul said most patients would prefer to self-refer as it would mean 'cutting out the middle man'. 'They don't have to wait two weeks to see their GP and then be referred,' he said. While the policy was outlined in NHS England's five-year plan for GPs, doctors believe more must be done to make the plans a reality. Patients should be able to refer themselves for physiotherapy which would cut out the 'middle'man' says Dr Nagpaul. This would free up appointments for others Dr Nagpaul said there are 150,000 more people walking through the doors of GP surgeries every day compared to seven years ago. But GP numbers have not risen in order to meet demand. 'There is a real need for the Government to acknowledge there is a mismatch between escalating demand and capacity so there needs to be an honest discussion how to ensure quality and safety within that system. 'As it is now it is not sustainable.' He said other solutions to the problem include patients seeing pharmacists for mild ailments. 'This is about empowering patients, why would anyone want to sit in a GP surgery for an hour when their care could be more effectively managed in a different way?' Previous work has concluded that around a quarter of GP appointments are potentially avoidable, he added. He also warned that GPs are struggling with a lot of administration work for hospitals. 'We are actually spending a significant amount of our time and appointments not seeing people who are ill but actually becoming administrators.' Professor Karen Middleton, chief executive of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, agreed the proposal would : Our modelling shows that providing this direct access in practices would free up GPs to spend an extra five minutes with their patients, as well as saving the average practice 1,000 a week. 'Musculoskeletal patients can account for up to 30 per cent of caseloads so it's no surprise that GPs are increasingly bringing in physios to work alongside them as a first point of contact. A father-of-two's life was turned upside down after he mysteriously lost the ability to walk over four months. Before his sudden loss of movement from the waist down, Rich Hibbert, a university administrator from Leeds, was extremely fit and active. The 38-year-old frequently enjoyed mountain biking in his spare time and spent weekends out and about with his family. But one morning two years ago he woke up with agonising pain in his stomach, having done some light exercises in his living room the day before. Four months later his condition had deteriorated so badly that he could not physically move. Despite being able to feel things, doctors are confused as to what sparked his paralysis, with no-one sure if he will ever be able to stand up again. Rich Hibbert, 38, woke one morning with pain in his stomach after exercising the day before - four months later he found himself unable to walk. Two years on, he is still in a wheelchair (pictured with son Luca) The father-of-two, with Isabelle, 10, (left) and Luca, two, said: 'I used to be very active, doing mountain biking and off-road biking through forests with friends' Mr Hibbert, father of Isabelle, 10 and Luca, two, said: 'It was frightening because we didn't know why it was happening, and it was so frustrating having my body not functioning the way it should. 'I used to be very active, doing mountain biking and off-road biking through forests with friends. 'About five years ago I even did a skydive, and I've done a lot of travelling. I never had any problems with mobility. Mr Hibbert's partner and full-time carer Kat Jordan, 32, told how they were doing exercises in the living room in March 2014 - including stretches and planks - because she wanted to get fit. The next day, Mr Hibbert phoned home from work to say he had really bad stomach pains down his right-hand side. Within hours, he returned home. She rushed him to the doctors, worried it might be his appendix. There, he was given antibiotics and advised to go straight to hospital if the pain worsened. She said: 'Over the next couple of days, Rich was in absolute agony, he was sweating and curling up.' Three days later, Mr Hibbert was taken to St James's University Hospital in Leeds. He underwent blood tests and was kept in overnight for an emergency laparoscopy - a surgical procedure to view the organs in the When medics could not spot anything wrong with his appendix or gall bladder, he was discharged. However his condition continued to deteriorate, forcing him to quit work with his weight having plummeted. Still, the couple had no answers as to what was happening to his body. Miss Jordan said: 'He looked so pale and was losing weight between April and August he lost five stone. 'Everything he ate would cause him agony, I thought he was dying. He was such a family man but couldn't do anything with his children. 'Despite being on morphine, he could feel the pain through it, it was a massive shock.' Mr Hibbert has now been diagnosed with Functional Neurological Disorder (FND), a term given to symptoms in the body which appear to be caused by problems in the nervous system, but are not caused by a physical neurological disease Mr Hibbert was a keen mountain biker before his sudden paralysis, but now his family have had to move to a specially adapted home as he is completely dependent on his wheelchair. Pictured before his paralysis with daughter Isabelle, 10 (left) and when he used to mountain bike (right) In the five months between April and August, he was in and out of St James's University Hospital with stomach pain. There, he had a string of tests including X-rays, CT and MRI scans. Yet Miss Jordan said the only abnormality they found was that his terminal ileum - the end of the small intestine which intersects with the large one - was inflamed. By August, his condition had become so bad he could only walk around the house with a stick. He lost his ability to walk shortly after. Suspecting it may be a neurological issue, medics referred him to the neurology department at the Leeds General Infirmary in February 2015. There he had a lumbar puncture and an electromyography (EMG), a technique for evaluating the electric activity produced by skeletal muscles. In June, he was diagnosed with Functional Neurological Disorder (FND), a term given to symptoms in the body which appear to be caused by problems in the nervous system, but are not caused by a physical neurological disease. Following four months of rehabilitation at Leeds General Infirmary, he was also told he had intervertebral disc disease, which was spotted from an MRI. Mr Hibbert's partner and full-time carer Kat Jordan, 32 rushed him to the doctors after he came home early from work complaining of stomach pains, worried it may be linked to his appendix Since returning home he has attempted to do physiotherapy independently despite suffering from regular tremors and twitches (pictured with daughter Isabelle) Since returning home, he has been trying to do physiotherapy independently despite suffering from regular tremors and twitches. But the family have had to move into a specially adapted home to allow for the wheelchair on which he is now dependent. He is on medication to help with the pain and is waiting to see a spinal specialist, but nobody knows what the future of his condition holds. Miss Jordan also said the move had strained their lives and was 'socially isolating', with Isabelle having lost friends due to moving schools. The family have set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for an electrical wheelchair costing 5000. Kelsea Little, spokesperson for GoFundMe.com commented: 'We really hope the community get behind Rich to help him raise the money for a suitable wheelchair. We wish the family all the best with their continued fundraising.' Scientists take samples from the man's mouth and blood test from woman test for women will identify father and sex of baby after just 2 months The DNA lab made famous by the Jeremy Kyle Show is becoming the first to offer a paternity blood test before the baby is born. For years AlphaBiolabs, based in Warrington, Cheshire, has been responsible for all the revealing DNA tests that nail cheating partners on the ITV1 daytime show. Now, a new test for women will identify the father and sex of the baby just two months after conception, it is claimed. Scientists will determine whether a woman's partner is the real father of her unborn baby by using swab samples taken from the man's mouth and a simple blood test from the woman. The new non-invasive prenatal DNA tests, offered by the group which does tests for the Jeremy Kyle show (pictured), will identify the father and sex of the baby just two months after conception. Anyone wanting to take a test could either have a technician go to their home to take the samples or they could visit a walk-in centre. The tests only work on would-be mothers who are at least eight weeks pregnant, as that is when the child's foetal DNA begins to be present in the mother's blood stream. The testing method is currently available in some US labs for up to $900 and it is not well regulated. But AlphaBiolabs, which processes Jeremy Kyle's test results for his contestants, is hoping to offer the procedure in just a few months. The prenatal test is currently priced at 1,170 but within months it is expected to be as cheap as 300 as they get their UK lab up and running with the new 'overnight service' processes. The largest independent DNA testing laboratory in Europe, it has walk-in centres across the country, including in London, Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool. The clinics provide next-day results and their findings which are accepted by the Ministry of Justice, family law courts, The Child Support Agency and of course the Jeremy Kyle show. While some women can have paternity tests in the UK before they give birth, it involves a needle being inserted into the womb and carries a two per cent risk of miscarriage. AlphaBiolabs hopes the new tests could help couples plan arrangements in advance, offer peace of mind and potentially, prevent a man from becoming too attached if the baby is not his. Similar tests that separate the foetal DNA from their mother's DNA can also be used to tests for genetic diseases such as Down's Syndrome. The test could also determine gender, it is claimed. However the scientists behind the tests admit the accuracy rate is only in the mid-nineties. Because of this, AlphaNiolabs recommends couples take a second test after birth. However, it does hope to develop a test with 100 per cent accuracy, which would mean it could one day be used by the Jeremy Kyle show. Today, managing director David Thomas said the new test will 'revolutionise the industry'. Now, a new paternity test for women who are just eight weeks pregnant is due to be offered in months for just a few hundred pounds Today, managing director David Thomas said : 'The new test will revolutionise the industry. Women unsure of the father can become very anxious during pregnancy and worry about the child bonding with the wrong dad' He claimed: 'This is state-of-the-art test we have been desperate for, but have had to wait for the science. 'A few labs in the US offer a similar service but unless you fly over there for the test, you are sending you sample abroad - which opens up all risks of contaminating it. 'Nearly all bar one of the US labs, the one we have worked with before, are not accredited and are simply not accurate enough. 'We have heard of people using these labs for prenatal paternity tests and making huge momentous life decisions - only to find the data was wrong.' He added: 'People are crying out for this test and finally we have the science and the equipment to offer it. He went on to say that women unsure of their baby's father can become very anxious during the pregnancy. 'They worry about the child bonding with the wrong parent. The test could help stop this happening before the child is born.' Mr Thomas admits its accuracy is not currently high enough for the Jeremy Kyle Show. 'We would hate to think about someone having the test and getting the wrong answer, without having a second test afterwards. 'We would want to make the test 100 per cent accurate and then maybe, one day, it could be used on the show.' Scientists will determine whether a woman's partner is the real father of her unborn baby by using swab samples taken from the man's mouth and a simple blood test from the woman. AlphaBiolabs hopes the new tests could help couples plan arrangements in advance, offer peace of mind and potentially, prevent a man from becoming too attached if the baby is not his In March, it was revealed AlphaBiolabs had seen profits surge after selling its regular 4.99 paternity home testing kits on the high street for the first time. They started selling the DIY kits through discount retail chain Home Bargains and have seen 'fantastic sales figures'. Three thousand tests were snapped up in 18 months, generating in excess of 500,000 extra profit for the firm, Each pack costs 4.99 and there is a further 99 charge to process the results of the test - done through a simple swab. The tests were previously only available to purchase online, but are now available at 290 Home Bargains stores around the country. 'The results we provide can be life-changing and we appreciate it can be a sensitive and worrying time,' Mr Thomas added of their speedy service. In April they celebrated winning a Queen's Award for Enterprise in Innovation for its quick and DNA walk-in testing centres across the UK. Speaking after receiving the Queen's award, Mr Thomas added: 'It was a great surprise. 'I think when you just put your head down and you're beavering away you don't expect to get external recognition. 'What makes us difference from other labs is that we put the customer first. 'When people order online they expect products the next day, people expect that next day service. Conventional wisdom dictates that it takes five to seven attempts to quit smoking. But, those estimates may be very low, experts have now warned. Based on data for more than 1,200 adult smokers in Canada, the real average number of quit attempts before succeeding may be closer to 30, a new research suggests. Lead author, Dr Michael Chaiton of the school of public health at the University of Toronto, said: 'For so long we've been talking about five to seven attempts to quit. 'For us (the numbers) were a lot higher.' A new study has revealed it takes the average smoker 30 attempts before they successfully quit their habit The lower estimate comes from a few past studies that were based on the lifetime recollections of people who successfully quit, but they didn't include attempts by people who had not yet succeeded, Dr Chaiton and colleagues note in the journal BMJ Open. For their study, the researchers analyzed data from 1,277 people in the Ontario Tobacco Survey who were followed for up to three years. When the study began in 2005, participants reported how many times they recalled ever making a serious attempt to quit smoking, and at each six-month follow-up they reported how many serious quit attempts they had made over the past six months. A quit attempt was deemed a success when a participant went at least one year without a cigarette. This doesn't mean you hit a magic number and then you can quit. There are many people who are able to and do quit on their first attempt or in the first few Dr Michael Chaiton of the University of Toronto The researchers used these responses and four different statistical models to estimate how many times the average smoker attempts to quit before succeeding. The most unbiased model suggested an average of 30 quit attempts per smoker. That's much higher than people tended to report in the previous studies when asked about all their quit attempts since starting smoking, the researchers write. 'People are very bad at remembering over their whole lifetimes,' Dr Chaiton said. 'The second problem is we were only asking people who have been successful at quitting.' The new study may be a better representation of what most smokers go through over time, but it does only describe their situation rather than predict what will happen to an individual smoker who tries to quit, he cautioned. 'This doesn't mean you hit a magic number and then you can quit,' Dr Chaiton said. 'There are many people who are able to and do quit on their first attempt or in the first few. 'There are people who are good at many things, some are good at quitting smoking,' he added. Quitting smoking is often a long-term process with many attempts, he said. A range of smoking cessation medications, policies like smoke-free spaces and plain-pack warnings can all help some smokers quit, experts said 'When we talk about trying to reduce the number of smokers, if we try and do that by focusing on one quit attempt at a time we're not going to be very successful,' Dr Chaiton said. A range of smoking cessation medications, policies like smoke-free spaces and plain-pack warnings can all help some smokers quit, he said. Dr John Hughes of the University of Vermont School of Medicine in Burlington, who did not take part in the study, said: 'The main impact of this article is that clinicians should reassure smokers that, just because they have failed 10 times, does not mean they will never quit. 'However, the problem with taking, say, 20 times to quit, is that this may take 10 years and it's not only important to quit but it's important to quit while you are younger. The NHS drive to diagnose dementia is pointless because little can be done to help patients and their families, GPs have warned. They say ministers and officials are obsessed with hitting targets on detection rates yet are failing to provide matching support and care for those affected. The Government has repeatedly pledged to make Britain a world leader in dementia diagnosis and care. In 2014, GPs were offered 55 bonuses under an NHS scheme for every new case picked up. But representatives of the British Medical Association warned family doctors were simply being told to to tick boxes without offering proper support for anxious patients and families. In 2014, GPs were offered 55 bonuses under an NHS scheme for every new case picked up (file image) They voted to support a controversial policy stating the Governments dementia drive is pointless and only serves to increase distress for patients and families. Campaigners described the move as a disappointing step backwards and stressed GPs should never be discouraged from detecting the devastating illness. An estimated 850,000 adults in Britain have dementia although only about half have received a formal diagnosis. Dr Richard Vautrey, deputy chair of the BMAs GPs committee, and a GP in Leeds said: I think the key concern that GPs have is that theres been a focus on counting numbers and hitting targets, rather than what we see is the real gap in service, which is providing services to patients. This is both in terms of diagnosis, investigation but then crucially support - not only for patients with dementia but also of their carers as well. GPs have been really frustrated that politicians appear to have been doing something, by getting GPs to tick boxes, and missing the real point which is what patients are wanting, which is fundamental support. The BMA stressed GPs should never be discouraged from diagnosing dementia but it made little sense to improve detection rates without offering accompanying help for patients. CALL FOR AUTOMATIC DONORS Organ donation after death should be automatic unless people have opted out, according to doctors leaders. After passing a key vote yesterday, the British Medical Association will now lobby the Government to enforce a system of presumed consent in England. This means patients would provisionally be on the donor register unless they have opted out online or through a helpline. If a patient died without having opted out, or opted in as under the existing law then family members would be consulted on their wishes. In December, Wales became the first UK country to adopt the policy and Scotland and Northern Ireland are expected to follow within the next two years. The outcome of the BMAs vote at its annual conference in Belfast will pile the pressure on ministers to change the law to ensure England is not left behind. Advertisement Yet Jeremy Hughes, Chief Executive at Alzheimers Society, said even approving the controversial motion was a disappointing step backwards. There is still a desperate lack of support for people with dementia and this will only serve to make it worse by masking the need. To deny someone a diagnosis on this basis also doesnt take away the fact they are experiencing debilitating symptoms just without a name for them. Dr Alex Freeman, a GP from Southampton and representative from the BMAs South Central branch said: Dementia is a terminal disease and people die of it. Families struggle, they care, they ask for help, theyre told you havent got a diagnosis so we cant do anything with you and in any case theres no money. Then theres a crisis and they end up in hospital Why do we put families through this and why do we think that early diagnosis and the promise of this in your future is a good thing? Dr Gary Wannan, chair of the BMAs community care committee, and a consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist in Kensington, Central London said: Theres no point in giving someone a label, but then not being able to provide support. But Professor Alistair Burns, NHS Englands National Clinical Director for Dementia, said: Awareness of dementia is at its highest and we believe that timely diagnosis of dementia allows people to access the emotional, practical and financial support that brings. She has a hugely successful plus-sized clothing empire and she champions curvy women - and defiant Gemma Collins reveals she's not bowing down to pressure to lose weight. The stunning blonde, 35, attended a panel discussion hosted by Katie Hopkins for MailOnline at Cannes Lions on Wednesday where she talked about being body confident. 'They all want to make you thinner when you go on reality television,' she said. Scroll down for video Sticking to her guns: Curvy Gemma Collins reveals she's not bowing down to pressure to lose weight - during a panel discussion with Katie Hopkins for MailOnline at Cannes Lions on Wednesday 'Everyone wants me to lose 10stone and get a gastric band but I never said I was a model. I'm just a real girl doing her thing and I'm proud that I am a natural girl.' Katie quizzed the former TOWIE star on that famous designer vagina that Gemma had on the show. She had the 2000 procedure last year but she said she didn't actually need to get it done. 'I'm just a real girl doing her thing and I'm proud that I am a natural girl': The 35-year-old businesswoman was part of a star-studded panel, and was fierce in the defence of body confidence Friends in high places: She caught up with fellow panellist and former CBB co-star Jonathan Cheban who was also at the event 'It didn't need cutting or trimming,' she told the wide-eyed panel. 'It's just one of those things you do for television. They did something with a UV light, that's all.' Gemma and Katie were joined by The Voice UK winner Kevin Simm, reality star Charlotte Crosby, internet sensation The Fat Jew, Kim Kardashian's best friend Jonathan Cheban and mixologist JJ Goodman. A confident bunch: The reality star and Jonathan were joined by model and Instagram star Joshua 'The Fat Jew' Ostrovsky (left) for a discussion on body confidence 'They all want to make you thinner when you go on reality television': In typically sassy fashion, Gemma was her usual bubbly self and spoke at length about the attitude towards weight she'd encountered in her career Sartorial sass: The ex-girlfriend of James Argent looked incredible in a Pucci-inspired silk dress which she teamed with a pair of vertiginous red strappy high heels The ex-girlfriend of James Argent looked incredible in a Pucci-inspired silk dress which she teamed with a pair of vertiginous red strappy high heels. Her hair was blow-dried to perfection and she sported the perfect matching manicure and pedicure in a nude shade. Keen to dissolve the notion that reality stars can be famous for doing nothing, Gemma said that is certainly NOT the case for her. Friends? Katie gave gemma a warm embrace as she arrived on the yacht before the Let's Get Real roundtable discussion Another familiar face: Charlotte Crosby was also part of the panel discussion, and looked to be in high spirits as the guests enjoyed all the yacht had to offer 'A reality show can give you a platform and it's down to you to make something out of it,' she said. 'I am up at 4am reading emails and I work with a team of 30 people. But it doesn't happen without me driving it. 'I was offered deals but I was determined to do it on my own. My fashion line has been going for four and a half years and it's still going but it is stressful. 'If I wasn't famous, I would be selling clothes on a market. I love it.' Let the party begin: Katie's guests appeared to be in high spirits (L-R) JJ Goodman, Charlotte, The Fat Jew, Gemma, Jonathan and Kevin Simm Hot topic: Katie chats to Gemma and Jonathan during the discusison Drawing a crowd: A host of industry executives and journalists attended the panel discussion on the MailOnline yacht Gwyneth Paltrow has explained how she achieved the impossible - keeping love in a relationship where there's no longer romance. The Oscar-winning actress spoke candidly about her close bond with ex-husband Chris Martin on Wednesday, as part of a Cannes Lions discussion with HardTalk's Stephen Sakur. 'My children know that we're in a loving family,' she said. 'And I adore their father even though we're not in a romantic relationship.' Scroll down for video Keeping the love alive: Gwyneth Paltrow discussed how she has built a 'loving' family with ex-husband Chris Martin on Wednesday, as she spoke to HardTalk's Stephen Sakur at Cannes Lions Actress Gwyneth discussed the personal sacrifices she'd made for the 'commitment' she's made to protecting their children, Apple, 12, and Moses, 10, during the divorce, which was filed in April 2015. She continued: 'I'm very proud of us for the way that - as anyone who has been divorced knows - we have had to put aside an awful lot to stay a family for the sake of the children. Sometimes it's quite tough on a personal level.' The couple famously announced their separation - or conscious uncoupling - in March 2014 after 10 years and she now admits that putting it on Gwyneth's website Goop was an act of damage control. 'I felt that it was a way of controlling scrutiny. It was such a difficult time in our lives and I think we thought that if we put it on our own platform, it was a way of controlling it.' The way they were: Gwyneth and Chris Martin announced their split in March 2014, after 10 years of marriage Breaking news: The Oscar-winnning screen star admitted that announcing the end of her marriage on her website Goop was an act of damage control Giddy: She was delighted to be chatting about her business Pretty in pink: Gwyneth packed out the Palais des Festivals with guests waiting to hear her talk We are family: Gwyneth and Chris communicate often as they share two children - Apple, 12, and Moses, 10 Giving brands life: The blonde has turned her attention from acting to online business, Goop New love: In August 2014, the star embarked on a romantic relationship with Glee co-creator Brad Falchuk Gwyneth explained that the memorable term, uncoupling, was a philosophy that she and Chris were following at the time, only they didn't anticipate the how much conversation it would spark. It's not the first time that Gwyneth has found herself at the centre of controversy of choices made on Goop. Gwyneth and Stephen discussed the time that the company advertised a $15k gold dildo, though the fun-loving actress dismissed the decision as all in the name of fun. 'We definitely have a little laugh. We look for products that have that sort of reaction.' Making her arrival: Gwyneth was wearing pink during the candid discussion but changed into a chic nautical outfit for her arrival in Cannes Edgy chat: During the discussion, Gwyneth spoke about the time her company advertised a $15k gold dildo Spud life: Clean-living Gwyneth admitted that 'French fries are [her] life' during the interview She went on to explain: 'The values of the brand are that we believe in family, good food, wellness and non toxic beauty. Yes, it might be slightly more expensive, but really it's about executing on the value of the brand. It's not some lofty lifestyle.' The businesswoman unleashed her fun side yet more onstage when she confirmed to Stephen that despite popular belief, she does enjoying kicking back with a burger sometimes. 'I've never had a bad experience with a french fry,' she said, adding: 'French fries are my life.' 'I don't eat that way people think I eat; just seaweed and a bit of air. I [kick back with a burger] all the time. I'm all about balance. i love food, I love to eat and I love to cook.' Also in Cannes: Chris as also been spotted on the French Riviera this week for the Cannes Lions festival Stop... selfie time! He was seen posing for a selfie with Ryan Seacrest at an iHeartmedia and Medialink dinner party, held at Cap d'Antibes' luxury Hotel du Cap-Eden-Rock on Tuesday Bare his soles: A barefooted Chris posed with (l-r) Tom Poleman, John Sykes, iHeartMedia Chairman and CEO Bob Pittman, Ryan Seacrest and a guest ahead of providing the night's entertainment with his band Coldplay He's got 264,000 followers on Instagram and is well-known for his erect ponytail. But internet sensation The Fat Jew says his father has no idea how on earth he can make a living out of social media. Talking to Katie Hopkins at a panel discussion for DailyMail.com at Cannes Lions on Wednesday, The Fat Jew, 34, said his father believes he must be doing something else with his time. Scroll down for video A little behind the times: The Fat Jew spoke to Katie Hopkins for DailyMail.com at Cannes Lions on Wednesday and revealed that his father can't work out how he makes money from social media 'My dad calls me an adult entertainer,' he told Katie. 'No one wants to see that.' he said playfully. 'My father thinks I have a dildo on my head with my hairstyle - he doesn't understand how this can be a thing.' Also on the panel was former Geordie Shore star Charlotte Crosby, The Voice UK winner Kevin Simm, Kim Kardashian's BFF Jonathan Cheban, former TOWIE star Gemma Collins and mixologist JJ Goodman. Plenty to talk about: Joining The Fat Jew on the panel was (L-R) JJ Goodman, Charlotte Crosby, Katie Hopkins, Gemma Collins, Jonathan Cheban and Kevin Simm Keeping everyone in check: The panel was chaired by the MailOnline's columnist Katie Despite the array of well-known faces on the panel, The Fat Jew, real name Josgh Ostrovsky, made sure he stood out from the rest. He wore a bright acid-dyed T-shirt which had Gucci emblazoned on the front. The funny man also wore some black and white shorts which had Kim Kardashian's crying face emblazoned on them throughout. 'Does Kim cry a lot?' Katie asked fellow panellist Jonathan Cheban. Refreshing: The Fat Jew was sipping his White Girl Rose through a straw as he joined Charlotte and Katie Nice shorts! The internet sensation showed off his fabulous shorts, decorated in photos of a crying Kim Kardashian 'No, not really,' he said. 'But she was crying that time because she lost an earring.' The Fat Jew handed out full bottles of his White Girl Rose to the panel, shunning glasses for simple straws. When asked why he came up with the idea, he said: 'Rose takes itself too seriously so I thought let's put a straw in it. 'It's so stupid when people talk about those leathery notes and oaky hints.' 'My father thinks I have a dildo on my head with my hairstyle': The Fat Jew admitted his parents were baffled by his fashion sense He's been in the business for fifty years, so knows a thing or two about the world of celebrity. And Iggy Pop has some firm opinions on today's era of celeb, telling the 2016 Cannes Lions festival on Wednesday that he's a big fan of the likes of Kim Kardashian and their power in media. The iconic musician, 69, also spoken candidly about his infamous hell-raising years, admitting it must have been a nightmare for his parents to watch him on his rollercoaster of a life. Scroll down for video Having his say: Iggy Pop has some firm opinions on today's era of celeb, telling the 2016 Cannes Lions festival on Wednesday that he's a big fan of the likes of Kim Kardashian and their power in media Iggy Pop - real name James Newell Osterberg, Jr. -was interviewed on stage by advertising agency Grey chairman Nils Leonard. Both went shirtless for some of the chat after a campaign was started to raise money for the charity Ehlers-Danlos Support UK if Leonard interviewed the star topless. While enjoying the Cannes sunshine shirtless, Iggy revealed his thoughts on the changing world of showbusiness, and when asked about the new crowd of celebrity and social media 'heroes', the star announced he is fan of Kim Kardashian. Stripping off: Iggy Pop was interviewed on stage the Cannes Lions advertising festival by advertising agency Grey chairman Nils Leonard. Both went shirtless after a campaign was started to raise money for charity 'She has been good for Armenia,' he said. 'The unintended side effect of Kim's career is that there are probably some people who think they have more possibilities of life.' 'Look, she has got a big old Armenian butt, little Armenian legs, she's Armenian, a nice looking Armenian beauty.I like beautiful things. There are so many different kinds of beautiful people, beautiful imagery, beautiful things to appreciate in the world,' he added. The musician reflected on his own shifting career, admitting he had one major regret about his early years in the spotlight with his bands, the Iguanas, which later became The Stooges - not spending enough time with his parents. He's a fan: Iggy revealed his thoughts on the changing world of showbusiness, using US reality star Kim Kardashian as an example of the new crowd of celebrity 'heroes' 'It must have been terribly hard being my parents for a long time ... I had wonderful parents too, who did everything they could for me. I think I wasn't as available to those two people I would have liked to have been later. I wasn't a truant but not as available and I think that's a shame,' Iggy said. 'I lived like a wild creature from the moment I was released from high school at 18 until I was 25, there was nothing I wouldnt do. Between 25 and 35 I realised youve got to pull back at some points.' 'Dont lose whats making you so nuts, but put it in the art, dont take it home. I would have relapses but by 35 I had become relatively sensible.' Role model: 'She has been good for our media,' he said of Kim. 'The unintended side effect of Kim's career is that there are probably some people who think they have more possibilities of life' Candid chat: The musician reflected on his own shifting career, admitting he had one major regret about his early years in the spotlight - not spending enough time with his parents Iggy went through serious substance abuse issues in his early years, and says he is now more content with his life and varied career than ever. 'A lot of things I can't do now I could do when I was 25, but I think because I was basically kind of a loony, what's happened with me is that the less I can do, the better off I am,' he explained. 'I can't do this and I can't do that but I can do a music show [Iggy presents a weekly show on BBC 6 Music] and I enjoy that and I can do an advert or a part in a film or a radio show and I really enjoy those things.' Time for a photo! Iggy happily posed for snaps at the end of the chat as the two stripped off for charity Loving life: Iggy went through serious substance abuse issues in his early years, and says he is now more content with his life and varied career than ever Asked about his biggest fears the star revealed he is terrified of having surgery, explaining he had laser eye surgery in Colombia before the procedure was legal in the US after his then-Colombian girlfriend told him he looked 'ugly' with glasses. He added he's done with cosmetic enhancements though. 'I would not let anybody get inside me with a knife. I don't feel like it. That's just a personal [thing], in which case I would have to buy a funeral yacht, sail off to Cannes.' 'Party myself to death rather than if I needed an operation,' he quipped. 'Those are the things I think about when things aren't going so well.' He had a wardrobe mishap when his luggage went missing on the journey to Cannes. But Jonathan Cheban was still looking impeccably stylish for Wednesday night's Dailymail.com's Seriously Popular yacht party at the 2016 Cannes Lions festival. Kim Kardashian's best pal arrived with his gorgeous girlfriend Anat Popovsky for a night of partying. Scroll down for video Stylish couple: Jonathan Cheban arrived with his gorgeous girlfriend Anat Popovsky for Wednesday night's Dailymail.com's Seriously Popular yacht party at the 2016 Cannes Lions festival Anat looked stunning in a statement dress, from fashion brand Projecteurs, made out of colorful ribbons of fabric. Jonathan's stylish girl added a pair of strappy black heels, and carried a chic pale pink bag for the glam event. Her dark locks were slicked back into a sleek ponytail while subtle makeup to highlight her pretty features finished off Anat's party look. Turning heads: Anat looked stunning in a statement dress made out of colorful ribbons of fabric Jonathan was looking equally stylish in an on-trend bomber jacket teamed with skinny black jeans. The Celebrity Big Brother revealed his horror earlier this week when he arrived in Cannes without his luggage. Arriving at the MailOnline's bash on Tuesday evening, he explained: 'I was planning to wear my new Yeezys that no-one else in the world has except me, but they are in the suitcase. Reunited: The Celebrity Big Brother star revealed his horror earlier this week when he arrived in Cannes without his luggage Making friends! Jonathan posed for snaps with US businesswoman Martha Stewart 'Thank God I have all of my jewellery and my bling. I always have these in my hand luggage, I'm not putting these in my suitcase.' Kanye's Yeezy trainers, a highly sought after collaboration with sportswear giant Adidas have been worn by a host of celebrities. Even his daughter North, three has her own pair of the branded shoes. It's been a busy week for Jonathan in Cannes, who earlier on Wednesday sat on a panel with his CBB housemate and close friend Gemma Collins, Katie Hopkins, Charlotte Crosby, The Voice UK winner Kevin Simm, internet sensation The Fat Jew, and mixologist JJ Goodman for a discussion on reality TV. Party people: Martha got a kiss from Jonathan as they arrived on board Rajiv Rai, a 24-year-old intern, injured his right leg - but doctors somehow operated on the left limb Numerous doctors and five paramedical staff at Fortis Hospital, Shalimar Bagh in North Delhi, have been sacked after the team wrongly operated on 24-year-old Ravi Rais left leg instead of his injured right one. The incident took place late on Tuesday, after which the family reported the matter to the police. The police registered an FIR against the doctors under IPC Sections 346, 338 and 34, which deal with wrongful confinement, causing grievous hurt, and endangering the lives or personal safety of others. The family has approached us and we are registering an FIR against the doctors, said Vijay Singh, DCP (North-West). The hospital immediately set up a committee to probe the blunder. The panel suggested that the operating team may have disregarded and sidestepped the due process. Following the incident, we immediately set up an expert committee to inquire into the matter. We take our obligation to our patients very seriously. As this is a zero-tolerance area for us, the services of erring doctors and operating room (OR) personnel (five) have been dispensed forthwith. Action against some others is also being contemplated, pending enquiry, the hospital said in its official statement on Wednesday. Rai, who is presently interning with an audit firm, Ernst & Young, fell down the stairs on Sunday evening at his residence in Ashok Vihar. The family immediately took him to hospital. After the bungled surgery, the 24-year-olds family has taken him to Max hospital in Shalimar Bagh. The patient was immediately taken in for treatment for his right leg affected by calcaneal fracture. Currently a 3D CT scan is being done to understand the extent of fracture and to decide on the course of action. The patient is currently in a stable condition, a statement by Max healthcare said. According to Rais family, the doctors told them that there was a fracture in the ankle of his right leg. They also said Ravi might need to undergo surgery wherein four pins were to be inserted in his ankle for support. The doctors got his X-ray and CT scan done before the surgery. After they explained us the process of surgery, we agreed for it. But when we came to know about their mistake, we were shocked. It is such a big chain and they claim to have best of the doctors. And this is what they do, said Rai's father, Ramkaran Rai. A 1,500km proposed highway along the China border in Arunachal Pradesh has hit a roadblock, with the Army raising fears that its proximity to China could make it a liability in case of a confrontation. The objection has irked the state government, and the matter could end up in a tussle between the home and defence ministries. Prime Minister Narendra Modis Act East Policy, pushing for development in the neglected Northeastern states, could be severely affected now the Army is opposing the mega road project, which costs between Rs 30,000 and Rs 40,000 crore and would connect Tawang with Vijoynagar, bordering Myanmar. The Indian Army is worried about the implications of development along the border with China While initial construction between Tawang and Dirang is done, the work ahead is yet to begin, sources said. Sources said local leaders from the state will be writing a protest letter to the prime minister. The matter has been brought to my knowledge and I will call a meeting of officials from home and defence ministry along with state officials to sort out the issues, said Kiren Rijiju, Minister of State for Home Affairs, who also represents Arunachal Pradesh. The Army is sticking to the old tactic of not developing border areas to ensure minimal damage and to cut off easy access for the enemy in case of an infiltration. However, this creates hurdles in the home ministrys plan to develop remote areas and resettle the local population. Sources said that since there is no infrastructure, locals have been pushed as far as 50 km from the border, posing a threat from Chinese forces who could claim it to be their territory in the event of a face-off. The road has also been planned considering the large-scale migration of people from border areas and the need to push them back by creating all basic amenities. They should be happy that the road is close to the border. It can be a boon for the troops for swift mobilisation, said an official. Pasang Dorjee, an MLA from Arunachal Pradesh, said the Army is creating hurdles for the road project that will affect development in the area. Instead of saying that the road should be closer to the border, like China did, the Army is saying it should not be along the border. While the lack of infrastructure and roads on the Indian side has been an old grievance for the locals, the situation across the border is completely different. Chinese forces have top-class roads till their border outposts. The villages and towns are well inhabited and have excellent infrastructure. If not match them, we need to at least achieve 10 per cent of what they have, said a government official. Earlier Beijing had also registered a protest against the road project as it could complicate the border dispute between India and China. In a far-reaching move aimed at bringing world-class education to India's students, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has decided to allow top Indian institutions to seek its approval for tie-ups with highly-rated varsities overseas. For students wishing to study abroad, this represents a lower-cost way to achieve that. As per the new guidelines - under the previous norms, only foreign institutes could seek permission for academic tie-ups - Indian universities with the highest grade of accreditation will now be able to start collaborative arrangements with quality foreign educational institutions (FEIs) in undergraduate and postgraduate degree programmes. Minister of Human Resource Development Smriti Irani hopes the move will give Indian students more choices about their studies Such degrees will be awarded by the Indian educational institutions (IEIs) only, as joint degrees are not permitted. The name of the foreign varsity can be indicated on the degree. Minister of Human Resource Development Smriti Irani said the step has been taken to promote foreign collaborations with a view to increasing synergy between Indian and foreign academic institutions. She hopes it will offer students additional choices, and improve the curriculum. Membership of the NSG appears to have become the single most critical foreign policy priority for the Modi government The issue of Indias membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) has been the focus of significant public and media attention over the past few weeks. It appears to have emerged as the single most critical foreign policy priority for the Modi government. The government is according so much importance to the issue that Prime Minister Narendra Modi hurriedly decided to include visits to Switzerland and Mexico around his tour to the US - to obtain categorical support for Indias membership at the NSG plenary in Seoul on June 23- 24. It is a reflection on Modi that he was able to get unequivocal support from the two countries, although they had initially opposed Indias entry into NSG in 2008. Under normal circumstances the issue would not have assumed such importance. What appears to have brought it into the spotlight is the blatant opposition by China to Indias entry into the elite nuclear club. Over the past few weeks Beijing has issued several statements maintaining that no single country waiver should be granted to India. It stated that India, in any case, is not eligible to become a member of the NSG as it is not a member of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT), adherence to which is necessary for the entry. At other times Beijing stated that Pakistan too has similar credentials to join the NSG. China has said in no uncertain terms that Indias membership will 'jeopardise Chinas national interests and touch a raw nerve in Pakistan. None of Chinas contentions appears to hold much water. Yet, it will be useful to understand what the purpose and mandate of the NSG is. It is doubtless true that the NSG was established in the wake of Indias Pokharan tests in 1974. The intent and purpose of the NSG, however, are different from that of NPT. It is not an international treaty. It is a group of nuclear supplier countries that seeks to contribute to non-proliferation of nuclear weapons through implementation of two sets of Guidelines for nuclear exports and nuclear-related exports. After more than 25 years of its establishment, some suggested guidelines were evolved in 2001 at Aspen for admitting new members to the organisation. Among them, that membership of the NPT is only a guideline, a consideration - and not a mandatory requirement while deciding on a countrys application. India is keen to become a member of the NSG and other export control regimes as it seeks to significantly expand its nuclear power generation and also enter the export market in coming years. Although the 2008 waiver by the NSG does provide significant possibilities for India to engage in civilian nuclear trade with other countries (and indeed, India has entered into such agreements with several countries like Russia, France, UK, US, Kazakhstan, Australia and others), membership of the NSG would provide greater certainty and legal foundation to Indias nuclear regime. This would also provide greater confidence to countries who invest billions of dollars in setting up ambitious nuclear power projects in India. Indias track-record in observing the provisions of the NPT and NSG while not being a member of either body is impeccable. If the NSG was able to grant a waiver to India in 2008 on the basis of its past performance, it should have no objection to admitting it as a member this time. It is, however, obvious that decision on June 23-24 in Seoul will be taken by some countries on political considerations rather than on merit. Usually China has been seen to stay in the background and put up smaller countries in the forefront to articulate opposition to any issue that it does not concur with. This time, in addition to instigating smaller countries to raise objections, China has itself come out openly in opposition to Indias membership. Since all decisions at NSG are taken by consensus, any country - small or large - can stand in the way of consensus. India has, however, launched a blitzkrieg of hectic diplomatic activity to explain its position and overcome opposition of a few countries. It has also reached out to China to explain that its interest in NSG membership is not guided by any political or strategic considerations but only to facilitate expansion of its clean and green nuclear energy programme. India took the unusual step of dispatching its foreign secretary S Jaishankar to Beijing to hold discussions on this and other important issues. If the issue goes to the wire, PM Modi is expected to take up the issue with President Xi Jinping in Tashkent, where both leaders are likely to be present for the SCO Summit later this week. Most questions raised by China against Indias membership have little validity. For instance, membership of the NPT is not a condition for becoming a member of NSG. It is only a guiding principle to which consideration needs to be given. Further, Pakistans credentials for NSG membership are highly flawed and inadequate. Over the last eight years India has separated its reactors which are under IAEA safeguards from those which are not. Pakistan has not undertaken any such exercise. The decision at the NSG plenary session in Seoul will depend on Chinas stance. With Russian President Vladimir Putin assuring India that he will try to convince Beijing, India can still be reasonably hopeful. The forthcoming Uttarakhand elections have become an issue of party prestige for the BJP after its attempt to dislodge the Harish Rawat-led state government failed last time round. While party chief Amit Shah is set to address a rally in Hardwar on June 25, he will also attend the state units executive meeting on June 26. According to BJP leaders, the move is aimed at formally sounding the poll bugle in the state. BJP party chief Amit Shah is set to address a rally in Hardwar in an effort to ramp-up the pressure on the Congress government in Uttarakhand In yet another symbolic move, Shah will be visiting the Badrinath and Kedarnath shrines. Senior party leaders told Mail Today that Shah will lead a dogged and aggressive poll campaign after the partys strategy to dislodge the Harish Rawat-led Congress government backfired in May. According to BJP national secretary Shrikant Sharma, the party will be going to the polls to fight against the 'systemic corruption of the Congress in the state. Also, Sharma confirmed that the party chief would be fine-tuning the partys poll strategy during his meeting with the state executive. While it is not usual for the national president to attend state executive meets, Shahs attendance at meetings in UP and then Uttarakhand points to the significance the party has attached to these two neighbouring states. According to Sharma, the Rawat government in Uttarakhand has no right to be in power. The Congress government in the state is surviving on manufactured and artificial majority. Moreover, corruption in the state is at an all-time high. It is rather surprising that Rahul Gandhi who is so vocal against the BJP, is silent on the issue of corruption, all the more surprising when it involves his chief minister, in this case Harish Rawat, Shartma said. RJD chief Lalu Yadav has questioned the governments recent move on FDI RJD chief Lalu Yadav has questioned the governments recent move to open up foreign direct investment in many employment sectors. Lalu Yadav questioned whether the National Democratic Alliance had given up on using the manufacturing industry to create jobs. Lalu, a rustic politician from Bihar, took to social media platform Twitter to express his views on the economic policies of the centre - leaving many wondering why he did not think similarly when he headed the state as CM. JNU central library to be renamed The Jawaharlal Nehru University has approved the renaming of its central library to The BR Ambedkar Library, following demands from the RSS student wing the ABVP. In April the group had also demanded that a statue of the Dalit icon be installed. The library's committee approved the proposal placed before the Executive Council. Left-wing student groups had argued that its strange for the government to terrorise students who pursue Ambedkars politics, while its student wing is hell-bent on appropriating the Dalit icon. Maha government nod for Khadse plan It is good news for Jews in Maharashtra as the state government approved a proposal to grant minority status to the community. The move will benefit students from the community seeking to win scholarships from the state government. Thanks to sacked minister Eknath Khadse, It will also become easier for the Jews to register their marriages. Two-day session of Uttarakhand House Politics is set to hot-up in Uttarakhand, with the state Cabinet deciding to convene a special two-day session of the Assembly from July 4 to pass the controversial budget which was questioned by the Centre and became a key reason for imposition of Presidents rule in the hill state. The budget has become a flash-point between the Congress government and the BJP. FM to discuss Swachh strategy A communication strategy for the ambitious Swachh Bharat Mission will be deliberated on Wednesday when Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will chair meeting of a high-powered committee formed to oversee the programme. If the movie Khosla ka Ghosla scared you and the prospect of land sharks eyeing your plot or house gives you nightmares, fret not. The Narendra Modi government is now working on geo-tagging each property, to end ambiguity about who owns what. Every square inch of Indian earth will be digitally mapped using ISROs high-resolution satellite imagery, GPS and GIS technology. On a longitude-versus-latitude basis, your propertys exact location will be nailed. As opposed to the current system of 'presumed' land limits and titles, the government will geo-tag properties This is a part of the Union Ministry of Rural Developments (MoRD) National Land Records Modernisation (NLRM) programme. The new system will see land records digitised, and land accounts, along the lines of bank accounts, will be set up for the teeming millions in India. The accounts will be linked to Aadhar cards, and will mean property transactions can be carried out from Assam to Delhi using only digital signatures - safely recorded, and preserved for eternity. It is hoped that the new system will put an end to age-old malpractices, fraud and embezzlement in land transactions. In villages, the historically notorious roles of lekhpal and patwari would be diminished. In cities, bribes taken by revenue officers would be reduced. Minister for Rural Development, Chaudhary Birender Singh, told Mail Today: This is an old programme. Unfortunately, it gathered dust under previous regimes. Now, we are reviving it under mission mode as part of the PMs Digital India programme. Until 2014-15, this was a scheme funded partly by the states. However, from this financial year, the Centre has taken full responsibility for it. The minister has convened a national meeting of all revenue secretaries in Bangalore next month for this purpose. He further said that the National Land Records Modernisation (NLRM) programme is being implemented in Chandigarh on a priority basis. You would be surprised to know that every third property in Chandigarh is under dispute. In all, 80,000 plus properties in the city are disputed. We are hoping that by the end of financial year 2017, all land records in Chandigarh will be fully digitised, he said. This mammoth programme will also ease out problems for the government. Land acquisition work for many big infrastructure projects is stuck due to confusion over who owns land, and its limits. Running a coalition government consisting of political parties with different ideologies is no mean task. It becomes all the more difficult if the stakeholders put personal agenda ahead of their alliance interests. A number of multi-party governments have fallen by the wayside across the country in the past because of the vaulting ambitions of the coalition partners. Nitish and Lalu have avoided treading on each other's toes on contentious issues That is why few people in the Opposition expected Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to pass muster as the leader of the Grand Alliance government in Bihar. However, he has faced no major problem from his allies the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress since he took over the reins of the government for his third successive term about seven months ago. Nitish has had a long experience of running coalition governments. He headed the NDA government in Bihar for seven-and-a-half years before walking out of his alliance with the BJP. He was also part of the Union government headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee. STILL, the naysayers predicted early doom for his government in his fresh term. With the emergence of the RJD as the biggest party in the alliance, they expected Nitish to kowtow to Lalu for the survival of his government. However, nothing of that sort has happened so far. Nitish and Lalu apparently know well that they need to run the coalition government with mutual trust. Any major dispute will be detrimental to the prospects of both leaders. Although it is still too early to say whether the two will continue to adhere to the basic tenets of the coalition dharma during the remaining tenure of their government, they have avoided treading on each others toes by amicably sorting out the contentious issues so far. From the selection of noncontroversial ministers to the candidates for the recent Rajya Sabha and the state Legislative Council elections, they have taken each other into confidence before reaching any major decision. Most significantly, they have resolved to not interfere if any leader of their respective party is caught on the wrong side of the law. The recent toppergate scam in the Bihar School Examination Board required both the leaders to act quickly when allegations of the involvement of the people supposedly close to the state government surfaced. The Janata Dal (United) suspended its former MLA Usha Sinha when she and husband Lalkeshwar Prasad Singh emerged as key accused in the case. The government also gave the police a free hand to arrest the absconding couple. Lalu, on his part, disowned Bachcha Rai, the alleged kingpin in the scam, after the Opposition traced his links with his party. The RJD president made it clear that nobody involved in the scam would be shielded from the law. In the past six months, many legislators have been involved in different criminal cases but none of them ever enjoyed any political patronage because of their allegiance to the ruling alliance. Over the years, Nitish has been known to have kept his party leaders at arms length once their names figured in criminal cases but this is certainly a new facet of Lalus personality. In the past, Lalu was often accused of turning a blind eye to the misdeeds of the people close to him. During the previous RJD regime, he refrained from taking any action against his brothers-in-law, Sadhu and Subhash Yadav, whenever they were accused of breaking the law. Lalu appears to have become wiser from his experience now. With his sons, Tejashwi and Tej Pratap, commencing their political innings with key ministerial berths, he has no reason to lock horns with Nitish for the sake of his wayward party leaders. As of now, Lalu and Nitish are working in tandem as allies and do not seem to be in a hurry to fritter away the mandate given to them by the people of Bihar. The doubting Thomases, therefore, will have to remain in the waiting mode. The writer is chief of bureau, Bihar Smriti Tweet costs Choudhary dear Many Congresswomen supported Choudhary Union human resource minister Smriti Irani may have ticked off Bihars education minister Ashok Choudhary for addressing her dear in his tweet recently, but he has found woman leaders of his party rallying behind him in the wake of the controversy. Many Congresswomen, holding huge placards referring to Choudhary as dear, came out on the streets to express solidarity with him. They insisted that Choudhary, who is also the president of the Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee, did not use any derogatory term for Irani. Choudhary was, of course, pleased with the support from the women Congress leaders in the state. He was, however, no longer dear to a section of leaders in his party. Veteran Congressman and former Governor of Kerala Nikhil Kumar raised a question over his continuation as the state Congress president even after getting a ministerial berth in the Nitish Kumar government. Many Congress leaders believe that Choudhary should have been relieved of his party post by now. Choudhary, however, remains nonchalant. He has advised his detractors to ask Rahul Gandhi who has retained him as the BPCC president. As a matter of fact, I am ready to quit both posts at the directive of Rahul Gandhi, he said. _____________________________________________________________________ Noted Madhubani painting artist Meenakshi Jha-Bannerjee and her husband Rony Bannerjee have taken upon themselves to carry forward the tradition of storytelling by setting up a Kahani Ghar (House of Stories) in Patna. More than 500 children, many of them from poor families, have already enrolled at the centre. They not only get familiar with the rich art, culture, history and heritage of the state and the country but are also taught different subjects such as mathematics through the art of story-telling. _______________________________________________________________________ Lifeline of Bihar may be cut soon The Mahatma Gandhi Setu on the river Ganga, which connects Patna with north Bihar, is in such a dilapidated condition that it can collapse anytime. The bridge, inaugurated by the then Prime minister Indira Gandhi in 1982, is considered to be the lifeline of Bihar. Mahatma Gandhi Setu bridge could collapse, construction experts have warned Every day, lakhs of commuters brave traffic snarls for hours on the bridge, which been undergoing repairs for nearly two decades. Crores of rupees have been spent but it remains in a rickety condition. The Centre and the State government have been locked in the blame game for long but nothing has helped matters. A recent inspection by experts, including those from Japan, has found its pillars in good condition and suggested fresh construction of the entire superstructure. But that will take a minimum of four years. The Bihar government has already started construction of another bridge on the Ganga, a few kilometres away from the Gandhi Setu, but that will also take at least four years to complete. A Congress legislator in Jammu and Kashmir has withdrawn his resolution seeking to provide "rest" to the goddess at the Mata Viashno Devi shrine during noon and night hours, after opposition from the state government. Congress Member of the Legislative Council and former Minister Jugal Kishore Sharma tabled a resolution in the Upper House on Monday, saying the government should urge the Shri Vaishno Devi Shrine Board to create a system so the goddess can rest for some time during the day. This House should resolve that the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board, Katra shall adopt the system of providing rest to Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Ji during noon and shayan in the night hours, to provide rest to the goddess in accordance with the Hindu Shastras, as is the practice in Bawe Wali Mata Temple, Regunath temple and other temples of the country such as Nauv Devi in Himachal, Triupathi Balaji, Shri Kerarnath temple etc, Sharma said. Jugal Kishore Sharma was concerned that the goddess should be able to rest at the Mata Viashno Devi shrine during noon and night hours, saying this was 'in accordance with the Hindu Shastras'. The legislator said the Board was not following Shastras. The MLC insisted that a House Committee should be constituted to change the prevailing protocol. We can constitute a House committee which can visit the temple and see how crowded the place is, he said. The Minister of State for Education, Culture and Tourism, Priya Sethi, said the resolution cannot be adopted by the House. She said it was beyond its scope. The ritual and tradition of Darshan of Shri Mata Viashno Devi shrine around the clock has been in practice since time immemorial, and there has been no instance and document available indicating providing rest to Mata during noon and Shayan in the night hours, Sethi said. The Minister read a detailed note from leading expert on Hinduism and vedic texts, Prof. Vishwa Murti Shastri, opposing the resolution. This is purely a matter of religion and faith, and as such would not be appropriate to debate or discuss in this legislature, Sethi said. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi led thousands of people in yoga asanas in Chandigarh on Tuesday, nearly 250 farmers marched in protest near the state Civil Secretariat - carrying pouches of blood. The protest, intended to make a point about farmers' struggles and the high rate of suicides, was led by Congress leader Inderjeet Singh Zira. Criticising the state and central governments for ignoring Punjab farmers, the protesters shouted Badal-Modi kissan virodhi (Both Badal and Modi are against farmers), and Kisan Mar Rahe Hai, Modiji Yoga Kar Rahe Hai (While the farmers are dying, PM is busy practising yoga) while trying to move towards the Capitol Complex. Carrying pouches of blood donated by farmers' families in Punjab, the protesters tried to highlight the issue of farmers who committed suicide in the state The demonstrators who gathered at the Punjab Congress Bhawan at Sector 15 had started their march at 6am, but were detained by police when they tried to enter the road leading to the International Yoga Day venue. Carrying pouches of blood donated by the farmers in Punjab, the protesters tried to highlight the issue of farmers who have committed suicide in large numbers. Modi practiced yoga while the protests took place The blood has been donated by farmers across Punjab, and also the families of those farmers who have committed suicide due to ruthless Central-State agrarian policies. PCC Chief Captain Amarinder Singh too donated his blood as a mark of solidarity, and his support to the farming community, Inderjeet Singh Zira said. While addressing the farmers, Zira said that the farmers have lost confidence in Modi and the Badal government as they failed to compensate the families who lost their loved ones. Around 8,000 farmers have committed suicide in recent times. Neither PM nor Badal government have shown any concern. "We the Kisan Khet Mazdoor Cell wanted to present a bowl containing blood donated by the family members of the poor farmers who have recently committed suicide. "We collected the blood of the farmers so that Modiji can quench his thirst, Zira said. In an open letter written to the Prime Minister, Inderjeet Singh Zira questioned why he (the PM) withdrew the facilities provided by Manmohan Singh, including a farm loan waiver in which only four per cent interest was contributed by the farmer, and the rest by the union government. You waived the loans raised by influential industrialists, why were the farmers ignored? "Adding insult to injury, the central government has also stopped the payment of Rs 2000 crore which it owed to Punjab farmers whose wheat was procured by it, Zira said. At a recent event in Delhi, Motorolas chairman and president Aymar de Lencquesaing took out the companys latest phone Moto Z and waved it in front of the gathered journalists. This is the future of smartphones, he said. The Moto Z seems like any other phone, although its svelte 5.2mm body does make for an impressive build. But the design of the Moto Z is not its ticket to fame. The big deal about it is its modular nature. Modular phones are different to smartphones in that components can be added to increase their functionality - components like a tiny projector that turns almost any surface in front of the phone into a big screen. Modular phones are different to smartphones in that components can be added to increase their functionality However hard we try, we cannot create a perfect phone, says Lencquesaing. "And yet, there is so much that needs to be done with the smartphone. This is only possible through the modular design. The possibilities with such design are endless." A look into the past This year we have seen two companies launching modular phones - LG and Motorola. The idea is simple, as well as old. A smartphone is limited by its size. It is a miniaturised computer, camera and speaker, packing in the same core functionality. But the small size means the functionality that a smartphone offers is also compromised. Making a phone modular solves many of these problems. Before its time: The Modu T came out in 2010 with modules that turned the phone into a music player or a fitness assistant A lot of companies and people had talked about creating modular phones, but the one that actually did it was Modu, an Israeli firm founded by Dov Moran in 2007. In 2010 it launched the Modu T, a phone that came with modules - one to turn it into a music player and another with added fitness-tracking functionality. Every day we go through several tasks. The idea is to make a phone (that) will allow users to add or remove features depending on what they are doing, Moran had said in 2010. The idea was great, but the execution wasn't. Modu failed quickly, and some of its patents and technology were bought by Google. In 2011 Google also acquired Motorola, which in 2012 joined hands with Phonebloks to create a truly modular phone where every core part, from the screen to the processor inside, would be replaceable and swappable. The endeavor was given the name of Project Ara. New launches This year there will be two modular phones released - however they are still somewhat limited. The first of these, the LG G5, was launched at the Mobile World Congress this year. It has a battery compartment that users can slide open to attach other modules. LG calls these components Friends. Currently, two Friends stand out. One is the Cam Plus, which adds manual controls and a better grip for the G5 camera. Motorolas chairman and president Aymar de Lencquesaing heralded the Moto Z as 'the future of smartphones' (file pic). The Friend is a module designed with help of B&O which turns the G5 into a high-res audio player. The Moto Z, meanwhile, features a more elegant modular design. It is a slim phone with 16 metal pins on its back cover. Through these metal pins a user can attach a module, which is similar to a protective case that almost everybody uses with a phone. The attaching of a module - Motorola calls it Mod - is seamless. Currently, three Mods - for speaker, battery and projector - are available. One more, possibly to add optical zoom to the camera, is coming soon. Future When Google sold Motorola to Lenovo in 2014, there was one part of the company it didn't give to the Chinese firm - the Project Ara division. Originally, the goal of Project Ara was to create a truly modular phone. But after playing with probably hundreds of prototypes, Google scaled back on its ambitions. Now the core components are fixed, but six slots in the phone will allow users to swap different modules in or out. If everything goes well, the developer edition of the Project Ara phone will ship later this year, with the consumer version coming next year. Over the years, the truly modular phone has almost turned into the Holy Grail. Conceptually, it is a solution to almost every weakness a smartphone has. At a time when smartphones are getting boring, it is also a way to make them sexy again. So far, modular phones have failed to sizzle. But the LG G5, Moto Z, and the upcoming Project Ara phone show that the blocks are finally falling into place - and the promise they hold is tantalising. Lenovos Vibe K5 is a solid offering for the price Lenovos Vibe K5 offers bang for the buck Vibe K5 is one of Lenovos most affordable phones on the market. It is also the younger, and less powerful, sibling of the popular Vibe K5 Plus. The Vibe K5 has a 5-inch screen with 720p resolution, Qualcomm Snapdragon 415, 2GB RAM and 16GB internal storage, which is very generous. The phone also has a 13-megapixel rear camera, 5- megapixel front camera, and features like support for Dolby Audio, which are more of checklists. All of this costs Rs 6,999, making the Vibe K5 a decent deal as an affordable smartphone. The OnePlus 3 is loaded with high-end hardware OnePlus back in form The OnePlus 3 is the return to form for this relatively new company based in Hong-Kong. But make no mistake - the OnePlus 3, just like the OnePlus 1, is a phone that can stand should-to-shoulder with the big boys like Samsung and Apple, and although it doesn't beat them, it more than matches them in most instances. Loaded with cutting-edge and high-end hardware, it has a slick design and clean software. Despite top features, including a gorgeous metal body, and the top hardware such as 6GB RAM, the phone is relatively easy on the pocket at Rs 27,999. The Desire BT is its 10th headphone from Intex Intex makes music cord-free Intex is known for its phones, or specifically its affordable phones. But quietly, it is also making headphones. The Desire BT is its 10th headphone, and as the name suggests this is wireless system that uses BlueTooth to connect to a music player. One key feature of the Desire BT is that the headset can be used to take and make calls when paired with a smartphone. It has a decent design, although the red-and-black colour scheme and a pit of shiny plastic may not appeal to those who like their headphones classy and understated. LeT militant Abu Ukasha was caught by police at a market in the frontier Kupwara district Jammu and Kashmir Police have arrested a Pakistani militant in unusual circumstances, while he was shopping at a market in the frontier Kupwara district of the Kashmir Valley. Lashkar-e-Taiba militant Hanzullah, alias Abu Ukasha, of Bahawalpur had gone out to buy merchandise for iftar, meant to break the days fast. Jammu and Kashmir Police said he had a grenade in his possession when he was arrested. He was buying merchandise when we arrested him. He had a hand-grenade with him but before he could use it, we caught hold of him, Superintendent Police (SP), Kupwara, Ejaz Bhat, told Mail Today. Another police official said that during the initial questioning the militant revealed that he was part of a five-member group that had infiltrated recently. Abu Ukasha is the third Pakistani militant to be arrested in Kashmir this year by security forces. Earlier this year, two Pakistani Jaish-e-Mohammad militants, including a Fidayeen trainer, were arrested from north Kashmirs Baramulla district. Ukasha, a resident of Pakistan, is being questioned for information about the militant network in north Kashmir region, where he was active for several years now, the official said. Sources said various security and intelligence agencies were questioning the Pakistani militant. Glamorous, Guyanan-born investment manager Gina Miller (right) recently appeared in a referendum debate in Mayfair alongside Tory MP Mark Pritchard, politely arguing the benefits of remaining in the EU. A boorish audience member shouted: I dont see why anyone should listen to you. Perhaps you should stay in the kitchen. Witnesses report Miller maintained her composure and ignored the oafish heckler. A pity. The feisty mother-of-three, 55, is a tough cookie with a spectacularly acid tongue. Outgoing ITV chairman Archie Norman is to advise Homebase under its new Australian owner Wesfarmers. The former Asda chief and ex-Tory MP, who is 55, is a fan of novel management techniques. He encouraged Asda staff to wear thinking hats during brain-crunching sessions, demonstrating they were not to be disturbed while considering some new brainwave. Busy boy Archie may need to wear his biggest ten-gallon thinking hat to turn things around at the struggling DIY store. Credit Suisses snugly tailored boss Tidjane Thiam, currently facing revolt at the struggling bank, is advised to soften his brusque tone by its second-largest shareholder, US-based fund Harris Associates. Says Harris boss David Herro: If change is going to happen, it has to be done with good communication and empathy toward employees. Ivory Coast-born Tidjane, 55, recently came second in a poll of European bank bosses investors would most like replaced. He was pipped by HSBCs past-his-sell-by-date chief Stuart Gulliver. Garrulous Ryanair boss Michael OLeary visited CNBCs London studios yesterday to make a final plea for viewers to stay in the EU. He appeared on screen in a gaudy suit, one side showing the Union Jack, the other the European flag. Says a Ryanair spokesman: We got it made especially. Look out for it on eBay on Friday! Amusing exchange at yesterdays embattled car maker Volkswagens AGM in Hanover. Investor: Who is this Mr Jones Day you keep mentioning? Volkswagens moustachioed executive Francisco Javier Garcia Sanz: Jones Day is not a single person. It is a law firm. Model train maker Hornby plans to reduce the number of toys it sells by 40 per cent and its boss has promised fundamental change after revealing that annual losses ballooned in the past year. The troubled group - whose brands include Scalextric, Airfix and Corgi posted a pretax loss of 13.5million for the year ended March 31, up from a 0.2million loss in 2015, as revenue fell by 4 per cent to 55.8million after poor trading. Hornby has also suffered major disruption from new computer and stock management systems, while European trading has also been impacted by problems with suppliers in China. Model train maker Hornby plans to reduce the number of toys it sells by 40 per cent and its boss has promised fundamental change after revealing that annual losses ballooned in the past year To address its problems, Hornbys chief executive Steve Cooke today unveiled a wide-ranging turnaround plan following a strategic review which see the group reduce costs, renegotiate its loans, and raise 8million through a discounted share sale. He said: Last year was difficult and disappointing as we faced significant challenges during the continued turnaround and improvement of the business. Much of the change last year resulted in substantial unplanned disruption which had a significant adverse impact on trading performance. He added: The review has also identified areas that require fundamental change. The turnaround plan is intended to return the business to sustainable profitability and cash generation. Hornby shares were lower at lunchtime, down 0.25p or 0.8 per cent at 31.75p, but that was above the 27p placing price set for the new share issue. Hornbys share price having has plunged 65 per cent in the past twelve months after the group warned on profits three times last year. The company appointed Mr Cooke, previously its finance director, as its CEO in April, two months after its previous head Richard Ames left in the wake of the third profit warning. Downhill: Hornbys share price having has plunged 65 per cent in the past twelve months after the group warned on profits three times last year Mr Cooke said the groups new business plan will focus on its core hobby customers, reducing its product lines to 1,500, and quitting concession shops to focus on selling products via its online business. He added that the new plan would see the groups revenues fall by about a quarter. Hornby reported an underlying pretax loss of 5.7million for the full year, compared with a profit of 1.6million a year earlier. Total sales in the 10 weeks to June 12 were up 6 per cent, the group added. The Kent-based company, which was founded in 1901 by Frank Hornby, warned that if the equity cash raising fails, it would be unable to repay some 8million it owes in debts. City traders are braced for their most turbulent night since the financial crisis as Britain heads to the polls for the European Union referendum. Finance giants including Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland are drafting in round-the-clock teams to buy and sell as the result of the vote becomes clear. It is rumoured hedge funds have commissioned secret exit polls to get a feel for the national mood, and central banks are preparing to pump billions into the economy to keep markets afloat if the system seizes up. All hands on deck: City traders are braced for their most turbulent night since the financial crisis as Britain heads to the polls for the European Union referendum Analysts have warned of wild swings in share prices and currencies depending on the result affecting the investments and pensions of millions of savers as well as the cost of holiday money. One top executive compared the atmosphere to New Years Eve 1999, as Britain fretted that a potential Millennium bug could bring technology to a standstill. BREXIT CURRENCY BOOM Foreign currency sales have surged ahead of todays vote as holidaymakers stock up to avoid being hit by swings in the pound. The Post Office, responsible for one in four foreign exchange transactions in the UK, said overall currency sales have risen 74 per cent since the weekend. Money transfer companies including Azimo and Transferwise have suspended some of their trading until tomorrow morning and high street lenders have put IT upgrades on hold to ensure any glitches dont spark a panic. Watchdogs have ordered the banks to fill up cash machines for the same reason. This is a bit like that. Everybodys worried about it and has really prepared for it, the banking source said. Were prepared, weve been prepared for a while. Our traders are going to be in throughout the night. There have been wild swings in the pound as the markets try to second-guess the result. Sterling plummeted early last week as a series of polls put the Leave camp ahead. The cost of insuring against swings in the pound hit levels not seen since 2008 and traders wiped 98billion off the blue-chip FTSE 100 index in four days. On Monday the currency recorded its biggest one-day jump in eight years as traders bet on a Remain vote and the Footsie saw its biggest gain in four months. This confusion is set to continue until the result is known meaning there are fortunes to be made or lost. While the stock market will close as usual at 4.30pm today protecting most institutional investors such as pension funds from overnight chaos trading in currency and complex products such as derivatives will not stop. Get the coffee on: Traders are now gearing up for their busiest night in years after polls close at 10pm Traders are now gearing up for their busiest night in years after polls close. Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group and US giants such as JP Morgan Chase and Citi are among those calling in senior staff. A number of banks are said to be booking hotel rooms and laying on food overnight for their teams. Some firms are even believed to be offering small bonuses to staff drafted in. And many are taking automatic trading systems offline in case they struggle to cope. Barclays is understood to be planning to fully staff its foreign exchange and commodities teams. NatWest owner RBS is also manning trading desks for 24 hours with teams in London, Singapore and Stamford in the US. Even Lloyds which is more focused on retail banking will have some employees in overnight to deal with clients. Grandees are planning to follow the results of the referendum live, with City of London Corporation chairman Mark Boleat saying it will have an all-night session. Meanwhile, hedge fund bosses are hoping to earn huge profits by correctly guessing the votes outcome. No official exit poll is expected tonight as the referendum is a one-off political event and voting behaviour is much harder to predict. Several hedge funds are rumoured to have commissioned private exit polls. They will keep this information secret and use it to bet on the price of sterling or pick up shares at rock-bottom prices. Speaking to Bloomberg, David Neuhauser of hedge fund Livermore Partners said: You want times when people are afraid to invest so you can put money to work. Investment bank UBS has warned clients to expect extreme swings and a surge in activity regardless of the result, meaning some electronic trades on its platform could fail. A Brexit vote on June 23 could see us embarking on a path to an enlightened era of prosperous global trade, freed from the shackles of unelected Brussels bureaucracy. Or if you listen to the Remain camp, it could be the end of Western civilisation, with the continent descending into war and pensioners going hungry. Whichever side of the European argument you fall, the only certainty seems to be that things would be pretty lively. So what would the first 100 days after a vote to leave look like? David Cameron would appear outside Downing Street in the early hours of June 24 to admit defeat June 24 A shattered David Cameron would appear outside 10 Downing Street to concede defeat. The Prime Minister will promise to implement the wishes of the British people, but his speech will be necessarily short on detail. Only semi-independent Greenland has quit the EU before, and that was 30 years ago when the island had a population of just 56,000. The PM could well hold off on a dramatic announcement about his own future in the immediate aftermath of a Brexit vote - although it is almost impossible that his premiership will be able to survive the defeat for long. He could fire the starting gun on a Tory leadership contest, which Brexit champion Boris Johnson would almost certainly win. The Treasury, Bank of England and European Central Bank would activate contingency plans to shore up the currency and inject liquidity to banks to ensure the system keeps working. June 28-29 EU leaders are due to gather for a summit in Brussels, at which there will be only one topic - the Brexit vote. They could even bring the meeting forward by a few days if their anxiety is great enough. Mr Cameron could formally notify them of our intention to leave, trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty - the legal process for quitting the 28 nation bloc. That starts the clock on a two-year period during which we negotiate a new set of arrangements in areas such as trade, justice and reciprocal visas. However, the PM may hold off as some Leave campaigners do not want to invoke Article 50 at all, believing it puts our negotiators at a disadvantage. Instead we could try to force the EU to strike a deal without imposing a time limit - but that may depend on whether other states are willing to play ball. David Cameron (left) will tell European Council President Donald Tusk (right) and EU leaders of Britain's desire to leave if he loses the vote on June 23 July 6 As the immediate shock of the Brexit vote eases, the government machine gears up to the task of negotiating a new deal with the EU and replacing other bilateral trade agreements. Despite volatility on the markets, the public will almost certainly be surprised to find that little changes in their everyday lives. Importantly, there is virtually no chance that George Osborne's threat of a post-Brexit 'punishment' Budget will happen. That is partly because victorious Conservative Eurosceptics will have demanded Mr Osborne is moved from No11, but also because the hit to the real economy will not have been as immediate as some made out. On July 6, Mr Cameron will be able to lead the government response to the publication of the long-awaited Iraq Inquiry report. Shortly afterwards he is due to attend a Nato summit. David Cameron would probably stay on in Number 10 until a swiftly-held Conservative leadership contest can be held - most likely to be won by leading Brexit campaigners like Boris Johnson (right) or Michael Gove (left) July 21 Parliament is due to rise for its summer break, but there will be little rest for ministers as they are consumed by the negotiations. The civil service has been quietly contingency planning for the possibility of our departure, with every department set to be affected by the seismic changes. But Mr Cameron, if he is still in place, will be largely peripheral to the process. Having been so closely associated with the Remain campaign, it is almost inconceivable that Mr Cameron would be regarded as a credible head negotiator. It is possible that another, Brexit-supporting minister such as Michael Gove could be appointed to oversee the work. Vote Leave said the government should invite figures from other parties, business, the law and civil society to join the negotiating team to 'get a good deal in the national interest'. By now the Tory leadership contest is likely to be in full swing. The party's rules mean MPs nominate two candidates, who are then put forward for an election by the wider membership. Boris Johnson would be in prime position to take over from Mr Cameron after a Brexit vote Mid-August If the Conservative leadership takes a similar length of time as in 2005, this is around when the successor to Mr Cameron could be announced. Given the need for someone to take charge of the talks, it is likely there would be a strong desire to move as fast as possible. Mr Johnson would be in a position to win a very strong mandate, as the politician who did the most to deliver the Brexit vote. September Parliament is due back, and while the early autumn sitting it usually viewed as a sop to those who complain MPs do not work hard enough, this year it could be extremely busy. Vote Leave has called for legislation in the current session of Parliament to 'end the European Court of Justice's control over national security and allow the government to deport criminals from the EU'. The Brexiteers have also pledged abolish the 5 per cent rate of VAT on household energy bills by amending the Value Added Tax Act 1994. Other parliamentary actions promised by the Leave campaign include ending the automatic right of all EU citizens to enter the UK, and - finally - repealing the European Communities Act 1972 (Repeal) Bill. That is the legislation that guarantees the supremacy of EU law to domestic rules. However, it is not clear how fast the Brexiteers will be able to cut the ties to Brussels. Around three quarters of MPs support EU membership, and some are already considering how that weight of numbers can be used to limit the impact of a Leave vote. There could be efforts to defy the public will altogether, or keep us in the single market rather than quitting the bloc altogether. Iain Duncan Smith has said that MPs who ignore the outcome of the referendum it would trigger a 'constitutional crisis' and potentially a snap general election. October 5 The political party conference season is always frantic, but this year it will have an even greater significance. The realignment of politics set in train by the referendum would have been huge for Britain and for Europe. Just after the first hundred days draws to a close, the new Tory Prime Minister could take to the stage in Birmingham to address activists. Mr Johnson - if he has emerged victorious - would be able to argue that the UK has made a start in its new life independent from Brussels. That compares with only 40 out of 1,500 men who flunk the same test Six out of seven female recruits failed to pass the Marines' rigorous physical fitness requirements - compared to only 40 out of 1,500 male recruits, according to new data. The figures, obtained by the Associated Press, show what progress has been made six months after the Pentagon opened all combat jobs open to women. Seven women are now serving in combat roles in the Marines or are waiting to serve, while 167 are performing non-combat duties in front-line units. But the fitness requirements are proving a tough nut to crack for female recruits. All recruits to the Marines are required to carry out pull-ups, ammunition-can lifts, a three-mile run and combat maneuvers before they can be considered for combat duty. Female recruits stand at the Marine Corps Training Depot on Parris Island, South Carolina. New physical standards established so women can compete for combat posts have been too much for most females The numbers underscore the difficulty of integrating women into the demanding jobs, and reflect the small number of women who want to be combat Marines and can pass the new tough physical standards required to qualify. So far this year those standards have weeded out most female hopefuls and have also disqualified some men. Failing the tests, taken about 45 days into basic training, forces recruits into less physically demanding Marine jobs. The high failure rate for women recruits, however, raises questions about how well integration can work, including in Marine infantry units where troops routinely slog for miles carrying packs weighed down with artillery shells and ammunition, and at any moment must be able to scale walls, dig in and fight in close combat. The new standards are a product of the Pentagon's decision to allow women to compete for front-line jobs, including infantry, artillery and other combat posts. But Marine leaders say they are also screening out less physically powerful Marines both men and women. 'I think that's made everybody better,' Marine Commandant Gen. Robert Neller told the AP in his first in-depth interview on the subject. 'We're trying to raise everybody's bar a little bit and we're trying to figure out how to get closer together, because at the end of the day we're all going to be on the battlefield and we all have to be able to do our job.' The seven women already serving in combat jobs or in the pipeline are almost all Marine officers who requested open combat posts. The one recruit among the seven has enlisted for an infantry job, but hasn't reported yet to boot camp. One of the officers was injured in the infantry officers' course and is waiting to retake it. Two women graduated from the artillery officers' course one ranked third in the class and the other graduated with honors. Three more participated in the infantry research program last year and asked to move into infantry jobs. They'll take advanced infantry training and then report to battalions this fall. The 167 other female Marines are working in intelligence, logistics or communications, but asked to be moved to front-line combat units. Neller said he wasn't surprised that few women are interested in the combat jobs. 'Some of them are not interested at all, some want just to make it gender neutral and we'll just figure it out,' Neller said. 'The majority of them, when you get them together, they say, 'Look, I'm not really interested in this. I love being a Marine, I like what I'm doing as a Marine. And I'm really not interested in this, but I don't want you to tell me I can't try.'' Marine Corps Commandant General Robert Neller testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, before the Senate Armed Services Committee. The Marine Corps is determined the caliber of recruits will not be diminished Marine Corps leaders initially balked at allowing women into certain infantry, reconnaissance and combat engineer jobs, pointing to studies that showed mixed gender units did not perform as well as male-only units. But Defense Secretary Ash Carter ordered all combat jobs open to women. The Marines developed a detailed progression of physical standards that recruits must meet to get into the combat jobs. And officials insist that standards will not be lowered to allow more women to pass. Nearly 86 percent of the women failed the tests, compared with less than 3 percent of the men. Before the standards test existed, the 40 men who failed would have moved on to combat jobs anyway, a Marine Corps analysis said. So Neller said that the overall quality of the force will eventually improve. The tiny success rate for women presents additional challenges if only one or two qualify for a combat job in a previously male-only unit. If two women qualify, they will be placed in a combat unit together. But, if only one qualifies, she'll be put in a unit with men she trained alongside in school. Those men, the Marine Corps said, will have seen her go through the training and know that she had done as well, or better, than they did. The Marines will also put a female officer and a female senior enlisted leader in the combat units. Early on, those will likely be women doing a noncombat job such as an intelligence or logistics officer. And they will be required to pass a physical fitness test to qualify to serve in that combat unit. Neller said it will be an adjustment for Marines with women in previously male-only units, adding, 'there are some things we're going to have to work through.' Would he want his daughter to serve in the infantry? A rescue plane landed Tuesday at the South Pole to evacuate a sick worker from a remote US science station after flying through dangerous dark and cold, federal officials said. The plane arrived at the South Pole after a daring 1,500-mile, nine-hour trip from Rothera, the British base on the Antarctic peninsula, according to the National Science Foundation, which runs the polar outpost. The plane's crew a pilot, co-pilot, flight engineer and medical worker will rest and wait for at least 10 hours. Then if weather conditions are favorable, the plane will refuel and return to Rothera, said agency spokesman Peter West. After that the sick worker will be taken out of Antarctica for treatment. Rothera, the British Antarctic Survey station, is seen from the air. A daring South Pole medical rescue is underway. An airplane left the British base in Antarctica Tuesday, for the 1,500-mile trip to evacuate a sick person from the US station 'It went all according to plan,' West said from Arlington, Virginia. A second worker is also ill, but officials have yet to decide whether that patient will also fly out, West said. The science foundation will not identify the workers, who are employees of Lockheed Martin which handles logistics at the station, nor their medical conditions. There have been three emergency evacuations from the Amundsen-Scott station since 1999. Workers at the South Pole station are isolated from February through October, the coldest and darkest months when it's too risky for routine flights. The latest mission is pushing the limits of what is acceptable, said Tim Stockings, operations director at the British Antarctic Survey in London. He said being prepared is key. 'The air and Antarctica are unforgiving environments and punishes any slackness very hard,' Stockings said. 'If you are complacent it will bite you.' 'Things can change very quickly down there' with ice from clouds, high winds and snow, he said. The first day of winter in the Southern Hemisphere was Monday the sun will not rise at the South Pole till the first day of spring in September. A South Pole webcam showed the station in the distance during the landing. There was some light because of the full moon and the ability of the camera to operate on low light, West said. Athena Dinar, spokeswoman for the British Antarctic Survey, said one of two Twin Otter planes began the trip Tuesday, while the other is still at the Rothera station on the Antarctic Peninsula just in case. A Twin Otter is seen in 2013 It is still pitch-dark, he said. The National Science Foundation decided last week to mount the rescue operation because one staffer needed medical care that can't be provided there. The station has a doctor, a physician's assistant and is connected to doctors in the US for consults, West said. There are 48 people 39 men and nine women at the station. The temperature Tuesday afternoon at the South Pole station was minus 75 degrees (minus 60 Celsius), with a wind chill that makes it feel like minus 108 degrees (minus 78 Celsius) according to the science foundation's weather station and webcam. The extreme cold affects a lot of things on planes, including fuel, which needs to be warmed before takeoff, batteries and hydraulics, West said. The Twin Otter can fly in temperatures as low as minus 103 degrees (minus 75 degrees Celsius), he said. The 1999 flight, which was done in Antarctic spring with slightly better conditions, rescued the station's doctor, Jerri Nielsen, who had breast cancer and had been treating herself. Rescues were done in 2001 and 2003, both for gallbladder problems. Advertisement Two British female volunteers nicknamed the 'Angels of Yulin' helped to save 1,000 dogs from certain slaughter at Chinas sickening Yulin Dog Meat Festival. In a daring rescue operation witnessed exclusively by the MailOnline, a team including Brits Jess Henderson and Helen Reed won a last-minute stay of execution for the dogs and whisked them away to the safety of animal shelters. In moving scenes, the animal lovers wept as they were allowed into the slaughter house where the dead and the dying lay inside rusty cages alongside terrified dogs many of them pets stolen off the streets. Their mission comes as meat traders at the controversial festival reveal their sickening techniques to butcher dogs from cage to dinner plate. Dogs have their throats slit, are cooked in vats of boiling water and their fur is blowtorched to make dog crackling seasoned with garlic, chilli and ginger. Scroll down for video Freed: Rescuers from a California-based animal charity have saved 1,000 dogs destined for the dinner plate at China's Yulin Dog Meat Festival Rescued: These dogs would have been killed and served as a delicacy but for the brave rescue helped by two British women nicknamed the 'Angels of Yulin' after they saved the dogs from four slaughterhouses at the festival Saviours: 'Angels of Yulin' Jess Henderson (left) and Helen Reed (right) said they saw pictures of dogs cramped in tiny metal cages and felt that they needed to go and save them Horror: The Brits have seen shocking pictures like this and immediately felt compelled to do what they could to save the animals. The charity they are with have struck deals with six slaughterhouses to close during the 10-day event Some 10,000 dogs and 4,000 cats are killed each year for the notorious event which began in 2010 and went ahead this year despite a petition to the Chinese government this year signed by millions of animal lovers worldwide. The California-based charity Animal Wellness and Hope Foundation rescued 1,000 dogs from four slaughterhouses, using four trucks to spirit them out of Yulin to safety. Some 280 dogs were rescued from one slaughterhouse alone to which MailOnline was given exclusive access. Some of those were saved after charity bosses paid slaughterhouse owners thousands of pounds to close for the duration of the 10-day festival and to set the dogs free in a deal struck only the day before event began on June 21. The foundation's leader Marc Ching told MailOnline last night the deal was one of six he had struck and said he hoped to transfer a total of 900 condemned dogs out of Yulin by Wednesday. Yesterday's remarkable rescue in the Gandi village district of Yulin involved a nerve-jangling six-hour operation to transfer volunteers and rescue trucks to the primitive slaughter house to secure the dogs' release. The team was shadowed every step of the way by undercover police officers who monitored their every move and tailed them on motorbikes and cars as they travelled from their hotel to the slaughter house. Heatbreak: Jess Henderson (pictured), 24, from Fife, said: 'My own pet dog died on Friday and I decided that was a message to me that I had to come to Yulin' Unbearable: Helen Reed, who works for the National Trust, told MailOnline the conditions were 'disgusting and horrendous'. 'The smell is unbearable,' she said. 'There is a dead dog, two dogs who are dying and dogs fighting. It is heartbreaking' Shock: Ms Reed's partner, IT worker Ben Mullins, 30, from Swindon, told MailOnline: 'I was speechless when I first saw the slaughterhouse. The way the dogs are treated is unbelievable' Butchered: Mr Mullins added it is not just the dogs being eaten, but how they are kept in tiny metal cages and killed beforehand. He described what happened to the dogs in their final days as 'torture' Disgusting: Inside the primitive slaughterhouse where, in searing 35 degrees Celsius temperatures, 280 dogs were crammed into large open air cages, among them diseased canines, as well as the bodies of dead and dying animals Earlier, some team members say police called on their hotel rooms for ID checks in the middle of the night while others had abuse spat at them by dog meat trade supporters who accuse foreigners of trying to rob them of their livelihoods. Appalling scenes greeted them inside the primitive slaughterhouse where, in searing 35 degrees Celsius temperatures, 280 dogs were crammed into large open air cages, among them diseased canines, as well as the bodies of dead and dying animals. The body of one small dead dog lay on a wooden trailer covered in a filthy blanket. Outside a large cage containing around 150 dogs was a freezer containing the skinned top half of a slaughtered dog. Many of the surviving dogs wore collars betraying the fact they were stolen pets, some snatched in faraway provinces and driven up to 600 miles crammed in tiny cages on board lorries to be sold for meat at the annual Yulin festival. As she helped comfort a desperately ill dog lying panting on the ground, 24-year-old Ms Henderson, from Fife, Scotland, who has taught English in Hong Kong and worked with an animal charity for the past eight months, said she heard about the rescue operation only last week. Death: Outside one large cage containing around 150 dogs was a freezer containing the skinned top half of a slaughtered dog. Many of the surviving dogs wore collars betraying the fact they were stolen pets Demand: The team paid thousands of pounds to strike deals with four slaughterhouses to close during the 10-day event and lorried the rescued dogs away from the Yulin markets where they are eaten as a delicacy Intimidation: But not everyone wants to stop the festival. Saving the dogs was a six hour operation, with volunteers being watched by undercover police officers - some even followed to their hotels, where their papers were inspected 'My own pet dog died on Friday and I decided that was a message to me that I had to come to Yulin,' she said, clutching a cloth bag with the word 'Vegan' on it but filled with bacon and pork sausages she collected at her hotel breakfast to feed to the famished animals. 'When I told my mum I was coming here, she just said 'Don't get arrested' I have come here to save as many dogs as we can and to stop the festival.' She said she was shocked at the number of dogs crammed together in the cages at the slaughterhouse. 'I went into the cage and some of the dogs ran up to me and let me stroke them,' she said. 'Most of them are stolen pet dogs.' Ms Reed, 33, who works for the National Trust, and her partner Ben Mullins, both from Swindon, paid 1,200 each to fly to Yulin to help with the rescue, arriving on Sunday on their ever first visit to China. 'I changed my mind 100 times before I decided 'Let's do this',' she said. 'We are not here to be heroes. We are here for the dogs.' Ms Reed described the conditions of the dogs in the slaughterhouse as 'disgusting and horrendous'. 'The smell is unbearable,' she said. 'There is a dead dog, two dogs who are dying and dogs fighting. It is heart-breaking. 'I hope these dogs we have saved can find a home. Every dog should have a home where they are treated properly.' FROM CAGE TO PLATE: HOW DOGS ARE BLOWTORCHED SO FESTIVAL-GOERS CAN ENJOY 'CRACKLING' Delicacy: Dog meat may not taste great, but people still flock to eat it. Here, it has been cooked with chilli, garlic and ginger From cage to dinner plate, butchers at Yulin Dog Meat Festival slit the animals' throats, blanch them in boiling water and blowtorch their fur to make 'dog crackling', MailOnline can reveal. Dogs are then diced into chunks and stir-fried with chilli, ginger and garlic and served as a delicacy. The full sickening detail of how household pets become ingredients for meals is laid bare by meat traders Customer Lu Guanghui, a 70-year-old retired farmer, said: 'It is not the most delicious meat. It is like beef but a little tougher and similar in texture to goat. It also has a rich flavour. However I do believe it is one of the healthiest meats. 'I have eaten it once every five days since I was a boy. My father, grandfather and great-grandfather ate it before me. It is a traditional Chinese food and we are proud of our tradition in Yulin.' Star dish: The dog's skin is blow-torched to become 'crackling', a prized part of the dish that sells for 35 RMB for a a 500g plate (3.60) Dog meat with crackling - or 'cuipi gourou' - is one of the most popular dishes at the festival. The crackling is the skin of the dog and is a prized part of the dish and sells for 35 RMB for a a 500g plate (3.60) suitable for two people. The crackling effect on dogs' skins is created in the slaughterhouses where, after having their throats slit and being put into vats of boiling water and de-hairing machines, the dogs' bodies are blow-torched. The blow-torching means the dog is half cooked before it reaches the market stalls where it is chopped up and sold to order by the kilogram, usually for 15 RMB per 500 grams. In restaurants, the dog meat is chopped into chunks and then stir-fried for three to four minutes with garlic, chilli peppers, fresh ginger and star anise. Stomach churning: Before they can be blow-torched, however, the dogs are put into vats of boiling water and de-hairing machines Lu Guanghui added: 'Dog meat makes you strong. It is particularly good for your back and your spine. It makes you stand up straight like a man. 'These so-called animal lovers who object to our traditional food have something wrong in their brains. They don't understand the countryside ways. 'In any case, when dogs get old they often go mad so it is better to kill them and eat them before they try to eat you.' Advertisement She said she had been shocked to see how many stalls in Yulin were serving dog meat on the morning of the festival not just in the city centre but out in the suburbs and surrounding villages. 'When you see the sheer scale of the festival, you think: 'Are we fighting a losing battle?' Mr Mullins, 30, an IT executive, said: 'I came along with Helen because I didn't want her to come out here on her own. 'What I've seen here is absolutely horrific. I was speechless when I first saw the slaughterhouse. The way the dogs are treated is unbelievable. 'I don't think the dog meat industry would be such a big issue if they were killing dogs in a humane way but they are tortured and beaten.' Another of the rescuers, Californian Deborah Hall, said: 'I am surprised to see how many little dogs and how many thoroughbreds such as Pomeranians are among the dogs here. 'They are obviously stolen pets. A lot of them are very sweet natured and have collars on. They were obviously someone's pets because they are so happy to be touched.' Reprieve: Rescue leader Marc Ching admitted he had paid the owners of the slaughterhouse in a last ditch attempt to save the animals. In total he hopes to save some 900 dogs from the slaughterhouses Campaign: 'The slaughter houses will stay closed for every day of the festival and the festival lasts 10 days. I will pay for their taking for every day they stay closed and my team will check that they remain closed' Hope: Mr Ching added: 'This is all about showing the world there is hope. If we show that, I believe the international community will step in and champion the cause so that next year the festival doesn't even exist' Team leader Mr Ching confirmed he had secured the dogs' release by paying the slaughterhouses to shut for the festival. 'I'm sad to say that but it's true,' he said, admitting it was not the ideal solution. 'The slaughter houses will stay closed for every day of the festival and the festival lasts 10 days. I will pay for their taking for every day they stay closed and my team will check that they remain closed. 'This makes a statement that for the first time in the history of this Chinese dog festival, there is a glimmer of hope that outside groups can come in and change history. 'This is all about showing the world there is hope. If we show that, I believe the international community will step in and champion the cause so that next year the festival doesn't even exist.' Mr Ching's volunteers were last night moving the dogs by truck with the help of another NGO. He said he hoped to move a total of 900 dogs from six slaughterhouses in the next 24 hours. Help: He believes the international community could step in and help if they see there is a way to stop the festival going ahead Popular: However, across Yulin, market stalls were piled high with roasted dog carcasses on Tuesday morning and diners queued up outside the city's most popular dog meat restaurants for the festival's busiest day. Pictured: An activist rescues a dog 'Even if this action just creates a shortage of dogs at some restaurants and makes the price of dog meat more expensive this year we will have achieved something,' Mr Ching said. Across Yulin, market stalls were piled high with roasted dog carcasses on Tuesday morning and diners queued up outside the city's most popular dog meat restaurants for the festival's opening and busiest day. North Korea conducted two back-to-back tests of a powerful new medium-range missile on Wednesday, with at least one launch ending in failure, South Korea's Defence Ministry said. The first test shortly before 6.00am was deemed to have failed, but the ministry said it was unable to confirm the status of a second launch detected two hours later from the same location on the east coast. Both test were believed to be of a much-hyped, intermediate-range Musudan missile capable of reaching US bases as far away as Guam. UN resolutions ban North Korea from any use of ballistic missile technology and, just hours before Wednesday's launch efforts, the Pentagon had warned Pyongyang against pressing ahead with any missile test. Scroll down for video North Korea conducted two back-to-back tests of a powerful new medium-range missile on Wednesday, with at least one launch ending in failure, South Korea's Defence Ministry said. North Korean missiles roll through Pyongyang's Kim Il-Sung Square in this 2015 file image In a statement, the South Korean defence ministry stressed that any such test was 'a clear violation of UN resolutions,' while Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said it 'cannot be tolerated.' North Korea had previously carried out four failed Musudan tests this year, in a setback for a weapons programme that ultimately aspires to develop a proven nuclear strike capability against the US mainland. The Musudan has an estimated range of anywhere between 2,500 and 4,000 kilometres (1,550 to 2,500 miles). The lower range covers the whole of South Korea and Japan, while the upper range would include US military bases on Guam. First unveiled as an indigenous missile at a military parade in Pyongyang in October 2010, the Musudan has never been successfully flight-tested. Three failures in April were seen as an embarrassment for North Korea's leadership, coming ahead of a rare ruling party congress that was meant to celebrate the country's achievements. Another attempt in May was also deemed to have failed. North Korea (whose leader Kim Jong-Un is pictured in May) had previously carried out four failed Musudan tests this year, in a setback for a weapons programme that ultimately aspires to develop a proven nuclear strike capability against the US mainland A man watches TV news showing file footage of a North Korean missile launch at a railway station in Seoul on April 28, 2016. Three failures in April were seen as an embarrassment for North Korea's leadership Wednesday's tests came with military tensions still running high following Pyongyang's fourth nuclear test in January and a long-range rocket launch a month later that saw the UN Security Council impose its toughest sanctions to date on the North. During the party congress in May, North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un had personally extended an offer of military dialogue with the South. The proposal was repeated several times by the North's military, but Seoul dismissed all the overtures as insincere 'posturing' given Kim's vow at the same congress to push ahead with the country's nuclear weapons programme. In recent months, North Korea has claimed a series of technical breakthroughs in developing an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of delivering a nuclear warhead to targets across the continental United States. The claimed achievements included miniaturising a nuclear warhead to fit on a missile, developing a warhead that can withstand atmospheric re-entry and building a solid-fuel missile engine. The North also hailed the successful test of an engine specifically designed for an ICBM that would 'guarantee' an eventual nuclear strike on the US mainland. Outside experts have treated a number of the claims with scepticism, while acknowledging that the North has made significant strides in upgrading its nuclear arsenal. A Canadian couple who tried to cure their son's meningitis using homeopathic and herbal remedies said their 18-month-old died because of a faulty ambulance. David and Collet Stephan, of Alberta, lost their son Ezekiel to meningitis in 2012 and were found guilty of failing to provide the necessaries of life in April. The couple, who have three other sons aged eight, three and one, face up to five years in prison and will be sentenced later this week. They spoke to Del Bigtree, the producer of anti-vaccination documentary Vaxxed, in a video shared on Facebook Monday - and insisted they hadn't used maple syrup as medication and instead said their child became brain-dead because he was deprived of oxygen in the ambulance. However there was no finding that the ambulance was responsible in any way during the Stephans' conviction two months ago. Scroll down for video David and Collet Stephan, of Alberta, lost their son Ezekiel to meningitis in 2012 and were found guilty of failing to provide the necessaries of life in April. But they said in a video shared on Monday (pictured) that the 18-month-old actually died because of a faulty ambulance David Stephan said Ezekiel (pictured) became brain-dead after becoming deprived of oxygen in an ambulance that 'did not have the proper equipment' David Stephan, who said after he and his wife were found guilty that they were being punished for their parenting choices, told Bigtree in Monday's video that their case has become a parental rights issue. 'Ultimately it comes down to whether we have the right to vaccinate or not vaccinate without being held liable,' he said, 'or whether or not we have to rush our children to the doctor's every time they get just the sniffles in fear that something may randomly happen and then we're held liable.' He accused the media of misrepresenting him and his wife and their actions in the lead-up to Ezekiel's death. 'They've tried to distance us from the average person, to say he was too stiff to get in his car seat, that he had to be fed somehow through an eye-dropper, that he was being treated for meningitis with maple syrup - that's not the case at all,' Stephan said. Canadian authorities said during the couple's trial that they did not call for an ambulance until Ezekiel stopped breathing and that they had fed him supplements with an eye-dropper. But Stephan refuted these accusations in Monday's clip, adding: 'We were treating our child with different homeopathic remedies, different herbal remedies like tens of thousands of people do.' The Stephans, who run a nutritional supplements company, said at the time of their trial that they thought their son had croup. The Stephans (pictured with Ezekiel, left, as a baby) face up to five years in prison and will be sentenced this week. They have three other sons who are eight, three and one years old Ezekiel (pictured) died in 2012 and his father said Monday he was deprived of oxygen for eight minutes. Stephan denied using maple syrup as medication and said he and his wife used homeopathic remedies 'like tens of thousands of people do' He insisted he and his wife had done 'nothing out of the ordinary' and that Ezekiel hadn't been severely ill until 'everything just came to a crash'. Ezekiel 'ended up in an ambulance that didn't have the right equipment and subsequently ended up brain-dead,' Stephan told Bigtree. 'Unfortunately the ambulance that ended up taking our sons off our hands did not have the proper equipment. He went for over eight minutes without any oxygen whatsoever.' A rep for Alberta Health Services contacted by the DailyMail.com declined to comment and said it would be up to the court. Paramedic Kenneth Cherniawsky, who treated Ezekiel and testified during the Stephans' trial, said in March that the ambulance did not contain the proper bag valve mask and endotracheal tube for a child of Ezekiel's size. These two pieces of equipment are meant to provide patients with oxygen. But Cherniawsky said air was moving into Ezekiel's body, causing his chest to rise and fall,Global News reported at the time. He told the court that he had done everything he could to help the little boy. Stephan wrote on Facebook after he and his wife were found guilty in April: 'The flood gates have now been opened and if we do not fall in line with parenting as seen fit by the government, we all stand in risk of criminal prosecution. 'Remember what the crown prosecutors' closing remarks were to combat the fact that the ill-equipped ambulance resulted in Ezekiel's brain death.' Prosecutor Lisa Weich called the case 'incredibly sad' at the time, CBC reported, adding: 'They definitely, definitely loved their son, but as stated in our closing argument and even in our opening arguments, unfortunately, sometimes love just isn't enough. 'Parents still have to follow the standard of care that is set by the criminal law.' When Bigtree asked the Stephans what they would tell their three other children if they have to go to prison, Ezekiel's father said: 'It's a hard thing to communicate to a three-year-old and a one-year-old, why Mommy and Daddy won't be around anymore. 'Our eight-year-old is already somewhat understanding of the issue and he's already taking it quite badly.' The documentary Vaxxed, produced by Bigtree, claims that the Centers For Disease Control And Prevention (CDC) ignored data linking the MMR vaccine to autism, and claims to unveil a cover-up. Robert De Niro pulled the documentary from the Tribeca Film Festival in March, saying at the time: 'My intent in screening this film was to provide an opportunity for conversation around an issue that is deeply personal to me and my family. 'However, we have concerns with certain things in this film that we feel prevent us from presenting it in the Festival program. We have decided to remove it from our schedule.' Had flowers tattooed over them and says they now feel 'like breasts again' The 46-year-old from Queensland struggled to get used to new implants She had a double mastectomy and breast reconstruction in 2013 A breast cancer survivor was heartlessly abused by social media trolls who said she had 'ruined her nipples' after she tattooed her implants with flowers. Karen Deegan was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2009 and underwent a mastectomy four years later. The 46-year-old from Caloundra, Queensland, had to have two breast reconstructions but was never able to get used to her new breasts. Unable to have her nipples reconstructed due to possible complications, Mrs Deegan chose to have her 'mounds' tattooed with intricate black flowers. She shared the results on social media, winning the admiration of thousands of followers. Breast cancer survivor Karen Deegan had black flowers tattooed across her implants after struggling to get used to her reconstructed cleavage but was abused on social media who trolls asking where her nipples were Mrs Deegan (seen above with her husband Albert) had to undergo two breast reconstructions in 2013 after her double mastectomy Some however slammed the look, telling her she had 'ruined the natural beauty of the nipple.' Another said coldly: 'Ladies, never tattoo your t***. Just don't.' while another commentator told her she the tattoos would look 'nasty' in old age. Undeterred by their abuse, Mrs Deegan responded to thank tattoo artist Whitney Develle for the flowers. 'Whitney has definitely changed how I feel. My apologies to the uneducated people if the pictures offend you, these weren't my breasts, they were removed and reconstructed and although reconstructed breast look normal in clothing they certainly don't underneath. 'Some women go on to have nipple reconstruction, after been through all the surgeries and just couldn't do anymore and my surgeon agreed that it wasn't a good idea to do them, so I choose to do art on them as they weren't breasts to me anymore. 'Well that was until Whitney created this amazing work of art on them. I can now look at them as boobs. Mrs Deegan's tattoos were shared on social media by thousands of well-wishers despite trolls' comments about her nipples The Queensland mother visited Garage Ink in Brisbane (above) where artist Whitney Develle gave her her tattos for free Mrs Deegan said the tattoos 'changed her life' and that she now felt as though she had breasts again 'They may not have the feeling of boobs but I can look at them with the biggest smile on my face.' She visited the artist at her Brisbane studio, Garage Ink, earlier this month for the first of their appointments. Speaking of her decision later, she told The Sunshine Coast she never thought she would feel the same way about her breasts after undergoing the reconstruction. ''I thought I would never be the same, they never looked like breasts to me. 'My fake boobs felt nothing like boobs. They were two mounds. With tattoos, oh my God, they look like breasts again.' Ms Develle, whose other work includes covering up self-harm scars for free, credited the woman for her bravery, describing her as someone she 'barely had words' for. A photograph showing an enormous crocodile caught in a popular fishing spot has been terrifying viewers from Australia to the UK and Africa. The photo was posted on Facebook with warnings that people should avoid waters where the monster reptile was caught - but few clues to the actual location. A woman in the UK posted the photo, which left thousands of people desperately trying to work out where the massive creature has come from. In the photo three men can be seen standing on each other's shoulders to show just how big the crocodile is as it hangs from a tree. Scroll down for video Three men stand on each other's shoulders to show the length of the monster crocodile hanging from a tree 'Now when they say don't fish waste (sic) deep please LISTEN people this is a proper FLAT DOG,' Lynsey Clayton Saudan, who uploaded the photo, commented on her Facebook page. The image has now been shared more than 12,000 with many croc crusaders believing that the photograph could have been taken in the Northern Territory or Far North Queensland. However, the original post gives away a few clues that the animal's origin may well be much further away. Ms Saunders is described as a 'fulltime mum' on her Facebook profile who is originally from Bulawayo in Zimbabwe, but now lives in Southampton in the UK. Lynsey Clayton Saudan from the UK, but who is originally from Bulawayo in Zimbabwe, posted the picture on her Facebook page The term 'flat dog' that she uses to describe the crocodile in the post is also Zimbabwean slang for crocodile. This was proof enough for some people that the animal was caught in Africa and that the picture was taken there. But until Ms Clayton Saudan actually clarifies the location, arguments about where it was found will rage on. A rare Chinese vase used for decades as a door stop could make 1 million at auction. The blue and white vase was discovered as a hallway decoration in a Birmingham home after auctioneers were invited there to value its contents. Now it is expected to attract worldwide attention when it goes under the hammer at Hansons Auctioneers in Etwall, Derbyshire, on July 1. A Chinese vase which was used as a door stop could make 1million at auction (Charles Hanson star of BBC1's Bargain Hunt pictured) Commenting on the find, Charles Hanson, manager of the auction house and a star of BBC1 Bargain Hunt, said: The vase was uncovered in a West Midland home and had previously been used for many years as a door stop. The current vendor inherited the item from his Great Aunt Flo in 1978. She was an antiques dealer in her native Cornwall, but despite that, appears to have had no idea as to its true value. She used it as a doorstop until it was passed down to her great nephew. He kept it on display as a talking point in his hallway, but after years of passing it each time he entered or left his house he decided to have it valued because he always had an inkling it could be worth something. Adrian Rathbone, Hansons associate director, has set a guide price of between 300,000 and 500,000, but the firm believes the sale price could more than double that if wealthy Chinese collectors end up in a bidding war. Mr Rathbone said: On examining it, I was quite surprised at how big it was at 66cm (26in) high. Painted in blue I was particularly mesmerised by the character mark on the base of the vase. Adrian Rathbone, Hansons associate director, has set a guide price of between 300,000 and 500,000 for the vase Mr Hanson added: Its a quite spell-bounding vase, made in China during the reign of Emperor Qianlong in the 18th Century, the vase was just possibly manufactured by the Imperial kilns for the Emperors Summer Palace. Of hexagonal outline, it is brilliantly painted in tones of cobalt blue. With boughs of pomegranate and peach alternating with flowering branches, it is a work of art, painted with the Qianlong mark to the base. With important Chinese porcelain once removed from China during the 19th century and being bought back by Chinese billionaires today, pedigree and provenance is so important in a market today where later copies can easily deceive the more cautious collector. The provenance of this vase is good. Our client inherited the vase from a great aunt who had acquired it during her life in Cornwall in the 1920s. Mr Hanson went on: The vase will find its price level and whatever it makes, as an auctioneer it is the theatre and drama I thrive on. Our country is awash with fascinating treasures languishing in homes and sometimes such remarkable finds can be life-changing for a client. I have always dreamed of bringing my gavel down on a 1 million lot, and this could perhaps be the one! He said the vendor wishes to remain anonymous. The manner of vases decoration was inspired by artists working on porcelain in the Yongzheng period (1723-1735). The design became one of the most favoured designs for all the noble Palaces in the period by his son Emperor Qianlong. A similar vase can be found in the Nanjing Museum in China, and important other museum and private collections. The Remain campaign has tried to scare us to death about the terrible damage which will be done to the British economy if we leave the European Union. What no one has explained, however, is that the majority of our partners in Europe 19 out of the 28 nations are members of the eurozone which is delivering an economic catastrophe of historic proportions. Instead, the Remain camp has resorted to talking down the performance of Britains economy post-Brexit, without any reference to the parlous state of the eurozone. The more negative the language Project Fear has used, the more it damages and confuses businesses and consumers, and the more it therefore becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy. In warning citizens of the dangers of a Leave vote, the Prime Minister David Cameron and Chancellor George Osborne have resorted to the most negative forecasts in living memory about the prospects for Britain. Unemployment: Spain (pictured, file image) is now showing signs of recovery, yet youth unemployment there remains staggeringly high at 46 per cent Cameron has claimed that Brexit would put a bomb under the UK economy, and Osborne says that leaving Europe would crash the economy. Yet perhaps they should look closer at the economic bloc they are trying to shackle us to. In a harsh new report on the eurozone, the International Monetary Fund says that growing political divisions and Euroscepticism have weakened prospects for collective action, leaving the euro area increasingly vulnerable to a number of risks. In other words, the home-grown problems of Continental Europe are so serious that the eurozone could be in danger of collapse, irrespective of what happens in this weeks referendum. Unemployment across the region stands at an alarming 10 per cent, more than twice that in Britain. Financial and industrial output in many EU countries has been stagnating or falling for several years. That in turn makes those countries increasingly poor markets for Britains exporters. Budget deficits and debt are also piling up in the eurozone, rendering several countries close to bankruptcy. Most dangerous of all, the banking system has been holed below the waterline with an enormous pile of bad debts which are far in excess of the rescue funds set up by Brussels to combat the problem. The truth for Britain is that being part of this deeply flawed market can only harm and worsen our prosperity. FAILED BANKS RUIN RECOVERY Eight years have passed since the worst global financial crisis for a century, and many banks across Europe are so damaged that they are still unable to lend. The International Monetary Fund says that bad loans by the banks those which are unlikely ever to be paid back stand at an astonishing 900 billion (700 billion). The biggest calamity is in Italy, which accounts for the largest amount of rotten lending, with 200 billion (155 billion) of loans made to companies that are broke. The worlds oldest commercial bank, Monte dei Paschi di Siena, has been rescued by the authorities at least twice, and is drowning in a sea of festering loans. Near-bankrupt Greek banks are also weighed down with bad loans, and are being kept afloat with cash supplied by the European Central Bank in Frankfurt. Even Germany is not immune: the countrys biggest lender, Deutsche Bank, lost 6.7 billion (5.2 billion) last year. Banks are, of course, the life support system for national economies, providing the loans and the credit needed by business and consumers to support growth. Thats why small businesses in particular have been strangled by the inability of the European banks to serve their needs, which in turn is crushing enterprise, investment and growth. Belatedly, the European Central Bank has sought to re-float the banking system by pumping 40 billion (31 billion ) of free money into the system each month, in the hope of reviving lending. Yet the massive quantitative easing programme is struggling to make any difference at all. Now, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned that left unaddressed, the mounting problems of eurozone banks could lead to systemic risk a posh phrase for Europe-wide collapse. Stagnation: Much of Europe has barely grown in economic terms since the crisis in the single currency erupted in Greece (pictured, May last year) in 2009 SLUMP SPARKS DEPRESSION Much of Europe has barely grown in economic terms since the crisis in the single currency erupted in Greece in 2009. The collapse in output has been especially catastrophic for the people of Greece, who have seen a staggering 27 per cent loss of national wealth despite a series of bail-outs by the IMF, European Central Bank and Brussels. It is by no means alone. Since the launch of the euro in 1999, the Italian economy, the fourth largest in the EU (including the UK) has stagnated and barely grown all. The total increase in output in that time has been just three per cent. To place this in context, Britains economy has expanded by 35 per cent over the same period. In France, no significant growth has been seen since 2011. In each of the past five years, output has been negligible at below one per cent, a figure too low to support any new jobs.Enterprise has been crushed by the unreformed labour markets which have sparked a series of damaging recent strikes. And President Hollandes high taxation has driven tens of thousands of French citizens overseas. As for Germany, in the immediate aftermath of the financial crisis it prospered while its euro area neighbours suffered. But the meltdown in the eurozone had a huge long-term impact on German production, because it has not been able to export so many of its costly cars to southern Europe where no one could afford to buy them. LOST JOBS AND VIOLENT UNREST The cruellest legacy of the eurozone has been the large-scale unemployment across the 19 member countries (with just a few exceptions). At 10.2 per cent, the average jobless rate across the region is twice that of Britain and the United States. The average disguises huge inequalities across the region, of course. At the bottom of the pile is Greece, where more than a quarter of the workforce is on the dole placing enormous strains on the benefits system. Even worse, the youth jobless rate stands at 50 per cent, condemning generations of young people to lives of misery. Spain is now showing signs of recovery, yet youth unemployment there remains staggeringly high at 46 per cent. Italy also is badly hurt by a youth unemployment rate of 36.9 per cent, with few prospects of jobs as the economy slumps amid enormous poverty in the poorer southern region, and in Sardinia, one of the most socially deprived areas of the country. France, meanwhile, is struggling to reform its labour laws to make them more flexible, causing angry industrial disputes which have caused nationwide transport chaos. The overall jobless rate remains twice that of the UK. The only big exception in the eurozone is Germany, where an ageing population means there is nearly full employment. Conversely, the shortage of labour in Germany explains the open-door policy Chancellor Angela Merkel extended to migrants from the Middle East and beyond. Fury: Citizens across Europe protest about being left impoverished. Pictured are demonstrators in Portugal where austerity has followed bailouts DEFICITS AND DEBTS PILE UP Huge, unmanageable budget deficits mean that many of the 19 eurozone countries are in breach of the conditions of EU membership, which restrict government borrowing to 3 per cent of national output. And the downward economic spiral is desperately hard to escape. Low growth means smaller tax revenues and ever-increasing welfare budgets. In contrast to the UK, which is working to balance its budget by 2019-2020, many European governments have no prospect of doing so, thus making their public finances increasingly precarious. IMF figures show that Belgium, home of the EUs Brussels headquarters, has debts alone which represent 106.8 per cent of the countrys output. In socialist-run France, the debt at 98.2 per cent is almost equal to total wealth, in Spain its at 127.9 per cent, in Italy at a whopping 133 per cent, and in Greece at a mammoth 178.4 per cent. The attempts to pay off these massive debts are an ongoing crisis gnawing away at Europes future. RISE OF THE FAR RIGHT European data shows that only Britain and Ireland have been expanding their trade with non-EU markets in recent years. Some 44.6 per cent of UK exports still go to the EU, but that is a big drop from 54.8 per cent in 1999. In fact, UK trade with the rest of the world expanded consistently between 1999 and 2014. In contrast, instead of looking outwards to the new digitally connected world, Europes trade is increasingly inwardly focused. Data from the EUs statistics service, Eurostat, shows that more than 62 per cent of the goods exported by EU member states have been to other states within the European bloc. Nationalist: Austerity measures have led to a rise in popularity for the far right, particularly in places like Greece, where the Golden Dawn have seen a surge in membership Germanys success in selling to its 27 European partners is the source of enormous, destabilising imbalances as it accumulates wealth at the expense of the other countries. But instead of using its vast reserves to assist development and investment among its partners, it has been unforgiving of poor nations in the eurozone, not least in its refusal to allow ailing Greece more time to repay its huge national debts. Even the IMF now says that if membership of the euro area is to become more attractive, greater help must be given to countries with high debt. Germanys harsh management of the purse strings has been instrumental in the economic dislocation which has fuelled ugly Right-wing movements such as Front National in France, Golden Dawn in Greece, the Freedom Party in Austria and the virulently racist Jobbik party in Hungary. In short, the EU and the eurozone is a club where nothing works and where debts are piled so high that there is virtually no room for any fiscal manoeuvre. Germany is so powerful that no other country can stand up to its control of the levers of power, both in Brussels and through the European Central Bank in Frankfurt, where it is the dominant force. Britains exporters voted with their feet and embraced the rest of the world long before this referendum came into view. But then they have little choice. Adil Khan, 51, (inset) and Qari Abdul Rauf, 52, (top) had been told they are to be deported from the UK for the public good after being part of a gang convicted in 2012 of a catalogue of serious sex offences against young girls. Judges Charlotte Welsh and Judge Siew Ling Yoke, a diversity and community relations judge, released their 31-page legal ruling today stating that Khan had shown a 'breathtaking lack of remorse' and in his and Rauf's case there was a 'very strong public interest in their removal.' A decade after they were jailed and following a legal battle involving multiple legal challenges and appeals up to the Court of Appeal, both have been told their challenge against deportation on human rights grounds has failed. In June, their appeal against deportation was heard before an Immigration Tribunal. Khan got a girl, 13, pregnant but denied he was the father, then met another girl, 15, and trafficked her to others - using violence when she complained. He was sentenced to eight years in 2012 and released on licence four years later. Rauf, a father-of-five, trafficked a 15-year-old girl for sex, driving her to secluded areas to have sex with her in his taxi and ferry her to a flat in Rochdale where he and others had sex with her. He was jailed for six years and released in November 2014 after serving two years and six months of his sentence. The Rochdale grooming gang's abuse was dramatised in a BBC programme called Three Girls (bottom). Killer: Ben Butler brutally murdered his five-year-old daughter Ellie. His partner, Jennie Gray, took his side Nothing epitomised Jennie Gray's obsessive devotion to Ben Butler more than the scene which unfolded at the Old Bailey after he left the witness box. For five days, Butler had portrayed himself as a loving father. Ellie's death was a tragic accident, he had claimed; his daughter had fallen over and hit her head. 'I'm having an unfair trial,' he declared. When, finally, he returned to the dock, Gray congratulated him on his 'performance', slapping the palms of his hands. A 'mini high-five,' one shocked courtroom observer called it. Earlier, Gray blew kisses to him. Since Butler was remanded in custody in 2014, she had visited him no less than 190 times. But for her unwavering support, Ellie might still be alive today. Gray, 36, ignored the bruises which routinely appeared on Ellie's face, along with the grip marks on her throat and the broken shoulder she suffered just weeks before her death. Butler had been jailed once before for assaulting Ellie. The conviction was overturned but Gray knew of his violence. Still she stood by him. Her warped loyalty to brutish Butler not only cost her Ellie but her relationship with her own parents. 'I don't call her my daughter any more and I never want to see her again,' said her father Neal Gray this week. Ellie's adored granddad had looked after her with his late wife Linda ('Nana') after the youngster was removed from her parents when Butler was jailed the first time in 2009. Tragically, Mrs Gray died of cancer on the day the murder trial opened in April. 'Lin was trying to hang on to see justice done for Ellie but she didn't manage it,' Mr Gray said poignantly. 'I'm working with my two other children, who were also devoted to Ellie, to expose what went on and get answers nobody has so far been prepared to give us about why Ellie had to die. 'I want to make sure this never happens to another child.' The question that haunts them most is why their own daughter stood by Butler. Not once, though, did Jennie Gray question her boyfriend's credentials as a father, a man who referred to his children as 'c****.' Gray won a scholarship to the Brit School, securing bit parts in EastEnders and The Bill, before becoming a graphic artist. Meanwhile Butler, a removals man, was the product of a broken home and a mother who drank. He was also a vicious recidivist. The two were not living together when Ellie was born in December 2006 To start with, Butler played the doting dad. He wanted his daughter's name to begin with 'E' because he supported Everton. He bought her books, DVDs, and a teddy. 'I still remember her sucking on my little finger,' he told the Old Bailey Text messages revealed the 'torrent of verbal abuse' which Butler regularly unleashed on his subservient partner, often in relation to their daughter (with whom she is pictured above) She had even experienced what Butler was capable of herself. A string of internet searches on her laptop revealed how she'd researched 'treatment for broken noses' and 'broken ankle' and 'stabbed leg during pregnancy'. The sympathy we naturally feel for women subjected to domestic violence does not cannot be extended to Gray. Her commitment to Butler, at the expense of six-year-old Ellie and her sibling, was laid bare in a message found on her phone to him: 'I really do want you more than anything I ever wanted, even more than my children.' Her misguided loyalty culminated in the grotesque charade of the 999 call she made on the day of Ellie's death in 2013. 'It's my daughter,' pleaded a hysterical Gray to the ambulance operator. 'My daughter's not breathing properly, she's collapsed, she's not moving she's not breathing, she's not breathing.' Gray began pumping her chest. '14, 15, 16, 17...' she can be heard frantically counting in the background. It was all an act to conceal the fact Ellie had died at least two hours earlier when Gray was at work and Butler was home at their flat in Sutton, South London, with the children. Shamefully, Ellie's sibling, now in foster care, was left to discover Ellie's lifeless body on the floor of her bedroom. The jury was not told this. When the story began to unravel, Gray attempted to justify the wicked deception. She claimed that if the police had known Butler was the only adult present when Ellie died they would have framed him out of revenge because his 2007 conviction for assaulting Ellie had been quashed. But Butler, 36, had turned on Ellie for no other reason than he resented his domestic responsibilities. Gray's relationship with Butler is at the heart of this horror story, which began a decade ago. Gray was out celebrating her brother's 31st birthday when he fell off off his stool. Butler came to the rescue, returning him to his seat. 'Ben asked me if I was okay and it went from there,' Gray said in evidence. Within two months she was pregnant. Gray's desperation to please Butler is summed up in a letter discovered inside the flat. 'Dear Jesus,' she begs, 'please, don't let Ben leave me, but make him learn to like me' Gray came from a high-achieving family. Her brother was an accounts manager for an oil firm, her sister worked at the Natural History Museum. Gray herself won a scholarship to the Brit School, securing bit parts in EastEnders and The Bill, before becoming a graphic artist. Meanwhile Butler, a removals man, was the product of a broken home and a mother who drank. He was also a vicious recidivist. The two were not living together when Ellie was born in December 2006. To start with, Butler played the doting dad. He wanted his daughter's name to begin with 'E' because he supported Everton. He bought her books, DVDs, and a teddy. 'I still remember her sucking on my little finger,' he told the Old Bailey. But Ellie was just six weeks old when she suffered burns to her forehead and fingers. He said she had been sitting too near a radiator at his flat. A week later, Ellie was back in casualty. This time he said he had found her 'all floppy' and 'sheet-white' in her car seat. Doctors suspected Ellie was a victim of 'shaken baby syndrome.' Butler was arrested and jailed for 18 months in 2009. He served a little over six months before being released on bail pending a decision by the Court of Appeal to overturn the verdict. Medical evidence had implied that Ellie's injuries could have resulted from a traumatic birth. But is there anyone, apart from Jennie Gray who doubts the jury at his original trial got it wrong? Someone who knew Gray back then described her as 'insecure and fragile'. Women involved with men like Butler usually are. But few would have sacrificed their own children. Ellie had been put in the care of her maternal grandparents when Butler was sent down. Fearing her second child would be removed too, Gray tried to hide her pregnancy by reverting to her surname from a brief previous marriage and moving to the south coast. Social services found out after the youngster was born. Gray was arrested after six police cars tailed her on the M25 and the child was placed with foster parents. It was not the first time Gray had been deceitful. She had falsely claimed thousands of pounds in incapacity, housing and council tax benefits, despite earning nearly 30,000 a year. In 2012, magistrates ordered Gray to carry out 200 hours' community service. To start with, Butler played the doting dad. He wanted his daughter's name to begin with 'E' because he supported Everton. He bought her books, DVDs, and a teddy. 'I still remember her sucking on my little finger,' he told the Old Bailey Ellie was just six weeks old when she suffered burns to her forehead and fingers. A week later, Ellie was back in casualty. This time he said he had found her 'all floppy' and 'sheet-white' in her car seat. Doctors suspected Ellie was a victim of 'shaken baby syndrome.' Butler was arrested and jailed for 18 months in 2009 Later that year, both Ellie and her sibling were returned to her and the recently-freed Butler, after a High Court hearing. This was against the advice of social services and the wishes of Gray's own parents. 'You will have blood on your hands,' her father Neal, a former postman, told the judge during a dramatic courtroom confrontation. They spent 80,000 in life savings on fighting to keep Ellie, but the money ran out. Consequently they were not represented. Butler won custody. At their flat in Sutton, where Butler and Gray were now living, bedrooms had been prepared for Ellie and her sibling. But the atmosphere was toxic. The couple could be heard rowing constantly; some suspected they were taking cocaine; in her diary, Gray describes being 'off our faces'. The reality of life for their children was revealed at a family court hearing after Ellie's death. Butler's feelings towards his children, little short of hatred, were confirmed in text messages to Gray. 'I want you to be a lot tougher [with Ellie],' he said in one. 'She's being an absolute c***. She sat there sulking the whole ******* time.' Ellie's doting grandparents knew the very second they saw police and forensics officers outside the couple's flat that their granddaughter was in trouble A policeman stands guard outside the Croydon property after Ellie's body was found on her bedroom floor In another, referring to her sibling, he said: 'That kid getting worse Jen. Don't listen. Has bit of attitude. P***** me off.' Did her perceived bad behaviour have consequences? It seems so. Ellie was caught on camera in three seemingly accidentally recorded clips in the months before her death. Two show her with a black eye and what appears to be bruising on her forehead. In another video, she can be seen wearing pink pyjamas with a heavy bandage wrapped around her leg. Butler can be heard shouting foul-mouthed abuse down the phone. Ellie does not react as he erupts: 'Don't ask me to do something which you ain't ****ing done. 'Then sort it out. Now **** off.' He would also send menacing texts to Gray. 'Whore'. 'Ugly bitch,' he called her. Gray's response was to have Botox. Butler was also unhappy with the way little Ellie looked. He once took her to the GP to ask for her ears to be pinned back because he thought them too big. Gray's desperation to please Butler is summed up in a letter discovered inside the flat. 'Dear Jesus,' she begs, 'please, don't let Ben leave me, but make him learn to like me.' Nothing epitomised Jennie Gray's obsessive devotion to Ben Butler more than the scene which unfolded at the Old Bailey after he left the witness box. When, finally, he returned to the dock, Gray congratulated him on his 'performance', slapping the palms of his hands. A 'mini high-five,' one shocked courtroom observer called it 'His bark is worse than his bite,' Gray told the court. She claimed she was being 'melodramatic' for giving the impression, in diary entries and texts, that Butler had terrorised her. He was an 'amazing father,' she insisted. Ellie's grandparents saw her for the last time at McDonald's in Sutton on October 27, 2013. 'I could tell from the expression in her eyes and her actions what a terrible state Ellie was in,' said Mr Gray. 'Her eyes were sunken, she'd lost weight and looked gaunt, haggard and frightened.' There were also bruises on her face. When they said goodbye, Ellie told her Nana and Grandad how much she missed them. The following day she was dead. 'Straight away when Lin saw police officers [at their front door] she said: 'Is it Ellie?'. We were just frozen with shock,' said Mr Gray. 'Now she is dead that bereavement continues every single day. 'She was our shining light. The devastation is complete and utter.' Mr Gray will also have to live with the knowledge of what his own daughter did to protect Butler. Detectives say that Ellie had died two hours before the emergency phone call was made, when Butler was alone with Ellie and her sibling. The couple used the time to cover up this incriminating fact. Butler even took the dog for a walk and commented on the weather to a neighbour. Clothes were put in the wash and Gray's torn-up diary (in one she said Butler had her 'kicked her in the 'boobs' and genitals) was found in the bins outside. One of the paramedics who stretchered Ellie out of the flat also remembers something else Ben Butler did that afternoon. 'I smelt a strong smell of aftershave on the father which I had not noticed in the corridor when I was standing next to him,' he said. 'If that were me, that would be the last thing I would be thinking about, to spray myself before I left the house.' This is the so-called 'father' that deluded Jennie Gray defended to the very end. Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has revealed he has been to a strip club, likes to drink Chivas Regal and once called in sick because of a hangover. In a segment on KIIS FM's Kyle and Jackie O Show on Wednesday morning Mr Shorten took part in a game of 'Never Have I Ever'. He was required to answer personal questions such as whether he had ever been to a strip club, or had sex against a washing machine. Scroll down for video Bill Shorten has admitted to visiting a strip club 'once or twice... back in the day' in a radio interview He was playing a game of 'Never Have I Ever' while on air with Kyle and Jackie O on Wednesday morning Mr Shorten admitted to the radio duo he had been to a strip club ' once or twice, way back in the day,' adding: 'I left once I realised what it was'. The Opposition Leader was later asked whether he had ever calling in sick due to hangover. 'Back in the day', Mr Shorten admitted. Another question he was asked was whether he had ever had sex against a washing machine, which he denied. When questioned on whether he had ever said the wrong thing during sex, the Labor leader responded saying 'I'm not even going there.' The Opposition Leader was later asked whether he had ever calling in sick due to hangover Another question he was asked was whether he had ever had sex against a washing machine, to which he said he had not 'Some things are just beyond what you choose to answer', Mr Shorten added. He also revealed that he likes to drink Chivas Regal, but has an unopened bottle at home after the store he bought it from left the security cover on it. 'I went to First Choice some months ago... and I paid for it. But the tag is still on it and it's impossible to get off so I've got this completely useless bottle of Chivas Regal which I will return at some point.' Lady Green, 66, is the registered owner of Arcadia The wife of Sir Philip Green has been told to reveal details of the web of firms she is involved in following the collapse of BHS. Politicians probing the stores demise have written to Lady Tina Green about companies registered in her name overseas. They have asked her to explain the trail of money that passes between them and why they are based in tax havens. A list of shareholders and details of her husbands role have also been requested. The probe follows Sir Philips testy appearance before a committee of MPs last week. At the hearing, the tycoon who sold BHS for 1 last year denied knowledge of the accounts of a string of firms linked to the chain, claiming it was his wife who ran them. Lady Green, 66, is the registered owner of Arcadia the retail giant which runs a number of High Street stores such as Topshop and Burton, and once owned BHS. She lives in the tax haven of Monaco, allowing the couple to legally avoid an estimated 130million tax bill on money extracted from BHS alone. Sir Philips appearance came after BHS went into administration in April. Its pension scheme, which has the pensions of 22,000 employees, has a 571million black hole. Iain Wright MP, chairman of the business, innovation and skills committee, said: These complicated arrangements make it very difficult to trace where funds have gone. We are keen to follow the money and look forward to Lady Green in her capacity as owner and ultimate beneficiary of these companies writing to us to explain some of these arrangements and to set out what income her businesses have received from BHS. Frank Field MP and Mr Wright, joint chairmen of the committee investigating the collapse of BHS, wrote to Lady Green yesterday demanding more information about her business dealings. A reply has been requested by Tuesday. Sir Philip stunned MPs last week when he insisted that he was unable to produce off-shore company accounts, which are held in Lady Greens name. The 64-year-old said he never looked at the accounts of the family empire, adding: I have never made or moved a penny from any bank account of our company and I wouldnt even know where to call to get it out. Lady Green (pictured with husband Sir Philip) is the registered owner of Arcadia, which runs Topshop and Burton Menswear. She lives in the tax haven of Monaco Sir Philip Green was quizzed for six hours in the Commons over his role in the demise of BHS and he looks set to be hauled back in for a second session Mr Wright said it was extraordinary Sir Philip did not have access to his wifes overseas accounts. For now the MPs have resisted calling Lady Green to appear in front of them but it is not clear how long this will remain the case. Much depends on the quality of the evidence she supplies in writing. A spokesman for Arcadia said: This letter is headed BHS inquiry what relevance do any of these questions have to BHS? Lady Green will respond through her lawyers in due course. Lady Green was born in England, but has set up home on a super yacht off the coast of Monte Carlo. It is estimated that, since 2000, Sir Philip paid her 400million in BHS dividends. Her husband is understood to have recently taken delivery of a new private jet costing around 46million. 1. A QUESTION OF SOVEREIGNTY Leaving the EU would offer a chance to put the UK in charge of our own destiny and laws again and restore our status as a sovereign nation. According to the Commons Library, up to 60 per cent of regulations originate from the EU and the 28-member Commission in Brussels none of whom were elected. Britains Commissioner, Lord (Jonathan) Hill, is a former lobbyist and Tory researcher who has never stood for elected office in his life. Nor had his predecessor, Cathy Ashton, a Labour appointee and Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament official. 2. STRIKING GLOBAL TRADE DEALS Wed be free to negotiate our own trade deals especially with the worlds emerging new economies. Since we import 89 billion of goods more annually from other EU countries than we sell to them, the EU stands to lose more than Britain if it seeks to impose tariffs post-Brexit. We are a crucial export market for Germany, the EUs most powerful country, which would be the post-Brexit deal-maker. Since we import 89 billion of goods more annually from other EU countries than we sell to them, the EU stands to lose more than Britain if it seeks to impose tariffs post-Brexit. Pictured: Tilbury Docks, London 3. JOB MARKET THAT WOULD STILL EXIST There are an estimated 3.3 million British jobs linked to our membership of the EU. By the same measure, there are more than five million jobs on the Continent that are linked to trade with Britain. This includes one million jobs in Germany, 494,000 in France, 309,000 in Italy and 421,000 in Spain. 4. THE BILLIONS WE GIFT TO BRUSSELS We pay far more into the EU budget than we get back making a net contribution of around 8.5 billion last year (23 million a day), which is more than we spend on the police service or border controls. The NHS costs 8.5 billion a month and the Health Service would get an extra 5 billion a year as a result of Brexit. Also, almost 1 billion of British cash goes to the EU for international aid. 5. HOW TO CONTROL OUR BORDERS Currently theres no upper limit on migration and no proper control of our borders. More than three million EU migrants live in the UK double the number in 2004 when the EU expanded to include Eastern European countries, who have sent more than a million people here (despite the last Labour Government saying it would be only 13,000 a year.) Net migration from EU countries to the UK, according to official figures, is 184,000 a year enough to fill a city the size of Oxford. David Cameron has never hit his target to reduce net migration to the tens of thousands and most agree he never will if we remain inside the EU. Using a new points-system, every applicant to live here would be treated on their merit rather than on their nationality 6. WHAT KIND OF MIGRATION SYSTEM? Under EU law, we must let in any EU citizen regardless of their qualifications. The result? Businesses cant get work permits for highly skilled or educated people from the Commonwealth, U.S., Australia and elsewhere outside the EU. Using a new points-system, every applicant to live here would be treated on their merit rather than on their nationality. Equally, wed be able to accept more genuine refugees. 7. MEDDLING BY FOREIGN JUDGES Parliament is powerless, under EU treaties, to defend itself against the rulings of the European Court of Justice which has interfered in everything from the price of beer to the right to deport terror suspects. The UK has lost three-quarters of the cases its challenged since 1973. This makes a mockery of the idea that the UKs Supreme Court is supreme. 8. FOREIGN RAPISTS AND KILLERS Thanks to Brussels diktats, some of the EUs most evil killers, rapists and drug-dealers have been allowed to remain here because their right to free movement has been put ahead of keeping the British public safe. A report by the Labour-led Commons Home Affairs Committee said the number of foreign criminals who had not been deported could fill a small town. British jails hold almost 10,000 foreign prisoners including 1,000 Poles. A report by the Labour-led Commons Home Affairs Committee said the number of foreign criminals not been deported could fill a small town. British jails hold almost 10,000 foreign prisoners - including 1,000 Poles 9. KEEPING OUT UNDESIRABLES UK law stops anyone from outside the EU entering Britain if their presence is deemed not conducive to the public good, but Brussels says EU citizens can only be turned away if there is a serious, credible and present threat. Thus the list of criminals able to come here include a Latvian who murdered his wife before moving to the UK, where he killed a 14-year-old girl. Over the past decade, UK officials have only been able to turn away 11,000 EU nationals. 10. PROTECTING US FROM TERRORISM The EUs Frontex border security agency has warned that jihadists are exploiting the Unions open borders and the migrant crisis to sneak into the continent and plot atrocities. Two of the attackers responsible for last years outrages in Paris used exactly this approach. The British head of Europol also said that as many as 5,000 Islamic State-trained jihadists are moving freely in Europe. And Sir Richard Dearlove, ex-head of MI6, said we could be safer outside of the EU as it would be easier to deport fanatics. Leaving the EU would still allow us to work with U.S. intelligence agencies as the so-called gold standard Five Eyes intelligence-sharing partnership consists of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the U.S. and the UK. Sir Richard Dearlove (pictured in 2011), ex-head of MI6, said we could be safer outside of the EU as it would be easier to deport fanatics 11. WILL TURKEY BE ALLOWED TO JOIN? David Cameron has repeatedly refused to drop his governments support for Turkey which has 77 million citizens joining the EU. Yet hes said that at the current rate it wont join until the year 3000 despite the European Commission announcing last week that Turkeys membership application was being accelerated. Before the referendum campaign, the PM said his wish was to pave the road from Ankara [Turkeys capital] to Brussels. Turkish citizens are already being given visa-free access to mainland Europe after a deal that saw the Turks getting 4.6 billion in aid. Campaign group Migration Watch has warned an extra 100,000 Turks would flock to Britain every year if the predominantly Muslim country joined the EU. Campaign group Migration Watch has warned an extra 100,000 Turks would flock to Britain every year if the predominantly Muslim country joined the EU 12. THE CORRUPTION OF EU OFFICIALDOM Last year for the 21st year running! the EU Court of Auditors admitted that Brussels expenditure was compromised by irregularities, with a persistently high level of payment errors, which means too much money is still not spent in accordance with the EUs financial rules. 13. AND THE ROTTEN EUROPEAN ECONOMY By the end of last year, the UK economy was 6.8 per cent larger than it was at the start of 2008, whereas the EU economy was only 1.9 per cent bigger (Frances grew by 2.9 per cent and Italys is 8.8 per cent smaller than in 2008)). Also, unemployment in the UK is five per cent less than half the 10.2 per cent jobless rate in the eurozone. (In Greece, it is 24 per cent with youth unemployment at a desperate 51 per cent and 20 per cent in Spain). Unemployment in the UK is five per cent less than half the 10.2 per cent jobless rate in the eurozone. In Greece, it is 24 per cent with youth unemployment at a desperate 51 per cent (file picture) 14. BUSINESS TIED UP IN RED TAPE Treasury research has shown that the EUs single market rules could impose costs of seven per cent of GDP on the UK economy. At 125 billion a year, thats the equivalent of 4,639 per household. Only 6 per cent of British companies export to the EU but all must comply with EU single market legislation. Small businesses the lifeblood of our economy suffer most, whereas big firms can lobby Brussels. 15. PROTECTING PUBLIC SERVICES Freedom of movement rules mean we have no idea many foreigners settle here which means its impossible to plan the necessary health, education, transport and housing requirements for them. This has led to intense pressures for anyone trying to get a school place for their child or a GP appointment. Rents are rising and first-time buyers struggle to get on the housing ladder as prices soar and supply diminishes. With five more nations Turkey, Serbia, Montenegro, Albania and Macedonia hoping to join the EU, this will only get worse. Patients lined up at 6.30am outside The Sunbury Health Centre, Surrey, for a same-day GP appointment. The picture paints a bleak picture of the oversubscribed health service put under strain by freedom of movement 16. CONTROLLING ASYLUM SEEKERS According to its own statistics, 1.3 million people claimed asylum in the EU last year. Some 363,000 came from Syria. Applicants who get EU citizenship are free to move to the UK. 17. THE FARMING BUDGET SCANDAL Despite contributing 12.5 per cent of the overall EU budget, the UK sees just 7 per cent of the Common Agricultural Policy budget spent here. By contrast, France gets 16.4 per cent, Spain 11.6 per cent, Germany 11.3 per cent, Italy 10.1 per cent and Poland 8.8 per cent. The EUs farm subsidy system meant that prior to 2003, the so-called Single Farm Payment was linked to how much farmers produced leading to massive over-production and waste. Now, farmers dont have to produce a set amount they are paid automatically for keeping land in agricultural condition. As a result, its been reported wealthy landowners absurdly get Brussels payments for having pony paddocks. Despite contributing 12.5 per cent of the overall EU budget, the UK sees just 7 per cent of the Common Agricultural Policy budget spent here. Pictured: A farm on the South Downs, East Sussex 18. THE BARMIEST GREEN LAWS Following the EUs ban on incandescent light-bulbs, many people suffered epilepsy from the flickering, supposedly eco-friendly fluorescent bulbs. Equally controversially, vacuum cleaners sold in the EU have been limited to an output of 1,600 watts. This directive is expected to be extended to kettles, toasters, hair-dryers and other domestic appliances. 19. THE TRUTH ABOUT VAT RATES Under EU rules, once a product is liable for VAT, any EU member government is not allowed to abolish that tax without Brussels approval. Thus, the lowest VAT Westminster can impose is 5 per cent which imposes hardship on some British families with VAT charged at 5 per cent on energy bills. (Our Government even had to seek permission to scrap the levy charged on tampons.) Brussels pockets around 0.3 per cent of VAT paid. 20. LOSING CONTROL OF OUR SEAS EU membership has devastated our fishing industry halving the number of fisherman to fewer than 12,000 since 1975. Under international law, each nation enjoys an Exclusive Economic Zone extending 200 miles from its coast. However, the Common Fisheries Policy pools the zones of member states into a single zone. The first 12 miles is restricted to a nations own fishermen, but the area from 12 miles to 200 miles is open to the fleets of any EU member state. Spanish vessels last year got a quota of 15,546 tonnes of hake for a large area of the Atlantic off Scotland while UK vessels were allowed just 7,131 tonnes. Leaving the EU would allow us to fish our own waters and breathe new life into harbour towns. Michael Gove has made a grovelling apology after comparing pro-EU experts to Nazi propagandists. The Justice Secretary admitted he had been 'clumsy and inappropriate' to make the comments as he dismissed dire forecasts for the consequences of Brexit. The climbdown came after David Cameron branded the remarks a 'massive mistake' and suggested that Mr Gove had 'lost it'. Recalling the Nazis' treatment of Jewish scientist Einstein during the 1930s, Mr Gove had told LBC: 'I think the key thing here is to interrogate the assumptions that are made and to ask if these arguments are good. Michael Gove (pictured) compared economic experts warning about the fall-out of Brexit to the Nazis who orchestrated a smear campaign against Albert Einstein in the 1930s 'We have to be careful about historical comparisons, but Albert Einstein during the 1930s was denounced by the German authorities for being wrong and his theories were denounced, and one of the reasons of course he was denounced was because he was Jewish. 'They got 100 German scientists in the pay of the government to say that he was wrong and Einstein said: 'Look, if I was wrong, one would have been enough.''' Mr Gove added: 'The truth is that if you look at the quality of the analysis, if you look at the facts on the ground, you can come to an appropriate conclusion. 'And the appropriate conclusion, I think, all of us can come to is that with growth rates so low in Europe, with so many unemployed and with the nature of the single currency so damaging, freeing ourselves from that project can only strengthen our economy.' He made his comments after being challenged over why he is not heeding the advice of many economists who have warned that Brexit could have dire consequences and tip the economy into recession. The International Monetary Fund, ten Nobel-prize winning economists and the Bank of England have all warned that leaving the EU could damage the economy. And in a letter in The Times today, the bosses of 1,285 firms that employ 1.75million people write: 'Britain leaving the EU would mean uncertainty for our firms, less trade with Europe and fewer jobs. In a statement today Mr Gove said: 'Yesterday I was asked a question by Iain Dale about the predictions of doom for the economy. 'I answered as I often do with a historical analogy. It was clumsy and inappropriate. 'Obviously I did not mean to imply anything about the motives of those who have spoken out in favour of staying in the EU. 'Throughout the campaign Ive avoided making personal attacks, I'm sorry for speaking so clumsily, and apologise for giving offence. 'I think Britain will be more prosperous if we end our connection to the euro project and I should have answered this question directly.' In a dramatic escalation of Tory infighting earlier, Mr Cameron told Sky News: 'To hear the Leave campaign today sort of comparing independent experts and economists to Nazi sympathisers - I think they have rather lost it. 'These people are independent - economists who have won Nobel prizes, business leaders responsible for creating thousands of jobs, institutions that were set up after the war to try to provide independent advice. It is right to listen.' In a joint statement, three respected economic think-tanks have said 'almost all those who have looked seriously' at the consequences of Brexit agreed it would be highly likely to harm the living standards of UK households. BOND BACKS REMAIN: DANIEL CRAIG JOINS BECKS AND POSH IN URGING VOTERS TO REJECT BREXIT James Bond star Daniel Craig (pictured left) revealed his support for Britain staying in the EU after posing in a T-shirt with the slogan: 'No man is an island. No country by itself. Vote Remain on 23rd June'. It came hours after David and Victoria Beckham (pictured right) declared their support for Britain staying in the EU James Bond star Daniel Craig is the latest celebrity to declare his support for Britain staying in the EU. He was pictured last night wearing a white T-shirt with the slogan: 'No man is an island. No country by itself. Vote Remain on 23rd June.' The picture of the retiring James Bond in the pro-EU T-shirt was first published by Turner Prize-winning artist Wolfgang Tillmans, who told his Instagram followers that Craig had sent him the picture. Minutes after the picture appeared online David Cameron tweeted it along with the words: 'It's great to see Daniel Craig is planning to Vote Remain on Thursday.' It delivers another boost to the Remain campaign after the endorsements of David and Victoria Beckham urged voters to support staying in the EU 'for our children'. The England footballing hero and his fashion designer wife said Britain should be facing the challenges of the world together with its allies. He was joined by his former England colleague Rio Ferdinand, who compared EU membership to playing the success they achieved at Manchester United. Advertisement The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) and Centre for Economic Performance (CEP) said: 'In our lifetimes we have never seen such a degree of unanimity among economists on a major policy issue.' Mr Gove, who co-chairs the Vote Leave campaign, said experts cannot always be trusted and pointed to the German scientists used to denounce Einstein to back up his point. He also hinted that he will quit government if voters do not back Brexit in the EU referendum this week, saying he would 'reflect' on the result before deciding his future. His comments came as the bosses of more than half of Britain's biggest businesses urged voters to avoid causing economic chaos by voting to stay in the EU in tomorrow's historic referendum. In the largest business endorsement of the bitter campaign so far, 1,285 bosses representing 51 of the FTSE 100 firms that a vote to leave the EU would cost jobs, trigger uncertainty and less trade for Britain. 'Britain remaining in the EU would mean the opposite more certainty, more trade and more jobs,' they wrote. 'EU membership is good for business and good for British jobs. That's why, on June 23rd, we back Britain remaining in the EU.' They claim small businesses and their staff are 'particularly vulnerable' from a Brexit vote. Yesterday Mr Gove again attacked David Cameron over his failure to curb immigration. The Justice Secretary, a close friend of the Prime Minister, argued that cutting ties with Brussels was the only way of regaining control over our borders. But he also rejected criticism that the Tories manifesto for the general election had been a 'lie' amid claims David Cameron was told by civil servants four years ago that a key immigration pledge could not be met within the bloc. Asked about his future during an interview on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Gove said: 'I will do exactly as the Prime Minister asks me. 'I want people to concentrate not on my job but on their jobs. Of course, depending on what the result is on Friday, I will reflect and I will decide what is the best course for me.' Mr Gove's latest comments came as six leading figures from the Remain and Vote Leave campaigns went head-to-head in a bruising, two-hour debate at Wembley Arena last night. In the final major showdown of the bitter campaign - coming less than 36 hours before polls open in the historic referendum, leading Brexit campaigner Boris Johnson urged voters to make the EU referendum Britain's 'Independence Day'. He was involved in brutal clashes with Sadiq Khan and fellow Tory Ruth Davidson in the crunch TV debate. With less than 36 hours left until the polls open, Mr Johnson laid into the Remain side for 'talking the country down' by issuing a slew of dire Project Fear warnings about the consequences of cutting ties with Brussels. But newly-installed London Mayor Mr Khan hit back by accusing him of telling 'lie after lie' and running 'Project Hate', while Scottish Conservative leader Ms Davidson lashed out at him for trying to turn the programme into 'the Boris show'. The exchanges came as the sides clashed in a BBC special at Wembley Arena likely to have been watched by millions. Boris Johnson (pictured) said Dyson founder James Dyson was one of many businessmen in favour of Brexit. Sadiq Khan (right) accused the Leave campaign of telling 'lie after lie' Mr Johnson was joined by Tory Treasury minister Andrea Leadsom and Labour's Gisela Stuart for the programme in front of a 6,000 strong live audience. Alongside Mr Khan were Scottish Conservative leader Ms Davidson and TUC Secretary General Frances O'Grady. Taking to the stage in London tonight, Mr Khan said the country would face the 'most important decision for a generation' on Thursday. A Remain vote would mean people are 'both better off and safer'. Audience member Maxine Fothergill said she was a small business owner employing 10 staff and told the panellists that her firm was one of many in the UK that were 'stifled' by EU regulation. Ms Davidson said she knew the EU was 'a bit frustrating but what it means is you cannot be undercut'. She insisted that tariffs and taxes would be increased if we were outside the EU. But Mr Johnson laughed off the idea of tariffs, arguing that Germany sold a fifth of its car output in the UK. 'I must say that I think that it was extraordinary to hear that we would have tariffs imposed on us because everybody knows that this country receives about a fifth of Germany's entire car manufacturing output - 820,000 vehicles a year,' he said. 'Do you seriously suppose that they are going to be so insane as to allow tariffs to be imposed between Britain and Germany? In some of the most heated scenes of the evening, Ms Davidson accused Mr Johnson of not caring about workers, saying he would not 'guarantee jobs'. Former fiancee Brett Rossi has sued Sheen claiming they had sex five times before he told her he was HIV-positive Sheen said he didn't say he was HIV-positive because everyone he had told had turned away from him But the actor, 50, said he had used protection every time and insisted he hadn't infected anyone California law prohibits people with a communicable disease from willfully exposing themselves to someone else Charlie Sheen said on the Today show there were 'two examples' during which he did not disclose his HIV status to his partners Authorities are considering launching a criminal investigation against Charlie Sheen after the actor said on television he hadn't disclosed his HIV status to two of his past sexual partners. The actor, 50, said on the Today show Tuesday there were 'two examples' during which he didn't tell his partner he was HIV-positive - but insisted he had used protection each time. Yet, his admission left the DA 'chomping at the bit' to go after Sheen, a law enforcement source told Radar Online. California law prevents people with a communicable disease from willfully exposing themselves to someone else. Charlie Sheen said on the Today show Tuesday (pictured) that there were 'two examples' during which he didn't disclose his HIV status. A source told Radar Online authorities could launch a criminal investigation But Sheen, who said in November 2015 he found out he was HIV-positive four years prior, said on Tuesday he had never put any of his former partners at risk. Matt Lauer asked Sheen whether he had disclosed his HIV status to all of his previous partners or whether he had not informed them, but had used protection. 'There was two examples, but protection was always in place,' Sheen replied. He said he had chosen not to say he was HIV-positive on these occasions 'for the right reasons'. 'Everyone that I had told up to that moment had shaken me down,' he told Lauer. Sheen's ex-fiancee Brett Rossi (pictured with him in June 2014) filed a lawsuit against him last year, saying they had had sex five times before she found out he was HIV-positive But Radar Online reported on Tuesday that a 'top law enforcement source' had told the website that the DA was looking to launch a criminal investigation following Sheen's admission. 'The DA's office wants to go after him, but no one has come forward yet,' the source told Radar Online. The DailyMail.com has reached out to Sheen's rep for comment. Sheen's ex-fiancee, Brett Rossi, filed a lawsuit last year saying they had had sex five times before she found out he was HIV-positive. Another of Sheen's exes, Bree Olson, said last year he had never disclosed his status to her. But Sheen told Lauer Tuesday the accusations against him were 'baseless'. He couldn't comment on specific proceedings and didn't mention Rossi but assured the host he would prevail. Sheen, who said on Tuesday the levels of virus in his blood are currently undetectable, told Matt Lauer revealing he was HIV-positive seven months ago was like 'being released from prison'. 'We unearthed the stepping stones to a Rubicon of change,' the actor added. He also lashed out Tuesday at the Mexico-based doctor who gave him an alternative treatment after Sheen stopped taking his medication. 'That man is a criminal, he's a charlatan,' Sheen said. The actor, who resumed is HIV treatment afterwards, is now taking part in an FDA trial during which he receives one shot per week instead of taking pills every day. He told Lauer on Tuesday that he did have a few regrets about his past - but was eager to move on. 'I regret not using a condom the one or two times when this whole thing happened. I regret ruining Two and a Half Men. I regret not being more involved in my children's lives growing up, which I am now. That's about it,' Sheen said. British schools face an influx of 261,000 children from the EU if Remain wins, Brexit campaigners claimed last night. Vote Leave warned the figure could swell to 571,000 by 2030 if all five states up for EU membership Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey join in the near future. Priti Patel, a Tory cabinet minister, said the extra demand would put pressure on already 'overstretched' schools. British schools face an influx of 261,000 children from the EU if Remain wins, Brexit campaigners claimed last night. Vote Leave warned the figure could swell to 571,000 by 2030 if all five states up for EU membership Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey join in the near future As the referendum campaign headed into its final day: A senior EU politician warned Europe had lost control of its borders; Migrants at Calais tried to storm their way into Britain; David Cameron complained the debate had 'become very narrowly focused' on immigration; Theresa May made a last-ditch legal bid to deport an Italian killer allowed to stay in Britain by 'dangerous' EU rules; The number of EU migrants applying for UK citizenship rocketed by 30 per cent; It emerged more than 100,000 students a year from outside Europe are failing to go home after finishing their courses; Germany's finance minister said he sympathised with British voters fed up with the EU's 'self-regarding' leaders. Vote Leave said the increase in school-age European nationals was likely to add between 1billion and 1.9billion to the cost of the UK's annual education budget by 2030. The campaign calculates that between 2000 and 2014, some 152,000 school-age migrants came to the UK from other EU countries. HILTON STICKS TO HIS GUNS IN TARGETS ROW David Camerons former adviser refused to back down last night as the PM refuted claims he was warned four years ago it was impossible to keep his net migration promises while Britain remained in the EU. The PM insisted his former closest adviser Steve Hilton was simply not right and that immigration had been falling in 2012 when the adviser said reducing its level from hundreds of thousands every year to tens of thousands would never be hit. But Mr Hilton who made his claims in yesterdays Mail stuck to his guns. He said he had been in No 10 when officials delivered projections that showed there was no way we could meet the target within the EU. Justice Secretary Michael Gove backed Mr Hilton last night. He said: Making promises and then saddling yourself with a political union that means you cannot deliver those promises doesnt contribute to an atmosphere of trust in politics. Advertisement In 2014 alone, the figure stood at 25,000. This is a seven-fold increase on the 3,000 children who came in 2004 the year Poland and seven other Eastern European countries joined the EU. A continued annual influx of this size would require the equivalent of about 27 new average-sized secondary schools or 100 primary schools. The number of school-age children with one or more parent from a non-UK European nation has more than doubled from 309,000 in 2007 to 699,000, said Vote Leave. Based on its own estimates of future immigration if the UK remains in the EU, the campaign group calculated that at least a further 261,000 could join the school system over the coming 15 years or as many as 571,000 if the union expands. Miss Patel said: 'The EU is undemocratic and interferes too much in our daily lives. 'We have seen that with the scale of migration, and the impact this has had on local communities and key public services such as the NHS, housing and schools. 'With more countries waiting to join the EU, including Albania, Serbia, and Turkey and with British taxpayers paying almost 2billion to help them join this problem can only get worse.' The warning on Europe's borders came from Sebastian Kurz, Austria's foreign minister. Priti Patel (pictured), a Tory cabinet minister, said the extra demand would put pressure on already 'overstretched' schools 'The fact is that we have lost control,' said Mr Kurz. 'At the moment it is not us as the EU that is deciding who comes into Europe, it is the people smugglers.' Mr Kurz, who is a conservative, said the only way to tackle the crisis was to stop accepting illegal arrivals. They should instead be taken away to camps in Africa or elsewhere. MIGRANTS IN RUSH FOR UK PASSPORTS The number of EU citizens granted UK passports has surged by 29 per cent in a year in the run-up to the referendum. In 2015, some 12,970 EU nationals had citizenship applications rubber-stamped by the Home Office, up from 10,071 in 2014. It was also a rise from 7,406 in 2011, or 75 per cent. EU citizens have full rights to live and work here, but experts said there was anecdotal evidence that concerns about Brexit had fuelled a spike in citizenship applications. An academic said EU migrants who lived in the UK and had married British citizens would want their status nailed down. Advertisement In a bid to regain the initiative on migration, Mr Cameron last night claimed that if Britain votes Remain he would push for more reform of freedom of movement rules. 'Reform doesn't end on June 23, the voice of reform will be strengthened, because we will have had a referendum,' he said. However, George Osborne has already ruled out any significant changes such as imposing a brake on the numbers coming in. In a series of interviews, the PM accused Leave campaigners of stoking division and intolerance. He said all sides of the Out campaign had 'become very narrowly focused' on the issue of immigration and warned that the decision could have consequences. 'I've always believed that we have to be able to discuss and to debate immigration,' he said. 'But I've always believed that this is an issue that needs careful handling. 'We are talking to a country that has a lot of people who have fled persecution and contribute a massive amount to our country. It does need great care.' Describing the UK as 'arguably the most successful, multi-ethnic, multi-faith, opportunity democracy anywhere on earth', Mr Cameron told the Guardian a Remain vote would send 'a very clear message that we've rejected this idea that Britain is narrow and insular and inward-looking'. 100,000 STUDENTS A YEAR OVERSTAY More than 100,000 students a year from outside Europe are failing to go home after finishing their courses, a report reveals. Between 2010 and 2013 the influx of non-EU students averaged 156,000 a year, the report published by think-tank MigrationWatch, based on Office for National Statistics figures, showed. But between 2012 and 2015, when they would have been expected to graduate, an average of 46,000 a year left an annual difference of 110,000. Some will take legitimate jobs, be given permission to settle here with a partner or pursue further studies. But tens of thousands exploit a lax visa system to stay unlawfully. Advertisement Wolfgang Schauble, the powerful German finance minister, said he sympathised with British voters who want to leave the European Union and its 'self- regarding' leadership that has gone 'too far' and lost touch with voters across the continent. He said: 'Perhaps we didn't understand quite correctly, and it's led to an excessive level of self-regard in the institutions and apparatuses in Brussels and Luxembourg. 'Perhaps we went too far and to some extent lost contact with our citizens.' THE ITALIAN KILLER WE CAN'T DEPORT Ministers yesterday made a last-ditch bid to deport an Italian killer allowed to stay in Britain by dangerous EU rules. The 58-year-old, who was granted anonymity by the courts, killed his flatmate and was sentenced to eight years for manslaughter at the Old Bailey in 2002. After his release, the Home Office tried to deport him, but he appealed, sparking a decade-long legal farce. Tory justice minister and prominent Leave campaigner Dominic Raab slammed EU diktats on removing foreign offenders as dangerous and undemocratic. The Supreme Court yesterday heard submissions from lawyers for Home Secretary Theresa May. A ruling is expected later this year. Advertisement A Muslim man who reported Omar Mateen to the FBI before his attack on an Orlando nightclub has hit out at Donald Trump for saying the Islamic community is 'hiding something'. The presumptive Republican nominee lashed out at all Muslims in the wake of the worst mass shooting in US history. He said in a recent speech: 'They know whats going on. They know that [Omar Mateen] was bad... 'But you know what? They didnt turn them in. And you know what? We had death and destruction.' Hitting back, Mateen's friend Mohammed Malik says he did report the 29-year-old gunman to counter-terrorism officials in the summer of 2014 - but detectives decided he was not a threat. In a lengthy op-ed for the Washington Post, Malik describes his experience with the FBI, and slams Trump for portraying all Muslims as shady terrorist sympathizers. Scroll down for video Hitting back: Mohammed Malik (left) has slammed Donald Trump (right) for claiming all Muslims are hiding something about terrorism. Malik says he did report Omar Mateen in 2014 but the FBI closed the file Malik said Mateen never showed any signs of extremism or homophobia. However, when news emerged that a man from their mosque, Moner Mohammad Abu-Salha, had killed himself in a suicide bomb attack in Syria, Mateen began making suspicious comments. Malik, who acted as a mentor at their mosque, first called the FBI after news of the suicide bomb to tell them more about Abu-Salha. 'I read that [officials] were looking for people to give them some background. So I called the FBI and offered to tell investigators a bit about the young man,' he explains in his article. 'It wasnt much we hadnt been close but Im an American Muslim, and I wanted to do my part. I didnt want another act like that to happen. I didnt want more innocent people to die.' He added: 'Agents asked me if there were any other local kids who might resort to violence in the name of Islam. No names sprang to mind.' However, after that conversation, Malik spoke with members of the congregation including Mateen - who admitted to watching the same hate preacher that Abu-Salha was inspired by, Anwar al-Awlaki. When Malik asked Mateen what he thought of the cleric, Mateen allegedly said, 'they are powerful'. Alarmed, Malik got back in touch with the FBI. 'After speaking with Omar, I contacted the FBI again to let them know that Omar had been watching Awlakis tapes. 'He hadnt committed any acts of violence and wasnt planning any, as far as I knew. And I thought he probably wouldnt, because he didnt fit the profile: He already had a second wife and a son. Omar Mateen never showed signs of extremism - but when he did in 2014, Malik says he reported him Tragic: Mateen, 29, killed 49 people inside Orlando's Pulse nightclub (pictured) on June 12 'But it was something agents should keep their eyes on. 'I never heard from them about Omar again, but apparently they did their job: They looked into him and, finding nothing to go on, they closed the file.' Agents investigated Mateen, who had already been the subject of a counter-terrorism investigation. They concluded there was no reason to be concerned. Less than two years later, Mateen killed 49 people in Orlando's Pulse nightclub. Malik said he didn't have much contact with Mateen over the next 18 months, except seeing him at a dinner party in January this year. 'We talked about the presidential election and debated our views of the candidates that were running he liked Hillary Clinton and I liked Bernie Sanders. This banter continued through texts and phone calls for several months.' Protesters stood outside Trump Tower on Tuesday blasting him for 'spreading hate' a day after Malik's op-ed He added: 'My last conversation with Omar was by phone in mid-May. He called me while he was at the beach with his son to tell me about a vacation hed taken with his father to Orlando the previous weekend. Hed been impressed by the local mosque.' Slamming Donald Trump, Malik said: 'I am not the first American Muslim to report on someone; people who do that simply dont like to announce themselves in to the media. 'For my part, Im not looking for personal accolades. Im just tired of negative rhetoric and ignorant comments about my faith. It would have been a 'less risky' way to end the Lindt Cafe siege by shooting Man Haron Monis than it was to storm the building in an emergency, an inquest has heard. The tactical commander in charge during the siege, who can't be named, told the inquest a 'deliberate action' would have given police the opportunity to choose when to enter the building. The commander said the emergency action plan which was triggered at 2.13am after the death of Lindt Cafe manager Tori Johnson should have been the 'last resort'. Scroll down for video A police tactical commander has said it would have been 'less risky' to initiate direct action in the Sydney siege (stock picture of police at the Lindt Cafe in Sydney) 'In any action that we take there is an element of risk. However, a deliberate action would be a preferred option and potentially I might judge that when I weigh up my risk as being less risky,' the tactical commander said. The tactical commander was being questioned by counsel assisting the coroner, Jeremy Gormly, when he said choosing the time of entry wasn't the only benefit to making a deliberate action. It also opened up 'a number of other methodology factors' the police could use. Gormly continued to press the tactical commander for clarity. 'If the EA is the last resort, a DA certainly is not, correct?' he asked. The tactical commander, who is an Australian special forces soldier, agreed. The tactical commander told the inquest he regarded Monis as a terrorist, The Australian reported. When Monis threatened his hostages and shot at them when they tried to escape the tactical commander did not take action because no one was hurt. Police stormed the building at 2.13am. Man Horan Monis was killed, Katrina Dawson died in the cross fire and other hostages were injured (stock image) The emergency action was initiated by the commander when cafe manager Tori Johnson was killed (stock image) He also said there was a risk Monis was shooting at the hostages as an attempt to bring police into the building so he could detonate his bomb. The tactical commander said if they had stormed the building after the hostages had escaped the gunmen would be in a 'heightened state of alert'. He said he would have triggered emergency action if he knew Monis had forced Johnson to his knees soon after the other hostages escaped. When the tactical team stormed the cafe Monis was killed. Katrina Dawson was killed in the cross-fire. Other hostages were injured. The commander decided not to make the call to initiate the emergency response earlier even though Monish had shot at hostages because 'no one was injured' The tactical commander said he would have initiated the emergency action sooner if her knew Johnson had been ordered on his knees The inquest into the December 2014 siege previously heard details of a discussion between NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione and Assistant Commissioner Mark Jenkins. The conclusion to the conversation was that a deliberate or forced action by police to force an end to the siege would be the last resort. The phone call occurred at 10.57pm when Mr Jenkins was the most senior commander in charge of the operation. The inquest continues. A Liberal election candidate has said anyone who uses the term Invasion Day to refer to Australia Day should be 'high-fived in the face with a chair'. Ben Willis, the candidate for Victorian electorate of Gellibrand, posted the comment on Facebook on January 22, days before the national holiday. The Liberal candidate for the safe Labor seat apologised on Tuesday night after the ABC revealed the post, but the Opposition is still demanding Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull act to have him disendorsed. Scroll down for video Liberal candidate Ben Willis (pictured), running in safe Labor electorate Gellibrand in Victoria, has apologised after he said people who refer to Australia Day as Invasion Day should be 'high-fived in the face with a chair' 'If you describe Australia Day as 'invasion day' you need a high five. In the face. With a chair,' Mr Willis wrote on January 22 'If you describe Australia Day as 'invasion day' you need a high five. In the face. With a chair,' Mr Willis wrote. He appears to have deleted both his private and public Facebook pages following the uproar. Ben Willis apologised on Tuesday night after the Facebook post was revealed Mr Willis 'unreservedly' apologised for the comment in a statement provided to Daily Mail Australia through the Victorian Liberal branch. 'I unreservedly apologise for this comment. 'As I also commented on Facebook that same day: "Australia Day is also a celebration of the nations Indigenous heritage and how the first peoples of Australia are now considered equal under the law, which is exactly how it should be. "'I am incredibly proud to call myself Australian, and I am proud of both our Aboriginal heritage and also our British heritage".' On Twitter on Tuesday night, Mr Willis said he was sorry because he has 'offended many'. 'This bloke casually just suggests that he wants to hit someone in the face with a chair because they use a word he doesn't like,' Labor campaign spokeswoman Penny Wong told ABC. On Twitter on Tuesday night, Mr Willis said he was sorry because he has 'offended many' Mr Willis shared posts he made in January which he said were positive comments about Indigenous Australia In a statement provided to Daily Mail Australia, Ms Wong said the prime minister must dis-endorse Mr Willis. 'Malcolm Turnbull must disassociate himself from the comments of his candidate a member of his team who thinks it's ok to talk about assaulting people with a chair,' Ms Wong said. 'A strong leader would dis-endorse this candidate. A responsible leader would condemn his comments. I suspect Malcolm Turnbull will do neither. 'This Liberal candidate seeks to be a member a Parliament a leader in the Australian community. 'Well, I think it can be fairly described as that and I've got no doubt obviously our first Aboriginal Australians describe it as an invasion,' the Prime Minister told reporters in Perth last week 'The casual violence suggested by his comments is shocking and unacceptable,' Ms Wong told Daily Mail Australia. Finance Minister and spokesperson for the Coalition campaign, Mathias Cormann, told reporters it was time to move on. Last week, Mr Turnbull himself said Australia had been invaded by the British in 1788. 'Well, I think it can be fairly described as that and I've got no doubt obviously our first Aboriginal Australians describe it as an invasion,' the Prime Minister told reporters in Perth. Middle-aged women are being hired for paid, short-term posts because they are seen as more focused and better workers. A major communications firm is taking on eight staff in their 30s, 40s and 50s who want to re-enter the workforce after taking time out to have children. PR company Wunderlich Kaplan Communications, which is based in New York, is fed up with younger employees using time in the office trawling the internet or working on other projects. Middle-aged women are being hired for paid, short-term posts because they are seen as more focused and better workers (file picture) It feels that older women have more experience, more skill and are better at picking things up than the younger generation. Dara Kaplan, who founded the firm, said she had been inspired by The Intern, which is a Robert De Niro film about a 70-year-old widower who takes an internship at an online fashion company. The 31-year added: She said: There is so much knowledge that this segment of women hold. People are forgetting that just because you do not tweet does not mean you dont know whats up. Eight women will work the paid posts for six weeks at Wunderlich Kaplan in the programme dubbed The Enternship. They will learn about creating a PR campaign, using social media, writing press releases and skills normally associated with young people, like video blogging. The women come from a variety of backgrounds; some are mothers who had a family whilst others left their previous jobs and took a career break. Dara Kaplan, who founded the firm, said she had been inspired by The Intern, which is a Robert De Niro film about a 70-year-old widower who takes an internship at an online fashion company Company co-founder Gwen Wunderlich said: Millennials tend to be less focused; theyll have a blog on the side, and they want to be a photographer, and they have all these things they want but dont necessarily want to put in the legwork to get that. Ive been an entrepreneur since I was hustling Jolly Ranchers on the side at my elementary school, so I get it. I dont expect this to be their only thing, but theres all this focus on millennials and, often, millennials dont even want office jobs. Miss Kaplan added: I love millennials. The sense of creativity, adventure and entrepreneurship is unbelievable. Twenty years ago a TV satire, The Day Today, imagined Question Time coming live from Wembley. Last night it actually happened a political discussion in front of 6,000 screaming fans. Reithian values on acid! They booed, cheered and did overhead clapping, though they didnt quite sing rude songs about the referees parentage. Instead, David Dimblebys voice echoed round the Wembley arena, pleasingly episcopal. We even had a panel of pundits. Happily there were no slow-motion action replays. The Leave team fielded Boris Johnson, Labour MP Gisela Stuart and Tory minister Andrea Leadsom. Remain had Scottish Tory Ruth Davidson, London mayor Sadiq Khan and the TUCs Frances OGrady, making her 1st XI debut. An interesting little dribbler down the Left Wing, Ms OGrady. She was nervous at first but was soon getting stuck in about workers rights and got the terraces to boo Wetherspoons pubs. Quite right, too. Shocking house rose. The BBC filmed an episode of Question Time called The Great Debate at Wembley, which aired last night Twenty years ago a TV satire, The Day Today, imagined Question Time coming live from Wembley Within the first two minutes Gisela Stuart (I am a mother and a grandmother) said take control four times. Good darts, lass. Over to Mr Khan. As a lawyer, he began. An unusual phrase to win votes. But the new London mayor is a feral little nipper and came up with the most vicious slurs of the first hour when he accused the Leave camp of running Project Hate on immigration. The crowd oohed and booed. Boris applied his half-moon spectacles, consulted some notes and announced that the same Khan had recently said it was important for immigration to be debated. Sadiq needed the wet sponge after that. One of the pundits started talking angrily about xenophobia which was eagerly picked up on by panel-moderator Mishal Hussein. We could really have done without that panel. The new London mayor came up with the most vicious slurs of the first hour when he accused the Leave camp of running Project Hate on immigration Back on the pitch, Mr Khan four times started calling his opponents liars!. That also drew heckles and earned the audience a yellow card from Dimbleby. Mentions of David Camerons name brought groans from both sides of the audience, which was divided roughly into 3,000 Remain supporters and 3,000 Leavers. The crowd also showed active dislike for Remains Project Fear, and became restive when the Leavers over-used the take back control slogan. The issues discussed were the economy, immigration and foreign policy. Each was preceded by a little BBC lecture, like one of those 1960s Shell educational films about mosquitoes. Miss Davidson bounced up and down on her toes and said we should vote Remain for big trade deals. Mrs Leadsom: The 28 member states of the EU cant even organise a takeaway curry. Laughter. We started getting a bit shrieky at times Miss Davidson having a personal go at her party colleague Boris, whom she is said to loathe. These three! she called her opponents at one point. Boris fired back with the observation that at present, under EU rules, we cant even export haggis to America. Hoots! The issues discussed were the economy, immigration and foreign policy. Each was preceded by a little BBC lecture For Remain, Ms OGrady exceeded expectations, but did the highly rated Miss Davidson slightly underperform? She twice invoked the name of President Obama, who has supported Remain. Maybe that sort of thing works in Edinburgh but at Wembley last night it earned raspberries. Leave turned in more of a team effort, Boris repeatedly conferring with his two colleagues and letting his memsahibs take several of the answers. Mrs Leadsom had a good night. Being too busy watching the action, I did not have time to look at the Beebs simultaneous fact-checker so can not tell you if it exploded when Mr Khan claimed that the Eurozone economy was growing faster than ours. Porkier than scratchings was that. More than 11,500 weapons were handed in to police following a three-week campaign to get airguns off the streets. Thousands of rifles and pistols along with crossbows and other unique weapons are among the haul, which has filled an entire police storage unit. During the three week amnesty by Police Scotland officers were handed 11,569 weapons, with a further 1,300 surrendered after the official closing of the amnesty on June 12. From July 1 owners of air weapons can start applying for a licence, with the new law coming into force on 31 December. More than 11,500 weapons were handed in to police following a three-week campaign to get airguns off the streets. Thousands of rifles and pistols along with crossbows and other unique weapons are among the haul, which has filled an entire police storage unit This will make it a criminal offence to have an air weapon without a licence or a permit. Anyone found guilty of the new offence could be fined or face up to two years in prison. The Scottish Government had pledged to introduce the scheme following the death of Glasgow toddler Andrew Morton, who was killed by an airgun in 2005. Mark Bonini was sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of murdering the two-year-old, who died after being struck in the head by an air gun pellet. So far the force and the Scottish Government have hailed the scheme a success, with thousands of potentially deadly weapons now off the streets. The weapons have been handed in to officers at 72 police stations across Scotland. The mountain of an array of weapons are now being held at the force headquarters in Dalmarnock, Glasgow. Yesterday Chief Constable Phil Gormley revealed the true extent of the haul, when he was photographed surrounded by 9000 of the weapons which have been handed in alongside colleague Sergeant Alex Ulivi. After being tagged and catalogued the weapons will be destroyed. He also warned those wishing to surrender their weapons to do so during the day and make sure they were hidden from the view of other members of the public. Chief Constable Phil Gormley said: This is a fantastic response. Every weapon handed in had the potential to cause serious harm within our communities if misused, and to have more than 11,000 fewer weapons in existence has made Scotland a safer place. Toddler Andrew Morton (left) died after being shot in the head with an airgun pellet near his home in the Easterhouse area of Glasgow in 2005. Mark Bonini was sentenced to life in prison. Since Andrews death his parents Sharon McMillan and Andy Morton have been campaigning for a ban on air weapons I am pleased to say our officers are still able to accept unwanted air weapons, and would ask those responsible members of the public who no longer wish to keep a weapon, or to apply for a licence to do so, preferably in daylight hours, covered and in a way which does not alarm other people. All of these guns, and an assortment of other harmful weapons including crossbows, shotguns, rifles and several pistols dating back to World War 2, will now be taken away and destroyed to ensure they are off our streets forever. Toddler Andrew Morton died after being shot in the head with an airgun pellet near his home in the Easterhouse area of Glasgow in 2005. The youngster was being carried by his older brother Brian at the time, who said he heard a pop before seeing blood coming from Andrews head. Mark Bonini was sentenced to life in prison. Since Andrews death his parents Sharon McMillan and Andy Morton have been campaigning for a ban on air weapons. More rural areas such as Aberdeenshire and and the Highlands handed over the most with 1,562 and 1,287 arriving from each area respectively. Some 1,020 handed over in Glasgow and a further 616 were surrendered in Edinburgh. It has been estimated there could be up to 500,000 airguns in Scotland, with the weapons used in 182 crimes in 2013/14 - about half of all firearms offences. One of Britains best-known companies last night warned staff its future could be placed under threat if we remain in the EU. In a highly unusual move, Tate & Lyle Sugars wrote to its 800 UK staff warning that EU restrictions and tariffs had added 30 million to its raw material costs last year. This turned what should have been a good profit, that we would all share, into a 19 million loss, the firm said. Gerald Mason (right, with Zac Goldsmith, centre, on a visit) told staff that EU tariffs on a single boatload of cane sugar could top 2.5 million. In a highly unusual move, sugar giant Tate & Lyle (pictured, north London) wrote to its 800 UK staff warning that EU restrictions and tariffs had added 30 million to its raw material costs last year. The companys senior vice-president Gerald Mason told staff that EU tariffs on a single boatload of cane sugar could top 2.5 million. He said the situation was made worse by the fact that Brussels officials then send that money to subsidise our beet sugar-producing competitors in Europe. In a further damaging blow to David Cameron, Britains leading entrepreneur Sir James Dyson last night stepped up his call for Britain to leave the EU, warning that remaining in the Brussels club would be an act of national self-harm. Sir James said the Prime Ministers claim that Britain could go on to reform the EU was pure fantasy. And he warned that the EUs free movement rules had created an immigration system that made no economic or moral sense. He went on: There is a perception that having a seat at the EU table means Britain has influence. As David Cameron discovered in his recent attempt at renegotiation, we dont. There are 27 other countries at the same table with their own conflicting interests. Its ungovernable and undemocratic. To think we can reform Brussels is arrogant and delusional - it is pure fantasy. The entrepreneur added: I can confirm that we have no influence whatsoever in the shaping of Europes protectionist laws and regulations. Believe me, weve tried. Consider immigration, which the United Kingdom should benefit from greatly. We need immigration, but we also need to be able to control it. In a further damaging blow to David Cameron, Britains leading entrepreneur Sir James Dyson last night stepped up his call for Britain to leave the EU It makes no economic or moral sense to ignore the world beyond Europe. Yet, we are forced to accept people from Europe without limit, while turning away economically vital engineers and scientists from the rest of the world. This is the last opportunity to regain control of our futures. If we vote Remain, make no mistake, we lose control. This would be an act of national self-harm. The interventions threatened to overshadow a fresh effort by Downing Street to claim that business opinion is overwhelmingly in favour of staying in the EU. Hundreds of businesses are expected to sign a No 10-inspired letter today warning that Brexit would lead to uncertainty and put jobs at risk. But Boris Johnson yesterday accused the PM of using Government contracts and the promise of honours to persuade business leaders to back his campaign to keep Britain in the EU. Mr Johnson said Eurosceptic business leaders were being leaned on to keep their views quiet, while waverers were being tempted with the offer of rewards. Speaking to LBC Radio, Mr Johnson said: I cant tell you the pressure that Project Fear and Remain put on senior business people not to articulate their views. Everyone has an interest in keeping friendly with government. Asked about the kind of pressure Downing Street was exerting, Mr Johnson replied: I do not wish in anyway to be disparaging or critical of my friends in Government. But it is well-known that there is an operation in Downing Street and you will get a call from certain gentlemen, whose names you can discover. And they will say, look, you know, we want to continue to have contracts with you. Its very important that we want to continue friendly relationships, there is an honours system as you know, all this kind of thing. And thats how it is. There is a bit of leaning on. Earlier this month, Mr Cameron was accused of borderline corruption after using the Queens birthday honours to shower gongs on business leaders and luvvies who backed his campaign to keep Britain in the EU. At least 20 prominent Remain supporters were rewarded with honours, including five company chiefs whose firms signed a previous pro-Brussels letter to the Times, six who signed a similar letter from entrepreneurs to the Financial Times and four members of the creative industries who signed a No 10-inspired open letter backing the case for staying in the EU. Recipients included Innocent drinks founder Richard Reed, who is deputy chairman of the official In campaign, Britain Stronger in Europe. Mr Reed, who describes the EU as fantastic, was rewarded with a CBE. Downing Street denied handing out honours in return for support in the bitter referendum battle, saying a small number of Brexit supporters had also been honoured. But No 10 does not deny orchestrating a series of letters designed to give the impression that business opinion is overwhelmingly in favour of remaining in the EU. Tate and Lyle Sugars backed the Vote Leave campaign led by Boris Johnson, pictured, because of the impact of EU rules adding to the cost of the business Downing Street aides have spent the last week twisting the arms of senior business figures to sign another open letter backing Britains EU membership. An activist at the official Britain Stronger in Europe campaign has circulated business leaders with an email asking them to sign the letter which claims that leaving the EU would mean uncertainty for our firms, less trade with Europe and fewer jobs. She identifies herself as a special adviser to the Prime Minister (who is) now working for the campaign. Mr Cameron has also been piling pressure on wavering Tory MPs to speak out against Brexit. In a series of one-to-one meetings, he has stressed the risk that Brexit could gridlock the Government for years. One MP reported that the Prime Ministers final plea had been: You dont really want three years of Euro-w**k, do you? Three more Conservative MPs fell in behind the PM yesterday - Jackie Doyle-Price (Thurrock), Caroline Nokes (Romsey and Southampton North) and David Tredinnick (Bosworth). But Bristol North West MP Charlotte Leslie said she had decided to back Brexit. Nick Herbert, chairman of Conservatives In, said a clear majority of Tory MPs now back Remain, with 185 saying they want to stay in, compared with 143 backing Brexit. Meanwhile, Michael Gove has compared economic experts warning about Brexit to Nazis who rubbished Albert Einsteins scientific findings during the 1930s. Mr Gove has faced criticism for saying voters have had enough of listening to economic experts issuing doom-laden warnings about Brexit. Asked about the comments last night, he told LBC: I think the key thing here is to interrogate the assumptions that are made and to ask if these arguments are good. We have to be careful about historical comparisons, but Albert Einstein during the 1930s was denounced by the German authorities for being wrong and his theories were denounced and one of the reasons of course he was denounced was because he was Jewish. A man is fighting for his life after he contracted flesh-eating bacteria from a trip to the beach, forcing doctors to amputate his right leg, family members said. Doctors told Brian Parrott's family members the bacteria likely entered through a scratch on his foot during a day trip to a beach in Galveston, Texas, on June 12. Parrott's mother Donna Dailey described the sudden infection, saying: 'You go swimming with your family on Sunday, you go to work on Monday, you have a red leg on Tuesday, Wednesday you have boils on your leg, Thursday you lose the leg.' Scroll down for video Brian Parrott (pictured) is fighting for his life after he contracted flesh-eating bacteria from a trip to the beach, forcing doctors to amputate his right leg, family members said He began vomiting the next day, and photographs show his foot covered in large sores (pictured) before he was rushed to a hospital in Houston where he underwent an emergency amputation Parrott took his son and grandchildren on a day trip to the beach, where they spent at least two hours in the water, KHOU reported. He began vomiting the next day, and photographs show his foot covered in large sores. The 50-year-old was rushed to the Lyndon B Johnson Hospital in Houston, where his right leg was amputated from the knee down in an emergency surgery. Parrott is still fighting for his life in the intensive care unit, and a GoFundMe page listed an update on Monday, saying doctors were monitoring whether he required additional amputations. Parrott is diabetic, and the metabolic disease can lead to both dry, cracked skin, as well as a higher susceptibility to bacterial infections. Parrott's mom said she was anxiously awaiting news whether her son would live before questioning why there were no warning signs posted around the beach. She said: 'We want to get the word out, and that's the main thing. There's nothing more that we can do for my son but maybe we can save somebody else.' WHAT ARE VIBRIO BACTERIA? Vibrio bacteria are present in coastal waters and infect more people between the warmer months of May and October. Most people become infected by eating raw or undercooked shellfish. The bacteria can also enter the body through open wounds exposed to brackish or salt water. People with weakened immune systems are particularly susceptible. Vibrio bacteria can cause diarrhea, abdominal cramping, nausea, vomiting, fever and chills. Vibrio causes about 80,000 illnesses and 100 deaths throughout the country each year. Source: CDC Advertisement According to family members, doctors said they believe he contracted the flesh-eating bacteria, or vibrio, although health officials have not confirmed that is the cause. There are about a dozen species of vibrio known to affect humans, and they live in brackish or salt water, according to the CDC. Most infections occur during the warmer months, and can make their way inside people's bodies through raw or undercooked seafood or exposed wounds. Two people in Galveston have been infected with the flesh-eating bacteria so far this year, KHOU reported. In 2015, there were a total of eight cases reported by the city's health department. Vibrio causes about 80,000 illnesses and 100 deaths throughout the country each year. Hospitals in England raked in more than 344million from parking fees in the last three years, a new report reveals today. NHS Foundation Trusts in England collected an average of 949,000 a year from parking operations. Trusts also issued 275,000 fines to patients and visitors worth 2.8million since 2013, according to new Freedom of Information research by leading motoring magazine Auto Express. This amounts to an average 8,200 a year income from penalty charges. Some of the most profitable hospital parking operations earned over 10m in the last three years from parking charges. The charges meted out to hospital patients and visitors were enough to make you sick and amounted to a tax on the ill, said critics. Derby Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (one of its car parks pictured) topped the list as the highest parking earner A quarter of hospitals diverting the money received into car park maintenance rather than patient care, said the report. The results emerge from answers to Freedom of Information requests received from 124 of the 160 NHS Trusts contacted across England. Derby Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust topped the list as the highest parking earner, collecting 10.8m since 2013. A spokesman for the trust told the magazine that the majority of the money collected from parking charges is spent on car park maintenance, but added: Any revenue remaining is reinvested into caring for our patients. Derby was followed by Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust at 10.33m, Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust at just under 9.86m, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust at just under 9.4million, and Central Manchester NHS Foundation Trust at 8.9million. The most expensive standing charges for parking up to two hours were 3.50 levied by the Royal Surrey County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and The Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospital. The University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust charged 3.40 for up to 2 hours, Ashford and St Peters Hospitals 3.20 and North Bristol NHS Trust 3 for the same two hour period. One in seven (14%) of hospitals do not offer any parking exemptions for Blue Badge holders or long term or terminally ill patients, said the report. The highest level of fines were levied by University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust at more than 555,252 followed by the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (245,422), London North West Healthcare NHS Trust (149,903), Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (146,940) and East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust (126,7570). Auto Express said: Our Freedom of Information request revealed that the majority of the car parks are owned and run by the NHS Trusts with the money raised diverted back to the hospitals. However, some are contracted out to parking operators like Indigo UK Services, APCOA Parking UK Ltd and CP Plus with a set management fee paid by the NHS Trust. Some operators also keep 100 per cent of the money raised from fines in hospital car parks. Derby Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (one of its car parks pictured) was followed by Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust at 10.33m, Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust at just under 9.86m The Auto Express report noted: Hospitals differ vastly in the amount they charge for parking. Some set 3.50 as the standard tariff; others offer parking for as little as 60p while 14 per cent of trusts dont offer any concessions to Blue Badge holders or long-term and terminally ill patients. The Department of Health told the magazine that more than half of NHS hospitals offer free parking. But the Auto Express report said its own research found that free parking is only available for up to 30 minutes at most of these hospitals. And only four trusts in England dont levy a charge for parking. Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the Patients Association said: This is a tax on the ill. Going to hospital can be stressful and patients do not need further stress by having to worry about the cost of parking or about any fines they may incur. She also called on England to follow the lead of Scotland and Wales to scrap hospital parking charges. In Scotland parking has been free for patients, visitors and staff in all but three hospital car parks since 2009, while Wales has also opted not to charge for car park use. But moves to scrap hospital parking fees in England have previously been blocked by Parliament. Last year the British Parking Association (BPA) worked with the NHS to update its parking guidelines. Police are investigating allegations a security worker assaulted an animal rights protester at Belle Vue Greyhound Stadium. Footage captured outside the Gorton racecourse near Manchester appears to show a man taking a swipe at one demonstrator and then barging past another. Greater Manchester Police said they are looking into reports of an assault after an incident on Saturday, June 18. An animal activist (left) has claimed he was assaulted by a security guard at a greyhound racecourse (right) The activist, Michael James, walked away from the scene while demanding his right to protest The protest group say they had been at the ground for around 90 minutes and were about to leave when a security guard came over. Michael James, 35, was filming the worker when he says the man took a swing at him. He said: 'We had been at the racecourse for around an hour and a half and have been going there most Saturdays. We are a peaceful protest group who hand out leaflets to people explaining what happens to greyhounds. But the clearly frustrated security guard lashed out and pushed Mr James into the road Mr James covered his head in protection as the security guard lashed out 'Not all greyhounds make the cut to race and are killed. It's a really cruel and unnecessary industry and this is a last ditch attempt to make people aware of what they are supporting. 'So this particular Saturday the security officer came over and started ripping down our banners. I then tried to help him take them down to make sure they weren't damaged. 'He became aggressive and then walked towards me forcing me into the road. He then took a swing for my face. Luckily I was able to dodge it otherwise it would have knocked me out. I feared for my life at this point. The security guard then tore down their poster, while Mr James reminded him that he had filmed the incident 'He then went on to barge into a female in our group and knock her to the ground. 'It's totally unacceptable. What we are doing is not illegal and if he had asked us we would have moved away anyway. But he took it too far.' He said many of the group feared going back to the site. Michael, from Warrington, added: 'I will be going back. He had tried to intimidate us but that won't work for me.' He reported the incident to the police and showed them the footage. A Greater Manchester Police spokesman said: 'We have received a report of assault and investigations are ongoing. No arrests have been made at this stage.' A senior adviser to Turkeys president last night said David Cameron was his countrys chief supporter in its bid to join the European Union. In hugely embarrassing comments for the Prime Minister, Islamic hardliner Recep Erdogans top aide said he was shocked to hear Mr Cameron say he did not expect Turkey to join the EU for many years. Ilnur Chevik told BBC2s Newsnight: We are really flabbergasted! We thought Mr Cameron was our chief supporter for our quest in European Union membership. We felt that when we needed him, he was going to be there. A senior adviser to Turkeys president last night said David Cameron was his countrys chief supporter in its bid to join the European Union Turks felt that the British were the driving force behind our EU membership and that they were supporting us right to the hilt. But the way Mr Cameron put it he didnt believe anything, apparently, in our full membership. He was only deceiving us and he was just buying time. Mr Cameron has spent the referendum campaign playing down the prospect of Turkeys 77 million citizens getting free movement to the UK by joining up. In the first televised referendum debate, on Sky TV, he claimed that Turkey would not become a member of the EU until about the year 3000. During a later debate, on Question Time, he said: I cant find a single expert anywhere in the country or in Europe who thinks that Turkeys going to join the EU in the next three decades. Asked if he would veto Turkeys entry, Mr Cameron replied: Its not going to come up. Earlier this week, it emerged the British embassy in Ankara had a dedicated team working towards securing Turkeys EU membership. In Turkey two years ago, Mr Cameron said: In terms of Turkish membership of the EU, I very much support that. Thats a long-standing position of British foreign policy which I support. And in a speech at the Turkish parliament in Ankara in July 2010, Mr Cameron said: Im here to make the case for Turkeys membership of the EU. And to fight for it. Islamic hardliner Recep Erdogan's aide Ilnur Chevik told BBC2s Newsnight: We are really flabbergasted! We thought Mr Cameron was our chief supporter' In last nights referendum debate, Labour MP Gisela Stuart said: I would quite like the real David Cameron to step forward and tell us what the real policy on Turkey is. On the one hand he tells us [they will join] in the year 3000, or is it now 30 years, and on the other hand we are spending 1.9 billion of your money to accelerate accession of Turkey. Which David Cameron are we to believe? It came as Mr Cameron was accused of panicking after delivering an unexpected address outside No 10, urging older voters to put those who are yet to be born first. Leave campaigners said he breached the spirit of campaign rules that state he should not take advantage of Government buildings. They said if Mr Cameron wanted to argue the case for Britain staying inside the EU, he should have appeared in last nights Wembley debate, which he refused to attend. Star Trek actor Anton Yelchin reportedly died of his injuries less than a minute after he was pinned between his SUV and a security fence. The 27-year-old was found pinned against the gate of his home in Studio City, California, by his Jeep Grand Cherokee at around 1am on Sunday. The Jeep crushed his lungs and investigators believe he died within 60 seconds of the impact, sources told TMZ. Yelchin's death was ruled an accident by the Los Angeles medical examiner after an autopsy was performed on Sunday. Scroll down for video Star Trek actor Anton Yelchin (pictured) reportedly died of his injuries less than a minute after he was pinned between his SUV and a security fence Coroner's spokesman Ed Winter said the autopsy determined Yelchin died of blunt force asphyxia. But toxicology results will take months to analyse, Winter added. However, the actor had no history of drugs. No alcohol or prescriptions were found in the vehicle, according to TMZ. Police are investigating Yelchin's death after his 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee rolled down his driveway in Studio City, California, early on Sunday and pinned him against a brick mailbox pillar and a fence. Officer Jane Kim said the investigation will look into whether the actor's vehicle was in gear or in park at the time of the accident. It later emerged that Yelchin's SUV was being recalled because the gear shifters have confused drivers, causing the vehicles to roll away unexpectedly. The damaged gate at Anton Yelchin's home in Los Angeles, California, is seen after the accident Tributes were left at Yelchin's home in California after the 27-year-old actor's death on Sunday Most 2015 Grand Cherokees were part of a global recall of 1.1million vehicles announced by manufacturer Fiat Chrysler in April. The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration urged the recall amid complains that drivers had difficulty telling if they had put the automatic transmissions in park. If they weren't in park and a driver left the vehicle, it could roll away. In a statement on Monday, Fiat Chrysler said it is also investigating and added that it is premature to speculate on the cause of the crash. 'Fiat Chrysler Automobiles US extends its deepest sympathies to the family and friends of Mr. Yelchin,' the Detroit-based corporation said, according to TheWrap. Most 2015 Grand Cherokees (above, file photo) were part of a global recall of 1.1million vehicles announced by manufacturer Fiat Chrysler in April 'The company will be conducting a thorough investigation of this tragic incident. It is premature to speculate on its cause at this time.' The actor had been in the midst of a growing career and was best known for playing Pavel Chekov in the rebooted Star Trek films. He started his acting career with parts in indie films and television shows such as Judging Amy and The Practice before getting his big break in 2006 crime thriller Alpha Dog. Yelchin will co-star in Paramount's 'Star Trek Beyond,' which is scheduled to have its world premiere in San Diego at Comic-Con on July 20, before it hits theaters on July 22. Premiering on Netflix in December is 'Trollhunters,' a family friendly animated series from Guillermo del Toro. Yelchin voices the show's main character, Jim, who discovers warring trolls living beneath his hometown. A window cleaner accused of sexually molesting a seven-year-old girl as he worked at her familys house after she returned from church has pleaded not guilty. Gregory John Vagg, 58, is on trial on two charges involving digital penetration of the girl in 2010 at her Hunters Hill home in Sydneys north shore. The girl and her mother had returned home after church where the workman had already begun cleaning the front outside windows on the day in question, prosecutor Gina ORourke SC told NSW District Court on Tuesday. Gregory John Vagg (pictured), 58, is on trial on two charges involving digital penetration of the girl in 2010 at her Hunters Hill home in Sydneys north shore The girl's mother only employed Vagg on the one occasion, for some hours, using another cleaner in February 2015 when the girl was at school, the prosecutor said in her opening address. In the following month, when the mother was talking about window cleaning her daughter said: 'I don't want that window cleaner to come back, mum. 'I don't like him, I don't want him to come back here. He put his hand in my pants and touched my wee, the girl said, according to Sydney Morning Herald. Vagg, 58, has pleaded not guilty in the NSW District Court (stock image) to two charges involving digital penetration of a seven-year-old girl She told her mother that he had asked her if she wanted to help him and when she agreed, he lifted her up to the window, lifted her skirt and molested her. He did the same when he moved to the side windows, the girl said. Ms O'Rourke said she didn't say anything because she was too scared. The girl also told police she was little at the time and had thought it really wasn't 'a big deal'. She would now be aged about 13. Vagg's lawyer Alan Conwell told the jury there was a question mark over whether the girl was sexually assaulted by anybody. 'If she was sexually assaulted by a workman, it was not the accused, Mr Vagg.' The trial is continuing. Police have launched an extensive search for the offender An 11-year-old girl was indecently assaulted by a man who broke into her bedroom while she was home alone. The man entered the Lake Tabourie house on the NSW South Coast and assaulted the girl between 8.45pm and 10pm on Tuesday, police said. The offender fled when the girl's mother drove into the driveway as she returned home. He remained on the run on Wednesday. Police have established a crime scene at a house after a man broke into a home and assaulted an 11-year-old girl A spokesperson for NSW police confirmed the man has not been found despite an extensive search of the area. The spokesperson said the mother was at a neighbour's place a short distance from the house when the man entered the property. A crime scene was established at the property and forensic officers also attended. Police are speaking with neighbours and searching for CCTV footage from the area. Detectives from the State Crime Commands Child Abuse Squad, with assistance from local police, are investigating the incident The man is described as being of a large build, and at the time of the incident, he was wearing a long dark-coloured coat. A man who had all four limbs amputated after contracting a bacterial infection has released incredible footage of himself playing blues on the guitar. Ripu Bhatia, 22, from Auckland in New Zealand, was rushed to emergency in June 2015 and placed into an induced coma for weeks after doctors diagnosed his condition as meningococcal septicaemia. When he awoke, he weighed just 30 kilograms and was missing his arms, legs and nose, Stuff.co.nz reported. Scroll down for video Ripu Bhatia (pictured), who had all four limbs amputated after contracting a bacterial infection has released incredible footage of himself playing blues on the guitar Mr Bhatia (pictured before contracting the disease) was rushed to emergency in 2015 and placed into an induced coma for weeks after doctors diagnosed his condition as meningococcal septicaemia Before the quad-amputation, Mr Bhatia was passionate about playing the guitar and has shared footage of himself continuing to play his favourite songs with a brand new technique. The 22-year-old props himself up on his thighs and strums the strings using plastic prosthetics strapped around his arms. 'My arms and legs are gone, my face distorted beyond repair. I guess in times like these you have to focus on what you can do rather than what you can't,' he said. 'I can still play guitar like a riot'. Before the amputation, Mr Bhatia's arms turned black and he was unable to move his legs, describing them as like 'shards of iron'. Mr Bhatia props himself up on his thighs and strums the strings using plastic bands strapped around his arm But after they were removed he felt even worse, becoming a recluse and staring at old photographs of his face. Mr Bhatia would also avoid mirrors and refused to accept he had become disabled. An image of a prominent Australian photographer holding a gun has been used to illustrate 'back yard shooting ranges in crowded residential neighbourhoods' on an American late-night talk show. A photo of Daniel Boud, chief photographer for Time Out Sydney, appeared on the show, seemingly photoshopped into an image of three children playing in a back yard, while he points a gun at them and grins evilly at the camera. But the original image, he is actually standing in a gun range during a holiday in 2008. Scroll down for video A photoshopped image of Sydney photographer Daniel Boud as used on American talk show 'Full Frontal with Samantha Bee' The original image of Mr Boud, which was taken in 2008 while on holiday in the U.S. and added to the Getty Images photo collection The show's host, Samantha Bee, was nearing the end of a seven-minute long tirade about the poor state of gun control in the U.S. When the image of Mr Boud appeared on the screen, Ms Bee said stopping people in Florida having 'back yard shooting ranges' was 'apparently something you have to tell Floridians not to do'. At the start of the item on 'Full Frontal with Samantha Bee', which gives a satirical view on current affairs, she explained she intended to make jokes about the issue to highlight the absurdity of the situation. During the video, the host slammed the responses to mass shootings in the U.S., and used Australian gun control following the Port Arthur massacre in 1996 as an example of how effective regulation was. Samantha Bee was addressing gun control in the U.S. following the Orlando nightclub shooting when she used the image of Mr Boud to highlight a point she was making Since then Prime Minister John Howard brought in the tough gun restrictions after the massacre, there have been no mass shootings in Australia. Mr Boud told News.com.au he was embarrassed. 'Its from a photo my wife took on a holiday in 2008, I shared it on Flickr and was invited by Getty to add it to their stock collection. So I knew there was potential for it to published but could never have imagined it would end up photoshopped into a story on a US talk show. 'I sympathise with the sentiment Samantha Bee expresses in the piece Im pro gun control, so I can handle being the visual butt of a joke in this case.' Daily Mail Australia has contacted Mr Boud for comment. He died on June 12, leaving behind fiancee and their two-year-old son Funeral on Tuesday drew police chief, mayor, and hundreds others who remembered him as a kind and humorous man Ekpayna was first Pearland police officer killed in nearly 40 years principal at an elementary school, faces a felony charge of intoxication manslaughter A funeral was held for a 30-year-old police officer who was killed in the line of duty, with his co-workers and fiancee gathering on Tuesday to commemorate the father-of-one. Endy Ekpayna, who served on the Pearland Police Department in Texas, was killed when a driver, now charged with felony intoxication manslaughter, struck his patrol car on June 12. Hundreds of friends and family gathered at Grace Community Church, exchanging anecdotes of Ekpayna that painted him as a kind, humorous, and beloved man. Scroll down for video A funeral was held for police officer Endy Ekpayna, who was killed in the line of duty, on Tuesday. Pictured, his fiancee Lucy Lugo clutching their two-year-old son Julian Ekpayna in front of his casket Endy Ekpayna (left) , who served on the Pearland Police Department in Texas, was killed when a driver, now charged with felony intoxication manslaughter, struck his patrol car on June 12 Ekpayna's aunt also remembered her nephew as a man who lifted the spirits of those around him. She said: 'You could not have a sad moment while Endy was around' (pictured, his toddler son) Ekpayna, who died just two days before his 31st birthday, was the first Pearland officer killed in the line of duty in nearly 40 years. Both the Pearland police chief and the mayor were in attendance, among hundreds of others. 'You hear a lot of people talk about Endy's infectious smile, but one of the things that I'll always remember is that he was the most respectable man I will ever come across,' said Ekpayna's supervisor, Sergeant Adam Carroll. Carroll said the police force was mourning the loss, but chose to share a laugh by telling a humorous anecdote. When the officers were on duty after a light rain brought on minor flooding, Carroll said Ekpayna turned up in the 'biggest, ugliest pair of rubber knee high water boots' to the amusement of his coworkers. Ekpayna's aunt also remembered her nephew as a man who lifted the spirits of those around him. She said: 'You could not have a sad moment while Endy was around.' Ekpayna, who died just two days before his 31st birthday, was the first Pearland officer killed in the line of duty in nearly 40 years Both the Pearland police chief and the mayor were in attendance, among hundreds of others. Pictured left, fellow police officers hugging after the funeral, and right, a folded flag presented to his family members Family members said Ekpayna, who had served on the police force for a year, was excited about fulfilling his dreams of becoming an officer. His fiancee chose to speak from her heart instead of reciting a prepared speech. She said: 'This is something you simply cannot prepare for. Amber Willemsen (pictured) has been charged with intoxication manslaughter 'The day he was pinned was the day we closed on our home.' Moving images from the ceremony show his fiancee hugging his two-year-old son in front of Ekpayna's casket, draped with an American flag. Amber Willemsen, 38, a former assistant principal at an elementary school in League City, Texas, was allegedly intoxicated when she slammed into Ekpayna's patrol car. The rookie officer was responding to a non-emergency call, and had to be extricated after the crash left his vehicle mangled. Ekpayna was airlifted to Memorial Hermann-The Texas Medical Center, where he later died. Court records cited by ABC reveal she was on bond for the possession of methamphetamine. Williamsen was also previously arrested for driving while intoxicated. Reichberg and another businessman spent more than $100,000 bribing NYPD officers in exchange for favors, US Attorney Preet Bharara said The jet cost $59,000 and Candi slept in Grant's room, the document states Grant and others 'took advantage of her services', according to indictment The prostitute was hired to spend the trip with Deputy Inspector James Grant, a detective friend and two businessmen in 2013, authorities said A high-end prostitute received $10,000 to accompany a high-ranking NYPD officer and one of his detective friends on a trip to Las Vegas, federal authorities said. The woman, who was named Candi according to DNA Info, was hired to accompany Deputy Inspector James Grant, his friend, two businessmen and two other people during a Super Bowl weekend getaway in 2013, the indictment states. One of the businessmen, according to the document, was Jeremy Reichberg, of Brooklyn, who now faces corruption charges along with Grant and NYPD Deputy Chief Michael Harrington. Reichberg and another businessman spent more than $100,000 bribing NYPD officers in exchange for favors, US Attorney Preet Bharara said Monday. Scroll down for video A high-end prostitute flew with NYPD Deputy Inspector James Grant (pictured Monday leaving Manhattan federal court in New York) to Las Vegas for a Super Bowl weekend getaway, authorities said NYPD Deputy Chief Michael Harrington (pictured leaving Manhattan federal court in New York on Monday) and Grant have been charged with accepting thousands of dollars worth of bribes Candi, a high-end prostitute, took off in the private jet with Grant, Reichberg and businessman Jona Rechnitz, who has pleaded guilty in the case and is now cooperating with authorities in the investigation, from Teterboro Airport in New Jersey, DNA Info reported. The group left on February 2, 2014 to and returned on February 4 on the private jet, which cost $57,000 according to the indictment. Candi told investigators that Grant and others had 'taken advantage of her services during the trip' and slept in Grant's room, the document states. Reichberg had offered to take Grant to Las Vegas for a Super Bowl weekend a month prior, authorities said. Authorities arrested Grant, 43, Harrington, 50 and Reichberg, 42, on Monday. All three now face one count of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud, which carries a maximum term of 20 years in prison. Brooklyn businessman Jeremy Reichberg (pictured leaving Manhattan federal court in New York Monday) and another businessman spent more than $100,000 in gifts for Grant and Harrington, the indictment states Grant (pictured leaving court on Monday) accepted a two-night stay at a hotel in Rome worth more than $1,000, contracting work in his home worth about $12,000 and jewelry, the court papers state Meanwhile authorities said Harrington (pictured on Monday) accepted tens of thousands of dollars worth of private security work, hotel rooms in Chicago worth more than $6,000, and dinners worth thousands of dollars Reichberg and Rechnitz 'engineered a scheme to provide lavish benefits to high-ranking members of the NYPD' between 2012 and 2015, the US Attorneys Office said. Other gifts included a two-night stay at a hotel in Rome for Grant worth more than $1,000, contracting work in his home worth about $12,000 and jewelry, the court papers state. Meanwhile authorities said Harrington accepted tens of thousands of dollars worth of private security work for a company he helped manage unofficially, hotel rooms in Chicago for him and his family worth more than $6,000, and dinners worth thousands of dollars. In exchange, the indictment says, Grant and Harrington arranged police escorts for the two businessmen, diverted police resources to investigate their private matters and helped them get VIP access to parades and other events in New York City. Grant helped the two men avoid tickets after being pulled over by officers by giving them cards, authorities said. He also helped Reichberg to obtain a gun license from the NYPD and tried to do the same for Rechnitz, the US Attorney's Office said. NYPD Sergeant David Villanueva was also arrested on Monday and charged with receiving cash bribes to expedite and approve gun licenses. Authorities also unveiled the guilty plea of officer Richard Ochetal, who has pleaded guilty to accepting bribes in exchange for the approval of gun license applications and is now cooperating with investigation. Both Reichberg and Rechnitz have contributed heavily to Mayor de Blasio's campaign. The mayor hasn't been implicated in any wrongdoing. A man has pleaded guilty to the shooting murder of a teenager after a fight in a Sydney pub where they had watched a State of Origin game. Matthew James Perry, 23, entered his plea in the NSW Supreme Court on Wednesday just before his trial was due to start - on the same day another State of Origin match will be played. He had been accused of gunning down 18-year-old Jed Coates in a street near his home at Colyton in western Sydney late on June 18, 2014. Matthew James Perry, 23, has pleaded guilty to gunning down 18-year-old Jed Coates (pictured) in a western Sydney street after a fight in a pub where they had been watching State of Origin in 2014 Perry had been accused of gunning down 18-year-old Jed Coates in a street near his home at Colyton in western Sydney late on June 18, 2014 The pair had earlier been thrown out of the Colyton Hotel for fighting while watching the State of Origin. Mr Coates suffered a single gunshot wound to his neck. He was treated at the scene by paramedics before being taken to hospital where he died soon after. Court documents had earlier revealed that Perry took a taxi home and Mr Coates was waiting for him in his street armed with a shovel after they were thrown out of the pub. Jed Coates' distraught mother Julie Lowe declined to comment as she left the NSW Supreme Court on Wednesday on the first day of Matthew Perry's trial Jed Coates suffered a single gunshot wound to his neck when he was shot on June 18, 2014. He was treated at the scene by paramedics before being taken to hospital where he died soon after Mr Coates yelled 'shoot me, shoot me' before Perry shot him with a rifle. according to court documents. Perry was convicted by acting Justice Jane Mathews on Wednesday after he entered his guilty plea. The case has been adjourned to Friday for preliminary evidence on sentencing. Mr Coates' distraught mother Julie Lowe and other family members declined to comment as they left the court complex. The mother of a young boy with Down syndrome who was told he could no longer go to school with his twin brother has won a battle to keep them together. Ruth Christodoulou this week launched an online campaign after claiming her son Nixon, five, was being 'pressured' to leave Queensland's Peak Crossing State School because of his disability. The mother met with the Department of Education on Tuesday and was told the regional school will apply for funding to keep Nixon with his brother Bentley, reports 7 News. Scroll down for video Ruth Christodoulou has confirmed her son Nixon (left) will be allowed to stay at school with his twin brother Bentley (right) Nixon Christodoulou's (pictured) mother was asked to remove him from his state school just one month after he started kindergarten and transfer him to a special school as he has Down syndrome Shown celebrating with her two sons, Ms Christodoulou confirmed the school has agreed to meet Nixon's needs. 'Fantastic news, we had meetings and Nixon's supports will be met.' She explained the significance of keeping together for the brothers, who share an incredibly close bond. 'They have always done everything together. They share a bond that is unquestionable.' The Department of Education and Training had said in a statement that there were instances when 'special schools best meet the needs of students with intellectual disability.' Nixon Christodoulou, five, started kindergarten at Peak Crossing State School in Ipswich, Queensland, last month with his twin brother Bentley. Nixon's twin brother Buckley (left), who was not born with Down syndrome, was told he was allowed to remain at the school Ms Christodoulou said the little boy, who was born premature at six months, had made friends and she had noticed his motor skills and speech improve since he started classes. 'I have always wanted Nixon to be included and live a full life,' Ms Christodoulou wrote in a heated Facebook post on Saturday. 'Nixon has attended a state school, been embraced by classmates, parents and staff. His speech has improved, he now plays happily with others and his motor skills improve each day.' Ms Christodoulou said after informing staff she would take her complaint further, the school's principal announced he would be taking leave and may not return until September. 'I think he's running from a lot of issues,' she told The Sunshine Coast Daily. While she believes in special schools for certain children, she does not think it would be best for Nixon. Ruth (pictured with Nixon) said the little boy made friends and already had his motor skills and speech improve in classes A spokesperson from The Department of Education and Training had earlier told Daily Mail Australia it is up to the parents to choose what type of school their child enrolls. 'The Department promotes inclusive education practices to ensure all students with a disability are able to access, participate and succeed in education on the same basis as their peers,' the spokesperson said. 'The student has been enrolled in the Prep program at Peak Crossing State School since May, and is still enrolled. The school has put a range of support measures in place. Daily Mail Australia have contacted Peak Crossing State School for comment. The mother met with the Department of Education on Tuesday and was told the regional school will apply for funding to keep Nixon with his brother Bentley A 23-year-old woman is being held and facing charges, after she allegedly stole a SUV that had two children in the backseat in California this week. The children's father entered a Valero gas station store on Monday morning in National City, with his children outside in his Nissan Rogue with the engine still running, KGTV reported. Scroll down for video The children's father entered a Valero gas station store on Monday morning in National City, with his children outside in his Nissan Rogue with the engine still running The woman, named locally as Alexis Mattier, approached the vehicle as the father was in the store The woman, named locally as Alexis Mattier, approached the vehicle as the father was in the store, according to the TV station. The children's father was leaving the store when he ran after the fleeing SUV - and headed back inside seeking assistance. 911 was called, and police soon pulled the SUV over, with the children unharmed. Store supervisor Claudia Vargas told KGTV: 'He was in shock, like crying and yelling, "Call 911! My kids are... this lady ran away with my kids in the car."' She said: 'So scary, it was creepy.' The children's father was leaving the store when he ran after the fleeing SUV - and headed into the store again seeking assistance 911 was called, and police soon pulled the SUV over, with the children UNHARMED Lt. Alex Hernandez with the National City Police Department told NBC San Diego: 'We're talking about leaving a car running unlocked. 'It poses a lot of dangers - I mean, this is a great example of it. 'Take time. Show up five minutes earlier, take your kids out with you.' Mattier is being held in the Las Colinas Detention Facility, online jail records show. Miguel said Mateen was attracted to Latinos but felt rejected by them Miguel said Mateen recently discovered a Puerto Rican gay man he'd had a threesome with was HIV-positive, told Miguel he would 'make them pay' But he 'refused to take any selfies', told him 'his wife knew he was gay' A man claiming to be the Orlando shooter's lover says Omar Mateen was livid after discovering he'd had sex with an HIV-positive man. The Hispanic gay man, identified only as Miguel, told Univision he met Omar Mateen on Grindr before they became 'friends with benefits', meeting up 20 times at a hotel in Orlando, Florida. Miguel described Mateen as a confused gay man and a heavy drinker who was attracted to - but felt rejected by - Latinos. He believes Mateen's massacre on Pulse nightclub's Latin Night was an attempt at 'revenge' after discovering that one of the two Puerto Rican gay men he'd had a threesome with was HIV-positive. Speaking in fluent Spanish and broken English, Miguel said that despite tests coming up negative, Mateen feared not enough time had passed for an accurate result, and he wanted to 'make them pay'. SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO 'Tryst': The Hispanic gay man, identified only as Miguel, told Univision he met Omar Mateen on Grindr before they became 'friends with benefits', meeting up 20 times at a hotel. His identity has been disguised with a mask 'The thing that makes me want to tell the truth is that he didnt do it for terrorism,' Miguel told Univision's Maria Elena Salinas. 'In my opinion he did it for revenge.' Before the massacre, Miguel insists, Mateen seemed 'adorable' and 'sweet', adding that they often had oral sex and that Mateen 'loved to be cuddled... he loved to be embraced'. Their first date, he said, was at a bar in Orlando called Parliament. 'It was like any other date,' he recounts. Every other meeting was at the city's Ambassador hotel, where they met 15 to 20 times between October and December 2015. Univision said a representative for the hotel confirmed that Omar Mateen was a familiar face, and that he stayed at the hotel at least 63 times last year. The FBI has obtained CCTV footage from the hotel, Univision reports. Miguel said Mateen lashed out when he once tried to take selfies in bed, forcing him to put his phone down. The 29-year-old eventually revealed to him that he was married with one child, he says. After an argument, he says, Mateen apologized to him - then told him his wife knew about his gay trysts. Miguel claims Omar Mateen fostered a deep hatred for his own sexuality and for Puerto Rican gay men Pulse is where Mateen could inflict the most damage against the people he felt rejected by, Miguel said The 29-year-old eventually revealed to Miguel that he was married with one child, he says. After an argument, he says, Mateen apologized to him - then told him his wife (pictured) knew about his gay trysts Asked if Mateen's father knew he was gay, Miguel said he couldn't be sure but he thought so. During their casual relationship, Miguel says, Mateen spoke about Islam, describing it as 'a beautiful religion in which everyone is welcome - gays, trans, bisexuals, heteros, everyone.' But it became clear that Mateen fostered a deep hatred for his own sexuality and for Puerto Rican gay men. 'He hated Puerto Rican gays for all the bad stuff they did,' Miguel said. 'Pulse is where he felt used, rejected,' he added. 'He was always there and he was there because he liked Latinos and he was attracted to dark skin. But sadly, from what he told me, he felt used. 'He felt anger, a lot of anger towards Puerto Ricans.' Miguel said he has reported his entire story to the FBI, and is currently being interrogated by federal officers. Univision disguised the man's identity with a prosthetic mask and altered the tone of his voice. 'First date': This bar, which now has an Orlando solidarity sign outside, is where Miguel says he met Mateen At a time when the Northern Territory is trying to attract backpackers to the region a remote pub and caravan park there is refusing to employ any at all. The Bark Hut Inn, which is 90 minutes southeast of Darwin, is no longer hiring backpackers to work at the venue preferring instead to use the Australian labour force at its disposal, reports the ABC. Derrin Broad took over the ownership of the establishment a few months ago and introduced the new directive. The Bark Hut Inn, which is 90 minutes southeast of Darwin, no longer hires backpackers to work He has since hired all his staff from South Australia, but they weren't complete strangers. Mr Broad asked a dozen of his friends and family from Edithburgh, a small town on South Australia's Yorke Peninsula, to join him and help him run his business at the remote location. They are full-time, permanent staff not backpackers who come and go through the area. Mr Broad wanted to establish some familiarity among his customers, and he could only do that by employing permanent staff. The bar's owner has since hired all his staff from South Australia instead of backpackers The remote Northern Territory pub Bark Hut Inn is located deep in the Top End 'We don't want to have the backpackers,' he said. 'These guys [staff] will be here for a while and you feel good when you walk into somewhere and they know you and you immediately want to stay.' The roadhouse services tourists travelling to Kakadu National Park, and until now has regularly employed backpackers that have been passing through the isolated area. The landmark roadhouse services tourists travelling to Kakadu National Park Mr Broad's decision however flies in the face of promotional campaigns aimed at attracting backpackers to the Top End. One was to attract adventurous backpackers holidaying in Bali to 'Add-on Darwin' in a $370,000 campaign. It was funded earlier this year through the Tourism NT international marketing budget, reports NT News. Chief Minister of the Northern Territory Adam Giles had said the aim was to attract more visitors to the Top End. Advertisement A family home has been declared unliveable after vandals poured paint, bleach and cat poo through the house, slashed family photos, electrocuted the pet fish and rubbed eggs into bare mattresses. Parents-of-two Chad and Danielle had been away for the weekend with their two daughters, aged 14 and six, when they returned to the Palmwoods home had been turned upside down. The word 'Americ**t' had been carved into a dresser, with the parents suspecting the vandalism was an escalation of bullying their girl has suffered at a Sunshine Coast school, Chad told Daily Mail Australia. Parents-of-two Danielle and Chad had been away for the weekend with their two daughters, aged 14 and six, when they returned to the Palmwoods home to find it completely destroyed Their expensive mattresses had to be thrown out after raw eggs were crushed into them. Sofas were thrown out after they were slashed with knives (pictured) A photograph of Chad's grandparents including of his grandmother the family took care of who has recently passed away was slashed with a knife (pictured) Their X-Box and WII were thrown into the fish tank (pictured), killing the pets by electrocution Graffiti also referenced the Orlando Pulse shooting. The two daughters and mother are US citizens and moved to Australia about four-and-a-half years-ago. 'The bullying has just gotten bad, and wow, I'm kind of speechless. I'm running out of words,' Chad said. He said the bullying she's suffered has escalated since then, with the parents claiming to have repeatedly gone back and forth between the school, police and the bus company. Queensland Police confirmed to Daily Mail Australia they are speaking with two juveniles over the allegations. Graffiti in a room also said 'sl**' and 'w****', Chad said. 'Americ***t' was written in one of the bedroom's wall in the Friday night vandalism The word 'Americ**t' (pictured) had been carved into a dresser, with the parents suspecting the vandalism was an escalation of bullying their girl has suffered at a Sunshine Coast school Graffiti in one of the bedrooms also said 'sl**' and 'w****' (pictured), Chad said Pictured: damage caused to the Sunshine Coast home, where paint and bleach was poured Shower and sink taps were taken off and paint was smeared on the bathroom walls The taps were taken off the bathroom sink and paint was splattered over the walls Pictured: paint poured over a bathroom floor at Danielle and Chad's rental home where they lived with their two daughters The vandalism was at the 'higher level' of property damage, a QLD Police spokesman told Daily Mail Australia 'Maliciously tipping a used cat box throughout my daughter's bed [as well as using] eggs and milk,' Chad told Daily Mail Australia. The vandals had tipped their pet cat's used kitty litter, leaving faeces throughout. 'They meticulously went through every item of clothing in the house and tipped paint and bleach through it.' The father said there were 'bags and bags and bags' of clothes being thrown into a skip bin, while their expensive mattresses had to be thrown out after raw eggs were crushed into them. Sofas were thrown out after they were slashed with knives. The house has been declared unliveable because of paint and bleach fumes poured throughout the home in vandalism on Friday night When the family returned from a weekend away, they found their Palmwoods home completely destroyed The father estimated tens-of-thousands of dollars worth of damage was done. They do not have contents insurance Their X-Box and WII were thrown into the fish tank, killing the pets by electrocution. Shower and basin taps were also taken off, with paint and bleach fumes making the home unliveable. Paint also damaged their televisions. A photograph of Chad's grandparents including of his grandmother the family took care of who has recently passed away was slashed with a knife in the vandalism. The family have lost everything, and did not have contents insurance leaving them out of pocket in the tens of thousands. The family-of-four won't return to the rental property, and and their eldest daughter will be placed in a new high school. 'And our eldest certainly doesn't want to come back here. She's very, very angry and very upset - as we all are. 'They meticulously went through every item of clothing in the house and tipped paint and bleach through it,' Chad said The family-of-four said they won't return to the rental property, and will also put their daughter in a new high school The father said there were 'bags and bags and bags' of clothes being thrown into a skip bin out the front of the home Thankfully, their landlord has been generous with the family, while other locals and businesses have offered a hand, the father said Thankfully, their landlord has been generous with the family, while other locals and businesses have offered a hand, the father said, with one offering free storage while the family finds a new home. Queensland Police confirmed the incident and said they are speaking with two juveniles. However, no arrests have been made and a motive has not been determined. The vandalism was at the 'higher level' of property damage, a QLD Police spokesman told Daily Mail Australia. 'There was all sorts of damage caused to the house and graffiti throughout the home,' the spokesman said. Paint also damaged their televisions. Fumes from paint and bleach has made the home unliveable The parents suspect the vandalism was the result of escalated bullying their daughter has suffered at a Sunshine Coast school Queensland Police confirmed the incident and said they are speaking with two juveniles. However, no arrests have been made and a motive has not been determined (pictured: Chad and Danielle in the vandalised home) The Queensland Education Department confirmed the school had been 'working closely and extensively with the Watt family over a number of months to resolve their concerns'. 'Bullying is not tolerated in Queensland state schools,' the statement provided to Daily Mail Australia said. 'Every student has the right to learn in a positive, safe and caring environment where they can reach their full potential.' Anyone with information which could assist police in their investigation are urged to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000. Children struggling with bullying should call Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800. The father said the vandals 'maliciously' tipped the family cat's used kitty litter throughout one of the bedrooms The family cat's poo was littered throughout one of the bedrooms The graffiti referenced the Orlando Pulse massacre. The mother and two daughters are US citizens who moved to Australia about four-and-a-half years-ago The word 'd***' was also repeatedly written throughout one of the bedrooms Other graffiti included the words: 'Co** lovers go home.' The word is a racist slur against Indigenous Australians. Chad had no idea why the words were written on their walls The vandalism was at the 'higher level' of property damage, a QLD Police spokesman told Daily Mail Australia The family were forced to throw out sofas and expensive mattresses after vandals poured bleach and paint on them The mattresses and couches were also slashed in the vandalism - along with family photos The family had been away for the weekend when they returned home to find their property had been vandalised The vandalism was at the 'higher level' of property damage, a QLD Police spokesman told Daily Mail Austral 'There was all sorts of damage caused to the house and graffiti throughout the home,' a QLD police spokesperson said Paint and bleach was poured throughout the family home in the vandalism on Friday night Police confirmed they have made no arrests and are yet to determine a motive for the vandalism Chad said none of their clothes were spared when the vandals poured bleach and paint over them 'The bullying has just gotten bad, and wow, I'm kind of speechless. I'm running out of words,' Chad said 'Our eldest certainly doesn't want to come back here. She's very, very angry and very upset - as we all are,' the father said Advertisement A newlywed couple certainly had a wedding day to remember after a rattlesnake bit the groom while they were taking photos by a picturesque reservoir. Laura Loretz, 33, and Johnny Benson, of Fort Collins, Colorado, got married at St. Joseph's Catholic Church on Monday afternoon. Then, along with their bridal party, they headed to the Horsetooth Reservoir to take some pictures before making their way to their reception. While the bridal party went to the reception venue, Johnny, 44, stayed behind to get the perfect shot at sunset with his new wife. As their wedding photographer took pictures of the couple walking hand in hand along a trail, Johnny was bitten on his ankle - but after a quick stop at the hospital, they made it to their wedding reception to dance the night away with their guests. Once bitten, twice shy! A newlywed couple certainly had a day to remember after a rattlesnake bit the groom while they took photos For better or worse: Laura Loretz and Johnny Benson got married on Monday before heading to Horsetooth Reservoir to take pictures 'All of a sudden it was like someone kicked me in the shin,' he told the Denver Post. 'Then I looked over and saw the snake sitting there, and it was rattling.' A Larimer County park ranger soon came to their aid and the groom was taken to Poudre Valley Hospital to be treated for the bite. Fortunately, it was a 'dry bite' meaning no venom was injected so after a tetanus shot, the couple made it to their evening reception. Laura described the incident as 'pretty epic'. 'It was scary for a minute,' she told the Post. 'Once we got to the emergency room, it was super, super fast.' The experience was thrilling for their wedding photographer Maddie Mae, who continued clicking away after the bite and while they waited for help to arrive. She said she can't believe a church wedding in her hometown became 'her craziest wedding story to date'. 'As an adventure wedding photographer, I often wade in chest-high water, hike into jungles in Costa Rica, or go on 10-mile hikes with couples on their wedding day,' she said. 'I never would have guessed that my only indoor church wedding this year, in my home town, would actually become the biggest adventure, and my craziest wedding story to date.' His lucky day! Fortunately, the snake bite was not venomous so Laura and Johnny were able to make it to their wedding reception together Memorable: The couple, who were engaged in March last year, had stayed behind after the wedding party left to take couple shots Help is on the way! A park ranger soon came to their aid and the groom was taken to Poudre Valley Hospital to be treated for the bite One for the books: 'It was scary for a minute,' Laura said of their dramatic day. 'Once we got to the emergency room, it was super fast' Mae said they had been just 50 feet from the parking lot by the reservoir when the rattlesnake bit Johnny on the ankle, so they tried to flag down a park ranger who was driving by. 'All three of us started waving furiously at him. He rolls down the window and we yelled, "He just got bit by a rattlesnake." The ranger, obviously not hearing what we said, yelled back, "congratulations",' Mae said. Eventually, the ranger got the message and helped the groom lay down and keep his leg elevated as they waited for paramedics to arrive. 'Not knowing if the rattler had injected venom, the initial prognosis was pretty dire,' she added. At best, Johnny would need to be in hospital for several hours for the bite to be assessed or, at worst, if he needed anti-venom treatment, he was facing a hospital stay of several days. 'Shortly after we got there, it was determined that no venom had been injected and Johnny still had no swelling or no symptoms. The people at in the ER at Poudre Valley Hospital then became the heroes as they made it the world's shortest ER visit in history,' she said. The newlyweds were back in their photographer's car and driving to their reception in less than 20 minutes, where they were greeted by 184 cheering guests. 'I've never seen such a emotional grand entrance as all 184 guests cheered when Johnny and Laura walked in, and showered them in a sea of passionate hugs,' Mae added. 'I admire Laura and Johnny so much for staying calm, and holding each other's hand through the first great test of their brand new marriage. The whole reception was filled with laughs, smiles, and jokes about it being a typical 'Johnny Benson' wedding experience. 'The whole situation was so surreal, and I couldn't really help in any way except continue to do my job and capture the story of their wedding day.' Dramatic: A park ranger helped the groom lay down and keep his leg elevated as the couple waited for paramedics to arrive Where are the bride and groom? Guests at the wedding had 'freaked out' when the couple didn't arrive at their reception, a friend said Almost there: Adventure wedding photographer Maddie Mae couldn't believe her only church wedding of the year became a 'crazy story' Meanwhile, guests at the wedding had 'freaked out' when the couple didn't arrive at their reception, Johnny's friend Nowell Vincent told The Coloradoan. Vincent says the groom is known for 'notorious' moments but it appears in this case, his friends may have been the ones who tempted fate. While taking pictures at the reservoir, they had joked about rattlesnakes shortly before the groom was bit. Meanwhile, the Odell Brewing Company, where Johnny works as a brewer, congratulated the couple and promised to work on a new drink called the 'Snake Bite Benson.' 'If rain on your wedding day is good luck, a snake bite guarantees true love forever,' the company said on Facebook. 'We're glad the groom could still dance the night away. Our 'Snake Bite Benson' recipe is already in the works.' Johnny and Laura, a teacher, met in 2008 but only went on their first date after four years of friendship. They got engaged in March last year while visiting Sayulita, Mexico. 'A search at customs revealed an engagement ring box in Johnny's suitcase,' the couple wrote on their wedding website. 'For 24 hours, we awkwardly avoided talking about what had happened at customs until he finally asked of course the answer was yes!' Good luck charm! 'If rain on your wedding day is good luck, a snake bite guarantees true love forever,' Johnny's employer said No harm done: After the quickest hospital visit , the newlyweds were back in their photographer's car and driving to their reception A former senior officer at HMAS Leeuwin claims he had no knowledge of alleged abuse between recruits, but said he would have considered the act of rubbing boot polish on each other's genitals as 'a rite of initiation'. Geoffrey Curran spoke at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse in Sydney on Wednesday and described the horrific evidence given by five former naval base recruits as 'gut wrenching'. However, the ex-divisional officer told the commission the demeaning language used by the recruits to describe each other in the 1960s and '70s was just 'boys being boys'. Former senior officer at HMAS Leeuwin Geoffrey Curran (pictured) told the Royal Commission the demeaning language used by the recruits to describe each other in the 1960s and 70s was just 'boys being boys' and alleged sex abuse was a 'rite of initiation' The commission heard the new intakes were called 'new grubs' and the most senior were dubbed 'top s***s'. Mr Curran, who was in charge of the welfare of the recruits at the time, said he received no complaints of abuse while at HMAS Leeuwin, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. 'There would have been talk of some incidents but I was never directly involved in any complaint or investigation,' he said. The former senior officer said the Australian culture 40 years ago was much different than today and recruits did not dob on each other to their supervisors. Justice Peter McClellan then asked Mr Curran if it was part of Australian culture to keep quiet when another recruit 'attacked your anus with an implement'. He asked Mr Curran if that behaviour was down to 'boys being boys'. The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse started its examination into the ADF's handling of abuse allegations across the navy, army and airforce in Sydney on Tuesday Geoffrey Curran spoke at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse in Sydney on Wednesday 'I was forced to suck another recruit's penis or lick a junior recruit's anus. This was often after another recruit who had been buggered by an older recruit and ejaculated into,' a man told the hearing on Tuesday On Tuesday, survivors of the alleged abuse told the commission there was a 'culture of abuse' and secrecy in defence force facilities across the country. They said teenage recruits subjected vile sexual, emotional and physical abuse at the hands of senior officers, according to The Sydney Morning Herald. The commission heard 15-year-old cadet Eleanore Tibble was driven to commit suicide after the ADF threatened her with a dishonourable discharge because she had a sexual relationship with a 30-year-old instructor. Her mother Susan Campbell was among the 111 people who contacted the commission about the ADF as they failed to tell her daughter the 'fraternisation' charges were being dropped. A former Navy cadet who served at the Leeuwin base, in Perth's south, in 1967 told the commission he was 'repeatedly' dragged to an oval, raped and forced to perform oral sex on his fellow recruits. The commission heard that 15-year-old Eleanore Tibble was driven to commit suicide after the ADF threatened her with a dishonourable discharge because she had a sexual relationship with a 30-year-old instructor Her mother Susan Campbell was among the 110 people who contacted the commission about the ADF 'I was forced to suck another recruit's penis or lick a junior recruit's anus. This was often after another recruit who had been buggered by an older recruit and ejaculated into,' the man who was given the pseudonym CJA told the hearing. ABOUT HMAS LEEUWIN The navy training base in Fremantle operated from 1960 to 1984 More than 13,000 boys between 15 and 16 were trained there A 1971 inquiry found bullying and physical abuse were not systemic It found the officers who ran HMAS Leeuwin were upstanding men But, the 2014 Defence Abuse Response Taskforce Inquiry received 2400 abuse complaints, most being from the navy on a per capita basis 27 per cent of DART complainants were children at time of abuse It found alcohol and drugs a factor in abuse, and ADF's institutional culture did not support reporting abuse Advertisement 'Other times I was forced to have anal intercourse with junior recruits or I was raped by another junior recruit who was directed to so by the older recruits or base staff,' he added. CJA also told the commission he was afraid to complain after witnessing a chef ejaculate into an officer's food before it was presented to him. Graeme Frazer, who survived horrendous abuse when he was 16 the same naval training base said it took 36 years before the Navy and the Department of Defence acknowledged the systemic abuse. Mr Frazer said the abuse, which included being knocked unconscious while being forced to run a gauntlet, caused him lifelong physical and psychological damage. He said he was also subjected to a painful initiation ritual known as 'nuggeting' which involves being held down while his genitals were smeared with boot polish and scrubbed with a hard bristled brush. Mr Frazer said he twice reported the abuse to a senior officer at Leeuwin but was told it was a 'rite of passage in the real Navy'. The hearing is continuing. The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse started its examination into the ADF's handling of abuse allegations across the navy, army and airforce in Sydney on Tuesday Federal Labor frontbenchers rubbed shoulders with an anti-gay sheikh at a pre-Ramadan function - just weeks before the Prime Minister controversially hosted the cleric at a feast. Malcolm Turnbull last week condemned Sheikh Shady Alsuleiman while he dined at the first ever Kirribilli House Iftar (breaking of the fast) dinner. It came after a 2013 video emerged which showed the Sheikh condemning homosexuality for 'spreading diseases' and claiming Allah 'sends' diseases like HIV and AIDS to sinful people. Just weeks before the PM's dinner, former ministers Tony Burke and Jason Clare smiled for a picture with Alsuleiman at a small event held at the Mufti's office. Smile: Labor frontbenchers Tony Burke (first from left) and Jason Clare (second from right) smile for a photo with the Dr Ibrahim Abu Mohammed, Sheikh Shady Alsuleiman (right). Also pictured: Labor MLC Sophia Cotsis Mr Burke and Mr Clare were attending a pre-Ramadan function with senior members of the Islamic community Malcolm Turnbull condemned the views of an anti-gay preacher Sheik Shady Alsuleiman (pictured) An attendee, former Canterbury Council deputy mayor Karl Saleh, said of the Sheikh: 'He's a friend with all politicians'. Held in the last fortnight of May, the event was described as a 'parliamentary delegation' by a community Facebook page and a 'pre-Ramadan breakfast' by attendee Bilal El-Hayak. WHAT SHEIKH SHADY ALSULEIMAN SAID IN APRIL 2013 VIDEO 'If people commit the fahisha, the evil deed, the evil action in the open and people do it in the public, the prophet said... Allah will send on them diseases... Allah will send on them diseases the have never experienced before. 'If they commit zina (unlawful sexual conduct) and they... do zina in the open Allah will send on them diseases they have never experienced before. 'What's the most common disease these days? HIV, AIDS, that's so common, and there's no cure to it. 'And when did it exist? Just decades ago. And more diseases are coming. Most of the diseases these days if you speak to a doctor... the most terrifying diseases come from what? From sexual activities... Also homosexuality that's spreading all these diseases. 'Let's not deny the fact, don't call it the name of freedom. Don't talk about the freedom of action... these are evil actions that bring upon evil outcomes to our society. 'The prophet Allah, 14 centuries ago, he made it clear and he spoke about whenever [unlawful sexual relations] is spread in a society diseases will be set upon them.' Advertisement Mr El-Hayak posted online: 'Had a great time at the pre Ramadan breakfast this morning organized by the Grand Mufti Dr Ibrahim Abu Mohamed and Sheikh Shady Alsuleiman'. Mr Burke, the manager of Opposition business, and Mr Clare, the party's communications spokesman, were joined by Labor officials and community representatives. Asked whether Mr Burke and Mr Clare were aware of the Sheikh's views at the time, a Labor campaign spokesman told Daily Mail Australia: 'No'. The spokesman declined to comment further, as did Beth Rich, a representative for the Grand Mufti. After Mr Turnbull criticised the Sheikh's views as 'wrong' and 'unacceptable' last Friday, Labor leader Bill Shorten told reporters: 'I have no plans to meet the particular sheikh youre referring to. 'And if I do so in the future, being aware of his views now, I will tell him that his views are out of line with mainstream Australian thinking full stop'. Following Mr Turnbull's dinner, Sheikh Alsuleiman issued a statement saying there is no place for discrimination. 'I unequivocally reject the claim that I called for the stoning or any form of punishment of adulterers and/or homosexuals. 'As an Australian and a Muslim I unreservedly condemn the vilification and oppression of any group of people based on race, religion, gender, sexuality, or any other criteria for that matter. 'Islam's position on the matter is clear like many other religions however Islam espouses there is no compulsion in religion and diversity is the norm. 'As Australians we have and will always show mutual respect for one another. During the dinner at Kirribilli House, Mr Turnbull shared a laugh with The Project host Waleed Aly and his wife, the writer and academic Susan Carland It was the first ever Iftar - or 'breaking of the fast' dinner - to be hosted by an Australian prime minister 'There is absolutely no place for homophobia or any sort of hatred or discrimination towards a person who identifies at LGBTI. 'I believe all Australians, Muslim and non-Muslim, have and will continue to campaign against any form of hatred or discrimination in our society'. The Sheikh has since shared a 'good video' on his Facebook page which explained: 'Sheikh Shady stated that in Islam homosexuality is a sin and he said that in a video that was uploaded a few years ago. 'Now let's be clear about something. Homosexuality is indeed prohibited in Islam. Homosexuality is impermissible in Islam as a fact'. 'So Sheikh Shady didn't decide this himself, nor did he make it up, he's just explaining what Islam teaches about homosexuality'. Event attendee Mr Saleh said the Sheikh was a 'man of peace and harmony - a moderate person'. However, the event was overshadowed when controversy erupted over Sheikh Alsuleiman's past comments A wealthy New York landlord accused of running a $45million fraud scheme that involved driving residents out of their rent-stabilized apartments is close to reaching a plea agreement, his attorney said. Steven Croman, 49, appeared at the Manhattan Supreme Court on Tuesday with his lawyer Ben Brafman, who said he hoped to 'resolve this matter by the next court appearance.' Both Croman and his employee Barry Swartz, 53, with whom he filed false paperwork to land millions in loans, face numerous counts of grand larceny, scheme to defraud, among other charges. Scroll down for video Steven Croman, 49, appeared at the Manhattan Supreme Court on Tuesday (pictured) with his lawyer Ben Brafman, who said he was close to reaching a plea agreement in the $45million fraud scheme case A grand jury found Croman and his employee Swartz, had filed false paperwork inflating their rent income between 2012 to 2014 to land $45 million in fraudulent loans. Pictured, Steven Croman and his wife Harriet Croman (center, with mortgage broker Barry Swartz, left on May 9) was also slapped with a civil lawsuit accusing him of paying a police officer-turned-PI to intimidate tenants to leave their rent-controlled apartments The 49-year-old, dubbed the Bernie Madoff of landlords, bought 140 buildings in Manhattann and converted them into expensive market-rate properties after allegedly driving out tenants in rent-controlled apartments The attorney said: 'We are working diligently to try and resolve this matter on a global basis and hope to be able to do so by the next court appearance,' the New York Post reported. A grand jury found Croman and his employee Swartz, had inflated their rent income between 2012 to 2014 to land $45 million in fraudulent loans. Croman was also slapped with a civil lawsuit, accused of paying a police officer-turned-PI Anthony Falconite to intimidate tenants into leaving their rent-controlled apartments. The 49-year-old, dubbed the Bernie Madoff of landlords, bought 140 buildings in Manhattan's gentrifying areas in recent years. He then converted the rent-stabilized apartments into expensive properties after driving working-class and low-income families out of their longtime homes, according to the office of State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. Under New York City law, a landlord can only raise the rent on a rent-controlled apartment if the tenants willfully leave and the property requires substantial renovations. Residents in the once-gritty, now-gentrified Lower East Side and uptown's Spanish Harlem have been pressured to move out of their homes for small cash pay-offs, authorities claim. In May, his success streak came to a halt as he was arrested at dawn then sat handcuffed in court It was also revealed that while allegedly running the fraud scheme, Croman held massive parties in the Hamptons attracting celebrities including Scott Disick, the ex-partner of Kourtney Kardashian. According to Page Six, Croman and his wife Harriet turned their rental property in Bridgehampton into Studio 54 in 2013. The disco band Chic performed at the party, which included fake lines of cocaine and pills for guests. The year after, they recreated Hugh Hefner's Playboy mansion, and created a grotto swimming pool. The couple also own their own $5.5million house in upmarket Sagaponack and are said to be carrying out a raft of renovations, including a basement and rooftop swimming pool. The charges: The attorney general displayed the charges against Croman as a warning in May 'Paid a cop': Croman (left) was also slapped with a civil lawsuit, accused of paying a police officer-turned-PI Anthony Falconite (right) to intimidate tenants into leaving their rent-controlled apartments Croman was released from police custody in May after posting $500,000 cash bail. Swartz, who is charged with 15 felonies, posted $250,000 bail. Attorney General Eric Schneiderman previously slammed Croman as 'unscrupulous' during a May court appearance. 'My message to unscrupulous landlords is simple: if you put your own profits over your tenants legal protections, we will investigate you and prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law,' Schneiderman said in a statement. 'My office will not tolerate anyone who attempts to line their own pockets by gaming the system. 'No one is above the law no matter how rich or powerful.' Croman and Swartz have both pleaded not guilty. Residents in the once-gritty, now-gentrified Lower East Side have been pressured to move out of their homes for small cash pay-offs, authorities claim. Pictured: 134 Orchard Street, one of Croman's properties In March, Croman's son Jake (pictured) made headline news for verbally abusing an Uber driver and calling him a 'minimum wage f*****' There is even a website and a support group for the thousands of affected tenants, with a complete list of all Croman's properties. In March, Croman's son made headline news for abusing an Uber driver. Jake Croman, a member of the Tau Kappa Epsilon chapter at the University of Michigan, verbally abused an Uber driver. These are the three politicians to make Hillary Clinton's shortlist for a running mate, reports claim. Julian Castro of Texas, the current Housing and Urban Development Secretary, is a rising star in the Democrat Party - and could provide a crucial boost in the bid to win Latino voters. Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren is a favorite of progressives, and a thorn in Donald Trump's side, regularly engaging in Twitter spats with the GOP candidate. The third potential VP is Virginia Senator Tim Kaine, Democrats told the Associated Press. Kaine is a well-liked lawmaker from an important general election battleground state. Though some other names have been bandied around, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Clinton's toughest primary rival, is not on the shortlist, according to one Democrat. The final three are now being lined up for interviews to be vetted by Clinton's team, sources say. Bright spark: Julian Castro (pictured), a telegenic 41-year-old Texan, would bring youthful enthusiasm to Clinton's campaign and would be the first Hispanic on a major party ticket. Obama put him in his cabinet Female liberal: Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren (pictured) is a favorite of progressives, and a thorn in Donald Trump's side, regularly engaging in Twitter spats with the presumptive Republican candidate To reach this batch, a small group of Clinton campaign confidants has been sifting through publicly available information about more than two dozen possible contenders for more than a month. But with Democratic primary voting wrapping up last week, the list has been culled significantly and the campaign has begun contacting those under consideration. Several Democrats described Clinton's vice presidential search process on the condition of anonymity, because they were not authorized by her campaign to publicly discuss it. Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon would not comment. Clinton was pressing forward on her search for a running mate as her GOP rival struggled with dismal fundraising and major questions about his campaign organization. Trump fired his campaign manager Monday and new fundraising data showed donors gave the businessman's campaign just over $3 million last month. If Clinton were to tap Warren as her No 2, she would be choosing one of the Senate's most outspoken liberals and a proponent of tough Wall Street regulation, who has long been viewed as a running mate who could help Clinton appeal to Sanders' loyal supporters. She is also relishing taking on Trump, blasting the businessman in speeches and on Twitter as a 'thin-skinned, racist bully' embracing a running mate's traditionally aggressive role. While Warren and Clinton do not have a close relationship, they recently met for about an hour in Washington. The senator also gave a pep talk to staff at the Clinton campaign's Brooklyn headquarters last week. Kaine, a former Virginia governor who previously headed the Democratic National Committee, is well-liked within the party and is more moderate than Warren. While he may not excite liberals, he's seen as a running mate who could appeal to independents and swing voters in his home state and elsewhere. President Barack Obama thoroughly vetted Kaine as he searched for a running mate in 2008, ultimately passing over the Virginian in favor of then-Delaware Sen. Joe Biden. Castro, a telegenic 41-year-old Texan, would bring youthful enthusiasm to Clinton's campaign and would be the first Hispanic on a major party ticket. Obama plucked him from his post as San Antonio mayor in 2014 to serve in the Cabinet, a move seen by some Democrats as a way to bolster Castro's national profile for a potential vice presidential run. A safe bet? Tim Kaine (pictured), a former Virginia governor who previously headed the Democratic National Committee, is well-liked within the party, is more moderate than Warren and could appeal to swing voters Warren, Kaine and Castro represent the two schools of thinking about the running mate pick that has emerged among those closest to Clinton's campaign. Some advisers believe Clinton should pick a running-mate that would energize Democrats: a woman, a staunch liberal or a minority. Others argue that Trump's deep unpopularity gives Clinton an opportunity to win over a share of independents and Republican-leaning voters with a more centrist pick, such as Kaine. Clinton is also said to be cognizant about the risks of tapping a senator who would be replaced by a Republican governor if Democrats won in November. That's a particular liability for Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker. Clinton's campaign is said to have considered both, but it was unclear Monday whether either would be fully vetted for the vice presidential slot. While Warren's seat would be temporarily filled by an appointee named by Massachusetts' Republican governor, the state would hold a special election for a permanent replacement. A handful of other Democrats are also said to be under consideration, though the full list is being closely guarded by the Clinton campaign. Longtime Clinton allies John Podesta and Cheryl Mills are overseeing the search and few people beyond them are believed to know the full list of candidates being vetted. Clinton herself has been vague in describing her thinking about picking a running mate. Malcolm Turnbull has come under fire from conservative Senator Cory Bernardi after the Prime Minister answered a question about 'homophobia' in the Government. During an appearance on ABC's Q&A on Monday, Mr Turnbull was asked whether comments made by Bernardi and fellow Coalition member George Christensen about bestiality and the Safe Schools program were 'any more abhorrent' than homophobic remarks made by Islamic preacher sheik Shady Alsuleiman. 'The key to our success is mutual respect. That is the foundation of our success as the great, diverse, multicultural nation that we are the most successful multicultural nation in the world,' Mr Turnbull said. Malcolm Turnbull has come under fire from conservative Senator Cory Bernardi (pictured) after the Prime Minister answered a question about 'homophobia' in the Government He went on to add he has had 'firm discussions' with some of his Coalition colleagues. Mr Bernardi denied being homophobic in his weekly newsletter, while adding he believes it is 'foolish' to think allowing marriage equality would not lead to further changes to the marriage act. 'An audience member sought to challenge the 'homophobia' within the Coalition, once again without providing any evidence, instead choosing to deliberately misrepresent my previous statements that redefining marriage to include same-sex couples will only lead to further calls for other changes down the track,' the Senator wrote. 'It's the lived experience overseas and we'd be foolish to think it wouldn't happen here too. Mr Bernardi (pictured) denied being homophobic in his weekly newsletter, while adding he believes it is 'foolish' to think allowing marriage equality would not lead to further changes to the marriage act During an appearance on ABC's Q&A, Mr Turnbull (pictured) was asked if comments made by Mr Bernardi about bestiality were 'any more abhorrent' than homophobic remarks made by sheik Shady Alsuleiman 'By saying he'd had "firm discussions" with "a number of colleagues", Turnbull gave implicit support to the claim that myself and other Coalition MPs are "homophobic" and implied that he'd had a conversation with me about "homophobia". 'For the record I have never had such a conversation with any of my colleagues because they know that any such claims cannot be backed with facts.' Mr Bernardi's comments come after Treasurer Scott Morrison said people with strong religious views who oppose same-sex marriage face hatred and bigotry just like gay and lesbian Australians. 'By saying he'd had 'firm discussions' with 'a number of colleagues', Turnbull gave implicit support to the claim that myself and other Coalition MPs are "homophobic',' Mr Bernardi wrote During his Q&A appearance, Mr Turnbull (pictured) said: 'The key to our success is mutual respect. That is the foundation of our success as the great, diverse, multicultural nation that we are' Mr Morrison was responding to a speech by Labor Senator Penny Wong, who said straight politicians don't understand the level of abuse same-sex people endure. Senator Wong, who is in a same-sex relationship and has a young family, declared she was not immune from the abuse thrown her way but was resilient enough to withstand it. But many were not, and a national plebiscite on same-sex marriage could cause significant harm. 'I oppose a plebiscite because I don't want my relationship, my family to be the subject of inquiry, of censure, of condemnation, by others,' she said in a speech at the Australian National University overnight. South Australia senator Cory Bernardi (pictured) speaking at the National Press Club in Canberra, Thursday, July 17, 2014 Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull wears virtual reality goggles during a tour of the innovation hub The SPACE on June 22, 2016 in Darwin 'I don't want other relationships and other families, to be targeted either.' Mr Morrison said he respected Senator Wong's concerns. But he pointed out that people with strong religious views who oppose same-sex marriage were also targets of dreadful hate speech and bigotry. Dame Mary Hogg refuses to say sorry, simply saying: 'It's not personal' Less than a year after Ellie was sent back to him, she had been murdered Family judge said he was 'exonerated', making him difficult to monitor But, after conviction overturned, she was sent back to live with him again The family court judge who was told she'd 'have blood on her hands' when she returned Ellie Butler to her murderous father has failed to apologise, simply saying: 'It's not personal'. Dame Mary Hogg dismissed evidence of domestic abuse, glossed over convictions for violence and ignored social services' pleas to allow Ben Butler and Jennie Gray to regain custody of their little girl. Ellie had been taken away from her parents when Butler was found guilty of violently shaking her when she was just seven weeks old. But, after Butler's conviction was quashed, the judge 'exonerated' him and allowed Ellie to be returned to his care. Even as she sanctioned the order, Ellie's maternal grandfather Neal, who had been looking after her, warned the judge would have 'blood on her hands' - a chilling prediction which came true just 11 months later. Little Ellie Butler (left) was sent back to live with her parents by family judge Mrs Justice Hogg (right) less than a year before he killed her. The former judge has refused to apologise, saying: 'It's not personal' Yesterday a serious case review published in the hours after Butler's conviction found the judge's decision hindered authorities from intervening and potentially saving Ellie's life. But asked whether she felt responsible for the little girl's death, Dame Mary - herself a mother - refused to say sorry. She merely replied: 'It's not personal.' The 68-year-old then drove away without giving any more comment, according to the Daily Mirror. Yesterday, Butler was jailed for a minimum of 23 years after murdering Ellie in a fit of rage at their home in Sutton, south London. His partner and Ellie's mother, Jennie Gray, was jailed for 42 months after admitting helping to cover up the killing and being found guilty of child cruelty. After the verdicts, Mrs Justice Hogg came in for strong criticism, with some questioning how Butler - who spent three-and-a-half months in jail after the conviction - had effectively been given a carte blanche to beat and abuse his little girl. In an extraordinary judgement in 2012, family judge Mrs Justice Hogg had accepted the couple's version of events and went even further than appeal judges by declaring Butler 'exonerated'. In a court order which can be reported for the first time today, the family judge also took the astonishing step of demanding that independent social workers be brought in and Sutton council, which had been involved with Ellie, be removed from the case. Her decision came despite Butler's previous convictions for attempted robbery, witness intimidation and assault and the fact that the couple had repeatedly lied to authorities during care proceedings. Dame Mary Hogg, near her home in central London today. She was criticised in a serious case review In light of Ellie's subsequent death, Mrs Justice Hogg's finding that the injuries which Ellie first suffered were 'purely accidental' appears all the more concerning. The history of the tragic case can now be reported after Butler was jailed for life for murder following the eight-week trial. TIMELINE OF THE TRAGEDY Dec 2006 - Ellie Butler born Feb 2007 - Rushed to hospital with brain injuries indicating her having been shaken July 2007 - Interim care order made for Ellie to be taken away from Butler and Gray January 2008 - Initial family judge finds Butler had caused non-accidental injuries March 2009 - Butler convicted of causing grevious bodily harm at Croydon Crown Court to Ellie and jailed for 18 months October 2009 - Butler released from prison on bail after he launches an appeal June 2010 - His conviction is quashed October 2012 - Mrs Justice Hogg makes court order exhonerating Butler and Gray and returning Ellie to their care November 2012 - Ellie returns to her parents with independent social workers monitoring the situation March 2013 - Independent social workers cease contact with the family October 2013 - Ellie found dead. Butler is later charged with murder and Gray is charged with cruelty and perverting the course of justice June 2016 - Butler is found guilty of murder and Gray of child cruelty. Both are jailed Advertisement It can also be revealed that Gray's father Neal even warned the judge she would have 'blood on your hands' as she sanctioned the return of little Ellie to Butler's care. Ellie had been happy with her loving grandparents, Neal and Linda, who spent thousands of pounds battling to keep her in their care and did not want to give her up. A serious case review into Ellie's death stated: 'When invited to make a statement near the end of the case, [the grandfather had spoken to the court in the strongest of terms about the risks to [Ellie], warning the court 'that they may have blood on their hands'. Tragic Ellie was then sent into a 'house of horrors' where Butler used violence to vent his anger at becoming a house husband and stay-at-home father. In the judgement which returned Ellie to Butler's care, the judge said: 'I do not blame him for causing injury to Ellie, while I accept that he may have done so with all good intention to help her. 'I hope everyone will accept that I do not attach any culpability to him, and that in my judgment he is exonerated from causing her any inflicted injury.' She added that the convictions had been 'assault on adults, not on children'. She said: 'I accept that he can act out of frustration but that does not necessarily mean he will lose control of his temper however fleetingly towards his baby daughter.' She added: 'All professionals are to proceed on the basis that neither parent poses any physical risk [to Ellie].' In a surprise move, Mrs Justice Hogg also ordered Sutton council to write a letter to tell police, schools and doctors to 'wipe the slate clean' for the family. Police forensics officers at the scene of Ellie's death. The court has heard it was a 'toxic' environment She found that any continued contact with Sutton council would be 'doomed to failure' and handed the case over to independent social workers from an organisation called Services For Children (S4C). A VERY CONVENIENT RETIREMENT Mary Hogg retired early one week before Ben Butlers two-month criminal trial began at the Old Bailey. The scion of a famous legal and political dynasty, she is the daughter of Quintin Hogg, the former Tory MP and Lord Chancellor a position also held by her grandfather. She was awarded a Damehood in 1995. She is also the younger sister of Douglas Hogg QC, the former Tory MP exposed during the 2009 expenses scandal for claiming taxpayers money to clean out his moat. During her leaving speeches at the Royal Court of Justice, Dame Mary, 69, announced her intention to take a gap year as her Norfolk terrier Mr Chough took centre stage. She did not refer to the looming prosecution, but spoke instead of the humbling responsibility of her role. The jury in Butlers trial heard that Ellie was returned to him and his partner Jennie Gray after a High Court battle and their claims to be the victims of a miscarriage of justice. But they were not told details of how Dame Mary declared the couple had been wronged by the system in a judgment unusually made public in October 2012. Despite knowing he had multiple convictions for violence and witnessing his furious temper first hand, the judge highlighted that all his crimes were against adults. She said she believed Butler when he said I am not that bad, adding: I note the convictions include assault on adults, not on children. Almost exactly a year after the pairs public exoneration, Ellie was found dead on the floor of her bedroom as Peppa Pig played on her television. Yesterday, Dame Mary said, Ive got nothing to say, as she packed boxes into her car outside her multi-million-pound Pimlico home in central London and drove off. In a statement, a spokesman for the judiciary said: Judges do not comment on cases outside court either their own or those of other judges. Former senior family court judge Sir Mark Hedley, who heard Butlers 2010 criminal appeal, said Dame Marys decision was unusual but not unique. He said the family courts face huge difficulties and decisions cannot be made with an eye on what might happen five years down the line. He added: I think the important thing is to take into account the whole range of the evidence that is available and to recognise that we dont always know the answer to every individual case the stakes are very high. Advertisement The ruling had the affect that social workers who had experience of the case were no longer involved with Ellie and authorities would have needed new reports of violence against her to begin fresh care proceedings. It is understood Services For Children only had contact with Ellie for six months until March 2013. A source close to the case said the 'extremely unusual' order was 'a recipe for disaster'. 'What this had the effect of was putting all of the power in Ben Butler's hands,' said the source. 'He's got everything. He's got the judgement when he's been formally exonerated. 'Now he's got a letter to use against agencies - all the agencies which are now told to wipe the record clear.' The local authority even took legal advice over the judgement but were told it was so emphatic there were no grounds for appeal. It also emerged Butler and Gray had lied to the authorities about their continuing relationship and tried to pretend he was not the father of Ellie's younger sibling. In a bizarre episode, a dodgy DNA test found the children were half-siblings and Butler and Gray continued the deception in Hogg's court. Hogg also raised concerns over Gray missing appointments to see her daughter. But she said: 'They have carried an intolerable burden for the last five-and-a-half years. They have lost one child. 'To them the father was unjustly accused, findings made, tried, convicted, and his conviction quashed; and their child wrongly removed from them following the findings. 'He has been treated and looked upon as a child abuser: they have felt persecuted and pried upon by social workers. 'They have not felt free from outside pressure, and they have feared they would lose [the younger sibling]. 'Now they have been unburdened from the shadow of findings against them. They have unburdened much of themselves to me, admitted concealment and secrecy, and their determination to recover [the younger sibling].' A Serious Case Review of Ellie's case is due to be published today after independent experts looked at the impact of the controversial court order and the work of the independent social workers. Services for Children is a company run by two experts in dealing with children in the care system. The firm's website states that it charges up to 75-an-hour and has worked for councils in Reading, West Berkshire, Wokingham, Windsor and Maidenhead, Bracknell Forest, Slough and Oxford. A spokesman for S4C said: 'Our work was governed by letters of instruction approved by all parties and sanctioned by the court. We were not acting in any other capacity. Ellie was returned to Butler and Gray on the judge's orders but was found dead less than a year later 'Since Ellie's death and throughout the recent trial we have often thought of the impact of Ellie's death on members of her family. We recognise the sorrow they must have experienced in the time that has elapsed.' Dame Mary Hogg, formerly Mrs Justice Hogg, is the daughter of former Lord Chancellor Lord Hailsham and she is the sister of former agriculture minister Douglas Hogg. A mother herself, she built a career ruling on care cases and in 2000 decided two foster parents who ran away with two children over fears they were going to be moved should still be allowed to adopt them. She hung up her robes after spending more than 20 years in the Family Court Division weeks before the start of Butler's Old Bailey trial and a year before the statutory retirement age. FIVE FACTORS WHICH STOPPED AUTHORITIES PREVENTING ELLIE'S DEATH: SERIOUS CASE REVIEW FINDS RULING HINDERED SOCIAL WORKERS The conclusions of a serious case review into the case published today stated: 'This was an exceptionally unusual case and an overwhelming one for many involved. The factors that cause it to be so include: The number of agencies involved. The extreme level of avoidance, deception and resistance from the parents, who were often evasive, contradictory and aggressive and who regularly resorted to complaints and threats. This pattern of behaviours was sustained even after the parents' exoneration and the children were returned to live with them. The use of an independent social work agency in the assessment and the management of the reunification of the children to their parents, and the exclusion of the Local Authority Children's Services from this role. The effect of the court judgement and exoneration, combined with the parents refusal of any voluntary engagement with support services, meant that no intervention that might have made a difference was possible. The Judge in the High Court case pronounced with perhaps undue certainty that the parents' previous patterns of behaviour would change. She said 'Now they have been unburdened from the shadow of findings against them' 'They are going to change'. Sadly this did not turn out to be the case.' Advertisement 'We did not realise people could be so wicked': Ellie's grandparents were forced to hand her back to Gray and Butler 11 months before she died Ellie's grandparents - who looked after her before she was returned to Butler - said she was a 'shining light' in their lives Ellie Butler's maternal grandparents described their utter devastation at her death, saying: 'She was our shining light.' Grandmother Linda Gray died on the first day of the murder trial and her husband Neal was understood to be too ill to give evidence. Jennie Gray was not told of her mother's death until today, because her father could not face her after what she had done. The couple had cared for Ellie after her father Ben Butler was accused of shaking her as a baby, but they were forced to hand her back 11 months before her death. They had spent their life savings fighting the case, according to a serious case review of Ellie's death. In a joint statement written ahead of the trial, the couple described how they struggled to come to terms with the 'shock and horror' of her death. The couple did not directly refer to their daughter Jennie Gray or Butler. However, they said: 'We did not realise that some people could be so wicked in life.' They said: 'Our lives have changed so dramatically due to the impact and shock and horror of this event that we struggle every day to deal with the reality of the death of our dear granddaughter Ellie. She was our shining light. 'Ellie was a very beautiful, bubbly and intelligent little girl who always had a smile on her face and even at such a young age she was nobody's fool. She was our life and she gave so much pleasure to us and our family too, how we all miss her.' The couple went on: 'Local people, some of whom we did not even know, came to express their sadness upon hearing of her death and we received over a hundred messages of sympathy. 'This gave us great comfort in our time of mourning. Ellie had many friends in school and the community all of whom were totally grief-stricken. Mr Gray added: 'Ellie enjoyed doing many after school activities and her death means that we will miss out on her growing up, completing her education, maybe going to university, getting married and having her own children. 'All of this joy has been taken away from us; her grandparents. 'Our family was so close to Ellie and played a great part in much of her life. We have all been left with a great void in our lives as a result of what has happened.' Ellie, pictured at a local play park, was returned to her father's care despite concerns about his behaviour He continued: 'This has caused untold stress, sleepless nights and has been detrimental to my wife's current ill health. 'We have difficulty facing people and people have difficulty facing us and visiting our home. It affects our everyday lives. It was such a great privilege and pleasure to have been Ellie's grandparents and to be able to have loved her in her short life. 'Our beautiful granddaughter Ellie, we all miss her very, very, much, more than any words can express. Life will never be the same for us again.' The children no one protected: The Ellie Butler trial is the latest in a spate of recent cases in which parents have not been stopped from killing their own children The Ellie Butler case is the latest in a series of troubling trials and incidents this year which have led to criticism of authorities for failing to protect children. In April, the mother of Ayeeshia Jane Smith was jailed for life for the murder of the 21-month-old, who was heard shouting 'stop mummy, stop daddy' before she was killed at her home in Staffordshire. It emerged during Kathryn Smith's trial that Ayeeshia suffered a number of 'concerning' injuries in the run up to her death, including a life-threatening brain injury, which apparently went unnoticed by doctors. Social services had been supervising Ayeeshia and she was taken away from Smith for five months and placed with foster carers - but she was given back to her mother seven months before her death. Kathryn Smith (left) murdered Ayeeshia Jane Smith (right) after she was returned to her by social services Kandyce Downer murdered Keegan Downer, who she became guardian of for extra maintenance money Social workers also discussed taking Ayeeshia into care again three weeks before she died, then held another meeting just 24 hours before she was killed but did not remove the child. Last month, Kandyce Downer was jailed for life today for the murder of 18-month-old Keegan Downer, who died at the family home in Birmingham. Keegan had been repeatedly beaten and suffered more than 200 injuries. She had 153 scars on her body, including her face and neck. Downer had been appointed Keegan's guardian with the blessing of social services and six months after Keegan was put in Downer's care, the systematic abuse began. It was claimed Downer only wanted Keegan to rake in 125-a-week maintenance payments. She also secured a four-figure lump sum towards the cost of a new car for taking on the child, on top of her housing benefit and child support. Also last month was the disturbing case of Samira Lupidi, who stabbed to death her two daughters, 17-month-old Jasmine Weaver and three-year-old Evelyn Lupidi, at a women's refuge in Bradford. Samira Lupidi was jailed last month for killing daughters Jasmine Weaver and Evelyn Lupidi Rachel and Nyomi Fee were convicted of murdering Liam Fee, who 'fell off the radar' of social services The murders came in the middle of a row between Italian-born Lupidi and the girls' father over the custody of the children. The judge who jailed Lupidi said the two victims were 'both as vulnerable as anyone can be'. Also last month, Rachel Fee and her lesbian partner Nyomi were convicted of murdering Rachel's son Liam in Fife, Scotland, after a court heard they also carried out sustained attacks on the toddler and two other boys. Repeated concerns had been raised by a childminder and nursery staff but a senior social worker admitted Liam 'fell off the radar'. Driver of the speedboat, a 19-year-old Maltese man, is being questioned Police on the island confirmed that he died before reaching hospital He was pulled from the water by coastguards and given first aid Allan Stanley, 76, was struck as he swam across beautiful bay in Malta A grandfather was killed when he was hit by a speedboat while swimming on holiday in Malta. Super-fit Allan Stanley, 76, suffered horrific injuries from the boat's propeller during his daily long-distance swim. He was pulled from the water by coastguards and given first aid by paramedics. Allan Stanley (left, with his wife Diane) died after being struck by a speedboat during his daily swim in Malta Stanley suffered horrific injuries when the speedboat's propellers caught him as he swum across the bay at Hondoq ir-Rummien (pictured) But police on the Mediterranean island confirmed that Allan died before reaching hospital. The driver of the speedboat, a 19-year-old Maltese man, is being questioned about the accident. Retired businessman Allan spent up to four months a year on the island of Gozo, North of Malta. He would swim up to two miles a day across the bay at Hondoq ir-Rummien, known for its crystal clear waters. Allan was on holiday with his wife Diane who was said to be 'devastated' by the tragedy. His son Russell, 43, said: 'My step sister phoned me to say he had been hit by a boat and they had tried to repair him in the ambulance. Allan Stanley, 76, suffered horrific injuries from the boat's propeller during his daily long-distance swim. Police on the Mediterranean island confirmed that Allan died before reaching hospital 'My two step-sisters have flown out to be with their mum. 'My dad and step-mum spend three or four months a year in Malta, they have a long-term rental place. 'Dad was a hard worker but had reached the age where he deserved a bit of time abroad. 'He loved it there, he always looked forward to going. Advertisement Celebrities including Lily Allen, Gillian Anderson and Bill Nighy paid tribute to murdered mother-of-two Jo Cox on what would have been the MP's 42nd birthday. The trio took to the stage as thousands gathered at a memorial event in Trafalgar Square, London, less than a week after the politician was killed. Singer Allen performed her cover version of Keane hit Somewhere Only We Know, which was Mrs Cox and her family's favourite song to sing as they left their holiday cottage, while Anderson and Nighy both both gave readings. Pakistani Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, who survived an assassination attempt by Taliban extremists for advocating education for girls, made made a passionate speech and told the crowd: 'I'm here today as a living proof that they can't win with bullets.' Celebrities including Lily Allen (left), Gillian Anderson, Bill Nighy and Sir Bob Geldof (right) paid tributes to murdered MP Jo Cox on what would have been the mother-of-two's 42nd birthday. Actors Gillian Anderson and Bill Nighy on stage during the memorial event for murdered Labour MP Jo Cox at Trafalger Square today A member of the crowd attending a commemorative event to celebrate the life of murdered Labour MP Jo Cox dabs her eye as she listens to speeches Hundreds of people hold pictures of Jo Cox, who was killed last Thursday while attending a surgery in her constituency area U2 also sent in a specially recorded version of their song Ordinary Love from Los Angeles, which was preceded by a moving message from lead singer Bono - a strident Oxfam campaigner with whom Mrs Cox had worked. Sir Bob Geldof was also in attendance, joining the crowd by wearing a white rose in memory of the former Batley and Spen parliamentary representative. Labour politician Yvette Cooper and London Mayor Sadiq Khan also watched on. The memorial gathering in London was one of many events taking place across the world in tribute to Mrs Cox, with services held in Beirut, Brussels, Melbourne, Nairobi, New York, and Washington DC. There was also a tribute event in Mrs Cox hometown of Batley, attended by the MP's parents and sister. The events in Trafalgar Square were preceded by a floating commemoration on the river Thames, which started from the houseboat community where Mrs Cox and her family lived. Mr Cox and the children were followed down the River Thames by the Yorkshire Rose - a boat filled with flowers in memory of the late Labour MP. Hosted by Mrs Cox's friend Mariella Frostrup, the event began with leaders of various faiths laying 42 white roses down to mark what would have been her birthday. The band that played at the couple's wedding, Diddley Dee, and a group of the MP's friends formed an honour guard dressed in suffragette-style sashes. Meanwhile a fund created in Cox's memory by her friends and family has raised more than 1.3million for charities close to her heart, following more than 37,500 individual donations. With distinct sadness in her eyes, singer Lily Allen performed her cover version of Keane hit Somewhere Only We Know during the gathering The song was a favourite of Mrs Cox that she used to sing with her beloved family each time they would leave their holiday cottage The backdrop to the central London stage was a photograph of the murdered MP taken by her husband outside their houseboat on the River Thames Organisers said today's events paid tribute to Mrs Cox's 'love, energy, passion, flair, Yorkshire heritage and belief in the humanity of every person in every place'. A similar tribute is expected to be held at Glastonbury's Park Stage over the weekend, while a charity album of music recorded by bands including Coldplay and Muse at the festival will be released in Mrs Cox's honour. A minute of silence was observed at 4.25pm in London and around the world. In addition Google has posted a link on its homepage which takes users to the GoFundMe page set up in memory of the MP. Hundreds of people gathered outside the town hall in Batley to remember their late MP, who was killed four miles away in the village of Birstall. Acting pair Gillian Anderson and Bill Nighy looked sombre as they gave readings in tribute to the much-loved mother-of-two Bob Geldof also attended the event in central London this afternoon held in memory of the MP who was shot and stabbed last week Human rights campaigner Malala Yousafzai delivers a speech on stage during a memorial event for murdered MP Jo Cox at Trafalger Square Dutch Princess Mabel (second from left) stands next to Pakistani Nobel Laureate Malala Yousafzai (middle) on a stage during the commemorative event Labour MP Yvette Cooper was one politician who attended Wednesday afternoon's event. Also there was newly elected London Mayor Sadiq Khan After observing the minute's silence, the MP's younger sister, Kim Leadbeater, took to the stage to pay tribute to her 'caring, compassionate and inspirational' sister. Ms Leadbeater said: 'On behalf of all Jo's family, thank you from the bottom of our hearts to each and every person who has sent their love and sympathy to us in the last few days. 'We have been truly overwhelmed by the outpouring of kindness and support and it has provided great comfort and strength in order for us to keep going.' She told the crowds: 'From Batley to Burma and from the Spen Valley to Syria, Jo's life was centred around helping people and standing up for the causes she felt passionate about - and there were many.' She said: 'I don't have any answers as to why such a horrendous and tragic event has occurred in our lives. But I do know that Jo would not have wanted any of us to allow it to make her life anything other than the force for good it always was. Revellers at Glastonbury music festival in Somerset fell silent for a minute as a mark of respect to the Labour MP who died last week Festival-goers at Glastonbury fell silent out of respect for the murdered MP Jo Cox, on what would have been her 42nd birthday 'My sister would want her murder to mobilise people to get on with things, to try to make a positive difference in whatever way we can, to come together and unite against hate and division and fight instead for inclusion, love and unity.' On Tuesday, Mr Cox and his children watched from the public gallery as MPs paid tribute to their colleague in an emotional session in the Commons. And on Monday Mrs Cox's parents joined hundreds of politicians as they paid their respects at a moving service of remembrance. Emotional MPs from all parties lowered their heads and wiped tears from their eyes as they celebrated Mrs Cox's life with readings, songs and prayers at St Margaret's Church, in Westminster. After the service Mrs Cox's parents Jean and Gordon Leadbeater embraced as they were shown flowers and messages that have been left in memory of their daughter in Parliament Square. Close friend and Labour MP Rachel Reeves was unable to finish her speech as she broke down in tears. Her voice broke and she collapsed into her seat as she said: 'Batley and Spen will go on to elect a new MP but no one can replace a mother.' Pausing occasionally when his voice broke, Mr Cox told the crowd: 'Thank you for coming together today to honour the memory of Jo not just here in London but around the world. Thanks for the love that You have poured on our family since our world collapsed on Thursday' Brendan Cox travels to central London by boat with their children Lejla, 3, and Cuillin, 5, to attend a special service in Trafalgar Square Jo Cox's sister Kim and parents Jean and Gordon Leadbeater sat side by side as they attended a memorial for the MP in Batley Kim Leadbeater told a memorial in Batley that her sister Jo Cox helped people 'from Batley to Burma and from the Spen Valley to Syria' Advertisement These shocking pictures show the incredible mountain of rubbish left behind by travellers on a housing site on the edge of east London. Tons of stinking trash - including toilets, baths and mattresses - have been dumped over a huge area of land at Orchard Village in Rainham, Essex. And the bill to clear up the gigantic waste tip is expected to run into tens of thousands of pounds. Scroll down for video Piles of stinking rubbish - including toilets, baths and mattresses - were strewn across land at a housing estate in Rainham, Essex Sofas, chairs, tables and baskets are just some of the household items that can be spotted among this large-scale dumping ground The band of gipsies to blame for the horrific eyesore have now been booted off the scheme after having lived there for a month. Outraged neighbour Dean Willoughby took pictures and a video to expose the massive sprawling mess just yards from his bungalow home. He acted after a High Court eviction order was issued on Friday. The culprits and their caravans left the enterprise, managed by housing association Circle Housing, in the middle of the night. Mr Willoughby's wife, Tania, said the last stragglers drove off at 1.45am yesterday morning. 'It's such a state down here, it's absolutely disgusting,' she said. 'The piles of rubbish continued to grow after they first moved in. We are living next to a rubbish tip - and the smell is beyond belief. 'They should have been moved off there much faster. When it gets hot it really smells like a dump. Eyesore: This horrific scene came together after a band of travellers set up camp on the edge of the Essex estate for just one month Although the shocking mountain of rubbish involved items such as sofas, every day litter - including cans and bottles - are also present 'There is everything you could find in a house there, mattresses, toilets, baths, shed panels, bags of dirt - things that you would clear from a house.' She added: 'The rubbish backs on to Newtons Primary School so the poor kids there have to put up with it as well.' Karen Ayling, head of housing for Circle Housing, said the cost of clearance will be 'substantial'. 'The travellers vacated the land at Orchard Village last night and our team started work immediately to secure the site and make it safe,' she said. 'We have already begun repairing the gates and are putting in place 24-hour security to ensure the site remains secure. The dumping ground lies just yards away from people's homes, with one resident describing the stretch of land as 'absolutely disgusting' Nearby resident Dean Willoughby took pictures and a video to expose the massive sprawling mess just yards from his bungalow home Circle Housing, who are currently regenerating Orchard Village, said the cost of clearing up the mountain of trash will be 'substantial' 'We will shortly begin the clean-up operation which is expected to take some time due to the volume of rubbish left behind. 'Although we do not know the exact cost of clearance yet, it is expected to be substantial. 'We will continue to keep our residents updated on the situation.' Builder Willmott Dixon is now building the third and final section of the Orchard Village regeneration project after completing the first two phases. A police officer who was one of the first to arrive at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando has claimed he was made to wait while Omar Mateen wandered around the club gunning people down. The FBI said this week that police first responders 'engaged the shooter' inside the club at 2.08am but Officer Brandon Cornwell said he had been told to wait for a SWAT team to arrive. It is known that Mateen, who was heavily armed with an AR-15 assault rifle and a handgun and was feared to be carrying explosives, had an exchange of fire with a security guard when he first arrived at the LGBT club, which was holding its regular Latino night. Scroll down for video Attorney General Loretta Lynch (right) visited Orlando yesterday and praised the actions of first responders at the Pulse nightclub massacre Five or six Orlando cops arrived on the scene within minutes, broke through a large glass window and entered the club as Mateen hunted down victims inside. Officer Cornwell, 25, told the Washington Post he was one of those police first responders and has given an account of the terrifying moments as they waited for orders outside the darkened club. He said: 'There was tons of people running out of the club. I grabbed my assault rifle and ran toward the club. At this point, the shooter is still actively shooting inside.' ORLANDO SHOOTINGS TIMELINE 2:02am - Sunday, June 12 - Suspect Omar Mateen tries to enter Pulse nightclub armed with assault rifle and and handgun and is spotted by a security guard. The two exchange fire outside the club - but Mateen manages to enter the nightclub, holding 320 people, while still firing. First 911 call received by Orlando Police Department. 2:04am - First police officers, including Brandon Cornwell, arrive at the scene. 2:08am - FBI says officers entered the club and 'engaged' the shooter. 2:09am - Pulse nightclub posts a message to their Facebook desperately telling those inside 'Everyone get out of pulse and keep running'. 2:35am - Mateen calls 911 and pledges allegiance to ISIS and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. 4:21am - Police rip out an air conditioning unit, creating a hole through which some people escape. 4:29am - Rescued victims tell police the shooter said he was going to put four vests with bombs on hostages within 15 minutes. 5.02am - Three hours after the first shooting began, a SWAT team use armored vehicle and explosives to breach the bathroom wall. SWAT officers manage to free 30 hostages who dashed to safety. 5:15am - The shooter is shot at and is confirmed as being 'down'. 8:00am - Officials with the FBI deem the incident to be 'domestic terrorism'. 9:40am - The shooter was officially identified as 29-year-old Omar Mateen of Port St. Lucie. 10:20am - At a press conference Mayor Buddy Dyer makes the announcement that 49 people have died and 53 injured in what is now the worst mass shooting in the history of the United States. 11.54am - US Senator Bill Nelson and California congressman Adam Schiff claimed Mateen had pledged his allegiance to ISIS Advertisement The officer said: 'We were trying to locate exactly where the shooter was - we kept hearing people scream and shots fired.' Cornwell said they eventually entered and went to the bathroom area, where Mateen had taken hostages and appeared to be preparing for a final stand. 'He was actively shooting. I can't say if he was targeting us. But he was still shooting in that location where he was at. There were bullet holes in the wall, so he had shot through the wall. But I couldn't tell you if he was shooting at us,' he said. Children write messages for the victims of the Pulse Nightclub shooting at a makeshift memorial at the scene. The memorial is decorated with a Puerto Rican flag as many of the victims were originally from Puerto Rico But Cornwell said they were told by their commanders not to enter the bathroom until the SWAT team arrived. He said they waited '15 or 20 minutes' or possibly more until the SWAT team arrived, he said. Cornwell said: 'We just basically stayed there, waited for movement, and we just held our position until SWAT got there. Investigators from the office of the medical examiner at the site of the shooting. The holes were made by the SWAT team as they broke in from outside and rescued people from the bathroom area 'Once SWAT got there, they told us to retreat, that they'd take over because we were not really in tactical gear - we were just in our police uniforms.' Cornwell said he never fired a shot or saw Mateen, who was eventually killed by the SWAT team after he walked out into the parking lot through the hole in the wall created by a BearCat armored vehicle. His account is the first from a police officer who was inside the club but he said he could not go into too much detail because of the ongoing investigation. FBI agents and police are pictured outside the club in the aftermath of the shooting. The FBI has said the shooter was 'engaged' at 2.08am but it is not known if that means officers shot at him Some clubbers were rescued shortly after the attack began, and others at 4.21 am but most were not freed until 5am. It is not clear how many people were killed by Mateen while police officers were at the scene. Mateen swore allegiance to ISIS before killing 49 people at Pulse and claimed to be a Muslim but he is thought to have been acting out of homophobia, and possibly out of a deep sense of self-loathing because he himself was gay. Loretta Lynch was joined by the Mayor of Orlando, Buddy Dyer, as she visited wreaths commemorating each of the 49 victims of the shooting The Attorney General Loretta Lynch visited Orlando yesterday and said they had not yet found the 'magic bullet' to stop people being brainwashed by jihadist propaganda. But she said of Mateen: 'While we know a lot more about him in terms of who he was and what he did, I do not want to definitively rule out any particular motivation here. 'It's entirely possible that he had a singular motive. It's entirely possible that he had a dual motive.' Little Ellie Butler told her grandparents she wanted to stay with them for 'millions and millions and millions of years' before she was handed back to her murderous father. Butler, 36, is now starting a life sentence for murdering Ellie at their family home in Sutton, south London, just 11 months after she was eventually returned to their care. He was also sentenced to five years to run concurrently for breaking Ellie's shoulder and failing to get her medical attention weeks before her death. Ellie's maternal grandfather Neal Gray said she was 'petrified' of being returned to Butler and her mother Jennie Gray and said he 'fought tooth and nail' to keep her in their care. Murderous Ben Butler sent tragic Ellie's maternal grandparents Neal (pictured left and right on ITV) and Linda a hate-filled warning letter, telling them: 'You f*** with me you f****** c***' Mr Gray, who tried with his wife to adopt Ellie, is now demanding that a public inquiry into how and why Ellie was returned to the 'toxic' family home, where she was killed 11 months later As they were embroiled in the bitter custody battle over the little girl, 'pure evil' Butler sent a poisonous letter to Ellie's grandparents warning them: 'You f*** with me you f****** c***'. At the time, Mr and Mrs Gray - whose daughter Jennie is behind bars for helping cover up the murder - had care of Ellie and were determined to stop her being returned to Butler. According to the Guardian, the letter also said: 'I will get you and find you and find out where you and your family all live.' The note, written in June 2008, was just the tip of the iceberg in what emerged as Butler's aggressive, abusive and ultimately murderous character - a trait which Mr Gray detected almost immediately. Mr and Mrs Gray - who died of cancer on the first day of Butler and Gray's trial - had a huge mistrust of Butler early on in his relationship with their daughter. In February 2007, when Ellie was just seven weeks old, she was rushed to hospital with brain injuries, indicating she might have been shaken. Five months later, an interim order was made for Ellie to stay with her grandparents - an order which enraged Butler and led to him sending the vile letter. The following year, Butler was convicted of causing the injuries. But the real battle began in October 2009, when Butler was released from prison on bail and launched an appeal against his conviction. The following year, he successfully had the conviction quashed. Butler and Gray then launched a public fight to have Ellie returned to their care. Mr and Mrs Gray - who died of cancer on the first day of Butler and Gray's trial - had a huge mistrust of Butler early on in his relationship with their daughter. He is pictured with Ellie Ellie had barely known her parents, having been taken away from her when she was still a newborn. Her parents also seemed ambivalent at getting their daughter back. In a two-and-a-half year period when Ellie was living with her grandparents, Mr Gray said Butler visited Ellie just twice - while her mother only visited four times. So Mr and Mrs Gray, determined to keep the little girl, used their 70,000 life savings trying to do so. They even put in an application to adopt the little girl - a move that was blocked by a social worker, despite the backing of Sutton Council children's services. The violent father penned the threatening letter to Neal and Linda Gray as they were embroiled in a bitter custody battle over the little girl (pictured) But their money ran out and they were left unrepresented when, in November 2012 - more than five years after Ellie was first put into their care - was given back to Butler and Gray. He said today: 'We tried to fight it tooth and nail but every time we protested, we were told we were trouble makers, or elderly, or not worthy of looking after children. We found it very devastating. 'It was the best years of our lives, looking after her and we thought, as special guardians, we would have her until she was 18. We treated her like our own daughter.' The next 11 months were heartbreaking for Mr and Mrs Gray, as their watched their bright, bubbly granddaughter shrink into a scared and vulnerable little girl. On several occasions when they saw Ellie, she was in facepaint - a method Mr Gray believes was used to cover up the bruising and scratches around her eyes and cheeks. The most haunting occasion is when Mr Gray saw Ellie the day before she died, when he and his wife were given half-an-hour in McDonald's to see their granddaughter. He told Radio 4's Today programme: 'She wasn't the Ellie we knew. She had bruises on her forehead, on her face, and scratches. Her she had odd shoes, odd socks and her hair was all bedraggled. Her clothes looked as though she'd been dragged backwards through a hedgerow. Asked if Ellie resisted returning with her parents at the end of the meeting, Mr Gray said: 'No. But you could see her eyes were sunk in and there was sadness in her eyes. 'Every time we spoke to her, her mother was looking at her in a firm look and she was obviously scared.' Mr Gray also said he had disowned his daughter over what she did to Ellie. Appearing on This Morning, he referred to Gray as 'Butler's partner'. He said: 'She's not my daughter anymore because how can you accept any offspring as your own after they have committed such a terrible crime? 'I hate her. I hate her for everything she done. She has destroyed many lives. My wife died on the first day the court case started. I think if all the stress hadn't been brought on then my wife would still be here.' Mr Gray is now demanding that a public inquiry into how and why Ellie was returned to the 'toxic' family home, where she was killed 11 months later. Butler and Gray then launched a public fight to have Ellie returned to their care. Mr and Mrs Gray were determined to keep the little girl (pictured) and used their 70,000 life savings trying to do so As Mrs Justice Hogg sanctioned the family reunion at the High Court, Mr Gray warned that she would have 'blood on her arms' - a prophetic accusation which he asked to be noted in the court records. He added: 'I told them: 'I hope you all have a conscience, because one day you may have blood on your hands.' 'Now I want everybody to answer, because everyone failed Ellie completely and utterly.' He called for the family court and social services to be 'brought into the 21st century' and 'work together'. Yesterday, as Butler and Gray were jailed, Mr Gray had described their utter devastation at Ellie's death, saying: 'She was our shining light.' In a heartbreaking joint statement written ahead of the trial, the couple described how they struggled to come to terms with the 'shock and horror' of her death. Mr Gray is now demanding that a public inquiry into how and why Ellie was returned to the 'toxic' family home, where she was killed 11 months later. His daughter Jennie Gray (left) and Butler (right) are pictured above The couple did not directly refer to Gray or Butler. However, they said: 'We did not realise that some people could be so wicked in life.' They said: 'Our lives have changed so dramatically due to the impact and shock and horror of this event that we struggle every day to deal with the reality of the death of our dear granddaughter Ellie. She was our shining light. 'Ellie was a very beautiful, bubbly and intelligent little girl who always had a smile on her face and even at such a young age she was nobody's fool. She was our life and she gave so much pleasure to us and our family too, how we all miss her.' The couple went on: 'Local people, some of whom we did not even know, came to express their sadness upon hearing of her death and we received over a hundred messages of sympathy. 'This gave us great comfort in our time of mourning. Ellie had many friends in school and the community all of whom were totally grief-stricken. Mr Gray added: 'Ellie enjoyed doing many after school activities and her death means that we will miss out on her growing up, completing her education, maybe going to university, getting married and having her own children. 'All of this joy has been taken away from us; her grandparents. Dalya Saeed is accused of attacking her ex-husband with a carving knife and cutting open his stomach A mother tried to disembowel her ex-husband with a carving knife before hitting him over the head with a pepper grinder, a court has heard. Dalya Saeed has gone on trial for the alleged attack on Bilal Mir in which she is said to have cut open his stomach and pulled on his intestines. She denies attempted murder, claiming she was defending herself after her ex-husband raped and attacked her. He insists they had consensual sex before she stabbed him. Birmingham Crown Court heard Mr Mir, 34, came to Britain on a student visa and he and Saeed met working at a restaurant in the West Midlands. The couple had a daughter but split up in 2013 and he then remarried, causing Saeed to fear he would take their daughter to Pakistan. The court heard that the estranged couple met up in October last year after Saeed, 31, asked Mr Mir to come to her house in Moseley, Birmingham to talk about their daughter. Taxi driver Mr Mir said they had consensual sex after he arrived before talking about their daughter. He told the jury: 'She started to kiss my lips, my neck and my chest and then all of a sudden, within a blink of an eye, she stabbed me twice in the belly. 'I do not know whether the knife was under the bed or in her robe. I said to her, "What have you done?" She then stood up and stabbed me again. 'I grabbed the knife from her. When I grabbed the knife my intestines were out. She was trying to hold on to my intestines and pull them. 'She pulled part of them off. I threw the knife behind a sofa and held the rest of them in my belly.' Mr Mir said he then tried to get out of the flat but claimed Saeed pushed the door closed and then started to hit him on the head with a pepper grinder. He said he eventually managed to get out and shouted for help, but the attack allegedly continued until he managed to get into the entrance of another property. Saeed is said to have asked Bilal Mir to come to her home before they had sex and she attacked him Paul Western, prosecuting, said Mr Mir was later treated for a number of injuries. Those he suffered to his abdomen were described as 'life threatening'. Mr Western added: 'The violence used by Dalya Saeed was without justification. 'The clearest evidence of the defendant's intention to kill Bilal Mir is that she ripped or possibly cut part of his intestines from his body, having cut open his abdomen. That alone could have killed him. A high school cheerleader sobbed as she was charged in connection with the 'brutal' and 'heinous' murder of a homeless man. Hailey Suder, 18, has pleaded not guilty to two felony counts of being an accessory after the fact in the murder of George Lowery, 50, who died in April after being attacked in Santee, near San Diego, California. Suder's boyfriend Austin Mostrong, 20, and his brother Preston, 19, have been accused of killing Mr Lowery in revenge after he tried to protect another homeless man after they fired a paintball gun at him. Charged: Cheerleader Ashley Suder (left) breaks down in tears as she is charged with covering for her boyfriend who is charged with torturing and murdering a homeless man in California Hailey Suder, pictured, was a cheerleader at Santana High School but did not graduate with the rest of her class after being arrested Mr Lowery's wife Penny said: 'They were shooting him with a paintball gun. My husband took the paintball gun from him.' She said of the attack on her husband: 'I have no idea why they did it, I just know that it was cruel and he shouldn't have gone that way because he was such a nice person, you know. He would have done anything for anybody.' San Diego TV channels showed footage of Suder weeping as she was charged and ordered held on $100,000 bail. She faces three years and eight months behind bars if convicted. The Mostrong brothers, who have been held on $3million bail, could be sent to prison for life if they are convicted. San Diego County sheriffs officials said Mr Lowery was kicked and punched in the head and was left for dead on April 24 near the makeshift camp where he lived with his wife, Penny. He died in hospital a few days later. Suder's boyfriend Austin Mostrong (left), 20, and his brother Preston (right), 19, have been accused of killing Mr Lowery George Lowery, pictured with his daughter Katey Torres, suffered fatal injuries in April a week after defending another homeless man who had been attacked with a paintball gun Hailey Suder's Facebook photographs show a beautiful, youthful and happy teenager, very different from the distraught girl charged in connection with a murder Asked why he was killed, San Diego County Sheriff's Lieutenant Kenneth Nelson told the San Diego Union-Tribune: 'I can't think of another reason other than viciousness. Why else make a special trip down to the riverbed?' This was a brutal, heinous, just cold-hearted case... As the evidence comes out, I'd say the murder charges and the torture charges are very much warranted George Lowery's daughter, Katey Torres George Lowery's daughter, Katey Torres Sheriff's officials have not disclosed what role Suder is said to have played in the murder but she was allegedly at the scene when he was killed. The teenager was a senior at Santana High School but did not graduate with her class this month. It is thought her family later posted bail. Mr Lowery's daughter Katey Torres posted a message on Facebook yesterday: 'Hailey Suder was bailed out of Los Colinas Women's Jail last night. I think she's in hiding.' She added: 'Cherish your moments with your family you never know what tomorrow brings.' When the brothers were charged last month Deputy District Attorney George Modlin said: 'This was a brutal, heinous, just cold-hearted case. Hailey Suder (pictured) was charged and held on $100,000 bail. She is since believed to have posted bail 'As the evidence comes out, I'd say the murder charges and the torture charges are very much warranted in this case.' Mr Lowery lived with his wife in a camp for homeless people along the San Diego River. Ms Torres told NBC: 'All three of them were present. Hailey was there the whole entire time.' Advertisement As a pride of lions prepared to tuck into the spoils of a successful wildebeest hunt for breakfast, one plucky hyena had other ideas. The hungry hyena was photographed biting a lioness's tail as she tried to defend her kill at Naboisho Conservancy in Kenya's Masai Mara game reserve. The lioness appeared to roar out in pain as the hyena's sharp teeth sank into her behind. The wildebeest's huge carcass was quickly surrounded by a whole cast of hungry animals who all wanted their share of meat - and were prepared to take on a eight-strong pride of lions to get it. A brave bite: A plucky hyena was photographed sinking its teeth into a lioness's behind as it tried to meddle in on her breakfast. Paws off my food: The lioness was part of an eight-strong pride that had killed the large wildebeest and were forced to share their food. Hyenas, jackals and even some seemingly vengeful wildebeest all encroached on the scene. The fascinating photographs, which were taken just after sunrise, show the normal hierarchy of the animal kingdom called into question. Eyewitness Alun James described the scene as a 'high stakes game of poker' in which 'the lions blinked first'. 'The two young adolescent males [were] unable to support the mature lionesses in a hand of buffalo bluff,' he said. 'The cats were driven off and the hyenas advanced like Russian 'Ultras': ripping into the carcass with uncontrolled glee,' Mr James recalled. Outnumbered: The lioness suffered painful wounds as the hyenas tackled her out of the way so they could get to her food. Tagging along: Eyewitness Alun James said the scene at Naboisho Conservancy in Kenya's Masai Mara game reserve was like a 'high stakes game of poker' in which 'the lions blinked first'. 'However the lions did not flee far, confused whether to remain or exit, but their stomachs and pride said remain. The hyenas were cunning in retreat, isolating individual lions to turn the tables. 'Ever the opportunists, a dozen or so jackals arrived to join the drama. Lions return again; buffaloes charge; hyenas skirmish; lions attack; jackals nip in - the battle ebbed and flowed with no animal in possession for more than a matter of minutes,' he added. The eldest female lioness with a fresh wound on her thigh did not give up a spare rib for anyone but she was not allowed to eat in peace, as buffalo bulls surrounded and watched her devour her kill. After an hour the older pride male arrived and scared off the rest of the animals so the lions could enjoy their food. 'The fighting lost its conviction. The buffalos shuffled away with the odd baleful glance over the shoulder; the hyenas and jackals dispersed to the edge of the battle zone. And the lions finally had their meal, albeit not as full a breakfast as had earlier been promised,' Mr James said. Feeding frenzy: Despite the pride's hard work, they were forced to share their kill with a greedy gang of hyenas and jackals. 'My turn': The lioness refused to give up and fought off the smaller animals for a bite. 'The battle ebbed and flowed with no animal in possession for more than a matter of minutes,' said Mr James. Opportunists: Sensing an opening, a dozen or so jackals arrived to join the drama and tucked in alongside the hyenas. A Rhode Island yacht club near Taylor Swift's $17m beachfront mansion has upheld its decision to ban women from joining. Single women are banned from joining the Westerly Yacht Club after the male membership failed to reach the required two-thirds majority to change the rule. Following a vote, 207 men voted to change the rule with 171 voting against in a secret ballot. Westerly Yacht Club on Rhode Island has failed to lift its ban on allowing women full membership Members voted to allow women pay the $600 membership fee but did not reach a two-thirds majority Women such as Danielle Hetu can become associate members as long as their husband is a full member Women can only join the club as associate members and are not allowed to vote. Gay men can join the club, but if they are married, their husbands cannot get associate membership as this is only open to women. Single women or lesbians cannot join the club as they are not married to a man. Several women connected to the club said it was ridiculous, in a year when Hillary Clinton is making a historic run for president, that they can't join. Swift hasn't asked, but if she wanted to would not be allowed, even though her beach house is in the same ZIP code. Danielle Hetu, who is an associate member, said: 'How do I explain this to my daughters? That you can be the president, but you can't be a member of the Westerly Yacht Club?' The club is a short distance away from Taylor Swift's $17 million Rhode Island mansion Single women and lesbians are not entitled to join the club as associate members due to its rules Julie Cardinal, pictured, whose grandfather died on a boat inside the club and whose father was the club's commodore and got married at the club, lost her associate membership after she divorced her husband Hetu and her husband, who sits on the club's board, are among those who have been working for years to change the policy. Previous votes to admit women have won a majority but failed to win a two-thirds majority, as required by the club's bylaws, members said. One member who voted against the change said he believes many of the wives agree with him. 'They're all happy with what they got. They don't have to pay dues,' Bob Dionne said. Annual dues are around $600. Jane Barstow, an associate member and retired professor of English and women's studies, thinks the policy remains in part because of the 'old guard' at the club that is resistant to change. She theorizes that there may be something of a backlash against Clinton's historic run for president, and says there may be other reasons as well. 'I heard somebody say that some women had told their husbands to vote against it because they were afraid of their husbands interacting with single women,' she said. 'That's very sad.' Others have theorized members do not want competition for their businesses from professional women who could join the club for the networking opportunities. Many people in the community were shocked to learn of the policy. Hetu and her husband have been working to try and update the rules to allow women full membership Linda Lee stopped by last year to inquire about joining. Lee owns a financial advising firm in nearby Mystic, Connecticut, and thought it would be a nice place to socialize, have lunch with clients and network. She and her husband live nearby and own a 50-foot boat, which is in her name. But when she asked at the bar about membership, Lee could not believe what she heard. 'Well, you can't join. You have to be a man. Your husband can join,' Lee said she was told. 'I just said, `Forget it.' And I walked out. These days, we are so past that.' Julie Cardinal has the club in her blood. Her maternal grandfather died on his boat there. Her father was the club's commodore, and she got married at the club. Her husband became a member. But when they divorced, she lost her status as associate member. Now, when she wants to go there, she needs her father or mother to sign her in. No one has yet challenged the policy in court. The club's commodore, Scott Howard, pushed to admit women, but said he also believes the policy is legal because it is a private club. Several associate members and members said they think it violates the law. They think antidiscrimination laws apply because the club has over 600 members, holds a liquor license and rents out facilities to the general public. Lynette Labinger, one of Rhode Island's leading civil rights lawyers, said the policy is problematic. Rhode Island prohibits discrimination based on gender. While a small group for men such as a reading group might be OK, it's less likely to be allowed when a club has many members and charges fees. The Westerly Sun editorialized that the policy gave the town a black eye and suggested that if people withheld dues and stopped going to the bar, the club might change. Cardinal said letting women join would not change much; it would just give women more of a voice. Comes amid security increases for MPs after the brutal murder of Jo Cox Ms Cooper reposted the threat, adding that it is 'time to stop the hatred' A Labour MP said she alerted police after receiving a tweeted death threat against her children and grandchildren. Former Cabinet minister Yvette Cooper received the sinister message yesterday from an account that accused her of sending pro-EU 'propaganda' by email, adding: 'Please stop or I will kill your kids and grandkids'. Reposting the threatening message to her followers, Ms Cooper said: 'Got this today for speaking out for Remain ... This has to stop'. This comes just six days after the fatal shooting of Labour MP Jo Cox. Labour MP Yvette Cooper (left) was pictured walking out of St Peters church in Birstall last week to pay tribute to murdered MP Jo Cox, who also received threatening messages before her death The threatening message was sent to Ms Cooper over Twitter and told her to stop sending pro-EU 'propaganda' Ms Cooper said she reported the user to the police and Twitter and urged people to 'stop the hatred' Labour MP Yvette Cooper said she called the police after receiving a sinister message on Twitter yesterday It is understood the account was removed after the MP for Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford reported the tweet. She told her followers that police and Twitter are 'on the case', before adding: 'But this is for all of us. Time to stop the hatred.' Security for MPs is being reviewed after West Yorkshire MP Jo Cox (pictured) was shot and stabbed to death last week The incident comes amid an increase in security for MPs following the death of Ms Cooper's Labour colleague and fellow West Yorkshire MP Jo Cox. The MP died after being shot and stabbed as she arrived for a surgery in her constituency of Birstall, near Leeds, on Thursday last week. The killing of mother-of-two Mrs Cox outside a public library has prompted an outpouring of public grief. MPs have praised Mrs Cox's passionate commitment to causes such as the plight of Syrian refugees and her ability to work with colleagues on all sides of the House. West Yorkshire Police temporary chief constable Dee Collins confirmed the Labour MP had been sent threatening messages in the months leading up to her death, prompting an investigation by detectives. A number of politicians have since expressed concerns over safety - and police say the security of MPs is now under review, despite being beefed up earlier this year after fears were raised about a lack of protection from people with 'knives and guns'. Thomas Mair, 52, has been remanded in custody after being charged with her murder. Germany will have to dramatically increase its defence spending from current levels to deal with external threats, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday. Hinting at plans for a European Army, Merkel said the European Union was not currently in a position to defend itself and it could not just rely on its transatlantic partnership with the United States. Speaking at an economics conference in Berlin, she argued: Sure enough this means that a country like Germany, which today spends around 1.2 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) on defence, and the United States, which spends 3.4 percent of GDP for defence will have to converge. German Chancellor Angela Merkel delivers her speech at an event of her Christian Democratic Union, CDU, Economy Council in Berlin on Tuesday It will not go well in the long run that we say that we hope and wait that others bear the defence services for us, she added. Her speech at the Business Forum of the CDU in Berlin comes after German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen last month announced the country's first army expansion since the Cold War. In 2015, Miss von der Leyen spoke of Germanys desire to create a European Army. The European Army is our long-term goal she said but first we have to strengthen the European Defence Union. The United States also wants us Europeans as a powerful force within NATO. To achieve this, some nations with concrete military cooperation must come to the fore - and the Germans and the Dutch are doing this, she said. Merkel said the European Union was not currently in a position to defend itself and needs to stop relying on the US German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen last month announced the country's first army expansion since the Cold War EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker also said in 2015 that a European Army is needed to deter Russia and defend the continent. With its own army, Europe could react more credibly to the threat to peace in a member state or in a neighboring state, he said, adding that a common European army would convey a clear message to Russia that we are serious about defending our European values. In a TV appearance on Sunday, Prime Minister David Cameron denied that Britain would join Merkels proposed European Army if it remained in the EU. I really feel strongly about this, as people are getting through their letterboxes leaflets from Leave saying Turkeys going to join the EU not true, theres going to be a European army with Britain in it not true, we give 350 million pounds per week to Brussels not true, he told the BBC. Court: Abdul Rahman Haroun has admitted obstructing an engine or carriage A Sudanese asylum seeker was today sentenced to nine months in prison after he was caught walking through the Channel Tunnel to get to Britain - but was allowed to walk free from court. Abdul Rahman Haroun was arrested after he walked from Calais to Folkestone, Kent in August last year. The incident came during a time of mounting chaos at the French port, as thousands of would-be migrants camped out hoping to make it to the UK in order to claim asylum or seek work. Haroun's offence of 'obstructing an engine or carriage' on a railway line is punishable by up to two years in prison under a Victorian-era law. He was today given a nine-month sentence, but will not have to serve any time in jail because of the months he previously spent in detention before being granted asylum. The 40-year-old was given permission to stay in Britain last December after telling immigration officials that his life would be in danger if he stayed in Sudan. The Crown Prosecution Service spent several months deciding whether or not to charge him over the way he entered the UK. Eventually prosecutors decided to draw on the obscure Malicious Damage Act 1861, most of which has now been repealed, in order to press charges. Haroun was set to face a trial at Canterbury Crown Court, but during today's hearing he changed his plea to guilty at the last minute. He told immigration officers that travelling to Britain was the 'only solution' because of the dangers he faced in his own country, which has been riven with war for more than a decade. But earlier this year, Haroun suggested that he 'would not have come' to the UK if he had known he would face arrest as a result of his dangerous journey. Eurotunnel bosses and Conservative MPs welcomed the decision to prosecute the migrant, arguing that it was the only way to deter others from risking their lives on the railway lines. Haroun took around ten hours to walk the 31-mile length of the tunnel under the English Channel, which carries Eurostar and Le Shuttle passenger trains as well as freight traffic. The incident prompted severe delays on the line as French police searched the tunnel after seeing the asylum seeker enter it on CCTV. Guilty: Abdul Rahman Haroun walked through the Channel Tunnel from Calais in order to reach Britain Prosecutor Philip Bennetts QC told the court: 'He was asked how he had got into the tunnel and he said "I came from France, always trying to get here."' He said he jumped over the perimeter fence by himself before 'walking sometimes on the right and sometimes on the left' inside the tunnel, Mr Bennetts added. Up until then, his journey had involved travelling for a month to Egypt, then Libya before crossing the sea to Italy, a previous hearing was told. He then made his way to France and Calais. In an interview with the Home Office, Haroun described how he had been persecuted by the Janjaweed militia, forcing him to flee his home in 2004. He ended up in a camp at the Kari-Yari dam on the Sudan-Chad border where he was said to have spent many years living in difficult circumstances, the previous hearing was told. After reaching France, Haroun spent up to seven days in Calais before walking through the tunnel. Speaking through an interpreter, he told police following his arrest: 'I came here for protection and to be safe. Even if I die - that was the only solution.' Asked how he knew the way to Britain, he said: 'All my family, all my people knew all along that the trains take you to the UK.' Mr Bennetts said Haroun pleaded not guilty to the obstruction charge at Medway magistrates' court on August 6 last year, before the decision to grant him asylum led prosecutors to consider withdrawing the charge. The security breach by Haroun had caused 'significant disruption' and a 'significant economic consequence' and led to delays of up to four hours for cross-Channel travellers, the court heard. Richard Thomas, defending, said: 'He is a man who had no formal education. He speaks in a localised dialect and understanding the complexities has caused significant difficulties.' Sentencing, Judge Adele Williams said today: 'Those who try to enter the UK illegally using unlawful methods commit a serious offence. 'The reason why the courts of the United Kingdom takes such a serious view of this criminality, is that those who enter in this way, normally, so so clandestinely, seeking to evade the authorities who can therefore, have no check upon who is entering. 'In the world in which we live of international crime and terrorism that is a very serious matter. 'You not only put your own life in danger but in my judgement, you put the lives and safety of others in danger. It caused enormous inconvenience to a large number of people. It causes significant economic loss. 'In these circumstances I am going to pass a sentence of imprisonment which is the equivalent of the amount of time which you have already spent in custody. 'Anyone else who might be tempted to commit this offence in the future can only expect any immediate sentence of imprisonment.' French and British authorities have spent millions of pounds trying to bolster security at Calais after the port became a magnet for migrants from the Middle East and Africa. These are the shocking images of a British holidaymaker covered in hundreds of bites after she was ravaged by bedbugs while on a family holiday of a lifetime. UK tour operator Red Sea Holiday has agreed to an 11,000 compensation payout to British family Rachel Cookson and her fiance Rae Claydon after their trip was ruined. The couple, Miss Cookson's daughter, Bethany, five, and Mr Claydon's mum, Sheila Claydon, 77, all suffered severe bites from bed bugs and gastric flu after holidaying at the five-star Sunwing Waterworld Makadi Hotel in Egypt in December 2014. After their first night at the five star hotel Rachel Cookson woke up with insect bites all over her legs. A local doctor visited her room the next day and prescribed pain killers to help relieve pain and inflammation Rachel Cookson and her fiance Rae Claydon pictured on a recent trip to Italy. The couple were awarded an an 11,000 compensation payout from UK tour operator Red Sea Holiday 'It was the holiday from hell,' Miss Cookson said. 'I didn't have a holiday. I was in the hotel room the whole time, apart from the last day. 'Being really sick and losing weight isn't what you expect while you are supposed to be relaxing.' Miss Cookson, of Ingatestone, Essex, told how they paid 2,016 to visit Makadi Bay in Egypt to celebrate her and Mr Claydon's second anniversary. From the moment the family arrived, the family said the holiday wasn't what they were hoping for. Miss Cookson, 41, told how she barely left the bathroom during the Red Sea Holidays package holiday and says she was covered in hundreds of bed bug bites, which have since left scars. The accountant added: 'We wanted a nice break in the sun with our family after working so hard all year and had been looking forward to it for months. 'It was meant to be a celebration of the two years Rae and I have been together, but we were left feeling let down and very disappointed.' After their first night at the hotel Miss Cookson woke up with insect bites. On holiday: Rachel Cookson and her fiance Rae Claydon (pictured right), Miss Cookson's daughter, Bethany, five, and Mr Claydon's mum, Sheila Claydon, 77, (left) all suffered severe bites from bed bugs after holidaying at the five-star Sunwing Waterworld Makadi Hotel in Egypt in December 2014. A local doctor visited her room and prescribed pain killers, a cortisone injection to help relieve pain and inflammation and antihistamines. 'Me and Rae wanted to go away to celebrate with my little girl and Rae's mum,' she said. 'Before flying we were all so excited to get away, enjoy one week of rest. Because Rae is self-employed, managing properties, it's hard to have a proper break, so this was our chance. Rachel Cookson, pictured with her daughter Bethany, has described her Egyptian holiday as a 'nightmare' 'On the first morning we thought my bites were from mosquitoes. But I'd been bitten by them before and I didn't end up having 50 bites on my leg like I did this time.' Mr Claydon, 51, a dad-of-four, complained to hotel staff about the room and they were moved elsewhere in the hotel. But by the next morning the whole family began to suffer with diarrhoea, stomach cramps and sickness. They said they were so ill they were unable to eat or drink anything for 24 hours, with Miss Cookson's appetite only returning after three days. She lost more than half a stone and continued to suffer symptoms such as stomach cramps and nausea after returning to the UK. The family said a number of rooms they were offered were dirty and crockery and cutlery used in the restaurant was sometimes unclean. They also say that old food was added to freshly cooked meals and some appeared to have been reheated and served on more than one occasion. Tour operator Red Sea Holidays promotes the hotel online, saying it has a 'state of the art water park' 'generously sized and beautifully finished' bedrooms with a 'big choice of restaurant options'. 'I couldn't eat or drink for three days,' Miss Cookson said. 'I felt absolutely rotten. I was so gutted. This was the holiday I'd been waiting for for a year and I couldn't even spend it with my daughter, my fiancee or his mum. 'I couldn't be out in the sunshine, I couldn't swim or enjoy any of the facilities. 'My little girl was so excited to go on the aqua park. That's why we went to that hotel, so she would enjoy herself too.' Mr Claydon, a company director, said: 'We had been looking forward to this well-deserved break for over a year and it very quickly turned into a nightmare. Stuck indoors: The view from the hotel were the couple stayed. Miss Cookson said she barely left the bathroom of the hotel because she was covered with hundreds of bed bug bites and suffered from stomach cramps and nausea 'It was an awful holiday and the effects of the illness left us completely shell shocked. I'm relieved we now have a fair settlement and just hope that no one else suffers from a similar situation in future.' The family have reached an out-of-court settlement with Red Sea Holidays, without an admission of liability. A spokesman for the company declined to comment. Jennifer Downing, a specialist travel illness lawyer at law firm Irwin Mitchell who represented the family, said: 'Rae and Rachel waited a year for this holiday, which was supposed to be spent relaxing with their family, but they were left suffering with gastric illness symptoms as well as a significant number of bites. This is the moment an orphaned baby orangutan squeals in pain after being found with a bullet lodged in his shoulder. The tiny 18-month-old ape, named Didik, was left severely traumatised and injured after witnessing the death of his mother in Borneo, Malaysia. Video shows the animal squealing as volunteers from the charity International Animal Rescue gently wash him and wrap him in a towel. Heartbreaking: This orphaned baby orangutan was found with a bullet lodged in his shoulder after watching his mother die The tiny 18-month-old ape, named Didik, was left severely traumatised and injured after witnessing the death of his mother in Borneo, Malaysia Didik was handed over to a shopkeeper named Cuan who cared for him and fed him milk formula for three days while he searched for someone who could better care for him. He said: 'A man gave the orangutan to me and then left in a hurry without explanation.' Didik is now recovering in the IAR's orangutan rescue centre where he is receiving treatment for a severe fungal skin condition and an eye infection and recovering from the trauma he has witnessed. Dr Karmele Llano Sanchez, veterinarian and programme director of IAR Indonesia, said: 'For an animal like an orangutan, witnessing the death of its mother is a profoundly shocking experience. Didik is now recovering in the IAR's orangutan rescue centre where he is receiving treatment for a severe fungal skin condition and an eye infection and recovering from the trauma he has witnessed Experts say it will take the orangutan 'a long time for him to recover from the terrible trauma' of losing its mother Didik was handed over to a shopkeeper named Cuan who cared for him and fed him milk formula for three days while he searched for someone who could better care for him 'That is undoubtedly why Didik looks so sad and depressed. 'It will take a long time for him to recover from the terrible trauma he has been through and start to take an interest in his surroundings.' IAR's Chief Executive Alan Knight said that while his mother can not be given back to him, the charity will do everything to release him back to the wild. He said: 'It is heartbreaking to see a young animal with such a look of sadness and pain in his eyes. IAR's Chief Executive Alan Knight said that while his mother can not be given back to him, the charity will do everything to release him back to the wild The young animal will spend years at the centre with more than 100 other orangutans that are being prepared for release back into the wild one day 'Didik has already suffered terrible trauma in his short life. 'Now it is up to our team of vets and carers to help him recover, both mentally and physically. 'He will spend years at our centre with more than 100 other orangutans that are being prepared for release back into the wild one day. 'We can't give Didik back his mother but we will do all we can to give him back his freedom.' As Britain stands on the brink of a historic decision on whether to leave the EU, there is one country that already knows what life is like outside the European 'club' - Norway. And the Scandinavian nation of just over five million people is overwhelmingly in favour of independence - saying it can cope with its soaring migration and run its own industries without EU meddling. In an exclusive interview with MailOnline, the Norwegian government's spokesman on migration, Ingjerd Schou, said: 'We would need a political earthquake of some kind in order to become members of the union. The reason why we are so sceptical is... the migration crisis.' A poll last week found that 70 per cent of Norwegians are against joining the EU - and a straw poll on the streets of Oslo suggested they empathise with Britons considering a vote to leave. Staying Out: The worlds fourth richest country has never been a part of the EU and a recent poll showed a massive 70 per cent of Norwegians dont want to change the status quo A poll last week found that 70 per cent of Norwegians are against joining the EU - and a straw poll on the streets of Oslo suggested they empathise with Britons considering a vote to leave Even though the country is not a part of the European Union they have still signed the Schengen-treaty of free movement between the European countries, meaning migrants arrived from Denmark and Sweden last year Many Norwegians, such as Trine Oistad, above, are relieved they are not part of the EU because of the migration crisis. She said: 'It feels safe to be out of the union at the moment' The worlds fourth richest country has never been a part of the EU and nearly everybody MailOnline spoke to - from immigrants to politicians - agreed that avoiding the EU's never ending bureaucracy is worth the price they pay. They hand over 400million a year for access to the single market yet do not have a vote on legislation that affects the country every day. In return, Norway gets to control its fishing and oil industries without the same EU meddling that others are subject to. Those who come to Norway need to work. They will also be handed temporary asylum and our objective is that they will travel back to their separate countries when the situation is safer. It has seen soaring migration - it is a member of the European 'open borders' agreement - but says its independence is helping it to cope. MP Schou said they are looking at cutting the ability of European migrants to claim child benefit in Norway then sending it back to their country of origin. She said: 'Those who come to Norway need to work. They will also be handed temporary asylum and our objective is that they will travel back to their separate countries when the situation is safer. We are only helping those who needs protection, the other ones are sent back.' The nation has also imposed laws that make it easier for the police to deport criminals, radical Muslims and people who have come to Norway just to live off the generous welfare system. Over 8,000 immigrants were deported back to the countries that they came from in 2014, the latest available statistics. Oslo resident Henrik Schultz told MailOnline: 'Why should we then be a part of something that clearly is not working?, he told MailOnline. 'I think Britain ought to leave and do like we have done. Perhaps that will transform EU to something better when they realise that countries can leave the union.' In the Oslo district of Gronland, just 100 meters from the towns central station, the streets are crowded with immigrants from Pakistan and Eritrea The district was originally built for families who worked at the towns port, but over the last 30 years Grnland has developed into a multicultural neighbourhood The massive influx of migrants last autumn was only halted when their neighbouring countries Sweden and Denmark - both EU members - tightened their border controls Norway has 848,207 immigrants living in the country at the moment according to statistics from the government published at the beginning of 2016 17 per cent of the population Gronland [an area of Oslo] is more Muslim than my home country, said 40-year-old Hussein, above, who sought asylum in Norway from his native Eritrea four years ago Finn Dyrkorn, left, said: 'We can control our own laws and make decisions of our own despite what they say in Brussels' while Henrik Schultz, right, said: 'Why should we then be a part of something that clearly is not working?' Hassan, who moved to Norway from Eritrea three years ago, said: 'Most immigrants in Norway are opposed the EU. Since many are unemployed, they say that they do not want others to come here and take jobs' WORLD'S FOURTH RICHEST COUNTRY THANKS TO OIL Norway is the world's fourth richest country according to Global Finance Magazine, and has never been a part of the EU. The country held two EU referendums, in 1972 and in 1994, and has since flourished financially due to oil and gas revenues from platforms in the Northern Sea. Although the unemployment rate has risen due to low oil prices over the last few years, only 4% of the population does not have a job. Norway's national bank and therefore the countries assets has a net worth of 700 billion, which equals 140 000 per citizen. The Government is only allowed to spend four percent of funds per year, with the rest saved for a future when the oilfields have dried up. It has the most generous welfare system in Scandinavia, and recipients can get 1500 a month just from living on welfare, they can also add child benefits and free health care. Norway's Labour and Social Affairs minister Robert Eriksson has claimed that 125,400 of the countries 5 million citizens are using this system for their own benefit and adds that 37 percent of them are immigrants. Even though the country is not a part of the European Union it signed the Schengen-treaty of free movement between the European countries. This led to a chaotic situation last autumn when immigrants passed through Sweden or went by boat from Denmark to Norway, leading to a 200 per cent increase in the number of immigrants on the previous year. The country has also signed the EEA-treaty with the EU, making it possible for Norway to operate on the European free market. Advertisement Helga Pedersen, immigration spokesman for the opposition Arbeiderpartiet (social democrats), told MailOnline: 'We have a firm immigration policy in Norway. 'We take care of those who need help and has a right to seek asylum and send those who have no right to stay here home. 'We have control over our immigration here in Norway and that is probably because we are not members of the EU.' The country has 848,207 immigrants living in the country at the moment according to statistics from the government published at the beginning of 2016 17 per cent of the population. Most of those who move to Norway are Swedes and people from other parts of the EU. but there is a large proportion - 380,000 - from the Middle East and Africa. The increase in migration seems to have have helped solidify support for staying out of the EU - even among the most recent arrivals. The ruling neo-liberal/conservative party Hoyre, led by prime minister Erna Solberg nicknamed 'Iron' because of her tough immigration policies, is trying to cut immigration numbers In the Oslo district of Gronland, just 100 meters from the towns central station, the streets are crowded with immigrants from Pakistan and Eritrea. Gronland is more Muslim than my home country, said 40-year-old Hussein, who sought asylum in Norway from his native Eritrea four years ago. He told MailOnline: I had never seen a burka before I came here. And I had never before seen angry looks if I ate or drank a cup of coffee during Ramadan. Hussein added: 'Norway is taking in a bit too many immigrants at the moment. If you look around here in Gronland, the area is overcrowded and there are hardly no Norwegians to be seen.' Over 30,000 immigrants arrived in Norway in the last few months of 2015, compared to 10,000 in total in 2014. Trine Oiestad, 36, said: - 'We are doing the right thing to stay out of the EU considering all the troubles they are having at the moment, especially with the migration crisis. It feels safe to be out of the union at the moment.' Hassan Tall, 39, who moved to Norway from Eritrea three years ago, said: 'Most immigrants in Norway are opposed the EU. Since many are unemployed, they say that they do not want others to come here and take jobs that they could have gotten. They are also afraid that the benefits from the government will be lowered if we enter the EU. 'Both Norwegians and immigrants hate the EU. The situation in Europe is critical, to enter the EU would be like going from the frying pan to the fire in a second. With all the chaos regarding immigrants and the terror, why be a part of that?' Since the influx of migrants last autumn, Norway has also imposed tougher laws on immigration, making it easier for the police to deport criminals, radical Muslims and people who have come to Norway just to live off the generous welfare system Norway's Labour and Social Affairs minister Robert Eriksson has claimed that 125,400 of the countrys five million citizens abuse the generous welfare system MP Schou said: 'We are a part of the Schengen-agreement. But we have our own immigration-policy on the side and have been imposing a much more comprehensive asylum-policy this year.' Ms Pedersen, immigration spokesperson for the opposition party Arbeiderpartiet (The social democrats), said that being independent of the EU means people cannot blame Brussels for fears over migration. She told MailOnline: The biggest change in Norway over the past 20 years is that we have become a multicultural society. Over 8000 immigrants were deported back to the countries that they came from in 2014, the latest available statistics Record numbers of migrants have arrived in Norway during the past two years causing some areas to become 'ghettoized'. Gronland in the country's capital Oslo has become a conservative Muslim area Helga Pedersen, immigration spokesperson for the opposition party Arbeiderpartiet (The social democrats), said that being independent of the EU means people cannot blame Brussels for fears over migration Norway is part of the EU single market so it has to abide by EU laws, but has no say in how they're made 'The biggest difference between us and countries within the EU is that Norwegian politicians have to be responsible for their own decisions. We can not blame anything on Brussels since we are independent. 'Most of the work force that has come to Norway are Swedes. But we have had a very large amount of people from Poland, Bulgaria, Romania and the Baltic countries who have come here to work, which has been a great challenge for Norway,' she said. 'The numbers have spiked over the last years with between 60,000 and 100,000 coming every year. The unemployment rate is increasing at the moment and we have a lot of unemployed eastern Europeans living here now.' Workers from across Europe are free to enter Norway - because the price for access to the single market was signing the Schengen agreement that means open borders across the continent. It has also seen a huge migrant influx from countries outside the EU in the last two years. Norway pays Brussels an annual fee of 400 million a year to be a part of the European market but does not have a voice in Europe because it is not a member Most of the people who move to Norway are Swedes and people from other parts of the EU (359,508 from the EU). But there are however a big population from the Middle East (265,721) and Africa (114,304) As Norway has no representation in Brussels, the country is forced to act as a lobby group to get their points across during key votes - and is a fan of the UK's pro-business and anti-regulation stance But - despite the ruling party wanting Norway to join the EU - the wider public are convinced that independence allows them greater control. 50-year-old Finn Dyrkorn said: 'The difference for us Norwegians is that we have kept a bit of independence. We can control our own laws and make decisions of our own despite what they say in Brussels.' Mazyar Keshvari, from the right-wing Fremskrittspartiet, which is in a ruling coalition with Hoyre, said: 'We have an article that makes it possible for us to not adopt certain EU legislation that member countries have to adopt. This article is rarely used.' Prime Minister Erna Solberg, who wants Norway to join the EU despite the public wanting to stay out - has said the UK should remain as it would struggle with not having a say on EU laws in Brussels. 'That type of connection is going to be difficult for Britain, because then Brussels will decide without the Brits being able to participate in the decision-making,' Solberg said in an interview with Politico. As Norway has no representation in Brussels, the country must act as a lobby group to get their points across during key votes - yet it pays an annual fee of 400 million a year to be a part of the European market. 'As a Norwegian I am very concerned if the UK leaves the union,' said Ms Pedersen. Pope Francis invited a dozen refugees to join him on the steps of St. Peter's Basilica for his general audience to press his demand for Europe to welcome more migrants. A dozen men ascended the steps with Francis on Wednesday and sat in front of him on the ground as he delivered his weekly catechism lesson. They carried banners of the charity that is caring for them and Vatican flags. In his remarks, Francis said the refugees had suffered in their home countries. Scroll down for video Pope Francis addresses the crowd surrounded by a group of refugees attending his weekly general audience at St Peter's square on June 22 The Pope said: 'Please they are our brothers. A Christian excludes no one. I ask all of you: Let everyone come' A dozen men ascended the steps with Francis on Wednesday and sat in front of him on the ground as he delivered his weekly catechism lesson He said: 'Please they are our brothers. A Christian excludes no one. I ask all of you: Let everyone come.' Francis brought a dozen Syrian refugees home with him when he visited Greece in April. Recently, the Vatican brought a second group to Rome. On Tuesday, meanwhile, Pope Francis amplified his opposition to capital punishment, saying it's an offense to life, contradicts God's plan and serves no purpose for punishment. In a video message to an anti-death penalty congress in Norway, Francis declared: 'The commandment `Thou shalt not kill' has absolute value and applies both to the innocent and to the guilty.' The refugees carried banners of the charity that is caring for them and Vatican flags Pope Francis waves as he arrives in St Peter's Square, flanked by the refugees Francis has gone beyond his predecessors and traditional Catholic teaching in saying there is simply no justification for the death penalty today. He said Tuesday that rather than rendering justice, it fosters vengeance. Church teaching allows for recourse to capital punishment when it is the only way to defend lives 'effectively' against an aggressor. Francis said: 'It must not be forgotten that the inviolable and God-given right to life also belongs to the criminal.' Pope Francis greets the crowd as he arrives for his weekly general audience A 15-year-old Alabama girl had to be rescued by the local fire department after getting stuck inside the head of a giant Barney costume. Darby Risner of Trussville, which is about 15 miles north east of Birmingham, decided to play a trick on her friend by dressing up as the giant purple dinosaur. However, here attempted jape failed when she tried to remove the costume which became stuck. Darby Risner, pictured, got stuck inside a giant Barney head when she tried to prank her friends in Alabama The 15-year-old needed the help of three firemen to remove the head inside Trusville Fire Department After the application of Vaseline and some muscle power, the fire fighters were able to free Darby, pictured The 15-year-old told Al.com: 'The head was closing in on me. It was like a stuck-in-a-small-place-and-can't-get-out-panicking.' Her mother Audrey Shannon said her daughter had spotted the head after church and planned to trick her friends. She said: 'Darby thought, "I'm going to scare them when they come downstairs." 'She put the Barney head on and when she sat down on the sofa to wait for them, it dropped. It slipped over her shoulders. When they finally came down, she got up and realized it had dropped so low, she couldn't get it off. It was digging into her.' Before seeking help, the group attempted to use Vaseline to lubricate the giant purple head in an effort to pull it off. Her brother Logan filmed attempts to remove the head. In one effort, friends grasp the head firmly while they attempted to ease it off by pulling on Darby's legs. Eventually the Trussville Fire Department were able to free the teenager. Lieutenant Vince Bruno said his men thought the incident was quite funny. He told NBC: 'She's so little that when they lifted the head, it lifted her off the ground so they had to hold down her feet. 'And with the Vaseline on her arms, they said it was like trying to wrestle a greased pig.' Darby added: '"The worst moment was when I had to throw up. All my friends were like, "No! No! No!" It would have had to sit in there with me, so I fought it back. 'Then they pulled really hard and it popped off. It was a big relief.' A nurse who was jailed for life in Germany for killing two patients with overdoses of heart medication may have killed at least 27 at two hospitals. The 39-year-old man, who can be identified only as Niels H, was convicted in February for murder and attempted murder in the northern city of Oldenburg. A judge ordered the bodies of 99 patients in nearby Delmenhorst to be exhumed and the city's police chief, Johann Kuehme, said today toxicology tests showed the residue of a heart drug, which none of them required, in 27 of the 99. 'The horror doesn't end. The investigations cannot be closed,' said Mr Kuehme. Niels H covered his face when he appeared in court in Oldenburg in 2014. But he admitted in court to killing 30 patients with heart medication Niels H's trial heard he wanted to win approval from colleagues by resuscitating patients so he gave them overdoses of a drug that shut down their cardiovascular systems. He admitted during the trial he had triggered cardiac arrests in 90 patients, 30 of whom died. He told the court he enjoyed the feeling of saving someone's life. Mr Kuehme said the investigators were also examining an unusually high number of patient deaths that occurred at a second hospital, in Oldenburg, where the nurse worked prior to Delmenhorst. Under German law Niels H's full identity cannot be revealed unless he waives his right to privacy. He is shown here covering his face with a file during a court appearance Prosecutor Daniela Schiereck-Bohlmann said: 'We cannot say how many of the patients in Oldenburg were victims.' The police and prosecutors said there was a 'strong suspicion' Niels H had killed at least six patients at the Oldenburg hospital by injecting heart medication or toxic doses of potassium. Several hundred additional files of deceased patients are being examined and the investigation is expected to run into next year. Several managers at both hospitals are also being questioned to determine if they are criminally culpable for failing to notice the high number of deaths during Niels H's shifts. She's known to answer all your questions, wakes you up every morning and is possibly the only person you'd trust to read your text messages and emails. And now you can finally meet her - Karen Jacobsen, who voices Siri, traded in her iPhone for the microphone as she sang the Australian national anthem at the State of Origin II. The Queensland-born entertainer, who is the Australian voice of Apple's beloved personal assistant, kicked up a storm as she took the stage in front of 50,000 spectators on Wednesday night. Scroll down for video Karen Jacobsen sang the Australian national anthem at the State of Origin match on Wednesday night But despite being inside millions of smartphones around the world, Ms Jacobsen said she was more thrilled to perform at one of Australia's biggest tournaments of the year. 'I'm absolutely over the moon (to perform),' she told The Courier Mail. 'It's great coming back to my home state and to perform at such an iconic game. It was definitely something on the life list. And there's nothing like being under a Queensland sky.' And since there's a face to the vocals, Ms Jacobsen, who lives in New York, also provides audio directions in more than 100 million GPS units worldwide. 'They say I am the only woman men would take directions from and I wear that title proudly,' she told Nine News ahead of the match. Ms Jacobsen also provides audio directions in more than 100 million GPS units worldwide Advertisement These incredible pictures reveal the underwater grave of Lord Kitchener who died alongside 736 other men when their warship was hit by a mine 100 years ago this month. Kitchener was the Secretary of State for War and a Field Marshal when he died in 1916 and has been remembered ever since as the face in the iconic 'Your country needs you' posters of the time. He died while on a diplomatic mission to Russia when HMS Hampshire was hit by a German mine off Orkney and sank in 15 minutes. The official war grave is generally off-limits to researchers, but a diving team were recently given special permission to visit the wreck The specialist divers have now catalogued the ruins of the ship by capturing 500 hours of footage and a complete 3D scan The official war grave is generally off-limits to researchers, but a diving team were recently given special permission to visit and photograph the wreck. MoD chiefs granted the licence to the team - led by Scotsman Rod Macdonald - to record the historic wreck before it is lost to the rough Scottish seas for good. The specialist divers have now catalogued the ruins of the ship by capturing 500 hours of footage and a complete 3D scan, as well as a stunning set of photos. Their work has recorded the 473ft armoured cruiser in incredible detail - from the propeller, to the portholes and even some of the smaller weapons on board. The team were also able to establish that the ship sank in an unusual way. Because of its length, and the fact it sank in just 230ft of water, the ship's bow hit the seabed while its stern remained above the waves. The boat sank in just 15 minutes - and when crews tried to lower lifeboats they were dashed against the side of the ship by high waves. Only 12 members of crew survived the wreck, Kitchener and his whole staff were lost in the tragedy. The research crew spent more than 200 hours on the wreck, which is located in an area exposed to strong tidal currents and storms. Lord Kitchener (left) died alongside 736 other men when HMS Hampshire was hit by a mine 100 years ago this month. Kitchener has been remembered ever since as the face in the iconic 'Your country needs you' posters of the time (right) The photographs captured the 473ft armoured cruiser in incredible detail - from the propeller, to the portholes and even some of the smaller weapons on board Mr Macdonald said: 'The point of this is it's the hundredth anniversary of the sinking of the Hampshire and she's decaying quickly.' He added: 'The story of HMS Hampshire is of historical importance and her loss forms an important element of the WWI naval story. 'In recognition of this, the prestigious Explorers Club awarded the expedition Explorers Club flag number 192. 'All major explorations since the early 1900s have carried with them an Explorers Club flag, including expeditions to the poles, Everest and the Moon. 'Number 192 was carried on 22 expeditions to Polar Regions, the Himalayas and has crossed the Atlantic twice by hot air balloon.' The wreck of the Hampshire was placed under official government protection in 2002 - but prior to that was dived only sporadically in the 90s. It is now a 'controlled site' under the Protection of Military Remains Act and can only be visited by those with express permission in the form of a licence. Lord Kitchener's death occurred less than a month before the Battle of the Somme and came as a huge blow to the British public. His death, and the fact his body was never recovered, has sparked a number of far-fetched rumours. The research crew spent more than 200 hours on the wreck, which is located in an area exposed to strong tidal currents and storms THE DEATH OF LORD KITCHENER AND THE MYSTERY (AND FAR-FETCHED CONSPIRACY THEORIES) THAT SURROUND IT Lord Kitchener died in 1916 when HMS Hampshire (pictured) was hit by a mine, but his body was never recovered At the outbreak of the Great War Lord Kitchener was appointed the Secretary of State for War. While on a diplomatic mission to Russia, in June 1916, the 66-year-old Kitchener died after the ship he was travelling on sunk. HMS Hampshire's route took Kitchener through Scapa Flow where the British had just fought in the only major naval battle in the Great War - the Battle of Jutland. While the battle kept the German navy at bay, it was a costly fight with 14 ships lost and over 6,000 men dead. During the Hampshire's journey, tempestuous weather forced its escorts to turn back. This move left the ship exposed and on June 5 there was a massive explosion. The ship sank in just 15 minutes, with only 12 survivors. His death, and the fact his body was never recovered, sparked numerous far-fetched rumours. Such tales include: he was assassinated by a German spy, he was the victim of a nefarious plot by Winston Churchill and that Kitchener survived the sea disaster and travelled to Russia to become communist leader Joseph Stalin. Advertisement One such tale was that of Fritz Joubert Duquesne - a Boer War soldier who claimed that he killed Kitchener while spying for the Germans. Duquesne said he boarded the ship by posing as a Russian Duke and then signalled to a German U-Boat to attack, before he escaped the Hampshire on a lifeboat. Lord Alfred Douglas, an English poet and former lover of Oscar Wilde, claimed that Winston Churchill had been part of a plan to assassinate Kitchener and say that Britain's bloody victory at Jutland was in fact a defeat. Lord Douglas said the future's Prime Minister's plan was concocted so that when news of Jutland broke British stocks would collapse - allowing his business associates to buy up shares at a profit. Churchill strongly denied the claims and sued Douglas for libel, resulting in him serving six months in prison. Others rumours included Lord Kitchener surviving the explosion and making it to Russia where he would become Joseph Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union from the 1920s to his death on 1953. Another conspiracy theory is that the military leader was a member of the Freemasons and that the secret organisation helped him start a new life. The rumours were recently rubbished by Professor Fraught, who told The Mirror: 'The Battle of Jutland had just ended so he was sailing into a high risk area. 'One in particular, U-boat 75, set up a field of 20 or so mines and it seems the Hampshire tripped the field. It was a complete naval disaster but a conspiracy theory seems unlikely.' Police swooped on a picturesque Cotswold village after residents complained that a charity rubber duck race had breached an ancient by-law. Officers descended on Bourton-on-the-Water, Gloucestershire, 'like something out of Hot Fuzz' to break up the community event. The event, which involved about 100 rubbers ducks, was to raise money for Blood Bikes, a charity which run a free 24/7 blood and medical equipment delivery service. Police swooped on a picturesque Cotswold village after residents complained about a charity rubber duck race (file picture) But officers were called to the village just minutes after the race began and ordered organisers to stop the event. According to an ancient by-law, the River Windrush - where the race takes place - and the village green cannot be used on Sundays for fundraising purposes. The only group allowed to hold an event on a Sunday is a brass band. Stunned onlookers said the dramatic scenes looked 'like something out of the film Hot Fuzz.' Sales manager Jonathan Dixon, 45, from Cheltenham, took his two young sons to watch the duck race. He said: 'It was bonkers. Everyone was having a great time and the kids were chasing after the ducks as they went down the river. 'Suddenly a police car came along and two officers went over and talked to some chaps who were running the event. 'The event was abandoned after the first few races. Apparently the races broke some old bylaw and the villagers got upset and someone called the police. 'I have to say it soured the whole day. Talk about using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. The officers looked pretty embarrassed about it and I can understand why. 'It was like something out of the film Hot Fuzz. Surely the cops have got better things to do than stop a rubber duck race in the Costwolds.' But business owners in the village stood by their decision to call police. Carol Teece, 61, the former chamber of commerce who runs Duttons gift shop in the High Street, said: 'The bylaws are in place for a reason and must be respected. Officers descended on Bourton-on-the-Water, Gloucestershire (pictured), 'like something out of Hot Fuzz' to break up the community event According to an ancient by-law, the River Windrush (pictured) - where the race takes place - and the village green cannot be used on Sundays for fundraising purposes 'The parish council is responsible for the upkeep of the river and the village green. This means every time a child pulls out the stones from the river or a someone leaves rubbish on the green the parish council pick up the bill. 'This group who wanted to hold the duck race had not asked for permission before they just turned up. The bikes were left all over the green and several revved their engines which was extremely upsetting.' Another resident, who did not want to be named: 'Sunday was Father's Day and there were lots of families enjoying an afternoon in the village. 'Their peace was completely shattered by dozens of bikers in heavy leathers invading the village and chucking a load of rubber ducks in the river. 'It is frankly unfair to expect the villagers to put up with such nonsense from these undesirables who ruin the peace and quiet and then accuse us of being kill-joys.' Yesterday the village's Chamber of Commerce defended reporting the group to the police. A spokesman said: 'It is against village bylaws to park any vehicle on the green however a number of motorcycles were parked on the grass. 'The village green and river bed are under the jurisdiction of the Parish Council and are maintained with the financial support of the business community. The only group allowed to hold an event on a Sunday is a brass band. Residents defended their decision to call officers over the event 'Use of the green and river for the weekend's event was not applied for. 'Even when applied for, local organisations are not able to use the village green for fundraising events on a Sunday. 'Lots of charities and organisations use the village green and river for events and are welcome to do so when adhering to the guidelines and obtaining the relevant permissions.' Despite officers being called and asking organisers to stop running a series of races, 518 was raised for the charity. The charity duck race has taken place twice before but on previous occasions were held on Saturdays or on Bank Holidays which have more flexible rules for fundraising. A spokesman for Midland Freewheelers Blood Bikes said: 'We rely on donations. 'The duck race is an annual event and a lot of money is always raised for us, for which we are very grateful. 'We understand the event did go ahead on Sunday but there were also issues raised by some about the rules on running such events. I haven't heard if they will be able to put on the event next year or not.' Gloucestershire Constabulary confirmed they were called to the village. A spokesman said: 'At about 2.45pm on Sunday 19 June, 2016, police responded to a complaint that a number of motorbikes were parked on the village green, contravening a local bylaw protecting the site. 'An officer asked the riders to move their bikes, which they kindly did. Advertisement It is often said that punk was less a musical genre than a state of mind, and these stunning photographs help portray those who defined it. A new book by Peter Gravelle, who was known to be close to Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious, lovingly records the era of punk 40 years on. The Sex Pistols are seen as the band who brought the genre to the worlds attention after playing their first gig in London in 1975. They became known for their outrageous antics, but Vicious was found dead aged 21 after taking a heroin overdose in New York in 1979. The Death of Photography traces 40 years of Mr Gravelles career and presents his photos of the world of punk alongside many portraits. Some images feature the Sex Pistols at gigs and interviews, while another shows their famous record deal outside Buckingham Palace. Knocking back the vodka: Sid Vicious, the bass guitarist of influential punk rock band the Sex Pistols, is photographed by Peter Gravelle Short life: Sex Pistols bass player Vicious was found dead in his bed aged 21 after taking a heroin overdose in New York in February 1979 Punk legends: Vicious (left) plays with Johnny Rotten (right) in the Sex Pistols. The band performed their first gig in 1975 in London Putting pen to paper: Members of the Sex Pistols famously signed a record deal outside Buckingham Palace in London in March 1977 Press conference: The Sex Pistols were known for their bad language as well as hits such as Anarchy In The UK and God Save The Queen The Damned: A punk group formed of lead vocalist Dave Vanian, guitarist Brian James, bassist Captain Sensible and drummer Rat Scabies Debut: A photo forming part of a set for the band's album Damned Damned Damned. They played their first gig with the Sex Pistols in 1976 Identity: Punk was an underground scene until the mid-1970s, when the Ramones and the Sex Pistols helped bring it into the public sphere Punk style: The original punks were seen by many people as pioneers who broke down conventional musical and social barriers Progressive: The punk influence from the 1970s has been passed on to more modern rock bands such as Green Day and Blink 182 Styles: Punk was seen as an agressive form of rock music and became something of a political ideology as it spread across the world Short life: Vicious (left) was the prime suspect in the murder of his American girlfriend Nancy Spungen but died while on bail Photographer: Peter Gravelle's (left) book The Death of Photography (right) was published by Carpet Bombing Culture on May 16 A family has vanished after a father was last heard 'attempting to survive' with his three children off the coast of Florida. Ace Kimberly, 45, from Sarasota and his teenagers Roger Kimberly, 13, Donny Kimberly, 15, and Rebecca Kimberly, 17, were last seen on Sunday as the left for Fort Myers. The U.S. Coast Guard started first-light searches for the 29-foot vessel which disappeared near Englewood on the Gulf of Mexico and found a debris field on Wednesday afternoon. They discovered a tarp, six life jackets, water jugs, a pair of shoes and a propane tank among the debris spotted by a search aircraft. A short time later, they found six empty kayaks in the search area that are believed to belong to the family. The missing: (From left to right) Donny Kimberly, 13, Roger Kimberly, 15, their father Ace Kimberly and sister Rebecca Kimberly Donald (left) and brother Roger were believed to be living with their father, who had been staying on the boat for around a year The four members of the family (circled) who are missing in the Gulf of Mexico pose alongside some of their other relatives U.S. Coast Guard Capt., Gregory Case said search teams found a debris field shortly after the rescue operation got underway The family have been living on the boat for around a year. It has also been revealed that boaters were warned about high winds at the time they went missing. The family left Sarasota at 7am on Sunday and entered into rough seas. The father called his brother at 3pm and said 'the sailboat was in 6-foot seas and he was attempting to survive with his children offshore of Englewood,' according to the Coast Guard. In a report by the New-Press, Coastguard Officer Ashley J. Johnson said they had launched a HC-130 Hercules airplane from Clearwater, and several vessels from Stations Cortez and Fort Myers Beach. A video of the aircraft taking off at first light on Wednesday was posted on social media. The Maritime Emergency Response Team has also been sent out to search for the missing family. Anyone with information can contact the Coast Guard Sector St. Petersburg on 727-824-7506 The father and his two sons (13,15), and daughter (17), were last seen near Englewood on Sunday The family of four set sail on a 29ft vessel at 7am on Sunday from Sarasota (pictured) bound for Fort Myers The sprawling desert mansion belonging to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been found abandoned amid claims he is still alive and on the run. A picture of the compound in Manbij, Syria, was posted online by Iraqi rebel fighter Serdar Mahmud who said it featured a swimming pool and even a zoo with camels and horses. It shows how walls have been built around the estate while the pool has been drained and animals can be seen roaming around in the background. The sprawling desert mansion belonging to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been found abandoned amid claims he is still alive and on the run There are claims that al-Baghdadi is in the ISIS stronghold Mosul in Iraq - despite earlier reports that the ISIS mastermind may have been killed Mahmud pictured himself on the roof of the mansion along with the caption: 'note the camels and a few horse Al Baghdadi had a zoo.' He goes on to claim al-Baghdadi is in the Iraqi city of Mosul, despite earlier reports that the ISIS mastermind may have been killed. Mahmud appears to be loyal to the People's Protection Unit, a Kurdish group created to battle ISIS in northern Syria and Iraq. He regularly posts pictures from the battlefront, including weapons seized from the extremist group and tunnels its thugs use to hide and escape from advancing YPG units and airstrikes. Baghdadi's mansion was seized by YPG fighters ever since he fled after being wounded during an airstrike on Raqqa in Syria. Last week, reports emerged that the 44-year-old may have been killed in the US attack. But there have previously been reports that al-Baghdadi, who proclaimed himself caliph of all Muslims two years ago, has been killed or wounded, which turned out to be untrue. Mahmud has previously posted pictures of secret tunnels (pictured) ISIS fighters use to evade capture and airstrikes In a recent post, Mahmud claimed that YPG Special Forces (pictured) killed 40 fighters in the Manbij The Abna24 website said al-Baghdadi had been killed last Sunday morning by an air strike in Syria. However, there has been no confirmation of his death by the US or any other coalition powers, who have been targeting the terror group in Syria and Iraq. A Pentagon spokesman told MailOnline they were not aware of any 'high value targets' having been killed. Baghdadi was born as Ibrahim Awwad Ibrahim al-Badri, in 1971 in Samarra, Iraq, to a lower-middle class Sunni family. His tribe claimed to be descended from the Prophet Muhammad. As a youth Baghdadi was a meticulous observer of religious law and could recite the Koran from cover to cover. He then rose from obscurity to lead the world's most infamous and feared terror group, reviving the organisation's fortunes as it launched its sickening offensive across Syria and Iraq. But he still continues to shun the spotlight for an aura of mystery that adds to his appeal and his lack of public appearances means he still has a unprecedented $10million bounty on his head. Mahmud (left), who appears to be loyal to the People's Protection Unit rebel group, also posts pictures of the weapons the group is said to have seized from ISIS (pictured) The situation is in direct contrast to the likes of Osama bin Laden, who regularly appeared in videos sprouting hate messages and was internationally known long before 9/11. Baghdadi's only appearance came during a slick propaganda video last summer, when he led a sermon in a mosque in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. The video - which showed a man with a black and grey beard wearing a black robe and matching turban - came after the group captured Iraq's second largest city, a terrifying moment which highlighted how quickly the terror group was gaining territory. An Iraqi intelligence report indicates that Baghdadi - who it says has a PhD in Islamic studies and was a professor at Tikrit University - also married a second woman, with whom he had another son. Baghdadi apparently joined the insurgency that erupted after the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, at one point spending time in a U.S military prison in the country's south. But he did not swear allegiance to the leader of the al-Qaeda network, Zawahiri, who had urged ISIS to focus on Iraq and leave Syria to al-Nusra. But there have previously been reports that al-Baghdadi, who proclaimed himself caliph of all Muslims two years ago, has been killed or wounded, which turned out to be untrue Baghdadi and his fighters openly defied the al-Qaeda chief, leading some commentators to believe he now holds higher prestige among many Islamist militants. As well as the uncertainty surrounding his true identity, his whereabouts are also unclear. Although there were reports he was in Raqqa in Syria, - the ISIS stronghold - those reports are unconfirmed. In the past year, Baghdadi has been reported wounded multiple times. Last year there were two reports that Baghdadi had been wounded in air strikes, but they turned out to be inaccurate. Two teenagers have been warned for playing 'Russian roulette' with their lives and told 'you could be killed' when they climbed on to train tracks to pose for selfies. The girls, thought to be aged around 15, clambered on to the busy line in South Wales and struck several different poses while they took snaps with their phones. The busy commuter line provides a service between Barry and Cardiff with several trains running between the sites every hour. The British Transport Police is investigating how the girls gained access to the tracks and are urging parents to discourage such behaviour from youngsters during the upcoming summer holidays One train driver blasted their actions as 'utter stupidity' and warned parents to make sure they kept their children off the tracks. Freight train driver Nick Rush, 55, said: 'The emotional impact on the driver has lasting repercussions, it could be that he or she may never drive a train again. 'Then there's the family to consider, how would the death affect them how would any parent deal with that? 'This is a serious matter and with the schools closing for the summer soon instances of trespass by teenagers will substantially increase, as well as fatalities.' One woman living near the tracks described the girls as 'utterly pathetic'. She said: 'Have they nothing better to do than play Russian roulette with their lives?' Richard Molyneux, 48, added: 'They wouldn't do it on the M4. Why do people think it is 'cool' to use railway lines for photo shoots? 'Hopefully somebody will know these girls and point out the error of their ways before it's too late.' British Transport Police (BTP) is investigating how the pair gained access to the line in Dinas Powys. A spokesman for BTP said: 'We are aware of a photograph which shows two teenage girls on the tracks between Eastbrook and Dinas Powys. Two teenage girls climbed on to a busy commuter track in Glamorgan, South Wales and struck several different poses whilst they took snaps with their phones 'I would like to remind people that the railway is a dangerous environment. 'Trains travel at extremely high speeds and are actually much quieter than people expect. 'All it takes is one accidental slip and the consequences could be catastrophic. 'People may think they know the lines well and know the passenger timetables, but they don't know the freight timetables, with services running 24 hours a day. 'With the school summer holidays almost upon us, I would urge all parents and responsible adults to emphasise these dangers and ensure youngsters do not participate in such behaviour and keep away from the railway lines. 'Our main concern is keeping people safe. More than 400 animals were removed from a squalid Long Island home less than a year after a 4-foot alligator was removed from the property, according to authorities. The Nassau Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals says the rescue dubbed 'Operation Noah's Ark' lasted eight hours. It says the Bellmore home had a free-roaming skunk and turtles in slimy water in addition to bird cages filled with feces. Scroll down for video More than 400 animals were removed from a squalid Long Island home less than a year after a 4-foot alligator was removed from the property, according to authorities The Nassau Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals says the rescue dubbed 'Operation Noah's Ark' lasted eight hours It says the Bellmore home had a free-roaming skunk and turtles in slimy water in addition to bird cages filled with feces Neighbor Dawn Kephart told CBS New York: 'It sounded like living next to the Amazon jungle. It just blows my mind to see what animals are coming out.' More than 250 birds and more than 150 turtles were seized Tuesday along with four reptiles and a dozen mammals, including rabbits, chinchillas, sugar gliders and prairie dogs. Authorities say homeowner Gary Gruber has been cited for having endangered turtles. Defense attorney Nathan DeCorpo says people bring his client animals for rehabilitation, but that Gruber's own health has deteriorated. More than 250 birds and more than 150 turtles were seized Tuesday along with four reptiles and a dozen mammals, including rabbits, chinchillas, sugar gliders and prairie dogs Authorities say homeowner Gary Gruber has been cited for having endangered turtles A man is seen carrying several birds in this grab taken from video Nassau SPCA's Gary Rogers told CBS New York: 'Besides living in filth, besides living in dirty water, there is a lack of wholesome, fresh sanitary, healthy air. 'The odor was horrible, they were living in conditions that were totally unwarranted.' He told the TV station: 'Every animal that was taken out of here today is going out of state, going to places that deal with animals that were put in these kinds of environments.' Neighbor Jackie Cornman told WABC: 'It's horrible for the animals. 'The animals couldn't have fared well, and you saw, the animals that are coming out, there's nine birds in a cage, that's cruelty and those animals are beautiful.' Nassau SPCA's Gary Rogers told CBS New York: 'Besides living in filth, besides living in dirty water, there is a lack of wholesome, fresh sanitary, healthy air' He told the TV station: 'Every animal that was taken out of here today is going out of state, going to places that deal with animals that were put in these kinds of environments' Lucy Turnbull has received an apology from her own husband's party after they misused her name to promote a $3,000-a-head Liberal fundraiser. Ms Turnbull arrived at the exclusive woman's lunch in Sydney on Wednesday, but was surprised to learn that she had been advertised as co-host of the event alongside Senator Michaelia Cash. 'Is that how I've been billed?' she asked Fairfax reporter Heath Aston outside the venue. 'I wasn't aware of that.' Lucy Turnbull has received an apology from the Liberal party after they misused her name to promote a fundraiser Ms Turnbull was billed as the co-host of the $3,000-a-head lunch, but she believed she was invited as the 'spouse of Malcolm Turnbull' 'Is that how I'm being billed? I wasn't aware of that': Ms Turnbull had no idea her name was being used The Liberal Party later apologised and said the use of her name and title as chief commissioner of Mike Baird's Greater Sydney Commission for the exclusive fundraiser was a 'mistake.' A statement from a party spokesman said that the money raised at the lunch had been donated to charity, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. 'Lucy Turnbull AO had been invited to attend Party functions in her role as the spouse of the Prime Minister. 'Without Mrs Turnbull's knowledge, the invitations made reference to one of her public roles. 'The Liberal Party has apologised to Mrs Turnbull for this mistake. 'Because of this mistake, the proceeds from the functions will be paid today to the St Vincent de Paul Society CEO Sleepout in support of women's refuges.' The fundraiser at Doltone House, a waterfront venue in Darling Point, was described as a discussion on 'women's workforce participation and advancing gender equality.' The high-profile guest list included Diane Smith-Gander, who is the chair of billion-dollar company Broadspectrum and was labelled Australia's sixth most powerful businesswoman last year. The high-profile guest list included Diane Smith-Gander - Australia's sixth most powerful woman The polls in the EU referendum open in a matter of hours after months of passionate - and sometimes aggressive - campaigning. So as the electorate prepares to vote on the future of Britain's role in or out of Europe, MailOnline took to the streets to find out how much people really know about the European Union. Could they tell the difference between EU fact or fiction? MailOnline went out with a clutch of EU flags and asked people to identify which nation was the biggest contributor to the EU budget. Ian, 52, from Solihull (left) had no idea who paid the most into the EU's coffers - picking out the Greek flag at random when asked. Joan, 77, (right) wasn't able to pick out the biggest contributor to the EU budget Which country is the biggest contributor to the EU budget? One person was able to correctly identify Germany How many presidents in the EU? Zoe, from Canvey Island in Essex, thought there were no presidents in the EU - in fact there are five How much child benefit is sent to other EU countries? Oyami, 42, was completely stumped when asked and guessed 5 per cent. The actual figure is 0.3 per cent of the 7.55 million families receiving child benefit How many citizens migrated to the UK last year? Londoner Kevin, 43, got close to the net figure of 184,000 by guessing 180,000 people Thumbs up: Harvey Hughes-Sharps, of Guilden Sutton, Cheshire, has asked his family and friends to donate to a hospice which treated his late mother A kind-hearted boy aged just seven has written a heartbreaking letter to his family and friends asking for donations to a hospice which treated his mother as she died instead of birthday gifts. Harvey Hughes-Sharps, of Guilden Sutton, Cheshire, was four when his mother Rachel Hughes died after being diagnosed with ovarian cancer, which spread to her lungs and brain. She left him a box of notes and memories to help him remember her after her death aged 42 in December 2013, and Harvey has now come up with his own way of handling his grief. Instead of birthday presents, the schoolboy asked friends and family to donate to the Hospice of the Good Shepherd in Chester, so the centre can continue caring for other people. His father Jonathan Sharps, 48, who owns a woodwork business, said: I am very proud of Harvey. He came up with the idea of sacrificing his own birthday presents this year. We have helped him develop the idea, but its been his special project and we are just supporting him. He really wants to help the hospice, as they have a new extension being built at the moment. Rachel spent about a month in the hospice before she died in December 2013, aged 42. She was a very tough lady. She would confront the doctors about what she needed. Parent: Harvey (right) was four when his mother Rachel Hughes (left) died after being diagnosed with cancer Fundraising: Harvey (left, with his father Jonathan Sharps) had a Star Wars-themed birthday party on Sunday Fun for the kids: Following the Star Wars party (above), Harvey has now raised nearly 1,200 for the hospice Heartbreaking letter: Harvey has written to his family and friends asking for donations to the Chester hospice Kind words: Harvey said in the letter that he wants 'to help other people that are going through the same thing' Harvey would visit Rachel there after school. She was waited on hand and foot and this has really helped Harvey with his grieving process. Mr Sharps added that Harvey is becoming more used to the situation now, and that they had a private ceremony at home for his mother before scattering some of her ashes on a beach in Wales. He continued: She was a lovely, kind, generous person. She was a social worker looking after old people and was so caring. Its wonderful to see Harvey giving something back to the hospice. The team there are amazing. I cant describe how invaluable they are. Nobody wants to die in their own home when you have a child living there, so it was really important to us for Rachel to be somewhere so caring. Great work: Harvey (right, sitting with his stepmother Katherine Robinson) receives an award from former Great Britain Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies for his fundraising efforts New family: His stepmother Miss Robinson (centre) moved in with Harvey (right) and Mr Sharps (left) last year Late mother: Mrs Hughes (left, with Harvey and Mr Sharps) spent about a month in the hospice before she died Taking his steps: The family scattered some of the ashes of Mrs Hughes (left, with Harvey) on a Welsh beach Harvey had a Star Wars-themed birthday party on Sunday and so far he has raised nearly 1,200 for the hospice. His stepmother, dance teacher Katherine Robinson, 36, moved in with Harvey and Mr Sharps last year. HIS LETTER TO FRIENDS AND FAMILY My name is Harvey Hughes-Sharps and I will soon be seven years old. This year for my birthday party I have asked to have a Star Wars charity party, raising money for the Hospice of the Good Shepherd. Just after I was born, my mummy got poorly and found out that she had cancer. Two years ago my mummy died, but the hospice helped her, my Daddy and me by looking after us when we felt scared. Now I want to help other people that are going through the same thing. At my birthday party I will ask my friends and family for donations instead of bringing me a present. I hope to raise lots of money but I also want my friends to have lots of fun. Would you be able to sponsor me or donate a prize for my raffle? My birthday is in June so I have got lots to do before then. Thank you very much for reading my letter. I hope that you will write back to me. Love from Harvey Age 6 3/4 Advertisement She says the memory box, and all of Harveys letters from his mum, help her to feel like she knows Rachel personally, despite never having met her. Ms Robinson said: Harvey is very unaware of how inspiring he is. He is a very humble and shy boy. People think he must be a big character to do what hes doing, but he isnt. He is very thoughtful and kind. Harvey still had a few little gifts and surprises even though he wanted to make the gesture of giving up his presents this year. In terms of moving in with them, Harvey has made it extremely easy for me, as he is so easy to love. He has obviously had to work out how he feels about me coming into his house after losing his mum. We got on straightaway and Ive always loved kids. We have had lots of opportunities to bond. I didnt move in until Harvey was comfortable. He is constantly growing, so his grief does need to be revisited. We have to keep checking in on that. Rachel is still very much part of the family and I feel like I have got to know part of Rachel through Jonathan and Harvey. I have a sense of that motherly role and I can continue what Rachel would have wanted for Harvey. A hospice spokesman said: We are delighted and extremely proud of Harvey. He has selflessly helped to raise money for the hospices From Silver to Gold appeal, which will double the size of the existing hospital and help more people like Harvey, his mum Rachel and dad. Judge says family was 'rife with criminality' and 'united by greed' Gang blew the proceeds on expensive goods and holidays to Dubai A family of fraudsters who tricked pensioners out of 1.3million which they spent on expensive cars and watches were today jailed for over twenty years. The 'ferociously greedy' Mohammed family cold-called victims posing as fraud advisers from Visa or high-street banks and saying they had been targeted in a scam. Led by Atif Mohammed, 25, the family then invited their victim to hang up and redial their own bank's fraud team themselves to gain their trust. But they stayed on the line, intercepted the return call and either put on a fake voice or handed the phone to another family member to pose as a legitimate bank official. Atif Mohammed (left) and his cousin Asif Ali (right) ran a phone scam which stole the savings of pensioners Shabeer (left) and Shakeel Ahmed (right) were also took part in the con, which saw people phoned up and told they had been targeted by fraudsters and encouraged to pay money into a bank account Call centre worker Zoe Latif (left) gave the gang victim's details. Atif's mother Shameem Ali Mohammed (right) had stolen property At least 42 elderly and vulnerable people from across the UK were encouraged to transfer their savings - up to 129,000 in one case - into another bank account. The fraudsters then spent the money 'like water' - on luxury cars including a yellow Lamborghini Gallardo, a white Land Rover, a Ferrari and a Mercedes, Bristol Crown Court heard. It also funded designer bags, gold, expensive watches, gambling ventures and trips abroad, including repeat visits to Dubai where they bought a house. The Mohammeds, originally from Pakistan, called thousands of people using dozens of phones over 13 months as part of the 'vishing' - voice phishing - scam between December 2013 and January 2015. Most of the victims will never get their money back because banks view such incidents - where people willingly transfer money - as their own fault. Seven members of the family, from Glasgow, were jailed for between two and six years each this week. Sentencing them, Judge Barry Cotter QC said: 'Those who fell for it tended to be the more unworldly and naive. 'Whilst they were not specifically targeted as vulnerable, it is obvious that it was people who did not have a suspicion that many people would have who were victims.' The gang made thousands out of the scam and 100,000 in cash was found when they were arrested The group frittered the money away on expensive goods including these watches (above and below) The judge added that the family was 'rife with criminality' and 'united by ferocious greed'. 'The way in which the money was spent will make it even harder for victims to swallow. You frittered money away,' he said. 'It was a high life lived on the hard-earned money of others, the sweat and toil of other people, by you, the most dishonest of people.' The con artists were eventually caught in November 2014. Police raided their six-bed mansion, finding 41 mobile phones, 57 sim cards and dozens of phone numbers scrawled on a wall. In Shameem's bedroom they found 100,000 in cash, hidden under the bed and in a false partition in her wardrobe, along with DKNY handbags and receipts for gold. One victim, Marian Hodges, of Salisbury, Wiltshire, said she was 'shattered' after being scammed out of 84,000 in life savings on April Fool's Day 2014. Another victim, an 87-year-old man, whose wife is dying of cancer, said: 'I felt such a fool to be duped in this way.' The gang spent the money they made 'like water', buying, among other cars, a Lamborghini like that pictured They also bought a number of luxury cars, including a Mercedes AMG like that pictured in this file photo Another of the expensive vehicles purchased by the gang was a white Land Rover, like that pictured Ringleader Atif Mohammed, 25, was jailed for six years for his pivotal role in the plot, which is thought to have raked in far more than the proven 1.3million. His cousin, father-of-two Asif Ali, 33, who has 24 previous convictions and was also involved in a separate mortgage fraud, was jailed for five years and ten months. Their cousins, brothers Shabeer Ahmed, 25 and Shakeel Ahmed, 21, were jailed for five years and two months and three and a half years respectively. The four relatives had previously admitted conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation. Atif's brother, Saif Mohammed, 21, admitted money laundering and was jailed for one year. Call centre worker 26-year-old Zoe Latif, who handed over the victims' details, was handed a nine month sentence, suspended for two years, after admitting encouraging or assisting indictable offences. Another navy cadet said he was raped and forced to perform sex acts Allegations of abuse in the Australian Defence Force are being examined The abuse drove him to try and commit suicide with 72 Valium pills He said he was sexually abused by an officer and fellow apprentice Ken McIlwain said he was raped repeatedly while training with the Navy A former Navy apprentice has opened up about the months of sexual abuse he endured at the hands of two men, leaving the hosts of The Project stunned and horrified. Ken McIlwain told the panel on Wednesday night about the years he spent training with the Navy as a teenager in the early 1970s, during which he would often iron the uniforms of senior apprentices. One day after he brought a cleaned uniform to the room of a senior, Mr McIlwain said instead of handing him money, the senior threw him onto the bed and had oral sex with him. That was the beginning of a cycle of of sexual abuse by two men the senior and an officer, he said. Scroll down for video Former Navy apprentice, Ken McIlwain (pictured), opened up on Wednesday about the months of sexual abuse he endured 40 years ago at the hands of two men - a fellow Navy apprentice and an officer Mr McIlwain shared his powerful story with the hosts of The Project, leaving them stunned and horrified. A visibly upset Carrie Bickmore (pictured) said it is 'incredibly unfair' The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse began its examination into the ADF's handling of abuse allegations on Tuesday. It heard 15-year-old cadet Eleanore Tibble (pictured) was driven to commit suicide after having a relationship with a 30-year-old instructor 'This went on for a fair while. After a couple of months I went to a medical officer and told him that I had problems with my bottom and pains in my stomach and he just said it was anxiety from my father, who was a bit of a drunken abuser,' Mr McIlwain said. The second and third time he returned to the medical officer, Mr McIlwain said he told them he was being raped by the two men but that they just gave him bottles of Valium. Mr McIlwain said he reached his breaking point one night while taking a shower after being raped. 'I was just so embarrassed and ashamed and at that time I decided I'm not going to get away from this so I went and got a can of Pepsi and I had three bottles of Valium left I remember counting them there was 72 I took the whole lot to commit suicide because I was happy to go, there was no way I could get out of it,' he said. After years of silence, Mr McIlwain (pictured) is now calling for a change within the Australian Defence Force and for other victims to share their story During the decades that followed, Mr McIlwain said he remained silent but tried to deal with the 'triggers.' He said that at the grocery store he would buy the brand of soap he used to clean himself after each rape in bulk, in case he ran out. Mr McIlwain is now calling for a change within the Australian Defence Force and for other victims to share their story. A visibly stunned Carrie Bickmore agreed with Mr McIlwain, urging for the truth about the ADF to be released. 'He is right, the truth needs to be spoken. For people like Ken. Hearing him say he just has to manage the triggers. He shouldn't have to manage any,' she said. 'It is so incredibly unfair he spent 40 years of his life dealing with something he had no control over.' Mr McIlwain's powerful story comes as the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse started its examination into the Australian Defence Force's handling of abuse allegations across the navy, army and airforce in Sydney on Tuesday. Survivors told the commission there was a 'culture of abuse' and secrecy in defence force facilities across the country, with its teenage recruits subjected vile sexual, emotional and physical abuse at the hands of senior officers, the Sydney Morning Herald reported. Ms Tibble's mother Susan Campbell was among 111 people who contacted the commission about the ADF The commission heard 15-year-old cadet Eleanore Tibble was driven to commit suicide after the ADF threatened her with a dishonourable discharge because she had a sexual relationship with a 30-year-old instructor. Her mother Susan Campbell was among the 111 people who contacted the commission about the ADF as they failed to tell her daughter the 'fraternisation' charges were being dropped. A former Navy cadet who served at the Leeuwin base, in Perth's south, in 1967 told the commission he was 'repeatedly' dragged to an oval, raped and forced to perform oral sex on his fellow recruits. 'I was forced to suck another recruit's penis or lick a junior recruit's anus. This was often after another recruit who had been buggered by an older recruit and ejaculated into,' the man who was given the pseudonym CJA told the hearing. 'Other times I was forced to have anal intercourse with junior recruits or I was raped by another junior recruit who was directed to so by the older recruits or base staff,' he added. He said senior officers told him to 'suck it up' as they had done and that the continued abuse would 'make a man out of him', the Sydney Morning Herald reported. A former Navy cadet who served at the Leeuwin base, in Perth's south, in 1967 told the commission (pictured) he was 'repeatedly' dragged to an oval, raped and forced to perform oral sex on his fellow recruits Graeme Frazer, who survived horrendous abuse when he was 16 the same naval training base said it took 36 years before the Navy and the Department of Defence acknowledged the systemic abuse (stock image) CJA also told the commission he was afraid to complain after witnessing a chef ejaculate into an officer's food before it was presented to him. Graeme Frazer, who survived horrendous abuse when he was 16 the same naval training base said it took 36 years before the Navy and the Department of Defence acknowledged the systemic abuse. Mr Frazer said the abuse, which included being knocked unconscious while being forced to run a gauntlet, caused him lifelong physical and psychological damage. He said he was also subjected to a painful initiation ritual known as 'nuggeting' which involves being held down while his genitals were smeared with boot polish and scrubbed with a hard bristled brush. Mr Frazer said he twice reported the abuse to a senior officer at Leeuwin but was told it was a 'rite of passage in the real Navy'. 'I was forced to suck another recruit's penis or lick a junior recruit's anus. This was often after another recruit who had been buggered by an older recruit and ejaculated into,' a man told the hearing Mr Frazer said he twice reported the abuse to a senior officer at Leeuwin but was told it was a 'rite of passage in the real Navy' He felt he was picked on because he was short and colour blind, which meant he had difficulty with the flag exercises. When he finished his training at Leeuwin, he served 12 years at HMAS Albatross in Nowra and achieved the highest non-commissioned rank of leading seaman before he left. WHY IS THE COMMISSION LOOKING INTO THE ADF? 111 people who experienced physical, mental and sexual abuse within the ADF have contacted the commission 50 were about child abuse at HMAS Leeuwin in Perth or the army apprentice school at Balcombe in Victoria 26 were about child sex abuse of ADF cadets More than 30 people have complained about child sexual abuse within other ADF establishments including at HMAS Cerberus, the ADF Academy, Puckapunyal Army Base, Kapooka Army Base and RAAF Base Wagga Wagga Advertisement Mr Frazer told the commission he went on to study at the University of Sydney and worked as a social worker but began to have health problems including crippling anxiety. He went to a rehabilitation centre and revealed the abuse for the first time. He was advised to approach the Department of Veteran's Affairs and make a claim under the Military Compensation and Rehabilitation Service (MCRS) through the DVA for injuries, anxiety and depression. The MCRS twice rejected his claim, saying there was nothing on his personnel file from Leeuwin. He appealed to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal which in 2004 overturned the MCRS finding and found said there was a culture of 'bullying, harassment, intimidation, bastardisation, victimisation and violence at Leeuwin'. The MCRS continued to challenge the compensation amount, Mr Frazer said. He said institutions like the DVA appeared to understand the type of abuse he received was wrong 'but their processes make it very hard for survivors to claim compensation because of the level of proof they require'. He told the commission there were some people in Defence 'who still think it is OK to break people down by whatever means necessary' and he hoped that would change in the future He also said there were some people in Defence 'who still think it is OK to break people down by whatever means necessary' and he hoped that would change in the future. It was not until 2013 when he went to the Defence Abuse Response Taskforce, set up after an investigation into Leeuwin, that the abuse was finally acknowledged. Prior to that there had never been an acknowledgement 'never mind an apology', he said. He is one of 14 survivor witnesses giving evidence at the commission. A task force was set up in 2012 to look at 2,400 historical complaints of abuse in the ADF. Court ordered 'out of control' Rottweiler-German shepherd be put down He was left with two inch-long scars but avoided any lasting damage Delivery driver Daniel Dythe, 40, from from Chelmsford, Essex, was delivering a Christmas parcel when the Rottweiler-German shepherd cross named Chief bit his penis - twice A father-of-nine has described the moment a dangerous dog sank its teeth into his penis as he attempted to deliver some parcels. Delivery driver Daniel Dythe, 40, from from Chelmsford, Essex, was delivering a Christmas parcel when the Rottweiler-German shepherd cross named Chief bit down on his genitals - twice. The delivery driver desperately tried to move away but the dog growled and sunk its teeth in for a second time, tightening its grip. Mr Dythe has now been left with two inch long scars on his penis but was pleased when doctors confirmed he has no lasting functional damage. He said: 'I haven't had any long term damage but I've lost a bit of my dignity and whenever I look down to have a wee I now see my scarred penis. 'There was no growling, no warning, nothing. I looked down and and the dog was hanging off the end of my penis. 'It was only on there for about 20 seconds but it felt like an eternity. I thought my penis was going to be in bits.' Mr Dythe needed four days off work following the attack on December 18 and had to take a week-long course of antibiotics to prevent infection. He said the dog only let go when its owner, Alexandra Metcalfe, 57, came outside and started screaming. 'I've delivered there before and know that they had dogs there but didn't think anything of it,' said Mr Dythe. 'I knocked on the door and a boy answered. I was getting him to sign for the parcel and the next thing I know I just felt this excruciating pain. 'Eventually the woman came out and started screaming and the dog got off me. Magistrates have now ordered 'out of control' Rottweiler-German shepherd (similar to this one) be put down 'I got in my van and took a picture of it and sent it to my wife before I rushed off to hospital.' Mr Dythe went to Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford, Essex, where nurses cleaned him up and discharged him four hours later. Metcalfe, a nurse, pleaded guilty to owning a dog dangerously out of control at Chelmsford Magistrates Court on June 15. Defending herself, she said: 'He did run out, he did grind on the man. We saw no evidence of injury but he says he was, so if he was then so be it. 'Chief went back into the utility room with his tail between his legs. I apologised to him, I offered him medical attention.' Mr Dythe hopes his experience will warn other pet owners to keep their dogs under control. Mr Dythe has been left with two inch long scars on his penis but was pleased when doctors confirmed he has no lasting functional damage He added: 'If it had been a child in my place it wouldn't have stood a chance. I don't blame the animals, I blame the owners because they are the ones in charge. 'If it was up to me they'd have the destruction orders, not the dogs. I've got nothing against dogs. I grew up with Alsatians as a kid and I've got a French bulldog puppy called Marley now.' He said: 'Every time I knock on a door now I'm worried that something's going to happen. 'People need to be responsible dog owners to stop things like this happening again.' The court heard how Chief had previously attacked two other people and Chair of the bench, David Murtagh, ordered the 'out of control' dog be put down. He said: 'This is the third report of Chief attacking someone. You have dogs which you freely admitted in court out loud run free, knowing that they're dangerous. 'A medium level of harm was caused to a very sensitive part of the person's body. 'It is an out of control dog. We are going to impose a destruction order.' An elderly woman who was trapped in her flat for nearly a week survived by drinking defrosted water dripping from her fridge. The unnamed 79-year-old woman, who lives alone in a flat in Holloway, north London, fell in her kitchen and was unable to get up or call for help. Trapped for six days, she tried and failed to raise the alarm. She huddled against her oven for warmth and managed to open the fridge door and melt water from the freezer box to stay hydrated. An elderly woman who was trapped in her flat for nearly a week survived by drinking defrosted water dripping from her fridge (stock image) Eventually a neighbour heard banging and called police, who forced their way into the flat and found her on the floor. Police said the woman had 'slipped through the net', was not on the radar of social services and did not have a GP. She also has no family and was struggling to afford her bills. Islington police officer Jo Morris said they had never seen anyone in such a sad state. 'She was struggling for money and had very little in her flat,' she told the Islington Tribune. 'She only had one change of clothes, little bedding and no home comforts. 'The ambulance crew and officers were upset by the way she was living we had never seen anyone in such a sad state. She was worried about bills she couldn't afford.' PC Morris was so moved by the woman's plight that she sent out an email to Islington officers to raise funds to help her out. Officers and other residents then donated bedding, cushions, blankets, bed clothes, slippers, food and cleaning items. The unnamed 79-year-old woman, who lives alone in a flat in Holloway (pictured, general view), north London, fell in her kitchen and was unable to get up or call for help They also managed to buy her a new TV to replace a hired once she had been paying for since 1994. 'She now gets visits from carers multiple times a day and is a lot happier. It was a good result in the end,' she added. Islington Council health and wellbeing chief Councillor Janet Burgess said: 'We are providing care and support for this resident, and are very grateful to everyone who has helped her. 'We are always sorry to hear about these sorts of situations, and work hard to try and stop this happening. The Devil Firefish, a tropical creature with poisonous barbs and a painful sting that can kill human is spreading in the Mediterranean, a conservation group has warned. Experts say the fish has been seen in waters around Turkey and Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean. The highly invasive, predatory fish, also known as a common lionfish, is a native of the South Pacific and Indian Ocean. The Devil Firefish, a tropical creature with poisonous barbs and a painful sting that can kill human is spreading in the Mediterranean, a conservation group has warned Maria del Mar Otero of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (UICN) said the sighting was a 'cause for concern'. Stings from its barbs are rarely fatal to humans, but can cause extreme pain, vomiting and respiratory paralysis. Environmentalists fear that the fish's arrival in the eastern Mediterranean could decimate stocks of other fish, with knock-on effects on the rest of the marine environment. Dr Carlos Jimenez, a marine biologist at the Cyprus Institute, said the species 'could have a heavy negative impact on the ecosystems as well as on local economies'. Despite their conspicuous colours and slow movements, even sharks won't go near lionfish, giving them free rein to feed and wipe out other species that normally keep algae in check. This can attract the arrival of new invasive species because of the weakening of the local fauna and flora, said Jimenez. Researchers have spotted the fish in waters around Turkey and Cyprus (file picture) in the eastern Mediterranean, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (UICN) said The voracious fish caused environmental havoc after it was introduced to the Caribbean. Lionfish were first recorded in Cuba in 2007, and within two years, they were common in waters around the island, said Delmis Cabrera, a marine biologist at the National Aquarium in Havana. The Association of Caribbean States organised a summit to discuss ways of combatting the fish's spread. Cuba, Colombia and the Bahamas have encouraged their populations to start eating the fish to keep down numbers. Cuba now holds an annual fishing tournament for the species. Restaurants have begun serving its white, juicy flesh, long enjoyed as a delicacy in Japan. The first sightings of the fish in Mediterranean waters were off Israel in 1991. More recently, they have been seen in Lebanese and Tunisian waters, according to the UICN. The fish may have been introduced by aquarium enthusiasts who let them loose, or via the Suez Canal from the Red Sea, where there is a flourishing population. I feel a bit sick right now. It's the same feeling you get sitting in the waiting room to find out your test results for brain cancer. It's either going to be the biggest relief of your life. Or the sort of news where the room drains to grey, where everything you were certain about five minutes before just might turn out not to be true. Having posted my ballot last week, I've arrived way too early in the waiting room for the results of the Referendum on Friday. Too nervous to stay at home any longer. Too anxious to sit and wait. So I'm pacing around asking people which way they think it will go. And it's excruciating. We're expected to listen to Bob Geldof, flicking Vs at our fishing fleet from Newlyn in their support for the Leave campaign Those who don't want to be wrong say 'REMAIN' so they can pretend they called it right. It's the choice of the risk averse, the innate satisfaction with status quo. Only the brave say 'LEAVE'. And I could kiss every one of them for keeping my hopes alive. I've heard a rumour Leave is winning the postal vote and I am choosing to believe it. But I can't help but fear the very government I helped elect has frightened its own people into making the wrong decision, capitalised on our human flaws to show why power in the hands of emotional people is a dangerous thing. Since the death of Jo Cox, MPs are acting crazy. Possessed by some neurological disorder, like mad cows staggering about in Parliament Square. Liberals who have spent the best part of a decade bemoaning the stock market crash are quoting bankers to make their case, wheeling out George Soros, a man made rich by betting against Britain. Since the death of Jo Cox, MPs are acting crazy. Possessed by some neurological disorder, like mad cows staggering about in Parliament Square Beckham says he wants to Remain. If you asked him IN or OUT you'd blow his tiny mind. Until Posh put him straight he probably thought a certain Californian burger chain beloved by celebs was launching in Britain. And we're expected to listen to Bob Geldof, flicking Vs at our fishing fleet from Newlyn in their support for the Leave campaign. The British fishing fleet has been decimated by the EU. Jo Cox's husband sailed with Geldof and his wealthy friends, mocking our lads. As predicted, the Remain camp have milked her death like a thistle, pricks forcing their eyes to water. A grief-fest in a recalled parliament, her husband able to see a Ukip poster through his tears, and care enough to criticise. The court case is planned for the day of the Referendum, and is being treated as 'terror-related'. It's the very same people in the Remain Camp who have led the charge of silencing the people of Britain over the decades, dictating what we are and are not allowed to think. What we can and cannot say. What is debate or what is hate. Policing thought. In the years since WW2, these British elites have undermined our own culture and confidence - a process accelerating in the race for metropolitan multiculturalism. Allowing Muslim cultures to take advantage of this tolerance, colonising our country all the while with their intolerant religion. And whilst we may be struggling for facts and truth, we can look around at blatant realities hidden from view. Eight miles from Jo Cox's constituency 25 men have been sentenced for child prostitution. She saved Syrian children but eight miles away a gang of Muslim men were abusing our own. This only made the regional pages of the BBC news. People in the Remain Camp have led the charge of silencing the people of Britain over the decades, dictating what we are and are not allowed to think. What we can and cannot say. What is debate or what is hate In Calais, Brits were pelted with rocks in their cars, migrants jumping in front of ferries as the day of reckoning looms. A desperate bid for our shores. The BBC pushed this news back too. Yesterday the Supreme Court heard an appeal by Theresa May to deport an Italian man guilty of murder, who we can't send home. Because Europe said he had every right to citizenship here in the UK under Freedom of Movement laws. Can we not see the utter madness of this? Our own laws, meaningless. Our elected politicians, impotent. Criminals, laughing in our faces. David Beckham says he wants to Remain. If you asked him IN or OUT you'd blow his tiny mind Now the country which used to run half the world and helped shape the language and customs of a lot more of it is told to feel nothing but bad about itself and that isn't capable of governing itself or surviving without the support of a bunch of sclerotic, broke-backed, broadly socialist and in many cases deeply corrupt European partners dominated by the only decently-run country, the Germans. And even that country's leaders have blatantly concealed truths from its own people about the behaviour of migrants they encouraged to come. This is a debate where you have to decide which truths you find more compelling. There is no clear line between fact and fiction. But there is the truth of our everyday. If you do decide to vote remain be very clear. You have no right to complain you can't get a doctor's appointment or a place in primary school. In four years' time, all primary schools will be full. You have no right to a view on the dearth of housing or the strain on the NHS. Because you sided with the people who said unchecked immigration is a positive thing for Britain. If you are voting remain you have no right to respond to terror with sympathy; your hashtags, your sad faces and your vigils in a public square. The only thing I want to hear from you is 'I was wrong'. Because you voted with the idiots who said we are safer IN. And if you are voting remain because you are worried about short term pain. Think about the cancer you diagnosed for this country. We take the short-term pain of chemo for the long-term hope of a better life, a life worth living. You needed to be brave enough to make that call. Ask any survivor - was it worth it? And you'll find this to be a fact in which you can place your faith. But Britain still has hope. We can vote to save the patient. We can get to the polling booths and vote leave. Many of us have waited a lifetime to have our say. Our grandfathers fought with Enfields and bayonets. The mark of respect for their legacy, we now fight for their memory by putting a cross in the box marked leave. We're not racist, we're not Little Englanders. We're Great Britons and we want Great Britain back. A Glastonbury fan has died after suffering serious burns in a horror fire believed to have broken out following an accident involving a petrol can. The victim, aged in his 20s, was airlifted to hospital with life-threatening injuries yesterday evening but was later pronounced dead. Mystery surrounds exactly what happened but police said they were not treating the man's death as suspicious. He was not thought to be working on the Worthy Farm site in Pilton, Somerset. Accident: A Glastonbury fan has died after suffering serious burns in a horror fire believed to have broken out following an accident involving a petrol can. An air ambulance landed at Worthy Farm to take him to hospital It has been claimed that rescuers attempting to reach him were hampered by the muddy ground and vehicles blocking roads. The victim is believed to have been set alight in a petrol can accident, according to The Sun. A spokesman for Avon and Somerset police said: 'We were called by the fire service after reports of a man on fire at the Glastonbury Festival site at about 5.20pm last night. 'The man suffered serious burns and was taken by air ambulance to Southmead Hospital in Bristol. 'He was transferred to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, where he sadly later died. 'The man's family have been informed and our thoughts are with them at this time. 'Our enquiries are continuing but we are treating the death as unexplained and do not believe it to be suspicious.' This morning Glastonbury organisers urged people planning to arrive by car or campervan to stay away until queues at the site were cleared after heavy rain sparked traffic chaos. Sian Stevens, 28 and her son Noel Barker, two, arrive at Glastonbury (left) along with Charlotte Banks (right) Tailbacks: People were forced to get out of their vehicles after traffic was brought to a standstill on the A303 One festival-goer said their four-hour journey had taken almost a day to complete, while others were pictured standing in the road after becoming stranded in a traffic jam for up to 10 hours overnight. Social media users claimed some had even abandoned their vehicles to walk to the site. More than 180,000 festival goers are expected to pour in over the rest of the week to see hundreds of acts including headliners Muse, Adele and Coldplay on the famous Pyramid Stage. But many looking to get a head-start endured a nightmare few hours as they became stranded in their vehicles - prompting a warning from organisers. Doctors believe it may be linked to a mini stroke or minor brain damage There's been than 100 cases in past century of foreign accent syndrome But after support from her family she decided to go public about condition Alamia kept quiet for months after surgery - scared people might judge her Mom-of-three was diagnosed with the very rare foreign accent syndrome Lisa Alamia, of Texas, woke up with a British accent after her jaw surgery Listening to Lisa Alamia speak, you would be forgiven for thinking she had grown up in the UK. But while the mom-of-three may sound like Mary Poppins, she's a born and raised Texan - with an extremely rare neurological disorder which makes her speak with a British accent. 'People who don't know me, they're like, "Hey, where are you from?'' Alamia told KHOU 11. 'I'm from Rosenberg. They're like, 'Where is that?' I'm like, 'Right here in Rosenberg.' 'Oh, you're from here? How do you talk like that?' So that's where the whole story comes up.' Scroll down for video Lisa Alamia, of Texas, woke up with a British accent after her jaw surgery due to a rare disorder It all began around six months ago when Alamia went in for jaw surgery to address her under-bite. When she woke up from the anesthesia, her Texan drawl had been replaced by a British accent. 'I thought she was joking with me,' said Kayla Alamia, Lisa Alamia's oldest daughter. 'But then she showed me that the doctor diagnosed her with foreign accent syndrome. Then I was like, 'Oh, Lord.'' Alamia was put through a battery of tests by doctors to check if she really had developed the syndrome, one of which forced her to repeat tongue twisters countless times. But neurologist, Dr. Toby Yalto, at Houston Methodist Sugar Land Hospital is still unable to say why she now speaks with a British accent. Alamia kept silent for months after her surgery, scared people would judge her or even think she was making it all up. Neurologist, Dr. Toby Yalto, (pictured with Alamia) at is unable to say why she now speaks with a British accent Alamia was put through a battery of tests by doctors at Houston Methodist Sugar Land Hospital (pictured) to check if she really had developed the syndrome, one of which forced her to repeat tongue twisters countless times 'I didn't know the reaction I was going to get from people,' she said. 'So I didn't know if they're going to judge me. Are they going to think I'm lying or even understand how I'm speaking?' Thanks to the support of family and friends, Alamia said she is learning to live with her new voice although she occasionally still struggles to make herself understood by everyone around her. 'They're like now there's no way you sound 'hood at all,' her children told her. 'Even if you tried, you wouldn't be able to sound that way. 'My daughter laughs at the way I say 'tamales.' I used to be able to say it like a real Hispanic girl. Now, I cannot.' Cases of foreign accent syndrome are very rare, with less than 100 people worldwide diagnosed in the past century. Cases are very sporadic, there is no centre for the study of the syndrome and as a result sufferers are often sent to many different doctors before being diagnosed, she said. As well as speaking in a seemingly foreign accent, sufferers also forget words or struggle to speak with correct grammar, she added. Alamia kept silent for months after her surgery, scared people would judge her or even think she was making it all up. But thanks to the support of family and friends, Alamia said she is learning to live with her new voice Alamia says her daughter Kylie (pictured left, with her mom and brother) still laughs at the way she pronounces certain words The syndrome usually results from a stroke, but can also develop from head trauma, migraines or developmental problems. Last year, an Atlanta, Georgia woman was diagnosed with foreign accent syndrome when she lost her American accent and began speaking with an array of twangs ranging from a Scottish to Eastern European. FOREIGN ACCENT SYNDROME Foreign Accent Syndrome is speech disorder that causes a sudden change to speech so that a native speaker is perceived to speak with a 'foreign' accent. Foreign Accent Syndrome is most often caused by damage to the brain caused by a stroke or traumatic brain injury. Other causes have also been reported including multiple sclerosis and conversion disorder. In some cases no clear cause has been identified. Speech may be altered in terms of timing, intonation, and tongue placement, so that is perceived as sounding foreign. Listeners can usually still understand the sufferer's speech; it does not necessarily sound disordered. Foreign Accent Syndrome has been documented in cases around the world, including accent changes from Japanese to Korean, British English to French, American-English to British English, and Spanish to Hungarian. There have only ever been 150 confirmed cases of Foreign Accent Syndrome in the world so far. Advertisement Linda Pereira, a mother-of-three, noticed the change following an 'eruption' in her brain while messaging a friend on Facebook in October last year. Now, her voice interchanges between the Scandinavian sounds, German and sometimes switches to a Scottish or South African-twang. Pereira says she even gets better service in restaurants and shops because staff think she is a tourist but was sad to lose her own accent. 'At first we all thought it was funny,' she said. 'We had a good time with it but I was always thinking it was temporary and going to go away. 'Now, this is how I know myself and I know it doesn't sound like me.' In 2015 a 94-year-old Chinese woman woke up from a two-week coma speaking perfect English - but not a word of her native language. A few years before, a British woman woke up speaking in a Chinese accent. Sarah Colwill has been told that the ultra-rare condition is permanent and cannot be cured. The first recorded case of foreign accent syndrome was in 1941, when a Norwegian woman suffered a shrapnel injury to the head during an air raid. After overcoming language problems she was left with a strong German accent. In 1999 a woman from Sevenoaks, Kent, developed a French accent after a minor stroke even though she did not speak French and had only visited the country once for a weekend in Paris. Zoe Woolmer, 23, was killed when she plunged 30 metres at Kings Canyon, 450km west of Alice Springs, on June 15, 2014 A tour company has admitted to health and safety failures that resulted in the death of a British backpacker who fell from the ledge of a canyon in the Australian outback while posing for a photograph. Zoe Woolmer, 23, was killed when she plunged 30 metres at Kings Canyon, 450km west of Alice Springs, on June 15, 2014, while with a tour group. In the Alice Springs Local Court on Monday, directors of 'The Rock Tour' pleaded guilty to failing to comply with their health and safety duty to the tourist, the ABC reported. The backpackers family, from Hertfordshire in England's south, revealed how the death of Zoe had devastated their lives in moving Victim Impact Statements. 'We've been totally robbed of an ordinary and normal life, the company should have kept Zoe safe,' one of the statements read. 'My belief is that this awful tragedy could have easily happened to others on the tour,' wrote Zoe's mother Dawn. In the Alice Springs Local Court on Monday, directors of 'The Rock Tour' pleaded guilty to failing to comply with their health and safety duty to the tourist (image showing tourists at Kings Canyon posing off edge) While police did not reveal the cause of the traveller's death, she was reportedly dangling over the edge of the cliff when she fell during the afternoon tour walk. Ms Woolmer was able to talk to paramedics after the fall, but she later died at the scene. The backpacker, from Hertfordshire, had been travelling around Australia for 12 months after studying Human Resources at the University of Portsmouth. After Ms Woolmer's death, photos emerged of tour guides from The Rock Tour skylarking at the edges of Kings Canyon - posing close to the edge and standing on small ledges above 50 metre drops. Adam Cooper, who was a tour guide with the company but left before Ms Woolmer's death, told Daily Mail Australia at the time that walkers regularly posed on a thin ledge just a metre wide in the area of the walk where it is believed she died. 'There's actually a bit up near the waterfall where... guides encourage people to take a photo off the ledge, it's so dangerous, if you fell that'd be falling 50 metres,' he said. 'We've been totally robbed of an ordinary and normal life, the company should have kept Zoe safe' - Family members revealed their devastation in an Alice Springs court on Monday A number of photos of guides and walkers posing on the ledge were posted to the company's Facebook page, but were removed following Ms Woolmer's death A number of photos of guides and walkers posing on the ledge were posted to the company's Facebook page, but were removed following Ms Woolmer's death. Managing director of The Rock Tour, Rob Cowan said at the time that photographs were uploaded to the company's Facebook page by employees and the page is regularly monitored by company management. 'Whenever management sees a photograph depicting inappropriate behaviour they remove the picture and talk to the guide in question', he said. 'We have a three-strikes-you're-out policy,' he said and commented that two of the tour guides depicted in the photographs obtained by Daily Mail Australia had been fired or encouraged to leave. Police took statements from the 16 people on the tour with Ms Woolmer as they investigated her death. Chimpanzees share 96 per cent of our DNA, making them our closest living relatives. So it's only natural that the animal might hold the secret to a good night's sleep. Primatologist Koichiro Zamma, a research fellow with Kyoto Universitys Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies, has developed a humankind evolution bed based on the type of tree top contraptions chimpanzees retreat to at night. The oval shape design is 5ft long, 4ft wide, 17 inches in height and made from MDF wood. It features a central net made from flexible paper thread that allows the bed to gently rock in all directions like a cradle. The mattress also features a unique quality (aside from being oval-shaped) in that it is designed to be thicker at the sides, in order to create a nestling depression in the centre. Primatologist Koichiro Zamma has developed a humankind evolution bed (pictured) that sways when you sleep Zamma created the prototype - and noted the need for a sinking in the centre of the bed - after climbing into a chimps nest in Tanzanias Mahale mountain range while on a research trip in 1999. He noted how the animal folds tree branches high in the trees, giving them a safe place to sleep away from predators but also creating a gentle sway to put them to sleep. Chimpanzee beds are designed to envelop the body, which is why they are so comfortable, Zamma told The Guardian. Theyre also built high up in the trees, so they rock with the movement of the branches. You could say they are the prototype of a babys cradle. Chimpanzees sleep high up in trees away from predators in nests made from durable branches The animal folds tree branches high in the trees in nests that are designed to envelop the body Chimps' nests in the trees create a gentle sway to put them to sleep like a baby cradle Kyoto University President Juichi Yamagiwa tried out the chimpanzee bed and explained that ape-men are also thought to have once slept in tree-top beds. The human body may retain memories from that time, he told Asahi.com. The bed has been developed with Shinichi Ishikawa, an environment designer, and Iwata Co., a Kyoto-based bedding manufacturer. Zamma hopes they will eventually be able to sell the product to anyone looking for a good night's sleep. Just like humans, chimpanzees like to get eight to nine hours sleep a night in their nests. A study published in 2014 and lead by David Samson, an anthropologist at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, found that chimpanzees carefully select the type of wood they build their beds from. Out of 1,844 chimpanzee nests studied in the Toro-Semliki Wildlife Reserve in western Uganda, 73.6 per cent were made from a strong tree called Ugandan ironwood. The tree species is rare, making up just 9.6 per cent of trees in the region. But the chimps were picky. "Despite the fact it's relatively rare, they're saying seven out of ten times, 'I want to sleep in this species,'" Samson said, National Geographic reported. Advertisement A Vietnam war helicopter pilot who braved enemy machine gun fire to rescue 40 stranded soldiers from a hot landing zone will receive the Congressional Medal of Honor from President Barack Obama after a change in the law. Army Major Charles Kettles made several trips in his Bell UH-1 to rescue trapped and injured soldiers near the district of Duc Pho in May 1967. According to his citation, Kettles flew his chopper into the hot landing zone without additional aerial support to rescue the soldiers over the course of several trips. Army Major Charles Kettles, pictured, flew three missions to a hot landing zone on May 15, 1967 near Duc Pho in Vietnam Major Kettles, pictured, left, shortly after returning from one of the rescue missions beside one of the badly damaged Hueys, left On the day of the battle, Kettles' own Huey, pictured, was undergoing maintenance, but that did not stop him from going on the mission The White House said Kettles helped save the lives of 40 soldiers. Kettles, who is from Ypsilanti, Michigan, retired from the Army in 1978 as a lieutenant colonel and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross shortly after his rescue. However, for the past four years, there has been a major campaign to have the award upgraded to the Medal of Honor - the highest award for bravery available to the US military. The Army said next month's White House ceremony is the culmination of an effort that began in 2012. William Vollano of the Veterans History Project launched a formal campaign to upgrade Kettles' Distinguished Service Cross to the Medal of Honor. As part of that review, several men from his company and the 101st Airborne Division sent letters validating Kettles' actions. Lawmakers also got involved. Longtime Democratic Representative. John Dingell of Michigan sent a letter to the Pentagon asking for reconsideration so that Kettles could be awarded the Medal of Honor. Then, after Defense Secretary Ashton Carter determined that Kettles' actions merited the nation's highest military honor, Representative Debbie Dingell and Senators Gary Peters and Debbie Stabenow, all of Michigan, introduced legislation waiving a time limitation for the award and paving the way for President Barack Obama to make the final decision. Major Kettles was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross by Lieutenant General LJ Lincoln in Fort Sam Houston, Texas in May 1968 During his third mission, Kettles returned to the landing zone for a fourth time, this time alone, to pick up eight stragglers Retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Charles Kettles, right, stands with Congresswoman Debbie Dingell, left, who campaigned for the Medal of Honor The Army also announced that Kettles will be inducted into the Pentagon's Hall of Heroes on July 19, one day after the White House ceremony. The Army said that despite a heavily damaged helicopter, Kettles was relentless in his efforts to ensure that every soldier was extracted. On one particular flight out of the landing zone, a machine gun sprayed the helicopter Kettles was flying, but 'Maj. Kettles coaxed the helicopter and managed to fly us back to base camp,' said Roland J. Scheck, an Army specialist who was serving as a door-gunner on Kettles' crew. 'Kettles personifies the Army's 'Warrior Ethos' - never leave any soldier behind,' said Secretary of the Army Eric K. Fanning. According to Army records, on May 15, 1967, members of the 1st Brigade, 101st Airborne division were ambushed by a battalion-sized force of North Vietnamese army. The enemy troops were equipped with automatic weapons, machine guns and recoilless rifles. The US forces were pinned down as the Vietnamese were able to move around the battle field using underground tunnels. Major Kettles volunteered to lead a flight of six UH-1D Hueys to carry in reinforcements and evacuate the wounded. As the helicopters approached the landing zone, the Vietnamese forces concentrated their fire on the aircraft killing several soldiers before they touched the ground. Lt Col. Kettles (Ret), will receive the Medal of Honor at the White House and will be inducted into the Pentagon's Hall of Heroes Fast jets were called in to drop napalm and bomb the Vietnamese who quickly disappeared into their fortified underground bunkers. Kettles remained on the ground until all the reinforcements and supplies had been unloaded and were replaced by wounded soldiers, despite the deadly incoming fire. Once fully loaded, Kettles led his helicopters back to base. He then returned to the battlefield with more reinforcement, where he was again targeted and strafed by machine gun fire. A fellow helicopter crew warned him he had fuel streaming from his aircraft, but Kettles decided to continue and bring the wounded men to safety. As the battle continued, Kettles was told the infantry battalion commander needed an immediate extraction from the area. There were still 40 troops on the ground and four members of Kettles' unit who had been forced to abandon their helicopter. Of the six aircraft which started the day, only one was still in an airworthy condition. Major Kettles, pictured in 1969, left, and this month, right, did not consider his own safety to help rescue the stranded soldiers Charles Kettles was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel during his second tour of duty in Vietnam in 1970, pictured Major Kettles, left, was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross with his family (in the second row) in Fort Sam Houston in Texas Kettles jumped in behind the controls of the aircraft and volunteered to fly into the deadly landing zone for a third time. He was supported this time by five aircraft from the 161st Aviation Company. Again he landed his aircraft under intense fire and remained on the ground until he was told all the troops were on board. Shortly after taking off, he was told eight men had been unable to reach the landing zone. So, Kettles decided to hand over leadership of the flight to another helicopter and returned to the landing zone alone, without any gunships or tactical air support. As he approached the landing strip, he was the only target in the sky and the Vietnam forces pounded him with mortars, machine gun and small arms fire. Despite the extreme danger, Lt. Col Kettles returned safely from Vietnam and remained in the Army until he retired in 1978 Kettles, pictured center, look command of the 121st Assault Helicopter Company during his second tour of Vietnam One mortar struck the tail boom of the chopper and exploded, throwing shrapnel into the main rotor blade, shattering both windscreens and the chin bubble. Ground troops also raked with with machine gun and small arms fire. Despite being badly damaged and overloaded, Kettles coaxed the aircraft, with the remaining eight soldiers into the air and back to Duc Pho. According to the Army: 'Despite the intense enemy fire, Kettles maintained control of the aircraft and situation, allowing time for the remaining eight Soldiers to board the aircraft. In spite of the severe damage to his helicopter, Kettles once more skillfully guided his heavily damaged aircraft to safety. Without his courageous actions and superior flying skills, the last group of Soldiers and his crew would never have made it off the battlefield.' Just 24-hours earlier, Kettles had been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for a rescue mission to airlift a six-man long-range recon team from behind enemy lines, in an area 'heavily invested' by Viet Cong - minutes before a flight of B-52s were due to carpet bomb the area. Kettles remained in the area despite the imminent threat even though he could not talk to the approaching aircraft. Major Charles Kettles is having his Distinguished Service Cross upgraded to the Congressional Medal of Honor by President Obama Legislators from Michigan petitioned for a change in the law to allow for the upgrade of Major Kettles' award to the highest possible Only 24 hours before his rescue mission, Kettles was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for another brave action A leading German business figure has warned against imposing trade tariffs on Britain if we leave the EU. Markus Kerber,the head of the BDI - the federation of German industries - said it would be 'very very foolish' to put up such barriers. The remarks have been seized on by the Leave campaign as proof that the UK would get a good deal if we do vote to cut ties tomorrow. Boris Johnson insisted during BBC debate at Wembley Arena last night that EU countries would be 'insane' to impose tariffs, pointing out that a fifth of Germany's car output went to Britain. Boris Johnson, seen on the campaign trail in Ashby de la Zouch today, has seized on the remarks by BDI chief Markus Kerber The bitter referendum battle is entering its final stages, with David Cameron and Boris Johnson crossing the country in a bid to drum up votes. Mr Kerber urged Germany and the EU to draw up a free-trade regime that could operate after Brexit. He told World Business Report on the BBC's World Service: 'Imposing trade barriers, imposing protectionist measures between our two countries - or between the two political centres, the European Union on the one hand and the UK on the other - would be a very, very foolish thing in the 21st century. 'The BDI would urge politicians on both sides to come up with a trade regime that enables us to uphold and maintain the levels of trade we have, although it will become more difficult.' Brexit would be like a relative leaving the family and lead to 'serious disruption' in the German-UK economic relationship, he added. Mr Johnson said today that Germany would be 'desperate' for free trade with Britain if it left the EU. 'After the incessant doom-mongering of the In campaign, we now hear the truth from the "voice of German industry" - that they would be desperate for free trade after we Vote Leave,' he said. 'Of course EU countries will continue trading with us on a tariff-free basis - they would be damaging their own commercial interests if they didn't. That's why EU politicians would be banging down the door for a trade deal on Friday. 'As Sir James Dyson said today, this is the last opportunity to regain control of our futures. 'If we want to take back control and a more secure and more prosperous future, we have to Vote Leave on June 23.' But the Stronger In campaign stressed that the BDI had previously warned that trade barriers would be imposed after Brexit. Labour MP Chris Leslie, said: "The reality is the Leave campaign want to quit the single market and that would mean making almost half of Britain's trade harder and more expensive. 'And last night they admitted that doing a deal with the EU could take 'ten years'. 'That will damage our economy, cost jobs and put up prices in the shops - hurting working people. 'There is no going back from a vote to leave. If you're not 100% sure, don't risk your family's future. Vote to remain on Thursday.' This enormous brown bear gets a big slap on the face from a wet fish as he tries to catch jumping salmon. Red salmon are attempting to leap two metres into the air to clear a waterfall on their journey upriver to a lake in Alaska where they will breed. But they are tired and waiting for them at the top of a waterfall is a hungry bear - which eats up to 40 fish a day. Oops! This brown bear gets a slap in the face from a wet fish as he tries to catch salmon in Alaska The powerful creature stands in the water and tries to catch salmon in his mouth as they leap upstream. On a few occasions he fails with the fish instead landing on his nose, giving him a big slap in the face. French photographer Loic Poidevin captured these breathtaking images at Brooks Falls in the Katmai National Park. The juggling bear: This red salmon lands on the bear's nose as it tries to avoid his gaping mouth Mr Poidevin said: 'At this time of the year salmon leave the Pacific going up rivers and streams to breed on their place of birth. 'This long, gruelling journey, sometimes over a thousand kilometres, will be their last journey. Many die of exhaustion, others will be eaten by bears, others breed - but then they will die, but the species will be saves. 'These salmon are travelling up the Brooks river to a lake - but they are barred by a waterfall on the river called Brooks Falls. Hiding in plain sight: The bear tries to work out how to get the fish from its nose into its mouth 'Salmon are therefore forced to jump this obstacle by nearly two metres - this is a delicate operation that requires numerous attempts, especially for fish that are already tired.' Mr Poidevin added: 'The bears in the region know this magical place where they will be able to feed abundantly during the salmon run. 'This abundance of food will allow the bears to make fat reserves to meet their hibernation needs. 'This miraculous style of fishing has its own rules - only large male leader bears have the right to be at the top of the waterfall, everyone has their set fishing station with young males or females remaining at the bottom of the waterfall where it is harder to get the salmon.' So close! Another salmon gets away from the intrepid, hairy fisherman at Brooks Falls Gotcha! The bear is about to wrap its powerful jaw around this unfortunate salmon There's no getting away now: The bear clamps down on its lunch Flying fish: The bear catches another salmon mid-air as it tries to leap upstream Fish supper: The bear almost seems to be holding the salmon in its claw as it takes a bite Lynette Daley, 33, (pictured) died from horrific genital trauma when she was on a camping trip Two men have been charged over the brutal death of a woman who died from horrific genital trauma on a beach when she was on a camping trip five years ago. Lynette Daley, 33, was found naked, bloodied and bruised on Ten Mile Beach on the NSW north coast in January 2011 with a blood alcohol level seven times the legal limit. The mother-of-seven was allegedly on a camping and fishing trip with two men when she suffered serious injuries from violent sex. On Wednesday, police confirmed a 42-year-old man was charged with manslaughter and aggravated sexual assault. A 46-year-old man was charged with accessory after the fact of manslaughter and aggravated sexual assault. Both men are due to appear in Grafton Local Court on August 2. An autopsy found Ms Daley's had died from blunt force genital tract trauma after allegedly being subject to a violent sex act while she was heavily drunk. Paramedic Adam Jarrett was one of the first emergency responders on the scene and said Ms Daley was dead before they arrived. Director of Public Prosecutions Lloyd Babb SC confirmed on Wednesday evening that after seeking independent advice, he would be proceeding with the prosecution of the two men charged in relation to Ms Daley's death. The interior of a four-wheel-drive police examined on the scene where Lynette Daley died in 2011 The body of an 18-year-old boy with Asperger's syndrome was found buried in a shallow grave under a 'newly laid concrete pad' in the backyard of a house. Aaron Pajich was last seen on June 13 and police discovered his body buried in the rear of a house in Orelia, south of Perth, on Tuesday. Police charged the two women, aged 42 and 25, who lived at the property with Mr Pajich's murder on Wednesday. Scroll down for video The body of 18-year-old Aaron Pajich was found buried in the backyard of a home in Orelia, south of Perth, on Tuesday after he went missing on June 13 Detective Senior Sergeant Dave Gorton, of Major Crime, said the teenagers body was found buried in a 'shallow grave' after investigators recognised and removed a 'newly laid concrete pad,' reported Perth Now. He also said one of the women arrested studied at same education facility as the 18-year-old in Kwinana, south of Perth CBD. Mr Pajich was last spotted nine days ago on CCTV cameras at the Rockingham Shopping Centre taxi rank where he was due to meet a woman and a man only known as Daniel. He had told a roommate he was going to Kmart to meet the man and woman he met on an online gaming website. The teenager's mother, Sharon Pajich, told Perth Now her son could never hurt another person. 'He was a very good boy and he would never have hurt anyone,' she said. 'He respected life and everything else . . . he enjoyed school.' Mr Pajich's father, Keith Sweetman, said he is shattered over losing his son who was 'very trusting'. 'Because he loved people, his heart was not bad, he didnt smoke, he didnt drink, he went to church. He gave himself to the Lord and then someone goes and takes him.' Police discovered the 18-year-old's body buried in the rear of a house in Orelia, south of Perth, on Tuesday Aaron was last spotted on June 13 on CCTV cameras at the Rockingham Shopping Centre taxi rank where he was due to meet a woman and a man only known as Daniel Two women aged 42 and 25 were charged over Aaron Pajich's murder on Wednesday after his body was found Before the discovery of his body, Mr Pajich's stepmother Veronica Desmond told Channel 10 that he was easily led and that she was worried he had been harmed. 'I'm trying to be positive ... and that he's just for some reason decided to go off for a while but it is very unlike him,' she said. Ms Desmond said he would normally call his father everyday but his phone had been turned off and his bank account and public transport card were not used in the days after he went missing. Mr Pajich was last seen wearing dark grey cargo pants, a light blue t-shirt with long sleeves and a beige/grey jacket. Both women charged over his murder are due to appear in the Perth Magistrates Court on Thursday. Before the discovery of his body, Aaron's stepmother Veronica Desmond said the teenager was easily led and she was worried he had been harmed The brother of former Canterbury Bulldogs star Willie Talau accused of allegedly punching a 16-year-old rugby league referee will apply for his case to be dealt with under the Mental Health Act. Jucy Talau, 34, appeared in Sutherland Local Court in Sydney on Wednesday charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm. The alleged incident occurred after the referee ruled that Talau's son be replaced during the match at Engadine last Saturday. Willie Talau's brother Jucy, 34, (pictured) is accused of assaulting a 16-year-old who had been refereeing an under-12s rugby match in Sydney's south The ref suffered bruising and was taken to hospital. The lawyer for Talau, who is reportedly the brother of former Canterbury Bulldogs player Willie Talau, flagged making an application for the case to be dealt with under the Mental Health Act. Magistrate Julie Huber adjourned the matter to August 23 and excused Talau, who did not enter a plea, from attending if he is legally represented. It comes after it the boy's father told the Daily Telegraph that he 'never seen anything' like the incident. The alleged assault occurred after the young referee ruled that Jucy Talau's son had to be subbed out of the match - the junior rugby league equivalent of being sent off. Above, his brother, former NRL star Willie Talau Willie Talau's brother was granted conditional bail to appear before Sutherland Local Court on Wednesday June 22 'The crowd just groaned and I ran out on to the field to be with my son,' he said. The 16-year-old had been refereeing the junior match between the Engadine Dragons and Gymea Gorillas at Anzac Oval when he was allegedly attacked. He was was taken to the Childrens Hospital in Randwick in a stable condition. Sutherland Shires Facebook page said the student from De La Salle College, was given a standing ovation when he was stretchered off the field and into a waiting ambulance. Police were called to the field (pictured) at about 1pm on Saturday following reports of the alleged assault on the referee The teen was given a standing ovation when stretchered off the field and into a waiting ambulance Talau, who is a trainer for the Gymea Gorillas, was arrested and charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm. Gymea Gorillas JRLFC said that they understood people were aware of the incident and have asked people to 'refrain from comment' as they work through it. 'The club is in constant contact with our governing body and Referee's Association,' the club said in a statement. A series of health and safety failings led to the death of a factory worker who was crushed by a one-ton 'wall' of frozen fish pallets, a court heard. Tomas Suchy, 22, was helping colleagues stack boxes in a -25C store room at an Interfish factory in Plymouth, Devon, when the pile gave way and he was killed. The company had previously admitted failing to ensure the health, safety and welfare of its employees in a prosecution brought by the Health and Safety Executive. Tomas Suchy, 22 (pictured), was helping colleagues re-stack a pile of pallets in a store room of Interfish when they toppled over and crushed him And during the first day of a sentencing hearing Plymouth Crown Court heard that the pallets were stacked 'inadequately' and that the company should have offered employees hard hats. The court were shown photographs of the pallets. Prosecutor Sean Brunton said: 'Stacks appear to be resting against each other. If you look at the stacks that are still standing, you can see they are inadequately stacked.' Mr Brunton also told the court that the company had previously breached health and safety regulations and 'risks had been identified'. 'There is a large element of aspiration in the defence basis of plea in terms of what is being done now, as opposed to what was being done at the time,' he said. 'They use nice words but they don't mean anything. And although they may have in place safe systems of work in many areas, they didn't have in place a safe system of work as far as this is concerned.' The court also heard the company did not provide hard hats to staff. Mr Brunton said: 'They are not provided with any equipment apart from steel cap boots.' Judge Ian Lawrie QC said: 'So their toes are protected. Hard hats should be given out at the very least. Because it's head injuries which killed him.' Judge Lawrie also said there appeared to be an 'inconsistency in the wrapping that keeps the boxes in the pallets' - adding it was a 'bit of a mess'. Slovakian-born Mr Suchy had been asked to help stack boxes of fish, which had fallen over earlier in the day at the factory, along with three other co-workers. The Slovakian-born worker was crushed by pallets, which fell on top of him while he was trying to stack them at food-processing firm Interfish (pictured) in Plymouth, Devon When their job was nearly complete a stack of pallets used for storing the fish toppled over and landed on Mr Suchy. The boxes weighed 25 kilos and there were 52 on each pallet. Mr Suchy died 'instantaneously' from catastrophic head injuries and another labourer was also hurt by the falling pallets. After Mr Suchy's death the food processing company was handed four prohibition notices and one improvement notice by the HSE. The firm complied and introduced a range of measures to ensure a similar incident does not occur. An inquest held last year found Mr Suchy died as the result of an accident. Speaking at the inquest, Emma O'Hara, a health and safety executive, said there was 'no robust monitoring' at the food processing firm. At the time, she said: 'The boxes were stacked excessively high. Some of the stacks looked unstable and were leaning into one another. 'Some had not been placed directly on the one below and one stack was balanced on only two boxes of fish that weren't palletised. The inquest also heard that Interfish made a number of changes to its health and safety policy after the incident on October 18, 2013. During the sentencing Judge Lawrie said: 'I'm not expecting perfection, what I'm looking for is efforts by the company to ensure that risk is reasonably reduced. 'This is a reputable company. What is clear is failings.' Emily Lyon (pictured) was rushed to hospital after she fell ill at the Red Bull Culture Clash event A death of a teenage girl who collapsed during a dance party at the O2 Arena in London is being treated as 'unexplained' by police. Partygoer Emily Lyon, 17, was rushed to hospital after she fell ill at the Red Bull Culture Clash DJ party on Friday night. Paramedics sped to the scene after concerned friends raised the alarm and took her to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich. However the teenager was pronounced dead at 12.50am the next morning. Police are currently treating her death as unexplained but a 17-year-old has been arrested on suspicion of possession of MDMA with intent to supply. Emily's have remembered the 'vibrant' and 'wonderful' young girl in a heartbreaking tribute. Father Steve Lyon said: 'We are absolutely devastated at what has happened and we're struggling to come to terms with it. 'Emily was a wonderful, vibrant young lady. She was a loving daughter and a caring sister, who was much adored by her vast circle of friends.' He added: 'It can be seen how these so called "recreational substances" can result in such tragic consequences for so many people. 'Those who take them can pay the ultimate price.' Paramedics said five people were taken to hospital from the O2 between 8am and midnight during the event. Friends paid tribute to the A-Level student from Teddington, Middlesex, describing her as a 'lovely, happy' girl. A JustGiving page set up by Emily's friend Charlie Turner that has so far raised more than 2,000 reads: 'I, along with so many others, share many amazing memories with Emily. 'Words are simply not enough to describe the pleasure and happiness she brought to those around her. 'Please, if you are able to, make a contribution by donating in memory of Emily. The teenager was partying at London's O2 Arena (pictured) when she collapsed and was rushed to hospital 'All donations received will be passed straight to Emily's family.' Friday night's event at the 20,000-capacity arena has been described as the world's biggest music battle. The 16s and over event saw four teams of DJs and MCs competing to be crowned champions by the crowd. Emily's father, Steve, described her as a 'wonderful, vibrant young lady' Lily Allen and Mobo award-winning grime artists Wiley and Stormzy were among guests. A friend of Emily said: 'There was rarely a time when she didn't have a smile on her face, or a time where she couldn't bring joy to others.' Others have taken to social media to pay tribute. Ewa Toulizak, who worked with Emily at Johnson's Shoes, added: 'She was a great friend from work. Will miss your beautiful smile girl.' A Scotland Yard spokesman said: 'A 16-year old boy who was also at the music event at the O2 was taken to hospital suffering from what was believed to be the effects of taking illegal drugs. He has since been discharged. 'Four others were taken to hospital as a precaution and later released. 'A 17-year-old boy was arrested on Saturday in Kingston on suspicion of possession of MDMA with intent to supply. He has been bailed to return to a south London police station on a date in late August. 'Police inquiries continue.' And a spokeswoman for the Greenwich venue said: 'A 17-year-old female was treated onsite at the O2 on Friday evening and was taken by paramedics to Queen Elizabeth Hospital where she sadly died. 'Our thoughts are with her family and friends at this difficult time. Florida senator Marco Rubio has decided to run to keep the Senate seat he won six years ago, providing some relief to Republican leaders anxious to preserve control of the Senate. Rubio had said he would quit the chamber after announcing he would run for president. But after Rubio dropped out of the race, he faced increasing pressure from party leaders to reverse his decision, as the party contemplated how to survive a stiff challenge from Democrats. In a statement announcing his decision, Rubio said he was running in part to keep the Senate as a 'check and balance' on the 'excesses' of a president. He said Hillary Clinton would lead to 'failed economic policies,' but then went after Donald Trump. 'The prospect of a Trump presidency is also worrisome to me,' Rubio said. 'His positions on many key issues are still unknown. And some of his statements, especially about women and minorities, I find not just offensive but unacceptable. If he is elected, we will need Senators willing to encourage him in the right direction, and if necessary, stand up to him. Ive proven a willingness to do both.' Scroll down for video Florida Senator Marco Rubio has decided to seek reelection, it was reported Wednesday, reversing his decision to retire after failing to capture the GOP presidential nomination Rubio hinted at a lucrative private sector opportunity, telling, C-Span 'another choice' that 'form my family would have been more comfortable perhaps more politically intelligent.' "We spent about 10 days going over it and thinking about it,' Rubio said of he and his family. "We were fully aware of the opportunities that we were walking away from.' Rubio didn't directly respond to a question about whether he would campaign with Donald Trump. 'At this point my intention is to campaign on me,' he said. Rubio got a good reason to change his mind with the release of a new poll Wednesday showing he would hold the seat, while other Republicans would lose it. Just a day earlier, Rubio told reporters in the Senate he was still mulling his decision. He had just two days to make up his mind to meet the Florida filing deadline. There were increasing indications of which way Rubio was headed. Rep. David Jolly, another Republican who had been seeking to replace Rubio, announced last week he was dropping out. He told CNN at the time that Rubio was 'saying he's getting in,' although staff later said he had no personal knowledge of Rubio's decision. Two Democrats are battling for the right to compete for the failed presidential candidate's seat. Both of them, representatives Patrick Murphy and and Alan Grayson, would beat four lesser-known Republicans in the race. But Rubio would beat Murphy by 7 percentage points, 47 per cent to 40 per cent, and would beat Grayson by 8 points, 48 per cent to 40 per cent, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll. Rubio flew with President Obama aboard Air Force One when Obama flew to Orlando to pay tribute to the shooting victims of the Pulse nightclub massacre 'With Republican national leaders worried about keeping control of the U.S. Senate, Sen. Marco Rubio might ride to their rescue if he decides to reverse field and seek re-election,' said Peter Brown, who conducted the poll before Rubio made up his mind. The poll finds Rubio 'in good shape when matched against his two potential Democratic opponents,' Brown added. 'None of the other Republican candidates for Sen. Rubio's seat has a lead over either of the two Democrats, Congressmen Patrick Murphy and Alan Grayson. But if Rubio's last-minute decision is to seek re-election, he could be in the driver's seat.' Rubio announced that he would quit Congress when he launched his presidential campaign. But after he pulled out of the race, Republican leaders started making public signals that he should reconsider. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky is among those urging Rubio to change his mind. Complicating Rubio's decision were its implications for other Florida pols. Among those affected are Rubio pal Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera, who reportedly told Rubio he should reconsider his decision. The other Republicans running are Rep. Ron DeSantis and businessmen Todd Wilcox and Carlos Beruff. Job security: Rubio spoke at a rally in Miami before the Florida primary. He didn't win the Republican nomination, but his current job has plenty of perks Rubio had been a favorite of establishment Republicans who wanted a fresh face to take on Hillary Clinton. But he was unable to turn back Donald Trump, who ridiculed him during the campaign as 'little Marco' After Rubio dropped out of the presidential fight, Trump encouraged him to run again, writing: 'Run Marco!' Wilcox and Beruff are expected to stay in the race, although Rubio would have a clear advantage in the August primary. He could still take heat for having missed multiple Senate votes during his presidential run. He also took hits from Trump and others during the campaign for expenses he put on a state party credit card. Rubio last week confirmed to Capitol reporters a report in Politico that his friend and Senate candidate Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera had told Rubio he should reconsider his own decision not to run. He said the Orlando nightclub killings gave him new perspective. 'The report earlier is accurate,' Rubio said. 'Carlos and I had a conversation on Sunday in Orlando before I left. Obviously, I take very seriously everything that's going on, not just in Orlando but in our country. I've enjoyed my service here a lot.' 'So I'll go home later this week and I'll have some time with my family,' Rubio said. 'If there's a change in our status, I'll be sure to let everyone know.' Politico reported that Lopez-Cantera spoke to Rubio inside Rubio's pickup truck after appearing Sunday at the site of the Pulse nightclub killings in Orlando. Florida is just one of the key races that will determine whether Democrats can regain control of the chamber. Ohio Senator Rob Portman is in a touch race with former Ohio governor Ted Strickland. The two well-known state politicians are tied at 42 per cent. Portman has a positive 44 to 32 percent job approval rating and a 39 to 25 per cent favorability rating. He leads Strickland among men but loses among women. 'The Ohio Senate race is unusual because it is the rare situation in which the challenger, former Gov. Ted Strickland, is better known than the incumbent being challenged. Only 19 percent say they don't know enough about Strickland to form an opinion of him, while 34 percent, one in three voters, say they don't know enough about Sen. Rob Portman,' Brown said. Another Senate Republican, Pat Toomey, appears to be in stronger shape. He leads challenger Katie McGinty by 49 to 40 per cent. A man facing allegations of sexually assaulting two of his young nieces more than 30 years ago blamed a family conspiracy for the allegations levelled against him. The 68-year-old man appeared in the ACT Magistrates Court and pleaded not guilty to two counts indecent assault, committing an act of indecency on a girl younger than 10 and carnally knowing a girl under the age of 10, the Canberra Times reports. The court was told the alleged abuse started in 1980, when the man would inappropriately touch his nieces when he went into their bedroom to say goodnight. A man facing allegations of sexually assaulting two of his young nieces more than 30 years ago blamed a family conspiracy for the allegations levelled against him (stock image) He reportedly told the sisters the incidents were their 'little secrets', and would frequently buy them lollies and other items from local shops. One of the women claims her uncle raped and indecently assaulted her at a later date. However, the man denied the allegations during a police interview in 2013, telling police his niece who reported the acts had a 'terribly distorted' memory. According to the newspaper, he also told police the claims were being made against him as a result of a family incident. It took the sisters more than 10 years to tell anyone about the alleged abuse, when they reported it to their mother in the early 1990s. The case is due to continue in the ACT Supreme Court next month. The court was told the alleged abuse started in 1980, when the man would inappropriately touch his nieces when he went into their bedroom to say goodnight (stock image) The man denied the allegations during a police interview in 2013, telling police his niece who reported the acts had a 'terribly distorted' memory (stock image) Little Musa Bham was last seen leaving his home with Abdullah Bham, 52, on Sunday, June 5 Police have launched a desperate search for a two-year-old boy who has gone missing with his father. Little Musa Bham was last seen leaving his home with Abdullah Bham, 52, on Sunday, June 5. The pair, from Daubhill, Bolton, were officially reported missing on Friday but police have so far been unable to find them. Although he is not thought to be in any danger, Musa's family say they are 'extremely worried' about the little boy. Musa's mother initially tried to find the pair on her own but asked the police to investigate when her searches were futile. Mr Bham has not committed an offence by fleeing with his son within British borders which means the investigation is a missing person inquiry. Detective Inspector Danny Brophy, from Greater Manchester Police, said: 'We have followed a number of lines of inquiry in our efforts to find Musa and Abdullah Bham but have so far been unable to trace them. 'Although I would like to stress that we do not believe Musa to be in any danger, his family is growing extremely worried about him and are desperate for his return. 'I am urging anybody who may have information about the pair's whereabouts to please contact police immediately.' Airports and ports have been put on alert for the missing pair, but there is no suggestion the father has fled abroad with the toddler. Both Musa and father Abdullah are originally from Batley, West Yorkshire, and police believe they could have returned to the area. Detective Inspector Charlotte Cadden, said: 'Initially the mother was trying to make her own enquiries and act through the court system but that didn't work so they came to the police and we have taken an investigation on. She had moved to Bolton recently from Batley with Musa.' British voters were today warned there is no chance of a second renegotiation with the EU if they back Brexit tomorrow. Jean-Claude Juncker, the EU Commission President, said 'out is out' and ruled out re-opening talks in a bid to reverse a vote to quit the EU. In remarks sure to be seized upon by the Vote Leave campaign, Mr Juncker said David Cameron got the 'maximum' reform possible in his renegotiation that was concluded in February. The deal has been derided as empty and useless by Brexit campaigners and the Prime Minister has been forced to admit more reform is still needed. EU Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker today claimed David Cameron had already extracted the 'maximum' from the EU Britain would not get any other reforms by voting for Brexit Mr Juncker said today: 'The British policy makers and British voters have to know that there will not be any kind of renegotiation. 'Out is out.' He added: 'We have concluded a deal with the prime minister. He got the maximum he could receive and we gave the maximum we could give. 'So there will be no renegotiation, not on the agreement we found in February, nor as far as any kind of treaty negotiations are concerned.' Vote Leave champion Michael Gove said: 'The Remain Campaign has been claiming in recent days that if you vote to stay in the EU then there could be further reform. The President of the EU, Jean-Claude Juncker, has made very clear today that will not happen. 'If you vote to stay there is no prospect of getting any reform from the EU ever again. We will never get back control of the 350 million we give to the EU every week. The Prime Minister tried to get reforms earlier this year but the EU did not listen. The EU cannot and will not give the British people the change that they want. 'There is a very clear choice in this referendum. Either you vote to keep on giving the EU more power and more of our money every year or join me in voting leave to take back control.' Elsewhere today, French President Francois Hollande said a vote to leave would carry a 'very serious' risk of ending British access to the EU's prized single market. He said: 'There's a very serious risk for the United Kingdom not to be able to access the common market and ... the European economic area anymore.' France would 'draw all the conclusions' of such a vote, he warned. 'This would be irreversible.' Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg fears a British vote to leave the EU would make Europe 'weaker, more fragmented and nationalistic.' In comments to Norwegian broadcaster NRK, the leader of the oil-rich Scandinavian country that has twice voted in referendums to stay out of the EU said a weaker Europe would mean the economic situation will be more difficult when reforms and competitiveness are needed. She said: 'But it will also mean a more political and fragmented Europe, a weaker Europe and a weaker world.' Ms Solberg said that in a world where 'we are increasingly dependent on each other and solve issues together, it's dangerous to demolish joint institutions,' adding that she is 'deeply worried' should Britain opt out of the EU. French president Francois Hollande said a Brexit vote would risk Britain getting locked out of the single market which offers tariff free trading across the EU On Monday, Donald Tusk issued a direct appeal to Britain not to vote for Brexit, urging voters to 'stay with us'. The European Council president made the last ditch plea with just three days until the United Kingdom votes on whether to Leave or Remain a member of the European Union. Brussels had largely stayed out of the referendum battle until polls suggested Britain could vote for Brexit on Thursday - prompting Mr Tusk to issue a dire warning about the collapse of 'western political civilisation'. Mr Tusk, who is responsible for running the council meetings attended by heads of state and government, today struck a more conciliatory tone. He said: 'I would like to appeal to the British citizens, on behalf, I know that for a fact, of almost all Europeans and European leaders: Stay with us. 'Without you, not only Europe, but the whole Western community will become weaker. Together, we will be able to cope with increasingly difficult challenges of the future.' David Cameron was back on the stump for the final day of campaigning today as he scrambled to convince voters not to back a Brexit tomorrow He added: 'In no way are we downplaying the economic costs that would accompany Brexit ... I have no doubt, however, that we are already prepared for the day after the referendum.' Mr Tusk acknowledged the EU would need to be reformed regardless of the result on Thursday because of growing Euroscepticism across the continent. He said: 'We would be foolish if we ignored such a warning signal as the UK referendum. A 'Good Samaritan' appears to have been shot at by a driver with 'mental health issues' during his violent road-rage rampage captured on camera. The southbound side of the Lodge freeway in Detroit closed for hours on Tuesday after the motorist was involved in a car crash and seemed to target a person who stopped to help. Shocking cell phone footage shows the man firing at a car during a series of events that Michigan State Police Lt. Mike Shaw says they are still struggling to make sense of, reports CBS Detroit. Cell phone footage: The moment a gunman appears to fire at a Good Samaritan who had pulled over to help Shocking: The shooter had just been in a car crash involving his white Chrysler and may have hurt a woman A 66-year-old woman was hurt after the crash involving the man before the video was taken, and she suffered injuries possibly due to the actions of the assailant. Footage after the crash, filmed by Deandre Evans from the sidewalk, then appears to show that the man shot a single bullet at a male driver wearing a red jacket who stopped to investigate. The culprit was then arrested at gunpoint in his white Chrysler 300, and a large haul of multiple firearms were found in the trunk including handguns and rifles. Local4News reporter Jermont Terry tweeted a picture of at least eight recovered weapons including shotguns, the firearm the man appeared to have used to fire at the Good Samaritan. Police say they are have a difficult time communicating with the suspect because he may well have 'mental health issues'. His alleged female victim was taken to hospital for treatment where her condition is unknown, reports The Detroit Free Press. Michigan police swarmed in on the man and arrested him at gunpoint shortly after the video cuts out Weapons haul: At least eight firearms were found by police in the trunk of the suspect's car on Tuesday Lt. Shaw told reporters she may have either been struck with the suspect's fist, or with the butt of a handgun. And although the Good Samaritan has not come forward, Lt. Shaw said: 'The suspect fired one round at this individual. The individual ran and we're hoping that he's going to contact us. 'We're concerned first of all we want to make sure he wasn't hit, and second of all we just want to get his side of the story, because it appears that he did make contact with our suspect.' The officer confirmed that a number of weapons were recovered from the Chrysler's trunk, and that a K-9 team were looking for additional bullet casings. A woman has been arrested for allegedly brutally bashing an 87-year-old woman and almost running her over during a carjacking. Tammy Phillips, 33, was charged on Wednesday morning after Mavis Dillon was attacked while putting her walking frame in the boot of her car in St Albans in Melbourne's west on Saturday. The Victorian woman is accused of knocking the pensioner to the ground and speeding off in the hatchback, almost running the elderly car owner over in the process. Scroll down for video Tammy Phillips, 33, has been accused of brutally bashing an elderly woman and stealing her car Mavis Dillon was putting her walking frame in the boot of her car in St Albans in Melbourne's west on Saturday when she was bashed The 33-year-old is also facing charges for three armed robberies she allegedly committed across Victoria. Phillips was arrested in Kerang, a rural town in northern Victoria at 6.30pm on Tuesday night. She did not apply for bail and has been transferred to Melbourne where she remains in custody. The 87-year-old woman was reportedly almost run over during the coward carjacking Mavis Dillon is recovering from injuries in the Sunshine Hospital after she was reportedly bashed The thief allegedly demanded the pensioners car keys before punching her in the face, leaving her with severe bruising and a broken cheek bone. She also has a suspected broken arm. After Ms Dillon handed her the keys the thief allegedly nearly ran over the 87-year-old, and she had to roll out of the way to avoid being hit, police said. The thief allegedly demanded the pensioner's car keys before punching her in the face, leaving her with severe bruising and a broken her cheek bone Ms Dillon remains in Sunshine Hospital where she is being treated for her injuries Ms Dillon, who is a great-grandmother, remains in Sunshine Hospital where she is being treated for her injuries. The Shepparton woman will face the Swan Hill Magistrates Court on Wednesday. Mavis Dillon, 87, is recovering from injuries with friend Marjory Cassar (L) and granddaughter Karen Dearden (R) Turn out crucial for both sides but Leave voters seen as more motivated Many voters across Britain woke to heavy rain and flash flooding after a night of thunderstorms as they headed to the polls for today's historic EU referendum vote. The weather is of particular importance with turn out crucial to both sides of the referendum debate, as anything that puts off wavering voters from turning out would be a blow. Polling data has made clear Leave voters tend to be more determined than Remain voters. Today's weather: Rain had been forecast in the South East in the morning (left) and afternoon (right). The worst of the weather has been over London - which is expected to be strongly voting to stay inside the EU Washout: Voters were greeted by a flooded car park at a polling station in Chessington, south London, after heavy overnight rain Forecasts yesterday put the worst of the weather over London - expected to be strongly voting to stay inside the EU - and that materialised this morning with torrential downpours across the capital. Wet weather has also been forecast over Scotland and Northern Ireland - both areas expected to endorse continued EU membership. Red 'immediate action' flood warnings were issued for parts of south-east London and Essex as parts of London were expected to see a month's rain fall in a matter of hours. A chief forecaster at the Met Office said yesterday: 'Increasingly warm and humid air arriving from France later on Wednesday brings with it a risk of thunderstorms. June has already been soaking wet and forecasters suggest more rain will come tomorrow - including over London, a Remain heartland 'These thunderstorms are likely to occur in a couple of main waves, from Wednesday late afternoon or early evening into early Thursday and a second wave breaking out later on Thursday. 'Where thunderstorms occur torrential rain and frequent lightning are expected, as well as a chance of some hail. 30 mm or more of rain could fall in an hour and locally in excess of 50 mm is possible in two or three hours.' Sources at the Remain campaign told MailOnline: 'There are dark clouds on the horizon if Britain votes to Leave the EU but the great British weather is unlikely to have much of an effect on turn out. 'Brits dont quit and a bit of rain wont stop people getting to the polling stations to have their say in this once-in-a-generation decision' Polling experts yesterday played down the potential impact of poor weather on the result despite turn out being seen as crucial to the final tallies Leave insisted to the Telegraph: 'If we vote to leave on Thursday you can be sure the sun will be shining the following day.' Joe Twyman, head of political and social research at YouGov, said in a recent analysis: 'When it comes to the question of European Union membership, those who wish to leave the EU are more likely to say they will vote than those who wish to stay. 'This means we can conclude, generally speaking at least, that a lower turnout come polling day should favour the Leave campaign.' An alligator that attacked a 58-year-old man on his property in central Florida has been euthanized, officials say. The attack happened around 6.30pm on Tuesday in Bushnell, about a one-hour drive from where a boy was killed by a gator outside a Disney resort last week. WESH reports that when the man found the animal near a pond on his property and shot it. However, as he moved closer to see if it were dead, the gator lunged at him, biting him on the leg. Euthanized: Officials in Sumter County say the 8.5-foot gator (pictured) was put down following the attack on Tuesday in Bushnell, Florida Scene: The man found the gator on his property and shot it, but the animal came at him and attacked The man was taken to a hospital in Ocala for treatment. A trapper from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission then euthanized the alligator. It weighed approximate 300 pounds, The attack comes a week after an alligator killed a two-year-old Nebraska boy who was vacationing with his family at Disney World outside Orlando. 'We don't want these things to happen to. Alligator bites are a very rare occurrence, and we want to know what happened. How did this take place?' Chad Weber with the FWC told Fox 13 News. Under investigation: Officer Chad Weber said it was strange the alligator attacked and they are looking into what happened The sheriff's office said the alligator was between 8.5 and 9 feet long and weighed about 300 pounds Bushnell is about 60 miles away from Disney World in Orlando. Each year, there have several gator attacks in Florida, according to statistics from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission obtained by ABC News. In 2015, there were 9 major attacks, including one that was fatal, according to the statistics. As of April 2016, there was 1 major attack in Florida and no minor attacks. Two-year-old Nebraska boy Lane Graves who was killed by an alligator at Disney World in Lake Buena Vista Autopsy showed Graves died from drowning and traumatic injuries in the lake (pictured) near Magic Kingdom The Mass for Lane Thomas Graves was held Tuesday at St. Patrick's Catholic Church in west Omaha and was limited to family and friends. The ceremony in Omaha, Nebraska, comes a week after Lane Graves was attacked by an alligator as he paddled with his parents at the lagoon near Disney World's Grand Floridian hotel. His father Matt tried to fight the reptile off but was left bloodied as it dragged his son underwater following the attack, which took place beyond 'no swimming' signs. Disney has since installed a fence and changed its signs to explicitly warn guests of alligators. None of the union reps said they would report the abuse or advised the teacher to tell the authorities Eliu Lara, of UFT, Bronx, also urged the teacher to 'keep it a secret... and pray that (the child does) not coming forward' Robert Levine, of UFT, Brooklyn, said his job was 'to protect teachers' not report incidents of assault on students to their schools Said the abuse was a 'non-issue' because the child hadn't come forward Union reps caught telling an undercover reporter, posing as the friend of a teacher who assaulted a child, to keep the incident quiet Three unions reps in New York state have been caught on hidden camera apparently advising how to cover up an incident of abuse. An undercover reporter from Project Veritas posed as the friend of a teacher who had hit one of their students, during a meeting with teachers union representatives. But the reps seem more concerned with saving the jobs of the union member than protecting the child from abuse, telling the journalist to keep quiet and hope the allegations never surfaced. 'I strongly suggest she keep her mouth shut, learn her lesson and never do anything like that again,' White Plains Teacher Association President, Kerry Broderick, warned in the ten minute video. Scroll down for video Three unions reps in New York state have been caught on hidden camera advising how to cover up an incident of abuse (pictured is Robert Levine, of the UFT, Brooklyn) Broderick, from West Chester, New York state, told the female reporter that the incident of abuse was a 'non-issue' because the child had never reported it. 'Hopefully she's learned her lesson about whatever triggered her to lose her patience like that and she's never going to do whatever she did again.' 'Because when she does it again, if she does it to the wrong person, she could lose her job,' she said, before telling the teacher to 'let it go.' She also warned against informing the school principal that the teacher had hit a student, adding that: 'If she wants to confess then she might as well write her letter of resignation.' Both the undercover reporter's teacher friend, and the incident of them hitting a child, were fabricated for the purpose of the investigation. But as far as the reps were concerned, it was a legitimate incident of abuse. White Plains Teacher Association President, Kerry Broderick, warned the teacher to 'keep her mouth shut' on the ten minute video Broderick, from West Chester, New York state, told the undercover reporter that the incident of abuse was a 'non-issue' because the child had never reported it Robert Levine, of the United Federation of Teachers, UFT, Brooklyn, admitted that a teacher hitting a child was 'very very serious' but said that 'it's not my job to report anything like that.' The rep said that his job, first and foremost, was to protect teachers. 'I will not report that to anybody else, he said. 'I do just the opposite. I'm here to protect teachers. 'Everything that do here is protected. Everything we do here is confidential. No matter what is is. The only time we would every go back to his school and talk to anybody is only if he wanted us to.' Levine said that as long as the child did not come forward, the teacher had 'nothing to worry about.' He even suggested that the teacher should not consider quitting after hitting the child, saying it was 'definitely the wrong thing to do.' 'It's an inappropriate thing to do especially for people that show remorse.' Eliu Lara, of the United Federation of Teachers, in the Bronx, New York, also warned them to keep quiet adding that they were 'lucky' no-one had come forward. 'First of all he don't talk to nobody,' warned Lara. 'Don't be talking about. Because if you keep chit chit chatting you're going to have a problem. 'If the kid say something , whatever. Just keep it a secret,' he added. 'Leave it like that and pray that maybe he not coming forward.' Robert Levine, of the UFT, Brooklyn, admitted that a teacher hitting a child was 'very very serious' but said that 'it's not my job to report anything like that' Eliu Lara, of the United Federation of Teachers, in the Bronx, New York, also warned them to keep quiet adding that they were 'lucky' no-one had come forward He advised the uncover journalist to tell their teacher friend to keep the abuse 'a secret' He also had some words of advice for the teacher, telling them to: 'Treat the kids as more decent as possible. Never touch kids, never touch kids, never be with kids by yourself and he'll be OK. Things happen.' None of the three reps appeared concerned about the welfare of the students of the teacher who had already proven himself to have a tendency towards violence in the hypothetical. 'We understand that it is the job of union officials to protect their members. But, we have to ask, why are we more concerned about the well-being of teachers over the well-being of our children?' asked Project Veritas President James O'Keefe. 'This series will continue to expose more corruption and abuse within teachers unions across the country, and you will continue to hear stories that will make the hair on the back of your neck stand up.' DailyMail.com approached the United Federation of Teachers which declined to comment directly on the statements made by their reps. But spokeswoman Alison Gendar told us that they were planning to review the full footage and 'take appropriate action.' 'Given this individual's history of leaving the truth on the cutting room floor, we are calling on him to supply us with the full, unedited versions of the New York City video in the next week,' she said. 'We will review the unedited video and, if warranted, take appropriate action.' the United Federation of Teachers. Lara and Levine has not responded to the DailyMail.com's request for comment. Broderick has also failed to respond to our request for comment. DailyMail.com has reached out to New York City Department of Education and the New York State Parents and Teachers Association for their statement. Robert Klein, a physical education and health teacher, was filmed asking the journalists whether they wanted cocaine after he invited them to party in his hotel room during an education conference (pictured) A similar investigation by Project Veritas into the Yonkers teacher's union led to Brendan McGrath, the Yonkers inspector general, launching a full investigation into the Yonkers Federation of Teachers. A journalist with Project Veritas had posed as a volunteer at an unnamed school in Yonkers during a meeting with Paul Diamond, a senior official with the UFT, where she claimed she'd seen another teacher physically hurt a student. Diamond told them not to report the incident if the child did not come forward, but joked that the student's mother would be missing out on a 'financial boon' if she didn't take the school to court over the abuse. The union official also suggested a series of excuses for the teacher who admitted he'd gone on vacation to Mexico for two weeks without permission. 'We're looking at this as a pattern of practice by the union, and whether or not this is something that they do as a matter of course. If there are people out there, teachers part of the 1,800 member union out there that have had an experience like this and have a conscience, they may want to come forward,' said McGrath. The Project Veritas journalists reported their concerns to a union representative, posing as a friend of a teacher with a cocaine habit, who advised them to keep quiet Renowned journalist James O'Keefe explained previously that union officials would go to 'extraordinary lengths' to protect their members. Last week, DailyMail.com reported on a New Jersey middle school teacher who was caught on hidden camera offering drugs to Project Veritas undercover reporters. Robert Klein, a physical education and health teacher at Howell Middle School, was filmed asking the journalists whether they wanted cocaine after he invited them to party in his hotel room during an education conference. Klein, who was also captured telling his students at school to try exercise to 'give yourself a natural high, instead of doing drugs', said he had cocaine at his house before offering the reporters a 'bump' of 'blow'. But yet again, when the undercover journalists took their concerns to a teachers union representative, they were told to keep it quiet. New Jersey Education Association UniServ field rep, Ron Villano, urged the 'teacher friend' of the journalists to get help and go to rehab but he said the union would not inform the school - even if the teacher refused help and carried on using while teaching kids. 'I'm never going to tell (the school),' he said. 'I'm not going to tell anyone whether he goes or not. He also warned the teacher not to talk to anyone else about his drug habit as he was 'jeopardizing his job.' The European Union has reached agreement to set up a new border and coastguard force that could intervene in front-line countries like Greece and Italy to curb the flow of migrants. Negotiators for the 28 EU member states and the European Parliament said today they had endorsed a proposal from the European Commission, the bloc's executive, to set up the force over the summer. The parliament is expected to vote on the issue in a key committee next week and, if it clears that hurdle, it could be endorsed at a full session in Strasbourg next month. Brussels aims to have the force start operations in September and be fully operational by November. The new EU border force would focus much of its energy on the Mediterranean where images like this of overcrowded migrant boats capsizing have become all too common News of the agreement comes on the eve of Britain's referendum on the EU, where the migrant crisis has been a key and controversial issue. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, the force's main sponsor, said: 'The agreement on the creation of a European Border and Coast Guard shows that Europe is able to act swiftly and resolutely to deal with common challenges.' In December EU leaders set a June 30 deadline for agreement on the new force, a key part of the bloc's strategy for tackling the flow of the migrants along with a deal with Turkey which was agreed in March. Comparison: Italy has 600 boats to patrol the countrys 4,700 miles of coast, Greece has 240 vessels monitoring 8,500 miles and Spain has 147 looking after 3,085 miles Migrants climb into the back of a lorry near Calais in northern France. Many of the migrants arrive first in Greece or Italy but gradually make their way to more affluent areas of northern Europe Several countries have reintroduced border controls that were eliminated years ago as part of Schengen as the EU deals with a record flow of more than a million migrants and refugees from Africa and the Middle East since the start of 2015. This is not a silver bullet that can solve the migration crisis that the EU is facing today...but it is a very much needed first step Artis Pabriks Under the deal, member states would still manage their borders on a daily basis but could call on emergency support from a pool of at least 1,500 border guards. The new force represents an expansion of the size and tasks of the existing Frontex border agency, based in Warsaw. For example, it will have a 'greater role' in returning people deemed economic migrants to their countries of origin, the parliament said. Artis Pabriks, parliament's lead negotiator on the issue, said the force would 'ensure that the EU external borders are safer and better managed'. It's a long wait after all to get on the latest attraction at Walt Disney World World. Frozen Ever After opened at Epcot Center in the Norway pavilion on Tuesday and guests were willing to stand in line for hours in order to get a chance to see Elsa and Olaf while travelling on a boat through the fictitious town of Arrendelle. Five hours to be exact, which guests were informed of by park employees who stood at the back of the line with a sign declaring how many minutes they would be standing in the sweltering Orlando heat. And then the ride broke. Scroll down for videos The snow glows white: Frozen Ever After (above) opened in the Norway pavilion at Epcot Center on Tuesday A kingdom of isolation: Guests had to wait in line for over five hours at times to get on the ride Conceal, don't feel: The ride then began to experience problems and broke, which required it to be shut down throughout the morning Not a footprint to be seen: Lines stretch out from Norway into other countries in Epcot (above) One guest, who was at the park with her four-year-old daughter, told DailyMail.com that they were waiting in the line when the ride broke around noon, and had to be shut down for a repair. This had been a problem throughout the morning according to the guest. Disney employees offered them the option of staying in line or taking a Fast Pass - the park vouchers that allow guests to get in expedited lines - and coming back later. Guests on social media also posted photos as they were given caramel popcorn, Twix bars and other treats while waiting for the ride to reset. Excited park guests posted photos as they waited in line outside the attraction and then later when they were on the five-minute ride throughout the day. Let it go: Guests continued to wait despite the length wait for the attraction Let the storm rage on: The attraction is a five-minute boat tour of the fictional town of Arrendelle from the animated film Frozen I'll rise like the break of dawn: Characters from the film Frozen including Anna and Sven (above) are seen by the guests along the way The cold never bothered me anyway: Elsa and Olaf (above) are also a big part of the attraction I am one with the wind and sky: The ride was formally the attraction Maelstrom, which also was a boat ride Disney has a detailed description of Frozen Ever After on their website, describing the ride by saying: 'The adventure begins on the docks of Arendelle, as seen in the classic animated film. After finding a seat aboard your boat, feel an Olaf-inspired smile frost across your face when the lapping waters take you right into the frozen willow forest. 'Soon, youll be rubbing shoulders with some boulders - a.k.a. Kristoffs family from Troll Valley - before bracing for the cold. High up in the icy blue world of the North Mountain, Queen Elsas enchanting ice palace awaits! Behold the wonder and keep an eye out for a few more Frozen friends too. 'Finally, hang on tight as you glide back down into the Bay of Arendelle and conclude this Summer Snow Day celebration in stylecomplete with many of your favorite Frozen tunes!' And, of course, along the way guests are also treated to the Oscar-winning animated film's unforgettable theme song, Let It Go. Norway also allows guests to pay a visit to Royal Sommerhus, where they can meet Elsa and her sister Anna. The area was previously the site of Maelstrom, an attraction that also took guests on a boat where they experience trolls, waterfalls and characters from Norse mythology. Donald Trump delivered an all-out attack speech on Hillary Clinton, tearing into his Democratic rival as a 'world class liar' for 'taking money' from special interests 'Hillary Clinton who, as most people know, is a world class liar,' Trump said, in just one of the insults he threw at Clinton, who he portrayed as an on-the-take politician. 'She gets rich, making you poor,' Trump said in his 40-minute attack speech. Reading a prepared speech from a teleprompter, Trump ran through the gamut of Clinton scandals and foibles, from her and her husband's paid speeches, the email scandal, the Benghazi attack, even Clinton's past statements about a visit to Bosnia when she was first lady. 'She ran the State Department like her own personal hedge fund doing favors for oppressive regimes, and many others, in exchange for cash,' Trump charged. Trump cited the book 'Clinton Cash,' by Peter Schweizer, which brought up paid speeches Bill Clinton gave that were 'underwritten by China or its supporters. 'She sold out our workers, and our country, for Beijing,' Trump said. Republican presidential candidate tore into Hillary Clinton as a 'world class liar' in a sustained attack speech Eric and Ivanka Trump, who both continue to have a prominent role in their dad's campaign before and after the firing of campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, were on hand for the event Listening: Ivanka Trump was in the audience at the Trump Soho as her father took aim at Hillary Clinton 'Just look at her pathetic email and server statements, or her phony landing in Bosnia where she said she was under attack but the attack turned out to be young girls handing her flowers, a total self-serving lie,' Trump said. The comment was a reminder of a flap from Clinton's 2008 campaign, where she boasted about landing in Bosnia under sniper fire, when contemporaneous video showed a friendly landing. After the claims became an issue in her campaign against Barack Obama, Clinton said she 'misspoke.' 'Brian Williams career was destroyed for saying far less,' Trump said,delivering another blow comparing him to the former NBC anchor who had to give up his perch after he was found making a series of exaggerations. Clinton's campaign slogan is 'I'm with her.' That's another example of her selfishness, Trump said. 'She believes she is entitled to the office....She thinks its all about her.' 'Im with you: the American people.' Trump today laid the Benghazi attack squarely in Clinton's lap. Trump said, 'Her decisions spread death, destruction and terrorism everywhere she touched.' He blamed Clinton for the death of the late U.S. ambassador to Libya, who Clinton considered a friend. He died after terrorists stormed a U.S. embassy compound and CIA annex. 'Among the victims is our late Ambassador, Chris Stevens. He was left helpless to die as Hillary Clinton soundly slept in her bed -- that's right, when the phone rang at 3:00 in the morning, she was sleeping.' Trump brought up newer controversies like Clinton's email scandal, and even dredged up her own claims about a dangerous landing in Bosnia that turned out to be more welcoming than she initially described it There wasn't much sign of sniper fire as Clinton and her daughter, Chelsea, met a crowd while visiting a U.S. base in Bosnia CLINTON'S FIGHTBACK AGAINST SAVAGING Hillary Clinton's travelling press secretary said Wednesday afternoon the campaign was 'not surprised or unhappy' with Trump's speech. 'He makes stuff up and yells about it,' spokesman Nick Merrill said. Briefly, at a stop in Raleigh on Wednesday afternoon, the candidate touched on the topic, telling rally-goers, Donald Trump offers no real solutions for the economic problems we face. He just continues to spout reckless ideas,' she said. He'll run up our debt and cause another economic crash. Marcy Stech of the group Emily's List, which backs Clinton, released a statement in reaction to 'Trump's shameful, dishonest speech about Hillary Clinton.' 'Believe me, Donald Trump is a world-class fraud and his lies are a disservice to the nation,' Stech said. Advertisement 'The Hillary Clinton foreign policy has cost America thousands of lives and trillions of dollars and unleashed ISIS across the world,' Trump said. 'No Secretary of State has been more wrong, more often, and in more places than Hillary Clinton.' 'Hillary Clinton may be the most corrupt person ever to seek the presidency of the United States,' Trump said to applause at a Trump property in New York. Trump delivered the long attack on his rival after having to postpone an event originally planned for the day after the killings in Orlando. The candidate has been under pressure from donors and leading Republicans to keep the heat on Clinton rather than other cul-de-sacs, like his attacks on judge Gonzalo Curiel, who is presiding over Trump University lawsuits. He issued the long denunciation at a time when his own campaign is under pressure for stumbles and for failing to keep up with Clinton's fundraising, just days after firing campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. Even as he went hard after Clinton, Trump didn't mention his proposed Muslim ban when he brought up ISIS, and instead referred to 'peaceful' activities of most Muslims. 'ISIS also threatens peaceful Muslims across the Middle East, and peaceful Muslims across the world, who have been terribly victimized by horrible brutality and who only want to raise their kids in peace and safety,' Trump said. Amid a campaign where Clinton holds a big lead among women voters, Trump brought up her connections to oppressive regimes. He tried to hold her accountable for big contributions governments made to the Clinton Foundation started by her husband but which she has helped urn at various times. 'Hillary Clinton took up to $25 million from Saudi Arabia, where being gay is also punishable by death,' Trump said. 'Hillary took millions from Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and many other countries that horribly abuse women and LGBT citizens. Trump delivered his attack at Trump Soho Hotel in Manhattan Trump drew heavily on reporting by author Peter Schweizer, although Schweizer hasn't gone as far as to say Clinton did official actions at the State Department in exchange for money 'To cover-up her corrupt dealings, Hillary Clinton illegally stashed her State Department emails on a private server,' Trump said, bringing up a scandal that has dogged Clinton throughout the campaign. 'Her server was easily hacked by foreign governments perhaps even by her financial backers in Communist China putting all of America in danger.' 'Then there are the 33,000 emails she deleted,' Trump continued. He said Clinton 'accepted $58,000 in jewelry from the government of Brunei' a reference to gifts disclosed by the State Department when she ran the agency from 2009 to 2013. Under federal ethics rules, such items must be turned over to the federal government for official use unless a government official decides to pay for them out of personal funds. The State Department disclosed in 2013 that Clinton was formally given gold, sapphire and diamond jewelry worth $58,000 from Brunei's queen, but it wasn't immediately clear whether she decided to keep it and pay for it or whether it remains in the government's possession. As the Clinton camp tries to drive up Trump's unfavorable rating with blistering TV attack ads the campaign has begun airing, Trump hit again and again on Clinton's character, charging her with greed. 'The other candidate in this race has spent her entire life making money for special interests and taking money from special interests,' Trump said. Trump said Clinton accepted $58,000 in jewelry from the government of Brunei, but it isn't know whether Clinton kept the official gift 'Hillary Clinton has perfected the politics of personal profit and theft.' He faulted her for backing NAFTA and letting China steal intellectual property, but didn't exactly connect the dots for how she profited. 'Hillary Clinton gave China millions of our best jobs, and effectively let China completely rebuild itself,' Trump said. 'In return, Hillary Clinton got rich! He said Clinton's message is 'old and tired.' Referencing speech transcripts that Clinton has refused to put out despite calls from Sanders, Trump said,' 'When she left [the State Department], she made $21.6 million giving speeches to Wall Street banks and other special interests in less than 2 years secret speeches that she does not want to reveal to the public.' 'Together, she and Bill made $153 million giving speeches to lobbyists, CEOs, and foreign governments in the years since 2001,' Trump said. Earlier Wednesday, Trump saidHillary Clinton is taking 'blood money' from big donors to her presidential campaign Trump laced the speech with some Reagan-style uplift. 'I love what I do, and I am grateful beyond words to the nation that has allowed me to do it,' said the mogul. 'So when people ask me why I am running, I quickly answer: I am running to give back to this country which has been so good to me,' he said. And though many of the new attack lines had the ring of professionally-crafted speechwriting, the speech was laced with some lines from Trump's stump speeches, including a call to fix the nation's 'crumbling' infrastructure. I know these problems can all be fixed, but not by Hillary Clinton. Only by me. Earlier, Trump said Clinton is taking 'blood money' from big donors to finance her presidential bid. Trup said Clinton will be 'owned by Wall Street' if she wins the White House 'She's making deals. They say, "Could I be the ambassador to this? Could I do that? Could I get my businesses taken care of?" ' Trump told CBS. 'I mean, gimme a break. All of the money she is raising, that's blood money.' The 38-year old was refused bail and will face court on Thursday A male doctor has been arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting a 23-year-old female patient. The 38-year-old doctor who is also an osteopath was arrested at a Bondi Junction clinic in Sydney, on Wednesday at around 12.25pm. The doctor reportedly sexually assaulted his victim during two of her massage appointments in February and March this year. Scroll down for video A 38-year-old doctor has been arrested for allegedly sexually assaulted a female patient The man was arrested on Wednesday afternoon at a clinic in Bondi Junction, Sydney The man was taken to Waverley Police station where he was charged with one count of sexual assault and two counts of indecent assault. He was refused bail and will appear at Waverley Local Court on Thursday. Any victims of sexual assault are encouraged to come forward. The doctor allegedly sexually assaulted a 23-year-old patient during two massage appointments in February and March Advertisement Horrific images show thousands of dead sharks piled up on a market floor in Indonesia as workers hack off their fins. Sharks of all sizes were photographed at the Karngsong fish auction on June 21, in Indramayu, in Indonesia's West Java Province. The country is one of the world's largest shark catchers due to a demand for shark fins in Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China. In China shark fins are regarded as a delicacy and the fins are one of the worlds most valuable fish products. They are the main ingredient in shark fin soup, which is priced as high as 68 per bowl. The soup is a symbol of wealth, hospitality and status in China and is often consumed at special occasions such as weddings and banquets. Huge piles of dead sharks are seen at Karngsong fish auction on June 21, 2016 in Indramayu, West Java Province, Indonesia A man is pictured slicing off the fin of one dead shark on the floor at the Indonesian market Sharks of all shapes and sizes were photographed at the market and many were covered in blood The fish are caught and killed to supply the huge demand for shark fin and meat coming from countries such as China The fin cartilage is used to provide texture and to thicken the traditional broth, with recipes for the soup dating back as far as the Song Dynasty (960-1279). The fins are often laid out to dry before being transported across Asia and Green Peace Indonesia data shows the country produces at least 486 tons of dried shark fins a year, the Jakarta Post reports. Despite objections from the Indonesia Government, shark catching is still rife and hard to control. The products are exported in the form of fins, liver oil, skin, and even meat There are concerns about shark over exploitation among Indonesia's conservation activists A worker sits on the floor as he cuts off the shark fins and leaves them on the floor around him There are concerns about shark over exploitation among Indonesia's conservation activists. 'Currently, Indonesia is at the top of the 20 largest shark fishing countries in the world,' Save Sharks Indonesia campaign director Riyanni Djangkaru said in a speech last year. A study by conservation group WildAid found that of the fourteen shark species most prevalent in the shark fin trade, all have experienced regional population declines ranging from 40-99 per cent. Over 71 per cent are classified as vulnerable or endangered by the Conservation of Nature, meaning they are considered to be at high or very high risk of extinction in the wild. The shark fins are laid out to dry in the open on trays, lines and mats on the floor Parts of the shark are laid out to dry and arranged in size order The fins are one of the worlds most valuable fish products and in China shark fins are regarded as a delicacy A workers poses with a large catch brought in on a fishing boat in West Java A rope and a wooden bridge are needed to transport the shark from the boat to land It was a sensational story that has consumed a small Idaho town. A mentally disabled five-year-old girl, gang raped at knife point by three boys, all Syrian refugees, as their fathers high-fived. The problem is, almost none of it is true. Authorities are now trying to extinguish the flames of a story they said has been ignited by residents who want to incite anti-refugee sentiments and keep Syrians from resettling in Twin Falls. 'There were no Syrians involved, there was no knife involved, there was no gang rape,' Twin Falls County Prosecutor Grant Loebs revealed on Monday. Loebs told DailyMail.com there was an alleged sexual assault on the day of June 2 at the Fawnbrook Apartments, a low-income housing complex in the town. The small town of Twin Falls, Idaho has been consumed by sensation claims that a five-year-old mentally disabled girls was gang raped at knife point by three young Syrian refugeees at this apartment complex Two juveniles, aged 10 and 14, have been charged and are being held at a juvenile detention facility. They were arrested after authorities obtained video footage from a cell phone. They are not Syrian refugees, and moved to the US fewer than two years ago from Sudan and Iraq. Their refugee status was not immediately known, according to the Idaho Statesman. Loebs said the boys were not resettled by the College of Southern Idaho Refugee Center, which oversees resettlement in the area. Another seven-year-old boy was present but not charged. No adults were at the scene and there is no evidence they celebrated after the alleged attack. Loeb told DailyMail.com only the youngest of the boys has been accused of physically touching the girl. Police are still investigating and deciding whether charges will be pressed against the seven-year-old because of his age. Both Loebs and Twin Falls Police Chief Craig Kingsbury also shot down claims that the city was orchestrating a massive cover-up to keep an assault under wraps. 'It's all absurd,' Loebs told KMVT. 'There's no cover-up at all, there's no motive to cover-up. If they were Syrians, I would tell you they're Syrians and that we're prosecuting three Syrian refugees.' 'It would't bother me a bit to say that. But it bothers me if it's not true.' Fawnbrook Apartment told DailyMail.com that notices were left on residents' doors stating the families of the boys were being evicted. The criminal charges against the two boys have been sealed, which is standard when only juveniles are involved. Kingsbury said claims that it took the police department more than two hours to respond to the alleged attack were false and hit out at critics who claimed police had bungled the investigation. 'That just is not true,' he said during a City Council meeting on Monday. 'The Twins Falls Police Department, the Magic Valley Paramedics, even the Twin Falls County Sheriff's Office, responded in due time.' Twin Falls County Prosecutor Grant Loebs revealed on Monday that most of the claims were false. 'There were no Syrians involved, there was no knife involved, there was no gang rape,' he said Loebs, who received a police report on Thursday, said authorities followed proper protocols and thoroughly investigated the incident. 'The cover-up story is just bizzare and obviously untrue,' he told DailyMail.com. 'There isn't anything more that police can do but investigate the case and file the paperwork with my office, and there isn't anything more that my office can do then file charges, and there isn't anything more law enforcement can do but file charges.' 'Every official person that I'm aware of involved in this case has handled it professionally and appropriately.' The prosecutor said he believes rumors are being spread by a local group who has been fighting to stop refugees from resettling in the city. 'There is a small group of people in Twin Falls County whose life goal is to eliminate refugees, and thus far they have not been constrained by the truth,' he told the Statesman. 'They have not been constrained by the truth in the past, and I don't expect them to be constrained by the truth in the future.' a small group of anti-refugee proponents were out in full force during Monday's City Council meeting (PICTURED), calling for racial profiling as they demanded more information about the alleged assault. The anti-refugee movement in the town kicked off last spring, when there were reports that Syrians may be resettled in the town in 2016. A ballot proposal was launched to close the College of Southern Idaho Refugee Center, but it failed to garner even a quarter of required signatures. Still a small group of anti-refugee proponents were out in full force during Monday's City Council meeting, calling for racial profiling as they demanded more information about the alleged assault. Resident Terrence Edwards declared that ISIS was present in the town. 'The Muslim Brotherhood is here,' he continued, according to Twin Falls Times-News. 'There's been violations already occurred by Muslims here.' 'The nation of Islam has declared global jihad on us,' said resident Vicky Davis. 'And Obama, this administration, is bringing them in as fast as he possibly can.' No Syrians have been resettled in Twin Falls through Idaho refugee problems, according to Idaho Office for Refugees director Jan Reeves. 'There have been periodic website postings about hundreds of Syrians coming to Idaho that have all been proven to be false in the past,' he told the Statesman. 'This is probably just one of those attempts to try and stir up hatred and bigotry.' When most people imagine a burglar, they probably picture a man wearing dark clothing and gloves with a balaclava pulled down over his head. Chances are you wouldn't imagine a woman wearing nothing other than a bikini sneaking into homes before making off with some loot. But that is exactly the suspect that officers in southern California are hunting for after two home invasions near Los Angeles earlier this month. A bikini-clad burglar is being hunted by California police after officer say she broke into two homes earlier this month before taking valuables from inside and driving off in a tan colored sedan Police say the woman, described as being in her late 30s and around 5ft 5ins tall, took unspecified items from a locked house in Lancaster, north of LA, on June 4. Later that day, the same woman was caught on CCTV entering another home around six miles away in Lake Hughes, before stealing valuables from inside. Witnesses say the woman was seen leaving the scene in a tan colored sedan. If you recognize the woman, please contact Detective Wheatcroft at the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff's Station at (661)255-1121 Ext. 5156. Refer file number 916-07394-0683-074 David Cameron has 'colluded' with the EU and is 'lying' to British voters over the EU, Iain Duncan Smith blasted today. The former work and pensions secretary reacted with fury to the confirmation from the Turkish government it saw Mr Cameron as the 'chief supporter' of its EU bid. Vote Leave also claimed ex-PM Sir John Major had admitted today Turkish membership was possible within the lifetime of children at school today despite Mr Cameron's claims it will not happen before the year 3000. Turkey's possible membership of the EU has dominated much of the referendum campaign as Vote Leave warned the country's accession would mean even higher levels of net migration. Iain Duncan Smith today accused David Cameron of 'colluding' with the EU over Turkey and claimed he was 'lying' to the British people Mr Duncan Smith said: 'David Cameron has repeatedly claimed that Turkey is not going to join the EU despite it being Government policy. Now the Turkish government has confirmed that he is the 'chief supporter' of their bid to join the EU. 'Cameron also said that Turkey will not join until the year 3000 but Sir John Major has let the cat out of the bag - Turkey could be in the EU in ten years' time. 'I'm afraid there is no conclusion you can draw from this, except that David Cameron is colluding with the EU and lying to the British people. 'Families are suffering the consequences of uncontrolled migration - a direct result of the EU's obsession with freedom of movement. 'They are suffering from downward pressure on their wages, and facing increased competition for housing, school places, and GP appointments to name but a few. 'With five more countries lining up to join the EU - Albania, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, and Turkey - this problem can only get worse. 'That's why it is safer to Vote Leave.' Sir John Major, pictured today at an eve-of-poll rally, said Turkey would not join within decades but Vote Leave said this implied a much sooner timetable than admitted to by David Cameron At a Britain Stronger in Europe rally in Bristol today, Sir John said: 'I find it extraordinary that people should point to Turkey, and suggest that 77 million Turks are suddenly going to descend and take all of our hospital places and all our school places and all our local authority dwellings. THE TURKISH ACCESSION AT THE HEART OF THE REFERENDUM The issue of Turkish accession to the EU has become caught up in the campaign for Thursday's bitterly-fought Brexit referendum. Amid charges by the 'Leave' camp that accession will allow millions of Turks into the country, the issue has exploded the debate over immigration. David Cameron insists Turkey will not join the 28-nation bloc for years, even though the government's official position is to support Ankara's membership. Since Muslim-majority Turkey formally launched its membership bid in 2005, the EU has opened 15 chapters out of the 35 required to join the bloc. So far only one chapter has been completed, with disagreements over Turkey's human rights record an obstacle for many EU states. Under the March accord, the EU also agreed to boost aid to Turkey to cope with millions of refugees, mostly Syrians, on its territory and to speed up visa liberalisation. Advertisement 'They have been negotiating for 30 years without getting in. They are not going to get in in my judgment for one, two decades - perhaps not ever. 'Even if they do get in, we're not in the Schengen zone. Even if it happened in some far distant future, what obscenity it is to suggest all 77 million Turks are suddenly going to say, let's go to the United Kingdom. 'The national minimum wage has risen by 50p, let's get there as fast as we can! If they do happen to say that, let me just mention to them in advance that they would actually earn more in France or in Germany than they actually would here.' Vote Leave said this meant Sir John was accepting the possibility by talking about the possibility of Turkey joining in 'one, two decades'. The EU will in open new membership talks with Turkey as planned in a few days, EU diplomatic sources said Wednesday, just as Ankara's accession becomes a hot-button issue in Britain's vote on its future in the bloc. One source, who asked not to be named, told AFP that EU member states will meet June 30 to agree to open a new negotiating chapter with Turkey on finance and budget affairs. European Union leaders pledged in March to speed up Turkey's long-stalled membership talks as part of an accord on tackling the migration crisis, promising to open at least one new chapter by the end of June. You're not getting anything else! Cameron got the 'maximum' from his renegotiation and the EU has no more to offer after Brexit vote, Commission boss warns British voters were today warned there is no chance of a second renegotiation with the EU if they back Brexit tomorrow. Jean-Claude Juncker, the EU Commission President, said 'out is out' and ruled out re-opening talks in a bid to reverse a vote to quit the EU. In remarks sure to be seized upon by the Vote Leave campaign, Mr Juncker said David Cameron got the 'maximum' reform possible in his renegotiation that was concluded in February. The deal has been derided as empty and useless by Brexit campaigners and the Prime Minister has been forced to admit more reform is still needed. EU Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker today claimed David Cameron had already extracted the 'maximum' from the EU Britain would not get any other reforms by voting for Brexit Mr Juncker said today: 'The British policy makers and British voters have to know that there will not be any kind of renegotiation. 'Out is out.' He added: 'We have concluded a deal with the prime minister. He got the maximum he could receive and we gave the maximum we could give. 'So there will be no renegotiation, not on the agreement we found in February, nor as far as any kind of treaty negotiations are concerned.' Vote Leave champion Michael Gove said: 'The Remain Campaign has been claiming in recent days that if you vote to stay in the EU then there could be further reform. The President of the EU, Jean-Claude Juncker, has made very clear today that will not happen. 'If you vote to stay there is no prospect of getting any reform from the EU ever again. We will never get back control of the 350 million we give to the EU every week. The Prime Minister tried to get reforms earlier this year but the EU did not listen. The EU cannot and will not give the British people the change that they want. 'There is a very clear choice in this referendum. Either you vote to keep on giving the EU more power and more of our money every year or join me in voting leave to take back control.' Michael Gove makes grovelling apology for comparing pro-EU experts to Nazi propagandists after Cameron accuses him of having 'lost it' during referendum battle Michael Gove has made a grovelling apology after comparing pro-EU experts to Nazi propagandists. The Justice Secretary admitted he had been 'clumsy and inappropriate' to make the comments as he dismissed dire forecasts for the consequences of Brexit. The climbdown came after David Cameron branded the remarks a 'massive mistake' and suggested that Mr Gove had 'lost it'. Michael Gove (pictured) compared economic experts warning about the fall-out of Brexit to the Nazis who orchestrated a smear campaign against Albert Einstein in the 1930s Recalling the Nazis' treatment of Jewish scientist Einstein during the 1930s, Mr Gove had told LBC: 'I think the key thing here is to interrogate the assumptions that are made and to ask if these arguments are good. 'We have to be careful about historical comparisons, but Albert Einstein during the 1930s was denounced by the German authorities for being wrong and his theories were denounced, and one of the reasons of course he was denounced was because he was Jewish. 'They got 100 German scientists in the pay of the government to say that he was wrong and Einstein said: 'Look, if I was wrong, one would have been enough.''' Mr Gove added: 'The truth is that if you look at the quality of the analysis, if you look at the facts on the ground, you can come to an appropriate conclusion. 'And the appropriate conclusion, I think, all of us can come to is that with growth rates so low in Europe, with so many unemployed and with the nature of the single currency so damaging, freeing ourselves from that project can only strengthen our economy.' He made his comments after being challenged over why he is not heeding the advice of many economists who have warned that Brexit could have dire consequences and tip the economy into recession. Cameron insists immigration CAN be curbed within the EU despite near-record figures in bad-tempered interview as referendum campaign enters final stages David Cameron has blamed mass immigration on our 'unnatural' economy as he insisted numbers will be curbed if we stay in the EU. As the referendum campaign enters its final frantic hours, the Prime Minister said freedom of movement rules will be re-examined if we stay in the bloc. He defended his target of bringing net migration down from around 330,000 a year to below 100,000 as 'realistic', and also denied that being in the Brussels club was like being 'shackled to a corpse'. The claims came as both sides in the bitter campaign stepped up their efforts on the eve of the crucial ballot. Mr Cameron, former PM Sir John Major and Labour's Harriet Harman staged a rally in Bristol this morning. David Cameron, former PM Sir John Major and Labour's Harriet Harman appeared together in Bristol to urge a Remain vote in the referendum tomorrow Meanwhile, Boris Johnson is crossing the country in a helicopter appealing for people to vote for Brexit. In a bad-tempered interview in BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Cameron said immigration had been stubbornly running at around three times his target over recent years because it was 'not a normal period'. Killed: Yiannoulla Yianni, 17, was found dead by her parents at their North London home in 1982 A man who claimed to look like John Travolta is accused of raping and murdering a teenage girl nearly 34 years ago, a court heard today. James Warnock, 56, allegedly attacked 17-year-old Yiannoulla Yianni in her own home, strangling her and leaving her dead body on her parents' bed. When her mother and father returned to their home in Hampstead, North London they found her lying partially naked in their bedroom. The crime has been unsolved for more than three decades, but police arrested Warnock after apparently making a breakthrough DNA discovery. Opening his trial at the Old Bailey, prosecutor Crispin Aylett QC told jurors that Yiannoulla was brought up in a 'traditional Greek' family and had never even had a boyfriend before she was sexually assaulted and killed. On the day of the attack in August 1982, she had been with her parents Elli and George Yianni at their shoe repair shop minutes away from their home. Yiannoulla's mother had sent her ahead to start preparing a leg of lamb for supper, saying she would join her soon. At around 2pm, a man in his early 20s was spotted chatting with Yiannoulla on her doorstep and twenty minutes later, a neighbour heard a scream, jurors were told. When the parents arrived home half an hour later, they found their daughter's jewellery scattered on the stairs and called out to her. They got no response so went to find her, Mr Aylett said: 'In their search for Yiannoulla, they went into their own bedroom. There they met with a sight beyond their worst imagining. 'Their beloved daughter was lying on their bed. She was obviously dead. Yiannoulla's breasts were exposed and she was naked from the waist down.' Victim: Yiannoulla's killing went unsolved for more than three decades, the Old Bailey heard today Family: The victim's brother Peter, left, and sister Maria, right, during an appeal for information held in 2000 Hundreds of people came forward with information about the killing, but the culprit was never found and Mr Yianni died six years later without seeing justice for his daughter. In 1999, a scientist managed to extract DNA from bodily fluids left on the bedspread, and last year police were able to match it to Warnock's profile, the court heard. Witnesses had described the man on Yiannoulla's doorstep as being in his early 20s and possibly 'Mediterranean looking'. At the time, he was interviewed by police who asked him to describe his looks, and he replied: 'How can I put it? Er... John Travolta?' During today's proceedings, jurors were shown a still image of Travolta in his hit film Saturday Night Fever. Mr Aylett said: 'For those perhaps less familiar with the younger John Travolta, so you have got some idea what John Travolta looked like in those days, there is a still photograph of John Travolta from Saturday Night Fever, a few years before, and a film called Blowout, just a year before.' Lookalike: Jurors today saw a picture of John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever; defendant James Warnock claimed he looked like the actor The court heard Yiannoulla had been seen laughing with the man on her doorstep, which had led police to believe that either she knew him or her attacker had a 'good chat-up line'. Quizzed about whether he had been 'successful with the ladies' back then, Warnock replied: 'Well I wouldn't say successful - I did like to chat and have a laugh and a joke.' In a police interview, Warnock admitted he knew Yiannoulla, having first noticed her when he took a pair of boots to be repaired at her father's shop. He claimed they had a long-running relationship, repeatedly having sex, but said they had kept their affair secret from her conservative parents. However, Mr Aylett rejected his explanation, saying he had come up with the story when 'faced with overwhelming evidence that he was the murderer of Yiannoulla Yianni'. The medical evidence revealed the victim had been a virgin when she was raped and neither her sister or friends thought Yianoulla had been seeing anyone, jurors were told. The court heard her older sister had said they would 'never in a million years' have brought a boyfriend to the family home. She also took photos of faeces flowing through food She claims she was stood down for her report on the unsanitary conditions A veterinarian is claiming that she stood down from her government job after she reported that cattle on export ships were living in 'appalling conditions' and eating food from troughs contaminated with faeces. Dr Lynn Simpson was working as an adviser to the Australia's Department of Agriculture's animal welfare unit when she became concerned about the living conditions for the health of the cattle, she told ABC's 7.30 program on Wednesday. Dr Simpson said she saw animals dead on the ground or injured and bleeding. Scroll down for video Veterinarian Dr Lynn Simpson (pictured) claims she was stood down from her government job after she reported that cattle on an export ships were living in 'appalling conditions' and eating from troughs covered in faeces Dr Simpson was working as an adviser to the Australia's Department of Agriculture's animal welfare unit when she became concerned about the living conditions for the health of the cattle (pictured) She said she saw animals dead on the ground or injured and bleeding and that faeces freely flowed throughout the ship, covering the animals (pictured) Not only were the floors and troughs covered in faeces, but it flowed throughout the ship freely, she said. 'It's just business as usual on these ships. I expect to see leg injuries, I expect to see pneumonia, I expect to see animals drenched in faecal matter,' Dr Simpson told ABC. 'They're not sanitised, [the images] show animals in appalling conditions, there's pain, there's suffering, it's inexcusable and it's confronting.' She submitted images and video she had taken of the ships' conditions but was then promptly removed from her advisor role, Dr Simpson claimed. She submitted images (pictured) and video she had taken of the ships' conditions in a report After her report was accidentally released to the public, Ms Simpson said she was relieved from her role Documents showed that a staff member at the Department of Agriculture accidentally placed Dr Simpson's report on their website, despite the fact that her findings were not supposed to be made public, according to ABC. Department officials wrote to Dr Simpson and explained that she would no longer fulfil her position because 'the industry with which we engage has expressed the view that they cannot work with you.' 'She basically said in the letter that 'you've done nothing wrong but the industry essentially doesn't like you so you can't be here anymore. End of story',' Dr Simpson said. She has since filed a lawsuit against the Commonwealth claiming a breach of contract. The head of a Russian children's holiday camp has appeared in court after 13 of them drowned in a freezing lake at her resort. Rescuers are continuing the search to discover the fate of the missing 14th teenager after the young children, as well as an adult instructor, died in the summer camp boat disaster in the Karelia region. Yelena Reshetova, the director of the Park Hotel in Syamozero, will remain in custody so she does not tamper with evidence or influence witness statements, ruled the judge at the Petrozavodsk City Court. In custody: Yelena Reshetova, the head of a children's holiday camp where at least 13 children drowned Rescuers are continuing the search to discover the fate of the missing 14th child, after boats overturned in a freezing lake at Ms Reshetova's resort Three boats carrying 47 children overturned in a storm on June 18, and some of the teenagers were unable to swim to shore due to the high waves. Many then perished from hypothermia after the decision was made by unqualified staff to ignore the weather warnings. In a hearing closed to the public Ms Reshetova was resolved to remain behind bars until August 19, despite having three dependent children including one with a disability. It was suggested the director could influence witness statements from the resort's employees, instructors and tutors, and suggested she could conceal evidence in the case, reports en.news. Investigators are still looking into the circumstances surrounding the deaths, including whether the safety requirements were met and whether staff were negligent. A government spokesman told how the children were being taught by unqualified teenagers in the popular tourist spot. The director of the Park Hotel in Syamozero will remain in custody until August even though she has three dependent children, one disabled, so she does not conceal evidence or influence witnesseses The Park-Hotel Syamozero camp has now been shut down. During the catastrophe a 12 year old orphan survived the mass drowning by clinging to her twin brother for four hours in freezing water before being knocked unconscious and swept to shore where she raised the alarm. Yulia Korol was on board one of the boats that capsized on Lake Syamozero, in northern Russia's Karelia region, and escaped while 14 others died. Most of the youngsters perished from hypothermia as the decision to ignore storm warnings was blasted by a local tourist boss as 'suicidal'. Scroll down for video Yulia prayed as she thrashed around in the water before blacking out and being thrown towards the shore Rescuers had to deal with rough waves and bad weather as the decision to take the children out on the lake was described as 'suicidal' Yulia and her twin brother Dmitry were thrown into the water when the stormy weather overturned their sailing boat Children are rescued after a group of 47 youngsters were left fighting for their lives in freezing cold water when their sailing boats capsized in rough weather There were only four instructors looking after the 47 children sent out to sail - some were believed to be without lifejackets. When the storm hit, Yulia's boat flipped over and she found herself in the water, clinging on to her brother Dmitry. For four hours they held onto each other until they were torn apart by a large wave. Yulia blacked out and the next thing she knew was that she had been washed up on land. Not knowing if her brother was dead or alive, she discovered the body of another teenager lying on the shore and tried - but failed - to save him. Yulia staggered along the edge of the lake and discovered yet another injured boy, covered in blood and unable to walk. It was then she decided to go and seek help and walked for four hours with only socks on her feet before reaching the village of Kudama. Emergency officers rescued surviving children in a boat on Lake Syamozero in Russia's autonomic republic of Korelia. There were only four instructors looking after the 47 children sent out to sail - some were believed to be without lifejackets The accident happened overnight on Lake Syamozero, close to the border with Finland. Vladimir Putin's ombudsman for children Pavel Astakhov revealed that the children had been left in the charge of teenage 'instructors' Most of the youngsters perished from hypothermia as the decision to ignore storm warnings was blasted by a local tourist boss as 'suicidal' At least 13 children and their adult instructor have drowned after a storm struck while the group were boating on a Russian lake. The boats are said to have overturned Saturday when bad weather hit Syamozero (pictured) As she walked Yulia, from Moscow, had to cross a fast flowing river, where she fell in and again had to swim to safety. Local resident Alexander Zyamov found the wet and cold girl shivering on his doorstep on Sunday morning. 'Obviously, she was in a state of shock, she was trembling,' he said. She told him: 'I am Yulia. Lots of children are dead, we were in boats. One dead boy is at the bank. 'I tried to resuscitate him but he was dead. A second one is alive but he can't walk and is covered in blood.' Mr Zyamov called the rescue service: 'She told me and my wife that she was holding hands with her brother until the last moment when waves separated them. 'Policemen took Yulia away to the local tourist base.' There she was reunited with Dmitry who had made it safely to shore. 'Thank God both of them managed to survive,' he said. Young survivors from the Russian boat drowning where 13 children died comfort each other as they return to their hotel in Karelia Safe: Schoolchildren return to their hotel in Karelia after sailing trip goes tragically wrong and 13 drown in stormy weather Dmitry managed to get to shore safely after being separated from his twin sister Yulia was in the second boat which capsized as the stormy weather overturned both vessels but managed to swim ashore. The group was being instructed by teenagers as young as 17 Galina Goncharova, Yulia's grandmother and guardian, said two of the sailing boats were linked and one dragged the other down when it overturned. 'They were sent to sail when it was already stormy,' she said. 'At first one boat turned upside down, and as it was linked to the second boat, this also capsized. 'Yulia was in that second boat and it was a miracle that she escaped. 'She reached the village, and then called me in her shaky voice. 'In the village she was dressed and fed and they tried to call the camp where the kids were staying but nobody replied. 'The camp was not in touch with those boats. If not for Yulia, nobody would know about the tragedy. 'All the kids would have been lost there.' A woman called Galina, one of the first to see the brave girl after her four hour trek, said: 'We are calling Yulia a heroine. 'She was walking for 4 hours in her socks only before she got help. 'In the water she was holding the hands of her twin brother but lost him. 'She did not have a life jacket. She said there was a moment when all her strength left her and she sank to the bottom; then she remembered to pray. 'She said she felt as if some unknown forces pulled her up and then to the shore. 'Of course, it sounds like a fairytale but the girl was telling it so sincerely. She said her granny taught her to pray and took her to church.' Gallina said Yulia had been very calm and composed when she finally found help. 'She did not cry when she reached the home of our friends. On her way to safety she had to cross a small river, she stepped on a narrow log and fell into the water again, so once again she had to swim to safety.' Galina described how she and her friends from the village ran to the shore when they found a group of children, still linked together. In the water the youngsters had held hands and were thrown towards the shore at the same time. Some of the children in the group were already dead. Child survivors recover at their hotel after their terrifying ordeal in which their boats capsized in stormy weather Going home: The survivors rescued when their boats capsized on Lake Syamozero are flown back to Moscow Children rescued after their boats capsized in stormy weather on Lake Syamozero are flown home to their families in Moscow As the bodies of the victims were flown back to Moscow, Vladimir Putin's ombudsman for children Pavel Astakhov revealed that the children had been left in the charge of teenage 'instructors'. They were students from Petrozavodsk Pedagogical College and were on teaching practice at the camp, he said. 'They used teenagers instead of hiring properly qualified adult trainers in such numbers that they were at least able to rescue the children,' he said. There were only four instructors for 47 children, he claimed. 'They are 17 to 19 years old themselves. What sort of instructors are they? How can they save others?' He also claimed that the camp in the popular Karelia tourist area was overcrowded. Yet 'none of the managers were in the camp' at the time the tragedy was unfolding. Putin has instructed the Investigative Committee to find out what happened in Karelia, who was responsible and help the victims and their relatives. 'The president gave relevant instructions Investigative Committee to identify the causes of the tragedy and to identify those guilty of it,' Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. Putin expressed deep condolences over the tragedy, he said. The schoolchildren are comforted as they are flown home to Moscow to be reunited with their families after a sailing adventure went tragically wrong Several boats are said to have overturned when bad weather hit Syamozero (pictured) in the country's northwestern region of Karelia, 75 miles east of the Finnish border Vladimir Kucherenko, the director of a local tourist company, said most of the children had died from hypothermia as the water temperature was between 8C and 10C. He said strong winds might have driven boats across the lake, making it hard for the children to get to the shore. 'I would like to look the person who allowed them to go boating in the eye,' Mr Kucherenko said. 'It was suicidal.' Local politician Alexei Gavrilov said people had been warned off the lake due to storm warnings adding: 'They didn't have the right to go out boating.'Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said: 'A great tragedy has occurred in Karelia. My condolences to their families and friends.' Vladimir Markin, spokesman for Russia's Investigative Committee, equivalent of the FBI, said four people had been detained over the accident, including park director Yelena Reshetova, her deputy and two instructors. Two psychologists who helped develop the CIA's 'enhanced interrogation' program were forced to admit for the first time that they advised interrogators to subject suspects to what is widely held to have been torture. James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen were hired as contractors by the Central Intelligence Agency in 2002 to develop 'enhanced' techniques for extracting information from suspects. They responded to allegations made by the American Civil Liberties Union in acomplaint filed last year that they 'designed, implemented, and personally administered an experimental torture program.' In a 30-page document filed Tuesday, the two psychologists denied that they committed 'torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, non-consensual human experimentation and/or war crimes.' They admitted, however, to pushing for the use of waterboarding, sleep deprivation, cramped confinement, and other harsh forms of treatment generally acknowledged to constitute torture. Scroll down for video James Mitchell, left, and Bruce Jessen, right, responded to allegations made by the American Civil Liberties Union that they 'designed, implemented, and personally administered an experimental torture program' Anti-war activists demonstrate waterboarding during a demo on October 5, 2009 in front of the White House. On Tuesday, two psychologists hired by the CIA admitted for the first time their role in 'enhanced interrogation' In the course of interrogating Abu Zubayda, who was nabbed in 2002 for suspected involvement in the 9/11 terror plot , the psychologists admitted that the suspect was locked in a cell 'lit by halogen lamps 24 hours/day' They further admitted that Zubayda was subjected to 'walling, facial and abdominal slaps, facial holds, sleep deprivation, and waterboarding, and placed... in cramped confinement' In one disturbing response, they admitted that Zubayda at one point became so compliant that it only took a raised eyebrow from an interrogator to make the suspect walk over to the waterboarding table Although the American Psychological Association apologized last year for the roles of some of its members in collaborating with the CIA in the torture program, no psychologists have been made to testify in court until now, the Huffington Post reported. Abu Zubayda was nabbed in 2002 for suspected involvement in the 9/11 terror plot and is currently held at Guantanamo Bay Mitchell's and Jessen's admissions in Tuesday's court filing added to what was already revealed in an executive summary of a still-classified Senate Intelligence Committee report on the program, released in 2014. In a statement, ACLU attorney Dror Ladin called the psychologists' response 'historic.' 'Until now, no one responsible for the CIA torture program has ever been forced to admit their actions in court,' Ladin said. 'The psychologists' admissions include key details, and their denials are hard to square with the public record.' The admissions include that Mitchell and Jessen submitted a list to the CIA with suggestions that interrogators subject suspects to 'the attention grasp,' 'walling,' 'facial hold,' 'facial slap,' cramped confinement, 'wall standing,' stress positions, sleep deprivation, and waterboarding. They denied having suggested 'use of diapers,' 'use of (non-stinging) insects,' and mock burial. In response to an ACLU allegation that Mitchell and Jessen subjected terror suspect Abu Zubayda to 'repeated wall slamming,' the psychologists admitted to doing so, but pointed out that the proper term for the technique is 'walling.' In the course of interrogating Zubayda, who was nabbed in 2002 for suspected involvement in the 9/11 terror plot and is currently held at Guantanamo Bay, the psychologists admitted that the suspect was locked in a cell 'lit by halogen lamps 24 hours/day' and 'subjected to rock music or other noise that was also present outside his cell.' They further admitted that Zubayda was subjected to 'walling, facial and abdominal slaps, facial holds, sleep deprivation, and waterboarding, and placed... in cramped confinement.' In one disturbing response, they admitted that Zubayda at one point became so compliant that it only took a raised eyebrow from an interrogator to make the suspect walk over to the waterboarding table. The response from the psychologists came as part of an ongoing lawsuit brought by the ACLU on behalf of Mohamed Ben Soud, left, Gul Rahman, center, and Suleiman Abdullah Salim, right Mitchell has previously admitted he personally waterboarded suspected 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. In a 2014 interview with the Guardian, he defended the actions of his colleagues in the intelligence community. 'The people on the ground did the best they could with the way they understood the law at the time,' Mitchell told the Guardian. 'You can't ask someone to put their life on the line and think and make a decision without the benefit of hindsight and then eviscerate them in the press 10 years later.' Jessen has never previously commented on the actions he took while working for the CIA. Cops in Florida have uncovered a man's bizarre plot to impersonate a K9 handler after he was caught trying to gain access to a real police officer's home. Officials say Anthony Ottaviano, 36, was not only dressed in a fake shirt that said 'K9 Handler', but that he dressed up his dog and his car in fake tactical gear in order to disguise himself as a law enforcement officer However he was then caught attempting to burglarize the home of two off-duty Palm Bay police officers on Sunday night in his elaborate outfit, Fox 35 reported. Fake cop: Florida police say Anthony Ottaviano, 36, was dressed in a fake 'K9 Handler' shirt and dressed up both his dog and car in fake tactical gear in order to disguise himself as a law enforcement officer Police say Ottaviano placed his dog (pictured) in some sort of tactical vest and leash Ottaviano arrived at the house in a White Chevrolet Impala that had strobe lights built in to the dashboard and roof, as well as specialty decals indicating it was a K9 unit vehicle Inside the car, police found a cache of fake equipment all branded as 'K9', including shirts, a sweater, vests and even paper folders and boxes The car also had a K9 cage built into it, in order to properly store the dog. Local reports say Ottaviano is a paramedic and not a cop Outside the car were stickers warning people to stay away from the vehicle because it was a K9 unit Ottaviano arrived at the house in a White Chevrolet Impala that had strobe lights built in to the dashboard and roof, as well as specialty decals indicating it was a K-9 unit vehicle. He drove into the driveway of the home with the lights flashing, and got out of his vehicle with his dog, which was wearing a tactical style vest and leash. It is unclear whether he knew it was the home of two police officers he was trying to get into, however police at the scene said he walked past two marked Palm Bay police cars to get to the front door. The officers inside did not open the door after Ottaviano refused to formally identify himself, and they called 911. 'They immediately identified themselves as Palm Bay police officers, what's your intent? They looked outside and the guy was dressed in police tactical gear, he had a canine with him,' Lt. Mike Bandish with the Palm Bay police department told WFTV 9. 'They were a little bit concerned.' Charged: Anthony Ottaviano, 36, who was found to have a K9 badge as well, was charged with attempted burglary and impersonating an officer during the commission of a felony Lt. Mike Bandish with the Palm Bay police department said it remains unclear why Ottaviano was trying to access the home of two officers The officers inside were torn as to whether they were ignoring a real officer or staving off a phony. When the officer inside the home further questioned Ottaviano, he said he worked for Homeland Security. Police soon arrived at the house and detained Ottaviano, soon determining he was not a cop. Ottaviano did not have any weapons on him, but he was arrested for attempted burglary and impersonating an officer during the commission of a felony. However the incident has puzzled police, who do not know why he was trying to enter the house. The fitted-out car is seen here with the fake lights flashing at the scene of the incident on Sunday There was plenty of specialty decals on the car that attempted to show it was a K9 unit When questioned by investigators, Ottaviano did not give a reason for going to the officers home, police said. According to WFTV, Ottaviano is a licensed paramedic with Sunstar Paramedics in Pinellas. He has been suspended from work, pending an investigation. Ottaviano was given a $20,000 bond by the judge. He remains in the Brevard County jail. The dog was place in the care of Ottaviano's roommate. Police say that two marked Palm Bay Police Department parked outside the house during the incident Anyone with information about this or similar crimes involving this suspect is asked to contact the Palm Bay Police Department at 321-952-3456 option 1, or the Central Florida CRIMELINE at 1-800-423-TIPS. was sentenced to a minimum of 14 years in prison Nicolle Earley, who has claimed she is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of killing a 63-year-old grandmother in a row over 5 and cigarettes eight years ago A murderer has claimed she is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of killing a 63-year-old grandmother in a row over 5 and cigarettes eight years ago. Nicolle Early - one of Scotland's youngest female killers - was 16 when she murdered Ann Gray in her home in Crosshill, Fife in November 2008. Mrs Gray died as a result of a head injury after she was knocked to the ground and repeatedly stamped on. The grandmother also suffered a fractured jaw and broken cheekbone along with a fractured bone in her upper neck. Earley, of Methil, Fife, was jailed for life in 2010 and was ordered to serve a minimum of 14 years in prison. However, today, her solicitor told Stirling Sheriff Court that memories of what she called 'this incident' were harming Earley's mental health. The convicted killer, aged 24, was before the court for sentence after pleading guilty to hurling a dinner plate at a fellow inmate at women's jail Cornton Vale, near Stirling, and raining her with punches. Sheriff William Wood sentenced her to another six months in prison, and though he ordered it to be served concurrently with her present sentence, he warned her that it could delay her eventual freedom. He said: 'No doubt it will have an effect on the Parole Board - when they say you'll be released.' But Earley's solicitor Danielle Varela said her release date was presently set at 2025, but before she assaulted fellow prisoner Pauline Sleeman, she was being 'moved forward' for a parole hearing in 2021. Miss Varela explained: 'She has been told recently, however, that's on hold while her mental health issues are dealt with. 'There has been a deterioration since she has been in custody. She has been having flashbacks in relation to this 2008 incident. 'There has been discussion of PSTD (post traumatic stress disorder) but I'm told there's no diagnosis made at this stage.' She added that her client had thrown the 'regular-sized circular plastic plate' and followed it up with punches because her fellow inmate had been calling her names. Meanwhile, Adrian Fraser, prosecuting, said Earley was found punching the inmate on the floor in the dining hall by a pantry officer who hear a commotion. He pulled her off, and the fellow prisoner suffered a 'red ear, due to punches.' Earley pleaded guilty to assault. Sheriff Wood told her she had an 'unenviable record' for crimes of violence, including another sentence from March, when she was ordered to serve a further six months behind bars for assaulting a different inmate. Sheriff William Wood at Stirling Sheriff Court, pictured, sentenced Earley to another six months in prison, and though he ordered it to be served concurrently with her present sentence said it could affect her early release She appeared before Sheriff Wood after the resident Sheriff in Stirling, Wyllie Robertson, declined to deal with her, after she once threatened him. Earley was given an additional 18 month sentence three years ago after she sent letters from her cell in Cornton Vale covered in blood and scrawled with swastikas, threatening to kill and cannibalise a local solicitor and send his face to a mask factory, adding that Sheriff Robertson 'could join him.' Parts of the letters read: 'Do you have fears of getting tortured or having your family members taken away? Thats what will happen. 'Are you a fan of Hannibal? I will rip you apart and eat you. 'If I wasnt locked up I would have taken you away in the back of a van and just watched the guys go at you and hear you scream. 'I will have your ear cut off and your tongue ripped out. You will be taken home in the night and left at your front door.' A British bar worker died in Ibiza after taking a lethal cocktail of alcohol and drugs a coroner ruled today. Alexander Moynes, known to friends in both Ibiza and Britain as Zander, was found unconscious last year on Friday, June 12. The 20-year-old had spent the night partying and visiting friends before returning to his hotel apartment home at around 7am. Alexander Moynes (pictured), from Wraysbury near Windsor was found facing down on his hotel bed unconscious by his friends in June last year His body was discovered some eight hours later after concerned friends went in to check on the club and bar worker who had spent a previous summer working on the sunny tropical island. Mr Moynes, from Wraysbury, just outside of Windsor, had been living in the notorious club resort of San Antonia for just three weeks before being found face down on his hotel bed, following a drink and drug fuelled night out, where it was thought he had visited a friend's apartment and consumed beta blockers. The inquest revealed that cocaine, ketamine, MDMA, codeine and alcohol were all found in the young man's system. The court also heard that My Moynes had been prescribed sleeping tablets in the past and had struggled with sleeping as a child. It was thought that in the night before he died Mr Moynes had consumed beta blockers or sleeping tablets but the coroner confirmed that it was the combination of drugs and alcohol in his system that led to his untimely death. Clumsy police in Ibiza, confusion over translated accounts from witness and delayed toxicology reports were referred to during the inquest in Reading. The court heard how the former Windsor Boys School pupil, who was a talented bagpipes player and rugby player at school, had called his mother the night before he died telling her he was ready to come home. Family of Mr Moynes (pictured as a young boy with his sister, Michaela) previously told Mail Online that it feels like the sunshine has gone and life will never be the same again Shane Holden, who had been with Mr Moynes only hours before described how his friend had 'seemed fine' before he went to bed that night. Mr Holden, who had been staying with My Moynes and their friends Jasper Burgess and Craig Piednoir apartment in the Hotel Sun Down on San Antonio strip, was the one who found his friend's body. He said: 'My recollection from that night was pretty good I wasn't under the influence. 'Although Jasper and Zander went out together, they didn't return together. When Zander came back he seemed okay. He was quite cheerful and not upset. 'There was nothing out of the ordinary.' My Moynes had phoned his mum the day before he died telling her he was ready to come back home My Moynes was found by his friend Shane Holden who said they didn't attempt CPR because the state he was in suggested he had already passed away My Holden added: 'There had been a falling out so Craig had moved out temporarily. That meant Zander had his own room, Jasper had his room and I had the sofa. 'It was myself who found him. I went into Zander's room because his phone kept ringing so I went to see who it was and get it to stop so he could sleep. I knew sometimes he would go days and days without sleeping so I knew how much it meant to him. I was trying to make everything quiet. 'When I went in he was lying face down. His arms were spread but it was not immediately obvious he had died. When I realised I shouted for Jasper to come in and we went down and alerted the hotel staff. They called the emergency services. 'We didn't attempt CPR because the state he was in suggested he had been passed away for a few hours. 'I knew he had taken valium in the past but never beta blockers.' At the time his sister, Jade Balfour and his father, Joe Moynes, had flown over to the party island in a desperate attempt to find out the truth about how the youngster had died. Early rumours about an incident involving the stabbing of Mr Moynes friend, Alex Priestly, less than 24 hours before had sparked his drink and drugs binge. However, this was not mentioned at the inquest. The coroner concluded that Zander Moynes' death was drug related Conflicting accounts given about how Zander was found was noted by the coroner Peter Bedford. He said: 'If I had a complete set of statements saying the same thing I would be suspicious. Did they push this into the realm of anything sinister having happened? I think unlikely and the Ibizan authorities certainly did not. 'Alexander Moynes died on June 12, 2015, at the Hotel Sun Down in Ibiza. The cause of death was drug toxicity and the conclusion I will make is one of a drug-related death.' Childhood friend and contestant on BBC1's The Apprentice 2015 Elle Stephenson sat in silence throughout the inquest, as the coroner read out the details of her friend's death. At the time of his death Ms Stephenson posted a series of tributes on social media. Alongside a picture of Mr Moyness at a lake near their home, she said: 'I will forever think of Zander like this, at our favourite spot by the lake with our dogs.' On Twitter she wrote: 'I had the time of my life fighting dragons with you.' And on Facebook she added: 'What I would give now to be hiding behind my bathroom door trying to hold my breath as you crept past with your water pistol trying to find me. 'I miss our play fights that never seemed to end in anything but broken china and limbs. 'I miss you trying and failing to teach me how to ride your BMX off your ramp and twist it round in mid-air.' A spokesman for the family previously told Mail Online: 'Our hearts are broken. It feels as though sunshine has gone and although life will never be the same for us, we hope that by sharing Zander's story just one young life might be saved. 'He was a beautiful, vibrant, clever young man. He was loved dearly by all of his family and friends, of which there are too many to count. Police are desperately searching for two men with shot three people including a child at an apartment complex just outside Orlando, Florida on Tuesday night. The victims of the shooting, who have not been identified, were visiting friends in Altamonte Springs when the incident occurred, and the two men drove off seen after opening fire in what police say was not a random attack. The two adults and four-year-old girl are recovering in the hospital. The youngest victim was grazed by a bullet in the back of the head. Scene: Two gunmen shot three people including a four-year-old girl at an apartment complex (above) in Altamonte Springs, Florida on Tuesday, which is just outside Orlando On nthe run: The men then took off is a car that crashed (above) a mile away before fleeing on foot NBC 2 reports that the gunmen only got a mile away from the scene before crashing into a parked car and fleeing on foot. Police believe that at least one of the victims was specifically targeted but are still uncertain as to their motive. The owner of the complex, Roosevelt Sealey, voiced his displeasure with the incident. 'I don't want no violence. I get rid of them if they cause problem,' said Sealey. He then added of the shooting: 'That will happen at every complex. Nothing you can do about that.' In a slew of other polls, Leave either led or the contest was neck and neck The Leave campaign's key message that now is the time for Britain to 'take control' of its own destiny has had the biggest cut-through with voters But 11 per cent of electors said they were still undecided about the vote The battle for Britain's future was on a knife edge last night with the final EU referendum polls making the contest too close to call. An exclusive survey for the Daily Mail and ITV News, gave the Remain camp a lead of six points, by 48 per cent to 42 per cent but 11 per cent of electors said they were still undecided. Crucially, the Leave campaign's key message that now is the time for Britain to 'take control' of its own destiny has had the biggest cut-through with voters. Scroll down for videos Showdown: David Cameron and Boris Johnson criss-crossed the country as they campaigned yesterday Some 44 per cent said it made them more likely to vote to quit the Brussels club outstripping the claim by Project Fear that leaving is a leap in the dark. In a slew of other polls, Leave either led or the contest was neck and neck. The ComRes poll for the Mail reveals Britain is a divided country with over 45s and those in the North breaking heavily for Leave. All age groups below 45 appear in favour of staying with 64 per cent of those aged 25 to 34 wanting to stay and 27 per cent opting to go. Among the 55 to 65 age group, however, just 31 per cent want to Remain and 55 per cent want to Leave. In the South 38 per cent want to Leave while 51 per cent want to stay. But in the North, it is 41 per cent Remain and 50 per cent Leave. The Midlands is almost exactly balanced with 45 per cent support for Remain and 44 per cent for Leave. Overall, after 'don't knows' are counted, Remain would lead 54 per cent to 46 per cent. The poll of 1,032 adults was conducted over the weekend, during part of which the campaign was halted after the murder of the Labour MP Jo Cox. Some 17 per cent say that they may still change their mind. In its final survey, Opinium said after talking to 3,000 people the referendum was a 'statistical dead heat' with Leave on 45 per cent and Remain on 44 per cent - meaning after taking margin of error into account it was impossible to pick a winner Opinium's surveys during June have showed a small overall drift toward Leave as undecided voters made up their minds but the pollster said the race was still too close to call The reputation of key politicians has been hit. The number of voters citing David Cameron as important in their decision has fallen from 34 per cent in May to 26 per cent now. Only a third of Britons say Mr Cameron would be the best person to negotiate Britain's withdrawal from the EU as Prime Minister in the event of Brexit, though this is higher than anyone else. In a blow for Chancellor George Osborne, his warning that house prices will be lower in the event of Brexit made people more likely to vote Leave than Remain by 17 per cent to 20 per cent. Last night a flurry of eve-of-referendum polls suggested the result is still too close to call, with TNS giving the Brexit camp a 43 per cent to 41 per cent advantage. A YouGov poll for The Times gave Remain a lead of 51 to 49. FTI Consulting gave Remain the edge by 51.4 per cent to 48.6 per cent once 'don't knows' are taken out. Boris Johnson gives a thumbs up as he leaves Selby, North Yorkshire, on a hectic day of campaigning David Cameron spoke alongside Lib Dem leader Tim Farron at a Remain rally in Birmingham this evening Opinium Research recorded a tiny lead for Brexit in its final survey of 3,000 voters this week as it found 45 per cent backed Leave and 44 per cent backed Remain. But after taking into account the margin of error in the study, the firm declared it impossible to predict a winner. A week ago, Opinium had the referendum tied at 44 per cent each while at the start of June the pollster had Remain ahead 43-41. The poll fits with the mixed found by all of the polling firms in the last week of the race, with some results showing small leads for either side while other showed a tie. By contrast, betting markets have continued to show Remain as the strong favourite as the race enters its final hours. Adam Drummond, of Opinium Research said: 'This really is ''too close to call'' territory with undecided voters holding the balance of the vote in their hands. 'Although referendum campaigns normally see a move back to the status quo as we get closer to polling day, this hasn't yet shown up in our polls and the Remain camp will have to hope that it happens in the polling booth itself if Britain is to stay in the European Union.' In its latest poll, Opinium interviewed 3,011 voters between Monday and Wednesday. David Cameron was greeted by school children as his whistlestop tour took him to Bloxham near Banbury yesterday in his final push for votes before the referendum Boris Johnson was mobbed as he took the Vote Leave campaign's final push to Selby in North Yorkshire The final day of the referendum campaign has seen the main contenders criss-crossing the country to appear at a string of eve-of-poll rallies. David Cameron joined forces with former PM Sir John Major and Labour's Harriet Harman for a rally in Bristol this morning. Meanwhile, Boris Johnson has visited the famous Billingsgate Fish market as he traversed the country in a Vote Leave helicopter. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn addressed activists in central London, while planes trailing Remain banners staged a flypast at the Houses of Parliament. During the rally in Bristol, Mr Cameron urged voters to stick with Brussels to ensure a 'bigger better Britain'. He rejected Leave claims that Britain would be 'shackled to a corpse' if it chose to stick in the EU, telling supporters in Bristol the Remain case could be summed up in the single word: 'Together'. The final push: Cameron, Johnson and Corbyn criss-cross the country in last frantic round of referendum campaigning The big beasts of the EU referendum battle were yesterday engaged in a final frantic round of campaigning on the eve of the crucial poll. David Cameron joined forces with former PM Sir John Major and Labour's Harriet Harman for a rally in Bristol before travelling to Oxfordshire, Banbury and on to Birmingham. Meanwhile, Boris Johnson kicked off his day with a visit to the famous Billingsgate Fish market as he traversed the country in a Vote Leave helicopter. 6.15pm: David Cameron made his final pitch to voters in Birmingham, appearing with Gordon Brown and leading politicians from across the political spectrum at an end of campaign rally 6pm: Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron urged voters to vote Remain at a speech in Birmingham this evening 5.30pm: Boris Johnson stopped off at the George Pub in Darlington to pour a pint and press the case for Vote Leave as he scrambled around the country making his final pitch 5.30pm: David Cameron gives a thumbs up as he visits the Jaguar Land Rover factory in Solihull 4.30pm: David Cameron received a noisy welcome from school children as he arrived at the Warriner School in Bloxham, near Banbury The ex-mayor of London then headed north, visiting Selby and Darlington before signing off his campaign. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn addressed activists in central London, while planes trailing Remain banners staged a flypast at the Houses of Parliament. During the rally in Bristol, Mr Cameron urged voters to stick with Brussels to ensure a 'bigger better Britain'. He rejected Leave claims that Britain would be 'shackled to a corpse' if it chose to stick in the EU, telling supporters in Bristol the Remain case could be summed up in the single word: 'Together'. 2.30pm: The Vote Leave campaign arrived in Selby, North Yorkshire as Boris Johnson pressed the case for Brexit with just a few hours until the polls opened 2.19pm: Planes carrying pro-Remain banners staged a fly-past at the Houses of Parliament this afternoon 2pm: David Cameron and Harriet Harman met farmer David Christensen on Kington Hill Farm in Abingdon, Oxfordshire as he continued his campaign this afternoon CAMERON INSISTS IMMIGRATION CAN BE CURBED WITHIN THE EU DESPITE NEAR-RECORD FIGURES IN BAD-TEMPERED INTERVIEW David Cameron has blamed mass immigration on our 'unnatural' economy as he insisted numbers will be curbed if we stay in the EU. As the referendum campaign entered its final frantic hours, the Prime Minister said freedom of movement rules will be re-examined if we stay in the bloc. He defended his target of bringing net migration down from around 330,000 a year to below 100,000 as 'realistic', and also denied that being in the Brussels club was like being 'shackled to a corpse'. The claims came as both sides in the bitter campaign stepped up their efforts on the eve of the crucial ballot. In a bad-tempered interview in BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Cameron said immigration had been stubbornly running at around three times his target over recent years because it was 'not a normal period'. 'As recently as 2008, if you look at the situation of British people and European nationals leaving Britain to go to Europe and European nationals coming to Britain, there was actually net negative migration in terms of Europe,' he said. Advertisement 'If we want a bigger economy and more jobs, we are better if we do it together,' the PM said. 'If we want to fight climate change, we are better if we do it together. If we want to win against the terrorists and keep our country safe, we are better if we do it together.' Sir John took a swipe at Mr Johnson and Justice Secretary Michael Gove as 'gravediggers of our prosperity', suggesting he had 'expected better' from them. Quitting the EU would not stem immigration and risked creating a broken Britain, he insisted. Leaving would be a 'disproportionate' response to migration concerns and the country would live to regret it for a 'long time to come'. 1pm: Jeremy Corbyn addressed activists in central London after speaking at the Unison conference in Brighton this morning The former London Mayor took to the skies in a helicopter to continue the push for Brexit Mr Johnson has appealed for voters to make the EU referendum Britain's 'Independence Day' He said: 'If our nation does vote to leave, we must respect their decision, but if they vote to leave on the basis of half-truths and untruths and misunderstandings, then pretty soon the grave-diggers of our prosperity will have some very serious questions to answer.' 'They will have to account for what they have said and done but that will be of little consolation for we will be out, out for good, diminished as an influence on the world. 'A truly Great Britain shrunk down to a little England perhaps without Scotland, perhaps with a grumpy Wales, and certainly with a Northern Ireland divided from the south by the border the controls that would then be the edge of the European Union.' Dismissing accusations that the Remain campaign had been 'project fear', he insisted that Mr Cameron had a 'duty' to to warn the nation of the dangers of quitting. 11.30am: Nigel Farage brandished his passport with EU markings during an appearance in London 10.30am: David Cameron was in Bristol at a rally with former Prime Minister Sir John Major and Labour's Harriet Harman Sir John took a swipe at Mr Johnson and Michael Gove, branding them the 'gravediggers of our prosperity' 10am: Mr Cameron and Mrs Harman went to the offices of sports distribution firm Shiner in Bristol YOU'RE NOT GETTING ANYTHING ELSE! CAMERON GOT THE 'MAXIMUM' FROM HIS RENEGOTIATION AND THE EU HAS NO MORE TO OFFER AFTER BREXIT VOTE, COMMISSION BOSS WARNS British voters were warned there is no chance of a second renegotiation with the EU if they back Brexit yesterday. Jean-Claude Juncker, the EU Commission President, said 'out is out' and ruled out re-opening talks in a bid to reverse a vote to quit the EU. In remarks sure to be seized upon by the Vote Leave campaign, Mr Juncker said David Cameron got the 'maximum' reform possible in his renegotiation that was concluded in February. EU Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker today claimed David Cameron had already extracted the 'maximum' from the EU Britain would not get any other reforms by voting for Brexit The deal has been derided as empty and useless by Brexit campaigners and the Prime Minister has been forced to admit more reform is still needed. Mr Juncker said yesterday: 'The British policy makers and British voters have to know that there will not be any kind of renegotiation. Out is out.' He added: 'We have concluded a deal with the prime minister. He got the maximum he could receive and we gave the maximum we could give. 'So there will be no renegotiation, not on the agreement we found in February, nor as far as any kind of treaty negotiations are concerned.' Vote Leave champion Michael Gove said: 'The Remain Campaign has been claiming in recent days that if you vote to stay in the EU then there could be further reform. The President of the EU, Jean-Claude Juncker, has made very clear today that will not happen. 'If you vote to stay there is no prospect of getting any reform from the EU ever again. We will never get back control of the 350 million we give to the EU every week. The Prime Minister tried to get reforms earlier this year but the EU did not listen. The EU cannot and will not give the British people the change that they want. 'There is a very clear choice in this referendum. Either you vote to keep on giving the EU more power and more of our money every year or join me in voting leave to take back control.' Advertisement He said: 'In return for doing that he has faced a great deal of opposition and sometimes abuse from people who, frankly, we might have expected better from. 'I think the way in which he has conducted himself in putting the country before self and the country before party is quite remarkable.' Mr Johnson, however, said it was 'time to break away from the failing and dysfunctional EU system', telling activists in Maldon, Essex: 'I do think that we are on the verge, possibly, of an extraordinary event in the history of our country and indeed in the whole of Europe. 'It's all going to be about getting our supporters out to vote and if we do it I really think tomorrow can be independence day.' Criss-crossing the country by plane, Mr Johnson signed autographs and posed for selfies in Ashby-de-la-Zouch. Mr Cameron, seen inspecting a skateboard with Shiner chief executive Charlie Allen, said Britain would be 'bigger and better' if it stayed in the EU 11am: Mr Johnson went on a walkabout in Ashby de la Zouch as part of his final push for Brexit yesterday The former London mayor posed for selfies and chatted to members of the public during his visit But he was heckled by 17-year-old Will Taylor who said: 'I'm annoyed that I can't vote and as a young person it's my future.' In a speech to Unison's annual conference in Brighton this morning, Mr Corbyn said Labour supported EU membership but wanted reform. Thursday's vote will be one of the most 'significant ' decisions ever taken in this country, he said. Mr Corbyn added: 'Labour formed the NHS, creating healthcare as a human right. That does not apply to most countries in the world. We have to defend that principle to our dying day.' He also attacked comments by supporters of Brexit against a health service free on demand. 'A vote to leave will put the NHS in jeopardy,' he told the Brighton conference.' The veteran left-winger later addressed a rally in central London. 7am: Boris Johnson kicked off his frenetic last round of campaigning at London's famous Billingsgate Market this morning A distraught father has revealed he learned of his son's brutal murder from Facebook after an image of his arm hanging out the trunk of a car went viral. Jeff Davis, from Detroit, Michigan, said he 'couldn't believe' that son Jeffery Hagler, 39, was dead after discovering the image online just hours after the pair spoke on Father's Day. But police later confirmed Hagler's death, saying he had been beaten, shot three times, and then left for dead inside the car, parked down an alley on Detroit's east side. Jeffery Hagler, 39, was found dead on Monday after his arm was spotted hanging from the trunk of a white Buick parked down an alley on Detroit's east side Jeff Davis (pictured), Hagler's father, said he found out about the discovery after images of his son's arm hanging from the trunk went viral on Facebook Davis told Fox 2 Detroit: 'I couldn't believe it was him, I couldn't believe it. That's how I found out, through Facebook. With the arm hanging out of the trunk. 'It's sad to find out that your son you've just seen... and the next thing you know he is in the back of a car.' Hagler, himself a father-of-three with a son who is just months old, spent Father's Day with Davis, leaving his house at around 1.30am. Less than 12 hours later a passerby noticed the car down the alleyway with Hagler's arm hanging out of the trunk and called police. Meanwhile two images of the arm were being shared thousands of times on Facebook, only to be discovered by Davis. He recognized the licence plate on the back of the car, which is how he realized his son was inside. Hagler had spent Sunday with Davis for Father's Day before leaving at 1.30am, and his beaten and shot body was discovered in the trunk several hours later Police have not yet discussed a motive for the killing, or named a suspect. Hagler is believed to have been arrested for drug offenses in his 20s, but his family say he has since lived a clean life Many social media users shot down the images as fake, but when video later emerged showing police towing the vehicle away they realized it was genuine. Davis said his son didn't usually visit the part of town his body was found in, adding that he got a call from a girl shortly after leaving his house. Other family members say they believe the killing was part of a random robbery. Police have not yet discussed a motive for the murder or named a suspect. Hagler is believed to have served time in jail in his 20s for drugs offences, but his family say he has lived a clean life since. Using that judgement, Mr Daley is now suing Mr Bakiyez for compensation in absentia of ordering the murder of the British businessman Mr Bakiyez fled the country when his father was ousted and in 2014 he was found guilty Mr Daley claims Maksim Bakiyev, son of the then president Kurmanbek Bakiyev, arranged for him to be shot in 2006 and is now suing for compensation A British businessman is suing the son of the former Kyrgyzstan president claiming he ordered him to be shot in a battle over a 300million gold mine. Sean Daley, 56, was living in Kyrgyzstan and representing a gold mining company there when he was hit by a hail of bullets in front of his two-year-old son as he left a restaurant one night. He survived the attempted hit in 2006 and was airlifted out of the country in Central Asia to the UK for emergency treatment. However he has been left with a bullet permanently lodged in his liver. Mr Daley claims Maksim Bakiyev, son of the then president Kurmanbek Bakiyev, arranged the shooting, and is now suing him for compensation. Mr Daley, who lives in Bicester in Oxfordshire, had been promoting a proposal by his company - Oxus Gold PLC - to win a licence to mind for gold and the rival bid was partly backed by Mr Bakiyez. The Jerooy Gold Mine, in the north-west of the country, was the 'second largest confirmed gold deposit in the country', the High Court was told. The day before the assassination attempt, Mr Daley had won a court case blocking the rival bid from taking possession of the mine, said to be worth about 300million. Less than two weeks after Mr Daley was shot four times in the back, that company was granted the mining licence. Mr Bakiyev's father Kurmanbek Bakiyev was ousted in a popular uprising in spring 2010. Some family members fled to Belarus, but Maksim flew to the UK in his private jet and was granted asylum. He now lives in a 3.5million house in Kingston-upon-Thames and vehemently denies any involvement in the shooting. In 2014, Kyrgyz courts found him and other members of his family guilty in absentia of ordering Mr Daley's murder to facilitate the corrupt awarding of the licence. Using that judgement, Mr Daley is now suing Mr Bakiyez for compensation. He also claims there had been an 'an admission of involvement in the shooting' made by Mr Bakiyez to an Israeli businessman Bertii Sinbeti. Mr Sinbeti was due to the key witness for Mr Daley but failed to turn up to give evidence today. Mr Bakiyev (pictured) now lives in a 3.5million house in Kingston-upon-Thames and vehemently denies any involvement in the shooting Joel Donovan QC, for Mr Daley, told the High Court: 'This is an unusual personal injury claim arising from Mr Daley's shooting by person's unknown outside his residence in Bishkek in the Kyrgyz Republic in July 2006. 'Maksim Bakiyev is the son of the then president of the Kyrgyz Republic, Kurmanbek Bakiyev. Mr Daley alleges that his shooting was an attempted murder arranged by Maksim Bakiyev, in order to prevent him from jeopardising a fraudulent scheme to obtain the Jerooy mining licence. 'As the president's son, Maksim Bakiyev had the means to arrange the shooting; wealth, unparalleled influence, and the use of state security apparatus'. Mr Bakiyez's defence have described Mr Daley's alleged lack of evidence in the High Court as 'embarrassing' Mr Bakiyev's defence documents to the court dismiss the claim and say any conviction in Kyrgyzstan would have been 'wrongfully secured', 'politically motivated', 'baseless' and 'without due process of law.' They also describe Mr Daley's alleged lack of evidence as 'embarrassing.' Angus McCullough QC, for Mr Bakiyev, said he had 'no knowledge of the shooting beyond what he read in the press at the time...[and] had no dealings, business or otherwise, in relation to Jerooy or any other goldmine.' He called for the judge to strike out Mr Daley's claim entirely following Mr Sinbeti's absence from court. The wife of The Clash guitarist Mick Jones walked free from court today after being cleared of slapping a French jewellery designer in the face and smashing two necklaces worth almost 5,000. Miranda Davis, 53, was said to have assaulted Jan Cremer in December following her allegedly sweeping the two necklaces to the floor at the 5million home she shares with the Clash guitarist in Notting Hill. When Ms Cremer told the film producer she owed her money, Ms Davis slapped her across the face, it was said. Cleared: Miranda Davis, pictured left outside court in February and right with her husband Mick Jones, has walked free after the Crown failed to provide any evidence But today after Ms Cremer and fine artist Michele Jarry Des Loges, whose jewellery was being displayed on a table, failed to turn up from France Ms Davis was told the Crown could offer no evidence. She walked free and was awarded 2,800 in costs Ms Cremer had been renting a flat at the exclusive house with fine artist Ms Jarry Des Loges, but they have since returned to live in France. Prosecutor Jo Arnold explained the witnesses are designers and business partners, with Ms Des Loges runs art gallery Jarry Des Loges in Rue Foussal, Beaumont-du-Perigord, southwest France. They had agreed to stay at Ms Davis' home for about a fortnight to help them, make some contacts in the UK and expand their business'. But on December 9 last year they discovered one of their display tables had all the jewellery swept from it onto the floor, it was said. Davis, who co-produced Stephen Frys directorial and screenwriting debut Bright Young Things, was also charged with common assault two days later over claims she slapped Ms Cremer - a charge Ms Davis denied. 'They did not expect their business items to be damaged,' added Ms Arnold. 'Then to be assaulted as well whilst they are here is not something they should expect to happen to them while they come to conduct business in this country.' Star: Mr Jones, right with bandmates Topper Headon, Joe Strummer and Paul Simonon, with the guitarist in The Clash, and Ms Davis share a home in Notting Hill, where the alleged assault was said to have taken place Bruce Clark, for Davis, demanded that the case go ahead in their absence rather than putting the matter back. 'The reality is that Ms Davis is paying privately for her defence, she is not legally aided, and without saying anything about what costs there may be - it is not cheap to come privately paid,' he said. Magistrate Joanne Varley said: 'I am sure you are aware from the length of time we were away, we actually found this one of the most difficult decisions because it is very, very evenly weighed. 'We believe that the witnesses, through no fault of their own, are blameless and were always willing to come to court today.' She added: 'However, we have to balance that with the fact that the defendant is of previous good character. 'She is sitting here ready to go trial-wise. We have decided to proceed with the trial today.' Ms Arnold immediately informed the court that she was in no position to proceed without witnesses and offered no evidence, to which Magistrate Varley told Davis: 'So that is it - it is over. Other names floated: Senators Tim Kaine, Cory Booker, and Sherrod Brown; Clinton campaign has not formally suggested anyone Wall Street big wigs don't want Warren would bring her anti-corporate crusading into he White House if she were vice president Hillary Clinton is under pressure to name Warren as her running mate to placate lefty Bernie Sanders backers Hillary Clinton is taking Elizabeth Warren for a test drive on the campaign trail on Monday. Warren will appear at a rally with Clinton in Cincinnati, Ohio, the presidential candidate's campaign said today. A progressive more palatable to the campaign than Clinton's primary rival Bernie Sanders, the Massachusetts senator is reportedly on Clinton's VP short list. A spokesman for the Clinton campaign declined to comment on the rumors Wednesday afternoon. Hillary Clinton is taking Elizabeth Warren for a test drive on the campaign trail on Monday. Warren will appear at a rally with Clinton in Cincinnati, Ohio, the presidential candidate's campaign said today. They're seen here talking during a Senate hearing in 2013 Warren and Clinton have not always seen eye-to-eye when it comes to Wall Street regulations and the banking industry's donations to Clinton's campaigns. But two weeks ago, when Clinton became the apparent winner of the Democratic nomination, Warren offered her endorsement. The next day the two women met for an hour at Clinton's Washington, D.C. home. Yesterday, the Associated Press said Clinton was seriously considering bringing Warren onto her campaign as running mate. Wall Street big wigs who support the Democratic Party are in a tizzy. The donors are threatening to cut off financial support for Clinton if she names Warren to the powerful post. 'If Clinton picked Warren, her whole base on Wall Street would leave her,' a top donor who has raised millions for Clinton told Politico. 'They would literally just say, 'We have no qualms with you moving left, we understand all the things you've had to do because of Bernie Sanders, but if you are going there with Warren, we just can't trust you, you've killed it,' the donor added, without using their name. A D.C. Democrat with banking industry ties pitched instead someone with dealmaker credentials in the mold of vice president Joe Biden. 'Clinton is going to face a divided government unless there is a total tsunami,' the Democrat said. 'What you want in a vice president is someone who can negotiate for you on the Hill, someone like Joe Biden. And that is not a Warren strength.' Warren got her start as designer and first head of a consumer protection board created by the Dodd-Frank banking legislation. She became a hero on the left, and her decision not to seek the presidency helped pave the way for Sanders' rise. She continued to pound Wall Street for contributing to the financial collapse when she was elected in 2012 to the U.S. Senate. Virginia Senator Tim Kaine has been mentioned as being on Hillary Clinton's short list Sanders has continued his quest to negotiate with Clinton for concessions in the party platform, even as he refuses to suspend his presidential campaign. Clinton's Wall Street ties served as the basis for his candidacy and he often brought up paid speeches she made to Goldman Sachs and other industry giants when he was on the stump. 'When you get paid $225,000, that means that that speech must have been an extraordinarily wonderful speech,' Sanders joked during a debate in March. 'I would think that [with] a speech so great... you would like to share it with the American people. So I think she should release the transcript,' he said. One of Clinton's primary challenges now that she has secured enough delegates to win the nomination is finding a way to maintain the enthusiasm that Sanders generated and get his supporters to vote for her in substantial numbers. Warren could do that for her ticket. She has also established herself as someone willing to take on Donald Trump - who has nicknamed her 'Pocahontas' over a claim earlier in her career that she's 1/32 Cherokee. Thursday night in Washington, Warren delivered a speech to a constitutional lawyers' group in which she slammed Trump for his comments about a Mexican-American federal judge overseeing fraud cases against one of his businesses. 'Donald Trump is a loud, nasty, thin-skinned fraud who has never risked anything for anyone and who serves no one but himself,' she said. 'Trump is picking on someone who is ethically bound not to defend himself exactly what you'd expect from a thin-skinned, racist bully.' The first term senator does not, however, have any foreign policy experience, and she doesn't represent a swing state - two criteria that are weighted heavily by campaign hands when picking a running mate. New Jersey Senator Cory Booker is also on the list Housing secretary Julian Castro says he hasn't been vetted by the Clinton camp Another problem for Democrats if Warren is the pick: under Massachusetts law, the Republican governor would get to appoint a temporary replacement. That scenario brings back Democratic nightmares of when the party lost effective control of the Senate at the start of the Obama administration after the death of Sen. Ted Kennedy. Outgoing Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid has commissioned research on the subject that reveals the damage can be mitigated if Warren were to immediately issue a letter of resignation in November after the election. The Republican National Committee hit Warren today as a phony for even considering the job, given her differences for Clinton. 'This event will complete one of the biggest sellouts in political history given that Hillary Clinton is everything Elizabeth Warren supposedly stands against,' said RNC spokesman Michael Short. But Warren got $633,000 from the Securities Industry despite her frequent attacks on big banks and the benefits enjoyed by the 'one percent,' according to the Center for Responsive Politics. By contrast, New Jersey senator Cory Booker, another possible No. 2 for Clinton, took in $2.1 million from the industry, while Ohio senator Sherrod Brown took in $369,000. Warren this month finally endorsed Clinton, saying on MSNBC, 'I am ready to get in this fight and work my heart out for Hillary Clinton to become the next president of the United States and to make sure that Donald Trump never gets anyplace close to the White House.' Asked if she was qualified to be vice president, Warren said she was. Clinton said of Warren in an interview with Politico, 'I think she is an incredible public servant, eminently qualified for any role.' Warren has been included on all the Clinton short lists for vice presidential picks in recent weeks, in part because of the national network of support she commands. Also thought to be under consideration besides Booker and Brown are Housing secretary Julian Castro, labor secretary Tom Perez, Democratic Rep. Xavier Becerra, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, and House representative Tim Ryan of Ohio. Castro said last week that he isn't being vetted for the job. 'I'm not going to get into that. Number one, I've said for a long time, I don't believe that's going to happen,' Castro said. 'This is a decision that she's going to make and I'm going to be happy to support whatever the ticket is.' Hundreds of illegal immigrants using fake identities are free to plunder millions in benefits after the Home Office halted a major fraud investigation, it was claimed yesterday. The claim came after the two final members of an African gang who pocketed more than 8million in criminal benefits were jailed. Antoinette and Louise Kaidi lived in Britain under false names for 13 years and illegally made 560,000 between them in a very sophisticated scam. It included fraudulent claims for housing benefit, income support, jobseekers allowance and student bursaries. Two women who posed as sisters after buying false identities to then claim hundreds of thousands of pounds each in benefits have been jailed. Known by the assumed names of Antoinette (left) and Louise Kaidi (right), the duo pleaded guilty six days into their trial after the jury were 'laughing' at their defence They were tried under their ghost identities as their real names remain a mystery. They pleaded guilty mid-way through their trial because their defence was so risible the jury was laughing at them, Croydon Crown Court heard. It ended a complex six-year investigation involving multiple government departments, councils and employers that led to 21 people being convicted, including the gangs masterminds. But a source involved in the probe said there were many more suspected fraudsters connected to the scam who had been allowed to get away with it. Jordan Sebutemba was given a suspended sentence in April We know of many hundreds of others linked to this group but the investigation has been stopped because the Home Office says there is no more cash left to pursue them, the source said. We understand the problems it faces but its extremely frustrating. The lack of resources means we have got hundreds out there who have no right to be here who will be claiming benefits until they die. An unknown Home Office mole, suspected of helping the gang claim false identities from the inside, also remains at large, it was claimed. The source blamed the original problem on the Home Offices Fairer, Faster And Firmer white paper introduced by the Blair government in 1998 which aimed to accelerate immigration and asylum applications. It led to many applications simply not being checked properly and opened the possibility for fraudulent applications and subsequently fraudulent benefits claims, the source said. The Kaidis spent 13 years using the identities of sisters from Togo in West Africa who applied for asylum in the early 1990s but never pursued their claim. Louise is believed to be from Uganda and Antoinette is of mixed Nigerian-Ghanaian heritage but prosecutor Caoimhe Daly told the court: We have no idea who they are. As well as pocketing huge sums in benefits, the pair trained as nurses in their fake names, claiming generous state-funded NHS student bursaries. Even Antoinettes husband, with whom she has two children, was unaware she had a fake name until her arrest, the court heard. At trial the pair kept claiming to be from French-speaking Togo. Antoinette said she was brought to Britain aged nine by her mother who forced her to work as a slave in homes around London. But she could not recall a single address where she was enslaved. She claimed her mother paid for a private tutor to teach her English, explaining why she cannot speak a word of French. Both Antoinette, a mother-of-two, and Louise, a single mother-of-three, cried as they sat in the dock at Croydon Crown Court. Sentencing them each to 33 months in prison, His Honour Judge John Tanzer told them their crimes were of a serious nature After belatedly pleading guilty, the Kaidis admitted to 23 counts, from 2003 to 2015, including fraud, conspiracy to assist in unlawful immigration and falsely obtaining benefits. Jailing them for 33 months each, Judge John Tanzer said: The jury were basically laughing at the defence given because it was so risible. An Indiana teenager has been arrested on charges of supporting ISIS. Akram I. Musleh, 18, of Brownsburg, was arrested by FBI agents who claim he was about to board a bus to New York to take a plane to Morocco and from there enter ISIS-controlled territory in the Middle East. The FBI had been tracking the teen since 2013, when the agency says he began posting messages sympathetic to ISIS, such as videos of Anwar al-Awlaki, the U.S.-born leader of al-Qaeda, who was killed in a drone strike attack in 2011, to YouTube. Akram I. Musleh, 18, of Brownsburg, 30 minutes from Indianapolis, is accused of sympathizing with and trying to join terrorist group ISIS FBI agents say that Musleh took a picture of himself with the official flag of ISIS (above) and posted it online When agents interviewed Musleh at Brownsburg High School in 2013, he said he was just trying to learn about Islam, according to USA Today. However, nine months later, the government said that he purchased an ISIS flag and in June 2015, he posted a picture of himself standing in front of it on an unidentified social media platform. He also began communicating with others online, asking how he could join the terrorist group, and discussed trying to pull off terrorist attacks in the U.S., perhaps in Florida. According to government records, he had an online conversation with an unidentified person in which he talks about terrorist attacks: Musleh attended Brownsburg High School outside of Indianapolis; FBI agents interviewed him there last year Akram Musleh allegedly uploaded this piece of ISIS propaganda to an unnamed social media site User #1: How about operations there [?] Musleh: What kind [?] As many people [k]ept on telling me that [.] User #1: Kill a few kufr [non-Muslims or non-believers] or go to a drone place and blow the boots [u]p[.] Musleh: Where is a drone place[?] Do you know where? User #1: Find out yourself[.] Florida maybe[.] According to court documents, he also viewed a news article about the Indiana Department of Homeland Security list of some 8,500 potential terror targets in Indiana. Throughout 2015, claims the government, Musleh tried to make reservations five times to travel to Turkey or Iraq, but each time, the plans fell through. In late June 2015, he attempted to board a flight in Chicago, but that was scuttled when he was stopped and questioned by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Also in 2015, he was one of a few people who were allegedly stopping teens in a local park and asking them if they were interested in joining Daesh, another term for ISIS. First he reportedly told inspectors he would be visiting family, but they discovered he has no family in the area. Then he said he was getting married, but investigators found he already had a fiancee - in Sweden. She also allegedly is an ISIS sympathizer. Police and FBI agents raided an apartment for four hours on Tuesday as part of the case against Akram Musleh In April he reportedly purchased a ticket to Morocco, and was also seen shopping for a pressure cooker in WalMart. The government says he also researched explosive materials on the Internet. In May 2016, he was approached online by an undercover FBI agent, who engaged him in conversation in which he allegedly admitted wanting to join ISIS and how much money members were paid. On Tuesday, Musleh was arrested at the Indianapolis bus station as he was about to board a Greyhound for New York. His flight to Casablanca, Morrocco was set for July 21. The police and FBI also raided an apartment at the Brownsburg Pointe Apartments for four hours, according to Fox 59. Indiana governor Mike Pence issues a statement saying: 'We commend the FBI and law enforcement officers at every level in this state for the efforts that led to the apprehension of a radicalized Brownsburg teenager who was attempting to join terrorist forces in the Middle East.' 'In these challenging times, it is essential that all Hoosiers exercise vigilance and report any suspicious activities to the appropriate law enforcement authorities.' Thousands of British holidaymakers are bracing for a day of travel chaos tomorrow as airlines cancelled hundreds of flights due to strikes in France. British Airways, easyJet, and Ryanair are among the major airlines that have been forced to cancel routes across Europe as French air traffic controllers take part in another day of industrial action. Passengers affected were notified on Wednesday afternoon, although some claimed they were not given a reason for the disruption. British Airways, easyJet, Monarch and Ryanair are among the carriers cancelling dozens of routes. File image The strike is the 10th day of industrial action planned by the French air traffic control trade unions over the last three months. It affects flights to and from French airports, as well as routes to other European destinations. Scores of disgruntled passengers took to Twitter to share their frustrations on Wednesday evening. One user wrote: 'Marseille-Gatwick flight cancelled tomorrow. Can you offer some alternatives? No easyjet flights until Saturday! Kind of urgent...' Another posted: '"Europe's favourite airline" cancelled my flights 2day. Less than 24hrs notice. No bday celebrations in BNC'. While one passenger due to fly back to the UK from France on easyJet wrote: 'Stuck in France! Flight home got cancelled!' British Airways said it was offering all passengers travelling on Thursday the opportunity to re-book their flight. easyJet is among the major carriers that alerted passengers to potential travel disruption on Wednesday The airline will also use larger aircraft on routes that are operating in a bid to accommodate as many customers as possible. easyJet has cancelled 60 flights tomorrow, including 40 which pass through the UK. The airline is also allowing customers to rearrange their travel plans. Meanwhile Ryanair has cancelled 56 flights to/from France. Ten services to Luton, London Stansted, Manchester and Newcastle are among those affected. The strikes come after the French government tabled a bill that makes it easier to lay off employees, extends the working week and weakens union powers. The bill has prompted months of protests that often degenerate into violence by small groups of extremist demonstrators clashing with tear gas-spraying riot police. The last big Paris protest, which passed through the Montparnasse and Invalides neighborhoods on June 14, was particularly violent, with at least 39 people injured and damage to dozens of shops, banks, bus stops, a nursery school and a government ministry - and the Necker Hospital for Sick Children, where windows of operating rooms were smashed. Omar Mateen, the suspect in the brutal killings at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, was an expert marksman who aced his written exams while piling up successful shots on the target range, Florida documents reveal. The records were maintained because of Mateen's time as a court security guard, before he went on to carry out his attack that resulted in the death of 49 patrons and became the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history this month. His employer was G4S Security Solutions. Mateen underwent 28 hours of shooting instruction in 2007 to obtain his 'Class G' gun license using a Smith & Wesson revolver, Judicial Watch announced after obtaining the documents. Out of a possible score of 240, Mateen achieved scores of 231 and 235. Orlando killings suspect Omar Mateen was an 'expert' marksman, according to state documents obtained by Judicial Watch Mateen scored a 225 out of 240 in 2011 using a 9mm weapon Mateen's certificate of firearms proficiency from 2008 He scored 237 out of 240 at the range in 2010 and got a 100 on his written exam He achieved high scores with several different weapons. The next year, according to the documents, Mateen scored a 238. He achieved the same score in 2009 using a Smith and Wesson revolver, with a written exam score of 100. He also aced his written exams in 2010, 2011, and 2013. In 2011, he scored a 216 and a 234. Using a 9mm semi-automatic pistol, he scored a 225. In 2014, he scored a 223 on the firing range using a 38 caliber revolver. Mateen was certified 'mentally and emotionally stable' Mateen killed 49 people at Pulse nightclub in Orlando A card outside Pulse nightclub honors victims of the shooting massacre Other documents completed by state officials state that the security firm certified him as being 'mentally and emotionally stable.' The assertion was based on a psychological test included as part of a document called an 'agency character certification.' The 2007 document lists Dr. Carol Nudelman as the pscyhologist certifyingthat the employee is 'mentally and emotionally stable' and therefore able to get the certification to be a security guard by the Wackenut Corporation, which was later purchased by G4S Security Solutions. However, Nudelman told NBC News she never administered the test and wasn't practicing in Florida at the time of the test. 'I was not living or working in Florida [at the time]' she said. 'I was not performing any work for Wackenhut, and I did not administer any type of examination to Omar Mateen. Any statement to the contrary is absolutely false,' she added. Mateen's skill with a weapon is just one contributing factor to the tragedy, where easy access to weapons and radicalization on the Internet have brought calls for policy changes. A police officer who was one of the first to arrive at the club claims he had to wait while Mateen was free to wander around the club gunning people down. The FBI said this week that police first responders 'engaged the shooter' inside the club at 2.08am but Officer Brandon Cornwell said he had been told to wait for a SWAT team to arrive. Mateen's employer says the psychologist whose name on this form certifying Mateen to be emotionally stable wasn't the actual certifying physician, and the the name was included due to a 'clerical error.' Dr. Nudelman said she never evaluated Mateen Sports stars including Shaquille O'Neal and Johnny Damon visited survivors at Orlando Regional Medical Center The global security firm has come under criticism for its screening procedures in the wake of the mass shooting. The company attributed the problem to a 'clerical error.' 'Dr. Nudelman did not score Mateen's evaluation. She sold her practice in 2007. Mateen's MMPI was scored by HQPE (Headquarters for Psychological Evaluation). A clerical error failed to note the change in vendors scoring the exam,' G4S said in a statement. The company has said a psychological test was administered. 'These new records reveal that Omar Mateen was an expert marksman and had a spotty employment record,' said Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton. 'This information raises new questions about how and why the Obama administration failed to stop Mateen before he committed his heinous act of terrorism,' he said. Nigel Farage pulled out of last night's final, crucial television debate on today's EU referendum so he could 'have dinner with his son', it has been revealed. Farage, who has campaigned for the UK to leave the European Union his whole political life, told Channel 4 he would not be attending the evening's debate due to 'family reasons'. The announcement was met with surprise, with many expressing concern for Farage and his family as many believed only something truly terrible would make the politician pull out of the key debate. However, it has now emerged that Mr Farage had simply decided to go to dinner with his eldest son, Sam. Speaking outside his home this morning, he refused to elaborate on his decision not to attend, repeating only that it was 'for family reasons'. Scroll down for videos Nigel Farage outside his home as he heads off to vote this morning. But he ducked out of a TV debate on the eve of the referendum he has been demanding for years The UKIP leader had a meal with his son Sam yesterday evening, rather than join a discussion on Channel 4 A source said: 'He hadn't seen him for nine months so it was between that or being on against the founder of Ukip who calls him racist. It was a no brainer.' Ukip founder Alan Sked, who took part in last night's debate, has criticised the way Farage has run the party, calling it a 'Frankenstein's monster'. It is understood Farage hadn't seen his son for so long because Sam, who works as a manager for accounting firm KPMG, has been away in South Africa. Farage declined to comment on the no-show this morning but tweeted message to his followers, calling on them to 'take back control of our country'. Both Farage's sons from his marriage to his first wife, Grainne, work in the City. He also has two young daughters from his current marriage to wife, Kirsten. Sam, 27, went to Dulwich College in south London, as his father did, before getting a degree and masters at Exeter University. He and his father have previously been pictured together at events. Farage recently told ITV: 'I've got a son who works for one of the corporates and he's been told: "You must vote to remain part of this otherwise terrible things will happen".' Farage was scheduled to appear alongside a number of high profile guests from both sides of the campaign, including former Labour spin doctor Alastair Campbell, Tory peer Michael Heseltine, former Tory MP Louise Mensch - and Delia Smith, who slammed Ukip's most recent Brexit poster as 'anti-human'. The popular television cook called the unveiling of the poster - which which depicts a snaking line of hundreds of immigrants arriving in Europe - as the 'darkest moment' of the EU campaign. Ms Smith, speaking during the first segment of the programme which largely focused on how each side had run their campaigns, said: 'It's got darker and darker. 'I really think its darkest moment was when we saw the poster. I do not think it was just offensive. It was anti-human.' It has since emerged that the 'family reason' was a dinner with his oldest son, Sam (pictured right) Television cook Delia Smith was at the debate, sitting with 'Remain' supporters Sheila Hancock, pictured with Simon Schama, Steve Hilton and Selina Scott, won praise from fellow Remain campaigners for her impassioned defence of the European Union during the debate Despite the criticism of his campaign, Farage was upbeat about the chances of a leave vote this morning. Speaking outside his home in Kent after collecting his newspapers, he said: 'I do think we are in with a very strong chance, I do genuinely. But it's all about turnout and those soft remainers staying at home.' I'VE WAITED MY ADULT LIFE FOR THIS MOMENT, SAYS UKIP LEADER As he headed to the polling station this morning, Farage joked that he would have 'crawled uphill over broken glass to cast a vote'. He said he'd 'waited all my adult life' for the EU referendum and quipped that he'd 'finally made my mind up' to vote leave. He said: 'I first got involved in this in Eurosceptic politics in 1991 so I've stood in more elections than I care to remember - all trying to argue that there is something wrong with our relationship with the EU. 'The first big victory was not going in the Euro, and I hope this will be the ultimate one.' Advertisement Farage had refused to apologise for his controversial 'breaking point' immigration poster earlier yesterday, despite suggestions by his party that he had. Speaking in central London, Mr Farage said: 'I apologise for the timing and I apologise for the fact that it was able to be used by those who wish us harm. 'But I can't apologise for the truth. And after all, this was a photograph your newspaper carried, this was a photograph that all newspapers carried, it is an example of what is wrong inside the European Union.' Ukip had offered their MEP Steven Woolfe to take the place of Mr Farage the broadcaster declined, the party said. Ahead of the event, Alastair Campbell tweeted that Farage had 'bottled it'. The debate was one of the last opportunities for the Remain and Leave camps to put forward their arguments before polls open at 7am today. The 90-minute discussion, hosted by Jeremy Paxman, addressed the key issues of the referendum, including the economy, immigration, sovereignty and security. Delia Smith said the unveiling of this poster was the 'darkest moment' of the EU campaign Selina Scott, right, said she would never bother voting again if 'Leave' were not successful on Thursday However, tensions between the two sides often boiled over, and at times it seemed Paxman was struggling keep his rolling stage of panelists on topic. At one point, a visibly annoyed Paxman told Eurovision winner Sandie Shaw: 'We are trying to discuss something else, and you are going on about music.' The panelists were equally tetchy as they continually spoke over each other. When Simon Schama tried to interrupt Steve Hilton, the former Tory adviser snapped: 'That's a little bit rude to interrupt someone when they've just started.' Mr Hilton - who used to work as David Cameron's director of strategy - was later called out as a hypocrite for having a go at 'un-elected bureaucrats'. He was not the only one, former chancellor and Leave campaigners Nigel Lawson's fears over Britain becoming a 'colony' of a United States of Europe were met with the point he lives in France. At one point, Selina Scott - a Leave supporter - suggested that if the referendum did not end with the UK leaving the EU, she would never vote again. 'Why should I bother?' she asked. Meanwhile, Sheila Hancock put forward an impassioned defence of the EU, what it had done for peace, and said people of her age should vote with their children and grandchildren in mind. 'We will always be British,' she added - leading Alex Salmond to note later: 'Sheila Hancock should have been in charge of the campaign.' Alex Salmond (left) and Alastair Campbell during the Channel 4 EU referendum debate. Salmond clashed with writer Toby Young, who suggested Scotland would end up in a worse position than Greece should it chose to split from England following today's referendum Nigel Lawson said he feared Britain could be turned into a 'colony' of the 'United States of Europe' He was scheduled to appear alongside a number of high profile guests from both sides of the campaign, including former Labour spin doctor Alastair Campbell, Tory peer Michael Heseltine and former Tory MP Louise Mensch Fellow Remain supporter Tory Michael Heseltine was also full of praise for Ms Hancock. 'I happen to share with her the age of 83,' he said. 'And what we know is what it was like to be alone in 1940.' Toby Young and Salmond also clashed on the evening, with the writer telling the SNP politician that a second referendum on Scottish independence would see them 'become the next Greece'. The idea of a second referendum has been discussed, should Scotland vote overwhelmingly to remain, and the rest of the UK to leave. In the end, 52 per cent the audience, which was split into 50 Remain, 50 Leave and 50 undecideds, voted to back staying in Europe. Footage has emerged showing a group of NYPD officers standing by as a man who suffered cardiac arrest and died during an arrest is left unattended for 10 minutes straight after he was handcuffed. Barrington Williams, 25, was arrested at the subway station at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx for illegally selling MetroCard swipes, but was pronounced dead in hospital after being taken into custody. Video of the arrest was released this week as part of a lawsuit contending that police were 'indifferent and apathetic to Barrington's life' and ignored signs that the asthma sufferer was not breathing while his hands and legs were bound. New footage: Cops attempted to arrest Barrington Williams, 25, on September 17, 2013, after they allegedly caught him selling illegal MetroCard swipes at the Yankee Stadium subway station The video shows the moment cops tackled Williams to the ground (left) and handcuffed him (right). However the young man lost consciousness and was later pronounced dead in hospital from an asthma attack The video shows that between 1.57 p.m. and 2.08 p.m., Williams was left unattended with his hands and feet bound. A medic then arrived at the scene and tried to give Williams CPR The subway station CCTV video, first obtained by The New York Daily News, shows Williams being tackled at the top of some platform stairs. He is then put in handcuffs at 1:57 p.m. As seen in the video, Williams is left unattended until 2.08 p.m. when a Fire Department medic arrives at the scene and starts administering basic life support. It isn't until 2.14 p.m. that the handcuffs are removed and chest compressions are administered. Williams family say that he never regained consciousness from that point and was pronounced dead at Lincoln Medical Center. 'For 10 minutes the officers were indifferent and apathetic to Barrington's life, and those 10 minutes can be the difference between life and death,' lawyer Jason Leventhal told The Daily News. Leventhal has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city on behalf of Williams' family. The lawsuit states that Williams was the victim of excessive police force and was denied medical care. It says that Williams told police he suffered from asthma as he was arrested. The security video shows officers propping Williams up at one point and appearing to try and give him his inhaler. However Williams appears unconscious. Barrington Williams, 25, was arrested at the subway station at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx for illegally selling MetroCard swipes, but was pronounced dead in hospital after the arrest Also during the arrest, Williams urinated on himself, began foaming from the mouth and passed out. 'I think the officers realized very quickly that they were dealing with a man who was in severe respiratory distress,' Leventhal said. 'The video doesn't show any sense of urgency.' The city's medical examiner ruled that Williams died of a severe asthma attack and recorded the cause of death as natural in 2013. An Internal Affairs Bureau later cleared the officers of any wrongdoing in the arrest. The NYPD said Williams was suspected of selling MetroCard swipes at the East 161st Street B/D train subway station in the Bronx. When approached, he ran, police said. Williams' mother, Karen Brown, told The Daily News: 'I dont believe he should have died for a MetroCard swipe.' Officers Joel Guach, Agenol Ramos and Robert OBrien were named in the suit. The rapper who allegedly opened fire during a shooting at a T.I. concert in New York that left one dead and three wounded will not be charged with murder, it has been revealed. Troy Ave, whose real name is Roland Collins, appeared in court on Wednesday in a wheelchair as he was indicted on one count of attempted second degree murder and four counts of criminal possession of a weapon. He was not charged for the death of his close friend and bodyguard Ronald 'Banga' McPhatter, who died after being shot in the stomach at Irving Plaza concert hall on May 25. Scroll down for video Troy Ave, whose real name is Roland Collins, appeared in court on Wednesday in a wheelchair as he was indicted for a deadly shooting that took place during a T.I. concert in New York last month Collins was indicted on one count of attempted second degree murder and four counts of criminal possession of a weapon and is currently being held without bail at Rikers Island Collins was arrested after surveillance footage appeared to show him bursting into the venue's VIP room with two other men before firing a handgun. But Collins' attorney, Scott Leemon, said there's more to the story. 'The video does not show everything nor explain what happened in the VIP room before Troy came running out, as a victim, after he was shot,' Leemon told TMZ. It was initially reported that Collins shot himself in the leg during the shooting but now investigators believe a second person may be responsible, according to PIX 11. Sources said the second person had an ongoing dispute with the rapper and approached Collins before a fight ensued and they shot him and McPhatter. Collins, who is being held without bail at Rikers Island, released a mixtape in prison proclaiming his innocence. Collins was shot in the leg during the shooting. Initial reports claim he shot himself but now investigators believe a second person may be responsible Collins was not charged for the death of his close friend and bodyguard Ronald 'Banga' McPhatter McPhatter, 33, (left and right) was fatally shot in the stomach during the shooting. Sources say McPhatter was killed by the same person who shot Collins in the leg 'P***y n***a tried to assassinate me / I took the gun from him and turned the tables 'round like a G', he raps in one line. 'I'm innocent, unless you'r charging me with being real from the very beginning,' he says in another. 'I'm innocent. That's a fact though.' A second arrest has not been made and Collins is currently the only person charged in the shooting. Christopher Vinson, 34, and model Maggie Heckstall, 26, were also injured in the shooting. Heckstall's boyfriend, rapper Maino, was the opening act for the concert. Sources earlier claimed that Collins and Maino had an 'ongoing rap rivalry', a rumor Heckstall's boyfriend immediately shot down, posting a picture of himself and Collins on Instagram. Collins was arrested after surveillance footage appeared to show him bursting into the venue's VIP room with two other men before firing a handgun The video captured footage of the gunman firing one shot from a handgun before running off Collins' attorney, Scott Leemon, said there's more to the story and that the video 'does not show everything nor explain what happened in the VIP room before Troy came running out, as a victim, after he was shot' Maino said the shooting was 'absolutely not' due to him or anyone in his entourage. 'For the last 5 years Troy Ave, his team and I have had a great working relationship,' Maino wrote on the picture's caption. 'Not only have we performed and done several songs together but we've had many personal conversations about life our goals and efforts as musicians.' 'Despite media reports to the contrary, there are no "ongoing beefs" or "entourage issues"'. Investigators ruled that T.I. was not involved in the dispute. The rapper released a statement a day after the shooting, writing that his heart was 'heavy'. 'Our music is intended to save lives, like it has mine and many others,' he wrote in the statement posted on his Instagram. 'My heartfelt condolences to the family that suffered the loss & my prayers are with all those injured. Respectfully, Tip.' Maggie Carrie Heckstall, a 26-year-old model, was shot in the leg during the shooting Christopher Vinson, 34, was shot in the chest. Police said he was in a stable condition the day after he was hit A 19-year-old walking down a busy commercial strip of a New Orleans suburb Wednesday in the middle of the afternoon shot and killed a deputy after the officer tried to search him, the sheriff said Wednesday, labelling the shooting 'a cold-blooded murder'. Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand described the deadly shooting that swiftly unfolded after Detective David F. Michel Jr., 50, tried to search Jerman Neveaux. The sheriff said the officer had noticed Neveaux walking behind another person who appeared to be nervous, so he pulled over. Michel approached Neveaux and placed him up against the police vehicle so he could search him, Normand said. But Neveaux flipped around, 'went chest to chest' with the officer, pulled out a gun and reaching over Michel's shoulder shot him in the back. 'As Detective Michel fell to the ground, he fired two more shots at point-blank range into the back of Detective Michel,' Normand said. Scroll down for video Deputy Assistant David Michel Jr. (left) of the Jefferson Parish sheriff's office was shot dead Wednesday. Jerman Neveaux (right) has been arrested on charges of first degree murder and assault, the sheriff's office says Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand described the deadly shooting 'a cold-blooded murder' The officer was able to get on the radio and say he'd been shot, Normand said. As Michel was brought to a hospital in New Orleans where he later died, officers flooded the area, using dogs and helicopters to search for the suspect. Normand said police were able to find the suspect, who was going through the backyards of houses in the nearby area. Geralisha Henderson lived in one of those houses. She said she went to her back door Wednesday to make sure it was locked after police combing her street said they were searching for a suspect. When she went to the back door, she saw what appeared to be a young man dressed in jeans and T-shirt hiding in the back of the yard. Frightened, she went to the street and waved for a police officer to come. A sheriff's deputy was fatally shot Wednesday afternoon in the New Orleans suburb of Harvey after stopping a pedestrian on a busy street in the middle of the day Jefferson Parish, Louisiana State Police and other law enforcement personnel work the scene of the shooting When she went to the back door to peek outside again, she said the suspect was much closer to the house. The suspect saw her and asked to be let in, she said. 'He was telling me "Open the door, let me in,"' she said. 'He looked scared.' She said she did not see a gun. At that the point, several officers rushed in and detained him in the backyard. Henderson's mother, Alicia, said an officer later came back to the house and told her the man was the suspect they were looking for. Normand said five witnesses identified Neveaux as the shooter, and authorities found the gun on him and have been able to match it forensically to the shooting. A spokesman for the sheriff's office, John Fortunato, said he has been arrested on charges of first degree murder and assault. The suspect admitted shooting the officer and said he was on probation for another offense and didn't want the officer to find the gun and arrest him, Normand said. A holstered police gun lies in the street on Ascot Road at the scene of the shooting on Wednesday The sheriff also said his office is investigating a video that was brought to their attention by a local media outlet that shows Neveaux's arrest. Normand, who said he saw the video minutes before the news conference, said it shows Neveaux '...being struck by our officers while attempting to gain control of Neveaux.' He said Neveaux was still armed at that time. Neveaux, who was taken to the hospital for treatment after his arrest, had an orbital fracture and scrapes and cuts, Normand said. A coroner's 'first glance' indicated Michel was struck three times in the back, a WWLTV reporter tweeted. The shooting happened outside a Dunkin' Donuts on Manhattan Boulevard near Ascot Road. Manhattan Boulevard is a heavy thoroughfare in the area known as the West Bank, across the Mississippi River from New Orleans. An employee of a nearby bakery, Creative Cakes, said the block of Manhattan Boulevard near Ascot Road was briefly put on lock down as police responded to the shooting around noon. 'We had our door locked for a while,' the employee told Daily Mail Online. 'It's the first thing like this that I've witnessed since I've been here.' The shooting happened on Manhattan Boulevard near its intersection with Lapalco Boulevard, both heavily traveled thoroughfares in the area known as the West Bank, across the Mississippi River from New Orleans As news got out about Michel's death, people began to lay flowers at a makeshift memorial where the shooting happened. One of them was MonaLisa Urbina, 47, who brought flowers and a stuffed animal. She said she knew Michel, who lived with his family in the same neighborhood as her. She said she first got to know him when he found her two boys riding their bikes instead of being in school. 'He scolded them. He told them not to do it again. And he put fear in them. They never did it again,' she said. 'He treated them like family. I tell you, everybody's lost an angel.' Deputy Chief Craig Taffaro, who commands the parish's operations division, said Michel was a cheerful man who loved his job. Flowers and other items are laid at a memorial where Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Deputy David F. Michel Jr. was shot and killed in Harvey, Louisiana, on Wednesday MonaLisa Urbina, rear, and two friends, Thuy Nguyen, front left, and Kim Pham, lay flowers at the memorial 'Obviously, today is the most difficult time,' Taffaro said. The deputy chief said he knew Michel personally. 'He was a great guy. He was well-liked. It was quite obvious at the hospital how many friends he had.' He said Michel's father was en route to New Orleans. 'I spoke with his dad," Taffaro said, "And he said, 'As difficult as this is, he's doing what he loved to doI guess that sums it up.' Michel was assigned to the street crimes unit, which targets drug sales and criminal activity in 17 high-crime areas around the parish, Taffaro said. Michel was in a black unmarked car and dressed in plain clothes with sheriff markings. Michel joined the sheriff's office in 2007 and was transferred to the street crimes unit in 2015, Fortunato said. It was the year's second shooting of a Jefferson officer. Advertisement An iconic series of images that memorialises the celebrity culture of the Swinging Sixties is set to go under the hammer. Photographer David Bailey's 'Box of Pin Ups' was created in 1965 to celebrate the growing culture of fashionistas, pop stars and influential people of the time that had been snapped by Bailey. As well as shots of The Beatles and musician Mick Jagger, the set features a controversial print of the notorious East End gangsters the Kray twins. 'They were alright, just East End blokes really,' Bailey later said of the duo, remembered for their aggression and brutality when crossed. 'I knew them really well. People ask "How could you like Reg?" but I did like him. 'He didn't do anything to me. Didn't like Ron so much - I avoided him... I saw him beat a bloke almost to death for not offering round the corned beef sandwiches.' But Bailey didn't only photograph the rich and famous of the decade, he also socialised with them and came to achieve cult status in his own right. The set of 36 prints will be on sale at Special Auction Services in Newbury on June 23. The prints will be sold with the original card box and are expected to fetch between 2,500 and 3,000. Iconic: This image of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, from pop group The Beatles, features in David Bailey's iconic 'Box of Pin Ups' Dangerous: As well as images of pop stars and fashionistas from the Swinging Sixties, the collection also features this photograph of notorious East End gangsters the Kray Twins Celebrity: This image shows musician Mick Jagger with Max Maxwell, photographer and art director for Queen magazine during the 1960s Elite: David Bailey became a cultural icon in himself as well as rubbing shoulders with the greats. Pictured, the Rolling Stones Fashionistas: Only four women were considered successful enough to be included in the collection, including model and actress Chrissie Shrimpton (pictured) the younger sister of model Jean Shrimpton Success: David Bailey has previously said that the 60s was a wonderful time and everyone they knew became famous. Pictured, actor Michael Caine Outset: Pictured is a print of David Hockney, a painter, draughtsman, printmaker, stage designer and photographer who is considered to be one of the most influential British artists of the 20th century Young: Pictured is Tony Armstrong Jones, an English photographer and filmmaker who became Lord Snowdon when he married Princess Margaret, younger daughter of King George VI and younger sister of Queen Elizabeth II Auction: The set of 36 prints will be on sale at Special Auction Services in Newbury on June 23. The prints will be sold with the original card box and are expected to fetch between 2,500 and 3,000 Culture: Photographer David Bailey's 'Box of Pin Ups' was created in 1965 to celebrate the growing culture of fashionistas, pop stars and influential people of the time Memory: Pictured is David Bailey's portrait of Vidal Sassoon, a hairstylist, businessman, and philanthropist. He was noted for creating the close-cut geometric hair style called 'the Bob' and made famous by the fashionable elite of the 60s Police say Quincy Green, 34, managed to murder 44-year-old Dana Hamilton despite wearing a GPS tracker that prevented him from leaving his house When Dana Hamilton was shot to death in Washington DC last month, it didn't take long for a witness to point the finger at career criminal Quincy Green. The only problem was that a GPS tracker fitted to Green back in April after a gun arrest showed he was at home, a mile away from where the murder took place. But that seemingly airtight alibi quickly unraveled after officers discovered bungling officials had the fitted the tag to Green's prosthetic leg - meaning he was able to remove it by taking the limb off. An investigation has now been launched into the company which fits the trackers, Sentinel Services of California, after a spokesman admitted that protocol was 'absolutely not' followed. Chris McDowell, communications director for the firm, told the Washington Post that an employee fitted the device over Green's sock without realizing the limb underneath was fake. Typically GPS tags are designed to inform authorities if a criminal enters a certain area they have been prohibited from, or if the bracelet itself is tampered with. But in Green's case he was able to remove the limb with the tracker intact, leaving it inside a box in his apartment while he wandered freely along Washington's streets, cops say. Green, who has a lengthy criminal history, had been confined to his home awaiting trial after being arrested in April accused of possessing a handgun without a licence. Both cops and members of the public told authorities Green was violating the terms of his release, but their concerns were brushed away because the tracker said he was at home, it is reported. Hamilton was shot dead on May 19, and on May 25 a witness came forward with Green's name. Officers requested data from the tracker for May 19, 20 and 25 from Sentinel and after discovering that the device had 'barely moved', they concluded that Green had somehow removed it. But cops say Green was able to commit the killing after bungling officials fitted the device to his prosthetic leg - meaning he was able to take it off without damaging the tracker (file image) When they raided Green's home, they found the limb hidden away inside a box along with the GPS tag and two chargers. Green was arrested, and on Friday was charged with second-degree murder. Russell Mullins, Jr., Executive Steward, DC Police Union, told Fox 4: 'From what I understand the device has to be put skin to device and they sent somebody out to put this device on and its not touching its skin. 'I guess our biggest concern is we are out there every day putting our life on the line for citizens and making sure they are safe and then someone turns around and does something like this that lets them back out.' Lillie Hamilton, Dana's mother, told WUSA 9: 'Im just so hurt and I just hope I can deal with it. Its just really getting to me. 'Why would they put it on a prosthetic leg? When it was supposed to go on the persons real leg?' The District of Columbia largely did away with bonds years ago and most suspects are released under their own recognizance or wearing one of Sentinel's trackers. But the prankster had actually just posted a joke stock image of a 'thief' He also appealed to fans to identify and catch ski mask-wearing 'burglar' They stole $500,000 worth of possessions while family were out of town Burglars had broken into Kevin Hart's family home in LA on June 10 Kevin Hart may have had more than $500,000 of his possessions stolen during a recent burglary at his LA home, but one thing he hasn't lost his sense of humor. The comedian laughed off his half a million dollar loss today by sharing a stock photo of a ski mask-wearing 'burglar' on Instagram along with a joke appeal from fans to identify the man. 'Here is a picture from the security cameras of the jackass that's been robbing houses,' the 36-year-old prankster wrote. Scroll down for video Kevin Hart has shared a stock picture of a ski mask-wearing burglar who he jokes had broken into his home and stolen from him The comedian (pictured recently on Jimmy Kimmel Live) posted a photograph of the man on his Instagram account with an appeal to fans to help him identify and catch the thief 'Real smart move wearing the cool ski mask that shows ur eyebrows & the bags under ur eyes. 'We are on yo ass man....I'm about to show u the power of social media....One of my followers might recognize u and might not like you which would mean that they could careless about giving u up....Lets play a game of tell on the robber real quick...who knows I might get lucky!!!!!' The funny post has already gained more than 91,000 likes and thousands of comments suggesting a whole array of potential 'suspects' including Miley Cyrus, Channing Tatum and Donald Trump. The 36-year-old comedian told police that $500,000 of his possessions were taken when thieves forced their way in through a back door of his Tarzana property on the evening of Friday, June 10. TMZ reports that jewelry, watches and clothes were taken but luckily the star and his family were out of town at the time of the break-in. Hart reported the theft when he returned to Los Angeles on Monday. The home is protected with security gates and armed with surveillance cameras as Hart lives on a super exclusive gated community, so the burglars most likely broke in through the backdoor, according to the police. Thieves reportedly broke in through a back door and took items including jewelry, watches and clothes while Hart was away in Miami training (pictured) 'Got a great workout in this morning with my man': The 36-year-old comedian shared photos from a grueling training session with Miami Dolphins star Ndamukong Suh Wedding plans: Kevin shares his home in Tarzana with fiancee Eniko Parrish, 31. Thankfully no-one was in at the time of the burglary Officers also say the home has surveillance cameras inside and out although a spokesman for the LAPD told DailyMail.com that investigators had not yet reviewed any surveillance footage. Police say the investigation is continuing but so far, no arrests have been made. Hart was in Miami over the weekend and shared pictures from a grueling training session with Dolphins star Ndamukong Suh. The actor is also busy promoting his new movie Central Intelligence which he stars in alongside Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson. Hart plays mild-mannered accountant Calvin Joyner who is reunited with his former high school friend (Johnson) and lured into a world of international espionage. The movie is released June 17. Hart lives in Tarzana with his fiancee Eniko Parrish, 31 who he plans to marry in August. A man who is running for Congress said he was inspired by Donald Trump when he put up a billboard on a Tennessee highway that said 'Make America White Again.' The sign, which was located off Highway 411 near Benton, was erected by Rick Tyler, a third party candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives, representing the third congressional district. The seat is currently held by Republican Chuck Fleischmann. But the day after the sign went up, there was such a backlash and outrage in the community, that it came right back down. Rick Tyler, who is running as a third party candidate for Congress, put this sign up in Benton, Tennessee - the sign was only there for a day before disgust and outrage from the community made him take it back down The sign depicts his Utopian version of America: White people, the founding fathers, and a place where even the horses are white. Tyler says he wants to bring back a time of Ozzie and Harriet and Leave It to Beaver However, Tyler says he holds no ill will for 'people of color.' He told WSMV Channel 3 that he only meant he wants to return to a time of the 'Leave it to Beaver, Ozzie and Harriet, Mayberry America. Some might call it the Norman Rockwell America.' 'I and millions of others believe that that was a better America. We believe it was an America where you didn't have to lock your doors, you didn't have to worry about car jackings and home invasions, you didn't have to worry about Muslim sleeper cells, you didn't have to worry about Islamic mosques radicalizing people. It was far superior to the America we live in today. America's strength was having a white super majority,' he said. Rick Tyler, who owns the Whitewater Grill in Ocoee probably does not have 'white' in his restaurant's name by accident - he put up a 'Make America White Again' sign to promote his racist views and his candidacy for Congress On Highway 64, Rick Tyler put up a sign quoting Martin Luther King, Jr, but twisting his message and adding confederate flags to the White House lawn, it's unclear if the sign is still there Channel 3 said it received several irate phone calls about the sign, wanting it to be removed. And Facebook was livid with posts condemning the racist sign. The two websites advertised on the billboard appear to be down. 'Hard to believe such ignorant, hateful, knuckle dragging dirtnecks are breathing the same air the rest of us do,' said Jim Moore on Facebook. 'A clown running for congress in Tennessee,' wrote Edward Sebesta. Another sign, this time on Highway 64, financed by Tyler used words from Dr. Martin Luther Kings 'I Have a Dream' speech along with an illustration of Confederate flags surrounding the White House. It's unclear if that sign is still standing. Rick Tyler, a white supremacist, is running as a third party candidate for the District 3 Congressional seat in Tennessee Tyler also owns Whitewater Grill in Ocoee. Its Facebook page has been filling up with outrage since the billboard hit the news. 'If you are a true American/Patriot I urge not to eat here! He is anti-American. He disrespected my entire family who are Mexican/African American veterans and Marines! Who have fought for this country to make America Great!' wrote Jesus Herrera. 'Such an amazing place, and so much to do in the area! Right down the road, just a mile or so, is the A. Hitler Winery, and right across the street is the Joey Goebbels Brewhouse,' snarked Rob Butler. 'Strange ... Much of the food you serve originated with those brown, yellow and black people you want to get rid of. Better start serving white bread only,' commented Paula Mays Gapp under a picture the restaurant posted of a taco. Other candidates in the District 3 race include incumbent Chuck Fleischmann, who's facing Allan Levene and Geoffery Suhmer Smith for the GOP nomination. Michael Friedman, George Ryan Love and Melody Shekari are vying for the Democratic nomination. Bernie Sanders is still in the presidential race, but acknowledged to C-SPAN's Steve Scully that he's not going to be front and center at the Democratic National Convention. 'It doesn't appear I'm going to be the nominee,' Sanders said in a sit-down with the cable channel, in an interview that was released online today. The Sanders campaign also announced a Thursday night rally, calling it the 'where we go from here' speech, where the Vermont senator will come face-to-face with supporters in New York City. All these signs point to Sanders finally shutting the door on his presidential ambitions, as it's been two weeks and two days since his rival Hillary Clinton had enough delegates to clinch the nomination, according to the Associated Press's math. Scroll down for video Sen. Bernie Sanders acknowledged in an interview with C-SPAN that 'it doesn't appear I'm going to be the nominee' Journalist Steve Scully (left) sat down with Bernie Sanders (right) who announced today that he would be speaking about 'where to go from here' tomorrow before supporters in New York City Sanders pressed on through election day in California and then in Washington, D.C. Last week he gave a web address to supporters from his hometown of Burlington, Vermont, but he has yet to concede. Scully got Sanders to admit he wouldn't be the Democratic nominee by asking him his plans for the Democratic National Convention and whether he planned to speak. 'Well, it's hard to say, that is,' Sanders began, before making the admission. 'So I'm not going to be determining the scope of the convention.' He then mentioned his meeting with Clinton that was held in D.C. last week, where the two long-standing rivals met at the Capital Hilton downtown. 'It was very good,' Sanders said, of the two hour long meet-and-greet. 'I have known Secretary Clinton for 25 years, we served in the Senate together,' Sanders added. Sanders explained that 'where we are right now, what we are trying to do, which is no secret to anybody' is create the most progressive platform possible at the Democratic National Convention. 'And, secondly, we're trying to do nothing less than transform the Democratic Party,' Sanders said. Sanders explained that that meant opening up the primaries, reminding the C-SPAN journalist that he had been badly beaten in his home state of New York, where Clinton served as a senator, because independents couldn't cast votes. C-SPAN's Steve Scully asked Bernie Sanders about his role at the Democratic National Convention, which forced the admission that the Vermont senator knew he wouldn't be the nominee The Democratic hopeful also said he wanted to rid the Democrats' process of superdelegates, party faithful who also get to cast a vote for a candidate at the convention. Sanders often talked about how the superdelegates were in the tank for Clinton, with around 400 pledging their support for the former secretary of state before the Vermont senator even announced. Scully wanted to know why Sanders thought his campaign resonated so much. His success, Sanders thought, showed 'how far removed the reality much of the media really is.' The candidate pointed to early news reports on his campaign that suggested there wouldn't be a thirst for his progressive politics, nor would he be able to raise money. Sanders outraised Clinton on several occasions and thousands upon thousands appeared at his rally. When Scully showed Sanders some pictures of his crowds, Sanders practically gasped. 'Woah. That is a lot of people,' Sanders said. 'Oh yes, God yes,,' Sanders added, when asked if he got energy from such big crowds. 'It is not just the number, it is looking into the eyes of people who really do want this country to do much, much better,' he said. Scully also played back to Sanders one of the Vermont senator's most memorable ads, which used the song 'America' by Simon and Garfunkel, along with footage of screaming crowds. C-SPAN's Steve Scully asked the Vermont senator to explain why his campaign resonated with so many Americans. Sanders replied that it showed that the media is out of touch 'I'm smiling,' he said. 'Because every time I see that ad it gives me tingles and sometimes almost bring tears to my eyes. It's a beautiful ad.' The senator seemed to sense that his campaign was winding down and could possibly be in its final hours. Then again Sanders seemed close to a concession speech before and there's no guarantee that's what he plans to deliver tomorrow in New York. He was confident about one thing he wouldn't deliver his voters to presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump, who made an overture to them earlier today. When Scully asked Sanders about it, the senator laughed at the idea. 'Well, I suspect he ain't going to get too many of those people,' Sanders said of Trump. Schaquana Spears, who was jailed for beating her young sons, after they robbed a house has been bailed out by a stranger who sympathized with her A mother-of-six who was jailed for beating her young sons with a belt after they robbed a house has been bailed out by a stranger who sympathized with her. Schaquana Spears, 30, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was booked into prison on felony cruelty charges on Tuesday. Detectives at the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriffs Office spoke with Spears children after they were contacted by the Department of Children and Family Services on June 17, WAFB reports. Her 13-year-old said his mother hit him with an RCA cord multiple times and he was left with marks on his leg, shoulder, back and stomach. After they spoke to Spears, they learned that she had punished her children after finding out they had broken into a house on their street. [She] admitted hitting the child and her two other sons multiple times as they were moving and running away, a deputy noted in the probable cause report. [She] did this because the victims burglarized a residence down the street. The police report adds the youngest child, who is 10, had a small scratch on his hand. The other boy, aged 12, had a cut on his left arm. Spears was arrested and booked into the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison, where her bond was set at $2,500. However, her arrest sparked controversy with some defending Spears, saying should not have been taken into police custody for disciplining her children. She shouldnt be arrested. She should be given a medal, wrote Patricia Williams on Facebook. I bet these boys think twice before burglarizing another house. Kimberly Cox added: I applaud this mother. She was doing what a parent does, disciplining her children. They didnt skip school or tell a lie they broke into someones home and stole. Spears broke down as she said she cant understand how she could be arrested and jailed for what she did But it wasnt long before Spears was released from jail. Her bond was posted by a private citizen not connected to her, but who empathized with her situation, Fox12 reports. Since her release, Spears has spoken out to say that she cant understand how she could be arrested and jailed for what she did. Everything I do is for my kids, she told WBRZ. I didnt want them to commit another crime. Breaking down, she added: Its been hell. I never could imagine that trying to be a good mother would end me up in jail with a criminal record like Im a predator out to hurt my kids. I dont think it is right at all. I really love my children. Spears said she was at work on Friday when she received a call from a neighbour who said that three of her sons and their friends had been seen coming home with what looked like stolen property. She said that her childrens father is incarcerated at the moment and she wanted to do everything to ensure her children did not end up in the same situation. Meanwhile, District Attorney Hillar Moore said his office will review the degree of physical discipline used in the case. In a statement, he said: The law does not allow excessive pain or cruelty but does allow physical parental discipline. He added: Parents have a right and obligation to discipline and teach their children. We often time see children who have no parental authority or discipline which eventually results in delinquency and criminal acts. We need more parents who discipline their children. Surely you would expect a parent to discipline a child who is burglarizing other peoples homes as this could be a deadly encounter for the child. Parking a tank on the back of a flatbed lorry is never going to be an easy task but these Ukrainian soldiers couldn't have got it more wrong. Smartphone footage caught the moment the driver managed to flip the tank onto its roof as a soldier stood on the lorry, gesturing for him to drive forward. As the tank drove up the ramp, its gun pointing in the air, the front suddenly fell down and the barrel missed the soldier's head by just a few inches. Smartphone footage caught the moment the driver managed to flip the tank onto its roof as a soldier stood on the lorry, gesturing for him to drive forward As the tank drove up the ramp, its gun pointing in the air, the front suddenly fell down and the barrel missed the soldier's head by just a few inches The soldier - reportedly from the Dnipro Battalion - ducks for cover as the T-64 Soviet battle tank then flips over and lands on its roof beside the truck The hatch appears to be open as the tank flips but it is not known if the driver was hurt in the incident The tank finally comes to rest completely overturned in the ditch by the side of the road The soldier - reportedly from the Dnipro Battalion - ducks for cover as the T-64 Soviet battle tank then flips over and lands on its roof beside the truck. It finally comes to rest completely overturned in the ditch by the side of the road. The officer who was guiding the tank managed to jump off the platform at the last second and appears to have escaped unhurt. It was not revealed whether the driver was injured in the incident which is believed to have taken place somewhere near the front line in eastern Ukraine. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defence have not commented on the matter. The video was posted on video-sharing websites but one person came to the soldiers defence. Drugs mule Melissa Reid is back on British soil and has been reunited with her parents after spending nearly three years in jail in Peru. The 22-year-old Scot arrived at Glasgow Airport last night with her father after completing the last leg of her journey to the UK from Lima. She was taken out of the airport via a back door after accepting the offer of an airside transfer upon her arrival in baggage claim, which meant she did not appear before the waiting media. Reid was then spotted sprinting into the detached home owned by her parents to reunite with her mother. Heading home: Drug mule Melissa Reid, from Lenzie, East Dunbartonshire, was escorted by police through Lima airport on Tuesday Support: The 22-year-old was met at the airport by her devoted father Billy, pictured right, who has campaigned for his daughter's return Journey back: Billy and Melissa Reid are pictured making their way to the gate, where they boarded a long-haul flight to Amsterdam Reid was then spotted sprinting into the detached home (pictured) owned by her parents to reunite with her mother Billy Reid and Debbie Reid at their home after hearing their daughter Melissa is to be released from prison Reid, from Lenzie, East Dunbartonshire, was caught in August 2013 with 23-year-old Michaella McCollum, from Dungannon, Co Tyrone, trying to smuggle cocaine worth 1.5 million in food bags from Peru to Spain. The pair - nicknamed the 'Peru Two' - were jailed for six years and eight months after admitting the offence. But a judge last month ordered Reid to be expelled from the South American country under an early release scheme for deporting first-time drug offenders. Last night, she was escorted by police through Lima international, hours after being released from jail. Walking just a few feet away was her devoted father Billy, who has spent the last three years doggedly campaigning for his daughter's return. The 'Peru Two': Melissa Reid, right, was jailed alongside Michaella McCollum, left, after they were caught trying to smuggle 1.5 million of cocaine from Peru to Spain. McCollum, from Dungannon, Co Tyrone, was freed in March but was required to remain in Peru on parole Reid remained silent as she was taken to the gate but smiled when asked how it felt to finally be heading home. The Reids are flying back to Glasgow via Amsterdam and London. It is understood Melissa, 22, will land in the UK as a free woman. Melissa arrived at the crowded airport in a prison van from Ancon II jail, north of Lima, where she served the majority of her sentence. On Tuesday night a Peruvian Prison Service spokesman said: 'I can confirm Melissa has been released from prison and will leave Peru today. She should be at Lima Airport Now. I don't have details of her flight arrangements.' Reid and McCollum were caught in August 2013 as they tried to board an Air Europe flight to Majorca via Madrid with 24lb (11kg) of cocaine hidden in food packets packed in their luggage. Reid was surrounded by a handful of Peruvian officials as she was pulled by the hand through the airport ahead of her flight home Reid, pictured, remained silent as she was escorted through the busy international airport by a team of Peruvian officials Reid was joined by her father Billy, pictured right, who has spent the last three years doggedly campaigning for his daughter's release The women, who travelled to Peru after spending the summer working in Ibiza, initially protested their innocence, claiming they had been forced to become drug runners by a gang of armed kidnappers. Reid's parents spoke out publicly in support of the pair but later said a guilty plea was the best course of action. Reid and McCollum faced up to 15 years in jail if convicted of drug smuggling after a trial. Both women later pleaded guilty to the charges and were sentenced to six years and eight months in prison. Peruvian police and prosecutors said from the start they never believed the women's stories about being forced to smuggle drugs. Reid and McCollum were initially held at Virgen de Fatima prison in Lima but were later moved to Ancon II prison, a modern facility where conditions were moderately better than the overcrowded and unsanitary conditions of the previous jail. Reid was allowed to apply for a return to Britain under a 2014 law designed to reduce Peru's prison population. Father Billy walked just a few feet behind his daughter as she was rushed towards the gate. The Reids boarded a flight for Amsterdam Taking off: William and Melissa Reid were escorted to the gate by officials. It is understood they will fly to Europe and connect to Glasgow The law applies to most first-time foreign offenders sentenced to less than seven years in jail. It allows foreign convicts to apply to be expelled back to their home country once they have served a third of their jail term. It is officially called a 'special country departure benefit'. In most cases successful applicants also have to prove payment of the compensation they were ordered to pay as part of their sentence - 10,000 Peruvian soles or around 2,100 in Reid's case. It is thought Reid will be banned from returning to Peru for 10 years. Previously Reid's legal team had applied for a transfer back to the UK under the Prisoner Transfer Agreement which has existed between the UK and Peru since 2003. In April, Peruvian magistrate Ana Zapata granted the expulsion order for Reid. She said Reid had shown remorse and her 'intention to be re-inserted back in society'. Ms Zapata also said it had been Reid's first offence and that she had worked while in prison and paid the 2,000 fine. Melissa Reid smiled as she made her way through the crowded airport towards the gate, followed by her father Billy Reid, who was jailed for drug smuggling in 2013, was escorted by two immigration officers as she prepared to fly home to Scotland Reid was pulled through the airport on Tuesday evening. She has been waiting for her release since an announcement last month Melissa Reid, pictured, met her father at the check-in counter after being dropped off at the airport by a prison van A judge in Lima last month granted an order to expel Reid as she met the legal requirements for release While there was speculation over whether Reid would be required to serve the remainder of her prison sentence in a Scottish prison, she landed in Britain as a free woman. The Scottish Prison Service says it has had no contact from the Peruvian authorities since a request for a transfer back to Scotland was made under the Prisoner Transfer Agreement two years ago. A spokesman said it was not involved in her case. It is understood Reid, who has served about a third of her sentence, will not have a criminal record in the UK as a result of her conviction in Peru. While Reid is now back in the UK, McCollum is expected to remain in Peru for a considerable period as part of her parole conditions. She was released in March after serving two years and three months of her sentence. Earlier this year it was reported that McCollum will be living with 73-year-old Irish-American Bishop Sean Walsh in a three-bedroom apartment in the bustling neighbourhood of Miraflores in the capital. She will be helping Father Walsh with his church's magazine, with administration work and photography, it was said. Final months: Reid, 22, was last pictured in April, above, when a Peruvian official announced that her release was in the final stages Four Australians have been kidnapped by gunmen in southern Nigeria who killed their local driver in an early morning attack. The workers, two of whom police said later escaped, were contractors for cement company Lafarge Africa. Initial reports suggested two of the kidnapped were Australians - but Foreign Minister Julie Bishop's office said authorities were working to confirm claims that four of those abducted were Australians. Scroll down for video Two Australians and a New Zealander are among a group that were kidnapped at gunpoint in Nigeria 'The Australian Government is working to confirm details of the reported kidnapping in Nigeria of four Australians, who have been working for an Australian mining company,' Ms Bishop said. 'The Australian Government is in close contact with the Nigerian Government, which is taking the matter extremely seriously.' According to local media a group of militants ambushed the contractors before opening fire and killing the driver on the spot. A witness told Vanguard: 'One of the expatriates hid under the vehicle and they didn't see him because it was still a bit dark,' the unnamed witness said. 'They also took one of the drivers ... then one supervisor and three white guys and it was like they had a boat by the beach already waiting for them.' They were attacked on the outskirts of the city of Calabar at around 5.30am local time on Wednesday, police said. They were attacked on the outskirts of the city of Calabar at around 5.30am local time on Wednesday There was earlier confusion over the nationalities of those involved. But Irene Ugbo, a spokeswoman for Cross River state police, said two were Australians and one was a New Zealander. A second police spokesman later said another foreigner abducted was from South Africa. Two expatriates managed to flee, said Ugbo, adding that she did not know the nationality of any of the workers feared still held. The kidnappers had not contacted police, she said. Lafarge Africa said it had been informed of the incident by Australian contractor Macmahon. The workers, two of whom police said later escaped, were contractors for cement company Lafarge Africa 'Macmahon is working with the security agencies to resolve this situation,' said Viola Graham-Douglas, a spokeswoman for Lafarge Africa. Macmahon could not immediately be reached for comment. Nigerian publication Today said a New Zealander was among those kidnapped, along with three Australians, a South African and a Nigerian. According to the report, police were working to ensure the victims are released unharmed. Police are searching for a man accused of waiting inside public toilets before exposing himself. The man, believed to be in his 30s, was standing inside a toilet cubicle at Prahan Markets in Melbourne on April 14 when he flashed two men who entered the restrooms. Moorabbin Sexual Offences and Child Abuse Investigation Team detectives have released images of a man they want to speak with in relation to the incident. Police have released this image of a man they want to speak to in regards to a flashing at Prahan Markets in Melbourne The man is described as being aged in his 30s, about 173cm tall with long, dark, wavy hair that was tied in a ponytail. At the time of the incident he was wearing a dark coloured jacket, khaki pants and black runners. He was also carrying two large black bags and a bright orange satchel. Police have released CCTV images of a man seen in the area at the time who they believe can assist with their enquiries. Four key claims made by the Remain camp were demolished last night in the final hours of the referendum battle. As voters prepared to go to the polls in a knife-edge contest, Leave supporters said David Cameron's arguments on Turkey, trade, migration and welfare had fallen apart. And in a final impassioned plea, Michael Gove declared today was 'D-Day' for current generations of Britons. He urged wavering voters not to flinch from regaining sovereignty from a Brussels machine that would leave their country poorer and less secure. As voters prepared to go to the polls in a knife-edge contest, Leave supporters said David Cameron's arguments on Turkey, trade, migration and welfare had fallen apart. Pictured, the Prime Minister yesterday Polls make the contest neck and neck. 'It's 50:50,' said Professor John Curtice the only analyst to have predicted last year's election result. Making his final arguments for Britain to remain in the EU, the Prime Minister suffered a series of body blows from events and interventions beyond his control: On Turkey, EU diplomats said talks on the country's membership will reopen next week; On trade, Germany's top industrialist dismissed claims Brexit would spark a tariff war; On migration, EU chief Jean-Claude Juncker ruled out more changes to free movement rules; On welfare, Mr Cameron was accused of falsely claiming jobless migrants can be kicked out. Turkey's bid to join the EU has been a central issue in the campaign, amid concerns of an influx from a country with rock bottom wages. Mr Cameron has backtracked on his pledge to be the 'strongest possible advocate' for Turkish membership of the EU, and insisted it will not happen 'until the year 3000'. But he has repeatedly refused to say he would veto Turkish accession. And yesterday it emerged the EU will resume talks on Turkish membership next week, just days after the referendum. Michael Gove declared today was 'D-Day' for current generations of Britons John Major, who was campaigning alongside Mr Cameron yesterday, also appeared to suggest Turkey could join the EU far more quickly, saying: 'They are not going to get in in my judgment for one, two decades perhaps not ever.' Iain Duncan Smith, a Leave campaigner and another former Tory leader, said Sir John had let the cat out of the bag. And he accused Mr Cameron of deliberate deception, saying: 'I'm afraid there is no conclusion you can draw from this, except that David Cameron is colluding with the EU and lying to the British people.' Writing in the Daily Mail today, he adds: 'As much as the PM suggests otherwise, the issue of Turkey and the future of its 77million population ought to be in voters' minds today as they enter the polling booth.' The Prime Minister used a final round of media interviews yesterday to claim reform to the EU's free movement rules would continue 'on Friday' if Britain votes Remain today. But within hours he had been undermined by Mr Juncker. The president of the European Commission said Britain had already received 'the maximum' on offer. Mr Cameron's claim that Brexit would spark a trade war that would wreck the economy was also undermined when the head of Germany's leading business organisation, the BDI, vowed to fight any attempt to impose tariffs. Markus Kerber said it would be 'very, very foolish' for EU countries to try to use trade barriers to punish Britain for leaving not least because Europe sells more to us than we do to them. The Prime Minister also repeated his discredited claim that his reforms meant that the UK was now able to deport EU jobseekers if they failed to find work within six months. Mr Cameron made the claim twice yesterday. Jonathan Portes, an economist, accused the PM of 'repeating a known falsehood' and said no one had been kicked out of Britain as a result of reforms. In his final pitch to voters at a rally in Birmingham, the Prime Minister said: 'What this vote is all about, it's about our economy, it's about jobs, it's about livelihoods and futures, but it's also about the sort of country we want to be. Boris Johnson gives a thumbs up as he leaves Selby, North Yorkshire, on the final day of campaigning 'I am passionate about this country, I am wildly patriotic about what we've done in the past and what we can do in the future. The sort of Great Britain I want, an even greater country doesn't walk away, it doesn't quit, it stays and it fights.' Speculation was already swirling at Westminster about how MPs will react when the polls finally close at 10pm tonight. A letter signed by Mr Gove and Boris Johnson, along with scores of other Tory MPs is expected to be released at 10pm calling for Mr Cameron to remain in office regardless of the result. An exclusive survey for the Daily Mail and ITV News, gave the Remain camp a lead of six points, by 48 per cent to 42 per cent 11 per cent of voters are still undecided. Crucially, the Leave campaign's key message that now is the time for Britain to take control of its own destiny has had the biggest impact on the country's voters. Some 44 per cent said it made them more likely to vote to quit the Brussels club outstripping the claim by the Remain camp that leaving is a leap in the dark. Downing Street stood by its claim that Turkey was not on course to join the EU. It said yesterday's announcement related to the opening of only one of more than 30 areas of negotiation that Turkey must conclude. No 10 sources also argued Mr Juncker's comments were being misrepresented. They said he had been ruling out further negotiations in the event of Brexit not if the UK votes to Remain. LIE ONE: Giving jobless migrants the boot 'is a myth' Former Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith, pictured, said Mr Cameron knew his claim about kicking out jobless migrants was 'not true' By Jack Doyle, Political Correspondent for the Daily Mail David Cameron was last night accused of treating voters with contempt after he repeated false claims about kicking out jobless migrants. Twice yesterday the Prime Minister said EU migrants have to leave the country if they dont have a job after six months. Mr Cameron has used the claim repeatedly during the referendum campaign despite it being rubbished both by the Leave camp and independent economists. Last night, Jonathan Portes, an economist and former civil servant, said the PM was guilty of repeating a known falsehood. He wrote on Twitter: What can you say? Deliberately repeating a known falsehood. Treating voters with contempt. Lets be clear. Vote to Remain is vote for free movement. Principle is not up for discussion. Mr Portes has said the number of people kicked out under the six-month rule has been zero. And former Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith told the Mail: The claim is not true, and he knows it. The truth is there is no mechanism, and no legal right to send people home if they do not have a job. The European Unions core principle of freedom of movement dictates that people are free not only to travel here, but to remain. And for as long as we remain in the EU we are powerless to do anything about it. The only way to take back control of our borders, and introduce a fair immigration system, is to vote leave today. When he was in office, civil servants told Mr Duncan Smith the chances of removing an EU citizen from Britain if they do not get a job after six months was close to zero. He said Whitehall officials told him migrants can easily get around the regulations, and that the Home Office admitted it did not have the staff or the capacity to enforce it. Mr Cameron used the claim yesterday on Radio 4. Today presenter John Humphrys put to him that on benefits, his EU renegotiation doesnt add up to a row of beans. The PM replied: Well it does. What it means is that if people come here they cant claim unemployment benefit, if they dont have a job after six months they have to leave and if they do work they have to work for four years before they get full access to our welfare system. Again, later in the day, Mr Cameron told LBC radio: If you vote Remain then we get the changes that I have negotiated and that means that if somebody comes to Britain from the European Union, they cant claim unemployment benefit. If they havent got a job after six months they have to leave. Mr Cameron claimed credit for the rule change, saying it was secured as part of his renegotiation deal. But last night the Home Office said the six-months rule was introduced on January 1, 2014. Mr Duncan Smith was in charge of implementing the rule change as Work and Pensions Secretary. But he said the Home Office told him they were unable to force anyone to leave as a result of not having secured a job. Vote Leave argue that as well as there being no mechanism for monitoring whether or not jobseekers remain in the UK after this period has elapsed, EU law forbids systematic checks on whether EU citizens are lawfully residing in the UK. The European Court of Justice has ruled jobseekers cannot be removed irrespective of how long they have been here if they can show they are continuing to seek employment and that has genuine chances of being engaged. The Home Office was unable to provide a figure for the number of EU migrants removed under the rule. LIE TWO: Turkey - now an ex-Premier lets the cat out of the bag By Daniel Martin, Chief Political Correspondent for the Daily Mail The Prime Minister is lying to the British people, it was said last night, after Sir John Major suggested Turkey could join the EU in as little as a decade. Iain Duncan Smith, the Leave campaigner who resigned as Work and Pensions Secretary earlier this year, said former PM Sir John, a staunch Remain backer, had let the cat out of the bag. It also emerged yesterday that membership talks between the EU and Turkey are due to be reopened next Thursday a week after the referendum. The pro-Brexit camp has highlighted the possibility of Turkish entry to the EU, saying it could open the doors to hundreds of thousands of workers coming to Britain under free movement rules if we vote to Remain. The Prime Minister is lying to the British people, it was said last night, after Sir John Major suggested Turkey could join the EU in as little as a decade. Pictured, Mr Cameron with Sir John and Harriet Harman David Cameron claimed earlier this week that membership was not on the cards in the next few decades and that, at current rates, it would not take place until the year 3000. But yesterday, standing alongside Mr Cameron at a Remain campaign event, Sir John said he did not believe that Turkey would join the EU as early as 2026 but indicated it was a possibility. I find it extraordinary that people should point to Turkey, and suggest that 77million Turks are suddenly going to descend and take all of our hospital places and all our school places and all our local authority dwellings, he said. They have been negotiating for 30 years without getting in. They are not going to get in, in my judgment, for one, two decades perhaps not ever. Even if it happened in some far distant future, what obscenity it is to suggest all 77million Turks are suddenly going to say, Lets go to the United Kingdom, the national minimum wage has risen by 50p, lets get there as fast as we can. If they do happen to say that, let me just mention to them in advance that they would actually earn more in France or in Germany than they would here. Yesterday the Prime Minister repeated his prediction that Turkey may not be able to join the EU until the year 3000. Asked about Leave warnings of a potential early accession for Turkey, the PM told LBC radio: The issue simply isnt going to arise. This is the reddest of red herrings. At the current rate of progress, Turkey could qualify to join in about the year 3000. EU leaders pledged in March to speed up Turkeys long-stalled membership talks as part of an accord on tackling migration. Mr Duncan Smith said: David Cameron has repeatedly claimed that Turkey is not going to join the EU, despite it being Government policy. Now the Turkish government has confirmed that he is the chief supporter of their bid to join the EU. Cameron also said that Turkey will not join until the year 3000, but Sir John Major has let the cat out of the bag Turkey could be in the EU in ten years time. Im afraid there is no conclusion you can draw from this except that David Cameron is colluding with the EU and lying to the British people. Families are suffering the consequences of uncontrolled migration. With five countries lining up to join the EU Albania, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia and Turkey this problem can only get worse. Last night, the Turkish presidents chief adviser, Ilnur Cevik, told BBC2s Newsnight that Mr Cameron had changed his mind to Turkeys membership of the EU for political purposes. We thought that Mr Cameron was our chief supporter in our quest for EU membership, he said. We are really, really flabbergasted. LIE THREE: We must not block EU trade, says top German boss German industrialist Markus Kerber, pictured, dismissed warnings of a post-Brexit trade war By Jason Groves, Deputy Political Editor for the Daily Mail Germany's leading industrialist yesterday dismissed warnings of a post-Brexit trade war, saying the EU would be very, very foolish to impose tariffs on the UK. David Cameron and George Osborne have repeatedly issued doom-laden warnings that British exporters will face a wall of tariffs if Britain leaves the EU, potentially costing jobs. But Markus Kerber, head of the influential BDI which represents German industry, said that made no sense. Mr Kerber told the BBCs World Service: Imposing trade barriers, imposing protectionist measures between our two countries or between the two political centres, the EU on the one hand and the UK on the other would be a very, very foolish thing in the 21st Century. The BDI would urge politicians on both sides to come up with a trade regime that enables us to uphold and maintain the levels of trade we have. Boris Johnson welcomed the intervention, saying it was clear that EU trade partners would be desperate for a deal with Britain. The former London Mayor told a BBC debate on Tuesday night that EU countries would be insane to erect trade barriers against the UK if it pulled out of the EU, as they sell far more to us than we do to them. Responding to Mr Kerbers comments yesterday, Mr Johnson said: After the incessant doom-mongering of the In campaign, we now hear the truth from the voice of German industry they would be desperate for free trade after we vote Leave. They would be damaging their own commercial interests if they didnt. Thats why EU politicians would be banging down the door for a trade deal on Friday. The assumption that British firms would face tariff barriers has been central to a series of lurid warnings from the Treasury and other bodies that leaving the EU would damage the economy. But Britains trade deficit with the EU the difference between goods imported and exported hit a record 23.9billion in the first three months of this year, suggesting EU firms would suffer massively in any trade war. Former Tory Cabinet minister John Redwood said: They know they sell twice as many goods to us as we do to them. Who is going to want to wreck that? One of Britains leading entrepreneurs, Sir James Dyson, warned that remaining in the EU would be an act of national self-harm. LIE FOUR: You won't get more borders reform - EU chief says PM got 'maximum deal' By John Stevens for the Daily Mail Britain will not gain any more reform of immigration rules whether Remain or Leave wins, the EUs top bureaucrat warned last night. Jean-Claude Juncker flatly rejected making further changes to freedom of movement rules that enable the EUs 500million citizens to come to the UK. The European Commission president said David Cameron had been given the maximum reform he could get in his widely-derided deal with Brussels. Jean-Claude Juncker flatly rejected making further changes to freedom of movement rules that enable the EUs 500million citizens to come to the UK. Pictured, Mr Juncker with Mr Cameron The Prime Minister has been telling voters he will be able to reform EU migration rules if they choose to vote Remain. The agreement by EU leaders made some changes to benefit entitlements for migrants but did not touch freedom of movement rules. Mr Juncker, a former prime minister of Luxembourg, said yesterday: There will be no kind of any negotiation, adding: [Mr Cameron] got the maximum he could receive, and we gave the maximum we could give, so there will be no kind of renegotiation on the agreement we found in February or as far as any kind of treaty negotiation is concerned. Out is out. Earlier in the day, Mr Cameron had said: in an interview: Reform doesnt end on Friday. The only way it ends is if we leave. Asked whether he could guarantee he would push for tougher migration controls, he said: Yes of course. This is an ongoing process. Justice Secretary Michael Gove told voters last night said: If you vote to stay there is no prospect of getting any reform from the EU ever again. The Prime Minister tried to get reforms earlier this year but the EU did not listen. The EU cannot and will not give the British people the change that they want. Boris Johnson, the former London mayor, said: I was very struck to see what President Juncker said that if Britain thought it was going to get any more change from the EU we had another think coming. Mr Johnson added: The idea that we can do better by staying in the EU and fighting for change is, Im afraid, a sham, a snare and a delusion. LIZ HURLEY BARES ALL TO BACK BREXIT Actress Liz Hurley was leaving little to the imagination yesterday... as she encouraged Britain to vote Leave. She urged her social media followers to go for Brexit by releasing a saucy picture of her smiling with just a Union Jack cushion to cover her modesty. The star wrote alongside the image: Vote tomorrow whatever your persuasion. Im for #Brexit & promise to neither gloat nor whinge. But VOTE! Liz Hurley urged her social media followers to go for Brexit by releasing a saucy picture of her smiling with just a Union Jack cushion to cover her modesty Miss Hurley, 51, uploaded the image, taken as a cover shot for the Mail on Sundays You Magazine in 2011, to her Twitter and Instagram accounts where it was quickly liked and retweeted thousands of times. Some jokingly commented that the cheeky photo of the former model alone was enough to make them vote Leave. On Twitter, one user said: I would say this is the ultimate campaign poster. Another posted: Thanks Liz, I was going to vote remain, but seeing you with that cushion, I am for Brexit. I am born anew in your wisdom. Advertisement IAIN DUNCAN SMITH: What a cynical exercise in hiding the truth Today, the country has the chance to return the Government of Britain back to the UK. More than that, we have the chance to end the corruption of our politics. This corruption of the democratic process is best exemplified by how our leaders have reacted to Turkeys wish to join the EU. Although he now claims there is no chance of Turkey joining (allowing its 77 million citizens free movement to the UK), why did the Prime Minister refuse on FOUR occasions to say hed use the British veto to stop it happening? There are several other contradictions. Iain Duncan Smith: 'The country has the chance to return the Government of Britain back to the UK' If Turkey wont join until about the year 3000 (as the PM has said), why is there a special team at the British embassy in Ankara helping Turkey to join? And why are hundreds of millions of pounds of British taxpayers money being spent to support the accession of Turkey (as well as Albania, Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro) to the EU? Equally, why are Brussels officials busy negotiating key financial aspects of Turkeys accession before Christmas? All this confirms the fact that Turkeys accession to the European Union is both British and EU policy. Furthermore, the PM knows that the deal struck with the Ankara government earlier this year to stop migrants using Turkey as a jumping-off point to pour into Greece and thus enable them to travel to any other EU country was done in exchange for the Turkish government getting 4.6billion in aid (1billion from the UK), visa-free access for Turks to mainland Europe and accelerated entry to the EU. The Prime Minister is also fully aware that if we try to pull out of the deal, Turkey would inevitably start to allow migrants travelling to EU countries from its shores again creating similar chaos to that which occurred last year. The truth is that Turkey has the European Union over a barrel and the British Government knows it. Most cynically, the Brussels Commission has been holding back announcements about Turkey until after the UK referendum on membership of the EU. But yesterday the fact was leaked that it will start negotiations on Turkeys entry into the EU a week today after the British people have voted. Hillary Clinton defended her family foundation this afternoon as a charitable organization that provides poor people with life-saving AIDS medication in response to a new set of attacks from Donald Trump. Trump accused Clinton on Wednesday of using her position at the State Department for 'personal profit and theft.' He said she routinely did favors for foreign governments who donated to the Clinton Foundation and 'may be the most corrupt person ever to seek the presidency.' In Raleigh, at a campaign stop this afternoon, she fired back - 'Donald Trump uses poor people around the world to produce his line of suits and ties,' she said. Hillary Clinton defended her family foundation this afternoon as a charitable organization that provides poor people with life-saving AIDS medication in response to a new set of attacks from Donald Trump Trump's ties are made in China and his suits are produced in Mexico. Clinton spent most of her speech Wednesday outlining her economic plan, having spent the bulk of her time skewering Trump the day before. At the tail end of her Raleigh event she invoked her White House rival and hit some of the same notes she did Tuesday as she attempted to deflate Trump's business record. The self-proclaimed 'king of debt' has 'no real ideas' she said for making college affordable and 'no credible plan' for rebuilding America's infrastructure. 'He has no real strategy for creating jobs, just a string of empty promises,' she proclaimed. Clinton said, 'Maybe we shouldn't expect better from someone who's most famous words are, "You're fired." I want you to know, 'I do have a jobs program, and as president I'm gonna make sure that you hear, "You're hired," ' she told a roaring audience. The Democratic presidential candidate credited herself with getting under Trump's skin yesterday, saying, 'I know that Donald hates it when anyone points out how hollow his sales pitch really is.' As a result, 'he lashed out on Twitter with outlandish lies and conspiracy theories, and he did the same in his speech today,' she stated. 'He's going after me personally because he has no answers on the substance.' Referencing one of the tweets he sent Wednesday while she was speaking, Clinton noted that he 'doubled down' on being the king of debt. It's a hat Trump said today in an interview that he proudly wears - as a businessman - and refused to apologize. Clinton spent most of her speech Wednesday outlining her economic plan, having spent the bulk of her time skewering Trump the day before. She spent a few minutes on his business record, though, in response to his address hitting her earlier that day Even as Clinton took aim at Trump she encouraged her supporter to ignore his slams on her. He wants to 'try to distract us,' she told them. 'That's even why he's attacking my faith,' she said. 'Sigh.' She brought up her philanthropy and said, of Trump, 'Its no surprise he doesn't understand these things' because he uses and abuses poor people to make his company's products. At another point, she said, Donald Trump offers no real solutions for the economic problems we face. He just continues to spout reckless ideas. He'll run up our debt and cause another economic crash. Her campaign did not issue an official response to Trump's speech, but Brian Fallon, Clinton's national press secretary, said on Twitter afterward that he was 'tallying the number of lies about Hillary Clinton in the transcript of Trump's speech. I am at 15 so far.' Bentley has continued to deny that anything physical happened between him and the married mother-of-three Two years later Bentley's former friend revealed to the press of the recording's existence and said the two were having an affair She caught him telling his senior policy adviser Rebekah Mason, 44, how much he loved her and wanting to put his hands on her breasts They led her to secretly recording him one day at their beach house while she went on a walk Dianne Bentley found the texts to be unusual and out of character for her 74-year-old husband Robert It was a single red rose emoji that first made Dianne Bentley suspicious that her husband Robert, the Governor of Alabama, was having an affair. Two years later and Bentley, 74, is now facing threats of impeachment after a voice recording seemed to implicate he was romantically involved with his 44-year-old senior policy adviser Rebekah Mason. But in 2014 Dianne, who had been married to the Republican governor for almost half a century, only had suspicions. There were less kisses than usual, a refusal to hold her hand at church, which Mason also attended, a meticulously detailed schedule suddenly filled with mysterious blocks merely labeled 'Hold'. Scroll down for video Dianne Bentley first became suspicious that her husband Robert, the Governor of Alabama, was having an affair when he began texting her single red rose emojis - which she found out of character Bentley's alleged affair with his political adviser Rebekah Mason, 44, (pictured together) became national news after an iPhone recording, made by Dianne, caught him speaking to Mason about their sexual trysts Suddenly Bentley began putting more thought into his dress, adding bright orange socks and snazzy ties', according to a feature in GQ. But it was the roses that confused her the most. They would come in random texts from Bentley and were 'so unexpected and out of character for the governor she wondered if they were intended for someone else'. Dianne began keeping a list of the unusual signs in a notebook, finally confiding in one of the young woman who worked in her First Lady office. The affair came to light after Spencer Collier, the former head of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, claimed Bentley confessed to him The woman revealed that she had noticed Bentley was acting weird as well, specifically with Mason, who he first hired to be his communications director. It was this young woman who would teach Dianne to use the voice recorder on her iPhone. She slipped it on and hid her phone into her purse, telling her husband she was going for a walk one day as they stayed at the family's beach house along Alabama's Gulf Coast. Within minutes Bentley was talking to someone on the phone. 'I love you,' he told them. 'When I stand behind you and I put my arms around you, and I put my hands on your breasts and I put my hands on you and pull you in real close, hey, I love that too.' 'I love you. I love to talk to you. I do...but baby, let me tell you what we're gonna have to go tonight: Start locking the door.' 'If we're gonna do what we did the other day, we're gonna have to start locking the door.' 'Rebekah, I just, I miss you,' he can then be heard saying. 'I worry about loving you so much.' Dianne confronted Bentley after she listened to the recording and he denied having any kind of romantic relationship with his adviser. She didn't mention it for weeks and it seemed Dianne actually believed her husband. That was until the red rose popped up again, just weeks later. This time there was a name attached to it: Rebekah. It would be more than a year before Dianne filed for divorce, but in the meantime Bentley's four sons and closest friends were begging him to end things with Mason. One of those friends was Spencer Collier, the head of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency. Collier told GQ that he and Ray Lewis, the head of Bentley's protective detail, confronted him one night in August 2014 on the request of the governor's family. 'It has to stop,' Collier said he told Bentley about the affair. 'You just need to make a clean break.' Bentley has refused to step down from his position following the scandal and has claimed he only said 'some inappropriate things' to Mason, refusing to admit they had a physical affair Bentley told Collier he would end the relationship, but it was short-lived. He called his friend a day later and revealed he was 'madly in love with her'. Two years later it would be Collier who would reveal the affair to the press, just days after Bentley fired him for allegedly misusing public funds. Collier held a news conference in which he revealed the existence of the iPhone recording, which he said contained a phone conversation in which Bentley made romantic and sexually-charged comments to a woman he believed to be Mason. 'Gov. Robert Bentley simply hung his head and asked for advice on how to get out of it,' Collier said of the moment he confronted his friend about the affair. 'Rebekah Mason has wielded a level of influence over both the governor and state government that I have never seen in all my years of public service,' he added. The recording leaked just days later, when conservative blogger Cliff Sims grabbed hold of a thumb drive with the phone conversation from a source and posted it on his website. Bentley refused to admit to a physical affair, saying he had merely said 'some inappropriate things' to Mason. 'I made a mistake. Two years ago I made a mistake,' Bentley said during the news conference, adding that he had previously apologized to his family and to Mason and her family. 'Today I want to apologize to the people of the state of Alabama and once again, I want to apologize to my family. I am truly sorry and I accept full responsibility.' Mason resigned from her adviser position and condemned Collier's comments about her influence in the governor's office. 'There is no way that man would have said what he did...about another man,' her statement read. Jon Mason, 44 (right), has continued to defend his wife, who he has three children with In his post Mr Mason praises his 'wife of nearly 20 years', calling her 'amazing' and 'a loving and dedicated mom' while asking for 'unconditional love' amidst the affair scandal 'He only said what he said about my professional abilities because I am a woman. His comments were clear, demonstrated gender bias.' Mason did not address Bentley's behavior. Her husband Jon, who Mason has three children with, has continued to stand by his wife's side amid the scandal. 'I wanted to share that I long ago resolved the personal issue playing out now for everyone this week,' he wrote in a Facebook status posted two days after the recording was released. 'Please continue to support families, the governor, and our state with prayers as we all move forward.' As for Bentley, he has vowed to stay in office and remains estranged from Dianne and their four sons. Katie Price has admitted she has never voted before - despite having stood for parliament. The mother-of-five made the admission as she revealed she was still 'confused' over which way to vote in tomorrow's referendum during a debate on Channel 4. However, this is far from the former model's first foray into the political arena, having stood as an independent promising free holidays on the NHS back in 2001. Katie Price told audience members at the Channel 4 debate on the EU referendum that she was still confused about which way to vote on Thursday, and that it would be the first time she voted However, this is not her first foray into politics. In 2001 - then aged just 23 - she launched a bid to become an MP in the Stretford and Urmston constituency of Greater Manchester Ms Price - who was then known as Jordan - stood in the Stretford and Urmston constituency of Greater Manchester, telling voters: 'I know it will take a big swing to win the seat but there's no bigger swinger than me.' Backed by the Daily Star, she ran under the slogan 'Vote Jordan for a bigger and betta future'. It wasn't a success: she polled just over 700 votes in the end - and it appears she didn't even cast a ballot for herself. Speaking during the EU debate this evening, Ms Price revealed she would vote for the first time tomorrow, but still couldn't decide whether to back the Leave or Remain campaigns. 'Well believe it or not, I came here confused, and I am more confused,' she said. 'I've never voted before, I feel I am pressured I have to vote this time, 'Lot's of my friends are in, some are out, I'm asking them lots of questions. Backed by the Daily Star, she ran under the slogan 'Vote Jordan for a bigger and betta future' It wasn't a success: she polled just over 700 votes in the end - and after tonight's revelation, it appears she didn't even cast a ballot for herself. Pictured: Ms Price makes her speech after the result in June 2001 'My son's got disabilities, so in my case, I'm thinking, what would be the best for his future, for the NHS, if he goes on holiday. 'Do I think of myself as a family, or the country? I am just confused. This has made it confusing.' Advertisement They should have been celebrating their mother Jo Coxs 42nd birthday. Instead, Lejla, three, and her brother Cuillin, five, were yesterday on a barge towing a floating floral memorial to the murdered MP. They sat with their father Brendan, 37, on the vessels stern as it set off from near Tower Bridge, where the family have a houseboat. Scroll down for video Brendan Cox travels to central London by boat with their children Lejla, 3, and Cuillin, 5, to attend a special service in Trafalgar Square The Yorkshire Rose, a boat filled with flowers in memory of murdered Labour MP Mrs Cox is towed down the River Thames in London A fund created in Cox's memory by her friends and family has raised more than 1.25million for charities close to her heart The widower and children of the late MP Jo Cox (pictured left and right with husband Brendan) joined her friends, colleagues and high-profile campaigners today as countries around the world gather to celebrate what would have been her 42nd birthday It was the first time since Mrs Cox was shot and stabbed a week ago that her grieving family had allowed photographs of the children, who wore yellow lifejackets and waved to wellwishers during the journey along the Thames. The barge towed a dinghy carrying hundreds of red and white roses in tribute to the late Labour member for Batley and Spen in West Yorkshire. The 45-minute journey from Hermitage Wharf ended in Westminster, where the dinghy was moored opposite the Houses of Parliament. It will remain there for a week, bearing the words Yorkshire Rose. Mr Cox and the children, accompanied by friends and supporters, disembarked from the barge at Westminster Pier, where a banner was unfurled saying That which unites us not which divides us. It was carried in front of the group as they made the short walk to Trafalgar Square where thousands had gathered for an hour-long rally in tribute to Mrs Coxs life. She died after being attacked at her constituency surgery in Birstall, near Leeds, last Thursday. Her husbands voice broke with emotion as he thanked Jos amazing friends, and friends of friends, and even complete strangers who had helped to organise the event. He added: As amazing and deeply touching as all of this is, I wish I wasnt here today. Pausing occasionally when his voice broke, Mr Cox told the crowd: 'Thank you for coming together today to honour the memory of Jo not just here in London but around the world. Thanks for the love that You have poured on our family since our world collapsed on Thursday' Brendan Cox gave a moving speech dedicated to his late wife, and thanked the public for the love and support they have shown his family Not because Im ungrateful to the organisers and you all for coming, but because of course Id rather be with Jo. But I wanted to come and show my gratitude and that of all of our family. Your support and love has helped us all and I wanted our children to see what their mum meant to all of you. I know that they will remember today. 'Today would have been her birthday and she would have spent it dashing around the streets of her home town convincing people to stay in Europe.' In a moving insight he described his late wife variously as a mountain climber, an awful cook, a middle lane driver, a ball of energy and determination but above all else she was a mum. She was the best mum that any child could wish for. And wish we do, to have her back in our lives, he said, adding that he had spoken with his children every day since her death about the things they will miss and memories they will cherish for ever. The events in Trafalgar Square have been preceded by a floating commemoration on the River Thames, which started from the houseboat community where Mrs Cox and her family lived (Pictured: The flower-filled boat is towed through central London this afternoon) The boat filled with flowers and emblazoned with the words 'Yorkshire Rose' floated down the Thames today in memory of Mrs Cox Brendan Cox, the widower of MP Jo Cox, and their two children prepare to join a floating commemoration on the River Thames Expressing his thanks for the 'incredible' public support following her death, he said: 'The two things that I've been very focused on is how do we support and protect the children, and how do we make sure that something good comes out of this' Labour politician Jo Cox's husband Brendan and their children travel down the River Thames, in London, this afternoon, before the event A boat called the Yorkshire Rose, which was filled with roses was moored next to the houseboat of the late Jo Cox on the River Thames He continued: 'She lived her life to the full with a pedal to the floor and missing brake pads 'Since Thursday my children and I have spoken every day about the things we will miss. We try not to remember how cruelly she was taken from us but about how lucky we were to have her in our lives.' 'Jo's killing was political. It was an act of terror designed to generate hatred. 'How ironic that an act designed to generate hatred has instead prompted an outpouring of love. 'Jo lived for her beliefs and on Thursday she died for them. For the rest of our lives we will fight for them in her name.' Lily Allen, sporting a purple hairdo, sang Somewhere Only We Know, a song by the band Keane which Mrs Cox used to sing with her husband and children every time they left their holiday cottage near the River Wye. Organisers said the events, which are being held in a variety of locations, will be a tribute to Ms Cox's 'love, energy, passion, flair, Yorkshire heritage and belief in the humanity of every person in every place' Members of the public hold signs saying '#LoveLikeJo' as they attend a memorial event for murdered Labour MP Jo Cox at Trafalgar Square Hundreds of people hold pictures of Jo Cox, who was killed last Thursday while attending a surgery in her constituency area Jo Cox's widower today thanked the public for the outpouring of love and support following the death of his beloved wife last week U2 sent in a specially recorded version of their song Ordinary Love from Los Angeles. There were jigs and reels from Diddley Dee, a band that played at the pairs wedding. Earlier in the proceedings, a plane carrying a banner urging people to leave the EU flew noisily over Trafalgar Square. Labour MP Stella Creasy posted on Twitter that the Vote Leave campaign should show some self respect and disappear. A spokesman for the official campaign group denied it was its plane. Hundreds of people gathered outside the town hall in Batley to remember their late MP, who was killed four miles away in the village of Birstall. Jo Cox's sister Kim and parents Jean and Gordon Leadbeater sat side by side as they attended a memorial for the MP in Batley Kim Leadbeater told a memorial in Batley that her sister Jo Cox helped people 'from Batley to Burma and from the Spen Valley to Syria' Jo Cox's parents Jean and Gordon Leadbeater embrace their daughter Kim at a memorial held in Jo's honour in Batley, West Yorkshire Jo Cox's mother Jean, father Gordon and sister Kim arrived at the memorial in Batley, West Yorksire, with white roses pinned to their tops After observing the minute's silence, the MP's younger sister, Kim Leadbeater, took to the stage to pay tribute to her 'caring, compassionate and inspirational' sister. Ms Leadbeater said: 'On behalf of all Jo's family, thank you from the bottom of our hearts to each and every person who has sent their love and sympathy to us in the last few days. 'We have been truly overwhelmed by the outpouring of kindness and support and it has provided great comfort and strength in order for us to keep going.' She told the crowds: 'From Batley to Burma and from the Spen Valley to Syria, Jo's life was centred around helping people and standing up for the causes she felt passionate about - and there were many.' Today members of the public have placed hundreds of bouquets and tributes dedicated to Mrs Cox at a memorial statue in Birtstall Floral tributes for MP Jo Cox continue to flood in today in Birstall, on what should have been the mother-of-two's 42nd birthday Flowers and cards have been left in the centre of Birstall paying tribute to the MP, who died last Thursday after she was stabbed and shot Floral tributes and messages have been left outside Batley Town Hall ahead of a public event to celebrate Mrs Cox's life and 42nd birthday She said: 'I don't have any answers as to why such a horrendous and tragic event has occurred in our lives. But I do know that Jo would not have wanted any of us to allow it to make her life anything other than the force for good it always was. 'My sister would want her murder to mobilise people to get on with things, to try to make a positive difference in whatever way we can, to come together and unite against hate and division and fight instead for inclusion, love and unity.' Meanwhile a fund created in Cox's memory by her friends and family has raised more than 1.3million for charities close to her heart, following more than 37,500 individual donations. The MP died after being shot and stabbed in an attack in Birstall near Leeds on Thursday last week. Tommy Mair, 52, has been remanded in custody after being charged with her murder. People lay white roses under a portrait to pay tribute to late Labour MP Jo Cox at the 'Ancienne Belgique' at the Bourse in Brussels People line up to lay white roses and light candles in front of a portrait of Jo Cox, at a memorial event held at the Bourse in Brussels Friends and supporters of Jo Cox commit to #lovelikejo at the Jo Cox memorial on June 22, 2016 in Washington, DC Guests attend a memorial service for Jo Cox, a British Member of Parliament and former Oxfam policy chief who was killed last week, as part of the #moreincommon campaign, at the Whittemore House in Washington, DC Crowds gather by Ha'penny Bridge in Dublin to remember murdered MP Jo Cox, including her friend Jamie Drummond who co-founded poverty foundation One (centre back) A Cambridge University academic was kicked out of France yesterday after being accused of throwing missiles and breaking the window of a police van during the Calais riots. Steven Martin, 31, was also accused of orchestrating the violence that shut down the French port on Monday, but was not subsequently charged. Martin appeared in court alongside fellow Briton Richard Jones, 19, after police claimed they were members of the Left-wing No Borders movement that calls for the abolition of borders across Europe. Britons Steven Martin (right), 31, and Richard Jones, 19, were accused by police of belonging to the Left-wing No Borders movement, which aimed to help migrants reach Britain from the French port of Calais They also accused Martin of using his scientific background to try to synthesise tear gas in a makeshift laboratory in the Jungle refugee camp, although no charges were laid. The No Borders group is accused of fomenting scenes of utter chaos to allow migrants to sneak on to lorries bound for Britain. The British pair were arrested after mobs of migrants threw tree trunks, rocks and even mattresses on to a busy arterial road into Calais on Monday before having running battles with police. Martin and Jones, from Denbigh in North Wales, appeared in court in the city of Boulogne-sur-Mer yesterday. Both strongly deny they are part of No Borders or that they advocate violence. Martin had been accused by police of directing the riot, and co-ordinating squads of migrants towards areas where the police presence was stretched. But the academic formally accused only of throwing missiles and breaking the van window was cleared on both counts by magistrates, despite the testimony of five officers. Jones was also accused of playing an instrumental role in the rampage, but said he was merely trying to defuse the situation. He admitted swearing at a police officer and calling him a Nazi and was handed a two-month suspended sentence. A lawyer representing the police had told the court: These activists created tension so that migrants would act violently towards police, who had come to talk to them peacefully. The No Borders group is accused of fomenting scenes of utter chaos to allow migrants to sneak on to lorries bound for Britain This is a provocation from activists who used the word Nazi, which is extremely offensive. After the hearing, both men were served with notices demanding that they leave the country immediately due to their behaviour and attitude towards the police and the threat to public order. Martin denied being a member of No Borders, but acknowledged the groups existence, saying: They see rock-throwing as a legitimate form of defence. Martin was a research associate at the Cambridge Institute of Public Health who left to volunteer in Calais in December. He specialised in treatment for patients in early dementia. He said yesterday: They accused me of throwing rocks but I have broken my arm and cant even pick up a rock. Jones has been volunteering in the Ashram Kitchen, which serves breakfast and lunch to inhabitants of the Jungle, for two months. Both men say they plan to return to the UK before moving to Greece to help there. French authorities say No Borders supporters mingle with aid workers in the Jungle, and that the group is made up of 50 hardcore activists, mainly Britons from privileged backgrounds. Martin and Jones, from Denbigh in North Wales, appeared in court in the city of Boulogne-sur-Mer yesterday. Both strongly deny they are part of No Borders or that they advocate violence A Calais police source said: The No Borders activists spend their time accusing officers of violence, while acting like thugs themselves. Those who suffer most from this are the refugees they are pretending to help. French politician Xavier Bertrand said No Borders was a scandalous group and should be punished, while Calais deputy mayor Philippe Mignonet has called on British police to help the French authorities identify any troublemakers. Its frustrating having the anarchists and activists from England here to stir up trouble, he said. I think the English police forces know who they are and should come here. It is too easy for these people to leave their country. Gilles Debove, of the Calais police union, said: I cannot understand why British citizens come to Calais to incite migrants to break the law and defy the French authorities. In January, British anarchists were among some 35 people arrested in Calais after leading an invasion of the ferry port by 500 migrants. The thugs tore down security fences and threatened violence, and also defaced a statue of Frances wartime leader and former president Charles de Gaulle. The countrys population has passed the 65million mark, new official figures are likely to show today. The population estimates due to be released by the Office for National Statistics are expected to show the number of people living in the UK went up by more than half a million in a single year. If so, then the UK population will have gone up by nearly five million around eight per cent in just 10 years. The numbers could provide a last-minute boost for the Brexit camp, which has campaigned heavily on immigration and the impact EU freedom of movement has on numbers of people arriving in the UK. Crowded: Population estimates due to be released by the Office for National Statistics are expected to show the number of people living in the UK went up by more than half a million in a single year (file image) Support for Vote Leave is widely thought to have gathered pace after official figures in late May put net migration at 333,000, and showed that 77,000 EU citizens came to Britain in a year. Estimates of the level of the UK population at the middle of last year have been scheduled for release today since last year. That means they are not covered by purdah rules that say Whitehall should not release sensitive information during an election or referendum campaign. ONS calculations of the population released in June last year put numbers in the middle of 2014 at 64,596,800, and the increase over 12 months at 491,100. However, the estimates due to be released today may show faster growth because last year net migration the number of people added to the population after both immigration and emigration have been taken into account - was running at 259,700. In the 12 months to the end of June last year period covered in todays figures, net migration hit a record 336,000. Since immigration pushes up birthrates because immigrant women are usually of childbearing age and are likely to have more children than women born in Britain immigration is currently thought to be responsible for around two thirds of population increase. The ONS has said that the population may reach almost 80 million by 2039 if migration and birthrates continue at high levels. The projection of over 79 million is nearly 10 million higher than the level which Labour ministers who presided over the 2000s boom in Eastern European immigration said would never be reached. If the statistics show the predicted increase, then the UK population will have gone up by nearly five million around eight per cent in just 10 years (file image) The ONS figures were due to be released at 9.30am this morning, just two-and-a-half hours after polling stations open, at a time when there will be more than 12 hours of voting left. They may have a major impact through reporting by broadcasters and websites during the day. Polling days usually have no significant campaign news and broadcasters have little to report until counting begins late in the evening. A spokesman for the BBC declined yesterday to say whether the Corporations new outlets would report the figures. The equivalent report last June attracted heavy attention from BBC reporters, who have been paying greater attention to immigration over the past few years as the anxiety of voters has become plain. Vote Leave campaigners have played on concerns over rapid population increase and its effect on schools, hospitals, transport, utilities and the availability of housing. Lord Green of the Migration Watch think tank said yesterday: It is a sign of the times that our population increase is now around half a million every year. If immigration continues at current levels we can expect the population to increase by 10million over the next 20 years and then continue to go up. Two school boys have had a lucky escape after they put a can of soft drink inside a wood stove, causing it to explode. The family were sitting in their lounge room in Coolaroo, Melbourne's north, on Wednesday night when glass and embers began shooting out of the Coonara fireplace. The two young boys, aged four and eight, suffered minor cuts to their hands and were treated by paramedics who rushed to the home. Scroll down for video Two school boys have had a lucky escape after they placed a can of soft drink inside their wood fire heater, causing it to explode (pictured) 'The rupturing of the can caused a large amount of glass to explode out of the glass part of the Coonara and this has shattered into the lounge room,' Steve Dorman from the Melbourne Fire Brigade told 7News. 'The children were very lucky the glass only penetrated their hands and their arms'. The Melbourne fire department extinguished the stray embers that exploded out of the heater and there was little damage to the home Neither of the young boys were taken to hospital as their injuries were minor. Firefighters have issued a warning to parents in the winter months to keep a close eye on their children around heaters. The family were sitting in their lounge room in Coolaroo, Melbourne's north, on Wednesday night when glass and embers began shooting out of the fireplace Michael Gove today declares that Britain is facing this generation's 'D-Day' with a choice between becoming a prosperous, sovereign nation once again, or a poorer, less secure one inside the EU. In the most passionate plea of the campaign, the Justice Secretary urges the public not to 'flinch' or let down future generations whose lives would be diminished by Brussels. Rejecting the pessimism of the Remain camp, led by David Cameron, he told the Mail: This is D-Day. It's democracy day. It is an opportunity for us to demonstrate a vote of confidence in our country and its ingenuity, its generosity, its tolerance and its potential. Michael Gove (pictured) has urged the public not to 'flinch' or let down future generations whose lives would be diminished by Brussels 'We have got to have confidence in our institutions. Britain gave the world parliamentary democracy. It gave the world common law traditions, trial by jury and the principle of innocent until proven guilty. 'We gave the world moral leadership in the fight against slavery and the fight against fascism. 'We gave the world the NHS and public service broadcasting and we did all these things as a self-governing democracy. 'So the idea that Britain is a rain soaked little island where we eat too much cake that is just not right. Voting to leave is a rejection of pessimism and an embrace of optimism.' Speaking on a final campaign visit to Dorset, Mr Gove said this was Britain's opportunity to 'break free'. He continued: 'If we do not vote to leave tomorrow, then we won't get the chance to escape the EU for another generation and possibly in our lifetime. 'And if we vote to stay, the European elites will take that as a vote of confidence in their leadership and a vote for more Europe. 'More of the same surrender of powers, more of the same lack of control over our money, more of the same lack of democracy. 'I just think it would be difficult to explain to our children and grandchildren that when we had the opportunity to show confidence in our democracy, that we decided to flinch at the last moment.' Boris Johnson gives a thumbs up as he leaves Selby, North Yorkshire, on a hectic day of campaigning Mr Johnson has appealed for voters to make the EU referendum Britain's 'Independence Day' Mr Gove, who confirmed he would be happy to serve in Mr Cameron's Cabinet once the rancorous referendum contest is over, compared the moment Britain stands at in history with the American Revolution. He said: 'The decision the American Revolutionaries had to make in the 1770s about whether or not to continue to be ruled by someone who was distant and unaccountable, who imposed taxes without listening to their voices or whether to break free. 'They decided to break free then and America has never looked back and the world had cause to be grateful. There will have been all sorts of people then I imagine saying it is a risk, don't go against the Establishment, can you really survive? 'In five years' time, if we stay in the EU, we will be paying more money to bail out a single currency which is failing. We face the prospect of more EU control over our security, our intelligence services having their hands tied. 'We face the prospect of a rogue European Court making it more difficult for us to deal with terrorism. We also face the prospect of our competitiveness diminishing. My fear is that if we vote to stay in, Britain will be poorer, less safe. I also worry that it will feel and be less fair because the elites and the establishment will have felt they had a great escape. 'They will feel that the moment they could have been held to account and we could have taken control has passed.' David Cameron made his final pitch to voters in Birmingham, appearing with Gordon Brown and leading politicians from across the political spectrum at an end of campaign rally On an extraordinary final day. Boris Johnson criss-crossed the country by helicopter. He said: 'It's time to speak up for democracy, and hundreds of millions of people around Europe agree with us. It's time to break away from the failing and dysfunctional EU system.' Last night, the Remain camp released statements from Mr Cameron and Britain's three surviving former prime ministers urging the country to vote In. Mr Cameron said: 'Today we have assembled the biggest coalition of support in history from businesses, to trade unions to expert economists and across political parties for a vote to remain. Quitting Europe is a risk to your family's future because a vote to leave on Thursday means there is no going back on Friday.' In what was described as an 'unprecedented alliance', the Prime Minister was backed by Tony Blair and Gordon Brown from the Labour side. Mr Blair said: 'Britain faces a historic choice between prosperity, influence and security as part of Europe, or a reckless leap in the dark and years of damaging uncertainty. If we vote to leave, there is no going back. Voting Remain will secure Britain's place as a proud, influential country with a strong economy and a bright future. Appearing alongside Mr Cameron in Bristol, Sir John Major said the Brexit camp were 'the gravediggers of our prosperity'. But Defence Minister Penny Mordaunt hit out at the Remain camp for suggesting those voting for Brexit were 'little islanders'. She said: 'It is unfair to tar the millions of people who want to take back control of their laws, their borders and their money with a brush of calling them narrow minded or little islanders or all the other insults thrown at them. 'That is quite wrong. This is an attempt to make people feel guilty about what they know in their hearts and their heads is the right thing for them and their families and it is a sign that they have lost the arguments.' Gove 'lost it' with Nazi jibe, says Cameron David Cameron accused Michael Gove of having 'lost it' yesterday after the Justice Secretary compared economists warning against Brexit to Nazi-paid scientists who smeared Albert Einstein. Mr Gove said: 'We have to be careful about historical comparisons, but Albert Einstein during the 1930s was denounced by the German authorities for being wrong and his theories were denounced and one of the reasons, of course, he was denounced was because he was Jewish.' He told LBC radio: 'They got 100 German scientists in the pay of the government to say that he was wrong and Einstein said, 'Look, if I was wrong, one would have been enough'.' Mr Gove had been trying to highlight the public's dissatisfaction with propaganda unleashed on voters by 'experts' before today's referendum. He later apologised. David Cameron accused Michael Gove of having 'lost it' yesterday after the Justice Secretary compared economists warning against Brexit to Nazi-paid scientists who smeared Albert Einstein But the Prime Minister attacked Mr Gove's remarks, telling Sky News: 'To hear the Leave campaign today sort of comparing independent experts and economists to Nazi sympathisers I think they have rather lost it. 'These people are independent economists who have won Nobel prizes, business leaders responsible for creating thousands of jobs, institutions that were set up after the war to try to provide independent advice. It is right to listen.' Mr Gove pointed out that he had refrained from personal attacks, and said: 'I was asked a question by Iain Dale [LBC presenter] about the predictions of doom for the economy. I answered, as I often do, with a historical analogy. It was clumsy and inappropriate. 'Obviously I did not mean to imply anything about the motives of those who have spoken out in favour of staying in the EU.' He added: 'I'm sorry for speaking so clumsily and apologise for giving offence I think Britain will be more prosperous if we end our connection to the euro project and I should have answered this question directly.' Nearly half PM's business advisers refuse to back the EU Almost half of David Cameron's inner-circle of business advisers and half of Britain's FTSE 100 bosses refused to sign a letter backing Brussels, it emerged yesterday. In a letter to The Times, orchestrated by Downing Street, some 1,285 business leaders including 900 small and medium-sized companies and 50 of the FTSE 100 warned that leaving the EU would 'mean uncertainty for our firms, less trade with Europe and fewer jobs'. Signatories included Sir Richard Branson, of Virgin, Michael Bloomberg, the American media mogul and former New York mayor, and bosses from Barclays, mining giant Anglo American and housebuilders Barratt Developments and the Berkeley Group. But bosses of half the FTSE 100 companies including the supermarket giant Tesco and Britain's biggest bank Lloyds refused requests from the Remain campaign to put their name to the letter. And in a bruising setback for Mr Cameron, nine of the 20 members of his Business Advisory Group also declined to put pen to paper. They include Nigel Wilson, the boss of Britain's biggest pensions and investment firm Legal and General. An outspoken Eurosceptic, he has previously said Britain would be better off leaving the single market if it fails to negotiate meaningful reform. But he has also stressed the case for Brexit is 'unproven' and that it is up to the public not company bosses to decide Britain's future. Other business advisers to Mr Cameron who did not sign the letter included Robert Noel, the boss of Land Securities, Jeff Fairburn, of housebuilder Persimmon, Liv Garfield, of Severn Trent, and Ana Botin, the chairwoman of Santander. Phil Shiner, who made his name suing the UK Government at taxpayers expense, is fighting a battle to keep allegations he made baseless claims against troops secret A lawyer who has spent more than a decade hounding British soldiers has been charged by his professional body over his firms role in making baseless claims against troops. Phil Shiner, who made his name suing the UK Government at taxpayers expense, is fighting a battle to keep the allegations secret. He wants a forthcoming hearing to be held behind closed doors and details of the case against him kept secret on the grounds of ill health. The Daily Mail which has campaigned for an end to the witch-hunt against British troops is prepared to fight any legal bid for secrecy. Details of the charges brought against Mr Shiner by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) are unknown, although they are understood to centre on his role in a 31 million war crimes inquiry. A case management hearing in London yesterday was held in secret. Mr Shiners firm, Public Interest Lawyers (PIL), was investigated by the SRA the solicitors watchdog following a complaint by the Ministry of Defence. After an 18-month probe, the watchdog decided to refer the case on to its disciplinary tribunal over serious allegations of professional misconduct. It can now be revealed that the SRA decided to charge Mr Shiner and a lawyer called John Dickinson, who represented Iraqi claimants for the firm. A tribunal will now hear the case against the pair and decide whether they should be struck off. If Mr Shiner loses his right to practice, it could cause the downfall of his firm. Mr Shiner is the sole shareholder of PIL, which has received millions of pounds in legal aid. PIL has lodged at least 188 compensation claims for Iraqi claimants and as many as 1,150 claims of alleged wrongdoing and murder by British troops using the Human Rights Act. The Mail has previously revealed how soldiers many suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder have faced as many as five probes each in relation to a single incident as a result of soaring claims. If Mr Shiner wins his secrecy battle, soldiers who have suffered as a result will not be able to hear what he is alleged to have done wrong. The SRA decided to refer the case to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) in April after the year-and-a-half inquiry. JUDGE: PRESS FREEDOM IS ESSENTIAL TO DEMOCRACY A senior judge has declared press freedom as the most fundamental right in a democracy. Mr Justice Holman told a High Court hearing that press freedom was crucial and people do not understand the gravity of court orders which censor names and information discussed in legal cases. His defence of free speech follows the recent decision of Supreme Court justices to support a ban on the public naming of a married celebrity who took part in a threesome. Mr Justice Holman, who sits in the High Court Family Division, said: The most fundamental right in a democratic society is the freedom of the press. Where would we be without a reporter and the whole freedom of the press behind him? Advertisement The SDT has been unable to release any details about the case after Mr Shiner launched a bid to keep his name anonymous. The allegations against Mr Shiner are believed to centre on his firms role in the Al-Sweady inquiry. The five-year probe published its findings in December 2014 when it exonerated British soldiers of allegations concerning murder and torture in Iraq. The claims came after the Battle of Danny Boy on May 14, 2004, a fierce firefight which erupted when insurgents from the Mahdi Army ambushed a patrol of Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. Their reinforcements, the 1st Battalion of the Princess of Waless Royal Regiment, were also ambushed and after three hours of fighting 28 Iraqi fighters had been killed. But the Al-Sweady inquiry named after an alleged teenage victim found Iraqi witnesses represented by PIL and another firm, Leigh Day, had lied systematically. PIL was handed 3 million by the MoD to pursue the case. Sir Thayne Forbes, a retired judge, dismissed the allegations as wholly without foundation and entirely the product of deliberate lies, reckless speculation and ingrained hostility. Following its publication, the Prime Minister ordered the MoD to put together a report listing alleged wrongdoing by PIL. The documents suggested the firm had doubts about the credibility of its clients evidence as early as March 2013 but did not withdraw the untrue allegations until March 2014. Mr Shiners firm, Public Interest Lawyers (PIL) was investigated by the SRA the solicitors watchdog following a complaint by the Ministry of Defence This forced the Al-Sweady inquiry to take evidence from around 100 additional witnesses, adding at least 780,000 to its total cost. The MoD dossier also stated that PIL continued to represent one claimant in a separate judicial review after he admitted he had lied about his sister dying on the battlefield. In further damaging allegations, the MoD claimed PIL used a fixer to trawl for new cases of abuse by making unsolicited approaches to potential victims inside Iraq. Prisoners want bigger windows in their cells after complaining they are too dark and dreary. Inmates are also calling for more powerful bulbs because cells are so dimly-lit it is difficult to read. Sex offenders, violent thugs and burglars held at HMP Exeter moaned about the poor quality of lighting in the Victorian-era prison to watchdogs. In one instance, it took six months to change a lightbulb in the library, inspectors found. But critics will say the people who really suffered were the victims of the criminals locked up in the Category B jail. Inmates are also calling for more powerful bulbs because cells are so dimly-lit it is difficult to read (file image) Plans are in progress to install new doors with bigger observation panels, letting more light in, but inmates also want better spotlights put in their cells. A review by the Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) found HMP Exeter, which houses more than 500 convicts, found the cells were too dark. It stated: There are obvious problems inherent in the cramped inner city site and Victorian buildings which are difficult to repair and maintain. Cells are dark, especially in SCU (Special Care Unit also called the Segregation Unit). Its bottom floor location means it is always dark. It added: There have been numerous instances throughout the year of essential maintenance work not done in a timely fashion, including six months to change a light bulb in the library. But one prison worker, who has been employed in the Prison Service for more than 15 years, said there would be little sympathy for inmates in the jail, built in 1850. He said: Lighting in cells can be a problem if there is limited natural daylight. Im not sure there will be much sympathy for prisoners though they are usually watching the telly rather than reading books, so lighting is probably not their greatest worry. Plans are in progress to install doors with bigger panels, letting more light in, but inmates also want better spotlights put in their cells (file image) The revelations will raise eyebrows at a time when there are concerns that prisons in England and Wales are becoming too cushy. In January, it was revealed that prisoners are set to be handed free electric kettles after jail inspectors said they shouldnt have to pay for their own to brew a cup of tea in their cells. The 620 prisoners at HMP Rye Hill in Warwickshire, which was converted into a sex offender-only jail last year, currently have to buy their own kettle from the prison catalogue. But after a report into the G4S-run jail by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, jail chiefs were told that lags should not be charged for kettles. Meanwhile, at Britains newest prison, the 212million showpiece HMP Berwyn on the outskirts of Wrexham, inmates will be held in rooms, not cells, they will be given telephones so they can say goodnight to their children and warders will have to knock before entering. Berwyn will be based on the so-called Mandela Rules a United Nations standard aimed at making custody as near as possible to time in the community because it is more civilised. The measures are crucial to the vision of Justice Secretary Michael Gove, who has called for a prisons revolution, bolstering rehabilitation and educating inmates, to end the lock em up or let em out debate. The victim, who survived, has been identified by family members as RoyLynn Rides Horse (pictured) Two people were charged in federal court Wednesday in the vicious assault of a woman who was beaten, strangled and set on fire on Montana's Crow Indian Reservation. Dimarzio Sanchez and Angelica Jo Whiteman appeared separately in US District Court in Billings before Magistrate Judge Carolyn Ostby on charges of assault with intent to commit murder and aiding and abetting. They did not enter pleas and were ordered back into custody pending further proceedings. Whiteman's defense attorney, Clifford Vernon, said following Wednesday's court appearance that it was too early in the process for him to make a statement about the case. Sanchez's attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The victim, who survived, has been identified by family members as RoyLynn Rides Horse. The assault attracted widespread attention from tribal leaders and state lawmakers, who expressed frustration at the sparse details by investigators prior to Wednesday's hearing. FBI Special Agent Aaron Christensen said in a court affidavit that the victim was at the Kirby Saloon in Kirby late on April 17 and got a ride home with the defendants. Following an argument, Christensen says the two defendants beat and attempted to strangle Rides Horse, then doused her with gasoline and set her on fire in a field east of Crow Agency. Rides Horse remained in the field for 14 hours before she was discovered. She suffered burns over 45 percent of her body and frostbite on her legs, according to court documents. She's being treated at a burn center in Utah. Scroll down for video The assault attracted widespread attention from tribal leaders and state lawmakers, who expressed frustration at the sparse details by investigators prior to Wednesday's hearing Four other people who were not named in the affidavit were in the vehicle Rides Horse and the suspects when the attack happened, according to Christensen. Three of those people provided law enforcement with information about what happened, the FBI agent stated. Sanchez is a member of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe, according to the affidavit. Whiteman is a member of the Crow Tribe. Suliman Gani, who launched legal proceedings against the defence secretary Michael Fallon for making claims he supported ISIS in a radio interview during the London mayoral contest Michael Fallon has paid thousands of pounds in compensation to a Muslim cleric he accused of supporting Islamic State, it emerged last night. Suliman Gani launched legal proceedings against the defence secretary for making the claims in a radio interview during the London mayoral contest. In a letter published yesterday, the Tory Cabinet minister admitted the comments were entirely untrue and apologised for the error and causing distress to Mr Gani and his family. Mr Gani, a former imam at the Tooting Islamic Centre in South London, was named in an attack on Labours Sadiq Khan during his campaign to become the capitals mayor. During a bitter battle for the post, the Tory candidate, Zac Goldsmith, and David Cameron said Mr Khan had shown poor judgment by sharing a platform with Mr Gani nine times. The Prime Minister, speaking in the House of Commons under parliamentary privilege which meant he could not be sued for defamation said Mr Gani supported the terror group and had questionable views about women and gay people. A spokesman for Mr Cameron conceded afterwards that Mr Gani had supported the creation of an Islamic state rather than backing the extremist organisation. But Mr Fallon repeated the original remarks outside the Commons which were not protected by parliamentary privilege and specifically referred to Daesh, another name for IS. Speaking on BBC Radio 4s Today programme in May, Mr Fallon described Mr Gani as a supporter of the terror group. In response, Mr Ganis lawyers sent a defamation claim to Mr Fallon. In a letter published on his website last night, Mr Fallon said he admitted the comments were entirely untrue. He said he made them after hearing them on a BBC TV programme some weeks earlier and was unaware that the BBC had later corrected that statement and apologised to Mr Gani. He said: Had I known of that correction and apology I would not have repeated the statement. I was made aware of the BBCs correction and apology a few hours after the broadcast and immediately issued a statement in an effort to put the record straight. Mr Fallon has paid thousands of pounds in compensation to Mr Gani after he made the comments He said he issued a further statement on May 11, which included an apology for repeating the statement. He added: I accept that you [Mr Gani] are entirely opposed to Daesh/Islamic State, that you regard it as incompatible with your religious and moral beliefs, and you have spoken out publicly against it. I repeat my apology for the error I made and for the distress that it caused to you and your family. In recognition of that distress I have agreed to make a payment of compensation and to meet your reasonable legal costs. Horrifying footage has emerged of drug dealers using hostages as human shields during a standoff in Deyang, China. The incident took place on June 20 after the suspects took the neighbours next door hostage, reports the People's Daily Online. After a standoff with police the hostages were freed and the suspects were detained. Shocking case: The suspects decided to use the hostages as protection from the SWAT team Horrifying: Three of the hostages were children while the other two were women over 50 years old Traumatising: The suspects broke into the victims apartment and took them hostage on June 20 The incident occurred when two suspected drug manufacturers and women traffickers were resisting arrest at around 5pm on June 20. Two suspects took control of an apartment in a high rise building that was being occupied by two women and three children. The women and children were taken hostage. The two women were over 50 years old. At around 6.50pm, Chengdu police decided to take action and attempt to rescue the hostages. Paying attention to safety, they decided to use dialogue to solve the issue while waiting for reinforcements. When the reinforcements arrived, police arranged surveillance of the perimeter and carried out surveillance of the area. Their main aim at that point was to get the suspects out of the house. Police were in deadlock with the suspects for more than an hour when the door of the apartment suddenly opened. They saw the suspects and the hostages huddled together with sheets over them, making it difficult to distinguish the suspects from the hostages. The police decided not to act due to the safety of the victims. The suspects took the elevator with the hostages circled around them. According to one witness: 'They were on the ground for a moment and the The suspects told the hostages to come to the apartment's main door to find that it had been heavily cordoned off and was surrounded by heavily armed police. Terrifying: Police, aware of the hostage situation tried to use dialogue to end the hostage situation The hostages in particular the children have been given counselling to help them get over the ordeal According to onlookers there was a sense of nervousness in the air. Suddenly two shots were fired and the group covered in sheets began to move. Mr Lee who was standing close by at the time said : 'Criminals and hostages covered themselves with blankets and were wrapped together as well as having a red carpet on their head. You couldn't tell who were hostages and who were criminals.' He recalls hearing the faint cry of a child. Suddenly police wearing shields quickly approached the group rushing them from the side and subdued the suspects. At this point the hostages were rescued and the crowd broke into applause. Zhang Jiankun, director of Community Committees in Deyang said she was informed of the situation by police. She says: 'I received a phone call and was shocked. I immediately notified all community workers who rushed to the scene.' According to Zhang, the hostages were given counselling. She said: 'Three of the hostages were children and were certainly under great shock and need psychological counselling.' Zhang said that the next community committees will aim to further strengthen the management of the area and keep an eye on the movement of persons. Police detained the suspects, one 34-year-old and another 25-year-old. They had a homemade pistol with bullets. According to onlookers, it was impossible to tell who were the suspects and who were the hostages The two were reunited thanks to a message Li's son posted on a website The younger sibling was later sold onto a family far away from her home separated in 1943 when Li was given away aged six The long-lost sisters from China broke down in tears as they met yesterday No matter how far apart you are, a sister will always be there for you. This can't be more true for a pair of siblings from China who were finally reunited yesterday after being separated for as long as 73 years. The long-lost siblings, 81-year-old Ai Shuzhang and 79-year-old Li Shurong, broke down in tears as they met for the first time since 1943 when Li was given away by their impoverished parents to a neighbour at the age of six, reported thePeople's Daily Online. Overcome with emotion: Li Shurong (right) meets her sister Ai Shuzhang (left) after more than seven decades 'I've finally found you': The two sisters were separated in 1943 when Li (right) was given to another family The siblings were seen embracing each other and weeping uncontrollably at the arrival hall of the Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport in south China surrounded by families and media. Li, the younger sister, had travelled more than 1,860 miles from Changchun, a city in north-east China, to meet her sister Ai in Guangzhou, whom she had missed every day for more than seven decades. Upon meeting each other, Ai held her sibling and cried emotionally: 'After so many year, I've finally found you.' She then added: 'I'm sorry sister, I didn't protect you well.' According to their accounts, the two sisters were born in Funing County, central China's Hebei Province, to a war-stricken China. When Li was born in 1937, the country was wrecked by the Second Sino-Japanese War, a part of the Pacific Theater of World War II. Li and Ai are two out of three female siblings. The two have a youngest sister. Li recalled that their father had been forced to fight on the battle field and their mother had been abducted to work as a nanny for a rich family. Their father returned home from the war after a few years, but his health had been destroyed, the report said. He could no longer provide for the family. That's when the man decided to give away all of his three daughters. Blood is thicker than water: Li (right) was only six when her poverty-stricken father gave her to a neighbour, but the sisters bonded immediately after the runion Life long wishes: Both women had tried to find each other throughout the years, but only managed to get in touch in June this year Li (in black) travelled more than 1,860 miles from north-east China to meet her sister in south China yesterday Ai, who was the eldest of the trio, said: 'My younger sister, who was six, was given to a neighbour surnamed Xie. 'My youngest sister, who was just two, was given to another family living outside of our county.' Ai said his father finally decided to keep her because she told him at the time: 'I'm nine years old, I will support you even if I have to beg.' Younger sister Li, who was given to Xie by her father, said the neighbour later sold her onto a family named Li, who lived in north-east China. She remembered taking a train for days with Xie and arrived at the far-flung Nong'an County in Jilin Province. Li said he had tried to find her family members in 1960s after her late grandparents gave her Xie's address before passing away. She tracked down Xie's relative, but was told that all her family had passed away. Since then, Li has lived in Changchun, Jilin, and is now a great-grandmother. On the other hand, her sister Ai moved to Guangzhou with her husband in 1950s and has settled there since. Zhou Changshun, who is the youngest son of Li, said: 'During every festival when my mother saw other people visiting their own families, she also felt envious.' Memorable experience: Ai (pictured) moved to Guangzhou with her husband in 1950s and has since lived there A hug after 73 years: The two siblings were surrounded by families and media when they were reunited Media darlings: Their story has moved many reporters who travelled to the airport to interview the pair In April, Li's son Zhou decided to resort to the internet in helping her mother find her long-lost sister. Zhou posted a message on Baobeihuijia, a Chinese website for people to find their missing family members. The website's volunteers visited the sisters' hometown in Funing and managed to find one of their cousins, who said Li's sister Ai now lives in Guangzhou. The volunteers tracked down Ai in Guangzhou in May and told the pensioner that her sister had been looking for her. Upon hearing the news, Ai burned incense sticks in front of her late parents' pictures and prayed: 'Mother, it has been your life-long wish to see us sisters reunited. 'You waited until 96 years old and couldn't see it happening. Now we are finally going to meet.' In June, a DNA test arranged by Baobeihuijia confirmed that the two elderly women are indeed sisters. They had a video call shortly and met in person yesterday after Li took a three-hour flight from Changchun. Li said: 'As soon as I saw her, I knew this was my sister. We look too alike.' A woman in Ankang, China, has divorced her paralysed husband and remarried his best friend so that they can take care of her ex-husband together. Xie Xiping has been caring for her husband Xu Xihan since he was paralysed in a mining accident in 2002, reports the People's Daily Online. She later remarried Liu Zongkui and the three live under the same roof with their children. Touching: Xie Xiping and Liu Zhongkui have been caring for her ex husband who is paralysed Heartbreaking: The ex-husband Xu Xihan worked as a miner in Henan and was involved in an accident in 2002 A modern family: The three now live under the same roof and have a happy life with their children Xu Xihan and Xie Xiping married in 1996 and had a daughter the following year. After a few years, Xie Xiping gave birth to a boy. Xu Xihan was working in a mine in Henan province in 2002 when a boulder hit him and became paralysed from the waist down. He was paid 40,000 yuan (4,137) in compensation. The man's wife spent her time taking care of him however he was concerned when neighbours told him that they thought his wife would leave him within months. However Xie Xiping and their children did not leave, choosing to care for him. Xi Han Tu started telling his wife that she should divorce him and be happy with someone else. After time passed, Xie Xiping decided to divorce her husband and marry his colleague Liu Zongkui. In 2012 she gave birth to a son. All of the family live together under one roof. Tragic: The man said his friends told him that his wife would leave him because of his condition Devoted husband: He told his wife that she should go off and meet someone else and be happy Russia's plan to build a colony on the moon has begun taking shape. Roscosmos, the country's space agency, today announced plans to permanently station 12 cosmonauts on the lunar surface. The moon base will be used for research and mining of precious minerals - but some suggest it may also have a military purpose. Scroll down for video While the US has its sights largely set on Mars, Russia says it plans to conquer the moon. The nation is hoping to launch a lunar probe in 2024 to scout out colony locations, before landing humans on the moon in 2030 COULD TIM PEAKE BE THE NEXT MAN ON THE MOON? British astronaut Tim Peake is already dreaming of joining a mission to the moon days after returning from orbit as the European Space Agency unveiled ambitious plans to explore the lunar surface. The 44-year-old, who returned to Earth after six months on the International Space Station on Saturday, said he would go back into space 'in a heartbeat'. While he described feeling like he was suffering from the 'world's worst hangover' after touching down in Kazakhstan, he said he being part of a mission to explore the moon would be a 'dream'. Advertisement 'At the initial stage, the moon base will be manned by no more than 2-4 people, with their number later rising to 10-12 people,' Olga Zharova from the Central Research Institute of Machine Building told Izvestia. The base will be powered by a sub-surface energy station, near one of the moon's poles. A fallout shelter will also be installed underground, helping to shield the crew from both radiation and any nuclear attacks. Roscosmos has previously said it is hoping to launch a lunar probe in 2024 to scout out colony locations, before landing humans on the moon in 2030. According to Russian news agency TASS, work has already begun on building the Luna 25 lander that will pave the way for human exploration. Roscosmos is also developing the Angara-A5V heavy-lift carrier rocket to sent parts for a human base to the moon. Overall, Russia will complete the moon mission using six separate launches of the upcoming Angara rocket. The launch of Angara-A5 heavy booster at Plesetsk Cosmodrome on December 23, 2014 in Arkhangelsk Region, Russia. Several launches of this rocket will help Russia build a manned base on the moon Each launch will send a new module to the moon, creating the base piece by piece, in a similar way to how the ISS was put together. Assembly of the moon base is expected to take more than ten years. Russia's first manned flight to the moon could possibly be a year earlier, in 2029, according to the head of Russia's state-controlled Rocket and Space Corporation Energia. Vladimir Solntsev, president of RSC Energia, which is 38 per cent owned by the Russian state, made the predictions at a space technology conference in Moscow in October. Separately, Russian company Energia last month revealed draft plans for an 11.4 tonne reusable spacecraft that will take cargo and cosmonauts onto the lunar surface within five days. The 'Ryvok' project was announced in May at the Human Space Exploration international conference in Korolev, near Moscow. The shuttle will be sent on the ISS by Soyuz ships and Angara rockets. Prior to the lunar mission, another launch to the space station would send an 'accelerator block' to act as fuel for Ryvok. This makes the flight dramatically cheaper as instead of a needing a rocket, all that could be needed is a spacecraft and fuel to lift passengers to low-Earth orbit. When returning from the near-moon orbit, Ryvok would open an 'umbrella' of 55 square meters for braking in the Earth atmosphere. In the 1960s the Soviets began developing their own designs for a manned mission to land on the moon with its N1-L3 Lunar Lander (left). However, the project never flew and was eventually cancelled. Earlier this year the European Space Agency said it planned to work with Russia on its mission to land on the moon (right) Currently Russia's Soyuz spacecraft, which are built by RSC Energia, are the only vehicles capable of sending humans into space. Nasa has been relying upon the system to send its astronauts to the International Space Station along with regular supplies of cargo. In a statement posted on the RSC Energia website, Mr Solntsev said: 'The high-priority line of activities for Russian manned programs in the next 10 to 20 years is lunar exploration. 'Russia develops a new-generation advanced transportation spacecraft, in the nearest future development of other elements of the lunar program will also begin.' The new spacecraft, dubbed the Angara-A5V heavy-lift carrier rocket, is expected to be built using composites specifically designed for lunar missions. Russia has never landed a human on the moon and plans to do so drawn up in the 1960s were never completed after Nasa's Apollo moon landings. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin (right) speaks about plans for the new rocket. The new spacecraft, dubbed the Angara-A5V heavy-lift carrier rocket, is expected to be built using composites specifically designed for lunar missions Through the 1960s and 1970s there were 12 Nasa astronauts who landed and walked on the surface of the moon. Since Apollo 17 in 1972, however, there have been no humans to set foot on the lunar surface. A picture showing astronaut James Irwin, from Apollo 15, is shown above Instead, the country has concentrated on sending a series of unmanned probes to the lunar surface. However, it has not sent a spacecraft to the moon since the sample return mission Luna 24 in 1976. However, the country's new effort to send cosmonauts to the moon could see it beating US in its attempts to return to the lunar surface. Nasa had been planning to return humans to the lunar surface as part of its long-term plans to send astronauts to Mars. However, the plans were scrapped in 2010 favour of landing on an asteroid in an announcement by US President Barack Obama. Hit by major funding issues, a mission to the moon was seen as being a low priority although some officials have indicated Nasa may send future missions to orbit the dusty satellite. A recent study funded by Nasa has, however, also suggested Nasa is still hopeful about establishing a human presence on the surface of the moon. The Evolvable Lunar Architecture Plan outlined a cut price way of building a base on the moon for around $10 billion using private rockets and mining water ice from the poles. The study, conducted by NexGen Space LLC, said it would be possible to land humans on the moon within the next five to seven years and establish a base within 19 years. Russia's Soyuz spacecraft and rocket system is currently the only method used to send humans into space. RSC Energia, which builds Soyuz, says it is working on a new spacecraft specifically for mission to the moon A number of former Nasa staff have also suggested that the space agency is quietly planning a mission to the moon as part of its build up to Mars. However, Russia's ambitious plans to return to the moon could now trigger a new race to exploit the minerals and other resources on the lunar surface. Earlier this year, the European Space Agency said it was interested in joining Russia's attempts to colonise the moon. Esa and Roscosmos said they were working together to send a lander to the moon's south pole to look for water. The Lunar 27 mission will launch in 2020 and its primary mission will be to look for deposits of water ice in craters on the surface, which could be used by future manned colonies on the moon. Professor Igor Mitrofanov, one of the lead scientists on the project at the Space Research Institute in Moscow, told the BBC: 'We have to go to the Moon. 'The 21st Century will be the century when it will be the permanent outpost of human civilisation, and our country has to participate in this process.' According to a series of studies over the last few years, global sperm count is falling, and fertility problems affect one in eight couples. But instead of having to visit the doctor to check for fertility issues, men might soon be able to do this from the comfort of their own homes. A portable fertility test enabling men to test the quality of their sperm will soon be on sale in the US, after recently receiving FDA approval. Scroll down for video According to a series of studies over the last few years, global sperm count is falling, and fertility problems affect one in eight couples. But instead of having to visit the doctors to keep a check on their sperm count, men might soon be able to do this from the comfort and privacy of their own homes HOW IT WORKS Men place a small sample of their semen into a disposable cartridge and attach the cartridge to the base. It uses a centrifuge, a piece of equipment that puts an object in rotation around a fixed axis The base spins the cartridge, and the semen separates out into its component parts. The isolated sperm fills a visible chamber, like mercury in a thermometer. It marks on the cartridge to reveal whether the user has an optimal, moderate, or low sperm count. The results are based on World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines & clinical studies comparing couples' time to pregnancy with sperm counts. The device also pairs with a smartphone app, allowing users to track your sperm levels over time and compare results with the rest of the population. Advertisement The Trak, a desktop gadget that measures a man's sperm count, was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in April. The device, developed by Bay Area startup Sandstone Diagnostics, is powered by AA batteries and will cost $159.99 (109) when it goes on sale. It is expected to ship directly to consumers this Autumn, according to Stat News. The product will be available in the US only at first, because they have FDA approval. Greg Sommer and Ulrich Schaff, who founded a startup company, say the tests can give a result within minutes. 'We anticipate readiness for international sales within 1-2 years pending regulatory approvals,' Mr Sommer told MailOnline. The scientists came up with their idea while working at Sandia National Laboratories in California, where they created a device that quickly detects toxins or other biological threats. The pair then licensed the technology from Sandia, which formed the basis for their device, and in 2012, they founded Sandstone Diagnostics, to develop the fertility-test kit, which they called TrakFertility. Mr Sommer, who with his partner is now looking to market the device to consumers through a partnership with an established medical compan y, said that fertility solutions have traditionally been more focused on women. 'We want to help people conceive in a way never done before,' he said. 'The market today is completely focused on females to monitor hormones, temperatures and so forth for peak fertility windows each month. But one of every five men has low-sperm counts that can impair conception.' The device also pairs with a smartphone app, allowing users to track your sperm levels over time and compare results with the rest of the population. The device, developed by Bay Area startup Sandstone Diagnostics, is powered by AA batteries and will cost $159.99 (109) when it goes on sale Men place a small sample of their semen into a disposable cartridge and attach the cartridge to the base. It uses a centrifuge, a piece of equipment that puts an object in rotation around a fixed axis. The isolated sperm fills a visible chamber, like mercury in a thermometer WHAT MAKES TRAK DIFFERENT? Trak is the first test to use a centrifuge to detect sperm counts. This allows it to specify a range of sperm counts rather than just indicating whether it falls below or above a threshold, like a few other tests available. It is also the first to be paired with a phone app so users can track their sperm levels over time. The test also involves no lab techniques at home, making it simpler to use than others. 'We've tried to take out as many steps that could lead to user error as possible,' Mr Sommer told Diagnostic World News. 'You don't want to rely on people having to do precise pipetting or any kind of home chemistry. It has to be true sample-to-answer.' Advertisement Though it is not yet for sale, Sandstone Diagnostics, the company behind Trak is allowing people to reserve the device through its website. The site also encourages users to 'Improve your health, habits, and sperm to reach your goals.' The device works using a centrifuge, a piece of equipment that puts an object in rotation around a fixed axis. Men place a small sample of their semen into a disposable cartridge and attach the cartridge to the base. The isolated sperm fills a visible chamber, like mercury in a thermometer. It marks on the cartridge to reveal whether the user has an optimal, moderate, or low sperm count. The results are based on World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines & clinical studies comparing couples' time to pregnancy with sperm counts. The device also pairs with a smartphone app, allowing users to track your sperm levels over time and compare results with the rest of the population. Millions of British voters will tomorrow go to the polls to decide the future of their country in Europe. But in the build up to the EU referendum they are being besieged with spam generated by bots on social media as campaigners make a last ditch attempt to win their vote. Scientists looking at the use of the internet during the referendum campaign claim there has been an upsurge in automatic Twitter accounts generating political statements ahead of the poll. Researchers say there has been a surge in the activity of Twitter bots ahead of Britain's EU referendum on Thursday. They found just one per cent of 300,000 Twitter accounts posting about the referendum were responsible for a third of the activity, indicating they are automated accounts (such as @IVoteLeave pictured) They say that the majority of these seem to be for leaving the European Union with less than one per cent of social media accounts generating a third of all messages about the referendum. BREXIT VOTE SEARCH TRENDS Google has released data showing the terms Brits have been searching for in the run up to the 'Brexit' vote on 23rd June, with 'immigration' and 'NHS' top of the list. With so many conflicting points on such a complex issue, the data show many Brits are simply seeking a straight answer, searching for 'Why should we leave/stay in the EU?', followed closely by 'What will happen if?'. But the top question across the UK concerning the EU referendum is 'What is 'Brexit'?' referring to the term coined for Britain's exit from the EU. The data, which cover searches over a seven day period from 31st May to 7th June, provide a tantalising insight into what is most concerning people across the UK in the run up to the big vote. While opponents of the 'Remain' camp claim staying in the European Union will mean more bureaucracy and handing over the country's decision-making to Brussels, opponents of 'Leave' warn that going it alone could have a huge impact on the economy, workforce and future of the country. Google's data reveal that for British voters, immigration is the burning issue, barely shifting from the top spot since February. Other top search terms show voters are concerned about the impact of leaving the EU on the UK's the economy - which jostled with immigration for the top spot - as well as the health service, British sovereignty and national security. Advertisement Professor Philip Howard, who studies the use of digital media in politics at the Oxford Internet Institute at Oxford University and who spotted the trend, warned it could have a harmful effect. He told New Scientist: 'They can spread massive amounts of misinformation.' Professor Howard and his colleague Bence Kollanyi, a PhD student in sociology at Corvinus Univesrity in Budapest, examined more than 1.8 million tweets posted between 5 June and 12 June. They found 54 per cent of the tweets backed the pro-leave camp while 20 per cent were in favour of remaining in the European Union. But around half a million of the tweets were produced by just one percent of the 300,000 accounts they looked at. They found accounts like @ivoteLeave and @ivotestay were the two single most active accounts for each side of the debate and were bots. They both follow a similar algorithm where they mechanically retween messages from either side of the debate. Bizarrely, the researchers also found a pro-Palestine bot - @Col_Connaughton - also seems to have been repurposed to support the Brexit side of the campaign for a period. When MailOnline checked the account, however, it seems to have returned to Tweeting about Palestine again. Some of the accounts that the researchers identified as bots have since been suspsended by Twitter. Writing in a paper posted on the open source research website arXiv, the pair said: 'Bots have been used by political actors around the world to attack opponents, choke off hashtags, and promote political platforms. 'During this sample period, however, we found that social media bots were used mostly for amplifying messages rather than argumentative engagement or even impression management. 'In this analysis, we find that bots generate a noticeable portion of all the traffic about the UK referendum, very little of it original. 'Bots are mostly used to retweet content about StrongerInBrexit issues. 'It is difficult to say how much public opinion is shaped by political discourse on this topic over social media or what the influence of bots is on public sentiment.' The researchers found that leave campaigners appear to be making greater use of Twitter bots than the stay campaign, but both sides had attempted to use these automated accounts (Pro-EU bot @IVoteStay pictured) Researchers fear that increased social media activity for one side of the campaign could give a misleading impression that the groundswell of public opinion was tipping in one direction (tweet by pro-leave bot pictured) New Scientist also reports that another group of researchers at Sadbottrue.com has identified a number of Twitter bots posting about the EU referendum. They said 90 per cent of the 200 most frequent retweeters of pro-leave or pro-remain content appeared to be automated. Susan Banducci, a social scientist at the University of Exeter, warned that social media bots could give the unfair impression of a groundswell of support for either side of the campaign. Currently polls show that the vote is likely to be extremely close with just a per cent or two between each side of the campaign. She told New Scientist that it : 'If people sense that the leave campaign, for example, is way ahead and the sentiment is moving in that direction, they might be discouraged from voting.' Bizarrely some Twitter bots that post on other issues such as Palestine (pictured) have been found to be posting tweets in favour of leaving the European Union The hopes of Mars mission hopefuls may have been dealt a blow today. The head the European Space Agency (Esa) said they may be waiting at least 15 years for the necessary technology to be developed. Director-General of Esa, Jan Woerner, poured doubt on chances of an earlier window for the epic journey, citing financial restraints. Those with aspirations of heading to Mars (pictured) may have to wait a little longer. The head the European Space Agency said it may take at least 15 years for the necessary technology to be developed MARS MISSIONS FACE DELAY Director-General of the European Space Agency, Jan Woerner, claims the technology needed for manned missions to Mars is at least 15 years away. Space agencies would need rockets which could land on the red planet and take off again. The agency chief said a permanent human settlement on the moon, where 3D printers could be used to turn moon rock into essential items needed for the round trip to Mars, would be a major step toward the red planet. Advertisement 'If there was enough money then we could possibly do it earlier but there is not as much now as the Apollo programme had,' said Woerner, referring to the US project which landed the first people on the moon in the 1960s. The agency chief said a permanent human settlement on the moon, where 3D printers could be used to turn moon rock into essential items needed for the round trip to Mars, would be a major step toward the red planet. US space agency Nasa hopes to send astronauts to Mars in the mid-2030s and entrepreneur Elon Musk, who heads SpaceX, says he plans to send unmanned spacecraft to the red planet as early as 2018, with manned missions by 2030. However, Woerner claims it will take longer. A spacecraft sent to Mars would need rockets and fuel powerful enough to lift back off for the return trip and the humans would need protection from unprecedented physical and mental challenges as well as deep-space radiation. Director-General of Esa, Jan Woerner (pictured), poured doubt on chances of an earlier window for the epic journey, citing financial restraints Woerner would like to see a cluster of research laboratories on the moon, at what he calls a 'moon village', to replace the International Space Station when its lifetime ends and to test technologies needed to make the trip to Mars. That could be funded and operated by a collection of private and public bodies from around the world, he said in an interview at the ESA's Operations Centre. 'There are various companies and public agencies asking to join the club now, so they want to do different things, resource mining, in situ research, tourism and that kind of stuff. There is a big community interested,' he told Reuters. Working with Russian space agency Roscosmos, Esa launched an orbiter in March which is destined for Mars 'The moon village is a pit stop on the way to Mars,' said Woerner, adding that new 3D printing technology could be used to build material and structures out of rocks and dust, doing away with the cost of transporting everything needed for a mission. 'To test how to use lunar material to build some structures, not only houses, but also for a telescope or whatever, will teach us also how to do it on Mars,' he said. Working with Russian space agency Roscosmos, Esa launched an orbiter in March which is destined for Mars. The craft is deep into its seven-month journey as part of the agency's ExoMars mission, which will use an atmospheric probe to sniff out signs of life on Mars and deploy a lander to test technologies needed for a rover scheduled to follow in 2020. Woerner said Europe was looking at ways to lower the cost of launches but did not plan to copy Elon Musk's SpaceX, which is trying to develop relatively cheap, reusable launch vehicles. 'We should not copy. To follow and copy does not bring you into the lead. We are looking for totally different approaches,' Woerner said, adding Esa was examining all manner of new technologies, including air-breathing engines that do not need to tap into oxygen from a spacecraft's tank. Advertisement On the longest day of the year - the summer solstice - astronomers around the world were treated to a 'strawberry moon' in the night's sky. But one stargazer managed to get a view of the full moon from a very unique angle - photographing it from space. The name of the full moon in June is thought to originate with Native American tribes, because they believed it signalled the beginning of the strawberry picking season. This year the longest day of the year, known as the summer solstice, coincided with a 'strawberry moon.' Many people took pictures of the moon from viewpoints on Earth, but one lucky astronaut also managed to photograph the phenomenon from space, pictured FULL MOON ON A SOLSTICE The start of summer brings the longest day of the year, or the summer solstice. This occurs when the tilt of Earth's semi-axis, in either northern or southern hemispheres, is most inclined toward the sun. A full moon occurs when the moon is in opposition to the sun - which means the Earth and the sun are on opposite sides of the Earth. A full moon in June is called the 'strawberry moon', because it used to be an indicator of the best time to pick the fruit. This month's 'strawberry moon' - another name for a full moon in June - will have an added bonus, it will fall on the same day as the 2016 summer solstice. Advertisement This year, on 20 June, it coincided with the longest day of the year, meaning for many there were fewer hours of darkness in which to enjoy the spectacle. But for Expedition 48 Commander Jeff Williams, a Nasa astronaut on board the International Space Station, it was an opportunity to capture a unique photograph, which he took on 21 June. Mr Williams wrote on Twitter: 'A spectacular rise of the full moon just before sunset while flying over western China.' A full moon occurs when the moon is in opposition to the sun - which means the Earth and the sun are on opposite sides of the Earth. The space station orbits the Earth at an altitude of roughly 255 miles (410km), travelling at 17,100 miles (27,600km) per hour. 'Although crew members on the International Space Station view literally hundreds of scenes of the moon rising and setting over Earth on each several- month increment, the home planet's natural satellite never ceases to escape the crew's attention and impulse to grab a camera from time to time,' a post on the Nasa website says. A full moon in June is called the 'strawberry moon', because it used to be an indicator of the best time to pick the fruit. This month's 'strawberry moon' - another name for a full moon in June - had an added bonus, it fell on the same day as the 2016 summer solstice. The term 'solstice' derives from the Latin word 'solstitium', meaning 'sun standing still'. This occurs when the tilt of Earth's semi-axis, in either northern or southern hemispheres, is most inclined toward the sun. The June 2016 full moon hit its peak fullness at 6:02 a.m. CDT Monday 20 June, while the moment of the solstice wwas later in the day at 5:34 p.m. Since the solstice, the days have started to shorten in the northern hemisphere. The way that the stones are positioned at Stonehenge is said to be aligned with sunrises on the two annual solstices - summer and winter. Use the module below or visit the website to see when the ISS will be visible from your city The Supermoon of 2013 at 5 AM June 24 2013 Lititz, Pennsylvania, was also a strawberry moon. Despite the name, the moon will not appear pink or red. It is the name given by Native American tribes to the June full moon which they believed signalled the beginning of the strawberry picking season Some 12,000 gathered at Stonehenge, many adopting the hippy-like fashion of stringing garlands of flowers in their hair although many appeared more interested in taking selfies of the sun rising the next morning. SOLSTICES AND EQUINOXES 2016 Vernal Equinox: 20 March 04:30 GMT Summer Solstice: 20 June 22:34 GMT Autumnal Equinox: 22 September 14:21 GMT Winter Solstice: 21 December 10:44 GMT Advertisement It was the first time that those attending the special occasion were not permitted to toast the day with a celebratory drink after English Heritage banned alcohol. The charity, which manages Stonehenge, justified the decision because it had seen growing levels of 'drunken and disrespectful behaviour'. The new policy was met with protests, and around 12,000 druids boycotted the religious site after the introduction of a 15 parking charge. The summer solstice is a highly significant pagan tradition for many. It occurs when the tilt of the Earth's axis is most inclined towards the sun, creating the longest period of daylight in the year. The way the stones are positioned at Stonehenge is said to be aligned with sunrises on the two annual solstices. The start of summer brings the longest day of the year, or the summer solstice. This occurs when the tilt of Earth's semi-axis, in either northern or southern hemispheres, is most inclined toward the sun Those gathered at Stonehenge took selfies and photos of the spectacular moon and sun rise. However they were unable to have a celebratory drink due to a ban by English Heritage The sun was exceptionally high while the moon remained unusually low, which gave it an amber hue. Pictured, the strawberry moon lights up the sky above the River Thames in London, United Kingdom Wiltshire Police said the celebrations at Stonehenge and at the nearby Avebury stone circle were 'positive and peaceful'. There was a no-fly zone over the monument for drones and unmanned aerial vehicles during the solstice. Kate Davies, English Heritage's general manager of Stonehenge, said: 'The summer solstice at Stonehenge is one of the most special times in the year for the monument. 'This year, we had a spectacular strawberry moon and a glorious sunrise. We were delighted to see how many families came to the solstice this year. 'We are pleased with how the celebrations have gone. This year we introduced some changes and people embraced them, both respecting and understanding the reason for these changes.' The strawberry moon rises above Glastonbury Tor in Somerset. The phenomenon occurs when a full moon and the summer solstice occur on the same day and is named because American tribes believed this was when the fruit could start being picked Andrew Sharpe took this photo of the straberry moon above Ely cathedral, which is known as the Ship of the Fens The Sun rising over Stonehenge on the morning of the Summer Solstice (21st June 2005). The way that the stones are positioned at Stonehenge is said to be aligned with sunrises on the two annual solstices - summer and winter They are some of the heaviest objects in the universe providing the gravitational glue that holds entire galaxies together, but the majority of supermassive black holes are dormant. But astronomers have discovered one of these sleeping giants flickering back to life in a feeding frenzy as it tears apart a star that has strayed too close. The resulting X-ray fireworks have allowed the researchers to make the first detailed observations of a dormant supermassive black hole. Astronomers have been given a rare glimpse of dormant supermassive black hole after spotting the x-ray fireworks bouncing around inside the disk of debris left after a star strayed too close and was torn apart. They found the x-rays originated from deep inside the debris disk, known as an accretion disk (artist's impression) WAKING A DORMANT BLACK HOLE Supermassive black holes are hundreds of thousands to billions of times more massive than our sun and are found at the centre of every known galaxy. Around 90 per cent of these are dormant black holes, so are not actively devouring matter, meaning there is no light or radiation being given off from the material around them. However, they can become active again if a star strays to close and is torn apart by the intense gravity fields surrounding them. In the case of Swift J1644+57, it consumed the material from the shredded star so quickly, the event briefly exceeded the Eddington Limit -the theoretical maximum 'speed limit' that defines how fast a black hole can consume matter. This finding can help astronomers to understand how supermassive black holes grow to their enormous masses - up to several million times the mass of the sun. 'The meaning of this extends far beyond the studies of tidal disruption events,' said Dr Lixin Dai, a physicist at the University of Maryland who was a co-author on the latest study. 'It can help us understand how the biggest black holes in the universe formed and co-evolved with their host galaxies.' Advertisement Normally dormant supermassive black holes do not give off any light or radiation as they are not actively devouring matter. They can only be indirectly observed by the pattern of stars around them. But astronomers at the University of Maryland and the University of Michigan were able to observe x-rays bouncing around a disk of debris around a supermassive black hole called Swift J1644+57. Sitting in the centre of a small galaxy in the Draco constellation about 3.8 billion light years away, the giant black hole appears to have woken from its slumber to destroy the star. What remains of stars devoured by the black hole sit around it in a puffy cloud known as an accretion disk. The X-rays given off by the star as it was torn apart have helped to illuminate this disk. Dr Erin Kara, an astronomer at the University of Maryland who was the lead author of the study, said: 'Before this result, there was no clear evidence that we were seeing into the innermost regions of the accretion disk. 'We thought the emission was from the jet pointed at us, or further away and not close to central black hole. 'This new study shows us that, actually, we can see this reverberation at work very close to the central black hole.' The feeding frenzy that occurs when a star strays too close to a dormant star is known as a tidal disruption event. Occassionally these light up with x-rays. The disk of debris acts like a reflective shield behind a flashlight bulb, reflecting and focusing the radiation given off. Dr Kara said: 'Most tidal disruption events don't emit much in the high-energy X-ray band. 'But there have been at least three known events that have, and this is the first and only such event that has been caught at its peak. The supermassive black hole Swift J1644+57 sits in a small galaxy about 3.8 billion light years from Earth. It was first spotted in 2011 as bright flares were given off by the accretion disk around it Conventional wisdom among astronomers has long held that, during a tidal disruption event, high-energy X-rays are created further from the black hole in the relativistic jets - huge beams of particles ejected by the black hole and accelerated to nearly the speed of light. But seeing X-ray emissions bouncing off the walls of the inner accretion disk has cast a new light on this assumption. The team used X-ray reverberation mapping to chart out the inside of the accretion disk, much in the same way that sound waves can be used to map the seafloor or canyons by measuring the time delays of echoes. The researchers, whose work is published in the journal Nature, computed small delays in the arrival time of X-ray signals reflected from iron atoms in the accretion disk. Dr Kara said: 'We know how sound echoes in a large auditorium, for example. Because we know the speed of sound, we can use the time delay information to calculate the shape of the auditorium. 'We are doing the same with X-ray radiation to map out the inner accretion disk. It's a cool, novel technique that has only been developed within the last six years.' An accretion disk forms around a supermassive black hole when a star strays too close and is torn apart (illustrated) To date, most of what astronomers know about supermassive black holes comes from a handful of black holes that are actively gathering and consuming matter. It is thought, however, that these account for just 10 per cent of the supermassive black holes in the universe. Professor Chris Reynolds, co-author of the study and an astronomer at the University of Maryland, said: 'Understanding the black hole population in general is important. 'Black holes have played an important role in how galaxies evolved. So even if they're dormant now, they weren't before. 'If we only look at active black holes, we might be getting a strongly biased sample. It could be that these black holes all fit within some narrow range of spins and masses. 'So it's important to study the entire population to make sure we're not biased. 'Looking at tidal disruption events with reverberation mapping might help us probe the spin of black holes in the future. 'But just as importantly, we can follow along after an event and watch how the accretion disk spins down and energy dissipates as the black hole returns to a quiescent state. 'We might finally be able to observe all of these various states that, so far, we only know from theory textbooks.' The West Coast may soon become a massive racetrack for flying cars. Just days after the US federal government took a major step toward legalizing the versatile craft, inventor Dezso Molnar has announced the start of a revolutionary racing series. The inaugural flying car race is set to take place next year, and so far, 22 teams have been invited. The proposed races are an attempt to boost the development of this technology, using competition to bring innovators together. Pictured above is the Maverick, one of the craft invited to participate in Flying Car Racing FLYING CARS INCH CLOSER TO LEGALITY The Transition was recently granted an exemption by the FAA. This has folding wings so it can drive on the ground like a car, or take to the sky. The exemption allows it to be classified as a 'light-sport' craft. These aircraft weigh roughly 1,300 pounds and have fixed landing gear. They seat a maximum of two people, including the pilot. And to operate them, one must have a sport pilot certificate, which requires just 20 hours of training. Advertisement Revealed in a series of interviews with Gizmag, the proposed races are an attempt to boost the development of this technology, using competition to bring innovators together. The Flying Car Racing series will be divided among three categories of vehicles: radio controlled, electric, and unlimited flying cars. Radio controlled vehicles are unmanned and guided by a human operator, while the others are both manned. In the course, the vehicles must fly and drive 219 miles from California's El Mirage Lake, a dry lakebed, to the planned El Dorado Droneport in Nevada, near Boulder City. The lakebed aims to provide a safe environment for high speed ground testing, as well as take-off and landing. Here, pilots can drive their vehicles as fast as they want to, but must abide by the speed limit on the streets. In the course, the vehicles must fly and drive 219 miles from California's El Mirage Lake, a dry lakebed, to the planned El Dorado Droneport in Nevada, near Boulder City 'It's a 200-mile (322-km) course through the desert, the classic Route 66 on the ground, and there's Class G airspace and about 15 airports in between,' Molnar told Gizmag. 'So if somebody has an ultralight aircraft, and it's a flying car, they will be able to fly their aircraft over completely unpopulated areas and compete between those two spots.' The competition so far has just three requirements. Inventor Dezso Molnar has announced the start of a revolutionary racing series for flying cars. Pictured above is the Terrafugia, one of the craft invited to participate in the races. This vehicle has folding wings so it can drive like a car, or take to the skies All participants must be able to legally operate their flying cars both on the ground and in the air along the designated route. The Transition is pictured above All participants must be able to legally operate their flying cars both on the ground and in the air along the designated route. If they're not street legal, they may only take place in 'restricted trials' and above the El Mirage. And, radio-controlled vehicles will be required to be raced within the visual range of the operator both on land and in the air. The many flying cars vary in design, from gyrocopters to lightweight planes with folding wings. The Aeromobil is pictured above There are multiple airports along the route, and Molnar explains that they will split up the trips, alternating between driving and flying. Among the craft invited to race are the Maverick, Caravella Aerospace's Caravellair, the Aeromobil, and Terrafugia's Transition. The many flying cars vary in design, from gyrocopters to lightweight planes with folding wings. If they're not street legal, they may only take place in 'restricted trials' and above the El Mirage. The Switchblade flying trike is pictured above, in flight mode, with the Pal-V is pictured left, in gyroplane mode The flying car races were announced just days after the US federal government took a major step toward legalizing the versatile craft. A craft from Caravella Aerospace is pictured above It's been a big week for flying cars, and for Terrafugia in particular. The Transition was recently granted an exemption by the FAA, allowing it to be classified as a 'light-sport' craft, according to the Washington Post. These aircraft weigh roughly 1,300 pounds and have fixed landing gear. They seat a maximum of two people, including the pilot. A professional adventurer is on a life's mission to inspire children and kick-start the travelling bug early. Huw James, who is also a space scientist and trained mountain leader, is extolling the positive effects of seeing the world as a young person and how it can help people become more well-rounded adults. With access to cheap airfares and discount travel websites, it is more affordable than ever to visit foreign countries but many families still choose to vacation near home. Huw James is a Welsh adventurer, space scientist and mountain leader But James, who also runs a business called Anturus that provides resources to get children and adults interested in science through expeditions, told MailOnline Travel that children who experience difference cultures can grow up more open-minded and confident. He said: 'At home, we have ways of looking at the world through a window. 'But by travelling abroad, you come in contact with other races which is good - people who dont leave their town only see people from their own backgrounds. 'If you see you see other cultures doing the same thing that you do in your town, it helps you to become more open-minded as an adult.' James, pictured in the Alps, says travelling at a young age helps a child become well-rounded James wasn't well-travelled as a boy - like many children of the 1980s he spent holidays on camping trips in his homeland, Wales. Then around the age of nine, the trips began to go further afield to places like Spain and France, but the seminal moment came between the ages of 10 and 15 when James went to visit family in Nebraska. His trips were experienced in stark contrast to other children from the Welsh Valleys where he grew up, who never travelled. But James believes that humans are supposed to travel - he thinks it's in our genes. He said: 'Its nature versus nurture - we were born to be travellers. 'We populated the whole globe by being curious, so its not that we forgot to travel, it's that we are encouraged not to by staying in one place.' James believes that travelling to destinations like Alaska, pictured, can help to allow a child's confidence grow James acknowledges that it isn't easy for everyone to travel, with things like family responsibilities, jobs and mortgages all playing their part in restricting travel ambitions. But equally, he says, Brits have it much easier than most. He said: 'For such a small island that is in such a big community like the EU, were not limited by where we go to and a British passport gets you into a lot of places. 'We have a responsibility to show other children that there are other cultures out there - it's very beneficial for society, especially one like the UK's that has so many cultures, to do this. 'Everyone has excuses not to go travelling - not everyone can quit their jobs and travel the world, which makes it even more important to do that in your formative years.' Travelling and paying attention to the world can enable a child's confidence to grow, he suggests. James in the Alps with a friend on a climbing expedition in his role as a mountain leader James believes that a healthy curiosity about the world teaching a child to think for themselves. He said: 'I try and broaden minds by encouraging people to be curious and in the study of the natural world of science, the world of travel is very much a part of that. 'Its important to ask questions like, 'What is it like to stand on a volcano?' and to be able to answer it for yourself. 'When you grow up in the natural world, which travellers are part of, it gives you skills that can help you in life. 'And when it is so easy and cheap for us to travel, its strange that we choose not to do it.' A British pensioner who claims he contracted Legionnaires' disease on holiday in Greece is taking legal action against tour operator Thomas Cook. David Townend, 69, believes a dirty showerhead at his hotel in Troulos, on the island of Skiathos, is to blame after he suffered the rare and potentially life-threatening lung infection. Townend, from Chorley, Lancashire, said he came down with a fever and chills during his 900, two-week break with his wife, Diana, 63, in May. David Townend fell ill while he and his wife, Diana, were on a two-week holiday on the Greek island of Skiathos The couple, from Chorley, Lancashire, had enjoyed two problem-free holidays with Thomas Cook in the past. The retired sign writer and grandfather-of-ten initially thought he had spent too much time in the sun, but was diagnosed with Legionnaires' disease after he returned home, visited his GP and was admitted to hospital. The father-of-nine said the symptoms surfaced 10 days into the holiday, and he was so ill he doesn't remember the flight back to Manchester Airport and had to be helped off the plane. He said he visited his GP that day and spent five days in hospital, where he was given antibiotics and an IV drip because he was severely dehydrated. Townend, who booked the holiday through Thomas Cook, said: 'At first I thought I'd just spent too much time in the sun but I gradually got worse all holiday and soon became really worried. 'The illness made everything such hard work and I quickly became very tired and started to suffer from headaches. I was in a hot country but I kept on shivering. I just did not know what was happening.' Townend said he was only able to eat small amounts of food, felt tired constantly and did not want to leave his hotel room. Townend, a retired sign worker, said he is still feeling the effects of Legionnaires' disease, including tiredness This was the fifth time the couple had visited Skiathos, and they booked this trip through Thomas Cook He added: 'I obviously didn't go on holiday expecting to come back feeling terrible and needing hospital treatment. You never expect something like that to happen. 'I only realised how serious it was when Environmental Health officers came to see me in hospital. I was absolutely shocked when I found out I nearly died.' It's been five weeks since the couple returned home, and Townend claims he is still feeling the effects of the disease, including tiredness. While he could seek compensation from Thomas Cook, Townend claims he just wants to know what caused the illness to prevent it from happening to others. This was the fifth visit to Skiathos for Townend and his wife, a retired bank worker. The Townends, who have been married six years, had enjoyed two problem-free holidays with Thomas Cook in the past. WHAT IS LEGIONNAIRES' DISEASE? Legionnaires' disease is a serious lung infection caused by Legionella bacteria. The NHS said it is usually caught by breathing in small droplets of contaminated water, and it cannot be spread directly from person to person. Legionalla bacteria is usually found in sources of water such as ponds, rivers and lakes, but the bacteria can rapidly multiply if they enter artificial water supply systems such as air conditioning systems, the NHS said. Large buildings such as hotels or hospitals are more vulnerable to Legionalla contamination. Initial symptoms usually include flu-like symptoms such as mild headaches, muscle pain, fever, chills, tiredness or confusion, the NHS said. People may experience pneumonia symptoms such as a persistent cough, shortness of breath or chest pains once the bacteria infects the lungs. It usually takes six to seven days for symptoms to surface, although it could range from two to 19 days, the NHS said. The presence of bacteria can be confirmed through a urine test. Advertisement Diana Townend said: 'You never expect to go on holiday and develop a serious disease. Everyone we have told has been really shocked. 'At first, David just felt very hot and we thought it was because he had been on the beach too long. But he got more and more ill and became more and more confused as his condition worsened daily. 'Eventually, he became very confused and disorientated and didn't know where he was. I was really frightened and worried about David - it's an extremely serious disease.' The Townends said they complained to Thomas Cook and received an acknowledgement of their complaint, but have not heard back from the tour operator. They have instructed a law firm, Irwin Mitchell, to investigate. The Townends claim the showerhead in their hotel room was dirty, did not work properly and did not provide hot water in the morning. A spokesman for Thomas Cook said: 'We are very sorry to hear that Mr Townend fell ill on holiday. 'We know how important holidays are to our customers and how upsetting it can be to fall unwell while overseas. 'We will liaise with the Townend's appointed solicitor on the matter.' Amandeep Samra, representing the couple, said: 'Legionnaires' disease is very serious and can be fatal if contracted by vulnerable people. 'Although at present the root cause in this case is not yet known, the risks of Legionnaires' disease have been known for many years and there are very strict guidelines in place for hotels to prevent the spread of the disease. 'They include maintaining hot and cold water within the correct temperature range and strict maintenance of any storage tanks containing water to prevent the transmission of the bacteria. 'If these guidelines are not followed, the effects of an outbreak can be devastating.' Meanwhile, Dr John Astbury, from Public Health England North West, said: 'Public Health England North West's Cumbria and Lancashire Health Protection team and Chorley Council are aware of a confirmed cases of legionnaire's disease in a traveller that has recently returned from Greece. It has since been removed from the site because of quality standards The station in Salinas, California, was The smell of petrol regularly features in polls of people's favourite scents but does anyone love it enough to actually stay in a gas station over night? One Californian man certainly thought so, as he put his pump station business up for rent on AirbnB. Owner Pete Shen put the Sanborn and Market Gas in Salinas on the home-sharing website with a view to renting it out for $50 (37) a night. Pete Shen listed his petrol station on the home-sharing website Airbnb Guests were allowed free reign of the convenience shop onsite from the hours of 10pm to 5am, with the owner touting its 'easy freeway access' and good location near the centre of Salinas. The listing doesn't come with a bed, so customers are advised to bring an air mattress, but they do get free ice cream and 'all you can drink'. Shen told local television station KSBW: 'It's just a toilet, basic needs, some running water, hot water, some drinks, coffee, some ice cream. 'I'm the guinea pig in the commercial business so far for Airbnb.' Because of the lack of creature comforts, Shen hoped people would instead want to stay overnight for the 'experience'. According to the listing, the petrol station is in a good location near the centre of Salinas with 'easy freeway access' He said: 'Rather than stay at a real nice comfy luxury place, this has a real nice experience.' He wasn't wrong either - after putting the listing up he had several customers get in touch. He said: 'I've leased it for about two weeks now and we've had over 200 views on our listing.' However, the listing has since been removed from the rental site because of quality standards. He is best known to fans as Luke Skywalker in the iconic Star Wars films. But Mark Hamill is set to turn his hand to comedy as he prepares to join the cast of the hit British sitcom Man Down for its third series. The 54-year-old actor will feature alongside the star of the show comedian Greg Davies, who shot to fame as the contemptuous head of sixth form, Mr Gilbert, in The Inbetweeners. Scroll down for video New challenge: Mark Hamill is set to turn his hand to comedy as he prepares to join the cast of the hit British sitcom Man Down for its third series Mark's new role has not yet be revealed, but it is not thought he will step in for Greg's on-screen father, who was played by Rik Mayall until his death in 2014. Shortly after the actor's death, Greg confirmed he had no intention of recasting the part and said he preferred to introduce a completely new character instead. 'The adoration poured out for him. So never for a second did I think, "That's OK, we'll just get another dad in",' Greg explained. Mark joined the Man Down cast shortly after he reprised his best known role for the latest instalment of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Offbeat show: Mark's new role in the show has not yet be revealed, but it is not thought he will step in for Greg's on-screen father, who was played by Rik Mayall until his death in 2014 Prior to his appearance, Mark was consistently coy about whether he would star in the movie. But, along with other members of the original cast, including Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher, he made his long-awaited returns to the franchise last year. Starring alongside Greg and Mark in the British series will be Beverly Hills Cop star Steven Berkoff and Blackadder actor Sir Tony Robinson - known as the hapless Baldrick. Man Down, which hit screens in 2013, focuses on the plight of Greg's on-screen character, who faces a life-defining choice of continuing with the teaching job he has always hated or ditching it to find something more enjoyable. Kirstie Alley couldn't contain her excitement as she announced the birth of her grandchild on Twitter on Tuesday. The 65-year-old actress shared a photo of her son William True Parker, 23, cuddling his newborn baby. She captioned the photo: 'When your son has a son...bliss...yes this is my secret happy news as promised ...Welcome Waylon Tripp Parker.' New beginnings! Kirstie Alley couldn't contain her excitement as she announced the birth of her grandchild on Twitter on Tuesday; seen is her son William True Parker and his son Waylon Kirstie and ex-husband Parker Stevenson were married for fourteen years but divorced in 1997. During their marriage they adopted William and his sister Lillie Price as babies, and co-parented their children even after their split. The former couple made William a part of their family in 1992 and adopted daughter Lillie, 22, in 1994. All in the family: Nick Trela (left) was engaged to Kirstie Alley's daughter Lillie (to his right). They are here with mom Kirstie Alley, close friend Kelly Preston, John Travolta's wife, and True Parker, Kirstie's son Kirstie's daughter Lillie, 21, lost her fiance Nick Trela in November 2014 as he was killed in a motorcycle accident in Los Angeles. He died instantly after being sideswiped by a car. He and Lillie, who he dated for four years, had been planning their wedding together. Family time! Kirstie pictured here with her children, 12-year-old son True and 10-year-old daughter Lillie, in 2005 John Travolta and wife Kelly Preston were at Kirstie's side in the wake of the horrific family tragedy that claimed the life of Nick. John and Kelly offered their support to Kirstie and her ex-husband Parker Stevenson at a memorial service for Nick. Parker was allowed to attend the ceremony at the Hollywood Scientology Center despite having left the church when he and Kirstie divorced in 1997. Former MasterChef New Zealand chef Nadia Lim has told how she made a dash to hospital to have the tip of her index finger sewn back on. The 30-year-old self-proclaimed nude cook revealed she was preparing lunch when she accidentally chopped off the top of her finger and was forced to go to A and E to get it stitched back on. Nadia, who is of Chinese-Malaysian heritage, took to Facebook on Tuesday to post a bandaged snap of the bloody appendage writing: 'Lucky I saved my piece of finger (in a little plastic bag, in a chiller bag).' Scroll down for video MasterChef New Zealand chef Nadia Lim reveals she made a dash to hospital to have the tip of her index finger sewn back on after chopping it off while preparing lunch She added: 'This afternoon I ended up slicing the top of my finger off and had to go to A and E to get the chopped off piece put back on! 'Must have been over excited about launching today when I was making lunch,' she wrote. The pretty TV personality put the severed part into a plastic bag in the freezer to save the tissue from further damage. Successful: Nadia, a former MasterChef New Zealand winner, is currently turned her passion into a profitable business as one of the founders of My Food Bag Experts advise it is better to keep the amputated finger wrapped in clingfilm, on ice, preferably in a jar or cup with a lid - not in in water as this will cause it to shrivel up and become unusable for surgeons to reattach. Nadia, a former MasterChef New Zealand winner, is currently turned her passion into a profitable business as one of the founders of My Food Bag. The business, which operates in New Zealand and Australia, turns over $60 million annually but Mrs Lim told Daily Mail Australia while it has changed her life, it has had a greater impact on the lives of home cooks. Passionate: The cook is driven by healthy eating and says her food bags are encouraging children to cook 'Its changing the way people eat, said Mrs Lim, who splits her time between New Zealand and Australia. The feedback we get is astounding, people say it has improved or even fixed their marriage. Partners who never used to cook are now cooking, kids are now cooking a few nights a week and that has a huge impact on their future. 'Its changing the way people eat, said Mrs Lim, who splits her time between New Zealand and Australia The idea behind My Food Bag, and My Own Food Bag for single people, is simple. Customers choose from a selection of potential ingredients and meals that are then delivered to their door along with a list of easy-to-follow recipes. But while the recipes take half-an-hour to prepare at home, Mrs Lim said a lot of work went into developing each dish. In the very beginning there was just five of us, it was very hands-on, Mrs Lim said. Now we have about 70 staff that are doing the same job we used to do between us. We have a database of around 3,500 recipes. 'It has improved or even fixed their marriage': The 30-year-old says her bid to encourage people to cook is saving relationships The business was a risk for Mrs Lim and her husband Carlos Bagrie, the companys creative director. Both quit their day jobs and a comfortable salary to focus on the business. The partnered with co-founder Theresa Catting, who has appeared in Forbes' list of the world's 50 most powerful women, and business powerhouses Cecilia Robinson, CEO and co-founder. I think we all knew it would do well, we knew this was a real problem point for so many people, Mrs Lim said. She turned her back on the modelling world in the hopes to be taken seriously as an actress. But Australian beauty Abbey Lee clearly still has the wow factor, posing topless in an edgy photo-shoot for V Magazine's V102 issue out next month. In a feature titled Killing It, the 29-year-old stands strong, glaring over her shoulder and holding a kitchen knife behind her back, while starring on the cover with Bella Heathcote and Elle Fanning. Scroll down for video Blade of glory! Abbey Lee poses TOPLESS with a kitchen knife within the pages of V Magazine out next month In the same photo, fellow Australian Bella, also 29, stands with her back to the camera while holding the knife with both hands, showing off her slender frame in a sheer Preen dress. The photo-shoot, an homage to the trio's latest film about ruthless models, is a combination of sexy, femininity in lingerie which is off-set by Gothic glamour. Abbey's modelling past comes through powerfully in the snaps, with strong blush on her upper-cheek bones, bold eye makeup and a plum lip. Cover stars: On the cover, Abbey holds her right around Elle's neck, while the doe-eyed beauty Bella stands in the background Who's that girl? Bella is a doe-eyed beauty who found fame on the Australian soap opera Neighbours Her long blonde tresses, as well as Elle's and Bella's, are styled in a bouffant quiff. On the cover, Abbey holds her right hand around Elle's neck, while the doe-eyed beauty Bella looks almost unrecognisable with electric blue eye shadow. The three actresses star in Nicolas Winding Refn's Neon Demon, which sparked a lot of interest when it played at the Cannes Film Festival in France in May. Turning her back on modelling: Abbey ditched her last name Kershaw in 2014, cutting back on modelling to focus on acting 'She had to teach me how to do the walk': Elle, younger sister of Dakota Fanning, said Abbey had to show her the ropes when it came to doing her model walk for the film Elle said Abbey, a model who has a growing movie career after appearing in 2015's Mad Max: Fury Road, gave her tips on how to strut the catwalk. 'In a weird way I kind of idolised her when I was young because I loved fashion. She had to teach me how to do the walk for the casting scene,' she said in the accompanying interview. V Magazine is available to pre-order now, hitting stands on July 14. Doug Stanhope has accused Amber Heard of trying to silence him with a 'spiteful' defamation lawsuit. The actress is suing the comedian after he wrote an article claiming Heard had threatened to blackmail Johnny Depp before publicly accusing him of abuse. Heard filed for divorce from Depp on May 23 alleging she 'lived in fear' of her husband of 15 months and that he had been abusive throughout their marriage. Firing back: Johnny Depp's friend Doug Stanhope told Howard Stern on Monday Amber Heard's defamation lawsuit against him was 'bullsh*t' and 'spiteful' (pictured with girlfriend Amy Bingo' Bingaman A week later Stanhope, a longtime friend of the actor, wrote an article for The Wrap claiming he and all Depp's friends knew Heard was a 'manipulative a**hole' for years, and that Depp himself was aware she was about to 'lie about him publicly in any and every possible duplicitous way if he didnt agree to her terms'. 'It's such a bulls*** suit,' Stanhope told Howard Stern on his Sirius XM radio show on Monday. 'I think what she's trying to do is make me shut the f*** up.' He claimed she was suing him out of spite, particularly because of the 'inflammatory' headline, which he denied writing. On the attack: The actress (pictured Thursday) is suing the comedian after he wrote an article claiming Heard had threatened to blackmail Johnny Depp before publicly accusing him of abuse 'I put it on my website. The title was "At a Loss for Words..." whatever it was. TheWrap got it as an exclusive - however that worked - and said, Amber Heard Is Blackmailing Johnny Depp This Is How I Know. 'I didnt write that f***ing title. I didnt put that stupid tabloid title in there,' he claimed. 'Im a better writer than that, so I dont know if its hinged on that, I dont know how much of it is spite.' Although he stops short of using the word blackmail himself in his Wrap piece - his exact words were 'Blackmail is what I would imagine other people might put it' - he did say Heard's story was 'bulls***,' insisting Depp 'got used, manipulated, set up and made to look like an a**hole'. During his interview with Stern, he also denied Depp had asked him to write the piece defending him. Line of fire: Heard filed for divorce from Depp on May 23 (pictured that day) alleging she 'lived in fear' of her husband of 15 months and that he had been abusive throughout their marriage 'Johnny, I had no contact with him until he texted me after that went out and said, "Hey, thanks for being honest". 'He didnt know that was going out,' he said. 'I was a little petrified because it kind of made him look like a bitch. Cause he was kind of a bitch.' Throughout the interview, Stanhope was audibly careful about what he said, knowing the lawsuit was looming. 'You know anything I say they can twist my words,' he claimed. Silenced: Stanhope told Howard on his Sirius XM radio show: 'I think what she's trying to do is make me shut the f*ck up.' Back-up: Stanhope denied Depp (pictured with Heard in November) asked him to write the piece defending him, but added he did contact him afterwards thanking him for his 'honesty' 'She filed for divorce two days after the mother died, and all of a sudden she's getting trashed on Twitter. Everyone's "How dare she do this? His mother just died!" And then all of a sudden.....' but he stopped himself before he finished the line of thought. 'It has nothing to do with me,' he continued. 'It's spite.' Heard's attorney previously said she will donate all the proceeds from the suit to a domestic violence shelter in Arizona. But on Monday Stanhope and Stern both joked that she wouldn't get much out of him even if the lawsuit was successful, seeing as how he lived in a dirty pothole ridden neighbourhood on the Mexican border. It's been a busy few days for Angelina Jolie. But the mother-of-six took it all in her stride as she jetted back into Los Angeles from New York with her youngest son, Knox, her oldest boy, Maddox, and her brother, James Haven, on Tuesday. The 41-year-old actress and activist was wearing the same chic black ensemble she was seen in when she turned up at JFK with her boys for the five-hour flight home. So elegant: Angelina Jolie seemed to be holding up well after he busy few days in New York as she jetted back into Los Angeles with her youngest son, Knox, and her oldest boy, Maddox The only addition to her elegant black midi dress and black high heels was a black shawl that she draped around her shoulders even though the temperature at the airport was just under 80F. Angelina held her seven-year-old's hand as they left the concourse and emerged into the sunshine, with the 14-year-old following on behind. Knox held on to a large plush grey shark as he walked next to his mother. The tyke wore a hoodie with First Order Stormtrooper helmets from Star Wars printed all over it over a grey shirt, blue jeans and black slip-on shoes. Smile and wave: The 41-year-old actress and activist appeared to be in good spirits after the five-hour flight So chic: Angelina was wearing the same outfit she had on when she boarded the flight from JFK but she added a black wrap that she draped around her shoulders despite the near 80F heat Kodak moment: The actress smiled as she and her boys walked smartly past fans taking snaps Better late than never: Brad Pitt flew back to Los Angeles later in the evening on Tuesday Maddox showed his teen creds in a grey snapback cap along with a dark grey jacket, black graphic-print T-shirt, patterned sweat pants and Nike Stefan Janoski skateboard shoes. The family are back in Los Angeles a day after Angelina shared the podium with Secretary of State John Kerry to urge finding a solution to the refugee crisis. The star, who is the Special Envoy for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, joined Kerry for an interfaith Iftar reception to mark World Refugee Day on Monday in Sterling, Virginia. The Force is strong with this one: Knox was sporting a Stormtrooper jacket and carried a cuddly shark toy Bringing up the rear: Angelina's brother, James Haven, followed his family out of the airport Aww: The mother-of-six shared a tender moment with Knox while waiting in a queue at JFK Airport in New York earlier on Tuesday Iftar is the meal when Muslims end their daily Ramadan fast at sunset for the evening call to prayer. With the number of refugees at an all time high of 65 million people, the actress said it represented a threat to worldwide peace and stability. 'I ask people to understand that with 65 million people displaced by conflict, we are facing a world of wars we cannot ignore or turn our backs on. Proud mother: She and her eldest son Maddox, 14, smiled as they shared a moment All together now: The Tomb Raider actress looked fantastic in a black midi dress with a sheer detailing around the shoulders as she arrived at JFK with her two boys and her brother 'To do that would be naive, irresponsible, and dangerous,' she said in her speech. 'We face a very clear choice: to continue as we are and see displacement and insecurity grow, or to come together with other nations and find a new approach, one that does not focus solely on aid and resettlement but on solution, stability, and returns.' No doubt husband Brad Pitt and their other four children, Pax, 12, Zahara, 11, Shiloh, 10, and Knox's twin sister Vivienne, will be please to have the whole family togther again. He's found fame on a variety of some of Australia's favourite dramas, including Packed To The Rafters and Love Child. And Ryan Corr, 27, has now been immortalised in an evocative portrait that is set to face critics as an entry for the 2016 Archibald Prize. The artwork is by Bellevue Hill-based artist Agnes Bruck, who is the wife of Chris Murphy, the lawyer who represented Corr in 2014 when the actor pleaded guilty to drug possession. Scroll down for video A work of art! Ryan Corr becomes immortalised as Archibald Prize portrait by the wife of the lawyer who represented the Love Child star when he pleaded guilty to drug possession Corr was placed on a 12-month good behaviour bond and no conviction was recorded. 'I didnt think Ryan would necessarily want to be painted, and he was so gracious about it,' Bruck told The Daily Telegraph on Tuesday. 'He said, "Every single time I (go on stage) I give a piece of myself that doesnt come back", and I feel like that with my painting.' 'I didnt think Ryan would necessarily want to be painted': The Bellevue Hill-based artist Agnes Bruck said she wasn't sure he'd agree Big prize! The coveted arts prize will be awarded to the best 'preferentially of some man or woman distinguished in art, letters, science or politics' She went on to praise the star for his 'intelligent' way of thinking, and said that they had met via mutual friends, well before his legal woes. Bruck told Daily Mail Australia she 'used Dulux house paint and dribbled it onto timber panel using chopsticks and paintbrushes,' with earthy tones capturing the actor's raw good looks. The coveted arts prize will be awarded to the best 'preferentially of some man or woman distinguished in art, letters, science or politics', to the tune of $100,000. A teaser: The portrait is a flurry of drips and dribbles onto a wooden board 'I give a piece of myself that doesnt come back': The artist said how Corr feels when he steps out on stage is similar to when she's painting Nigel Milsom's dramatic, monochrome portrait of barrister Charles Waterstreet took out the title as the winner in 2015. Ryan's latest project as Lt. Manville in the American-Australian war drama Hacksaw Ridge, directed by Mel Gibson, is in production now with release date set for November 4. The Archibald Prize winner is announced on July 15, with the exhibition to commence from June 16 to October 9. She headed overseas to Bali for some rest and relaxation after quietly calling it quits with her reality television 'husband' Mark Hughes last month. And on Tuesday, Christie Jordee appeared to be doing just that as she spent time with a handsome pal and some female friends on Saigon Street and at Finn's Beach Club. The 39-year-old's fun display comes just one week after publicly announcing her split from Married At First Sight's Mark, who was allegedly sending flirty text messages to a woman fifteen years his junior after breaking up with Christie. Scroll down for video 'Bali posse on point!' Christie Jordee got close to a VERY handsome hunk in Bali this week In the images of her Bali vacation, which we shared to Instagram, Christie can be seen sharing a cocktail with the good-looking mystery man in a restaurant on Saigon Street. 'When in Saigon... you must have a coconut crush,' the brunette wrote. She then shared another photo of herself posing with the chiseled hunk, who was shirtless, and two female friends at Finn's Beach Club. 'Bali posse on point,' she wrote in the photo. Bottoms up! The Married At First Sight starlet enjoyed a coconut cocktail with the mystery man Busty babe: The 39-year-old has been enjoying the sun and showcasing her enviable bikini body It's unknown if the genetically-blessed fella is a platonic friend, new lover, or a relative. Christie broke the news of her and Mark's shock split in a social media post, explaining their situation in the caption of an image of them together during happier times. She wrote that she was sad to announce they had parted ways and added: 'Please remember no one wanted this to work more than both of us'. 'Please remember no one wanted this to work more than both of us:' Christie and Mark Hughes announced their split over a week ago The brunette businesswoman finished the post writing: 'It was mutual and we are still great friends, but still hard'. Christie exchanged vows with Mark while filming the popular Channel Nine reality show late last year. Little more than two months after viewers watched the couple marry in front of Sydney Opera House, the pair called time on their short lived marriage. He's known for having a keen eye for the ladies. And Wasps rugby ace Danny Cipriani, 28, appeared to set his sights on Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner, 20, during a night out in London, according to a report in The Sun. They enjoyed each other's company at Brixton Jamm on the same day Danny appeared in Westminster Magistrates' Court to plead not guilty to a drink-driving charge. Scroll down for video Caught his eye: Wasps rugby ace Danny Cipriani, 28, appeared to set his sights on Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner, 20, during a night out in London An onlooker told the publication: 'Danny and Sophie were in the bar for about an hour and a half. He was hitting on her very hard, chatting her up relentlessly. And she seemed very flattered. 'They were holding hands and stayed by each others sides throughout. It was very cosy, intimate. They were only interested in each other. They seemed happy together and to be having a good time.' A spokesperson for Sophie said: 'We can confirm that there is no romantic link between Sophie Turner and Danny Cipriani, Sophie was out with a large group of friends and Danny was merely being a gentleman and leading her through a very crowded bar. Danny's representatives added: 'Danny and Sophie are friends they were out in a group to watch the England football match.' Danny most recently dated Sky Sports' Kirsty Gallacher, but their relationship came to an end earlier this year after he allegedly sent lewd messages to Life on Marbs star Danni Levy. Mutual attraction: An onlooker said Danny was 'hitting on her very hard' and that Sophie 'seemed flattered' Prior to Kirsty, Danny has been linked to a host of famous women, including Kelly Brook, Katie Price, Cheeky Girl Monica Irimia and Australian models Lara Bingle and Jesinta Campbell. The rugby star has described Kelly as his only serious girlfriend, having originally dated from 2008-2010 and again for eight months in 2013 before splitting amidst claims he had cheated on her. Meanwhile, Sophie recently admitted that finding fame on a television phenomenon as big as Game of Thrones hasn't always been plain-sailing, admitting that it wasn't easy to grow up in the limelight. The actress told the July issue of British InStyle that she went through 'hard years' between the ages of 16 and 19 as she struggled with her body transforming in the full glare of the public eye. Former flame: The rugby star has previously described Kelly Brook as his only serious girlfriend 'At first,' she said. 'It was the character; people hating on her because she was a 13-year-old girl, and she should have a smart head on her shoulders and make good decisions. 'When people started to know my name, as well as the character's name, that was kind of difficult. From 16 to when I turned 19, they were quite hard years.' Sophie continued: 'You're in the prime of puberty; your body is changing, your face is changing, and people still saw me as that 13-year-old girl, with no body, and thought that's how I should look forever. Sophie - who was raised in the English town of Northampton - has also hit the big screen, taking on the role of Jean Grey/Phoenix in the recently released X-Men: Apocalypse. She is no stranger to stealing the limelight whenever she hits the red carpet. And My Kitchen Rules star Zana Pali once again dazzled fans as she posed for a smouldering Instagram shot, in which she discussed the importance for women to embrace their body type. Preened to perfection, the 25-year-old lawyer happily flaunted her sexy hourglass curves and slender limbs in a striking black halterneck ensemble. Scroll down for video 'It's important to embrace yourself': MKR's Zana Pali posed for a smouldering Instagram shot, in which she discussed the importance for women to embrace their body type The sizzling Ivory and Chain dress, which featured capped sleeves, a heart-shaped bodice and a front centre slit, worked wonders for her petite frame. She elongated her lean pins with a pair of nude Louboutin heels, while her long brunette tresses were swept to one side in loose luscious waves. Alongside the image, posted on Tuesday, the TV star told her followers to embrace their body type and stop judging each other. Spreading a message: Alongside the image, posted on Tuesday, the TV star told her followers to embrace their body type and stop judging each other I think that whatever size or shape body you have, its important to embrace it, she explained. Start by loving yourself and then allow yourself to see the entire world with love rather than judgement. Meanwhile, Zana and her husband Gianni, the high flying lawyers from Brisbane, competed on the latest series of MKR where they made it to the semi-finals round. Despite failing to take top spot in the cooking competition, Zana thanked the judges and fellow competitors for their time on the show. 'We've loved working hard and we've learnt so much. MKR has all been about our family, our true traditional recipes,' she said. 'You cannot put money on what we have learnt and how we've improved. It's priceless. It's the best experience of our lives.' TV stars: Zana and her husband Gianni, the high flying lawyers from Brisbane, competed on the latest series of MKR where they made it to the semi-finals round. But looking forward to a career in TV, Zana recently said she has dreams of appearing on Dancing With The Stars - although she turned down an offer to appear on Seven's new series Cannonball. 'I don't think it is the right fit for me,' she told Courier Mail, referring to the water-based competition series that sees couples plummeting down gigantic water slides and flying through the air. The outspoken brunette added: 'I think Dancing With The Stars would be good.' If Zana does make her way into the dancing series, she will follow in the footsteps of fellow MKR villain Ash Pollard, whose career sky rocketed after she made it to the finals of the show last year. She knows how to work the catwalk and that goes for public runways too. Australian model Jessica Hart attended the glittering amfAR GenerationCURE Solstice event on Tuesday when she donned a classic black dress with a sheer skirt that showed off her legs. Wearing her tousled tresses loosely over her shoulders, the 30-year-old sister of fellow model Ashley flashed her trademark gap-toothed smile as flashbulbs popped at the event in New York. Scroll down for video Working it: Jessica Hart attended the glittering amfAR Generation Cure Solstice event in New York on Tuesday in a classic black dress with a sheer skirt that showed off her legs Lovely in lace: The 30-year-old sister of fellow model Ashley flashed her trademark gap-toothed smile as flashbulbs popped The Sydney-born beauty was radiant despite wearing just a flick of mascara and gloss on her lips. A coat of shimmering pale eyeshadow added a glow of colour to her cosmetics, while a few bracelets upped the glam. Jessica, who dates Greek shipping heir Stavros Niarchos III, was just one of numerous stars to make their way to the 2016 amfAR event, which benefits its AIDS research programmes. Bronzed: She showed off her deep tan as flashbulbs popped GenerationCURE is a group of young amfAR supporters committed to ending the AIDS pandemic in their lifetime by helping the Foundation raise funds to research cures. Since its inception in 2011, generationCURE has raised more than $300,000 for amfAR through events in New York City, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. Also in attendance on Tuesday were TV personality Kelly Osbourne and designer Kenneth Cole. Also in black: Kelly Osbourne attends the amfAR generationCURE Solstice in a shoulderless dress Jessica, a former Victoria's Secret model, lives with her beau in New York's trendy East Village. They are often seeing enjoying romantic getaways around the Mediterranean. The couple met in 2010 and since then their romance has gone from strength-to-strength. In 2014 she first sparked engagement rumours when she stepped out with some very serious-looking bling on her ring finger. She has been busy shooting for fashion retailer Portmans' latest collection. And Jessica Hart took a well-deserved break from the camera lens to soak up New York Citys summer sunshine with her tiny pooch, Floyd, on Tuesday. Juggling a beverage and a plate of food in both hands, the 30-year-old model looked relaxed in a black jumpsuit cuffed at the ankles. Scroll down for video Casual but chic: Jessica Hart takes her tiny pooch, Floyd, for a walk while juggling a plate of food and beverage Jessica teamed the casual but chic ensemble with a pair of crisp white Converse trainers and pulled back her luscious blonde tresses into a neat bun with a centre parting. Her make-up was kept to a minimum, with just a hint of blush, a subtle nude lip and lashings of mascara. The Australian native looked to be in good spirits as she pounded the pavement with her pet dog following behind her. After their walk, the former Victorias Secret lifted Floyd up into her trailer ahead of shooting more fashionable looks. Animal lover: The former Victorias Secret model had to stop and lift Floyd into her trailer ahead of shooting more fashionable looks On Wednesday, the catwalk stunner took to Instagram to announce she would be fronting Portmans latest fashion collection. Oh heyyy there! Excited to see my Portmans team this morning, she wrote alongside a picture of herself modelling a striped shirt teamed with a figure-hugging long sleeve shirt from the retailer. Jessica has been the face of the brand for several years, fronting their summer and winter campaigns. Natural poser: The 30-year-old model uploaded a snap of herself in Cannes sporting a gold gown Meanwhile, the girlfriend of Greek shipping heir Stavros Niarchos III recently underwent eye surgery to improve her sight. Taking to the social media site in the hours following the procedure, the model was pictured sitting up in bed while wearing medical strips over her eyes and protective sunglasses. I did it! Bring on 20/20,' she wrote alongside the photograph. Hours later, she shared a photo that was taken of her heading into the Diane Von Furstenberg show at New York Fashion Week. Medical procedure: The girlfriend of Greek shipping heir Stavros Niarchos III recently underwent eye surgery to improve her sight 'The last time I wore glasses,' she wrote alongside the snap in which she was seen wearing rounded tortoiseshell specs, a faux fur coat and white embroidered flares. The former Victoria's Secret model lives with her beau in New York's trendy East Village. They are often seen enjoying romantic getaways around the Mediterranean. The couple met in 2010 and since then their romance has gone from strength-to-strength. Earlier this year she sparked engagement rumours when she stepped out with some very serious-looking bling on her ring finger. Loved-up: Jessica has been dating Greek shipping heir Stavros Niarchos III since 2010 Mr v Mrs: Call the Mediator Rating: Marriage break-ups can be messy and complicated, but Sue and Peter, one of the divorcing couples featured in Mr v Mrs: Call The Mediator (BBC2), took things to a whole new level. After 28 years of marriage, and three children, Sue and Peter were going their separate ways. Sue left her husband for another man Peters boss, Bernard. To make matters more complicated Sue was dating Bernard 35 years ago when she first met Peter and dumped Bernard for him. Marriage break-ups can be messy and complicated, but Sue and Peter, one of the divorcing couples featured in Mr v Mrs: Call The Mediator (BBC2), took things to a whole new level Kay, the firm but friendly mediator, was trying to help them reach an agreement about how to split their 1million assets. Peter was adamant that the value of the house must be taken from the date Sue walked out 11 months ago and not the current value. Egged on by Bernard, Peters love rival, Sue was pushing for more. Such centres are run by National Family Mediation and are a last- ditch place for warring couples to try to sort out their differences in order to avoid costly legal proceedings. For one year they allowed the BBC access to their mediators and clients in order to make this three-part series. In the end, after three months of wrangling, Sue and Peter reached an agreement. Judith, the mediator acting for Nicky and Martin, had a much tougher job. Separated after 17 years, Martin felt that Nicky was withholding contact with their two sons as punishment for his infidelity. The pair were barely able to look at one another Dont you point your finger at me, Nicky barked at her ex, who accused her of being bitter and vengeful. At one point a clearly exasperated Nicky looked broken as she spoke to the camera: I always thought that if we ever split up we would be the best of friends. Now I dont want him in my life at all. UNAPPRECIATIVE AUDIENCE OF THE NIGHT Playing for peanuts in pubs is a rite of passage for many musicians even geniuses. In Mozarts London Odyssey (BBC4), Lucy Worsley told how the eight-year-old prodigy was reduced to doing keyboard tricks in alehouses in 1764 when tickets for his concerts failed to sell. Advertisement Relations between Nicky and Martin may have been frosty, but at least they were able to be in the same room as one another . . . just. For Vicky and Jason, resentments ran so high they had to sit in separate rooms while their mediator Irene shuttled between them. They were trying to agree on a way to co-parent daughter Rosie, six, but matters werent helped by Jasons constant nit-picking and fondness for sending Vicky email links on how to be a better mother. Sadly, mediation was futile and they decided to go to court. At times the raw emotion, as couples lay bare their feelings about the person they once loved more than anything, was hard to watch. Its a testament to the mediators that they were able to keep their calm when they must have just wanted to bang their clients heads together. Although it felt uncomfortably voyeuristic at times, Mr v Mrs was also utterly compelling not least because all of us know someone who has been through a bitter marriage break-up. The Border is a Polish drama about a group of guards patrolling the Bieszczady border region with Ukraine The Border Rating: Just as topical is The Border (Ch4), a Polish drama about a group of guards patrolling the Bieszczady border region with Ukraine. It is an area where drugs, weapons and people are smuggled in, while the chain-smoking, hard-drinking guards do their best to stop them. There is nothing PC about these super-macho heavies who strut around in white vests with their tracker dog named Osama and beat up any unfortunate refugees they encounter. In last nights opening episode, a group of the guards are having a party at their cabin station in the woods to mark the retirement of one of their men. Captain Wiktor Rebrow (Leszek Lichota) steps outside for a cigarette when he receives an anonymous text message that just reads Boom seconds before the cabin is blown to smithereens. As the only survivor, Rebrow becomes the chief suspect. Its surely no coincidence that Channel Four chose this week to start broadcasting this drama, which was made over two years ago. In fact, it is screening only one episode before uploading the rest to its catch-up service. Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux will celebrate their first wedding anniversary in August. But the pair looked like they were just back from their honeymoon on Tuesday as they stepped out in New York City following a romantic holiday in The Bahamas. The couple looked in sync with their similar outfits and were both showing off golden tans while putting on an affectionate display. Scroll down for video Sunkissed! Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux showed off their golden tan as they stepped out for a date night in New York on Tuesday Aniston was sporting a pair of classic blue jeans and a grey tank top as she followed closely behind Justin. Meanwhile the Leftovers actor wore a pair of summery white jeans, a T-shirt and a pair of beige loafers as he led his wife into the restaurant. The couple, who married on August 5, 2015, couldn't keep their hands off each other for their evening out. Aniston stunned as usual as she wore her light blonde locks in a natural style and went for a little slick of make-up. Simply beautiful: Aniston stunned as usual as she wore her light blonde locks in a natural style and went for a little slick of make-up Looking good: The couple, who just recently holidayed in The Bahamas, looked in sync with their similar outfits She wore some dark eye liner, a little mascara and a bit of lip gloss to complete her casual but chic look. The couple have been spending time in New York City after returning from a romantic vacation in The Bahamas, and they recently denied claims that Aniston is expecting their first child. They were married last summer in Los Angeles after a nearly three-year engagement. Both Aniston and Justin have a busy year ahead of them. Hold me! The couple, who married August 5th 2015, couldn't keep their hands off each other for their evening out Not true: The couple have been spending time in New York City after returning from a romantic vacation in The Bahamas, and they recently denied claims that Aniston is expecting their first child Justin is set to star in the highly anticipated The Girl On The Train as he takes on the role of Tom Watson in the drama, thriller. Emily Blunt is the leading lady as she take on the role of alcoholic Rachel Watson. Laura Prepon, Luke Evans, Allison Janney and Lisa Kudrow are some of the other famous faces to star in this Tate Taylor directed movie. Justin stars in HBO's The Leftovers that was renewed in December for a third and final season. Big role! Justin is set to star in the highly anticipated The Girl On The Train as he takes on the role of Tom Watson in the drama, thriller Aniston has loaned her voice to the upcoming computer-animated comedy Storks due out on September 23. Lonely Island's Andy Samberg and Modern Family's Ty Burrell will also voice characters for the animation. She also can be seen in the Christmas comedy Office Christmas Party scheduled for release on December 9 alongside Olivia Munn, Jason Bateman, T.J. Miller, Kate McKinnon and Jamie Chung. Busy year: Aniston has loaned her voice to the upcoming computer-animated comedy Storks due out on September 23 It is the show where the Lannisters always pay their debts. And it seems the same goes for HBO after it emerged the stars of hit show Game Of Thrones are getting whopping six figure pay hikes as the show canters towards its heady conclusion. Show leads Peter Dinklage, Kit Harington, Lena Headey, Emilia Clarke and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau are all seeing their pay packets smash the $500,000 per show barrier as the series enters its final two seasons. Windfall is coming: Kit Harington, who plays Jon Snow, is among the leads getting a hefty pay rise to appear on the last two series of Game Of Thrones Show insiders told the Hollywood Reporter the main stars Peter Dinklage, who plays Tyrion Lannister, and Kit Harington who plays Jon Snow, will be getting hefty rises. The show's other leads Lena Headey, who appears as Cersei Lannister, Emilia Clarke who shot to fame playing Daenerys Targaryen, and Danish hunk Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, who appears as Jaime Lannister, will also get the sizable fee hikes. The five A tier stars are said to negotiate as a group to ensure fairness in remuneration. Other favourites from the show such as Maisie Williams, who appears as Arya Stark, and Sophie Turner, who plays her sibling Sansa, will also surely get increases, though their contracts are yet to be finalised. While they are getting more per episode, it is unclear whether they will actually make any more cash in total from the smash hit, which is the world's most popular programme. Sitting pretty: Emilia Clarke is also getting paid a fortune to continue player Daenerys Targaryen Keeping it in the family: On-screen siblings Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Peter Dinklage and Lena Headey are also getting larger fees When the main stars negotiated a huge raise in 2014, which increased the number of seasons they were tied to from six to seven, they were only getting paid a reported $160,000 an episode. The show's creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss previously revealed there will be just 13 more episodes left once this sixth season is over. There will be seven episodes in season seven and six for the eighth, which is expected to be the last. David said: 'I think were down to our final 13 episodes after this season. Were heading into the final lap. 'Thats the guess, though nothing is yet set in stone, but thats what were looking at.' While season seven has been since been officially announced as being seven episodes long, the eight has yet to be formally commissioned. Best of British: English stars Kit and Emilia have become worldwide showbiz names thanks to the show It is the battle that pins Queensland and New South Wales against each other. Now in an unusual tactic, Hollywood heavyweights Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart have weighed in on the match, ahead of round two on Wednesday night at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane. The two actors used the annual NRL [National Rugby League] match to promote their new movie, Central Intelligence, across social media. Weighing in: Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart have weighed in on the State Of Origin ahead of round two on Wednesday night at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane In a 30-second promotional clip, posted to Universal Pictures Twitter page, Dwayne says in the clip: 'It's state of origin time. 'Okay boys, you've got to pick it up and if there is one thing I learnt from Central Intelligence and playing a CIA agent is that you need strategy, speed and strength.' Kevin is quick to jump in, cheekily adding, 'yeah, basically everything I've got'. Unusual tactic The two Hollywood actors used the annual NRL [National Rugby League] match to promote their new movie Central Intelligence across social media Dwayne laughs off the comment, with 'yeah, kinder,' to which the comedian replies, 'come-on man, suit me up and I can show you'. Alongside the video Universal Pictures wrote: 'Its State Of Origin time. @TheRock and @KevinHart4real know what it takes to win.' The post also included the trending hashtag for Origin. In Central Intelligence Dwayne plays Bob Stone, a CIA spy who was bullied in high school for his weight. Appealing to Aussie audiences: The upcoming Hollywood flick will land in cinemas across Australia from June 30 He enlists the help of his former high school classmate Calvin Joyner, played by Kevin, on an adventure to save the world. The upcoming Hollywood flick will land in cinemas across Australia from June 30. New South Wales will take on Queensland in the second round of State Of Origin on Wednesday evening. Kick off will be at 8pm. His glamorous wife had pranced through exactly the same arrival lounge just hours before. So no wonder Brad Pitt looked in a hurry as he raced through the airport after jetting into Los Angeles on Tuesday. The Fight Club favourite looked all business as he minced his way through the bustling transport hub with his leather carry on case in hand. No Pitt stop: Brad was all business as he rushed through the airport in Los Angeles on Tuesday Brad, 52, was looking focussed as he padded past excited pedestrians in his casual shirt, blue jeans, suede boots and fetching fedora hat. The butch actor was also wearing scruffy stubble and a pair of tan-coloured sunglasses, even though it was dark. No doubt the family man, who did not seem in the mood to stop and sign autographs, could hardly wait to be reunited with his bumper brood, and his Tomb Raider star wife Angelina. Shady behaviour: Brad was wearing his tinted sunglasses despite walking in the dark In a Jolie good mood: Brad was no doubt excited to be getting home to wife Angelina and their children The curious case of Benjamin's buttons: Brad opted not to button up at the collar Earlier in the day the mother-of-six seemed excited to be home after jetting back into Los Angeles from New York with her youngest son, Knox, her oldest boy, Maddox, and her brother, James Haven, on Tuesday. The 41-year-old actress and activist was wearing the same chic black ensemble she was seen in when she turned up at JFK with her boys for the five-hour flight home. They were back in Los Angeles a day after Angelina shared the podium with Secretary of State John Kerry to urge finding a solution to the refugee crisis. The star, who is the Special Envoy for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, joined Kerry for an interfaith Iftar reception to mark World Refugee Day on Monday in Sterling, Virginia. Late flight club: Brad arrived in the city hours after his wife had sauntered through the arrival lounge Her striking looks have made her a catwalk sensation around the world. But Lara Stone proved that she looked glamorous even in the most casual of outfits, as she enjoyed a low-key outing to the Chiltern Firehouse on Tuesday. The 32-year-old rocked off-duty chic for the evening as she poured her famous curves into some form fitting black jeans and a simple grey T-shirt. Scroll down for video Relaxed: Lara Stone sported a casual outfit as she enjoyed a low-key outing to the Chiltern Firehouse on Tuesday Keeping cosy in the fresh summer air, Lara added some extra edge to her outfit with a wet look leather jacket. The Dutch model maintained her simple style right down to her accessories, as she shunned all jewels and only toted a plain black shoulder bag. But she couldn't resist adding a touch of glamour to her look with some towering Laboutin heels that drew attention to her never-ending legs with pretty point detailing. Pure and cimple: The 32-year-old rocked off-duty chic for the evening as she poured her infamous curves into some form fitting black jeans and a grey T-shirt The mother-of-one scraped back her trademark golden locks into a messy chignon, from which a few strands fell away to frame her face. And the model appeared to go almost make-up free for the outing as she showed off her natural beauty with an effortlessly dewy glow. After leaving the restaurant, the model was seen getting into a taxi alone, where she casually crossed her legs and folded her arms. The blonde beauty was previously married to comedian David Walliams, 44, father of her three-year-old son Alfred. Lara and Little Britain comic David tied the knot at Claridge's hotel in 2010 and had three-year-old son Alfred together, before separating in March 2015. The split was finalised six months later in just 60 seconds, with David citing Lara's 'unreasonable behaviour' for the 'quickie divorce'. Lara is rumoured to have found herself a younger flame in recent weeks however, having been pictured cosying up to Australian model Jordan Barrett, 19, multiple times. The hunky Australian, who has been linked previously to Paris Hilton, was first seen planting a kiss on her cheek at the Cannes amfAR fashion auction in late May. She's been vocal about sexism in the acting world. But Marta Dusseldorp, 43, revealed to Daily Mail Australia that while she has faced certain hurdles in her career, ageism is not one of them. The Janet King star weighed in on recent comments made by veteran Australian actress, Jacki Weaver, 69, who claims that Hollywood has embraced her age. Scroll down for video Positive experience: Marta Dusseldorp, 43, said recently that her age has never been a problem in Hollywood and that the industry has welcomed her with open arms 'I was in LA in February and I felt completely nurtured, appreciated, they were really excited to have me there,' she said at the Sydney Film Festival Closing Night Gala on Sunday. '... I kept saying 'I'm over 40' and they were like ''yeah, we know and look at all the work you've done. 'So they are appreciative of that experience comes with age ... or age with experience. There's certainly the great actresses of our time that have led that way... the Meryl Streeps, who, nothing keeps her down. Cate [Blanchett] similarly. 'It doesn't matter how old you are any more, its the feeling I get...maybe I'm naive. 'They're certainly writing roles for us and it means that people want to see that,' the star admitted, following a recent trip to discuss opportunities Stateside. Age is just a number: The Australian actress said 'I felt completely nurtured, appreciated, they were really excited to have me there' The actress was coy however when asked if she would be making the move to Los Angeles in the coming months off the back of the positive trip. The blonde beauty told Daily Mail Australia she is set to film the next season of Janet King in November, before hopefully, Season Five of the Foxtel drama A Place To Call Home 'and then we'll see'. Dusseldorp echoed the sentiments of two-time Academy Award-nominated actress Jacki, who said recently that '60 is the new 40.' 'There are lots of great roles for women my age,' Jacki told The Daily Telegraph. She added: 'I have never come across any of that.' Same views: Two-time Academy Award-nominated actress Jacki Weaver said recently; 'There are lots of great roles for women my age' While Jacki said that she has never encountered sexism or ageism, Marta, who has dabbled in film and theatre, previously admitted that she has struggled in the past as a woman. The married mother of two revealed that she was once forced to quit her job acting in a play after giving birth. 'Unfortunately one of the directors didn't approve of me breastfeeding, so I had to withdraw from the show,' she told The Grace Tales last year. Telling it like it is: Last year, Academy award-winner Helen Mirren, 70, slammed Hollywood as 'ridiculous' for ageist casting Marta and Jacki's experiences in Hollywood differ greatly to several prominent stars, who have called for industry reform. Last year, Academy award-winner Helen Mirren, 70, slammed Hollywood as 'ridiculous' for ageist casting, according to The Wrap. Actresses Anne Hathaway and Maggie Gyllenhaal have also been vocal about the growing issue in the past. She's now a businesswoman after recently opening her own organic kid-friendly restaurant, complete with on-site au pairs. But Jessica Biel was taking some time away from her new venture on Monday, meeting up with pals for sushi at Toluca Lake, Los Angeles. A vision in white, the mother-of-one wore a pair of cropped white wide-legged trousers, hemmed with lace. Scroll down for videos Pearly white: Jessica Biel was taking some time away from her new venture on Monday, meeting up with pals for sushi at Toluca Lake, California A matching white top with lace detail across the high neckline was tucked into her waistband, and she completed the outfit with a pair of nude Christian Louboutin heels. A vintage appliqued shoulder bag and oversized sunglasses finished off her summer look. With a light woolen jacket thrown over her arm, the star of The Illusionist made sure she had a cover up for later should the sun disappear. Jessica wore long brunette hair loose, displaying its natural shine against the bright white of her outfit. The tactile Total Recall actress gave a hug to her friend before leaving them and getting in her car. Cropped to perfection: A matching white top with lace detail across the high neckline was tucked into her waistband, and she completed the outfit with a pair of nude Christian Louboutin heels Always prepared: With a light woolen jacket thrown over her arm, the Illusionist star made sure she had a cover up for later should the sun disappear It's been a busy year for the actress and businesswoman who opened her own restaurant, Au Fudge, along with stylist Estee Stanley and children's author Kimberly Muller, in March. She has also had her hands full looking after 13-month-old son Silas Randall who she shares with her husband Justin Timberlake. The couple, who wed in Italy four years ago, are fiercely protective of their son, and have posted very few public pictures of the tot over the last year. But Jessica did admit in a recent interview with Today that the youngster takes after his father. Proud father: He is a ham, just like his dad serious ham,' she told the morning show at a Baby2Baby Mother's Day event in Los Angeles last week, adding: 'He thinks everything is funny' 'He is a ham, just like his dad serious ham,' she told the morning show at a Baby2Baby Mother's Day event in Los Angeles last week, adding: 'He thinks everything is funny. He goofs on me all the time.' She continued, 'He thinks sneezing is really funny. Hes in that moment where he thinks bodily functions are really funny.' A love for music is another similarity Silas shares with his famous father with the proud mom noting, 'He likes Erykah Badu, and he likes Stevie Wonder. He likes a groove.' Justin has just finished creating the musical score for Jessica's forthcoming film, The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea. Her Ibiza getaway has been the source of several of her sizzling bikini snaps. And Ashley James decided to treat her fans to another sultry offering as she slipped into a skimpy pink two-piece on Wednesday. Flaunting her impeccably toned physique, the 29-year-old model joked that she was struggling to find the time to show off all the swimwear she'd stocked up on for her trip, as she came to terms with the fact she'd be heading back to Britain tomorrow. Scroll down for video Perky in pink: Her Ibiza getaway has been the source of several of her sizzling bikini snaps. And Ashley James decided to treat her fans to another sultry offering with a skimpy pink two-piece on Wednesday 'Thunder thighs and sunny skies': The reality star - who recently told of her battle with body dysmorphia - then posted another snap in her hot pink bikini as she reclined on the edge of the pool 'Post lunch outfit change cause I own too many bikinis and I'm going home tomorrow @lipsylondon #ibiza.' she wrote on Instagram. The reality star - who recently told of her battle with body dysmorphia - then posted another snap in her hot pink bikini as she reclined on the edge of the pool, joking that she had 'thunder thigh'. Alongside the snap, she wrote: 'Thunder thighs and sunny skies #Ibiza #bodyconfidence.' In another shot, the former Made In Chelsea star opted for a blue bikini that barely contained her ample assets as she commented on the lovely shrubbery outside her hotel. And breaking with tradition, the starlet also posted a snap of herself decidedly more covered up, but still flaunted her tanned and toned pins as she reclined on the beach. Clad in a khaki kaftan, Ashley dazzled in the snap, but admitted she had altered the image slightly to 'keep it pretty'. Addressing her 69,000 followers she wrote: 'Bought this kaftan off one of the guys on the beach, gotta support the hustlers. I cropped my toes out to keep it pretty.' Blue-tiful: She's beensharing a series of sizzling bikini snaps in Ibiza. And Ashley James showed off yet more of her phenomenal physique when she slipped into a skimpy blue two-piece on Wednesday Leggy lady! In another shot, the former Made In Chelsea star kept covered up, but still flaunted her tanned and toned pins as she reclined on the beach, joking that she'd cropped out her toes Tucking in: Ashley enjoyed a healthy sushi lunch and glass of bubbly as she revealed she was 'making the most' of her final day before planning to head to Glastonbury festival site - which is currently flooded Ashley - who shot to fame on E4's MIC by dating the likes of Francis Boulles and Ollie Lock - has been sharing a series of snaps in which she models a selection of racy pool and beachwear. And the radio DJ wasn't going to making an exception on Tuesday, as she headed to the beach in the flesh-flashing number, cheekily proclaiming 'another day, another bikini'. Thanks to the bikini's plunging halter neck top, the former reality star flashed more than a hint of her ample assets, while a bolo tie embelishment also helped to catch the eye. Teamed with a pair of tiny, low-cut bottoms, Ashley ensured bother her taut tummy was placed firmly in the spotlight, as she posed up a storm by the sea, and again by her lounger. Another day, another bikini! Tuesday morning saw Ashley James back on the beach and in a bikini, with the former Made In Chelsea star showing off her toned and honed body in a skimpy teal two-piece Sending temperatures soaring: Heading to one of the island's many golden beaches, the 29-year-old blogger looked to have slipped into the holiday spirit, as she showed off her slender curves in the tiny bikini Clearly making the most of her time in the sun, the star didn't seem keen on returning home to the UK, as she captioned one snap: 'Never leaving! (sadly I am actually leaving).' Ashley's latest sharing spree came after she uploaded a series of sunny photos to account, showing off her fantastic figure in a variety of sexy swimwear. Sharing a number of photos of her time in sunny Ibiza with her 64,400 followers, the model clearly wasn't feeling shy. Sun-seeking siren: Ashley James certainly wasn't shy about showing off her ample assets and washboard abs in a series of sizzling swimsuit snaps, which she uploaded to social media on Monday In one snap from her sunny break in the Balearic Islands, she can be seen posing on the beach in a tiny, plunging black bikini, which left little to the imagination. Featuring pink accents, the tiny two-piece allowed the blonde beauty to show off both washboard abs as well as her ample assets - thanks to her low-cut bottoms and teeny black halterneck top. Wearing her blonde locks in french plaits, Ashley added a further quirky edge to her beach attire with a pair of hipster oval shades and a slim black choker. Sizzling swimwear: The former Made In Chelsea star, 29, shared a series of sunny photos with her 64,400 followers, which saw the blonde beauty flaunting her fantastic figure in a variety of sexy swimwear She captioned the beach-bound snap: 'Not bad for a Monday.' In an earlier post, Ashley was picture in a form-fitting pink one-piece with corseted detailing accenting an extremely plunging neckline. Featuring a high-cut leg, the Hoxton Radio DJ ensured plenty of flesh was on display, as she headed out into the sun. Kicking back: Ashley - who shot to fame on E4's MIC by dating the likes of Francis Boulles and Ollie Lock - shared a series of snaps where she modelled a series of racy pool and beachwear Poking fun at her own choice of pose, the bubbly star wrote: 'That classic teapot pose! I'm in love with Gecko beach resort and my @lipsylondon swimsuit #formentera #ibiza #shortandstout.' And in another snapshot from her time on the famous Spanish isle, Ashley could be seen enjoying a relaxing cool drink pool-side in yet another eye-popping swimsuit. Summing up her feelings about her getaway to Ibiza, she simply cpationed the idyllic poolside snap: 'Happy place #Ibiza.' Out on the town? It seems Ashley's been enjoying the island's famously raucous night-life as much as she has its sunny days And it seems Ashley's been enjoying the island's famously raucous night-life as much as she has its sunny days. Sharing another snap, this time clad in a saucy sheer lace nightie and a black halterneck top, she posed for a snapchat picture which she promptly shared on Instagram. While Ashley is the picture of body confidence, the model and author has previously admitted to battling with body dysmorphia. In March, the reality star revealed her former struggle with the disorder in in a heartfelt Twitter post. Ashley shared a selfie as she explained: Just found this pic I took it to send to @Josiestweet cause I thought I looked too fat. Body dysmorphia is real. He has recently bagged one of showbiz's hottest stars. Yet Tom Hiddleston proved he was not always such a babe-magnet, since snaring Taylor Swift, as new images have surfaced of the handsome Brit in his youth - looking totally different. The 35-year-old Thor star appeared to have opted for a then-stylish perm in his younger days as he beamed for the camera in a questionable ensemble. Scroll down for video Not your usual: Tom Hiddleston proved he was not always such a babe-magnet, since snaring Taylor Swift, as new images have surfaced of the handsome Brit in his youth - looking totally different Tom, who is best known for his role as Loki in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, soared to fame as a dashing Brit in Hollywood with his well-spoken accent and classic good looks. Yet images from his time at the prestigious Eton College show the handsome star looking almost unrecognisable with a mop of curly hair and an earnest expression. One snap shows the Westminster-born thespian beaming at the camera as he sported a T-shirt worn beneath an ill-fitting suit jacket. In another image, Tom stood with his hands shoved in his pockets while she rocked a baggy white T-shirt layered be a green short-sleeved shirt - again flashing a mop of curls. Who's that guy? The 35-year-old Thor star appeared to have opted for a then-stylish perm in his younger days as he beamed for the camera in a questionable ensemble 'Total geek!': A former cast mate explained to Daily Mirror that Tom was formerly a 'total geek' before undergoing his 'incredible transformation' His school picture saw his hair slightly more tamed while he flashed a cheeky grin at the camera just above the words which revealed he was his house captain. A former cast mate explained to Daily Mirror that Tom was formerly a 'total geek' before undergoing his 'incredible transformation'. He said: 'Tom has had an incredible transformation. At school he was a total geek, he didnt have any girlfriends and was quite awkward. School boy: Yet images from his time at the prestigious Eton College show the handsome star looking almost unrecognisable with a mop of curly hair and an earnest expression Hunky: Tom has achieved heartthrob status since his recent turn in The Night Manager - worlds away from his gawky youthful look 'He wasnt a cool kid. He was very into his studies and worked really hard. He was a class boff. The most rebellious he got was when he tried to grow his hair long and teachers pulled him up on it. 'He had a slightly odd fashion sense as well, he wore purple trousers, and his favourite T-shirt outside of school uniform was a tie dye T-shirt which changed colour when you breathed on it. He wasnt very cool. Meanwhile, Tom previously defended his time at the school, insisting it is not just "full of braying toffs". New love: He has recently bagged one of showbiz's hottest stars, in the form of songstress Taylor Swift Hunky! He previously said: 'People think its just full of braying toffs, who are arrogant and chauvinistic, senseless and ambitious, who are destined to run the country and steal all our money He previously said: 'People think its just full of braying toffs, who are arrogant and chauvinistic, senseless and ambitious, who are destined to run the country and steal all our money. 'It isnt true. There are a few people like that but thats one or two in a school of 1,200. Its actually one of the most broadminded places Ive ever been. It wasn't quite Hollywood glamour as the MasterChef Australia stars suffered a MAJOR crisis during a high-stakes Gourmet Cinema challenge on Wednesday. The contestants were split into two teams and required to cook for over a hundred guests attending an outdoor screening of the series' highlights at Melbourne's Caulfield Racecourse. The Blue Team narrowly avoided disaster due to a beef shortage but were able to recover - but the Red Team were sent into Thursday's elimination after failing to prepare enough desserts. Scroll down for video Numbers game: MasterChef Australia team leaders Matt Sinclair (left) and Brett Carter (right) both suffered kitchen miscalculations on Wednesday's Gourmet Cinema challenge - but it ultimately proved a disaster for the Red Team after they forgot to prepare 15 desserts in the final course and were sent through to eliminations As crowds gathered to watch a best-of compilation of MasterChef's eight series, the competition was fierce in the final task before tomorrow's Top 10 decider. But in a shock twist, series favourite Matt Sinclair and his Red Team failed to impress the judging panel after they forgot to prepare 15 desserts in the final course. They were ultimately chosen by the judges for this week's feared elimination challenge - while Brett Carter's Blue Team passed through to the next round. However, it was not smooth sailing for the Blues either as they were forced to cook up 10 plates' worth of beef at the last minute upon realising they hadn't prepared enough. Kitchen Crisis: The Red Team were sent into Thursday's elimination after failing to prepare enough desserts Soon after the Red Team celebrated end of service following a stressful two hours in the kitchen, they were plunged into crisis after discovering they were over a dozen plates short. The five contestants then had to quickly rush out 15 more desserts - a delicate dish of matcha parfait and lemon curd covered in chocolate. Matt said: 'I'm absolutely stoked with everything that we've achieved today, but I just hope that the finish on these parfaits doesn't bring all that unstuck.' Not enough: Soon after the Red Team celebrated end of service, they were plunged into crisis after finding out they were over a dozen desserts short Sloppy finish: The contestants then had to quickly rush out 15 more desserts - a delicate dish of matcha parfait and lemon curd covered in chocolate - but the results were not up to scratch However, the presentation for the last-minute dishes was less than perfect - and it didn't take long for judges Matt Preston, Gary Mehigan and George Calombaris to notice. Despite enjoying their sample dishes, they realised that the extra desserts being served lacked the finesse of the first batch. 'Ours were all intact and lots of chocolate, but do you see those, Matt?' said Gary. 'They're just going out now and there's hardly any chocolate on those at all.' Challenge: The contestants were split into two teams and required to cook for over a hundred guests attending an outdoor screening of the series' highlights at Melbourne's Caulfield Racecourse Oh, dear! The judges - including Gary Mehigan (left) - were impressed overall but were unable to overlook the poor quality last-minute desserts Ultimately, the mistake proved a catastrophe for the Reds - as Matt praised their overall efforts but noted that their parfait's 'finishing was clumsy'. Matt, 27, from Queensland, appeared to take responsibility for his group's loss, saying in an on-camera segment: 'You take it personally.' He added: 'I'm still extremely proud of the way that we carried ourselves today and I'm not looking forward to having to battle it out against these guys in the elimination tomorrow.' Failed at the last hurdle: Despite enjoying the Red Team's sample dishes, judges (left to right) Gary Mehigan, George Calombaris, and Matt Preston thought the last 15 desserts lacked the finesse of the first batch The Red Team members - including Matt, Trent Harvey, Elise Franciskovic, Karmen Lu and Mimi Baines - will battle it out in Thursday's elimination cook-off. One contestant will be eliminated, which leaves the final 10 battling it out for the title of MasterChef Australia's champion. MasterChef Australia continues tomorrow night at 7.30pm on Network Ten As a gym lover, she is undoubtedly proud of her body. So Ashleigh Defty was once again out to flaunt the results of her hard work as she posted yet another sizzling selfie from her sun-soaked getaway to Cyprus on Wednesday. The 21-year-old Ex On The Beach star snapped the shot to help show off her ample cleavage and incredibly taut stomach. Scroll down for video Sizzling: Ashleigh Defty was once again out to flaunt the results of her hard work as she posted yet another sizzling selfie from her sun-soaked getaway to Cyprus on Wednesday Ashleigh has been keeping her 242,000 Instagram followers up to speed with her sun-drenched getaway - piling on sexy selfies throughout the whole trip. Her slinky bikini added a touch of glitz to her poolside look as the simple triangle cups boasted a white frame with a champagne hued layer of sequins all over. The simple bottoms matched in style while sporting a perilously low hipline which flashed her taut stomach to full effect - also exhibiting her dazzling diamond belly bar. Ashleigh, who previously dated Geordie Shore's Scotty T, shared yet another sizzlingy selfie just a day before where she wore just a tiny pair of red bikini bottoms. Bikini beauty: Ashleigh recently shared a stunning throwback snap - proving her penchant for a bikini Twit twoo! Ashleigh was back in swimwear on Monday as she posted another sizzling topless selfie Ashleigh entered the Ex On The Beach house as Scotty T's ex-girlfriend before she became romantically involved with James Moore - who is now back with his former love Olivia Walsh. The Newcastle-born beauty took to Instagram yet again on Monday to share the cheeky post in which she arched her back to make the most of her perky derriere. With her bare back on show, she flaunted her deep tan, which she achieved after only two days abroad - while warning fans the colour would intensify. She added the caption: '#TAG only day 2... gunna change race LOOOOOL #TannedLife (sic)'. Never looked better: While Ashleigh was brushing off her Monday blues in Cyprus, it was only a fortnight before when she enjoyed a jaunt to Ibiza herself, where she hung out with fellow EOTB star Rogan O'Connor (right) Racy: Just one night before her sunbathing session, Ashleigh was headed out for her first night of holiday and opted for a wildly sexy look for her night on the town Days before Ashleigh was headed out for her first night of holiday and opted for a wildly sexy look for her night on the town. Sporting an off-the-shoulder black mini dress, the Geordie beauty twisted into an elegant pose which made the most of her ample bust and tiny waist. She paired the look with teetering black heels with a studded detail, seemingly inspired by Valentino, while adding in an Yves Saint Laurent handbag. Saucy: Most recently she replicated her topless sunbed picture although this time in a bed while sporting lacy knickers - no doubt setting pulses racing among her followers Girls on tour! Ashleigh and her pal smouldered in sexy ensembles - both opting for white shorts With her lightly highlighted tresses forming in a bouncy blow-dry around her perfectly made-up face Ashleigh was truly ready for a glamorous night on the town. While the stunning starlet was enjoying a girls' trip, in Ibiza former EOTB co-star and beau James was enjoying a frolic with his rekindled flame Olivia. Ex On The Beach season four caused an extremely intricate love situation, with Olivia enjoying a night of passion with Ashleigh's ex Scotty T. After James entered the villa, he and Ashleigh immediately hit it off leading to a complicated scenario, yet their romance ended due to James' repeated inability to perform sexually. Holiday vibes: Despite soaking up the sun, Ashleigh used a wide brimmed sun hat to protect her skin Lost love: While the stunning starlet was enjoying a girls' trip, in Ibiza former EOTB co-star and beau James was enjoying a frolic with his rekindled flame Olivia While Ashleigh was brushing off her Monday blues in Cyprus, it was only a fortnight before when she enjoyed a jaunt to Ibiza herself, where she hung out with fellow EOTB star Rogan O'Connor. And when the stunning star is not sunning herself on the far-reaching shores of various exotic locations, she still manages to keep her social media profiles sexy. Most recently she replicated her topless sunbed picture although this time in a bed while sporting lacy knickers - no doubt setting pulses racing among her followers. They've just returned from a relaxing sun-soaked family break in Ibiza. But it seems Billie Faiers is already missing the sunshine, as she posted a longing throwback video of herself and her sister Sam - showing the sisters on the beach in their bikinis. Clearly not ready to return to the monotony of day-to-day life in the UK, the 26-year-old TOWIE star posted a flesh-flashing video of herself and her sibling, 25, posing up a storm in Ibiza. Scroll down for video 'Wish we were here': it seems Billie Faiers is already missing the sunshine, as she posted a longing throwback video of herself and her sister Sam - showing the sisters on the beach in their bikinis The two Essex girls - who shot to fame on the ITV reality show - kept their followers on social media up to date with all their antics on the sunny island, posting a steady stream of pics and videos of their adventures. And obviously not impresses with the changeable weather in the UK, Billie pined for the hot weather by posting the sizzling swimsuit video. Stood on one of the Balearic island's many beaches, the sisters can be seen in matching pink and white bikinis as they pout and blow kisses for the camera. Pining for the sun? Clearly not ready to return to the monotony of day-to-day life in the UK, the 26-year-old TOWIE star posted a flesh-flashing video of herself and her sibling, 25, posing up a storm in Ibiza Showing off their ample assets in their plunging bikini tops, Billie and Sam were the picture of body confidence as they showed off their fantastic figures in the teeny, tiny swim wear. Billie (in pink) and Sam (white) showcased their incredible bikini bodies, with Sam in particular looking the picture of confidence as she flaunted her post-baby body. And it seems that Billie had the beach on her mind, as she captioned the clip: 'Wishing we were still here sister... Bikinis @bahimibeachwear.' Posing up a storm: Stood on one of the Balearic island's many beaches, the sisters can be seen in matching pink and white bikinis as they pout and blow kisses for the camera Sunny snap: the sisters have been keen to document their family fun time on social media as well, with a deluge of sunny snaps showing the duo with their children flooding onto their timelines. Sister act: The duo also made sure their extensive selection of flesh-flashing swimwear featured in the holiday snaps uploaded to social media Joining the girls on their idyllic getaway to the island was their mum Suzanne Wells, Billie's daughter Nelly, one, and Sam's five-month-old son, Paul. And the sisters have been keen to document their family fun time on social media as well, with a deluge of sunny snaps showing the duo with their children flooding onto their timelines. However it wasn't a complete family holiday as Sam and Billie jetted away solo, leaving their other halves, Paul Knightley and Greg Shepherd respectively, at home although they ensured they returned for Father's Day on Sunday. MasterChef Australia judge George Calombaris was widely mocked on Twitter after his bizarre 'attempt' at eating finger food on Wednesday night. The 37-year-old was trying to demonstrate to contestant Matt Sinclair that his team's beef dish would be difficult to eat while reclining at an outdoor cinema. However, many social media users found George's dramatic efforts unintentionally hilarious, and one fan even compared him to a 'drunk teenager' eating take-away. 'Like a drunk teenager': MasterChef Australia judge George Calombaris (left) was widely mocked on Twitter after his bizarre 'attempt' at eating finger food on Wednesday's episode Tensions were running high as the remaining 11 contestants were split into two teams and asked to cook for over a hundred people at Melbourne's Caulfield Racecourse. The guests were attending an outdoor screening so they would be eating sat on deck chairs and bean bags, which required a bite-sized menu. But when it came to sampling the Red Team's beef tataki with soy caramel, George went to strange lengths to prove his point that the dish needed to be smaller. Proving his point? The 37-year-old was trying to demonstrate to contestant Matt Sinclair (right) that his team's beef dish would be difficult to eat while reclining at an outdoor cinema 'No one eats like that George': When it came to sampling the Red Team's beef tataki with soy caramel, George went to strange lengths to prove his point that the dish needed to be smaller 'Ridiculous and so dramatic': George leaned his head back and took a bite, before letting the strip off beef flop out of his mouth as he pretended to struggle He leaned his head back and took a bite, before letting the strip off beef flop out of his mouth as he pretended to struggle. 'Hang on, hang on. I'm reclining back,' he began before shuffling into a hunched position. 'We told you, you've gotta be able to eat this in a beanbag. 'You're about giving the customer service and an experience. How are they gonna get a big wad of meat like that into their gob?' He concluded: 'They're not seals. Think how it's supposed to be eaten.' 'Poor hand-mouth coordination': George was widely mocked on social media for his deliberately sloppy eating 'George really is making deliberately hard work of eating that beef': Twitter fans were quick to point out that George's performance was rather exaggerated After his bizarre 'lesson', several fans tweeted that George was 'making deliberately hard work' of the dish. Twitter user @girlwhowrites, said: 'Love how George changes how he is eating the beef to make it look difficult,' adding the hash tag, 'Gremlin'. 'George's demonstration of eating in a reclined position was ridiculous and so dramatic,' wrote @bowie_in_space. Is he serious? One Twitter fan wrote, 'George's demonstration of eating in a reclined position was ridiculous and so dramatic' 'No one eats like that George': Twitter user @tracey_yip suggested, 'Just move the plate closer to your mouth' And @tracey_yip remarked: 'No one eats like that George. Just move the plate closer to your mouth'. Meanwhile, several fans made jokes about his sloppy etiquette, with @caitiejayne commenting: 'George eating the beef like a drunk teenager eating fries in Kings Cross.' 'Should George be in charge of a fork with such poor hand-mouth coordination?' asked @bebutch. Social media fan @step_pepper wrote: 'And with that, George accidentally ostracises the seal community within the #MasterChefAU fandom'. They celebrated their three year wedding anniversary earlier this month. And Jennifer Hawkins proved she and Jake Wall are happier than ever by sharing a romantic Instagram photo on Wednesday. In the snap, the 32-year-old Myer ambassador is shown kissing her husband in a grotto while on holiday in Italy. 'Love doing life with this guy' Jennifer Hawkins (left) kisses her husband of three years Jake Wall (right) on holiday in Italy in a romantic photo she shared to Instagram on Wednesday Jennifer - who returns as host of Australia's Next Top Model later this year - can be seen flaunting her curves in a yellow bikini. She cuddles up for a kiss with construction professional Jake as they share a very intimate moment in a small boat. The genetically-blessed pair look completely in love as he clasps his hand protectively around her waist. Making a return: The Myer ambassador, 32, is set to appear in the tenth series of Australia's Next Top Model Jennifer captioned the image: 'Literally one of my favourite moments! Love doing life with this guy'. The leggy model is set to appear in the tenth series of Australia's Next Top Model alongside fellow judges Alex Perry and Megan Gale. In the past, there has been rumours of a rivalry between Jennifer and Megan - who are both ambassadors for rival department stores, Myer and David Jones. Giving her verdict: Jennifer Hawkins has been the host of Top Model since 2013. Pictured alongside 2015 judging line-up Didier Cohen (left) and Cheyenne Tozzi (second from right) and Alex Perry (right) Rivals? In the past, there has been rumours of a feud between Jennifer and new Top Model judge Megan Gale (pictured) - who are both ambassadors for rival department stores, Myer and David Jones Megan will replace former judge Charlotte Dawson, who died by suicide in February 2014. The new season will also welcome the arrival of guest mentors Gemma Ward, the Stenmark twins, Elle Macpherson and Cheyenne Tozzi. Meanwhile, Jennifer and Jake married in a Bali ceremony in June 2013 after dating for eight years. They just celebrated their eighth wedding anniversary last month. But clearly Jessica Alba and her husband Cash Warren are still in the honeymoon phase as they enjoyed a romantic dinner date at E. Baldi Italian restaurant in Beverly Hills. The 35-year-old actress and her handsome hubby couldn't keep their hands off each other as they shared a warm embrace on Tuesday night. Scroll down for video Crazy in love! Jessica Alba, 35, and her husband Cash Warren, 37, couldn't keep their hands off each other as they enjoyed a romantic dinner date in Beverly Hills on Tuesday night The Sin City star looked stunning as always in a crisp white button-down shirt with black trousers. She carried an oversized black leather handbag while wrapping her arms around Warren's neck. Her silky balayage tresses were swept back into a low chic bun allowing her exquisite facial features to take center stage. That's amore! The handsome duo dined at E. Baldi Italian restaurant as they waited by valet for their car after dinner Honeymooners! The couple - who celebrated their eighth wedding anniversary last month - was beaming as they exchanged loving glances at one another The Golden Globe nominee went with minimal makeup allowing her natural beauty to shine through. Cash, 37, opted for a black and white plaid dress shirt with light wash denim jeans. The Hollywood power couple met while filming Fantastic Four in 2004 and announced their engagement in December 2007. Proud parents! Jessica and Cash share two beautiful daughters, eight-year-old Honor and Haven, aged four (pictured December 2015) They quietly married in May 2008 at the Beverly Hills courthouse with no guests in attendance and gave birth to their first daughter, Honor, the following month. Jessica and Cash are the proud parents of two daughters, eight-year-old Honor and Haven, aged four. Alba looked relaxed as she took a break from running her billion dollar business The Honest Company which recently launched a new line of hair care products. Australian actor and theatre buff Adam Garcia has been charming audiences in his leading role in the musical Singin' In The Rain. But the 43-year-old has been for forced to leave the musical for up to six weeks because he tore a calf muscle while performing last Sunday. The Coyote Ugly and Bootmen star took to Twitter on Thursday to share his disappointment, writing in part of his post, 'I'm gutted.' Scroll down for video Break a leg! Australian actor and theatre buff Adam Garcia has been for forced to leave the musical Singin' In The Rain for up to six weeks because he tore a calf muscle while performing last Sunday 'It's true I'm injured & am out of the show for the rest of the Melbourne season. I'm gutted but I'll be back soon x,' Adam wrote, having re-tweeted a Theatre People article that spoke of his departure. The West End production is about to finish its Melbourne run at Her Majesty's Theatre and is set to head to Sydney on July 7. The former Dancing With The Stars judge will miss opening the show in Sydney as well as the remaining dates in Melbourne, with the injury potentially putting him out of action for six weeks. In the show, the father of one plays leading man Don Lockwood and he is to be replaced by actor Grant Almirall, who has been performing as Don Lockwood in Singin' in the Rain over the past 18 months on its international tour to South Africa, New Zealand and Hong Kong. In role: He will miss opening the show in Sydney on July 7 as well as the remaining dates in Melbourne with the injury potentially putting him out of action for six weeks He will take over the role in Australia. Emerging star Rob Mallett, will also perform the lead role in some performances. The production picked up three Helpmann Award nominations this week including Best Male Actor in a Supporting Role in a Musical for Jack Chambers and Best Female Actor in a Supporting Role in a Musical for Erika Heynatz and Best Choreography in a Musical. Good gig: In the show, the father-of-one plays leading man Don Lockwood The musical, which uses 12,000 litres of recycled water and hits audience members sitting in the 'splash zone', is due to hit Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth after its stint in Sydney. In recent weeks, Adam has been juggling the musical with fatherhood, having welcomed his first child, daughter Arya in August last year. He shares the tiny tot with wife Nathalia. Adam- who hails from Sydney's Wahroonga - has previously told of some complications during Arya's birth, with her heart stopping at one point. Family man: In recent weeks, Adam has been juggling the musical with fatherhood, having welcomed his first child, daughter Arya in August last year 'There were genuine moments of dread,' he told New Idea magazine. 'The nurses and midwives didn't want to betray how serious it was but Arya's heart rate was falling away, then it was gone.' The Coyote Ugly star added that as midwives were preparing his wife for an emergency c-section, Arya's head began to crown, until she was born naturally moments after. Adam and Nathalia married in London in March last year. Days after touching down in London with her husband, Michael Douglas, and their two children, Dylan and Carys, in tow, Catherine Zeta-Jones is now soaking up the glamour of the French Riviera. The 46-year-old Welsh beauty was spotted enjoying a shopping excursion in the glitzy seaside town of Saint-Tropez on Wednesday - and she stepped out for the spree in typical impeccable style. Welsh-born Catherine exuded Riviera glamour as she sauntered down the street in an all-white, full-length lace dress, which boasted elaborate layered beading. Scroll down for video French Riviera glamour: Catherine Zeta-Jones was spotted shopping in Saint Tropez on Wendesday The Chicago star topped off the chic outfit with a black wide-brimmed hat, from which fell her lustrous chestnut brown locks. Adding extra height to her frame with black-and-white wedge heels, the actress shielded her eyes from the glaring sunshine with a pair of stylish brown tinted sunglasses. Keeping her accessories to a minimum, Catherine carried a cream quilted Chanel handbag, while her choice of glittering hoop earrings added an extra touch of pizzazz. The star appeared to be in good spirits as she perused the glitzy destination's upscale boutiques, and even stopped to smile and greet onlookers as she made her way into a store. (P)lace to be: The star wowed as she stepped out in a white full-length lace dress, boasting elaborate beading Extra touch: Actress Catherine topped off her ensemble with a wide-brimmed black hat and tinted sunglasses She later made her way down to the Club 55, where she met up with her 71-year-old husband, who looked casual in a blue T-shirt and cap with white shorts and flip-flops. Joined by a group of pals, the couple - who have been married for 16 years - took a boat out to a luxury yacht. Brunette beauty Catherine, who is based in New York and once resided on the island of Bermuda, was seen touching down at London with her family last week. They do like to be beside the seaside: She was later seen with her husband Michael Douglas at the Club 55 It's good to talk: The couple enjoyed a long chat as they stood over the tantalising turquoise waters Casually cool: Veteran actor Michael looked casual in a blue T-shirt and matching cap with white shorts Deep in conversation: Catherine and Michael looked close as they chatted on the walkway Chilled: Michael looked truly in the holiday spirit as he strolled along the decked walkway in his flip flops Carefree: Michael looked calm and collected as her strolled under the clear blue sky Content: The A-lister looked to have a subtle smile on his lips as he gazed downwards Departure: The star soon got ready to board a boat as he prepared to be whisked off to a waiting yacht Every little step I take...: The couple carefully made their way down the steps and into the small vessel Roots: Michael sported a Bermuda sailing T-shirt. His late mother Diana Dill hailed from the stunning island Clean bill of health: In recent years, the Hollywood actor has successfully battled tongue cancer It's a family affair: Last week, Catherine was seen jetting over to London with her husband and two children And she was sure to live up to her glamorous image for her return to the UK, wearing an cream sunhat and matching coat, teamed with billowing black trousers and stylish shades. During a recent web chat, Catherine revealed that she found her constant flying was wreaking havoc on her beauty regime, but explained she had found a solution. She said: Im finding, just from travelling from New York and being in heated hotel rooms, my skin feels like a Walkers crisp at the moment, but Ive been using some argan oil just to saturate my skin at night, so it has some nourishment as I sleep, to start the day a little bit more hydrated. I think happiness is the best tonic for keeping us youthful. Being happy with who you are inside radiates on the outside,' she added. Doting parents: Screen stars Catherine and Michael share two children - Dylan, 15, and Carys, 13 Ready to roll: Once on board their small boat, the famous couple waited to be whisked away Glamorous life: Michael and Catherine live with their children in New York and once called Bermuda home Hair we go: Catherine's lustrous chestnut brown locks cascaded down her back as she soaked up the sun Playing in the shade: The lovebirds shielded their eyes from the glaring sunshine with stylish sunglasses Problem: Catherine recently admitted that her frequent travels left her skin feeling like 'a Walkers crisp' Solution: She went on to reveal that she uses argan oil to saturate her skin at night and combat the issue Home sweet home: The couple soon made their way to a luxury super yacht bearing the Bermuda flag Travelling in style: The four-storey yacht looked majestic as it sailed through the calm water Beach buddies: The couple stopped off on the beach and felt the sand between their toes Power couple: Michael may have been dressed down but Catherine was a glamorous vision in her flowing white dress Hats off: Catherine removed her hat and allowed sleek brunette tresses to soak up the sun's rays Style queen: The Welsh beauty was well covered from the sun but didn't appear flustered as she flashed a smile Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie seem to have been rather content with each other since meeting on the set of their 2005 action film Mr And Mrs Smith. But the couple, who wed in 2014 and parent six children together, seem to have hit a snag this year, according to a Wednesday report from UsWeekly. It has been claimed the A-list actor, 52, is not happy that his 41-year-old wife wants to sell their sprawling Chateau Miraval property in France to help further her political career in London. Arguing? Brad Pitt is not happy Angelina Jolie wants to sell their Chateau Miraval property in France, according to a Wednesday report from UsWeekly; here he is seen on Tuesday at LAX while she was spotted the day before in LA She has a new interest: 'Angelina is ramping up her efforts in the political world,' a source told the publication 'Angelina is ramping up her efforts in the political world,' a source told the publication. The Oscar winner has been working with Arminka Helic, the British House Of Lords member. 'They share a similar vision.' said a source. Jolie and Helic have partnered up for a nonprofit based in the UK. And the Maleficent beauty has also been teaching at Helic's alma mater the London School Of Economics. The digs: It looks as if Angelina wants to enter the House Of Lords, because the source said she wants to unload their Miraval home. Only tax-paying British residents are allowed into the House It looks as if Angelina wants to enter the House Of Lords, because the source said she is interested in unloading the Miraval estate she owns with Pitt. Only tax-paying British residents are allowed into the House. As of this summer, the stars are living in England where Brad is shooting the sequel to World War Z. He has just finished working on War Machine and Allied. Turns out Brad does not want to let go of the French estate, which he has tirelessly renovated and which produces their brand of pink wine. New pals: The Oscar winner has been working with Arminka Helic, the British House Of Lords member. 'They share a similar vision.' said a source; here Jolie is sitting next to Helic at the House Of Lords in 2015 'She wants to sell Chateau Miraval and Brad refuses,' said the source. Pitt owns a home in the Los Feliz area of Los Angeles but it is not known if that is in her name as well and will have to go too. And though Jolie is slated for a Maleficent sequel which Disney confirmed this spring, a source added 'she has turned her back on Hollywood.' Jolie has indeed been very involved with politics these days. On June 20 the By The Sea director addressed a crowd at the State Department in Washington DC on World Refugee Day. Pitt seems to be allowing some fun in his life, however, as he was seen at the 84th 24 hours Le Mans race in France on June 18. Australian bikini blogger Natasha Oakley is typically the one who shows off her enviable figure in swimsuits. But on Wednesday, her equally photogenic model boyfriend Gilles Souteyrand was the one stripping off for a social media snap, showing off his bulging arm muscles as he poured his girl a glass of red wine on their romantic holiday in Italy. The London-based personal trainer went shirtless in the snap as they soaked up the views of Capri from a balcony, with Gillies captioning the shot: 'She likes Merlots.' Scroll down for video 'She likes Merlots': Natasha Oakley's boyfriend Gilles Souteyrand showed off his bulging arm muscles as he poured his girl a glass of red wine on a romantic holiday in Italy in a picture posted to Instagram on Wednesday In the image, Gilles wears a pair of grey track pants and shows off a golden tan. Natasha appears to have been the one to take the snap shot, with a glass of wine in front of her. But not one to shy away from social media, Natasha shared more envy-inducing snaps of their vacation, sharing shots of herself walking around Capri in a white plunging crochet dress. If you've got it: But not one to shy away from social media, Natasha shared more envy-inducing snaps of their vacation, sharing shots of herself walking around Capri in a white plunging crochet dress Picture perfect: In another shot, she poses for a selfie on a hotel balcony and appears to be wearing very little make-up The never-ending getaway! Natasha dressed in a plunging lace dress on Tuesday as she settled in to her next holiday destination of Capri in Italy Showing off sun-kissed skin, she wore her blonde locks out and over her shoulders in loose curls. In another shot, she poses for a selfie on a hotel balcony and appears to be wearing very little make-up. She captioned part of the image: 'Love a room with a view.' Earlier in the day, Natasha shared another image of herself arriving at the holiday destination. This time she was wearing a white loose-fitting dress with rolled up short-sleeves. Again she showed off her cleavage in the plunging neckline garment, while revealing her long toned legs through the front high-split. White hot: Earlier in the day, the 25-year-old slipped her toned frame into a loose-fitting dress that featured rolled short-sleeves, a low-cut front and thigh high split as she arrived into Capri Romantic holiday: The Bikini A Day blogger is currently spending some quality time with boyfriend Gilles along the Amalfi Coast What a view! And earlier in the week,the blogger posed in a tiny blue bikini, sharing the sexy snap with her 1.8million followers on Instagram Beauty in blue: She also flaunted her ample assets and tiny waist in a blue bikini and wrap skirt Earlier in the week, the blogger posed in a tiny blue bikini, sharing the sexy snap with her 1.8million followers on Instagram. The Bikini A Day blogger is currently spending some quality time with boyfriend Gilles along the Amalfi Coast. She has so far enjoyed a three-week jaunt across several cities including Rome, Venice and Tuscany and Florence. Natasha and Gilles celebrated their one year anniversary last month, after going public with their relationship back in November. She's currently in Paris for the launch of Givenchy's new fragrance Live Irresistible. And Amanda Seyfried proved she's the perfect brand ambassador as she posed and pouted on the city's Pont du Carrousel on Wednesday afternoon. The actress, 30, took pretty in pink to a whole new level by wearing an oversized button-up shirt over a thigh-skimming lace negligee, no doubt pleasing boyfriend Thomas Sadoski as they walked to and from set holding hands. Pretty in pink: Amanda Seyfried and boyfriend Thomas Sadoski enjoyed an intimate moment as they walked hand-in-hand through a Givenchy photo shoot on the Pont du Carrousel in Paris, France, on Wednesday Staying true to the colour scheme, the Mamma Mia! star wore a pink corsage on her left lapel, continuing the floral theme that was present in previous Live Irresistible advertisements. Going for a pure and simple look, Amanda played a subtle make-up game, wearing the lightest dusting of pink blush and just a touch of pink lippie. As she perched on the stone railing of the iconic bridge, the blonde beauty swept her hair back and to the sides, ensuring that the photographer could focus on her stunning face and complexion. As versatile in photo shoots as she is on the big screen, Amanda channelled sensuality, joy and raw sex appeal. Modelling from head to toe, she at times laid on her stomach and her side, elongating her slim pins to make the most of her 5ft 3in frame. It's a match! The actress, 30, took pretty in pink to a whole new level by wearing an oversized button-up shirt over a thigh-skimming lace negligee on the shoot Pure and simple: Amanda played a subtle make-up game, wearing the lightest dusting of pink blush and just a touch of pink lippie Pink to make the boys wink! Staying true to the colour scheme, the Mamma Mia! actress wore a pink corsage on her left lapel as she posed up a storm on the elegant shoot Mix it up: Amanda placed her smooth knees on the rough concrete as she slid into position Don't fall! At times laid on her side, elongating her slim pins to make the most of her 5ft 3in frame Giving face: As versatile in photo shoots as she is on the big screen, Amanda channeled sensuality, joy and raw sex appeal Camera-ready and keen to please her client, she maintained a smile throughout the day and knew exactly where to place her hand when the wind blew and threatened her modesty. She and her beau Thomas enjoyed several intimate moments. During breaks the pair, who were revealed to be dating in March, could be seen chatting privately, sharing laughs and holding hands. Amanda was in China earlier this week for Cle de Peau Beaute, a make-up brand from The Shisheido Group. The Twenties-style bash was in celebration of the brand's latest collection, inspired by artist Tamara de Lempicka of the Art Deco period. Adjustments: Amanda stayed calm as wardrobe assistants corrected problems with her outfit Perfection: No stranger to the elements, Amanda relaxed as a hair stylist tidied her look Cover up: Camera-ready and keen to please her client, she maintained a smile throughout the day and knew exactly where to place her hand when the wind blew and threatened her modesty 'I feel great affinity with women who live strong, bold lives, like Tamara de Lempicka,' Amanda said, as reported by KCTV News5. Her pick from the collection, for a feeling of 'fearless beauty,' was the New Liquid Rouge #18 (Lempicka Red). Amanda and Tom started dating while shooting their upcoming film The Last Word and reportedly became friends while appearing together as a couple who have a one-night stand in the off-Broadway production of The Way We Get By in 2015. Former Newsroom actor Thomas is in the middle of a divorce from his ex-wife of eight years, casting director Kimberly Hope. Amanda split from her ex-boyfriend, actor Justin Long, in September after they began dating in 2013. Hand-in-hand: Amanda and her beau Thomas enjoyed several intimate moments during the day Break time: When she stepped away from the set, Amanda wore her hair in a simple up-do Versatile: At times Amanda pushed her legs up into the air, giving her the appearance of a glamorous beached mermaid She is more used to the glamorous spas and shops of Cheshire. But Real Housewives star Tanya Bardsley got a taste of real royalty on Wednesday when she proudly attended her father's investiture at Buckingham Palace. The 34-year-old former glamour model couldn't contain her excitement as her dad picked up an MBE award for his services to injured soldiers. Scroll down for video Lady in red! On Wednesday Tanya Bardsley beamed with pride, as her dad was awarded an MBE at Buckingham Palace in London Donning an orange off-the-shoulder knee length dress, pregnant Tanya showed off her blooming bump in the intricate number. The mother-of-three matched her nude hat and lace fascinator with matching Louboutin killer heels. Keeping her jewellery simple with diamond earrings and her large engagement ring, the reality star showed off her stylish French manicure. And the Manchester-born model, who is married to Stoke City player Phil Bardsley, looked every inch the tanned housewife, completing her look with a touch of bronzer and lipgloss. Paying attention to every detail, the former FHM stunner matched a stylish nude clutch to coordinate with her killer heels. Tanya looked proud as punch as she posed alongside her father, sister and mother for pictures. Proud daughter: The 34-year-old Real Housewives of Cheshire star couldn't contain her excitement as her dad picked up the award for his services to injured soldiers Family affair: She looked proud as punch as she posed with her father, sister and mother for pictures Family affair: Sharing a family snap, she wrote: 'So proud of my dad I could burst... we are going to Buckingham palace for my dad to receive a MBE for looking after injured soldiers' Taking to Instagram she posted a snap of the beaming family, writing: 'So proud of my dad I could burst... we are going to Buckingham palace for my dad to receive a MBE for looking after injured soldiers .. #my hero #mydaddy #myinspiration #myeverything.' On Sunday Tanya posted a snap of partner Phil, her daughter and the couple's two sons, writing: 'Happy Father's Day to the best daddy in the world @phil_bardsley2 and my daddy... we love you so so much.' While her daughter as inherited her mum's good looks, her two gorgeous sons posed in adorable matching polka dot shirts. Last week the family enjoyed a sunny family holiday in Portugal. Taking to Instagram Tanya shared a sweet snap of her son kissing her growing bump, writing: 'This is happiness. Yes, I'm big and have stretch marks on my thighs and I don't care.' Tanya is mum to Gabriella, 13, Rocco, six, and Renz, two, and announced the news of her latest pregnancy during series three of the ITVBe reality show. She has been a regular on the Glastonbury festival scene for years. And Millie Mackintosh was clearly excited for the music event as she shared a flawless make-up free selfie of her beauty preparations on Wednesday. The former Made In Chelsea star, 26, stuck out her tongue in the au natural shot, which she captioned: 'Pre-glasto beauty prep underway @drfrancesprennajones @julesvonhep @revivme.' Scroll down for video 'Beauty prep underway!' Millie Mackintosh, 26, shared a glowing make-up free selfie on Wednesday ahead of attending Glastonbury Festival The fashion designer looked glowing in the close-up selfie which she shared with her 1.2million Instagram followers. Her normally sleek caramel-hued tresses were worn in a tousled style and swept to the side. Millie, who is currently seeing her former Made In Chelsea co-star Hugo Taylor, also gave an insight into her festival packing preparations. Donning a bohemian-inspired patterned kimono, she flashed a peace sign as she showed off her neatly packed suitcase. She captioned it: 'Nearly finished packing.. So excited for Glastonbury! @americaneagleuk #aeostyle #sponsored' 'So excited for Glastonbury!' The former Made In Chelsea star, 26, flashed a peace sign as she showed off her neatly packed suitcase Going incognito: The brunette beauty rocked a skintight black dress as she ran errands in London on Wednesday Undercover lady: She threw a khaki jacket with a drawstring waist over the top and opted for some Valentino 'Rockstud' sandals for a tough edge In between preparations, the brunette beauty was spotted rocking an understated outfit as she ran errands in London. She flaunted her enviably slim physique in a figure-hugging strapless black dress that remained demure thanks to its midi length. She threw a khaki jacket with a drawstring waist over the top and opted for some Valentino 'Rockstud' sandals for a tough edge. Keeping accessories to a minimum, the former reality star rocked a black wide-brimmed trilby and some round-eye shades. Millie saw her two and a half year marriage to rapper Professor Green, 32, dissolved in just 30 seconds at the end of May. Killer accessories: The former reality star rocked a black wide-brimmed trilby and some round-eye shades Ready for her close-up: Millie shared another selfie on Wednesday that flaunted her glowing complexion They were granted a decree nisi at Central London Family Court with Millie citing 'unreasonable behaviour' as the reason for their split. The divorce comes just three months after the couple announced they were separating after living separate lives. In a statement at the time, they said: 'It is a mutual decision, we still care deeply about each other and would like it to be known that it is on amicable terms and we wish each other well.' They decided to part shortly after returning from a make-or-break holiday in Florence, Italy, which was well documented on their respective Instagram pages. The EX factor: Millie saw her two and a half year marriage to rapper Professor Green, 32, (both pictured at London events on Tuesday night) dissolved in just 30 seconds at the end of May Stephen said they had gone on the break after only spending one day in each other's company all year. He said: 'It was the first time I had seen her properly in 30 days. We had seen each other like ships in the night, but we werent getting any quality time together. It is good sometimes to have space, but it is also difficult when you miss someone for that long. 'It used to happen when I was touring. You would have a day off and try and have the best day of your life. But then youd just start arguing. That is a relationship.' Millie and Stephen started dating in November 2011 after the rapper saw her on the cover of men's magazine FHM. The rapper contacted Millie through her agent and they had their first date at the Groucho Club in Soho. Stepping out in style: The fashionista looked incredible in a plunging black lace top and cigarette pants as she attended pal Rosie Fortescue's jewellery launch at Fortnum & Mason on Bethenny Frankel was bleeding during a recent episode of The Real Housewives Of New York City. And on Wednesday the 45-year-old reality star revealed during a sit down with Good Morning America what the cause of the bleeding was: 'It was gigantic fibroids,' said the Skinnygirl founder. In May she had to have surgery. The ex of Jason Hoppy added that she thinks fibroids are what caused her miscarriage in 2012. She already has a daughter, Bryn, aged six, with Hoppy. Traumatic: Bethenny Frankel was bleeding during a recent episode of The Real Housewives Of New York City. And on Wednesday the 45-year-old reality star revealed during a sit down with Good Morning America what the cause of the bleeding was Her big reveal: : 'It was gigantic fibroids,' said the Skinnygirl founder of her medical condition Candid: The ex of Jason Hoppy added that she thinks fibroids are what caused her miscarriage in 2012. She already has a daughter, Bryn, aged six, with Hoppy 'I've been told that the fibroids probably caused my miscarriage a couple of years ago,' she said. During last week's episode Frankel admitted she had bled 'all over the car and everything in my house. 'I suffer from a lot of female problems. Cysts and I had endometriosis,' Bethenny told GMA co-anchor Lara Spencer. Upfront: 'I suffer from a lot of female problems. Cysts and I had endometriosis,' Bethenny told GMA co-anchor Lara Spencer 'I feel better, I'm happy': Bethenny said she has a positive outlook and appeared in good spirits Bethenny stated: 'The bleeding was so excessive and I was so weak. 'I felt like I looked so haggard and had such black circles under my eyes that I had to take care of it and it was confusing,' she added. The mother-of-one underwent a myomectomy on May 20 which included a six-week recovery. She recalled the unnerving times, 'I was in the hospital for three days and it's kind of brutal, I didn't realize it.' Before the show: The Bravo star looked confident as she walked into the studio Svelte: The Real Housewives Of New York star showcased her phenomenal figure in a form-fitting royal blue cocktail dress But when asked about how she's currently feeling, Bethenny said she has a positive outlook and appeared in good spirits. 'I feel better, I'm happy and I'm glad it's over.' Though the beauty was addressing a difficult topic on the morning show, she looked chic in a simple blue dress. The business mogul showcased her svelte figure in a form-fitting royal blue cocktail dress. Her knee-length frock included an asymmetrical neckline and cinched around her waist with a thin copper belt. Brilliant in blue! The reality star's frock included an asymmetrical neckline and cinched around her waist with a thin copper belt She paired the bold-coloured number with nude strappy stilettos while waving to fans as she made her way inside the morning talk show studios. The cocktail creator styled her shoulder-length honey locks in loose tendrils for a soft look and swept her bangs to one side. Her makeup was kept to a minimum but she opted for a touch of black eyeliner and a bit of glossy lip for some extra shine. Bethenny also penned an open letter called 'Getting Real About My Health' on Facebook. Final touches: She paired the bold-coloured number with nude strappy stilettos Frankel had an IUD inserted for several years once she separated from her husband of three years, Jason Hoppy, to avoid pregnancy. 'During the past year, increasing dramatically in the past few months, I started to experience bleeding,' she explained as problems began to arise with the device. 'My doctor and I decided to remove my IUD to start eliminating causes,' Bethenny continued. She wrote: 'When I started bleeding an immense amount for days to follow, I assumed this was an after effect of the removal.' 'To say that there was a lot of blood would be a massive understatement.' 'I'm glad it's over': The mother-of-one underwent a myomectomy on May 20 which included a six-week recovery but appeared in good spirits 'I ruined my rug, my linens, bled all over my car and through dozens of pads and tampons,' she confessed. 'Not to be too graphic, but to hopefully help someone, it was literally clumps of blood.' While Bethenny was filming with cast member Dorinda Medley, she was 'rushed out of a scene' and headed straight to her OB/GYN office. 'The fibroids from a few years back had grown rapidly, doubled the size of my uterus and I lost almost ten percent of my blood. I was a mess.' After she decided to undergo the myomectomy she was terrified after speaking with doctors. Health scare: Frankel discussed her 'women's health issue' last week on the hit reality show and admitted she had bled 'all over the car and everything in my house' 'When I heard "make sure you have a living will" I panicked.' 'I was horrified while filming and hated seeming weak and like a complainer but now I'm happy I went through it with the audience and some of my cast mates because it possibly will raise awareness.' 'A special shout out goes to Dorinda and Carole who came to the MD with me and Ramona who reached out to me every day for over six weeks asking the same question "how's the bleeding? 'They were so sweet and supportive,' Frankel said of her fellow cast members. Bethenny married pharmaceutical sales executive Jason Hoppy in 2010 and gave birth to a daughter, Bryn , aged six. She separated from Hoppy in December 2012 and filed for divorce in January 2013. She revealed she was pregnant with a cute Instagram post earlier this month. And Kaya Scodelario, 24, stepped out for the first time since making the announcement, joining husband Benjamin Walker, 34, at the Valentino Menswear Spring/Summer 2017 collection in Paris, on Wednesday. The actress looked stunning in a decorative floral minidress, with its semi sheer decolletage adorned with birds. Scroll down for video Congratulations! Pregnant Kaya Scodelario, 24, stepped out for the first time since announcing she was expecting, on Wednesday, joining husband Benjamin Walker, 34, at the Valentino Menswear collection in Paris The former Skins actress rested a hand carefully on her burgeoning bump while placing her other around her husband as they posed for photographs. Kaya emanated a healthy glow as she produced a pretty smile while cosying up to her man. Her brunette tresses fell in loose waves over her shoulders, while she wore a slick of pink lipstick and decorated her piercing blue peepers with smoky eyeshadow. Ben cut a dapper figure in a plaid monochrome suit which certainly caught the eye. Mum-to-be: Kaya proudly showed off her bump as she caressed it with her hands Madly in love: The inseparable couple barely left each other's side while out at the fashion show The look of love: The actress looked stunning in a decorative floral minidress, with its semi sheer decolletage adorned with birds Only eyes for you: The couple couldn't take their eyes off each other Stylish: Ben cut a dapper figure in a plaid monochrome suit which certainly caught the eye Sweet: Kaya placed an affectionate peck on Ben's cheek as the American looked on The actor finished his ensemble with a white shirt and a plain black tie to ensure he was coordinated. He placed a loving arm around his wife and held her close to him as he smiled for the shot. Kaya placed an affectionate peck on his cheek, and once they'd found their seats, she rested her hands on her man's thigh. Happy couple: Once they'd found their seats, she rested her hands on her man's thigh Glowing: Kaya emanated a healthy glow as she produced a pretty smile The look of love: The pair gazed adoringly into each other's eyes once outside All smiles: They couldn't hide their delight at being together as they stood on the steps Proud dad: Ben placed his hand on Kaya's bump and appeared to burst with pride Immaculate: Ben finished his quirky look with some heavy-duty burgundy footwear Time to go: The couple held hands as they left the venue after the exclusive show Leading the way: The towering actor led Kaya by the hand as they left Putting a smile on her face: Ben certainly appeared to make Kaya happy Pretty as a picture: Kaya showed off her slender limbs while standing on the stone steps The star made her pregnancy announcement by sharing a picture of the pair walking along the beach with their pet dog, as they clutched her growing tummy. With a love heart drawn in the sand, the married couple made their revelation in the caption of the Instagram post. She captioned the picture with the words: 'I love you @findthewalker I love our little family,' alongside some baby emojis. 'I love our little family': Former Skins actress Kaya announced she is pregnant with her first child with husband Ben, with this cute Instagram post The couple married in a 2015 winter wedding after he popped the question within six months of dating. Kaya announced in low-key fashion in January 2016 that she was now a married woman when she shared an image of bride and a groom wedding cake toppers. 'Happy New Year everyone,' she captioned the Instagram snap. 'Here's to 2016 being filled with love, laughter and cake for everyone!' Her man: Kaya made it official with a winter wedding over the holidays, according to People, and has been sharing images from her action-packed and romantic honeymoon with enthusiasm ever since The blushing bride: Ben popped the question after six months of dating in December 2014 Kaya made it official over the holidays, according to People, and has been sharing images from her action-packed and romantic honeymoon with enthusiasm ever since. Among the snaps was a photo of herself and Ben at a foam party, where she cuddled up to her new husband in the bubbles and clutched two glasses. 'This is how we honeymoon...', the image was captioned. The pair originally met in April 2014 when they were cast in The Moon And The Sun, but within two months had become an item. The actress, who appears opposite Johnny Depp in the forthcoming Pirates Of The Caribbean film, has proved her devotion to Ben by getting his name tattooed on her engagement finger. Kaya originally found fame as Tony Stonem's younger rebellious younger sister Effy in E4's British teen series Skins. Glitzy: The pair originally met in April 2014 when they were cast in The Moon And The Sun, but within two months had become an item - pictured at the Met Gala in New York on May 2 She went on to find fame in Hollywood, being cast The Maze Runner and The Scorch Trials on the big screen. Prior to dating Ben, Kaya was in a long-term romance with Shameless actor Eliott Tittensor, before splitting in late 2013. Meanwhile, Ben's two year marriage to Mamie Gummer - daughter of Meryl Streep - ended in early 2013. They went public with their romance in March and have attended a series of high-profile events together in recent weeks. And Jenson Button and new girlfriend Brittny Ward looked quite the model couple as they attended the opening of Michael Kors' new Regent Street flagship store in London on Wednesday night. Arriving in style in an orange McLaren vehicle, the Formula One ace, 36, looked proud as punch to have the model, 25, on his arm as they posed up a storm inside the bash. Scroll down for video Cute couple: Jenson Button and new girlfriend Brittny Ward proved themselves to be quite the model couple as they attended the opening of Michael Kors' new Regent Street flagship store in London on Wednesday night Life in the fast lane: The Formula One ace, 36, looked proud as punch to have the model, 25, on his arm as they posed up a storm inside the bash with F1 team principle Ron Dennis and his girlfriend Carol Weatherall The duo looked stylish as they posed for pictures alongside F1 team principle Ron Dennis and his girlfriend Carol Weatherall. Playboy model Brittny looked elegant in a strapless black cocktail dress and black strappy killer heels, which helped to accentuate her incredible figure. The brunette beauty accessorised with a small patent clutch bag, and looked every inch the California girl with her flowing tresses. Showing off her natural beauty Brittny went for minimum make-up, bold brows and nude lips as she mingled with the likes of Hollywood heavyweights Gwyneth Paltrow, Jessica Chastain and Solange Knowles at the star-studded event. Model behaviour: Playboy model Brittny looked elegant in a strapless black cocktail dress and black strappy killer heels, which helped to accentuate her incredible figure Flashy: The 36-year-old Formula One driver arrived in style at the opening of Michael Kors' new Regent Street flagship store in an orange Mclaren Looking sharp! Jenson looked smart in a navy blue suit cut to perfection, and a crisp white shirt Jenson looked smart in a navy blue suit cut to perfection, and a crisp white shirt. Later, the couple put on a show of affection as they posed arm-in-arm before attending a private dinner held by Michael Kors at The River Cafe in Hammersmith. The 2009 Formula One World Champion caused quite a stir as he pulled up to the store opening in a bright orange Mclaren, boasting serious perks of the job. Spanish Formula One racing driver Fernando Alonso pulled up to the bash in a matching white Mclaren, causing a further stir on the busy road. Dinner date: The brunette beauty accessorised with a small patent clutch bag, and looked every inch the California girl with her flowing tresses as the couple cosied up over dinner Poser: The 2009 Formula One World Champion caused quite a stir as he pulled up to the store opening in a bright orange Mclaren, boasting serious perks of the job The duo later debuted their racing suits with designer Michael Kors, showing off the style collaboration. Model Brittny has hit fame for her relationship with Formula 1 racing car driver Jenson, who split from his wife Jessica Michibata in December 2015. The couple made their red carpet debut at the beginning of the month, when they put in a joint appearance at the Hope & Homes End The Silence fundraiser at Abbey Road Studios in London. She also accompanied him to Monaco this year for the Monaco Grand Prix, just one year after his ex-wife Jessica was on the sidelines supporting him. Double act! Spanish Formula One racing driver Fernando Alonso pulled up to the bash in a matching white Mclaren, causing a further stir on the busy road Kors for Mclaren: The racing duo later debuted their racing suits with designer Michael Kors, showing off the style collaboration Jenson and Jessica, who tied the knot in a lavish Hawaiian ceremony at the end of 2014, remained on good terms despite calling time on their relationship. A spokesperson for the former F1 World Champion told MailOnline in December: '(They) have decided to go their separate ways and it is very amicable. There is no one else involved.' The driver and the 31-year-old fashion model first met in 2008 in a hotel bar in Tokyo and began dating eight months later. Their relationship experienced ups and downs and they split for a short time in 2011 before the McLaren star proposed on Valentine's Day 2014, with a ring worth 250,000. She appears to have given a new lease of life since meeting her fiance Egor Tarabasov. And Lindsay Lohan, 29, looked radiant as she attended Caudwell Children's Butterfly Ball at the Grosvenoer House Hotel, London, on Wednesday, in a glamorous plunging pale pink gown. The American actress showcased her cleavage in the glitzy frock, with its jewel-encrusted bodice shimmering under the lights as she posed on the red carpet. Scroll down for video Glitzy: Lindsay Lohan, 29, looked radiant as she attended Caudwell Children's Butterfly Ball in London, on Wednesday, in a glamorous plunging pale pink gown The redhead finished her look with a pair of sparkly silver peep toe heels which revealed vibrant red pedicure. The Freaky Friday star's luscious locks cascaded down her front from a middle parting, and she kept up the glam with a slick of bright pink lipstick, lashings of mascara and smoky eyeshadow. She was joined on the purple carpet by Egor, 22, who cut a dapper figure in a traditional black three-piece suit. Loved-up: Lindsay was joined on the purple carpet by Egor, 22, who cut a dapper figure in a traditional black three-piece suit Taking the plunge: The American actress showcased her cleavage in the glitzy frock, with its jewel-encrusted bodice shimmering under the lights as she posed on the red carpet He wore his dark locks in a tousled style and sported finely groomed facial hair for the prestigious occasion. The loved-up couple placed their arms around each other, and Lindsay struck a number of smiley poses. Organised by Phones4u tycoon John Caudwell, the event, which raises money for disabled children, will include performances from All Saints and Burt Bacharach. Style queen: Sarah-Jane Crawford looked super-stylish in an off the shoulder black and white pencil dress which she wore with black heels and a clutch Vibrant: The Inbetweeners' Emily Atack brought a touch of colour to the proceedings in a vivid orange dress, which she confidently modelled on the runway Bold in brights: The actress kept her accessories muted, opting for metallic heels and a box clutch Quirky: Tallia Storm rocked textured black minidress with a billowing sheer overlay Going incognito: Professor Green looked suave in a pair of mirrored aviators at the event Playing it cool: The rapper cut a cool figure in a black jacket and trouser combo Body confident: Natalie Anderson put on a very busty display in a plunging metallic gown Natural beauty: Rachel Stevens looked flawless as she made her arrival in a bold dress Scarlet siren: The 37-year-old singer stunned in the red gown which highlighted her tiny waist thanks to a wide gold belt Stealing the limelight: Rachel wore her ombre-hued hair in loose waves that delicately framed her face Glamour girls: Hofit Golan ripped up the fashion rule book and showed off plenty of leg and cleavage, while Lizzie Cundy showed off her form in a striking red number Other guests on the night included Professor Green, Natalie Anderson, Tallia Storm, Gabrielle, Emily Atack, Sarah-Jane Crawford and Jean- Bernard Frenandez-Versini to name but a few. Pro Green cut a cool figure in a black jacket and trouser combo which he combined with a buttoned down white shirt and a pair of black shades. While Sarah-Jane Crawford looked super-stylish in an off the shoulder black and white pencil dress which she wore with black heels and a clutch. The Inbetweeners' Emily Atack brought a touch of colour to the proceedings in a vivid orange dress, which she confidently modelled on the runway. Natalie Anderson put on a very busty display in a plunging metallic gown. The beauty went braless in the eyecatching frock which also had a plunging back. Belle of the ball: Danielle Armstrong pulled out all the stops in her grey ball gown with a glitzy chest piece Strike a pose: The TOWIE star's gown featured sheer panels that subtly flaunted her tanned skin Double trouble: Danielle was joined by her The Only Way Is Essex co-star Bobby Palmer Dapper: Simon Webbe looked chic in a metallic paisley print jacket while actor Lucien Laviscount, 24, opted for a velvet navy number Man of the hour: Organised by Phones4u tycoon John Caudwell (centre), the event, which raises money for disabled children, will include performances from All Saints and Burt Bacharach Feeling blue: Pips Taylor vivid blue dress with a ruche finish no doubt got plenty of attention, while Olivia Inge sported a pair of eye-catching yellow heels which couldn't be missed Ready to perform: Gabrielle rocked her trademark fringe and a smart all-black ensemble Suited and booted: Jean-Bernard Fernandez-Versini and Darren Kennedy bother looked sharp Kyle Richards was clearly feeling nostalgic on Monday when she rummaged through the family photos and pulled out a real good one of her and her two older siblings. The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star posted a heartwarming photo that showed her decked out in a red vest and plaid skirt that echoed the more grown up outfits worn by Kim Richards and Kathy Hilton. 'Found this pic of my sisters & me yesterday. Our Mom loved dressing us alike,' the 47-year-old reality star and dress shop owner captioned the snapshot. Scroll down for video 'Our mom loved dressing us alike': Kyle Richards, 47, shared an Instagram throwback on Monday with sisters Kim Richards and Kathy Hilton The three sisters all coordinated their ensembles in shades of bright orange, chocolate brown and white. Kyle donned an adorable pleated checkered skirt with a buttoned-up vest and white turtleneck shirt. Her hair fell in curly tendrils and she wore little white boots as she flashed a huge grin for the camera. Gorgeous girls! Kathy (center) is the half-sister to Kim and Kyle (pictured in March 2006) Memorable moment: Kyle and her mom Kathleen Richards at the wedding of Kim and husband Monty Brinson in August 1985 in Beverly Hills Kim wore a simple one-piece frock which included a high white neckline and matching cuffs. The Return from Witch Mountain child star wore her blonde locks in braided pigtails finished with black ribbons. Big sister Kathy perched herself between her younger sisters and wore low side pigtails. Her mini dress included a white hemline following around the neck and down the center. Kim and Kathy matched their looks in black leather knee-high boots. Perhaps it's no coincidence that Kyle went on to open her own women's apparel clothing store, Kyle By Alene Too in Beverly Hills. Kyle and Kim Richards, 51, are half-sisters with Kathy Hilton, 57, and all share the same mother - Kathleen Mary. Sorrow: The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star lost her mom in 2002 to breast cancer and often discusses the tragedy on the hit Bravo reality show (pictured on May 23) Hilton - who is the mother to socialites Paris and Nicky Hilton - was the daughter from Kathleen's first marriage to Laurence Avanzino, whereas Kyle and Kim were born as a result of her second marriage to Ken Richards. Their mother passed in 2002 from breast cancer, a tragedy that Kyle often discusses on the hit Bravo reality show. Kyle and her real estate agent husband, Mauricio Umansky, are parents to three daughters together: 19-year-old Alexia, 16-year-old Sophia and seven-year-old Portia. She also has a 28-year-old daughter. Farrah, from her first marriage to Guraish Aldjufrie, who she was married to from 1988 to 1990. She welcomed her baby daughter Gigi four months ago, but her arrival has been bitter sweet. Offspring star Kat Stewart has told how the birth of her daughter Gigi has come months after she lost her mother Kitty to cancer, and focusing on her new arrival has helped soften the blow. The 43-year-old - who plays vivacious Billie Proudman in the comedy drama - told WHO magazine: 'It seems quite apt she's come along when she has... She's a positive spin [on what's happened.' Scroll down for video Mother at work: Kat Stewart was recently pictured on set of the new series of Offspring with her four-month-old daughter Gigi Kat, who has returned to work after relishing spending time at home with her new baby, also told the magazine that her husband David Whiteley lost his mother Shirley to the disease several months before her own mother passed away. Baby Gigi, then, has been a welcomed joy for the couple who are also parents to Archie, four. Kat had kept her pregnancy completely under wraps but surprised fans when she announced in April that her daughter had been born on March 16. Surprise news: Kat had kept her pregnancy completely under wraps but shocked fans when she announced in April Gigi had been born on March 16 Speaking to the Daily Telegraph at the time, she insisted she hadn't tried to keep her pregnancy secret but had merely been laying low whilst dealing with family issues. 'It wasnt a conscious thing. I havent been hiding her. Ive just been pottering around at home,' she said of the new baby. The actress known for her role in Underbelly revealed her firstborn Archie has been embracing his role as an older brother. 'Archie takes his role as big brother really seriously. Hes in charge of calming Gigi down with lullabies,' she said. Working mothers: The 43-year-old plays vivacious Billie Proudman in the Channel Ten comedy drama opposite Asher Keddie and both have been bringing their babies to the film set in Melbourne Last year Kat, who has been taking Gigi to the film set of Offspring as she films the show, admitted holding off motherhood for fear of slipping back in her career. Speaking to Show and Tell, she said: 'I had this paranoia that if I had a baby which is probably why we put it off for so long that Id never work again.' She returned to work just five weeks after giving birth to Archie in 2012 and also kept her first pregnancy close to her chest for months. 'I didn't really tell anyone until I was about five months. I only told people when I had to which is weird but I was just a bit kind of nervous about it and protective of it and I wanted it to be our experience for as long as possible.' UN presses South Sudan leaders to hold camp attackers responsible The United Nations urged South Sudan's government Tuesday to hold accountable the perpetrators of February's violent attacks on a camp sheltering nearly 50,000 displaced civilians in the northeastern oil hub Malakal. A May inquiry found that assailants, some wearing South Sudan army (SPLA) uniforms, entered the camp on February 17 and 18 through a breached fence and proceed to shoot, loot property and set tents ablaze. The attackers "used sophisticated weaponry, including tracer bullets and grenades, during the attacks" that left at least 30 people dead and 123 injured, according to the report. A UN peacekeeper from Rwanda walks through the remnants of a looted and burnt clinic in the UN Protection of Civilians site in Malakal, on February 26, 2016 Albert Gonzalez Farran (AFP/File) Evidence gathered from witnesses, including UN personnel, made clear that the attackers "systematically" razed large sections of the camp inhabited by the Nuer and Shilluk communities, leaving those that housed Dinka and Dafuri groups intact, it said. The investigation also found that Eastern Nile state's governor helped the Dinka population flee to Malakal town in pickup trucks. Based on the results of the probe, UN chief Ban Ki-moon urged the young nation to "hold accountable the individuals identified as responsible for the violence and attacks," including political and military leaders in South Sudan's Eastern Nile state. - 'Difficult to exonerate' - As the attacks raged, the Dinka and Darfuri populations -- 4,000 people in total -- left the camp, and most now live in Malakal proper. "It is difficult to exonerate the local SPLA commanders and government-allied militia from involvement in the incident" as the SPLA is the only armed force present in Malakal, said the UN report. The UN additionally recommended in its findings that the president and vice president of South Sudan -- leaders who control most of the country's armed forces and allied militias -- make televised statements "condemning any form of attack by any actors against civilians anywhere," especially in UN-protected areas. The UN emphasized the need to create at least a short-term plan to maintain the Malakal camp until security and political stability in the region improves, "as the potential for resumed clashes and fighting between the belligerents remains very high in the area." The United Nations Mission in the Republic of South Sudan (UNMISS) is up for renewal before August, and the report urged supplying the mission with additional resources to "improve its capacity to protect civilians." In a letter accompanying the report, Ban said that he had shared the inquiry findings with South Sudan's president Salva Kiir. The UN also launched in March an internal inquiry into how the UN peacekeepers stationed at the camp reacted toward civilians they were supposed to protect. UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the internal report is not yet complete, but preliminary conclusions indicate "there was confusion with respect to command and control" and "a lack of coordination among the various civilian and uniformed peacekeepers" during the crisis. "There were unrealistic expectations as to the level of protection that UNMISS could feasibly provide" to the tens of thousands of residents in the camp during the crisis, added Dujarric. The Security Council is slated to discuss the two reports Wednesday. Doctors Without Borders (known by its French acronym MSF) said the UN mission "failed in its duty to safeguard the people at the site and could have averted many fatalities." In its statement, MSF added that peacekeepers failed to take necessary precautions to prevent weapons from flowing into the camp prior to the attack, and "were extremely slow to repel the assault" after outsiders stormed in. Tens of thousands of people displaced by civil war live in UN camps in South Sudan, the world's youngest country. UN blasts N. Korea missile tests as 'unacceptable violations' The UN Security Council president condemned nuclear-armed North Korea over its tests of a powerful new medium-range missile on Wednesday, calling for a swift response from the world body. Francois Delattre of France said the back-to-back tests were a "clear and unacceptable" violation of Security Council resolutions. South Korea's defense ministry said the two missiles achieved a significant increase in flight distance over previous failed launches and were believed to be of a much-hyped, intermediate-range Musudan missile -- theoretically capable of reaching US bases as far away as Guam. North Korea parades its Musudan-class missiles during a military parade in Pyongyang Ed Jones (AFP/File) Delattre called for a swift response by the UN and said the Security Council would likely meet later in the day. "We favor a quick and firm reaction of the Security Council," he said. "The North Korean ballistic program is a serious threat to regional and international peace and security," he added. "Confronted by the threat of proliferation we consider that weakness is not an option." Condemnation was swift from the United States, NATO and Japan, with South Korea vowing to push for tighter sanctions on Pyongyang. The first test was deemed to have failed after the missile flew an estimated 150 kilometers (90 miles) over the East Sea, or Sea of Japan. Japanese military monitors said the second test attained a height of 1,000 kilometers and a range of 400 kilometers -- a trajectory some experts suggested was calculated to avoid any violation of Japanese air space. Four previous Musudan tests this year failed either on their mobile launch pad or shortly after take-off. Existing UN Security Council measures ban North Korea from any use of ballistic missile technology. After Pyongyang conducted a fourth nuclear test on January 6, followed by a long-range rocket launch February 7, the Security Council adopted its most punishing sanctions yet against North Korea. - Worrying progress - A successful test would mark a major step forward for a weapons program that ultimately aspires to develop a proven nuclear strike capability against the US mainland. Melissa Hanham, an expert on North Korea's WMD program at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in California, said Wednesday's launches represented a worrying step forward. "The second was likely a success. Testing is iterative and they are learning from each flight," Hanham told AFP. "Policymakers need to focus on a testing ban to prevent this from becoming a working missile." US State Department spokesman John Kirby said the latest launches would only increase global efforts to counter North Korea's illicit weapons program. "We intend to raise our concerns at the UN to bolster international resolve in holding (North Korea) accountable for these provocative actions," Kirby said in a statement. Japanese broadcaster NHK quoted Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as saying such tests "cannot be tolerated", while NATO "strongly condemned" the launch in a statement from its secretary general. South Korea's foreign ministry warned that North Korea would face even stronger sanctions and said the tests underlined "the hypocrisy and deceptivenesxs" of Pyongyang's recent offers of military talks with Seoul. China, traditionally the North's closest ally, cautioned against "any action that may escalate tension" and called for a resumed dialogue on Pyongyang's nuclear drive. First unveiled as an indigenous missile at a military parade in Pyongyang in October 2010, the Musudan has a theoretical range of anywhere between 2,500 and 4,000 kilometers. The lower estimate covers the whole of South Korea and Japan, while the upper range would include US military bases on Guam. - String of failures - Three failed launches in April were seen as an embarrassment for North Korea's leadership, coming ahead of a rare ruling party congress that was meant to celebrate the country's achievements. Another attempt in May was also deemed to have failed. Markus Schiller, a German aerospace engineer who has written extensively on North Korea's missile program, said a lot of information on the Musudan was highly speculative and warned against drawing too many conclusions from Wednesday's launches. "We do not even know if these were indeed Musudan missiles that were launched today," Schiller said. North Korean missiles Adrian Leung, Saeki (AFP) A PAC-3 surface-to-air missile launcher system is seen deployed at the defence ministry grounds in Tokyo on June 21, 2016, following signs of a possible ballistic missile launch from North Korea Japan landslides, floods death toll rises to six The death toll from landslides and floods in an earthquake-battered region of southern Japan has risen to six, an official said Wednesday, with all missing now accounted for. A man in his 80s and a 53-year-old woman were confirmed dead after being found Tuesday by rescuers where landslides hit in the southern prefecture of Kumamoto. "We found the last person who had been missing yesterday... the woman was confirmed dead," Kumamoto official Motoko Takata told AFP, adding that thousands of people were still unable to return home. A Kumamoto police photo shows officers and firefighters during rescue operations following a landslide in the southern Japanese city Jiji Press (Kumamoto Prefectural Police Department/AFP) More than 6,000 residents in the area evacuated their homes, including those who had fled to safety after two earthquakes in April. The 6.2-magnitude and 7.0-magnitude tremors were followed by more than 1,700 aftershocks, which broke up the ground in many areas, officials said, leaving them vulnerable to the heavy seasonal rains that hit Japan at this time of year. The tremors left 49 dead and caused widespread damage. Local residents reported swollen rivers flooding streets and houses with knee-high water, while others said they heard roaring noises in areas hit by night-time landslides. More rain was expected in coming days, the weather agency said. On Wednesday, the Japan Meteorological Agency maintained warnings of heavy rain-induced landslides, thunderstorms and floods on the southern Kyushu island which includes Kumamoto. European stocks up, US down as markets await Brexit vote European stocks rose Wednesday and the pound clawed higher on the eve of Britain's Brexit referendum as polls pointed to a razor-close outcome. London's FTSE 100 index forged ahead, closing up 0.6 percent, as the clock ticked down to the start of balloting to decide Britain's future in the European Union, with fears that an exit vote will wreak havoc in markets. Bourses in Paris and Frankfurt also gained, but US stocks finished lower, tilting into the red at midday as two polls put the "Leave" side marginally ahead. Britain will vote in a referendum on June 23, 2016 to decide whether it will stay in the European Union Philippe Huguen (AFP/File) "Most economists on both sides of the pond insist that a 'Leave' vote from the EU would disrupt business as usual in Great Britain, the EU, here at home and elsewhere in the world," Mark Vickery, of Zacks Investment Research, said in a note to clients. "A vote to remain is seen as a near-term positive for markets here and abroad." Most polls earlier this week showed gains for the "Remain" camp that some experts attributed to a reaction after the violent assassination of pro-EU lawmaker Jo Cox. But two polls Wednesday showed the "Leave" side with the slimmest of leads. Yet bookmakers were giving a more decisive edge to the "Remain" camp. "The market is clearly positioned for the 'Remain' side to win and that's going to be the conventional wisdom unless we have a huge surprise tomorrow," said Boris Schlossberg of BK Asset Management. Rebecca O'Keeffe, head of investment at online broker Interactive Investor, questioned whether investors may be proving too confident. "With less than 24 hours before voting starts, markets are now pricing in virtually no risk of an exit vote," she said. That "begs the question as to whether the euphoria is being overdone and how much upside still exists for investors -- or whether this is irrational exuberance and investors are ignoring the risks?" - Key figures around 2100 GMT - New York - DOW: DOWN 0.3 percent at 17,780.83 (close) New York - S&P 500: DOWN 0.2 percent at 2,085.45 (close) New York - Nasdaq: DOWN 0.2 percent at 4,833.32 (close) London - FTSE 100: UP 0.6 percent at 6,261.19 points (close) Frankfurt - DAX 30: UP 0.6 percent at 10,071.06 points (close) Paris - CAC 40: UP 0.3 percent at 4,380.03 points (close) EURO STOXX 50: UP 0.4 percent at 2,978.31 points (close) Tokyo - Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.6 percent at 16,065.72 (close) Shanghai - Composite: UP 0.9 percent at 2,905.55 (close) Hong Kong - Hang Seng: UP 0.6 percent at 20,795.12 (close) Euro/dollar: UP at $1.1313 from $1.1259 late Tuesday Pound/dollar: UP at $1.4737 from $1.4628 Dollar/yen: DOWN at 104.51 yen from 104.80 yen Apple free to take bite out of India after rule change The gleaming glass atriums and blue-clad "geniuses" of an Apple store could soon be arriving in India, after the government cleared the way for it to open in the rapidly growing smartphone market. Before now, the Silicon Valley giant has been just a bit-player in the country of 1.2 billion, selling through local shops with none of its own. It applied to open stores in January, but was reportedly rebuffed because of a diktat that states foreign retailers must source 30 percent of their products locally. For Apple, which saw iPhone sales dip for the first time ever in the second quarter due to slowing demand in China and the United States, India is a tantalising prospect Gabrielle Lurie (AFP/File) But on Monday New Delhi relaxed the rules, just weeks after Apple chief Tim Cook toured India on a breathless charm offensive where he was pictured using Prime Minister Narendra Modi's gold iPhone to launch the premier's own app. Companies making state-of-the-art technology -- understood to include Apple -- now have up to eight years to meet the sourcing requirements under a waiver, part of a push by India's pro-business government to attract foreign investment and create jobs. For Apple, which saw iPhone sales dip for the first time ever in the second quarter due to slowing demand in China and the United States, India is a tantalising prospect. While analysts say it currently accounts for only around one percent of global iPhone sales, its giant population and low number of smartphone owners relative to its size mean it is a huge potential market. "Apple has not really seen India as an important enough market in the past, but somewhere, the penny has dropped," Devangshu Dutta, chief executive of retail consultancy Third Eyesight, told AFP. Apple's vast, hands-on stores are designed to become destinations in their own right, analysts say, luring potential customers with the promise they can play without buying. "The store is not just a place to do business -- it acts as a live billboard for the brand," Dutta said. - 'Cost-conscious market' - Browsing mobile accessories in FutureWorld, a technology retailer in New Delhi's Connaught Place, Aryamaan Chauhan said he would "definitely" visit an Apple store if one opened in the city. The 19-year-old IT student owns an Android smartphone, bought for about 20,000 rupees ($295), but is considering switching loyalties. "Money is what's stopping me. My budget is low, I can't afford it," Chauhan said. "Now, I think most Indian people prefer Android but they are shifting. After graduation I will buy an iPhone." With a basic iPhone starting at almost $600 -- more than in many countries, thanks to India's high taxes -- they are wildly unaffordable for most in a nation where average incomes are less than $1,600 a year. Handsets costing under $100 dominate the market, many of them made by Chinese manufacturers such as Xiaomi or Huawei. "It won't become mass-market, (Apple) will always be a niche player. This is a very cost-conscious market," Vishal Tripathi, research director at Gartner, a technology research firm, told AFP. "But there is a growing number of consumers who like Apple." By pricing itself exclusively at the luxury end, Apple has distinguished its brand from arch-rival Samsung which has both low-cost and high-end phones. "Indian consumers are always under the notion that more expensive means better and consider carrying an iPhone as more of a status symbol than anything," said Bhasker Canagaradjou, the head of Ipsos Business Consulting in India. "The brand enjoys a very strong aspiration value, especially among the young population." - 'Make in India' - For now, Apple has given no indication when or if it plans to open its own stores. But if it does, it will eventually have to meet strict sourcing rules as the government exhorts companies to manufacture in India. The company will require factories that can produce its exacting, cutting-edge products -- something India largely lacks. "To create a local supply chain, it takes time. They will be able to operate stores and benefit from stores in the meantime," said Dutta. Foxconn, the major Taiwanese Apple supplier which also assembles products for Sony and Dell, is spending billions of dollars setting up factories in India. The iPhone is not yet on the production line, but Canagaradjou says he believes Apple could start manufacturing in India "in the next one or two years". However, while its stores may arrive in India soon, analysts don't expect to see legions of Apple superfans camping out to buy new releases as they do in other countries any time soon. "If someone is expecting a replication of how it is in other markets, people queueing up outside the stores from 3:00 am, I don't think that's going to happen," said Tripathi of Gartner. "In India, people prefer to sleep until late." Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks with Apple CEO Tim Cook during a meeting in New Delhi on May 21, 2016 Visitors to the new Apple development office line up in Hyderabad on May 19, 2016 Noah Seelam (AFP/File) Filipino fishermen pin hopes on China tribunal Jonathan Almandrez was chased away from the rich fishing grounds of a South China Sea lagoon by a Chinese patrol -- something he hopes will stop happening if the Philippines wins an international legal case against Beijing. The incident at Scarborough Shoal, a necklace of reefs and rocks that Filipino fishermen say hosts some of the world's most abundant marine life, is part of a long-running territorial row that sits at the heart of a UN backed tribunal expected to rule in the coming weeks. "I was angry at their gall to shoo us away when we were clearly inside Philippine territory," said the 30-year-old, who used a pseudonym as he did not want to be identified for fear of potential Chinese repercussions. Philippine workers load supplies and ice onto a fishing vessel anchored off the town of Infanta in Pangasinan province, as they prepare for a fishing expedition to Scarborough Shoal Ted Aljibe (AFP) Almandrez -- who provided mobile phone footage of the encounter to AFP -- said for two hours on June 7, Chinese coast guard patrol boats circled a wooden outrigger carrying 10 Filipino fishermen. The patrol boats got within about two metres (six feet) of the vessel, which had been fishing the reefs just outside the shoal before daylight betrayed them to the Chinese. "Transfer to another area! No fishing inside," the Chinese patrol personnel shouted in English, according to Almandrez. "You go (back) to China because this is the property of the Philippines," Almandrez recalled shouting back. The Filipino crew eventually left when a much larger Chinese vessel began to approach and they feared it would fire water cannon. Video footage shows two patrol boats flying Chinese flags and with the English words "CHINA COAST GUARD" on the side. - China takes control - Local fishermen say the shoal, 230 kilometres (140 miles) off the main Philippine island of Luzon, has been their hunting ground for generations. It is 650 kilometres from Hainan island, the nearest major Chinese landmass, but falls within the ill-defined "nine-dash line" that marks the extent of Beijing's claim to control of nearly all of the South China Sea. The reefs and shallow waters mean one fisherman can easily spear 200 kilogrammes (440 pounds) of fish in just over an hour, according to Almandrez and others from Infanta, one of the main Scarborough Shoal fishing towns on Luzon. It also provides vital shelter for stranded fishermen during storms. China took effective control of the shoal in 2012, following a brief encounter with the Philippine Navy's flagship and Filipino coast guards. Since then, non-Chinese fishing boats approaching the lagoon mouth have routinely been given an ear-splitting horn blast from a ship stationed inside, and those who refuse to leave run the risk of being hosed down or even rammed, according to Filipino fishermen. "The water spray was so strong it destroyed one of our styrofoams," Felix Lavezores, 36, told AFP at Infanta, recalling an early May water-cannon attack at the lagoon mouth that split an ice box used to store their catch. An expedition to the shoal costs around 90,000 pesos (nearly $2,000) per boat, including fuel, supplies and crew salaries -- money the boat's owners cannot make back if they are forced to hightail it home with an empty hold. The Chinese at times also cut anchor cables, putting Filipino boats at risk of running aground, according to some of the Filipino fishermen at Infanta and Masinloc, another fishing town. - 'Intrinsic territory' - China claims it has sovereign rights to nearly all of the South China Sea, even waters approaching the coasts of its Asian neighbours. When asked about incidents at the shoal, foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying repeated China's long-standing position. "We have said that Scarborough Shoal is China's intrinsic territory. The Chinese coast guard vessels' law enforcement activities in China's sovereign territorial waters are legitimate and beyond reproach," Hua told reporters in Beijing on Tuesday. The competing territorial claims have for decades made the South China Sea a potential source of regional conflict, and tensions have risen sharply in recent years as China has sought to expand its presence in the disputed areas. Aside from taking control of Scarborough Shoal, it has undertaken unprecedented land-reclamation works in the Spratly Islands, one of the sea's main archipelagoes that are also claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Taiwan. Critics of China fear the artificial islands could be put to military use, and to establish effective sea and air control over some of the world's most important shipping routes and waters that are believed to sit atop significant oil and gas deposits. The Philippines, the most vocal critic, has responded by lodging a case with the Permanent Court of Arbitration, a UN-backed tribunal at The Hague, asking it to rule that China's claims to most of the sea violate international law. Although China is a signatory to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, it has vowed to ignore the ruling and accused the Philippines of stirring tensions with its legal challenge. The Philippines hopes a favourable verdict will, at minimum, help build global diplomatic pressure on China. But regardless of the outcome, China looks unlikely to let Philippine fishermen return to Scarborough Shoal. Disputed claims in the South China Sea Adrian LEUNG, Gal ROMA (AFP) Philippine fishermen say Scarborough Shoal, 230 kilometres off the main Philippine island of Luzon, has been their hunting ground for generations Ted Aljibe (AFP) Exotic pet trade sends Florida bird rescues soaring In this small animal hospital perched on Miami's sun-splashed harbor, some of the most exotic creatures fly in and out of Carla Zepeda's life. From peacocks to pelicans, opossums to owls, Zepeda is part of a six-member staff that cares for both the furry and the feathered at the Pelican Harbor Seabird Station, one of south Florida's oldest wildlife rescue centers. Though it began in 1980 as a place for injured wild pelicans, pet birds are increasingly common, like one of the newest arrivals, a fluffy green quaker parakeet. A rescued baby opossum is fed by a clinic worker at the Pelican Harbor Seabird Station in Miami, Florida Rhona Wise (AFP/File) The bird landed on a man's shoulder, appearing malnourished and with bruises around its beak, so it was brought to the Pelican Harbor Seabird Station for care. "Here in Miami we deal a lot with the exotic pet trade," says rescue and release coordinator Zepeda, 22. "A lot of escaped pets or released pets." "We now have a very high population of quaker parakeets, which weren't here before and are doing great in the wild." Also known as monk parrots or quaker parrots, quaker parakeets (Myiopsitta monachus) are native to South America, but have established their own wild colonies here, forming loudly chattering flocks that fly over Miami and its mango tree-lined suburbs. "Now the problem with that is they are not native species and they are taking up nesting space from blue jays, red-bellied woodpeckers and even eastern screech owls," says Zepeda. "Released pets or escaped pets make a big impact on the environment." Zepeda says the center will try to find a new caretaker for the recent arrival, whose friendly nature could pose a danger to its survival in the wild. - Record caseload - With more than one thousand patients already this year, the center is barreling toward another record, according to executive director Christopher Boykin. "The number grows every year. We treated 1,968 in 2014 and 2,010 in 2015," he said. "We anticipate another record breaking year." More local residents are becoming aware of the rescue facility, which helps drive the numbers, he said. A total of 146 different species came into the center last year. Increasing conflicts with humans also bring in many patients, including peacocks that were hit by cars and had to be euthanized due to the severity of their injuries. For Zepeda, the most surprising arrival was a prairie dog, a rodent native to the grasslands of the midwest. "Apparently they are part of the pet trade," says Zepeda, who has seen three prairie dogs in the past three years. The locals need care, too. The clinic is currently housing a handful of tiny baby opossums that need feeding every few hours. They lost their mother somehow, and now cling to a stuffed animal opossum while Zepeda plucks them off, one by one, to feed them formula via a small tube. - Injured ambassadors - Pelicans were once the sole reason for the center's existence, but now they make up only five to 20 percent of its patients, depending on the year, says Boykin. However, they still represent the center's greatest success. After arriving entangled in fishing lines or with hook injuries, three out of four are released back to the wild after treatment, he says. On a sunny day in May, Zepeda releases a young pelican that arrived two months earlier with line wrapped around his beak and two hooks embedded in its neck and wing. The bird flies a short distance, then plunks down in the gentle waves, preferring to bob back to its life in the wild. Some pelicans never leave the center, if wing injuries prevent them from flying, or if they are partially blinded and could not hunt on their own. These and other resident birds, like eastern screech owls, sometimes accompany staff to schools and public events to educate the public about how to deal with wildlife. Zepeda says one old myth has proven particularly tough to dispel -- that a mother bird will not care for her baby bird after a human has touched it. "That is completely false," she says. "They have a really poor sense of smell." If people find a baby bird that seems healthy, they should just put it back in the nest, she says. Zepeda, who often takes home baby rescue animals and wakes in the middle of the night to feed them, has permanently adopted four creatures that were left at the center -- two cockatiels, a white-bellied caique and a Siberian husky. She says she once thought she might go into zoo medicine, but that was before she tried wildlife rehabilitation. "I ended up loving it too much and now I cannot leave." Clinic worker Carla Zepeda plays with one of the permanently injured pelicans in a rehabilitation pen at the Pelican Harbor Seabird Station in Miami, Florida Rhona Wise (AFP/File) Air raids over Syria kill 25 civilians in IS stronghold Warplanes have bombed the Islamic State group's de facto Syrian capital Raqa, killing at least 25 civilians, after the jihadists drove pro-government forces out of their bastion northern province. Twin offensives aimed at severing the jihadists' supply line from the Turkish border to Raqa city appear to have largely stalled as IS mounts a fierce defence using suicide bombers. Six children were among the 25 civilians killed in bombing raids on Raqa city late Tuesday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. File picture shows a member of the Syrian government forces walking past a banner bearing Islamic State (IS) group slogans in Palmyra Maher al Mounes (AFP/File) "Dozens more were wounded, some of them critically," said the British-based monitoring group, which was not immediately able to determine who had carried out the raids. The Syrian government, its longtime ally Russia and a US-led coalition have all carried out air strikes against IS in Raqa. The Observatory said there were fresh air strikes -- apparently by the coalition -- on the city on Wednesday, one of which hit the town hall. Raqa is Being Slaughtered Silently (RBSS) -- an anti-IS activist group which gathers news on atrocities in the city -- posted photos of what it said were the aftermath of Tuesday's strikes. They show a concrete balcony hanging off the damaged facade of a residential building as a large fire engulfs a white minivan. The group has accused IS of preventing civilians from leaving the city in order to use them as human shields. RBSS activist Abu Mohammad told AFP that the wounded were struggling to get proper medical treatment as IS has recruited most doctors in the city to treat its own fighters. - 'Disastrous' retreat - Raqa city was seized by IS in early 2014 and regime forces were expelled from the entire province that year. Backed by Russian air power, government troops re-entered the province this month as part of an offensive to retake the town of Tabqa, a key stop on IS's supply route from Turkey to Raqa city. But after advancing to within seven kilometres (four miles) of Tabqa airbase, they were driven back an estimated 20 kilometres late Monday. More than 40 troops and militia were killed in a jihadist counterattack. Al-Masdar, a news website close to Syria's regime, said on Wednesday the lightning IS offensive had led to a "disastrous turn of events" and "a disorganised retreat that left behind weapons and several soldiers." Syria analyst Fabrice Balanche said the pullback could be attributed to a lack of "elite forces" engaged in the battle. "At the first suicide attacks, they retreated," the Washington-based expert told AFP. "The Syrian forces were spread too thin to be defendable." Further west in the adjacent province of Aleppo, another assault aimed at blocking IS supplies has stalled. The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces encircled the jihadist-held town of Manbij on June 10 but have since faced a barrage of IS suicide attacks, including three on Tuesday, the Observatory said. - 'Civilians are starving' - Syria's conflict began in 2011 as protests demanding political reform and the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad. But a brutal regime crackdown and the rise of jihadist groups have transformed it into a multi-front civil war that has killed more than 280,000 people. Peace efforts have failed to put an end to the violence, and a truce brokered by the US and Russia has all but collapsed. UN mediator Staffan de Mistura said Tuesday he hoped peace talks could resume in July, but warned they could not proceed "while hostilities are escalating and civilians are starving." Negotiations could restart if the truce is reinforced, humanitarian aid is increased, and a "common understanding of a political transition" is reached, he told the General Assembly via video link. "Then we can have, hopefully in July, inter-Syrian talks that are not about principles but about concrete steps to a political transition," he said. The main Syrian opposition body -- the High Negotiations Committee -- has called for a transitional government body without Assad. But Syria's regime says Assad is a "red line" and it would only be willing to broaden the government structure to accommodate some opposition figures. A map of Syria showing Raqa A grab from an AFPTV video on September 16, 2014 shows rubble in Raqa after a Syrian warplane was reportedly shot down by IS jihadists Corruption, politics, murder: anatomy of a Kenyan killing On a wet Thursday night in early May, a well-known businessman and government critic was found dead in his armoured blue Mercedes by a busy road on the outskirts of Nairobi, five bullet holes in his chest, neck and arm. Kenya's long history of state violence meant the murder of Jacob Juma, who was in his mid-forties, was quickly viewed as a political assassination. His death dominated the country's newspapers as amateur sleuths picked holes in the police narrative of a business deal gone wrong, and opposition politicians cried foul. Kenya's long history of state violence meant the murder of Jacob Juma, who was found dead in his Mercedes with five bullet holes in his body, was quickly viewed as a political assassination It was a tricky case, the country's senior detective Muhoro Ndegwa told journalists, with no witnesses and no weapon. He promised his team would do their best, but in the six weeks since his death no arrests have been made. The arc of Juma's life was unusual at first, and then unique: Kenya's pervasive tribal patronage helped a poor but smart rural kid make the political connections necessary to get rich on ill-gotten government contracts. But after he was cut out of a potentially lucrative mining deal he became a relentless anti-corruption activist and government critic leading many to see politics behind his death. Juma was "a scoundrel that bitterness turned into an asset for those fighting corruption," says John Githongo, a renowned anti-corruption campaigner. "He became a fount of confidential treasury documents, information, history and gossip," he says. Elections trigger spikes in corruption and the country is already getting set for next year's vote: there are regular, sometimes deadly, street protests against an election commission the opposition says is biased; MPs on both sides have been investigated for hate speech and inciting violence; and graft is accelerating as politicians seek to fund either their campaigns or their retirements. Juma's murder is being seen as the curtain raiser to a potentially violent election season. Diplomats are already muttering about "a repeat of 2007" when more than 1,100 people died in election-related tribal violence. - Rags to riches, ally to enemy - Juma won a place at a Nairobi polytechnic in 1989 and quickly impressed businessman and politician Cyrus Jirongo, who hails from the same part of the country and became his patron. "You could tell this was somebody who was going to get somewhere," recalls Jirongo. "He was very poorly dressed but he had a lot of confidence. That confidence alone would make you think that, surely, he was worth your money." Jirongo housed Juma with his nieces and nephews, paid Juma's college fees and introduced him to the twinned worlds of politics and business. Juma made friends with allies and relatives of then-president Daniel Arap Moi (on whose 1992 election campaign Jirongo worked) and founded his business empire on those first government contracts, re-surfacing rural dirt roads. He grew into his wealth, adopting the flashy style of the newly rich with designer suits, smart cars, gaudy property and sparkly watches. Jirongo approved: "Above all, he wanted the world to know he had succeeded, he'd beaten the poverty he'd come from." During this time Juma got to know William Ruto, a fellow hustler but one with big political ambitions. Accusations that he orchestrated violence in the wake of the 2007 election, and subsequent crimes against humanity charges at the International Criminal Court, did not derail Ruto's career and in 2013 he became deputy president. Juma wasn't a supporter but, friends say, believed his relationship might help him secure control of the Mrima Hill niobium and rare earth mine in Kwale on Kenya's coast. Instead his licence was cancelled. "He refused to cut government figures in on the deal," says one close friend. "That mining deal was the turning point." Juma was left bitter, angry and dangerous. "After that he dedicated himself to doing nothing else but exposing the regime," says the friend. - 'This was a hit squad' - Juma played a central role in revealing at least two major corruption scandals, including one in which the government has been unable to explain how it spent $2.75 billion (2.6 billion euros) raised through a 2014 Eurobond issue. He took his combative persona to Twitter - once using the social media site to accuse Ruto of ordering his death - and feeling corruption had done him out of his biggest-ever business deal, it was corruption he focused on. Githongo and others regard the current government as perhaps the most corrupt in Kenya's history. Foreign businessmen routinely complain that a 30 percent skimming off the top of contracts has become standard. One foreign executive described the increasing corruption and extortion ahead of next year's election as a "smash and grab" while a prominent Kenyan businessman described it as "a shakedown". "It is very difficult to do business with the Kenya government if you are not willing to pay right from the top to the bottom," says Jirongo. Allies of Juma have openly accused the state of his murder. "The inspector-general (of police) knows who killed Jacob Juma. This was a hit squad and it is known," opposition leader Raila Odinga said at a memorial service in Nairobi. Ruto denies involvement and has threatened legal action against those who repeat allegations that he was behind the killing. For Juma's wealthy and influential friends in Kenya's business community, aggrieved at the levels of corruption and eager for an end to a government they feel has betrayed them, his death is a message. "It's a warning to all of us: You stay in the corner we give you or we will deal with you, ruthlessly." The death of well-known businessman and government critic Jacob Juma dominated Kenya's newspapers as amateur sleuths picked holes in the police narrative Philippines v China: facts about a much-watched legal battle A UN-backed tribunal is expected to soon deliver a verdict on a Philippine challenge to China's claims to most of the South China Sea. Spanning three years, two hearings, and nearly 4,000 pages of evidence, the arbitration case at The Hague is complex. In essence, China claims most of the sea, even waters approaching neighbouring countries, based on a vaguely defined "nine-dash" Chinese map dating back to the 1940s. The Philippines disputes this. A Philippine fishing vessel anchored in the South China Sea off the town of Infanta in Pangasinan province Ted Aljibe (AFP) Here are the key facts on the case: - What is the tribunal and what are its powers? The tribunal was set up by the Permanent Court of Arbitration, an intergovernmental organisation established in 1899. The PCA has 116 member states, including the Philippines and China. It is allowed to arbitrate on certain matters of international law, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The five-member tribunal hearing this case is composed of top maritime affairs experts, with the Philippines appointing one member. China waived its right to choose one arbitrator. The tribunal has the power to set the rules of procedure and make a decision that cannot be appealed. However the tribunal and the PCA have no means to enforce the verdict, with compliance left to parties. - What are Manila's key points? The Philippines has presented five main claims before the tribunal: 1. China is not entitled to exercise what it calls "historic rights" over waters beyond limits defined in UNCLOS, a treaty to which both the Philippines and China are parties. 2. China's "nine-dash line" has no basis under international law. 3. The various maritime features relied upon by China to assert its claims in the South China Sea are not in fact islands and, as such, are not legally capable of generating such entitlements. China's recent massive artificial island-building does not change the situation. 4. China violated UNCLOS by preventing the Philippines from exercising its fishing and exploration rights. 5. China has irreversibly damaged the environment by destroying coral reefs, using harmful fishing practises, and catching endangered species in the South China Sea. - Why did Manila take the action? The Philippines said, after 17 years of negotiations with China, it had exhausted all political and diplomatic avenues to settle the dispute. The Philippines calls international law "the great equaliser" allowing small countries to challenge more powerful states. A nation of about 100 million, the Philippines has one of Asia's weakest militaries, and its economic and diplomatic clout pales in comparison with China's. - What is China's position and how will it react? China denies the tribunal has jurisdiction on the issue and insists that it will not abide by the decision. The countrys first move to an unfavourable ruling will be to reject it. But no one is sure what China will do after that. Its response could range from provocative to diplomatic. On the aggressive end of the spectrum, Beijing may take it as an opportunity to increase its construction activities and further assert its claims by declaring an Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) in the sea, essentially demanding that aircraft transiting it announce themselves to Chinese authorities and follow their instructions. When it proclaimed one in 2013 that covered islands in the East China Sea disputed with Japan, the move prompted international fury, and Washington made a point of sending warplanes through it without complying with Beijings rules. A more diplomatic option would be to try and mount opposition to the ruling in the UN by challenging the tribunal's legitimacy. Beijing claims that more than 60 countries back its position on settling disputes in the South China Sea through direct negotiations, and it could seek to call a vote on the issue in the general assembly. But only a handful of countries have explicitly confirmed they support Chinas stance. - If the tribunal can't enforce its ruling and China has vowed to ignore it, what's at stake? The Philippines hopes a favourable ruling will help to build international pressure on China to make concessions and reverse or stall its expansionist efforts in the sea. For instance, the United States has already said it will call on China to respect the ruling. The Philippines also hopes a favourable ruling will give it much-needed leverage in any negotiations with China. Hong Kong activists demand independence via 'return to British rule' A group of Hong Kong activists is demanding a return to British rule as a stepping stone towards independence, as fears grow that Beijing is tightening its grip on the southern Chinese city. Pro-independence advocates have launched The Alliance to Resume British Sovereignty over Hong Kong and Independence party, the second political group in recent months to advocate a breakaway from China. "Independence is the ultimate goal, to return to British rule is just a transitional phase," Billy Chiu, the Alliance's leader told AFP Wednesday. Demonstrators display colonial flags during a march for democracy in Hong Kong in 2015 Philippe Lopez (AFP/File) The activists said they believed it would be easier to gain independence from Britain than China. "An independent nation is Hong Kong's only way out," Chiu said, adding that the new party, which consists of around 30 members, will be formally announced on Sunday. Chiu in 2013 broke into a People's Liberation Army facility in central Hong Kong holding up a colonial flag and asking the PLA to "get out" of the city. Hong Kong was handed back to Beijing in 1997, with the Sino-British Joint Declaration preserving its liberties for 50 years. But there are growing fears its freedoms and semi-autonomous status are under threat as Beijing increases its influence across a range of areas, from politics to the media. Another group, the Hong Kong National Party, was launched in March, saying it was tapping in to the city's increasing desire to break away from the mainland. Although not all activists are campaigning for self-rule, some see it as the only solution and have said they are not afraid to use violence to achieve their goal. The negative sentiment has been exacerbated by incidents such as the recent disappearance of five Hong Kong booksellers, employed by a firm that published gossipy books about leading Chinese politicians. One of the men, Lam Wing-kee, re-emerged in the city last week and told how he was taken away blindfolded and then kept in a cell, under interrogation and without access to his family or a lawyer, for alleged involvement in bringing banned books into the mainland. The city's growing pro-independence stance has drawn ire from Beijing and authorities in Hong Kong, who have warned that campaigning for a breakaway will damage the city's future prosperity and could result in unspecified "action according to the law". South China Sea: Facts about Asia's maritime flashpoint Competing claims to the South China Sea have for decades been a source of tension in the region. The Philippines filed a case before an international arbitration tribunal at The Hague to challenge China's claims to most of the waters, with a decision expected in the coming weeks. Below are key facts on the sea and the territorial disputes: Disputed claims in the South China Sea Adrian LEUNG, Gal ROMA (AFP) - Geography - The South China Sea covers more than 3 million square kilometres (1.16 million square miles), ringed by southern China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Borneo island, and mainland Southeast Asia. Most of its hundreds of small islands, islets and rocks were originally uninhabited. The Paracel and Spratly chains contain the biggest islands. Scarborough Shoal is a small outcrop in the east. - Significance - The sea is the main maritime link between the Pacific and Indian oceans, giving it enormous trade and military value. Its shipping lanes connect East Asia with Europe and the Middle East. Over $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes through the sea annually. Major unexploited oil and gas deposits are believed to lie under the seabed. The sea is home to some of the world's biggest coral reefs and, with marine life being depleted close to coasts, it is important as a source of fish to feed growing populations. - Claimants - China and Taiwan both claim nearly all of the sea, while Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei each have overlapping claims to parts of it. Beijing's argument is based largely on Chinese maps dating back to the 1940s with a "nine-dashed line" that approaches the coasts of other countries. - Name - Beijing and most other countries know it as the South China Sea. Hanoi calls it the East Sea and Manila officially refers to it as the West Philippine Sea. - Occupation - China has held all of the Paracel islands since a conflict with South Vietnam in 1974. It has controlled Scarborough Shoal, a rich fishing ground 230 kilometres (140 miles) off the Philippine island of Luzon, since 2012 and occupies at least seven of the Spratly islands. Vietnam is believed to occupy or control 21 of the Spratlys and the rest are divided between Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Taiwan. - Conflicts - There have been two armed conflicts between China and Vietnam in the sea. In 1974, a clash erupted between the South Vietnamese navy and Chinese forces that left about 50 Vietnamese troops dead. The other major conflict occurred when Vietnam and China fought a naval battle on Johnson Reef in the Spratlys in 1988 that killed about 70 Vietnamese military personnel. Chinese naval vessels have fired at other times on Vietnamese fishing boats in the area. - Chinese expansion - China has in recent years sought to dramatically expand its presence in the sea, raising tensions with its neighbours and beyond. In 2012, China gave new powers to Sansha, a city on Hainan island, to administer Chinese rule over its South China Sea domain. Since then, it has conducted massive dredging and artificial island-building activities in the Spratlys, dwarfing the scale of reclamation work of other claimants. The Pentagon said China added 3,200 acres (1,295 hectares) of land to the seven features it occupies. Beijing installed structures on these new islands, including radar systems and runways long enough for huge commercial or military planes. Chinese coast guard vessels have become an ever-growing presence in the key parts of the sea, being used to guard Scarborough Shoal and perform other security duties. The Philippines protested in 2014 after Chinese coast guard vessels prevented the rotation and resupply of Philippine soldiers stationed at Second Thomas Shoal. - Failed diplomacy - The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations and China adopted a non-binding "declaration of conduct" in 2002 to discourage hostile acts. All sides agreed not to use threats or force to assert claims. But China has since refused to turn it into a legally binding "code of conduct". The dispute has caused deep divisions within ASEAN, which normally seeks to operate on a basis of consensus among its members. The Philippines has in particular pushed for a tough ASEAN stance against China. But Chinese allies Laos and Cambodia have been widely seen as blockers of such moves. - Legal challenges - The Philippines filed its case at the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in 2013, becoming the first and only country to legally challenge China's claims. But Vietnamese and Indonesian officials have said they are considering legal action. While not a party to the case, Vietnam also submitted a statement to the PCA's tribunal in 2014 affirming the court's jurisdiction and rejecting China's nine-dashed line. China denies the tribunal has jurisdiction on the issue and insists that it will not abide by its decision. China using fishing fleets to expand maritime claims: US official China is using its fishing fleets with armed escorts to bolster maritime claims in disputed territory, a senior US State Department official warned Wednesday, calling China's behaviour "disturbing". The comments came after Indonesian warships fired warning shots and detained a Chinese-flagged fishing boat and seven crew near the Natuna Islands in the South China Sea last week, in actions slammed by Beijing. "I think it's a disturbing trend to see Chinese fishing vessels accompanied by coast guard vessels, used in a way that appears to be an attempt to exert a claim that may not be legitimate," said the US official via conference call to journalists in Southeast Asia. Indonesian War Ship KRI Imam Bonjol-363 arrests a Chinese fishing boat in Natuna water on June 21, 2016 "I do think that it does point to an expanding presence of Chinese -- sort of military and paramilitary forces -- and used in a way that is provocative and potentially destabilising," the US official, who asked not to be named, added. Unlike several other countries in the region, Indonesia has no overlapping claims with China to islets or reefs in the sea, but Beijing's claim to fishing rights near the Natunas appears to overlap with Jakarta's exclusive economic zone. Last week's incident was only the latest in a series of skirmishes between the two countries since Jakarta launched a crackdown on illegal fishing in 2014. In March Chinese coastguards rammed a Chinese boat detained near the Natunas and helped it escape as the Indonesians towed the vessel to shore. And last month, the Indonesian navy opened fire on a Chinese trawler near the islands and seized the vessel. Following last week's confrontation, the commander of the Indonesian navy's western fleet said the fishing vessel incursions were "structured", indicating Beijing had "given its blessing". "China protested because it thinks this area is theirs," commander Achmad Taufiqoerrochman told reporters. "Actually the (fish) stealing is just a ruse to stake its claim," he said. China has undertaken land-reclamation works in the Spratly Islands, one of the South China Sea's main archipelagoes which are also claimed by the Philippines, Brunei, Vietnam, Malaysia and Taiwan. The US State Department official said Washington hoped a pending ruling by a United Nations-backed tribunal on South China Sea maritime entitlements will push rival claimants into talks. The case was lodged by the Philippines against China in 2013 to challenge Beijing's "nine-dash line" map through which it claims to control nearly all of the strategic and reputedly resources-rich waters. "It is in China's interest not to take any action that would be provocative and directly in contradiction to the ruling," the US official said. Indonesian War Ship KRI Imam Bonjol-363 approaches a Chinese fishing boat in Natuna water Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific bans shark fin Hong Kong flag carrier Cathay Pacific said Wednesday it will ban carrying shark fin on all its flights, a victory for conservationists concerned for endangered species of the predator. The southern Chinese city is one of the world's biggest markets for shark fin, which is viewed by many Asians as a delicacy, often served as a soup at expensive Chinese banquets. Animal rights campaigners have been pushing Cathay for a carriage ban on shark fin for years. Other airlines including Thai Airways and Philippine Airlines banned the item in recent years. Hong Kong flag carrier Cathay Pacific is banning the carriage of shark fin on all its flights Laurent Fievet (AFP/File) "On the issue of shark's fin, with immediate effect we are happy to agree to ban the carriage," Cathay Pacific said in a statement Wednesday. The airline confirmed to AFP that the ban extended to both cargo and passenger flights. In its statement, Cathay said it has not approved "any shipments" for shark fin for the past year, adding that it had rejected 15 shipment requests for shark-related products. Marine conservationists praised Cathay on its decision, with one saying that it would make the city "proud". "It's high time that Cathay took the stand. It would make Hong Kong people proud," Hong Kong-based Aquameridien conservation foundation executive director Sharon Kwok told AFP. "More Hong Kong businesses need to follow the lead," said Kwok, who has been pushing for the ban for years. Hong Kong's government in 2013 said it would stop serving shark fin at official functions as "a good example", following years of lobbying by conservation groups. Environmental group WWF said 457 tonnes of shark products were imported into Hong Kong by air in 2015, a 31 percent drop from 2014. Mobile money to power Africa financial growth: study Mobile phones and rising connectivity in Africa will give rise to a new market in mobile financial services, creating explosive opportunities for business on the continent, research has found. The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) estimated that in three years, 250 million Africans without access to traditional banking services "will have mobile phones and a monthly income of at least $500". That could translate to projected revenues of $1.5 billion (1.3 billion euros) from mobile financial services, the group said in a report released Tuesday. A man in Abidjan looks at Panafrican bank Ecobank's website on his mobile phone Sia Kambou (AFP) That's key for a continent where the banking system is as yet hugely underdeveloped, but where strides have already been made in mobile banking. In Kenya, for example, the mobile money system has nearly 18 million users thanks to the M-Pesa service run by British telecom giant Vodafone's subsidiary Safaricom. In Ethiopia, Africa's second most populous country and one of its fastest growing economies, mobile phones are now being used to push an electronic payment service by phone called M-Birr. This is all good news for Africa, where a mere 25 percent of Africans have a regular bank account because "financial service providers haven't made the continent a priority," the group's report said. The "high cost to serve and low margins of traditional bank accounts in Africa" are the main reasons for the oversight. However, sub-Saharan Africa leads the world in mobile money accounts, according to the World Bank. "While just 2 percent of adults worldwide have a mobile money account, 12 percent in Sub-Saharan Africa have one," the Bank said in a separate study based on 2015 data. That number is projected to grow now that more than 50 percent of Africans over the age of 15 own a mobile phone and since mobiles are a low-cost way to reach a huge market. "For most of these consumers," said the BCG report, "mobile banking will be their first experience with financial services." Most Africans currently use mobile phones to transfer money but also to prepay utilities and purchase small items, as well as make debit-card transactions, BCG said. - 'African middle class' - The survey of 11 countries in sub-Saharan Africa found that four in 10 Africans access the Internet using a smart phone, while three-quarters use a computer to get on the web. Since 2013, the number of Africans with access to the internet has grown by 8 percent. In Ivory Coast, access to the Internet has gone from 200,000 in 2008 to 8 million in 2016 thanks to 3G. This connectivity, coupled with rising consumer classes and Africans' increasingly optimistic outlook, will translate to over 1.1 billion consumers by 2020, the group said -- "more than the populations of Europe and North America combined". "The concept of a middle class is taken from the Western society model and has led to confusions when we talk of Africa," said Lisa Ivers, director of the BCG bureau in Casablanca. "The African socioeconomic reality is vastly different across African countries and from more established markets," she said. "But that absolutely doesn't lessen our confidence over the potential of the African domestic consumption." The group projected that by 2020, Africa will be home to twice as many affluent consumers as the UK -- and they "are very optimistic and eager to spend". Of the more than 11,000 people surveyed between February and March 2015, 88 percent said they were optimistic about the future. In Egypt, Kenya, and Nigeria, more than 90 percent said they were optimistic. According to the survey, 85 percent also agreed with the statement "It seems like every year there are more things I want to buy". Domestic companies have started to tap into this by merging consumer demand and web access. Jumia, Africa's version of Amazon.com, sells a wide range of products and offers a mobile purchasing app. The e-tailer, started in 2012 by the Africa Internet Group in Nigeria, is among the top fice online-shopping websites in five African countries: Ivory Coast, Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, and Nigeria. BCG defined a consumer as between 18 and 75 with at least $50 to $7,000 in regular monthly earnings. Four in ten people in sub-Sharan Africa access the internet via mobile phone Sia Kambou (AFP) Mobile phones on sale in Lagos, Nigeria Pius Utomi Ekpei (AFP) Iraq's Fallujah nearly cleared but aid effort flounders Iraqi forces hunted jihadist fighters in their last Fallujah redoubts Wednesday as tens of thousands of displaced civilians massed in overcrowded camps around the city. A month exactly after the offensive against the Islamic State group's bastion was launched, progress on the military front exceeded expectations but so did the scope of the ensuing humanitarian crisis. "The northern and central parts of Fallujah have almost been cleared of Daesh," Lieutenant General Abdulwahab al-Saadi told AFP, using an Arabic acronym for IS. A displaced Iraqi boy from the Fallujah area plays in a puddle of water at a camp near Amiriyiah al-Fallujah on June 22, 2016 Moadh al-Dulaimi (AFP) "There are few IS fighters left, only in the Al-Muallemin and Jolan neighbourhoods in the north of the city," said Saadi, the overall commander of the Fallujah offensive. "The militants in Jolan are offering some resistance but we're pushing back and we've killed a number of them," he said. Operations against IS in northern Fallujah were being conducted by the elite counter-terrorism service and forces from the federal and provincial police. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi launched the offensive against the jihadist stronghold, 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of Baghdad, a month ago. After an initial phase of staging operations to encircle Fallujah, elite federal forces stormed the city centre and were able to gain the upper hand relatively quickly. Abadi declared victory on June 17, saying only small pockets of IS fighters remained after Iraqi forces raised the national flag over the main government compound in the city centre. Saadi and other Iraqi commanders have said government forces controlled at least three-quarters of the city. Christopher Garver, the spokesman of the US-led coalition assisting Iraqi forces, said Tuesday that by the US military's definition, only a third of the city had been cleared. US forces battling one of IS's previous incarnations in 2004 suffered some of their worst losses since the Vietnam War in Fallujah, despite huge numerical and technological superiority. Iraqi forces who have been reconquering swathes of territory lost to IS two years ago had been expected to face their toughest battle yet and IS fighters to defend their emblematic bastion to the death. - More aid agencies needed - Tens of thousands of starving civilians, who had been living virtually besieged under IS rule in and around Fallujah, fled their homes and filled hastily expanded displacement camps. The influx of families however caught the aid community flat-footed and relief organisations admitted the response was inadequate. "We have to admit that the humanitarian community has also failed the Iraqi people," said Nasr Muflahi, Iraq head of the Norwegian Refugee Council. "There are serious funding shortfalls, but there is no justification why there aren't more aid agencies helping the people of Fallujah," he said. As already existing camps filled way beyond capacity, other camps were being set up but the newly displaced families arriving there often found nothing to sleep on or under, nothing to eat or drink. At a camp in Khaldiyeh, on the shores of Lake Habbaniyah west of Fallujah, Intikha Mohammed and her three children had to share a two mattresses with 10 other people. "We have nothing here, just the clothes we are wearing. My four-month-old son is sick, I don't have enough milk for him and there's no milk powder at the camp," she said. Her tiny boy Ziad, lay all swaddled up on a piece of tarpaulin, sleeping with a baby bottle dangling from his lips as gusts of burning wind filled the tent with orange dust. More than 80,000 people have been displaced since the start of the Fallujah offensive, bringing to more than 3.3 million the number of Iraqis forced from their homes by conflict since the start of 2014. Nearly half of them are from the vast province of Anbar, which lies in the heart of the rapidly unravelling "caliphate" the Islamic State group proclaimed over large parts of Iraq and Syria two years ago. Abadi has said the next target for his forces was Mosul, IS's defacto capital in Iraq and the country's second city. Counter-terrorism service troops working their way north along the Tigris have gained ground recently, setting their sights on the town of Qayyarah, which is to become a major launchpad for the liberation of Mosul. "Our troops yesterday were able to break the first line of defence IS had set up," a top CTS commander, Abdelghani al-Assadi, told AFP from the scene. "IS had hoped to hold on to this area but they were denied," he said, adding that his forces would next attack the town of Shergat. Iraqi government forces on patrol southwest of Fallujah on June 21, 2016 Moadh al-Dulaimi (AFP) Iraqi government forces clash with Islamic State (IS) fighters in Fallujah on June 18, 2016 as they hunt down holdout jihadists after retaking most of the city Displaced Iraqis from the Fallujah area wait to fill jerrycans with water at a camp near Amiriyiah al-Fallujah on June 22, 2016 Moadh al-Duliami (AFP) Hong Kong activist Wong denied chance to stand for election Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong was on Wednesday denied the chance to stand for election after a court threw out his bid to lower the candidate age limit from 21, as fears mount over China's influence on the city. The 19-year-old, who became the face of Hong Kong's "Umbrella Movement" for his role in the 2014 pro-democracy protests which brought parts of the city to a standstill, had expressed interest in running for office amid concerns Beijing is tightening its grip. Residents of the semi-autonomous city can vote from the age of 18, but can only stand for election from 21 -- something that Wong has said is unconstitutional. Joshua Wong became the face of Hong Kong's "Umbrella Movement" for his role in the city's 2014 pro-democracy protests Anthony Wallace (AFP/File) A Hong Kong court Wednesday said the issue should be dealt with by lawmakers. "What should be the proper choice of the minimum age of candidature is obviously a matter of political judgment for the legislature, but not one for the court to make in the name of remedial interpretation," Judge Thomas Au said in his judgement. He added that Wong's "grounds of challenge are not reasonably arguable with a realistic prospect of success". Hong Kong was returned to China by Britain in 1997 and is ruled under a "one country, two systems" deal which allows it much greater liberties than seen on the mainland. But tensions remain high amid fears Beijing's influence is increasing and freedoms are being eroded. Wong is due to hear a verdict next month over his part in a protest that triggered the mass rallies at the end of 2014, which called for fully free leadership elections and saw nearly 1,000 people arrested. He was acquitted earlier this month in another protest-related case. Despite the rallies, authorities in Beijing and Hong Kong have refused to budge on political reform, and Wong has since said activists must turn to longer-term strategies to bring about political change. Some hardliners however are advocating a breakaway from China, with two political parties launched in recent months calling for independence. Wong told reporters outside the court Wednesday that he "respects" the court decision. Nigerians look east to China for business, opportunity Emmanuel Iyayi's love of China, its culture and language began early when he watched kung fu films as a child in his native Nigeria. Now 26, that enthusiasm has paid off. "I am a translator, an interpreter for Nigerian and Chinese businessmen and I also compere at Chinese events," Iyayi, who also goes by the Chinese name Kong Yi, told AFP. "All these generate good money for me. I am happy with the pay I get and this has transformed my life tremendously." Chinese language teachers talk to a Nigerian student at the Confucius Institute at the University of Lagos Pius Utomi Ekpei (AFP) Iyayi isn't alone in being able to reap the benefits of knowing a language that few of his compatriots speak, given Nigeria's historic preference for learning European tongues such as French. Grace Moses teaches and translates Mandarin when she is not studying in her final year at the Confucius Institute at the University of Lagos (Unilag). "I get a lot of job opportunities from Nigerians who have businesses with Chinese people," said the 25-year-old, likening herself to a go-between for local and Chinese businesses. Iyayi and Moses could soon have competition, however, as a new scheme gets under way in Lagos state to teach Mandarin in primary and secondary schools. The move comes at a time of increased investment by Chinese firms in Nigeria, which is in desperate need of overseas cash because of the fall in global oil revenues on which its economy depends. - Closer ties - On a sunny afternoon at Unilag, Moses -- or Li Minghao as she is also known in class -- sits with a dozen other Nigerian students, most of them women. Mandarin teacher Fu Yongsheng uses audio-visual aids to teach pronunciation, words and phrases at the institute, set up seven years ago in partnership with the Beijing Institute of Technology. Fu and seven others also teach Mandarin to some 1,700 primary and secondary students across Nigeria's commercial capital. Yongjin Wang, the director of the institute, said more teachers were needed and is convinced learning Mandarin "can help to enhance relations and communications between both countries". Segun Awonusi, Yongjin's Nigerian co-director and a linguistics professor at Unilag, said learning Mandarin makes sense because of the Asian giant's economic and political clout. There are more Mandarin speakers than any other language in the world, making knowledge of the language essential for greater economic and diplomatic cooperation in the future, he added. "Nigeria has also also opened a wide market for the Chinese," added Awonusi. "There are efforts to build a generation of Nigerians who can teach Chinese," he said. Some three dozen Nigerians are currently studying for language and culture degrees at Chinese universities while a second Confucius Institute has been opened in southeast Nigeria. Lagos has five pilot project schools where Mandarin is taught. "Learning of Chinese language... aims to enhance political and economic ties between Nigeria and those countries," according to the Lagos state ministry of education. - Two-way street - Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari visited China recently and came away with a $6 billion pledge to fund much-needed infrastructure projects across the country. Abuja is looking to deepen economic and political relations with Beijing, building on the $1.79 billion China invested in Nigeria last year. Trade volume has grown from less than $2 billion at the turn of the century to about $15 billion in 2015, according to government figures. There are currently more than 200 Chinese companies working in engineering, food, agriculture, railway and road sectors, according to China's consul-general, Liu Kan. China is also present in Nigeria's key oil and gas and power sectors, aviation, merchandising, information technology manufacturing, healthcare, textile and transport. The China Railway Corporation and China Civil Construction Corporation are handling multi-million-dollar railway and road construction in Lagos, Abuja and other cities. Buhari, however, complained about a large trade imbalance between the two countries in China's favour by some 80 percent to 20 percent. "You must not see Nigeria as a consumer market alone but as an investment destination where goods can be manufactured and consumed locally," he said. - Image problem - Despite its sizeable investment, China has nonetheless room to improve its image in Nigeria, where the country is often associated with the dumping of inferior and even counterfeit products. Nigeria's health authorities have previously said some 70 percent of drugs in Nigeria were fake or adulterated and pointed accusing fingers at imports from China and India. Customs officials have also repeatedly raided and shut illegal textile importers in Kano and Lagos' China Town, a sprawling shopping complex, over the alleged failure to pay relevant duties. Initiatives such as the Confucius Institute, which is similar to the British Council, Alliance Francaise and Goethe Institute, can help dispel myths and misunderstandings. "After these sanctions, we have held several meetings with Chinese importers and we have intensified our intelligence and monitoring," Customs spokesman Wale Adeniyi told AFP. "Certainly the importation of substandard goods from China has reduced drastically." A Chinese language teacher speaks with students at the Confucius Institute Pius Utomi Ekpei (AFP) Yongjin Wang, director of the Confucius Institute, speaks about the growing interest in Chinese language Pius Utomi Ekpei (AFP) Fu Yongsheng looks at a paper by a Nigerian student at the Confucius Institute Pius Utomi Ekpei (AFP) In Cairo, heat and long days test Ramadan faithful Pushing his cart through the teeming Egyptian capital, 71-year-old Cairo street sweeper Abdallah Mohamed says nothing can stop him from fasting during Ramadan. Not the stifling heat pushing temperatures above 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit). Not even the long days of this year's Muslim fasting month, which is coinciding with the summer solstice. "He who is used to fasting will fast even in the middle of a fire," Mohamed says as the sun beats down. "But he who is not used to fasting will not fast no matter where he is." Egyptian cook Fathy grills chicken outside a restaurant in Cairo on June 21, 2016 Khaled Desouki (AFP) More than a billion people around the world are marking Ramadan this month, when Muslim faithful abstain from eating and drinking from dawn to dusk. Determined by the lunar hijri calendar, which has 11 days fewer than the solar Gregorian calendar, Ramadan shifts back every year. The last time the holy month began in early June was in 1983. Mohamed wakes and eats around 3:00 am, before his daily two-hour commute from the southern town of Dahshur to Cairo, where he earns 25 Egyptian pounds ($2.80) a day cleaning the streets. He works until around 2:00 pm, then heads home and sleeps for a few hours before breaking his fast once the sun sets. - 16-hour fast - Sixteen hours after he last ate or drank, Mohamed takes a sip of hot soup, then some food, tea and finally water. "Many people are not able to fast. They did not get used to these things, to getting hungry," he says. Across the street from where Mohamed is working, 37-year-old cook Fathy stands before a long grill with flaming charcoal, smoke billowing in his face as he turns cooking chickens. During the days of Ramadan, Fathy packs his barbecued meat, rice, vegetables and salads to go, even for those who are not observing the fast. "A customer tells me he will eat here? No," Fathy says. "Everyone here is fasting. The young kids are fasting." Fathy's staff arrive at 8:30 am to begin preparing the food. They start grilling the meat around noon, around seven hours before the traditional evening meal to break the Ramadan fast, known as iftar. When sundown comes, they must first tend to customers before taking their own meals. "The most important thing is that there are tables here and people are breaking their fast," Fathy says. Ramadan is a busy time for restaurant workers like Fathy, but for others the fasting month is quiet. "During the daytime, workers reach their limit, unable to move after one or two hours of work," says 58-year-old Reda Mohammadeen, a manager at an auto repair shop. "That is the maximum effort that they can muster." - 'Can't change obligations' - But Mohammadeen says he doesn't mind as customers "themselves do not go out in Ramadan especially during the daytime... things are very quiet." Pharmacist Mohamed Ibrahim says he has been busy this year however, with the long fasting days leading more people to seek medical assistance. Many come to his shop in Cairo's Sayeda Zeinab district with low blood pressure, headaches and dizziness. "Everyday I inject painkillers that do not break the fast to struggling customers of all ages," Ibrahim says. Egyptians are not alone, with Muslims across the northern hemisphere having to cope with this year's long Ramadan hours. In Saudi Arabia, Islam's spiritual home, Saad al-Rayes says the long days and searing temperatures are proving difficult. "The heat is definitely intense this year, on top of the length of the fasting period which is over 16 hours," the 45-year-old Riyadh resident says as he heads to the mosque. But Rayes says he hasn't altered his Ramadan routine. "We have to deal with this weather and we can't change our daily obligations." Nasr Abu Zaid, 25, worries about those having to toil outdoors, even though Saudi authorities have banned work in the sun between 10:00 am and 3:00 pm. "Ramadan this year came at the height of summer and that makes it hard for many people. The most affected are those who work outside and in the construction industry; it's important to be kind to them." Food is prepared in Cairo on June 21, 2016 Khales Desouki (AFP) Traditional dawn awakeners known as 'Mesaharati' wake up Muslims before sunrise for the 'Suhur' meal before the day's fast Mohamed el-Shahed (AFP) Turkey says normalisation deal depends on Israel Turkey said Wednesday that reaching a deal to normalise relations with Israel downgraded after a 2010 Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound Turkish vessel depended on steps taken by the Jewish state. Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Turkey had made its demands crystal clear ahead of upcoming talks -- while insisting that Ankara's relationship with Palestinian militant group Hamas, which rules Gaza, was not a condition in the talks. Two of Turkey's key conditions for normalisation -- an apology for the deadly 2010 raid and compensation -- were largely met, leaving its third demand, that Israel lift its blockade on the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, as the main obstacle. Ten Turkish activists were killed when Israeli commandos raided the Mavi Marmara ship which was part of the Free Gaza flotilla in May 2010 "Whether a deal can be reached at the first upcoming meeting depends on the steps to be taken by Israel," Cavusoglu told a news conference in Ankara. "Our conditions are not very complicated, they are plain conditions," Cavusoglu said. "They need to be fulfilled the same as our apology demand." He did not give the date of the meeting although press reports have said it would take place on Sunday and be followed by an announcement on the normalisation of ties. Relations between once close allies Turkey and Israel hit an all-time low after Israeli commandos staged a botched pre-dawn raid on a six-ship flotilla in May 2010 as it tried to run the blockade on the Hamas-run Gaza Strip. Nine activists on board the Turkish-owned Mavi Marmara ferry were killed, with a tenth person later dying of his wounds, sparking a bitter diplomatic crisis. All 10 were Turkish nationals. - 'No Hamas condition' - The Hurriyet newspaper reported on Tuesday that the announcement for a deal would be made after talks between top Turkish foreign ministry official Feridun Sinirlioglu and Israel's pointman on Turkish relations, Joseph Ciechanover. It did not say where the talks would be held. Israeli daily Yedioth Aharonot reported on Wednesday that the next round of talks would be held in Turkey and an announcement made there. Previous reports have said that for any normalisation, Israel also wants Turkey to prevent senior Hamas operative Salah Aruri from entering its territory and acting from there. Ankara has never confirmed his presence in Turkey. A report in the Turkish daily newspaper Karar Wednesday suggested that all Hamas operatives previously based in Turkey had left the country for Qatar several months ago at the request of Turkish authorities. Turkey is a key backer of Hamas, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan holding regular meetings with the Doha-based Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal. Cavusoglu on Wednesday said Turkey's contacts with Hamas were "not clandestine" and that they would continue for the sake of intra-Palestinian unity and Middle East peace. But he ruled out any condition about Hamas for a deal with Israel. "There is no such a condition like Hamas for normalisation of our bilateral relations with Israel and there cannot be." Analysts have said Turkey may pursue a more conciliatory foreign policy following the departure of former prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who spearheaded an aggressive and interventionist strategy. His successor Binali Yildirim last week said he wanted no permanent tensions with neighbours after serious ruptures not just with Israel but also with Egypt and Russia. Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan (left) holds regular meetings with Hamas supremo Khaled Meshaal and Ankara insists it will not its relationship with the Palestinian militant group in order to resume diplomatic ties with Israel Yasin Bulbul (Turkish Prime Minister Office/AFP/File) Energy investors merge to create pan-Africa power group Two major investors in African power projects announced Wednesday a joint venture that they said would help boost electricity output across the continent. Harith General Partners and the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) said the tie-up would allow improved financing and development of both renewable and non-renewable energy projects. More than 620 million people in Africa live without electricity, the companies said. Two investors announce a venture they hope will boost electricity output across Africa Pascal Pavani (AFP) The president and chief executive of the Lagos-based AFC, Andrew Alli, said the partnership would make "an invaluable contribution to improving generation capacity" throughout Africa. The AFC has interests in Cenpower, which owns the Kpone Independent Power Plant in Tema, near Accra, which is due to come on stream in 2017 and provide some 10 percent of Ghana's energy capacity. It also has a stake in Cabeolica, a wind farm in Cape Verde, off the West African coast, which provides 20 percent of the country's needs. Harith, through the Pan African Infrastructure Development Fund it manages, has invested in the Azura Edo power plant in southern Nigeria, and Kenay's Lake Turkana wind power and Rabai thermal projects. The Johannesburg-based financiers have also helped to finance the coal-fired Kelvin Power Station in South Africa. All the projects combined provide energy to more than 30 million people in at least 10 countries, with a gross operational and under-construction capacity of 1,575 megawatts, the companies said. Harith's chief executive, Tshepo Mahloele, said the merger will "create an African power entity that will have substantial capital, sector-specific experience, a critical mass of existing assets and a pipeline of credible power projects". Yemen rebels demand consensus president in any peace deal Yemen's Iran-backed rebels said on Wednesday that they would not sign any peace deal without prior agreement on a consensus president to lead the transition. The demand from the Huthi rebels, who control swathes of the country, including the capital Sanaa, comes a day after the UN envoy said he had proposed a roadmap for peace following two months of negotiations in Kuwait. The Saudi-backed government of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi insists that he is the legitimate president who should lead any transition. A building in Sanaa after it was damaged by air strikes Mohammed Huwais (AFP) But the rebels said consensus must be reached between the warring parties on all issues to do with transition. "Foremost among these is the presidency which is at the centre of the negotiations and on which all the other issues, like the formation of a national unity government and a supreme military and security committee, depend," a rebel statement said. The peace roadmap announced by UN envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed calls for the implementation of security arrangements set out in an April 2015 Security Council resolution and the formation of a government of national unity. Security arrangements under Resolution 2216 require the rebels and their allies to withdraw from areas they have occupied since 2014, including Sanaa, and hand over heavy weapons. "The delegations have responded positively to the proposals, but have not yet reached agreement on the sequencing of the different steps provided in the roadmap," mainly when the unity government would be formed, Ould Cheikh Ahmed told the Security Council on Tuesday. The government has resisted proposals for a unity administration before the rebels' withdrawal and handover of arms, fearing it would undermine the international legitimacy of Hadi. As the peace talks have dragged on in Kuwait, there has been renewed fighting on the ground despite a UN-brokered ceasefire that took effect on April 11. On Tuesday, the rebels advanced towards Yemen's biggest airbase -- Al-Anad -- in heavy fighting that left 18 rebels and six loyalists dead. The UN envoy expressed "strong indignation" at the rebel advance in a statement early on Wednesday, saying it was a "grave development that could threaten the talks." More than 6,400 have been killed in Yemen, since a Saudi-led coalition intervened in support of Hadi's government in March last year. Another 2.8 million people have been displaced and more than 80 percent of the population are in urgent need of humanitarian aid, according to UN figures. Japan, Russia talks on elusive WWII peace treaty Japan and Russia on Wednesday held talks aimed at resolving a territorial dispute dating back to World War II, which has prevented the neighbours from signing a peace treaty formally ending wartime hostilities. The two countries have diplomatic relations but ties have been strained by a dispute over four islands, known in Japan as the Northern Territories and in Russia as part of the Kuril Islands. Chikahito Harada, Japan's special envoy for Japan-Russia relations, and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov met in Tokyo for the one-day meeting. Japanese and Russian diplomats hold talks in Tokyo on June 22, 2016, aimed at resolving a longstanding territorial dispute "We're going to tackle this issue in a new way to break the deadlock that has lasted until now," Harada said, according to Jiji Press news agency. He did not elaborate. The former Soviet Union declared war on Japan in the closing days of the conflict in 1945, attacking Tokyo's puppet state of Manchukuo in northeastern China and seizing Japanese islands north of Hokkaido. Hundreds of thousands of Japanese soldiers were taken prisoner and moved to Siberia where they were forced to labour for about a decade before those who survived were allowed to return home. Wednesday's talks marked the first negotiation between Japan and Russia since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and President Vladimir Putin met in Sochi in May to discuss the dispute. Abe, during the meeting -- a rare visit to Russia by a Group of Seven leader -- agreed with Putin to push the negotiations forward by employing "a new approach without being bothered by the old previous thinking". However, the Kremlin dismissed hopes of any major breakthrough, instead playing up Abe's visit to Putin's holiday residence in the Black Sea resort of Sochi as a symbol of warming ties, as the West attempted to isolate the Russian leader. Putin is expected to visit Japan later this year. Over the years leaders from both countries have met several times to discuss the dispute but a resolution has proved elusive. Japanese troops not shooting blanks anymore Japan's Self-Defense Forces aren't shooting blanks anymore. At least they weren't last month when troops mistook live ammunition for fake rounds at a training exercise. No one was seriously injured despite almost 80 rounds of sharp-tipped ammunition being fired off in the hair-raising bullet blunder, the Asahi newspaper reported. Japan's armed forces act only in self-defence under a pacifist constitution imposed by the United States after World War II Frederic J. Brown (AFP/File) Blanks are identifiable by having a more curved tip than live rounds, but the unit in question reportedly only fires guns about twice a year. The "blanks" were discovered to be live rounds after a piece of an assault rifle was torn off, slightly injuring two soldiers, the paper said, citing the results of a defense department investigation released this week. A computer error was reportedly to blame for the incident in May at a training ground in Japan's northernmost island Hokkaido. Syria's Assad names new prime minister Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Wednesday named electricity minister Imad Khamis as the new prime minister of the war-ravaged country. Assad tasked Khamis with forming a new government, the official news agency SANA reported. He is to submit his proposal for new ministerial appointments in the coming days. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has refused to relinquish power and has describing the civil war as a "fight against terrorism" Joseph Eid (AFP/File) The 54-year-old engineer replaces Wael al-Halqi who had held the post since August 2012. The changes come two months after Assad's Baath party and its allies won a majority of seats in parliamentary elections dismissed internationally as a sham. Khamis had served as Syria's minister of electricity since 2011 and is an electrical engineer by trade. Since March 2012, he has been sanctioned by the European Union, which accuses him of sharing "responsibility for the regime's violent repression against the civilian population." Syria's conflict began in 2011 with widespread protests demanding reform but has since escalated into a bloody civil war that has left 280,000 people dead. 'Devastated' Nepalis receive bodies of Kabul victims Dozens of people, many in tears, thronged Kathmandu's airport on Wednesday to receive the bodies of 12 Nepali guards killed in a suicide bomb attack in Kabul this week. The victims were among 14 security guards who were killed Monday in a Taliban suicide blast targeting their bus as they headed to work at the Canadian embassy in Kabul. Afghan authorities had earlier said that all 14 were Nepali nationals, before Kathmandu clarified that 12 of the victims belonged to Nepal. Nepalese Prime Minister KP Oli Sharama in Kathmandu on June 22, 2016 pays his respects to the 12 Nepalese victims of a suicide bomb attack in Afghanistan on June 20 Prakash Mathema (AFP) Relatives and friends broke down in tears as they approached the pink-and-white coffins, tagged with the names of the dead. "Our family is devastated," said Sarajan Adhikari, whose brother-in-law Madhusudhan Koirala was killed in the attack. The 45-year-old's death was the latest tragedy to hit the family. The guard lost two children in last year's massive earthquake that killed nearly 9,000 people in the Himalayan nation. "(My sister) had told him not to go (back) the last time he came home. It was only the compulsion to earn that made him return," Adhikari told AFP. Nepal's Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli offered a floral tribute to the victims as he attempted to console distraught family members, many of whom had camped out for hours at the airport. "The whole country is mourning the death of innocent Nepalis killed in this cowardly attack," Oli told reporters after placing marigold garlands on each coffin. The aircraft, chartered by the Nepal government, also brought back 24 other Nepalis who worked as guards for Sabre International, the same company that employed the victims. "It could have been me," said former Nepal army soldier Shyam Bahadur Tamang, 47, who began working in Afghanistan in 2014. "There is no security for us... there are many other Nepalis who are eager to quit and return home," Tamang told AFP. Authorities said around 3,300 Nepalis were currently working in Afghanistan as security guards but accurate figures for the total number employed across the world are hard to come by. Impoverished Nepal has long served as a supplier of security forces to the world. A number of them are former soldiers with the Gurkha brigades of the Indian and British armies while others are retired Nepal army or police personnel. Four Nepali guards were killed in a 2011 attack on a UN compound in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif in 2011. Soldiers in Kathmandu carry the bodies of the 12 Nepalese victims of a suicide bomb attack in Afghanistan Prakash Mathema (AFP) Egypt govt appeals court block on Saudi island deal Egypt's government said Wednesday it had lodged an appeal against a court decision to block the controversial handover of two uninhabited Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia. The deal over the islands of Tiran and Sanafir prompted some of the largest public protests in two years when it was signed in April. The country's State Council ruled on Tuesday that the islands, strategically situated at the mouth of the Gulf of Aqaba, must remain under Egyptian sovereignty. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi (left) sparked protests when he handed over two islands to Riyadh after trade talks with Saudi King Salman in April 2016 "The government will present all the documents it has to demonstrate the integrity and strength of the case it presented to the Supreme Administrative Court which has the right to rule on the case," the prime minister's office said in a statement Wednesday. "It will also present a dossier containing documents and maps that will assist in resolving the case." The government argues that the islands -- which can be used to control access to the Israeli port of Eilat -- have always been Saudi territory but were leased to Cairo in 1950 following a request by Riyadh. It says the deal to transfer them was based on a decree by since-ousted president Hosni Mubarak. Cairo says Mubarak had even informed the United Nations about the matter in 1990. The deal, signed during a visit to Cairo by Saudi Arabia's King Salman in April, prompted an outcry from many Egyptians, and sparked protests against President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Sisi, whose government depends heavily on Saudi largesse, faced criticism on social media for "selling" the islands in return for multi-billion-dollar investment deals with Riyadh. More than 100 people were jailed for up to five years for taking part in demonstrations against the deal that police quickly dispersed, but they were later freed on appeal. Indian art dealer arrested for suspected temple theft Indian police have arrested an octogenarian art dealer for possessing hundreds of artefacts thought to have been stolen from Hindu temples, as they probe possible links to international smuggling rackets, officers said Wednesday. G Deenadhayalan, 85, was formally arrested on Tuesday after police carried out multiple raids on his properties in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, leading to the recovery of the cache of idols. Police have called in experts to determine the age of the 275-odd metal and stone statues of Hindu gods, which some specialists say could be hundreds of years old. Indian police recoverd antique idols and artefacts from an art dealer's home in Chennnai, on June 22, 2016 Arun Sankar (AFP) "Deenadhayalan is booked for conspiring to smuggle idols and idol theft," Pon Manickavel, inspector general of a Tamil Nadu police unit that tracks down stolen idols, told AFP. Deenadhayalan was remanded in custody after appearing in court on Tuesday on initial charges of conspiracy and theft, as well as a charge of smuggling under the Antiquity and Art Treasures Act. The arrest comes after the United States returned more than 200 statues and other artefacts earlier this month to Prime Minister Narendra Modi that were taken from Indian temples. Deenadhayalan's arrest prompted the Tamil Nadu government to order an inventory of idols thought housed in the hundreds of temples and shrines located throughout the state. Smugglers and looters have long been suspected of targeting the temples, many of which are located in remote areas and have been abandoned. Police said they uncovered the suspected racket suspected to have been led by Deenadhayalan after they arrested a gang of thieves carrying stolen idols last month. Police this month conducted lengthy raids on Deenadhayalan's house, warehouse and office where he has run his art business for some three decades. "We have seized substantial evidence to confirm that he had sold several antiques and artefacts to many traders and individuals in Europe, UK and the US," another senior officer involved in the investigation, Prateep V Philip, said. The arrest comes five years after international art dealer Subhash Kapoor was arrested and extradited to India on charges of running a multi-million dollar international smuggling racket. Police are probing whether Deenadhayalan has any links with Kapoor, who used to own a gallery in Manhattan but is now in jail in the southern Indian city of Chennai awaiting trial. Kapoor denies wrongdoing. Two killed in S.Africa pre-election violence: police Two people have been killed and more than 40 arrested in pre-election violence in townships around South Africa's capital Pretoria, police said Wednesday. Police spokeswoman Noxolo Kweza said two people were killed on Tuesday night after shops were looted in Mamelodi township in the wake of internal ANC protests linked to upcoming municipal elections. Factional violence broke out late Monday over the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party's choice of a mayoral candidate in Pretoria for the hotly-contested vote on August 3. A charred bus in Mamelodi on June 22 after three days of riots Mujahid Safodien (AFP) "We have arrested more than 40 people since yesterday and this morning for different crimes related to the protests," Kweza told AFP adding that peace had been restored by Wednesday morning. No details were released on how the two victims died. Police said those arrested had been charged with violence, theft and possession of stolen property. At least 20 buses were torched in Mamelodi on Monday during protests sparked by the ANC's choice of Thoko Didiza as mayoral candidate. Didiza, a former minister under the late president Nelson Mandela, was nominated by the ANC amid deep local divisions over the proposed candidates for Tshwane mayor, the municipality that includes Pretoria. Some protesters complained that although she lives in Pretoria she is an outsider as she hails from Durban, a port city in the east of the country. Senior ANC figures condemned the violence, with party secretary general Gwede Mantashe blaming the destruction of property on "thuggery". Several deaths attributed to tension between rival factions within the ANC have been reported around the country in the run-up to the August elections. The party, which led the struggle against apartheid and has ruled since 1994, could be dealt an electoral blow due to record unemployment and the dire conditions in which many black people still live. "While the ANC is still popular in rural communities... the party has lost significant support in the largest cities," Robert Besseling, of risk advisers EXX Africa, said in an email. "Socio-economic grievances will intensify ongoing political unrest." Indian cabinet approves mobile radiowaves auction The government of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi Wednesday approved a mega auction of mobile phone radiowaves, hoping to scoop about $85 billion from the sale of licenses in the world's second-largest market. The new mobile radiowave spectrums on auction are seen as crucial for companies competing in the lucrative but cut-throat Indian market of a billion mobile subscribers. "This may be the largest ever auction in the history of the country," said Finance Minister Arun Jaitley at a press conference. India's cabinet has approved an auction of mobile phone radiowaves, hoping to scoop $85bn Loic Venance (AFP/File) More than 2,300 mhz of spectrum would be available for auction across seven bandwidths and based on their reserve price, the government is looking to mop up $85 billion against the $17.6 billion received last year. But a decision on spectrum usage charges, which has divided stakeholders, was deferred with the matter being referred to the telecom watchdog. Telecom bodies have expressed concerns over a possible move to collect licence fee and spectrum usage charges on revenues earned from trading airwaves, saying it would amount to double taxation. The battle for spectrum among India's top eight mobile phone carriers, including market leaders Vodafone, Bharti Airtel and Idea, has been fierce with each vying to roll out high-speed broadband services. The auction will hand the right-wing government much-needed revenue as it attempts to reform the economy. India is the world's second-largest mobile phone market by users after China. The government also said Wednesday it had put in place a special financial package for the textile and apparel sector, a move aimed at helping to reboot an economy beset by legal barriers and regulatory excesses. The government hopes the step will lead to a cumulative increase of $30 billion in exports and an investment of $11 billion over the next three years, the government said in a statement. On Monday, the government announced sweeping reforms to expand foreign investment across nine sectors, including defence and civil aviation, to accelerate job creation and manufacturing. Modi stormed to power in 2014, promising an overhaul of the faltering economy. Growth is now chugging along at 7.9 percent, the fastest of any major economy. France reduces C. Africa force to 350 soldiers France has reduced its force in the Central African Republic to 350 soldiers, effectively bringing an end to its military operations there, the army's chief of staff said Wednesday. "The Sangaris will henceforth act as a tactical reserve team of 350 soldiers to the benefit of the 12,500 Blue Helmets," the chief of staff wrote on Twitter. France deployed an intervention force, dubbed "Operation Sangaris", to the Central African Republic in December 2013 after the outbreak of inter-communal violence between Muslim and Christian militias that has killed thousands. A convoy of French troops arrives in Bangui on February 27, 2014 to reinforce operation Sangaris Sia Kambou (AFP) The mission, which involved nearly 2,500 French troops at its peak, is due to end entirely in December. The CAR is struggling to overcome the legacy of the country's worst ever sectarian bloodletting that has driven half a million people from their homes. In a bid suppress the violence, the UN sent a peacekeeping force known as MINUSCA to the country, made up of 12,600 foreign police and soldiers, as well as more than 500 foreign civilian staff. The UN mission took over from an African Union force in September 2014 as the country was still reeling from the worst of the violence. Last week, MINUSCA sent troops to the northwest where at least 10 people died in the worst clashes since presidential and parliamentary elections were held in February and March. The polls were viewed as a key step toward reconciliation following the sectarian strife. Following the elections, French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said that Operation Sangaris would be wound down by the end of the year. Le Drian said France's military contingent still in the country would work under UN and EU mandates to train CAR's army. The former French colony is one of the world's poorest countries and was plunged into chaos by the ouster in March 2013 of long-serving president Francois Bozize, a Christian, by the mainly Muslim Seleka rebel alliance. The coup sparked revenge attacks involving Muslim forces and Christian vigilante groups known as "anti-balaka" (anti-machete) militias. Thousands were slaughtered in the spiral of violence that displaced almost one tenth of the country's population of 4.8 million. The image of French troops has been tainted by allegations of sexual abuse of children and physical abuse of locals in Central Africa. UN peacekeepers are also facing allegations of sexual abuse. Toddlers left in car die in Israeli desert Two toddlers died on Wednesday after being forgotten in a car by their father in the scorching heat of Israel's Negev desert, medics said. The siblings, who were aged about three and 18 months, were found in the vehicle at Al-Kasom, where they had apparently been trapped for a number of hours. They were taken to a nearby home but were without vital signs, said an official from the Magen David Adom emergency medical service. Israel's Negev desert Menahem Kahana (AFP/File) "We tried to give them medical care, but were forced to pronounce their deaths at the scene," medic Raed Abugag said in a statement. According to Israeli media, the father was a teacher who had parked his car outside the school in which he taught. Israel has been hit by a heat wave in the past few days, with temperatures in the southern desert area exceeding 38 degrees Celsius (100 degrees Fahrenheit). Last month, a father from the southern coastal city of Ashdod forgot a child in his car, and the infant died after a number of hours. Trump, trailing Clinton in cash, aims to boost fundraising Billionaire Donald Trump attended a New York reception early Wednesday aimed at raising funds for his presidential campaign, as he seeks to narrow the massive financial advantage enjoyed by rival Hillary Clinton. The presumptive Republican nominee, whose recent paltry campaign finance figures sounded an alarm about Trump's preparedness for a gruelling general election battle, held a closed-door $25,000-per-plate breakfast at Italian restaurant Le Cipriani for major donors, according to The Wall Street Journal. A maximum of $2,700 per donor is allowed to go to the Trump campaign, with the rest going to the Republican Party. Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has repeatedly knocked political rivals for being beholden to mega-donors Kena Betancur (AFP) On Tuesday, Trump pledged to "personally" match supporters' donations dollar for dollar for the next 48 hours, up to $2 million total. The fundraising push follows Trump's and Clinton's latest filings to the Federal Election Commission (FEC), which showed the former secretary of state's campaign had $40 million more in cash on hand than Trump's. "I have a lot more than $40 million if I want to use my own money," Trump told Fox News on Wednesday. "I think our next numbers are going to be quite good. But, more importantly, I don't to want raise billions of dollars." Trump has repeatedly knocked political rivals for being beholden to mega-donors. "So, I can do it for much, much less and, I think, win," he added. His style of campaign financing has been unconventional. He has so far lent his campaign $45.7 million. He is entitled to raise money from supporters to have those funds reimbursed, but he told MSNBC in May that he had "absolutely no intention of paying myself back." A substantial amount of Trump's campaign expenses -- about 20 percent in the month of May -- is being shifted back to his own businesses, the New York Times reported, citing campaign finance filings and the paper's review of the 1,699-page Trump campaign declaration to the FEC. For example, the campaign paid $423,000 for the use of Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida, where he has held several press conferences. 4 Palestinians sentenced to life for murdering Israelis: army Four Palestinians were on Wednesday handed life sentences for the killing of an Israeli couple as drove in the West Bank with their children last year, the army said. "The military court in Samaria handed two life sentences and another 30 years to each of the four members of the Hamas cell that carried out the attack in which Eitam and Naama Henkin were murdered in front of their children," a statement read. The Palestinian assailants were named as Yahya Haj Hamed, Amjad Aliwi, Samir Kusa and Kerem Razek. An Israeli woman mourns next to the graves of Eitam and Naama Henkin in Jerusalem's cemetery on October 2, 2015 Gil Cohen Magen (AFP/File) The October 1 attack on the settler couple marked the beginning of a wave of Palestinian attacks. The violence has since killed at least 209 Palestinians, 32 Israelis, two Americans, an Eritrean and a Sudanese. Israeli authorities say most of the Palestinians were killed as they carried out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks. Others were killed in clashes with security forces or by Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip. According to the army statement, the assailants had planned on apprehending the Henkin couple, but when their attempts to do so failed, they shot them from close range in front of their four children. Three of the four Palestinians sentenced were also involved in two previous shooting attacks on Israelis which lightly wounded one, the army said. Another three Palestinians involved in the Henkin attack were still facing sentencing. Days after the October attack, which shocked Israeli society, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a package of new measures against Palestinian assailants. They included swifter demolitions of their homes, which Netanyahu said was "one of the most efficient tools" in discouraging Palestinian attacks. The homes of the four Palestinians sentenced on Wednesday had been demolished in November. Last month, Israeli forces demolished the Nablus home of Zeid Amr, accused of staking out the site of the attack before other members of the Hamas cell shot the Henkins. Gunmen kill 4 in attack on Darfur camp for displaced: UN Gunmen shot dead four people at a camp for displaced people in Sudan's war-torn Darfur, the United Nations peacekeeping mission said on Wednesday. The attack on Monday evening came as the UN Security Council prepared to decide on extending the mandate of a peacekeeping mission in Darfur, where tens of thousands have been killed in a 13-year conflict. On Monday, gunmen "burned and looted" a camp for displaced people in Thur in the state of Central Darfur, said the African Union-United Nations force, UNAMID. Sudanese children walk past a UN-African Union Mission in Darfur vehicle on April 12, 2016 Ashraf Shazly (AFP/File) "The incident has reportedly resulted in four people being killed and seven others injured," it said. A tribal leader from the camp, Sheikh Abdalraz Youssef, said the dead included a child. "Militiamen attacked the camp and started shooting on the residents," Youssef told AFP by telephone. Darfur has been gripped by conflict since 2003, when ethnic minority rebels rose up against the Arab-dominated regime of President Omar al-Bashir, accusing it of discrimination. 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. Khartoum insists the conflict has ended, although violence occurs regularly. In May, Arab tribesmen shot dead eight ethnic minority villagers as they prayed in a mosque in West Darfur. In April, as many as 20 people were killed in clashes between two rival Arab tribes in East Darfur sparked by livestock thefts. The Security Council is expected to meet before the end of June to decide whether to extend UNAMID's mandate by another year to June 30, 2017. Khartoum wants a complete exit of UNAMID from Darfur, but a special UN report has recommended keeping the force in place. The report cites the "limited progress" made to reach a viable solution to end the conflict in Darfur. Rubio says will run for re-election to US Senate Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida announced Wednesday he will run for re-election, a 180-degree reversal from his pledge to either win the US presidency this year or return to private life. The move would make the high-profile Rubio the immediate frontrunner in the race, and provides a boost to Republican Party efforts to block Democrats from snatching the seat in a key battleground state. "Control of the Senate may very well come down to the race in Florida," he said in a lengthy statement explaining his decision. A run for re-election would make Republican Senator Marco Rubio, pictured on March 5, 2016, the immediate frontrunner in the Florida race, providing a boost to Republican efforts to block Democrats from snatching a seat in the key battleground state Brendan Smialowski (AFP/File) Rubio noted that Supreme Court nominations, the future of the "disastrous" Iran nuclear deal, and economic and foreign policies could be determined by the outcome of the Florida race. "The stakes for our nation could not be higher," he added. Rubio, 45, said he was eager to "act as a check and balance on the excesses of a president," adding he would eagerly fulfill that congressional role regardless of whether fellow Republican Donald Trump or Democrat Hillary Clinton is elected in November. Rubio has significant policy differences with Trump and he said the prospect of a Trump presidency remained "worrisome." "If he is elected, we will need Senators willing to encourage him in the right direction, and if necessary, stand up to him. I've proven a willingness to do both," Rubio said. He immediately earned an endorsement from Ted Cruz, another US senator born to Cuban immigrants and who ran unsuccessfully for the presidency this year. New law: Kuwaitis who insult emir can't run for office Kuwait's parliament on Wednesday voted to bar people convicted of religious insults or undermining the oil-rich Gulf state's ruler from contesting general elections. The amendment to the electoral law would prevent dozens of opposition figures, including jailed former MP Mussallam al-Barrak, from standing in next year's election. The amendment was supported by 40 deputies, including all cabinet ministers present, and opposed by just three. Kuwaiti MPs take part in a parliament session on June 8, 2016 at the national assembly in Kuwait City Yasser al-Zayyat (AFP/File) It will pass into law once the cabinet endorses the change and publishes it in the official gazette. The amendment states that "people convicted in a final court ruling of insulting God, the prophets and the emir are barred from elections." In the past few years, courts handed down various jail terms against opposition activists for insulting the emir, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, or undermining his authority. Barrak, secretary general of the nationalist Popular Action Movement, is serving his second year in jail after he was convicted of insulting the emir in a speech at a public rally in 2012. The amendment also comes after several figures and groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood-linked Islamic Constitutional Movement, the largest opposition group, decided to end their four-year election boycott. A broad alliance of Islamist, nationalist and liberal opposition groups boycotted two general polls in 2012 and 2013 in protest at a change in electoral law. The opposition alliance said at the time that the change, brought unilaterally by authorities but later endorsed by Kuwait's top court, would allow the government to control parliament. The opposition held massive street protests in 2011 and 2012 demanding democratic reforms and an elected government. E.Guinea president names son vice-president Equatorial Guinea's veteran ruler, Teodoro Obiang Nguema, on Wednesday named his son Teodorin Nguema Obiang vice president of the tiny oil-rich nation, in charge of defence and security. Obiang, who seized power in a military coup in 1979 and was re-elected again in April with 93.7 percent of the vote, promoted the 47-year-old second vice-president by a presidential decree read on state television. Obiang senior is currently Africa's longest-serving leader. Teodorin Nguema Obiang , pictured on January 24, 2012, is named vice president of Equatorial Guinea Abdekhak Senna (AFP/File) Israel plans law against using Facebook for 'terror' Israel's justice and internal security ministers on Wednesday announced plans to propose legislation banning the use of Facebook to advance "terror" and outlawing incitement from the Internet. Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked and Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan said in a joint statement they had met earlier in the day with senior Facebook executives who were informed of their intention. Shaked and Erdan said the legislation would aim to make it illegal to publish "offensive content" such as "encouraging terror attacks, shaming, insulting public officials and slandering". Israel's Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, pictured on May 17, 2015, met with senior Facebook executives about a planned law to ban the use of the social network for the advancing of "terror" Gali Tibbon (Pool/AFP/File) Internet giants such as Facebook and Google could be held accountable, they said. In their meeting with the executives, they sought the removal of inciting content within 24 hours, as Facebook does in the European Union, said the statement. This would be backed by a law that blocks concent inciting "terror" and ensures its "complete removal, similar to laws in Australia and France". Israel maintains that online content has played a significant role in fuelling a wave of Palestinian attacks that broke out in October 2015. The violence has killed at least 209 Palestinians, 32 Israelis, two Americans, an Eritrean and a Sudanese. Israeli authorities say most of the Palestinians were killed as they carried out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks. Others were killed in clashes with security forces or by Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip. US to host Iraq donors amid Fallujah crisis The United States and key allies will host a donors conference next month to raise funds for Iraqi civilians driven from their homes by fighting. The announcement came Wednesday even as Iraqi forces battled Islamic State fighters to secure control of Fallujah and thousands fled the city. The US State Department, which had already pledged $20 million in extra funding for the UNHCR this week, said the conference will be held in Washington on July 20. Displaced Iraqis who fled the government's operation against the Islamic State group in the city of Fallujah carry basic food items on June 20, 2016 in a camp in Khaldiyeh Haidar Mohammed Ali (AFP/File) Canada, Germany and Japan will co-host the meeting, it said, and the funds raised will support the United Nations efforts to house, freed and treat the displaced. "Due to the conflict and upheaval since January 2014, more than 3.4 million people are now displaced throughout Iraq and more than half are children," the State Department said. "Across the country, over 10 million people are in urgent need of lifesaving humanitarian assistance." According to the US statement, the UN humanitarian response plan will cost $861 million and is only one third funded. "Over the coming months, humanitarian costs could climb to over $2 billion as potentially a million people are displaced from Mosul as military operations liberate Iraq's second largest city," it added. Iraqi officials said Wednesday that they have cleared IS jihadist fighters from the northern and central areas of Fallujah, but that holdouts remain. Sick workers evacuated in daring South Pole rescue Two sick workers were evacuated from a remote US research station near the South Pole on Wednesday in a risky rescue mission carried out in the dead of Antarctica's winter, a US official said. A Twin Otter turboprop plane flew in dark and cold conditions to pick up the workers from the Amundsen-Scott station, about 250 meters from the geographic South Pole, a spokesman for the US National Science Foundation (NSF), Peter West told AFP. The plane's crew and a medical team had made the 10-hour journey to the South Pole in the middle of Antarctica's 24-hour winter on Tuesday night to reach the unidentified patients, who could not be treated on site. A National Science Foundation photo shows a Twin Otter aircraft on a medical evacuation flight taxiing on the skiway at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station on June 22, 2016 Robert Schwarz (National Science Foundation/AFP) The NSF -- the US research agency that operates the Amundsen-Scott Station -- organized the rescue mission last week given the condition of the first patient, which was not disclosed for privacy reasons. "It was really an emergency," West said. It later became apparent that the second worker also needed to be evacuated. The sick workers -- employees of the US company Lockheed Martin who worked on base logistics -- were then taken to the Rothera base, a British research station some 2,200 kilometers (about 1,365 miles) away, the spokesman said. The pair, who were not identified, were then to be transferred to a hospital in South America, West said, without giving further details. The Amundsen-Scott base was home to 48 people -- 39 men and nine women -- who work on-site throughout the austral winter, which spans February through October. - Rare rescue mission - Near the world's southernmost point, workers spend this period withstanding nearly complete darkness and dramatically low temperatures -- on Tuesday, the thermometer dropped to -60 degrees Celsius (-76 degrees Fahrenheit). It was only the third time that an emergency rescue operation has been launched in the middle of winter. In 2001, the only doctor at the Amundsen-Scott station was suffering from a life-threatening pancreatic condition and required urgent evacuation. A second medical evacuation was carried out that year. In 1999, the US station's doctor Jerri Nielsen, who was self-treating her own breast cancer, required medical evacuation but weather conditions were more favorable, as the mission took place in the spring. The Twin Otter plane, operated by the Canadian company Kenn Borek Air, is specially designed to operate in extremely cold temperatures. Research projects at the Amundsen-Scott station include monitoring long-term levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. The station also operates two telescopes that observe "cosmic microwave background" radiation -- the faint light signature left by the Big Bang -- to study the origins of the universe, dark energy and dark matter. UN criticizes repression in Bahrain, urges dialogue A UN special adviser sharply criticized Bahrain's government Wednesday for repressing opponents and revoking the citizenship of the Gulf state's top Shiite religious leader. Adama Dieng, the special adviser for the prevention of genocide, warned that the country and the region were facing "a critical moment." "It is now even more crucial for the authorities and for all relevant parties to recommit to an inclusive national dialogue in the interest of all people of Bahrain," he said in a statement. Bahraini demonstrators attend a protest against the revocation of the citizenship of top Bahraini Shiite cleric Sheikh Isa Qassim, on June 20, 2016 near Qassim's house in the village of Diraz, west of Manama Mohammed al-Shaikh (AFP/File) Thousands of people protested in the sheikh's hometown of Diraz, west of Manama, after the decision on Monday to strip Sheik Issa Qassem of his nationality. Dieng said the action could raise tensions further in the kingdom. "I call on the government to ensure that the right to freedom of peaceful assembly is fully respected and that any response to the protests is in accordance with Bahrain's obligations under international human rights law," he said. "I also call on the protestors to exercise their rights peacefully and to avoid any act of violence," he said. Dieng said the nationalities of up to 250 people have been revoked for alleged disloyalty to the kingdom. He noted a series of other "worrying developments," including the re-arrest of Nabil Rajab, the founder of the Bahrain Human Rights Centre, travel bans on human rights activists, the dissolution of Bahrain's main opposition group, an increase in the sentence of a jailed opposition leader, and the interrogation last week of five Shia clerics. "Repression will not eliminate people's grievances; it will only increase them," he said. Obama pays tribute to slain British MP Jo Cox US President Barack Obama on Wednesday offered a heartfelt tribute to murdered British MP Jo Cox, hailing the "remarkable life" of a woman who volunteered on his campaign in 2008. "Jo knew that our politics, at its best, still works -- that, if we recognize our humanity in each other, we can advance the social justice, human dignity and peace that we seek in the world," Obama said in a tribute published on Facebook. While Obama never met Cox, who would have been 42 on Wednesday, he explained that she had come to America to volunteer on his first White House campaign. Samantha Power (R), US Ambassador to the United Nations, and others observe a moment of silence at an event celebrating MP Jo Cox on June 22, 2016 near the United Nations in New York Don Emmert (AFP) "She gave her time and passion to a country that was not her own because she believed in an idea that transcends borders and cultures -- the power of people to bring about change, from the grassroots up," he said. Obama's comments came on the eve of Britain's vote on whether to stay in the European Union. The murder of Cox, who was campaigning for Britain to remain in the bloc and was a major advocate for refugee rights, shook the referendum campaign and sent shock waves around the world. "Today, we stand united -- British, Americans and people around the world -- to affirm that the hate and violence that took her from us are ultimately no match for the love and compassion that she spread in her life," Obama said. Israel PM to meet Kerry in Rome on Palestinians Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet US Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday in Rome to discuss stalled peace efforts with the Palestinians, US and Israeli officials said. An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Netanyahu and Kerry would tackle "issues relating to security and peace." US State Department spokesman John Kirby said several issues would be on the agenda, but observers have noted that the meeting comes ahead of a report by the Quartet on the peace process. US Secretary of State John Kerry (L) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin, pictured on January 21, 2016, will meet in Rome to discuss stalled peace efforts Jacquelyn Martin (Pool/AFP/File) This diplomatic contact group -- the United Nations, the European Union, the United States and Russia -- is expected to be critical of Israeli policies in the occupied West Bank. "There are plenty of issues coming up that merit Israel and the United States' discussion," Kirby said, citing regional counter-terrorism efforts and the crisis in Syria. "The Quartet is preparing a report on the situation of the ground. It will include recommendations that will help inform international discussions on the best way to advance a two-state solution." Kirby said the report would "largely" reflect the Quartet's previous statement in September last year. This, among other concerns, cited Israel's "ongoing settlement activity and the high rate of demolition of Palestinian structures" as "dangerously imperiling the viability" of a two-state -- one Israeli and one Palestinian -- solution. Netanyahu recently spoke over the phone with EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini. And on Tuesday he called Russian President Vladimir Putin and discussed "key aspects of the Palestinian-Israeli peace process," according to a Russian statement. The Israeli premier will also meet UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in Jerusalem on Monday. The UN chief will be in Israel and the Palestinian territories as part of a Middle East tour. On Monday, EU foreign ministers backed a French initiative to organise an international conference on the Middle East, aimed at restarting Israeli-Palestinian peace talks deadlocked since 2014. The European Union has been pressing hard to get the peace process back on track based on a two-state solution. Netanyahu is opposed to the French initiative and has described it as an "international diktat" that should not come in the place of direct talks with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas. The Palestinians support the international community's involvement, saying that years of talks with Israel have not yielded their desired results. Lawsuit in Flint water crisis targets French, US companies Officials in Michigan filed a lawsuit on Wednesday accusing a French company and a Texas firm of negligence and fraud for their roles in the lead water contamination crisis in the city of Flint. Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette said water engineering firms Veolia, based in Paris, and Lockwood, Andrews & Newman (LAN) of Texas ignored warning signs that dangerous levels of lead had seeped into the city's water, after government officials switched the supply source two years ago. The attorney general alleged that Veolia produced a report and a presentation in 2015 which incorrectly stated that Flint's drinking water was safe. Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette alleged that French company Veolia produced a report which incorrectly stated that Flint's drinking water was safe Kenzo Tribouillard (AFP/File) He also said LAN was supposed to help with the transition to the new water source and did not address the issue of corrosion in aging lead pipes. "Veolia and LAN were hired to do a job and failed miserably. Their fraudulent and dangerous recommendations made a bad situation worse," Schuette said in a statement. Both companies denied the accusations. "These allegations are entirely false and baseless, something that Veolia will have no trouble in proving since the city of Flint never tasked it with carrying out lead or copper tests," the company said. It added that an official state task force report did not hold Veolia responsible. LAN said the suit was "without merit" and that the attorney general "blatantly mischaracterizes the role of LAN's service to Flint." In 2014, government officials switched Flint's water source from the Detroit River to the Flint River as part of cost-cutting measures ordered by Governor Rick Snyder. Experts believe that was the reason large amounts of poisonous lead leached from the city's pipes into the drinking water that reached residents' homes. "Veolia and LAN either knew or should have known that high chloride levels in Flint River water would cause corrosion in lead pipes unless treated," the attorney general's office said. More than 8,000 children are believed to have consumed lead-contaminated water. Officials are asking for hundreds of millions of dollars in damages and said there could be additional claims in the future. "Today's civil lawsuit is the first step in seeking damages caused by these companies that can help with Flint's recovery and aid the residents of Flint who are still waiting for help," Noah Hall, Special Assistant Attorney General on the Flint investigation, said. So far in the attorney general's six-month investigation of the Flint water crisis, three government employees have faced criminal charges. One took a plea agreement to cooperate in the investigation. The damage to the city's water pipes may be long-lasting, if not permanent. Residents must use filters to make their water drinkable. UN chief meets Saudi prince over Yemen row UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday hosted Saudi Arabia's deputy crown prince Mohammed bin Salman for talks that touched on the row between the world body and Riyadh over the deaths of hundreds of children in Yemen. The meeting at UN headquarters in New York was low-key, and neither Ban nor the Saudi prince spoke to reporters. Mohammed bin Salman is the Saudi king's son and the country's defense minister. He also has become the driving force behind economic reform and a more activist Saudi foreign policy. Saudi Defense Minister and Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman answers questions during a press conference in Riyadh, on April 25, 2016 Fayez Nureldine (AFP/File) A UN statement said the two men had discussed "putting into place concrete measures that could improve the situation on the ground" in Yemen, notably with respect to protecting children and civilians affected by the conflict. Tensions flared recently when the UN briefly blacklisted the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, after an expert report found it responsible for 60 percent of the 785 children killed in the country last year. The blacklisting infuriated Saudis, and the UN removed the coalition from the list pending a fact review. Ban went on to publicly accuse Riyadh -- a major UN donor -- and its allies of financial blackmail, saying they threatened to cut off funds to certain UN agencies, including a Palestinian aid program. Saudi Arabia has rejected both those charges and the report's findings. Ban is to formally present the report on children and armed conflict to the UN Security Council in August. During Wednesday's meeting with the Saudi prince, he "expressed the hope that... he could point to progress on the protection of children and civilians in Yemen" by that time, the UN statement said. Ban "remains open to receiving any new elements from Saudi Arabia and hoped that discussions would take place soon," the statement from Ban's office said. The Riyadh-led military intervention is supporting the Yemeni government in its fight against Iran-allied Huthi Shiite rebels, primarily through air strikes that began in March 2015. The Saudi government has requested that the UN send a team of experts to the coalition headquarters in Riyadh to jointly review the report and for the UN to provide details on its sources and methods. The world body has not yet responded. On Wednesday, Ban "thanked Saudi Arabia for supporting the political work of his special envoy, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, and stressed the urgency of ending the conflict," his office said. Ban and Mohammed bin Salman also discussed the situation in Syria, Libya, Lebanon and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, the UN said. Myanmar's Suu Kyi visits troubled diaspora in Thailand Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi arrived Thursday in Thailand where she is expected to be garlanded by her adoring compatriots, hundreds of thousands of whom have sought work and sanctuary from war across the border. It is Suu Kyi's highest profile overseas visit since her pro-democracy party took power in April, ending nearly half a century of military domination. Her government has seeded hopes for a new era of prosperity that could eventually convince the army of low-paid Myanmar labourers in Thailand to return home. Myanmar Foreign Minister and State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi (2nd L) is welcomed upon her arrival at Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok Narong Sangnak (POOL/AFP) The two Southeast Asian neighbours have travelled in starkly different directions in recent years. While Myanmar's junta has rolled back its chokehold on politics, last year allowing the freest elections in decades, Thailand remains in the grip of a military that seized power in 2014. As Myanmar's democracy champion, Suu Kyi will receive a rock star welcome during a visit to a fishing village in Samut Sakhon later Thursday. Hundreds of migrant workers -- most wearing Suu Kyi T-shirts -- gathered at a market in the port town just outside Bangkok, awaiting the arrival of their heroine on Thursday afternoon. The visit "fills me with hope," Myanmar migrant Thon Barami, 50, told AFP at the scruffy port which is the seat of Thailand's huge seafood industry and home to more than 100,000 low-paid Myanmar labourers. "We have problems here in Thailand. She might help us with labour rights... people all around the world will listen to her," she added. The fishing sector has been battered by revelations of the use of slave labour and the widespread exploitation of workers. The scandals have prompted threats of sanctions by the European Union -- a key market for the multi-billion-dollar Thai seafood industry. - Low pay, lower status - Seeking to escape poverty at home, some one million registered Myanmar migrant workers form the backbone of Thailand's manual workforce. Tens of thousands of others work illegally, with some estimates putting the total number of Myanmar nationals in Thailand at three million. Rights groups say migrants -- legal and otherwise -- are vulnerable to unscrupulous officials, trafficking gangs and employment agencies who charge huge sums to get them poorly paid work. Their low status also sees them treated with scorn and mistrust by many Thais. "They all want to go home, but they are just waiting for the economic situation (in Myanmar) to improve significantly," explained Andy Hall, a migrant rights activist with an office in the port town. The nemesis of Myanmar's generals throughout a quarter-century of struggle for democracy, the Nobel laureate will meet with the leader of the Thai junta in Bangkok on Friday. But her schedule does not include a single press conference as Suu Kyi continues to fiercely control her government's messaging. The 71-year-old is officially Myanmar's foreign minister and state counsellor, but also the de facto leader of her country despite a military-era constitution that bars her from the presidency. It is unclear if she will make a scheduled trip to a refugee camp in Ratchaburi province on Saturday. It is one of nearly a dozen camps in Thailand holding more than 100,000 refugees who have fled conflict in Myanmar. Many are ethnic Karen displaced by war with Myanmar's army. The violence abated following a 2012 ceasefire, but conflict with other ethnic rebel groups continues. Thailand, which does not accept refugees, wants to repatriate camp residents -- some of whom have been born on Thai soil but are barred from citizenship. Suu Kyi is also not scheduled to visit any of the Thai centres holding hundreds of Rohingya boat migrants, a Muslim group who have fled poverty and persecution in western Myanmar. Campaigners say her failure to throw her moral weight behind the stateless minority is a boon to Myanmar's Buddhist hardliners who loathe the Rohingya and say they are illegal immigrants. Hundreds of Myanmar migrant workers, most wearing Suu Kyi T-shirts, gathered at a fishing village in Samut Sakhon outside Bangkok to await the arrival of democracy champion, Aung San Suu Kyi Christophe Archambault (AFP) Moviegoers leave a cinema decorated with posters showing Myanmar democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi at a public film screening during a six-day human rights international film festival in Yangon Romeo Gacad (AFP/File) Kim Jong-Un has warned his rockets can hit 'American b******s' in the Pacific after overseeing North Korea's latest missile tests. After a string of failures in recent months, North Korea tested two Musudan missiles with a range of up to 2,500 miles on Wednesday, one of which flew 250 miles into the East Sea/Sea of Japan. Kim, who personally monitored the launch, applauded a 'great event' before insisting: 'We have the sure capability to attack in an overall and practical way the Americans in the Pacific operation theatre.' Kim Jong-Un (centre) has warned his rockets can hit 'American b******s' in the Pacific after overseeing North Korea's latest missile tests After a string of failures in recent months, North Korea tested two Musudan missiles with a range of up to 2,500 miles on Wednesday, one of which flew 250 miles into the East Sea/Sea of Japan A Korean-language version of the same report had Kim referring to 'the American b******s.' The test triggered emergency UN Security Council talks on curbing Pyongyang's nuclear programme. North Korea's KCNA news agency reported that the launch significantly bolstered the North's pre-emptive nuclear attack capability. The Musudan has a theoretical range of anywhere between 1,550 to 2,500 miles, with the upper estimate covering US military bases as far away as Guam. KCNA said the missile had been fired at a high angle to simulate its full range, and had reached a maximum height of more than 1,400 kilometres. The test 'marked an important occasion in further strengthening the nuclear attack capacity of our state,' Kim said. The launch was condemned by the international community and the UN Security Council met for closed-door consultations on how best to respond. Launch: North Korean newspapers on June 23 display stories and images about the Musudan missile tests North Korean leader Kim Jong Un trumpeted the success of a powerful new midrange ballistic missile test that state media says propelled one of the weapons more than 870 miles Existing United Nations measures prohibit North Korea from using ballistic missile technology France's deputy UN ambassador Alexis Lamek, whose country holds the council presidency, told reporters after the meeting that Council members had been united in 'deep concern and opposition' to the test which was a clear violation of UN resolutions. Existing UN measures prohibit North Korea from using ballistic missile technology. The United States, NATO, Japan and South Korea also denounced the test, with US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter urging the expansion of missile defence systems in the region. 'We need to stay ahead of the threat,' Carter said. Seoul and Washington are currently in talks about deploying the advanced US THAAD missile system in South Korea -- a move vehemently opposed by China. Experts and government officials said the Musudan launch marked another worrying step forward for a weapons programme that ultimately aspires to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of delivering a nuclear strike on the US mainland. The Musudan has a theoretical range of anywhere between 1,550 to 2,500 miles, with the upper estimate covering US military bases as far away as Guam 'We can't deny that (North Korea's) technological development is making progress, and the situation is alarming,' Japanese government spokesman Koichi Hagiuda told reporters. The North has publicly displayed an ICBM, called the KN-08, which uses the same engine technology as the Musudan but has never been test-fired. Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in California, said the international community had to find a way to get Pyongyang to accept a missile test moratorium. 'If we do nothing, this ends in a successful flight test of the Musudan-based KN-08,' Lewis said. The front and inside pages of Thursday's edition of North Korea's ruling party newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, were plastered with pictures of a clearly elated Kim Jong-Un watching the test and celebrating with military scientists. Japan has started to examine the suspected nose cone of a North Korean rocket that washed up on a Japanese beach The red, white and blue item, believed to be half of the nose cone designed to protect the rocket's payload, was found on a beach in western Japan last Thursday There were also multiple photos of the missile blasting off from a mobile launcher near the eastern port of Wonsan. The international outcry suggests North Korea could face renewed sanctions, either on a unilateral level or from the United Nations. After Pyongyang conducted a fourth nuclear test on January 6, followed by a long-range rocket launch February 7, the Security Council adopted its most punishing sanctions yet against North Korea. Any further measures would require the support of veto-wielding permanent council member China, traditionally the North's closest ally. Responding to Wednesday's launch, China's foreign ministry had cautioned against 'any action that may escalate tension' and called for a resumed dialogue on Pyongyang's nuclear drive. Meanwhile, Japan has started to examine the suspected nose cone of a North Korean rocket that washed up on a Japanese beach. The red, white and blue item, believed to be half of the nose cone designed to protect the rocket's payload, was found on a beach in western Japan last Thursday and is suspected to come from a long-range, three-stage rocket fired by North Korea on February 7 that flew over Japan's southwest Okinawa island chain. South Korean authorities recovered the other half. 'We will analyse the materials and the level of technology used,' a Japanese Ministry of Defence official said after the part was delivered by truck to the ministry. The pockmarked 75 kg (165 lb) part, almost two metres wide and over a metre wide, lay on a blanket and blue tarpaulin in a forecourt at the ministry. El Salvador says police lent gangs ammo, uniforms, vehicles SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) Federal prosecutors in El Salvador have issued arrest warrants for several local police officers who allegedly lent gang members uniforms, vehicles and ammunition to commit extortion. The police in the town of Zacatecoluca allegedly worked for members of the Barrio 18 gang, and some officers had ties to the gang itself. Chief prosecutor Douglas Melendez said Tuesday that 12 officers had been arrested and eight others are being sought. The gang members extorted money from vendors at local markets. The town is home to a prison where many gang members are held. Imprisoned gang members allegedly gave orders to run the extortion racket. European countries attempt to seek justice for Syria victims UNITED NATIONS (AP) Several countries, including Sweden, Germany, France and Finland, are investigating or prosecuting alleged perpetrators of grave crimes in Syria in the first attempts to seek justice for victims of the conflict which is now in its sixth year. The efforts under way in Europe follow a double-veto by Russia and China of a U.N. Security Council resolution backed by more than 60 countries in May 2014 that would have referred the Syrian conflict to the International Criminal Court. At a U.N. panel discussion Tuesday entitled "First Cracks in the Syrian Impunity Wall," supporters and several opponents of the legal actions in Europe sparred over the search for justice in Syria. Liechtenstein's U.N. Ambassador Christian Wenaweser, one of the moderators, said the European efforts should be expanded and accountability must be part of Syrian peace talks and a solution to the war. "But in addition, much more effort will be needed to address the unspeakable crimes and atrocities that have been and continue to be committed in Syria," Wenaweser said. Qatar's U.N. Ambassador Alya Al-Thani, the other moderator, said prosecutions in Europe will not only prevent total impunity but "are also providing some measure of justice for victims who have nowhere else to turn." "Qatar is keen to be part of this mechanism," she said. "The constitution of Qatar allows prosecution for terrorist crimes, regardless of where they were committed and the nationality of the victim and the accused." Fadel Abdul Ghani, chairman of the Syrian Network for Human Rights, said his organization has collected thousands of files on alleged crimes and has five cases ready to be submitted to tribunals. Abdul Ghani said 90 percent of the alleged crimes were committed by the Syrian regime. Iranian diplomat Mohammad Hassani, whose country is a close ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad, disputed the 90 percent figure, accused Abdul Ghani of "baseless lies ... and fabrications," and strongly criticized his "one-sided approach." "In our view the fight in Syria is the fight against terrorists," he said, and accountability should also take into account countries supporting, funding and arming "these terrorist groups in Syria." Russian diplomat Sergey Leonidchenko, whose country is also a close Syrian ally, said the Security Council's referral of the uprising that ousted Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi to the ICC in 2011 produced only a quick case against Gadhafi and nothing else for five years so Russia's veto of an ICC referral of Syria "was quite understandable in this situation." Among the countries seeking justice for Syrians, Sweden's U.N. Ambassador Olof Skoog pointed to a law that entered into force July 1, 2014, allowing Swedish courts to exercise universal jurisdiction for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity and "there is no statute of limitation for these crimes." While investigations have been very difficult, he said, there have been convictions in two cases, both with video evidence. In one, a member of the Free Syrian Army was convicted of aggravated assault and war crimes for beating and tying up a prisoner from the same rebel group, and in the other two men who executed two people were tried and convicted of terrorism, he said. France's deputy U.N. Ambassador Alexis Lamek said that "in France more than 350 court proceedings in relation with Syria have been opened in the anti-terrorist courts since 2014." Haiti lawmakers continue to avoid vote on interim president PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) Haiti's divided lawmakers are continuing to avoid a parliamentary vote on whether to extend an interim president's mandate or pave the way for another provisional leader. A National Assembly session was scheduled for Tuesday. But senators and deputies have again ignored demands by their leaders to convene and clear up Haiti's latest leadership muddle. An opposition coalition argues that interim President Jocelerme Privert is unlawfully holding onto power. But Privert and his backers insist he will stay in office until Parliament finally makes a decision on potentially extending his expired mandate. Supporters of presidential candidate Maryse Narcisse clash with national police officers close to the entrance of the parliament building during a demonstration in support of interim President Jocelerme Privert, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, June 21, 2016. The demonstrators march to demand the extension of the expired mandate of the interim president Jocelerme Privert. ( AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) In February, a majority of lawmakers elected Privert to be a short-term caretaker leader amid suspended elections and an institutional vacuum in the presidency. The international community has urged Haiti's Parliament to fulfill their responsibilities and resolve the impasse. Supporters of presidential candidate Maryse Narcisse clash with national police officers, close to the entrance of the parliament building during a demonstration in support of interim President Jocelerme Privert, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, June 21, 2016. The demonstrators are demanding the extension of the expired mandate of the interim president Jocelerme Privert. ( AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) Supporters of presidential candidate Maryse Narcisse hold up human skulls and bones along with a booklet with the photo of former president Jean Bertrand Aristide during a voodoo ceremony before the start of a demonstration in support of interim President Jocelerme Privert, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, June 21, 2016. The demonstrators are demanding the extension of the expired mandate of the interim president Jocelerme Privert. ( AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) Supporters of presidential candidate Maryse Narcisse clash with national police officers close to the entrance of the parliament building during a demonstration in support of interim President Jocelerme Privert, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, June 21, 2016. The demonstrators are demanding the extension of the expired mandate of the interim president Jocelerme Privert. ( AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) Supporters of presidential candidate Maryse Narcisse chant slogan against legislators en route to the parliament building during a demonstration in support of interim President Jocelerme Privert, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, June 21, 2016. The demonstrators are demanding the extension of the expired mandate of the interim president Privert. ( AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) Supporters of presidential candidate Maryse Narcisse clash with national police officers near the entrance of the parliament building during a demonstration in support of interim President Jocelerme Privert, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, June 21, 2016. The demonstrators are demanding the extension of the expired mandate of the interim president Privert. ( AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) Supporters of presidential candidate Maryse Narcisse chant slogans against legislators in front of a police barricade near the entrance to the parliament building during a demonstration in support of interim President Jocelerme Privert, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, June 21, 2016. The demonstrators are demanding the extension of the expired mandate of the interim president Privert. ( AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) Supporters of presidential candidate Maryse Narcisse perform a voodoo ceremony before the start of a demonstration in support of interim President Jocelerme Privert, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, June 21, 2016. The demonstrators are demanding the extension of the expired mandate of the interim president Privert. ( AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) 10 Things to Know for Wednesday - 22 June 2016 Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about Wednesday: 1. BILLIONAIRE DONALD TRUMP'S PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN APPEARS TO BE FLAT BROKE Fundraising reports also show he's used about $6 million in campaign money to pay his own companies, relatives. In this June 18, 2016, photo, police remove Michael Steven Sandford as Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at the Treasure Island hotel and casino in Las Vegas. Sandford, a British man accused of trying to take a police officer's gun and kill Donald Trump during a weekend rally in Las Vegas, will not be released on bail. Federal Magistrate Judge George Foley said at a hearing Monday that Sandford was a potential danger to the community and a flight risk. (AP Photo/John Locher) 2. WHO JOINED CAMERON IN URGING BRITONS TO VOTE TO STAY IN THE EUROPEAN UNION Pop icons David and Victoria Beckham used social media to voice their support for remaining in the bloc. 3. CLINTON WARNS THAT TRUMP'S 'RECKLESS' APPROACH WOULD PLUNGE ECONOMY INTO RECESSION The presumptive Democratic nominee sought to define Trump as little more than a con man, whose ignorance and ego would tank the global economy. 4. NORTH KOREA FIRES 2 SUSPECTED MUSUDAN MIDRANGE MISSILES BUT AT LEAST ONE FAILS The show of persistence worries Washington and its allies, Tokyo and Seoul, because the missile's potential range could target much of Asia and the Pacific, including U.S. military bases there. 5. FULLER PICTURE EMERGES OF MAN ARRESTED FOR ALLEGEDLY TRYING TO ATTACK TRUMP The British man was unemployed and had been treated in the past for obsessive compulsive disorder and anorexia, authorities and others say. 6. SOME RUSSIANS TRACK AND FIELD ATHLETES COULD COMPETE UNDER THEIR OWN FLAG IOC President Thomas Bach said if any Russians are deemed eligible by the IAAF, they would compete under the Russian flag. 7. RESCUE PLANE LANDS AT SOUTH POLE TO EVACUATE A SICK WORKER The plane's crew will wait for at least 10 hours before refueling and returning to Rothera if weather conditions are favorable. 8. WHAT JURORS IN THE LED ZEPPELIN COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT TRIAL GOT TO HEAR Original recordings of Led Zeppelin working through the song that became the epic "Stairway to Heaven" were played. 9. WHERE LAWMAKERS PASSED A NOVEL REQUIREMENT FOR FREE TAMPONS New York City legislators approved a measure to require free tampons and sanitary pads in public schools, homeless shelters and jail. 10. SURGING WILDFIRES FORCE HUNDREDS OF NEW EVACUATIONS ACROSS WEST Firefighters worked to beat back a pair of huge adjacent blazes looming over suburban Los Angeles. In this photo provided by the Courtesy British Antarctic Survey, Rothera, the British Antarctic Survey station is seen from the air. A daring South Pole medical rescue is underway. An airplane left a British base in Antarctica Tuesday, June 21, 2016, for the 1,500-mile trip to evacuate a sick person from the U.S. station. Athena Dinar, spokeswoman for the British Antarctic Survey, said one of two twin otter planes began the trip Tuesday, while the other is still at the Rothera station on the Antarctic Peninsula just in case. (British Antarctic Survey via AP) Sheriff: Man killed, deputy hurt in North Carolina shooting LAWNDALE, N.C. (AP) Authorities in North Carolina say a man has been shot to death in a confrontation with a sheriff's deputy. Cleveland County Sheriff Alan Norman told The Shelby Star (http://bit.ly/28MkIPy) that Deputy Scott Trammel was responding to a call at a home Tuesday afternoon when he was assaulted by a man there. He says Trammel fatally shot the man during the altercation. The sheriff says Trammel was treated for head and arm wounds and released from the hospital. Peru's Kuczynski jokes about ending US ties if Trump wins LIMA, Peru (AP) Peru's President-elect Pedro Pablo Kuczynski has joked that his country will sever ties with the United States if Donald Trump wins the presidency. Asked by a local reporter what would happen if the Republican won November's U.S. election, he said amid laughs that "we are going to grab a saw and cut." "He wants to put up a wall between the United States and Latin America, and make the Mexicans pay for it. Isn't that too much?" he said in reference to Trump's proposal for a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border. New for-profit medical schools springing up across US BOISE, Idaho (AP) For-profit medical schools are starting to pop up around the country, promising to create new family doctors for underserved rural regions. Rural states like Idaho need more general practitioners, with the baby boom generation aging and expanded insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act making health care more accessible. But critics of the new schools question whether companies can properly train the nation's next crop of doctors. "On face value, it looks like a pretty good deal" because for-profit schools promise to bring benefits without relying on taxpayer dollars, said Dr. Ted Epperly, who runs a family practice residency program in Boise, where a new for-profit school plans to start accepting students in 2018. "But it's a little bit like Wal-Mart moving into a small community with mom-and-pop shops it damages the existing workforce producers." In this June 20, 2016 photo, Dr. Robert Hasty, the dean of the for-profit Idaho College of Osteopathic Medicine, talks with Idaho State University Meridian Health Science Center employees Chris Wilson, center, and Nancy Carpenter in Meridian, Idaho. ICOM and ISU have reached an agreement that will allow the for-profit school's students to use the public university's facilities when ICOM opens in 2018. (AP Photo/Rebecca Boone) Proponents contend challenges the new schools face are surmountable, and any stigma about for-profit medical training is born of fear, not fact. Dr. Robert Hasty, dean of the newly created Idaho College of Osteopathic Medicine, notes for-profit hospitals also were once stigmatized but now make up about a quarter of all U.S. hospitals. "We have such a need for doctors, and if we have to make this investment, it's worthwhile," Hasty said. Thirty-one new medical schools opened in the country between 2002 and 2014, according to an article in the New England Journal of Medicine. Most were nonprofit or public. For decades, for-profit medical schools were relegated to foreign shores, with U.S.-based companies like DeVry launching medical schools in the Caribbean. But that changed in 2007 when Rocky Vista University College of Osteopathic Medicine opened in Parker, Colorado. Several for-profit medical schools have opened in the years since, including California Northstate University School of Medicine and the Burrell College of Osteopathic Medicine in New Mexico. Rocky Vista recently announced plans to expand into Utah. Justin Rose was part of the first group of students to graduate from Rocky Vista in Colorado. Though the Idaho native applied to several schools in the West, he wasn't accepted to any state-run programs. "The for-profit part never played a part in it," Rose said of his decision to attend Rocky Vista. "The biggest concern was I'm going to a new med school that had no background affiliation or anything." In retrospect, he said, it was the best choice because the school was under pressure to prove its first crop of graduates would succeed. "It made them especially motivated," he said. After completing an emergency medicine residency and an ultrasound fellowship at the University of Kentucky, Rose is preparing to begin his career as a doctor in Boise. He said the job will allow him to continue chipping away at his $350,000 in student loan debt. That's nearly double the average debt carried by medical school graduates, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. And because Rose attended a for-profit program, he's not eligible for many federal loan-forgiveness programs. Even with the high debt load, the for-profit med school was worth it, Rose said. Opening state programs is costly, and for-profit schools are a good answer for America's rural health care shortage, Rose said. His one concern is that the number of schools will grow faster than the number of residency programs. Like their public and nonprofit counterparts, for-profit med schools face pressure to ensure their graduates get the valuable residency positions. At least 98 percent of grads from an osteopathic school must be placed in a residency or equivalent program or the school risks losing accreditation, Hasty said. Medical schools must make their residency placement numbers available to the public. That accountability and the fact that would-be doctors must pass medical board exams and meet state requirements before they can start practicing should help hopeful medical school students make good choices about where to attend, said Claudia Goldin, a Harvard economics professor who has studied for-profit education models. "If they're not providing the requisite training and hands-on work, then it's going to be public information that these students didn't pass those exams," Goldin said. "It's sort of a good thing to have some external review." The differences between for- and nonprofit schools aren't always apparent, Goldin said. Salaries for staff at nonprofits and public schools often are higher than for-profits, for instance. And regulators have stepped in to stop some nonprofit schools from taking steps deemed undesirable, such as when Yale was told to stop plans for an online physician's assistant school. "I've always tried to think about for-profits without the jaundiced view of them that we all now seem to have," she said. "I always try to enter this with the notion that there are good training programs all over the place, and the nonprofits have some pretty lousy places." The for-profit schools are not without risk. Dade Medical College in Florida abruptly closed last year amid major financial troubles, its 2,000 health care students arriving on campus to find doors locked. The school received more than $100 million in taxpayer-funded Pell grants and student loans since it opened in 1999, according to the Miami Herald. Investors are looking for a return on their investment, said Hasty, dean of the new Idaho school. But the ultimate goal is to create safe, competent physicians. He sees Idaho, Montana and other rural states in the region as the epicenter of a nationwide family physician shortage. "It's not a donation I mean, I'd love for them to donate lots of money for our scholarships," Hasty said. "This is really part of a social mission." US, North Korean diplomats attend meetings in Beijing BEIJING (AP) Diplomats from the U.S. and North Korea are attending a six-nation security forum in Beijing on Wednesday, in a rare opportunity for contact between them after the North fired two suspected powerful new ballistic missiles. Despite their attendance at the event, the U.S. State Department has said there were no plans for direct talks between the U.S. special representative for North Korea policy Sung Kim, and the deputy director general of the North Korean Foreign Ministry's Department of U.S. Affairs, Choe Son Hui. The conference is described as a multilateral forum involving high-level policymakers, defense ministry officials, military officers, and researchers from China, Japan, North and South Korea, Russia, and the United States. Choe Son Hui, third from left, deputy director general of the Department of US Affairs of North Korea Foreign Ministry, prepares to sit as Sung Kim, special representative for North Korean Policy of the U.S. Department of State, left, arrives to attend the 26th Northeast Asia Cooperation Dialogue in Beijing, China, Wednesday, June 22, 2016. Participants from China, U.S., North Korea, South Korea, Japan and Russia are expected to discuss the development and peace of Northeast Asia. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan) The nations taking part had participated in years of negotiations on North Korean nuclear disarmament that stalled in 2008. There are few prospects of a resumption of the talks amid the Kim Jong Un government's attempts to assert itself as a nuclear weapons state and heightened tensions following a North Korean nuclear test and rocket launch that drew stiff sanctions. The U.S. and its partners want Pyongyang to recommit to denuclearization before restarting the discussions. The closed-door Beijing conference was organized by the Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation at the University of California, San Diego. The institute calls the dialogue a "regular channel of informal communication among the six governments." Officials participate in the meetings in their private capacity, not as official government representatives. South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said that a suspected first Musudan launch from the east coast city of Wonsan failed early Wednesday morning. While it didn't elaborate, Japan's Defense Ministry said the missile fragmented and pieces fell into waters off the Korean Peninsula's east coast. A second missile flew only about 400 kilometers (250 miles), well short of its potential 3,500-kilometer (2,180-mile) range. The launches were North Korea's fifth and sixth such attempts since April. Su Ge, President of China Institute of International Studies, right chats with Choe Son Hui, deputy director general of the Department of US Affairs of North Korea Foreign Ministry as they arrive to attend the 26th Northeast Asia Cooperation Dialogue held in Beijing, China, Wednesday, June 22, 2016. Participants from China, U.S., North Korea, South Korea, Japan and Russia are expected to discuss the development and peace of Northeast Asia. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan) Choe Son Hui, deputy director general of the Department of U.S. Affairs of North Korean Foreign Ministry, walks ahead of Wu Dawei, Chinese special representative for Korean Peninsula Affairs, and other delegates to attend the 26th Northeast Asia Cooperation Dialogue in Beijing Wednesday, June 22, 2016. Participants from China, U.S., North Korea, South Korea, Japan and Russia are expected to discuss the development and peace of Northeast Asia. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan) Sung Kim, special representative for North Korea policy of the U.S. Department of State, second from right, and Kim Gunn, director general for North Korean Nuclear Affairs of the South Korean Foreign Ministry, attend the 26th Northeast Asia Cooperation Dialogue in Beijing Wednesday, June 22, 2016. Participants from China, U.S., North Korea, South Korea, Japan and Russia are expected to discuss the development and peace of Northeast Asia. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan) Choe Son Hui, third from left, deputy director general of the Department of U.S. Affairs of North Korean Foreign Ministry, arrives near Susan Shrik, director emeritus of Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, second from left, and Wu Dawei, Chinese special representative for Korean Peninsula Affairs, left, to attend the 26th Northeast Asia Cooperation Dialogue in Beijing Wednesday, June 22, 2016. Participants from China, U.S., North Korea, South Korea, Japan and Russia are expected to discuss the development and peace of Northeast Asia. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan) Tribes hail shield's halted sale; collectors ask what's next PUEBLO OF ACOMA, N.M. (AP) The laws of a rural New Mexico Native American tribe require that the ceremonial shield stay within the boundaries of its reservation, which covers miles of mountains and rolling desert. And for generations, the sacred object did just that, remaining safely in a home atop a mesa. So when a photo of the colorful shield recently emerged on a Paris auction house's website, Acoma Pueblo leaders moved to halt its sale. A legal challenge in the French courts ensued, followed by an emotional public appeal from the pueblo's governor and an affidavit alleging the shield disappeared after a break-in. Top U.S. officials also called for French authorities to intervene. In this June 8, 2016, photo, Gov. Kurt Riley, of Acoma Pueblo, discusses his tribe's move to repatriate a ceremonial shield from Paris, France during an interview in Acoma Pueblo, New Mexico. Amid protest from the Pueblo, the shield was pulled from the auction block in a rare, last-minute move that has been hailed by tribes and questioned by some collectors. (AP Photo/Mary Hudetz) What came next was a rare announcement last month by Paris' EVE auction house that the item was being withdrawn from bidding on the day it was to be sold, with the only explanation that it was being held pending further examination. "I do know the French government looked closely at the issue and did the right thing in pulling the shield from the auction," said Larry Roberts, who oversees the U.S. Interior Department's Bureau of Indian Affairs and joined in pushing for the sale to be blocked. "I think France is to be congratulated for that." But as tribes and their advocates hail the shield's suspended auction and await a final ruling on whether it will be returned to Acoma Pueblo, some collectors fear the move along with pending investigations on both sides of the Atlantic will send a chill through the tribal artifacts market. In New Mexico, federal authorities, including the FBI, say they are looking into how the shield came on the market. However, a U.S. attorney spokeswoman has declined to comment further, citing the ongoing investigation. Meanwhile, French authorities have asked Acoma Pueblo to produce more documents, including another affidavit, for their review, said Kurt Riley, the pueblo's governor. "When these items do go, we don't really know when, where, how it all occurred, and all of the sudden they're popping up overseas," Riley said. "We're in the dark as well. But we do know it never should have left the bounds of the reservation, and so once it's gone, we know it's a violation of our traditional law." Whether that violation of traditional law also means the person who bought and sent the shield to France broke U.S. law, too, is at the center of much of the debate now surrounding the shield. Without answers, the Native American artifacts market could seem like a "dicier and dicier" place to do business, said Robert Gallegos, a former president of the Antique Tribal Art Dealers Association. French dealers at EVE, Drouot and other Paris auction houses for years have stood their ground against similar high-profile protests, refusing to halt sales and saying that doing so could have broad repercussions for the art market in general. They have maintained all the objects including war shirts and mask-like pieces the Hopi say are the physical embodiment of their ancestors were acquired and sold legally under French and U.S. laws. But that's something many of the tribes dispute. EVE made the same assertion about the Acoma Pueblo piece in the lead-up to its May 30 auction. Since the auction, it has not responded to emailed requests for comment from The Associated Press. In the United States, a law passed by Congress in 1990 in response to years of looting and aggressive archaeological expeditions on tribal lands carries criminal penalties for trafficking human remains, burial objects or items of exceptional cultural or historical importance for a tribe. But interpretations of the law vary. Gallegos and others in his trade believe the statute doesn't apply to items taken into a private collection before 1990, which might have been what happened with the shield. Acoma Pueblo's attorneys, meanwhile, say the law does apply to such items and note others have been prosecuted for it. The pueblo's investigation determined the shield was stolen from the mesa in the 1970s, with the granddaughter of the man tasked with caring for it testifying it was swiped from her family's home. The shield came into his care after her great-grandfather passed it onto him, she said. According to the pueblo, the shield is an irreplaceable ceremonial object that belongs to the entire pueblo and holds a place in the cycle of its ceremonies. Stitched together with leather straps, the circular shield features what a historic preservation officer for the tribe describes as the face of a Kachina, or ancestral spirit. For Riley, Acoma Pueblo's governor, seeing the shield listed for auction stirred fears that more ceremonial items than previously thought have slipped away to other countries like France, where U.S. laws protecting them typically hold no weight. "What other sacred items have left that we don't even know about?" he said. "Where have they gone, and how are we ever going to get them back?" No women need apply: Yacht club's men-only policy rankles WESTERLY, R.I. (AP) Taylor Swift has a home in this seaside community. But even one of the world's most famous women wouldn't be able to join the Westerly Yacht Club, which bestows full membership only on men. A vote to change the policy at the nearly century-old club in the Ocean State, where the love of sailing runs deep, failed to reach a two-thirds majority last week. In a secret ballot, 207 men voted for the change and 171 men voted to keep it the way it is. Wives can become associate members, and while they can run committees and organize parties at the club, they can't vote. Single women and married lesbians are not admitted, even as associates, because they are not married to a man. Gay men may join, but their husbands may not become associates, a status reserved for wives. In this Monday, June 20, 2016 photo, Danielle Hetu poses after speaking about the Westerly Yacht Club's membership policy as the yacht club is seen in background, right in Westerly, R.I. Wives can join as associate, non-voting members, but unmarried women can't. A vote to change the nearly century-old policy failed last week, with 171 men voting to uphold it. Women, and many men, are not happy. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola) Women, and many men, are not happy. Several women connected to the club said it was ridiculous, in a year when Hillary Clinton is making a historic run for president, that they can't join. Swift hasn't asked, but if she wanted to would not be allowed, even though her beach house is in the same ZIP code. "How do I explain this to my daughters? That you can be the president, but you can't be a member of the Westerly Yacht Club?" said associate member Danielle Hetu. Hetu and her husband, who sits on the club's board, are among those who have been working for years to change the policy. Previous votes to admit women have won a majority but failed to win a two-thirds majority, as required by the club's bylaws, members said. One member who voted against the change said he believes many of the wives agree with him. "They're all happy with what they got. They don't have to pay dues," Bob Dionne said. Annual dues are around $600, although others point out wives could continue to be non-voting, non-dues-paying associate members if they chose. Jane Barstow, an associate member and retired professor of English and women's studies, thinks the policy remains in part because of the "old guard" at the club that is resistant to change. She theorizes that there may be something of a backlash against Clinton's historic run for president, and says there may be other reasons as well. "I heard somebody say that some women had told their husbands to vote against it because they were afraid of their husbands interacting with single women," she said. "That's very sad." Others have theorized members do not want competition for their businesses from professional women who could join the club for the networking opportunities. Many people in the community were shocked to learn of the policy. Linda Lee stopped by last year to inquire about joining. Lee owns a financial advising firm in nearby Mystic, Connecticut, and thought it would be a nice place to socialize, have lunch with clients and network. She and her husband live nearby and own a 50-foot boat, which is in her name. But when she asked at the bar about membership, Lee could not believe what she heard. "Well, you can't join. You have to be a man. Your husband can join," Lee said she was told. "I just said, 'Forget it.' And I walked out. These days, we are so past that." Julie Cardinal has the club in her blood. Her maternal grandfather died on his boat there. Her father was the club's commodore, and she got married at the club. Her husband became a member. But when they divorced, she lost her status as associate member. Now, when she wants to go there, she needs her father or mother to sign her in. No one has yet challenged the policy in court. The club's commodore, Scott Howard, pushed to admit women, but said he also believes the policy is legal because it is a private club. Several associate members and members said they think it violates the law. They think antidiscrimination laws apply because the club has over 600 members, holds a liquor license and rents out facilities to the general public. Lynette Labinger, one of Rhode Island's leading civil rights lawyers, said the policy is problematic. Rhode Island prohibits discrimination based on gender. While a small group for men such as a reading group might be OK, it's less likely to be allowed when a club has many members and charges fees. The Westerly Sun editorialized that the policy gave the town a black eye and suggested that if people withheld dues and stopped going to the bar, the club might change. Cardinal said letting women join would not change much; it would just give women more of a voice. "I still love it and enjoy it," Cardinal said. "I just don't think it's correct." ___ Reach Michelle R. Smith on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MRSmithAP In this Monday, June 20, 2016 photo, a granite sign outside the Westerly Yacht Club is seen in Westerly, R.I. Wives can join the club as associate, non-voting members, but unmarried women can't. A vote to change the nearly century-old policy failed last week, with 171 men voting to uphold it. Women, and many men, are not happy. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola) In this Monday, June 20, 2016 photo, small boats are stored at the Westerly Yacht Club in Westerly, R.I. Wives can join the club as associate, non-voting members, but unmarried women can't. A vote to change the nearly century-old policy failed last week, with 171 men voting to uphold it. Women, and many men, are not happy. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola) In this Monday, June 20, 2016 photo, boats are docked at the Westerly Yacht Club in Westerly, R.I. Wives can join the club as associate, non-voting members, but unmarried women can't. A vote to change the nearly century-old policy failed last week, with 171 men voting to uphold it. Women, and many men, are not happy. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola) In this Monday, June 20, 2016 photo, Julie Cardinal poses after speaking about the Westerly Yacht Club's membership policy on Monday, June 20, 2016, as the yacht club is seen in the background in Westerly, R.I. Wives can join as associate, non-voting members, but unmarried women can't. A vote to change the nearly century-old policy failed last week, with 171 men voting to uphold it. Women, and many men, are not happy. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola) In this Monday, June 20, 2016 photo, Julie Cardinal speaks about the Westerly Yacht Club's membership policy on Monday, June 20, 2016, as the yacht club is seen in the background in Westerly, R.I. Wives can join as associate, non-voting members, but unmarried women can't. A vote to change the nearly century-old policy failed last week, with 171 men voting to uphold it. Women, and many men, are not happy. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola) Hastert, ex-Speaker branded 'molester,' to enter prison CHICAGO (AP) The hours are counting down to the deadline when Dennis Hastert must report to prison to serve a 15-month sentence. A federal judge in Chicago ordered the former U.S. House speaker to report to a Rochester, Minnesota, prison by no later than Wednesday at 2 p.m. Judge Thomas Durkin sentenced the 74-year-old Republican in April for breaking banking law in seeking to pay $3.5 million in hush money. FILE - In this April 27, 2016, file photo, former House Speaker Dennis Hastert departs the federal courthouse in Chicago. Hastert's attorney says that he will report to a federal prison in southeastern Minnesota this week to begin serving a 15-month sentence in his hush-money case. Washington, D.C.,-based attorney Thomas Green confirmed Monday, June 20, 2016, in an email that the Illinois Republican will report to the Rochester Federal Medical Center. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File) Durkin branded Hastert a "serial child molester" for sexually abusing at least four boys at an Illinois high school decades ago. Hastert's designated prison, the Rochester Federal Medical Center, specializes in health care. Hastert's diabetic and suffered a stroke last year. When he arrives, he'll be subject to a full-body strip search. He'll be identified by his inmate number 47991-424. FILE - In this April 27, 2016, file photo, former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert departs the federal courthouse in Chicago. Hastert's attorney says that he will report to a federal prison in southeastern Minnesota this week to begin serving a 15-month sentence in his hush-money case. Washington, D.C.,-based attorney Thomas Green confirmed Monday, June 20, 2016, in an email that the Illinois Republican will report to the Rochester Federal Medical Center. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File) This September 2005 photo shows the Federal Medical Center in Rochester, Minn., where former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert is due to report Wednesday, June 22, 2016, to begin his 15-month sentence in a hush-money case. (Jodi O'Shaughnessy Olson/The Post-Bulletin via AP) This September 2005 photo shows the Federal Medical Center in Rochester, Minn., where former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert is due to report Wednesday, June 22, 2016, to begin his 15-month sentence in a hush-money case. (Jodi O'Shaughnessy Olson/The Post-Bulletin via AP) With scorching temperatures in Arizona, one man thought he should put the weather to good use when it comes to preparing his food. So on one hot summer day, he decided to fry up some steaks on a pan sitting out on the street and bake cookies on the dashboard inside of his bright orange Lamborghini. While it is not clear how hot it was on this exact day, in the video you can hear the sizzling of the steaks as he places them onto the pan and the cookies appear to be baking in the hot sun. The Arizonan was perhaps able to attempt his cooking activities with the help of the scorching heat as a result of a mega-heatwave sweeping across parts of the Southwest. Courtesy WhenInYourState, visit them on Facebook With scorching temperatures in Arizona, one man thought he should put the weather to good use, utilizing the heat to fry up some steaks and bake cookies in his bright orange Lamborghini Three steaks are pictured cooking on a baking tray on the street. The Arizonan was perhaps able to attempt his cooking activities in the hot sun as a result of a mega-heatwave sweeping across the Southwest The heatwave ushered in the first day of summer in the broiling Southwest, where extreme temperatures were blamed for at least six deaths over the weekend. Towns along the Arizona-California border were getting the brunt of the extreme temperatures on Monday. In Palm Springs, the thermometer hit 121 degrees in the early afternoon on Monday. The temperature in Phoenix broke a record and hit 116 degrees. Meanwhile on Wednesday in eastern Arizona, firefighters expected to keep a wildfire spanning some 67 square miles from moving any closer to a rural town. In video filmed in Arizona, the man is seen cooking raw steaks on a baking pan sitting on the street On the dashboard inside his bright orange Lambo, he baked a tray of chocolate chip cookies The cookies appeared to be cooking in the scorching heat amid a mega-heatwave sweeping across the Southwest The flames threatening the community of Cedar Creek made no significant movement in the last 24 hours thanks to sparse vegetation. More than 15,000 people in nearby mountain communities have been told to prepare to evacuate. Cooler, more humid weather gave at least some temporary help on Wednesday to crews battling dangerous wildfires in Southern California, while other blazes across the West were on the move. Improved weather in the aftermath of a severe heat wave allowed firefighters to make progress against two fires in the steep San Gabriel Mountains 20 miles northeast of Los Angeles. Some evacuations below in the foothill city of Duarte were lifted, but the calm was not expected to last. 'We will have stronger winds, so it could push the fire,' incident commander Mike Wakoski said. A sign indicates temperatures reached 120 degrees on Monday in Phoenix. The heatwave ushered in the first day of summer in the broiling Southwest, where extreme temperatures were blamed for at least six deaths over the weekend Towns along the Arizona-California border were getting the brunt of the extreme temperatures earlier this week. On Wednesday, temperatures in Phoenix reached 113F and 101F in Albuquerque Signs warning of extreme heat are placed on a trailhead on Wednesday at Piestewa Peak in Phoenix He expected gusts of up to 25 mph in the afternoon and evening, posing additional problems for hundreds of firefighters attacking the flames. A fleet of helicopters and air tankers and other resources are helping fight the fires totaling about seven-and-a-half square miles. 'They're starting to make good progress, but there's a lot of line to put in, and it's in a real inaccessible area,' Wakoski said. 'It's very hard for the firefighters to engage the fire safely, but they are out there doing so.' No homes have been lost, though flames have come close at times. More than 850 homes were ordered evacuated earlier this week, and 534 were cleared for residents' return on Wednesday. Near the Mexican border, two residences and 11 outbuildings burned in a wildfire about 40 miles southeast of San Diego. A thousand structures were threatened by the blaze, which grew to just over 10 square miles and was only partially contained. Falling temperatures, rising humidity and cloud cover has helped, said Capt. Kendal Bortisser of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. A layer of haze shrouds downtown Los Angeles early Wednesday morning. For days, wildfires have raged amid spiking heat across Southern California and much of the West, driving hundreds from their homes A Los Angeles County firefighting helicopter makes a water drop on a hill near a wildfire in Duarte, California on Tuesday Surging wildfires on Tuesday forced new evacuations of hundreds of homes across the West, while firefighters worked to beat back a pair of huge adjacent blazes looming over suburban Los Angeles But firefighters still must deal with rough terrain and vegetation that has not burned in decades, he said. Weather also helped on the rugged coast west of Santa Barbara. Fog moved into the area scorched by a blaze that began more than a week ago, and most mandatory evacuations were called off. With the more than 12-square-mile fire almost fully surrounded, firefighters shifted focus to battling hot spots within containment lines. Resources were moving from that blaze to those in Los Angeles and San Diego counties. Elsewhere in the West, a forest fire near the Colorado-Wyoming line exploded in size and forced campers to evacuate. A shift in the wind turned a blaze burning slowly in a heavily wooded area with no permanent residents into a fast-moving threat, growing from one square mile to about five. Trees killed by a beetle infestation were fueling the flames 140 miles north of Denver and two miles from Wyoming. On Tuesday, crews continued to fight the Saddle Fire near Pine Valley, Utah (pictured above) A firefighters douses the grass with water along a hillside on a wildfire in Azusa, California on Monday No more than 100 campers and people staying in cabins fled, Routt National Forest spokesman Aaron Voos said. More firefighters were expected, but getting more help was difficult because of the other Western blazes. 'Resources are kind of hard to come by right now,' Voos said. In southwest Utah, officials evacuated about 100 people as a wildfire moved down a rocky slope toward the mountain town of Pine Valley. The blaze was about a square mile but moving dangerously close to homes in difficult terrain, so more evacuations could come, officials said. In central New Mexico, more evacuees were expected to return home as firefighters inch closer to snuffing out a massive wildfire that ignited last week. Australia says 28 asylum seeker boats have been turned back CAMBERRA, Australia (AP) Australia's ruling party said Wednesday that it had turned back 28 boats to prevent asylum seekers reaching Australia during its three years in power and warned that such vigilance would not continue if the country's opposition wins next month's national election. The conservative coalition government has warned that the boats would start coming from Indonesian ports in greater numbers if the center-left Labor Party wins the July 2 elections. The latest boat carrying 21 Vietnamese was intercepted this month, Border Protection Minister Peter Dutton said. They were returned to Vietnam after their refugee claims were assessed and rejected at sea, he said. He declined to give details. The government rarely gives details of its military-run operations against asylum-seeker boats at sea. Indonesia objects to boats carrying foreigners being towed by Australian warships back to Indonesian shores. How to deal with asylum seekers is a major political issue in Australia, and Dutton said if opposition leader Bill Shorten were to win the election, his plan to give 30,000 asylum seekers already in Australia permanent refugee visas would only attract more boats. The government has given them three-year temporary protection visas and threatens to send them back to their homelands when those visas expire. Dutton said changing that would give people smugglers hope that Australia was softening it policies designed to deter asylum seekers from the Middle East, Africa and Asia from attempting to reach Australia by boat. "That sends a green light. It is basically Bill Shorten waiving a white flag to the people smugglers," Dutton told reporters. Shorten has denied that dumping the temporary refugee visas would encourage more boats, and said the conservatives were irresponsible to suggest there would be more people smuggling if he won. Shorten said a Labor government would maintain the same tough policies that have prevented any asylum seekers from reaching Australia by boat for two years in it was in power. Putin heads to China to cement ties, but obstacles remain MOSCOW (AP) With President Vladimir Putin heading to China this weekend, officials in both countries extoll a blossoming "strategic partnership" between the two former communist rivals. But despite Moscow's push to strengthen ties with Beijing amid a bitter strain in relations with the West, Russia-China trade has shrunk sharply and a slew of ambitious projects have remained largely on paper. Observers attribute the slow progress to Beijing's hard-nosed bargaining position and the Kremlin's deep-seated suspicions about the growing power of its mighty partner. A shared desire to counter perceived U.S. global domination and strong personal ties between Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who are to meet Saturday in Beijing, appear to be the main driving forces behind Russia-China cooperation. FILE - In this Friday, May 8, 2015 file photo Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, shakes hands with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping during their meeting in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia. With President Vladimir Putin heading to China this weekend, officials in both countries extoll a blossoming strategic partnership between the two former Communist rivals. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, pool, File) The renewed push to bolster relations with China came after the United States and the European Union imposed an array of crippling sanctions on Russia over its annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in March 2014, cutting its access to world financial markets and blocking the transfer of modern technologies. Moscow was also purged from the Group of Eight leading industrialized nations. In a bid to show the West that the ties with China could offer a viable alternative, Putin visited Beijing in May 2014, presiding over the signing of numerous deals, including a mammoth 30-year natural gas contract worth $400 billion. A later deal saw a branch of Chinese state-owned energy company CNPC buying a stake in a project to build a giant liquefied natural gas plant on the Yamal Peninsula in the Arctic. Last December, Chinese company Sinopec bought a stake in the Russia's Sibur energy company. China also promised to offer multibillion dollar loans to help build a high-speed rail link between Moscow and the Volga River city of Kazan. Other ambitious deals have been expected, but most of them have floundered amid Russia's economic uncertainty. A key factor behind Russia-China trade dropping from nearly $100 billion a year in 2014 to just over $60 billion last year has been the sharp devaluation of the Russian currency under the double impact of low global oil prices and Western sanctions. With energy resources accounting for two-thirds of Russian exports to China, trade volumes have shrunk as oil prices fell. The devaluation of the ruble has spooked Chinese investors, and low energy prices made some prospective energy projects unfeasible. Plans to tap new oil and gas fields in Siberia and build more China-bound pipelines, which require massive investment, have stalled. Chinese companies and banks also have been cautious about developing their business in Russia, fearing that it could adversely affect their operations elsewhere due to the spiraling Russia-West tensions and Western sanctions. Plans for Chinese companies to invest in the giant Vankor oil and gas fields in eastern Siberia have bogged down over pricing disputes, Russia's hopes of using China as an alternative to European financial markets have failed and a prospective transport corridor between China and the European Union has remained mired in uncertainty. Beijing's ambitious Silk Road Economic Belt project, intended to encourage infrastructure development in formerly Soviet Central Asia which Russia sees as its home turf, has caused unease in Moscow. China has promised to coordinate the project with the Russia-dominated Eurasian Economic Union, but clearly has put an emphasis on bilateral deals with Kazakhstan and other members of the bloc. "Moscow can't preserve its economic domination in Central Asia," Alexander Gabuyev of the Carnegie Moscow Center wrote in a commentary. At a recent Russia-China forum in Moscow, officials hailed an "unprecedented" closeness, but businessmen and experts pointed at numerous problems. Russian tycoon Viktor Vekselberg deplored what he described as a "catastrophically low" level of Russia-China cooperation in the high-tech sector, saying that Chinese companies have shown little interest in investing in Russian industries. While ambitious hopes for closer economic cooperation haven't materialized, Russia and China have bolstered their military ties, which have included joint war games and contacts on missile defense. Russian weapons exports to China, which peaked in the 1990s and fell dramatically in the following decade, have received a new boost recently. "We have common interests, especially now, when the United States has put pressure on both Russia and China," said Li Fenglin, a former Chinese ambassador to Moscow who heads a government-sponsored think tank. He urged Moscow to cooperate more closely with Beijing, noting that some in Russia still fear China and seek to counterbalance its influence. Some Russian military and political insiders view China's growing power with unease, fearing that the giant eastern neighbor could one day try to dictate its terms. The prospect of potential Chinese expansion long has worried residents of Russia's sparsely populated far eastern regions, where many growled about the Kremlin's decision to surrender significant slices of land along the 4,200-kilometer (2,600-mile) border to China in a 2005 demarcation deal. Reflecting such fears, Russia's state television recently aired a program hosted by famous film director Nikita Mikhalkov that included a video describing a hypothetical Chinese invasion. The video ended with China quickly overrunning all of Russia's Far East and Siberia and drawing a new border along the Urals, the mountain range that traditionally serves as the boundary between Europe and Asia. Many in Russia also have been appalled by Chinese farmers leasing Russia's agricultural lands, seeing them as both a vanguard of potential expansion and an environmental scourge because of aggressive use of toxic fertilizers. "Chinese farmers have poisoned our land," ultranationalist leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky ranted during recent debates in parliament. "Nothing grows after them!" FILE - In this Friday, May 8, 2015 file photo Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, welcomes his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping during their meeting in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia. With President Vladimir Putin heading to China this weekend, officials in both countries extoll a blossoming strategic partnership between the two former Communist rivals. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, Pool, File) Pro-EU or no EU? Diverse London contains extremes of opinion LONDON (AP) When Britain decides on Thursday whether to leave the European Union, London's voice may prove decisive. But for which side? Britain's capital, home to almost 9 million people, encompasses some of the most pro-EU places in the country and the least. In the cosmopolitan City financial district, where almost half a million people from around the globe work in Europe's biggest financial center, pro-EU sentiment predominates. But just a few miles away the borough of Havering, stronghold of working-class East Enders, topped a national survey of the most anti-EU places in Britain. Fishmonger Dave Crosbie speaks to the Associated Press at the market in Havering's Romford street market in London, Wednesday, June 1, 2016. When Britain decides on Thursday June 23, 2016, whether to leave the European Union, London's voice may prove decisive. But for which side? Britain's capital, home to almost 9 million people, encompasses the most pro-EU place of the country, and the least. In the cosmopolitan City financial district, where almost half a million people from around the globe work in Europe's biggest financial center, pro-EU sentiment predominates. But just a few miles away, the borough of Havering, stronghold of working-class East Enders, topped a national survey of the most anti-EU places in Britain. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein) The two districts represent the opposing views at the heart of Britain's EU debate. One sees the bloc's free flow of people and money as a benefit. The other sees it as a threat. Fishmonger David Crosbie, working on a drizzly morning in Havering's outdoor Romford Market, is an emphatic "leave" supporter. For Crosbie, the decision has a lot to do with borders, on land and sea. He says he is tired of European fishermen trawling waters around Britain under the EU's Common Fisheries Policy. "French, Portuguese, Swedish, Dutch whatever. They can all come. They go right up on the beach," he said. "Plus there's no immigration control. Anybody can come over here, skilled or unskilled." Immigration has become the most emotive issue of the campaign leading up to Thursday's referendum, stirring fears of instability among voters and drawing allegations of xenophobia from "remain" supporters. The EU is built on the principle that citizens can live and work in any of the 28 member states. Since the bloc expanded to include former communist countries in eastern Europe more than a decade ago, hundreds of thousands of people have moved west to Britain and other wealthier EU nations. The perception that EU migrants come to take jobs and, somewhat paradoxically, to live on welfare benefits is driving "leave" sentiment in Havering and other Euroskeptic areas. But 15 miles (24 kilometers) to the southwest in the historic heart of financial London, policy chief Mark Boleat argues that thousands of jobs, and London's standing as a financial center, depend on the EU. "The European Union has been good for the country generally, very good for financial services," said Boleat, who heads the policy committee at the City of London Corporation, which runs the financial quarter. "Many jobs depend on it, and we think that leaving the European Union will be taking a significant risk." That view is backed by the Economist Intelligence Unit, which said last week that leaving the EU would endanger London's status as a global financial hub, "almost certainly depriving U.K.-based financial firms of their passport to conduct business anywhere in the EU." Boleat said that in the City, "we accept we're part of a global community and we benefit from it. But that view is not shared everywhere." Built on the ruins of Roman and medieval London, the City radiates solidity and wealth, with its glass office blocks and imposing brick and stone buildings, including the huge, 18th-century Bank of England. Havering a chunk of suburban Essex county absorbed into Greater London in 1965 is a workaday place of 20th-century houses and strips of shops on busy roads. Many residents are Cockneys who moved out of London's East End in search of more space and quiet, or their children. It's not the poorest part of London but it is one of the least ethnically diverse 83 percent of people identify themselves as "white British," compared to 45 percent in London as a whole. Almost 90 percent of Havering residents were born in Britain, compared to 63 percent for all of London. Like other local authorities, Havering Council has had its central government funding slashed under austerity programs aimed at reducing the national deficit. Services such as meals-on-wheels, child care and garbage collection have suffered cuts. Meanwhile, rising property prices and rents mean that many struggle to find good housing, and subsidized public housing is in short supply. "We've been told there is austerity, we must cut back," said Lawrence Webb, a Havering councilor for the anti-EU U.K. Independence Party. "The two budgets that haven't been cut are our membership fee of the EU and foreign aid. Our view is that money should be spent here. So stop giving Brussels a single penny until we sort our own economy out." "Remain" campaigners say government austerity is rooted in the 2008 financial crisis and in British politicians' choices, not the EU. And the origins of London's housing crisis stretch back decades, to 1980s reforms that gave public-housing tenants the right to buy their properties. Many council-owned houses and apartments passed into private hands, and few have been built to replace them. Nonetheless, migrants and the EU often take the blame in Havering, where many people say they don't see the benefits of immigration. "They say (immigrants) contribute toward the economy," said Jackie Duvall, a market researcher. "I don't doubt that, but at the end of the day, where is the money going? Where are all the extra taxes going? Is it going to hospitals? No. Education, the prison service? It's going nowhere. So it's a con trick." That view is less common in central London and not just in the financial district. In multiethnic inner-city areas such as Camden and Islington, it's rare to spot a "leave" sign. Amy Wilson, a 27-year-old technology consultant in the City who is "strongly 'remain,'" said "leave" supporters, who tend to be older, are motivated by an unrealistic sense of nostalgia. "I think the younger generations know that things can't go back the way they were," she said. "Because we live in a very interconnected world now, and we can't live in silos." ___ Follow Jill Lawless on Twitter at http://Twitter.com/JillLawless A Vote Leave sign is fixed on a market stall at Havering's Romford street market in London, Wednesday, June 1, 2016. When Britain decides on Thursday June 23, 20916, whether to leave the European Union, London's voice may prove decisive. But for which side? Britain's capital, home to almost 9 million people, encompasses the most pro-EU place of the country, and the least. In the cosmopolitan City financial district, where almost half a million people from around the globe work in Europe's biggest financial center, pro-EU sentiment predominates. But just a few miles away, the borough of Havering, stronghold of working-class East Enders, topped a national survey of the most anti-EU places in Britain.(AP Photo/Frank Augstein) Fishmonger Dave Crosbie, right, and his wife Kim speak to the Associated Press at the market in Haverig's Romford street market in London, Wednesday, June 1, 2016. When Britain decides on Thursday June 23, 20916, whether to leave the European Union, London's voice may prove decisive. But for which side? Britain's capital, home to almost 9 million people, encompasses the most pro-EU place of the country, and the least. In the cosmopolitan City financial district, where almost half a million people from around the globe work in Europe's biggest financial center, pro-EU sentiment predominates. But just a few miles away, the borough of Havering, stronghold of working-class East Enders, topped a national survey of the most anti-EU places in Britain. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein) Officials say debris found on Australian island not MH370 CANBERRA, Australia (AP) Debris found on an Australian island earlier this month is not from missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, investigators said Wednesday. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau was notified on June 9 that the debris had been found on Kangaroo Island off the southern Australian coast. The bureau, which is running the search in the southern Indian Ocean on Malaysia's behalf, said it had recovered the part but Boeing, the maker of the missing plane, advised that it was "not consistent with the manufacturing specifications of a Boeing commercial aircraft." The bureau did not say what the debris was likely from. Flight 370 vanished with 239 people aboard on March 8, 2014, after flying off course during a flight from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing. Authorities say the plane likely crashed in the Indian Ocean, but officials have had no luck finding the main underwater wreckage despite an extensive search of a vast area of the ocean off Australia's west coast. Crews are expected to complete their sweep of the 120,000 square kilometer (46,000 square mile) area by August, and there are no plans to extend the hunt beyond that. Several pieces of the plane have washed up over the past year on coastlines around the Indian Ocean, which is consistent with drifting models based on Flight 370 having crashed in the Indian Ocean. More debris was found earlier this month washed ashore in Madagascar by a man who previously found a part of Flight 370, but the pieces have yet to be examined by investigators. Blaine Gibson, an American adventurer who has been hunting for Flight 370 over the past year, said Wednesday that a Malaysian government investigator has twice canceled plans to go to Madagascar to collect the five pieces of potential aircraft debris. The debris and potential personal effects of passengers found on the same beach are being held by Madagascar authorities. Malaysian authorities, who are leading the investigation into the plane's disappearance, have procedures in place to examine any suspected debris, though Australia will help analyze Gibson's discovery if asked, the bureau said. Turkey says it won't send aircraft to battle Cyprus fire NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) Turkey's foreign minister said Wednesday his country won't dispatch aircraft to help battle one of Cyprus' worst forest fires despite making the offer to assist its tiny neighbor. Mevlut Cavusoglu accused Cyprus of playing politics on a humanitarian issue after Cyprus insisted that any Turkish aircraft had to fall under Cypriot operational control. Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades had accepted Turkey's offer if help on Tuesday but said the aircraft must be directed and coordinated by Cypriot government authorities alongside some 20 other aircraft from a number of assisting countries including Israel, Italy, France, Greece and Britain. A firefighting aircraft drops fire retardant material in efforts to contain a huge forest fire that continues to rage out of control for a third day, in the mountainous areas southwest of Cyprus' capital Nicosia Tuesday, June 21, 2016. The fire has claimed the lives of two fire fighters. More planes from Italy and France are expected later Tuesday to join 16 other aircraft from Greece, Israel, Cyprus and British forces stationed on two military bases on the east Mediterranean island in battling the fire. (AP Photo/Philippos Christou ) Cyprus, an island nation of just over a million people, was cleaved into an internationally recognized Greek Cypriot south and a breakaway Turkish Cypriot north in 1974. Only Turkey recognizes the north's independence. "They are trying to get Turkish planes and the helicopter to land on the Greek side," Cavusoglu said. "This is not something we can accept. Politics should not be done on such a matter." Meanwhile, Cyprus' Justice Minister Ionas Nicolaou said earlier Wednesday that crews are beating back the huge fire that has scorched more than 15 square miles (39 square kilometers) of 150-year-old pine forest and claimed the lives of two firefighters. Nicolaou said firefighting aircraft have managed to contain serious flare-ups. Although the fire had moved in the direction of a pair of villages some 40 kilometers (25 miles) southwest of the capital, Nicosia, Nicolaou said there had been no evacuations ordered so far. Cypriot government spokesman Nicos Christodoulides said the two firefighters who lost their lives in the line of duty have been declared heroes and that state funerals will be held for both while flags will fly at half-staff for three days. The firefighters' families will each receive 167,000 euros ($188,000) in compensation. The firefighters' wives and each of their children will receive an additional 95,000 euros. The children will also receive university scholarships and one child from each family will be entitled to a government job. ___ Ayse Wieting in Ankara, Turkey contributed to this report. A helicopter drops water in efforts to contain a huge forest fire that continues to rage out of control for a third day in the mountainous areas southwest of Cyprus' capital Nicosia Tuesday, June 21, 2016. The fire has claimed the lives of two fire fighters. More planes from Italy and France are expected later Tuesday to join 16 other aircraft from Greece, Israel, Cyprus and British forces stationed on two military bases on the east Mediterranean island in battling the fire. (AP Photo/Philippos Christou ) Lebanese army slowly crushing extremists near Syria border ARSAL, Lebanon (AP) In a remote corner of Lebanon near the border with Syria, Lebanese troops have been quietly making steady progress, fighting against Islamic extremists holed up in the rugged mountains. It is a fight less visible than the U.S.-led war against the Islamic State group in Syria, Iraq and Libya. But hardly a day passes without army artillery stationed on the edge of this restive eastern Lebanese town pounding nearby militant positions. Aided directly by the United States and Britain and indirectly by the Syrian army and its Lebanese militant Hezbollah allies working on the other side of the border the under-equipped Lebanese military has registered steady successes against the militants. In this Sunday June 19, 2016 photo, a Lebanese army soldier stand guards at one of the frontline hills where they are fighting militants, at the edge of the town of Arsal, on the Syrian border, in northeast Lebanon. The Lebanese army is fighting a war against the Islamic State and al-Qaida and has clawed significant territory back from the extremists. The fighting and shelling near the eastern border town of Arsal occur almost daily. Some 5,000 Lebanese soldiers are fighting against a dwindling number of militants. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla) In recent months, Lebanese armed forces have clawed back significant territory once held by IS and al-Qaida's branch in Syria, known as the Nusra Front, and have killed and detained hundreds of extremists, forcing many others to flee. According to the army, the militants still hold about 50 square kilometers (19 square miles) of land in the border area, compared with 20 times this size in the months after Syria's conflict began. On a tour of the area with the army this week, an Associated Press team saw army positions set up every few hundred meters (yards). Tanks and armored personnel carriers with heavy machine guns could be seen pointing toward the extremists' positions. Most of the activity is around the border town of Arsal, which the militants briefly took over in August 2014. After five days of deadly fighting, the military pushed them out to the town's outskirts and into the surrounding mountains and has been battling them ever since. Nearly 5,000 troops are now deployed in and around Arsal. They keep a close eye on any suspicious activity by the extremists who avoid movement during the day. Giant observation towers as well as many fortifications have been erected. U.S.-provided drones feed information to the army command near Beirut. Dozens of Lebanese troops have been killed or wounded over the months of fighting. During the AP tour, a first lieutenant peered through binoculars toward areas controlled by the Islamic State group on the edge of Arsal when he spotted a vehicle moving several miles way. "It's the tanker truck," the officer told some of the troops in the front-line position, referring to an identified vehicle owned by a Lebanese man who has a permit to cross into IS-controlled areas, where he owns plots of lands. "Had it been a truck with a machine gun on top of it we would have dealt with it immediately," said another officer, pointing to two 130 mm guns that are always ready to fire. The Lebanese military, generally seen as a unifying force in a country divided along political and sectarian lines, has received support and military assistance from the West. Eager to support the army as opposed to the better equipped Iranian-backed Hezbollah, the U.S. and Britain have supplied the military with helicopters, anti-tank missiles, artillery and radars, as well as training. The American Embassy says the U.S. has provided Lebanon over $1.4 billion in security assistance since 2005. "The American assistance has been the most serious and most effective," said Hisham Jaber, a retired army general who heads the Middle East Center for Studies and Political Research in Beirut. The stepped-up assistance came after Saudi Arabia announced in February it was halting deals worth $4 billion aimed at equipping and supporting the Lebanese military, in retaliation for the tiny country's siding with Iran amid the Sunni kingdom's spat with the Shiite powerhouse. Syrian forces and Hezbollah fighters have also helped the fight by clearing the militants from areas in Syria across the border from Arsal, hurting supplies for those in Lebanon. Arsal is home to tens of thousands of Syrian refugees and in the early days of the Syrian conflict, which began in March 2011, became a major crossing point for arms smuggling to help Syrian rebels fighting to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad. On Aug. 2, 2014, some 2,000 members of IS and the Nusra Front overran Lebanese army positions as well as Arsal and captured two dozen policemen and army soldiers and took them to the fields outside the town. Four of the captured troops were killed. "This (attack) was a turning point and the Lebanese army command decided to put limits on those criminal terrorists and to repel them and prevent any effect they might have on mainland Lebanon," said Brig. Gen. Mohammed al-Hassan, commander of the 8th Infantry Brigade that is deployed in the Arsal area. Since then, the military has slowly recovered all strategic hills overlooking Arsal, surrounding it from all sides and separating the town from the outskirts held by IS and Nusra Front. Al-Hassan said that just before the 2014 attack on Arsal, IS and the Nusra Front had some 7,000 fighters, whereas today there are about 900 IS gunmen and some 400 for the Nusra Front. "We have killed about 500, captured 700 and the rest fled," al-Hassan said. In this Sunday June 19, 2016 photo, a Lebanese army first lieutenant looks through binoculars toward areas controlled by the Islamic State group at the edge of the town of Arsal, on the Syrian border, in northeast Lebanon. The Lebanese army is fighting a war against the Islamic State and al-Qaida and has clawed significant territory back from the extremists. The fighting and shelling near the eastern border town of Arsal occur almost daily. Some 5,000 Lebanese soldiers are fighting against a dwindling number of militants. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla) In this Sunday June 19, 2016 photo, Lebanese army soldiers work on a 130mm howitzer cannon, pointed to areas controlled by the Islamic State group at the edge of the town of Arsal, on the Syrian border, in northeast Lebanon. The Lebanese army is fighting a war against the Islamic State and al-Qaida and has clawed significant territory back from the extremists. The fighting and shelling near the eastern border town of Arsal occur almost daily. Some 5,000 Lebanese soldiers are fighting against a dwindling number of militants. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla) In this Sunday June 19, 2016 photo, a Lebanese army soldier looks looks through binoculars toward areas controlled by the Islamic State group at the edge of the town of Arsal, on the Syrian border, in northeast Lebanon. The Lebanese army is fighting a war against the Islamic State and al-Qaida and has clawed significant territory back from the extremists. The fighting and shelling near the eastern border town of Arsal occur almost daily. Some 5,000 Lebanese soldiers are fighting against a dwindling number of militants. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla) In this Sunday June 19, 2016 photo, A Lebanese army soldiers sits on a tank at one of the frontline hills overlooking areas controlled by the Islamic State group at the edge of the town of Arsal, on the Syrian border, in northeast Lebanon. The Lebanese army is fighting a war against the Islamic State and al-Qaida and has clawed significant territory back from the extremists. The fighting and shelling near the eastern border town of Arsal occur almost daily. Some 5,000 Lebanese soldiers are fighting against a dwindling number of militants. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla) In this Sunday June 19, 2016 photo, a Lebanese army soldier takes his position overlooking an area controlled by the Islamic State group at the edge of the town of Arsal, on the Syrian border, in northeast Lebanon. The Lebanese army is fighting a war against the Islamic State and al-Qaida and has clawed significant territory back from the extremists. The fighting and shelling near the eastern border town of Arsal occur almost daily. Some 5,000 Lebanese soldiers are fighting against a dwindling number of militants. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla) British politicians make final appeals in EU vote campaign LONDON (AP) With Britain's membership in the European Union on the line, campaigners from the prime minister on down blanketed the country Wednesday trying to convert the undecided on the final day before the crucial vote. Outlining his vision of a future with Britain retaining its position in the 28-nation bloc, Prime Minister David Cameron bristled at the notion that the country would be headed in the wrong direction if the "remain" side prevailed in Thursday's vote. "We are not shackled to a corpse," Cameron told the BBC. "You can see the European economy's recovery. It's the largest single market in the world." British MP Boris Johnson, left, kisses a wild salmon standing next to with porter Greg Essex at Billingsgate Fish Market in London, Wednesday June 22, 2016 on the final day of campaigning before Thursday's EU Referendum. (Stefan Rousseau/PA via AP) UNITED KINGDOM OUT Pushing for a British exit, or Brexit, the most notable figure on the "leave" side, former London Mayor Boris Johnson, mugged for the cameras at the Billingsgate Fish Market in East London and pretended to kiss a fish a not-so-subtle reminder that this is an island nation that takes great pride in its independence and self-assurance. "It's time to break away from the failing and dysfunctional EU system," Johnson said. "It's time to have a totally new relationship with our friends and partners across the Channel." Wednesday's feverish campaigning took place even as mourners gathered in London and other world capitals to honor the memory of Jo Cox, the youthful pro-EU Labour Party lawmaker who was stabbed and shot to death last week in her Yorkshire constituency. Speaking to a crowd of 9,000 in Trafalgar Square on what would have been Cox's 42nd birthday, her husband, Brendan, said that Cox "feared the consequences of Europe dividing again" and urged people to follow her example. The motive for the killing is unclear but the rare slaying of a politician cast a shadow over a divisive campaign that has been unusually heated, even by the lively standards of British politics. Nigel Farage, the outspoken leader of the U.K. Independence Party, resisted fresh calls to apologize for a controversial poster showing hundreds of non-white migrants making their way across Europe alongside the words, "BREAKING POINT." The poster, labeled racist by opponents, was unveiled hours before Cox was killed. "I apologize for the timing and I apologize for the fact that it was able to be used by those who wish us harm," Farage said. "But I can't apologize for the truth." "This was a photograph that all newspapers carried. It is an example of what is wrong inside the European Union," he said. High profile political, military and business figures also weighed in on the debate as the final hours of campaigning ebbed away. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told The Associated Press in Brussels that a British exit from the EU could weaken the trans-Atlantic alliance. "We are faced with so much uncertainty, so much unpredictability, with terrorist threats, with a more assertive Russia in the east," Stoltenberg said. "I believe that a more fragmented Europe will be something which will only add to the uncertainty which surrounds us." European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker flatly rejected suggestions that Britain might be able to negotiate better terms with the EU if it votes to leave. "Out is out," he said. The reach of the EU into every aspect of life has made the issues at stake far more complex than in a general election. And while the vote is final unlike in an election where the results can be reversed in the next term it is not legally binding and Parliament would have to vote to repeal the law that brought Britain into the EU in the first place. A vote to leave would invoke Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union, which allows a member state to withdraw. That has never been done before and would trigger a period of uncertainty during years of negotiations on the relationship between the EU and the U.K. Much of the debate has hinged on the economy. From the international banks in the skyscrapers of Canary Wharf to the home of Britain's financial industry in the City of London, business has awaited Thursday's vote with trepidation. Many fear a vote to leave would undermine London's position as one of the world's pre-eminent financial centers and damage an industry that underpins the British economy. Leaders of about half of Britain's largest companies made a last-ditch appeal to their employees to vote to remain in the EU. In a letter to the Times on the eve of Thursday's vote, some 1,285 business leaders including representatives of half of the FTSE 100 businesses argued that a vote to leave would hurt the British economy. Similar letters have been released in the course of the acrimonious campaign. But Wednesday's letter was clearly meant to make the 1.75 million people employed by the signatories think twice about their vote. "Britain leaving the EU would mean uncertainty for our firms, less trade with Europe and fewer jobs," the letter said. "Britain remaining in the EU would mean the opposite: more certainty, more trade and more jobs. EU membership is good for business and good for British jobs. That's why, on June 23, we back Britain remaining in the EU." Among the companies represented were Barclays, Standard Life and Anglo-American. Stock markets and the pound continued to rise, indicating that investors think the "remain" side will win. Markets are likely to be jittery, though, as the vote is expected to be tight and a decision to leave would create huge uncertainty. U.S. Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen warned Tuesday that the upcoming vote "could have significant economic repercussions." The betting markets stood solidly by the "remain" side, however. The Betfair exchange said "remain" is now at 76 percent probability. In a statement, it said some 80 percent of the 1 million pounds placed during and after a BBC debate on the issue Tuesday were for "remain." ____ Associated Press writers Raphael Satter and Frank Jordans in London and John-Thor Dahlburg in Brussels contributed to this report. Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron meets supporters on a walkabout after he addressed a Vote Remain rally in Bristol, England Wednesday June 22, 2016. On Thursday Britain goes to the polls in a referendum on whether to remain or leave the EU . (Geoff Caddick/PA via AP) UNITED KINGDOM OUT The leader of Britain's opposition Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn, left, applauds London mayor Sadiq Khan as he makes an address during a European Referendum "Remain" rally in London, Wednesday, June 22, 2016. Britain votes whether to stay in the European Union in a referendum on Thursday. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham) Brendan Cox, widower of murdered British MP Jo Cox, makes a speech during a gathering to celebrate her life, in Trafalgar Square, London, Wednesday, June 22, 2016. Jo Cox, a 41-year-old Labour lawmaker who had championed the cause of Syrian refugees, was stabbed and shot to death outside a library in her northern England constituency on Thursday. The suspect gave his name in court as "death to traitors, freedom for Britain." (AP Photo/Alastair Grant) A pro-EU banner being towed behind a plane, passes the clock commonly known as Big Ben in Elizabeth Tower in the Houses of Parliament in London, Wednesday June 22, 2016 on the final day of the EU referendum campaign before Britain goes to the polls to vote on continuing its membership of the EU. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant) British MP Boris Johnson, left, holds a wild salmon standing next to with porter Greg Essex at Billingsgate Fish Market in London, Wednesday June 22, 2016 on the final day of campaigning before Thursday's EU Referendum. (Stefan Rousseau/PA via AP) UNITED KINGDOM OUT Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron, foreground, addresses Vote Remain supporters with former Prime Minister John Major, right, during a rally in Bristol, England Wednesday June 22, 2016. On Thursday Britain goes to the polls in a referendum on whether to remain or leave the EU . (Geoff Caddick/PA via AP) UNITED KINGDOM OUT A European, right, and Union flags are displayed outside Europe House, the European Parliament's British offices, in London, Wednesday, June 22, 2016. Britain votes whether to stay in the European Union in a referendum on Thursday. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham) Germany warns of new risks to Europe; urges dialogue BERLIN (AP) Seventy-five years after the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, which led to the deaths of tens of millions, Germany's foreign minister warned Wednesday that "Europe is at risk of splitting along new divides," while Russia's president drew parallels to the lead-up to the attack and today, saying the West still seeks to isolate his country. In an op-ed printed in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, Frank-Walter Steinmeier cautioned "peace in Europe cannot be taken for granted, not even today." Referring to Russia's annexation of Crimea, Steinmeier said "unilateral shifting of borders in breach of international law and the failure to respect the territorial integrity of neighboring countries ... take us back to the times from which we believed we had escaped, times that nobody can wish for." Surrounded by morning fog spectators watch the mock battles between Soviet and Nazi forces during a ceremony to mark the Day of Remembrance and Sorrow, on the 75th anniversary of Germany's attack on the Soviet Union in World War II in the Brest Fortress memorial, 360 kilometers (225 miles) southwest of Minsk, Belarus, early Wednesday, June 22, 2016. The garrison of the 19-century fortress was encircled hours after the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, but the Brest fortress' Soviet defenders held out for 28 days. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits) Steinmeier urged all sides to return to dialogue, saying "the leaders of today have the duty to draw the right lessons from our common past." In Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin placed a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier by the Kremlin wall and suggested in remarks to the Duma that the Western Allies had paved the way for the invasion by not working more closely with the Soviets. "Leaders of some Western countries preferred a policy of containment toward the Soviet Union and tried to put it into international isolation," he said. Putin drew parallels to today, saying that Russia has "repeatedly expressed its willingness to talk" about joint responses to international terrorism. "But just like before the start of the WWII we don't see a positive response," Putin said. "Quite on the contrary, NATO is ratcheting up its aggressive rhetoric." Though the Soviet Union and Hitler's Germany had signed a non-aggression pact in 1939, which led to the division of Poland between the two nations, the Nazis broke that with the June 22, 1941, invasion. Steinmeier went out of his way to emphasize Germany's responsibility, calling the invasion part of Adolf Hitler's "crazy and megalomaniacal" attempt "to subjugate and exterminate the people of the Soviet Union." "In all the current debates on Europe's peaceful order, we must never forget that the aggression, the war of destruction, the ideology of Slavic subhumans, descended upon the peoples of the Soviet Union from Europe, from the West, from Hitler's Germany," Steinmeier said. ____ Nataliya Vasilyeva in Moscow contributed to this story. Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, takes part in a wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of Unknown Soldier in Moscow, Russia, on Wednesday, June 22, 2016, marking the 75th anniversary of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, pool) Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, takes part in a wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Moscow, Russia, on Wednesday, June 22, 2016, marking the 75th anniversary of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, Pool) People walk past WW II tanks early morning, at the time the Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union 75 years ago at Dvortsovaya (Palace) Square in St.Petersburg, Russia, Wednesday, June 22, 2016, with Zimny (Winter) palace in the background. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky) People examine WW II tank KV-1 early morning, at the time the Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union 75 years ago at Dvortsovaya (Palace) Square in St.Petersburg, Russia, Wednesday, June 22, 2016. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky) Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, takes part in a wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Moscow, Russia, on Wednesday, June 22, 2016, marking the 75th anniversary of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, Pool) Lightning kills 74 people, mostly farmworkers, in India PATNA, India (AP) Lightning has killed 74 people, mostly farm laborers working in fields, across eastern and northern India over the past 24 hours, officials said Wednesday. A majority of the deaths occurred in the eastern state of Bihar, where 57 people died after being struck by lightning, a state official said. At least 24 others were injured when thunderstorms and monsoon rains lashed 14 districts of the state. Ten people were killed by lightning in neighboring Jharkhand state, six in northern Uttar Pradesh state, and another in Maharashtra, police said. An Indian boy who was injured Tuesday after being struck by lightning receives treatment at the district hospital in Ballia, Uttar Pradesh state, India, Wednesday, June 22, 2016. Lightning has killed dozens of people, mostly farm laborers working in fields, across eastern and northern India over the past 24 hours, officials said Wednesday.(Press Trust of India via AP) INDIA OUT, MANDATORY CREDIT, NO ARCHIVE Bihar disaster management official Vyasji said scores of cattle also perished in the state after being struck by lightning. The dead included at least eight shepherds watching their sheep, said Vyasji, who uses only one name. He told reporters that he expected the death toll to go up as reports come in from remote districts of the state. Lightning strikes are common during India's monsoon season, which runs from June to September. However, the recent toll is unusually high. Turkey probes 300 for social media activity ISTANBUL (AP) Turkish police are investigating 300 people for alleged terrorist propaganda and defamation of the country's president on social media, news reports said Wednesday. The investigation comes after a six-month probe by the cybercrimes bureau of the southern town of Isparta, the private Dogan news agency and pro-government media reported. The suspects in Turkey and abroad were determined to have shared propaganda for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, PKK, and the U.S.-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, as well as denigrating the Turkish flag and insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. An earlier, similar investigation by the same bureau resulted in 14 arrests. Ankara is regularly criticized by press freedom advocates for cracking down on social media activity. Earlier, the Turkish military said fighter jets had struck Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq and in southeast Turkey on Tuesday. Diners at Michelin-starred Japan eatery get food poisoning TOKYO (AP) A Michelin-starred restaurant in Japan closed temporarily after 14 people got food-poisoning on a fancy Japanese-style meal there, and an investigation into the cause is continuing. The Kanagawa prefectural government said six men and eight women complained of diarrhea and stomach pains after eating at Kita Kamakura Saryo Gentoan on June 11. Their menu offerings included squid, jelly with sea urchin, pumpkin cooked with fish, eel and sweets, according to the prefecture. A picturesque restaurant among the trees of Kamakura, a coastal town south of Tokyo, it is known for serving meals in quiet Japanese-style rooms. It serves kaiseki, or small, multiple-course dishes, and has one star in the latest Michelin guide. The restaurant closed on its own June 14. The prefecture's closure order was lifted Wednesday, although the cause of the food poisoning remains under investigation, prefecture official Takeshi Ishihara said. No one answered the phone at the restaurant Wednesday, and it wasn't clear when it would reopen. ___ Follow Yuri Kageyama on Twitter at https://twitter.com/yurikageyama Pope invites refugees to join him on stage for audience VATICAN CITY (AP) Pope Francis has invited a dozen refugees to join him on the steps of St. Peter's Basilica for his general audience to press his demand for Europe to welcome more migrants. A dozen men ascended the steps with Francis on Wednesday and sat in front of him on the ground as he delivered his weekly catechism lesson. They carried banners of the charity that is caring for them and Vatican flags. In his remarks, Francis said the refugees had suffered in their home countries. Pope Francis invites a group of refugees to join him on the steps of St. Peters Basilica during his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Wednesday, June 22, 2016. A dozen men ascended the steps with Francis and sat in front of him on the ground as he delivered his weekly catechism lesson. (AP Photo/Fabio Frustaci) He said: "Please they are our brothers. A Christian excludes no one. I ask all of you: Let everyone come." Germany to expand Med mission to fight arms smuggling BERLIN (AP) Chancellor Angela Merkel's Cabinet has approved a plan to widen the German military's mission in the Mediterranean to include searching for weapons bring smuggled to fighters for the Islamic State group and other extremist organizations in North Africa. The plan agreed on Wednesday still needs Parliamentary approval but is not expected to meet resistance. German ships have already been part of the European Union's so-called Operation Sophia in the Mediterranean since June 2015. To date, however, their mandate has been to rescue migrants and also stop human smuggling. 10 Things to Know for Today - 22 June 2016 Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about today: 1. HOW TRUMP IS AIMING TO PORTRAY CLINTON The likely Republican presidential nominee will lambaste his Democratic rival as a failed secretary of state who is out of step with Americans on trade and immigration. A Vote Leave sign is fixed on a market stall at Havering's Romford street market in London, Wednesday, June 1, 2016. When Britain decides on Thursday June 23, 20916, whether to leave the European Union, London's voice may prove decisive. But for which side? Britain's capital, home to almost 9 million people, encompasses the most pro-EU place of the country, and the least. In the cosmopolitan City financial district, where almost half a million people from around the globe work in Europe's biggest financial center, pro-EU sentiment predominates. But just a few miles away, the borough of Havering, stronghold of working-class East Enders, topped a national survey of the most anti-EU places in Britain.(AP Photo/Frank Augstein) 2. LONDON IS MOST PRO-EU PLACE IN BRITAIN AND LEAST The divide between the cosmopolitan business districts of the City and Canary Wharf and working-class Havering reveal the uncertainties and complexities of the upcoming vote. 3. PYONGYANG MAKING MISSILE PROGRESS North Korea takes a significant step in the development of a powerful ballistic missile intended to reach U.S. bases in the Pacific, launching one of the weapons about 620 miles high after five failed attempts in recent months. 4. IN LEBANON, THE OTHER WAR Lebanese troops have been making steady progress in fighting against Islamic extremists holed up in the mountains along the Syria border. 5. DARING RESCUE UNDERWAY IN SOUTH POLE After flying through dangerous dark and cold, a rescue plane lands at the polar outpost to evacuate a sick worker from a remote U.S. science station. 6. FOR-PROFIT MED SCHOOLS POPPING UP AROUND US The schools promise to create new family doctors for underserved rural regions, but critics question whether companies keeping an eye on profits can properly train the next crop of physicians. 7. HOUSE REPUBLICANS OFFERING PROPOSALS FOR HEALTH CARE CHANGES GOP initiatives to repeal and replace "Obamacare" are being unveiled amid the tumult of the presidential campaign. 8. AMERICANS STILL WANT TO OWN HOMES But student debt, rising rents and the leftover wreckage from the nearly decade-old housing bust are restraining people's ability to buy, a study finds. 9. WHO IS IN RUNNING FOR TOP DOG The pumi, a high-energy Hungarian herding canine, is the latest new breed headed to the Westminster Kennel Club and many other U.S. dog shows. 10. TOP GOLFER PULLS OUT OF RIO GAMES Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy says concerns about the Zika virus make competing in the Brazil Olympics not worth the risk. North Koreans are dwarfed against giant portraits of the late North Korean leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il as they walk past an apartment building on Wednesday, June 22, 2016, in Wonsan, North Korea. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E) North Korea trumpets successful midrange missile launch SEOUL, South Korea (AP) North Korean leader Kim Jong Un trumpeted the success of a powerful new midrange ballistic missile test that state media said Thursday propelled one of the weapons more than 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) high, saying it would allow strikes on U.S. forces throughout the region. That ability would back up years of threats and boasts from North Korea and has long been a worry for the United States and its allies, Tokyo and Seoul. It explains in part North Korea's tenacious testing of the Musudan missile, which was only a success after five failures in about two months. The missile's potential 3,500-kilometer (2,180-mile) range puts much of Asia and the Pacific within reach. After observing the launch, Kim said it gives his country the "sure capability to attack in an overall and practical way the Americans in the Pacific operation theatre," according to the official Korean Central News Agency. FILE - In this May 31, 2016, file photo, a man watches a TV news program reporting about a missile launch of North Korea, at the Seoul Train Station in Seoul, South Korea. In a remarkable show of persistence, North Korea on Wednesday, June 22, 2016, fired two suspected powerful new Musudan mid-range missiles, U.S. and South Korean military officials said, but at least one of the launches apparently failed, Pyongyang's fifth such reported flop since April. The letters read on top left: "Fail, North Korea's Musudan missile." (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man) Other governments said North Korea fired two Musduan missiles on Wednesday, after suffering four previous launch failures since April. The first launch ended in failure. But Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani said the second launch demonstrated a "certain level of capability," and could lead to a further strengthening of North Korea's ballistic missile capabilities that can cover Japanese territory. Each new test apparently linked to a command from Kim likely provides valuable insights to North Korea's scientists and military officials as they push toward their goal of a nuclear and missile program that can threaten the U.S. mainland. Pyongyang earlier this year conducted a nuclear test, its fourth, and launched a long-range rocket that outsiders say was a cover for a test of banned missile technology. A statement from South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the suspected first Musudan launch Wednesday from the east coast city of Wonsan failed. It didn't elaborate, but Japan's Defense Ministry said the missile fragmented and pieces fell into waters off the Korean Peninsula's east coast. Later Wednesday, the South's military said the North fired another suspected Musudan, which flew about 400 kilometers (245 miles). The KCNA report said the missile flew to the maximum height of 1,413. 6 kilometers (878.3 miles) before landing 400 kilometers away in waters the North had targeted. "We have to see it as a success," Lee Choon Geun, an analyst at South Korea's state-funded Science and Technology Policy Institute, said of the second launch. "No other (previous) missiles fired by North Korea have ever flown that high." The U.S. Strategic Command in Hawaii said Wednesday its systems detected and tracked two suspected North Korean Musudan missiles that fell into the Sea of Japan. In April, North Korea attempted unsuccessfully to launch three suspected Musudan missiles, but all exploded midair or crashed, according to South Korean defense officials. Earlier this month, North Korea had another suspected Musudan failure, they said. Before April's launches, North Korea had never flight-tested a Musudan missile, although one was displayed during a military parade in 2010 in Pyongyang. Musudan is named by outsiders after a village near its test site. The KCNA report called it a Hwasong-10. The launches appear to stem from Kim's order in March for more nuclear and ballistic missile tests. The order was an apparent response to springtime U.S.-South Korean military drills, which North Korea views as an invasion rehearsal. In the KCNA report, Kim said North Korea must bolster its pre-emptive nuclear attack capability to cope with U.S. threats and continue the development of strategic weapons systems. "We're very pleased because we now can confidently cope with whatever nuclear war the U.S. launches" on the North, North Korean diplomat Choe Son Hui told reporters in Beijing on Thursday, after attending a security forum. The string of recent launch attempts shows the North is pushing hard to upgrade its missile capability in defiance of U.S.-led international pressure. The North was slapped with the strongest U.N. sanctions in two decades after its nuclear test and long-range rocket launch earlier this year. "The impact of these provocations will be to only strengthen the resolve of the international community that has such serious concerns with North Korea's behavior," said White House spokesman Josh Earnest. "The United States will do what we have done in the past, which is work with the international community, particularly our allies in South Korea and Japan." South Korea's Defense Minister Han Min Koo on Thursday called the launches a "grave threat" and warned that North Korea will face tougher sanctions. In Tokyo, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was also critical, saying, "We find it utterly unforgivable." Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said that Beijing didn't consider the missile launches to be an act of defiance against China, North Korea's long-time ally with whom its relations have cooled substantially in recent years. "To say such an act taken by North Korea shows disapproval against China is reading too much into it," Hua said at a press briefing. North Korea has recently claimed a series of breakthroughs in its push to build a long-range nuclear missile that can strike the American mainland. But South Korean officials have said the North doesn't yet possess such a weapon. The North, however, has already deployed a variety of missiles that can reach most targets in South Korea and Japan, including American military bases in those countries. The Korean Peninsula remains in a technical state of war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty. About 28,500 U.S. soldiers are stationed in South Korea to deter possible aggression from North Korea; tens of thousands more are stationed in Japan. ___ Associated Press writers Josh Lederman, Lolita C. Baldor and Kathleen Hennessey in Washington, D.C. , Yuri Kageyama and Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo and Christopher Bodeen in Beijing contributed to this report. A man watches a TV news program reporting a missile launch of North Korea, at the Seoul Train Station in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, June 22, 2016. In a remarkable show of persistence, North Korea on Wednesday fired two suspected powerful new Musudan midrange ballistic missiles, U.S. and South Korean military officials said, its fifth and sixth such attempts since April. The letters read on left top, " North Korea's Musudan flew 400 kilometers (250 miles). (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man) A woman walks by a public TV screen showing the North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un at the Seoul Train Station in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, June 22, 2016. In a remarkable show of persistence, North Korea on Wednesday fired two suspected powerful new Musudan midrange ballistic missiles, U.S. and South Korean military officials said, its fifth and sixth such attempts since April. The letters on top left, "North Korea's missile launches failed again." (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man) South Korean army soldiers prepare to fire 105mm howitzers during an exercise in Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea Wednesday, June 22, 2016. In a remarkable show of persistence, North Korea on Wednesday fired two suspected powerful new Musudan mid-range missiles, U.S. and South Korean military officials said, but at least one of the launches apparently failed, Pyongyang's fifth such reported flop since April. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon) South Korean army soldiers prepare to fire 105mm howitzers during an exercise in Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea Wednesday, June 22, 2016. In a remarkable show of persistence, North Korea on Wednesday fired two suspected powerful new Musudan mid-range missiles, U.S. and South Korean military officials said, but at least one of the launches apparently failed, Pyongyang's fifth such reported flop since April. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon) Maldives leader appoints new VP after ex-deputy is jailed COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) The Maldives' president appointed a new vice president on Wednesday, weeks after his former deputy was convicted of attempting to assassinate him. President Yameen Abdul Gayoom appointed Abdulla Jihad as vice president. Jihad, who was previously finance minister, is the third vice president to be appointed by Gayoom since he was elected in October 2013. Jihad's predecessor, Ahmed Adeeb, was sacked eight months ago after being accused of trying to assassinate Gayoom by exploding a bomb in his speedboat. Gayoom escaped the blast unhurt but his wife, an aide and a bodyguard were injured. Adeeb was sentenced to 25 years in prison earlier this month on two counts of terrorism, including the assassination attempt. Gayoom's running mate in 2013, Mohamed Jameel, was also sacked and now lives in exile. Widely known for its luxurious tourist resorts, Maldives became a multiparty democracy in 2008 after years of autocratic rule. Human rights groups have accused Gayoom of harassing and jailing political opponents. Those imprisoned since last year include former President Mohamed Nasheed, former Defense Minister Mohamed Nazim and opposition party leader Sheik Imran Abdulla. Poland to exhume victims of 2010 presidential plane crash WARSAW, Poland (AP) The remains of Polish President Lech Kaczynski, his wife and other victims of a 2010 plane crash will be exhumed to help investigators determine the cause of the crash that killed 96 people, a spokesman for top prosecutors said Wednesday. Prosecutor Maciej Kujawski told The Associated Press that investigators are in talks with Polish and foreign experts who they want to carry out the exhumations at an unspecified time. Temperatures in Poland allow for exhumations to take place from mid-October until mid-April. Kujawski said the autopsy documents that Poland received from Russia, where the crash occurred, are incomplete and in some cases erroneous and don't help explain the reason for the crash, which is under a renewed investigation in Poland. Doubts raised by the documents have led to nine exhumations in previous years. In six cases the bodies were found to have been mixed up. The bodies arrived from Russia in sealed coffins and no examinations took place in Poland. FILE - In this Sunday, April 18, 2010 file photo, a Polish guard of honor escorts the coffins of late Polish President Lech Kaczynski and his wife Maria Kaczynska during a funeral procession walk through Krakow, Poland. A Polish court Tuesday June 21, 2016 has convicted and handed a suspended prison term to Pawel Bielawny a former deputy head of government security over the 2010 plane crash that killed President Lech Kaczynski and 95 others. (AP Photo/Bela Szandelszky, file) Kaczynski's plane crashed April 10, 2010, in dense fog on approach to Smolensk airport. Separate commissions of aviation experts in Poland and in Russia blamed the crash on insufficient training of the crew and on human error in adverse circumstances. A new investigation was launched this year by the government of the Law and Justice party that is led by Kaczynski's twin brother, Jaroslaw Kaczynski. Some Law and Justice members claim the crash was an assassination and was caused by explosives placed onboard the plane, by forces in Poland and in Russia. The investigators also take this hypothesis into account. Russia has not returned crucial evidence the flight recorders and the wreckage saying it still needs them for its own criminal investigation into the crash. The exhumation decision was taken Tuesday during a meeting with the families of some of the victims, including Jaroslaw Kaczynski. On Tuesday, a Warsaw court convicted a former deputy head of government security of neglecting the security of the president's flight and handed him an 18-month suspended prison term. Libya clashes, blast at a depot kill more than 60 CAIRO (AP) Fierce clashes in Libya between pro-government militiamen and Islamic State militants in the city of Sirte and an explosion at a depot near the capital, Tripoli, left more than 60 dead in just one day, a spokesman and a Libyan state news agency reported Wednesday. In Sirte, the last bastion of the Islamic State group in the North African country, Tuesday's clashes killed 36 militiamen aligned with the newly-UN brokered government. The militias, mainly from the western town of Misrata, have been leading an offensive since early May to take full control over Sirte. At first, the militiamen rapidly advanced into the city but the push got bogged down in recent days amid a series of suicide bombings by IS. Along with the 36 militiamen killed, mostly in direct gun battles with IS militants, Misrata hospital spokesman Abdel-Aziz Essa also said that about 140 were wounded in Tuesday's battles. IS fighters reportedly have hunkered down at the militant group's headquarters in Sirte, the sprawling Ouagadougou convention center that was built by late dictator Moammar Gadhafi. Sirte was also Gadhafi's birthplace and the city he fled to during the 2011 civil war, when Libyan rebels backed by NATO bombings forced him out of the capital, Tripoli. Meanwhile, the state LANA news agency said an explosion at a depot on Tuesday in the town of Garabuli, near Tripoli, followed clashes with militias and killed 29 civilians. According to a statement on the Facebook page of the Qarabouli municipal council, the clashes took place between militiamen in charge of the town security and armed local protesters. When the protesters stormed the militia's barracks, the depot exploded, the statement said. It said that the depot housed firecrackers, not ammunition. Photographs posted on the page showed charred bodies covered in plastic sheets. The U.N. envoy to Libya, Martin Kobler, said on his Twitter account he was "shocked and saddened by reported violence and lives lost in Garabuli tonight." The high death toll illustrates the violence that has roiled Libya since Gadhafi's ouster and death in the 2011 uprising against his rule that turned into a civil war. Over the past years, rival militias and governments have torn the country apart while IS-linked militants gained strength, setting up a base in Sirte, along Libya's central Mediterranean coast. As Libya slid into chaos, hundreds of thousands of mostly African migrants flooded the country's coastline, attempting to cross to Europe. Meanwhile, on a third front, inside the war-raged eastern city of Benghazi, army forces and local fighters have been battling Islamic extremists the past two years. The army is under the command of controversial commander Khalifa Hifter, who answers to the internationally-recognized parliament seated in eastern Libya. Foreign military advisers have been working with different factions in Libya. On Tuesday, the Marine Corps general Lt. Gen. Thomas D. Waldhauser who is nominated to lead U.S. forces in Africa said the United States has a small number of troops on the ground in Libya but that no more are needed "at the moment." Waldhauser testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee, saying the Americans are in advisory roles in Libya while acknowledging that he isn't aware of an "overall grand strategy" for Libya. The U.S. previously has conducted airstrikes in Libya, targeting Islamic State fighters and IS leaders. For its part, the European Union on Monday boosted the role of its naval operation in the Mediterranean to counter the increasing numbers of desperate migrants trying to reach Europe. EU foreign ministers agreed at talks in Luxembourg to extend their operation in Libya by another year and tasked it with building up Libya's coast guard and navy. The operation will also help to police a U.N. arms embargo off the Libya coast. Denmark finds man guilty of traveling to Syria to join IS COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) A Danish court on Wednesday convicted a 24-year-old pizzeria owner of joining Islamic State militants in Syria, dismissing his claims that he had gone there to work as a cook. The Copenhagen suburban Glostrup City Court found Hamza Cakan, who has dual Danish and Turkish citizenships, guilty of enrolling in the radical Islamist group, the first such ruling in the Scandinavian country. Cakan, who ran a pizzeria in Copenhagen, has acknowledged traveling twice to Syria in 2013 but said he didn't go there to fight. However, he admitted to filling in a form saying he had joined IS to become a fighter. He was arrested last year after attempting to head for Syria again. Cakan, formerly known as Enes Ciftci, appeared in the IS registry as "Abu Aya Dinimarki." The document was used in the court case against him. He told the jury of three judges and five jurors that a photo he had posted on social media of him posing with an AK-47 was to "show off" and had been taken in Syria, according to court documents. Cambodia to expel Taiwanese scam suspects to China PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) Cambodia plans to send 21 Taiwanese arrested for suspected fraud to China instead of the self-ruled island this Friday, a Cambodian official said. Rights activists and Taiwan say the plan reflects the great influence Beijing exercises over Cambodia through aid and investment. Gen. Ouk Haiseila, chief of the Interior Ministry's Immigration Investigation Bureau, said Wednesday the Taiwanese citizens, along with 14 Chinese also arrested this month, will be sent to China because Cambodia regards Taiwan as part of China. Those arrested allegedly defrauded victims in China using phone calls made over the internet, making them harder to trace. Haiseila said the arrests, made in raids in Phnom Penh on June 16 and 18, were made after tip-offs from Chinese authorities. He said that since November some 213 Chinese and Taiwanese have been arrested and deported for similar offenses. China claims jurisdiction in such cases because it says the victims are residents of mainland China. They have said Taiwan doesn't punish such crimes harshly enough, encouraging others to try their luck at such scams that can potentially lead to massive payouts. Kenya and Malaysia have also deported Taiwanese internet scam suspects to China despite protests by Taiwanese officials. Taiwanese officials have viewed Beijing's demands for the fraud suspects as a sign that China is interfering with Taiwanese affairs and exerting its legal authority over the island's citizens abroad. The Taipei Times cited the island's foreign ministry as saying that Beijing pressured Phnom Penh into sending the suspects to China. The ministry was quoted as saying that Taiwanese officials based in Vietnam who had traveled to Cambodia were prevented from visiting the suspects. China is a key ally and economic partner of impoverished Cambodia. China's influence in Cambodia is considerable despite Beijing's strong backing of the former Khmer Rouge government that caused the deaths of some 1.7 million people in the late 1970s. It has provided millions of dollars in aid to Cambodia over the past decade, agreed to write off debts and granted it tariff-free status for hundreds of items. "China's idea of rule of law is getting what it wants when it wants, even if that means running roughshod over human rights and in the case of Cambodia, it's found a willing partner which is all too happy to deport people on Beijing's word without any concern for due process rights," said Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch's Asia division. He cited Cambodia's expulsion to China of ethnic Uighur asylum seekers, and Phnom Penh's alignment with China in the dispute over its territorial claims in the South China Sea as other examples of doing Beijing's bidding. Bodies of 12 Nepalese guards killed in Kabul returned home KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) The bodies of 12 Nepalese security guards killed by a Taliban suicide bomber in Afghanistan's capital earlier this week were returned home to Nepal on Wednesday. Grieving relatives and top government officials including Nepal's prime minister received the bodies Wednesday at Kathmandu's airport. Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli assured the relatives that the government would help them. The Nepal Airlines chartered plane also flew back 24 other Nepalese security guards who worked with the ones killed. They quit their jobs and decided to return home, saying they feared more attacks. "We are not safe there anymore and there are more threats against us now. We have no security and can carry weapons only when inside the Canadian embassy during duty hours," said Ishing Tamang, who had been working in Afghanistan since 2011 and now vows never to return. Fourteen people were killed in the attack, including 12 Nepalese citizens. The remaining two are believed to be Indians. Apparent N. Korea missile success followed flurry of flops SEOUL, South Korea (AP) North Korea endured international humiliation with five failed launches in about two months before it finally pulled off what appears to be a successful test of a powerful new midrange missile. Scientists managed to satisfy a direct order from an impatient strongman looking for a credible military backup to his repeated threats to strike his enemies in all corners of Asia. The latest development came Wednesday, with back-to-back launches of what Seoul, Tokyo and Washington believe are Musudan missiles, the second of which appeared to succeed. The North's remarkable commitment to quickly launching the missiles, despite the failures, flies in the face of past practices, when scientists usually took their time after a bad launch to figure out what went wrong and make adjustments. North Koreans are dwarfed against giant portraits of the late North Korean leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il as they walk past an apartment building on Wednesday, June 22, 2016, in Wonsan, North Korea. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E) But leader Kim Jong Un may have turned up the pressure on his scientists and military with his very public order in March to push ahead with more nuclear and missile tests. Such a burden from a boss who has shown a willingness to use violence against his underlings ordering even his own uncle's execution may toss normal scientific patience out the window. The North's official Korean Central News Agency on Thursday quoted Kim as saying the launch now gives his country the "sure capability to attack in an overall and practical way the Americans in the Pacific operation theatre." Kim leads a small, impoverished, authoritarian country that sees itself beset with much larger enemies intent on its destruction. To protect his third-generation family dynasty, he may calculate that he needs to make North Korea appear too dangerous for Washington to try to topple him. He may have been willing to weather outside mockery for progress on a missile whose development marks a big step toward North Korea's goal of a comprehensive nuclear and missile program that can deliver atomic bombs and missile strikes to U.S. targets around the world, including, eventually, the U.S. mainland. Five of the North's six suspected Musudan launches failed, many exploding in midair or crashing. The sixth on Wednesday flew about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) high and a distance of about 400 kilometers (245 miles), South Korean and Japanese officials said. That indicated a success for some observers. The North's repeated tests of the Musudan worry Washington because the missile's potential 3,500-kilometer (2,180-mile) range puts a lot of Asia and the Pacific, including U.S. military bases, within reach. Some analysts have been thrown by the speed with which North Korea moved on the suspected Musudan tests. The first launch came on April 15, and was linked by outsiders both to Kim's March order and to the birthday anniversary that day of North Korea founder Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Un's grandfather. Less than two weeks later, North Korea conducted two more launches. The next came June 1, and then came Wednesday's double firing. "Repeating a failed test again and again with no more than a month for analysis and troubleshooting will almost guarantee repeated failure," according to aerospace engineer John Schilling, writing earlier this month, after the fourth test. North Korea is extremely sensitive to outside criticism. Pyongyang, for instance, said Monday it won't negotiate to release arrested American citizens if a former U.S. detainee, Kenneth Bae, doesn't stop using what it called slanderous language about the North. But even more important for the leadership is the support of the elite in Pyongyang, the North's capital. North Korea said nothing in any of its state-run media about the five failed launches, meaning most people in insular North Korea probably knew nothing about them. For Kim Jong Un, a final, apparently successful launch of a missile that could be a real threat to his enemies may ease the pain of all the previous failures, especially since most of his people were unaware of them. ___ Foster Klug, AP's bureau chief in Seoul, has covered North and South Korea for more than a decade. Follow him on twitter at www.twitter.com/apklug South Korean army soldiers prepare to fire 105mm howitzers during an exercise in Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea Wednesday, June 22, 2016. In a remarkable show of persistence, North Korea on Wednesday fired two suspected powerful new Musudan mid-range missiles, U.S. and South Korean military officials said, but at least one of the launches apparently failed, Pyongyang's fifth such reported flop since April. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon) A woman walks by a public TV screen showing the North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un at the Seoul Train Station in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, June 22, 2016. In a remarkable show of persistence, North Korea on Wednesday fired two suspected powerful new Musudan midrange ballistic missiles, U.S. and South Korean military officials said, its fifth and sixth such attempts since April. The letters on top left, "North Korea's missile launches failed again." (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man) A small plane left the South Pole on Wednesday with two sick workers in a daring rescue mission from a remote U.S. science outpost, federal officials said. In an international effort, a Canadian-owned Twin Otter turboprop plane started the 1,500-mile flight to Rothera, a British station on the Antarctic peninsula. It's a nine to 10-hour flight, which the crew made from Rothera on Tuesday to get to the South Pole. Once the sick patients and the crew a pilot, co-pilot, flight engineer and medical worker rest, they will then fly off Antarctica for medical attention that could not be provided on the remote, frozen continent. Help has arrived: A plane left the South Pole Wednesday on a daring rescue mission to save the life of a worker at one of the most inhospitable places on the planet A small, Canadian owned and operated Twin Otter plane had landed Tuesday at the Amundsen-Scott Station after a nine-hour, 1,500-mile flight from the outer edge of Antarctica to the bottom of the world The Twin Otter plane made a journey of thousands of miles through 24-hour winter darkness and in temperatures of -76F to reach the base. It is now is now en route to a British facility 1,500 miles away West said two workers - support crew employed by logistics contractor Lockheed Martin - had to be evacuated. The agency won't identify the sick workers or their conditions, citing medical privacy. Normally planes don't use the polar outpost from February to October because of the dangers of flying in the pitch dark and cold. Wednesday it was minus 75 degrees at the South Pole (minus 60 Celsius), according to the station's webcam and weather gauges. The first day of winter in the Southern Hemisphere was Monday the sun will not rise at the South Pole till the first day of spring in September. The extreme cold affects a lot of things on planes, including fuel, which needs to be warmed before takeoff, batteries and hydraulics, West said. The Twin Otter can fly in temperatures as low as minus 103 degrees (minus 75 degrees Celsius), he said. A Twin Otter flies out of the South Pole on a medical flight. A daring South Pole medical rescue is underway. An airplane left a British base in Antarctica for the 1,500-mile trip to evacuate a sick person from the U.S. station Backup plan: Rothera, the British Antarctic Survey station is seen from the air Athena Dinar, spokeswoman for the British Antarctic Survey, said one of two twin otter planes began the trip Tuesday 'The air and Antarctica are unforgiving environments and punishes any slackness very hard,' said Tim Stockings, operations director at the British Antarctic Survey in London. 'If you are complacent it will bite you.' 'Things can change very quickly down there' with ice from clouds, high winds and snow, he said. The National Science Foundation decided last week to mount the rescue operation because one staffer needed medical care that can't be provided there. The station has a doctor, a physician's assistant and is connected to doctors in the U.S. for consults, West said. There are 48 people 39 men and nine women at the station. There have been three emergency evacuations from the Amundsen-Scott station since 1999. The 1999 flight, which was done in Antarctic spring with slightly better conditions, rescued the station's doctor, Jerri Nielsen, who had breast cancer and had been treating herself. Rescues were done in 2001 and 2003, both for gallbladder problems. Ex-American Airlines supervisor on 9/11 guilty in sex case PITTSBURGH (AP) A former American Airlines operations manager who learned of the first Sept. 11, 2001, hijacking before the jet struck the World Trade Center has pleaded guilty to a federal interstate child-sex charge in Pittsburgh. Ray Howland, 55, of Arlington, Texas, entered the plea before Senior U.S. District Judge Gustave Diamond on Wednesday. Diamond scheduled sentencing for Oct. 19. Howland was arrested near Pittsburgh International Airport last June by an undercover state attorney general's agent who posed online as a woman with a 10-year-old daughter. Howland used an iPad and cellphone to send explicit messages after posting an ad online that he was "looking for a family or a couple of girls" for sex while in town on business, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jessica Lieber Smolar told the judge. The plea deal includes an agreed-upon 10-year prison sentence. That's the mandatory minimum sentence for the charge of attempted coercion and enticement of a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity, which carries up to life in prison. Diamond must still approve the deal at sentencing. "A lot of times in these cases you see double that amount," defense attorney Frank Walker II said of the 10-year sentence. "It's hard to say someone can be satisfied, but they will be accepting of a 10-year sentence. When they're facing 19, 20 years, it seems like a reasonable resolution." Walker said Howland has undergone counseling and is "looking forward to paying his debt to society and putting this behind him." Howland's wife and children were in the courtroom but didn't comment. Howland didn't speak beyond answering the judge's questions about whether he understood his rights and what he was doing. Howland received some of the first panicked calls from employees at Boston's Logan Airport in reporting the hijacking of American Airlines Flight 11 on Sept. 11, 2001. The plane was the first of two that crashed into New York's World Trade Center towers. Howland was a supervisor at American's system operations control center. Transcripts show he told other American employees not to disclose the hijacking minutes before the Boeing 767 hit the World Trade Center. "We don't want this getting out," Howland said, according to the transcripts. "We're aware of the situation. We're dealing with it right now. So let us deal with it." American Airlines, based in Fort Worth, Texas, has said Howland is no longer an employee. Smolar told the judge that Howland had been making monthly business trips to Pittsburgh facilitating American's merger with US Airways when he was arrested. Howland had been free but was handcuffed and led away by deputy U.S. marshals after pleading guilty. The Latest: EU approves new border and coast guard VIENNA (AP) The Latest on the flow of migrants into Europe (all times local): 1:55 p.m. The European Union has agreed on a new border and coast guard to better manage migrant arrivals after more than a million people came to the EU in search of jobs or sanctuary last year. Dutch Migration Minister Klaas Dijkhoff said Wednesday that with the move "we have more control over migration streams and we enlarge the safety of our citizens." The Netherlands currently holds the EU's rotating presidency and chaperoned the border guard plan through. The border and coast guard will be built up from the EU's border management agency Frontex. The EU hopes it will strengthen external borders, which have proved particularly porous around Italy and Greece, and ensure that Europe's passport-free travel area functions correctly. ___ 11 a.m. Austrian police are noting an increased number of human smuggling attempts in sealed trucks, with two cases involving a total of 10 people this week alone. Police say they found five Iraqis including two infants near the border to Slovenia on Tuesday in a Turkish truck after the driver alerted them to noises from the vehicle. Four Pakistanis and an Afghan citizen were discovered in a Bosnian truck in the same region the day before, again after the driver heard noises. US commander says Russia could take Baltics swiftly BERLIN (AP) The commanding general of U.S. Army forces in Europe says as things stand, Russia's military could overrun the continent's northeastern Baltic states before the NATO alliance could respond. In comments to Germany's Die Zeit newspaper during military exercises in Poland emphasizing mobility, Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges was quoted Wednesday saying that Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania could be rapidly overrun. "Russia could capture the Baltic states quicker than we could get there to defend them," he was quoted as saying in comments translated into German. Russia has criticized the ongoing exercise in Poland, saying that the presence of the alliance's troops close to its borders is a threat to its security. AP EXPLAINS: Why, how is UK voting to stay in or leave EU? LONDON (AP) The United Kingdom will vote Thursday on whether to remain in the European Union. As months of fierce campaigning wind down and Britons hold their breath for what has been described as a "once-in-a-lifetime" decision, AP explains the purpose and mechanics of the vote. WHY WAS THE VOTE CALLED? British Prime Minister David Cameron courted conservative and anti-EU voters during the last election by promising to hold a referendum on the U.K.'s membership in the 28-nation bloc by the end of 2017. Those campaigning to leave say the EU has evolved into an undemocratic and oppressive entity far removed from its original purpose as a trading bloc that Britain originally joined in 1973. They claim that only a British exit or Brexit can restore sovereignty and effectively limit immigration. Those campaigning to remain argue that the EU ensures peace and prosperity for more than 500 million people from Portugal to Finland and the benefits far outweigh the costs. A sign points towards a referendum polling station in London, Wednesday, June 22, 2016. Britain votes whether to stay in the European Union in a referendum on Thursday. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham) ___ WHO CAN VOTE? British and Irish citizens 18 and over who reside in the United Kingdom, as well as U.K. residents of Commonwealth countries who have the right to live in the country, can vote in the referendum. U.K. nationals who live outside the country but were registered to vote in parliamentary elections in the past 15 years, and Irish citizens overseas who were born or registered to vote in Northern Ireland in the same period, can also vote. In addition, some citizens of Gibraltar a British enclave on the south coast of Spain and members of the House of Lords, who cannot normally vote in general elections, have been given permission to participate in the referendum. The Electoral Commission says a record number of 46,499,537 voters were registered for the referendum by Tuesday. ___ WHAT'S ON THE BALLOT PAPER? Voters are asked to answer one question: "Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union?" The options are: "Remain a member of the European Union" and "Leave the European Union." ___ WHAT HAPPENS ON THE DAY OF THE REFERENDUM? Polling stations open at 7 a.m. (0600 GMT, 2 a.m. EDT) and close at 10 p.m. (2100 GMT, 5 p.m. EDT). Many votes will have been cast in advance by postal ballot. Election officials in 382 areas will begin counting the votes immediately after polls close. ___ IS THERE CAMPAIGNING ON VOTING DAY? The law doesn't prohibit campaigning on voting day, but by convention political parties refrain from doing so. Publishing exit polls prior to the end of voting at 10 p.m. (2100 GMT, 5 p.m. EDT) is, however, a criminal offense. ___ WHEN AND HOW WILL THE RESULT BE ANNOUNCED? Regional counting offices will send their results to Manchester, where the chair of the U.K. Electoral Commission is expected to announce the official outcome at about 7 a.m. (0600 GMT, 2 a.m. EDT) Friday. However, the result may well be known as early as 4 a.m. (0300 GMT, 11 p.m. EDT Thursday) as media tally the local results. ___ WOULD THERE BE A RECOUNT IF THE VOTE IS CLOSE? The rules don't allow for a national recount, but courts can order recounts at the local level. The overall outcome can be challenged by judicial review filed within six weeks. ___ IS THE REFERENDUM BINDING? Man charged in hot-van death of 6-month-old daughter MELISSA, Texas (AP) A Dallas area man whose 6-month-old daughter died after she was left in a hot minivan parked outside the family home has been charged with manslaughter. Michael Thedford is free on $20,000 bond. Booking records list no attorney for the 33-year-old Melissa man. According to an arrest affidavit obtained by KDFW-TV (http://bit.ly/28NJVGk ) of Dallas-Fort Worth, Thedford said he dropped two other children off at day care about 9 a.m. Tuesday and had returned home to sleep. Only when he woke up three hours later did he find his youngest child stiff and "hot as a brick" in the minivan. He placed the child in the refrigerator with the door open before calling 911. This photo provided by the Collin County Sheriff's Department shows Michael Thedford, The North Texas man has been charged with manslaughter in the death of his 6-month-old daughter who was found unconscious in the heat of the car interior outside the family home. Thedford was booked into the Collin County Jail after the incident Tuesday, June 21, 2016. (Collin County Sheriff's Department via AP) The National Weather Service says temperatures were in the low 90s but felt like the upper 90s. ___ Bollywood's Salman Khan causes uproar with rape remark NEW DELHI (AP) Bollywood superstar Salman Khan has caused a public uproar by telling reporters that shooting his upcoming movie was so grueling that he felt like a raped woman. The actor's analogy struck a painful chord in India, where sexual violence against women is rampant but was largely unmentioned until just a few years ago. While the topic is still taboo in some places, a protest movement has erupted in cities with demand for better safety for women and harsher punishment for rapists. The National Commission for Women this week demanded Khan apologize for using a rape analogy while speaking with reporters last weekend about his role as a professional wrestler in the new film "Sultan." FILE- In this June 18, 2015 file photo, Bollywood actor Salman Khan smiles during the trailer launch of his upcoming movie "Bajrangi Bhaijaan" in Mumbai, India. Khan has caused a public uproar by telling reporters that shooting his new film "Sultan" was so grueling that he felt like a raped woman.(AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade, File) If he did not speak up, he would be hauled before the state-appointed commission to explain, it said. "It's not only a wrong statement, it's very irresponsible and callous for a man whose fame and wealth are based on the adoration of his female fans," said Commission chief Lalita Kumaramangalam. But by Wednesday, Khan had still said nothing about the remarks. The public fury and social media backlash has been so great that Khan's own father, Salim, apologized on his son's behalf and pleaded with the public to forgive him. "To err is human to forgive divine," Salim Khan said Tuesday on Twitter. In another message, he said: "Nevertheless I apologize on behalf of his family his fans & his friends. Forgiveness is to pardon the unpardonable or it is no virtue at all." The problem of sexual violence long went unrecognized in India, until the gang rape and mutilation of a young woman on a moving bus in December 2012 shamed the country and triggered a period of soul searching. Public protests in New Delhi and other cities prompted the Indian government in 2013 to strengthen laws for punishing those convicted of sexual crimes, as well as for prosecuting authorities who fail to investigate complaints. But strong social stigmas still prevent many victims from coming forward, and many women's rights activists say more awareness and education of the issue are needed. Khan's remark was considered particularly damaging given his immense popularity as a leading romance and action star in the Bollywood film industry. ___ Follow Nirmala George at twitter.com/NirmalaGeorge1 Moldova asks Russia to stop recruiting its citizens to Army CHISINAU, Moldova (AP) Moldova's foreign ministry has called on Russia to stop recruiting Moldovan citizens to the Russian Army. In a letter sent to the Russian embassy in Chisinau Wednesday, the ministry accused Russia of recruiting soldiers in Ternovca, a village located in the pro-Russian breakaway region of Trans-Dniester, which borders Ukraine. It said the alleged recruitments violate bilateral agreements. The letter did not say when the alleged recruitments took place or how many people had been recruited. The Russian embassy did not immediately respond. The ministry also called on Russia to withdraw some 1,000 Russian troops stationed in Trans-Dniester. It said Trans-Dniester, which broke away from Moldova in 1990 fearing Moldova intended to reunite with Romania, should have an international civil peacekeeping operation. Deputy marshal seeks change of venue in fatal shooting MARKSVILLE, La. (AP) One of two deputy city marshals charged in the fatal shooting of a boy who was strapped into the front seat of his father's car in Louisiana is asking a judge to move his trial to another location. The Advocate reports (http://bit.ly/28LWm7m) attorneys for Derrick Stafford, 33, say publicity surrounding the November shooting of 6-year-old Jeremy Mardis and the wounding of his father, Chris Few, has prejudiced potential jurors for the trial in Marksville. Attorneys Jonathan Goins and Chris LaCour wrote in the motion that other factors that could bias a jury include "government officials (who) made invidious and inflammatory statements" against Stafford after the shooting. Stafford and Norris Greenhouse Jr., 24, earlier pleaded not guilty to charges including second-degree murder. State Police said the two opened fire on Few's car after a pursuit that a third deputy and a Marksville police sergeant also joined. A police report says video from the sergeant's body camera shows Few's empty hands were raised and visible inside the vehicle when gunfire erupted. Few was hit twice but survived. Jeremy, who sat in the front passenger seat, was shot five times and died at the scene. Stafford's family has claimed that he and Greenhouse feared for their lives and shot at Few in self-defense. Stafford's trial is scheduled to begin Sept. 26, and Greenhouse's on Nov. 28, though it's possible the trials will be delayed. Both men remain free on $1 million bail. A hearing on the change of venue request and other motions is set for June 29. Greenhouse's lawyer, George Higgins of Alexandria, said he would not seek to move the trial out of Avoyelles Parish. Higgins said he's tried several jury trials in the parish. "I've always thought they had jurors who were fair minded," Higgins said. "That is where the allegations took place. That's where it should be tried." ___ German TV program pulled, Turkey trip rejected amid tensions BERLIN (AP) A Turkish television station has pulled a German broadcaster's program, citing complaints over the German Parliament's vote to label the killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks a century ago genocide, the ZDF broadcaster said Wednesday. Separately, the German Defense Ministry said a delegation including a deputy defense minister had been refused permission to visit German troops at a base in Turkey though no official explanation was given for the decision. ZDF said that Turkey's Kanal D informed it that the broadcasts of the children's news program had to be ended because of "numerous viewer complaints" about the June 2 vote by the German Parliament a vote that infuriated the Turkish government. Historians estimate that up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks around the time of World War I, an event viewed by many scholars as the first genocide of the 20th century. Turkey disputes the description. It says the toll has been inflated and considers those killed victims of a civil war. ZDF's German-language "logo!" program has been broadcast via the pan-European network of Kanal D, part of Turkey's Dogan media company, for nearly a decade. ZDF aimed to reach the children of families of Turkish origin in Germany, many of whom watch primarily Turkish channels. The German broadcaster said it regrets Kanal D's decision. Defense Ministry spokesman Jens Flosdorff said authorities in Ankara had refused a routine trip by a German deputy defense minister and a handful of German lawmakers who had wanted to visit the troops on the Incirlik air base in July. Germany has Tornado reconnaissance aircraft stationed at Incirlik flying missions in support of efforts against the Islamic State group. The Latest: Most fire evacuations lifted near Santa Barbara LOS ANGELES (AP) The Latest on wildfires burning in the West (all times local): 7:15 a.m. Moisture has moved in along much of the Southern California coast, and most mandatory evacuation areas near a wildfire in Santa Barbara County have been lifted. A firefighting helicopter makes a water drop on a hill near a wildfire in Duarte, Calif., Tuesday, June 21, 2016. Surging wildfires on Tuesday forced new evacuations of hundreds of homes across the West, while firefighters worked to beat back a pair of huge adjacent blazes looming over suburban Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu) Fog arrived overnight on the rugged coast west of Santa Barbara, where a fire of more than 12 square miles is nearly entirely contained Wednesday morning. As planned, mandatory evacuation orders for many areas were reduced to warnings at 5 a.m., allowing residents to return. All orders are expected to be lifted by the weekend. Firefighting resources are being redirected to two fires in the San Gabriel Mountains northeast of Los Angeles and to a blaze east of San Diego near the Mexico border. A Los Angeles County firefighting helicopter makes a water drop on a hill near a wildfire in Duarte, Calif. Tuesday, June 21, 2016. Firefighters worked to make gains against Southern California wildfires as an intense heat wave eased slightly Tuesday, but officials warned nearby communities to stay alert and obey any evacuation orders. (AP Photo/Nick Ut) A firefighting helicopter prepares to make a water drop on a wildfire in Duarte, Calif., Tuesday, June 21, 2016. Firefighters worked to make gains against Southern California wildfires as an intense heat wave eased slightly Tuesday, but officials warned nearby communities to stay alert and obey any evacuation orders. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu) Dubai auction of Islamic treasures raises $11M for refugees DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) An auction to raise money for books for refugee children has raised more than $11 million in Dubai, including the sale of a more than 100-year-old covering from the cube-shaped Kaaba that Muslims pray toward in Mecca. The piece, woven with gold and silver, sold Tuesday evening for $572,000 and came from the private collection of Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. An early 19th Century Indian-Mogul manuscript of the Quran and a 17th Century handwritten copy each sold for $68,000. Five unique Dubai car plate numbers sold for a total of $7 million. In this Tuesday, June 21, 2016 photo, an Emirati man talks on his mobile phone next to the "R Dubai 10" license plate in its glass case, which was one of many items displayed in the Emirates Auction to be sold for AED 9.7 million ($ 2.65 million) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. An auction to raise money for books for refugee children has raised more than $11 million in Dubai, including the sale of a more than 100-year-old covering from the cube-shaped Kaaba that Muslims pray toward in Mecca. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili) The Reading Nation Ramadan campaign, organized by Dubai as a charity initiative during the Muslim holy month, aims to donate 7.3 million books and establish 2,000 school libraries in Arab countries and refugee camps. In this Tuesday, June 21, 2016 photo, Emirati men chat in front of a poster ahead of the Emirates Auction for supporting the Reading Nation Campaign, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. An auction to raise money for books for refugee children has raised more than $11 million in Dubai, including the sale of a more than 100-year-old covering from the cube-shaped Kaaba that Muslims pray toward in Mecca. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili) In this Tuesday, June 21, 2016 photo, an Emirati woman takes a photo of an item displayed during the Emirates Auction in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. An auction to raise money for books for refugee children has raised more than $11 million in Dubai, including the sale of a more than 100-year-old covering from the cube-shaped Kaaba that Muslims pray toward in Mecca. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili) Colombia, FARC rebels announce deal on bilateral cease-fire HAVANA (AP) Colombia's government and leftist rebels announced Wednesday that they have reached a deal on a cease-fire that would be the last major step toward ending Latin America's oldest guerrilla war. President Juan Manuel Santos will travel to Cuba Thursday to unveil details of the agreement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced he also would be present to witness the signing of the accord. Colombia's conflict has killed more than 220,000 people and displaced millions. But a 15-year, U.S.-backed military offensive thinned the rebels' ranks and forced its aging leaders to the negotiating table in 2012. FILE - In this Jan. 3, 2016 file photo, Orlando, a rebel fighter for the 36th Front of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia or FARC, hangs a banner featuring the late rebel leader Alfonso Cano with a message that reads in Spanish: "Our dream is peace with social justice," in their hidden camp in Antioquia state, in the northwest Andes of Colombia. The Colombian government and leftists FARC rebels said Wednesday, June 22, 2016, that they have reached a deal on a bilateral cease-fire that would be the last major step toward ending one of the worlds longest wars. Santos will travel to Cuba Thursday for the announcement with the FARC, according to an official close to the talks. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd, File) Momentum had been building toward a breakthrough after Santos said this week that he hoped to end a half-century of bloodshed by July 20, marking Colombia's declaration of independence from Spain. But Wednesday's agreement went further than expected, removing all doubt that a final deal is around the corner. In addition to announcing a framework for the cease-fire, both sides said they agreed on how the FARC's estimated 7,000 fighters will demobilize and hand over their weapons, as well as the security guarantees that will be provided to leftist activists after the conflict ends. Negotiators in January tasked the U.N. with monitoring adherence to an eventual cease-fire and resolving disputes emerging from the demobilization. "Tomorrow will be a great day," Santos blasted out on Twitter. "We're working for a Colombia in peace, a dream that's beginning to become reality." The presidents of Cuba, Venezuela and Chile the three nations sponsoring the now almost four-year-old peace talks in Havana were also expected to attend Thursday's ceremony, and the Obama administration was sending its special envoy to the talks, former diplomat Bernard Aronson. With the latest advances, only few minor pending items remain, the biggest being how the final deal will be ratified and given legal force so that it won't unravel should a more conservative government succeed Santos, who leaves office in 2018. The two sides must also settle on a mechanism for selecting judges who will preside over special peace tribunals evaluating the war crimes of guerrillas as well as the military. The peace talks have been bumpy and extended much longer than Santos or anyone else anticipated. But if a final deal is reached, it would end Latin America's last major insurgency, one accused of being a major supplier of cocaine to the U.S. Still, the much-smaller and more recalcitrant National Liberation Army has a toehold in some areas and could fill the void left by the FARC. The ELN agreed to a peace process with the government earlier this year but those talks have yet to start because of Santos' insistence the group renounce kidnapping. Santos has vowed to put the FARC deal to a referendum vote so Colombians can express their opinion. Opinion polls show the FARC are widely despised among Colombians and frustration with the rebels has grown as the talks have dragged on, making the task of reconciliation much harder. Reflecting some of that pessimism, midday news broadcasts across Colombia led off not with the progress being made in Havana but another battle of sorts: Wednesday's night semi-final match in the Copa America soccer tournament between Colombia and Chile. ___ Goodman reported from Bogota, Colombia. FILE - In this Sept. 23, 2015 file photo, Cuba's President Raul Castro, center, stands with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, left, and Commander the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia or FARC, Timoleon Jimenez , in Havana, Cuba. The Colombian government and leftists FARC rebels said Wednesday, June 22, 2016, that they have reached a deal on a bilateral cease-fire that would be the last major step toward ending one of the worlds longest wars. Santos will travel to Cuba Thursday for the announcement with the FARC, according to an official close to the talks. (AP Photo/Desmond Boylan, File) Finnish Cabinet reshuffled after party changes HELSINKI (AP) Finnish Interior Minister Petteri Orpo has been appointed finance minister to replace outgoing Alexander Stubb, who was ousted as chairman of the conservative National Coalition Party earlier this month in a party congress vote. Stubb, a former prime minister and European Parliament member, failed to turn around the waning popularity of his party and lost to Orpo in a 441-361 vote. Orpo automatically inherited Stubb's ministerial post the most senior position held by the conservatives in the country's three-party ruling coalition. In other appointments Wednesday, Deputy Parliament Speaker Paula Risikko took over as interior minister, while another conservative lawmaker, Kai Mykkanen, was given the foreign trade portfolio. The changes took effect immediately. Finland's new Finance Minister Petteri Orpo, left, new Interior Minister Paula Risikko, 2nd left, Minister for Education Sanni Grahn-Laasonen and new Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Kai Mykkanen, right, attend a press conference in Helsinki, Finland on Wednesday June 22, 2016. (Heikki Saukkomaa/ Lehtikuva via AP) FINLAND OUT Gaza slum growth illustrates economic plight, bleak future EL-ZOHOR, Gaza Strip (AP) The expansion of Gaza's el-Zohor slum, where barefoot children play in the rusty skeletons of discarded vehicles surrounded by mountains of garbage, is a sign of the times in Gaza, where poverty is growing and there is little hope for the future. While Gaza has always been poor, conditions for the 1.8 million people who live in the crowded seaside territory have worsened since the Islamic militant group Hamas seized power in 2007. Soon after, Egypt and Israel, citing security concerns, imposed a blockade on the territory in a move that had a devastating impact on the local economy. Deepening the despair, Hamas and Israel have fought three wars since the takeover. Some areas are still in ruins from the 2014 war and thousands of people are still displaced. The U.N warned last year that Gaza could become "uninhabitable" by 2020 if current trends continue. In this Monday, June 20, 2016 photo, Palestinian children prepare food for a horse as they sit on a cart next to their house in El-Zohor slum on the outskirts of Khan Younis refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip. The expansion of the el-Zohor slum, where barefoot children play in the rusty skeletons of discarded vehicles surrounded by mountains of garbage, is a sign of the times in Gaza, where poverty is growing and there is little hope for the future. While Gaza has always been poor, conditions for the 1.8 million people who live in the crowded seaside territory worsened since the Islamic militant group Hamas seized power in 2007. (AP Photo/ Khalil Hamra) But even by Gaza standards, conditions are deplorable in the el-Zohor, or "Flowers," neighborhood near the city of Khan Younis in the southern part of the territory. While Gaza's poor generally have access to basic amenities, health care and municipal services in the neighborhood are among the worst in the territory. The shacks, adjacent to a landfill, have no electricity or running water. Piles of garbage encroach on the makeshift homes, covering rooftops with trash while the acrid smell of burning waste wafts over the squalor. The searing heat and long summer days have compounded the difficulty of fasting during the monthlong Ramadan holiday. The neighborhood didn't even exist eight years ago. Today, about 50 families live there. Locals say Hamas is intentionally making conditions worse in the neighborhood to try and force people off of public property. They say if Hamas finds electric wires connected to nearby utility poles it cuts the lines. Resident Mahrous Zourob, a 33-year-old father of five, said Hamas imposes "impossible conditions" on the slum dwellers. Each family has a story that reflects Gaza's economic plight. Most say they lost their income when breadwinners could no longer enter Israel to work after Hamas took power. Zourob, who worked in as a laborer in construction, farming and Gaza's smuggling tunnels on the Egyptian border before they were largely destroyed, said he used to live in a rental home but had to move out three years ago because of a lack of work. Israel, the U.S., and others consider Hamas a terror organization for its suicide bombings, shootings and other attacks that have targeted civilians over the years. Israel says the blockade is essential to its security. Critics say the blockade, which has restricted the movement of people and goods in and out of the territory, amounts to collective punishment. According to the U.N., more than 800,000 people in Gaza receive food aid and nearly 50 percent of the population is unemployed. Aid worker Eyad Al-Shami said he was "shocked from the situation of the families" in el-Zohor when he brought them meals donated by Saudi Arabia to break the Ramadan fast this week. Asmahan Farwana said she sends some of her eight children to beg in the markets to buy food. Her husband had a workplace injury and can no longer work. "Today, we found a meal, thank God," she said after gathering her children around for a donated meal of chicken and rice. In this Monday, June 20, 2016 photo, piles of garbage surround el-Zohor slum, on the outskirts of Khan Younis refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip. The expansion of the slum, where barefoot children play in the rusty skeletons of discarded vehicles surrounded by mountains of garbage, is a sign of the times in Gaza, where poverty is growing and there is little hope for the future. While Gaza has always been poor, conditions for the 1.8 million people who live in the crowded seaside territory worsened since the Islamic militant group Hamas seized power in 2007. (AP Photo/ Khalil Hamra) In this Monday, June 20, 2016 photo, Palestinian boys play with water toys in el-Zohor slum on the outskirts of Khan Younis refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip. The expansion of the el-Zohor slum, where barefoot children play in the rusty skeletons of discarded vehicles surrounded by mountains of garbage, is a sign of the times in Gaza, where poverty is growing and there is little hope for the future. While Gaza has always been poor, conditions for the 1.8 million people who live in the crowded seaside territory worsened since the Islamic militant group Hamas seized power in 2007. (AP Photo/ Khalil Hamra) In this Monday, June 20, 2016 photo, a Palestinian girl plays in a barrel as her mother bakes bread for a Ramadan dinner at their house in el-Zohor slum, on the outskirts of Khan Younis refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip. The expansion of the el-Zohor slum, where barefoot children play in the rusty skeletons of discarded vehicles surrounded by mountains of garbage, is a sign of the times in Gaza, where poverty is growing and there is little hope for the future. While Gaza has always been poor, conditions for the 1.8 million people who live in the crowded seaside territory worsened since the Islamic militant group Hamas seized power in 2007. (AP Photo/ Khalil Hamra) In this Monday, June 20, 2016 photo, a Palestinian family breaks their Ramadan fast in their house, in el-Zohor slum on the outskirts of Khan Younis refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip. The expansion of the el-Zohor slum, where barefoot children play in the rusty skeletons of discarded vehicles surrounded by mountains of garbage, is a sign of the times in Gaza, where poverty is growing and there is little hope for the future. While Gaza has always been poor, conditions for the 1.8 million people who live in the crowded seaside territory worsened since the Islamic militant group Hamas seized power in 2007. (AP Photo/ Khalil Hamra) In this Monday, June 20, 2016 photo, Palestinian kids sit in front of their home in el-Zohor slum, on the outskirts of Khan Younis refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip. The expansion of the slum, where barefoot children play in the rusty skeletons of discarded vehicles surrounded by mountains of garbage, is a sign of the times in Gaza, where poverty is growing and there is little hope for the future. While Gaza has always been poor, conditions for the 1.8 million people who live in the crowded seaside territory worsened since the Islamic militant group Hamas seized power in 2007. (AP Photo/ Khalil Hamra) In this Monday, June 20, 2016 photo, a Palestinian family breaks their Ramadan fast in their house in el-Zohor slum, on the outskirts of Khan Younis refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip. The expansion of the el-Zohor slum, where barefoot children play in the rusty skeletons of discarded vehicles surrounded by mountains of garbage, is a sign of the times in Gaza, where poverty is growing and there is little hope for the future. While Gaza has always been poor, conditions for the 1.8 million people who live in the crowded seaside territory worsened since the Islamic militant group Hamas seized power in 2007. (AP Photo/ Khalil Hamra) In this Monday, June 20, 2016 photo, Palestinians distribute meals to families during Ramadan, in el-Zohor slum, on the outskirts of Khan Younis refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip. The expansion of the el-Zohor slum, where barefoot children play in the rusty skeletons of discarded vehicles surrounded by mountains of garbage, is a sign of the times in Gaza, where poverty is growing and there is little hope for the future. While Gaza has always been poor, conditions for the 1.8 million people who live in the crowded seaside territory worsened since the Islamic militant group Hamas seized power in 2007. (AP Photo/ Khalil Hamra) In this Monday, June 20, 2016 photo, a Palestinian woman makes a fire to prepare a Ramadan dinner, inside her house in el-Zohor slum, on the outskirts of Khan Younis refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip. The expansion of the el-Zohor slum, where barefoot children play in the rusty skeletons of discarded vehicles surrounded by mountains of garbage, is a sign of the times in Gaza, where poverty is growing and there is little hope for the future. While Gaza has always been poor, conditions for the 1.8 million people who live in the crowded seaside territory worsened since the Islamic militant group Hamas seized power in 2007. (AP Photo/ Khalil Hamra) In this Monday, June 20, 2016 photo, Palestinian children climb on a portable tank used to distribute water in el-Zohor slum, on the outskirts of Khan Younis refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip. The expansion of the el-Zohor slum, where barefoot children play in the rusty skeletons of discarded vehicles surrounded by mountains of garbage, is a sign of the times in Gaza, where poverty is growing and there is little hope for the future. While Gaza has always been poor, conditions for the 1.8 million people who live in the crowded seaside territory worsened since the Islamic militant group Hamas seized power in 2007. (AP Photo/ Khalil Hamra) In this Monday, June 20, 2016 photo, Palestinian children play among discarded vehicles in el-Zohor slum, on the outskirts of Khan Younis refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip. The expansion of the el-Zohor slum, where barefoot children play in the rusty skeletons of discarded vehicles surrounded by mountains of garbage, is a sign of the times in Gaza, where poverty is growing and there is little hope for the future. While Gaza has always been poor, conditions for the 1.8 million people who live in the crowded seaside territory worsened since the Islamic militant group Hamas seized power in 2007. (AP Photo/ Khalil Hamra) In this Monday, June 20, 2016 photo, Palestinian children play next to their house in el-Zohor slum, on the outskirts of Khan Younis refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip. The expansion of the el-Zohor slum, where barefoot children play in the rusty skeletons of discarded vehicles surrounded by mountains of garbage, is a sign of the times in Gaza, where poverty is growing and there is little hope for the future. While Gaza has always been poor, conditions for the 1.8 million people who live in the crowded seaside territory worsened since the Islamic militant group Hamas seized power in 2007. (AP Photo/ Khalil Hamra) In this Monday, June 20, 2016 photo, Palestinians watch a horse roll in sand in el-Zohor slum, on the outskirts of Khan Younis refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip. The expansion of the el-Zohor slum, where barefoot children play in the rusty skeletons of discarded vehicles surrounded by mountains of garbage, is a sign of the times in Gaza, where poverty is growing and there is little hope for the future. While Gaza has always been poor, conditions for the 1.8 million people who live in the crowded seaside territory worsened since the Islamic militant group Hamas seized power in 2007. (AP Photo/ Khalil Hamra) 2 killed, more than 50 arrested in South Africa riots JOHANNESBURG (AP) Rioters looted shops on the outskirts of South Africa's capital on Wednesday, and authorities reported two deaths and more than 50 arrests since violence erupted in the Pretoria area two days ago. Looters targeted shops in the Mabopane and Ga-Rankuwa neighborhoods belonging to immigrants, echoing similar attacks last year against foreigners, including Pakistanis and Somalis, who run businesses in poor urban areas of the country. Police fired rubber bullets to disperse crowds in Mabopane, where people ran out of one store with stolen groceries and other goods, according to South African media reports. A man carrying a child walks past a burnt bus on a road in Atteridgeville, Pretoria, South Africa, Wednesday, June 22, 2016. Some residents in several poor areas of South Africa's capital, Pretoria, blocked roads, looted shops and burned vehicles Tuesday in riots attributed to discontent over the selection of the ruling party's mayoral candidate. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe) Two people were fatally shot in the Mamelodi district, the South African police force said on Twitter. Police arrested 54 people on charges of public violence, theft and possession of stolen property, the government said in a statement. It said stability was returning to some areas, while violence persisted in other districts. "The attacks and looting of shops show that some of the protest actions are motivated by pure criminality," the government said. The violence started Monday after the selection of the ruling party's mayoral candidate for Pretoria ahead of local elections on Aug. 3. Some residents said they were not adequately consulted about the selection. The rioting has raised concerns about security ahead of municipal elections nationwide on Aug. 3. ___ Follow Christopher Torchia on Twitter at www.twitter.com/torchiachris A woman a walks across a street littered with boulder and debris, after riots, in Atteridgeville, Pretoria, South Africa, Wednesday, June 22, 2016. Some residents in several poor areas of South Africa's capital, Pretoria, blocked roads, looted shops and burned vehicles Tuesday in riots attributed to discontent over the selection of the ruling party's mayoral candidate. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe) A mini bus drives pass a burnt out bus, after riots, in Atteridgeville, Pretoria, South Africa, Wednesday, June 22, 2016. Some residents in several poor areas of South Africa's capital, Pretoria, blocked roads, looted shops and burned vehicles Tuesday in riots attributed to discontent over the selection of the ruling party's mayoral candidate. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe) Tajik man arrested in Germany, accused of joining IS BERLIN (AP) German prosecutors say they have arrested a 30-year-old Tajik man who is suspected of joining the Islamic State group in Syria. Prosecutors said in a statement Wednesday that Mukhamadsaid S., whose full name wasn't given in line with German privacy rules, was arrested in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia. He was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of membership in a foreign terrorist organization. He is accused of traveling from Tajikistan to Syria in April 2015, where prosecutors said he joined IS. In addition to fighting, he is also alleged to have appeared in videos urging his countrymen to join him. Prosecutors say he left Syria no later than the beginning of September, 2015, and then ended up in Germany. Former Cowboys player Randle faces new charge WICHITA, Kan. (AP) Former Dallas Cowboys running back Joseph Randle has been charged with threatening a deputy while jailed on other charges in Kansas. The Wichita Eagle (http://bit.ly/28TprNI ) reports that Randle is charged in Sedgwick County with one count of criminal threat. He said he plans to hire a lawyer to represent him during a first appearance Tuesday via a video link from the jail. Sheriff's spokesman Lt. Lin Dehning said in an email that Randle is accused of threatening a deputy who was "enforcing the rules" last month at the jail. No other details were immediately provided. Randle has had a string of run-ins with the law. He's also been charged in Kansas with a casino disturbance and with backing his car into three people. The Cowboys released Randle last year. ___ The Latest: Arizona wildfire still threatens communities LOS ANGELES (AP) The Latest on wildfires burning in the West (all times local): 5:40 p.m. Firefighters are working to secure the eastern flank of a wildfire that still threatens some communities in eastern Arizona. A firefighting helicopter makes a water drop on a hill near a wildfire in Duarte, Calif., Tuesday, June 21, 2016. Surging wildfires on Tuesday forced new evacuations of hundreds of homes across the West, while firefighters worked to beat back a pair of huge adjacent blazes looming over suburban Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu) Officials said Wednesday the fire that began in June 15 has burned almost 67 square miles and remains 22 percent contained. The blaze is about 2 miles north of Cedar Creek where 300 people live. More than 15,000 people in Pinetop-Lakeside and Show Low, along with others in the surrounding communities, remain under pre-evacuation notice. Fire officials say the containment line is along the northern cap of the blaze and crews are trying to stop any expansion from reaching outside the burn scar of a wildfire in the area last year. They say crews now will be focused on expanding fire lines and conducting burnout operations, which is increasing some smoke in the air above the communities. --- 5:05 p.m. Utah Gov. Gary Herbert says it's "completely unacceptable" that a drone flying near a southern Utah wildfire hampered firefighting efforts. Herbert visited the site of the blaze Wednesday after the fire forced evacuations of at least 185 homes in the town of Pine Valley, about 35 miles north of the city of St. George. On the governor's official Twitter account Wednesday, Herbert said evacuations "likely could have been avoided if drones hadn't interrupted air attack on the fire." The small, unmanned aircraft have been spotted three times in the last four days and have forced authorities to ground firefighting aircraft. The U.S. Forest Service said Wednesday that the blaze has torched more than a square mile and additional evacuations could come. Officials say firefighting aircraft are particularly important for this wildfire burning in steep, rugged terrain. --- 3:10 p.m. An eastern Colorado sheriff photographed a dramatic scene of a small grassfire engulfing an abandoned rail road trestle. The Kiowa County Sheriff's office said Sheriff Casey Sheridan, who also is a volunteer firefighter, took the picture of the trestle glowing red with flames Wednesday morning near Haswell, Colorado. No one was injured in the blaze, which was quickly contained. --- 1:45 p.m. Two residences and 11 outbuildings have burned in a wildfire 40 miles southeast of San Diego near the Mexican border. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection also says 1,000 structures are threatened Wednesday. The fire has burned more than 10 square miles and is being fought by 1,600 firefighters and nearly two dozen helicopters and air tankers. ___ 1 p.m. Authorities say a shift in the wind turned a wildfire burning slowly in a heavily wooded area on the Colorado-Wyoming border into a fast-moving threat. Routt National Forest spokesman Aaron Voos says the blaze grew to about 5 square miles from about 1 square mile Tuesday. Thunderstorms expected this weekend could make the fire worse because they often bring gusty winds and only a smattering of flame-stifling rain. Voos says the number of firefighters is expected to grow from 120 to about 200 on Wednesday. But he says getting more help is difficult because of other fires across the West. Trees killed by a beetle infestation were helping fuel the blaze 140 miles north of Denver and 2 miles from Wyoming. Campers and those staying in cabins were told to evacuate. Voos says no more than 100 people fled the area, which isn't heavily populated. ___ 9:40 a.m. Firefighters say they expect to keep a wildfire from moving any closer to a rural eastern Arizona town. Officials said Wednesday that the edge of the blaze threatening the community of Cedar Creek made no significant movement in the last 24 hours thanks to sparse vegetation. The fire has burned some 67 square miles and is about 2 miles north of Cedar Creek. It's partially contained. Crews are focusing on expanding fire lines and conducting burnout operations. Residents have been told to prepare to evacuate from Show Low, Pinetop-Lakeside and the immediate surrounding areas. Gov. Doug Ducey declared a state of emergency Tuesday to free up state dollars to battle the fire. It began June 15 and its cause remains under investigation. ___ 9:20 a.m. Calm conditions and moist air are helping firefighters make progress against two fires in the San Gabriel Mountains northeast of Los Angeles, but a change is coming. Incident commander Mike Wakoski says stronger winds are coming Wednesday afternoon and evening, and they could push the flames. Hundreds of homes are evacuated in foothill cities below the fire, and officials say the threat remains. High heat that blanketed Southern California at the start of the week has retreated eastward, allowing moist ocean air to push well into the Los Angeles basin during the morning. ___ 9 a.m. Firefighters are bringing in more help after a forest fire near the Colorado-Wyoming line exploded in size and forced campers to evacuate. Fire spokesman Chris Barth said the blaze grew to about 5 square miles overnight from about 1 square mile Tuesday. He says additional personnel are expected to arrive Wednesday to battle the fire that's 140 miles north of Denver and 2 miles from Wyoming. The blaze was reported late Sunday in a heavily forested area that includes the Routt National Forest and has no permanent residents. Trees killed by a beetle infestation were helping fuel the fire, whose cause is under investigation. Campers and those staying in cabins were told to evacuate Tuesday evening because of heavy smoke, high winds and spreading fire. It wasn't clear how many people fled. ___ 8:35 a.m. Weather is helping crews battling two wildfires outside Los Angeles and another near the U.S.-Mexico border. Angeles National Forest spokesman Nathan Judy says winds are calm Wednesday morning in the San Gabriel Mountains northeast of Los Angeles, where plumes of smoke are rising from a pair of blazes. Together, the fires have burned more than 7 square miles and are mostly uncontained. Hundreds of homes remain evacuated in foothill communities. Another wildfire about 40 miles east of San Diego has grown to just over 10 square miles and is partially contained. Hundreds of homes have been evacuated. Capt. Kendal Bortisser of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection says temperatures have dropped, humidity has risen and cloud cover is helping. But he says firefighters still must deal with rough terrain and vegetation that hasn't burned in decades. ___ 8 a.m. More evacuees are expected to return home as firefighters inch closer to snuffing out a massive wildfire in central New Mexico. Authorities said Wednesday that the blaze in the mountains south of Albuquerque is more than halfway contained. It has destroyed at least two dozen homes and burned nearly 28 square miles. Fire officials say crews constructed more fire lines along two sides of the blaze. Helicopters also have dropped more than 2,100 gallons of water close to where there are structures. The human-caused fire ignited June 14, racing across miles of tinder-dry forest. Several villages that line the eastern side of the Manzano Mountains had to be evacuated. The blaze also led Gov. Susana Martinez to declare a state of emergency. ___ 7:15 a.m. Moisture has moved in along much of the Southern California coast, and most mandatory evacuation areas near a wildfire in Santa Barbara County have been lifted. Fog arrived overnight on the rugged coast west of Santa Barbara, where a fire of more than 12 square miles is nearly entirely contained Wednesday morning. As planned, mandatory evacuation orders for many areas were reduced to warnings at 5 a.m., allowing residents to return. All orders are expected to be lifted by the weekend. Firefighting resources are being redirected to two fires in the San Gabriel Mountains northeast of Los Angeles and to a blaze east of San Diego near the Mexico border. A layer of haze shrouds downtown Los Angeles early Wednesday morning on June 22, 2016. For days, wildfires have raged amid spiking heat across Southern California and much of the West, driving hundreds of people from their homes. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel) A Los Angeles County firefighting helicopter makes a water drop on a hill near a wildfire in Duarte, Calif. Tuesday, June 21, 2016. Firefighters worked to make gains against Southern California wildfires as an intense heat wave eased slightly Tuesday, but officials warned nearby communities to stay alert and obey any evacuation orders. (AP Photo/Nick Ut) Spielberg praises the late Anton Yelchin as 'so good' NEW YORK (AP) Steven Spielberg has praised the late actor Anton Yelchin, whom he cast as a boy in the 2002 miniseries "Taken." In an interview, Spielberg said he was impressed by Yelchin from dailies of his performance in a 2000 episode of the medical drama "ER." "And he kept impressing people because he was so good," said Spielberg. "He kept getting these great parts." FILE - In this June 11, 2015, file photo, Anton Yelchin arrives at a special screening of "Burying the Ex" held at Grauman's Egyptian Theatre in Los Angeles. Yelchin, a charismatic and rising actor best known for playing Chekov in the new "Star Trek" films, has died at the age of 27. He was killed in a fatal traffic collision early Sunday morning, June 19, 2016, his publicist confirmed. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File) The director said he was a fan of Yelchin's 2006 drama, "Alpha Dog," and of his performance in J.J. Abrams' "Star Trek." Nearly 1 in 3 on Medicare got commonly abused opioids CHICAGO (AP) Nearly 12 million Medicare beneficiaries received at least one prescription for an opioid painkiller last year at a cost of $4.1 billion, according to a federal report that shows how common the addictive drugs are in many older Americans' medicine cabinets. With an overdose epidemic worsening, nearly one-third of Medicare beneficiaries received at least one prescription for commonly abused opioids such as OxyContin and fentanyl in 2015. Those who did received an average of five such prescriptions or refills, according to the report from the Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. "We are concerned about the high spending and the number of people receiving opioids," said Miriam Anderson, who led the study, which was released Wednesday. "This raises concerns about abuse. This is a serious problem facing our country." FILE - This Feb. 19, 2013, file photo, shows OxyContin pills arranged for a photo at a pharmacy in Montpelier, Vt. With an overdose epidemic worsening, nearly one-third of Medicare beneficiaries received at least one prescription for commonly abused opioids such as OxyContin and fentanyl in 2015. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot, File) Among all ages, there were nearly 19,000 fatal overdoses on prescription opioids in 2014, which was the most on record and the last year for which that data set was available. The magnitude of opioid use among seniors is "astounding," said Frederic Blow, who directs addiction research at the University of Michigan's medical school and was not involved in the study. "It's not just a young person's problem," Blow said. Overdose risk for older Americans is heightened by medication interactions and alcohol. Addiction is also a risk and doctors should help patients consider alternatives for chronic pain, such as meditation, yoga, walking and weight loss, which allow patients to minimize opioid use. The leading opioids taken by Medicare patients were OxyContin, Percocet, Vicodin, fentanyl or their generic equivalents, Anderson said. "In fact, there were about 40 million prescriptions for these drugs last year," she said. "That's enough to give one to every Medicare beneficiary in the country." In February testimony on opioid use among seniors to Congress, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Deputy Administrator Sean Cavanaugh said the agency "is aware of potential fraud at the prescriber and pharmacy levels through 'pill mill' schemes." Medicare is reviewing the report closely, spokesman Aaron Albright said. The agency has had a monitoring system since 2013 that provides quarterly reports to Part D plan sponsors on high-risk beneficiaries who may be overusing commonly abused drugs. The system flagged 15,651 beneficiaries last year as potential problem drug users. In 2017, the federal government will bar payment for prescriptions written by doctors who are not enrolled in Medicare. "Medicare Part D spending on opioids, in general, is decreasing as a percent of total Part D spending, from 3.2 percent in 2014 to 3.0 percent in 2015," Albright said. The agency "takes seriously our responsibility to ensure that beneficiaries have access to the drugs they need with appropriate safeguards to prevent abuse." ___ Decision on reviled sea birds has foes feeling helpless FOUR BROTHERS ISLANDS, N.Y. (AP) Biologists worry a decision by a federal judge to block programs that control double-crested cormorants in 24 states could set back their efforts on the birds, blamed for despoiling islands in Lake Champlain where they nest. In other areas of the country, cormorants sea birds with long necks and hooked bills are blamed for eating thousands of sport fish favored by anglers and preying on fish in farms. Vermont officials, who this time of year are usually overseeing control programs that include oiling eggs to prevent them from hatching, and shooting the birds or scaring them away, worry that even one year without the control program could see the number of cormorants on the lake increase by 21 percent. In this June 16, 2016 photo, immature double-crested cormorants sit atop trees on island "B" of the Four Brothers Islands on the New York side in Lake Champlain. Biologists have been working to reduce the populations of the birds in the nesting grounds on the islands in the lake. But a federal judge's decision suspended efforts to control the bird on Lake Champlain and in 24 eastern states. (AP Photo/Wilson Ring) "It will not take very long for that number to double without some active management," said Mark Scott, wildlife director for the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife, which manages about 20 islands and some sections of shoreline that have been known to host cormorants. The March decision by a judge in Washington determined that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service didn't do its homework before issuing a pair of orders that let people kill thousands of cormorants each year to preserve vegetation in some areas and protect sport fish in 24 states and farmed fish in 13 of those states. U.S. Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman Laury Parramore said the agency is studying its next step. Cormorants, which winter in the South and spend summers on the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain, have nested on Champlain for at least a century. They were brought to near-extinction by the pesticide DDT, and no one is sure why the numbers have increased dramatically over the last quarter-century. Dave Capan, a retired University of Vermont biologist who is managing a cormorant program on the Four Brothers Islands, estimates there are about 1,600 breeding pairs of cormorants on the lake, down from a peak of about 4,000 about 15 years ago. The islands lie in the middle of the narrow, 120-mile long lake, are owned by the Nature Conservancy and are off limits to the public. "They nest in very large numbers, and they kill trees on islands in the lake," Capan said. "There are at least five or six islands in this lake that have lost most of their trees and vegetation." Capan disagrees with Scott's assertion that the birds would increase by 21 percent in one year without control. He said he feels that as long as the control programs resume by next spring, there shouldn't be any long-term setback to the control efforts. Mike Freeze, the president of the National Aquaculture Association, who runs a fish farm in Keo, Arkansas, said cormorants eat more of the farm's fish than any other birds. In the winter, he has two or three employees who work full-time protecting the company's 1,000 acres of ponds from birds, especially cormorants. Cormorants aren't a problem in Arkansas in June, but Freeze and others in the industry are watching the legal case. "We've got to have some kind of relief by October," Freeze said. "That's when these hordes descend on us," Freeze said. Cormorants have a long history of being hated by humans, said Ken Stromberg, a retired U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist from Denmark, Wisconsin, who was among those who filed the lawsuit against the service that led to the March decision blocking the control programs. "A cormorant is a scapegoat for everything that consumers are unhappy about," said Stromberg, who isn't opposed to cormorant control programs but feels the Fish and Wildlife Service must do the required studies before issuing orders. Matt Trombley, a Vermont-based fishing charter captain who fishes on lakes Champlain and Ontario, said he's no biologist but is worried about the end, for now, of the cormorant control program. "If we don't keep up each year, they are going to overpopulate," he said. "Then it's a huge step to try to get them back under control again." ___ This story has been updated to delete an incorrect reference to the 24 states being east of the Mississippi River. In this June 16, 2016 photo, double-crested cormorants sit atop trees that the birds have killed on island "D" of the Four Brothers Islands on the New York side IN Lake Champlain. Biologists have been working to reduce the populations of the birds in the nesting grounds on the islands in the lake. But a federal judge's decision suspended efforts to control the bird on Lake Champlain and in 24 eastern states. (AP Photo/Wilson Ring) In this June 16, 2016 photo, a biologist uses a mirror to count the number of eggs in a double-crested cormorant nest on island "B" of the Four Brothers Islands on the New York side in Lake Champlain. Biologists have been working to reduce the populations of the birds in the nesting grounds on the islands in the lake. But a federal judge's decision suspended efforts to control the bird on Lake Champlain and in 24 eastern states. (AP Photo/Wilson Ring) In this June 16, 2016 photo, Connor Cincotta, of the New York Department of Environmental Conservation, checks a nest of double-crested cormorants on island "B" of the Four Brothers Islands on the New York side IN Lake Champlain. Biologists have been working to reduce the populations of the birds in the nesting grounds on the islands in the lake. But a federal judge's decision suspended efforts to control the bird on Lake Champlain and in 24 eastern states. (AP Photo/Wilson Ring) In this June 16, 2016 photo, a just-hatched, double-crested cormorant lies in a nest beside eggs on island "B" of the Four Brothers Islands on the New York side in Lake Champlain. Biologists have been working to reduce the populations of the birds in the nesting grounds on the islands in the lake. But a federal judge's decision suspended efforts to control the bird on Lake Champlain and in 24 eastern states. (AP Photo/Wilson Ring) Woman indicted in death of daughter beaten by 8-year-old boy BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) An Alabama woman whose daughter was beaten to death while police said she and a friend were at a club has been indicted for reckless manslaughter. Court documents made public Tuesday say a Jefferson County grand jury has indicted 27-year-old Katerra Lewis in the death of 1-year-old Kelci Lewis. Birmingham police have said Lewis and a friend left several young children home alone when they went out in October. Police have said an 8-year-old boy who was babysitting beat Kelci when she started crying. A judge in January dismissed a reckless manslaughter charge against Lewis, saying probable cause didn't exist to support the charge but told prosecutors they could present the case to a grand jury. Woman indicted in beating death of 1-year old daughter BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) A grand jury has indicted an Alabama woman whose daughter was beaten to death while police said she and a friend were out at a club. Katerra Lewis, 27, of Birmingham is accused of reckless manslaughter in the death of her 1-year-old daughter Kelci Lewis. Birmingham police have said Lewis and a friend left several young children home alone when they went out in October. An 8-year-old boy who was babysitting beat Kelci when she started crying and put the girl back in her crib, Birmingham police Lt. Sean Edwards has said. No one reported that the girl was unresponsive until later that morning. The girl suffered severe head trauma and internal injuries. The boy was taken into custody on a murder warrant and was placed in the care of the Department of Human Resources, police have said. Jefferson County District Judge Shelly Watkins dismissed a reckless manslaughter charge against Lewis in January, saying probable cause didn't exist to support the charge. However, the judge told prosecutors they could still present the case to a grand jury. After the charge was dismissed, Lewis' attorney Emory Anthony said his client wasn't involved in Kelci's death and that it doesn't make legal sense to prosecute his client when the boy accused in the assault has already been taken into custody. A phone call to Anthony wasn't immediately returned Wednesday morning. The Jefferson County grand jury's indictment, dated May 27, accuses Lewis of recklessly leaving her daughter in the care of another child she knew to be dangerous, or under conditions where the girl wouldn't be protected from abuse. Grieving father's anti-drug mission halted by weapons arrest JERSEY CITY, N.J. (AP) Anguished over his daughter's overdose death, John Cramsey became a crusader against the heroin crisis in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley, starting a group for concerned parents and recovering addicts and going on self-described missions to save young people from the scourge of addiction. "I have yet to grieve like I should as a normal person. ... Right now I'm on a mission, I can't stop," Cramsey said at an Allentown drug awareness gathering in March . "I'm the inoculation to this disease. I'm going to make a damn difference. Enough is enough." Cramsey posted on Facebook early Tuesday that he was heading to New York to "rescue" a 16-year-old girl whose friend had just overdosed. As his neon-painted pickup truck emblazoned with logos from the gun range he operates prepared to enter the Holland Tunnel in Jersey City, a police officer noticed a crack on the windshield and stopped it, according to a criminal complaint. Kimberly Arendt, left, John Cramsey, center, and Dean Smith, are seen on a monitor during their video arraignment at Hudson County Courthouse, Wednesday, June 22, 2016, in Jersey City, N.J. The three were arrested Tuesday on weapons charges when they were stopped before crossing the Holland Tunnel from New Jersey to New York while driving with a cache of weapons . (AP Photo/Julio Cortez) Police say the truck was carrying a cache of weapons including a semi-automatic military-style rifle, a shotgun and five handguns, along with other tactical gear. It was unclear what, if anything, the weapons had to do with their plans. Cramsey and the two other Pennsylvania residents in the truck Dean Smith, 53, of Whitehall, and Kimberly Arendt, 29, of Lehighton pleaded not guilty Wednesday to weapons charges. They also pleaded not guilty to drug charges for a small amount of marijuana and drug paraphernalia police say they found in the pickup. Attorneys for the three said the search was illegal and they will seek to have the evidence suppressed. A Hudson County judge declined their defense lawyers' requests to give them the option of paying 10 percent of their $75,000 cash bail. "The police officers said they stopped them because they saw a crack in the windshield, but clearly that's not what happened," James Lisa, Cramsey's attorney, said after Wednesday's arraignment. "They saw all the decals and the painting basically espousing their Second Amendment rights and that's why they stopped them." Hudson County Assistant Prosecutor Tom Zuppa took issue with the defense lawyers' characterization of the case as "just another gun possession case" being blown out of proportion due to media attention. "This conduct had the potential to bring danger to the destination of these defendants," he said. New Jersey has tougher gun regulations than Pennsylvania and requires guns to be unloaded and inaccessible while driving. Michael McKenna, who is friends with both men, said that Smith owns an advertising and graphic design agency that has done work for Cramsey's gun range. He said Smith "was along for the ride as a photojournalist to document the event and that's it." He said apparently they had done a photo shoot with the weapons the previous night and hadn't unloaded the truck. The arrest has friends and fellow members of Cramsey's "Enough is Enough" anti-drug group in the Allentown area reeling. Lyn Baker, who started the group with Cramsey, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that it has helped dozens of drug addicts. Baker says she works behind the scenes to set up treatment options, while Cramsey has gone into homes and hotels to help pull people out. Cramsey has posted on Facebook about his work helping young addicts, including pictures of himself wearing bulletproof vests and with guns. Baker said Cramsey "likes to talk a big game because the adrenaline is always rushing after we bring someone back." She said she thought Cramsey had been growing depressed and withdrawn in the months since the death of his daughter, a 20-year-old model found dead along with her boyfriend in February. "Particularly when it comes to rescuing females, to him it's like rescuing his daughter," Baker said. "He's just adamant that I have to make every attempt to get this person help." Said McKenna: "He is on a mission right now and his mission is to help people addicted to heroin." Baker said Arendt, the girl's former counselor, received a call from the girl seeking help on Monday. Cramsey wrote on Smith's Facebook page early Tuesday that he was driving to New York to "do an extraction" of a 16-year-old girl after her friend died of an overdose at the hotel they were staying at. The New York Police Department declined to comment, but two New York law enforcement officials told The Associated Press that the NYPD had located the teenager and that she wasn't in any danger at the time. The officials also confirmed that there was a nonsuspicious overdose death in the city that matched the claim on Facebook. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to publicly discuss the case. Cyndi Angeles, the mother of the girl named by Cramsey, told the Morning Call newspaper in Allentown that her daughter doesn't do heroin. ___ Rubinkam reported from Zionsville, Pennsylvania. Associated Press writers Tom Hays in New York and Josh Cornfield in Trenton, New Jersey, contributed to this story. ___ This story has been corrected to show the vehicle was a pickup truck, not a van. A vehicle belonging to a group of people arrested on weapon charges sits in the Port Authority Police Department impound lot a day after the group was stopped prior to entering the Holland Tunnel, Wednesday, June 22, 2016, in Jersey City, N.J. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez) A vehicle belonging to a group of people arrested on weapon charges sits in the Port Authority Police Department impound lot a day after the group was stopped prior to entering the Holland Tunnel, Wednesday, June 22, 2016, in Jersey City, N.J. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez) This June 2016 photo provided by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey shows John Cramsey, who was arrested Tuesday, June 21 along with others after they were stopped while trying to drive through the Holland Tunnel heavily armed with a cache of weapons, the agency said. (Port Authority of New York and New Jersey via AP) This June 2016 photo by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey shows Dean Smith, who was arrested Tuesday, June 21, along with others after they were stopped while trying to drive through the Holland Tunnel heavily armed with a cache of weapons, the agency said. (Port Authority of New York and New Jersey via AP) This June 2016 photo provided by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey shows Kimberly Arendt who was arrested Tuesday, June 21 along with others after they were stopped while trying to drive through the Holland Tunnel heavily armed with a cache of weapons, the agency said. (Port Authority of New York and New Jersey via AP) Vehicles approach the Holland Tunnel, Wednesday, June 22, 2016, in Jersey City, N.J. A day earlier, a group of people were arrested on weapon charges when they were stopped prior to entering the tunnel. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez) Kimberly Arendt, left, John Cramsey, center, and Dean Smith, are seen on a monitor during their video arraignment at Hudson County Courthouse, Wednesday, June 22, 2016, in Jersey City, N.J. The three were arrested Tuesday on weapons charges when they were stopped before crossing the Holland Tunnel from New Jersey to New York while driving with a cache of weapons . (AP Photo/Julio Cortez) Kimberly Arendt, left, John Cramsey, center, and Dean Smith, are seen on a monitor during their video arraignment at Hudson County Courthouse, Wednesday, June 22, 2016, in Jersey City, N.J. The three were arrested Tuesday on weapons charges when they were stopped before crossing the Holland Tunnel from New Jersey to New York while driving with a cache of weapons . (AP Photo/Julio Cortez) US calls for swift UN condemnation of North Korea launches UNITED NATIONS (AP) The U.N. Security Council held an emergency meeting late Wednesday on North Korea's launch of two ballistic missiles and U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power called for "urgent and united condemnation." France's deputy U.N. ambassador Alexis Lamek, whose country holds the council presidency, told reporters after the meeting that the council intends to react quickly and express opposition to the launches which violate Security Council resolutions banning ballistic missile tests. He said all 15 council members also stressed "the crucial importance" of working for implementation of the latest sanctions on North Korea and their commitment "to a peaceful, diplomatic and political solution to this situation." Lamek said members should have the text of a press statement "very soon" and it could be adopted in "a matter of days." The United States and Japan, after consulting South Korea, requested a closed-door briefing from the U.N. Secretariat on the North's reported firing of the two midrange missiles. One flew about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) high after five failed attempts in recent months, a significant step in the development of a powerful ballistic missile that could reach U.S. bases in the Pacific. Power told reporters as she headed into the council meeting that North Korea's repeated defiance of international law "underscores how important it is for us to come together to ensure consequences for this inherently destabilizing behavior, and this inherent and consistent and repeated threat to international peace and security." The Security Council, which has imposed five rounds of sanctions on the North, strongly condemned three previous launches on June 1, calling them "a grave violation" of a ban on all ballistic missile activity that contributed to the country's nuclear weapons program. The latest sanctions imposed by the council on March 2 were the toughest on North Korea in two decades, reflecting growing anger at what Pyongyang claims was its first hydrogen bomb test on Jan. 6 and a rocket launch in defiance of a ban on all nuclear-related activity. The sanctions include mandatory inspections of cargo leaving and entering North Korea by land, sea or air; a ban on all sales or transfers of small arms and light weapons to Pyongyang; and expulsion of diplomats from the North who engage in "illicit activities." Power stressed that as North Korea continues testing missiles that could deliver nuclear weapons, "they make progress and they learn things." Therefore, she said, "it is extremely important that we come together and we address any hidden gaps there may be in the enforcement" of the latest sanctions resolution. Power also stressed that united condemnation from the U.N.'s most powerful body is a first step. "We're again looking to ensure accountability looking to identify again individuals, entities who may be responsible for this repeated series of tests that pose such a threat to international peace and security," she said. A spokesman for Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called the launch "a brazen and irresponsible act," and "a deliberate and very grave violation of its international obligations." EU, Turkey to hold membership talks on June 30 BRUSSELS (AP) Officials from the European Union and Turkey will meet on June 30 to officially open a new area of Ankara's negotiations to join the EU. EU diplomats confirmed on Thursday that lower-level officials would meet to open a series of talks on "financial and budgetary provisions" that Turkey must meet to become a member. Countries hoping to join the EU must complete negotiations in 35 policy areas, or chapters. Turkey's accession talks started in 2005. The EU promised Turkey faster membership talks as an incentive to stop migrants reaching Europe and to take back thousands more. Man dies after deputy shoots him during Alabama car chase BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) A man has died after being shot by a sheriff's deputy during a car chase with officers in the Birmingham area, authorities said. Isaiah Core III, 21, of Trussville died Wednesday, Shelby County sheriff's officials said in a statement. The deputy opened fire on Core, who was the driver of a stolen vehicle, early Wednesday at the end of the chase, when he left Interstate 20. The two occupants of the vehicle were ordered to get out, but the driver began backing up instead, officials said. "There was a deliberate movement of the suspect's vehicle backwards in an attempt to injure officers, and a Shelby County deputy fired at the vehicle, striking the driver," sheriff's officials said. The deputy initially observed the vehicle while he was patrolling an apartment complex in the area along U.S. Highway 280 where numerous break-ins and burglaries have been reported recently, officials said. Authorities didn't release any information on the officer. They said the officer who shot the driver is on administrative leave, which is standard procedure in such cases. The car had been stolen from nearby Jefferson County, and its tags had been switched, sheriff's officials said. A stolen weapon was found inside the vehicle, they said. Norway's Parliament approves sending troops to Syria HELSINKI (AP) Norwegian lawmakers have given consent to sending troops to join coalition forces in Syria in the international struggle against Islamic State militants. According to the approved government plans, a contingent of some 60 Norwegian soldiers will provide training, advice and operational support for Syrian groups fighting the radical Islamists in the country. Earlier plans only included helping such Syrian forces outside Syrian territory. After the approval Wednesday, Defense Minister Ine Eriksen Soreide told Norwegian news agency NTB that as progress against IS militants had been better than expected it was "more important that coalition forces must also be able to train, advise and provide operational support to local groups on Syrian territory." 3 inmates escape from county jail in Mississippi MENDENHALL, Miss. (AP) A search is underway in Mississippi for three inmates who escaped from a county jail southeast of Jackson. Simpson County Sheriff Don O'Cain says it appears the men broke through a skyline and made their way to the roof late Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning. O'Cain identified the inmates as 33-year-old Johnny Taylor, 26-year-old Sean Bratcher and 26-year-old Russell Williams. He says two of the three, Williams and Taylor, have escaped once before. O'Cain says the men were serving time on theft and drug charges. NATO-Russia Council may not meet before alliance summit BRUSSELS (AP) NATO's chief said Wednesday the alliance may not get its wish of meeting with Russian government representatives before NATO's July 8-9 summit in Warsaw. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told The Associated Press that the alliance wants the meeting "to prevent misunderstandings, miscalculations and try to reduce tensions" with Moscow. In April, NATO foreign ministers agreed to seek a pre-summit convening of the NATO-Russia Council, where the Kremlin is represented by an ambassador and other officials. But Stoltenberg said, "I am not certain whether that is possible ... but hopefully we will be able to have it shortly after the summit." He declined to explain why the meeting may happen later than NATO had hoped. "We are now in dialogue with Russia on the agenda, on the modalities," Stoltenberg said. In an email, officials at the Russian Mission to NATO on Wednesday confirmed that "working contacts are taking place between the mission and NATO on the modalities of the NRC meeting, including on the date," but said they could not comment further. The NATO-Russia Council, created in 2002 when relations between the former Cold War foes were much more cordial, met for the first time in nearly two years in April. That session failed to bridge differences between Russia and the U.S.-led alliance that have led to a sharp downturn in relations since Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. In April, NATO's foreign ministers agreed to pursue a "dual track approach" toward Moscow: to keep reinforcing alliance defenses against what they view as a mounting Russian military threat, but also maintain channels of communication open with the Kremlin. The Latest: 2 companies sued over Flint water deny blame FLINT, Michigan (AP) The Latest on a civil lawsuit filed by the state of Michigan against two companies in the Flint water crisis (all times local): ___ 12:25 p.m. Two engineering companies sued by the Michigan attorney general in the Flint water crisis say they're deeply disappointed and will vigorously defend themselves. Veolia North America says it was hired nearly a year after Flint began using the Flint River as a water source. The company says its job was to deal with discoloration, taste and issues unrelated to lead. Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam known as LAN says Attorney General Bill Schuette has "blatantly mischaracterized" LAN's role in Flint. It says it had nothing to do with operating the water plant or failing to add corrosion control to the water. The lack of corrosion control caused lead to leach from old pipes and fixtures, poisoning the water system. Flint stopped using the Flint River last fall after 18 months. ___ 10:30 a.m. Michigan's attorney general is suing two companies, blaming them for Flint's lead-tainted water crisis. Attorney General Bill Schuette says he filed the lawsuit Wednesday in Genesee County Circuit Court against Veolia North America and Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam. The suit says the companies were hired by the state and city, and that their actions and omissions caused the crisis to "occur, continue and worsen." Two months ago, the state filed criminal charges against two state environmental regulators and a city of Flint water employee. Advertisement A small plane with two sick US workers arrived safely in Chile late Wednesday after leaving Antarctica in a daring rescue mission from a remote South Pole research station, officials said. After making a stop for a few hours at a British station on the edge of Antarctica, the two workers were flown to the southernmost Chilean city of Punta Arenas, the National Science Foundation said in a statement published on its Facebook page. In a hectic two days of flying, the rescue team flew 3,000 miles roundtrip from the British station Rothera to pick up the workers at the US Amundsen-Scott station at the South Pole. They arrived back at Rothera on Wednesday afternoon, said Peter West, spokesman for the foundation, which runs the US station. Then the two workers boarded a second Canadian-owned Twin Otter plane that took off for Punta Arenas. A worker from the US South Pole Amundsen-Scott station arrives at a clinic in Punta Arenas, Chile, on Wednesday A small plane with two sick US workers arrived safely in Chile after leaving Antarctica in a daring rescue mission from the remote South Pole research station, officials said A picks up a sick worker at the US South Pole science station in this image 'From Punta Arenas, the two patients aboard will be transported to a medical facility that can provide a level of care that is not available at Amundsen-Scott,' the National Science Foundation said, adding that it's not disclosing the location of that facility. The National Science Foundation has not identified the sick workers or their conditions, citing medical privacy. They both work for contractor Lockheed Martin. At Rothera, the temperature was a balmy 27.5 degrees Fahrenheit Wednesday afternoon. That's toasty compared to the Amundsen-Scott research station at the South Pole where it was minus 75 Fahrenheit in the morning. Before they left, there were 48 people 39 men and nine women at the station for the winter. Normally planes don't go to the polar outpost from February to October because of the dangers of flying in the pitch-dark and cold. The first day of winter in the Southern Hemisphere was Monday the sun will not rise at the South Pole till the first day of spring in September. One of the two Canadian-owned Twin Otter turboprop planes used to help rescue the workers is seen here A Twin Otter aircraft on a medical evacuation flight taxis on the skyway at NSF's Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station Steve Barnet, who works with a University of Wisconsin astronomy team at the polar station but is in the US now, lauded the rescue crew. 'The courage of the pilots to make the flight in extremely harsh conditions is incredible and inspiring,' Barnet wrote in an email. The extreme cold affects a lot of things on planes, including fuel, which needs to be warmed before takeoff, batteries and hydraulics, according to West. The Twin Otter can fly in temperatures as low as minus 103 degrees Fahrenheit, he said. 'The air and Antarctica are unforgiving environments and punishes any slackness very hard,' said Tim Stockings, operations director for the British Antarctic Survey. 'If you are complacent it will bite you.' 'Things can change very quickly down there' with ice from clouds, high winds and snow, he said. There have been three emergency evacuations from the Amundsen-Scott station since 1999. The station has a doctor, a physician's assistant and is connected to doctors in the US for consults, West said. But sometimes workers need medical care that can't be provided at the South Pole. The 1999 flight, which was done in Antarctic spring with slightly better conditions, rescued the station's doctor, Jerri Nielsen, who had breast cancer and had been treating herself. Rescues were done in 2001 and 2003, both for gallbladder problems. Scientists have had a station at the South Pole since 1956. It does astronomy, physics and environmental science with telescopes, seismographs and instruments that monitor the atmosphere. The foundation runs two other research stations in Antarctica. Two planes from a Canadian company were used in the daring rescue of two sick workers The US Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station is seen in this file photograph Thousands worldwide commemorate killed British lawmaker LONDON (AP) Thousands of people gathered in London and cities around the world Wednesday to commemorate British lawmaker Jo Cox, whose killing last week shocked the country amid a fiercely contested campaign over the future of Britain's place in Europe. Artists, friends and family members took to the stage in Trafalgar Square, a mile from Parliament, to praise a woman they described as a passionate campaigner for the rights of refugees and women. Among those paying tribute were Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, the actors Gillian Anderson and Bill Nighy, singer Lily Allen and Cox's husband and sister. "She just wanted people to be happy and the world to be a better place," Brendan Cox told a crowd of about 9,000. Brendan Cox, widower of murdered British MP Jo Cox, makes a speech during a gathering to celebrate her life, in Trafalgar Square, London, Wednesday, June 22, 2016. Jo Cox, a 41-year-old Labour lawmaker who had championed the cause of Syrian refugees, was stabbed and shot to death outside a library in her northern England constituency on Thursday. The suspect gave his name in court as "death to traitors, freedom for Britain." (AP Photo/Alastair Grant) His voice faltering at times, Brendan Cox said his wife had died because of her beliefs that included compassion for those fleeing the war in Syria, but that those beliefs would live on. "Jo's killing was political," he said. "It was an act of terror designed to advance an agenda of hatred toward others. What a beautiful irony it is that an act designed to advance hatred has instead generated such an outpouring of love." Cox was shot and stabbed to death in her Yorkshire constituency last Thursday by a man who later gave his name in court as "death to traitors, freedom for Britain." Cox's killing shocked Britain and triggered a three-day pause in campaigning for a referendum Thursday on the country's EU membership. Her husband said the Labour Party lawmaker would have been campaigning for Britain to remain a member of the 28-nation bloc had she not been killed. "She feared the consequences of Europe dividing again," he said. In a stark reminder of the political backdrop, a small plane flew by the square three times during the event trailing a banner bearing the words "Take Control, Vote Leave." It was unclear whether the plane intentionally buzzed the memorial and whether it was linked to the official "leave" campaign. The event was broadcast live by video to several cities around the world, including Sydney, Paris and New York, where about 100 people gathered near the United Nations headquarters. The gatherings Wednesday marked what would have been Cox's 42nd birthday and 42 white Yorkshire roses were laid in Trafalgar Square. Some in the crowd held up placards with the phrase "#LoveLikeJo" and many wept during a minute's silence and as videos were shown on a large screen from Cox's life. Yousafzai, who referred to Cox as her "sister," said the response to the lawmaker's death mirrored the sympathy she received after being shot while campaigning for girls' right to education in Pakistan. "Once again the extremists have failed," she said. Many of those attending the memorial said they had never met Cox but felt moved to come and express solidarity with her family. "This was a terrible thing to happen to any human being," said Hindi el-Fadel from Richmond, near London. "She just represented humanity, dignity." El-Fadel said Cox's killing showed how polarized political debate in Britain had become lately. "It's just really for me a reflection of the state of people's minds." ____ Follow Frank Jordans on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/wirereporter People hug in the crowds during a gathering to celebrate the life of murdered British MP Jo Cox, in Trafalgar Square, London, Wednesday, June 22, 2016. Jo Cox, a 41-year-old Labour lawmaker who had championed the cause of Syrian refugees, was stabbed and shot to death outside a library in her northern England constituency on Thursday. The suspect gave his name in court as "death to traitors, freedom for Britain." (AP Photo/Alastair Grant) Someone waves an EU flag during a gathering to celebrate the life of murdered British MP Jo Cox, in Trafalgar Square, London, Wednesday, June 22, 2016. Jo Cox, a 41-year-old Labour lawmaker who had championed the cause of Syrian refugees, was stabbed and shot to death outside a library in her northern England constituency on Thursday. The suspect gave his name in court as "death to traitors, freedom for Britain." (AP Photo/Alastair Grant) Princess Mabel of Oranje of The Netherlands, second left, stands on stage during a gathering to celebrate the life of murdered British MP Jo Cox, in Trafalgar Square, London, Wednesday, June 22, 2016. Jo Cox, a 41-year-old Labour lawmaker who had championed the cause of Syrian refugees, was stabbed and shot to death outside a library in her northern England constituency on Thursday. The suspect gave his name in court as "death to traitors, freedom for Britain." (AP Photo/Alastair Grant) Malala Yousafzai delivers a speech during a gathering to celebrate the life of murdered British MP Jo Cox, in Trafalgar Square, London, Wednesday, June 22, 2016. Jo Cox, a 41-year-old Labour lawmaker who had championed the cause of Syrian refugees, was stabbed and shot to death outside a library in her northern England constituency on Thursday. The suspect gave his name in court as "death to traitors, freedom for Britain." (AP Photo/Alastair Grant) Actors Gillian Anderson and Bill Nighy deliver speeches during a gathering to celebrate the life of murdered British MP Jo Cox, in Trafalgar Square, London, Wednesday, June 22, 2016. Jo Cox, a 41-year-old Labour lawmaker who had championed the cause of Syrian refugees, was stabbed and shot to death outside a library in her northern England constituency on Thursday. The suspect gave his name in court as "death to traitors, freedom for Britain." (AP Photo/Alastair Grant) Slain British Parliament member memorialized in NYC NEW YORK (AP) Diplomats, United Nation leaders and dozens of others gathered in New York to honor slain British Parliament member Jo Cox, joining thousands of others around the world Wednesday in memorial services for her. About 100 people gathered outside the UNICEF building near the United Nations, as memorial services also took place in London, Brussels, Nairobi, Kenya, and other cities. Cox's husband and sister joined the New York service via a live video feed on what would have been her 42nd birthday. "Jo knew that our politics, at its best, still works," President Barack Obama said in a statement read by U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power. "That if we recognize our humanity in each other, we can advance the social justice, human dignity and peace that we seek in the world." Mourners listen during a memorial for slain British Parliament Member Jo Cox, Wednesday June 22, 2016, in New York. A crowd of around 100 gathered near the U.N. on Wednesday, which would have been the politician's 42nd birthday. Simultaneously, thousands gathered in London and cities all over the world, including Nairobi and Brussels, to pay tribute. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews) Other dignitaries included U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Jan Elisasson, United Kingdom Ambassador Matthew Rycroft, and former British Parliament member Stephen O'Brien, now U.N. undersecretary general of humanitarian affairs. Cox was shot and stabbed June 16 outside a public library where she had planned to hold a constituency meeting near Leeds in northern England. She was a member of the British Labour Party and a staunch supporter of Syrian refugees. Her death delayed the vote on whether Britain would remain in the European Union, which she strongly favored. Purna Sen, the director of policy at U.N. Women, ran for office in Parliament last year as did Cox. Sen said the global reaction to Cox's death reflected the international reach of her work. "The values we worked for feel very much under attack," Sen said. New York University professor Lorelei Ormrod said she attended the memorial because even though she didn't know Cox, she felt deeply touched by her work. "She spoke up for the marginalized and the vulnerable," said Ormrod. "That's what we really need in the world. Especially at this time of divisiveness." United States U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power delivers a statement from President Obama during a memorial for slain British Parliament Member Jo Cox, Wednesday June 22, 2016, in New York. A crowd of around 100 gathered near the U.N. on Wednesday, which would have been the politician's 42nd birthday. Simultaneously, thousands gathered in London and cities all over the world, including Nairobi and Brussels, to pay tribute. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews) Muna Abbas, 24, second from left, who grew up with slain British Parliament Member Jo Cox and worked with her in British parliament, cries after speaking at a memorial for Cox, Wednesday June 22, 2016, in New York. A crowd of around 100 gathered near the U.N. on Wednesday, which would have been the politician's 42nd birthday. Simultaneously, thousands gathered in London and cities all over the world, including Nairobi and Brussels, to pay tribute. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews) Muna Abbas, 24, who grew up with slain British Parliament member Jo Cox and worked with her in British parliament, speaks during a memorial for Cox, Wednesday June 22, 2016, in New York. A crowd of around 100 gathered near the United Nations on Wednesday, which would have been the politician's 42nd birthday. Simultaneously, thousands gathered in London and cities all over the world, including Nairobi and Brussels, to pay tribute. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews) Lorelei Ormrad, a NYU professor, holds back tears during a memorial for slain British Parliament member Jo Cox, Wednesday June 22, 2016, in New York. A crowd of around 100 gathered near the U.N. on Wednesday, which would have been the politician's 42nd birthday. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews) UNESCO leader condemns killing of Texas freelance journalist DALLAS (AP) The head of a United Nations agency on Wednesday condemned the death of a freelance journalist in Texas whose body was found with a gunshot wound in the back yard of a home. UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova said from Paris that authorities must determine the motive for the killing of Spanish-language journalist Jacinto Torres Hernandez, 57. He was a longtime reporter and photographer for La Estrella who used the byline Jay Torres. La Estrella is a weekly publication of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram serving readers in the Dallas-Fort Worth region. "I call on the authorities to investigate this killing and its motives so that those responsible for it be brought to trial," Bokova said in a statement. This photo taken Aug. 1, 2015, shows freelance journalist Jacinto "Jay" Torres Hernandez. The head of a United Nations agency on Wednesday, June 22, 2016, condemned the death of a Hernandez, whose body was found with a gunshot wound in the back yard of a home in Dallas, Texas. UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova said from Paris that authorities must determine the motive for the killing of Spanish-language journalist Hernandez, 57. He was a longtime reporter and photographer for La Estrella who used the byline Jay Torres. La Estrella is a weekly publication of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram serving readers in the Dallas-Fort Worth region.(Juan Ramos/Star-Telegram via AP) Police have not determined whether his freelance work may have contributed to his death. He operated a real estate business that involved renovating homes and his body was found June 13 at a home in the Dallas suburb of Garland that he either had purchased or was considering buying. Investigators said he had been dead for "multiple days" and that robbery does not appear to be a motive because nothing was taken from him. Family members said at a news conference last week that Torres had worked on stories such as human trafficking that could place him in danger. "More recently his work was more intense, riskier," his daughter, Aline Torres, said during a news conference last week covered by the newspaper Al Dia. "He was lifting up stones that perhaps people did not want to have lifted." Son Gibran Torres said his father was at the Garland residence as part of his other work flipping homes. "He did not mention to me that he was the target of any threats," Torres said. However, he said his father had been investigating human trafficking and human exploitation for the newspaper. As for his real estate business, Torres said his father had occasionally dealt with angry tenants. One person who was buying or renting a house from his father was arrested in a massive roundup of cocaine trafficking suspects, Torres said. As part of the investigation, detectives have confiscated reporter notebooks from Torres' car and family members have provided the names of his tenants. "There's so many different angles," Garland police Lt. Pedro Barineau said. "He was a journalist as well as real estate (agent) so they have to look at both aspects of his life, and they're looking at all of the different types of things that could lead them to somebody else." Juan Antonio Ramos, executive editor of La Estrella, told the Star-Telegram that Torres will be remembered for his "devotion and passion for journalism." "He was a person who always focused on covering the Hispanic community in a full, objective and professional manner," he said. Ramos did not return calls from The Associated Press for comment. Although the motive in Torres' killing must still be determined, the Committee to Protect Journalists says since 1992 at least seven journalists have been killed in the U.S. because of their work. ___ Francis lauds Benedict's prayerful life in book forward VATICAN CITY (AP) Pope Francis is paying homage to his predecessor in the forward of a new book, saying Pope Benedict XVI's decision to retire to a life of prayer is a lesson to all priests that their main job is to pray for others. The book, "Teach and Learn the Love of God," is the first of a collection of texts by the German theologian. It will be presented to Benedict at a Vatican ceremony Tuesday marking the 65th anniversary of his priestly ordination. The event will mark another rare occasion in which the reigning and retired popes will be together. Pope Francis caresses a child at the end of his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Wednesday, June 22, 2016. (AP Photo/Fabio Frustaci) Responding to Trump, Clinton says he has 'no answers' RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) Hillary Clinton pushed back against Donald Trump's questions about her religion and her competence Wednesday, casting him as a candidate with not much else to say about how he'd lead the nation. Over two consecutive days, Trump has sought to focus his struggling campaign on Clinton, as Republican leaders have demanded. On Tuesday, in a video clip of his remarks, Trump appeared to suggest the public doesn't know "anything about Hillary in terms of religion." Clinton, who has spoken and written about her faith, on Wednesday retorted with a quote from John Wesley, the founder of Methodism. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton gestures as she speaks during a rally in Raleigh, N.C., Wednesday, June 22, 2016. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton) "As we Methodists like to say: do all the good you can for all the people you can in all the ways you can." Clinton also went after Trump for remarks in which he accused her of being "a world class liar" who personally profited from her tenure at the State Department. "She gets rich making you poor," Trump said hours earlier during an address in New York. "Think about it. He's going after me personally because he has no answers on the substance," Clinton told supporters at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds in Raleigh. "So all he can try to do is try to distract us. That's why he's attacking my faith. Sigh." Both presumptive presidential nominees are attempting to unite their fractured parties ahead of the nominating conventions. As Trump works to right his campaign from weeks of turmoil and poor fund-raising, Clinton was addressing her own challenge: drawing the supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders. She's vanquished him in the critical hunt for enough delegates to clinch the Democratic presidential nomination, but Sanders has not endorsed Clinton. On Wednesday, he allowed that it's apparent he will not be the party's nominee. On Capitol Hill, Democrats nudged Sanders to go further. "I know he knows what's at stake," said House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of California. "Two words: Donald Trump." Added Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina, "I would love to see Mr. Sanders endorse. Go all in." Clinton, assured of her party's presidential nomination, paired her response to Trump with a populist pitch aimed at white, working class voters who backed Sanders and are now being courted by Trump. The nation, she said, needs an economy that, "works for everyone not just for the rich or the well-connected." She also castigated Trump's "reckless ideas that will run up our debt and cause another economic crash. I'm here today to offer an alternative." Noting his famous catch-phrase from NBC's "The Apprentice" "You're fired!" Clinton said if elected president, "I'm going to make sure you hear, 'You're hired!" The former secretary of state said she would push an array of economic policies aimed at creating better-paying jobs building roads and bridges, offering debt-free college to students and helping those with massive college debt. She also vowed to pressure companies to share their profits with workers and curb the influence of Wall Street. Earlier, Clinton received a rousing reception from House Democrats in her first stop on Capitol Hill since clinching the Democratic nomination. Greeted by chants of "Hillary, Hillary," Clinton promised to use her massive campaign infrastructure to help Democrats win congressional races as part of what she called a "50 state strategy." "She said: 'I know the difference between having the House and not having the House, and I want the House," recalled Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash. Clinton's and Sanders' campaigns are discussing ways of addressing key economic issues in the Democratic platform which will be approved at the Philadelphia convention, including trade, providing free college tuition and cutting student debt and expanding Medicare and Social Security. Democrats said there was little discussion of Sanders or Trump in the meeting, which was more like a pep rally for Clinton's campaign. At one point, the members ribbed Rep. Xavier Becerra who's been mentioned as a possible running mate when he poured Clinton a glass of water. Becerra later said that he is not currently being vetted as a potential running mate. Other potential contenders include Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who will campaign with Clinton on Monday in Cincinnati, Ohio, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro. ___ Lerer reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Erica Werner, Alan Fram and Richard Lardner contributed to this report. ___ On Twitter, follow Lisa Lerer at http://twitter.com/llerer and Ken Thomas at http://twitter.com/KThomasDC Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton gestures as she speaks during a rally in Raleigh, N.C., Wednesday, June 22, 2016. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton) Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton walks with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of Calif. as they arrive for a meeting with the House Democratic Caucus, Wednesday, June 22, 2016, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton greets supporters as she takes the stage during a rally in Raleigh, N.C., Wednesday, June 22, 2016. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton) Doping inspectors denied entrance to presidential palace ROME (AP) Italy's Quirinal presidential palace is apparently off limits to anti-doping inspectors. Olympic race walking medalist Elisa Rigaudo was attending a send-off for Italian athletes with president Sergio Mattarella on Wednesday when she said German officials showed up for a surprise drug control. Without the necessary accreditation for the ceremony, the inspectors were denied entrance by palace security. However, they tested Rigaudo afterward at the Italian Olympic Committee headquarters. Rigaudo tweeted that she explained to the inspectors what the Quirinal palace is, adding "It's like if they rang (German Chancellor Angela) Merkel's doorbell." The 36-year-old Rigaudo took bronze in the 20-kilometer event at the 2008 Beijing Games. What about Bernie? Still running and keeping security detail WASHINGTON (AP) What about Bernie? Sanders was mathematically eliminated from the Democratic presidential race earlier this month, but the Vermont senator isn't ready to bow out and that means highly trained Secret Service agents shadow his every move at a cost to taxpayers of tens of thousands of dollars a day. Sanders, who touts his frugality and espouses cost-saving national policies, has laid off much of his staff and is no longer holding campaign events or rallies. Yet every day a detail of Secret Service agents protects a man who won't be president. As many as 50 agents are involved in protecting each candidate on a daily basis. FILE - In this Feb. 7, 2016 file photo, Secret Service stand guard as Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks during a campaign stop in Portsmouth, N.H. Being mathematically eliminated from the race to win the Democratic presidential nomination hasnt stopped Sanders from continuing his White House bid or be protected by a group of highly trained, costly Secret Service agents. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File) The Secret Service won't say what the agency is spending to protect Sanders. But former Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan testified in April 2008 that the agency was spending about $37,000 to $38,000 a day to protect presidential candidates, including then-Sen. Barack Obama. Sullivan told a budget panel at the time that the agency expected that cost to be about $44,000 a day as the campaign "tempo" picked up. Though a specific cost is hard to pin down, it's fair to say that Sanders' protective detail costs U.S. taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars a day. Since 1968, major presidential candidates have been afforded a protective detail starting about 120 days before the election. But candidates can and have asked for protection well in advance of the nominating conventions. Sanders' request for protection was approved by Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson earlier this year and suit-clad agents started surrounding him in February. At the time, he met the requirements for a protective detail in advance of his party's convention in part because he was a candidate in a major party who had "some degree of prominence as shown by opinion polls" and was campaigning for primaries in at least 10 states. But primary season is over and Sanders doesn't have enough delegates to overtake Hillary Clinton for the nomination, something he acknowledges. In a taped interview for C-Span Sanders said Wednesday "it doesn't appear that I'm going to be the nominee." He has stopped short of saying he will formally leave the race. So when will the Secret Service stand down? That's unclear. Sanders can call for the security force to leave his side any time he wants or formally drop out of the race. But short of that or a directive from Johnson, the armed security detail likely will surround him until Clinton is formally nominated, said Secret Service spokeswoman Catherine Milhoan. Sanders' Senate colleagues said it was up to him to decide when and how to get out of the race. "You know, that's his decision," said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., said said there was no need for Sanders to drop out of the race now. "I think that Bernie still has an opportunity to play an extremely constructive role at the (Democratic) convention to ensure that Donald Trump never becomes president," Markey said. "I think it's still within the realm of possibilities that that's exactly how it's all going to play out." ___ Associated Press writer Matthew Daly contributed to this report. ___ Follow Alicia A. Caldwell on Twitter at www.twitter.com/acaldwellap Syrian refugees say water scarce after Jordan seals border AMMAN, Jordan (AP) Syrian refugees stranded along the Jordanian border said Wednesday that clean water is getting scarce in their desert tent camp after the area was sealed by Jordan in response to a deadly cross-border attack. Cellphone footage taken in the Ruqban camp showed refugees chanting, "We want water." Three Ruqban residents said by phone that people have begun drinking polluted water. Some 64,000 Syrians live in two encampments along the border, awaiting admission to Jordan. Many have been in the camps for months and depend on daily deliveries of food and water by international aid agencies based in Jordan. Jordan declared the area a "closed military zone" after a car bomb attack launched from the Ruqban area killed six Jordanian troops and wounded 14 at dawn Tuesday. There has been no claim of responsibility, but Jordan says it has evidence that militants, including Islamic State fighters, are present in the camps. King Abdullah II warned after the attack that Jordan will "respond with an iron fist" to anyone harming its borders or security. Jordan-based international aid officials confirmed Wednesday that the border area was sealed and that they couldn't send aid there. However, they gave conflicting accounts of whether any water had been delivered to the camps since the attack. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters. Jordanian government spokesman Mohammed Momani could not be reached for comment. The U.N. refugee agency said it is working with other aid groups and Jordanian authorities to get water delivered. Agency spokesman Andreas Needham in Geneva said such deliveries are a priority, but would not elaborate. The London-based rights group Amnesty International said that a total border closure and denial of humanitarian aid "would inevitably lead to extreme hardship among those unable to find refuge and put their lives at risk." The group said Jordan has a right to protect civilians from armed attacks, but that its security measures "must not violate its international legal obligations to provide protection and assistance to refugees who are desperately fleeing the very same type of violence." Ahmad al-Masalmeh, a Syrian opposition activist based in the southern border province of Deraa, said that innocent people have started "paying the price of the explosion." Conditions have long been precarious at the camp but residents say the scarcity of basic goods is becoming more acute. "Things are getting worse, not better," said a mother of three who fled the IS-controlled city of Raqqa and has been in the camp two months. "We lack water, bread. We need everything." Most of the water that reaches the camp comes from Jordan, bread is expensive and vegetables unaffordable, she said. Some Syrians are turning a profit by selling rain water carried in petrol containers. "On top of being dirty, it tastes like petrol," said the woman's husband. The situation is so dire, they said, that some families have decided to return to Raqqa, which many fled due to the airstrikes carried out by the U.S-led coalition and fears of an offensive approaching the city. The refugee couple requested anonymity to keep the option of return open. "Water is the most important thing," said the husband. "Food is secondary, we can't live without water." ___ Colombia's half-century conflict at a glance BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) A look at Colombia's half-century guerrilla conflict: HOW IT STARTED The 1948 assassination of populist firebrand Jorge Eliecer Gaitan led to a political bloodletting known as "La Violencia," or "The Violence." Tens of thousands died, and peasant groups joined with communists to arm themselves. A 1964 military attack on their main encampment led to the creation of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. FILE - In this Jan. 4, 2016, file photo, Juliana, 20, left, and Mariana, 24, rebel soldiers for the 36th Front of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, listen to a commander speak on the peace negotiations between the rebels and the Colombian government, in a hidden camp in Antioquia state, in the northwest Andes of Colombia. Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said Tuesday, June 21, that his government may reach an agreement on a bilateral ceasefire with leftist rebels as early as this week. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd,File) REBEL AIMS Though nominally Marxist at its founding, the FARC's ideology has never been well defined. It has sought to make the conservative oligarchy share power and prioritized land reform in a country where more than 5 million people have been forcibly displaced, mostly by far-right militias in the service of ranchers, businessmen and drug traffickers. The FARC lost popularity as it turned to kidnapping, extortion and taxes on cocaine production and illegal gold mining to fund its insurgency. US INVOLVEMENT In 2000, the United States began sending billions of dollars for counter-narcotics and -insurgency efforts under Plan Colombia, which helped security forces weaken the FARC and kill several top commanders. The State Department classifies the group as a terrorist organization and its leaders face U.S. indictments for what the George W. Bush administration called the world's largest drug-trafficking organization. THE HUMAN TOLL More than 220,000 lives have been lost, most of them civilians. In the past two decades, many of the killings were inflicted by the militias, which made peace with the government in 2003. The FARC abducted ranchers, politicians and soldiers who were often held for years in jungle prison camps. Its captives included former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and three U.S. military contractors, all of whom were rescued in 2008. PEACE EFFORTS Mid-1980s peace talks collapsed after death squads killed at least 3,000 allies of the FARC's political wing. Another effort fell apart in 2002 after the rebels hijacked an airliner to kidnap a senator. The current talks have been going on since 2012 in Havana. AGREEMENTS SO FAR On Wednesday, negotiators announced an agreement on a bilateral cease-fire and a blueprint for how an estimated 7,000 FARC fighters will demobilize and lay down their weapons. Accords have also been reached on land reform, combatting drug trafficking, the guerrillas' political participation and punishing war crimes on both sides. WHAT REMAINS The Latest: Sick US workers reach Chile in Antarctica rescue SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) The Latest on the rescue of two ailing workers from the U.S. research station at the South Pole (all times EDT): 10:20 p.m. EDT A small plane with two sick U.S. workers has arrived safely in Chile after leaving Antarctica in a rescue mission from a remote South Pole research station, according to a statement from the National Science Foundation. In this 2003 photo, provided by the National Science Foundation, a Twin Otter flies out of the South Pole on a previous medical flight. A daring South Pole medical rescue is underway. An airplane left a British base in Antarctica Tuesday, June 21, 2016, for the 1,500-mile trip to evacuate a sick person from the U.S. station. Athena Dinar, spokeswoman for the British Antarctic Survey, said one of two twin otter planes began the trip Tuesday, while the other is still at the Rothera station on the Antarctic Peninsula just in case. (Jason Medley, National Science Foundation via AP) The workers arrived late Wednesday in the southern Chilean city of Punta Arenas. They made a stop earlier at a British station on the edge of Antarctica. The statement said that from Punta Arenas, the two patients will be transported to a medical facility for treatment. The rescue team flew 3,000 miles roundtrip from the British station Rothera to pick up the workers at the U.S. Amundsen-Scott station at the South Pole. The National Science Foundation said they arrived back at Rothera Wednesday afternoon. They then boarded a second Canadian-owned Twin Otter plane for Punta Arenas. The NSF, which runs the station, has not identified the sick workers or their conditions, citing medical privacy. 4:30 p.m. EDT A small plane carrying two sick passengers is headed from Antarctica to Chile, the latest leg in a daring rescue mission from a remote U.S. research station at the South Pole. After making a stop for a few hours at a British station on the edge of Antarctica, the two ailing U.S. workers left for Chile on another plane. A spokeswoman for the British station said the two are expected to arrive in Chile for medical treatment Wednesday evening. The rescue team left the U.S. Amundsen-Scott station at the South Pole on Wednesday morning for the 1,500-mile trip to the British post Rothera. Cold and dark usually prevent planes from flying to the polar outpost from February to October. ___ 1:45 p.m. Federal officials say a small plane with two sick workers has arrived at a British station in Antarctica, the first leg in a daring rescue mission from a remote U.S. station at the South Pole. National Science Foundation spokesman Peter West confirmed that the Twin Otter turboprop landed Wednesday afternoon at the British station, after a 1,500-mile flight from the South Pole. The next step is for the two patients to be flown off the continent, probably to South America, for further medical care. That could happen later Wednesday or Thursday, depending on weather conditions and the workers' health. West would not reveal the patients' names or conditions. Cold and dark usually prevent planes from flying to the polar outpost from February to October. ___ 1:45 p.m. Federal officials say a small plane with two sick workers has arrived at a British station in Antarctica, the first leg in a daring rescue mission from a remote U.S. station at the South Pole. National Science Foundation spokesman Peter West confirmed that the Twin Otter turboprop landed Wednesday afternoon at the British station, after a 1,500-mile flight from the South Pole. The next step is for the two patients to be flown off the continent, probably to South America, for further medical care. That could happen later Wednesday or Thursday, depending on weather conditions and the workers' health. West would not reveal the patients' names or conditions. Cold and dark usually prevent planes from flying to the polar outpost from February to October. ___ 7:55 a.m. Federal officials say a small plane has left the South Pole with a sick worker in a daring rescue mission from the remote U.S. science outpost. National Science Foundation spokesman Peter West said Wednesday that the Canadian Twin Otter turboprop plane started the 1,500-mile flight to Rothera, a British station on the Antarctic peninsula. From there, the patient will be flown off Antarctica for medical attention that could not be provided on the remote continent. West said at least one worker had to be evacuated, but it could be two. Normally planes don't use the polar outpost from February to October because of the dangers of flying in the pitch dark and cold. Wednesday it was minus 75 degrees at the South Pole (minus 60 Celsius). In this photo provided by the National Science Foundation, a small plane picks up a sick worker at the U.S. South Pole science station. Once the sick patient and the crew rest, they will then fly off Antarctica for medical attention that could not be provided on the remote continent. (Robert Schwarz/NSF via AP) Uber, Lyft battle governments over driver fingerprint checks DETROIT (AP) Hailing a ride with a smartphone app in many U.S. cities is coming down to a fight over fingerprints. Following incidents where Uber drivers were found to have criminal records, a number of state and local officials have proposed fingerprint background checks for ride-hailing drivers often with the support of local taxi companies. Uber and its chief rival, Lyft, have fought those checks, contending their own method of vetting drivers is just as safe. Their political muscle showed in the past week. The Chicago City Council could vote Wednesday on ride-hailing regulations that exclude fingerprint checks after an alderman removed the fingerprint requirement when Uber and Lyft threatened to leave the city. Rhode Island on Saturday passed regulations without fingerprint checks, which also are under consideration in Atlanta and the states of New Jersey, California and Massachusetts. FILE - In this Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2016, file photo, a driver displaying Lyft and Uber stickers on his front windshield drops off a customer in downtown Los Angeles. Hailing a ride with a smartphone app in many U.S. cities could come down to a fight over fingerprints. Following incidents where Uber drivers were found to have criminal records, a growing number of state and local governments want ride-hailing drivers to undergo fingerprint background checks. Uber and its chief rival, Lyft, have fought those checks, contending their own method of vetting drivers is just as safe. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel, File) Uber and Lyft have recently made good on threats to vacate cities that impose fingerprint checks, such as Austin, Texas, leaving drivers without jobs and riders without an alternative to taxis. Agreeing to fingerprint checks, as Uber did in Houston, slows the pace of hiring and increases pickup times. If passengers have to wait too long, the companies say, they give up on ride-hailing. Uber and Lyft hire private background companies that run a driver's name, license and Social Security number through local court records, national criminal databases and a federal sex offender registry. Searches can take as little as 24 hours. Lyft rechecks drivers each year, but Uber does not. Fingerprint checks, which are run through the FBI's national database, can take a few days longer. But experts say fingerprinting catches people who lie about their names. "The accuracy of a fingerprint check is eons beyond what you could do in a name check," says Jay Wachtel, a criminal justice lecturer at California State University Fullerton and retired U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent. In a lawsuit against Uber, prosecutors in Los Angeles and San Francisco found 25 drivers who passed Uber's checks despite having criminal histories, including a driver convicted of felony sexual exploitation of a minor. Uber paid $25 million to settle the case in April. Lyft paid a smaller amount, and both agreed to stop implying that their background checks were safer. Both companies have enlisted high-powered supporters to fight fingerprinting. Earlier this month, former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, whose law firm advises Uber, sent letters to New Jersey and Chicago lawmakers saying fingerprints are unfair and potentially discriminatory. Uber, after just six years, completes 150 million rides per month in nearly 450 cities worldwide. Lyft, which started four years ago, does 11 million rides per month in more than 200 U.S. cities. The companies need thousands of drivers to make the model work. Chicago passenger Giovanni Thurman, 33, says he feels safe using Lyft and Uber because apps give you the driver's picture, name and other information. Thurman runs a consulting business and works with a nonprofit that helps ex-convicts, including some who have gotten back on their feet by driving for the companies. "Those drug dealers that I knew, they drive Uber because it's an option to not go back (to dealing)," he says. "If you impose all of those background checks ... then now you've cut off another way." San Francisco-based Uber and Lyft pulled out of Austin last month after voters decided against overturning a city ordinance that requires fingerprinting. The companies say around 10,000 full- and part-time drivers lost work, and tens of thousands of riders were stranded. But Austin City Councilwoman Ann Kitchen says smaller ride-hailing companies which agreed to fingerprints have helped make up the difference, along with roughly 900 registered taxis. Kitchen, a fingerprint backer, can't figure out why Uber and Lyft spent $9.1 million to fight fingerprints. "I suspect that it's much more than Austin," she says. "It's a national issue." Sam Abuelsamid, transportation analyst with Navigant Research, thinks Uber and Lyft will eventually agree to fingerprint drivers if they get something in return, like a promise that drivers will remain independent contractors and not employees. Such a promise could insulate the companies from liability. Uber and Lyft blame taxi companies for the fingerprint push. Cab drivers in most major cities are fingerprinted and even drug-tested. The ride-hailing companies say their drivers almost all part-time are squeezed for time and cash and don't want additional hurdles. In Houston, ride-hailing drivers who pass a background check from Uber can drive for 30 days until doing a city-required fingerprint check, a physical and a drug test. Dorothy Chou, Uber's head of public policy for safety, says more than 19,000 drivers in Houston passed its screening but failed to do fingerprint checks and other steps because they're so cumbersome. She says the company has seen no difference in the rate of complaints about Houston drivers with a company background check and those that were fingerprinted. "Why would we say yes to a process that doesn't improve safety?" she asked. Torren Smith, 30, needed just over a month to get his license to drive for Uber in Houston. The fingerprint check took fewer than five days, Smith says. But it was difficult for him, as full-time truck driver, to get to a drug-testing clinic, fingerprint office and car inspection site. The whole process cost him around $150. But Houston insists that fingerprint checks are needed. In a March report, city officials said such checks found a driver who passed Uber's background check despite having 24 aliases, 10 Social Security numbers and an arrest warrant. It also found drivers charged with murder and drunken driving. Stephen Saltzburg, a George Washington University law professor, cautions that neither check is foolproof. Private background checks have improved but FBI records may lack data on whether a person was convicted of a crime. Saltzburg says ideally, the companies would do both. "The driver is in a pretty good position to engage in criminal acts," Saltzburg says. "The car is moving, the doors lock." ____ Trump details goals for first 100 days in White House NEW YORK (AP) Donald Trump delivered a scathing speech aimed at undercutting Democratic rival Hillary Clinton on Wednesday, but the presumptive GOP nominee also took some time to sketch out some of his top priorities if he's elected to the White House. "There is one common theme in all of these reforms: It's going to be America first," Trump said of his priorities. A quick look at what Trump said he hopes to accomplish in the first 100 days of his administration, with some details on the challenges he'll face to do so: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks in New York, Wednesday, June 22, 2016. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) __ Trump says he would "appoint judges who will uphold the Constitution of the United States." He claims a President Hillary Clinton would, in contrast, appoint "radical judges" intent on weakening the Second Amendment. Federal judges have lifetime appointments to the bench, which means Trump can only fill vacancies as they arise. Even then, his picks must be confirmed by the Senate. Trump says he would change the nation's immigration rules "to give unemployed Americans an opportunity to fill good really good paying jobs." His plans on how he would accomplish this are vague, and existing law requires employers in many cases to prove they can't find an American worker to do a particular job before an immigrant can receive a visa. Trump says he will "stand up to countries that cheat on trade, of which there are many" and will "cancel rules and regulations that send jobs overseas and everywhere else but our country." Critics have warned that approach would spark trade wars and increase the cost of consumer goods. Trump argues that a proliferation of new jobs would make up for any price increases. Trump says he'll lift restrictions on energy production, increasing domestic production to lower the country's dependence on foreign fuel. To do so, Trump would have to improve on the country's current record-setting level of production, which many in the GOP say could be accomplished by opening up more public lands to drilling and mining. Trump says he'll repeal and replaced president Obama's Affordable Care Act, which he pans as a "total disaster." Trump has said his alternative will be cheaper and offer better care, but has yet to lay out a specific plan, saying at one point it will be "something terrific." Trump says he'll "pass massive tax reform" aimed at creating millions of new jobs and lowering taxes "for everyone." Trump unveiled a plan during the primary that many experts said would balloon the federal deficit, although he's said since that he's open to revisions. Any tax reform plan would also require legislation in Congress; Trump can't pass it on his own. Trump also took a dig at Clinton, the former secretary of state, vowing to "impose tough new ethics rules to restore dignity to the office of the secretary of state." That assignment would likely fall to Trump's choice to serve as the nation's top diplomat, a pick that will also be subject to the "advice and consent" of the Senate. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at the Trump Soho Hotel in New York, Wednesday, June 22, 2016. Trump's address at his hotel in New York's SoHo neighborhood marks his official opening salvo against Hillary Clinton, the prospective Democratic presidential nominee, in the general election. (AP Photo/Richard Drew) Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at the Trump Soho Hotel in New York, Wednesday, June 22, 2016. Trump's address at his hotel in New York's SoHo neighborhood marks his official opening salvo against Hillary Clinton, the prospective Democratic presidential nominee, in the general election. (AP Photo/Richard Drew) North Carolina deputy kills man after being hit by chair SHELBY, N.C. (AP) A North Carolina sheriff's office says a deputy shot and killed a man after the man attacked him with a metal chair. The Cleveland County Sheriff's Office said Deputy Scott Trammel went to a home Tuesday to assist emergency personnel after a 911 call indicated a man was threatening to harm himself and was telling people goodbye. According to the sheriff's office, Trammel was approaching Pedro Cruz-Amado as he sat on the front porch of the home when Cruz-Amado charged the deputy and hit him with a metal chair. As Trammel retreated, Cruz-Amado hit the deputy in the head with the chair. Trammel then shot and killed him. Allegiant flight reports tire blow-out, returns to Las Vegas LAS VEGAS (AP) An airport official says an Allegiant Air flight to Indianapolis returned to Las Vegas with 213 passengers and crew aboard after the pilot reported a tire blow-out during takeoff. McCarran International Airport spokeswoman Christine Crews said Allegiant Flight 500 landed a little before 11 a.m. Wednesday. No fire or injuries were reported. Crews says the runway was closed while workers cleaned up rubber debris shed during the landing. She says the aircraft, a Boeing 757, was able to taxi to a gate under its own power. Airline spokeswoman Jessica Wheeler says plans are being made to replace the aircraft to fly passengers to Indianapolis. Ex-officer arrested after police K-9 dies in patrol car CANTON, Ga. (AP) Authorities say a former school police officer in north Georgia has been arrested in connection with the death of a police K-9 who was left in a patrol car for hours. Cherokee County Chief Marshal Ron Hunton told local news media on Wednesday that former Lt. Daniel Peabody is charged with felony animal cruelty and making false statements. Hunton says the Belgian Malinois named Inka died June 10 after being left inside the car by Peabody for nearly three hours. Hunton says the 50-year-old Peabody forgot the dog was in the car. A necropsy says the dog died from heatstroke. Temperatures had reached into the 90s that day. Islamic State militants push back in Syria, Iraq and Libya BEIRUT (AP) Even as internationally backed forces chip away at Islamic State-held territory in Syria, Iraq and Libya, the militants have demonstrated a stubborn resilience this week in the face of recent losses. The IS forces dealt an embarrassing setback to the Syrian army near the militants' self-styled capital of Raqqa with a swift counteroffensive that rolled back incremental gains by troops loyal to President Bashar Assad. Pockets of extremist fighters north and west of Fallujah continued to hold off elite Iraqi special forces Wednesday, preventing them from making significant advances one month after the government launched its campaign to retake the city west of Baghdad. FILE - In this Saturday, June 18, 2016 file photo, Syrian President Bashar Assad shakes hands with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu in Damascus, Syria. The Syrian government has suffered serious setbacks in its campaign to retake the Islamic State's de facto capital of Raqqa, even with Russia's support. (Vadim Savitsky/ Russian Defense Ministry Press Service pool photo via AP, File) And in the battle for the Libyan city of Sirte, pro-government forces besieging the IS stronghold were stunned by renewed clashes there, with 36 people killed, a hospital spokesman said. Just two weeks ago, the Islamic State had suffered setbacks in all three countries in the region where the Sunni militant group captured large tracts of territory in Iraq and Syria two years ago. Seesaw battles raged in Syria's Raqqa province, with IS fighters retaking areas from government forces Tuesday. Two days earlier, the Syrian troops briefly seized an IS-held oilfield in Thawra and threatened to retake the Tabqa air base, which would have opened a direct line for troops to the city of Raqqa. The government began its highly publicized campaign to retake Raqqa on June 2. On Sunday, the troops advanced to within 6 miles (10 kilometers) of the Tabqa base, which is about 28 miles (45 kilometers) from Raqqa and holds strategic and symbolic value for the government. It was the last position held by government forces in Raqqa province before the militants overran it in August 2014, killing scores of detained Syrian soldiers in a massacre documented on IS video. The commander of an elite, pro-government militia known as the Desert Hawks explained the government's rapid withdrawal from large parts of Raqqa province. "It is vital to understand that (IS) adopted new tactics to fight the Desert Hawks in this area," said retired Gen. Mohamad Jaber. Writing on his Facebook page Tuesday, he said the militants were sending explosives-packed vehicles at the pro-government line, and he predicted the battle for Tabqa would be "harsh and mighty." Activists gave conflicting casualty counts for civilians killed in airstrikes on the city of Raqqa, with death tolls ranging from 18 to 32. Differing casualty figures are common in reporting from Syria's civil war, now in its sixth year. The activists said the Syrian air force, backed by warplanes from its ally, Russia, had pummeled the Islamic State extremists after government losses earlier this week. The U.S.-led coalition also has been bombing Raqqa. Col. Christopher Garver, the Baghdad-based spokesman for the coalition, told The Associated Press that four airstrikes were carried out Tuesday near Raqqa. They targeted an IS tactical unit, a finance center, a headquarters and an oil facility, Garver said. He had no reports on casualties. The activist group known as Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently said at least one of the airstrikes targeted a neighborhood popular among "foreign fighters" militants who have traveled to Syria to fight with the IS group. In northern Syria, U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish forces encircled IS militants in the town of Manbij, a vital position that connects the Turkish border to Raqqa. As the Iraqi military offensive to retake Fallujah entered its second month Wednesday, clashes continued to try to dislodge IS militants from besieged neighborhoods. Iraqi special forces pushed into the center of the city last week and retook a government compound and the central hospital. Officials said they are still working to secure the territory. At the central hospital, Corp. Ahmad Ahmad warned that only parts of the first floor were fully cleared of homemade bombs because teams specializing in defusing the explosives are in short supply and have been mostly deployed to help troops on the front lines. Ahmad said his forces had not preformed house-to-house searches in surrounding buildings, including the Khalifa Mosque along Fallujah's main highway. "Right now, we are focusing on clearing the roads," he said, adding that the painstaking process of searching buildings would require more troops and risk greater casualties. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said Friday that Fallujah had "returned to the embrace of the nation," and that remaining IS pockets would be "cleaned out within hours." Clashes have persisted, however, with militants holed up in dense residential neighborhoods along the city's northern edge. On Tuesday, the U.S.-led coalition said only a third of Fallujah has been "cleared," and other parts remain contested. Iraqi commanders say 80 percent of the city is under their control. Fallujah is one of the last IS stronghold in Iraq. At the height of its power, the group held nearly a third of the country, but a string of territorial losses has left only pockets of territory in Iraq's north and west under IS control. The second- largest city of Mosul is the group's last remaining urban holdout. In Libya's coastal city of Sirte, fierce fighting with IS militants killed 36 militiamen aligned with the U.N.-brokered government. The militias, mainly from the western town of Misrata, have been battling since May to try to take full control of Sirte, the last bastion of the Islamic State group in the North African country. After a rapid advance into the city, the militias were slowed by a series of IS suicide bombings. Along with the 36 militiamen killed, mostly in direct gun battles, about 140 were wounded, said Misrata hospital spokesman Abdel-Aziz Essa. IS fighters reportedly have hunkered down at their headquarters in the sprawling Ouagadougou convention center built by the late dictator Moammar Gadhafi. Sirte was Gadhafi's birthplace and the place where he fled during the 2011 civil war, when Libyan rebels backed by NATO warplanes forced him out of the capital of Tripoli. ___ George reported from Fallujah, Iraq. Associated Press writers Maggie Michael in Cairo and Sinan Salaheddin in Baghdad contributed reporting. FILE - In this Saturday, June 18, 2016 file photo, Russian fighter jets and bombers are parked at Hemeimeem air base in Syria. The Syrian government has suffered serious setbacks in its campaign to retake the Islamic State's de facto capital of Raqqa, even with Russia's support. (Vadim Savitsky/Russian Defense Ministry Press Service pool photo via AP, File) hacked but have never explained what security procedures were in place Clinton campaign deny her server was ever State Department staffers wrestled for weeks in December 2010 over a serious technical problem with then-Secretary Hillary Clinton's home email server, causing them to temporarily disable security features that left the server more vulnerable to hackers, according to emails released Wednesday. Just weeks later, according to previously disclosed emails, hackers attacked the server, forcing Clinton's staff to shut it down. The next day, one of Clinton's closest aides, Huma Abedin, wrote to other high ranking staff: 'Don't email hrc [Clinton] anything sensitive. I can explain more in person.' The emails were released under court order Wednesday to the conservative legal advocacy group Judicial Watch, which has sued the State Department over access to public records related to the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee's service as the nation's top diplomat between 2009 and 2013. SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO Believe me: Clinton's campaign says that there is no evidence she was hacked - but today's disclosures make clear that Huma Abedin, her right-hand woman feared that the secret server was vulnerable Laughing it off: The emails, reviewed by The Associated Press, show that State Department technical staff disabled software intended to block phishing emails that could deliver dangerous viruses. They were trying urgently to resolve an apparent conflict between the server's built-in email delivery features with a version of 'ScanMail for Exchange' security software from Trend Micro Inc. that had been installed on her server. Clinton has not previously described any security protections on her server. 'This should trump all other activities,' a senior technical official, Ken LaVolpe, told IT employees in a Dec. 17, 2010, email. Another senior State Department official, Thomas W. Lawrence, wrote days later in an email that Abedin personally was asking for an update about the server repairs. Abedin and Clinton, who both used the private server, had complained that emails each sent to State Department employees were not being reliably received. After technical staffers turned off some security features, Lawrence cautioned in an email, 'We view this as a Band-Aid and fear it's not 100 percent fully effective.' Clinton has repeatedly denied there is any evidence her private email server ever was breached. Her campaign did not immediately provide comment Wednesday. On Jan. 9, 2011, a State Department IT staffer was forced to shut down Clinton's server because he believed 'someone was trying to hack us.' Later that day, he wrote, 'We were attacked again so I shut (the server) down for a few min.' It was one of several occasions when email access to Clinton's BlackBerry smartphone was disrupted because her private server was down, according to the documents. Watch out: Huma Abedin, seen leaving a Clinton cmapaign fundraiser in New York this week, sent the bombshell warning to unnamed State Department officials telling them not to send sensitive emails to the Secretary of State The Associated Press reported last year that in the early morning hours of August 3, 2011, Clinton received infected emails, disguised as speeding tickets from New York. The emails instructed recipients to print the attached tickets. Opening an attachment would have allowed hackers to take over control of a victim's computer. In a blistering audit released last month, the State Department's inspector general concluded that Clinton and her team ignored clear internal guidance that her email setup broke federal standards and could leave sensitive material vulnerable to hackers. Her aides twice brushed aside concerns, in one case telling technical staff 'the matter was not to be discussed further,' the report said. The State Department has released more than 52,000 pages of Clinton's work-related emails, including some that have since been classified. Clinton has withheld thousands of additional emails, saying they were personal. The emails released Wednesday were not made available until after the inspector general's office published its report, and Judicial Watch asked a federal judge to force the State Department to turn them over. The case is one of about three dozen lawsuits over access to records related to Clinton's time as secretary, including one filed by the AP. As part of its ongoing suit, lawyers from Judicial Watch on Wednesday questioned Bryan Pagliano, a former IT staffer for Clinton who helped set up the server, under oath. According to the group, Pagliano repeatedly responded to questions by invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, as he did last year before a congressional committee. On the attack: Donald Trump mocked Clinton on Wednesday for deleting emails and her record on truthfulness The FBI is also investigating whether Clinton's use of the private email server imperiled government secrets. It has recently interviewed Clinton's top aides, including former chief of staff Cheryl Mills and deputy chief of staff Abedin. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said in a speech Wednesday that Clinton's email server 'was easily hacked by foreign governments.' Trump cited no new evidence that hackers had successfully breached Clinton's server, but he said unspecified enemies of the United States were in possession of all her emails. 'So they probably now have a blackmail file over someone who wants to be President of the United States. This fact alone disqualifies her from the presidency,' Trump said. How the UK could remain in the EU even if it votes to leave LONDON (AP) If Britain votes to leave the EU on Thursday, it'll be final. Irreversible. Irrevocable. No appeals. No second chances. "Out is out," European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker told reporters Wednesday. "You can't jump out of the airplane and then clamber back into the cockpit," is how British Prime Minister David Cameron put it in a radio interview a few hours earlier. Flags fly outside Europe House, the European Parliament's British offices, in central London, with European flag, right, and Britain's Union flag, Tuesday June 21, 2016. A national referendum on Thursday June 23, will dictate if Britain will leave the European Union, or remain part of the EU bloc. (Lauren Hurley / PA via AP) UNITED KINGDOM OUT - NO SALES - NO ARCHIVES But what if a vote to leave weren't really that final or dramatic? Some experts are wondering whether Britain can ever really free itself from the European Union even if voters strongly endorse hitting the eject button. Others say it's not out of the question that Brits could find themselves going back to the ballot box in a few years' time if buyer's remorse sets in. "The EU is a bit like the Hotel California in the Eagles song," said Tim Oliver, a fellow at the London School of Economics' IDEAS foreign policy think tank. "You can check out anytime but you never really leave." Much of the uncertainty stems from the ambiguity about what a British exit, or Brexit, really means. Abandoning Europe could mean anything from a sweeping withdrawal from EU institutions to more limited opt-outs which could leave major pillars of European integration, such as free movement of labor, untouched. "'Leave' could mean a million different things," Oliver said, giving Britain's political establishment considerable scope to loiter in Europe's lobby as euroskeptics argue over where the exits are. Experts say there might be even more room for maneuver in the months and years following an "out" vote. In theory, a two-year countdown goes into effect after a European country formally notifies its partners of its intention to quit the union, but complex international negotiations routinely run on for years and the parties involved could let the deadline lapse as talks drag on, perhaps even past Britain's 2020 parliamentary elections. What if voters' minds change between now and then? And even if the negotiations over Britain's departure were concluded on time, what would happen if the U.K. were presented with unfavorable terms? One expert said he could envisage a last-chance referendum asking Brits whether they still wanted to leave the EU under those conditions. "It is at least legally possible and it might create the political space for a government to back out of an exit," said Gavin Barrett, an expert on European constitutional law at University College Dublin. "I think a case could be made for a second referendum asking, 'Do you really want this?'" The let's-vote-on-this-one-more-time maneuver has helped bail out the European project before, albeit under different circumstances. After Irish voters rejected EU reforms in 2008, politicians in Dublin won modest concessions from their European counterparts and ran the vote again the following year, this time with a positive outcome. Similar EU referendum do-overs turned an Irish "No" into a "Yes" in 2002 and helped secured a Danish "Ja" in 1993. But the path to a second referendum in Britain is far narrower, in part because unlike in Ireland the political establishment is split over Europe. If leading euroskeptic Boris Johnson takes the reins of the ruling Conservative Party following a vote to leave the EU, the prospect of a final vote will fade further still. Alan Renwick, the deputy director of the Constitution Unit at University College London, said a do-over would only be plausible "if a party wins the 2020 election on a platform of having a second referendum and trying to go back in." That seems unlikely given the current political alignment, but he said nothing is completely out of the question when it comes to a potential Brexit. "You have so many possible long shot scenarios," he said. "If you add up the probabilities of all of them, you end up with a significant chance of something surprising happening, whatever that might be." Louisiana sheriff calls deputy's death 'cold-blooded murder' HARVEY, La. (AP) A 19-year-old walking down a busy commercial strip of a New Orleans suburb Wednesday in the middle of the afternoon shot and killed a deputy after the officer tried to search him, the sheriff said Wednesday, labelling the shooting "a cold-blooded murder." In a late night news conference, Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand described the deadly shooting that swiftly unfolded after Detective David F. Michel Jr., 50, tried to search Jerman Neveaux. The sheriff said the officer had noticed Neveaux walking behind another person who appeared to be nervous, so he pulled over. Michel approached Neveaux and placed him up against the police vehicle so he could search him, Normand said. But Neveaux flipped around, "went chest to chest" with the officer, pulled out a gun and reaching over Michel's shoulder shot him in the back. MonaLisa Urbina, rear, and two friends, Thuy Nguyen, front left, and Kim Pham, lay flowers at a memorial for Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Deputy David F. Michel Jr. in Harvey, La., Wednesday, June 22, 2016. A pedestrian walking down a busy commercial strip of the New Orleans suburb in the middle of the afternoon shot the sheriff's deputy multiple times, killing him, after being stopped by the officer Wednesday, an official said. (AP Photo/Cain Burdeau) "As Detective Michel fell to the ground, he fired two more shots at point-blank range into the back of Detective Michel," Normand said. The officer was able to get on the radio and say he'd been shot, Normand said. As Michel was brought to a hospital in New Orleans where he later died, officers flooded the area, using dogs and helicopters to search for the suspect. Normand said police were able to find the suspect, who was going through the backyards of houses in the nearby area. Geralisha Henderson lived in one of those houses. She said she went to her back door Wednesday to make sure it was locked after police combing her street said they were searching for a suspect. When she went to the back door, she saw what appeared to be a young man dressed in jeans and T-shirt hiding in the back of the yard. Frightened, she went to the street and waved for a police officer to come. When she went to the back door to peek outside again, she said the suspect was much closer to the house. The suspect saw her and asked to be let in, she said. "He was telling me 'Open the door, let me in,'" she said. "He looked scared." She said she did not see a gun. At that the point, several officers rushed in and detained him in the backyard. Henderson's mother, Alicia, said an officer later came back to the house and told her the man was the suspect they were looking for. Normand said five witnesses identified Neveaux as the shooter, and authorities found the gun on him and have been able to match it forensically to the shooting. A spokesman for the sheriff's office, John Fortunato, said he has been arrested on charges of first degree murder and assault. The suspect admitted shooting the officer and said he was on probation for another offense and didn't want the officer to find the gun and arrest him, Normand said. The sheriff also said his office is investigating a video that was brought to their attention by a local media outlet that shows Neveaux's arrest. Normand, who said he saw the video minutes before the news conference, said it shows Neveaux "...being struck by our officers while attempting to gain control of Neveaux." He said Neveaux was still armed at that time. Neveaux, who was taken to the hospital for treatment after his arrest, had an orbital fracture and scrapes and cuts, Normand said. As news got out about Michel's death, people began to lay flowers at a makeshift memorial where the shooting happened. One of them was MonaLisa Urbina, 47, who brought flowers and a stuffed animal. She said she knew Michel, who lived with his family in the same neighborhood as her. She said she first got to know him when he found her two boys riding their bikes instead of being in school. "He scolded them. He told them not to do it again. And he put fear in them. They never did it again," she said. "He treated them like family. I tell you, everybody's lost an angel." Deputy Chief Craig Taffaro, who commands the parish's operations division, said Michel was a cheerful man who loved his job. "Obviously, today is the most difficult time," Taffaro said. The deputy chief said he knew Michel personally. "He was a great guy. He was well-liked. It was quite obvious at the hospital how many friends he had." He said Michel's father was en route to New Orleans. "I spoke with his dad," Taffaro said, "And he said, 'As difficult as this is, he's doing what he loved to do.' I guess that sums it up." Michel was assigned to the street crimes unit, which targets drug sales and criminal activity in 17 high-crime areas around the parish, Taffaro said. Michel was in a black unmarked car and dressed in plain clothes with sheriff markings. Michel joined the sheriff's office in 2007 and was transferred to the street crimes unit in 2015, Fortunato said. It was the year's second shooting of a Jefferson officer. Another member of the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office, Stephen Arnold, was shot and wounded in January during a drug raid on a house in the Lower 9th Ward section of New Orleans. ___ Associated Press reporters Kevin McGill and Chevel Johnson in New Orleans contributed to this story. ___ This story has been corrected to show that Michel's age is 50. Flowers and other items are laid at a memorial where Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Deputy David F. Michel Jr. was shot and killed in Harvey, La., Wednesday, June 22, 2016. A pedestrian walking down a busy commercial strip of the New Orleans suburb in the middle of the afternoon shot the sheriff's deputy multiple times, killing him, after being stopped by the officer Wednesday, an official said. (AP Photo/Cain Burdeau) A holstered police gun lies in the street on Ascot Road at the scene of the shooting. Jefferson Parish, Louisiana State Police and other law enforcement personnel work the scene of a fatal shooting that took the life of Jefferson Parish sheriff deputy David F. Michel Jr. Wednesday June 22, 2016, in New Orleans. A pedestrian walking down a busy commercial strip of a New Orleans suburb in the middle of the afternoon shot the sheriffs deputy multiple times, killing him, after being stopped by the officer Wednesday, an official said. (G. Andrew Boyd/NOLA.com The Times-Picayune via AP) Jefferson Parish Sheriff Officers respond to the shooting death of a deputy who initiated a pedestrian stop in front of a Dunkin' Donuts Wednesday, June 22, 2016, in Harvey, La. The pedestrian fired on the deputy and fled the scene and is still at large. (Matthew Hinton/The New Orleans Advocate via AP) Jefferson Parish Sheriff Officers respond to the shooting death of a deputy who initiated a pedestrian stop in front of a Dunkin' Donuts Wednesday, June 22, 2016, in Harvey, La. The pedestrian fired on the deputy and fled the scene and is still at large. (Matthew Hinton/The New Orleans Advocate via AP) The Latest: Sheriff: Suspect fired at deputy from back HARVEY, La. (AP) The Latest on the shooting death of a Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, sheriff's deputy (all times local): 10:30 p.m. The sheriff of a deputy who was shot and killed says the suspect flipped around as the officer was trying to search him, went chest to chest with the officer, pulled out a gun and reached over the deputy's shoulder to shoot him in the back. Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand said during a news conference Wednesday that the suspect fired two more shots into the deputy's back at point-blank range as he fell to the ground. Normand identified the suspect as 19-year-old Jerman Neveaux. A spokesman, John Fortunato, said Neveaux has been arrested on charges of first-degree murder and assault. Normand said the suspect admitted shooting the officer and said he was on probation for another offense and didn't want the officer to find the gun and arrest him. ___ 10 p.m. Authorities have identified the suspect in the fatal shooting of a Louisiana sheriff's deputy as 19-year-old Jerman Neveaux. Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand says ballistics positively linked a gun in Neveaux's possession to the Wednesday death of Deputy David Michel. Michel was shot three times in the back after stopping a pedestrian along a busy street in the suburb of Harvey about 12:20 p.m. ___ 9:15 p.m. A neighbor of a Louisiana sheriff's deputy who was shot and killed says he always checked on his neighbors and had a smile on his face. Lisa Jackson, a 49-year-old cook in New Orleans, said Wednesday that Deputy David Michel was a "neighborhood guy." Authorities say Michel was shot and killed in the nearby town of Harvey. A suspect has been detained. Michel's home was quiet Wednesday and no one answered the door. A blue ribbon was tied to the mail box. Jackson said she didn't know him well, but knew he liked to take his boat out and go fishing. She had also tied a blue ribbon to her porch as a token of remembrance. ___ 7:15 p.m. A woman in a New Orleans suburb where a sheriff's deputy was shot and killed says the suspect was hiding in her backyard when police rushed in and detained him. Geralisha Henderson said she went to her back door Wednesday to make sure it was locked after police combing her street said they were searching for a suspect. She said she saw what appeared to be a young man hiding in the yard. Frightened, she went to the street and waved for an officer. When she went back into the house the man was closer and asking to be let in. Then officers rushed in and detained him in the backyard. Officials say 50-year-old Deputy David Michel was shot and killed after stopping a pedestrian along a busy street. ___ 4:30 p.m. A local coroner says a sheriff's deputy killed in suburban New Orleans was shot three times in the back. Authorities said 50-year-old David Michel (mih-SHELL') Jr. of the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office died Wednesday afternoon. A sheriff's spokesman says Michel was shot after stopping a pedestrian along a busy street in the suburb of Harvey about 12:20 p.m. Dr. Gerry Cvitanovich (sih-TAN'-ah-vich) said Michel was shot "straight in the back." Details on the caliber of the weapon used were not released.___ 3:20 p.m. The sheriff's deputy shot to death on a busy suburban New Orleans street has been identified as 50-year-old David F. Michel (mih-SHELL') Jr. Jefferson Parish Sheriff's spokesman Col. John Fortunato said a suspect in the Wednesday afternoon shooting is in custody. Fortunato says the suspect is at University Medical Center in New Orleans, being treated for minor injuries. Fortunato says the suspect is believed to have been hurt in a struggle with Michel prior to the shooting. Michel died at that same hospital. Fortunato said the shooting happened in the suburban area of Harvey after Michel stopped the suspect, who was walking along busy Manhattan Boulevard around 12:20 p.m. Fortunato says witnesses told investigators the suspect pulled a gun from his waistband during a struggle with Michel. Michel was shot several times. ___ 1:30 p.m. Authorities in Louisiana say a deputy has been shot and killed after stopping a pedestrian on the street in a New Orleans suburb. Col. John Fortunato, a spokesman for the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office, said at a televised news conference that the deputy died Wednesday afternoon after he was shot in the city of Harvey. He had been taken to a hospital in New Orleans. The identity of the deputy has not been released. A search was underway for a suspect. ___ Swiss arrest suspected extremist upon return from Turkey GENEVA (AP) The Swiss federal prosecutor's office says authorities have detained a Swiss national in Zurich upon his return from Turkey on suspicion of links to jihadi groups in Syria and Iraq. Spokesman Andre Marty said the man, identified only as a 21-year-old from the French-speaking part of Switzerland, was detained at the Zurich airport on June 8 and has been placed in pre-trial detention. Estimates: 61,000 acres of opium grown in Mexico MEXICO CITY (AP) Mexico and the United Nations announced on Wednesday the results of a new study that estimates opium poppies were planted on about 61,000 acres (24,800 hectares) in Mexico between 2014 and 2015. The study is the first of its kind in Mexico, so authorities can't compare the results with past years to determine whether opium growing has expanded. The head of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime in Mexico, Antonio Mazzitelli, said a second part of the study will try to estimate what the crop yield is in Mexico. FILE - In this March 4, 2010 file photo, a soldier stands on a poppy field, during eradication supervised by the Mexican Army on the outskirts of Morelia, Mexico. Mexico and the United Nations have carried out a new study that estimates opium poppy was planted in about 61,000 acres (24,800 hectares) in 2015. The study is the first of its kind in Mexico, so authorities cant compare the results with past years to determine whether opium growing has expanded. (AP Photo/Carlos Jasso, File) Mazzitelli said production is concentrated in nine states along Mexico's Pacific coast, including Guerrero, Sinaloa and Nayarit. The Mexican government said it had destroyed about the same acreage of poppy plantations in the same period, but it was unclear if that corresponded to the area mentioned in the study. U.S. authorities estimate that about half of the heroin seized there came from Mexico. Most of the rest of U.S. heroin comes from South America. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has said poppy cultivation in Mexico is on the rise, with 17,000 hectares in 2014 and an estimated potential production of 42 metric tons of heroin. The governor of Guerrero state, one of the country's biggest opium producing areas, proposed earlier this year allowing farmers to produce opium poppies for legal, medicinal use. Michigan sues companies that 'botched,' worsened Flint water FLINT, Michigan (AP) Michigan's attorney general filed a civil lawsuit Wednesday against two water engineering companies, saying their negligence caused and exacerbated Flint's lead-tainted water crisis and demanding what could total hundreds of millions of dollars in damages. Veolia and Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam, also known as LAN, were sued in Genesee County Circuit Court. The firms already are facing suits from Flint residents over the disaster, in which improperly treated water from the Flint River scraped toxic lead from pipes into tap water. Houston-based LAN whose Flint office in 2013 and 2014 helped the city of nearly 100,000 switch to the Flint River as its primary water supply after decades of buying treated water from Detroit was accused of professional negligence and public nuisance. Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette announces a civil suit against Veolia, engineering services corporation, for negligence in the Flint water crisis at a press conference at University of Michigan-Flint in Flint, Mich. on Wednesday, June 22, 2016. Schuette filed a civil lawsuit Wednesday against two water engineering companies, saying their negligence caused and exacerbated Flint's lead-tainted water crisis and demanding what could total hundreds of millions of dollars in damages. Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton and Deputy Chief Investigator Ellis Stafford stand behind the podium during (Daniel Mears/The Detroit News via AP) Veolia, a French multinational corporation with U.S. offices, faces the same allegations along with a fraud count. Veolia was hired in 2015 after Flint began encountering numerous water problems but, according to the suit, it and LAN didn't detect the lack of a corrosion control chemical and instead recommended the addition of a chloride that made the problem worse. "In Flint, Veolia and LAN were hired to do a job and failed miserably," Attorney General Bill Schuette said at a news conference in Flint. "They basically botched it, didn't stop the water in Flint from being poisoned. They made it worse." In a statement, Veolia North America said it "will vigorously defend itself against these unwarranted allegations of wrongdoing." It noted that a task force appointed by Gov. Rick Snyder largely blamed the state for the emergency and did not even mention the company or assign it any blame. "The Attorney General has not talked to Veolia about its involvement in Flint, interviewed the company's technical experts or asked any questions about our one-time, one-month contract with Flint," Veolia said in a statement. "Veolia's engagement with the city was wholly unrelated to the current lead issues." LAN spokesman Tim Coffey said Schuette "blatantly mischaracterized" the company's role. The decision to not add corrosion controls was made by the city and state regulators, not LAN, according to the company, which said it had regularly pushed for corrosion control. Snyder has apologized for regulatory failures while the poverty-stricken city was under state financial management and began drawing its drinking water from the local river in a cost-cutting move. The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality told the city that it was not required to add an anti-corrosion chemical until after a year of testing. Lead from old pipes leached into homes and businesses, leading to a public health emergency. There also were earlier E. coli detections; resident complaints about color, odor and taste; and high levels of a disinfectant byproduct. A General Motors plant had stopped using the water just six months after the 2014 switch because it was rusting engine parts, and experts suspect a deadly Legionnaires' disease outbreak was tied to the water. Flint returned to the Detroit water system in October. Criminal charges have already been filed against two state environmental officials, while Flint's utilities administrator pledged cooperation in exchange for reduced charges. Once Snyder signs budget legislation, Michigan will have allocated at least $240 million to resolve the water crisis in Flint. Noah Hall, a special assistant attorney general on Schuette's investigatory team, said the investigators "can't get the lead out of kids' blood." But they can hold accountable those responsible and collect money so "the people of Michigan and the state of Michigan can provide the kind of services needed to help this community recover from the devastating impacts of lead poisoning," he said. Legal damages could be used in part to replace thousands of lead service lines and pipes, according to the suit. Schuette on Wednesday again promised additional criminal charges, saying some will be filed "soon." Special Counsel Todd Flood acknowledged difficulty obtaining documents and other information from agencies, including the governor's office, but he pledged to go to court to get them if needed. Snyder spokeswoman Anna Heaton said lawyers in the attorney general's office have produced hundreds of thousands of documents from the governor's office and state departments for Flood, and "we will continue cooperating fully with all investigations, as we have from the beginning." ___ Online: State of Michigan vs. Veolia and LAN: http://bit.ly/28QQpaS ___ Eggert reported from Lansing. Associated Press writer Ed White in Detroit contributed to this report. Deputy Chief Investigator Ellis Stafford, left,Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette, second left, Special Counsel Todd Flood, second right, and Chief Investigator Andy Arena, right, stand behind the podium as Special Assistant Attorney General Noah Hill addresses the media during the announcement of a civil suit against against two water engineering companies, saying their negligence caused and exacerbated Flint's lead-tainted water crisis and demanding what could total hundreds of millions of dollars in damages, at a press conference at University of Michigan Flint in Flint, Mich. on Wednesday, June 22, 2016. (Daniel Mears/The Detroit News via AP) Deputy Chief Investigator Ellis Stafford, left, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette, center, and Special Assistant Attorney General Noah Hall enter a press conference Wednesday, June 22, 2016 in Flint, Mich, where Schuette announced civil suits against two water engineering companies, saying their negligence caused and exacerbated Flint's lead-tainted water crisis and demanding what could total hundreds of millions of dollars in damages. (The Detroit News/ Daniel Mears) Assistant Attorney General Noah Hal, left, listens as Attorney General Bill Schuette and his team announce that the attorney general filed a civil lawsuit Wednesday, June 22, 2016, against two water engineering companies, saying their negligence caused and exacerbated Flint's lead-tainted water crisis and demanding what could total hundreds of millions of dollars in damages. (Jake May/The Flint Journal-MLive.com via AP) Special Prosecutor Todd Flood speaks about his investigators not receiving all of the requested documents as Attorney General Bill Schuette and his team announce that the attorney general filed a civil lawsuit Wednesday, June 22, 2016, against two water engineering companies, saying their negligence caused and exacerbated Flint's lead-tainted water crisis and demanding what could total hundreds of millions of dollars in damages. (Jake May/The Flint Journal-MLive.com via AP) Officials: Deputy fatally shoots man armed with large knives WELLINGTON, Fla. (AP) Authorities say a man holding two large knives was fatally shot after he charged two South Florida deputies. Local news outlets report the shooting occurred Wednesday morning. The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office reports that the man's wife and 15-year-old daughter had been staying at a safe house after a sexual assault investigation. Escorted by two deputies, the wife had returned to the home to pick up some belongings. Deputies say the man appeared in a hallway holding the knives. The deputies repeatedly ordered the man to drop the knives, but he refused. One deputy tried unsuccessfully to subdue the man with a stun gun. The other deputy then shot the man twice. The man was taken to a hospital, where he died. Judge orders man to trial in 2014 slaying of female jogger MUSKEGON, Mich. (AP) A 46-year-old western Michigan man under investigation in the 2013 disappearance of a gas station clerk will stand trial in the slaying of a female jogger. WZZM-TV reports that a judge on Wednesday ordered Jeffrey Willis to Muskegon County Circuit Court on murder and gun charges in the 2014 shooting death of 36-year-old Rebekah Bletsch in Dalton Township. Willis of Muskegon Township also was charged in April with kidnapping a 16-year-old girl. The girl told investigators that she jumped out of Willis' minivan to escape. Jeffrey Willis, on murder and gun sharges in the 2014 shooting death of jogger Rebekah Bletsch, sits in a Muskegon County courtroom as the preliminary examination of Willis was held in Muskegon, Mich., Wednesday, June 22, 2016. (Erin Lefevre/Muskegon Chronicle via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT Ballistics matched a handgun seized from the vehicle with slugs found in Bletsch's body and shell casings. Authorities also have said Willis is a person of interest in the 2013 disappearance of then-25-year-old Jessica Heeringa from a Norton Shores gas station. ___ Editorial Roundup: Excerpts from recent editorials Excerpts from recent editorials in the United States and abroad: ____ June 23 The Khaleej Times on space revolution in India: India is witnessing a space revolution of sorts with satellites being launched every other month. On Wednesday, it placed 20 satellites in their designated orbits, including one for Google. This is a new record for the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) that's seen a revival of fortunes since its successful Mars Oribiter Mission two years ago, the most affordable in the world, even cheaper than some Hollywood blockbusters. The red planet has been a good omen for larger pursuits, while opening new frontiers to the country's eager space explorers. Scientists in the country are now taking space exploration to a commercial orbit, and are making money in the process. Small satellite launches for other countries and organizations are becoming fiscally viable and the revenue generated is being used to fund more ambitious programmes of Isro, the country's premier space agency. Sustainablity is the key to this largely indigenous programme that has come a long way from modest beginnings in the seventies. Only Nasa, with 29 satellites, and the Russian Space Agency, with 33, have done better than the Isro during a single launch effort. This event has put the country in a different league in space. It can now call itself a space powerhouse, a superpower, thanks to a spirit of enquiry. Spatial technology can be used here on earth to alleviate poverty, and make lives comfortable for the masses. Application of tech from space will give a boost to research and development. It will generate jobs, and make science more meaningful and real for millions. Space cooperation can also be explored with India's neighbours for common development goals. Large parts of South Asia face poverty and economic distress, and the benefits of India's space achievements should be shared to promote best agricultural practices, predict the weather and prevent disasters. It will help in ecological management and promote sustainable development in a region facing multiple crises. India's giant leap into space is expected to usher in a social and economic revolution in South Asia. Online: http://www.khaleejtimes.com ____ June 22 The Los Angeles Times on decision of whether the United Kingdom will remain in the European Union: On Thursday, voters in the United Kingdom will decide whether to remain in the European Union. That the electorate is apparently so closely split between the options of "Leave" and "Remain" is ominous. At issue in this dramatic struggle over Britain's identity, culture and independence is nothing less than the future of the 65-year move toward a closer, more integrated Europe. On the merits, the Remain option supported by Prime Minister David Cameron should win overwhelmingly. Britain benefits enormously from its participation in the 28-member economic and political union, and the consequences of withdrawal could be catastrophic for the British economy particularly for London's role as an international financial center. A recent study by the International Monetary Fund warned that the UK's withdrawal from the EU could shrink the British economy by 5% by the year 2019. Nor would withdrawal affect only affluent Britons, as some Leave proponents have suggested. Researchers at the London School of Economics estimated that middle-class families in the UK would face the loss of at least 4% of their income if the UK left the EU and had to trade under the rules of the World Trade Organization. Brexit also would complicate the UK's economic relationship with the United States. U.S. companies would think twice about investing in the UK if it no longer enjoyed the trading advantages of being part of the EU. On a visit to the UK earlier this year, President Obama warned that if Britain were to leave the union, it would find itself at the "back of the queue" in trade negotiations with the United States. Brexit would also make it harder for millions of Britons to travel freely and work on the Continent. Although supporters of withdrawal complain about an influx of workers from other European countries, the traffic is not only in one direction. Finally, Brexit would increase political tensions within the UK. It was only two years ago that nearly 45% of voters in Scotland expressed a preference for seceding from the UK. Political leaders in Scotland, where support for the EU is strong, have warned that a withdrawal of the UK from the EU might increase the pressure for another independence referendum. In Northern Ireland, Brexit could undermine the Protestant-Catholic peace process by depriving Catholics in the North of a political connection they now enjoy with their co-religionists in the Irish Republic, an EU member that is not part of the UK. Cameron also has warned that a victory for the Leave campaign would lead to the return of border controls between Northern Ireland and the Republic. Given these negative consequences, why is there so much support for Brexit? Some of the opposition is rooted in an island nation's suspicion of the Continent that has been part of British political life for centuries and which helps to explain why, even as as a member of the EU, the UK has maintained its own currency rather than adopt the euro. A variation of that concern is the (highly exaggerated) fear that "Eurocrats" in Brussels, in their zeal to form an ever-closer union, are usurping decisions that properly belong to the British Parliament. That attitude is especially prevalent in Cameron's Conservative Party, and some members of the prime minister's government have broken openly with him to support Brexit. Perhaps the most politically potent argument for Brexit is that the policy of free movement within the EU has allowed migrants from the Continent to take jobs away from British workers. It's true that the UK is a magnet for workers from the continent, especially Eastern Europe. But studies suggest that those workers who of course are also consumers of goods and services produced in the UK haven't dramatically affected the job prospects or wages of British workers. Finally, the debate over Brexit has been distorted by the same fears of international terrorism (mixed with Islamophobia) that have resonated in other places in Europe and in the U.S. presidential campaign. Brexit supporters have warned that Turkey, a predominantly Muslim county, could be admitted to the EU in the near future a claim Cameron has ridiculed. Britain has a veto power over the admission of new members (though Cameron hasn't promised to exercise it to keep Turkey out), but the more important reality is that Turkey is far from meeting all of the requirements for admission. Supporters of Brexit have argued that, once Britain withdrew from the EU, it could find other ways to establish favorable trade relations with the rest of Europe. They suggest, for example, that the UK could follow the example of Norway, a non-EU member that participates in what is called the European Economic Area. But a condition of membership in that arrangement is the same commitment to freedom of movement that supporters of Brexit object to as part of membership in the EU. Cameron has rightly called Brexit a "leap in the dark," and other opponents have noted that it threatens to destabilize the entire EU, giving other countries reason to reconsider their own membership in the institution. On Thursday, voters in the UK should refuse to take the plunge. Online: http://www.latimes.com ____ June 20 The Miami-Herald on U.S. relations with Venezuela: The U.S. government is taking a tougher stance on Venezuela's socialist government, but also offering to help rescue the country from its current economic crisis. Quite the juggling act. Last week, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced high-level talks will take place to ease tensions with Venezuela's socialist government. This came just hours after he also backed calls for a referendum that could force President Nicolas Maduro from office. This president has dodged and bullied his way out of holding any vote on his future, so the United States must be prepared to play hardball. "The United States joins the Secretary General of the OAS, Luis Almagro, and others in the international community calling on the government of Venezuela to release political prisoners and respect freedom of expression and assembly," Mr. Kerry said. Mr. Maduro, a tone-deaf and incompetent leader who has brought his country to the brink of chaos, last month declared a state of emergency granting himself pretty much full authority. Coupled with the colossal military exercises designed to intimidate the Venezuelan people, and it's clear the president is out of ideas. The latest round of talks would start immediately in Caracas. Last year, when relations between the two ideological foes were at their worst, dialogue attempts stalled. The talks would also be aimed at fostering communication between Venezuela's government and the opposition to carry out a "timely recall referendum that is part of the constitutional process," Mr. Kerry added. The regional body will debate the issue in Washington on June 23 and decide whether to apply the charter, introducing a gradual process that could lead to diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis in Venezuela and, ultimately, to its suspension from the OAS. Therefore, it is more than appropriate that Washington press to seek a remedy to the crises in Venezuela. The humanitarian crisis has put the country on the brink of a popular revolt. Within a two-week period, three people died during riots as people clamor for food, medicine and other necessities. These stunning shortages plague a once-rich oil-producing country that enjoyed high oil prices during the years of the Hugo Chavez administration. Venezuelan Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez responded to Mr. Kerry's concerns and demands by saying that the internal affairs of Venezuela are the business of Venezuelans. Not a very encouraging start, or one that's very realistic. If Venezuela's condition deteriorates into chaos, the consequences will breach its borders. The international community, in this case the OAS, should take steps to contain it. Mr. Almagro's proposal and Mr. Kerry's announcement are the logical responses to a political, economic and social crisis that Mr. Maduro's government has been unable and unwilling to resolve. In took Mr. Chavez 17 years to dismantle the productive apparatus that was once Venezuela. And Mr. Maduro seems hellbent on finishing the job. The era of astronomical oil profits is over, and now Venezuelans are paying for the lack of foresight of an administration that continues to make crude attempts to survive. Mr. Kerry did well to demand becoming part of the solution, and Washington must continue to insist that Venezuelans be able to express themselves and define their future in a recall referendum. Online: http://www.miamiherald.com ____ June 22 The Boston Globe on how the House is handling gun control: A CLUMSY ACT of censorship by House Republicans Wednesday says more about the party's timidity than it could possibly have intended. The Republican leadership abruptly shut down the video feed from the House floor to prevent CSPAN viewers from seeing a protest by House Democrats, who were pressing for action on gun control. The same House has endured debates on war, impeachment, taxes, and any number of other contentious issues all with the cameras rolling. A call to action on guns, though, was apparently too much for the tender feelings of Speaker Paul Ryan, whose office shut down CSPAN's access. It was a telling move. Censorship is not something that politicians who are confident of the righteousness of their beliefs bother with. If anticontrol lawmakers genuinely believe their abject fealty to the gun lobby is in the public interest, they should have no problem with debating gun-control proponents in front of the cameras. Likewise, if the Democrats who support gun control were really so misguided, the Republicans would presumably want the American people to see them Wednesday as they argued for a bad cause. Rather, turning off the camera is a desperation move for those who know they have no excuse and need to hide from the public. Pulling the plug on coverage of the gun protest was uncomfortably similar to the actions of a much earlier Congress, which forbade members from even discussing the issue of slavery out of deference to the powerful cotton lobby. In those days, Massachusetts representative and former president John Quincy Adams led the fight against the so-called gag rule, which led to calls for his ouster from the House. He was admonished for breaking the rules of the House just as a spokeswoman for Ryan justified the shut-off on Wednesday by saying, "the House cannot operate without members following the rules of the institution." Proslavery interests in those days were afraid of even allowing discussion on the House floor, and the supine agreement of politicians of the day has gone down in history as evidence of that lobby's power. The gun lobby is not as vicious, but the damage it enables in contemporary America certainly ranks it among today's gravest problems, and it seems to have a similar stranglehold on lawmakers and a similar ability to command unprecedented crackdowns on the airing of dissenting views in Congress. History proved why 19th-century proslavery politicians had good reason to fear what would happen if they didn't go to such extraordinary lengths to prevent debate. Mr. Speaker, what are you afraid of? Online: https://www.bostonglobe.com/ ____ June 22 The St. Louis Post-Dispatch on toxic stress: Children don't choose to have asthma or depression, to be obese, hyperactive or abused. But they frequently develop these health problems, and many others, when they are raised in environments with chronic levels of stress. Doctors in training in St. Louis are learning about the toxic effects of stress on children, and the grim health statistics for adults who experienced traumatic childhood events. This is part of a worthy effort by medical schools across the county to increase young doctors' awareness of the effects of toxic stress among patients raised in poverty. Professionals in the medical, public health and mental health fields are beginning to study the effects of living in environments where danger and insecurity are the norm, with an eye toward prevention and better treatment plans. They are finding that people from these traumatic backgrounds often have shortened life expectancy and develop health issues that can be costly and difficult to treat. The social costs of caring for children damaged by poverty and the conditions that exist in low-income environments are high. Young people who are raised in environments where crime and death are common, but nourishing food is not, have bodies and minds shaped by stress. The Post-Dispatch's Nancy Cambria has reported extensively on the topic, and on scientific findings about the effects of stress. New research shows biochemical factors from a stressed mother can be passed on during pregnancy, altering a developing child's chromosomes and hurting brain development. As they mature, these children are likely to develop social problems, have diminished brain volume and are at high risk for a range of adult diseases. It is critical that medical students recognize this. Exposing students to toxic environments helps make them more compassionate doctors, and encourages them to think differently about patient care. It aids them in understanding that children coming out of these situations are victims and likely to have special needs. Students at St. Louis University medical school recently had their first grand rounds presentation at Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital, where they witnessed the results of chronic levels of household stress on children. Dr. William Keenan, a neonatologist at SLU, told Cambria the visit "was the most important grand rounds we've had this year, probably this decade." Washington University medical students participate in a program that sends them to low-income neighborhoods and medical clinics where they get close to children affected by poverty, neighborhood violence, food shortage, debt, housing insecurity and domestic conflict. Toxic stress is a serious public health problem that is becoming recognized as a crisis. It cannot be ignored. Millions of children, many of them growing up in poverty, are adversely affected by levels of stress the adults in their lives can't protect them from, and sometimes even cause. Good medical care is the best first line of defense. Online: http://www.stltoday.com/ ____ June 21 The Richmond Times-Dispatch on Sen. Elizabeth Warren: On Tuesday, National Public Radio's "Morning Edition" reported that the short list for Hillary Clinton's running mate includes Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Virginia's very own Tim Kaine. Warren would appease the Bernie Sanders base. Her presence on the ticket would give Democrats their most liberal national slate, especially on economics, since William Jennings Bryan ran for the presidency. Kaine would appeal to moderate independents and to Republicans dismayed by Donald Trump's preposterous candidacy. Warren comes from a safe state for Democrats, Kaine from a battleground, although Clinton rates as a prohibitive favorite over Trump in the Old Dominion. If Warren joins the ticket and becomes vice president, she will owe Mitch McConnell and other GOP partisans a round of thanks. Here's why. Congress created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in the aftermath of the Great Recession. President Obama considered naming Warren the agency's first head but backed off when Republican opposition, led by McConnell, threatened to reject her. He nominated someone else instead. The incident turned Warren into an ideological heroine. She subsequently ran for the Senate and defeated Scott Brown, whose victory in the special election to replace the late Edward Kennedy had given him 15 minutes of conservative fame. Analysts considered Warren a plausible presidential contender in 2016; she will remain a contender in elections to follow. If she had advanced to the regulatory bureau she would have labored in relative obscurity. She would not be looking at the vice presidency, or after that the Oval Office itself. Partisanship has consequences. What hath McConnell wrought? Ellen Soeteber, former editor of the Post-Dispatch, dies ST. LOUIS (AP) Veteran journalist Ellen Soeteber, the former editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, has died after a brief illness. She was 66. Soeteber, who also spent two decades at the Chicago Tribune and was managing editor of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, was hospitalized two weeks ago near her home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for an infection that proved to be untreatable, her husband and novelist Richard Martins told the Post-Dispatch. She died Tuesday. The Kassly Mortuary in Fairview Heights, Illinois, confirmed her death. Funeral arrangements are pending. Ellen Soeteber, editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, is seen in a Jan. 22, 2002 photo. Soeteber, a veteran journalist who was editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in the early 2000s, died Tuesday, June 21, 2016, after a brief illness, according to The Kassly Mortuary in Fairview Heights, Illinois. She was 66. (Jerry Naunheim Jr./St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP) EDWARDSVILLE INTELLIGENCER OUT; THE ALTON TELEGRAPH OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT . PHOTO BY JERRY NAUNHEIM JR. Soeteber grew up in East St. Louis, Illinois, and was a 1972 graduate of Northwestern University. After a brief time at Chicago Today, a now defunct afternoon newspaper, she spent 20 years at the Chicago Tribune, including a stint as associate managing editor. She became managing editor of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel in 1994, and oversaw coverage of the 2000 presidential election that hinged on the outcome in Florida. Soeteber took over as the sixth editor of the Post-Dispatch in January 2001. She was the first female editor of the newspaper founded by Joseph Pulitzer in 1878. "The Post-Dispatch is not only the newspaper I grew up with, it's also the newspaper that inspired me to become a journalist," Soeteber said at the time. Adam Goodman, deputy managing editor at the Post-Dispatch, worked with Soeteber. He said her "leadership, knowledge and intensity" demanded respect. "She could be old-school tough, but unselfishly tutored many of us how to be smarter journalists and how to better cover and care about our community," Goodman said in a statement. Soeteber resigned in November 2005, citing financial considerations and other factors. Her resignation came days after the newspaper announced that 130 employees, including 40 people in the newsroom, had accepted early retirement offers from Lee Enterprises Inc., which purchased Pulitzer Inc. for $1.46 billion five months earlier. The Post-Dispatch was Pulitzer Inc.'s flagship newspaper. Soeteber returned to live in Fort Lauderdale. She was active in journalism fellowship programs at the University of Missouri and the University of Michigan up to the time of her death. 3 dead, 1 hurt in shooting in Washington state; meth found LACEY, Wash. (AP) Three people are dead and another is recovering from a gunshot wound following a shooting in Washington state, authorities said Wednesday. Thurston County Chief Deputy Dave Pearsall said that investigators found half a pound of methamphetamine, heroin, thousands of dollars in cash and about half a dozen firearms in a travel trailer where two men and a woman were found dead. Investigators don't believe that any of the weapons found were involved in Wednesday's shooting, Pearsall said. This photo shows a trailer where multiple people were found dead following a shooting Wednesday, June 22, 2016, in Lacey, Wash. Police have not yet determined a suspect or motive in the shooting. (AP Photo/Rachel La Corte) "We've developed information that these folks inside this trailer, two of them lived there, and it was a place that drugs were being dealt out of," he said. He said that they're not yet calling it a drug-related crime, but noted "this is a known area for some narcotics being sold." He said that a 911 call was received at 5:17 a.m. Wednesday from a 30-year-old man from Olympia who said that he had been shot, his friends were dead and that he didn't know where he was. Dispatch was able to use the caller's cellphone to find his general location on a property on the east side of Lacey, just north of the state capital of Olympia. "We found him collapsed on the driveway," Pearsall said. Pearsall said that the man had a gunshot wound to the chest and was transported to the hospital, where he was in stable condition after undergoing surgery. The three people found dead in the trailer were a 31-year-old woman, a 28-year-old Olympia man and a 36-year-old Elma man, and they all appeared to have died from gunshot wounds, Pearsall said. Their names have not yet been released. Pearsall said that there was no sign of a struggle in the trailer, and that the two men were both shot in the head and the woman was shot in the back. Investigators have talked with the man who survived the shooting, but Pearsall said he's still not coherent following surgery. He hasn't been ruled out as a suspect at this time, but is not currently a suspect, Pearsall said. "The suspect is still at large, we don't know who the suspect is at this time," he said, noting that the person "could be armed with the weapon that was used to kill these people." Investigators at the scene were observed going in and out of the trailer and walking around the property. Authorities are working on search warrants to follow up on leads as they work to establish a suspect, Pearsall said. "We're doing everything we can to follow up on some leads," he said. Investigators work outside of a travel trailer where multiple bodies were found Wednesday, June 22, 2016, in Lacey, Wash. Police have not yet determined a suspect or motive in the shooting. (AP Photo/Rachel La Corte) Officials with the Thurston County Sheriff's Office walk in a neighborhood where a shooting left multiple people dead Wednesday, June 22, 2016, in Lacey, Wash. Police have not yet determined a suspect or motive. (AP Photo/Rachel La Corte) Thurston County sheriffs detectives investigate an early morning shooting Wednesday, June 22, 2016, near Lacey, Wash., that left three people dead and one injured, according to Thurston County authorities. A man called 911 about 5:15 a.m. and told dispatchers his friends were dead and he didnt know where he was, Thurston County Chief Deputy Dave Pearsall told KIRO-TV. (Tony Overman/The Olympian via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT Thurston County sheriffs detectives investigate an early morning shooting Wednesday, June 22, 2016, near Lacey, Wash., that left three people dead and one injured, according to Thurston County authorities. A man called 911 about 5:15 a.m. and told dispatchers his friends were dead and he didnt know where he was, Thurston County Chief Deputy Dave Pearsall told KIRO-TV. (Tony Overman/The Olympian via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT Thurston County sheriffs detectives investigate an early morning shooting Wednesday, June 22, 2016, near Lacey, Wash., that left three people dead and one injured, according to Thurston County authorities. A man called 911 about 5:15 a.m. and told dispatchers his friends were dead and he didnt know where he was, Thurston County Chief Deputy Dave Pearsall told KIRO-TV. (Tony Overman/The Olympian via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT Pot-shop killing in Colorado raises security fears DENVER (AP) Cameras are everywhere in a pot shop, from the parking lot to the front door to the warehouses where the plant is packaged. But the elaborate security requirements in states that allow medical or recreational pot stores have one thing in common: They were written to keep weed off the black market, not to protect the people handling the drug. A fatal attack on a security guard at a suburban Denver dispensary last week has the industry wondering whether state security requirements are enough. Some industry analysts have compared a marijuana shop to a jewelry store full of untraceable diamonds, often uninsured and protected by people making not much more than minimum wage. Taxi cab drive Juan Molina pays his respects Monday, June 20, 2016, at a make-shift memorial for shooting victim Travis Mason at the Green Heart marijuana dispensary in Aurora, Colorado. Mason, a 24-year-old father of three and Marine Corps veteran was killed while when two armed men walked into the dispensary where he was providing security and shot him multiple times in an attempted robbery. The killing last weekend of Mason has the industry on edge and reviewing whether surveillance cameras and armed security is enough. (Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post via AP) It's a recipe for danger. Former Marine Travis Mason, 24, was shot and killed last weekend in Aurora at the Green Heart dispensary he was hired to guard. Police haven't made any arrests in the killing, which they say was perpetrated by two armed men. The slaying was the first known on-the-job death at a licensed marijuana business in Colorado. It highlighted how little is known about how safe pot shops are. It's unclear whether dispensaries or pot-growing operations are more likely to be robbed than any other place of business. Crime records aren't compiled by type of business, and the marijuana industry is hesitant to publicize crimes. No state with legal weed businesses keeps a count of how often they or their employees are robbed. "You're just as likely to get an armed robbery at a bank or a convenience store or anywhere else where there is cash," said Michael Jerome, spokesman for Blue Line Protection Group, a security firm that serves marijuana businesses in several states, including Colorado. "But in this industry, there is a natural tendency to resist uniformed security that looks like a police officer. And when they're robbed, they keep quiet about it to avoid becoming targets." The security requirements in states with regulated pot shops look fairly similar. Businesses have to film entries and exits, with cameras good enough to identify people. "They're really just to watch plants and keep people from selling to 12-year-olds. They don't provide real security," Noah Stakes, CEO of CannaGuard, a Portland, Oregon, company that has installed security systems in more than 250 marijuana businesses in several states. Colorado's Department of Public Safety tried earlier this year to count crimes at marijuana businesses. They found it impossible. But they did note that in the Denver, which has tried to count crimes related to marijuana businesses, found no uptick in robberies near pot shops. "There has been concern that ... robbery would be prevalent, but this has not proven to be the case" in Denver, authors noted. Still, the Aurora shooting has people who work with cannabis anxious. The industry has difficulty accessing banking services, forcing many businesses to require cash payments. "We've been saying for a long time that if we don't fix the banking issue, somebody's going to get killed. Unfortunately that appears to have happened," said Taylor West, deputy director of the National Cannabis Industry Association. A bill pending in the U.S. Senate aims to help alleviate marijuana-industry concerns about ongoing problems finding banking services. The bill, which awaits action in the House, bars the use of federal money to penalize a financial institution doing business with a marijuana business that complies with state laws. Back in Aurora, marijuana workers are sometimes anxious about going to work. "People were a little on edge," said Colin Patrick, general manager at Euflora Recreational Meds in Aurora, which put up $3,000 to match federal and city rewards for information on the Green Heart killers. For now, employee safety is largely left up to individual shop owners, not the state. "They're a lot more worried about the product than us, that's for sure," Patrick said of the marijuana regulators. ___ Puerto Ricans accused of killing beauty queen get new trial SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) A judge on Wednesday ordered a new trial for three men who challenged their murder conviction under a new law that allows convicted criminals to request DNA analyses on certain types of evidence. The three men have served 20 years in prison after being convicted in 1995 of killing a local beauty queen. The men, Jose Caro, Nelson Ruiz and Nelson Ortiz, have repeatedly denied involvement and alleged that they were set up. Attorneys with Puerto Rico's Interamerican University Innocence Project in January challenged the men's conviction under the new law. They said DNA evidence was not properly analyzed and noted that a witness who placed the men at the scene has since retracted his testimony, saying he lied. The judge set bail for Caro at $7,000 and for Ruiz and Ortiz at $5,000 each. The ruling is the first of its kind in response to a law Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla signed in December. The law states that requests can apply only to new evidence, to state evidence that was never analyzed or to evidence that was analyzed but whose results were questioned. Drug smuggler Melissa Reid arrives back in UK Drug mule Melissa Reid has arrived back on home soil after spending nearly three years in jail in Peru. The 22-year-old Scot arrived at Glasgow Airport at 21:44 on Wednesday after completing the last leg of her journey to the UK from Lima. Reid, from Lenzie, East Dunbartonshire, was caught in August 2013 with 23-year-old Michaella McCollum, from Dungannon, Co Tyrone, trying to smuggle cocaine worth 1.5 million in food bags from Peru to Spain. Melissa Reid at Lima Airport with her father Billy before boarding a flight back to the UK (AP) The pair - nicknamed the "Peru Two" - were jailed for six years and eight months after admitting the offence. But a judge last month ordered Reid to be expelled from the South American country under an early release scheme for deporting first-time drug offenders. Reid, who is understood to have travelled to Scotland on a flight from Amsterdam, was accompanied by her father Billy. She did not appear before waiting media at the international arrivals area. It is understood she accepted an airside transfer. Around 24 hours earlier, Reid smiled as she arrived at Lima Airport on Tuesday evening with her father and British Embassy staff, before being whisked through security by Peruvian officials overseeing her deportation. Janeth Sanchez, a spokeswoman for Peru's prison service, said that the Scot had "served her time in prison according to the law and can now go to her country, free, to the streets". A Scottish Prison Service spokeswoman said it is not involved with Reid's case. McCollum was freed in March under new legislation but was required to remain on parole in Peru for an undisclosed period of time. The two women had initially claimed they were forced into carrying the drugs - around 24lb (11kg) of cocaine - but then pleaded guilty to the charges. McCollum and Reid faced the prospect of a maximum 15-year prison term but struck a behind-closed-doors plea bargain to secure the shorter sentence. Around nine in 10 of the 1,809 foreigners in Peru's prisons are either sentenced or awaiting trials for drug trafficking. Reid's father has previously said the impact of his daughter's crime on his family had been ''horrendous'', and spoke in a video warning of the consequences of drug offences abroad. A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office said: "We continue to provide assistance to Melissa Reid and remain in contact with her family and local authorities." Prisoner charged with murdering fellow inmate at high-security jail A serving prisoner is due in court charged with the murder of a fellow inmate at a high-security prison. Victor Castigador, 61, was charged by West Mercia Police with causing the death of a 59-year-old man at Long Lartin Prison in Worcestershire. The victim, named by the Prison Service as Sidonio Teixeira, was pronounced dead at around 9am on Monday. The incident happened at Long Lartin prison In 2007, Teixeira pleaded guilty to the murder of his three-year-old daughter and the attempted murder of his nine-year-old son. He was serving a sentence of life imprisonment with a minimum term of 23 years for murder. Castigador has been remanded in custody ahead of his appearance at Worcester Magistrates' Court. The Filipino was s entenced in February 1990 for dousing two guards at a Soho amusement arcade with petrol and burning them to death because of a grudge. The judge at his trial recommended a minimum of 25 years but he was given a whole life tariff by the Home Secretary. A Prison Service spokesman said: " In addition to the police investigation, there will be an investigation by the independent Prisons and Probation Ombudsman. It would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage." The death at the Category A unit came little more than a year after another prisoner was killed there. Murderer John York, 25, from Northamptonshire, was killed at the prison in May 2015. York had been jailed for life with a minimum of 18 years in March 2013 after being found guilty of beating 60-year-old Glenn Clary to death in August 2012. Father's warning after teen's 'drugs death' The father of a teenager who collapsed at a music event at the O2 and later died has warned that those who take drugs "can pay the ultimate price". "Wonderful, vibrant" Emily Lyon, 17, was among six youngsters who went to the Red Bull Culture Clash on June 17 and were taken to hospital after apparently taking illegal drugs. Today her father Steve Lyon, from Teddington, south-west London, said: "We are absolutely devastated at what has happened and we're struggling to come to terms with it. Emily Lyon died after apparently taking illegal drugs "Emily was a wonderful, vibrant young lady. She was a loving daughter and a caring sister, who was much adored by her vast circle of friends. "It can be seen how these so called 'recreational substances' can result in such tragic consequences for so many people. Those who take them can pay the ultimate price." A 16-year-old boy who was also at the event was taken to hospital having apparently taken drugs, and four others were taken to hospital as a precaution but then discharged. Emily's death is currently being treated by police as unexplained. A post mortem examination proved inconclusive and officers are awaiting the results of toxicology tests. Farage pulls out of live TV debate for 'family reasons' Nigel Farage has pulled out of Channel 4's live EU referendum debate. A spokesman for the Ukip leader said he would not be taking part because of "family reasons". The leading Leave campaigner was due to take part in the TV debate on the eve of the referendum along with dozens of other campaigners from each side. Nigel Farage was due to take part in a TV debate A spokesman for the broadcaster said Mr Farage pulled out around 2pm and the line up has since been reshuffled. Ukip had offered their MEP Steven Woolfe to take the place of Mr Farage but the offer was declined, the party said. The debate, hosted by Jeremy Paxman, will feature Labour's pro-EU campaign leader Alan Johnson and former First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond for the Remain camp and businessman Theo Paphitis and Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg MP for Leave. Earlier on Wednesday Nigel Farage refused to apologise for his controversial "breaking point" immigration poster, despite suggestions by his party that he had. The Ukip leader was quizzed over the poster, which depicts a snaking line of hundreds of immigrants arriving in Europe, after Ukip politician Diane Jones suggested he regretted it. Speaking in central London, Mr Farage said: "I apologise for the timing and I apologise for the fact that it was able to be used by those who wish us harm. "But I can't apologise for the truth. And after all, this was a photograph your newspaper carried, this was a photograph that all newspapers carried, it is an example of what is wrong inside the European Union." He said the decision by German Chancellor Angela Merkel to welcome so many migrants into Europe has "created divisions between countries". He made his comments following his final speech on the campaign trail urging people to vote Leave in Thursday's referendum. Speaking to press from all over the world and Vote Leave supporters in Westminster, Mr Farage said: "Let's stop pretending what this European project is - they have an anthem, they are building an army, they have already got their own police force, and of course they have got a flag. Last-16 opponents Wales hold no fear for Michael O'Neill's Northern Ireland Northern Ireland are confident they can defeat fellow home nation Wales in Paris to advance to the Euro 2016 quarter-finals, according to boss Michael O'Neill. Robbie Brady's 85th-minute goal for the Republic of Ireland ensures Norn Iron will face a battle of Britain against the Welsh at the Parc des Princes, rather than a last-16 tie with hosts France in Lyon, a fixture now on the Republic's own schedule. Brady's winner also sends Northern Ireland into the half of the draw that does not feature world champions Germany, reigning European champions Spain, Italy, France or England. Wales hold no fear for Michael O'Neill at Euro 2016 O'Neill's team met Wales as recently as March, though they recorded a 1-1 draw against a team missing Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey, and the prospect of a reunion on a Saturday night in the French capital is mouthwatering. "It is going to be a fantastic game," O'Neill said. "We will be heading back to the Parc des Princes which, as we know from Tuesday night, is a brilliant stadium. We will benefit from the familiarity of having been there already, of having done the journey and of having played on the pitch. "The results put is in what is arguably the more favourable side of the draw, so we are pleased about that. "We are in no doubt that it is going to be a tough game against Wales but we will go into the match believing that we can win and that we can progress." Speaking on Wednesday afternoon before knowing whether he would be preparing his team for the Welsh or the French, O'Neill noted that a return journey to Paris, where they were beaten by Germany on Tuesday, would give them shorter preparation time. "Wales have done exceptionally well," he said. "Having won the group, they will be in a good place confidence-wise. Gareth Bale's had a very good tournament. It will be a very difficult game. Powers must push for political solution in Syria - UN GENEVA, June 21 (Reuters) - United Nations war crimes investigators called on world powers on Tuesday to pressure the warring sides in Syria to return to the negotiating table to hold the conflict and civilian suffering. Paulo Pinheiro, chair of the U.N. independent commission of inquiry on Syria, said that the Syrian government was conducting daily airstrikes, while militant groups including Islamic State also carried out indiscriminate attacks. "We need all States to insist time and time again that influential States and the (U.N.) Security Council unconditionally support the political process," Pinheiro told the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva. Brazil's credit crunch threatens commodity exports, farmers By Reese Ewing and Guillermo Parra-Bernal SAO PAULO, June 21 (Reuters) - Brazil's worst credit crunch in two decades is forcing the nation's debt-laden grain producers, sugar mills and coffee farmers to curb investment, making one of the world's top farm exporters miss out on a recovery in global commodity prices. Banks, hit by a wave of defaults and bankruptcies triggered by the country's harshest recession in eight decades, tightened credit bringing lending growth to a 17-year low in April. Agricultural producers, which borrowed heavily in the past years to fund rapid expansion, were among those hit the hardest. "We've not seen credit contract like this in recent history," said Alexandre Figliolino, who advises agricultural firms on structured credit and capital markets for consultancy firm MB Associados. "We may lose two years of farm expansion." Several bankers told Reuters they expected credit to remain tight for at least another year, extending a sharp slowdown in farm production. Area planted to grains, including soybeans and corn, grew only 0.3 percent this year, compared with growth of 3 percent in 2015 and 5 percent in 2014, a Reuters analysis of Agriculture Ministry data showed. Soybean and corn production fell this year for the first time since 2011 and 2013, respectively. Although exports for both crops were up strongly over the past year due to the strong dollar, analysts expect corn exports to retreat until June 2017 due to local shortages facing livestock producers. Coffee exports have also declined in recent months compared to record 2015 levels, as producers rebuild depleted stocks after two years of drought. (graphic: http://tmsnrt.rs/28JxTSJ) The squeeze coincides with a recovery in global commodity prices. Sugar prices are at the highest in nearly 3 years; soybeans are at a two-year high; and coffee and corn prices are near their highest in almost a year. Brazil is No. 2 corn exporter and the top exporter for the other three commodities. All four commodities have recently suffered major losses due to bad weather or market conditions, depleting producers' capital or loading them with more debts, exacerbating the contraction in credit. On Thursday, Marcos Lutz, chief executive of Brazil's largest sugar producer Cosan SA, said cane crushing would be smaller than expected in the current 2016 season. Despite the biggest global sugar deficit in decades, Lutz expected no investment in capacity in the short or medium term because of the funding constraints for many mills. Macquarie Bank Ltd, Itau Unibanco Holding SA and Rabobank NA are among banks refinancing or even renegotiating maturing credit to farmers before offering them new working capital and investment loans. Banco Pine SA, ABN Amro Group NV, Credit Agricole SA and others have followed suit. Odebrecht Agroindustrial SA, privately-held grain producer Grupo Bom Jesus SA and farming company JPupin Ltda are among the large producers that are restructuring debt or entering creditor protection, after amassing more than 15 billion reais ($4.4 billion) in combined liabilities. With the benchmark borrowing rate at 14.25 percent, near a decade high, and tougher lending terms, producers are relying more on barter, said a recent report by Imea, a research institute based in Mato Grosso, Brazil's biggest grain state. Multinationals are also more active in short-term crop financing. With smaller lenders in retreat, state-controlled Banco do Brasil SA, the No. 1 farming lender, ramped up harvesting and crop lending at subsidized rates by 44 percent this year. Still, industry leaders say credit from private-sector banks, which account for about 40 percent of Brazil's outstanding agriculture loans, remains essential. That credit, though, has become much harder to get. An executive at one of the Brazilian banks dealing with large- to mid-sized agricultural borrowers said clients who in the past would get a 20 million-real loan, would only get approval for half of that sum now. "Some farmers will go broke in these conditions," said Marco Parzianello, who runs a large farm in Sorriso in Mato Grosso. "We held off on expansion to build up cash reserves and we are lucky we did." ($1 = 3.48 Brazilian reais) More Argentine companies eye initial public offerings By Walter Bianchi BUENOS AIRES, June 21 (Reuters) - Argentina could soon see a boom in initial public offerings, investment bankers and market sources said, thanks to economic reforms and a potential upgrade of the country's "frontier market" status. "We have a file of some 20 companies that are interested in opening capital on the exchange as a way to raise funds," said Emilio Ilac, executive manager of local investment bank Puente. The companies would follow in the footsteps of Banco Supervielle and Havanna, the maker of Alfajores cookies that earlier this month raised $11.5 million by listing its shares. Before that, Argentina had not had an IPO since 2010. Interest in going public is especially strong from companies in the energy, agriculture and finance sectors, market sources said. The expected offerings are part of a broader pro-market shift in Argentina as center-right President Mauricio Macri works to open the country to investors and end isolation from capital markets seven months into his term. It comes amid a lull in IPOs elsewhere in Latin America and in the United States. Macri has cut subsidies and promised other austerity measures to reduce the deficit in Latin America's third-largest economy. In April, Argentina paid holdout creditors that had refused debt restructurings after a record 2002 default on some $9 billion, ending nearly a decade of messy litigation. "Thanks to the agreement with holdouts, Argentina is returning to the world," Adelmo Gabbi, president of the Buenos Aires stock exchange, said in an interview. Index provider MSCI Inc said last week it would include Argentina's index in its 2017 annual market clarification review for a potential upgrade to emerging market status. Argentina has been classified as a frontier market since 2009. The status upgrade would lead to near-immediate investments in domestic assets of around $4 billion, a banking source told Reuters. "I'm sure the companies will come, because there is money for them," Gabbi said. Argentine billionaire Eduardo Eurnekian told Reuters in January that he plans to publicly list four units of his Corporacion America this year, including his airport business, an energy firm, a microchip-making business and an agri-industry unit. Rival Libyan forces clash in strategic eastern town By Ayman al-Warfalli BENGHAZI, Libya, June 21 (Reuters) - Forces loyal to Libya's eastern leadership launched attacks near the town of Ajdabiya on Tuesday against a newly formed rival brigade, in fighting that threatens to prolong the country's conflict and expose divisions in a U.N.-backed unity government. Libya has been blighted by a power vacuum over the past two years, in which loose alliances of armed groups aligned with rival parliaments and governments in Tripoli and the east have fought for supremacy. On one side of the most recent air and ground battle are Libyan National Army (LNA) units loyal to eastern commander Khalifa Haftar, who has been waging a campaign against Islamists and other opponents in Benghazi since 2014. On the other are several hundred men from the recently named Benghazi Defense Forces (BDF), which says it wants to take back control of Libya's second city. They include members of the al Qaeda-linked militant group Ansar al Sharia. Ajdabiya is situated about 150 km (93 miles) south of Benghazi, close to major oil terminals and fields and the site of power and water facilities. The BDF attacked Haftar's forces on the southern outskirts of Ajdabiya on Saturday, claiming to have taken control of several LNA positions. On Monday and Tuesday, LNA war planes retaliated with strikes near a flour mill south of the town, military officials said. A medical source said a number of civilians in Ajdabiya had been wounded by mortar fire, some seriously. A separate force that controls the oil terminals, the Petroleum Facilities Guard (PFG), said on Monday that an LNA strike had hit a PFG training camp, causing damage. A spokesman for the Guard, Ali al-Hassi, promised a "harsh response". The PFG used to be allied to the eastern military but has now switched its allegiance to the U.N.-backed Government of National Accord (GNA). The GNA was designed to replace Libya's two other competing administrations, and has been trying to assert its authority from the capital Tripoli, which lies hundreds of kilometres west of Benghazi, since March. It has yet to win crucial backing from allies of Haftar in the eastern parliament. The GNA's Presidency Council issued a statement on Sunday condemning the attack by the BDF, but at least one member of the Council later distanced himself from the statement. Two members of the Council associated with eastern factions have already suspended their membership. The fighting in Ajdabiya comes as brigades aligned with the GNA are engaged in a campaign to recapture Islamic State's Libyan stronghold of Sirte, some 370 km to the west. Brigades based in the city of Misrata have advanced to the edge of Sirte from the west, and the PFG has retaken coastal territory from the jihadist group to the east. Brazil speaker refuses to quit, denies corruption charges By Maria Carolina Marcello BRASILIA, June 21 (Reuters) - Brazil's suspended House speaker, Eduardo Cunha, denied any criminal wrongdoing on Tuesday and said he will not resign, even though he has already been indicted for corruption and faces the risk of imminent arrest. The Supreme Court indefinitely suspended Cunha last month on charges of obstructing a corruption investigation, just weeks after he orchestrated the approval of impeachment proceedings against President Dilma Rousseff in the lower house of Congress. Speaking at a news conference on Tuesday, the veteran politician denied he was seeking a plea bargain with prosecutors to obtain leniency. "I have not committed any crime, so I have nothing to tell," said Cunha, still defiant despite his alleged ties to the sweeping scandal involving Petrobras, Brazil's state-oil company, in which dozens of government officials and lawmakers are suspected of taking bribes and kickbacks. Cunha is the first sitting lawmaker to be indicted in the two-year-old scandal by the Supreme Court, the only tribunal authorized to try federal lawmakers. It indicted Cunha in March for allegedly receiving $5 million skimmed from Petrobras contracts for two drillships in 2006 and 2007. A Congressional ethics committee last week recommended stripping Cunha of his seat and banning him from politics for eight years for lying about Swiss bank accounts. The full chamber is expected to expel him in mid-July. If he loses his seat, Cunha will lose partial immunity and his case will be sent from the Supreme Court to a lower court judge presiding over most of the graft probe, Sergio Moro, who has already indicted his wife for receiving bribe money. An evangelical Christian with strong support from the religious right in Congress, Cunha has for months fended off the ethics committee hearings through procedural maneuvers. The disgraced speaker was once close to interim President Michel Temer, who has replaced Rousseff pending her Senate trial for breaking Brazil's budget rules. Earlier this month, Brazil's top prosecutor asked the Supreme Court to order Cunha's arrest for obstructing justice. Supreme Court Justice Teori Zavascki, who has denied requests for the arrest of senior members of Temer's PMDB party including the leader of the Senate, has yet to decide on Cunha's possible arrest. North Korea missile reaches new heights, "intensifying" threat to Japan By Ju-min Park and Tim Kelly SEOUL/TOKYO, June 22 (Reuters) - North Korea launched what appeared to be an intermediate-range missile on Wednesday to a high altitude in the direction of Japan before it plunged into the sea, military officials said, a technological advance for the isolated state after several test failures. The launch came about two hours after a similar test failed, South Korea's military said, and covered 400 km (250 miles), more than halfway towards the southwest coast of Japan's main island of Honshu. The launches and earlier nuclear tests show continued defiance of international warnings and a series of U.N. Security Council resolutions and sanctions, which North Korea rejects as an infringement of its sovereignty. Japanese Defence Minister Gen Nakatani said the second missile reached an altitude of 1,000 km (620 miles), indicating North Korea had made progress. "We don't know whether it counts as a success, but North Korea has shown some capability with IRBMs (intermediate range ballistic missiles)," he told reporters in Tokyo. "The threat to Japan is intensifying." Reclusive North Korea and the rich, democratic South are technically still at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty. The North regularly threatens to destroy the Japan, South Korea and the South's main ally, the United States. South Korean President Park Geun-hye denounced the test. "The North Korean regime must realise that complete isolation and self-destruction await at the end of reckless provocation," she said. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg also decried North Korea's "provocative actions". "I strongly condemn the launch by North Korea of two ballistic missiles," Stoltenberg said in a statement. "These repeated provocative actions ... undermine international security and dialogue," he said, calling for North Korea to "fully comply with its obligations under international law, not to threaten with or conduct any launches using ballistic missile technology and to refrain from any further provocative actions". The first missile was launched from the east coast city of Wonsan, a South Korean official said, the same area where previous tests of intermediate-range missiles were conducted, possibly using mobile launchers. FIFTH STRAIGHT FAILURE South Korea's Yonhap news agency, quoting a government official, said the first missile disintegrated mid-air after a flight of about 150 km (95 miles). Wednesday's first launch was the fifth straight unsuccessful attempt in the past two months to launch a missile that is designed to fly more than 3,000 km (1,800 miles) and could theoretically reach any part of Japan and the U.S. territory of Guam. Jeffrey Lewis, of the California-based Middlebury Institute of International Studies, said missiles were usually fired at a certain angle to maximise range, so the high altitude of the second launch may have been chosen to avoid Japanese airspace. "That suggests the missile worked perfectly," Lewis said. "Had it been fired at its normal angle, it would have flown to its full range." Lewis said failures were a normal part of testing and that North Korea would fix problems with the Musudan intermediate-range missile sooner or later. "If North Korea continues testing, eventually its missileers will use the same technology in a missile that can threaten the United States," Lewis told Reuters. Nakatani said North Korea's repeated missile launches were a "serious provocation" and could not be tolerated. Japan indicated after the first launch that it would protest strongly because it violated U.N. resolutions, even though the launches posed no immediate threat to Japanese security. In Seoul, South Korea's presidential office said a national security meeting was convened to discuss the latest missile launches. LONGER-RANGE ROCKETS The U.S. military detected the two missiles, most likely Musudan, from North Korea, the U.S. military's Pacific Command said. A Pentagon spokesman said both missiles fell into the Sea of Japan. North Korea is believed to have up to 30 Musudan missiles, according to South Korean media, which officials said were first deployed around 2007, although the North had never attempted to test-fire them until April. While North Korea has developed potential longer-range rockets, such as its 30-metre (98 ft) Unha-3, a home-grown three-stage rocket based on 1950s Soviet Scud missile technology, it needs to be fuelled from a fixed launch pad making it easy to detect and impractical as a weapon. A smaller, powerful intermediate missile that is easier to deploy on a mobile launcher poses a harder threat to counter. The U.N. Security Council, backed by the North's main diplomatic ally, China, imposed tough new sanctions in March after North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test in January and launched a long-range rocket that put an object into space orbit. "At present, the situation on the peninsula remains very complex and severe. We think that the relevant party should avoid doing anything to further worsen tensions," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters at a regular press briefing on Wednesday. North Korea has conducted a series of tests since then that it claimed showed progress in nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missile capabilities, including new rocket engines and simulated atmospheric re-entry. Japan gov't says to protest North Korea missile launch - Kyodo TOKYO, June 22 (Reuters) - A North Korean missile launch on Wednesday violated a United Nations resolution and the Japanese government will strongly protest, Kyodo news agency quoted a Japanese government statement as saying. Japanese Defence Minister Gen Nakatani told reporters after the launch that there had been no effect on Japan's security and that the government would continue to collect and analyse information. North Korea's second missile flies 400 km - S.Korean military SEOUL, June 22 (Reuters) - A second missile launched by North Korea on Wednesday flew about 400 km (250 miles), South Korea's military said on Wednesday, but it was yet to determine whether the launch was a success or failure. The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said South Korea and the United States were analysing the launch closely. GRAINS-Corn ticks up from 1-mth low, wheat firms after 2-day decline SINGAPORE, June 22 (Reuters) - Chicago corn edged higher on Wednesday after hitting a near one-month low earlier in the session, facing headwinds from improving prospects for the U.S. crop. Wheat gained ground after dropping for the last two days on pressure from the ongoing harvest of the U.S. winter crop, while soybeans inched up amid support from strong demand for U.S. products. FUNDAMENTALS * The most active-corn corn contract dropped to its lowest since May 24 before recovering. * Corn's 5.9-percent drop on Tuesday was its biggest since July 2013. After the close, the CME Group, parent of the Chicago Board of Trade, said it would change the daily trading limit in corn to 40 cents a bushel for Wednesday's session, expanding from the normal limit of 25 cents. * Commodity funds had built up a massive net long position in CBOT corn in recent weeks on strong demand tied to tightening South American supplies and uncertainty about the U.S. growing season. * But the U.S. Department of Agriculture's weekly crop progress report late on Monday rated 75 percent of the U.S. corn acreage in good to excellent condition, unchanged from the previous week, despite a hot spell in the Midwest. Analysts surveyed by Reuters had expected a decline in crop ratings. * Forecasters called for much-needed rains this week, easing worries about dryness. The USDA's report showed topsoil moisture declining in big corn states, including Iowa, Illinois and Missouri. * Soybean futures rose as fresh export sales of U.S. soybeans and soyoil lent underlying support. The USDA said private exporters sold 132,000 tonnes of U.S. soybeans to China for 2016/17 delivery. * Gains in the wheat market have been capped by seasonal pressure from the U.S. winter wheat harvest, which was 25 percent complete by Sunday, the USDA said. MARKET NEWS * Asian stocks were steady on Wednesday as nervous investors counted down to Britain's make-or-break EU referendum, while Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen's cautious tone on future rate hikes added to a subdued mood in markets. DATA AHEAD (GMT) 1300 U.S. Monthly home price index Apr 1400 Euro zone Consumer confidence Jun 1400 U.S. Existing home sales May Grains prices at 0124 GMT Contract Last Change Pct chg Two-day chg MA 30 RSI CBOT wheat 461.50 3.00 +0.65% -2.43% 479.74 33 CBOT corn 396.75 0.50 +0.13% -5.82% 410.46 31 CBOT soy 1113.25 2.50 +0.23% -1.72% 1102.23 45 CBOT rice 11.08 $0.05 +0.41% -1.95% $11.46 37 WTI crude 50.05 $0.20 +0.40% +1.38% $48.63 60 Currencies Euro/dlr $1.124 $0.000 +0.03% -0.59% USD/AUD 0.7460 0.002 +0.21% +0.04% Most active contracts Wheat, corn and soy US cents/bushel. Rice: USD per hundredweight RSI 14, exponential (Reporting by Naveen Thukral; Editing by Joseph Radford) Taiwan stocks fall after 3 days of gains; caution ahead of UK referendum TAIPEI, June 22 (Reuters) - Taiwan stocks fell on Wednesday on profit-taking after three sessions of gains and caution ahead of Britain's EU referendum later this week. The main TAIEX index was down 0.3 percent at 8,661.93 as of 0207 GMT, after closing 0.7 percent higher in the previous session. The electronics subindex fell 0.2 percent, while the financials subindex dropped 0.6 percent. Among actively traded big-caps, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd, the world's largest electronics manufacturer, rose 0.1 percent, while contract chipmaker TSMC was down 0.9 percent. Hon Hai, which goes by the trade name of Foxconn, is holding its annual general meeting on Wednesday, an event where founder Terry Gou directly speaks to retail investors and answers their questions. Gou said at the start of the meeting that world events would not seriously impact the firm's operations. Japan says Nth Korean missile shows threat intensifying TOKYO, June 22 (Reuters) - One of the missiles launched by North Korea on Wednesday reached an altitude of over 1,000 kms (621 miles) showing the Pyongyang regime has made progress developing intermediate range ballistic missiles (IRBM), Japan's Minister of Defence said. "We don't know whether it counts as a success, but North Korea has shown some capability with IRBMs," Gen Nakatani told reporters in Tokyo. "The threat to Japan is intensifying." Gains against Islamic State not yet enough, could backfire: U.S. officials By John Walcott WASHINGTON, June 22 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama and some administration officials have hailed recent military gains against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, but other U.S. officials and outside experts warn that the U.S.-backed air and ground campaign is far from eradicating the radical Islamic group, and could even backfire. While Islamic State's defeats in Iraq and Syria have erased its image of invincibility, they threaten to give it greater legitimacy in the eyes of disaffected Sunni Muslims because Shi'ite and Kurdish fighters are a major part of the campaign, some U.S. intelligence officials argue. A second danger, some U.S. officials said, is that as the group loses ground in the Iraqi city of Falluja and elsewhere, it will turn increasingly to less conventional military tactics and to directing and inspiring more attacks against "soft" targets in Europe, the United States and elsewhere. One U.S. intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, warned that in response to losing Falluja and other cities the group likely would turn more to guerrilla tactics to disrupt efforts to restore government services. "We can expect ISIL to harass local forces that are holding cities it previously controlled, thereby drawing out battles into protracted campaigns," he said. The territory held by ISIL has enabled it to build up revenues through oil and taxes, provided it a base to launch attacks on Baghdad, and acted as a recruiting tool for foreign fighters drawn to the self-proclaimed Islamic caliphate. President Barack Obama said on June 14 -- two days after a gunman pledging allegiance to Islamic State killed 49 people in Orlando -- that the militant group was losing "the money that is its lifeblood" as it continues to lose territory. Brett McGurk, the presidential envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL, told a White House briefing on June 10 that the group has lost half the territory it had seized in Iraq, about 20 percent of its self-proclaimed caliphate in Syria, and at least 30 percent of its oil production, which accounts for half its revenue. But Islamic State fighters in Iraq are already showing signs of adapting a guerrilla war-style strategy, Seth Jones, an analyst with the RAND Corp, told Reuters. "It looks like the areas that the Islamic State has lost, they are generally abandoning, and that would mean preparing to fight another day," he said. Despite the progress against ISIL on the battlefield and in the financial realm, CIA Director John Brennan told the Senate Intelligence Committee last week: "Our efforts have not reduced the group's terrorism capability and global reach." "The resources needed for terrorism are very modest, and the group would have to suffer even heavier losses of territory, manpower, and money for its terrorist capacity to decline significantly," he said. ENCOURAGING LONE WOLVES Hassan Hassan, a terrorism expert at the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London, told the U.S. Senate Homeland Security committee on Tuesday that the Orlando attack showed the group's territorial losses hadn't diminished its broader appeal. "The Islamic State's international appeal has become untethered from its military performance on the ground," he said. Sunnis in Iraq no longer view the ISIL radicals as liberators, and the Shi'ite role in the fighting is less important than it was a year ago, officials in Baghdad told Reuters. As a result, they said, the Iraqi army has gained Sunni acceptance and is seen less as a Shi'ite-led sectarian force than it was under former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. But the risk that offensives against ISIL involving Shi'ite forces could foment sectarian tensions and help the group have been underscored by allegations that 49 Sunni men were executed after surrendering to a Shi'ite militia supporting the army offensive to retake Falluja. Such reports "feed into ISIL's narrative," the U.S. intelligence official said. Former U.S. ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker, who visited the country in March, wrote last week in the Cipher Brief, an online intelligence publication, that extremist Shi'ite militias are on the scene in Falluja. Iranian Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani has underscored Iran's role in the conflict by appearing publicly on the battlefield. As ISIL has faced military setbacks, the flow of foreign fighters travelling to Iraq and Syria has dropped significantly, according to the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL. European counter terrorism officials said some 300-400 already have returned to Britain, raising concerns about what they called an increasing convergence of IS ideology and mentally unstable individuals. So called "lone wolf" attackers like the Orlando shooter are Islamic State's way of "overwhelming their enemies with threats that have to be run to ground," Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert at Georgetown University in Washington, told Reuters. "That is the true intention beyond the lone wolf attacks -- to distract and overwhelm the attention of law enforcement and intelligence." Eliminating the threat ISIL poses will require coupling the military gains in Iraq and Syria with political and economic reforms, say U.S. officials and outside experts. Turkish jets strike PKK targets in northern Iraq, southeast Turkey DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, June 22 (Reuters) - Turkish warplanes struck Kurdish militant targets in northern Iraq and southeastern Turkey overnight on Wednesday, security sources said. The strikes destroyed targets belonging to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), including shelters and weapon stores, they said. The PKK leadership is based mainly in northern Iraq. Baghdad and Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish Regional Government frequently object to such air incursions. The jets hit sites near the Turkish towns of Lice and Semdinli, the sources said. Bangladesh river eats up land and homes, trapping poor villagers By Rafiqul Islam KURIGRAM, Bangladesh, June 22 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - P iyara Begum once had a happy life in Garuhara village by the Brahmaputra River in northern Bangladesh, but worsening erosion of the river banks has displaced her family seven times. Now Piyara, 30, has taken shelter in Panchgachi village, 8 kilometres away in the same sub-district of Kurigram Sadar. "I am always concerned about where Piyara and her three children are living, and how she manages her family expenses, as she has lost everything due to erosion," said her uncle, Abdul Majid, who still lives in Garuhara village. The loss of Piyara's home is taking a toll on her mental and physical health, he added. Riverbank erosion is a common problem along the mighty Brahmaputra during the monsoon, but scientists say climate change is making the phenomenon worse by contributing to higher levels of flooding and siltation. According to villagers in Garuhara, about 200 families have been displaced by erosion there in the last two years. Majid fears that if the trend continues, the whole of the village will go underwater, rendering about 1,000 families homeless. But some of those who want to escape that prospect cannot - because they are unable to turn their assets into the cash they need to pay for their move. Abdul Malek, 45, a farmer in Garuhara, had 0.4 acres of agricultural land on the bank of the Brahmaputra, but the river washed away half his plot during the monsoon last year. "My family had no problem in the past as we cultivated crops on the land to meet our food demand. But now we are facing trouble," he said. Malek and his family are planning to migrate to another part of the country after selling their homestead, but they cannot find a buyer because the property is at high risk of erosion. Other families in Garuhara village who also want to sell up and leave are trapped there for the same reason. EROSION RATES RISING The Brahmaputra is a transboundary river, originating in southwestern Tibet, flowing through the Himalayas, India's Assam State and Bangladesh, and out into the Bay of Bengal. Climate change has contributed to rapid siltation of the river in recent years, which is intensifying bank erosion during the monsoon, Bangladesh Water Resources Minister Anisul Islam Mahmud told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. A 2014 study from the International Union for Conservation of Nature showed that the flow of the Brahmaputra is influenced strongly by the melting of snow and ice upstream, mainly in the eastern Himalaya mountains. This century, as temperatures rise, the river is likely to see an overall increase in flows throughout the year, driven by more rainfall, higher snow melt rates and expanded run-off areas, the study said. Every year, the river carries silt from the Himalayas and deposits it downstream in Bangladesh, creating myriad islands known as chars. When floods occur upstream on the Brahmaputra, amid more intense bursts of heavy rainfall linked to climate change, the silted-up river has less capacity to carry the huge volume of water, accelerating bank erosion. Maminul Haque Sarker of the Center for Environmental and Geographic Information Services (CEGIS), a Dhaka-based think tank, said the erosion rate has increased at some points of the river in Kurigram, Gaibandha, Jamalpur and Sirajganj districts. A 2015 CEGIS study put the annual rate of erosion along the Brahmaputra at around 2,000 hectares (4,942 acres) in recent years. Bangladesh's major rivers combined consume several thousand hectares of floodplain annually, destroying homes and infrastructure and leaving people landless and homeless. 'SILENT CANCER' A 2013 study by the Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit at the University of Dhaka and the UK-based Sussex Centre for Migration Research estimated that riverbank erosion displaces 50,000 to 200,000 people in Bangladesh every year. Those displaced by erosion become isolated from their families and wider social networks, and most have no scope to return to their roots. Majid from Garuhara village said many of his neighbours and relatives have already left for other parts of the country and do not see each other even once a year. Minister Mahmud said riverbank erosion works like a silent cancer and can be more devastating than storms or floods because it takes everything people own, including their land. "People have the chance to return to a normal life if they are hit by a cyclone or flood," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. "If people once become displaced due to bank erosion, it is quite impossible to return to normal life." CEGIS deputy executive director Fida A Khan said people often have family cemeteries or other religious monuments on the riverbanks that are claimed by erosion. Those structures may not be worth much economically, but have high social value, he added. Jahera Begum, 45, another victim of riverbank erosion, had a homestead in Balchipara village in Kurigram Sadar sub-district, but the river washed away all the village land during last year's monsoon, uprooting about 100 families. "My husband has already gone to Feni district seeking work. I am temporarily taking shelter in my relatives' house at Garuhara," said Jahera, who is planning to head to Feni or even Dhaka soon. Italian bailout fund Atlante prepares Popolare Vicenza sale - sources By Pamela Barbaglia LONDON, June 21 (Reuters) - Italy's new bank rescue fund Atlante is preparing a sale process for one of the country's most troubled lenders that could start within weeks, sources said, hoping to defy tough market conditions and help stabilise the euro zone's fourth-largest banking system. The Atlante fund, backed by dozens of mostly private Italian financial institutions, bought Popolare di Vicenza two months ago when the bank's initial public offering flopped. The fund came to the rescue, ending up with 99 percent ownership. Atlante is considering removing bad loans from Popolare di Vicenza's balance sheet and splitting the lender into so-called good and bad banks, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. It is working with investment bank Rothschild to sound out investors' appetite to buy the cleaned-up business, they said. The fund, in which Italian state lender Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP) has injected 500 million euros, is looking to send confidential material to potential bidders as soon as next month, the sources said. However, identifying a buyer for the 150-year-old lender will be a tall order given the growing market risks and legal troubles facing Popolare di Vicenza. In a sign of the weak market, a separate bailout fund is still seeking buyers for four failed lenders whose books were cleaned up under a government-brokered rescue last November. Italian prosecutors are investigating Popolare di Vicenza for alleged market manipulation. It also faces 1.4 billion euros ($1.6 billion) in existing and potential legal claims, after it sold its shares to clients at high prices, often as a condition for granting loans. On Tuesday, news emerged that a Venice court had agreed to suspend a borrower's debt repayments because Popolare di Vicenza had missold shares to the borrower, a temporary legal measure that could heighten concerns about its loan book. Also on Tuesday, tax police raided Popolare di Vicenza's headquarters as part of the investigation into the alleged market manipulation and separate allegations that it misled regulators. Despite many hurdles, Atlante is under pressure to move quickly on a sale. It needs to free up capital if it wants to keep its pledge to help stabilise Italy's banking system, which is burdened with 360 billion euros of bad debt, and has promised its investors a 6 percent annual return. Rothschild is looking at how to carve out Popolare di Vicenza's 1.9 billion euros of debts that are deemed unlikely to be ever repaid, a first step toward selling the cleaned-up business, the sources said. The bad loans would be sold separately. Bidders are likely to include private equity firms Apollo, Cerberus and Lone Star, the sources said. The same firms, alongside private equity houses Apax and TPG Capital, are already in talks to buy the other four banks rescued last year - Banca Etruria, Banca Marche, CariFe and CariChieti, one source said. These lenders have also been split into good and bad banks, and the healthier banks have been up for sale since February. Atlante, Rothschild, Lone Star, Cerberus and TPG declined to comment. Popolare di Vicenza, Apollo and Apax did not immediately respond to a request for comment. HARD SALE Alessandro Penati, who is managing the Atlante fund, said on June 3 that it aimed to restructure and sell Popolare di Vicenza in 18 to 24 months. He said a partial stake sale could take place by the year-end. Atlante was launched in April with 4.25 billion euros from 67 institutions, but has already spent 1.5 billion on Popolare di Vicenza and is expected to need up to another 1 billion to bail out another regional lender, Veneto Banca . The fund was set up not only to bail out failing banks but to buy up bad debts. Atlante - which means Atlas in English - was named after the mythical Greek titan because it is meant to hold up the sky above the nation's lenders. Atlante said it would use most of its cash to buy new shares in distressed banks. The rest would focus on bad loans, especially junior debt where investor demand is weakest. Penati said Atlante aimed to unveil by mid-July its first bad loan deal, worth at least 2 billion euros, in an effort to unfreeze the country's non-performing loan market. Malaysian financier Jho Low owned firm linked to 1MDB scandal-source By Bill Tarrant and Rozanna Latiff SINGAPORE/KUALA LUMPUR, June 22 (Reuters) - For the past year, the Malaysian government has said a company called Good Star Ltd, which received $1.03 billion from the scandal-hit 1MDB investment fund, was owned by the fund's joint venture partner, PetroSaudi International Ltd. Now an official with knowledge of a regulatory investigation has confirmed what Malaysia's central bank has recently asserted: Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho was the sole owner of Good Star during its five years as a company. "What I can say for sure is that Jho Low is the exclusive beneficial owner of Good Star," the official said. According to a registration document seen by Reuters, Good Star was incorporated in the Seychelles on May 18, 2009, four months before the initial payment to PetroSaudi. It was dissolved five years later on May 2, 2014. Low, who is most often referred to as Jho Low, was the owner of Good Star throughout those five years, the official said. Both Low, and the government have denied he had anything to do with 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), a fund Prime Minister Najib Razak founded in September 2009 to invest in strategic property and energy projects. Malaysian companies and banks linked to 1MDB are at the centre of corruption and money laundering probes that have led investigators to look at transactions and financial relationships across the globe - from Malaysia to Singapore and the Seychelles, from Abu Dhabi to offshore companies in the Caribbean, and from the United States to Switzerland. Investigations are being conducted by authorities in the United States, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Singapore, and the United Arab Emirates. ENERGY INVESTMENT? Unravelling the status of Good Star's ownership is important, investigators say, because it will help determine whether 1MDB's funds were misappropriated or used for legitimate investments, as the government maintains. If Low is the sole owner of Good Star, it could indicate that 1MDB funds were not directed to an energy project investment with PetroSaudi but for another purpose, investigators say. The 34-year-old Low has not been charged with any offence in the investigations into 1MDB. He did not reply to requests for comment that were directed to his private equity and advisory firm in Hong Kong, Jynwel Capital, and his whereabouts could not be determined. Najib, who was the chairman of 1MDB's advisory board until recently, has denied any wrongdoing. The Prime Minister's office did not respond to requests for comment about Good Star for this article. 1MDB and the Malaysian finance ministry, which is the sole shareholder of the fund, declined to comment. PetroSaudi was founded in 2005 by Saudi businessman Tarek Essam Ahmad Obaid, a graduate of Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, the company's website says. PetroSaudi and Obaid did not respond directly when asked if the firm owned Good Star. The London-based law firm of Carter-Ruck, speaking on behalf of PetroSaudi, said in an emailed statement: "Our clients categorically deny any wrongdoing in relation to the Joint Venture with 1MDB, and they have made clear that all funds invested by 1MDB in the Joint Venture were returned, with profits." CENTRAL BANK LETTER Good Star's ownership continues to be a matter of debate in Malaysia. The head of Malaysia's parliamentary inquiry into 1MDB last month denied Low was the owner of Good Star. He did so in explaining why he rejected a letter from Malaysia's central bank saying that Low, indeed, was the owner. The parliamentary inquiry chief, Hasan Arifin, from Najib's ruling United Malays National Organisation, said he did not include the confidential letter in his final report on 1MDB because the Bank's source of information was "intelligence grade", which "may be prejudiced against various parties". Arifin declined to comment to Reuters. The central bank did not respond to requests for comment. The former chief executive of 1MDB, Shahrol Halmi, told the inquiry that Good Star was a subsidiary of PetroSaudi, according to the report. 1MDB made two payments to Good Star, in 2009 and 2011, totalling $1.03 billion. What happened to the money after that could not be determined because the inquiry panel was not given information on 1MDB's foreign banking transactions, according to Tony Pua, an opposition member of the parliamentary inquiry. The Wall Street Journal on July 3 of last year reported that global investigators believed that $700 million in cash moved through banks and companies linked to 1MDB before eventually going into Najib's personal bank accounts. None of the investigations across the world into 1MDB have shown any connection between any alleged misappropriation of money linked to 1MDB and the prime minister. Malaysia's Attorney-General Mohamed Apandi Ali cleared Najib in January of any corruption or criminal offences. He said that $681 million, deposited into Najib's personal account in March 2013 before a Malaysian general election, was a gift from a member of Saudi Arabia's royal family and most of it was returned. Indonesia says has no overlapping South China Sea claims with China JAKARTA, June 22 (Reuters) - Indonesia's foreign minister on Wednesday rejected China's stance that the two Asian nations have overlapping claims in the South China Sea, where there has been a run of skirmishes between Indonesian navy ships and Chinese vessels. China's foreign ministry on Monday said the two nations do not have any territorial disputes but there were some overlapping claims on "maritime rights and interests". "Our position is clear that claims can only be made on the basis of international law. For Indonesia, we don't have overlapping claims in any form in Indonesian waters with China," Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi told reporters when asked for reaction to China's statement. Indonesia is not part of a broader regional dispute over China's reclamation activities in the South China Sea and Beijing's claims on swathes of key waterways. But Jakarta has objected to China's inclusion of waters around the Indonesian-ruled Natuna Islands within a "nine-dash line" Beijing marks on maps to show its claim on the body of water. China's Foreign Ministry said over the weekend that an Indonesian naval vessel fired on a Chinese fishing boat near the chain of islands on Friday, injuring one person. Indonesia's navy responded that it had fired warning shots at several boats with Chinese flags it accused of fishing illegally but there were no injuries. It was the third reported confrontation near the Natuna Islands this year and comes amid rising regional tensions over China's assertiveness in the South China Sea. Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla told Reuters on Monday the Southeast Asian nation would be more assertive in protecting its exclusive right to the waters around the Natuna Islands. Despite this more assertive stance, Retno said relations between the two countries remained good. "This is a matter of law enforcement, not politics," she said. Brexit might push Finland into recession -finance ministry official HELSINKI, June 22 (Reuters) - Britain's possible exit from the European Union might push Finland into recession next year, a finance ministry official said on Wednesday. "It is possible. But we could fall into that territory also without Brexit. The growth is not that strong, other external shocks could have that impact, too," Mika Kuismanen, the head of the ministry's forecasting unit, told a news conference. PRESS DIGEST - RUSSIA - JUNE 22 MOSCOW, June 22 (Reuters) - The following are some stories in Russia's newspapers on Wednesday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. VEDOMOSTI www.vedomosti.ru - Russian state-controlled telecoms operator Rostelecom will need to spend more than one billion roubles ($15.7 million) on importing new equipment to meet the demands of a new anti-terror bill if is passed by lawmakers, the daily says. - Iran has approved imports of frozen beef from Russia, according to Russia's veterinary service. - An agribusiness linked to the family of Russian Agriculture Minister Alexander Tkachev has completed the modernisation of its dairy plant in Krasnodar region, raising its capacity to 500 tonnes a day. The company has spent more than one billion roubles on the project, the daily writes. - Some of the new proposed "surrealistic" amendments to Russia's anti-terror legislation look much tougher than Soviet-era laws, the daily says. KOMMERSANT www.kommersant.ru - The government plans to allocate at least 10 billion roubles ($157.06 million) in the next two years to fund its "National Technology Initiative" project, a programme to promote development of promising new markets on the basis of high-tech solutions that will determine development of the global and Russian economy in the next 15-20 years. - The Prosecutor General's office has finalised its investigation against five suspects behind an incident in Moscow's Vnukovo Airport in 2014, in which the boss of oil major Total, Christophe de Margerie, died after his private jet hit a snow plough on take off. ROSSIISKAYA GAZETA www.rg.ru - Russian parliamentarians passed on Tuesday a statement suggesting that the disqualification of Russian track and field athletes, who are not on "the doping list", will undermine the Olympic movement. - The State Duma lower house of parliament passed on Tuesday a new bill restricting the activity of debt collectors, the daily says, adding that the document bans the use of thretas or force against debtors. - Almost 4.4 million of official gun owners in Russia possess about 7 million units of firearms. More that 2 million weapons are used illegally, according to experts. NEZAVISIMAYA GAZETA www.ng.ru Young Syrians get 100 pct praise at 'Refugees Got Talent' contest in Iraq camp By Sofia Barbarani SULAYMANIYAH, Iraq, June 21 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - B elting out an emotional song in honour of Kurdish military forces under a full moon, Syrian refugee Mizzgin Rumi's shyness transformed to confidence as he captivated his audience. Rumi, 19, was one of 10 acts on stage at the dusty Arbat refugee camp in the semi-autonomous northern region of Iraqi Kurdistan competing in the highly-anticipated final of the talent contest "Refugees Got Talent". Surrounded by a band of professional musicians, Rumi's singing dazzled hundreds of refugees, all of whom have fled the war in Syria, and he took the lead in the competition at Arbat where families live in rows of cinder brick homes. The show, run along the lines of British music impresario Simon Cowell's global franchise "Got Talent", was organised by the United Nation's refugee agency UNHCR to mark World Refugee Day on Monday and was a major highlight for many in the camp. Rumi was stunned to be the favourite of the four judges, prompting a rare display of cheers and celebration among the more than 7,500 Syrian refugees housed at the sprawling camp. From the war-torn city of Kobane in northern Syria, Rumi and his family have been living at Arbat for two years. Only his brother stayed behind, choosing to fight instead of fleeing. "When we left we thought we'd be coming back," an exuberant Rumi, dressed in a smart white shirt, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. NIGHT TO REMEMBER UNHCR representative to Iraq, Bruno Geddo, said the talent contest was an opportunity for refugees to unite for a night with the sounds of traditional Kurdish music, pop ballads, and Hindi rhythms echoing across the dark, warm evening. He said World Refugee Day wanted to highlight the plight but also the resilience of the 20 million people globally living as refugees, with many youngsters in those ranks. An estimated nine million Syrians have fled their homes since the outbreak of civil war in March 2011, with over three million fleeing to neighbouring countries and some 240,000 finding refuge in the neighbouring Kurdish region of Iraq. The UNHCR estimates there are nearly 8,000 Syrian children and youth living in Sulaymaniyah and most do not attend school. For while some primary education is provided for children up to ninth grade, it is hard for youngsters to get places in secondary schools and universities mainly because their families to not have enough money to pay for fees, supplies or transport. Being locked out of education leaves many young people bored in the camp and "Refugees Got Talent" was devised as a way to showcase their skills, ranging from singing to dancing to break dancing. "(This contest) keeps them focused on something positive. We witnessed the electricity and the joy in the eyes of the youth," said Geddo. "It was enormously empowering. We saw last night the tremendous talent and energy of young Syrian refugees. We want to help them unleash their potential." In second place came the quirky Hindi dance ensemble ABCD - Anybody Can Dance - with five teenage refugee girls led by 17-year-old Rojbin Baroodo, dressed in jeans and a T-shirt. "Dance is my life," said a jubilant Baroodo who relocated to Iraq's Kurdish region two years ago after fleeing the Syrian city of Hassakeh with her family. "Hindi music is not popular in Syria, but when I started doing this [dancing and teaching] it became popular," she said in flawless English with an accent that gave away her love of Bollywood films. "I want to be a dancer but my family says I cannot because I am a girl. It was difficult to tell them about my dancing - they said this is the last time [I can dance] then I will dance at home." ABCD member and friend Amal Mohammad nodded in agreement, recounting her parents' reaction to her passion for dance. "At first my parents said it was shameful - but if we keep dancing I believe people will imitate us and it will become more normal," said Mohammad. As committed as ABCD to their Hindi routine, so was 17-year-old Wasila Hassan to her Kurdish dance, coming in third place with her dance group Rojava. "We dance all day long, almost every day. When I dance I forget the world, I just want to keep dancing," said the teenager, adamant that through dance she could introduce Syrian culture to the world. Amal Sleman, a member of the Khalat dance troupe, said the talent show had been a real boost in the camp. Turkish jets strike PKK targets in northern Iraq, southeast Turkey By Seyhmus Cakan DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, June 22 (Reuters) - Turkish warplanes struck Kurdish militant targets in northern Iraq and southeastern Turkey overnight on Wednesday, and authorities imposed new curfews in rural areas as the army and police continue to battle insurgents, security sources said. The fighting came a day after Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said operations in the mainly Kurdish southeast had ended, apparently referring to the months-long clashes in some urban centres, and added the government would focus on reconstruction. The air strikes in Kurdish-run northern Iraq destroyed targets belonging to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), including shelters and weapon stores. The PKK leadership is mainly based in northern Iraq. Baghdad and Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish Regional Government frequently object to such air incursions. The jets also hit sites near the Turkish towns of Lice, northeast of the regional capital of Diyarbakir, and Semdinli, further east near the Iraqi border, sources said. Some 25 villages near Lice were put under a round-the-clock curfew on Tuesday after authorities determined PKK militants were sheltering and keeping weapons there, the Diyarbakir governor's office said. The new curfews show a shift to rural areas away from cities, where much of the fighting since a ceasefire collapsed last July has taken place. "The operations in the eastern and southeastern regions are finished," Yildirim told members of the ruling AK Party on Tuesday, apparently referring to fighting in cities like Diyarbakir, Cizre and Nusaybin that has killed thousands of militants and hundreds of soldiers and civilians since July 2015. Swathes of these towns have been destroyed. The three-decade conflict with the PKK reignited last year after a two-year ceasefire collapsed, and fighting has been at its most intense since the peak of the insurgency in the 1990s. Italy's resurgent 5-star movement pushes for referendum on euro ROME, June 22 (Reuters) - Italy's anti-establishment 5-Star movement, buoyed by its big gains in local elections, used its resurgent strength to press demands for a national a referendum on whether to keep the euro. "We want a consultative referendum on the euro. The euro as it is today does not work. We either have alternative currencies or a 'Euro 2'," Luigi Di Maio, a vice president of the lower house of parliament, said during a talk show on Tuesday night. While any such referendums on the EU or the euro would be merely test public opinion because Italian law does not allow referendums to change international treaties, a victory would send a clear signal to the government. The 5-Star movement, which is carefully watching the result of Thursday's referendum in Britain on whether to leave the EU, has called for two different currencies in Europe, one for the rich northern countries another for southern countries. The group pressed its case after winning 19 of the 20 mayoral elections where it had reached the run-off stage last Sunday, including the capital Rome the northern industrial capital of Turin. The results dealt a significant blow to Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's Democratic Party (PD) and were hailed by supporters of 5-Star as a possible springboard to national government. The movement's leader, comedian Beppe Grillo, has also called for a referendum on whether Italy should stay in the European Union. "We entered the European Parliament to change many treaties," Di Maio said. "We are now waiting for the results of the Brexit referendum. The mere fact that a country like Great Britain is holding a referendum on whether to leave the EU signals the failure of the European Union," he said. Japan, Russia share concerns over North Korea missile launch TOKYO, June 22 (Reuters) - Japan's ambassador in charge of Russo-Japanese relations said on Wednesday he had shared concerns over North Korea's latest missile launch with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov. "We exchanged views on North Korea's ballistic missile launch and shared our concerns," Chikahito Harada told reporters. "We've agreed to cooperate closely at such occasions as U.N. Security Council meetings." Swiss authorities detain suspected Islamist leader - TV ZURICH, June 22 (Reuters) - Swiss authorities have taken a suspected Islamist leader into custody, broadcaster SRF reported on Wednesday, calling it the first arrest of a senior figure from a Salafist ring based in the northern city of Winterthur. The man, a Muslim convert identified only by the letter S, is being held in investigative custody while authorities check his suspected role in radicalising and recruiting young people to fight with Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, the report said. Federal prosecutors would not confirm the report. In a statement, they said that SRF had not respected a request to delay its report by a few weeks to avoid jeopardising "an open criminal investigation surrounding jihadist-motivated terrorism". After deadly jihadist attacks in France and Belgium, Swiss authorities are monitoring the social media activity of about 400 possible jihadists who might pose a security threat, the NDB federal intelligence service said last month. Neutral Switzerland is not a primary target for Islamist attacks because it is not part of the military campaign against groups such as Islamic State, but the security threat level has been elevated nonetheless, the NDB's annual report said. Authorities have been closely tracking suspected jihadists who return to Switzerland from countries, Syria in particular, where they are believed to get training in carrying out attacks. Swiss authorities believe more than 70 people have travelled to the Middle East to become jihadist fighters since 2001. A Swiss court in April sentenced three Iraqis for terrorism offences, a verdict that the senior prosecutor said should send a message to jihadists not to see the country as an easy target. The three main defendants, who had denied wrongdoing, were arrested in early 2014 on suspicion of planning terrorist attacks and helping Islamic State militants enter the country. Putin says Russia must strengthen as "aggressive" NATO approaches MOSCOW, June 22 (Reuters) - Russia must boost its combat readiness at a time when NATO is expanding and moving its infrastructure towards Russia's borders, President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday. "NATO is strengthening its aggressive rhetoric and its aggressive actions near our borders," Putin said in a speech in the lower house of parliament. Afghanistan risks "new spiral in violence", UN official says KABUL, June 22 (Reuters) - Afghanistan faces the risk of a new spiral in violence following a series of attacks on civilians in the last few months but on the battlefield, security forces have been holding their ground, the top U.N. official in the country said. The assessment by Nicholas Haysom, the U.N. Secretary General's Special Representative for Afghanistan, painted a mixed picture of the security situation some 18 months after international forces ended their main combat operations. While the bomb attacks that killed at least 22 people in Kabul and the northern province of Badakhshan on Monday underlined how dangerous Afghanistan remains, fears that the Taliban would overwhelm security forces have not been realised. However Haysom said he was deeply concerned about violence against civilians, with attacks continuing during Ramadan, Islam's holy month. As well as suicide attacks on targets ranging from government officials and members of the judicial system to foreign security contractors, at least 200 people have been abducted on highways since the end of May. "There is a risk, in my view, that the conflict may enter a new phase, which could see retaliatory acts of vengeance and an escalating spiral of violence," said Haysom, who is stepping down from his post after four years in Afghanistan. He also pointed to progress in several areas, including public finances, as well as the launch of potentially vital strategic infrastructure projects and said political stability was vital for the progress to continue. The Taliban, whose former leader, Mullah Akhtar Mansour, was killed in a U.S. drone strike last month, control more territory than at any time since they were ousted in 2001, including large areas of the strategic southern province of Helmand. But they have not so far been able to take control of a province or major provincial centre and Afghan security forces, which faced severe pressure and heavy casualties last year, appear to have strengthened their performance. Haysom, who warned in March that the very survival of President Ashraf Ghani's government in 2016 would be an achievement, said the battlefield was "in a state of flux, with gains and reversals but neither side effecting clear dominance". Security forces faced major challenges including leadership, morale and recruitment. South African capital tense after overnight riots in ruling party dispute By Dinky Mkhize PRETORIA, June 22 (Reuters) - South Africa's capital was tense on Wednesday after residents torched buses and looted shops overnight, police said, in clashes sparked by the ruling party's choice of a mayoral candidate for local polls. Africa's most industrialised country will hold local government elections on Aug. 3, in what looks likely to become a referendum on President Jacob Zuma's leadership amid mounting concern over weak economic growth. Violence flared on Monday night as impoverished residents of Pretoria's townships set light to vehicles after the African National Congress' (ANC) national leadership named a candidate for mayor in the Tshwane municipality where the capital city is located who had not been not nominated by its regional branches. Police said there was an uneasy calm in the capital on Wednesday. With some roads impassable because of debris and burned-out vehicles from the violence, normal commercial life was disrupted. A Tshwane Metro police spokesman, Console Tleane, said vehicles were set alight and a newly-built school was vandalised by gangs of rioters. Last night's violence erupted at around 6pm until 3am this morning, he said. "Whereas there is calm in some hot spots, the navigation of the streets is difficult because of the rubble and the debris," he told eNCA television, adding that there were still sporadic clashes and running battles with police in some areas. The dispute was triggered at the weekend after an ANC member was shot dead on Sunday as party factions met to decide on a candidate for mayor of Pretoria's Tshwane municipality. The ANC leadership then named senior party member and former cabinet minister Thoko Didiza as its candidate for Tshwane, overriding regional branch members and touching off the riots. The party plans to hold a meeting on Wednesday over the violence but has declined to withdraw Didiza as its candidate. Analysts said South African financial markets have so far ignored the violence, with all eyes on the British referendum European Union membership, while others forecast even more unrest in the commercial hub of Gauteng. Zuma survived impeachment in April after facing censure when the Constitutional Court ruled that he breached the constitution by ignoring an order by the anti-graft watchdog to repay some of the $16 million in state funds spent renovating his home. Pope to visit Armenia after irking Turkey with "genocide" label By Philip Pullella VATICAN CITY, June 22 (Reuters) - Pope Francis visits Armenia this weekend and will try to avoid reigniting a diplomatic dispute with Turkey after his branding of the 1915 mass killings of Armenians as a genocide infuriated Ankara last year. During the three-day trip starting on Friday, he will pray at Tzitzernakaberd, known in Armenia as the "Genocide Memorial and Museum" but which the official Vatican programme for the trip calls "a memorial of the massacres". He will have to tread delicately there and in half a dozen other addresses to political and religious leaders. Last year Francis described the killing of up to 1.5 million Armenians in World War One as "the first genocide of the 20th century", days before commemorations to mark the centenary of the massacres in April. Muslim Turkey promptly recalled its envoy to the Vatican, Mehmet Pacaci, and he stayed away for 10 months, an eternity in diplomatic terms. Turkey accepts that many Christian Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire were killed in clashes with Ottoman forces during World War One, but it disputes the figures and denies that the killings were systematically orchestrated and constitute a genocide. It also says many Muslim Turks perished at that time. In the run-up to Francis's trip, the Vatican has been at pains to avoid the G-word. "THE GREAT EVIL" "Why is there an obsession to use the word 'genocide' and ask about it in all the questions?" Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi testily responded to journalists at a briefing on the trip this week. "We know what happened. None of us is denying that there were horrible massacres. We recognise this. We are going to the memorial precisely to remember this but we don't want this to become a trap of political and ideological discussions," Lombardi said. Many Western historians use the word genocide to describe the events of a century ago and about a dozen EU countries have infuriated Turkey by passing resolutions officially recognising the Armenian massacre as a genocide. Lombardi said he preferred to use the Armenian phrase "Medz Yeghern," which roughly translates as "the great evil" or "the great calamity". This is the formula some world leaders, including U.S. President Barack Obama, have used. Lombardi rejected a reporter's suggestion that since the pope had used the word genocide last year the Vatican had chosen a policy of "reductionism" to placate Turkey. As if to fire a warning shot across the Vatican's bow, Turkey's embassy to the Holy See last week held a commemoration of the "martyrdom" of Taha Carim, a Turkish ambassador to the Vatican killed in Rome in 1977 by Armenian gunmen. Armenia was the first nation to adopt Christianity as a state religion, in 301, 12 years before the Roman Empire granted Christians religious freedom. The Armenian Apostolic Church, whose leader is known as the "Catholicos", split from Rome over a theological dispute in the fifth century and is part of the Oriental Orthodox Churches. It is seen as the custodian of Armenian national identity. Only about 280,000 of Armenia's population of around 3 million people are Roman Catholic. Before returning to Rome on Sunday, Francis is due to visit the Khor Virap monastery in the foothills of Mt. Ararat, near the border with Turkey, and release doves along with Catholicos Karekin II as a symbol of their hopes for peace and reconciliation in the region. Putin says Russia must strengthen as "aggressive" NATO approaches MOSCOW, June 22 (Reuters) - Russia must boost its combat readiness in response to NATO's "aggressive actions" near Russia's borders, President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday. Addressing parliament on the 75th anniversary of Nazi Germany's attack on the Soviet Union, Putin berated the West for being unwilling to build "a modern, non-bloc collective security system" with Russia. "Russia is open to discuss this crucial issue and has more than once shown its readiness for dialogue," he said. "But, just as it happened on the eve of World War Two, we do not see a positive reaction in response." "On the contrary, NATO is strengthening its aggressive rhetoric and its aggressive actions near our borders. In these conditions, we are duty-bound to pay special attention to solving the task of strengthening the combat readiness of our country." The U.S.-led military alliance is increasing its defences in Poland and the three Baltic nations of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, as part of a wider deterrent that it hopes will discourage Russia from any repetition of its annexation of Ukraine's Crimea in 2014. Russia sees NATO's deterrence plans as hostile. Drawing historic parallels with the 1930s, Putin said humanity now faced a danger of failing to withstand the fast-spreading threat of terrorism, just as it once failed to unite against the rising power of Nazi Germany. "The world community did not show enough vigilance, will and consolidation to prevent that war and save millions of lives," Putin said. Africa-focused funds fuse $3.3 billion electric power assets LAGOS, June 22 (Reuters) - Two Africa-focused funds have created a new energy joint venture capable of generating 1,575 megawatts (MW) of electricity in at least 10 countries by merging assets totalling $3.3 billion. Chronic power shortages are one of the biggest obstacles to growth in countries across Africa, with a dearth of electricity or regular blackouts strangling industries and the continent is turning to outside investors and renewables to boost output. The deal to develop and finance projects, announced on Wednesday, brings together Lagos-based Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) and Harith General Partners, which has offices in South Africa and Ivory Coast. Harith's interests include Azura Edo independent power plant (IPP), a gas turbine power station in Nigeria, and Kelvin Power Station in South Africa. AFC's include the Kpone IPP under construction in Ghana, and Cabeolica wind farm in Cape Verde. "The joint venture's near-term portfolio supplies reliable energy to over 30 million people in at least 10 African countries and has a combined gross operational and under-construction capacity of 1,575 MW," they said in a statement. A report published last month by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) said an estimated 643 million people are living without electricity in Africa, with 80 percent based in rural areas. Established in 2007, the AFC provides public and private money for major infrastructure projects around Africa and has a balance sheet of $3.2 billion. German 30-yr Bund yield lowest on record in auction - debt agency BERLIN/LONDON, June 22 (Reuters) - Germany's Federal Finance Agency said on Wednesday that the average yield fetched at a top-up auction of a 30-year Bund was the lowest on record for that debt instrument during an auction, a spokesman for the Finance Agency said. The bid to cover ratio of the auction was 2.0 and the average yield was fixed at 0.65 pct which was the lowest recorded during an auction for that type of paper, spokesman Joerg Mueller said. A backdrop of unprecedented monetary stimulus from the European Central Bank and mounting political risks in Europe has boosted demand for German bonds - seen as one of the safest assets in the world. "There are short-term circumstances helping demand for German bonds at the moment ... there is demand for safety ahead of the Brexit vote," ING strategist Martin van Vliet said. Slovenia needs reforms to address ageing population -govt institute By Marja Novak LJUBLJANA, June 22 (Reuters) - Slovenia needs to urgently design a set of reforms to address the fact that its population is ageing faster than in most other European Union states, the government's macroeconomic institute said on Wednesday. Since the country of 2 million gained independence from the former Yugoslavia in 1991 the percentage of the population of over 65 years of age has risen to 18 percent from about 11 percent and will double in the next three decades, the institute said. "All European countries are facing the problem of ageing but we (Slovenia) are in a small group of countries which have not yet passed decrees that would deal with the ageing," Bostjan Vasle, head of the institute, told an economic conference. "Further fiscal consolidation is necessary and should be based on decrees that will get rid of structural imbalances," Vasle said. He also urged the government to improve management of state firms and speed up privatisation, pointing out that state firms are less effective than private ones. Over the past decades Slovenia has been reluctant to sell its major banks and companies so the government still controls about 50 percent of the economy. "There is a need for a combination of various decrees that would widely address the problem of ageing, problems of productivity and competitiveness," Vasle said. In 2013 the government had to pour more than 3 billion euros ($3.4 bln) into propping up the country's mostly state-owned banks, to avoid having to seek an international bailout. Slovenia also introduced its latest pension reform in 2013. That will gradually raise the retirement age to 65 by the end of 2019 from 59 at present, but the International Monetary Fund said in March that a new pension reform is needed to raise the retirement age to 67. The government has said it would prepare a new pension reform in the coming years. Slovenia, which forecasts 1.7 percent economic growth this year, spends about 4 percent of its GDP on covering the deficit of its national pension system. That weighs heavily as it tries to reduce the hole in its public finances. Assad tells electricity minister to form new Syria government BEIRUT, June 22 (Reuters) - President Bashar al-Assad instructed Electricity Minister Emad Khamis on Wednesday to form a new government in Syria, a country fragmented by warring factions and economically ruined by five years of conflict. A decree published by state news agency SANA gave no reason for replacing Wael al-Halaki, who served as prime minister for nearly four years and survived an assassination attempt when a car bomb struck his convoy in Damascus in 2013. Halaki was himself appointed to replace a prime minister who defected and later led an opposition team at peace talks in Geneva, which broke down in April as pro-government forces pressed an offensive against rebel-held areas of Aleppo city. The Damascus-based government controls most of the war-torn country's major population centres in the west, with the exceptions of Idlib, which is held by insurgents, and the rebel-held neighbourhoods of Aleppo, once Syria's biggest city. Kurdish forces control vast areas along the Turkish border, and Islamic State holds Raqqa and Deir al-Zor provinces in the east. International efforts to bring peace to the country focus on forming a transitional governing body which can include members of the current administration and the opposition. Assad and his ally Russia have suggested incorporating parts of the opposition into the government as a step towards a political settlement to the war which has killed more than 250,000 people and driven 11 million from their homes. Washington and Syrian rebels, who insist that any peace deal must involve Assad's departure, have dismissed the idea. An engineer by training, 54-year-old Khamis has been electricity minister since 2011, SANA said. Before that he was general manager of the state's electricity distribution body. He has been a member of Assad's Baath political party since 1977. Syria's conflict, which began as a peaceful uprising against Assad, is now in its sixth year. Assad formed a new government more than a year into the war in 2012, but the prime minister he appointed then, Riad Hijab, fled Syria soon afterwards to join the opposition. The conflict has also cost the country more than $200 billion in economic losses and physical damage to infrastructure, driving Syria's GDP down to less than half its 2011 level. Greece needs stronger ownership of reforms - ESM's Regling By Renee Maltezou and Lefteris Papadimas ATHENS, June 22 (Reuters) - Greece should implement the reforms called for by its bailout programme not because it's required to, but because it recognises that they will help it emerge from the crisis, the head of the euro zone's bailout fund said on Wednesday. Such recognition would help it implement the reforms successfully, which in turn would help it regain market access and qualify for further debt relief, Klaus Regling, managing director of the European Stability Mechanism, said in a speech at an Economist conference in Athens. "Let me repeat that what is needed in Greece is a strong, a stronger ownership of the adjustment programme," Regling said, noting that it was not possible to foresee now how the economy would fare in 10 or 20 years. "A successful implementation of this programme is the only way for Greece to regain market access and for any debt relief measures to have a real effect," he said. Regling also defended the euro zone's step-by-step approach on debt relief for the crisis-hit country. That approach gave Athens the right incentives to comply with the terms of its ESM bailout, he said, and allowed the euro zone to gauge how much relief was really needed over the years. He hailed Greece's privatisation drive but added that "much work remains to be done in the next two years". A second review, which includes labour reforms and creating a more investor-friendly environment, needs to be wrapped up swiftly, he said. The first review dragged on for six months before it was concluded last week. That allowed the ESM to give 7.5 billion euros ($8.47 billion) of bailout aid on Tuesday. Another 2.8 billion will be available when Greece reaches further milestones, Regling said. Athens needs the funds to pay European Central Bank bonds and International Monetary Fund loans in June and July to and pay down growing state arrears. "It is good to be reminded that such talks should not take too long," Regling said. The first review was delayed mainly by a rift between the European Union and the IMF over Greece's fiscal progress. Athens has agreed to achieve a primary budget surplus of 3.5 percent of GDP by 2018 and maintain it for the medium run. The IMF argued the target was not realistic. During the conference on Wednesday, Deputy Finance Minister George Chouliarakis said Greece would honour its bailout commitments but the target beyond 2018, when Greece's adjustment programme ends, should be lowered to 1.5 to 2 percent of GDP. "A commitment is a commitment ... and we have to honour this commitment if we want to restore and enhance credibility," he said. "But we need to reconsider the level of primary surplus targets beyond the lifetime of the programme, after 2018." The IMF mission chief for Greece, Delia Velculescu, said such targets were still "ambitious" and added that Greece needs "very deep" debt relief, which should be delivered by 2018. Her EU counterpart, Declan Costello, said implementation has been the Achilles heel of Greece's previous bailout programmes. "(There was) a huge reform effort back in 2010 and then it stopped. A huge reform effort back in 2012-13 and then the foot was taken off the accelerator," he said. Saudi heritage revival too late to save many cultural treasures By Angus McDowall ASIR, Saudi Arabia, June 22 (Reuters) - If Rijal Almaa, a stone village tucked into a fold of Saudi Arabia's southern mountains, showcases the polished end-point of new efforts in the kingdom to preserve cultural heritage, the hamlet of Watan Emsoudah represents the difficulties faced. Its low-covered alleyways lie thick with the debris of decades of abandonment, some stone house roofs have caved in and thistles grow high between the hamlet's walls, but near the entrance three men are working to save a house. Saudi Arabia has allocated nearly $1 billion to preserve its heritage in a new reform plan, but after decades of neglect, and in some cases deliberate destruction, saving its cultural treasures will prove complex and expensive. While that money was allocated in a National Transformation Programme unveiled this month, no details were given as to how it would be spent and the only tourism projects listed in the plan were for a few large sites. "For maybe 40 years we stopped using these old houses and every five years you need to rehabilitate them," said Abdulaziz al-Ghanem representative of Asir's architectural heritage centre at the government's General Commission for Tourism and Antiquities. "I hope we get more money. We need it." Watan Emsoudah is one of around 4,000 old villages in Asir Province in the kingdom's southwest and the project to restore it to save architectural tradition and boost tourism is one of eight in the region by a local investor. Rehabilitating the village, swaddled by terraced fields in a shallow bowl on a mountain plateau, will cost around 6 million riyals ($1.6 million), says Ibrahim al-Almiy, a former history teacher and the local investor behind these projects. That high cost - for one tiny village in a country where most old dwellings were deserted for modern concrete houses after last century's oil boom - shows how little of its heritage Saudi Arabia may be able to protect even with new investment. Although the capital Riyadh is a low-rise sprawl of highways and modern, concrete shopping malls, the towns of the Red Sea coast and the southern highlands still contain some fine buildings in their historic old quarters. Some good mud buildings survive in the central regions of the country, including the ruling al-Saud family's restored historical capital of Diriyah just outside Riyadh, but as these areas originally were mostly populated by tent-dwelling nomads, the architectural legacy was scarce. INVESTING IN HERITAGE In its efforts to end reliance on oil for economic wealth, Riyadh wants to invest in tourism, aiming to increase spending by Saudis at home instead of on holidays abroad, and by pilgrims to Mecca at other attractions around the country. There is also an ideological agenda to such efforts: restoring cultural sites occupied a prominent place in Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's Vision 2030 reform plan as a means of boosting national pride. Encouraging visits to local places of beauty or interest is a key goal and Saudi Arabia has some world-class sites, some in remote areas, that are all but unknown outside the kingdom. The spectacular rock-hewn Nabatean tombs of Madain Saleh, the ornate facades of Jeddah's coral-built old town and the ancient rock art hidden among the boulders of the northern deserts constitute an inheritance unique to the kingdom. But previous efforts to protect cultural heritage were directed only at a few landmark sites while rapid development fuelled by oil wealth and a lack of interest in preserving traditional architecture has allowed others to crumble. Ironically, given the focus on religious tourism, recent destruction has mostly been in Mecca. Its old houses, including some dating to the time of the Prophet Mohammed, have been razed for development projects to increase pilgrimage. That approach was partly a result of the austere local Sunni Muslim tradition, which regards the veneration of objects, including buildings associated with Islam's earliest days, as tantamount to idolatory. The focus on national and even pre-Islamic heritage today shows one way in which religious strictures are loosening. "RAIN COMES AND HOUSES FALL" The road from Watan Emsoudah to Rijal Almaa descends Mount Souda in hairpin bends as the juniper scrub of the cool upper slopes gives way to the humid heat of the Red Sea coastal plain. The example of Rijal Almaa, where investment of 4 million riyals over the past three years has created from the village an attraction that is now prominently featured in Asir province's tourist literature, shows how restoration projects can succeed. While its spectacular setting in a mountain valley and the towering size of its stone houses, decorated with chequerboard patterns in quartz, gives it advantages some other old villages lack, Almiy believes this model could be emulated. He envisages a trail of restored villages through Asir's mountains, each reflecting a different element of the region's unusual architectural heritage and adding to the flow of local tourists drawn by the region's clement summer weather. But money is a big problem. Almiy, who lived in an old house in Rijal Almaa until the age of 16, is an independent investor and his projects were carried out in partnership with government agencies, which provided some money and official blessing. Still, the government has so far invested so little in local heritage that it does not even have a register of traditional architecture in Asir or neighbouring provinces where most towns and villages have crumbling old houses. Even in central Abha, the capital of Asir, local custom is celebrated in traditional motifs added to concrete buildings while actual mud houses in the unique highland style, with slate courses providing a serrated effect, fall to ruin. "In five or 10 years this will all collapse. The rain comes and the houses fall. There has to be investment. The state needs to invest," said Almiy, standing in Abha's al-Basta district where a cluster of old houses is gradually disintegrating. THE EMPTY QUARTER It is a pattern repeated across the country: In Najran, a fertile valley running between steep dry hills into the Empty Quarter desert, clusters of adobe tower houses with distinctive horizontal ribs nestle among the fields. Some are clearly looked after by their owners, but most are slowly eroding, their lack of care causing such structural damage that wide cracks are opening down their flanks or that the towers are starting to list dangerously to the side. The spending envisaged on tourism and heritage in the new reform plans, however, seems likely to focus mostly on big projects. Widescale investment is planned near Madain Saleh and on some Red Sea islands rich in marine wildlife. However, Saudi heritage was given a boost in 2014 when the United Nations cultural body UNESCO listed old Jeddah as a world heritage site. It presents some of the same preservation challenges as the villages of Asir, where like in Jeddah, most old houses are privately owned and some are in grave disrepair. "When I was young we didn't know the importance of these buildings. In those days we cheered when they knocked them down for a new road. But now we have managed to safeguard the architecture," said Sami Nawar, mayor of Jeddah's old city. The humid climate rots the houses' wood and erodes walls, demanding constant repair, and the magnificent buildings of the seventh-century old town are inhabited by poor foreign labourers instead of the merchant elite for whom they were built. The UNESCO listing has helped to ensure a brighter future for old Jeddah's 600 historical houses, built of coral and with delicate wooden screens ornamenting their imposing facades. It galvanised state investment and a restoration plan. China's one-time "democracy" village protests for fourth straight day By James Pomfret WUKAN, China, June 22 (Reuters) - The Chinese fishing village of Wukan staged a fourth straight day of protests on Wednesday against what residents say was the unlawful arrest of the village chief, a rare show of grassroots defiance against authorities in Communist China. Wukan, in the southern province of Guangdong, made international headlines in 2011 as a symbol of grassroots democracy after an uprising against corrupt local authorities and illegal land grabs that resulted in rare concessions being granted by provincial Communist Party leaders. Under a blazing sun, the village of 15,000 once again united to march for the release of Lin Zuluan, the popular and democratically elected village chief who was arrested in a surprise midnight raid over the weekend. Lin was shown on state television on Tuesday confessing to accepting bribes, but many villagers profess his innocence, saying he'd been forced into making a confession. Sources close to the Lin family said his grandson was detained by police soon after Lin's arrest and interrogated for 12 hours. The grandson was released soon after Lin's confession went public, they said. Despite repeated warnings by authorities to the villagers not to stir up trouble, more than a thousand again marched in a loud procession, waving red China flags and chanting for justice. "The villagers of Wukan don't believe Lin Zuluan took bribes," read a hand-written white banner held up by a group of several children at the vanguard of the procession. They also held up banners making a broader appeal to national leaders in Beijing to "save Wukan". "We want the central government to come and investigate," said Wei Yonghan, an elderly villager joining the march. "We won't give up. We'll keep marching every day till they listen to us." Wukan's defiance in 2011 took place during the administration of former president Hu Jintao. It remains unclear whether security forces will take a stronger line under President Xi Jinping who has cracked down on rights activists across China since taking office. Over the past few days, however, authorities seem to have tightened their grip. Some reporters were warned by authorities in nearby Shanwei of "inciting, planning and directing the protests," according to reports carried in Chinese state media. Foreign media outlets including Reuters were urged to leave the village immediately. A villager who was taken into detention by police and interrogated said authorities were aggressively going after potential ringleaders of the protests to quash any escalation of unrest. "They questioned me for hours and wanted to know everything, who was organising things," the villager, who declined to be identified, said. "They told me to open my Wechat (messaging app) ... and spent hours looking through my messages." While there didn't appear to be a mass deployment of riot police for the protests on Wednesday, at least three drones could be seen hovering in the sky tracking the demonstration. Villagers also occasionally chased off individuals in the crowds they believed to be plain-clothes officers. France warns a Brexit would be irreversible, single market access at stake PARIS, June 22 (Reuters) - French President Francois Hollande warned on Wednesday that if Britons voted to leave the European Union it would be an irreversible decision that could jeopardize Britain's access to the bloc's single market. "If the choice is to leave the EU ... that would be irreversible," Hollande said. "There would be a very serious risk for Britain to lose its access to the single market and everything that goes with the European economic area. Everyone needs to be well aware of this," he said. Nigerian local leader: militants might allow government time to meet demands ONITSHA, Nigeria, June 22 (Reuters) - A Nigerian local leader said on Thursday that militant group the Niger Delta Avengers might agree to a ceasefire to allow the government time to meet their demands. The Avengers denied a Reuters report on Wednesday citing two oil ministry officials saying that the government had agreed a truce with the militants. Two shot dead in South African capital as looters ransack shops By Dinky Mkhize PRETORIA, June 22 (Reuters) - South African police said on Wednesday that two suspected looters had been shot dead in the capital in violence triggered by the ruling party's choice of a mayoral candidate for local polls. Police said they also arrested 40 rioters who had been attacking foreigners' shops as public anger mounted over economic hardship in the build-up to Aug. 3 elections likely to become a referendum on President Jacob Zuma's leadership. Residents of Pretoria's townships began setting cars and buses alight on Monday night after the ruling African National Congress (ANC) named a candidate in the Tshwane municipality where the capital city is located, overruling the choice of regional branches. Burned-out cars still blocked roads on Wednesday. The two killed were shot on Tuesday night, said Colonel Noxolo Kweza, police spokeswoman for Gauteng Province. She did not say who had shot them. "Two of the suspects were shot and killed following looting at Mamelodi," police said in a statement, adding that those arrested would face charges of violence and theft. "Incidents of protests and looting continued in other areas while situation is tense in others." Violence continued in parts of the capital on Wednesday. "Some of the areas are tense but quiet for now, while in other areas there is still some unrest, there are reports of protests and incidents of looting," Kweza said. "We will have strong police presence tonight, as we have had during the other nights." Protesters continued to clash with police and "a disproportionate part of the looting was taking place at shops owned by foreign nationals," Tshwane Metro police spokesman Console Tleane told eNCA television. Foreigners, many of them from other African countries, suffered a wave of attacks in April last year, by crowds blaming them for taking jobs and business. ANC "LOSING TOUCH" The mayoral dispute flared on Sunday when an ANC member was shot dead as party factions met to decide on a candidate for mayor of Pretoria's Tshwane municipality. The ANC leadership then named senior party member and former cabinet minister Thoko Didiza as its candidate for Tshwane, overriding regional branch members and refusing to back down as the violence mounted. The ANC said it picked the candidate as a compromise between two rival factions in Tshwane. But critics say the decision by the party, which has been in power since the end of white-minority rule in 1994, showed that it is losing its touch in areas - including Pretoria - where it was once unassailable. A meeting by the party due to be held on Wednesday to discuss the crisis was postponed, an ANC regional official Lesego Makhubela told EWN online news service. Analysts warned of more unrest in Gauteng province, which includes Pretoria and Johannesburg. "Intra-ANC, election-related, factional violence is being ignored by markets trading on external factors, but is worrying," London-based Nomura emerging markets analyst Peter Attard Montalto said in a note. Zuma survived impeachment in April after the Constitutional Court ruled he had breached the constitution by ignoring an order from the anti-graft watchdog to repay some of the $16 million in state funds spent renovating his home. Egyptian court acquits 22 over Red Sea islands protest CAIRO, June 22 (Reuters) - A Cairo court acquitted on Wednesday 22 people on trial for protesting against a government decision to transfer two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia, a judicial source and a defence lawyer said. The ruling comes a day after Egypt's administrative court annulled the maritime agreement, announced in April, that would have seen Egypt lose control of Tiran and Sanafir. The accord had caused uproar and rare protests in Egypt, where many have long considered the islands Egyptian. More than 200 people were arrested in connection with protests over the islands in April. Since then, more than 150 have been handed jail sentences or fines, according to judicial sources. Wednesday's verdict will bring to at least 107 the number of people acquitted. The 22 who were acquitted on Wednesday had been sent to trial on charges of violating a protest law by demonstrating without a permit and blocking traffic. "Maybe yesterday's annulment encouraged the judge's decision to acquit the defendants," said Khaled Ali, a lawyer who was representing some of the accused. The public prosecution can appeal the verdict, he said. The prosecution did not issue any formal statement. Saudi and Egyptian officials say the islands at the centre of the controversy belong to the kingdom and were only under Egyptian control because Riyadh had asked Cairo in 1950 to protect them. A court ruled on Tuesday, however, that Egyptian sovereignty over the islands held and could not be given up. Kremlin says regional neighbours to discuss Afghanistan at summit MOSCOW, June 22 (Reuters) - The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) will discuss a "very tense situation" in next-door Afghanistan when the regional body led by China and Russia holds its summit in Uzbekistan this week, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said on Wednesday. An estimated 60,000 armed rebels are now fighting in Afghanistan, including 10,000 under the flag of Islamic State, Ushakov told journalists. The security and cooperation body, which also includes post-Soviet Central Asian nations of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, is expected to accept Iran as its seventh fully fledged member, Ushakov said. "Our position is crystal-clear: Iran sent its membership bid as early as April 2008 and now that sanctions imposed on Iran have been lifted, Russia believes there is no reason to refrain from accepting this country to the organisation," he said. Gazprom prepares cold reception for U.S. super-cooled gas By Oleg Vukmanovic , Nina Chestney and Dmitry Zhdannikov MILAN/LONDON, June 22 (Reuters) - Liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the United States is set to do battle in Europe but Russia's Gazprom is setting the stage, preparing a cold reception for the super-cooled gas set to cross the Atlantic. A weakened rouble has lowered Gazprom's production costs by a fifth while its profits on dollar-denominated gas sales to Europe last year doubled in rouble terms. Gazprom has managed to increase sales despite a push by the European Union to curb Russian energy imports, using discounts, renegotiation of unpopular oil-linked contracts and gas sales via auctions. Spurring Gazprom's charm offensive is a looming showdown as a wave of U.S. gas is set to reach Europe's shores beginning next year. U.S. exporters led by Cheniere Energy are expected to have 83 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas ready for sale by 2019. That's about 20 percent of Europe's current annual gas needs. That threatens to exacerbate already significant global gas oversupply, with new producers squaring up against established players for market share and driving prices lower. "We are at the start of a new chapter in European gas markets," Fatih Birol, executive director at the International Energy Agency said recently, as U.S. and other supplies fight to gain access. But Gazprom, for now, appears confident it can see off the challenge and even raise its European market share, which stood at 31 percent in 2015, helped by declining output in Europe, primarily in the Netherlands and Britain. As U.S. producers crank up exports, more than a dozen LNG cargoes have been exported, yet so far just one has reached Europe as other markets offer better returns. "Longer term, Asia will remain more attractive for U.S. gas. No U.S. businessman in the right state of mind - being already heavily indebted and having put all his assets as collateral with banks - will deliver gas to Europe at a loss," Gazprom's Deputy Chief Executive Alexander Medvedev told Reuters last week. LESSON LEARNED? However, Gazprom has been wrong before. A few years ago it was similarly sceptical about the threat posed by the rise of U.S. shale gas and oil. Chief Executive Alexei Miller at the time said unconventional gas was expensive to produce and would not be a game changer in the global energy market. That was a serious miscalculation and proved costly as Gazprom was forced to shelve development of one of the world's largest gas fields, Shtokman, as shale rapidly wiped out U.S. needs for gas imports. Russian President Vladimir Putin subsequently urged Gazprom to rethink its long-term export policy to take advantage of rising demand in Asian markets. But as the company's pivot to Asia drags, Gazprom has looked to bolster demand in Europe through discounting and renegotiating its 25-year, oil-linked supply deals. After years of tough negotiations, it has reached deals with long-term buyers including France's Engie and Germany's Uniper, a unit of E.ON. Cheaper oil prices have helped lower Russian gas prices, and that has spurred demand, with Gazprom deliveries to Europe and Turkey up 20 percent in the first quarter. "Russian gas is low cost and will remain below U.S. gas prices," said Claudio Descalzi, chief executive of Italy's Eni , the biggest buyer of Russian gas in Europe. And Gazprom seems willing to fight for greater share of the EU market given dwindling sales in former Soviet states and still distant prospects of piping gas to China, according to Poland's Centre for Eastern Studies. PRICE FOCUS European gas hub prices stand at around 35 pence/therm currently. A fall to 21 pence would hurt Gazprom's margins but more critically would make it unprofitable for U.S. supplies to cross the Atlantic. As much as half the production capacity of U.S. LNG players could be shut-in during the summer and at other times if Gazprom simply keeps flowing gas to Europe at current rates, said analyst Stephen O'Rourke at consultancy Wood Mackenzie. Gazprom has 100 bcm per year of spare production capacity at its disposal, or roughly a quarter of Europe's annual needs, according to the Oxford Institute of Energy Studies. And like Saudi Arabia has done in oil, Gazprom has shown it can use its market dominance to squeeze its competitors. After Lithuania opened its Independence LNG import terminal at the end of 2014, for example, Gazprom cut prices to Lithuania and has held an auction for the Baltic states in a bid to boost consumption. Estonia also took more gas from Russia earlier this year, taking advantage of Gazprom prices that were down by some 45 percent, data from grid operator Elering showed. "We have such low production costs that we will always be able to cut the selling price by a dollar or two when it comes to fighting off a rival," said a senior source at Gazprom. Gazprom may win the war but it cannot win every battle. Ukrainian state energy firm Naftogaz recently said it would likely ignore a Russian offer of gas supplies for next winter citing prices it said were higher than those offered from Europe. However, an all-out offensive to grab continental market share by lowering prices would have a cost for Gazprom too. It would not only squeeze Gazprom's own profits but also risk drawing strong political reaction from the European Commission and EU states. Russia plays down threat to ban Belarus dairy imports MOSCOW/MINSK, June 22 (Reuters) - Russia played down on Wednesday its threat to ban dairy supplies from Belarus, its largest supplier. The threat came during a dispute over the price for Russian gas sold to Belarus. Russia has in the past used trade restrictions issued by its food safety watchdog when relations with other countries have worsened. Russian state food safety watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor said on Wednesday it had told its Belarussian counterpart to take emergency measures to address poor quality supplies of dry dairy products. The watchdog said it would have to impose restrictions on all or some dairy supplies from Belarus if problems were not resolved. However, Russian Agriculture Minister Alexander Tkachev later said Russia had no plans to ban imports of all dairy products from Belarus. "I think Rosselkhoznadzor over-reacted," Tkachev told reporters. "There is no such issue. We pointed out problems to certain producers, not about all volumes of milk." A Rosselkhoznadzor representative, contacted by Reuters, denied any political overtones behind the threats to Belarus. Belarusian Agriculture Minister Leonid Zayats told reporters in Minsk he saw no quality problems. "This issue is made up. We will deal with these so-called accusations," Zayats said. Falluja gains boost Iraqi PM ahead of Mosul, but for how long? By Stephen Kalin and Ahmed Rasheed FALLUJA, Iraq, June 22 (Reuters) - The rapid entry of Iraqi forces into central Falluja last week surprised many who expected a drawn-out battle with Islamic State for the bastion of Iraq's Sunni insurgency, where some of the toughest fighting of the U.S. occupation took place. The campaign has offered Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi respite from a political crisis that paralysed government and turned violent when demonstrators breeched Baghdad's heavily-fortified Green Zone. Yet questions remain about whether Abadi - who declared victory on Friday even though Islamic State militants are still fighting in Falluja - can convert those military gains into political success, and what kind of model Falluja offers for the next major military campaign, against Islamic State-held Mosul. Abadi and his commanders, who have pledged to retake the northern Iraqi city later this year, "needed a fast victory because they are very aware of setting precedents," said Renad Mansour, an Iraq scholar at the Carnegie Middle East Center. But "Falluja was a distraction. The protests in Baghdad will come back. People will say, 'OK we got Falluja, what's happening politically? What are the changes?'" Iraq's government has been gridlocked for months after rivals blocked Abadi's plans for a cabinet reshuffle he said was aimed at fighting rampant corruption in a country nearly bankrupted by low global oil prices. Thousands of demonstrators, mostly loyal to Shi'ite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, took to the streets earlier this year to pressure Abadi to replace party-affiliated ministers with independent technocrats, which the political elite has resisted. The prime minister's decision to attack Falluja last month, against the apparent wishes of U.S. allies, allowed him to rally the Shi'ite political class who were pressing him to retake the city, seen as a launchpad for recent bombings in nearby Baghdad. Falluja has been seen as a stronghold of Sunni Muslim insurgents for more than a decade and U.S. forces that toppled Saddam Hussein, a Sunni, suffered heavy losses there in two battles in 2004. Iraqi forces have so far incurred a fraction of those casualties. "The $6 million question is: do (the militants) head for Mosul, do they stay in Falluja, do they do asymmetric attacks elsewhere?" said an official from one of the countries in the U.S.-led coalition backing Iraqi forces. More than 85,000 people have fled Falluja, according to the United Nations, which estimated the population before the operation began at around 90,000, already just a third of its size before Islamic State seized control in early 2014. A lawmaker close to Abadi said the offensive had helped him overcome a perception of weakness among powerful rivals and ordinary Iraqis. But another lawmaker and a Western diplomat said that while Falluja advances are bound to give the prime minister a "feel-good factor" in the short term, there is no indication they will help advance his political agenda. "When parliament resumes he'll probably point to Falluja," the diplomat said, but the demands of lawmakers and the street are "not going to go away because Falluja's been liberated." LESSONS FOR MOSUL The Falluja operation has, at least, provided a possible model for the offensive in Mosul, Islamic State's de facto capital in Iraq, which is still being planned, according to Iraqi and Western officials. The assault was spearheaded by Iraq's elite counter-terrorism service, which has learned to fight the jihadists' mix of guerrilla and conventional tactics, with army and police units also taking key positions. Around 85 coalition air strikes supported the advances. Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias, which stirred fears of sectarian violence by insisting on entering the mostly Sunni city, were confined largely to the outskirts, but they still stirred controversy. Days after Abadi announced the assault, Iranian media published pictures of what they said was a visit by Iranian General Qassem Soleimani to Shi'ite militias fighting alongside the army. Soleimani also appeared during last year's battle for Tikrit where Shi'ite militias were accused of rights abuses. An Iranian news outlet said he moved in recent days to Syria, where Iranian-backed militias are supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad against Sunni rebels. Even playing a peripheral role in Falluja the militias faced allegations from the local provincial governor, which they denied, that they executed 49 Sunni men and detained more than 600 others. "You've got to give Abadi credit for keeping the militias out of Falluja," the Western diplomat said, adding that the government had quickly put an end to the alleged abuses. Authorities have made arrests in relation to the claims, but the United Nations reported on Wednesday further allegations of serious rights violations by armed groups fighting alongside the military in Falluja. "Abadi has minimal leverage over these Iranian-backed militias, so if anyone is actually held accountable, it would indicate Abadi's rising political weight," former U.S. diplomat Robert Ford said in a recent article. But residents of Mosul who spoke to Reuters by phone and internet said they feared similar abuse if Shi'ite militias were allowed to participate in the offensive on their city. "We saw what happened in (Falluja) and it confirms our decision to refuse the Hashid Shaabi," Nineveh provincial councilman Abdul Rahman al-Jubouri told Reuters in Erbil, referring to the coalition of mostly Shi'ite militias allied to the government. France warns Brexit would be irreversible, single market access at stake By Elizabeth Pineau PARIS, June 22 (Reuters) - French President Francois Hollande warned on Wednesday that if Britons voted to leave the European Union it would be an irreversible decision that could seriously jeopardize Britain's prized access to the bloc's single market. Amid a flurry of contacts between EU capitals to prepare for the consequences of Thursday's referendum, Hollande said he would visit Berlin next week to prepare joint initiatives to relaunch Europe, whatever the outcome of the British vote. "If the choice is to leave the EU ... that would be irreversible," Hollande said. "No is no, there is no middle ground and we'll have to draw all the consequences." The economic consequences of the vote are key to the outcome of the referendum, with access to the bloc's single market for trade in goods and services a major issue. Hollande, in his starkest warning to date on the consequences of Brexit, said: "There would be a very serious risk of Britain losing its access to the single market and everything that goes with the European economic area. Everyone needs to be well aware of this." While Norway is part of the single market via a trade deal it has with the EU, fellow non-EU member Switzerland only has access to parts of the single market. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker added his own warning, saying there would be no re-negotiation of a package of measures that EU governments agreed with London in February aimed at keeping Britain in the 28-nation bloc. Hollande's call to relaunch Europe, Brexit or no, was echoed by both Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who met the French leader in Paris on Wednesday, and by Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo during a visit to Berlin. "We hope very much that the British want to remain in the EU. But irrespective of the result, our position is clear: the European Union should develop further," Szydlo told a joint news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin. Hollande, who also met Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven on Wednesday and spoke by phone with European Council President Donald Tusk and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, said there would probably be more summits of EU leaders than the one already scheduled for June 28.. "We'll have to take initiatives to bring hope back for European people. Today, doubts are creeping in everywhere, populism, nationalism are taking over," French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault told parliament. Far-right party leader Marine Le Pen, who according to opinion polls could top the first round of the 2017 French presidential election but then lose the run-off, has been pressing for France to hold its own referendum on EU membership. "France has a thousand more reasons to leave the EU than Britain," she told TF1 television late on Monday, referring to French membership of the euro currency and Schengen border-free area. "I want a referendum in France. All EU countries should have a referendum." Niger Delta Avengers may agree ceasefire says community leader By Anamesere Igboeroteonwu and Tife Owolabi ONITSHA, Nigeria, June 22 (Reuters) - A Nigerian militant group known as the Niger Delta Avengers which has been attacking oil facilities might agree to a ceasefire on Thursday to allow the government time to meet its demands, a community leader involved in peace efforts said. Two oil ministry officials have said that the government had agreed a truce with the militants, although the group has denied that. The militants say they want a greater share of Nigeria's oil wealth to go to the impoverished Delta region. Crude sales make up about 70 percent of Nigeria's national income and most of that oil comes from the southern swampland. "The Avengers might be giving the federal government some time to do something about the demands," said Godspower Gbenekema, who said he met oil minister Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu last week to find ways to end attacks on oil facilities. OPEC member Nigeria was Africa's top oil producer until the spate of attacks pushed it behind Angola. Production has fallen from 2.2 million barrels at the start of the year to around 1.6 million barrels, helping push up global oil prices. Kachikwu travelled to the Delta last week to meet community leaders who oil sources say pass on messages to the militants who have not engaged in direct talks. "Nobody represented the Avengers in that meeting," Gbenekema said. "We used that opportunity to relay to the minister the problems of the Niger Delta such as lack of development and neglect." "The issue of truce or not depends on the seriousness of the federal government to address the issues at stake," he said, citing poverty and jobs as examples. No follow-up up meeting had been agreed, he added. Among the factors standing in the way of a ceasefire is that militants are divided into small groups and leaders have little sway over unemployed youths willing to work for anyone who pays them. The Ijaw People's Development Initiative (IPDI), a group which represents the region's largest ethnic group, said the government will fail to end attacks through talks because it was not interested in "genuine negotiation". The government "is not interested in addressing core demands of Niger Delta but rather looking for shortcuts to induce militants to abandon the core issues that brought frequent bombing of oil facilities", said IPDI president Austin Ozobo. Earlier this month, the government said it would scale down its military campaign in the Delta as part of an attempt to pursue talks with militants, who previously laid down arms in 2009 in exchange for cash benefits under a government amnesty. Egypt's local wheat purchases thrown into question amid fraud allegations By Eric Knecht and Maha El Dahan CAIRO/ABU DHABI, June 22 (Reuters) - Egypt has launched a government-led recount of its wheat silos after an unusually high procurement figure spurred widespread fraud allegations from top industry officials, traders and parliamentarians. Egypt said last week that in the latest procurement season it bought nearly 5 million tonnes of local wheat from its farmers, the second highest figure on record and well above the 3-3.5 million tonnes per year farmers had delivered in the past decade. Wheat millers and traders told Reuters the high figure was a result of private suppliers misreporting their stocks to collect government payments for highly subsidised local wheat not actually in their silos. Those millers and traders said they drew that conclusion based on their close knowledge of the grain business in Egypt and monitoring of wheat cultivation and procurement figures over the years. Reuters could not independently verify their claim. If the numbers were misrepresented, the world's top importer of the grain may have to spend more on foreign wheat purchases to meet local demand, even as it faces a dollar shortage that has sapped its ability to import, industry sources say. A series of new regulations - from banning wheat transport across governorates to requiring land documentation by farmers selling their crops - was supposed to prevent cheap foreign wheat from being mixed into subsidised local supplies. The agriculture minister has said wheat mixing cost the country more than 1 billion Egyptian pounds ($112.6 million) last year. But two private-sector millers and four traders told Reuters the new measures had all but failed to stem the losses. Local suppliers, they said, have circumvented the tighter rules by simply misreporting the quantities in their storage sites. Reuters could not confirm this. Wheat silos in four areas outside Cairo have already been found short in the range of tens of thousands of tonnes of wheat over the past week, according to state news reports. The millers and traders told Reuters that these silos are an early indication that more than 1 million tonnes of the reported local procurement may not exist. Some in the industry put the figure even higher. "I don't think they (the government) collected more than 2.5 million (tonnes). The rest is just on paper," said Amr Elheeny, a board member of Egypt's Chamber of Grain Industries, which advises the supplies ministry on policy. SWEEPING RECOUNT To secure food for tens of millions of its poorest and encourage cultivation of a crop it considers strategic, Egypt spends billions of pounds each year on a wheat and bread subsidy programme, part of which entails paying farmers a higher set price for their crop. This high price has for years encouraged local traders - who act as middlemen, buying wheat from scores of small-landholding farmers before selling it on to the government - to mix cheaper imported wheat into the subsidised local supplies. Last year the mixing reached a head when Egypt said it had procured a record 5.3 million tonnes from its farmers, up to 2 million of which was believed to be foreign, bought on the cheap following a collapse in global wheat prices. The supplies ministry has repeatedly denied such smuggling occurred although the agriculture minister acknowledged it publicly. Almost immediately after this year's procurement figure was announced last week, scepticism began to mount. A lawyer representing a group of businessmen in the grains industry, who say market manipulation cuts into their profits, filed a formal legal complaint, seen by Reuters, to the country's general prosecutor. It asks for an independent committee to inspect storage areas to avoid the possibility of squandering public funds intended to subsidise farmers. Egypt contracts with private-sector suppliers to store and deliver wheat to government mills as the government lacks adequate capacity to stockpile the grain. "There is manipulation in the quantity of local wheat being stored in most private-sector shounas (open-air storage sites), which are falsely recording the amounts of local wheat they have received (from farmers) several times over," the complaint filed by the lawyer, Mohamed Heikal, stated. Supply Minister Khaled Hanafi rejected the allegation that numbers were inflated. "This is a claim based on pure imagination, what is the evidence that he has to back this up?" Hanafi told Reuters in response to the legal filing. Norway could send troops into Syria OSLO, June 22 (Reuters) - Norway might send troops into Syria, including special forces, the government said on Wednesday, after parliament authorised it to do so. Oslo plans to send some 60 troops to Jordan this summer to train and support Syrian fighters battling Islamic State (IS). It said in May it would consult with parliament if there was a change in circumstances that meant the Norwegian troops could be needed inside Syria itself. On Wednesday parliament gave the go-ahead. "Local forces (opposed to IS) are making more progress than we could have expected. It is therefore more on the agenda that coalition forces should be able to train, advise and give operational support on Syrian territory in their battle against IS," defence minister Ine Eriksen Soereide said in a statement. Tesla's planned SolarCity buy puzzles everybody but Musk By Supantha Mukherjee and Narottam Medhora June 22 (Reuters) - To Elon Musk, Tesla Motors Inc's planned buyout of SolarCity Corp was a "no-brainer". Investors and analysts clearly had a bit more trouble figuring out the rationale, with the electric car maker's shares dropping as much as 10 percent in early trading on Wednesday. More than $3 billion was wiped off Tesla's value as the stock staged its biggest percentage drop in nearly two years. Musk, Tesla's founder and CEO, was undaunted, saying on an investor call on Wednesday that the electric car maker had the potential to become a trillion-dollar company. The serial entrepreneur, who owns 19 percent of Tesla and 22 percent of SolarCity, said when deal was announced on Tuesday that it would open up opportunities for Tesla to sell customers an electric car, a home battery and a solar system all at once. "I have zero doubt about the deal, should have done it sooner," he said on Wednesday's call. Analysts do have doubts, though. "While no doubt the Tesla bulls will hail the combination as visionary, we believe the assumption of another $2.6 billion of debt to fold in a solar company with limited synergies and uncertain growth/cash prospects only reinforces our negative view of Tesla," Barclays analyst Brian Johnson said in a note. RBC Capital Markets analyst Joseph Spak was also skeptical. "While we don't doubt that some customers who are interested in electric vehicles and storage products are also interested in going solar, we don't necessarily buy that there is a meaningful cross-sell opportunity - especially currently," he said. The all-stock deal, worth up to $2.8 billion, also could be a source of distraction for Tesla as it ramps up production, analysts said. Tesla, which revealed ambitious production plans in May for its upcoming Model 3 sedan, had already been setting off alarm bells among investors for its cash burn. The car maker, which had long-term debt and capital leases of $2.5 billion as of March 31, sold $1.7 billion of shares in May to fund production. SolarCity, led by Musk's first cousin Lyndon Rive, has struggled with rising costs and intensifying competition and has never made an annual profit since its IPO in 2012. Musk said he expected SolarCity to become cash-flow positive in the next three to six months. The company, whose shares were up 9.2 percent in early, has about $6.24 billion in liabilities, including debt. SolarCity is expected to burn roughly $400 million in cash from operations next year and report an adjusted loss of nearly $1 billion, based on consensus estimates, Pacific Crest analysts said in a research note. With both companies burning through cash, the combined entity is likely to magnify the losses and cash-burn that both are seeing individually, Barclays analysts said. Tesla, established in 2003, has never made a profit, although Musk has said the company is likely to start making money this year. Michigan attorney general sues France's Veolia in Flint water crisis By Ben Klayman DETROIT, June 22 (Reuters) - The Michigan attorney general on Wednesday sued French water company Veolia and a Texas firm for "botching" their roles in the city of Flint's drinking water crisis that exposed residents to dangerously high lead levels. Attorney General Bill Schuette said at a news conference in Flint that the civil lawsuit was filed in Genesee County Circuit Court against Veolia Environnement SA and Houston-based engineering services firm Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam (LAN). The lawsuit charged Veolia with professional negligence and fraud that caused Flint's the lead poisoning to continue and worsen, and LAN with professional negligence. Schuette said the state is seeking damages from the companies that could total hundreds of millions of dollars. His office said additional claims against the firms or others may be filed in the future. "Many things went tragically wrong in Flint, and both criminal conduct and civil conduct caused harm to the families of Flint and to the taxpayers of Michigan," Schuette said. "In Flint, Veolia and LAN were hired to do a job and failed miserably, basically botched it. They didn't stop the water in Flint from being poisoned. They made it worse." Veolia was hired in February 2015 by the city to address drinking water quality and produced at least one report and one public presentation stating the city's water was safe to drink, according to the lawsuit. The company knew its representations were false, the lawsuit stated. Paris-based Veolia said Schuette's office did not contact the company about its work and that its contract was unrelated to the current lead problem. It said it will defend itself against "these unwarranted allegations of wrongdoing." Veolia shares dipped 0.2 percent. In 2013, LAN worked with Flint to prepare the city's water plant to treat new sources of drinking water, including the Flint River, according to the lawsuit. LAN did not issue corrosion control measures in April 2014 and in August 2015 produced a report saying the water met federal safety requirements, failing to recognize the lead problem, according to the lawsuit. In a statement, LAN said it "was not hired to operate the water plant and had no responsibility for water quality." It will "vigorously defend itself against these unfounded claims," it said. Flint, with a population of about 100,000, was under control of a state-appointed emergency manager in 2014 when it switched its water source from Detroit's municipal system to the Flint River to save money. The city switched back in October. The river water was more corrosive than the Detroit system's and caused more lead to leach from its aging pipes. Lead can be toxic, and children are especially vulnerable. The crisis has prompted lawsuits by parents who say their children have shown dangerously high levels of lead in their blood. Last month, a Flint utilities administrator agreed to cooperate in investigations as part of a deal with prosecutors. Two state employees have been charged by Schuette's office, and he reaffirmed Wednesday that other employees would be charged as the investigation continues. Todd Flood, who is leading the state probe, said on Wednesday he has not received all documents that have been requested, including those from Governor Rick Snyder's office. Some people have criticized the governor and called on him to resign for the state's poor handling of the crisis. Malaysia rescues 29 trafficked Filipino women from bars By Beh Lih Yi JAKARTA, June 22 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Malaysian authorities have rescued 29 Filipino women who had been trafficked into the country to work, and arrested their agents, Filipino officials said on Wednesday, in the country's latest move to tackle the crime. Malaysia has an estimated 2 million illegal migrant labourers, some of whom work in conditions of forced labour in sectors ranging from electronics to palm oil to domestic service, according to the U.S. State Department. The Philippine embassy in Kuala Lumpur said it had contacted Malaysian police after it received tip-offs about some trafficked Filipino women, prompting a rescue operation. Malaysian police raided two bars in the coastal town of Bintulu in the eastern state of Sarawak on June 9 where they found the women, according to an embassy statement. It said traffickers brought the women to Sarawak as tourists and promised them jobs by converting their tourist visas into employment visas in exchange for money. "Under Malaysian immigration law, social visit passes (tourist visas) cannot be converted to work visas," the embassy said, urging Filipinos to be vigilant. The 29 women will be transferred to a women's shelter while an investigation is underway. Three individuals who allegedly acted as agents for the women, were arrested during the raid, the embassy statement said. It was not clear whether the trio have been charged in any court. The embassy could not be reached for immediate comment. The embassy urged Filipinos not to deal with unlicensed individuals or placement agencies as they could end up being victims of trafficking. Last month, 15 officials were fired after Malaysia discovered an immigration racket involving the sabotage of its security system at the country's main airport, heightening fears about human trafficking. Malaysia last year was upgraded by the U.S. State Department in its annual Trafficking in Persons Report to the Tier 2 Watch List from Tier 3, the lowest ranking for countries with the worst trafficking records. New Homebase owner reprieves UK stores set for closure By James Davey LONDON, June 22 (Reuters) - The new Australian owner of British home improvement retailer Homebase has reversed the previous management's programme of store closures, potentially saving as many as 700 jobs, its boss said on Wednesday. Bunnings, part of Australia's biggest retail group Wesfarmers Ltd, completed its 340 million pounds ($500 million) purchase of the 265-store Homebase chain from Home Retail in February. The firm then worked urgently to halt an existing store closure plan, Bunnings Chief Executive John Gillam told Reuters in a telephone interview. "There was almost a couple of dozen stores that were on the treadmill heading for closure, with some very advanced," he said. "We haven't been able to stop five but we have pulled back seven and we're working hard to pull back another 11." Gillam said that in total about 700 jobs could now be saved. "It's a line in the sand for the Homebase team to understand that we're here to build a business," he said, signalling confidence in the 38 billion pound UK home improvement market. Homebase competes with Kingfisher's B&Q stores and Travis Perkins' Wickes brand. Speaking from Sydney, where parent Wesfarmers earlier held its annual Strategy Day for investors, Gillam said he hoped to open the first UK Bunnings Warehouse test store in October. A further dozen pilots will follow as part of a plan to convert the entire Homebase estate to the Bunnings name and format in three years, with an investment of 500 million pounds. Bunnings has already changed Homebase's pricing strategy from one based on premium prices followed by discounts to a broader low pricing model, and ditched soft furnishings and indoor furniture lines. Indoor concessions, such as Argos and Habitat, installed by Home Retail, have also been removed. A three-man advisory board, including British retail veteran Archie Norman, a former chairman of supermarket Asda, is assisting Gillam. "We're repositioning Homebase, it needs to perform better," said Gillam, who has led Bunnings for 12 years. In the 2015-16 year, under Home Retail's ownership, Homebase made a profit of 23.5 million pounds on sales of 1.43 billion pounds. Its operating profit margin was just 1.6 percent. "The operating margins in more recent times of Homebase have been poor as measured against peer businesses in the UK, both in the sector and across retailing more broadly, and peer businesses globally," said Gillam. "I think it's a wonderful opportunity." Mexico's Pemex on alert for any new road blockades at top refinery MEXICO CITY, June 22 (Reuters) - Rowdy teacher protests in southern Mexico have caused delays and bottlenecks in transporting fuel from the country's top refinery in Salina Cruz, and state oil giant Pemex is on alert for new roadblocks, a company official said on Wednesday. Blockades on Tuesday caused long lines of tanker trucks unable to transport fuels for hours. Late last week, Pemex warned that road blockades by protesters could cause the facility's storage tanks to reach their limits and potentially force the company to shut the refinery, Pemex's biggest with a capacity to process 330,000 barrels of crude per day. "There's a problem with our storage capacity," the Pemex official said, asking not to be named because of company policy. He said the transport of waste and refined products had only been temporarily affected so far. A key highway used by the refinery to transport nearly all of the gasoline and diesel it produces has been specifically targeted in the past week by one of the most combative factions of Mexico's CNTE teachers union, a tactic often used to apply pressure and exact concessions from the government. "This is a serious problem," the Pemex official said. On Tuesday morning, members of CNTE's Section 22 in Oaxaca, fierce opponents of a 3-year-old government education reform, successfully cut off access to a highway known as the Carretera Transistmica, forcing dozens of tanker trucks to idle for hours. A stretch of the smaller, coastal highway 200 also was blocked, although both blockades were later dismantled. North Korea's missile launches 'brazen, irresponsible act' -U.N. chief By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS, June 22 (Reuters) - United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon described North Korea's latest ballistic missile launches as a "brazen and irresponsible act" ahead of a U.N. Security Council meeting on the issue on Wednesday. North Korea, or the DPRK, launched what appeared to be an intermediate-range missile on Wednesday to a high altitude in the direction of Japan before it plunged into the sea about two hours after a similar test failed. "The continued pursuit by the DPRK of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles will only undermine its security and fail to improve the lives of its citizens," Ban's spokesman, Farhan Haq, said. Haq added that the launch, "in defiance of the unanimous will of the international community, is a brazen and irresponsible act," Haq added. French U.N. Ambassador Francois Delattre, president of the 15-member council for June, said the missile launches were an "unacceptable violation" of a U.N. ban. A council meeting later on Wednesday was requested by the United States and Japan. "We want a quick and firm reaction of the Security Council on this," said Delattre. "We hope that ... we'll have a press statement on this." The tests were the latest in a string of demonstrations of military might that began in January with North Korea's fourth nuclear test and included the launch of a long-range rocket in February. North Korea has been under U.N. sanctions since 2006. In March, the Security Council imposed harsh new sanctions on the country. Indonesian president to assert sovereignty in islands visit By Kanupriya Kapoor and Agustinus Beo Da Costa JAKARTA, June 22 (Reuters) - The Indonesian president will travel to the Natuna Islands for the first time on Thursday to assert Indonesia's sovereignty, a senior official said, after China said earlier this week it had an "overlapping claim" over nearby waters. Beijing said on Monday that waters near the Natuna Islands were subject to overlapping claims on "maritime rights and interests" between China and Indonesia. Indonesia's foreign minister on Wednesday rejected China's stance, saying the waters were in Indonesian territory. "Our position is clear that claims can only be made on the basis of international law. For Indonesia, we don't have overlapping claims in any form in Indonesian waters with China," Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi told reporters. The chief security minister, foreign minister, and the heads of the individual military branches will accompany the president on his trip to Natuna, Cabinet Secretary Pramono Agung told reporters. Asked the reason for the trip, he told reporters, "Natuna is the territory of Indonesia, that is final. As head of the government and the state, the president wants to ensure that Natuna is part of Indonesia's sovereignty." The remote island chain has a small civilian population. Jakarta objects to Beijing's inclusion of waters around the islands within China's "nine-dash line", a demarcation line used by Beijing to show its claim to the South China Sea. Despite the objection, Indonesia is not part of a broader regional dispute over China's reclamation activities in the South China Sea and Beijing's claims on swathes of key waterways. China's Foreign Ministry said over the weekend that an Indonesian naval vessel fired on a Chinese fishing boat near the chain of islands on Friday, wounding one person. Indonesia's navy responded that it had fired warning shots at several boats with Chinese flags it accused of fishing illegally but that nobody had been wounded. It was the third reported confrontation near the Natuna Islands this year and comes amid rising regional tensions over China's assertiveness in the South China Sea. Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla told Reuters on Monday the Southeast Asian nation would be more assertive in protecting its exclusive right to the waters around the Natuna Islands. Despite this more assertive stance, Retno said relations between the two countries remained good. RBS receives bids for Greek shipping business - sources LONDON, June 22 (Reuters) - The Royal Bank of Scotland has received bids for its Greek shipping finance business which is worth about $3 billion as it looks to scale down on non-core activities, banking and financial sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. Credit Suisse and China Merchants were among the suitors bidding, the sources said. RBS and Credit Suisse declined to comment, while China Merchants did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment. The British bank, which was bailed out during the financial crisis, had previously been a top lender to the global shipping industry and its Greek office played a pivotal role. The business also includes a banking licence as well as some 40 staff, the sources said. "RBS has held preliminary discussions with a number of interested parties," one source said. In July 2015, Reuters reported RBS was winding down its Greek operation and putting its shipping loans portfolio up for sale. Qatar fund Mayhoola buys French fashion brand Balmain PARIS, June 22 (Reuters) - Qatari private investment company Mayhoola investment fund, owner of the Valentino brand, confirmed that it is set to acquire French luxury fashion label Balmain, the company said in a statement on Wednesday. Mayhoola gave no financial details, but sources told Reuters on Tuesday Mayhoola would pay more than 460 million euros ($522 million). The deal marks the end of months of negotiations between the Qataris and Balmain investors, who include Sanofi co-founder Jean-Francois Dehecq and the family of former chief executive and controlling shareholder Alain Hivelin, who died in 2014. Auctioneer gets year in U.S. prison for ivory, rhino horn smuggling By Brendan Pierson NEW YORK, June 22 (Reuters) - An executive with a Beverly Hills gallery and auction house was sentenced on Wednesday to one year and one day in prison after admitting that he conspired to smuggle at least $1 million in animal products that included rhino horn and elephant ivory. Joseph Chait, 38, a senior auction administrator for his family's business, I.M. Chait Gallery/Auctioneers, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Paul Oetken in Manhattan after pleading guilty in March to conspiring to smuggle wildlife products. His attorney, Judith Germano, had asked the judge for a sentence of community service. She said that Chait risked being cut off from his family, which raised him in the Church of Scientology, by cooperating with prosecutors. "My actions were wrong and I regret them every single day," Chait said before being sentenced. He also said that in a "weird way," he was grateful for the criminal case because it "has allowed me to break the chains of my upbringing." Prosecutors said that Chait falsified customs forms by stating ivory and rhino horn were made of bone, wood or plastic. After a rhino carving sold at auction for $230,000, Chait made false documents putting the value at $108.75, and saying the object was made of plastic, prosecutors said. He and others also sold ivory carvings to a Chinese dealer and provided them to that dealer's courier, even after learning the buyer had been arrested in China for smuggling ivory purchased from Chait's auction house, prosecutors said. The case comes as conservationists and law enforcement officials in the United States and globally have been trying to crack down on the illegal trade in products from the two threatened species. U.S. authorities say rhino horn-made libation cups and ornamental carvings made from elephant ivory are particularly in demand in Asia, namely China and Hong Kong. That is resulting in a thriving black market. Most species of rhinoceros are extinct or on the brink of extinction as a result, and elephants are under threat in many countries. The case is not the first to involve the I.M. Chait auction house. Actor Nicholas Cage in December agreed to turn over a rare stolen dinosaur skull he bought from I.M. Chait after U.S. authorities filed a civil forfeiture complaint seeking to take possession of the item so it could be repatriated to Mongolia. Killing of British lawmaker was "an act of terror", says husband By William James LONDON, June 22 (Reuters) - The widower of murdered British lawmaker Jo Cox said her killing was an act of terror as he paid tribute to his late wife on Wednesday alongside hundreds of mourners at an emotional memorial in London's Trafalgar Square. Cox died after she was shot and stabbed in the street in her constituency in northern England last week - an attack that shocked the country and prompted an outpouring of sympathy around the globe for the lifelong humanitarian campaigner. "Jo's killing was political. It was an act of terror designed to advance an agenda of hatred towards others," Brendan Cox said in a tearful speech to a large crowd packed into the London landmark. "What a beautiful irony it is that an act designed to advance hatred has instead generated such an outpouring of love." The vigil marking what would have been her 42nd birthday, and also attended by Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai, fell silent at 1518 GMT in a mark of respect also observed at other events across the country and around the world including in Beirut, Brussels, Melbourne, Nairobi, Geneva, New York and Washington. Cox's death has abruptly changed the tone of the final days of caustic campaign around a referendum on Britain's European Union membership, which takes place on Thursday, prompting a groundswell of support for a more positive campaign. "She feared the consequences of Europe dividing again, hated the idea of building walls, and worried about the dynamics that that could unleash," Brendan Cox said. The memorial included an offering of flowers by religious leaders of different faiths, music from the band that played at her wedding, and video tributes by rock star Bono and Cox's sister in the lawmaker's constituency. White roses, the flower of Cox's home region, Yorkshire, floated in the square's halted fountains. Cox's husband and their young son and daughter, whose London home was a houseboat, earlier waved to clapping crowds as they arrived by boat after mooring a dinghy filled with flowers in the River Thames outside the Houses of Parliament. Tributes from friends, family and former colleagues painted a picture of a hard-working, loving mother who had dedicated her life to women's issues, the plight of refugees fleeing war in Syria and most recently to those she represented in parliament. Before her election to parliament in May 2015, Cox had spent almost a decade working for aid agency Oxfam. A fund set up in her memory has so far raised 1.3 million pounds ($1.91 million). In Geneva, friends remembered her at a sunny lakeside vigil outside the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue where U.N. human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein was among those paying tribute. "Jo was very much a member of this community ... the very things that she shood for, she campaigned for, she poured her heart and soul into, was the very agenda that we all signed up for," Zeid told Reuters. RBS receives bids for Greek shipping business - sources By Jonathan Saul, Sophie Sassard and Andrew MacAskill LONDON, June 22 (Reuters) - The Royal Bank of Scotland has received bids for its Greek ship finance business, banking and financial sources familiar with the matter said, following a leap in bad shipping debts at the lender over the past few months. They told Reuters that the operation was worth about $3 billion although sources in the shipping business said that problems with lending to the industry, much of which is in a deep downturn, would affect the value of what could be recouped via a sale. Credit Suisse and China Merchants were among the suitors bidding, the sources said. RBS and Credit Suisse declined to comment, while China Merchants did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment. The British bank, which was rescued with a 46 billion-pound government bailout during the financial crisis, had previously been a top lender to the global shipping industry and its Greek office played a pivotal role. The business also includes a banking licence as well as about 40 staff, the sources said. "RBS has held preliminary discussions with a number of interested parties," one source said. "The big difference here is they are not selling a portfolio of loans but a business, with staff in it able to do the debt collection stuff." RBS, which is 73-percent state-owned, is in the midst of a restructuring aimed at returning the bank to profit after eight straight years of losses. In July 2015, Reuters reported it was winding down its Greek operation and putting its shipping loans portfolio up for sale. While the oil tanker trade has picked up, the container and dry bulk shipping industries are struggling with a glut of ships, a faltering global economy and weaker consumer demand. One shipping industry source said part of the RBS portfolio included non-performing loans due to the worsening conditions in some sectors. "RBS has tried to put this sale together for some time. In the past two quarters, conditions in shipping have got worse and that has had some effect on the portfolio," the source said. "That will mean that there will have to be some price-adjustment for whatever is on offer." Other sources said the loans could carry a 30 percent discount in order to attract interest, adding that some buyers may be interested only in parts of the business. "It depends on the level of interest and also how quick a sale they want," a ship finance source said. The bank's total shipping exposure reached 7.1 billion pounds ($10.4 billion) in the first quarter of this year, down from 7.5 billion pounds at the end of last year. Non-performing loans to the industry - those on which repayments are significantly in arrears - increased to 827 million pounds in the first quarter of this year from 434 million at the end of 2015, RBS said in its quarterly results. Reuters reported earlier this week that the European Central Bank has launched a review of banks' lending to the shipping sector. This has raised concerns among lenders that they may be required to set aside more capital and make higher loss provisions against loans to the industry. CHINESE INTEREST China Merchants, one of the country's biggest conglomerates, has been looking for cheap shipping and commodities-related assets in Europe, hoping to take advantage of the market downturn. In March sources told Reuters that China Merchants had made an informal bid to buy London's Baltic Exchange, which has been at the heart of global shipping for centuries. Greece agreed in April to sell a 67 percent stake in Piraeus port to Chinese shipping giant COSCO for 368.5 million euros ($416 million). "For a Chinese bank, buying RBS's Greek business is an inroad into Europe. For others like Credit Suisse, RBS will have to offer something more as Credit Suisse is already a big player now in Greece," another ship finance source said. Turkey blocking German official's visit to Incirlik base - Germany BERLIN, June 22 (Reuters) - Turkey is blocking the plans of a senior German defence official to visit Incirlik air base in July, a spokesman for the German defence ministry said on Wednesday, in a sign of increasingly tense relations between the two NATO allies. Germany has about 250 soldiers stationed at the base in southern Turkey, along with six Tornado reconnaissance jets and a refueling plane, all of which are participating in a U.S.-led air campaign against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria. "Turkish officials do not currently approve of the travel plans," a ministry spokesman said, confirming a report published by the website of the German magazine Spiegel. Ralf Brauksiepe, a deputy to German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen, had planned to visit the Incirlik military air base along with some German lawmakers next month, the spokesman said, adding that Berlin still hoped the trip could go ahead. Turkish officials were not immediately available for comment. Just last week, a German defence ministry spokesman had said the two countries were finalising an agreement on construction of new housing and aircraft facilities for German forces at the Incirlik air base, holding the deal up as evidence of the continued strength of German-Turkish military relations. Ties between Germany and Turkey have been strained over a number of issues, including a resolution adopted by the German parliament that declares the 1915 massacres of Armenians by Ottoman Turkish forces a genocide. Ankara strongly denies that the killings a century ago amount to a genocide. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is keen to stress common interests with Turkey as she presses to complete an EU-Turkey deal that would stem the flow of migrants to Europe in return for cash, visa-free travel rights for Turkish citizens and accelerated talks on Ankara's EU membership. But she faces pressure at home to take a tougher stance against Turkey over its treatment of human rights activists and recent statements by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan suggesting that German lawmakers of Turkish origin had "tainted blood". Roche CEO 'sleeps better' as risk to drugmaker's growth recedes By John Miller and Ben Hirschler LONDON, June 22 (Reuters) - Roche is increasingly confident it will continue to lift sales and profit even as cut-rate copies of the Swiss drugmaker's older cancer medicines start to grab business next year, its chief executive said on Wednesday. Big wins for three new drugs in recent months have helped to offset what Roche's Severin Schwan acknowledges as a serious threat from so-called biosimilars. "In terms of growth, I am now at the point where I sleep much better," Schwan told Reuters on a visit to London. In February the company won U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) breakthrough status for new multiple sclerosis drug Ocrevus. That was followed in May by U.S. approval of immuno-oncology drug Tecentriq for bladder cancer, with an expected sign-off for lung cancer waiting in the wings. Then came a surprise early announcement that Roche's blood cancer drug Gazyva worked better than an older drug. Together, these developments have boosted Schwan's optimism that Roche can more than replace income lost as rivals such as Novartis and Mylan begin selling biosimilar copies of older Roche drugs in the second half of 2017. REDUCED RISK "I would have been much more cautious 12 or 18 months ago, but the situation has been substantially de-risked since then," Schwan said. Roche has said that sales will increase by a low to mid-single-digit percentage this year, with profit outpacing revenue growth, but it has not given any longer-term forecasts. Prospects could be enhanced further by positive outcomes in trials testing other potential blockbuster drugs, including ACE910, for haemophilia, and lampalizumab, for sight loss. Roche is also awaiting results of the Aphinity trial that pairs Perjeta with Herceptin in breast cancer patients and could triple the commercial opportunity for Perjeta. "People are very optimistic about it -- actually, so are we," Schwan said. Roche's three established cancer blockbusters Rituxan, Herceptin and Avastin, which account for annual sales of nearly 20 billion Swiss francs ($21 billion), all face biosimilar competition by the end of the decade. All are antibody drugs that have proved to be huge commercial hits, which is why companies such as Novartis and Mylan are seeking to copy them. The first biosimilar antibody to come to market -- a copy of arthritis drug Remicade that is now on sale in Europe -- has gained market share faster than expected, knocking sales of the original product from Merck by more than 40 percent in two years. DISCOUNT CONCERNS Discounting could cut even deeper, however. Novartis CEO Joe Jimenez has forecast price cuts as high as 75 percent on copied products. Despite such projections, Schwan still thinks discounts are likely to be between 30 percent and 60 percent. "It has not changed our view," he said of the Remicade experience. On the acquisitions front, Roche will continue to make smaller deals to add early-stage drugs to its portfolio, Schwan said, but his view that the biotech market remains overpriced means that larger transactions are unlikely. "It is still overvalued," he said, adding that recent corrections have not brought valuations back to fundamental levels. Other companies may need to go on a buying spree to fill depleted pipelines, but Schwan rates the chances of Roche doing a big deal as "very low". Uncertainty over biosimilars has cast a cloud over 48-year-old Schwan's eight years at the helm, but he intends to stick around for a while yet if the board plays along. His time at the top is lengthy by the standards of the Swiss group's peers but hardly an anomaly at Roche, which has had only seven chief executives in 120 years. "It's not up to me to decide how long I can do this job, but the one thing you see at Roche is very long tenures at the top," he said. ($1 = 0.9580 Swiss francs) Merkel says NATO must be strengthened BERLIN, June 22 (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday underscored her government's commitment to strengthening NATO's eastern flank, days after her foreign minister warned against "sabre-rattling" that could escalate tensions with Russia. Merkel said Germany would continue to do engage in regular dialogue with Russia but also saw "new threats" close to Europe, and was determined to both increase its own military spending and strengthen the NATO alliance. "The (German coalition) government as a whole has agreed to the NATO decision that over the longer term we should dedicate 2 percent of gross domestic product to defence spending," she told a news conference after a meeting with Polish officials. "I think that will be supported by everyone in the government ... That is the position of the government." Merkel's comment came three days after Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier sparked a firestorm with remarks that cautioned against antagonising Russia. "What we shouldn't do now is to inflame the situation by loud sabre-rattling and shrill war cries," he told Bild newspaper. "Whoever believes that symbolic tank parades on the alliance's eastern border will bring more security is mistaken," Steinmeier said. "We are well-advised not to create pretexts to renew an old confrontation." A spokesman for Steinmeier on Tuesday denied the remarks were linked directly to NATO exercises and plans to increase NATO troop levels in eastern Europe. Steinmeier's remarks revealed growing divisions between his left-leaning Social Democrats and Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats in Germany's coalition government. Germany is set for a federal election next year. Steinmeier spoke in a parliamentary debate on Wednesday to mark the anniversary of Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union. "When the security situation changes - and it has - then we have to adapt our military capabilities. But we cannot at the same time fall prey to the illusion that military strength alone leads to security," he said. Steinmeier has called for a gradual easing of European sanctions against Russia as it makes progress in implementing the Minsk peace deal for eastern Ukraine, in contrast with Merkel's insistence that sanctions can only be lifted once the deal is fully implemented. During Wednesday's debate, Steinmeier criticised Russia's annexation of the Crimea region of Ukraine, but said Germany could also never forget its own invasion of the Soviet Union 75 years ago. U.S. envoy talks with Venezuela's president Maduro amid crisis By Andrew Cawthorne and Girish Gupta CARACAS, June 22 (Reuters) - Veteran U.S. diplomat Tom Shannon met with Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro on Wednesday to re-start talks between the ideologically-opposed governments amid a punishing economic crisis in the South American OPEC nation. Shannon, who led a similar rapprochement last year that stalled over the jailing of protest leader Leopoldo Lopez, also met with opposition figures on his visit to Caracas. During 17 years of socialist rule under Maduro and his predecessor Hugo Chavez, Venezuela has replaced Cuba as Washington's principle irritant in the Americas. The United States is backing an opposition push to hold a referendum this year that could see Maduro ousted. However, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Venezuelan Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez agreed last week to re-start talks. Shannon and Maduro, 53, met after lunch in the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, but there was no immediate word on the content of their talks. On Tuesday, Shannon met with opposition leaders including Henrique Capriles, the two-time presidential candidate who lost to both Chavez and Maduro and is now spearheading the push for a referendum. Maduro may be hoping the meeting eases international pressure on him, analysts and diplomats said, while Washington likely calculates a rapprochement undermines Venezuela's constant blame on "imperialist" foes for the nation's problems. "Kerry indicated last week that the U.S. wants to see a recall referendum this year, and bilateral talks will help to offset what would otherwise be fodder for Maduro to declare that the U.S. is trying to overthrow his regime," the Eurasia consultancy group said. "PHOTO OPS" Shannon, a former U.S. ambassador to Brazil and current Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs who speaks Spanish and Portuguese, was likely to press for the release of jailed opponents including Lopez. The Venezuelan politician was sentenced to nearly 14 years for instigating 2014 anti-Maduro protests that led to violence killing 43 people across both sides. Rights groups say the trial was a farce. After meeting Shannon on Tuesday, Capriles said Maduro was seeking to use dialogue to buy himself time due to his inability to solve Venezuela's worsening economic crisis. "Someone who has not eaten for five days cannot wait for dialogue," he said, referring to widespread food shortages around the nation of 30 million people. "We're not here for photo ops. Venezuela doesn't have time for that." Since Chavez took office in 1999, Venezuela and the United States have gone through cycles of diplomatic fighting followed by generally short-lived eras of reconciliation. They have been without ambassadors since 2010. In Turkey's tussle with the EU, Erdogan thinks he holds the cards By Nick Tattersall and Paul Taylor ISTANBUL/BRUSSELS, June 22 (Reuters) - Britain's Brexit campaign and the rise of Europe's populist right have further dented Turkish hopes of ever joining the EU, leaving President Tayyip Erdogan largely indifferent to its criticism and weakening an anchor of Turkish reform. While neither side has any interest in ending Turkey's decade-long accession process, their relations are increasingly transactional, driven by mutual need in areas such as migration, trade and security, rather than by convergence towards European Union norms on democracy and basic rights. Warnings from populist leaders around Europe of creeping Islamisation and from campaigners for a British exit from the EU of dire consequences if Turkey, a Muslim nation of 78 million, ever joins, have led Turkish leaders to complain increasingly openly about what they see as European Islamophobia. "Europe, you don't want us because the majority of our population are Muslim ... We knew it but we tried to show our sincerity," Erdogan said at a graduation ceremony in Istanbul on Wednesday, the eve of Britain's "Brexit" vote, quipping that Turkey too could hold such a referendum. "We will go and ask the public whether we should continue negotiations with the EU," he said. Turkey has so far lived up to its side of a landmark deal with Brussels to stop illegal migration to Europe via its shores, in return for financial aid, the promise of visa-free travel to much of the bloc and accelerated talks on membership. But it has alarmed EU leaders by pressing ahead with a crackdown on Erdogan's opponents, including moves to prosecute pro-Kurdish opposition politicians on terrorism charges, the detention of journalists and academics, and changes in the judiciary seen by critics as a purge of dissident judges. "The EU-Turkey deal (on migration) is holding and there's no reason to fear it won't hold, despite the public bluster," a senior EU source told Reuters, pointing out that the numbers of illegal migrants crossing from Turkey had dropped sharply. "But there are grounds to be quite worried about Turkey's overall direction of travel," the source said, pointing to the plans to remove hundreds of judges and to the recent lifting of immunity for members of parliament, a step towards the prosecution of opposition deputies. Turkey has so far refused to back down on a key sticking point in the bid to secure visa-free travel to Europe's 26-nation Schengen area, namely EU demands that it change sweeping anti-terrorism laws used against intellectuals, Kurdish sympathisers and Erdogan's critics. That risks further antagonizing a sceptical European Parliament, the EU's most vocal institution on human rights and freedom, which has to approve visa liberalisation. Turkey says the anti-terror laws are crucial when an insurgency by militants in its largely Kurdish southeast is at its most violent since the 1990s, and when it faces a growing threat from Islamic State fighters from neighbouring Syria. "A change of attitude is out of the question," Yasin Aktay, deputy chairman of the ruling AK Party, told Reuters. But officials on both sides are hoping for a compromise. Some EU leaders, notably Donald Tusk, the former Polish premier who chairs EU summits and was involved in negotiating the migrant deal with Erdogan, argue that Turkey should not get all the credit for the decline in migrant arrivals. Tightening borders and sealing off Greece from the rest of Europe had delivered a drop before the deal with Ankara was signed, an EU official said, suggesting Turkey was not in as strong a negotiating position as it might think. "We feel that we have the leverage. We are not solely in the hands of Turkey," the official said. Brussels aides also note that Ankara's ties with Russia, the United States, Syria, Iran and Israel are all strained, hence it needs better relations with the EU. DOMESTIC PRIORITIES European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said last month Erdogan should "think twice" before refusing to change the anti-terrorism laws and warned he would "have to explain to the Turkish people why he is responsible for them not getting the right to travel freely in Europe". The combative Turkish leader, well used to demonising the EU to his loyal supporters, is seeking popular backing to change the constitution and boost his powers. He is counting on the support of nationalists more interested in seeing him take a hard line on Kurdish militants than kowtow to Brussels. "Fundamentally, Erdogan may have calculated that as much as visa freedom would be a positive development, it is not enough of a benefit for him to be seen to be soft on terror," said Sinan Ulgen, chairman of Istanbul-based think tank EDAM. Such political calculation will increasingly lie at the heart of Turkey's dealings with the EU, Ulgen said, predicting Ankara would cooperate with Brussels only in areas where it saw a clear strategic interest. "For all practical purposes the accession dynamic is dead ... In a way it has become inconsequential as far as Erdogan is concerned," said Ulgen, a visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe and a former diplomat in Turkey's EU delegation. "It will be a piecemeal effort to concoct areas of common interest and build structures of cooperation as the need arises ... That has been the case for refugees, that will be the case for economic integration, possibly for cooperation on counter-terrorism, and areas like that." Turkey will take a modest step forward in the accession process on June 30 when it opens a new chapter of negotiations with the EU on budget policy. EU officials say the European Commission will adopt a draft negotiating mandate in October or November to widen a 20-year customs union with Ankara, a bigger potential prize which they believe reformist parts of the government are determined to secure and which they hope will give Brussels extra leverage. Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek, seen as one of few reformers in a new government dominated by allies of Erdogan, told Reuters last week that such a deal to extend the union to cover services, agriculture and public procurement could make Turkey the bloc's third largest trade partner. But he said Turkey's influence in the Middle East, its role as an energy hub and its importance as an intelligence partner meant relations with Europe were not a one-way street. "Europe needs Turkey if it wants to have a stronger say in international affairs in this geography, if it wants energy supply security, if it wants even overall security," he said. Nigerian gunmen kidnap expatriate cement workers in southern city CALABAR, Nigeria, June 22 (Reuters) - Gunmen in southern Nigeria kidnapped three expatriate cement industry workers and killed their local driver in an early morning attack, police said on Wednesday. The workers, two of whom later escaped, were contractors for cement company Lafarge Africa. Two were Australians and one a New Zealander. They were attacked on the outskirts of the city of Calabar at around 05:30 a.m. (0430 GMT), police said. Two of the trio managed to flee, Irene Ugbo, a spokeswoman for Cross River state police, adding she did not know the nationality of the workers still being held. The kidnappers had yet to contact police, she said. Lafarge Africa said it had been informed of the incident by Australian contractor Macmahon. U.S. hopes for 'group of friends' to help Venezuela By Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON, June 22 (Reuters) - Washington has high hopes for an Organization of American States meeting on Venezuela on Thursday, which could lead to the formation of an alliance of interested nations to help resolve its crisis, a top State Department official said. "Tomorrow's meeting is in our view a very important meeting," Annie Pforzheimer, acting deputy assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs, testified at a House of Representatives subcommittee hearing on Wednesday. "We could see the formation of something like a 'group of friends' from the OAS member states who would... try to work with the parties in Venezuela and urge them to pursue sustainable solutions there," she said. Once one of Latin America's most prosperous nations, OPEC nation Venezuela is grappling with a harsh economic slowdown. Long lines for food and medicines have led to protests and calls for a recall referendum to remove President Nicolas Maduro. Pforzheimer said that Luis Almagro, the OAS secretary-general, had written up a detailed examination of the situation in Venezuela and that the United States expected him to speak to member states about it. Secretary of State John Kerry launched high-level talks to ease tensions with Venezuela's socialist government earlier this month. On Wednesday, U.S. diplomat Tom Shannon met with Maduro in Caracas to restart the talks. Kerry said when he announced the talks that Washington did not support a push by Almagro to suspend Venezuela from the OAS for alleged violations of the regional group's charter. The former Uruguayan foreign minister appears isolated in that respect, with even right-wing governments opposed to Maduro balking at throwing him out. During the hearing, House members expressed deep concern about the Venezuelan situation, including worries about a potential migration crisis in nearby countries and human rights violations. After the hearing, U.S. Representative Jeff Duncan, the subcommittee's chairman, said that he would support the United States sending food and medicine to assist Venezuela, if Venezuela accepted them. "We should send some humanitarian relief, food, medicine, technical expertise, whatever is necessary to get their electrical grid up and running, but the Maduro government's got to be open to that," he told reporters. However, Duncan said he was not aware that any such assistance effort was under way. Some members of Congress have called for more sanctions on Venezuela to push it to release political prisoners and allow more freedom of assembly and expression. Anti-money laundering body seen keeping Iran on blacklist -officials By Louis Charbonneau, Jonathan Saul and Parisa Hafezi UNITED NATIONS/LONDON/ANKARA, June 22 (Reuters) - An international group that monitors money laundering worldwide is expected to decide this week to keep Iran on its blacklist of high-risk countries despite aggressive lobbying by Tehran to come off the list to help it access the global financial system, Western officials said. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), established in 1989 to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction, compiles the list, which it regularly updates. Its 37 member states are meeting in South Korea. "No changes to Iran's status on the blacklist are imminent, though I think perhaps we can expect some words of encouragement and recognition of Iran's attempts to make progress," said one Western official familiar with FATF discussions, who asked not to be named. Two other Western officials concurred this week with the opinion that Iran would not be taken off the blacklist at this time. Tehran has complained that it is not getting economic benefits it was promised during last year's negotiations on a nuclear deal with six major powers. As a result of that agreement, many international sanctions against Iran were lifted. The United States, however, still has sanctions in place that prohibit trade with Iran in dollars and Iranian access to New York's financial system. Financial Action Task Force spokeswoman Alexandra Wijmenga-Daniel responded to a request for comment by saying the group would publish an update on high-risk and non-cooperative jurisdictions after the session later this week. Getting off the FATF blacklist, which also lists North Korea, would remove a major hurdle Iran faces in dealing with outside banks and other financial institutions. Iranian and Western officials have said that is why Tehran has been pushing hard to come off the list or at least to have the current FATF warning about it softened. Paris-based FATF said earlier this year that it remained "particularly and exceptionally concerned" about what it called Iran's "failure to address the risk of terrorist financing and the serious threat this poses to the integrity of the international financial system." The burden of proof is on Iran to show that these concerns are unfounded. Iran has said such criticism is unfair and contributes to the reluctance of major Western banks and financial institutions to do business with it, despite encouragement from U.S. President Barack Obama's administration. Many large banks are disinclined to deal with Iran for fear of violating remaining U.S. sanctions. Since January, Iran has secured banking links only with smaller financial institutions. A spokeswoman for the European Union's foreign policy section declined to comment until the FATF meeting had ended. The United States also declined to comment, though a U.S. Treasury Department official said, "We are confident that the FATF will treat Iran fairly." One Iranian official said there had been multiple meetings between senior Iranian and European officials in recent months "to help Iran get off the blacklist." He said the head of Iran's central bank had discussed the FATF issue with U.S. officials during a recent visit to the United States. "We are very optimistic," he said. Adding to the unwillingness of international businesses to work with Iran is apprehension over the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' (IRGC) hold on the economy. The IRGC was the driving force behind Iran's nuclear program, its money laundering activities and its foreign military activities, and remains subject to extensive international sanctions. Another Iranian official said the IRGC had hoped to use its front companies and banks to cash in after sanctions were lifted but was disappointed that foreign investors had shunned them. Businesses are also wary about wading into Iranian waters until after the U.S. presidential election in November. "If (Donald) Trump becomes the next president, then he says he'll tear up the Iran deal," a European official said. "Hesitancy on the part of business is understandable." European banking sources told Reuters that regardless of Iran's status on the FATF blacklist, they are not ready to do business with Iran because of the high risks. The United States has sought to assure international companies that doing legitimate business with Tehran is acceptable. Last month U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told a meeting of bank executives in London that European banks should not fear punishment from the United States for resuming legitimate trade with Iran. S&P says Brexit would prompt swift downgrade of Britain -Bild FRANKFURT, June 23 (Reuters) - A downgrade of Britain's AAA credit rating by Standard and Poor's (S&P) could come quickly after a vote in favour of leaving the European Union, S&P chief sovereign ratings officer Moritz Kraemer told German daily Bild. "If Great Britain decides for a Brexit in the EU referendum on Thursday, then the AAA credit rating would come due and would be downgraded within a short period of time," Bild quoted Kraemer as saying in a summary of an article to be published on Thursday. Kraemer repeated that the political situation in Britain would become less predictable and rational, partly because there was no real post-Brexit plan, Bild reported. My Sunday afternoon was spent watching a Bollywood film titled Talvar, which literally translates to Sword. The film was far different from a traditional story with no song and dance and was stirring the very sensitive issue of the Indian society. In Pakistan, honour killings get the cover of religion. It was based on the true story of the Aarushi-Hemraj double murder, which took place in 2008 in Noida, India. The case caught media attention because a 14-year-old girl was found dead in her bedroom, her throat slit, and the main suspect was a 45-year-old family servant. But when his body was found on the apartment rooftop the next morning, her parents were accused of the two murders, and later convicted by the lower court. Currently, they are serving a prison sentence while their appeal is pending before a higher court in India. The movie showed the incompetence of the state police as well as the justice system of India, like neighbouring Pakistan. Aarushi's parents are convicted for honour killing on the basis of a weak investigative procedure, according to the film. According to the police, the couple found their daughter in a "compromising position with the servant and killed them both in a fit of rage. After the film ended, I invested a few hours reading different honour killing cases in India. Another case was the Manoj-Babli honour killing of 2007. Manoj and Babli, who were from the same clan in Haryana, eloped and ran away. The Khap - a caste-based kangaroo court in villages - that runs parallel to the judiciary in a democracy like India, ordered to kill both Manoj and Babli. The reason of the verdict was that they both belonged to same clan and marrying within the clan is considered incestuous in that village or may be in many villages in India. After a few days, Manoj and Babli were killed by the brides family. This case too gained media's attention. The judge convicted the Khap and the brides family. Indian media and legal experts hailed the court's decision as it was first time ever in the history of India that the grooms mother had filed a case against honour killing and the culprits convicted. The significance of the case was that a woman had stood up to such inhumane practices, which are mostly carried out against women in the society. Across the border in Pakistan, two recent cases have sparked condemnation throughout the country. In one case, a pregnant woman and her husband were abducted and shot dead by a womans family, who were not happy with their daughters marriage. The bodies were found in a water canal and the murder took place at a village in Punjab province. According to the police, this is a case of honour killing. Just a week before this incident, 16-year-old girl, Zeenat Bibi, was burnt to death by her mother and family because she married a man from a different ethnic background. Zeenats mother accepted the crime; according to her, Zeenat had brought shame to their family, and therefore she deserved it. These are few examples of honour killings that happening in India and Pakistan regularly. The research shows that the practice is happening around the Middle East and Africa as well. The Aarushi case shows that it is convenient for the justice system to close a case by declaring it an honour killing despite with weak evidence. Evidently, such killings have nothing to do with religion - they have a cultural motive. In 2004, female parliamentarian Kashmala Tariq raised arguments in favour of a couple who eloped: "How can they (families of bride or groom) stop a couple marrying of their own free will when Islam permits them?" A male member, Sardar Salim Jan Mazari, hailing from rural Sindh, replied: "We should respect cultural traditions of our society before making any laws to check such killings in the country". In Pakistan, honour killings get the cover of religion because under the so-called Islamic legislation enacted by the 1980s military ruler Zia ul-Haq, the upheld murderers could seek pardon from the victim's family under the Islamic principles of compromise. This law since then has remained unchanged and led to a surge in honour killings in Pakistan. Legal experts say that such laws, especially against women, have been grossly misused. But unfortunately, the strict laws and the justice system of western societies couldnt stop the disease of honour killing in Europe, USA or Canada. In United States, FBIs Uniform Crime Reporting Statistics shows an estimated 27 victims of honour crime every year. Those crimes include domestic violence, forced marriage, female genital mutilation and honour killings. Estimates suggest 91 percent girls have been killed because they were labelled as too westernised by their family members. The more cases I researched, the more disturbing it got. Although most victims were women, there were few males as well. According to Ayaan Hirsi Ali Foundations executive director, Stephanie Baric, the males are assumed to be homosexual or pressured to commit suicide if they dont agree to arranged marriages. Choosing a life partner of one's liking should be and is allowed in all civilised cultures and all religions around the world. But regrettably, in FBIs report, the cases of honour killings were interpreted as a manifestation of radical Islam, which is untrue. The woman has always been the easiest tool of violence around the world, be it domestic in the West or honour killing in the East or rape cases of battlefields. The only thing which can combat the issue is if women from all walks of life come forward to speak up against the crime and clearly in support of the suppressed women, whether politicians, journalists, social activists, lawyers, mothers or doctors. The issue of India's membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) has been the focus of significant public and media attention over the past few weeks. It appears to have emerged as the single-most critical foreign policy priority for the Modi government. The government is according so much importance to the issue that Prime Minister Narendra Modi hurriedly decided to include visits to Switzerland and Mexico during his tour to the US - to obtain categorical support for India's membership at the NSG plenary in Seoul on June 23-24. It is a reflection on Modi that he was able to get unequivocal support from the two countries, although they had initially opposed India's entry into NSG in 2008. Opposition Under normal circumstances, the issue would not have assumed such importance. What appears to have brought it in the spotlight is the blatant opposition by China to India's entry into the elite nuclear club. Over the past few weeks Beijing has issued several statements maintaining that no single country waiver should be granted to India. It stated that India, in any case, is not eligible to become a member of NSG as it is not a member of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT), adherence to which is necessary for the entry. At other times Beijing stated that Pakistan too has similar credentials to join the NSG. China has said in no uncertain terms that India's membership will "jeopardise" China's national interests and touch a "raw nerve" in Pakistan. None of China's contentions appears to hold much water. Yet, it will be useful to understand what the purpose and mandate of NSG is. It is doubtless true that NSG was established in the wake of India's Pokhran tests in 1974. The intent and purpose of NSG, however, are different from that of NPT. NSG is not an international treaty. It is a group of "nuclear supplier countries that seeks to contribute to non-proliferation of nuclear weapons through implementation of two sets of guidelines for nuclear exports and nuclear-related exports". After more than 25 years of its establishment, some suggested guidelines were evolved in 2001 at Aspen for admitting new members to the organisation. Amongst them, membership of NPT is only a guideline, a consideration, and not a mandatory requirement while deciding on a country's application. China has itself come out openly in opposition to India's membership. India is keen to become a member of NSG and other export control regimes as it seeks to significantly expand its nuclear power generation and also enter the export market in coming years. Although the 2008 waiver by NSG does provide significant possibilities to India to engage in civilian nuclear trade with other countries (and indeed, India has entered into such agreements with several countries like Russia, France, UK, US, Kazakhstan, Australia and others), membership of NSG will provide greater certainty and legal foundation to India's nuclear regime. This would also provide greater confidence to countries who invest billions of dollars for setting up ambitious nuclear power projects in India. Performance India's track record in observing the provisions of NPT and NSG while not being a member of either body is impeccable. If NSG was able to grant waiver to India in 2008 on the basis of its past performance, it should have no objection to admitting it as a member this time. It is, however, obvious that decision on June 23-24 in Seoul will be taken by some countries on political considerations rather than on merit. Usually China has been seen to stay in the background and put up smaller countries in the forefront to articulate opposition to any issue that it does not concur with. This time, in addition to instigating smaller countries to raise objections, China has itself come out openly in opposition to India's membership. Since all decisions at NSG are taken by consensus, any country - small or big - can stand in the way of consensus. Diplomacy India has, however, launched a blitzkrieg of hectic diplomatic activity to explain its position and overcome opposition of a few countries. It has also reached out to China to explain that its interest in NSG membership is not guided by any political or strategic considerations but only to facilitate expansion of its clean and green nuclear energy programme. India took the unusual step of dispatching its foreign secretary S Jaishankar to Beijing to hold discussions on this and other important issues. If the issue goes to the wire, PM Modi is expected to take up the issue with President Xi Jinping in Tashkent where both leaders are likely to be present for the SCO Summit later this week. Most questions raised by China against India's membership have little validity. For instance, membership of NPT is not a condition for becoming a member of NSG. It is only a guiding principle to which consideration needs to be given. Pakistan's credentials for NSG membership are highly flawed and inadequate. Over the last eight years India has separated its reactors which are under IAEA safeguards and those which are not. Pakistan has not undertaken any such exercise. Decision at the NSG plenary session in Seoul will depend on China's stance. With Russian President Vladimir Putin assuring India that he would try to convince China, India can be reasonably hopeful. Supervisors and economic development experts say it is important to have proper zoning in place for an economic development prospect, and say the land in question near the Shenandoah Valley Regional Airport has multiple advantages. The land is across the road from the airport, adjacent to Interstate 81 and just a couple of miles from Blue Ridge Community College where workforce training is available. The area also has the necessary water and sewer. Under the proposed changes, 494 acres of the land would be rezoned from general agricultural to industrial. That change is the key one. Another 20 acres of neighboring property would change from general agriculture to airport business. The latter change would be for increased services or development related to the airport. Both parcels of land are currently owned by Blue Mountain Investments. Robin Sullenberger is former CEO of the Shenandoah Valley Partnership and a current Virginia Community College System board member. He said the 494-acre site in question has long been on the economic development radar in Virginia. Sullenberger said the proper zoning for the land would present "a huge benefit to Augusta County's ability to recruit." Sullenberger said major industrial projects that were once considered "are few and far between in today's world." A decade ago, Weyers Cave was a potential industrial megasite target for a Toyota plant. But Augusta County Economic Development Director Amanda Glover said development of the 494-acre site would be more compatible for the area and could be accommodated. The greater likelihood is that the land being rezoned would present opportunities for different-sized companies, Sullenberger said. But without the proper zoning, he said the area could be eliminated as an industry location before serious consideration. Middle River District Supervisor Gerald Garber, who represents Weyers Cave, said there is no current prospect for the land. Garber envisions an industry locating on the land similar to the county's Shamrock Farms in Mill Place Commerce Park in Verona. "Like a Shamrock, it would have a lot of equipment and high paying jobs,'' Garber said. The milk processing operation of Shamrock Farms has invested more than $50 million and created about 60 jobs, according to Glover. She said the company also purchases milk locally. Because of Shamrock's technology, it has not created a large industrial footprint on the area with increased truck traffic, Glover said. Glover said the land set for rezoning has been part of the county's comprehensive plan for industrial development since 1987. She said the property is "uniquely positioned for clean, high tech industry that would provide our community with high-paying jobs and investment.'' Larry Wills, who was Garber's predecessor on the board of supervisors, said he had alerted community members to the potential zoning change before leaving office last year. He said the property could absorb multiple small industries and still have enough land to buffer the neighboring small farms. Sullenberger said there are no guarantees about potential economic investment, but said "the risk factors are significantly diminished'' if the property is marketable and profitable. You may contact Bob Stuart at (540) 932-3562 or bstuart@newsvirginian.com. WASHINGTON--Months before the 1940 Republican convention nominated Wendell Willkie, Alice Roosevelt Longworth, Theodore Roosevelts waspish daughter, said that Willkies support sprang from the grass roots of a thousand country clubs. There actually was a Republican establishment in 1940, when GOP elites created a nominee ex nihilo. According to Charles Peters book Five Days in Philadelphia, three months before the convention, Willkie registered zero percent in polls measuring public sentiment about potential Republican nominees. This was not surprising: He was a businessman president of Commonwealth & Southern Corp., the nations largest electric utility holding company who had given substantial support to Franklin Roosevelt in 1932. Willkie had never sought public office and had not registered as a Republican until late 1939 or early 1940. And he was not an isolationist regarding European events. Eighty percent of Americans were more or less isolationist, as were the three strongest Republican candidates Ohio Sen. Robert Taft, Michigan Sen. Arthur Vandenberg and New York prosecutor Thomas Dewey, just 38 but favored by 60 percent in early 1940 polls. Herbert Hoover hoped a deadlocked convention would turn to him. The Republicans Eastern establishment, however, was interventionist to the extent of favoring aid to Britain. The adjective Eastern was superfluous: Two-thirds of Americans lived east of the Mississippi (Californias population was under 7 million) and the South was solidly Democratic. The Republican establishment had power and the will to exercise it. As the convention drew near, Willkie Clubs suddenly sprouted like dandelions, but not spontaneously. Their growth was fertilized by Oren Root, a lawyer with the Manhattan law firm of Davis, Polk, Wardwell, Gardner & Reed, whose clients included the J.P. Morgan banking empire. Root began seeking support for Willkie with a mailing to Princetons class of 1924 and Yales class of 1925. Another close Willkie adviser was Thomas Lamont, chairman of the board of J.P. Morgan & Co. Roots uncle Elihu had been a U.S. senator and Theodore Roosevelts secretary of war. By opposing his friend TRs bid to defeat President William Howard Taft for the 1912 Republican nomination, Elihu Root helped to rescue the country from having both parties devoted to progressivism. One of the few politicians among Willkies early backers was Sam Pryor, Republican national committeeman, whom the candidate met at the Greenwich Country Club, naturally. Willkies top adviser was Russell Davenport, managing editor of Henry Luces Fortune magazine, which together with Time and Life made Luce, an ardent interventionist, a mass media power unlike anyone before or since. The April issue of Fortune was almost entirely devoted to praise of Willkie. Look magazine, second only to Life in importance, chimed in, as did Readers Digest, which had the nations largest magazine circulation. On April 9, Dewey won a second of the few primaries and Hitler invaded Norway and Denmark, with Belgium, Holland and France soon to follow. Willkie said he would vote for FDR over a Republican opposed to aiding Britain and France. Willkie, the barefoot boy from Wall Street, cultivated an Indiana aura, but had become a Manhattan fixture, and by 1937 his criticism of the New Deal had Fortune applauding his presidential stature, and the letters column of the New York Herald Tribune, the Republican establishments house organ, concurred. In May, The Atlantic Monthly carried a Willkie essay, in June it was the Saturday Evening Posts turn. In July, Time featured a celebratory cover story on him. Madison Avenue titans of advertising Bruce Barton of BBDO and John Young of Young and Rubicam joined the effort. Root would have a meeting for Willkie, under the clock at the Biltmore, followed by another at the University Club or Century Club. Between May 8 and June 21, Willkies support rose from 3 percent to 29 percent. Willkie also was lucky: In May, the Taft man in charge of tickets had a stroke and was replaced by a Willkie man who would pack the gallery with raucous Willkie supporters, including a Yale law student named Gerald Ford. The Herald Tribune endorsed Willkie in its first front-page editorial and tens of thousands of pro-Willkie telegrams inundated delegates in one day. Delegates heard from their hometown bankers, who had heard pro-Willkie instructions from New York bankers. He won on the sixth ballot. Willkies nomination neutralized much Republican opposition to FDRs war preparations and was crucial to the narrow congressional approval of conscription. Willkie lost the election, but the coming war would be won. Time was, party establishments had their uses. George Wills email address is georgewill@washpost.com. LONDON - England - The EEF's and TUC's claims about the European Union are completely ridiculous and misguided. The TUC and the EEF have both been consistently wrong about the EU most notably in their support for joining the euro. In hindsight it would have been an utter disaster for the UK economy if wed followed their advice. The EEF supported joining the single currency, claiming the UK was playing Russian roulette with manufacturing jobs by staying out. The TUC supported the single currency, claiming it would be a grave error to stay out in the cold. Seven in ten economists took the same view and said we should scrap the pound. If we had followed their advice fifteen years ago, our economy would be in a disastrous condition. The real risk to the economy comes from staying tied to the failing Eurozone and having to pay its bills. If we Vote Leave, we can create 300,000 new jobs by taking back control over trade policy. The EEF supported joining the Exchange Rate Mechanism and then the single currency, claiming the UK could become a Third World economy if it did not join. The EEF said in 2000 of the Governments decision not to scrap the pound immediately that: The longer it goes on, the Government will just be playing Russian roulette with manufacturing jobs. The Engineering Employers Federation is backing the CBIs call for the government to make a stronger case for the euro. The government isnt leading the debate, said Martin Temple, EEF director-general. The Engineering Employers Federation, which represents some of Britains biggest businesses, is urging the Chancellor to set a date for entry to the single European currency. While welcoming last Mondays Commons statement committing the Government to the principle of signing up for the euro in the next Parliament, EEF director -general Graham Mackenzie said no sensible company would devote significant resources to prepare for Emu without a more precise timetable. Mackenzie, who represents companies including GKN and Vickers, said: We would urge the Chancellor to work with business in order to draw up a realistic convergence programme, based on a provisional date for entry. A campaign to stop manufacturing industry entering the twilight zone of a Third World economy was launched today. The Engineering Employers Federation published an 18-point manifesto proposals included Ensuring full UK involvement in European economic and monetary union including a single currency EEF deputy director-general Peter Ball said engineering was the engine of the nations economic growth, but he complained that UK manufacturing was too small. We have to change this, but time is not on our side. We have no wish to enter the twilight zone of a Third World economy. The TUC supported the single currency, claiming it would be a grave error to stay out in the cold. Gordon Brown, the shadow chancellor, came under pressure from the Trades Union Congress to adopt a more positive approach to the single currency. The Trades Union Congress yesterday plunged headlong into the controversy over the Governments position on the European single currency, with John Monks, the general secretary, warning it would be a grave error if the Chancellor ruled out joining before the next general election. John Monks, the General Secretary of the TUC, said: Staying out in the cold for the time being will look less and less attractive as we see the effects of the UK being excluded from the European Central Bank and the euro group of finance ministers. Seven in ten economists took the same view and said we should scrap the pound. A poll of members of the Royal Economic Society in 1999 found that 65% of economists backed scrapping the pound. If we had followed their advice fifteen years ago, our economy would be in a disastrous condition. Youth unemployment in Greece is 50.4%. Youth unemployment in Spain is 44.8%. The real risk to the economy comes from staying tied to the failing Eurozone and having to pay its bills. In its Article IV statement on the Eurozone published last week, the IMF stated that: The medium term outlook is still weak Productivity remains below pre-crisis levels and faces greater pressures from adverse demographics high unemployment and debt burdens are likely to persist, leaving the euro area vulnerable to the risk of stagnation. The Governor of the Bank of England has also stated we do think that there are risks of remaining in the European Union, and that these manifested themselves in particular, in relation to the development of the euro area. The former Governor of the Bank of England, Lord King of Lothbury, recently warned that the Eurozone might explode. If we Vote Leave, we can create 300,000 new jobs by taking back control over trade policy. The EUs failure to conclude just five trade agreements with the United States, Japan, ASEAN, India and Mercosur has, according to the European Commissions own figures, cost the UK 284,341 jobs. The aggregate GDP of all the countries with which the EU had a trade agreement in force in January 2014 was $7.7 trillion. By contrast, the aggregate GDP of all countries with which Chile had trade agreements was $58.3 trillion. The figure for South Korea was $40.8 trillion and that for Switzerland was $39.8 trillion. The EU has failed to negotiate a free trade agreement with China. By contrast, both Iceland (which has a population of less than half a million) and Switzerland have negotiated free trade agreements with China. Australia has done so as well. The time between New Zealand beginning negotiations for a free trade agreement with China and the agreements entry into force was just four years. BERLIN - Germany - The Chief Executive and Director General of the BDI, Markus Kerber, has called for continued free trade if the UK leaves the EU. New research shows that 5.5 million jobs in the EU depend on trade with the UK while the Chief Executive and Director General of the German CBI has said it would be very, very foolish to impose trade barriers and called for continued free trade between the UK and the EU if we Vote Leave. Responding to Markus Kerbers comments that fatally undermine the IN campaigns claims of future trade barriers, Boris Johnson MP said: After the incessant doom mongering of the IN campaign, we now hear the truth from the Voice of German Industry that they would be desperate for free trade after we Vote Leave. Of course EU countries will continue trading with us on a tariff free basis they would be damaging their own commercial interests if they didnt. Thats why EU politicians would be banging down the door for a trade deal on Friday. As Sir James Dyson said today, this is the last opportunity to regain control of our futures. If we want to take back control and a more secure and more prosperous future, we have to Vote Leave on 23 June. The Chief Executive and Director General of the BDI, Markus Kerber, has called for continued free trade if the UK leaves the EU. The BDI is the German equivalent of the CBI. New research from the House of Commons Library shows 5.5 million jobs in the EU depend on trade with the UK. It is in other EU countries interests to strike a free trade agreement with the UK. Leading pro-EU campaigners have conceded the UK will easily strike a free trade deal with the EU. The Chief Executive and Director General of the BDI, Markus Kerber, has called for continued free trade if the UK leaves the EU. Markus Kerber, the Chief Executive and Director General of the BDI, which represents German industry, has said his organisation would make the case for continued free trade in the event the UK votes to leave the European Union tomorrow. Mr Kerber said Imposing trade barriers, imposing protectionist measures between our two countries or between the two political centres, the European Union on the one hand and the UK on the other would be a very, very foolish thing in the 21st century. The BDI would urge politicians on both sides to come up with a trade regime that enables us to uphold and maintain the levels of trade we have. The BDI is the German equivalent of the CBI. The BDI describes itself as the Voice of German Industry. Markus Kerber is the Chief Executive and Director General of the BDI. George Osborne made a speech to its conference last November, which he described as an impressive gathering of German industry and ingenuity. New research shows 5.5 million jobs in the EU depend on trade with the UK. New research from the House of Commons Library has revealed a rough estimate of over 5.5 million EU jobs dependent on exports to the UK. Its in the EUs interests to strike a free trade deal with the UK. They need a deal more than we do. The research concludes: Compared to the figures for 2011, the number of EU jobs associated with exports to the UK has increased from 5.0 million to 5.5 million. This is because EU exports to the UK have increased by 10% in cash terms over this period. By contrast, the number of UK jobs associated with exports to the EU has fallen as UK exports to the EU have fallen by 5% in cash terms between 2011 and 2014. It is in other EU countries interests to strike a free trade agreement with the UK. The EU sells the UK far more than the UK sells the EU. In 2015, the UK bought 67.8 billion more in goods and services than the UK sold to the EU. In 2014, 20 EU member states sold the UK more than the UK bought from them. The UK is the EUs largest single export market for goods, larger even than the United States, with whom the EU is presently trying to negotiate a free trade agreement. Leading pro-EU campaigners have conceded the UK will easily strike a free trade deal with the EU. The Prime Minister, David Cameron, has admitted: If we were outside the EU altogether, wed still be trading with all these European countries, of course we would Of course the trading would go on Theres a lot of scaremongering on all sides of this debate. Of course the trading would go on. The Foreign Secretary, Philip Hammond, has admitted that a free trade agreement in goods would be relatively simple to negotiate. The UKs former Ambassador to the EU and leading supporter of the IN campaign, Lord Kerr of Kinlochard, has admitted: there is no doubt that the UK could secure a free trade agreement with the EU. That is not an issue . Even the pro-EU CBI has said: the UK is highly likely to secure a Free Trade Agreement with the EU, and such an agreement would be likely to be negotiated at an extremely high level of ambition relative to other FTAs [free trade agreements]. The pro-EU Centre for European Reform has accepted that, given the importance of the UK market to the eurozone, the UK would probably have little difficulty in negotiating an FTA. LONDON - England - Priti Patel MP comments on the scale of mass unfettered uncontrollable EU migration is having a devastating effect on our public services. This week the IN campaign admitted that there can be no upper limit to migration if we stay in the EU. New research released shows the devastating impact of uncontrolled migration on our schools. Commenting, Priti Patel MP said: The EU is undemocratic and interferes too much in our daily lives. We have seen that with the scale of migration, and the impact this has had on local communities and key public services such as the NHS, housing and schools. With more countries waiting to join the EU, including Albania, Serbia, and Turkey and with British taxpayers paying almost 2 billion to help them join this problem can only get worse. This research proves that class sizes are already overstretched, with an 8% increase over the last year in the number of pupils in classes over 30. These demands will only increase if the UK remains in the EU with no control over its borders. Thursday offers a once in a lifetime opportunity to say that the situation is unsustainable and to recognise that it is hurting British families. On Thursday, we have the chance to take back control and Vote Leave. Research shows if Britain remains in the EU, these problems will get worse: 100,800 infants are now educated in classes over the legal limit of 30 pupils per class an increase of 8% on the previous year. Currently one in five primary school children has a first language other than English in state funded primary schools it is 19.4%, in primary academies it is 19.3%. 11.6% of children currently fail to get into their first choice primary school. If the EU remains at its current size, we can expect an additional 261,000 school age European citizens to be in the UK school system by 2030. This could increase to 571,000 if the A5 accession countries (Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey) join in the near future, as currently planned. The increase in school age European citizens is likely to cost between 12.3 billion and 21.7 billion. Added to this, there are also capital costs needed to accommodate these extra children, estimated to range between 3.4 billion and 7.3 billion. Added together, the total additional cost to the UK schools budget of this increase in the school age population due to EU migration can therefore be expected to range between 15.6 billion (assuming the A5 countries dont join) and 28.9 billion (assuming they do join). The additional annual cost by 2030 will be between 1 billion to 1.9 billion per year. The scale of the problem Britains schools are under pressure from uncontrolled EU immigration. David Cameron has admitted, in some areas, the number of migrants were seeing is far higher than our local authorities, our schools and our hospitals can cope with. Theyre much higher than anything the EU has known before in its history. This has caused a number of problems for many schools: something that the Prime Minister has also admitted: There are primary schools where dozens of languages are spoken, with only a small minority speaking English as their first language. These claims are supported by official statistics from the Government: 100,800 infants are now educated in classes over the legal limit of 30 pupils per class an increase of 8% on the previous year. Currently one in five primary school children has a first language other than English in state funded primary schools it is 19.4%, in primary academies it is 19.3%. 11.6% of children currently fail to get into their first choice primary school. 16% dont get into their first choice secondary school. New research shows that the pressures identified by the Prime Minister are set to get far more severe over the next fifteen years. School-age migration from the EU since the A8 accession The Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority has recently confirmed the high numbers of children migrating to the UK from other EU member states. From 2000-2014, 152,000 EU migrants of school age came to the UK. EEA school-age migration, 2000-2014 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 Average 10,000 4,000 2,000 10,000 3,000 5,800 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 Average 3,000 6,000 8,000 14,000 10,000 8,200 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 Average 13,000 13,000 16,000 14,000 25,000 16,200 Total, 2000-2014 152,000 Source: UK Statistics Authority, 3 May 2016. These numbers are on a steep upward trajectory. From 2000-2004, the average number of school-age EEA migrants per year was 5,800. This rose to 8,200 in 2005-2009. It then nearly doubled to 16,200 in the period 2010-2014. This trend has been especially clear since the accession of the eastern European member states in 2004. It also increased at an unprecedented rate in the last year of recorded data. Source: UK Statistics Authority, 3 May 2016. Over the same period, around 1 million net migrants came to the UK from the EU, 515,000 of whom were from the EU8 accession states. EU total and school-age net migration compared Year EU total EU8 total EU school EU8 school 2000 6,000 10,000 2001 7,000 4,000 2002 7,000 2,000 2003 15,000 10,000 2004 87,000 49,000 3,000 2005 96,000 61,000 3,000 2006 104,000 71,000 6,000 2007 127,000 87,000 8,000 2008 63,000 20,000 14,000 2009 58,000 16,000 10,000 2010 77,000 49,000 13,000 2011 82,000 40,000 13,000 2012 82,000 30,000 16,000 2013 123,000 44,000 14,000 2014 174,000 48,000 25,000 Total 1,108,000 515,000 151,000 52,000 Source: ONS, 2015; ONS, May 2016; UKSA, 3 May 2016. The school-age migrants as a percentage of the total was therefore as follows: All EU states: 13.6%. EU8 accession states: 10.1%. The number of children in the UK of school age with one or more parent of EU/EEA nationality more than doubled between 2007 and 2015: Total school-age population with one or both parents of EEA nationality 2007 309,000 2008 326,000 2009 361,000 2010 432,000 2011 475,000 2012 419,000 2013 520,000 2014 565,000 2015 699,000 Source: UK Statistics Authority, 29 April 2016. Future school-age migration A conservative estimate of future school-age migration from the EU is that one in ten migrants will be of school age. This allows for a forecast of future school-age migration from the EU to be calculated. Vote Leave has already set out forecasts for future inward migration. It is possible to adapt these models to calculate future school-age migration from the EU. This provides: A baseline forecast, in which the candidate countries do not accede to the EU. A low forecast, under which the accession countries join in 2020 and migrate to the UK at the same rate as the EU-8 countries did. A medium forecast is that net EU migration mirrors migration from the EU-2 countries. A high forecast which builds on the medium forecast, and takes into account the pull factor of the national living wage. We also include a scenario in which transitional controls are imposed for a period of seven years from 2020 until the end of 2027, the duration of transitional controls following the A2 accessions in 2007. This forecast assumes the same migration as in the case of the baseline until 2028, and the increases in net migration that occur under the low forecast thereafter). Future school-age migration from the EU (cumulative) Year Baseline Transitional Controls Low Forecast Medium Forecast High Forecast 2016 18,400 18,400 18,400 18,400 18,400 2017 36,800 36,800 36,800 36,800 38,148 2018 55,200 55,200 55,200 55,200 58,648 2019 73,600 73,600 73,600 73,600 79,900 2020 92,000 92,000 94,061 98,114 110,118 2021 110,400 110,400 116,583 128,743 148,548 2022 128,800 128,800 141,166 165,485 195,192 2023 147,200 147,200 165,748 202,228 241,836 2024 165,600 165,600 190,331 238,970 288,480 2025 184,000 184,000 214,914 275,713 335,124 2026 202,400 202,400 239,497 312,456 381,767 2027 220,800 220,800 264,080 349,198 428,411 2028 239,200 241,261 288,662 385,941 475,055 2029 239,200 245,383 294,845 404,283 503,299 2030 239,200 251,566 301,028 422,626 530,195 Children born to EU parents in the UK In 2014, 76,650 children were born in the UK to a parent or parents from the EU. Children born to EU parents in the UK Number % total births Father from EU 50,512 7.3 Mother from EU 64,067 9.2 Both parents from EU 37,929 5.5 One or both parents from EU 76,650 11.0 Source: ONS, August 2015. These numbers are rising, as the long-term trend for those born in England and Wales to mothers from the EU shows. Children born to EU mothers, England & Wales Year Number % of total births 2008 44,022 6.2 2009 47680 6.8 2010 52,868 7.3 2011 55,194 7.6 2012 59,061 8.1 2013 60,448 8.7 2014 64,067 9.2 Source: ONS, August 2015. Children born to future EU migrants The current birth rate in England and Wales is 12.1 births per thousand of the population. Assuming this will be the birth rate for future EU migrants, the table below indicates the number of children expected to be born to net EU migrants coming to the UK between now and 2030. It should be stressed that the totals at the bottom of the table do not include children born to EU migrants who arrived before this year. Births to EU net migrants arriving from 2016 Year Baseline Transitional Controls Low Forecast Medium Forecast High Forecast 2016 2,226 2,226 2,226 2,226 2,226 2017 4,453 4,453 4,453 4,453 4,616 2018 6,679 6,679 6,679 6,679 7,096 2019 8,906 8,906 8,906 8,906 9,668 2020 11,132 11,132 11,381 11,872 13,324 2021 13,358 13,358 14,107 15,578 17,974 2022 15,585 15,585 17,081 20,024 23,618 2023 17,811 17,811 20,056 24,470 29,262 2024 20,038 20,038 23,030 28,915 34,906 2025 22,264 22,264 26,005 33,361 40,550 2026 24,490 24,490 28,979 37,807 46,194 2027 26,717 26,717 31,954 42,253 51,838 2028 28,943 29,193 34,928 46,699 57,482 2029 33,396 31,918 37,903 51,145 63,126 2030 33,396 34,892 40,877 55,591 68,769 Assuming that the children born to EU migrants will enter the school system five years after their birth, it is possible to combine the figures for the number of school age migrants from the EU and the number of births to EU migrants. Adding these two figures together reveals the total number of new persons of school age due to EU migration for the next fifteen years. Persons added to school population due to EU net migration Baseline Transitional Controls Low Forecast Medium Forecast High Forecast 2016 18,400 18,400 18,400 18,400 18,400 2017 36,800 36,800 36,800 36,800 38,148 2018 55,200 55,200 55,200 55,200 58,648 2019 73,600 73,600 73,600 73,600 79,900 2020 92,000 92,000 94,061 98,114 110,118 2021 112,626 112,626 118,809 130,969 150,775 2022 133,253 133,253 145,618 169,938 199,808 2023 153,879 153,879 172,428 208,907 248,932 2024 174,506 174,506 199,237 247,876 298,148 2025 195,132 195,132 226,295 287,585 348,448 2026 215,758 215,758 253,603 328,034 399,742 2027 236,385 236,385 281,161 369,222 452,029 2028 257,011 259,072 308,718 410,410 504,317 2029 259,238 265,420 317,875 433,199 538,205 2030 261,464 273,830 327,033 455,987 570,745 Total 2,275,252 2,295,861 2,628,838 3,324,241 4,016,362 Average 151,683 153,057 175,256 221,616 267,757 School funding Schools in England have three main streams of current revenue: the Dedicated Schools Grant (Schools and High Needs Blocks), the Pupil Premium and the Education Services Grant (ESG). If these are added together and then divided by the number of schools pupils, it is possible to calculate education spending per pupil. Education Funding Schools Block (2016-17) (m) High Needs Block (2016-17) (m) Pupil Premium (2015-16) (m) ESG (2016-17) (m) Total Funding (m) No. pupils Total funding per pupil () 32,649 5,229.87 2,411 507 40,867 7,041,321 5,803.89 Source: Education Funding Agency, 2016; Education Funding Agency, 2015; Education Funding Agency, 27 April 2016 As the 2016 cohort passes through the school system, each pupil will cost on average 5,803.89 per year. By assuming that per pupil funding remains at todays levels, it is possible to calculate the cost of future school-age migration from the EU to the UK as set out above. In each cohort, we must allow for a certain proportion who will not enter state education: a generous assumption is that this is 7% (the same as the general proportion of children who attend independent schools in England). Capital costs The Department for Education provides 13,780 to cover the capital cost of each school place. This does not include the land values of new school premises. The table below shows the capital costs of children born to EU migrants arriving from 2016. Those born 2016-19 will also enter secondary education, so will require both an additional primary and secondary school place. Likewise, children who enter the UK between 2016 and 2024 will also enter secondary education, so their capital costs are also doubled.Total current and capital spending Combining the figures above gives an estimate of the total costs, both current and capital. Combined current and capital costs Baseline (bn) Transitional Controls (bn) Low (bn) Medium(bn) High (bn) Total current (bn) 12.28 12.39 14.19 17.94 21.68 Total capital (bn) 3.35 3.51 4.19 5.84 7.31 Total current and capital (bn) 15.63 15.90 18.38 23.79 28.99 Total per year (bn) 1.04 1.06 1.23 1.59 1.93 The total cost to the schools budget of EU migration from 2016 to 2030 is therefore expected to range between 15.6 billion and 28.9 billion. This is an annual cost of between 1 billion to 1.9 billion per year. It is worth noting finally that these are conservative estimates since they do not include: the cost of purchasing land for new schools; early-years education; pre-2016 EU migration, or migration of those under five years of age. The actual cost of a remain vote to our schools budget is likely to be far higher. LONDON - England - The Wembley EU debate witnessed an ailing negative IN campaign with nothing good to say about staying in the EU or Britain. Responding to the BBC debate at Wembley, Vote Leave Chief Executive Matthew Elliott said: The IN campaign had nothing positive to contribute tonight just like theyve failed to make a positive contribution during the whole campaign. Theyve lost the economic argument, they dont want to spend the 350 million we send to Brussels every week on our priorities and cant explain how we can ever control immigration from inside the EU. The couldnt even be honest about how many laws in this country come from Brussels. The public will have a choice on Thursday, they can choose project fear and vote IN or they can chose project hope and take back control of their money and their borders. A Vote to Leave on Thursday is a vote for democracy. The Government gave up its veto over the next Treaty as part of the renegotiation. Before the deal, Government Ministers made clear their consent to the next EU Treaty was the price for other member states agreeing to their renegotiation. George Osborne said: So let me be candid: there is a deal to be done and we can work together. Rather than stand in your way, or veto the Treaty amendments required, we, in Britain, can support you in the Eurozone make the lasting changes that you need to see strengthen the euro. In return, you can help us make the changes we need to safeguard the interests of those economies who are not in the Eurozone. David Cameron has said we will not stand in the way of those developments, as long as we can be sure that there are mechanisms in place to ensure that our own interests are fully protected. He believes this happened during his renegotiation. David Camerons renegotiation agreement (which he claims is legally binding and irreversible) states that: Member States not participating in the further deepening of the economic and monetary union will not create obstacles to but facilitate such further deepening. It also obliges the UK to refrain from measures which could jeopardise the attainment of the objectives of economic and monetary union.. This means the UK is committing to support the planned new EU Treaty. House of Commons Library research shows 61% of legislation comes from the EU. Research by the House of Commons Library shows that in 2013, 61.2% of legislation was made by Brussels. The CBI has admitted over 50% of all government legislation originat[es] in Brussels. The CBI has said: It is calculated that 70% of all new legislation relevant to business is now European rather than national in origin. Nick Clegg has admitted: half of all new legislation now enacted in the UK begins in Brussels. Chuka Ummuna has said: EU legislation accounts for around half of all new regulation. The new EU Treaty will transfer major powers to the EU institutions from the British Parliament and courts. An EU intelligence agency: In November, Dimitris Avramopoulos, the European Commissioner for Migration called for the creation of a European ntelligence Agency. An EU army: In March last year, the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker announced that he wanted to see the introduction of a European Army to show that we are serious. Taking control of our NHS: Last February, European Commissioner for Health, Vytenis Andriukaitis, called to change the European Union treaties in the future to allow the EU to take control of public health, including over alcohol. He has said I cant imagine a more economically effective possibility than to manage health issues at EU level. Scrapping the UKs zero rates of VAT: The Economics Commissioner, Pierre Moscovici, has called for further harmonisation of taxation, including scrapping the UKs zero rates, stating a zero rate is not the best idea. Introducing a new pillar of social rights: The European Commission has called for the development of a European pillar of social rights, stating the Commission will pursue two complementary work strands: firstly, modernising and addressing the gaps in existing social policy legislation to take account of todays work environment and to ensure that new models of work maintain a fair balance in the relationship between employers and workers. The Commission suggests areas such as wages, union rights, pensions and access to social services could form part of the pillar. This could mean the UKs more generous social protections are weakened by EU harmonisation. The EU has stopped us removing dangerous individuals from the UK. Terrorists. In 2015, the Special Immigration Appeals Commission ruled the UK could not exclude the French national ZZ from the UK because of EU law, despite the fact that he was a suspected terrorist. The Commission concluded that: We are confident that the Appellant was actively involved in the GIA [Algerian Armed Islamic Group], and was so involved well into 1996. He had broad contacts with GIA extremists in Europe. His accounts as to his trips to Europe are untrue. We conclude that his trips to the Continent were as a GIA activist. Murderers. In 1995, Learco Chindamo, who is an Italian citizen, murdered the headteacher Philip Lawrence who went to help a 13-year-old boy who was being attacked. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1996. In 2007, Mr Justice Collins, sitting in the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal, ruled that removing Chindamo would be disproportionate under EU law. David Cameron said that Tribunals decision flies in the face of common sense. It is a shining example of what is going wrong in our country. He is someone who has been found guilty of murder and should be deported back to his country What about the rights of Mrs Lawrence or the victim?. Cameron said: This does seem to be complete madness. Rapists. Mircea Gheorghiu, a Romanian national, entered the UK without leave in January 2007. In November 2007, he was convicted of driving a motor vehicle with excess alcohol, fined and disqualified from driving for 20 months. It later emerged that he had a criminal record in Romania. In 1990 he was convicted of the offence of rape and sentenced to 6 years imprisonment. Between 2001 and March 2002 he was convicted on three occasions of forestry offences, cutting timber without a licence, and received custodial sentences on the last two occasions. The Secretary of State removed him from the UK in March 2015. Nonetheless, on 18 November 2015, Mr Justice Blake, sitting in the Upper Tribunal, decided this was unlawful under EU law, ruling Gheorghiu must be reunited with his family as quickly as possible and that he was entitled to a permanent residence on his return and the residence card issued to him will reflect that. Turkey and four other countries are joining the EU. This is being accelerated with unanimous support. Talks could begin the day after the referendum. The accession process is being accelerated. In a press release issued on 15 June, the European Commission has announced that The Commission tabled the Draft Common Position on Chapter 33 (financial and budgetary provisions) in the Council on 29 April, enabling the Council to decide on the opening of this Chapter by end of June. In addition, preparatory work continues at an accelerated pace to make progress on five Chapters. There is unanimous support in the EU for the quickening pace of Turkish accession. On 18 March 2016, the European Council unanimously agreed that the EU should re-energise the accession process and that Turkish acceleration should be accelerated. David Cameron strongly supports this. In 2010, Cameron said he was angry at the slow pace of Turkish accession, that he was the strongest possible advocate for EU membership for Turkey, and that I want us to pave the road from Ankara to Brussels. In 2014, he said that: In terms of Turkish membership of the EU, I very much support that. Thats a longstanding position of British foreign policy which I support. The Government admitted it supported Turkish accession last month. Last month, the Europe Minister, David Lidington, said: The UK supports Turkeys EU accession process. The British public will not get a vote on the accession of Turkey to the EU. The European Union Act 2011 allows the Government to ratify EU accession treaties without a referendum). There was no referendum on the accession of Croatia to the EU in 2013 (European Union. The Government opposes giving the British people a say. As the Minister for Europe, David Lidington, said in 2011: A few years ago, 10 new member states joined the European Union at the same time. I believe that their combined population then was 73 million, which is slightly greater than Turkeys population is now. I do not believe that anybody in this country argued at that time that a British referendum on those accessions was right. The UK is paying 2 billion to help Turkey, Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia to join the EU. Turkey alone is set to receive over 1 billion of UK funds to help prepare it for membership. The UK has gone further than EU law on workers rights. Further harmonisation of social legislation poses a threat to the UKs more generous protections. The minimum wage, which was introduced in 1998, had nothing to do with the EU. The Wilson Government passed the Equal Pay Act 1970 before it entered the then European Economic Community in 1973. The Labour Government passed the Sex Discrimination Act 1975, before the first EU Directive on the topic was adopted. There is no need to be in the EU to ensure equal pay for equal work. The Employment Protection Act 1975 provided that a woman who was dismissed on the grounds of pregnancy was to be treated as unfairly dismissed. This was adopted long before the Pregnant Workers Directive. The UK has been more generous than EU law on paid holidays, with 5.6 weeks entitlement each year, rather than the four contained in EU law. The UK is more generous on maternity pay. Statutory maternity pay lasts for 39 weeks under UK law. This is much more generous than EU law, which provides for a period of 14 weeks. UK legislation also gives women the right to receive 90% of their salary during the first six weeks of leave. EU law only requires that the rate of pay be equivalent to statutory sick pay in this period. This is 88.45 per week. The UK is more generous on maternity leave. UK maternity leave may be taken for up to 52 weeks. EU law only requires a period of four months. The right of part-time workers not to be discriminated against is contained in UK legislation. The enabling legislation was the Employment Relations Act 1999. This means that protections for part-time workers would remain in UK law if we left the EU. The UK had legislation against discrimination on grounds of race long before the EU did. The UK passed the legislation against race discrimination, the Race Relations Act 1965 and the Race Relations Act 1968, before we joined the EU. High Court Judge Sir Rabinder Singh has said: The Race Relations Act 1976 [which consolidated the 1960s legislation] was perhaps one of the strongest pieces of legislation of its kind in the world and certainly in Europe. It long predated legislation against racial discrimination in EU law. One of the primary reasons IN campaigners spout their robotic rants during the EU referendum is that if we remain in the EU, Britain will be able to reform it, and change the EU. Today, the EU president, Jean Claude Juncker said that Britain will have to agree to everything if it remains in the EU and it will never be able to reform the European Union, directly contradicting the ailing PM, David Cameron. We have concluded a deal with the prime minister, he got the maximum he could receive, we gave the maximum we could give. So there will be no renegotiation, not on the agreement we found in February, nor as far as any kind of treaty negotiations are concerned. This is why to preserve our democracy, it is imperative that we Vote Leave on June 23. This is the only way the UK can ensure our sovereignty. The UK has been outvoted every time it has voted against an EU measure 72 times in total. 40 of these defeats have taken place since David Cameron became Prime Minister. This costs the UK taxpayer 2.4 billion a year. We do not get our way on the issues we care about. Since the UK joined the EU in 1973, it has lost 101 out of 131 cases before the European Court, a failure rate of 77.1%. Since David Cameron became Prime Minister in May 2010, the UK has been defeated on 16 occasions: a failure rate of 80%. EU rules mean that we dont have the power to intervene to get our way at home. The Government has acknowledged that its scope to intervene in the steel crisis is limited by EU state aid rules. The Business Minister, Anna Soubry MP, has said We have to be very careful because we have to be compliant with state aid rules. This latest intervention by the EU president represents a major blow to the Tory leaders hopes of persuading still undecided voters to vote Remain with the promise of a further renegotiation of Britains relationship with Brussels. It is thoroughly clear from Junckers words that if Britain remains in the EU, there will be no room for reform. Vote Leave on June 23 CODY, Wyo. James Prosek admitted to feeling a bit unnerved when the horse he was on topped a mountain last summer and in the distance loomed a massive male grizzly bear. Thats an image I will carry with me forever to be on the same ground with a huge grizzly bear, the Connecticut artist said. Prosek was in Cody on Thursday to help unveil a new exhibit he was involved in: Invisible Boundaries: Exploring Yellowstones Great Animal Migrations. The combination of art, photography and science that led to the creation of Yellowstone as the nations first national park in 1872 has been modernized in the Buffalo Bill Center of the Wests newest interactive exhibit to include filmmaker Jenny Nichols videography. Its a project that has been in the works for three years. The art and photography bring the science alive, said Bonnie Smith, curatorial assistant. Prize The purpose of the research was threefold, according to Chuck Preston, curator of the Draper Museum of Natural History within the Buffalo Bill Center of the West. One was to provide innovative science, which has been supplied by biologists Arthur Middleton and Joe Riis with the aid of state and federal counterparts in their study of animal migrations in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Number two was to show how even though this was taking place in the GYE, it has an application around the world. And thirdly, it had to be successfully communicated to the public. Most of my colleagues dont think about that, Preston said of publicizing science. The research was funded by the first Camp Monaco Prize, a partnership of the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation-USA, the Draper Natural History Museum and the University of Wyomings Biodiversity Institute. The work is on exhibit through December and is concurrently on display at the National Geographic headquarters in Washington, D.C. I hope people take away the amazing natural challenge and incredible drama it is for the migrating animals, Preston said. But also the fact that they cross all sorts of boundaries that werent set out for them: private to public lands, a national park to wilderness areas. What we do on private and public lands affects wildlife across the ecosystem. Lines Those invisible boundaries are what intrigued Prosek and helped him formulate the more than 25 artworks he created for the show over the past year-and-a-half from field studies of a Yellowstone cutthroat trout to a silkscreen of army cutworm moths, and a 56-inch-by-90-inch oil and acrylic painting on wood panels depicting the black silhouettes of numerous Yellowstone species, with a chosen few depicted in color for contrast. Im interested in the lines we draw through things in nature, he said. Scientists, for example, have to draw distinctions between species to be able to talk about them, he explained. Thats similar to lines on a map. Those same invisible lines mean that a bull elk is a hunters trophy outside of Yellowstone National Park and a tourist attraction inside the park, Prosek said. Migrants Although Middleton and Riis study of elk, deer and pronghorn seasonal migrations into and out of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is a highlight of the exhibit accentuated by large reproductions of Riis captivating wildlife photos. Prosek and Preston noted there are other migrants in the park who have traveled much farther like birds and even moths. Those long-traveled migrants also demonstrate how actions far from Yellowstone can have consequences in the nations first national park. Prosek pointed to army cutworm moths as an example. The moths fly to the parks high mountains each year to feed at night on the nectar of flowers, and in doing so provide an important food source for grizzly bears, which can eat up to 40,000 moths a day. If those moths are killed by pesticides in a farmers field thousands of miles away, the repercussions would be felt in Yellowstone. We have to realize this Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is connected to the rest of the world in a greater way, Preston said. I hope this kind of exhibit will be a springboard in conversations, an understanding that everyone has a stake in this including landowners and agriculture pulling all of those people together and creating a common vision, he added. To me, thats what a great exhibit does. Its a conversation starter, not a conversation ender. I think were all stewards of this place, so how can we work together to preserve what we all value? A Busby man and a Lame Deer woman suspected of beating and setting on fire a Crow Agency woman in an April 17 attack that has drawn criticism of law enforcement appeared on criminal charges in federal court Wednesday. Dimarzio Swade Sanchez, 18, and Angelica Jo Whiteman, 23, each are charged with assault with intent to commit murder and aiding and abetting. Both Sanchez and Whiteman waived a preliminary hearing during an appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Carolyn Ostby in Billings. The U.S. Attorney's Office filed a criminal complaint June 20. The case will be presented to a grand jury for indictment. Assistant U.S. Attorney Lori Suek asked that Sanchez and Whiteman remain in custody. Ostby ordered the pair to remain in jail pending detention hearing requests. Ostby also appointed Assistant Federal Defender Gillian Gosch to represent Sanchez and Billings attorney Vern Woodward to represent Whiteman. Woodward and Assistant Federal Defender David Merchant, who represented Sanchez during the hearing, said Sanchez and Whiteman had no jobs or income or bills and lived with their mothers. Woodward and Merchant declined to comment on the case. Although the victim is identified in court records by the initials R.R., family members have previously identified the woman as Roylynn Rides Horse, 28, daughter of Ernestine Pretty Weasel and Roy Rides Horse and stepdaughter of Jerry Pretty Weasel. About a dozen relatives attended the brief court appearances on Wednesday afternoon. Roylynn Rides Horse is being treated for injuries at the University of Utah Burn Center in Salt Lake City. The FBI said in charging records that the victim suffered third degree burns over 45 percent of her body and severe frostbite on her legs. Sanchez, Whiteman and four others left Rides Horse in a field where she was beaten, strangled and burned and where she remained for 14 hours until she was discovered and given emergency medical treatment, court records said. Until Wednesdays charges, the U.S. Attorneys Office, FBI and Bureau of Indian Affairs had released little information on the attack, drawing criticism from tribal members and leaders and state legislators. The BIA referred all press inquiries to the FBI. The FBI said it could not release any information due to a strict set of rules governing the disclosure of information at various phases of a criminal investigation. The agency also denied pressuring families to stay silent about crimes. On June 16, about 100 Crow Tribal members marched at Crow Agency to raise awareness about the attack. Charging documents said the assault happened near Castle Rock Road, about a third of a mile north of Highway 212 between Crow Agency and Busby on the Crow Reservation. Rides Horse was at the Kirby Saloon in Kirby with her boyfriend when, witnesses told investigators, the couple got into an argument, court records said. Rides Horse asked Whiteman for a ride home to Crow Agency. Rides Horse and Whiteman got into a car driven by Sanchez. There were four other people, identified as F.S., L.S., J.T. and S.F., also in the vehicle. Information about what happened next came from interviews with F.S., J.T. and S.F., court records said. During the drive, Whiteman and Rides Horse began to argue. Whiteman, who was in the front passenger seat, jumped into the back seat and began beating Rides Horse. Whiteman then told Sanchez to turn the vehicle around so she could beat Rides Horse, court records said. Sanchez turned the car around and drove to Castle Rock Road, where they stopped. Whiteman dragged Rides Horse from the car and attempted to strangle her to death, court records said. Rides Horse lost consciousness. Whiteman got back into the car and started crying, believing she had killed Rides Horse. Sanchez told Whiteman that Rides Horse was still alive and took her back to where Rides Horse was still lying unconscious in a field. "Sanchez made the statement, 'I'm only going to show you this once,' referring to showing Whiteman how to strangle someone to death, and then Sanchez strangled R.R. with a bandana," court records said. Sanchez then ordered F.S. to get a gas can from the trunk. F.S. complied and gave the can to Sanchez, court records said. Rides Horse was then doused with gasoline and set on fire. Sanchez and Whiteman were the only two people near Rides Horse when she was doused with gasoline and set on fire, court records said. The witnesses "could not or would not tell investigators who doused R.R. with gasoline and who set R.R. on fire, but it was either Sanchez or Whiteman or both," court records said. A search warrant executed in 2014 led to a new set of distribution charges filed Tuesday in Yellowstone County Justice Court. Raunella Lee Kannegiesser, 47, failed to appear in justice court where she faced charges for criminal possession with intent to distribute and criminal possession of dangerous drugs, as well as a misdemeanor drug possession charge and possession of drug paraphernalia charge. Justice of the Peace David Carter issued a $10,000 warrant for Kannegiesser's arrest. Kannegiesser was arrested in 2014 after law enforcement agents with the City and County Special Investigations Unit searched her residence, located on the 200 block of North 31st Street. Officers confiscated almost 12 grams of meth, six hydrocodone pills, 10 grams of marijuana, various drug paraphernalia and a handgun. At the time of her arrest, Kannegiesser admitted to selling about a half ounce of meth every two weeks to various customers in Yellowstone County. The brand new Hyundai Elantra has been spotted testing for the second time in the country. The D-segment sedan looks nothing like the car it replaces and carries a new design inside out. The new Elantra ditches the curvy design language for sharper and crisper character lines. The insides follow a mainstream approach and gets Hyundai's latest touchscreen infotainment that supports Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. In terms of design, the new Elantra is galaxies away from the curvaceous ongoing model it will soon replace. Adopting Hyundais Fluidic 2.0 design language, the next-gen Elantra is sharp, bold and modern. On the inside, the new cabin follows a mainstream approach rather than going ahead with the flowing dashboard present in the current model. It will come with Hyundais latest touch-based infotainment system, which will support Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Mechanically, it is expected of the Elantra to carry forward the current 1.6-litre CRDi diesel, while it is reportedly receiving a new 2.0-litre naturally aspirated petrol in India. However, Hyundai India has not yet confirmed anything related to the new Elantra and it was also not showcased at the 2016 India Auto Expo. Globally,it comes with Hyundais latest 1.4-litre turbocharged petrol motor. The automaker might introduce this engine in India since most of its rivals are offering a turbocharged petrol motor. On sale in countries such as South Korea and North America since last year, it might come to India this year along with the Tucson SUV. The vehicle will compete with the likes of the Skoda Octavia, the Volkswagen Jetta and the upcoming, new tenth-gen Honda Civic. Source: CarDekho.com Datsun is considering introducing its Go hatchback with a 1.0-litre engine. The Go kick-started the brand's resurrection and spawned a MPV called the Go+ as well. Currently, the hatchback is powered by a peppy 1.2-litre, 3-cylinder engine that develops 69PS and 104Nm. The Japanese automaker wants the Go to appeal to a larger audience base, which is likely be the driving force behind this move. If the Japanese auto firm is able to incorporate the less powerful 1.0-litre engine in the GO hatch it will be able to price it more aggressively as 99 per cent of this engines parts are produced in India. On the other hand, the existing 1.2-litre mill is a derivative of the Micras engine and most of its parts are sourced from foreign lands, thereby making it costlier. It is expected that the Kwids 1.0-litre engine will generate 65PS of power, which seems to be ideal for a car like the GO. A compromise of 3PS is by no mean a big deal if one gets a considerable cut in the GO prices which currently start at Rs 3.3lakh (ex-showroom Delhi). However, to get the less powerful engine installed, Datsun needs to make certain changes in the GO as presently the 1.0-litre engine only supports the CMF-A platform of the Kwid. Source: CarDekho.com Companies are also focusing on improving customer satisfaction by shortening delivery times, offering wide product assortments and improved service, in a bid to keep customers engaged with their platforms. MUMBAI: E-commerce players have shifted their focus towards making their business units more profitable as opposed to their earlier focus on revenue growth, with discounts in online sales narrowing and fresh fund raising becoming a bit challenging. Companies are also focusing on improving customer satisfaction by shortening delivery times, offering wide product assortments and improved service, in a bid to keep customers engaged with their platforms. We believe this may be a function of limited availability of capital, forcing companies to focus on cash generation. Post government regulations that curtailed discounts, companies seems to have done away with the same as most discounts being seen online are being offered by sellers or brands themselves. Most companies we spoke to are also evaluating other revenue streams such as advertising and online content to better leverage their platform, said analysts at Kotak Institutional Equities. According to KIE, customer recall, retention and loyalty are key metrics monitored by companies now, as opposed to an overwhelming focus on gross merchandise value (GMV) earlier. While standard monthly active users (MAUs) and app installs are also tracked, orders from repeat customers, and frequency of ordering are being used as metrics to gauge customer engagement. Since delivery is a large cost component for most e-commerce companies, its optimisation has now become a key area of focus. Demand prediction, delivery-linked payments to delivery staff, as well as infrastructure sharing are some of the options evaluated by companies to rationalise delivery costs. Companies are using technology heavily to predict peak and non-peak delivery requirements, and optimising resources accordingly. Cash on Delivery (COD) constitutes a large chunk of payments for the e-commerce companies we interacted with, ranging from 50-70 per cent for online services and products. The proportion of COD, at least for products, has not declined meaningfully over the past couple of years. Tier-2 and 3 cities constitute a sizeable chunk of sales of e-tailers, and hence remain a key focus area, said KIE in its latest report. Banks are expected to disburse Rs 1.80 lakh crore loans under the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY) in the current fiscal, said Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha (Photo: PTI) New Delhi: Having met the target last year, banks are expected to disburse Rs 1.80 lakh crore loans under the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY) in the current fiscal, Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha said on Wednesday. Last year, 3.5 crore beneficiaries availed Rs 1.22 lakh crore loans under PMMY. The scheme is being improved this year, Sinha said while addressing the financial literacy camp held here. Major improvements are also in the offing for Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency Ltd (Mudra) Yojana including providing of technical support and hand-holding borrowers for setting up business, he said. Besides, loan origination system would be put in place for proper monitoring of the loans, he said. Under PMMY, loans ranging from Rs 50,000 to Rs 10 lakh are provided to small entrepreneurs. As of now, three products available under the PMMY are Shishu, Kishor and Tarun, to signify the stage of growth and funding needs of the beneficiary micro unit or entrepreneur. Shishu covers loans up to Rs 50,000 while Kishor covers those above Rs 50,000 and up to Rs 5 lakh. Tarun category provides loans of above Rs 5 lakh and up to Rs 10 lakh. Sinha also said the government has put the economy back on track with the help of progressive policies adopted by it. The improvement in the economy has resulted in an increased inflow of FDI, he said, adding that India has become the number one FDI destination in the world and this has been achieved in two years of the NDA rule. Various social sector schemes including Atal Pension Yojana launched by the government have become a shield for the poor, he said. He also said that the objective of 'Make in India' is to provide jobs to youth. According to analysts, rich valuations of Indian companies may see foreign portfolio investors getting extra cautious about their Indian portfolios in adverse situation created. Brexit or referendum on Britains exit from European Union (EU) is likely to impact many Indian companies earnings, as British pound could fall sharply if the vote is in favour of exit. It could impact Indian companies revenue from the UK and the EU in the medium to long-term. Some estimates say pound could fall up to 20 per cent, impacting rupee though US dollar is rupee main anchor in the international currency market. Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Tech Mahindra, Bharat Forge, Motherson Sumi, Infosys. Hindalco, Wockhardt, Mindtree, Indian depository receipts (IDR) of Standard Chartered Bank are the securities that could face an adverse impact of Brexit as they have their business operations in the UK and the European Union. Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), the UK subsidiary of Tata Motors, estimates its annual profit could be cut by $1.47 billion by the end of the decade if Britain leaves the European Union, Reuters reported quoting two sources familiar with the companys thinking. The worst-case-scenario estimate is in internal document that were prepared by the firms chief economist, David Rea, to outline the possible consequences if Britons vote to leave the worlds biggest trading bloc in Thursdays referendum. It gives an insight into the level of concern at a major company about the uncertainties of a future outside the EU, Reuters said. According to analysts, rich valuations of Indian companies may see foreign portfolio investors getting extra cautious about their Indian portfolios in adverse situation created. Anish Vyas, senior research associate, Choice Broking, said, Basically rupee will be impacted due to Brexits impact on British currency pound. If pound falls, Indian companies dealing in pound would see their revenue fall. Madan Sabnavis, chief economist and Rucha Ranadive, associate economist, Care Ratings, in research note said, Indian companies in Britain will be impacted and hence have to be watched. Several companies have set up shop in Britain for leveraging not just the local market but also the European markets for which Britain was a base camp. This will mean reworking business plans. IT industry body Nasscom said, A negative implication of Brexit is that Indian IT companies may need to establish separate headquarters/operations for EU, leading to disinvestment from the UK and diversion of activity from the UK to EU,. Britains exit, if it happens, would have a negative impact on the $108-billion Indian IT sector in the short term, it added An initial analysis indicates that the impact on Indias technology sector may be mixed; clearly negative in the short-term and harder to discern in the longer-term with either scenario having some positive and some negative points, Nasscom added. Sanjeev Prasad, senior executive director and co-head of Kotak Institutional Equities, an arm of Kotak Securities, in a strategy note said, Indian markets valuations are rich, the Indian market has done well versus other markets over most time periods. Most foreign portfolio investors view India as a preferred and stable market in an uncertain world given the powerful appeal of its macro-economic stability, ongoing economic and social reforms and long-term growth prospects. They will now have to grapple with Indias Rexit and a possible Brexit in the next few days. Many emerging market investors believed that they could leave the India portion of their EM portfolios on auto pilot. They will now have to navigate through these implications, Prasad said. Reuters adds: JLR, which traces its history back to1922 and is headquartered in Coventry, central England, has also looked into opening a European office were Britain to quit the bloc, both sources said. It has also put on hold starting major work on a plant in Slovakia announced in December as well as negotiations on a deal to lease property at Silverstone race track because of the uncertainty surrounding Thursdays vote, they said. The 1 billion pound decline in pre-tax profit by 2020 would apply if Britain returned to World Trade Organisation rules for trade with Europe, involving a 10 per cent tariff on exports and an in bound tariff of roughly 4 percent on components, the sources said. It may at worst cost us about 1 billion pounds, said one of the sources when asked how Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) had phrased the wording in the 89-page report A second source said the number had featured in an internal presentation shown to the board. JLR, which sold almost a quarter of its over 520,000 cars in its largest market Europe last year, confirmed it had looked into the impact of Brexit. As part of our standard business planning process, we regularly look at macro-economic and geo-political developments around the world, a JLR spokesman said. Like any other responsible global business, we have analysed the impact of any potential UK departure from the EU. However, we are not discussing details of any internal business analysis. The work, which has been updated several times since it was first prepared for the board with input from the companys sales, marketing and tax departments last summer, features three other scenarios, including Britain remaining in the single market, the second source said. The two other post-Brexit scenarios look at Britain taking several years to negotiate a deal to remain in the single market or agreeing a trade deal imposing low tariffs costing JLR in the low hundreds of millions, the source said. JLR fully funds its investments without support from parent Tata Motors, executives have said. The cost of investment contributed to a 40 per cent decline in its 2015/16 pre-tax profit. They are deeply worried about being outside of the EU. They have been holding off on meaningful expenditure, the second source said. JLR could open an office in Brussels were Britain to leave the EU to maintain influence with European policymakers, both sources said, with the first source saying Luxembourg was also an option. That source said JLR could make the office its European headquarters but the second source said JLR would retain its British HQ. A spokesman at the firm said: Jaguar Land Rover is a British company and our headquarters will remain in the UK. Having an office close to Brussels would allow them to maintain influence post any deal, the second source said. CEO Ralph Speth, who has consistently spoken out in favour of continued EU membership, wrote to workers on Monday warning of the possible consequences of a Brexit on the firm. It is inevitable that we would face increasing and higher tariffs, making our products less competitive in Europe, he said in a copy of the letter seen by Reuters. (This story originally appeared on Financial Chronicle) Mumbai: At the press conference of short film Kriti, filmmaker Shirish Kunder, who directed 'Kriti' in a short film that stars Manoj Bajpayee, Neha Sharma and Radhika Apte in the leads, was present. When asked about the idea for making this short film, he said, "Unlike my feature films, Kriti is what I have written and I made it the way I thought. As a digital medium, you don't have to fight with censor. It is more liberal medium. I will surely make more short films along with feature films." Actress Neha Sharma, who was last seen in 'Youngistaan' took really long to nod her head for 'Kriti'. When asked her about this long gap she said, "I didn't get any interesting script like Kriti after Youngistaan. I hardly get to play such characters in my career. When I heard that Manoj and Radhika are there in the film, I immediately said yes to the film. I did readings with Manoj and he helped me a lot in understanding acrophobia. I have been a huge fan of his since the beginning." "I have completed the shoot of Tum Bin 2. It was fun shooting the film and it is releasing in November. Hope you all love it," Neha added. Manoj Bajpayee, who is known for his versatility is playing a psychopath reveals that he loves playing roles with a difference. He said, "I went for lunch to Shirish's house and we discussed this idea. The script was ready in next five days. I like the scripts which are narrated in a different manner." Priyanka Chopra features on the cover of Maxim India (June-July edition). Mumbai: Priyanka Chopra recently unveiled the cover of Maxim India but the magazine was slammed for retouching the actress' cover shoot picture. Priyanka looked as stunning as ever, but one might have noticed that her armpits looked unnaturally smooth. Several people called out the unnecessary and downright ridiculous retouching job. Read: Twitter furious with Priyanka Chopra over photoshopped underarms Priyanka soon chimed in on the controversy and put an end to all the speculations by posting a no-filter picture of her underarms. She wrote, "Heres another 'pit-stopping' picture to add to the debate "#WillTheRealArmpitPleaseStandUp #nofilter #armpitdiaries." Here is another "pit-stopping" picture to add to the debate. #WillTheRealArmpitPleaseStandUp #nofilter #armpitdiaries A photo posted by Priyanka Chopra (@priyankachopra) on Jun 21, 2016 at 9:03am PDT Check out other pictures from the photoshoot. Fierce all the way to number 1! @priyankachopra for #PCTopsMaximHot100 #PriyankaChopra #MaximIndia #MaximHot100 #HotGirlAlert A photo posted by Maxim India (@maxim.india) on Jun 20, 2016 at 5:43am PDT Mumbai: The Maharashtra State Commission for Women on Wednesday summoned actor Salman Khan over his controversial raped woman comment. The actor has been asked to appear before the commission on June 29 at 2 pm. Salman Khan landed himself in a controversy while promoting his upcoming film Sultan when in a group interview with media the actor made the remark that he felt like a "raped woman" after the gruelling shoot for the wrestling drama. The National Commission for Women (NCW) demanded an apology and an explanation from the Bollywood superstar within seven days yesterday. NCW chief Lalitha Kumaramangalam sought a public apology from the Bollywood actor and asked for an explanation. Mumbai: Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap criticised superstar Salman Khan for his rape analogy saying it was "thoughtless" and "daft" of him to make such a remark. He also questioned the journalist, interviewing him, for allegedly laughing over the comment. Audio: Felt like raped woman during Sultan shoot, says Salman; apologises Salman, in a group interview to promote "Sultan", made the remark that he felt like a "raped woman" after one gruelling shoot for the wrestling drama. "While shooting, during those six hours, there'd be so much of lifting and thrusting on the ground involved. That was tough for me because if I was lifting, I'd have to lift the same 120-kilo guy 10 times for 10 different angles. And likewise, get thrown that many times on the ground. This act is not repeated that many times in the real fights in the ring. When I used to walk out of the ring, after the shoot, I used to feel like a raped woman walking out..." Salman hastened to add, "I don't think I should have...", suggesting he should not have made such a comparison. Read: NCW seeks Salman Khan's apology for 'raped woman' remark Anurag called the 50-year-old actor "thoughtless and daft" to have made a comment like this. "Why are we making it out his individual responsibility? It is very unfortunate that he made an analogy like that, it is very thoughtless of him, in a way daft of him. I am sure he will be regretting it and will apologise for it. If he really cares, he should apologise for it," the director told a TV channel. Read: Salman's 'raped woman' remark wrong but not his intention, says Salim Khan It has been reported that the journalists, who were a part of the interview, erupted into laughter at Salman's statement. Anurag slammed the scribe, answering whose question Salman made the comment, saying he should have questioned the "Kick" star over the statement. "But does the responsibility lie alone with him? The guy who is interviewing him... When the man gives an analogy like this, he laughs at it. He does not question him. In his mind, he is thinking I have got a headline. How irresponsible it is to make that into a headline. "I would have taken that out. It does not send a great signal, it empowers misogyny. Suddenly, people have got issue to jump on," Anurag said. The statement has not gone down well with many, who have taken to Twitter to express their angst against the actor. While his father, scriptwriter Salim Khan, apologised on the actor's behalf, the demand for Salman to issue an apology himself has been growing from political parties, activists and social media users. Bollywood actor/director Arbaaz Khan came out in support of his brother Salman Khan, who is embroiled in a controversy after making insensitive comments regarding rape, and seems to have a baffling explanation for his brothers comments. Last weekend, Salman had compared himself to a raped woman after the gruelling schedule of his upcoming film Sultan. Defending his brother, Arbaaz said, It was just the kind of (statement) where we compare things I can say I worked like a donkey and animal rights activists might question the comparison to a donkey. Sometimes, you say something out of context, your intention is not wrong but you shouldnt become oversensitive about it. However, Arbaaz, who was talking to reporters at the trailer launch of Jeena Isi Ka Naam Hai, also hoped his brother Salman would clarify the controversial remark. There are some things we say while talking, but we should look at the intention and ask why was it said? I know whatever Salman might have said, the intention wasnt wrong, he said, adding, I am sure Salman must have realised the comparison was not appropriate and he will apologise if he feels the need to. If he has said it by mistake, may be he should give a justification. He further said, I dont think I am entitled to make a comment and say he has to apologise. I would hope that he gives a clarification because a controversy has been created. So jawaab dena banta hai. After all, people look up to him, as he is an icon of many. Bollywood has been the ultimate dream of young actresses from any industry. It seems that lady luck has favoured the pretty Mrudula Murali, who had played the lead in films like Shikhamani and Ayal Njanalla. Sources confirm that Mrudula will be a part of the Tigmanshu Dhulia period film Raag Desh, which stars Sonam Kapoors cousin brother Mohit Marwah and Kunal Kapoor along with a host of prominent names. The source mentions that Mrudula landed the role after the makers saw her photos and work and thought her apt for the role. The film is a period drama set in 1945 and the shoot of her portion would begin by the first week of July. Mrudula started her career in Mollywood through the film Red Chillies and has also acted in Tamil films that were applauded by the critics. A quit attempt was deemed a success when a study participant went at least one year without a cigarette. (Photo: Pixabay) Though conventional wisdom says it takes five to seven attempts for most smokers to quit, those estimates may be very low, a recent study suggests. Based on data for more than 1,200 adult smokers in Canada, the real average number of quit attempts before succeeding may be closer to 30. For so long weve been talking about five to seven attempts to quit, said lead author Dr. Michael Chaiton of the school of public health at the University of Toronto in Canada. For us (the numbers) were a lot higher. The lower estimate comes from a few past studies that were based on the lifetime recollections of people who successfully quit, but they didnt include attempts by people who had not yet succeeded, Chaiton and colleagues note in the journal BMJ Open. For their study, the researchers analyzed data from 1,277 people in the Ontario Tobacco Survey who were followed for up to three years. When the study began in 2005, participants reported how many times they recalled ever making a serious attempt to quit smoking, and at each six-month follow-up they reported how many serious quit attempts they had made over the past six months. A quit attempt was deemed a success when a participant went at least one year without a cigarette. The researchers used these responses and four different statistical models to estimate how many times the average smoker attempts to quit before succeeding. The most unbiased model suggested an average of 30 quit attempts per smoker. Thats much higher than people tended to report in the previous studies when asked about all their quit attempts since starting smoking, the study team writes. People are very bad at remembering over their whole lifetimes, Chaiton told Reuters Health. The second problem is we were only asking people who have been successful at quitting. The new study may be a better representation of what most smokers go through over time, but it does only describe their situation rather than predict what will happen to an individual smoker who tries to quit, he cautioned. This doesnt mean you hit a magic number and then you can quit, Chaiton said. There are many people who are able to and do quit on their first attempt or in the first few. There are people who are good at many things, some are good at quitting smoking, he added. Quitting smoking is often a long-term process with many attempts, he said. When we talk about trying to reduce the number of smokers, if we try and do that by focusing on one quit attempt at a time were not going to be very successful, Chaiton said. A range of smoking cessation medications, policies like smoke-free spaces and plain-pack warnings can all help some smokers quit, he said. The main impact of this article is that clinicians should reassure smokers that, just because they have failed 10 times, does not mean they will never quit, said Dr. John Hughes of the University of Vermont School of Medicine in Burlington. However, the problem with taking, say, 20 times to quit, is that this may take 10 years and its not only important to quit but its important to quit while you are younger, said Hughes, who was not part of the new study. So its important for those who failed several times to seek treatment to increase odds of quitting and we have lots of medication and counseling treatments that work, Hughes told Reuters Health by email. Overall, an estimated 2.78 million surgical procedures would have been needed for all forcibly displaced people in 2014. (Photo: Pixabay) In 2014 alone, the nearly 60 million refugees, internally displaced persons and asylum seekers in the world needed nearly 3 million surgeries, according to a new analysis. Over a third of those procedures were needed by forcibly displaced people in North Africa and the Middle East, where many health systems are already strained. Surgical needs in this population are often not considered, the senior author told Reuters Health. "We know the refugee populations are going to develop pneumonia, need vaccinations and develop diarrhea because there is risk of cholera in the camps, but you dont often hear about the surgical component," said Dr. Adam Kushner, of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore. "This needs to be part of the conversation," he said. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported that 59.5 million people around the world were living as forcibly displaced people in 2014. That includes refugees, people forced to flee to other parts of their country and people seeking asylum in another country. The number of forcibly displaced people continues to increase, the research team said May 25 in the World Journal of Surgery. An estimated 218,000 people entered Europe by sea just in October 2015, which is equal to the number of people who entered the continent by sea for all of 2014. Understanding the surgical needs of forcibly displaced people can help inform planning, resource allocation and improvements in healthcare systems, Kushner and colleagues write. Using UNHCR data on forcibly displaced people, the researchers estimated the number of surgeries that would be needed by people in the various sub-populations. An estimated 38.2 million people were internally displaced, that is, they were forced to flee to another area of the country. There were also an estimated 19.5 million refugees and 1.8 million asylum seekers. More than half of forcibly displaced people in 2014 were under age 18, and almost all were under 60. Previous research suggests that for every 100,000 people, countries can expect to perform about 4,669 surgeries, Kushner said, although the number varies by country. Overall, an estimated 2.78 million surgical procedures would have been needed for all forcibly displaced people in 2014. "It doesnt include just simple suturing or simple burn care or splinting of fractures, which doesnt need a formal operation," said Kushner. Internally displaced people needed the largest proportion of surgeries: an estimated 1.78 million procedures. They were followed by refugees, who needed an estimated 910,000 surgeries. Asylum seekers were estimated to need 84,000 surgeries. The largest number of procedures was required in North Africa and the Middle East, in Syria, Colombia, Iraq, Pakistan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. While the new study can't say what procedures were most needed, the researchers estimate that about 7 percent of all procedures were obstetric surgeries. Those include treatments for protracted labor, preeclampsia and ectopic pregnancy. Past research from one refugee camp suggests emergency general surgeries are most common. Those include surgeries for hernias, chronic bone inflammation and growths on the uterus. While a lot of people view surgery as being complex, Kushner said, "there is really a lot that can be done thats low cost and effective that is simple to do and simple to teach." "The more we try to address this situation the more we can prevent disability and death," he said. Ludovico Einaudi played the Elegy for the Arctic against the backdrop of Arctic glaciers to raise environmental awareness. (Credit: YouTube) Acclaimed pianist Ludovico Einaudi chose to raise awareness about the very real danger to the Arctic in the most melodious way possible: by playing a stunning composition while floating on a small platform in the Arctic Ocean off the coast of Norway. The performance was part of a campaign by Greenpeace, a global environmental activist organisation, to convince world leaders to protect the Arctic. Einaudi had written an original composition, Elegy for the Arctic, for the occasion. The sight of the famous musician playing a grand piano even as pieces of a sprawling Wahlenbergbreen glacier crumbled nearby will leave you mesmerised. Scientists have frequently cautioned that the Arctic has been melting much faster than expected and this could eventually lead to disastrous consequences for wildlife and the human population in the future. Click on the link below to watch the performance: Belagavi: The State Human Rights Commission has served a notice to Belagavi police in connection with an alleged police atrocity against a well-known businessman from Belagavi, Santosh Padmannavar. The SHRC has sought a reply within six weeks. Several senior police officers allegedly harassed Mr Padmannavar for several days a few months ago and allegedly demanded huge bribes from him. Mr Padmannavar recently met members of the commission and lodged a complaint, alleging that the police had filed several fake cases against him, including one of dacoity, only to extort money from him. He said that the police called him to police stations several times and demanded Rs 15 lakh as bribe to close cases against him. He has collected several video and audio recordings of police officers demanding money from him and has said he would submit them to the commission as evidence in support of his claims. Mr Padmannavar alleged that a few months ago, when he was out of station with his family, the police officials helped his maidservant to steal all valuables from his house. Later, when he returned home, he went to the maidservant's house and brought back several stolen valuables. The police, instead of helping him in the case, had filed a dacoity case against him for getting his stolen valuables back from the servant's house, he alleged. Despite repeated requests, the police did not help him in getting the cases resolved but started harassing him by filing more cases against him, he alleged, urging the commission to help him avoid police atrocities. If Mr Padmannavar complaints were found true, it would be a gross violation of human rights by the police department, the commission said. The boy, who was 9 years old then, was tortured, starved, locked up, made to work illegally, forcibly converted to Islam and circumcised. (Photo: Representational Image) Bhopal: A 35-year-old woman who sold her minor son to two carpet weavers for Rs 50,000 has been arrested by police in Madhya Pradeshs Satna district. According to a report in Hindustan Times, one Laxmi Chowdhary sold her son Shivam to Guddu and Jahagir Ali in eastern UPs Mirzapur district two years ago. Read: Hyderabad: Man sells two-month old daughter for Rs 10,000 The boy, who was 9 years old then, was tortured, starved, locked up, made to work illegally, forcibly converted to Islam and circumcised. He was given the name Sonu Ali. Shivam managed to escape his tormentors six months ago and went to the Mirzapur police. The child welfare committee of the district put Shivam alias Sonu in a shelter and then reunited him with his deceased fathers family two months ago. Read: Chinese man sells newborn daughter for iPhone, wife backs decision The family reported the matter to the Satna police a week ago. We have lodged a case of human trafficking, child and bonded labour besides forceful religious conversion under the MP Freedom of Religion Act, Satna additional SP Rameshwar Yadav was quoted as saying. Apparently, the boys mother had started living with another man after the boy had been sold off. She was arrested on Saturday and the statements of her two daughters who live with her, will be recorded to ascertain if they too have suffered abuse. Kochi: The Special Investigating Team probing the Perumbavur murder case registered a fresh case of unnatural sex against prime suspect Ameerul Islam on Tuesday night. The cops lodged a case at Kuruppampaddy police station under Section 377 (carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal) after finding out that the accused had sex with a goat days before the crime and even mutilated private parts of the animal. The police had recovered a video of Islam having sex with the goat of a family in Perumbavur. He is also seen mutilating private parts of the animal in the video. According to police, the video was shot by one of Islams friend, also a migrant labourer. Islam also has the habit of watching porn movies on his mobile phone. A Billings man has pleaded not guilty to four felony charges alleging he sexually abused and raped a child over the course of years beginning when she was at least as young as 11 years old. The 11-year-old molested girls parents had also approached the school management but did not get a response. (Representational image) Hyderabad: The 11-year-old molested girls parents had also approached the school management but did not get a response. They then lodged a complaint with the LB Nagar police, who arrested the accused. Police has booked a case of molestation against Ranjith, a native of Assam. Police also started an inquiry into the negligence of the school management. He used to touch the girl inappropriately despite her protests. She informed her class teacher. Later, the girl told her parents about the issue. Her father went to the school and requested the management to take action against the watchman, but they turned a blind eye to the issue, said a police officer. On Tuesday afternoon, when the Class VI student was walking out of school, Ranjith again stopped her at the main gate and molested her, after which her parents approached the police. We have booked a case against him under IPC 354 A (for molestation) and a Section under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act. We have arrested him and produced him before the magistrate, said LB Nagar inspector P. Kasi Reddy. We have also included the school management in the FIR. An inquiry has been launched against them, added the inspector. Despite repeated attempts to reach them, the school management was unavailable for comment. Patna: At least 93 people have been struck by lightning and killed in India over the past two days, disaster management officials said Wednesday, as annual monsoon rains swept the country. The June-October monsoon hit the southern coast earlier this month, but this week's toll is particularly high. Most deaths occurred in Bihar, where an overnight storm killed at least 56 people and injured another 28, mainly in rural areas. "The death toll has climbed to 56 and 28 are injured. Many of the victims are children and women," Anirudh Kumar, a senior official at Bihar's diaster management agency, told AFP. Another 37 people were killed across Uttar Pradesh, Jharkand and Madhya Pradesh states, according to figures compiled by local disaster management authorities. Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted that he was "deeply anguished" by the loss of life. More than 2,500 people were killed by lightning in India in 2014 according to the National Crime Records Bureau, the most recent figures available. New Delhi: Staying true to his promise of training guns on bureaucrats 'loyal' to the Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy on Wednesday said that he wants Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian to be sacked, as he had badmouthed India in the international arena and also encouraged Congress to become rigid on their GST Bill clauses. Swamy launched a scathing attack on Arvind in a series of tweets. "Who said to US Cong on 13/3/13 the US should act against India to defend US Pharmaceuticals interests? Arvind Subramanian MoF !! Sack him!!! Guess who encouraged Congi to become rigid on GST clauses ? Jaitely's economic adviser Arvind Subramanian of Washington DC," he tweeted. Who said to US Cong on 13/3/13 the US should act against India to defend US Pharmaceuticals interests? Arvind Subramanian MoF !! Sack him!!! Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) June 22, 2016 Guess who encouraged Congi to become rigid on GST clauses ? Jaitely's economic adviser Arvind Subramanian of Washington DC Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) June 22, 2016 Swamy's attack comes in the wake of reports stating Arvind Subramanian being among the probable successors of Rajan as the country's central bank chief. Swamy tweeted, "Now PTs (Patriotic Tweeples) can understand why our core economic sectors could not perform last two years. Trojan horses galore in MoF/Fin Institutions." Now PTs can understand why our core economic sectors could not perform last two years. Trojan horses galore in MoF/ Fin Institutions Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) June 22, 2016 "Was AS (Arvind Subramanian) deposing before US Cong Committee against India as a US citizen or Indian? Does any PT know?," he asked. Was AS deposing before US Cong Committee against India as a US citizen or Indian? Does any PT know? Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) June 22, 2016 Swamy reiterated his salvo he had used against RBI Chief Raghuram Rajan, saying that the CEA was a 'green card holder' and was probably not an Indian citizen. "He used to work in America and is also a green card holder. I don't know if he is a citizen or not, but I'm sure he has a green card. There was this American Congress Committee for pharmaceutical purposes and they held a hearing to figure out India's opinion on the matter. There he said in a statement that India was not working according to America in this matter and for that, they should be taught a lesson in WTO. How can we have such a person as an advisor here?" Swamy said. Continuing his assault, he added that when Arvind was appointed by the Indian government, he gave a note to the Finance Ministry asserting that the clauses given by Congress in the GST Bill were absolutely justified. "I think that such people who can fail our government should be tossed out. Now, it's been two years and I think it's about time," he added. The senior BJP leader also said that he has a list of 27 people with him and he will 'fix' them soon. This development comes days after Swamy announced that his next 'project' is to expose a group of bureaucrats loyal to Congress President Sonia Gandhi. "My next project is to expose 27 bureaucrats who are in various Ministries and loyal to TDK. They were handpicked and positioned by PC," Swamy said in a tweet. My next project is to expose 27 bureaucrats who are in various Ministries and loyal to TDK. They were handpicked and positioned by PC. Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) June 19, 2016 Earlier, Swamy had welcomed Rajan's decision to leave his post as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor on the completion of his term, saying that he had taken such a step in order to save his 'self respect'. "Was he getting a second term in the first place? How do we know that he was getting a second term? I have no information that he was getting a second term. So if he says he wants to go and wants to save his self respect, I have no problem. Let them pretend that he is giving up and going, but as long as he goes, it's good," Swamy said. In May, Swamy had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking dismissal of the Reserve Bank of India governor. Rajan had earlier announced that he would return to the academic world at the end of his term on September 4, 2016, adding that he will always be available to serve his country when needed and asserted that his 'successor' would take the nation to new heights. Rajan is currently on leave from the Chicago Booth School of Business, where he holds the post of Distinguished Service Professor of Finance. Incidentally, both Rajan and Arvind Subramanian have worked at the IMF. While Rajan was a UPA appointee, Arvind Subramanian was appointed by the Narendra Modi government. New Delhi: With the parliamentary panel cautioning the Centre of another terrorist strike at the Pathankot airbase, Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju on Wednesday said that it would not be appropriate to comment on speculative matters. To estimate and comment on this matter wont be right. There can be a possibility of it, but it would not be appropriate for me being a minister to comment on the same, Rijiju said. According to reports, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs, which was recently in Jammu and Kashmir to review security measures at the border areas, has informed the government of the possibilities of terrorists hiding in the nearby villages. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs said the government has been informed about it and security of the strategically important facility beefed up. The Parliamentary Standing Committee also said the government has asked the CRPF, BSF to be more alert and the Army has handed over the security of the airbase to them. The committee said it was satisfied with the measures being taken by the BSF to check infiltration, but advocated providing fully modern equipment to the force. A five-member Joint Investigation Team (JIT) from Pakistan had visited India between March 27 and 31 to collect evidence with regard to the attack. BJP leader Varun Gandhis supporters were pasting posters of him took out processions demanding that he be projected as the candidate for CM. (Photo: PTI) New Delhi: With the battle to project a face for the BJPs chief ministerial candidate in Uttar Pradesh intensifying and saffron candidates taking various routes to stake claim, a worried BJP high command has cautioned leaders not to indulge in any self-propaganda. If BJP leader Varun Gandhis supporters were pasting posters of him on the walls, Yogi Adityanaths followers, the Hindu Yuva Vahini, took out processions demanding that he be projected as the candidate for CM. The BJP high command has also taken strong exception to a recent WhatsApp message, called Keshav Chalisa, doing the rounds of social media. The message, written along the lines of the Hanuman Chalisa, extols the virtues of UP BJP chief Keshav Prasad Maurya and says the state will prosper if he takes over as CM. While Maurya denied any link to the chalisa and claimed it was an Opposition conspiracy, the party high command has conveyed to him that such messages should not be circulating. Party insiders claim the Keshav Chalisa is the work of the Keshav camp to pressure the BJP high command. It reads: Jai Keshav gyan gun saagar / Jai Keshav tihun lok ujagar / UP doot atulit baldhama / Maurya putra Keshav naama / UP bishwaguru ban jawe / Jab Keshav Lucknow mein aawe. The BJP, which is trying to pull in all its resources for the high-stakes UP polls, is annoyed at the one-upmanship in the state leadership. Yogi Adityanath, Keshav Maurya and Mahesh Sharma are tacitly trying to project themselves as the partys face and, with the BJP trying to polarise the vote bank, all three are playing the Hindutva and nationalist cards to impress the RSS. The RSS, incidentally, might take the final call on deciding who will be projected as CM in UP. On Saturday, Yogi Adityanath had yet again played the Hindutva card, accusing the late Mother Teresa of conspiring to Christianise India. Speaking at a religious meeting in Basti on Saturday, Yogi Adityanath had said, Mother Teresa was part of a conspiracy to convert Hindus to Christianity. Hindus were targeted in the name of doing service and then converted by her. If Adityanath is not projected as the partys face, he could be inducted into the Modi Cabinet to send a signal to the core vote bank in the state, sources said. The BJP high command has made it clear that the final decision in the matter, if there is one, will be taken by party president Amit Shah, in consultation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Rajnath Singh. (This story originally appeared in the Asian Age) Hyderabad: Infrastructure Authority has left the decision on Swiss Challenge proposal submitted by Singapore consortium of companies, to the Cabinet. The Authority met on Tuesday at the secretariat under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary S.P. Tucker and discussed the Swiss Challenge proposal. Without taking any decision, the Authority advised the state government to follow the rules while adopting the Swiss Challenge approach for the selection of Amaravati development partner. Meanwhile, the state government is likely to take a decision on this issue at the Cabinet meeting scheduled for June 24 at Vijayawada. The Cabinet may give green signal to Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) to call for competitive tenders on the proposal of Swiss Challenge method submitted by Singapore Consortium. The Infrastructure Authority met twice in four days to discuss the Swiss Challenge proposal. At the first meeting, the Authority had taken a decision to avail the Advocate-Generals opinion on the matter. Sources said that the Advocate-General gave his opinion via media and ac-cording to that the Authoritys meeting held on Tuesday without taking a firm decision, advised the government to ensure that rules are followed while going in for Swiss Challenge method for the selection of Amaravati development partner. Meanwhile a senior official said that the Authority has nothing to do with the report submitted by the high-powered committee or Swiss Challenge proposals submitted by Singapore consortium. He said that CRDA has already approved the proposals submitted by Singapore and there is no need for the Authority to accept the proposals or High Powered Committee report. He explained that the duty of the Authority is to see whether the proposals match the state governments aims and objectives or not. He said if the proposals are according to the state governments objectives the Authority will give permission to CRDA calling for competitive bids on Swiss challenge proposals submitted by the Singapore consortium. Puducherry: The first signs of strained relations between Puducherry Lt Governor, Kiran Bedi, who led the celebrations on the Beach road, and Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy surfaced on International Yoga Day. The CM and all his Cabinet colleagues who were to participate in the yoga show in Pondy instead went to Yanam to attend different programmes. The CM is due to leave for New Delhi Wednesday evening. According to sources, Narayanasamy is not happy with the moves of Lt Governor Bedi, who he feels is unnecessarily interfering in matters falling under his jurisdiction. The Chief Minister has been maintaining in public that there is no friction with Ms Bedi, but the first cracks have appeared already. Kiran Bedi participated in the mass yoga demonstration at the beach road here on Tuesday which was attended by over 6,000 students from schools and colleges besi-des volunteers of different organisations. The programme which started at 6.30 in the morning lasted for over 90 minutes and the participants performed 40 different asanas in yoga at a stretch of four kilometers on the beach road. Addressing the participants in the yoga demonstration Ms Bedi said that yoga is the greatest gift the country has given to the world.' "It is the greatest gift that we can give ourselves as yoga unites hum-anity and pave way for world peace," she added. Thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi for taking up the cause of Yoga, the Lt Governor said that yoga belongs to everyone and it will transform humanity to peace and added that she will do her best to promote yoga. At the same time Chief Minister V Narayanasamy and his cabinet colleagues who were scheduled to participate in the yoga day celebrations skipped the program and instead went to Yanam to attend different programs . In the evening Narayanasamy will leave for New Delhi to meet the Prime Minister and other union ministers. Though the Chief Minister maintaines that there is no friction between the government and the Lt Governor, the new development is seen as a turn in the supposed tussle between Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanaswamy and the newly-appointed Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi. According to the reports Narayanasamy is not happy with the moves of the governor and feels that the governor is unnecessarily interfering the jurisdiction of the Chief Minister. Ms Bedi on the other hand said that she was merely performing her duties and there is no politics in yoga. The Congress returned to Puducherry after five year gap in last month's assembly elections and days after the election result former IPS officer Kiran Bedi who was the chief ministerial candidate of BJP in Delhi election was appointed as the new Lt Governor of Puducherry Director General of Police of Sunil Kumar Gautam, Vice Chancellor of Pondicherry University Anisha Basheer Khan, officials of various departments and representatives of different organisations also participated in the yoga day celebrations. New Delhi: Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar headed for Seoul on Wednesday ahead of the crucial NSG Plenary from tomorrow, where India is hoping to clinch membership which is strongly opposed by China and some other countries. Jaishankhar, who was closely monitoring the goings-on during the officials' level meet of the 48-nation grouping which started on Monday, left for the South Korean capital to lobby with members to boost India's prospects of getting membership. Senior External Affairs Ministry Official Amandeep Singh Gill, in-charge of 'Disarmament & International Security' division, is already in Seoul to "garner" support as well as "explain" India's case, sources said. However, China continues to stonewall India's bid for NSG membership with the members divided over the entry of a non-NPT signatory country like India. The NSG works under the principle of unanimity and even one country's vote against India will scuttle its bid. While majority of the elite group members backed India's membership, it is understood that apart from China, countries like Turkey, South Africa, Ireland and New Zealand were not in favour of India's entry into the NSG. China maintains opposition to India's entry, arguing that it has not signed Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). However, it has been batting for its close ally Pakistan's entry 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. India is seeking membership of NSG to enable it to trade in and export nuclear technology. The access to the NSG, which regulates the global trade of nuclear technology, is expected to open up the international market for energy-starved India, which has an ambitious energy generation programme. India is looking at 63,000 MW energy requirement through nuclear programme by 2030. 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. Hyderabad: A division bench of the Hyderabad High Court has allowed a petition by AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu seeking quashing of all criminal cases registered against him in various police stations in both TS and AP during the byelections in 2008. Mr Naidu moved the petition in 2008, stating that the cases were registered against him in police stations in Vizianagaram district of AP and Adilabad, Nalgonda, Warangal, Khammam, Karimnagar, Medak , Nizamabad, Mahbubnagar and Hyderabad city in TS, alleging that he violated the election code of conduct and prohibitory orders in place during the poll campaign. K. Ravindra Kumar, senior counsel appearing for Mr Naidu told the bench comprising Justice V. Ramasubramanian and Justice A. Shankar Narayana that most of the cases were based on the complaints from election officers and police. The bench perused the records and found that there was no substantial ground to try the offences against the petitioner and quashed all the FIRs against Mr Naidu. Chennai: As AIADMK members continued to attack DMK chief M. Karunanidhi for the second consecutive day on the massacre of Sri Lankan Tamils in 2009, deputy Op-position leader K. Duraimurugan on Tuesday challenged the AIADMK for a debate on the issue on the floor of the House. Duraimurugan, intervening during the speech of AIADMK member Vetrivel, objected to blaming Karunanidhi for the Tamils massacre and said, We are ready for a debate on the Mullivaikkal massacre. Is the AIADMK ready for such a debate? The DMK members who were on their feet demanded that Vetrivel confine himself to Governors address. At this juncture, leader of the House, O. Panneerselvam defended AIADMK members saying Vetrivel was speaking on the Governors address. He also read the relevant portion from the Governors speech on the Lankan issue demanding that those who were responsible for the genocide of Lankan Tamils should be brought to book. Earlier, the House was plunged into commotion, right from the start, as Vetrivel started with criticism on DMK treasurer M.K. Stalins Namakku Naamey campaign. The AIADMK member said the entire show was arranged with DMK members enacting different roles of farmers, bus conductors and workers. The DMK members furiously shouted at Vetrivel and asked Speaker P. Dhanapal to restrict the member to Governors address. Vetrivel immediately moved on to the Lankan Tamils issue and accused the DMK leader of failure to stop the killings of Tamils. DMK members who got up, recalled the AIADMK governments resolution calling for extradition of LTTE chief Velupillai Prabharakan. Hundreds of pups from around the country will show off their shiny coats and polished teeth for three days of the Yellowstone Valley Kennel Clubs annual dog show in Billings this week. The dogs compete on three levels: the best of their breed, best of their group and best of show. The 573 competing dogs represent 114 different breeds from seven groups, including working, terrier and toy, said Sheila Brown, the shows chairman. Brown said every day is a new competition. The judges evaluate different breeds than the previous day, allowing for a more comprehensive assessment of each animal. A best of show is chosen at the end of each day. The field is especially stacked this year. The national Affenpinscher specialty show is being held in conjunction with the YVKC event at MetraPark for the first time. The breeds top competition attracted 32 of the best examples of Affenpinschers from around the United States and Canada, the most entrants from any breed. The MetraPark event, which runs Tuesday through Thursday, is the first Montana stop in a circuit that includes shows in Great Falls and Missoula. Many of the dogs make appearances in all three of the cities, but most of their owners will be nowhere in sight. When you come this far, because Montana is kind of off the beaten path, people send their dogs with a handler because it costs too much for them to travel with the dog as well, Brown said. Nik is the top ranked Akita in the United States and made an appearance Tuesday at MetraPark in an attempt to add to his 29 best in shows. He entered the ring with professional dog handler Alvin Beep Lee Jr. To achieve a top ranking, the dogs have to compete at as many shows as possible, and it isnt cheap. Breeding a champion dog can be quite lucrative, one sample of Niks semen runs about $3,000, but most owners dont turn a profit. Id say for the average dog youre lucky if you can get out of it for $100,000 per year if youre really campaigning it, Lee said. When he works with the elite dogs, it involves more than just what the judges see in the ring. He grooms, exercises and trains the animals to be at their peak level of fitness and health. Lee said hes been working with dogs for 40 years and has never worked another job. Hes a second generation professional. My dad was one of the better handlers, thats what they called it back then. Now were more of agents, Lee said. Lee, along with his wife and fellow professional handler Shari Rhodes-Lee, show half a dozen dogs at more than 140 shows per year. They only spend about 45 days a year at their home in Battle Ground, Wash. Theyve turned more than 400,000 miles in their RV traveling to dog shows around the country. but Montana is always one of their favorite destinations. They first met at a show in Helena almost 25 years ago. Lee said he was lucky to meet someone who not only understands the business but is just as passionate about the dogs. They have fun traveling to all the shows and see the positivity the dog shows bring to society. While some unethical commercial breeders pump out litters for profits, the people trying to raise the best animals attempt to have the healthiest dogs with the best traits true to the breeds origins. We may not be curing cancer but it sure makes a lot of people happy, Lee said. New Delhi: India is set to become a member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) along with Pakistan when the China-dominated security grouping meets for its summit in Uzbekistan's capital Tashkent on June 23-24 which will be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The SCO is increasingly seen as a counterweight to NATO and its membership will help India have a greater say in issues relating to security and defence besides combating terrorism. India, one of the largest energy consuming countries in the world, is expected to get greater access to major gas and oil exploration projects in Central Asia once it becomes a member of the SCO. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to have a bilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on June 23 on the sidelines of the SCO summit during which he is expected to seek China's support for India's bid for membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, which Beijing is keen on blocking. The annual plenary session of the NSG will be held in South Korea's capital Seoul on June 23 and 24 during which India's application for membership may come up for deliberation. The SCO had set the ball rolling to make India a member of the bloc during its summit in Ufa in July last year when administrative hurdles were cleared to grant membership to India, Pakistan and Iran. India will complete the process of full membership of the SCO at the summit, sources said. SCO was founded at a summit in Shanghai in 2001 by the Presidents of Russia, China, Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. India, Iran and Pakistan were admitted as observers at the 2005 Astana Summit. The Tashkent SCO Summit in June 2010 had lifted the moratorium on new membership, paving the way for expansion of the grouping. India feels as SCO member, it will be able to play a major role in addressing the threat of terrorism in the region. India is also keen on deepening its security-related cooperation with the SCO and its Regional Anti-Terrorism Structure (RATS) which specifically deals with issues relating to security and defence. India has been an observer at the SCO since 2005 and has generally participated in the ministerial-level meetings of the grouping which focus mainly on security and economic cooperation in the Eurasian region. Russia has been favoring permanent SCO membership for India while China pushed for induction of Pakistan. New Delhi: Congress veteran Mani Shankar Aiyar, a regular at Iftar dinners hosted by the Pakistani High Commissioner, has not been invited for the June 25th bash. Aiyar, who no longer enjoys a Rajya Sabha berth, probably thought that it was not important to his relationship with the Pakistanis with whom he has had a longstanding warm relationship. The Lahore born former diplomat and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi's confidante has made a name for himself for being a strong proponent of strong ties between India and Pakistan. He is the one who first said that India and Pakistan should have uninterruptible talks, something that is trashed by the hawks of Lutyen's Delhi. Aiyar has visited Pakistan often and been part of several track 2 initiatives. But he drew flak recently when on a talk show in Pakistan he seemed to appeal to the civil society of Pakistan to throw out the BJP from office if it wanted good ties with India. Within a few weeks of his comment, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a surprise visit to Lahore to meet his Pakistan counterpart Nawaz Sharif, something that the former's predecessor Dr. Manmohan Singh could not do despite being a strong proponent of India-Pakistan peace talks. Aiyar is a permanent fixture at all India Pakistan social gatherings in New Delhi. The Pakistani High Commissioners are known to pick and choose their guests with great care for their Iftar dinners. And Aiyar has always been a regular, as also Kashmiri separatists. In his interview with ANI, Aiyar appeared a little downcast of not being invited but he focused on the invitation extended to the Hurriyat by the Pakistani High Commission. He said that the BJP government should shun the attitude of distancing themselves from the Hurriyat. The Congress leader said the need of the hour is to initiate talks with the Hurriyat leadership for stabilising peace in the valley. "For the last 15-16 years after former Prime Minister Vajpayee ji's directions, the Pakistanis have been talking to the Hurriyat leadership," Aiyar said. "This in turn has neither benefited them nor has damaged India, but making it as a hitch by saying that we won't talk to Pakistan until they stop talking to Hurriyat is benefitting none," he added. The Congress leader further said Hurriyat is not a stake holder for Pakistan, but for India. "If you want to run democracy then a dialogue is needed with them who oppose you. If you don't talk to Congress in Delhi, if you don't talk to Hurriyat in Kashmir then how can you solve the problems," he said. Separatist leaders from Jammu and Kashmir, including Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, have been invited by the Pakistan High Commission for the annual Iftar party. Mehbooba said the preachers do not talk about harassment of women and girls in the society nor do they mention enviromental degradation in their sermons. (Photo: PTI) Srinagar: Hitting out at separatists, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Wednesday said they rake up unnecessary controversies over Article 370 of the Constitution and asked them to rather focus on protecting the people and the environment of the state. She also made it clear that dialogue with separatists can take place only after "the situation improves". "I am surprised that (Muslim) preachers talk so big about Article 370 (in their sermons). What is Article 370? It is of significance only if we are at peace," Mehbooba said in the Assembly while replying to a debate on demand for grants for departments under her charge. Read: Mehbooba plans to release Kashmiri youth involved in unrest before Eid In an apparent reference to Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who is the chief priest of Kashmir and gives sermons after Friday prayers at Jamia Masjid, the Chief Minister said it was not for the preachers to look after the special provisions of the Constitution with regard to the state but for the mainstream political parties of the state. "What are they talking about safeguarding Article 370...They are looking for something else. It is we (pointing towards MLAs) who have to protect it. It is our shared inheritance and nothing in it will change," she said. Mehbooba said the preachers do not talk about harassment of women and girls in the society nor do they mention enviromental degradation in their sermons. "I also belong to the family of preachers. We have to strive for protecting the environment and the water bodies. For years, we dumped our garbage in River Jhelum and it retaliated by dumping it back in our homes for 10 days (by floods). But we still did not learn any lessons," she said. The PDP chief also hit out at opposition National Conference and Congress for repeatedly questioning her party's alliance with BJP and asserted that she will enter into such a coalition thousands of times if it brought peace with dignity to the state. "The alliance with the BJP was taken to respect the mandate of the people. We cannot have a government of one religion (sic) and opposition of another religion. I will form this alliance thousands of times if it helps in restoring peace with dignity in the state," she said. Earlier in May this year, she had hinted at granting general amnesty for separatist militants if they submit to the Constitution and rule of law. (Photo: PTI) Srinagar: Scores of Kashmiri youth languishing in jails for their involvement in 2008, 2009 and 2010 unrests and later incidents are being freed before Eid-ul-Fitr, the festival that will end the ongoing Muslim fasting month of Ramadan in the first week of July. Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti said on Wednesday that Jammu and Kashmir Home Department has been asked to prepare a list of the youth whom she termed as misguided as they were involved in various cases of violence since 2008 and were subsequently booked under criminal charges by J&K Police. Read: Mehbooba Mufti seeks decisive mandate as Anantnag goes to polls "My government will study these cases and we are contemplating an amnesty scheme for those youths who are willing to shun the path of violence and lead normal lives, she said. She added, Many of these youths who are languishing in jails will be set free before Eid and the remaining cases will also be considered on humanitarian grounds. She said, Unlike previous government, it is not our hobby to jail people but sometimes certain harsh steps are necessitated to prevent law and order problems." The Chief Minister was replying to the discussion on demand for grants of the departments under her charge in the State Assembly. Read: Clashes in Jammu as 'lunatic' defiles Hindu temple She announced shifting of historic central prisons out of the twin capitals of Srinagar and Jammu and said the premises would be developed to create recreational facilities for the locals. Earlier in May this year, she had hinted that granting general amnesty for separatist militants if they submit to the Constitution and rule of law, may be an option before the PDP-BJP government headed by her. She told a meeting of Unified Headquarters held in Srinagar that it would be in the fitness of things to give an option of homecoming to the local youth who have picked up guns. On Wednesday while speaking in the State Assembly, Mufti described Jammu and Kashmir as an abode of secularism and asked the opposition to stop smelling conspiracies in policies of the coalition government which, she claimed, are aimed at restoring peace and ushering the State towards a new era of prosperity. She said the government is committed towards honourable return of displaced Kashmiri Pandits to the Valley but a sense of security must prevail in the community before they can restart their lives at their native places. We will settle them temporarily in transit accommodation and once they adjust to the new life, they can gradually restart their lives at their native places," she reiterated. She also said that the PDP-BJP government is committed to protect Article 370 which she described as the lifeline of relations between India and Jammu and Kashmir. She said the amendments effected in the States new industrial policy 2016 were necessitated to protect the special status of J&K. Hyderabad: Mr Naga and Ms Maragani Murali, parents of conjoined twins Veena and Vani, on Tuesday approached deputy Chief Minister Kadiam Srihari and requested the government to take care of the twins. The parents are not willing to take them home despite an All India Institute of Medical Sciences report stating that surgery to separate them would be life threatening. Mr Murali petitioned the government stating that they could not take care of the girls and the government should attend to them and also provide a house for them in Hyderabad and employment. Doctors in Niloufer Hospital said that they had been waiting for a week for the parents to give consent for a future course of action. Senior doctors had given five days to the family to decide as the girls are now 13 and can no longer be kept in the hospital. Veena and Vani are intelligent and doing fairly well in studies. A tutor teaches the girls in the hospital. Ms Ayama Padmavati, who has been taking care of them for the last three years said, The girls are smart, intelligent and disciplined. They are well-mannered and listen to the hospital staff. Now as they are 13 years old the doctors want them to be shifted. Two to three ayahs take care of the twins in shifts and attend to all their needs right from food, clothing to even disciplining them when needed. Dr Ramesh Reddy, professor and head of the department of paediatric surgery, said, Due to their increasing age it is becoming difficult to keep them in the hospital. The girls need to go to their home or they require to be rehabilitated in a proper home where they can be well looked after. Other doctors said that they had approached the best surgeons in the world for their separation but they all said surgery was risky. Meanwhile the twins parents, whenever approached by government authorities, have cited their inability to take care of the girls. Vadras company has been asked to submit certain financial statements and other documents to the Investigating Officer (IO) of the case. (Photo: AFP) New Delhi: Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Wednesday took a dig at Enforcement Directorate for giving out the news of sending a notice to a firm linked to her husband Robert Vadra in connection with its probe into alleged money laundering in a land deal in Rajasthan's Bikaner district. "Apparently, we have received it at 4 o'clock today but you received it before us," Priyanka told reporters in Delhi, implying that the news had been leaked by the government. Read: Robert Vadra's company gets notice in Bikaner land deal case A notice has been issued to the firm M/s Skylight Hospitality under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) seeking certain financial statements and other documents, official sources said. The Congress and the Gandhis have described the investigations against Robert Vadra as a political witch-hunt. In Rajasthan, his firm allegedly bought about 70 acres (275 bighas) of land in Bikaner in 2010, when the Congress was in power in the state. BJP claims the land was first grabbed by local mafia and then sold with "forged and fabricated documents" in connivance with then government officials. The Enforcement Directorate had conducted extensive searches in this case in Rajasthan and other places last month. The Enforcement Directorate suspects that huge amounts of money was laundered in this case by people buying land at cheap rates through forged documents. The land was bought from farmers who were told it was meant for constructing a firing range for the army. It was sold three years later at a substantial profit. Vadras company has been asked to submit certain financial statements and other documents to the Investigating Officer (IO) of the case. Congress insisted that Modi's clarification is a must given the perception that the issues being 'pursued' by Swamy have the 'silent approval' of the PM. New Delhi: Congress on Wednesday dubbed Subramanian Swamy as the "undeclared spokesman" of Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the BJP MP targeted Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian seeking his sacking and asked the PM to "clarify whether the charges levelled are false". Read: Subramanian Swamy meets Rajnath Singh after attacking Rajan, AAP Party spokesman PL Punia told reporters that the Prime Minister himself should speak out on the issue as Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's dismissing Swamy's statement "mattered little" as the BJP MP has also been targeting Jaitley. "Since the issue involved a key official, the Prime Minister should himself clarify whether the charges levelled are false... Besides, the Prime Minister should specify the action being initiated against Swamy... The Prime Ministershould act against either Swamy or the CEA as per the situation," he said. Read: Arun Jaitley snubs Swamy, backs CEA Arvind Subramanian The Congress spokesman insisted that Modi's clarification is a must given the perception that the issues being "pursued" by Swamy have the "silent approval" of the Prime Minister. "Swamy acts like an undeclared spokesman of the Prime Minister. Whatever the Prime Minister wants to say against any official or opposition leader, he does it through Swamy," Punia claimed. After his tirade against RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan, Swamy on Wednesday opened a new front, targeting Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian and demanded his sacking. Punia alleged that the problem with the government is that it does not have regard for honest officials and makes attempt to humiliate them. "The government wants sycophants like Gajendra Chauhan, Chetan Chauhan, Pahlaj Nihalani, Appa Rao, Sudarshan Rao and Ram Bahadur Rai (in high positions)," he claimed. Congress' chief spokesman Randeep Surjewala tweeted "Subramanian Swamy is the unofficial spokesperson of the PM; Modi uses him to ridicule his own party men and opposition." Jaipur: Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti on Tuesday termed Uttar Pradesh the most unsafe place in the country, while calling Kairana issue just a glance of the "ugly face" of the state. "Uttar Pradesh is the most unsafe place for citizens in the country today. In UP, people are migrating... somewhere due to casteism, somewhere due to communalism and some due to law and order. If there is a feeling of insecurity (among people) more than in Jammu and Kashmir, it is in UP," she told reporters in Jaipur. "There are so many villages and towns in Uttar Pradesh from where people have migrated due to law and order. Kairana is just a glance of the ugly face of UP otherwise," she said. BJP and Samajwadi Party have been sparring over the alleged exodus of Hindu families in Kairana. Bharti visited BJP's National Vice-President and Rajya Sabha MP Om Mathur at the latter's place here and held discussions over the politics in poll-bound UP. Mathur also attacked the state government for law-and-order situation by making a veiled reference to the Mathura violence in which 29 people, including a Superintendent of Police and an SHO, were killed. "There is no law and order in Uttar Pradesh. Police officers are shot dead and other incidents are also happening," Mathur said. In the last expansion of his ministry on October 31, last year, the chief minister had inducted five cabinet ministers, eight ministers of state with independent charge and eight ministers of state. (Photo: PTI) Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav will expand his ministry on June 27 in perhaps the last reshuffle of his council of ministers ahead of the Assembly election in early 2017. Governor Ram Naik will administer oath of office and secrecy to the new ministers at Raj Bhawan on June 27, a Raj Bhawan release said. This will be the seventh expansion of the Akhilesh Yadav ministry since it assumed office in 2012. In the last expansion of his ministry on October 31, last year, the chief minister had inducted five cabinet ministers, eight ministers of state with independent charge and eight ministers of state. Speculation of a cabinet expansion has been rife in the recent past and each time the chief minister met the governor in Raj Bhavan, it would give grist to the rumour mill. After the surprise dismissal of senior minister Balram Yadav from the ministry on Tuesday following the merger of gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari's Quami Ekta Dal with Samajwadi Party, there are four vacancies in the ministry. The maximum permissible strength of the ministry, including the chief minister, is 60 in UP. New Delhi: China on Wednesday said it will play a "constructive" role in the discussions on India's bid for membership of the 48-member Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) but at the same maintained that the issue was not on the agenda of the NSG meeting in Seoul. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said that NSG members had three rounds of unofficial discussions on the entry of India and Pakistan into the grouping. "China hopes to discuss further this issue and will play a constructive role in the discussions," she said. Read: As China talks tough, US asks NSG members to support India's bid With China leading the opposition against India's entry into the elite Nuclear Supplier's Group (NSG), New Delhi is in a diplomatic overdrive to reach out to countries to support its bid. Meanwhile, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar , who was closely monitoring the goings-on during the officials' level meet of the 48-nation grouping which started on Monday, left for the South Korean capital to lobby with members to boost India's prospects of getting membership. Read: Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar leaves for Seoul to push for India's NSG membership Senior External Affairs Ministry Official Amandeep Singh Gill, in-charge of 'Disarmament & International Security' division, is already in Seoul to "garner" support as well as "explain" India's case, sources said. However, China continues to stonewall India's bid for NSG membership with the members divided over the entry of a non-NPT signatory country like India. The NSG works under the principle of unanimity and even one country's vote against India will scuttle its bid. Read: Successfully thwarting India's NSG bid, claims Pakistan While majority of the elite group members backed India's membership, it is understood that apart from China, countries like Turkey, South Africa, Ireland and New Zealand were not in favour of India's entry into the NSG. China maintains opposition to India's entry, arguing that it has not signed Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). However, it has been batting for its close ally Pakistan's entry if NSG extends any exemption for India. Read: Modi to meet Xi Jinping on June 23 to win support for India's NSG membership 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. India is seeking membership of NSG to enable it to trade in and export nuclear technology. On April 1, a civil jury in Helena found that Art Wittich failed to maintain and preserve records of his 2010 state Senate campaign and that he accepted corporate contributions of $19,599 in violation of Montana law. Last week in Anaconda, District Judge Ray Dayton fined Wittich triple the amount the jury found that he illegally received, plus court costs. The penalty will total at least $80,000. The bare facts of Wittichs trial and penalty dont tell the full story of what was at stake in this case that involved a well-orchestrated, well-funded scheme of a national interest group to influence Montana elections. The targets of this direct mail campaign were Republican primary candidates who didnt return National Right to Work surveys, didnt answer the way the group wanted or didnt promise to promote the groups interests in the Montana Legislature. We commend those candidates who insisted on representing their Montana constituents rather than bowing to the dictates of an out-of-state special interest group. Evidence introduced at the week-long trial in Helena this spring showed what this shadowy national interest group did to help Wittichs successful primary campaign for state Senate in 2010. Primary targets Jonathan Motl, who was appointed COPP in June 2013, was investigating complaints from Deborah Bonogofsky, a Billings Republican, who was a Primary Election target of National Right to Work in 2010, when he found evidence that eight other primary campaigns that year involved similarly organized and funded smear campaigns. Motl filed complaints against all nine candidates, reached settlements with some and got default judgments against others. Wittich is the only one who denied wrongdoing and went to trial. The misconduct of candidates who coordinated with National Right to Work in 2010 helped defeat some Republicans and discouraged others from running again in such a negative campaign atmosphere. During the trial, Wittichs 2010 primary opponent Shawn Moran and former state lawmaker John Esp, R-Big Timber, another NRTW target in 2010, said they felt picked on by the group and that the experience soured them on politics. In a very real sense, the people of our entire state lose when people like John Esp dont run, Billings attorney Gene Jarussi told the jury, and all that because National Right to Work came into this state with their operatives and their money. They had a plan to just wreak havoc, and they did. This is a state that long suffered the corrupting influence of money that outright bought elections in our Legislature. A century ago, Montana voters outlawed such corruption. Voter accountability The U.S. Supreme Court has thrown out that Montana law, ruling that money is speech and that corporations are people. But the court, so far, has maintained that the people have the right to know who is giving and spending in their elections. Montanans dont want another debacle such as occurred in the 2010 GOP primary. The 2015 Montana Disclose Act clearly requires much more timely and complete reporting. But ultimately, the people, through their elected representatives, will have to hold violators accountable. Be an informed voter. Question the sources of campaign materials and claims made about candidates. If you have concerns or questions, speak up. Call or email the Montana COPP at 406-444-2942, email to cpphelp@mt.gov or go to the COPP web page at a link with this Gazette opinion at billingsgazette.com. Congestion around school zones is a longstanding problem and blame has been passed to every quarter. Experts, school heads and parents are all at logger heads with each other over the issue. Its been a month since schools reopened after the summer vacation, making severe traffic jams in the morning and afternoon a daily affair for commuters. Even though school hours were changed a few years ago to avoid peak hours, the problem seems to have resumed. The respite of the summer months has been left behind and Bengalureans who hit the major junctions everyday are facing the usual traffic logjams as hundreds of students make their way to and from school everyday. The fact that several schools, especially those in the heart of the city, are hard-pressed for space means that cars, autos and vans line the streets, compounding the traffic mess. The traffic police have been hard at work to beat this problem; they have come out with a number of plans including the Safe Route to School, although none of them have wielded significant results. Commuters who travel across the major roads where schools happen to be located Richmond Road, Residency Road, Chalukya Circle, New BEL Road etc, face this problem twice every day. For instance, Chalukya Circle, which connects several parts of the city with the international airport, is so packed that people sometimes take as much as 30 minutes to cover a distance of 500 metres in the morning and evening hours. This is because vehicles are parked on both sides of an already narrow road, waiting to pick up and drop the children studying in the schools nearby. Other important roads of the city including Richmond road, New BEL road, Ramakrishnashrama road, Outer ring road also face similar traffic congestion due to the near by schools. Read: Guest column School buses are very expensive, despite tax holidays Traffic cops, home guard officers and transport department officials working on the issue are at a loss. Schools operate very few vans, which are the only ones allowed inside the school. Hundreds of vehicles which also make the trip everyday are forced to drop and pick up their children from the side of the road. This has caused a lot of chaos, said a traffic cop in Richmond Town. Schools let children go class by class. This results in parents and drivers of private vehicles waiting for about 20 minutes to pick up their kids, especially if they study in different classes. This, naturally, causes a piling up of vehicles in these school zones, he explained. Traffic problem in and around the schools is not a new problem. We are holding talks with the private schools over improving the traffic situation. Several initiatives have been launched in this regard. Traffic police are coordinating with the school managements over regulating and easing the traffic congestions R. Hitendra, Additional Commissioner of Traffic, Bengaluru Logistics expert Mr Surendra Ganiga says the only solution to the problem is having the schools provide affordable transport to all children. Schools are given various tax exemptions. School vehicles are not taxed. The managements should allow parents to feel the benefit of this as well, he said. Using private vehicles to take kids to and from school is a common phenomenon here in Bengaluru. According to the transport department officials, using private vehicles to ferry kids is not permitted. Issue related to the traffic congestion in and around the schools comes under the purview of the traffic police Ramegowda, Commissioner, state transport department Speaking to this newspaper, Transport Commissioner Mr. Ramegowda said that the department guidelines make it amply clear. All school vehicles follow the rules and guidelines, which are very few. School heads insist that parents prefer private transport because of the added expense, he said. Unfortunately, those drivers dont follow any rules or safety measures. Mr. R Hitendra, additional commissioner of traffic, Bengaluru observed that this trend should be analysed from different perspectives. Many parents opt for the private vehicles as they are cost effective, he said. He also said that traffic police has started several initiatives to discourage parents from using private vehicles. We are holding discussions with school managements, BMTC etc. BMTC has made it clear that it is ready to provide any number of buses to ferry students from home to schools, he said. A holistic approach is need of the hour Congestion around school zones is a longstanding problem and blame has been passed to every quarter. Experts, school heads and parents are all at logger heads with each other over the issue. Many feel that it can be dealt with at a policy level, the absence of a clause relating to school transport, when licenses are issued to new schools, has exacerbated the situation. Schools are using the transportation facility to make money, leaving parents with their hands tied. Because of this, they choose to drop their kids or hire private vans. This is increasing traffic volume around the schools every day Latha SK, a parent School heads claim that private transport is the root of the problem. Many managements who spoke to this papers said it is impossible to allow all the parents to pick up and drop their kids from inside the campus. "Most parents prefer using their own vehicles, most of them four-wheelers. We need several acres of extra land to accommodate all of them on campus, which can also pose security risks," said the principal of a private CBSE school in Bengaluru. He added that the transportation fee is based on the cost per student. "We need to hire drivers with atleast five years' experience, who demand about Rs15,000 per month. As per the conditions put forth by the Department of Public Instruction, we need to depute female crew in every vehicle. It's easy to make allegations against us, but these things have not been taken into account," he said. However, experts feel that parents are forced to resort to private transport because school buses are a ripe money-making opportunity for managements. Traffic expert Shantanu Hegde said a holistic approach is the need of the hour. "The transport department and the cops are to blame for this fiasco, which has been carrying on for decades. They still haven't come out with a workable action plan. We all know that private vehicles are causing the congestion. Why then, don't we have a wider discussion around it," he asked. According to Mr. R Hitendra, Additional Commissioner of Police, Traffic, Bengaluru has several initiatives including fining vehicle drivers, to solve the problem. New Delhi: A day after issuing notice to Skylight Hospitality, the firm allegedly linked to Mr Robert Vadra, son-in-law of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, in connection with a land scam in Rajasthan, sources in the ED on Wednesday said its investigation has revealed that allotments were made in the names of dummy firms and certain private persons. The land in 34 villages of Bikaner was supposed to be used for expanding the Army's firing range in the area, sources said. Meanwhile, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Wednesday confirmed receiving the ED notice to the firm allegedly linked to her husband. She, however, made a jibe at critics for creating unwarranted hype and said the over-enthusiastic media broke the news yesterday while the copy has been received today. Hyderabad: The HMDA has ordered another dozen national flags from the Mumbai-based company as all three flags, the largest in the country, are torn. One of the flags ordered is about to be delivered. Officials at Ranchi, which had the largest flag till recently, have informed that every year six-eight flags get damaged. The HMDA is also contemplating getting a woven flag from Pochampally. At present, the flags comprise three stitched pieces the saffron, white and green. However, the woven flag would have several pieces weaved together which would prevent frequent damage. The materials used would be silk and polyester . A senior official from the HMDAs Buddha Purnima Project said, The Roads and Buildings department, which was in-charge of the flag till recently, has placed orders. It will take a month and a half. However, one of the flags will soon be delivered. Currently we have three flags but all are damaged; we have rectified the damage and are using the same. We have to make provision for a new rope too. Since the Tricolour was hoisted at Sanjeevaiah Park on June 2, three flags have been damaged. Each replacement costs about Rs 1.9 lakh. Apart from the maintenance cost, electricity charges for illumination of the flag and the surrounding area are several lakhs a year. The Flag Code for India, which mandates that the national flag should be made of cotton, does not imply for Monumental flags. Hyderabad: The Central government has been following up the Hyderabad Funds case with the Telangana state government as the required documents supposedly stored at the Tarnaka archives have not been found. Officials of the External Affairs ministry have visited the city thrice till date to search for the documents. Meanwhile senior state government officials who are handling the case said that the Centre could not be a claimant since the funds were transferred from the Hyderabad government. They say that the TS government should be the claimant as it is the successor of the Nizam's government. Speaking to DC, a senior government officer said, The funds were transferred from the Hyderabad account to London in 1947-48. It should be remembered that Hyderabad was an independent state even after August 15, 1947. But after the state of Hyderabad came under the Central government, small portions were attached to Karnataka and Maharashtra. The funds transferred were from the Government of Hyderabad whose successor is the government of Telangana. "GOI has been pursuing the evidence with the TS government after the state was bifurcated. While the evidence is in Hyderabad, these files can substantiate the GOI's claim. However no one knows where the files are, neither does the GOI have any original documents to pursue it. It is the government of TS that can claim it as it is the successor of the Government of the Nizam. The last visit of officials from the External Affairs ministry was five months ago, however, the files were not found. Mr A.K. Goyal, advisor to the government of TS, had accompanied the officials in their search for the documents at the archives. New Delhi: In a big boost to India soon after the US proclamation of support, France on Wednesday issued an appeal to all NSG members to support India's entry into the 48-member grouping ahead of the crucial meeting on Thursday between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in the Uzbek city of Tashkent. The French announcement comes soon after the US proclamation of support and is a big boost for India. With the US and France batting for India, pressure is mounting on Beijing to relent on New Delhis bid for membership of the NSG. With the United States and France batting for India, pressure is mounting on Beijing to relent on New Delhis entry to the NSG, even as India is going all out for immediate membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) at the crucial concluding day of the Seoul plenary NSG meet on Friday. Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar who usually travels with the Prime Minister on his official visits instead left on Thursday night for the South Korean Capital. Read: Narendra Modi leaves for Tashkent to attend SCO Summit Sources said it was decided that Mr. Jaishankar, as the top negotiator, would head for Seoul to answer any clarifications at the NSG plenary, should PM Modi manage a breakthrough with the Chinese leadership at Tashkent. Meanwhile, China continued to make ambivalent statements on Indias bid for NSG membership amid clear indications that it was unrelenting in its opposition. Clubbing India and Pakistan once again, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said members of the 48-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group have had three round of unofficial discussions on the membership of the two countries. China is seeking to equate India with its impeccable non-proliferation record with that of Pakistan for which it is batting. Pakistan had on Tuesday claimed that it had successfully blocked Indias bid for NSG membership, and Chinas clubbing of the two countries is seen as a ploy to block New Delhi. Pakistans National Security Adviser Nasser Janjua has alleged that Americas efforts to include India in the NSG was part of a greater design to contain China and prevent the resurgence of Russia. It's [part of] a greater design, Janjua said at a seminar on 'Pakistan's case for NSA membership, he said. Pakistans former permanent representative at the UN in Geneva Zamir Akram said that Pakistan was only opposed to exclusive membership of the NSG for India. The Dawn reported that Akram's comments follow remarks by Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj that India does not object to any country, including Pakistan, joining the NSG. While the human-animal conflict is not new but water scarcity in the intense summer heat has led to sharp increase in such incidents. (Representational image) Jaipur: Picture and video of a leopard with is head stuck in a pitcher in a village in Rajasthans Rajsamand district on September last year were an instant hit. But, behind that picture was a distressing truth. The leopard was thirsty and had come to village in search of water. He tried drinking the water from that metal pitcher but unfortunately ended up getting his head stuck in it. Still, he was lucky not to get killed by villagers despite his head stuck in the pitcher for nearly 10 hours. Otherwise, the moment people spot a wild animal they get panic and hound him to death. At least four panthers and a couple of hyenas have been killed in last three months. Only 10 days ago month a panther was stoned to death then burnt in Jhali ka Guda in Rajsamand. Prior to this, people in Kachbali village in the same district killed a panther then posted selfie. It is not that only humans have been killing wild animals that too without a purpose. Wild animals too have been constantly entering not just villages but cities; attacking and killing domestic animals and people. There have been at least a dozen incidents in the current month alone. While the human-animal conflict is not new but water scarcity in the intense summer heat has led to sharp increase in such incidents. Due to the sweltering heat, many small water reservoirs have dried up while others are on the verge of drying up. Water scarcity is forcing wild animals to stray into villages, said Babulal Jaju, the in-charge of People for Animals who estimates nearly 125 deaths of panthers due to water and food scarcity in the last one-and-a-half years. Hyderabad: In a significant development with regard to the Agri Gold Group of Companies scam, the AP state government on Wednesday informed the Hyderabad High Court that it was prepared to hand over the investigation to the CBI. The High Court made it clear that though the case may be handed over to the CBI by both AP and TS, the auction of properties which has been going on under its supervision, will continue. The court noted that the Karnataka government has already handed over the cases against Agri Gold to the CBI. A division bench, comprising Acting Chief Justice Dilip B. Bhosale and Justice S.V. Bhatt was dealing with a petition by the Telangana Agri Gold customers and Agents Welfare Association, represented by its president A. Ramesh Babu of the city, seeking a probe either by the CBI or Enforcement Directorate into the deposits scam. The cases against Agri Gold in AP and TS are currently being investigated by the CID of the states concerned. While hearing the plea, the bench asked AP advocate-general D. Srinivas about the status of the investigation. The AG told the bench that the AP government was prepared to hand over the case to the CBI, but it was worried that the delay that may be caused due to this could affect the interests of the depositors. The bench told the AG to place the written proceedings with regard to handing over the case to the CBI before the court. The bench also sought the response of TS over handing the case over to the CBI. While commencing the hearing, the bench asked counsel representing Agri Gold whether its order to deposit the Rs 25 lakh with the registry had been complied with. When counsel replied in the negative and tried place some proposal of transferring the company shares in the name of depositors, the bench expressed its disapproval at this and pointed that out since the beginning, the company management was trying to mislead the court by furnishing false information and was also avoiding extending cooperation to the committee set up to oversee the auction. The bench adjourned the case to next Tuesday. Hyderabad HC summons KU Vice-Chancellor The Hyderabad High Court on Wednesday ordered the in-charge Vice-Chancellor of Kakatiya University to appear before the court and personally explain the reasons for not implementing its order. A division bench comprising Acing Chief Justice Dilip B. Bhosale and Justice P. Naveen Rao was dealing with a contempt case by one V. Naina alleging that though the High Court and Supreme Court directed the university to complete the process of selection to the posts of Assistant Professors, the authorities failed to do so. She brought to the notice of the court that the judgment was delivered in May 2015 and though a year has elapsed, nothing has been done. Counsel appearing for the varsity submitted that the government has not made any appointments and there was no quorum for the executive council to meet and finalise the selections. Telangana advocates try to burn effigies, held Several advocates were taken into police custody at Criminal Court Complex at Nampally and Ranga Reddy district court complex at LB Nagar in the city on Wednesday when they tried to burn an effigy of Andhra judges, demanding immediate bifurcation of the common High Court and recall of the list of provisional allocation of subordinate judicial officers between TS and AP. As part of their ongoing stir to boycott all subordinate courts across the state, T-advocates gathered in front of the courts at Nampally and LB Nagar and tried to burn the effigies of Andhra judges. The police intervened and this resulted in minor scuffles between the cops and lawyers. The protesters were taken into custody and shifted to police stations. However, protesting advocated did manage to burn effigies in various districts across the state. Meanwhile, an extraordinary general body meeting of Telangana High Court Advocates Association was held at the High Court on Wednesday. The meeting resolved to boycott the High Court on July 1, demanding separate high courts for TS and AP and recall of the provisional list allocating subordinate judicial officers between the two states. The meeting, while condemning the arrest of the lawyers at the Nampally and RR courts, demanded their immediate release. There are no senior doctors at government hospitals after 2 p.m or after lunch. Hyderabad: In the strangest twist, health cards being issued by the Telangana government to its own employees are proving useless in cases involving emergency or trauma care. Why? Because they are not being recognised by private, corporate hospitals. And stuck in this situation are the government employees who refuse to go to government hospitals because of non-availability of senior doctors for urgent surgeries or emergency trauma care. A senior employee, whose son had suffered a head injury in an accident, explained the problem. I knew there was no point taking my son to Gandhi Hospital. It will only have junior doctors on call. I then picked a corporate hospital because they would offer the best, urgent treatment. But health cards of government staff are of no use at corporate hospital because no MoUs have been signed with the government. TS employees and the holders of health cards have been constantly asking the government to sign MoUs with corporate hospitals as they say they are not keen on care at government hospitals at all. Another senior government employee said: Diagnostics is a major problem. They take a lot of time and these government hospitals are not even clean. The quality of wards is also very bad. Others say there are no senior doctors at government hospitals after 2 p.m or after lunch. Govind Hari, secretary of the Telanagana Super-speciality Hospitals Asso-ciation said: For trauma care, a maximum number of employees are picking corporate hospitals because of the best care and facilities. Interestingly, 200 hospitals in the city have signed an MoU with the government but the 18 private hospitals who have not, are in demand when it comes to emergency care. Health minister Dr Laxma Reddy said: We are working hard to improve the infrastructure by purchasing the best of equipment for diagnostics. Equipments worth Rs 24 crore has been purchased for Nims. The issue of non-availability of doctors will also be sorted soon. Hyderabad: Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has given the go-ahead for hikes in power tariffs and RTC bus fares in the state. Stating that while it was the responsibility of the state government to protect institutions like TSRTC and Discoms, the Chief Minister said even the citizens had to bear some of the burden to pull the institutions out of financial doldrums. Mr Rao suggested not more than 7 per cent power tariff hike on industrial and IT consumers, minimal hike on domestic consumers with more than 100 units per month consumption and no hike for consumers with less than 100 units consumption per month. Officials said about 60 lakh of the total 86 lakh connections in Telangana were of consumers who used less than 100 units per month and as such the power hike would not affect majority of the people in the state. The TS Power Distribution Companies have sought a Rs 1958-crore tariff hike for the 2016-17 financial year. As a result, the major burden of the tariff hike is going to be on the industrial and IT sectors. When officials informed the CM that the industry sector was willing for a 10 per cent hike in power tariff, Mr Rao suggested that the hike for even the IT and industry sector should not be more than 7 per cent. Meanwhile, TSRTC officials were told to ensure that the bus fare hike was not more than 10 per cent for all category of buses like luxury, super luxury, Garuda, Vennela, Metro, city buses, air conditioned and non-air-conditioned, except Palle Velugu. For Palle Velugu buses, the CM suggested a Re-1 hike for up to 30-km travel and a Rs-2 hike for over 30-km travel. He said the poor and a majority of people travelled in Palle Velugu buses so the hike should be minimal. The Chief Minister asked officials of the power sector and TSRTC to work out percentages of the hike in power tariffs and bus fares and submit the same to him on Thursday. As the Energy and Transport ministers were not present, he said the percentage of tariff hike would be announced in their presence on Thursday. Hyderabad: In addition to allowing a bus fare hike, the Chief Minister also showered the following sops on TSRTC to put it back on track. The state will extend Rs 300 crore to TSRTC to purchase 1,200 new buses. The TS government will also release Rs 75 crore every month to the RTC to help it make up its existing losses of around Rs 2,275 crore. TSRTC is incurring about Rs 500 crore on extending concessions on student bus passes, senior citizens, differently challenged etc. The government has decided to reimburse this amount regularly.The Chief Minister has directed GHMC to bear the losses incurred in the city region of TSRTC. Mr K. Chandrasekhar Rao, while approving the power tariff hike, gave four main reasons for power distribution companies incurring huge debts and why they needed government and public support to come out of the debts. As per the directions of the government to ensure quality power supply, Transco and Discoms spend Rs 2,144 crore to improve power distribution infrastructure like construction of sub-stations, laying of 33 KV, 11 KV, HT and LT lines in addition to the erection of power and distribution transformers. To fulfil the promise of the government that there would be no power cuts, Discoms made short-term power purchase agreements with private producers at a high cost and spent another Rs 2,700 crore. The government increased the salaries of the staff in power sector. The additional salary burden too fell on Discoms. Discoms spent another Rs 2400 crore for power infrastructure improvement to ensure 9-hour day time supply to the agriculture sector. TSRTC unions to go on one day strike today The Joint Action Committee of seven various unions in Telangana State Road Transport Corporation have decided to go on a one-day strike on Thursday, after rejecting the invitation from the RTC management for talks saying that only one union was invited to Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Raos review meeting. However, the impact of the strike is expected to be felt only in some districts. In Greater Hyderabad limits, it is likely to be minimal or negligible since the majority union, the Telangana Mazdoor Union (TMU), is not taking part in the strike. The unions on strike have strong presence in certain districts like Khammam and Nalgonda where the impact is expected to be more. JAC leader Raji Reddy said the JACs main demands are release of encashment bonds of last three years, exemption of MV tax to Palle Velugu buses and cracking the whip on private bus operators who are causing a Rs 1,000 crore per annum loss to RTC by operating as stage carriages in violation of rules. TSRTC managing director G.V. Ramana Rao said efforts are on to operate all the bus services on Thursday. Though the strike is only for one-day, we are leaving nothing to chance and are fully prepared to deal with the situation. Also, the strike impact is likely to be minimal or negligible as a majority of the employees are not in favour of the strike, he said. At a meeting organised by JAC of RTC unions elsewhere in the city, Prof. M. Kodandaram-led political Telangana Joint Action Committee threw its weight behind the TSRTC unions which are not happy with the Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao blaming employees for the losses the Corporation has been incurring. Prof Kodandaram and Prof. Haragopal said it is the responsibility of the state government to protect the RTC and that it cannot compare profits in the private sector with the public sector. RTC has sought government intervention to protect the Corporation at any cost. RTC employees played a key role in Telangana statehood movement and TJAC will support them in their struggle to put it back on the profit-making tracks, the two professors said. On the 140th anniversary of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, an organizer of the annual reenactment said this year will be bigger and better. The re-enactment is one event scheduled for the 2016 Crow Native Days, a six-day celebration in Crow Agency. Festivities kicked off on Tuesday, and the event runs through Sunday. The hallmark of Crow Native Days is the re-enactment. There will be three showings on Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Real Bird Ranch, near the site of the battle 140 years ago. Saturday's re-enactment falls on the first anniversary date of the two-day battle. Prior to the main showing, the participants will be at the cavalry encampment, putting on displays of preparation. Were going to do more cavalry drills, more history on the military at that time, said Jim Real Bird, an organizer of the re-enactment. Participants come from all around to suit up and take part in the re-enactment, Real Bird said. He got a call from one South African man, who has roots in Montana, to join the cavalry. Prior to the main reenactment, there will be a two-hour horse ride on Saturday, Real Bird said. They will visit the areas traveled by Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer, along with members of the 7th Cavalry and scouts from the Crow and Arikara tribes. The ride will take them on a trail to Weir Point, which was one point of attack during the battle. "From Weir Point, he dropped into what we call Cedar Coulee," Real Bird said. "And then we'll drop into Medicine Tail Coulee ford." The ride will take them back to the 11-acre battle re-enactment site, where more than 100 actors will represent the 7th Cavalry on one side and the Lakota Sioux, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes on the other. The main battle ends with all the 50 soldiers and 60 warriors fighting across the river, Real Bird said. Crow Native Days will host an array of other events throughout the week, including powwows, skill competitions, rodeos and high-speed Indian relays. Call 406-638-3732 for more information on Crow Native Days. Bengaluru: The sudden transfer of Bangalore Development Authority(BDA) Commissioner, T Sham Bhat, who had set a record of sorts by surviving in his position for four long years despite a change of government, has raised eyebrows in political and administrative circles. Although sources close to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah claim it is a routine transfer, long overdue owing to Mr Bhat's long stint in the BDA, others feel he has been moved to the Department of Cooperation as principal secretary only to avoid embarrassment to the government in the wake of the Karnataka High Court directing it to appoint an honest person to the Karnataka Public Service Commission(KPSC). Appointed as BDA commissioner on August 27, 2012 by then Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar, Mr Bhat continued in the post while other IAS officers were reshuffled like a pack of cards thanks to the 'blessings' of the Congress government. But his luck ran out after the high court, acting upon a petition questioning the government's decision to recommend his name for KPSC chairman, asked one too many questions about him. Mr Bhat has been accused of involvement in the denotification of sites in the Arkavathy Layout and using his office to do favours for politicians. The Governor too has returned the file recommending his name for the top post in the public service commission. Although the officer is due to retire in December this year, the government is still keen on appointing him KPSC chairman, claim sources. Mumbai: Government officials appealed to local traders on Tuesday to stop buying mica mined by child workers, as the government comes under pressure from activists to clamp down on child labour. Thousands of children risk their lives working for a pittance in crumbling mica mines, extracting the sparkly mineral used in lipsticks and eye-shadow as well as electronics. Officials from the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) visited Jharkhand this month to assess the extent of child labour in its mica mines. The state, along with Bihar, produces about three-quarters of the mica mined in India. "Many of these mines are illegal and they hire child workers to keep costs down. But legal or not, no one should be engaging child workers - it is against the law," said Yashwant Jain, a member of NCPCR, who visited Jharkhand. "We met with some traders and told them not to buy mica from child workers. We told them we would take strict action against anyone caught doing so," he said. Thousands of children climb down narrow mine shafts with no safety equipment, and cut mica with hammers and chisels for up to eight hours a day, activists say. The work puts children at risk of skin disease, respiratory infections, injury and death. The International Labour Organization estimates there are 5.7 million child workers in India aged five to 17, out of 168 million globally. Up to 20,000 children may be working in the mica mines in Jharkhand and Bihar, according to some estimates. The current law bans children under 14 from working in only 18 hazardous occupations and 65 processes including mining, gem cutting and cement manufacture. India wants to amend the three-decade-old law to outlaw child labour in all sectors. But children who help in family businesses will be permitted to work outside school hours, a loophole that activists say may be exploited by unscrupulous employers. The mica from illegal mines is sold to traders or intermediaries, who sell it to exporters, who in turn sell it to manufacturers of cosmetics, chemicals and electronics. Few have systems to check the use of child labour, activists say. Indian Nobel Laureate and child rights activist Kailash Satyarthi has said big corporations must do more to clean up their supply chains and ensure that no child labour is involved in the products they manufacture. Jain said it would not be fair to target the children's families, who are usually poor and illiterate. "We realise it is poverty that is driving these villagers to send their children to the mines, not to schools," he said. "So we are putting the onus on the traders, who are benefiting from the situation. Only by raising awareness that what they are doing is wrong can we solve the problem." New Delhi: With Bharatiya Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy waging a war against Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian after targeting Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan, Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on Wednesday hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking him if he plans on handing over the Finance Ministry to Swamy. "Is Modi handing over Finance Ministry to Subramaniam Swami? He has been claiming that PM has assured him as quid pro quo if he targeted Nehru Gandhi Family," Singh said in a series of tweets. He also alleged that Swamy's real target was not Subramanian, but Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. Staying true to his promise of training guns on bureaucrats 'loyal' to the Congress, Swamy on Wednesday said that he wants Arvind Subramanian to be sacked, as he had badmouthed India in the international arena and also encouraged Congress to become rigid on their GST Bill clauses. Swamy launched a scathing attack on Arvind in a series of tweets. "Who said to US Cong on 13/3/13 the US should act against India to defend US Pharmaceuticals interests? Arvind Subramanian MoF !! Sack him!!! Guess who encouraged Congi to become rigid on GST clauses ? Jaitely's economic adviser Arvind Subramanian of Washington DC," he tweeted. Swamy reiterated his salvo he had used against RBI Chief Raghuram Rajan, saying that the CEA was a 'green card holder' and was probably not an Indian citizen. "He used to work in America and is also a green card holder. I don't know if he is a citizen or not, but I'm sure he has a green card. There was this American Congress Committee for pharmaceutical purposes and they held a hearing to figure out India's opinion on the matter. There he said in a statement that India was not working according to America in this matter and for that, they should be taught a lesson in WTO. How can we have such a person as an advisor here?" Swamy said. Continuing his assault, he added that when Arvind was appointed by the Indian government, he gave a note to the Finance Ministry asserting that the clauses given by Congress in the GST Bill were absolutely justified. "I think that such people who can fail our government should be tossed out. Now, it's been two years and I think it's about time," he added. The senior BJP leader also said that he has a list of 27 people with him and he will 'fix' them soon. Earlier, Swamy had welcomed Rajan's decision to leave his post as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor on the completion of his term, saying that he had taken such a step in order to save his 'self respect'. In May, Swamy had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking dismissal of the Reserve Bank of India governor. Rajan had earlier announced that he would return to the academic world at the end of his term on September 4, 2016, adding that he will always be available to serve his country when needed and asserted that his 'successor' would take the nation to new heights. Rajan is currently on leave from the Chicago Booth School of Business, where he holds the post of Distinguished Service Professor of Finance. Incidentally, both Rajan and Arvind Subramanian have worked at the IMF. While Rajan was a UPA appointee, Arvind Subramanian was appointed by the Narendra Modi government. New Delhi: The Monsoon Session of Parliament is likely to begin in the third week of July and end by mid August, with the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs set to meet on June 29 to decide on the schedule. Sources say that the Session is expected to start from July 18 and continue till August 13. The CCPA headed by Home Minister Rajnath Singh will, however, take the final call at its meeting on June 29. With increased strength and support from some opposition parties in Rajya Sabha, the government is keen to get the GST bill, which has been pending for a long time now, passed in this session in the Upper House. The government has already missed the target of implementing the GST regime from April 1, this year in the wake of stiff opposition to the tax reform measure by Congress and some other parties. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has recently claimed that almost all the states have agreed to support GST. After a meeting of State Finance Ministers in Kolkata recently, Jaitley had said that except Tamil Nadu, which has some reservations, all other states favour the proposed legislation. The GST is being touted as a key tax reform measure by the Modi government which will help give a fillip of 1 to 2 per cent to the country's GDP. The Bill has already been passed by Lok Sabha. Chennai: The ruling AIADMK and DMK on Tuesday argued over drinking water project for Dindigul, setting up of medical colleges and waiver of agricultural loans. Former minister and DMK deputy secretary I. Periyasamy speaking on the discussion on the motion of thanks to the Governor said the DMK government initiated the drinking water project for Dindigul district. Disputing the DMK member's claim, local administration minister S.P. Velumani said the drinking water project involved a main project and five sub-projects. But, the DMK started the sub-projects and partially completed it, without taking measures to start the main project. The AIADMK government had nearly completed the main project and drinking water would be available to people shortly. Similarly, health minister C. Vijayabaskar challenged Periyasamy's statement that the DMK government had set up five medical colleges. Vijayabaskar said the DMK government had issued GO, but did not allocate funds or acquire lands for the colleges. Periyasamy replied that a special officer had been appointed to find the location and allot funds. When Periyasamy raised the demand for waiver of loans for all farmers without discrimination, minister for co-operation Sellur K. Raju said the AIADMK government had waived loans for Rs 5709 crore and added that the DMK government had waived agricultural loans worth R 5,389 crore and claiming that they had waived Rs 7,000 crore worth crop loans. Periyasamy complained that the names of several beneficiaries of government's pension scheme and financial assistance for senior citizens, destitute women and widows had been deleted. Reacting to the charge, forests minister Dindigul C. Seenivasan said the names of those who were not eligible for the scheme had been removed. The same point was reiterated by revenue minister R.B. Udhayakumar. Earlier, there was commotion and noisy scenes in the House when the AIADMK member mentioned DMK leader M. Karunanidhi's name. Similar commotion was seen when DMK member Mano. Thangaraj mentioned the Chief Minister's name. The Speaker said as per rule the Chief Minister's name should not be used. I have long been arguing that it is better to have 100 per cent foreign-owned companies making their products in India 100 per cent, rather than buying 100 per cent foreign-made products from 100 per cent foreign-owned companies. Liberalisation came to India due to forced circumstances and some adroit statesmanship by then Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao in 1991. Since then we have been on a cycle of endless arguments and quibbling about it. Liberalisation very simply met the ease of doing business, ease of setting up new industries and easy inflows of foreign investment. Due to our being naturally argumentative we didnt make any headway. Interestingly, the BJP and the Left were one in opposing a liberalised economic and industrial regime. Almost two decades ago I was in a public debate with Dr Murli Manohar Joshi, the BJP ideologue who had coined the slogan FDI for computer chips Yes! Potato chips No! The topic of the debate was just this. I argued that the main reason why a country like India with clearly inadequate capital resources wanted foreign investment was to create jobs and generate value addition for the economy. The computer chip plant, I argued, was entirely imported, the raw materials used were also imported and the unit costs were low due to severe global competition making for very little value addition. Such highly-automated plants employed very few workers. The humble potato chip, by contrast, involved growing spuds here, picking and processing them here, cooking and packing them here and consumed by a mass market here. It employed large numbers of workers at every stage of production, implied substantial value addition at every stage and all raw materials were indigenous. Clearly potato chips were going to make a far greater contribution to the economy, which is why we should welcome manufacture of this kind. Who owned a business didnt matter. I recalled Chinese Chairman Deng Xiaopings famous and cryptic comment on the issue of nationality of ownership: it doesnt matter if the cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice. In this case, the mice were jobs and value addition. Economic liberalisation came to India in 1991 when the Congress government of P.V. Narasimha Rao in one fell swoop dispensed with the Industrial Licensing Policy Act 1952 and dismantled overnight the formidable Directorate General of Technical Development (DGTD), which licensed production, allocated quotas and approved technologies and partners. It was a place where huge rents were extracted for the officials and their political masters. Above all it conferred undeserving profits on favored capitalists. Take Bajaj scooters and Ambassador cars or Godrej refrigerators, for instance. It also ensured that industrial production was effectively emasculated and job creation was curbed. I have also been arguing for long that ownership should not be the issue but value addition and employment should be the criteria. The dividend stream is always the smallest cash stream going abroad. For instance, Hindustan Motors assembles Pajero SUVs imported in kit form from Mitsubishi and hence most of the value addition accrues in Japan. Ford and Hyundai are 100 per cent foreign-owned but make their range locally with more than 80 per cent locally-sourced parts. They create huge value addition in India and also employ many more workers. The technology flows that come here with them for ancillaries stay here and flow into other areas and to companies. It is obvious which is more beneficial to India. Opening up the FDI doors will not mean that it will now flood in. FDI is a misnomer. It is mostly local money round tripping back from tax havens like Mauritius, Singapore, Cyprus and the UK. FDI will only start flowing when India looks like a good place to invest to resident rich Indians. Along with this, we need to improve much more on the World Banks Ease of Doing Business index. Being 130 out of 189 is not good. We must also relook land purchase policies, labour reforms and special economic zones to boost industrialisation and exports. The legacy of our sad colonial history and the misguided enthusiasm for a mishmash of Fabian socialist ideals and Soviet-inspired central planning was an India which was economically weak, short of food and industrially backward. The only redeeming feature being that some were doing even worse than us. India with a per capita income of about $220 in 1960 seemed far better off than China, with a per capita income of around $95. China opened up to liberalisation in 1976 and by 1984 it was outstripping India in per capita terms despite a bigger population. China showed us that lower labour costs gave a huge competitive advantage, and FDI will pour in to take advantage of this to cater to their home markets. In less than a decade the entire American and European garment, leather goods and similar labour-intensive sectors had gone overseas, mostly to China. At one time not long ago, FDI companies manufactured almost 70 per cent of their exported goods. Its another matter that more than half the FDI is from Hong Kong, suggesting much round-tripping of illicitly exported capital. Much of the rest is from Taiwan, which is considered a renegade province, and the traditional and bitter enemy Japan. The lesson is one of pragmatism. It didnt matter if the cat was white or black as long as it caught mice. Clearly, the old paradigms are mostly irrelevant. In yet another volte face, the Narendra Modi BJP government has finally found the wisdom, vision and courage to take the bull by the horns. India has crossed a major threshold. Better late than never. We must all celebrate the dawning of good sense. The Congress seems to be in much deeper trouble than ever before. The crisis is bigger than reflected by its successive defeats in various states after its massive loss in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. Not only have many loyal voters, who backed the Congress in election after election and stayed with it even in bad times, now turned their backs, even some leaders appear to have lost faith in its ability to win future elections. Some declined to fight the Lok Sabha polls, citing one excuse or another, while others decided to leave the party. The trend of moving to other parties, that began just before the Lok Sabha polls, is continuing. Recent instances of cross-voting by MLAs in the Rajya Sabha polls in Uttar Pradesh indicates that things are not all well within the party in UP, which goes to the polls early next year. With voters turning away, leaders losing faith and an apparent leadership vacuum, reviv-ing the party will be harder than it has ever been. The massive defeat in 2014 and in subsequent Assembly polls poses an enormous challenge. The Congress was not only voted out of power at the Centre, it lost one state after another for different reasons. As of now, it is the sole ruling party only in four states Karnataka, Himachal, Manipur and Uttarakhand, and part of the ruling coalition in some others like Bihar, Puducherry, Mizoram and Meghalaya. The BJP is celebrating these Congress defeats. True, the Congress did face a major crisis in 1977 and again in 1989 when it lost power at the Centre, but in both cases managed to stage a comeback in just a few years. This, however, will not be so easy now. There is hardly any sign it is trying to win back voters who deserted it in recent years. The Congress may no longer be the natural beneficiary of any anti-incumbency wave as it has vacated the Opposition space in several states to other parties. The Congress present crisis is far deeper than one can imagine. At the central level, it polled its lowest voteshare (19.6 per cent), and ended up with just 44 Lok Sabha seats and couldnt even retain the post of Leader of the Opposition in the Lower House. Had it only been the Lok Sabha defeat, it could have come back soon, but the crisis didnt end there. It suffered a debacle in all state polls after that. Compared to its voteshare in earlier Assem-bly polls, its voteshare fell in all states after 2014. In Haryana, where it was in power for a decade, its voteshare fell 15 per cent and it was pushed back to third position, with the Indian National Lok Dal getting the main Opposition slot. In Delhi, it lost after being in power 15 years, pushed to third position, with its voteshare falling to single digits (9.6 per cent). In Maharashtra, where it was part of the ruling coalition with the NCP, it was pushed to third position. In Jharkhand and JandK too, its voteshare declined. In aAssembly polls, its vote share and seats tally rose in Bihar and Puducherry, where the Congress is part of the ruling alliance. In all other states that went to the polls (Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal), it could hardly improve on its electoral performance compared to previous Assembly elections. These Congress defeats send out a deeper message than just being voted out. In the past, even when it lost power, it remained the first choice of poor and downtrodden voters, in the tradition of Congress ka haath, garibon ke saath. But recent surveys by the Centre for Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) show even those who were earlier loyal to Congress (poor, dalits, Muslims, adivasis), have deserted it in a big way. For the first time, the poor and dalits voted more for the BJP than Congress, turning the table upside down for the party despite it having initiated the NREGA programme in an aggres-sive way. Muslims who stayed loyal to the Congress for decades have moved to regional parties. Compared to 60-65 per cent Muslims voting for the Congress in earlier elections, now only 30 per cent of Muslims vote for the Congress, that too in states where the party is in a direct contest with the BJP. There is something seriously wrong if even loyal voters have turned their back to the party. The question now is: What may help the Congress revive in states and at the national level. I believe it is not so much that policies that have failed the party, the far bigger crisis within the party is its leadership. It is the leadership question that appears to be bothering voters most. After all, two years of BJP rule indicates there is hardly any big difference between the two parties over policies. The only thing that differentiates the BJP from the Congress is the issue of leadership. Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi is a poor match for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while for the Congress Mr Gandhi seems to be both an asset and a liability. The problem is that while the Congress badly needs a change in leadership, there is a real danger that any attempt to elect a new leader may result in factions surfacing that may split the organisation. The choice for the party is hardly easy. The quasi-satellite named Asteroid 2016 HO3 was first discovered on April 27, 2016, by the Pan-STARRS 1 asteroid survey telescope in Hawaii. After nearly orbiting for around a century in Earths orbit, an asteroid has been recognized by the NASA as Earths new mini moon." Measuring between 120 feet and 300 feet in diameter, the quasi-satellite named Asteroid 2016 HO3 was first discovered on April 27, 2016 by the Pan-STARRS 1 asteroid survey telescope in Hawaii. Named, mini moon, the asteroid technically moves relative to sun, but it seems to be dancing around the earths orbit, too, as it may not stay for long. NASA observed that the asteroids orbit itself has a unique pattern, the rock has been doing slow back-and-forth twist over decades. In other words, half the time, its orbit takes in front of the Earth, closer to the sun and in the other half it orbit behind the Earth, farther away from the star. Paul Chodas, manager of NASAs Center for Near-Earth Object explained, 'The asteroids loops around Earth drift a little ahead or behind from year to year, but when they drift too far forward or backward, Earths gravity is just strong enough to reverse the drift and hold onto the asteroid so that it never wanders farther away than about 100 times the distance of the moon.' 'The same effect also prevents the asteroid from approaching much closer than about 38 times the distance of the moon. In effect, this small asteroid is caught in a little dance with Earth,' he said. This isnt the first time an asteroid has hold onto the earths orbit.10 years ago, the asteroid 2003 YN107 followed a similar orbital pattern for a short time, said Chodas, but it has left the Earths vicinity. Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter. An African Union (AU)-mandated force, AMISOM, forced al Shabaab from most of its strongholds in southern Somalia, but it continues to conduct deadly attacks on Somalia's security forces. (Photo: Representational Image/AFP) Mogadishu: The Islamist militant group al Shabaab claimed responsibility for the killing of a senior Somalia security official, who was was gunned down late on Tuesday by one of his own bodyguards. Abdiweli Ibrahim Mohamed, the head of national security in Somalia's Middle Shebelle region, was shot dead in Jowhar, a town 90 kilometres north of Mogadishu. "Two other bodyguards were wounded. The assassin ran away, we are pursuing him," Ahmed Mohamud, a police officer in Jowhar, said. Residents said the bodyguard who shot the security chief was a former member of al Shabaab who had defected to the government. A spokesman for al Shabaab, an al Qaeda linked group which seeks to topple the western backed government in Mogadishu and impose Islamic law, or sharia, claimed responsibility. "We are behind the killing of the head of the national security for Middle Shebelle region," Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, spokesman for the group's military operations, told Reuters late on Tuesday. An African Union (AU)-mandated force, AMISOM, forced al Shabaab from most of its strongholds in southern Somalia, but it continues to conduct deadly attacks on Somalia's security forces, AMISOM and civilian targets, mostly in the capital Mogadishu. Washington: Democrat Hillary Clinton said on Tuesday that if Republican rival Donald Trump wins the White House, it will be a disaster for the US economy, warning that the the king of debt would cause a Trump recession. Now I dont say this because of typical political disagreements liberals and conservatives say Trumps ideas would be disastrous, Clinton said. Economists on the right, the left and the center all agree Trump would throw us back into recession. Clintons speech in Columbus, Ohio, was the second in which she has argued the wealthy businessman is temperamentally unfit to lead the country. The first was on foreign relations and national security. She said Trumps tax plan would benefit the rich over working families, that his promise to toss out trade deals would lead to trade wars, and criticized his business credentials. Donald Trump has said he is qualified to be president because of his business record, Clinton said. So lets take a look at what he did for his businesses: Hes written a lot of books about business. They all seem to end at Chapter 11; go figure, Clinton said, in a jab referring to Chapter 11 of the US Bankruptcy Code. Clinton then said Trump, a self-described king of debt, had allowed businesses to amass huge debts and declare bankruptcy, leaving hundreds of people without jobs and wiping out shareholders. Allowing the United States to accrue similar debt would rattle investors and could lead to economic catastrophe, she added. On Twitter during Clintons speech, Trump said, I am the king of debt. That has been great for me as a businessman, but is bad for the country. I made a fortune off of debt, will fix US. The tussle over the economy comes as the pair gears up for what is expected to be a fierce battle for the presidency ahead of the Nov. 8 election. Trump is set to deliver a speech on Wednesday in New York criticizing Clinton. As the presumptive Democratic nominee spoke, Trumps campaign tested what appeared to be a more active rapid-response operation, sending emails saying Clintons husband, former President Bill Clinton, had backed bad trade deals and that her immigration plan would lower wages. Clinton said Trumps plan to build a wall along the US-Mexico border and deport undocumented immigrants would shake the workforce and prove disastrous for the US economy, creating a Trump recession. This website is intended for U.S. visitors only. The Taliban had named Mawlawi Haibatullah Akhundzada, a conservative cleric in his 50s, as its new leader. (Photo: AFP) United Nations: India has demanded the UN to slap sanctions against the new Taliban leader in Afghanistan, saying it is "sheer folly" that the leader of a proscribed entity is not yet designated as a terrorist individual. "It is sheer folly that the leader of a proscribed entity is not yet designated as a terrorist individual," India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin said at a Security Council debate on the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) on Tuesday. Supporting New Zealand's position that the anomaly should be corrected, Akbaruddin said the new Taliban leader should be sanctioned. The Taliban had named Mawlawi Haibatullah Akhundzada, a conservative cleric in his 50s, as its new leader after Mullah Akhtar Mansour was killed in an American drone strike last month. US State Department's Deputy Spokesperson Mark Toner had said in a press briefing then that Akhundzada was not on any kind of a terrorist designated list. Akbaruddin further emphasised that groups and individuals perpetrating violence against the people and government of Afghanistan cannot have safe havens and should not be allowed to exercise control and wield influence over any part of Afghanistan's territory. "This, in our view, is critical for lasting peace in the country," he said adding that effective implementation of the Security Council sanctions regime including the 1267 ISIL/Al-Qaeda Sanctions and 1988 Taliban's regime should also be carried out "consistently and with perseverance" for it to serve as a strong deterrent to the listed entities and individuals. Previously, India has slammed the UN sanctions committee for taking a "selective approach" in tackling terrorism when a technical hold was put on its application to include the name of Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar on the committee's list of designated terrorists. India had said in April that it finds it "incomprehensible" that while the Pakistan-based JeM was listed in the UN Security Council Committee as far back as 2001 for its known terror activities and links to Al Qaeda, the designation of the group's main leader, financier and motivator has been put on a technical hold. Akbaruddin stressed that the Security Council needs to look into the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan and the means to contain it as it could pose serious threats to the gains made by the people of Afghanistan in the last 15 years. While there has been no dearth of efforts by the Afghan government and its citizens as well as by the international community, Akbaruddin voiced concern over the deteriorating security situation in the war-torn country. "The Taliban are continuing attacks at an unprecedented rate since the beginning of the year and there is continued violence by other armed groups," he said as he cited the UN Secretary General's report that armed clashes have increased this year compared to the same period in 2015. "This situation has put renewed focus on the need for enhanced engagement and action by the international community," he added. Akbaruddin reiterated India s believe that the path to reconciliation in Afghanistan should be through an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned process respecting the red lines drawn by the country s people and the international community, especially the ones regarding giving up of violence and abiding by the constitution of Afghanistan. He voiced India's commitment to help Afghanistan strengthen its defence capabilities to preserve its unity and territorial integrity, saying it is the "most important antidote" to the worsening security situation in the country. The Indian envoy also condoled the loss of lives and property in the bomb attack in Kabul on June 20 in which around 20 people including from Nepal and India lost their lives. Referring to the inauguration of the Afghanistan-India Friendship Dam, Akbaruddin quoted Prime Minister Modi s remarks that while India s capacity may be limited but its commitment to Afghanistan is without limits. "We are strongly committed to supporting Afghanistan in various plurilateral and multilateral fora," he said adding that India looks forward to hosting the 'Heart of Asia' Ministerial Conference in December 2016. Washington: President Barack Obama has denounced the Senate's failure to pass gun control measures in the aftermath of the mass shooting in Orlando, Florida. Obama on Twitter said that the Senate failed the American people and that gun violence requires more than a moment of silence. The White House has said previously that tweets from his account are from Obama himself. White House spokesman Josh Earnest says the vote is a "a shameful display of cowardice". He said on Tuesday that the Republican-led chamber's blocking of four gun control proposals on Tuesday does nothing to keep extremists from acquiring guns. Earnest said lawmakers lament gun violence but "don't do anything about it." He said that while no bill can prevent all gun violence, "why wouldn't we do more?" The fact that notorious terrorist leaders were found and killed in their safe havens there is a clear proof that the country has violated the sovereignty of other nations, says Afghanistan. (Photo: AFP) United Nations: In a scathing attack, Afghanistan has accused "elements within the state structure of Pakistan" of facilitating most of the terrorist groups active in the region and said the country needs political will and not 'nuclear deals or F-16s' to take action against terrorists. In his statement to the powerful UN Security Council on the debate on UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) on Tuesday, Afghanistan's Permanent Representative to the UN Mahmoud Saikal said Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour was "tracked" and killed in Pakistan's Balochistan in an American drone strike. The incident "exposed" that Mansour had a Pakistani passport in a fake name that he had used to fly numerous times from Pakistani airports. "Despite this, the charade of plausible deniability, duplicity, and blame of Afghan weaknesses continues, which must come to an end if we are to succeed in counter-terrorism," he said. Saikal accused "elements within the state structure of Pakistan" of facilitating most of the terrorist groups active in the region and warned that a country using "good and bad terrorists" against each other is "playing with fire". He further pointed out that in the past 15 years, numerous leading figures of terrorism, including bin Laden and Taliban leaders Mullah Omar and Mansour have lived and died in Pakistan. "The fact that notorious terrorist leaders were found and killed in their safe havens there is a clear proof that the country has violated the sovereignty of other nations," he said adding that this constitutes a flagrant violation of UN Security Council resolutions on the Sanctions Regime against the Taliban. "We believe that there is an urgent need for proper implementation of the existing counter terrorism resolutions of the UN Security Council," he said. Saikal quoted President Ashraf Ghani's address to joint sitting of the National Assembly where the Afghan leader had called on Pakistan to respect the QCG agreements and take action against terrorists who have their bases and leaders in the neighbouring country. "We believe that there is a need for political will and honest police action, rather than nuclear deals or F-16s to fulfil the task," of taking action against the terrorists. Making this dramatic revelation, the sources said that entities of Pakistan Energy Commission (PAEC) have been continuing to supply restricted items such as ' Monel ' and ' Inconel ' material to North Korea in violation of UN sanctions. (Image for representational purpose only) Washington: Pakistan is continuing to sell nuclear materials to North Korea, while at the same time urging the international community to accept its membership to the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), according to highly placed U.S. sources who are involved with the tracking of nuclear commerce. Making this dramatic revelation, the sources said that entities of Pakistan Energy Commission (PAEC) have been continuing to supply restricted items such as ' Monel ' and ' Inconel ' material to North Korea in violation of UN sanctions. The sources said that nuclear materials supplied to the PAEC by Chinese entities have also found their way to North Korea, with the China Atomic Energy Authority (CAEA) recently receiving a written complaint that supplies of a Chinese company, Beijing Suntech Technology Company Limited, to Pakistan were being diverted to North Korea by the Pakistani authorities. The Chinese Government hushed up the matter as it could have consequences for Beijing's bid to support Pakistan at the NSG. But this information leaked out of North Korea and came to the knowledge Of Western Governments who are members of the NSG. In another alarming revelation, informed sources said Pakistan has been giving North Korea equipment which has a direct bearing on producing nuclear weapons. Sources said the Beijing Suntech Technology Company Limited manufactures Vacuum Induction Melting (VIM) furnaces which find application in refining hard metals such as uranium and plutonium, which are used in making nuclear warhead cores. Pakistan is known to have procured these items from China and has passed them along to North Korea. When asked if this evidence of Pakistan's illicit nuclear trade with North Korea has been brought to the notice of NSG nations, US sources said all proof and evidence which confirms the violation of sanctions against North Korea and more so the ongoing dangerous nuclear trade has been brought to the notice of "those who need to be informed at the NSG level." Behind the scenes Pakistan is aware that it's nuclear trade with North Korea has been uncovered, but is counting on China to keep the global pressure at bay, said sources. Giving details of North Korea's nuclear commerce links with Pakistan, informed sources mentioned that two North Korean diplomats - Kim Yong Choi and Jang Yong Son --posted in the North Korean Embassy in Tehran visited Pakistan eight times between 2012 and 2015. They were associated With the Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation ( KOMID ) - an entity sanctioned several times by the United Nations Security Council since 2005 for its involvement in North Korea's Weapons of Mass Destruction ( WMD ) programme. These diplomats met with Pakistani officers involved in the nuclear program. They were tracked and investigated by the Western authorities as yet another proof of Pakistan's continuing nuclear links with North Korea. Based on Western inputs on these links, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) 1718 Committee, which is monitoring the implementation of sanctions against North Korea, sought information from Pakistan in November 2015 regarding the frequent visits of the two North Korean diplomats from Tehran to Islamabad and Karachi. At first, say informed sources, Pakistan denied it, but when confronted with photographs and other recorded evidence, Pakistan acknowledged that the two North Korean officials under investigation had indeed visited Islamabad and Karachi. Highly placed sources said that the West has so far kept this information under wraps in recognition of Pakistan's value in the war against terror. But now, when Pakistan has gone into overdrive to upset the equilibrium of the NSG, Western nations of the grouping are saying that Islamabad needs to "look at itself in the mirror " and ask "how can it run with the hare and hunt with the foxes", meaning it can't claim to fulfill the NSG's requirements, and at the same time, sell nuclear weapons materials to North Korea. Last month, the Indonesian navy opened fire on a Chinese trawler near the islands and seized the vessel. (Photo: AFP) Manila: China is using its fishing fleets with armed escorts to bolster maritime claims in disputed territory, a senior US State Department official warned Wednesday, calling China's behaviour "disturbing". The comments came after Indonesian warships fired warning shots and detained a Chinese-flagged fishing boat and seven crew near the Natuna Islands in the South China Sea last week, in actions slammed by Beijing. "I think it's a disturbing trend to see Chinese fishing vessels accompanied by coast guard vessels, used in a way that appears to be an attempt to exert a claim that may not be legitimate," said the US official via conference call to journalists in Southeast Asia. "I do think that it does point to an expanding presence of Chinese sort of military and paramilitary forces and used in a way that is provocative and potentially destabilising," the US official, who asked not to be named, added. Unlike several other countries in the region, Indonesia has no overlapping claims with China to islets or reefs in the sea, but Beijing's claim to fishing rights near the Natunas appears to overlap with Jakarta's exclusive economic zone. Last week's incident was only the latest in a series of skirmishes between the two countries since Jakarta launched a crackdown on illegal fishing in 2014. In March Chinese coastguards rammed a Chinese boat detained near the Natunas and helped it escape as the Indonesians towed the vessel to shore. And last month, the Indonesian navy opened fire on a Chinese trawler near the islands and seized the vessel. Following last week's confrontation, the commander of the Indonesian navy's western fleet said the fishing vessel incursions were "structured", indicating Beijing had "given its blessing". "China protested because it thinks this area is theirs," commander Achmad Taufiqoerrochman told reporters. "Actually the (fish) stealing is just a ruse to stake its claim," he said. China has undertaken land-reclamation works in the Spratly Islands, one of the South China Sea's main archipelagoes which are also claimed by the Philippines, Brunei, Vietnam, Malaysia and Taiwan. The US State Department official said Washington hoped a pending ruling by a United Nations-backed tribunal on South China Sea maritime entitlements will push rival claimants into talks. The case was lodged by the Philippines against China in 2013 to challenge Beijing's "nine-dash line" map through which it claims to control nearly all of the strategic and reputedly resources-rich waters. "It is in China's interest not to take any action that would be provocative and directly in contradiction to the ruling," the US official said. The judge blamed the convict's employer for long working hours. Chaukria was regularly starting work at 2.30 am and finishing only at 7 or 8 pm. (Photo: Representational Image) London: A 31-year-old Indian-origin delivery van driver has been jailed for two years and four months by a UK court after he fell asleep at the wheel, killing his work colleague. Malkit Chaukria was found guilty of causing death by dangerous driving of 29-year-old Aaron Ryan at Gloucester Crown Court in south-west England on Tuesday. Judge Michael Cullum also banned Chaukria from driving for four years and two months during sentencing and criticised histransport firm employer for sending the driver out for such long hours that he fell asleep at the wheel. "You did not set out to kill Mr Ryan in any way - he was your friend. But his death was utterly avoidable," The judge told Chaukria. "Tiredness when driving kills - we all know that. The hours you were expected to drive were utterly irresponsible and it is obvious to me that your employer bears a high degree of moral responsibility for what happened," Cullum said. Chaukria was regularly starting work at 2.30 am, driving between 300 and 500 miles to deliver white goods for the Co-op in the West Country region of England, and not getting home till about 7-8 pm. He nodded off at the wheel of his Mercedes Sprinter van as he headed home on an evening of November 2014 and veered onto the hard shoulder where he smashed into a broken down 44-tonne lorry. Ryan, who was in the front passenger seat, was killed instantly. "It is not for me to comment on the minimum wage that you and Mr Ryan were being paid for working ridiculously long hours and driving hundreds of miles each day, for, it must be said a modest payment," the judge said. "I presume that had you refused to work such long hours, which you should have done, then you would have lost your job," the judge added. The prosecution said during the trial that earlier the same day of the fatal collision Ryan had to wake Chaukria up when he nodded off during another delivery run. NATO announced last week that it would deploy four battalions to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland to counter a more assertive Russia, ahead of a landmark summit in Warsaw on July 8-9. (Photo: AP/Representational Image) Berlin: NATO would currently be unable to protect the Baltics against a Russian attack, the commander of US ground forces in Europe, General Ben Hodges, said in a news report Wednesday. "Russia could take over the Baltic states faster than we would be able to defend them," Hodges was quoted as saying in a German-language article by news weekly Die Zeit. The general said he agreed with an assessment by military analysts that says Russian forces could conquer the capitals of Baltic states Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia within 36 to 60 hours. Hodges also said NATO forces had found numerous deficiencies during the recent "Anaconda" military exercise in Poland, according to the article from Thursday's edition of Die Zeit released early to AFP. Heavy military equipment could not be moved fast enough from western to eastern Europe, he said, while also voicing concern about the alliance's communication technology. "Neither radio communication nor email are secure," he was quoted as saying. "I assume that everything I write on my BlackBerry is being monitored." The Anaconda manoeuvre included troops from more than 20 NATO member states but was officially a Polish national exercise. Hodges told Die Zeit that "some countries, like France and Germany, thought it would be too provocative toward Russia to call it a NATO exercise". NATO announced last week that it would deploy four battalions to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland to counter a more assertive Russia, ahead of a landmark summit in Warsaw on July 8-9. All four countries were once ruled from Moscow and remain deeply suspicious of Russian intentions, especially after Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. Russia bitterly opposes NATO's expansion into its Soviet-era satellites and last month said it would create three new divisions in its southwest region to meet what it described as a dangerous military build-up along its borders. Damascus lost more than 40 troops and militia in the jihadist counter-attack on Sunday and Monday, the Britain-based Observatory said. (Photo: AP) Beirut: Air strikes on the Islamic State group's de facto Syrian capital Raqqa killed 25 civilians, six of them children, a monitoring group said today. "Dozens more were wounded, some of them critically," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, adding it was not immediately able to determine who carried out the Tuesday raids. The air strikes came after IS dealt a significant blow to Russian-backed government forces, driving them out of Raqqa province after they came within just 20 kilometres (12 miles) of the Euphrates River and the country's largest dam. Damascus lost more than 40 troops and militia in the jihadist counter-attack on Sunday and Monday, the Britain-based Observatory said. The Istanbul authorities had broken up the transgender rally after banning that event as well as a larger gay pride rally planned for the coming Sunday. (Photo: Representational Image) Istanbul: Turkish authorities have arrested three suspected Islamic State (IS) jihadists in a probe into a planned attack on a transgender rights rally last weekend, a report said on Wednesday. The three, comprising one Turkish national and two men from Russia's volatile Caucasus region of Dagestan, were detained in raids on Friday and remanded in custody by a court on Tuesday, the Dogan news agency said. Items including suicide belts packed with explosives, camouflage gear and military knives were seized by the authorities, it added. The three had been planning to attack a rally around Istanbul's Taksim Square promoting transgender rights. The gathering took place on Sunday but was broken up by police, Dogan said. It said the raids had been conducted in the Istanbul districts of Basaksehir and Pendik after police acted on a tip-off. The Istanbul authorities had broken up the transgender rally after banning that event as well as a larger gay pride rally planned for the coming Sunday. It had cited security reasons and safeguarding public order as the reason for the ban. Istanbul has twice been hit this year by deadly attacks blamed on IS. A blast in Istanbul's historic centre in January killed a dozen German tourists while an attack on the Istiklal Street shopping hub in March killed three Israelis and and Iranian. Pakistan also said that India's alone entry into the NSG would put back Pakistani efforts for developing its infrastructure and industry by decades. (Photo: AFP/Representational Image) Lahore: A day ahead of the crucial Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) meet in Seoul over India and Pakistan's membership in the elite group, Pakistan's former permanent representative at the United Nations in Geneva Zamir Akram said Islamabad was only opposed to the 'exclusive membership' to India. Read: China stonewalls India bid for Nuclear Suppliers Group According to Dawn, Akram was speaking at a roundtable discussion organised by the Strategic Vision Institute (SVI), on the implications of the upcoming plenary session of the NSG on June 23-24 in Seoul, South Korea, where deliberations will be held on membership for non-NPT states, including Pakistan and India. "Pakistan supports the evolution of criteria that can be applied across the board," Akram said. Read: As China talks tough, US asks NSG members to support India's bid Speaking at the roundtable, Akram warned about the likely implications if India alone was admitted into the NSG, including dimming of future prospects for Pakistan's entry into the club and likely growth in Indian nuclear arsenal. SVI President Dr Zafar Iqbal Cheema said that India's lone entry into the NSG would put back Pakistani efforts for developing its infrastructure and industry by decades. These comments follow the statement by Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj that India does not object to any country, including Pakistan to join the NSG. Read: Successfully thwarting India's NSG bid, claims Pakistan China is the leading challenger to the West-supported bid to get India into the 48-member nuclear trade cartel. According to the Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying, "China maintains that the NSG fully discuss the accession of non-NPT countries and make decisions based on consultation in a way acceptable to all". Amberrose Mergenthaler, 25, of Bismarck, received a one year suspended sentence for a period of a year on supervised probation, said Burleigh County assistant state's attorney Julie Lawyer. Drug paraphernalia possession charges were dismissed. An affidavit filed in the case in October alleged that, on one occasion in February 2015, Mergenthaler's home smelled of marijuana and contained smoking devices while children were present. On another occasion in April 2015, the home was in "complete disarray" with trash and clothes strewn on the floor. A consumer forum here has directed a city hospital to pay over Rs 7 lakh to a Delhi Police personnel for wrongly transplanting a pace-maker which was not needed, saying it was against all medical ethics. South Delhi District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum bench, presided by Justice N K Goel, asked Rohini-based Saroj Hospital and Heart Institute to pay Rs 7,24,135 to Ravinder Singh Pawar, then Public Relations Officer at the Delhi Police Headquarters. We hold that Opposite Party-2 (hospital) had implanted the AICD (automated implantable cardioverter defibrillator) in the complainant without there being a need to do so, only with a view to earn profits. Not only this, Opposite Party-2 also implanted an unnecessary AICD (which must be a metal in the body of the complainant) which in the facts and circumstances of the case was against all medical ethics, the forum said, holding the hospital guilty of unfair trade practice. In its order, the forum asked the hospital to reimburse Rs 5,24,135, spent by Pawar as the medical expense, and also directed it to pay Rs two lakh as compensation to him for causing mental agony and harassment and cost of litigation. According to the complaint, Pawar, posted as Public Relations Officer at Delhi Police Headquarters, had suffered two heart attacks in 2003 and 2005. In September 2006, he again suffered chest pain and was rushed to the hospital. An operation was conducted and a permanent pace-maker was installed, citing his serious condition. The hospital charged a bill of Rs 5,24,135, the complaint said. Later when he submitted the bills for reimbursement under Central Government Health Scheme, he was informed that the Standing Committee of medical experts did not recommend the implantation and, therefore, the payment was not made to him, it said. Thereafter, Pawar approached the forum stating that the hospital had advised him wrongly and implanted the pace-maker by creating panic, which amounted to unfair trade practice, cheating and deficiency. Pawar had sought a direction to the hospital to pay over Rs 10 lakh compensation.In its reply, however, the hospital had denied all the allegations levelled against it. Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) held a candle light march demanding justice for NDMC official M M Khan. Scores of protesters, mostly AAP workers gathered at Jantar Mantar on Tuesday and demanded arrest of BJP MP Mahesh Giri for his involvement in the murder. Earlier only the chief minister was demanding justice. Now so many people have gathered for it and this candle light march will have an impact, said Jhanvi Gangwani, a volunteer with the partys Laxmi Nagar wing. Another protester, Kusum Tomar, said, They will plan to take the agitation further if justice is not delivered to Khans family. Khan, an estate officer of NDMC, was shot dead in Jamia Nagar on May 16, a day before he was scheduled to pass the final order on the lease terms of a hotel which was functioning on a property leased out by the civic body. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has accused the BJP MP of being involved in the murder, following which Giri sat on a hunger strike outside Kejriwals residence and asked him to prove his allegations or resign from the post of chief minister. Giri ended his strike on Tuesday. A 28-year-old man was stabbed to death and his brother was injured by two brothers who were living in their neighbourhood in North West Delhis Mukherjee Nagar on Monday night. The accused are absconding. The deceased is identified as Vikas, 28, and the injured as Kuldeep, 22. The accused are Raju, 28, and his brother Ratan, 26, police said. Vikas was allegedly working as a security guard. The incident happened in Malikpur village of Mukherjee Nagar where both the accused were living as tenant in the house of Vikass uncle house for the last one month. Raju and Ratan rented a room in the house of Vikas and Kuldeeps uncle one month back. Every night they would come on the roof of the house to sleep, said a police officer. According to police, both the brothers used to spread their bed near the adjoining house of Vikas and Kuldeep, and would allegedly peek into their house which irked Vikas and Kuldeep. Warned them Vikas had couple of times spoken with Raju and Ratan over the matter and warned them to not sleep near the roof of his house as women of his family dont feel comfortable, said police. Despite Vikass warning Raju and Ratan kept on sleeping near the house.On Monday around 9 pm, Vikas along with his brothers Veer Singh, Kuljeet and Kuldeep confronted Raju and Ratan. The altercation soon turned violent and Raju and Ratan attacked the brothers with knives, said a police officer. Wounded Vikas and Kuldeep sustained stabbed wounds and a local resident informed the police about the incident. Police took the injured to a nearby hospital where Vikas was declared brought dead. Kuldeep was referred to Trauma Centre where his condition remains critical. Meanwhile, the accused Ratan and Raju fled from the spot after stabbing the brothers.Police have registered a case of murder and investigation has been started. Police teams have been formed to nab the accused siblings. Raju works as a driver in Delhi and had come here last month with his brother from Uttar Pradeshs Kaushambi district. The faculty members of the Delhi government-run Chacha Nehru Bal Chikitsalaya Hospital wrote to Health Minister Satyender Jain criticising the demand put forward by FORDA that the hospitals director should step down in the backdrop of the rising assault cases against doctors at the hospital. The Federation of Doctors Association (FORDA) had written to Jain demanding the hospitals director step down with poor security arrangements for doctors at the hospital. The demand is unjustified and the allegations raised against the director are baseless. The faculty members have written to Delhis Health Minister that we do not support such external interference, said Dr Rahul Jain, a faculty member at the hospital. However, CNBCs resident doctors union feel there should be a change in the administrations way of handling security issues. We cannot comment on the issue at the moment. But security issues need to be handled differently by the administration, said Prerna Choudhury, vice president, CNBC residents doctors association. The FORDA had demanded that the director step down as there is an increase in the number of attacks against doctors at the hospital and the FORDA maintains its demand. Several attacks against the doctors are going unnoticed as the administration is not taking note of it, said Dr Pankaj Solanki, FORDA president. On June 15, a preterm infant was brought to the hospital. The infant needed ventilator but no free ventilator was available at the hospital. The patient was put on an ambu bag which helps a patient breathe. According to doctors, the patients family was told of the situation and the patient was also referred to another hospital. However, they refused to shift the baby, said doctors. When the baby expired, relatives of the patient allegedly roughed up resident doctors. Strike called off Following this, resident doctors and nursing staff went on strike on Saturday. The strike was called off on Tuesday afternoon after the police reassured doctors that the security arrangements would be enhanced. Till Tuesday afternoon, OPDs, emergency services and operation theatres remained shut. We started admitting new patients after the strike was called off by resident doctors in the afternoon, said Dr Anup Mohta, director, CNBC. In an apparent climb down, China today said it will play a "constructive" role in the discussions on India's bid for membership of the 48-member NSG but at the same maintained that the issue was not on the agenda of the NSG meeting in Seoul. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told PTI that NSG members had three rounds of unofficial discussions on the entry of India and Pakistan into the grouping. "China hopes to discuss further this issue and will play a constructive role in the discussions," she said. "Although parties are yet to see eye-to-eye on this issue, such discussions help them better understand each other," she said. At the same time, Hua said the entry of India and Pakistan is not on the agenda of the NSG grouping's meeting in Seoul. "Deliberation on the entry of specific countries is on the agenda of the Seoul Plenary meeting. However, it is worth noting that the NSG Plenary meeting in Seoul is only to deliberate on the entry of members who signed the NPT," she said. "As for the entry of non-NPT countries, the group has never put that on its meeting agenda. Based on what we have at hand, the agenda of this year's Seoul Plenary Meeting circulated by the Chair does not include this issue either," she said. The NSG has never put the entry application of the non-NPT (Non-Proliferation Treaty) countries on its agenda, so it makes no sense to say that discussions are blocked, Hua said. "It is true that all parties attach great importance to the entry of non-NPT countries," she said. The Chinese Foreign Ministry has been singing different tunes, first saying that it was not targeting any country such as India or Pakistan and then taking a swipe at the US for backing India's case citing the rule that countries which have not signed the NPT should not be allowed into NSG. China yesterday said the "door is open" for discussions on the issue but then emphasised on whether criteria for memberships should be changed instead of making exceptions. In other words, China is seeking to equate India with its impeccable non-proliferation record with that of Pakistan for which it is batting. The US, which has been supporting India's NSG bid, has said New Delhi is "ready" for NSG membership and asked participating governments to support its application at the plenary session of NSG in Seoul. President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Tashkent beginning tomorrow during which India is expected to seek China's support for membership of the NSG. "We will release relevant information in due course," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said today. The spokesperson said the two leaders would be meeting on the sidelines of the SCO summit in the capital city of Uzbekistan. During his meeting with Xi, Modi is expected to seek China's support for India's bid for membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, which Beijing is keen on blocking. Hua, however, refuted perception that China is blocking India's entry into the NSG. "With regard to India's entry into NSG, I would like correct that the word China blocking India's membership is not proper," she said. "The word blocking is not proper. In the NSG agenda we have never seen the topic of non-NPT countries entry. So it does not make sense to say we block the entry," she said. "As all of us can see all the countries are concerned about this issue and various issues relating to non-NPT countries entry into the NSG has been discussed through friends of chair presided over by the Chair of the NSG," she said. "We hope that relevant discussion will keep going and Chinese side will take constructive part in the discussion," she said. Seeking to shed its 'anti-Muslim' tag, an RSS affiliate is hosting a grand 'Iftar' on July 2 where it has invited ambassadors of many countries including Muslim nations like Pakistan to spread the message of unity and harmony and of making India "riots-free". Organised by Muslim Rashtriya Manch, an affiliate of RSS, the iftar party here would be a much bigger affair this time. It has also asked its members to hold small iftar parties across the country. "The aim is to tell the world about Indian-ness, helping people from all communities live in peace and harmony...India is a ray of hope and peace for the Muslim world," RSS leader and patron of the Manch Indresh Kumar said. "Rashtriya Muslim Manch has urged members to host small iftar parties by inviting people from all communities and spreading the message of brotherhood ," he also said. Citing holy scriptures, he said even the Prophet has said that whenever he felt disturbed, he felt spiritual waves of peace and love coming from the east and referred to 'Hindustan' and that the day will come, when the message of peace and love will flow from Bharat. "Charity begins at home...all should live in harmony and help make the country free of riots and the world including India free from violence including terrorism," he said in his appeal to the minority community members. Indresh Kumar also said that he has urged the community members to plant a sapling to curb pollution and bring home the holy sapling (Tulsi) at home and worship it, saying it is referred to as "Rehan, also called the 'plant of heaven' in holy Quran". The RSS leader said there should be no discrimination in slogans in favour of the country, irrespective of the language used, and said people should break free from the shackles of communalism to avoid spreading hatred in humanity. The Manch had organised a similar iftar party for some diplomats in Delhi, but this time it is being organised on a bigger scale. He said that invites to diplomats of 35 to 40 Muslim nations and some others have been sent. The MRM was formed in 2002 as a platform for Muslims at the initiative of RSS with the aim of bringing the two communities together. The Union Cabinet today approved the mega-spectrum auction plan which is estimated to fetch about Rs 5.66 lakh crore to the exchequer. "Yes, spectrum auction proposal has been cleared," an official source said. Government expects to raise at least Rs 64,000 crore from the auction of about 2300 Mhz of spectrum and Rs 98,995 crore from various levies and services in the telecom sector. According to sources, the main document of auction, notice inviting application, is likely to be issued by July 1, followed by pre-bid conference on July 6. The bidding is expected from September 1. The plans are yet to be confirmed officially. As per the rules approved by an inter-ministerial panel, the auction would include sale of most premium 700 Mhz band at a reserve price of Rs 11,485 crore per Mhz. The cost of delivering mobile services in this band is estimated to be around 70 per cent lower than 2100 Mhz band, used for providing 3G services. A company interested in buying spectrum in 700 Mhz band will need to shell out a minimum of Rs 57,425 crore for a block of 5 Mhz on pan-India basis. This band alone has the potential to fetch bids worth over Rs 4 lakh crore. The total potential revenue of Rs 5.66 lakh crore from the spectrum sale is more than double of telecom services industry gross revenue of Rs 2.54 lakh crore reported in 2014-15. Leading operators have sought deferring the sale of 700 MHz spectrum, saying that ecosystem for providing services in this band is not developed and would lead to underutilisation of the spectrum for several years, blocking industry's funds. The panel has also suggested stringent payment conditions compared to liberal method suggested by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai). The panel has favoured that companies winning spectrum in higher frequency bands -- above 1 Ghz like 1800 Mhz, 2100 Mhz, 2300 Mhz -- should make 50 per cent upfront payment and the rest in ten years after a 2-year moratorium. In earlier auctions, companies were given option to make 33 per cent upfront payment. For spectrum below 1 Ghz band such as 700 Mhz, 800 Mhz, 900 Mhz, companies will require to pay 25 per cent upfront and rest in ten years after a 2-year moratorium. It is in line with practice of earlier auctions but differs from Trai suggestion. The 21st European Union Film Festival debuted in Bengaluru and there is an exciting variety on offer for movie buffs. The festival is organised by the Delegation of the European Union and embassies of the EU member states in partnership with Alliance Francaise de Bangalore, Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan, British Council and Suchitra Film Society. The travelling festival premiered in Bengaluru with a screening of the French film Lillusionniste, an animated film directed by Sylvain Chomet that has won many international awards. The movie revolves around a French illusionist who finds himself out of work and travels to Scotland, where he meets a young woman. Their ensuing adventure forms the crux of the story. Many more such interesting ideas will be showcased in the film collection. Perennial themes like the redemption of love, the resilience of youth and family based stories will be presented in a new light with a cast of characters that includes revolutionaries, ghosts, spirited children and flamenco artistes. The festival features films from Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, The Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Says Anand Varadaraj, CEO of Bangalore International Short Film Festival, It is a beautiful idea as we get to see the best cinema from even the lesser-known countries. All the stories are beautiful and will bring out the emotional connect between people. The audience is also delighted to be able to view the festival again after a gap of a few years. Given the variety, the viewer group is varied, between 18 to 80 years. This includes regulars, Europeans living in the city, youngsters studying cinema, journalists and movie lovers who are curious about such less accessible movies. Says Amal, a movie aficionado, Award-winning movies show more reality than the commercial ones. There is also technical perfection and a completely different way of storytelling than what we are used to seeing here. They show us a lesser-known face of Europe. At birth, the least weasel is as small and light as a paper clip, and the tiny ribs that press visibly against its silvery pink skin give it a segmented look, like that of an insect. A newborn kit is exceptionally underdeveloped, with sealed eyes and ears that wont open for five or six weeks, an age when puppies and kittens are ready to be weaned. A mother weasel, it seems, has no choice but to deliver her young half-baked. As a member of the mustelid clan a noble but often misunderstood family of carnivorous mammals that includes ferrets, badgers, minks and wolverines she holds to a slender, elongated body plan, the better to pursue prey through tight spaces that most carnivores cant penetrate. Bulging baby bumps would jeopardise that sylphish hunting physique. The solution? Give birth to the equivalent of foetuses and then finish gestating them externally on mothers milk. If you want access to small environments, you cant have a big belly, said William J Zielinski, a mustelid researcher with the US Forest Service in Arcata, California. You dont see fat weasels. For Zielinski and other mustelid-minded scientists, weasels exemplify evolutionary genius and compromise in equal measure, the piecing together of exaggerated and often contradictory traits to yield a lineage of fierce, fleet, quick-witted carnivores that can compete for food against larger celebrity predators like the big cats, wolves and bears. Researchers admit that wild mustelids can be maddening to study. Most species are secretive loners, shrug off standard radio collars with ease, and run close to the ground like small bolts of brown lightning, as one team noted. Now you see them, no, you didnt. Nevertheless, through a mix of dogged field and laboratory studies, scientists have lately made progress in delineating the weasel playbook, and its a page turner, or a page burner. Researchers have been astonished to discover that the average mustelid is like a fur-covered furnace, its metabolic rate exceeding not only that of other carnivorous mammals but also that of its twitchy, ever-gnawing rodent prey. If you compare a least weasel to a meadow mouse, theyre the same weight, but the weasel has the higher metabolic rate, said Roger Powell, an emeritus professor at North Carolina State University and doyen of weasel studies. The weasel heart beats at up to 400 pulses per minute, said Mark Linnell, a faculty research assistant who studies mustelids at Oregon State University. Theyre geared to run at full speed, and theyre always high-strung. That keyed-up metabolism is another example of a grand mustelidian compromise. If you have a high metabolic rate, you can be more active and search farther for food in more places and in more diverse ways, Powell said. But you have to catch more food in order to do that. Weasels also have big brains relative to body mass, and they apply their neuronal bounty to continuously fine-tune their movements during a hunt, a strategy that allows them to attack prey up to 10 times their size. The fisher, a particularly fearless weasel in the marten branch, may be the only North American carnivore to have mastered the art of dining on adult porcupine a large rodent that, in addition to being protected by a formidable quill sheath, weighs a good 12 pounds more than the 8-pound fisher. Its got to be one of the great predator-prey matchups in history, said Roland Kays, a biologist at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and North Carolina State. The fisher must encounter the porcupine on open ground, at which point it can start running circles around its quarry. The fisher tries to dart in and bite the porcupines vulnerable face; the porcupine pivots to turn its shielded back toward its attacker. Dart and spin, dart and bite. After several deep wounds to its face, the porcupine grows weak, loses its footing and match over. The fisher will then flip the punctured, pincushioned animal onto its back and carefully tear into a quill-free patch of belly, gaining access to desirable organs like the small intestine, which is not only rich in protein and lipids, but also contains the partially digested plant matter that even carnivores need. For their part, researchers wish they could overturn the publics generally poor opinion of weaseldom. To call someone a weasel means the person is shifty, untrustworthy. Weasel words are those squishy, defensive qualifiers beloved by, well, journalists. Researchers speculate that the negative image may result partly from the mustelids serpentine silhouette: In some parts of Central America, weasels are called furry snakes. Or maybe its the distinctive mustelid musk. Most weasel species communicate with one another over large home ranges through frequent daubs of a pungent fluid excreted by their anal glands. Shihab Shamma, who uses ferrets to study the mammalian auditory system at the University of Maryland and Descartes University in Paris, said of the ferrets at his Paris lab, We give them the names of smelly French cheeses. Diverse family But mustelid enthusiasts emphasise the familys beauty and diversity: some 60 living species across all continents except Antarctica and Australia, ranging in size from the least weasel, the worlds smallest carnivore (weighing less than half a stick of butter as an adult), to the mighty wolverine, which can weigh up to 70 pounds. Many weasels spend time in water, and one species, the sea otter, is a marine mammal that rarely comes on land. Sea otters are also among the only nonprimate mammals to use tools, cracking open a recalcitrant mollusk shell by banging it with a stone. Most of the time, though, the sea otters teeth do the job. Most weasels have dentition more typical of carnivores, with a few sharp, slicing teeth and fewer, smaller molars, which other animals use to grind plants. As a result of their compact dental layout, many weasels have foreshortened snouts that make them look young and cute. If theyre well fed, Powell said, theyll bounce and ricochet around, pounce, stalk, wiggle and change shape and just about turn themselves inside out. They put kittens to shame. Many weasels live in cold places, and because their long, thin shape has a high surface area relative to volume, they lose heat easily. To tackle the cold without relying on fat as an insulator, many weasels grow luxurious fur coats, some of the densest in nature. A good head of human hair has about 350 hairs per square inch. On a mink, the fibre count per square inch is 44,000. Small wonder that people have historically coveted weasel pelts mink, sable and ermine, the fur of pomp and royalty taken from the animals in winter, when their coats turn white. Weasels also appreciate the value of co-opted fur. In winter, voles and mice build little dome-shaped nests under the snow. When a weasel finds one of these nests, its a genuine jackpot: lunch and lodging combined. A rodents closet of nightmares: no clowns, no juggling, just one cold and hungry weasel, knocking at the door. Yoga was again in the focus of public attention all over the country on the second International Yoga Day on Tuesday. There was a lot of publicity for it during the run-up to the day. The government had planned and pushed the campaign, but it was also taken up by the media and some organisations on their own. Yoga exercises and exhibitions were held all over, including in opposition-ruled states with participation from ministers, officials and others. The day was also celebrated all over the world. There was a special event at the UN and various events in other parts of the world. The Indian embassies had taken the initiative in many places. Since yoga has received international recognition and is practised by millions of people, it is natural that a day devoted to it draws wide attention. It is poised to become more popular in the coming months and years. Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the exercise in Chandigarh where over 30,000 people participated. He also did well to state that yoga is not a sectarian practice. It is a health and wellbeing regime developed in India, but it is wrong to attribute religious connotations to it. The physical and mental regime which make the yoga should not be seen as part of a religious tradition or ritual but as a secular legacy like Ayurveda. Identification and mixing it up with religious tradition will alienate many sections of people from it. It should also be noted that there are different yoga traditions and that some of them developed in countries like Sri Lanka and other Buddhist countries, though the practice had originated in India. India can well be proud of its yoga traditions but taking a sectarian ownership of them will not serve the cause of yoga and its promotion. While yoga is becoming popular, it is witnessing many promotional activities too. Flash mobs, selfie zones and yoga runs were all part of the events on Tuesday. These are attractive ways of celebration and promotion. But anything which becomes popular is prone to commercialisation and dilution of standards. The practice of yoga calls for tutoring by trained instructors and is even individual-specific. A mass movement is likely to throw up frauds and others who take it only as means. Those who want to practise yoga should be warned about it because wrong practices may even damage health. There are plans to introduce yoga in schools and colleges. This is good, but the government should not be seen as imposing it. The practice should become popular by choice, not by coercion. Almost two years after the constitution of Justice H S Kempanna Commission to inquire into the irregularities in the re-modified scheme of Arkavathy Layout, Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) has submitted that three former Land Acquisition Officers (LAOs) have not responded to the notice on the missing original reports pertaining to 46 acres and 19.2 guntas of land. IAS officer T Sham Bhatt has filed this affidavit on Tuesday, the day he was transferred and posted as Principal Secretary Co-operation Department. Justice Kempanna Commission inquiry covers the period from February 23, 2004 the day when the BDA declared that 2,750 acres spread across 16 villages were required for the layout to April 4, 2014, when the final notification for the remodified scheme was gazetted by the government. A resolution was passed in the BDA board meeting on February 12, 2013 based on the reports prepared by nine LAOs in respect of applications filed by land owners under re-modified scheme. The board resolved to prepare village-wise re-modified scheme along with all the information. The affidavit stated that at present 40 original reports passed by three LAOs are missing. These lands taken for re-modified scheme are in Hebbal, Kempapura, K Narayanapura, Thanisandra Jakkur, Amruthahalli, Rachenahalli and Sampigehalli. I have been informed by the officers concerned of the BDA that presently 40 original reports passed by LAOs namely, Boraiah, Basavarajendra and Vrushabhendra Murthy are not available in the file and only photocopy of the original reports are available. BDA has sent notice on June 2, 2016 to the concerned LAOs to provide information about the availability of the original reports and also provide information about contents of 40 reports submitted by them. So far, the LAOs have not responded to the notices and they have also not provided information to the BDA,'' the affidavit stated. In the affidavit, Bhatt has also stated the resolution was passed during the board meeting on February 12, 2013 based on the original reports. Further, he stated that one of the LAOs, Boraiah, has retired from service and Basavarajendra is posted at Keonics while Vrushabhendra Murthy is working with the Information Commission. The LAOs concerned who have submitted the reports may be examined in this regard (missing of the files), the affidavit stated. The Central Arecanut and Cocoa Marketing and Processing Cooperative (Campco) Ltd will export its first consignment of two tonnes of processed tender arecanut to China in the first week of August, on a trial basis. Briefing mediapersons here on Tuesday, Campco president S R Satishchandra said that the processed tender arecanut will be used in China for preparing mouth-fresheners. The cooperative will now procure the tender arecanut required for the first consignment to export from Thondamuthur area in Tamil Nadu and Wayanad in Kerala. Campco former president Konkodi Padmanabha, who was the part of the delegation from Campco that which visited China recently, said the Kou Wei Wang (King of Taste) Company had entered into an MoU with Campco to process and export two metric tonnes of tender arecanut. Training The Chinese company will depute experts to Campco in order to impart training on processing and standardisation of products of their requirement in the month of July. In China, arecanut is grown to the tune of 1,22,000 metric tonne in the Hunan province. There is great demand for processed tender arecanut in China. If we are able to export at least 20 per cent of the tender arecanut, then it would help in maintaining stability in the price of arecanut in the domestic market, he predicted. A delegation from Campco visited the province for six days from June 13 to 18 and held talks with the Kou Wei Wang company on making the proposal a reality. The cooperative and the company have held three rounds of talks to this effect since July last year. Satishchandra said that Kou Wei Wang has been facing shortage of raw material to supply to the remaining states in China. As Campco alone cannot process the quantity of arecanut required for the export, the central and state governments should make arrangements to depute selected arecanut growers to China for a study tour with regard to processing and standardisation of arecanut. The cooperative, which is indulging in the purchase of arecanut, should make a decisive plan on sending progressive farmers to China to help them study arecanut processing. The Karnataka State Arecanut Cooperative Societies Federation, Shivamogga, is ready to extend all cooperation to the interested cooperative societies in this regard, he added. The president said that there are rumours on arecanut having content of carcinogens and a case is pending in the Supreme Court. In China, however, arecanut is grown as a medicinal plant and explanation to this effect is found in various books of medicinal uses. A medicinal book called Compondium of materia medica, in its IV volume, clearly explains the medicinal value of the arecanut. We will produce it as a document to support our stand in the Supreme Court where a case on arecanut is pending, he added. DH News Service Notwithstanding the promises made by the BJP that citizenship rights would be granted to West Pakistani refugees, the J&K government on Wednesday declared it has no plan to do so. The announcement comes a day after the J&K government under pressure from separatists and opposition National Conference modified the states new industrial policy. The government has no plan to give permanent citizenship to the refugees belonging to West Pakistan though they are the citizens of the country, Minister for Revenue, Relief and Rehabilitation, Basharat Bukhari, said in the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday. He said 47,448 West Pakistanis, displaced persons of Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK) and Chamb refugees are presently residing in Jammu region. The minister clarified that persons displaced from PoK were entitled to all the legal rights, including citizenship rights, as they were permanent residents of the state. About the particulars of refugees serving in government departments, Bukhari said no West Pakistan refugee has been appointed in any government department. West Pakistani refugees are not considered for appointment against any state government post because they are not permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir, he said. The West Pakistani refugees, camping in the Jammu region since 1947, have been agitating to get citizenship rights but separatists and Kashmir-centric mainstream parties have been vociferously opposing the demand. BJP national president Amit shah had in May last year promised a group of West Pakistani refugees that citizenship rights would be granted to them within six months. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also made a similar promise in the run up to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. However, granting of citizenship rights to the refugees was a bone of contention between the coalition partners PDP and BJP. In the Agenda for the Alliance, the coalition had promised to take measures for sustenance and livelihood of the West Pakistani refugees. Outspoken BJP leader Subramanian Swamys attack on key Modi government officials is beginning to hurt, with the ruling party again distancing itself from his latest diatribe against Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) Arvind Subramanian. In a series of tweets, Rajya Sabha MP Swamy, who had earlier criticised RBI governor Raghuram Rajans fiscal handling and was openly against government giving him a second term, sought Arvind Subramanians sacking. Swamy charged that the CEA encouraged opposition party Congress to become rigid on GST clauses an economic reform enabling legislation that the government has not been able to get passage in Parliament. This joker CEA also wrote oped against Gujarat model and talked nonsense about beef ban when it is not even required, was another acerbic post of the BJP leader. When asked to react on Swamys new target, BJP general secretary Shrikant Sharma said "the party does not agree with his views. This is completely his personal opinion". Later, finance minister Arun Jaitley, who has consistently come under Swamys attack, came to the defence of Arvind Subramanian. Senior Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu, however, did not outrightly condemn Swamy's act. "Party has not said anything. Government has not said anything...the question is that you cannot gag everybody in democracy. If party says anything then I can react, if government says anything then I can react on that," Naidu said. Party sources said the BJP is finding Swamys rants and campaign against its own people uncomfortable to handle as they also provide fodder to opposition to embarrass the Modi government. Capitalising on the opportunity, senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh said, Subramanian Swamy now guns for Arvind Subramanian, Economic Adviser to NDA. Target is Arun Jaitley not Arvind Subramanian. However, Swamys aggressive verbal assault on the Gandhis and former finance minister P Chidambaram inside and outside Parliament is not out of sync with the BJP, added party sources. Earlier, BJP president Amit Shah had to clarify that Swamys repeated targeting of Raghuram Rajan did not enjoy the party backing. The Centre will soon start a mega exercise to upgrade curriculum of State universities to international standards in engineering subjects, sciences, mathematics and social sciences. Noted academicians from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, University of Pennsylvania, UC Berkeley, University of California, University of Washington and University of Georgia Tech are being roped in for the exercise. It will be a joint initiative of the government of India in collaboration with these universities of international repute. The upgrading of curriculum and pedagogical skills will be carried out under Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA), Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani told reporters here on Wednesday. The central government will bear the entire cost of the exercise, Irani added. Ten states will be chosen for the upgradation and internationalisation of curriculum of their universities based on their performance. The experts coming to India from the top universities of the world may take about a year to complete the exercise, an official said. Meanwhile, the Ministry also approved modifications in 2010 regulations of the University Grants Commission (UGC) to encourage Indian universities to offer undergraduate and post graduate degree programmes under a twinning arrangement with foreign universities. The 2010 regulations have been revised to promote foreign collaborations with Indian institutions. The UGC did not receive even a single application from the institutions for academic collaboration with foreign universities because of certain flaws in the regulations framed in 2010, Irani said. We have made suitable changes hoping that it will promote collaboration between Indian and foreign institutions. The programmes to be offered under the twinning arrangements will cost much lower compared to those offered abroad, she added. Under the revised regulations, an Indian institution can now look for a suitable foreign partner to offer degree programmes under twinning arrangement. Only those Indian universities which have Grade A certification will be allowed to introduce degree programmes in collaboration with foreign universities which graded high in their country of origin, the minister said . Institutions which have already collaborated with foreign universities and are offering programmes, will be given one year window to get approval of the UGC, the minister added. Irani said students admitted to undergraduate programmes will get an opportunity to study at partner institutions campus abroad for at least two semesters. Action will be taken against institutions misleading students through false advertisements about their foreign collaborations. The UGC will write to the state government concerned for necessary legal action against them, the minister said. At least 102 people were killed and several others injured in incidents of lightning and house collapse in different parts of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in the last 48 hours. According to reports, about 57 people, including women and children, were killed in Bihar in the last 24 hours, while at least 45 people died in Uttar Pradesh, which was lashed by heavy rains in the past two days. The casualty figures could go up in Bihar as the Disaster Management Department has sought reports from the district magistrates of the 16 affected districts. The maximum number of deaths in Bihar were reported from Bihta, around 40 km from Patna, where lightning killed 5 people followed by 2 in Naubatpur and 1 in Danapur. All the 3 places fall under Patna district. Four deaths were reported each from Nalanda, Bhojpur, Kaimur, Rohtas, Aurangabad and Purnia. Katihar and Saharsa recorded 2 deaths each. An ex-gratia of Rs 4 lakh will be given to the kin of the victims, said Principal Secretary of Disaster Management Vyas Ji here on Wednesday. Patna recorded moderate rainfall of 17.2 mm. It was Purnia which received maximum rainfall at 83.7 mm, said a Met department official here, adding that the state is likely to witness heavy rainfall in the last week of June. Though this is not the first time that lightning has claimed so many lives in Bihar, in recent times this will be arguably the first instance where more than 50 people have died in less than 24 hours due to rain/lightning throughout the state. According to reports, 23 people were killed after being struck by lightning in Varanasi division alone. The police have started preliminary investigation into the alleged case of ragging of a first year BSc (Nursing) dalit student from Kerala studying at the Al-Qamar Nursing College here. They will begin full investigation once they receive the case file from the Kerala police. The file is expected to arrive on Wednesday night or Thursday morning. Once we receive the file, we will proceed further in the case, Superintendent of Police Shashikumar said. A team of police officers has been formed for the purpose and they are collecting information based on facts given by the Kerala police. We dont know under what provisions they have booked the case. Certain laws differ from state to state, particularly the Education Act. We will be able to get a clear picture only after receiving the file, Shashikumar said. The student - a native of Edappal in Malappuram district - was ragged by her seniors at the college hostel here on May 9. The parents of the student have complained that their daughter was forced to drink toilet cleaning liquid, resulting in complications. She was admitted to the Basaveshwara Hospital here and treated for four days, before she got discharged and went to her home state. Meanwhile, the Kozhikode Medical College police registered an FIR on Wednesday, in connection with the incident. The victim has been admitted to the Kozhikode Medical College Hospital with serious alimentary canal injuries. The police registered the case based on a complaint by the girl, that she was forced by senior students to drink toilet-cleaning liquid. The incident occurred on May 9 at the college hostel. The college authorities, however, maintained that the girl consumed the liquid herself and there was no ragging involved. Jaleel E, the Circle Inspector, said a case has been registered against two senior students of the college - Lakshmi, a native of Kollam and Aathira, a native of Idukki. The case has been registered under IPC Section 307 (attempt to murder) and the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. Details have been passed on to the Roza police station in Kalaburagi, where the case will have to be re-registered, he told Deccan Herald. The officer said though the issue was described as a suicide attempt after the incident, there was no information of a case registered in the Roza station. The victim said that a group of senior students, also from Kerala, targeted her over her complexion. She has dismissed the college authorities statement that she had attempted suicide. Congress MLA K B Koliwad on Wednesday took a dig at the sacked ministers and other MLAs for their angst against the party leadership. Speaking to reporters in Bengaluru, the MLA said that the former ministers had enjoyed power for three years, and that they should not be making a big deal about the Cabinet reshuffle. He said that of the 14 sacked ministers, only Kimmane Ratnakar and Abhaychandra Jain had made a graceful exit. Sacked minister Baburao Chinchansur has seconded his colleague Qamar-ul-Islams statements about the prospects of the Congress party. Speaking to reporters in Chinchansur too said the Congress would be responsible for its own downfall in Karnataka. The state will not become Congress mukt because of the BJP; Congress itself will be responsible for that, he said. The doctors at Fortis Hospital in Shalimar Bagh operated on the wrong leg of a 24-year-old man on Tuesday after he suffered a heel bone fracture. They did not realise their mistake till the patient pointed it out himself. Fortis Hospital has sacked five personnel doctors and operation room assistants after its inquiry committee found them to be responsible. The Delhi government has decided to conduct an inquiry into the case, said officials. Ravi Rai, a resident of Ashok Vihar, fell from the staircase at his house on Sunday. He was rushed to the emergency at Fortis Hospital, Shalimar Bagh. The doctors said that he should be immediately admitted. My son suffered a fracture on the right leg after the fall. They suggested the next day that an immediate operation was required for him in this condition. Other tests were also conducted. We decided to do as the doctors said, said Ramkaran Rai, the patients father. When the effect of the anaesthesia wore off, the youth realised that the doctors had operated on the left leg instead of the right. My son called me to say that the doctors had plastered the left leg after operating it instead of the right. The doctors after the operation had even sent me pictures on WhatsApp saying the operation is successful. They were not even aware till the patient pointed out the mistake, said Rai. While Rai runs a business, his son works at an accountants firm in Gurgaon. Following this, the patients family told the hospital to discharge him immediately. The doctors admitted to the mistake and said they would set it right. But we decided that we would shift him, said Rai. In the discharge papers, they stated that Ravi had problems in both the legs, which is not the case. The admission papers clearly state otherwise, said Rai. In a statement, Fortis Hospital said, Following yesterday's (Tuesday) incident, we immediately set up an Expert Committee to enquire into the matter. Their preliminary view suggests that in the rarest of aberrations, the operating team may have disregarded and sidestepped due processes. A handful of disgruntled legislators in the ruling Congress on Wednesday held a meeting and decided to mount pressure on the party to rectify what they termed as flaws in the ministry reshuffle done recently. Senior leaders V Srinivas Prasad, M H Ambareesh, Qamar-ul-Islam, A B Maalakaraddy and S T Somashekar decided to gather support of like-minded legislators in the coming days. The legislators, however, decided not to take any extreme step such as resignation till their number swells. It is for the first time dissident legislators in the ruling party have come as a group. Prasad, who is a prominent dalit leader in the Mysuru region, appears to have been emerging as the rallying force to the disgruntled legislators. A one-time close associate of Siddaramaiah, Prasad has openly questioned Siddaramaiahs leadership. On the other end, Islam and Maalakaraddy, who are from the Hyderabad-Karnataka region, have hit out at the party veteran Mallikharjun Kharge for letting them down and making his son Priyank Kharge a minister. Speaking to reporters after his meeting with Oscar Fernandes, Prasad said Siddaramaiah has not done the reshuffle properly. He (Siddaramaiah) has tried to protect his own interest and let down the party. He has not taken senior leaders into confidence before the reshuffle. I have explained all these to Fernandes, he added. On the meeting of disgruntled legislators, he said they are not indulging in any anti-party activity. The effort is only to improve the image of the party, he argued. Feudal lord Dr Maalakaraddy said Kharge has been acting like a feudal lord. He has sacrificed the interest of the party for the sake of his son. The reshuffle was done as per the whims and fancies of Siddaramaiah and Kharge. The party high command should intervene and provide justice to the loyal leaders, he added. Former union minister C K Jaffer Sharief, who met Ambareesh, extended his support to the disgruntled group. He told reporters that Siddaramaiah was responsible for the crisis the party is witnessing. With the voice of dissidents growing shriller, the Congress high command swung into action to prevent any damage to the party. Senior leader Oscar Fernandes met former minister V Srinivas Prasad here on Wednesday and tried to pacify him not to speak out against the party. But Prasad is said to have remained firm on his stand to articulate his views on the changes effected in the ministry. He has been expressing his discontent against Chief Minister Siddaramaiahs leadership. However, he has not openly sought the chief ministers ouster. During his meeting with Fernandes, the dalit leader poured out his grievances. Fernandes said, I came here on my own after watching the political developments. I havent come here as anybodys representative. Prasad has assured me that he will work for the party and not take any decision that will hamper its prospects. If need be, I will meet the other aggrieved leaders too. Efforts made by some MLAs close Siddaramaiah to pacify Ambareesh went in vain. He reportedly refused to meet any of chief ministers emissaries. The government came out in quick defence of Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian after BJP leader Subramanian Swamy demanded his sacking in a series of tweets on Wednesday. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley not only reposed faith in the chief economic adviser, but also said that politicians should restrain from attacking those whose discipline and constraints of office prevents them from responding. The government has full confidence in CEA Arvind Subramanian. His advice to government from time to time has been of great value, Jaitley told reporters. This is the second such high profile attack by Swamy in a space of weeks, the first being on RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan, who subsequently withdrew his name from the race for a second term. In a series of tweets attacking the CEA, who is an NRI, Swamy said, "Now PTs (Patriotic Tweeples) can understand why our core economic sectors could not perform last two years. Trojan horses galore in MoF/Fin Institutions." "Was AS (Arvind Subramanian) deposing before US Cong Committee against India as a US citizen or Indian? Does any PT know?" he asked. "Who said to US Cong on 13/3/13 the US should act against India to defend US Pharmaceuticals interests? Arvind Subramanian MoF!! Sack him!!!" Swamy tweeted. From the point of view of discipline of Indian politicians, to what extent should we attack those... (whom) discipline and constraints of office prevent from responding. And this has happened more than once," Jaitley said. Jaitley also welcomed suggestions that people like Swamy should be reigned in. Earlier, the finance ministry also defended the CEA saying the government knew of his stance on key issues like IPR before choosing him. Subramanian was appointed CEA to the government in October 2014 after the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government had presented its first Budget. Incidentally, the maiden Budget of the new government was also criticised by Subramanian for being too optimistic in its revenue forecasts. According to a survey conducted by a media group, Subramanian is most likely to succeed Rajan as RBI Governor. Prior to Subramanian, Swamy had led a sustained campaign against Rajan demanding his termination and charging him of being mentally not fully Indian. Rajan subsequently announced that he was not in the race for a second stint as RBI Governor when his term expires on September 4. Industry too described Swamys remarks as merely noise. "If you are asking me about his tweets, I would describe Subramanian Swamy as the noise in our noisy democracy, CII President Naushad Forbes said. British Prime Minister David Cameron and his eurosceptic opponents made final pitches for wavering voters on Wednesday, the eve of a defining referendum on European Union (EU) membership. The vote, which echoes the rise of populism elsewhere in Europe and the US, will shape the future of Europe. A victory for out could unleash turmoil on financial markets. Its very close. Nobody knows whats going to happen, Cameron told Wednesdays Financial Times, with opinion polls showing the rival camps neck and neck. European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker warned there would be no further renegotiation whatever the result on Thursday, after EU leaders reached a deal on a new settlement for Britain in February. The referendum will take place a week after the murder of ardently pro-EU lawmaker Jo Cox shocked the country, raising questions about the tone of an increasingly bitter campaign. Much of the heated debate has boiled down to two issues: the economy and immigration. The City of London financial centre, the International Monetary Fund and the majority of British business leaders back Cameron and his remain camps stance on the grounds that leaving the EU would plunge Britain into recession, costing jobs and raising prices. Supporters of a so-called Brexit have struck a chord with many voters by saying Britain would regain control of immigration if it cut itself loose from a bloc they see as domineering and out of touch. Election experts say turnout will be crucial because of a gulf between generations. The youth, who have a poor voting record, strongly back staying in the EU, while the elderly, the more regular of voters, tend to favour an exit. Polling stations open at 0600 GMT (10.30 am IST) on Thursday and close at 2100 GMT (1.30 am IST, Friday). The official result is due some time after 0600 GMT on Friday, but partial results and turnout figures from 382 counting centres will be announced from about 0100 GMT (5.30 am IST, Friday). World leaders, including US president Barack Obama, Chinese president Xi Jinping, German chancellor Angela Merkel, and the Nato and Commonwealth allies, have urged Britain to remain in the EU. Camerons personal future also hangs on the result. A vote to leave would almost certainly cost him the top job, though he has said he will stay. But even narrow backing for remain could undermine his authority and shorten his term. Opinium poll The Opinium poll put the "Leave" camp at 45 percent and "Remain" at 44 percent, while TNS gave them a lead of 43 percent to 41 percent for staying, although both results were within the margin of error. The Centre on Wednesday sent Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar to Seoul for last-minute backroom parleys ahead of the two-day plenary meeting of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), which is likely to discuss Indias membership in the elite club. Jaishankar, who was to accompany Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Tashkent for a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, was asked to go to the South Korean capital as India makes an all-out push for its entry into the NSG. A group of 48 nations, the NSG not only regulates global nuclear commerce, but also seeks to curb proliferation of nuclear arms by controlling export and transfer of materials that could foster nuclear weapons development. India currently enjoys a waiver from the NSG granted in 2008, but seeks a permanent place on the high table because the global nuclear industry wants a predictable atmosphere for any investment to be made in India as New Delhi plans to ramp up its nuclear power production. The NSG membership would be helpful in enabling India strengthen investment for its nuclear power sector and would also protect it from any future amendment to the waiver, which may not be favourable to India, said G Balachandran, a fellow at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses. In Tashkent, Modi would be meeting Chinese President Xi Jin Ping against the backdrop of Chinas persistent opposition to Indias application for NSG membership. The two leaders will have a full review of the bilateral agenda, said Sujata Mehta, Secretary (West) in the Ministry of External Affairs. While MEA officials refused to elaborate whether Indias membership to the NSG would figure in the Modi-Xi meeting, government sources say New Delhi sees the meeting as the last chance to persuade Beijing to come around as Indias bid goes down to the wire. In Beijing, Chinese foreign office spokesperson said the communist country would play a constructive role at the NSG plenary, scheduled to begin on Thursday. While India received support from several countries, including the US and Russia, China not only raised questions on the criterion, procedures and the need for the entry of a non-NPT nations such as India into the NSG, but also made a case for its ally Pakistan, if India is favoured. Since the NSG takes decisions on consensus, India may find it difficult to get the membership if China remains firm on its position, notwithstanding the backing of the US and other members. Interestingly, hours before the NSG meeting, both India and Pakistan are set to become the SCO members with Prime Minister Modi signing the base document in Tashkent, initiating the process of accession. The SCO membership is important for India to access energy-rich central Asian nations. A Congolese delegation met senior officials from the Bengaluru city police on Wednesday and appreciated their efforts in ensuring safety of students from African countries studying here. The delegation met P Harishekaran, Additional Commissioner of Police (East) and discussed various problems being faced by not only the Congo students but also students from other African countries. They spoke about their problems. We have made a list of those issues, which will be addressed after meeting the other senior police officers. They appreciated our efforts about the police-African initiative and lent their support to continue it to keep their students safe. We have asked them to inform us about overstaying Africans and promised that necessary arrangements will be made for their safe return to their country, he added. Another police officer, who met the delegation said: Around 30 Congo students who were part of the delegation complained that their educational institutions were demanding money to return their passports, visa and academic certificates. It was found that a few colleges are trying to cheat these students by demanding extra money for returning the documents. Colleges send their agents to various African nations and they promise quality education and collect money. But once the students join the college, they do not get what they had promised and also agents fail to pay the money to colleges. In turn, the college authorities take away the students documents. We are looked into the matter and will resolve it at the earliest. If one thought that trees were being axed only for Metro rail, here is more bad news. The Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) has proposed to axe at least 500 trees for the 6.9-km steel flyover from Basaveshwara Circle to Hebbal. Preliminary assessment by BDA officials put the number of trees facing the axe at not less than 500 trees. These trees are young and old ones and have stood as canopies for decades on prime roads - Ballari Road, Sankey Road, Palace Road and Millers Road. The final report is not yet prepared. It will be done after a detailed survey. But as per our preliminary assessment, 490-500 trees will be cut. We have written to the BBMP forest cell that trees need to be cut, as the roads belong to BDA. But the final number has not yet been communicated to them, a BDA official told Deccan Herald. A survey and numbering of trees will happen at a later stage, when the project takes final shape. The BDA has set a target to start groundbreaking work for the project in two months. High Court order This has not gone down well with conservationists. Environment Support Group member Leo Saldanha said that the High Court had ordered for forming tree committee and public consultation before pruning, cutting and uprooting large number of trees for any project. As per High Court orders, change of land use should be as per Town and Country Planning Act. If these rules are not followed, it is contempt of court. This is because there has been no public consultation as per Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act and Tree Preservation Act, 1976. There is also a HC division bench order that without public consultation and consent from a committee appointed by the court, no mass tree-felling should be executed. Even though the chief minister has put pressure to execute the project, the officials are duty-bound to follow HC directions. Otherwise, they risk being in contempt of court, Saldanha said. Vijay Nishanth, environmentalist and member of the tree committee formed under the High Court directions to inspect trees being axed for Metro rail, expressed shock at the number of trees proposed to be axed. He said on one hand, the committee is chalking out plans for translocation, to save most of the 300 trees in the alignment for Metro phase II on Kanakapura Road and Mysuru Road. On the other hand, the government wants to cut 500 trees for the flyover. It is a huge number. The government should draw the line before it is too late, he said. 20 June 2016 (Global Witness) Para la version espanola, clique aqui. More than three people were killed a week in 2015 defending their land, forests and rivers against destructive industries. For our new report On Dangerous Ground we documented 185 killings across 16 countries by far the highest annual death toll on record and more than double the number of journalists killed in the same period. The family of Michelle Campos (main picture) were among those killed. In September 2015, her father and grandfather were executed in full view of their family and friends in an attack that drove 3,000 indigenous people from their homes. Rich in coal, nickel and gold, their region of Mindanao in the Philippines is one of the most dangerous in the world for land and environmental activists, with 25 deaths in 2015 alone. We get threatened, vilified, and killed for standing up to the mining companies on our land and the paramilitaries that protect them, said Michelle. My father, grandfather and school teacher were just three of countless victims. We know the murderers they are still walking free in our community. We are dying and our government does nothing to help us. Global Witness are calling for urgent, meaningful action to end the rising tide of violence which despite the high profile murder of Berta Caceres earlier this year is largely escaping international attention. Download the full version of our report, On Dangerous Ground (pdf) These numbers are shocking, and evidence that the environment is emerging as a new battleground for human rights. Across the world industry is pushing ever deeper into new territory, driven by consumer demand for products like timber, minerals and palm oil. Increasingly communities that take a stand are finding themselves in the firing line of companies private security, state forces and a thriving market for contract killers. The worst hit countries in 2015 were Brazil (50 killings), the Philippines (33) and Colombia (26). Conflicts over mining were the number one cause of killings in 2015, with agribusiness, hydroelectric dams and logging also key drivers of violence. In 2015, almost 40% of victims were from indigenous groups. Its likely that the true death toll is far higher. Many of the murders we know about occurred in remote villages or deep within rainforests for every killing we are able to document, others cannot be verified, or go unreported. Isidio Antonio was one of the latest victims in Brazils Amazon, which saw unprecedented levels of violence in 2015 with 50 killings. Isidio had suffered years of assassination attempts and death threats for defending his land against a small group of powerful landowners who attempted to seize it for valuable timber, or to make way for ranches and plantations. His appeals to the authorities for protection were consistently ignored, and police have never investigated his murder. Locals say he is the fourth victim in his small community in Maranhao state. Globally, collusion between state and corporate interests shield many of those responsible for the killings. In cases that are well documented we found 16 were related to paramilitary groups, 13 to the army, 11 to the police and 11 to private security strongly implying state or company links to the killings. There was little evidence that the authorities either fully investigated the crimes, or took actions to bring the perpetrators to account. While impunity prevails, the criminalisation of protest is on the rise. Most notably in Africa, governments and powerful business interests are using their influence to marginalise land and environmental activists and turn public opinion against them, branding their actions as anti-development. This is a rapidly growing crisis that is showing no signs of abating. Our warming climate and growing population mean that pressures on land and natural resources are set to increase, which means that without urgent intervention the numbers of deaths were seeing now will be dwarfed by those in the future. Global Witness is calling on governments in affected countries to urgently intervene to: Increase protection for land and environmental activists at risk of violence, intimidation or threats. for land and environmental activists at risk of violence, intimidation or threats. Investigate crimes , including their corporate and political masterminds as well as the triggermen, and bring perpetrators to justice. , including their corporate and political masterminds as well as the triggermen, and bring perpetrators to justice. Support activists right to say no to projects on their land, and ensure that companies are proactively seeking their consent. to projects on their land, and ensure that companies are proactively seeking their consent. Resolve the underlying causes of violence against defenders, by formally recognising communities rights to their land, and tackling the corruption and illegalities that blight natural resource sectors. On Dangerous Ground By Tenzin Palden 4 June 2016 (Tibet Policy Institute) On 4 May 2016, a sudden mass death of fish in the Lichu River in Minyak Lhagang, Dartsedo County in Karze Prefecture brought hundreds of local Tibetans out on the street, protesting against a lithium mining company (Ronda Lithium Co Ltd) that released mine waste into the Lichu River, a tributary of Nakchu/Yalong river, the biggest river that merges with Yangtse downstream. Yet another case of contaminated mine waste released into Tibetan rivers by a Chinese mining company clearly contradicts Beijings call for Green Development in their 13th Five Year plan. In recent years, there have been an increase in the number of cases of environmental degradation caused by Chinese mining companies in Tibet, resulting in more than 20 large scale mining-related protests since 2009. The source of lithium at Minyak Lhagang in Dartsedo is pegmatite, economically most profitable lithium minerals from hard rock. Minyak Lhagang lithium mining site may have the same high concentration of lithium as the adjacent Jiajika lithium mine, which is considered as the Chinas largest pegmatite type lithium deposit. The extraction of lithium has significant environmental impact, resulting in water and soil pollution. Unfortunately, extraction and processing of lithium does not involve clean and green technology as advertised in lithium based products such as electric and hybrid cars. Many parts of China still carry out traditional lithium mining in both brine and hard rock lithium. Traditional lithium mining for hard rock involves roasting and calcination process at high temperature followed by water leaching. Water leaching is a process in which lithium is treated with high concentration of acids such as hydrochloric acid or sulphuric acid in water for high lithium recovery. Higher the concentration of acid used in the water leaching process, higher is the lithium recovery rate. Local Tibetans believe that the death of hundreds of fish is caused by the poisoned water from the mining site and suspect leakage from the water leaching site. The highly concentrated acid stored for water leaching process might have leaked and drained into the Lichu River, which in turn may have led to the contamination of water, causing death of hundreds of fish. The optimum pH level of majority of the aquatic animals lies between pH 6.5 to 9. Any further change in the optimum pH causes strain on animal physiology, reduces hatching and survival rate. Aquatic animals are more sensitive towards acids than alkalis. A change in pH with 0.5 towards acid from pure water (pH 7) causes aquatic animals in an abnormal environment and cannot survive when the pH level is lower than 3. Highly concentrated acids in the local river due to leakage of water leaching site may have altered the level of pH to as low as 3 causing death of fish and damage to the entire local river ecosystem. [more] Udta Punjab To Hit The Screens In Pakistan After 100 Cuts Arya To Shoot With 50 Elephants For Climax Of His Next Unless you have been living under a rock, you would know that Google has finally launched its feature packed GBoard keyboard for iOS in India. So why is the Google Gboard for iOS all the rage right now? Lets find out. Google Search Yes, Gboard allows you access to the worlds biggest search engine straight from your keyboard. By tapping the dedicated Google Search button on the keyboard, you can now search and share information at any time, on any app. Be it writing an article on Notes or messaging your friends on WhatsApp, you can bring up search results from Gboard without having to leave your opened application. Single-handed use with Glide Typing Those who own the iPhone 6 or higher models (except the iPhone SE), usually type with both their thumbs, while cupping the device between their palms. With the Google Gboard, those iPhone users can finally rest that other hand, as the keyboard supports Glide Typing. Yes, there are keyboards like SwiftKey that have had support for Glide Typing on iPhones for a while now, but they pale in comparison to the other smart features that come together on the Gboard keyboard. Predictive Search Of course, Google is listening to everything you type or say, but thats a conversation for another time. Predictive Search on Gboard recognises user intentions as they type, and suggests actionable information from Google. For example, if you message a friend - Want to have dinner tonight?, Predictive Search will ask you if you want restaurant suggestions. You could tap on restaurant suggestions and bring up a list of eateries near your location. You can also share the restaurant listing with your friend, without having to leave the conversation at all. Remember, if you dont want Google peeking into your conversations, you can always turn off Predictive Search from Gboard settings. You also have an option of clearing your Gboard search history from the app settings. Emoji Suggestions Along with Google search suggestions, Gboard also suggests emojis that you might want to use in a conversation. As shown in the image below, emoji search suggested a camera emoji on typing movie in the message bar. GIFs Everything is better said with a GIF. If you are one who loves using GIFs in conversations, you are in for a treat! With the Google Gboard, you can now search for GIFs right from your keyboard. Whats great is that Gboard works with every messaging app. So its easier than ever to WhatsApp or Snapchat GIFs to your friends. Shortcut for Full Stop Lastly, while typing a long message, sometimes its irritating to go for that full stop at the end of every sentence. With Gboard, you can just tap on the space bar twice to auto generate a period . punctuation. You could also turn off the feature from the Gboard settings if you like. Finally...Moving the cursor is easier than ever! Another great feature iOS users get with the Gboard keyboard is the ability to place the cursor at that sweet spot! iPhone users would know the pain of trying to edit a message by constantly tapping the screen to move the cursor in the right place. With Gboard, you can get the cursor to move wherever you please by lightly sliding your finger on the space bar. This will get your cursor to move between each character in a message...the way it was always meant to be! With all those amazing features and the power of Google on your fingertips, Gboard is simply the best thing that happened to iOS keyboards ever! Current and former London mayors argue their cases on Brexit on BBC's live TV debate Political figures from both sides of the UK's European Union referendum argument were present on Tuesday night in the last live TV debate before voters head to the polls from Thursday morning. Britain will decide tomorrow whether it believes continued membership of the EU is the right thing for the country. Current London mayor Sadiq Khan from the StrongerIn campaign and his predecessor Boris Johnson from Leave clashed over issues such as the economy, with Khan accusing Johnson of changing his mind over the benefits of the EU to businesses. Mr Johnson said Remain "keeps talking down our country" and that the EU held back the UK's trading progress with the rest of the world. Britain will decide tomorrow whether it believes continued membership of the EU is the right thing for the country. The debate represented a final chance for both campaigns to put their points across before Thursday's referendum. The audience was split between supporters of the two sides, and spirited cheers were heard as each contributor made their points. Ruth Davidson, the Scottish Tory leader, gave impassioned responses to various issues, including giving the closing statement for her side. Joining her was Khan, and general secretary of the Trades Union Congress Frances O'Grady. The Leave panel was completed by Labour MP Gisela Stuart and energy minister Andrea Leadsom. Sadiq Khan received the biggest cheer of the night when he refuted Johnson's claims that he belived immigration was positive for Britain. "You might start off with platitudes saying how wonderful immigration is. But your campaign hasn't been Project Fear. It's been Project Hate, as far as immigration is concerned." Polls in recent days have shown that the vote is too close to call, but bookmakers have said that they believe the UK is going to vote Remain. European Commission President says the outcome of referendum is final One of the European Unions's top officials has said there will be no more negotiations with regard to the UK's membership of the bloc, warning that if they vote to Leave there is no way back. European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker believes the time for creating a new deal is done, and Britain will have to settle for whatever the result of tomorrow's historic election will be. "We have concluded a deal with the prime minister, he got the maximum he could receive, we gave the maximum we could give," Juncker said. Britain will have to settle for whatever the result of tomorrow's historic election will be "I have to add that the British policymakers and the British voters have to know there will be no kind of any renegotiation," he told reporters after talks with new Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern. "So there will be no kind of renegotiation, nor on the agreement we found in February, nor as far as any kind of treaty negotiations are concerned. Out is out." A resounding confirmation from the EU then: Out is out. David Cameron had said earlier on Wednesday that Britain could achieve further reform within the bloc with regard to immigration rules. In less than 24 hours, UK voters will head to the polls to decide whether the country remains in the EU or leaves - a decision that the leaders of the EU's 27 other states have said will have profound consequences not only for the UK but for the future direction of the EU. In less than 24 hours, UK voters will head to the polls to decide whether the country remains in the EU or leaves Former London mayor and prominent Brexit campaigner Boris Johnson has jumped on the remarks, questioning the credibility of Juncker's position. "If we stay in, there is no prospect of any further change," Mr Johnson said. "This is it, folks. We have been told from the horse's mouth that any hope of further change is absolute illusion." "It is time for us to show our courage and our commitment to democracy by standing up to these unelected tin-pot figures." Publications have confirmed their views on upcoming EU referendum As is tradition in Britain during an election or referendum campaign, all of the country's newspapers have told their readers exactly how they should vote in Thursday's Brexit vote. The various tabloid and broadsheet publications have laid out their advice ahead of the historic referendum on the UK's continued membership in the European Union tomorrow. Here is a selection of the papers and their stances on Brexit: European equities overcame their caution ahead of Britains referendum on EU membership the next day, seeing the day out with moderate gains, although analysts were in a cautious mood. The benchmark DJ Stoxx Europe 600 index finished the day sporting gains of 0.38% or 1.28 points to 341.32, Germanys DAX was 0.55% higher and Frances CAC 40 was up 0.29%. At the same time, oil prices retreated, with West Texas Intermediate lower by 1.60% at $49.08 a barrel and Brent crude off by 1.667% to $49.79. Rebecca OKeeffe, head of investment at Interactive Investor, said: Although the poll predictions are still making the EU referendum results too close to call, global equity markets have maintained their positive Remain stance over the past few days and this has continued in European trade today, with equities pushing further forward. With less than 24 hours before voting starts, markets are now pricing in virtually no risk of an exit vote, which begs the question as to whether the euphoria is being overdone and how much upside still exists for investors, or whether this is irrational exuberance and investors are ignoring the risks? UBS strategist Yianos Kontopoulos said that given the risk-rally of the last few days, there is significant room for downside in the event of a Leave vote. We estimate percentage moves in the mid-teens for UK and EU equities but materially smaller moves for the S&P 500 and EM equities. While GBP may come under significant pressure, the EUR may be more stable. In a Remain scenario, outside European and UK stocks where a significant relief rally is likely Kontopoulos expects much less pronounced moves across assets. In equities, we think the S&P 500 could reach new highs, albeit near-term no more than 1-3% higher than current levels. Fundamental pressures limit the potential upside in global bond yields. Yields could rise more for core euro-area bonds, which look the most expensive. We also see limited upside across EM assets (except perhaps local currency bonds). Interestingly, we believe the potential sell-off in gold in a Remain scenario would be small relative to the upside potential in the opposite case. On the corporate side of things, Swedish retailer Hennes & Mauritz rose despite reporting a 17% decline in second-quarter profit. In London, FTSE 250 department store chain Debenhams was sharply lower after it said like-for-like sales fell in the third quarter and warned gross profit margins could be flatter than previously thought. Remain is the central scenario in Societe Generales equity allocation model and the FTSE 100 is one of its preferred indices, the bank said as it outlined its equity trade ideas for both outcomes. In the event of a Brexit, SocGen expects that on 24 June and the following days, the FTSE 100 would lose around 15%, while FTSE 250, Euro Stoxx 50 and the Nikkei would lose 20% and the S&P 500 would drop 10%. After a market correction, the FTSE would recoup most of its losses, the FTSE 250 would remain 20% lower, the Euro Stoxx 50 would recover from lows and the S&P 500 would move back to pre-Brexit levels. If Britain decides to leave the European Union, SocGen recommends selling the Euro Stoxx 50, FTSE 250 and Nikkei, hedged in GBP, during the initial market reaction. After a market correction, it recommends buying the FTSE 100 and S&P 500, hedged in USD. After the initial stage of market reaction, which might last a couple of weeks (hard to tell), we expect FX/equity correlations to normalise as well as active UK intervention to contain outflows. GBP would be durably lower, thereby pushing the FTSE 100 higher, SocGen said. In a Remain scenario, the bank recommends going long the FTSE 100, European banks and the Euro Stoxx 50. In terms of specific stocks, it would buy Lloyds, ING and ABN Amro. The bank said the FTSE 100 was likely to move back to the 6,400 mark it hit in April straight after a Bremain vote, with a target of 6,700 by the end of the third quarter. Beyond the FTSE, a Bremain outcome should alleviate a great deal of uncertainty elsewhere in Europe too, especially for banks which have been strongly impacted recently by Brexit fears. As far as individual stocks are concerned, it highlighted names that would perform well in the event of each scenario. In a Brexit, stocks that are highly sensitive to a weaker pound would do well. These include BAE Systems, Barclays, HSBC, SABMiller, Smiths Group, Burberry Group, Unilever, Reckitt Benckiser, WPP, British American Tobacco and Experian. If the outcome is to remain in the EU, the bank suggested going long stocks that have recently suffered on Brexit fears such as Next, RBS, ITV, Great Portland Estates and Whitbread, and short stocks that have recently outperformed, such as Weir, Accenture, Pearson, Informa and Rolls-Royce. Financial and betting markets were pricing in a high probability of a Remain vote but the outcome was still highly uncertain, Credit Suisse cautioned clients. Indeed, a leave vote might push the brokers measure of risk appetite into panic, Credit Suisse said. The correlation between betting market odds and global risk appetite has been extraordinarily high in the past few weeks. That suggests an immediate, large and highly correlated move in both safe and risk assets once the outcome is clear, analysts Anais Boussie, Peter Foley, Neville Hill, Sonali Punhani and Giovanni Zanni said in a research note sent to clients. In case of Leave coming out on top, the broker forecast a shallow recession unfolding in the UK, together with a slowdown in the euro area and easing measures from the Bank of England and European Central Bank. Just how much would UK gross domestic product shrink if the country left the EU? Credit Suisse estimated a fall of 1.0% between the third quarter of 2016 and the first quarter of 2017. GDP would drop by around 1.0% in 2017 instead of growing 2.3%, with the latter being their current projection under a Remain scenario. To watch out for on Friday was the margin of a potential Leave victory, the analysts said, as it might be proportionate to the speed with which Britain would move towards an exit. Whether the Prime Minister invoked Article 50 of the EU Treaty the exit clause on Friday (which was unlikely) was the other key event to watch for. Once triggered, it would become extremely likely that the UK would leave, Credit Suisse said. Political turbulence in the UK in the aftermath of an exit was likely to be high, with markets also increasingly focusing on mounting political stresses in Southern Europe, the broker said. A victory for Remain, on the other hand, should see the British economy recover momentum after a weak first half of the year, alongside some residual political volatility. Under such a scenario, economic activity in the euro area would continue its domestic-demand-driven expansion, with the BoE and ECB on hold for the rest of 2016. Save my User ID and Password Some subscribers prefer to save their log-in information so they do not have to enter their User ID and Password each time they visit the site. To activate this function, check the 'Save my User ID and Password' box in the log-in section. This will save the password on the computer you're using to access the site. Note: If you choose to use the log-out feature, you will lose your saved information. This means you will be required to log-in the next time you visit our site. Got unused pills? Here's where to take them Saturday in central Ohio The DEA is encouraging Americans to turn in their old pills and prescription drugs Saturday. Here's where you can take yours in central Ohio. Washington State University The Carson College of Business at Washington State University hired Jessica Cassleman as assistant dean of international programs. Cassleman was assistant dean in the WSU Honors College for the last 16 years and has worked closely with international programs for over 20 years. Subscriber content preview TACOMA (AP) A national rating service says banks and credit unions in Washington state continue to improve. At the end of the latest quarter, 86.5 percent of Washington banks were recommended by Bauer Financial and none were listed as troubled or problematic. The News Tribune reports credit unions are doing well too, with nearly 93 percent recommended and just about 1 percent labeled as troubled. . . . West Coast states meet to talk about oil spills Task force members come from five states and British Columbia to share data on oil spills, work on prevention and promote regulatory safeguards. By PHUONG LE Associated Press Washington and Oregon environmental regulators said Tuesday that regional coordination and planning exercises such as drills aided in their response to the fiery train derailment along the Columbia River earlier this month. The Northwest officials briefed their counterparts from other states on the June 3 train accident in Mosier, Oregon, at the annual meeting of the Pacific States/British Columbia Oil Spill Task Force in Seattle. The task force consisting of members from British Columbia, Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California and Hawaii collects and shares data on oil spills, works together on oil spill prevention projects and promotes regulatory safeguards. They were in Seattle to share knowledge and update each other on their spill response programs and other projects. Dale Jensen, Washington's Ecology spills program manager, says the Oregon derailment is a reminder of how vulnerable the region is to oil spills and underscores the need for states and federal agencies to continue to work together to improve spill prevention and response. In British Columbia, regulators said they have effectively used drones to assess the extent of a tanker truck crash that spilled diesel fuel near Mount Robson National Park. Wes Shoemaker, Deputy Minister of British Columbia Ministry of Environment, said drones can be an effective tool to assess downstream effects of a spill. Bruce Gilles, who manages the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality's cleanup and emergency response program, told the meeting that we couldn't have been luckier during the Oregon derailment. Strong winds typically blow through the Columbia River Gorge but not that day the trains derailed, with four cars catching fire. He also said that there are sections of the railroad that run adjacent to the river, but the train crashed in an area that was farther away from the river. Just several months earlier, more than a dozen agencies participated in a national oil-spill response drill that was based on a scenario where a landslide had caused a 100-unit oil train to spill about 450,000 gallons of oil into the Columbia River between Washington and Oregon. Jensen highlighted the dramatic changes in the way oil is shipped through Washington state, noting an uptick in rail transport of oil. In 2011, no Bakken crude oil was shipped by rail compared with about 2.55 billion gallons in 2015. Washington lawmakers last year passed legislation requiring railroads to come up with oil spill contingency plans; it also require facilities that receive oil to provide the state with advance notice of oil shipments. New rules are expected later this year. California also has a similar oil spill contingency planning requirement for railroads. What we get out of this is new knowledge, Jensen said. We're always looking ahead. We're always anticipating what the potential is and working very, very hard to be as prepared as we can. Subscriber content preview SEATTLE (AP) Officials say a jury has found companies that own and operate a Greek shipping vessel and two ship engineers guilty of felonies related to dumping oily waste at sea in October 2015. The U.S. Justice Department said ship operator Angelakos, ship owner Gallia Graeca Shipping Ltd., as well as engineers Konstantinos Chrysovergis and Tryfon Angelou were convicted Monday. . . . Ghana gives a big boost to rooftop solar projects African country Ghana is giving a big boost to renewable power with the government initiating a ''capital Subsidy Scheme'' for installation of solar panels on rooftop of residential homes across the country. The country expects to increase solar energy penetration in the country by adding some 20,000 rooftop solar systems under the scheme, according to the country's Energy Commission, which is spearheading the project. The government will give selected applicants a maximum of 500 watt peak solar panels free of charge, while they will pay for the remainder depending on what their total need is. To be selected, the participant should have already acquired and installed what is known as balance of systems, which include battery, inverter and charge controller. Chairman of the commission's board, Dr Kwame Ampofo, told journalists at the launch of a promotional programme that several banks and other financial institutions have come on board to offer credit facilities to beneficiaries who may need further financial support to procure the balance of systems. The commission, he said, has so far received 470 applications, with 397 of them coming from the Greater Accra Region and the rest spread across the country. ''It is worth noting that various promotional activities have been rolled out to whip up public interest in the programme and for everybody in the country to take advantage of it. One of such activities is a draw which will be conducted by the National Lottery Authority in all the 10 regions on different dates,'' he said. The government is targeting an initial total of 200,000 households for the rooftop project depending on availability of funds, and the hope is that it will help whip up the interest of the public in going solar on their own. The roof-top solar mission marks a shift from government's initial focus on grid-connected solar, which needed greater investment and land area. With government support, the solar rooftop projects will help Ghanians generate 20 to 30 per cent of their power needs and thereby reducing pressure on the national grid. Halloween creatures owls, crows and bats all live at Crossroads, and that makes us very happy, for these scary animals make a positive contribution to the habitats of the preserve. We don't even mind black cats, IF they are kept indoors. Feral and outdoor cats are exceedingly harmful to wildlife ... and that's not a superstition! But to tamp down superstitions, we at Crossroads will spend the week demystifying Halloween creatures. On October 28, 2022, at 6 p.m. will be our Evening with Owls. The Open Door Bird Sanctuary will be at Crossroads, offering a one-hour presentation followed by the opportunity to meet and greet live birds. Learn all about owls and the other incredible birds in the care of the Sanctuary! Down through the centuries, in many cultures throughout the world, owls have been associated with evil and death. Truth is, owls probably are not smart enough to be evil. But researchers agree that owls are about as dim as the nighttime forests in which they hunt. Owls don't need to be smart. They have everything else going for them. They are muscular. They fly silently. Their huge eyes enable them to see in the dark. Their beaks and talons are strong and wickedly sharp. But their sensitive ears are what make owls extraordinary hunters. Most people assume that the plumicorns (a.k.a. "horns) of an owl are its ears. Not so. The actual ears lie under feathers on the sides of the head, and they aren't symmetrical. Because one ear is higher than the other and the ears are unequal in size, sound is different from different directions, helping owls locate prey, which they do almost unfailingly, even in total darkness. Owls do not smell their prey. As with most birds, the sense of smell is insignificant, if it exists are all. Great Horned Owls frequently prey on skunks. Enough said. But well-developed intelligence? Researchers have observed owls beating their wings on bushes to try to flush out little birds. Is this learned behavior? Is it problem-solving? Maybe. For the most part, owls do not have a lot of problems to solve. They appropriate abandoned nests of other birds, so they don't need building skills. They are stealthy by nature, and they pounce on and usually catch anything they hear, so they don't need hunting techniques. In spite of ghost stories, legends of American First People, and superstitions from Europe and India, hooting owls do not foretell impending death, although their nocturnal calls are spooky. We hear them now and then this time of year, but we will regularly hear those eerie calls at Crossroads in January or February. In contrast to owls, crows are noisy all year round and they are amazingly intelligent. They can learn. They can remember. They can solve problems. They can even identify individual humans. And they detest owls, though whether this is innate or learned behavior is not clear. Those curious about crows will want to attend the Crossroads Book Club on Wednesday, October 26, at 10:00 a.m. This month, the book Crow Planet, Essential Wisdom for the Urban Wilderness by Lyanda Lynn Haupt will explore the fascinating world of these remarkable birds. The program is free and open to all, whether or not they have read the book. So bring the family to our program on owls, learn about crows at the Crossroads Book Club, or learn about bats at our pre-school Junior Nature Club on Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. or our Family Science Saturday program at 2:00 p.m. Costumes are encouraged but not required at Junior Nature Club and Science Saturday, and adult visitors are welcome. A Dothan therapist and her employee have been charged by federal agents with defrauding Medicaid. Catrina R. Copeland, 43, of Dothan, and Stephanie Govan, 41, of Glenwood, were arrested Tuesday and each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud. Copeland is the owner of The Counseling Place, a Dothan company that contracted with Medicaid to provide counseling services to at-risk youth. Govan was a therapist working for Copeland. Copeland and Govan were indicted by a federal grand jury in April. The investigation into The Counseling Place began after an audit by the Alabama Medicaid Agencys Program Integrity Division of claims submitted for payment by Copeland. According to federal court documents, Copeland and Govan filed claims with Medicaid for services they never provided. If convicted, Copeland and Govan could each face 10 years imprisonment. Copeland and Govan were arrested by agents of the Attorney Generals Medicaid Fraud Control Unit and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General. dpa ElectionsData With dpa ElectionsData you get access to a unique collection of data. Via a programming interface (Rest-API), your developers can access detailed information, candidate profiles and live results for all national elections in the European Union and important international elections, like the US Midterm elections etc. The data pool also includes all heads of state and government as well as about 20,000 elected members of parliament throughout the EU. In addition to their data (name, party, constituency or list position), we collect social media profiles and official websites of individuals and parties. Australia's crash authority has investigated a dramatic gap in European and Asian crash test results by re-evaluating the new Kia Picanto. The Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) conducted a test of the Picanto in Sydney on Wednesday as part of an audit of Euro NCAP and ASEAN NCAP. The Kia Picanto currently has a five-star rating under the ANCAP system, four stars through Euro NCAP and zero stars with ASEAN ANCAP, as the car does not come with airbags in some markets. ANCAP chief executive James Goodwin says there were significant differences in the Picanto's performance in different parts of the world. The car performed well in Europe, but Malaysian testing saw the car's door fly open, exposing parts of the crash test dummy. The ASEAN car also offered inferior structural technology, with its roof and A-pillar buckling under the force of the crash. That didn't happen in Europe. "We need to confirm the validity of existing results," Goodwin says. "We are concerned that a brand would be making different assessments in the value of a life for different countries." While the door stayed closed in Australian testing this week, the Picanto's body buckled more in Sydney than it did in Europe. While Goodwin says it is too early to issue a result for the Picanto, he says the Kia's body "deformed more than the European test but no more than the ASEAN test". Final results due in coming weeks will show whether structural integrity is the same across different regions. Goodwin says ANCAP purchased the car secretly through a broker, and that Kia was not informed of the test until after the car was prepared for testing. Several Kia Australia representatives attended the frontal offset collision today, including a pair of engineers who flew in from Seoul. A spokesman for the car maker says it respects the audit process, though he could not comment on the result of the surprise crash. Goodwin says it is important to keep carmakers accountable. "Today is a pure and proper audit test to verify the rating that's in the marketplace," he says. "We want to give consumers assurance that we are independent and that we are keeping the brand honest and on their toes." Fine Gael senators will table a motion at their parliamentary party meeting this week calling for a 5,000 increase in pay for councillors. The 19 senators have signed a memo calling on Minister for Local Government Simon Coveney to increase the annual fixed allowance for county councillors. At the moment councillors are paid 16,565 per annum. The councillors had asked for 6,000 of an increase. When a review of councillors pay was carried out by the Department of the Environment. A report on the topic was issued to former minister Alan Kelly and is now with Mr Coveney. Mr Coveney is believed to want the matter settled as soon as [possible. And Minister for Social Protection Leo Varadkar is to consider allowing councillors rights to access a number of social welfare benefits. Some have seen these moves as a Fine Gael leadership contest between Mr Varadkar and Mr Coveney. councillors pay 4 per cent PRSI but are not covered for jobseekers benefit or allowance, or illness benefit. They are also not entitled to a State pension when they retire as county councillors. All public office holders have paid PRSI on their income since 2010 but do not receive the benefits other workers do. The Association of Irish Local Government, which represents county councillors, has been looking for a 40 per cent pay rise because of an increase in workload since the restructuring of councils two years ago. But independent councillor Jim Tenanty believes that if councillors are seen to be looking for money the public is going to turn on them. We did fill in a survey that was sent to all councillors asking for details about full-time and part-time employment, but if it goes through councillors wont be seen to be fighting for it, he said. Cllr Maria Doyle, chair of Dundalk Municipal District, does not think the time is right for councillors to be looking for any kind of pay increase. Cllr Mark Dearey, the new chairman of Dundalk Municipal Committee, hadnt heard anything about the 40 per cent pay claim until it hit the headlines recently. I dont think the time is right for any pay increase and I don't think there's any great support for this, he said at the time.. Its the wrong kind of signal to send out to people especially the private sector. Its too early in the economic recovery to seek salary increases and would sent the wrong message out to employers and employees. The traditional work landscape is shifting, and more and more workers are trying to break away from sterile cubicles and rigid 9 to 5 schedules. We are witnessing new dynamic work environments where everyone is empowered through greater control and flexibility regarding workflow. Gone are the pushy bosses and policies, once set in stone. In their place is meaningful, purposeful work. It shouldnt come as a surprise that workers in coworking spaces reportedly perform better compared to those who work in regular offices. Simply put, these spaces afford workers more freedom in tackling daily tasks, while enhance their commitment to their duties and their motivation to reach their full potential. The meaning of work Coworking areas are usually accessible around the clock, allowing workers to be much more flexible about their schedules. The autonomy is certainly a blessing, but these spaces offer something more than that the structural framework preventing the impediment of productivity and work habits. Indeed, having a community of hard-working pros around you boosts discipline and motivation better than working from home does, as the latter environment faces you with numerous distractions and improper work conditions. On the other hand, many companies fail to both cultivate a feeling of communal belonging and pull together a space which promotes healthy competition. As a result, once they become more than cogs in the corporate machine, migrating to coworking spaces, individuals tend to see their jobs in a more meaningful light. They have a sense of bringing their whole self to the workplace, and feel their work identity strengthened. Here lies the answer to why people actually pay to work with strangers. Best of both worlds These innovative spaces present people with a healthier ambience, which is free from the constraints of internal politics and unburdened by the direct competition. They are membership-based premises where various freelancers, remote workers, and other professionals gather and go about their business. You can work by yourself, but also escape isolation, frustration and accumulated stress associated with working from home or an office. So, coworking space involves a communal, shared setting, bringing various workers with different skills together. Many individuals boast about expanding the network of personal and professional contacts, coming across valuable advice, keeping the skills fresh and raising the profile of their business. These practices are also echoed in the Coworking Manifesto, an online document promoting the benefits of collaboration, perpetual learning and sustainability. Take a seat Naturally, socialising is not compulsory, and individuals who like to keep to themselves can also find coworking areas to be a sound choice. Furthermore, the vibe and layout of each space varies to suit the specific needs of those who use it. This acknowledges the fact that in order to flourish, workers require proper office furniture, ample space, tech equipment and adequate supplies. Open plan layout is increasingly popular and is seen as a design solution which promotes the core values of coworking. What is more, functional and versatile boardroom tables serve as a workspace for multiple people, and are a nice centerpiece in any environment, especially if they are available in any size and color you want. Shared tables always encourage interaction and spur cooperation. For example, many companies are taking notice and are embracing the 1:1 ratio of desk seats and seats in communal areas used for quiet work, or informal hangout. Digging deeper These design solutions induce innovation and stimulate the building of deeper relationships that go beyond coffee breaks and tedious meeting. It is small wonder that many startups and enterprises introduce coworking spaces as alternative workplaces or engage in a cost-effective reverse-engineering of the office. Remote employees are particularly inclined to give these work areas a chance, but enterprise employees are also coquetting leaning towards them. Now, all of this is not to say that coworking spaces are for everyone. Some people are anxious about being surrounded by persons they do not know. Others are simply able to get more things done when managers and bosses loom over them. That being said, the lessons learned in coworking spaces should be applied to the corporate worlds stale scenery, which is in a desperate need of a breath of fresh air. Coworking on the roll The coworking trend has attained the rank of a broad social movement, aspiring to take advantage of swift technological advancements and innovative business models. New spaces put the human element in the spotlight, and aim at building a stimulating, healthy environment around it. That way, people can both preserve the freedom and be a part of the community, exercising a higher degree of control and freedom. It is of the utmost importance to realize that swell design is just as important as the nurturing of an autonomous and worthwhile work experience. I expect the trend to reach new heights in 2016 and beyond, attracting a broader range of professions and organizations to the exciting business frontier of the future. About the author Chloe Taylor is an Adelaide-based blogger whose fields of expertise include design and business related topics including productivity management. You can find her on FB or Twitter. She consulted experts from JasonL for writing this article. A new twist on skillet grilled catfish A southern favorite is catfish. And while most of the time southerners tend to like their catfish fried this recipe takes a little different spin... Decorate the museum, make a garland I dont know if you have been by the museum lately but everyone is buzzing around and getting things planned and ready for the Old... A senior day tradition These senior football, cheer and band moms entertained Early County High School with a dance at the pep-rally honoring their seniors. This past Friday was... Donate to hurricane relief Barry Joslin is one of my closest friends. His family lives on Sanibel Island, Fla., where he serves as a pastor. Hurricane Ian devastated their... See update below. Back in November, I wrote about New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie considering the possibility of appointing an Emergency Manager for Atlantic City which has faced a critical financial emergency due to the near collapse of its gaming industry. This morning it is being widely reported that Gov. Christie will appoint an Emergency Manager. Kevyn Orr is said to have been consulting with with Gov. Christies administration but rumors that he will be the Atlantic City Emergency Manager appear to be inaccurate. Instead, it is believed Christie will appoint New York lawyer Kevin Lavin: Christie is expected to name Kevin Lavin, a lawyer who worked for FTI Consulting Inc. in New York, a source told The Wall Street Journal. Another man, former Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr, will be brought on as a consultant to work with Lavin, the paper also reported. Orr controlled Detroits finances beginning in March 2013. The two will begin immediately and will assume the powers now held by the mayor and council. They will also be free to consider a range of solutions including renegotiating public-employee contracts, The Journal reported. Philly.com has more reporting, describing the new position as a Detroit-style emergency manager: On the eve of Gov. Christies third Atlantic City summit, City Council President Frank M. Gilliam Jr. said Wednesday night that the state was poised to bring in a powerful emergency manager to oversee city government. Theyre moving forward with an emergency manager, Gilliam said before the Council meeting. Its very upsetting. [] Among proposals to help Atlantic City recover from the closure of four casinos in recent months is a Detroit-style emergency manager with extraordinary powers over city government and finances an idea opposed by Mayor Don Guardian. Talk of an emergency manager permeated City Hall on Wednesday. Councilman Moise Delgado posted on his Facebook page: There will be a New Czar in town soon. Gilliam said he was distressed that the governor was resorting to a quasi-takeover when he and the Guardian administration had been working proactively to cut the budget and address the citys cash crunch. I dont understand why, Gilliam said. Weve done everything we possibly can do from a municipalitys standpoint. Guardians chief of staff, Chris Filiciello, would say only that we are waiting to hear what the governor proposes tomorrow. Guardian had said he was 100 percent opposed to a manager. Kevyn Orrs name is mentioned in several articles as Christies choice for the new Emergency Manager for Atlantic City. However, he is denying that hes taking the position. Ive been describing Michigan as the testing ground for this new, anti-democratic way of solving the financial emergencies that face some municipalities and its now clear that the experiment is being seen by Republican governors as a resounding success. With the reelection of Gov. Snyder, despite his having gone against the will of the voters with regard to Emergency Managers, we can expect to see more Republican governors using Emergency Management in the future. UPDATE: It is now official: Gov. Chris Christie today announced that hes signed an executive order for a state takeover of financially strapped Atlantic City, installing an emergency management team to help dig the gambling resort out of an enormous hole. Christie tapped Kevin Lavin, a corporate attorney who most recently worked for New York firm FTI Consulting, to oversee the daily operations and finances of the 40,000-resident city, which has lost four casinos and thousands of jobs over the last year. The Republican governor also named Kevyn Orr, who last year served as emergency manager of the similarly struggling Detroit, as a part-time counsel in the city. I cant wait any longer, Christie said while making the announcement at the third summit he has convened with casino executives, business leaders, union leaders, and state and local officials to search for ways to revitalize the city. We need more aggressive action, and thats the action Im taking today. The move also comes as Christie considers whether to launch a campaign for the 2016 Republican nomination for president. [CC image credit: Peter Stevens | Flickr] It may be our only way to thank him for all hes done In a private ceremony on Tuesday, Rick Snyder signed the Detroit Public Schools rescue bill into law. The bill abandoned 15 months of bi-partisan negotiations in favor a giveaway to the charter school industry with almost no accountability. Meanwhile, for the third straight summer, residents of Flint are still depending on bottled water thanks to decisions made by the governors direct reports. Despite evidence that hes been in any way humbled or enlightened by the damage done to Flint, cries to arrest Snyder or even recall him have faded. This is somewhat understandable given the abundance of challenges we face and the necessity to focus on making sure Republicans dont send an outwardly bigoted authoritarian to the White House in November. But watching him continue to make decisions that prioritize profit over people is depressing. We cant let the only consequences for his actions be a stain on his resume that will haunt his life and any word history has to same about him. That will always be trivial compared to the way his decisions will haunt the people of Flint. The chances of Rick Snyder lingering in Michigan after his disastrous second term are close to zero, given the ignominy hes heaped upon himself. So hell leave us behind with his toxic legacy and the inevitable budget shortfalls his corporate kickbacks were designed to create. The very least we can do is use legacy to restore some fairness to this state and cut lots of Michiganders taxes. A new report from the Economic Policy Institute shows members of Michigans richest 1 percent are raking in a near record share of all the income in the state. We rank 11th overall in income inequality, one metric where were near the top 20 percent, in contrast to ethics and transparency where we rank dead last. And though the richest residents of the state contribute less than 6 percent of their income in taxes while bottom 80 percent pay between 9.2 and 9.5 percent. There is no reason a police officer or a small-business owner making $50,000 a year should contribute nearly twice as much of their income as a billionaire, but that is how our tax system works, for now the folks behind Michigan Tax Equality explain. The fix proposed would simply ask residents earning more then $430,000 a year to pay just about the same share of their income as those who earn under $100,000. The less you earn, the bigger your tax cut. With the top five percent paying a nearly equal share of their income, Michigan Tax Equality suggests we could: Help restore our crumbling roads and bridges. Provide our children and grandchildren with the education they need to realize their fullest potential. Lower tuition rates so our children and grandchildren arent burdened with unimaginable debt. We could also fix some pipes. Representative Jeff Irwin has been pushing this legislation for years and perhaps our best hope is to see it on the ballot in 2018, when its time to replace this governor. Its a shame to think of paying taxes to invest in our society as a punishment. But conservatives have spent four decades pushing that frame. Were not going to change it overnight, so lets take advantage of this moment and the righteous anger at Rick Snyder to actually do some good for the state that has been poisoned by his leadership. You know Rick Snyder is rich very rich and he can afford to pay the same tax rate as a nurse or a plumber. So lets raise Rick Snyders taxes. Its the very least we can do to thank him for his service. We live, work, and consume within an increasingly grand, globalized economy. Yet standing amidst its many fruits and blessings, we move about our lives giving little thought to why were working, who were serving, and how exactly our needs are being met. Adam Smiths invisible hand feels more invisible than ever. In response to our newfound economic order, big and blurry as it is, many have aimed to pave paths toward more communitarian ends, epitomized by recent waves of localist consumerism, artisanal shops, and social entrepreneurship. Such efforts can be tremendously fruitful, and insofar as they meet real human needs, we should heed their resistance to blind marches toward progress. I only wish that such movements would appreciate the broader range of possible solutions. The slow and local is all well and good, but something as mundane and mainstream as a local McDonalds can serve community needs just as well as the trendy mom-and-pops of the future. The big and global is not necessarily the enemy of the small and local. As Chris Arnade demonstrates through a series of stories, for many low- and middle-income areas, McDonalds have become de-facto community centers and reflections of the surrounding neighborhood, offering a hub for the very sort of social fabric-weaving that crunchy communitarians crave. (Note: I was an employee and then shift manager of a McDonalds during my teenage years.) One can be resistant to the nutritional risks of the food just as I remain resistant to the budgetary risks of overpriced artisanal donuts and still perceive the value that such enterprises bring to local communities everywhere: economic, social, and (dare I say) spiritual. For many, McDonalds serves the same function of the latest glorified social epicenters and third spaces of mobile freelancers, often with even more intricate circles of community. Indeed, though the new wave of hip-and-homey start-ups have surely done their share of community transformation, few can beat McDonalds at serving within the common constraints of lower-income Americans. When many lower-income Americans are feeling isolated by the deadening uniformity of things, by the emptiness of many jobs, by the media, they still yearn for physical social networks. They are not doing this by going to government-run community service centers. They are not always doing this by utilizing the endless array of well-intentioned not-for-profit outreach programs. They are doing this on their own, organically across the country, in McDonalds. Walk into any McDonalds in the morning and you will find a group of mostly retired people clustering in a corner, drinking coffee, eating and talking. They are drawn to the McDonalds because it has inexpensive good coffee, clean bathrooms, space to sprawl. Unlike community centers, it is also free of bureaucracy. Whether frequented by elderly and retired folks, prayer groups and Bible studies, political organizations, neighborhood associations, or various marginalized persons on the streets, McDonalds provides a cheap, accessible, and comfortable place for all, delivering services and providing jobs with great efficiency. Arnades article is filled with stories of people who find peace and refuge in the very place that loftier minds are wont to disdain as a curse on the poor: For many of the poorest, for the homeless, and for people caught in an addiction, McDonalds are an integral part of their lives. They have cheap and filling food, they have free Wi-Fi, outlets to charge phones, and clean bathrooms. McDonalds is also generally gracious about letting people sit quietly for long periods longer than other fast-food places In almost every franchise, there are tables with people like Betty [who is homeless during daytime hours] escaping from the streets for a short bit. They prefer McDonalds to shelters and to non-profits, because McDonalds are safer, provide more freedom, and most importantly, the chance to be social, restoring a small amount of normalcy. In the Bronx, many of my friends who live on the streets are regulars. Steve, who has been homeless for 20 years, uses the internet to check up on sports, find discarded papers to do the crossword puzzle, and generally escape for a while. He and his wife Takeesha will turn a McDonalds meal into an evening out. Beauty, who has been homeless for five years, uses the internet to check up on her family back in Oklahoma when she can find a computer to borrow. Most importantly though, McDonalds provide many with the chance to make real and valuable connections. When faced with the greatest challenges, with a personal loss, wealthier Americans turn to expensive therapists, others without the resources or the availability, turn to each other. Once again, these sorts of community hubs exist everywhere, and they come in all shapes and sizes. They neednt be businesses like McDonalds, but it does seem that our appetite for enterprise solutions is limited to social signalers and the confines of the small and independent. The success of McDonalds in weaving communities doesnt mean that the economics dont matter small, big, whatever. It simply means that we should be careful that our justified fears about big business and rapid change ought not be replaced by a blind prejudice. Each community is different, and each will require its own set of solutions. As we seek to unpack what really matters and what really works looking at the roots and fruits of each solution our economic imaginations ought to remain as wide as possible. Edward Snowden made a greater effort than originally believed to raise his concerns within the NSA before releasing thousands of classified documents detailing programs that allowed the agency to spy on U.S. citizens. The truth is more complex than the NSA let on, according to Vice News, which published a report based on documents it secured through two years of Freedom of Information Act litigation. In the aftermath of Snowdens release of a cache of stolen NSA documents, he claimed that he had exhausted all official avenues available to him before going public. I had reported these clearly problematic programs to more than 10 distinct officials, none of whom took any action to address them, he said in testimony before the European Parliament in March 2014. However, the NSA maintained then and still maintains that it could find only one email message from Snowden that touched on the subject. Snowden did much more than send a single email warning, Vice found. He had an in-person interaction with one of the people who responded to his email, for example. The NSA, the administration and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., all made efforts to discredit him, the FOIA documents revealed. After releasing the documents to Vice, the NSA posted them to its website, along with a reaffirmation of its original position. The agency found no email records of Snowden raising concerns about its programs with senior leadership, the agency insisted. Snowden Mum on Docs Snowden declined to comment to Vice about its story, according to ACLU attorney Ben Wizner, who noted that his client was ambivalent about issues raised in the declassified documents, because he didnt trust the NSAs motives for releasing them. Whether the new document cache will alter Snowdens status remains to be seen. It certainly hasnt changed his former employers attitude toward him. Edward Snowden was an employee of Booz Allen for less than two months, and his behavior in releasing national security information was illegal, unethical and not reflective of our firms values and ethical standards, Booz spokesperson Misty Holbert told TechNewsWorld. The single letter claim could be a distraction from the larger issues raised by Snowdens revelations. The government is attempting to try and convict in absentia Edward Snowden for revealing information about the NSA, said Richard Stiennon, chief research analyst with IT-Harvest. One way to do that is to sully his character by making it look like he didnt follow proper procedures, he told TechNewsWorld. Theyre trying to paint him as a villain and criminal, Stiennon said. One of the ways to do that is to demonstrate that were so open to internal criticism, all he had to do is come to us and we would have listened to him. We know thats ridiculous because the NSA isnt prepared to change. Denying Facts The NSAs stance on the single letter reflects its position on the larger issue of surveillance, maintained Shahid Buttar, director of grassroots advocacy for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Snowden has claimed from the beginning that he shared word in official channels that there were oversight problems, he told TechNewsWorld. The agency denied he shared word and now there are documents showing he did. That reflects the narrative of the underlying abuses themselves, which the agency denied and said didnt exist, Buttar added. Its part of a continuing cycle of official denial of fact. Snowden isnt the only whistle-blower the government has targeted during the Obama years. Despite claiming to be the most transparent administration in history, the Obama administration has actually prosecuted more people under the Espionage Act an act frequently used to criminalize whistle-blowers than any other administration in history, said Evan Greer, campaign director of Fight for the Future. There is a general culture of suppressing dissent in these institutions. Whistle-blowers are needed because theres a lack of oversight and accountability particularly of intelligence agencies, he told TechNewsWorld. Although Congress is supposed to exercise oversight of those agencies, it hasnt done so to any significant degree. You have to follow the money, Greer said. If you look at the votes around legislation that affects our privacy and civil liberties over the last decade, the members of Congress who have consistently voted to expand mass government surveillance to undermine our Fourth Amendment rights have received disproportionately larger contributions from [firms in] the defense industry, which by and large profit from this mass surveillance system. Digital rights and free speech advocates are up in arms over Tuesdays announcement of an agreement between the European Commission and four leading U.S. social media firms Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Microsoft on a Code of Conduct designed to crack down on hate speech. The companies have agreed to adopt a system that allows users to flag illegal hate speech and incitement to violence. They also agreed to review flagged posts within 24 hours and to take appropriate action, such as removing them or blocking access. The announcement comes six months after terrorist suicide attacks in Paris killed 130 people and injured hundreds of others, and just two months after terrorist bombings in Brussels took 32 lives and injured hundreds more. Governments in Europe and the U.S., which are engaged in an air and low-intensity ground war against ISIS in Syria and Iraq, have urged technology companies to help crack down on the use of social media for recruitment, propaganda, fundraising and other uses by terrorist groups. The recent terror attacks have reminded us of the urgent need to address illegal online hate speech, said Vera Jourova, EU commissioner for justice, consumers and gender equality. Social media is unfortunately one of the tools that terrorist groups use to radicalize young people, and racists use to spread violence and hatred. Facebook, Twitter and Google, which owns YouTube, last year agreed to a plan to remove hate speech from their social media sites in Germany within 24 hours of its being reported. That agreement came in the wake of a rise in xenophobic postings as refugees from Africa and the Middle East began streaming into Europe by the thousands. Censorship Fears Microsoft, Facebook and Twitter already had announced a crackdown on speech that encourages terrorism following last years San Bernardino shooting, which reportedly was inspired by ISIS but not directly organized by the group. Hateful conduct has no place on Twitter and we will continue to tackle this issue head-on, alongside our partners in industry and civil society, said Karen White, head of public policy for Europe. Facebook, Microsoft and Google officials offered similar expressions of support, promising that offending content would be reviewed swiftly, and deleted or blocked pending substantiation of complaints. Open technology and privacy groups have widely condemned the agreement, however, raising concerns over a lack of transparency in its development, and contending that it leaves the door open for censorship within Europe. No Transparency European Digital Rights and Access Now said they would withdraw from any further discussions with officials on the plan and expressed no confidence in the Code of Conduct based on its development process thus far. No outside civil society organizations were invited to participate in discussions on terrorism, the groups maintained, although several were allowed to participate in talks on online hate speech. The groups were excluded completely from participation in the ECs talks with technology companies, which led to the Code of Conduct released earlier this week. Although Access Now was not part of the discussions, it was asked to endorse the process, said policy analyst Estelle Masse. Access Now would consider sitting down at the table if the process were changed to include more transparent discussions with outside groups, she told the E-Commerce Times. EFF is deeply disappointed in the crafting of this code of practice, said Danny OBrien, international director of the Electronic Freedom Foundation. With it, the EU companies have rubber-stamped the widespread removal of allegedly illegal content, based only on the flagging by third parties, he told the E-Commerce Times. The policy does not take into account that whether speech is considered illegal depends on the jurisdiction where it is seen, OBrien pointed out. Further, voluntary agreements such as this one might be misused by parties outside of Europe, he added. This is a dangerous precedent, as any wider discussion between the EU and international human rights groups would have revealed. Civil society was systematically excluded from negotiations over this code of conduct, and it shows. Two groups of Russian hackers burrowed into the Democratic National Committees servers and spent months stealing information on Donald Trump, the Republican Partys presumptive presidential nominee, Crowdstrike reported Tuesday. The DNC had called on the security firm for assistance after in-house IT discovered evidence suggesting a breach. Crowdstrike identified two sophisticated adversaries on the network, noted CTO Dmitri Alperovitch, dubbed Cozy Bear and Fancy Bear. They are some of the best adversaries out of all the numerous nation-state, criminal and hacktivist/terrorist groups we encounter on a daily basis, he said. Their tradecraft is superb, operational security second to none, and the extensive usage of living-off-the-land techniques enables them to easily bypass many security solutions they encounter. The hackers used advanced methods consistent with nation-state level capabilities, including repeatedly re-entering the network to change out their implants, modifying persistent methods, moving to new C&C channels, and performing other tasks to avoid detection, according to Alperovitch. Both groups engage in extensive political and economic espionage for the benefit of the government of the Russian Federation and are believed to be closely linked to the Russian governments powerful and highly capable intelligence services, he said. Bears on Board Cozy Bear, aka CozyDuke and APT 29, last year infiltrated the unclassified networks of the White House, the State Department and the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the U.S., and has targeted a variety of business and government organizations, as well as academia, throughout the world, Alperovitch said.It uses a broadly targeted spearphishing campaign that delivers various sophisticated remote access tools, or RATs, to target machines. Fancy Bear, aka Sofacy and APT 28, has been active since the mid-2000s. It has launched targeted intrusion campaigns against the aerospace, defense, energy, government and media sectors around the globe particularly military sites that closely mirror the Russian governments strategic interests. It may be affiliated with Russian military intelligence, Alperovitch suggested. Fancy Bear registers domains closely resembling domains of target organizations, and establishes phishing sites on those domains that have the look and feel of its victims Web-based email services, he noted. Foreign state-backed operatives continue to refine techniques used in obtaining information, said Brad Bussie, director of product management at Stealthbits Technologies. The user is the weak point, and as long as users are able to put themselves at risk, breaches will continue to happen, he told TechNewsWorld. Cozy Bears intrusion goes back to the summer of 2015 and Fancy Bears to April of this year, Crowdstrikes Alperovitch said. Theres no indication the two colluded both compromised the same systems and engaged separately in the theft of identical credentials. No financial, donor or personal information was accessed, the DNC said, but it acknowledged the intruders were able to read all email and chat traffic. As for the hackers purported target, the DNC cant really have anything on Trump that isnt already somewhere on the Internet, remarked John Gunn, VP of communications at Vasco Data Security. Its hard to imagine that the hack would reveal anything more intriguing than what Trumps already saying almost daily, he told TechNewsWorld. Questionable Security? Neither the DNCs network nor their security is likely to be state of the art, [and] there are a lot of skilled hackers around the world, Lastline blogger Craig Kensek told TechNewsWorld. Still, the DNC cant be the only target, suggested Bobby Kuzma, systems engineer at Core Security. If I were running these operations, I absolutely would have targeted all the major parties, he told TechNewsWorld. Id be shocked if the GOP werent targeted and, given the attackers resources, compromised as well. The hackers reportedly have been expelled from the DNC network. Cybersecurity is not enough, argued Yong-Gon Chon, CEO of Cyber Risk Management. Companies should adopt a cyber risk strategy that assesses everything a company does that might impinge security, he told TechNewsWorld, including how it operates, who touches the data, and which third-party vendors are allowed access. Yahoo last week published the text of three National Security Letters it received from the FBI in 2013. The letters demand the names, addresses, length of service, and electronic communications transactional records existing transaction and activity logs and all email header information of the targets. However, they do not ask for any content either the subject lines or bodies of emails. Yahoo sent the FBI the name, address and length of service for each of the accounts identified in two of the NSLs, but it did not provide any information in response to the third, as the referenced account did not exist in its system, according to company spokesperson Charles Stewart. It published the NSLs after the FBI rescinded the nondisclosure requirements imposed in accordance with the USA Freedom Act of 2015. Were the first company to disclose [the NSLs] as a result of the reforms of the USA Freedom Act, Stewart told the E-Commerce Times. The rescinding of the nondisclosure provisions, and Yahoos subsequent publication of the letters is a good win for transparency and keeping users informed of whats going on around them. The Threat of NSLs Each of the NSLs certifies that the FBI sought the information to protect national security, or to carry out criminal, counterterrorism or counterintelligence investigations, among other things. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in 2013 ruled that the nondisclosure provisions the FBI employed were in violation of the First Amendment and the separation of powers. It enjoined the government from issuing NSLs under Section 2709 of the United States Code or from enforcing the nondisclosure provisions. The Obama administration has appealed the ruling. The FBI applies the same criteria and procedures to review existing nondisclosure requirements that it uses to assess whether a nondisclosure obligation should be imposed in the first place. When those criteria are no longer met, it terminates the requirement. Still, no government branch should be able to circumvent the safeguards of the Constitution and unilaterally acquire information without due process of law, maintained Yasha Heidari of the Heidari Power Law Group. History has shown us that the biggest threat to a citizens freedom is that citizens own government, Heidari told the E-Commerce Times. The NSLs are simply one of the many recent strikes against the Constitution that have recently come to light. NSLs demonstrate just how pervasive government scrutiny is in the area of Internet services, noted Mike Jude, program manager at Stratecast/Frost & Sullivan. They fuel the flames of privacy concerns, he told the E-Commerce Times. Data accessed through NSLs raises concerns, as the governments ability to securely and properly use the data has often not been adequate, noted Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group. In some if not all cases, this may create a bigger problem than the one the governments attempting to address, he told the E-Commerce Times. NSL Issues Disclosed The USA Freedom Act is essentially the governments attempt at public relations, Heidari observed, and the FBIs allowing the publication of the NSLs is inconsequential. How much Yahoo achieved by publishing the NSLs is open to question, as they disclosed nothing of import. Like the government, Yahoo gets some positive PR, Heidari suggested. It can make the publication seem like a large victory for consumers that it championed. The publication is good cover for Yahoo, Jude said, because it helps them demonstrate theyre being compelled to disclose some information. The risk for Yahoo is the letters being leaked and outside their control, Enderle suggested. This way, they can announce and position the event and perhaps better control the underlying perception, he reasoned. Its brilliant of Yahoo to publish, and gives them the moral high ground on the privacy issue, Jude said, noting that other companies might follow Yahoos lead. If that happens, we might be able to look at these [letters] as data points, Yahoos Stewart remarked. Theres no reason for other companies not to publish their NSLs, said Heidari, and get on the PR bandwagon. 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Hezbollah Works with Drug Cartels | Main | Former Undersecretary of State Thomas Pickering Testified in Favor of Iran Deal While Taking Money From Boeing June 22, 2016 Bias by Editing: A Devilish Washington Post-Associated Press Detail In journalism schoolsthose in which accuracy and context are still prizedit would have been an introductory example of bias by editing. In an Associated Press dispatch-turned Washington Post news brief it was a textbook case of minimizing Palestinian Arab violence against Israelis. The Posts June 20, 2016 print edition included a news briefs from AP headed West Bank: $18 million approved for settlement funding.? The seventh and last paragraph as printed says: In the past nine months, Palestinians have carried out several [emphasis added] attacks, which have killed 32 Israelis and two Americans. About 200 Palestinians have been killed in that time, most identified by Israel as attackers.? Online, the first sentence of that paragraph, from APs June 19 report, still readas of June 22dozens [emphasis added] of attacks." In fact, there had been nearly 300 assaults, according to a June 7 Israeli Foreign Ministry article and graphic, Wave of Terror 2015/16.? It was possible that The Posts online AP item and its own in-print version were based on different AP reports, and the change to several? from dozens? of attacks was made by the wire service. But the printed brief in the newspapers World Digest of five short items reads like a version of the online report edited for space, but with APs dozens? of attacks unwarrantedly replaced by, and minimized as several.? Time and space constraints often compel journalists to use a type of shorthand. But in this case, for the wire service to report dozens? of attacks and The Post several? reads less like economy in reporting and editing than revisionism downplaying Palestinian aggression. That was especially so since the actual figure of anti-Israeli, anti-Jewish attacks was hundreds,? with 38 killed and 487 wounded. CAMERA asked The Posts foreign desk on June 20 why APs dozens? of attacks became several? in the newspaper and whether or not it thought a correction or clarification was in order. Two days later, no response had been received. As weve noted, journalists have only their credibility to sell. Turning literally hundreds to virtually "dozens" to barely "several" obscures a nine-month wave of Palestinian terrorism and undercuts press credibility. Posted by ER at June 22, 2016 12:36 PM Guidelines for posting This is a moderated blog. We will not post comments that include racism, bigotry, threats, or factually inaccurate material. Post a comment (Reuters / Aaron P. Bernstein)Presidential candidate Donald Trump in Terre Haute, Indiana during one of his campaign events on May 15, 2016. Donald Trump has won a standing ovation from hundreds of skeptical Christian conservatives in New York City as he pushed the right buttons for many of them, but he has still left significant evangelicals rejecting him. In his comments June 22, the presumptive Republican Party presidential nominee said he would end a decades-old ban on tax-exempt groups that included churches, politicking, called religious liberty "the No. 1 question," and he pledged to appoint antiabortion Supreme Court judges. "I think maybe that will be my greatest contribution to Christianity - and other religions - is to allow you, when you talk religious liberty, to go and speak openly, and if you like somebody or want somebody to represent you, you should have the right to do it," Trump said. A ban was put in place by President Lyndon Johnson on tax-exempt groups making explicit political endorsements and Trump said religious leaders in America today, "are petrified," The Washington Post reported Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee spoke from the stage and said the reception for Trump was warm Dobson and he thanked him for spending time with the group. James Dobson. Richard Land. Ralph Reed, Ronnie Floyd, who just ended his term as president of the Southern Baptist Convention and Jerry Falwell Jr. were there to wave the Christian Right flag, The Atlantic reported. The Atlantic noted, however, "Only three women made the cut on the list of 25 names: Paula White, the pastor at New Destiny Christian Center in Florida; Michele Bachmann, the former congresswoman; and Gloria Copeland, who's listed with her husband as the founder of Kenneth Copeland Ministries." Many of those Chrisitans might have been hoping that Senator Ted Cruz, was the man on the stage, but he fell short in challenging Trump and they had to settle for a man who has Chrsitian credential they do not necessarily embrace.. Marjorie Danenfelser of Susan B. Anthony List, a group working to oppose abortion said, "I believe that he came across very well as a messenger for everybody in the room, not just as a beneficiary of evangelical votes but as a fellow traveler. "That's not necessarily an easy distance for him to have traveled because people didn't see him like that before." She said, "He made no missteps. There were no explosions." But that was not how all conservative evangelicals viewed the meeting. "Trump's meeting with evangelical leaders marks the end of the Christian Right," opined The Christian Post in an op-ed piece on June 21. Michael Farris, chancellor of Patrick Henry College a Christian Right leader was at the very first meeting of the Moral Majority held in Indianapolis in February of 1980. He explained that he was told by the meeting organizer he had not been invited for being too vocal in his criticism of the presumptive Republican Party candidate for the U.S. presidential election. "While I don't question the motives of those who are trekking to the Tower, I strongly dissent from the wisdom of their chosen path," Fariss wrote. "This meeting marks the end of the Christian Right. "The premise of the meeting in 1980 was that only candidates that reflected a biblical worldview and good character would gain our support." Farris said, "Today, a candidate whose worldview is greed and whose god is his appetites (Philippians 3) is being tacitly endorsed by this throng. "They are saying we are Republicans no matter what the candidate believes and no matter how vile and unrepentant his character. They are not a phalanx of God's prophets confronting a wicked leader, this is a parade of elephants." Religion News Service cited seven Christian leaders who have made less-than-enthusiastic statements about "the businessman-turned-reality TV star-turned candidate." They were: Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & R, teligious Liberty Commission; Denny Burk, a professor of biblical studies at Boyce College; author Max Lucado; Thabiti Anyabwile, the pastor of Anacostia River Church and council member of The Gospel Coalition; Erick Erickson, the conservative blogger behind The Resurgent; Robbie George, a Catholic who is McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University and Alan Noble, editor of the website Christ and Pop Culture. The AEUs report Getting Results: Gonski funding in Australian Schools profiles 24 schools which are using the increased resources from Gonski to change students lives.Ive visited many of these schools during our Gonski campaign and have seen first-hand what Gonski is doing to break down the barriers that many children face with their learning.You know Gonski funding is working when you see children finally receiving the speech therapy they need to participate in class, or reading a book by themselves for the first time, or getting the mentoring and tutoring they need to complete Year 12 and become the first in their family to go to university.Thats why this election is critical for the future of our schools.On July 2, voters face a stark choice between investing in our schools, and Malcolm Turnbull s cuts to Gonski funding and disadvantaged schools.Cutting Gonski would be a huge blow for the thousands of students who are still waiting for the help they need at school, and the teachers who are working hard with limited resources.It will be a disappointment for the schools which have already used their Gonski funding to lift results through smaller classes, more one-to-one support, extra literacy and numeracy programs and more professional development.Throughout our campaign we have sought support from all political parties for Gonski because we believe something so important should be above politics.But sadly that has not been the case.Unlike the last election, when we had a so-called unity ticket on Gonski, this time the Coalition is not even pretending it will deliver the funding our schools need.Malcolm Turnbull has decided to turn his back on Gonski funding after 2017 and move away from any attempt to address the chronic underfunding of disadvantaged schools.This would deprive schools of two-thirds of the extra resources they need to give all their students a quality education.Schools will get $3.8bn less in 2018 and 2019 than they would under Labor or the Greens, who have both committed to honouring the Gonski agreements in full.Malcolm Turnbull says he will work out an alternative funding system but there is no certainty about how the funding will be distributed, with no guarantees that it will be done on the basis of need.In fact, the Coalitions Budget Papers clearly show a drop in funding to public schools in Tasmania and the Northern Territory after 2017 something that should never happen under a true needs-based system.I have seen the evidence of the difference Gonski funding can make when it gives skilled and passionate educators the resources they need to turn around the lives of our children.You wont find many public educators who think that governments are throwing money at schools, or that extra funding wont make a difference.And the public agrees with them.Polling conducted for the AEU last week in three key marginal seats in NSW shows that there is high support for Gonski, and high awareness of Malcolm Turnbulls plan to stop it.It found that 61.6% of voters support Gonski, compared to just 17.4% who oppose it, and that a clear majority of 63.4% of voters prefer investment in schools to Malcolm Turnbulls cuts to company tax.Australians clearly recognise that the best way to improve our economy in the long-term is by educating all our students to reach their potential.Worse still for Mr Turnbull, was the fact that 51% of voters said they were very aware of his plans to cut Gonski.There is no doubt Gonski will be one of the key issues at this election and the AEU will continue to campaign for it up to July 2 and beyond if necessary, both with TV and print Ads and our grassroots campaign in key marginal seats.We have made this commitment because we cannot afford to lose the progress which Gonski funding has already made towards changing the lives of our children.We want a society where all kids who need help at school can get it, regardless of where they live or which school they attend.It is not acceptable for us to have a situation where one in seven students is at risk of leaving school without adequate literacy skillsMalcolm Turnbulls cuts to Gonski will hurt our kids, and we cant let that happen without a fight because giving every child a well-resourced school is vital for Australias future both for the fairness of our society and its economic future. A torrent of investment funding has flowed into the educational technology market over the past few years, offering lifeblood to startups and support for maturing companies as they attempt to grow. But the frenzy of activity has also led analysts and companies to wonder: When will the good times end? Recent data on the market dont offer definitive answers. But analysts and investors see signs that the market, both globally and in the United States, is evolving, and at least on some fronts, coolingwith investors becoming more selective. The flow of private funding into the ed-tech sector has an impact that extends well beyond investors returns. The companies that secure funding obtain resources that can prove critical to having their products taken up in the competitive, and heavily regulated, school market. In the global space, there are signs that the tide of investment is slowing. Funding to ed-tech companies worldwide has fallen dramatically over the last quarter from last year, according to a recent analysis by CB Insights, a market-research company. But investors and analysts say that the forces driving that slowdown are complex and may reflect changes in some areas of ed-tech investment, but not in others. Pace of Ed-Tech Dealmaking Slows The number of deals and amount of money being invested in the global ed market may have peaked, according to one analysis. Source: CB Insights The conditions for ed-tech investment in the United States, specifically, remain strong, a number of observers say, because of government policies and market forces that continue to feed schools appetites for ed-tech tools and platforms, despite continued questions among K-12 leaders about how to judge the quality of those products. The apparent global slowdown in educational technology likely reflects overall choppiness in the world economy and technology markets, said Trace Urdan, a managing director who analyzes education for Credit Suisse, an investment bank. And while investment on some frontsfrom the global ed-tech market to later-stage growth in companieshas declined, strong interest still exists in putting money into nascent, U.S.-based digital providers, said Jennifer Carolan, the co-founder of Reach Capital, an investment firm. There are a lot more companies getting started, Carolan said. Its a sign of a healthy ecosystem to have so much innovation at the early stages. CB Insights recently reported that funding to global ed-tech companies fell dramatically in the first quarter of 2016 and is on track for the lowest amount of annual funding since 2013. Overall, the amount of global ed-tech startup activity peaked in 2015, with yearly funding jumping by 64 percent to $3.1 billion and the number of deals climbing by 10 percent, to 491, CB Insights found. Selective Investors But so far in 2016, the amount of activity is far off last years pace, the analysis found. If current trends continue, just 376 deals will take place, worth $1.3 billion, a drop in funding dollars of 57 percent from 2015. Much of the activity in 2015 was fueled by big, $100 million-plus deals, CB Insights says, and those have dried up this year. A lot of activity, however, is still taking place in smaller, early-stage investment in educational technology globally and in the United States, said Matthew Wong, a research analyst at CB Insights. Data from CB Insights show that the portion of ed-tech deals focused on seed, or early-stage funding, has grown from 45 percent in 2011 to 58 percent so far in 2016. Wong also pointed what he saw as throngs of startups seeking money, who greatly outnumbered venture capital investors, at the ASU/GSV Summit, a major annual gathering of investors and companies, held most recently in April in San Diego. Over the coming year, some pullback of investment in ed tech is likely to occur from the peaks of the past two years, said Frank Bonsal III, the director of entrepreneurship at Towson University in Maryland, who has made extensive investments in education companies. But the slowing down of that activity has benefits, he argued. Speculative investors are often frustrated by the slow pace of growth in the ed-tech sector compared with other industries, he said. But theres an upside to school officials and investors becoming more discerning about the quality of ed-tech products. Ed tech has evolved to a better place compared with a few years ago, when the market was flooded with speculative investments, Bonsal said. There is more interest in technological solutions than everas long as they are real and they are solving problems. The ed-tech market has been so flush for such a long time, its only logical to assume it will slow down at some point, said John Richards, the president of Consulting Services for Education, which advises companies and other organizations. But overall demand for ed tech shows no signs of abating, Richards argued. Districts are investing heavily in ed-tech infrastructure, and they continue to shift away from print to digital materials. (In addition, the Federal Communications Commission approved billions of dollars recently in new spending on improving schools and libraries Internet connectivity through the E-rate program. Reliable connectivity is essential for many K-12 digital tools and platforms to function.) Government policies, such as the recent passage of the federal Every Student Succeeds Act, also will encourage ed-tech experimentation, Richards predicted. Too many of the ed-tech products that get funded by investors end up disappointing educators, said Carolan of Reach Capital. But she sees startup companies becoming more attuned to the specific needs of teachers and administrators than was the case a few years ago. Teachers respond to products when they believe technology is not being done to them but designed with their needs in mind, Carolan said. The most successful companies in our portfolio are the ones that educators love. To build the largest and most complete Amateur Radio community site on the Internet - a "portal" that hams think of as the first place to go for information, to exchange ideas, and be part of whats happening with ham radio on the Internet. eHam.net provides recognition and enjoyment to the people who use, contribute, and build the site. This project involves a management team of volunteers who each take a topic of interest and manage it with passion. The site will stand above all other ham radio sites by employing the latest technology and professional design/programming standards, developed by a team of community programmers who contribute their skills to the effort. The site will be something of which everyone involved can be proud to say they were a part. We welcome your comments. The eHam.net Team, Revision 07/2020. Chief engineer Ilya de Marotta completes a massive expansion of the Panama Canal A famous palindrome coined in 1948 reads A man, a plan, a canalPanama. Update that witticism to 2016 and it no longer reads the same way backwards and forwards. On the Panama Canal, the plans are now drawn up by a woman who wears a trademark pink hard-hat and is about to complete one of the worlds biggest infrastructure operations. Ilya Espino de Marotta is the Panama Canal Authoritys executive vice president for engineering and programs management. She was appointed in 2012 to oversee the biggest upgrade to the canal since it opened in 1914. De Marotta had to overcome criticism from those who questioned her abilities in a male-dominated profession. But she got the job done and the massive new locks on either end of the 48-mile waterway will be inaugurated on 26 June. Some men questioned my appointment, but I can handle it, says de Marotta. I wear the pink hard-hat to make a statement that a woman can do this job. The USD 5.2 billion expansion of the canal includes the construction of the locks, widening and deepening the old canal, and digging a new 6.3 km navigation channel to accommodate todays biggest ships, which can carry 14,000 containers at once. The upgrade is vital not only for Panama, but also for world tradewhich is why the European Investment Bank kicked in a USD 500 million loan to help finance it. Ely, Cambridgeshire is best known for its majestic cathedral dubbed the 'Ship of the Fens' because it dominates the flat landscape. The city, which is the second smallest in England, is about 14 miles north-northeast of Cambridge and about 80 miles by road from London. 13:33, 25 OCT 2022 Astronaut brings Manx stamps back to earth Astronaut Tim Peake has returned to earth bringing with him some special Isle of Man Stamps. The British Astronaut Major returned from space on Saturday morning after spending six months on board the International Space Station. Whilst up there he signed seven stamp covers which were specially produced by the Isle of Man Post Office and the Royal Aeronautical Society. Stamps and Coins general manager Maxine Cannon says now the collection is back five of them will be loaned for display in aviation and science museums around the world: Media Maxine Cannon Younited Italia, Nicola Manzari e il nuovo Coo, Luca Faccini e Head of Growth e Domenico Petraroli e General Counsel As age increases, older adults can develop problems taking their medications. But until now, few studies have examined the traits that might cause elders to need help with their medications, or how widespread a problem this might be. In a study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, researchers investigated this issue using data from the 10-year Duke EPESE study. They examined data from 4,106 African American and white older adults living in five counties in North Carolina. The researchers asked the participants the question, "Are you able to take your medicine without help (in the right doses at the right time)?" The participants' health conditions included: poor vision, poor hearing, or having been diagnosed with stroke, diabetes, hypertension (also known as high blood pressure), heart attack, or cancer (except skin cancer). The researchers also tested the participants' mental abilities and reviewed their medication containers to learn how many prescription and over-the-counter medications they took. At the beginning of the study, 7.1 percent of participants needed help taking their medications. Three years later, 11 percent needed help who did not need help at the beginning of the study. Predictors of a new need for medication help were similar to those seen at the beginning of the study: Being 75-years-old or older Being male Having memory problems Having problems performing activities of daily living The researchers reported that people aged 80 and older were 1.5 to 3 times as likely to need help with their medications than were people aged 65 to 69. Men were 1.5 to 2 times as likely as women to need help. The odds of needing help were 3 to 5 times greater among people with memory challenges. "Health conditions may worsen or not improve if older adults skip or don't take their medications properly," said Brenda D. Jamerson, PharmD, Center on Biobehavioral Health Disparities Research at Duke University. "Serious side effects may also occur from taking medications at the wrong time or in the wrong dose. Some older adults can put themselves at risk for experiencing problems if they don't receive the assistance they may need," added Dr. Jamerson. The researchers noted their study helped identify which characteristics make it more likely that an older adult will need help taking his or her medication. ### This summary is from "A New Method of Identifying Characteristics of Needing Help to Take Medications in an Older Representative Community-Resident Population: The Older Adults Medication Assist Scale". It appears online ahead of print in the June 2016 issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. The study authors are: Brenda D. Jamerson, PharmD; Gerda G. Fillenbaum, PhD; Richard Sloane, MPH; and Miriam C. Morey, PhD. About the Health in Aging Foundation This research summary was developed as a public education tool by the Health in Aging Foundation. The Foundation is a national non-profit established in 1999 by the American Geriatrics Society to bring the knowledge and expertise of geriatrics healthcare professionals to the public. We are committed to ensuring that people are empowered to advocate for high-quality care by providing them with trustworthy information and reliable resources. Last year, we reached nearly 1 million people with our resources through HealthinAging.org. We also help nurture current and future geriatrics leaders by supporting opportunities to attend educational events and increase exposure to principles of excellence on caring for older adults. For more information or to support the Foundation's work, visit http://www.HealthinAgingFoundation.org. You might believe that older adults who deal with extensive chronic illnesses or serious diseases would be more likely to be frail and to have a poorer quality of life than healthier older adults. That may be true for some elders--but not for all. Researchers writing in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society suggest that an undefined coping mechanism of some sort may play a role in how well older adults are able to live despite having burdensome illnesses. The researchers examined three groups of participants enrolled in the Cardiovascular Health Study, a large research project that examined adults 65-years-old and older from four cities around the country. Researchers assigned people to one of three groups, based on the extent of their disease and their level of vigor or frailty: 1. The expected agers (3,528 people) had higher disease but also higher frailty levels. They spent 47 percent of the remainder of their lives able and healthy. 2. The adapters (882 people) had higher disease levels as well as relatively high vigor (being active and mobile) levels. They spent 55 percent of the reminder of their lives able and healthy. 3. The prematurely frail (885 people) had lower disease levels but higher frailty levels. They spent 37 percent of their remaining lives able and healthy. The researchers said "adapter" older adults who were more vigorous than expected, based on their disease burden, lived longer lives when compared to those who were more frail than expected based on their disease burden. These "adapters" could have unique characteristics, perhaps some undefined coping mechanism, that should be studied further, suggested the researchers. ### This summary is from "Effects of Disease Burden and Functional Adaptation on Morbidity and Mortality." It appears online ahead of print in the June 2016 issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. The study authors are Jason L. Sanders, MD, PhD; Alice M. Arnold, PhD; Calvin H. Hirsch, MD; Stephen M. Thielke, MD; Dae Kim, MD, ScD; Kenneth J. Mukamal, MD, MPH; Jorge R. Kizer, MD, MSc; Joachim H. Ix, MD, MAS; Robert C. Kaplan, PhD; Stephen B. Kritchevsky, PhD; and Anne B. Newman, MD, MPH. About the Health in Aging Foundation This research summary was developed as a public education tool by the Health in Aging Foundation. The Foundation is a national non-profit established in 1999 by the American Geriatrics Society to bring the knowledge and expertise of geriatrics healthcare professionals to the public. We are committed to ensuring that people are empowered to advocate for high-quality care by providing them with trustworthy information and reliable resources. Last year, we reached nearly 1 million people with our resources through HealthinAging.org. We also help nurture current and future geriatrics leaders by supporting opportunities to attend educational events and increase exposure to principles of excellence on caring for older adults. For more information or to support the Foundation's work, visit http://www.HealthinAgingFoundation.org. DALLAS, June 22, 2016 -- Mobile devices, social media, visual media and crowdsourcing have the potential to improve emergency care for cardiac arrests, heart attacks and strokes, according to a new scientific statement from the American Heart Association. The new statement, published in the American Heart Association journal Circulation, reviewed scientific studies to evaluate current knowledge on the effectiveness digital strategies at improving emergency cardiac and stroke care. "When seconds count, early recognition of the symptoms of cardiac arrest, heart attack or stroke and quick action can make a huge difference in whether someone lives or dies or has serious complications afterwards," said Raina Merchant, M.D., M.S.H.P., director of the Social Media Lab at the Penn Medicine Center for Health Care Innovation in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and co-author of the new scientific statement. "Digital platforms can support existing efforts to educate people about what to do in an emergency. Learning what to do - including how to perform CPR and recognizing the symptoms of stroke - is something many people can do that can save lives." Some studies on digital strategies have shown positive results, such as a Swedish study that used a mobile phone application to alert volunteers within 500 meters of a cardiac arrest victim to respond and start CPR. It found that 62 percent of the volunteers with the app started CPR, while only 48 percent of bystanders without the app started CPR. A Japanese study found that when emergency department personnel sent pictures of 12-lead ECGs via their smartphone to interventional cardiologists for interpretation, the smartphone method shaved 1.5 minutes off the time clinicians needed to diagnose a patient, compared to sending the images via fax. Smartphone apps to view brain images for stroke and Face Time videoconferencing apps to assess stroke patients by a remote neurologist may also be feasible. However, the statement authors emphasize that, while the potential for applying these tools to improve care is compelling, they require evidence of their effectiveness. While no research to date has shown negative results of using digital tools for emergency cardiac or stroke care, the authors raise the issue of unintended consequences to patients due to inaccurate information being provided via digital tools, which could lead to medical errors and higher costs, and the risk of disclosing patients' health information in violation of federal privacy law. "As many of these interventions are new and emerging, it is an optimal time to conduct rigorous evaluations just as are done for traditional medical therapies and interventions," Merchant said. Some unanswered questions that should be the focus of future studies include: Can mobile devices be converted into defibrillators? Can video sharing platforms help real-time bystander CPR and automated external defibrillator (AED) coaching? Can emergency personnel use cell phones to pinpoint the best hospital for treatment based on the patient, traffic, hospital readiness and average treatment times? ### Statement co-authors are John Rumsfeld, M.D., Ph.D.; Steven Brooks, M.D., M.H.Sc.; Tom Aufderheide, M.D.; Marion Leary, M.P.H, M.S.N., R.N.; Steven Bradley, M.D., M.P.H.; Chileshe Nkonde-Price, M.D., M.S., M.R.C.P.; Lee Schwamm, M.D.; Marielle Jessup, M.D. and Jose Maria Ferrer, M.D. Author disclosures are on the manuscript. Additional Resources: Heart and brain images are located in the right column of this release link http://newsroom.heart.org/news/digital-strategies-show-promise-for-emergency-heart-and-stroke-care?preview=e438a95a31c1228f3448fc6b69e1ee59 The American Heart Association/American Stroke Association receives funding mostly from individuals. Foundations and corporations donate as well, and fund specific programs and events. Strict policies are enforced to prevent these relationships from influencing the association's science content. Financial information for the American Heart Association, including a list of contributions from pharmaceutical companies and device manufacturers, is available at http://www.heart.org/corporatefunding. HOUSTON - (June 22, 2016) - Negative feedback is a universal control mechanism that lets a system's output throttle its input. If an engine revs up, negative feedback tapers its power source. But if the engine slows down, it re-opens the power source, keeping output reliably steady. This is an example of a negative feedback that can be found in many systems. In biology, for example, genes under negative regulatory feedback increase (or decrease) their expression in response to falling (or rising) concentrations of the gene product. Remarkably, for such a well-known control system, a new report that unites mathematics with gene regulation experiments demonstrates a new role for negative feedback: it acts as a shock absorber to buffer the damage of mutations. As a result, genes under negative self-regulatory feedback are freer to mutate, possibly feeding into a wellspring for evolution. The work appears in Physical Review Letters, a premier physics journal. "This study pins down a process by which some mutations may foster an organism's long term adaptation while putting its immediate fitness at less risk. It is gratifying to see how math and biology come together to suggest a new mechanism relevant for evolution," says Cullen Chair and Professor Olivier Lichtarge, in whose laboratory the work was done, in collaboration with Associate Professor Christophe Herman, both colleagues in molecular and human genetics at Baylor College of Medicine, in Houston. The study lead authors, Drs. David Marciano and Rhonald Lua, also at Baylor, followed up on their previous and unexpected observation of mutational tolerance in the bacterial LexA gene (Cell Reports, 2014). Here, Lua first built a set of equations that predicted the behavior of a negative regulatory feedback loop and Marciano then compared its predictions to experimental results as each of its components was successively altered. As modeled, they found that mutational tolerance and feedback sensitivity are largely coupled. A gene circuit that strongly responds to perturbations maintains the function of a mutated protein product better than a less responsive gene circuit. This was verified over several biological gene circuits in E. coli, at one point engineering one that maintained function despite normally overwhelmingly disabling gene mutations. "This is of particular importance," noted Marciano, "because mutations deliver the heritable variation upon which natural selection acts. This suggests the ability of gene networks to reshape the mutational landscape of a protein could significantly influence the course of evolution." The new role of negative feedback loops can also be applied to the field of cancer biology. There are many proteins involved in cancer, such as p53, whose expression is regulated by negative feedback loops. "Defects in negative feedback mechanisms can enhance signals that promote tumorigenesis," said Marciano. "Disruption of p53's negative feedback loops results in cancer cells becoming extremely sensitive to radiation. Multiple clinical trials are underway to target p53 or its feedback loop." ### This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health (GM066099, GM079656 and R01GM088653), the National Science Foundation (DBI-1356569), DARPA (N66001-15-C-4042), and the Cytometry and Cell Sorting Core at Baylor College of Medicine with funding from the NIH (P30 AI036211, P30 CA125123, and S10 RR024574). Researchers from the University of Oxford have revealed that the genetic ancestries of many of sub-Saharan Africa's populations are the result of historical DNA mixing events, known as admixture, within the last 4,000 years. Their study, to be published in the journal eLife, uncovers signatures of these admixture events through a large analysis of DNA from populations across the continent. The discovery provides a foundation for the recent genetic history of the continent, which could aid future studies of non-communicable and infectious diseases, such as malaria. While admixture has been demonstrated in other regions of the world, the new analysis has allowed the team to characterise sub-Saharan Africa's mixing events in an unprecedented level of detail. "As Africa has few written records of its history, it is somewhat unknown what important movements of people generated the populations in the continent today," says lead author George Busby, Statistical Geneticist at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics. "Looking at and comparing the differences in the genomes of people alive today can help us better understand and reconstruct the historical interactions that brought their ancestors together." The team used DNA analysis to characterise the structure of genetic diversity and gene flow - the transfer of genes between different populations - in a collection of 48 sub-Saharan African groups. The data used for these analyses were drawn from several sources, including a subset of samples collected for a malaria susceptibility study, MalariaGEN Consortial Project 1. By applying recently published approaches designed to identify blocks of similar DNA within and between populations, they discovered that most sub-Saharan populations share ancestry with groups from outside their current geographic region as a result of gene flow within the last 4,000 years. The approaches used by the team were particularly tuned to picking up signals of admixture from within this timescale. "Our research provides further genetic evidence that the spread of Bantu languages and agricultural technology from Central West Africa, known as the Bantu expansion, was likely to be accompanied by people who moved from Cameroon to the south and east within the last 2,500 years. Additionally, we revealed that coastal populations in western, eastern, and southern Africa experienced small influxes of Eurasian genes as a result of different events over the last 3,000 years," Busby explains. "These findings show that groups from similar parts of Africa experienced admixture events at similar times and involving similar sources, suggesting that genetic variation in these areas of the continent has been shaped by shared historical events. It is also clear that our ancestors have always moved about and traces of these migrations are left in the DNA of people alive today." Busby adds that this research will be relevant to future epidemiology studies, which aim to uncover novel relationships between genes, the environment, and disease. "An important next step will be to look at the consequences of our observed gene flow and ask if it has contributed to spreading beneficial or detrimental mutations around the continent," he says. Professor Dominic Kwiatkowski, from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, adds: "Africa has an exciting and important role to play in furthering our understanding of human biology and disease. "Ongoing efforts to generate and analyse large-scale genomic data are yielding new insights into patterns of genetic diversity on the continent. This sheds light not only on the historical movements of its people, but also has the potential to transform how we make sense of genetic differences that effect the development and progression of various diseases, including malaria." ### Reference The paper 'Admixture into and within sub-Saharan Africa' can be freely accessed online at http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.15266. Contents, including text, figures, and data, are free to reuse under a CC BY 4.0 license. First author George Busby has also written a related blog post, 'Understanding historical population movements and the study of malaria': https://www.malariagen.net/blog/understanding-historical-population-movements-and-study-malaria Media contacts Emily Packer, eLife e.packer@elifesciences.org 01223 855373 Tom Calver, University of Oxford thomas.calver@admin.ox.ac.uk 01865 270046 About eLife eLife is a unique collaboration between the funders and practitioners of research to improve the way important research is selected, presented, and shared. eLife publishes outstanding works across the life sciences and biomedicine -- from basic biological research to applied, translational, and clinical studies. All papers are selected by active scientists in the research community. Decisions and responses are agreed by the reviewers and consolidated by the Reviewing Editor into a single, clear set of instructions for authors, removing the need for laborious cycles of revision and allowing authors to publish their findings quickly. eLife is supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Max Planck Society, and the Wellcome Trust. Learn more at elifesciences.org. Despite decades of ridicule for the focus of their work, two researchers behind the study of the sex life of the screwworm fly will be saluted at a September award ceremony Edward F. Knipling and Raymond C. Bushland will be posthumously honored later this year for their study of the "sex life of the screwworm fly." The U.S. Department of Agriculture-funded work led to a novel pest control technique and the eradication of the screwworm fly in North and Central America, saving ranchers in the South and consumers billions of dollars over the past 50-plus years. The Golden Goose Award honors scientists whose federally funded work may have been considered silly, odd, or obscure when first conducted but has resulted in significant benefits to society. Knipling and Bushland are being cited for research that led to the "sterile insect technique," in which lab-raised and sterilized male insects are used to overwhelm and eventually eradicate native pest populations. The technique has been heralded as "the only truly original innovation in insect control in [the 20th] century," and continues to inform ongoing fights against other agricultural pests and insects carrying infectious pathogens, including the tsetse fly and the Aedes aegypti mosquito -- the primary culprit in transmission of the Zika virus. "Screwworm research may sound like a joke, but it isn't. It saved the livestock industry billions and is giving us a way to fight Zika," said Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN), who first proposed the Golden Goose Award. "We should trust our scientists more than our politicians when it comes to research priorities." The two entomological researchers will be honored along with two other teams at the fifth annual Golden Goose Award Ceremony at the Library of Congress on Sept. 22. Descriptions of past winners can be found at the Golden Goose Award website. "Sometimes offbeat, quirky-sounding science is the best science, paving the way for discoveries years down the road which can revolutionize medicine, physics, biology, technology and how we view the world," said Rep. Randy Hultgren (R-IL), a supporter of the Golden Goose Award since its inception in 2012. "Given the recent rise of infectious diseases like the Zika virus, developing eradication programs for carrier pests is a much-needed field of scientific research. Even though 'worms' might make some members of Congress -- as well as the public -- a little squeamish or skeptical of the research we invest in, these studies by Drs. Edward F. Knipling and Raymond C. Bushland have clearly paid off. I applaud them for their groundbreaking work." Though most Americans today are not familiar with the screwworm fly, prior to the 1960s, ranchers in the southern U.S. were locked in a constant struggle against the deadly insect. Female screwworms lay their eggs in the wounds of cattle, livestock, and even humans. The eggs hatch into maggots that feed on wounded flesh. The maggots can kill a full size cow in less than two weeks. The pests cost ranchers hundreds of millions of dollars each year in lost livestock and pest management prior to Knipling and Bushland's innovative "sterile insect technique." Working at field stations in Texas and Florida in the early 1930s-1950s, Knipling, Bushland, and their colleagues did much of their research on a shoestring budget and in the face of ridicule. When they shared their idea to use sterilized males to overwhelm wild screwworm flies and cause the population to collapse through natural mating behavior, their approach was met with skepticism from peers who said "you just can't castrate enough flies." Inspired by the work of Nobel Laureate geneticist Hermann J. Muller, the two demonstrated that they could inflict mass sterilization of insects through irradiation -- a feat widely lauded as one of the most important developments in pest control and one of the first peaceful uses of nuclear radiation. In 1953, after an unexpected request from a Dutch official on the island of Curacao, the researchers completed the first, full-scale field test of the technique on the island. After just three months, not a single sterile egg could be found on the island. The much maligned technique worked even better than predicted. The USDA, with support from state governments and local communities, launched a larger scale effort to eradicate the screwworm fly throughout the southern U.S. By 1982, the screwworm fly had been eradicated across the United States. Since then, the USDA has partnered with countries throughout Central America to wipe out the flies to Panama, where today it maintains a border zone to prevent reinfestation from South America. The eradication effort has cumulatively saved U.S. meat and dairy suppliers billions of dollars over the past 50-plus years, thanks to a modest investment of $250,000 in basic research on screwworm flies. Knipling and Bushland's work predated the late Sen. William Proxmire's "Golden Fleece Award," which was intended to highlight the wasteful excesses of federal spending, but frequently targeted federally funded research. Nevertheless, the "sex life of the screwworm fly" has long been a favorite target of Members of Congress eager to denounce "Washington waste." "As the only Ph.D. physicist in Congress, I applaud Drs. Knipling and Bushland for their creative and groundbreaking government-funded research. Their research saved the U.S. livestock industry billions of dollars over the last fifty years, and it inspired Nebula Award winning science fiction. Their research is used today for controlling Zika-carrying mosquitos, and it continues serve as an inspiration for cutting-edge research on gene drives," said Rep. Bill Foster (D-IL), Golden Goose Award supporter and former high-energy particle physicist. Knipling and Bushland were honored with the 1992 World Food Prize for their groundbreaking work--just one of many accolades the two have received in recognition of their contributions to pest control and the eradication of screwworm fly in North and Central America. The work has given U.S. consumers an estimated 5 percent reduction in the price of supermarket beef. In the developing world, the pest control technique is a crucial component of food security and public health. The international screwworm eradication program is now cited as a text-book example of basic science producing enormous returns. ### About the Golden Goose Award: In 2012, a coalition of business, university, and scientific organizations created the Golden Goose Award, conceived by Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN) as a strong counterpoint to the citations of basic research as wasteful federal spending by the likes of Sen. William Proxmire (D-WI) and his Golden Fleece Award. Learn more at http://www.goldengooseaward.org/history/. Golden Goose Award Founding Organizations: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Association of American Universities (AAU) Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) Breakthrough Institute Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) Richard Lounsbery Foundation The Science Coalition (TSC) Task Force on American Innovation United for Medical Research Golden Goose Award Congressional Supporters: Representative Jim Cooper Representative Suzanne Bonamici Senator Christopher Coons Representative Charlie Dent Representative Bob Dold Representative Donna F. Edwards Representative Bill Foster Representative Randy Hultgren Golden Goose Award 2016 Sponsors Benefactor: Elsevier Partner: United for Medical Research Contributors: American Geophysical Union American Mathematical Society American Physical Society Association of American Medical Colleges Battelle SAGE Publishing Supporters: American Astronomical Society American Educational Research Association American Physiological Society American Psychological Association American Society for Microbiology American Sociological Association Association for Psychological Science Biophysical Society Consortium of Social Science Associations Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology Texas Instruments ATLANTA--The transmission of Taenia solium, a pork tapeworm species that infects humans and causes late-onset seizures and epilepsy, can be stopped on a population-wide level with mass treatments of both pigs and humans, researchers have shown. Researchers from several institutions, including Georgia State University, contributed to the study and published their findings in The New England Journal of Medicine. Humans can become infected after eating contaminated pork or through fecal-oral exposure. This study was aimed at eliminating Taenia solium from the villages of Tumbes Province in Peru, a highly endemic region for the disease. Researchers screened and treated pigs and humans in the first two phases of the program. In the final phase, mass treatment was given to 81,170 people in 107 villages, and 55,638 pigs received treatment and vaccination. Mass treatment included chemotherapy with niclosamide in humans and with oxfendazole in pigs, in combination with pig vaccination. The researchers found only three of 342 pigs had live, nondegenerated cysts, but no infected pigs were found in 105 of 107 villages. The researchers showed the transmission of Taenia solium infection can be interrupted on a regional scale in a highly endemic region. The researchers say they expect this effect will only be temporary if it is not bolstered by additional activities. ### Read the study at http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1515520#t=abstract. Women workers often rely on future spouses to organize their retirement finances, rather than making independent decisions now. Men and women working for private Japanese companies make decisions about their retirement savings plans differently based on their gender. Satoshi P. Watanabe, Ph.D., of Hiroshima University completed new research on an insurance company's survey results from 2002. Although the survey is somewhat dated, the data is still relevant because employee demographics have not changed significantly in the intervening 14 years. This is the first study to examine Japanese workers' gender-based decision making about retirement investments. Even when women and men had the same comprehension of their retirement savings plan options, women were more likely than men to accept employers' automatic enrollment plans rather than to choose different options that would be better investments for their circumstances. Previous research in the US and Japan identified a thought process common among women: regardless of my current relationship status, a man will eventually take care of my future or my retirement will just somehow work itself out. Women believe that somehow, Prince Charming will arrange for their financial security in their Golden Years. Men and women usually report that the ability to self-manage their investments is a positive attribute of retirement account portfolios. However, fewer women consider the responsibility that comes with self-management a positive attribute. The survey data reveal more women than men seem to be unwilling to manage their own investments. The decision to not make decisions is a problem that compounds the disadvantages that women already face when building their retirements savings: women are paid less than men and often work fewer years, due to taking time out of the workforce for child-rearing. Additionally, women usually have longer retirements because they have longer average life expectancies than men. Changes in 2001 to the Japanese national pension scheme gave individuals more retirement fund options, equivalent to 401k or IRA (individual retirement account) options in the United States. These changes might actually be detrimental to workers, particularly women. The overall understanding of their retirement savings plan options is low for both men and women. Employer-provided retirement information seminars are often voluntary events that occur after work hours, when women are more likely than men to be busy with family commitments. Women workers may be best served if employers provide retirement planning seminars during official work hours and if the national government created retirement plans that suited the investing behaviors of modern workers. As the workforce becomes more dynamic with fewer permanent and more flexible contracts, individuals need retirement savings plans that do not rely on staying with one employer long-term. However, if workers are unwilling to independently manage their retirement accounts, then these self-management options may actually be detrimental to future generations of retirees. ### Find more Hiroshima University research news on our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/HiroshimaUniversityResearch Original Research Article: "Prince Charming Syndrome?" Gender Gap in Preferences for Defined Contribution Pensions in Japan (forthcoming), Journal of Women & Aging, 30(2), 2018. JACKSON, Mississippi -- A federal judge has declined to block a Mississippi gay marriage law in one challenge filed against it. But it's still possible he will block the law after considering three other lawsuits. U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves said two gay men who plan to marry each other within the next three years can't prove they would face immediate harm if House Bill 1523 becomes law July 1. The American Civil Liberties Union, representing Nykolas Alford and Stephen Thomas, both of Meridian, filed papers Tuesday asking Reeves to reconsider his Monday decision. The law will allow clerks to cite religious objections to recuse themselves from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. It says those who recuse themselves must find another employee to issue the license, but legislators did not say what would happen if all employees in a particular clerk's office decline to help same-sex couples. State attorneys say the law is a reasonable accommodation to protect religious beliefs, but opponents say it sanctions discrimination. Mississippi was one of several states that considered laws after the U.S. Supreme Court legalized gay marriage nationwide nearly a year ago. The Mississippi law will provide protection for people with three religious beliefs: that marriage is only between a man and a woman, that sexual relations should only take place inside such a marriage and that a person's "immutable biological sex" is determined by anatomy and genetics at birth. In addition to marriage licenses, it could affect adoptions, business practices and school bathroom policies. Reeves heard arguments Monday over a request by Campaign for Southern Equality to challenge the law by reopening its 2014 lawsuit that helped overturn Mississippi's ban on same-sex marriage. He is scheduled to hear arguments Thursday and Friday in two other lawsuits. The Mississippi Center for Justice filed one of the suits June 3 for a diverse group of gay and straight plaintiffs. It says the law violates the separation of church and state by favoring "certain narrow religious beliefs that condemn same-sex couples who get married, condemn unmarried people who have sexual relations and condemn transgender people." The other suit was filed June 10 by Campaign for Southern Equality and an Episcopal priest, the Rev. Susan Hrostowski. It says House Bill 1523 "rather than respect that all men (and women) are created equal, declares that certain people -- only those who hold particular state-defined religious beliefs -- should have special rights and privileges. Even worse, it allows them to exercise those special rights and privileges in derogation of the fundamental equality and dignity of a politically unpopular minority group." June 22, 2016, Baltimore, MD, Insilico Medicine Inc, a big data analytics company located at the Emerging Technology Centers at the Johns Hopkins University at Eastern, announced an agreement with Asia Genomics, a Singapore-based rapidly growing molecular diagnostics company specializing in clinical genomics & genetic testing operating in major Asian countries including Vietnam, Malaysia and China. "Asia Genomics is driven to transform healthcare in Asia through the power of genomics. The company is aggregating the most cutting-edge solutions in personalized healthcare from all over the world and establishing research partnerships in areas, where practical applications can be rapidly translated into clinical practice. We are very happy to collaborate with Insilico Medicine, one of the leaders in applying artificial intelligence to drug discovery and aging research. Ultimately, we bring the power of molecular biology technologies like genomics to Asia, enabling our partners and customers to better understand their health and longevity along with possible ways for intervention" said Dr Wong Mun Yew, Founder and CEO of Asia Genomics. In the scope of the agreement, the companies will develop an advanced personalized longevity suite to identify individual aging related markers based on age-annotated genomic and transcriptomic data of individuals. In addition to aging biomarkers analysis, parties intend to develop artificially-intelligent age predicting algorithm implemented as an ensemble of multiple Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) trained and tested on Asian blood biochemistry samples. "Asia Genomics is one of the leading molecular diagnostics and genomics company in Asia with state of the art equipment and highly qualified staff educated in top international universities. This company represents growing power of molecular biology technologies in Asia and is set to become the next Asian biotechnology unicorn. We are honoured to be selected as one of the providers of high-technology solutions for personalized longevity research," said Alex Zhavoronkov, CEO of Insilico Medicine. Inc. Asia Genomics is developing a program for longevity science in Singapore with strategic expansion plans to different countries in Asia. It uses the genomic, transcriptomic, biochemistry and anonymized healthcare data to develop personalized health and longevity plans to maximize life potential. ### About Asia Genomics Asia Genomics is a leading molecular diagnostics company driven to transform healthcare through the power of molecular biology technologies, including genomics in Asia. Formed by a team with diverse expertise, Asia Genomics focuses on implementing world-class genomic technologies with global accredited diagnostic laboratories to connect healthcare professionals with forefront, reliable and affordable genetic tests previously unavailable in Asia. Asia Genomic advocates and educates physicians and patients through an outlined journey of genomics testing, integrates revolutionary scientific approach with medical and technology partners to help transform the future of healthcare in Asia. http://asia-genomics.com/ About Insilico Medicine Insilico Medicine, Inc. is a bioinformatics company located at the Emerging Technology Centers at the Johns Hopkins University Eastern campus in Baltimore with R&D resources in Belgium, Russia and Poland hiring talent through hackathons and competitions. It utilizes advances in genomics, big data analysis and deep learning for in silico drug discovery and drug repurposing for aging and age-related diseases. The company pursues internal drug discovery programs in cancer, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, sarcopenia and geroprotector discovery. Through its Pharma.AI division the company provides advanced machine learning services to biotechnology, pharmaceutical and skin care companies. Brief company video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l62jlwgL3v8 A 3D dome theater movie visualizing superstring theory, supervised by Kavli IPMU Principal Investigator Hirosi Ooguri, has received the Best Educational Production Award, it was announced at the International Planetarium Society (IPS) Fulldome Festival Brno 2016 in the Czech Republic on June 17. "The Man from the 9 Dimensions" was produced by the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation (Miraikan), and opened to the general public in April this year. The story follows a group of scientists in pursuit of T.o.E - a man believed to hold the key to solving the mysteries of the physical world. As they chase T.o.E., he takes the scientists and the audience on a journey through space and time. Ooguri reacted to the announcement by saying, "I am delighted to learn that our movie is selected to receive the Best Educational Production Award from 66 films submitted by leading science museums, planetariums, and movie production companies around the world. It is a wonderful recognition of our effort to communicate science both accurately and attractively. It also shows that science outreach activities in Japan are at the international level. I thank Director Takashi Shimizu and other visual creators, and staff members at the Miraikan. I hope that this movie will convey excitements of science to young people and contribute to enhancement of science literacy of general public." The Festival was held from June 15 to 17, and attracted 66 dome shows from 15 countries including Australia, Brazil, France, Japan, and the United States. On the final day, three prizes were given out: the Audience Award, the Brno Observatory and Planetarium Director's Award, and the Best Education Production Award sponsored by the IPR-Eugenides Foundation. The Best Education Production Award given to "The Man from the 9 Dimensions" was the only prize chosen by an international jury. The judges commended the show for its fresh insight and ability to spark curiosity on a complex subject regarding the deepest questions about us, and the universe. An Award Ceremony will be held on June 23 at the IPS Annual Conference in Warsaw, Poland. "The Man from the 9 Dimensions does a truly wonderful job of depicting the 9-dimensional world that exists in the minds of theoretical physicists. Japan carries out high quality science communication, but not many videos have been produced that display this sort of high quality content that the general public can enjoy. It is a delight to hear that a movie supervised by Professor Hirosi Ooguri has been recognized internationally, and I hope it has a positive effect on science communication both in Japan and throughout the world," said Hiromi Yokoyama, Associate Professor at the School of Science, and Deputy Director of the Division for Strategic Public Relations, Strategic Public Relations Planning Office at The University of Tokyo. ### Lehigh University professor leads students in 'salvage archaeology' dig on Scottish island of South Uist to preserve, record history of 800-1000 A.D. Viking occupation before erosion washes evidence away Detectives and archaeologists both piece together events by analyzing the evidence that is left behind. "They even use the same tools," says Cameron Wesson, Lucy G. Moses Distinguished Professor in the Department of Sociology & Anthropology at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. "Forensic science is archaeology applied to recent sites," he adds. Wesson and Niall Sharples, professor of archaeology at Cardiff University in Wales in the United Kingdom, are taking a team of students--including 12 from Lehigh--on a four-week archaeological expedition this summer in South Uist. The island is part of the Outer Hebrides--also known as the West Isles--just off the west coast of Scotland. Among the team's goals will be to piece together what happened when the Vikings arrived on the island more than 1,300 years ago. An archaeological anthropologist, Wesson's primary research interests center on European colonization of the indigenous peoples of Eastern North America with a focus on sites in Alabama and Georgia. The South Uist dig represents the first phase of a three- to five-year collaboration with Sharples to search for commonalities between the Viking occupation and the European colonization in parts of the American South. He is interested in what the data may reveal about common patterns of colonization--regardless of the time period or geography. There is a particular urgency to excavating South Uist, says Wesson. "Climate change has caused bigger and more violent storms. The rising sea level is accelerating soil erosion causing human remains to erode onto the shore. Artifacts that have been left untouched for more than a thousand years will soon be lost. Our team will be conducting 'salvage archaeology'--trying to excavate, preserve and record what's there before it's completely destroyed." Wesson and Sharples gained permission to explore the region from the National Trust for Scotland, Scotland's largest conservation charity, which is seeking to rate the importance, or value, of particular sites. The duo will present a summary of their findings to the Scottish government next year. Support from a Lehigh Mellon Digital Humanities Initiative grant will enable the group to share their findings with the wider community. Wesson and the students will take photographs, record 3-D images and upload real-time data from their excavations. One student will record footage for a documentary film about the expedition. The team has set up a website to distribute information. The students will host a live chat every evening during the dig to answer questions about the fieldwork and the nature of the project. The website can be accessed at http://www.lehigharchaeology.net. Common origins of colonization Much of Wesson's work is focused on the nature of social, political, economic and environmental impacts of colonization. "The motivation for colonization is often the same," says Wesson. "Back home the colonizers are running out of resources, usually land. Migration to other locales was often a consequence of primogeniture--the right of succession belonging to the firstborn child--a major source of inequality and poverty throughout history." Primogeniture was a likely motivation for the Norse seafarers--popularly known as "the Vikings"--who "raided and traded" from their Scandinavian homelands across wide areas of northern and central Europe. It would likely have been the Norwegians who landed in South Uist around 800 A.D. "If you were a second or third son you were not able to acquire land in your own community," says Wesson. "Pillaging your neighbor was not OK, but you were free to find land elsewhere." The indigenous people the Norse encountered in South Uist were Gaelic fisher folk. Today, the island of about 1,700 inhabitants (according to the 2011 census) is among the last remaining strongholds of the Gaelic language in Scotland. The Vikings as neighbors Though a group of archaeologists surveyed the Hebrides Islands in the late 1990s, South Uist remains largely unexplored. The Lehigh-Cardiff team will look for evidence of habitation such as stone used for house foundations, pottery, cooking utensils, storage vessels, fishing gear, fish hooks, iron nails, and fittings and riggings from ships. Wesson expects that in addition to human remains, the group will also find sheep bones as the inhabitants of the Hebrides have been sheep farmers for more than 1,000 years. Using shovels, trowels and hand picks "we will dig until we find sterile sub-soils that don't show signs of human presence," says Wesson. According to Wesson, it's possible to uncover 300 to 400 years of occupation in three or four feet of soil. The artifacts will be cleaned, studied and chemically analyzed, ultimately providing clues as to how the arrival of the Vikings changed the story--of the region, the indigenous people and the Vikings themselves. "We want to answer the question 'What's it like to have the Vikings as your neighbors?'" says Wesson. "What happens when they move in or when it's time for their sons and daughters to be married off?" Conquerors or immigrants? Views of colonialism fall into one of two general categories, says Wesson. "There is the idea that colonialism inherently involves violence, bloodthirsty conquerors and the cutting off of heads. Another theory says the process has often been more benign--there was land available and the inhabitants welcomed newcomers." Cultural hybridization is the term anthropologists use to describe the phenomenon of cultures blending over time. The result, as Wesson puts it, is that "both groups become something different than they were before." A particular culture might also change through cultural imposition, the tendency of a group to impose its values and patterns of behavior onto others. In this model the indigenous population is threatened by the invading group. "You either convert to our ways or you're going to get pushed out," says Wesson. "Immigration has always been fraught," he adds. "For some, welcoming foreigners invites troubling questions: 'Will we lose our identities?' 'Will they change to be more like us? Or will they change us?' Others welcome the diversity and vibrancy that immigrant cultures bring." So, did the Vikings conquer the Gaels, or did the Gaels "tame" them? "In the history of migration, few populations have moved to a new place and, by the second or third generation, remained unaffected," says Wesson. Previous evidence has shown that the local people of the Hebrides "Christianized" the Norse seafarers into giving up their "raiding and trading" ways. ### Wesson and his team invite the public to tune in to their website this summer for daily updates on the team's findings--which they hope will offer clues as to who changed whom. Using genetic markers, researchers have for the first time shown how cultivating a specific crop led to the expansion of a pollinator species. In this case, the researchers found that the spread of a bee species in pre-Columbian Central and North America was tied to the spread of squash agriculture. "We wanted to understand what happens when the range of a bee expands," says Margarita Lopez-Uribe, a postdoctoral researcher at North Carolina State University and lead author of a paper describing the work. "What does that mean for its genetic variability? And if the genetic variability declines, does that harm the viability of the species?" To explore these questions, researchers looked at the squash bee (Peponapis pruinosa), which is indigenous to what is now central Mexico and the southwestern United States. Squash bees are specialists, collecting pollen solely from the flowers of plants in the genus Cucurbita, such as squash, zucchini and pumpkins. Before contact with Europeans, native American peoples had begun cultivating Cucurbita crops. Over time, these agricultural practices spread to the north and east. "We wanted to know whether P. pruinosa spread along with those crops," Lopez-Uribe says. To find out, researchers looked at DNA from squash bee individuals, collected from throughout the species' range. P. pruinosa can now be found from southern Mexico to California and Idaho in the west, and from Georgia in the southeast to Quebec in the north. By assessing genetic markers in each bee's DNA, the researchers could identify genetic signatures associated with when and where the species expanded. For example, the researchers found that P. pruinosa first moved from central Mexico into what is now the Midwestern United States approximately 5,000 years ago, before expanding to the East Coast some time later. The researchers also found that genetic diversity decreased depending how "new" the species was to a given territory. For example, genetic diversity of squash bees in Mexico was greater than the diversity in the Midwest; and diversity in the Midwest was greater than that of populations on the East Coast. Given the declining genetic variability, researchers expected to see adverse effects in the "newer" populations of P. pruinosa. They didn't. "We were specifically expecting to see an increased rate of sterile males in populations with less genetic variability, and we didn't find that," Lopez-Uribe says. "But we did find genetic 'bottlenecks' in all of the populations - even in Mexico. "Because P. pruinosa makes its nests in the ground near squash plants, we think modern farming practices - such as mechanically tilling the soil - is causing the species to die out in local areas," Lopez-Uribe says. "And we think that is causing these more recent genetic bottlenecks. "I'm hoping to work on this question in the near future, because it's important to helping understand the relevant bee's population dynamics in modern agricultural systems, as well as what it may mean for Cucurbita crops," Lopez-Uribe says. ### The paper, "Crop domestication facilitated rapid geographical expansion of a specialist pollinator, the squash bee Peponapis pruinosa," will be published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B at 00:01 BST on June 22. The paper was co-authored by James Cane of USDA-ARD in Logan, Utah; Robert Minckley of the University of Rochester; and Bryan N. Danforth of Cornell University. The paper was done with support from the National Science Foundation under grants DEB-0814544 and DEB-0742998. Some 3.9 billion years ago in the heart of a distant galaxy, the intense tidal pull of a monster black hole shredded a star that passed too close. When X-rays produced in this event first reached Earth on March 28, 2011, they were detected by NASA's Swift satellite, which notified astronomers around the world. Within days, scientists concluded that the outburst, now known as Swift J1644+57, represented both the tidal disruption of a star and the sudden flare-up of a previously inactive black hole. Now astronomers using archival observations from Swift, the European Space Agency's (ESA) XMM-Newton observatory and the Japan-led Suzaku satellite have identified the reflections of X-ray flares erupting during the event. Led by Erin Kara, a postdoctoral researcher at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and the University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP), the team has used these light echoes, or reverberations, to map the flow of gas near a newly awakened black hole for the first time. "While we don't yet understand what causes X-ray flares near the black hole, we know that when one occurs we can detect its echo a couple of minutes later, once the light has reached and illuminated parts of the flow," Kara explained. "This technique, called X-ray reverberation mapping, has been previously used to explore stable disks around black holes, but this is the first time we've applied it to a newly formed disk produced by a tidal disruption." Stellar debris falling toward a black hole collects into a rotating structure called an accretion disk. There the gas is compressed and heated to millions of degrees before it eventually spills over the black hole's event horizon, the point beyond which nothing can escape and astronomers cannot observe. The Swift J1644+57 accretion disk was thicker, more turbulent and more chaotic than stable disks, which have had time to settle down into an orderly routine. The researchers present the findings in a paper published online in the journal Nature on Wed., June 22. One surprise from the study is that high-energy X-rays arise from the inner part of the disk. Astronomers had thought most of this emission originated from a narrow jet of particles accelerated to near the speed of light. In blazars, the most luminous galaxy class powered by supermassive black holes, jets produce most of the highest-energy emission. "We do see a jet from Swift J1644, but the X-rays are coming from a compact region near the black hole at the base of a steep funnel of inflowing gas we're looking down into," said co-author Lixin Dai, a postdoctoral researcher at UMCP. "The gas producing the echoes is itself flowing outward along the surface of the funnel at speeds up to half the speed of light." X-rays originating near the black hole excite iron ions in the whirling gas, causing them to fluoresce with a distinctive high-energy glow called iron K-line emission. As an X-ray flare brightens and fades, the gas follows in turn after a brief delay depending on its distance from the source. "Direct light from the flare has different properties than its echo, and we can detect reverberations by monitoring how the brightness changes across different X-ray energies," said co-author Jon Miller, a professor of astronomy at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Swift J1644+57 is one of only three tidal disruptions that have produced high-energy X-rays, and to date it remains the only event caught at the peak of this emission. These star shredding episodes briefly activate black holes astronomers wouldn't otherwise know about. For every black hole now actively accreting gas and producing light, astronomers think nine others are dormant and dark. These quiescent black holes were active when the universe was younger, and they played an important role in how galaxies evolved. Tidal disruptions therefore offer a glimpse of the silent majority of supersized black holes. "If we only look at active black holes, we might be getting a strongly biased sample," said team member Chris Reynolds, a professor of astronomy at UMCP. "It could be that these black holes all fit within some narrow range of spins and masses. So it's important to study the entire population to make sure we're not biased." The researchers estimate the mass of the Swift J1644+57 black hole at about a million times that of the sun but did not measure its spin. With future improvements in understanding and modeling accretion flows, the team thinks it may be possible to do so. ESA's XMM-Newton satellite was launched in December 1999 from Kourou, French Guiana. NASA funded elements of the XMM-Newton instrument package and provides the NASA Guest Observer Facility at Goddard, which supports use of the observatory by U.S. astronomers. Suzaku operated from July 2005 to August 2015 and was developed at the Japanese Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, which is part of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, in collaboration with NASA and other Japanese and U.S. institutions. NASA's Swift satellite was launched in November 2004 and is managed by Goddard. It is operated in collaboration with Pennsylvania State University in University Park, the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, and Orbital Sciences Corp. in Dulles, Virginia, with international collaborators in the U.K., Italy, Germany and Japan. ### Nonmedical use of opioids (such as Vicodin, Percoset, and OxyContin) has become a major public health concern due to increases in treatment admissions, overdoses, and deaths. Data collected from high school seniors between 2009 and 2013 showed that 8.3% self-reported past-year nonmedical opioid use. Data have also shown a link from nonprescription opioid abuse to increased risk for heroin initiation and addiction, now widely considered one of the biggest public health challenges facing the U.S. In a new study published in the American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse by researchers at New York University's Center for Drug Use and HIV Research (CDUHR), lead researcher Joseph J. Palamar, PhD, MPH and his team sought to describe differences in self-reporting of nonmedical opioid use among high school seniors, who were asked about both general nonmedical opioid use and also specifically about nonmedical Vicodin and OxyContin use. The data was drawn from the Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey, a nationwide ongoing annual study of the behaviors, attitudes, and values of American secondary school students. The MTF survey is administered in approximately 130 public and private schools throughout 48 states in the US. Roughly 15,000 high school seniors are assessed annually. The results were not always clear-cut. "If someone checks off that they haven't used opioids you'd expect them to check off 'no' to nonmedical use of Vicodin and OxyContin later in the survey, but this wasn't always the case," said Dr. Palamar, who is also an assistant professor of Population Health at the NYU Langone Medical Center (NYULMC). "A lot of these teens reported that they've never used opioids in a nonmedical manner, but later on they report nonmedical Vicodin and/or OxyContin use." The survey defines opioids as painkillers such as Vicodin and OxyContin for those taking the survey, but Dr. Palamar explains that "it is likely that a lot of teens either don't read the definition of opioid or simply don't pay attention." In order to determine the prevalence and correlates of discordant self-reports of nonmedical use of opioids, the researchers' analyses utilized the responses collected from 31,149 high school seniors (12th graders) between 2009 and 2013. The students were first asked how many times they had taken narcotics other than heroin without a doctor's instruction in the past year. Later in the survey students were asked the same question twice more, once with regard to Vicodin and a second time for OxyContin. In total, 8.3% (2,585) said they had engaged in nonmedical opioid use, 7.6% (2,365) had engaged in nonmedical Vicodin use and 4.4% (1,381) reported nonmedical use of OxyContin. However, 37.1% of those reporting nonmedical Vicodin use and 28.2% of those reporting nonmedical OxyContin use did not report overall nonmedical opioid use earlier on. "When combining responses, we found the 8.3% figure to be an underestimate" said Dr. Palamar. "When factoring in the discordant responses, we believe that 11.1% would more accurately represent prevalence of past-year nonmedical opioid use among the high school seniors." The results underscore that medical and law enforcement communities may be underestimating opioid use and not just among younger populations. "Accurate data on the prevalence of nonmedical opioid use is crucial to informing prevention and interventions, especially when considering that heroin initiation can be the next step in the addiction progression," said Dr. Palamar. "We need to do a better job of identifying the scope of the problem in order to correctly assign and deploy resources to combat the unprecedented rise in drug overdose deaths, which are now the leading cause of injury death in the U.S." Surveys administered via pencil and paper, such as MTF, provide a unique opportunity to examine underreporting, as there is no mechanism for preventing contradictory responses, note the researchers. Electronically administered surveys can employ such mechanisms, however, the study's researchers are more concerned with drug education than survey design. "Teens in the U.S. require a better drug education," said Dr. Palamar. "We recently found that teens have been underreporting ecstasy use because many don't know that Molly is ecstasy, and now we found that many teens aren't aware that Vicodin and OxyContin are categorized as opioids, narcotics, or painkillers." The researchers feel that better drug education with honest information may be key to preventing future drug epidemics. ### Researcher Affiliations:Joseph J. Palamara,b, Jenni A. Shearstona,c, and Charles M. Clelandb,d. A. Department of Population Health, New York University Langone Medical Center, New York, NY, USA B. Center for Drug Use and HIV Research, New York University College of Nursing, New York, NY, USA C. College of Global Public Health, New York University, New York, NY, USA D. College of Nursing, New York University, New York, NY, USA Acknowledgements: The authors would like to thank the principal investigators of Monitoring the Future (PIs: Miech, Johnston, Bachman, O'Malley, and Schulenberg) at The University of Michigan, Institute for Social Research, Survey Research Center, and the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research for providing access to these data (http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/landing.jsp). Funding: This work was supported by the National Institute of Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health (grant K01DA-038800 to JP, grant P30DA011041 to CC). Monitoring the Future data were collected through a research grant (R01DA-01411) from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. About CDUHR The mission of the Center for Drug Use and HIV Research (CDUHR) is to end the HIV and HCV epidemics in drug using populations and their communities by conducting transdisciplinary research and disseminating its findings to inform programmatic, policy, and grass roots initiatives at the local, state, national and global levels. CDUHR is a Core Center of Excellence funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (Grant #P30 DA011041). It is the first center for the socio-behavioral study of substance use and HIV in the United States and is located at the New York University College of Nursing. For more information, visit http://www.cduhr.org. About NYU Langone Medical Center NYU Langone Medical Center, a world-class, patient-centered, integrated academic medical center, is one of the nation's premier centers for excellence in clinical care, biomedical research, and medical education. Located in the heart of Manhattan, NYU Langone is composed of four hospitals--Tisch Hospital, its flagship acute care facility; Rusk Rehabilitation; the Hospital for Joint Diseases, the Medical Center's dedicated inpatient orthopaedic hospital; and Hassenfeld Children's Hospital, a comprehensive pediatric hospital supporting a full array of children's health services across the Medical Center--plus the NYU School of Medicine, which since 1841 has trained thousands of physicians and scientists who have helped to shape the course of medical history. The Medical Center's tri-fold mission to serve, teach, and discover is achieved 365 days a year through the seamless integration of a culture devoted to excellence in patient care, education, and research. For more information, go to http://www.NYULMC.org, and interact with us on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. About the NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing is a global leader in nursing education, research, and practice. It offers a Bachelor of Science with a major in Nursing, a Master of Science and Post-Master's Certificate Programs, a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree and a Doctor of Philosophy in nursing research and theory development. http://nursing.nyu.edu/ About the NYU College of Global Public Health At the College of Global Public Health (CGPH) at NYU, we are preparing the next generation of public health pioneers with the critical thinking skills, acumen and entrepreneurial approaches necessary to reinvent the public health paradigm. Devoted to employing a nontraditional, inter-disciplinary model, CGPH aims to improve health worldwide through a unique blend of global public health studies, research and practice. CGPH is located in the heart of New York City and extends to NYU's global network on six continents. Innovation is at the core of our ambitious approach, thinking and teaching. To learn more about CGPH, visit http://publichealth.nyu.edu/ Young bowhead whales may cease growing lengthwise and undergo severe bone loss to help grow their enormous head and baleen plates, according to a study published June 22, 2016 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by John George from North Slope Borough Department of Wildlife Management, Alaska, and colleagues. As filter feeders, bowhead whales depend on baleen, about 640 plates suspended from their upper jaws, to catch their tiny prey. But after weaning, bowhead calves have so little baleen that they can't eat enough to keep up with rapid growth. To resolve this issue, the head and baleen grow faster than the rest of the body, dwarfing it for a few years. To see if the whales redistribute resources from their bodies to the baleen to spur their growth, the authors of this study examined bowheads living along the Bering, Chukchi, and Beaufort seas. The researchers took measurements of the whales to estimate their age, body size, and baleen area, as well as CT scans to determine the density of their rib bones. The authors' results confirmed that after weaning, bowhead bodies almost stop growing until the whales are about five years old, in contrast to baleen that continues to grow. The researchers found that the rib bones were extremely dense in one-year old bowheads, but lost up to 40% of their mass over the next few years, presumably to the new baleen plates that grow at such a clip in the young whales. While rare, strategic severe bone loss is not unprecedented in mammals, like some deer, elk and moose that deplete other bones to rapidly grow antlers. The authors suggest that this bone mass variation may complicate the study of life history strategy in bowheads and modern species, as well as the recognition of new species in the fossil record. Co-author Dr. Hans Thewissen notes: "This work shows that the ribs of whales can look very differently at different ages. I work a lot with fossils, we often only have one or two specimens for some species, and this reminds us that we need to take intraspecific variation very much into account for whales, they can change a lot over their lifetime." ### In your coverage please use this URL to provide access to the freely available paper: http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0156753 Citation: George JC, Stimmelmayr R, Suydam R, Usip S, Givens G, Sformo T, et al. (2016) Severe Bone Loss as Part of the Life History Strategy of Bowhead Whales. PLoS ONE 11(6): e0156753. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0156753 Funding: North Slope Borough funded collection of samples, maintenance of database, and analysis. NEOMED funded analysis of data. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Givens Statistical Solutions LLC provided support in the form of salaries for author GG but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific role of this author is articulated in the 'author contributions' section. Competing Interests: The authors have the following interests: NEOMED funded the analysis of data for this study. Geof Givens is affiliated to Givens Statistical Solutions LLC. There are no patents, products in development or marketed products to declare. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials, as detailed online in the guide for authors. PRINCETON, N.J.--Pregnant women in Latin American countries were more likely to seek an abortion after receiving health alerts about Zika virus, according to a study co-authored by Princeton University researchers and published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The researchers analyzed data from Women on Web -- an online portal that pairs patients with doctors able to prescribe abortion pills -- and found that many Latin American women using the site reported Zika as their reason for seeking an abortion. Because abortions are illegal or highly restricted across much of Latin America, many pregnant women seek outside options like Women on Web, which serves women who are less than 10 weeks along in their pregnancy and have no severe illnesses. The researchers found a particular uptick in Women on Web abortion requests in countries that issued health advisories about Zika, but also legally restrict abortions. The mosquito-borne virus is associated with microcephaly, a congenital condition that causes babies to be born with abnormally small heads. The researchers defined an "advisory" as a formal warning from the government to avoid pregnancy, a declared state of national emergency or a caution about pregnancy risk from medical professionals. The findings highlight the need for Latin American women to have access to safe and legal reproductive options, especially as Zika continues to spread, the researchers said. "Zika will inevitably spread to other countries where safe abortion is restricted," said co-author James Trussell, the Charles and Marie Roberton Professor of Public and International Affairs, Emeritus, at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. "Therefore, we must ensure that all reproductive choices are safe, legal and accessible," Trussell said. "To do otherwise would be irresponsible public health practice and unjust policy." "A countrywide policy that is impossible to follow if you are pregnant or cannot avoid pregnancy is an unusual and important public issue," said lead author Abigail Aiken, a postdoctoral research associate at Princeton's Office of Population Research, which is based at the Woodrow Wilson School. As Zika began to emerge as an epidemic in Latin America, research and media attention quickly focused on the possible effects of Zika on reproduction. Yet, little attention was paid to how the virus would impact women specifically. In November 2015, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) issued an epidemiological alert highlighting the risks of Zika. As more governments and health organizations began to respond, the researchers -- which also included co-authors James Scott from the University of Texas at Austin, Rebecca Gomperts and Marc Worrell from Women on Web, and Catherine Aiken from the University of Cambridge -- became interested in investigating the effects these health alerts had on women. The researchers organized the data by self-reported country of origin and then divided the women into three groups. The researchers defined Latin America as South and Central America and America and the Caribbean. Group A comprised women who had received the advisory and were living in countries with Zika, but with legally restricted access to abortion. Group B was made up of women in countries where Zika cases hadn't yet been reported and no advisories were distributed but had legal restrictions on abortion in place. Group C contained women in countries with Zika outbreaks and legally restricted access to abortion, but with governments that had not issued public health alerts. Finally, the researchers studied a control group of countries where a rise in abortion requests was unexpected: Chile, Poland and Uruguay. This group allowed them to ensure that the requests were actually related to the Zika virus and not just a global rise in demand for Women on Web services. All women in Latin America were asked specifically if they were seeking an abortion because of the virus. "These groupings allowed us to examine the effects of government responses to Zika and requests for abortion as well as whether abortion requests occurred even in countries with no active transmission," Aiken said. "It's entirely possible, for example, that women in these countries might still have been worried about the possibility of Zika even though no active transmission had yet been confirmed." Using data from five years before the PAHO announcement, the researchers modeled trends for abortion requests for each country. They then used the model to forecast the expected number of requests after the PAHO announcement was issued. The researchers examined their data using a regression discontinuity design, a test used by scientists to produce clear before-and-after effects. In this case, the researchers could effectively examine requests for abortion before the PAHO alert was issued and afterward. An increase in abortion requests was pronounced for Group A. Among the eight countries in this group, all except Jamaica were associated with increases in requests for abortion. The highest figures were found in Brazil, where abortion requests were 108 percent higher than expected, and Ecuador, where they were 107 percent higher than expected. "Brazil was 'ground zero' for Zika in Latin America, which may explain the significant increase," Aiken said. "Cases of microcephaly had already been identified there at the time of this study, and so women had been concerned about the risks and had been exposed to a lot of media coverage." For Group B, only small increases in requests for abortion were found in Argentina and Peru. In Peru, officials had sparked concern about Zika by asking local governments to declare a state of emergency, the researchers said. No statistical increases were found for Group C. "We cannot definitely attribute the rapid acceleration in requests in the first group to worries about Zika, but many women reported Zika as their reason for seeking abortions, so there is definitely a strong correlation," Aiken said. "Our study provides a window on how Zika has affected the lives of pregnant women in Latin America." ### The paper, "Requests for Abortion in Latin America Related to Concern about Zika Virus Exposure," was first published online June 22 in the New England Journal of Medicine. Canada spends more than $400 million annually on drugs prescribed to seniors even though the medicines should be avoided for older patients, according to new UBC research. The study's authors conclude that the full cost to Canada's health-care system is closer to $2 billion when hospital visits and other repercussions of inappropriate prescriptions are factored in. "We're wasting vast sums of money on drugs that we know pose more risks than benefits for patients over 65 years of age," said Steve Morgan, a professor in the school of population and public health. "Canada urgently needs a national strategy to ensure that older patients receive only those medications that are appropriate for their health and for their age." Physiological changes associated with aging alter the effects of many drugs, making some medications potentially inappropriate for older adults. Using prescription claims data for 2013 in all provinces except Quebec, Morgan and colleagues looked for prescriptions filled by patients age 65 and older for medications listed as potentially inappropriate by the American Geriatrics Society. The list, known as the Beers List, is a well-established guide to help health care providers avoid medicines that pose greater risks than other available treatments for older patients. The researchers found that 37 per cent of older Canadians filled one or more prescriptions on the Beers List in 2013. Women were more likely than men to fill such prescriptions. Sedatives were the leading contributors to both the frequency and cost of potentially inappropriate prescriptions among older Canadians. Researchers advise that patients, families and health-care providers have more conversations about what sorts of medications an individual is taking and whether those medications are appropriate. "We hope these findings help destigmatize discussions on medication use and that health-care providers make time for these important conversations," said Morgan. "We need to ask more questions like: 'Am I (or is my mother or father) on the right kind of medicine?'" The researchers call for the creation of a national strategy on the appropriate use of medicines. Other countries, such as Australia, have done so and found that investing in better prescribing behaviour and medication use improves patient health while significantly reducing prescription drug costs and costs elsewhere in the health-care system. Morgan believes that costs associated with developing a Canadian strategy on the use of medicines - estimated to be between $40 to $60 million for Canada - would be more than offset by the reduced cost of inappropriate prescriptions for older adults alone. The study was published today in the Canadian Medical Association Journal Open. ### Quick facts: FINDINGS A UCLA-led study estimates that almost 28,500 deaths could be prevented each year in the U.S. through use of a new FDA-approved class of cardiovascular medication that helps reduce mortality in patients diagnosed with heart failure and reduced ejection fraction, the percentage of blood pumped from the heart with each contraction. BACKGROUND Previous studies have demonstrated that 'angiotensin receptor neprilysin inhibitor' (ARNI) therapy using a new class of medication (generic name: sacubitril and valsartan) reduces mortality in patients with heart failure and reduced ejection fraction. The therapy works by enhancing the body's protective hormonal systems while simultaneously inhibiting the overactive hormones that harm the heart. In this study, researchers wanted to quantify the number of deaths that could be prevented or postponed with ARNI therapy. Researchers conducted the study by analyzing published data of patients who were eligible for the therapy, estimates of the number of people in the U.S. diagnosed with heart failure and reduced ejection fraction, and the numbers needed to treat with the medication to avert death. IMPACT More than 2.7 million patients in the United States have been diagnosed with heart failure and reduced ejection fraction. Of these patients, 84 percent (almost 2.3 million) are potential candidates for ARNI therapy. This study showed that, if ARNI therapy were comprehensively applied to eligible patients, it could potentially prevent 28,484 deaths each year. "These findings support the timely implementation of ARNI therapy into routine clinical practice because this will have substantial impact on population health for patients with heart failure," said the study's lead author, Dr. Gregg Fonarow, the Eliot Corday Chair in Cardiovascular Medicine and Science, director of the Ahmanson-UCLA Cardiomyopathy Center and co-chief of the UCLA Division of Cardiology. ### AUTHORS In addition to Fonarow, authors included Dr. Adrian Hernandez of Duke; Dr. Scott Solomon of Brigham and Women's; and Dr. Clyde Yancy of Northwestern. JOURNAL JAMA Cardiology, published online June 22, 2016 FUNDING The authors report no external funding for this study. DISCLOSURE Fonarow has received research grants from the National Institutes of Health and consulting fees from Amgen, Janssen, Medtronic and Novartis. Hernandez received research support from Amgen, AstraZeneca, Merck and Novartis and honoraria from Amgen, Luitpold, Merck and Novartis. Solomon received research grants from Novartis to Brigham and Women's Hospital and consulting fees from Novartis, Amgen and Bayer. OCEAN SPRINGS, Mississippi -- A popular Ocean Springs bar and grill, a Moss Point seafood restaurant and a Pascagoula Mexican eatery were among five establishments coastwide cited for violations during recent inspections by the Mississippi Department of Health. Val's Bar & Grill on Porter Avenue in Ocean Springs received a grade of C during a June 17 inspection by Susan Checkley. Val's was cited for not maintaining proper cold holding temperatures and for having insects, rodents or animals present. Val's had received a grade of A in all previous inspections since opening in 2014. A grade of C means critical violations were found, but some or all were not corrected during the inspection. The facility is re-inspected in a 10-day span, and all violations must be corrected in that period. If violations are not corrected in the specified time, steps are taken to suspend the facility's permit to operate. A grade of C is also given if critical violations are repeated from the last inspection, even if they were corrected at that time. Also cited recently was Bayou Seafood on Main Street in Moss Point. During a June 16 inspection by William Buie, the seafood restaurant was cited for food not being in good condition, safe and unadulterated, and for not maintaining proper cold holding temperatures. Those issues were corrected for a follow-up inspection the next day and the restaurant's grade was upgraded to a B. This was the first time Bayou Seafood had received a C since opening in 2013. Los Monchies Locos on Chicot Street in Pascagoula was the third Jackson County eatery cited. During a June 17 permit inspection, Dawn Spatzer found that food was not in good condition, safe and unadulterated, and the restaurant was not maintaining proper cold holding temperatures. As with Bayou Seafood, both violations were corrected in time for a June 20 follow-up inspection. These were the first violations for Bayou Seafood since opening a year ago. Two other coast eateries were cited, including Bacchus On The Beach in Pass Christian, which was cited during a June 21 inspection by Chere Wortham for having insects, rodents or animals present. The issue was corrected by the following day and Bacchus was upgraded to a B. It was the restaurant's first time with a violation since opening in 2014. Domino's Pizza at 1671 Pass Road in Biloxi was also cited. During a June 17 inspection by LaTanya Winn, the pizza restaurant was found to have plumbing which was not installed with proper backflow devices, and did not have the last inspection permit posted in public view. This marked the first time this Domino's had been cited since opening in 2004. Professor Anja Groth and her research team at the University of Copenhagen are concerned with understanding the basic molecular mechanisms responsible for the development and maintenance of the more than 200 specific cell types in our body. Now, new groundbreaking results have made them take out a patent on their knowledge. - We have shown how a cellular DNA repair protein is directed to lesions in DNA via modifications on histone proteins that are bound tightly to DNA. Cancer cells divide rapidly and experience a high load of DNA damage - without efficient repair systems these cells will die. Accordingly, cancer cells are highly dependent upon DNA repair mechanisms and this new molecular mechanism we have found constitutes an attractive target for cancer therapy. Researchers design cancer inhibitors In collaboration with Dinshaw Patel, at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, the research group from BRIC has obtained a detailed crystal structure of the TONSL protein bound to the histone protein, which they show directs TONSL to DNA lesions. This structure tells researchers how the protein works and gives them the opportunity to design a molecule that can bind to TONSL and prevent it from locating the DNA damages. Such an inhibitor molecule may be used in the treatment of cancer because blocking of TONSL function could promote cancer cells to accumulate DNA damage and eventually die. The research team has now put together a team of experts in medicinal chemistry and rational drug design to develop small molecule inhibitors. PHD student Giulia Saredi has been in charge of the functional cell biological experiments. -When our cells divide, not only our DNA is copied but also so-called epigenetic information which is vital for the cells to maintain their identity and stay healthy. The epigenetic information is found in a structure called chromatin. We have discovered that the TONSL molecule recognizes a special chromatin signature which arises when the DNA is duplicated during cell division. TONSL is able to read this signature to boost the repair of damages in our DNA. The researcher's discovery provides a new foundation to understanding how chromatin - the structure that organizes DNA in the nucleus - directs DNA repair processes within our cells. As basic researchers they chase the understanding of how our cells function and this has now generated a unique possibility for designing inhibitors that may be useful in cancer treatment. - Basic research is our core competence and this discovery shows, once again, that society's investment in understanding basic biological processes is vital to open new avenues that can be explored for disease treatment. The possibility of exploiting our basic research findings for advancing cancer treatment in the future is an important driving force in our work, says Professor Anja Groth. ### The research of the Groth lab is financed by the European Research Council (ERC StG, no. 281765), The Danish National Research Foundations Centre for Epigenetics (DNRF82), The Danish Cancer Society, The Danish Council for Independent Research/Medical Sciences, Novo Nordisk Foundation, Lundbeck foundation and the European commisssion Marie Curie ITN ' aDDress'. Elementary particles are the fundamental buildings blocks of matter, and their properties are described by the Standard Model of particle physics. The discovery of the Higgs boson at the CERN in 2012 constitutes a further step towards the confirmation of the Standard Model. However, many aspects of this theory are still not understood because their complexity makes it hard to investigate them with classical computers. Quantum computers may provide a way to overcome this obstacle as they can simulate certain aspects of elementary particle physics in a well-controlled quantum system. Physicists from the University of Innsbruck and the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information (IQOQI) at the Austrian Academy of Sciences have now done exactly that: In an international first, Rainer Blatt's and Peter Zoller's research teams have simulated lattice gauge theories in a quantum computer. They describe their work in the journal Nature. Simulation of particle-antiparticle pairs using a quantum computer Gauge theories describe the interaction between elementary particles, such as quarks and gluons, and they are the basis for our understanding of fundamental processes. "Dynamical processes, for example, the collision of elementary particles or the spontaneous creation of particle-antiparticle pairs, are extremely difficult to investigate," explains Christine Muschik, theoretical physicist at the IQOQI. "However, scientists quickly reach a limit when processing numerical calculations on classical computers. For this reason, it has been proposed to simulate these processes by using a programmable quantum system." In recent years, many interesting concepts have been proposed, but until now it was impossible to realize them. "We have now developed a new concept that allows us to simulate the spontaneous creation of electron-positron pairs out of the vacuum by using a quantum computer," says Muschik. The quantum system consists of four electromagnetically trapped calcium ions that are controlled by laser pulses. "Each pair of ions represent a pair of a particle and an antiparticle," explains experimental physicist Esteban A. Martinez. "We use laser pulses to simulate the electromagnetic field in a vacuum. Then we are able to observe how particle pairs are created by quantum fluctuations from the energy of this field. By looking at the ion's fluorescence, we see whether particles and antiparticles were created. We are able to modify the parameters of the quantum system, which allows us to observe and study the dynamic process of pair creation." Combining different fields of physics With this experiment, the physicists in Innsbruck have built a bridge between two different fields in physics: They have used atomic physics experiments to study questions in high-energy physics. While hundreds of theoretical physicists work on the highly complex theories of the Standard Model and experiments are carried out at extremely expensive facilities, such as the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, quantum simulations may be carried out by small groups in tabletop experiments. "These two approaches complement one another perfectly," says theoretical physicist Peter Zoller. "We cannot replace the experiments that are done with particle colliders. However, by developing quantum simulators, we may be able to understand these experiments better one day." Experimental physicist Rainer Blatt adds: "Moreover, we can study new processes by using quantum simulation. For example, in our experiment we also investigated particle entanglement produced during pair creation, which is not possible in a particle collider." The physicists are convinced that future quantum simulators will potentially be able to solve important questions in high-energy physics that cannot be tackled by conventional methods. Foundation for a new research field It was only a few years ago that the idea to combine high-energy and atomic physics was proposed. With this work it has been implemented experimentally for the first time. "This approach is conceptually very different from previous quantum simulation experiments studying many-body physics or quantum chemistry. The simulation of elementary particle processes is theoretically very complex and, therefore, has to satisfy very specific requirements. For this reason it is difficult to develop a suitable protocol," underlines Zoller. The conditions for the experimental physicists were equally demanding: "This is one of the most complex experiments that has ever been carried out in a trapped-ion quantum computer," says Blatt. "We are still figuring out how these quantum simulations work and will only gradually be able to apply them to more challenging phenomena." The great theoretical as well as experimental expertise of the physicists in Innsbruck was crucial for the breakthrough. Both Blatt and Zoller emphasize that they have been doing research on quantum computers for many years now and have gained a lot of experience in their implementation. Innsbruck has become one of the leading centers for research in quantum physics; here, the theoretical and experimental branches work together at an extremely high level, which enables them to gain novel insights into fundamental phenomena. ### The scientists are financially supported by the University of Innsbruck, the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information (IQOQI) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), the Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina, the European Union and the Federation of Austrian Industries Tyrol, among others. A book exploring exhaustion by a Kent author reveals we are not the only culture to struggle with it, and this struggle is not limited to modern times In her new book, Exhaustion: A History (Columbia University Press, 2016), Dr Anna Katharina Schaffner, Reader in Comparative Literature and Medical Humanities, in the University's School of European Culture and Languages, says 'burnout' and worries about work life balance were known to different eras by different terms. Dr Schaffner says we do live in an exhausting age but she was surprised to find that there was a substantial body of evidence to show other ages have been preoccupied by the same worry though it may have been called something else. In her book, Dr Schaffner examines how every age battles with its own historically specific challenges. Anxieties about exhaustion, and the loss of physical and mental energies, are present both in fiction and in the medical, theological, and philosophical literature from classical antiquity onwards. Exhaustion is a timeless concern related to fears about death, illnesses, and the gradual waning of our energies as we age. She concludes that though today we do live in an exhausting age, and there is much to justify debates about burnout, work-life balance, and how other cultural factors affect our energy resources, ours is by no means the only age that has had to struggle with anxieties about technological, political, and cultural change. ### Dr Schaffner has been interviewed by the US magazine, Psychology Today [4]. http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-author-speaks/201606/exhaustion-history [5] For further information or interview requests contact Sandy Fleming at the University of Kent Press Office. Tel: 01227 823581/01634 888879 Email: S.Fleming@kent.ac.uk News releases can also be found at http://www.kent.ac.uk/news University of Kent on Twitter: http://twitter.com/UniKent Notes to editors Established in 1965, the University of Kent - the UK's European university - now has almost 20,000 students across campuses or study centres at Canterbury, Medway, Tonbridge, Brussels, Paris, Athens and Rome. It has been ranked: third for overall student satisfaction in the 2014 National Student Survey; 23rd in the Guardian University Guide 2016; 23rd in the Times and Sunday Times University Guide 2016; and 22nd in the Complete University Guide 2015. In the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2015-16, Kent is in the top 10% of the world's leading universities for international outlook and 66th in its table of the most international universities in the world. The THE also ranked the University as 20th in its 'Table of Tables' 2016. Kent is ranked 17th in the UK for research intensity (REF 2014). It has world-leading research in all subjects and 97% of its research is deemed by the REF to be of international quality. Along with the universities of East Anglia and Essex, Kent is a member of the Eastern Arc Research Consortium. The University is worth 0.7 billion to the economy of the south east and supports more than 7,800 jobs in the region. Student off-campus spend contributes 293.3m and 2,532 full-time-equivalent jobs to those totals. In 2014, Kent received its second Queen's Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education. MONTREAL, June 22, 2016 - Years of research have shown that impulsivity in childhood is among the individual vulnerabilities leading to substance abuse, delinquency, as well as aggressive and antisocial behavior in adolescence and adulthood. Yet researchers from the CHU Sainte-Justine Mother-child Research Hospital and University of Montreal have discovered a reversal of this trend for those children when raised in a less coercive environment. "According to our results, labelling impulsive children as "vulnerable" should be reconsidered. Indeed, those who were raised in less coercive families at the age of 6 actually drank less alcohol than their less impulsive peers at the age of 15. Their supposed vulnerability actually turned into an advantage," says Charlie Rioux, PhD candidate in psychology and first author of the paper published in Development and Psychopathology. Acting rapidly and without thinking are typical signs of child impulsivity. According to the researchers, this trait, traditionally viewed as negative, could turn into an advantage when combined with a caring family environment. "A Swedish metaphor illustrates this differential susceptibility to the environment," explains Charlie Rioux. "Many children exposed to challenging environments do quite well. They are said to be resilient, and are referred to as "dandelion children", since they are well adjusted even when exposed to harsh conditions. Children more susceptible to their environment, like impulsive ones, are referred to as "orchid children." For if the orchid fades in harsh conditions, it also thrives when given proper care and attention. We observed that when they are raised in a supportive environment, "orchid children" not only do well in adolescence, but can even outperform their less susceptible peers in many respects." The researchers came to this interesting finding by looking at how these children develop in both adverse and non-harmful environments. To achieve these results, the researchers studied 209 youth born between 1996 and 1997 in urban areas of the Province of Quebec, in Canada. When these youth were 6 years old, their mothers completed questionnaires on their child's impulsivity levels and the coercive practices they used as a parent, including screaming, shaking or hitting. Then at the age of 15, the adolescents reported the frequency of their alcohol use. The results of the study show that when maternal coercive practices were more frequent at 6 years, higher impulsivity at this age was associated with more frequent alcohol use at the age of 15. In contrast, highly impulsive 6-years-olds exposed to infrequent maternal coercive practices had a lower frequency of alcohol use compared to less impulsive children. "These results are particularly interesting because impulsivity is often considered a risk factor for alcohol use. However, our results show that more impulsive children may drink less alcohol than kids who are less impulsive when exposed to low maternal coercive practices," said Jean Seguin, PhD, professor of psychiatry at the University of Montreal, researcher at CHU Sainte-Justine and co-director of Rioux's doctoral thesis. The researchers also conducted a literature review that points in the same direction. Their review identified 14 studies investigating the role of family environment and child and adolescent temperament in the development of adolescent "externalizing problems". These notably include delinquency, antisocial behaviors, attentional problems and substance use. In line with their own observations, this review, published in Developmental Review, demonstrates that susceptibility in childhood - characterized by such traits as impulsivity, disinhibition, or low fear or shyness - is associated with higher levels of externalizing problems in adolescence when children were exposed to adverse environments, but lower levels of externalizing problems when they were raised in suitable home environments. However, having an appropriate home environment during adolescence does not seem to convey any additional benefit to susceptible adolescents. These studies considered several family factors, including maternal and paternal parenting, parent-child relationship and marital conflict. "Although many factors come into play in shaping the future behaviour of children, our findings tend to suggest that special attention to the needs of impulsive children or children susceptible to their environment at an early age may help them realize their full potential," says Charlie Rioux. "To demonstrate this, our results will need to be replicated in clinical studies also designed to test the differential susceptibility model, this time not only assessing the impact of more or less coercive parenting methods, but also the impact of intervention programs targeting parenting practices." ### About the study The articles "Differential susceptibility to environmental influences: Interactions between child temperament and parenting in adolescent alcohol use" and "The interaction between temperament and the family environment in adolescent substance use and externalizing behaviors: Support for diathesis-stress or differential susceptibility?" were published respectively in Development and Psychopathology and Developmental Review. Charlie Rioux is the first author. She is continuing her work under the supervision of University of Montreal Professors Jean R. Seguin, of the Psychiatry Department, and Natalie Castellanos-Ryan, of the School of Psychoeducation, with the collaboration of Sophie Parent, also of the School of Psychoeducation. All are members of the Research Unit on Children's Psychosocial Maladjustment (GRIP) of the University of Montreal and the CHU Sainte-Justine. The studies were funded by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Fonds de recherche du Quebec - Sante (FRQS), the Fonds de recherche du Quebec - Nature et technologies (FRQNT), the Fonds de recherche du Quebec - Societe et culture (FRQSC), as well as the Institut de la statistique du Quebec, and its partners. Charlie Rioux holds scholarships from the IRSC, the FRQS, and the University of Montreal. About the CHU Sainte-Justine Research Center CHU Sainte-Justine Research Center is a leading mother-child research institution affiliated with Universite de Montreal. It brings together more than 200 research investigators, including over 90 clinician-scientists, as well as 385 graduate and postgraduate students focused on finding innovative prevention means, faster and less invasive treatments, as well as personalized approaches to medicine. The Center is part of CHU Sainte-Justine, which is the largest mother-child center in Canada and second pediatric center in North America. More on research.chusj.org About the University of Montreal Universite de Montreal and its two affiliated schools, Ecole Polytechnique (engineering) and HEC Montreal (business) are amongst the world's top 100 universities, according to international rankings. Founded in 1878, the campus today has over 66,000 students and 2,600 professors, making Universite de Montreal the second largest university in Canada. Its students are drawn to the university by its deep roots in cosmopolitan Montreal and in consideration of its tenacious dedication to its international mission. The University of Montreal is officially known as Universite de Montreal. Geoscientist Robert DeConto, one of the world's leading experts on climate modeling, has won the 2016 Tinker-Muse Prize for Science and Policy in Antarctica for his outstanding work on past and future Antarctic climate AMHERST, Mass. - University of Massachusetts Amherst geoscientist Robert DeConto, one of the world's leading experts on climate modeling, has won the 2016 Tinker-Muse Prize for Science and Policy in Antarctica. The recognition comes for his outstanding work on past and future Antarctic climate and for research integrating geological data with modeling to reveal likely consequences for future sea level rise from ice sheet melt. The Tinker-Muse Prize includes a $100,000 unrestricted award to "an individual in the fields of Antarctic science and/or policy who has demonstrated potential for sustained and significant contributions that will enhance the understanding and/or preservation of Antarctica." The foundation's goal is "to provide recognition for important work being done and to call attention to the significance of understanding Antarctica in a time of change." It is inspired by Martha T. Muse's passion for Antarctica and is a legacy of the International Polar Year 2007-2008. The award will be officially presented to DeConto at the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) 2016 Open Science Conference in Kuala Lumpur on August 23. He will deliver a plenary acceptance lecture and will be honored at an award dinner, according to Eoghan Griffin, executive officer of SCAR, which administers the award for the Tinker Foundation. SCAR is the international governing body on Antarctic science of the International Council for Science. DeConto says, "I am thrilled to receive this award. It indeed is an honor to be acknowledged by such an esteemed group of colleagues, and I'll do my very best to represent the award and what it stands for." Julie Brigham-Grette, head of the geosciences department at UMass Amherst and chair of the U.S. National Academy Polar Research Board, says, "DeConto has forged an international reputation based on his collaborations and scientific contributions to understanding the processes and dynamic nature of past climate change and the impact of global climate change on the future." She points out that his 2003 Nature paper with David Pollard of Penn State University is considered a classic and has been cited nearly 750 times, providing a key to quantitatively defining the central role of greenhouse gases in Antarctica's long-term evolution. It also established the basic methodology for a new generation of coupled climate-ice sheet modeling over both poles. DeConto and Pollard have developed one of the world's best Antarctic ice sheet computer models, plus strategies for coupling climate and ice sheet models for paleo climate and future climate research. These model tools and techniques are now being used by research groups all over the world, she adds. Brigham-Grette calls DeConto a "big picture thinker" who is keenly interested in combining models with deep time geological data in new and creative ways and his service to the national and international climate and paleo climate science communities has been "astronomical." She adds, "Perhaps the best and most societally relevant research of Rob's career is his current research involving the use of ancient sea level records, ice sheet reconstructions and ice core constraints, to inform models that can in turn be used for future prediction." With Pollard again, in early 2016 he published an influential article in the journal Nature on the future fate of the Antarctic Ice Sheet. One implication of DeConto's most recent work is that it doubles previous sea level rise estimates for the year 2100. In 2014, DeConto joined the ranks of the most highly regarded scholars in Antarctic climate studies when he was invited to present the S.T. Lee Lecture in Antarctic Studies in New Zealand. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Colorado in 1996 and conducted postdoctoral research at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Science and the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder before joining the faculty at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1999. ### Penn Medicine's Raymond R. Townsend, MD, Director of the Hypertension Program, Receives Physician of the Year Award from the American Heart Association Raymond R. Townsend, MD, director of the Hypertension Program and a professor of Medicine in Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, has been named the 2016 Physician of the Year Award of the American Heart Association (AHA). The Physician of the Year Award is presented to one person each year with direct patient care responsibilities who has demonstrated an exemplary commitment to furthering the AHA's mission to build healthier lives, free of cardiovascular diseases and stroke. Townsend, a member of the AHA since 1986, accepted this honor during the 2016 Awards Luncheon in Dallas. "Having spent the majority of my career dedicated to hypertension, both in research and clinical practice, I have been actively involved in the AHA as their mission goes hand in hand with my career goals," Townsend said. "Receiving this award is such a tremendous honor. I am thrilled to be in the company of those who have received it before me, and am eager to continue supporting this mission." Townsend received his first award from the AHA in 1984, which was also his first ever academic grant. Becoming more heavily involved as his career went on, he became a Fellow of the American Heart Association (FAHA) through the Council for High Blood Pressure Research - now the Council on Hypertension - in 1993. He has served as faculty for the AHA Hypertension Summer School and co-chaired the Program Committee in 2010 and 2013, and Townsend served on the National AHA Professional Education Committee from 2008 through 2010. Over the years Townsend has also served on the Council on Hypertension Professional Education and Publication Committee, as well as the American Society of Hypertension liaison to the Council on Hypertension Professional Education and Publication Committee, and on the Council on Hypertension Program Committee. Townsend has been a reviewer and contributor for the journal Hypertension for more than 20 years. His research interests include the role of blood vessel dynamics in chronic kidney disease progression and the development of cardiovascular disease in patients with chronic kidney disease. Townsend earned his bachelor's degree in biology from LaSalle College and medical degree from Hahnemann University. He joined the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania faculty as an assistant professor of Medicine in 1993, before becoming an associate professor in 1996 and a tenured professor in 2001. ### Penn Medicine is one of the world's leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, and excellence in patient care. Penn Medicine consists of the Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (founded in 1765 as the nation's first medical school) and the University of Pennsylvania Health System, which together form a $5.3 billion enterprise. The Perelman School of Medicine has been ranked among the top five medical schools in the United States for the past 18 years, according to U.S. News & World Report's survey of research-oriented medical schools. The School is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $373 million awarded in the 2015 fiscal year. The University of Pennsylvania Health System's patient care facilities include: The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Penn Presbyterian Medical Center -- which are recognized as one of the nation's top "Honor Roll" hospitals by U.S. News & World Report -- Chester County Hospital; Lancaster General Health; Penn Wissahickon Hospice; and Pennsylvania Hospital -- the nation's first hospital, founded in 1751. Additional affiliated inpatient care facilities and services throughout the Philadelphia region include Chestnut Hill Hospital and Good Shepherd Penn Partners, a partnership between Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Network and Penn Medicine. Penn Medicine is committed to improving lives and health through a variety of community-based programs and activities. In fiscal year 2015, Penn Medicine provided $253.3 million to benefit our community. Chew on this: rice farming is a far older practice than we knew. In fact, the oldest evidence of domesticated rice has just been found in China, and it's about 9,000 years old. The discovery, made by a team of archaeologists that includes University of Toronto Mississauga professor Gary Crawford, sheds new light on the origins of rice domestication and on the history of human agricultural practices. "Today, rice is one of most important grains in the world's economy, yet at one time, it was a wild plant...how did people bring rice into their world? This gives us another clue about how humans became farmers," says Crawford, an anthropological archaeologist who studies the relationships between people and plants in prehistory. Working with three researchers from the Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology in Zhejiang Province, China, Crawford found the ancient domesticated rice fragments in a probable ditch in the lower Yangtze valley. They observed that about 30 per cent of the rice plant material - primarily bases, husks and leaf epidermis - were not wild, but showed signs of being purposely cultivated to produce rice plants that were durable and suitable for human consumption. Crawford says this finding indicates that the domestication of rice has been going on for much longer than originally thought. The rice plant remains also had characteristics of japonica rice, the short grain rice used in sushi that today is cultivated in Japan and Korea. Crawford says this finding clarifies the lineage of this specific rice crop, and confirms for the first time that it grew in this region of China. Crawford and his colleagues spent about three years exploring the five-hectare archaeological dig site, called Huxi, which is situated in a flat basin about 100 metres above sea level. Their investigations were supported by other U of T Mississauga participants - anthropology professor David Smith and graduate students Danial Kwan and Nattha Cheunwattana. They worked primarily in early spring, fall and winter in order to avoid the late-spring wet season and excruciatingly hot summer months. Digging 1.5 metres below the ground, the team also unearthed artifacts such as sophisticated pottery and stone tools, as well as animal bones, charcoal and other plant seeds. This study builds on Crawford's previous research into early agriculture in China, in which he has examined the ancient settlements, tools, and plant and animal management efforts that occurred in different regions of the country. He is interested in better understanding the forces that compelled our human ancestors to transition from hunters and gatherers to farmers. "The question I ultimately want to answer is, what pushed them to move wholeheartedly into the farming regime? Why did they reduce their emphasis on hunting and expand into crop production?" Crawford says. "People did what they needed to do to make their lives more manageable and sustainable, and the unintended consequence was farming. With this rice discovery, we're seeing the first stages of that shift." ### Funded by a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Crawford's study is published today in Scientific Reports, an online open-access journal from the publishers of Nature. Media Contact: Professor Gary Crawford 905-828-3783 g.crawford@utoronto.ca Most big-game animals in Wyoming and the West can assess the quality of vegetation during the spring green-up to select the best patches of habitat during the growing season, a team of researchers led by University of Wyoming and U.S. Geological Survey scientists has documented. While biologists long have thought that animals essentially "surf the green wave" of new plant growth from low-elevation winter range to high-elevation summer range, the new research has measured how precisely the animal movements are aligned with the green-up. The findings are reported in a paper published today in the scientific journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. "The importance of timing, and how animals match their movements to their habitat, is the key finding of our study," says Matt Kauffman, director of the Wyoming Migration Initiative, UW professor and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientist. "This will help us understand how animals track plant growth as it is altered by climate change and ecological drought, and provide insights into how human disturbance can alter the ability of big game to track green waves of forage where and when they need to." The researchers gathered movement data from 10 populations of five species -- bighorn sheep, mule deer, elk, moose and bison -- in western Wyoming and eastern Utah. Using remote-sensing technology, they matched those movements with the green-up of vegetation -- specifically, the growth of high-quality forage in its early stages, when it has the highest nutritional value (low in fiber and high in protein). Accounting for variables that typically influence habitat selection for each species, the scientists found that seven of the 10 populations selected patches of vegetation in the early-growth stage. "Some of these animals do a good job of surfing the crest of the green wave, while others appear to favor the leading or trailing edge of the green wave," says Jerod Merkle, lead author and postdoctoral researcher in the USGS Wyoming Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit at UW. "Our research should pave the way for significant advancements in understanding how animals are connected to -- and influenced by -- the quality of forage available to them." Insights gained from similar research projects could alert managers to when animal movements are threatened by climate or land-use changes, the researchers say. If a decrease in "green wave surfing" is observed, managers could enhance certain springtime habitats, or make high-quality forage more accessible to big game. "(This information) will prove useful for quantifying the loss in forage availability -- because of climate change or land development -- that animals might experience in the future," the researchers wrote. ### Other members of the research team were from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies; Western Ecosystems Technology Inc. of Laramie; the Wyoming Game and Fish Department; and the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. The work is part of ongoing research on Wyoming's big game migrations, development and climate change funded in part by the U.S. Geological Survey through the Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative and the National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center. You can follow Wyoming's big-game herds during their spring migration. Check out the Wyoming Migration Initiative's Facebook page for weekly maps and updates. The implementation of state prescription drug monitoring programs was associated with the prevention of approximately one opioid-related overdose death every two hours on average nationwide, according to a new Vanderbilt-led study released June 22 in the journal Health Affairs. States with the most robust programs saw the greatest reduction in overdose deaths: these states monitored and tracked a greater number of substances with abuse potential and updated their data more frequently (at least weekly). Over the last two decades, the sales of prescriptions for opioids like oxycodone and hydrocodone have quadrupled. From 1999 to 2014, more than 165,000 people died in the U.S. from overdoses related to prescription opioids, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In response to the epidemic, many states created prescription drug monitoring programs to monitor high-risk patients and provider behaviors. Today, 49 states--all but Missouri--have such programs, but there have been conflicting data about the programs' effectiveness. In this study, "Implementation of Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs Associated with Reductions in Opioid-Related Death Rates," the authors analyzed mortality data and data on states' prescription drug monitoring programs from 1999 to 2013 to test if programs were effective in reducing the number of opioid-related overdose deaths. Researchers' analysis revealed that states with the most robust programs saw reductions of 1.55 fewer deaths per 100,000 population compared to states without such monitoring programs. "Today, opioid overdose deaths are more common than deaths from car crashes. Our study provides support that prescription drug monitoring programs are part of what needs to be a comprehensive approach to the prescription opioid epidemic," said lead author Stephen W. Patrick, M.D., MPH, M.S., assistant professor of Pediatrics and Health Policy in the Division of Neonatology at Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt. "This work is important not only because it demonstrates that prescription drug monitoring programs can save lives, but also because it shows that there are specific actions that states can take to strengthen their programs," said Melinda Buntin, Ph.D., professor and chair of the Department of Health Policy at Vanderbilt University and senior author of the study. Vanderbilt researchers worked with Timothy F. Jones, M.D., state epidemiologist for the Tennessee Department of Health, who oversees opioid-related research and analyses of the state's prescription drug monitoring data. Tennessee implemented its monitoring program in December 2006. "Tennessee is one of the states most severely affected by the opioid epidemic," said Jones. "The opioid epidemic affects all segments of our society. It is not limited to one part of the state or one social group. It affects all of us--our friends, families, co-workers, people that we would never expect to be involved. All of us have a role to play in combatting it." The study authors estimate that if Missouri implemented a monitoring program and other states enhanced existing programs with more robust features, there would be more than 600 fewer overdose deaths nationwide in 2016, or about two deaths prevented each day. "Congress is currently considering legislation to bolster the U.S. public health response to the opioid epidemic. Our findings suggest that investments in upgraded prescription drug monitoring programs will pay dividends in lives saved," said Patrick. ### Carrie E. Fry, health policy and data analyst for the Department of Health Policy at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, was also a co-author on the study. The study was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health grant K23DA038720. New research indicates that crime committed in 2011 in England and Wales gave rise to more than 4 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalents. In the Journal of Industrial Ecology study, burglary resulted in the largest proportion of the total carbon footprint (30%), attributed to the carbon associated with replacement of stolen and damaged goods. Emissions arising from criminal justice system services, such as police investigations and the running of prisons and court buildings, also accounted for a large proportion. "Although it is not possible to definitively state whether the carbon emissions that result from crime can be avoided completely by preventing crime, raising awareness of these emissions remains important for policy valuation of crime," the authors wrote. "If the relationship between crime and climate change is overlooked, we risk undervaluing the impacts of crime and missing an opportunity as we strive toward a low-crime and low-carbon future." ### Even if Anthony had a year to analyze and dissect each piece...(he couldn't tell if it would)... stand the harsh light of public exposure. WUWT insider Willis Eschenbach tells you all you need to know about Anthony Watts and his blog, WattsUpWithThat (WUWT). As part of his scathing commentary , Wondering Willis accuses Anthony Watts of being clueless about the blog articles he posts. To paraphrase: Click here to read more. In Education Week, Adam Laats and Harvey Siegel offer a seemingly humane and generous compromise on teaching evolution in public schools. Teaching Evolution Isnt About Changing Beliefs, says the headline. Authors of a new book from the University of Chicago Press, Teaching Evolution in a Creation Nation, they argue that students should learn about evolution, but not be indoctrinated in it. Students, they say, simply need to understand the theory, but teachers should not force them to believe it. While I agree with part of their approach, their propositions are obvious almost too much so. They write: By teaching comprehensive science curricula that includes evolution and teaching students to confront subjects they may not agree with, schools are not trying to change beliefs. Understanding is enough. On one level, this makes a lot of sense. Students do need to understand evolution. It is important that teachers educate them on the evidence for neo-Darwinism. This approach is also a big improvement on recent National Science Foundation-supported research aimed at investigating ways to get students to accept not just understand evolution. However, Laats and Siegel leave out some crucial information. For one thing, they seem to believe that only parents who think the world is only 6,000 years old would have a problem with teaching evolution as unquestionable dogma. Not so. Many parents and educators who value critical thinking and, frankly, honesty in education advocate that students be exposed to the fascinating ambiguities of current knowledge about biological origins. The authors, however, simply ignore that there is a major scientific debate over evolution. They say: Evolutionary theory is a building block of our understanding of life. As the best existing scientific explanation of the way our species came to be, how evolution works is vital for all students to understand. Students should not have the right to opt out of learning about a central tenet of contemporary science. But if students have religious objections to the theorys implications, the public school has no right to insist that they believe it that is, to regard evolutionary theory as true. Much of this is very close to correct, as far as it goes. They neglect to mention, though, that some scientists are currently questioning whether Darwinian evolution is the best explanation and therefore if it is indeed foundational to our understanding of life. Researchers are asking whether natural selection acting on random mutations is able to account for the complexity of life. If Darwinian theory with its proposed mechanism of change is in need of a major reevaluation, as substantial mainstream scientific opinion now concedes, that should not be concealed from young people. Not if education is about seeking the truth. The real issue isnt creationism or religion versus evolution. I should add too, for the umpteenth time, its not about intelligent design either. (See our Science Education Policy.) Its about whether students will be introduced to a fair picture of mainstream research on a vital subject of scientific inquiry. This brings us to the second part of Laats and Siegels argument: Teachers should require students simply to understand not accept evolution. Again, this is true. A teacher should not try to make a student internalize any theory of evolution. They can simply require that the student learn the proposition which should mean analyzing it intelligently not just spitting it back on command if they want to achieve a certain grade. But students may not be gaining an accurate understanding of evolution if they learn only the scientific strengths, and not the weaknesses, of the theory. Laats and Siegel try to outline what teaching evolution is not about. But they do not address what it is about. The goal of scientific instruction, ultimately, is not to confirm or upend any religious teaching. It is partly about how information is presented. But it is mostly about the information itself interacting with it, and drawing conclusions based on critical reasoning and examining the evidence. Photo credit: Milles Studio stock.adobe.com. The new language in the bill will almost certainly accelerate the movement away from animal tests for chemicals, pesticides, biocides, cosmetics, and other potentially dangerous substances in risk assessment protocols or for safety substantiation. Photo by iStockphoto 80.9K shares Today, it was my great honor to attend the presidential signing ceremony at the White House for a revision of TSCA, the Toxic Substances Control Act, with my colleague Sara Amundson from the Humane Society Legislative Fund. Todays final action upgrades a 40-year-old federal law regulating the use of chemicals, and contains for the first time in any broader environmental and health protection statute an explicit decree from Congress to minimize animal testing and to create a clear preference for the development and use of alternative methods and strategies. The section of the bill relating to animal testing, championed by Senators Cory Booker, D-NJ, and David Vitter, R-La. and strongly supported by Senators Tom Udall, D-NM, Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., Sheldon Whitehouse, D-RI, Chairman of the Committee on Environment and Public Works Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., and committee ranking member Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., was a hard-fought battle. The inclusion of this language will almost certainly accelerate the movement away from animal tests for chemicals, pesticides, biocides, cosmetics, and other potentially dangerous substances in risk assessment protocols or for safety substantiation. So many lawmakers who pushed the measure across the finish line also attended the ceremony and celebration this morning. President Obamas signing of the bill gives the Environmental Protection Agency an unmistakable mandate from Congress that it must continue to embrace 21st century science and transition away from outdated animal testing protocols, which are expensive, slow, and often non-predictive of the human circumstance. I wrote recently that the EPA is dramatically decreasing animal tests for pesticide hazard assessments, and is now working to replace animal tests in its endocrine screening program. In fact, in 2016, the EPA proposed to waive skin lethal dose tests for pesticide formulations. To be sure, this is a global movement, and there is progress on many fronts. In 2013, the European Union banned cosmetic animal testing and trade, and India followed suit the next year. Recently, we announced that Australia will soon join that club. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a consensus body of 34 member nations, including the United States, has embraced the concept of using the best new techniques and approaches for safety assessment, and that will also accelerate the move away from animal testing on the international stage. We are making gains in other domains where animal testing has long been a feature of risk assessment. In 2012, our Humane Society International team in Europe worked to reduce animal testing requirements, perhaps by as much as 50 percent, for risk assessment for pesticides and biocides. Weve also succeeded in convincing Brazil, Canada, the EU, and India to delete a notorious one-year dog pesticide-poisoning study requirement (the United States deleted the requirement back in 2007). In the past year HSI also worked with the EU to adopt animal replacement methods for skin/eye irritation, skin allergy, skin lethal dose testing, and a reduced animal use test for reproductive toxicity under its chemicals law potentially sparing 2.6 million animals the effects of these painful tests, while the Indian health ministry banned repeat animal testing of new drug imports. In all, there is evidence around the globe that a combination of moral intention to reduce and eliminate animal testing and implementation of new technologies that give us superior options are ushering in a new paradigm in the realm of safety testing and drug efficacy work. This is the humane economy in action, and the new law on chemical testing is an enormous advance for our cause. The long-established practice of poisoning animals for a variety of purposes is on the way out, and it will be replaced by human biology that will give us better results and not leave a trail of animal victims in our wake. For the first timewell actually be able to regulate chemicals effectively. @POTUS on #ChemicalSafety Act: https://t.co/3YoAKwoq9G White House Archived (@ObamaWhiteHouse) June 22, 2016 The combination of reduced odds of a near-term Federal Reserve rate hike, rising crude oil prices and risk-on trade has seen Canadian Dollar (CAD) exchange rates climb today. The US dollar has failed to make any sort of sustained advance against the Canadian dollar today. There may be a bipartite reason for this; in the first case, concerns about the incoming EU Referendum results have lowered confidence in the Buck throughout the week. In addition, the afternoons US new home sales and leading indicators results for May both dropped off heavily. The US dollar exchange rates slumped sharply on Thursday morning after the IMF unexpectedly lowered its growth forecast for 2016 from 2.4% to 2.2%, adding fuel to speculation of a fresh slowdown. As a result the chances of an imminent Fed interest rate hike seemed to decline, putting strong downside pressure on the USD/CAD exchange rate in spite of safe-haven demand. Investors are hopeful that the latest US crude oil inventories report will show a continued decline in domestic stockpiles, a result which would shore up the price of the commodity and the Loonie by extension. However, if the figure shows an unexpected increase in the number of barrels held then the Canadian Dollar is likely to return to a bearish trend. As traders await Canadas retail sales data, the Canadian Dollar edged higher versus a number of its major peers. The GBP CAD exchange rate is still trending within a narrow range, however, as reduced odds of a Brexit has supported both assets. Expectations that Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen will continue to adopt a dovish tone when testifying to the House Financial Services Committee has also propped up the Loonie (CAD). Below are the latest FX rates for your reference; On Wednesday the Pound to British Pound exchange rate (GBP/GBP) converts at 1 FX markets see the pound vs pound exchange rate converting at 1. At time of writing the pound to us dollar exchange rate is quoted at 1.163. At time of writing the pound to australian dollar exchange rate is quoted at 1.791. Please note: the FX rates above, updated 26th Oct 2022, will have a commission applied by your typical high street bank. Currency brokers specialise in these type of foreign currency transactions and can save you up to 5% on international payments compared to the banks. Pound Sterling (GBP) Exchange Rates Mixed but Holding Strength on Reduced Brexit Odds Somewhat at odds with the freshest EU referendum opinion polls that show the vote is going to be too close to call, trader confidence that the UK will vote to remain in the EU has caused Sterling to soar. Although today as seen a modest depreciation against a number of its peers, with particular reference to risk-correlated assets, the UK unit is holding a comparative position of strength. With a complete absence of domestic data to provoke changes, the Pound is likely to continue holding recent gains unless there is a significant development that suggests Leave will be victorious. Canadian Dollar (CAD) Exchange Rates Tick Higher ahead of Retail Sales Data Against most of its major peers the Canadian Dollar edged higher thanks to risk-on trade and rising crude oil prices. A succession of dovish speeches from Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen also supported demand for the Loonie, with most traders expecting todays testimony from the Fed Chief to parrot previous concerns. Later today, Canadas Retail Sales data may provoke CAD volatility. However, crude oil prices and market sentiment will be likely to overshadow domestic data results. EU Referendum Takes Center Stage for the USD/CAD Exchange Rate Outlook Though US data is out tomorrow, it may not be enough to counteract EU Referendum forces from the UK. The Buck has been notably weak for most of the week, at least partly on account of concerns that an Out vote may cut the US off from trillions in trade. Because of this, USD movement may be primarily dictated by the perceived swing of the Referendum vote, instead of the afternoons claims and home sales stats from the US. When asked about the best places for expats in France the great cities like Paris, Lyon and Bordeaux often come to min but a new study has found that it is the Breton capital of Rennes that comes out top.It has been named as the best city for foreigners to live in across France for all-round quality of life in a study that looked at several categories including jobs, air links, rents, public transport, weather, nightlife and culture.In second place was Nantes which scored highly for having green spaces, international flights and low rents, followed by Bordeaux which scored well for air links, nightlife and sunshine. Paris came in fifth place and scored badly for housing costs with average monthly rents of over 1,000.Rennes is already well known as being a great city for students but now the city, which has a population of just 200,000 has been voted the best in a poll carried out by The Local online news site.And it is not a total surprise to Mayor Nathalie Appere who said the French have long appreciated the appeal of the city which houses the Brittany Parliament. She pointed out that the upcoming 90 minute rail link to Paris, new Metro works, and a 2 billion investment in public services will make it even more so.Others who are not surprised include Ryan Carter, an Englishman who co-owns the Fox and Friends pub in Rennes. Its a brilliant place to live. Youve got everything you need but in a small format. Youre not lost as you would be in a big city like Paris or Lyon, he told The Local France.Many outside France may not even have heard of Rennes, but foreigners who already live there are not surprised it topped the rankings given the quality of life. Lyon, Bordeaux, and Paris are great cities, but they are overwhelmingly big and can be intimidating to someone visiting France for the first time, said Georgia Wyche, an American English teacher who has been living in Rennes for two years.The size of Rennes is quite comfortable and not intimidating. It's a lively university and student city that is accustomed to opening the door to foreigners, she added.Rennes scored highly in several categories including nightlife, for which it is renowned and indeed only Lille and Clermont-Ferrand have more bars per inhabitant. Rennes was also the city in France with the most amount of green space per inhabitant at 42 square meters compared to the national average of 31 square meters.Rennes also had the lowest unemployment rate of all the 13 cities in the study and low average monthly rents of just 470. It also tied with Nantes in third place for having a local accent thats quite pleasing to the ear.It does have some downsides, including a lack of Michelin starred restaurants and places of culture and the average hours of sunshine were poor compared to cities like Marseille, Nice and Montpellier. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate A pair of rockets designed by Alamo Heights High School students and unveiled Tuesday morning have the potential to travel 100,000 feet or higher but their range as educational tools seemed higher still. Every year I learn from this program, and the places I learn the most are from the students, said Colin Lang, who has been leading the rocket building class at Alamo Heights for nine years. The craft, 12 feet and 18 feet tall, were built in conjunction with the SystemsGo program, each with a different goal once launched. Both rockets will be tested at the U.S. Army missile range in White Sands, New Mexico next week. Students who constructed the shorter rocket want it to fly as high as possible; those behind the taller one designed it for a payload a metal canister containing rocks authorized by NASA to help the space organization test the containers ability to deliver material gathered from other planets. The payloads extra weight is expected to limit the altitude the rocket can reach but no one knows how high that will be. If we get the perfect flight, the rocket will reach 40,000 feet when the payload will be ejected, guessed Graham Douglas, who worked on it as a senior and graduated this year. The program at Alamo Heights has been around long enough for a track record to emerge. Lang said about 90 percent of its students go on to study engineering once they graduate high school. The first year the rocket training class was offered, it had 17 students this year there were 150 spread over four classes. Were one of the five high schools that does this but were one of only three that has successfully launched (a rocket of this size), Lang said. Weve had three successful launches in four years. Each one seems to get a little better. Though he originally planned on going into journalism, Douglas said three years in the rocket training class has steered him toward Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, where he will study aerospace engineering starting this fall. When she counts giving up lunch periods and coming to school during vacations, Tamara Bayegan estimates she put about 400 hours into working on the payload rocket. Also a graduating senior, she said she is ecstatic to go to White Sands to hopefully see it get off the launch pad. There are a bunch of situations where it could go wrong, Bayegan said. We just want it to go at least a few thousand feet. The rocket training class is competitive, she said. If grades arent maintained to a high standard, students are not allowed to work on the rocket or can even be kicked out of the class, she said. When we test the payload for NASA, the idea is that we can bring back rocks and samples from other planets, Douglas said. We have tried to do it in years prior but we never actually completed it. This will be the first year weve tried a payload. The rockets will be tracked with a radar system once they launch. One of Langs favorite parts about teaching the class, he said, is seeing the success his students achieve after high school. Erick Castillon said he contemplated dropping out of Alamo Heights his junior year but stayed in school after taking two years of rocket training classes. He went on to be the youngest intern at NASA when he was 19 and is attending the University of Texas at San Antonio. Lang estimated the cost of creating both rockets at between $8,000 and $10,000. They are working with industrial standard equipment, Lang said. Its dangerous and most teachers think Im crazy. Its a risk to do this, but its so worth it. kcarlson@express-news.net This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate In Las Vegas last week, Donald Trumps Nevada headquarters stood dark. A sign taped to the door declared it had moved, with no forwarding information available. On a weekday morning in New Hampshire, another battleground state in November, a single worker hovered in Trumps main office in Manchester. And at the hub of his national campaign in Manhattans Trump Tower, Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has cloistered himself with a tiny group of relatives and longtime business associates, relying on a staff of about six dozen people to win over an electorate of more than 120 million. The situation has grown so dire for Trump that on Tuesday, he suggested that he might tap his personal fortune to keep the campaign afloat. He disclosed Monday that his campaign finished May with little more than $1 million in the bank. Hillary Clinton, his presumptive Democratic opponent, reported having about $42 million. And Trumps campaign expenses are hardly inspiring confidence among people whose money hes pursuing, the Associated Press reported. The spending includes a $423,000 May payment to Mar-a-Lago, the private club in Florida that serves as his vacation home, and enough Trump-branded bottled water to fill a bathtub. In all, hes spent millions of dollars in campaign money to pay his own companies and family members, according to his fundraising report. In a defiant statement, Trump said he was just getting started as a competitor against Clinton and that there had been a tremendous outpouring of support from donors since the beginning of June. But he has mused publicly in recent days about funding the race himself and on Tuesday opened the door wider to that possibility. If need be, there could be unlimited cash on hand as I would put up my own money, as I have already done through the primaries, spending over $50 million, he said. The billionaire businessmans financial woes were enough to inspire the mocking Twitter hashtag #TrumpSoPoor on Tuesday. Clinton also ribbed Trump, tweeting to followers: What is Trump spending his meager campaign resources on? Why, himself, of course. Charles Spies, a Republican election lawyer who advised Jeb Bushs super PAC, said Trump would have to put in an enormous amount of his own money to jump-start his campaign and win over big donors. He suggested an appropriate figure would be $100 million to $200 million. Loans that Trump makes to his campaign can be repaid with donor money, even though he insists he wont do that. Spies said Trump should forgive the loans he had made to his campaign, to reassure contributors that he would not use their money to repay himself. Why would donors give money when the first dollars go to help a billionaire buy products from his own company? Spies asked. Theres nothing illegal about it. Regulations do require companies even ones owned by the candidate to charge fair-market value so as not to run afoul of a ban on corporate campaign contributions. The biggest payment to a Trump company is $4.6 million to TAG Air, the holding company of his airplanes. His campaign headquarters is at Trump Tower in New York. The campaign has paid about $520,000 in rent and utilities to Trump Tower Commercial LLC and to Trump Corporation. For events, he often uses his own properties. The campaign paid out $26,000 in January to rent a facility at Trump National Doral, his golf course in Miami. Hed held an event in the gold-accented ballroom there in late October. The campaign spent another $11,000 on Trumps hotel in Chicago. Even refreshments have a Trump tie. About $5,000 from the campaign went to Eric Trump Wine Manufacturing LLC, which offers Virginia wines bearing the bold letters of Trump. Son Eric Trump also factors into another large Trump campaign expense. The campaign has paid about $4.7 million for hats and T-shirts purchased from Ace Specialties. That company is owned by a board member of Eric Trumps charitable foundation. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Beef farmers in Wales are advised on ways to improve the performance of their herds. The latest Market Bulletin produced by Hybu Cig Cymru Meat Promotion Wales (HCC) uses data released by the British Cattle Movement Service (BCMS) to highlight a number of farm-level changes and substitutions that could lead to increased production and profitability for farmers in Wales. These include revised calving intervals; calving heifers as early as possible; avoiding difficult calvings when selecting bulls and calving heifers; cow longevity; and meeting market and processor requirements. Average calving intervals for beef cows on holdings in Wales and England stood at 428 and 424 days respectively in 2015; both considerably more than the desired 365 days. "A long calving interval can cause multiple herd management problems and impact on the profitability of a beef enterprise," explains HCCs Industry Information Executive, John Richards. "Beef farmers are encouraged to reduce calving intervals and aim for shorter calving periods and easier cow and calf management. "Beef producer prices have come under increasing pressure over the last six months, with many farmers looking at the viability of their enterprise. "We are starting to see a slight uplift in price, driven by reduced imports, but we are still off target. "Producers are therefore advised to contact their proposed market to ensure that they meet their requirements." BCMS data for 2015 also suggests that the average age of first-time calvers in Wales was 1,022 days (or 33 months) 5 days more than in England. The figures also show that the average age of death for beef dams on Welsh holdings was 9 years old, producing an average 5.5 calves in their lifetime. In some cases, these cows could have produced at least one more calf; producers should therefore look to calve their heifers as early as possible to increase calf production and herd profitability. Falling milk production across the UK and Europe, a slight lift in dairy commodity auction prices and firmer spot markets for milk have produced the first glimmer of good news for Scottish dairy farmers in almost two years. However, the vast majority of Scotlands 950 remaining dairy farmers are a long way from a return to profitability. That means all milk buyers must waste no time in responding to these positive price signals, and delivering price rises back to farmers. NFU Scotland will use Scotlands biggest agricultural event, the Royal Highland Show which starts at Ingliston near Edinburgh tomorrow (Thursday 23 June) - to push milk processors and retailers on the need to drive milk prices upwards. Analysts estimate that UK production for April is down 3.5 percent and that production across Europe is declining, with production falls in key dairying nations such as Germany and Ireland. Global and European dairy commodity auctions have shown small but consistent improvements in recent weeks and the spot price for milk in the UK has increased by between 1p and 2p per litre. 'Family farms under considerable pressure' However, the majority of Scottish dairy farmers continue to receive a milk price less than 19p per litre with many receiving less than 16p for their milk. That leaves hard-working Scottish dairy farmers hugely exposed and efficient, family farms under considerable pressure. NFU Scotland President, Allan Bowie said: "Lets be absolutely clear milk prices have a huge distance to go if they are to return Scottish dairy farmers to profitability and rebuild the damage to confidence in the future for milking cows. "In these statistics, we have the strongest indication yet that the tide is starting to turn and the UK dairy chain must waste no time in responding through milk price improvements. "And with supply declining, spot markets lifting and commodity prices firming, traders and processors will be placed under severe pressure from NFU Scotland to respond immediately. That process will continue at the Highland Show. "These are the toughest times in the dairy sector in living memory. If they value their supply, there must be absolutely no delay in milk companies and co-operatives passing any increased value in the chain back to producers. "That requires all milk purchasers to act responsibly and operate within the Code of Practice set for milk contracts. "An appalling feature of the current volatile marketplace is the decision taken by some in the supply chain to capitalise on the weak position of farmers, passing on the full consequences of poor markets to their supplying farmers. "That has seen a minority of irresponsible milk processors drag the sector in a downward spiral, as the more responsible processors are forced to compete. "This is not merely about pricing, but wider contract issues and the need for a supply chain that shares risk and reward in a fair and transparent manner and allows farm businesses to plan and invest with some degree of confidence. "Never has there been a time when farmers should be pressing for better contractual terms so that all share the challenge of volatility and periods of low prices in the future." A recruitment campaign to establish nine new monitor farmers across Scotland is being launched this week. The new monitor farms project, which will be funded by 1.25million secured from the Scottish Government and European Unions Knowledge Transfer and Innovation Fund, will be run jointly by Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) and AHDB Cereals & Oilseeds. The two organisations are looking for interested farmers in the following areas: Nithsdale; Scottish Borders; North Ayrshire; Lothians; Mearns & Angus; Lochaber; Morayshire; Sutherland; and The Northern Isles. The aim of the programme is to establish farms, typical of their area, as monitor farms to help improve the profitability, productivity and sustainability of producers through practical demonstrations, the sharing of best practice and the discussion of up-to-date issues. Cabinet Secretary for Rural Economy and Connectivity Fergus Ewing said: "New agricultural techniques and the uptake of innovation and technology can make a real difference to improve productivity and farm business profitability, and it is essential that they are available to Scottish producers. "That is why the sharing of best practice, adoption of new ideas and research and development carried out at monitor farms is so important. "I am pleased the Scottish Government is able to support this project through funding from the Scottish Rural Development Programme. "I look forward to this ambitious new monitor farm programme playing a leading role in the transformational change of farm and rural business in Scotland to successfully meet the challenges ahead. Strong track record in Scotland QMS Head of Industry Development, Douglas Bell, said that monitor farms have established a strong track record in Scotland and the new programme would build on the success of the initial programme which launched in 2003. "Previous programmes have taken a sectoral approach, but in order to address the challenges currently facing farmers, this new joint initiative between AHDB Cereals and Oilseeds and QMS will focus on improving whole business management and profitability," said Mr Bell. "While maximising returns at enterprise level will remain integral, the relationships between different enterprises will be explored at a business, technical and environmental level." Each of the nine new monitor farms will have its own management team and an associated business group that will evaluate solutions and best practice before sharing its findings, both with the wider community groups and more generally, through various media channels including a dedicated website. Gavin Dick of AHDB Cereals & Oilseeds said: "This new monitor farm project will have positive economic, environmental and social impacts right across Scottish agriculture. "Were taking the existing monitor farm scheme and giving it a bold new direction, in order to help Scottish farmers meet what could be a very challenging future." The criteria for selection specify that farming has to be the full-time profession of at least one of the family members and the farmers need to be willing to disclose information about their businesses with a group of neighbouring farmers and embrace the opportunity for innovation on their farms. The appointed facilitators will work with their monitor farmer to show how the use of accurate baseline and benchmarking information can help to improve the profitability of the monitor farm and other farm businesses in the area. Plans have been hatched to build a brand new hen re-homing and education centre in North Devon. The British Hen Welfare Trust has submitted an application to North Devon Council to build the centre at Hen Central in Rose Ash, near South Molton. It comes after the charitys rapid expansion in recent years, and after the BHWT re-homed its 500,000th hen in January. As well as providing a dedicated re-homing base in North Devon the centre will also be used for educational training, inviting in schools and individuals to find out more about hen-keeping, hen-health, the work of the charity and more. BHWT Rehoming Centre - 3D Inside Preview If approved, the centre will be built on a piece of land next to Hope Chapel in Rose Ash. At present the BHWT re-homes out of a garage at Hen Central which can present difficulties, meaning the charity urgently needs a secure chicken and visitor-friendly building. The charitys re-homing days see re-homers travel from far and wide to collect hens which they then take home as pets thereby saving the birds from slaughter. Jane Howorth, founder of the charity, said: "This is an incredible opportunity to expand the work of the BHWT, which has already done so much to improve the lives of thousands of ex-commercial hens. "I am really excited about potentially providing a purpose-built centre which will not only be a facility for re-homing hens, but can also educate schoolchildren, businesses and individuals alike about hen welfare. "We hope our supporters, partners and the general public will get behind us to support the development which, if approved, will require us to fundraise in the near future." It is estimated the build will cost around 200,000 which the BHWT will look to raise through donations. Ian Firth of Bondstones, which is managing the project, said: "I am very happy to be supporting the British Hen Welfare Trust and am really excited about the opportunity." The EU Commission has released milk production figures for April, which show the the 28 member states produced 437m litres of milk per day in the month. AHDB Dairy looks at the figures: "This was 5m litres per day more than April last year, although that only equates to a year-on-year increase of 1.1%. "Between October 2015 and March 2016, the EU-28 was running 5% up on the previous year. Graph "Breaking the data down by country, shows milk production continued to increase in Germany and Netherlands, but fell in the UK, France and Ireland. "Ireland was running 28% up in March, but recorded a 4% decline in April as a result of poor grazing conditions and low milk prices. "However, because of the over-quota situation in Ireland in March 2015, there were reports that some milk was held over from March to April in order to avoid additional super-levy penalties. "As such, Irish milk production in April 2015 was probably inflated, which will explain part of the year-on-year fall recorded this year. "According to the Irish Farmers Journal, Irish milk production is up again in May, with most milk buyers recording year-on-year increases of 5-10%." A futuristic Dutch collaboration is using the most of modern science to push out an idea of how to feed growing populations despite decreasing amounts of space to grow food. The Floating Farm will produce various kinds of milk and yogurt from its location docked in the port of Rotterdam. The project aims to address the problem of how to feed a growing population when competition for land is growing. The project is an experiment in urban self-sufficiency The project is a partnership between three companies. Courage is the innovation institute of the Dutch Agriculture and Dairy sector, Uit Je Eigen Stad runs urban farms in cities across the Netherlands and Beladon is an authority on floating structures. Each cow will have around 160 square feet of space more than most land-based dairy farms while being contained within a space 3050 times smaller. Using a bridge between the farm and the dock, cows will also have access to an adjacent pasture when tides permit. The project is an experiment in urban self-sufficiency, with the companies aiming to establish whether its possible for an entire city to become entirely self-reliant in terms of food production and waste, clean water, and power. The farm will measure 40 x 32 m (131 x 105 ft) and the plan is for it to produce dairy goods on a daily basis. There will be enough space for 40 cows, producing in the region of 1,500 kg (3,300 lb) of milk every day. Floating Farm says it would be very possible to scale the design up so as to accommodate 200 cows with a daily milk output of 5,000 kg (11,000 lb). Urine produced by the cows will drain through the floor and into an air-tight storage facility. By keeping it contained here, ammonia emissions will be limited and it will be able to be distributed for use as fertilizer for city farms. Poland has been steadily increasing its presence on the UK pig meat market, which seems set to continue. AHDB Marketing Intelligence looks to explore some of the factors behind this movement. There has been a steady growth for processed products, notably canned hams, following Polands accession to the EU in 2004, while imports of fresh pork have started to take off. Imports of processed hams and shoulders amounted to 36,000 tonnes in 2015 and since 2007, when it really started to develop, has more than trebled. AHDB Marketing Intelligence Graph Sausages also account for a significant quantity of imports, 17,000 tonnes in 2015, although these have grown more slowly. Such product is generally branded and sold not only through Polish retail outlets but increasingly through mainstream outlets. For example, the ASDA website includes Authentic Polish Foods, with a wide range of processed pig meat products. Other multiples also sell a range of Polish processed meats. The number of UK residents born in Poland now amounts to 850,000, although the true figure for the Polish population will be higher, as families will have children born in the UK. Therefore, this accounts for a growing market for those customers seeking indigenous foodstuffs from the country in which they were born. UK imports of Polish pork more than doubled UK imports of fresh/frozen Polish pork more than doubled, to reach 11,300 tonnes, in 2015. As recently as 2010, imports only amounted to 750 tonnes. This pork is destined for secondary processing and mainly consists of chilled boneless cuts and bellies. However, one major Polish meat processor, ZM Wierzejki, which has 170 retail outlets in Poland, opened its first shop in East Acton,West London, at the end of last year. Its press release indicates it has plans to open a dozen new stores and attract not just Polish consumers. The meat-processing sector in Poland is sourcing its raw material from both domestic producers and imported product, some of which is subsequently re-exported. Major investment is taking place, including by Scandinavian companies, some of which has yet to come on stream. According to IFIP in France, much of this investment is geared towards supplying the UK market and the premium prices that it can offer. This includes investment in cutting plants and further processing facilities. For domestic production, the Polish breeding herd has been in steady decline, as the sector is very fragmented and suffers from low productivity. As many as 46% of sows were located on holdings with less than 100 sows in December 2013. The most recent census recorded a decline in the breeding herd of 16%, with total pig numbers falling by 12%. Poland increasingly importing from other EU countries However, pig slaughterings and production have been more stable since 2010, as Poland has been importing increasing numbers of finishers from other Member States to support production levels, notably from Denmark, which accounted for 80% of total trade in 2015. In 2006, only 168,000 weaners were imported by Poland but by 2015 official figures show a rise to 4.63 million. In reality, the true figure may be in excess of this based on Danish export data. Polish slaughtering companies have also been sourcing more imported slaughter pigs, which reached a peak of almost 1.1 million head in 2014, but which fell back by one half in 2015. In the case of imported pork, in 2015 Poland received 128,000 tonnes from Denmark, of which almost 60% was fresh bone - in cuts for cutting up. Of the 186,000 tonnes imported from Belgium, 90% was in fresh carcase form. As a result, Poland has been increasing both its imports and exports of fresh and frozen pork in recent years. In 2015 imports amounted to 676,000 tonnes and exports 404,000 tonnes. The difference will be partly the result of the growing export trade in processed pig meat products, led by hams and shoulders. While Poland is not yet a major player on the UK market (its market share of all pig meat imports is still only 7%), it certainly is on the EU market. Even if its pig meat production is no longer expanding, its low labour rates and increased investment in processing is sucking in more imported product for subsequent re-export, including to the UK. Volumes of processed products have been rising year-on-year, and increasing investment would suggest that this is set to continue. Nick White has been appointed as the new head of domestic marketing for beef and lamb at the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB). Nick originally joined AHDB in 2013, when he acted as interim head of marketing for AHDB Beef & Lamb (then EBLEX) for a 12-month period. During this time he instigated the successful Mini Roast campaign (Why Wait Til Sunday?), which continues to be core to the organisations market development strategy. Following this, he then moved into the head of marketing role for AHDB Potatoes (previously the Potato Council), where he launched the three-year EU campaign, Potatoes More Than a Bit on the Side. The first year of the campaign is coming to an end and has already had good engagement and pick-up from the potato industry. Nick brings a wealth of marketing knowledge to the role. He has previously held senior marketing positions for companies including First Milk, where he was marketing director of their cheese portfolio, and Muller Dairy, where he was head of marketing for Ireland and had UK responsibility for a number of their popular brands. Speaking about his appointment, Nick said: "I am thrilled to be given the opportunity to head up the domestic marketing team for beef and lamb. "Encouraging consumption of quality assured beef and lamb is a key part of our work to support the long-term sustainability of the sector. "I look forward to building on the success of last years mini roast campaign alongside other elements of our marketing plan and promoting the great products our beef and sheep industry is producing." Cost of living crisis could trigger 'winter crime epidemic' on farms If elected on July 2, Mr Ford would look "for projects that are novel, using existing and new industries and assets, so our region can grow and our children have diverse job opportunities near their homes if they want to stay in the region." Mr Mazza said the government's decision to invest $23 million in Doppler weather radar stations was largely due to Mr Hallett's tenacity and persistence and that he was instrumental in reversing last year's decision to close the Jakarta trade office, which would have damaged WA's livestock export and other markets. capitol dome (DAN GLEITER, THE PATRIOT-NEWS) Good Wednesday Morning, Fellow Seekers. Just days after the U.S. Senate. rejected Republican and Democratic bills that would have made it more difficult for suspected terrorists to obtain guns, a Bucks County lawmaker is making his own run at the issue. Democratic Rep. Steve Santarsiero is pushing what's known as a "discharge resolution" to spring his own watchlist proposal from the House Judiciary Committee, ABC-27 reports. The odds of Santarsiero's gambit are long. Discharge resolutions, which require House approval, rarely work. Ditto for the bill itself - which is unlikely to get a "yes" vote from the Republican-controlled chamber. "I think we need to do everything we can to make sure extremists are not getting ahold of firearms," Santasiero, who's also running for Bucks County's 8th Congressional District, told ABC-27's Dennis Owens. Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, R-Butler, the chair of the House State Government Committee, told ABC-27 that it's "common sense" that terrorists shouldn't be able to buy guns. But Metcalfe said he doesn't trust the federal government to fairly administer a watch list of suspected terrorists. And "rather than addressing the radical Islamic terrorist issue, they want to try and shift it to a debate on the Second Amendment," he told Owens. A House source said Tuesday that the Judiciary Committee, chaired by Rep. Ron Marisco, R-Dauphin, could meet as soon as Wednesday morning to move Santarsiero's bill to the "[Rules Committee] or somewhere to die." We'll be trying to reach Marsico's office this morning to confirm the action. The rest of the day's news starts now. The state House has signed off on a bill severely restricting abortion rights, our Capitol colleague Charlie Thompson reports. Two Pennsylvania women have sued a Catholic priest and the Altoona-Johnstown diocese alleging sexual assault, The Associated Press reports (via The Tribune-Review). DNC convention organizers are prepared for protesters and delegates alike, The Post-Gazette reports. Philadelphia Magazine has endorsed Hillary Clinton for president. Now that he's been convicted, people are calling on U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah, D-2nd District, to give up his seat in Congress, The Inquirer reports. BillyPenn has your quick guide to what happened with Fattah's 29-count conviction. Ahead of the state budget deadline, Gov. Tom Wolf has scaled back his demands. He's now dropped his call for a personal income tax hike, NewsWorks/WHYY-FM reports. The owner of an Emmaus-area gun range was stopped at the Holland Tunnel for carrying a stash of body armor and guns, The Morning Call reports. Here's U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa. , in a radio interview, discussing how he really feels about Donald Trump (via PoliticsPA ). In the fight of his political life, Sen. John McCain lets loose to Politico on Obamacare. A terror watchlist bill in the U.S. Senate sponsored by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, is gaining bipartisan support. The bill has raised White House concerns because it affects fewer people, Roll Call reports. What Goes On. 11 a.m., Main Rotunda: School principals rally for funding (rescheduled from Monday). 12 p.m., Main Rotunda: Americans for Prosperity makes the unlikely argument that Pa. should mimic the strategies that cratered Kansas. What Goes On (Nakedly Political Edition). 7:30 a.m.: Breakfast for Rep. Bernie O'Neill 5:30 p.m: Reception for Rep. John Galloway The two events will set you back a max of $6,000. WoflWatch Gov. Tom Wolf is scheduled to address EqualityPa's Legislative Action Day today at 10:30 a.m. in the Capitol rotunda. Heavy Rotation. Here's something a little trance-y to get your Wednesday morning going. And now you're up to date. See you all back here in a bit. What was it like to be an Oath Keeper? John Zimmerman can tell you STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Nicole Milea, a local special education teacher who calls Great Kills home, recently published a unique children's book titled "My Friend Henry," a remarkable project that inspires kids to see abilities within disabilities. Nicole reveals she penned her book to be used as a platform to initiate conversation with young children/students and help shed light on disabilities awareness and acceptance of differences. She adds "My Friend Henry" translates into a light hearted narrative depicting a not so typical yet compatible and enlightening friendship. "It provides a charming, connective and engaging interpretation of the simple beauty that can happen when individuals come together in understanding, acceptance and perfectly-imperfect harmony," Nicole further explains. Says she: "Reading to children is a top way to help them understand and be able to spread acceptance and make a difference. And I had a book release/launch party/celebration/disabilities awareness fundraiser on June 5th at Flagship Brewery, St. George, where 100% of the proceeds from the event was donated to United Cerebral Palsy and Autism Speaks." Interestingly, the main character, Henry, is based on Nicole's real-life pet chinchilla of the same name. Nicole has spent her career teaching, supporting and learning from individuals with varying disabilities. She points out both the UCP and Autism Speaks are tremendous organizations in the disabilities community who show support for not only the book but for the book signing event as well. Autism speaks has posted on its Staten Island, NYC and main organization social media sites -- Twitter having over 211,000 followers!), and UCP more than 10,000 followers. "The book seems to be gaining a lot of speed in the special needs community and I would like to spread awareness about the project, inasmuch as there are many people in the community who are looking forward to see it acknowledged -- especially organizations for the developmentally challenged," Nicole continues. "The book will help children realize the beauty they can create by understanding and accepting their disabled classmates and neighbors." Nicole plans to use the book as a starting point to develop educational acceptance programs for children. Her website also features a lesson plan to help interested teachers incorporate "My Friend Henry" into classrooms. Having worked with individuals of various ages, Nicole's passion for her craft extends well beyond the classroom, from early intervention to providing therapy to children in their homes and managing an adult group home. Nicole is a fierce advocate for disabilities awareness of all kinds and she plans to continue working diligently in order to bring further awareness to the cause. "My Friend Henry" is currently available for purchase online at Amazon, or in Barnes & Nobles and all other book retailers. For additional information, visit MyFriendHenry.com. CELEBRATIONS: JUNE 22 Happy birthday Wednesday to Bonnie Bibula, Maggie Riccardi, Lester Puci, Victoria Larsen, Michele Byrne-McGowan and Jennifer Fox. Indias new bankruptcy code is a promising development in a jurisdiction where it is difficult to start a business and a nightmare to shut it down. Global distressed debt funds are focusing on India and there is great potential to clear out bad loans and zombie companies. Anyone in the finance industry or with existing operations in India should pay close attention. On balance, its a positive development. But will any banker in India take a haircut on a loan, whatever the new code says? A banker cutting a deal under current political conditions risks an investigation by Indias anti-corruption and other law enforcement agencies. Indias genuine progress is addressing high-level systemic corruption has become an unintended impediment to clearing out the deadwood of non-performing assets (NPA) that lays like tinder under the Indian economy. While the bankruptcy code is not simply about helping lenders clean up their balance sheets, without that flexibility there is little hope for implementing the code effectively. The problems are largely self-inflicted. Discussions about non-payment of loans in India are burdened with morality, according to Raghuram Rajan, the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, the countrys central bank. There is a knee-jerk impulse to seek criminal sanctions against loan defaulters, and to investigate the bankers who made such loans. It is a completely separate issue of who to blame and whether there is criminal liability involved. In some fraction of the cases there may be criminal liability involved. That should be separated from the whole issue of putting the assets back on track, Rajan has said. Allowing businesses to discharge debt through bankruptcy runs counter to the Indian political desire to demonstrate populist credentials. There are also genuine reasons to treat NPAs with suspicion. Bad loans in developing markets are often the residue of corruption, where banks make economically unviable loans under political pressure. In addition, kickbacks to bankers for commercial loans are a routine occurrence in both public and private banks in India. The enforcement risks to bankers are very real. Indias central law against domestic corruption, the Prevention of Corruption Act, covers actions by public sector banks and bankers. A recent court decision extended coverage of the act to private sector bankers. And while conviction rates in India for such offences are typically very modest, the pain inflicted by an investigations is a very real threat. Bankers fear that investigative agencies will continue to routinely look into legitimate business decisions, according to industry sources. As a consequence, public sector lending volume has declined significantly in the past year. The government is publicly discussing some form of protection for banks and bankers to help ameliorate the threat of prosecution, but the political sensitivities involved in such a program are significant. So while the effectiveness of the bankruptcy code will take years to assess, there are some immediate practical implications. Anyone investing or acquiring a business with loans in India needs to scrub those obligations very carefully for potential corruption or other risks. Tax authorities in India are also aggressive in inspecting any re-evaluation of assets. The potential for political involvement in routine commercial activities involving loans is significant and difficult for outsiders to predict. As for Indian banks and bankers until the political environment cools and the bankruptcy regulations mature, they should lawyer up and keep their heads down. ____ Russell Stamets is a Contributing Editor of the FCPA Blog. He was the first non-Indian general counsel of a publicly traded Indian company and was general counsel for a satellite broadcasting joint venture of a large Indian business house. Hell be a speaker at the FCPA Blog NYC Conference 2016. The SEC has now awarded more than $85 million to 32 whistleblowers since the whistleblower program started in 2011. Last year it received nearly 4,000 tips from every state and the District of Columbia, as well as 61 foreign countries. How does the SEC handle tips? Sean McKessy, chief of the SEC Office of the Whistleblower, posted this transcript (from a video presentation) on the SEC website: * * * We are often asked what happens after a whistleblower submits a tip, so today, I will walk you through how the investigative process works, and your role as a whistleblower. First, when you submit a tip, make sure you use the Form TCR, which is required for you to be considered a whistleblower for this program. It contains declarations of eligibility that you must sign off on. You can submit anonymously and be part of the whistleblower program, but if you do submit anonymously you must be represented by counsel. When you submit a whistleblower tip, you will receive a TCR submission number. Please retain this submission number for your reference, but dont worry if you lose it, we will always be able to find your TCR by your name. When your TCR is submitted to the SEC, our attorneys, accountants, and analysts will review the data you submit to determine how best to proceed. If it is a matter the Enforcement Division is working on already, the TCR gets forwarded to the staff handling that matter. Often a TCR gets sent to the experts in another Division at the SEC for their evaluation. Even if your tip does not cause us to open an investigation right away, the information you provide is retained and may be reviewed again in the future if more facts come to light and a picture becomes clearer. In any event, please know that each tip received is evaluated very soon after being received by the SEC and it is looked at by at least two SEC attorneys. If we need additional information to evaluate your tip, or to assist us in any resulting investigation, we will contact you, or your attorney. The best thing you can do to make your tip useful is to provide specific, timely, and credible information. For instance, a general claim that you think your next door neighbor is committing securities fraud does not give our investigators much to go on even if you are right. Our staff will be much better able to pursue an investigation of your tip if they have specific examples, details or transactions to examine. So, the more information and specifics that you can provide to us to follow up on, the better. People often call us to ask if they should submit something, or submit an update, and we will almost always suggest that you submit it. As I often tell people, you never know what information may be the last piece of the puzzle for an investigation. Additionally, we explain that what may seem small or insignificant to you might be critical to an investigation. So, what happens if you submit your tip and it causes an SEC investigation? Our enforcement staff will follow the facts to determine whether to charge an individual, entity or both with securities violations. These investigation can take months or even years to be concluded. Further, even after the investigation is complete and the Commission decides to file a case, the case may be litigated, which may mean significant additional time before the case is resolved. So please understand that it can be a long time before a resolution to the matter is final. That said, once a matter in which over one million dollars in sanction is ordered is final, we will post a Notice of Covered Action on our website. You can sign up to receive an email each time we post a new one and you may also hear from me or someone in the whistleblower office directly to let you know that the case that you reported has been posted. If you recognize the case you brought, you will have 90 days to submit a Form WB-APP to apply for an award. We will respond promptly to acknowledge receipt. From there, we will go into the deeper analysis required by the Commissions rules to determine whether to pay an award, and, if so, how much. The Commissions rules describe seven factors that we use to determine whether to increase or decrease the percentage of an award. The four factors that may increase an award are: (1) the significance of the information provided by the whistleblower, (2) the assistance provided by the whistleblower, (3) any law enforcement interest that might be advanced by a higher award, and (4) the whistleblowers participation in internal compliance systems as in, if you reported on a company that you currently or used to work for, did you report internally first, and did you participate in any internal investigation. There are also three factors that can decrease the percentage of an award. These are (1) culpability, (2) an unreasonable reporting delay by the whistleblower, and (3) interference with internal compliance and reporting systems. Please know, however, that even if of all these negative factors apply, you may still be entitled to an award higher than the ten percent minimum. You can find more information about each of these factors on our website, under the Frequently Asked Questions section. So in summary, please be aware of the following points. The more specific, credible and timely the information you provide, the better it is for our investigators to follow up on. Please also send in any updates or developments that occur. Understand the positive and negative factors the Commission considers in determining an award percentage. And finally, please be aware that that the securities laws can be very complex and that SEC enforcement actions can take years to be finalized. Thank you for listening, if you have any questions, please call us at (202) 551-4790, or visit the frequently asked questions section of our website, www.sec.gov/whistleblower. * * * Sir Cliff Richard still feels "tarnished" by sex abuse allegations. Sir Cliff Richard The 'Summer Holiday' hitmaker - who has been cleared of all allegations made against him - says the Crown Prosecution Service's (CPS) terminology of "insufficient evidence to prosecute" makes it sound like he did commit a crime. He said: "To get the news a couple of days ago telling me that it was good news from the CPS was just fantastic. It's very difficult for me to explain to people what it's been feeling like, what it felt like for me, to be an innocent, but having these vile accusations thrown at me. "The CPS, I mean, it's just what they do ... there are certain terminologies that they have to use, and in this case they never say there is no evidence, they just say insufficient evidence, nothing on which we can prosecute. And so in a way I still feel tarnished because insufficient suggests that maybe there's something there and I know there wasn't." And the 75-year-old star - whose Berkshire home was raided by police in August 2014 whilst the BBC filmed - has hit back at those who decided to name him as he has become "collateral damage" for the last two years. He added: "In the case of people like myself or anybody that is not charged with, this is sexual molestation, the name should never be out there, unless you have been charged, and here I am 22 months and a week later and no charge. I don't like the idea of being collateral damage, and that's what I've been for 22 months." And Cliff admits he is now "very cagey" about having his photograph taken with young people incase ill informed members of the public get the wrong end of the stick. When asked if the ordeal has changed how he trusts people, he told ITV's Good Morning Britain: "Yes to a certain extent it has, I am very cagey now when I am having pictures taken with people. And I don't like that feeling, because I've always had photographs taken with grandparents and their grandchildren. "I have had my arms around their grandchildren, that's my life, I'm a family entertainer and that's what I have done. But that's one thing I am going to have to try and get rid of." Prince Charles was given a tour of an aircraft carrier named after him in Scotland on Tuesday (21.06.16). Prince Charles The 67-year-old royal - the son of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip - couldn't be missed as he arrived at the 65,000-tonne HMS Prince of Wales at Rosyth dockyard on the Firth of Forth in Fife in his hi-visibility jacket. The duke - who is known as the Duke of Rothesay when in Scotland - appeared to be in his element as he spoke to construction workers and crew members before praising them on the "skills and ingenuity" they have for building the new aircraft carrier bearing his title. According to the Daily Mail Online, he said: "It is an enormous tribute to your skills and ingenuity, and all the dedication and effort that so many of you have put not only into this ship but her sister ship the Queen Elizabeth, moored next door. Nothing could have given me greater pleasure than to have been with you on this occasion and look forward enormously to this ship being completed and finally at sea, where it will be a great testament to everything that you have put into the building." Charles then banged a gavel to signal the crane operators to lower the final 570-tonne section into place on the carrier. Sally Bretton is "delighted" to return for a new series of 'Death in Paradise' - which is to have two episodes set in London. Sally Bretton The 36-year-old actress made her first appearance on season five of the BBC One crime drama last year and will reprise her role as Martha Lloyd in the upcoming sixth season, and is excited to see how her character's storyline unfolds throughout the eight-part series. Speaking about her comeback, Sally said: "I am delighted that I have been given the chance to reprise my role as Martha and join the incredible Death In Paradise cast and crew again. My character is a joy to play and I can't wait for the viewers to see how her story unfolds." The forthcoming series will see Sally come to loggerheads with Detective Inspector Humphrey Goodman (Kris Marshall) over a love interest, and follow Saint Marie's crime-fighting Honore police team on their mission to solve a murder case on the idyllic Caribbean island. However, next year's season will see the cast leave paradise head to London from Guadeloupe to film in England's capital for the first time since the show aired in 2011. Speaking about the London-based scenes, the executive producer of the programme, Tim Key said: "We are very excited to be bringing 'Death In Paradise' to London for the very first time. Humphrey Goodman (played by Kim Marshall) has always been a fish out of water in Saint Marie, adjusting to the island's ways and customs, but for the scenes set in London, the roles are reversed as he is back in his hometown, giving an opportunity to explore the characters that viewers know and love against a new backdrop." Sally and Kris will join the long-standing cast Josephione Jobert, who plays DS Florence Cassell, and Officer JP Hooper played by Tobi Bakare, as well as newcomers 'The Night Manager' Douglas Hodge, 'Happy Valley' Ramon Tikaram, 'EastEnders' star Gary Beadle and 'Birds Of A Feather' Mark Powley. 'Death in Paradise', which is created by Robert Thorogood and produced by Sue Howells, is set to air from early 2017. Photo Donald J. Trump regularly boasts that he is self-funding his presidential bid, but new campaign finance filings show that he is also shifting plenty of money back to himself in the process. According to documents submitted to the Federal Election Commission , Mr. Trump, whose campaign has just $1.3 million cash on hand , paid at least $1.1 million to his businesses and family members in May for expenses associated with events and travel costs. The total represents nearly a fifth of the $6 million that his campaign spent in the month. The spending raised eyebrows among campaign finance experts and some of Mr. Trumps critics who have questioned whether the presumptive Republican nominee, who points to his business acumen as a case for his candidacy, is trying to do what he has suggested he would in 2000 when he mulled making an independent run: Its very possible that I could be the first presidential candidate to run and make money on it. He could end up turning a profit if he repaid himself for the campaign loans, said Paul S. Ryan, a campaign finance expert with the Campaign Legal Center. He could get all his money back plus the profit margin for what his campaign has paid himself for goods and services. While most candidates list an array of vendors providing goods and services on their filings, Mr. Trumps is packed with payments to his various clubs and buildings, his fleet of planes and his family. The self-proclaimed billionaire is required by law to account for his spending this way to prevent his companies from making illegal corporate donations to his campaign. In 2015, about $2.7 million was paid to at least seven companies Mr. Trump owns or to people who work for his real estate and branding empire, repaying them for services provided to his campaign. In May, the biggest-ticket item was Mr. Trumps use of the Mar-a-Lago Club, his Florida resort, which was paid $423,000. The campaign paid $350,000 to TAG Air for his private airplanes, $125,000 to Trump Restaurants and more than $170,000 to Trump Tower, the Manhattan skyscraper that houses the campaigns headquarters. Mr. Trumps family also profited from the campaign last month, with his son Erics Virginia wine business taking in about $1,300. Advertisement Continue reading the main story And Mr. Trump, who has said he will not take a salary if he is elected president, paid himself $3,085 in May. The disbursements are related to travel expenses, according to the filings. Mr. Ryan said that the extent to which Mr. Trump was utilizing his own businesses for his run was unprecedented and that because of his unique financial circumstances, he was wading into territory that went beyond the commissions guidance. We dont have clear answers, Mr. Ryan said. Historically, candidates would separate themselves from their business interests when running for office. Trump has done the opposite by promoting his businesses while running for office. While candidates often gain recognition from running for president, they are barred from enriching themselves directly from their campaigns. When a campaign buys copies of a candidates book in bulk and distributes them, for example, the candidate cannot accept royalties from the purchases. However, Mr. Ryan notes that the election commission does allow candidates who own commercial property to rent it from themselves at fair market rates, as Mr. Trump has regularly done. Mr. Trumps use of his branded water and steaks falls into something of a gray area. Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, an election law expert at New York Universitys Brennan Center for Justice, said that Mr. Trump did not appear to be violating any campaign finance laws, but that he could face more scrutiny over the use of his businesses for campaign purposes now that he is more explicitly asking supporters to donate money to the campaign. It is something to keep an eye on, she said, because as soon as you start using campaign money that has come in from donors, not just the money that he has loaned to himself, and he uses it for something that he will personally keep, or his family will personally keep, that is what crosses the line. Whether Mr. Trump could end up profiting from his campaign remains a subject of speculation; some have questioned if he will eventually ask for the more than $40 million that he has lent to his campaign to be repaid. The eventual effect of the campaign on Mr. Trumps personal brand, which he has said represents a large part of his wealth, also remains unclear. Democrats on Tuesday tried to seize on the payments Mr. Trump made to his businesses as evidence of hypocrisy. Commenters on the liberal website Daily Kos ridiculed Mr. Trump for running a scampaign and overstating the personal investment he was making in his campaign by funneling the money back to his empire. Americas Walmart and JD.com, Chinas largest e-commerce company by revenue, have announced that they have formed a strategic alliance to better serve consumers across China through a powerful combination of e-commerce and retail.The agreement between the companies includes a wide range of business initiatives, covering both online and offline retail, Walmart said on its website. For the American retailer, the alliance greatly expands its opportunity in China e-commerce and provides its stores and Sams Clubs with potential traffic from JD.coms significant base of online customers and vast same-day delivery network to serve its customers.For its part, JD.com will leverage Yihaodians strong brand and business in eastern and southern China and in key product categories such as high-quality grocery and household goods, both of which complement its own geographical and product strengths. In addition, JD.coms customers will gain access to a wide range of new and imported items from Walmart and Sams Club.As part of the agreement, Walmart will receive 144,952,250 newly issued JD.com Class A ordinary shares, amounting to approximately 5 per cent of total shares outstanding.Under the agreement, JD.com will take ownership of the Yihaodian marketplace platform assets, including the Yihaodian brand, website and app. Walmart will continue to operate the Yihaodian direct sales business and will be a seller on the Yihaodian marketplace, leveraging its global supply chain to provide customers a wide range of products. JD.com and Walmart will work together on growing the Yihaodian brand and business under its current name and market position.Sams Club China, which has proven tremendously successful within the markets it operates in China, will open a flagship store on JD.com, vastly expanding the availability of Sams Clubs high-quality imported products across China. It will offer same- and next-day delivery through JD.coms nationwide warehousing and delivery network, which covers a population of 600 million consumers. Walmart and JD.com will work together to leverage their supply chains to increase the product selection for customers across China, including broadening the range of imported products. Walmarts China stores will be listed as a preferred retailer on JD.coms O2O JV Dada, Chinas largest crowd-sourced delivery platform, driving online traffic to Walmart stores and allowing customers to order fresh food and other items from Walmart stores for 2-hour home delivery, while significantly broadening the product selection available to Dadas customers. Walmart will continue to operate its own physical stores. Doug McMillon, president and CEO of Walmart. JD.com shares similar values in making the lives of customers better. It also has a very complementary business and is an ideal partner that will help us offer compelling new experiences that can reach significantly more customers. We also look forward to offering customers a tremendous number of quality imported products not previously widely available in China through Walmart and Sams Club. The United States Industrial Fabrics Institute (USIFI), a division of the Industrial Fabrics Association International (IFAI), has announced its formal support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade agreement.The TPP which was signed in February by the US and 11 other countries awaits congressional approval. The United States Industrial Fabrics Institute (USIFI), a division of the Industrial Fabrics Association International (IFAI), has announced its formal support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade agreement. The TPP which was signed in February by the US and 11 other countries awaits congressional approval. The USIFI decided to # The USIFI decided to endorse the TPP after an in-depth review of the final text. It determined that its key objectives were met under the terms of the agreement which includes securing a strong yarn-forward rule of origin for the vast majority of textile and apparel products, and reasonable, multi-year tariff phase-outs for sensitive industrial textile products.The USIFI also determined that the TPP would preserve the Berry and Kissell Amendments, US government procurement laws mandating domestic preferences for national security purposes.It also believes that the trade pact will secure provisions that allow for effective customs enforcement cooperation among the TPP parties and other standard textile chapter terms included in US free trade agreements."The US textile industry can compete globally under trade rules that are reasonable and fair. We extend our thanks to USTR Ambassador Michael Froman and the US textile negotiating team for their strong consideration of our input and analysis regarding provisions important to US industrial textile manufacturers," said Ted Anderson, USIFI Board Chairman and CEO of BondCote Corporation."While every agreement includes tradeoffs, we recognize that the overall outcome on TPP is balanced and reflects core textile industry objectives. As a result, based on the text as drafted and agreed to by the TPP nations, we endorse this agreement," Anderson added.The USIFI is a coalition of domestic US fibre, fabric and end-product manufacturers which serves member company interests in both domestic and international affairs. USIFI is a division of the Industrial Fabrics Association International (IFAI), which represents more than 1,500 members in the specialty textile industry worldwide. (SH) Fibre2Fashion News Desk India Prakash Raj has announced that he will be remaking the recent hit Godhi Banna Sadharna Mykattu in Telugu and Tamil languages, under his banner Prakash Raj Productions. The team held a special screening for Prakash Raj earlier this week, and Prakash Raj liked the movie and shared his views on his social media account - "#godhibannasadharanamykattu proud of this team 4 ushering novelty in #kannadacinema thank you audience 4the response". He went on to say about the current trend of Kannada films, "It's a joy to see such fresh talents #thithi #godhibannasadharanamykattu #uturn #karva being welcomed...by kannada audience. Happy days cheers". Team GBSM, who were ecstatic with Prakash Raj's response, thanked the star through social media. Looks like Prakash Raj has decided to remake this gem into other languages after watching the movie. He approached the producers regarding the same and they were more than happy about their movie being remade into other languages by Prakash Raj. Prakash Raj shared the news of the remakes through social media - "Proud to announce #godhibannasadharanamykattu .. to be made in tamil and Telugu by #prakashraj productions ...Cheers!!" No other details regarding the remake have been officially announced yet. Probably, Prakash Raj will direct the project along with producing and starring in it. In the recent years, he has been reaching out to the audiences with movies which are critically acclaimed in other languages. His last directorial Oggarane was the remake of a Malayalam movie and was well-received in Kannada as well. Prakash Raj is now busy with multiple projects. The Hindi Remake of Oggarane starring Nana Patekar and Shriya Saran is in production. Another movie Idolle Ramayana, which is simultaneously being made in Telugu as Mana Oori Ramayanam is in the post-production stage. Journalist Jogi has written the script and Maestro Ilaiyaraaja is composing the music for this movie. Mohanlal is all set to make a big mark in the Telugu film industry with two back-to-back Telugu films in the form of Manamantha and Janatha Garage. The actor has also went on to learn Telugu to dub for the film Manamantha directed by Chandrasekhar Yeleti. The actor recently posted a picture on his official Facebook page, which shows the actor in a studio dubbing for his upcoming Telugu film Manamantha. The actor also shared his happiness and excitement on dubbing in Telugu and learning the language. Take a look at the Facebook post of the actor.. In fact, it is for the first time that the actor is dubbing in Telugu. The actor had also received many praises while the shooting of the film when the actor had put in a great effort to learn the dialogues in Telugu itself. We all know about the quick learning skills of the actor. In the past, Mohanlal had dubbed for himself in Hindi films like Company, Aag and Tamil films like Iruvar, Popcorn, Unnaipol Oruvan, Jilla etc. Manamantha has been directed by Chandrasekhar Yeleti and the film also has Gautami in an important role. Meanwhile, the actor would also be dubbing for himself in his next Telugu film Janatha Garage which has Jr NTR in the lead role. Both Manamantha and Janatah Garage would be having Tamil and Malayalam versions too, and the actor would be dubbing for all the versions. Well, we appreciate the great efforts taken by Mohanlal and truly, he is one of the most dedicated actors of the Indian film industry. Tamil cinema is not new to the concept of sequels anymore. In fact, in the last few years, numerous sequels have hit the big screen consistently, encouraging film-makers to dish out many such movies. While some sequels narrate the remainder of the story that needs to be told, some begin with a fresh story while keeping the characters intact. Here are 5 such sequels we can't wait to watch: 2.o Starring superstar Rajinikanth, Akshay Kumar and Amy Jackson in the lead, 2.o is the sequel to Enthiran, which released in 2010. Directed by Shankar, 2.o is being made with a budget of 350 Crore rupees. Being captured in the 3D format, 2.o is expected to be a high quality sci-fi movie, on the lines of Hollywood flicks. Vishwaroopam 2 Directed by Kamal Haasan, Vishwaroopam 2 is the sequel to Vishwaroopam, which was a massive hit at the time of its release in 2013. With more than 90 percent of the film already captured, Vishwaroopam 2 is expected to release soon, provided the producers free themselves from their financial crunch. Theri 2 Though not officially confirmed, Theri 2, which will be a sequel to Ilayathalapathy Vijay's Theri, might have the star actor in the lead. Director Atlee had said that the story of Theri 2 has already been penned and that it is left to Vijay to decide whether or not to star in the film. Baahubali: The Conclusion Baahubali: The Conclusion is the sequel to Baahubali: The Beginning, which remains till date as India's highest grossing movie. Being directed by SS Rajamouli, the film, which will release in Telugu, Tamil and Hindi languages, is expected to hit the big screen in April 2017. S3 S3 is the third instalment in the Singam franchise. After tasting success through Singam and Singam 2, directed Hari chose to direct the third film as well. Starring Suriya, Anushka and Shruti Haasan in the lead, S3 will probably hit the theatre later this year. Also Read: 'Jilla' Actor Charandeep Is The Baddie In Demand! Arya, who will be seen playing a tribe in his upcoming movie, which is tentatively titled as 'Kadamban', is all set to shoot with 50 elephants for the climax sequence of the film. Though the schedule starts next month, Arya and the team will head to Thailand this week, as the country is known for rearing elephants. "The schedule starts from July 1, but Arya and the director will be going to Thailand this week because Arya has to attend some training sessions on how to handle the elephants during the shoot. Thailand has a huge elephant pannai and around 50 elephants have been selected from the 300 elephants there. Arya will be trained by mahouts, who will also be present during all the ten days of the shooting schedule. The makers will be spending close to five crore rupees for the climax alone, as renting these elephants is very expensive," a source close to the project told Times of India. Being directed by Ragava, the film, which is set against the backdrop of a forest, will have Catherine Tresa romancing the Naan Kadavul actor. Since the entire movie was shot in forests near Tamil Nadu and Kerala, Arya had to counter snakes and wild animals. "Till now, for most of the films I've done, barring 'Naan Kadavul', for which I shot in Kashi, I have shot in comfortable places like coffee shops, malls, and other places within the city. But this schedule, of shooting in forests amidst snakes and wild animals is really a different experience for me, and I am enjoying it," Arya had said. Meanwhile, the Vasuvum Saravananum Onna Padichavanga actor has signed his next with director Ameer. It is said that the film will be a villaged based subject, on the lines of Ameer's Paruthiveeran. Also Read: 'Muthina Kathirikai' Movie Review & Rating: A Tedious Tale | By Several persons have asked if Im related to the Sanora Babb featured in Ken Burns recent PBS Dust Bowl documentary. After reading her memoir, An Owl on Every Post, years ago, I was determined to meet the author of this wonderful childhood family story. We are distant cousins, and I was fortunate to get to know her in the last years of her life before she died in 2005 at the age of 98. I quickly fell in love with her, influenced no doubt because she looked like and reminded me of the Babb aunts whom I lived with in my early childhood. I miss her. Sanoras life story and her novel about the Dust Bowl victims, Whose Names Are Unknown, are part of the Ken Burns documentary. In it, he tells how she wrote her novel in the late 30s while helping Tom Collins set up the FSA migrant camps in California, but Random House reneged on their contract because a similar book, The Grapes of Wrath, had just been published. Her novel of the Dust Bowl and its devastating effects on farmers in Oklahoma and Kansas, where she was born and lived until she went to Los Angeles in 1929, reflects her personal experiences there and in the camps of California. Critics note the books authenticity, but more important for us readers are the compelling characters she brings to life. She arrived in LA, incidentally, on the day the stock market crashed. The job she had taken with the Associated Press evaporated, and homeless she had to live for a while in Jefferson Park. She said the LA police checked the park at night to be sure the campers, many of whom were women, were safe. Thats not the picture of LA police we have today. Through Sanora I got to know her long-time friend and literary executor, Joanne Dearcopp, whose personal mission is to gain wider recognition of Sanoras work. Joanne is organizing the re-publication of her out-of-print works and seeking a producer for a script of Whose Names Are Unknown. Recently republished, with a new Foreword by Pulitzer Prize author William Kennedy, is An Owl on Every Post, Sanoras beautifully written memoir of her life as a child in Baca County, Colorado. There she lived in a dugout with her parents and grandfather for a couple of years during their failed efforts to raise broomcorn. Being republished this fall is her autobiographical novel, The Lost Traveler, of her adolescent years when her father was a small-town gambler. Sanora wrote five books as well as essays, short stories and poems published in literary magazines alongside the work of Dorothy Parker, Ralph Ellison, William Saroyan, Katherine Anne Porter, and Ernest Hemingway. For more background see her website , a web exhibition with her sister Dorothys photos in the camps, and a recent article Rediscovering a National Treasure in Foreword Reviews. The picture at the beginning of this post is Sanora in the California worker fields in the 1930s. A recent report had stated that Lyca Productions was involved in a crime pertaining to taxes and that members of the production house were arrested in France. But now, the production company, which is bankrolling superstar Rajinikanth's upcoming film 2.o, has released a press statement, stating that the company has no connection with the arrest made in France and that it intends to file a complaint against the mid-day newspaper, for reporting a false news. "On June 22nd 2016, Lyca Productions, one of Tamil Cinema's leading production houses, is filing a criminal and civil case against a leading mid-day newspaper before the Metropolitan Magistrate Court for an inaccurate and defamatory article printed in their newspaper on June 21st, 2016. The article alleges that Lyca Productions was involved in tax fraud and that employees were arrested in France. Lyca Productions would like to clarify that it has no connection with this incident, and this false news is being propagated intentionally by other sources with malicious motives. Lyca Productions has a very solid reputation in the film fraternity, and has been consistently involved in the production of major movies," the statement read. Meanwhile, the shooting of 2.o is happening at a brisk pace. With 50 percent of the film already captured, which includes the all important climax portions, the movie is gearing up for release in the year 2017. "100th day of '2.o' shoot. Ufff... finishd 2 major action sequncs including d climax with Superstar n Akshay. Loading 50%," director Shankar posted on his Twitter page. Made with a whopping budget of 350 Crore rupees, 2.o might turn out to be the costliest film ever produced in India, at the time of its release. Everything about the movie, including the looks of its lead actors have been safely guarded so far. Also Read: 'Jilla' Actor Charandeep Is The Baddie In Demand! Its curtains down for the suspense around Rajinikanth's Kabali release date. The much awaited flick of the Superstar has completed its shoot a couple of months ago. But, due to Tamilnadu elections and various other reasons, the release date of the movie was put on a hold for a longtime. However, some highly placed sources have confirmed us that the film will be hitting screens on 15 July, both in Tamil and Telugu. While the songs are already out in the Tamil market, the Telugu audio will be released on 26 June. Meanwhile, Rajinikanth and Kabali makers are yet to take a call on the audio event of Telugu. Since a huge price was invested on the Telugu rights of the movie, the producer is said to be stressing on the Tamil producer to bring in Rajini for the audio launch, so that the film gets better hype in the Telugu land. However, the actor is reportedly unwell from quite a few days and it looks unlikely for the makers to hold an event for the Telugu audio. Nevertheless, it is almost sure that Kabali will be seeing the light on 15 July. Let the celebrations begin, folks! Aschheim (Munchen)/Jakarta (ots) - Die Wirecard AG und Verifone (NYSE: PAY) sind eine strategische Allianz eingegangen, um den Point-of-Sale-Markt in der Region Asien-Pazifik zugig zu erweitern - beginnend mit Indonesien. Als viertbevolkerungsreichstes Land der Welt gilt Indonesien als einer der groten und am schnellsten wachsenden Markte fur Zahlungslosungen.Die Vereinbarung ist auf funf Jahre angelegt. Sie vereint die Technologieportfolios mit der geographischen Starke beider Unternehmen durch jeweilige Tochterfirmen vor Ort, so zum Beispiel Wirecard uber PT Prima Vista Solusi sowie die lokal ansassigen Verifone-Teams. Finanzinstitutionen, Handlern und verschiedenen Industriebranchen wird dadurch ermoglicht, von Zahlungslosungen bester Qualitat zu profitieren."Als strategischer Entwicklungspartner von Verifone wird Wirecard sowohl Software-Plattformen zur Zahlungsakzeptanz und -abwicklung zur Verfugung stellen, die uber Verifone Terminals laufen, als auch fundierte Marktexpertise", sagte Rudy Khowara, Geschaftsfuhrer Global Point-of-Sales bei Wirecard. "Daruber hinaus werden einzigartige segmentspezifische Funktionen durch die Zusammenarbeit in unserem erweiterten Okosystem, bestehend aus Kunden und Partnern, geschaffen."Obwohl Indonesien eine weitgehend von Bargeld dominierte Gesellschaft ist, entwickelt sich der Zahlungskartenmarkt erheblich: Das Transaktionsvolumen von Kartenzahlungen ist nach Aussagen der Lafferty Group im Jahr 2015 um 124 Prozent angestiegen, im Vergleich zu 2010."Wir freuen uns sehr uber unsere Partnerschaft mit Wirecard, um das Wachstum neuer Zahlungslosungen und den elektronischen Handel in Indonesien weiter voranzutreiben, wo wir ein lokales Team und eine dauerhafte Prasenz etablieren", sagte Steve Aliferis, Prasident von Verifone Asia Pacific. "Wir arbeiten mit Wirecard als Partner zusammen, um Banken und Handlern Zugang zu den besten technischen Losungen zur Verfugung zu stellen und die Zahlungsakzeptanz jeglicher Art in unterschiedlichen Umgebungen weiter zu erhohen."Uber ihre jeweiligen Tochterunternehmen in Asien, PT Prima Vista Solusi und VeriFone Systems International, werden die beiden Unternehmen zusammenarbeiten, um ein umfassendes Angebot an Zahlungsdienstleistungen anzubieten, einschlielich der branchenfuhrenden Terminal-Reichweite. Daruber hinaus wird geplant, die nachste Generation der Verifone Engage Produktfamilie sowie die erstmalig vorgestellte integrierte POS-Losung Verifone Carbon einzufuhren. Wirecard wird Software-Plattformen zur Zahlungsakzeptanz und -abwicklung wie auch eine fundierte Marktexpertise zur Verfugung stellen.Uber Wirecard:Die Wirecard AG ist ein globaler Technologiekonzern, der Unternehmen dabei unterstutzt, Zahlungen aus allen Vertriebskanalen anzunehmen. Als ein fuhrender unabhangiger Anbieter bietet die Wirecard Gruppe Outsourcing- und White-Label-Losungen fur den elektronischen Zahlungsverkehr. Uber eine globale Plattform stehen internationale Zahlungsakzeptanzen und -verfahren mit erganzenden Losungen zur Betrugspravention zur Auswahl. Fur die Herausgabe eigener Zahlungsinstrumente in Form von Karten oder mobilen Zahlungslosungen stellt die Wirecard Gruppe Unternehmen die komplette Infrastruktur inklusive der notwendigen Lizenzen fur Karten- und Kontoprodukte bereit. Die Wirecard AG ist an der Frankfurter Wertpapierborse notiert (TecDAX, ISIN DE0007472060, WDI). Weitere Informationen finden Sie im Internet auf www.wirecard.de oder folgen Sie uns auf Twitter @wirecard.Uber Verifone:Verifone macht aus alltaglichen Bezahltransaktionen neue Geschaftspotenziale fur Connected Commerce. Wir verbinden mehr als 29 Millionen Bezahlterminals weltweit im Netz - und verschmelzen das Online- mit dem In-Store-Shopping-Erlebnis, um die nachste Stufe der digitalen Interaktion zwischen Handlern und Konsumenten zu ermoglichen. Dabei blicken wir auf eine 30-jahrige Unternehmensgeschichte zuruck, in der das Thema Datensicherheit kompromisslos im Vordergrund steht. Unsere Mitarbeiter sind anerkannte Experten, die mit unseren Kunden und Geschaftspartnern eng und vertrauensvoll zusammenarbeiten, um komplexe Herausforderungen rund um elektronische Bezahlungen zu losen. Verifone unterstutzt Kunden und Partner in mehr als 150 Landern, darunter weltbekannte Handelsunternehmen, Finanzdienstleister und Netzbetreiber.OTS: Wirecard AG newsroom: http://www.presseportal.de/nr/15202 newsroom via RSS: http://www.presseportal.de/rss/pm_15202.rss2 ISIN: DE0007472060Pressekontakt: Wirecard Medienkontakt:Wirecard AG Jana Tilz Tel.: +49 (0) 89 4424 1363 E-Mail: jana.tilz@wirecard.comVerifone Medienkontakt:FleishmanHillard Jakarta Stephen Warouw Tel.: +61811151707 / +62818194563 Stephen.warouw@fleishman.com CALGARY, ALBERTA -- (Marketwired) -- 06/21/16 -- Xtreme Drilling and Coil Services Corp. (TSX: XDC) ("Xtreme" or the "Company") announces results from the Special Meeting of Shareholders held on June 21, 2016 (the "Special Meeting"). Transaction Resolution Shareholders approved the resolution relating to the sale of all of the assets of Xtreme used or held for use in connection with Xtreme's Coil Tubing Well Services division to Schlumberger (the "Transaction Resolution"). Of the 64,210,678 votes cast on the Transaction Resolution, 64,175,513 votes were in favor (99.95%) and 35,165 votes were against (0.05%). Name Change Resolution Shareholders also approved the resolution relating to the amendment to the articles of Xtreme to change the name of Xtreme from "Xtreme Drilling and Coil Services Corp." to "Xtreme Drilling Corp." (the "Name Change Resolution"), subject to the completion of the sale of the coil tubing assets. Of the 66,500,716 votes cast on the Name Change Resolution, 66,440,432 votes were in favor (99.91%) and 60,284 votes were against (0.09%). Final voting results on all matters voted on at the Special Meeting are published on our website www.xtremecoil.com and are filed with SEDAR. About Xtreme Xtreme Drilling and Coil Services Corp. ("XDC" on the Toronto Stock Exchange) designs, builds, and operates a fleet of high specification drilling rigs and coiled tubing well service units featuring leading-edge proprietary technology including AC high capacity coil injectors, deep re-entry drilling capability, modular transportation systems and continuous integration of in-house advances in methodologies. Currently Xtreme operates two service lines: Drilling Services (XDR) and Coil Services (XSR) under contracts with oil and natural gas exploration and production companies and integrated oilfield service providers in Canada, the United States, and Saudi Arabia. For more information about Xtreme, please visit www.xtremecoil.com. Contacts: Xtreme Drilling and Coil Services Corp. Matt Porter, President and Chief Financial Officer +1 281 994 4604 ir@xtremecoil.com www.xtremecoil.com Mitsubishi Motors Public Relations Department http://www.mitsubishi-motors.com +81-3-6852-4275 Philippines, June 21, 2016 - (JCN Newswire) - In line with Mitsubishi Motors Philippines Corporation's (MMPC's) participation in the Comprehensive Automotive Resurgence Strategy Program which is also known as the "CARS program", MMPC breaks ground on June 17, 2016 to invest more than Php 2 Billion to construct a stamping shop facility. Including the setting-up of the line for its entry models, fixed investments shall reach about Php 4.3 Billion.The occasion was attended by distinguished guests from government, Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (MMC) and Sojitz Corporation officials, and our local executives as shown in the above photo. A couple of days ago, the Department of Trade and Industry's Board of Investments had issued a certificate of registration to MMPC as an approved participant.The construction of the stamping shop will kick-start MMPC's participation into the CARS program and also complies with one of the program's requirements to produce large body parts of a vehicle in lieu of the usual importation. Studies shows that high logistics cost in producing vehicles are brought about by bulk shipment of containers loaded with large completely-knocked-down parts.The event is deemed to be another significant milestone in the history of MMPC inasmuch as this will be the first time that a metal stamping process will be introduced to the manufacturing process after more than five decades of operations in the Philippines. This added process would create additional job opportunities and transfer of new technology.Meanwhile, MMC will be extending technical assistance during the construction period. On the other hand, MMPC will ensure that its newly hired manpower undergoes extensive training in Japan. The said shop will be fully operational in the early part of 2018. As such, MMPC can assert that the Mirage and Mirage G4 are proudly Philippine-made products worthy of patronage by our valued customers.About Mitsubishi MotorsMitsubishi Motors Corporation is the fifth largest automaker in Japan and the fifteenth largest in the world by global unit sales. It is part of the Mitsubishi keiretsu, formerly the biggest industrial group in Japan, and was formed in 1970 from the automotive division of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.Throughout its history it has courted alliances with foreign partners, a strategy pioneered by their first president Tomio Kubo to encourage expansion, and continued by his successors. A significant stake was sold to Chrysler Corporation in 1971 which it held for 22 years, while DaimlerChrysler was a controlling shareholder between 2000 and 2005. Long term joint manufacturing and technology licencing deals with the Hyundai Motor Company in South Korea and Proton in Malaysia were also forged, while in Europe the company co-owned the largest automobile manufacturing plant in the Netherlands with Volvo for ten years in the 1990s, before taking sole ownership in 2001.Source: Mitsubishi MotorsContact:Copyright 2016 JCN Newswire . All rights reserved. ABERDEEN, SCOTLAND -- (Marketwired) -- 06/22/16 -- Ithaca Energy Inc. (TSX: IAE) (LSE: IAE) Not for Distribution to U.S. Newswire Services or for Dissemination in the United States Ithaca Energy Inc. (TSX: IAE) (LSE: IAE) ("Ithaca" or the "Company") provides an update on the status of the on-going Greater Stella Area ("GSA") development programme ahead of today's Annual General Meeting ("AGM"). The AGM will be held today, Wednesday 22 June 2016, at 2pm (Calgary time) at the Metropolitan Conference Centre in Calgary, Canada. Highlights Good progress has been made on the final stages of the "FPF-1" commissioning programme and completion of the various system handovers to operations is imminent. Preparation of the FPF-1 for departure from the shipyard in Poland is well advanced and the vessel is expected to be ready for sail-away to the Stella field by the end of this month or early in July 2016 Access has been secured to a major oil export pipeline for future GSA production, allowing a switch from tanker loading during 2017. The move to pipeline exports significantly enhances the long term value of the GSA production hub, reducing fixed operating costs, enhancing operational uptime and improving reserves recovery Greater Stella Area Update The FPF-1 modifications programme, which is being completed by Petrofac in the Remontowa shipyard in Poland is in the final stages of completion, with only a limited number of commissioning activities requiring close out prior to sail-away. Commissioning operations on the FPF-1 have continued to progress well over recent weeks and are now materially complete. The operations team have been living on the vessel since May, the marine works have been finished and the engineering teams are in the process of closing out handover of the various processing and utilities systems to the operations team. The planned vessel inclination test remains to be performed, following which the FPF-1 will be moved to a location off the coast of Gdansk for the final marine system trials prior to being towed to the field. It is anticipated that the period from sail-away to first hydrocarbons will be approximately three months. Following towing of the FPF-1 to the field, the vessel will be moored on location using twelve pre-installed anchor chains. The dynamic risers and umbilicals that connect the subsea infrastructure to the vessel will then be installed. Thereafter, commissioning of the various processing and utility systems requiring hydrocarbons from the field will be completed. First production from the Stella field is anticipated in late September 2016. Greater Stella Area Oil Export Pipeline Access has been secured to the Norpipe oil pipeline system, allowing oil exports from the GSA to transfer from tanker export to pipeline export during 2017. This will significantly reduce the fixed operating costs of the GSA facilities and enhance operational uptime, resulting in improved reserves recovery and increasing the long term value of the GSA as a production hub. The key work associated with creating a connection to the system has been successfully executed as part of a fast-track operational programme undertaken during the planned 2016 pipeline maintenance shutdown. Acceleration of this work was made possible as a result of a conventional tie-in point on the system being vacated by a third-party field disconnecting from the pipeline. This provided a unique opportunity for a lower cost, lower risk connection to be made. Norpipe runs approximately 350 kilometres from the Ekofisk offshore production facilities on the Norwegian Continental Shelf to a dedicated oil processing facility at Teesside in the UK, with various UK fields exporting into the system via a spurline. In addition the Company has taken advantage of the downturn in industry activity to secure attractive contracting terms, including a lump sum contract for the installation of the 44 kilometre pipeline required from the FPF-1 to the Norpipe system. The net capital expenditure associated with the work programme is approximately $20 million, with the majority being paid in 2017. Annual General Meeting The AGM will be held today, Wednesday 22 June 2016, at 2pm (Calgary time) in the Strand/Tivoli Room at the Metropolitan Conference Centre, 333 - 4th Avenue S.W., Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It should be noted that this is an hour earlier than the time given in the press release titled 'AGM Notice & Board Changes' issued on 27 May 2016. A short presentation covering the Company's on-going operational and corporate activities will be given at the AGM. The presentation will be available on the Company's website (www.ithacaenergy.com) prior to commencement of the meeting. About Ithaca Energy Ithaca Energy Inc. (TSX: IAE) (LSE: IAE) is a North Sea oil and gas operator focused on the delivery of lower risk growth through the appraisal and development of UK undeveloped discoveries and the exploitation of its existing UK producing asset portfolio. Ithaca's strategy is centred on generating sustainable long term shareholder value by building a highly profitable 25kboe/d North Sea oil and gas company. For further information please consult the Company's website www.ithacaenergy.com. Forward-looking Statements Some of the statements and information in this press release are forward-looking. Forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively, "forward-looking statements") are based on the Company's internal expectations, estimates, projections, assumptions and beliefs as at the date of such statements or information, including, among other things, assumptions with respect to production, drilling, construction and maintenance times, well completion times, risks associated with operations, future capital expenditures, continued availability of financing for future capital expenditures, future acquisitions and dispositions and cash flow. The reader is cautioned that assumptions used in the preparation of such information may prove to be incorrect. When used in this press release, the words and phrases like "anticipate", "continue", "estimate", "expect", "may", "will", "project", "plan", "should", "believe", "could", "target", "in the process of", "on track","set to" and similar expressions, and the negatives thereof, whether used in connection with operational activities, sail-away of the FPF-1 vessel, Stella first hydrocarbons, timing between sail-away of the FPF-1 vessel and Stella first hydrocarbons, remaining FPF-1 work programme activities prior to completion, expected costs and benefits of the move to pipeline exports for GSA production, drilling plans including ramp up timing, production forecasts, budgetary figures, future operating costs, anticipated net debt and continued deleveraging, anticipated funding requirements, anticipated characteristics of the Company's future investment programme, planned capital expenditures, potential investment opportunities including the expected development costs thereof, potential developments including the timing and anticipated benefits of acquisitions and dispositions or otherwise, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such statements are not promises or guarantees, and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements. The Company believes that the expectations reflected in those forward-looking statements are reasonable but no assurance can be given that these expectations, or the assumptions underlying these expectations, will prove to be correct and such forward-looking statements included in this press release should not be unduly relied upon. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release. Ithaca Energy Inc. expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statement contained herein to reflect any change in its expectations with regard thereto or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any forward-looking statement is based except as required by applicable securities laws. Additional information on these and other factors that could affect Ithaca's operations and financial results are included in the Company's Management Discussion and Analysis for the quarter ended 31 March 2016 and the Company's Annual Information Form for the year ended 31 December 2015 and in reports which are on file with the Canadian securities regulatory authorities and may be accessed through the SEDAR website (www.sedar.com). Not for Distribution to U.S. Newswire Services or for Dissemination in the United States Enquiries: Ithaca Energy Graham Forbes gforbes@ithacaenergy.com +44 (0)1224 652 151 Richard Smith rsmith@ithacaenergy.com +44 (0)1224 652 172 FTI Consulting Edward Westropp edward.westropp@fticonsulting.com +44 (0)203 727 1521 Tom Hufton tom.hufton@fticonsulting.com +44 (0)203 727 1625 Cenkos Securities Neil McDonald nmcdonald@cenkos.com +44 (0)207 397 1953 Nick Tulloch ntulloch@cenkos.com +44 (0)131 220 9772 Beth McKiernan bmckiernan@cenkos.com +44 (0)131 220 9778 RBC Capital Markets Daniel Conti daniel.conti@rbccm.com +44 (0)207 653 4000 Matthew Coakes matthew.coakes@rbccm.com +44 (0)207 653 4000 BEIRUT, June 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- On 13th June 2016, Mr Iskandar Safa submitted a request for arbitration against the Hellenic Republic at the World Bank's International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). Mr Safa co-owns the Privinvest Group, a global player in the shipbuilding industry, which took control of Hellenic Shipyards SA (HSY) in late 2010. Privinvest and HSY have been asserting their rights against the Hellenic Republic by way of arbitration at the ICC for 3 years. For the record, the Hellenic Republic has, later, also launched its own ICC arbitration against Privinvest, HSY and the former owners of HSY. With this ICSID claim Mr Safa is asserting his individual rights as an investor in HSY under the Bilateral Investment Treaty between Lebanon and Greece. Lately Mr Safa as well as Privinvest have been under personal and vehement attacks in the Hellenic Republic's Parliament, as reported in the media, such attacks being directly contradicted by undisputed facts in ongoing legal procedures to which the Hellenic Republic is a party. Moreover, HSY now faces an existential threat and risks losing its assets due, amongst other things, to the wrongful imputation by the Hellenic Republic of a European state aid decision dating from well before Privinvest's investment. Commenting on the submission, Mr Iskandar Safa notes: "Privinvest invested in HSY in late 2010 because it believed in the future of this historic shipyard. Privinvest wanted to build on the shipbuilding tradition of Greece, its existing relationship with the Hellenic Navy and on HSY's skilled and experienced workforce for the benefit of its wide international customer base. All of the ingredients needed to turn around the struggling shipyard and to make Privinvest's investment a success for my group and Greece were there." "As an immediate solution for the Greek state and upon implementing this investment, claims faced by the Hellenic Republic filed by HSYs former owner were dropped, and the Hellenic Navy took possession of the one completed submarine and 4 substantially complete submarines which it had already paid EUR 2 billion for but did not own. "Soon after implementing Privinvest's investment, unfortunately this time: HSY received a claim for more than EUR 300 million from a government owned entity controlled by the Ministry of Finance (the Minister of Finance being signatory to the agreement with the Hellenic Republic) - such entity, OSE SA , was claiming for breaches allegedly occurring many years before the investment. from a government owned entity controlled by the Ministry of Finance (the Minister of Finance being signatory to the agreement with the Hellenic Republic) - such entity, , was claiming for breaches allegedly occurring many years before the investment. the Hellenic Republic's government then announced that HSY could not work for foreign navies, following the issuing of an EU ruling in December 2010 . . next, the Hellenic Republic's government stopped payment under the parliamentary ratified contracts for its Archimedes and Neptune submarine programs. finally, the additional work promised by the Hellenic Republic's government, which was necessary to maintain full employment at HSY, was denied. "HSY operated, despite these issues, with all of its employees being fully paid, for more than a year, Privinvest and HSY trying at all times to find a solution to restore the agreed investment parameters. Despite a number of promises being made at all levels of the government no solution was found and HSY and Privinvest were left with no option but to initiate arbitration pursuant to the terms of the relevant agreements." "Mr Safa also points out that: LONDON (dpa-AFX) - Elementis plc (ELM.L) said, In Chromium, sales and contribution margins in North America for the first six months of the year are expected to be similar to the previous year. Sales and margins outside of North America for the year as a whole are expected to be materially lower than the previous year. Consequently, earnings per share for the year as a whole is expected to be below the range of market expectations. The Group reported that, for the half year ending 30 June 2016, Specialty Products has continued to make progress. Sales in personal care continue to show impressive growth. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. LONDON, June 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The financial services sector is changing, particularly for banks, constantly struggling to adapt their customer experience strategies to meet the changing demands of today's millennial customer. And in 2016 we're now seeing a battle of the banks, with the traditional vs the challenger vs the disruptor - but which banks will withstand the test of time? Does one size fit all or will banks be forced to specialise their customer experience strategies? These are the critical questions financial services leaders including Ugur Sungur, VP, Internet Channels, ING Bank Turkey; Iain Kirkpatrick, MD Retail, Metro Bank; Stewart Bromley, COO, Atom Bank answered in this just released report: Battle of the Banks: The Traditional vs The Challenger vs The Disruptor. Iain Kirkpatrick, MD Retail, Metro Bank discusses the change in the industry and the shift in power to the consumer: "I think lots of customers have been through a difficult journey over the last five or seven years and banks have a very different perception now than they used to have. There's a lot more transparency and people realise there's an alternative now." Kate Erb, Chief Customer Officer, Oakbrook Finance underlines disruptors and their influence on the marketplace as the one to watch: "With the increasing focus on customer experience, it will be interesting to see how strategies of incumbents change. Also with disruptors like Atom Bank, I'm personally very excited about their proposition and intrigued about how the market will respond to that. I think it's going to be incredibly interesting and one to watch." So, what have these industry leaders highlighted as the forces driving change and what will the industry look like in 5 years time? How are senior executives ensuring their CX strategies withstand the test of time and the increased competition? And who holds the key to the future of the financial services in a millennial world? You can find out all of this and much more by downloading the complimentary eBook Battle of the Banks: The Traditional vs The Challenger vs The Disruptor created by the Customer Experience Exchange for Financial Services EU, ahead of this years' senior level, strategic meeting which will be held in Berlin on the 13 - 14 September, 2016. For more information or to request your invitation to attend the Customer Experience Exchange for Financial Services EU (13 - 14 September 2016, Berlin, Germany) where 70 C-level executives and VPs/Directors of Customer Experience, Marketing and Digital Strategy from across the financial services industry will be gathering to discuss the practicalities of increasing customer retention and loyalty in this hyper-competitive market, visit http://bit.ly/28Mn8yM call +44(0)207-368-9484 or email exchangeinfo@iqpc.com. FLEET, Hampshire, June 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The FAST-OTA Capability Enables CTIA Approved Laboratory to Speed up MIMO OTA Testing of Mobile Devices by More Than Ten Times Anite, a global leader in wireless equipment testing technology, has today announced that Verkotan laboratory has recently selected Anite's Propsim F32 Channel Emulator to enable faster MIMO OTA testing in Verkotan's advanced wireless performance laboratory. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20151109/285077LOGO ) (Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160621/810160 ) Based in Finland, the laboratory includes a state-of-the art anechoic chamber large enough to test laptops as well as base stations aimed for deployment in 5G networks. Verkotan works closely with major mobile operators and manufacturers of wireless equipment, including wearables, seeking to outsource its testing needs to a high-end laboratory equipped to handle a wide range of testing requirements such as those mandated by CTIA. Anite's Propsim F32 enables Verkotan to verify that mobile devices with the latest technology features, including multiple antenna configurations and carrier aggregation, perform as expected. In August last year, CTIA released a standardised MIMO OTA performance test plan, which many manufacturers and mobile operators aim to conform with to ensure high levels of end-user experience. Propsim's FAST-OTA capability enables Verkotan to accelerate MIMO OTA testing of mobile devices by more than ten times compared to conventional testing methods. Anite's Propsim F32 Channel Emulator is the only single unit channel emulator that supports the minimum requirement of eight dual polarized antennas for MIMO OTA testing in an anechoic chamber. It can be expanded to support 16 dual polarized antennas (required for testing larger devices), making it a future-proof solution for upcoming technologies and device formats. Kari Komonen, CEO of Verkotan: "As a key standard in the mobile industry, MIMO OTA is vital to our growth potential. We selected Anite and its FAST MIMO OTA capability as our preferred supplier of channel emulation solutions to enable us to speed up MIMO OTA R&D and CTIA pre-certification testing." Paul Beaver, Products Director at Anite's Device & Infrastructure Testing business commented: "We are pleased to continue our collaboration with Verkotan, once part of a large European OEM. Their selection of Propsim underlines how much one of the world's most advanced MIMO OTA laboratories values channel emulation solutions with leading propagation characteristics for accurate and quick verification of devices." About Anite Anite is a leading supplier of test and measurement solutions to the international wireless market. It provides testing, measurement, optimisation and analytics systems based on its specialist sector knowledge and its proprietary software and hardware products. Customers include major manufacturers of mobile devices, chipsets and network equipment, mobile network operators, regulatory authorities, and independent test houses. Its 500+ staff work from offices in 15 countries across Europe, the Americas, Asia and the Middle East. Anite is now part of Keysight Technologies. For more information, please visit the company's website: www.anite.com About Verkotan Verkotan Oy is a CTIA accredited OTA (Over-The-Air) test house Based in Finland. It offers OTA, SAR and GPS test, analysis, high quality expertise and certification services to the customers from multiple business areas related to wireless performance. Verkotan is the only ISO17025 accredited test house in the world with its own in-house developed test system. Verkotan's sophisticated software and test laboratory capability provides totally new test methods creating unique value for the customers. For more information, please visit the company's website: www.verkotan.com For further information, please contact: Karolina Eklund, Anite, Tel: +44 (0)1252 775245, Email: karolina.eklund@anite.com Matt Humphries, Babel PR, Tel: +44 (0)207 434 5550, Email: anite@babelpr.com Kari Komonen, CEO, Tel: +358 40 5001241, Email: kari.komonen@verkotan.com 32 32 5 2 10 20 21 24 3 3 2 2 1 1 1 --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- 50 Smartest Companies 2016 1 Amazon Why Call out a request and AI-powered Alexa will play your favorite song or order you a pizza. And Amazon Web Services just keeps growing. $89.99 What the Echo Dot, the most affordable device to feature Alexa Voice Service, sells for. Company Details 2 Baidu Why Chinas leading search engine is developing autonomous cars, backed by a big research and engineering team in Silicon Valley. 100 Baidu plans to employ more than 100 autonomous-car researchers and engineers in California by years end. Company Details 3 Illumina Why The worlds largest DNA-sequencing company is moving beyond simply selling equipment to expand its uses: a company its launching, Grail, intends to develop a blood test that would screen for cancer before symptoms appear. $2.2 billion Revenue reached last year, up 19 percent from the previous year. Company Details 4 Tesla Motors Why While advancing autopilot technology in its Model S and X cars, the company is taking electric vehicles mainstream with its $35,000 Model 3 car, which already has 400,000 pre-orders. 50 percent According to CEO Elon Musk, drivers have a 50 percent lower chance of having an accident when driving with Tesla Autopilot. Company Details 5 Aquion Energy Why Its innovative batteries for the power grid make this startup unusually successful in a tough industry. Backers Include Bill Gates, Shell. Company Details 6 Mobileye Why A leader in making driver assistance technology such as collision warning systems for clients including Tesla, General Motors, and Volkswagen, among others, it is working on advances that will enable fully autonomous cars. 600 Number of employees who are annotating the images used to train its autonomous driving system. Company Details 7 23andMe Why After a two-year moratorium, 23andMe has resumed selling direct-to-consumer DNA tests that assess risk for genetic diseases. One million The company has sequenced the DNA of more than one million customers. Company Details 8 Alphabet Why Its DeepMind business inside Google developed an AI program that beat one of the worlds best players at the board game Go. 1.6 million Number of miles Alphabets autonomous cars have driven so far. Company Details 9 Spark Therapeutics Why Very strong trial data on its gene therapy for a form of blindness implies that the treatment is headed for approval. Collaborators Corporate collaborators include Pfizer, Genable Technologies, and Clearside Biomedical. Company Details 10 Huawei Why This Chinese telecommunications giant is now the worlds third-largest smartphone vendor thanks to strong sales in both premium and entry-level devices. 27.5 million Number of smartphones Huawei shipped in the first quarter of 2016, according to market researcher IDC. Company Details 11 First Solar Why While rivals face bankruptcy, it has continued to invest in research, increasing the efficiency of solar panels. $546 million Profits earned in 2015. Company Details 12 Nvidia Why With deep learning driving demand for its graphics-processing chips, it started selling chips designed for AI. $1.3 billion Revenue increased 13 percent in the most recent quarter, to $1.3 billion, compared with $1.15 billion a year ago. Company Details 13 Cellectis Why Last summer a hospital in London used Cellectiss gene-editing technology to heal a child with otherwise untreatable leukemia. $300 million Though not profitable, the company has over $300 million in cash, enough to last through 2018. Company Details 14 Enlitic Why A number of Australian radiologists are now using the companys deep-learning software to analyze x-rays. 50 percent Claims its algorithm read chest CT images 50 percent more accurately than experts in its own test. Company Details 15 Facebook Why Its Oculus Rift technology is the first truly high-quality virtual-reality headset for consumers. $599 Rift sells for $599. Company Details 16 SpaceX Why The company is making spaceflight cheaper with rockets that can land and be reused. Four Number of times SpaceX attempted to land a rocket on a barge before succeeding. Company Details 17 Toyota Why Dramatically rethinking its future, the carmaker has committed $1 billion to an automation institute. Leader Roboticist Gill Pratt is CEO of the Toyota Research Institute. Company Details 18 Airware Why Building an operating system for commercial drones, as well as a traffic control system that could increase their usefulness. Leader Airwares founder and CEO also leads an investment fund that supports businesses creating technologies for commercial drones. Company Details 19 IDE Technologies Why Its large-scale desalination process is winning big contracts in China and Australia. 26 percent By October IDE will be producing 26 percent of Santa Barbaras water. Company Details 20 Tencent Why Asias largest Internet company, which owns the popular WeChat messaging app, is expanding into the enterprise market and investing in other technology companies. 78 percent Tencents largest business segment, mostly games, accounts for 78 percent of its revenue. Company Details 21 Didi Chuxing Why Apples $1 billion investment, part of $7 billion raised this year, will help the Chinese ride-hailing app continue to fend off Uber. 14 million Number of rides its drivers complete a day. Company Details 22 Oxford Nanopore Why Its begun selling a DNA sequencer the size of a smartphone that may move genomics out of the lab and into the field. Intellectual property Illumina, once an investor, is now suing the company for patent infringement. Company Details 23 24M Why Created a more efficient lithium-ion battery that could reduce the cost of energy storage for the electric grid and electric vehicles. 50 percent The company claims it can reduce the cost of lithium-ion batteries by 50 percent. Company Details 24 Alibaba Why E-commerce site is now the worlds largest retailer and will benefit from the growth in mobile video ads. $485 billion Gross value of merchandise sold through Alibaba in its last fiscal year. Company Details 25 Bristol-Myers Squibb Why Uses of its life-saving immunotherapy, Opdivo, has expanded to lung cancer, advanced renal-cell carcinoma, and Hodgkins lymphoma. Five years One-third of patients with advanced melanoma survived for five years in a study of Opdivo. Company Details 26 Microsoft Why Its neural-network research is leading to applications such as simultaneous language translation in Skype and social augmented-reality experiences in its new HoloLens headset. 152 A Microsoft network that won a global image recognition contest in 2015 used 152 layers of virtual neurons. Company Details 27 Fanuc Why Worlds largest maker of industrial robots is incorporating machine learning. Eight Number of hours a Fanuc robot needs to learn a task with 90 percent accuracy. Company Details 28 Sonnen Why Its smart batteries, which include software to manage energy use and can store energy for later, are transforming the electricity market in Germany. 25 percent Electricity on its system is 25 percent cheaper than the electricity on the grid, according to the company. Company Details 29 Improbable Why Its virtual-world simulation platform is used to create VR software and test driverless cars. Funding Andreessen Horowitz is a major backer. Company Details 30 Movidius Why Its computer-vision chips are making mobile devices and drones smarter. On the radar Drones using Movidius technology can sense obstacles to avoid collisions. Company Details 31 Intrexon Why The Oxitec division of this biotech holding company genetically engineers mosquitoes that could reduce the spread of Zika. $174 million Acquisitions increased sales from $8 million to $174 million in five years. Company Details 32 Carbon Why Its new kind of 3-D printing is dozens of times faster than rivals. $40,000 Use of its 3-D printers costs $40,000 a year. Company Details 33 Bosch Why Advanced manufacturing facilities it is developing rely on connected sensors and sophisticated software to improve factory efficiency. $80 billion Record revenue generated in 2015. Company Details 34 T2 Biosystems Why Its flexible tool for diagnosing abnormalities more quickly has FDA approval for certain uses, including detecting a fungus that causes sepsis. 35 Number of customers who now use the companys bench-top diagnostic system. Company Details 35 Editas Medicine Why Plans to begin testing a powerful new form of gene repair in humans within two years. $94 million Money raised in its February IPO, and the stock is up 85 percent since then. Company Details 36 Nestle Why Food giant has jumped into microbiome research, working to develop healthy gut products. $2 billion At a slow time for its core food business, its nutritional therapies division has reached $2 billion in annual revenue in its first five years, and more strong growth is predicted. Company Details 37 RetroSense Therapeutics Why Has begun first human trials of optogenetics, using light-triggered genetic changes to restore some vision to people with retinitis pigmentosa. $12 million Revenue raised from foundations and private investors as well as the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. Company Details 38 Line, subsidiary of Naver Why The Japanese messaging app is quick to add innovative features, such as group calls for up to 200 people, and plans an IPO this year. 218 million Number of monthly active users. Company Details 39 TransferWise Why This money-transfer service, with a peer-to-peer model for sending money abroad, aims to charge lower fees than traditional players. $750 million Money TransferWise helps users exchange every month. Company Details 40 Veritas Genetics Why Attempting to sell low-cost genome tests directly to consumers. $1,000 Whole-genome sequencing, including interpretation and counseling, costs under $1,000. The supply is limited to 5,000 customers in 2016. Company Details 41 FireEye Why With clients like JPMorgan Chase, Sony Pictures, and Target, its creating a new model for computer security on a large scale. In the works New products focus on securing public and private clouds and detecting targeted e-mail attacks. Company Details 42 Seven Bridges Why Its software makes it possible to analyze one of the worlds largest genomic data sets. 11,000 Number of patients that have contributed 33 cancer types and subtypes to its Cancer Genomics Cloud. Company Details 43 Slack Why The workplace communications app burrows more deeply into workplaces. Now you can use your Slack login for all the software your company uses. Three million Number of daily active Slack users. Company Details 44 Coupang Why South Koreas largest and fastest-growing online-only retailer is innovating in mobile commerce and same-day delivery. $5 billion Coupangs most recent valuation. Company Details 45 IBM Why Preparing for an AI era by acquiring huge data sets to train its software. 100 Number of clients that have built Watson into a product. Company Details 46 Snapchat Why Building out its advertising business by partnering with Viacom to sell ads and with Nielsen for marketing campaign data. 10 billion Number of videos that are seen on the app every day. Company Details 47 Africa Internet Group Why This e-commerce company is the continents first tech company to be valued at more than $1 billion. 26 Africa Internet Group operates in 26 African countries. Company Details 48 LittleBits Why Maker of electronic building blocks has accelerated its growth with new funding, new investors, and new distribution. $299 Basic kits sell for $99 to $299. Company Details 49 Intel Why In a time of transition, the chip maker is experimenting with reprogrammable processors for deep neural networks and marketing a fundamentally new kind of computer memory. $16.7 billion Money Intel spent to buy Altera, a maker of programmable logic devices. Company Details 50 Monsanto BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Ahead of his upcoming visit to Armenia, Azerbaijan has urged Pope Francis to call upon the Armenian government to end its illegal occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding Azerbaijani provinces and take public responsibility for the Khojali massacre in which over 600 men, women and children were killed in 1992. "We wish to express our profound concern regarding potential issues that might be addressed during your upcoming visit to Armenia, including misleading efforts by Armenian authorities to justify their illegal occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh and other adjacent Azerbaijani territories," the President of the Association for Civil Society Development in Azerbaijan Elkhan Suleymanov noted in his letter to the pontiff. About 20 per cent of Azerbaijani territory was occupied by Armenia during the post-Soviet power vacuum in the early 1990s. In his letter, Suleymanov stressed the resolutions by the United Nations and - earlier this year - Resolution 2085 (2016) passed by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, calling for the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Armenian troops from the territories. Most recently, the White House too issued a statement stressing the importance of "the return of the territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijan's control." "In light of this, we wish to appeal to the spiritual and moral responsibility bestowed upon the Holy See and to call upon Your Holiness to address in Yerevan the tragedies that have taken place in Nagorno-Karabakh, and to urge Armenian authorities to comply with the conclusions drawn by the international community, in particular the return of all occupied Azerbaijani territories in accordance with United Nations and Council of Europe resolutions," Suleymanov wrote. He also referred to the close relations enjoyed by the Vatican and Azerbaijan and statements made by the former Foreign Minister of the Holy Sea, Giovanni Lajolo, praising Azerbaijan's religious tolerance. "We are certain Your Holiness is well aware of the deep-rooted tradition of religious and ethnic tolerance that has guided the people of Azerbaijan for many centuries, leading to the peaceful co-existence of Christians, Jews and Muslims," Suleymanov noted, adding that the people of Azerbaijan remain committed to this tolerance, "encouraging respect and solidarity between all citizen despite this ongoing injustice and terrible turmoil that has so unfortunately engulfed our country and our region for the past decades." Pope Francis' three-day visit to Armenia is scheduled June 24-26. MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA--(Marketwired - June 22, 2016) - Today, Gigya, the Leader in Customer Identity Management, announced the opening of a new data centre within Russian national borders to ensure compliance with the Russian Federation's Personal Data Protection Act, which went into effect on September 1, 2015. The bill mandates that companies which maintain online properties serving Russian citizens must store those citizens' data within Russian borders. The Data Localisation Trend The new law reflects a global trend toward governments requiring that their citizens' data reside locally. Other recent examples of this include the recent regulatory shakeup in the EU, where the previous Safe Harbour Framework for securing U.S. -- EU data transfers was deemed invalid and ultimately replaced with the more stringent Privacy Shield agreement. In all, since 2013, 20 or so countries have either proposed or discussed potential laws which would require Internet data in those countries to remain within their borders. To address this trend, Gigya employs a multiple data centre strategy to ensure that their customers avoid risk while still delivering seamless and trusted customer experiences to global audiences. By maintaining multiple data centres Gigya enables clients to conduct business internationally while remaining in compliance with local laws. The New Data Centre With hardware wholly owned and operated by Gigya, the Russian facility marks the company's fourth regional data centre; a continued expansion of a multiple data centre strategy to support regional compliance that includes sites in the U.S., EU and APAC regions. Customers opting to use this new data centre will meet regulatory requirements imposed by Russia while still securing both their Russian citizens' user data and international user data. Gigya's new data centre is primary, not secondary, ensuring that Russian-hosted data remains discrete from non-Russian data. Gigya will assist customers using the new data centre in fulfilling the needed filing requirements for the regulation. "We allow the world's biggest brands to safeguard nearly a billion customer records. The value placed on the security of this data is set to reach up to 4% of global revenues under the forthcoming GDPR, which comes into force in May 2018. Despite this, few businesses are ready to open their own regional data centres to satisfy the growing list of countries who are legislating for customer data to be hosted locally," says Richard Lack, Director of Sales EMEA at Gigya. "By investing in this capability on our customers' behalf, we can significantly scale down their costs, and their compliance risks." About Gigya Gigya's Customer Identity Management platform is helping companies build trusted digital relationships with over 800 Million consumers. With Gigya's technology, businesses increase registrations and identify customers across devices, consolidate data into rich customer profiles and provide better services, products and experiences by integrating data into marketing and service applications. For global businesses operating in an increasingly complex regulatory landscape, Gigya optimizes compliance and customer trust, with discrete regional data centers and customer self-service options for managing profile, preference, opt-in and consent settings. More than 700 of the world's leading businesses rely on Gigya to build identity-driven relationships and to provide scalable, secure and compliant customer identity and access management. Contact Information Gigya Inc. Jason Rose +1 917 434 2897 jason.rose@gigya.com Berkeley PR Catriona Macleod +44 1189 090909 gigya@berkeley.global BRUSSELS, BELGIUM--(Marketwired - June 22, 2016) - Travelling has become more and more accessible, especially within Europe. But the current ease of reaching a holiday destination has also sparked a newfound demand for authentic and unique travel experiences. Think beautiful sceneries, mesmerizing cities or unexpected places. Starting June 22 nd , Goodyear, one of the world's largest tire companies, will give adventurers the opportunity to stay the night at unique and usually unattainable places in a caravan. With Goodyear's slogan 'Made to Feel Good' in mind, Goodyear expands with this campaign its mission of giving people the experience of a comfortable journey to their inspiring destination. A person's feel good place is not only that which feels familiar, but also new experiences and discovering beautiful places can make someone happy. And travelling by caravan has become increasingly popular to reach these authentic places. Dr. Dimitrios Tsivrikos, Consumer and Business Psychologist at the University College of London, explains: "Caravans are increasingly becoming consumers' vessels for a bespoke and authentic journey. In this vein consumers are fully in control of their surroundings and path, which creates a sense of freedom and excitement that few other travel means can create." "This campaign embodies the essence of Goodyear's 'Made to Feel Good' credo by offering unique experiences to never forget. Goodyear wants to inspire consumers to enjoy adventures that they haven't encountered before, all the while providing them with the peace of mind of a safe and reliable journey," says Alexis Bortoluzzi, Marketing Director Consumer EMEA Goodyear Dunlop. Consumers across Europe have the opportunity to stay in this unique feel good place via https://goodyear-feelgoodplaces.com/ and spend the night in a furnished and decorated caravan specifically designed to provide a refreshing holiday. People can follow the mobile feel good place on its six-week adventure on Goodyear's social media channels http://www.facebook.com/goodyear, www.instagram.com/goodyear_emea and http://www.twitter.com/GoodyearPress) and book an overnight stay, free-of-charge 1 . Each location will only be revealed a few days before arrival, on social media and on Goodyear's travel blog, which will be integrated on Goodyear's Facebook page. Those interested in the Goodyear experience will have to act fast and book their overnight stay on Airbnb, first come first serve. About Goodyear Goodyear is one of the world's largest tire companies. It employs approximately 66,000 people and manufactures its products in 49 facilities in 22 countries around the world. Its two Innovation Centers in Akron, Ohio and Colmar-Berg, Luxembourg strive to develop state-of-the-art products and services that set the technology and performance standard for the industry. For more information about Goodyear or its products, go to www.goodyear.eu. For additional pictures, visit the online newsroom: http://news.goodyear.eu. You can also follow us on Twitter @Goodyearpress and join our ThinkGoodMobility group on LinkedIn. 1 "Subject to the acceptance of the Terms and Conditions for the Renting of the Goodyear Caravan, knowing that booking of the Caravan is only eligible to people aged 18 or more at time of the booking and to people having "liked" the Goodyear Facebook page dedicated to the renting of the Caravan". Jeroen Rigole Director Brand PR & Events, EMEA T: +32 2 713 19 78 E: jeroen_rigole@goodyear.com MANCHESTER, England, June 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- As London Gatwick airport reports its busiest ever May, investing in off-airport car parks continues to be a smart option for shrewd private investors. Direct Airport Parking Investment, a master agent for leading UK off-airport car parking provider Park First, watched with interest as London Gatwick's figures for May were announced. More than a quarter of a million passengers passed through this UK airport during the month. May figures take Gatwick's moving annual total passenger numbers to 41,123,000 - a new world record for a single runway airport. This news comes as London Gatwick launches its Pier 1, an improved facility housing an entirely new baggage system for the airport's South Terminal together with state-of-the-art passenger gate rooms. The new facility aims to improve the passenger experience. Park First, which owns and manages eight car parks at London Gatwick airport, is already committed to making the passenger experience as smooth and hassle free as possible. They are the name behind trusted industry brands such as Direct Parking, Help Me Park, Cophall Parking, Park Safe, Park Fast, Swift Park and Park 'n' Fly, operating successfully around London Gatwick, as well as Glasgow airport. These brands all offer long stay car parking services for air passengers, with a choice of Meet & Greet or Park & Ride services. Collectively they park tens of thousands of cars every year on Park First's Park Mark approved car parks. The latest CCTV systems offer peace of mind and exceptional customer service contributes to a stress free service that's available around the clock. Cheshire-based Direct Airport Parking Investment is a company specialising in the sale of car park spaces, in car parks adjacent to major UK airports. All car parking spaces sold by Direct Airport Parking Investment are purchased directly from Park First who continue to operate the car parks and provide the highest standard of management in the industry. Investors receive the rental income from the parking space and also enjoy long term capital growth. Direct Airport Parking Investment's private investors are based all over the world and recognise the huge advantages of this type of property investment, with assured high returns and none of the associated issues of investing in bricks and mortar. Louise Wilson, Investment Consultant at Direct Airport Parking Investment, said: "London Gatwick airport is hugely popular with our investors who recognise the benefits of investing in good quality, well-managed car parking spaces so close to this thriving UK airport. "We're proud to have achieved the status of master agent for Park First. It's an endorsement of the high standards of customer service we provide to our investors. Of course, we encourage all our investors to experience the Park First service for themselves prior to investing. It's important to us that they get the chance to fully appreciate how Park First aims to give its customers a superior quality service as they start and end their holidays or business trip, including at London Gatwick airport." Investing in off-airport car parking with Park First is accessible for many investors, with spaces available from 20,000. Purchasing car park spaces at the busiest UK airports is a low risk investment and earns them a tangible asset that can offer an ongoing income. Investors in off-airport car parking through Direct Airport Parking Investment are assured of an 8% return in each of the first two years of their investment, rising to 10% in years three and four, and 12% in years five and six. Yet already Direct Airport Parking Investment's current year three investors are seeing returns in excess of predictions - as high as 10.8%. It's a return that more traditional investments, such as shares and ISAs, struggle to match. For information about opportunities to invest in off-airport car parking at major UK airports including London Gatwick through Direct Airport Parking Investment Limited, visit www.directparkinginvestment.co.uk or call +44-(0)161-820-4956. Regulatory News: Axactor (OSE:AXAO) (OSE:NMGO) Axactor AB (publ.) ("Axactor") acquires CS Union in Italy. CS Union is a leading independent debt purchase/debt collection company with EUR1bn under management. Banca Sistema will continue as a 10% shareholder of the new entity and will provide attractive financing as part of the strategic partnership. Located in Piemonte, CS Union has operated in the Italian market for more than 20 years and has approximately 105 employees and an external network of more than 100 field collectors. Over the last four years, the company has acquired 21 NPL portfolios with a total face value of more than EUR710m. CS Union has a lean but highly scalable collection platform to manage EUR290m in debt on behalf of banks and financial institutions. In 2015, the company delivered revenues of EUR8.2m and EBITDA of EUR2.1m. Prior to this transaction, Banca Sistema has been a 26% shareholder of CS Union. The bank will retain 10% ownership stake post-closing of the transaction, and will continue the partnership with Axactor in Italy. The partnership will include an attractive financing arrangement, board representation and joint market development in Italy, based on a 3-years Shareholders' agreement. Axactor will pay EUR9.9m for 90% of the shares in CS Union of which 60% will be settled in cash and 40% in Axactor shares. 75% of the shares will be subject to a 24-months lock-up period while the remaining 25% will have a 12-months lock-up period. Banca Sistema will realize a capital gain from the stake sold to Axactor of c. EUR2.3m before taxes. Closing of the transaction is expected by the end of June. Stefano Inguscio and Davide Graneris, the two founders of CS Union and majority shareholders, will continue to support the future development of the Company as members of the new management team. The gross Italian NPL (non-performing loans) stock is in excess of EUR200bn, grown five times larger since 2008. NPL portfolios with a value of approximately EUR19bn was disposed last year, and hence, Italy remains one of the largest global markets for Non-Performing Assets. With the size and the expected continued growth of the Italian NPL market, Axactor regards this market particularly important in its Pan-European growth strategy and the ambition is to become a leading player in the debt collection/debt purchase segments. The regulatory environment has shown new favourable developments during the last year. This includes improving procedures and shortening foreclosure timelines via legal and regulatory measures such as facilitating NPL portfolio funding (GACS) and improving the tax regime. Also, the newly established Atlante fund is intended to be an accelerator of deal flow. "We are excited about the acquisition of CS Union and the strategic partnership with Banca Sistema, and are looking forward to leveraging our joint talent, resources and capabilities in the Italian market. The CS Union management team has built a very successful company over the years by focusing on high quality customer service and a very efficient collection platform. Through this acquisition, we will enhance our European footprint and strengthen our partnerships in the financial services sector", said Endre Rangnes, CEO of Axactor. Gianluca Garbi, CEO of Banca Sistema, said: "In the last three years we have supported the NPL market in Italy by investing in the growth of CS Union. This 10% strategic stake in the new business represents a recognition of the economic value created and a new starting point for CS Union, from today as part of a global network that we will keep supporting it in partnership with Axactor. Our investment has helped to build the story to date and future results will be directly evaluated by the market, as Axactor is a listed company". PwC Deals acted as sole Strategic and Financial Advisor to the transaction and PwC Legal as the Legal Advisor to Axactor. About Axactor Axactor Group is a debt collection and debt purchase company, with operations in Italy, Norway and Spain. The company has a Nordic base and an ambitious Pan-European growth strategy, which targets the market for non-performing loans (NPL) in Europe. This market is estimated to about EUR1,500 billion, and Axactor's main focus is debt collection and purchase of NPL portfolios. After the acquisition of CS Union, Axactor will have approximately 700 employees. About Banca Sistema Banca Sistema was founded in 2011, as a bank specialized in financing and managing trade receivables owed by the Italian Public Administrations, thereby entering a sector of the Italian financial system aimed at granting liquidity to corporate entities in their business dealings with the PA's, mainly through factoring and credit management services.With main offices in Milan, Rome and London, during this time Banca Sistema has extended its activities and services available both to business and retail Clients. As an independent financial operator characterized by a diversified business model, Banca Sistema can offer, today, recourse and non-recourse factoring services. This includes receivables between private companies, yearly and quarterly VAT receivables refunds, current accounts, time deposits with durations up to 10 years, guarantees, securities deposit, reverse factoring, certification of Public Administration credits, salary and pension backed loans, and small and medium enterprises financing. The Bank is also active in the purchasing and management of non-performing financial and trade receivables as well as management and debt recovery from individuals, thanks to its shareholding in CS Union S.p.A.. This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160622005501/en/ Contacts: Axactor Endre Rangnes CEO Tel. +47 482 21 111 E-mail: endre.rangnes@axactor.com or Geir Johansen CFO/Investor Relations Tel. +47 477 10 451 E-mail geir.johansen@axactor.com or Banca sistema Carlo Di Pierro Investor Relations Tel. +39 02 80280.358 E-mail carlo.dipierro@bancasistema.it or Anna Mascioni Media Relations Tel. +39 02 80280.354 E-mail anna.mascioni@bancasistema.it TOKYO (dpa-AFX) - After nearly six years of litigation and many months of settlement negotiations, Sony has finally reached an agreement to settle a lawsuit over the Playstation 3's Linux functionality. Subject to Court's preliminary approval, Sony agreed with the plaintiffs of a class-action lawsuit on the removal of the PlayStation 3's 'Install Other OS' option to make a cash payment of $9 or $55 to qualified customers, depending on their claim. About 10 million console owners in the US are eligible to submit a claim form to receive the cash payment. In 2010, plaintiff Anthony Ventura had filed a lawsuit against Sony, alleging that Sony marketed the PS3 as having the ability to run an operating system, such as Linux, along with the native game operating system, and that the company subsequently removed the 'Other OS' functionality in 2010, harming PS3 purchasers. Approximately 10 million units were sold in the United States with the price ranging $400 to $600. Sony has now agreed to pay $55 to those submitting a valid claim showing proof that he or she used the Other OS functionality. All other Class Members who submit a valid claim and attesting that they lost value and/or desired functionality or were otherwise injured will get $9. Throughout the course of the case, Sony had vigorously denied liability, arguing that it had the right to remove the Other OS. Under the deal terms, persons in the US who bought a Fat PS3 between November 1, 2006 and April 1, 2010 are eligible for the settlement offer. In addition, $2.25 million has been provided in the settlement in attorneys' fees for the legal counsel that brought the claims against Sony. Sony will reach out to customers through the PlayStation Network email database, and will also display internet banner ads and search-related ads on sites including GameSpot and CNET. Video game-related class-action lawsuits are not new for Sony. Last year, the company handed out compensation for the 2011 PSN hack, which compromised more than 70 million accounts. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de CANBERA (dpa-AFX) - The Australian dollar advanced against the other major currencies in the early European session on Wednesday, as investors wait for Fed Chair Janet Yellen's second day of testimony on Capitol Hill later today and Thursday's British Brexit vote on its membership in the European Union. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 index is currently up 0.50 percent or 31.11 points at 6,257, France's CAC 40 index is up 0.63 percent or 27.68 points at 4,394 and Germany's DAX is up 0.76 percent or 75.75 points at 10,091. British Prime Minister David Cameron has predicted a 'Remain dividend', with an investment surge into Britain, if the country votes on to stay in the 28-nation bloc. But he admitted: 'It's very close; nobody knows what's going to happen.' Meanwhile, higher oil prices also boosted sentiment. The oil price rose after a report showed a decline in U.S. weekly domestic crude stockpiles. Crude oil for August delivery are currently up $0.44 to $50.29 a barrel. The American Petroleum Institute report showed that the crude inventories in the U.S. slipped by 5.2 million barrels over the week to June 17, more than the 1.5 million barrels fall expected. Moreover, the strengthening global demand for the crude oil with declining U.S. oil output, also supported the oil price. Traders await the U.S. crude oil inventories official data from the Energy Information Department due later in the day. In the Asian trading today, the Australian dollar held steady against its major rivals. In the early European session, the Australian dollar rose to nearly a 2-month high of 1.5052 against the euro, from an early low of 1.5109. The aussie may test resistance around the 1.45 area. Against the U.S. and the Canadian dollars, the aussie advanced to 0.7483 and 0.9567 from early 2-day lows of 0.7441 and 0.9531, respectively. If the aussie extends its uptrend, it is likely to find resistance around 0.77 against the greenback and 0.98 against the loonie. The aussie climbed to 1.0466 against the NZ dollar, from an early 5-day low of 1.0443. On the upside, 1.07 is seen as the next resistance level for the aussie. Against the yen, the aussie edged up to 78.30 from an early low of 77.78. The next possible upside target level for the aussie is seen around the 81.00 area. Looking ahead, Swiss ZEW economic expectation index for June is due to be released at 5:00 am ET. In the New York session, Canada retail sales data for April, U.S. FHFA house price index for April, Eurozone consumer confidence index for June, U.S. existing home sales data for May and U.S. crude oil inventories data are due. At 10:00 am ET, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen will testify on the Semiannual Monetary Policy Report before the House Financial Services Committee, in Washington DC. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de AMSTERDAM, June 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Nominations for Excellence in Research in the Field of Engineering and Innovation Accepted Through September 1, 2016 Nominations opened today for the Elsevier Foundation Awards for Early-Career Women Scientists in the Developing World , a high-profile honor for scientific and career achievements by women from developing countries in five regions: Latin America and the Caribbean, the Arab region, Sub-Saharan Africa, Central and South Asia; and East and South-East Asia and the Pacific. The theme for 2017 will be engineering and innovation. Nominations will be accepted through September 1, 2016. The awards are sponsored and organized by The Elsevier Foundation, the Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD) and The World Academy of Sciences for the advancement of science in developing countries (TWAS). The competition will be judged by a distinguished panel of international scientists; one winner from each region will be announced in February 2017 at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Boston. The five winners will each receive a cash prize of US$5,000 and all-expenses paid attendance at the AAAS meeting. The winners will also receive one-year access to Elsevier's ScienceDirect and Scopus. The Elsevier Foundation Awards for Early-Career Women Scientists rotate annually between disciplines (biological sciences, engineering sciences, and physical sciences) to ensure optimal exposure and networking synergies. Previous winners say the awards have had a powerful impact, enhancing the visibility of their research and creating new opportunities for the future. Dr. Ethel Nakimuli-Mpungu, the 2016 African winner and psychiatric epidemiologist at Makerere University College of Health Sciences in Kampala, Uganda, noted, "Winning the Elsevier Foundation Award was an honor beyond measure. Finally, my ten years of research received the recognition it deserved. The award resulted in more visibility for my research nationally and internationally. It opened doors to more research collaborations and increased opportunities, as well as invitations to high-level global meetings." Dr. Mpungu's research focuses on mental health interventions for HIV/AIDS patients suffering from depression. After receiving her award, she was recognized with a Presidential Medal on International Women's Day as one of the Women Achievers in Uganda. Nominations for the 2017 awards will be accepted for early-career women scientists working in engineering who have received their PhDs within the past 10 years and live in one of the 81 scientifically lagging countries as defined by TWAS. All nominations will be reviewed by a committee of eminent researchers who represent the five regions, including members of TWAS and OWSD, and chaired by OWSD President, Jennifer Thompson. Discussing the awards, Thompson commented, "I urge all young women working in these fields to make sure you are nominated. The voices and perspectives of women are sorely lacking in these areas of science. You can make a difference!" Romain Murenzi, Executive Director of TWAS, said, "It's very exciting that the Elsevier Foundation Awards, for the first time, will focus on engineering." Engineering is essential for achieving the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals - in areas as diverse as energy and water, industrial development, and in building cities of the future. The 2017 Elsevier Foundation Awards will show us the excellent results women are achieving in engineering and encourage women's future work in these fields." "We have worked with OWSD and TWAS to develop these awards over the past five years - and we're really starting to see the benefits that recognition and role models have on women scientists from developing countries. Our award winners from past years are truly emerging as leaders both in their fields and among their own communities of women scientists," commented David Ruth, Executive Director of the Elsevier Foundation. Read more on Elsevier Connect. Notes for editors Nomination applications can be downloaded from the OWSDwebsite and submitted through September 1, 2016 to info@owsd.net . About TWAS: The World Academy of Sciences works to advance innovation and sustainable prosperity in the developing world through research, education, policy and diplomacy. TWAS was founded in 1983 by a distinguished group of scientists under the leadership of Abdus Salam, the Pakistani physicist and Nobel Prize winner. Today, the academy has some 1,175 elected fellows from 90 countries; 16 of them are Nobel laureates. Throughout its history, its mission has focused on supporting and promoting excellence in research in the developing world and applying science and engineering to global challenges. TWAS receives core funding from the Government of Italy. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) administer TWAS funds and personnel. The academy is based in Trieste, Italy. http://www.twas.org About OWSD: The Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD) is an international organization affiliated with TWAS. Headed by eminent women scientists from the South, OWSD has more than 4,000 members. The central role is to promote women's access to science and technology, and their greater involvement in decision-making processes for the development of their countries and in the international scientific community. Created in 1989, OWSD's overall goal is to bridge the gender gap in science and technology. OWSD promotes leadership and provides networking opportunities for women scientists as well as exploring and improving strategies for increasing female participation in science. http://www.owsd.net About the Elsevier Foundation: The Elsevier Foundation provides grants to knowledge centered institutions around the world, with a focus on diversity in STM, health information delivery, research in developing countries, nurse leadership and sustainability.Since its inception, the foundation has awarded more than 100 grants worth over $5 million to non-profit organizations working in these fields.Through gift-matching, the foundation also supports the efforts of Elsevier employees to play a positive role in their local and global communities. The Elsevier Foundation is a corporate not-for-profit 501(c)(3), funded by Elsevier , a global provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services.http://www.elsevierfoundation.org About Elsevier: Elsevier is a world-leading provider of information solutions that enhance the performance of science, health, and technology professionals, empowering them to make better decisions, deliver better care, and sometimes make ground-breaking discoveries that advance the boundaries of knowledge and human progress. Elsevier provides web-based, digital solutions - among them ScienceDirect, Scopus, Elsevier Research Intelligenceand ClinicalKey - and publishes over 2,500 journals, including The Lancet and Cell, and more than 35,000 book titles, including a number of iconic reference works. Elsevier is part of RELX Group, a world-leading provider of information and analytics for professional and business customers across industries.http://www.elsevier.com Media contact: Edward Lempinen TWAS Public Information Officer +39-040-224-0512 elempinen@twas.org Ylann Schemm Program Director Elsevier Foundation +31-623-982-359 newsroom@elsevier.com BOSTON, MA -- (Marketwired) -- 06/22/16 -- Vesper, developer of the world's most advanced acoustic sensors, today demonstrated the first commercially available quiescent-sensing MEMS device, opening the possibility of acoustic event-detection devices at practically zero power draw. Drawing a scant 3 A of current while in listening mode, Vesper's newest piezoelectric MEMS microphone -- VM1010 -- will dramatically advance voice and acoustic event monitoring. "Our quiescent-sensing MEMS microphone, VM1010, is the only device that uses sound energy itself to wake a system from full power-down," said Matt Crowley, CEO, Vesper. "Even when fully powered-off, batteries in smartphones and smart speakers naturally dissipate 40-80uA, which is far more current than VM1010 needs. This means that there is no difference in battery-life for a system using VM1010 in listening mode and a fully powered-down conventional system." Even in sleep mode, VM1010 preserves its very high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) -- which is essential to improving acoustic range. In fact, there is absolutely no SNR penalty from going into low power, extending the distance of far field voice control in battery-powered systems. "Once embedded in a voice-powered TV remote control or smart speaker, for example, VM1010 could allow you to turn on your device from across the room without having to push a button and without diminishing battery life," added Crowley. "Like all Vesper microphones, VM1010 uses a rugged piezoelectric transducer that is immune to dust, water, oils, humidity, particles and other environmental contaminants, making it ideal for deployments outdoors or in kitchens and automobiles." "For years the electronics industry has envisioned the development of quiescent sensors that consume no power until the appropriate stimulus occurs, but no company has demonstrated this previously in a real commercial device," said Peter Cooney, principal analyst and director, SAR Insight & Consulting. "Vesper's latest piezoelectric MEMS microphone has the potential to advance quiescent sensing into the commercial realm, ushering in a new era of ubiquitous always on sensors that can run indefinitely on small batteries." Availability VM1010 is a single-ended analog piezoelectric MEMS microphone. Engineering samples of VM1010 are available now to highly qualified customers developing technologically advanced systems. Production samples will be available in Q4 2016. For sales inquiries, contact Vesper via email: sales@vespermems.com or visit Vesper on the web: www.vespermems.com. About Vesper Vesper is a privately held piezoelectric MEMS company based in Boston, MA. With origins at the University of Michigan, Vesper microphones improve the acoustic experience with a wide range of consumer products via a patented piezoelectric MEMS platform. These products include smartphones, smart speakers, Internet of Things (IoT) devices and connected automobiles. Vesper is funded by Accomplice, AAC Technologies, XinGang Electronics and other strategic partners. For more information about Vesper, please contact us via email: info@vespermems.com or web: www.vespermems.com. The Vesper logo is a registered trademark of Vesper. All other product and company names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. Embedded Video Available Image Available: http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3024065 Embedded Video Available: http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3024104 Press Contacts: Matt Crowley Vesper Email: Email Contact Maria Vetrano Vetrano Communications Email: Email Contact VIENNA (dpa-AFX) - European stocks rose for a fourth consecutive session on Wednesday, although gains remained capped ahead of Thursday's all-important UK-wide referendum to decide on the country's future in the European Union. The latest poll indicates that the result could be a close one. The pan-European Stoxx Europe 600 index was marginally higher in choppy trade after hitting its highest level in more than two weeks earlier in the session. The German DAX, France's CAC 40 index and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 were up between 0.2 percent and 0.4 percent. Financials traded mostly higher, with Commerzbank, Deutsche Bank, Credit Agricole, BNP Paribas, Societe Generale Group and HSBC Holdings rising between 0.3 percent and 0.7 percent. Air France-KLM Group gained 1.5 percent in Paris after its pilots canceled a strike scheduled for Friday. Mining giant Rio Tinto advanced 0.8 percent on rumors of an incoming $9 billion BHP-style spinoff. BHP Billiton, Anglo American and Glencore rose between half a percent and 1.5 percent while gold miner Fresnillo lost 1 percent. Tullow Oil rose over 1 percent and Total SA gained half a percent, as oil traded above $50 a barrel ahead of the U.S. Energy Information Administration's closely watched inventory report due later in the day. Storage company Safestore Holdings jumped over 3 percent in London as broker Liberum reiterated its 'buy' rating on the stock. Department store group Debenhams slumped 4 percent on reporting a slight drop in like-for-like sales in the 15 weeks to June 11. Swedish fashion retailer Hennes & Mauritz fell more than 1 percent on reporting a 17 percent drop in second-quarter profit. Merlin Properties Socimi climbed 3.5 percent after it agreed to a merger with Metrovacesa. On a relatively light day on the economic front, investors await U.S. existing home sales figures, Eurozone consumer confidence data and a second day of testimony by Fed Chair Yellen before U.S. lawmakers for further direction. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. PARIS, FRANCE and SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 06/22/16 -- Sevenhugs, creator of connected home products, today announced the strategic opening of its San Francisco office where the executive team will be overseeing global operations and product development. The new office brings Sevenhugs closer to partners and provides opportunities to solidify its network to further grow its business. Additionally, Sevenhugs has completed a $14.6M (13M euros) Series A funding round that will focus significantly on building the team and investing in product development. Sevenhugs has received a total of $17.5M in funding. "We are very pleased to partner with investors who share our vision," said Simon Tchedikian, CEO and co-founder of Sevenhugs. "Gartner Research predicts that by 2020, there will be approximately 25 billion IoT-enabled devices, of which millions will likely be automating our homes. Our goal from the beginning has simply been to provide smart home solutions focused on the user-experience. From our intuitive hugOne sleep monitor to our next-gen, universal Smart Remote, we are dedicated to making home technology accessible. We value the expertise and support of our investors as we work together to accelerate the expansion of Sevenhugs." High-growth investment firm Xerys Gestion led this current round of funding, which was supported by existing investors who have also reiterated their confidence in Sevenhugs solutions for making smart home products accessible and user-friendly for everyone sharing the technologies. "We first focus on founders with vision and talent -- a combination that we know will result in success," said Jacques Simonnet, President of Xerys Gestion. "I've been impressed by how quickly this highly-effective team brought to market the hugOne. It was shipped to retailers only eight months after the seed round. Our investment will allow for the continued elevation of such amazing products. As a company with global potential, unique technology, and a quality team, investing in Sevenhugs is fully in line with our strategy." Sevenhugs will use its latest round of funding to: Broaden the global launch of the hugOne to the U.S. The hugOne is a sleep monitor that tracks sleep patterns to help families consistently rest better by capturing temperature, humidity, and air quality. It pairs with other smart home technologies such as Nest and Phillips Hue. Accelerate the development of the soon-to-launch intelligent Smart Remote, a universal control center for all home technologies. This product will seamlessly unify the connected home and enhance the user-experience with its simplicity. Expand its U.S. footprint with retail sales channels and bolster partnerships with key players in the smart home landscape. Increase hiring of team members in the U.S. and France. For more information about Sevenhugs, visit http://sevenhugs.com or follow the company on Facebook and Twitter. About Sevenhugs Sevenhugs is an innovative connected home company that creates integrated devices and services aimed at simplifying the smart home experience. Its mission is to reinvent the way people interact with technology at home. Sevenhugs' line of products include hugOne, the first connected solution that helps the entire family sleep better. The company was founded in 2014 by Simon Tchedikian, Stephane Jaubertou, Lionel Marty, and Olivier Mandine. For more information about Sevenhugs, visit: http://sevenhugs.com About Xerys Gestion Xerys is a French portfolio management company specialising in private equity (iOT, cleantech, biotech, energy). It aims to support the managers of Xerys Funds portfolio companies at all stages of their growth, from venture capital to maturity. Xerys aims to provide the financial means to allow entrepreneurs to work in a long-term perspective, without the risk of running out of capital, focusing on their vision for their company. Xerys also aims to put the full range of skills and expertise of the members of its team at their disposal, providing assistance and advice in strategic decisions and choices. For more information about Xerys, visit: www.xerys.com Media Contacts: Beth Keuling lotus823 for Sevenhugs press@sevenhugs.com 732-212-0823 Olivier Ossipoff Alexandre Heraud Xerys Gestion +33 1 82 52 12 25 YOKOHAMA (dpa-AFX) - Mitsubishi Motors Corp. (7211, MMTOF.PK), which expects hefty charge on fuel-cheat scandal, Wednesday said it sees fiscal year net loss of $1.4 billion or 145 billion Japanese Yen. This is for the first time in the last eight years that the company reports a loss. Last year, it had recorded profit of 89.1 billion yen. The Japanese motor giant expects net sales to fall by 16 percent to 1.91 trillion yen, with a decline of eight percent or 86 thousand units in total sales to 962 thousand units for fiscal 2016. In the previous year, net sales were 2.27 trillion. On April 20, the company had revealed a fraud in fuel consumption test, and taking the responsibility, President Tetsuro Aikawa had resigned. Chairman Osamu Masuko replaced him temporarily. The company had said it was using fuel-economy testing methods that were not in compliance with Japanese regulation. Mitsubishi expects fuel test impact of 205 billion yen in fiscal year of which, 150 billion yen is earmarked for one time fuel test charges. Further, it has decided to pay 100 thousand yen or $960 each to car owners affected by fuel-cheat scandal. The individual compensation would come to 50 billion yen or $480 million. Nissan Motor Co., which has agreed to own 34 percent stake in Mitsubishi, has been selling mini cars under the brand Dayz and Dayz Roox. Mitsubishi has offered 100 billion yen in compensation to Nissan. Regional sales in Japan is expected to be down 41 percent, while two percent decline is expected in North America. The company forecasts nine percent and three percent decline in Europe and Asia sales respectively, while 13 percent drop is projected to other regions. Osamu Masuko has announced that the company would resume production of minicars, and the financial impact would not be carried to next fiscal periods. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. LONDON, June 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Global Cloud Xchange (GCX), a subsidiary of Reliance Communications, today announced the appointment of Bryce Jewell as Managing Director of the UK. Mr. Jewell will be responsible for developing and driving the overall business strategy in the United Kingdom. Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160622/382182 Mr. Jewell joined GCX in 2014 as the Director of Corporate Development to lead strategic sales initiatives and was appointed as acting Managing Director of the UK in 2015, where he was instrumental in driving growth across the Enterprise business and building strategic partnerships. "Bryce has been a key member of the senior team in UK and this appointment is an acknowledgement of his accomplishments and leadership abilities over the years," said Mark Russell, President of Europe, Global Cloud Xchange. "His vast industry experience and understanding of local business requirements will continue to contribute significantly to our growth strategy and lead our UK operations to the next level of success." Mr. Jewell brings more than 16 years of telecom and technology experience. Prior to joining the company, Mr. Jewell served as Director of Sales for Pacnet (now Telstra) in Europe where he was responsible for driving profitable revenue growth. He has also received many accolades and awards over the years including Top Carrier Sales performer for four consecutive years. His wealth of experience also include management roles at the former Vanco (now GCX), Telstra Internet Direct in Australia and iTet AS in Norway. Mr. Jewell attended Murdoch University in Australia where he studied Applied Science-- Information Systems and Telecommunications Management. About Global Cloud Xchange Global Cloud Xchange (GCX), a subsidiary of Reliance Communications, offers a comprehensive portfolio of solutions customized for carriers, enterprises and new media companies. GCX owns the world's largest private undersea cable system spanning more than 67,000 route kms which, seamlessly integrated with Reliance Communications' 200,000 route kms of domestic optic fiber backbone, provides a robust Global Service Delivery Platform. With connections to 40 key business markets worldwide spanning Asia, North America, Europe and the Middle East, GCX delivers Managed Services to more than 160 countries and offer extensive VPLS-enabled Ethernet network capabilities globally. GCX is equipped to support businesses through the deployment of next generation Enterprise solutions across its Cloud Delivery Networks. For More Information, contact: Genevieve Li Tel: +852 6028 8236 Email: gli@globalcloudxchange.com OTTAWA, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 06/22/16 -- Effective immediately, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) is increasing its CMHC Green Home premium refund from 10% to as much as 25% depending on the level of energy-efficiency achieved. Introduced in 2004, CMHC Green Home offers a partial premium refund to borrowers who buy, build or renovate for energy efficiency using CMHC-insured financing. CMHC is also updating the eligibility requirements to reflect changes to the EnerGuide Rating System. CMHC is Canada's only mortgage insurer prepared to accept applications for homes assessed using either the current 0-100 scale or the new gigajoule scale. The enhancements demonstrate CMHC's leadership in the mortgage insurance industry. Additional information on CMHC Green Home can be found at www.cmhc.ca/greenhome This release includes video. As Canada's authority on housing, CMHC contributes to the stability of the housing market and financial system, provides support for Canadians in housing need and offers objective housing research and information to Canadian governments, consumers and the housing industry. For more information, visit our website or follow us on Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and Facebook. QUOTES "CMHC is committed to fostering energy-efficient housing in Canada. Improving energy efficiency not only reduces greenhouse gas emissions but also lowers the cost of owning and maintaining a home." Steven Mennill, Senior Vice President, Insurance, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation Backgrounder -- Energy accounts for nearly 8% of total household expenditures. On average, Canadian households spent $4,434 on energy in 2012. Lower- income households spend a larger share of their disposable income on energy. -- CMHC has provided nearly 8,000 refunds worth over $10 million since CMHC Green Home was introduced in 2004. -- Homeowners have up to two years from the closing date to apply for a premium refund through CMHC Green Home. Contacts: Jonathan Rotondo CMHC Media Relations 613-748-2734 jrotondo@cmhc-schl.gc.ca VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 06/22/16 -- Mineral Mountain Resources Ltd. ("Mineral Mountain" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE: MMV) is pleased to announce that the Company has increased its 100%-owned land position in the Rochford Gold District to 5,447 acres (2179 hectares) by staking an additional 37 unpatented lode mineral claims totaling 606 acres (242 hectares). In all, the Company now owns a contiguous land position located in Lawrence and Pennington Counties totaling 345 unpatented lode mineral claims. The northern boundary of the Company's land holdings is located 18 km (11 mi.) south of the Homestake Mine deposit. The close similarities between the Homestake Mine and the Rochford District in host rock composition, structural style, metamorphic grade, and gold mineralization suggest that the Rochford District has the potential to contain a large gold resource. The property covers four high priority gold targets that are situated within two structural corridors that host Homestake Ledge-type gold mineralization associated with banded iron formation documented by Noranda, Newmont, Western Mining and Homestake between 1982 and 1996. All four priority targets, if traced systematically down the limb fold plunge by diamond drilling are considered to be above average for the discovery of Ledge-type gold deposits. The four gold targets, three along the 5.5 km long Standby-South Standby-Lookout Mine Trend and the fourth along the 1 km long Cochrane Trend, require a well-planned drill program initially totaling 9,000 meters of drilling. (see release dated March 7, 2016) The Rochford Gold District Despite the similarities to Homestake, and compelling evidence for gold mineralization, the Rochford District has remained under explored. The Rochford Gold District is located approximately 26 kilometers south of the world's largest banded iron formation hosted gold deposit, the Homestake Mine, which produced nearly 40,000,000 ounces of gold averaging about 10.89 g/t Au (0.350 opt) over the life of the mine from 1876 to 2001. The geology of the Rochford District is remarkably similar to that at the Homestake Mine with gold hosted in multiple deformed Proterozoic carbonate facies and local sulfide-facies iron formation that has typically been metamorphosed to cummingtonite/grunerite phyllites/schists and chlorite schists. There are numerous, relatively shallow past producing gold mines and prospects in the district that were developed in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Mineral Mountain's property package covers approximately a 9 km long segment of auriferous iron formation considered to have many geological and mineralogical aspects to the Homestake Mine 26 km to the northwest. The Rochford District covers more than 78 square kilometers and has been explored intermittently by several major companies like Getty, Newmont, Noranda, Western Mining and Homestake Mining in the 20th century. The last serious exploration for the Rochford District was completed in 1997. This district appears to have been forgotten and/or overlooked especially after the closing of the nearby giant Homestake Mine in 2001. We believe that because Homestake was so dominant in the Black Hills for over 125 years, many explorers erroneously assumed that the gold belt been thoroughly explored. A plan that shows locations of historic mines and prospects as well as important patented and unpatented claim locations has been posted on the Company's website www.mineralmtn.com. Qualified Persons The technical information in this news release has been prepared and approved by Nelson W. Baker, P.Eng., the President and CEO of Mineral Mountain Resources Ltd. and a Qualified Person for this project. All exploration activities at the Rochford Project are carried out under the supervision of Kevin Leonard, P.Geo., also a Qualified Person for this project and conducted by a highly technical team with several years exploring for iron hosted gold deposits in the Black hills and globally. About Mineral Mountain and the Rochford Project Mineral Mountain Resources Ltd., through its wholly owned subsidiary Mineral Mountain Resources (SD) Inc., is focused primarily on the systematic exploration and, if warranted, the development of its large, 100%-owned Rochford Project located 26 km south of the Homestake Mine along the highly prospective gold belt trending through the Black Hills of South Dakota, U.S.A. The Rochford Project hosts repeating limbs and/or ledges along two structural corridors that hosts commercial grade, iron hosted gold mineralization that require systematic diamond drilling. The project now totals 345 contiguous unpatented lode mineral claims covering approximately 5,447 acres. On Behalf of the Board of Directors MINERAL MOUNTAIN RESOURCES LTD. Nelson W. Baker, President and CEO Forward looking information This release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation ("Forward-looking information"). Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, statements that address activities, events or developments that the Company expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future, including such things as future business strategy, competitive strengths, goals, expansion, growth of the Company's businesses, operations, plans and with respect to exploration results, the timing and success of exploration activities generally, permitting time lines, government regulation of exploration and mining operations, environmental risks, title disputes or claims, limitations on insurance coverage, timing and possible outcome of any pending litigation and timing and results of future resource estimates or future economic studies. Often, but not always, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "planning", "planned", "expects" or "looking forward", "does not expect", "continues", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "potential", "anticipates", "does not anticipate" or "belief" or describes a "goal" or variation of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward-looking information is based on a number of material factors and assumptions, including, the result of drilling and exploration activities, that contracted parties provide goods and/or services on the agreed timeframes, that equipment necessary for exploration is available as scheduled and does not incur unforeseen break downs, that no labour shortages or delays are incurred, that plant and equipment function as specified, that no unusual geological or technical problems occur, and that laboratory and other related services are available and perform as contracted. Forward-looking information involves known and unknown risks, future events, conditions, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, prediction, projection, forecast, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. Such factors include, among others, the interpretation and actual results of current exploration activities; changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined; future prices of gold; possible variations in grade or recovery rates; failure of equipment or processes to operate as anticipated; the failure of contracted parties to perform; labour disputes and other risks of the mining industry; delays in obtaining governmental approvals or financing or in the completion of exploration, as well as those factors disclosed in the company's publicly filed documents. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that forward-looking information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Contacts: Mineral Mountain Resources Ltd. Brad Baker Vice-President Corporate Development & Director (778) 383-3975 bbaker@mineralmtn.com www.mineralmtn.com TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 06/22/16 -- Kombat Copper Inc. (TSX VENTURE: KBT) ("Kombat Copper" or the "Company") today announces that it has appointed Stephan Theron as President and CEO of Kombat Copper. Paul Bozoki will return to his role as CFO and Heidi Gerry will resume her role as Corporate Controller. Mr. Theron will also join the board of directors of Kombat Copper (the "Board") replacing Mr. Bozoki. Mr. Theron brings to Kombat Copper 17 years of extensive management, capital project development and M&A experience within the mining industry. Prior to joining Kombat Copper, Mr. Theron was Managing Director at Liberty Metals & Mining, a private equity group based in Boston, Massachusetts. Mr. Theron was also a strategic member on the board of directors of True Gold Mining. Prior to his work in Boston, Stephan was President & CEO at Forbes & Manhattan Coal Corp., based in Toronto. While he worked at Forbes Coal, he led the acquisition, restructuring and development of two coal mines in South Africa. He has structured numerous mining focused investments and has worked on mining projects throughout Africa and North America. Mr. Theron holds two degrees in Finance and is a Certified General Accountant. Justin Reid, Executive Chairman of Kombat Copper commented: "The Board of Kombat Copper is pleased to welcome Stephan as our new President and CEO. Stephan's extensive operational and African-focused experience, coupled with his detailed knowledge of project funding and investing will act to not only strengthen our core group, but position the Company as we advance through our previously announced mid-term initiatives and ultimately move back towards full scale production. We have a lot of work to do, and we believe Stephan is the right person to lead us. The Board would also like to thank Paul Bozoki, who will be returning to his role as CFO. Paul skillfully stepped in as CEO as we worked on our final restructuring plan." Stephan Theron, President and CEO of Kombat Copper, commented: "I am pleased to join Kombat Copper at an important time in the copper price cycle. The Kombat Mine is very well positioned to act as a platform for future growth in Africa and potentially beyond. I'm looking forward to getting started, further enhancing the team's strength and implementing the mine development strategy." In connection with Mr. Theron's appointment, the Company has granted Mr. Theron 1,500,000 stock options in accordance with the Company's stock option plan. The options have an exercise price of $0.05 and will expire five years from the date of grant. The options will vest immediately. The grant of options remains subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange. About Kombat Copper Kombat Copper is a publicly traded Canadian exploration and development company with its core operations focused on copper resources in Namibia, one of the world's most prospective copper regions, where it has substantial assets in place with significant upside. The Company continues to hold an 80% interest in five mining licenses in the Otavi Mountainlands, an area of Namibia particularly known for its high-grade copper deposits. Within these licenses are three past-producing mines including the Company's flagship property, the Kombat Mine. Kombat Copper has contracted EBM Mining Namibia to begin mining lead/copper mineralization at Kombat East, Kombat Central and potentially Gross Otavi within the year. Concentrates will be produced at the Company's production facilities, which are being refurbished by EBM. EBM is also evaluating opportunities to market aggregate stone and sand byproducts locally. Kombat Copper's decision to (i) mine the near surface mineralization on the Kombat East and Kombat Central areas, and (ii) produce any concentrate from such mining and processing is not based on a feasibility study or mineral resource/reserve with demonstrated economic viability. Kombat Copper has decided to put certain areas of the Kombat Mine into production without first establishing mineral resources or mineral reserves, supported by a technical report and/or feasibility study. The Company cautions readers that such production may not be economically feasible and historically such projects have a much higher risk of economic or technical failure. Cautionary Notes Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This news release may contain forward-looking statements. These statements include statements regarding the grant of stock options, the impact of the appointment and resignation of officers and directors of the Company, possible mineralization and deposits, the anticipated timeline regarding future exploration work, availability of results and production, the Company's expectations regarding mineral resources, EBM's ability to commence operations and operate the applicable portions of the Kombat mine, EBM's ability to make the requisite investments, the Company's expectations regarding the production and sales of mineralization from the Kombat Mine and potential development work and the Company's plans for the Kombat Mine including any financial impact and community impact. These statements are based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially because of factors discussed in the management discussion and analysis section of our interim and most recent annual financial statements or other reports and filings with the TSX Venture Exchange and applicable Canadian securities regulations. We do not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required by applicable laws. Contacts: Kombat Copper Inc. Rob Hopkins Manager, Investor Relations +1 (416) 861-5899 info@kombatcopper.com www.kombatcopper.com VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 06/22/16 -- Canterra Minerals Corporation (TSX VENTURE: CTM) ("Canterra" or "the Company") is pleased to announce that it has signed an Option Agreement with Mr. Michael Magrum ("Magrum") to acquire up to a 70% interest in the CL-25 Property (the "Property") located in the South Slave Region of the Northwest Territories ("NT"). The CL-25 Property consists of one claim (1,045.10 hectares) entirely surrounded by Canterra's Gwen Property. The Property contains two diamondiferous kimberlite pipes known as CL-25 and CL-174 discovered by Winspear Diamonds in 1994 and 1995 respectively. Historical data from Assessment Reports indicates that 212 diamonds (9 macros) were recovered from CL-25 and 340 diamonds (11 macros) were recovered from CL-174. Indicators from the adjacent Gwen Property suggest other potential kimberlite sources may be present. The Property is located approximately 260 kilometres ("km") northeast of Yellowknife, NT; approximately 30 km east of the Snap Lake Diamond Mine and 50 km west of the Gahcho Kue deposit being developed by Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. and De Beers Canada. Randy Turner, President and CEO of Canterra, commented, "We are excited to add CL-25 to our portfolio of properties across the South Slave Region. CL-25 will be one of our primary target for exploration over the next year and we look forward to advancing it." Pursuant to the agreement, the Company can acquire a 60% interest in the Property by making a cash payment of $35,000 within 10 days of receiving regulatory approval, the issuance of an aggregate of 400,000 shares (200,000 within 10 days of receiving regulatory approval) and work commitments of $1,000,000 over a three year period. Upon completion of the 60% earn-in, the Company will have the right to exercise a second option for an additional 10% interest by making a cash payment of $100,000, issuing 500,000 shares and incurring further work commitments of $1,000,000 prior to the fifth anniversary. The transaction is subject to approval of the TSX Venture Exchange. After the Company has either earned 60% or if elected, the 70% earn-in, the Company and Magrum will form a joint venture for the purpose of continuing exploration and development of the Property. Upon formation, the joint venture has agreed to pay Magrum a 3% gross overriding royalty (the "GORR") on the appraised value of diamonds resulting from the property. The joint venture will have the right to purchase up to two-thirds of the GORR, exercisable at any time, by paying $1,000,000 for each 1%, for an aggregate purchase price of $2,000,000. Corporate Update: In addition, the Company announces that it is proposing to amend the expiry date of 8,107,143 outstanding warrants (the "Warrants") from July 29, 2016 to July 29, 2017, subject to approval of the TSX Venture Exchange. The Warrants will remain exercisable into common shares at a price of $0.10 per common share. Bruce Kienlen, P.Geol, Senior Geologist for Canterra is the Qualified Person, as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and has reviewed the technical information in this news release. About Canterra: Canterra Minerals is a Canadian resource company specializing in diamond exploration in the Northwest Territories, strategically located between the Snap Lake Diamond Mine and the Gahcho Kue Diamond Project. The Company also maintains a 33% interest in the Buffalo Hills Diamond Project in Alberta where a total of 38 kimberlites have been identified. As leaders of exploration in the junior diamond sector for over 25 years, the Canterra team has been involved in the discovery of two of Canada's four diamond mines, the Snap Lake Diamond Mine in the South Slave and the Ekati Diamond Mine in Lac de Gras. Location maps can be found on the Company's website www.canterraminerals.com. CANTERRA MINERALS CORPORATION Randy Turner, President & CEO The TSX Venture Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of the content of this news release. Contacts: Canterra Minerals Corporation Randy Turner President 604-687-6644 info@canterraminerals.com www.canterraminerals.com WNS (Holdings) Limited (NYSE: WNS), a leading provider of global Business Process Management (BPM) services, today announced an agreement with Sompo Canopius, a top ten global specialty (re)insurer. WNS is partnering with Sompo Canopius to support the development of the business across a number of back and middle office operational functions. "This exciting partnership furthers our industry-leading position in high-end global insurance BPM. We are delighted to have been chosen to partner with such a prestigious member of the Lloyd's, London and global insurance markets," said Keshav R. Murugesh, Group CEO, WNS. Stephen Manning, Group COO, Sompo Canopius, commented, "WNS has a track record of supporting transformation in complex insurance businesses, and has the breadth and depth of expertise and experience we require for our operations. We look forward to a productive, long-term partnership." A leader in delivering insurance BPM solutions across the globe, today WNS manages services from simple transactions to mission-critical, judgment-based processes. WNS' solutions are underpinned by deep domain expertise, technology and automation, and high-end analytics. About Sompo Canopius Sompo Canopius is a global specialty (re)insurer which is wholly-owned by Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Insurance Inc., one of the top three Japanese insurers with a market share in Japan of 28%. This company is a subsidiary of Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Holdings, Inc. ("Sompo Holdings") which is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (No. 8630). Sompo Canopius has underwriting operations in the UK, Netherlands, Switzerland, Bermuda, US and Singapore. It underwrites through Lloyd's Syndicate 4444 (managed by Canopius Managing Agents limited); a US surplus lines insurer, Canopius US Insurance, Inc.; and a Zurich-based reinsurance company, Sompo Japan Canopius Reinsurance AG. The group offers specialist insurance and reinsurance across property; marine, energy engineering; political risks crisis management and casualty, accident & health lines. About WNS WNS (Holdings) Limited (NYSE: WNS) is a leading global business process management company. WNS offers business value to 200+ global clients by combining operational excellence with deep domain expertise in key industry verticals including Insurance, Banking and Financial Services, Travel, Manufacturing, Retail and Consumer Packaged Goods, Shipping and Logistics, Healthcare and Utilities. WNS delivers an entire spectrum of business process management services such as finance and accounting, customer care, technology solutions, research and analytics and industry specific back office and front office processes. As of March 31, 2016, WNS had 32,388 professionals across 40 delivery centers worldwide including China, Costa Rica, India, Philippines, Poland, Romania, South Africa, Sri Lanka, United Kingdom and the United States. For more information, visit www.wns.com. Safe Harbor Provision This document includes information which may constitute forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, the accuracy of which are necessarily subject to risks, uncertainties, and assumptions as to future events. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied are discussed in our most recent Form 20-F and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. WNS undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160622005657/en/ Contacts: WNS (Holdings) Limited Investors: David Mackey Corporate SVP Finance Head of Investor Relations +1 (201) 942-6261 david.mackey@wns.com or Media: Archana Raghuram Head Corporate Communications +91 (22) 4095 2397 archana.raghuram@wns.com; pr@wns.com MUNICH, June 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Today marks the start of ees Europe 2016. At Europe's largest exhibition for batteries and energy storage systems, exhibitors from all around the world are set to showcase the most up-to-date products, services and solutions in renewable energy storage until June 24, 2016. This year, ees Europe is taking place in parallel with Intersolar Europe, the world's leading exhibition for the solar industry and its partners. Replacing large-scale nuclear and fossil fuel power stations, power is increasingly being supplied by decentralized, regenerative energy producers. Working in combination with these different forms of electricity generation, intelligent storage solutions play a crucial role in guaranteeing supply safety. No wonder then, that the energy storage industry is booming. This growth is also fueled by falling prices in the industry. According to a recent survey conducted by ees and Intersolar Europe together with the German Solar Association (BSW-Solar), the purchasing costs for turnkey solar storage systems for private homes have fallen by over 30% in the last 24 months, due to economies of scale and technical developments. The consequence: Domestic storage systems for solar power in particular are becoming increasingly cost-efficient, which is leading to greater investment in these technologies. Numerous companies are taking advantage of the considerable momentum in the market to expand their business - or to enter the market for the first time, such as Daimler AG for example, who announced the foundation of the Mercedes-Benz Energy GmbH at the start of June 2016. Nissan has reported entering a partnership with Eaton this year to capture the domestic storage system market, and Tesla Energy and the BMW Group have also moved into the market. E-mobility is another important factor driving the energy storage market forward. Electric cars are not just a low-emission form of transport: As mobile energy storage units, they are one of the mainstays in the grid of the future. A few weeks ago, Norway took a pioneering step in this direction and is aiming to rely entirely on electric cars by 2025. Germany is also advocating e-mobility. The German government has set itself the target of bringing one million electric cars onto the country's roads by 2020 and has set up an incentive program in order to achieve this. The conditions are therefore extremely favorable for ees Europe, which opens its doors today for the third time. Exhibitors are presenting their innovations, solutions and services in the area of efficient and sustainable energy storage from June 22-24. ees Europe's success story ees Europe has developed impressively since 2014: Even after the exhibition recorded significant growth in 2015, the exhibition space increased again by 40% to over 12,000 sqm in 2016. Here, 213 battery and energy storage manufacturers are set to showcase their products and services - representing an increase of 35% compared with last year. Together with Intersolar Europe, which takes place at the same time, 369 of the total 1,077 exhibitors are presenting energy storage solutions. Many exhibitors have expanded their exhibition segment and are displaying an even broader range of new products, in comparison with previous years. In a remarkably short period of time, the event has established itself as a leading exhibition in Europe. Special exhibits: Wind meets Solar and Storage and E-Mobility & Renewable Energy Visitors can find out about the current trends in the industry at two special exhibits. At the exhibition space Wind meets Solar and Storage (hall B2, booth B2.290), researchers from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) will be demonstrating how different technologies for power generation and energy storage are connected to consumers in a smart energy system that utilizes the most up-to-date information technologies. One of the centerpieces of the special exhibit is the prototype of an energy storage device measuring almost 100 cubic meters. The exhibition demonstrates how batteries can work in combination with a PV installation and a wind turbine to guarantee the optimal supply safety and grid stability. Along these lines, sessions titled Integration Strategies and Virtual Power Plants are taking place at the Smart Renewable Energy Forum on Thursday, June 23, starting at 1:00pm (hall B2, booth B2.131). The special exhibit E-Mobility & Renewable Energy showcases intelligent solutions for integrating electric vehicles and presents new vehicle concepts and innovative charging technologies in hall B1, booth B1.190. It plays host to innovations from companies such as Tesla, Nissan, GridSense and Parkstrom until June 24. The ees AWARD, ees Forum and ees Conference For the third time in a row, the ees AWARD is set to pay tribute to outstanding innovations in energy storage on the first day of the exhibition. All companies who exhibited at an ees or Intersolar event around the world in 2016 were able to make a submission. The winners will be announced at an official award ceremony today at the Innovation and Application Forum (4:30pm, hall A2, booth A2.530). Another important feature of the exhibition's accompanying program: the ees Forum. In hall B1, booth B1.151 on all three exhibition days, industry experts will be speaking about their experiences in the manufacturing, sales, installation and application of batteries and energy storage systems. Following the successful premiere last year, the ees Conference is taking place again in 2016. From June 21-22, 2016, the presentations held by expert panels at ICM - Internationales Congress Center Munchen - offer visitors the opportunity to find out about the latest advancements in the field of storage devices and storage management, as well as how to use storage systems economically. They will be discussing topical issues in the industry, ranging from political conditions and financing, to new technical accomplishments. ees Europe 2016 takes place alongside Intersolar Europe at Messe Munchen from June 22-24, 2016. Further information on ees Europe 2016 can be found at http://www.ees-europe.com About ees The global ees exhibition series is the industry meeting point, bringing together manufacturers, distributors, users and suppliers of stationary and mobile electricity storage systems. The ees exhibitions are co-organized with Intersolar, the leading exhibition series for the solar industry. The ees exhibitions and accompanying ees Conferences are dedicated to renewable energy storage solutions, from residential and commercial applications to large-scale storage systems for stabilizing the grid. Other focal points are products and solutions for smart renewable energy, energy management, e-mobility and uninterruptible power supply (UPS). With ees Europe in Munich, ees North America in San Francisco and ees India in Mumbai, ees is represented on three continents. ees Europe is the continent's largest exhibition with the greatest number of visitors for the battery and energy storage industry. More than 158 exhibitors took part in ees Europe 2015 (326 companies together with energy storage exhibitors at Intersolar Europe) and approx. 38,000 visitors from 165 countries flocked to Munich. Partners of ees Europe ZVEI (German Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers' Association), EUROBAT (the Association of European Automotive and Industrial Battery Manufacturers), Naatbatt (the National Alliance for Advanced Technology Batteries), and BSW-Solar (German Solar Association). For more information on ees Europe, please visit: http://www.ees-europe.com ees Europe is organized by Solar Promotion GmbH, Pforzheim and Freiburg Wirtschaft Touristik und Messe GmbH & Co. KG (FWTM). Contact: Solar Promotion GmbH | Postfach 100 170 | 75101 Pforzheim Horst Dufner | Tel: +49-7231-58598-0 | Fax: +49-7231-58598-28 | info@ees-europe.com Press contact: fischerAppelt, relations | Infanteriestrae 11a | 80797 Munchen Robert Schwarzenbock | Tel: +49-89-747466-23 | Fax: +49-89-747466-66 | rs@fischerAppelt.de TENERIFE, Canary Islands, June 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The international aviation industry will gather in Tenerife this weekend for the 11th annual Routes Africa air service development forum (26-28 June). (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150730/250177LOGO ) Routes Africa is dedicated to improving air connectivity across the African continent. It stimulates the African aviation industry by bringing together airlines, airports and tourism authorities to discuss new air services. Tenerife Tourism Corporation is hosting the event with support from the Canary Islands Government. Closer to the African continent than the European mainland, Tenerife aims to become a connecting aviation hub or 'logistical stepping stone' between Africa and the Americas and Europe. Nearly six million tourists a year travel to the largest Canary Island for its beautiful beaches, national park, historical towns and warm climate. Routes Africa will provide Tenerife with a unique opportunity to showcase these attractions and make the case for introducing new air services. Investment in Tenerife's infrastructure will support further growth in the tourist sector. A new cruise terminal will open at Santa Cruz Port in September, five new five-star hotels will open over the next two years and there are plans to invest 120 million in a new terminal at Tenerife South Airport. The African aviation market also presents significant development opportunities. International Air Transport Association (IATA) figures predict that it will grow by 4.7% to 294 million passengers a year by 2034, and that seven of the world's ten fastest growing markets will be in Africa (Malawi, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Central African Republic, Tanzania, Uganda and Ethiopia). Some of the most senior network planners in the industry will attend Routes Africa to capitalise on the predicted growth of the market, including representatives from South African Airways, Royal Air Maroc, Malawian Airlines, Fastjet and major European carriers such as Iberia, Norwegian and Alitalia. Around 200 professionals are expected to attend the event. Delegates will also get the chance to hear industry leaders discussing the latest issues and trends at the'Strategy Summit' conference. The speakers include Richard Bodin, chief commercial officer at Fastjet; Elijah Chingosho, secretary general at African Airlines Association (AFRAA) and Fernando Estrada, chief strategy officer at Vueling. Adrian Newton, group director at UBM EMEA (the organiser of Routes events) said: "Routes Africa has an important role to play in the development of the African aviation market. As the host of this year's event, Tenerife is in a great position to demonstrate the key role it can play in the development of air connectivity within the region." The president of theTenerife Government, Carlos Alonso, highlights: "Tenerife is very keen to improve its air connectivity with Africa and serve as an Atlantic platform for three continents, so holding Routes Africa on the island will be a unique opportunity for us to demonstrate the island's potential to senior representatives of the world's major airlines." For more information about Routes Africa 2016, go to the event website: http://www.routesonline.com/events/185/routes-africa-2016/ Routes Africa 2016, Gran Hotel Bahia del Duque, Costa Adeje, Tenerife, 26-28 June 2016. Notes to Editors About Routes Routes events are unique forums dedicated to the development of new air services. Five 'regional' route development forums are held between February and July in the Americas, Asia , Europe , Africa / Middle East and Silk Road/Russian Commonwealth, and the flagship World Routes event takes place in September. http://www.routesonline.com The events revolve around pre-scheduled meetings and an exhibition and conference which are delivered in partnership with host stakeholders. Hosts tend to be a collaboration between airports, tourism authorities and investment partners (the bidding process takes place two to three years before the event takes place). Routes was founded in 1995 and is part of the EMEA division of UBM plc. For further information contact: Karen Reeves Communications & Content Marketing Manager Routes, UBM EMEA T: +44(0)161-234-2721 M: +44(0)796-6405-105 E: Karen.Reeves@ubm.com Karen Blanchard Communication Tenerife Tourism Corporation T: +34-663-014-452 E: karen@webtenerife.com SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 06/22/16 -- NGINX, Inc., the engine delivering sites and applications for the modern web, today announced the public beta release of NGINX Amplify, a new diagnostic tool created to give users visibility and control over NGINX instances and NGINX-delivered applications. As a platform designed specifically for NGINX and the applications it powers, NGINX Amplify complements and extends existing Application Performance Management (APM) and monitoring tools. Users can get started in minutes, and get access to powerful features such as recommended performance and security improvements, a customizable analytics dashboard, and a powerful alerting system, to ensure a more seamless customer experience. "NGINX has become one of the most critical components in the infrastructure stack, with more than 160 million websites relying on NGINX to deliver their applications to the world with maximum performance, reliability, security, and scale," said Gus Roberson, CEO of NGINX. "By creating NGINX Amplify, we are providing users with more visibility for their NGINX-delivered applications, as well as deep diagnostics and actionable insights tailored specifically to their environment. This gives our users even more control -- enabling them to further optimize performance, resolve issues faster than ever before, and enhance the experience they provide to their customers." NGINX Amplify helps organizations report on hundreds of metrics to help users quickly troubleshoot application health and performance issues -- all within a highly customizable interface. NGINX Amplify combines multiple approaches to extract as much data as possible about the running NGINX instances, including sophisticated real-time log file tracking to provide even more detailed information about the application. It works with a small open source agent installed on each NGINX or NGINX Plus endpoint, which collects the metrics needed for analysis and visualization. NGINX Amplify is incredibly easy and intuitive to use, with key features including: Performance and Security Recommendations -- NGINX Amplify performs static analysis of NGINX and NGINX Plus configurations, and recommends changes to enhance the performance and security of any NGINX deployment. It provides a report for each monitored instance about problems with the configuration, including for each problem the line number where it occurs, a detailed description, and recommendations for resolving it. Analytics and Troubleshooting -- NGINX Amplify provides actionable insights into application performance. Hundreds of metrics are collected from NGINX, log files, and the operating system that provide information on performance and system health. Users can view all the metrics they need together in a highly customizable dashboard. Custom Alerts -- With NGINX Amplify, users can define alerts to be notified when systems are not healthy. It also collects a wide range of metrics from monitored systems that can be used as criteria for generating an alert. NGINX first launched the private beta of NGINX Amplify in November 2015, and has been collecting feedback and suggestions from its NGINX and NGINX Plus users, and incorporating them as improvements into the tool. The company is currently working on developing a number of exciting new features within NGINX Amplify. NGINX Amplify will be available as a general release by the end of this year. NGINX users can sign up for free for NGINX Amplify and provide additional feedback to enhance and improve this service by visiting: https://amplify.nginx.com/signup To learn more about the NGINX Amplify beta release please visit: https://www.nginx.com/blog/nginx-amplify-public-beta Current and prospective NGINX users can also learn more about NGINX Amplify and other NGINX solutions at this year's annual user conference, nginx.conf 2016, taking place September 7-9 in Austin, Texas. About NGINX, Inc. NGINX is the heart of the modern web -- helping the world's most innovative companies deliver their sites and applications with performance, reliability, security, and scale. The company offers an award-winning, comprehensive application delivery platform in use on more than 160 million sites worldwide. Companies around the world rely on NGINX to ensure flawless digital experiences through features such as advanced load balancing, web and mobile acceleration, security controls, application monitoring, and management. More than half of the Internet's busiest websites rely on NGINX, including Airbnb, Box, Instagram, Netflix, Pinterest, SoundCloud, and Zappos. The company is headquartered in San Francisco with offices in Moscow and London. Learn more at https://www.nginx.com/ Press Contact: Chad Torbin Email Contact 415.548.6536 LOS ANGELES, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 06/22/16 -- WRIT Media Group, Inc. (OTCQB: WRIT) today announces the details of its recent acquisition of all of the outstanding shares of Pandora Venture Capital Corp. ("Pandora") common stock in a stock transaction valued at approximately $4.2 million. The acquisition price is based on the closing price of $0.30 per WRIT Media Group common share, as of the date the shares were issued and held in escrow. The Company acquired Pandora through the issuance of 14 million restricted shares of its Common Stock to the shareholders of Pandora, in exchange for all issued and outstanding shares of Pandora, making Pandora a wholly owned subsidiary of WRIT Media Group, Inc. Pandora will assume one seat on the WRIT Media Group board of directors. Further information is provided for in the Company's Form 8-K filed today. Pandora is the developer of an online platform that allows investors to trade digital currencies similar to the way stocks are traded on a stock exchange. The company provides a digital currency software solution that combines trade exchanges, loyalty rewards and a payments support platform. Pandora is also developing an enterprise Blockchain platform that enables institutions to design, deploy, and operate financial networks that can power assets in various markets. The technology underpinning digital currencies has changed rapidly over the past few years, due to the emergence of Bitcoin and other crypto-currencies. It is now reasonably clear that the distributed payment technology embodied in digital currencies has real potential. This technology solves a deep problem in monetary economics: how to establish trust in a distributed network. "Blockchain" technology appears to offer an imaginative solution to that distributed trust problem. Bitcoin and Ethereum have created market capitalizations of $11.5 billion and $1 billion, respectively, and trading infrastructures have built up around them, growing digital currencies into a viable asset class. Blockchain technology is also emerging as useful technology solution in payment processing, loyalty rewards, healthcare record management, insurance, and even legal contracts management. "With this acquisition, we expect to drive meaningful value for our shareholders, customers, and partners around the world," says Eric Mitchell, president and CEO of WRIT Media Group. "We look forward to working closely with the Pandora team to ensure a smooth transition and continued innovation to bring the digital currency of the future, and other unique Blockchain solutions to our customers." About Writ Media Group WRIT Media Group, Inc. (OTCQB: WRIT) is a diversified media and software company whose operations include content production and distribution; video game distribution via mobile platforms; and digital currency software development, including trading platforms and Blockchain solutions. The Company's portfolio of wholly owned businesses includes: Front Row Networks, a content creation company which produces, acquires and distributes live event programming for worldwide digital broadcast into digitally enabled movie theaters and online streaming; Amiga Games, a software company resurrecting the Amiga brand by publishing retro video games on smartphones, tablets and consoles; Retro Infinity, Inc., a video game distribution portal which publishes video games from Amiga, Atari and other "retro" brands on today's smartphones, tablets and consoles; and Pandora Venture Capital, a software developer with a focus on digital currency technologies, including; a cryptocurrency trading platform, a new generation of cryptocurrency, and Blockchain technology solutions. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters discussed in this press release are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those predicted by such forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned that all forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, those discussed in WRIT Media Group's latest 10-Q filed December 31, 2015. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Pandora Venture Capital and its related trademarks and names are the property of WRIT Media Group, Inc. and are registered and/or used in the U.S. and countries around the world. All rights reserved. All other trademarks belong to their respective owners. For further Information: WRIT Media Group, Inc. Email: Email Contact Investor Relations: QualityStocks Scottsdale, Arizona www.QualityStocks.com Phone: (480) 374-1336 Email: Email Contact RESTON, VA--(Marketwired - June 22, 2016) - Carahsoft Technology Corp., the trusted government IT solutions provider, today announced it has been named to The Channel Company's CRN 2016 Solution Provider 500 (SP500) list. The annual program ranks the top technology integrators, service providers, and IT consultants in North America by revenue. Since 1995, the SP500 has served as the industry standard for recognition of the most successful solution providers in the channel. Carahsoft made its 11th consecutive appearance on the list, ranking at #20, up from #22 on last year's list. The company's performance in 2015 led to another record-setting year, with Carahsoft closing with more than $3 billion in bookings. "We are honored to be recognized once again as an industry leader by The Channel Company," said Craig P. Abod, Carahsoft president. "As we continue to grow our reseller ecosystem, expand our solutions portfolios, and enter new markets, we are grateful for the support of our customers, resellers, vendors and integrators who make our success possible year after year." Founded in 2004, Carahsoft debuted on the CRN Solution Provider 500 list in 2006 at #399. Today, Carahsoft is recognized as the largest and most trusted government distributor and partner for many of the industry's largest manufacturers including VMware, Adobe, Symantec, Red Hat, HPE Software, SAP, EMC, and F5 Networks, among others. "The 2016 Solution Provider 500 represents a total, combined revenue of over $334 billion -- a testament to their success in keeping pace with the rapidly changing demands of today's IT market," said Robert Faletra, CEO, The Channel Company. "This prestigious list recognizes those companies with the highest revenue and serves as a valuable industry resource for vendors seeking out top solution providers to partner with. We congratulate each of the Solution Provider 500 companies and look forward to their continued success." About Carahsoft Carahsoft Technology Corp. is the trusted Government IT solutions provider. As a top-ranked GSA Schedule Contract holder, Carahsoft serves as the master government aggregator for many of its best-of-breed technology vendors, supporting an extensive ecosystem of manufacturers, value-added resellers, system integrators, and consulting partners committed to helping government agencies select and implement the best solution at the best possible value. The company's dedicated Solutions Divisions proactively market, sell and deliver VMware, Symantec, EMC, Adobe, F5 Networks, Open Source, HPE Software, SAP, and Innovative and Intelligence products and services, among others. Carahsoft is consistently recognized by its partners as a top revenue producer, and is listed annually among the industry's fastest growing firms by CRN, Inc., Washington Technology, The Washington Post, Washington Business Journal, and SmartCEO. Visit us at www.carahsoft.com. About the Channel Company The Channel Company enables breakthrough IT channel performance with our dominant media, engaging events, expert consulting and education, and innovative marketing services and platforms. As the channel catalyst, we connect and empower technology suppliers, solution providers and end users. Backed by more than 30 years of unequaled channel experience, we draw from our deep knowledge to envision innovative new solutions for ever-evolving challenges in the technology marketplace. www.thechannelco.com Contact Mary Lange 703-431-8485 Email contact TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 06/22/16 -- Image recognition leader Slyce Inc. (TSX VENTURE: SLC)(FRANKFURT: 06O1) ("Slyce") today announced a signed contract with leading apparel retailer Express to power visual search for mobile commerce. Express will integrate Slyce's Universal Scanner product, which enables image recognition of clothing and products, as well as catalog and barcode scanning. Express currently operates more than 600 retail and outlet stores, and is based in Columbus, Ohio. Slyce will derive revenues from the contract through monthly recurring software licensing and service fees, in line with its current pricing model, over the term of the contract. Slyce's business model features multiple revenue streams arising from its visual search platform, consumer apps and corresponding data services. The revenue streams include fees for software licensing, integration, purchase transactions, program promotions and data analytics. About Slyce Inc. Slyce, based in Toronto, ON, delivers image recognition technologies and is currently focused on enabling a powerful sales channel for major retailers and their customers. Consumers, wherever they are, can conveniently engage with retailers by taking pictures of desired products using their mobile devices, thereby initiating the visual search service with near-instant product recognition capability. The Company delivers its technology both as a white-label visual search platform and as a suite of consumer mobile apps. Slyce's technology is used by large retail brands such as Neiman Marcus, Best Buy, JCPenney and Home Depot. Slyce's business model features multiple revenue streams arising from its visual search platform, consumer apps and corresponding data services. The revenue streams include fees for software licensing, integration, purchase transactions, program promotions and data analytics. Slyce is also listed on the Frankfurt exchange trading under (FRANKFURT: 06O1). For image download and further company information, please click for the Slyce Media Kit. READER ADVISORY Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Statements in this press release contain forward-looking information including, without limitation, Slyce's business plan, strategy and related milestones, Slyce's suggestions of future outcomes, the future use and development of its technology, future customers and business partners. The words "will," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "intent," "may," "project," "should," and similar expressions are intended to be among the statements that identify forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements are founded on the basis of expectations and assumptions made by Slyce. Readers are cautioned that assumptions used in the preparation of such information may prove to be incorrect. Events or circumstances may cause actual results to differ materially from those predicted, a result of numerous known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of Slyce. Slyce does not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements except as expressly required by applicable securities laws. None of the information contained on, or connected to, Slyce's website is incorporated by reference herein. Contacts: For further information and interviews: Slyce Ted Mann President Ted@Slyce.it Slyce Roy Roman Roy@slyce.it (647) 464-6200 MONCTON, NEW BRUNSWICK -- (Marketwired) -- 06/22/16 -- OrganiGram Holdings Inc. (TSX VENTURE: OGI)(OTCQB: OGRMF) (the "Company") a provider of cannabis products, is pleased to announce that the company has received an amendment to its license to include both the production and sale of cannabis oil extracts from Health Canada under the Marihuana for Medical Purposes Regulations (Canada) ("MMPR") at its facility in Moncton, New Brunswick. The license was upgraded from production only and provides OrganiGram with the ability to produce and sell cannabis oil extracts along with our current dried medical cannabis products. "This addition to our suite of products falls in line with our ongoing strategy of improved product diversity, customer satisfaction and production expansion as our industry continues to move forward towards a recreational marketplace," said Denis Arsenault, CEO of OrganiGram. OrganiGram also announces the issuance of 54,674 shares to XIB Consulting Inc. for services performed pursuant to the arrangement previously announced. We would also like to take this opportunity to announce that Roger Rogers will be stepping down from his position on the Board of Directors of OrganiGram Holdings Inc. effective immediately. We would like to thank Roger for his contribution to the Board and wish him the best of success in his future endeavours. About OrganiGram Holdings Inc. OrganiGram Holdings Inc. is a TSX Venture Exchange listed company whose wholly owned subsidiary, OrganiGram Inc., is a licensed producer of medical marijuana in Canada. OrganiGram is focused on producing the highest quality, condition specific medical marijuana for patients in Canada. OrganiGram's facility is located in Moncton, New Brunswick and the Company is regulated by the Marihuana for Medical Purposes Regulations. On behalf of the Board of Directors, Denis Arsenault, Director and CEO, OrganiGram Holdings Inc. The TSX Venture Exchange Inc. has in no way passed upon the merits of the proposed transaction and has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release. This news release contains forward-looking information, which involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual events to differ materially from current expectation. Important factors - including the availability of funds, the results of financing efforts, crop yields - that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's expectations are disclosed in the Company's documents filed from time to time on SEDAR (see www.sedar.com). Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. The company disclaims any intention or obligation, except to the extent required by law, to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Contacts: OrganiGram Holdings Inc. Giselle Doiron Director of Investor and Media Relations (506) 801-8986 www.organigram.ca VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 06/22/16 -- Targeted Microwave Solutions Inc. (TSX VENTURE: TMS)(OTCQX: TGTMF) ("TMS") announced today the design completion of its Generation III reactor module. The Gen III reactor incorporates over 10 months of observation, analysis and optimization on TMS's Gen II system, which is currently operating at the TMS King William Plant, and is expected to substantially improve the drying efficiency, throughput capacity, and material handling of TMS industrial aggregate processing systems. With the design phase now complete, TMS is in the process of evaluating tenders for construction of the Gen III project. TMS currently expects construction and commissioning of the Gen III system will be completed in or about the third quarter of 2016. Dr. James Young, Chairman of the Board, stated: "Over this past year, we have worked very closely with target customers to understand their industrial processing needs and emissions footprints. With the Gen II system, we demonstrated the ability of the TMS technology to efficiently dry aggregate materials on a continuous flow basis while significantly decreasing polluting air emissions. It is our belief that the re-designed Gen III model will build upon these successes and further improve throughput capacity to levels that meets the criteria of our target customers. While the Gen III model is under construction, we will continue our engagement strategies with environmental, engineering and regulatory institutions in the state of Virginia to help prepare the way for our planned commercial deployment efforts." About Targeted Microwave Solutions Inc. TMS is a microwave process developer specializing in clean emission, high-throughput industrial drying solutions. TMS's proprietary microwave beneficiation systems are being developed to specifically address the increasing environmental costs of a cornerstone of the global manufacturing and processing economy, industrial drying. The TMS process represents a unique, vertical microwave system that may be deployed to dry, re-size and calcinate industrial aggregates at high throughput capacity. TMS believes that its technology will allow for superior energy efficiency, process control and a clean emission profile, allowing TMS to deliver effective drying solutions that can fundamentally challenge the mainstream narrative that large-scale industry is incompatible with responsible, environmental policy. TMS has completed constructing a commercial-scale facility in King William County, Virginia, U.S.A. and has entered into joint ventures for China and India to develop and market its technology. On behalf of the Board of Directors, Dr. James Young, Chairman of the Board of Directors FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS This news release contains certain statements which are, or may be deemed to be "forward-looking statements". Forward-looking statements are statements that address or discuss activities, events or developments that we expect or anticipate may occur in the future. Forward-looking statements consist of statements that are not purely historical and, in this news release, include, without limitation, statements regarding the expected benefits of the Gen III system, the timing of expected construction and commissioning of the Gen III system and our planned commercial deployment efforts. When used in this news release, words such as "estimates", "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "projects", "will", "believes", "intends", "should", "could", "may" and other similar terminology are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements reflect the then-current expectations, beliefs, assumptions, estimates and forecasts of our management. Because forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors which are difficult to predict, our actual results, performance or achievements or the actual results or performance of the industries and markets in which we operate and intend to operate may be materially different from those anticipated in our forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve significant uncertainties and risks, should not be read as a guarantee of future performance or results and will not necessarily be an accurate indication of whether or not such results will be achieved. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from the results discussed in our forward-looking statements, including the matters described in our public filings available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Accordingly, readers should exercise caution in relying upon our forward-looking statements and we undertake no obligation to publicly revise such statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances, except as required by law. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Contacts: Targeted Microwave Solutions Inc. (778) 995 5833 office@tmsenergy.com Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - NASA released on Tuesday its popular NASA app for a new platform, the fourth-generation Apple TV. This version joins the app's other versions available for iOS in iPhone and iPad versions, Android and Fire OS. The NASA app has been downloaded more than 17 million times across all platforms. 'The NASA app has been a fantastic way for the public to experience the excitement of space exploration from their mobile devices,' said David Weaver, NASA associate administrator for Communications. 'Now, users with the latest Apple TV can explore and enjoy our remarkable images, videos, mission information, NASA Television and more on the big screen with the whole family.' The NASA app for Apple TV offers several features for users: Watch live streaming NASA TV, and get a real-time view of the Earth from the International Space Station; View more than 15,000 images individually or as a continuous slideshow; Play on demand NASA videos; Find the next opportunity to view the International Space Station and other NASA satellites pass overhead, based on your location; Display 2-D and -3-D satellite tracking maps; Discover the latest NASA mission information; Listen to Third Rock internet streaming radio; View the Earth as Art image gallery; and The NASA app is available for free in the App Store on Apple TV. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. Jongla adds a social discovery layer and reactions to its redesigned messaging app Name: Jongla for Android , iOS , Windows Phone and Firefox OS Quick pitch: Jongla today announced the release of Social Messenger its most significant feature upgrade yet. With new social discovery tools, a redesigned UI and brand upgrade, Jongla aims to make instant messaging more social and more fun for people around the world. Key points: - People built-in community helps users to discover interesting new people nearby - Reactions a new way to express friendship and an interest in meeting new people - Rebranding new app icon, themes, redesigned UI and user profiles - Lite world's lightest messenger helps people to save money and data Jongla the Finnish instant messaging pioneer, has today announced the release of Jongla Social Messenger, a new iteration of its popular cross-platform messaging app. With new built-in social integration that includes reactions, the 3rd generation Jongla aims to bridge the gap between social networks and instant messaging. Messaging apps have become the dominant platform on smartphones, surpassing social networks in terms of user numbers worldwide. The new direction Jongla is taking is down to how the team has seen the messaging industry shift since launching in 2012. The trend of today shows that people, especially in emerging markets, are replacing their social networking apps usage with instant messengers. "The lines between social networking and messaging apps usage are blurring and we firmly believe that soon the two will meet. We're seeing this already with chatbots. Jongla is ahead of this curve, offering new meaningful social layers to our instant messaging service and enabling our users to enjoy the best of them both," explains Riku Salminen, CEO, Jongla. In addition to chatting, Jongla users can now discover and interact with new friends based on their location with a built-in community feature called 'People'. The feature was designed to enable users to be able to discover interesting new people around them. To protect user privacy, only an approximate location is given and the feature is optional. "We are continuing to make Jongla more social without sacrificing the essence of it all private messaging", added Salminen. "For those who want to broaden their horizons to discover and interact with new friends, the community of nearby people is only one tap away." Also added to Jongla's Social Messenger is the ability to engage with user profiles with a choice of reaction. Reactions can be exchanged between people in Jongla's community to express emotions from a simple thumbs-up, smile or even a virtual flirtation with a heart. "Our emotions towards other people might sometimes be hard to put into words. We wanted to give our users a way to express their friendship or interest towards new people in a meaningful and fun way," describes Salminen. Within the next two years, a whole new generation of mobile natives roughly a billion people will access the mobile Internet, mostly via low-end smartphones with prepaid plans. Emerging markets, the driver of this growth, still suffer from low connectivity and the high cost of data. Jongla is growing fast in these areas with their optimised messaging solution. In 2015, Jongla become the world's lightest messaging app in an effort to help people save money and data. According to their studies, Jongla uses 80% less data compared to Viber and 25% less data compared to Facebook Messenger*. Jongla also takes a fraction of data to download compared to all major competitors**. "Jongla remains very economical in terms of data usage and the cost related to this. From download to daily use, Jongla saves people money. It makes all the difference for the people with limited and costly prepaid data plans," finished Salminen. Jongla is available to download for free from the App Store Google Play Windows Phone Store and Firefox Marketplace. For more information about Jongla, please visit www.jongla.com/newsroom . ENDS Notes to editors *Based on a study carried out by Jongla with Android SDK command line tools and Linux Kernel, June 7th, 2016 **Android Application Package sizes in Google Play Store, May 17th, 2016 About Jongla Jongla is an innovative Finnish-based company, specialising in operator-, device- and platform-independent instant messaging. Established in 2009, Jongla was founded by entrepreneur Arto Boman. The company is owned by a group of private investors and management. To date, Jongla has received a total of 11M in funding and been selected as a winner of Red Herring's Top 100 Global Award 2013 a prestigious list honouring the most promising private technology ventures from around the world. This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160622005803/en/ Contacts: MUSTARD PR Dan Walsh dan@mustardpr.com +44 (0) 7827 816 971 VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 06/22/16 -- Viscount Mining Corp. (TSX VENTURE: VML)(OTCQB: VLMGF) ("Viscount" or "the Company"), is pleased to announce the Company has now received approval at Flint Canyon for new drill hole pad locations, sumps, and road construction under a Notice of Intent ("NOI") submitted to the Nevada Bureau of Land Management ("BLM") earlier this spring. With this approval Viscount will have a 7,046 ft. new road, with Phase 1 of the 2016 RC drill program which will consist of approximately 18 holes for 4,380m (14,366 feet) starting at Flint Canyon scheduled for early August. About Flint Canyon The 2015 mapping at Flint Canyon found the area to be much more complexly faulted than previously indicated on the Adair 1961 geologic base map. Summit's mapping program found that east-west orientated faults and fractures, which are important ore controlling structures at the Ticup and Star Mines, also occur in the area. The Flint Canyon area contains highly dissected fault blocks of the Dunderberg Shale with the underlying Marjum Limestone and overlying Notch Peak Limestone. The Pogonip Formation overlies the Notch Peak and both units are important host rocks for Carlin-type gold mineralization in east-central Nevada. Jasperoid occurrences in Nevada are extremely significant in context to Carlin-type gold deposits and mineralized jasperoid outcrops are common throughout the Flint Canyon area. They occur principally along the base of the Dunderberg Shale but other outcrops are found along Pogonip-Notch Peak contact. Many major gold discoveries have been made based on the presence of outcropping, weakly mineralized jasperoid hosted in and along bedding contacts of carbonate rocks. At Flint Canyon, jasperoid is found in the same carbonate rocks that are prolific host rocks at nearby large gold deposits (Newmont Mining-Long Canyon). The jasperoid beds, interpreted as west dipping tabular features, occur along the base of the Dunderberg Shale and within the Pogonip group limestone. Summit's geological team indicated that the Dunderberg Shale is generally recessive and is exposed mainly along the outcropping contacts with more competent rocks. The Dunderberg appears to be moderately altered throughout its distribution, and at Flint Canyon it experienced widespread and significant alteration by hydrothermal fluids. The underlying Marjum Limestone is usually competent and unaltered, while the overlying Pogonip exhibits variable alteration. Jim MacKenzie, Viscount President and CEO stated: "We are very excited that phase 1 of this year's drill program is starting at the Flint Canyon area which exhibits alteration and mineralization characteristic of Carlin-type gold deposits." Qualified Persons The exploration and drill programs are being managed by David Tretbar, Summit Exploration's Executive Vice President, Exploration and Mineral Resources, a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101. Mr. Tretbar is a registered Professional Geologist in Arizona (# 48036) and a Certified Professional Geologist (CPG # 11086) with the American Institute of Professional Geologists. Mark J. Abrams, M.Sc., P.G., R.G., C.P.G., an independent consulting geologist who is a "Qualified Person" reviewed, prepared and supervised the preparation or approval of the scientific and technical content in the news release as defined under National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43- 101"). About Viscount Mining (TSX VENTURE: VML) (OTCQB: VLMGF) Viscount Mining is an exploration company with a portfolio of gold and silver properties in the Western United States, including Cherry Creek in Nevada and Silver Cliff in Colorado. Cherry Creek is comprised of more than 9,000 acres, all 100% owned, and includes more than 20 past producing mines. Viscount has entered into an exploration earn-in agreement with Sumitomo Corporation covering the Cherry Creek property. Sumitomo can earn in up to a 75% interest in the property by producing a feasibility study and by spending in addition a minimum of US$10,000,000 in exploration and development expenses by the eighth anniversary of the earn-in agreement. Silver Cliff in Colorado is comprised of 96 lode claims, covering much of the historical past-producing mineral districts of Silver Cliff and Rosita Hills. For additional information regarding the above noted property and other corporate information, please visit the Company's website at www.viscountmining.com. About Sumitomo Corporation Sumitomo Corporation is one of the largest integrated trading and investment companies in Japan. Sumitomo Corporation, a Fortune 500 company, conducts commodity transactions in all industries utilizing worldwide networks, provides related customers with various financing, serves as an organizer and a coordinator for various projects, and invests in businesses from the information industry to the retailing industry. Summit Mining Exploration, Inc. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sumitomo Corporation and is headquartered in Colorado, USA. For more information about Sumitomo Corporation, visit www.sumitomocorp.co.jp. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS Jim MacKenzie, President, CEO and Director Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking" statements. Forward looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "potential" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could" or "should" occur. Although Viscount Mining Corp. believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results may differ materially from those in forward looking statements. Forward looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of Viscount Mining Corp. management on the date the statements are made. Except as required by law, Viscount Mining Corp. undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the event that management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change. Contacts: Viscount Investor Relations 604-960-0535 info@viscountmining.com NEWPORT BEACH, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 06/22/16 -- ADVANTIS CORPORATION (OTC PINK: ADVT) announced it has signed an agreement to sub-license N2 Pack's patented packaging technology to marijuana dispensaries. N2 Packaging Systems LLC has developed a packaging system that hermetically seals cans for freshness, longer shelf life and target branding. Advantis has secured rights to a packaging machine and license to sub-license the product and process to California, Oregon, and Washington marijuana dispensaries. N2 Pack allows organizations to have unique brand labels on each container, and track the packages with RFID technology. "N2 Pack technology allows suppliers to better track, store and market their products to dispensaries and consumers," said Advantis Director, Woo Kim, "This packaging process is the future of the cannabis industry; it will allow providers to better manage inventories and charge a premium for products with superior shelf-life and freshness." Advantis has already agreed to sub-license two Southern California dispensaries with over 14,000 units per month. Advantis CEO, Christopher Swartz, says that that Advantis is always looking at the big picture of the marijuana sector. "Providing critical agricultural and processing equipment, packaging and delivery solutions, and innovative extraction methods are all necessary parts of the process that brings cannabis to the public," said Swartz, "We want to make sure we are at the forefront of this industry and create synergy to complement all of our other efforts to 'grow' within the marijuana business." Swartz noted that current trends in the industry have led to finance companies taking notice, saying, "Lenders are actively looking to finance manufacturing, agriculture efforts, and dispensaries; there may be some legitimately leveraged opportunities in the near future." Swartz commented that a marijuana-based social media platform would be an ideal place to further awareness of Advantis within the industry, and should raise the company's visibility. ABOUT Advantis Corporation Advantis Corporation (ADVT) develops products and works with developing companies to provide innovative healthcare products, holistic pain management solutions, and enhance the footprint in the evolving legal cannabis business. Advantis acquires ownership in developing companies that work within the nutraceutical and the alternative health care industries; consulting with these organizations to improve their product lines, expand their distribution channels through internal partnership agreements, and heighten brand value. Forward Looking Statements: This news release contains forward-looking statements made by ADVANTIS CORPORATION. All such statements included in this press release, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements. Although management believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to have been correct. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these statements. The following risk factors, among others, could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in any forward- looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, economic conditions, changes in the law or regulations, demand for products of the Company, the effects of competition and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or represented in the forward looking statements. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by the words: believe, expect, anticipate, intend, estimate, and similar expressions or which by their nature refer to future events. The Company is not entitled to rely on the safe harbor provisions of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 because it is not registered under either Act. Image Available: http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3025222 Media Contact: Woo Kim (949) 354-3585 Info@advantiscorp.com PUNE, India, June 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- According to a new market research report "Wound Dressings Market by Type (Advanced Wound Dressings, Traditional Wound Dressings), by Application (Surgical Wounds, Ulcers, Burns), End User (Inpatient Facilities, Outpatient Facilities) - Global Forecast to 2021", published by MarketsandMarkets, The global market is expected to reach USD 8.46 Billion by 2021 from USD 6.31 Billion in 2015, at a CAGR of 6.0% from 2016 to 2021. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160303/792302 ) Browse 98 market data Tables with 96 Figures spread through 184 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Wound Dressings Market" http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/wound-dressings-market-123903496.html Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report. Technological advancements in wound dressings are fueling the growth of this market. In addition, prevalence of obesity-related diseases, such as diabetes, and increasing aging population are also contributing factors for the growth of this market. The concept of wound care has significantly evolved from traditional to advanced wound care. Currently, several advanced therapies, such as bioengineered skin, silver alginate dressings, and super absorbers are available in the market. These therapies are utilized for various injuries ranging from lacerations to pressure ulcers or deep burn injuries. The use of wound care products has helped decrease incidences of amputations and permanent disabilities. The global Wound Dressings Market is classified on the basis of product types into traditional wound dressings and advanced wound dressings. Traditional wound dressings are further classified into anti-infective dressings, tapes, and dry dressings and advanced wound dressings are classified into foam dressings, hydrocolloids, hydrofibers, film dressings, alginates, collagen, hydrogels, wound contact layers, and superabsorbent dressings. On the basis of application, the market is segmented into surgical wounds, diabetic foot ulcers, pressure ulcers, venous ulcers, burns, and others, of which the surgical wounds segment is estimated to account for the largest market share. The end user segment of the market is classified into inpatient facilities and outpatient facilities. Major markets in which wound dressings are being used are burns, surgical wounds, venous ulcer, diabetic foot ulcer, and pressure ulcer. Among these applications, diabetic foot ulcers will be the major application area where wound dressings are being used. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there is an increase in aging population across the globe. From 2020 to 2050, there will be a twofold rise (11%-22%) in the population aged 60 years and above. The population aged 60 years and above is more likely to suffer from diabetic foot ulcers. There has been an increased emphasis on wound care management to prevent diabetic foot ulceration and foot amputation. Advanced and active wound care products are increasingly used for wound care management, as they speed up the wound healing process. Talk To Our Research Experts: http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/speaktoanalyst.asp?id=123903496 The major players operating in global Wound Dressings Market include Smith & Nephew plc (U.K.), Acelity L.P., Inc. (U.S.), Integra Lifesciences Corporation (U.S.), Coloplast Corporation (Denmark), 3M Company (U.S.), Organogenesis Inc. (U.S.), ConvaTec Inc. (U.S.), Hollister Wound Care (U.S.), Molnlycke Health Care AB (Sweden), and BSN Medical (Germany). The research study is aimed at identifying emerging trends and opportunities in the global Wound Dressings Market. It provides comprehensive competitive landscape and identifies the key players with respect to market size and market share. The research study also includes a detailed segmentation of the global Wound Dressings Market, on the basis of type, application, end user, and region. Apart from the market segmentation, this report also makes use of the Porter's five forces analysis, which provides an in-depth analysis of the market and market dynamics, such as drivers, restraints, and opportunities in the global Wound Dressings Market. Browse Related Reports: Advanced Wound Care Market by Type (Dressings, Therapy Devices, Active Wound Care), Application (Surgical Wounds, Ulcers), End User (In-Patient Facility, Out-Patient Facility), and Geography - Global Forecast to 2020. http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/advanced-wound-care-market-88705076.html Surgical Sutures Market by Type (Automated Suturing Devices, Absorbable and Non-Absorbable Sutures), Application (General, Cardiovascular, Valve, Orthopedic, Dental, Ophthalmic), and Geography - Global Forecast to 2020. http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/surgical-sutures-market-18374832.html About MarketsandMarkets: MarketsandMarkets is the world's No. 2 firm in terms of annually published premium market research reports. Serving 1700 global fortune enterprises with more than 1200 premium studies in a year, M&M is catering to a multitude of clients across 8 different industrial verticals. We specialize in consulting assignments and business research across high growth markets, cutting edge technologies and newer applications. Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model - GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors. M&M's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "RT" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets. The new included chapters on Methodology and Benchmarking presented with high quality analytical infographics in our reports gives complete visibility of how the numbers have been arrived and defend the accuracy of the numbers. We at MarketsandMarkets are inspired to help our clients grow by providing apt business insight with our huge market intelligence repository. Contact: Mr. Rohan Unit No. 802, 8th Floor, Tower - 7, Magarpatta City SEZ, Hadapsar, Pune - 411013, Maharashtra, India. Tel: +1-888-6006-441. Email: sales@marketsandmarkets.com Visit MarketsandMarkets Blog @ http://mnmblog.org/market-research/healthcare/medical-devices Connect with us on LinkedIn @http://www.linkedin.com/company/marketsandmarkets OTTAWA, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 06/22/16 -- Department of Canadian Heritage July 1 is more than a day of celebration in Newfoundland and Labrador. Every year, before the Canada Day festivities begin, the people of Newfoundland and Labrador gather to remember and honour the soldiers of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment killed in the Battle of Beaumont-Hamel in France on July 1, 1916. The province, which at that time was not part of Confederation, took part in Beaumont-Hamel as a member of the British Empire. The Government of Canada will support The Rooms-Newfoundland and Labrador's foremost cultural institution-in creating "Where Once They Stood We Stand," a comprehensive project that includes an on-site exhibit, a centennial commemorative event on July 1, and an online exhibit. The Rooms will receive $1 million over two years from the Celebration and Commemoration Program of the Department of Canadian Heritage. Quick Facts - Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal, Colonel in Chief of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, will participate in a commemorative event and officially open displays about the battle in the Fortis Courtyard and Amphitheatre at The Rooms on July 1, 2016. - Commemorative programming for the centennial of Beaumont-Hamel at The Rooms began in 2014 and will continue until 2018. - The Rooms is Newfoundland and Labrador's most important cultural institution. It opened in 2005 and includes the provincial archives, museum and art gallery. The Rooms Corporation of Newfoundland and Labrador is also responsible for the Colonial Building and regional museums located across the province. Quotes "Thanks to this initiative of The Rooms, all Canadians will have the opportunity to learn more about the valour and courage displayed by the young men of Newfoundland and Labrador at the Battle of Beaumont-Hamel in the First World War. Commemorations such as these, and the upcoming anniversary of Vimy Ridge next year, honour the men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country." - The Honourable Melanie Joly, Minister of Canadian Heritage "The Rooms is proud to pay homage to our brave forefathers through this extraordinary new permanent exhibition. On the eve of the 100th anniversary of the most formative event in the history of Newfoundland and Labrador, we are honoured to have Canadian Heritage support us in capturing the remarkable story of the First World War and its profound impact on our history and culture." - Dean Brinton, CEO of The Rooms Corporation and Co-Chair of The Rooms capital campaign Associated Links Where Once They Stood We Stand The Battle of Beaumont-Hamel Stay Connected Follow us on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Flickr. Contacts: Pierre-Olivier Herbert Press Secretary Office of the Minister of Canadian Heritage 819-997-7788 Media Relations Canadian Heritage 819-994-9101 1-866-569-6155 pch.media-media.pch@canada.ca HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA -- (Marketwired) -- 06/22/16 -- Note to editors: There are two maps associated with this press release. Erdene Resource Development Corp. (TSX: ERD) ("Erdene" or "Company"), is pleased to announce drilling results from the Company's recent high-grade discovery at its 100%-owned Bayan Khundii Gold Project ("Bayan Khundii") in southwest Mongolia. Today's results continue to expand the near-surface, high-grade gold zones recently identified at Bayan Khundii. Included with this release, for reference, are two plan maps. "Our Q2 exploration program has been a tremendous success, following up on our initial high-grade drill results announced in late 2015," said Peter Akerley, President and CEO of Erdene. "We have confirmed continuity of the very high-grade Striker Zone, identified broad zones of gold mineralization at depth, and under post mineralization cover, and identified high priority targets through reconnaissance drilling and trenching. Following a period of review and interpretation we are planning to return to drilling in Q3." Today's results include the final five drill holes and six trenches from the Q2 exploration program designed to test areas around the periphery of the Bayan Khundii Main Zone and in the Northeast Zone 700 m to the northeast. Highlights include: -- 14.2 g/t gold over 8.3 m in BKD-44 -- 0.40 g/t gold over 70 m to the end of hole in BKD-44 -- Drilling continues to confirm extensions of mineralization under post- mineral cover -- Northeast Zone trenching and drilling confirms gold mineralization 700 m northeast of Striker Zone Previously reported drill and trench results from the Q2-2016 Bayan Khundii exploration program include (see news releases dated May 9, May 24 and June 14, 2016): -- 5.3 g/t gold over 63 m and 2.3 g/t gold over 12 m in BKD-17 -- 49.4 g/t gold over 3 m and 26.8 g/t gold over 5 m included in BKD-17 -- 8.9 g/t gold over 3 m in BKD-19 -- 8.7 g/t gold over 7 m in BKT-17 2.1 g/t gold over 13 m and 2.0 g/t gold over 14 m (including 6.5 g/t gold over 4 m) in BKD-21 -- 1.9 g/t gold over 27 m, including 5.7 g/t gold over 8 m, in BKD-22 -- 1.1 g/t gold over 70 m (including 23 m of 2.0 g/t gold) and 1.1 g/t over 18.2 m in BKD-28 -- 1.0 g/t gold over 66 m (including 2.0 g/t gold over 26 m) in BKD-34 -- 15.3 g/t gold over 2 m in BKD-40 (under younger post-mineralization cover) Previously reported drill results from the Q4-2015 Bayan Khundii exploration program include (see news releases dated December 9 and December 14, 2015): -- 27.5 g/t gold over 7 m in BKD-01 -- 9.4 g/t gold over 3 m in BKD-03 -- 5.9 g/t gold over 26.4 m (including 9.9 g/t over 15 m) in BKD-09 -- 5.7 g/t gold over 35 m (including 16.2 g/t over 12 m) in BKD-10 Striker Zone and Extensions Under Cover Holes BKD-44 and BKD-45 tested the near-surface extension of the high-grade Striker Zone and extended drilling further north under post-mineralization cover to test for an extension of gold mineralization. The Striker Zone was intersected at the top of BKD-44 with 8.3 m of 14.3 g/t gold; additionally a broad zone of gold mineralization was intersected under cover, deeper in the hole from 39 m to 109 m (70 m interval) averaging 0.40 g/t gold with values ranging up to 3.9 g/t gold over 1 m and ending in mineralization. BKD-44 had moderate to intense, multi-stage silica-sericite alteration with abundant quartz veins and thin hematite veinlet stockwork throughout. A second hole, BKD-45, collared further northeast, also returned highly anomalous intervals with 42 m averaging 0.2 g/t gold. Table 1 - Bayan Khundii drill results (BKD-41 to BKD-45) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Drill Hole From (m) To (m)Interval (m)(i) Gold (g/t) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Northeast Zone ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- BKD-41 0 6 6 0.28 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- BKD-42 35 39 4 0.57 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- and 46 50(ii) 4 0.29 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Westridge Zone ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- BKD-43 1 8 7 0.95 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Striker Zone and extension to northeast under cover ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- BKD-44 0.7 9 8.3 14.2 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- and 39 109 70 0.40 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- BKD-45 3 8 5 0.26 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- and 52 94 42 0.20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- (i) Reported intervals are not true width. They represent drill intersection widths from holes drilled at a 45 to 90 degree angle. The Bayan Khundii mineralization is interpreted to be moderately dipping (approximately 40 to 50 degrees) perpendicular to the drill hole angle. Hole BKD-42 is a vertical hole. (ii) End of hole Table 2 - Bayan Khundii trenching results (BKT-18 to BKT-22) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Interval Trench ID From (m) To (m) (m)(iii) Gold (g/t) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Westridge Zone ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- BKT-18 30 36 6 0.64 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- West of BKT-16 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- BKT-19 32 36 4 0.63 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Stockwork Hill Zone ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- BKT-20 38 41 3 0.56 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Northeast Target ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- BKT-21 0 34(ii) 34 0.37 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- incl 20 22 2 1.53 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- BKT-22 32 36(ii) 6 0.24 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- (ii) End of trench (iii) Reported intervals are not true width. They represent intersection from horizontal trenches on surface. The Bayan Khundii mineralization is interpreted to be moderately dipping (approximately 40 to 50 degrees) perpendicular to the trend of the trenches. Northeast Target The Northeast Target area, located 700 m northeast of Striker Zone, is characterized by similar alteration and surface mineralization as the Bayan Khundii Main Zone and is well defined by gold-in-soil anomalism. In addition, geophysical resistivity anomalism suggests the silicified zone is continuous between the two zones, under younger cover. Two shallow (50 m vertical) holes (BKD-41 & 42) and two trenches (BKT-21 & 22) tested the Northeast Target area, spaced at approximately 250 m, and both areas returned highly anomalous gold zones. BKD-42 intersected intensely silicified tuff and coarse pyroclastic rocks with zones of sulphide (mainly pyrite) veinlets and quartz-sulphide veinlets with gold values up to 1.7 g/t (over 1 m). Locally massive chalcedony veins and intense hematite and specularite veins and veinlets, were widespread throughout the hole which also intersected increasing sulphide at the bottom of the hole with coincident gold, ending in 4 m of greater than 0.2 g/t gold. The trench (BKT-22) returned 6 m of 0.24 g/t gold at the north-end as the zone continued under cover. The second target area tested in the Northeast included trench BKT-21 that was consistently mineralized throughout, including 34 m of 0.37 g/t gold (highest value 1.85 g/t gold over 1 m). Also of interest, every sample returned assays above the detection limit for silver (2 g/t), with an average grade of 6.3 g/t silver (range 2-13 g/t). Silver has not been observed at these consistent levels in the Bayan Khundii Main Zone. Hole BKT-41, drilled in the same area, intersected intensely altered host rocks that are similar to the Bayan Khundii Main Zone along with several post mineralization dykes that were not evident at surface. BKD-41 contained some elevated gold near-surface with 6 m of 0.28 g/t gold. Westridge Zone The most southwestern hole in the Q2-2016 drill program was at the Westridge Zone and was a reconnaissance hole designed to test the lithologic units in this area. BKD-43 intersected 7 m of 0.95 g/t gold at the top of the hole. Bayan Khundii - Next Steps In addition to the 3,845 m of diamond drilling, the Company's Q2-2016 Bayan Khundii exploration program also included: infill (25 m spacing) and reconnaissance (100-200 m spacing) soil sampling (1,088 samples) over specific target areas; 35 line km of IP gradient array geophysical surveys; 20 line km of IP dipole-dipole geophysical surveys; and detailed geologic mapping. Over the next 60 days, the Company will complete 3-D modeling work on Bayan Khundii, have a structural geologist on site to complete a structural mapping and interpretation program, and complete a spectral mineralogical study, all in advance of the next drill program. In addition, studies to examine the characteristics of mineralization and alteration at Bayan Khundii have been initiated. These studies will be reviewed and drilling plans established in mid Q3-2016, immediately followed by the commencement of a third round of drilling at Bayan Khundii. About the Bayan Khundii Gold Project In Q2-2015, Erdene conducted an initial exploration program on the southern portion of the Company's 100%-owned Khundii license. This reconnaissance work led to the discovery of the Bayan Khundii ('Rich Valley') gold prospect, located 20 km southeast of the Company's Altan Nar gold-polymetallic project. Gold mineralization at Bayan Khundii has been identified over a 1.7 km trend, with detailed exploration only taking place over a 500 m by 350 m zone in the southwest prospect area, where the Company's Q4-2015 and Q2-2016 drill programs have focused. Visible gold was observed in multiple drill holes and results include several high-grade intersections within a series of parallel structures exposed at surface. Results include up to 35 m of 5.9 g/t gold in hole BKD-10 (including 12 m of 16.2 g/t gold) from surface to the bottom of the hole, and 63 m of 5.3 g/t gold in hole BKD-17 from 50 to 113 m depth. Initial drill results and program details are included in Erdene's December 14, 2015, May 9, 2016, May 24, 2016 and June 14, 2016 press releases (click here for link). The license has a 2% net smelter returns royalty ("NSR Royalty") in favour of Sandstorm Gold with a buy-back option to reduce the NSR Royalty to 1%. Qualified Person and Sample Protocol Michael MacDonald, P.Geo. (Nova Scotia), Director of Exploration for Erdene, is the Qualified Person as that term is defined in National Instrument 43-101 and has reviewed and approved the technical information contained in this news release. All samples have been assayed at SGS Laboratory in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. In addition to internal checks by SGS Laboratory, the Company incorporates a QA/QC sample protocol utilizing prepared standards and blanks. Erdene's sampling protocol for drill core consisted of collection of samples over 1 m or 2 m intervals (depending on the lithology and style of mineralization) over the entire length of the drill hole, excluding minor post-mineral lithologies and un-mineralized granitoids. Sample intervals were based on meterage, not geological controls or mineralization. All drill core was cut in half with a diamond saw, with half of the core placed in sample bags and the remaining half securely retained in core boxes at the Company's Bayan Khundii exploration camp. All samples were organized into batches of 20 samples including a commercially prepared standard and blank. Sample batches were periodically shipped directly to SGS in Ulaanbaatar via Erdene's logistical contractor, Monrud Co. Ltd. About Erdene Erdene Resource Development Corp. is a Canada-based resource company focused on the acquisition, exploration, and development of base and precious metals in underexplored and highly prospective Mongolia. The Company holds four exploration licenses and a mining license in southwest Mongolia. These include: Altan Nar - an extensive, high-grade, near-surface, gold-polymetallic project that the Company is advancing toward a production decision, however the Company has not yet completed a mining study to support the technical feasibility and economic viability of Altan Nar; Bayan Khundii - an earlier-stage, high-grade gold discovery made in Q2-2015; Khuvyn Khar - an early-stage, copper-silver porphyry project with multiple drill targets and significant copper intersections; Zuun Mod - a large molybdenum-copper porphyry deposit; and Altan Arrow - an early-stage, high-grade, gold-silver project. In addition to the above properties, the Company has an Alliance with Teck Resources Limited on regional, copper-gold exploration in the prospective Trans Altay region of southwest Mongolia. For further information on the Company, please visit www.erdene.com. Erdene has 121,040,992 issued and outstanding common shares and a fully diluted position of 134,495,406 common shares. Forward-Looking Statements Certain information regarding Erdene contained herein may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements may include estimates, plans, expectations, opinions, forecasts, projections, guidance or other statements that are not statements of fact. Although Erdene believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to have been correct. Erdene cautions that actual performance will be affected by a number of factors, most of which are beyond its control, and that future events and results may vary substantially from what Erdene currently foresees. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include market prices, exploitation and exploration results, continued availability of capital and financing and general economic, market or business conditions. The forward-looking statements are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. The information contained herein is stated as of the current date and is subject to change after that date. The Company does not assume the obligation to revise or update these forward-looking statements, except as may be required under applicable securities laws. NO REGULATORY AUTHORITY HAS APPROVED OR DISAPPROVED THE CONTENTS OF THIS RELEASE To view the maps associated with this press release, please visit the following links: http://www.marketwire.com/library/20160622-1060074_1_800.jpg http://www.marketwire.com/library/20160622-1060074_2_800.jpg Contacts: Erdene Resource Development Corp. Peter C. Akerley, President and CEO (902) 423-6419 Erdene Resource Development Corp. Ken W. MacDonald, Vice President Business Strategy and CFO (902) 423-6419 info@erdene.com www.erdene.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/ErdeneRes CANBERA (dpa-AFX) - The Canadian dollar advanced against its major rivals in European deals on Wednesday, as oil prices firmed, and data showed that the nation's retail sales grew more-than-expected in April. Data from Statistics Canada showed that Canada's retail sales rose a seasonally adjusted 0.9 percent to C$44.3 billion in April. That beat forecasts for an increase of 0.8 percent, after a 1.0 percent drop in March. Core retail sales, excluding motor vehicle and autos, climbed 1.3 percent on month, following a 0.3 percent decline a month earlier. Economists were looking for a 0.6 percent rise. The currency got further support from higher oil prices, which lifted up after an industry group, American Petroleum Institute, reported a 5.2 million barrel drawdown in crude oil inventories last week. The Energy Information Administration will release official data at 10:30 am ET. Investor sentiment improved ahead of tomorrow's Brexit referendum, as analysts predict that the UK voters will likely decide to stay with the EU, averting a potential market tantrum. The currency was higher against most majors in Asian deals, amid rising risk appetite, as investors wait for Fed Chair Janet Yellen's second day of testimony on Capitol Hill today and Thursday's British Brexit vote on its membership in the European Union. Extending early rally, the loonie firmed to 82.05 against the Japanese yen, following a decline to 81.47 at 8:15 pm ET. Continuation of the loonie's uptrend may see it finding resistance around the 84.00 region. The loonie spiked up to near a 2-week high of 1.2743 versus the greenback and an 8-day high of 1.4380 against the euro, off its early lows of 1.2817 and 1.4432, respectively. The next possible resistance levels for the loonie are seen around 1.29 against the greenback and 1.46 against the euro. On the flip side, the loonie fell to 0.9585 against the aussie at 8:25 am ET, from an early 4-day high of 0.9531. The loonie is seen finding support around the 0.97 mark. Survey from Westpac Bank and the Melbourne Institute showed that the Australian economy is expected to stay on a narrowly positive path over the next six to nine months - rising 0.21 percent on month in May. That's up from the downwardly revised 0.14 percent increase in April. Looking ahead, Eurozone consumer confidence index for June, U.S. existing home sales data for May and U.S. crude oil inventories data are due shortly. At 10:00 am ET, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen will testify on the Semiannual Monetary Policy Report before the House Financial Services Committee, in Washington DC. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de Transition to Microsoft Azure Cloud Platform for Crossrail's Asset Information Management System U.K. Rail Conference Bentley Systems, Incorporated, a leading global provider of comprehensive software solutions for advancing infrastructure, today announced that it has successfully upgraded Crossrail's Common Data Environment (CDE) for asset information through Bentley's AssetWise managed services to a hybrid cloud-computing platform powered by Microsoft Azure. This provides a single location for storing, sharing, and managing information for approximately 1 million assets. Europe's largest construction project, Crossrail has been designed in a virtual environment for 3D, 4D, and 5D BIM, powered by Bentley's comprehensive modeling software. Bentley's asset information management solution, AssetWise, based on Bentley's eB technology, manages the engineering and asset information in the Crossrail project and provides a complete, federated view of "digital railway" information. "Crossrail is leading the world in demonstrating the value of BIM to realize greater efficiency and cost effectiveness in project delivery and asset lifecycle information management," said Alan Kiraly, SVP, Bentley Systems. "We're proud of our work together with Bentley Systems, one of our most important global collaborators," said David Epp, Alliances Director, Microsoft Corp. "We're particularly impressed by Crossrail's groundbreaking ambition in building both a digital and physical railway, and are delighted to have had the opportunity to come together with Bentley to address the challenges and requirements of this world-class endeavor." About Crossrail Crossrail is Europe's largest construction project with a total funding envelope of 14.8bn. The route will run over 100km from Reading and Heathrow in the west, through new tunnels under London to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east. It will bring an additional 1.5 million people within 45 minutes commuting distance of London's key business districts. The Transport for London (TfL) run railway will be named the Elizabeth line when services through central London open in December 2018. The Crossrail project is being delivered by Crossrail Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of TfL, and is jointly sponsored by the Department for Transport and TfL. For additional information about Crossrail, visit http://www.crossrail.co.uk. About Bentley's Managed Services Bentley Systems provides a range of managed services delivery options for its industry-leading project delivery and asset performance solutions through Microsoft's Azure cloud platform and hybrid computing environments. With Service Level Agreements and Success Plans tailored to business outcomes and project objectives, Bentley Systems offers a deep bench of technology and subject matter experts who take responsibility for getting the most value from BIM advancements, as well as innovative, consumption-based commercial models tied to benefits realized. For information on Bentley's ISO 27001 and SOC-2 certifications for managed services and cloud offerings, please visit Bentley's Trust Center at https://www.bentley.com/en/trust-center. About Bentley Systems Bentley Systems is a global leader in providing architects, engineers, geospatial professionals, constructors, and owner-operators with comprehensive software solutions for advancingthe design, construction, and operations of infrastructure. Bentley users leverage information mobility across disciplines and throughout the infrastructure lifecycle to deliver better-performing projects and assets. Bentley solutions encompass MicroStation applications for information modeling, ProjectWise collaboration services to deliver integrated projects, and AssetWise operations services to achieve intelligent infrastructure complemented by worldwide professional services and comprehensive managed services. Founded in 1984, Bentley has more than 3,000 colleagues in over 50 countries, more than $600 million in annual revenues, and since 2008 has invested more than $1 billion in research, development, and acquisitions. Additional information about Bentley is available at www.bentley.com and in Bentley's annual report. For Bentley news as it happens, subscribe to an RSS feed of Bentley press releases and news alerts. Visit TheYear in Infrastructure Conference website for highlights of Bentley's premier thought-leadership event. To view a searchable collection of innovative infrastructure projects from the annual Be Inspired Awards, access Bentley's Infrastructure Yearbooks. To access a professional networking site that enables members of the infrastructure community to connect, communicate, and learn from each other, visit Bentley Communities. To download the Bentley Infrastructure 500 Top Owners ranking, a unique global compendium of the top public- and private-sector owners of infrastructure based on the value of their cumulative infrastructure investments, visit BI 500. Bentley, the "B" Bentley logo, Be, eB, MicroStation, and ProjectWise are either registered or unregistered trademarks or service marks of Bentley Systems, Incorporated or one of its direct or indirect wholly owned subsidiaries. All other brands and product names are trademarks of their respective owners. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160622005855/en/ Contacts: Bentley Systems, Incorporated Press Contact: Gail McGrew, +1 610-458-2752 gail.mcgrew@bentley.com Follow us on Twitter: @BentleySystems VAL D'OR, QUEBEC -- (Marketwired) -- 06/22/16 -- Hinterland Metals Inc. (TSX VENTURE: HMI) ("Hinterland") is pleased to announce that it has acquired 40 mineral claims (2,136 hectares) prospective for pegmatite-type lithium mineralization. The claims are located in the James Bay area of Quebec approximately 40 kilometres southeast of the village of Nemaska, which is linked to Chibougamau, 300 kilometres to the south, by an all-season gravel road. Other infrastructure in the area includes numerous gravel roads, an airport, and high-voltage hydro-electric transmission lines and sub-stations all maintained by Hydro Quebec. The claims lie on the south margin of the volcano-sedimentary Mountain Lake Belt, and are roughly 15 kilometres southeast of Nemaska Lithium Corp.'s Whabouchi hard rock lithium project, which contains measured plus indicated resources of 27,991,000 tonnes of 1.57% Li20 (Nemaska Press Release, January 15, 2014). Nemaska recently released a positive feasibility study that includes the construction of a mine and concentrator at Whabouchi, and a hydrometallurgical plant in Shawinigan, Quebec (Nemaska Press Release, June 9, 2016). Exploration work will commence immediately on the claims with a compilation of regional data and exploration previously done over the area of the claims. None of this prior exploration work, which includes geophysical surveys and diamond drilling, considered the potential for pegmatite-type lithium mineralization on the claims. Hinterland will be re-evaluating the previous data in this context. Mark Fekete, P.Geo is the designated "qualified person" as defined in Section 1.2 in and for the purposes of National Instrument 43-101 that reviewed and approved the technical content of this release. Website: www.hinterlandmetals.com Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This release may contain forward-looking statements that are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to vary materially from targeted results. Such risks and uncertainties include those described in the Company's periodic reports including the annual report or in the filings made by the Company from time to time with securities regulators. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly release the result of any revision of these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date they are made or to reflect the occurrence of an unanticipated event. Shares Issued 32,924,614 Contacts: Hinterland Metals Inc. Mark Fekete President 1-819-354-5244 Hinterland Metals Inc. Zak Dingsdale Director 1-905-269-0797 info@hinterlandmetals.com www.hinterlandmetals.com TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 06/22/16 -- Today, Mark Machin, President & CEO of Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) announced the following appointments: -- Alain Carrier is appointed Senior Managing Director, Head of International and becomes a member of CPPIB's Senior Management Team. In this role, Alain will be responsible for CPPIB's international investment activities and will also continue as Head of Europe. He will report to Mark Machin. Alain was most recently Managing Director, Head of Europe for CPPIB. Alain has been with CPPIB since 2008 and has more than 23 years of financial industry experience, which includes senior roles at Goldman Sachs & Co. in their Investment Banking division in New York and London. Alain started his career as a lawyer at Sullivan & Cromwell in New York. -- Suyi Kim is appointed Managing Director, Head of Asia and will report to the Head of International. As Head of Asia, Suyi will be responsible for overseeing CPPIB's significant portfolio of Asian investments. Suyi joined CPPIB nine years ago, establishing CPPIB's first international office in Hong Kong and has overseen the private equity business in Asia most recently as Head of Private Equity Asia. Suyi's previous experience includes Teacher's Private Capital, the private equity group at Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, The Carlyle Group, McKinsey & Co. and PricewaterhouseCoopers. -- Deborah Orida is appointed Managing Director, Head of Private Equity, Asia and will be responsible for leading private investments in Asia with a focus on both direct private equity investments and fund commitments. Deborah was most recently Managing Director, Head of Relationship Investments International and responsible for significant minority investments in public companies in Asia and Europe. Deborah joined CPPIB in 2009 and has been located in Hong Kong since 2012. Prior to joining CPPIB, Deborah spent nine years at Goldman Sachs & Co. in New York and Toronto advising management teams and boards on M&A and financing transactions. Previously, Deborah was a securities lawyer at Blake, Cassels & Graydon in Toronto. "These appointments are an excellent reflection of both the deep bench strength and great international experience we have within CPPIB," said Mark Machin. These appointments were effective June 21, 2016. ABOUT CANADA PENSION PLAN INVESTMENT BOARD Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) is a professional investment management organization that invests the funds not needed by the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) to pay current benefits on behalf of 19 million contributors and beneficiaries. In order to build a diversified portfolio of CPP assets, CPPIB invests in public equities, private equities, real estate, infrastructure and fixed income instruments. Headquartered in Toronto, with offices in Hong Kong, London, Luxembourg, Mumbai, New York City and Sao Paulo, CPPIB is governed and managed independently of the Canada Pension Plan and at arm's length from governments. At March 31, 2016, the CPP Fund totalled C$278.9 billion. For more information about CPPIB, please visit www.cppib.com or follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter. Contacts: CPP Investment Board Mei Mavin Director, Corporate Communications +44-203-205-3515 mmavin@cppib.com CPP Investment Board Dan Madge Senior Manager, Media Relations 416-868-8629 dmadge@cppib.com www.cppib.com Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - June 22, 2016) - Frontline Gold Corporation (TSXV: FGC) ("Frontline" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has negotiated a $200,000 increase to the previously announced unsecured loan ("Loan") in the amount of $250,000 that was highlighted in its April 20, 2016 press release ("Frontline secures funding to advance to production at its Kambertepe and Keban Tailings Projects) www.stockwatch.com/News/Item.aspx?bid=U-nf20193_136-U%3AFLDPF-20160420&symbol=FLDPFion=U. The Loan, which will now total $450,000, is being advanced by two private investors (the "investors") who are both arm's length to the Corporation. The additional funds will be used primarily to allow the Company to expedite production from its tailings projects at Kambertepe. The proceeds from the $450,000 loan will be used for the following: a minimum of $360,000 will be used for developing the Tailings Projects. Work at the Kambertepe copper tailings, up to 20,000 tonnes, as previous announced, is underway. Preparation for work at Keban started as well; up to $45,000 can be used to fund the pursuit of additional tailings projects that exist in Turkey, and; up to $45,000 can be used to make option payments and advance exploration on the Company's Red Lake and Rainy River projects, in addition to acquiring additional strategic land positions within the Red Lake Mining Camp. Commentary Mr. Walter Henry, President and CEO of Frontline commented, "Given the increase in the Kambertepe tailing tonnage from 6,000 tonnes to approximately 20,000 as previous reported, the $200,000 increase in the Loan funding is warranted to continue the ongoing transportation of the tailings to the processing site. Based upon the significant increase in tailings tonnage and overall grade at both Keban and Kambertepe, the economic in-situ value of both tailings projects has dramatically increased, resulting in continued interest in funding the on-going development of our tailings operations in addition to the other tailings projects that exist within the Elazig region. As previously highlighted, and given Frontline's balance sheet, the signing of an unsecured loan with 1) no debt or working capital covenants, and 2) a six-month principal and interest holiday is an ideal funding structure for the Company to fund and expedite work at both the Kambertepe and Keban projects. The Company's current tailings projects, combined with the potential to add two to three new tailings areas are rapidly transforming the Company into a tailings processor with the ability to generate positive cash flow in the near future. Highlights of the Amended Loan: Will be unsecured and no debt or working capital covenants. The additional $200,000 will be fully advanced by June 20, 2016. The original $250,000 was fully advanced by April 30, 2016. The term on the Loan will be for a term of 18 months from June 30, 2016 and will bear interest at the rate of 12%, payable monthly in arrears, which remains unchanged from the original Loan terms. FGC shall start repaying the Loan at the end of December 2016, by way of 12 monthly payments of $37,500. FGC will also pay to the Investors a royalty (the "Royalty") equal to 3.5% of the net proceeds, calculated as gross revenue less excavating and transportation costs and processing costs, received from the Keban and Kambertepe tailings projects in Turkey. This is an increase of 1.5% from the 2% previously announced. FGC shall have the right to buy back of 0.5% of the Royalty at a purchase price of $90,000 for a 30-day period following the first anniversary of the first Royalty payment. FGC will issue to the Investors a total of 10 million common share purchase warrants (the "Warrants"). The Warrants shall have an exercise price of 2 cents and a term of 3 years from the date of issue. The Warrants are subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange. FGC shall use its best effort to obtain regulatory approval to issue the Warrants with an exercise price of 2 cents, but if it is unable to do so, then FGC shall, within a year, use its best efforts to cause its common shares to be consolidated on a 5-1 basis, subject to shareholder approval, and the Warrants shall be issued with an exercise price of 10 cents. If, during the term of the Warrants, the shares of FGC trade at 5 cents or higher for a period of 30 consecutive trading days, then FGC shall be entitled to give notice that half the Warrants have been accelerated to a date not less than 20 business days after such notice has been provided. FGC shall provide the Investors with a two-year right of first refusal ("ROFR") to provide financing to FGC in connection with any additional tailing deposits acquired by FGC in Turkey. The loan and warrants remain subject to the receipt of all regulatory approvals, including approval of the Toronto Stock Venture Exchange. Update The following is a brief summary of the current developments of the Company both in Turkey and the Red Lake: The excavating and transportation of the Kambertepe tailings to the processing site continues; The completion of the processing and receipt of revenue is expected within the next two months; We are currently in final negotiations regarding the signing of a process agreement for the processing of the Kambertepe copper tailings; Third party metallurgical testing on both the Kambertepe and Keban are underway to identify the optimal process of recovery of both the Kambertepe and Keban tailings. Additional information on the ideal recovery processes will be provided when the metallurgical testing is completed; and The Company is continuing to evaluate other potential tailings opportunities in Turkey in addition to evaluating strategic land packages within the Red Lake mining camp in northern Ontario. Keban Tailings Project The Keban tailings project is located approximately 45 km northwest from the city of Elazig, via paved highway, is fully permitted, and includes the exclusive rights to process a minimum 114,000 tonnes of mineralized milled tailings stored in two areas within the defined tailings boundaries. Current tailings tonnage is now estimated to be approximately 150,000 tonnes. Kambertepe Tailings Project The Kambertepe Tailings Project includes the exclusive rights to process mineralized tailings, initially estimated at approximately 6,000 tonnes, with the following average reported grades per tonne of tailings: 2.1% Copper, 21 g/t Silver, 1.9% Zinc, 0.5% Titanium and over 50% Iron, as noted from a Firat University report on the project dated March 15th, 2016. As discussed above, current tailings tonnage is now estimated to be in the range of 15,000 to 20,000 tonnes. Frontline did not complete the work required to verify the historical mining estimates noted above and is not treating these historical estimates as being compliant with current standards under NI 43-101 and as such these historical estimates should not be relied upon. Caution should be used when evaluating these resources as they were calculated prior to NI 43-101 existing and a qualified person has not done work to classify the historical estimate as a current mineral resource. Frontline continues to actively seek additional investor/partner(s) 1) to continue to expedite the full tailings and contained metal recovery at both the Keban and Kambertepe tailings projects; 2) to jointly fund the new tailings projects that the Company has been in discussions to acquire and 3) to fund development on all its properties in the Red Lake and Rainy River areas. To contact Frontline, please call Walter Henry at 416-414-5825 or visit the company's website. The technical information herein was reviewed by Mr. Greg Isenor, P. Geo., who acts as Frontline's Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. About Frontline Gold Corporation Frontline is a Canadian junior mineral exploration company with an experienced discovery team and a proven record of accomplishment. The Company's principal properties include the Menderes gold project in the Izmir province of Western Turkey, the Flint Lake and Sandhill Lake gold projects which are adjacent to Chalice Gold's Cameron Lake Gold Deposit in Ontario and the Niaouleni gold project in southern Mali in the heart of West Africa's prolific gold belt. Other Canadian exploration properties include its Red Lake (gold) property groups that include the Whitehorse Island Mining Patents. Further information about the Company is available on the Company's website, www.frontlinegold.com , or our social media sites listed below: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Frontline Gold Corp./ Twitter: https://twitter.com/frontlinegold This news release contains forward-looking statements, which address future events and conditions, which are subject to various risks and uncertainties. The Company's actual results, programs and financial position could differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements as a result of numerous factors, some of which may be beyond the Company's control. These factors include: the availability of funds; the timing and content of work programs; results of exploration activities and development of mineral properties, the interpretation of drilling results and other geological data, the uncertainties of resource and reserve estimations, receipt and security of mineral property titles; project cost overruns or unanticipated costs and expenses, fluctuations in metal prices; currency fluctuations; and general market and industry conditions. Forward-looking statements are based on the expectations and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made. The assumptions used in the preparation of such statements, although considered reasonable at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise and, as such, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements. "Walter Henry" Walter Henry, President & CEO FRONTLINE GOLD CORP. Contact: Telephone: Fax: Email: Website: Walter Henry (416) 362-9100 (416) 362-9300 info@frontlinegold.com www.frontlinegold.com Frontline Gold Corp. (TSXV: FGC) 1 Toronto Street, Suite 201 Toronto, Ontario M5C 2V6 NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWS WIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE U.S. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. GRAND RAPIDS, MI--(Marketwired - June 22, 2016) - A Grand Valley State University professor is helping her patients improve their speech as they ride horses. It's an emerging speech-language therapy technique and the results are often immediate. Beth Macauley, associate professor of communication sciences and disorders, has been studying and using hippotherapy for nearly 30 years on patients as young as 2 years old to elderly patients who have experienced strokes. She is one of four speech-language pathologists in the U.S. with board certification in hippotherapy. One of her patients, Davide Cirilli, a 7-year-old boy with autism spectrum disorder, has come to Children and Horses United in Movement in Dansville, Michigan, to receive therapy to improve his fine motor and speech skills. He rides Twiz, a 9-year-old quarter horse and mustang mix gelding. Watch a video. MEDIA NOTE: Photos and video of Macauley using hippotherapy are available to use on Dropbox: http://gvsu.edu/s/0br A simple exchange while riding the horse might go like this: "What do you like on your pizza?" asked Macauley. "Pepp-er-o-ni!" said Cirilli, sounding out each syllable. "Good. Now say that in a full sentence," said Macauley. "I like pepp-er-o-ni on my pizza," Cirilli answered. Macauley said the exchange may seem simple, but for Cirilli, it shows vast improvement in his speech. She said three-dimensional movements -- up-down, side-side, front-back -- of a horse pelvis are very similar to that of a human pelvis. "When a person with a disability is on a horse, the horse's nervous system becomes a framework for that person. Instead of going into a room and using books and cards for speech therapy, you're now doing those same activities on a horse and the horse's movement facilitates improved neurological function," she said. The exercises Macauley uses depend on each patient's goals. Macauley also works with a woman who had a traumatic brain injury from a car accident. The goals were to establish muscle patterns and practice speaking and sustaining vowels. Before the woman got on the horse, her volume was low and she had poor trunk support. At the end of the therapy session, her speech was clearer and more articulate. "We don't quite understand how it works yet," Macauley said, "but we have a theory: the consistent and repetitive motion of a horse walking or trotting stimulates the nervous system of the person on the horse and facilitates increased physical and cognitive function. Since the nervous system is given a coordinated, integrated framework from which to function, it can focus on bigger, more complex thoughts, words and movements." In the future, Macauley hopes to lead a study that focuses on the activity of a patient's brain during hippotherapy. She also hopes the therapy technique will eventually be covered by insurance companies. Hippotherapy started as a physical therapy treatment for children with cerebral palsy, then it was used for adults with polio and brain injuries. Over the years, the technique expanded from helping to improve physical conditions to improving speech, language and cognition. Macauley is available for interviews and can be reached at macauleb@gvsu.edu or 616-331-5617. For more information, contact University Communications at Grand Valley State University at (616) 331-2221. Image Available: http://www.marketwire.com/library/MwGo/2016/6/22/11G103858/Images/160222_SLP_Hippotherapy-0170-6b7076ad4ca69455898c5810a507cc84.jpg Contact: Leah Twilley GVSU University Communications (616) 331-2221 The Company Goes the Extra Mile to Reach Patients Across the Globe RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, North Carolina, June 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --As the diverse landscape for clinical trials continues to evolve, Marken implements new solutions which allow their clients to reach new patients in remote locations of the world. Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110930/NY78064LOGO The company is extending its reach to areas such as Iran, Mongolia, the Azores, the South Pacific Islands and the most remote territories in Eastern Europe and Africa. It has also demonstrated its ability to deliver into and out of cities impacted by war, labor strikes, hurricanes, volcano eruptions and earthquakes. However, moving medical supplies and biologic samples into and out of these areas comes with significant challenges which include qualifying reliable transportation, defining import and export requirements and monitoring shipments continuously until they arrive on time and within stability. Many of the most remote territories which Marken operates in are closely tied to clinical campaigns where children and adults are in need of routine immunizations and vaccines. The World Health Organization (WHO) recently endorsed a plan to "close the immunization gap" worldwide for preventable diseases in "underserved remote areas, in deprived urban settings and in fragile states."* Marken has assured its customers that it will always find a way to service these locations. Recent advances in technology provide the opportunity for more patients to participate in trials, regardless of location. Likewise, the introduction of remote monitoring allows for coverage in rural areas. Marken utilizes innovative tracking technology, such as the Sentry device and Maestro software, to secure data and shipments thus making it possible to conduct clinical trials in these regions. "At the end of the day, our focus has always been to help our clients improve patient outcomes as a supply chain solutions provider," said Wes Wheeler, Chief Executive Officer of Marken. He further commented that Marken "is always looking ahead to the next frontier of research. We routinely work side by side with our clients to ensure continuity of their business. However, we are especially proud to serve when they have special needs in remote locations. We rarely, if ever, decline a challenge posed by our clients and will always do our part to keep the pace of clinical trials moving on time." ABOUT MARKEN Marken is the only patient-centric supply chain organization 100% dedicated to the pharmaceutical and life sciences industries. Marken maintains the leading position for Direct to Patient services and biological sample shipments, and offers a state of the art GMP-compliant depot network and logistic hubs in 43 locations worldwide. Marken's 630 staff members manage 50,000 drug and biological shipments every month at all temperature ranges in more than 150 countries. Additional services such as biological kit production, ancillary material sourcing, storage and distribution, shipment lane verification and qualifications, as well as GDP, regulatory and compliance consultancy add to Marken's unique position in the pharma and logistics industry. * www.who.int FREDERICK, MD -- (Marketwired) -- 06/22/16 -- Nova, a Welocalize company and leader in specialized language services for life sciences and regulated industries, is proud to sponsor the upcoming DIA 2016 52nd Annual Meeting taking place at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia on June 26-30, 2016. DIA 2016 is the world's largest global life sciences event, bringing together key thought leaders and innovators from all areas of health care, product development and life cycle management. As an exhibitor, Nova will be sharing expertise and best practices on the important role that language solutions and translation plays in clinical trials, patient recruitment, medical device and pharmaceutical content, as well as regulatory affairs material and documentation. Nova language service experts will host a series of discussions at the DIA 2016 event at booth #733 related to translation best practices and solutions tailored specifically to the global life sciences industry. Attendees can also enter to win a trip to Nova's headquarters and Welocalize's life sciences center of excellence in Barcelona, Spain. "Content within the life sciences industry can be complex and heavily regulated, which is why it is important to use specialist translation skills to ensure any output is accurate and legally accepted in all target countries," said Consol Casablanca, general manager of Nova, a Welocalize company. "We are excited to have strong presence at DIA 2016 and are looking forward to developing relationships and sharing our experience to help our life sciences colleagues manage content in multiple languages." With more than 7,000 attendees expected at this event, DIA 2016 is the largest global interdisciplinary gathering of life sciences professionals. For more information visit http://www.diaglobal.org/flagship/dia-2016. About Nova, a Welocalize company, provides regulated industry language solutions including translation, web and marketing localization, interpretation and multimedia services. Nova primarily focuses on services for the life sciences industry, including biotechnology, pharmaceutical and medical device, with emphasis on specialized language solutions for clinical research (CRO), patient recruitment (PRO), medical device content, compliance and regulatory affairs material. Nova was established in 1998 and is headquartered in Barcelona. As a Welocalize company, they have 18 global offices and provide language solutions in 175 languages. http://www.nova-transnet.com/ and http://www.nova-transnet.com/life-sciences-translations Welocalize, Inc., founded in 1997, offers innovative language services to help global brands reach audiences around the world in more than 175 languages. We provide translation and localization services, talent management, language tools, automation and technology, quality and program management. Our range of managed language services include machine translation, digital marketing, validation and testing, interpretation, staffing and enterprise translation management technologies. We specialize in consumer, technology, manufacturing, learning, oil and gas, travel and hospitality, marketing and advertising, finance, legal and life sciences industry language solutions. With more than 800 full-time employees worldwide, Welocalize maintains offices in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Romania, Poland, Japan and China. www.welocalize.com Media Contacts: US: Jamie Glass Email Contact 602.369.5537 Europe/Asia: Louise Law Email Contact VIENNA (dpa-AFX) - Eurozone consumer confidence deteriorated for the first time in three months in June, defying expectations for stability, preliminary data from the European Commission showed Wednesday. The flash consumer confidence index declined to -7.3 from -7 in May. Economists had expected the score to remain unchanged. The consumer confidence index for the EU dropped by 0.1 points to -5.8. The score weakened for the first time in three months. The European Commission is set to release the final figures along with the economic sentiment data on June 29. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. GATINEAU, QUEBEC -- (Marketwired) -- 06/22/16 -- Nouveau Monde Mining Enterprises Inc. ("Nouveau Monde") (TSX VENTURE: NOU)(OTC PINK: NMGRF)(FRANKFURT: NM9) is pleased to announce the results of a Preliminary Economic Assessment ("PEA") covering the West Zone of the Tony Claim Block, part of its Matawinie Graphite Property. The PEA was prepared by Norda Stelo Inc. (formerly Roche Ltd., Consulting Group), an experienced and renowned engineering firm. All costs are in Canadian funds with the exception of the graphite sale price which is provided in US dollars. Eric Desaulniers, President and Chief Executive Officer of Nouveau Monde, stated: "The completion of this first PEA is a significant milestone for Nouveau Monde and demonstrates that the Matawinie Project has the potential of becoming a reliable and long-term supplier of quality natural flake graphite." Mr. Desaulniers further stated that, "The rapid advancement of our Matawinie Project continues to be highly encouraging with a robust PEA being completed only four months after the release of our mineral resource estimate for the West Zone of the Tony Claim Block. On the back of this PEA, and the recent announcement of our successful metallurgical results, we are excited about promptly moving the project forward by completing a pre-feasibility study that continues to highlight the significant potential of our Matawinie Property." The following lists the highlights provided by the PEA: Project Economics: -- Pre-tax Net Present Value (NPV) of $403.7 million at an 8% discount rate; -- After-tax NPV of $237.0 million at an 8% discount rate; -- Pre-tax Internal Rate of Return (IRR) of 31.2%; -- After-tax IRR of 24.7%; -- Life of Mine (LOM) of 25.7 years; -- Mine Pay Back estimated at 2.9 years (Pre Tax); -- Mine Pay Back estimated at 3.5 years (After Tax); -- LOM Revenue of $2,430.9 million (Life of Mine revenue); -- LOM Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) of $1,586.7 million; -- Initial Capital Costs (Capex) of $144.5 million (including contingency of $22.4 million); -- Operating Expenditures (Opex) of $32.95 million per year or $660 per tonne of concentrate; -- Average sales price of graphite concentrate at $1,492 USD per tonne; -- USD$/CAD conversion rate of 1.28. Operational Highlights: -- Annual average full production of 49,921 tonnes of graphite concentrate; -- 4.48% Cg average grade LOM graphite content contained in the mineralization; -- Graphite milling recovery above 89.5%; -- Finished product/ concentrate purity greater than 97.1% Cg; -- Stripping ratio (LOM) of 0.94:1. Cautionary Note: The PEA completed for the Company is preliminary in nature and includes inferred mineral resources, considered too speculative in nature to be categorized as mineral reserves. Mineral resources that are not mineral reserves have not demonstrated economic viability. Additional trenching and/or drilling will be required to convert inferred mineral resources to indicated or measured mineral resources. There is no certainty that the resources development, production, and economic forecasts on which this PEA is based will be realized. A technical report detailing the PEA, and completed in accordance with National Instrument (NI) 43-101 guidelines, will be filed and available on SEDAR within 45 days of this release. MINERAL RESOURCES The PEA is based on the mineral resource estimate, completed in accordance with the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM) Standards on Mineral Resources and Reserves, released on February 23, 2016 by Nouveau Monde and detailed in a technical report, completed in accordance with National Instrument (NI) 43-101 guidelines, entitled: Resource Estimate Update, Tony Block, Matawinie Property, Lanaudiere Region, Quebec, dated March 30, 2016. The in-pit resource located on the West Zone represents only a portion of the total mineral resources identified to date on the Tony Block. The latter include 48.6 million tonnes grading 3.97 % graphitic carbon (Cg) of indicated resources and 34.7 million tonnes, grading 4.08 % Cg of inferred resources, using a cut-off grade of 2.5% Cg, spread throughout three areas, the West, the South-East and the South-West Zones (see press release dated February 23, 2016). Both south zones were not included in this PEA since the West Zone showed resources in excess of 25 years, this being the limit imposed for a relevant financial analysis. Maps displaying significant exploration results obtained to date may be downloaded below: - Property Map: http://nouveaumonde.ca/wp-content/uploads/PR_Tony_Block_20160622r.pdf - Map of the West Zone: http://nouveaumonde.ca/wp-content/uploads/PR_West_Zone_20160622r.pdf MINING A PEA is a conceptual study of the potential viability of identified mineral resources. It includes inferred mineral resources that are considered too speculative in nature, and as such, cannot be categorized as mineral reserves. The purpose of this study is to inform the reader of the economic potential of the mineral property. In the following text, graphite is expressed in graphitic carbon percentage (Cg %). Mining Highlights -- Only the West Zone of the Tony Claim Block has been considered in the PEA as it provided the best economics compared to the other mineralized zones; -- The in-pit resources represents only a portion of the total mineral resources identified on the Tony Block (see news release published February 23, 2016); -- The open pit optimisation, using GEOVIA's Whittle software, considers as viable a portion located 45 metres (m) deeper than the arbitrary limit of 435 m at sea level (ASL) used for the mineral resources estimate of the West Zone as reported on February 23, 2016; -- Mining is performed by open pit using a conventional truck and shovel operation; -- The mining production schedule is limited to one shift of 10 hours, 5 days a week so as to reduce environmental and social impact; -- Mining is to be executed under contract services under the supervision of Nouveau Monde; -- The mining operation is set at 75% of the milling capacity for the first year for ramp up; -- Mine life of 25.7 years, with a total in-pit undiluted resource of 16.0 Mt grading 4.38% Cg and 14.8 Mt grading 4.88% Cg of indicated and inferred resources respectively; -- After a 5% dilution and a mining recovery of 95.2%, the West Zone represents a potential life of mine (LOM) graphite content of 1.38 Mt; -- LOM undiluted head grade of 4.62% Cg compared to the undiluted resources estimate of 4.39% Cg reported on February 23, 2016, indicates that grade increases with depth; -- Pre-production is planned over a two year period in order to prepare the infrastructure which includes the mine site, mill and tailing facilities. The geotechnical parameters presented in Table 1 were used for the West Zone pit optimization performed by GEOVIA's Whittle software: Table 1: West Zone open pit preliminary design parameters. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Item Value Unit ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bench Height (double benching) 10 m ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Berm Width 6 m ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ramp and Haul Road Width 18 m ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bench Face Angle 85 degree ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Inter-ramp Slope Angle 55 degree ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Overall Slope Angle 50 degree ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The study contemplates an average feed rate of 3,290 tonnes per day and a 25.7 year mine life at an average life of mine (LOM) waste to mineralized material strip ratio of 0.94:1. The mineable portion of the mineral resource was developed based on a marginal cut-off grade of 1.96% Cg (low grade) and a breakeven cut-off grade of 2.28% Cg (high grade) using the cost and revenue parameters presented in Table 2. Table 2: Cost and revenue parameters used for cut-off grade determination (The following parameters could differ from those used for the financial analysis) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Item Value Unit ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Processing cost 14.67 C$/t milled ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- General & Administrative cost 4.21 C$/t milled ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- TMF maintenance cost 0.96 C$/t milled ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Reference mining cost (Waste) 4.52 C$/t milled ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mining cost (Mineralized materials) 5.84 C$/t milled ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Reclamation cost 1.20 C$/t milled ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Selling price Cg 1,492 USD$/t of concentrate ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Milling recovery 89.5 % ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Finished product/concentrate purity 97.1 % Cg ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Commodity payment 100 % ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- A Net Smelter Return (NSR) royalty of 2% applies to the Tony Claim Block. Nouveau Monde can buy back this 2% NSR royalty in a one-time payment of $2 million during the pre-production years. This royalty was therefore not applied on the cut-off grade calculation as it is assumed that it will be paid prior to the beginning of mine production. Once a dilution of 5% and a mining recovery of 95.2% are applied on the in-pit resources (based on experience from similar operations), the mineralized material extracted over the course of the mine life totals 16 Mt grading 4.38% Cg in the indicated category and 14.8 Mt grading 4.88% Cg in the inferred category. The West Zone thus represents a potential LOM graphite content of 1.38 Mt. The in-pit mineable resources for the West Zone are summarized in Table 3 below: Table 3: In-pit life-of-mine resources for the West Zone ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Resources Estimate statement (Mt) In-Pit (February 23, Class Resources (Mt) Grade (% Cg) 2016) Grade (% Cg) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Indicated 16.0 4.38 22.3 4.25 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Inferred 14.8 4.88 15.5 4.59 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Compared to the resources estimate released on February 23, 2016, the in-pit LOM tonnage represents 72% and 95% of the indicated and the inferred resources, respectively. This difference can be attributed to the pit optimisation process which considers as viable a portion located 45 m deeper than the arbitrary limit of 435 m above sea level (ASL) used for the mineral resources estimate of the West Zone as reported on February 23, 2016. Moreover, the LOM undiluted head grade of 4.62% Cg compared to the undiluted resources estimate of 4.39% Cg seems to indicate that grade increases with depth below the 435 m level. The mining infrastructures have been conceived with the purpose of integrating environmentally friendly aspects and promoting a low visual impact. The processing plant and waste piles will be located less than 1,000 metres from the mine so as to minimize the project's carbon footprint, to ensure short cycle times and to lower production costs. The main mining infrastructure considered in this PEA comprises: -- 8.3 km of roads; -- Potential-Acid Generating (PAG) waste rock storage totalling 257,000 m(2)(in case potential acid-generating waste is confirmed through additional testing) ; -- Non-Acid Generating (NAG) waste rock storage covering 233,700 m(2); -- Storage area covering 221,000 m(2)for overburden and top soil; -- Storage area covering 30,000 m(2) for low- grade stockpile; -- Two sedimentation ponds; -- One office occupying an area of 9,600 m(2); -- Garage facilities. A mine site plan conceived for the PEA may be downloaded below: - Mine Site Plan: http://nouveaumonde.ca/wp-content/uploads/PR_Mine_Site_Plan_20160622.pdf PROCESSING & RECOVERY A proven metallurgical process performed on a composite sample from the West Zone, using flotation only, yielded a concentrate with a purity above 97.1% Cg and a recovery rate over 89.5%. Metallurgical testing supplied the parameters shown below: -- Processing costs; -- $331.38/tonne of finished product -- $13.64/tonne of material processed -- Average annual processing rate of 1.21Mt; -- Average annual production of 49,921 tonnes of graphite concentrate; -- Average graphite recovery of 89.5%; -- Finished product purity: -- 100% Global greater than 97.1% Cg, or; -- 16.1%,+50mesh @ 97.5% Cg; -- 29.8%,-50+80mesh @ 97.6% Cg; -- 11.1%, -80+100mesh @ 97.4% Cg; -- 43.0%, -100mesh @ 96.3% Cg. The first step of the graphite recovery process for the Matawinie Project consists of crushing the mined material. This will be followed by multiple steps of grinding, attrition scrubbing and flotation, and subsequent filtration, drying and classification. The processing plant design is based on a flow sheet developed at SGS Minerals Services, located in Lakefield, Ontario (Canada), using proven technologies to create a very efficient beneficiation operation. With this process, it is possible to obtain remarkably high graphite quality while obtaining good recoveries. This is especially true for the West Zone mineralization which is the subject of the current PEA. Although the lock-cycle tests have not yet been performed and the optimization of the various circuits will be part of the next studies only, the results achieved for this PEA are very promising and demonstrate the robustness of the flow sheet. See the Company's press release dated May 9, 2016 for further details on the Matawinie project metallurgical results. GRAPHITE SALES PRICE ASSUMPTION The graphite concentrate sales price used for the PEA was established at 1492$US/tonne. The selling price was determined using pricing information, averaged during a period of 60 months (from June 2011 to May 2016), obtained from Benchmark Mineral Intelligence (Benchmark) (www.benchmarkminerals.com). Benchmark is an independent credible source which compiles international graphite prices for various commercial size fractions and concentrate purities. The West Zone graphite concentrate value was calculated based on the weighted average of each size fraction and purities obtained during the metallurgical testing described in the section above. Table 4 presents graphite concentrate values in USD$ for various size fractions. Table 4. Price per size fraction using a 60 month average value obtained through Benchmark Minerals Intelligence. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 60 month Average Price Size Fraction Purity (Cg) ($USD/t) Weight ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- +50 mesh 96-97% $2,308 16.10% ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- +80 mesh 96-97% $1,526 29.80% ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- +100 mesh 96-97% $1,358 11.10% ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -100 mesh 96-97% $1,198 43.00% ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Weighted Average Price: $1492 USD DESCRIPTION OF ECONOMIC EVALUATION According to the PEA, the Tony Claim Block has demonstrated potential economic viability in regards to an open pit graphite mine over the West mineralized Zone. The capital cost estimate, summarized below, covers the development of the mine, ore processing facilities, and infrastructure required for Nouveau Monde's project. It is based on the application of standard costing methods of achieving a PEA which provides an accuracy of +/-35%. The operating cost covers mining, transportation, processing, tailings and water management, general and administration fees, as well as infrastructure and services. CAPITAL & OPERATING COSTS The capital intensity and cash operating costs are summarized below: Capital Cost Breakdown (CAD) Mining $15,632,000 Plant $60,130,000 Tailings and water management $13,159,000 Infrastructure and Services $9,343,000 Total direct costs $98,264,000 Indirect costs $18,155,000 Owner's costs $5,644,000 Contingency (direct & indirect costs) $22,389,000 Total Initial Capex $144,452,000 Sustaining capital (including contingency) $14,422,000 Mine closure and rehabilitation (including contingency) $11,789,000 Total Sustaining & Mine Closure $26,211,000 Mine development costs Included in Capex (Mining) Cash Operating Cost Breakdown (per tonne of finished product) (CAD$) Mining $241/tonne Process, Tailings & Water $331/tonne General & Administration $88/tonne Total $660/tonne PROJECT LOCATION & INFRASTRUCTURE The Tony Claim Block is located in the Saint-Michel-des-Saints area, some 120 km north of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The claim block, including the West Zone, is easily accessible using existing logging roads and is close to quality infrastructure such as paved roads and high voltage power lines, both necessary for industrial activities. An abundance of skilled workforce is available in the community of Saint-Michel-des-Saint as well as in surrounding communities, following the recent closing of multiple logging activities. QUALITY CONTROL & ASSURANCE The technical information derived from the Preliminary Economic Assessment present in this news release was prepared by Pierre H. Terreault, P.Eng. MPM, of Norda Stelo Inc., an independent Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. The press release was reviewed by Eric Desaulniers, M.Sc., P.Geo., President and CEO of Nouveau Monde, a Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101 guidelines. Cautionary Statements Regarding Forward-Looking Information This press release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation. All information contained herein that is not clearly historical in nature may constitute forward-looking information. Generally, such forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved". Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including but not limited to: (i) volatile stock prices; (ii) the general global markets and economic conditions; (iii) the possibility of write-downs and impairments; (iv) the risk associated with exploration, development and operations of mineral deposits; (v) the risk associated with establishing title to mineral properties and assets; (vi) the risks associated with entering into joint ventures; (vii) fluctuations in commodity prices; (viii) the risks associated with uninsurable risks arising during the course of exploration, development and production; (ix) competition faced by the resulting issuer in securing experienced personnel and financing; (i) (x) access to adequate infrastructure to support mining, processing, development and exploration activities; (xi) the risks associated with changes in the mining regulatory regime governing the resulting issuer; (xii) the risks associated with the various environmental regulations the resulting issuer is subject to; (xiii) risks related to regulatory and permitting delays; (xiv) risks related to potential conflicts of interest; (xv) the reliance on key personnel; (xvi) liquidity risks; (xvii) the risk of potential dilution through the issue of common shares; (xviii) the Company does not anticipate declaring dividends in the near term; (xix) the risk of litigation; and (xx) risk management. Forward-looking information is based on assumptions management believes to be reasonable at the time such statements are made, including but not limited to, continued exploration activities, no material adverse change in metal prices, exploration and development plans to proceed in accordance with plans and such plans to achieve their stated expected outcomes, receipt of required regulatory approvals, and such other assumptions and factors as set out herein. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such forward-looking information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking information. Such forward-looking information has been provided for the purpose of assisting investors in understanding the Company's business, operations and exploration plans and may not be appropriate for other purposes. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Forward-looking information is made as of the date of this press release, and the Company does not undertake to update such forward-looking information except in accordance with applicable securities laws. Neither the TSX-V nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX-V) has in any way passed upon the merits of the proposed transaction or approved or disapproved the contents of this press release. Contacts: Eric Desaulniers, M.Sc., P.Geo. President and Chief Executive Officer of Nouveau Monde (819) 923-0333 HOUSTON, TEXAS -- (Marketwired) -- 06/22/16 -- News Release - TransCanada Corporation (TSX: TRP) (NYSE: TRP) (TransCanada) and Columbia Pipeline Group, Inc. (NYSE: CPGX) (Columbia) today announced that at a special meeting held earlier today in Houston, Texas, Columbia's stockholders voted to adopt the previously announced merger agreement. Approximately 95.33% of votes cast by Columbia stockholders were in favour of adoption of the merger agreement, which will have TransCanada acquire Columbia for US$25.50 per share of common stock in cash, resulting in an aggregate purchase price of approximately US$13 billion, including the assumption of approximately US$2.8 billion of debt. "We are very pleased with the support of Columbia's stockholders. Today's vote is an important milestone that moves us closer to completing this acquisition and creating one of North America's leading natural gas transportation and storage companies," said Russ Girling, TransCanada's president and chief executive officer. "Columbia's assets and development projects are managed by a dedicated employee base with experience and a commitment to operating safely, and we look forward to working with them." Columbia's stockholder approval fulfills the final major closing condition for the proposed acquisition. In May 2016, TransCanada and Columbia announced other regulatory conditions necessary to close the deal had been satisfied: Specifically the early termination of the Hart-Scott-Rodino waiting period, and Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS) clearance. TransCanada and Columbia anticipate that the closing of the transaction will be effective on July 1, 2016. "This acquisition provides TransCanada with a unique opportunity to invest in a proven, growth focused company with a competitively positioned and growing network of regulated natural gas pipelines and storage assets in the Appalachian region, the fastest growing production basin in North America," added Girling. "Together, we bring greater options for our customers to get their products to markets through one of North America's largest natural gas transmission networks. Our combined $25 billion in near-term growth opportunities supports, and may augment, an expected eight to 10 per cent annual dividend growth rate for our shareholders through 2020." With more than 65 years' experience, TransCanada is a leader in the responsible development and reliable operation of North American energy infrastructure including natural gas and liquids pipelines, power generation and gas storage facilities. TransCanada operates a network of natural gas pipelines that extends more than 66,400 kilometres (41,300 miles), tapping into virtually all major gas supply basins in North America. TransCanada is one of the continent's leading provider of gas storage and related services with 368 billion cubic feet of storage capacity. A large independent power producer, TransCanada currently owns or has interests in over 10,500 megawatts of power generation in Canada and the United States. TransCanada is also the developer and operator of one of North America's leading liquids pipeline systems that extends over 4,300 kilometres (2,700 miles), connecting growing continental oil supplies to key markets and refineries. TransCanada's common shares trade on the Toronto and New York stock exchanges under the symbol TRP. Visit TransCanada.com and our blog to learn more, or connect with us on social media and 3BL Media. FORWARD LOOKING INFORMATION This publication contains certain information that is forward-looking and is subject to important risks and uncertainties (such statements are usually accompanied by words such as "anticipate", "expect", "believe", "may", "will", "should", "estimate", "intend" or other similar words). Forward-looking statements in this document are intended to provide TransCanada security holders and potential investors with information regarding TransCanada and its subsidiaries, including management's assessment of TransCanada's and its subsidiaries' future plans and financial outlook. All forward-looking statements reflect TransCanada's beliefs and assumptions based on information available at the time the statements were made and as such are not guarantees of future performance. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on this forward-looking information, which is given as of the date it is expressed in this news release, and not to use future-oriented information or financial outlooks for anything other than their intended purpose. TransCanada undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information except as required by law. For additional information on the assumptions made, and the risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ from the anticipated results, refer to TransCanada's First Quarter Report to Stockholders dated April 28, 2016 and 2015 Annual Report on our website at www.transcanada.com or filed under TransCanada's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission at www.sec.gov. Contacts: Media Enquiries: Mark Cooper / Terry Cunha / Shawn Howard 403.920.7859 or 800.608.7859 TransCanada Investor & Analyst Enquiries: David Moneta / Stuart Kampel 403.920.7911 or 800.361.6522 WATERLOO, Ontario, June 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- IGNIS Innovation Inc. ("IGNIS"), an emissive display technology company, today announced the execution of a Patent License agreement with LG Display Co., Ltd. ("LG Display"), the Seoul-based world-leading display manufacturer. Under the agreement, IGNIS will provide LG Display under a non-exclusive license, access to its circuit technology to enhance the performance of OLED displays. As recognized by the display industry leaders, circuit technology is crucial for today's AMOLED applications including TV, IT, high resolution smartphone, virtual reality, automotive and next generation printing. "Our team is excited to have LG Display, a global leader and innovator when it comes to OLED displays, as a partner," said Peter Monsberger, Chief Executive Officer of IGNIS Innovation Inc."The efforts of IGNIS over the last 10 years have been focused on circuit technology as a viable solution for material and device issues inherent in emissive displays. This effort has resulted in significant know-how and Intellectual Property being developed by IGNIS, which is available to our partners including LG Display.I am sure that the collaboration between the two companies will contribute to further expanding the rapidly growing OLED display market."Specific terms of the agreement were not disclosed because of their confidential nature. About IGNIS IGNIS Innovation Inc. is an emissive display technology company that provides total solutions for high quality emissive displays. The company is based in Waterloo, Ontario the heart of Ontario's technology corridor. With over 300 patents in the area of emissive displays, IGNIS is a leader in its field. For more information, please visithttp://www.ignisinnovation.com. About LG Display LG Display Co., Ltd. [NYSE: LPL, KRX: 034220] is the world's leading innovator of display technologies including thin-film transistor liquid crystal displays (TFT-LCD), OLEDs and flexible displays. The company manufactures and provides display panels in a broad range of sizes and specifications primarily for use in TVs, notebook computers, desktop monitors, and various other applications including tablets, mobile devices. LG Display currently operates fabrication facilities in Korea and China, and back-end assembly facilities in Korea, China, and Poland. The company has a total of approximately 49,000 employees operating worldwide. For more news and information about LG Display, please visithttp://www.lgdisplay.com. Peter Monsberger, CEO, pmonsberger@ignisinnovation.com, IGNIS Innovation Inc., 12-50 Bathurst Drive, Waterloo, Ontario, N2V 2C5, Canada, +1-519-772-1136 Ext. 252 BOSTON, MA--(Marketwired - June 22, 2016) - Charlesbank Capital Partners is pleased to announce the appointments of Joshua N. Beer and Jason W. Pike to Managing Director. Mr. Beer joined Charlesbank as an Associate in 2003, with a break to obtain an MBA at The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, returning in 2008. Mr. Pike also received his MBA from Wharton, in 2005, and joined the firm in 2012, his prior career having included both private equity and distressed credit investing. Of the appointments, Michael Eisenson, Managing Director and CEO of Charlesbank, said, "Jason and Josh each bring outstanding talent to our work, and each has demonstrated extraordinary leadership and deep commitment to our investment activity and to the firm. We are pleased to recognize their well-earned advancements and look forward to their continued contributions to the success of Charlesbank, our portfolio companies and, most importantly, our investors." Mr. Beer and Mr. Pike will help to lead Charlesbank's investment team, whose senior members have worked together, on average, for nearly 18 years. About Charlesbank Capital Partners Based in Boston and New York, Charlesbank Capital Partners is a middle-market private equity investment firm managing more than $3.5 billion of capital. Charlesbank focuses on management-led buyouts and growth capital financings, generally investing in companies with enterprise values of $150 million to $1 billion. The firm seeks to partner with strong management teams to build companies with sustainable competitive advantage and excellent prospects for growth. For more information, visit www.charlesbank.com. Image Available: http://www.marketwire.com/library/MwGo/2016/6/22/11G103875/Images/Pike-1f32ba58010b863388247bc07835a006.jpg Image Available: http://www.marketwire.com/library/MwGo/2016/6/22/11G103875/Images/Beer-ab5b3a922713a9fdb78484960a9a88dd.jpg Contact: Maura M. Turner 617-619-5457 Email contact MUNICH, June 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- EES Europe Booth B1 181 The new platform is a unique system combining battery energy storage with Power-to-Heat technology The solution targets the primary control reserve power reducing capital expenditure by 30 % and possibly more, depending on installation AEG Power Solutions, a global provider of power electronic systems and solutions for industrial power supplies and renewable energy applications, today announced it has developed a unique Hybrid Energy Storage System which combines standard battery storage with power-to-heat technology to reduce the total cost of energy storage operation. (Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160622/382313 ) The solution can be installed in any type of facility which uses thermal processes, including local heat networks in combination with an electrical distribution network. With the Hybrid Energy Storage solution from AEG PS, the power conversion system (PCS) becomes the central key element operating the power management and controls both the battery as well as the heating system. The PCS and all equipment required for grid connection (e.g. transformer and switch gear) therefore are used for both the batteries and the heater. The platform allows for all typical applications of standard battery energy storage in particular, frequency regulation; bby combining both systems, the capacity of the thermal storage adds up to the battery storage capacity. "Technically, in a stand-alone battery energy storage system, explains Andreas Becker, Product Manager at AEG Power Solutions, it's necessary to keep a battery charge stable at the 50% level in order to provide grid frequency regulation. By combining it with a power to heat system, we allow extra energy to go to the thermal process. The battery can then operate at 100% capacity." This in fact leads to dividing the battery total capacity required by almost two. Taking into account that they represent usually around 70% of an energy storage installation, the economic benefit of the innovation is obvious and the payback period of the investment is approximately 3 years faster in a primary control power market. AEG Power Solutions engineers the complete solution and provides the key components such as the power conversion hardware and the power management software. AEG PS is an innovator in energy storage and management thanks to its many decades of experience in the world of UPS, power electronics, batteries as well as international grid connection compliance. This unique combination of know-how has been leveraged to design products and solutions for energy storage. Visit AEG PS at EES Europe Booth B1 181 and on the web at: http://www.battery-energy-storage.com/ About AEG Power Solutions AEG Power Solutions (AEG PS) Group is a global provider of power electronics systems and solutions for all industrial and demanding commercial power requirements offering one of the most comprehensive product and service portfolios in the area of uninterruptible power supply and power management. Thanks to its distinctive expertise bridging both AC and DC power technologies and spanning the worlds of both conventional and renewable energy, the company creates innovative solutions for next generation distributed power generation. AEG Power Solutions Group is the sole subsidiary of the holding company 3W Power S.A. (WKN A114Z9) / ISINLU1072910919), based in Luxembourg. The Group is headquartered in Zwanenburg in the Netherlands. The shares of 3W Power are admitted to trading on Frankfurt Stock Exchange (ticker symbol: 3W9K). For more information, visit http://www.aegps.com. This communication does not constitute an offer or the solicitation of an offer to buy, sell or exchange any securities of 3W Power. This communication contains forward-looking statements which include, inter alia, statements expressing our expectations, intentions, projections, estimates, and assumptions. These forward-looking statements are based on the reasonable evaluation and opinion of the management but are subject to risks and uncertainties which are beyond the control of 3W Power and, as a general rule, difficult to predict. The management and the company cannot and do not, under any circumstances, guarantee future results or performance of 3W Power and the actual results of 3W Power may materially differ from the information expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. As a result, investors are cautioned against relying on the forward-looking statements contained herein as a basis for their investment decisions regarding 3W Power. 3W Power undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement contained herein. For further information, please contact: Claire Pairault Corporate Communications AEG Power Solutions Mobile: +33-6-19-60-91-64 Email: claire.pairault@aegps.com Andreas Becker Product Manager AEG Power Solutions Phone +49-2902-763-231 Email: andreas.becker@aegps.com HAMILTON, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 06/22/16 -- The Honourable Kirsty Duncan, Minister of Science, will announce major funding for discovery research in the natural sciences and engineering. The funds include grants to professors as well as scholarships to graduate students and postdoctoral fellows across Canada. Before the announcement, Minister Duncan will tour the lab facilities of Dr. Lesley MacNeil in the Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences. Media are asked to arrive at least 15 minutes early to sign in at the reception desk. Date: June 23, 2016 Time: Media Arrival-8:45 a.m. (ET) Lab Tour-9:00 a.m. Announcement-9:30 a.m. Location: Atrium of the Farncombe Institute Family Digestive Health Research Institute, Third Floor, Blue Section Hamilton Health Sciences Centre 1280 Main St W., Hamilton, ON Follow Minister Duncan Twitter: @ScienceMin Instagram: sciencemin Follow NSERC Twitter: @nserc_crsng Contacts: Veronique Perron Press Secretary, Minister of Science Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada 343-291-2858 veronique.perron@canada.ca Media Relations Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada 343-291-1777 ic.mediarelations-mediasrelations.ic@canada.ca Martin Leroux Media and Public Affairs Officer Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada 613-943-7618 media@nserc-crsng.gc.ca MCLEAN, VA--(Marketwired - June 22, 2016) - Vricon unveils the newest product in the Vricon Data Suite: the 0.5m resolution Digital Terrain Model (DTM), a high-resolution bare earth elevation data layer. Vricon produces its DTM using access to massive high-quality image archives and unique automated processing that provides delivery speeds far beyond traditional technologies. Vricon's mission is to build The Globe in 3D by producing photorealistic 3D products and digital elevation models with unmatched coverage and delivery timelines. "We are delighted to bring our DTM product to our government and industry users who value it for a variety of uses, such as foundation data, topographic mapping, and orthorectification," says Vricon CEO Magnus Brege. "Like our other Data Suite products, DTM provides our users with exceptional accuracy and resolution. And we anticipate that DTM will serve as a stepping-stone to our true 3D Surface Model -- from which DTM is derived -- for many of our customers." All of Vricon's Data Suite products are derived from the Vricon 3D Surface Model, the most accurate representation of earth. The DTM algorithm removes trees and man-made structures from the 3D data using automated processing and access to massive image archives. In addition to DTM, Vricon Data Suite includes the Vricon 3D Surface Model, Digital Surface Model, Point Cloud, and True Ortho. Visit Vricon's website to learn more about Vricon DTM and the entire Vricon Data Suite. About Vricon Vricon serves the global professional geospatial market with world-leading 3D geodata and 3D visualization solutions. Vricon is headquartered in McLean, Virginia. For further information, visit www.vricon.com. Vricon Media Contact Craig Brower +1 (703) 283-4588 media@vricon.com WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - With a filing deadline looming on Friday, Florida Senator Marco Rubio, R-Fla., has reversed course and announced he will run for re-election this year. Rubio had pledged not to seek re-election to the Senate when he announced his failed bid for the Republican presidential nomination. In a statement, Rubio acknowledged his frustration with the gridlock in the Senate but noted that control of the chamber may come down to the race in Florida. 'That means the future of the Supreme Court will be determined by the Florida Senate seat,' Rubio said. 'It means the future of the disastrous Iran nuclear deal will be determined by the Florida Senate seat.' 'It means the direction of our country's fiscal and economic policies will be determined by this Senate seat,' he added. 'The stakes for our nation could not be higher.' Rubio highlighted the Senate's role as a check on the power of the president and expressed concerns about both presidential candidates. The Florida Senator argued Hillary Clinton would represent four more years of the same 'failed' policies but said the prospect of a Donald Trump presidency is also worrisome. Rubio criticized Trump's offensive comments about women and minorities and said the nation will need Senators to push him in the right direction and stand up to him if necessary. While Republicans leaders have been urging Rubio to run, he said the decision was made over Father's Day weekend along with his wife and children. 'There were two paths before us,' Rubio said. 'There was one path that was more personally comfortable and probably smarter politically. 'But after much thought and prayer, together we chose to continue with public service; to continue down the path that provides the opportunity to make a positive difference at this critical and uncertain time for our nation,' he added. 'In the end, there was simply too much at stake for any other choice.' Rubio noted that his political opponents would likely use his change of heart against him, and Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Fla., quickly released a statement attacking his decision. In the statement, Murphy accused Rubio of abandoning his constituents and now treating them like a consolation prize. 'From missing the most votes of any Florida Senator in nearly 50 years, to seeking to ban abortion even in cases of rape or incest, to repeatedly voting against closing the terrorist gun loophole, Rubio is proving he is only out for himself,' Murphy said. He added, 'Florida is ready for another Senator like Bob Graham and Bill Nelson, who is committed to doing this job and who will work with people to fight for progressive values.' Ahead of Rubio's announcement, Quinnipiac University released the results of a poll showing him leading the two Democratic challengers in the Florida Senate race. The poll showed Rubio with a 47 percent to 40 percent lead over Murphy, and a 48 percent to 40 percent advantage over Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla. Murphy and Grayson are ahead of several other largely unknown candidates running for the Republican nomination. 'With Republican national leaders worried about keeping control of the U.S. Senate, Sen. Marco Rubio might ride to their rescue if he decides to reverse field and seek re-election,' said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll. 'None of the other Republican candidates for Sen. Rubio's seat has a lead over either of the two Democrats, Congressmen Patrick Murphy and Alan Grayson,' he added. 'But if Rubio's last-minute decision is to seek re-election, he could be in the driver's seat.' The Quinnipiac survey of 975 Florida voters was conducted June 8th through 19th and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points. (Photo: Gage Skidmore) Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "European Market Report for Peripheral Pulse Oximeters 2016" report to their offering. The aging European population will contribute to the increasing usage of healthcare services. Pulse oximetry, being the most common measurement in healthcare, will stand to benefit. Pulse oximetry can be used across all levels of care in hospital, alternate and home environments. Within the hospital environment, patients with respiratory and cardiac complications are continuously monitored with pulse oximeters. Measurements can also be taken at select intervals (5 to 15 minutes) depending on the condition of the patient. The level of oxygen present within the body is vital to its function. Monitoring of oxygen saturation within the body consists of measuring the percentage of hemoglobin binding sites in the bloodstream occupied by oxygen. As oxygen travels around the body it is consumed and the levels decrease. Functionality can be affected, and complications can result when cells do not have an adequate supply. Key Topics Covered: 1. European Patient Monitoring Market Overview Competitive Analysis Market Trends Market Developments Markets Included Key Report Updates 3. Country Profiles 2.1 Introduction 2.1.1.1 Population 2.1.1.2 Median Age 2.1.1.3 Gdp Per Capita 2.1.1.4 Price Index 3. Peripheral Pulse Oximeter Market 3.1 Introduction 3.1.1 Types Of Oxygen Saturation Monitoring 3.1.2 Limitations Of Pulse Oximetry 3.2 Market Overview 3.3 Market Analysis And Forecast 3.3.1 Peripheral Pulse Oximeter Monitor Market 3.3.1.1 Pulse Oximeter Bedside Monitor Market 3.3.1.2 Handheld Peripheral Pulse Oximeter Monitor Market 3.3.2 Peripheral Pulse Oximeter Sensor Market 3.3.2.1 Disposable Pulse Oximeter Sensor Market 3.3.2.2 Reusable Pulse Oximeter Sensor Market 3.3.3 Pulse Oximeter Device Board Market 3.4 Drivers And Limiters 3.4.1 Market Drivers 3.4.2 Market Limiters 3.5 Competitive Market Share Analysis Companies Mentioned Medtronic Masimo Philips Healthcare Mindray Medical GE Healthcare Nonin Medical For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/rskf77/european_market View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160622006097/en/ Contacts: Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager press@researchandmarkets.com For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call 1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 DUBLIN, June 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Aviation Analytics Market by End-User, Business Function, Application - Global Forecast to 2021" report to their offering. The aviation analytics market is projected to grow from USD 2.16 Billion in 2016 to USD 4.23 Billion by 2021, at a CAGR of 14.38% from 2016 to 2021. The market exhibits a lucrative growth potential in the coming years, primarily driven by real-time analytics and competitive intelligence. High adoption of analytics in the aviation industry help organizations reduce costs, increase profitability & revenue, and improve performance & maintenance. The market has been segmented based on application, business function, end user, and region. The APAC region is expected to exhibit the highest growth rate in the aviation analytics market, during the forecast period from 2016 to 2021. The region has been witnessing strong growth in aviation industry over the past few years, mainly driven by improvement in operational efficiency, increasing consumer expectations, and the growing pressure of reducing costs across regions. This growth can also be attributed to the increasing middle class population coupled with growth in trade and tourism in emerging countries such as India and China. The aviation industry analyses and generates insights from various data formats, such as text, video, speech, and images for their businesses. A variety of data models exist for different types of business needs. These data models are integrated with specific types of analytical solutions. The management often lack knowledge on how to analyze the varied dataset generated in order to make their strategic decisions because of the complexity involved in the entire process. Key players profiled in the aviation analytics market report include IBM Corporation (U.S.), Oracle Corporation (U.S.), SAP SE (Germany), General Electric (U.S.), SAS Institute (U.S.), Ramco International (India), Mu-Sigma (U.S.), Mercator (U.S.), Aviation Analytics (U.K.), Airport Analytics (U.K.) among others. IBM is an eminent player in the analytics market and enjoys unquestionable leading status in the analytics solutions market. It holds many analytics patents and offers various analytics solution that includes aviation analytics to meet the diverse needs of its clients. Also, Oracle Corporation has increased the adoption of cloud-based software which involves integrating its own products such as Oracle Fusion in aviation analytics market. The company intends to offer most of its product offerings through cloud-based platform in market. Scope of the Aviation Analytics Market Report This research report categorizes the aviation analytics market into the following segments and subsegments: - By Application - - Fuel Management - - Flight Risk Management - - Revenue Management - - Customer Analytics - - Navigation Services - - Inventory Management - By Business Function - - Finance - - Operations - - Maintenance & Repair - - Sales & Marketing - - Supply Chain - By End User - - Airlines - - Airports Target Audience for this Report: - Application Design and Software Developers - System Integrators - Airports, Airlines, MROs and Aircraft Manufacturers - IT Service Providers - Consulting Service Providers - Managed Service Providers - Market Research and Consulting Firms - Cloud Service Providers Companies Mentioned - Airport Analytics (AA+) - Aviation Analytics Ltd - Booz Allen Hamilton - Financial Highlights of the Major Players in the market - General Electric - IBM Corporation - MU Sigma - Mercator - Oracle Corporation - Ramco International - SAP SE - SAS Institute For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/xblwx5/aviation Media Contact: Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager press@researchandmarkets.com For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 VIENNA (dpa-AFX) - The European markets ended Wednesday's session in positive territory, extending their winning streak to 4 sessions. Investors remained in a cautious mood ahead of Thursday's U.K. referendum on whether to remain in the European Union. While recent polls have shown increased support for the 'Remain' camp, the issue remains too close to call. Insurance stocks were among the best performers Wednesday and banks extended their recent recovery. However, energy stocks reversed early gains after U.S. data showed a smaller than expected drop in inventories. Investors continued to keep an eye on the second day of testimony by Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen before the House Financial Services Committee. Yellen warned yesterday that a Brexit could have 'significant economic repercussions.' The Euro Stoxx 50 index of eurozone bluechip stocks increased 0.37 percent, while the Stoxx Europe 50 index, which includes some major U.K. companies, added 1.03 percent. The DAX of Germany climbed 0.55 percent and the CAC 40 of France rose 0.29 percent. The FTSE 100 of the U.K. gained 1.23 percent and the SMI of Switzerland finished higher by 0.46 percent. In Frankfurt, Deutsche Bank increased 2.91 percent and Commerzbank rose 1.31 percent. Utility RWE climbed 2.55 percent and peer E.ON added 0.71 percent. Fresenius Medical Care advanced 1.95 percent and Fresenius gained 1.98 percent. In Paris, Air France-KLM Group gained 1.11 percent after its pilots canceled a strike scheduled for Friday. Societe Generale increased 0.94 percent and Credit Agricole climbed 0.93 percent. BNP Paribas also finished higher by 0.64 percent. In London, mining giant Rio Tinto advanced 1.77 percent on rumors of an incoming $9 billion BHP-style spinoff. Storage company Safestore Holdings jumped 2.04 percent as broker Liberum reiterated its 'buy' rating on the stock. Department store group Debenhams sank 6.13 percent on reporting a slight drop in like-for-like sales in the 15 weeks to June 11. Barclays increased 2.00 percent and Standard Chartered rose 2.13 percent. Royal Bank of Scotland advanced 1.99 percent and HSBC gained 0.95 percent. Insurance stocks also turned in a solid performance. Old Mutual climbed 2.98 percent and Standard Life rose 2.81 percent. RSA Insurance also finished higher by 2.09 percent. Fashion retailer Hennes & Mauritz rose 1.20 percent in Stockholm after reporting a 17 percent drop in second-quarter profit. Merlin Properties Socimi climbed 3.88 percent in Madrid after it agreed to a merger with Metrovacesa. Eurozone consumer confidence deteriorated for the first time in three months in June, defying expectations for stability, preliminary data from the European Commission showed Wednesday. The flash consumer confidence index declined to -7.3 from -7 in May. Economists had expected the score to remain unchanged. Existing home sales in the U.S. sprang to their highest level in over nine years in the month of May, the National Association of Realtors revealed in a report on Wednesday. NAR said existing home sales rose by 1.8 percent to an annual rate of 5.53 million in May from a downwardly revised 5.43 million in April. Economists had expected existing home sales to climb 2.2 percent to a rate of 5.57 million from the 5.45 million originally reported for the previous month. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de SAN JOSE, CA--(Marketwired - June 22, 2016) - Omron Electronic Components is pleased to announce the new D7S Vibration Sensor at the 2016 Sensors Expo & Conference in San Jose, CA, June 22-23, 2016. The D7S is the world's smallest class size seismic sensor, and can be embedded into essentially any device. "The D7S is very tiny and can be put into anything, anywhere, and can take countermeasures directly without reliance on a network or larger system," said Engineer Kozo Moriyama, based at the company's new Creative Lab, located in San Jose, CA. These highly precise sensors help with measures to prevent secondary damages, by shutting off and stopping hazardous devices. The sensor can also determine damage and help in the restoration process via disaster map creation. This data is used to prevent damage in future earthquakes. With this new product launch, Omron is looking to expand past its traditional product-oriented scope. "Because the D7S is an IoT friendly device, our engineers are developing services to support the technology," said Ucchi Uchida, Chief Business Development Officer. "It is also our hope to partner with other technology companies, especially in Silicon Valley." A formal product introduction is soon to come. In the meantime, view our product demo and video presentation by visiting us at Sensors Expo, booth #829. Can't make the show? View more product information online: Product Page Product Brochure and Datasheet Video About Omron Electronic Components For over 80 years, Omron Electronic Components has been a leading manufacturer and provider of advanced electronic components. Extensive product groups include relays, switches, connectors, MEMS flow sensors, pressure sensors, and optical components. Omron Electronic Components is the Americas subsidiary of Omron Corporation, a $7 billion global leading supplier of electronics and control system components and services. Omron's broad product offering can be found in applications for the communications, transportation, medical, HVAC, appliance, industrial automation, consumer electronics, test and measurement, and gaming markets around the world. Omron Electronic Components has an extensive sales network consisting of regional sales professionals, inside sales representatives, technical sales assistants, customer service staff, and an authorized distributor network. Press Contact: Michael Kedzie Marketing Communications Coordinator Omron Electronic Components - Americas (847) 882-2288 The global microdisplay marketis expected grow at an impressive CAGR of 24% during the period 2016-2020, according to Technavio's latest report. In this report, Technavio covers the market outlook and growth prospects of the globalmicrodisplay marketfor 2016-2020. The report covers the entire range of microdisplay technologies and considers the revenue generated from the sales of microdisplays to the key customer segments: military, aerospace and defense; commercial; industrial; medical; law enforcement and rescue; and automobile. "The global microdisplay market will grow primarily due to the increased adoption of heads up display (HUDs) and head-mounted display (HMDs) across different sectors. The unique user experience created with the use of microdisplays is the prime factor for its adoption. Augmented reality devices use microdisplays in their projection units. These devices are mostly used in the consumer electronics, healthcare, and military and defense sectors. The popularity of Google Glass will see significant growth, which will drive the growth of the global microdisplay market," says Sunil Kumar Singh, a lead analyst at Technavio for IT professional services research. Technavio's research study segments the global microdisplay market into the following regions: Americas EMEA APAC Americas: largest market for microdisplays The microdisplay market in the Americas is expected to achieve a CAGR of over 22% during the forecast period. The Americas made a significant contribution to the market revenue because of the increasing popularity and awareness of microdisplays in the region, particularly in North America. The Americas will remain the market's largest contributor during the forecast period, with the US being the main revenue contributor. Rapid advances in technology, and an increasing number of consumers that are technologically proficient have led to the demand for microdisplays in different sectors in the region. In addition, there is a high concentration of HUD and HMD manufacturers because of the increasing demand from the military, defense, and aerospace sector in the Americas. In this sector, microdisplays are used in night vision goggles, thermal imaging devices, situational awareness devices, and rifle scopes. Ask for a sample of this report: http://goo.gl/YIKSjd EMEA: high demand from automotive sector to boost growth The microdisplay market in EMEA is expected to post a CAGR of over 20% during the forecast period. In this region, the presence of electronic device manufacturers is low, but the presence of manufacturers that operate in the automotive segment, particularly HUDs, is high. The revenue contribution from EMEA was higher than that of APAC in 2015 and 2016. However, APAC will overtake EMEA in terms of revenue contribution from 2017 onward primarily because of the increased concentration of the vendors operating across the microdisplay value chain in APAC. With the standardization of this technology and the increasing awareness about the uses of microdisplays, the adoption of this technology in the emerging markets of North Africa, Nigeria, and Sub-Saharan Africa will boost the market during the forecast period. The UAE, the UK, Germany, and Turkey, too, will contribute to market growth during the forecast period. APAC: fastest growing market for microdisplays The microdisplay market in APAC will grow at a CAGR of approximately 32% during the forecast period. The advances in terms of technological adoption and changing consumer behavior in countries such as South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, and China has resulted in the increased demand for microdisplays in the region. The majority of the growth will come from countries such as South Korea, Japan, and China, mainly because of the increased adoption of microdisplay devices in the consumer electronics sector in these countries. In addition, the decline in the ASPs and the increased presence of electronics manufacturers in APAC will fuel the growth of the global microdisplay market. "The availability of low-cost skilled labor is another major factor that will contribute to the market growth in APAC," says Sunil. The top vendors in the global microdisplay market highlighted in the report are: AU Optronics eMagin Kopin Universal Display Browse Related Reports: Global MEMS Microdisplay Market 2015-2019 Global Optical MEMS Market 2015-2019 Global Microfluidic Market for Healthcare Application 2016-2020 Do you need a report on a market in a specific geographical cluster or country but can't find what you're looking for? Don't worry, Technavio also takes client requests. Please contact enquiry@technavio.com with your requirements and our analysts will be happy to create a customized report just for you. About Technavio Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. The company develops over 2000 pieces of research every year, covering more than 500 technologies across 80 countries. Technavio has about 300 analysts globally who specialize in customized consulting and business research assignments across the latest leading edge technologies. Technavio analysts employ primary as well as secondary research techniques to ascertain the size and vendor landscape in a range of markets. Analysts obtain information using a combination of bottom-up and top-down approaches, besides using in-house market modeling tools and proprietary databases. They corroborate this data with the data obtained from various market participants and stakeholders across the value chain, including vendors, service providers, distributors, re-sellers, and end-users. If you are interested in more information, please contact our media team at media@technavio.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160622005031/en/ Contacts: Technavio Research Jesse Maida Media Marketing Executive US: +1 630 333 9501 UK: +44 208 123 1770 www.technavio.com LAS VEGAS, NV -- (Marketwired) -- 06/22/16 -- As hemp legalization continues to make major inroads in the industrial hemp industry across America, Hemp, Inc. (OTC PINK: HEMP) is pleased to report that Rhode Island's legislature has passed a bill to "legalize the production and processing of industrial hemp for commercial purposes in the state." According to the Rhode Island General Assembly, HB 8232, which may also be cited as Rhode Island's "Hemp Growth Act", would take effect on January 1, 2017 and would permit the growth of hemp by properly licensed individuals that have applied and met the requirements and would also allow higher educational institutions to grow hemp for educational and research purposes pending approval from the Department of Health. In an article posted by The Tenth Amendment Center, the bill was initially introduced on May 19, 2016 as legislation that "would have allowed state-licensed representatives of the Narragansett Indian Tribe to produce, possess, distribute, and commercially trade industrial hemp. In a rapid series of events, the bill was amended in the House Committee of Health Education and Welfare to apply to everybody. On June 17, the House passed the amended bill 71-0. The Senate concurred the next day by a 26-7 margin." Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo will either sign or veto the bill. As with North Carolina, if she doesn't act, the bill will become law without her signature. Many believe this law is yet another stepping stone in nullifying federal prohibition of hemp. Bruce Perlowin, CEO of Hemp, Inc. (OTC PINK: HEMP), said, "Yesterday, it was New York. Today, it's Rhode Island. This shows the hemp revolution is unstoppable and relentless. More and more states are realizing how important hemp is to the American culture with its amazing economic benefits as demand for hemp in the marketplace continue to grow by leaps and bounds." The Hemp Grow Act would prohibit Rhode Island's Business Regulation department from adopting any rules prohibiting a person or entity from growing or distributing hemp based on the legal status of hemp under federal law. While specific language in the bill acknowledges federal prohibition on hemp, the language also asserts that the state can legally dictate its own policy notwithstanding federal law. Hemp, Inc.'s press release yesterday reported on New York's passage of Bill (A9310/S6960). This bill would allow for the "transportation, processing, sale, and distribution of industrial hemp" as part of the State's research pilot program. The first half of 2016 has been amazing. In January, with a unanimous approval in both chambers of legislature, Nevada made it legal to cultivate hemp under current federal guidelines. Virginia House of Delegates passed a bill to authorize the farming and production of industrial hemp in the state for commercial purposes with a 98-0 vote. Kansas' Senate Bill 147 would legalize hemp oil for treating seizure disorders. In Maine, a new law authorizes individuals and businesses to engage in the farming, production, and commerce of hemp in Maine. In February, South Dakota House of Representatives approved a bill that would allow the cultivation of industrial hemp in the state of South Dakota. In March, Hawaii passed a bill "that would allow the state Department of Agriculture to create pilot research programs for industrial hemp are moving through both chambers of the state Legislature." In Oregon's 2016 legislative session, lawmakers passed agriculture-related bills which included allowing growers to cultivate hemp in greenhouses and "propagate it from cuttings under House Bill 4060, which eliminates the requirement that the crop be directly seeded in fields of at least 2.5 acres." In Washington, state legislature also passed a bill that would allow licensed growers to produce industrial hemp in Washington as part of a research program. Pennsylvania Senate voted 49-0, a unanimous vote, in favor of industrial hemp to provide for an industrial hemp cultivation pilot program in the Commonwealth through the establishment of an Industrial Hemp Licensing Board within Pennsylvania's Department of Agriculture. In April, Missouri's House of Representatives passed industrial hemp bill HB 2038 which is set to legalize and regulate the cultivation of industrial hemp in the state of Missouri. Alabama House and Senate passed an industrial hemp bill that would authorize the Department of Agriculture and Industries to administer an industrial hemp research program. Louisiana's House Agriculture Committee approved two bills to the House floor, HB1085 and HB1099 which authorizes institutions of higher education to develop a pilot program to study the growth, cultivation or marketing of industrial hemp for agricultural or academic research. Hemp, Inc. also reached a few milestones. The company had announced its first Kenaf harvest from its wholly owned subsidiary, Industrial Hemp Manufacturing, LLC, in Spring Hope, North Carolina. One hundred fifty acres of Kenaf were cut, raked, baled and transported to Hemp, Inc.'s 70,000 square foot industrial hemp processing facility where it was weighed, stored and paid for. It went from seed, to harvest, to paying the farmers. With the company's 150-acre Kenaf crop, it was able to inject revenue into the local farming community. Hemp, Inc.'s 70,000 square foot multipurpose industrial hemp processing plant is in its final stages of completion. Spread over 9 acres, the processing facility makes up the central spoke of our North Carolina Hemp Hub. To see video footage of America's largest commercial hemp processing facility click here. ABOUT THE NATIONAL HEMP ASSOCIATION The National Hemp Association is a Colorado-based 501(c)6 trade association that supports the growth and development of all aspects of the emerging industrial hemp industry. NHA members include hemp farmers, processors, manufacturers, researchers, policy makers, elected and appointed officials, investors, and citizens who are in favor of the re-birth of industrial hemp as a major U.S. cash crop and sustainable agricultural commodity. Industrial hemp can provide significant jobs for farmers and small businesses and stimulate economic development for every state in the U.S. More information at: (303) 413-8066 and www.NationalHempAssociation.org or to become a member of the NHA, click here. SUBSCRIBE TO HEMP, INC.'S VIDEO UPDATES "Hemp, Inc. Presents" is capturing the historic, monumental re-creation of the hemp decorticator today as America begins to evolve into a cleaner, green, eco-friendly sustainable environment. What many see as the next American Industrial Revolution is actually the Industrial Hemp Revolution. Join "Hemp, Inc. Presents" and join the hemp revolution. Watch as Hemp, Inc., the #1 leader in the industrial hemp industry, engages its shareholders and the public through each step in bringing back the hemp decorticator as described in the "Freedom Leaf Magazine" article "The Return of the Hemp Decorticator" by Steve Bloom. Freedom Leaf Magazine, a leading cannabis industry magazine is published by the public company, Freedom Leaf Magazine, Inc. "Hemp, Inc. Presents" is accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, by visiting www.hempinc.com. To subscribe to the "Hemp, Inc. Presents" YouTube channel, be sure to click the subscribe button. Subscribers will automatically get an email from YouTube every time a new Hemp, Inc. video update is posted along with suggestions of other similar videos. Stay up-to-date with the progress of Hemp, Inc.'s multipurpose industrial hemp processing plant while being educated on the industrial hemp industry. Our video update views are collectively reaching over a thousand views per week. Stay informed by subscribing to Hemp, Inc.'s video updates. Hemp, Inc. is positioning itself to be the avant-garde of the industrial hemp industry and processing industrial hemp. HEMP NATION MAGAZINE HempNationMagazine.com (HNM) is published by Hemp, Inc. and focuses on informing, educating, raising awareness and connecting the public to the powerful world of HEMP. HNM reports on Politics, Industrial Growth, Banking, Distribution, Medical, Lifestyles and Legalization. HNM is your source for all things HEMP and news about this emerging multi-billion-dollar industry. For more information on HNM, visit www.HempNationMagazine.com. ABOUT INDUSTRIAL HEMP Hemp is a durable natural fiber that is grown as a renewable source for raw materials that can be incorporated into thousands of products. It's one of the oldest domesticated crops known to man. Hemp is used as a nutritional food product for humans and pets, building materials, paper, textiles, cordage, organic body care and other nutraceuticals, just to name a few. It has thousands of other known uses. A hemp crop requires half the water alfalfa uses and can be grown without the heavy use of pesticides. Farmers worldwide grow hemp commercially for fiber, seed, and oil for use in a variety of industrial and consumer products. The United States is the only developed nation that fails to cultivate industrial hemp as an economic crop on a large scale, according to the Congressional Resource Service. However, with rapidly changing laws and more states gravitating towards industrial hemp and passing an industrial hemp bill, that could change. Currently, the majority of hemp sold in the United States is imported from China and Canada, the world's largest exporters of the industrial hemp crop. HEMP, INC.'S TRIPLE BOTTOM LINE Hemp, Inc. (OTC PINK: HEMP) seeks to benefit many constituencies from a "Cultural Creative" perspective, thereby not exploiting or endangering any group. CEO of Hemp, Inc., Bruce Perlowin, is positioning the company as a leader in the industrial hemp industry, with a social and environmental mission at its core. Thus, the publicly traded company believes in "up streaming" a portion of its profits back to its originator, in which some cases will one day be the American small farmer -- cultivating natural, sustainable products as an interwoven piece of nature. By Hemp, Inc. focusing on comprehensive investment results -- that is, with respect to performance along the interrelated dimensions of people, planet, and profits -- the triple bottom line approach can be an important tool to support its sustainability goal. SOCIAL NETWORKS: http://www.twitter.com/hempinc (Twitter) http://www.facebook.com/hempinc (Facebook) SAFE HARBOR ACT Forward-Looking Statements are included within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All statements regarding our expected future financial position, results of operations, cash flows, financing plans, business strategy, products and services, competitive positions, growth opportunities, plans and objectives of management for future operations, including words such as "anticipate," "if," "believe," "plan," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "could," "should," "will," and other similar expressions are forward-looking statements and involve risks, uncertainties and contingencies, many of which are beyond our control, which may cause actual results, performance, or achievements to differ materially from anticipated results, performance, or achievements. We are under no obligation to (and expressly disclaim any such obligation to) update or alter our forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Hemp, Inc. (855) HEMP-OUT info@hempinc.com http://www.hempinc.com For Investor Relations, please send correspondence to: ir@hempinc.com Regulatory News: Pursuant to Article L. 225-209 et seq of the French Commercial Code, and Article L. 451-3 of the French Monetary as well as Financial Code and Articles 241-1 et seq. of the General Regulation of the French financial markets authority (AMF- Autorite des Marches Financiers), this overview contains information on the objectives and terms of the Publicis Groupe SA [Euronext Paris: FR0000130577, CAC 40] (Paris:PUB) share buyback program in accordance with the authorization granted by shareholders under the 18th resolution adopted at their Combined General Meeting of May 25, 2016. Issuer: PUBLICIS GROUPE SA, a French corporation with a Management Board and a Supervisory Board, with share capital of 89,228,060 euros and its principal office at 133 Avenue des Champs Elysees, 75008 Paris, France, registered with the Paris Trade and Companies Registry under number 542,080,601 (the Company). Stock Exchange: Euronext Paris; ISIN: FR0000130577. Number of shares and fraction of capital held directly or indirectly by the issuer As of May 31st, 2016, the company's capital was made up of 223,070,150 shares of which 935,342 were held by Publicis Groupe SA, representing 0.42% of its capital. Allocation of equity held on May 31, 2016 according to objectives 86,000 shares for encouraging the secondary market or liquidity of Publicis shares pursuant to a liquidity agreement compliant with the AMAFI's Charte de deontologie approved by the AMF; 23,328 shares allocated for payments or exchanges in connection with external growth transactions and; 826,014 shares allocated to allow allotment or sale of shares to employees and/or corporate officers of the Company and/or its Group. Characteristics of the 2016-2017 share buyback program Buyback program objectives The objectives of the program authorized by shareholders at their General Meeting of May 25, 2016 (18th resolution) are as follows: Allotting or selling shares to employees and/or corporate officers of the Company and/or of its Group, in accordance with the requirements and procedures prescribed by applicable statutes and regulations, in particular as part of a plan for sharing in the Company's expansion, by allotting free shares or granting stock options, or through company savings plans or inter-company savings plans, or by any other method of compensation in shares; Delivering shares to honor obligations in connection with instruments or securities that may confer entitlement to equity rights, whether by redemption, conversion, exchange, presentation of a warrant or by any other means; Conserving and subsequently delivering shares (as a means of exchange in merger or spin-off transactions or as a contribution, as payment in the case of external growth transactions where the practice is authorized by the French market authority (AMF Autorite des marches financiers), inter alia) within the limit of 5% of share capital; Encouraging the secondary market or liquidity of Publicis shares through the intermediary of an investment services provider acting in the name and on behalf of the Company in complete independence and without being influenced by the Company, pursuant to a liquidity agreement complying with the code of ethics recognized by the aforesaid French market authority (AMF) or any other applicable provision; Cancelling shares thus acquired, in accordance with legal provisions in force, and pursuant to authorization granted by an extraordinary general shareholders' meeting; or Carrying out any transaction authorized by regulations in force, now or in the future, in particular within the framework of a market practice that is currently permissible or that may be permitted in the future by the French market authority (AMF). This program is also intended to enable the Company to trade in its own shares for any other purpose that is currently authorized or may be authorized in the future by the laws and regulations in force. In such case, the Company shall inform its shareholders by issuing a press release. Maximum number of shares that may be acquired The maximum number of shares that can be purchased must not at any time exceed 10% of the shares making up the share capital. This percentage shall apply to the share capital as adjusted to reflect transactions affecting the share capital carried out subsequent to this shareholders' meeting. The total maximum amount of this authorization is set at two billion two million eight hundred sixty-six thousand six hundred and sixty euros (2,002,866,660). Pursuant to the provisions of Article L. 225-209 of the French Commercial Code, when shares are redeemed to promote liquidity in accordance with the requirements of the general regulations of the French financial market authority (AMF), the number of shares taken into account to calculate the 10% limit is equal to the number of shares purchased, less the number of shares resold during the authorization period. Maximum purchase price The maximum unit purchase price shall be ninety euros ( 90), excluding costs. However, this price shall not apply to share redemptions used to enable the Company to allot free shares to employees or to comply with its obligations when options are exercised. In the event of a change in the par value of shares, a capital increase carried out by capitalizing shares, an allotment of free shares, a stock split or reverse stock split, the distribution of reserves or any other assets, a capital redemption or any other transaction having an impact on shareholders' equity, the purchase price may be adjusted in order to take into account the impact of such transactions on the share price. Redemption terms and conditions The Company shall be entitled to purchase its own shares, and sell or transfer shares redeemed, in one or more transactions, at any time and by any means authorized by the regulations in force, or that may come into force in the future, on regulated stock markets, multilateral trading facilities (MTFs), through systematic internalizers or over the counter, and notably by buying or selling blocks of shares (without limitation on the portion of the program that may be carried out in block transactions), sale and repurchase agreements, through takeover bids or securities exchange bids, by using option mechanisms, derivative financial instruments, warrants or, more generally, securities granting entitlement to shares in the Company. The Company may also be entitled to hold and/or cancel shares redeemed subject to authorization by an extraordinary general shareholders' meeting, in compliance with applicable regulations. According to the 17th resolution adopted by shareholders at their General Meeting of May 27, 2015, shareholders authorized the Management Board, for a period of 26 months, to reduce the capital should the need arise, by cancelling, in one or more transactions, of up to a maximum of 10% of share capital as authorized by law (it being specified that said maximum applies to the Company's stated capital as adjusted, if applicable, to account for transactions with an impact on stated capital that are carried out after the date of this shareholders' meeting) for each twenty-four month period, of all or part of Publicis Groupe SA shares acquired within the framework of the share buyback programs authorized by the general shareholders' meeting. Program term The program was authorized for a period of eighteen (18) months as from May 25, 2016, i.e., until November 24, 2017. *** The text of the overview of share buyback program authorized by shareholders at their Combined Ordinary and Extraordinary General Meeting of May 25, 2016 is a free translation from the French language and is supplied solely for information purposes. Only the original version in the French language has legal force. About Publicis Groupe The Power of One Publicis Groupe [Euronext Paris FR0000130577, CAC 40] is a global leader in marketing, communication, and digital transformation. Active across the entire value chain, from consulting to creation, and production, Publicis Groupe offers its clients a transversal, unified and fluid model allowing them access to all the Groupe's tools and expertise around the world. Publicis Groupe is organized across four Solutions hubs: Publicis Communications, Publicis Media, Publicis.Sapient and Publicis Health. These 4 Solutions hubs operate across principal markets, and are carried across all others by Publicis One. Publicis One is a fully-integrated services offering making the Groupe's expertise available to all clients, under one roof. Present in over 100 countries, Publicis Groupe employs nearly 80 000 professionals. www.publicisgroupe.com | Twitter:@PublicisGroupe Facebook: www.facebook.com/publicisgroupe | LinkedIn: Publicis Groupe http://www.youtube.com/user/PublicisGroupe | Viva la Difference! View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160622006151/en/ Contacts: Publicis Groupe Peggy Nahmany, 33 (0)1 44 43 72 83 peggy.nahmany@publicisgroupe.com Corporate Communications or Jean-Michel Bonamy, 33 (0)1 44 43 77 88 jean-michel.bonamy@publicisgroupe.com Investor Relations or Chi-Chung Lo, 33 (0)1 44 43 66 69 chi-chung.lo@publicisgroupe.com Investor Relations BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - The Swiss stock market ended Wednesday's session with a modest increase, extending its gains from the previous 3 sessions. The market dropped into the red in early trade, but stabilized around midday. The positive opening of the U.S. markets drove the Swiss market higher in the afternoon. Investors were in a cautious mood ahead of Thursday's U.K. referendum on whether it will remain a member of the European Union. While recent polls have shown increased support for the 'Remain' camp, the issue remains too close to call. The Swiss Market Index increased 0.46 percent Wednesday and finished at 7,972.14. The Swiss Leader Index climbed 0.67 percent and the Swiss Performance Index added 0.39 percent. The financial stocks turned in another solid performance Wednesday. Credit Suisse advanced 2.2 percent and UBS climbed 1.6 percent. Julius Baer rose 1.4 percent after an upgrade by Citigroup to 'Buy.' Zurich Insurance increased 2.0 percent after Merrill Lynch upgraded its rating on the stock to 'Buy' from 'Neutral.' Swiss Re also added 1.1 percent. Schindler gained 0.6 percent after it was upgraded by RBC Capital Markets to 'Sector Perform' from 'Underperform.' Dufry increased and SGS both increased 1.3 percent, while Adecco gained 1.1 percent. The pharma heavyweights finished the session in the green. Novartis climbed 0.7 percent and Roche added 0.1 percent. However, Nestle finished with a loss of 0.2 percent. The luxury good companies recovered some ground after yesterday's pull back on watch export data. Richemont gained 0.9 percent and Swatch rose 0.1 percent. LafargeHolcim rose 1.4 percent as it defends itself against allegations related to its cement plant in Syria. French newspaper 'Le Monde' accused the company of entering into arrangements with the Islamic State. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. LONDON, June 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --Chubb today announced that Jeremy Miles, Head of Distribution for UK and Ireland, has been promoted to the role of Senior Vice President, Personal Risk Services, Europe. Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160121/324916LOGO In this role, Jeremy will have responsibility for the performance of the company's high net worth personal lines business in Europe and its further development and expansion into new markets within the region. Jeremy has 32 years of insurance industry experience, including over 20 at Chubb. Before assuming his current role in January 2016, Jeremy served as UK and Ireland Manager for legacy Chubb. Prior to this, he served as the company's London Manager and as Specialty Insurance Manager. Jeremy joined Chubb in 1996 as a senior executive protection underwriter and he has held several underwriting and broking positions within financial lines during his extensive career. The appointment is effective immediately. Jeremy will join Chubb's European executive committee and will continue to be based in London, reporting to Jalil Rehman, Executive Vice President and Chief Business Operations Officer, Europe with a matrix reporting line to Darryl Page, Vice President, Chubb Group and Division President, International Personal Lines. Jeremy assumes the European responsibilities of Simon Mobey, who has decided to leave the company. Jalil Rehman, Executive Vice President and Chief Business Operations Officer, Europe, said: "I am thrilled to welcome such a seasoned insurance professional as Jeremy to this important role for Chubb. Gained over more than three decades, Jeremy's mix of underwriting and sales experience, combined with his strong broker and market relationships, will be great assets for the business. "Delivering a superior insurance proposition and exceptional claims service for our high net worth clients remain our top priorities and, under Jeremy's leadership, this strategy remains in safe hands. Together with our highly experienced team of personal lines specialists, Jeremy will also ensure that we work even more closely with our broker partners to create new opportunities for mutual growth, including expansion into new markets such as Switzerland and Monaco. "Simon leaves with our sincere thanks for his contribution over the past two decades and our very best wishes for the future." About Chubb Chubb is the world's largest publicly traded property and casualty insurance company. With operations in 54 countries, Chubb provides commercial and personal property and casualty insurance, personal accident and supplemental health insurance, reinsurance and life insurance to a diverse group of clients. The company is distinguished by its extensive product and service offerings, broad distribution capabilities, exceptional financial strength, underwriting excellence, superior claims handling expertise and local operations globally. Parent company Chubb Limited is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: CB) and is a component of the S&P 500 index. Chubb maintains executive offices in Zurich, New York, London and other locations, and employs approximately 31,000 people worldwide. Additional information can be found at: new.chubb.com WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The Colombian government and the country's largest rebel group, Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia or FARC, said Wednesday that they had agreed to a cease-fire, clearing a major hurdle in the effort to end 50 years of war. In a joint statement, the two sides said that they had overcome some of the most intractable parts of a peace deal, which they have been negotiating since 2012. In addition to a cease-fire the rebels also agreed to lay down their arms. The ceasefire agreement will be signed Thursday in Havana by Colombia's president Juan Manuel Santos and Timoleon 'Timochenko' Jimenez, a top commander for the FARC. The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, announced he would also be present to witness the signing of the deal. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. LIMASSOL, Cyprus, June 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The Company Also Protects Clients From Potential High Volatility Risks Ahead of Brexit Vote by Hiking Margin Requirements for GBP and EUR Currency Pairs Leading Limassol, Cyprus-headquartered online ECN foreign exchange (Forex) broker Vipro Markets has surprised Clients and the $5 trillion Forex market by announcing it will not charge commissions on all FX pairs during the Brexit week. Vipro Markets is a destination broker for some of the most sophisticated retail and institutional traders who generate large trading volume. Therefore any commission reduction or outright removal translates into thousands of dollars of immediate savings for such traders. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160523/806389 ) Vipro CEO Valerijus Ovsianikas comments: "Vipro Markets has always had a mission to help our Clients succeed in trading. I believe that by offering commission-free trading during the Brexit week our Clients can cost-effectively improve their profitability whether they are active traders or hedgers." Ovsianikas continues, "Our standard round trip ECN trading commission of just $4 per standard lot of $100,000 is already the lowest in the FX industry. By removing the trading commission in full for the Brexit week we give our Clients a competitive advantage not offered by other retail FX brokers." The Company has also announced it has lowered the leverage on all GBP and EUR currency pairs as well as the UK100 stock index CFD for the same Brexit referendum week timeframe. The referendum is widely considered to be a high impact event for financial markets resulting most likely in higher volatility, potential price gaps/spikes, lack of liquidity, widened spreads and other unexpected market movements. The margin requirement change will affect both new and existing orders of Company Clients. The standard leverage rates will be reduced until market close on June 24 as follows: All GBP pairs standard leverage lowered from 1:500 to 1:25 (4% margin requirement) All EUR pairs standard leverage lowered from 1:500 to 1:100 (1% margin requirement) UK100 index standard leverage lowered from 1:100 to 1:20 (5% margin requirement) The Forex market's daily volume is around $5 trillion and major currencies such as the Euro and British pound rarely move more than 1% on a daily basis. However, many top tier banks providing liquidity to the interbank Forex market and also Vipro Markets have estimated that GBP crosses could move as much as 10% should Britain vote to leave the European Union. Vipro CEO Valerijus Ovsianikas comments: "Vipro Markets has taken this unprecedented approach of lowering the standard leverage to protect our valued Clients from possible extreme market moves and therefore potential losses during Brexit week. Most small and medium size retail Forex traders use leverage of 1:100 to 1:500 which means a $1 million account could control a massive $100 million trading position. Such an account could be completely wiped out with just a 1% negative move in the underlying market. I believe our precaution to lower the maximum leverage will help our Clients weather the storm and exploit any emerging trading opportunities once the Brexit vote has passed and markets gradually return to normal trading conditions." Ovsianikas adds: "Having been almost 20 years in the FX industry I believe the Brexit vote can result in extreme market moves similar to what we saw during the referendum on Scottish independence on September 18, 2014 and also the EUR/CHF Flash Crash that shocked the financial markets on January 15, 2015. We generally recommend that our Clients preemptively lower their risks during such high impact events as the outcomes and possible market directions are hard to predict and protect against. Having said that, should our Clients wish to trade during Brexit week then we are 100% committed to deliver uniquely robust, reliable and low-latency quality trade execution." Vipro Markets focuses primarily on providing trading services in Forex and also CFDs based on global stock indices such as the DAX30, SP500, Nikkei 225 and others. The average spread on the most traded EUR/USD currency pair is 0.3 pips and the average execution speed is 200 milliseconds. The Company is also very pleased to offer one of the industry's lowest average spreads on WTI crude oil and precious metals including gold and silver. Vipro Markets uses state-of-the-art trading infrastructure with key trading servers located at Equinix LD4 data center in London and synchronized backup systems in New York. The Company's trading infrastructure can execute extremely high volume of trades simultaneously with high speed and accuracy. Vipro operates a full STP (straight through processing) and NDD (no dealing desk) business model in accordance with its Investment Firm licence. This means all client trades and risk are automatically passed along to liquidity providers. The Company therefore has no conflict of interest with its clients and generates income solely from commissions and spreads. About Vipro Markets: Headquartered in Limassol, Vipro Markets Ltd is a global full STP ECN broker authorized and regulated by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) with licence number 278/15. The Company has distinguished itself among ECN Forex brokers by providing top-notch trading services with low average spreads, industry-lowest ECN commissions and ultra-fast execution though its state-of-the-art London trading servers. Vipro Markets clients can trade FX, precious metals, WTI crude oil and many global stock indices through PC, Mac, iPad/iPhone and Android devices. Trading in derivative financial instruments may not be suitable for everyone and we therefore advise clients to make themselves familiar with all the risks involved. Please review the Vipro Markets Client Agreement and other legal documentation available from Vipro Markets website before entering into any transaction with us. For further information, visit https://www.vipromarkets.com or contact Vipro Markets on: +357 25247650. Watson Health Medical Imaging Collaborative Attracts Sixteen Leading Health Systems, Academic Medical Centers, Radiology Providers and Imaging Technology Companies CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts, June 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced it has formed a Watson Health medical imaging collaborative, a global initiative comprised of more than fifteen leading health systems, academic medical centers, ambulatory radiology providers and imaging technology companies. The collaborative aims to bring cognitive imaging into daily practice to help doctors address breast, lung, and other cancers; diabetes; eye health; brain disease; and heart disease and related conditions, such as stroke. Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20090416/IBMLOGO Members of the collaborative plan to put Watson to work to extract insights from previously 'invisible' unstructured imaging data and combine that with a broad variety of data from other sources. In doing so, the efforts may help physicians make personalized care decisions relevant to a specific patient while building a body of knowledge to benefit broader patient populations. This information may include data from electronic health records, radiology and pathology reports, lab results, doctors' progress notes, medical journals, clinical care guidelines and published outcomes studies. Foundational members for the collaborative include Agfa HealthCare, Anne Arundel Medical Center, Baptist Health South Florida, Eastern Virginia Medical School, Hologic, Inc., ifa systems AG, inoveon, Radiology Associates of South Florida, Sentara Healthcare, Sheridan Healthcare, Topcon, UC San Diego Health, University of Miami Health System, University of Vermont Health Network and vRad, a MEDNAX (NYSE: MD) company as well as Merge Healthcare, an IBM company. As the work of the collaborative evolves Watson's rationale and insights will evolve, informed by the latest combined wisdom of these organizations. Initial plans include training Watson and evaluating potential new offerings in a variety of patient care environments ranging from stand-alone ambulatory settings to integrated health delivery networks. The aim in doing so is to gather data based on diverse real-world experience and to share findings to inform how the medical community might reduce operational and financial inefficiencies, improve physician workflows, and adopt a patient-focused approach to improving patient care and outcomes. Further, medical experts could determine how to integrate Watson into the existing health IT systems of the imaging technology companies in the collaborative. For example, integrating with electronic health records and PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication Systems) to deliver cognitive insights to providers within existing clinical workflows. "There is strong potential for systems like Watson to help to make radiologists more productive, diagnoses more accurate, decisions more sound, and costs more manageable," said Nadim Michel Daher, a medical imaging and informatics analyst for Frost & Sullivan. "This is the type of collaborative initiative needed to produce the real-world evidence and examples to advance the field of medical imaging and address patient care needs across large and growing disease states." Recent studies reveal that inadequate, unnecessary, uncoordinated, and inefficient care and suboptimal business processes eat up at least 35%-and maybe over 50%-of the more than $3 trillion the United States spends annually on healthcare. That suggests more than $1 trillion is being squandered.1 Watson Health aims to help healthcare professionals improve care and reduce waste by enabling enhanced utilization of medical imaging data and providing cognitive offerings and services that support a doctor's ability to make tailored medical recommendations personalized to each patient's unique needs. "With the ability to draw insights from massive volumes of integrated structured and unstructured data sources, cognitive computing could transform how clinicians diagnose, treat and monitor patients," said Anne Le Grand, who recently joined IBM as vice president of Imaging for Watson Health. Ms. Le Grand brings more than 30 years' experience building global businesses that operate at the intersection of imaging, informatics, diagnostics and professional services. "Through IBM's medical imaging collaborative, Watson may create opportunities for clinicians to extract greater insights and value from imaging data while better managing costs." How Watson's Ability to Analyze Image Data Could Transform Care Members of the collaborative are expected to team with Watson Health cognitive computing experts to train Watson on cardiovascular disease, eye health and other conditions using data provided by the members of the collaborative or from population-based disease registries, which house millions of de-identified cases from around the world. To help create new solutions powered by Watson, the industry members of the collaborative could integrate Watson into their workflow systems or image management software. For example, members of the collaborative could train Watson to detect cardiovascular disease early and identify commonly overlooked heart health conditions such as congestive heart failure or myocardial infarction (heart attack). For early disease detection, Watson could be trained to analyze and 'score' a coronary angiogram (a video image of a beating heart) for physician review. This score, commonly known as a SYNTAX score, is one factor used by physicians to decide to refer a patient with coronary artery disease to a minimally invasive stent procedure or a coronary artery bypass graft procedure. In regard to commonly overlooked heart conditions, Watson could be trained to identify congestive heart failure early by 'learning' how patients' hearts are likely to start failing and then monitoring disease progression. Further, Watson could aid physicians in discerning chest pain likely to indicate a future heart attack from chest pain related to a different health condition. Chest pain is a leading reason people visit a hospital emergency room each year, yet of the estimated 7 million people with chest pain who make it to an ER2 as much as 2% may suffer a heart attack at home after a hospital discharge because signs of imminent heart attack were missed3. Eye health is another area of focus for the collaborative. Members involved in this work may undertake projects to develop an evidence-based clinical decision support system for ophthalmologists and optometrists. For example, offerings could take the form of an online tool for eye clinics and ophthalmic practices that enables early detection and monitoring of common eye diseases among high-risk patient populations, such as detecting diabetic retinopathy among people with pre-diabetes or diabetes and people with obesity or heart disease. The Watson Health medical imaging collaborative furthers IBM's commitment to work in close concert with healthcare professionals to develop offerings for the medical community. Watson for Oncology and Watson Clinic Trial Matching are examples of this approach, as are relationships with the American Cancer Society, American Diabetes Association and American Heart Association. IBM will open the first Watson Health European Center of Excellence in Milan near the Human Technopole Italy 2040 research campus, supporting the government of Italy's initiative to establish an international hub for the advancement of genomics, big data, aging, and nutrition. About IBM Watson Health Watson is the first commercially available cognitive computing capability representing a new era in computing. The system, delivered through the cloud, analyzes high volumes of data, understands complex questions posed in natural language, and proposes evidence-based answers. Watson continuously learns, gaining in value and knowledge over time, from previous interactions. In April 2015, the company launched IBM Watson Health and the Watson Health Cloud platform. The new unit will help improve the ability of doctors, researchers and insurers to innovate by surfacing insights from the massive amount of personal health data being created and shared daily. The Watson Health Cloud will allow this information to be de-identified, shared and combined with a dynamic and constantly growing aggregated view of clinical, research and social health data. For more information on IBM Watson, visit: ibm.com/watson. For more information on IBM Watson Health, visit: ibm.com/watsonhealth. Check out the IBM Watson press kit at: http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/presskit/27297.wss. Join the conversation at ibmwatson and watsonhealth. Follow Watson on Facebook and see Watson on YouTube and Flickr. Media Contact Lorie Fiber IBM Communications Phone: 646-318-0575 E-mail: lfiber@us.ibm.com 1 https://hbr.org/2016/07/the-case-for-capitation (July/August 2016 issue) 2 Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. "Many people in emergency department for chest pain don't need admitted." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 18 May 2015. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/05/150518121155.htm. 3 Pope J.H., Aufderheide T.P., Ruthazer R., et al;Missed diagnoses of acute cardiac ischemia in the emergency department.NEngl J Med. 2000;342:1163-1170. DUBLIN, June 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Fish Processing Market by Category (Frozen, Preserved, Others), Species (Fish, Crustaceans, Mollusks, Others), Application (Food & Non-food), Source (Marine & Inland), Equipment, and by Region - Global Forecast to 2021" report to their offering. The global market for fish processing has been growing steadily during the last few decades. In terms of value, the market is projected to reach USD 222.71 Billion by 2021, at a CAGR of 3.8% from 2016 to 2021 and is projected to reach 37,194.98 KT in terms of volume by 2021, at a CAGR of 2.2%. The fish processing market was dominated by the Asia-Pacific region in 2015. It is projected to be the fastest-growing market from 2016 to 2021. Economic growth and the shift of the preferences of the consumers toward value-added processed fish products have led to the market growth in this region. In Europe, countries such as Germany, U.K., France, Italy, Portugal, and Poland have shown increment in the capture rate of marine fish catering to the increased demand for processed fish products. The increasing prices of raw materials are adversely affecting the fish processing industry. The raw materials used in fish processing are a variety of fishes and other marine products. The prices of these raw materials are rising owing to the increase in the cost of aquaculture. Feed is the main input for any aquaculture and the prices of feed are continuously increasing due to which aquaculture is costly to maintain. The key players in this market have adopted various strategies to expand their global presence and increase their market share. Partnerships, agreements, collaborations, acquisitions, and new product launches are some of the key strategies adopted by market players to achieve growth in the global fish processing industry. The rising demand for processed fish products as well as high growth rate of fisheries and aquaculture in emerging countries has encouraged companies to adopt these strategies. Market players are focusing on entering into collaborations to share technical know-how related to biotechnology that can improve marine productivity. Charoen Pokphand Foods PCL (Thailand), Maruha Nichiro Corporation (Japan), and Nippon Suisan Kaisha, Ltd. (Japan) are some of the leading market players that adopted this strategy in order to develop their business. Fish Processing Market Report Scope Based on fish processing Category, the market has been segmented as follows: - Frozen - Preserved - Others (which includes cured, dried, smoked, salted, and surimi) Based on Application, the market has been segmented as follows: - Food - Non-food Based on Source, the market has been segmented as follows: - Marine - Inland Based on Species, the market has been segmented as follows: - Fish - Crustaceans - Mollusks - Others (which includes turtles and urchins) Based on Equipment, the market has been segmented as follows: - Slaughtering - Gutting - Scaling - Filleting - Deboning - Skinning - Curing & Smoking - Others (which includes packing and storing machines) Companies Mentioned - Charoen Pokphand Foods PCL - High Liner Foods Incorporated - Leroy Seafood Group ASA - Marine Harvest ASA - Maruha Nichiro Corporation - Nippon Suisan Kaisha, Ltd. - Norway Pelagic ASA - Pesconova S.A. - Royal Greenland A/S - Thai Union Frozen Products Public Company Limited For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/qqhlm2/fish_processing Media Contact: Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager press@researchandmarkets.com For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 NEW YORK, NY -- (Marketwired) -- 06/22/16 -- The Association of Junior Leagues International today welcomed new officers and members of its Board of Directors as well as new members of its Governance Committee. In their new roles, these women will provide strategic and governance guidance to one of the world's largest and most effective volunteer organizations. The incoming officers and members of AJLI's Board of Directors are: Subha Lembach, Vice President - member of the Junior League of Columbus, OH; served as AJLI At Large Director since 2010. Elizabeth Tyminski, Secretary - member of the Junior League of Boston; served on the AJLI Governance Committee from 2013 to 2015. Bett Williams, Governance Committee Vice Chair - member of the Junior League of Columbia, SC; served on the AJLI Governance Committee. Laura S. Creekmore, At-Large Director - member of the Junior League of Nashville; currently a member of the AJLI Brand Advisory Taskforce. Terri Broussard Williams, At-Large Director - member of the Junior League of Austin. Tina Winham, At-Large Director - member of the Junior League of Northwest Arkansas. The incoming members of AJLI's Governance Committee are: Brandi Hunt, At-Large Member - member of the Junior League of Phoenix; served as AJLI POLL (Presidents of Large Leagues) President in 2014-15. Katie L. Shuck, At-Large Member - member of the Junior League of Portland, OR. Jephtha Tausig-Edwards, At-Large Member - member of the Junior League of the City of New York, Inc. Susan Danish, AJLI's Executive Director, said, "This distinguished group of women will provide our organization with valuable direction on important strategy and governance issues. They bring an array of skills from their professional experience and community involvement, as well as from their experience as Junior League members, that is impressive." About The Association of Junior Leagues International Founded in 1901 by New Yorker and social activism pioneer, Mary Harriman, the Junior Leagues are charitable nonprofit organizations of women, developed as civic leaders, creating demonstrable community impact. Today, The Association of Junior Leagues International (AJLI) is comprised of more than 150,000 women in 291 Junior Leagues throughout Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom and the United States. Together, they constitute one of the largest, most effective volunteer organizations in the world. Media Contact: Tracy Van Buskirk Marketcom PR Main: (212) 537-5177 Ext. 8 Mobile: (203) 246-6165 tvanbuskirk@marketcomPR.com www.marketcomPR.com WASHINGTON, DC--(Marketwired - June 22, 2016) - Judicial Watch today announced it obtained U.S. State Department records referenced in the May 2016 State Department's Office of the Inspector General report criticizing former Secretary of State Clinton's email practices. The OIG report references the records, which include new Clinton emails, but the records were not released to the public until now. The records were obtained under a June14, 2016, court order issued by Judge Emmet G. Sullivan in accordance with an unopposed motion by Judicial Watch to obtain the records. Judicial Watch requested: March 17, 2009 memorandum prepared by S/ES-IRM staff regarding communications equipment in the Secretary's New York residence identified a server located in the basement. In November 2010, Secretary Clinton and her Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations discussed the fact that Secretary Clinton's emails to Department employees were not being received. The Deputy Chief of Staff emailed the Secretary that, "We should talk about putting you on state email or releasing your email address to the department so you are not going to spam." In response, the Secretary wrote, "Let's get separate address or device but I don't want any risk of the personal being accessible." In another email exchange, the Director of S/ES-IRM noted that an email account and address had already been set up for the Secretary and also stated that, "You should be aware that any email would go through the Department's infrastructure and subject to FOIA searches." OIG reviewed emails showing communications between Department staff and both individuals concerning operational issues affecting the Secretary's email and server from 2010 through at least October 2012. On January 9, 2011, the non-Departmental advisor to President Clinton who provided technical support to the Clinton email system notified the Secretary's Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations that he had to shut down the server because he believed, "Someone was trying to hack us and while they did not get in i didnt [sic] want to let them have the chance to." Later that day, the advisor again wrote to the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, "We were attacked again so I shut [the server] down for a few min." On January 10, the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations emailed the Chief of Staff and the Deputy Chief of Staff for Planning and instructed them not to email the Secretary "anything sensitive" and stated that she could "explain more in person." "The new Hillary Clinton email records show she had zero interest in disclosing her emails to the public as the law requires," stated Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton. "And the emails show the Obama State Department gave special accommodations to Clinton's email system, which the agency knew was unsecure, was likely hacked, and was not transparent under FOIA." The documents were produced in connection with a Judicial Watch Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit that seeks records about the controversial employment status of Huma Abedin, deputy chief of staff to former Secretary Hillary Clinton (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of State (No. 1:13-cv-01363)). The full case history of the Abedin employment lawsuit is accessible on the Judicial Watch website. Contact: Jill Farrell 202-646-5188 BOCA RATON, FL--(Marketwired - June 22, 2016) - Cleartronic, Inc. (OTC PINK: CLRI), through its subsidiary ReadyOp' Communications Inc., announces that ReadyOp' is now in use by Northwest Independent School District in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Northwest is one of the fastest growing school districts in Texas, serving 14 communities in three different counties. "We are very glad to welcome Northwest Independent School District as a client. While we have many school districts as clients in other states, this is our first school district in Texas. Working with our marketing representatives in Texas, we are looking to expand our focus in schools throughout the state. Texas has over 1200 school districts, plus many private and charter schools. ReadyOp has proven an excellent platform for planning, communications and operations for school districts as well as incident and emergency response," said Marc Moore, CEO of ReadyOp Communications, Inc., a subsidiary of Cleartronic. Planning and communications are vital to success for all organizations. ReadyOp' provides an easy and efficient, yet powerful capability for organizations, government agencies, airports, universities, school districts and other groups for daily operations, to plan for special events and to plan and respond to incidents that may occur. About Cleartronic, Inc. Cleartronic, Inc. (OTC PINK: CLRI) is a technology holding company that creates and acquires operating subsidiaries to develop, manufacture and sell products, services, and integrated systems to government agencies and business enterprises. ReadyOp' is a secure, web-based platform providing organizations with a single site for planning, response, communications and documentation of personnel, tasks, assets and activities. Cleartronic currently has two operating subsidiaries, ReadyOp Communications, Inc. and VoiceInterop, Inc. -- www.cleartronic.com. For further information about this release, contact Rich Kaiser, Investor Relations, YES INTERNATIONAL, 800-631-8127, yes@yesinternational.com, and www.cleartronic.com. Safe Harbor Statement: This press release may include predictions, estimates, opinions or statements that might be considered "forward-looking" under the provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements generally can be identified by phrases such as the Company or its management "believes,"expects,"anticipates,"foresees,"forecasts,"estimates," or other, similar words or phrases. Image Available: http://www.marketwire.com/library/MwGo/2016/6/22/11G103893/Images/northwest-3292feb18ddc85f7b285951fc95632c3.jpg Contact: Rich Kaiser Investor Relations YES INTERNATIONAL 757-306-6090 WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - With the general election war of words heating up, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump stepped up his attacks against likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in a speech on Wednesday. Speaking at one of his properties in New York, Trump argued that Clinton is part of a rigged political system and cannot fix the nation's problems. 'Everywhere I look, I see the possibilities of what our country could be,' Trump said. 'But we can't solve any of these problems by relying on the politicians who created them.' He added, 'We will never be able to fix a rigged system by counting on the same people who rigged it in the first place.' Trump claimed the whole economy is rigged against the American people by big campaign donors, big businesses, and bureaucrats. The real estate tycoon went on to call Clinton a 'world class liar' and accused her of running the State Department like her own personal hedge fund. Trump suggested Clinton did favors for oppressive regimes in exchange for cash while Secretary of State and highlighted her paid speeches to Wall Street banks after leaving office. He also continued to attack Clinton for her use of a private email server while Secretary of State, which he claimed was an attempt to cover-up her corrupt dealings. The speech comes a day after the Trump campaign launched a 'Lying Crooked Hillary' website, which it said will showcase some of Clinton's most disastrous lies to the American people. Trump's remarks also came after Clinton attacked the billionaire's business practices in a speech on Tuesday. Clinton warned that Trump becoming president would be dangerous to the economy and claimed he would bankrupt America like one of his failed casinos. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de Technavio has announced the top six leading vendors in their recentglobal vascular stents market 2016-2020report. This research report also lists 14 other prominent vendors that are expected to impact the market during the forecast period. Competitive vendor landscape The global vascular stents market is highly competitive and fragmented. Leading companies have a strong brand name and offer a wide range of products. They have sizeable shares in the market, which hinders the entry of new players. Medium and small-sized companies offer products at competitive prices or at a low cost to consolidate their shares, which is negatively affecting revenue generation by the leading vendors. However, the medium and small-sized vendors offer products with limited features and functionalities, thus facing competition from the leading vendors that are marketing products with better quality, features, and capabilities. "Vendors in the market are implementing various strategies to expand their geographical presence and increase their market shares. They are extensively investing in research to develop safe and efficient products and gain regulatory approvals for their launch in the market. Advances in technology will lead companies to undergo M&A to use advanced technologies to develop innovative products and enhance their product portfolio. This will further intensify the market competition during the forecast period," says Barath Palada, a lead analyst for cardiovascular devices at Technavio. Request for sample report: http://goo.gl/jRkRqa Key vendors: Abbott Laboratories Abbott Laboratories was established in 1876 and is headquartered at Abbott Park, Illinois, US. The company manufactures and sells healthcare products directly to wholesalers, retailers, government agencies, and healthcare facilities such as hospitals, laboratories, and physicians' offices worldwide. It operates in 150 countries, including the US, Japan, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Canada, France, Spain, the UK, and India. In the global vascular stents market, the company offers drug-eluting stents, peripheral intervention, and carotid intervention products. Boston Scientific Boston Scientific was founded in 1979 and is headquartered in Marlborough, Massachusetts, US. The company develops and markets medical devices for a broad range of medical conditions through its subsidiaries and divisions worldwide. It operates through the MedSurg, rhythm management and cardiovascular segments. Through its cardiovascular segment, Boston Scientific offers vascular stents. Cook Medical Cook Medical was established in 1963 and is headquartered in Bloomington, Indiana, US. The company operates as a subsidiary of the Cook Group. It designs, manufactures, and sells about 16,000 different devices for surgical, dental, hospital, and electromedical applications. Through the aortic intervention and peripheral intervention segment, the company offers vascular stents for treating symptomatic vascular diseases of the iliac arteries and atherosclerotic diseases of the renal arteries. Cordis Cordis was founded in 1957 and is headquartered in Fremont, California, US. The company operates as a subsidiary of Cardinal Health. It develops and distributes drug-eluting stents, catheters, and guide wires for interventional medicine, marginally invasive computer-based imaging, and electrophysiology applications. The company has operations in more than 50 countries. Cordis offers carotid stent systems, transhepatic biliary stents, vascular stents and vascular stents balloon-expandable, and related devices and accessories in the market. Medtronic Medtronic was founded in 1949 and is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland. The company researches, develops, and markets medical devices such as image-guided surgery and intra-operative imaging systems. It also offers web-based therapy management software solutions in over 155 countries worldwide. It operates through the cardiac and vascular, restorative therapies, and diabetes segments. Through the cardiac and vascular segment, Medtronic offers the Resolute Integrity coronary stent system and the Integrity coronary stent system. W.L. Gore Associates W.L. Gore Associates was established in 1958 and is headquartered in Newark, Delaware, US. The company provides technology-driven solutions in the areas of aerospace, automotive, chemical processing, energy, environmental, industrial and manufacturing, medical, military, pharmaceutical and biotechnology, semiconductors and microelectronics and textile. It holds more than 2,000 patents in the areas of polymer processing, medical devices, and electronics. It has manufacturing facilities in the US, Germany, the UK, Japan, and China. W.L. Gore Associates offers vascular stents, carotid stents, and vascular grafts for treating abdominal aortic aneurysm, thoracic aortic aneurysm, and cardiovascular diseases. These products are based on the heparin-bonded technology, a combination of ePTFE and nitinol. Browse Related Reports: Global Nonvascular Stents Market 2016-2020 Global Drug-Eluting Stent Market 2016-2020 Global Coronary Artery Disease Treatment Devices Market 2015-2019 Do you need a report on a market in a specific geographical cluster or country but can't find what you're looking for? Don't worry, Technavio also takes client requests. Please contact enquiry@technavio.com with your requirements and our analysts will be happy to create a customized report just for you. About Technavio Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. The company develops over 2000 pieces of research every year, covering more than 500 technologies across 80 countries. Technavio has about 300 analysts globally who specialize in customized consulting and business research assignments across the latest leading edge technologies. Technavio analysts employ primary as well as secondary research techniques to ascertain the size and vendor landscape in a range of markets. Analysts obtain information using a combination of bottom-up and top-down approaches, besides using in-house market modeling tools and proprietary databases. They corroborate this data with the data obtained from various market participants and stakeholders across the value chain, including vendors, service providers, distributors, re-sellers, and end-users. If you are interested in more information, please contact our media team at media@technavio.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160622005047/en/ Contacts: Technavio Research Jesse Maida Media Marketing Executive US: +1 630 333 9501 UK: +44 208 123 1770 www.technavio.com CAMPBELL, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 06/22/16 -- hopTo Inc. (OTCQB: HPTO), developer of the most comprehensive mobile workspace platform, announced today a new partnership with Applications2U, a complete IT solutions provider based in the Greater Pittsburgh-area. Applications2U is a Platinum Citrix Solution Advisor, which signifies the highest level of commitment and expertise to offering virtualization, networking and more. In accordance with requirements of the Citrix Platinum Level Solutions Advisor status, Applications2U has an exceptionally trained, highly certified staff that includes a Citrix Certified Enterprise Engineer (CCEE) in Virtualization, Citrix Certified Professionals in Networking (CCP-N) and Virtualization (CCP-V), and Citrix Certified Sales Professionals (CCP) for a number of Citrix products. As a complete IT solutions provider, the Applications2U team has the ability to deliver a combination of traditional IT functions such as, but not limited to Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS), data storage and security, network monitoring and email hosting -- all of which can be carried out with a simple Internet connection to the end-user device. Applications2U utilizes the latest technology and the most robust hardware to deliver a Microsoft Windows platform that is powered and delivered to clients via Citrix. Through Applications2U's partnership with industry leaders Citrix and Microsoft, combined with the knowledge and skills from a distinctly technical team, Applications2U provides a customized, cloud-based solution. "Applications2U is focused on its core mission to develop loyal, strategic partnerships with customers and associations for whom we assist in building innovative and scalable end-to-end technology solutions. The technology solutions we deliver enable our customers to be more efficient, mobile, secure and productive," said Dan Dillman, CEO and President of Applications2U. "Software technology partners like hopTo play an important part in helping us achieve our mission. hopTo allows Applications2U customers to transform the user experience of existing Windows and Internet Explorer-based apps on mobile devices. The combination of Applications2U's experience and expertise with application delivery on the Citrix platform and hopTo's innovative, touch-enabled mobile experience for existing legacy apps makes for an ever better user experience. Applications2U is excited to offer this 'Best of Citrix Synergy' 2016 Finalist in New Technology solution to our customers." "We're excited to welcome Applications2U into the hopTo partner network," said Barry Flanagan, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at hopTo. "hopTo is focused on working closely with the best of the best Citrix Platinum and Gold partners, and Applications2u certainly fits that description. Dan and his team create and implement innovative, end-to-end technology and cloud computing solutions for enterprise organizations. Together, Applications2U and hopTo are committed to deliver the best user experience possible for existing apps deployed to modern mobile devices via Citrix solutions." About Applications2U: Applications2U was founded in 2003 as a cloud hosting and consulting provider before the term "cloud computing" had reached widespread mainstream use. Applications2U specializes in complete IT solutions, particularly within the healthcare, financial, manufacturing and education industries. Applications2U has been Citrix Advisors since 2013 and the company is certified to sell many Citrix products, including Citrix XenApp virtual application delivery, Citrix XenDesktop full virtual desktop solutions and Citrix XenMobile for mobile device management. More information about the services provided by Applications2U can be found by visiting http://www.applications2u.com or by directing inquiries to info(at)applications2u.com. About hopTo: Citrix XenApp Touch Enabled -- Just add hopTo. Founded in its current form in 2012, hopTo Inc. is an innovator of a unique mobile workspace platform. The hopTo mobile solution enables customers to transport and transform existing applications with a Mobile App eXperience. hopTo brings a new standard of mobile user experience with custom, touch enabled access to existing Windows and Internet Explorer applications. The company is based in Campbell, CA. For more information on hopTo, please visit: http://www.hopTo.com. About hopTo Work: hopTo Work was awarded "Best of Citrix Synergy" 2016 Finalist in the New Technology category. hopTo Work, first launched in November 2014, was built upon hopTo's successful consumer application launched in 2013. hopTo Work's mobile workspace was the first app to address the challenges of transporting Windows and Internet Explorer applications to mobile devices, delivering a rich user interface to take full advantage of the devices native technologies. hopTo Work continues to offer a secure and flexible mobile workspace on the Citrix and Microsoft platform for transforming and "mobilizing" existing Windows and IE based applications. Media contact: hopTo PR@hopto.com 408.688.2674 Brazil's National Electricity Agency (ANEEL) has denied a petition by six companies which had asked for an extension of the timeline to begin electricity delivery under the nation's first electricity auction for solar, which was held in October 2014. ANEEL has denied a request by Canadian Solar, Cobra, Fotowatio, Rio Alto, Inhare and Renova to modify the timeline for 23 projects awarded in the first electricity auction, according to meeting minutes published by the agency. The six companies had ... Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. MONTREAL, QUEBEC -- (Marketwired) -- 06/22/16 -- Yorbeau Resources Inc.(TSX: YRB.A) (the "Company" or "Yorbeau") is pleased to announce that it has signed a non-binding letter of intent ("LOI") with Kinross Gold Corporation ("Kinross"), whereby Kinross has the option to acquire a 100% interest in Yorbeau's Rouyn property ("Property") in Quebec, Canada. The LOI outlines mutually acceptable terms for a definitive option agreement under which, subject to certain conditions, Kinross would over a 4-year period make certain exploration expenditures towards an option to purchase a 100% interest in the Property. In order to earn the purchase option, Kinross must complete a resource estimation(i) for the Property after funding C$12 million dollars of exploration expenditures, including a firm commitment to spend C$3 million in the first 18 months including no less than 12,500 meters of diamond drilling. Kinross will be the operator and project manager of the Property during the option period with Yorbeau to have representation on a Technical Committee which will oversee the work program. Upon completion of the resource estimate, Kinross will have the option to acquire a 100% interest in the Property for a single cash payment consisting of (i) USD $25,000,000, plus (ii) 2% of the prevailing gold price(ii) multiplied by the number of ounces of gold in measured, indicated and inferred resources identified by Kinross(iii). In addition to the cash payment, Yorbeau will retain a 2% NSR on any gold ounces produced in excess of the number of ounces identified by Kinross in the resource estimate and on any other minerals produced from the Property. The Company is also pleased to announce that Kinross has committed to participate in a $1 million private placement of units in the Company upon signing the definitive option agreement. Company president Gerald Riverin stated: "Company management is highly enthusiastic to partner with Kinross to advance the Rouyn project with the intention of realizing value for all project stakeholders. Signing the letter of intent marks a significant milestone for Yorbeau and the Rouyn project and we are looking forward to working with Kinross to finalize the definitive option agreement and continue work on the project." About Yorbeau Resources Inc. The Company's 100% controlled Rouyn Property contains four known gold deposits in the 6-km-long Augmitto-Astoria corridor situated on the western half of the property. Two of the four deposits, Astoria and Augmitto, have substantial underground infrastructure and have been the focus of NI 43-101 technical reports that include resource estimates. The Company has recently expanded its exploration property portfolio by acquiring strategic base metal properties in prospective areas of the Abitibi Belt of Quebec and Ontario that also feature infrastructure favourable for mining development. The newly acquired base metal properties include Scott Lake which hosts important mineral resources, and Beschefer where, regionally, exploration interest has been increasing. More information on the Company may be found on the Company's website at www.yorbeauresources.com. Forward-looking statements: Except for statement of historical fact, all statements in this news release, without limitation, regarding new projects, acquisitions, future plans and objectives are forward-looking statements which involve risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate; actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. (i) The resource estimate to be completed according to Kinross' standard estimation and reporting practices subject to detailed technical parameters to be agreed between Kinross and Yorbeau in the definitive option agreement. (ii) The price of gold for these purposes will be determined by the average London Bullion Market Association "initial" and "final" fixing prices for gold quoted in US dollars over the period of 30 trading days prior to the confirmation by Kinross of its completion of the required expenditures. ( iii) The number of ounces applied to the calculation of the payment to include those classified as measured, indicated or inferred resources (as such terms are defined by the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum in the most recent CIM Definition Standards for Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves). Contacts: Gerald Riverin, Ph D., P. Geo President Yorbeau Resources Inc. griverin@yorbeauresouces.com 819-279-1336 G. Bodnar Jr. Director Yorbeau Resources Inc. gbodnar@yorbeauresources.com 514-384-2202 Toll free in North America: 1-855-384-2202 ST. JOHN'S, NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR and NOVI, MICHIGAN -- (Marketwired) -- 06/22/16 -- At the ITC Holdings Corp. ("ITC") (NYSE: ITC) Special Meeting of Shareholders held today in Novi, Michigan, shareholders approved the acquisition of ITC by Fortis Inc. ("Fortis") (TSX: FTS). "We are very pleased with the solid support from our shareholders for this transformative transaction," said Joseph L. Welch, Chairman, President and CEO of ITC. "Fortis is an outstanding company with a proven track record of successfully acquiring and managing U.S. based utilities in a decentralized manner. This transaction accomplishes our objectives by better positioning the company to fulfill our long-term strategy of investing in transmission opportunities that improve reliability, expand access to power markets and allow new generating resources to interconnect to transmission systems while lowering the overall cost of delivered energy for customers." "Our investors will receive an attractive premium for their investment and will also benefit from the opportunity to participate in any potential upside of the combination, including future value creation and a growing dividend program," added Welch. "Today is another important milestone for Fortis and ITC. The strong results of the ITC and Fortis shareholder votes, as well as the agreement with minority investor GIC Private Limited, demonstrates confidence in this strategic acquisition," said Barry Perry, President and CEO of Fortis. "We remain focused on closing the transaction by the end of this year." Under the terms of the transaction, ITC shareholders will receive US$22.57 in cash and 0.7520 of a Fortis common share for each ITC common share. Based on the February 8, 2016 closing price for Fortis common shares and the US$/C$ exchange rate on that date, the per share consideration offered by Fortis represents a premium of 33% over ITC's unaffected closing share price on November 27, 2015 and a 37% premium to ITC's unaffected average closing price over the 30-day period prior to November 27, 2015. The Fortis-ITC transaction was valued at approximately US$11.3 billion as of the close of markets on February 8, 2016. The closing of the acquisition of ITC is expected to occur in late 2016 and is subject to receipt of certain regulatory approvals, including the approval of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, and the United States Federal Trade Commission/Department of Justice under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976, as well as various state approvals, among others. About ITC ITC is the largest independent electric transmission company in the United States. Based in Novi, Michigan, ITC invests in the electric transmission grid to improve reliability, expand access to markets, allow new generating resources to interconnect to its transmission systems and lower the overall cost of delivered energy. Through its regulated operating subsidiaries ITCTransmission, Michigan Electric Transmission Company, ITC Midwest and ITC Great Plains, ITC owns and operates high-voltage transmission facilities in Michigan, Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma, serving a combined peak load exceeding 26,000 megawatts along approximately 15,700 circuit miles of transmission line. ITC's grid development focus includes growth through regulated infrastructure investment as well as domestic and international expansion through merchant and other commercial development opportunities. Additional information can be accessed at www.itc-holdings.com or www.edgar.com. About Fortis Fortis is a leader in the North American electric and gas utility business, with total assets of approximately CAD$28 billion and fiscal 2015 revenue of CAD$6.7 billion. The Corporation's asset mix is approximately 96% regulated (70% electric, 26% gas), with the remaining 4% comprised of non-regulated energy infrastructure. The Corporation's regulated utilities serve more than 3 million customers across Canada, the United States and the Caribbean. Fortis shares are listed on the TSX and trade under the symbol FTS. Additional information can be accessed at www.fortisinc.com, www.sedar.com, or www.edgar.com. About GIC GIC is a leading global investment firm with well over US$100 billion in assets under management. Established in 1981 to secure the financial future of Singapore, the firm manages Singapore's foreign reserves. With its disciplined long-term value approach, GIC is uniquely positioned to invest in both the public and private markets, including equities, fixed income, real estate, private equity and infrastructure. GIC employs over 1,300 people across offices in Singapore, Beijing, London, Mumbai, New York, San Francisco, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Shanghai, and Tokyo. For more information, please visit www.gic.com.sg. Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws including the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements included in this media release reflect expectations of Fortis management and ITC management regarding future growth, results of operations, performance and business prospects and opportunities. Wherever possible, words such as "anticipates", "believes", "budgets", "could", "estimates", "expects", "forecasts", "intends", "may", "might", "plans", "projects", "schedule", "should", "target", "will", "would" and the negative of these terms and other similar terminology or expressions have been used to identify the forward-looking statements, which include, without limitation, those statements related to the acquisition, the expected timing of the acquisition, and the satisfaction of the conditions precedent to the closing of the acquisition of ITC, including regulatory and governmental approvals. These statements reflect the current beliefs and are based on information currently available to Fortis' and ITC's management. Forward-looking statements involve significant risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Certain material factors or assumptions have been applied in drawing the conclusions contained in the forward-looking statements. These factors or assumptions are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties surrounding future expectations generally, including those identified from time-to-time in the forward-looking statements. Such risk factors or assumptions include, but are not limited to, the risks and uncertainties disclosed in Fortis' filings with the Canadian securities regulators and ITC's annual report on Form 10-K and ITC's quarterly reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, risks relating to failure to complete the acquisition and the timing thereof, the risk that conditions to the acquisition may not be satisfied, and risks relating to the potential decline in the Fortis share price negatively impacting the value of the consideration offered to ITC shareholders. Fortis and ITC each caution readers that a number of factors could cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from the results discussed or implied in the forward-looking statements. These factors should be considered carefully and undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking statements. For additional information with respect to certain of these risks or factors, reference should be made to the continuous disclosure materials filed from time to time by Fortis with Canadian and American securities regulatory authorities and by ITC with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Fortis and ITC each disclaim any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Additional Information and Where to Find It Fortis filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") a registration statement on Form F-4 including a proxy statement of ITC and a prospectus of Fortis, and other documents in connection with the acquisition by Fortis of ITC, which was declared effective by the SEC on May 16, 2016. This communication is not a substitute for the registration statement, definitive proxy statement/prospectus or any other document that Fortis and/or ITC has filed or may file with the SEC in connection with the acquisition. INVESTORS AND SECURITY HOLDERS OF FORTIS AND ITC ARE URGED TO READ THE DEFINITIVE PROXY STATEMENT/PROSPECTUS, AND ANY OTHER FILINGS THAT MAY BE MADE WITH THE SEC IN CONNECTION WITH THE ACQUISITION WHEN THEY BECOME AVAILABLE, AS THEY WILL CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT THE ACQUISITION. The registration statement and proxy statement/prospectus containing the definitive proxy statement/prospectus and other documents filed by Fortis and/or ITC with the SEC are available free of charge at the SEC's website at www.sec.gov, on Fortis' website at www.fortisinc.com or by contacting Fortis' Investor Relations department. Copies of the document filed with the SEC by ITC can also be obtained free of charge from ITC upon written request to ITC at ITC, Investor Relations, 27175 Energy Way, Novi, MI 48377. You may also read and copy any reports, statements and other information filed by Fortis and ITC with the SEC at the SEC public reference room at 100 F Street N.E., Room 1580, Washington, D.C. 20549. Please call the SEC at (800) 732-0330 or visit the SEC's website for further information on its public reference room. This communication does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, or a solicitation of any vote or approval, nor shall there be any sale of securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to appropriate registration or qualification under the securities laws of such jurisdiction. No offering of securities shall be made except by means of a prospectus meeting the requirements of Section 10 of the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and otherwise in accordance with applicable law. Contacts: Fortis Inc. Investor Enquiries: Ms. Janet Craig Vice President, Investor Relations Fortis Inc. 709.737.2863 Media Enquiries: Ms. Karen McCarthy Director, Communications and Corporate Affairs Fortis Inc. 709.737.5323 ITC Holdings Corp. Investor Inquiries: Ms. Stephanie Amaimo Director, Investor Relations ITC Holdings Corp. 248.946.3572 Media Inquiries: Mr. Whit Clay Managing Director Sloane & Company 212.446.1864 GIC Ms. Mah Lay Choon Senior Vice President GIC +65 6889.6841 Ms. Wendy Wong Senior Vice President GIC +65 6889.6928 Weekly net asset value ("NAV") is calculated as of the close of business on each Tuesday and posted on the following business day. In the event that Tuesday is not a business day, the Company will calculate the close-of-business NAV as of the business day immediately preceding that Tuesday. The end-of-month NAV is calculated as of the close of business on the last day of the month and posted on the following business day. For weeks that include a month-end NAV report, PSH will provide only the month-end NAV and not report the Tuesday NAV. Monthly NAVs are published in accordance with the Decree on Conduct of Business Supervision of Financial Undertakings under the Wft (Besluit Gedragstoezicht financiele ondernemingen Wft). Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 06/22/16 -- Tudor Gold Corp. (the "Company" or "Tudor Gold") (TSX VENTURE: TUD) is pleased to announce that field crews have commenced drilling on a 1,000 m. diamond drill program at the Electrum property, which is situated in the Golden Triangle area, Skeena Mining Division of British Columbia. Tudor Gold has a 60% joint venture interest in the Electrum property and its partner American Creek Resources Ltd. has a 40% interest. Tudor Gold is the operator for the project. Orion Property Acquisition - Approval to Issue 250,000 Shares Received Tudor Gold also announces that it has received regulatory approval to complete an option agreement to acquire the 3,154 hectare Orion property, also located in the Golden Triangle area (see Tudor Gold news release dated June 2, 2016. The Company is issuing 250,000 shares in connection with the transaction, which will have a hold period expiring on October 23, 2016. About the Company Tudor Gold is focused on being a significant explorer in British Columbia's Golden Triangle, an area which hosts multiple past-producing mines and several large deposits that are approaching potential development. The Company has a 60% interest in both the Electrum and Treaty Creek properties, as well as a 100% interest in the Mackie and the Eskay North properties, all of which are located in the Golden Triangle area. The Company also has recently announced agreements to acquire three other properties in the region (Fairweather, High North and Delta properties), which are still pending regulatory approval and closing of the transactions. There are no known resources or reserves on any of the Company's mineral properties, and the presence of mineral deposits on properties adjacent to or in close proximity to the Company's mineral properties is not necessarily indicative of mineralization on the Company's properties. Walter Storm, President and Chief Executive Officer Cautionary statements Certain statements contained in this press release constitute forward-looking information. These statements relate to future events or future performance. The use of any of the words "could", "intend", "expect", "believe", "will", "projected", "estimated" and similar expressions and statements relating to matters that are not historical facts are intended to identify forward-looking information and are based on the Corporation's current belief or assumptions as to the outcome and timing of such future events. Actual future results may differ materially. The forward-looking information contained in this release is made as of the date hereof and the Corporation is not obligated to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws. Because of the risks, uncertainties and assumptions contained herein, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The foregoing statements expressly qualify any forward-looking information contained herein. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Contacts: Aris Morfopoulos Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Secretary 604-721-2650 604-608-3878 (FAX) VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 09/26/16 -- Alianza Minerals Ltd. (TSX VENTURE: ANZ) ("Alianza" or the "Company") announces that the financing announced on September 22, 2016 has been increased to $300,000, from $250,000, and is fully subscribed. Alianza will now proceed to close the financing and file for approval with the TSX Venture Exchange. Jason Weber, BSc, P. Geo, Director and CEO of Alianza commented that, "We are very happy to have the support of our shareholders and are working diligently to advance our exploration projects in Peru, Nevada and Yukon Territory with a focus on engaging new partners on some of these very prospective gold, silver and copper projects." Under the terms of the financing Alianza will sell 2,400,000 units at $0.125 per unit, where each unit is comprised of one common share and a half non-transferable common share purchase warrant. Each whole warrant entitles the holder to acquire an additional common share for a period of 3 years at a price of $0.20. Securities issued in this offering will have a four month hold period. Certain current shareholders and insiders may be participating in this offering. Finder's fees may also be paid on portions of this offering. These funds will be used to continue the execution of the Company's business model. This includes reconnaissance exploration of recently staked properties in Peru and additional work at existing projects in Nevada and Yukon. About Alianza Minerals Ltd. Alianza increases the chances of success in mineral exploration by using the "Prospect Generator" business model, focussing on gold and copper exploration in Latin America and Nevada. The Company has 25.9 million shares issued and outstanding, and is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange (TSX VENTURE: ANZ). Mr. Jason Weber, BSc, P.Geo., Alianza's President and CEO is a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. Mr. Weber supervised the preparation of the technical information contained in this release. To learn more visit: www.alianzaminerals.com. 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. STATEMENTS IN THIS NEWS RELEASE, OTHER THAN PURELY HISTORICAL INFORMATION, INCLUDING STATEMENTS RELATING TO THE COMPANY'S FUTURE PLANS AND OBJECTIVES OR EXPECTED RESULTS, MAY INCLUDE FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS. FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS ARE BASED ON NUMEROUS ASSUMPTIONS AND ARE SUBJECT TO ALL OF THE RISKS AND UNCERTAINTIES INHERENT IN RESOURCE EXPLORATION AND DEVELOPMENT. AS A RESULT, ACTUAL RESULTS MAY VARY MATERIALLY FROM THOSE DESCRIBED IN THE FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS. Contacts: Alianza Minerals Ltd. Jason Weber President and CEO (604) 687-3520 (888) 889-4874 (FAX) Alianza Minerals Ltd. Sandrine Lam Shareholder Communications (604) 687-3520 (888) 889-4874 (FAX) www.alianzaminerals.com MANCHESTER, England, July 11, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Direct Airport Parking Investment is proud to announce a new and exciting opportunity as it makes car parking spaces at London Luton airport available to investors for the first time. (Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160708/813454 ) Following the highly successful sell-out of car parking spaces at London Gatwick and Glasgow airports, the Cheshire-based business is expecting spaces at London Luton to be highly sought after. London Luton is the UK's fastest growing major airport with increases in passenger numbers for the past 25 consecutive months. A 110million investment programme is currently in progress at London Luton to transform the airport. Contractors are already on site redeveloping the terminal building to increase annual capacity from 12 million to 18 million passengers by 2020. The planned expansion will enable the airport to handle an additional 45,000 flights per year - that's more than 120 extra flights per day, a figure that could add up to 20,000 extra passengers every day wanting to park conveniently as they travel through Luton Airport. The airport has also recently announced plans to build a 260million mass passenger transit (MPT) link to connect the rail station with the terminal. This link will replace the existing shuttle bus and cut journey times from St Pancras Station to around 22 minutes, bringing the airport closer to central London than both Gatwick and Stansted airports. London Luton Airport, which is a base for airlines Easyjet, Monarch, Thomson and Ryanair, now has flights to 174 destinations worldwide. As other airlines announce new routes, passengers at London Luton Airport are benefitting from more frequent flights to a wider variety of European and Transatlantic destinations from the airport's three terminals. Over half of passengers who use London Luton airport arrive by car (55%). Consequently, long-stay car parking close to the airport is already in high demand that can only increase dramatically as the airport grows. Park First, the leading provider of secure long-stay car parking alongside major airports in the UK, owns 2,000 spaces within a four minute transfer time of London Luton airport terminals. As their Master Agent, Direct Airport Parking Investment can offer opportunities to invest in car parking at London Luton airport from 25,000. Peter Tomlinson, Senior Investment Consultant at Direct Airport Parking Investment, said: "We are really excited to be introducing our latest offer of single and multiple parking spaces adjacent to London Luton airport to private investors, particularly since it is the first time this opportunity has been brought to market. "As the fastest growing major UK airport with clear and ambitious plans for the future, London Luton represents a very attractive investment option. Situated at the heart of a thriving regional economy with highly ambitious infrastructure plans via the 1.5 billion Luton Investment Framework, and benefitting from its proximity to central London, Luton airport can only go from strength to strength. This commercial buy-to-let property investment in car parking at London Luton airport is therefore a lucrative way for investors to diversify their investment portfolios in a high growth sector. "22 million people live within a two hour drive of London Luton airport - that's more than a third of the entire UK population. With rapid expansion plans already underway at London Luton, there could not be a better time to invest." Individual car parking spaces on Park First owned car parks at London Luton airport will be released for sale from 1 August 2016. Through Direct Airport Parking Investment, investors now have the opportunity to beat the anticipated rush and reserve their spaces from today. Individual car park spaces are valued at 37,500. However, they are sold below market value at 25,000, giving investors significant capital growth on their asset from day one. This low risk, proven commercial buy-to-let property investment - complete with a title deed from the UK Land Registry - also offers a high yield rental income. Investors are assured of an 8% return in each of the first two years of their investment, with a predicted rise to 10% in years three and four, and 12% in years five and six. Direct Airport Parking Investment's year three investors have already been paid returns of up to 10.8%, exceeding the predicted 10% and bettering returns offered by more traditional investments such as ISAs. There's no denying that investors are feeling more cautious following the result of last month's EU referendum. Direct Airport Parking Investment believes strongly that off-airport car parking spaces provide a safe-haven investment ideal for these uncertain times, offering investors higher returns and greater certainty than more traditional safe-haven alternatives such as gold, government bonds and other currencies. For more information about investing in off-airport car parking at major UK airports with Direct Airport Parking Investment Limited, visit http://www.directparkinginvestment.co.uk or call +44 (0) 161 820 4956. Resson, a Fredericton, Canada-based data-driven agriculture technology company, raised $US11m (approximately $CDN14m) in Series B funding. Global agriculture company Monsantos venture capital arm Monsanto Growth Ventures led the round with participation from Build Ventures, Rho Canada Ventures, New Brunswick Innovation Foundation, BDC Capital and East Valley Ventures. The company will use the funds to expand its product development, sales and marketing efforts, and add staff to its technical development team in Fredericton while also opening a new business office in San Jose, Calif. Led by Jeff Grammer, Executive Chairman, Resson provides large and small agriculture companies, agricultural service providers and individual growers with a near real-time predictive analysis platform for crop management. Its Resson Agricultural Management and Analytics System (RAMAS) integrates large-scale cloud-based data analytics with sensor fusion and robotic platforms to assess crop status and health, providing operators with the information required to optimize agricultural operations. FinSMEs 22/06/2016 Realla.co, a London, UK-based commercial property search engine and marketing automation business, raised 1.5m in funding. The round was led by Lord Young of Graffham, Kirsh Family Office and Lloyd Dorfmans Esselco Group. The company intends to use the funds to accelerate growth by building the search engines user base and investing in new technology to further strengthen the offer. Founded in late 2014 by Andy Miles, Realla provides a platform for tenants, investors and agents to source property featuring professional tools to allow commercial agents and landlords to market and manage all types of instructions and keep track of them. Launched eight months ago, the companys marketing automation software has already gained traction with five of the top ten commercial agents. FinSMEs 22/06/2016 Terumo BCT, a Lakewood, Colorado-based global medical device manufacturing company, has been awarded $17.4m in initial funding. The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), a division within the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that provides an integrated, systematic approach to the development and purchase of the necessary vaccines, drugs, therapies and diagnostic tools for public health medical emergencies, awareded the funding. The company will use the proceeds to initiate a clinical trial using the Mirasol Pathogen Reduction Technology (PRT) System, the Mirasol platelets in plasma clinical trial (MIPLATE)in the United States. Sponsored by Terumo BCT, the MIPLATE trial is a multi-center, controlled, randomized, non-inferiority study designed to evaluate the clinical effectiveness of standard platelets in plasma versus Mirasol-treated platelets in plasma in patients with hypoproliferative thrombocytopenia. The study will involve up to 15 hospitals, corresponding blood centers and 556 patients who have hematologic malignancies with hypoproliferative thrombocytopenia and who are expected to have a platelet count less than or equal to10,000/L and require at least two platelet transfusions. The study is projected to last 3.5 years. The total value of the contract, with all executed options, can result in up to $169m in total funding over a 10-year period. As options are implemented, additional work for broader configurations may include Mirasol-treated platelets (including platelets stored in platelet additive solution, platelets collected on different platforms and/or whole-blood-derived platelets), next-generation device advancement and clinical development of Mirasol-treated plasma. The Mirasol PRT system is for investigational use only in the United States and Canada. FinSMEs 22/06/2016 Verve, a New York City-based provider of a location-powered mobile marketing platform, acquired Roximity, a Denver, CO-based beacon solutions and location analytics company. The amount of the deal was not disclosed. Co-founded in 2011 by CEO Danny Newman and Austin Gayer, Roximity specializing in beacon software and hardware that provide comprehensive location-based analytics and advertising so retailers, brands, and venues better interact with nearby consumers. It secured investments from Fenox Venture Capital, Ludlow Ventures, Fraser McCombs Capital and other investors. The acquisition aims to expand Verves location and mobile device data with Roximitys beacon hardware and analytics tools. Now, combined, they allow marketers to observe and influence consumer behavior from broad locations down to a specific field making mobile advertising more precise and measurable. Led by CEO Nada Stirratt, Verve provides a location-based mobile marketing platform that allows marketers to identify, reach and engage consumers with advertising experiences. The company has offices in San Diego, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Chicago, London, Eastern Europe, India and Southeast Asia. FinSMEs 22/06/2016 After a protracted and very public battle with the Central Board of Film Certification in India, Udta Punjab has now found itself in trouble across the border. Pakistans CBFC has asked for 100 cuts before allowing the film (mainly pertaining to swear words) to be screened in theatres there. It is worth noting here that the CBFC in Pakistan is not merely a certification body like its Indian counterpart: The acronym stands for Central Board of Film Censors. Censoring then is an important part of this Islamabad-based agencys function. It is currently headed by Mobashir Hasan. There are other watchdog bodies as well that take a call on films that can be screened in specific provinces there is a Sindh Board of Film Certification, as well as one for Punjab. When films from outside Pakistan are censored, it usually has to do with the depiction of the country, Islam, or allusions to state-sponsored terrorism. Indian films like Neerja, Phantom, Ek Tha Tiger have been banned in Pakistan for these reasons; so also have Hollywood movies like Zero Dark Thirty, GI Joe: Retaliation, Noah and The Da Vinci Code. At times, films deemed to be morally objectionable (The Dirty Picture, Delhi Belly) are also banned from being exhibited in Pakistani theatres. Also read: Lollywood has a love-hate relationship with Bollywood. Heres why. The word ban was bandied about in the case of Udta Punjab as well; however, ultimately the Censor Board cleared it with 100 cuts. News reports have said that the films distributor is making the cuts in Dubai while readying for a release across the country over the weekend. However, it isnt just with films from overseas that the Censor Board has had issues. Even with homegrown cinema, there is a conversation around censorship that is taking place in Pakistan. Like our own Pahlaj Nihalani-led CBFC and the Cinematograph Act of 1952 under which it is supposed to operate, the Censor Board in Pakistan too has had to deal with allegations of inconsistency in applying guidelines of the Motion Picture Ordinance, 1979 to the films in its purview. In April this year, Pakistan had its own version of the Udta Punjab row when the Urdu film Maalik was banned (at least one of the objections to the film was that a central character closely resembled the chief minister of one of the provinces). Its director Ashir Azeem tweeted the order banning Maalik, sparking national attention on the issue of censorship of cinema. Last year, Swaarangi about the plight of drug addicts in Pakistan faced a similar ban, but finally made it to theatres. Just like in India, such incidents have prompted debated around censorship in Pakistan too. The Indian producers of Udta Punjab have not made any statement so far about the cuts demanded of their film in Pakistan. Here, succour for the filmmakers came in the form of the Bombay High Court ruling that directed the CBFC to pass Udta Punjab with an A certificate with just one cut. It seems unlikely that there will be a similar reprieve for their film in Pakistan. Update: This piece was originally published on 22 June 2016. On 25 June, news reports said that the makers of UdtaPunjab had decided not to release their film in Pakistan, after the censors there demanded 100 cuts before clearing it for public screening. Director Abhishek Chaubey told The Times of India that while the decision to not release the film across the border meant a loss of revenue, they did not see any sense in releasing Udta Punjab in such a mutilated form. "The film is intended to convey something and make a point," he said, adding, "There is no scope to fight our case in Pakistan. So, we decided not to release the film there." Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan urged the country to clean up the bad debt held by its banks, calling it key to achieve stronger economic growth, in his second public appearance since saying he will step down in September. In a speech, Rajan defended the actions taken by the central bank, including ordering state-run banks to conduct comprehensive asset quality reviews of their balance sheets. Rajan urged state-run banks and company promoters to deal with the problem, while also calling on the government to infuse capital to the sector - steps he has previously advocated during his tenure. "To the question of what comes first, clean up or growth, I think the answer is unambiguously "Clean up!," Rajan said in a speech to industrialists in Bengaluru. The speech is his second public appearance since Rajan unexpectedly said on Saturday he will step down after his tenure ends in September. For years, nearly 40 states plus the District of Columbia have used federal funding to help low-income students cover the cost of taking Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate tests. But, thanks to a big change to the program under the Every Student Succeeds Act , states and districts will need to think hard (and early) about whetherand howto continue covering those costs. Some background on how ESSA handles these tests: ESSA consolidated dozens of federal programs, including some that hadnt been funded in years. One of the programs that had still been receiving federal funding when ESSA passed was the Advanced Placement Test Fee Program, which helps low-income students cover the cost of taking advanced exams. The program is currently receiving $28.5 million annually. But next year, it will be part of the brand new, larger Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grants. The Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grants are essentially a giant block grant that goes out by formula to school districts around the country. Districts can use the funds for a wide range of activities, including technology, student health, arts education, school safety, counseling services, and yes, college-and-career readiness, including, if districts want, AP and IB fees for low-income students. ESSA recommends more than $1.5 billion for the whole block grant. But right now, its on pace to only receive a fraction of that: It gets just $300 million in the Senate Appropriations bill. And President Barack Obamas proposed budget also gives it much less than ESSAs recommendation. So theres a good chance districts will have to pick and choose what they want the funds to go to. Heres how AP testing fees for low-income kids work now: AP tests cost about $91 per exam, while IB costs about $147 per exam. The College Board, the nonprofit organization that administers Advanced Placement, picks up part of the tab for its testing fees for low-income students, providing some $30 million of its own money. That brings the cost down to about $53 per test, for AP. A handful of states use their own dollars to pay the remaining amount, while the majority of states use federal funds to cover much of the cost. Some states then kick in their own money for the rest, or ask families to contribute a small portion (say, about $15 per exam). States and districts can continue to do this, but now AP testing fees will be competing with the many, many other potential uses for the block grant. And theres a twist, for next year only: This gets complicated, but ESSA has a special, one-time rule in place for states and districts that allows them to use their block grant funds to cover fees for AP and IB tests taken during the 2016-17 school year only. (Typically, districts must essentially decide what to spend the money on before the school year gets started.) At the same time, though, states and districts that want to continue covering the testing fees have to plan for the 2017-18 school year. In other words, states and districts essentially have to find double the money, just for this one year. That is a big change and it will require states and districts to plan in different ways, said Trevor Packer, a senior vice president at the College Board who heads up the AP program. There are a couple of other complicating factors, here. First off, decisions about how to spend the block grant are supposed to be made on a district and not, state level. So districts would have to get on the same page as their states. Whats more, there may be other funding within ESSA that states could use for the fees. For instance, states have the option to set aside up to 3 percent of their Title I money for direct student services, like tutoring. AP fees could be covered using those funds. But it would come at a cost: Districts would get less Title I money overall. How many kids are affected? The situation may be tough to wrap your mind around, but it doesnt effect a trivial number of states (or students). The federal program funded about 880,000 exams in 2016. And nearly 40 states plus some federal territories used the federal funding to cover at least part of the cost, along with the College Boards contribution. Those states include: Alaska, Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Iowa, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia, as well as the Virgin Islands and Washington, D.C. There are a handful of states that will be unaffected by the shift, including Florida and South Carolina. Thats because those states already use their own money to pay for AP fees for low-income kids. The College Board is trying to get the word out about the change. And the organization is encouraging districts and states that see AP as a priority to do their thinking and planning earlyeven though it may be a while before they know exactly how much money they are getting through the block grant, Packer said. And, he said, the number of disadvantaged kids taking AP classesand earning college credithas increased significantly since the federal program began in the late 1990s. (See chart above). It would also be helpful, he said, if the block grant received something closer to the more than $1.5 billion level that ESSA recommends. I think we are concerned about the difficult choices that will need to be made, he said. We are worried [the change] could result in some reduction of opportunity for students. Follow us on Twitter at @PoliticsK12 . (Corrects headline, first and third paragraph after company clarifies it hopes producers, not just Uralkali, will sign a deal with India) MOSCOW Russia's Uralkali hopes potash producers will sign a new supply contract with India, one of its largest customers, by the end of this month, Uralkali head of sales Vladislav Lyana told a conference call on Wednesday. The deal, if reached, would be a rare instance of India signing a potash supply contract with a major producer before China. Contracts with China usually set a price floor and benchmark for other markets. "China and India have delayed signing contracts for shipment by sea because of large inventories. But now stocks are declining and India may sign the deal with the producers this month," Uralkali head of sales Vladislav Lyan told a conference call, organised for analysts after the company posted its first-quarter sales. Both China and India, the world's biggest fertiliser consumers, usually sign their contracts for potash purchases earlier in the year. This year, deals were delayed by high stocks built up by farmers and by drought in India. Major suppliers to India also include Belarus Potash company, Potash Corp of Saskatchewan, Agrium Inc, Mosaic and K+S. Uralkali's previous contract with India was signed in May 2015 for twelve months and set potash supplies at 800,000 tonnes at $332 per tonne. Uralkali also told the call on Wednesday it expected 2016 production between 10.8 million and 11.2 million tonnes and capital expenditure at 22 billion roubles ($342 million). ($1 = 64.3244 roubles) (Reporting by Andrey Kuzmin and Natalia Shurmina; Writing by Polina Devitt; Editing by Mark Potter) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. NEW DELHI Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday rebutted an attack by a party colleague on his chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian. "The government has full confidence in chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian," Jaitley told a news conference in answer to a reporter's question, adding that his advice had been of "great value". Earlier, maverick right-winger Subramanian Swamy had demanded the sacking of Jaitley's top aide. It was Swamy who had led a campaign demanding the removal of Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan, who announced last weekend he would not seek a second term. (Reporting by Douglas Busvine; Editing by Manoj Kumar) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. NEW DELHI India successfully launched 20 satellites in a single mission on Wednesday, with most of them set to serve international customers as the South Asian country pursues a bigger share of the $300 billion global space industry. It was the most satellites India has put in space at one go, though Russia set the record of 37 for a single launch in 2014. Prime Minister Narendra Modi described the launch as "a monumental accomplishment" for the state-run Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Modi is bullish about India's space research programme and has repeatedly praised the efforts of scientists who two years ago pulled off a low-cost mission to send a probe to orbit Mars that succeeded at the first attempt. The launch of PSLV-C34, carrying 20 satellites in a single payload including the Cartosat-2 series satellite and 19 co-passenger satellites, was like "allowing birds to fly in space", ISRO chairman Kiran Kumar said. Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle or PSLV is India's workhorse launch vehicle, and has so far successfully carried 113 satellites, of which 74 were for international customers, ISRO said on its website. Of the satellites launched on Wednesday, all except three are for international customers, with the United States accounting for more than half. (Reporting by Malini Menon; Editing by Douglas Busvine and Simon Cameron-Moore) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. BAKSA, India (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Ask the farmers in remote Baksa district, in the northeast Indian state of Assam, whether they are affected by climate change and they usually respond with a look of surprise. Across much of India, farmers are struggling to adapt as their crops fail season after season as a result of increasingly unpredictable and often dry weather. But in Baksa, along Assams border with Bhutan, farmers have never seen their harvest ruined by drought or delayed rainfall, despite having no access to irrigation pipes or water pumps. Their secret is a 100-year-old indigenous irrigation system called dong bandh a network of canals that uses the downhill flow of the area's rivers and streams to bring water to villagers and their fields. Built, monitored and maintained by locals, the system gives the district's residents access to clean water even as droughts devastate many other areas of the country. "I have 1.6 hectares (3.9 acres) of cultivable land, and in that I cultivate rice, maize, and vegetables," said farmer Monindra Choudhury, 44, whose farm gets its water from the dong bandh in Okaladonga Barnadi Ashama Aranga. "I am able to grow three crops a year, and this is solely as a result of this irrigation network, he said. The district in the Bhutan foothills is particularly reliant on the rivers and streams that crisscross it, carrying water down from the hills, because digging for underground water is challenging in the area. "This area is rocky and it is very difficult to dig wells or install hand pumps," said Chakradhar Talukdar, a project officer with the non-profit Gramya Vikash Mancha (GVM), a rural development organization that is researching and documenting the traditional irrigation networks. So farmers a century or more ago found a way to make the land work for them. They built small dams on the rivers and routed the water through canals to their paddy fields and household ponds. Spread throughout an area of around 300 square kilometers (115 square miles), the dong bandh irrigation systems of Baksa serve around 149,000 farmers and 94,600 agricultural laborers, who use it to grow rice, maize, vegetables, tea, and betel nuts and leaves. "Our ancestors started this system of irrigation, and we are reaping the benefits," said farmer Monu Lahkar, 38. "I have 1.9 hectares (4.7 acres) of land, and though there are no irrigation facilities here I don't have any difficulty in cultivating it." IRRIGATION BY COMMITTEE Lahkar is secretary of the Okaladonga Barnadi Ashama Aranga Dong Bandh Committee, one of around 10 local groups responsible for making sure the water keeps flowing to the farms. The irrigation system uses canals dug from a nearby river and then smaller sub-channels that carry the water to fields and villages. The 50-member committees put one member in charge of each sub-canal, with the job of monitoring it every day and reporting to the committee about any damage or other issues. "The watchman inspects the canal and, if any repair is needed, immediately informs the committee president or secretary, and they in turn ask a member to go and repair it," said Talukdar. The committee takes those duties seriously: Any watchman who doesn't show up for work is fined 100 rupees ($1.47) a day. If a new household wants to join the network, it has to apply to the committee and pay a deposit of around $15. That money gets them a seat on the committee and access to the water. After that, every household that uses the system pays an annual fee of 40 kg (88 lb) of rice into the committee's coffers. Each year, the committee uses around 1,600 kg (3,500 lb) of the rice to pay the watchmen and committee secretary; everyone else works for free. Together, the committees and locals have restored much of the irrigation system, parts of which had been abandoned over its century of use. "Over 183.7 km (114 mi) of canals have been restored through cleaning and dredging work, which will benefit over 2,890 hectares (7,140 acres) of cultivable land," said GVM director Pritibhushan Deka. To make sure everyone gets the most out of the system, Deka said the GVM has helped form a central canal management committee to oversee the dong bandh network. Made up of 21 executive members from all the branch canal management committees, the central committee has formulated a constitution to help resolve any disputes regarding the distribution of water. GEOGRAPHY KEY While the dong bandh system was created before the world recognized the effects of climate change, people in Baksa see it as a prime example of how communities can work together to overcome the challenges of their environment. But how widely it could be used remains a question. Just over 100 kilometers away, villagers and farmers are still at the mercy of the rain. "We are fully dependent on rainfall for our cultivation, and we are hit badly when it is delayed or there is a drought," said Romesh Kalita, 52, a farmer in Koniha village, in neighboring Nalbari district. "Even if we hire a pump and get water, it isn't enough, he said. Asked if the dong bandh irrigation system that serves Baksa could benefit struggling areas like Nalbari, Talukdar said it depends on both the place and its people. "In Baksa, it is an ideal situation, with the landscape, the nearby rivers and the cooperation of the people," he said. "But elsewhere it might not be possible to create such a system." (Reporting by Amajyoti Borah; editing by Jumana Farouky and Laurie Goering :; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, climate change, women's rights, trafficking and property rights. Visit news.trust.org/climate) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Aveek Sarkar on Wednesday resigned as the editor-in-chief of Ananda Bazaar Patrika (ABP) and The Telegraph, reported News 18. Sarkar is known to be involved in the day-to-day functions of all the editions. The report added that Sarkar would continue as the chairman of the group. His brother Arup Sarkar took over as the new Group Chief Editor, a top company official said. The report added that Anirban Bhattacharya has been appointed as the new editor of the Ananda Bazaar Patrika and Rajagopalan as the editor of The Telegraph. Arup Sarkar was so long the Chief Editor (Bengali magazines) of the group. Anirban Chattopadhyay will be the new Editor of the largest circulated Bengali daily Ananda Bazar Patrika and the group's Bengali tabloid Ebela. R Rajagopal is the new Editor of The Telegraph, said ABP Chief Executive Officer and Managing Editor Dipankar Das Purkayastha. Aveek Sarkar would now play an advisory role as Editor (Emeritus) and vice chairman of the company. Sarkar announced his decision in the form of a brief note to employees, saying his resignation was part of a "succession plan". The move came in the backdrop of the group's stringent opposition to Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee and her party during the recent assembly polls which she won comfortably. However, Purkayastha said there was no connect between Sarkar's decision and the Trinamool. "He is 71 years old and wants to give a chance to others. This is the succession programme which is being implemented," said Purkayastha. Aveek Sarkar, one of the most prominent personalities in the Indian publishing scene, was tutored by the legendary Harold Evans, then the editor of The Sunday Times. He was the moving force behind the transformation of the ABP Group from a regional house into a prominent national group and also led the group's entry into television. In his book Paper Tigers, Nicholas Coleridge writes "Aveek Sarkar is India's most sophisticated newspaper proprietor...From his power base in Calcutta, Sarkar's sphere of influence is the entire eastern seaboard of India. 'Aveek can deliver the East,' a Delhi-based political lobbyist assured me." Just ahead of the West Bengal Assembly Election, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee attacked Sarkar during a campaign rally in Durgapur. According to The Hindu, Mamata called ABP the "most destructive element" in Bengal and said the organisation is conspiring against the Trinamool Congress-government in West Bengal. She even went ahead and challenged Sarkar to contest election against her. Mamata singled out Sarkar in her election campaign and alleged that he hobnobs with the diplomats of various countries and has been slandering Bengal. "He made it such that industrialists had to visit him before investing in Bengal. Today we have changed that completely with our transparent policy. So now he does not get anything, she had said. Firspost's Gouri Chatterjee had written in May, "Didi is not someone you can cross without fear of reprisal and Aveek Sarkar, with his largest circulating Bengali daily, the largest circulating English newspaper of the East, his stand-alone Bengali tabloid, his most popular Bengali news TV channel and more, has gone out on a limb criticising her governments and her partys innumerable sins of omission and commission." However, sources in ABP told News 18 that his resignation has nothing to do with the TMC. Here are some Twitter reactions to his resignation: Aveek Sarkar resigns as Telegraph supremo. Now everybody choppppppp pic.twitter.com/WZOBuZDrAU greatbong (@greatbong) June 22, 2016 #AveekSarkar resigns as Editor in chief of#ABPGroup; to continue as chairman subhendu ray (@subhenduray) June 22, 2016 Don't be amused if you see 'Amazing Irani' or 'Modi - the man of steel' headlines in The Telegraph from now onwards. #AveekSarkar Nomad (@_SandSurfer) June 22, 2016 With inputs from agencies New Delhi: BJP MP Kirit Somaiya on Wednesday demanded that the government of the party-ruled Rajasthan register a criminal case against firms linked to Robert Vadra in connection with a land deal. Somiaya, who has been targeting Vadra, on Wednesday wrote a letter to the Director General of Rajasthan Police, a day after the Enforcement Directorate issued a notice to a firm allegedly connected to the son-in-law of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi. "I would once again request the Rajasthan government's authorities concerned to register a criminal conspiracy case against Vadra group of companies," he said. Vadra has dismissed the charges against him. The ED issued the notice in connection with its probe into alleged money laundering in a land deal in Rajasthan's Bikaner district. Panaji: The Congress on Wednesday slammed Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar's recent criticism of a section of NGOs and green activists, and accused the former Goa chief minister of interfering in the state administration and matters of policy. Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters in Panaji, Congress spokesperson Trajano D'Mello said that as Leader of Opposition in the Goa legislative assembly, Parrikar in the past used to encourage NGOs to agitate, which in turn had brought development in the state to a "grinding halt" back then. "The defence minister's attack on NGOs, that they are objecting every development, is an absolute lie. He should remember that as Leader of Opposition he was encouraging them to agitate, was participating in agitations and brought development to a grinding halt," D'Mello said. Addressing a government function in Panaji on Monday, Parrikar said that NGOs backed by vested interests were filing cases in court against government projects and were delaying creation of infrastructure. "There are some professionals, who regularly file cases against government projects. That is why I urge state officials to take all the necessary environmental and other required clearances before starting work on a project, so that these so-called NGOs do not find the courage to file cases against us," Parrikar said. "This constant filing of cases against government projects has become a business. If we are wrong, punish us, but do not stop developmental projects unnecessarily," he said, adding that such habitual litigants should be "exposed". D'Mello claimed that Parrikar was now crying foul because his party is in power. "When he was doing it, it was to save Goa's destruction. But now when rampant destruction has started and has been objected to legally, he terms it as obstructing development," the Congress spokesperson said. Reacting to another comment by Parrikar about his non-interference in key state issues, like the contentious medium of instruction policy for state's schools, D'Mello said: "No one believes in Parrikar any more. He is and will continue to interfere in state government affairs." Republican Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder has signed into law a $617 million bailout package for debt-ridden Detroit Public Schools, going against the wishes of Detroit lawmakers, the districts teachers union, and the citys mayor. The package of bills, approved by the Republican-led legislature, will help pay off $467 million in operating debt and provide $150 million in start-up funding to create a debt-free district. This marks a new day for Detroit families, with DPS free from debt and strong accountability measures for all schools in the city that promises a brighter future for all of Detroits children, Snyder said in a prepared statement. Under the law, Detroiters will elect a new school board in November. Members would take office in January and hire a new superintendent. A finance review commission, established after the citys bankruptcy, would be expanded to provide oversight of the school district, which has been run by a series of state-appointed emergency managers since 2009. This legislation gives Michigans comeback city a fresh start in education, Snyders statement read. Now the residents of Detroit need to engage with their schools and help find good leaders who can provide the best possible chance of success for families in the city. Thats not how some Detroit residents see it. The bailout package does not include a proposed Detroit Education Commission, which would have regulated the location of traditional and charter schools in the city. Instead, the law calls for creation of a new advisory council that would produce non-binding recommendations on where schools are needed and study a potential citywide transportation system for all students. The bills, which Snyder signed Tuesday, also strengthen anti-strike provisions that could discourage, or prevent, teacher sickouts. It was the series of coordinated sickouts, where teachers called out sick en masse to protest their working conditions and compensation, that helped bring attention to the plight of the 46,000-student district. But plans to develop a merit pay system solely for the Detroit and allow noncertified teachers in the classroom appear to have hit closest to home for the teachers union. Rather than finding ways to attract and retain qualified and experienced teachers, this law now pretends that skill and knowledge means nothing, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, Detroit Federation of Teachers Interim President Ivy Bailey, and AFT Michigan President David Hecker said in a joint statement. By allowing noncertified teachers to enter the classroom, often in schools serving some of our most disadvantaged and vulnerable students, this legislation puts the students and families of Detroit at risk. A special Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) court on Wednesday granted bail to former Maharashtra minister and senior NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal and his nephew Sameer Bhujbal in the Maharashtra Sadan and Mumbai University library cases, reported Nabvbharat Times. "They both were produced in the court and were granted bail on a surety of Rs 50,000 each," PTI quoted Special Public Prosecutor Pradeep Gharat. However, according to The Financial Express, Bhujbal will continue to remain in judicial custody in the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) case against him. The case is likely to come up for hearing on 22 July. Bhujbal was arrested on 14 March on charges of money laundering under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) after the agency could establish the chain how the bogus deals and illicit funds funneled into the Bhujbal empire, reported Firstpost. The Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) prescribes rigorous imprisonment from three years to seven years in case an individual is found guilty. Both NCP leaders will face action as per the provisions of the PMLA if they are convicted by a court of law, a senior ED official told Firstpost on condition of anonymity. The ACB had chargesheeted 17 people, including the Bhujbals in February this year. It had filed a 20,000-page charge sheetconsisting of statements of over 60 witnesses. According to the ACB, the case was entirely based on documentary evidence, such as fund transfer and bank transactions. In the construction of Maharashtra Sadan in Delhi, contractors had "earned 80 percent profit,"while as per the government circular such contractors were entitled to "only 20 per cent gain", ACB officials alleged. They said that the books of accounts were "fudged" to show that the profit earned was only one percent. Officials had said that for construction of Maharashtra Sadan, Chamankar Associates, the contractor firm, had allegedly transferred money to Niche Infrastructure and other companies in which Pankaj and Sameer were the directors. The chargesheet said that most of the companies floated by the Bhujbals were in the name of employees and were used for siphoning off funds. Niche was earlier owned by some employees of Maharashtra Educational Trust, in which the Bhujbals later became directors. The ACB officials had earlier said that the original cost estimate for Maharashtra Sadan was Rs 13.5 crore, but later it was increased to Rs 50 crore. The Bhujbals got Rs 13.5 crore in kickbacks from the Chamankars who earned a profit of about Rs 190 crore from Maharashtra Sadan and other PWD works, they alleged. The ACB, had in June last year, registered two FIRs against Chhagan Bhujbal. The first one was related to alleged irregularities in allotment of a prime plot at Kalina in Mumbai to a developer. The second case was in connection with alleged rampant corruption and large-scale irregularities in the construction of the new Maharashtra Sadan, the state government's guest house in Delhi. With inputs from PTI President Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a host of Union Ministers on Wednesday congratulated Isro for the successful launch of a record 20 satellites. "Heartiest congratulations to Isro Team on successful launch of PSLV-C34 carrying a record 20 satellites #PresidentMukherjee", the President said in a tweet. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, "20 satellites in a go! @isro continues to break new barriers. Hearty congratulations to our scientists on the monumental accomplishment". "Our space programme has time and again shown the transformative potential of science and technology in people's lives", he said. "Over the years, we developed expertise & capability to help other nations in their space initiatives. This is the skill of our scientists", he said in another tweet. On the two Indian satellites launched by academic institutions, he said, "Saw with immense joy that students from institutions in Pune & Chennai played a role in the making of satellites. This touched me". "As a common citizen, was totally immersed in happiness to see our youngsters excelling & taking so much interest in science", Modi said. Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting, Rajyavardhan Rathore said, "#Isro launch of record 20 satellites is yet another indicator of India's growing space prowess. Congratulations to @isro and our scientists". "20 satellites in single mission. Thumbs up to entire #Isro team for devising novel engg. tech to make this possible", he said. Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Radha Mohan Singh said, "Congratulations Team @isro for launching 20 satellites in one go. 25th consecutive successful mission for #Isro". Minister of State Prime Minister's Office, Jitendra Singh said, "Congrats team #Isro. You have made it. Another milestone, another feather of glory. India is proud of you". Oklahoma has dumped a requirement that students take seven end-of-course tests, and pass four in order to graduate. Instead, it will require students to take a new exam to earn their diplomas. The new testing regimen is outlined in House Bill 3218 , which was signed last month by Gov. Mary Fallin. The law requires the state board of education to issue a request for proposals to build a new assessment system for grades 3-12 that would begin in the 2017-18 school year. The new tests must provide comparability with the scores of tests in other states, and at the high school level, must provide a measure of future academic performance, the law says. Students highest score on the high school test must be included on their transcripts as a signal of competence to future employers and higher education institutions. Depending on the availability of funding, Oklahoma may also offer a nationally recognized high school test free of charge to all students, the law said. As weve explained, the Every Student Succeeds Act, which replaced No Child Left Behind, permits states or districts to use a nationally recognized high school test such as the ACT or SAT as its test for federal accountability at the high school level. The language in Oklahomas law, however, doesnt say the state plans to use a college admissions test as its high school assessment. It says only that the state may offer such a test if theres enough money to do so. Half the states now require all students to take either the SAT or ACT, and a dozen use those tests for accountability . During the 2016-17 school year, Oklahoma high school students will have a reduced testing regimen: They will take exams in English/language arts, math, U.S. history, and science once during high school. See also: Istanbul: Before dawn in Istanbul, in the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. A turbaned Turkish cleric kneels on a prayer carpet and prepares to recite verses from the Koran. "In the name of God, the compassionate and the merciful " Nothing especially unusual except the cleric is reading not in a mosque but what is officially a museum. And the museum is the Hagia Sophia, one of the single most emblematic edifices of human civilisation. A masterpiece of architecture, the Hagia Sophia was first built as a church in the sixth century in the Christian Byzantine Empire. It was almost immediately converted into a mosque following the conquest of Constantinople by the Muslim Ottomans in 1453 with minarets built to flank its magnificent basilica. It became a secular museum in a key reform of the new post-Ottoman Turkish authorities under Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in the 1930s, making the Hagia Sophia universal heritage for peoples of all faiths. But critics have long accused the ruling Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of harbouring a hidden agenda to turn the Hagia Sophia back into a mosque as a symbol of Turkey's status as a majority Muslim nation. Last year, a Muslim cleric recited the Koran in the Hagia Sophia for the first time in 85 years to mark the opening of an exhibition. But this Ramadan the Turkish authorities have gone a step further, with the state TV religion channel Diyanet TV broadcasting every day of the month the Koran recitation by a different senior Turkish cleric, the most extensive use of the building for religious purposes since it became a museum. The recitation takes place at the time of suhur, the pre-dawn meal consumed by Muslims as they prepare for a day of fasting, hours before the thousands of tourists who sweep through the Hagia Sophia daily begin queueing outside the turnstiles. 'Lack of respect' The recitation, broadcast live on Diyanet TV, aroused a furious reaction from Greece, which for years has warily eyed what Athens sees a creeping Islamisation of the building. "This kind of obsession bordering on bigotry for holding Muslim ceremonies in a monument that belongs to the patrimony of humanity is incomprehensible and shows a lack of respect and contact with reality," Greeces ministry of foreign affairs said in a statement. Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias said he had written to the UN's cultural heritage agency UNESCO to complain about its use. US State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Washington "would encourage the Turkish government to preserve the Hagia Sophia in a way that respects its traditions and its complex history." But in a spiteful diplomatic row, Turkey's foreign affairs spokesman Tanju Bilgic said Greece's statement was "unacceptable" and said Athens should look more closely at its own record on religious freedoms. He said Greece has not given permission for the construction of a mosque in Athens for years, violated the religious freedoms of its remaining Muslim minority and "mistakes being against Islam for being modern." Some Turkish officials including a recent culture minister have voiced a desire to see the Hagia Sophia become a mosque again but this has never been an official policy. 'Why another mosque?' Erdogan had already caused some shudders when on 29 May he led a ceremony attended by hundreds of thousands complete with a aerobatic stunt display to celebrate the conquest of Constantinople. Both sides may want to keep the dispute in check however, given the relatively robust relations between Turkey's AKP government and Greek Premier Alexis Tsipras, particularly on the migration crisis. Turkey has also pleased Greece in recent years by offering greater respect for Orthodox traditions, including this year allowing Epiphany Day to be celebrated in the Aegean city of Izmir for the first time in over nine decades. But critics also point to a 13th century Byzantine church in the Black Sea city of Trabzon which was turned into a mosque in the sixteenth century and then became a museum in the 1960s. After a lengthy legal battle, Turkey's religious affairs authority took repossession of the building confusingly also called Hagia Sophia and in 2013 it was reopened again to Muslim believers. It is now the subject of restoration works which have raised concern about its Byzantine frescos. "As there are already three mosques in the area, why has the Hagia Sophia church also been turned into a mosque instead of being preserved as a historic monument?" asked Garo Paylan, MP for the opposition Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP). The story of Nivedita Joshi has been part of the Indian Yoga legend for quite some time now. However, what makes it inspirational even today is the fact that she is the perfect example of how the ancient Indian healing wisdom of yoga can bring back a person to full vitality, who had been bed-ridden and invalid for eight long years due to slip disc cervical spondylosis and had been given up by the cream of the global medical fraternity. Joshi, a microbiologist and an ardent disciple of noted yoga guru Padma Vibhushan BKS Iyengar, after recovering from her ailment at his Pune ashram, decided to dedicate herself to teaching yoga. Her institute, Yogakshema in Delhi, is the only one accredited by Iyengar Yoga Centre, where she follows the principles of her Guruji. As the need for daily yoga practice was underscored with the celebration of the International Day of Yoga on Tuesday, 21 June, Firstpost caught up with Joshi at her yoga centre. Excerpts from the interview: The world celebrated the second International Day of Yoga on Tuesday, for which credit goes to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had outlined the vision in 2014 at the UN General Assembly. Has the initiative paid off? Of course, its a very good effort and India has been successful in giving a positive message to the world about yoga. Who would tell the world about this ancient practice, if not India? Yoga took birth in this country only. Had not India taken this initiative, some day we would have seen some other country taking a patent on yoga! What does this often said statement yoga is not just about fitness but its a way of life mean? In fact, what we see the asans, the physical form of exercises, etc are by-products of yoga. The main product or the ultimate goal of yoga is self-realisation. Soul resides in a body and by practising yoga, you prepare your body for a higher goal in life. Yoga has become a generic term and people use it in common parlance to describe yoga asans and pranayams as yoga. What is the difference? There is a misunderstanding about yoga. Yoga means union of the soul with the Supreme Being (Atma with Parmatma). There are eight organs of yoga as enumerated by the greatest exponent of this science, sage Patanjali in his Yoga Sutra thousands of years ago Yama (universal morality), Niyama (personal observances), Asanas (body postures), Pranayam (control of life - Prana - through breathing exercises), Pratyahara (control of senses), Dharana (concentration by cultivating inner perceptual awareness), Dhyana (meditation through devotion) and Samadhi (union with the Divine). In India, Yama and Niyama are a part of our life and we grow up learning these. Pranayam is not just a breathing exercise. Yoga is a holistic system and not just about physical and breathing exercises. To master yoga, one needs to graduate step-by-step to reach the ultimate eighth step. Can practice of yoga make life better, especially when people are highly stressed including school-going children due to various factors, and suffer from life-style diseases? I would quote Patanjali, who in the 16th sutra of the second chapter said, Even if a person of lowest level practices Kriya yoga, benefits will come to him. Yoga acts both as preventive and curative, and if a patient, who is non-curable, will sail through by practicing yoga. In todays atmosphere, if one practices yoga regularly, one is bound to be benefited both physically and mentally. Guruji said, "Yoga teaches us to cure what need not be endured, and endure what cant be cured." People have been found to be advising every other person to do yoga or pranayam, especially when that person suffers from an ailment. Is it so easy or does it require specialised treatment through yoga based on medical findings? It is wrong to advise any patient to do yoga in a generic manner. In a medical case, we need to know which asan will be the right one for a particular patient, timing, duration of doing a particular asan and in a specific order (sequencing). Its a holistic process and only after following it, one gets result. Just reading about asans and doing them is dangerous. Similarly, people also advise others to do meditation to get rid of tension and stress. Whats your take on this? Its again a myth. Meditation is a state of mind and it just cant be attained by sitting silently with closed eyes. Sitting in silence doesnt mean meditation. Thinking is also silent talking. It needs a lot of hard work and practice to reach the stage of meditation. How can you even concentrate, if your body is not prepared to sit comfortably for a period of time and feels uneasy? Here the eight organs of Patanjali matter. Unfortunately, the word meditation has become a common jargon. A lot of politics happened around yoga, especially when the NDA government started propagating it in a big way during the first International Yoga Day in 2015. Is yoga restricted to Hindus alone or does it have any Hindutva element? Can a non-religious, non-spiritual person or one from any other faith practice yoga? There is a small group that criticises yoga due to vested interests vis-a-vis the large following it has. This is a common human trait, whenever something gains popularity, criticism becomes a part of it. Without knowing yoga and tasting its fruits, some people try to create a negative perception. Had yoga not been of such importance, the UN General Assembly wouldnt have endorsed it as an International Day. And the practice of yoga has nothing to do with any particular religion. Doesnt a non-Hindu suffer from ailments or mental stress? Doesnt one like to live a happy and healthy life? Branding yoga as a Hindutva element is wrong, though its a fact that it was codified by sage Patanjali into 196 Sutras, based on Lord Brahmas concept. Anyone who wants to live a healthy and good life can practice yoga. Had it not been the case, people from the West wouldnt have been gaga over it. Can yoga be helpful in de-addiction given the fact that there is a tremendous rise in consumption of alcohol and drugs even among teenagers in our country? It has been proven time and again through medical research and the results are in public domain. Medical research in the US shows that drug addict teenagers, who were treated with medicines and yoga responded much better and permanently than those who took only medicines. If children in India are properly exposed to yoga in schools, there would be a decline in addictions and negative emotions like anger, hatred, jealousy, etc. Because, yoga helps one to systematically get rid of it, as Patanjali said yoga purifies the mind and brings contentment. What is the specialty of Iyengar school of yoga, which you follow in your institution? Guruji (Yogacharya BKS Iyengar) without diluting the yoga sutras, improvised and simplified the asans. Keeping in mind the physical conditions of medically ill people, who cant perform exercises, he invented props and equipment, and became the first one to do so. Like in my case, my limbs couldnt work, but I was made to do asans through improvised methods. Instead of performing Trikonasan on standing posture, Guruji improvised it on a lying posture. Effects are the same in both the methods. Do terms like power yoga, hot yoga, soft Hatha yoga, etc really exist in our yogic practice? Its absurd and a joke. Yoga itself is powerful as it unifies soul with the Supreme, consciousness with super-consciousness. So why prefix power or hot? Is the western world more aware and takes initiative in the practice of yoga compared to India? In the west, they use yoga for physical fitness not for spiritual fulfillment. But they are aware of the benefits of yoga. For Indians, yoga is a medium that unites the cells of soul and cells of skin with the higher state of cosmic energy. Are you working on any book, besides teaching yoga? I already have a book Yogikasparsh for visually-challenged students in Braille for teaching yoga. This manual was prepared along with 11 scientists from IIT using tactile technology. Ill start working on a new book after I get back to India from a two-month educational and training tour. New Delhi: The AAP on Tuesday took out a candle march at Jantar Mantar to protest against the killing of NDMC estate officer MM Khan and demanded arrest of East Delhi MP Maheish Girri and NDMC vice-chairman Karan Singh Tanwar, alleging the involvement of two BJP leaders in the case. "It is unfortunate that the Delhi Polic has given them a clean chit when proofs have been presented against them. We hope that the Delhi Police arrests the two leaders," AAP's Delhi unit convenor Dilip Pandey said. AAP's Okhla MLA Amanatullah was also present. Pandey said the party will stand by Khan's family. 57-year-old Khan was shot dead on 16 May, a day before he was scheduled to pass the final order on a hotel's lease terms. The owner of a four-star hotel Ramesh Kakkar has been arrested in the case. Mumbai: Leader of Opposition in Maharashtra Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil alleged on Tuesday that the BJP-led state government was conducting a "pseudo probe" in the case of purchase of the MIDC land near Pune by former revenue minister Eknath Khadse. "The government is conducting a pseudo probe in the Khadse (MIDC land) case. We had demanded inquiry by a sitting judge of high court under the Commissions of Inquiry Act," Vikhe-Patil said. "However, the government announced inquiry by a retired judge and the Chief Minister gave him a clean chit during a party meet in Pune even before the inquiry began. All this shows that it is a pseudo probe," he said. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had announced in Mumbai on Monday that a judicial committee of a retired Bombay High Court judge will probe the purchase of the MIDC land by Khadse. Khadse, the seniormost BJP leader, had to resign earlier this month over the controversial deal wherein he had purchased three-acre plot at Bhosari, believed to be owned by the state Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) in name of his kin for Rs 3.75 crore as against the market price of Rs 40 crore. Recently, Fadnavis had also said that he was confident that Khadse would emerge clean from this "Agnipariksha" test by fire), against the backdrop of a string of allegations against him. In the wake of CBI arresting Sanatan Sanstha member Virendra Tawade in rationalist Narendra Dabholkar murder case, Vikhe Patil demanded that the government should ban the Hindu right-wing organisation. "Why is the government delaying the decision when almost everyday shocking revelations are being made regarding the organisation's involvement in murder of rationalists like Dabholkar and (Govind) Pansare," he said. The Congress leader also criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for choosing Chandigarh to hold the main event to mark the second International Yoga Day on Tuesday. The decision to go to Chandigarh is "political", Vikhe Patil said, adding, "Modi should have come to Marathwada instead." New Delhi: Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Wednesday took a dig at the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for giving out the news of sending a notice to a firm linked to her husband Robert Vadra in connection with its probe into alleged money laundering in a land deal in Rajasthan's Bikaner district. "Apparently, we have received it at 4 pm Wednesday but you received it before us," Priyanka told reporters here. A notice has been issued to the firm M/s Skylight Hospitality under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) seeking certain financial statements and other documents, official sources said. Earlier on Wednesday, the ED had issued a notice to a firm linked to Robert Vadra, son-in-law of Congress President Sonia Gandhi, in connection with its probe into alleged money laundering in a land deal in Rajasthan's Bikaner district. Official sources said the notice has been issued to the firm Ms Skylight Hospitality under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The company has been asked to submit certain financial statements and other documents to the Investigating Officer (IO) of the case, the sources said. The ED had conducted extensive searches in this case in Rajasthan and other places last month and had claimed to have seized a number of documents. The probe is related to the purchase of 275 bigha land allegedly by the company in the Kolayat area of the border town of Bikaner. The central probe agency had registered a criminal case of money laundering in this case last year on the basis of FIRs filed by the state police after the local tehsildar had made a complaint. The ED has not mentioned the name of Vadra or any company linked to him in the FIR but it named some state government officials and some of the "land mafia". While filing the case, it had also taken cognisance of reports that had referred to a firm allegedly linked to Vadra which had purchased some of these Bikaner located lands. Vadra has denied any wrongdoing even as Congress party called the action "sheer political vendetta". The agency had conducted similar searches in the case in Delhi last year. Rajasthan government had in January last year cancelled the mutation (transfer of land) of 374.44 hectares of land, after the land department claimed to have found that the allotments were made in the names of "illegal private persons". The tehsildar had said in the complaint that the government land in 34 villages of Bikaner, to be used for expanding the army's firing range in the area, was "grabbed" by the land mafia by preparing "forged and fabricated documents" in connivance with government officials. ED suspects that huge amounts of money was laundered in this case by people buying land at cheap rates through forged documents. The state government had, while cancelling the mutations, said these were not issued by the Commissioner, Colonisation, Bikaner. The state police had also filed charge sheets in the 18 cases in a court in Kolayat last year. Nagpur: NCP on Tuesday accused the BJP-led NDA governments at the Centre and Maharashtra of "miserably" failing to fulfil the promises made in run up to the Lok Sabha elections. "Both the governments have miserably failed to provide any relief to the common people and to oblige the promises they had made during the election campaign two years back," senior NCP leader Dilip Walse Patil told reporters. He also accused the NDA governments of failing to rein in the rise in prices of essential commodities. "Central government has completely failed to control the rising prices of essential commodities, particularly pulses, while the state (Maharashtra) government has failed to handle the drought-like situation and provide any relief to the cotton growers and restrict the farmers suicides," the former Speaker of Legislative Assembly said. Walse Patil said the Narendra Modi government has indulged in "saffronisation" of education instead of concentrating on improving the quality of education. "The agriculture production and the industrial output are on the decline and people are still waiting for Rs 15 lakh which they were promised would get deposited in their savings account," he said referring to BJP's then Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi's poll promise of repatriating the black money stashed abroad. Walse Patil said the state government has failed to give the high remunerative prices to cotton. "The government has also failed to curb suicides of farmers in Vidarbha and Marathwada regions. The law and order situation is worsening," he alleged. He said farmers in Maharashtra are still awaiting waiver as well as restructuring of crop loans. Walse Patil was recently appointed as the Nagpur district in-charge of party affairs ahead of the civic body elections. "NCP is gearing up to contest the forthcoming civic elections across the state on its own. But the final decision on alliance with Congress or other like-minded parties dependson our party leadership," he added. To a query, the senior politician dismissed any possibility of NCP supporting the BJP government in state if its alliance partner Shiv Sena were to withdraw support. He said Congress is "natural ally" of NCP. New Delhi: BJP leader Subramanian Swamy on Wednesday met Home Minister Rajnath Singh, two days after he joined a protest with Lok Sabha member Maheish Girri who was demanding proof from Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on the allegations that he was involved in a murder. Sources said it was an one-on-one meeting and what transpired in the 20-minute discussion was not known immediately. Swamy had recently said that after outgoing RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was his next target. "I was after (Raghuram) Rajan and now he is gone. In this, too, I will tell the government to remove him (Kejriwal). He has been made by the Congress," claimed Swamy. On Monday, Swamy had written a letter to President Pranab Mukherjee requesting his urgent intervention "in the state of affairs in the administration of Delhi." "Although the Constitutional provisions of the so-called state of Delhi are well defined, nevertheless, the Chief Minister is acting in reckless regard of all the Constitutional provisions.There appears to be a complete break-down of any semblance of governance in the NCT of Delhi. The AAP is functioning in a highly arbitrary, unreasonable and mala fide manner," he wrote to the President, seeking his intervention. New Delhi: Tina Dabi, the topper of civil services examination, and Jammu and Kashmir's Athar Aamir Ul Shafi Khan have been given the prestigious Indian Administrative Service (IAS). The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has allocated various services to 902 successful candidates. Of them, 178 have got IAS, 138 Indian Police Service (IPS), 43 Indian Forest Service (IFS) while 543 others have been allocated different Group 'A' & 'B' services. Delhi-based Tina, Khan and Jasmeet Singh Sandhu, also a Delhiite, have been allocated the IAS, the DoPT said. While Tina topped the 2015 civil services examination, Khan and Sandhu secured second and third position respectively. Now, candidates allocated to Group A services can be nominated for Foundation Course at Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) in Mussoorie, it said. The civil services examination is conducted annually in three stages preliminary, main and interview to select candidates for IAS and IPS, among others. One thousand and seventy eight candidates 499 in General category, 314 belonging to Other Backward Classes, 176 from Scheduled Castes and 89 from Scheduled Tribes had qualified in the test result of which was declared on 10 May. There are 172 candidates in the waiting list. Over the course of the recently-concluded presidential primary season much digital ink was spilled over the fact that the candidates just werent, to the eyes of many observers, saying enough about education. Sure, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders sparred over the particulars as they debated the best way to bring down the cost of collegeshould it be tuition free or debt free?but a lot of what we heard was either factually incorrect, buried in platitudes, or simply unhelpful. Especially on one side of the proverbial aisle. There are probably a lot of reasons for this, but one underexplored explanation might be that we have low-information politicians, or LIPs, in our midst. These are like low-information voters (LIVs), who happen to be voters energized to participate in the political process but who are generally not well informed about the issues or the candidates proffering solutions to our social problems. Not that that stops them from voting. When too many low-information voters vote for low-information politicians we end up with low-information government. Obviously thats not good. See, low-information politicians, like their voting counterparts, tend to be cynical, self-centered, vain, superficial characters more interested in winning than they are in doing whats right. When they dont have the information they need to have to take reasonable policy positions on important issues, politicians are likely to do what most of us would do: say as little as possible and try to move on to the next question before offending anybody. (These rules dont apply to Trump, of course; his goal, apparently, is to offend everybody before moving on, especially when he doesnt know enough to take a reasonable position on an issue. Hes a special case.) But theres another way to look at it. Imagine presidential candidates being asked to take a position on how doctors should treat their patients, or how judges should sentence criminals, or how pilots should fly their planes. Imagine, too, that they were expected to propose sweeping reforms to instantiate their prerogatives. Sounds a little ridiculous, doesnt it? We tend to assume reflexively that doctors, lawyers, and pilots dont need the president to tell them how to do their jobs. Theyre professionals, right? They should know how to do them. Not teachers. We tend to think that everyone has a valid opinion on education, up to and including people who are running for president, but I cant think of another class of people that is less attuned to the day-to-day challenges of teaching than presidential candidates are. In the first place, presidential candidates tend to be oldtheir last experience in school was probably ages ago. In the second place, theyre almost always men, while most teachers are women. And, finally, if they even have children its increasingly unlikely that those children ever spent any time in a public school classroom, and even less likely that the candidate ever attended a PTA meeting, a parent-teacher conference, or a bake sale. The last president to send his kid to a public school while he was president was Jimmy Carter, who left office when I was 6. That tells you how rare it is. The point is that maybe we shouldnt be asking people who cant fully grasp the work educators do to provide detailed policy solutions to the problems educators face. The job of the government, where education is concerned, is to provide physical and financial resources to ensure that every child gets a chance at a quality education. Thats more than enough responsibility right there. In other words, I think it would make sense to acknowledge that the people running for president (and for other public offices) probably know a lot less about education than they think they do. That, of course, isnt going to stop them from expressing their opinions and passing laws about it. But it does reiterate the point that teachers and other education professionals would be in a much stronger position to advocate for the things that matter if they spoke with a more unified sense of purpose about educational issues. Traditionally, the role of teachers unions has been to organize those efforts, to speak on behalf of teachers, at least, and therefore try to influence the way education policies are shaped and framed. Is that still working for most teachers? Im not prepared to say it is or isnt, one way or the other, but I do wonder about the efficacy of applying a 19th- and 20th-century labor model to the work of teaching in the 21st century. I want to see teaching become more agile and flexible as a profession. Im not sure if traditional unions enable us to do that or not. The larger point is that we have to fight on the terrain that exists, not the terrain as we wish it existed. The people who have clamored to reform education in the past forty years have done it by extolling choice, by playing to peoples economic and racial fears, and by criticizing public schools as government schools. The answer to that has been largely to double down on traditional ways of doing things, which makes teachers seem out of touch and even tone deaf to a lot of people outside of education. That is, at least, to people who shape public opinion and make decisions about the policies well pursue. If weve lost the ability to influence them, then there isnt much reason to think we can turn the tide of reform in a positive direction. And that should bring teachers back to the thing they know best: educating people. How well do local representatives, state bureaucrats, and school board members really understand the work that happens in schools everyday? We need to do a better job of educating our low-information politicians (and maybe our low-information voting neighbors) about what education is actually good for. The point of public school is to help immature people make the transition to becoming thoughtful adults ready to engage in social life and the political process. The skills and dispositions people need to do that overlap in some ways with the generic job-oriented skills we want them to have, but not always. They include learning how to make a good decision when confronted with conflicting information and how to make the right decision when confronted with a moral choice. They include understanding why rules exist, but also when and why they should be resisted. They include being responsible to the people you work with by showing up to work on time, but also being responsible to everyone else by showing up to vote and doing your homework before you do. I think we need to bring our low-information politicians back to school. Lets help them understand what public schools are actually for. Otherwise well just keep getting LIP service, and we could definitely do without that. London: A record number of voters have registered for Britain's EU membership referendum on Thursday with 46.5 million people signed up to cast their ballots, the body overseeing the vote said. "The provisional size of the UK and Gibraltar electorate indicates a UK record of 46,499,537," the Electoral Commission said in a statement on Tuesday. The previous record was in last year's general election when the number was 46,354,197. As with British parliamentary elections, Irish citizens living in Britain a population estimated at around 500,000 people are allowed to vote. Commonwealth citizens, including nationals of European Union member states Cyprus and Malta, can also vote. The commission said 24,117 people had registered in Gibraltar. The deadline for registering was 7 June but this was extended by two days after a rush of last-minute sign-ups caused the official registration website to crash. Around 132,000 of the 525,000 people who did successfully register on 7 June were aged under 25, compared to around 13,000 from the 65 to 74 age group. Opinion polls have shown a clear generational divide, with younger voters more in favour of staying in the EU while older voters tend to favour a Brexit. Younger people are also traditionally seen as less likely to vote, meaning that high registration numbers could favour the "Remain" side. Damascus: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Wednesday named electricity minister Imad Khamis as the new prime minister of the war-ravaged country. Assad tasked Khamis with forming a new government, the official news agency SANA reported. He is to submit his proposal for new ministerial appointments in the coming days. The 54-year-old engineer replaces Wael al-Halqi who had held the post since August 2012. The changes come two months after Assad's Baath party and its allies won a majority of seats in parliamentary elections dismissed internationally as a sham. Khamis had served as Syria's minister of electricity since 2011 and is an electrical engineer by trade. Since March 2012, he has been sanctioned by the European Union, which accuses him of sharing "responsibility for the regime's violent repression against the civilian population." Syria's conflict began in 2011 with widespread protests demanding reform but has since escalated into a bloody civil war that has left 280,000 people dead. According to the government, production of electricity has more than halved since the beginning of the crisis. PARIS France's government said on Wednesday that trade unions could hold a protest march in Paris after earlier telling police to ban the demonstration, reversing course under fire from union bosses and dissenters in the ruling Socialist Party. Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said he had personally ordered the ban but then decided to allow Thursday's protest against plans to loosen labour laws after an emergency meeting with the unions. "No violence will be tolerated," said Cazeneuve. The ban would have been the first outlawing of a union-organised demonstration since 1962. Violence on the fringes of recent protests has stretched a police force already challenged by the demands of a state of emergency in place since Islamist militant attacks on Paris last November and fan violence during the Euro 2016 tournament. The initial decision to ban the march sparked instant condemnation from lawmakers across the political divide and stirred tensions within the deeply divided Socialist Party. Philippe Martinez, leader of the hardline CGT union, claimed "a victory for unions" and sought to press home the advantage with a call for direct talks with Hollande over the government's plans to make it easier to hire and fire workers. "The president has no other choice but to meet with the unions, and quickly," Martinez told a news conference. Trade unions say the proposed reforms would erode the rights of workers and want the draft bill scrapped, while the government says it is key to tackling unemployment which is running at 10 percent. Hollande and his government are standing firm against union demands, even though opinion polls show he is France's most unpopular leader in decades. "We will press on with this bill ... and it will be adopted because it is in the country's interest," Prime Minister Manuel Valls told lawmakers. But Frederic Dabi of pollster Ifop said Wednesday's compromise over the protest could spur hopes for a broader agreement on the draft law which is currently being debated in the Senate. "French voters don't like the law but they also want this to be over with. They consider the government and the unions are both responsible for the stalemate," Dabi said, adding the government U-turn on the ban showed how tense the situation was. Cazeneuve authorised a 1.5 km (1 mile) loop around a waterway at the foot of the Place de la Bastille square. A police union official said ensuring security would be manageable as long as officers had the authority to arrest known troublemakers on sight and to usher crowds out of the area once they had completed the circuit. Karine Berger, a Socialist lawmaker who has been critical of the government's policies, said on Twitter: "We're back to what French democracy should be like." Backbench lawmaker Christian Paul had earlier said Valls was making "a historical mistake" with the ban, highlighting the rifts within the Socialist Party year ahead of presidential and legislative elections. The last union-organised protest march to be banned in France -- against the war in Algeria -- was in 1962. The ban was defied, leading to clashes with police in which nine people died, eight of them CGT members. (Additional reporting by Richard Lough, Simon Carraud, Gerard Bon and Emile Picy; Writing by Richard Lough and Brian Love; Editing by Catherine Evans) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. CA Lawmakers May Redefine Rape After Stanford Sex Assault Case California's definition or rape could change thanks to the recent case of Brock Turner, sometimes referred to in the media as "The Stanford Rape Case." But that is technically a misnomer, as Turner was not charged with or convicted of rape. Rather, he was convicted of three counts of sexual assault and what he did was not rape under California law. That's one reason why lawmakers are talking about changing the definition of rape in this state, according to CBS News in Sacramento. Let's consider the issue. The Stanford Sexual Assault Last month, Brock Turner was sentenced to six months in jail and three years on probation for assaulting a woman passed out on the Stanford University campus. He was convicted of three counts of sexual assault (including with intent to commit rape). Turner penetrated the woman with a finger, without her consent, which in some states and under federal law can be rape but is not in California. The FBI defines rape as "penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim." But California defines rape as and "an act of sexual intercourse" so what Turner did was not rape in this state, although it might have been elsewhere. What's In a Word? Now California lawmakers who feel Turner was not severely enough punished for his crime want to change the definition of rape. "I'm upset, I'm angry," said Assemblyman Mike Gatto, who says Turner should have had a much more severe sentence and that he is acting on behalf of victims. But there is some question about whether Gatto's approach will make a difference. Does changing definitions really help victims, as the lawmaker claims? What is the appropriate approach to these sexually violent crimes -- after all, there was a time when calling rape by the term sexual assault seemed progressive and positive for victims. Now that is no longer the case and people say rape is the more effective word. The term sexual assault refers to all kinds of unwanted sexual contact, from the mild to the severe. It is a term that, according to Vox, was introduced in the 1960s to replace rape, a word thought to carry too much cultural baggage. Unlike rape, the phrase sexual assault indicates no passion, just serious, unprovoked crime. Under the Umbrella Assemblyman Gatto, along with Assembly members Cristina Garcia and Susan Eggman, propose to expand the California definition of rape to include "more sexually offensive actions under the umbrella of rape," according to CBS News. Gatto says that prosecutors and judges can punish rape suspects more efficiently if the bill passes and that, most importantly, this will help to get justice for the victims. Talk to a Lawyer If you or someone you know has been accused of a crime, don't delay to talk to a defense attorneys. Many criminal defense lawyers consult for free or a minimal fee and will be happy to assess your case. Related Resources: TOKYO Campaigning for an election to Japan's upper house of parliament begins on Wednesday, as surveys give Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ruling bloc the lead, despite doubts about his growth policies and desire to revise the post-war pacifist constitution. Abe's coalition is in no danger of losing power in the election but he needs a solid win to keep his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) lawmakers in line and perhaps stay on another three years after his tenure as LDP president expires in 2018. Abe is casting the July 10 election for half the seats in the 242-member chamber as a referendum on his decision to delay a planned hike in an unpopular sales tax and his "Abenomics" recipe of hyper-easy monetary policy, spending and reform. "Our policies have had some success, but we are still only halfway to where we want to be," Abe said in a televised debate on Tuesday. "I want to accelerate Abenomics, shift up two or three gears and make sure the economy is growing." Media surveys show about twice as many voters plan to vote for Abe's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) as for the main opposition Democratic Party, but also show support for Abe and his party slipping amid growing doubt that his efforts to revive the economy are working. Turnout is expected to be weak after hitting a record low of 52.6 percent in a 2013 upper house vote. About 2.4 million Japanese aged 18 and 19 will be able to vote for the first time, but surveys suggest the turnout of this group will be lower than among their parents and grandparents. The expected victory for the ruling bloc is thus more likely to be a vote of no-confidence in the opposition than a groundswell of support for Abe and his policies. "Abenomics is not working out well and Abe's security policies are not popular. You'd think he'd be vulnerable," said Jeffrey Kingston, director of Asia studies at Temple University's Japan campus. "But the opposition is weak and discredited, and even though they will be cooperating, I don't think it will make a big difference." Some analysts, however, said the LDP could lose some of the 51 seats it held among those up for grabs, thanks to a historic move by opposition parties to join hands. The Democratic Party and three smaller parties, including the Japanese Communist Party, are backing unified candidates in 32 single-seat districts, and have support from grassroots civic groups opposed to Abe's hawkish security policies and drive to revise the constitution. But regaining public trust is a tough task for the Democrats after a 2009 to 2012 tenure many remember for infighting and unkept promises. "The Democratic Party is the only opposition party that has experience governing and can learn from its mistakes and change," its policy chief, Shiori Yamao, told Reuters, adding that it was also drawing on the energy of women and the youth. "We are becoming a party that cannot only take power but govern properly, so please believe in us again." Abe has set a target for his coalition of winning a majority of the 121 seats being contested. [L4N19C1PI] The premier has said the ruling bloc hopes to win a two-thirds majority with like-minded opposition parties to open the path to revising the postwar pacifist constitution, but has recently played down that target. Surveys show a majority of voters see no need to change the charter, which conservatives see as an obstacle to beefing up defence and a humiliating symbol of defeat in World War Two. (Additional reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto and Stanley White; Editing by Clarence Fernandez) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. The news reached epidemic proportions a few hours earlier today with journalists calling to ask if I (and many others) now thought that Indian entrepreneurship was dealt a terrible blow with Nikesh Aroras resignation from Softbank. Especially after he got what we like to call a clean chit from an independent body on allegations raised against him. No. One mans resignation letter to his boss does not an Indian start-up disaster make. Keep calm, folks. Lets focus on what the resignation was about. It seems, from reading between the lines on what both parties have said is that the terms of Nikeshs employment had changed. Earlier, he was the heir apparent to Masayashi Son at Softbank. Id assume there was a clear agreement on a timetable to the ascension and coronation. But then there was a hue and cry about financial irregularities and bad judgment calls that the Softbank board had to investigate given its a public company and all. And the investigation came back with an all clear on the financial irregularities part. So theres no integrity issue. As far as the other issue bad judgment calls go, I assume the Softbank India portfolio hasnt been doing well lately. Now, a 18-month track record isnt enough to judge an investor. Sometimes funds do come in at the top of the market only to see the whole market fall away from beneath their feet. That could be luck, or it could be a bad thesis. You probably should see how someone does over 10 years before judging them as a VC. And Nikesh Arora had not even spent two years as one. (Not that this stopped The Times Of India and Economic Times from giving him some random 'Investor of the Year' and 'Indian of the Year' type of awards.) Nevertheless, that red on the portfolio mark-to-market could have spooked some impatient board members. So then perhaps the Chairman decided that his heir-apparent needed a lot more time 5 or 10 years or more - in waiting before gaining the throne. Which may have come as a breach of contract to our man Nikesh, and who then probably decided that he didn't want to take more of this scrutiny for this length of time, and decided to move on. This isn't an indictment of India and its startups. Its a guy resigning from a job. Thats all. Sure, it was a highly paid job. His reported annual salary was more than what many Indian funds invest over 10 years in startups. But so what. And he may have made a few bad calls. But so what, we all have made many of those. In this case specifically, he came to India with a $2 billion war chest and sprayed the money across a few companies. The portfolio comprises hugely-funded, and perhaps even over-funded start-ups and theyre not all shining stars right now. Ola has seen Uber catch up with it and start to slowly draw ahead. Oyo went through a ridiculous non-merger with Zo Rooms and has faced flak that it puts out Ponzi accounting numbers. Snapdeal and the other Indian e-com giants have faced downward valuation pressures. Housing.com, well, the less said the better. And InMobi aint what it used to be. So Im assuming the pink of health that the Softbank India portfolio displayed just 6 months ago is less pink and more red these days. But that doesnt mean the India story is dead. Quite the contrary. Sure, we hit Peak Valuations last year. And Flipkart is trying desperately not to take that 50% haircut from its $15 billion value last year. But thats not because theres anything wrong with India. Its just because these firms were wrongly and ridiculously over-valued in the first place. Softbank was one of the folks who graciously threw large truckloads of money at our me-too businesses. But they werent alone. Tiger did that. So did Accel. And Sequoia. And Alibaba. And J P Morgan. And dozens of other funds. Theyre all writing down valuations. And thats the right thing to do. Because the numbers will go up again, over time, with actual user growth and actual profit growth. At which point valuations will go up again. Our GDP is growing strongly, despite some belief that the governments quoted numbers have as much credibility as Oyos quoted revenues. More entrepreneurs are being created every day. More people buy online. More people have credit cards. More e-governance is happening. More angels are backing businesses. The genies out of the bottle. Its not going back in. So whats the difference now? Sure, we have fewer of what we call the Bangalore model companies whose modus operandi was copy-paste from US, get big funding, and do bigger topi. And we have more of reality and rationality in startups now. And more real innovation happening. Were seeing companies come up in sectors other than motorbike-based delivery, or as we call it, food tech. Were seeing more older entrepreneurs, and more younger ones. And more female entrepreneurs. Investors are actually talking about firms going public. Earlier they just depended on the circular you-give-my-investee-a-3X-on-series-B-i-will-give-yours-the same. Now theyre actually looking for real exits. This de-horning of our unicorns is a good thing. Its never healthy to live under a delusion. It may take another boom-and-bust cycle for the get-rich-quick mentality to go away and for us to get back to the more viable get rich slow. But its happening. This de-valuation is sour medicine we have to take, to bring us back to our senses. And its making us healthier. Back to Mr. Arora So what of the chest-beating and wailing over the loss of an invaluable supporter of the Indian startup scene. Well, some of that was understandably from the overfunded ones. They would say that, wouldn't they? The easy mark and the easy money has perhaps gone away. Hard work actually has to be done now perhaps. But Nikesh is unlikely to do badly from this. His last salary was somewhere in the Rs. 100 crore a month range, and hell land on his feet. Hes an accomplished professional, and hell do well wherever he lands next. And hopefully he doesnt need to wait another 5 years like Softbanks Son wanted him to, to become a big boss himself. The balls not in his court. Its in ours. These cycles happen. I guess our steel and infrastructure companies saw that happening too, under Raghuram Rajans watch. The funny money has gone. Its time to work truer. And to work harder. That's all. Oh yes, and to keep calm about it all. (This article was first published on LinkedIn . Mahesh Murthy is a commentator, investor and marketer. He tweets @MaheshMurthy) PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. On the morning before the massacre at Orlandos Pulse gay nightclub, shooter Omar Mateen drastically altered his appearance, shaving his head and face, and seemed agitated and surly, said an acquaintance who saw him that day. Mateen also talked about staying up all night to do online research into anti-psychosis medication, the acquaintance said in a interview. The acquaintance requested anonymity, saying authorities had asked him to keep quiet. The 29-year-old gunman, who killed 49 people and wounded 53 in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, called himself an "Islamic soldier" and pledged allegiance to the Islamic State militant group before being fatally shot by police after a three-hour siege. The FBI would not comment on the acquaintances remarks, but several senior U.S. sources told Reuters the investigation was moving more toward the belief that Mateen's motives were personal rather than political. "It looks increasingly like this may have been the act of a seriously troubled individual whose personal problems dwarfed any last-minute inspiration from radical groups," said a senior U.S. official familiar with the investigation, speaking on condition of anonymity. Authorities believe Mateen, a U.S. citizen of Afghan descent, was self-radicalised and acted alone in the rampage. He seems to have been a troubled youth, disciplined dozens of times in school and had his aspirations to become a policeman dashed when he was expelled from the academy. The acquaintance, a resident at the PGA Village in Port St. Lucie, Florida, where Mateen worked as a gate security guard, said he noticed signs of deteriorating behaviour a few weeks before the massacre. He had passed the gate for three years, meeting Mateen several times a week and exchanging friendly small talk. About three weeks before the attack, he noticed Mateen seemed agitated and asked him if he was all right. Mateen said he was worn out from staying up all night to research psychiatric medication, although he did not say he was taking specific drugs. Hed been real worried about whether or not hed slipped into psychosis," the acquaintance said. He wasnt as friendly. He was obsessed with researching medication online. The acquaintance said he thought it was strange that Mateen would confide to him his concerns about his mental health, because they were not very close and he did not know anything about Mateen's personal life, including whether he was married or had children. "The last month, he looked worried, he looked upset, he looked confused," the acquaintance said. "He didnt seem himself." In the early morning, about 18 hours before the June 12 attack, the acquaintance said he drove up to the gate but Mateen was not there to open it as usual. In a couple of minutes, he appeared, silent and with a completely transformed look - a shaved head and face, without his usual short whiskers and glasses. When asked if he was OK, the usually polite Mateen responded: Whats it to you, anyway?" (Additional reporting by Jon Walcott and Mark Hosenball in Washington; Editing by Peter Cooney) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. The business world is currently hooked on to conversations around Nikesh Arora. Many know who Nikesh Arora is. Many dont. But many more would now discover him as one of the three highest salaried executives in the world. There are richer people, but theyre entrepreneurs. When someone is paid close to Rs 500 crore per year in annual remuneration, you simply cant ignore them. Its also only natural for them to go on to become inspirational figures for millions of budding entrepreneurs far beyond the Silicon Valley. However, with heroes come another risk. Admirers dont quite like it when the lives of their heroes take a sudden turn. When things dont quite go the way they are expecting it to. And the wide world out there has a long list of personalities who have been through journeys of all kinds. Recently, we all read the story of Rahul Yadav, the popular founder of Housing.com. And the series of emails that became public. At some point in time, Rahul Yadavs unceremonious exit from Housing was likened and compared to the life of the tech worlds accepted hero Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. The only common factor between them would be a certain element of eccentricity. Nikesh Arora has an impressive resume. But like every important person in the business world, he is known as an ex-Google executive and now as President and COO of Softbank. However, not many would care about the fact that he was on the board of Colgate-Palmolive for two years between 2012 and 2014. He spent a good decade at Google between 2004 and 2014, when resigned as Senior Vice President and Chief Business Officer. Through his career, Arora has held positions such as Chief Marketing Officer at T-Mobile and Fidelity Investments before that. And it helps remind oneself that Softbank isnt a bank after all. Its primarily an internet and telecommunications conglomerate with heavy interests in emerging business through its venture fund. So when Nikesh Arora joined Softbank in 2014, it made global headlines. Given that its portfolio of companies includes names such as Buzzfeed, HuffingtonPost, Oyo Rooms, Ola, Didi, Snapdeal, Housing, Yahoo! and Zynga, it makes sense. Anyone leading a company that includes names such as these with billions invested would garner a noticeable level of public and industry curiosity. The last time we saw a similar surge of interest (though not matching in magnitude), was around Arun Sarin when he was at the helm of affairs at Vodafone. The Indian born IIT Kharagpur alumnus, he also has an impressive resume as a telecom executive through most portions of his career. However, as the CEO of Vodafone, hes known for driving growth in emerging markets, including making inroads into India. Similar to Aroras tenure at Google, Sarin spent nine years at Vodafone. Coincidentally, Sarin is now on the board of Ola. When the government of India celebrated the Startup India initiative in January this year, Masayoshi Son and Nikesh Arora were among the special guests. We love to see professionals scale up to great heights in their respective careers because we love heroes. Men and women alike. But global businesses are founded and driven by personalities as well. Sometimes, these personalities may not be very public figures. We love the successes of Sundar Pichai, Satya Nadella, Shantanu Narayen, Indra Nooyi. As Indians, theyre inspirational stories. But what about Larry Page, Sergei Brin, Bill Gates, John Warnock, Charles Geschke, and other living founders? Theres a certain difference between creators and executors. Founders and CEOs. Sometimes, CEOs hired later could overshadow founders. Sometimes, it also results in differences and clashes. Remember John Sculley? Steve Wozniak may have been the brain behind Apple, but Steve Jobs was the very visible face. John Sculley, the popular Pepsi executive was hired by Jobs, only to be himself axed from Apple by the board influenced by Sculley. Clearly, the world of business is driven by personalities. And steering the course of the business eventually lies with the passionate leader of the respective business. The one who conceived it, the one who incubated that idea when no one else believed in it. In the case of Softbank, one cannot take away from Masayoshi Son, who at one point in time lost up to $70 billion dollars! Hes regarded as a legend, a visionary. His experience is looked up to. His age commands a level of respect. He identified an able and capable individual to steer it and grow Softbank. But then comes a time when paths differ. And its time to set off on a new path. The series of tweets by Nikesh Arora only underscore the admiration and the unspoken rules that the entrepreneurial fraternity abides by. The mutual admiration continues. Its time for each to pursue their own dreams. New chapters. New destinations. And hope that the twain shall meet. SEOUL North Korea fired one missile from its east coast just before 6 a.m. on Wednesday (2100 GMT Tuesday) but it appears to have failed, South Korea's military officials said. The missile launched was believed to be an intermediate-range Musudan missile, said one of the officials, who asked for anonymity because he was not formally authorised to speak to the media. The U.S. military has detected a missile launch from North Korea, Navy Commander Dave Benham, a spokesman from the U.S. military's Pacific Command, told Reuters on Tuesday without providing details. Japan on Tuesday put its military on alert for a possible North Korean ballistic missile launch and South Korea's Yonhap News Agency said, citing an unnamed government source, that the North was seen to be moving an intermediate-range missile to its east coast. North Korea has failed in all four previous attempts to launch the Musudan, which theoretically has the range to reach any part of Japan and the U.S. territory of Guam. North Korea is believed to have up to 30 Musudan missiles, according to South Korean media, which officials said were first deployed around 2007, although the North had never attempted to test-fire them until this year. (Reporting by Jack Kim and Ju-min Park in Seoul, Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali in Washington, D.C.; Editing by G Crosse, Toni Reinhold) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Seoul: Nuclear-armed North Korea conducted two back-to-back tests of a powerful new medium-range missile on Wednesday, with both achieving a significant increase in flight distance over previous failed launches, South Korea's Defence Ministry said. Both tests were believed to be of a much-hyped, intermediate-range Musudan missile capable of reaching US bases as far away as Guam. The US State Department strongly condemned the launches, saying they represented clear violations of UN resolutions banning North Korea from any use of ballistic missile technology. The first test shortly before 6 am (2100 GMT Tuesday) was deemed to have failed after reportedly flying around 150 kilometres (90 miles) over the East Sea (Sea of Japan). The South Korean defence ministry said the second Musudan fired from the same east coast location two hours later had flown 400 kilometres. "South Korea and the United States are conducting further analysis," the ministry said in a statement that stopped short of labelling the second test a success or failure. North Korea had previously carried out four failed Musudan tests this year, all of which either exploded on the mobile launch pad or shortly after take-off. A successful test would mark a major step forward for a weapons programme that ultimately aspires to develop a proven nuclear strike capability against the US mainland. US condemnation US State Department spokesman John Kirby said the latest launches would only increase global efforts to counter North Korea's illicit weapons programme. "We intend to raise our concerns at the UN to bolster international resolve in holding (North Korea) accountable for these provocative actions," Kirby said in a statement. Japanese broadcaster NHK quoted Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as saying such tests "cannot be tolerated". A Pentagon statement said the US military had tracked both missiles and determined they "did not pose a threat to North America". The Musudan has an estimated range of anywhere between 2,500 and 4,000 kilometres. The lower range covers the whole of South Korea and Japan, while the upper range would include US military bases on Guam. First unveiled as an indigenous missile at a military parade in Pyongyang in October 2010, the Musudan has never been fully flight-tested. Three failures in April were seen as an embarrassment for North Korea's leadership, coming ahead of a rare ruling party congress that was meant to celebrate the country's achievements. Another attempt in May was also deemed to have failed. Military tensions Wednesday's tests came with military tensions still running high following Pyongyang's fourth nuclear test in January and a long-range rocket launch a month later that saw the UN Security Council impose its toughest sanctions to date on the North. During the party congress in May, North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un had personally extended an offer of military dialogue with the South. The proposal was repeated several times by the North's military, but Seoul dismissed all the overtures as insincere "posturing" given Kim's vow at the same congress to push ahead with the country's nuclear weapons programme. In recent months, North Korea has claimed a series of technical breakthroughs in developing an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of delivering a nuclear warhead to targets across the continental United States. The claimed achievements included miniaturising a nuclear warhead to fit on a missile, developing a warhead that can withstand atmospheric re-entry and building a solid-fuel missile engine. The North also hailed the successful test of an engine specifically designed for an ICBM that would "guarantee" an eventual nuclear strike on the US mainland. Outside experts have treated a number of the claims with scepticism, while acknowledging that the North has made significant strides in upgrading its nuclear arsenal. Marijuana Startups Still Face Many Legal Obstacles Marijuana has come to seem like the growth industry to get in on for anyone who can handle a little uncertainty. States are increasingly legalizing cannabis for medical or recreational use, sometimes both, and celebrities are scrambling to establish marijuana brands while the industry is still young. It seems like those who invest in cannabis today could do great financially down the line. But the cannabis business has its own special wrinkles. Even if you believe in weed and want to see marijuana businesses succeed, you need to be aware of some legal issues that continue to threaten the industry, despite its increasing legitimacy. Banking and Finance While cannabis has gained legitimacy and momentum of late, it's still not easy to find banks that will do business with weed growers and sellers. The reason for this is that no matter how many states change their medical marijuana laws, the federal government still considers the drug illegal. Most banks are federally chartered and there are business owners who have run into trouble with banking institutions due to the contradictions between federal and state law. For example, Andy Joseph of Apeks Supercritical in Ohio -- a company that makes equipment for the marijuana industry -- said that he has had trouble with financial institutions before. Joseph says that his company's accounts have been twice frozen due to conflicting financial regulations. "It's a giant pain in the butt," he complains. Balancing the Scales Justin P. Breidenbach, an assistant professor of accounting at Ohio Wesleyan University who specializes in the marijuana industry, said cannabiznesses should prepare for banking obstacles. In September, Ohio will become the 25th state to legalize medical marijuana. Although Ohio's new law makes allowances for local businesses to operate legitimately and pay employees, the many federally chartered banks will still have to be avoided. Small, hometown banks and credit unions will be the better option, says Breidenbach. He believes in weed as a growth industry and does not consider the obstacles cannabiznesses face prohibitive. The professor told The Columbus Dispatch that opportunities abound and that marijuana is a promising area of growth, despite potential problems with federal institutions. "Advocates think this is going to be a great market because of population size," he said. Talk to a Lawyer If you are in the marijuana businesses or considering investing in a cannabiz, talk to a lawyer. Many attorneys consult for free or a minimal fee and will be happy to provide guidance. Follow FindLaw for Consumers on Google+. Related Resources: Islamabad: A Pakistani Senate committee on Tuesday declared the forced conversion of Hindu girls to Islam as un-Islamic and appealed to the government to adopt a comprehensive mechanism for the protection of women belonging to minority communities. "Forced conversion of girls to Islam is against the teachings of Islam and also a violation of law in the country," said Senate Standing Committee on Religious Affairs' Chairman Hafiz Hamdullah. He said that religion is a personal matter of every individual, and an individual can not be converted by force, the Dawn reported. Leader of House in the Senate Raja Zafarul Haq also stated that compelling anyone to convert is against the teachings of Islam. "We are already under observation from human rights organisations due to growing incidents of force conversions," Haq added. Senator Gian Chand informed the committee that Hindu girls in Sindh are the victims of force conversions and incidents of force conversions in Sindh are alarming. Chand said that police and local administration do not help the victims or their families in cases of forced conversions. "Police does not take action fearing the reaction of the Muslim community," Chand said. The standing committee appealed to the government to adopt a comprehensive mechanism for the protection of women belonging to minority communities. The committee also directed the federal and provincial governments to draft legislation which would curb the practice. Last year, a move to criminalise forced religious conversions and to prevent misuse of the blasphemy law was endorsed by the members of the Senate's Functional Committee on Human Rights. Beijing: President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Tashkent beginning on Thursday during which India is expected to seek China's support for membership of the NSG. "We will release relevant information in due course," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said on Wednesday. The spokesperson said the two leaders would be meeting on the sidelines of the SCO summit in the capital city of Uzbekistan. During his meeting with Xi, Modi is expected to seek China's support for India's bid for membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, which Beijing is keen on blocking. Hua, however, refuted perception that China is blocking India's entry into the NSG. "With regard to India's entry into NSG, I would like correct that the word China blocking India's membership is not proper," she said. "The word 'blocking' is not proper. In the NSG agenda we have never seen the topic of non-NPT countries entry. So it does not make sense to say we block the entry," she said. "As all of us can see all the countries are concerned about this issue and various issues relating to non-NPT countries entry into the NSG has been discussed through friends of chair presided over by the Chair of the NSG," she said. "We hope that relevant discussion will keep going and Chinese side will take constructive part in the discussion," she said. AMMAN Six Jordanian border guards were killed by a suicide bomber who drove a car at speed across the border from Syria and rammed it into a military post on Tuesday, security officials said. The explosives-laden vehicle blew up a few hundred metres from a camp for Syrian refugees in a remote, desolate area where the borders of Iraq, Syria and Jordan meet, a Jordanian army statement said. The southeastern desert area is close to where Islamic State militants are known to operate, according to a security source who requested anonymity. The source said the attack appeared to be a well-planned military operation. No group has claimed responsibility. The army said a number of other vehicles used in the attack at around 5:30 a.m. (0230 GMT) were destroyed and that 14 other people were wounded. The suicide bomber drove out from behind a berm and dodged gunfire to reach the military post, it added. It was the first such assault targeting Jordan from Syria since Syria's descent into conflict in 2011 and followed an attack on June 6 on a security office near the Jordanian capital Amman in which five people, including three Jordanian intelligence officers, were killed. The incidents have jolted the Arab kingdom, which has been relatively unscathed by the instability that has swept the Arab world since 2011, including the expansion of Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. In a rare move, the Jordanian army's chief of staff declared the northern and northeastern border strip with Syria a closed military zone, an order that went into effect immediately. "Any vehicle and personnel movement within these areas that move without prior coordination will be treated as enemy targets and dealt with firmly and without leniency," the army statement said. International relief workers said the Jordanian authorities had also suspended all humanitarian aid to the area and that this could put the lives of refugees at risk. U.N. agencies responsible for the well-being of thousands of refugees did not comment on the drastic move which Western aid workers said penalized thousands of refugees, almost half of them women and children who have been stranded on the border strip for months. Jordan's Foreign Minister Nasser Joudeh confirmed deliveries of aid to the border areas had been halted until a safer area was found. He told state media the incident vindicated Amman's previous security warnings about the presence of hardline extremists within the camp. "There is a large concentration of people along this border and a big infiltration of elements from Daesh terrorists who are present heavily," Joudeh said, using the Arabic derogatory term for Islamic State. Jordan's King Abdullah said the perpetrators would not go unpunished and that his security forces would deal with "an iron fist" with any group that sought to harm the country's security or borders, a palace statement said. Jordan is a staunch ally of the United States and is taking part in the U.S.-led campaign against Islamic State in Syria, where the jihadist group still controls large areas of territory including much of the east. Jordan has kept tight control of its frontier with Syria since the outbreak of the war in its neighbour. Washington condemned the deadly attack as a "cowardly terrorist act" and said it would continue "unwavering support" for the Jordanian army, a statement from the U.S. embassy said. Since the Syria conflict began, Washington has spent tens of millions of dollars to help Amman set up an elaborate surveillance system known as the Border Security Programme to stem infiltration by militants from Syria and Iraq. The Rakban crossing targeted on Tuesday is a military zone far from any inhabited area, and includes a three-km (two-mile) stretch of berms built a decade ago to combat smuggling. The border is heavily guarded by patrols and drones. U.S. Patriot missiles are stationed in the kingdom, however, and the U.S. army has hundreds of trainers in the country. It is the only area where Jordan still receives Syrian refugees, some 50,000 of whom are stranded in Rakban refugee camp in a de facto no-man's land some 330 km (200 miles) northeast of Amman. REFUGEES STRAIN KINGDOM The camp's population has grown from several thousand to over 50,000 people since last year as the fighting in Syria intensified, relief workers say. Jordan has been a big beneficiary of foreign aid because of its efforts to help refugees but has drawn criticism from Western allies and aid agencies over the humanitarian situation at Rakban where conditions have caused several deaths among refugeees lacking sufficient medical care, diplomats say. Earlier waves of Syrian refugees had an easier time, with some walking just a few hundred metres to cross into Jordan. Jordan sealed those border crossings in 2013. The United Nations refugee agency said late last year Jordan should accept the new wave of refugees -- their numbers have risen, aid officials say, since Russia started air strikes last September -- and move them to established camps closer to Amman. Jordan, which has already accepted more than 600,000 U.N.-registered Syrian refugees, is resisting. It says Islamic State militants may have infiltrated their ranks as most of them come from Islamic State-held areas in central and eastern Syria, and has allowed only a trickle of refugees, mostly women and children, in recent months. (Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi; Editing by Timothy Heritage and Jonathan Oatis) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Beijing: Accusing the US of playing "extremely destructive role" by wading into the South China Sea dispute, a flagship Chinese daily on Wednesday said Washington has "chosen a wrong opponent" to make forays into the region and Beijing will not let Washington "have its way". "Conveying a so-called message about security through the exhibition of military might and furthermore describing the events as an act of deterrence is something that the US has done far too many times," the ruling Communist Party's official mouthpiece People's Daily said in a commentary. "Regardless of how many times it may have gone smoothly in other parts of the world the US has chosen the wrong opponent by selecting China for this type of game. Behind all of this is lack of patience and brassy moves and it also reveals a nature of hegemony beneath the surface," it said. "Statements from high ranking officials in the US military as well as the aircraft carrier drills themselves once again demonstrate that the US is definitely not a regional security safeguard, and instead precisely a trouble maker. In the regard of the South China Sea issue, the US is playing an extremely destructive role," it said. "China will continue to maintain strict supervision of the sea area conditions and will take appropriate measures should there be any incidences, and defend against the occurrence of situations that harm Chinese territorial sovereignty or security benefits," it said. China will not let other countries have their way with their temper or to act arbitrarily regardless of the rules in the regard of South China Sea stability, it warned. China is locked up in a maritime dispute with Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan over the South China Sea. The resource-rich South China Sea is the main maritime link between the Pacific and Indian ocean, giving it enormous trade and military value. The sea connects East Asia with Europe and the Middle East and over $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes through the sea annually. Beijing is concerned over US backing the smaller states to challenge China to assert their rights. "The United States is a country outside the territory of the South China Sea, coming from one side of the Pacific Ocean all the way to the other side of the Pacific Ocean to demonstrate their military power is for the purpose of intensifying the situation and to provoke disturbances and break peaceful stability and then to fish in troubled water and make an effort to maintain hegemony thereat at all costs. "This deceitful business is despised in the regard of international law, and it is also harmful to the security benefits of the country," it said. digital and print publisher. digital and print publisher. We are Americas largest We are Americas largest The brands you love. The experiences you want. Queens Teacher Abused by Students Settles Claims for $125,000 You know a school is tough when the teachers complain about bullying and are terrified of the students. Kathy Perez said that is how it was in two Queens schools where she worked. Now she has settled a claim with the New York City Law Department for $125,000. The claims against the state's Department of Education stem from incidents with her students, both of which landed Perez in the hospital with injuries. The teacher says that her teenage students in Queens harassed her sexually and racially in addition to causing her physical injury. School Slept on Complaints Perez told the New York Post that she was twice taken out of her classroom by medics on a stretcher. Still, she said that school officials did nothing to address her complaints about student behavior. "These kids knew they could beat on me all they wanted, and the administration would tacitly encourage it by not doing anything about it," Perez said. "In no other workplace would I be expected to take this as part of my day." One of the two schools that Perez was placed in, MS 72, reportedly has known bullying and discipline problems and low student achievement. Although Perez made numerous reports about student behavior, her lawsuits stem from two major incidents. Dangerous Environment In one incident Perez was chased around the classroom by teenage students who trampled her. In the other major event a girl shoved the teacher to the floor. Both times Perez says she was removed from the classroom on a stretcher by emergency medical personnel. Apart from the two major incidents that led to serious injuries and multiple surgeries, Perez made multiple reports of harassment by students. She said that they called her by racist names and accused her of being a racist, among other claims. Although school officials said that they did discipline children who misbehaved in the classroom and who were rude to the teacher, Perez said school officials never addressed the complaints with her and even warned the teacher about her behavior. The teacher's claims were settled with the City Law Department in April and the resolution was reported by the New York Post this month. Injured? If you, like Kathy Perez, were injured at work or elsewhere, talk to a lawyer. Tell your story and find out your options. Many personal injury attorneys consult for free or a minimal fee and will be happy to assess your case. Related Resources: Funeral Protest Laws When the Westboro Baptist Church will picket the funerals of U.S. servicemembers because it believes those soldiers were punished for a government that recognizes the civil rights of gay, lesbian, and transgender Americans, it shouldn't be shocking to learn they plan to protest the funerals of victims of the nation's worst mass shooting that happened earlier this month at a gay nightclub in Orlando. What may be surprising, in a good way, was how effective a counter-protest of "angels" was in silencing the WBC. You might think it would just be easier to ban funeral protestors entirely, but even groups like the WBC had First Amendment rights. Here's how those rights are restricted when protesting a funeral. Content Back in 2011, the Supreme Court upheld the WBC's right to protest funerals on free speech grounds. In that case, the father of a Marine killed in Iraq sued the church, claiming the protest at his son's funeral constituted harassment and intentional infliction of emotional distress. While a jury initially awarded him $10.9 million, the award was overturned on appeal. And the Supreme Court agreed, saying the protests deserved First Amendment protection because they were statements on matters of public concern: The "content" of Westboro's signs plainly relates to public, rather than private, matters. The placards highlighted issues of public import -- the political and moral conduct of the United States and its citizens, the fate of the Nation, homosexuality in the military, and scandals involving the Catholic clergy -- and Westboro conveyed its views on those issues in a manner designed to reach as broad a public audience as possible. Time and Place But it wasn't a total victory for Westboro Baptist. Even if the government can't restrict the content of funeral protests, it can put reasonable restrictions on the time, place, and manner of the protests. Therefore, state laws prohibiting protests from being closer than 300 feet of a funeral have been upheld. The nation may have "chosen to protect even hurtful speech on public issues to ensure that public debate is not stifled," but that doesn't mean local governments can't tell protestors like the WBC where and when to spew that hurtful speech. If you have more questions about local protest laws or the First Amendment, contact an experienced civil rights attorney in your area. Related Resources: Microsoft if finally foraying into mobile wallets club. The company has introduced tap-to-pay with Microsoft Wallet to Windows Insiders (build 14360 or higher). The Wallet app for Windows 10 Mobile is available for Windows Insiders and those who are on the Fast Ring for updates. It is compatible with Lumia 950, 950 XL, and 650 smartphones in the US. Microsoft said that the service supports MasterCard and Visa from eight major banks including Bank of America and three regional credit unions. Chase and US Bank are listed as coming soon. It works at more than 1 million retail locations. Users will also be able to store coupons, loyalty cards, and so on. Similar to Apple Pay and Android Pay, Microsoft Wallet does not store your card number on the device and is encrypted when making purchases. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTP6QGf21Gg Unicode Standard has released the Version 9.0 collection of 72 new emojis on Tuesday, as promised earlier this month. It includes several new Faces, hand gestures, gender pairings, animals, food, drinks, and sports. Just to remind you, the update release doesnt mean that these 72 new emojis will be rolled out to end-users immediately. In fact this is for smartphone companies and so actual rollout by them in public releases depends on these companies. In 2015, Unicode had released the Unicode 8.0 with 37 new emojis plus new skin tone modifier capabilities, which counted as 285 emoji images if each modified emoji was counted. But now in comparison, Unicode 9.0 includes a larger number of new emojis, but no specific new functionality such as gender or hair color attributes. Unicode also notes that amongst the non-emoji updates included in Unicode 9.0 are support for Adlam, Bhaiksuki, Marchen, Newa, Osage and Tangut scripts. httpv://youtu.be/b81S9lWIMnE The veteran design lead for Motorola Mobility, Jim Wicks is leaving the company and heading to Northwestern Universitys McCormick School of Engineering next month. Now, Wicks position will be replaced by another Lenovo executive, Ruben Castano. Wicks spent 15 years at Motorola since 2001 and out of which he headed Design for over 12 years. He was the brain behind Moto RAZR, Moto G, Moto X and Moto 360 etc. He worked with Sony and Sapient before that. Chairman of Motorola Mobility and Co-President of Lenovos Mobile Business Group, Aymar de Lencquesaing, said : We greatly appreciate Jims contributions in leading a consumer experience design team that delivered standout, iconic, and award-winning industrial design and user experiences for Motos mobile and wearable products. Lencquesaing further added: To move us forward, we have an ideal leader on board, Ruben Castano, who will continue our design teams success. Ruben Castano joined Motorola back in October of 2005 as Design Manager in Chicago. He moved up to Design Director in July of 2008 for Motorola in China and later moved back to Chicago as Senior Design Director in 2012. But now he works at Motorola Sao Paulo unit as Senior Design Director since 2014. Image source: Pinterest He said that now that the rainy season has started it is essential for paddy farmers to plough their paddy fields so that they can plant their rice in time, but the farmers have been facing difficulties ploughing as their cattle are suffering from foot-and-mouth-disease. The Maungdaw Township farmers are totally dependent on their cattle as they have no tractors. But, in Natala Villages (model Buddhist villages set up by the Ministry of Border Affairs) the government has provided some tractors, said Samir,a local villager. A former school teacher from Maungdaw South said that the villagers are still hoping that the government will help them to get treatment for their cattle. But, until now, no veterinarians have come to the area. He said that they should come to carry out surveys of the area and collect samples from animals to determine what strain of foot-and-mouth it is and whether it is a seasonal outbreak or whether it has come from abroad. A farmer from Maung Nama Village has also sent a request to the relevant authorities asking them to send a team of veterinarians to the village to treat the cattle. Foot-and-mouth is a livestock disease caused by a virus called a picornavirus which is highly contagious and spread by droplets in the animals breath, through contact with contaminated farming equipment, vehicles, clothing, or feed, and by domestic and wild predators. To stop it from spreading to other areas, villagers are prohibiting people from moving their cattle and informing people not to eat meat from animals that have died, said a veterinarian from Maungdaw Town. Jamal, a villager said: We must separate the sick animals to control the spread of the disease. The outbreak occurred a week ago in Maungdaw Township, but has not killed any cattle or goats. He also said that the families and villagers in Maungdaw Township do not feed their cattle on farms but let them graze naturally. Generally, in Burma foot-and-mouth outbreaks are one of three types: Serotype O, Serotype Asia 1 and Serotype A. In 2010 there was an outbreak of Serotype A in Arakan State, close to the border with Bangladesh. Edited in English by Mark Inkey for BNI We know some visitors come to the website because a domain name leads them to here. If you are interested in buying California voters are getting ready to vote on whether or not marijuana should be legalized for recreational use and one local chef is hoping to capitalize on his new cannabis-infused gourmet meals. I do cannabis-infused fine dining and to me its like how a glass of wine can be paired with a dinner, Chris Sayegh, CEO of The Herbal Chef tells FOXBusiness.com. Sayegh, 24, is leading the way with his tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD)--which are the two main ingredients found in a marijuana plant--filled dishes for private events and banquets across Los Angeles for $300 to $500 per person. I have had everyone from a two person anniversary dinner to a 50 person corporate gathering where it was a public launching of a company and honestly everybody in between, he adds. Each person gets an average of 10 milligrams of THC and CBD spread throughout 5 to 15 courses. Its spread out like that, so its a smooth ride. When you have an edible all at once, in 30 minutes its like bam! Youre hit with that intensity. So, this is more of a smooth come up. He also created a frozen line of prepared meals for cancer patients and other people who are battling disease. We have a chemotherapy line, geriatric line, and were coming out with a diabetic line, he adds. We work with patients and built a meal plan that is micro and macro nutrient rich along with their THC and CBD that they would normally get out of cannabis. So we combine that so theyre able to focus on getting better rather than what am I going to eat. Sayegh says the whole idea around his business is to help educate people about the health benefits of marijuana. THC is the active ingredient that gives people the psycho active high whereas CBD is used more for medicinal purposes. CBD is working behind the scenes in your endocannabinoid system making sure that its flowing effectively. When running efficiently, it facilitates energy to all of your major organs which helps your whole body run better. But there are some lows to the business concept especially with the heavy regulations around selling marijuana. Regulations are very difficult. Every county has different rules and regulations. Federally, we all know its still illegal and classified as a schedule 1 drug so technically were all operating federally illegally but through the state were operating in compliance, he adds. Sayegh says he hopes this November things will change when voters head to the polls. Everyone has been very supportive especially when they understood my mission of helping people and educating people about THC and CBD, he says. It really allows people to take the food is medicine approach to a whole new level. General Motors (NYSE:GM) and Ford (NYSE:F) are building the most American-made cars, trucks and SUVs, according to an annual report from American University. GM and Ford dominated the 2016 Kogod Made in America Auto Index, which analyzes how much each vehicle relies on domestic parts. The index, compiled by associate professor Frank DuBois at American Universitys Kogod School of Business, also takes into account research and development, profit margins and labor, among other items. GMs family of midsize crossovers, the Buick Enclave, Chevrolet Traverse and GMC Acadia, topped the list. According to the Kogod index, an estimated 90% of the parts used in the three vehicles originate from the U.S. The crossovers are built at GMs factory in Lansing, Mich. The Ford F-150 is alone in second place at 85%, making it the top pickup truck on the list. Ford makes the F-150 at its Dearborn Truck Plant, which is located near the companys Michigan headquarters. The Chevrolet Corvette (83%) ranked third, and eight other GM vehicles formed a tie for fourth place. The Chevrolet Equinox, Chevrolet Impala, GMC Yukon, Cadillac Escalade, Buick Lacrosse, Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban, and two versions of the Chevrolet Malibu all posted scores of 82.5%. The Auto Index shows that vehicles produced by automakers headquartered in the U.S. rate higher overall, mainly because profit derived from their sale is more likely to return or remain in the United States and a majority of American companies R&D activities are located in the U.S., DuBois said. Among the surprises this year, DuBois noted, the Honda (NYSE:HMC) Accord jumped from 19th last year to fifth place with 81% American content. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (NYSE:FCAU) Jeep Wrangler Unlimited and GMs midsize trucks, the Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon, earned scores of 80.5%. The Ford Mustang, Chevrolet Camaro and Cadillac CT6, a new sedan launched for the 2016 model year, also scored well on the Made in America list. The least American-made vehicles include certain models from a large group of import brands: Audi, Honda, Kia, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Infiniti, Subaru, Toyota (NYSE:TM), Lexus and Scion. In addition to the Honda Accord, other non-American cars that heavily use U.S. components are the Honda Pilot (78.5%), Toyota Camry (75%), Toyota Tundra (65%) and Kia Sorento (67.5%). The industry sold a record 17.5 million vehicles in the U.S. last year. Approximately 65% of those vehicles were built domestically, the report said. Image source: Adobe Systems Incorporated. Adobe Systems Incorporatedannounced fiscal second-quarter 2016 results Tuesday after the market close, and the stock is down around 4% in after-hours trading as of this writing. But keeping in mind that shares of the creative-software company touched a fresh 52-week high just ahead of the report, investors shouldn't be disappointed with the performance. Let's take a closer look at how Adobe fared in its latest quarter. Adobe Systems results: The raw numbers Metric Fiscal Q2 2016 Actuals Fiscal Q2 2015 Actuals Growth (YOY) Revenue $1.40 billion $1.16 billion 20.4% GAAP net income $244.1 million $147.5 million 65.5% GAAP earnings per share (diluted) $0.48 $0.29 65.5% DATA SOURCE: ADOBE SYSTEMS INCORPORATED. What happened with Adobe Systems this quarter? Excluding one-time items (including stock-based compensation, amortization of intangibles, and restructuring charges), adjusted (non-GAAP) net income climbed 47.7% year over year, to $357.4 million, or $0.71 per diluted share. Both the top and bottom lines were above the midpoints of Adobe's respective guidance rangesprovided in March, which called for revenue of $1.365 billion to $1.415 billion, GAAP earnings per share of $0.42 to $0.48, and adjusted earnings per share of $0.64 to $0.70. Digital media segment revenue grew 26% year over year, to a company-record $943 million, including a 37% increase in creative revenue, to $755 million. Digital media annualized recurring revenue increased $285 million from last quarter, to $3.41 billion, exiting the quarter, driven by continued strong adoption of both Creative Cloud and Document Cloud. Adobe marketing cloud revenue increased 18% year over year, to $385 million, setting another company record. Cash flow from operations was $489 million. Deferred revenue increased to a company-record $1.68 billion, up from $1.61 billion last quarter. Adobe repurchased 2.2 million shares for $205 million during the quarter, leaving roughly $1.2 billion remaining under its current repurchase authorization. What management had to say "Adobe's cloud solutions are powering digital transformation at the world's biggest brands, educational institutions and government agencies,"Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen said. "Our record revenue reflects our market leadership and the exploding demand for digital experience solutions." Adobe CFO Mark Garrett added: "Record revenue with strong profit and cash flow highlight our second-quarter results. Based on our first-half performance and momentum, we're on track to meet or exceed all of our annual fiscal-year 2016 targets." Looking forward For perspective on those targets, last quarter Adobe increased its goal to achieve digital-media annual recurring revenue of $4 billion exiting fiscal 2016. In addition, Adobe called for full fiscal-year revenue of $5.8 billion, GAAP net income of $2.00 per share, and adjusted net income of $2.80 per share. For the current fiscal third quarter of 2016, Adobe anticipates revenue of $1.42 billion to $1.47 billion, GAAP earnings per share of $0.46 to $0.52, and adjusted EPS of $0.69 to $0.75. In the end, though the market's reaction may not show it in light of Adobe's recent rise, this was an admirable performance as Adobe continues to successfully implement its cloud-based future. With Adobe on track to meet or beat the encouraging guidance it laid out three months ago, I think investors should be more than pleased with where it stands today. The article Adobe Remains on Track for a Solid Year originally appeared on Fool.com. Steve Symington has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Adobe Systems. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Image source: Flickr user stockmonkeys.com. After initially rejectingOpko Health's kidney disease drug Rayaldee earlier this year because of manufacturing concerns, the FDA approved Rayaldee four months ahead of a new timeline it had set for itself.The approval clears the way for Opko Health to begin selling Rayaldee to chronic kidney disease patients later this year, but investors might want to take a wait-and-see approach before rushing in to buy Opko Health's shares. Tapping a big market The market for Rayaldee is conceivably massive. The drug addressessecondary hyperparathyroidism that's due to vitamin D insufficiencyin patients diagnosed with stage 3 or stage 4 chronic kidney disease (CKD). There are an estimated 9 million Americans who could benefit from Rayaldee treatment. When patients suffer from vitamin D insufficiency, excessive amounts of parathyroid hormone are secreted. If that hormone remains too high for too long, it can lead to calcium and phosphorous being released from bone. In addition to weakening bones, this situation can lead to thecalcification of vascular tissue and renal tissue that can be life-threatening. Between 40% and 60% of stage 3 and stage 4 CKD patients are affected by this condition. In trials, patients taking Rayaldee achieved at least 30% reductions in plasma intact parathyroid hormone versus placebo, and Vitamin D insufficiency was corrected in more than 80% of the patients. For comparison, less than 7% of people who received placebo saw their vitamin D insufficiency corrected. In approving Rayaldee, the FDA gave a go ahead to the first FDA-approved therapy designed to address this condition. Currently, stage 3 and stage 4 CKD patients are treated with high-dose vitamin D supplements with arguable efficacy. Moving in the right direction The approval of Rayaldee is in keeping with Opko Health's mission to become a major player in the treatment of large, under-served patient populations. Opko Health was founded by billionaire healthcare investor Phillip Frost, whose resume includes successfully building Ivax Labs into a major generic drugmaker. Frost sold Ivax Labs to Teva Pharmaceuticalin 2005 for $7.4 billion and served as Teva Pharmaceutical's chairman until stepping down in 2014 to run Opko Health. In addition to Rayaldee, Opko Health also markets the prostate cancer screening test 4Kscore, and it operates a large specialty lab courtesy of its $1.5 billion deal to acquire Bio-Reference Labs in 2015. Opko Health is also on tap to receive royalties and potential sales milestones associated with Tesoro's Varubi, a therapy that can reduce post-chemotherapy nausea. The FDA approved Varubi last fall, but sales in Q1 were less than $1 million. Opko Health's other irons in the fire include a long-lasting human growth hormone it has out-licensed to Pfizer. Phase 3 trial results for use of this human growth hormone in adults are expected later this year, and if they're good, a filing for FDA approval could be on deck shortly thereafter. Patient approach While the acquisition of Bio-reference Labs successfully transformed Opko Health into a $1 billion revenue company that could turn a profit next year, it remains to be seen whether Opko Health's prostate cancer test and its various drugs will be top sellers. The 4Kscore test, for example, has been on the market since 2014, and despite it targeting a massive market for prostate cancer screening, its sales have yet to take off. In Q1, the company didn't bother to break out sales for the test in its earnings release. Similarly, while Varubi targets a billion-dollar opportunity in chemotherapy-induced nausea, its sales during its first full quarter on the market were tepid. Opko Health could have better success with Rayaldee, but that's not a given. Sales may ramp slowly if it proves to be a challenge to convince doctors who are used to prescribing supplements to embrace it. Taking a patient approach to investing in Opko Health may be best. Rather than rushing to buy, it could be worth waiting a few quarters to see if the company's various products gain traction or not. In the meantime, concentrating on other money-making investment ideas may prove to be more profitable. The article Is Opko Health a Buy Now That Rayaldee Is Approved? originally appeared on Fool.com. Todd Campbell has no position in any stocks mentioned.Todd owns E.B. Capital Markets, LLC. E.B. Capital's clients may have positions in the companies mentioned. Like this article? Follow him onTwitter where he goes by the handle@ebcapital to see more articles like this.The Motley Fool recommends Teva Pharmaceutical Industries. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. The analyst from investment firm Maxim Group who reiterated his buy rating on Palo Alto Networks stock last week is hardly alone. Yes, his $215 price target is on the high side, even in the context of nearly across-the-board bullish sentiment. But consensus target estimates from the 37 analysts covering Palo Alto are still a lofty $188.78 a share, equal to a nearly 50% jump from Monday's closing price of $128.16. The question is, why is this analyst, along with many of his brethren, so excited about Palo Alto? It appears most pundits are of the mind that Palo Alto's near-term questions surrounding slowing top-line growth and spending are just that -- anomalies that will "normalize" given time -- and there are numerous rationalizations to justify Palo Alto's high expectations. So who's right: the bullish analysts or investors who have continued to apply pressure to Palo Alto stock? Image source: Palo Alto Networks. The analyst case for Palo Alto Palo Alto's string of quarters reporting 50%-plus revenue growth came to an end in the third quarter, though at 48% above last year's fiscal Q3, there was little to complain about. The sales growth slowdown -- both during the most recent quarter and the expected 36% to 37% top-line growth forecast for the current quarter -- was largely due to macro issues, according to CEO Mark McLaughlin. The bullish Palo Alto analyst notes that a tough sales environment in the Asia-Pacific region, notably Australia, was one culprit. Of the 11% of Palo Alto's revenue derived from Asia-Pacific, Maxim Group estimates that 30% to 40% comes from Australia. If the region had performed as it had in prior quarters, Palo Alto would have enjoyed a 52% jump in sales. The poor guidance for the currentquarter, along with Palo Alto's weak days sales outstanding (which measures a company's average period to collect accounts receivable), was viewed as a positive by the analyst -- and is clearly not a concern for others, given Palo Alto's price target -- suggesting that McLaughlin and team have a realistic perspective. Strong billings growthof 61% year over year and a near doubling of free cash flow were also cited as bullish indicators. Not so much Similar to its peer Fortinet , Palo Alto has demonstrated revenue growth over the course of the last couple of years that has been nothing short of spectacular. Fortinet's on a string of 30%-plus quarterly sales improvements, which it attained again last quarter. Fortinet's revenue of $284.6 million was a 34% year-over-year jump. In Palo Alto's case, revenue gains were what had so many pundits singing its tune. But with last quarter's 48% increase, and expectations of just 36% to 38% in the current quarter, Palo Alto's saving grace is coming to a halt. That, combined with soaring overhead, is disconcerting, to say the least. Cost of revenue climbed $30.5 million to $94.9 million in Q3, and operating expenses skyrocketed 50% to $309.9 million. Palo Alto was once again in the red by $70.2 million last quarter, well above fiscal 2015's Q3 loss of $45.9 million. Fortinet's spending also rose last quarter, which was why it, too, reported a loss. However, at just $0.02 per share, Fortinet's shortfall was a blip on the screen compared to Palo Alto's $0.80 per share loss. The bottom-line The bullish analysts covering Palo Alto certainly make valid points in support of a target price as high as $215. However, for investors who prefer stocks with sound fundamentals or prospects for sales growth, Palo Alto falls short. Even if Palo Alto continues to drive top-line improvements -- albeit less impressively than in the past -- this raises another concern. An astounding 58% of Palo Alto's sales last quarter, equal to $202 million, went to fund its sales and marketing efforts. These aren't one-time costs associated with developing a new product, expanding office space, or hiring much-needed expertise. No, Palo Alto's sales and marketing outlays will continue to eat away at bottom-line results, and that's a scary proposition, given its slowing revenue growth. The article 1 Analyst Thinks Palo Alto Networks Is Worth $215 -- Is He Right? originally appeared on Fool.com. Tim Brugger has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Palo Alto Networks. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Image source: iStock/Thinkstock. It's easy to thinkWells Fargo will sail through this year's stress test, given its reputation for prudence and profitability. But if we've learned anything over the past few years, it's that we can never be sure how even the best-run banks will perform under the Federal Reserve's spotlight. In April, for instance, the Fed rejected Wells Fargo's living will, which lays out how the California-based bank would be resolved in the unlikely event of a bankruptcy. This recent hiccup aside, there are at least four reasons to believe Wells Fargo will emerge from the upcoming stress test unscathed. The first stage of results from the test are due on Thursday. The first reason Wells Fargo should pass is because the bank has a significant amount of excess capital. At the end of March, it had $144 billion worth of tier 1 common equity. That exceeds the amount it's obligated to hold by $71 billion. In last year's stress test, meanwhile, the Fed estimated that Wells Fargo would lose $29 billion. Assuming a similar outcome this year, the bank would emerge from the test with $42 billion more capital than it's obligated to hold. This strongly suggests Wells Fargo will satisfy the quantitative aspect of this year's test, which is designed to measure whether or not banks have enough capital to survive an economic downturn akin to the financial crisis. Measure Standardized Approach Advanced Approach Regulatory Minimum Common equity tier 1 capital ratio 10.87% 11.06% 5.625% Common equity tier 1 capital (millions) $144,100 $144,100 $73,288* *Estimated by author. Data source: Wells Fargo's 1Q16 10-Q, page 145. Compounding this is the second reason Wells Fargo should pass -- namely, that it produces a large and consistent earnings stream. This plays into capital as well, given that undistributed income accumulates in a bank's capital account. By one important measure, Wells Fargo is the most profitable multitrillion-dollar bank in the country. It earned $23 billion in 2015, which equated to a 12.7% return on equity. Runner-up JPMorgan Chasegenerated a slightly larger $24.4 billion profit, but its return on equity was 11%. The only area where Wells Fargo could stumble, then, is on the qualitative portion of the stress test. This is what has tripped up many of its competitors in the past. Last year, for instance, while Bank of Americahad plenty of capital to satisfy the Fed, it was nevertheless required to resubmit its capital plans in the second stage of the test, known as the comprehensive capital analysis and review, in order to "address certain weaknesses in its capital planning processes." While qualitative missteps are impossible to predict, there are still two reasons to believe Wells Fargo won't run into issues in this regard, either. First, its focus on traditional banking allows it to sidestep the added complexities of running a large Wall Street operation, as is the case at both Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase. And second, other than the issues Wells Fargo had on its living will submission, there's no precedent suggesting it will fail the stress test, as it's consistently passed them since they were implemented in the wake of the financial crisis. Thus, while investors should be humble when trying to make predictions about a specific bank's ability to unconditionally pass this year's stress test, it seems reasonable to conclude that Wells Fargo has a very good chance of doing so. The article 4 Reasons to Believe Wells Fargo Will Pass the Stress Test originally appeared on Fool.com. John Maxfield owns shares of Bank of America and Wells Fargo. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Wells Fargo. The Motley Fool recommends Bank of America. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Image source: Getty Images. Charles Schwab has quickly become a competitor in the world of index funds, creating low-fee funds that are priced to steal assets from the competition. Here are 5 of Schwab's best index funds, complete with expense ratios. Below, I'll lay out the case for making each index fund a part of your portfolio. Index Fund Name Ticker Expense Ratio Schwab S&P 500 Index SWPPX 0.09% Schwab Total Stock Market Index SWTSX 0.09% Schwab 1000 Index Fund SNXFX 0.29% Schwab Small Cap Index Fund SWSSX 0.17% Schwab International Index Fund SWISX 0.19% Data source: Charles Schwab. Note that all of its funds require a minimum investment of just $100 to get started. 1. Schwab S&P 500 Index Fund This fund is as simple as it gets. When you buy the Schwab 500 Index Fund you're basically buying part of the 500 largest stocks listed on American exchanges. This fund is designed to produce returns that mirror that of the S&P 500 Index, minus a tiny annual fee. The allure of S&P 500 index funds is that they are downright cheap, and cover a majority of the stock market by market value. S&P 500 constitutents make up about 80% of the value of all American-listed companies. Owning this group at a price of just $9 per year for every $10,000 invested is an incredible deal. 2. Schwab Total Stock Market Index Not happy with owning a majority of the stock market by investing in an S&P 500 fund? This fund is for you. The Total Stock Market Index fund has a stake in nearly 2,500 stocks at the time of writing, encompassing virtually every stock listed on American exchanges. The advantage to a Total Stock Market Index is that you get access to small-cap stocks that you don't get from an S&P 500 index fund. Thus, its performance will beat the S&P 500 when small company stocks outperform large companies, and vice versa. Small and microcap stocks make up 6.7% and 2.3% of the fund's assets, respectively, giving you exposure to smaller companies you won't get in its S&P 500 index fund. 3. Schwab 1000 Index Fund This fund technically tracks the Schwab 1000 index, which is basically a copycat of the Russell 1,000 index. The process is relatively simple: It invests in the 1,000 largest stocks on American markets, weighting them by market cap. As a result of its portfolio construction, this fund is more heavily weighted toward midcap stocks, which made up about 21% of the fund's assets at the time of writing, compared to about 13% for its S&P 500 fund, and 20% for the Total Stock Market Index fund. Given its higher expense ratio, though, you'd likely be better suited with the Total Stock Market Index, which comes at a fraction of the cost of the Schwab 1000 index fund. Where this fund has lagged the S&P 500 over the last 10 years, Schwab's Total Stock Market Index fund has outperformed the S&P 500. The difference in performance is due in no small part to the fee differential between these two funds. 4. Schwab Small Cap Index Fund This fund generally tracks the performance of the Russell 2000 Index, which includes the 2,000 smallest stocks in the Russell 3000 index. Due to subtle differences in how it allocates its portfolio, this Schwab index fund actually beat the Russell 2000 index over the 10-year period starting in 2006. There isn't much more to say about this fund other than that it is an excellent way to inexpensively buy and hold small-cap stocks listed in the United States. The fund carries an annual expense ratio of 0.17%, and was broadly diversified across 1,969 stocks at the time of writing. 5. Schwab International Index Fund Following the theme of inexpensive funds with low turnover and broad diversification, Schwab's international index fund ticks the boxes perfectly. The fund seeks to track the MSCI EAFE index, and has done it exceptionally well. The fund generally invests in large companies that trade on markets outside the United States. It primarily invests in developed markets, having more than 99% of its assets in stocks listed in developed markets, according to Morningstar. Stocks listed in Japan, the United Kingdom, and France made up about 23%, 20%, and 10% of the fund's assets at the end of March 2016, respectively. With an annual expense ratio of just 0.19% of assets annually, this Schwab fund is a great way to conveniently own more than 900 stocks that you won't find in American-centric index funds. The article The 5 Best Schwab Index Funds originally appeared on Fool.com. Jordan Wathen has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Image source: BP via Flickr. BP, like all of its large oil and gas peers, has been under a lot of pressure from Wall Street to get its spending habits under control. The rapid decline in oil prices over the past two years has left them dipping into the debt markets and selling off large chunks of assets to meet the funding needs of their large development projects. As BP wraps up several of those projects, management is making a hard push to close the funding gap and get back to both profits and free cash flow, and these recent quotes from BP CFO Brian Gilvary explain how the company plans to do it. Reducing capital spending even more than before BP gained a very valuable lessonfrom the Macondo spill in 2010. With so much cash going to pay for the spill, the company needed to learn how to stretch its capital spending budget as much as possible by focusing on its highest-return projects. That lesson is actually paying off a bit as of late, because BP is now using that tight-fisted approach to capital spending as a way to deal with low oil prices. According to CFO Brian Givary, the company is cutting back on spending even more than originally anticipated: Big cost cuts On top of the big cuts to spending on new projects, the company is also using this time of low oil prices to drastically lower its operating budget. According to Gilvary: Cutting $7 billion out of its operating costs will go a long way toward restoring profitability at BP, but those cost-cutting efforts need to be sustained over a couple of years. Hopefully that will be a lesson that will last longer past other major price drops. Getting closer to meeting cash needs The reason the company is going through all of these massive cost and capital cuts is because it has one major priority: Protect its dividend payment to shareholders. After all, for a large company in a cyclical industry like BP is in oil & gas, a constant dividend payment is one of the core parts of the investment thesis. Thanks to these cost-cutting measures, Gilvary notes the company is lowering its cash breakeven cost per barrel of oil: Getting into that $50 to $55 a barrel range would be rather impressive considering that the company's breakeven was well above $70 just a few years ago -- then again, most thought this was fine when oil was consistently above $100 a barrel. Investors should keep an eye on this breakeven number and where it goes from here. In the short term, it would be handy if BP could lower it a little more to come in line with the market. Longer term, we don't want to see it tick up, regardless of what oil prices do. Some growth left in the tank For a long-term investor, a big concern is that the decline in capital spending today will result in a lack of growth. Or even worse, a lack of new production to offset natural production decline. According to Gilvary, though, the company still has a lot of room to grow profitable production into the next decade: The real big one to watch here is the Shah Deniz project. This massive natural gas field in the Caspian Sea is one of those megaprojects that has stymied companies in recent years -- think the cost overruns at ExxonMobil & Royal Dutch Shell's Kashagan project and Chevron's Gorgon LNG facility. It should bring on lots of profitable production, but it needs to keep it on time and on budget. The other question investors may want to ask, though, is whether these cost cuts will catch up to the company beyond these projects. No big purchases on the horizon As oil and gas prices have fallen over the past two years, Wall Street has clamored for Big Oil companies to make some big acquisitions while stock prices are cheap. So far, though, the only one to pull the trigger on a major deal has been Shell with the $52 billion acquisition of BG Group. When asked whether BP sees any potential to make an acquisition, Gilvary had this response: Basically, he's saying, "no large deal has blown us away yet and we're focused on other stuff, but we'll keep and ear open." This is pretty much the same line execs at ExxonMobil and Chevron have been saying for a while as well. Part of what they are saying could be true, and no deal out there today looks like a huge steal, but you also have to take into account that the currency each company would use for a deal -- likely shares of their companies -- aren't exactly selling for a premium right now and would potentiallylead to some unnecessary dilution. Perhaps once these companies get their cash-flow statements cleaned up,we might hear a few more whispers on the merger front. For now, though, the rumor mill will remain rather quiet. The article 5 Things BP's Management Want You to Know originally appeared on Fool.com. Tyler Crowe owns shares of ExxonMobil. You can follow him at Fool.comor on Twitter@TylerCroweFool. The Motley Fool owns shares of ExxonMobil. The Motley Fool recommends Chevron. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Cheetos could be the secret to Burger King's next big hit. Image source: Getty Images. Following in the path created by the Doritos Locos Taco fromYum! Brands' Taco Bell, Restaurant Brands International's Burger King is testing a hybrid of Cheetos and macaroni and cheese. The new concoction -- dubbed Mac n' Cheetos -- looks like a giant Cheetos puff stuffed with macaroni and cheese, Foodbeast.com reported. The snack/appetizer is not all that different from the fried mac and cheese that appears on many casual sit-down restaurant menus, albeit with the bonus of having Cheetos signature orange dust on the outside. Currently Mac n' Cheetos is only being tested in a few select restaurants with sightings being reported in southern California and Indiana. The product joins the Whopperrito -- a burrito made using the same ingredients as the chain's signature sandwich, in the company's testing pipeline. Why is Burger King doing this? While it seems like a weird combination of brilliant and gross, Burger King pursues ideas like Mac n' Cheetos and the Whopperrito because the right new product can be a game changer. Taco Bell, for example, has had great success with its Doritos Locos Taco and because the company has an exclusive licensing deal for the snack chip (at least when it comes to using it in a branded taco shell) its competitors cannot copy it. Products like the Doritos Locos Taco get people talking and they bring customers into stores. Then, if people actually like the product (and who wouldn't like a combination of Cheetos and macaroni and cheese), the only place they can get it is Burger King. Outrageous signature products can bring publicity, crowds. and repeat business. They can also become items that appear for only a limited time, making their arrival a newsworthy event. How big could this be? While creating a hit new product can be very difficult and most ideas fail to make a splash, the rewards for hitting a home run can be huge. Taco Bell has sold more than 450 million Doritos Locos Tacos since the product launched in 2012, according to Fast Company. "We had to hire about 15,000 people last year -- two to three per restaurant -- in order to handle the sales growth and demand of the Doritos Locos Tacos business," Taco Bell CEO Greg Creed told the magazine. Taco Bell also has a Cool Ranch version of the product and Doritos (and Cheetos) parent company Frito-Lay (aPepsico brand) has even announced that it will offer Taco Bell-flavored Doritos, which brings the product full circle. So while Mac n' Cheetos seems like a publicity stunt -- and on some level it is -- it's also a swing for the fences, an attempt for Burger King to one-up its rivals. The odds are long, but the potential rewards are great. The article Burger King Testing Mac n' Cheetos originally appeared on Fool.com. Daniel Kline has no position in any stocks mentioned. He would never eat any of this. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends PepsiCo. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. European Central Bank policy makers on Wednesday reinstated a waiver that will allow Greek banks to again participate in cheap funding operations. Greek banks will again be able to use debt guaranteed by the country's government as collateral in the funding operations. The decision was widely expected after eurozone finance ministers last month reached a deal with the International Monetary Fund that allowed the release of bailout funds to Athens. For more than a year, Greek banks had to rely on more expensive funding via the Greek central bank after the ECB revoked the waiver amid a dispute between the Athens and its creditors over austerity measures. Greek government debt however, remains ineligible for purchase as part of the ECB's bond-buying program. The ECB said it would examine possible purchases of Greek government bonds under that program at a later stage, "taking into account the progress made in the analysis and reinforcement of Greece's debt sustainability, as well as other risk management considerations." Copyright 2016 MarketWatch, Inc. Package delivery service FedEx (NYSE:FDX) is spending big on improvements to its ground delivery segment to keep pace with increased demand from leading retailers, including Amazon Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Walmart (NYSE:WMT). The Tennessee-based company posted adjusted earnings per share of $3.30 on $13 billion in revenue for its fourth fiscal quarter of 2016, beating analyst expectations of $3.28 EPS and $12.8 billion in revenue. With one-time charges included, FedEx reported a loss of $0.26 per share, thanks in large part to its acquisition of Dutch delivery service TNT. But FedExs continued emphasis on ground expansion has begun to pay off. FedEx Ground revenue grew 20% to $4.29 billion in the 2016 fiscal year. Alan Graf, FedExs executive vice president and CFO, said the company is expanding Ground as rapidly as we can to meet increased shipping demand. The companys capital spending amounted to $4.8 billion in its 2016 fiscal year, as network expansion and self-insurance expenses dragged on overall results that otherwise benefitted from cheaper fuel costs and e-commerce growth. FedEx forecasts capital spending of $5.1 billion in 2017, with $2 billion dedicated to further expansion of ground shipment facilities. BT&T Capital Markets reiterated its hold rating for FedEx due to a currently shaky global economic outlook, but raised its EPS estimate for fiscal year 2017 to $11.85 from $11.80. Management expects positive momentum to continue in fiscal 2017, driven by improved operating performance through pricing, volume and the Express profit improvement, BT&T analyst Kevin Sterling wrote in a note. In addition, the company continues to modernize its fleet (particularly by adding 767s) and invest in Ground facilities to support the rapid growth of e-commerce. FedEx officials directly addressed the companys relationship with Amazon and Walmart, the worlds largest retailers, who are currently jockeying for position in the e-commerce sector. Mike Glenn, the president and CEO of FedEx Services, downplayed the effect that any one company would have on FedExs business, even as he touted FedExs efforts to address Amazons needs. Because of our close relationship with Amazon and close collaboration, we have a very clear and specific understanding of their needs across the FedEx portfolio during FY17, and further we expect them to be a significant customer for many years to come, Glenn said during a post-earnings conference call. Having said that, it is important to remember that no single FedEx customer represents more than approximately 3% of total revenue. Glenn fielded a question about Walmarts new two-day subscription shipping service, seen as the companys bid to challenge the ever-popular Amazon Prime. Walmart plans to use regional carriers to deliver packages, potentially to the detriment of FedEx, which currently handles most of its e-commerce shipments, the Wall Street Journal reported. Glenn said Walmart remains a long time and growing customer for Fedex, adding that regional carriers arent a significant threat to its business. The fact of the matter is regional carriers simply don't have the scope and the scale to be able to compete with the networks that make up 95% of the e-commerce shipments in the U.S, and as said before that would be FedEx, UPS, United States Postal Service, Glenn said. There's a role for regional carriers and -- but they cannot compete in our opinion with FedEx over the long haul. Buckingham Research Group reiterated its Neutral rating for FedExs stock and maintained a below-consensus EPS estimate of $11.50 for 2017, citing questions about FedExs bid to integrate the newly-acquired TNT. FedEx officials declined to include TNT in the 2017 forecast, noting that integration efforts had just begun. What was clear to us, is that the integration will take longer, and the EPS ramp, slower, at both the Ground and TNT Express divisions, Buckingham analysts said in a note. FedEx will be spending heavily in 2017/2018 to bring its Express fleet up to date, expand its Ground operations and integrate TNT Express. All will add to EPS growth in future years, but currently, we are concerned that consensus expectations for EPS accretion in 2017/2018 are too high. Daniel Ek, founder and CEO of Spotify. Image Source: Spotify. Global streaming music leader Spotify is finally growing up. Having officially surpassed 100 million users worldwide, Spotify has shifted its focus to improving user monetization and revenue growth in 2016. Its efforts to build a profitable business atop its leading music product is the next natural step toward an eventual Spotify IPO, which has led to speculation that Spotify might go public before year's end. However, before it does so, Spotify will have to make significant improvements to, among other things, its advertising business, as one recent report detailed. Inside Spotify ad business growth In a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, Jeff Levick, Spotify's chief revenue officer, discussed the improvements the company is making to its advertising business. According to Levick, Spotify's advertising team was one deemed a non-priority internally, viewed as "those people over there ... with their [banner advertisements]." However, as part of Spotify's push to eke more revenue out of its users, the company has grown its headcount, launched new products, and expanded its advertising partnerships. The results have been impressive. Image Source: Spotify In each of the past two years, revenue from Spotify's free, ad-supported usage tier has doubled, and Levick sees more room for continued focus on the advertising side of its business. According to the WSJ piece, CEO Daniel Ek is scheduled to speak at the ongoing Cannes Lions festival, one of the most important advertising industry events of the year. The company also recently required all of its tech and product employees to use the Spotify free version in an effort to ensure those building the product were actually familiar with its user interface. To be sure, trying to grow sales across one of its two main revenue sources is simply good business on Spotify's part. However, improving its advertising business likely won't be enough to help Spotify eventually make money for its investors. The bigger picture Simply stated, Spotify's advertisements simply do not generate enough revenue alone to support its free service, which constitutes roughly 70% of the company's users. Worse yet, even significant improvements to its free user monetization might not be enough to ever make the free segment profitable. Take a look at Spotify's revenue composition between its free and paid users in 2014 and 2015. 2014 Revenue 2014 Average Revenue per User (ARPU) 2015 Revenue 2015 Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) Advertising $107,846,000 $2.40 $213,723,000 $3.01 Subscriptions $1,067,908,000 $71.19 $1,903,656,000 $67.99 Source: Author's calculations from Music Business Worldwide data This is perhaps the most important chart in understanding Spotify from an investor's perspective. Think of Spotify as a seesaw. From an "aggregate users" perspective, the free, ad-supported side of its business dominates Spotify. However, in terms of revenue generation, the paid subscription portion of its operations contributes the vast majority of dollars, both in total and on a per-user basis. This is also likely why a key competitor like Apple has relied on free trials, which are fixed in duration by nature, as the primary means to promote Apple Music, rather than trying to upsell a subscription product to a base of potentially permanent, ad-supported free-tier users who offer it little financial upside. It's also why Amazon.com's forthcoming streaming product and Pandora Media's new streaming product are both expected to be on-demand subscription products. The entry of Apple, Amazon, and Alphabet into the streaming music market is a clear threat to Spotify. They also add urgency to its IPO plans. Streaming services like Spotify and Pandora have traditionally encountered difficulties producing consistent profits. One problem is lack of differentiation, which both Apple and Spotify are seeking to overcome by slowly adding their own original video content to their offerings. Amazon will likely pursue a similar but slightly different strategy. The key here in terms of a Spotify IPO is that investing in video content, particularly exclusive video content, requires a fair amount of capital. Spotify raised $1 billion this year, and it isn't clear how much of that has been dedicated to its eventual public debut. However, in order to raise additional funds via an IPO, Spotify must demonstrate it has a clearer path to profitability. Its efforts to build a more robust advertising business should help with that -- to a certain limited extent -- in the months ahead. The article Improving Its Ad Business Wont Be Enough for Spotify originally appeared on Fool.com. Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Andrew Tonner owns shares of Apple. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Alphabet (A shares), Alphabet (C shares), Amazon.com, Apple, and Pandora Media. The Motley Fool has the following options: long January 2018 $90 calls on Apple and short January 2018 $95 calls on Apple. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. 2022 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. FAQ - New Privacy Policy Source image: Getty Images. Last week, Samsung Electronics made a notable move when it agreed to purchase Joyent, Inc.,a public and private cloud provider that sells cloud space to companies and also helps them set up their clouds from their data centers. Samsung's keeping Joyent as a separate business, but will use the company's cloud computing prowess to help build out its own cloud-based initiatives. And it's coming at the perfect time. Back at the end of 2015, Samsung changed its management structure (as it does every year) and put D.J. Koh in place as the head of the company's mobile division. At the time, it was expected that his leadership would help bring in more software and services focus, and it appears that the Joyent purchase is part of that plan. Samsung's CTO of mobile communications, Injong Rhee, said in a press release that, "In Joyent, we saw an experienced management team with deep domain expertise and a robust cloud technology validated by some of the largest Fortune 500 customers." Samsung is looking for new ways to bring in revenue that isn't from selling smartphones, and the growing cloud market could help fill in the gaps. How Samsung stands to benefit Purchasing Joyent gives Samsung access to a platform that the company can use across its mobile, Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud-based services. It's still unclear just how much Joyent could add to Samsung's bottom line right now, but the company is likely looking to boost is mobile division, where Joyent will officially exist. Samsung has seen its Galaxy smartphone shipments fall for the past two years while the cloud computing market is growing. Gartner says the public cloud services market is worth $204 billion right now. And it's in this large cloud market where Samsung stands to benefit. Joyent competes with other cloud services offered by Amazon.com , though on a much smaller scale. Amazonis known as an online retailer, but its Amazon Web Services (AWS) brought in $7.8 billion in revenue in Q4 2015, up 69% year over year. Samsung isn't looking to take on Amazon directly, but by purchasing Joyent the company will be able to offer new software and services directly to its customers. Samsung needs a new area to focus its attention as its mobile business stalls. Cloud software and services could be it, and Joyent is a solid move into the space. Theplaftorm-as-a-service (PaaS) market -- which Samsung may tap into with Joyent -- is expected to hit $7.5 billion in the next thee and half years, according to Global Industry Analysts. Investor takeaway I wouldn't invest in Samsung (or sell) based on the company's decision to buy Joyent. Samsung is a massive conglomerate that made 12 major acquisitions last year, so the recent move is nothing new. Instead, investors should view Samsung's move as yet another step in creating a software and services company that complements its current mobile position. Remember that despite the drop in Galaxy shipments, Samsung is still the leading smartphone vendor in the world. But hardware is starting to take a backseat to software and cloud services, and Samsung's slowly making the shift. Joyent will help the company transition, but it's going to be a slow one. The article Samsung's Getting More Serious About Cloud Computing Services originally appeared on Fool.com. Chris Neiger has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Amazon.com and Gartner. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Tesla Motors is betting that customers will want to buy a car, a solar power system, and energy storage in one big purchase at Tesla showrooms. Image source: Tesla Motors. Tesla Motors has officially made an offer to buy SolarCity , which would combine Elon Musk's clean-energy empire into one company. News of the deal has sent SolarCity stock surging higher and Tesla Motors shares plunging by double digits in early trading Wednesday. Combining an automaker with a solar panel installer will be complex, and combining two companies that are currently losing money adds to the risk. Here's why I think this is a marriage that would end in disaster. SolarCity doesn't have its own house in order Tesla Motors is buying SolarCity at a discount compared to where shares traded a year ago. But a stock doesn't fall more than 60% for no reason: SolarCity is already facing a host of challenges this year. SCTY data by YCharts. SolarCity badly missed its own installation guidance the last two quarters, and has seen its costs skyrocket as a result. And the market is starting to question whether or not the company is adding as much value for shareholders as it's formerly said. Image source: SolarCity. There are three factors that drive SolarCity's value proposition for investors, and they're all being questioned by investors at the moment. First is that it has lower costs than competitors, which is being challenged by local installers who can undercut SolarCity's cost structure. The second driver has been SolarCity's low capital costs, which allow it to sell leases and power-purchase agreements to customers at lower prices than competitors. Those contracts are then chopped up and sold to investors in the form of tax equity, securitizations, and other financing deals. It's this ability to finance more than the cost of installing a solar power system that Elon Musk is talking about when he says SolarCity will be cash-flow positive this year. But if capital markets close to SolarCity, as they did to SunEdison and Vivint Solar when those two solar companies tried to merge, that cash-flow positive business can go negative quickly. It requires open capital markets month after month to keep SolarCity going. The third thing SolarCity points to as a value-creation metric is the long-term contracts and high credit scores of its customers. These allow it to create a long-term cash flow business based on multidecade relationships with its customers. These are the relationships that Tesla wants to exploit by cross-selling cars and energy storage. But the solar market is moving away from leases to cash sales or loans, and investors are questioning whether a homeowner will be able to transfer a 15-year-old lease to a buyer if they sell their home. So, the market is discounting the value of these long-term contracts because they may not be as safe as they appear. In 2016, investors are questioning all ofSolarCity's theoretical advantages in the rooftop solar market. And that's why the stock is dropping. These are structural challenges that Tesla Motors won't be able to fix, and may actually make worse. SolarCity workers installing a rooftop solar system. Image source: SolarCity. The problem for SolarCity under Tesla's umbrella On top of SolarCity's own problems, I don't think its future meshes well with Tesla Motors. Musk talked at length about Tesla's Powerwall being added to SolarCity's solar power systems. But there are very few locations in the world where residential energy storage makes any sense financially. And even an aggressive analysis of the industry shows that it'll be at least five to 10 years before it does. There's simply no way to make money on energy storage systems broadly today, and worse yet, there's no path to financing energy storage systems in a way that's as simple as SolarCity's $0-down lease product, which drove solar adoption. The market is also moving away from SolarCity's preferred business model. The leases and power-purchase agreements that locked customers into solar energy contracts for 20 years were a good way to get cautious customers into solar with no money down while the industry was in its early growth phase, but now, customers want to buy systems with cash or loans -- a method that saves them considerably more money over the long term, and allows them more choice in what they get installed on their roofs. CEO Lyndon Rive admitted that the lack of a loan product in the first quarter cost the company sales, and was one reason it had to lower 2016 guidance. The rising popularity of sales and loans will also make rooftop solar more competitive on a cost basis, which may not be good for SolarCity, and a merger with Tesla doesn't change that. No matter what its sales model is, SolarCity is incredibly reliant on capital markets to fund solar power systems. Based on current guidance, the company would need around $3 billion of financing to get through the year. If capital markets shut down to SolarCity, as they did to SunEdison after it said it would acquire Vivint Solar, the company could need billions in funding annually from Tesla Motors. That's money Tesla doesn't have. I don't see how Tesla Motors makes SolarCity a better company, and it may actually complicate both of their businesses. Where are the synergies? The justification for mergers often include synergies between the two companies. And the synergies between SolarCity and Tesla are questionable at best. Manufacturing of solar panels and cars are two different worlds. I don't see how the companies would see any synergy at all on the manufacturing front. Musk says he'll move solar sales into Tesla Motors showrooms, but it's not clear that car buyers will want to sign a 20-year lease or figure out how to make money on an energy storage system at the same time as they buy a car. They're two very different decisions, and I don't see customers making both on the same trip to the showroom. This also seems to be a confusing move for SolarCity's sales force. They're primarily soliciting business today with tactics like door-to-door sales, telemarketing, and booths in retailers to keep volumes flowing through the system. The showroom would add to those sales avenues. But the flip side is that Musk says showrooms would allow lower sales costs in the solar business, so does that mean layoffs are coming to SolarCity's sales organization? I'm not sure these sales organizations have the synergies Musk sees right now. More questions than answers today Elon Musk is selling the acquisition of SolarCity as a vertical integration of solar to energy storage to electric vehicles. But I think it's a stretch to say that the sales or manufacturing of any of those devices work in tandem. When you add that both Tesla Motors and SolarCity are spending billions every year to build out capacity and losing money in the process, it's a high-risk bet. And it makes Tesla Motors a much riskier company in the process. The article Tesla Motors + SolarCity: Is Elon Musk's Clean-Energy Dream Doomed From the Start? originally appeared on Fool.com. Travis Hoium has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends SolarCity and Tesla Motors. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Tesla Motors Inc Chief Executive Elon Musk said on Wednesday that the proposed acquisition of his SolarCity could eventually push the electric car maker's valuation to $1 trillion, but investors disagreed. Tesla stock opened at $198.26, down nearly 10 percent from its Tuesday close. SolarCity opened at $23.27, up 10 percent. Tesla on Tuesday made an offer to buy the rooftop solar panel company in a stock deal worth as much as $2.8 billion. Musk is a major shareholder in both companies. "I have no doubt about this - zero," Musk said of the deal in a conference call with analyst before markets opened on Wednesday. "We should have done it sooner." Barclays auto analyst Brian Johnson disputed that view in an overnight note to investors, saying the proposed merger had "little in the way of synergies (and) much in the way of cash burn," with "uncertain growth/cash prospects" for the combined companies. "It is even more clear that Tesla will need additional cash raises" to continue its expansion of electric car and battery production, Johnson said. The combination of SolarCity's solar panels with Tesla's electric vehicles and stationary storage batteries is "what the world needs, the ultimate solution" to a sustainable-energy future, Musk said on the Wednesday call. "As a combined automotive and power storage and power generation company, the potential is there for Tesla to be a trillion-dollar market cap company," he added. SolarCity will become cash flow positive in the next three to six months and will not have a material impact on Tesla's future cash needs or expectation to be cash-flow positive by year-end, Musk said. Musk said costs for both companies would go down significantly after the merger, but he did not give specifics. Tesla General Counsel Todd Maron said he expected shareholders of both companies to vote on the deal in the next few months. (Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee and Narottam Medhora in Bengaluru and Paul Lienert in Detroit; Editing by Anil D'Silva and Lisa Von Ahn) Image source: iStock/Thinkstock. A recent poll suggests that America's favorite national bank is JPMorgan Chase . According to the Harris Poll, which conducts annual customer service surveys, consumers chose the nation's biggest bank by assets as their preferred place to bank. This is obviously good news for JPMorgan Chase, which prides itself on its service quality. The bank is, after all, named after J.P. Morgan himself, who believed in doing "first-class business in a first-class way." On top of this, while JPMorgan Chase struggled in ACSI's 2015 customer satisfaction index, eclipsed by Wells Fargo and Citigroup, it sat atop that survey in 2014. Bank 2015 ACSI Score 2014 ACSI Score Wells Fargo 75 72 Citigroup 73 74 JPMorgan Chase 71 74 Bank of America 68 69 Data source: 2015 ACSI Finance and Insurance Report. It's difficult to draw a straight line between a bank's showing on surveys like this and shareholder returns. At the same time, it isn't unreasonable to presume that a link exists. The reason many people have previously argued that customer satisfaction matters less in the bank industry is because of so-called switching costs. Because it's so hard to unwind one's banking relationships -- given direct deposit and automatic bill pay -- it has long been believed that banks were essentially free to exploit their customers. And, of course, this has largely been the story line over the past two decades. Before new regulations reined in banks' worst abuses, it was standard operating procedure in the industry to knowingly take advantage of customers -- and poor customers in particular. Among other ways, banks did so by rigging overdraft policies in order to maximize fees for customers who lived paycheck to paycheck, as well as by obligating credit card holders to submit to non-neutral arbitration forums to resolve disputes. Yet, if you look at JPMorgan Chase's shareholder returns compared to Bank of America's , the perennially least-liked bank in the country, there's at least an anecdotal relationship. To this end, while JPMorgan Chase often ranks atop its class when it comes to service, Bank of America just as frequently ranks at the bottom. JPM Total Return Price data by YCharts. There are other variables at play here that help to explain the divergence between the two stocks, but despite efforts to marginalize the importance of customer satisfaction, it seems naive to conclude that a customers' feelings toward their bank has no impact on its profitability. In a recent review on Consumer Affairs, for instance, a customer spoke of closing her Bank of America account after being on the business end of its notoriously bad service. This would reduce any money that Bank of America earns from that customer today, as well as in the future. In short, while investors shouldn't put a whole lot of stock in subjective customer satisfaction surveys, they can nevertheless serve as another variable to factor into one's analysis about whether or not to buy a particular bank stock over another. The article This Is America's Favorite National Bank originally appeared on Fool.com. John Maxfield owns shares of Bank of America and Wells Fargo. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Wells Fargo. The Motley Fool recommends Bank of America. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Image source: Restoration Hardware. Sometimes, investors seem to focus on a single future event and stay in a holding pattern until that event happens. Wednesday's quiet stock market action was an example of that phenomenon, and gains early in the day gave way to a gentle downtrend in the afternoon in anticipation of the coming U.K. vote on whether to remain within the European Union. The vote will take place tomorrow, and results are expected in time for the U.S. markets to open on Friday morning. Until then, the overall tone of the market is likely to be one of uncertainty, and major market benchmarks reflected that tone today, falling around a quarter percent. Nevertheless, some stocks posted solid gains, and Restoration Hardware , Gold Fields International , and Unisys were among the best performers in the market Wednesday. Restoration Hardware climbed 7% after analysts at BB&T suggested that the high-end home furnishings chain should consider a combination with industry peer Williams-Sonoma. Given the tough conditions in the retail environment right now, merger and acquisition activity would serve the dual purpose of discovering synergies between currently separate firms and reducing the level of competition within the industry. Restoration Hardware in particular has had to deal with an overall slowdown at the upper end of the retail spectrum, and the company has cited weakness in former energy-boom areas of the country that are now struggling because of the plunge in crude oil prices. Restoration Hardware hasn't made any public overtures toward major M&A activity, but even the hint of that being a possibility was enough to get investors excited today. Gold Fields International rose 6% in the wake of getting an upgrade from analysts at RBC. The price of gold didn't move substantially on Wednesday, taking away what is a typical source of support for gold mining stocks like Gold Fields. But the RBC analysts believe that a promising future for the company's South Deep mine could help boost its overall performance, and Gold Fields also stands to gain substantially if some of its assets in areas like Ghana and Australia pan out better than the somewhat pessimistic assessment that market participants have right now. If gold prices continue their climb from the beginning of the year, then that could be even further impetus to keep Gold Fields stock moving in the right direction. Finally, Unisys picked up 11%. The company was also a beneficiary of positive analyst action, this time from SunTrust Robinson Humphrey. Unisys received a buy rating, and the $11 per share price target represented a nearly 50% potential gain from where the stock closed Tuesday afternoon. The information technology company has fallen on hard times lately, with falling revenue producing substantial losses for the company. Yet even though those losses are expected to persist at least through 2017, a more positive long-term assessment for the long-suffering Unisys was enough to produce the sizable bounce in the share price. If moves like its recent alliance with Microsoft on cloud security work out well, then further gains could be in the offing for Unisys. The article Why Restoration Hardware, Gold Fields International, and Unisys Jumped Today originally appeared on Fool.com. Dan Caplinger has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Restoration Hardware. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Donald Trump may have dropped another bombshell against Hillary Clinton. During his speech at his Trump SoHo hotel in New York, Wednesday, Trump accused Hillary Clinton of committing a felony during her time as Secretary of State according to Fox News Senior Judicial Analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano. Hillary Clinton accepted $58,000 in jewelry from the government of Brunei when she was Secretary of State plus millions more for her foundation. The Sultan of Brunei has pushed oppressive Sharia law, including the punishment of death by stoning for being gay. The government of Brunei also stands to be one of the biggest beneficiaries of Hillarys Trans-Pacific Partnership, which she would absolutely approve if given the chance, said Trump. Judge Andrew Napolitano said this may be the first time a presidential candidate of a major party has accused their opposition of committing a felony -- and could carry some major implications for both candidates. [Trump] is exposing himself to all kinds of things. He is also really pushing the envelope on her. He painted a strong case from the Schweitzer book that this is one of the two criminal investigations of her -- and its called public corruption. That she used her power as Secretary of State, to enrich herself, to enrich her husband and to enrich their commonly owned entity -- the Foundation, he said. FOXBusiness.coms request for comment from the Clinton campaign were not returned at the time of publication. Authorities in Georgia raided two of Gladys Knights Chicken and Waffles restaurants and its headquarters Tuesday. WSB-TV reported that Knights son, Shanga Hankerson, runs the restaurant and is at the center of an investigation involving about $1 million. Georgia Department of Revenue Special Investigations Chief Jeff Mitchell told the station that investigation solely surrounds Hankerson and not Knight. Mitchell said shes totally in the clear. Mitchell said neither Knight nor any other restaurant employees are facing criminal charges. A warrant for Hankersons arrest charges him with multiple felonies, but not all the money is involved in the warrants. Shanga's accused of stealing over 650,000 in both sales and withholding tax, Josh Waites, a special investigator, told WSB-TV. (With) penalties and interest, its up to over $1 million owed. Waites said the raids in search of tax records cap off years of efforts trying to collect money paid by customers for sales tax or withheld from the employees. Officials tried unsuccessfully to arrest Hankerson. The station reported that Clayton County District Attorneys Office has filed a civil anti-racketeering lawsuit to seize assets to recoup the owed taxes. District Attorney Tracy Graham Lawson said one of Knights signature restaurants has a location in Clayton County. Waites said state officials are working with Hankerson's attorney "to have the businesses up and running again as soon as possible." TMZ reported that employees were told to leave the restaurant before officials removed computers, filed and contents from safes. A spokesman for Knight said in a statement to Fox 5 Atlanta that Knight wasnt involved in any way with the restaurants operations. Gladys Knight lent her name to her sons restaurants in the Atlanta area, similar to a celebrity endorsement, the statement read. Ms. Knight was not involved in any way with the operation of the restaurants and she is sure that her son and his business partners will rectify the situation. As always, her main concern is for her familys well-being and she is making sure the family has the guidance they need to assess the situation and move forward. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Click for more from WSB-TV. Click for more from Fox 5 Atlanta. next Image 1 of 2 prev Image 2 of 2 During a 20-week ultrasound, doctors told Bentley Yoders parents that their son was incompatible with life, and that he had a 0 percent chance of survival. Devastated, the Ohio parents considered terminating the pregnancy, but ultimately they decided to carry Bently to term. All the way through, I just kept having the feeling that its going to be OK, its going to be all right, Dustin Yoder, Bentleys father, said in a post on Thriving, a Boston Childrens Hospital blog. In the ultrasound, doctors had detected that brain tissue was bulging out of an opening in Bentleys skull and diagnosed him with encephalocele. The condition is a rare neural tube defect that occurs when the tube does not close completely during pregnancy. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the condition occurs in one out of 10,000 babies born in the United States each year. I specifically remember asking, Is there any chance he could survive? They said no that in the best-case scenario, hes going to be a vegetable, Sierra Yoder, Bentleys mother, said in the blog post. They made it out like I was going to lose him at any point. The Yoders entered the birth excited for the limited time they were expected to have with their son and picked out an outfit to bury him in, but Bentley had other plans. The staff sent the family home with hospice but Bentley was feeding from the bottle, cooing and crying like any other child. I couldnt make him out any different from my other son, Sierra said, according to the blog post. He was just a normal baby with something on the top of his head. The sac on Bentleys head continue to grow as it filled with fluid, but doctors needed to figure out whether he was using any of the brain tissue before attempting to remove it. They were referred to Boston Childrens Hospital, where Dr. John Meara, a plastic surgeon of the Cleft and Craniofacial Center, determined they could safely operate on Bentley. Along with neurosurgeon Dr. Mark Proctor, Meara planned to drain the fluid, expand Bentleys skull and replace the brain tissue that was being used. They used Boston Childrens Simulator Program to produce several 3-D models of Bentleys skull to plan the procedure. Weve operated on a lot of encephaloceles in the past, but wed never had one where there was so much brain tissue we felt was functional and had to be protected, put back in the cranium and covered up, Proctor said in the blog post. It really presented a unique challenge. The procedure lasted five hours, and doctors saved a majority of the brain tissue. However, fluid accumulated in Bentleys brain, causing him to become limp and lethargic two days later. Having prepared for this situation, doctors implanted a drain and a permanent shunt to divert the fluid to Bentleys abdomen. The more the shunt was working, the better he was starting to get, Sierra said in the blog post. He looks at us way more now and is starting to be more interactive. He fights tooth and nail to stay away now he doesnt want to miss anything. Doctors arent sure what the future holds for Bentley and say its unlikely he will develop like other children. Currently, he requires no special care and will be followed by a neurologist near the familys home in Ohio. I am certainly optimistic that he could have a rewarding life, Proctor said in the blog post. In the aftermath of the death of a 2-year-old boy who was drowned by an alligator at a Disney resort in Florida, much of the public response has been sympathetic. But not all of it: Sprinkled across social media, online comments and even whisperings you may hear at the water cooler, some individuals are instead pointing fingers, blaming the parents. Is this a sign of the times? Is parenting shame on the rise and empathy taking a dive? Research says maybe so. The brain is wired for empathy, but it's also wired for moral judgments. And some facets of modern American culture may push people away from the former and toward the latter. The blame game Beneath any given online article about the alligator attack, there are at least a few comments questioning the child's parents. The theme persists on the Twitter hashtag #DisneyGatorAttack. "People are blaming an alligator for being an alligator, when the real issue here is child negligence. Watch your child," Tweeted a user with the handle @nuffsaidNY. Ubiquitous reports that the child's parents were right next to him and that the father struggled to pull open the alligator's jaws to save his child seem not to put a damper on the judgments. A similar pattern occurred in late May after a preschooler slipped away from his mother and fell into a gorilla enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo. The child survived, but zoo officials had to shoot the gorilla, resulting in calls for the parents to be prosecuted. In response to the blame has come a backlash. Melissa Fenton, a writer for the parenting site Scary Mommy, wrote aplea for compassion on Facebook, arguing that in the past, child-in-peril stories engendered support, not judgment. [5 Ways to Foster Self-Compassion in Your Child] "We now live in a time where accidents are not allowed to happen. You heard me. Accidents, of any form, in any way, and at any time, well, they just don't happen anymore," Fenton wrote. "Why? Because BLAME and SHAME." Empathy and judgment Empathy is the ability to put oneself in another person's emotional shoes. This ability is baked into people's moral reasoning, even at the level of brain anatomy, science shows. Researchers reporting in 2013 in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience examined the brains of psychopaths (who have stunted empathy for others) and found multiple brain regions involved, including the anterior insula, the anterior cingulate cortex, the supplementary motor area, the inferior frontal gyrus, the somatosensory cortex and the right amygdala. (Specifically, these areas are linked to empathy for pain.) In a review paper that same year, published in the journal Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience, researchers catalogued all of the brain regions involved in moral judgments. The names of a few familiar regions popped up. The insular cortex which holds the anterior insula and is associated with the processing of disgust, uncertainty and emotions plays a role in morals. So does the anterior cingulate cortex. [5 Ways Your Emotions Influence Your World (and Vice Versa)] In other words, empathy is tangled with moral judgment even at the level of brain anatomy. Understanding how others think and feel is important to making moral decisions, of course. But people aren't perfect at it. A 2013 study published in the Journal of Neuroscience found that when one person is exposed to a negative stimuli (a picture of maggots and a bowl of slime, for example) while another person is exposed to a positive stimuli (e.g., a picture of a puppy and a soft fleece), the individual emotions of the two people get in the way of understanding one another. The person exposed to the negative stimuli views the person exposed to the positive stimuli as less happy than that individual really is. Meanwhile, the person who had the positive experience views the person who had the negative experience as happier than he or she really is. A person's own emotional state bleeds into his or her understanding of another's. Brain bias Empathy is "a powerful emotion," said Emile Bruneau, a cognitive scientist and visiting scholar at the University of Pennsylvania. Even so, people can be easily "distracted" from empathy by other emotions and even external factors, she told Live Science. "It can motivate us. It can bring us to tears and motivate us to great action of altruism," Bruneau said. "But it's also incredibly flexible. We can feel a great amount of empathy for someone and something, but then we can turn around and feel no empathy at all for someone else." For instance, people might feel empathy for a dead or endangered child, and this emotion might lead them to feel anger and aggression toward the parents they perceive as being at fault, Bruneau said. People also prefer to apply empathy to their own in-groups, and tend not to feel as much empathy for out-groups. "That can be across any boundary," Bruneau said. "It's one of the curious things about humans. We can distinguish in-group and out-group across any arbitrary boundary we decide." Another serious hiccup for empathy is what's called the fundamental attribution error. This is a cognitive bias by which people assume that other people's actions are mostly driven by their personalities, rather than external factors that are out of their control. However, when people think about their own behavior, they do take these external factors into account. In other words, if your kid gets away from you at the zoo, you can list the reasons why: He's fast; the place was crowded; your other kids needed your attention. If someone else's kid slips away at the zoo, it's because that person is a bad parent, you may conclude. In a particularly individualistic culture, like modern America, the fundamental attribution error may play an outsize role. "People in individualistic cultures are more likely to commit this error, and are more likely in general to attribute actions to the individual instead of the situation," said Jean Twenge, a psychologist at San Diego State University and author of "Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled and More Miserable Than Ever Before" (Free Press, 2006). Culture change? Survey data comparing today's Americans to their counterparts of the same age in previous generations suggests that the population is becoming more individualistic, and has been doing so for at least a century. "Since U.S. culture has grown more individualistic, it makes sense that people are now more likely to blame parents when things go wrong," Twenge told Live Science. Similar generational research also finds declines in empathy. A study published in 2011 in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Review found a decline of 48 percent in college students' scores on empathic concern, a measure of feelings of sympathy, tenderness and compassion for others. There was also a 34 percent decline in perspective-taking, the intellectual tendency to imagine another's point of view. (This data is subject to some controversy over whether people really feel more individualistic and less empathetic, or whether it's simply more socially acceptable to say so now.) Changing attitudes toward parenting and children may also make blame and judgment more rampant. Life has become staggeringly safer for children over the past century. According to the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration, the rate of deaths for children under the age of 4 has dropped from 1,418.8 deaths per 100,000 in 1907 to 28.6 deaths per 100,000 in 2007. [What Are the Odds of Dying From] Unintentional accidents made up about the same proportion of deaths of small children since 1970 (37 percent that year, versus 34 percent in 2007), but the overall number of deaths has continued to decline during that time. This means fatal childhood accidents are rarer than ever. "People used to think accidents were normal acts of God, or just random bad luck," said Stephanie Coontz, a historian of families at The Evergreen State College in Washington. "And precisely because life was less safe then, people were less inclined than today to have the expectation that life would be safe if no one screwed up." 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. An honest essay has numerous characteristics: original thinking, a good structure, balanced arguments, and plenty more. But one aspect often overlooked is that an honest essay should be interesting. It should spark the readers curiosity, keep them absorbed, make them want to stay reading and learn more. An uneventful article risks losing the readers attention; whether or not the points you create are excellent, a flat style, or poor handling of a dry subject material can undermine the positive aspects of the essay. The matter is that a lot of students think that essays should be like this: they believe that a flat, dry style is suited to the needs of educational writing and dont even consider that the teacher reading their essay wants to search out the essay interesting. You might want to have online essay editor service to boost your confidence in writing with an error-free output. Academic writing doesnt need to be and shouldnt be bland. The excellent news is that there is much stuff you can do to create your essay more attractive, while youll be able only to do such a lot while remaining within the formal confines of educational writing. Lets study what theyre. Have an interest in what youre writing about Dont go overboard, but youll be able to let your passion for your subject show. If theres one thing bound to inject interest into your writing, its being fascinated by what youre writing about. Passion for a subject matter comes across naturally in your essay, typically making it more lively and fascinating and infusing an infectious enthusiasm into your words within the same way that its easy to talk knowledgeably to someone about something you discover fascinating. Include fascinating details Another factor that may make an essay boring maybe a dry material. Some topic areas are naturally dry, and it falls to you to form the article more interesting through your written style and by trying to seek out fascinating snippets of knowledge to incorporate, which will liven it up a small amount and make the data easier to relate to. A way of doing this with a dry subject is to create what youre talking about that seems relevant to the critical world, as this is often easier for the reader to relate to. Emulate the fashion of writers you discover interesting When you read lots, you subconsciously start emulating the fashion of the writers you have read. Reading benefits you a lot, as this exposes you to a spread of designs, and youll start to require the characteristics of these you discover interesting to read. Borrow some creative writing techniques Theres a limit to the quantity of actual story-telling youll do when youre writing an essay; in the end, essays should be objective, factual and balanced, which doesnt, initially glance, feel considerably like story-telling. However, youll apply a number of the principles of story-telling to create your writing more interesting. consider your own opinion Take the time to figure out what its that you think instead of regurgitating the opinions of others. Cut the waffle Rambling on and on is dull and almost bound to lose the interest of your reader. Youre in danger of waffling if youre not completely clear about what you wish to mention or havent thought carefully about how youre visiting structure your argument. Doing all your research correctly and writing an essay plan before you begin will help prevent this problem. Editing is a vital part of the essay-writing process, so edit the waffle once youve done a primary draft. Read through your essay objectively and eliminate the bits that arent relevant to the argument or labor the purpose. employing a thesaurus isnt always a decent thing Avoid using unfamiliar words in an essay; theres too great a likelihood that youre misusing them. You may think that employing a thesaurus to seek out more complicated words will make your writing more exciting or sound more academic, but using overly high-brow language can have the incorrect effect. Avoid repetitive phrasing Please avoid using the identical phrase structure again and again: its a recipe for dullness! Instead, use a variety of syntax that demonstrates your writing capabilities and makes your writing more interesting. Mix simple, compound, and complicated sentences to avoid your paper becoming predictable. Use some figurative language Using analogies with nature can often make concepts more accessible for readers to know. As weve already seen, its easy to finish up rambling when youre explaining complex concepts mainly after you dont know it yourself. One way of forcing yourself to think about a couple of pictures, present it more simply and engagingly is to form figurative language. This implies explaining something by comparing it with something else, as in an analogy. Employ rhetorical questions Anticipate the questions your reader might ask. One of the ways ancient orators held the eye of their audiences and increased the dramatic effect of their speeches was by using the statement. A decent place to use a statement is at the top of a paragraph, to steer into the following one, or at the start of a replacement section to introduce a brand new area for exploration. Proofread Finally, you may write the top interesting essay an instructor has ever read. Still, youll undermine your good work if its plagued by errors, which distract the reader from the particular content and can probably annoy them. The Zika virus, which continues to wreak havoc in the Americas, is at the forefront of many travelers minds as we head into the summer months. There is currently no vaccine commercially available for the virus, nor is there a cure for those who become infected, but there are a few ways to stay safe. We recently got this question from a viewer: Dear Dr. Manny, Im traveling this summer and am concerned about the Zika virus. I dont want to buy bug spray with chemicals in it. Are there any essential oils I can use to ward off mosquitos instead? Thanks, Gina Before booking your vacation, familiarize yourself with the so-called Zika hotspots, which are areas where the virus is prevalent. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a travel advisory to anyone headed to areas in Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America, the Pacific Islands, South America and Cape Verde. Its also important to consider the risks involved with travel to such areas. The Zika virus is particularly dangerous for expectant mothers and women of childbearing age. The virus can cause severe birth defects in developing babies such as microcephaly, which causes abnormal brain development. The virus can be contracted either by being bit by an Zika-infected mosquito, or through sexual transmission. Most people who are infected with the virus do not experience symptoms, but those who do may suffer from fever, rash, joint pain, muscle pain, headache or conjunctivitis. If symptoms present within two weeks of traveling to a Zika-infested location, it is important to see your doctor. Although there is no vaccine, you can take a few steps to protect yourself from this virus. Practicing safe sex with condoms, and protecting yourself from mosquitos by avoiding low-lying areas surrounded by water and covering exposed skin can help. The CDC has said it is safe to use insect repellant that contains deet, but for those looking to avoid chemicals there are also essential oils you can use. Essential oils are a really great way to keep mosquitoes away that could be carrying the Zika virus because theyre natural, toxin free and they smell really great, Lara Riggio, owner of The Lara Touch Wellness Center in New York, and an eastern healing and essential oils expert, told FoxNews.com. Its super easy: Get a three ounce bottle so you can actually travel with it, [and] fill it halfway with water and halfway with witch hazel. Then youre going to take your essential oils I like to use citronella, eucalyptus and tea tree oil youre going to take 10 to 15 drops, drop them in with the water, shake it up, spray it all over your body, Riggio said. The mosquitoes will stay away, and youll smell great. For the most up-to-date information on the Zika virus and travel notices, visit CDC.gov. Do you have a health question? Tweet us at @DrMannyonFOX. An Ohio teen died Sunday after contracting a suspected brain-eating amoeba while swimming in North Carolina. Lauren Elisabeth Seitz, of Westerville, Ohio, was visiting the U.S. National Whitewater Center in Charlotte with her churchs youth music ministry group when she contracted the infection, WYFF4.com reported. They had one day of recreation where they stopped at the U.S. Whitewater Center and went whitewater rafting, and they had a grand day, Jim Wilson, Seitzs pastor at the Church of the Messiah United Methodist Church, told WYFF4.com. Reports do not indicate when Seitz began feeling ill, but her cause of death is primary amoebic meningoencephalitis, an infection caused by Naegleria fowleri, also known as brain-eating amoeba, Fox26 reported. The organism is not harmful if swallowed, but it can be fatal if it travels to the brain through the nose. The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services along with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Ohio Department of Public Health, Franklin County Public Health Department, U.S. National White Water Center and Mecklenburg County Health Department are investigating the incident. The Mecklenburg County Health Department said the Whitewater Center is believed to be safe, as it is equipped with a treatment system for the water that is chlorinated and treated with UV radiation, WYFF4.com reported. Amoebas are common in warm waters, but swimmers can take precautionary steps to avoid infection. Recommendations include: limiting the amount of water in the nasal passage by holding the nose shut, utilizing nose clips or keeping their head above water, and avoiding water-related activities in warm fresh water during periods of high water temperature and low water levels. President Obama and the Democratic Party have failed African-Americans, and it no longer serves their interest to reliably support either Hillary Clinton or the party. From Reconstruction to the Great Depression, African-Americans were strongly aligned with the GOP, recognizing Abraham Lincolns role in ending slavery and the virulent segregationist policies championed by southern Democrats. Franklin Roosevelts New Deal and Harry Trumans executive orders to desegregate the military and end discrimination in federal employment broke those ties but as recently as 1956 and 1960, Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon managed to win 39 and 32 percent of the African-American vote. Lyndon Johnsons support for The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Fair Housing Act of 1968 and the GOPs subsequent southern strategy to win white voters hostile to such progressive policies put about 85 percent of African-Americans reliably in the Democratic column. Democrats rewarded their loyalty with a host of economic and social measures intended to alleviate poverty and compensate for past discriminationincluding income support programs, federally enforced preferences in private sector hiring and college admissions, and minority set-aside programs that benefit only a few, but often influential, entrepreneurs and civic leaders. Conservatives have long argued that programs to aid those adversely affected by the prejudices of history or simply poor business conditionsfor example, the decline of the textile and furniture industries which employed many blacks in the Southcan become self-defeating. Assistance can cross the line from providing help to overcome disadvantages to discouraging individual initiative, accountability and self-improvement. In the process, those cultivate a client relationship between protected classes of voters and politicians who promise ever greater handouts and state-coerced preferential treatment, and a decadent cycle that keeps African-Americans pinned down in poverty. Mr. Obama has been the most aggressive president since Lyndon Johnson in championing welfare programsfor example, expanding Medicaid, the earned income tax credits and food stamps and aggressively pressing universities to grant greater preferences to minorities in admissions. And Hillary Clinton promises even more of the same. Government benefits are now so generous that low-income wage earners face increased taxes of 50 to 80 percent on additional incomefrom extra taxes and lost government benefitsif they work more hours or send a second adult into the workforce. Often, it can pay an African-American working mother to have absent fathers paying child support rather than a strong role model, earning a second salary, under her roof. Democrats have effectively isolated conservative leaning Republicans and broadened their minority base by adding Latinos through lax immigration enforcement and initiatives like the Dream Act in several states, and assigning to Asian-Americans protected status under affirmative action laws that are simply unwarranted by social and economic indicators. Asian-Americans outperform whites in education, and their average annual family incomes are about $74,000, as compared to $35,000 for African-Americans and $60,000 for whites. In these times of slow economic growth, African-Americans, not whites, have been the biggest losers. They are pushed out of jobs and educational opportunities by illegal immigrants and other groups Democrats are cultivating to win a permanent lock on the White House. On Mr. Obamas watch, African-American family incomes are down by about $2,200, while those for Hispanics and Asian-Americans are up $800 and $2,100, respectively. The wealth gap with whites has widened tremendously, and African-Americans have regained far fewer of the jobs lost in the Great Recession than other Americans. African-Americans are disproportionately saddled with student loans after dropping out of college after a few years or earning a degree that hardly imparts the skills necessary to earn a living. President Obama was elected on the promise to create greater economic justice but for African-Americans conditions have become decidedly worse. African-American elites have grown prosperous through minority set-aside programs and protected jobs in business and academia but their advice to support Hillary Clinton is ill-informed at best, and simply cynically self-interested at worst. Republicans abandoned an anti-civil rights posture long ago and their pro-growth platform simply offers more hope for a better future for all Americansincluding African-Americans. Neither Donald Trump nor Paul Ryan advocate shredding the social safety net, for example. The GOP advocates for benefits that offer a hand up not huge indiscriminate largess that imposes a lifetime of poverty and injustice in exchange for votes. I want to address the crisis of conscience that many conservative evangelicals face when wrestling with what to do with Donald Trump. As a pastor, I have been party to countless conversations among fellow Christians about whether to support Mr. Trump, or not. While I do not endorse candidates, I could easily vote for Mr. Trump this November without endorsing him, his behavior, his language or his temperament. Let me explain. To use the now cliche line in many faith circles, we are electing a Commander in Chief, not a Theologian in Chief. His words and behavior have left many conservatives thinking, we want to support you Mr. Trump, but why must you make it so difficult? It is true we have some concerns. At the same time, we must face the facts. Mr. Trump has ignited a movement that most of us didnt see coming. I certainly didnt. He has been underestimated time and again and despite the establishments most ardent efforts to block his nomination, his core appeal resiliently overshadows his flaws. After spending much of my morning yesterday with Mr. Trump in a small meeting in his office and in a larger meeting attended by 1000 of the nations most influential Christian leaders, I would vote for Donald Trump because he has convinced me he will fight for the issues that matter most to conservatives. And one thing is certain with Mr. Trump for better or worse, hes not afraid of a fight. Its Trumps position on three key issues that encourage me. The first - and most important - is that of The Supreme Court. Trumps campaign recently released a list of potential Supreme Court Nominees, all of which are judges who will uphold the constitution without attempting to legislate from the bench. I cannot overstate the importance of this. Any honest conservative should commend this list of nominees. The second issue is the protection and sanctity of life. Now I know that candidate Trump has changed his position on this particular issue and many question his sincerity. But, Im a pastor and I love it when someone changes their mind and comes over to the right side of an issue! I choose to believe Mr. Trump has truly converted to support life and will be a protector of the unborn. And what is the alternative? Hillary Clinton is clearly in favor of legalized abortion. There is no choice here for me and millions of evangelical Christians. We will vote life every time. We will vote principle over personality, party, or our pocket books. The last issue is that of Religious Liberty. Trump has brought greater voice to the concerns held by many Americans when it comes to our faith. With a great marketers instinct, he sums it up like this, When Im President, well say Merry Christmas again. Its an impressively simplistic - but effective - way of articulating a widely held conviction. As Christians, we believe the lefts agenda is to marginalize Christianity to the sidelines, diminishing our influence and many of the faith traditions we cherish. Mr. Trump, to his credit, has made considerable efforts to include evangelicals in his campaign to lead the nation. He has spoken positively and persuasively of his desire to support Christian faith in America. We know he has stated many times that he is for us and not against us. These are the reasons I could vote for Mr. Trump, and encourage others to do the same. Actually, its not that difficult. Donald Trump says he will support those issues that conservative evangelicals care about. Hillary Clinton promises she wont. I know this as a fact: it is critical that Christian citizens prayerfully vote and participate in the election process. The future of our country depends upon it. For the record, Im not Catholic. But I do know the religion well. I also happen to live in one of the top 10 Catholic cities in America. I know the religion well for several reasons. My mothers entire family is Catholic, for one thing. Since she broke away from The Church, however, my sister and I were not raised Catholic. But: I attended Catholic high school. That was out of desperation, though. I was a bit of a troublemaker at my local public school, and my mother needed the nuns to straighten me out. Im also married to a Catholic; and I agreed to raise our kids Catholic and send them to Catholic schools. Ive attended hundreds of masses in my lifetime, and I even got an annulment some years ago for the sake of my husband and kids. So Im no stranger to Catholicism. Still, Im not Catholic. Im more like a peripheral participant. Too many people want marriage to be something it isnt. Something that makes them happy, that demands equality, that never disappoints. Something that exceeds ones hopes, desires and expectations and satisfies every need a person can have. I mention this to help explain that I hold no allegiance to Pope Francis. Until recently, Ive never noticed what any pope says or does. The only time I did was when I got wind of Franciss favorable comments about feminism. On that subject, the man is clueless. Which is interesting, since his latest remarks about modern marriage are spot on. Apparently, Francis doesnt see the parallel between feminism and societys current attitudes toward men and marriage. He hasnt put two-and-two together. Nevertheless, it is a perfectly reasonable observation to say young people treat marriage more casually today than they did in the past. Marriage is provisional, said Francis. Because of this, he added, most sacramental marriages are null. Young people say yes with good intentions, but they have a different culture and thus dont appreciate the significance of the phrase I do. I dont see how anyone over 40 can disagree with that. Much of the controversy over the popes remarks stems from his use of the term null. That term holds a lot of weight to Catholics, and I respect that. But why not consider the popes intent, rather than quibble over terminology? We do too much of that these days. When Francis refers to modern marriage as provisional and thus not representative of what marriage is supposed to be (and therefore null), he means many young people todaywho, thanks to technology and a life of convenience, have their needs met the moment they have themfail to grasp that marriage is a lifelong commitment that will, at times, be very difficult or even, at times, unsatisfying. Instead it is presumed to be something that should make the individual happy and that if it doesnt, well, its time to move on. Weve all heard the phrase lifes too short or lifes a journey; you only get one chance. Thats the different culture to which the pope refers. Same goes for the secular and materialistic approach to ones wedding day. Hello? Destination wedding, anyone? Like many folks, Fox News Adam Shaw took offense to the popes message. For Pope Francis to say the great majority of marriages are null implies that the great majority of Catholics are ignorant fools who cannot understand the responsibilities of a bedrock of society that has existed for thousands of years. Or it simply implies somethings awry in modern marriage. Which, ironically, was the focus of Time magazines cover story last week. In How to Stay Married (and why), author Belinda Luscombe asks that very question: What does a modern marriage promise that historical unions didnt? Too much, apparently. Too many people want marriage to be something it isnt. Something that makes them happy, that demands equality, that never disappoints. Something that exceeds ones hopes, desires and expectations and satisfies every need a person can have. If thats not how you view marriage, great. But it doesnt make the problem, or Pope Franciss observation, any less true. Newly obtained congressional data shows hundreds of terror plots have been stopped in the U.S. since 9/11 mostly involving foreign-born suspects, including dozens of refugees. The files are sure to inflame the debate over the Obama administrations push to admit thousands more refugees from Syria and elsewhere, a proposal Donald Trump has vehemently opposed on the 2016 campaign trail. [T]hese data make clear that the United States not only lacks the ability to properly screen individuals prior to their arrival, but also that our nation has an unprecedented assimilation problem, Sens. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, told President Obama in a June 14 letter, obtained by FoxNews.com. The files also give fresh insight into the true scope of the terror threat and cover a wide range of cases, including: A Seattle man plotting to attack a U.S. military facility An Atlantic City man using his Revolution Muslim site to encourage confrontations with U.S. Jewish leaders at their homes An Iraq refugee arrested in January, accused of traveling to Syria to take up arms with terror groups While the June 12 massacre at an Orlando gay nightclub marked the deadliest terror attack on U.S. soil since 2001, the data shows America has been facing a steady stream of plots. For the period September 2001 through 2014, data shows the U.S. successfully prosecuted 580 individuals for terrorism and terror-related cases. Further, since early 2014, at least 131 individuals were identified as being implicated in terror. Across both those groups, the senators reported that at least 40 people initially admitted to the U.S. as refugees later were convicted or implicated in terror cases. Among the 580 convicted, they said, at least 380 were foreign-born. The top countries of origin were Pakistan, Lebanon and Somalia, as well as the Palestinian territories. Both Sessions and Cruz sit on the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest, which compiled the terror-case information based on data from the Justice Department, news reports and other open-source information. The files were shared with FoxNews.com. The files include dates, states of residence, countries of origin for foreign-born suspects, and reams of other details. Specifically, they show a sharp spike in cases in 2015, largely stemming from the arrest of suspects claiming allegiance to the Islamic State. They also show a heavy concentration of cases involving suspects from California, Texas, New York and Minnesota, among other states. EXPLORE THE DATA IN THE MAPS AND CHARTS BELOW The senators say the terror-case repository still is missing critical details on suspects immigration history, which they say the Department of Homeland Security has failed to provide. Immigration data the senators compiled came from other sources. Sessions and Cruz asked the president in their letter to order the departments of Justice, Homeland Security and State to "update" and provide more detailed information. The senators have sent several letters to those departments since last year requesting immigration histories of those tied to terror. The administration refuses to give out the information necessary to establish a sound policy that protects Americans from terrorists, Sessions said in a statement to Fox News. Asked about the complaints, DHS spokeswoman Gillian M. Christensen told FoxNews.com the department will respond to the senators request directly and not through the press. More than 100 Congressional committees, subcommittees, caucuses, commissions and groups exercise oversight and ensure accountability of DHS and we work closely with them on a daily basis. Weve received unprecedented requests from a number of senators and representatives for physical paper files for more than 700 aliens, she said, adding that officials have to review each page manually for privacy and other issues. Cruz ran unsuccessfully this year for the Republican presidential nomination. Sessions, an ardent critic of the administrations immigration policies, is supporting presumptive GOP nominee Trump. The allegations detailed in the subcommittees research pertain to a range of cases, involving suspects caught traveling or trying to travel overseas to fight, as well as suspects ensnared in controversial sting operations which civil-liberties groups including the ACLU have criticized. In a 2014 report, Human Rights Watch said nearly half of the federal counterterror convictions at the time came from informant-based cases, many of them sting operations where the informants played a role in the plot. The report said: In some cases the Federal Bureau of Investigation may have created terrorists out of law-abiding individuals by conducting sting operations that facilitated or invented the targets willingness to act. But even in some of those cases, federal agents got involved after learning of a serious suspected plot. In the case of the Seattle suspect, Abu Khalid Abdul-Latif, authorities said he approached someone in 2011 about attacking a military installation. That citizen alerted law enforcement and worked with them to capture Latif and an accomplice. FoxNews.coms Liz Torrey contributed to this report. Hillary Clinton IT specialist Bryan Pagliano invoked the Fifth more than 125 times during a 90-minute, closed-door deposition Wednesday with the conservative watchdog Judicial Watch, a source with the group told Fox News. The official said Pagliano was working off an index card and read the same crafted statement each time. It was a sad day for government transparency, the Judicial Watch official said, adding they asked all their questions and Pagliano invoked the Fifth Amendment right not to answer them. Pagliano was a central figure in the set-up and management of Clintons personal server she used exclusively for government business while secretary of state. The State Department inspector general found Clinton violated government rules with that arrangement. He was deposed as part of Judicial Watch's lawsuit seeking Clinton emails and other records. A federal judge granted discovery, in turn allowing the depositions, which is highly unusual in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. The judge cited "reasonable suspicion" Clinton and her aides were trying to avoid federal records law. Paglianos deposition before Judicial Watch is one of several interviews with high-profile Clinton aides, taking place as the FBI separately is continuing its federal criminal investigation. A federal court agreed to keep sealed Paglianos immunity deal struck with the Justice Department in December, citing the sensitivity of the FBI probe and calling it a criminal matter. The next Clinton aide to testify is Huma Abedin. In an earlier deposition, lawyers for senior Clinton aide Cheryl Mills, during a nearly five-hour deposition in Washington, repeatedly objected to questions about Paglianos role in setting up the former secretary of states private server. According to a transcript of that deposition which Judicial Watch released, Mills attorney Beth Wilkinson as well as Obama administration lawyers objected to the line of questioning about Pagliano. I'm going to instruct her not to answer. It's a legal question, Wilkinson responded, when asked by Judicial Watch whether Pagliano was an agent of the Clintons when the server was set up. A transcript of the Pagliano deposition will be reviewed and is expected to be released next week. Clinton could also be deposed in the Judicial Watch lawsuit. There was no immediate comment from Pagliano's attorney. In much of the world, its the year 2016, but in Bolivia its 5524, at least according to an indigenous calendar there. And now the countrys president, Evo Morales, has suggested that the country switch back to that indigenous calendar, and away from the Gregorian one. Morales said Bolivia should "reclaim its ancestral calendar as part of the rebuilding of our identity, according to the BBC. That calendar has 13 months comprised of 28 days, making it more orderly than the Gregorian one, Morales said. The number 5524 for the year comes from some simple historical math. Its been 524 years since Columbus arrived in the Americas, and the 5000 comes from an estimate of how long indigenous people have been present in the area. The suggestion from Morales came as the country celebrated the winter solstice on June 21 a national holiday and the start of the new year in the calendar used by the Aymara indigenous group. The biggest celebration for the occasion took place at an archaeological site called Tiahuanaco, although rituals took place in other locations as well, like Lake Titicacas Sun Island. Bolivia isnt the only country to consider changes how it keeps time. North Korea set its clock back by 30 minutes last year in a gesture meant to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of Japanese rule. A man who created a revenge website to "destroy" his ex-wife is now in custody and facing charges of criminal harassment. His ex says her only hope is that he'll be held long enough to give her time to change her identity and "disappear" before he is freed, reports the National Post. Vancouver resident Patrick Fox, also known by his birth name Richard Riess, was arrested by US border patrol agents in Washington state after trying to cross into the US illegally. He has since been deported to Canada, where he is facing weapons charges in addition to the harassment charges. Previously, he told the CBC that he'd keep his website up and running until ex-wife Desiree Capuano is dead or "destitute and homeless." Capuano lives in Arizona with their teenage son, and says she's lost job opportunities and is "more scared now than I've ever been in my entire life." The revenge site, which is still live, harasses and defames Capuano, accusing her of being a stripper, a drug addict, an unfit mother, a white supremacist, and more. Fox also posted emails between himself and his teenage son that include him writing that he'd have "no qualms" killing Capuano if it were legal to do so. A judge in Arizona has upheld Capuano's protection order against Fox, calling his actions "domestic abuse." Fox emailed Capuano when the site went up last year, writing that he would "do everything in my power and capabilities to make your life as miserable as possible ... to the point that you ultimately commit suicide." Fox is in custody awaiting a bail hearing in Vancouver. Says Capuano: The only chance I have of having a normal life is to disappear." (This man got 18 years for running a massive revenge porn site.) This article originally appeared on Newser: Man's Revenge Site So Extreme Ex Wants to 'Disappear' An airport official says a flight was diverted to the Seattle area after a male passenger aboard an Alaska Airlines flight tried to kiss a sleeping girl seated next to him on the airplane. Seattle-Tacoma International Airport spokesman Perry Cooper said Tuesday that Port of Seattle police arrested the 23-year-old California man for investigation of fourth-degree assault. Cooper confirmed that the man attempted to kiss a 16-year-old girl who was sleeping next to him. The pilot was notified and reported it to police before landing. The Alaska Airlines flight was heading to Anchorage, Alaska, from Portland, Ore. The girl remained on the plane when it later departed for Anchorage. Cooper says the man was cooperative when he was arrested. He is expected to be booked into King County Jail. The incident comes amid several disrupted Alaska Airlines flights due to passenger behavior. In March, Alaska Airlines passengers headed to Portland received a $100 airline voucher when a flight was diverted due to a rowdy, drunk flier. And last month, a female Alaska Airlines passenger says she was molested by another woman while flying from Las Vegas to Portland. The Associated Press contributed to this report. A heat wave in the Southwest United States has resulted in at least two deaths and has even forced a plane to return to its origin airport due to the extreme temperatures. The National Weather Service is reporting 17 daily heat records were broken Sunday, but the peak of the heat wave will come Monday as temperatures in some desert area are expected to reach around 120 degrees. Officials confirmed Monday that two hikers had died from heat-related issues in separate incidents on Sunday. The first victim was a 19-year-old woman who died on a trail near Tucson, Arizona, and the other was a man found a short distance away. There is also another person missing who was hiking on the same trail. More from TravelPulse Will Airbnb Suffer Significant Blow in New York? 5 Events You Need To Be At In Cabo San Lucas What Will You Do for 141 Days at Sea? Could The Virgin America Brand Survive? Nickelodeon Hotels & Resorts Punta Cana is now open In addition, the extreme heat forced a United Airlines flight from Houston to Phoenix to return to Texas when temperatures reached 118 degrees in Arizona. The airline said it would compensate passengers and provide an added flight Monday morning. For tourists making their way to the Southwest for summer vacation, the National Weather Service has issued excessive heat warnings for cities such as Tucson and Yuma, as well as popular destinations such as the Grand Canyon and Lake Havasu. A 58-year-old Florida man had to be airlifted to a hospital after he was attacked by an alligator Tuesday, officials said. The attack occurred at 6:30 p.m. in Bushnell, Fla. and involved an 8-foot long alligator, The Sumter County Sheriff's Office said in a Facebook post. The man suffered injuries to his right left and was transported to Ocala Regional Medical Center. The man's condition has not yet been released. The gator was euthanized by a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission gator trapper, officials told Fox 35. Click for more from Fox35Orlando.com. An 18-year-old from suburban Indianapolis was arrested Tuesday and accused of trying to travel to the Middle East to join ISIS. Prosecutors said Akram I. Musleh, of Brownsburg, was arrested by FBI agents as he attempted to board a bus from Indianapolis to New York. Musleh allegedly planned to fly from New York to Morocco before making his way to ISIS-controlled territory. Tim Horty of the U.S. Attorney's office said Musleh had an initial hearing in federal court on a charge of providing material support to ISIS. Horty said Musleh was in the custody of federal marshals at an undisclosed location. Musleh's attorney, Michael Donahoe, told the Associated Press that he had no immediate comment on the case. Indiana Gov. Mike Pence issued a statement thanking local and federal law enforcement officials for their work on the case. "In light of the most recent terrorist attacks in Orlando and San Bernardino, no community is immune from this new threat," Pence said. " ... it is essential that all Hoosiers exercise vigilance and report any suspicious activities to the appropriate law enforcement authorities. In short, if you see something say something." According to court documents, Musleh posted videos of U.S.-born Al Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki on his personal YouTube channel in the summer of 2013. When questioned, Musleh said he knew of al-Awlaki's ties to the terror group and was using the videos to understand the history of Islam. The documents also claim Musleh bought an ISIS flag online in September 2014 and posted a photo of himself in front of the flag in June of last year. That April, Musleh was identified as one of a group of people asking juveniles in a Brownsburg park if they wanted to join ISIS. According to an affidavit, Musleh made five travel reservations to Iraq or Turkey in 2015. On one occasion, Musleh was questioned by customs officials and claimed he was traveling to Turkey to meet his fiancee and visit family and friends. FBI investigators said they were unable to locate any relatives of Musleh in Turkey, but did say that Musleh's alleged fiancee had been identified as an ISIS sympathizer living in Sweden. This past May, investigators allege that Musleh researched potential terror targets in Indiana, using a list compiled by the state's Department of Homeland Security. That same month, Musleh was observed shopping for pressure cookers at a local Wal-Mart. If convicted, Musleh faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The Associated Press contributed to this report. A Texas judge arrested for making a secret deal committing his county to a 10-year contract with a red-light camera company was suspended Tuesday for allegedly blowing right past the state's Sunshine Laws. Judge Joel Patrick Baker of Smith County was arrested last week, after an activist group complained his 2014 meeting with American Traffic Solutions officials violated the Texas Open Meetings Act. Baker was charged with three misdemeanor counts of violating the act. "A community is known for what it tolerates," the activist group, Grassroots America We the People, said in a statement. "In Smith County, Texas, we should never accept disrespect for citizens, abuse of the public trust, and selective application of the rule of law." Baker's alleged 10-year pact with ATS would have the Arizona compay exclusive rights to operate the lucrative, but deeply unpopular cameras in Smith County. The cameras are banned in Texas municipalities, but Baker apparently believed he could authorize them for the county. Baker, who allegedly made the deal without the knowledge of county commissioners, was suspended without pay by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct. Grassroots filed a complaint in May 2015 with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and the local district attorney, calling on them to investigate business dealings between Baker and ATS. A warrant for Baker's arrest was issued Thursday from the Smith County Grand Jury and Baker turned himself in to the Smith County Sheriff at 5 p.m. Friday. He was released an hour later on $2,000 bond, according to an unsealed arrest sheet obtained by FoxNews.com. The grand jury's indictment charged that Baker, by meeting privately and conducting business on behalf of the county, knowingly closed a regular Smith County Commissioners Court meeting to the public. Baker, who has no criminal history, has denied any wrongdoing and called the charges against him a "political witch hunt." "As the Attorney General and his supporters will agree, an indictment alone is no evidence of guilt or wrongdoing," Baker said in a statement obtained by FoxNews.com. "I am not guilty of these charges. At no time did I or any member of the court knowingly violate the Texas Open Meetings Act," Baker said. "I maintain this was not a mission to find the truth, rather a political witch hunt. I look forward to producing the true facts to a jury. I am confident a jury will find these charges to be frivolous." A spokesman for ATS was not immediately available when contacted Tuesday. Red light cameras have been long been controversial in cities across the U.S. Advocates of the system claim it makes the roads safer because drivers are more conscious of running red lights. A 2011 study by a red-light camera industry trade association concluded the devices have helped save more than 150 lives in 14 of the largest U.S. cities between 2004 to 2008. Critics, meanwhile, say the cameras are simply money-making machines for towns and cities and often unreliable. Opponents also point to statistics that show an increase in accidents at intersections where cameras are used. Investigators on Tuesday released photo of a "bikini bandit" who they said burglarized two California homes on June 4 and was still on the loose. The woman, wearing only a yellow bikini bottom and green top, stole valuables from locations in Lancaster and Lake Hughes, officials from the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff's Station wrote in a Facebook post. She was seen driving from one of the homes in a tan sedan. A suspect has been identified, a detective told LA Weekly, but no one was in custody as of Wednesday morning. The swimsuited robber was caught on a security camera at one of the crime scenes, investigators said. Shes described as being in her late 30s, standing 5 feet, 5 inches and weighing 120 pounds. The California governor is offering a $50,000 reward in the cold case murder of a young mother whose unsolved death has haunted a tiny, rural town for nearly half a century. Phyllis O'Brien Carson was 32 with four children when she disappeared on Oct. 27, 1970, after visiting a popular bar called Francis Truck Stop in French Camp, Calif., a close-knit community 77 miles east of San Francisco. Carson, who was out with her brother and sister, called home to check on her children and told relatives she was getting a ride home from a friend, whom she did not name. That was the last time she was heard from. Carson's body was found by pheasant hunters three weeks later. No suspect or motive were ever identified, according to detectives. Carson's remains were so badly decomposed that a cause of death could not be determined. Carson's daughter, Melissa, has spent her entire adult life trying to answer two questions: Who did it, and why? Melissa Carson, who learned of the gruesome details from investigators when she turned 18, said it is believed her mother was raped and then killed. Her capri pants were found inside out and appeared to be tossed from the side of Yettner Road. Her body was discovered partially clothed and in a position that suggests she was thrown from a vehicle, Carson said. Her personal belongings, including her wallet and jewelry, were also found, ruling out robbery as a motive. Investigators said Carson's remains were found lying down an embankment off the road about five miles from her family's home. At the time of the murder, the area was rural, with heavy brush and only one house near the crime scene. Melissa Carson's father, who died in 1992, was long ruled out as a suspect. Over the years, Carson said she and her brother came up with theories and identified a few persons of interest -- none of whom ever came forward to take polygraph tests. In 2012, Carson turned to social media to help crack the decades-old mystery, creating a Facebook page dedicated to the hunt for her mother's killer. California Gov. Jerry Brown approved a $50,000 reward earlier this month for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Carson's killer. At Melissa Carson's urging, Joaquin County Sheriff Steve Moore sent a letter to Brown requesting the reward. Moore also received formal support from three state assembly members. Anyone with information in the case is urged to call sheriff's investigators at (209) 468-4400 Click here to visit the Phyllis O'Brien Carson Facebook page Rescue teams recovered a second body Thursday afternoon as they continued a desperate search for any survivors among a family of four who vanished on a sailboat off Florida's Gulf Coast. Crews pulled a second, unidentified, body out of the water around 11 a.m. and located a mast believed to be from the missing ship at 11:55 a.m. The first body, found late Wednesday night, was identified as 17-year-old Rebecca Kimberly by a family member Thursday on NBC. The teen had been wearing a life vest. Rebecca, along with her father, Ace, and her brothers, 15-year-old Donny and and 13-year-old Roger, haven't been heard from since Sunday afternoon. That's when Ace phoned his brother to report the family had been caught up in six-foot waves and were "attempting to survive." "We still have hope they're out there," Coast Guard Capt. Gregory Case said Thursday morning. "We're still searching. It's an active search and rescue mission." The grim discovery followed a slight glimmer of hope Thursday morning when Case announced a rescue boat and helicopter had spotted what they believed to be a flare at 2:30 a.m. The possible flare sighting is the first evidence that at least one of the Kimberlys may indeed still be out in the water alive. A Coast Guard response boat and helicopter reported the three-second sighting at 2:30 a.m. Officials immediately developed a search pattern and have been covering the area ever since. "Whether it was a flare or not we treat it like it was," Case said. "It was in the search area, and we're searching it very hard." Case said it's possible the rising light wasn't a flare, but given the report came from Coast Guard crews, searchers were taking the sighting seriously. "It could be anything -- plane light reflections -- we get thousands of reports, some of them are flares, some of them not," Case said. "But we treat them all as if they are and we're certainly treating this one like it was." Around 1:15 a.m., Search teams also found a yellow kayak matching the description of one of the kayaks Ace was pulling behind his sailboat. At 8:15 a.m., a bucket was located that contained birth certificates, a pool noodle, a GPS, a toolkit and other items. The Kimberly family was sailing to Fort Myers from Sarasota to have repairs done on the sailboat. Ace's brother contacted the Coast Guard Tuesday after the family failed to reach their destination. The 29-foot boat did not have a name or a radio, CBS reported. Case said officials never received a distress call. Case said Wednesday that the Kimberly family was "feeling very anxious and upset, and they're hoping for the best." Mariners with any information were asked to contact the Coast Guards St. Petersburg sector at 727-824-7506. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Click for more from the News-Press. A Florida police officer said Tuesday that he and a group of five of six other officers surrounded the bathroom where Omar Mateen was holed up, but were told to wait until a SWAT team arrived. Belle Isle, Fla. Police Officer Brandon Cornwell, 25, told The Washington Post that he and the officers entered Pulse Orlando as bullets flew and clubgoers screamed. He said his group aimed their rifles and waited about 15 or 20 minutes because they were told not to engage the bathroom area. Cornwell said he never even saw Mateen. Federal authorities said Monday that police engaged the shooter inside the club at about 2:08 a.m. Cornwalls account to The Post offers a first glimpse into the efforts to take down Mateen, who murdered 49 people before being killed by officers in a hail of gunfire. However, the officers account raises questions as to why the first officers who engaged Mateen werent told to pursue Mateen in the bathroom or whether SWAT team members or other officers entered the club once the first group retreated. Those who were still in the club when Mateen was on his killing spree were trapped for hours. The FBI has said that the SWAT team didnt go into the building until 5 a.m., three hours after the attack started. Cornwall didnt further discuss what happened inside the club, citing the ongoing investigation, but he explained that he didnt second-guess the decision to hold position outside the bathroom. We just basically stayed there, waited for movement, and we just held our position until SWAT got there, he explained. Once SWAT got there, they told us to retreat, that theyd take over because we were not really in tactical gear we were just in our police uniforms. Cornwalls account of the early standoff with Mateen is one of three other accounts that state and federal authorities are investigating, even if top police officials believe that everyone did a good job. Thats the worst part of this. I think we did an outstanding job, but unfortunately people died, Orlando police Captain and SWAT commander Mary Canty said. He also added that the incident will be reviewed. Cornwell was at the scene of the shooting by chance. The Belle Isle officer was in the middle of assisting with a traffic stop after he heard the call on the radio that shots had been fired at the Orlando club. He told The Post he was at the scene in 38 seconds. Some ran towards the building; some stayed back with people running out, he told the paper. There was tons of people running out of the club. I grabbed my assault rifle and ran toward the club. At this point, the shooter is still actively shooting inside. Cornwell said when he arrived there were about seven other vehicles at the scene and he converged with a group of Orlando Police Department officers who all believed that they should go in an engage Mateen. Some ran towards the building; some stayed back with people running out, he said. There was tons of people running out of the club. I grabbed my assault rifle and ran toward the club. At this point, the shooter is still actively shooting inside. Witnesses have said that there was a gun battle between police and Mateen at the south side of the building. But Cornwell said he couldnt even see Mateen in the dimly lit club. He was actively shooting, he said. I cant say if he was targeting us. But he was still shooting in that location where he was at. There were bullet holes in the wall, so he had shot through the wall. But I couldnt tell you if he was shooting at us. He told The Post that officers quickly began clearing rooms, not knowing if there was more than one shooter at the club. He said they located Mateen in the bathroom. Cornwell said that once the officers got into position, thats when they had to wait for up to 20 minutes. He stands firm that his group was told to hold their position rather than enter the bathroom. He said at some point during the holding pattern, Cornwell and the others exited the club. We got word from higher up, and it was communicated to the OPD lieutenant that we needed to withdraw, he said. So we came back outside. And waited for SWAT. SWAT arrived. SWAT handled everything from there. Multiple witnesses have said that there were pauses in Mateens shooting. However, its unclear whether the pauses occurred before, after or during the first responders rush into the nightclub. According to the transcript of Mateens 911 calls with Orlando police negotiators, he pledged allegiance to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. He also claimed at one point that he would put explosive vests on hostages and he had an explosive vest on himself, though it turned out to be a hoax vest. He also claimed to have a bomb-laded vehicle outside the club. The calls with crisis negotiators may explain why officials waited three hours -- until 5:14 a.m. -- before ramming a hole in the side of the club to free hostages and engage Mateen in a final, deadly fight. During those three hours, Mateen was holed up in a bathroom with several hostages, though authorities have said no gun shots were fired during this period. Mateen later died during a shootout with police. With questions still remaining around the attack, Attorney General Loretta Lynch said Tuesday that authorities are open to releasing more of the conversations between Mateen and police. Click for more from The Washington Post. The FBI is looking into Omar Mateen's purchase of plane tickets for himself, his wife and child days before he unleashed the massacre in Orlando's Pulse Nightclub, a law enforcement source close to the investigation told Fox News on Wednesday. The tickets were for a flight to San Francisco set for weeks after the June 12 attack. Fox News is told the FBI is trying to make sense of the timing. Mateen's mother-in-law lives in the Bay Area. She had underwent an operation and was not recovering, NBC News reported. Mateen's family had planned to spend a long period of time with her, a federal official told the network. The gunman killed 49 people and wounded 53 others, investigators said. Mateen died in a shootout with police hours after he stormed the club. A separate report shows Mateen cased the nightclub hours before the attack. He took a wristband before leaving the first time so he could return, CBS News reported. Investigators did not reveal where Mateen may have gone after he first left. Other clues emerged Monday when the FBI released a partial transcript of phone calls Mateen had with a 911 operator and police crisis negotiators once the shooting got underway. In them, he identified himself as an Islamic soldier, demanded that the U.S. "stop bombing" Syria and Iraq, warned of future violence and at one point pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State terror group, the FBI said. Mateen's calls to police, which one FBI official said were made in a "chilling, calm and deliberate manner" were similar to postings he apparently made on Facebook around the time of the shooting. Fox News' Matt Dean and The Associated Press contributed to this report. An illegal immigrant who stabbed a Connecticut woman to death after doing time for attempted murder might not have been in the U.S. soil if the federal agency responsible for deporting him had done a better job, a government watchdog wrote in a scathing report released this week. Haitian national Jean Jacques was sentenced to 60 years in prison earlier this month for the murder of Casey Chadwick, 25, in her Norwich apartment just over one year ago. The Department of Homeland Securitys Inspector General, which examined the circumstances that led up to the murder at the request of three Connecticut lawmakers, found the agencys overwhelmed Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau should have booted Jacques from the U.S. prior to the killing. The caseloads of Deportation Officers in the field make personalized follow-up with the aliens under their supervision functionally impossible, the report found, noting that at one office just four officers were assigned to facilitate deportation of 37,000 illegal immigrants following their release from prison. The report also found that officers typically dont manage their crushing caseloads based on the threat posed by individuals, but instead by gauging their likelihood of removing subjects. In Jacques case, Haiti denied his entry three times when ICE tried to deport him, claiming there was no proof he was a Haitian citizen. Haiti refused to allow U.S. officials to obtain his birth certificate, and a 2001 U.S. Supreme Court decision limits how long immigration officials can detain people without deporting them. Jacques, who was held for a total of 205 days, was released. The Inspector Generals report found that ICE still could have used GPS to track Jacques, but cited the massive workload as a major obstacle. The report also stopped short of saying better tracking would have saved Chadwicks life. Jacques originally sneaked into the U.S. in 1992. Four years later, he was involved in a shooting that left one dead and another injured. Convicted in 1997 of attempted murder and possession of a firearm without a permit, he was sentenced to 20 years, but was released after 15. He was locked up again after violating parole while ICE was attempting to have him deported. This report confirms what we have long suspected: ICE could and should have done more to remove Jean Jacques from this country before he had the chance to brutally murder Casey Chadwick, the three Democratic lawmakers who requested the report, senators Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, and Rep. Joe Courtney, said in a statement. Calling the investigation alarming, they said, ICE lacks the framework for effective risk-based monitoring and supervision of released individuals like Jacques who have violent criminal pasts. ICEs efforts to deport Jacques were documented in the report. He was listed as a passenger on three charter flights to Haiti in June, August and October of 2012, but each time the Haitian government refused to repatriate him. Wendy Hartling, Casey Chadwicks mother, blames immigration officials for her daughters death. "No action," Hartling, told Fox 61. "And, that, to me, is the biggest crime here is that they took no action." The report is the first detailed look into what lengths ICE officials must go through to deport illegal criminal aliens, said Jessica Vaughan, director of Policy Studies for the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington-based research institute. Although ICE agents could have taken more steps to ensure Jacques deportation, Vaughan believes ICE isnt the sole government agency that deserves blame for the tragedy. The State Department, Congress and the Obama administration could have all played a role in ensuring Haiti allowed Jacques repatriation, she said. We can use our leverage to influence the Haiti government through the State Department, and impose sanctions if they do not cooperate, Vaughan said. That has worked in the past but is a tool that hasnt been used since 2005. The OIG agreed State Department intervention is an option, but noted immigration officials did not seek the diplomatic help because they believed their request would be rejected. Enforcement and Removal Operations believed that the State Departments involvement was typically limited to aliens engaged in terrorism or human rights violations, the OIG said. Although we did not interview State Department officials about this, we have no basis to believe that Enforcement and Removal Operations experience in this area was unfounded. Congress can also close loopholes in the law that resulted from the Supreme Court decision forcing the release of illegal criminal aliens who completed their sentence, and as a last resort, Vaughan said, the president could also intervene to break this kind of bureaucracy. ICE spokeswoman Sarah Rodriguez told FoxNews.com in a statement that ICE is carefully reviewing the Inspector Generals report to determine if any policy or operational changes are warranted. She laid much of the blame on Haiti. The U.S. Government remains firm and focused in its resolve to engage all nations that deny or unreasonably delay the acceptance of their nationals, Rodriguez said. An alleged sexual assault on a five-year-old special needs girl has put a small Idaho city at the center of the debate over the Obama administrations move to take in hundreds of thousands of refugees. Much of what occurred in the June 2 incident is unclear, clouded by emotion and rumor and sealed from public record due to the suspects ages. At a raucous public meeting Monday, dozens of residents of the city of 44,000 voiced their concerns after word had spread that young Syrian refugees had gang-raped a little girl at knifepoint, defiling her in unspeakable ways. Some of what they had heard was true, some was not and still more remains unconfirmed speculation. But authorities believe something terrible occurred. Two young boys were arrested Friday and remain in custody. This is a serious crime and we are handling it the way we handle all such crimes, Twin Falls County Prosecutor Grant Loebs told FoxNews.com. Were still in the fairly early stages of investigating this. Despite the hot-button issue of refugee resettlement, the story has gained little traction with the national media, and Internet fact-check site Snopes.com has labeled the information circulating on the web as mostly false. According to Loebs, the three assailants, ages 7, 10 and 14, are not Syrian, but may be refugees. The girl was not raped, but is believed to have been sexually assaulted, he said. The day after the arrests, local residents formed the Facebook community Justice for Our Children in support of the young victim and her family that has more than 9,000 members. A petition was circulated, attracting more than 2,500 signatures in less than three days. Many people in this community are in awe, and outraged that no consequences are being served to these boys nor their parents for this vile incident, reads the petition letter dated Jun 18. We feel there is an incredible lack of justice being served. We are not targeting due to racism. We are targeting these individuals because of their horrific acts. No one should go without consequences for actions like these no matter the age or language barrier. Davis Odell, a community resident who has been in close contact with the victims family said the boys dragged the unnamed girl into a utility room in the Fawnbrook Apartments, a low-income, subsidized housing complex in Twin Falls, and assaulted her in an attack that ended when a neighbor happened upon the scene and called police. They stripped her naked, and urinated in her mouth, Odell told FoxNews.com, citing his conversations with the girl's family. Neither the Twin Falls Police Department nor Loebs confirmed the details given by Odell. Loebs did confirm that the incident was reported on June 2, and that two juvenile suspects were finally charged Thursday and arrested a day later. The prosecutor did not say why just two arrests had been made, and said the case is sealed due to its sensitive nature and the minors involved. Twin Falls Police Chief Craig Kingsbury told reporters the suspects are Iraqi and Sudanese. Loebs said he does not know how long they have been living in the United States. Twin Falls activists say the case and the lack of information from authorities demonstrates the problem with state and federal programs to resettle refugees in cities and towns. Were worried that these are the kids who will be going to school with our kids, said Odell. We want to know what is happening. Refugee advocates say the disturbing case is being used to drive anti-refugee sentiments. There have been periodic website postings about hundreds of Syrians coming to Idaho that have all proven to be false in the past, and this is probably just one of those attempts to try and stir up hatred and bigotry, Jan Reeves, director of the Idaho Office for Refugees, told the Idaho Statesman. Reeves' office has worked with the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement to find homes in the state for more than 300 refugees amid the current international crisis. Twin Falls is one of several communities in the state that has received refugees. While the Syrian civil war touched off an international effort to absorb millions of displaced people, the refugee wave that has swept over Europe and into the U.S. includes people from more than a dozen Middle Eastern and African countries. In Twin Falls last year, anti-refugee activists sought to close a local resettlement office, but did not gather enough signatures to put the measure before voters. Davis and others are thus planning a fundraiser and Walk of Support this weekend in an effort to assist the family with relocation and legal costs. He said the girl is deeply traumatized and very confused about what happened. At a City Council meeting Monday night, residents demanded answers from law enforcement regarding the crime and the resettlement program, with some calling for the removal of all immigrants in the city. Lauren Day contributed to this report The Latest on wildfires burning in the West (all times local): 8 a.m. More evacuees are expected to return home as firefighters inch closer to snuffing out a massive wildfire in central New Mexico. Authorities said Wednesday that the blaze in the mountains south of Albuquerque is more than halfway contained. It has destroyed at least two dozen homes and burned nearly 28 square miles. Fire officials say crews constructed more fire lines along two sides of the blaze. Helicopters also have dropped more than 2,100 gallons of water close to where there are structures. The human-caused fire ignited June 14, racing across miles of tinder-dry forest. Several villages that line the eastern side of the Manzano Mountains had to be evacuated. The blaze also led Gov. Susana Martinez to declare a state of emergency. ___ 7:15 a.m. Moisture has moved in along much of the Southern California coast, and most mandatory evacuation areas near a wildfire in Santa Barbara County have been lifted. Fog arrived overnight on the rugged coast west of Santa Barbara, where a fire of more than 12 square miles is nearly entirely contained Wednesday morning. As planned, mandatory evacuation orders for many areas were reduced to warnings at 5 a.m., allowing residents to return. All orders are expected to be lifted by the weekend. Firefighting resources are being redirected to two fires in the San Gabriel Mountains northeast of Los Angeles and to a blaze east of San Diego near the Mexico border. Many Christians no longer view marriage as a lifelong commitment, says Mary Hasson, director of the Catholic Women's Forum at the Ethics & Public Policy Center in Washington D.C., who agrees with Pope Francis' assertion that couples often fail to understand the sacred vows they are making to each other. "It's individual consumerism applied to sexuality what I want, when I want it, and only for as long as I want it," said Hasson, who has over a decade of experience in marriage preparation work for the Catholic Church, to The Christian Post. "It's meaningful only from a 'what's in it for me' perspective. Relationships often take on the same quality they are vehicles for personal fulfillment (however defined) and, like an old car, they can be traded or dumped when the repair costs get too high or a new model appears on the scene." The majority of couples she meets who are preparing for marriage frequently tell her that they want to commit for life, she said, "but they often have their own personal asterisks the unspoken 'exceptions' that they believe will justify divorce and remarriage later on." "That mindset is toxic to marriage, where couples need a unified vision, a capacity for sacrifice, a willingness to compromise, and a commitment to the good of the marriage, spouse, and children." Last Thursday, Pope Francis told participants at the Diocese of Rome's annual pastoral conference that most Catholic marriages are effectively void because couples don't understand that the marital union is a lifelong commitment. "A large majority of sacramental marriages are null," the pope said, according to the Catholic News Service. "They say 'yes, for my whole life,' but they do not know what they are saying because they have a different culture." The notion that marriage is a temporary obligation is a manifestation of a larger societal problem where everything is provisional, the pontiff added. Click Here to Read the Full Story at ChristianPost.com The Marines are looking for a few good planes, and their search has taken them to an Arizona boneyard where the Corps old F/A Hornets have been gathering dust for years. The jets are being reclaimed and refurbished by Boeing after the service branch was caught short on planes because of long delays in the rollout of the much-awaited F-35. "We are very focused on our current readiness, and at the moment, we don't have enough Hornets for combat, flight instruction and day-to-day training," Marine Corps spokeswoman Capt. Sarah Burns told FoxNews.com in an email. The Marines could have done as the Navy did and adopted second generation F/A- 18E/F Super Hornets until the new planes were ready, but opted not to. Burns said it was the plan all along to keep the Hornets where they could be recalled, but critics questioned the original move. In hindsight, it was a misstep for the USMC to not have purchased the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, but only because the F-35 has seen such extensive delays and complications in production, Omar Lamrani, senior military analyst for global intelligence firm Stratfor told FoxNews.com . If the F-35 had entered production as originally scheduled and at the expected price, then the USMC would have been able to successfully transition straight from the F/A-18 Hornets to the F-35. Boeing has refurbished two of a planned 23 F/A Hornets stored at the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base near Tucson known as the boneyard and will soon finish more, according to WarIsBoring.com. The planes will be modified to a current C+ standard under a contract with Boeing and the USMC signed in 2014. Its not the first time the military has brought back decommissioned planes from the graveyard. The Marines pulled and restored several retired heavy-lift helicopters during the height of the Iraq War to help with a shortfall in the fleet as a result of heavy usage and crashes. The F-35 was supposed to be ready for front-line service in 2006. The Marine Corps reasoned that the Super Hornets were too pricey to serve as a bridge to the new planes, and chose to continue to operate their current fleets. As the F/A Hornets dwindled through attrition, and quality-control issues delayed the F-35 from coming off the assembly, the Corps was caught short. Lt. Gen. Jon Davis, the USMC deputy commandant for aviation, told Senate lawmakers that just 32 percent of the Corps Hornet fighters were operational. The branch needs at least 58 percent of the F/A-18s to be flight ready so that there are enough planes for combat, flight instruction and day-to-day training. Officials for the USMC did not immediately return requests for comment but in their most recent annual report on aviation capabilities, Davis said, I am concerned with our current readiness rates, both in equipment and personnel. Some experts say bringing back the F/A-18 jets may not be much of an issue. I consider it a pretty smart move on the U.S. Marine Corps side, David Cenciotti, of the influential blog The Aviationist, told FoxNews.com . The F/A-18C and D are very reliable airframes that are quite easy to maintain and operate. Once upgraded to the C+ standard, these gap fillers are more than enough to conduct combat operations in low-lethality scenarios like those that see the USMC at work these days. Once the upgraded legacy Hornets are delivered, Cenciotti added, older planes can rotate to daily training activities required by the Marine Corps pilots to maintain preparedness. Lamrani says the only real danger is if maintenance is not kept up on the refurbished planes, but that their usage leads to other issues. Refurbishing mothballed aircraft is not inexpensive, and hardly cost effective, he told FoxNews.com. All this is again linked to the F-35 failing to arrive on time. Michigan's attorney general filed a civil lawsuit Wednesday against two water engineering companies, saying their negligence caused and exacerbated Flint's lead-tainted water crisis and demanding what could total hundreds of millions of dollars in damages. Veolia and Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam, also known as LAN, were sued in Genesee County Circuit Court. The firms already are facing suits from Flint residents over the disaster, in which improperly treated water from the Flint River scraped toxic lead from pipes into tap water. Houston-based LAN -- whose Flint office in 2013 and 2014 helped the city of nearly 100,000 switch to the Flint River as its primary water supply after decades of buying treated water from Detroit -- was accused of professional negligence and public nuisance. Veolia, a French multinational corporation with U.S. offices, faces the same allegations along with a fraud count. The firm was hired in 2015 after Flint began encountering numerous water problems but, according to the suit, it and LAN didn't detect the lack of a corrosion control chemical and instead recommended the addition of a chloride that made the problem worse. "In Flint, Veolia and LAN were hired to do a job and failed miserably," Schuette said at a news conference in Flint. "They basically botched it, didn't stop the water in Flint from being poisoned. They made it worse." In a statement, Veolia North America said it "will vigorously defend itself against these unwarranted allegations of wrongdoing." It noted that a task force appointed by Gov. Rick Snyder largely blamed the state for the emergency and did not even mention the company or assign it any blame. "The Attorney General has not talked to Veolia about its involvement in Flint, interviewed the company's technical experts or asked any questions about our one-time, one-month contract with Flint," Veolia said in a statement. "Veolia's engagement with the city was wholly unrelated to the current lead issues." A LAN spokesman said Schuette "blatantly mischaracterized" its role. The decision to not add corrosion controls was made by the city and state regulators, not LAN, according to the company, which said it had regularly pushed for corrosion control. Snyder has apologized for regulatory failures while the poverty-stricken city was under state financial management and began drawing its drinking water from the local river in a cost-cutting move. The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality told the city that it was not required to add an anti-corrosion chemical until after a year of testing. Lead from old pipes leached into homes and businesses, leading to a public health emergency. There also were earlier E. coli detections, resident complaints about color, odor and taste, and high levels of a disinfectant byproduct. A General Motors plant had stopped using the water just six months after the 2014 switch because it was rusting engine parts, and experts suspect a deadly Legionnaires' disease outbreak was tied to the water. Flint returned to the Detroit system in October. Criminal charges have already been filed against two state environmental officials, while Flint's utilities administrator pledged cooperation in exchange for reduced charges. Once Snyder signs budget legislation, Michigan will have allocated at least $240 million to resolve the water crisis in Flint. next Image 1 of 2 prev Image 2 of 2 One day short of the 52nd anniversary of three civil rights workers' disappearance during Mississippi's "Freedom Summer," state and federal prosecutors said Monday that the investigation into the slayings is over. The decision "closes a chapter" in the state's divisive civil rights history, Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood said. "The evidence has been degraded by memory over time, and so there are no individuals that are living now that we can make a case on at this point," Hood said. He said, however, that if new information comes forward because of the announcement that the case is closed, prosecutors could reconsider and pursue a case. The 1964 killings of James Earl Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner in Neshoba County sparked national outrage and helped spur passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. They later became the subject of the movie "Mississippi Burning." Monday, their relatives said the focus should not be only on the three men, but on all the people killed or hurt while seeking justice. "The civil rights period was not about just those three young men," said the Rev. Julia Chaney Moss, Chaney's sister and a New Jersey resident. "It was about all of the lives." The famous case is one of more than 125 unsolved cases from the civil rights era that the FBI re-examined after launching its "Cold Case Initiative" in 2006. Congress set aside millions of dollars in 2007 through the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act for such investigations. But most of those cases haven't resulted in prosecution. The 1964 slaying of the black owner of a shoe shop in Ferriday, Louisiana, has resulted in no prosecutions despite news articles linking a man from Rayville, Louisiana, to the crime. The Justice Department in 2011 closed an inquiry into the 1965 killing of a Pelahatchie, Mississippi, man who was shot by a constable, despite witnesses who question the officer's version of events. "While legal and factual impediments sometimes prevent us from bringing cases we wish that we could, the Civil Rights Division remains dedicated to pursuing racially-motivated crimes wherever the facts allow," Vanita Gupta, head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, said in a statement Monday. Rita Bender, Schwerner's widow, said she hopes the decision will spark further reflection in Mississippi about the state's legacy of prejudice. She said she believes state leaders haven't learned the lesson of the slayings, because Mississippi is still flying a state flag with the Confederate battle emblem, legislators recently passed a bill that Bender says enables discrimination against gay people, and she said the state does a poor job in providing services to African-American citizens. "As a nation, we have to come to terms without our racist past and our continuing inability to move past it," said Bender, a lawyer in Seattle. Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner had worked to register African-American voters. They disappeared June 21, 1964, while investigating the burning of a black church. Their bodies were found weeks later in an earthen dam. Hood says the U.S. Department of Justice recently released findings to his office that led to the decision to close the case. He presented to reporters a 48-page report by the FBI which outlines the federal investigation that ultimately led authorities to conclude the deaths were part of a Ku Klux Klan conspiracy authorized by Sam Bowers, a Mississippi Klan leader who lived in Laurel. In 1967, eight people were convicted of federal civil rights violations related to the killings of the three workers. In 2005, Hood and the Neshoba County prosecutor won three manslaughter convictions against white supremacist Edgar Ray Killen, who remains in prison. Hood said officials had considered possible cases against Jimmy Lee Townsend and James "Pete" Harris. Townsend, 69, declined comment Monday when reached by telephone. The Associated Press could not locate Harris. All surviving suspects were presented to a grand jury in 2005, Hood said, with grand jurors indicting only Killen. He said not enough new evidence has been developed since then for him to believe anything could change. "I think that everything has been done that could possibly be done," Hood said. Harris allegedly recruited members of the KKK in Meridian to kill the three men and Townsend allegedly remained with a disabled car on the night that other Klansman went carry out the slayings. Harris was acquitted in the original prosecution of the case, according to the FBI report. Townsend was charged in preliminary charging documents but was never indicted, the report says. "For these participants, the good Lord will have to deal with that," Hood said. In recent years, Hood said, authorities had tried to develop a case against one person for lying to an FBI agent. But he said a witness declined to sign a statement at the last moment. He did not identify the person or the witness. Omar Mateen, the gunman who murdered 49 people at an Orlando, Fla. nightclub, reportedly was at the club and left before returning to commit his atrocity. Federal investigators told CBS News on Tuesday that Mateen went to Pulse Orlando to get a wristband so he could leave and return to the club later in the night. The gunman left at some point through the night and returned about 2 hours later to murder 49 people before dying in a hail of gunfire by police. The officials didn't reveal why Mateen left the club or where he had allegedly gone. Earlier Tuesday, Attorney General Loretta Lynch opened the door to releasing transcripts of phone calls between Mateen and Orlando police a day after the Justice Department was pressured to reverse course on its censoring of key lines from the shooters 911 call. We are looking to be as transparent as possible and to provide as much information as possible, Lynch told reporters at an Orlando press conference after meeting with survivors of the June 12 massacre. Lynchs remarks come a day after an embarrassing backpedal when, under pressure from Republican leaders and media outlets, the Justice Department released a full transcript of Mateens 911 call the night of the massacre -- after initially releasing a partly censored transcript. An earlier version of the transcript had deleted the term Islamic State and the name of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The full transcript would show that during the 50-second 911 call, Mateen had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State's leader and said he was acting on their behalf. The FBI also released summaries of Mateen's phone conversations with law enforcement, but not entire transcripts. After meeting with victims of the attack Tuesday, Lynch said at the press conference that she had been moved by the survivors resilience in the face of such a horrendous attack. I am inspired by the strength and the resilience of the survivors and their loved ones. And I am deeply moved by the way that this community and our national community has stood together in support of one another, in defiance of terror and in defense of our most cherished ideals, Lynch said. Lynch was scheduled to visit the memorial site at Orlandos City Hall, as well as meet with first responders and other people affected by the tragedy. According to the transcript of Mateens 911 calls with Orlando police negotiators, he pledged allegiance to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. He also claimed at one point that he would put explosive vests on hostages and he had an explosive vest on himself, though it turned out to be a hoax vest. He also claimed to have a bomb-laded vehicle outside the club. Lynch also announced that the Justice Department was making $1 million in emergency funding available for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Gov. Rick Scott initially requested $5 million in funding from FEMA, but was denied. The Presbyterian Church (USA) has elected a co-moderator for its 222nd General Assembly who believes members of the denomination are just as evil as Orlando shooter Omar Mateen who pledged his allegiance to the Islamic State terror group. In a blog written within hours of the Orlando nightclub shooting in which Mateen killed 49 people, the Rev. Denise Anderson a pastor from National Capital Presbytery who is serving alongside the Rev. Jan Edmiston, a presbytery executive from Chicago as a co-moderator for the PCUSA's annual assembly argues that "many in our own ranks aren't too idealistically different from this gunman." "Much of this [homelessness, human trafficking, crime, drug use and suicide among LGBT youth] can be attributed to religious teaching," Anderson claims. "A pastor who counseled parents to turn their backs on their gay son, or submit their lesbian daughter to conversion therapy. Flippant comments about 'sissies' thrown carelessly about from the pulpit. "Relegation of gay men to the choir loft (entertain us!), but kept from the trustee board. Scapegoating same-sex couples as the purveyors of moral erosion. That's our doing. That's our assault weapon." Anderson further asserted the American Church "is in the same business" as Mateen, but is "simply not as efficient as he was." As part of the opening day of PCUSA's 222nd General Assembly held in Portland, Oregon, on Saturday, delegates overwhelmingly elected Anderson and Edmiston as co-moderators. Click Here to Read the Full Story at ChristianPost.com The California attorney who prosecuted a former Stanford University swimmer convicted of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman is sponsoring legislation to toughen mandatory sentencing. Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen and two lawmakers announced AB2888 Wednesday. Brock Turner was sentenced to 6 months in jail in March, though current law does not require hard time if force is not used on the victim. The bill would prohibit probation and effectively require jail time for anyone convicted of rape or sexual assault against a person who was unconscious or too intoxicated to give consent. Democratic Assemblymen Bill Dodd of Napa and Evan Low of Campbell are the authors. Another bill introduced following the Stanford case would expand California's legal definition of rape to include penetration by any object without consent. A high school cheerleader fought back tears Monday as she pleaded not guilty to helping a pair of brothers who allegedly beat a homeless man to death during an April robbery near San Diego. Hailey Suder, 18, pleaded not guilty to two felony counts of being an accessory after the fact in the shocking murder, Tanya Sierra, spokeswoman for the San Diego County district attorneys office, told the Los Angeles Times. The San Diego Union-Tribune reported last week that Suder is the girlfriend of one of the two brothers who are charged with killing George Lowery, 50. However, its unclear what role she played in the mans death, or which brother she was dating. Police said that on the evening of April 24, Lowery's wife, who lived with him in a makeshift camp in El Cajon, found him unconscious in a field, with injuries to his upper body. Lowery, who also had been tied up and robbed, was admitted to Sharp Memorial Hospital, where he died four days later. Police arrested Austin Larry Mostrong, 21, and 19-year-old Preston Autry Mostrong, on suspicion of committing the assault. The two pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and torture. According to the Los Angeles Times, Suder was a senior and cheerleader at Santana High School. Catherine Martin, spokeswoman for the Grossmont Union High School District, told the paper that she didnt graduate with her class last month. Katey Torres, Lowerys daughter, told the Times that her father was a generous man who suffered a stroke and two brain hemorrhages due to the beating. Although he did not have much, he was always giving, she said. Anyone he came across loved his personality and he was always talking to people. Anyone he saw that needed help or just needed a smile he'd be there lifting your spirits. If someone was in need he would do what he could to help, no matter how hard the task. If he came across good fortune, he shared it. Suder was ordered held on $100,000 bail and faces three years and eight months in prison if convicted, Fox 5 San Diego reported. She has a preliminary hearing scheduled for July 5. Click for more from the Los Angeles Times. A suspect in the murder of a Louisiana sheriff's deputy was in custody after he tried to hide in a backyard Wednesday afternoon, authorities said. Jefferson Parish Sheriff's deputy David Michel, Jr., 50, was shot multiple times at around 12:20 p.m. local time after stopping a pedestrian on the street in Harvey, just outside New Orleans. Michel died after being taken to University Medical Center in New Orleans, Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office spokesman Col. John Fortunato said at a televised news conference. The suspect was captured after law enforcement agencies flooded the area, using dogs and helicopters. Geralisha Henderson said she went to her back door Wednesday to make sure it was locked after police combing her street said they were searching for a suspect. When she went to the back door, she saw what appeared to be a young man dressed in jeans and T-shirt hiding in the back of the yard. Frightened, she went to the street and waved for a police officer to come. When she went to the back door to peek outside again, she said the suspect was much closer to the house. The suspect saw her and asked to be let in, she said. "He was telling me `Open the door, let me in,"' she said. "He looked scared." She said she did not see a gun. At that the point, several officers rushed in and detained him in the backyard. Henderson's mother, Alicia, said an officer later came back to the house and told her the man was the suspect they were looking for. The unidentified suspect was also taken to University Medical Center with minor injuries. Fortunato said authorities believe the suspect sustained the injuries in a struggle with Michel prior to the shooting. Witnesses told investigators the suspect pulled a gun from his waistband during that struggle, Fortunato said. It was not immediately clear why the suspect was initially stopped. Michel was assigned to the street crimes unit, which targets drug sales and criminal activity in 17 high-crime areas around the parish, Deputy Chief Craig Taffaro said. Michel was in a black unmarked car and dressed in plain clothes with sheriff markings. "The normal operational tour of duty for these guys who work in street crimes is to drive around certain neighborhoods that we know are high-crime areas and make pedestrian stops, and make vehicle stops as well," Fortunato said. WVUE reported that Michel was assigned to the street crimes team last year. He joined the sheriff's office in 2007 and attained full-time status in 2013. The station also reported that Michel's wife is a sheriff's office employee, but did not specify in what capacity. The shooting happened on Manhattan Boulevard near its intersection with Lapalco Boulevard, both heavily traveled thoroughfares in the area known as the West Bank, across the Mississippi River from New Orleans. It was the year's second shooting of a Jefferson officer. Another member of the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office was shot and wounded in January during a drug raid on a house in the Lower 9th Ward section of New Orleans. Stephen Arnold was shot five times as he and others were trying to serve a warrant as part of a Drug Enforcement Administration raid on a house. The alleged shooter, Jarvis Hardy, has been indicted on eight counts, including attempted murder of a federal officer. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Click for more from Fox8Live.com. The backlash was swift after the Freedom From Religion Foundation asked a city in Texas to remove two signs that include the phrase "God's country," prompting the mayor to respond on Tuesday, "No way in hell." The signs appear on Highway 90 in Hondo, Texas, about 40 miles west of San Antonio. They read, "Welcome -- This is God's country; please dont drive through it like hell -- Hondo, Texas." The Freedom From Religion Foundation sent its request in an email to the city last week, Fox 29 reported. It warned Hondo the city would be "legally vulnerable," but did not specify whether it would file a lawsuit. Two unidentified Texans had complained about the signs, according to the foundation. "It is inappropriate for the city of Hondo to display religious signs that convey government preference for religion over non religion," part of the letter from co-president Annie Laurie Gaylor reads. "Imagine the public outrage had the city posted a sign saying 'This is Vishnu's country." Hondo mayor Jim Danner said his city was preparing a response, but he could sum it up briefly: "There's no way in hell that sign is coming down." The city had changed the signs before, Fox 29 reported. Workers added "please" in 2012. Local news stations asked people in Hondo for their reactions, and nearly all supported the signs. "If you don't like it, don't read it or drive around," Stacey Cross told KSAT. Foundation co-president Dan Barker said he was open to discussing the issue. "It would be best if they just removed it, but the compromise could be, 'Drive safely. This is beautiful country.'" Click for more from Fox 29. An adventure wedding photographer in Colorado said Tuesday she wasn't expecting a rattlesnake to jump out and bite a groom as he was posing for photos with his bride -- but she wanted to capture all the ups and downs of their wedding day, so she kept taking pictures. "I often wade in chest-high water, hike into jungles in Costa Rica, or go on 10-mile hikes with couples on their wedding day. I never would have guessed that my only indoor church wedding this year, in my home town, would actually become the biggest adventure, and my craziest wedding story to date," photographer Maddie Mae said. Johnny and Laura Benson were walking by Horsetooth Reservoir near Fort Collins, just about 50 feet from a parking lot last weekend when the snake bit the groom in the ankle. "All of a sudden it was like someone kicked me in the shin. Then I looked over and saw the snake sitting there, and it was rattling," he told the Denver Post. The photographer said they shouted out to a park ranger, but he clearly didn't hear them. He simply yelled back, "Congratulations!" Eventually he stopped by and helped the groom keep his leg elevated before paramedics could arrive. The bride rode along in the ambulance to the hospital. And Maddie Mae snapped away with her camera. She said doctors determined the snake didn't inject any venom. Since it was pretty clear the bride and groom had a reception to attend, hospital staffers got them in and out quickly. Naturally, the couple was late to the reception -- but only by an hour or so. "Ive never seen such a emotional 'grand entrance' as all 184 guests cheered when Johnny & Laura walked in, and showered them in a sea of passionate hugs. I admire Laura & Johnny so much for staying calm, and holding each others hand through the first great test of their brand new marriage," Maddie Mae wrote. Laura Benson called the whole experience "pretty epic." Now that the bride and groom have the photos, they probably won't forget the experience any time soon. One picture showed the park ranger elevating the husband's leg. Another showed the bride in her wedding dress approaching the ambulance. And one photo showed the scaly culprit slithering through the grass. Fort Collins is an hour's drive north of Denver. Organizers of a special ax-throwing league in Canada say they'd like to make the experience even more fun -- by getting a license to serve alcohol. As the Toronto Star asked, "What could possibly go wrong?" The Backyard Axe-Throwing League brought in a safety expert to its six locations in Ontario within recent months, the newspaper reported. We received glowing reviews on the safety to go ahead with the application for the liquor license, CEO Matt Wilson said. But until liquor gets the OK, people who want to stop by and hurl axes around will have to quench their thirst with non-alcoholic beverages they bring from home. Wilson emphasized the club's near-spotless safety record. In 2014, we had 100,000 new visitors... Nothing has ever happened to any of the guests while throwing the axes. He told the newspaper that ax throwers sign waivers, and plenty of trainers are on hand. Over the past five years, the worst injuries were just a few cuts to the hand that came when staffers were sharpening axes, Wilson said. The league is confident that ax throwers will be able to safely booze it up by the end of the summer. We want people to leave with a smile, and were excited for the upcoming change, Wilson said. Click for more from the Toronto Star. North Korea fired two suspected powerful new midrange ballistic missiles on Tuesday that both failed over the Sea of Japan, U.S. officials said. U.S. Strategic Command spokesman Ltc. Martin L. O'Donnell said in a statement the two launches from the east coast city of Wonsan, which took place at 4:56 p.m. ET and 7:03 p.m. ET, did not pose a threat to North America. The missiles were tracked over the Sea of Japan, where indications are they fell, according to O'Donnell. The Musudan missile has a potential 2,180-mile range that could target much of Asia and the Pacific, including U.S military bases in the region. The launch on Tuesday was the fifth Musadan launch by the North Koreans to fail. State Department spokesman John Kirby condemned the launches, and said the U.S. continues to assess the situation. "We strongly condemn these and North Korea's other recent missile tests, which violate UN Security Council Resolutions explicitly prohibiting North Korea's launches using ballistic missile technology," Kirby said in a statement. "These provocations only serve to increase the international communitys resolve to counter the DPRKs prohibited activities, including through implementing existing UN Security Council sanctions," he added. Each new test apparently linked to a command from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un also likely provides valuable insights to the North's scientists and military officials as they push toward their goal of a nuclear and missile program that can threaten the U.S. mainland. Pyongyang earlier this year conducted a nuclear test and launched a long-range rocket that outsiders say was a cover for a test of banned missile technology. In April, North Korea attempted unsuccessfully to launch three suspected Musudan missiles, but all exploded in midair or crashed, according to South Korean defense officials. Earlier this month, North Korea had another suspected Musudan failure, South Korean officials said. Before April's launches, North Korea had never flight-tested a Musudan missile, although one was displayed during a military parade in 2010 in Pyongyang, its capital. The launches appear to stem from Kim Jong Un's order in March for more nuclear and ballistic missile tests. The order was an apparent response to springtime U.S.-South Korean military drills, which North Korea views as an invasion rehearsal. Since the end of those military drills, Pyongyang has repeatedly called for the resumption of talks with rival Seoul, even as it pursues new missile development, but the South has rejected the overtures. It wants the North to first take steps toward nuclear disarmament. Pyongyang says its rivals must negotiate with it as an established nuclear power, something Washington and Seoul refuse to do. The string of recent launch attempts show the North is pushing hard to upgrade its missile capability in defiance of U.S.-led international pressure. The North was slapped with the strongest U.N. sanctions in two decades after it conducted a fourth nuclear test and a long-range rocket launch earlier this year. Earlier Tuesday, at a Washington briefing, Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said that if North Korea were to conduct another missile test, it would violate U.N. resolutions and "be another provocative action. So we certainly would urge North Korea to refrain from doing that sort of thing." North Korea has recently claimed a series of breakthroughs in its push to build a long-range nuclear missile that can strike the American mainland. But South Korean officials have said the North doesn't yet possess such a weapon. The North, however, has already deployed a variety of missiles that can reach most targets in South Korea and Japan, including American military bases in the countries. The Korean Peninsula remains in a technical state of war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty. About 28,500 U.S. soldiers are stationed in South Korea to deter possible aggression from North Korea; tens of thousands more are stationed in Japan. Fox News' Jennifer Griffin, Lucas Tomlinson, and the Associated Press contributed to this report. With Britain's membership in the European Union on the line, campaigners from the prime minister on down blanketed the country Wednesday trying to convert the undecided on the final day before the crucial vote. Outlining his vision of a future with Britain retaining its position in the 28-nation bloc, Prime Minister David Cameron bristled at the notion that the country would be headed in the wrong direction if the "remain" side prevailed in Thursday's vote. "We are not shackled to a corpse," Cameron told the BBC. "You can see the European economy's recovery. It's the largest single market in the world." Pushing for a British exit, or Brexit, the most notable figure on the "leave" side, former London Mayor Boris Johnson, mugged for the cameras at the Billingsgate Fish Market in East London and pretended to kiss a fish a not-so-subtle reminder that this is an island nation that takes great pride in its independence and self-assurance. "It's time to break away from the failing and dysfunctional EU system," Johnson said. "It's time to have a totally new relationship with our friends and partners across the Channel." Wednesday's feverish campaigning took place even as mourners gathered in London and other world capitals to honor the memory of Jo Cox, the youthful pro-EU Labour Party lawmaker who was stabbed and shot to death last week in her Yorkshire constituency. Speaking to a crowd of 9,000 in Trafalgar Square on what would have been Cox's 42nd birthday, her husband, Brendan, said that Cox "feared the consequences of Europe dividing again" and urged people to follow her example. The motive for the killing is unclear but the rare slaying of a politician cast a shadow over a divisive campaign that has been unusually heated, even by the lively standards of British politics. Nigel Farage, the outspoken leader of the U.K. Independence Party, resisted fresh calls to apologize for a controversial poster showing hundreds of non-white migrants making their way across Europe alongside the words, "BREAKING POINT." The poster, labeled racist by opponents, was unveiled hours before Cox was killed. "I apologize for the timing and I apologize for the fact that it was able to be used by those who wish us harm," Farage said. "But I can't apologize for the truth." "This was a photograph that all newspapers carried. It is an example of what is wrong inside the European Union," he said. High profile political, military and business figures also weighed in on the debate as the final hours of campaigning ebbed away. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told The Associated Press in Brussels that a British exit from the EU could weaken the trans-Atlantic alliance. "We are faced with so much uncertainty, so much unpredictability, with terrorist threats, with a more assertive Russia in the east," Stoltenberg said. "I believe that a more fragmented Europe will be something which will only add to the uncertainty which surrounds us." European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker flatly rejected suggestions that Britain might be able to negotiate better terms with the EU if it votes to leave. "Out is out," he said. The reach of the EU into every aspect of life has made the issues at stake far more complex than in a general election. And while the vote is final unlike in an election where the results can be reversed in the next term it is not legally binding and Parliament would have to vote to repeal the law that brought Britain into the EU in the first place. A vote to leave would invoke Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union, which allows a member state to withdraw. That has never been done before and would trigger a period of uncertainty during years of negotiations on the relationship between the EU and the U.K. Much of the debate has hinged on the economy. From the international banks in the skyscrapers of Canary Wharf to the home of Britain's financial industry in the City of London, business has awaited Thursday's vote with trepidation. Many fear a vote to leave would undermine London's position as one of the world's pre-eminent financial centers and damage an industry that underpins the British economy. Leaders of about half of Britain's largest companies made a last-ditch appeal to their employees to vote to remain in the EU. In a letter to the Times on the eve of Thursday's vote, some 1,285 business leaders including representatives of half of the FTSE 100 businesses argued that a vote to leave would hurt the British economy. Similar letters have been released in the course of the acrimonious campaign. But Wednesday's letter was clearly meant to make the 1.75 million people employed by the signatories think twice about their vote. "Britain leaving the EU would mean uncertainty for our firms, less trade with Europe and fewer jobs," the letter said. "Britain remaining in the EU would mean the opposite: more certainty, more trade and more jobs. EU membership is good for business and good for British jobs. That's why, on June 23, we back Britain remaining in the EU." Among the companies represented were Barclays, Standard Life and Anglo-American. Stock markets and the pound continued to rise, indicating that investors think the "remain" side will win. Markets are likely to be jittery, though, as the vote is expected to be tight and a decision to leave would create huge uncertainty. U.S. Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen warned Tuesday that the upcoming vote "could have significant economic repercussions." The betting markets stood solidly by the "remain" side, however. The Betfair exchange said "remain" is now at 76 percent probability. In a statement, it said some 80 percent of the 1 million pounds placed during and after a BBC debate on the issue Tuesday were for "remain." An angry crowd of Muslims reportedly looted and burned the homes of 80 Christian families in an Egyptian village Friday after rumors circulated that they wanted to build a church. Christian media reported the violence taking place in the village of Qarayat al Bayda, near Alexandria, quoting witnesses who claimed police did little to protect them. The alleged violence began after noon prayers, when a throng of Muslims gathered in the front of a home being built, Mousa Zarif told International Christian Concern. "They were chanting slogans against us, Zarif said. Among these slogans were, 'By no means shall there be a church here.'" Egypt is roughly 85 percent Muslim and Coptic Christians have long faced persecution in the Arab nation. The village in which the attacks were reported to have occurred has no Christian churches, according to International Christian Concern. The incident prompted renewed calls for the government in Cairo to do more to protect religious minorities. Naim Aziz told Daily News Egypt the homes, a community center and other properties owned by Christians were destroyed. Police initially arrested Aziz and Zarif, according to reports. They also reportedly arrested six Muslims, who were quickly released, while holding the Christians on bail after charging them for praying and building without a permit. Persecution of Christians in Egypt has prompted the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom to encourage the US State Department to include Egypt on its list of countries of particular concern, where particularly severe violations of religious freedom are perpetuated or tolerated, according to ChristianToday.com. A plane carrying two ailing passengers from the South Pole arrives safely in Chile late Wednesday, according to a statement from the National Science Foundation. The American workers arrived in the southern Chilean city of Punta Arenas. They made a stop earlier at a British station on the edge of Antarctica. The National Science Foundation, which runs the Amundsen-Scott station, would not identify the workers, who are employees of Lockheed Martin, nor their medical conditions. The foundation said initially that one worker needed medical attention, but NSF spokesman Peter West confirmed two people were airlifted. Normally planes don't use the polar outpost from February to October because of the dangers of flying in the pitch dark and cold. The Twin Otter's crew -- a pilot, co-pilot, flight engineer and medical worker -- arrived at the frigid research station Tuesday before resting for several hours as temperatures dropped below minus 70 degrees. Before they left, there were 48 people 39 men and nine women at the station for the winter. Steve Barnet, who works with a University of Wisconsin astronomy team at the polar station but is in the U.S., now, lauded the rescue crew. "The courage of the pilots to make the flight in extremely harsh conditions is incredible and inspiring," Barnet wrote in an email. The extreme cold affects a lot of things on planes, including fuel, which needs to be warmed before takeoff, batteries and hydraulics, according to West. The Twin Otter can fly in temperatures as low as minus 103 degrees (minus 75 degrees Celsius), he said. "The air and Antarctica are unforgiving environments and punishes any slackness very hard," said Tim Stockings, operations director for the British Antarctic Survey. "If you are complacent it will bite you." "Things can change very quickly down there" with ice from clouds, high winds and snow, he said. There have been three emergency evacuations from the Amundsen-Scott station since 1999. That first flight, which was done in Antarctic spring with slightly better conditions, rescued the station's doctor, Jerri Nielsen, who had breast cancer and had been treating herself. Rescues were done in 2001 and 2003, both for gallbladder problems. Scientists have had a station at the South Pole since 1956. It does astronomy, physics and environmental science with telescopes, seismographs and instruments that monitor the atmosphere. The foundation runs two other science stations in Antarctica. Fox News Greg Palkot and the Associated Press contributed to this report. The United States called on China and other rival claimants Wednesday to exercise restraint when an international tribunal issues a landmark ruling on the South China Sea disputes that Beijing has chosen to ignore. A senior U.S. State Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to Asian journalists through a teleconference, said the upcoming decision by the arbitration panel in The Hague may offer "a great deal of clarity" on the disputes and help the claimants forge an arrangement to avoid potential confrontations. She said the decision, expected within weeks, could also serve as a jumping off point to diplomatic talks. "We would certainly call on all governments to exercise restraint and to use this post-arbitration period as an opportunity to restart those diplomatic discussions," she said. China has said it would not recognize any arbitration decision despite calls by several Asian and Western governments for it to respect international law. Some fear Beijing may take a harder stance and take provocative actions if it comes under pressure from outside, including by the United States, to comply with an adversarial ruling. In a harsh attack on U.S. policies in Asia, the flagship newspaper of China's ruling Communist Party on Wednesday accused Washington of seeking to turn the South China Sea "into a powder keg" and warned it not to underestimate China's determination to defend its territorial claims. The People's Daily cited recent combined exercises by two Navy aircraft carrier strike groups off the coast of the Philippines as a sign of U.S. hegemony and said Washington has made a mistake in seeking to intimidateChina. In making displays of military power aimed at China, the U.S. has "picked the wrong counterpart," said the editorial, the contents of which are usually vetted by high ranking party officials. U.S. military activity, including freedom of navigation cruises near China's man-made islands and exercises with allies, is contributing to the militarization of the region, the editorial said. Beijing prefers one-on-one negotiations with each of the rival claimants, an arrangement that gives it advantage because of its sheer size and clout and prevents Washington from playing any role to resolve the conflicts. In the 2013 case, the Philippines challenged the validity of China's so-called nine-dash line claiming virtually the entire stretch of the South China Sea, a crucial waterway where a major chunk of the world's oil and trade passes. The Philippines also asked the tribunal to rule whether several disputed areas are outcrops, reefs or islands and how much stretch of territorial waters they project. The U.S. official also expressed concern over China's coast guard ships escorting Chinese fishing vessels in areas including Indonesia's Natuna Islands, where Indonesian vessels fired warning shots. Florence Mae Minor Taylor transitioned with grace and peace to her heavenly home on Sunday, June 19, 2016, at Woodmont Center in Fredericksburg, VA. Florence was born on April 8, 1931, to the late John and Margaret Minor, in Caroline County. Florence was family-oriented and could be relied upon to help her parents with her siblings. Florence is remembered by all as a caring and compassionate person who always put the needs of others first. She had a special fondness and love for children. Florence loved cooking and sewing and made beautiful outfits for her family and friends. She was a wonderful homemaker and loved her pet dog, Priscilla. Florence was an active member of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Spotsylvania until her illness. She served in many capacities: Sunday school teacher, Ushers Ministry, Vacation Bible School (VBS) Director, Culinary Ministry, Pastors Aide Society and President of the Missionary Ministry. She also served as a volunteer for the Fredericksburg Food Bank. Florence was a member of the Celestia Chapter #38, Order of the Eastern Star, NAACP member, voting rights advocate and community activist. In the summer of 1963, she joined three other parents in petitioning the Superintendent of Schools to send her daughter to the previously all-white Robert E. Lee Elementary School. In August of 1963, her daughter became one of the four elementary school children to desegregate Spotsylvania Schools. Florence was preceded in death by her husband Moses L. Taylor Sr. and siblings John L. Minor Jr., Randolph Minor, Mary Minor and Julia Wheeler. She is survived by her loving children, Mozelle Janice Taylor and Moses L. Taylor Jr. Her surviving siblings include Molly Minor, Virginia Smith, Dorothy Washington, Rosa Minor, Margo Minor; and a devoted niece, Carolyn Chin. A celebration of life will be held at noon on Thursday, June 23, at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Spotsylvania. Viewing will be from 10 a.m. to noon, prior to the service. Interment will follow the service at the Mount Lawn Cemetery in Caroline County. Arrangements are with A. L. Bennett and Son Funeral Home. Online condolences and guest book are available at albennettandsonfuneralhome.com. IV Therapy Clinics: Announce Leader Of IV & Vitamin Infusion Therapy Clinics IV Therapy Clinics have been heralded as a cure-all and preventive for hangovers, a natural boost for workouts, a fighter of fatigue, a mood enhancer, an anti-aging preventative, a way to improve concentration and memory, and as a means to supercharge overall wellness. -- IV Therapy Clinics are gaining traction as the hottest new trend amongst Hollywood's elite. 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Doctors still continue, however, to recommend IV Therapy Clinics more and more to their patients. This is because an IV introduces the necessary nutrients and hydrating elements immediately into the body's circulatory system. The body responds almost right away to repair itself, and relief may come immediately if solution is the correct dosage and composition. In certain cases, it can even outperform simply drinking water! IV treatments, however, can experience complications due to inferior administration by subpar IV Therapy Clinics. This is inclusive of veins becoming inflamed, infections, and even in rare cases air embolus due to air in the needle. That is why it is of extreme importance that when choosing an IV Therapy Clinic that clients select one that has quality and efficient staff. IV Therapy Hub was founded to help customers do just that. It is an innovative geo-locational directory that connects clients with the closest IV Therapy Clinics instantly, providing immediate access to superior IV Therapy Clinics. For more information, please visit https://ivtherapyhub.com Contact Info: Name: Richard Linden Email: Support@Webvisable.com Organization: IV Therapy Hub Address: 3187 Airway Ave, Suite C Costa Mesa, CA 92626 Phone: (855) 639-8444 Release ID: 120356 For more information visit r Recent Press Releases By The Same User Agarwood Essential Oil Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 4.2% During 2016 to 2022"> (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Cyber Weapon Market by Type, Product, Application, Region, Outlook and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Landscaping and Gardening Expert Trevor McClintock Launches New Locally Optimized Website (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Sleep apnea devices Market is Evolving At A CAGR of 7.5% by 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Agriculture Technology Market 2017 Global Analysis, Opportunities and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Global VR Helmet Market by Manufacturers, Technology, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Michael Wild Wins Award from South Florida Business and Wealth Magazine Each year South Florida Business & Wealth Magazine recognizes a group of people considered to be the rising stars of the community. The only professional to win the award for Top Attorney in Broward County was Estate Planning and Asset Protection attorney, Michael Wild. -- Every year the South Florida Business & Wealth Magazine recognizes a group of individuals that are considered to be the rising stars of the community. These individuals have not only proven to be dedicated leaders to their community but respected professionals within their field. This year, 79 finalists were nominated by their peers and colleagues. On June 17, everyone gathered at the Venue in Wilton Manors to see who would actually win the prestigious Up and Comer Award. Of the 79 finalists only 19 professionals walked away with the award and the only professional to win the award for Top Attorney in Broward County was Estate Planning and Asset Protection attorney, Michael D. Wild. "Being recognized by my peers as a trusted professional and leader in the community is truly an honor. I feel fortunate to share this award with a list of incredible business professionals and I'm elated that they are being recognized for their hard work and contributions as well." Michael Wild is the managing partner of WFP Law. Michael and the attorneys at WFP Law offer free one hour consultations and assist in the areas of estate planning, asset protection, probate administration and wealth transfer. A leader in his community, he serves on the Board of Directors of 211 Broward, HANDY, ARC Broward and Riverwalk Ft. Lauderdale. He is also the founder and chairman of United Way of Broward County's Envision Broward. The Up and Comer Awards is a unique program created by Lifestyle Media Group and South Florida Business and Wealth Magazine to honor the professionals in South Florida that promote excellence in their respective fields, maintain the highest level of ethics, show a commitment to their community and are proven leaders. Michael states, "Receiving this recognition is truly a great honor. I appreciate such acknowledgment of my accomplishments. This is a testament of my dedication to providing my clients with the highest quality legal services and handling their estate planning with the utmost care to ensure their needs and goals are met." For more information on Michael Wild and the law firm of WFP Law please visit their website at www.wfplaw.com For more information, please visit http://www.wfplaw.om Contact Info: Name: Michael Wild Organization: Wild Felce & Partners Address: 1250 South Pine Island Road, Suite 200 Plantation, Florida 33324 Phone: (954) 944-2855 Release ID: 120539 For more information visit r Recent Press Releases By The Same User Agarwood Essential Oil Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 4.2% During 2016 to 2022"> (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Cyber Weapon Market by Type, Product, Application, Region, Outlook and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Landscaping and Gardening Expert Trevor McClintock Launches New Locally Optimized Website (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Sleep apnea devices Market is Evolving At A CAGR of 7.5% by 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Agriculture Technology Market 2017 Global Analysis, Opportunities and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Global VR Helmet Market by Manufacturers, Technology, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Cleansing Oil Industry Development Trends and Research from 2015 to 2020: Radiant Insights Radiant Insights has announced the addition of "Global and Chinese Cleansing Oil Industry, 2015 Market Research Report" Market Research report to their database -- The 'Global and Chinese Cleansing Oil Industry, 2010-2020 Market Research Report' is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the global Cleansing Oil industry with a focus on the Chinese market. The report provides key statistics on the market status of the Cleansing Oil manufacturers and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the industry. For further inquiries, about Cleansing Oil Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2010 - 2020, click on this link - https://www.radiantinsights.com/research/global-and-chinese-cleansing-oil-industry-2015-market-research-report Firstly, the report provides a basic overview of the industry including its definition, applications and manufacturing technology. Then, the report explores the international and Chinese major industry players in detail. In this part, the report presents the company profile, product specifications, capacity, production value, and 2010-2015 market shares for each company. Through the statistical analysis, the report depicts the global and Chinese total market of Cleansing Oil industry including capacity, production, production value, cost/profit, supply/demand and Chinese import/export. The total market is further divided by company, by country, and by application/type for the competitive landscape analysis. Browse All Reports of This Category @ https://www.radiantinsights.com/catalog/personal-care The report then estimates 2015-2020 market development trends of Cleansing Oil industry. Analysis of upstream raw materials, downstream demand, and current market dynamics is also carried out. In the end, the report makes some important proposals for a new project of Cleansing Oil Industry before evaluating its feasibility. Overall, the report provides an in-depth insight of 2010-2020 global and Chinese Cleansing Oil industry covering all important parameters. Request a Free Sample Copy of this Report @ https://www.radiantinsights.com/research/global-and-chinese-cleansing-oil-industry-2015-market-research-report/request-sample About Radiant Insight Radiant Insights is a platform for companies looking to meet their market research and business intelligence requirements. It assist and facilitate organizations and individuals procure market research reports, helping them in the decision making process. The Organization has a comprehensive collection of reports, covering over 40 key industries and a host of micro markets. For more information, please visit https://www.radiantinsights.com/research/global-and-chinese-cleansing-oil-industry-2015-market-research-report Contact Info: Name: Michelle Thoras Email: sales@radiantinsights.com Organization: Radiant Insights, Inc Address: 28 2nd Street, Suite 3036 Phone: (415) 349-0054 Source: http://marketersmedia.com/cleansing-oil-industry-development-trends-and-research-from-2015-to-2020-radiant-insights/120573 Release ID: 120573 For more information visit r Recent Press Releases By The Same User Agarwood Essential Oil Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 4.2% During 2016 to 2022"> (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Cyber Weapon Market by Type, Product, Application, Region, Outlook and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Landscaping and Gardening Expert Trevor McClintock Launches New Locally Optimized Website (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Sleep apnea devices Market is Evolving At A CAGR of 7.5% by 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Agriculture Technology Market 2017 Global Analysis, Opportunities and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Global VR Helmet Market by Manufacturers, Technology, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Free Freightnet Membership List your company in the Freightnet directory. It's Free, it's Easy and your company can be displayed in front of potential freight buyers within 24 hours. Analysis by platform provider Zurich shows nervous investors are switching into cash ahead of the European Union referendum tomorrow (22 June). The provider has seen a 20 per cent increase in cash being held by savers on its retail platform. This is both clients wanting to switch of their own volition and advisers encouraging them to make this decision, according to Zurich. Alistair Wilson, Zurichs head of retail platform strategy, said even during the sharp stock market falls of 2015 the industry didnt see the levels of cash holdings at the height they are today and the amount being put into cash continues to climb. Mr Wilson said: In the last two weeks alone we have seen cash levels soar by 20 per cent. We know uncertainty has an impact on stock market volatility and clients appear to be increasingly flying to the safety of cash. We know uncertainty has an impact on stock market volatility and clients appear to be increasingly flying to the safety of cash. Alistair Wilson Whatever the outcome, volatility and nervousness could endure. Many clients may decide a controlled, phased re-entry is safer for them. Paul Lindfield, director of wealth management of Manchester-based Sedulo Wealth Management, said: If they are switching to cash this week they are very late - they are not going to make a difference by doing it now. It would be the same with currencies. Earlier today FTAdvisers sister newspaper Investment Adviser issued a warning about whipsaw market movements after fund selectors and managers rushed to take risk off the table ahead of tomorrows EU referendum. Some investors have moved into safe assets ahead of tomorrows vote amid fears of market falls and further shifts in asset allocation. ruth.gillbe@ft.com Perhaps it was the clear Vancouver air, or the friendly greetings of financial advisers from across the world, but little could have been more invigorating than this years Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT) annual meeting. I fell in love with Canadas most beautiful city on my first visit while working as a photographer in 1959, and have been fortunate enough to return many times for both pleasure and business. This years MDRT meeting has been right up there with the best, as more than 11,500 financial planners from across the world were inspired by great presentations from more than 100 speakers, while countless breakout sessions and workshops available meant the record number of attendees had a veritable smorgasbord of subjects from which to choose. It is hard to think of an area of personal or corporate financial planning that has not been covered by this MDRT. Personally, I tend to focus on areas of general self-improvement, and subjects such as corporate or personal development, marketing and client care. One of the aspects of MDRT I find so exciting is that even after 45 years of membership, I am still learning new ways to enhance the quality of my life, business or relationships. It is tremendous to be able to discover new ideas to further improve and advance the quality of service we deliver to the firms we serve. I am still learning new ways to enhance the quality of my life, business or relationships Even just revisiting the basics of planning for success such as we heard on the first morning from Krish Dhanam can have a powerful impact. Born in India, he emigrated to the US in 1984. He reminded us all of the importance of identifying and setting your personal goals and then demonstrated how to motivate oneself to achieve those goals by visualising both the benefits of doing so and the potential obstacles. We also heard an incredibly moving story from Don Stephens who founded the charity Mercy Ships in 1978 after meeting with Mother Teresa in Calcutta. Staffed by hundreds of medical volunteers, Mercy Ships provides top-quality medical help to patients across Africa, and healthcare training to thousands of local people. We also laughed as Frank Miles used humour and juggling to demonstrate how change is good, and that, while we may fear the unknown, if we prepare and learn, we have nothing to fear. A point that really struck home was in relation to the Retail Distribution Review, from which, undoubtedly, those who prepared and learned have prospered. MDRT in Vancouver did not disappoint: we laughed, we cried and we learned. I hope to see you at the next one. Ken Davy is chairman of SimplyBiz Group However, even a back of a vape packet calculation suggests that the care industry may well be correct when it suggests that the UK is facing significant issues when it comes to paying for care. With an estimated 433,000 adults living in residential care settings across the UK, as well as over-65s making up an increasing proportion of the population, the number of people needing this type of support is only likely to grow. However, residential care is not inexpensive with a typical home in England costing annually approximately 29,558 ranging from 34,788 in the South East to 24,492 in the North West. This is in addition to the cost of nursing care, which can cost far more. So who pays these costs? This has always been a challenge to communicate as not only do 72 per cent of over-45s believe that they are unlikely to need care in later life but 30 per cent believe the State will fund care if they need it. With the number of over-65s due to make up 25 per cent of the UK population by 2046 , this is simply not achievable. In 2014, the Coalition Government passed the Care Act which was designed to create an equitable standardised system easier to navigate and ultimately to use. If a person has deliberately spent or given away their assets they could be accused of deliberate deprivation In April 2015, the first tranche of the Care Act was introduced. However, the second tranche which is the most interesting from a funding point of view as it would have introduced the care cap in April 2016 has been delayed until 2020. The care cap would have seen qualifying people (with assets below 118,000) receiving some local authority support with the theory that people would not have to spend more than 72,000 on the cost of social care during their lifetime. This point has been extensively debated given the fact that not all costs were included in the calculation and someone in England could conceivably spend 177,500 before hitting the cap. However, this approach did provide some modicum of protection from catastrophic costs, unlike the current system. Daily living Currently, people in England are assessed by their local council to ascertain how many activities of daily living they can undertake and then they are required to pay for care until their assets reduce to 23,250 (limits in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland vary). When this limit is hit, they then receive some state funding until they reach the lower limit of 14,250 when the local authority is required to fund their care completely. It is important to note that the person must be assessed to have severe/critical needs in order to qualify for local authority funding support so a relatively healthy 75-year old who has depleted their assets would not necessarily receive support. Story Highlights 37% of Britons approve of EU leadership Nearly half of Britons aged 50 or older, 46%, approve of EU leadership Approval is far lower among youngest Britons, 29% WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Britons cast their votes in a referendum Thursday that will determine whether the United Kingdom stays in the European Union. While recent reports suggest the "Brexit" vote will be too close to call, Gallup in February and March found firm majority disapproval of the EU's leadership among Britons. Fewer than four in 10 Britons (37%) approved of the EU's leadership at the time -- consistent with Britons' dismal approval ratings for almost a decade. The U.K. cast its economic lot with Europe in 1973 when it joined the European Economic Community, the forerunner of the EU. Britons' approval ratings of the EU's leadership have been consistently lackluster since 2008, when Gallup started asking them this question, ranging between 29% and 39%. But notably, Britons' ratings of their own country's leadership have not been high over the same period. In fact, at several times, their ratings of their own leadership were marginally lower than their ratings of the EU -- including in the years leading up to the 2010 election that resulted in the Labour Party losing majority control. Since then, Britons' ratings of their own leadership have been somewhat higher than those of the EU's leadership. However, what looks to be a fairly stable trend in EU leadership approval masks a sharp contrast between views of younger and older Britons. While leadership approval of the EU was highest among those aged 15 to 29 in 2008, at 62%, it has declined since, dropping to a low of 29% in 2016. At the same time, the typically lower approval among Britons aged 50 and older began inching up in 2014, and now nearly half (46%) in this age group approve of the EU's leadership. Bottom Line Britons hold deep-seated opinions on both sides of the Brexit issue. Those likely voting to leave the EU believe it would free Britain from EU regulations and stimulate economic expansion -- and result in far fewer migrants making their way to its shores. Among those with the contrary view, many fear that leaving the bloc could roil global economic markets, harm trade with Europe and lessen British productivity and incomes. It remains to be seen if or how last week's murder of a young, pro-EU member of British Parliament, Jo Cox, affects national sentiment on this critical vote about Britain's future, although some weekend U.K. polls find an uptick in "stay" votes. If Britons vote to stay, the country's leaders must still acknowledge and contend with the strong undercurrent of disapproval of the bloc's leadership that paved the way to Thursday's vote. Historical data are available in Gallup Analytics. Survey Methods Results are based on telephone interviews with 1,000 adults, aged 15 and older, conducted Feb. 19-March 16, 2016, in the United Kingdom. For results based on the total sample of national adults, the margin of sampling error is 3.6 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. The margin of error reflects the influence of data weighting. For more complete methodology and specific survey dates, please review Gallup's Country Data Set details. Learn more about how the Gallup World Poll works. Story Highlights Nearly half of cohabiting same-sex couples now married Up from 38% before same-sex marriage legalized in all states 9.6% of LGBT Americans married to same-sex spouse, up from 7.9% PRINCETON, N.J. -- The proportion of same-sex cohabiting couples who are married has increased from 38% to 49% in the year since the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide. Change in Percentage of Married Versus Unmarried Same-Sex Cohabiting Couples After Supreme Court Ruling on Same-Sex Marriage Based on LGBT Americans Pre-Obergefell v. Hodges decision Post-Obergefell v. Hodges decision % % Married 38 49 Living together but not married 62 51 Note: Since Jan. 28, 2015, Gallup has measured sex of spouse/partner for LGBT respondents reporting they are married or living with a partner. Gallup Daily tracking On June 26, 2015, the Supreme Court in Obergefell v. Hodges struck down prohibitions on same-sex marriage in the 13 states that still had them. Since then, the same-sex marriage rate has grown significantly in those 13 states, but it has also grown in the states where it was already legal. The increase has been slightly greater (13 percentage points versus 10 points) in the states that had prohibited same-sex marriage before last June. Change in Percentage of Married Versus Unmarried Same-Sex Couples Living Together After Supreme Court Ruling on Same-Sex Marriage, by Prior State Law Based on LGBT Americans Marital status Pre-Obergefell v. Hodges decision Post-Obergefell v. Hodges decision % % Same-sex marriage NOT legal in state before June 26, 2015 Married 26 39 Living together but not married 74 61 Same-sex marriage legal in state before June 26, 2015 Married 42 52 Living together but not married 58 48 Note: Since Jan. 28, 2015, Gallup has measured sex of spouse/partner for LGBT respondents reporting they are married or living with a partner. Gallup Daily tracking The proportion of married same-sex couples remains higher in states in which the practice had been legal before the Supreme Court's ruling -- 52% to 39%, with only a slight closing of the gap in the past year. The results are based on Gallup Daily tracking interviews conducted throughout 2015 and 2016. Gallup asks U.S. adults if they identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, and to indicate their marital status. Those who say they are LGBT and are either married or living in a domestic partnership are asked whether their spouse or partner is of the same sex or the opposite sex. Gallup currently estimates 3.9% of U.S. adults are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, and 0.4% of U.S. adults are married to a same-sex spouse. These figures can be used to estimate there are approximately 981,000 U.S. adults in a same-sex marriage and, thus, 491,000 same-sex marriages in the U.S. That latter estimate is up from roughly 368,000 a year ago. One in 10 LGBT Adults Now Report Being Married to Same-Sex Spouse Currently, 9.6% of LGBT adults report being married to a same-sex spouse, up from 7.9% before the landmark court decision. Meanwhile, the percentage of LGBT Americans who are living with a same-sex domestic partner has declined, from 12.8% to 10.1% -- a larger decline compared with the increase in same-sex marriages. This indicates that while many unmarried same-sex couples who were living together got married in the past year, many others stopped living together or no longer consider themselves to be domestic partners. The largest percentage of LGBT Americans -- 49.9% -- continue to identify as single or never married, up from 47.4% a year ago. Marital Status of LGBT Americans, Before and After Supreme Court Ruling Legalizing Same-Sex Marriage Nationwide Pre-Obergefell v. Hodges decision Post-Obergefell v. Hodges decision Change % % pct. pts. Married to same-sex spouse 7.9 9.6 +1.7 Living with same-sex partner 12.8 10.1 -2.7 Single/Never married 47.4 49.9 +2.5 Living with opposite-sex partner 4.8 5 +0.2 Married to opposite-sex spouse 14.2 13.6 -0.6 Divorced 7.1 6.4 -0.7 Separated 2.5 2.2 -0.3 Widowed 2.8 2.9 +0.1 Gallup Daily tracking At the time of Gallup's initial update on same-sex marriages after the Supreme Court ruling, 9.6% of LGBT Americans said they were married to a same-sex spouse. Since that November update, the percentage is essentially unchanged, at 9.5%. This suggests there was a burst of same-sex marriages in the first few months after the Supreme Court ruling but little additional increase since then. Males who identify as LGBT are more likely than females who identify as LGBT to report being married to a same-sex spouse (10.5% vs. 8.8%, respectively). Gallup tracking documents similar increases since last June in the percentage of both groups who are in a same-sex marriage. A year ago, 8.7% of LGBT men and 7.2% of LGBT women said they were married to a same-sex spouse. Implications Gallup's data indicate a clear increase in same-sex marriages in the U.S. since the Supreme Court granted those unions legal status nationwide. Now, roughly half of all cohabiting same-sex couples are married, up from 38% a year ago. Gallup estimates that approximately 123,000 same-sex marriages have taken place since the Obergefell v. Hodges decision, with increases apparent among those living in states where same-sex marriage was already legal as well as those where it was not. More recent data collected since Gallup's initial update on same-sex marriages in November show the growth in same-sex marriages may be leveling off. The Obergefell v. Hodges ruling appears to have provided the impetus for an initial surge in same-sex marriages, but that surge only lasted a short while. Going forward, as the nation moves further away in time from that June 2015 decision, increases in the same-sex marriage rate may be more evident in the long term rather than in the short term. This is especially likely given that the U.S. LGBT population is decidedly young, and many who one day want to marry a same-sex spouse are not currently at a point in their lives when they are likely to seriously consider marriage. These data are available in Gallup Analytics. Survey Methods Results for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews with a random sample of U.S. adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, on the Gallup U.S. Daily survey. Sample sizes and margins of error are shown in the accompanying table: Margin of Error Sample Sample size Margin of error % Pre-Obergefell v. Hodges decision (Jan. 28-June 26, 2015) National adults 148,457 +/-1 LGBT 4,752 +/-2 Non-LGBT 135,643 +/-1 Post-Obergefell v. Hodges decision (June 27, 2015-June 19, 2016) National adults 351,880 +/-1 LGBT 11,588 +/-1 Non-LGBT 322,321 +/-1 Gallup Daily tracking All reported margins of sampling error include computed design effects for weighting. Each sample of national adults includes a minimum quota of 60% cellphone respondents and 40% landline respondents, with additional minimum quotas by time zone within region. Landline and cellular telephone numbers are selected using random-digit-dial methods. Learn more about how Gallup Daily tracking works. 'Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2' Gameplay, News & Update: New Features Revealed! "Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2" is undoubtedly one of the most anticipated games to be released this year. Because of that, Dragon Ball fans are trying to get every inch of hint and detail about the much-awaited game and finally the "Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2" developer has revealed some new features! 'Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2' News & Update: New features revealed Although "Dragon Ball Xenoverse" was already and still a fan favorite, Developer Dimps is trying to bring some new elements to "Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2" to enhance gamers' experience, Game Spot reports. "Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2" will bring a new avatar customization system. After picking a character, the gamers will then go to a location exclusively created to the race they chose. The "Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2" city will accommodate more players this time around. "Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2" will have the capacity for 300 players simultaneously. "Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2" gamers will be able to fly around the new hub city. "Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2" will also feature a hovering device that will let players move from one point of the city to another. New combat skills will be available in "Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2," bringing curved Ki blasts to the mix. READ: 'Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2' E3 2016 News & Update: Everything We Know So Far Including Release Date! Christian Today reports that "Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2" has already been confirmed for a Winter release in Japan and it is only going to be the PS4 version, as previously pointed out by Famitsu. Although there was no confirmation on the release date for the U.S. and U.K. for now, but if you're a die-hard Dragon Ball fan and you know how they work, you'd be expecting "Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2" to come out this Winter 2016 as well. "Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2" will be available on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC Theo James Vs Tom Hiddleston: Which Actor Is The Better James Bond Material? There is no question that both Theo James and Tome Hiddleston could play the James Bond Role quite capably. But since there could never be two James Bonds at the same time, one needs to weigh their strengths and weakness to assess who is the best fit. Since Daniel Craig's rather surprising departure from the James Bond franchise, speculations have been unceasing about who is most likely to replace him. Among the numerous actors whose names have been put forward as possible James Bond candidate, two names seemed to top the list - Theo James and Tom Hiddleston. Acting Experience Fit For James Bond Both Theo James and Tom Hiddleston are experienced and exceptional actors. Theo James is well-known for his Divergent series role as well as "Bedlam," "Underworld: Awakening and" "Downtown Abbey." On the other hand, Tom Hiddleston also has well-established acting credentials. He appeared as Loki in several Marvel movies such as "Thor" and "The Avenger." However, Tom Hiddleston fans argued that Tom is the better choice because of his role in "The Night Manager." In this BBC hit series, Tom Hiddleston plays a British spy that is similar to the James Bond role - articulate, charming but deadly, according to The Guardian. Who is Perfectly Aged to Play the James Bond Role? Officially, there has never been an age requirement for actors to play James Bond. Yet, among fans, there seems to be this consensus that a proper James Bond actor should be somewhat middle-aged - Think about Pierce Brosnan or Roger Moore. So between Theo James and Tom Hiddleston, who is the actor better suited to play the James Bond role in terms of age? Born in Dec. 16, 1984, Theo James is 31 years old. The age is not too young but many people would probably say that for the James Bond role, it's almost but not quite there yet. Of course, it does not help that moviegoers usually see Theo James playing roles much younger than his actual age. Because of this, people would usually say that he is too young to play James Bond yet, especially those who are unaware that he is already 31. Tom Hiddleston was born on Feb. 9, 1981, which makes him 35 years old. James Bond fans would surely say he is just the right age to play the iconic British spy, especially since he had already played as a British spy in television. Tom Hiddleston certainly projects that matured air fitting of 007. But How Is It Really Decided In The End? Actually, fans could argue all they want but according to former James Bond director Sam Mendes, choosing who's going to play 007 is not a democracy, as reported by Belfast Telegraph. The privilege is reserved to one woman alone, Barbara Broccoli, the franchise's producer. Since it is unlikely that Brocolli will bend to public opinion, only she can decide whether it's Tom Hiddleston or Theo James or even anyone else is fitting for the James Bond role. Shamsadiin Aden, a four-month-old triplet born with his brothers in the U.S., is shown June 8 in his Springfield home. After living in an Ethiopian refugee camp for 25 years, his Somali family recently resettled in Springfield. SARAH CROSBY/Daily Hampshire Gazette Nimo Aden, 4, feeds her four-month-old brother Muhyadiin Aden, left, while his triplet brother Nuradiin Aden, right, is fed by mother Asha Muhumed June 8 in their Springfield home. After living in an Ethiopian refugee camp for 25 years, the Somali family recently resettled in Springfield, where the triplets were born. SARAH CROSBY/Daily Hampshire Gazette Four-month-old triplet Shamsadiin Aden, front, is shown with his sister Nimo Aden, 4, at left, his brother Muhyadiin Aden, back center, and his mother Asha Muhumed in their Springfield home on June 8. After living in an Ethiopian refugee camp for 25 years, the Somali family recently resettled in Springfield, where the triplets were born. SARAH CROSBY/Daily Hampshire Gazette Four-month-old triplets Muhyadiin Aden, front left, Shamsadiin Aden, front center, and Nuradiin Aden, right, are held by mother Asha Muhumed, second from left at back, father Hussein Ali, back center, and uncle Khadar Muhumed in their Springfield home on June 8. Their sister Nimo Aden, 4, is shown at left. After living in an Ethiopian refugee camp for 25 years, the Somali family recently resettled in Springfield, where the triplets were born. SARAH CROSBY/Daily Hampshire Gazette Four-month-old triplets Nuradiin Aden, left, Muhyadiin Aden, center, and Shamsadiin Aden, right, are shown with mother Asha Muhumed, sister Nimo Aden, 4, and father Hussein Ali in their Springfield home on June 8. After living in an Ethiopian refugee camp for 25 years, the Somali family recently resettled in Springfield, where the triplets were born. SARAH CROSBY Muhyadiin Aden, a four-month-old triplet born with his brothers in the U.S., is shown June 8 in his Springfield home. After living in an Ethiopian refugee camp for 25 years, his Somali family recently resettled in Springfield. SARAH CROSBY/Daily Hampshire Gazette Four-month-old triplets Nuradiin Aden, left, Muhyadiin Aden, center, and Shamsadiin Aden, front, are held by their mother Asha Muhumed, left, sister Nimo Aden, 4, and father Hussein Ali in their Springfield home on June 8. After living in an Ethiopian refugee camp for 25 years, the Somali family recently resettled in Springfield, where the triplets were born. SARAH CROSBY/Daily Hampshire Gazette Four-month-old triplet Shamsadiin Aden, front, is shown with his brother Muhyadiin Aden, back center, his mother Asha Muhumed, and his sister Nimo Aden, 4, in their Springfield home on June 8. After living in an Ethiopian refugee camp for 25 years, the Somali family recently resettled in Springfield, where the triplets were born. SARAH CROSBY/Daily Hampshire Gazette Four-month-old triplets Muhyadiin Aden, left, Shamsadiin Aden and Nuradiin Aden are posed for a portrait June 8 at their familys Springfield home. After living in an Ethiopian refugee camp for 25 years, their Somali family recently resettled in Springfield, where the triplets were born. SARAH CROSBY Four-month-old triplets Nuradiin Aden, left, Muhyadiin Aden, center, and Shamsadiin Aden, front, are fed by their mother Asha Muhumed, left, sister Nimo Aden, 4, and father Hussein Ali in their Springfield home on June 8. After living in an Ethiopian refugee camp for 25 years, the Somali family recently resettled in Springfield, where the triplets were born. SARAH CROSBY/Daily Hampshire Gazette SPRINGFIELD When the refugee family of 11 learned that triplets were on the way, they expected their family to grow by three. What they didnt anticipate was gaining a sisterhood of young American mothers across the upper Pioneer Valley. Asha Muhumed and Hussein Ali were living in a refugee camp in Ethiopia when they received the news that Muhumed was pregnant. Twins, the Somali parents were told. But with nine children and meager resources, the young couple was afraid. In the camp, the first thing that comes to mind after waking up is what to feed them, said Muhumed, speaking in Somali through caseworker Nasra Ali of Jewish Family Service of Western Massachusetts, who translated their words to English. We were scared and worried about how to take care of them, the parents agreed. Muhumed and Ali fled their birth country 25 years ago because of ongoing civil war in Somalia. Basic food and shelter were scarce, they said, while healthcare and education were not an option because they couldnt afford them. The second priority, said Muhumed, was finding random jobs each day to keep that slim food supply coming. In September of 2015, Jewish Family Service of Western Massachusetts (JFS) resettled the family in Springfield. The Springfield-based organization which has additional offices in Northampton and Pittsfield, offers social services grounded in Jewish values including refugee resettlement, general counseling, elder services and U.S. citizenship services. Maxine Stein, JFS president and CEO, said the organization will resettle at least 235 refugees this year. Five months after arriving with solely the clothes on their backs, the familys world changed yet again as not twins, but surprise triplet boys were born Muhyaddin Aden, Nuradinn Aden and Shamsadiin Aden. Muhumed, a seasoned mother, knew that babies make a significant impact on a familys finances. The one-time payment of $925 per refugee granted by the Department of Homeland Security for resettlement in the United States would quickly disappear as they tried to stock up on essential items for the three newborns. Community effort Deborah Roth-Howe of Leverett, who is the daughter of Holocaust refugees, cut back her work hours in September. After seeing the Syrian refugee crisis all over the news, Roth-Howe looked for a way to get involved and wound up on JFSs doorstep. While she was volunteering there, Stein mentioned the organization was collecting donations for the triplets. She said JFS tries to get as many items donated as possible to protect refugees funding for food and rent, as well as to buy them some time until they start working. Her request was exactly the call-to-action Roth-Howe was looking for. She shared the need with her daughter, Leah Roth-Howe, who posted it to her Amherst area new moms email list serve. No one expected the result that followed. I just remember every day coming home and people would leave things on my porch, said Stein, who offered her Northampton porch as a closer drop-off location. Everything from little brand new socks and stuffed animals to a breast pump and washcloths, she said. Oh my god, it just did not stop. The effort spread like wildfire, providing diapers, wipes, a crib and mattress, new baby clothing, a stroller, a changing table and a baby bathtub, among other items. The drop-offs continued for six to eight weeks, filling up the porch several times. Stein said the minute the refugee family got home from the hospital, all the items were waiting for them. The most striking, Deborah Roth-Howe said, was that the young moms were also just getting their feet under them and are not from a wealthy, affluent community. But, she said, they were so connected with what it was like being a mom, then imagine triplets, then image doing it with nine other children, then imagine doing it in a country where youve recently arrived and dont speak the language. Their hearts just opened, she said. The family has yet to meet their supporters but said they felt as if they had a family in America. To know someone who doesnt know you cares enough to extend their hand to you its something indescribable, said Ali. Were finally not alone. JFS future effort Stein said the occurrence has inspired JFS, which is nearing its 100th anniversary, to create a new moms wish list to drive future donation efforts for refugee mothers who are expecting. This is a family who survived, said Deborah Roth-Howe. I cant even imagine what hardships theyve had on their plates and oh my gosh, the rest of us have it so easy. As for Ali and Muhumed, they said they feel the triplets have a better chance at life here, particularly with safety and education. If they try their best, they can be anyone, Ali said. Everything is possible in this country. June 20 is World Refugee Day, during which the United Nations and other groups around the world bring attention to the plight of refugees as well as celebrate their tenacity, resilience and culture. To mark the event, JFS is offering a film screening of Refugee Kids at the Trinity United Methodist Church, 361 Sumner Ave, Springfield. The 5:30 p.m. screening will be followed by a Q&A session with film editor and Holyoke State Rep. Aaron Vega. The event is free but requires registration at the JFS website. Attendees are welcome to bring donations of school supplies for current and newly arriving refugee children. Sarah Crosby can be reached at scrosby@gazettenet.com. CSULB alum wins gold at the 38th Long Beach Marathon which was his first Lindsey Shirley has perhaps one of the most far-reaching positions at Oregon State University. As associate provost and associate director of the OSU Extension Service, Shirley runs the day-to-day operations of the service and works with outposts in all 36 Oregon counties. She succeeds Deborah Maddy, who retired this year. One of her first orders of business since assuming the position June 1 is to visit all 36 counties. She will start with visits to the Portland metro area, Eastern Oregon and Central Oregon. She doesnt have a sense yet of how long it will take, and it sounds like one of those enterprises that could turn into a bit of an adventure. The extension service is the front door of the university, Shirley said. Its really important for me to spread the word about the benefits of the extension service. We have diverse offerings and programs and ways to communicate that information." Shirley also notes that she has to have a dual focus: understanding the breadth of the service's programs and accomplishing group goals. "I need to be combining information gathering with task-oriented advocacy on things that can be implemented," she said. "I don't want to take my first 100 days just information gathering." When you think OSU Extension Service, 4-H and other agricultural programs wind up top of the mind, but Shirley emphasizes that the service is much more than that and tailors its programs to the needs of people in those 36 counties. Shirley also noted that 4-H has a presence in all Oregon counties. She offered a handout that identified the activities the services is involved in, including energy, poverty, economic development, urban issues and human health. What activities are appropriate? What gets you the outputs and outcomes you want? she said. It could be a change of behavior that could help fight obesity for adults and children. We need to look at the people in each county. What are the needs for this region? Thats why the visits are so critical. Although Shirley knows that some spots on the Extension Service map are much more conveniently reached by air, you could also see it as a road trip, a way to see all the dots and whats between the dots. Shirley came to OSU from Utah State University, where she initiated a bachelors program in outdoor product design. There are more than 1,000 companies in Utah that are involved in outdoor products, she said, and no career path. We worked on everything from materials to manufacturing, snowboard gear and apparel. Shirley grew up in Iowa, with two of her degrees being awarded from Iowa State University in her hometown of Ames. The strong extension programs and agricultural resources in the state definitely influenced her life path, she said. And the life path of her family as well. Her parents have moved from Iowa to Portland, and her brother also left Iowa and is now working for the University of Oregon. Shirley previously had only brief experience traveling through Oregon but she felt Oregon was a great place to live and work and this position gets me connected with people in Oregon. We continue to be pioneers. Im a parent of two kids here in Corvallis: One who is graduating from high school this week and another starting high school this fall. I feel lucky that both have been highly successful in the public school system here and want to assure that all kids are just as successful. Two of the most important objectives of our high schools are ensuring every student graduates and preparing every student to take advantage of the myriad of options available after graduation. In Corvallis weve made great strides with graduation in just a few years. Our on-time graduation rate has climbed from 67.5 percent in 2012 to 86 percent in 2015. Superintendent Erin Prince, at a recent public meeting, credited a culture change that has high school staff focused on making an intervention when a student starts to veer off track. While we have had success increasing our high school rates here in Corvallis, the same cannot be said statewide. Oregons graduation rate is among the four or five worst in the nation. Im dismayed by the fact that 1 out of 4 freshmen dont make it to graduation more than 10,000 students each year roughly. Its scary to think of the future they face without a high school diploma. In addition, even with a diploma, too many graduates dont have the skills to succeed in the real world. Three-quarters of our community college freshmen must take remedial courses that dont count as credits toward their certificate or degree. Without a strong base of skills, it will be tough for local tech employers, like Hewlett-Packard and others, to find the workforce they need. We know how to solve this problem a rich array of vocational education that gives high school students the hands-on skills to succeed in the workforce; opportunities to take college-level courses that prepare students for college level standards; and dropout prevention programs that refuse to let any student fall behind. Most of our schools arent able to do the level of interventions that we do here to keep kids from dropping out and succeeding in high school. The best way to solve a chronic problem like our state high school graduation rate is to make solving it a statewide priority. Thats exactly what Initiative Petition 65 would do prioritize the evidence-based, proven solutions that will boost graduation rates and help students succeed in their academic and career pursuits. IP65 provides districts with an average of $800 per student to spend on things that we know make a difference for students career technical education, college prep education and dropout prevention. Districts get to decide how to spend those dollars and must be transparent in reporting how they spend taxpayer dollars and the results they are getting for our students. By providing funding for schools to introduce or expand their career technical education/vocational education offerings, we open doors for students to learn practical skills computer coding, construction, manufacturing, accounting, nursing and more that make their academic education come alive and teach the skills that area employers need in their workforce. From what Ive seen with my own two daughters and their friends, high school can be a time of tremendous opportunity and growth that leads to graduation and a world of possibilities beyond. We need to give all of our students a fair shot at achieving that vision. Please vote "yes" on Initiative Petition 65 this November. Welcome to my genealogy blog. Genea-Musings features genealogy research tips and techniques, genealogy news items and commentary, genealogy humor, San Diego genealogy society news, family history research and some family history stories from the keyboard of Randy Seaver (of Chula Vista CA), who thinks that Genealogy Research Is really FUN! Copyright (c) Randall J. Seaver, 2006-2021. Opening celebration : International Rotary Club is official Bonn It was a truly a global affair as members of Bonns first International Rotary Club gathered for the official opening celebration on the weekend. Teilen Teilen Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Tweeten Tweeten Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Drucken On Saturday, a celebration was held at the University Club to commemorate Bonns International Rotary Club becoming an official member of Rotary International. District Governor Jorg Dienenthal and Mayor Reinhard Limbach handed over the official Rotary membership certificate to initiator and founding president Monika Horig. She was a member of the Rheinbach Rotary Club for ten years but worked for several years to found an International Rotary Club. It made sense to create a Rotary Club in the UN host city of Bonn which would reflect the wide spectrum of Bonns internationalism, said Horig, who is the spokesperson for the City of Bonn in her daytime job. English is the language spoken at the club. Currently, there are 26 members from 14 countries and five continents. It took around three years for the idea of the club to come to fruition. Horig said she campaigned and searched around to find like-minded people to get it going. I like to bring people together, she explained and recalled a conversation in Bonn with Richard Dictus, the head of United Nations Volunteers (UNV), and then UN General Secretary Ban Ki Moon. Dictus told her that UN employees wished for more contact with Bonn residents. Horig took that thought with her and visited all ten Rotary Clubs in Bonn to try and win support for an international club. As spokesperson for the City, Horig also used her contacts with press speakers of DAX companies, UN institutions and universities, finding open ears and doors. It was especially Dictus who helped her in finding potential members for the new club. She is pleased that the average age of members is 44-years-old. Our youngest member is 30, she notes. From doctors to consultants, scientists to engineers, museum curator or communications expert, many different occupations are represented within the group as called for by Rotary. Plans for various projects are currently being developed. We will start modestly, says Horig, we want to begin by engaging in Ausbildung statt Abschiebung (Education instead of Deportation), an association which helps young refugees prepare for school, studying and career. Article Protecting the worlds oceans an important goal of Germanys climate diplomacy The worlds oceans are vital to our survival. They regulate the global climate and are a source of food and income for billions of people. Only a very small part of the seas enjoys legal protection, however. Our diplomats are working in New York right now to change this state of affairs. Pressure Puts ISIL on Its Heels, Pentagon Spokesman Says By Lisa Ferdinando DoD News, Defense Media Activity WASHINGTON, June 21, 2016 Coalition and local forces in Iraq and Syria are making significant progress in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, the Pentagon's press secretary told reporters today. "The counter-ISIL coalition continues to pressure ISIL on multiple fronts in Iraq and Syria as local forces continue to put ISIL on its heels," Peter Cook said. Progress in Fallujah Iraqi security forces, led by the Iraqi Counterterrorism Service, are advancing in Fallujah at a rate of about 5 to 10 percent of the city per day, he said. The forces have cleared about a third of the city, and are careful to safeguard the lives of civilians and limit property damage to the extent possible, Cook said. The coalition continues to provide daily air support in the fight for the city, Cook said. There have been 85 strikes over the last four weeks, including four over the last 24 hours, he added. Progress Elsewhere in Iraq, 'Significant' Air Support In northern Iraq, Iraqi forces are making progress as they push toward Qayyarah from multiple axes, Cook said. Iraqi forces moving north from Beiji advanced another six kilometers today, overcoming ISIL defenses along the way, he said. "Meanwhile, Iraqi forces moving from the east also continue their push," the press secretary said. "We are, again, providing significant coalition air support for these efforts as well." 'Tightening the Noose' in Syria "In Syria, the Arab-led forces fighting to take back Manbij City are tightening the noose around this critical crossroad between Raqqa and the Turkish border," Cook said. Those forces have faced ISIL resistance inside the city and along the southern edge, he said, adding "they expect ISIL to hunker down for a tough fight in the city itself." The Syrian Democratic Forces are clearing territory, which is an important development, Cook said. The SDF is gaining new insight into ISIL's operations in the area, including the flow of foreign fighters, he said. "We believe that this will be helpful as we work to stem the foreign fighter flow and the risk that ISIL poses outside of Syria and Iraq," he said. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address U.S. Department of Defense Press Operations News Release No. NR-230-16 June 21, 2016 Readout of Deputy Secretary Work's Meeting with Dutch Minister of Defense Secretary-General Geerts Deputy Secretary of Defense Spokesperson Lt. Cmdr. Courtney Hillson provided the following readout: Deputy Secretary of Defense Bob Work met with Dutch Minister of Defense Secretary-General Wim Geerts at the Pentagon today. They discussed the strength of the U.S.-Dutch defense relationship; security environment in Europe and the Middle East; and comprehensive strategy and capabilities to degrade and destroy the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). They exchanged insights on sustaining robust military capabilities and noted the benefits of defense cooperation for both nations. The deputy secretary thanked Geerts for the Netherlands' progress toward meeting the NATO target of two percent GDP spending on defense and for the Dutch contribution to joint NATO deterrence efforts. Work and Geerts agreed to continue an in-depth dialogue on defense issues. http://www.defense.gov/News/News-Releases/News-Release-View/Article/808727/ NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address USNS Lewis B. Puller: The Future of Expeditionary Minehunting Navy News Service Story Number: NNS160621-08 Release Date: 6/21/2016 2:43:00 PM By Bill Mesta, Military Sealift Command Public Affairs ATLANTIC OCEAN (NNS) -- The Navy's first expeditionary mobile base, USNS Lewis B. Puller (T-ESB 3) got underway from Naval Station Norfolk to perform airborne countermine deployment training, June 13-16. Puller's hybrid crew of U.S. Navy Sailors and civil service mariners (CIVMARs) worked in concert with Sailors attached to the "Blackhawks" of Helicopter Mine Countermeasures Squadron (HM) 15 to hone mine elimination capabilities. "This underway was the first opportunity to merge the Puller's full mission deck which included small boat operations, countermine sled launches and flight operations," said Lt. Cmdr. Matthew Muehlbauer, Puller's military crew officer-in-charge. "The underway was our first opportunity to simultaneously launch aircraft, small boats and anti-mine sleds." "We got underway to train in preparation for a future Initial Operational Test and Evaluation," said Bryan Stoots, Puller's chief mate. "We performed a mock Airborne Mine Countermeasures (AMCM) mission, which included deployment of countermine assets from the ship's AMCM inventory." The training battery during the four-day underway consisted of deploying and recovering two types of mine countermeasures from the deck of Puller. One mine countermeasure deployed was a Mark 105 magnetic sled, which creates a magnetic field to destroy mines as it is towed behind a helicopter. The second type of countermeasure system used during the training battery was the Magnetic Orange Pipe (MOP). This system is a shallow-water mine countermeasure which also uses magnetism to negate mine threats. The deployment of each countermeasure was broken down into multiple phases. Puller's deck department Sailors and CIVMARs first launched three rigid-hull inflatable boats (RHIBs), manned by HM-15 Sailors. These boats were used to guide and maneuver the magnetic sled and MOP. The countermeasure devices were moved into position for towing. The sled was attached to one of HM-15's MH-53 Sea Dragon helicopters and towed through simulated mine target area. "Prior to this underway, we developed these capabilities independently," said Muehlbauer. "We tested and qualified the crew to handle small boats and crafts. On the flight deck, we qualified the crew to launch and recover different types of aircraft." After the designated target area was cleared, the mine countermeasures and the RHIBs were brought back aboard Puller. "The Puller is designed to support anti-mine countermeasure mission sets," said Muehlbauer. "We are able to embark up to four MH-53 helicopters capable of towing different types of countermine equipment, such as different types of minehunting sleds or mine-finding sonars through the water." "To support these anti-mine operations we are able to launch and recover small boats and different mine neutralization assets," added Muehlbauer. "This platform can be adapted very quickly to deploy the mine countermeasure assets required based on a particular situation." Stoots explained his role as chief mate and the CIVMARs' responsibilities during Puller's underway. "The chief mate is similar to an executive officer on a Navy combatant ship," said Stoots. "The position includes being the deck department head, [ensuring] safe navigation of the ship and leadership in the deck department. As the chief mate, I was responsible for the safety on deck and supervised the entire operation on deck in regards to launching rigid-hull inflatable boats, the mine countermeasure sled and Magnetic Orange Pole. While Puller's crew was busy with mine countermeasure training evolutions, there were many critical tasks being performed behind the scenes by Puller's CIVMARs. "The main function of the deck department is navigation of the ship," said Stoots. "At all times while we are underway, there is a licensed mate on the bridge. We have a helmsman, lookout, and rover on duty. The helmsman steers the ship and takes direction from the mate. The rover keeps the ship safe and ensures there are no fires, flooding, or injured personnel." "The lookout is maintaining a proper lookout," continued Stoots. "Other aspects of the deck department include having the boatswain on scene and they manage the deck responsibilities such as operating the cranes, winches, and supervise the movement of cargo and equipment. There were approximately 40 CIVMARs aboard during the underway. "I felt like the mine countermeasure training evolution was very successful," said Stoots. "We were uncertain about certain elements of the evolution. This was the first time these types of mine countermeasures were deployed from a ship's deck while using a ship's crane to deploy the equipment instead of a ship's well deck, which is the norm. There was a lot of anticipation to see how the deployment of this equipment would work from Puller and I felt like it went very well." "The Puller has 100 Sailors in its crew," said Muehlbauer. "The military crew is in charge of the aviation department, mission deck operations, launch and recovery of small boats and any other deployed mission assets, [and] ship's force protection. The Sailors also manage C4I (command, control, communications, computers and intelligence), and are capable of providing galley services for approximately 250 military personnel." "The Puller's military crew supports the CIVMARs in the deck department with tasks such as line handling, logistic tasks include crane operations, and moving material on and off the ship," added Muehlbauer. "The military crew is made up of four officers and nine chief petty officers. The majority of our junior enlisted Sailors are aviation boatswain's mates [equipment, fuel, handling], information [systems] technicians, damage controlmen and aviation [structural] mechanics. To round it out, we have about 30 Sailors who work in the supply department." "This underway was our first big integrated training event and it went very well," said Muehlbauer. "The training from this underway will lead us into our final testing and evaluation period later this year when we will certify the full capabilities of the Puller and crew." Puller's crew is categorized as a hybrid as its members are both active-duty Sailors and CIVMARs. The success of the ship is dependent on a strong working relationship between the two distinctive cultures. "A successful hybrid crew is definitely a team effort; I like to refer to the crew as 'Team Puller,'" said Stoots. "We are one ship and one crew, and work together on every aspect of every evolution. The military crew supports the CIVMARs on deck operation, and likewise we support the military crew on operations such as mine countermeasures." "Early on there were times when we struggled with the crew interactions between the Sailors and CIVMARs," said Muehlbauer. "When the military crew arrived on the Puller, the mariners had already been on board for over a year. So when the military detachment arrived, we were very much the 'new kids on the block.' It took a little while to build trust, credibility, and rapport with the mariners." "The ship's master and I worked together to lay down initial ground rules for the crew, but most of the real 'gelling' for the crew took place on the deck plates," continued Muehlbauer. "The more we placed Sailors and CIVMARs in situations where they had to work together, the better they understand each other's skillsets and how each does business. This was how we really started to build our team spirit. We put the right people in the right place and it worked very well for us. The formation of a successful hybrid crew for Puller was not dictated from the top, but was more of a grassroots effort which has proven to be very effective." "Over the course of the last six months, the crew has gotten to the point where the Sailors and CIVMARs are able to predict how each is going to react or think during a variety of situations," said Muehlbauer. "The positive development of our hybrid crew has allowed Puller to maintain its very strict timeline and will ensure we are ready to deploy next year. I believe the Puller brings great capabilities to the Navy. This platform allows the Navy to sustain an expeditionary presence longer and will free up combatant ships to undertake missions which they are better suited for." The future for Puller includes testing and evaluation. The vessel is also going to spend some time in the shipyard for upgrades and modifications prior to being permanently deployed to the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility in 2017. "The Puller is going to receive an upgrade which will enable special operations forces (SOF) to utilize the ship for operations," concluded Muehlbauer. "The Puller will be able to support maritime interdictions, operations potentially in-country, and different adaptive military packages to perform different types of SOF contingencies throughout the world." In addition to countermine training evolutions, Puller's crew performed vertical replenishment training with the Afloat Training Group, practiced flight deck firefighting techniques, and trained to counter the threat of a small boat attack. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Outbreak of Violence in the Central African Republic Press Statement John Kirby Assistant Secretary and Department Spokesperson, Bureau of Public Affairs Washington, DC June 21, 2016 The United States is deeply concerned by a recent increase in violence in the Central African Republic. We underscore the fundamental need for all actors to work together to promote peace and prosperity in a country that has suffered for far too long from instability and conflict. We support the efforts of the Government of the Central African Republic and the international community to restore order and protect civilians. In addition, we strongly condemn the targeted attacks against humanitarian actors whose sole purpose in the Central African Republic is to provide lifesaving support to the population. The United States remains a committed partner to the Government of the Central African Republic, the UN mission MINUSCA, and most importantly, the Central African people in efforts to bring the country out of these cycles of conflict. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Nominee to Head US Military in Africa Warns of IS Focus on Libya by Carla Babb June 21, 2016 Islamic State militants are "very likely" to set their sights on ungoverned spaces in Africa if they are defeated in Iraq and Syria, according to the general nominated to lead the U.S. military's Africa Command. "That's why instability inside Africa is to ISIL's advantage," U.S. Lt. Gen. Thomas Waldhauser told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday. ISIL is an an acronym for Islamic State. Some studies estimate that 1 in 4 people will live in Africa by 2050, and Waldhauser warned the "scale and the scope of some of the issues that we see today certainly could be magnified significantly." "The seeds of a catastrophe are in place in terms of corruption, lack of economic growth, all of those kinds of elements," Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) said during the hearing. Islamic State already has influenced fighters to pledge allegiance to them in Libya and West Africa. Libya as a 'backup' Waldhauser said IS has focused on Sirte, Libya as a "kind of backup" if it fails elsewhere. But despite the large presence of IS there, the general said the U.S. is not currently flying any sorties over Libya, which both the general and committee member Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) agreed "makes no sense." "There are targets that are being developed but there have not been flights flown," Waldhauser said. The U.S. military has a small number of troops in Libya and has carried out strikes against Islamic State leaders and fighters in the past. Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook told reporters at the Pentagon Tuesday the U.S. is prepared to strike in Libya again in the future, but the "ideal situation" would be for the U.S. military not to get further involved. "If they [Libyans] are able to deal with this issue on their own, that would certainly be a good thing, and would be a factor going forward for us as to whether or not we need to carry out military action," Cook said. West Africa Islamic State accepted the allegiance of Boko Haram, the Islamist extremist group based in northeastern Nigeria, about a year ago. However, Waldhauser said several months ago that about half of the Boko Haram members broke off and formed a separate group that is even more aligned with Islamic State beliefs. "They were not happy with the amount of buy-in from Boko Haram into the ISIL brand," he said. The general warned that while the leader of Boko Haram has not shown significant interest in attacking Western targets, this new splinter group could. "That would concern me," he said. Waldhauser said Africa Command needs more intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) to monitor the militants in Libya and West Africa, calling the lack of adequate ISR "one of the shortcomings" that needs to be addressed inside the combatant command. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Bemba Supporters Reject ICC Verdict by William Clowes June 21, 2016 The International Criminal Court in The Hague sentenced former Congolese vice president Jean-Pierre Bemba to 18 years in prison for the murder, rape and pillaging committed by his troops in Central African Republic more than a decade ago. For victims and rights campaigners, Bemba's sentencing is cause for celebration. Not so at his party headquarters in Kinshasa. Approximately 200 dispirited supporters watched a YouTube broadcast on a projector as the ICC handed down its ruling. Bemba's supporters said the ruling is a miscarriage of justice. Following expressions of party solidarity from the crowd, Eve Bazaiba the secretary general of Bemba's Movement for the Liberation of Congo, or MLC took the microphone to denounce what she called the ICC's unfair targeting of Africans. The MLC grew out of the rebel army that Bemba commanded during the DRC civil war. Bemba was not convicted for any abuses in his home country. Between October 2002 and March 2003, Bemba sent his troops into neighboring Central African Republic to put down a coup attempt for that country's president. In its verdict delivered in March, the ICC found Bemba responsible for abuses committed by his troops during that campaign in the Central African Republic. It was a historic ruling on the principle of command responsibility, but one that has been poorly understood by Bemba's supporters, who say their beloved leader was rarely present in the Central African Republic during the five months in question. MLC activists claim Bemba was targeted by the court to remove him as a rival to President Joseph Kabila. Bemba served as vice president from 2003 to 2006. He finished second in the 2006 presidential elections against Kabila, winning 42 percent of the vote. The MLC has remained a leading opposition party. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Two California Men Convicted of Conspiring to Join ISIL FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Tuesday, June 21, 2016 A federal jury today convicted two Orange County, California, men one of whom attempted to travel to the Middle East to join the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a designated foreign terrorist organization of conspiring to provide material support to ISIL. The verdict was announced by Assistant Attorney General for National Security John P. Carlin, U.S. Attorney Eileen M. Decker of the Central District of California and Assistant Director in Charge Deirdre Fike of the FBI's Los Angeles Field Office. Nader Elhuzayel, 25, and Muhanad Badawi, 25, both of Anaheim, California, were convicted today in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California following a two-week trial. Elhuzayel was found guilty of attempting to provide material support and Badawi was found guilty of aiding and abetting the attempt to provide material support to ISIL. "Foreign terrorist fighters have traveled from countries around the world to join ISIL and are responsible for some of the most despicable acts of violence committed by the terrorist organization," said Assistant Attorney General Carlin. "ISIL depends on these travelers as a significant part of its fighting force. Stopping Americans from engaging in terrorist activity on behalf of ISIL here or abroad will remain one of the highest priorities of the National Security Division." "These two defendants betrayed their country and sought to join ISIL, a terrorist organization dedicated to brutally murdering innocent people," said U.S. Attorney Decker. "The FBI and the Orange County Joint Terrorism Task Force did outstanding work in investigating and apprehending these men before their plans could be completed. The fine work of law enforcement undoubtedly saved lives, both in the United States and abroad." "These convictions are a message to those who aim to travel to take up arms with ISIL and to those who support them the FBI and our partners are determined to thwart your efforts," said Assistant Director in Charge Fike. "The JTTF's proactive identification of these subjects and disruption of a terrorist conspiracy is a coup in the fight against the scourge of ISIL. At trial, the jury heard evidence that Mr. Badawi also encouraged other associates to support ISIL and participate in violent jihad. This is a reminder that our work is not done and the public must remain steadfast and report suspicious behavior, whether that behavior is carried out in person or online." In addition to the terrorism-related counts, Elhuzayel was found guilty of 26 counts of bank fraud and Badawi was found guilty of one count of federal financial aid fraud. Both men were arrested on May 21, 2015, when Elhuzayel attempted to board a plane at Los Angeles International Airport to travel to Turkey to join ISIL. Badawi had purchased for Elhuzayel a one-way ticket to Israel with a layover in Istanbul. Badawi and Elhuzayel used social media to discuss ISIL and terrorist attacks, expressed a desire to die as martyrs and made arrangements for Elhuzayel to leave the United States to join ISIL. In recorded conversations, Badawi and Elhuzayel discussed "how it would be a blessing to fight for the cause of Allah, and to die in the battlefield." The evidence at trial also showed that Badawi had a Facebook account, on which he made posts that supported ISIL and violence aimed at non-Muslims, and he said he intended to join the terrorist organization. Elhuzayel also had a Facebook account and used the ISIL flag as his profile picture. According to court documents, on Oct. 21, 2014, Badawi made a video of Elhuzayel in which Elhuzayel swore allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIL, and pledged to travel to Syria to be an ISIL fighter. Elhuzayel was convicted of obtaining cash through a scheme to defraud three different banks by depositing stolen checks into his personal checking accounts and then withdrawing cash at branch offices and ATMs in Orange County. The money generated from the bank fraud was to finance his travel to Syria to join ISIL. Badawi was convicted of using his federal financial aid to purchase a plane ticket for Elhuzayel to travel to Turkey. U.S. District Judge David O. Carter of the Central District of California scheduled Elhuzayel's sentencing hearing for Sept. 19, 2016, and Badawi's sentencing hearing for Sept. 26, 2016. At the time of sentencing, Elhuzayel will face a statutory maximum sentence of 30 years in prison on each bank fraud count, Badawi faces a statutory maximum sentence of five years in prison on the financial aid fraud count and both men each face a statutory maximum sentence of 15 years in prison on each material support count. Both men have been held in federal custody without bond since their arrests. The investigation in this case was conducted by the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force in Orange County, which includes the following agencies: the Anaheim Police Department; the California Highway Patrol; the Orange County Sheriff's Department; the Orange County Intelligence Assessment Center; U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations; the U.S. Secret Service; IRS-Criminal Investigation; the City of Orange, California, Police Department; the Irvine, California, Police Department; the Naval Criminal Investigative Service; and the Orange County Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory. The Department of Education's Office of Inspector General provided substantial assistance in the investigation. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Judith A. Heinz, Deirdre Z. Eliot and Julius J. Nam of the Central District of California, with assistance from Trial Attorney Michael Dittoe of the National Security Division's Counterterrorism Section. 16-723 National Security Division (NSD) USAO - California, Central Topic: Counterterrorism NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Indiana Man Arrested on Terrorism Charge FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Tuesday, June 21, 2016 18 Year Old Attempted to Travel Overseas to Join ISIL A Brownsburg, Indiana, man was arrested today for attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a designated foreign terrorist organization. The arrest was announced by Assistant Attorney General for National Security John P. Carlin, U.S. Attorney Josh J. Minkler of the Southern District of Indiana and Special Agent in Charge W. Jay Abbott of the FBI's Indiana Division. Akram Musleh, 18, was arrested by FBI agents while attempting to board a bus from Indianapolis to New York, where he was to fly to and transit through Morocco on his way to ISIL-controlled territory. The criminal complaint alleges that he planned to provide personnel (himself) to ISIL. "According to the complaint, Musleh attempted to travel overseas to join ISIL and to provide material support to the designated terrorist organization," said Assistant Attorney General Carlin. "The National Security Division's highest priority is countering terrorist threats, and we will continue to work to stem the flow of foreign fighters abroad and bring to justice those who attempt to provide material support to designated foreign terrorist organizations." "The radicalization of American citizens by terrorist organizations like ISIL is a threat to our safety here and abroad," said U.S. Attorney Minkler. "I am committed to using the full authority of the United States Attorney's Office to identify, investigate and prosecute those that provide material support to terrorists. I would like to thank the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Brownsburg Police Department for working with us during this investigation. We will continue to work closely with our law enforcement partners but as in this case, we rely heavily on the public's assistance to help make our community safe." "Terrorism is the FBI's number one priority and we work closely with our law enforcement partners to ensure the safety of our community," said Special Agent in Charge Abbott. "This case demonstrates the value of law enforcement collaboration and community engagement." A criminal complaint is only a charge and not evidence of guilt. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven otherwise in federal court. If convicted, Musleh faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, a lifetime of supervised release and a $250,000 fine. This prosecution is being handled by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Bradley Shepard and Doris Pryor of the Southern District of Indiana and Trial Attorneys Paul Casey and Kiersten Korczynski of the National Security Division's Counterterrorism Section. 16-720 National Security Division (NSD) USAO - Indiana, Southern Topic: Counterterrorism NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Seoul: N. Korea Tests 2 Ballistic Missiles, 1 Fails by VOA News June 22, 2016 North Korea on Wednesday fired two ballistic missile from its east coast, U.S. and South Korean military officials said. At least one of the two attempts failed. The twin launches, early Wednesday, were believed to be an intermediate-range Musudan missile, capable of reaching U.S. military bases in Asia and the Pacific. North Korea unsuccessfully test-launched a similar missile three times in April. Another launch, most likely of the Musudan, failed in May. Japan's military was placed on alert for a missile launch, and its navy and anti-missile Patriot batteries were instructed to shoot down any projectile headed for Japan, according to a government source. The missile has a reported range of 3,000 to 4,000 kilometers which, if fired successfully, could reach targets in Japan, China and Guam. U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby again chided Pyongyang ahead of the test. "This is the time for the DPRK to stop the provocations to work toward stability on the peninsula," Kirby said Tuesday. "These kinds of actions, if and when it happens again, do nothing to increase the security on the peninsula and fly in the face of their international obligations." The United Nations Security Council has banned North Korea from developing nuclear and ballistic missile technology. China, the North's key ally, has urged the government of President Kim Jong Un to return to international talks and dismantle its nuclear program for economic assistance and security guarantees. VOA's Steve Herman contributed to this report. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Media Told to Dress Up, Keep Quiet on Myanmar Leader's Thai Visit by Steve Herman June 21, 2016 Journalists attempting to cover this week's three-day visit to Thailand by Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi will find themselves unusually constrained. It is a high profile visit that comes as Myanmar, also known as Burma, transitions from military rule to democracy, while the opposite has occurred in neighboring Thailand. Between 1.4 million and four million citizens of Myanmar work in Thailand, perhaps the majority of them illegally. Reporters are being told they will have no opportunity to question Aung San Suu Kyi, even during a so-called joint news conference in Bangkok with Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, who seized power in a bloodless coup two years ago. Limited access Thailand's Foreign Ministry, in an agenda sent to correspondents, also advised photographers, videographers and reporters covering the Nobel Peace Prize laureate's visit to be formally attired "at all times," including during her scheduled visit Saturday to a border refugee camp reachable via unpaved roads. Most journalists, even if they show up in a tuxedo or ball gown, will not be permitted to see the Myanmar leader at the Tham Hin refugee camp as coverage has been additionally limited to "official media and pool media only." Aung San Suu Kyi's arrival Thursday and Saturday departure at Suvarnabhumi Airport will also be restricted "pool coverage" with only two representatives of the international media allowed to attend. Aung San Suu Kyi's visit with 3,000 Myanmar migrant workers at Thailand's largest seafood market Thursday and a speech the following day at Thailand's Foreign Ministry, are "open to all media," although videographers are complaining about strict security measures forbidding them from carrying backpacks. Who gave orders? Two international video news agencies requested reconsideration of that restriction, noting crews on the move need to carry spare batteries, cables, microphones and other equipment in backpacks. Thai MFA information department second secretary Jatupon Innachit, responding to complaints from the international media, expressed understanding, but said the restrictions are "the instructions we have received" although he declined to say from whom. The new Myanmar government, led by Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, has been criticized for limiting media access since it took power in April, following last year's landslide election victory. Aung San Suu Kyi, who holds the titles of state counselor and foreign minister, was barred from becoming president according to the constitution enacted by the previous military government. President Htin Kyaw, a mostly out-of-sight figurehead, is not accompanying her to Thailand. Lack of transparency Myanmar's information minister, Pe Myint, last week promised reporters they would soon have more access to government ministers and acknowledged a lack of transparency. Reporters in Naypyitaw on Monday were barred from covering a birthday celebration for Aung San Suu Kyi, who has openly demonstrated irritation with the media. She has also been defensive about international media reports that her government is ignoring the plight of the minority Rohingya. In a meeting Monday with U.N. special investigator Yanghee Lee the foreign minister reiterated Myanmar will continue to refrain from using the word "Rohingya," according to Foreign Ministry permanent secretary Aung Lin. Many in Myanmar's dominant Buddhist community regard the Muslim Rohingya as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. Questions about the Rohingya would almost certainly be directed at Aung San Suu Kyi at Friday's scheduled joint news conference with the Thai prime minister, an uncomfortable situation it appears the two neighbors have now found a way to avoid. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Syria Policy Discontent Unlikely to Be Resolved Before Obama Term Ends by Pamela Dockins June 21, 2016 An internal rift over the U.S.- Syria policy could be a headache inherited by the next president, analysts say, because the Obama administration appears unlikely to dramatically alter its current policy. In a memo, 51 State Department diplomats indicated their dissatisfaction with the status quo, saying they back stepped-up military engagement that includes targeted airstrikes against the Syrian regime. Many of those mostly mid-level employees are likely to be around during the next presidency, Atlantic Council Middle East analyst Faysal Itani said. "The next president is going to inherit this internal debate within the State Department that has shifted at least the debate focus of U.S. policy in the run-up to the elections," Itani said. 'Willingness to use' military It is a view shared by Richard Haass, a former State Department policy planning director. "Even if what they [the diplomats] have to say is rejected now, it might be welcomed by the next occupant of the White House especially if it were to be Hillary Clinton, who, as secretary of state, showed considerable willingness to use military force in pursuit of U.S. foreign policy aims," said Haass, in an article for the Council on Foreign Relations. But others say if the next U.S. president listens to public opinion, stepped-up U.S. engagement to foster a political transition in Syria may not be a high priority. "The American population is not seized with the issue of Syria. It is seized with the issue of the Islamic State," said Daniel Serwer, director of conflict management at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Serwer added that neither presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump nor presumptive Democratic nominee Clinton has clearly delineated a course of action for Syria, but both have expressed dissatisfaction with the course of the war and the pace of the fight against Islamic State. The Obama administration admits it has not achieved its goals in Syria, where fighting continues between the government and rebels, and more than 10 million people have been displaced during the country's five-year civil war. Also, a February cease-fire with multinational support has eroded, and U.N.-facilitated talks on a political transition have stalled. White House view But the White House does not appear to believe that stepped-up military engagement would help resolve these snags. "The United States will not be successful, nor will anyone else, in imposing a military solution on the problems inside of Syria, said White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest. The State Department said Tuesday that Secretary of State John Kerry met with about 10 diplomats who signed the cable. "I believe the secretary came away feeling that it was a good discussion and that it was worth having," spokesman John Kirby said. Call for change Syria's crisis has prompted some U.S. allies that also are part of the International Syria Support Group to call for change. "We have supported a more aggressive approach, a more robust approach, including a military approach to Syria," said Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir during a Washington visit last week. The Atlantic Council's Itani said Turkey, Qatar, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates also favor a more robust military response. "The reason that these countries have been hedging their positions, especially sort of more neutral countries like Jordan and UAE, is that they have calculated that the United States is not going to play such a role," he said. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Fraudsters steal up to $40 billion from the industry a year, says Judit Albers of A1 Telekom Austria. She tells Alan Burkitt-Gray about A1s work with the GLF to reduce the cost of crime Estonian English With the ruling of 20 January 2016, the Tallinn Circuit Court terminated criminal proceedings regarding Selver AS and its former employee Tiiu Valk on all charges in criminal case 1-14-3730 due to expiry of the limitation period. The Prosecutors Office submitted an appeal to the Supreme Court of Estonia. On 20 June 2016, the Supreme Court annulled earlier judgement and expressed a view that the Circuit Court erred when considered the alleged crime to be expired due to limitation period. The Supreme Court referred the case back to the Circuit Court for a full review of all the circumstances and evidence by a different panel of judges. During the entire proceeding, Selver AS has deemed the charge of the Prosecutors Office to be unfounded and incomprehensible since Selver AS has never concluded any price agreements with their competitors. Regardless of the fact that the proceeding is continued, Selver AS is convinced that they have not contravened the law. New U.K. Treasury chief Jeremy Hunt has reversed most of an economic package announced by the government just weeks ago, including a planned cut in income taxes. Hunt said Monday he was scrapping almost all the tax cuts announced last month by the Conservative government of Prime Minister Liz Truss, and also signaled that public spending cuts are on the way. It was a bid to soothe turbulent financial markets spooked by fears of excessive government borrowing. The move raises questions about how long the beleaguered prime minister can stay in office, though Truss insisted she has no plans to quit. She vowed to lead the Conservatives into the next general election, but many in the party want her gone. If there was one conclusion business and civic leaders and Virginia Lt. Governor Ralph Northam reached after a brief roundtable discussion Monday at South Boston Town Hall, it was that economic development is not a one-way street like the one that runs through downtown South Boston. Northam, a physician, business owner and native of Virginias Eastern Shore, has declared his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for governor in next years election. The purpose of Northams visit to South Boston was to meet with Mayor Ed Owens, and after a tour of local businesses along Main Street, the lt. governor and mayor joined a group of local civic leaders for the roundtable discussion. He agreed with roundtable participants Owens, Chris Lumsden, Robert Bates, Dennis Witt, Betty Adams, Missy Neff Gould and Matthew Leonard that private-public partnerships and education are two major keys to getting, retaining and expanding business opportunities in areas which are still suffering economically. Northam said the Eastern Shore has challenges similar to South Boston and Halifax County. Halifax County IDA Executive Director Matt Leonard noted people across Southside and Southwest Virginia are still hurting in certain ways. You have to have land, labor and capital in the right amount and prove to whoever is coming you can not only provide those things at the threshold level they require but also be a partner for them for years to come, said Leonard. Thats something we try to explain. For us, success is not just announcing a new company but sitting in the back office 10 or 15 years down the road and saying what else can we do for you. We also need to take care of businesses that are already here and help them grow, said Northam. An Army veteran, Northam and 35 fellow specialists started their own business, an LLC, which now has over 100 sub-specialists and employs over 300 individuals. I have a little bit of experience starting a business and helping a business grow, and how to take good care of employees, added Northam. To wake up and say I want to start a business is one thing, but to carry it out is a daunting task. We put a lot of emphasis in Richmond on education this year and put $1 billion in the budget, Northam continued, with an emphasis on SOL reform and pre-k education. We realize we wont see yields from that for years but feel money spent on that is well spent. Owens and Adams, executive director of the Southern Virginia Higher Education Center, said there already are programs and organizations in place to help attract businesses to the region. The tobacco commission gives some incentives for companies to move here, said Owens, including start-up, research and development, whatever creates jobs and expands the tax base, thats what we are. Adams noted the chambers of commerce throughout the region also do a good job of outreach to existing businesses, but added the state, which recently included over $1 billion for education in its budget, needs to be involved to help the business climate of communities long-term. Outreach from you (Northam) is a big deal when theyre thinking of being here for a long time. Its meaningful for them, and I think the state could play a bigger role. Halifax County Supervisor and former Halifax County Public Schools Superintendent Dennis Witt lauded Northam for the states financial support of education in the upcoming budget, adding its a key element to attracting business. We need to be positive, stay on the same page and get our message out its a good place to live and work, said Witt of Halifax County. All this infrastructure is in place, and I dont know what else to do. Its good you recognize the higher ed center and the need for it in the state budget. We believe it takes someone who understands business to talk to a businessman, Leonard pointed out. We try to operate as a team, and it could be the chamber, could be the IDA, could be the higher ed center, but it depends on who you interact with first. We are a team, and there are a lot of ways to penetrate South Boston and Halifax County as a new business. Northam told the roundtable there are different ways to encourage business development, mentioning reforms in the BPOL tax by basing it on gross receipts rather than net profits and reducing the business tax rate from 6 percent to 5 3/4 percent, the later a measure not passing muster in the most recent General Assembly. With a nod toward The Prizery and in agreement with the roundtable participants, Northam repeated his belief that arts education is also vital and must be part of any plan to attract business to the area. Your digital subscription allows you to view any content, comment on any issue and submit your own news to our newsroom. Digital subscriptions do not include home delivery of the Tracy Press. To receive the paper at home, sign up for Premium Membership. Calgary, Alberta (FSCwire) - Morro Bay Resources Ltd. (Morro Bay or the Company) (TSX-V: MRB; OTCQX: MRRBF) hereby advises, as announced on May 30, 2016, the defaults by Morro Bay alleged by Riverside Resources Inc. ("Riverside") have not been remedied by Morro Bay. As a result, subject to the requirements of the May 25, 2016 Option Amending Agreement between Riverside and Morro Bay (the "Amending Agreement") being met, Morro Bay's interest in the Penoles exploration project will terminate and will be returned to Riverside. The Amending Agreement has been filed on SEDAR by Morro Bay. The Amending Agreement requires Riverside to transfer to Morro Bay or (subject to applicable securities laws) its assigns, 20,108,108 Morro Bay Common Shares currently owned by Riverside. Morro Bay has requested this transfer to its assigns. Pursuant to the Amending Agreement, Morro Bay has the option to return the 0.75% net smelter returns royalty in the Penoles Project (the "Royalty") in exchange for forgiveness of debt. Morro Bay has therefore elected (subject to the satisfaction of other terms of the Amending Agreement) to return the Royalty to Riverside in exchange for forgiveness of the debt allegedly incurred by Riverside on the Penoles Project in the amount of $139,578. John Zang, CEO of Morro Bay, stated "Assuming all of the terms and conditions of the Amending Agreement are met, this will result in Morro Bay having no further interest in the Penoles Project. Morro Bay is currently considering other business opportunities". Morro Bay also announces that effective as of June 15, 2016, Garth Kirkham has resigned from the Morro Bay Board of Directors. John Zang stated "Mr. Kirkham was of significant assistance as a Board member. His knowledge and expertise in resource exploration was invaluable. We thank Mr. Kirkham for all of his assistance to Morro Bay." Morro Bay is currently continuing to locate and analyse other business opportunities both within the mining sector and other business opportunities. About Morro Bay Morro Bay is a junior mineral exploration company based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, focused on the exploration for precious metals in Mexico. Morro Bay's business strategy is to build shareholder value by rapidly advancing the Penoles Project in Mexico through the resource delineation stage. Further Information For further information please contact: Morro Bay Resources Ltd. John C. Zang President and Chief Executive Officer E: jzang@morrobayresources.com T: 403 680 9264 Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Information in this news release may contain forward looking information. Statements containing forward looking information express, as at the date of this news release, the Company's plans, estimates, forecasts, projections, expectations, or beliefs as to future events or results and are believed to be reasonable based on information currently available to the company. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate. Actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The forward-looking information contained in this news release is as of the date hereof and Morro Bay does not undertake any obligation to update publicly or to revise any of the included forward looking statements contained herein, except as required by applicable law. The forward-looking statements contained herein are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, nor shall there be any sale of securities in any state in the United States in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. The securities referred to herein have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from registration requirements. To view this press release as a PDF file, click onto the following link:public://news_release_pdf/morobay06212016.pdfSource: Morro Bay Resources Ltd. (TSX Venture:MRB, OTC Pink:MRRBF) http://www.morrobayresources.com/ Maximum News Dissemination by FSCwire. http://www.fscwire.com Copyright 2016 Filing Services Canada Inc. TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Jun 22, 2016) - Kombat Copper Inc. (TSX VENTURE:KBT) ("Kombat Copper" or the "Company") today announces that it has appointed Stephan Theron as President and CEO of Kombat Copper. Paul Bozoki will return to his role as CFO and Heidi Gerry will resume her role as Corporate Controller. Mr. Theron will also join the board of directors of Kombat Copper (the "Board") replacing Mr. Bozoki. Mr. Theron brings to Kombat Copper 17 years of extensive management, capital project development and M&A experience within the mining industry. Prior to joining Kombat Copper, Mr. Theron was Managing Director at Liberty Metals & Mining, a private equity group based in Boston, Massachusetts. Mr. Theron was also a strategic member on the board of directors of True Gold Mining. Prior to his work in Boston, Stephan was President & CEO at Forbes & Manhattan Coal Corp., based in Toronto. While he worked at Forbes Coal, he led the acquisition, restructuring and development of two coal mines in South Africa. He has structured numerous mining focused investments and has worked on mining projects throughout Africa and North America. Mr. Theron holds two degrees in Finance and is a Certified General Accountant. Justin Reid, Executive Chairman of Kombat Copper commented: "The Board of Kombat Copper is pleased to welcome Stephan as our new President and CEO. Stephan's extensive operational and African-focused experience, coupled with his detailed knowledge of project funding and investing will act to not only strengthen our core group, but position the Company as we advance through our previously announced mid-term initiatives and ultimately move back towards full scale production. We have a lot of work to do, and we believe Stephan is the right person to lead us. The Board would also like to thank Paul Bozoki, who will be returning to his role as CFO. Paul skillfully stepped in as CEO as we worked on our final restructuring plan." Stephan Theron, President and CEO of Kombat Copper, commented: "I am pleased to join Kombat Copper at an important time in the copper price cycle. The Kombat Mine is very well positioned to act as a platform for future growth in Africa and potentially beyond. I'm looking forward to getting started, further enhancing the team's strength and implementing the mine development strategy." In connection with Mr. Theron's appointment, the Company has granted Mr. Theron 1,500,000 stock options in accordance with the Company's stock option plan. The options have an exercise price of $0.05 and will expire five years from the date of grant. The options will vest immediately. The grant of options remains subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange. About Kombat Copper Kombat Copper is a publicly traded Canadian exploration and development company with its core operations focused on copper resources in Namibia, one of the world's most prospective copper regions, where it has substantial assets in place with significant upside. The Company continues to hold an 80% interest in five mining licenses in the Otavi Mountainlands, an area of Namibia particularly known for its high-grade copper deposits. Within these licenses are three past-producing mines including the Company's flagship property, the Kombat Mine. Kombat Copper has contracted EBM Mining Namibia to begin mining lead/copper mineralization at Kombat East, Kombat Central and potentially Gross Otavi within the year. Concentrates will be produced at the Company's production facilities, which are being refurbished by EBM. EBM is also evaluating opportunities to market aggregate stone and sand byproducts locally. Kombat Copper's decision to (i) mine the near surface mineralization on the Kombat East and Kombat Central areas, and (ii) produce any concentrate from such mining and processing is not based on a feasibility study or mineral resource/reserve with demonstrated economic viability. Kombat Copper has decided to put certain areas of the Kombat Mine into production without first establishing mineral resources or mineral reserves, supported by a technical report and/or feasibility study. The Company cautions readers that such production may not be economically feasible and historically such projects have a much higher risk of economic or technical failure. Cautionary Notes Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This news release may contain forward-looking statements. These statements include statements regarding the grant of stock options, the impact of the appointment and resignation of officers and directors of the Company, possible mineralization and deposits, the anticipated timeline regarding future exploration work, availability of results and production, the Company's expectations regarding mineral resources, EBM's ability to commence operations and operate the applicable portions of the Kombat mine, EBM's ability to make the requisite investments, the Company's expectations regarding the production and sales of mineralization from the Kombat Mine and potential development work and the Company's plans for the Kombat Mine including any financial impact and community impact. These statements are based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially because of factors discussed in the management discussion and analysis section of our interim and most recent annual financial statements or other reports and filings with the TSX Venture Exchange and applicable Canadian securities regulations. We do not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required by applicable laws. VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - Jun 22, 2016) - Canterra Minerals Corp. (TSX VENTURE:CTM) ("Canterra" or "the Company") is pleased to announce that it has signed an Option Agreement with Mr. Michael Magrum ("Magrum") to acquire up to a 70% interest in the CL-25 Property (the "Property") located in the South Slave Region of the Northwest Territories ("NT"). The CL-25 Property consists of one claim (1,045.10 hectares) entirely surrounded by Canterra's Gwen Property. The Property contains two diamondiferous kimberlite pipes known as CL-25 and CL-174 discovered by Winspear Diamonds in 1994 and 1995 respectively. Historical data from Assessment Reports indicates that 212 diamonds (9 macros) were recovered from CL-25 and 340 diamonds (11 macros) were recovered from CL-174. Indicators from the adjacent Gwen Property suggest other potential kimberlite sources may be present. The Property is located approximately 260 kilometres ("km") northeast of Yellowknife, NT; approximately 30 km east of the Snap Lake Diamond Mine and 50 km west of the Gahcho Kue deposit being developed by Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. and De Beers Canada. Randy Turner, President and CEO of Canterra, commented, "We are excited to add CL-25 to our portfolio of properties across the South Slave Region. CL-25 will be one of our primary target for exploration over the next year and we look forward to advancing it." Pursuant to the agreement, the Company can acquire a 60% interest in the Property by making a cash payment of $35,000 within 10 days of receiving regulatory approval, the issuance of an aggregate of 400,000 shares (200,000 within 10 days of receiving regulatory approval) and work commitments of $1,000,000 over a three year period. Upon completion of the 60% earn-in, the Company will have the right to exercise a second option for an additional 10% interest by making a cash payment of $100,000, issuing 500,000 shares and incurring further work commitments of $1,000,000 prior to the fifth anniversary. The transaction is subject to approval of the TSX Venture Exchange. After the Company has either earned 60% or if elected, the 70% earn-in, the Company and Magrum will form a joint venture for the purpose of continuing exploration and development of the Property. Upon formation, the joint venture has agreed to pay Magrum a 3% gross overriding royalty (the "GORR") on the appraised value of diamonds resulting from the property. The joint venture will have the right to purchase up to two-thirds of the GORR, exercisable at any time, by paying $1,000,000 for each 1%, for an aggregate purchase price of $2,000,000. Corporate Update: In addition, the Company announces that it is proposing to amend the expiry date of 8,107,143 outstanding warrants (the "Warrants") from July 29, 2016 to July 29, 2017, subject to approval of the TSX Venture Exchange. The Warrants will remain exercisable into common shares at a price of $0.10 per common share. Bruce Kienlen, P.Geol, Senior Geologist for Canterra is the Qualified Person, as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and has reviewed the technical information in this news release. About Canterra: Canterra Minerals is a Canadian resource company specializing in diamond exploration in the Northwest Territories, strategically located between the Snap Lake Diamond Mine and the Gahcho Kue Diamond Project. The Company also maintains a 33% interest in the Buffalo Hills Diamond Project in Alberta where a total of 38 kimberlites have been identified. As leaders of exploration in the junior diamond sector for over 25 years, the Canterra team has been involved in the discovery of two of Canada's four diamond mines, the Snap Lake Diamond Mine in the South Slave and the Ekati Diamond Mine in Lac de Gras. Location maps can be found on the Company's website www.canterraminerals.com. CANTERRA MINERALS CORPORATION Randy Turner, President & CEO The TSX Venture Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of the content of this news release. VANCOUVER, BC--(Marketwired - June 22, 2016) - Zadar Ventures Ltd. (the "Company") (TSX VENTURE: ZAD) (FRANKFURT: ZAV) (OTCQB: ZADDF) is pleased to announce that has filed an Intent to Operate with the State of Nevada to carry out, on-the-ground exploration work consisting of detailed follow up gravity geophysical survey over the WSP Project as well as three (3) diamond drill test holes on both our WSP and CR claim groups in Clayton Valley. The Company has engaged Hasbrook Geophysics, Inc. of Prescott, Arizona to conduct the Gravity surveys. Hasbrouck Geophysics, Inc. has a long history of working in Clayton Valley which gives the Zadar the benefit of their extensive knowledge and experience within this closed basin, lithium brine environment. Inc specific, Hasbrock Geophysics, Inc. has done the geophysical surveys work for Pure Energy in the Clayton Valley as well as many other lithium exploration companies. About the WSP and CR Lithium Projects: The WSP project is located immediately adjacent to the Rockwood/Albamarle claims in North Clayton Valley and covers approximately 425 hectares, including a gravity low anomaly interpreted to represent a basinal low permissive to host brines containing elevated concentrations of lithium. This project's merit is supported by a USGS test hole (Drillhole CV-2) located ~600m from the eastern claim boundary that reported a 55ppm Li maximum content from analyzed water samples. The CR project lies approximately 18 kilometres southeast of Silver Peak, Nevada and covers over 330 hectares of an isolated and un-drilled basin which has the potential to host a similar lithium brine environment by virtue of its proximal location to the possible source of the lithium within the Clayton Valley system. This later project has also been the subject of a suite of initial gravity surveys and shows a basinal feature, which if closed, could host brines with elevated lithium concentrations. Zadar Ventures Ltd. is a Resource Company focused on the acquisition and exploration of economically viable green energy resources in jurisdictions favorable to mining and industry. For more information we invite you to visit the company's website at www.zadarventures.com The Company is looking forward to an active and accretive 2016. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS Paul D. Gray, P. Geo. President Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Service Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This press release may contain certain forward-looking information. All statements included herein, other than statements of historical fact, forward-looking information and such information involves various risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. A description of assumptions used to develop such forward-looking information and a description of risk factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from forward-looking information can be found in the company's disclosure documents on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com. The company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information except in accordance with applicable securities laws. Trading Symbol: TSX-V: ZFR Shares Outstanding: 33,395,961 HALIFAX, June 22, 2016 /CNW/ - Zephyr Minerals Ltd. ("Zephyr" or the "Corporation") (TSX-V: ZFR) is pleased to announce that excellent progress continues to be made on its high grade Dawson Gold project in Colorado, USA. Five of the planned 16 hole diamond drill program have been completed with core for four holes shipped to Bureau Veritas Mineral Laboratories in Vancouver BC for fire assay. Assay results are anticipated in mid July, 2016. The drill program is focused on expanding resources in the Windy Gulch area where high grade gold mineralization occurs at surface. The current inferred resource* at Windy Gulch is 16,000 ounces comprised of 49,000 tonnes at a grade of 10.6 g/t with a cutoff of 5 g/t and a top cutoff of 40 g/t. Uncut the grade is 11.0 g/t. The majority of the drill program is outside the current resource estimate following the zone to the east. Drilling to date supported by the Induced Polarization ("IP") results of the recently completed geophysical program points to gold mineralized body raking to the southeast. The Company is expecting delivery of a report late June early July by Denver-Sonoita based MagmaChem Exploration, Inc. on detailed mapping and geochemical sampling conducted in the Windy Gulch area. Results of this work indicate the gold mineralization at Dawson Gold is related to a low pressure, northeast trending dilatational jog along an east west trending shear zone between two large granites. The deposit type is postulated to be a weakly oxidized peraluminous intrusion related deposit sourced in peraluminous granitic intrusions. Ground geophysical programs comprised of magnetics and IP has just been completed and the Company anticipates having a report in hand by early July 2016. The magnetic survey was successful in outlining the rock types hosting the gold mineralization as a strong magnetic low anomaly. The readily identifiable low magnetic signature will assist in tracking the gold mineralized shear zone in overburden obscured areas. The IP survey successfully demonstrated a strong correlation between chargeability anomalies and gold mineralization. This strong correlation has identified new drill targets both near surface and at depth and may prove to be an important exploration tool in discovering new blind gold deposits at Dawson Gold similar to the Dawson Main Zone which is a blind deposit approximately 130 m (400 ft) below surface. The preliminary proposed process plant design for the project is expected to be completed by the end of the month and will be integrated into the Preliminary Economic Assessment ("PEA") which is tentatively scheduled to be completed by the end of 2016. The preliminary tailings dam design for the project has been commenced and is being undertaken by the engineering firm of Amec Foster Wheeler in Denver, CO. Completion date is expected to be the end of the Q3 2016. Loren Komperdo, President & CEO stated, "We are very pleased with the continued progress at Dawson and look forward to reporting pending drill results as they are received. The high gold grades, favourable metallurgy and excellent location, mitigates many of the risks often associated with developing a new gold mine." *Resource was estimated in conformance with the Canadian Institute of Ming, Metallurgy and Petroleum Standards on Mineral Resources and Reserves Definitions and Guidelines, as referenced in National Instrument 43-101. About Zephyr Minerals Ltd. Zephyr Minerals Ltd. is a gold exploration and development company focused on advancing its flagship high grade Dawson Gold Project in Colorado, USA. Zephyr has commenced engineering and development studies along with additional exploration with a goal of completing a PEA as part of its efforts to advance the Dawson Project with the ultimate goal of production. Mr. Mark Graves who is a P.Geo. registered with the Association of Professional Geoscientists of Nova Scotia (APNS), has prepared the scientific and technical information in this news release. The technical information related to the metallurgical content contained in this press release has been prepared by Mr. H.M. Matt Bolu, Principal Metallurgical Engineer of BOMENCO Inc., and the Company's metallurgical consultant, who is a P.Eng. registered with the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of BC (APEGBC). The technical information related to the geophysical content contained in this press release has been verified and approved by Dean Fraser, P.Geo., a qualified person for the purpose of National Instrument 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral projects of the Canadian securities administrators. The forward-looking statements contained in this document are made as of the date hereof and the Company undertakes no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statements or information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless so required by applicable securities laws. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. SOURCE Zephyr Minerals Ltd. /NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES./ TSX-V: CLZ www.canasil.com VANCOUVER, June 22, 2016 /CNW/ - Canasil Resources Inc. (TSX-V: CLZ, DB Frankfurt: 3CC, "Canasil" or the "Company") announces closing on June 21, 2016, of the first tranche of 1,525,000 units for proceeds of $488,000 in the non-brokered private placement (the "Placement") of total 8,000,000 units (the "Units") at a price of $0.32 per Unit, previously announced on 7th and 20th June 2016. There was no finder's fee paid with respect to this tranche of the Placement. The TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing documentation with respect to this tranche of the Placement and all shares issued are subject to resale restrictions for a period of four months plus one day from the closing date to October 22, 2016. Each Unit consists of one common share of the Company and one-half of one non-transferable share purchase warrant. Each whole warrant (a "Warrant") entitles the purchase of one common share of the Company at a price of $0.50 within two years of closing. If, commencing after the fourth month after closing, the closing price of the Company's shares exceeds $0.80 per share for a period of 20 consecutive trading days (the "Acceleration Trigger Date"), the Company will have the right to accelerate the expiry date of the Warrants to the 20th trading day after the Acceleration Trigger Date by the issuance of a news release announcing such acceleration within three trading days of the Acceleration Trigger Date. The proceeds of the Placement will be used for continuing exploration programs on the Company's mineral exploration projects and for working capital. The balance of the Placement is expected to close by June 29, 2016. About Canasil: Canasil is a Canadian mineral exploration company with a strong portfolio of 100% owned silver-gold-copper-lead-zinc exploration projects in Durango and Zacatecas States, Mexico, and in British Columbia, Canada. The Company's directors and management include industry professionals with a track record of identifying and advancing successful mineral exploration projects through to discovery and further development. The Company is actively engaged in the exploration of its mineral properties, and maintains an operating subsidiary in Durango, Mexico, with full time geological and support staff for its operations in Mexico. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of any of the securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful, including any of the securities in the United States of America. The securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933 (the "1933 Act") or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to, or for account or benefit of, U.S. Persons (as defined in Regulation S under the 1933 Act) unless registered under the 1933 Act and applicable state securities laws, or an exemption from such registration requirements is available. SOURCE Canasil Resources Inc. MONTREAL, QUEBEC--(Marketwired - Jun 22, 2016) - Yorbeau Resources Inc.(TSX:YRB.A) (the "Company" or "Yorbeau") is pleased to announce that it has signed a non-binding letter of intent ("LOI") with Kinross Gold Corp. ("Kinross"), whereby Kinross has the option to acquire a 100% interest in Yorbeau's Rouyn property ("Property") in Quebec, Canada. The LOI outlines mutually acceptable terms for a definitive option agreement under which, subject to certain conditions, Kinross would over a 4-year period make certain exploration expenditures towards an option to purchase a 100% interest in the Property. In order to earn the purchase option, Kinross must complete a resource estimationi for the Property after funding C$12 million dollars of exploration expenditures, including a firm commitment to spend C$3 million in the first 18 months including no less than 12,500 meters of diamond drilling. Kinross will be the operator and project manager of the Property during the option period with Yorbeau to have representation on a Technical Committee which will oversee the work program. Upon completion of the resource estimate, Kinross will have the option to acquire a 100% interest in the Property for a single cash payment consisting of (i) USD $25,000,000, plus (ii) 2% of the prevailing gold priceii multiplied by the number of ounces of gold in measured, indicated and inferred resources identified by Kinrossiii. In addition to the cash payment, Yorbeau will retain a 2% NSR on any gold ounces produced in excess of the number of ounces identified by Kinross in the resource estimate and on any other minerals produced from the Property. The Company is also pleased to announce that Kinross has committed to participate in a $1 million private placement of units in the Company upon signing the definitive option agreement. Company president Gerald Riverin stated: "Company management is highly enthusiastic to partner with Kinross to advance the Rouyn project with the intention of realizing value for all project stakeholders. Signing the letter of intent marks a significant milestone for Yorbeau and the Rouyn project and we are looking forward to working with Kinross to finalize the definitive option agreement and continue work on the project." About Yorbeau Resources Inc. The Company's 100% controlled Rouyn Property contains four known gold deposits in the 6-km-long Augmitto-Astoria corridor situated on the western half of the property. Two of the four deposits, Astoria and Augmitto, have substantial underground infrastructure and have been the focus of NI 43-101 technical reports that include resource estimates. The Company has recently expanded its exploration property portfolio by acquiring strategic base metal properties in prospective areas of the Abitibi Belt of Quebec and Ontario that also feature infrastructure favourable for mining development. The newly acquired base metal properties include Scott Lake which hosts important mineral resources, and Beschefer where, regionally, exploration interest has been increasing. More information on the Company may be found on the Company's website at www.yorbeauresources.com. Forward-looking statements: Except for statement of historical fact, all statements in this news release, without limitation, regarding new projects, acquisitions, future plans and objectives are forward-looking statements which involve risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate; actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. i The resource estimate to be completed according to Kinross' standard estimation and reporting practices subject to detailed technical parameters to be agreed between Kinross and Yorbeau in the definitive option agreement. ii The price of gold for these purposes will be determined by the average London Bullion Market Association "initial" and "final" fixing prices for gold quoted in US dollars over the period of 30 trading days prior to the confirmation by Kinross of its completion of the required expenditures. iii The number of ounces applied to the calculation of the payment to include those classified as measured, indicated or inferred resources (as such terms are defined by the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum in the most recent CIM Definition Standards for Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves). Taxidermy is a feature at Blind Tiger. Photo: Bradley Kanaris Taxidermy animals are part of the eclectic furnishings at Bulimba's cosy new dive bar, Blind Tiger, that takes its design cues from the prohibition era. The name references the nickname given to the illegal drinking dens of the time that were disguised as "natural curiosity halls" where people could buy a ticket to ostensibly view exotic creatures, with the ticket price including a glass of whisky. And yes, there is whisky on sale, 45 in fact, from all over the globe, thanks to bar manager and whisky appreciator Sam Tripet. There are also 16 types of rum and an imaginative cocktail list put together by bartender Jesse Stowers. On tap are half a dozen beers: a selection from Stone and Wood, Burleigh Brewing Co and local Brisbane brewers Green Beacon, and a house beer, in addition to a range of bottled beer and a clipped wine list. A pair of pork sliders at Blind Tiger. Photo: Bradley Kanaris Blind Tiger is the first hospitality venture for Robert Harding, who owns Moustachery Barbering in Teneriffe and Bulimba. "We offer drinks with our cuts at the shop and customers always say if it was a bar, they'd be here all the time. So when the space next to the shop in Bulimba came up I jumped at it because there's really nothing else like it here," Harding says. During the first week of trading the bar was at capacity, and Harding says he's looking at enlarging the 30-seater by taking a bit of space from the barber shop. A Kentucky Bow Tie cocktail. Photo: Bradley Kanaris A simple food offering includes a cheeseboard, potatoes with chorizo, grilled mushrooms with blue cheese, tacos and sliders. Heartier hotpots and stews will be served in winter. First drinks are poured at 4pm and they'll wrap up sometime before midnight, depending on demand, Harding says. Open daily 4pm-late. 1b/204 Oxford Street, Bulimba, facebook.com/Blindtigerbulimba There's no shortage of sugar fixes at El Chapel, Marrickville. Photo: Daniel Munoz You don't have to be a churchgoer to appreciate El Chapel, the new cafe by Marrickville's Two Chaps. The new venture is a short 10-minute pilgrimage from owner Piero Pignatti Morano's first eatery on nearby Chapel Street and, in the way that parents have way too many shortlisted names for their kids, El Chapel was what Two Chaps might have been originally called. "It seemed fitting for the new spot, a little reference to our beginnings on Chapel Street and a relationship between food and place that we liken to [a] religious experience," he says. You can still be a heathen, though, and enjoy what El Chapel showcases - which includes some items you won't find at Two Chaps. There's a mushroom toastie ($12), with roasted portobello sealed in with the heft and ooze of Tassie Tilsit cheese, Dijon mustard and pickles on a seeded, semi-sourdough malt rye loaf. El Chapel's pastry experiments include the blueberry morning buns. Photo: Daniel Munoz "We also have an awesome quesadilla ($12) that we make our own purple corn tacos for. We serve this with sauteed rapini, spicy back beans, our prickly pear hot sauce and smoked fior di latte," says Morano. "In the next month, we will also be offering our own pies and empanadas which will not be on offer at Two Chaps." Your sugar fix is also taken care of at El Chapel. "We recently started making croissants ($4) after picking up a fairly cumbersome old Australian-made dough sheeter off a friend. This has allowed us to experiment with a few simple Euro classics like the lunette, a dainty piece of pastry baked with a dollop of custard in the centre," he says. "Our baked brioche morning bun ($5) is a sneaky alternative to the old faithful breakfast muffin." There's still menu crossover with between the two venues, though, and you can also score some of the pastries seen at sister cafe Two Chaps, such as the burnt butter cookie ($4), lime and pistachio loaf, and glazed doughnuts. While El Chapel features a small shopfront (and you may have to fight for the tiny number of seats it currently has), it's worth paying attention to this cafe, given the talent behind the menus. El Chapel makes its own purple corn tortillas and prickly pear hot sauce for this dish. Photo: Daniel Munoz Head chef Kim Douglas (who also works at Two Chaps) was at Rockpool Bar and Grill for four years and has also spent time in the kitchens of Bread and Circus, Henrietta Supper Club and Cornersmith. Hayley Thorncraft, who looks after the baked goods, recently came on board from Black Star Pastry. Manager Jo Fairall is masterminding all the drinks (and the "new beetroot hot chocolate using cold pressed beetroot juice is a winner", says Morano). Like Two Chaps, El Chapel just happens to have an all-vegetarian menu. (And like Two Chaps, it doesn't make a big deal out of it.) This also means there's also a decent showing of vegan options, too, such as ciabatta with turmeric-roasted cauliflower, hummus, pickled onions and sprouts ($10), raw caramel slice ($4) and a fruit granola cup with coconut yoghurt that's spiced with the Sticky Chai that Morano makes ($8). El Chapel is also footsteps away from Vic On The Park and The Factory Theatre, which both host gigs at night, and there are definitely plans for the cafe to get up to some after-dark mischief. Advertisement "We are still figuring out how the nights at El Chapel will play out. At this point, the aim is to begin in October with a snacky interpretation of our current night menu [at Two Chaps] to pair with a small and keg-only wine and beer list." And given that Morano already has two Marrickville venues, plus his Sticky Chai business, does he have any plans to expand further? "Let's see if we can make this work before any more projects are undertaken!" Open Mon-Fri 7-3pm; Sat 8-2pm The vegan options include a chia seed brekkie cup Photo: Daniel Munoz 373 Enmore Road, Marrickville, 02 8384 8673, facebook.com/ElChapelMarrickville Spanner crab, sake vinegar jelly, brown butter emulsion, pea flower and horseradish from Sepia, Sydney. Photo: Dominic Lorrimer Grilled oyster from Igni, Geelong. Photo: Josh Robenstone Uni, koshihikari rice, salted yolk, fish maw, sweet prawns, umami broth from Quay, Sydney. Photo: Brett Stevens Schnitty sanga from Fleet, Brunswick Heads. Photo: Kate Nutt Marron, Geraldton wax and watercress from Orana, Adelaide. Photo: Aaron Fenwick Slow-roasted parsnip and apple mousse, Brae, Birregurra. Scallop dish from Wildflower, Perth. Photo: Supplied Yabby jaffle from Monster Kitchen & Bar, Canberra. Photo: Lee Grant Apple truffle strudel from Esquire, Brisbane. Photo: Michelle Smith Salted red kangaroo and bunya bunya from Attica, Melbourne. Photo: Jane Holroyd Roasted Murray cod grenobloise from Restaurant Hubert, Sydney. Photo: Supplied Pad Thai from Long Chim, Perth. Poulet vin jaune d'Australie from Bar Brose, Sydney. Photo: Dominic Lorrimer Paperbark-grilled fish from Paper Daisy, Cabarita Beach. Photo: Supplied Whole slow-roasted lamb shoulder, Cumulus Inc, Melbourne. Photo: Earl Carter of Of course you're not planning to die any time soon, but we thought you should know how good the Australian dining scene is right now, just in case. So here's a handy glovebox guide to 17 of the most exciting dishes that are happening across the country. Diversity being our middle name, they jump from Japanese-inflected seafood, slow-roasted meats and Australian natives to retro snacks that make drinking even more fun. Together, they represent a new era in Australian gastronomy. Pace yourself. There's a lot to get through. Roasted Murray cod grenobloise Where: Restaurant Hubert, Sydney Why: An impeccably farmed Australian freshwater fish famed for its subtle, snow-white, flaking flesh is wood-roasted and served whole by classics-with-a-twist chef Dan Pepperell. Bathed in a classic French sauce of brown butter, capers and onions and served by candle-light. It's a real "event" dish, a magnificent thing in keeping with the nostalgia of this sprawling basement bistro and bar. restauranthubert.com Salted red kangaroo and bunya bunya Where: Attica, Melbourne Why: It's never a dull moment dining at the highly awarded Attica, as Ben Shewry builds the experience into a unique and almost interactive experience. This is the standout dish, a mind-bending drama queen of salted Uluru kangaroo fillet teamed with purple carrot, native currants, fermented cabbage and a lush bunya bunya puree that is both astringent and lush, primeval and elegant. attica.com.au Poulet vin jaune d'Australie Where: Bar Brose, Sydney Advertisement Why: Because Analiese Gregory is a rising star who brings originality, freshness and great wine-friendly flavours to this long, narrow Darlinghurst bar. And because the busty Holmbrae chicken is bathed in a ladleful of glossy, winey sauce (not the celebrated yellow wine of the Jura but Gregory's own blend of Pennyweight Oloroso, Tom Shobbrook's Il Chicco, and shao hsing), enriched with foie gras butter and crisp chicken-in-a-biskit shards. barbrose.com.au Slow-roasted parsnip and apple mousse Where: Brae, Birregurra Why: Former Mugaritz head chef Dan Hunter created his ground-breaking regional restaurant as "a place to interact with nature and eat from the land". In his hands, the humble parsnip takes on a new life as a naturally sweet dessert slow-roasted until it is a crisp, hollowed-out shroud, filled with parsnip and apple mousse under a fizz-wizz of tart, dehydrated apple. braerestaurant.com Spanner crab, sake vinegar jelly, brown butter emulsion, pea flower and horseradish Where: Sepia, Sydney Why: Because the Queensland spanner crab meat is cooked in butter at 70C to keep its moisture, then dressed in walnut oil and rolled in a very fine sheet of sake vinegar and sake jelly, served on a brown butter creme fraiche and finished with pea flower petals and dehydrated pea dust. Complexity reduced to simplicity: pure Martin Benn. sepiarestaurant.com.au Apple truffle strudel Where: Esquire, Brisbane Why: It makes you rethink the apple. Stanthorpe pink ladies are rotor-sliced, gently cooked, dried, fried and formed into a crisp apple rose, served with a truffle jam made from Malmsey wine, beef stock and fresh Manjimup truffles and a rich mascarpone Chantilly cream. And no, it's not a dessert. esquire.net.au Uni, koshihikari rice, salted yolk, fish maw, sweet prawns, umami broth Where: Quay, Sydney Why: Peter Gilmore says this is a great representation of his cooking right now, being full of texture and powerfully harmonious flavours. The nutty koshihikari rice is enriched with Port Phillip Bay sea urchin butter, topped with crisp fish maw made from the swim bladder (fish maw) of northern barramundi, served with an intense umami broth made from 30 different ingredients. quay.com.au Raw Shark Bay saucer scallops with sesame cream Where: Wildflower, Perth Why: In this glass-and-steel cube atop boutique hotel COMO The Treasury, chef Jed Gerrard serves raw scallops from Shark Bay, 800 kilometres north of Perth, on a white sesame cream with a gel of apple juice and native basil. An additional apple, wild fennel and chardonnay "snow" falls at the table. Where: Paper Daisy, Cabarita Beach, NSW Why: Forget your fish of the day; this is the fish of the year. At this charming beachside boutique hotel Ben Devlin layers blue-eye trevalla in both soft and crisply cooked caramelised onions, seaweed and lemon myrtle, encases it in a sheath of paperbark and grills it over hot coals. It is, quite simply, a great Australian dish. halcyonhouse.com.au/restaurant Grilled oyster Where: Igni, Geelong Why: Chef Aaron Turner (formerly of Loam) is back with a bang at this tucked-away 50-seat treasure down a Geelong laneway. With luck, the opening volley of snacks will include this take-your-breath-away oyster with seaweed and oyster plant, served warm in a porcelain oyster shell. restaurantigni.com Seasonal agnolotti Where: LuMi, Sydney Why: It could be small coins of spelt ravioli holding hot buttery pumpkin puree, or soft capsules of paper-thin agnolotti encasing nonna's tomato sugo, but it will be extraordinary, as Federico Zanellato packs elegance, power, structure, acidity, balance and finesse into the very idea of pasta. lumidining.com Schnitty sanga Where: Fleet, Brunswick Heads Why: In this tiny restaurant, Astrid McCormack and Josh Lewis redefine how we dine with personal warmth and quietly captivating small courses. The downy-soft, white-bread "schnitty sanga" pairs crumbed sweetbreads and anchovy and mustard mayo in a shock of crisp/soft, hot/cold. instagram.com/fleetrestaurant Marron, Geraldton wax and watercress Where: Orana, Adelaide Why: In Australia, it makes perfect sense for a Scottish/Italian chef with French training to champion indigenous Australia and its powerful, resonant ingredients. That's how we roll. Hence the relentlessly restless Jock Zonfrillo marries delicate Kangaroo island marron or Coorong mullet with the lime/lemongrass shock of Geraldton wax in this luxurious, evocative dish. restaurantorana.com Wood-roasted pigeon Where: Franklin, Hobart Why: It's all about the 10-tonne wood-fired Scotch oven in this minimalist concrete-clad, wine-oriented, Tasmania-first restaurant. Uncompromising chef/owner David Moyle roasts whole local pigeons to a bronzed caramel, pressing the bones to extract goodness for the accompanying (very pinot-friendly) sauce. franklinhobart.com.au Yabby jaffle Where: Monster Kitchen & Bar, Canberra Why: Yabbies + horseradish + creme fraiche + chives + lemon juice + gruyere + buttered bread = one hot, crisp, toasty yabby jaffle. Chef Sean McConnell takes comfort food to new heights at Hotel Hotel's free-wheeling, all-day restaurant. monsterkitchen.com.au Pad Thai Where: Long Chim, Perth Why: When David Thompson does pad Thai, it's done properly. So the usual mindless office lunch order is, instead, beautifully eggy, with springy rice noodles, crunchy bean shoots and sweet prawns, with three types of chilli and the traditional white sugar on the side. longchimperth.com Whole slow-roasted lamb shoulder Where: Cumulus Inc, Melbourne Why: Sharing the eight-hour slow-roasted lamb shoulder at Melbourne's best workaday bistro is a rite of passage. Inspired by a humble worker's meal in La Rioja in Spain, Andrew McConnell cooks the shoulder sous-vide for eight to 12 hours, then roasts it until the crust caramelises and the meat falls from the bone at the very sight of a fork. Festive, celebratory and delicious. cumulusinc.com.au LEFT: Grits with spicy collards, shrimp, roasted red peppers and aioli drizzle from Robin Asbell's "Great Bowls of Food." SHARE Grits with spicy collards, shrimp, roasted red peppers and aioli drizzle from Robin Asbell's "Great Bowls of Food" is a great blueprint for building a bowl. Start with a grain, in this case grits. (Michael Tercha/Chicago Tribune/TNS) Add a vegetable; here, Robin Asbell uses collards. (Michael Tercha/Chicago Tribune/TNS) Include a protein, such as these shrimp sauteed with red pepper flakes. (Michael Tercha/Chicago Tribune/TNS) Finish with a sauce, such as Robin Asbell's aioli drizzle. (Michael Tercha/Chicago Tribune/TNS) One-dish meals: Simple and comforting By Bill Daley, Chicago Tribune (TNS) Bowls used to evoke visions of Oliver Twist hold one while posing that fateful request: "Please sir, I want some more." But Dickens' famous waif has been pushed aside in my mind by another Brit, celebrity chef Nigella Lawson, who poses on the cover of her 2015 cookbook holding a stack of pristine white bowls in her hands. "If I could, I'd eat everything out of a bowl," Lawson writes in "Simply Nigella," in which she gives what she calls "bowlfood" a chapter of its own. "For me "bowlfood" is a simple shorthand for food that is simultaneously soothing, bolstering, undemanding, and sustaining." The word might also be considered shorthand for a new way of eating as the bowl takes over the dinner plate as the meal vessel of choice in restaurants and at home, it has come to mean a category of food, with all the elements of a meal together. "Most bowls are very component-oriented: grain, proteins, vegetables, sauce," said Lukas Volger of Brooklyn, New York, author of "Bowl" (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $25). "It makes sense in a bowl." His book is one of four recently published bowlcentric cookbooks that highlight the good-for-you and improvisational nature of this style of cooking and eating. Allison Day, author of "Whole Bowls" (Skyhorse, $24.99), says people want to re-create at home the "vibrant and international flavors" they enjoy in restaurants but in a "more approachable way" where they can pick and choose ingredients and have the flexibility in meal planning they desire. Healthy is an important part of the bowl's appeal. Day's book is subtitled, "Complete Gluten-Free and Vegetarian Meals to Power Your Day." Volger's book is vegetarian. "The Sprouted Kitchen Bowl + Spoon" (Ten Speed, $25) by the California chef and writer Sara Forte promises "simple and inspired whole foods recipes to savor and share." "A bowl lends itself to healthy eating," Volger said. "It is so clean and straightforward." Ditto for the process of assembly. You can follow the recipes or use a basic building-block approach to assembling a main-dish bowl. Robin Asbell offers a template on how to build a bowl in her new book, "Great Bowls of Food" (Countryman Press, $21.95). Start with about to 1 cup of the grain or starch (or an alternative like sweet potato "rice" or zucchini "noodles") as a base, then add your protein, vegetables, dressing broth or sauce, and finally the garnishes. "The ones that look the most beautiful have the most color and a combination of different colors and textures," Volger said. What might be more challenging than building a bowl is finding the right bowl to use. Asbell urges readers to "mindfully" select their bowls. "Some of the bowl ingredients like to sprawl out in a wide pasta bowl-type dish. A bowl of this kind offers a wider surface to arrange your lovely toppings," she writes. "Other recipes are for times when you want to feel comforted by the abundance of a deep bowl with its round belly." SPRING RICE BOWLS WITH CHIVE OIL Prep: 15 minutes Cook: 60 minutes Makes: 4 servings Ingredients Bowls: 1 cup uncooked short grain brown rice 2 cups water 1 pound asparagus, tough ends trimmed, cut into 1-inch pieces 2 cups cooked chickpeas 3/4 cup fresh or dry, cooked and peeled, or frozen, defrosted fava beans 2 carrots, julienned, shaved, or shredded Chive oil: 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil 1 tablespoon lemon juice 1 tablespoon finely diced fresh chives, plus chive blossoms for garish, optional 1/2 teaspoon sea salt - ground black pepper, to taste Directions 1 Make the bowls. For the brown rice, in a medium saucepan, bring water and rice to a boil, reduce to a simmer, cover and cook for 45 minutes. Steam, covered, for 5 minutes; fluff with fork before serving. 2 For the asparagus, add to a large-rimmed baking sheet. Roast in a preheated 400-degree oven for 10 minutes. Alternatively, steam asparagus for 3 to 5 minutes. 3 In a medium bowl, combine chickpeas with fava beans. 4 Make the chive oil: In a small bowl, combine all chive oil ingredients. 5 To serve. To bowls, arrange brown rice, chickpeas and fava beans, asparagus and carrot. Drizzle with chive oil and garnish with chive blossoms (if using). Serve warm or chilled. From "Whole Bowls" by Allison Day, creator of the Yummy Beet blog (www.yummybeet.com GRITS WITH SPICY COLLARDS, SHRIMP, ROASTED RED PEPPERS AND AIOLI DRIZZLE Prep: 15 minutes Cook: 20 minutes Makes: 4 servings Polenta may be used instead of grits, she writes. Ingredients 3 cups water 1 cup grits 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup mayonnaise 1 clove garlic, pressed 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice 2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil 1 bunch collard greens, stems removed, sliced 1 teaspoon water 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes 1 pound shrimp, peeled, deveined 2 jarred medium roasted red peppers, drained, sliced (or homemade) Directions 1 Heat the water to a boil in a 1-quart pot over high heat. Stir in the grits and half the salt; cook, stirring, 5 minutes. Remove pan from the heat, cover and let stand to thicken, about for 5 minutes (or follow package directions). 2 While the grits cook, stir together the mayonnaise, garlic and lemon juice in a small bowl. Set aside. 3 In a large skillet, heat half the olive oil over medium-high heat; add the collard greens. Stir to wilt, then sprinkle in 1 teaspoon water; cover the pan. Cook until softened, 2 minutes. 4 Scrape the greens into another bowl. Add the remaining olive oil to the same skillet; heat over medium-high heat. Add the red pepper flakes, and shrimp; sprinkle with the remaining salt. Cook, stirring, until the shrimp are pink, lightly browned and cooked through, about 3 minutes depending on size. 5 Divide grits among four bowls. Top with the shrimp, place the greens beside the shrimp, garnish with red pepper slices and drizzle with mayonnaise mixture. Serve warm. A recipe from Robin Asbell's "Great Bowls of Food." RICE BOWL WITH GINGER, RADISH AND AVOCADO Prep: 20 minutes Cook: 40 minutes Makes: 2 servings In her book "Simply Nigella," Nigella Lawson describes this as a "non-recipe recipe" because she makes it differently each time depending on what foods are available. Lawson usually uses raw radishes but writes that you may roast them, too: Halve the radishes, roast cut-side down with a little oil at 425 degrees for 10 minutes. We added tofu to the dish for additional protein, but you may leave it out. Ingredients 3/4 cup uncooked short grain brown rice 1 cup cold water 2-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled 4-6 radishes 11/2 tablespoons tamari or soy sauce 1 teaspoon organic raw apple cider vinegar 1/4 cup mixed seeds, such as pumpkin, sunflower, sesame 3 -4 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro 1 small ripe avocado - grilled firm tofu, cubed, optional Directions 1 Put the rice and the water in a heavy saucepan that comes with a tight-fitting lid; bring to a boil over high heat. Once it's bubbling, clamp on the lid, turn the heat down very low and simmer, 25 minutes. Then turn off the heat, leaving the lid on, and let it stand for another 5 minutes, by which time the rice will be cooked but still nutty and the water absorbed. 2 Meanwhile, shave the ginger into very thin strips with a vegetable peeler. Cut the radishes into quarters or eighths lengthwise, depending on their size. 3 When the rice is cooked, spoon into a mixing bowl. Add the tamari or soy sauce and the apple cider vinegar; toss with a fork to combine. Do the same with the ginger shavings, radishes and seeds. Stir all but a little of the chopped cilantro into the rice, still using a fork. 4 Divide rice between 2 smallish bowls; top with avocado, cut either into gondola-shaped slices or chunks. Add tofu, if using. Sprinkle with the remaining cilantro. SHARE Randy Avila Robert Blanco Brandon Deleon Julian Diaz Shots fired into San Angelo kids' bedroom By Justin Zamudio The frail front door was barely enough to keep the cool, wintry breeze out of Rocio Godinez's northeast side home, and not nearly thick enough to stop gunfire. Shots ripped through that thin door in the early morning darkness Monday. Three rounds burst at an angle into the room to the immediate left of the entrance, only a few feet away from Godinez's sleeping children. "Their bed is just right here ? against this wall," said Godinez, the mother of the 14-year-old and 12-year-old who were sleeping in that bedroom, as she pointed at the bullet holes inside her house. "It came too close to hitting them." The shots served as an unexpected alarm clock for the family of five. Jose Melendez, Godinez's husband, said he immediately checked to make sure everyone was OK after realizing the household, in the 1900 block of Magnolia Street, had been a target for gunfire. Godinez's 9-year-old child also was asleep in the house at the time. San Angelo police arrested four men early Monday morning on East 12th Street who they said might be linked to the shooting on Magnolia Street. The four suspects ? Brandon Deleon, 18, Julian Diaz, 18, Randy Avila, 17, and Robert Blanco, 18, all of San Angelo ? all were charged with Class B possession of marijuana. Deleon also was charged with unlawful carrying of a firearm. Godinez said there never has been a problem with anyone coming around and trying to do harm to her family. She said that her 14-year-old son is not associated with gangs and that she isn't aware of any vendettas he might have with anyone. The San Angelo Police Department discovered in its investigation that there was a party at the house in October and that three males were told to leave after wanting to start a fight. They threatened to retaliate and left in a white four-door Cadillac, according to a department news release. The four San Angelo men who were being held Monday were arrested in a white four-door Cadillac. Although the charges against them are not directly connected to the drive-by shooting on Magnolia Street, a police news release about their arrest included information about the shooting incident and two other property damage complaints that occurred earlier Monday. The men were arrested about 6:45 a.m., police said, after being seen in a car that matched the description of a vehicle seen in the vicinity of events reported during the night. The reports began about 1:15 a.m. when patrol officers were sent to investigate damage to a pickup parked on the street in the first block of East 12th Street, the news release said. A man said his vehicle had been damaged by thrown rocks and a cinder block, and he had noticed a white four-door Cadillac driving in the neighborhood earlier. Just more than an hour later, officers were sent to investigate a report of shots fired at the house in the 1900 block of Magnolia Street. Officers found three bullet holes in the front door. At 6:45 a.m. in the first block of East 12th Street, officers were dispatched to a report of shots being fired. They found spent shotgun shells in the street and damage to vehicles that appeared to have been fired upon. A witness said a white four-door Cadillac had been seen driving in the area. At the same time in the 200 block of East Ninth Street, two officers saw a white four-door Cadillac parked by the curb. The car's headlights were switched off as police approached, and the occupants slumped down from view, police said. Drugs and drug paraphernalia were found in the car, police said, along with a handgun under one of the seats, and a spent shotgun shell. Deleon was released on $1,500 bond, Diaz and Blanco both were released on $1,000 bond, and no information was available on Avila. Lt. Curtis Milbourn, a police department spokesman, said no new information was available for release Wednesday afternoon. He said the investigation is ongoing and that more charges might be filed on the discovery of more facts. "Until the facts are known completely, we won't be able to bring any other charges against the suspects," Milbourn said. "I'm sure we will look at the most serious charge in that instance." For the time being, Godinez and her family are shaken up and more cautious in their home. "It's scary," she said. "Nothing like this has ever happened before out here. ... I'm just glad nobody got hurt." John Tufts/Standard-Times The 9/11 Memorial Monument near the Concho River was destroyed sometime over the weekend. The San Angelo Police Department is searching for the person or peopole responsible. SHARE Standard-Times file A wreath sits next to the 9/11 memorial near the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts in 2014. The memorial included a piece of debris from the north Twin Tower. By Staff Report Police are searching for the person or people responsible for destroying San Angelo's Sept. 11, 2001, monument and stealing a piece of steel on the memorial that came from the World Trade Center. The monument, near Celebration Bridge on the Concho River and below the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts, is unusual because it is one of the few in Texas that had a piece of steel from ground zero in New York City, according to a San Angelo Police Department news release. The monument was dedicated Sept. 8, 2003, in memory of those who died that day. Several community events occurred near the monument over the weekend, and police believe someone in attendance may have witnessed the incident, the release stated. Police are asking anyone with information about the suspect or the stolen item to contact them at 325-481-2718. To remain anonymous, tip online at bit.ly/SAPDTips247, text TIP SAPD to 888777 or call the 24-hour tip hotline at 1-855-847-7247. SHARE Staff report The San Angelo Police Department is investigating the death of a 9-week-old boy at a local licensed in-home day care Monday afternoon, according to an SAPD news release. Police were dispatched to a residence in the 2600 block of Colorado Avenue just before 4 p.m. Monday in response to a report of a nonresponsive infant, the release states. San Angelo Fire Department medics gave emergency rescue care to the infant, who was taken to San Angelo Community Medical Center for treatment. The baby was pronounced dead by medical staff at 4:42 p.m., according to the release. The cause of death is unknown. The infant was taken to Lubbock for autopsy. No signs of foul play were found at the scene, the release states, and police continue to investigate. Korby Kennedy SHARE By Staff Report The Blue Knights Law Enforcement Motorcycle Club, Texas Chapter XXXV will honor San Angelo Police Sgt. Korby Kennedy during a prayer vigil and the unveiling of a memorial marker at 9:30 a.m. Saturday at 3100 Knickerbocker Road. The public is invited to attend the free event and encouraged to wear blue clothing or ribbons in a show of support. Kennedy, 45, a longtime SAPD officer, was killed June 25, 2015, after he was struck by another vehicle while on escort duty. A Tom Green County grand jury in late March indicted Cynthia Quigley, 46, of Ozona, on a charge of criminally negligent homicide. The indictment stated that Quigley committed criminal negligence "by failing to yield the right of way, while using a cellphone" in the crash that killed Kennedy. A pretrial hearing for Quigley is scheduled 2 p.m. July 5. A graduate of Central High School, Kennedy attended Angelo State University and initially went to work at the Tom Green County Jail. In 1995 he graduated from the San Angelo Police Academy and was hired by the department. He was promoted to the rank of sergeant in 2005 and assigned to the Traffic Division of the SAPD. In April, Kennedy was honored by participants in the Texas Peace Officers Memorial Bike Trek. The group presented Kennedy's family a plaque in his honor during a ceremony in front of the San Angelo Police Department. The bike group came to San Angeo as part of a 2,000-plus-mile journey to remember fallen officers across the state. SHARE Spring rains have contributed to a bounty of fresh produce available at the Concho Valley Farmers Market thrice-weekly Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. The Farmers Market Pavilion is located at 609 S. Oakes St., across from Fort Concho. We are so lucky to have potatoes, green beans, sweet peas, squash and zucchini, peppers, corn, greens, tomatoes, onions, radishes, and all those herbs available for $1 for a bundle or a bowl. However, the folks in the cities will pay much more, even if fresh produce is available. On a national level, the age-old problem of farm labor shortage now held up by visa backlogs is fast approaching crisis proportions again all but guaranteeing that crops will rot in the field on many farms this year, said Zippy Duvall, American Farm Bureau Federation president. "Many farmer members have called us and state Farm Bureaus asking for help," Duvall said. "They face serious hurdles in getting visas for workers in time to tend and harvest this year's crops. Paperwork delays have created a backlog of 30 days or more in processing H-2A applications at both the Department of Labor and United States Citizenship and Immigration Services." Duvall said the Labor Department too often fails to comply with rules that require it to respond to farmers' requests before crews are needed. "Crops can't wait on paperwork," Duvall said. "DOL is routinely failing to approve applications 30 days prior to the day farmers need workers. That delay, coupled with delays occurring at USCIS, places farmers in an impossible situation." According to the USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service, there were 583,000 workers hired directly by farm operators on the nation's farms and ranches during the week of January 10-16, 2016. For the week of April 10-16, workers hired numbered 703,000. Wage rates for hired workers in the Southern Plains averaged $11.83 per hour; nationally the average wage was $12.83 per hour. Seasonal farm labor is a necessity from the truck farms of South Texas to the big farms of California. And the undocumented Mexican national workers have always made a difference. Back in 1977 the Standard-Times assigned me to Presidio in far West Texas to investigate complaints from some 45-50 local farmers as they were in the midst of harvesting onions, chili peppers and cantaloupes with no laborers. As soon as undocumented Mexican workers were in the fields, the U.S. Border Patrol descended and transported them back across the Rio Grande. As a result, some $15,000 worth of peppers was scratched on the production calendar as lost in one field alone. Weeds were growing 2 feet high in the crops. Workers would cultivate the crops by hand. They pulled the weeds by hand or used a small knifelike tool to cut the weeds out when pulling them would destroy the fruit plant. In the case of cantaloupes, the vines required turning periodically and removal from irrigation ditches so the developing melons would not be in a pool of water and the bottoms rot. The story was told in Washington by West Texas representatives and finally at the White House, Jimmy Carter snapped the bureaucratic red tape, and on the heels of a presidential decision, Mexican farmworkers came back across the Rio Grande in time to save the cantaloupes that year. Fast forward to this spring when Duvall repeated American Farm Bureau's call for Congress to pass responsible immigration reform that provides farmers' access to a legal and stable workforce. He also outlined possible solutions to the challenge, including modernizing agency H-2A approval procedures. He said DOL and USCIS both rely on sending documents to farmers by regular mail, which he called "unacceptable in 2016." Processing and procedural delays, such as the government's use of U.S. mail instead of electronic communications, are leading to losses from unharvested crops, Duvall said. Farmers and ranchers receive only 16 cents out of every dollar spent on food at home and away from home. The rest goes for costs beyond the farm gate: wages and materials for production, processing, marketing, transportation and distribution. Compare that to 1980, when farmers received 31 cents out of every dollar. Jerry Lackey is the agriculture editor emeritus. Contact him at jlackey@wcc.net. SHARE By Michael Riley And Nafeesa Syeed, Bloomberg News (TNS) WASHINGTON The U.S. has curbed hacking by Chinas military. The trouble is the battle may be moving to another front. Chinese military hackers attempted to steal troves of confidential information from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management in 2014 and failed. But China got the data anyway: It passed the job to contractors a group code-named Coldcuts by the U.S. who worked on their own or for private companies to conduct a dragnet for sensitive data from government, airlines and health insurers. The new information about those incursions, confirmed by two people involved in the investigation who asked not to be identified because the details remain confidential, suggest a possible shift in cyberstrategy by the Chinese government, which has long said its behavior is no different from that of the U.S. That shift makes the question over whether China is keeping a promise that it wont hack U.S. companies for technology and personal data a challenge to answer. The Chinese militarys pullback is quantified in a report issued Monday by security firm FireEye Inc., which shows a dramatic decline in hacking over three years. Since August, attacks from known Chinese hacking groups with a connection to state interests have dropped more than 80 percent, FireEye found. Thats a success for the Obama administration, which has ratcheted up pressure, including through criminal indictments and in meetings with top leaders, in the hope of lessening tensions in cyberspace between the countries. Its a steep and steady decline, and a relatively abrupt one, Kevin Mandia, FireEyes chief executive officer, said in an interview. The bottom line is that based on all our observables our researchers, our Mandiant responders, the activity in customer networks the scale and scope of Chinese espionage has dramatically reduced. What the report doesnt answer is how much China-based hacking has moved to harder-to-track contractors who provide a level of deniability to the government. Some of the 72 groups tracked in the report are small or relatively new, and Chinas hacking scene has become more fragmented as former military hackers set up business on their own, said Laura Galante, director of threat intelligence at FireEye. It could take the U.S. years to infiltrate those networks and gauge their effectiveness, a task it will undertake even as it also tries to track increased activity from state-backed hackers from North Korea and Pakistan to Russia and Iran. FireEyes detection technology depends in part on matching breaches to a deep archive of tools and infrastructure used by state-sponsored groups. U.S. intelligence agencies use a classified version of similar data to track activity of those groups. Its extraordinarily difficult to verify if that drop is real, said Bob Stasio, a former member of the National Security Agencys offensive cyber unit and a fellow at the Truman National Security Project. Its very easy to hide much of that activity by shifting it to the private sector, universities or unaffiliated actors. One former intelligence official directly involved in the OPM investigation, who asked not to be identified because some details of the probe are still classified, said several countries, including Russia, make liberal use the contractor model. FireEyes new report has particular credibility coming from the company that purchased Mandiant Corp., which produced a ground-breaking report in 2013 on Shanghai-based hacking operations by Chinas Peoples Liberation Army and the targeting of commercial companies in the U.S. and Europe. FireEye tracked cyber activity of 72 groups, suspected of being based in China or operating in support of Chinese interests, going back more than three years. The company, based in Milpitas, California, said it monitored 262 incidents of network compromise, in which groups got remote entry into a targets network. The company attributes the shift to measures taken in recent years by the Chinese government as well as the U.S. Starting in 2013, there was heightened exposure of Chinese hacking as more information became public and the U.S. took several steps, including indicting five Chinese military officials in 2014 on charges that they stole trade secrets from companies including Westinghouse Electric Co. and United States Steel Corp. Last year, Chinas President Xi Jinping and President Barack Obama reached an agreement vowing that they wouldnt condone hacking to steal commercial secrets. After meeting with Xi, Obama pointedly said he hadnt ruled out resorting to sanctions if their agreement was violated. We suspect that this shift in operations reflects the influence of ongoing military reforms, widespread exposure of Chinese cyber operations, and actions taken by the U.S. government, FireEye said in its report. Pledges to diminish Chinese intrusions were often met with skepticism by researchers and some in the U.S. intelligence community, who had seen Chinas hacking operations over a decade hit thousands of companies, universities and research institutes in the U.S. and Europe. The company said there are strong indications that the 72 groups its tracked are based in China or support Chinese interests, based on various indications, including similarities in the types of malware, language settings, hours of operation and the type of data targeted. Despite the decline in threats from China, not all hacking has stopped. From late 2015 to the middle of this year, 13 suspected China-based groups have compromised corporate networks in the U.S., Europe and Japan as well as targeted government, military and commercial entities in countries surrounding China. The FireEye report cites several recent examples. From April to May, three groups compromised the networks of four firms based in the U.S., Europe and Asia that are involved in semiconductors, while one group compromised a network at a high-tech U.S. company by accessing login credentials and deploying backdoors into systems. In another recent case, a group apparently tried to obtain information related to U.S. military projects, deploying backdoors into the targets web servers and accessed credentials at a U.S. government services company. We are still seeing activity, Jordan Berry, FireEyes principal threat intelligence analyst, said in a an interview. We see the same kind of activity but on a much lower scale. Even if China is changing tactics, Mandia said, the activity of new or upstart hackers is still less than the former operations of the military groups by orders of magnitude. We would still detect the activity of contractors in some form, he said. SHARE Legislation in House loses repeatedly By Maggie Ybarra, McClatchy Washington Bureau (TNS) WASHINGTON Gun control measures have stolen the spotlight in the days after a deadly mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Florida, and other legislation important to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community has suffered defeats in recent weeks, with little public attention. An amendment that would have protected the LGBT community from discrimination in the workplace was defeated by the House Rules Committee last Tuesday, while legislation that would require federal surveys to obtain data on sexual identity has garnered only one Republican among its 84 sponsors in the House of Representatives. The politics of providing equal opportunity to gays, lesbians and others are complicated, made more confusing by the Orlando attack by Omar Mateen, which left 49 people dead and 53 wounded in the largest mass shooting by a single gunman in U.S. history. While the tussle over gun control measures has been public, the smacking down of LGBT legislation has gone largely unheralded. Rep. Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania, the chairman of the House Ethics Committee, has had a front-row seat to some of those failed endeavors. Dent is a rare Republican advocate for LGBT equality. I feel very strongly that we should not discriminate against people based on their sexual orientation, he said. You know, the country has evolved demographically and socially on this issue. I believe the Republican Party should, too. So the bottom line is that nondiscrimination is a reasonable proposal. This month, Dent watched his colleague Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, D-N.Y., try to gather enough support to strike legislative language that left a loophole for military contractors to fire employees based on their sexual orientation. Maloney tried to amend the defense spending bill to remove the language, but the House Rules Committee would not allow that amendment to be debated. Just a few weeks earlier, in May, House Republicans had voted in favor of similar legislation and then changed their votes when the measure was poised to move forward. Another bill with the power to change the way the federal government treats the LGBT community might face a similar fate. The measure, known as the LGBT Data Inclusion Act, or H.R. 5373, has the backing of 83 House Democrats and one Republican. It would seek information on gender identity and sexual orientation in federal population surveys. That data collection would help lawmakers better understand how to address health, housing and employment disparities, said Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif. Additionally, that information could change the way officials approach the task of redistricting, said another California Democrat, Rep. Alan Lowenthal. The more we talk about gender identity and sexual orientation, it makes those people were accountable to all of our community it makes them real and it humanizes them, knowing what the numbers are and whether services are really needed in those communities, Lowenthal said. We dont have any of it. We just estimate now. So I just think its an issue whose time has come. Little is known about the LGBT community at a national level, according to Ian Thompson, a legislative representative for the American Civil Liberties Union. Most of the data available is collected by outside organizations, such as the National Center for Transgender Equality. Equality California has also been an advocate for expanding and implementing data collection so that officials can, among many things, steer social services toward homeless LGBT youth. The group was the driving force behind state legislation that now requires California social service agencies to collect data on sexual orientation and gender identity. California Gov. Jerry Brown signed the legislation last year. It was the first bill of its kind to require that data to be collected along with other demographic data, so we were very, very excited about that and we think its going to make a tremendous difference for people here in California, said Jo Michael, Equality Californias legislative manager, who cited health care services as an area likely to be affected. Obviously, it will take a while to put all that together, but once it gets to that point it could have a tremendous impact in that area. The federal LGBT Data Inclusion Act would expand the amount of information available, but only if it survives another battle on Capitol Hill, said bill co-sponsor Rep. Tony Cardenas, D-Calif. Thats an uphill fight. Its always good to work with the most accurate information thats honest and true, he said. For us to be able to have H.R. 5373 go through with this Republican Congress, my hopes are not too high, but were going to keep pushing it. In this May 17, 2016 photo, Israeli lawyer Stephen Berman inspects a construction site on land owned by Palestinian Mohammad Abu Taa, in east Jerusalem. Abu Taa discovered some years ago that the Israeli government had expropriated the piece of land in Jerusalem belonging to his family and handed it over to a leading organization that oversees Jewish settlement building in the West Bank. Now, the Palestinian landowner is fighting back in an unusual way -- enlisting Berman whose inside knowledge of the system is helping Abu Taa expose the settler organizations property grab. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean) SHARE In this May 17, 2016 photo, Israeli lawyer Stephen Berman inspects a construction site on land owned by Palestinian Mohammad Abu Taa, in east Jerusalem. Abu Taa discovered some years ago that the Israeli government had expropriated the piece of land in Jerusalem belonging to his family and handed it over to a leading organization that oversees Jewish settlement building in the West Bank. Now, the Palestinian landowner is fighting back in an unusual way -- enlisting Berman whose inside knowledge of the system is helping Abu Taa expose the settler organizations property grab. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean) This May 17, 2016 photo shows construction on land owned by Palestinian Mohammad Abu Taa, in east Jerusalem. Abu Taa discovered some years ago that the Israeli government had expropriated the piece of land in Jerusalem belonging to his family and handed it over to a leading organization that oversees Jewish settlement building in the West Bank. Now, the Palestinian landowner is fighting back in an unusual way -- enlisting Israeli lawyer Stephen Berman whose inside knowledge of the system is helping Abu Taa expose the settler organizations property grab. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean) This May 17, 2016 photo shows construction on land owned by Palestinian Mohammad Abu Taa, in east Jerusalem. Abu Taa discovered some years ago that the Israeli government had expropriated the piece of land in Jerusalem belonging to his family and handed it over to a leading organization that oversees Jewish settlement building in the West Bank. Now, the Palestinian landowner is fighting back in an unusual way -- enlisting Israeli lawyer Stephen Berman whose inside knowledge of the system is helping Abu Taa expose the settler organizations property grab. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean) By DANIEL ESTRIN, Associated Press JERUSALEM (AP) A few years ago, Mohammad Abu Ta'a discovered that some storage trailers had disappeared from a plot of land in Jerusalem belonging to his family. Then, the family received a letter informing them they were now trespassers. When the Palestinian landowner contacted Israeli land authorities, he was told the government had expropriated the land and handed it over to a leading organization that oversees Jewish settlement building in the West Bank. That group, Amana, is now building its new headquarters on the land. Abu Ta'a is fighting back to expose the shadowy land grab. But he is doing it in an unusual way enlisting the services of an Israeli lawyer who spent 16 years as a municipal civil servant approving expropriations of Palestinian land in Jerusalem. The lawyer, Stephen Berman, left his post as legal adviser to the Jerusalem municipality's real estate department and went into private practice in 2003. He is now using his inside knowledge of the system to expose what he says is the settler group's illegitimate property grab. "This was my job, doing this stuff," the U.S.-born Berman told The Associated Press, recounting from behind his paper-littered desk the expropriations he used to approve. "That was their lack of luck." Unlike some Israeli lawyers who fight for Palestinian rights in court, Berman is not an activist for the Palestinian cause. Shortly before he took on this case, he represented a Jewish settlement project in east Jerusalem. "I don't care who the law serves," he said. "I care what the law is." Following a paper trail of old maps and land registry documents, Berman said he uncovered how Israeli civil servants, stretching back decades, abused their power to seize control of the tiny but attractive triangle of real estate from the Abu Ta'a family in east Jerusalem and give it to Amana, a 40-year-old organization that spearheads the construction of Jewish settlements in east Jerusalem and the West Bank. The organization, which has been investigated multiple times for fraudulent real estate deals, has helped plan and build numerous government-sanctioned Jewish settlements and unauthorized outposts. An investigative program on Israel's Channel 10 TV in February reported that Israeli police investigated 15 West Bank land acquisitions where settlement outposts were built and found that Amana's subsidiary had forged documents for 14 of them. The subsidiary denied the claims. "The Amana organization is a settler organization that deals with construction of settlements ... many times on stolen Palestinian land," said Hagit Ofran of the anti-settlement watchdog group Peace Now. "We are not surprised to see them stealing land also in Jerusalem." "The trouble here is that the government is helping the settlers to take over this land," Ofran added. A lawyer for Amana did not return repeated requests for comment, and reporters on a recent visit to the Abu Ta'as' plot were ordered out by an Israeli supervisor of the construction site. Amana fenced off the plot in November and began building. There were no signs identifying the construction project or Amana, as required by law. The Jerusalem Municipality said in a statement that it would ask Amana to put up a sign. "Having this land is our right," said Abu Ta'a. "We owned it for a long time, before Israel existed in this land." The story began in 1967, when Israel captured and later annexed east Jerusalem, home to some of the city's holiest religious sites. The following year, to cement the annexation, Israel drew up a plan to expropriate large swaths of vacant Arab-owned territory along the line between east and west Jerusalem. Some of the expropriated land went into building the Israeli national police headquarters, government ministries and large Jewish neighborhoods, which the international community considers illegal settlements. But some of the land slated for expropriation was left untouched for decades. In 1989, planning officials approved a final planning scheme for the area. It was smaller than the original expropriation plan, and Abu Ta'a's plot was left out. In 1991, the Israel Lands Administration, the government body that manages state-owned lands, declared in a court case that whatever land was needed was part of the new scheme. Berman said that gave the impression that Israel did not intend to take the Abu Ta'a plot. As the attorney representing the city of Jerusalem, Berman was involved in that court case. When Abu Ta'a and approached him years later, in 2012, after learning his plot of land had been taken, Berman thought something didn't add up. "I started looking at the facts," Berman said. He found that a year after the land authority gave the impression it was no longer interested in taking land in the area, officials quietly began doing the opposite. Eventually, the Abu Ta'a plot was transferred to the settlement group Amana. Berman found documents showing that in 1992, just after the pro-settlement Likud party lost control of the government to a newly elected left-wing prime minister, the Lands Administration gave permission to Amana to start planning the construction of its headquarters on the Palestinian-owned land. The lawyer said he believes this was a last-minute effort by pro-settlement land officials to push the land transfer through before then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin could block it. Indeed, when the new government was formed, it froze the deal. Then in 1997, a year after the pro-settlement Benjamin Netanyahu first became Israeli prime minister, the deal was revived and approved retroactively, Berman said. At the time, Berman says, Amana secured the necessary approvals by tricking local and national land planning officials into thinking the land was owned by the government. The land authority did not respond to repeated phone calls and emails seeking comment. But in 2005, when Amana tried to re-parcel the plot, it ran into a snag: the land was still not registered in the government's name. To get final approval from Israel's finance minister, Israel Lands Administration officials "came up with a brilliant idea," said Berman. They rezoned the map to make the Palestinian land look like it was connected to nearby government buildings. It made the expropriation look like it was for public reasons, Berman said, and it was approved. Abu Ta'a said his family has refused to accept an offer received in 2012 to apply for compensation. After five months of court proceedings, a Jerusalem district court in March ruled that the planning scheme was done improperly. But the judge ruled it was the result of a series of mistakes and stopped short of calling it fraudulent deceit, and therefore ruled that Amana could continue to build its headquarters. Berman is now appealing to Israel's Supreme Court. "Expropriation is sometimes a necessary and legitimate measure. In this case, there was a situation that was irregular," said Berman. State and local budgets are based on general fund revenues. The cash usually comes from such primary sources as income and sales taxes, and pays for a wide swath of government services. When managers talk about balancing the budget, theyre almost always referring to balancing the spending and revenues from this repository.Reliance on the general fund as the centerpiece of fiscal management, however, has growing flaws. This is largely because the general fund is diminishing as the main source of money for governments. Data from the National Association of State Budget Officers shows a fairly steady drop in the portion the general fund makes up of the total -- 41 percent in 2014 compared with 52 percent in the early 1990s. In Virginia, the general fund made up 47 percent of the total in 2006 and only 39 percent in 2015.Some of the drop comes from an increase in bonds and, even more so, federal funds, but theres also been a slow and steady rise in the size and quantity of special funds that are earmarked for specific purposes and get little attention in the annual budget debate.The Fiscal Futures Project at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) has pinpointed a number of problems with this shift. Depending on state law, special funds may bypass the appropriations process, and unlike the general fund, money collected and unspent may be retained at years end rather than being returned to the general coffers. This makes special funds an appealing target when tough budget times hit. Lawmakers see these plush balances outside the general fund as a means to balance the budget. They may transfer or lend money from the special funds to the general fund.That leads to additional problems. It is a common tenet of responsible budget management that one-time money be used for one-time expenditures. If these funds are raided, then unless revenues are raised or expenses are cut, the government will still come up short in the next budget cycle.The movement of money between general and special funds has reduced the transparency of budgeting, says David Merriman, a professor at the Institute of Government and Public Affairs at UIC. The cloudiness of the budget picture enables political leaders to boast about a reduction of general fund spending, when spending has just been added to one or more special funds.States can also put themselves in legal peril by using funds for general purposes that are restricted to a specific use. Just after the recession ended, for example, the Wisconsin Supreme Court nixed the transfer of money from a malpractice fund into the states general fund. The state had to pay back the $200 million along with interest.New Mexicos reliance on special funds has led to a host of policy and management problems. As the state auditor pointed out in a February analysis of fund balances, New Mexico had $4.4 billion in unused balances socked away outside of the general fund at the end of fiscal year 2015. Some of that money is untouchable because of iron-clad restrictions about its use.The large amounts of unspent money raise questions about whether so much should be in funds that get so little attention. Auditors in New Mexico, for instance, found that a significant amount of money was being retained in revolving funds, which are intended as a cash-flow device for agencies and local governments. Localities are supposed to use this money and then return it so it can be used again. The practice isnt the problem, but the auditor found that some of the funds had very little lending activity, even though the state faces critical infrastructure needs for which it could be used. For example, $34 million sat unused in a revolving fund account for rural infrastructure between fiscal years 2014 and 2015. You cant justify a loan fund that had no loans out of it, says Tim Keller, New Mexicos state auditor.Keller, who was a legislator for six years before he took over last year as state auditor, spells out the real-life drawbacks of low-attention money. As a member of the legislature, he helped secure financing to build a dam in Las Vegas, N.M. I thought that fixing the dam was important and I put my political weight behind it, he says. He wasnt alone. The governor and local legislators were all taking credit for the dam, he says.But that back-patting was premature. With less visibility, money outside the general fund can go unspent, particularly when a legislative appropriation only provides partial funding as was the case for the dam. Thats because theres no one constantly monitoring it, says Sarita Nair, general counsel in the auditors office.Today, the dam is half finished, the money that was appropriated is largely unspent, the projects opponents have brought a lawsuit to stop its progress and the town still has a water crisis. You can take credit for funding something, but thats a different question than actually having it built, Keller says. Donald Trump's presidential campaign has paid $35,000 to a mysterious firm with ties to Missouri's raucous Republican gubernatorial primary race, and no one can figure out why.Our national media colleagues are certainly trying. As of Tuesday, numerous news platforms -- including CBS, BuzzFeed, Slate, The Hill and Vanity Fair -- were all asking (as a Washington Examiner story puts it), "Is Trump doing business with a fictional ad agency?"It's all the result of the release Monday night of the campaign finance records of Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. The big headline out of that data dump was that Trump's campaign is sitting on just $1.3 million, which is peanuts for a presidential bid. Presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton has more than $42 million.A side story, apparently first reported Tuesday by ThinkProgress, is that, buried in almost 1,700 pages of campaign records, is $35,000 in payments from Trump to an entity called "Draper Sterling," for "web advertising."The name is clearly a play on the two main characters from the hit AMC series "Mad Men" (starring St. Louisan Jon Hamm as the dapper and deeply flawed 1960s ad-man Don Draper).The firm's odd name caught reporters' attention. What kept it is the fact that there's only a little public mention anywhere of what "Draper Sterling" is. And that little mention is in a federal election fraud complaint.We know a little something about all of this at the Post-Dispatch, because the Draper Sterling "fictional ad agency," or whatever it is, is tied to a federal PAC that big-footed into Missouri's race for governor earlier this year.This gets complicated. Stay with us:--"Patriots for America" is a federal PAC run by Adam McLain, who is a former staffer of Missouri Republican gubernatorial candidate John Brunner.--The PAC last year set up an attack website against Missouri Republican candidate Eric Greitens. Brunner has denied he had anything to do with it, even though his former staffer ran it. Greitens alleged otherwise, culminating in a seething, secretly recorded phone argument between Greitens and Brunner.--McLain, of the Patriots for America PAC, is the brother of Paul Holzer, according to the ThinkProgress report. Holzer also has worked with the Brunner campaign.--Holzer has been a business partner with one Jon Adkins, who is the founder of Draper Sterling, according to corporate records.--In addition to paying Draper Sterling $35,000, the Trump campaign paid Adkins and Holzer $3,000 each, for "field consulting," according to Trump's records.--Patriots for America -- the PAC set up by Brunner's other former staffer, McLain, to go after Greitens -- has been hit with an FEC complaint, filed by a Greitens supporter, questioning why the PAC owes $56,234 to Draper Sterling for "business consulting.""To recap, there is a nexus between Jon Adkins, Paul Holzer and Adam McLain that meets at the mysterious Draper Sterling," writes Judd Legum in the ThinkProgress piece that flagged the Trump expenditure."We still aren't sure what Draper Sterling actually does, but these individuals are going to considerable lengths to obfuscate their activities."A Brunner spokesman said his campaign has had no contact with McLain or Holzer since September 2015.In addition to Brunner and Greitens, Missouri's GOP primary field includes former state House Speaker Catherine Hanaway and Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder. The winner of the Aug. 2 primary will likely face Democratic Attorney General Chris Koster in the Nov. 8 general election. Ongoing conflict Existing restrictions Gov. Paul LePage says despite his proposal being rejected by the Legislature and federal government, Maine will move forward with restricting the purchase of what he calls junk foods with food stamps in Maine -- or give up administration of the program altogether."It's time for the federal government to wake up and smell the energy drinks," wrote LePage in a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which provides full funding for benefits for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly called food stamps. "Doubtful that it will, I will be pursuing options to implement reform unilaterally or cease Maine's administration of the food stamp program altogether. You maintain such a broken program that I do not want my name attached to it."A USDA representative did not respond to a question about whether the federal government administers the program in any state, though the USDA website indicates that it is a state-run program without any other explanation.On Tuesday evening, U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, a Democrat who represents Maine's 1st District, said that the USDA had informed her that if Maine opts out of administering SNAP, recipients in the state would lose benefits.The USDA informed Pingree that "states have the option to administer [SNAP]. If they choose not to do so, their citizens will not receive these nutrition assistance benefits. USDA does not have the authority or funding to administer SNAP at the state level," according to a release from her office.Democratic Rep. Drew Gattine, D-Westbrook, who co-chairs the Legislature's Health and Human Services Committee, said he doesn't think it's possible for a state to turn over administration of the SNAP program."This just seems to me to be just the governor trying to pick a fight with the feds," said Gattine. "Nobody thinks that people on food stamps should be buying snack food and candy and sugary drinks. What we really need to do is find a way to make healthy food more affordable."At issue is the LePage administration's long-held goal of restricting what can be purchased with SNAP benefits. Attempts to pass state laws to impose limits on what recipients can purchase through the program -- which is fully funded by the federal government but administered by states -- failed in 2013 and 2015, so the administration requested a waiver from federal rules. That waiver was denied.As of June 1 of this year, more than 195,000 individuals in Maine were receiving SNAP benefits. In 2015, more than $292 million was distributed in Maine through the program.LePage wrote in his June 17 letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack that restricting the purchase of candy and sugar-sweetened beverages "is such a commonsense proposition that a demonstration project should not even be necessary." He said "special interests" are to blame."Only when Washington politicians stop kowtowing to powerful retail grocer and junk food manufacturing interests will American taxpayers have a respectable food safety net," wrote LePage. "Beyond the health effects of the federal government's corrupt food stamp policy is the tragedy of billions in wasted taxpayer dollars that buy candy and soda through a program that was originally designed to reduce hunger."In its June 8 response to Maine's waiver request, the USDA said essentially that the state has not provided enough guarantees that the pilot program on purchase restrictions would yield clear results or that retailers are prepared to provide the necessary data."The waiver request does not indicate that Maine has agreement from any retailers, or has even begun conversations with retailers about obtaining this data," reads the letter from USDA. "The absence of retailer data in the evaluation plan significantly limits the feasibility of determining the impact of the restriction on consumptive patterns or health outcomes for SNAP participants in Maine."The letter also cited recent media reports about lags in the administration of Maine's SNAP program, which angered LePage. In late May, the Bangor Daily News published a story about more than 2,200 Mainers who must repay SNAP benefits that were overpaid to them because of errors at DHHS."According to your own website, Maine's food stamp error rate is actually more than 30 percent lower than the national average and I can only conclude that is why you cite one-side articles from Maine's liberal media as your source instead of referring to your own data," wrote LePage. "Shameful."A 2014 SNAP report on the USDA's website, which includes the most recent nationwide data available, shows that Maine DHHS made about 600 mistakes in fiscal year 2014 in which it distributed an incorrect amount of SNAP benefits. That was along with another 500 mistakes made by recipients and 185 cases of intentional fraud.However, data provided to the Bangor Daily News by DHHS in early May indicated that the error rate continues to increase. The data showed that agency errors increased to more than 2,200 instances in 2015, plus another 800 agency errors in the first four months of 2016 alone.In late 2015, the federal government chastised Maine for having the slowest processing times for food stamp applications in the country. It warned that without improvements, Maine could lose federal assistance in administration costs for the SNAP program, which are split between the state and federal governments."Before moving forward with any new demonstration program, USDA encourages Maine to resolve the state's multiple longstanding issues that present obstacles to low-income Maine families on SNAP, including timeliness with processing applications, claims backlogs related to state-administered errors and staffing shortages," read a statement from a USDA spokesperson to the Bangor Daily News on Tuesday.However, errors in the SNAP program are common in states across the U.S. In 2014, there were a total of more than 330,000 errors.According to the USDA's SNAP website, restrictions on how food stamps can be used include alcohol, tobacco products, non-food items such as pet food and household supplies, vitamins and medicines, food that will be eaten in the store and hot foods. The website says explicitly that "soft drinks, candy, cookies, snack crackers and ice cream are food items and are therefore eligible items." Also eligible are seafood, steak and bakery cakes.A USDA study, also posted on the agency's website, found that there are "serious problems with the rationale, feasibility and potential effectiveness" of restricting certain foods from the program. Among the problems cited by the USDA are:-- There are no clear standards to differentiate "junk food" from nutritional food, making it difficult to determine whether foods with a mix of healthy and non-healthy ingredients should be eligible.-- Implementation of food restrictions would be complex and costly at both the governmental and local retailer level.-- There is no proof that restricting purchases with food stamps will change buying patterns or improve the health of food stamp recipients.The USDA said in a statement Tuesday to the Bangor Daily News that it encourages states to be creative when it comes to addressing obesity and healthy eating by SNAP recipients."However, in response to questions from USDA, Maine was unable to show that the state could properly evaluate the proposed demonstration project to determine it would have a meaningful impact on curbing obesity," said the spokesperson. "USDA has given Maine the opportunity to provide further clarifying information about their proposal, and we look forward to their response."Maine has made significant changes to its welfare programs in recent years. In 2014, Maine instituted a work requirement for recipients that cut food stamp rolls by thousands. Later that year, it sparred with the USDA on a photo ID requirement for recipients and in September, it announced that it would restart an asset test to determine eligibility for cash benefits.Earlier this month, the ongoing friction between Maine and the federal government boiled over to Capitol Hill as a House subcommittee conducted hearings on how to improve the SNAP program. Maine Health and Human Services Commissioner Mary Mayhew argued that the federal government is too stubborn about allowing reforms, such as allowing state agencies to share data and allowing the placement of photographs on benefits cards -- which Maine did over the objections of the USDA."It does feel as though we're constantly receiving all the reasons why we can't move forward," said Mayhew.Kevin Concannon, a former Maine DHHS commissioner who is now a USDA under secretary for food, nutrition and consumer services, called some of Maine's reforms "poorly implemented.""We simply want it done properly," he said.USDA has never granted a state's request to restrict certain junk foods from the SNAP program. The Michigan attorney general filed a lawsuit Wednesday morning against a water company and an engineering firm, plus several related companies, in connection with the Flint drinking water crisis, alleging the firms' "acts and omission constitute professional negligence, fraud and public nuisance."Attorney General Bill Schuette's lawsuit names seven corporate defendants in all, but according to court records they are all related to two firms that did work for the City of Flint.The civil lawsuit filed in Flint in Genesee County Circuit Court and obtained by the Detroit Free Press accuses the companies of causing "the Flint Water Crisis to occur, continue and worsen," the lawsuit said. The companies listed as defendants include Veolia North America, Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam and Leo A. Daly Co., which is LAN's parent company.The attorney general's office said in court papers that the city of Flint and state of Michigan hired the firms for their expertise but "as a result of the defendent corporations' acts and omissions, Flint's lead pipes corroded, leaching lead into residents' drinking water, ultimately poisoning the residents themselves."LAN issued a statement saying the company was "surprised and disappointed that the state would change direction and wrongfully accuse LAN of acting improperly," and "LAN will vigorously defend itself against these unfounded claims."The statement said Schuette "blatantly mischaracterized the role of LAN's service to Flint and ignores the findings of every public investigation into this tragedy that the key decisions concerning the treatment of the water from the Flint River were made by the City of Flint and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality."It went on to say that "contrary to statements by the Attorney General, LAN was not hired to operate the plant and had no responsibility for water quality, but, and although LAN was not asked, LAN had regularly advised that corrosion control should be added and that the system needed to be fully tested before going online."Veolia spokesman Paul Whitmore issued a statement saying the company is disappointed that the Attorney General has taken this action and will vigorously defend itself against these unwarranted allegations of wrongdoing."The statement said "the Attorney General has not talked to Veolia about its involvement in Flint, interviewed the company's technical experts or asked any questions about our one-time, one-month contract with Flint," and "Veolia's engagement with the city was wholly unrelated to the current lead issues."Flint didn't hire Veolia until nearly one year after the switch to the Flint River, and the company recommended changes "to minimize (disinfectant byproduct) formation along with risks associated with corrosion," the statement said.Schuette was joined at a 10 a.m. news conference today at U-M Flint by Special Assistant Attorney General Noah Hall and members of his investigative team, which is led by Royal Oak attorney Todd Flood and Andrew Arena, the former special agent in charge of the FBI office in Detroit.In April, Schuette announced felony criminal charges against two Michigan Department of Environmental Quality officials and one City of Flint official in connection with the lead contamination of Flint's drinking water. The city employee, Mike Glasgow, pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor as part of a plea agreement reached in the case last month and is cooperating with the investigation. The two DEQ employees, Stephen Busch and Mike Prysby, are awaiting preliminary examinations.In the civil lawsuit, the attorney general's office said in court papers that the companies had a legal responsibility to act with a level of care and competence befitting their industry's professional standard."The defendant corporations knew or should have known that high chloride levels in the Flint River would make the water corrosive without significant treatment, and that the corrosion would result in dangerous levels of lead for residents served by the City's many lead pipes," the attorney general's office wrote in its 24-page court filing.The companies, according to the lawsuit, ignored information that a professional engineer would see as a cause for concern. The addition of ferric chloride only compounded the city's problem and danger to its residents, according to the lawsuit. Furthermore, the attorney general's office accused Veolia of fraud in its interim 2015 report indicating that the city's water was safe, according to court papers.In 2011, then Flint Mayor Dayne Walling commissioned LAN to conduct a feasibility study of whether the city could use the Flint River as a water source and treat the water locally through a city water treatment plant. The firm was again employed in 2013 at the cost of $171,000 for helping the city start up its use of the Flint River water, the lawsuit says.But according to the attorney general's lawsuit, LAN in its work between July 2013 and April 2014 "failed to meet its duty of care and competence at a professional standard," the lawsuit alleges. "When the Flint Water Treatment Plant, with upgrades designed and implemented by LAN, began distributing Flint River water" in April 2014, "it did so without implement s corrosion control program."As for Veolia, the lawsuit alleges the water consulting company was hired by the city in February 2015 as it was dealing with federal safe drinking water violations and residents' complaints about the quality of the water. The company issued an interim report later that month, according to the lawsuit."Veolia again states that there is no health or safety problem," saying that discoloration did not mean that the water was necessarily image, the lawsuit said. It responded to questions about medical problems reported by residents by stating some people might be sensitive to any water, the suit alleges.The attorney general's office called in court papers Veolia's public findings about the nature and cause of the water quality problems in Flint "false and material." The lawsuit accuses the company of making the findings "recklessly without any knowledge of the potential truth."A later report by Veolia in March "not only missed the problem, its root cause, and the public health implications, it also offered recommendations that made the problem worse." It recommended an additional dosage of ferric chloride, a powerful acid, to the water, a move the attorney general's office alleges was "unqualified and in no way warned that ferric chloride could increase corrosion."LAN, which is based in Texas but has a Flint office, in May claimed authorship of an August 2013 engineering report on how to prepare the Flint Water Treatment Plant for treating Flint River water on an interim basis. The report made no mention of the need for corrosion control chemicals. The lack of those chemicals has been cited as the reason lead was able to leach into drinking water from pipes, joints, and fixtures. But a LAN spokesman has said it was the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, not the company, that said corrosion control chemicals were not needed.The Free Press reported in January that a March 2015 consultant's report from Veolia, a multinational environmental consulting firm, recommended spending $50,000 to add corrosion control chemicals to Flint's drinking water because iron was leaching from the pipes and turning the water brown. But the city didn't act on the recommendation at the time, which was well after the lead leaching problem began.Flint's water became contaminated with lead when the city, under the control of a state-appointed emergency manager, switched its drinking water source from Lake Huron water treated by the Detroit water system to Flint River water treated at the Flint Water Treatment Plant.Michigan DEQ officials have acknowledged a disastrous mistake in failing to require the city to add corrosion-control chemicals as part of the treatment process.The corrosive water caused lead to leach from pipes, joints and fixtures. Although Flint reconnected to Detroit water in October, after state officials acknowledged the lead-poisoning problem after months of denials, the risk remains because of damage to the water infrastructure system.Officials also are exploring possible links between the river water and outbreaks of Legionnaires' disease tied to 12 deaths. The city's shuttered Holmesburg prison will be available during the Democratic National Convention to hold arrested protesters, if necessary.Shawn Hawes, spokeswoman for the city's prisons system, said the facility is being readied on an if-needed basis for the convention July 25-28."If we had to activate Holmesburg that would be out of necessity for a mass-arrest kind of processing situation," she said. "We're always ready to open whenever necessary, so like the city, we're hoping for the best, preparing just in case."Hawes was quick to say the portion of the prison to be used is the recently renovated gymnasium -- currently available for overflow when the city's jails are over-capacity -- not the cell blocks where horror movies have been filmed.The gym has 100 beds, showers and air conditioning, Hawes said. Typically, processing an individual takes between eight and 24 hours before they make bail or are transferred to another facility.Built in 1896 and in use until 1995, the prison on Torresdale Avenue has a grim and controversial history.It was once used for biochemical research projects using inmates as test subjects. It also was the site of major riots and the subject of a scathing report on hundreds of rape cases in the 1970s.The news website Billy Penn first reported that Holmesburg would be activated during the convention.Hawes said given the city's move to decriminalize certain minor offenses associated with demonstrations, officials are not expecting large numbers arrests at the convention.A bill to downgrade "nuisance crimes," such as blocking traffic, failure to disperse and disorderly conduct, passed in City Council last week."If you are committing an act that brings you here -- you've committed a criminal act," Hawes said.City officials have said they do not want a repeat of the Republican National Convention when police arrested 400 protesters.Following the arrests in 2000, the city was smacked with several wrongful arrest lawsuits. Insurance covered settlements in those cases.The convention's host committee has an insurance policy for this year's convention that covers, among other things, general liability against lawsuits.The insurance and the prison activation do little to curb concerns of the American Civil Liberties Union, which sent a letter to the city last week asking for clarification on what will and will not permitted when it comes to protesters.The city met with the ACLU and provided answers but the responses are in some cases murky.For instance, protesters without permits "probably" won't be arrested, Kenney said.There is no camping allowed overnight in FDR park, but it's unclear what happens if protesters refuse to leave. At a press club luncheon in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, Kenney again promised protesters would be treated fairly."We've done big events before and we are not being restrictive to permits . . .we're ready and willing and able to have people exercise their First Amendment rights," he said. "What's the sense of having a democracy if you can't say what you think and protest when you want to?"In preparations for the Republican National Convention, Cleveland has purchased 11 conversion vans, some to be used to transport prisoners.Cleveland officials are also considering moving inmates from county jail to outlying facilities to create space for protesters if needed.Philadelphia has issued 13 demonstration permits to date. All totaled, the permits "expected attendance" numbers predict more than 50,000 people. Description GIS 22 June 2016: The need for every Mauritian student to come out of school after having fulfilled their potential was highlighted on 20 June 2016 by the Minister of Education and Human Resources, Tertiary Education and Scientific Research, Mrs Leela Devi Dookun-Luchoomun, at the Octave Wiehe Auditorium, in Reduit. The Minister was speaking at the 10th Edition of the Outstanding Cambridge Learner Awards ceremony to reward 109 young students with outstanding performances in the various subjects examined for the School Certificate and Higher School Certificate 2015 Examinations. These Awards are attributed to those students who have excelled at national and international levels, that is, Cambridge Top in Mauritius Award and Cambridge Top in the World. In her address, the Minister said that there is space for all students within different education systems both in the developed countries and in developing ones. These systems seek to cater to the needs of a diversity of learners, where none is excluded, neither the ones with learning difficulties nor the high achievers, and the reform we have embarked upon in the Education sector in Mauritius keeps this dimension in view, she pointed out. The Minister also spoke on the importance to cater for students who have learning deficits through a series of intervention strategies, as well as on the inclusion process for those with special education needs, and those who are challenged, whether physically or otherwise. But we are equally concerned about the bright and the gifted and the talented. We have to create the ethos for them to demonstrate their capability as well, said the Minister. Equity in no way means a levelling down, it is in fact a means to ensure that everyone is on board, she added. It is recalled that Outstanding Cambridge Learner Awards are a group of awards issued by Cambridge International Examinations. They recognise exceptional learner achievement in Cambridge examinations around the world. The primary purpose of these awards is to celebrate and recognise the success of high-performing Cambridge learners. All Cambridge International Examinations students are eligible for the prestigious Top in the World award. In those countries where Cambridge examinations are taken by more students a wider range of awards are available, including Top in Country, Best Across and High Achievement. (TNS) -- A $10 million fund that will award grants to local technology entrepreneurs won final approval Tuesday night from the Sacramento City Council, giving Mayor Kevin Johnson a key piece of his agenda to boost the citys high-tech sector in his final year.That was huge, Johnson said after council members approved the plan.The Innovation and Growth Fund, a project of the Mayors Office of Innovation, will offer $1 million annually to local programs that help young tech companies through leadership training, work-share spaces and other support. It will also examine the potential of investing in local and national venture capital funds, according to Abhi Nemani, Sacramentos chief innovation officer and head of the project.Some of the funding may be awarded as soon as August, Nemani said.The fund began as a traditional economic development program in 2013 using redevelopment money from local property taxes after the statewide dissolution of redevelopment agencies.In 2014, the City Council dedicated other revenue to that pot, including proceeds from the sale of city-owned lands. The fund was tagged with its new name during last years budget deliberations at the behest of Johnson, who has spoken frequently about expanding the citys economic base.The fund generates about $2 million annually and will use about that amount every year, Nemani said. That includes $500,000 the economic development department can use to lure technology companies to move or expand in the area. An additional $425,000 is allotted to the Office of Innovation, housed within the mayors office, for salaries and other costs including hiring a full-time person to replace Nemani when his contract expires in December and a program manager who was hired last month.An additional $125,000 is reserved for the purchase or development of technology to aid the city in streamlining its own business in areas such as planning and permitting another key focus of the mayors economic agenda.The remaining $1 million will be paid out to local projects and companies with strategies that could promote a tech ecosystem to draw and nurture other investment, Nemani said.The city will begin accepting applications for those Rapid Acceleration, Innovation, and Leadership in Sacramento grants Wednesday via its website . Applications will be accepted for 30 days, then reviewed by a panel of city personnel and local business leaders, still to be named.Nemani said it was important to have successful entrepreneurs participate in the process to gain private sector insight.The program isnt looking for scratch ideas but instead will give money to existing local endeavors that already have some funding and a track record. Applicants can request larger amounts, but Nemani said the goal is to award a range of smaller grants to enhance the programs success.The City Council will have final say over innovation funds and likely will choose the inaugural group of seven to 15 winners in August, Nemani said. He plans to present a package of grantees, rather than asking the council to debate on individual applicants.Approval was unanimous, but two council members, Jay Schenirer and Eric Guerra, said they had concerns about whether the plan does enough to establish career paths for young people in Sacramento.We are trying to make sure we are creating opportunities ... for (people) here, Guerra said. (TNS) -- IOWA CITY If youve strolled down Iowa Citys Linn Street, near Devotay Restaurant & Bar and La James spa and salon, a fascinating piece of the communitys history has been right under your feet.And a group of researchers want you to know it.So on Monday, crews lowered laser-scanning technology down a 25-foot-deep hole to take 3-dimensional images of Iowa Citys historic beer caves in hopes of creating a virtual reality of the hidden landscape.Information gleaned from what remains of the beer caves beneath Brewery Square, at 123 N. Linn St., will be used in UI classrooms, to educate the community and maybe for public tours, said Mark L. Anderson, a research specialist with the Iowa Society of the Archaeological Institute of America.People are really interested in archaeology, and its an easy sell, Anderson said. But its important that we sell it. Archaeology is so heavily funded by the public through various laws and regulations So we as archaeologists and historians and other researchers really, really feel its super-important to inform our constituents of the really cool stuff right beneath their feet.The scanning technology being used for the new mapping is known as LIDAR or Light Detection And Ranging.LIDAR is a remote-sensing method that uses light a pulsed laser to measure both natural and man-made environments with accuracy, precision and flexibility, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.The three-dimensional renderings anticipated from the scans of Iowa Citys beer caves will be the first of their kind in the state, Anderson said.It may be the first time for really any kind of brewing-related cave structure like this, Anderson said.Defunct beer caves exist statewide including in Cedar Rapids but because none has been imaged using the new technology, questions remain around the caves exact size, location and makeup.Anderson said LIDAR offered us the first opportunity to be able to really image, in a 3-dimensional way, something you can put on a 3-D screen and actually rotate.Iowas beer caves date back to the 1850s when breweries were popping across the state. Prohibition ushered in the beginning of their end, and most breweries were razed between 1940 and 1960, according to the Office of the State Archaeologist.Two of the three breweries in Iowa City, City Brewery and the Great Western Brewery, were torn down by the early 1960s. The third, formerly the Union Brewery, was restored in 1985 and became the Brewery Square Building now owned by developer Marc Moen.Moen has worked with Marlin Ingalls, at the state archaeologists office, to undertake further exploration hence the use of LIDAR mapping.We dont know exactly where this is under the streets, said Adam Skibbe, GIS administrator for the UI Department of Geographical and Sustainability Sciences, while setting up LIDAR equipment 25 feet underground in one of the caves on Monday.With the help of other UI and state researchers, Skibbe said hes eager to determine the caves precise size, depth and location.It will be really neat when its all said and done, he said.UI senior Chris Watland, a GIS major and member of a student geography organization, also climbed down into the caves Monday to observe and learn.I had no idea, he said. Its just so cool how much history is hidden beneath Iowa City that I never knew of before.As a student, Watland said, hes looking forward to the 3-D modeling and research potential.Anderson, with the Iowa branch of the Archaeological Institute of America, said future commercialization like public tours and special events will depend on the building owners and what they feel is viable.Theyre underground and, as noted, there are serious considerations about access and safety, he said. It would be quite an endeavor, not impossible, but it would take quite a bit to be able to do some kind of publicly accessible version.l Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.comYour next Government articles2016 The Gazette (Cedar Rapids, Iowa)Visit The Gazette (Cedar Rapids, Iowa) at thegazette.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. (TNS) -- A national initiative headquartered at the University of Memphis to improve health through mobile sensors and big data is producing results, officials said Tuesday.Researchers have developed a method to mine mountains of data provided from wearable sensors to monitor stress in real time and determine the best time to intervene with a text message or prompt.The Center of Excellence for Mobile Sensor Data-to-Knowledge, or MD2K , headquartered at the U of M, with researchers at the National Institute of Drug Abuse Intramural Research Program officially initially reported their research in a paper last month at the 2016 CHI conference for human-computer interaction in San Jose.The National Institute of Health in 2014 made MD2K, with U o fM computer science professor Santosh Kumar as center director, one of 11 Big Data Centers of Excellence designed to harness exploding amounts of data to improve the nations health and medical care. MD2K involves top scientists from a dozen universities to develop tools, software and training materials for researchers, health care providers and others.The new research, Finding Significant Stress Episodes in a Discontinuous Time Series of Rapidly Varying Mobile Sensor Data, tracked body responses, GPS and activity data in a study of 38 opioid-dependent drug users to identify major but usually rare stress episodes. A standard for continuous assessment of stress researchers developed earlier, known as cStress also played a role.The research also pinpointed the environments, such as areas with graffiti, trash, broken windows and bars, where stress spiked and found that one episode increased the likelihood of another. Through early detection, intervention and prevention, the research could help reduce health care costs and combat diseases and behaviors ranging from obesity and smoking to substance abuse, asthma and congestive heart failure. (TNS) -- Los Angeles city lawmakers broke through a lengthy political logjam over police body cameras on Tuesday, clearing the way for a City Council vote on the costly initiative. After six months of delays , the councils Public Safety Committee unanimously backed the plan for purchasing thousands of devices from Scottsdale, Ariz.,-based Taser International, a move that would make the LAPD the largest law enforcement agency in the nation to use the devices on such a widespread scale.A full council vote is scheduled for Wednesday. Councilman Joe Buscaino, who previously warned that the program would divert funds from other public safety needs, said he now is comfortable with the initiative and ready to move forward.Police officers want the cameras, Buscaino said, so they can show the public the professionalism, the courtesy they employ every single day.Critics of the program were less enthusiastic, saying the LAPDs policy for releasing footage will undermine efforts to improve police oversight. The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California has opposed the program for months, criticizing the LAPDs decision not to publicly release body camera footage without a court order. Catherine Wagner, an attorney for the civil liberties group, told lawmakers Tuesday that they should withhold funding until the policy is revised.The LAPDs program, while perhaps the biggest ... is not even close to being the best, Wagner said.The vote was the latest step in a sometimes rocky review process for the camera program, which is backed by Mayor Eric Garcetti and his appointees on the Board of Police Commissioners.Last year, city lawmakers began voicing dismay over the programs cost $57.6 million over five years and raised questions about whether the Police Department got the best deal possible. Competing technology firms complained they were unfairly left out of the LAPD selection process, which relied in part on a competitive search conducted by the much smaller Kern County Sheriffs Department.As a result, city lawmakers postponed a crucial vote to approve the body camera program, delaying the rollout for months and derailing Garcettis pledge to put a camera on nearly every officer by the end of this year.LAPD officials do not expect to finish outfitting 7,000 officers with cameras until the fall of 2017, at the earliest.Body cameras have been hailed as a key tool for improving police accountability and building community trust in law enforcement. Garcetti unveiled his initiative in late 2014, amid nationwide protests over how police use force, particularly against African Americans.The LAPD already has about 860 cameras, purchased with private donations. Last year, the department negotiated a contract with Taser to provide thousands more, along with replacement equipment, digital storage of the recordings and thousands of Tasers.The council was set to vote on the $31.2-million contract in December. But city lawmakers balked at the last minute, saying they were worried that the technology would require scores of additional LAPD officers to review camera footage and monitor the use of the devices. The LAPD later revised its plan to include more civilian staffers.The concerns continued in April, when Councilman Mitch Englander questioned whether the LAPD should start the selection process over and accept new bids from camera manufacturers. Police commissioners defended the process, saying the initiative was too important to delay further.Englander, who heads the councils Public Safety Committee, asked for a fresh analysis of the body camera market. In response, the department surveyed several camera manufacturers to determine whether they had made upgrades to their devices and storage systems. After receiving information from 18 companies, LAPD officials determined that Taser still was their preferred choice.Ive been a passionate proponent, but also wanted to make sure we did this correctly, Englander said Tuesday.Representatives of a competitor to Taser disagreed, saying the city should have carried out a more open search for camera technology.There was little transparency in the process, said City Hall lobbyist Adena Tessler, whose client is Hollywood-based Wolfcom camera manufacturer. Nobody should be doing this in a city this size without an open bid process. Chamber of commerce members Thursday heard details on a proposed project that could put huge conduits for water under the community to produce more power and create jobs. The proposed Banks Lake hydroelectric pumped storage project could be operational by the year 2025. Tim Culbertson, and a team from Columbia Basin Hydropower, outlined a project that could require some 2,600 workers during construction and as many as 100 permanent employees. Culbertson spoke at the Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerces weekly luncheon at The Siam Palace. He said licensing could take as long as three years, with seven years or more construction time. The project would take water from Banks Lake through a large penstock (pipe) to a pump-generator station near Crescent Bay on Lake Roosevelt, generate electricity and then pump the water back into Banks Lake later. That process would actually result in a net loss of energy, but would be flexible enough to supplement the burgeoning renewable energy sector (wind and solar power) that has no way to store energy. Culbertson said that a large 35-foot, or two 20-foot, pipes would go underground and take water from the bottom of Banks Lake about 400 feet south of North Dam. The Banks Lake project would provide up to 500 megawatts of energy and capacity to offset the retirement of some coal-fired energy plants in the Northwest. Culbertson said while the project could provide 35 hours of continuous generation, it is unlikely that the duration of continuous operation would last that long. He said that the level of Banks Lake would drop no more that one or two feet during long operating periods. Columbia Basin Hydropower is owned by three irrigation districts in the Columbia Basin East Columbia Basin, Quincy Columbia Basin and South Columbia Basin. Culbertson said operation of the pumping plant could be run by permanent employees or through a contract arrangement with the Bureau of Reclamations John W. Keys III Pump-Generating plant. Columbia Basin Hydropower currently has seven power producing units under operation, with the power going to the cities of Tacoma and Seattle. He said the firms talks with Reclamation are going better than they once were. The underground pipe would be from 6,000 feet to 9,000 feet long, depending on where engineers decide to locate the overall system. The underlying granite rock formations are ideal for drilling, and Culbertson didnt think that would pose a problem. Italian automobile club (Aci) chief Angelo Sticchi Damiani says a new F1 race deal for Monza beyond 2016 is now "on the home straight". Bernie Ecclestone admitted in Baku last weekend that reports another well-known Italian circuit - Imola - could poach the race are true. The F1 supremo also warned that Italy could be left off the calendar altogether for 2017. "Yes, I know," Sticchi Damiani told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. "We are completing the team of supporters, including a sponsor, to help the Aci in this significant expense," he revealed. "We would have closed it earlier if there had not been other actions that brought a bit of confusion to the negotiations." He is referring to Imola, who have been in negotiations with Ecclestone as well. "Yes, but not only that," Sticchi Damiani admitted. "Imola started by saying 'If Monza does not make it, we are here', which is absolutely correct. "But then their position changed and it created a costly competition that was unnecessary. Because the stability law is for Monza," he added, referring to a dispute over funds. Imola, however, has claimed that any funding put aside for Monza should also be available to Imola, otherwise it would be illegal state aid. "That's absurd," Sticchi Damiani declared. "The state is not paying a cent. Parliament authorised the Aci to use its money for the GP." He also ruled out Imola's suggestion that Monza and Imola annually alternate the race. "The reason is simple," he said. "The sponsor that is interested wants to stay in one place, Monza." Sticchi Damiani said he hopes the deal is done by July. (GMM) After Singapore and London, Naidu to ape Russia! Strange are the ways of Telugu Desam Party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu. All these days, he has been saying that he would make the new capital of Amaravati into another Singapore. For every design and construction, he has been consulting Singapore government and what is worse, he is all set to hand over major part of the Amaravati land to Singapore for development. And not just Singapore, Naidu has been taking the name of every place that comes to his mind whether it is Istanbul, Beijing, Shanghai, London, Tokyo, Putrajaya etc, saying he would adopt development models from these places to construct Amaravati, forgetting the local flavour and culture. More recently, he came under sharp criticism from various sections for approving the Japanese designs for the assembly and high court buildings which looked like atomic reactors. Now, Naidu is planning to visit Russia and Kirghizstan shortly along with his paraphernalia in a special aircraft. Apparently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had visited these countries recently, is learnt to have told Naidu that they have great buildings with wonderful architecture. So, Naidu has decided to go these places and emulate the architecture in these places while developing Amaravati. If Naidu apes the buildings of all these countries, one will see a mixture of various architectures in Amaravati; and not the native Telugu culture! The Society of Automotive Engineers has already developed Standard J3016 which describes six different levels of driving automation increasing from Level 0 - No Automation, to Level 5 - Full Automation. At Level 0, a human driver performs all driving tasks, even if assisted by warning or other momentary intervention systems. At Level 5, a system comprising sensors, actuators and control algorithms performs all driving tasks such as steering, braking, acceleration and monitoring the vehicle and roadway under all modes of driving. At Level 5, a human driver is no longer necessary. No one who follows automotive news and technology trends can be unaware of the intense research and experimentation taking place related to vehicles that drive themselves, i.e., Autonomous Vehicles. Among other potential benefits, these vehicles offer the promise of increased safety on the nations roadways and personal mobility to those who are not able or do not wish to drive themselves. Obviously, there is a long and difficult path to progress from Level 0 to Level 6. In fact, as the level of automation goes up, the research and development task increases in a very rapid and steep fashion due to the increased sophistication of both the hardware and software that are required. Recently, Raj Nair, Ford Motor Companys Vice President for Product Development was quoted in Automotive News saying that it is credible that an autonomous vehicle at SAE Level 4 [one step below full automation] will hit the market by 2020. Even if this proves to be an optimistic projection, it attests to the level of enthusiasm that surrounds the development of this highly disruptive new technology. Mr. Nair noted that the most significant needs were improved sensor capability and the development of software that can read the road as a human would. To those following the development of this exciting technology, it is clear that along the development path to higher levels of automation, many safety aids and improvements will emerge and will work their way into commercially available products. It is self-evident that the US military, specifically the Army, would be highly interested and supportive of efforts related to the development of high speed, large and heavily loaded Autonomous Ground Vehicles (AGVs) to avoid sending humans (i.e., soldiers and/or military specialists) on dangerous missions where injury and death might be possible outcomes. In certain areas of this technology they would naturally be in a forefront position, given the difficult circumstances under which they would be operating military AGVs. Of additional interest is the fact that the principles and features of this technology could find applicability in the civilian heavy duty sector, as discussed in brief at the conclusion of the article. As the US Armys Center of Excellence for Modeling and Simulation of Ground Vehicles, the Automotive Research Center (ARC), led by the University of Michigan, is in a forefront position to develop innovative and advanced methods of controlling AGVs under almost all conditions. In recently completed work, Model Predictive Control (MPC), which includes optimization of overall vehicle performance with respect to a specific mission, has been employed to demonstrate that an AGV can reach a pre-chosen target position in terrain that is laden with fixed obstacles without any collisions with these obstacles and with no loss of dynamic stability, which could lead to vehicle rollover or skid. The researchers involved in this work have considerable experience in this field and have published earlier technical papers on their work. The effort recently completed represents the most sophisticated approach and use, to date, of advanced MPC methods for obstacle avoidance and maintenance of vehicle stability. In prior work, the vehicle speed was held at a constant value. However, in the latest work the vehicle can be controlled to accelerate and decelerate as well as change its direction of travel (steer) in conjunction with its intrinsic capabilities in an optimal manner that ensures safe travel from an initial position to a target or goal in the minimal possible time. In this work, the AGV is operated and controlled in what is termed an unstructured environment. In practical terms this means that there are no lanes or other markers to follow and no traffic rules that must be obeyed. In their work, the researchers have defined the mission of the AGV as moving safely (i.e. obstacle avoidance and dynamic stability) from its initial position to a predesignated goal position as quickly as possible. Between the starting point and the goal, there are obstacles whose location, size and shape are not known in advance. The only information as to the location and nature of the obstacles is obtained through the use of a LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) sensor that is mounted on the front of the vehicle, giving it a very wide frontal field of view extending to about 100 meters in distance. The LiDAR sensor illuminates its field of view with laser light, which can detect the distance to an obstacle and most, but, unfortunately, not all of the precise boundaries of the obstacle. The uncertainty introduced by this lack of 100% precise information as to the shape of the obstacle is accounted for in the control algorithm. As for the dynamic stability of the vehicle, this is achieved by ensuring that a positive vertical force exists between all of the vehicle tires and the ground at all times, which has the effect of not allowing a single tire to lift off the surface at any time during the vehicles travel. This requires that a full, well-calibrated transient dynamic model of the vehicleincluding mathematically based description of the powertrain, steering system and brakes, as well as both the longitudinal and lateral load transfers due to acceleration/deceleration and turning forcesbe embedded within the control software. In actually determining the optimal vehicle trajectory, the total region of potential travel, as determined by the feedback from the LiDAR sensor, is broken up into various categories consisting of a number of sub-regions. Some of the sub-regions are open and free of obstacles and some are boundary regions terminated by obstacles. The vehicle is propelled forward in a sequence of multi-stage time segments or prediction horizons, during each one of which the vehicle may be accelerated, decelerated and steered according to the prediction and instructions of the predictive control optimizer. The control optimizer is formulated so that the vehicle will reach its destination safely (with respect to both speed and dynamic stability) in the shortest possible time. The detailed mathematical formulation is complex and will not be discussed in detail in this article. A full description can be found in the technical paper the researchers have published[1] as well as in their prior work. The researchers conclude that Model Predictive Control allowing both variable velocity and steering control, as opposed to the constraint of constant speed, not only improves the performance of the AGV by allowing it to operate closer to its dynamic limits but also enables its safe travel through and around a set of obstacles that might not be traversable at constant speed with steering control alone. For example, in a 500-meter trajectory specified by the researchers, the AGV with variable speed controlthe speed varying between approximately 10 m/sec and 30 m/sec after the initial acceleration from a stopped positionreaches its target about 7% more quickly than a vehicle limited to a constant speed. This can be decisive in mission-critical or hostile situations. Furthermore, at an enforced constant speed of 20 m/sec, the vehicle collides with the obstacle, as shown in the figure. Future work will investigate the use of improved software algorithms that explicitly take into consideration uncertainties in both the models and in sensor measurements. This is expected to improve the overall robustness of control. Applying MPC to moving obstacles is another direction for future research as well. Of course, as sensor technology improves, incorporation of their improved characteristics will also be implemented and evaluated. In the heavy duty truck commercial sector there are also obstacles (such as the vehicle directly ahead or a vehicle that suddenly cuts in or simply the presence of potentially dangerous debris in the road) combined with an economic and logistical incentive to safely reach a specific location or goal in a minimum amount of time. Dynamic stability is also of concern as rollover or jack-knifing are to be avoided at all costs. However, the environment for these vehicles is structured, i.e. there are generally well-defined lanes and traffic rules exist (both explicit and implicit) that are to be followed. Although fully autonomous heavy duty vehicles are not foreseeable in the very near term, it is evident that the principles of Model Predictive Control, combined with appropriate sensors and algorithms, could serve to produce significant passive aids for the truck operator in the form of information and alerts. These aids would entail both speed and steering control advisories for collision avoidance and dynamic stability. In extreme cases of immediately impending danger, they could be implemented to intervene actively in order to initiate the required extrication maneuvers. Dr. Blumberg is currently a Visiting Research Scientist, Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. References An exhibit titled Waterfowl/WOW! recently opened in the Natural History Museum at Western Wyoming Community College. The exhibit, which features live mounts of swans, cranes, geese, ducks and upland game birds, is designed and installed by Dave Mead, Exhibits Coordinator at the Sweetwater County Museum, and Will Clark, WWCC Biology Professor. The waterfowl on display are part of a large collection of mounted birds donated to WWCC by Ray Johnson of Helena, Mont. Johnson, a taxidermist, visited the colleges Wildlife Museum and found it so impressive that he decided to gift it with his collection, according to David Tate, WWCC community relations director. A collection this complete is rare at the university level. At the community college level, it is just another aspect that sets Western apart from the rest, Clark said. Students have the opportunity to examine specimens of all huntable waterfowl in North America. Mead said. To have a great collection like this for display is a museum exhibit designers dream, Mead said. Waterfowl/NOW! is developed to accompany a Smithsonian traveling exhibit titled Water/Ways that is being installed next week in the colleges gallery next to the pendulum. Water/Ways is produced by the Smithsonians Museums on Main Street program and is being brought to WWCC by the Wyoming Humanities Council and the Sweetwater County Museum. Both exhibits will be open following a ribbon cutting at 10:00 a.m. on June 27, and free thereafter for public viewing during the next six weeks. Great things are happening on West 55th Street. Photo: Paul Wagtouicz This list is all about bistros, as in the kind that serve traditional hard-to-come-by staples like veal blanquette and oeufs mayo. Vive la France! The Absolute Best 1. Benoit 60 W. 55th St., nr. Sixth Ave.; 646-943-7373 Benoits tenure in midtown began in 2008 as a kind of bistro simulacrum. Its inspiration was and is Alain Ducasses Paris establishment of the same name. With trademark Duccassian pomp, we learned the 133-seat quasi-clone would be outfitted to the gills with Opinel knives, slate lions-head soup bowls, and the hardwood bones of a 19th-century Bordeaux apothecary reconstituted to create a private dining room. What diners got instead was a stilted museum-quality reproduction of the form, without purpose or passion, as Adam Platt put it. Diners were all but told how to eat their cassoulet that is, when the staff was paying attention. I think Americans dont quite understand French bistro, Ducasse finally scoffed. Eight years on, as the influence of new-wave Parisian bistros like Bones and Frenchie has spilled over Stateside in the form of places like Rebelle and the newly minted Le Coucou, great things are happening on West 55th Street. Philippe Bertineau, Ducasses chef since 2010, carries the torch for pate en croute: Cubes of lean and fatty pork turn up in cross-sectional slabs with hunks of foie gras and speckles of pistachio; head space between the veal-shoulder pate and its pastry encasement brims with meaty, reduced ruby-port gelee, and theres a stoneware crock of pickles and mustard on the side. A special of soft-shell crabs with spring peas is light and pitch-perfect; sweetbreads with chanterelles and more peas a few weeks later are even better. The mess of Provencal vegetables adorning the loup de mer, as well as king salmon with favas and marjoram, are some of the simplest, best-handled fish dishes in the entire city. The famed quenelles de brochet are still a war between the domineering flavors of freshwater pike and crustaceans, waged with cream and butter and served piping hot in enameled iron, but the hard-to-pull-off contrast of fluffed and smooth textures is more deft than ever. Benoit is by no means inexpensive, the way were supposed to think something like it might be in Paris, but the contrast between it and other so-called bistros is more apparent, and wider, than ever. 2. Chez Napoleon 365 W. 50th St., nr. Ninth Ave.; 212-265-6980 Order the poufy Grand Marnier souffle when you sit down, because it really will take an hour; get an entree, or a minimum of three appetizers. Follow the house rules, and Chez Napoleon almost always delivers excellence. The dim, gauzy Hells Kitchen dining room turns 56 this year, but, thanks to the the run-down Gallic kitsch it exudes, it doesnt look a day over 84. Napoleon bills itself as a transatlantic cousin to the kind of cluttered, rustic, fierce-spirited bistro you might find near the Seine, but the truth is that the whole endive vinaigrette isnt as good at those places, if those places exist at all, and Chez Napoleons spirit is uniquely, fiercely, New Yorkish. Try the herby littlenecks Josephine, or the escargot, which are buttered up inside ceramic, mollusk-shaped servingware shells, the kind that fell out of favor decades ago everywhere else. Chez Napoleon gets no memos, and we are better for it. Grand-mere Marguerite Brunos menu is chockablock with faithfully prepared standards; the Frenchest-sounding ones sweetbreads, cassoulet, half-duck confit with crisp skin usually pay off the most. 3. Tout Va Bien 311 W. 51st St., nr. Eighth Ave.; 212-265-0190 At first glance, the broad-checked tablecloths make this Theater District oldie seem like its a place to get spaghetti and meatballs. The sporty, flag-festooned bar telegraphs little more than an attractive Bud Light happy-hour-pricing schematic. The heart of this 69-year-old dining room, however, is larded through with morsels of saucisson sec. Its soul is all croute everything. Sorry for the Service in Advance made it onto the menu in all caps, and a sort of food-magazine aesthetic looms. Specifically, its the February 1961 Gourmet. Mashed potatoes are piped out of a bag with a fluted tip, while ham-and-cheese omelettes are offered at dinnertime alongside the steak, the way Careme intended. Head cheese comes with eggy gribiche, and veal kidneys are offered with a choice of mustard-wine sauce or Bordelaise. The coq au vin appears to have been obliterated in some kind of nuclear fallout, except instead of fallout its demi-glace and red wine, and instead of atomic devastation its the lowest, slowest braise ever. My French girlfriend was impressed, someone pleaded on Yelp last month. Spend long enough mulling over the wonders of saucisson brioche, and chances are you will be, too. 4. Cafe Loup 105 W. 13th St., nr. Sixth Ave.; 212-255-4746 The walls are beige and hung with prints, this publication noted in 1978, shortly after Cafe Loups debut. The prints are now black-and-white photographs, but not much else has changed. It should be pointed out that Loup took New Yorks Best Smoker-Friendly Restaurant in 1998, which suggested a bright, nicotine-tinged, and entirely incorrectly prognosticated future for this West Village fortress of lardons. Otherwise, where there were Montmorency cherries on the duck in the 80s, there are now Granny Smith apples and shiitake rice. Gay Talese championed the icy house martini, which means the same drink is right now being endorsed by some poorer-dressed blog-to-book wunderkind at table five. This is a genuine neighborhood bistro that welcomes repeat diners with an effortless kind of warmth, and while it is more or less a classic bistro, the scene has never devolved into overly reverential spectacle. Cafe Loup has done fine without plastering its interior with French artifacts and souvenirs. This means the prix fixe onion soup still bubbles under a mantle of Gruyere, and the dining room remains the only place in the universe where Sunday jazz brunch has ever been acceptable. 5. Le Veau dOr 129 E. 60th St., nr. Lexington Ave.; 212-838-8133 There were probably fresh-cut peonies on the bar when Oleg Cassini met Grace Kelly here in the 1950s, nearly 20 years into the restaurants tenure on 60th Street. Business deals and divorces alike worth millions have roots in the house celery remoulade, creamy and unchanged since who knows when. More than 60 years ago, wheels of genuine Roquefort cheese took turbojets from Paris to Idlewild and were trucked into midtown. All for a salad. Next year Le Veau dOr turns 80, which basically makes it immortal. Its trademark mix of money and humble bistro food including the namesake veal kidney dijonnaise, or scalloped cutlets with lemon butter has long since reached an infallible kind of durability. So what if the skate wing has too much of a hard sear, or the enormous poached leek with vinaigrette is a little waterlogged, or the stiff cube of gratin with the sole amandine lingered in the broiler a little too long? Its a cool thrill to sit and eat in a dining room where years are metered out in curly parsley sprig garnishes. Also, the ile flottante is for real, and perfect. 6. Quatorze Bis 323 E. 79th St., nr. Second Ave., 212-535-1414 The restaurant is temporarily closed, with a projected reopening by July. Its reputation for clubby, elite clientele is well-deserved and readily apparent from the signed dust jackets on the wall. Menu prices are tellingly high, but the food is thoughtful and cooked well. Some green and red bitter chicories from the salad with warm bacon vinaigrette wend their way into another, beneath a seared slab of goat cheese, and its nice that someone still cares about skate Grenobloise. Grill marks on the chicken are identical diamonds; the fries are golden and crisp. If you cannot stomach kvetching about your $100-a-month rent hike while the guy at the next table (loudly) cannot decide whether to gift his sons 501(c)(3) $5 million or $10 million come Q3, theres a long list of Calvados, Armagnac, and Sauternes to take the after-dinner edge off, or just get you drunk. Cheese, profiteroles, and poached pears belle Helene are offered as desserts, along with an apple tart with fanned slices of caramelized fruit that are so pretty they appear be in a pastry-school textbook, or a socialites dream. 7. Lexpress 249 Park Ave. South, at 20th St.; 212-254-5858 Four words: Baked Camembert at dawn. If you end up here at 5 a.m., you can enjoy a round of stinky cheese, warmed through, with greens and crusty bread on the side. The Gramercy restaurant is open 24/7, and its graveyard menu brims with snails bubbling in vivid green garlic butter, and tripe a lancienne. Its not an overnight dish, but you can get a round of foie gras torchon, sometimes, if you ask nicely. How about our famous onion soup instead? The server asks, which is all right because its one of the few great questions in the history of language, and the stoneware cauldron is roughly half molten cheese and half funky onions. The steak quotient of the steak-frites looks a little more like sirloin flap, or the Frenchified bavette more than it does the advertised cut of hanger, but it has a decent sear and is plated with a tangled heap of thin, salty fries. 8. La Mirabelle 102 W. 86th St., at Columbus Ave.; 212-496-0458 Peter Kump, who banded together with Julia Child to co-found the James Beard Foundation and who started the cooking school that later became the Institute of Culinary Education, was an early champion of La Mirabelle. Two Frenchwomen run it, and its like going back into the sixties, he told this publication, in 1987, three years after it opened on the Upper West Side. (One of them, Annick LeJeune Le Douaron, died in October, at the age of 70.) The wine list skews French and has always been based on the idea that, to accompany meals, reds or whites should be affordable, enjoyable, and funner to order by the bottle than by the glass; the least expensive is a Chardonnay from Maconnais, for $21. When I ordered the chicken livers, a man at the next table leaned in to say he orders the same dish once or twice a month. When the server went to go put in my order, he added that the prix fixe is $39.50 and includes a glass of wine, and mentioned a waitress who bursts out into song whenever the dining room begins to fill up. New reports suggest that Samsung may not even bother with a flat-screened Note this year, contrary to early reports of Samsung testing two different models for the Note5s successor, The Korea Herald reports, Samsung is not considering launching a flat screen version of the Note phone. This is according to Munwha Ilbo, a local daily Newspaper in Korea. The Samsung Note 4, Galaxy S6, and Galaxy S7 have all seen edge variants of the standard model. Starting off with the Note 4, Samsung released an oddball called the Note Edge. When I worked at Samsung at the retail level, I had to answer this question so many times what does it do differently? My answer always ended with well, and it looks pretty damn cool. Samsung Galaxy Note Edge, released in late 2014 The next year when the S6 edge launched alongside the Galaxy S6, Samsung drastically underestimated how many edge devices would sell and couldnt keep up with the demand. Samsung is clever to gradually introduce such a form factor into the market and Samsung has already launched 4 edge devices: Note edge, S6 edge, S6 edge+, and of course the Galaxy S7 edge. If Samsung solely released a curved Note smartphone, would you care that there wasnt a flat-screened version of it? Source | Via Google offers a page with all the information youd like to know about updating a Nexus device. However, recently, Google has updated this page with official information about when Nexus devices will cease to receive updates from Google. Usually a Nexus devices lifetime is around 2 years. For two years since their launches, these devices received updates directly from Google before most if not all manufactures can push out updates. (there was the strange case of the Verizon Moto X (2013) which received Kit Kat before the Neuxs 4). Whether its a full version update (ex: 5.1.1 to 6.0) or an incremental one (ex: 6.0 to 6.0.1), Google will stop updating its Nexus devices according to the chart seen below. Strangely, though, the Motorola Nexus 6 is not in the chart. Perhaps the date of decay for ol Shamu has not yet been decided. In case youre wondering about Androids monthly security patches, Google says Nexus devices will receive security updates For the longer of 3 years from availability or 18 months when the Google Store last sold the device. For example, since the Google Store stopped selling the Nexus 9 in April of this year, it should keep getting security updates until October of 2017, 18 months later. The current generation of Nexus phones, 5X and 6P, will be getting their last version update in September of 2017 while the Nexus 9 will cease to receive version updates in October of 2016. Source | Via Overall, Lenovo's acquisition of Motorola isn't a total flop, but hasn't generated too much profit either. What has stemmed from the whole ordeal, however, is a lot of controversy regarding the future of the Moto brand. A newly uncovered Lenovo device might actually be the first sign of an ongoing phasing process within the company, or at least, some form of product line remodeling, which was expected from the get go. The device in question, featured in an extensive leak from today, is said to be the Lenovo Vibe C2. It looks like an upcoming entry-level offer, featuring a 5-inch 720p display, MediaTek MT6735P SoC, 1GB of RAM and 8GB or 16GB of storage. Other alleged specs include a rather modest 8MP plus 5MP camera setup, LTE, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, all powered by a 2,750 mAh battery. Lenovo Vibe C2/Moto E(2016) As for the Moto connection, the new device is said to bear an XT1021 model number. It does look suspiciously similar to existing Moto E numbers, like XT1527, XT1511, XT1505 & XT1524. This could be a coincidence, but the more likely explanation is that this will actually be the next Moto E phone on most markets. The Vibe C2 moniker will likely be used exclusively in Asia, where Lenovo did recently release the Vibe C. Lenovo Vibe C2/Moto E(2016) Source These are the best offers from our affiliate partners. We may get a commission from qualifying sales. The new Sony Xperia family landed in Europe, the US, Canada and we even heard that the Xperia XA will land in India on June 22. Well, the rumor was mostly right, the actual launch is on June 24 (this Friday). Sony Xperia India tweeted about "borderless design" along with a dark image that can only be the Xperia XA (you can see the old-school, fingerprint readerless Power key). The Sony India site shows the recommended price is INR 21,000 (the equivalent of $310/275). The Xperia X is listed at INR 49,000. The X Performance and XA Ultra are not listed. Thanks for the tip, Tina! Source Harlow is a former New Town in Essex with a population of 86,000. Located in the upper Stort Valley, it was built in the decades after the Second World War to ease overcrowding and London and provide homes for people bombed out during the Blitz. It includes Britain's first pedestrian precinct and first modern residential tower block, The Lawn. Old Harlow, the historic part of the town, was mentioned in the Domesday Book. David and Victoria Beckham's former home, Rowneybury House, nicknamed 'Beckingham Palace', is nearby. 11:52, 25 OCT 2022 Grandfather Mountain Earns 2016 TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence The Grandfather Mountain Stewardship Foundation isnt about moving mountains. Its about moving people. And the people have spoken. Grandfather Mountain has received the 2016 TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence. This marks the fifth consecutive year that the Linville-based attraction has been recognized with the achievement. Now in its sixth year, the award celebrates hospitality businesses that have consistently earned outstanding traveler reviews on the TripAdvisor travel website during the past year. According to TripAdvisor, award recipients represent the upper echelon of businesses listed on the worlds largest travel site. Were honored and proud to receive this accolade for the fifth year in a row, said Frank Ruggiero, director of marketing and communications for the Grandfather Mountain Stewardship Foundation, the nonprofit organization that oversees the attraction. I cant think of a greater measure of our success than receiving such feedback from our guests. The fact that they took the time to put their experience to words means mountains to us here. To qualify, a business must maintain an overall TripAdvisor bubble rating of at least four or five, have a minimum number of reviews and must have been listed on the site for at least 12 months. Grandfather Mountain currently holds a 4.5 overall rating based on its 1,302 visitor reviews. Approximately 250,000 people visit Grandfather Mountain each year. The park is open every day except Thanksgiving and Christmas, weather permitting. During the summer, the nonprofit nature preserve offers a wide variety of special events and daily programs, including habitat animal enrichments, naturalist programs and guided hikes. To learn more, visitwww.grandfather.com. For more information about TripAdvisor, visit www.tripadvisor.com. The not-for-profit Grandfather Mountain Stewardship Foundation strives to inspire conservation of the natural world by helping guests explore, understand and value the wonders of Grandfather Mountain. For more information, call (800) 468-7325, or visit www.grandfather.com to plan a trip. Concert at St. Johns on July 3 with Joseph Sobol Concert at St. Johns. Sunday, July 3rd., 5:00 pm Joseph Sobol, nationally acclaimed scholar, teacher, writer, musician and balladeer will present an evening of music, song and storytelling of folklore of Appalachia and the Celtic influence. Bring a covered dish and join in a potluck supper after the concert. St. Johns is located on Herb Thomas Rd., off Mast Gap Rd., in Valle Crucis (signs will be posted) Admission $5.00, children free. For more information call 828-963-4609 High Gravity Adventures Hosts Summer Sunrise and Sunset Yoga Looking to add a little om to your weekend? Head to High Gravity Adventures for Sunrise Yoga and Sunset Yoga, held on select mornings and evenings throughout the summer from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Revive your weekend routine with these all-levels yoga flow classes taught by High Country Yoga, focused on increasing strength, flexibility and balance. Tucked in the middle of the Blue Ridge Mountains, High Gravity Adventures provides a peaceful, scenic place to re-focus your mind, body and spirit. After completing your practice, enjoy a 20% discount on High Gravity Adventures aerial adventure park! The park offers 75 different aerial challenges, allowing you to climb, balance and swing from heights of 15 to 50 feet in the air. Sunrise Yoga and Sunset Yoga classes are $5 for High Country Yoga members and $7 for non-members. Check out High Gravity Adventures events calendar for all upcoming dates. See below for some photos of recent yoga classes and feel free to contact me for more photos or details to share with your readers. ASU Library Summer Author Series Begins June 30 BOONE High Country Sustainability is the theme of the 2016 University Libraries Summer Author Series to be held at Appalachian State University. The series is sponsored by the Richard T. Barker Friends of the Library. Janet Larsen, co-author of 2015s The Great Transition: Shifting from Fossil Fuels to Solar and Wind Energy, kicks off the series with a talk Thursday, June 30, at 3:30 p.m. in Parkway Ballroom of the Plemmons Student Union. Other speakers in the series are Jay Leutze at 3:30 p.m. July 14, also in the student unions Parkway Ballroom, and Chris Arvidson, Julie Townsend and Scot Pope at 3:30 p.m. Aug. 4 in Room 114 Belk Library and Information Commons. Janet Larsen Larsen is an environmental analyst working to connect the dots between climate, energy, water, agriculture and security. She led the research efforts of the Earth Policy Institute (EPI) from its inception in 2001 until 2015. Prior to the creation of Earth Policy Institute, Larsen worked at the Worldwatch Institute. Her research has covered a range of topics, from bike sharing and bottled water to food security, forest cover and crop yields. In addition to The Great Transition, Larsen also co-authored The Earth Policy Reader. She managed the research for all of EPIs books, including the Plan B series and Full Planet, Empty Plates. She holds a degree in earth systems from Stanford University. Jay Leutze Leutze was born in Virginia and now lives in the Southern Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina. Trained as an attorney, he has become a leading voice for state and federal conservation funding for investment in public lands. He is a trustee for Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy, one of the nations most established land trusts. He is the author of 2012s Stand Up that Mountain: The Battle to Save One Small Community in the Wilderness Along the Appalachian Trail, winner of the Reed Environmental Writing Award. Leutzes book tells the true story of a North Carolina outdoorsman who teams up with his Appalachian mountain people neighbors to save treasured land from being destroyed. Chris Arvidson, Julie Townsend and Scot Pope These three writers edited the 2015 anthology Reflections on the New River: New Essays, Poems and Personal Stories. Arvidson is a writer who has worked in land and water conservation. She lives in West Jefferson. Pope is a photographer, musician and writer who lives in Creston. Townsend has taught writing for 23 years at UNC-Charlotte and Appalachian State University. She lives in Fleetwood. For more information about the series, contact Lynn Patterson at 828-262-2087. Share this: Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Reddit Pocket Hardly a day goes by without some new revelation of an information technology mess in the United States that seems like an endless round of the old radio show joke contest, Can You Top This except that increasingly the joke is on us. From nuclear weapons updated with floppy disks to needless deaths from medical errors, many of which are caused by preventable interoperability communication errors. According to a report released to Congress, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has found that the US government last year spent 75 percent of its 80 billion dollar technology budget just maintaining aging computers where floppy disks are still used, including one system for US nuclear forces that is more than 50 years old. In a previous report, the GAO outlines the challenges facing health IT interoperability. Lack of EHR interoperability is not an academic issue, it impacts the healthcare of millions of Americans, and it is a major factor behind the deaths of hundreds of thousands of patients every year as a result of medical errors. A study from the British Medical Journal cites medical errors as the third leading cause of death in the US, after heart disease and cancer. The GAO report, titled EHRs: Nonfederal Efforts to Help Achieve Health Information Interoperability details the status of efforts to develop infrastructure that could lead to nationwide interoperability of health information. The report, which was requested by Congressional leaders, describes a variety of efforts being undertaken to facilitate interoperability. The report concludes that most of these efforts remain works in progress. The GAO identifies five barriers to interoperability: - Insufficiencies in health data standards - Variation in state privacy rules - Difficulty in accurately matching all the right records to the right patient - The costs involved in achieving the goals - The need for governance and trust among entities to facilitate sharing health information CMS Pushing for Plug and Play Interoperability Tools That Already Exist Meanwhile in an interview with the Massachusetts Medical Society, Andrew Slavitt, Acting Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' (CMS) acknowledges in the CMS interoperability effort we are not sending a man to the moon. We are actually expecting (healthcare) technology to do the things that it already does for us every day. So there must be other reasons why technology and information arent flowing in ways that match patient care, Slavitt stated. Partly, I believe some of the reasons are actually due to bad business practices. But, I think some of the technology will improve through the better use of standards and compliance. And I think well make significant progress through the implementation of APIs in the next version of (Electronic Health Records) EHRs which will spur innovation by allowing for plug and play capability. The private sector has to essentially change or evolve their business practices so that they dont subvert this intent. If you are a customer of a piece of technology that doesn't do what you want, it's time to raise your voice. He claims that CMS has "very few higher priorities" other than interoperability. It is also interesting that two different government entities point their fingers at interoperability yet plug and play API solutions have been available through middleware integration for years, the same ones that are successfully used in the retail, banking and hospitality industries. As a sign of growing healthcare middleware popularity, Black Book Research, recently named the top ten middleware providers as Zoeticx, HealthMark, Arcadia Healthcare Solutions, Extension Healthcare, Solace Systems, Oracle, Catavolt, Microsoft, SAP and Kidozen. Medical Errors Third Leading Cause of Death in US The British Medical Journal recently reported that medical error is the third leading cause of death in the United States, after heart disease and cancer. As such, medical errors should be a top priority for research and resources, say authors Martin Makary, MD, MPH, professor of surgery, and research fellow Michael Daniel, from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. However, accurate, transparent information about errors is not captured on death certificates which are the documents the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) uses for ranking causes of death and setting health priorities. Death certificates depend on International Classification of Diseases (ICD) codes for cause of death, but causes such as human and EHR errors are not recorded on them. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 117 countries code their mortality statistics using the ICD system. The authors call for better reporting to help capture the scale of the problem and create strategies for reducing it. According to the World Healths reported by the CDC form our countrys research funding and public health priorities, says Makary in a press release. Right now, cancer and heart disease get a ton of attention, but since medical errors dont appear on the list, the problem doesnt get the funding and attention it deserves. It boils down to people dying from the care that they receive rather than the disease for which they are seeking care. The Root Cause of Many Patient Errors Better coding and reporting is a no-brainer and should be required to get to the bottom of the errors so they can be identified and resolved. However, in addition to not reporting the causes of death, there are other roadblocks leading to this frighteningly sad statistic such as lack of EHR interoperability. Unfortunately, the vast majority of medical devices, from EHRs to other healthcare IT components, lack interoperability with interoperability meaning a built-in or integrated platform that can exchange information across vendors, settings, and device types. Various systems and equipment are typically purchased from different manufacturers. Each comes with its own proprietary operating system and its own interface technologies, just like the days before the client and server ever met. Moreover, hospitals often must invest in separate systems to pull together all these disparate pieces of technology to feed data from bedside devices to EHR systems, data warehouses, and other applications that aid in clinical decision making, research and analytics. Many bedside devices, especially older ones, dont even connect to computers and require manual reading and data entry. Healthcare providers are sometimes forced to take mental notes on various pieces of information in order to draw conclusions. This is time consuming and error-prone. This cognitive load, especially in high stress situations, increases the risk of error such as accessing information on the wrong patient, performing the wrong action or placing the wrong order. Because information can be entered into various areas of the EHR, the possibility of duplicating or omitting information arises. Through the EHR, physicians can often be presented with a list of documentation located in different folders that can be many computer screens long and information can be missed. The nations largest health systems employ thousands of people dedicated to dealing with non-interoperability. The abundance of proprietary protocols and interfaces that restrict healthcare data exchange takes a huge toll on productivity. In addition to EHRs physical inability, tactics such as data blocking and hospital IT contracts that prevent data sharing by EHR vendors are also used to prevent interoperability. Healthcare overall has experienced negative productivity in this area over the past decade. The Devil Is in the Data Distribution There are numerous areas in hospitals that are particularly vulnerable to deadly errors, such as acute care settings requiring a complexity of care, time critical interventions, staffing and the systems that are relied upon to tie these many IT resources together. However, due to the complexities and differences between health data systems, medical professionals are constantly presented with different user interfaces that must be consciously thought about to appropriately gather data as well as capture their decisions and treatment plans. It is equally important to look at how the data stored in these disconnected, disparate systems is used. Much of the collection of patient, process, quality and financial data in medicine looks like a large jigsaw puzzle with a number of pieces missing. Raw data and information is fragmented across numerous non-operable EHRs, both within a single hospital or clinic along with spanning geographic ranges. Connecting these pieces has focused primarily on the transfer of the information to those who request it, a manual and error prone process that is further compounded by lack of interoperability. Dynamic Data Flow Extends Healthcare IT Extending the power of health IT depends on understanding the idea of data flow which is critical to the management of entire populations of patients, either within a single clinic, hospital, health system or entire community. We need dynamic data flow connected through smart interoperable middleware pipes so we can improve on the care delivered. The flow of data can be as important, or even more important, than the individual data points and connecting the patient, the data and the interpretation depends on it. Data flows contain signals and streams which allow automation and screening to take place. When we think at healthcare information technology from the perspective of data flow, we are not dependent on understanding every possible state or internal details, but can instead focus on the overall flow of the patient through the healthcare system. This allows for the design of complex analysis, automation and understanding that is not possible with disconnected databases. To build a better system for solving medical errors, we need to understand the interdependent parts of the system to create a win for the patient in better care and less redundancy, a win for the healthcare professionals enhancing and optimizing their workflow and a win for the insurance companies who are already investing a great deal of resources into care management, says Donald M. Voltz, MD, Department of Anesthesiology and Medical Director of the Main Operating Room at Aultman Hospital in Canton, OH who is an advocate and authority on middleware. Middleware Eliminates Need for HIEs Now those using or considering an HIE have a new concern when the interoperability provider goes bankrupt as has happened to users of Sandlot Solutions. The MCHC-Chicago Hospital Council (MCHC), which operates the Metro Chicago Health Information Exchange (HIE) had to go to court to keep Sandlot from deleting its files until after the validation of their information was completed and delivered to MCHC. Additionally, several other Sandlot customers were dramatically affected by the same problem at significant cost to all those organizations. As a sign of growing importance of middleware technologies in the healthcare industry, leading health IT research organization Black Book Research recently released a report on the interoperability tangle. In the report, managing partner Doug Brown warned that, The misalignment of requirements and protocols has hampered all the stakeholders interoperability efforts. This disorder is ushering in a new replacement revolution, this time for those HIEs failing to meet the expectations of their users, payers and providers alike. According to the announcement of the report, In response to alleviate concerns of HIEs with poor connectivity outside their IDNs and hospital systems, interoperability middleware is also a fast growing consideration according to 16% of hospital systems IT leaders with EHR-dependent HIE grievances, in particular. Middleware is gaining popularity fast by hospitals using EHR-dependent HIE systems with extremely expensive custom development for data sharing outside the network. Brown explained that The middleware software sits within the data pipeline and translates data from disparate EHRs which shows promise for private HIEs, particularly payer-centric enterprise models. It creates a business intelligence layer that provides information to all stakeholders in real time. How to Fix This Mess While the US technology gap will most likely continue, actions can be taken today to end the needless medical deaths. Two obvious immediate steps include: The CDC needs to be more transparent and accountable by providing specific patient expiration details on death certificates. The ICD must also step up and add codes for human and EHR causes of death so the 117 countries using this system will have better accuracy and can help pinpoint specific problems. As government officials continue to fail in taking a leadership role in solving interoperability, health systems operators can easily step up. Integrating EHRs with open middleware driven IT systems can begin today. By working together, vendors and healthcare administrators can end these needless deaths and concentrate of solving problems that there is no readily available solution to like cancer! Thanh Tran, CEO, Zoeticx, Inc., a medical software company located in San Jose, CA. He is a 20 year veteran of Silicon Valleys IT industry and has held executive positions at many leading software companies. Edited by Stefania Viscusi The European Union, he argues, has over the past nearly ten years done practically nothing about the financial crisis, the eurozone crisis, the refugee crisis and its relations with Russia in the aftermath of the annexation of Crimea without first consulting Berlin. Matti Vanhanen, the presidential candidate of the Centre Party, has voiced his concerns that the powers of large member states would increase if the United Kingdom left the European Union. It's my estimate that if Brexit materialises, we'll return to a LondonBerlinParis setting especially in the area of foreign policy. Is the return of such superpowers in the best interests of a country such as Finland, if the outcome is a setting where Germany and Russia are the ones taking action? Vanhanen, the chairperson of the Centre Parliamentary Group, asked at the Kultaranta Talks on Monday. His concerns are justified, admitted Teija Tiilikainen, the director at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs. It's clear that in these crisis-ridden years Germany, as Vanhanen said, has been a bellwether. You've turned to them whenever you've needed quick decisions as the union's common machinery has been slower, she said. The leadership issue has to be put back to the union's table in the long run. What would it mean for the union and who would lead the union's foreign and security policy in the scenario that Brexit materialises? That's one of the major questions we'll revisit next week once we know more, said Tiilikainen. Kai Mykkanen (NCP), a first-term Member of Parliament, reminded that the withdrawal could also have an impact on relations with Russia. It's appropriate to [draw attention] to its impact on managing relations with Russia, because the United Kingdom certainly would not disappear from the map if it made the exit. I consider it obvious that large member states would dictate the EU's foreign policy for some time before the responsibility shifted towards the [European] Commission, he said. He argued that it is crucial for a country such as Finland to ensure also decisions on how to communicate with neighbouring countries are made by the institutions of the EU. Paavo Vayrynen (Centre), a Member of the European Parliament, is baffled by suggestions about the return of geopolitics and superpowers. They've never gone anywhere. Some have simply thought that geopolitics is no longer of significance. You also can't talk about the return of superpowers because they've been here all along. I don't see how Britain's possible exit would change this in any way, he said. Markku Jokisipila, the director of the Centre for Parliamentary Studies of the University of Turku, agrees with the views of Vanhanen. If we somehow returned to a wider exercise of superpower politics within the European Union, I'd have to agree with Vanhanen in that it'd be difficult to regard as anything else than a negative development from the viewpoint of a small country like Finland, he said. Russia is currently trying desperately to accomplish that. I think that's definitely not the way to go for the European Union, commented Jokisipila. Aleksi Teivainen HT Photo: Petteri Paalasmaa Uusi Suomi Source: Uusi Suomi David Clancy (24) has not yet entered a plea to the charges A young man is facing trial on drugs charges following the seizure of an estimated 500,000 worth of heroin and cocaine in west Dublin. David Clancy (24) had the case against him adjourned for the preparation of a book of evidence when he appeared in Blanchardstown District Court. Mr Clancy, of Oatfield Avenue, Clondalkin, is charged with possession of cocaine and heroin with intent to sell or supply. He is also charged with simple possession of both drugs. The offences are alleged to have taken place at Oatfield Avenue on February 16. The case came before Judge David McHugh for the DPP's directions to be made available. State solicitor Mary Kate Halpin said the directions were for the case to go forward on indictment. This means it is to be dealt with at circuit court level. Ms Halpin sought an adjournment for the preparation of the book of evidence. The accused's lawyer consented to this. Ms Halpin said there may be additional charges "of the same nature" being considered by the DPP. Judge McHugh remanded the accused on continuing bail, to appear in court again next month. Mr Clancy initially appeared in Dublin District Court last February. At that time, Garda David Charles of the Ronanstown Drugs Unit, said he arrested the defendant and brought him to Ronanstown Garda Station, where he was charged. He made no reply to any of the charges after caution, Garda Charles said. The accused has not yet indicated how he intends to plead to the charges and did not address the court during the brief hearing. Information sworn by a detective to obtain a warrant to search businessman Jim Mansfield and his brother PJ's homes must be furnished to their legal team by the end of this week, a judge has ruled. Jim Mansfield (48) is charged with having 180 rounds of .22 Walther ammunition without a firearms licence at his home at Tassaggart House in Saggart on January 29, 2015. Two further charges of possession of a pump action shotgun and 19 rounds of 12-gauge shotgun cartridges were struck out. His brother Patrick James Mansfield (38) is accused of possession of 1,252 rounds of Walther ammunition without a firearms licence at his former home at Coldwinters Lake in Saggart. In relation to Jim Mansfield, Judge David McHugh had refused jurisdiction to deal with his case at district court level. He was asked by a State solicitor to reconsider the allegations after two of the charges were struck out. Detective Garda Ian Pemberton alleged that gardai searched Mr Mansfield's home under warrant and located a legally-held pistol as well as 480 rounds of ammunition, 180 rounds in excess of the licence. Judge McHugh accepted jurisdiction of the charge. Defence counsel Tony McGullicuddy said his clients would plead not guilty to the charges. Search Mr McGullicuddy requested a copy of the information which a garda swore to a judge to obtain the warrant to search the men's home. He said his clients required this information if they wished to challenge the validity of the warrant. A State solicitor said there were other people named in the information who were not party to the proceedings before the court. He asked for the case to be adjourned to allow the investigation to conclude. Mr McGullicuddy argued the right course of action was to strike out the charges and "the State can take whatever course when the ongoing investigation concludes". Judge McHugh adjourned the case into the Criminal Courts of Justice next week to allow the Mansfield brothers to enter a plea. Mr McGullicuddy said the parties had agreed the information would be furnished to the defence "by the end of this week". One of the diaries in which she recorded bullying A woman whose daughter took her own life following a campaign of online bullying, harassment and physical abuse has forgiven those responsible. But Collette Wolfe has called for more to be done by social media websites and the Govern- ment to crack down on cyberbullying. Ms Wolfe lost her daughter Leanne (18) nine years ago. The teenager endured emotional and physical torture at the hands of a vicious female gang in Cork for at least three years before her death in 2007. She left behind diaries detailing her suffering. Now her mother has said that anyone caught bullying on social media websites should be banned. The call follows a similar plea for new laws earlier this week by Elaine Hughes, who lost her 17-year-old son Darren to suicide in 2012. He was also bullied online. Ms Wolfe said that despite seeing shocking messages on the social networking pages from those who bullied Leanne, she eventually forgave them. Bible "I saw a message of hers on one of her bullies' pages and it said, 'I know I'm hated but I'm loving the attention'. That was her saying she's dead and that she didn't care," said Ms Wolfe. Despite suffering through the pain of Leanne's loss - she said she considered taking her own life - she forgave the bullies and said she found hope in God. "I forgave her bullies. I had to or I'd be a different person," she said. "It was a guard who gave me a Bible. I went on a walk one day and I realised there was hope." Ms Wolfe said it was time that social networking sites began tackling the growing crisis of online bullying. "I think just like if you're driving drunk or without insurance, you should be banned for a period if you're caught harassing or bullying online," she said. "The websites don't care, and why would they? But it's time they started doing more - the amount of bullying that's out there, it's at crisis stage." One issue raised by Ms Wolfe was how the impact of cruel taunts and threats are more permanent on social media, compared with when a victim could walk away from a bully. "Now the messages are left on sites and are there to see over and over again. In Leanne's case it tore her down," she said. "She was thinking, 'I'm no- thing', and when they're young they don't know how to deal with that. "The act of communication is now gone. Leanne couldn't express how she was feeling, it made her feel ashamed." While Ms Wolfe said she was grateful for the support she and her husband Anthony had received from the gardai, she supported making bullying easier to report, such as through a website. "It's a good idea, but you have to go to the Government to fund it. The Government need to do more than sit on their hands," she said. The homeless crisis in the capital has spiralled yet again - with more than 1,800 children now living in temporary accommodation. New figures released by the Dublin Region Homeless Executive revealed there are now 913 families with 1,847 children in accommodation for the homeless. The latest figures released yesterday refer to the week ending May 29. Nationwide, there were 1,054 families, including 2,177 children, who were in homeless accommodation during the same week. The number of families who are homeless in Dublin has increased by 34pc since last December, when there were 683 families, including 939 adults and 1,409 children, who were in homeless accommodation in the week ending December 27. Depaul, a charity focusing on aid for homeless people, urged a strong and coordinated approach to stem the daily flow of families into emergency accommodation and to provide move-on options for them. "On a daily basis in our services we are seeing more and more families who are facing the devastation of homelessness," said Ms Kerry Anthony, chief executive officer of Depaul. "Over the past two years these numbers have gone up and up every single month. "In May 2015, the number of children who were homeless in Dublin surpassed the 1,000 mark - and Depaul, along with other homeless charities, were urging action. "One year on, there are 800 additional children who have no place to call home in Dublin. It is time that we confront this situation as the emergency that it is, and put in place immediate and long-term solutions to reverse this damaging trend. "We urge that the recommendations included in the report from the Oireachtas Committee on Housing and Homelessness be delivered as a priority." The committee has recommended local councils nationwide provide 10,000 new social housing units each year for the next five years. Inner City Helping Homeless CEO Anthony Flynn accused the Government of "too much talk and not enough action". Invite He also accused new Housing Minister Simon Coveney of not being "fully up to speed" and said he "needs to start implementing changes now, rather than months down the road". "I would invite the Minister onto the streets to meet some of the 140 sleeping rough around the city each night - maybe that will open his eyes," he said. Mr Flynn added the cost of accommodating those who are without a place to call home is rising week on week. Today FM's Louise Duffy has said that it "can't be denied" that there is a predominantly male line-up on the station's daytime schedule. But the popular presenter said she wouldn't have wanted to remain in her afternoon slot just because she's a woman. Duffy (31) will take over the reins of the 7pm slot from next month after Fergal D'Arcy was moved to the 2.30pm show. She noted the strong line-up of male presenters that will be on air at the station from 7am until 7pm. "You can't really deny that. It's evident in the schedule," she told the Herald. "We have some very strong male presenters but females are very present too. Today FM has always nurtured emerging female presenters and have always had my back. "I know the argument is out there and there's lots of concern and it is changing slightly. I was very proud to be there (in the afternoon) but you can't just be there because you're a female voice. "That's the business we're in. You have to be flexible and ready to move. I'm excited about getting involved in something new." But Duffy said the evening slot suits her far better as it gives her more time to work on her new website, womenswearstory. Combining her two passions of fashion and music, she's going to take the next month off to concentrate on the website before starting her new slot on August 1. Wishing "I'm so excited about that. I spend all of my time in the evening just window shopping online. I have about 18 tabs of different stores open. I'm not buying, I'm having a gawk and wishing I could buy everything. So I'm putting that into a business and mixing it with my love of music," she said. She said her new slot is "kind of perfect" for taking on new challenges. "It gives me an opportunity to do as many articles as possible and explore it and still be present on the Today FM schedule. The show itself will let me veer outside the usual playlist and explore other genres of music," she said. Duffy will be taking centre stage during Galway Races week when she judges the g Hotel's most stylish lady competition on July 28. The stylish star will be joined by her fashion designer husband Paul Galvin at the glamorous event and revealed what might catch her eye on the day. "I think it's really important to not conform to what you think you should wear to the races. It shouldn't be too matchy-matchy. "True style is when you're comfortable in what you're wearing and aren't afraid to try different things. It's not about going crazy price-wise. It's about mixing colours and prints and looking and feeling good," she said. She said the Galway Races has always been a big tradition for her. "I love it, I'm from Mayo, so it's the one thing every summer that we all congregate for, so I was going to be there anywhere," she said. NEW YORK The Alzheimers Foundation of America (AFA) is asking people to support the issuance of an Alzheimers-focused semipostal stamp. The United States Postal Service (USPS) is considering issuing the stamp, which would allow consumers to pay a little more than the normal postage stamp, with funds going to Alzheimers disease and dementia research sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The USPS is accepting submissions in support of the issuance of five new semipostal stamps over the next 10 years. Similar stamps have raised millions of dollars for causes such as breast cancer. People can voice their support for an Alzheimers stamp by sending an email to semipostal@usps.gov with Semipostal Discretionary Program in the subject line. The deadline is July 5. The issuance of these semipostal stamps would be a tremendous one-two punch in fighting Alzheimers disease, said Charles J. Fuschillo Jr., AFAs president and chief executive officer. Not only will its proceeds bolster Alzheimers disease research at the NIH by helping to fund promising therapies, it will also help in raising public awareness of this devastating disease. AFA is urging all impacted by dementia: individuals living with the disorder, their family caregivers, friends and loved ones to weigh-in with the USPS and call for an Alzheimers stamp. Alzheimers disease currently affects more than 5 million people in the U.S. and it is estimated that that number will nearly triple by mid-century. The cost of care for people with Alzheimers is also expected to skyrocket in line with these numbers, from $307 billion annually to $1.5 trillion by 2050. For more information visit https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2016/04/20/2016-09081/semipostal-stamp-program. The best Penn State personality? Check out what the punter did now ... This domain has expired. If you owned this domain, contact your domain registration service provider for further assistance. If you need help identifying your provider, visit https://www.tucowsdomains.com/ India Inc will be hurt, Indian immigrants may benefit but the overall Anglo-Indian relationship will decline with Brexit. Britains possible withdrawal from the European Union following a referendum in June 23 is a mixed bag for India, but likely to be a net negative. If the leave campaign wins (and it is leading now), the immediate impact will be on the worlds capital markets and India will fare poorly. Already, global capital is seeking safe havens as it fears a fall in the value of the sterling and the euro. The nonconvertible rupee will be expected to lose value and so will be dumped even though both capital flows and the exchange rate are likely to recover. One currency the rupee will gain against will be the pound. An informal survey of Mumbai forex traders comes up with an expectation of a 15 to 30% drop in sterlings value if the leave campaign wins. Full coverage: Britains EU referendum Corporates The medium-term impact will be on Indian firms which have invested in the United Kingdom. India is the third largest source of foreign investment in Britain. Many of these firms use the UK as a base for their operations and sales to the rest of Europe. Manufacturing firms, in particular, will face tariffs when they export from the UK to the EU. Tata Motor Jaguars would face a 10% tariff when being exported from the UK to the continent, says Charles Grant of the London-based Centre of European Reform. Watch | Why India doesnt want Brexit CLSA has pinpointed other Indian firms that will suffer: Tata Steel and auto component makers such as Bharat Forge and Motherson Sumi. Motherson, for example, derives 60% of its UK sales from exports to the EU. For the information technology sector, argues Nasscom, Brexit will be clearly negative in the short term and harder to discern in the longer term with either scenario having some positive and negative points. Many Indian IT service firms such as TCS, Infosys and Wipro have a large UK footprint. The fall in sterling will shrink the sectors earnings in the UK, roughly 17% of their global earnings. But many also use the UK as a base to provide services to other European countries. Though services will be less affected by Brexit, some may have to move offices and personnel across the English Channel. Nearly a third of Indian investment in the UK is in the IT and telecom sector. If some of this has to migrate to the continent along with the manufacturing firms, Indian investment into the UK will be diverted to the EU. A pro-Brexit flag is attached to a window of a house in Carshalton, south of London. (AFP) Indian immigration Going by Brexit campaign rhetoric, a UK-EU divorce could actually boost Indian migration to Britain. Since it joined the EU, Britain has deliberately given preference to European Union migrants and shut down migration paths for Commonwealth and other non-EU countries. Britain saw about 70,000 migrants a year from the Commonwealth through the 1970s, mostly from India. Restrictions imposed afterwards saw, by the early 1980s, Indian migration fall to 18,000 a year. By the 1990s, less than 5,000 a year were becoming British citizens. The hunt for tech workers and highly skilled migrants in the 2000s pushed the figure up again but the numbers kept below 20,000 a year. Obligated by treaty, the UK left its borders open to other EU citizens. Since the original EU member-states were of comparable economic wealth, this did not mean much. When the EU included the poorer countries of Eastern and southeastern Europe, this changed. Between 2004 and 2009, some 1.5 million EU citizens migrated to the UK. These EU migrants, epitomised by the Polish plumber, combined with the global financial crisis laid the basis for the rise of the anti-EU UK Independence Party which, in turn, forced Prime Minister David Cameron to promise a referendum on the UK continuing in the EU. The Ukips supporters tend to be opposed to migrants, but its leader Nigel Farage has been more nuanced. He has argued that a Ukip government would treat immigrants from within and without the EU on an equal footing. This line of thinking, echoed by many Brexit supporters, argues that the Commonwealth represents an economic and political alternative to the EU for British interests. Farage has gone as far as to say he would prefer Indians to continental Europeans. In an interview he said, I have to confess I do have a slight preference. I do think, naturally, that people from India and Australia are in some ways more likely to speak English, understand common law and have a connection with this country than some people that come perhaps from countries that havent fully recovered from being behind the Iron Curtain. Boris Johnson, the former mayor of London who has challenged Cameron from within the Tory Party on Brexit, had similarly complained against the sharp decline in Indian students in the UK and sought to reverse the governments policy of denying them post-study work visas. Johnson has also pushed for a renewed Commonwealth-centred foreign policy but his biggest immigration suggestion -- a visa bloc that encompasses the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand does not include India. The truth is that even in the case of Brexit, the UK will continue to tighten its borders against all migrants because the majority of the UK electorate are opposed to migration. While EU citizens would no longer have priority over Commonwealth migrants, the general hostility to migrants would not change no matter Thursdays vote. As The Economist commented, Yet it is politically unrealistic to believe that Britons who have just voted to leave the EU partly to curb uncontrolled migration from eastern Europe will want to welcome many more migrants from places like India and Africa. Leave supporters hold up placards in Clacton-on-Sea as UK Independence Party (UKIP) leader Nigel Farage visits. (AFP) Foreign policy Though the Brexit campaign has argued for a revitalised Commonwealth as the alternative to European integrity, a UK in splendid isolation would have a smaller profile in Indian foreign policy. Foreign minister Sushma Swaraj explained, however indirectly, why. Britain is Indias gateway to the EU, she said, while insisting Brexit was a sovereign decision on which New Delhi had no opinion. This underlines the fact that one of Britains key foreign policy utilities for India has been to serve as New Delhis lobbyist within the EU. Because of their close economic ties, Londons continuing influence among smaller South Asian states and a new strategic closeness between India and the United States, it is generally true that there is not much space between Indian and British foreign policy. There are exceptions. For example, the two are at loggerheads over the Taliban in Afghanistan as the US military withdrawal from that country gathers pace. But London has been supportive of Indian policies in Bangladesh, Nepal and the Maldives. In the last case, the UK helpfully allowed opposition leader Mohamed Nasheed to leave a Maldivian jail and go to London for medical reasons helping India move closer to stabilising the political situation in Male. While India has close ties with other EU countries, notably Germany and France, it tends not to see them as being able to represent its views within the EU. Partly this is historical legacy, but it also reflects a belief that Britain thinks in a more realpolitik fashion than many European states which New Delhi finds frustratingly focussed on human rights and other post-modern concerns. This has been under pressure the past few years in any case. The UKs unwillingness to work with the EU has meant that its voice in Brussels has been proportionately smaller than the size of its economy. Other countries, particularly Germany and Poland, have offered to take up the same role within the EU as the UK has traditionally played. A Polish diplomat once counted the nearly dozen EU countries, mostly in Central Europe, as well as Warsaws close ties with Berlin, as part of a hardsell of his country as Indias representative within the EU. British Prime Minister David Cameron speaks to the press in front of 10 Downing street in London. (AFP) Obviously, in case of a Brexit, the UK would no longer be able to play this role for India, drastically reducing its utility for New Delhi. Combined with Indias ability to talk directly to Washington, the almost lack of any political coherence within the Commonwealth and an increasing sense in New Delhi that Britains clout in Asia is now minimal, there would be little of substance in the bilateral strategic partnership announced in 2004. As one British diplomat ruefully admitted, As far as hard power goes, our army is now smaller than Nepals. While an older generation of Indians still think that a UK outside the EU would automatically mean stronger bilateral ties, the reality would almost certainly be different. New Delhis statement on Brexit indicated what India thought. As Ian Bond of the Centre for European Reform wrote recently, the major countries of the Commonwealth have all indicated they preferred the UK to remain in the EU. Earlier this month, Ashwin Kumar, a 31-year-old labourer in the Lahaul and Spiti district in Himachal Pradesh, experienced sudden shortness of breath and pain in the chest. He was rushed to the district hospital at Keylong, the administrative centre of the district. Things could have gone out of hand but fortunately the centre has a telehealth centre, which the junior doctor used to consult senior specialists in Chennai. Within seven minutes, a Chennai-based cardiologist checked Kumars vitals and recommended cardioversion, a procedure that uses electric current to bring down heart rate in emergency situations. But the junior doctor did not know how to do it and the specialist used telehealth to guide the doctor to stabilise Kumars condition using minimal medical equipment. Once his condition stabilised, Kumar was moved to a bigger hospital. Read: A healthcare prescription for Indias growth story Over the past year, telehealth centres at Keylong and Kaza in Himachal Pradesh have saved over a 100 patients. Thanks to the difficult terrain and weather, people travel between 20 and 50 km for primary health care and at least 250 km for secondary care. Moreover, it is hard to find doctors despite the state striving to appoint at least 10 medical professionals for the district and willing to pay specialists up to Rs 25 lakh a year, which is almost three times of what is normally paid. To meet the shortfall, the National Health Mission has opted for emergency telehealth under the public-private partnership (PPP) model in Himachal Pradesh. Apollo TeleHealth centre is a first-of-its kind in such a remote location anywhere in the world. The centres in Keylong and Kaza were set up about 15 months ago and the two facilities offer regular clinical care apart from emergency aid. The centres have facilitated more than 3,000 tele-consults and provided emergency care to at least 200 people. Read: Humane society must have universal health coverage Under the PPP model, all expenditure - capital and operational - is taken care of by the state and the private player is responsible for the setting up and functioning of the centres. Apart from saving lives, telehealth also saves cost. In Himachal Pradesh, Apollos estimates show that the community would have saved nearly Rs 15 lakh spent on travel and other expenses. Though telehealth has been around in India for at least 16 years, it has been put to fruitful practice only over the last two to three years. Connectivity issues, interrupted power, lack of trained people to manage the centres, and the preconceived notions of the prospective users -- doctors and paramedical staff come in the way of successful implementation. The biggest impediment, however, is the resistance to change.The first step to success, therefore, is to convince local doctors that technology would complement their services. The knowledge and experience of local professionals is irreplaceable because they are most familiar with the geography, demography, available facilities and medicines. Without the complete commitment of the all concerned parties, technology would be defeated. Sangita Reddy is the joint managing director, Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Limited The governments decision to have a dedicated website that will have the marks and ranks of candidates appearing in various tests for government jobs is remarkable for its openness. The decision is reminiscent of the days of the Indian Civil Service (ICS), when ones performance in an examination was treated as a public document. However, subsequently the government of independent India chose to keep each persons performance a secret and the results of all candidates, including those who were unsuccessful, went sent by post. And this too was not done in all cases. The new decision will do two things at the same time: First, it will enable candidates to compare themselves to the others paper by paper and, if required, prepare better at the next attempt; second, it will give other employers such as those in the private sector and parastatals to tap into this data base to make appointments in accordance with their own priorities. Doing well in the test for one job may land a candidate a cushy job in another organisation. Third, there will be no scope for any candidate to make false claims regarding his performance because results can be cross-checked. Read: Govt job test scores to go online to check fudging But despite all its positives, there are some limitations in this new system. For example, if there are malpractices in the written tests, it is difficult to remove them just by publicising the results in the written test. For example, how would one ascertain that a person who can peddle influence did not arm-twist an examiner to be biased in favour of a candidate? And it has been a constant grudge of candidates of some regions that they do not get a fair deal in all-India exams. Second, doing away with interviews for junior posts might preclude possibilities of manipulation but there should be some personality test also. And having the results of personality tests handy would be of immense help to private sector organisations who are on the lookout for someone like, say, a security officer. It wouldnt matter so much how well the person concerned had performed in the written test. Third, the system gives the candidates the option to stay out of this. Presumably many would opt for that. Read: SSC cannot bar tattooed person from selection in service, rules tribunal Once such a system has been put into motion, it would be useful to take it further. So far the Union Public Service Commission, Staff Selection Commission and Railway Recruitment Boards are being sought to be covered by this. The next step should be to bring under it the equivalents of the erstwhile Banking Service Recruitment Boards, and the Public Enterprise Selection Board. The rule could also extend to public sector organisations, particularly those in the infrastructure sector. This way a dialogue may evolve between various recruitment agencies, both public and private, as regards the appointment process and synergies may develop. A fatwa has been issued against actor Jimmy Sheirgill for starring in political drama Shorgul, which has also been banned in several cities of Uttar Pradesh, the films makers said on Wednesday. The makers are planning to approach the states Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav to resolve issues regarding the ban in places like Muzaffarnagar, Kanpur, Ghaziabad and Lucknow. Read: Shorgul trailer: Watch Jimmy Shergill, Ashutosh Rana in a political drama Shorgul is a political drama which also touches upon the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots. The fatwa has been issued by Khamman Peer Baba Committee to Jimmy and the makers, read a statement issued on behalf of the films producers. The fatwa states that a seasoned actor like Jimmy has hurt the sentiments of the Muslim community by enacting scenes that will cause unrest in the community through the dialogues and scene depictions, read the statement. Jimmy will be barred from shooting in Uttar Pradesh and his films release in the region will also not be allowed, the statement further read. A 24 FPS Films Production, the movie is based on intolerance and aspires to make audiences contemplate where humanity stands amidst the noise of religious, social, political and economic prejudice. Also featuring Sanjay Suri, Narendra Jha, Hiten Tejwani, Eijaz Khan, Suha Gezen, Anirudh Dave and Deepraj Rana, Shorgul touches upon grave subjects that have transpired in the recent past such as the Muzaffarnagar, Godhra and Babri Masjid riots apart from making references to bureaucratic misdoings, mind games and controversial master strokes of some high profile dignitaries. Read: Playing more mature cop in Madaari than my other cop roles: Jimmy Sheirgill Earlier this month, a PIL filed by Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Milan Som against the film was dismissed by the Allahabad High Court bench in Lucknow. The film is slated for release on June 24. Swatantra Vijay Singh, one of the producers of Shorgul, said: Yes, we have received the PIL and the fatwa but as we have stated earlier our film is a cinematic recreation of various incidents that have transpired in the past without a reference to any specific issue...We believe no one can ban Shorgul if the population supports films like these. Aman Singh, who is also a co-producer of the film, shared: This news is extremely unfortunate and we will approach Akhilesh Yadav in the matter. Every citizen has the right to watch this film as the film is a reflection of the voice of the common man. Jimmy is currently in Canada. Bipasha Basu Singh Grovers name is synonymous with fitness. The Bollywood actor, who is known for her well-toned physique, often shares fitness tips with her fans. The actor released her first fitness DVD in 2010. Titled Love Yourself, it showcased a 60-day weight-loss regime. In 2011, she launched another DVD, titled Break Free. It was a 30-minute dance routine. Her last DVD, called Unleash, released in 2014. It consisted of an advanced training routine. A source close to Bipasha reveals that the actor is planning to release a yoga DVD soon. Read: Bipasha Basu and Karan Singh Grover to attend Baba Siddiques Iftar party When contacted, Bipasha confirmed the news. She said, I am planning an extension of my dance workout series and a DVD on yoga. The actor will shoot for the same in August. Bipasha added, The idea is to make more people aware about yoga, and allow a synchronised growth of the mind, body and soul. The womens wing of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Tuesday staged a protest and lodged a police complaint against Bollywood actor Salman Khan over his raped woman remarks in Nagpur. Bollywoods controversy star Salman Khan was slammed by fans and critics alike on Tuesday when his interview surfaced wherein he said when he used to walk out of the ring, after the shoot, I used to feel like a raped woman. I couldnt walk straight. Salman was talking about his experience of shooting for the upcoming film Sultan where he plays a wrestler. The National Commission for Women (NCW) demanded apology within seven days from Salman. NCP women members protest against Salman over his controversial rape remarks at Bandra, Mumbai on Tuesday. (PTI) While Salmans manager claimed the actor was misquoted in the interview, his father Salim Khan took to Twitter to apologise on the behalf of his son. The Bollywood scriptwriter tweeted, Undoubtedly what Salman said is wrong, the simili, example and the context. The intention was not wrong. Nevertheless I apologise on behalf of his family his fans & his friends. Forgiveness is to pardon the unpardonable or it is no virtue at all. Read: Salman Khan just cant quit controversies Undoubtedly what Salman said is wrong, the simili, example and the context. The intention was not wrong. Salim Khan (@luvsalimkhan) June 21, 2016 NCP activists, led by Maharashtra unit President of NCP womens wing Chitra Wagh, submitted a written complaint to Sitabuldi Police Station. In the complaint, the Opposition party members said the 50-year-old actors remarks were derogatory and he should be booked under relevant sections of IPC for insulting women. Read: Salman says he felt like a raped woman, stirs controversy The women activists, wearing black ribbons, later staged a demonstration at a square near the police station. They warned of street protests if an offence was not registered against the actor, who courted controversy after saying his filming schedule for Sultan was so gruelling that he felt like a raped woman. Listen to Salmans controversial rape comment When contacted Police Information Centre said they have received the complaint and it would be forwarded to appropriate authorities for action. Follow @htshowbiz for more Bollywood actor Arbaaz Khan expressed hopes Tuesday evening that his brother Salman Khan would give a clarification about his controversial remark where he compared himself with a raped woman while describing the gruelling Sultan shoot. Salman plays a wrestler in the film that also stars Anushka Sharma in the lead role. Arbaaz said it was just like any other comparison: It was just the kind of (statement) where we compare things...I worked like a donkey so now people will say you used the word donkey so some animal activist will come after you. Read: Salman says he felt like a raped woman, stirs controversy While the National Commission for Women has demanded an apology from Bollywood actor Salman Khan within seven days, the womens wing of NCP has filed a police complaint against the star in Maharashtra. (Reuters) Not every incident that happens with Salman I am supposed to be answerable...He is a 50-year-old man who says what he wants to the media and lives his life. There are some things which we say while talking but we should look at the intention, why was it said. I definitely have no doubt that whatever Salman said, the intention was not wrong, Arabaaz said, when quizzed by reporters about the controversy at the trailer launch of Jeena Isi Ka Naam Hai. Read: Salmans remark a mockery of rape victims, says Delhi bravehearts mother He further said, I am sure Salman must have realised the comparison he did was not may be appropriate and for that, if he feels he needs to apologise, he will apologise or not, why are you asking me whether he should or not. If he has said it by mistake, may be he should probably give a justification. But I dont think I am entitled to make a comment and say `he has to apologise. I would hope that he gives a clarification for whatever, because a controversy has been created. So jawaab dena banta hai, because people look up to him, he has got a lot of following, he is a youth icon. Read: Salim Khan apologises for Salmans felt like a raped woman comment Sometimes you say something out of context, your intention is not wrong but if you de-sensitise it and become over sensitive about it then you can create an issue over anything, Arbaaz added. Follow @htshowbiz for more Pakistani actor Adnan Siddiqui was in India earlier this month to shoot for his Bollywood debut that also stars Sridevi and Nawazuddin Siddiqui. Completely bowled over by the performances of his co-stars, Adnan cant stop praising them. I had a great time working with Sri Maam. She didnt let anyone feel any pressure on the sets, says the Pakistani actor, adding that her dignity and grace won him over. He feels that the Bollywood actor has a strong head on her shoulder, and is humble and wonderful. The 46-year-old actor rues the fact that he didnt have any scenes with Nawaz in the film. He says, Is baat ka rona hai (Its the only regret) that I didnt get to share screen space with Nawaz. But I am glad that we have become good friends. We bonded well. Now I wait for the day to share screen space with him. Siddiqui was also seen in Angelina Jolie-starrer A Mighty Heart Read: Adnan Siddiqui feels Pakistan needs to learn a lot from Indian TV industry Several Pakistani actors, including Fawad Khan, Mahira Khan and Marwa Hocane, have made their way into Bollywood in the recent past. Adnan feels this exchange of talent will lead to better things. Actors, painters and art dont have boundaries. All of us (Pakistani actors) working in Bollywood are ambassadors of Pakistan. We would love to see Indian actors working in Pakistan too. In fact, the trend has already started with Om Puri, Nandita Das and Naseeruddin Shah having worked in Pakistani films. Shuruwat aap ne ki, aur achhi ki (you guys started the trend, and it has been a good one). And we wont back off, he adds. Read: I am not a robot, controversies do affect me: Nawazuddin Siddiqui SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Indian businesses and policymakers are worried over UKs vote on whether to quit the European Union (EU), as a decision to pull out may mean a realigning of many companies operations, although the exact impact on Indias real economy is anybodys guess. Britain was taking a call -- with the Leave camp leading --- on whether it should share common economic objectives as the rest of the 27-member nations of the monetary union and this may force 800-odd Indian companies operating in Britain and employing more than 100,000 people to revamp their investment plans, and export and foreign-exchange strategies. Several companies have set up shop in Britain for leveraging not just the local market but also the European markets for which Britain was a base camp. This will mean reworking business plans, said Madan Sabnavis, chief economist of Care Ratings, a credit rating and research firm. Brexit: Why its Indias business to watch how Britain votes Minister of state for finance Jayant Sinha said last week the government is keeping a close watch on the Brexit vote outcome. India has been negotiating a free-trade agreement with the EU and a Brexit outcome will have direct bearing on this. If Britain stays put, then India neednt rework the current line of negotiations. If Britain quits, then this will create an additional need for India to set up a similar pact separately with the UK. Watch | Why India doesnt want Brexit If the leave camp wins, it is likely that the UK will seek trade agreements with non-EU partners, including India, DBS Group, a bank, said in a research note. At $8.83 billion in exports and $5.19 billion in imports, Britain ranks 12th in terms of bilateral trade and is one of seven countries with which India has a trade surplus. Brexit vote: All you need to know about Britains referendum A major impact at the level of individual business may be visible on Tata Steels plans to sell off its troubled UK assets. A lot of potential European buyers will in turn have to reassess their interests in buying Tata Steel UK depending on where Britain ends up. According to Carwyn Jones, first minister of Wales, who last month returned after meeting top officials of the company in Mumbai, if Britain votes to leave the EU, it could scupper the sale of Tata Steels UK assets. All these buyers are holding off to see what the result is on June 23 and Ive no doubt theyll run if they find the UK has left, he said last month. Indias IT sector is equally anxious. UK accounts for 17% or one-sixth of Indian IT firms global exports that topped $100 billion (approximately Rs 6.70 lakh crore). For one, Britains exit clearly will increase overhead costs, such as setting up new headquarters, one for EU and another for Britain. How, and to what extent it will impact Indian IT companies in the region will become fully clear only after the dust settles on the referendum, Nasscom, an IT industry body, said in a statement. Experts also cautioned about impending volatility in currency and equity markets. Brexit could negatively affect the British pound, which means the rupee could appreciate and this will hurt Indian exports by making them costlier for Britain. Volatility in the currency markets will likely impact capital inflows to emerging markets including India. It will heighten global volatility impacting capital inflows, said Ritesh Jain, chief investment officer, Tata Asset Management. Any substantial depreciation of the euro or the pound, could lead to increased headaches for India in a sluggish export environment. The cabinet approved on Wednesday an auction of mobile phone airwaves, a government source told Reuters. Earlier this year the telecom ministry proposed sale of airwaves in the 700 Mhz, 800 Mhz, 900 Mhz, 1800 Mhz, 2100 Mhz, 2300 Mhz and 2500 MHz bands. India is the worlds second largest mobile phone market by users after China, and a rapid expansion of high-speed 4G services is expected to create demand for additional airwaves. The government is expected to announce details of the auction at a press conference later in the day, the official who did not want to be named, said. Indian companies currently based in Britain and others considering expanding to Britain and Europe have put on hold their decisions given the uncertainty around Thursdays referendum, a senior legislator here told HT. Conservative MP Alok Sharma, who has the role of Prime Ministers Infrastructure Envoy for India, said Indian companies had informed him of deferring some decisions in view of the referendum. He is closely involved in the delivery of multi-billion pound deals announced during the November last visit of prime Minister Narendra Modi to London. He said: Their overwhelming view is that a vote for the UK to leave the EU will be bad for British businesses, jobs and investment. India is the third largest investor in Britain, where over 800 Indian are based and operate in the European market. Sharme added: Indian companies have informed me that some decisions on future investments into the UK have been deferred until the outcome of the referendum is known and, if we vote to leave the EU, there is a big risk that Indian companies will think twice before investing in the UK. Sharma, who has been coordinating campaign group British Indians for IN, said the group had the support of over 80 British Indian business leaders including prominent entrepreneurs such as Karan Bilimoria, Uday Dholakia, Kartar Lalvani, Diljit Rana and Rami Ranger. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The new RBI governor is likely to be appointed before the next session of Parliament begins, top sources in the finance ministry told HT on the condition of anonymity. The monsoon session is tentatively scheduled for July 25. The preference is for someone who has experience as deputy governor at the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), sources said, on speculation that bankers will be preferred for the job. The stress on cleaning up of bad loan hit state-run banks balance sheets led to speculation that the government will choose a banker to lead the central bank. The RBI governor will have to have credence as an economist so a banker is out of the race said the source quoted above. RBI governor Raghuram Rajan on Saturday announced his decision to exit after his term ends on September 4. The announcement led to hectic speculation about Rajans successor. Names, including SBI chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya, RBI deputy governor Urjit Patel, former deputy governors Subir Gokarn and Rakesh Mohan, tax expert Parthasarathi Shome, chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian and economic affairs secretary Shaktikanta Das, have been doing the rounds. Rakesh Mohan and Urjit Patel are to be the top contenders for the post, keeping the preference for deputy governors of RBI, in mind. While Rakesh Mohan is currently Indias executive director at the International Monetary Fund, Urjit Patel succeeded Subir Gokarn in the monetary policy department of RBI in 2013. The government has already clarified that the decision on a successor will be taken by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi in consultation with finance minister Arun Jaitley. The successor has already been decided, it is the announcement that has to be made. And it will be done before Parliment begins said the source quoted above. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON In line with trending terms like Brexit and Rexit, now Twitter users have coined a new expression Nexit after India-born Nikesh Arora announced his surprised resignation as president and COO at SoftBank. For the past several days, two words Brexit and Rexit have been trending. Brexit in short stands for Britains possible exit from the European Union, while Rexit word came up after RBI governor Raghuram Rajan decided against seeking a second term. On Twitter, Aroras surprise exit was being referred as #Nexit, in line with the trending terms -- #Rexit and #Brexit. Arora said on Tuesday he is stepping down from his role as Masayoshi Son wanted to continue as the CEO for the next 5-10 years. Read: SoftBank president Nikesh Arora to step down The 48-year-old former chief business officer at Google decided to call it a day as his 58-year-old boss Son said he was planning to quit at the age of 60 but felt he was still a bit too young. The development interestingly came just a day after Arora getting a clean-chit from a special committee set up by SoftBank to look into the allegations against him from some shareholders about his conduct and qualifications. Masa 2 continue 2 be CEO for 5-10 years, respect that. Learnt a lot. Clean chit from board after through review. Time for me to move on, Arora said in a tweet. He added: I did as promised...Didnt want to be CEO-in-waiting past my sell-by-date. Masa 2 continue 2 be CEO for 5-10 years, respect that. Learnt a lot. Clean chit from board after through review. Time for me to move on. Nikesh Arora (@nikesharora) June 21, 2016 Arora joined SoftBank as its vice-chairman and CEO of SB Group US in September 2014 from search giant Google. In May last year, he was elevated to president and COO, the first time in 35-year history of SoftBank that anyone was given the president title. At that time, Son had mentioned that Arora is the most likely candidate to succeed him in future. Arora, who is responsible for global operations, has led SoftBanks investments in India in e-commerce firm Snapdeal, ride-hailing service Ola, real-estate website Housing.com, hotel-booking app Oyo Rooms and Grofers. Asked about his exit affecting investment dynamics of SB portfolio companies in India, Arora said plan to support them for an year, hence continuing as advisor. Going to continue to support the Indian startup ecosystem ....cant change faith if you change jobs, he tweeted. Still there till Jun 30. Then advisor for an year :). Think they dont mind me keeping it there and i am lazy. https://t.co/qU34yQD36E Nikesh Arora (@nikesharora) June 21, 2016 Arora, who is among the highest paid global executives, received 135 million dollar pay package including a joining bonus in 2014-15, and was paid 73 million dollar last year. On the clean chit from the special committee, the Banaras Hindu University-graduate said he never had a doubt. My father was a man with the highest integrity, if there was one thing he tought me, that was it, he added. The Union Cabinet is likely to discuss today the mega-spectrum auction plan in which airwaves worth Rs 5.66 lakh crore will be put for sale. The Cabinet is likely to take up spectrum auction proposal. The timeline for auction will be prepared after the Cabinet approval, a source told PTI. Government expects to raise at least Rs 64,000 crore from the auction of about 2300 Mhz of spectrum and Rs 98,995 crore from various levies and services in the telecom sector. According to sources, the main document of auction, notice inviting application, is likely to be issued by July 1, followed by pre-bid conference on July 6 and bidding from September 1. However, the same has not been officially confirmed. As per rules approved by inter-ministerial panel, the auction would include sale of most premium 700 Mhz band at a price of Rs 11,485 crore per Mhz. The cost of delivering mobile services in this band is estimated to be around 70 per cent lower than 2100 Mhz band, used for providing 3G services. A company interested in buying spectrum in 700 Mhz band will need to shell out a minimum of Rs 57,425 crore for a block of 5 Mhz on pan-India basis. This band alone has the potential to fetch bids of over Rs 4 lakh crore. The total potential revenue of Rs 5.66 lakh crore from the spectrum sale is more than double of telecom services industry gross revenue of Rs 2.54 lakh crore reported in 2014-15 financial year. Leading operators have requested to defer sale of 700 MHz spectrum, saying that ecosystem for providing services in this band was not developed and sale would lead to underutilisation of the spectrum for several years and block industrys fund. As per global industry body GSMA, the total recommended reserve price for the auction is almost double the cost of all spectrum investment to date in India and more than 20 times the annual free cash flow of the entire mobile industry. The panel has also suggested stringent payment conditions compared to liberal method suggested by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai). The panel has favoured that companies winning spectrum in higher frequency bands -- above 1 Ghz like 1800 Mhz, 2100 Mhz, 2300 Mhz -- should make 50 per cent upfront payment and the rest in ten years after a 2-year moratorium. In earlier auctions, companies were given option to make 33 per cent upfront payment. For spectrum below 1 Ghz band such as 700 Mhz, 800 Mhz, 900 Mhz, companies will require to pay 25 per cent upfront and rest in ten years after a 2-year moratorium. It is in line with practice of earlier auctions but differs from Trai suggestion. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will be leaving for Beijing later in the week to attend the first meeting of the Board of Governors of the USD 100-billion Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). Jaitley, who will reach Beijing on June 24, will participate in the AIIB meeting the next day. He will also address a session on Infrastructure and Global Economic Growth on June 26. The first annual meeting of the Board of Governors of AIIB will be held in Beijing on June 25-26. On June 27, Jaitley will meet Chinese Finance Minister Lou Jiwei to discuss bilateral issues, official sources said. He will also meet National Development and Reform Commission Chairman Xu Shaoshi and Peoples Bank of China Governor Zhou Xiaochuan. During his visit, Jaitley will meet select Chinese investors and bankers to sell the India growth story and seek investment in sectors like infrastructure. On June 27, he would also participate in the eighth India-China Financial Dialogue. BRICS nations Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa founded the AIIB to boost infrastructure investment in Asia. Besides AIIB, the BRICS nations have also founded the BRICS Development Bank. The two join existing bodies including Asian Development Bank, World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank in offering finance to developing nations. European Bank for Reconstruction and Development was the last new multilateral lending institution that was set up in 1991 to help rebuild former Communist nations in Eastern Europe after the Cold War. NEW DELHI: In a major crackdown, over 100 personnel from the south district police spread across south Delhi on Sunday night and nabbed 16 alleged robbers and snatchers, including five minor boys, active at night. Four country-made pistols with four cartridges, 11 stolen mobile phones, nine two wheelers, two long knives and Rs 14,500 were recovered in the drive through Sunday night, police said on Tuesday. Senior police officers said their questioning helped solve 44 cases of robbery, snatching and motor vehicle thefts reported from different south Delhi areas. Ishwar Singh, deputy commissioner of police (south), said that in recent weeks, a series of street crimes were reported in south Delhi at night and during early morning hours by criminals riding motorcycles and scooties. The criminals mostly targeted passengers travelling in autos, morning walkers and employees of call centres, hotels and malls returning home late in the night, said Singh. In order to check such crimes, Singh said, the police studied the routes taken by such criminals, the crimes, pattern and vulnerable areas. The reports were analysed and many measures were adopted. On the night between Sunday and Monday, over 100 police personnel from different police stations led by ACPs and inspectors put pickets at strategic locations and launched a drive to nab bike-borne robbers and snatchers. Vehicle checking by our teams helped us catch 16 criminals and recover weapons and stolen two-wheelers, said the DCP. The arrested persons included members of the Anna gang operating from Dakshinpuri area. They were identified as Arun alias Anna, Anil alias Annu, Mohammad Ali, Nitin, Piyush and two minor boys. They were nabbed by a team of south Delhis operation cell led by ACP Rajender Singh and inspector Vijay Chandel. Two criminals, Faique and Sanu, were arrested by the Vasant Vihar police while Mohammad Kallu, Rahul, Mahesh, and Vishal, by the Vasant Kunj south police. Three alleged juvenile snatchers were caught by a team of the Malviya Nagar police station. NEW DELHI: Four masked men went on the rampage at a crowded market in northeast Delhi on Tuesday morning, firing indiscriminately on a busy road killing a 45-year-old man and injuring three others, including a 16-year-old boy. In a bid to escape, the men, who blindly fired over 15 rounds, ran their car over a man crossing the road. The incident happened around 8am at the Wazirabad Market in Northeast Delhis Bhajanpura. The men, who have not been identified yet, managed to flee. A case was registered but no arrests were made till late Tuesday night. According to the police, the men, who came in a white Swift car targeted Kailash Gupta (45), a property dealer, and his son Rajan Gupta (16). The father-son duo was on a bike when the men stopped the car and opened fire. The duo lost their balance and fell on the ground. While the men managed to gun down Kailash by pumping two bullets in his chest, Rajan ducked and saved himself. He then ran towards a tea stall in the area. Turning to Rajan, the men fired three more rounds. One bullet hit Rajans leg but he managed to get inside the tea stall. The men opened fire again, injuring a 50-year-old auto-rickshaw driver, Ram Lakhan, who was having tea. A man who works at the tea stall, said, The men were on a killing spree. They were firing bullets as if bursting crackers. Even after killing one person, and injuring two, the madness did not stop and the men again fired rounds in the air, this time, injuring a passerby, Banwari, who was hiding behind a shop. The bullet hit his leg. The men, who had covered their faces with handkerchiefs, fled. In a bid to flee, the men hit one Javed who was crossing the road. After they fired indiscriminately, they sped off and after crossing a few metres, they ran over a person who was crossing the road. They ran over his leg and he was critically injured, an eyewitness said. One of the onlookers made a PCR call. All the injured were rushed to the hospital. We have zeroed down on a few suspects and arrests will be made soon. It appears to be a case of personal enmity. The men had come to kill the property dealer and his son. A case has been registered and investig ation is on, DCP, northeast, AK Singla said. BEIJING: Hours after Washington reiterated its support for New Delhis bid to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group, China toned down on Tuesday its opposition to Indias admission to the elite club, saying members were open to discussing the inclusion of countries that are still to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), a nuclear arms control pact. The position adopted by China marked a shift from its assertion on Monday that Indias application to join the 48-nation NSG was not on the agenda of the organisations plenary in Seoul on June 23-24. The door is still open within the NSG for non-NPT members to join, foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said. There is always room for discussion. We did not target any country, India or Pakistan. We only care about the non-proliferation treaty, she said, suggesting that the topic of including non-NPT countries in the NSG could probably come up during the plenary. China, which is perceived to be acting at the behest of its all weather ally Pakistan, has blocked Indias bid by linking it to the NPT. Neither India nor Pakistan has signed the NPT. Days after India applied, Pakistan responded with a bid of its own to join the NSG. Indian sources said they were making every effort to get into the club, making realistic assessments of hurdles and devising means to overcome them. Prime Minister Narendra Modi too will take up the issue with Chinese President Xi Jingping on the sidelines of the SCO summit in Tashkent on June 23. As the Americans and the Japanese continued to work the phone lines to drum up support for India, reports suggested foreign secretary S Jaishankar is likely to travel to Seoul to marshal Indian efforts to get membership of the NSG. But the sources admitted that while China remained the biggest challenge, there were some other countries, including Austria and Ireland, which have reservations about a non-NPT member being admitted to the exclusive club. We are working the phone lines, convincing members about our impeccable non-proliferation credentials and remain hopeful of becoming a member of the NSG. Of course, such negotiations go down to the wire, a source said. The NSG functions by consensus and opposition from even one member will mean that India will not be able to gain entry. The NPT is the cornerstone of the NSG and the non-proliferation regime, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua said. The NSG members should focus on whether the criteria (of admitting new members) should be changed, she said, underlining fears that such a move could have implications for the Iran nuclear deal and the situation in North Korea. The US, she said, was the country which made the rule that non-NPT countries should not be allowed to join the NSG. But on Monday, the US again called on NSG members to back Indias application in Seoul. We believe, and this has been US policy for some time, that India is ready for membership and the US calls on participating governments to support Indias application, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said. India enjoys most of the benefits of membership under a 2008 exemption to NSG rules granted to support its nuclear cooperation deal with Washington. Other than China, no other nation is openly backing Pakistan because of its track record. The father of its nuclear weapons programme ran an illicit network for years that sold nuclear secrets to countries, including North Korea and Iran. An op-ed in the Chinese state-run Global Times tried to downplay Islamabads role in the proliferation of nuclear secrets. Actually, the proliferation carried out by Pakistan was done by Abdul Qadeer Khan, Pakistans chief nuclear scientist, and was not an official policy of the Pakistani government, it said. NEW DELHI: Soon after four masked men went on a rampage, shooting indiscriminately, killing a 45-year-old man and injuring four others in Wazirabad Market, Northeast Delhis Bhajanpura area on Tuesday morning, the police zeroed down on the suspects with the help of the CCTV footage accessed from the area and detained more than seven people in connection to the case. The police said that the men wanted to kill Kailash and Rajan Gupta due to some personal enmity. Kailash Gupta worked as a property dealer and it appears that he had a long standing enmity with the men. After speaking to Guptas family members, we found out that they had an old property dispute with a few persons and Gupta was earlier threatened by them. Based on their suspicion, we have detained persons for questioning and the arrests will soon be made, a senior police officer said. The police also said that a business rival may be behind the incident. Guptas family also suspects that a business rival, from whom Gupta split of late, may be behind the planned murder. It is possible that the business rival, roped in contract killers to carry out the murder, an investigator told HT. NEW DELHI: Nearly 48 hours after he began a hunger strike against Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, BJP MP Maheish Girri ended his protest after Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh met him and requested him to end the fast. Girri had been protesting outside the chief ministers residence after Kejriwal pointed to his alleged involvement in the murder of NDMC law officer MM Khan. Girri had challenged Kejriwal for an open debate on the matter. After ending his strike, Girri again tweeted: Hello ArvindKejriwal, I will come for a debate by end of day tomorrow. Your Time. Your Place. Your People. PS: pls do bring all the proofs. Rajnath told Girri the police had not found anything against him and so he should not be disturbed. We should thank Maheish Girri for his fight against the chief minister who has become a symbol of falsehood and forgery. This hunger strike will be the beginning of the end of the empire of falsehood of Kejriwal, said Delhi BJP chief Satish Upadhyay. Ahead of Rajnath Singhs visit, AAP leader Ashish Khetan tweeted: This will be the first time that an HM (Home Minister) instead of ordering the questioning of a murder suspect will be felicitating him. Union minister Harsh Vardhan had also visited Girri on Monday evening. Girri demanded the resignation of Kejriwal after he was named in the FIR filed by the anticorruption branch in the alleged Rs 400 crore water tanker scam. Leader of Opposition Vijender Gupta also demanded the CMs resignation. Kejriwal must answer why did he sit on the report for 11 months? What was the deal between the three tanker companies and the CM for suppressing the report? How much payment was made to the companies after the AAP government came to power and how much loss was caused to the government exchequer, said Gupta. Earlier in the day, Girri performed yoga at the agitation venue to mark the second International Yoga Day. On IDY2016 today, participated in a Yoga Session with all karyakartas, here at the venue of my Anshan, Girri tweeted. NEW DELHI: Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday launched a counter-offensive over a police investigation against him for alleged corruption, saying he was not scared of any action taken at the behest of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The feisty Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader targeted Modi after the citys Anti-Corruption Branch received two complaints linking him and his predecessor, Sheila Dikshit of the Congress, to a Rs 400-crore water tanker scam in the Delhi Jal Board. Officials said investigators will question Kejriwal and Dikshit, with an FIR being lodged in the case. He (Modi) has scared many people by filing FIRs against them and using CBI raids. Only I stand strong and tall. He wants to scare me and break me, but respected Narendra Damodardas Modiji ... I wont get scared and I wont break, he said. Kejriwal told reporters that Modis actions were welcome. The BJP has alleged that Kejriwal did not take any action in the water tanker scam for months after an inquiry committee set up by his own party submitted its report. Sources said the fact-finding committee found irregularities in the appointment of consultants, tendering process as well as in overall procurement of the tankers by the previous Congress government. When the tankers were purchased, Dikshit was chairperson of the Delhi Jal Board. She has already dismissed the allegations as politically motivated. Mein Rahul Gandhi nahi hoon ki tum mujhe dara doge Sonia Gandhi nahi hoon ki tum daba doge ... Mein Robert Vadra nahi hoon ki mere saath setting kar loge (I am not Rahul Gandhi that you will scare me, I am not Sonia Gandhi that you will suppress me. I am not Robert Vadra that you will manage me), he said, referring to the Congress. These people got a CBI raid conducted against me. It has been six months, but they have not found (irregularity worth) a single penny..., Kejriwal said, referring to a search conducted at a principal secretarys office in January. Kejriwal said Modi, through his actions, has finally conceded that his direct fight was with the Delhi chief minister. He listed a number of controversies to corner Modi. Whenever a Rohith Vemula will be forced to commit suicide or a Dailt will be wronged, I will stand up for him, if farmers commit suicide, I will stand up for them ... If you try to save (Madhya Pradesh chiwef minister) Shivraj Singh Chouhan in the Vyapam scam, I will raise my voice, he said. PhD student V emula s suicide at Hyderabad University in January sparked a nationwide debate on discrimination against Dalits, while the mysterious deaths of people linked to the Vyapam education scam in Madhya Pradesh sent shock waves across the nation in 2015. Kejriwal and the NDA government at the Centre have been involved in an intense power struggle since the AAPs emphatic election victory in the national capital in 2015, smashing the aura of invincibility built around Modi. Both leaders had been having a long-running battle since the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, with Modi calling Kejriwal an anarchist and Maoist while the AAP chief dubbed the Prime Minister a psychopath once. NEW DELHI: Nikesh Arora, who wrote fat cheques totalling nearly $3 billion for Indian start-ups such as Snapdeal and Ola since becoming president of SoftBank two years ago, is stepping down. He should be CEO of a global business, and I had hoped to hand over the reins to him on my 60th birthday, SoftBank chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son said in a statement on Tuesday. But I feel my work is not done. I want to... work on a few more crazy ideas. This will require me to be CEO for at least another five to 10 years. This is not a timeframe for me to keep Nikesh waiting for the top job. Last August, Arora spent $483 million to buy SoftBank shares as a measure of his commitment to his employer. He has sold those shares to Son, incurring a small loss. Arora had been under fire from some of SoftBank s unnamed investors, who likened his investment strategy to nothing more than throwing a dart at a dartboard, and talked about a conflict of interest since Arora is also an adviser to private equity firm Silver Lake. But SoftBank backed Arora to the hilt. An internal probe, whose results were disclosed on Monday, cleared Arora of all charges. Paytms founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma looked worried on Twitter, saying: @ nikesharora Why o why? Thats a big setback for Indian startup ecosystem. Best wishes and hoping even bigger impact next. Both Arora as well as Kunal Bahl, Snapdeals founder and CEO, tried to soothe Sharmas nerves. Going to continue to support the Indian startup ecosystem .... can t change faith if you change jobs :)! tweeted Arora. Snap deals Bahl, in an email to HT, dispelled fears of its business getting affected by Aroras leaving SoftBank: Nikesh has been a great supporter and mentor to our business. Softbank will continue to provide financial and strategic support to our company and the transition at Softbank will have no impact on our business. Bhavish Aggarwal, cofounder and CEO of Ola, said Arora would continue to be a source of support and inspiration to the Indian start-up ecosystem. I look forward to engaging with him in his role as an adviser to SoftBank in the time ahead. SoftBank, as an investor, has played a key role in Olas growth story. As an indication of the 48- year- old Aroras standing at SoftBank, Bloomberg data late last month showed his salary at $73 million a year, making him one of the highest paid executives in the world and putting him on a par with Apple CEO Tim Cook and Walt Disneys Bob Iger. No one was much surprised by Aroras salary; he was handpicked by Son as his successor from Google, where he had spent 10 years and was heading global sales. Arora will remain as an adviser to SoftBank, a role he assumes on July 1. This will allow me to think about my next move, he said. NEW DELHI: A 28-year-old man was killed and his brother critically injured when their uncles tenants allegedly attacked them with a knife after an argument over laying a cot on the terrace in northwest Delhis Malikpur village near Mukherjee Nagar on Monday night. Police said the two brothers were attacked when they stopped the tenants, both brothers, from laying a cot on the terrace of their uncles house that was attached to their own terrace without any partition. The two objected as the tenants alleged stared at women in the family while sleeping on the terrace, said police. A senior police officer said the two brothers, identified as Raju and Ratan from Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh, are on the run. A team has been sent to their hometown to nab them. A case of murder and attempt to murder was registered against them at the Mukherjee Nagar police station. The deceased, identified as Vikas, lived with his brother, Kuldeep, 22, and other family members in Malikpur village. According to the police, Vikass uncle Virendra owns a building adjacent to his house and had rented one of the floors to Raju and Ratan. The two brothers were staying at Virendras house for the past one year. Since Virendras building is next to Vikass house and they were relatives, they had not erected any wall to separate their roofs. Vikas and his family members, including women, used to sleep on their terrace to beat the heat. Virendras tenants also used their terrace for the same purpose. Vikass family regularly had arguments with the two tenants over their habit of staring at women sleeping on the terrace. They had brought the matter to Virendras notice as well and he had asked his tenants to vacate the flat next month, said the officer. On Monday night, the officer said, Vikas once again entered into an argument with the two brothers while they were laying their cot and preparing to sleep on the terrace. Soon, the argument turned into a fight during which the two brothers attacked Vikas five times with a kitchen knife. Hearing Vikass screams, his brother Kuldeep rushed to the terrace and joined his brother in the melee. The attackers attacked him as well before fleeing the crime scene, the officer said, adding the injured brothers were taken to Babu Jagjivan Ram Hospital where Vikas was declared dead on arrival. Kuldeep is recuperating and his condition is stable, the officer added. The leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have now cornered the AAP government over alleged corruption in the distribution of high-security number plates for vehicles. BJP national secretary RP Singh and Delhi BJP spokesperson Harish Khurana have filed a complaint with the Anti-Corruption Branch against the private concessionaire and AAP government. In the complaint, the BJP leaders alleged the tender was awarded in March 2012 to Rosmerta HSRP Ventures Pvt. Ltd, a company with doubtful credentials. After the award of the contract, the transport department received several complaints but the department overlooked the illegalities and regulations. AAP government, during its 49-day tenure had taken the allegation seriously and constituted a committee. The committee had submitted its report confirming the irregularities. Despite the adverse findings of the committee, the AAP government did not terminate the contract with the concessionaire, said Khurana. As per the complaint, since two lakh vehicle are registered every month in Delhi, nearly 30 lakh vehicles were registered during the 15 months of AAP government. The average notified price in Delhi is `119 but `1,200 is being charged as mentioned by the committee report. Taking these figures into account, the scam is worth `300 crore. We have demanded an FIR be registered and immediate action taken against the company and AAP government, said Khurana. RP Singh demanded a special session of Delhi assembly to discuss the scam. They have called sessions on every small issue then why not to discuss scams that AAP government allowed to continue, said Singh. This issue is pending before arbitrator, there is no illegal plates were supplied by us. There is no question of any illegality, said a spokesperson of Rosmerta. Delhi BJP president Satish Upadhyay has said Delhi government should clarify its position on the number plate scam. ACB chief MK Meena has confirmed that the complaint has been received and an inquiry has been initiated. AAP govt clarifies New Delhi: The Delhi government on Wednesday defended itself over charges of inaction in the alleged HSRP scam, saying that it was the 49-day AAP government that had ordered cancellation of the contract of the vendor in 2014. The then transport minister Saurabh Bhardawaj had ordered cancellation of the contract. During the Presidents Rule, the lieutenant Governor had sent the matter to an arbitration tribunal. The tribunal had since stayed any coercive action against the contractor till its hearings are over. In all its hearings since then, the transport department has requested the tribunal to allow cancellation of the contract, said a Delhi government official. HTC The Delhi governments transport department has issued an order banning the retrofitting of CNG kits in in-use cars in the view of some CNG kit manufactures supplying unapproved and uncertified CNG fuel kits. The department has directed its motor licensing officers (MLOs) not to register vehicles that have been retrofitted with CNG kits till further orders. There were allegations that some CNG kit manufacturers are supplying unapproved/uncertified and sub-standard CNG kits for retrofitting in the in-use vehicles, thus cheating the vehicle owners by charging them prices of original kits. In this connection, all MLOs are hereby directed not to endorse CNG fuel in vehicle registration certificates till further orders, deputy commissioner (Transport operations) Yogesh Pratap said in the order. The Fortis Hospital at Shalimar Bagh dismissed five staffers on Wednesday for allegedly operating on the healthy left ankle of a chartered accountant instead of the injured one during a surgical procedure conducted the previous afternoon. A police complaint lodged at the Ashok Vihar police station stated that the patient, 24-year-old Ravi Rai, had fractured his right leg when he fell down a staircase on Sunday. He was taken to Fortis Hospital, where screening tests showed that the ankle joint was damaged. Following this, the surgeons decided to operate on the leg. He had fractured an ankle joint, and needed screws to hold it in place, said Rais father Ram Karan. But when they brought him out of surgery, we noticed they had operated on his left leg. His right leg was untouched. Ram Karan alleged that the hospital authorities were shockingly nonchalant about the entire episode. When we questioned the doctors, they said there was no problem they would simply perform another surgery to remove the screws from the left ankle and put them in the right one, he said. Claiming criminal negligence and apathy on the part of the hospital authorities, the distressed father said: Several tests were conducted before the surgery, and they had even marked his right ankle with a marker. What made them operate on the wrong ankle, then? Ram Karan said Mediclaim reimbursement of Rs 1 lakh has already been paid to the hospital. They delayed the surgery by a day because we hadnt received confirmation from the insurance company, he added. Rai, meanwhile, has been shifted to Max Hospital in Shalimar Bagh for treatment. In a statement released on Wednesday, Fortis claimed that the hospital had set up an expert committee to probe the incident immediately after the botched surgery. Preliminary findings suggested that the accused doctors had deviated from routine operating room procedures to reduce chances of human error, it added. The operating team may have disregarded and side-stepped due processes... As this is a zero-tolerance area for us, the services of five erring doctors and operation room personnel have been dispensed forthwith. Action is also being contemplated against others, pending inquiry, the hospital said. Police said a case under sections 336 (act endangering life or personal safety of others), 338 (causing grievous hurt by an act endangering life or personal safety of others) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code has been registered against the staffers. We are looking into the matter, said Vijay Singh, deputy commissioner of police (northwest). SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The transport department on Monday started seizing buses plying under Ola, Shuttl and other aggregators even as the controversy over AAP governments ambitious bus-aggregator scheme rages. So far the department has cracked down on at least a dozen buses. The Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) is investigating a complaint by BJP MLA Vijender Gupta alleging that the AAP government had prepared the policy to favour a particular company. The allegations have been denied by the government. The government also said that the ongoing crackdown on bus aggregators was initiated because in the absence of a policy, their operations are illegal. The transport department has written to the traffic police asking to conduct regular drives against buses plying illegally in Delhi. We have limited staff and enforcement becomes a difficult task. We have asked the traffic police to carry out regular drives. We have seized about a dozen buses as they do not have the licence to run from point to point. Most of them are tempo travellers and run on diesel, which is another violation, said a transport department official. At present, there is no rule under which these companies can take licence and the bus-aggregator policy would have allowed them to apply for licences. These buses have All-India Tourist Permits and they attach themselves to aggregators to earn money. Most of them act as feeder to Metro and ply from Dwarka to Gurgaon. Also Read | Ready for jail if graft charges in bus aggregator scheme proved, says Rai Sandeep Goel, special commissioner of police (traffic), said, We keep taking action against commercial vehicles including buses for various types of permit violations. Officials at Ola refused to comment on the issue. Authorities at Shuttl were not available for comments. Last month too, transport department had seized 52 buses that were plying illegally and picking passengers from bus stops. The department noticed buses from Haryana, UP and Rajasthan picking up passengers from bus terminals of Delhi. On checking, they were found to be running without any permit. Sources said since the transport department had not given an interstate permit to buses in the past few years, most of them were running illegally. The buses were taking commuters to NCR towns and far-off areas. Only the DTC buses and cluster buses and those given permit by neighbouring cities are allowed to operate in Delhi and NCR area. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Private water tankers, though illegal in the city unless hired by the Delhi Jal Board, became south Delhis lifeline during the recent water crisis. The Delhi Jal Board banned private tankers when the new government took office last year. Water filling stations, as per rules, are under the control of DJB and only tankers hired or owned by the utility can fill water and supply it. Though illegal, getting private water tankers is not a problem. Number of suppliers can easily be found with the touch of a button. Their phone numbers are listed on websites that specialize in providing service-related information. Read more: Water distribution in need of complete overhaul, says DJB For residents, though, the matter of legality or illegality becomes irrelevant at the time of a crisis. We ultimately have to rely on private tankers as they are easy to catch hold of and they also supply water to second or third floors using booster pumps, said SS Gupta, president of Hauz Khas DDA Apartments RWA. A 4000-litre water tanker costs R1,000, residents in Sangam Vihar say. The area has battled water shortage for decades. Water pipelines have been laid in a few blocks, but any fault hits the area hard. There is no water supply in the lanes and people fight over water when the DJB tanker comes to area. And during peak summers the frequency of the tankers has also reduced. As a result, we are forced to make alternative arrangements to fulfill our requirement, said a resident. He alleged that water being supplied through tankers meant for free distribution in the area is being sold. Delhi Jal Board CEO Keshav Chandra says the board has requested people to not pay private tankers. Any tankers, other than those hired by us are illegal, he says. The demand, however, remains huge. When residents went to DJB office during the crisis earlier this week, the officials tabled were full of applications. I visited the DJBs substation at RK Puram to request for supply through a water tanker, but the situation was maddening there. Already 100 requests for supplying water tankers were lying in front of these officials. Initially they refused to help us but a lot of requesting they supplied just 1,000 litres of water in our area and that too in the evening, said Anil Marwah, president of R block RWA, Hauz Khas Enclave. Should I choose the college over the course, will I be able to qualify for a regular Delhi University college or will I be able to meet the high cutoff? These are queries flooding the Mind Body Centre of the university. The centre, run by the Delhi University Women Association (DUWA), has for the past few weeks been attending to the woes of stressed aspirants. This centre, which was started in 2014, has also been meeting students regularly. For those unable to visit the centre, they are providing help over phone and email. Astha Jain, who works as a counsellor at the centre, attends the calls between 3-5 pm on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and responds to emails within a week. Read more: Got admission at DU? Heres a bigger challenge: Finding a PG Out of the total calls received, 40% are related to admissions of which 60% are by female students. Apart from the admissions, 50% queries are related to panic attacks, social phobia and depression. Jain shared how most students are confused about the choice of course. Students do not know whether they should choose the course or the college. I usually tell the students that college name does not matter. They should focus on the career they want to pursue by choosing the right course, said Jain. The centre receives calls from students in Delhi NCR, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh. The centre is only for women, so queries from male students are answered over phone or emails. Officials at the centre shared that once the college starts, a lot of outstation candidates share problems of home-sickness, adjustment and accommodation. Read more: Entrance tests, important dates: All about Delhi University admissions Last year, we had a student from Gorakhpur who had completed her graduation from her home town and was doing Masters in Physics here. She was having problems adjusting in her hostel. It was more of a cultural shock,said Amita Kapoor, a DUWA official. Now the centre is planning on having camps at Vishwavidyalaya metro station to help fresh out of school students to adapt to the changing environment. The sky is the limit goes the idiom. But for the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), space is the limit. On Wednesday, the organisation successfully launched into orbit 20 satellites, creating a record in the process. The launch was significant for it shows Isros prowess in space programmes and yet again showcases India as a destination for cost-effective satellite launch missions. Of the 20 satellites carried by the PSLV C-34 rocket, Indias 725.5 kgs Cartosat-2 Earth observation satellite was the main payload. The other 19 consisted of two from educational institutions in India, 13 from the US, two from Canada and one each from German and Indonesia. Twenty satellites is a big number but the record for launching the most number of satellites in a single launch is with Russia, which launched 37 satellites on its Dnepr rocket in 2014 . Read | As it happened: Isro places record 20 satellites into orbit Foreign satellite launches are crucial for Isro because the market is projected to run into billions of dollars by 2017. At the moment India sits on the margins because it has only the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), which is primarily for low-weight satellites. The combined weight of the 20 satellites on Wednesdays launch was about 1,288 kg. Isros focus should be on GeoSynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicles (GSLVs), which can launch heavier satellites in the range of 5,000 kg. For cost-effective successful launches, Isro needs to further perfect the cryogenic engine technology. Once that is achieved, India can compete with world leaders like the US or Europe. Read | Isro says launch of US satellites may not be a one-off affair Since the 1990s India has launched close to 80 satellites, of which more than 50 are foreign ones. If about 20 countries have signed up for launching from India (including the US), it is because launches here are close to 60% cheaper than in other countries . As India shifts from PSLVs to GSLVs with indigenous cryogenic engines signs are that we will get there soon Isro will move into the prestigious club of heavy lifters. In that sense, Wednesdays launch is a sign that Indias space programme is on the right trajectory. If there is one photograph of the Syrian refugee crisis that will haunt the world for the years to come, it must be that of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi, whose body was washed up on a beach in Turkey in September. The young boy, found lying face-down on a beach near Turkish resort of Bodrum, was one of at least 12 Syrians who drowned attempting to reach Greece from their war-torn country. The latest United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) report Global Trends, Forced Displacement in 2015 is not only an eye-opener on the scale of the crisis but also a reminder how little governments of the world have done to tackle the problem, which was in the making for quite some time. Read: Full Report here According to the report, forced displacement increased in 2015, with record-high numbers. By the end of 2015, 65.3 million individuals were forcibly displaced worldwide as a result of persecution, conflict, generalised violence, or human rights violations. This is 5.8 million more than the previous year (59.5 million). On average, 24 people worldwide were displaced from their homes every minute during 2015 some 34,000 people per day. This, the report added, compares to 30 per minute in 2014 and six per minute in 2005. Interestingly, developing regions hosted 86% of the worlds refugees. At 13.9 million people, this was the highest figure in more than two decades. The Least Developed Countries provided asylum to 4.2 million refugees, or about 26% of the global total. Read: New record: 65 million people displaced in 2015, says UN While the report is timely and useful to understand the challenge governments have at hand in tackling the crisis, it surprisingly glosses over the crisis of internally displaced people in India. Take, for example, civil strife-induced internal displacement in Chhattisgarh and in other insurgency-hit areas of India such as the North-East or Kashmir. While there is no official figure, civil society organisations in 2013 put the number of displaced people above 3 lakh. This is just one kind of displacement; environmental problems, caste issues and communal riots have also been pushing people out of their homes in large numbers. By overlooking this huge number, the UNHCR has glossed over a refugee crisis that is in no way less critical than what is happening in other parts of the world. Read: Falling short: How India treats those seeking refuge Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (IIM-C) is offering a range of management development programmes (MDPs) to for managers, business leaders, and entrepreneurs, to help them hone their skills. These MDPs span three days to three weeks and are conducted on-campus and at corporate offices. IIM Calcutta holds triple international accreditations by AACSB (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business), AMBA (Association of MBAs) and EQUIS ( the three major international accreditation bodies for Business Schools). Elaborating on these programmes, Professor Uttam Kumar Sarkar, dean, New Initiatives and External Relations, IIM Calcutta, says, The programmes are aimed at giving the right mentoring to professionals. To survive the challenging business world of today, managers and executives need to continuously hone their skills and upgrade their business acumen, to stay abreast of industry trends and leverage on the emerging opportunities. IIM Calcuttas MDPs are based on key business fundamentals like managerial effectiveness, team building, leadership ,strategic cost management, and marketing skills and project management to emerging topics like business analytics, oil economy and business in the BRICS nations . The pedagogy involves a variety of teaching methods: case studies, simulations, closed group analyses, and applied learning projects; interspersed with lecture sessions on theory and practice. The sessions are essentially interactive, and participants are encouraged to question assumptions, identify opportunities, solve complex problems, develop operational performance, boost productivity, and in the process, build sustainable competitive advantage. These MDPs are offered in both formats, open enrolment as well as customised formats tailor-made to address specific mandates from individual organisations. For more information, click here. Hollywood director Steven Spielberg returns to making films through the eyes of children with The BFG, a big screen adaptation of the much-loved story by British author Roald Dahl. The tale follows young Sophie, played by Ruby Barnhill, who comes across a giant, portrayed by Oscar winner Mark Rylance - a Big Friendly Giant (BFG) who, unlike his peers, does not eat children. Read: Gulshan Grover gives voice-over in Steven Spielbergs film Although Spielberg has made many family movies in his award-winning career, he has also directed more historical films such as Saving Private Ryan and Lincoln. I havent really swum in this wading pool in a long time, Spielberg told Reuters at the films premiere in Los Angeles on Tuesday. It was really nice to be able to just let my imagination roam free without being kind of fettered by all the precepts of history and all the truths you need to tell when you do a historical subject. So all of us felt free and very happy to be returning to our childhoods to tell this story. Steven Spielberg, third from right, director/co-producer of The BFG, poses with cast members, left to right, Penelope Wilton, Mark Rylance, Ruby Barnhill, Bill Hader, Rebecca Hall and Rafe Spall at the premiere of the film at the El Capitan Theatre. (Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP) The BFG, which first screened at the Cannes Film Festival in May, hits cinemas worldwide from June 30. Read: Steven Spielberg wont kill Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones 5. Promise Follow @htshowbiz for more Amid stiff opposition by China to Indias entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group, France strongly backed New Delhis case on Wednesday, saying it will bolster global efforts against nuclear proliferation and asking the members states to take a positive decision in the Seoul plenary meeting. A key member of the 48-nation grouping, France also asserted that Indias participation in nuclear control regimes will help better regulate the export of sensitive goods, whether they are nuclear, chemical, biological, ballistic or conventional materials and technologies. France considers that Indias entry into the four multilateral export control regimes (NSG, MTCR, The Australia Group, The Wassenaar Arrangement) will bolster international efforts for combating proliferation. Read: China rules out discussion on Indias NSG bid at Seoul meet, again Indias participation in these bodies will help better regulate the export of sensitive goods, whether they are nuclear, chemical, biological, ballistic or conventional materials or technologies. In line with its active and long-standing support to Indias entry to the NSG as a full-fledged member, France calls on its members, who are meeting on 23 June in Seoul, to take a positive decision, the French foreign ministry said in a statement. The ministry also mentioned that strategic partners since 1998, France and India share common goals regarding the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems. Read: Why NSG membership matters to India: All you need to know These goals were reaffirmed during the visit of the President of the French Republic to India, from 24 to 26 January 2016, it added. The French President was the chief guest at the Republic Day celebrations in New Delhi. On Tuesday, the US White House had in a statement said India was ready for NSG membership and asked participating governments to support Indias application at the plenary session of NSG in Seoul starting Thursday. China maintains opposition to Indias entry, arguing that it has not signed Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). However, it has been batting for its close ally Pakistans entry if NSG extends any exemption for India. Read: S Jaishankar heads to Seoul to push for Indias NSG membership 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. Police arrested an octogenarian art dealer for possessing hundreds of artefacts thought to have been stolen from Hindu temples, as they probe possible links to international smuggling rackets, officers said on Wednesday. G Deenadhayalan, 85, was formally arrested on Tuesday after police carried out multiple raids on his properties in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, leading to the recovery of the cache of idols. Police called in experts to determine the age of the 275-odd metal and stone statues of Hindu gods, which some specialists say could be hundreds of years old. Deenadhayalan is booked for conspiring to smuggle idols and idol theft, Pon Manickavel, inspector general of a Tamil Nadu police unit that tracks down stolen idols, told AFP. Deenadhayalan was remanded in custody after appearing in court on Tuesday on initial charges of conspiracy and theft, as well as a charge of smuggling under the Antiquity and Art Treasures Act. The arrest comes after the United States returned more than 200 statues and other artefacts earlier this month to Prime Minister Narendra Modi that were taken from Indian temples. Deenadhayalans arrest prompted the Tamil Nadu government to order an inventory of idols thought to be housed in the hundreds of temples and shrines located throughout the state. Smugglers and looters have long been suspected of targeting the temples, many of which are located in remote areas and have been abandoned. Police said they uncovered the suspected racket believed to have been led by Deenadhayalan after they arrested a gang of thieves carrying stolen idols last month. Police this month conducted lengthy raids on Deenadhayalans house, warehouse and office where he has run his art business for some three decades. We have seized substantial evidence to confirm that he had sold several antiques and artefacts to many traders and individuals in Europe, UK and the US, another senior officer involved in the investigation, Prateep V Philip, said. The arrest comes five years after international art dealer Subhash Kapoor was arrested and extradited to India on charges of running a multi-million dollar international smuggling racket. Police are probing whether Deenadhayalan has any links with Kapoor, who used to own a gallery in Manhattan but is now in jail in the southern Indian city of Chennai awaiting trial. Kapoor denies wrongdoing. We are yet to confirm Deenadhayalans connection with Kapoor, said Philip. As the BJP-helmed North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) meets for the first time since it formed last month, the coalition will discuss taking its mission Congress-free Northeast forward. Together with its allies, BJP rules half of the eight states in the northeast, while the Congress holds to its dissidence-troubled governments in Manipur and Meghalaya. It also rules Mizoram while the Left Front is firmly entrenched in Tripura. NEDA convenor Himanta Biswa Sarma, who is Assams minister for health and education, said the alliance aims to win most of the 25 Lok Sabha seats across the eight states in the region. Our common objective is to oust the Congress. We will be working together to help our allies where they are strong and strengthen our base in areas where we are strong, Sarma said. In Assam, the BJP formed government for the first time in alliance with the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and Bodoland Peoples Front (BPF) after it won the assembly elections in May. Its allies, the Peoples Party of Arunachal (PPA) and the Nagas People Front (NPF) rule Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland. The Sikkim Democratic Front is also considered a friend of the alliance considering Sikkim chief minister, Pawan Kumar Chamling, had attended the inaugural NEDA meeting last month. At Wednesdays meeting, several important parties are expected, including three regional parties, viz., the National Peoples Party and United Democratic Party of Meghalaya and the Mizo National Front of Mizoram. Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Kalikho Pul of PPA and his Nagaland counterpart TR Zeliang of NPF have also been invited. Confirming the same, AGP president, Atul Bora said they would work towards an initiative that would help the cause of regionalism. BJP president Amit Shah, who chaired the May 24 inaugural meeting, is expected to attend the alliances first convention in July. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The Bharatiya Janata Party-helmed North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) is scheduled to meet in Guwahati Wednesday evening in a bid to take its Congress-free northeast mission forward. This would be NEDAs first meeting after its inception on May 24, the day the BJP formed its first government in Assam in alliance with Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and Bodoland Peoples Front (BPF). AGP and BJP would be attending the meeting for the first time along with three other regional parties National Peoples Party and United Democratic Party of Meghalaya and the Mizo National Front of Mizoram. Peoples Party of Arunachal (PPA) and Naga Peoples Front (NPF) of Nagaland are the other constituents of the forum cobbled together to give Congress a stiff competition in the region where it runs three governments. BJP president Amit Shah chaired the inaugural meeting of the forum in May, and is expected to attend NEDAs first convention in July. Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Kalikho Pul of PPA and his Nagaland counterpart TR Zeliang of NPF will attend Wednesdays meeting. AGP and BJP have confirmed participation too. We have been invited for an initiative that would help the cause of regionalism, AGP president Atul Bora said. NEDA convenor Himanta Biswa Sarma, who is Assams minister for health and education, said NEDA has realistic goals for ensuring BJP and its allies win most of the 25 Lok Sabha seats across the eight-state in northeast. Our common objective is to oust the Congress. We will be working together to help our allies where they are strong and strengthen our base in areas where we are strong, Sarma said. The BJP and its allies rule half of the eight states in the northeast. While the saffron party heads the government in Assam, ally PPA rules Arunachal Pradesh and NPF rules Nagaland. Sikkim Democratic Front is considered a friend since Sikkim chief minister Pawan Kumar Chamling had attended the inaugural NEDA meeting last month. The Congress is holding on to its dissidence-troubled governments in Manipur and Meghalaya. It also rules Mizoram while the Left Front is firmly entrenched in Tripura. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON In a welcome news for as many as 5,727 Special Frontier Force (SFF) veterans who had retired before January 2009, the Centre has informed the Delhi high court that it was ready to restore service pension to them in line with the benefits available to retired Indian Army personnel. The government, however, has sought six months time to implement the high courts January 29 order on the ground that large financial implications are involved in payment of amounts to the tune of ` 600 crore, which requires consultation with several ministries. The high court had earlier given four months deadline to the Centre to issue a circular restoring the benefits to all eligible retirees. But with the government now saying that it has accepted the judgment and proposes to implement the same and it needed more time, a bench of Justice Hima Kohli and Justice Sunil Gaur relaxed the deadline for compliance on the January 29 judgment by another four months, starting June 2. The SFF a top-secret regiment was created in the wake of the Chinese aggression in 1962 and initially comprised only Tibetans. Later, Nepali Gurkhas too were recruited from 1965. They were included in the fighting force to guard the nations territories given their physical attributes and their ability to survive in very high altitude and extreme climate. In 1985, they were given rank parity with the army personnel. Subsequently, in January 2009, they were brought at par in pay, allowances and pension with the personnel of the Indian Army but prospectively. Aggrieved by the discrimination meted out to pre-January 2009 retirees, the ex-servicemen welfare union moved a public interest litigation in the high court challenging the imposition of cut-off date for the reimbursement of pensionary and other retirement benefits. The SFF had contended that the service rendered by its personnel was no less crucial to maintain the territorial integrity and sovereignty of India. Noting that the SFF veterans have made outstanding contributions to the nations defence and security, the high court had ruled that before and after 2009, SFF retirees cannot be discriminated on the basis of pension benefits. There is no justification why this differentia is introduced, given that both preand-post 2009 SFF retirees performed the same duties and stood to benefit in terms of rank parity with army personnel, for purposes of pensionary benefits, since 1985, the high court had noted. They were not army regulars, nor are they Indian nationals. Yet, they stood at the border, shoulder to shoulder with Indian Army personnel, to patrol and defend our borders. The Indian Union gave them grudging and incremental recognition for these services, the high court had remarked while deciding the plea of the still-secret regiment. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON China virtually ruled out on Wednesday the possibility of Indias entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) at a meeting in Seoul, reiterating that the inclusion of countries that have yet to sign a non-proliferation agreement was not on the agenda. Both India and neighbour Pakistan have not signed the NPT. Days after India filed its application, Pakistan, Chinas all-weather ally, too made a similar bid to join the club of countries controlling access to sensitive nuclear technology. Speculations were rife that China had softened its stand after Beijing said on Tuesday that there was room for discussion on the inclusion of the non-NPT countries. Read: S Jaishankar heads to Seoul to push for Indias NSG membership As it turned out, that was not the case. Deliberation on the entry of specific countries is on the agenda of the Seoul Plenary Meeting (June 23-24). However, it is worth noting that the meeting is only to deliberate on the entry application of countries that are state parties to the NPT (Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty). As for the entry of non-NPT countries, the group has never put that on its meeting agenda, the Chinese ministry of foreign affairs said in a statement. China has stonewalled Indias membership on the grounds that it is not a signatory to the NPT. The group, set up in response to Indias first nuclear test in 1974, aims to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Read: Why NSG membership matters to India: All you need to know India secured a US-backed exemption from NSG sanctions in 2008 as part of the landmark nuclear deal between the two countries. Even then, Beijing had declared the Indian exemption was not on the agenda, but the US had raised the issue and Germany, the then chairman, had accepted it for discussion. The NSG works on the principle of consensus and a single hold-out country can spoil Indias chance to be part of the grouping. India has got the backing of most countries, including the US, Britain, Italy, Mexico, Switzerland and Russia. Opponents argue that granting India membership will undermine efforts to prevent proliferation and irk Pakistan. NSG members had three rounds of unofficial discussions on the entry of India and Pakistan into the grouping, foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said. China hopes to discuss further this issue and will play a constructive role in the discussions, she said. Although parties are yet to see eye to eye on this issue, such discussions help them better understand each other. China hopes to further discuss this issue and will play a constructive role in the discussions. China softened its stand in 2008 to allow India to get a waiver from the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) but is unlikely to repeat the gesture for New Delhis application to join the group, a top Chinese expert on nuclear disarmament said on Wednesday. The rationale behind Chinas stand in preventing India from joining the club that controls access to sensitive nuclear technology is the lack of legitimacy in New Delhis application as it is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), said Han Hua, director of the influential Centre for Arms Control and Disarmament at Peking University. (It was a surprise to me) how China was so acceptable in 2008. China was quite soft on the issueon the last waiver, Han, who specialises in nuclear disarmament in south Asia, told Hindustan Times at her office. Read: China rules out discussion on Indias NSG bid at Seoul meet, again In 2008, the NSG with grudging support from China after a diplomatic row not unlike now had granted a unique waiver to India whereby New Delhi could access civil nuclear technology without being part of the non-proliferation regime. No room for trade-off now. I see no softening of the stand on either side. To me China has hardened stand a bit. The (2008) waiver was the only exception. Joining the NSG is something different, Han said. Though she could not rule out any possibility, she said it would be difficult for India to get into the NSG in the short-term. All 48 NSG members have to give their consent to welcome a new entrant to the group. New nuclear states made China change its thinking in the late 1990s. The appearance of new nuclear states forced China to think about (nuclear) consequences more clearly, Han said. To Han, it is only the US that differentiates between good proliferation and bad proliferation in Indias context. It was only (former President) George W Bush who talked about good proliferation and bad proliferation, she said in the context of the India-US civil nuclear deal. To the Chinese, the driving force behind USs support for the deal was to make India a quasi-strategic ally. The civil nuclear deal wasnt the driving force. The thinking in Chinas strategic circles is that the reason behind Indias quest for NSG membership is international status not clean energy, as New Delhi has been arguing. What will India get (after NSG membership) that India is not getting now? What it wants, it is getting now from France, Russia, US. Dont give me the argument about clean energy. Just try to convince China about what India is being blocked from getting now? India is getting everything, she said. Han said Indias twin aims are status and legitimacy, and which mean a lot for the NPT regime. She said it was the same for China when it became an NSG member in 2004. (China signed the NPT in 1992.) I dont know what China got (that it wasnt getting)? Yes, maybe, a say in international matters, she said. The Pakistan factor behind China leading the charge against Indias inclusion in the NSG is being exaggerated, she added. Criteria, and not credentials, was Chinas lookout, she indicated. Pakistan is a factor. If India joins the NSG, Pakistan will want to. North Korea will want to do the same. There is no good or bad proliferation. Han said China is surrounded by nuclear states and more Asian countries want to become nuclear states. That kind of tendency is very worrying and against Chinas interests. Increasing number of nuclear states is not good for China. Indias inclusion will not be a good example for the region, she said. Communal tension prevailed in the Gaharpur and Haribhanpur villages of Varanasi district on Wednesday, after a Muslim mourner was allegedly lynched in a fallout over a burial dispute. The killing of the 22-year-old youth led to stone pelting by two groups, in which six people were injured and the windscreens of several vehicles smashed. Trouble began after a former village head Vijay Singh and his supporters objected to a grave being dug for the burial of a woman named Nasirun. Vijay Singh claimed ownership of the graveyard land. Subdivisional magistrate (SDM) Tribhuvan Ram and Kapsethi station officer Akhilesh Kumar Mishra reached the spot along with a police team and ordered measurement of the graveyard land. The SDM pacified both sides and said the body would be buried in the graveyard. He asked the village head to go home. Meanwhile, one Kaju (22) alias Asraf, a mourner and resident of Haribhanpur, was beaten to death on his way to the local market from the graveyard. As news of his death spread, the mourners put up a road block with two bodies, that of Kaju and Nasirun. The blockade was lifted after the officials assured the locals of strict action against those involved in the incident and compensation to the relatives of Kaju. The body of the youth was sent for post-mortem thereafter. The womans body was buried in the graveyard. The situation was tense but under control, police sources said. Heavy police force has been deployed in the village as a preventive measure. Teams have been constituted to identify those involved in the violence. Soon, they will be arrested, senior superintendent of police Akash Kulhary said. Three people were taken into custody and were being interrogated, police sources added. The district magistrate and the SSP were camping in Gaharpur, according to latest reports. A day ahead of a crucial meeting of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), China on Wednesday changed tack on Indias entry into the elite club, saying only applications of countries that signed an atomic non-proliferation pact will be considered. This is seen as a hardening of stand after Beijing had said on Tuesday there was still room for discussion on countries such as India. Neither India nor Pakistan, which also wants to get into the club of countries controlling trade in sensitive nuclear technology, has signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT). Present NSG rules allow only NPT signatories to apply for membership. Read: China rules out discussion on Indias NSG bid at Seoul meet Deliberation on the entry of specific countries is on the agenda of the Seoul plenary meeting (June 23-24). However, it is worth noting that the meeting is only to deliberate on the entry application of countries that are state parties to the NPT, the Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement. As for the entry of non-NPT countries, the group has never put that on its meeting agenda. The United States has already put its weight behind India, and on Wednesday France reiterated its support, saying New Delhis entry will help better regulate nuclear trade. In line with its active and long-standing support to Indias entry to the NSG as a full-fledged member, France calls on its members to take a positive decision, the French foreign ministry said in a statement. Meanwhile, foreign secretary S Jaishankar flew to Seoul on Wednesday to shore up New Delhis efforts to join the NSG despite the stonewalling by China, which has pushed for Indias application to be considered along with that of Pakistan. NSG members held three rounds of unofficial discussions on the entry of India and Pakistan into the group, the Chinese statement said. Although parties are yet to see eye to eye on this issue, such discussions help them better understand each other. China hopes to further discuss this issue and will play a constructive role in the discussions, it added. Read: Why NSG membership matters to India: All you need to know A senior Western diplomatic source noted there had been an evolution in Chinas stance even in the past 24 hours. Diplomatic sources said India will have scored a victory even if it manages to get its application on the agenda so that the matter is open for discussion by the NSG at a subsequent stage. The sources pointed out that when New Delhi got a waiver from the NSGs rules in 2008, following the India-US civil nuclear deal, this was based on the countrys commitments and track record on non-proliferation. This track record is a key reason for the strength of US support for Indias membership of the NSG. In the US view, Indias non-proliferation record since the NSG exemption in 2008 has actually improved. The lack of a similar track record, US sources said, is why Washington and other NSG members are opposed to Pakistan being considered at the same time as India. The US also believes that even if China is able to ensure Indias application is not taken up at the NSG plenary in Seoul, this will not bring the bid for membership to an end. But membership will take a concerted diplomatic effort, the US sources said. Read: S Jaishankar heads to Seoul to push for Indias NSG membership One possibility that was being explored was the creation of a working group by the NSG to examine the membership of non-NPT countries, sources said. Let us not pre-judge anything. This is a long and winding negotiation, an Indian source said. We are hopeful that we will make it sooner than later. We dont want to put a timeline or a deadline. The NSG, set up in response to Indias first nuclear test in 1974, aims to prevent the proliferation of atomic weapons. The group works on the principle of consensus and a single hold-out country can spoil Indias chance of joining the club. The launch of satellites belonging to American companies Terra Bella - a Google company - and Planet Labs on Wednesday need not be a one-time affair, officials of Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) said on Wednesday. We are in discussions with Planet Labs and other companies for the launch of their satellites, S Rakesh, director, Isro Propulsion Centre and chairman-cum-managing director of Antrix Corporation told reporters in Sriharikota. Antrix Corporation is Isros commercial arm. An Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) put into orbit 20 satellites including Terra Bellas SkySat Gen2-1, twelve of the Planet Labs Dove Satellites, each weighing 4.7kg, and also the main cargo Indias own Cartosat satellite. The 110kg SkySat Gen2-1 belonging to Terra Bella, is a small earth imaging satellite capable of capturing sub-metre resolution imagery and high definition video. Both the companies have plans to launch a series of satellites. With the earth observation satellites going down in size globally, the Isro has been reducing the size of its earth observation satellites, said AS Kiran Kumar, chairman, Isro. We cant take the private companys approach. There has to be certain minimum requirements for our government needs, he added. Queried about space agencys five year plan for launch of satellites, Kumar said as per estimation around 70 satellites are needed to be put into orbit. Currently, there are 34 satellites in orbit comprising communication, earth observation, navigation and space science satellites. When asked about the need for a third launch pad to increase the launch frequency, Kumar said Isro is building a new vehicle/rocket assembly building that would speed up the assembling of rockets. Once the existing bottlenecks are removed and if there is a need for new facilities we will go for that, Kumar added. According to him, the next PSLV rocket will put into orbit a weather monitoring and forecasting satellite Scatsat. He said the South East Asian satellite built by India is likely to be launched between December 2016-March 2017. On Indias plans to have a space station of its own, Kumar said it depends on the long term plan of Isro, the funding received from the government and other aspects. The government on Wednesday expressed full confidence in chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian, in an apparent snub to BJP MP Subramanian Swamy whose recent criticisms of top policymakers have led many to question the acceptable limits of public discourse in India. Finance minister Arun Jaitley came to his top advisers defence after Swamy accused him of encouraging the opposition Congress to become rigid on the proposed Goods and Services Tax (GST), and acting against Indias interest during his time in the United States. Swamys earlier diatribe had been directed at central bank governor Raghuram Rajan, and many saw that criticism as contributing to his decision not to seek a second term after September. Jaitleys comments on Wednesday were the strongest yet against Swamy that not only backed the two top policymakers but also asked politicians to desist from personal attacks targeting officials. The government has full confidence in the chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian and his advice to the government from time to time has been of great value, Jaitley said at a press conference in New Delhi. I would also add one more fact from the point of view of discipline of Indian politicians. To what extent should we attack those the discipline and constraints of whose offices prevent them from responding? And this has happened more than once. Swamy had accused Rajan of wrecking the economy, alleging he was mentally not fully Indian since he held a US green card. Both Rajan and Subramanian have worked at the International Monetary Fund. While Rajan was appointed by the previous UPA government, Subramanian was brought in by the NDA government in October 2014. Jaitley rejected suggestions that the government had not spoken out for Rajan when Swamy had targeted him, asserting that he as well as BJP president Amit Shah had spoken on the matter. On Wednesday, Swamy looked isolated as the BJP also chose to distance itself from his remarks. The party does not agree with his views. This is completely his personal opinion, BJP national secretary Shrikant Sharma said. In a series of tweets Wednesday morning, Swamy unleashed a tirade against the chief economic adviser whose name is among the several doing the rounds to succeed Rajan as RBI governor. Who said to US Cong on 13/3/13 the US should act against India to defend US Pharmaceuticals interests? Arvind Subramanian MoF !! Sack him!!!, tweeted the BJP MP. Modis chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian had opposed India on IPR till recently, he said in another tweet referring to reports about Subramanian, when he was a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, urging the US to take action against India at the World Trade Organisation over patents. The Rajya Sabha member from the BJP accused Subramanian, who succeeded Rajan as the CEA, of encouraging the opposition Congress to harden stand on the Constitution (Amendment) Bill that would enable the rollout of the GST. Guess who encouraged Congi to become rigid on GST clauses? Jaitleys economic adviser Arvind Subramanian of Washington DC, Swamy tweeted, saying he is helping Jaitely to recognise the enemies in our camp. Now PTs (Patriotic Tweeples) can understand why our core economic sectors could not perform last two years. Trojan horses galore in MoF/Fin Institutions, said Swamy. Was AS (Arvind Subramanian) deposing before US Cong Committee against India as a US citizen or Indian? Does any PT know? he tweeted. Finance ministry officials dismissed Swamys allegations against Subramanian, saying that the ministry knew about his views and credentials before his appointment. People should read his papers on IPR and pharma before commenting on his views. They are actually in favour of India, said a finance ministry official. The ruling party MPs attack on the chief economic adviser gave an opportunity to the opposition Congress to take a swipe at the government. Subramanian Swamy now guns for Arvind Subramanian Economic Advisor to NDA. Target is Arun Jaitley not Arvind Subramanian, senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh tweeted. Is Modi handing over Finance Ministry to Subramanian Swamy? Read: Real target Arun Jaitley, not Arvind Subramanian: Digvijaya Singh SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Five students of a nursing college in Karnataka have been booked in connection with the alleged ragging of a first-year Dalit girl student, who has been hospitalised in Kozhikode with severe stomach problems, police said. The case was registered against Lakshmi of Kollam, Athira of Idukki and Krishna, Shilpa and Joe of Al Qamar College of Nursing at Gulburga, based on a statement from the 19-year-old victim, who is undergoing treatment at Kozhikode Medical College Hospital, sub-inspector of KMCH Police Station, Habib said. He said the girl had named only five of the eight seniors who were involved. The SI said her condition was now stable. A copy of the FIR had been sent to Gulbarga Police commissioner for further investigation into the matter, he said. Police said the victim was allegedly forced to drink toilet-cleaning lotion by eight of her seniors, who are all from Kerala, on May 9. Following the incident, she was admitted to a private hospital in Gulburga with serious stomach problems. As her condition worsened after five days of treatment, she was sent back home along with another Keralite student. The girl was then admitted to Thrissur Medical College Hospital, after which she was referred to Kozhikode Medical College Hospital (KMCH) on June 2. Doctors at KMCH had suggested a major surgery as the chemicals of the toilet cleaner severely damaged her food pipe following which she had been admitted to the ICU. Cases were booked under various sections of IPC,including 307 (attempt to murder), 36 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) and 346 (wrongful confinement in secret) and various sections of SC, ST Atrocities (Prevention) Act, they said. A woman police official who resigned from her post earlier this month over alleged interference in her work by a minister, has now written to the Karnataka State Commission for Women accusing senior official of harassment on duty. In her seven page letter to the commission, Anupama Shenoy, former deputy superintendent of police of Kudligi sub-division in Ballari district, has accused Ballari superintendent of police R Chetan of harassing her by succumbing to political pressure. Shenoy also accused the Chetan of causing mental torture by issuing memos to her for silly reasons on returning to Kudligi after her OOD (On Official Duty) was cancelled by the government, following public pressure. She had tendered her resignation as the DSP on June 4 as, which was accepted by the state government. Her alleged posts on Facebook levelling charges against the then labour minister and district in-charge P T Parameshwar Naik, had created a flutter. Naik was dropped from the Karnataka cabinet in the major reshuffle carried out by chief minister Siddaramaiah on Sunday. Read | Ex-Karnataka cop Anupama Shenoy who took on minister claims threat to life Confirming that the commission has received the letter from Shenoy, womens commission chief Manjula Manasa said, Someone on behalf of Anupama has submitted her letter. The commission would require her statement and personal affidavit also. The commission certainly will look into her complaint, will be recording statement of the SP also and get enquiry done, she said. In January, Shenoy was transferred allegedly at the behest of Naik for putting his call on hold, with the incident triggering a storm. A video footage purportedly showing Naik making a boastful claim about shunting out Shenoy had also gone viral later. Meanwhile, Chetan said he has performed his duty within the limits of law and refuted the charge that Shenoy was harassed. He said the matter has gone to the Womens Commission and the truth will come out from the enquiry. The Kerala Police has approached its Karnataka counterparts to register a case against two college students for brutally ragging a Dalit nursing student from Kerala. Speaking to IANS, Jaleel Thotathil, circle inspector of police, here said that they have recorded the statement of the 19-year-old victim who is presently undergoing treatment at the Kozhikode Medical College hospital. Since the place of occurrence of the crime is in Karnataka where we have no jurisdiction, her statement has been recorded and through a special messenger we have send it to the Roza Police station at Gulbarga in Karnataka, said Thottathil. The two accused of brutally ragging the student both from Kerala are Lekshmi hailing from Kollam and Athira from Idukki. The charges that have been put up include attempt to murder besides sections in the Kerala Ragging Act and Atrocities under SC/ST Act, Thottathil added. According to the victim, a first-year nursing student of Al Qamar College of Nursing at Gulbarga, she was forced to drink a bathroom cleaning liquid last month was due to which she fell ill. After spending a few days in a hospital in Karnataka, she was sent back home and has since been hospitalised at the state-run Medical College hospital at Thrissur. Following the episode, she has developed serious oesophagus problems and she has been put on intravenous fluid supplements. Her mother Janaki, on Wednesday told the media that the college authorities failed to act and has been protecting the accused. Kerala Culture Minister AK Balan said the state will bear the entire treatment expenses of the victim and will take up the case with the Karnataka government. Read| Kerala nursing student battles for life after seniors force her to drink phenyl Lance Naik Hemrajs ultimate sacrifice at the India-Pak border still lingers in the minds of Indians, but the lofty promises made to his family after the incident have largely been forgotten. The soldiers body was found beheaded after a skirmish with enemy forces in January 2013, and the then army chief and chief minister Akhilesh Yadav were among the big names who visited his village, Sher Nagar in Mathura district promising everything from land and jobs for the family to water supply and schools for the village. However, Hemrajs widow, Dharamwati, who was in Agra on Tuesday to meet officials of the power corporation over the issue of electricity supply to her village, said many of these promises are yet to be complied with. A major promise made at the time was about providing better road connectivity and water supply to the village, she said. The water in our village is saline and we have to walk for kilometres to get potable water. A water tank being constructed in our village has been lying incomplete. Also, our village is located in the ravines of Mathura district and the link road constructed is damaged. The village has been included in the list of Lohiya villages, but facilities are still to be upgraded, she added. Though five acres of land were promised, she said the family received only three acres, and her brothers-in-law are still waiting for the promised jobs. We were also given assurances that our village would get an intermediate school (up to Class 12) but any such initiative is still to commence, she said. Dharamwati, who is presently living in an army accommodation in Mathura, said even though her children were studying in the army school, she was worried about how long the facility would continue. But I have no complaints with the army, she said. Although the government had proposed to install Lance Naik Hemrajs statue at a park in the area, it failed to deliver. The family ultimately bore the entire cost of the installation, the martyrs widow said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON At least 76 people have been killed by lightning in the last two days as violent storms and heavy rains lashed Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, disaster management officials said Wednesday. Bihar reported most of the deaths after an overnight storm, which coincided with the arrival of the monsoon in the eastern state on Tuesday, left at least 56 people dead. Bihar disaster management minister Chandrashekhar warned that the toll could be higher, news agency ANI said. Though lightning strikes are relatively common during the June-October monsoon the death toll is particularly high for two days. Read: Lightning killed more Indians than other natural disasters in 2014 We have confirmation of 47 deaths and fear the toll may go up as reports are pouring in from other districts, Anirudh Kumar, a senior official at Bihars disaster management agency, told AFP. Five deaths were reported from Rohtas and Patna, followed by four each in Aurangabad, Nalanda and Buxar districts. Three deaths were reported from Saharsa, two from Bhojpur and East Champaran and one each from Banka, Muzaffarpur, Madhepura and Samastipur. Unconfirmed reports, however, said five deaths were also reported from Kaimur, three each from Katihar and Saran, two each from Purnea and Munger and one each from Gaya, Kishanganj and West Champaran. Read: Monsoon sets in over Ukhand, Met predicts heavy rain in next 2 days In Naubatpur block, on the outskirts of the state capital Patna, a lightning strike left open a 100-foot (30.5 metre) crack on the ground. The crack due to lightning is 100 feet and 8 feet deep, district magistrate Sanjay Kumar Agarwal confirmed. In Patna and Rohtas alone, 16 people were injured by lightning. More than 12 people were also hurt in the Kosi region of Saharsa. The state government, which announced a compensation of Rs 4 lakh to the victims families, has issued an advisory to people to stay away from fields during thundershowers. Authorities in the neighbouring state of Uttar Pradesh said 20 people were killed as heavy rains accompanied by lightning hit many parts of the state over two days. Lightning kills thousands every year, most of them farmers working the fields. More than 2,500 people were killed by lightning in India in 2014, according to the National Crime Records Bureau, the most recent figures available. Read: Waterlogging woes: Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway still not ready for monsoon (With agency inputs) Compelled to change four shelters in the past two years, Kanu Gandhi, the US-returned grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, wants to settle down in Gujarats Rajkot, where his grandfather had spent the early years of his life. At present, Kanu Gandhi, 87, stays at the Guru Vishram Vridh Ashram in Delhi, where an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) has been converted into a room for his stay with wife Shiva Laxmi, 85. With old age home Dikranu Ghar on the outskirts of Rajkot ready to offer lifelong accommodation, medical care and security to the couple, this former Nasa employees wish to move closer to the place where the Mahatmas journey began in Porbandar may come true. Gujarat-Rajkot is where the roots of our family are. I would like to move there and stay for the rest of my life, said Kanu Gandhi. But there is a bureaucratic hurdle. We can allow the couple to move only if recommended by a responsible authority like the PMO or any other ministry, said Dr GP Bhagat, founder of the Delhi home. In May, when the couple was shifted to Delhi by the authorities of Gujarat Vidyapith, an academic institute founded by the Mahatma, both the central and Delhi government had approached them to extend required help. PM Narendra Modi had sent Minister of State for culture and tourism and civil aviation Mahesh Sharma, even as the Delhi government rushed SC/ ST, child and women development minister Sandeep Kumar to call upon them. We read how the couple has been moving from one place to another. We want to provide a permanent stay to them, said Mukesh Doshi of Dikranu Ghar. . SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Guwahati The Meghalaya Police has busted a racket that used chemistry to con people into believing pieces of a special black paper could be turned into currency notes. The police arrested four persons two from Boko in Assam and two from Meghalaya capital Shillong and are hunting others suspected to be involved in this racket. Fake Indian currency notes smuggled in from Bangladesh had, like the other north-eastern states, been bothering Meghalaya for quite some time. The police sensed a similar racket when they received reports of the paper-to-cash magic. Our team followed the four-member gang and arrested them at Pillankata in Ri-Bhoi district, superintendent of police (City) Vivek Syiem said from Meghalaya capital Shillong. Three males of the four-member gang arrested (HT Photo) Investigations revealed the quartet was using chemical-coated black papers cut into the shape of a Rs 500 currency note to hoodwink unsuspecting customers bitten by the get-rich-quick bug. Their modus operandi was to coat genuine cash with black iodide solution and wash it with greenish-blue sodium thiosulphate or hypo that was once popular for developing photographs from negatives in the dark room, Syiem said. The gang would then convince customers to buy wads of ordinary currency note-shaped paper coated in black iodide and the chemical solution in a bottle. The female member of the gang, Shiela Marbaniang. (HT Photo) A member of the gang, Syiem said, would later bump into the buyer to ensure the bottle is damaged as an insurance against discovering the con and informing the police. The arrested four said their network extended up to Arunachal Pradesh where no one has seen through their trick yet. A Meghalaya police officer said the items seized from the quartet included a green laminated paper where solutions were to be applied for demonstration, bottles of sodium thiosulphate solution and 17 bundles of iodide-coated black paper in the shape of a Rs 500 note. Topping each of these bundles was a genuine Rs 500 note coated with the black chemical. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping this week on the sidelines of a summit in Uzbekistan, foreign ministry said on Wednesday, seeking Chinas backing for Indias entry into a nuclear trade group. India wants to become a member of the 48-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) to get better access to low-cost, clean nuclear energy -- important for its economic growth. While several countries including the United States and France have publicly backed Indias quest to join the NSG, China, which has not yet supported the bid, is seen as the biggest obstacle. A senior foreign ministry official confirmed Modi would meet Xi at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Uzbekistans capital Tashkent, which starts on Thursday. The SCO is a six-nation group comprising China, Russia and Central Asian countries focused on regional energy and security issues. The timing could be critical, as the NSG on Thursday begins a two-day meeting in Seoul, where Indias application may come up for discussion -- with a last-minute backing from China potentially a powerful factor. Read | China wont soften stand on Indias NSG bid like it did in 2008: Expert Our foreign secretary S Jaishankar is already in Seoul to closely monitor the NSG meet while our PM holds key bilateral meetings with the Chinese and Russian Presidents on the SCO sidelines, the foreign ministry official told AFP on condition of anonymity. Modi has ramped up his bid to get into the NSG this month, undertaking a multi-nation trip to court key countries including the US, Switzerland and Mexico. India is also hoping to join the SCO at the summit in Tashkent, which could help it gain access to deals in energy-rich Central Asia and boost its regional security cooperation. The multi-agency group probing Panama papers, which named around 500 Indians who have allegedly stashed money in offshore entities, has submitted three reports to the government. The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has also been updating the Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up under the directions of the Supreme Court to monitor cases related to black money, according to the revenue department. The government had in April formed MAG to investigate whether the money deposited in tax haven Panama are legal or illegal. MAG comprises officials from the RBI, I-T department, financial Intelligence unit and foreign tax and tax research. The purpose of constituting MAG is to ensure speedy and coordinated investigation in the cases of persons whose names have appeared in the Panama paper leaks. Investigations in such cases are being conducted by respective investigating agencies and the progress is being monitored by MAG, the department said. The issue of undisclosed foreign income was discussed in the zonal conference of tax officers and it was decided to focus on expeditious action, proper follow-up action in cases where prosecution complaints have been filed and taking of effective steps for recovery of demands raised. The thrust areas identified at the conference also include expeditious analysis of evidence gathered from all possible sources, examination of implications of the newly enacted foreign black money law and examination of requests of other law enforcement agencies for sharing of relevant information and documents. The Indian Institute of Petroleum (IIP) at Dehradun and Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) have developed an indigenous technology to reduce cancer-causing benzene levels in petrol. The World Health Organization has already identified the chemical as a risk for petrol pump workers and vehicle users. Therefore, the technology is likely to get global attention, sources said. We are getting a few inquiries on [the] new technology, senior IIP scientist MP Garg said. IIP officials said the petrol supplied in India carries 1% benzene and the new technology can bring down its levels down to 0.2%. In fact, RIL has already begun using the technology at its Jamnagar refinery, which primarily exports petrol to the United States, where there are tough guidelines on benzene levels. As per the global standards, the presence of benzene shouldnt exceed 0.62% to reduce health risk. However, the petroleum ministry has standardised benzene presence to 1%, which all 21 refineries are adhering too. IIP director R Vishwakarma said the benzene levels in petrol in India used to be around 5% before 2000. Garg, who has also served as director general of Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) MP, suggested that India should meet the global marker and the refineries should adopt the technology, considering the health risks of benzene. However, he said, Any new technology involves investment. We also understand that. RIL group president (research and technology) Ajit Sapre said his team approached the IIP in 2011 to know whether it had a technology to remove benzene from gasoline, popularly known as petrol. And after years of research, they were able to develop the technology. Besides petrol, benzene is used in paint, plastic and related industries. However, petrol is a potential threat because it is a highly used fuel. According to a World Health Organization document, Automobile exhaust accounts for the largest source of benzene in the general environment... benzene has been measured in air inside vehicles at levels higher than those in residential air. It further states that human exposure to benzene has been associated with a range of acute and long-term adverse health effects and diseases, including cancer. The risk is manifold especially for millions of workers at petrol pumps who have direct exposure to petrol fumes. The new vehicles have catalyst converter but [there are] still many old vehicles running on Indian roads, Vishwakarma said. The state government has seemingly taken strong exceptions to references of drug factories in Himachal Pradesh in the Alia Bhatt and Shahid Kapoor starrer Udta Punjab. A few scenes in the movie shows youths referring to drugs supplied from Himachals pharma hubBarotiwala. Also read I Udta Punjab effect? Dope test a must for 6 lakh wannabe cops Whatever is depicted in Udta Punjab about Himachal Pradesh is not a reality. I will take up the matter with the film producer and ask him to delete the reference to Baddi-Barotiwala, chief minister Virbhadra Singh told Hindustan Times. Today Baddi-Barotiwaala is not only a leading drug manufacturer in the country but it meets 30% of the requirement in Asia. There is some reference to drug entering Punjab from Himachal. It is bad to portray Himachal as a source of drugs for Punjab, he said. BY THE WAY: Udta Punjab is cared of deeper, human reality The drug manufacturers in Himachal are for genuine purpose but its also true that they are being abused by addicts, the chief minister said. No doubt, the films producer has a good intention and wants to spread awareness about the growing drug addiction among the youth but the reference to Himachal Pradesh has not gone down well, he said. I have ordered the drug authorities to keep a strict watch on the drug factories in Himachal, Virbhadra said. Also read I Facts, figures and falsehoods of Punjabs drug problem There are more than 400 pharmaceutical units based in the industrial township of Baddi, Barotiwala, Nalagarh, Parwanoo in Solan district, while more than 100 pharmaceutical units are based in Poanta Sahib and Kala Amb in Sirmaur district. Over the years, the state has emerged as one of the pharmaceutical hubs in North India. Himachal alone produces drugs worth Rs 24,000 crore. Pharmaceutical units in Himachal export drugs amounting to Rs 9,000 crore. Also read I We got it from a Himachal village Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal on many occasions has blamed drug factories in Himachal Pradesh for drug spillover in Punjab while chief minister Virbhadra Singh has been denying it. In the wake of reports that drug factories in Himachal Pradesh were clandestinely supplying drugs to Punjab, the Centre had red ordered large-scale sampling of the pharmaceutical firms in Baddi and Barotiwaala. Several states have also been sending their teams for random sampling of drugs being produced in these towns. Central drug authorities had collected 40,000 samples of the various drugs manufactured in different states across the country, of which 27,000 were from Himachal only. Extensive random sampling had triggered panic among manufacturers in the state. Of the total 700 drug manufacturing units in Baddi and Barotiwaala townships, 540 units manufacture medicines while 160 of them manufacture cosmetics. The pharmaceutical industry in Himachal has an annual turnover of Rs 30,000 crore. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Union minister M Vankaiah Naidu on Wednesday took a dig at the Congress leadership, claiming that Team Modi decides on public welfare these days, unlike the days when Madam decided and PM obeyed. The biggest change Modi government has brought is that we have ended the situation of policy paralysis. Today the PM presides and Team Modi decides on public welfare unlike the days when Madam decided and PM obeyed, Naidu was quoted as saying in a statement by his party. He was addressing a Vikas Parv programme organised by the BJP in east Delhi to celebrate two years of Narendra Modi governments rule and its achievements. At the behest of Congress, Modi was denied US visa 9 times but now the same American people are hailing Narendra Modi as an an icon, Naidu claimed. Union Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha said today the world is eager to invest in the country that has emerged as the top hub for investors. A large number of BJP leaders including state president Satish Upadhyay, MPs Maheish Girri and Manoj Tiwari, and Delhi in-charge Shyam Jaju were also present. Police on Wednesday conducted a pre-dawn search operation in villages surrounding the Pathankot Air Force Station, a day after a parliamentary panel cautioned the Centre of another terrorist strike at the airbase. The Parliamentary Standing Committee (PSC) on Home Affairs said on Tuesday it has informed the Centre of the possibility of terrorists hiding in villages close to the vulnerable Pathankot airbase and that it can come under fresh attack. After going back from Pathankot, we made our suggestions to the government and said that there can be a further attack on Pathankot... We were told by the villagers that some terrorists were still hiding in the villages there, chairperson of the committee P Bhattacharya told reporters. The panel visited the airbase and its surrounding villages in February after it was attacked by heavily-armed Pakistani militants, who killed seven security personnel before being eliminated in an eighty-hour long encounter on January 2. Read: Terrorists hiding near Pathankot: Rijiju downplays speculations Bhattacharya also said that the government has alerted the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Border Security Force (BSF) and the Indian Army and handed over the security of the airbase to them after the recommendation of the committee. Nearly 300 Punjab police personnel led by Pathankot senior superintendent of police Rakesh Kaushal cracked down on the Gujjar settlements near the airbase wall at 5am and at least 30 villages in the vicinity were combed by the different teams led by three deputy superintendent of police of the district. Senior police officers, who were involved in the operation, said nothing suspicious was found. We quizzed many villagers, including those from the Gujar community, and have been informed that no such presence is being felt in the area, SSP Kaushal told Hindustan Times. Read: No clean chit to Pak official machinery over Pathankot terror attack: Rijiju Kaushal, who later met the GOC, BSF officials and other security agencies, also said that all the agencies have denied the presence of any suspected militant in the area. As nothing can be ruled out and we are taking every input seriously, so we conducted this surprise combing today morning, he said. Sources, however, denied the deployment of the CRPF, BSF and the army to guard the airbase. They said it is being guarded by the Indian Air Force security and its commandos. President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Tashkent that begins Thursday during which India is expected to seek Chinas support for its NSG bid. We will release relevant information in due course, foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said Wednesday, confirming the meeting between the two leaders. The summit in the Uzbek capital coincides with the two-day annual plenary of the nuclear suppliers group in Seoul, South Korea where Indias application for a seat on the global nuclear trading table is expected to be discussed. During his meeting with Xi, Modi is likely to seek Chinas support to join NSG, which Beijing is resisting. Hua denied China was blocking Indias entry. With regard to Indias entry into NSG, I would like correct that the word China blocking Indias membership is not proper, she said. The word blocking is not proper. In the NSG agenda we have never seen the topic of non-NPT countries entry. So it does not make sense to say we block the entry. All the member countries were concerned and issues relating to non-NPT countries entry into the NSG were discussed, she said. We hope that relevant discussion will keep going and Chinese side will take constructive part in the discussion, she said. China has clubbed Indias entry with that of Pakistan, which, like New Delhi, has not signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT). An NSG membership will give India access to latest nuclear technology, crucial to meet its growing energy needs. The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation is a Euroasian political and security grouping increasingly seen as a counterweight to Nato. India and Pakistan will be formerly inducted into China-dominated group during the Tashkent summit. Membership will give India access to major gas and oil exploration projects in Central Asia. It was 6 am, and our SUV rushed at breakneck speed to the remote, spindle-shaped island of Sriharikota, around 20 kms from Sullurpeta town in Nellore district, Andhra Pradesh. On both sides stretched the Pulicat lake, which at places is no more than shallow pools of entrapped sea water this summer. Pulicat is the second largest brackish water lake in India, after the Chilika in Odisha. We zipped past long-beaked pelicans, storks, cranes, kingfishers and other native and migratory birds as they crowd these orangey waters, swallowing their pick of fish. The breeze rising from the lake was strong and gushes against the windscreen. It made a powerful whizzing hum, and I wondered if it would be similar to what the rocket igniter would sound like in a few hours. Sriharikota is Indias primary orbital launch site, with features like a good launch azimuth corridor, nearness to the equator and large uninhabited area as a safety zone. The facility consists of two launch pads for spacecraft. SHAR will also be the main base for the Indian human spaceflight program, for which a third launchpad will be built. Crowds gathered at the official launch site for the historic occasion (Swati Sanyal) On launch day, Wednesday, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) C34 took off from the second launch pad. This was ISROs biggest launch ever at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) at Sriharikota Range (SHAR), where we witnessed the PSLV C34 fly to inject 20 satellites into a single sun synchronous orbit, at a height of about 505 km. Three of the satellites were Indian ones a Cartosat-2 satellite for earth observation, used for urban, rural, coastal land use, water distribution and other such applications; the other two were developed by Indian universities while the rest are commercial satellites from US, Canada, Germany and Indonesia. ISRO has a commercial arm, Antrix Corporation Ltd, that launches foreign satellites into space. According to reports quoting the prime ministers office, 28 foreign satellites launched on the PSLV between 2013 and 2015 and generated around $101 million in commercial launch fees. Several countries use ISROs services because its space missions are conducted at costs that are several times lower than that of other space agencies. Wednesdays launch cemented Indias place as a forerunner in global space programs. According to ISRO, the PSLV is one of worlds most reliable launch vehicles, and its XL version has made the worlds major rocket powers appreciate the working being done in the organisation. It will be taking its 36th trip to space; it has been in service for over 20 years and has been used for the Chandrayaan-1, Mars Orbiter Mission, Space Capsule Recovery Experiment, and Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS). It has launched over 40 foreign satellites for 19 countries. In 2008, it created a record for the most number of satellites placed in orbit in one launch by launching 10 satellites into various Low Earth Orbits (the current record is by the Russian DNEPR rocket launching 37 satellites in 2014). Given its unfailing service and flexibility towards customisation, it is known as ISROs workhorse and has the capability of injecting 1750 kg of payload (satellites) into the 600 km sun synchronous polar orbit. Our SUV continued to rush as my host was in a hurry. At the main entrance of SDSC, the maroon wall announcing the name of this ISRO centre gleamed. The 48-hour countdown to Wednesdays mission began at 9.25 am on Monday, June 20. The previous day, officials conducted a Mission Readiness Review to inspect all the processes, explain what would be expected from each team member and department, and clarify the general flow of work. Before a launch, every team is expected to be vigilant in both meeting its own targets and collaborating with others on the larger mission. The MR Kurup Auditorium from where the whole event was witnessed (Swati Sanyal) Everywhere you looked, the whole area was dotted with uniformed men moving about on two-wheelers and in jeeps. The security and safety measures here were beefed up several times ever since the launch countdown. There was a crowd in front of the Keepakah centre employee canteen. Many of the staff also brought along a guest or two for the historic occasion. Employees from the afternoon and night shifts had to roll in for special launch duties in the morning. There was, of course, a launch day special breakfast menu: idly, vada, upma, pongal, coconut and tamarind chutneys, sweets and coffee, all in unlimited supply. There was an exuberance in the air, a feeling of festivity along with the kind of nervousness that you experience inside an exam hall. Anticipation builds as the moment draws near (Swati Sanyal) The wonder of the PSLV The PSLV has four parts, each with its own set of motors, fuels and propellants. The lowest section (PS1) includes the core of the vehicle while the fourth (PS4) holds all the satellites that are to be injected in the orbit. There are six strap-on boosters containing 12.2 tonnes of solid propellant to augment the engines, four of which are at ground level. When the core is ignited, the propellant starts burning radially and these four grounded boosters are ignited along with the core to provide the massive thrust that is required for the giant vehicle to break its gravitational pull, and rise, gaining enormous velocity at every stage. The solid propellants are made in-house at ISROs SHAR premises, while the 42 tonnes of liquid propellant for PS2 has to be procured from third party industrial collaborators. According to N Narayanamoorthy, an electronics and communications engineer associated with the PSLVs development right from its formative years, special permission had to be obtained from the government in 1982 for this unique configuration of solid and liquid propellants. At some point, the scientists realised that increasing PS2 fuel from 33 to 37.5 tonnes was needed to increase its payload capability and carry heavier satellites to their relevant orbits. Today, the PSLV is available in three configurations the generic vehicle with six strap-ons, which is the earlier edition of PSLV (which will be discontinued soon), the core-alone version (without strap-ons), and the XL version with extended strap-ons. Other parts of the launch vehicle are manufactured separately at a Bangalore campus named after Vikram Sarabhai (VSCC) and then transported to SHAR for testing and launching. After each part of the vehicle is tested, it is integrated and assembled. An umbilical tower connects to the integrated vehicle at different stages through wires and pipes, filling it with fuels and gases, charging its batteries, and coordinating other processes. The day before the launch, the fuel tanks get filled with propellant. Launch day Beginning five hours before launch, GPS radiosonic balloons were released every hour into the atmosphere. These balloons send data to track parameters like wind speed and direction. An hour before launch, this data was programmed into the launch vehicle system to be able to harness the wind to its advantage. Just as you avoid stepping on the puddles on the street after it has rained, the vehicle is programmed to avoid opposing forces, explained one official on condition of anonymity. Marine and air traffic commands gave their clearance an hour before, clearing the region of all other air and water vehicles. Next, the propellant, fuel and control tanks are topped up 30 minutes before launch to account for any liquid evaporation and ensure steady pressure on the propellants. Imagine when the rocket lifts up and moves at such a high speed, everything inside it is supposed to move around. This is not acceptable in case of the propellants because air blocks will disrupt the free flow of propellants to the engines. To prevent this, and to ensure that steady pressures on the propellants are maintained, helium gas at a very high pressure of around 375 bars is bled into the fuel tanks, said the official. In these last 30 minutes, voices from the mission control room started pouring in through speakers to announce mission-readiness updates. The auditorium from where we were watching also started receiving live commentary, explaining many of the small and big aspects of the launch. About 20 minutes before launch, the spacecraft was switched on using its internal power. Ten minutes to go, and the whole system moved to the Automatic Launch Signals (ALS) phase, which meant the reins were handed over to the hands of computers that receive and examine data from all parts of the PSLV, looking out for last minute glitches. If there is a leakage or a slowdown during any step, this is the stage at which it must be detected, and these computers have the power to decide to stop the launch if needed. A senior employee told me on condition of anonymity that things have indeed gone wrong in the past before a launch; he told me about a situation in which a propellant leakage was identified in a GLSV vehicle hours before the launch. But cool-headed scientists followed protocols and safety norms to fix the leak, and the launch took place after all. The roll control engine is the first to ignite just 3 seconds before the launch. Once the computers check if this has happened on schedule, it is the turn for the core and the four strap-on boosters to ignite at minute zero. Smoke thrusts down the rockets tail and, after all the anticipation, the quake of burning fuel comes like a relief. The thrust formed by the fuel at this stage lifts the vehicle along with its precious load of satellites. Within a fraction of a second, the rocket is in the air. The terrace of the MR Kurup auditorium, where relatives and personal guests of ISRO staff gathered to witness the launch (Swati Sanyal) On the terrace of the MR Kurup auditorium, where relatives and personal guests of ISRO staff gathered to witness the launch, I looked at the faces around me. Many were smiling. Some were concentrating. Many of us didnt comprehend all the moving parts of this highly technological event, but we understood that it was something very special. Some were in tears. Maybe it was the sun, or maybe it was just wonder and pride. (This story has been published in arrangement with GRIST Media) Muslim Rashtriya Manch, an RSS affiliate group is hosting a grand Iftar in Delhi on July 2 for which it has invited ambassadors of many countries including Muslim nations like Pakistan to spread the message of unity and harmony. The iftar party in the Capital would be a much bigger affair this time. It has also asked its members to hold the event across the country. The aim is to tell the world about Indian-ness, helping people from all communities live in peace and harmony...India is a ray of hope and peace for the Muslim world, RSS leader and patron of the Manch Indresh Kumar said. Citing holy scriptures, Kumar said even the Prophet has said that whenever he felt disturbed, he felt spiritual waves of peace and love coming from the east and referred to Hindustan and that the day will come, when the message of peace and love will flow from Bharat. Charity begins at home...all should live in harmony and help make the country free of riots and the world including India free from violence including terrorism, he said in his appeal to the minority community members. Kumar also said that he has urged the community members to plant a sapling to curb pollution and bring home the holy sapling (Tulsi) at home and worship it, saying it is referred to as Rehan, also called the plant of heaven in the holy Quran. The RSS leader said there should be no discrimination in slogans in favour of the country, irrespective of the language used, and said people should break free from the shackles of communalism to avoid spreading hatred in humanity. The Manch had organised a similar iftar for some diplomats in Delhi, but this time it is being organised on a bigger scale. Kumar said that invites to diplomats of 35 to 40 Muslim nations and some others have been sent. Foreign secretary S Jaishankar on Wednesday headed for Seoul ahead of the crucial NSG Plenary from tomorrow, where India is hoping to clinch membership which is strongly opposed by China and some other countries. Jaishankhar, who was closely monitoring the goings-on during the officials level meet of the 48-nation grouping which started on Monday, left for the South Korean capital to lobby with members to boost Indias prospects of getting membership. Senior external affairs ministry official Amandeep Singh Gill, in-charge of Disarmament & International Security division, is already in Seoul to garner support as well as explain Indias case, sources said. Read: Pak claims to have successfully thwarted Indias NSG entry bid However, China continues to stonewall Indias bid for NSG membership with the members divided over the entry of a non-NPT signatory country like India. The NSG works under the principle of unanimity and even one countrys vote against India will scuttle its bid. While majority of the elite group members backed Indias membership, it is understood that apart from China, countries like Turkey, South Africa, Ireland and New Zealand were not in favour of Indias entry into the NSG. China maintains opposition to Indias entry, arguing that it has not signed Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). However, it has been batting for its close ally Pakistans entry 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. Read: Chinas U-turn on Indias NSG bid: Theres always room for discussion India is seeking membership of NSG to enable it to trade in and export nuclear technology. The access to the NSG, which regulates the global trade of nuclear technology, is expected to open up the international market for energy-starved India, which has an ambitious energy generation programme. India is looking at 63,000 MW energy requirement through nuclear programme by 2030. 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. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national president Amit Shah and yoga guru Ramdev performed yoga at a function organised on the occasion of the International Yoga Day in Faridabad on Tuesday. Haryana governor Kaptan Singh Solanki and chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar were present at the national function held in Chandigarh attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Haryana health minister Anil Vij, state BJP president Subhash Barala, Kalka MLA Latika Sharma were also present at the function held at the Capitol Complex. Besides, various Union ministers and state ministers participated in yoga events in different districts of Haryana. A large number of people performed yoga together at a district-level function organised in Faridabad in which Union minister of state for social justice and empowerment Krishan Pal Gurjar participated. The programme was conducted under the supervision of yoga guru Ramdev. Speaking on the occasion, BJP chief Shah said the enthusiasm shown by the people towards yoga indicated the success of the campaign to promote this ancient practice to stay fit and healthy. He said that through the efforts of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, people in 170 countries had adopted yoga as a part of their lives and the Yoga day was being celebrated in 193 countries. Shah also released the book titled Yog Vishwakosh penned by Baba Ramdev. Haryana state in-charge of BJP Anil Jain said that with the efforts of Baba Ramdev, people across the country had become keen to adopt the indigenous practices. Several MLAs and experts from Patanjali Yogpeeth also participated in the event. Elsewhere in the state, several ministers and chief parliamentary secretaries (CPSes) participated in the events organised in different districts of the state. A large number of prisoners and jail department staff as well as senior police officials, including director general, prisons, Yash Pal Singal also participated in an event held at the Central jail, Ambala. INCONVENIENCE AT GOVT OFFICES KARNAL The various district administrations on Tuesday celebrated the International Yoga Day as almost all officials from the district administrations, school children and general public participated in functions held in the morning on this occasion. However, people faced inconvenience at various government offices as the officials reached late. While the government had announced two-hour short leave for the employees participating in the Yoga day function from 6am to 8am, the people, who visited to the mini-secretariat in Karnal, had to wait for several hours. Six people, including a doctor couple, were arrested on Wednesday, on charges of arranging the sale of a 11-day-old boy here. Police said the mother of the infant, born at a hospital in Kulamangalam in the district, decided to sell the baby for money and sought the help of the doctor couple Rajasekharan and Shanthi, who in turn struck a deal with Chitra Bai, running a home for women in the city. Chitra bought the baby for Rs 5 lakh, and planned to sell it for a profit, they said. Following a tip-off regarding sale of the baby, police and child helpline members under the pretext of buying the infant contacted Chitra. When Chitra told them to come to Maravankulam near here, a police team reached the spot and rescued the baby and arrested six persons. Chitra was also arrested, police said. A case has been registered under Anti-Human Trafficking and Child Protection Act against the six, police said. Pakistans national security adviser Nasser Khan Janjua has alleged that the USs efforts to get India included in the nuclear suppliers group (NSG) was part of a greater design to contain China and prevent the resurgence of Russia. Its [part of] a greater design, Janjua said at a seminar on Tuesday on Pakistans case for NSA membership. American policies, he cautioned, would ultimately bring Pakistan even closer to China. Janjua said the move by the US to induct India into the 48-nation exclusive nuclear club should be seen in the context of global power politics trends. He then listed contain China, prevent the resurgence of Russia and keep the Muslim world in a controlled chaos as some of the leading trends in the current global power politics, The Express Tribune reported. The newspapers said it was unprecedented that a top Pakistani official would publicly make such a candid statement on a sensitive issue. Pakistan was upset with the US decision to aggressively campaign for India while ignoring Islamabads NSG aspirations, the paper said. Pakistan formally applied for NSG membership in May, setting the stage for a showdown with India at the elite groupings plenary session in Seoul. The campaign for Indias membership was seen as carrying the risk of antagonising Pakistan as well as China, which could veto Indias application, the paper said. Pakistan feared that NSG membership for India would disturb strategic balance and trigger a new arms race in South Asia, it said. Pakistans former permanent representative at the UN in Geneva Zamir Akram said Islamabad was only opposed to exclusive membership of the NSG for India. He was speaking at a seminar organised by the Strategic Vision Institute (SVI), a think-tank, in Islamabad. The Dawn reported that Akrams comments follow remarks by Indian foreign minister Sushma Swaraj that India was not against any country, including Pakistan, joining the NSG on merit. Pakistan supports the evolution of criteria that can be applied across the board, Akram said. Experts are concerned about the discovery of a predatory fish that can grow up to eight feet from Subhas Sarovar in Kolkatas eastern fringe of Beliaghata as it can destroy local ecosystem and biodiversity. A local angler, Shibu Mondol, caught a 3.5-feet long Alligator Gar a fish that resembles an alligator with long sharp teeth and equally predatory instincts and sometimes known to attack humans two months ago. Biodiversity experts, ecologists and anglers say the fish could kill almost every other fish in the lake. The prehistoric relatives of this mega fish inhabited many parts of the world, but today gars live only in North and Central America. Of the seven known species, the Alligator Gar is the largest. Alligator Gar has already become a nuisance in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and reports of the fish spreading fast and becoming invasive in water bodies of Tamil Nadu are also pouring in. In 2015, an Alligator Gar was caught from a well in Dadar in Mumbai. (HT photo) It is a highly carnivorous fish. It not only kills other fishes but there are reports of it attacking humans too. The fishs egg is also poisonous. It has no natural enemies and hence can become invasive in no time destroying the local ecosystem and biodiversity, Mathe Rajeev Mathew, expert member of the National Biodiversity Authority and the Telangana State Biodiversity Board, said. Alligator Gar has already become a nuisance in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and reports of the fish spreading fast and becoming invasive in water bodies of Tamil Nadu are also pouring in. In 2015, an Alligator Gar was caught from a well in Dadar in Mumbai. A group of experts has been called in to tackle the menace. This is the first time that this species has been caught in the city. We would like to send a team and collect the specimen. We would also try to explore the lake to check if their population has proliferated and how big is the threat, KC Gopi, a fish expert of the Zoological Survey of India, said. Experts say they are usually smuggled into the country to be reared in aquariums. But when the fish starts gaining size and kills other fish, owners often release them in the local water bodies. We have had a similar experience with another aquarium fish called the Crocodile fish while working in East Kolkata Wetlands. They are bought by aquarium keepers and then released into wild when they grow big. Crocodile fish are now found in almost every pond and lake in Kolkata and are destroying the local biodiversity, Dipayan Dey, who heads the city based NGO South Asian Forum for Environment, said. Mondol the person who caught the fish - gave a scary account of how he caught the fish as it tried to attack him and snap his finger. Mondol is a member of the West Bengal Anglers Association and fishes regularly in Subhas Sarovar. Unlike a Rohu or Katla fish, which usually tries to drag the rope deep into the pond after it is hooked, this fish was lying idle in the water like a tortoise. When I started pulling it out of the water, I was shocked to see the alligator-like snout. I screamed and local residents soon rushed to the spot. The fish after being pulled out not only made a dart to bite me but also killed a Katla fish which I caught earlier, Mondol said. The Alligator Gar that Mondol caught weighed more than five kilos. One of Mondols friends killed the fish and ate its meat that tasted sour. Mondol, however, managed to retain the skin and head and is drying to preserve it. We couldnt cut the fish with a knife. It was so hard that it had to be hacked with an axe, Mondol said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON In their craze for taking selfies, seven boys, including two siblings, were swept away by the fast current of the Ganga at the Ganga Barrage here on Wednesday morning. The bodies of the boys, aged between 21 and 23 years, were recovered after three hours of frantic search. The deceased-- Maqsood, Sachin Gupta, Shivam Gupta, Satyam Gupta, Golu Tiwari, Rohit and Sandeep Gupta-- had gone to the Ganga barrage on a joy-trip. Maqsood lived at Colnolganj in Parade, and the others were residents of Lal Colony in Juhi under the Kidwai Nagarpolice station. Two of the drowned boys, Shivam and Satyam Gupta, were brothers. According to eyewitnesses, eight boys drowned, but police put the figure at seven. Professional divers were still trying to find the 8th missing boy, at the time of filing the report. According to the Kohna police, the boys went to Ganga Barrage from gate number one around 10.30 am and were taking selfies on the stairs. Suddenly, one of the boys slipped and fell into the river and was swept away. The other six boys, either in panic or in a bid to rescue their friend, jumped into the river but failed to make it to the shore. A few people who witnessed the incident informed the police, who immediately swung into action and summoned a professional swimmer, Nasir, from Shuklaganj. Nasir with his team of ten people reached the site and fished out seven bodies and was trying to trace the eighth boy, according to the latest reports. MUMBAI: The BJP has criticised the Congress-NCP-controlled district cooperative banks for not honouring crop insurance claims of farmers. The move is being seen by many as another attempt to get control of the cooperative sector that is still largely controlled by the Congress and the NCP. The NCP hit back saying it is a political move with malafide intentions. State cooperation minister Chandrakant Patil on Tuesday said there are complaints that many district cooperative banks are not disbursing crop insurance money, resulting in difficulties for the farmers who are already in distress. The state government will take action against all such banks that have not released crop insurance claim amounts, Patil said. Sources in the government confirmed that the government is considering to issue notices to three district cooperative banks directing them to comply the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) rules. They are Beed, Osmanabad and Jalna all controlled by NCP heavyweights. Senior NCP leader and leader of Opposition Dhananjay Munde controls the Beed district cooperative bank, Osmanabad bank is being controlled by former NCP MP Padmsingh Patil, while former education minister Rajesh Tope has control of the Jalna district cooperative bank. Sources said around Rs 800 crore are pending with the Beed bank, while Jalna has to pay around Rs 480 crore against crop insurance claim amounts to the farmers. The cooperation minister warned all such banks to start releasing the amount immediately or face action. However, Tope has refuted the claim and said it is a political move. Its propaganda. What has been said about Jalna bank is false. This also shows malafide intentions of the government, Tope said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON NEW DELHI: India eased on Monday foreign direct investment rules for several sectors, including defence, aviation and retail, clearing the way for brands such as Apple to open stores, in sweeping changes aimed at conveying the governments commitment to reforms. The latest move comes two days after Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan, a darling of financial markets, unexpectedly announced he would return to academia when his term ends on September 4. Mondays decisions are also seen designed to contain any fallout on investor confidence from Rajans exit and this weeks vote on Britains future in the European Union. Indias equity and currency markets, which fell sharply in early morning trade on Rajans announcement, rebounded cheering the new FDI norms. The 30- share BSE Sensex, which fell 178 points shortly after markets opened, bounced back to close at 26,866.92 up 241 points. The rupee also recovered from a 61 paise plunge in the morning to close 23 paise down at Rs 67.31 to a dollar. The government lifted overseas investment ceilings for civil aviation, defence, pharmaceuticals, multi-brand food retail and eased so-called restrictive conditions for single brand retail. The decision to relax the norms was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday. Key reform decisions were taken at a high level meeting, which makes India the most open economy in the world for FDI, Modi said in a tweet. In a second tweet, he said the changes would provide a major impetus to employment and job creation in India. But a policy body linked to the BJPs ideological fount, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, decried Mondays decisions, terming them a betrayal of peoples trust that would spell the death knell for local businessmen. In doing so, this government has not done any good to the country in general and local businessmen in particular, said Ashwani Mahajan, the Swadeshi Jagaran Manch national coconvener. Commerce and industry minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the decisions would help in attracting more investments, creating jobs and making India the global manufacturing hub. The government relaxed local sourcing norms up to three years for entities undertaking single brand retail trading of products having state-of-art and cutting edge technology. This will likely benefit Apples plans to open its signature stores in India as the government relaxed the condition that stipulates companies to source at least 30% of their components or merchandise for being eligible to set up company run retail stores in India. The California-based company, whose CEO Tim Cook was in India recently, had sought easing of this norm to enable it to open stores that sell iPhone, iPads and its other proprietary products. Apple sells in India through distributors, such as, Redington, Ingram Micro and Bettel. The government also allowed up to 100% FDI in domestic airlines and new airports, a move that will allow foreign companies to fully-own Indian domestic carriers and greenfield airports and up to 74% in existing airports. Overseas carriers, however, still cant run domestic airlines in India through fully-owned subsidiaries as the ceiling of 49% FDI by foreign airlines stays In defence, up to 100% FDI has now been allowed without the mandatory condition of bringing in state-of-the-art technology by the foreign partners. FDI limit for defence sector has also been made applicable to Manufacturing of Small Arms and Ammunitions covered under Arms Act 1959. Sitharaman rejected the view that the new FDI rules were announced to counter the possible negative impact on markets of Rajans announcement. This work was going on for a couple of months. Can all this work be done in a day? It is proper to make the announcement when the work is complete. The special anti-corruption bureau (ACB) court on Wednesday granted bail to Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Chhagan Bhujbal and his nephew Sameer Bhujbal in the Maharashtra Sadan scam case. They will, however, continue to be in jail because they have been booked in a enforcement directorate (ED) case, in which the Bombay high court rejected his bail. The ACB court had on last occasion issued a production warrant against the two in the case. The jail authorities had on Wednesday produced the duo where they were formally arrested and later granted bail. The court had last month taken the cognisance and issued summons to all the 17 accused, of which one has died. As Bhujbal and his nephew Sameer have been lodged at Arther Road Jail in connection with a money laundering case, the summons were returned and the court issued a warrant to produce the duo before the court. The ACB alleged the senior NCP leader misused his official position to ensure gains to the contractor, which caused a huge loss to the state exchequer. The ACB, in its charge sheet has cited government norms that clearly state a contractor should not earn profit exceeding 20% for the project he has been allotted. However, the agency alleged that in this case, the contractor earned 81.9% profit. Around 10km off Versova beach, Jayant Pawar pulls out his fishing net from the sea to inspect the catch. What tumbles out is a mix of plastic fragments and discarded shopping bags, but very few fish. We have been forced to travel further into the sea for fish as Mumbais coast and beaches are filled with plastic waste, Pawar said. Mumbais beaches are facing a garbage crisis with environmentalists estimating that 100 tonnes of trash lies dumped on the beaches at any given moment. A study by Mumbai-based ReefWatch Marine Conservation found plastic bags, food wrappers, discarded tyres and styrofoam choking the beaches. From November 2015 to May 2016, the group examined and counted trash at nine beaches in the city Gorai, Aksa, Madh, Versova, Juhu, Dadar, Chimbai, Erangal and Girgaum Chowpatty and one on the outskirts Uttan Virgin. They found Juhu, Versova and Aksa to be the most polluted. Chimbai, Madh and Erangal, called the rocky beaches because of a lower proportion of sand cover, were the dirtiest. People walking in the middle of the filth that's left back after a high tide at Versova beach in Mumbai. (Vidya Subramanian/ HT Photo) An analysis of the trash found that plastic bags formed the biggest chunk. Fragments of plastic, PET bottles, glass fragments, paper, cardboard, cement bags, clothing, fishing nets, tyres, batteries, food wrappers and automobile scrap were other items. What we are throwing into the ocean could potentially end up in our stomach. During the study, we observed that plankton microscopic organisms that are eaten by larger marine animals were ingesting microplastics small plastic particles 5-10 microns in size from the litter, which is a concern, said Animish Limaye, mainland projects manager, ReefWatch Marine Conservation. According to our inference, the base of the food chain gets affected because the planktons are eaten by bigger fish, which is consumed by humans. A boy walks past plastic bags and other garbage at Mahim Beach. (Kunal Patil/HT Photo) A senior official from the Maharashtra Maritime Board (MMB) said inadequate management of garbage and sewage was responsible for the trash on the beaches. While Mumbais dumping grounds get around 10,000 tonnes of garbage daily, the municipal corporations solid waste management department estimates that 500 tonnes is not collected and ends up in the storm water drains, from where it flows into the sea. Also, 25% of Mumbais sewage is not treated before it is discharged into the sea. According to 2015 data from the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment Survey of Manual Scavengers in Statutory Towns, human waste from 36,883 of the total 26,65,479 households in the city flow into the drains. Currently, we are treating 75% of the citys sewage across 50 pumping stations, said a senior official from sewage operations department. Nullahs that were originally fresh water streams are carrying industrial slurry and domestic waste from households directly to the sea. Slums near the beaches are also dumping their waste, said the official. The untreated sewage has also affected the quality of water along the coast. A study in 2015 by the state pollution control board 2015 found that the average level of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) oxygen levels crucial for plants and animals to survive in water was twice the safe limit at Juhu, Versova and Dadar beaches. While Juhu and Versova recorded 10.83 mg per litre, 10.7mg per litre was recorded at Dadar. Water with a BOD reading of more than 3mg per litre is unfit for human consumption and marine life is endangered at levels above 6 mg per litre, according to Central Pollution Control Board guidelines. Members of the fishing community said the trash and sewage in the sea has caused a 50% drop in business in the last few years. The city is treating the sea as its dumping ground, said Damodar Tandel, president, Akhil Maharashtra Machhimar Kriti Samiti. There has been a massive loss in business because 80% of our catch is trash and the remaining fish have micro-plastics in their stomach. The sorry state of Juhu Koliwada beach in Mumbai. (Satish Bate/HT Photo) N Vasudevan, chief conservator of forest, state mangrove cell, said if citizens need to segregate so that plastic and other non-biodegradable trash does not reach the sea. Increasing pollution in coastal areas, especially beaches, are a matter of concern. We need to take urgent steps to make beaches attractive and simultaneously protect the biodiversity of these areas, said Vasudevan, who promoted the study of beach trash. It is, however, not all bad news. Some beaches such as Girgaum Chowpatty are relatively free of trash because of regular cleaning, while others like Uttan Virgin and Gorai do not have large settlements that could pollute the beach. Officials from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)s solid waste management (SWM) department said they are trying to clean the beaches. We have installed automatic machines to collect plastic waste at all the sandy beaches in the city. The BMC has also employed workers to handpick waste from rocky beaches, said a senior official from SWM. Girgaum Chowpatty stands as an example of regular efforts being carried out for beach cleaning. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON A five-member team of Mumbai crime branch left for Singapore on Wednesday night for extradition of engineer-turned-gangster Kumar Krishna Pillai, who is wanted for murder and extortion cases. On the run since the early 2000s, Pillai was arrested in January 2016 in Singpore. His extradition was cleared by the court there on May 18, giving him 15 days to appeal before a higher court. The judges also accepted the evidence, including his fingerprints, provided by the Mumbai police. The deadline ended on June 2 without his filing a fresh appeal, paving the way for his extradition. Police sources said that he will be brought back to Mumbai before the end of this month, attributing the delay to incomplete procedures. Some immigration related documents will have to be prepared, as Pillai also holds a Hong Kong passport, officials said. Putting the documents in place will be done by the Singaporean government in coordination with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). Until those papers are ready, we wont be able to take him in custody, said a crime branch officer. The crime branch team, headed by a DCP-rank officer, will bring him back by a commercial airline, unlike gangster Chhota Rajan who was brought to Mumbai from Bangkok by a 15-seater Gulfstream charter plane in November 2015, due to security reasons. Born in an affluent family in Vikhroli, Pillai became a textile engineer before joining gangster Amar Naik gang in 1994. He has six criminal cases, including murder. His father, Krishna Pillai, was killed after he refused to sell his club to a local corporator. Dreams of avenging his father death drew Pillai to organised crime. Later, he left Amar Naiks gang and was alleged to have planned the murder of Sunil Khatau, owner of Bycullas Khatau Mills, in 1994. Pillai was arrested around 1998, but was later released on bail. Later, he was said to have left the country for Hong Kong. His mother runs a school in Vikhroli (East), started by her husband. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON In an indication that recently ousted revenue minister Eknath Khadse has a window open for a comeback, CM Devendra Fadnavis said the probe into the land deal allegations against the senior BJP leader will not be conducted under the Commission of Inquiry (COI) Act. Fadnavis announced on Monday that a retired judge will carry out the probe in the next three months. Read more: Maharashtra CM backs ministers, hits out at Congress-NCP Ousted Khadse still part of the plan as party leaders rally behind him It [probe under Commission of Inquiry Act] goes on for years. We want a judicial probe by a retired judge, to be completed in three months. The name of the retired judge has been finalised and will be announced soon, said the chief minister, adding that the probe will focus on the Bhosari land deal. The inquiry will be conducted under four terms of reference, including whether the land belonged to the MIDC, if the land acquisition process was completed, legality of the deal and if there was any conflict of interest. An investigation under the COI Act while not binding on the government can seriously harm a reputation of the person found guilty under it. Such an inquiry held as a court proceeding, allows for summoning of witnesses as well as production of evidence by the government and anyone else in the case. A recent example of a probe conducted under the COI Act was the Adarsh scam inquiry. The findings of which have been used by the Fadnavis government to re-open a CBI case against former chief minister and senior Congress leader Ashok Chavan. By ruling out a probe under the COI Act, the state has opened itself to criticism. The chief minister has already given a clean chit to Khadse in the controversy related to the phone calls from underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and a graft case involving the former ministers alleged assistant Gajanan Patil. Fadnavis, at the BJP state executive meeting, had said that Khadse will come out clean after the agnipariksha (trial by fire) in the land deal scam. Khadse had resigned on June 4 following a series of controversies. Patrolling the sea is a tough job and proper training is necessary. But the citys coastal police are at the mercy of agencies like the coast guard and Indian Navy for their training. Sometimes, police swimming pools are used to train the staff. In 2013, the coastal police found that around 150 of its officers did not know how to swim. The training part has suffered largely because the state governments plan for a coastal academy in Raigad district had to be shelved after the Union government decided to set up the academy in Gujarat once the BJP came to power at the Centre. Of the many problems faced by the Mumbai police while patrolling the sea, sea sickness tops the list. Several boats have not been maintained and there is a constant fear of them turning turtle at sea. Patrolling in the rain is also a major issue because the sea is rough. Also, the police say often their boats break down and getting new parts is a long and tedious process. For instance, the 16-odd amphibious boats that the Mumbai police purchased after the 26/11 terror attacks are in a bad state. The city police had to put carburetors (regulates the flow of air and gasoline into the engine cylinders of vans and spark plugs belonging to an Ambassador car to keep them moving. A senior police officer from the city police, on condition of anonymity, said there needs to be a separate wing for sea patrolling. He said after the 26/11 terror attacks, a senior officer had opposed the move to keep coastal policing with the Mumbai police, but the state government had asked the police to follow the orders. For training, the Mumbai polices coastal wing undergoes a month-long course in swimming at the Coast Guards pool in Worli or at the naval facility at Colaba. These policemen are then asked to patrol boats on shifts, which go on for a week. The current state of affairs is detrimental for the security of the country. Currently, the threat perception from across the border is less as Pakistan is busy tackling terror on its own land. However, after the situation changes, the threat will rise again. There is a negative attitude, red tapeism and lack of accountability, said YP Singh, an IPS officer-turned-lawyer. LUCKNOW: Chief minister Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday dismissed minister for secondary education Balram Yadav, who played an active role in the merger of mafia don-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansaris Qaumi Ekta Dal (QED) in the Samajwadi Party here on Tuesday. According to sources, the CM was not in favour of the merger of QED in the SP. He had made his intentions clear to senior party leaders. So, on Tuesday he gave a strong signal about his opposition to the move, deciding to meet governor Ram Naik within hours of the merger. Besides inviting the governor for the Raza Iftar he is hosting here on June 25, the CM reportedly handed over two letters to Naik one recommending dismissal of Balram Yadav, and the other seeking the governors nod for expansion of his council of ministers. While the state government issued a notification dismissing Balram Yadav by Tuesday evening, sources said the timing of the swearing-in ceremony could be communicated to the chief minister soon. Already, there were three vacancies in the council of ministers and Balram Yadavs dismissal makes it four vacant posts. In UP, the maximum permissible strength of the council of ministers, including the CM is 60. The cabinet expansion may take place in the next few days, maybe on June 27, said a senior officer. Various names doing rounds for induction in the state cabinet include Balram Yadavs son Sangram Singh Yadav and the CMs close lieutenant and the SPs west UP leader Sanjay Lathar. By inducting fresh faces in his cabinet ahead of the 2017 assembly elections, the chief minister is attempting to spruce up the image of his government that has taken a hit on the Mathura and the Kairana controversies. Not surprising then that his move to sack a senior minister came within hours of minister for PWD Shivpal Yadav and QED president Afzal Ansaris announcement of the merger at a press conference here earlier in the day. Apparently, Balram Yadav had met Afzal Ansari before the Vidhan Parishad and Rajya Sabha polls and sought his partys support for the SP candidates. QED had thereafter supported the SP in the two polls. Incidentally, hours before the announcement of the merger of QED with the SP, the incarcer-ated Mukhtar Ansari was shifted from Agra jail to Lucknow jail. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON NEW DELHI: India and Pakistan both said on Tuesday their efforts to claim 35 million deposited in a London bank by the Nizam of Hyderabad had been strengthened by a British courts ruling. The courts pre-trial judgement dismissed Pakistans application invoking limitation against Indias claim to the money, external affairs ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup said in a statement. The judgement stated Pakistans application for summary disposal of the claim in its favour must fail and the costs for failure will be awarded to India, he added. Swarup was reacting to his Pakistani counterparts remarks that the courts judgement was a clear vindication of Pakistans principled stance. Pakistan claimed India had failed to persuade the court that it could show no legal claim to the money deposited in the bank in September 1948. The judge accepted there was good evidence in support of Pakistans claim which needs to be fully considered at a trial, the Pakistani spokesperson said. The case relates to 1 million pounds sterling deposited in the Pakistan account of the National Westminster Bank, now called the Royal Bank of Scotland, by a delegation of officials of Hyderabad three days after the state acceded to the Indian union on September 17, 1948. The amount is now worth 35 mn. After the Partition, Hyderabad was one of three states which refused to accede to India. While seeking Pakistans help in declaring independence, Nizam Mir Osman Ali Khan sent a delegation of officials led by finance minister Moin Nawaz Jung to the US to move a petition in the UN. By the time the delegation arrived in London, Indias armed forces reached Hyderabad and the Nizam had no option but to surrender. As Hyderabad acceded to the Indian union, Jung approached Pakistan high commissioner Habib Ibrahim Rahimtoola and asked him to help deposit the Nizams money in a bank. A week after the money was deposited, the Nizam filed a suit in a London court that said the money was transferred to Pakistans account without his knowledge. India too raised an objection, saying the money belonged to the Indian government as Hyderabad had acceded to the union. The bank then froze the account. After the Nizams death in 1967, his family unsuccessfully attempted to get back the money through an out-of-court settlement. Swarup said: Pending trial or settlement of the matter, it is premature to reach any conclusion regarding ownership of the monies, especially as the present judgement readily acknowledges that there is much force in many of Indias arguments to strike out Pakistans claim of ownership. Nothing comes free and that includes soaring national pride. Several states and organisations competing with each other in hoisting the countrys largest and tallest tricolour are finding that out the hard way. To mark its second formation day on June 2, Telangana spent Rs 3 crore on unfurling a flag measuring 72-foot long and 108-foot wide atop a 291-foot tall mast that weighed 40 tonnes in Hyderabad. But keeping the huge flag fluttering is proving to be a tall task. Since being unfurled, the flag has already been replaced twice as strong winds invariably tear the cloth. The first time it was torn, the flag was stitched and hoisted again. But as the Indian flag code, which governs usage of the national flag, does not permit the hoisting of a repaired flag, the authorities have had to order two fresh flags in quick succession. Each new flag cost the state exchequer about Rs 2 lakh and is likely to add to the financial burden of the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) that is entrusted with the upkeep of the flag at the Sanjeevaiah Park. According to HMDA commissioner T Chiranjeevulu, the upkeep of the flag is estimated to set them back by about Rs 70 lakh per annum. Now that we have officially taken over the project, we will appoint dedicated staff to maintain the flag in shifts. The cost includes salaries, maintenance of lawns, repairs to flag pole, replacement flags, high-mast lights, generators. Whether the government will reimburse or not, HM DA will bear the cost from its own resources, he said. Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and UP, states with giant-sized flags are facing similar rough weather. Ranchi boasts of the countrys tallest flag, fluttering at a height of 293 feet atop the Pahari temple. The task of keeping it fluttering is equally towering. Since being unfurled by defence minister Manohar Parrikar on January 23, the flag has been torn four times and some Rs 3.4 lakh has been spent by the Pahari temple authorities to get replacements. The authorities also made heavy weather of hoisting the large flag some weeks ago and it remained stuck at halfmast for several days. The malfunction attracted public ridicule and the flag could be brought down only after dozens of workers built a scaffold round the flagpole to climb up. The flag has not been hoisted since then. Larger and higher being the norm, Raipur in Chhattisgarh got its own showpiece on April 30 with the tricolour flying at 269 feet. The project cost the state Rs 1.10 crore and another Rs 3.6 lakh for three new flags after being repeatedly torn. But nothing has slowed down the vanity projects as yet. The BSF is reportedly working to put up the countrys tallest tricolour at the Wagah border. Fluttering at 350 feet, the flag will be visible from Lahore, a top official is quoted to have said. (With inputs from Hyderabad, Lucknow, Raipur, Ranchi) Five years back and before the Election Commission (EC) sounded the poll bugle in December 2011, a private company hired by the Punjab Police had done bullet-proofing of two Toyota Land Cruisers for Rs 67 lakh per vehicle. Now, the police have bought 14 Toyota Land Cruisers to make the travels of chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal comfy during the campaigning for the upcoming high-stake assembly elections. But, this time the bullet-proofing cost has come down to Rs 23 lakh per vehicle (Rs 44 lakh less than what was paid in 2011). Despite this sharp dip in the bullet-proofing cost, the grand plans of Punjab Police to appease their political masters with 14 high-end Land Cruisers have hit a legal tangle that threatens to delay the induction of the new vehicles. Fund-starved Badal regime buying 14 Land Cruisers, 100 Innovas The cash-strapped Parkash Singh Badal-led Akail Dal-BJP government has splurged about Rs 19 crore on the 14 Land Cruisers fleet. The cost of each vehicle before bullet-proofing is Rs 1.32 crore. The rationale behind having 14 vehicles is that a bullet-proofed vehicle has to be stationed in advance at each place the protectee visits within the state. According to a four-page confidential note signed by director general of police (DGP) Suresh Arora and DGP (intelligence and special protection unit) Anil Kumar Sharma, a Maharashtra-based vendor, who had done bullet proofing of two Land Cruisers in 2011, has lodged a complaint with Punjab governor Kaptan Singh Solanki, CM Badal and five other state functionaries after failing to get the contract this time. we have saved approximately Rs 40 lakh per vehicle this time. The total savings on 14 vehicles is about Rs 5.6 crore. This proves that we have not favoured any firm, reads the police note reportedly sent to chief ministers office. Eyebrows are being raised in police and administrative circles over the procedure followed by the police in 2011 when the two vehicles were bullet-proofed at a high cost. The price of bullet-proofing in 2016 should have been higher than 2011. Surprisingly, it has come down, a DGP-rank officer told Hindustan Times. The plea of police is if the task of bullet-proofing is given to vendors outside Punjab, it becomes difficult to send vehicles for repairs to places such as Jaipur, Ahmednagar (Maharashtra) or Hyderabad. This results in unnecessary financial burden on the state and decreases the life span of the vehicle. Thus, when tenders were floated this time, the condition was that the bidder should have a workshop within 100-km radius of Chandigarh. Every repair of such vehicles has to be done in the presence of our technical staff and the clause was added in view of our future requirements, the police officer said. As per the police note, when the Maharashtra-based company had done bullet proofing of two Land Cruisers in 2011, it had a tie-up with Bharat Earth Movers Ltd (BEML)a Public Sector Undertaking (PSU). The BEML had nothing to do with bullet proofing of the vehicles. The BEML was a face mask of the private company to bypass formalities as tenders can be awarded directly to a PSU, reads the police note. After bullet-proofing of the two Land Cruisers, the tie-up between the private company (that has now lodged complaint) and BEML was severed and does not exist any longer. This tie-up was meant to bag the contract directlyThis vendor has tried to hoodwink our department by furnishing wrong information in his latest tender document also, the police note states. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON On the second day of the protest against the non-availability of water for agricultural purposes in Abohar, Fazilka and Balluana, Abohar MLA and Punjab Congress vice president Sunil Jakhar along with farmers performed virodhasana (protest posture) to mark the International Yoga Day. Also read I Jakhar comes calling, Cong warms up to Bains bros Slamming the state government, farmers from theses three assembly segments raised slogans against the state government for not providing irrigation water through canals. The protesters also raised slogans against the central government on Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) link canal issue. Addressing the protestors, Jakhar criticised Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal for misusing the entire state resources for their political gains. He said that the entire state machinery was busy in organising programmes for the yoga day for past so many days without caring for the farmers. He said that water works systems of all villages have collapsed. He said state government only talks about the crop diversification. but did not even provide the basic facilities required for agricultural purposes. Also read I Jakhar corners govt on post-matric scheme, asks Sampla to clear air In a major embarrassment to Yadavindra Public School (YPS), Patiala, run by Punjab Congress chief Captain Amarinder Singhs family, the Council of Indian School Certificate Examination (CISCE) has rejected the recent appointment of Major General Sanjiv Verma (retd) as its headmaster, stating he does not have requisite qualification and teaching experience for the post. Confirming the development, board chief executive officer-cum- secretary Gerry Arathoon told HT that the school management was informed a month back to replace the current headmaster since his appointment is not in consonance with board rules. CISCE chief executive officer-cum- secretary Gerry Arathoon told HT that the school management was informed a month back to replace the current headmaster. (HT photo) As per our rules, to be appointed the head of an affiliated school requires a postgraduate academic degree in a teaching subject besides a recognised teacher education degree. Also, the candidate must have five years of teaching experience. The current headmaster of the school is an MPhil in strategic studies, which doesnt suffice to hold a principals office, he told HT over phone from Delhi. The school had appointed Sanjiv Verma -- who is a graduate in economics (honours) from Hindu College, Delhi -- in April this year after his predecessor SV Kumar retired, following 10 years of service. Gerry said the board made its position clear soon after the school moved an application seeking mandatory approval for the headmasters appointment. So far the school management has not responded to us after our initial letter. We will pursue the matter again once the summer vacation is over, he said. YPS is one of the most prestigious institutes in Punjab, named and run by the family of an erstwhile Maharaja of Patiala. (Photo: patiala.nic.in) School website contradicts chairpersons claim School chairperson Malvinder Singh, who is the younger brother of Captain Amarinder Singh, called the controversy total nonsense. Sanjiv Verma has been appointed as schools director, and not its headmaster, he said. Claiming he was fully aware of board rules, Malvinder Singh said being the director Vermas responsibility was to look after the administrative duties, whereas the academic duties are being looked after by the deputy headmistress. Gerry, however, claimed that in the schools application for boards confirmation, Verma was referred to as its headmaster. The school chairpersons statement also contradicts with the information available on the school website, where Vermas message appears under the headmasters foreward. The schools latest editorial magazine also carries his interview in his capacity as the headmaster. When presented with these facts, Malvinder claimed the school editorial board and officials might not be aware of the nomenclature of Vermas post. We will get it rectified after the summer vacation, he said. Captain Amarinder Singh is the school patron. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON A local court in Chandigarh on Wednesday dismissed the bail application of Vinod Verma, the co-owner of jewellery showroom Forever Diamonds at Sector 17. Verma had on June 16 submitted his bail application in the court while Chandigarh Police on Monday had strongly opposed it. The police said the accused had intended to claim loss from the insurance company by conspiring to conduct a fake robbery heist. However, advocate Harish Bharadwaj, defence counsel of the accused, contended no cheating case could be made out against Vinod. He said offence could not be made out at the planning or preparation stage. Cheating could have been made in case the insurance company concerned was approached by the accused, Bharadwaj added. The dacoity had made headlines on May 1 when the showroom owners had claimed two men and a woman, all in their 20s, looted diamond and gold jewellery worth Rs 14.08 crore from their showroom, after allegedly locking them into a room, in broad daylight. The police had arrested five accused, including Rajneesh Verma and Vinod Verma, owners of the said jewellery shop, for allegedly stage-managing the loot. Later, accused Shivani, Vaibhav Verma and Ankur Jolly, were also arrested for allegedly robbing the shop. Shivani and Ankur were later released on bail. Lack of basic amenities remained the main concern of residents during Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singhs Halke Vich Captain campaign at Jagraon on Wednesday. Majority of the 2,120-odd grievances received by Captain related to water supply, roads, sewerage, health infrastructure, education and unemployment, said the organisers. While 15 complaints were on drug menace, a few also related to land grab cases and fake FIRs, said sources. The event at Jagraon was the second in the series that kicked off from Jalalabad, the constituency of deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, on June 20. Over 3,000 people from Jagraon and surrounding villages attended the event. While some got a chance to share their grievances with the former chief minister in person, others filled in forms provided to them. Captain, who has promised to look into the complaints if the Congress is voted to power during the upcoming assembly elections, interacted with the gathering for around three hours. Inderjit Singh, a Jagraon resident, told Amarinder that chocked sewers were leading to flooding of streets and houses in his locality, raising the concern of disease outbreak. The Punjab Congress chief said the problem was prevalent in most cities of the state and would be looked into once the Congress comes to power. Sharanjit Singh, a resident of Mallah village in Jagraon, complained about absence of roads in most parts of the village. The state government claims to have connected villages with roads, but come to our village to see the reality, he said. Manjeet Kaur, a cancer patient from Kaunke Kalan near here, said she had been deprived of health benefits under government schemes, to which Captain replied: A super-specialised cancer treatment hospital will be set up in the state to provide free treatment to patients. Congress workers were not allowed to highlight party issues during the event. Captain held a separate meeting with them at Manuke village in the afternoon. Cong leader suspended Parshotam Lal Khalifa, a senior party leader from Jagraon, has been suspended from the party for indiscipline. Khalifa had misbehaved with a block president in Jagraon on Tuesday. After preliminary inquiry, the party decided to suspend him, said sources. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Many first-timers kids, youth and other residents performed yoga and vowed to make it a part of their lifestyle at several events held in the city to mark the International Yoga Day celebrations on Tuesday. Maharaj Nagar resident Rahul Khanna (23), who had come to Rakh Bagh to perform yoga, said, I have been reading about the Yoga Day celebrations for past many days in newspapers and on internet and wanted to try it, so I came here. Yoga instructors were invited to teach different exercises, all people enjoyed doing them, he added. Benefits of yoga exercises were highlighted in different articles in the past one week, as well as during the programme. I have decided to practice yoga from today, Khanna said. Even the school-going children, along with their parents, were seen cheerfully following the instructor at the yoga sessions. A resident, Virender Sood said, My two sons were so curious about participating in the event that they had been asking me about the venue and timings since last week. Moreover, I also wanted them to learn yoga, which is linked to our culture, and will help them lead a healthy life if they practice it regularly. The first-time participants were full of enthusiasm and energy, and were seen trying to learn different steps from the instructors. Anshul, a yoga instructor, who was training people at a local park in BRS Nagar, said, Those who have come for the first time to learn yoga were very eager to learn new techniques. Meanwhile, Vanika Goyal, a college student, who also performed yoga for the first time at SBS Nagar event, said she was not aware that yoga could provide relief from stress. I will continue performing yoga from now onwards, she said. The Punjab government will be setting up 25 smart khadi villages, where youth from rural areas will get employment, said industry and commerce minister Madan Mohan Mittal on Wednesday. The Punjab Khadi and Gram Udyog Board will also be providing easy loans worth Rs 140 crore to the youth of Punjab, under the Prime Minister Self-employment Generation Scheme, he said. Under the scheme, Rs 35 crore will be provided as subsidy to the beneficiaries for setting up of their own ventures. North Indias first multipurpose skill training centre will also be set up at SAS Nagar to equip the youth with latest know-how about entrepreneurship. Kin of farmers who have committed suicide will be given priority under the scheme, said the minister. Alleging police inaction against the accused in two cases of crime against women related to Ajnala sub-division, district Congress committee (rural) president Gurjit Singh Aujla on Tuesday said they would stage a protest on June 23 outside DSP office in. Addressing the media at the party office here, Aujla also presented the victims one of whom is from Chak Dogran village and the other from Mohan Bhandarian village who were allegedly abused and thrashed by men said to be close to local Shiromani Akali Dal leaders. The victim, from Chak Dogran village, was allegedly sexually assaulted by a man associated with the SAD. The issue was reported to the police but they did not take any action under pressure from the Akali MLA. So they did not file an FIR against the accused, said Aujla. Commenting on the other incident in which a girl was allegedly abused and her father who runs a tea stall was thrashed by five persons of Mohan Bhandrian village, the Congress leader said police had to file an FIR against the accused as per victims medical report but have failed to do anything. Jungle raj prevails not only in Ajnala but in entire Punjab. Saviours of Nani Chhaan have become their butchers. Local MLA is least interested in womens security. He is sheltering molesters and gangsters instead, he said, blaming Ajnala MLA Amarpal Singh Bony. He also added that his party would fight to ensure justice for those victimised by SAD goons. Fighting for the rights of reservation and special protection of orphans and abandoned kids, Inderjit Kaur, president, All India Pingalwara Charitable Society, said the home for the destitute would be taking up the matter with the ministry of social justice and empowerment. Addressing the media, on Tuesday, Kaur said it was condemnable there was no reservation for orphans and abandoned children in government educational institutes and jobs. It should be considered that these children do not have parental and financial backing, she added. The state government should take this up. These children dont have any parental or financial support and yet they have to compete within the general category without concession or reservation, said Kaur, adding that a survey conducted in 2010 stated that there were over 2.5 crore orphaned/abandoned children in India out of which barely 10% are taken care of by orphanages. Pingalwara currently houses 104 orphans and abandoned children, out of which 67 are girls and 37 boys. They have already made a mark as skilled professionals in the field of education but despite that they need our backing to get government jobs, she said. Pingalwaras chief administrator Col Darshan Singh Bawa (retd) said, It is the duty of the state government to safeguard their rights. We will fight for their reservation as they deserve dignified jobs. The district administration will soon start a Panghura Ghar at Khanna under the cradle scheme to save newborn babies thrown out by their parents after birth. Deputy commissioner (DC) Ravi Bhagat said this while addressing a meeting of officials at his office on Tuesday. Bhagat said, A piece of land at an old age home has been identified at Khanna and the officials concerned have been asked to make necessary arrangements. Till now, Ludhiana had only one panghura ghar at Sarabha Nagar. Usually the babies received at the panghura ghar are handed over to government recognised adoption centre Swami Ganga Giri Bhuri Wale International Foundation Dham at Talwandi Khurd. The cradle has curbed incidents such as dumping of newborns in trash cans or on roadsides,he added. Shaukat Ahmed Pare, subdivisional magistrate (SDM Khanna), Kuldeep Singh Mann and Rajinder Singh, both from Swami Ganga Giri Bhuri Wale International Foundation Dham, besides several others attended the meeting. Deputy commissioner Ravi Bhagat said that in Khanna, a piece of land at Old Age Home has been identified and the concerned officials have been asked to make necessary arrangements. Akashdeep Singh, 15, who was injured in an accident, has been waiting to be operated upon for over two weeks at Rajindra Hospital in Patiala. Courtesy: Indefinite strike called by nurses and ancillary staff since the beginning of this month coupled with the fact that over 100 doctors are on summer vacation. Admitted to ward number 7 on June 6, Akashdeep, who is from Malkpur near Sirhind, was to undergo the operation last Wednesday, which was postponed to this Wednesday. Finally, he has been told to leave the hospital after the operation theatres (OTs) besides the out-patient department (OPD) building were locked for the second time within three weeks. My son sustained a stomach injury in an accident while riding a cycle. The operation was postponed last Wednesday, and now we have been told to leave the hospital because operation theatres have been closed, said Akashdeeps mother Paramjit Kaur, who works as a daily labourer. Sukhjinder Singh, 20, who has lost his both legs in a train accident, is also waiting to be operated upon since June 11. The pain is killing me, but I have been abandoned. The operation is being delayed, and I dont have resources to go to a private hospital, said Sukhjinder, who has been referred to a Ludhiana hospital. There are many other patients facing hardship at the 62-year-old government-run hospital that serves the Malwa region along with peripheral areas of neighbouring states. Baljit Kaur, 42, a thyroid patient, said: I came here from Devigarh, but the OPD was locked. When we visited Mata Kaushalya government hospital, we were welcomed by long queues of patients. Poor people are being harassed, but the state government is taking no step. The government is delaying its decision on the issue of regularisation of paramedical staff, while poor patients are left to fend for themselves, said Gurmukh Singh, who had come from Barnala for skin treatment. Protesters not ready to give up Hospital records reveal that in general 70 to 80 patients are operated upon at the hospital every day. During the protest, however, the system has entirely collapsed. The emergency wards are being run by nursing students along with two staff nurses in different shifts. The protesting paramedics, meanwhile, are not ready to give up. We dont want to harass the patients, but we are being forced to take this extreme step owing to the government taking U-turn on its assurance to regularise our services, said nurses and ancillary staff union president Karamjit Kaur. The union chief said they will continue to keep the OPD and OTs locked till the government issues the required notification. Reacting to the deadlock, medical superintendent BS Brar said the hospital authorities are helpless in the face of the present crisis. The state government is fully aware of the situation, and they are taking all required steps to resolve it, he said. On being asked about the mass leave of 102 doctors during such a crucial moment, Government Medical College principal BL Bhardwaj said: It happens every year; some doctors go on leave and others carry on the work. The protest so far June 4: Protesting staff lock OPD building, OTs June 10: Services restored June19: OPD building, OTs closed again June 21: Nursing staff lock medical superintendents office Republican Donald Trump appeared to raise questions about likely rival Hillary Clintons religious faith at a closed-door meeting with evangelical leaders Tuesday. The presumptive GOP nominee, in a video clip of his remarks, appeared to suggest the public doesnt know anything about Hillary in terms of religion. You know, shes been in public eye for years and years, and yet theres no, theres nothing out there. Theres like nothing out there, he told the group. Its going to be an extension of Obama, but its going to be worse because with Obama you had your guard up, with Hillary you dont. And its going to be worse, Trump warned. A spokesperson for Trumps campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on exactly what Trump meant. Footage of Trump speaking at the meeting at a Times Square hotel, which was closed to reporters, was posted by attendee Bishop EW Jackson on his Twitter feed. Jackson told The Associated Press that Trump had been talking about the idea that conservatives are constantly scrutinized over their religion, how devout they are and their positions on social issues. He was saying in the context that liberals and the Democrats dont get those kind of questions, they dont get their faith examined in that way, he said. He wasnt questioning her Christianity, but he was questioning the implications of her faith, compared to how conservatives tend to have their faith examined. Clinton grew up in the Methodist church, attending church youth group and teaching Sunday school like her mother. While she doesnt often talk about her faith on the campaign trail, she occasionally quotes biblical verses and mentions her experiences in church. I am a person of faith. I am a Christian. I am a Methodist. I have been raised Methodist, she told voters in Iowa in January. In the posted footage, Trump also takes issue with the idea of encouraging prayers for all leaders. I said: Well you can pray for your leaders, and I agree with that, pray for everyone. But what you really have to do is you have to pray to get everybody out to vote for one specific person, he said. And we cant be again politically correct and say we pray for all of our leaders because all of your leaders are selling Christianity down the tubes, selling evangelicals down the tubes. Trump has sometimes struggled to discuss religious issues. He has declined to cite his favourite biblical verse and has toted around a photo from his confirmation as evidence of his Christian upbringing. But in another video clip from Tuesdays event, Trump talked about the meaning of faith in his life. Christianity, I owe so much to it in so many ways, through life, through having incredible children, through so many other things, he said, noting his great support from religious voters in GOP primaries. The evangelical vote was mostly gotten by me, he said. Trump also talked in another clip about the lack of spirit in inner cities. Weve got to spiritize this country. And Im not only talking about the inner cities. Im talking about everywhere, he said, coining a new word. Trumps campaign on Tuesday also announced the formation of a new Evangelical Executive Advisory Board that will advise the candidate on those issues important to Evangelicals and other people of faith in America, according to a release. Members of the new group include former Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. and Faith and Freedom Coalition leader Ralph Reed. Jackson, the bishop who posted video to Twitter, said that hed walked into the meeting as more of an anti-Clinton voter than pro-Trump one, but said the meeting had changed his view. The thing Ive heard most people say is, He moved the needle, he said. People who came in with reservations, they have fewer reservations. Others left thinking, Maybe I need to take a look at him again. Three decades after Khalistani terrorists blew up Air Indias flight 182, killing 329 passengers, Canadian investigators have said they continue to treat the case as a priority. The British Columbia Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) continues to investigate with the objective of pursuing charges of any individuals involved in the bombings. This investigation is a national priority for the RCMP, spokesperson Staff Sergeant Rob Vermuelen said in an email. A probe team is in touch with members of families of the victims of the attack, one of the worst aviation-related terrorism incidents in the world and second only to the September 11, 2001 attacks in the US. Susheel Gupta, whose mother Ramwati was killed when the airliner named Kanishka exploded, said, The RCMP has kept us (families) updated on their investigation. Ultimately, we do hope that the rest of the perpetrators will be brought to justice. Read | AI Kanishka bombing: Reyats release stuns victims kin However, given the passage of time, some doubt the ongoing investigation can make up for the botched inquiry following the June 23, 1985 tragedy. The two principal accused in the case, Ajaib Singh Bagri and Ripudaman Singh Malik, were acquitted of the charges they faced by a court in British Columbia in March 2005. The only person ever convicted in the case was Inderjit Singh Reyat, on charges of perjury. Reyat was released on parole in January. Retired Canadian Supreme Court justice John Major, who headed an inquiry commission into the case, wrote in his June 2010 report, This remains the largest mass murder in Canadian history, and was the result of a cascading series of errors. The report pointed out the tragedy could have been averted but for multiple mistakes. Read | Canadian justice system did scant justice to victims of Kanishka bombing For instance, while the Canadian Security Intelligence Service had a surveillance team present when plotters detonated a device in the woods near Duncan, causing a loud explosive sound, the sound was misinterpreted and the surveillance report was ignored. In addition, the report said the RCMP did not forward to the intelligence service a June 1 Telex that set out Air Indias own intelligence, forecasting a June terrorist attempt to bomb an Air India flight by means of explosives hidden in checked baggage. Read | 30 years after Kanishka bombing, the tragedy still haunts kin SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The Taliban have released 21 of some two dozen hostages pulled from their vehicles on a highway in southern Afghanistan, officials said on Wednesday, a day after they were abducted by the militants. The passengers were kidnapped in Washer district of volatile Helmand province as they were travelling on a bus and two trucks from southern Kandahar to western Herat province. Officials said on Tuesday that an estimated 25 people were taken. Twenty-one of them have been released and are now with the police, the Helmand governors spokesman Omar Zwak said. Afghan army corps in southern Afghanistan said they were freed in an operation on Tuesday evening in Marja district of Helmand. Read: Two Indians from Dehradun among 25 killed in attacks in Afghanistan But the Taliban denied the claim, saying they decided to free the hostages after they were found to be innocent. The insurgents had earlier said they were targeting Afghan government officials aboard the vehicles. We found 21 of them innocent and released them, Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi told AFP, saying six others were still being held captive, a number that could not be immediately verified by officials. Highways in Afghanistan passing through insurgency-prone areas have become exceedingly dangerous, with the Taliban and other armed groups frequently kidnapping or killing travellers. Earlier this month, gunmen abducted 40 people in northern Kunduz province, releasing some later, but an unknown number of others remain in Taliban captivity. Voters in the United Kingdom are set to vote remain or leave on June 23 a momentous decision that could not only change the face of modern Europe but have far reaching global consequences. But before the critical Brexit campaign, European countries have opted for the referendum route to decide issues of national importance. 1. Greece rejects bailout conditions Greek Prime Minister Alex Tsipras took the surprise decision of holding a snap referendum, asking voters to decide whether to accept or reject the terms of an international bailout for his debt-ridden country. On July 5, 2015, 61% of Greek voters resoundingly rejected the austerity measures that accompanied the bailout package, sending Greece back to the negotiating table and fuelling doubts over its stay in the eurozone. This was the only referendum in modern Greek history that was not concerned with the form of government. Read: Brexit vote: All you need to know about Britains referendum on leaving the EU 2. Scotland decides against becoming an independent country Scotland has long grappled with the question of becoming an independent country and exiting the United Kingdom. On September 18, 2014, the question was put to vote through a referendum, with then Scottish first minister Alex Salmond batting for independence. But Scottish voters rejected the demand, with 55.3% voting no. The referendum witnessed a record turnout of 84.6%, the highest for any such vote in the UK. 3. Referendums for the formation of the European Union The history of the European Union is littered with referendums. The Maastricht Treaty of 1992, commonly called the pillar of the EU as it led to Europes integration and the creation of the euro, was ratified only after multiple referendums by member states. Denmark and Ireland held two referendums each before the terms of the treaty were accepted by their people. In September 1992, a referendum in France only narrowly supported the ratification of the treaty, with 51.05% voting in favour. The same fate befell the Treaty of Lisbon in 2007, which amended two treaties that formed the constitutional basis of the EU. The treaty was signed by member states on December 13, 2007 but did not come into effect till 2009, because the Irish electorate rejected it in 2008. They reversed the decision through a second referendum in 2009, after securing a number of concessions. Read: Brexit: Why its Indias business to watch how Britain votes 4. Northern Ireland chooses to remain a part of the United Kingdom: In 1998, Northern Ireland held a referendum to gauge public support for the Good Friday Agreement, an important political development. The agreement spelt out the region would remain part of the United Kingdom until a majority of the people of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland wished otherwise. A decisive 71.1% voted in favour of the agreement, while a simultaneous referendum held in the Republic of Ireland produced an even larger majority of 94.4%. The 1998 vote built on the sovereignty referendum of March 8, 1973, when Northern Ireland first decided to remain a part of the UK and not join the Republic of Ireland. 5. Independence referendums The borders of Europe, as we know them today, have been determined through referendums. Many European countries gained their independence from colonial powers by holding public referendums. In 1905, Norway decided to become independent from Sweden. In 1918, Iceland voted to secede from the state of Denmark. Watch | Why India doesnt want Brexit A referendum will be held to decide whether Britain should leave or stay in the European Union (EU). The possible exit, called Brexit (Britain+ exit), could have lasting consequences. Following are details of what the ballot paper looks like, what is the process followed on the day of referendum and who are allowed to vote. What is the question? Voters will be given a piece of paper with the question: Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union? They will be asked to put a cross beside either: Remain a member of the European Union Leave the European Union Who can vote? All those who are entitled to vote in a UK parliamentary election can vote in the referendum, including British, Irish and qualifying Commonwealth citizens over the age of 18 who are resident in the UK. UK nationals resident overseas who have appeared on a parliamentary election register in the past 15 years will also have the right to vote, as will Irish citizens who were born in Northern Ireland and registered to vote in Northern Ireland in the last 15 years. In addition, peers and citizens of Gibraltar who were able to vote at a European parliamentary election can vote. When to vote? The polling stations open at 7 am on June 23 and close at 10 pm local time. When will the results come? Votes will be counted by hand, starting as soon as polls close at 10 pm. Each of 382 local counting areas will tally the number of ballot papers cast and announce local turnout figures (including spoiled ballots and postal votes) in each of the areas. The Electoral Commission has estimated that most turnout announcements at counting-area level will come between 10:30 pm on June 23 and 01:30 am on June 24. The last turnout figure is expected at around 4 am on June 24. Each area will count the votes and announce totals for Remain and Leave in each of the 382 areas. Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron speaks about the EU referendum outside 10 Downing Street in London, June 21, 2016. (Reuters) Five things to watch out for 1) Turnout could be the key to the result but only partial figures will be available initially. Turnout at last years British parliamentary election was 66 percent. Turnout well below this is likely to favour Leave as those who back Brexit are considered more likely to vote, according to campaigners on both sides. 2) First results: Sunderland, likely to be one of the first results to declare (2330), has a large number of older, lower income voters who polls show are more likely to back Brexit. If Leave are not strongly ahead here it may indicate they will struggle to break through in areas less favourable to Brexit. 3) Geography: Leave is expected to do well in eastern England, so close results in some of the most eurosceptic areas such as Southend-on-Sea (2am) and Castle Point (1:30 am) could give an indication the national vote has swung towards Remain. 4) Swing seats: Nuneaton (1 am) is considered a bellwether seat in parliamentary elections so will be watched to see if Prime Minister David Cameron has managed to get swing voters who last year backed his Conservatives to turn out for Remain. 5) Count chronology: Some research has indicated Remain could be well ahead at first and that from around 3am-4am the Brexit count is less likely to deviate from the end results. Can the count be challenged? The electoral commission says this: The referendum rules do not provide for a national recount to be carried out in any circumstances. Any request for a recount of votes will be at local count level and is for the Counting Officer to determine. We expect local recounts to be granted if a specific issue has been identified with the process in that counting area, rather than simply when the local totals are close. The national referendum result is only subject to challenge by way of judicial review. An application for judicial review would need to be lodged within six weeks of the certification that is being challenged being made. Full Coverage| Britains EU Referendum Read| Brexit vote: All you need to know about Britains referendum on leaving the EU Read| Of expats and corporates: Why India wants Britain to remain in Europe Goans who opted for Portuguese citizenship and moved to Britain, or Goans considering the same, will be watching Thursdays referendum closely as they will be affected whether Britain stays in or leaves the European Union. Using Portugals nationality law, which allows anyone born before December 19, 1961 (the date of Goas liberation from Portugal) and their three generations to acquire Portuguese nationality, thousands have migrated and settled in Britain, mainly in Swindon and London. As Portuguese nationals, they become EU citizens, which entitles them to live and work in any of the 28 members of the bloc under the freedom of movement principle. A vote to leave the EU will restrict their right to stay in Britain and a vote to remain will affect their access to state financial benefits under the deal secured by Prime Minister David Cameron from Brussels earlier this year. Rabi Martins, the Goa-origin councillor in Watford, north London, told Hindustan Times: It is a walk into the unknown. Goans now need to rethink before applying for Portuguese passports, since the EU referendum will adversely affect them. Brexit will make it worse, but even a vote to stay in will make it difficult. Watch | Why India doesnt want Brexit There are reports that some EU citizens living in Britain have applied for British passports to avoid any adverse impact of the referendum outcome, while many British citizens keen to retain EU links have applied for Irish citizenship. Britain allows dual citizenship and neighbouring Ireland is a key member of the EU. According to an Oxford analysis, the India-born Portuguese citizens accounted for just over 20,000 UK residents in the first quarter of 2015. Calling it backdoor entry into Britain, groups such as Migration Watch UK have opposed their migration. A vote for Brexit is likely to mean EU nationals (including the Goan Portuguese) will need a work permit, currently required for Indian and other non-EU citizens. It will also mean no access to benefits and public funds for the first four years of stay. Martins said the thousands of recently migrated Goans find life is not exactly great in Britain: Many highly qualified people end up doing menial work in supermarkets. Its sad but they wont admit it to anyone back home. The impact of Brexit on new and recently migrated Goans needs to be highlighted. Armando Gonsalves, chairman of Goa ForGiving Trust, said, It is amazing that Goans are going to Britain via the Portuguese passport rule when there are many opportunities back home. They leave behind priceless properties as they head to Britain with the hope that they will improve their lives. He added: I believe this is part of a herd mentality, demand remains high. I met many such people in London who were unhappy and disgruntled, but are not ready to return home due to a false sense of pride, since their erstwhile Goan friends would laugh at them. Portugal was the first Western country to colonise parts of India (Goa, from 1510) and the last to leave (in 1961). The Goan migration to Britain has led to several social problems in their villages of origin, including empty neighbourhoods and low church attendance. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON A referendum will be held to decide whether Britain should leave or stay in the European Union (EU). The possible exit, called Brexit (Britain+ exit), could have lasting consequences. The referendum is scheduled for Thursday, June 23. Here are the key things that you need to know about the referendum and why does it matter to India: Why the vote? On Thursday, the people of Britain will vote on their countrys future in the European Union and the outcome can have profound implications for the 28-member bloc and UKs ruling Conservative Party. Though Britain joined the EU in the 1990s, the people have had misgivings for long about the blocs economic regulations. These fears were heightened by the EUs response to the recession in 2008, especially the need to bail out poorly performing countries such as Greece. In recent years, their worries have grown about the EUs internal migration policies. Prime Minister David Cameron came under pressure in 2012 to hold a referendum on Britains future in the EU. He announced in January 2013 that he would hold such a vote if the Conservative Party won the 2015 general election. After the partys victory, Cameron said the vote would be held on June 23. Watch | Why India doesnt want Brexit What happens if Britain votes to leave? Even if Britons vote overwhelmingly for Brexit or the countrys exit from the EU, it wouldnt be as if matters would be settled there and then. It could take years for Britain to settle a range of issues that have implications for its relations with the EU, including tax laws and immigration rules. The two sides will also have to decide if EU laws will continue to apply to Britain after a possible exit and this matter will have to be settled within a period of two years. British firms that sell across Europe would have to ensure once again that their products meet safety and environmental standards. Why it matters to India: Industry 800 Indian companies operate in the UK, employing 110,000 people The effects: For Indian IT companies, Britain accounted for almost 17% of the total $100-bn global IT exports in 2015-16. If Britain leaves the EU, IT operations are likely to be hit most. Indian IT companies may need to establish separate headquarters for the EU, which may increase the cost of operations Trade Indias bilateral trade with Britain in 2015-16 was $14.02 bn, ($8.83 bn in exports and $5.19 bn in imports). Britain ranks 12th in terms of bilateral trade and is one of seven countries with which India has a trade surplus. Effect The British government estimates economic losses due to Brexit could amount to as high as 6% of GDP after two years, and up to 9.5% of GDP after 15 years in the absence of a negotiated bilateral trade agreement with the EU. This could lead to reduced import demand as Britain would aim to spur domestic industries. Indias exports to Britain may decline. Pound 98.5: Rupees exchange rate with the pound 8%: The likely appreciation in rupee if Brexit happens Effect If the rupee appreciates, exports from India will become costlier. This will also lead to lack of foreign investment from Britain as the rupee will become a costlier currency to buy. Immigration 85,403: Total work visas granted to Indians in 2015, 51% of the total visas granted. 455,793: Total visas given to Indian citizens in 2015, 85% of the total. Effect Brexit may lead to Britain tightening immigration laws, so Indian companies sending people to the UK for work may be affected. Stricter visa rules may also affect people working on work visas in Britain, who may not get an extension Indian companies with major operations in Europe Garment makers: Kitex Garments, Zodiac Clothing, KPR Mill IT: TCS, HCL Technologies, Tech Mahindra, Infosys Steel: Tata Steel, Hindalco Auto and auto component makers: Tata Motors (Jaguar and Land Rover), Bharat Forge, Apollo Tyres, Motherson Sumi Drug makers: Dr Reddys, Wockhardt, Cipla, Torrent Pharma and IPCA Labs, Cummins India Full Coverage| Britains EU Referendum Read| Brexit on paper: What the Brits are actually voting for Read| Of expats and corporates: Why India wants Britain to remain in Europe As many as 71 councillors of Indian origin across Britain and across the political spectrum have pledged their support for the British Indians for IN campaign to make the case for remaining a member of the European Union. Ahead of Thursdays referendum, the councillors said remaining in the EU significantly benefits Britain not just economically, but in terms of security, trade and presence globally. Areas represented by the pro-EU councillors include wards in England, Wales and Scotland, and they represent the Conservative, Labour, and Liberal Democrat parties. Councillor Geetha Morla, from Milton Keynes, said: For me, there is no question about whether or not Britain should remain a member of the EU. The European single market is by far our biggest trading partner, providing jobs and ensuring lower prices in our shops. Balwant Chadha, councillor for Cumbernauld North in North Lanarkshire and the country's first Sikh Justice of the Peace, told the campaign: I strongly believe that Britain is in a much stronger position remaining in E.U and safer not only economically and culturally, but is able to lead people in European countries to improve their quality of life. Sandwell councillor Preet Gill said: Britain has a history of engaging with the world and standing up on matters of international laws against countries. With its rich diversity it cannot and should not be a country that becomes insular but continues to be outward facing and addressing matters like immigration, terrorism and the economy with the EU as together, we are stronger and better. The British Indians for IN campaign group coordinated by Conservative MP Alok Sharma has more than 15 members of the House of Commons and the House of Lords. According to senior Labour MP Virendra Sharma, being a member of the EU means Britain is better off and safer in an increasingly uncertain world. While the UK is in the EU it stands between the Commonwealth and Europe, we are a stronger trading partner for India while we have access to the single market. Voting to remain means staying part of the single market of 500 million people Britains biggest trading partner with a say over the rules of doing business across Europe, he said. Group coordinator Alok Sharma said: There are around 1.2 million British Indians voters across the UK and our votes could be absolutely crucial in determining the outcome of the EU referendum on June 23. It is clear that very many people and business leaders within the British Indian community agree that voting to remain in the UK is the right choice for our country and our community. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON A German nurse jailed for life last year for murdering two patients, is now a suspect in at least 33 more deaths, investigators said on Wednesday, adding that he admitted to having killed more. The man, identified only as Niels H., 39, who was jailed for life in February 2015, has been found guilty of two murders and three attempted murders of intensive-care patients. He previously claimed to have killed more than 30 patients with lethal overdoses at the Delmenhorst hospital near the northern city of Bremen, which would make him one of Germanys worst post-war serial killers. Analyses carried out on 99 exhumed patients at Delmenhorst suggest that at least 33 were killed by the nurse through lethal injections, investigators said today. But they added that the tall and heavyset man had also admitted to killing other patients at another hospital nearby -- the Oldenburg Clinic, without giving a figure. We can say that the horror hasnt ended, said Johann Kuehme, police chief of the city of Oldenburg. Oldenburg prosecutor Thomas Sander added that in addition to the 33 likely cases, we assume that the real number of victims is higher than that. Hundreds of patient records will be examined at the Oldenburg clinic before deciding if mass exhumations of patient corpses would need to be carried out there as well. The grisly case dates back to 2005, when a colleague witnessed Niels H. injecting a patient at the Delmenhorst hospital. The patient survived and Niels H. was arrested and, in 2008, sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in jail for attempted murder. Amid the media publicity, a woman then contacted police, voicing suspicion that her deceased mother had also fallen victim to the killer-nurse. The authorities exhumed several patients bodies and detected traces of the drug in five of them, declaring it either the definitive or possible contributing cause. Nils H. eventually admitted to injecting some 90 patients with the drug so he could then try to revive them and, when successful, shine as a saviour before his medical peers. He said he felt euphoric when he managed to bring a patient back to life, and devastated when he failed. After the shocking revelations of the nurses murderous obsession, police and prosecutors launched a special forensic commission dubbed Kardio (Cardio) to look into other patient deaths. The sweeping investigation is expected to take many more months. The nurse had previously also worked at an elderly home and an emergency medical service. Democrat Hillary Clintons lead over Republican rival Donald Trump has slipped by about five percentage points since mid-June, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday, bringing the race for the White House to within nine points. The poll showed that 44.5 percent of likely voters supported former secretary of state Clinton while 35.5 percent backed businessman Trump. That compares with 46.6 percent support for Clinton and 32.3 percent for Trump on June 12, a date that marked her widest lead for the month. Trump has focused much of his energy in recent days on the mass shooting in Orlando, Florida by a U.S.-born gunman pledging allegiance to Islamic State militant group. Trump vowed to ban people from entering the United States from countries with links to terrorism against America or its allies. Hardline national security proposals have help Trump win increased support from voters in the past, including after the shootings in San Bernardino, California and Paris late last year. Clinton responded to the Orlando attack by calling for increased intelligence gathering and air strikes on Islamic State forces, while warning against demonizing American Muslims. She has also criticized Trumps positions on foreign policy and the economy, saying a Trump presidency would be a disaster. The June 17-21 poll of 1,100 likely voters has a credibility interval, a measure of accuracy, of 3.4 percentage points. At least 34 Libyan pro-government forces were killed Tuesday and 100 wounded in clashes with Islamic State group jihadists as they prepared for a final assault on the jihadist stronghold of Sirte. It was one of bloodiest days since forces loyal to the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) launched an offensive in May to retake Sirte from IS. The fighting came as 29 people were killed and dozens wounded further west in the town of Garabulli when a blast ripped through an arms depot after militiamen and armed residents clashed. The fall of Sirte would be a major blow to IS which has faced a series of setbacks in Syria and Iraq where local forces and a US-led coalition are pressing an offensive against their positions. A statement by the GNA said Tuesdays fighting took place in several parts of Sirte, where jihadists are pinned down in pockets of the coastal city. Speaking from the western city of Misrata, the source said the death toll had risen from 18 to 34, with the number of wounded increasing from 70 to 100. It was one of the heaviest tolls since the pro-GNA forces launched an offensive in May to dislodge IS from Sirte -- hometown of ousted and slain dictator Moamer Kadhafi which IS seized in June last year. The GNA forces earlier said dozens of IS fighters had been killed within 24 hours. They also announced their intelligence network is in full swing in preparation for the decisive battle against IS fighters in the city, after repelling multiple counter-attacks. The statement said fighters were targeting IS-held areas of Sirte with heavy artillery while loyalist aircraft were carrying out sorties every day to strike IS or carry out reconnaissance missions. IS fighters are besieged in a small area of Sirte and although they have sought to break out our forces have repelled all attempts, the statement said. It said that the jihadists had barricaded themselves in residential buildings and deployed snipers and explosive devices to fend off pro-GNA forces. Arms store blast IS has hit back with a string of suicide car bombings in a bid to defend their stronghold on the Mediterranean coast. Around 200 loyalist troops have been killed and hundreds wounded since the start of the offensive to capture Sirte, 450 kilometres (280 miles) east of Tripoli. An unknown number of jihadists have been killed. Libya has been awash with weapons since the 2011 uprising that toppled and killed Kadhafi, with rival militias fighting for control of its cities and oil wealth. In Garabulli near the Libyan capital, armed residents stormed an arms depot after clashing with a militia from the western city of Misrata which owned the weapons store. As they breached the store a big explosion occurred, said the security official who could not immediately explain what triggered the blast. Maybe the militia had rigged the depot before they left, he said. A medical official said at least 29 people were killed and dozens wounded. There are body parts at the arms depot, he said, adding the toll could rise. According to the official the clashes pitting armed residents against militiamen from Misrata broke out after some of the militiamen robbed a grocery store. Angered, the armed residents attacked them at dawn. The attack sparked clashes that lasted all day, the security official said. The militias from Misrata honed their battle skills during the 2011 revolt and are now on the frontlines of the battle for Sirte. They are among the best equipped, with an arsenal that includes MiG fighters and attack helicopters. Iraqs armed forces pressed on with their offensive to retake the city of Falluja from Islamic State on Tuesday, dislodging the militants from two eastern districts and pushing them back into a handful of northern and western neighbourhoods. A military statement said the elite counter-terrorism forces took the northeastern Shurta police district while units from Baghdad operations command recaptured the Askari military neighbourhood. Islamic State still held the northern districts of Jughaifi and Golan as well as the western banks of the Tigris river. Fighting to recapture the Iraqi city longest held by Islamic State, now in its fifth week, has forced more than 85,000 residents to flee to overwhelmed government-run camps. Iraqs Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said last week that the recapture of Falluja would pave the way for the military to march on Mosul, Islamic States de facto capital. The operations commander Lieutenant General Abdul Wahab al-Saidi told Reuters on Monday that U.S.-backed Iraqi forces expected the final push would take place in the west. The Iraqi army is also pressing on with an offensive to dislodge the militants from farmlands located on the western bank of the Euphrates, opposite the built-up area of Falluja, that the militants use as a base for snipers and mortar attacks. The simultaneous attacks are continuing from four directions to tighten the noose around Daesh (Islamic State)fighters entrenched in houses among civilians and prevent them from catching their breath, said Colonel Ahmed al-Saidi from the federal police. A Pentagon spokesman in Washington said that about a third of the city had been cleared of Islamic State forces and the U.S.-led coalition had carried out 85 air strikes on the city in the past four weeks. Iraqi forces continue to advance at a rate of about five to 10 percent of the city per day being careful to safeguard the lives of civilians and limit property damage to the extent possible, Peter Cook said. Government troops launched the 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 later against Shiite-led governments. The militants seized Falluja in January 2014, six months before they declared a caliphate over part of Syria and Iraq. North Koreas latest ballistic missile tests on Wednesday are a clear and unacceptable violation of UN Security Council resolutions, the councils president said, calling for a swift response by the world body. Council President Francois Delattre of France said the Security Council would likely meet later in the day on the back-to-back tests of new medium range missile. We favor a quick and firm reaction of the Security Council, he said. The North Korean ballistic program is a serious threat to regional and international peace and security, he said. Confronted by the threat of proliferation we consider that weakness is not an option. The missiles tested on Wednesday were believed to have been North Koreas new Musudan intermediate-range missile. The first test was deemed to have failed after the missile flew an estimated 150 kilometers (90 miles) over the East Sea, or Sea of Japan. Japanese military monitors said the second test attained a height of 1,000 kilometers and a range of 400 kilometers. Four previous Musudan tests this year failed either on their mobile launch pad or shortly after take-off. Several UN Security Council resolutions ban North Korea from engaging in nuclear or ballistic missile activity. After Pyongyang conducted a fourth nuclear test on January 6, followed by a long-range rocket launch February 7, the Security Council adopted its most punishing sanctions yet against North Korea. North Koreas latest ballistic missile tests on Wednesday are a clear and unacceptable violation of UN Security Council resolutions, the councils president said, calling for a swift response by the world body. Council president Francois Delattre of France said the Security Council would likely meet later in the day on the back-to-back tests of new medium range missile. We favour a quick and firm reaction of the Security Council, he said. The North Korean ballistic program is a serious threat to regional and international peace and security, he said. Confronted by the threat of proliferation we consider that weakness is not an option. The missiles tested on Wednesday were believed to have been North Koreas new Musudan intermediate-range missile. The first test was deemed to have failed after the missile flew an estimated 150km (90 miles) over the East Sea, or Sea of Japan. Council president Francois Delattre of France said the Security Council would likely meet later in the day on the back-to-back tests of new medium range missile. (Reuters file photo) Japanese military monitors said the second test attained a height of 1,000km and a range of 400km. Four previous Musudan tests this year failed either on their mobile launch pad or shortly after take-off. Several UN Security Council resolutions ban North Korea from engaging in nuclear or ballistic missile activity. After Pyongyang conducted a fourth nuclear test on January 6, followed by a long-range rocket launch February 7, the Security Council adopted its most punishing sanctions yet against North Korea. An influential Pakistani parliamentary panel has declared the conversion of women from other religions to Islam as un-Islamic and expressed concern over the practice. Forced conversion of girls to Islam is against the teachings of Islam and also a violation of the law in the country, said Hafiz Hamdullah, chairman of the Senate Standing Committee on Religious Affairs. His remarks came in the wake of an incident in Chitral Valley, where a young woman from the animist Kalash community converted to Islam, triggering clashes between members of the community and local Muslims. Religious minorities have argued there is no law to protect members of their faith from being forcibly converted to Islam. A recent law that formalised Hindu marriages in Pakistan too did not touch on the issue. Hamdullah observed that non-Muslim women were being converted across Pakistan on a daily basis, which is a dilemma for society. Religion is a personal matter of every individual, and a person cannot be converted by force, he said. Raja Zafrul Haq, the Leader of House in the Senate, too said compelling anyone to convert is against the teachings of Islam. We are already under observation from human rights organisations due to growing incidents of forced conversions, he said. Senator Gian Chand, also a leader of the Pakistan Hindu Council, informed the committee that Hindu girls in Sindh province are victims of forced conversions, which have acquired alarming proportions. Chand was of the opinion that police and the local administration do not help victims or their families. The committee urged the government to adopt a comprehensive mechanism for protecting women from minority communities. The panel directed the federal and provincial governments to draft legislation to curb the practice. Last year, a move to criminalise forced conversions and to prevent misuse of the blasphemy law was endorsed by members of the Senates Functional Committee on Human Rights. A group of Hong Kong activists are demanding a return to British rule as a stepping stone towards independence, as fears grow that Beijing is tightening its grip on the southern Chinese city. Pro-independence advocates have launched The Alliance to Resume British Sovereignty over Hong Kong and Independence party, the second political group in recent months to advocate a breakaway from China. Independence is the ultimate goal, to return to British rule is just a transitional phase, Billy Chiu, the Alliances leader told AFP on Wednesday. The activists said they believed it would be easier to gain independence from Britain than China. An independent nation is Hong Kongs only way out, Chiu said, adding that the new party, which consists of around 30 members, will be formally announced on Sunday. Chiu in 2013 broke into a Peoples Liberation Army facility in central Hong Kong holding up a colonial flag and asking the PLA to get out of the city. Hong Kong was handed back to Beijing in 1997, with the Sino-British Joint Declaration preserving its liberties for 50 years as a special administrative region. It has remained an autonomous territory since, governed under Chinas one country, two systems principle, affording Hong Kong freedom not enjoyed on the mainland. However, in recent years, citizens have begun criticising the Chinese government for attempting to interfere politically and clamp down on Hong Kongs privileges. In 2014, scores of citizens held a series of sit-in protests from September to December against the Beijing-backed proposal for limited democracy in the Honk Kong elections. Occupying the financial district of the city and elsewhere, the movement came to be known as the Umbrella Movement. The protests fizzled out by the end of 2014 as public opinion turned given that local businesses were suffering. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump fired back at his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton on Wednesday, calling her a world class liar in his first major speech of the general election for the White House. Reading from a teleprompter, Trump went on to say Clinton was the most corrupt person ever to run for the White House and that she hadperfected the art of politics of personal theft. Clinton had called him the King of Debt in a speech on Tuesday, slamming his business experience, his strong suit, and practices in what her campaign said was Evisceration Part II. Part I came some days ago when Clinton questioned his foreign policy credentials, or the lack of them, and remarks that have left his own party supporters and surrogates squirming. Trump, who prides himself as a counter-puncher, had let that attack pass with remarkably low intensity push back. But he counter-tweeted Clintons Tuesday speech live. He hit back full on on Wednesday in a speech replete with insults and questionable claims and facts, but one that was the kind of disciplined attack Republicans had long wanted of him. After wrapping up the nomination weeks before Clinton, Trump was widely seen to have squandered the advantage by embroiling himself in one controversy after another with his remarks. Trump lashed back at Clinton, attacking her on expected lines paid speeches, Benghazi, use of a private email server as secretary of state, and her behaviour in White House as the first lady. Her decisions spread death, destruction and terrorism everywhere she touched, he said of Clintons term as secretary of state, which, he added, cost thousands of American lives. He also defended his own business record, which has recently come under close scrutiny, with reports about his refusal to pay his bills, and bankrupting companies to bail on debtors. Calling him the King of Debt, Clinton said Tuesday, Maybe we shouldn't expect better from someone whose most famous words are 'you're fired. And referring to his books, which he likes to boast about, Clinton said, Hes written a lot of books about business. They all seem to end at chapter 11 (the bankruptcy clause). Trump defended himself on Wednesday, saying, I have always had a talent for building businesses and, importantly, creating jobsThat is a talent our country desperately needs. He went to talk about how he built a company worth billions starting out with a $1 million loan from his father, which he tends to call small. The UK governments website (gov.uk) has uploaded stories of bravery of six Indians who had received Victoria Cross, the highest gallantry award for soldiers in countries ruled by the British, during the First World War (1914-18), as part of a centenary commemoration. The Cross is equivalent to present-day Param Vir Chakra. Among the six were Lance Naik Lala of Himachal Pradesh and Risaldar Badlu Singh of Punjab. Lance Naik Lala was awarded Victoria Cross for saving the lives of British officers on January 21, 1916. (Photo: gov.uk) We fought true Lance Naik Lala served in the 41st Dogras during the First World War. He was awarded Victoria Cross for saving the lives of British officers on January 21, 1916, during the First Battle of Hanna in Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq). According to his citation, after providing medical aid to an officer and four others in a temporary shelter, he heard calls from the adjutant of his own regiment who was lying in the open, severely wounded. The enemy were not more than one hundred yards distant, and it seemed certain death to go out in that direction, but Lance Naik Lala insisted on going out to his adjutant, and offered to crawl back with him on his back at once. When this was not permitted, he stripped off his own clothing to keep the wounded officer warmer, and stayed with him till just before dark, when he returned to the shelter. After dark he carried the first wounded officer back to the main trenches, and then, returning with a stretcher, carried back his adjutant. He set a magnificent example of courage and devotion to his officers, read his citation. According to the website, he died of polio in 1927 and his last words were said to be: We fought true. All machine guns and infantry had surrendered to him Risaldar Badlu Singh was a part of the 14th Murrays Jat Lancers, attached to the 29th Lancers, who was awarded Victoria Cross posthumously for his sacrifice on the banks of the river Jordan in Palestine on September 23, 1918. According to his citation in the London Gazette, his squadron charged a strong enemy position on the west bank of the river Jordan, between the river and Khes Samariyeh village. On nearing the position, Risaldar Badlu Singh realised that the squadron was suffering casualties from a small hill on the left front occupied by machine guns and 200 infantry. Without the slightest hesitation he collected six other ranks and with the greatest dash and total disregard for danger, charged and captured the position, thereby saving very heavy casualties to the squadron. He was mortally wounded on the very top of the hill when capturing one of the machine guns single handed, but all the machine guns and infantry had surrendered to him before he died. The website says that he was cremated where he fell, but his name is inscribed on the Heliopolis Memorial at Heliopolis War Cemetery in Cairo (Egypt). His Victoria Cross is part of the Lord Ashcroft collection at the Imperial War Museum. Also read I Udta Punjab effect? Dope test a must for 6 lakh wannabe cops The website also mentions the name of four others Sepoy Chatta Singh of Uttar Pradesh who saved the life of his commanding officer while fighting in Iraq in 1916, Naik Darwan Singh Negi of Uttrakhand for taking on Germans in France despite being wounded in head twice and arm in 1914, Rifleman Gabar Singh Negi of Uttarakhand who got the medal posthumously for flushing out Germans in the Battle of Neuve Chapelle, France, in 1915 and Lance-Daffadar Gobind Singh of Rajasthan who got the medal for his role in sending across messages to brigade headquarters during the Battle of Cambrai in 1917. A referendum will be held to decide whether Britain should leave or stay in the European Union (EU). The possible exit, called Brexit (Britain+ exit), could have lasting consequences. Here are the key things that you need to know about the historic vote that could shape British-EU ties: What is a referendum? A referendum is a vote in which everyone of voting age can take part, normally giving a Yes or No answer to a question. Whichever side gets more than half of all votes is considered to have won. When is the vote? The referendum is scheduled for Thursday, June 23. Watch | Why India doesnt want Brexit What is the European Union? The European Union is an economic-political union with roots in the post-World War II era, set up as a response to nationalism that ripped through Europe at the time. The idea was to ensure peace partly by promoting economic cooperation in a single market of the member-states. It has headquarters in Brussels, has its own currency - the Euro - which is used by 19 of the member countries, its own parliament and it now sets rules in a wide range of areas - including on the environment, transport, consumer rights and even things like mobile phone charges. Citizens of member-states have the right to freedom of movement, which means the citizens can move, live and work in any of the member-states. It currently has 28 member-states, with more (including Turkey) applying to join. Why is it being held? Britain has always been uneasy about the EU since its formation in the early 1950s. It voted in a referendum in 1975 to stay in the EU, but since then, many believe Britain did not have a say on its relationship with the EU. There has been much disquiet in Britain since the early 2000s about migration into the country from within the European Union and its effects on communities, towns, wages and public services. In 2004, 10 East European countries joined the EU; two more joined in 2007, allowing its citizens freedom of movement. In 2013, Prime Minister David Cameron promised to hold a referendum if he won the 2015 general election. What is the referendum question on the ballot paper? Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union? Who is campaigning? There are two sides recognised by the Electoral Commission: the In Campaign Ltd and Vote Leave Ltd the first campaigning to remain in the EU and the second to leave. The official position of the David Cameron government is to remain in the EU; thus, Cameron and most of his ministers and Conservative MPs are on the In side, so is Labour. Vote Leave includes six ministers, including Justice Secretary Michael Gove, employment minister Priti Patel and Boris Johnson. The UK Independence Party (leader: Nigel Farage), which has enlisted much support in recent local and general elections on its anti-EU plant, is not part of Vote Leave, but has been campaigning vigorously. Campaigners from the "Vote Remain" group hand out stickers, flyers and posters in Oxford Circus, central London on 21 June 2016. (AFP Photo) What are the main arguments to stay? The Remain side has made economy its main plank. Britains economy has grown since it joined the EU; it enjoys tariff-free movement of goods, services, capital and workers across the 500-million strong EU market. It says millions of British jobs depend on continued membership of the EU. Britain also benefits from EUs policies on climate change, agriculture, fisheries, education. Membership also allows Britons to move, live and work across Europe. It argues that leaving the EU would shrink the economy, lead to job losses and more austerity in public spending. Cameron has already got a deal from Brussels to reinforce its special place in the EU: curbs on EU migrants accessing state benefits, not being part of Schengen, continued use of its own currency, the pound (not adopting the Euro). Most of British business and industry supports the In cause. What are the main arguments to leave? The Brexit camp has made the sensitive issue of immigration its main plank, which has gained it much traction in recent opinion polls. It wants to put in place the same tough conditions for EU migrants as for people from India and other non-EU countries. Its key message is: Take back control, building on the perception that more and more national powers have been taken over by the EU super-state. It wants Britain to be run by its own elected representatives, instead of un-elected bureaucrats in Brussels. This camp has its own group of business and industry leaders who want a leave vote. It wants to trade more with India and the Commonwealth after leaving the EU. A Leave campaigner holds placards as she waits for the arrival of UK Independence Party (UKIP) leader Nigel Farage in Clacton-on-Sea, eastern England on June 21, 2016. (AFP Photo) Who can vote? British, Irish, Indian and other Commonwealth citizens over 18 who are resident in the UK, along with British nationals living abroad who have been on the electoral register in the past 15 years. Citizens from EU countries living in Britain apart from Ireland, Malta and Cyprus cannot vote. What about the Indian diaspora in Britain? Some polls suggest that since both sides have near-equal support, votes of Indians and other minorities would play a deciding role. Most of the Indian community supports remaining in the EU, but there are Indian and Indian-origin businessmen who support leave. The main Indian-origin politician in the Brexit camp is Priti Patel, who is joined by MPs Suella Fernandes and Rishi Sunak. There are 15 Indian-origin law-makers, including Labours Keith Vaz, who are in the In camp. Cameron and Chancellor George Osborne have been visiting temples to campaign for the In vote, while Patel has been touring cities and areas with large Indian presence to canvass for Brexit. What is Indias position on the referendum? India does not have an official position, since it would be seen as an interference, but Prime Minister Narendra Modi said during his November 2015 visit to London that India sees Britain as a gateway to Europe. India is the third-largest investor in Britain and nearly 800 Indian companies are based in Britain. FICCI would like Britain to remain in the EU. The Reserve Bank of India, Nasscom and other Indian organisations have been closely monitoring the developments, with reports that plans for investment and expansion have been put on hold until the outcome of the referendum is known. Is the referendum important? Yes, it has major implications on Britains perception of itself and its place in international relations. But most of all, remaining or leaving will have serious implications for Britains economy, with many knock-on effects on the global financial system, given Londons pre-eminent position in the world of finance. Given that opinion polls and bookies went wrong during the May 2015 general elections, no one has an idea which way the vote will go, but bookmakers favour the Remain option. (With inputs from agencies) Read| Brits dont quit: Camerons last-minute appeal to stay In EU before referendum Read| 5 potential consequences if Britain votes to leave the European Union SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON BRUSSELS: A man with psychiatric problems who was carrying a fake suicide belt full of salt and biscuits was arrested on Tuesday after he triggered a major anti-terror operation at a Brussels shopping mall, prosecutors said. Belgium remains on a high state of alert after Islamic State-claimed bomb attacks in March left 32 people dead at the airport and at a metro station near European Union headquarters. Prosecutors said they were still probing whether the man - who had once claimed he had been urged to join the Islamic State group - had any genuine links to terrorism or not. The 26-year-old man, identified only as JB, called police to say he had been abducted in a car and dropped at the City 2 mall in central Brussels with an explosives belt that was to have been detonated remotely. After an initial inspection it was confirmed that it contained salt and biscuits. Any threat of an explosion has been initially ruled out, prosecutors spokesman Rym Kechiche said in a statement. JB is known to the authorities for various incidents, including some linked to psychiatric problems, Kechiche said. Police later located the car identified by the suspect in the Schaerbeek district of the capital and planned to question its owner. The apparent threat had triggered a massive security operation. Only one exit remained open at the nearby Rogier metro station, where soldiers checked passengers bags and belongings. Police and soldiers sealed off the immediate area, an AFP reporter at the scene said. Prime Minister Charles Michel called an emergency meeting of his security cabinet when the shopping mall alert was ongoing, reflecting the tensions in the country. The situation is for now under control. We remain vigilant, Michel said. The terror alert level in Brussels remained at level three out of four, Belga news agency reported. ISLAMABAD : Four out of 10 Pakistanis are living in acute poverty, with the population of strife-ridden Balochistan province faring the worst, according to the countrys first official report on multidimensional poverty. The report unveiled by the government details the countrys official Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), which shows a sharp decline in national poverty rates from 55 % in 2004 to 39% in 2015. Rather than income and wealth alone, the MPI uses broader measures to determine poverty based on access to healthcare, education and the overall standard of living, thus giving a more detailed understanding of poverty. The report states 38.8% of Pakistans population lives in poverty. A majority of the rural population (54.6%) lives in acute poverty, while this ratio is only 9.4% in urban areas. The more alarming indicator, according to the report, is the intensity of poverty, as each poor person lacks access to half the indicators selected for measuring poverty. The MPI findings show 60.6% of Pakistans population does not have access to cooking fuel, 48.5% do not complete schooling, almost four out of every 10 people (39%) do not have any assets and over 38% of the population lives in a one-room shelter. About one-third population does not have access to health facilities. Among the provinces, multidimensional poverty is the highest in Balochistan and the lowest in Punjab, the most populous province. Planning minister Ahsan Iqbal, who released the report, said poverty came down largely because of the growth in the informal economy. But he pointed out millions are still left behind. Four of the five poorest districts are in Balochistan, where the poverty level is alarmingly high. The poorest district is Kila Abdullah with 97% poor population, followed by Harnai (94.2%), Barkhan (93.6%), Sherani (90.6%) and Kohistan in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa with 95.8% poor people. WASHINGTON: Voting along party lines, US senators on Monday killed yet another attempt to fix the countrys slack gun laws, launched this time in the aftermath of the carnage in Orlando. They voted down two competing proposals, one each by a Democrat and a Republican, to prevent suspected terrorists such as the Orlando shooter, Omar Mateen, from buying guns. Mateen gunned down 49 people at a gay nightclub. The senators also defeated one measure extending background checks to gun fairs, exhibitions and online sales, and another that proposed to address the issue of gun violence as a mental health problem. President Barack Obama denounced the vote, tweeting, Gun violence requires more than moments of silence. It requires action. In failing that test, the Senate failed the American people. What am I going to tell 49 grieving families? I am going to tell them the NRA won again,said Senator Bill Nelson, a Democrat representing Florida. The National Rifle Association (NRA) is a powerful pro-gun lobby that worked to defeat these measures, and others before, dubbing them an assault on the right to bear arms. Democrats and Republicans blamed each other for the failure to pass the measures, but few, if any, expected them to pass, holding both parties equally accountable. The New York Times noted that Democrats, who favour gun reforms, were eager (after Orlando) to press their advantage and were not about to make it easy for Republicans. The result: the same as before. An attempt to prevent terrorists from getting guns after the killing of 14 people in San Bernardino last December met with the same outcome. And an attempt to extend background checks after the horrific killing of 20 first-graders in Newtown, Connecticut in 2012 met the same fate despite the outrage felt all around. RIYADH: Fifty young men have been arrested in Saudi Arabia for haircuts, necklaces and other adornments considered un-Islamic. The suspects were detained during a Ramzan crackdown in the western Saudi city of Mecca, Islams holiest site, according to Saudi news website Sabq. They were handed over to the department of criminal investigations, said Sabq, which accompanied investigators during their visits to shopping areas in the city. Officers noticed a number of offences like strange haircuts, chains that are hung upon the chest or arms, head wraps and short clothes and immodest ones, for both men and women, reported Sabq. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON ISLAMABAD: Masked men kidnapped the son of the chief justice of the Sindh high court , the first such high-profile kidnapping in Pakistan this year, police officials said on Tuesday. Ovais Ali Shah, the son of chief justice Sajjad Ali Shah, was abducted from outside the popular Agha s Supermarket in Karachi on Monday. Ovais, a lawyer, struggled briefly before being quickly overpowered and bundled into a white car. Police chief Allah Dino Khawaja told the media he did not believe it was a case of kidnapping for ransom. Khawaja hinted the kidnapping may have been carried out to pressure the government to release condemned militants. A large number of militants who have been sentenced to death are serving their final days in Sindh, officials said. Ovais family members said the kidnappers had made contact as yet. It is feared that Ovais will be taken to the restive tribal areas or into Afghanistan before negotiations begin. Anti-terrorism expert Jamil Yusuf said in such situations, the kidnappers make contact after taking their captive to a secure location. They can also have sold the captive to another group, which is common as well, he added. LONDON: Exemplary tales of valour of 175 men including six Indians who fought in different theatres during World War I have been put online in a new digital archive of Victoria Cross recipients. The Victoria Cross (VC), Britains highest military decoration for valour, was awarded to the 175 men from 11 countries. As a mark of gratitude, bronze memorial plaques were presented to their home countries in June 2014, including India. According to the archive created by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the six Indian Victoria Cross recipients and their location of action were as follows: Badlu Singh (Palestine), Chatta Singh (Mesopotamia), Darwan Singh Negi (France), Gabar Singh Negi (France), Gobind Singh (France) and Lala (Mesopotamia). Foreign office minister Hugo Swire said: Behind every name engraved on the memorial plaques there is a truly remarkable story. It is fitting that we pay tribute to the Victoria Cross recipients from overseas by bringing their stories together in this digital archive. By doing so we are sending a message that these men, and the important role played by their home countries in the First World War, will never be forgotten by the people of the United Kingdom. Besides the six Indians, there were 70 VC recipients from Canada , 66 from Australia , 16 from New Zealand, 14 from South Africa , five from the US, three from Pakistan, two each from Nepal and Denmark, and one each from Belgium and Ukraine . KANDAHAR: The Taliban on Tuesday ambushed buses and cars in southern Afghanistans Helmand province, forcing people out of the vehicles and abducting around 60 passengers, an Afghan official said. The insurgents said they released all but 27 of those abducted. According to Mohammad Ismail, a district police chief in Helmand, the attack happened in Gareshk district. The Taliban forced the buses and cars to stop at gunpoint, he said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON WASHINGTON: Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton raised nine times more funds than her Republican rival Donald Trump in the month of May, according to regulatory filings on Monday. His campaign cash chest of $1.3 million, compared to Clintons $42 million, was described as paltry even for congressional races, leave alone the big-ticket and expensive White House run. As Trump pivots to the general election, his campaign has been buffeted by controversies raised by his remarks and personnel shake-up. He fired his campaign manager on Monday. There was also a security scare at his rally on Saturday when a British man was arrested for trying to grab a gun from a police officer, with the intention, he has said, of killing Trump. According to a complaint filed in federal court in Nevada, Michael Sandford tried to disarm the officer at the rally at the Mystere Theatre in the Treasure Island Casino before being overpowered. It said the man told a Secret Service agent after his arrest that he had driven from California to Las Vegas to kill Trump, and had been to a range a day earlier to learn to shoot as he had never fired a gun before. It looks like Trump is not getting much love on the cash front either. His campaign raised $3.1 million in May, compared to Clintons $28 million, which after expenses was down to $1.3 million when he started the month of June. Having self-funded the primaries, the Manhattan real estate mag nate has called for donations to fund the campaign for the general election, but hasnt made much headway. Trump claimed he wasnt troubled by the state of his cash chest. If need be, there could be unlimited cash on hand as I would put up my own money, as I have already done through the primaries, spending over $50 million. The shortage of cash, however, is showing in the lack of campaign ads compared to Clintons, specially in battleground states. ISTANBUL : A Turkish court has freed a young woman who murdered her husband after years of violent abuse in a case that became a rallying cause for feminists in the country, media reports said Tuesday. Cilem Karabulut, 24, was found guilty earlier this month of killing her husband Hasan Karabulut, 33, in the southern Adana region in 2015 with a pistol . SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Less than three weeks after the Confederate victory at Second Manassas, some 86,000 Union troops under 35-year-old Major General George McClellan clashed with 40,000 Confederates led by 55-year-old General Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Antietam in west-central Maryland. The 23,000 killed, wounded or missing by nightfall made September 17, 1862, the single bloodiest day in American history. Here are the recollections of some of the soldiers who fought there. Union We were finally however ordered to lie down in a cornfield & stray shot and shell began to whiz over our heads and burst around us. Of course every one thought it incumbent upon him to dodge every time he heard a chirra whoo even though it was flying a hundred feet above us. This feeling soon passed away however and the boys were decidedly too anxious to get up and see what was going on. They were soon satisfied. We were ordered to get up and throw off our bundles (I in this way lost my rubber and woolen blankets & have not seen them since) & march to the left into the woods [East Woods]. Lying just in front of our lines was a great number of dead and wounded. One poor fellow lay just before us with one leg shot off; the other shattered and otherwise badly wounded; fairly shrieking with pain. Lt. Sebastian Duncan, Jr., 13th New Jersey Infantry, 12th Corps Letter to his Mother, Sept. 21, 1862, Duncan Papers, New Jersey Historical Society As soon as it was sufficiently light for our artillerists to commence operations, the ball was fairly open, the like of which I hope we shall never again see or hear. The discharges from the batteries were more frequent than I could count, and I could think only of the awful destruction of life they were causing. Bests regular battery, attached to our brigade, covered the front, and these six 12 pound Napoleons truly made their mark. We were ordered to the left into the woods with orders from Gen. Mansfield to hold them till reinforcements should arrive; and let me assure you that in those woods the 10th had just as much of a chance as did the enemy, and we improved it. Not a mound or a tree that gave us protection we did not improve and the lifeless remains of 43 rebels, among them Lieutenants, Captains, and one Colonel, as we advanced, proved the unerring aim of our mens rifles. It was a squirrel hunt on a large scale, as you could see our men creep along from tree to tree. Lt. Colonel James Fillebrown, 10th Maine Infantry, 12th Corps Letter to his wife, Sept. 19, 1862, LewistownFalls Journal What a bloody place was that sunken road as we advanced, and the Irish Brigade fell back; the fences were down on both sides, and the dead and wounded men were literally piled there in heaps. As we went over them in crossing the road, a wounded reb made a thrust at me with his bayonet; turning my head to look at him, I saw that he was badly hurt, and continued on. As we pushed forward into the cornfield [Piper Cornfield] beyond the road, Private charley Spencer in the front rank just before me, went down with an awful cry; stooping over him as I passed I saw that he had fallen forward on his face and was motionless. Just then a strand of canister went over our heads, and that was my dread; I could endure rifle bullets, but when the big iron bullets went swishing through the air with a sound as though there were bushels of them, it made me wish I was at home. Charles A. Hale, 5th New Hampshire Infantry, 2nd Corps The Story of My Personal Experience at the Battle of Antietam, John R. Brooke Papers, Historical Society of Pennsylvania Battle oh horrid battle. What sights I have seen now see around me. I am Wounded! And am afraid shall be again as shells fly past me every few seconds carrying away limbs from trees and scattering limbs around. Am in severe pain. Furies how the shells fly. I do sincerely hope shall not be wounded again. We drove them first till they got sheltered then we had a bad place. Oh I cannot write. Sgt. Jonathan Stowe, 15th Massachusetts Infantry, 2nd Corps Diary entry, Sept. 17, 1862, CWTI Collection, USAMHI I had just got myself pretty comfortable when a bomb burst over me and completely deafened me. I felt a blow on my right shoulder and my jacket was covered with white stuff. I felt mechanically whether I still had my arm and thank God it was still whole. At the same time I felt something damp on my face; I wiped it off. It was bloody. Now I first saw that the man next to me, Kessler, lacked the upper part of his head, and almost all his brains had gone into the face of the man next to him, Merkel, so that he could scarcely see. Since any moment the same could happen to anyone, no one thought much about it. Christoph Niederer, 20th New York Infantry, 6th Corps Civil War Misc. Collection, USAMHI You may call the feeling fear or anything you choose. I dont deny that I trembled and wished we were well out of it. I tried to do my duty and am satisfied. I came off the field side by side with Col. Beach. Afterward we led the remnants of our own regiment and the 11th [11th Connecticut] on to the field again through as hot a fire as I saw any time during the day. So far as my experience goes, I should not be sorry to see the war ended tomorrow without firing another shot, and yet I am a little eager to see one more battle. Not from any reckless desire for the excitement, but I have a little practical knowledge now and I think I should be more at home next time and perhaps do better. I should be considerable cooler, I have not doubt. Adjutant John H> Burnham, 16th Connecticut Infantry Letter to mother and family, Oct. 4, 1862, State Archives, History and Genealogy Unit, Connecticut State Library Confederate . . . after a hurried march of 2 miles we reached the field of battle & went immediately into action, through a piece of woods [West Woods] facing a terrific fire of artillery and musketry, several of our men were killed & wounded in the woods & many hesitated and took shelter behind trees & could not be forced forward, when we passed the woods we crossed a fence & under a most galling fire of grape & canister from the artillery & musketry & many of our force could not be rallied beyond the fence, I drew my pistol and threatened to shoot & scolded but with very futile effect, I mounted the fence & moved forward exposed to a terrible fire which swept away every thing before it & saw our Regt. Breaking & the whole gave way in confusion & retreat in disorder. I tried to rally them in the woods behind the brow of a hill, but was not aided by our Col. Commandant, who led the retreat nor listened to by the men. Lt Colonel Samuel H. Walkup, 48th North Carolina Infantry Diary entry, Samuel H. Walkup papers, Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina We were ordered by the left flank and were very soon into the engagement. I commenced loading and shooting with all my might but my gun got chocked the first round and I picked up the gun of one of my comrades who fell by my side and continued to fire. Here I could see the second line of battle of the enemy and when their men would fall the rest would close in and fill their places. Their first line was lying by a fence and I could see the old Stars and Stripes waving over them I fired as near as I could aim at the men around the flag I do not know whether I killed any one or not during this time[.] our Reg got cut up very severly and the Brig was ordered to retreat back when we met reinforcements coming in and I was glad to see them for I was nearly tired to death. Calvin Leach, 1st North Carolina Infantry, D.H. Hills Division Diary, Southern Historical Collection, UNC Tired and sleepy we still march on, and as we come in proximity of the battle ground the scores of wounded passing to the rear remind us that bloody work is going on. A little further on, to the left of the pike, we halt & load at will. No sooner done, then in again. The enemys batteries give us shot & shell in abundance causing many muscular contractions in the spinal column of our line. But all the dodging did not save us. Occasionally a shell, better aimed than the rest would crash through our line making corpses & mutilated trunks. James J. Fitzpatrick, 16th Mississippi Infantry, Richard H. Andersons Division Diary, Eugene C. Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas at Austin There was no halt made until we reached the northern boundary of the corn [Millers corn field], and there for the first time that day I saw the enemy. He had a battery on top of the hill and was shooting over us. Our line silenced the guns, but did not capture them. A quiet of a few minutes followed, then an infantry line appeared on the crest and engaged our line. The flag of the regiment opposing the 11th Miss. was shot down (or lowered) at least a half dozen times before it disappeared behind the hill. Our line did not advance any farther, but kept its same position. The next move in our immediate front was an attempt to get a gun in position to bear on us. It came up in a gallop but the horses were nearly all killed or wounded, the artillerymen disappeared and the effort failed. D. L. Lowe, 11th Mississippi Infantry Lowe to J. M. Gould, April 29, 1891, Gould Papers, Dartmouth College Just then, a Yankee horseman waved his hat at us, and Col. Tew returned the compliment. It was the last I saw of the colonel [Tew was killed in the ensuing engagement]. Our skirmishers began to fire on the advancing line, and we returned to ours. Slowly they approach up the hill, and slowly our skirmishers retire before theirs, firing as they come. Our skirmishers are ordered to come into the line. Here they are, right before us, scarce 50 yards off, but as if with one feeling, our whole line pour a deadly volley into their ranks they drop, reel; stagger, and back their first line go beyond the crest of the hill. Our men reload, and await for them to again approach, while the first column of the enemy meet the second, rally and move forward again. They meet with the same reception, and back again they go, to come back when met by their third line. Here they all come. You can see their mounted riders cheering them on, and with a sickly huzza! they all again approach us at a charge, but another volley sends their whole line reeling back. Lt. John C. Gorman, 2nd North Carolina Infantry, D. H. Hills Division Letter to wife and mother, September 21, 1862, North Carolina State Archives White and I, seeing we were in point blank range of the batteries, had pressed the left wing forward under the hill, the colors continuing to advance. Just here, Major White passed down the line from the right, and said to me; We can take that battery forward! We both passed through the ranks, and moved side by side, with the colors, to the front, and had almost reached the battery (the guns of which were already abandoned), when the Major was struck in the cheek by a rifle ball, fired by the infantry in rear of the battery. Still he pressed forward, until within twenty yards of the battery, when just at this moment the guns, re-manned, opened upon us, and swept down the remnant of gallant men who had followed us; the Major falling at the first discharge, being struck about the ear by a grape shot. Captain, 7th South Carolina Infantry, McLawss Division In Memoriam, Charleston Mercury, Dec. 3, 1862 We have again lost some of the noblest men in the south. The wounds generally in more of a serious nature than heretofore. I pronounce this battle to have been the most terrible in artillery than any one of the preceding fights. I never was so tired of shelling in my life. I hate cannons . Dr. James Boulware, 6th South Carolina Infantry, D. R. Joness Division Diary, Virginia State Library Compiled by D. Scott Hartwig From Farm to Prison SUBMITTED BY BENJAMIN SMITH OF PORTLAND, MAINE NAME: Llewellyn Smith DATES: 1836 to 1883 ALLEGIANCE: Union HIGHEST RANK: Private UNIT: 9th Maine Infantry, Company I SERVICE RECORD: Mustered into the 9th Maine Infantry on September 22, 1861. Captured at Bermuda Hundred, Virginia, on August 25, 1864. Incarcerated at Belle Isle Prison until mid-September and at Libby Prison until October. Mustered out on July 13, 1865. A small town not far from Bangor, Maine, Carmel was a tranquil place populated by farmers who had little time for anything besides farminguntil the Civil War erupted. Llewellyn Smith and other sons of Carmel put away their plows and took up rifles. The 25-year-old Smith was mustered into the 9th Maine Infantry, Company I, on September 22. Two days later, the farmers were on their way south as soldiers. At left, Smith stands stoically with his Springfield rifle musket. The knife and revolver in his belt are probably props supplied by the photographer; few foot soldiers carried such weapons. Almost immediately, the 9th Maine was assigned to Brigadier General Thomas W. Shermans South Carolina Expeditionary Corps. Smith saw his first action in the Union capture of Port Royal. Then, after several months of quiet duty in Florida, the Pine Tree Staters were thrown back into action in South Carolina, where they fought desperately in three assaults and a siege against Charlestons Battery Wagner in July 1863. Thirty-nine men from the 9th were killed or mortally wounded, but Smith escaped uninjured. Early in 1864, the regiment was reassigned to the Army of the James and joined Major General Benjamin F. Butler in his operations outside Richmond, Virginia. More than 70 men of the 9th Maine died during bitter fighting at Cold Harbor and Petersburg in June. Smith survived only to be captured at Bermuda Hundred on August 25. He spent three weeks at Belle Isle Prison on the James River before being transferred to Libby Prison in Richmond. Smith stayed at Libby only a month, but the suffering that began there would last the rest of his life. Libby Prison was populated mostly by officers. As a private, Smith received even fewer aids to survival than the suffering officers. He had no bed, no blankets, and few clothesonly a shirt and pants. In the damp Southern autumn, Smith rapidly developed severe heart and lung infections. Paroled in October, he went home to Carmel for a lengthy convalescence. Although he eventually returned to his regiment, the war was over for Smith; shortly after his return, the men of the 9th Maine were mustered out, on July 13, 1865. A shell of his former self, Smith was still one of the lucky ones; nearly a quarter of the 197 men of his company never came home. Too weak for farming, Smith became a wagon maker in Carmel. He soon married his sweetheart, Adaline Maloon, and over the next several years, the couple had five children. Adaline died in 1880, and three years later, Smith succumbed to his wartime ailments. His children were sent to the State Military and Naval Childrens Home in Bath. Even today, Smiths descendants do not know where he was buried, only that it was in Maine. Buffalo Bill wanted an epic production with theatrical flair that defined the West and drew viewers into it. When fabled bison hunter William Buffalo Bill Cody first staged his Wild West show in 1883, he needed more than heroic cowboys, villainous Indians, teeming horses and roaming buffalo to transform it from a circus into a sensation. He needed star power. And there was one man who guaranteed to provide it: the Sioux chief widely blamed for the uprising that overwhelmed George Armstrong Custers 7th Cavalry at the Battle of Little Bighorn only a decade earlier. I am going to try hard to get old Sitting Bull, Cody said. If we can manage to get him our ever lasting fortune is made. It took two years, but Cody finally got his man. In June 1885, Sitting Bull joined the Wild West show for a signing bonus of $125 and $50 a week20 times more than Indians who served as policemen on reservations earned. Buffalo Bill reckoned his new star would prove to be an irresistible draw. With the Indian wars drawing to a close, and most Plains Indians confined to reservations, Buffalo Bill set the stage for a final conquest of the frontier. Since accompanying an army patrol as a scout shortly after the Battle of Little Bighorn and scalping the Cheyenne warrior Yellow Hair, he was known as the man who took the first scalp for Custer. As the man who now controlled Sitting Bull, he symbolically declared victory in the war for the West and signaled a new era of cooperation with the enemy. Cody excluded the chief from acts in which other Indians made sham attacks on settlers and then got their comeuppance from heroic cowboys. All Sitting Bull had to do was don a war costume, ride a horse into the arena and brave an audience that sometimes jeered and hissed. Sitting Bulls mere presence reinforced the reassuring message underlying Codys Wild West extravaganza, as well as the Western films and novels it inspired, that Americans are generous conquerors who attack only when provoked. At the same time, Codys vision of the West spoke to the fiercely competitive spirit of an American nation born in blood and defined by conflict on the frontier, where what mattered most was not whether you were right or wrong but whether you prevailed. The lesson of his Wild West was that sharpshooting American cowboys like Buffalo Bill could be as wild as the Indians they fought and match them blow for blow. The real frontier might be vanishing, but by preserving this wild domain imaginatively and reenacting the struggle for supremacy there, he gave millions of Americans the feeling they were up to any challenge. Buffalo Bills Wild West depended on Codys ability to draw shrewdly on his frontier experiences to make himself a commanding figure. He earned his nickname, he claimed, by killing 4,280 buffalo during an 18-month stint for the Kansas Pacific Railroad in the late 1860s. Indiscriminate hunting was encouraged by the army as part of a campaign to wipe out buffalo herds that gave subsistence to free-roaming Plains Indians. The Indians did not take well to having this food supply annihilated. Cody told of being chased once by 30 Indians on horseback. Cavalry guarding the tracks came to his aid, and together they killed eight redskins, he said, expressing sympathy only for a horse one of the warriors was riding, killed by a shot from his trusty rifle Lucretia: He was a noble animal, and ought to have been engaged in better business. Later in life Cody mused that Indians deserved better. But his early exploits on the Plains and his autobiographical account of those feats, designed to portray him as a classic frontier enforcer, came first. His crowning claim involved the rescue of a white woman from the clutches of Indians. In July 1869, he was serving as a scout for the 5th Cavalry when it surprised hostile Cheyennes in an encampment at Summit Springs, Colorado Territory, where one white woman held captive was killed in the ensuing battle and one rescued. Official records give credit for locating the camp to Pawnee scoutswho volunteered to serve the army against their traditional tribal foesand make no mention of Buffalo Bill. But Cody boasted of killing Cheyenne Chief Tall Bull during the engagement after creeping to a spot where he could easily drop him from the saddle without hitting his horse, a gallant steed he then captured and named Tall Bull in honor of the chief. [continued on next page] From left, Surya Sapkota, owner Yam Parajuli, Keshab Subedi and owner Ram Subedi stand with some of their favorites including chicken tadoori, garlic and plain naan and momo dumplings on June 15 at Monsoon Himalayan Cuisine. Cat Cutillo / Review According to new study doctors who receive free meals from drug makers are more prone to prescribe the brand-name drugs those companies sell. Physicians who got just one free meal, price less than $20 on average, twice more likely to prescribe a promoted brand-name drug than a lower priced generic alternative, compared with doctors who did not get a meal. Doctors who who got several meals were up to three times more likely to prescribe those drugs. "To my surprise, tiny, tiny payments are associated with big differences in prescribing," said study author Colette DeJong, a research fellow at University of California San Francisco's (UCSF) Center for Healthcare Value. Additional meals and higher price were linked with even higher prescribing rates of the promoted drug. "So whether you get zero, one, two, three or four meals has a step-wise increase in the prescribing of the brand-name drug that's being promoted, and that has huge implications for Medicare and huge implications for patients," said DeJong. Marketing guidelines set up by the American Medical Association and Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) allow gifts to doctors up to $100 worth. "Although voluntary guidelines from the American Medical Association and Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America allow meals and gifts to physicians of up to $100 in value, our findings indicate that even payments of less than $20 are associated with different prescribing patterns," they added. "Small payments and meals should continue to be monitored in the United States." Most of the meals in the study were of very low value. "It's more like the pizza in the doctor's office than the formal dinner out," DeJong noted. Dr. Adams Dudley, director of UCSF's Center for Healthcare Value addressed that It's not the value of the gift driving doctors' prescribing patterns; it's "feeling like you owe the drug rep something," he said. Similarly, a Harvard Medical School study published in May discovered that Massachusetts doctors prescribed a bigger proportion of brand-name statins the category of drugs that treat high cholesterol the more industry money they got. There was no big increase in brand-name prescribing for those who received less than $2,000. Most Medicare beneficiaries are in prescription drug plans where the median copay is $1 for generics and $40 to $80 for brand-name drugs, DeJong noted. "You can imagine for a senior on 10 or 20 medicines, that's a huge cost every month," she said. However, the study did not prove a cause-and-effect relationship. It might be that doctors go to industry events where information is provided on drugs they already like. The differences persisted after controlling for prescribing volume and potential confounders such as physician specialty, practice setting, and demographic characteristics, the study states. Furthermore, the relationship was dose dependent, with additional meals and costlier meals associated with greater increases in prescribing of the promoted drug. The study was published online Monday by JAMA Internal Medicine. @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. For nearly a century, a tiny asteroid circling around the Earth's orbit and has now been officially tagged by NASA as Earth's tiny second moon. Between 120 feet to 300 feet in diameter, the miniscule quasi-satellite also revolves around the sun on a similar orbit as our planet. Known as "asteroid 2016 HO3," Earth's new companion is estimated to have been around for the past 100 years. First detected on April 27 by the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy using the Pan-STARRS 1 asteroid survey telescope, the asteroid quasi-moon may eventually leave at some point in time unlike our very own moon which has been Earth's constant playmate for eons. The rock's orbit seems to follow a unique low back-and-forth twist pattern for the past several decades. Scientists think that it may continue to hang around the Earth's orbit for hundreds of years more, Inhabitat reported. "The asteroid's loops around Earth drift a little ahead or behind from year to year, but when they drift too far forward or backward, Earth's gravity is just strong enough to reverse the drift and hold onto the asteroid so that it never wanders farther away than about 100 times the distance of the moon," said Paul Chodas, manager of NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object (NEO) Studies at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California as quoted by Mother Nature Network. Chodas added that this celestial arrangement also prevents the miniscule satellite from "approaching much closer than about 38 times the distance of the moon." The tiny moon, in Chodas' words, is "caught in a little dance" with our very own planet. Interestingly, "asteroid 2016 HO3" is just one of Earth's celestial buddies other than the moon. Astronomers have made a catalog of other tiny space entities caught up in the Earth's orbit which are as follows (via Smithsonian Magazine): 1. Cruithne: The three-mile wide asteroid quasi-satellite 3753 Cruithne was discovered in 1983 and is quite similar to 2016 HO3. 2. 2010 TK7: A Trojan asteroid that tags along the Earth's orbit as it revolves around the sun. 3. 2006 RH120: Discovered in late 2006 by astronomers at the Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona after detecting a mysterious white space entity circling the earth. It was first thought of as space debris or a spent rocket booster but was later discovered as a small asteroid. However, it disappeared by 2007. Meanwhile, the European Space Agency has laid out an ambitious plan to construct a deep space human outpost between the Earth and the Moon. The space base is envisioned to facilitate easier back-and-forth travel between the Moon and the Earth, the Telegraph reported. @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. As per recent reports, teenage consumption of marijuana has reduced considerably in Colorado ever since the government legalized pot. The results were seen in a biannual poll obtained by Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. It revealed that there has been a significant change in the number of teenage consumers of pot in Colorado. The department conducts a poll every two years and close to 17,000 students participated in it. The survey revealed that the number dropped more in 2015, than 2011 when the number only dipped from 22% to 21.1% for the teenagers who consume pot in Colorado. "These statistics clearly debunk the theory that making marijuana legal for adults will result in more teen use," Mason Tvert, said. "Levels of teen use in Colorado have not increased since it ended marijuana prohibition, and they are lower than the national average. Elected officials and voters in states that are considering similar proposals should be wary of claims that it will hurt teens." There are also reports explaining that legalization of pot had very little to do with the increasing number of pot smokers as it was already available easily, even before the government legalized its use. Simply put, it means that the kids who wanted to smoke up weed were able to do so, even when pot was not legalized. Even though the numbers dipped, an anti-legalization group called Smart Approaches to Marijuana pointed out that Colorado has the highest number of pot smokers throughout United States. Legalization may have its own benefits and pitfalls, but it is parents who need to educate their children about not doing this behind their back. @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. N ow that Lea Bridge has a railway station again, this run-down east London outpost is to get its first major housing development. Hill, the award-winning house builder responsible for reinvigorating acres of warehouses around Cambridge station, has been granted permission for a scheme of more than 300 new homes in nine blocks in Lea Bridge Road. About 60 of the homes will be affordable, aimed at low- and middle-income buyers and renters currently priced out of the private sector. The announcement comes a month after the long-awaited reopening of Lea Bridge station, which was closed in the mid-Eighties as part of a cost-cutting exercise. Revealed: London's top property news stories 1 /40 Revealed: London's top property news stories Southwark council moves to save historic arches A London council is stepping in to save its historic railway arches, after a rush of applications to convert them into homes. Read more > Scroll right for more of London's top property news stories... Alamy Stock Photo Canning Town revealed as the most affordable property hotspot along the new 24-hour Night Tube route New research reveals the 10 most affordable stops to buy along the newest branch of Londons weekend Night Tube network... Read more Daniel Lynch London's property hotspots for "second steppers" New research reveals the capitals top locations for first-time owners trading up in the suburbs. Here's where to start your search for good-value homes with more space... Read more New-look 2016 Monopoly board for London's first-time buyers Barking and Bexley replace Old Kent Road and Whitechapel as the capital's cheapest property hotspots. Discover the average cost of buying in every London borough... Read more Barratt London Top 30 fastest-rising hotspots for first-time buyers from Peckham to Walthamstow South-east London postcodes are a favourite with the capital's first-timers, but discover which areas are proving to be the best investment for newbie buyers... Read more Bob Comics_Flickr City of London set to ban cars and trucks at Bank Junction The junction outside the Bank of England could become a bus and bike-only zone as early as next spring in an effort to reduce regular traffic accidents. Read more 100 days after Brexit: how the UK's vote to leave the EU has impacted the property market We ask UK property experts how Brexit has effected the housing market and what the future holds... Read more > Scroll right for more of London's top property news stories... Shutterstock London borough of Redbridge is home to the capital's most satisfied residents The north-east London borough containing Ilford, Woodford and Wanstead has the best levels of life satisfaction in the capital, according to the latest data from the Office of National Statistics. So, what makes it such a good place to live? We find out... Read more Daniel Lynch The Optic Cloak at Greenwich Peninsula This gigantic energy tower in south-east London, called the Optic Cloak, is set to warm up 15,000 new homes... Read more Marc Wilmot_Greenwich Peninsula North Kensington house prices tipped to soar as council pledges to plug W10 into the Elizabeth line A new train station in North Kensington has become more likely after Kensington & Chelsea council pledged to foot the nine-figure bill to link the area to the Crossrail network. Read more Alamy Stock Photo Post-Brexit sales "better than usual": 35m of London property sells in a single day at auction Guide prices were busted at a fiercely contested property auction where sellers were more nervous than the buyers... Read more The 'world's largest smog vacuum cleaner' turns polluted city air into jewellery Winner of the 2016 Airbnb London Design Innovation medal, Daan Roosegaarde has launched his acclaimed Smog Free Tower in Beijing - and London could be next... Read more Derrick Wang Locals vow to fight demolition of Fulham Gasworks Residents are preparing to fight plans for 1,300 new homes in tower blocks of up to 27-storeys high on the site of Londons last surviving Victorian gasworks in Fulham. . Read more Post-Brexit UK property prices The pace of growth has slowed, but property prices are still rising following the Brexit vote. See how your region compares... Read more PA Quietway cycle routes: Enfield to Greenwich London's first Quietway, the cycle route from Waterloo to Greenwich, is already up and running, with six more due next year. We reveal the traffic-free enclaves along the routes that are still some of the capitals best-kept secrets... Read more Seven of the best Hertfordshire villages with 40-minute commutes to London Some of England's loveliest villages are found in family-friendly Hertfordshire, the low-profile home county just north of the capital that offers quick commutes to the centre. Take a tour of our pick of the best... Read more Alamy Quietway cycle routes: Clapham Common to Walthamstow Discover the homes along TfLs peaceful new bike routes linking the suburbs to the centre through back streets and parks and along riverbanks and canal paths... Read more Jonathan Bewley House prices in east London borough of Newham rise by more than 20 per cent in a year New figures reveal that while the pace of growth is slowing, property prices are still rising across the capital as demand continues to soar. Read more Rex Grammar school expansion plans: homes near England's top 30 state schools command premiums of up to 630k Parents face paying an average of 53k extra to live near England's top 30 state schools - and grammar schools dominate the top 10, says new report. Read more London's Zone 5 homes hotspots Thinking of moving? These are the areas you need to know about... Read more Graham Hussey Tottenham Hale masterplan row Local residents complain they will lose their views if plans for the regeneration of the the River Lee Navigation waterfront, including apartment blocks up to 21 storeys tall, go ahead.... Read more Notting Hill's skinniest home for sale for 1.25m Inside west London's 'life-size doll's house' - measuring just seven feet wide... Read more Seven of the best Kent villages less than 60 minutes from the capital - with good schools, shops and pubs Idyllic Kent villages with pubs, shops and good schools are great commuter options and only an hour - or less - from London. Read more The Tube line extensions and Crossrail homes hotspots you need to know about Transport-led regeneration is the single most important factor boosting the value of homes. These are the new routes you need to know about... Read more London's new walk-to-work homes near emerging business hubs - and mainline train stations As more creative companies and start-ups move out of central London's traditional business areas, neighbourhoods with new commercial hubs are being created with walk-to-work homes... Read more The Olympic legacy? More than 100 small start up firms in Vittoria Wharf, Hackney Wick, are being forced to move into new premises following a green light to bulldoze the area to make way for a new bridge over the River Lee Navigation. Read more Alamy Three-year forecast predicts the house price changes in your region House price growth has fallen in recent months, but is expected to start rising again by 2018, according to the latest three-year housing forecast by Countrywide... Read more Shutterstock Night Tube: Tottenham Hale revealed as the most affordable property hotspot New research reveals the 10 most affordable stops to buy along London's Night Tube network as addresses along the Central and Victoria lines benefit from 24-hour connections... Read more Rents fall for the first time in eight years as homes to let flood the market While rents are falling for the first time since the financial crash of 2008, rental prices across the capital are still far too high in relation to salaries. Read more The university areas that get top marks for return on investment For parents considering buying a property for the three-year stint, a new study of the capitals top 12 universities reveals which present the best deals for buyers compared with renting. Read more Alamy By 2031 it is forecast that more than 350,000 passengers a year will use the Zone 3 train station. It will take about five minutes to reach either Stratford or Tottenham Hale and connect to London Underground. Construction of the apartments starts later this year, and expressions of interest are already being taken ahead of a sales launch in 2018. Right now the area has streets of Victorian houses which, by London standards, are highly affordable, with three- to four-bedroom homes selling for between 500,000 and 600,000. Two-bedroom flats in period homes sell for around 325,000 to 350,000, and one-bedroom flats are available for under 250,000. Prices in the area are already growing strongly, according to Rightmove, which reports an increase from an average of just under 305,000 in February last year to almost 413,000 at the start of this year, and over 30 per cent in less than two years. The link between improved transport connections and house price rises is well documented, and the area is also in line for other major infrastructure improvements. Waltham Forest council is investing 30 million in a programme to improve road safety across the borough, replacing the hated Whipps Cross roundabout with a T-junction, adding segregated cycle lanes and improving pedestrian crossings and street lighting. Hills development will include a gym and a few shops. Shabby Lea Bridge currently has little to offer you need to travel to Stratford for a good choice of shops, bars, and restaurants. For anyone trying to run a business and plan ahead uncertainty is rarely welcome, particularly in the hospitality sector. Few things throw up more uncertainty than this week's referendum in the UK on the country's continued membership of the European Union. Polls show the two sides are neck and neck and with Britain's recent run-ins with unreliable polling data, nobody is willing to make a call on which way this referendum will go until the votes are counted in the early hours of Friday morning. Britain leaving the EU - now almost universally referred to as Brexit - is adding uncertainty to business not just in the UK or the EU, but around the world. For those of us in the hospitality sector though, one of the most acute effects could be on business travel. Much like the rest of us, business travellers just don't know what a post-Brexit world will mean for the way that they operate and how they organise their business trips. We recently carried out research, asking 500 frequent business travellers across the UK to see what they thought about the prospect of a British exit from the EU. Of those we asked, a full 30% said that they felt particularly uncertain about the prospect of Brexit from their standpoint as a regular business traveller. 1 in 4 polled said that they were concerned that they would have to spend longer applying for visas to enter countries before their business trips, and 1 in 5 said that they were worried about delays at passport control within the EU and around the world. It's not just time costs which are spooking business travellers. 21% said that they were worried about the rising prices for airfares as the cost of their trips abroad increased something which could well have a knock on impact on how much they can spend on hotels once they have arrived at their destinations. This uncertainty is something that those working in the hospitality industry need to sit up and pay attention to. Britain might vote to remain in the EU, but should Brexit occur, businesses need to move quickly to demonstrate why business travel is still as vital as ever and how they can help make regular business travellers' trips as simple as possible. This could be by providing regular updates on new travel regulations or sending advice on how to apply for any travel documentation. Ultimately, while a Brexit vote might make business travel more complicated around the world, it does not necessarily mean that less travel will take place. Businesses that have clear advice and can work around new frameworks and regulations will be best placed to reap the rewards. Tellingly, our same research found that the vast majority of business travellers expect to take even more business trips abroad in the next year, whether or not Britain votes to leave the EU. This is an encouraging sign for businesses, but one that makes planning more important than ever. Uncertainty is never welcome, but when it comes to business those that can adapt quickest will succeed most; the question isn't whether business travellers will keep coming, but how their travel preparations will differ in a post-Brexit world. By the end of this week we'll know the results and we can start to assess the potential impact on the hospitality industry and the travel sector. Andrew Rogers Diffusion PR / DCC Forum +44 (0)207 291 0245 DCC Forum What's the best customer experience you have ever had in a hotel? Was it in when you crossed the doors to check-in, when you were having breakfast by the pool, or maybe when the staff helped you organize a candlelit dinner for your significant other? It all begins when your guest opens the door and lands in your lobby. Service culture is one of the aspects that can make or break any business. In hospitality, the moment a guest crosses the front door hoteliers are already under pressure to ensure the best guest experience. But with all the changes in the industry, the internet, online bookings, and the hectic rhythm nowadays, how to make a difference? A good example to follow is how Steve Jobs based the famous Apple stores after asking his employees to recall the best customer service they had ever experienced. Turns out their answer were in hospitality: hotels, cafes, and restaurants. Since then, Apple is an example in service culture and continues to innovate at the core. Hoteliers can also benefit from those practices by challenging some paradigms and opening new possibilities. A free front desk Traditional. Let's talk about this word and how to change it. In a hotel's front-desk, traditional means a big high desk, a bulky computer, and a key cabinet. This archaic and sometimes slow system appears unattractive to both your guests and your staff. By implementing software like our hotel management system (PMS), your staff can greet guests from the foyer with a tablet, complete the guest registration and finish the process in less than five minutes. Removing the front-desk is a fantastic way to start conversations with your guests; if you know a couple is celebrating their anniversary, you can do something to make their stay more special. Hoteliers usually underestimate the impact these conversations have on their guests, but you'd be surprised how many valuable and interesting things you can discover to improve your service culture by modifying your front desk. A tech savvy hotel Considering the dominant generation is Millennial, technology plays a key role. Some hotel chains have implemented online and mobile check-in through apps, but not every hotelier has access to this technology. An answer that is becoming more and more popular in small and medium hotels is to have a responsive social media team, answering your guest's questions and needs in a second. This action not only saves time but also adds up to your guest's expectations. More time to talk Also, what if you send the vital information to your guest's email before and after check-in? Wi-Fi password, breakfast time, check-out, airport shuttle services, and basically any relevant information could be in your guest's email in a second. This assures hoteliers their guests will have the important information in their mobile devices and in their minds, and also make some extra time for conversations and showcasing exemplar service culture. There are several platforms and services that are created specifically around this idea like guestfolio. Advice from the experts (you!) Most hoteliers know the different guest profiles staying in their rooms, and off course those profiles have specific needs. By identifying before and during check-in the general purpose of the trip, hoteliers can anticipate guest's expectations. Using simple tools like Google maps to suggest a walk through a lovely neighbourhood in Rome, or pubs, museums and food around the modern Shard building in London; a voucher for a glass of wine in a nearby italian restaurant; or family friendly parks nearby the hotel will definitely ease your guest's life. Take this example below as one of the many possibilities there are with Google maps. Ultimately, check-in and guest registration varies from guest to guest, and it is vital to identify what type of guests are coming, their needs, and their desires. The check-in is, as we mentioned before, the first physical interaction with your guest, but it doesn't mean it has to be simply transactional or practical. Sometimes the small details are the ones that matter. Do you have any questions related to improving your guest registration and check-in? Let us know in our social media in Facebook or @Base7booking, and we'll do our best to help you. Read the original post here. Estefania Escobar Global PR - Base7booking Base7booking.com View source It looks like you've reached a page that doesnt exist (anymore). Please use the navigation or search above to find content on Hospitality Net. Go back to home Ann-Charlotte Johansson, VP Communication & IR, has decided to leave Scandic Hotels Group for a new position. The process to appoint a successor has started and Ann-Charlotte will remain in the company until the end of the year. "Ann-Charlotte has played an important role in the company's listing process and I wish her the best of luck in her new position at the same time as I'd like to thank her for her contribution to Scandic", says Frank Fiskers, President & CEO Scandic Hotels Group. Scandic Hotels Group (publ) is required to publish this information under the Swedish Securities Market Act and/or Financial Instruments Trading Act. The information was submitted for publication June 22, 2016 at 08:00 CET. Scandic is the largest hotel company in the Nordic region with 14,400 team members and a network of close to 230 hotels with about 44,000 hotel rooms in operation and under development. UFO hunting was recently reported as his reason for leaving the band. Tom DeLonge has responded to reports that he quit pop punk band Blink 182 to focus on alien hunting with the US government. He took to Facebook to say, "Quitting the band to search for UFOs? Hahhaha WTF is wrong with you media". He goes on to reiterate that, despite contrary widespread reports, he "never did quit, remember?". He also claims to be in touch with drummer for the band Travis Barker about his return. In April, DeLonge released a book call Sekret Machines Book 1: Chasing Shadows based on material coming from sources "within the military and intelligence community" along with DeLonge's own fictional sci-fi narrative. While DeLonge remains adamant that he did not quit Blink 182 he is keen to reinforce that he is in fact working with the US government in the search for extra terrestrials. "But - Am I currently working with people in the Government? YES. Including leadership from DOD [Department Of Defence], Intelligence and Executive Branch? YES. Just wait for the documentary before considering ridiculous headlines". Blink 182 parted ways with DeLonge in 2015 and subsequently enlisted Alkaline Trio's Matt Skiba in his place. The band are preparing the release their seventh studio album, California on July 1. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Boeing has reached a tentative agreement to sell passenger planes to Iran's state-run carrier, the aircraft maker said Tuesday, in the first potential major U.S. deal with Tehran since a nuclear accord last year lifted sanctions. The pact with Iran Air is in the early stages and could face more hurdles, including further review by U.S. regulators and possible political blowback from some U.S. lawmakers. But it offers a potential test for other U.S. companies seeking to enter the large Iranian consumer market. It also signals an apparent win for moderate forces in Iran led by President Hassan Rouhani, who strongly backed the nuclear deal as a way to revitalize the country's sanctions-choked economy. Iran's transportation minister, Abbas Akhoundi, was quoted by Iranian state media as placing the deal with Boeing at up to $25 billion - similar in scope to an earlier order with Boeing's European rival, Airbus. Iran still flies dozens of Boeing aircraft built before the 1979 Islamic revolution and seeks to upgrade its Iran Air fleet with new-model Boeing 737s and versions of the Boeing 777. Talks between Iran and Boeing have progressed for months and face challenges on both ends. Iranian leaders had to overcome objections from hard-line factions opposing any direct outreach with the U.S. Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has been openly wary of allowing greater business footholds for U.S. companies. But he has also allowed Rouhani's government to negotiate the nuclear accord as a way to ease sanctions and reopen trade ties with the West. Boeing, in turn, needs clearance from U.S. trade authorities for the deal. Boeing said Iran Air signed a deal expressing its "intent" to purchase aircraft, the Associated Press reported. Chicago-based Boeing gave no details on the size of the potential sale. Akhoundi said the first Boeing planes could arrive by October. Iran Air has already signed agreements to buy 118 planes from Airbus and 20 from ATR. But in a sign of possible obstacles for Boeing, some U.S. lawmakers have complained about the company's outreach to Iran. Jeb Hensarling, R-Dallas, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, has said that institutions considering financing the sales "should ask whether it is in their long-term interests to profit from doing business with the world's foremost state sponsor of terrorism." "It's not American jobs that are on the line, but potentially American lives." Saudi Arabia's new energy minister said the supply glut that kindled a crippling oil rout around the world and thrashed Houston's biggest business for two years has finally vanished. "We are out of it," Khalid Al-Falih said in his first newspaper interview since his rise to the most powerful job in the global energy industry last month. "The oversupply has disappeared. We just have to carry the overhang of inventory for a while until the system works it out." Falih, Texas A&M University graduate and former Saudi Aramco chief executive, replaced the long-time Saudi oil policymaker Ali al-Naimi in May. He was in Houston this week to visit Saudi Aramco operations here and later joined in an evening meal to break the Ramadan fast at Houston's Museum of Fine Arts. Two years and day after U.S. oil price peaked at $107 barrel, he sketched out the end of the world's oil surplus and the beginning of a new chapter in the cyclical energy business in an exclusive interview with the Houston Chronicle. Prices tumbled as low as $26 a barrel in February in the biggest oil-market crash since the 1980's. Texas alone has lost 100,000 jobs since the slide in prices began in the summer of 2014. But countries like India and parts of Asia have a bigger appetite for oil now, Falih said, while crude production in the United States, Nigeria and other regions has fallen, closing the 1 million-barrel a day gap between supply and demand. The first phase of a long-anticipated industry recovery is underway as refineries on the Gulf Coast and around the world work through storage tanks of crude oil. The United States has a near-record stockpile of more than 530 million barrels, which could take months to cut down. "The question now is how fast you will work off the global inventory overhang," said Falih, who serves as chairman of Saudi Aramco, the company that produces one out of eight barrels of oil the world consumes every day. "That will remain to put a cap on the rate at which oil prices recover. We just have to wait for the second half of the year and next year to see how that works out." Boom and busts In the first half of the decade, shale drillers in Texas and North Dakota put fracking in the nation's lexicon and led the United States to its biggest oil boom since the 1970s. But oil markets eventually became overstuffed as producers pumped more than 1 million barrels than the world needed each day. For Saudi Arabia and other OPEC nations, the surge in U.S. oil production proved shale drillers could respond faster to high crude prices than all but the lowest-cost producers "a game-changer," Falih said, in the way the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries manages oil markets. Since November 2014, Saudi Arabia has refused calls by other OPEC nations to resume its role as the world's swing producer and cut its oil production in a bid to stabilize falling crude prices. "The tools that OPEC has used in the past targeting specific prices have not always worked in the long term," Falih said. "They create market dislocations that ultimately hurt producers and consumers." The Kingdom, which can profit off of oil even at low prices, opted to let market forces weed out higher-cost producers. U.S. oil production, driven by higher-cost shale plays, has dropped by more than half a million barrels a day since early 2015 and nearly 80 drillers have gone bankrupt."No matter what we do, ultimately markets win," Falih said. "Not Afraid" Saudi Arabia's financial reserves have also declined as it collects less oil revenue, but it's in better shape than many of its rivals. The government is planning a series of reforms and investments to expand other parts of its economy outside of oil production, including tourism, services, mining, petrochemicals, even renewable energy. One goal of the plan, which Saudi officials call Saudi Vision 2030, is to bring its non-oil exports up from 16 percent to half of the exports it offers the world over the next decade. Deputy Crown Prince Mohammad bid Salman has said the Kingdom is striving to be able to live without oil by 2020 a mere four years. The comment "impress on the urgency that this needs to happen quickly and it needs to happen now," Falih said. "But nobody has the intention of turning off the oil economy in Saudi Arabia," Falih said. "We're trying to build it up. But what we hope while we're doing this is the non-oil economy will grow even faster." It's a big play for the world's biggest oil producing country and some observers of the closely guarded Kingdom have wondered if it reflects anxiety over the possibility the world's oil and gas demand will eventually peak amid global efforts to limit rising temperatures by moving the world from combustion engines to electric vehicles making the Kingdom's number one export a relic of a bygone age. Some industry players, including major oil companies like Statoil,believe it will take much more than the Paris climate accords signed last year to thwart the worst effects of climate change, including much tighter emissions rules for vehicles and massive growth of solar and wind power in electricity generation and a sharp reduction in coal production. Still investing But Al-Falih said Saudi Aramco is still investing heavily in maintaining the Kingdom's capacity of 12.5 million barrels a day because Saudi officials believe global economic growth will continue to support rising energy demand of about 1.5 million barrels a day annually. Even as it pumps 10 million barrels of crude a day, he said, the world's largest oil company is working to offset natural declines in its spare oil production capacity so it's ready to meet demand if supplies drop somewhere else in the world. That's because Saudi Arabia, he said, isn't too worried about big changes in the world's energy mix. Unlike quickly evolving information technology, global energy systems take decades to build, and while the Kingdom plans to invest in renewable energy resources, it also recognizes "any transition is going to take decades." "We're going to invest in making it happen. We're not afraid of it, but we're also realists and we know that oil will be a significant part of the energy mix for decades to come," Falih said. "Even if the share of oil goes down from, say, 30 to 25 percent, 25 percent of a much bigger global demand means a much higher absolute number of barrels that will be in demand by 2030 or 2040." So while electric vehicles could one day make serious inroads in transportation, because of sheer demographic and economic growth in coming years, "we believe overall demand for petroleum in transportation and petrochemicals is going to rise for a long time before it starts falling in absolute numbers. Yes, we know it will fall in percentage terms but very gradually." CHICAGO - United Continental Holdings hopes to find an extra $1 billion, in part by persuading passengers to pay for more in-flight extras. It isn't yet ready to say exactly what counts as an extra, and whether that means putting a price tag on something United used to provide for free - like being able to pick your own seat. But during a call with investors Tuesday, United CEO Oscar Munoz made it clear the Chicago-based airline is committed to developing products and fares for customers at opposite ends of the travel spectrum. Shares of United rose 3.4 percent to close at $44.86 Tuesday. By the end of the year, bargain-hunters can expect to see "basic economy" entry-level fares. The airline hasn't spelled out what customers will get in exchange for the no-frills approach, but United said it's expecting get more revenue by convincing some customers to upgrade from the no-frills tickets, adding bundles where they can purchase services such as access to priority security lanes and a free checked bag and getting more fliers to purchase seats in business, first or Economy Plus sections. United said it plans to increase the number of Economy Plus seats, which have more legroom, on its flights by 20 percent and the number of business and first-class seats by 30 percent by 2018. United isn't the only airline trying to better target customers by willingness to pay. Delta already offers basic economy fares, and American Airlines plans to add a similar program. United expects trimmed expenses and new revenues to add about $3.1 billion between 2015 and 2018, Munoz said. The outline Tuesday was one of the most in-depth looks at Munoz's strategy for the airline, which has struggled since its 2010 merger with Houston-based Continental. Munoz took over as CEO in September. In the months since, he suffered a heart attack and underwent a transplant, then fought off a proxy battle with shareholders after returning to work full-time in March. Other revenue gains will come from improvements to the technology United uses to determine how many seats to sell at which prices, he said. Passengers also should expect to see more narrow, "slimline" seats on domestic flights as United squeezes more seats onto its aircraft. It's also going to fly fewer small, 50-seat aircraft. The airline has fallen short of rivals in the share of flights that arrive on time, but Munoz said it's seen major improvement this year. The airline said it expects second-quarter passenger revenues to decline 6.5 to 7.5 percent, on the lower end of the 6.5 to 8.5 percent range it had previously given. Munoz also said that United will look at all of its hubs and routes to see if they're meeting goals. United plans to add seats or flights to its best-performing hubs, and slow growth at its weaker ones, he said. The airline has a major hub in Houston. The most impossible job at any corporation may be serving on the board of directors. When a company outperforms its peers, the chief executive officer takes a bow. But if the management team robs the place blind, the shareholders blast the board for not standing guard. If the CEO gets a fat paycheck, the board is too loose with the purse strings, but if the CEO quits, the board should have offered more. And if the company doesn't boost the dividend or the share price every year, the board has failed in its duty to the shareholders. The Dodd-Frank financial rules also lay more liability at the directors' feet. As the highest legal authority at any corporation, the board is ultimately responsible for everything. It hires and fires the management team, oversees operations, guarantees compliance and develops a strategic vision for the corporation. And it is supposed to accomplish all of this at maybe 10 formal meetings a year. These are unreasonable expectations for part-time employees, according to new research led by Steve Boivie, an associate professor at Texas A&M University. "We shouldn't expect them to be sharp, eagle-eyed overseers of managers," he told me. Business professors have spent lifetimes studying corporate structures and governance trying to understand what is optimal. Boards of directors, who supervise the management team, have received special attention because they so frequently fail. One debate is over who goes on the board. CEOs often recruit peers and friends who have similar backgrounds and share their vision. These boards tend to rubber stamp the management team's proposals and sign off on extravagant compensation packages. Large shareholders propose independent board members, but too often they have little experience in the industry. That makes it easier for the management team to control access to critical information and pull a fast one. Striking the right balance and deciding what information board members need are part of the never-ending debate, largely because case studies have shown deeply contradictory results for every possible combination. Boivie and his co-authors asked a more fundamental question: Do shareholders and regulators ask too much from the board? "Most studies that look at boards assume that if the board just works hard enough, or if they are vigilant enough, they will be able to do it," he said. "We're saying even if they try their best, we still don't think monitoring is going to happen the way we would like. If they are not even trying, then it's really bad." The biggest challenge is processing all the information required to understand what a management team is doing. "There is no way they will know as much as the CEO, even if the CEO isn't trying to hide anything," Boivie added. Then there is group-think. In any organization, cultural norms take hold and can defang even the most aggressive watchdog. Boivie writes about the "norms of deference" that lead the board to acquiesce to the management team, such as sticking to a fixed agenda that discourages criticism or even candid discussions with managers. Board members who ask tough questions can find themselves silenced by others. "On boards, norms about appropriate behavior develop and in many cases may act to constrain directors from fulfilling their roles," the paper concludes. "Norms against speaking up in board meetings are especially likely to stifle candid discussion regarding proposals that are considered contrary to the interests of management." Going along to get along, though, pays well. The median pay for a board member at an S&P 500 company was $235,000 in 2014, according to Equilar, an executive compensation consulting firm. That's a lot of money to attend a handful of meetings a year, and a good reason not to rock the boat. Boards can effectively hire and fire the management team, and they can provide important advice to CEOs, but don't expect much more, Boivie said. "Boards are not going to work the way that we want, so we should stop relying on them if they are not going to be the solution," he added. But he doesn't offer an alternative, saying that will require additional research. The study suggests an argument for activist investors, shareholders who are not afraid to challenge the management team and demand changes. Or so-called "governance whips," who are employed by some pension funds to make sure the board and management team really are acting in the shareholders' best interest. Governmental and military organizations have inspectors general who can independently review managers and investigate whistle-blower complaints outside the formal chain of command. These professional overseers can report directly the board. Others argue that serving on a board should be a full-time profession. Boivie's research has the ring of common sense, something that's always helpful in academic research. Boards should take heed and seek solutions for their inadequacies, but that would require a self-awareness and humility that is beyond the capability of too many board members, which is the ultimate problem. WASHINGTON - For years, the idea of storing electricity on the power grid might have been chalked up as science fiction. Demonstration projects proved too expensive. Scientists struggled to even guess which technologies might ultimately prove out. But as large-scale battery projects increase around the country and research matures, a commercially viable means of storing the large volumes of electricity demanded by the power grid now appears to be in sight. At a meeting on Capital Hill earlier this month, George Crabtree, director of the federal government's Joint Center for Energy Storage Research, said his team of scientists had identified a technology they believed would one day to store electricity on the grid economically. "The technology isn't quite there yet, but we have a direction that looks promising," he said. "A lot of people are following us and watching what we're doing." Elusive goal The rush to develop a battery large enough and cheap enough to make storing electricity on the power grid feasible has long seemed an elusive goal. The ability to generate electricity and store it until it's needed would provide solutions to some of the power grid's most vexing problems, including the cost of maintaining large fleets of power plants that only operate a few times a year when electricity demand peaks, and the increasing instability of electrical current as weather-dependent wind turbines and solar panels proliferate. After years of research and development, the era of the battery is beginning to take shape, industry analysts and executives said. As cities and states, such as Austin and California, force utilities to install energy storage systems, more projects are getting built, technology is advancing, and costs are coming down. "Storage has been that mystery in the past where we in the electricity sector have a product that's demanded instantaneously," said John Chillemi, executive vice president for national business development at NRG Energy. "It's still relatively small, but the economics are getting lower and more competitive." Around the country hundreds of small-scale projects have gone up in recent years, largely concentrated in California, said Sam Jaffe, managing director of Cairn Energy Research Advisors in Colorado. Earlier this year Austin Energy, the city owned utility, announced it was building two grid-scale batteries connected to solar power projects within its service area after receiving a $4.3 million grant from the Department of Energy. Obstacles in Texas In deregulated electricity markets like most of Texas, where the lowest cost means of generation wins out, energy storage largely remains too expensive. Still, battery projects are not unheard of; the power company AES Corp. and the transmission company Oncor launched one in Dallas to help regulate power. "We definitely are at an acceleration point," Jaffe said. "You're starting to see project you wouldn't call pilots anymore, big large projects." So far, energy storage has largely gravitated around lithium ion technology, the same form of battery used to power smartphones and laptops. Costs have come down fast as companies like Tesla and Panasonic refine the manufacturing process for use in cars and grid storage systems. But as anyone with a smartphone knows, lithium ion's lifespan is limited, with a steady loss of capacity as the years tick away. That might not be much of a problem for personal electronics or even cars, but power industry equipment is expected to last 20 years. Instead, many scientists are turning towards what is known as flow battery technology, which stores energy by shifting electrical charges across liquids and is believed to have a lifespan of decades. Scientists at the federal Joint Center for Energy Storage Research have already committed to the technology for grid storage after spending more than three years exploring alternatives, Crabtree said. "Everyone says batteries are at the place solar was 10 years ago," he said. "As you know, the cost of solar has come down and the quality has gone up. Now they're getting installed like mad." As the United States works to meet climate change goals agreed to in Paris last year, clean energy sources like wind turbines and solar panels are expected to play an ever larger role in the decades ahead. But in places like California, where renewable penetration is already high, the rush to build means open land is disappearing and grid operators are struggling to deal with drop-offs in energy generation when clouds pass overhead. "If we can not store this energy, we're going to be using so much of our land it might become a problem," Rep. Steve Knight, R-California, said at a congressional hearing last week. Rush has begun A rush is on among companies large and small to develop a commercially viable battery for the grid, from humble startups to giants like Bosch and Duracell. UniEnergy Technologies, headquartered outside Seattle, switched on what they said was North America's largest flow battery - dispersing a full megawatt of power for 4 hours - for a small utility in Washington last year. Now UniEnergy is working with its sister company to build a battery 200 times that size under a contract with the Chinese government. "With wind and solar expanding, (grid operators') ability to manage the grid is becoming more and more difficult," said UniEnergy Technologies President Rick Winter. "By the time we get to 2020, you better have something figured out." When the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research battery project was launched in 2013, bringing together scientists from government labs and the private sector, the team of scientists was given five years to develop a battery prototype capable of competing with traditional forms of power generation on cost. They are on schedule to complete that work, Crabtree said. But when it would be commercially available would depend on companies finding a way to mass produce it in a way that would keep costs down and maintain quality. "Every emerging battery company has a spread sheet saying this is when we're going to reach 'x' price point," said Jaffe. "But it's a spread sheet, it's not a battery." Even a swift amputation last week couldn't rid a local man of the flesh eating bacteria he contracted while wading the Gulf, the Chronicle reported Tuesday. With half his right leg gone, the 50-year-old is still fighting for his life, thanks to a tiny creature that that swam inside him at a Galveston beach. So what is this menace? It's a bacteria called Vibrio vulnificus, only visible with an electron microscope. It doesn't target humans, but occasionally infects them by chance. Then things get really ugly. (Graphic image behind link) RELATED: Dangers of deadly bacteria in state's saltwater The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston sees about five to six cases of Vibrio vulnificus each year, said Dr. A. Scott Lea, director of the UTMB Infectious Disease Clinic. "Every time it happens it's always a dramatic story," Lea said. "About half the patients come to an amputation. A certain number of them actually die." The story typically starts in summer in muddy water. The Vibrio family loves the mucky bottom of warm, semi-salty standing water, like coastal bays and the mouths of rivers. It's been found across the world, but few places seem more like home to Vibrio than the marshy coast of southeast Texas and Louisiana. Unlike most bacteriastraight and rigidVibrio look like bent commas, and none of them are friends of humans. We know one of the family members as Cholera, and others can wreak havoc when swallowed. But Vibrio vulnificus tends to wander into tiny flesh wounds on its own. Stirred up from their home in the mud, the bacteria have a knack for inadvertently floating into cuts and scrapes on wading beachgoers. Then the trouble begins. After an incubation period of two to five days, Lea said, the bacteria can "spread like wildfire." "Once it starts it will overwhelm a patient in 24 hours," he said. Uncredited/HONS The bacteria wriggles its way into a soft layer of flesh between the skin and the muscles, where Lea said there are few barriers to slow the spread. But the Vibrio vulnificus don't actually eat the flesh like their nickname would suggest. Instead they excrete a toxin, which elicits a swift response from the body's immune system. White blood cells swarm in to clean up the mess, which they do by destroying the flesh contaminated with toxin. "The body just creates a tremendous immune response to it to the point that it destroys all the surrounding tissues," Lea said. "It's going to tear down all the normal structure then come back and replace it with scar tissue." The victim begins to feel very ill, with fever, chills and sweats. But Vibrio vulnificus is so rare, especially in non-coastal communities, that Lea said patients risk having their condition misidentified and mistreated by a physician. But not at UTMB, he noted. Once doctors discover the patient had been in coastal waters, they'll search the skin for red patches and swelling. The tell-tale signs of Vibrio vulnificus are large blistersbigger than a centimeter acrossfilled not with the typical puss but with blood from the lower layer of ravaged flesh. Then they know the tissue is infested. "The infection is not going to go away until you get rid of that tissue," Lea said. "So these people end up with massive areas where the surgeons are stripping away the skin trying to get rid of the tissue underneath." A handful of specialized anti-biotics are administered through an IV, but even in the hands of experienced physicians, ten to 20 percent of patients will die, Lea said. Even since the 18th centurya stretch of time shaped by reason and reaction, revolution and counter-revolutionour world has been awash in isms. Liberalism and conservatism, socialism and communism, nationalism and imperialism: all of these ideologies have had their day in the sun. But one ismterrorismstands apart for two reasons. First, while other isms have long since waned, terrorism has proven the most persistent and potent. This persistence, in turn, is explained by the second reason for its exceptional nature: it is not an ideology, but a strategy. (See Robespierre and French Revolution.) A war against terrorism (or, for that matter, terror) makes no more sense than does a war against carpet-bombing or trench digging. With an eye to underscoring the specificity of terrorism, a glossary of terms might prove helpful. A is for Assassin. The word conjures images of Nikita wielding long-barreled pistols and even longer legs, or Jason Bourne discovering the homicidal possibilities in household appliances. But this is no more accurate than the occasional claim that the term derives from hashish, thought to be the drug of choice for those who belonged to this sect. Instead, the Assassins sprang from the Ismailis, a medieval Shiite movement devoted to the overthrow of Sunni-based rule of the Seljuk Turks. From their fortress in present-day Iran, the Assassins were equal-opportunity terrorists, murdering Sunni administrators, Christian crusaders and Shiite opponents. Disguised in the garb of their enemies, they slipped easily into other societies; alert to dynastic politics across the Middle East, they exploited tensions to their own advantage. Apart from their weapon of choicethe daggerlittle distinguishes them from present-day terrorist groups, ranging from the Sunni Al-Qaeda and Islamic State to the Shiite Hezbollah, in the ability to instill fear dramatically disproportionate to their numbers. (See also Asymmetrical Warfare.) K is for Krypteia. Not the language or capitol of the planet Krypton, but instead, the ethical essence of the ancient planet we know as Sparta. Historians continue to debate the handful of ancient references made to the place and practice of krypteia in Sparta. According to one school of interpretation, it was both a rite of passage for young Spartan males and a tool of terror to keep in line the slave population of helots. At certain times of the year, young Spartans, hiding under the cover of night, would pounce upon and kill unsuspecting helots. The seemingly random nature of the terror attacks cultivated complicity among the Spartans, but more important, seeded fear among the helots. Spartas great invention, argues the classicist Roberto Calasso, was to establish terror as a normal condition of life. As for Athens great inventiondemocracyancient history reminds us how fragile it is as an institution in the face of terror. L is for Lone Wolf. A misnomer wrapped in a misunderstanding. Lone wolves of the canis lupus variety are loners not by choice, but circumstance: either they have been expelled by their pack, or can no longer keep up with it. They are, as a result, truly alone. Lone wolves of the homo sapiens variety, while influenced by circumstances, pride themselves on making choices. In order to realize the murderous intent of these choices, this species of lone wolf requires the complicity not just other individuals, but also the complicity of a society where weapons of fairly massive destruction are easily obtained. The most recent examples of lone wolf depredations are those wrought by Omar Mateen in Orlando, and Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik in San Bernardino. Earlier instances of lone wolf activity, ranging from Timothy McVeigh in Oklahoma City through Eric Rudolph at abortion clinics across the American South to Baruch Goldstein in Hebron, suggest that lone wolves thrive in a variety of political and religious ecosystems. T is for Thug. Think of it as the Hindi version of breaking bad. The term derives from a seventh-century religious sect in India devoted to Kali, the goddess who personifies many things, including destruction. At chosen times during the year, members of the group would break from their daily activities and strangle unsuspecting travelers as a ritualistic offering to Kali. The Thugs hold the dubious distinction of enjoying the longest unbroken run of murder and terror: It was only in the 19th century that British imperial officials succeeded in wiping out the sect. Some scholars believe that during their 1,200-year run, the Thugs killed as many as one million people. Even if these estimates are off by half a million or so, the Thugs still hold the record for body count among terrorist organizations. (For other uses of the word, see Trump, Donald.) Z is for Zealot. Small-z zealots are easily identified in all walks of life. They are the ones who drive cars, don clothes, and decorate cakes in the same, sad maroon of their alma mater; sleep, eat and work in Feel the Bern T-shirts, opposed to the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate whose name cannot be uttered; or spend their weekends edging their lawns with the precision of a neurosurgeon. Regardless of their particular fetish, this variety of zealot stands out in a crowd. Not so, however, with the original Zealots, who disappeared in crowds. The template for the terrorist movements born two millennia later, the Zealots led the Jewish rebellion against Roman rule at the turn of the first century BCE. Not only did they seek to rid their land of foreign occupiers, but they also sought to rid their religion of foreign elements. In their relentless pursuit of religious and political purity, the Zealots became known as the sicarii, or dagger men. Cloaked and disguised, they sidled up to their targets and slit their throats. Carried out in public squares and marketplaces, these terrorists had no need of modern social media: Fear rippled nearly as quickly through the crowds then it does now across the Web. (See also NRA, PETA, and the BBC Whovian Fan Club.) Robert Zaretsky teaches at the University of Houston and is the author, most recently, of Boswell's Enlightenment. He's currently writing The Empress and the Philosophe: Catherine the Great, Denis Diderot and the Eclipse of the Enlightenment. Bookmark Gray Matters. Think of it as the Hindi version of "breaking bad." This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Mosquitoes trapped in The Woodlands by the Montgomery County Mosquito Abatement team have tested positive for the West Nile virus, according to township officials. The abatement team responded following the Texas Department of State Health Services protocol, which includes larviciding, spraying of select storm drains and targeted street spraying. So far, Montgomery County has had no reports of West Nile virus in a human this year. The only human case of West Nile in Texas this year was in El Paso, according to the Texas DSHS. The testing of mosquito samples was done in-house at Precinct 3's South County Mosquito Abatement office for the first time this year. Previously, all mosquito samples had to be sent to the Texas DSHS to be tested for the virus, which could take a week or more to get the results, according to Justin Fausek, program leader for South County Mosquito Abatement. Now, the abatement team can get results back the same day. Although the in-house testing is more expensive, Fausek said that the county believes the ability to streamline testing and treating affected areas makes it worth it. "We feel that this increased cost is more than justified since we will be able to respond to disease activity faster than we ever have before," Fausek said. Last year, Texas had a total of 252 cases of the West Nile Virus in humans, 181 of which were the serious, neuro-invasive form of the disease and 11 of which resulted in death. Most people infected with West Nile show no symptoms, but about one in five experience fever, headache, body aches, vomiting and other flu-like symptoms. Less than one percent of those infected develop the serious neurologic illness, which can result in seizures, paralysis and, in rare cases, death. Area environmental services officials are also preparing for the possibility of the Zika virus spreading to Montgomery County. In the past year, there has been a Zika outbreak in Latin America and the Caribbean, with some cases of people infected abroad before coming to the U.S. Infection is characterized by fever, rash, joint pain and conjunctivitis, and is of most concern in pregnant women, as it can cause microcephaly, a condition where the baby's head is much smaller than normal, and other birth defects. As of June 21, there were 46 confirmed cases of Zika virus disease in Texas, including 15 in the Greater Houston area. So far, there have been no cases of mosquitoes infecting people with Zika in the U.S. However, the state health department is testing mosquito samples from high-risk areas for the virus. Local samples have not yet had to be tested for Zika, said John Geiger with The Woodlands Environmental Services. The Woodlands did start testing and treating for mosquitoes earlier than usual this year, he said, and they are taking the threat of Zika seriously. "We are planning and preparing as best we can - putting more resources toward it," Geiger said. "(Zika) is a real possibility." In the meantime, Geiger said that the use of in-house testing for West Nile will help The Woodlands better protect the residents from health hazards. Still, he urges residents to take precautions by eliminating or treating any standing water that could serve as a breeding ground for disease-carrying mosquitoes, by wearing long pants and sleeves, using mosquito repellent, and avoiding outside activity during dawn and dusk, when mosquitoes are most prevalent. Avoid mosquito-borne disease West Nile: can cause flu-like symptoms in infected people, including fever, headache, vomiting and rash. Zika: is characterized by fever, rash, joint pain and conjunctivitis, and is of most concern in pregnant women, as it can cause microcephaly, a condition where the baby's head is much smaller than normal, and other birth defects. To prevent infection: cover up outside when you can and wear mosquito repellent containing DEET. Eliminate or treat standing water in the yard and ensure window screens are intact. To report areas: with high mosquito activity in The Woodlands, contact the Environmental Services Department at 281-210-3800. WASHINGTON Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro is on the short list of potential running mates for Hillary Clinton and has been asked by her campaign to provide personal information. Citing Democratic sources, the Associated Press reported that in addition to Castro, a pared-down list the Clinton campaign is considering includes Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and that others also may yet be in the running. A Clinton campaign spokesman declined comment. Castro, a former San Antonio mayor, said in Texas last week that he was not being vetted for the position. But since then, the Clinton campaign has hastened the process, according to a Democrat familiar with the process. A spokesman for Castro also declined comment. Campaign insiders at the Bipartisan Policy Center recommended this spring that because of the high stakes, presidential nominees devote at least two months vetting potential running mates, which includes digging into their finances, their family history and even their social media posts. But Clinton, who has been a fixture in Democratic politics for more than two decades, apparently feels secure in a more compressed time frame. She is not expected to announce her choice until or just before Democrats gather in Philadelphia on July 25 for their nominating convention. Castro's chances were widely thought to have dimmed with the rise of presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump, whose incendiary remarks about people of Mexican heritage had served to energize Latino voters. Castro, who would be the first Latino on a major party ticket, may yet fall short given his lack of experience. But supporters of Castro, 41, said he would bring other advantages, among them his relative youth alongside Clinton, 68, and some of the other potential running mates. In her challenge from Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Clinton struggled to attract young voters to her cause. U.S. Rep. Xavier Becerra of California and Labor Secretary Thomas Perez also have been mentioned on a list of Hispanic candidates who could be appealing to Clinton. Warren, who turns 67 Wednesday, is a favorite of many Sanders backers for her outspoken liberal views, particularly when it comes to regulating Wall Street. She and Clinton have not been close, but the two met recently in Washington after Clinton's victory over Sanders became clear. Kaine, 58, who is known as a centrist in the party, had emerged as a favorite of some party insiders because he might appeal to independents and address another of Clinton's weaknesses her problem with white male voters. Kaine is a former Democratic Party chairman and a fluent Spanish-speaker who was under consideration by Barack Obama in 2008 before the selection of Joe Biden. Kaine also represents a state that is likely to be a battleground in the November election. The Clinton campaign has closely guarded the selection process and a spokesman would say only that that it is being run by campaign chairman John Podesta. James Hamilton, who has taken part in vetting of other potential Democratic running mates, also is heavily involved along with Clinton family confidant Cheryl Mills. Clinton has said only that she wants somebody who could step in to the presidency if need be A factor in Clinton's selection could be a desire to help Democrats win back the Senate. As it stands, Republicans hold the Senate by a 55-45 margin. But that majority appears in jeopardy, with two Midwestern Republicans Mark Kirk of Illinois and Ron Johnson trailing in races and five races generally regarded as "toss-ups." Clinton's selection of Sherrod Brown of Ohio or Cory Booker of New Jersey, two senators who have been mentioned as running mates, could imperil Democratic hopes because both states have Republican governors. Likewise, Warren's seat would be filled at least temporarily by the Massachusetts Republican governor. If Kaine, the Virginian, were selected, a Democratic governor would choose his replacement. Larry Sabato, who directs the University of Virginia Center for Politics, argued that it might be wise for Clinton to choose a No. 2 who would help her win a battleground state. He also noted the importance of earlier in her presidency of a Democratic-run Senate as far as the Supreme Court and other matters. "You've got to have your administration ready to go. The Clintons know this because they didn't have it ready to go in 1993," he said. Joel Goldstein, a leading expert on the vice presidency, observed that since 1940, all but three Democratic choices for first-time vice presidents were senators. That's been the case, he said, because senators are generally believed to have a grasp on an array of issues, including national security. Goldstein noted that although speculation on running mates is rampant now, Clinton likely won't make her decision until the Democratic convention arrives. "In the next month, the context could change. What will Trump's campaign look like then? Will the Republican Party still be in disarray? How do Senate races look? How much does she need to reach out to Sanders' backers. Things could look different a month from now," said Goldstein, a St. Louis University law professor and the author of books on the vice presidency. GALVESTON - Derry Dunn considers himself lucky. If the Orange County justice of the peace had waited a little longer to begin treatment, he could have been among the 30 to 40 percent of victims who lose their limbs due to a bacterium that causes a flesh-eating disease. Dunn, 69, the Precinct 2 judge, was admitted to Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center around midnight Wednesday with a severe case of vibrio vulnificus on his right leg. He believes his leg became infected July 27, when he splashed into the surf at Crystal Beach to pluck his 8-year-old grandson out of the water. "Everybody thinks we got to it soon enough to stop it," Dunn said. Dunn is one of the more than 20 cases that doctors see every year on the Texas Gulf Coast, said Dr. A. Scott Lea, assistant professor of infectious diseases at the University of Texas Medical Branch here. "In Galveston, we see it four or five times a year," Lea said. "We've seen two this year already." Related to cholera According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, vibrio vulnificus "is a bacterium in the same family as those that cause cholera" and can be found in warm seawater. The bacterium flourishes in the brackish coastal waters during the hottest months of the summer, Lea said. Most cases are in July, August and September, he said. Vibrio invades through cuts or abrasions and can trigger a disease that eats away the connective tissue just under skin, he said. "I wouldn't get in the water if I had a cut or active lesion on my leg," Lea said. Dunn said he wasn't aware of any cuts or bruises on his leg when he ventured into the water nearly two weeks ago. Doctors told him that the bacteria can creep into even the smallest of cuts, even those too small to notice. He didn't notice any symptoms until five days later at his home in Mauriceville. "All of a sudden I had symptoms of the flu, chills, fever and joint pain that just hit me hard," Dunn recalled. The next day his right leg was red from knee to ankle. Doctors at Memorial Hermann Baptist Orange Hospital in Orange immediately started him on antibiotics. That initially didn't stop the disease but it may have slowed the bacteria, which doctors told him might have saved his leg. In the lucky 50 percent Doctors on Wednesday removed a chunk of flesh from his leg about 5 inches long, less than 2 inches wide and about a half-inch deep, Dunn said. After the surgery, Dunn was transferred by ambulance to Houston, where more specialists and equipment are available. "The overall experience has been pretty weird," Dunn said from his hospital bed. In about half the cases, doctors don't get to the patient soon enough. About 10 percent of vibrio patients die, Lea said, and 30 to 40 percent lose a limb. "If you are really lucky, you only lose some skin and tissue," the UTMB doctor said. Although it triggers a vicious disease, it affects only a tiny fraction of the hundreds of thousands of people who get wet in the Gulf of Mexico every year. Lea said that a sure sign of the disease would be purple blisters, compared to other blisters that are usually yellow in color. "The doctors along the coast are pretty adept at diagnosing it," Lea said. "It's when the patient goes back to North Texas or Central Texas or wherever they came from and the doctor doesn't recognize it, that it can really be a problem." Once vibrio has been diagnosed, a regimen of antibiotics usually cures the disease if given soon enough. "The main thing to learn is to act on it as quick as possible," Dunn said. "You cannot give it a head start." While arguments on what to do with the nation's 11 million immigrants here illegally rage loudly at presidential rallies and on cable television, the lives of the Sosa family clip on quietly, at a steady pace. Amid fiery calls from Donald Trump for deportation roundups of people like their father and mother who have been here illegally for decades, the five Sosa girls focused their attention on the solidly American lives they have stitched together: band practice, ROTC, high school graduation. But now the Alvin family anxiously awaits a Supreme Court ruling in the coming days that could give their parents temporary work permits and shield them from deportation. The stakes, at the peak of a divisive election season, are high: About 4 million immigrants, mostly the parents of American citizens and legal residents whom Trump has vowed to deport, could be eligible. The Sosas, however, are accustomed to the ebb and flow of immigration politics: one step forward, three steps back. So they resign themselves to another disappointment but not to giving up. "I hope it passes, that would be awesome," said Maria, at 21 the eldest daughter and only child who is not an American citizen, having come here illegally with her mother nearly two decades ago from Mexico. "If it doesn't, everyone's going to be disappointed but I don't think people are gonna be just like, 'well, we didn't get it.' We're going to keep fighting." Texas, leading a coalition of 26 mostly Republican states, sued to block President Barack Obama's immigration program in 2014, arguing he had overstepped his powers by giving immigrants a semi-legal status that Congress hadn't approved. Texas said it would suffer financially by being forced to provide subsidized driver's licenses to eligible immigrants. If the shorthanded high court allows the plan to go forward, it would fill this Alvin trailer with the relief that comes from not fearing a police car on the main road, not worrying that one faulty tail light could lead to thousands of dollars in lawyers' fees, a father deported back to Mexico, and years of trying to live invisibly. It would give Jose, the patriarch, the ability to grow his small but successful business building fences and installing decks. And it would allow Leticia, the mother, the chance to swap her job cleaning houses for something better paid, maybe nursing. It would alleviate big worries but also small, like how to get 17-year-old Erika a driver's license when the Department of Public Safety demands the American citizen's guardians present proof of their legal residency. At CVS, Leticia encounters the same dilemma when picking up prescription medication for 9-year-old Lupita. Like the Sosas, at least four-fifths of parents eligible for the Obama plan have lived in the United States for a decade or more, according to a study by the Center for Migration Studies, a research center in New York. Most are steadily employed, and half say they speak English well. Fortunately for the Sosas, they can rely on Maria, with the temporary work permit she received under Obama's 2012 program for certain youth who came here illegally as children. Otherwise Leticia said she wouldn't know how to maneuver some of the hurdles that have sprung up in the past decade as the state government made it more difficult for immigrants here illegally. "I hope the court makes the right decision," Leticia said. "The truth is, it's really needed." As they wait on a ruling, life patters on. Last month, Leticia had her sixth and final baby, a tiny boy named Martin who sleeps through the night and barely cries. Erika, a senior with long, wavy brown hair who plays saxophone in the band at Alvin High School, attended prom in Galveston in an emerald green dress. She graduated. This week, she took her nursing assistant certification exam. She dreams of becoming a forensic scientist. Dulce, a junior who plays trombone, once struggled with anger after her father was deported in 2010. Pearland police arrested Jose for driving with an invalid license after an officer saw the expired registration sticker on his truck and discovered he hadn't paid a long-ago ticket for a malfunctioning light. Though he returned to Houston two months after he was deported, just like he had often before as a migrant worker crisscrossing the porous border, the father this time was overwhelmed with paranoia and depression. He feared going out in public or driving in his truck. All the stress made Dulce rebel, once even breaking a window with her bare fists. But now she is more calm. She is active in ROTC. Rocio, 13, is the most musically gifted of the family and an animal lover. Last month she convinced Jose to let them take in another puppy. Lupita, 9, has had problems at school, where a classmate threatened to call the police and tell them that her parents are here illegally. This summer she plans to go to Galveston "every single day." The family has moved from a rundown trailer park where gunshots often rung out to their own plot of land on a peaceful country road. And Maria? She's engaged. To a Mexican immigrant who awaits his citizenship ceremony this September, just in time, he said, to cast a vote against Trump. Plenty of us have driven through the quaint south-central Texas town of Hondo and smiled at the clever roadside signs that have become iconic through the years and even a tourist attraction. "Welcome. This is God's Country," they read. "Please Don't Drive Through it Like Hell." A little humor goes a long way. They might have even convinced a few lead feet to lighten up. Earlier this month, they inspired the opposite reaction from the Madison, Wis.-based Freedom From Religion Foundation. The group, which boasts 24,000 nonreligious members, sent a letter urging town officials to remove the two signs because they are "needlessly divisive" and violate First Amendment protections against government endorsement of religion. God help us. Actually, I shouldn't say that. Ahem, a colleague suggested I reword it this way: May we be guided by that purported force which may or may not reflect divine existence but herein is used only as a rhetorical device. In a news release, the foundation's co-president Annie Laurie Gaylor goes so far as to suggest the signs could have a detrimental effect on public safety. "Some people may want to flee 'God's Country' faster than hell," she writes. "Hondo officials could actually be encouraging drivers to speed with such signs." Really? On Monday, Hondo Mayor Jim Danner didn't mince words in response to the complaint: "There's no way in hell we're going to take those signs down," he was quoted saying in the San Antonio Express-News. Evelyn Barbutti, a longtime former head of the Hondo Area Chamber of Commerce who stressed that she no longer speaks for the organization, said she got a similar reaction when she sent the story to friends. She admitted that she, too, was incensed. "If they don't believe in God, that's fine. They don't have to. This is not a sign that says you have to be a Christian to live here." She said she was unaware of previous complaints about the signs and that during her tenure at the chamber, European tourists would come to Hondo just to snap a picture with one. Barbutti argues the signs aren't about religion at all: "It was just a cute slogan that somebody came up with." 'Ridiculous' attack Joe Larsen, a First Amendment attorney in Houston, agreed that the meaning seems purely idiomatic, a "clever turn of phrase" meant to praise the patch of real estate, not bestow upon it religious affiliation. "I cannot speak on behalf of the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas in this instance, but I think my fellow board members all agree that Texas is God's country," Larsen wrote me in an email. "I do think some confusion has arisen due to God's general lack of transparency and the ever present problem of selective release of information. That said, I understand that God does not owe us an explanation, and, frankly, if He told us the truth, probably nobody would believe it." In a more serious tone over the phone, Larsen said he found the attack on the signs ridiculous. "It seems like they could choose their battles a bit more wisely," he said. And, to me, that's the bottom line. Plenty of important issues out there involve the principle of church-state separation. Why make this one a priority when in fact the silliness of it could undermine the cause and the organization? Sam Grover, a staff attorney with the foundation, said it sent the letter after receiving complaints from two Texas residents. He didn't know if they lived in Hondo. "I'm proud to work for an organization that can give voice to people who live in those small towns who don't feel like they can speak up for themselves," he said. 'Bigger fish to fry' Still, he acknowledged that the Hondo complaint "is not the most impressive church-state violation we've tackled in the last week." He mentioned, for instance, a lawsuit involving a Texas law enforcement agency that puts crosses on patrol cars. "We write thousands of letters a year," Grover said. "This is one small example. But I do think it's important to go after the small examples. There's a sense that each little violation can create a death-by-a-thousand paper cuts." Given the mayor's steadfast refusal to remove the signs, I asked Grover about the foundation's next step. "My guess is that we do let this one go," he said. "There are bigger fish to fry." Indeed. And those bigger fish may be taken less seriously after this episode. It's one more example that politicians, religious activists and Donald Trump supporters can point to as a politically correct country run amok. "My personal opinion?" says Barbutti back in Hondo. "These are people that are paid to cause problems, and they are trying to undermine America and change America." She said she could pretty much assure me that if the city has to remove the signs, all kinds of people would post versions of it on their private property. "What have we accomplished then?" Good question. Heights residents hoping to ensure shady, tree-lined Yale Street stays that way for generations of Houstonians to come have asked City Council to declare about 1.6 miles of the thoroughfare the city's first "green corridor." The little-known designation was written into a landmark landscaping ordinance in 1991 but apparently had been forgotten until a group of Heights activists dusted off its provisions and submitted the first such application to City Hall in March. The program would expand the number of protected trees along Yale between 6th Street and 19th Street - those that require the city forester's approval to remove. If those trees are cut down, they must be replaced with trees with trunk diameters that combine to equal that of the original tree or by paying a fee into a city parks fund. "We think it's extremely important. Houston's verdant tree cover is one of its most important assets," said Heights resident Jonathan Smulian, who helped gather the necessary support from adjacent landowners. "This particular green corridor, which is essentially a demonstration project because it hasn't happened before, not only enhances walkability, it would improve health, provide shade and improve property values, and would also act as a buffer to increasing commuter traffic that's coming down through the Heights at the moment." Mayor backs plan Mayor Sylvester Turner cheered the proposal, saying as a resident of the north side he enjoys using Yale. "That's a beautiful canopy, and the trees have aged over the years very nice, provide beautiful shade and make it very attractive when you drive down Yale Street," the mayor said. "The emphasis is to preserve trees and the green canopy that exists within our city but to do it in a way that's very compatible with the people in that corridor." City ordinances typically protect two types of trees: those of any size in the public right of way - basically, the area between the sidewalk and the street - and those with trunks at least 20 inches in diameter at chest height and that stand outside the right of way but inside the building setback line on private commercial property. On Yale, the space between where the road's 70-foot-wide right of way ends and buildings can be built under current standards extends 25 feet on both sides of the street. Yale's green corridor designation, which is headed to council on Wednesday, would protect another 210 trees along the 13 blocks in question by reducing the size a tree must reach to be protected from 20 inches to 15 inches across. The fees associated with removing a healthy 20-inch tree, according to the city planning department, can range from $4,800 to $10,700. Regardless of whether a green corridor is in place, however, homeowners can do what they wish with trees on their land. "This is going to benefit the community," said Councilwoman Ellen Cohen, who represents the area. "It really will enhance the quality of the neighborhood." Has reservations John Broz, a real estate broker and longtime owner of a property at 18th and Yale, said he supports the idea of Yale's tree cover but was uncomfortable with the wording of the ordinance, believing it could limit his options on what to do with trees not bordering the proposed corridor. "From what I read in the ordinance, it talks about trees in the building setback on all sides of the property. That's the only issue I have - there's setbacks on all sides," he said. "If I have trees in other positions on the property, am I caught up with their deal?" Smulian said the petitioners intended to extend the corridor to 24th Street but could not get the necessary support to go that far north. Still, he and others said the designation process could be duplicated throughout the city. "Visual character, community pride, health, safety, walkability, cleaner air, it's all very well represented by street tree plantings," said Anne Culver of the nonprofit Scenic Houston. "The green corridor designation along Yale, which already has significant street trees, is a great demonstration project of how this could be employed in other appropriate stretches across Houston." Turner agreed, but said he has no intention of pushing more such corridors from his office. "The potential is there to extend it, but to the extent it's extended, it will be extended at the request of people that live in the area," Turner said. "This is where the people in the community, people along the street, the corridor, are asking us to do it, and simply asking us to ratify something they already want." This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Worrying about bills and plummeting shrimp prices, Dwayne Harrison stopped to apply for a mowing job one morning recently before dropping his nets in the Houston Ship Channel. The 65-cents-a-pound he was getting last week for small, head-on wild shrimp is one-third the price of a year ago and less than his catch brought in 1998, the year he bought his 50-foot vessel, Angel Lady. Harrison, 51, is among Gulf shrimpers who say they're leaving the business or are barely afloat, and many blame imports, which make up more than 90 percent of the shrimp market in the United States. Last year, imports rose by 143 million pounds and are up another 2 percent in 2015. While driven to the brink, shrimpers in Texas also are driven to anger by the indifference of American consumers. "In those restaurants," Harrison pointed out, "people will be watching our boats come in while being served shrimp from halfway around the world that are fed antibiotics to keep them alive." Foreign competition and the rise of aquaculture to fill the world's seafood needs are familiar issues. But illegal antibiotics in farm-raised Asian shrimp is a lesser-known story, one that Gulf shrimpers have begun telling. Food and Drug Administration records suggest they have reason to sound warnings. In August, FDA inspectors set a monthly record by refusing 72 shipments of shrimp, much of it from Malaysia, that either tested positive for antibiotics or lacked evidence of being drug free. Most of the shrimp was turned away from the agency's Southwest Import District, which includes Texas ports. Through October, the FDA has refused 377 separate shrimp entries - from large containers to small packages - citing antibiotics or veterinary drug residues. In all of 2014, the agency turned away 208 shrimp shipments due to illegal drug residues, and that was nearly four times the refusals of a year before. The FDA actions acknowledge the worrisome fact that antibiotics relied on for decades are becoming ineffective because of overuse in human health care and indiscriminate use in farming. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says 2 million people a year contract serious infections that don't respond to antibiotics and that at least 23,000 die. Few shipments tested In foreign aquaculture, some operators persist in giving shrimp hatchlings feed laced with antibiotics that are prohibited in the United States. They do so to strengthen their immune systems against bacterial diseases. No antibiotics are approved for shrimp farming in the United States. The discoveries raise questions about whether the speed of global trade has outpaced the ability to keep food safe. Some in the domestic seafood industry contend that the pending 12-country Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement could make it even more difficult for regulators to do their jobs. The FDA has been criticized over the years for lack of attention to antibiotics. The uptick in refusals suggests that the agency may be getting more vigilant at the borders. Even so, the FDA inspected just 3.7 percent of 110,000 shrimp shipments last year and tested far less than that in a monitoring system that focuses on risk. What's more, the FDA, citing lack of resources, is ignoring a 2011 law ordering inspections of thousands of foreign food plants. For Texas shrimpers enduring one of the hardest seasons in memory, the hit-and-miss regulatory system is another vexing reality. In interviews, several said they're convinced that ships turned away for contamination seek out other ports to bring in their wares. "It doesn't look like they (the FDA) are doing anything," Dwayne Harrison said, dodging a tanker and barges during a fruitless day on the water. Studies raise questions In April, Consumer Reports disclosed finding antibiotic residues in about 5 percent of imported shrimp purchased at some 300 groceries, big box stores and even at "natural" retail outlets across the country. Tests also found bacteria, including Vibrio, which can cause serious illness. "The FDA can't be catching all the illegal products on the market when it comes to shrimp and antibiotic residues," Urvashi Rangan, Consumer Reports' director of consumer safety, said in an interview. After publishing its findings, Consumer Reports made recommendations to top FDA officials, noting that antibiotics in shrimp were especially concerning. The magazine never heard back. Shrimpers like to say that consumers have no clue what they're getting, no matter what labels and menus say. DNA tests by the advocacy group Oceana last year bear out those concerns. Oceana found that 35 percent of shrimp tested nationwide was misrepresented, a level of mislabeling that rose to 41 percent in groceries. In a common deception, farmed shrimp, largely from Asia, was sold as Gulf shrimp or simply labeled "wild." Even in the Gulf region, home to America's biggest shrimp fishery, genetic tests on dozens of shrimp products in nine cities - including Houston and Galveston - showed 30 percent were misrepresented. Scientists found imported shrimp not listed on the FDA's list of 1,842 species of seafood consumed in the United States and shrimp with unrecognized genetic makeup. Tests on a bag of salad-sized shrimp imported from Vietnam sold at a Gulf grocery showed banded cleaner shrimp, aquarium pets not intended as food. "When you find out it's your own local seafood involved in this bait-and-switch, it wakes people up," Kimberly Warner, Oceana's senior scientist, said in an interview. Plenty of shrimp In Texas, shrimpers say they're falling behind even while catching more. In September, Texas vessels landed 6.1 million pounds, 600,000 pounds more than September of last year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported. For the year, the catch in Texas is 8 million pounds more than at this time in 2014, attributed to abundant spring rains that moved shrimp from bays and estuaries into the Gulf. The bigger catch in Texas, it turns out, almost exactly matches the decline in Louisiana from a year ago. That hasn't made up for abysmal prices shrimpers are getting across the Gulf - one-third lower than a year ago for large shrimp and half the price for medium-sized. Smaller shrimp were bringing just one-third the price of 2014, NOAA said. Far fewer vessels than a decade ago are chasing the crustaceans. Andrea Hance, executive director of the Texas Shrimp Association, said the number of permits across the Gulf had shrunk from 5,000 in the early 2000s to about 1,400. Of those, roughly 1,100 are operating, she said. Hance, who operates two vessels out of Brownsville, said the catch had tailed off after early fall successes. But the price she got last week for her large brown shrimp had ticked up to $3.25 a pound, albeit about half of what it was a year ago. Overall, imports were down 6.5 percent in September, a hopeful sign for the Texas industry. Shrimpers' challenge, she said, is saving money to withstand times like these and expensive repairs - like the new $25,000 freezer on one of her trawlers. "One of these years, the sun, the moon and stars will align and we all will make some money," she said. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate For 300 years, La Belle sat in a watery grave in Matagorda Bay as time ravaged the historic ship that once belonged to famed French explorer Robert de La Salle. State archaeologists discovered the shipwreck in 1995 and ultimately plucked it from the muck. The ship and its artifacts, everything from muskets to hair combs, were then trucked to Texas A&M University's Conservation Research Laboratory, which focuses primarily on conserving material from historic shipwrecks. Now, after almost 19 years of painstaking effort to restore and preserve La Belle, archaeologists announced this week that work is finally done on the ship. "It's been exciting, a huge headache and a huge frustration at times, but I love old ships and in particular this one," said Peter Fix, the lab's watercraft conservator who's played a critical role in restoring La Belle. "Needless to say, it's been a challenging emotional ride." Considered one of the most important nautical archaeological finds of the century, the La Belle has been on display at the Bullock Texas State History Museum in Austin since late 2015. Just a few weeks ago, however, restoration was completed on the ship's interior bulkhead. In a somewhat unusual move, museum visitors have been allowed to observe the archaeology team up close as it worked on La Belle in the museum's atrium. This fishbowl approach probably slowed the work even more, Fix said, but everyone who's been involved in restoring La Belle is passionate about sharing the ship's rich history with the public. "Yes, that meant there were a lot more distractions but the ooh's and ah's from the kids who came to see the ship made it all worth it," Fix said. "As an archaeologist, I'm not used to people wanting my autograph. Unless you're Indiana Jones, that's not something that happens." The La Belle, meaning "the beautiful," was constructed in France in 1684. It was one of four ships under the command of Rene-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle who hoped to colonize the Gulf Coast area. He and 300 settlers left France on Aug. 1, 1684, but within two years all four ships Le Joly, L'Aimable, St. Francois and La Belle either returned to France, sank or were captured by pirates. Due to incorrect maps, the fleet missed its intended target of the Mississippi River delta and landed more than 400 miles away on the Texas Gulf Coast. When a severe storm grounded La Belle during the winter of 1686, the ship was abandoned. La Salle was killed a year later when some of his crew mutinied near present-day Navasota, Texas, while he was leading a group to Canada in hopes of fostering a rescue for his colony. More Information The 'beautiful' La Belle, a timeline 1684: French explorer Robert de La Salle and more than 300 settlers set sail from France for the mouth of the Mississippi River on the La Belle and three other ships. 1686: The La Belle is grounded and abandoned near Matagorda Bay during a storm. 1995: La Belle is rediscovered by archaelogists. 1996: A temporary dam is built around the ship to help with its excavation. 1997: Excavation of the ship is complete and conservation work begins. 2015: La Belle goes on display at the Bullock Texas State History Museum in Austin. 2016: Restoration work on La Belle is completed. 2018: La Belle will move into renovated gallery space at the museum. See More Collapse "As the Texas Historical Commission says, the La Belle changed history," Fix said. "Had his colony not failed, perhaps Houston and the rest of Texas would have a stronger French influence." Using improved magnetometer surveys, state archaeologists discovered the shipwreck in 1995. A few artifacts were brought to the surface at that time. Although the ship was only in about 13 feet of water, the visibility underwater was so poor that a temporary dam was constructed around the wreck so that water could be pumped out. At the time, that technique never had been tried before in North America, said James Bruseth, who was then head of the archaeology division of the Texas Historical Commission and oversaw the excavation. "It was a nerve-wracking time," he said. "Our engineers thought the dam would hold but it might leak. They just couldn't say for sure." The dam did indeed hold and Bruseth and his team were able to unearth a treasure trove of artifacts, almost 1.6 million objects. Among them was what archaeologists thought was a Roman coin. Later they would determine the item was actually a jeton, a gaming piece likely used by La Salle's crew as they waited for their leader to return with help. "Every day we made a grand discovery," said Bruseth, author of La Belle: The Ship that Changed History. "I had to pinch myself to believe it." Bruseth said that typically when early American settlements are unearthed, archaeologists find items that settlers used but rarely are they in good shape. With La Belle, the items the settlers brought with them were never used, giving historians a virtual time capsule and a peek into life during those days. Once excavated from the bay, La Belle and all of her artifacts were extensively photographed so archaeologists could have a detailed blueprint to help restore them at the Texas A&M lab. Even then, it was no easy feat. After spending more than three centuries in the water, La Belle's timbers had become so waterlogged it was almost impossible for them to retain any shape once on dry land. To strengthen the wood and preserve it, the restoration team individually "freeze dried" each segment at the lab. Fix said the technique had been used before, but not on such a large scale. "There were definitely some sleepless nights," he said. In late 2014, the ship was taken to the Bullock museum for the final phase of the restoration project. As a result of an international treaty agreement, the La Belle artifacts will stay in Texas indefinitely though they are owned by France. While there was more work to be done on the ship, museum officials decided it was important for the public to have access to La Belle given the tremendous interest that had been generated during the ship's excavation from Matagorda Bay. "The public response has been just what we had hoped for; people say seeing La Belle is an amazing, awe-inspiring experience," said Margaret Koch, the museum's deputy director of exhibits. Koch said La Belle will stay in the atrium until 2018, when the museum completes a gallery renovation project. With that project, museum officials plan to encase La Belle in a specially made glass enclosure so that visitors can walk up a ramp and peer down inside of the ship for a more interactive experience. Fix said the ship has been a tremendous teaching tool for students enrolled in A&M's nautical archaeology program who work in the conservation research lab. While he and other researchers at the lab have moved ahead with other projects, Fix said it will be hard to top the experience of working on La Belle. "It has really been a privilege to have been a part of this project," he said. "This is the kind of thing that doesn't come around every day in archaeology." This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate As famous observation decks go, the Sky Lobby some 60 floors up in downtown Houston's Chase Tower is a bit less than ideal: Parking is a hassle, the view is limited, and there are no concessions, souvenirs or interactive whatnots to give visitors a sense of what they're really looking at. On the other hand, it's free. And pretty cool. When the clouds roll in and drop an unexpected shower on the city center, there's nothing quite like being in them or above them. No surprise, then, that there were cries of dismay Tuesday when the tower's management company abruptly announced the lobby would be immediately closed to everyone other than tenants and their guests. Though never officially designed as a public observation platform, the lobby on the 60th floor of the 75-story building - the tallest in the city- waswidely touted as a must-see tourist attraction in the city. "After careful consideration, ownership and management of the JPMorgan Chase Tower (also known as 600 Travis) have made the difficult decision to restrict access to the building's 60th floor 'sky lobby' strictly to building tenants and their authorized visitors," the Hines management firm said in a prepared statement. "Our primary focus is to provide a quality experience for our tenants and their employees who were often inconvenienced by the extra non-business-related traffic in the building." Place of solitude The floors above 60 require separate elevator access. Years ago, when word got out that the transfer point was open for public viewing, the lobby became a popular attraction for tourists and Houston residents. Workers in neighboring buildings sometimes used it for a few minutes of solitude and inspiration. No doubt it would have become a popular lunch spot had it not been for an emphatic no-food policy. Even so, the visitors kept coming. Some romantic sorts used it as a backdrop for proposals of marriage. When the Sky Lobby was closed for refurbishment in 2013, no one imagined that it would one day go the way of other observation points around town that had shut down, including Williams Tower near the Galleria, the Wells Fargo Plaza, and the former Skyline Bar & Grill in the Hilton Americas-Houston. If there was widespread displeasure because of the public coming to visit the lobby, not all of those who work there were aware of it. Stephen T. Harris, director of communications for Locke Lord LLP, an international law firm that maintains an office in the building, said he first heard about the closure on Tuesday when the announcement was made. "That's all I know about it," Harris said, adding that his law firm had no role in the decision. "It's a huge asset, I think, for this property," he said. "It's a beautiful view, both for people from Houston and for folks from out of town." Harris said he didn't recall anyone make complaints about visitors. "You see people in the lobby all the time," he said. "It's always a busy lobby. I think everyone at some point should be able to see the view from the 60th floor." Sometimes a nuisance The tenant who paid for naming rights, JP Morgan Chase and Co., likewise insisted it did not lobby to close the lobby. The bank's Houston spokesman, Greg Hassell, said he had taken his teenage daughter to the Sky Lobby just weeks back to check out the view. "I'm glad we both got to see the view one last time at least," Hassell said. Other tenants said the decision was understandable because the public visitors could be a nuisance. Frank Tsuru, president and CEO of M3 Midstream, said the high-traffic times of the year resulted in crammed elevators and some unhappy workers. People on the higher floors complained more than others, he said. "There's people pretty stressed out about it," Tsuru said. Immigration lawyer Sang Shin said the visitors did not bother him, and he enjoyed taking clients up to the lobby a few times a month to see a "nice view of the lay of the land." He especially remembers going up after the Memorial Day flood last year and seeing parts of Texas 288 and Memorial Parkway under water. Sometimes he got requests from friends to go see the city's lights at night stretching across the area, which he still hopes to do even if the area is closed to the public. "I hope they'll open it again," Shin said. Also disappointed was Mario Zimmermann, who along with five colleagues craned his neck upward toward the top of the Chase Tower, where they had just gathered outside as downtown grew empty. "This is bad news," said Zimmermann, who works in the energy corridor in west Houston. "Very bad news." The 51-year-old oil and gas engineer moved to Houston for a temporary stay eight weeks ago, and in that span he has brought more than a dozen coworkers and friends from his homeland of Germany to view the city from on high. When he arrived at Chase Tower on Tuesday with another group, he immediately saw the sign announcing: Sky Lobby Closed to the Public. Disappointed, Zimmermann said the Sky Lobby offered a perspective that cannot be replaced. "If I go to a city, the first thing I try to do is go upstairs to get an overview," he said. The Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau, which has touted the Sky Lobby in the past as a Houston must-see, didn't have a comment on the decision. Mike Glenn contributed to this story. Children in Texas continue to fare poorly compared to kids in other states, and the state has even dropped a few notches in national rankings, a new report has found. The Lone Star State ranks 43rd for a child's overall well-being, according to a report released this week by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The state ranked 41st last year and has consistently ranked low in recent years. The foundation based its rankings on economic well-being, education, health and family/community. Robert Sanborn, president & CEO of Children at Risk, a Houston nonprofit that works to improve children's quality of life, isn't surprised at the findings. "It's not unexpected," Sanborn said. "I think when we live in a state with such a high percentage of children and families that are low-income, then we should expect that to have an impact on our overall ranking." 25% of kids in poverty More than a million Texas children, or about 25 percent, live in poverty, according to the report. "Houston kids are reflected very accurately in that report," Sanborn said. "We have a lot of poor children, and in many ways poor children in Houston are getting the short end of the straw. We're not serving those kids as fully as we should be serving those kids, and it's going to bite us in the end because they are our future workforce." Nationally, children are seeing better outcomes than in the past, said Florencia Gutierrez, senior research associate for the Annie E. Casey Foundation's report. However, children of color at the national level are also more likely to grow up in high-poverty areas. The large number of children growing up in high-poverty areas and with parents who don't have a high school diploma contributes to Texas' low ranking, 47th, in the family/community category. Texas ranks 33rd in economic well-being, 32nd in education and 38th in health. The limited types of jobs available to parents with very little education is also a factor in the high poverty levels children face nationally, Gutierrez said. More than 15 million children live in poverty nationwide. "A lot of jobs that are available to individuals that have limited skills or education are jobs that don't pay a living wage," Gutierrez said. "They don't pay families enough to care for their basic needs, so it makes it really hard to get themselves out of poverty." Jennifer Lee, a researcher at the Center for Public Policy Priorities, said minority children in Texas are also more likely to grow up in higher-poverty areas compared to white children. About a third of African-American and Hispanic children live in poverty compared to 11 percent of white children, according to Lee. 11% are uninsured Texas has seen improvements in the number of uninsured children but still continues to rank low among states. Eleven percent of children - or 784,000 - don't have health insurance, causing Texas to rank 49th overall. That share has dropped from 2008, when 18 percent of Texas children were uninsured. Nationally only 6 percent of children are uninsured. "Even though Texas might be improving in some areas, there are other states that might be doing more or improving at a faster rate," Gutierrez said. Demographically, Hispanic children are much more likely to be uninsured than white children in Texas, Lee noted. "African-American children were also more likely to be uninsured, but over time we actually closed that gap. Black and white children have similar uninsured rates across the state," Lee said. Texas has also seen improvements in the number of kids graduating from high school and in lowering the teen birth rate. The number of Texas teenage births has dropped from more than 47,000 in 2010 to a little over 35,000 in 2014. Eighty-four percent of kids graduated from high school in 2010, a figure that had grown to 88 percent in 2014. "It's really showing that teens are making smart decisions that will help them in the future, but it's also very important for us to keep in mind that this was possible because of policies and investments that states have made," Gutierrez said. A south Texas woman alleges she was sexually assaulted by a former La Joya police officer after she was arrested, according to media reports and court documents. The woman, identified as Autumn Renee according to the lawsuit posted by Buzzfeed, was arrested May 29, 2014, for a misdemeanor probation violation and booked into the La Joya City Jail. The lawsuit, filed May 27 in U.S. District Court in McAllen, states that Felipe Santiago Peralez, then-communications officer for the La Joya City Police Department, conducted an "all-night invasion of plaintiff's body." SEE ALSO: Bollywood's Salman Khan causes uproar with rape remark Peralez inserted his fingers and hands into Renee's private areas, according to the lawsuit. It also states he forced her to perform oral sex on him. Renee suffered injury to her private areas and that she was, "in staunch fear of further brutal, sadistic and invasive acts causing severe bruises, scratches, irritation and soreness... for repeated hours." The lawsuit calls Peralez's actions "malicious and (a) sadistic use of force." RELATED: Attorney says Ex-Baylor coach Art Briles broke promise to apologize to rape victim La Joya police Lt. Ramon Gonzalez reviewed the video recording on May 30, 2014, and "obtained (Renee's) statement, offered her a taco, declined her request for medical attention" the lawsuit reads. According to the lawsuit, La Joya Police Officer Nancy Venecia knew about the assault the same day Gonzaelz reviewed the video recording but did not request that Renee be transported to an emergency room for examination. Buzzfeed reports Peralez resigned after being suspended from the police department May 30, 2014. SEE ALSO: Former Vanderbilt football player again convicted of rape Renee's lawyer, Tammy Peden of Houston, cited the incident as a violation of the Prison Rape Elimination Act passed by U.S. Congress in 2003, which establishes a zero tolerance for rape and sexual assault. The lawsuit also highlights violations of the Eighth Amendment, which forbids "cruel and unusual punishment" and "prohibits excessive use of force and guard brutality." In addition to Peralez, Venecia and Gonzelz, the lawsuit is filed against the City of La Joya and the City of Penitas as she was originally arrested by the Penitas Police Department. The lawsuit states Penitas police conducted the follow-up investigation to the alleged sexual assault and failed to act against La Joya officers involved in the incident. Renee is seeking $5 million in damages and emotional distress. Republican backers of a compromise measure aimed at keeping guns out of the hands of suspected terrorists say they're gaining momentum and may win enough support to advance the measure in the Senate. Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine is pushing a measure that would bar people on the "no-fly" list, as well as another narrow list of possible terrorist suspects, from buying weapons. The Senate defeated four other gun-related amendments Monday, and Collins suffered another setback Tuesday afternoon when the National Rifle Association called it "unconstitutional." Even so, if the new compromise can win enough support in the wake of the Orlando, Fla., nightclub attack, it could break a longstanding stalemate. "I think we're getting there," said Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona, one of the three Republicans who have joined Collins in co-sponsoring her amendment to a spending bill that funds the Justice Department and other agencies. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, who is facing a tough re-election race, have also signed on. Republican Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, who is also running in a competitive race, also backed her plan on Tuesday. Democratic support The Collins amendment also has five co-sponsors on the Democratic side, including Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, the lone Democrat to vote against an amendment Monday from Senh. Dianne Feinstein of California that would have banned people on the broader terrorism watch list from buying guns. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday that he would allow her proposal to come to the floor. Backers still face an uphill climb getting anything on guns done, with Majority Whip Sen. John Cornyn of Texas among the Republicans saying that a court order and probable cause should be required before someone is banned from buying a weapon. He called it a "slippery slope" to deny due process to Americans who want to buy guns, but said "we'll see how the vote comes out." Democratic leaders praised Collins, with Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York calling it "a step in the right direction." But he added that several "potentially serious problems" remain, including that the measure doesn't block "nearly 900,000 foreigners in the terrorist screening database" from buying guns. NRA opposition The NRA's opposition could scare away some Republicans, as the group encouraged its followers on Twitter to contact lawmakers and defeat any new gun control proposal. Instead, the NRA called on Congress to pass a law allowing people to carry concealed firearms nationwide. Graham told reporters earlier Tuesday that the NRA should balance the inconvenience of a legitimate gun-buyer being on the no-buy list with the likelihood of someone on the list buying a gun and killing people. "To my friends at the NRA, I'm with you most of the time. I believe we're at war, and I can't think of a way to fight this war without somebody being inconvenienced, and once you sell the guy the gun there is no getting it back. You can get off the list," he said. Attorneys, retirees and the folks over in one tony Houston neighborhood apparently really love Hillary Clinton, at least according to recently posted campaign finance data from her campaign. Houston was Clinton's best fundraising locale in Texas last month. FACT CHECK: Hillary Clinton takes liberties in Donald Trump takedown The former first lady, senator and secretary of state hauled in $8.2 million from Texas last month, $1.8 million of it from Houston donors. The Bayou City was followed in the seven-figure club by Dallas ($1.5 million) and Austin ($1.1 million). This data does not include roughly $1 million given by Texans to the main pro-Clinton Political Action Committee, Priorities USA. Almost all of that money came from Houston trial lawyer and Democratic mega-donor Steve Mostyn. Clinton's largest Texas donor base in May by employer (aside from those who didn't list a workplace) were the self-employed and retirees (the latter matches Donald Trump's largest donor base). READ MORE: Trump calls Clinton campaign funds 'blood money' The top profession listed among Clinton's Texas donors, by a wide margin, was "attorney," followed again by retirees and then doctors, homemakers, CEOs and consultants. Clinton's top zip codes, as shown in the map above, were Houston's 77005, which covers the West University/Rice area, and 78746, in west Austin; both of those gave her about $200,000 in May. For a similar analysis of where Trump's Texas support came from, try this post. >>>See the celebrities who support Clinton for president in the gallery above COLUMBUS, Ohio - Hillary Clinton warned Tuesday that Donald Trump's business record disqualified him from overseeing the nation's economy, arguing that his policies and temperament risked sending the U.S. into a recession and setting off a global panic. The Democrat's address to the audience in Ohio followed the same template as one she delivered on national security on the eve of the California primary, featuring several barbed attacks on Trump, her likely general election opponent. "Just like he shouldn't have his finger on the button, he shouldn't have his hands on our economy," Clinton said. And just as she did in her national security address in San Diego, Clinton repeatedly used Trump's own words and the few policy details he's offered against him - confessing at one point even she had to ask her own staff: "He really said that?" On taxes, for instance, Clinton cited an independent analysis that Trump's tax plan would increase the national debt by $30 trillion, something it said was "not even in the universe of the realistic." "Alexander Hamilton would be rolling in his grave," she said. Trump's campaign responded by impugning the source of the report Clinton cited: Moody's analyst Mark Zandi, who Trump aides noted has ties to Democrats and the Obama administration, and has contributed to Clinton's campaign. But Zandi also advised Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a point Clinton made in her speech. And she noted that criticism of Trump's economic policies come from across the political spectrum, including 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who has served as something of an attack dog on Trump for Democrats. Clinton pointed voters to the detailed economic plans she has laid out on her website, conceding they were "wonky." She said Trump needs to be held to the same standard, for the consequences of what he proposes. For example, she said, Trump "makes big threats," but "has no serious plan to encourage manufacturing." "The world hangs on every word our president says. The markets rise and fall on those statements. Even suggesting that the United States would default would cause a global panic," she said. "We can't let these loose, careless remarks get any credence in our electorate or around the world." Clinton's speech appeared aimed at drawing the election conversation back to the economy after a period dominated by national security and the Orlando nightclub massacre. She also was trying to undercut one of Trump's main selling points: his business acumen. Trump "has no real strategy for creating jobs, just a string of empty promises," she said. "But then maybe we shouldn't expect better from someone whose most famous words are, 'You're fired.'" She saved some of her most stinging criticisms for Trump's own finances and business practices. She wondered whether Trump would not make public his tax returns because "maybe he isn't as rich as he claims." And while he's written many books about his businesses, "they all seem to end at Chapter 11," she said, in reference to various Trump bankruptcies. Clinton also raised the Trump University case as an example of the lawsuits Trump has been a party to over decades, most from "ordinary Americans and small businesses" that his companies didn't pay or pay fully. "The same people he's trying to get to vote for him are people he's been exploiting for years," she said. Mexicans sent a powerful message to the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) on June 5 when they voted in opposition governors in seven of the 12 states up for grabs, including four states the PRI had led for more than 80 years. Pre-election polls had forecast a much more successful day for the PRI, but simmering voter anger over public corruption and rampant violence, mostly linked to drug cartels, came to a boil at the ballot box. The center-right National Action Party (PAN) won the seven states, three of them in alliance with the center-left Democratic Revolution Party (PRD), and now will hold governorships in 11 of Mexico's 32 states, the most in PAN history. Some analysts said the election results foretold the PRI's possible defeat in 2018 when Mexico chooses a successor to President Enrique Pena Nieto. That remains to be seen, but they were definitely a reflection of voter anger at Pena Nieto, whose approval ratings have plummeted to a record low 30 percent, and other PRI officials. When he won the presidency in 2012, Pena Nieto was the first PRI president in 12 years. His ascension to the nation's highest office prompted concern because of the PRI's history of widespread corruption when it held power for most of the 20th century. In the fall of 2014, he was politically damaged by two events: corruption allegations in connection with a luxurious home he and his wife had in Mexico City, and the disappearance and likely massacre of 43 student teachers in the southern city of Iguala. The latter prompted massive public demonstrations as the sensational case went unsolved, official corruption and impunity were revealed and Pena Nieto looked unable or unwilling to take action. In response, he proposed extensive anti-corruption measures that were approved by Congress a year ago, but further legislation needed to implement them has stalled and some of the measures have been watered down. In Veracruz and Tamaulipas, two of the states the PRI had held for 80 years, voters turned against the party because of corruption at the state's highest levels and the impunity of drug cartels. The inability or unwillingness to stop such problems has overshadowed some of Pena Nieto accomplishments, including a major and much-needed reform of Mexico's oil industry. But if he wants to resurrect his image and perhaps salvage his presidency, we would urge him to pressure his fellow Priistas in Congress to take action on the still-pending anti-corruption proposals. The recent election has shown once again it's an important issue to the Mexican people tired of living under an entrenched political class that has put lining its pockets ahead of the betterment of their country. For Pena Nieto, the question is this: Does he remain loyal to his political class or does he put the larger interests of his country first? We urge him to side with his country. One has to start with a simple belief: No one chooses to be homeless. Add a dose of compassion, and perhaps even some enlightened self interest (reducing the enormous cost to the taxpayer of welfare programs, hospital care and prison time) and one can quickly arrive at the conclusion that homelessness is a problem that needs an urgent solution. Particularly galling to those of us who follow the issue is homelessness among our military veterans, an issue that President Barack Obama addressed at the televised PBS "News Hour" town hall in Elkhart, Ind., on June 1. Even one homeless veteran is one too many, Obama said, although the U.S. government's Opening Doors program has failed miserably in achieving its 2010 goal of eradicating homelessness among veterans by 2015. Statistics on homelessness are famously inexact. Most official government figures are compiled by "point in time" surveyors who do a count one night of the year. Some of the surveyors are inexperienced, and many of the homeless resist being counted. The 2015 Annual Homeless Assessment submitted to Congress by the U.S.Department of Housing and Urban Development put the official total at 564,708, of whom 47,725 - that particular night - were veterans. The figures indict: While the number of homeless vets has declined slightly over the last year, the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans has put the number of veterans at risk at any given time at 1.4 million, the result of poverty, lack of a support network and "dismal living conditions." Moreover, women vets are two to four more times at risk than their male counterparts; 74 percent suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, while 53 percent suffer from "military sexual trauma," according to the National Center on Family Homelessness. But there's hope, with progress made recently in several jurisdictions. Two Texas cities, Houston and San Antonio, have demonstrated that homelessness among veterans can be eliminated almost entirely. Both cities have huge veterans' populations - more than 300,000 in Houston, according to city statistics, and 107,000 in smaller San Antonio, where veterans account for a whopping 10 percent of the population. Homelessness among veterans was, therefore, a big concern. Jeb Bush caught flak when he declared in December that there were "no homeless veterans in Houston." And his critics were correct - technically. Homelessness among veterans has not been completely eliminated; in January 2015, 563 veterans remained homeless in Houston, according to PolitiFact Texas, and in January of this year the Mayor's Office for Homeless Initiatives conceded homeless veterans could still be living on the streets. The city has made stellar progress, though. As of January, 4,114 homeless veterans had been housed, partly as a result of streamlined efforts by The Way Home, a coalition of 35 agencies that works to end homelessness. Like other jurisdictions that have made serious efforts to solve homelessness, officials also relied on federal funds for "permanent supportive housing." In San Antonio, the National Veterans Outreach organization has declared that veteran homelessness has been entirely eliminated; in that city, no one has stepped forward to dispute the claim. Altogether, according to the organization, the city has moved 1,335 homeless veterans into permanent housing, including some chronically homeless veterans deemed to present "severe barriers" to housing. The key to success in San Antonio, as in Houston, was the coordination of agencies and services. In addition, San Antonio's effort has benefited from corporate support, including $2 million received from financial services and insurance company USAA. Among states, homelessness has been reduced in Utah by a stunning 91 percent over the last 10 years, and to "an effective zero" among veterans, according to a state report, with a program that puts the chronically homeless in permanent homes first and asks questions about such things as sobriety or past drug use later. Once people are housed, social services follow. Virginia has also eradicated homelessness among veterans. Like Utah, Virginia focused on providing "rapid re-housing" rather than transitional shelter. The state spent just $1 million on its effort, which included aligning agency priorities to focus on homeless veterans, providing a portal where communities could share best practices, obtaining financial commitments from utilities and other entities and tapping VISTA volunteers and the AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps to help staff its campaign. All of the jurisdictions that have tackled veteran homelessness successfully have first demonstrated the political will to address what can only be described as a humanitarian crisis. Los Angeles, Portland, Ore., Seattle-King County and Hawaii recently declared states of emergency so they could act aggressively to solve the problem. Other jurisdictions need to step up and make the same commitment. King is the former senior writer at the National Crime Prevention Council in Washington, D.C., where he wrote about the intersection of crime prevention and homelessness. AUSTIN -- For months, Democrats have welcomed the vulnerabilities Donald Trump brings to the Republican presidential ticket, many of which have showed up in various public polls surveying everything from his likeability to his readiness for office. His abysmal approval ratings among Latino, African-American and women voters have not turned around in the weeks since he became the presumptive GOP nominee. Headlines about disunity in the party and lackluster fundraising totals, less than a month before the Republican convention in Cleveland, have played perfectly in Democrats' hands as Clinton's support surges in national polls. What's more, other polls have shown traditionally GOP states, such as Utah and Kansas, could be a lighter hue of red this year. If there is one thing that Democrats in Texas, Utah and Kansas know, it is how lonely it can be when the other party controls every statewide office for years. So, what could the lukewarm support of Trump in two red states mean for Texas? Last week, the narrative prompted a group of Texas House Democrats to commission their own poll to measure Texans' opinions on Trump and their statewide elected leadership, all of whom are Republicans. As Dallas Rep. Rafael Anchia put it: "It really is to answer the question of where we are in Texas. Are we in the same political climate that produced a 20-point margin (for Republicans) in the last gubernatorial (election), or have things changed?" About 25 percent of self-identified Texas Republicans said they, as of now, are not supporting Trump for president, according to the poll, which was conducted from June 13-14. Beyond the presidential race, the poll also showed that by a 3-to-1 margin Texans believe corruption in state government is a real problem. Combined, Texas Democrats argue, the results show growing opportunities for them as they run, not only against Trump, but also against the Texas GOP's decades of one-party rule. The Republican Party of Texas, in response, said the Democrats had no room to criticize corruption of state officials. Tom Mechler, the partys chairman, pointed to two Democratic state lawmakers, Rep. Dawnna Dukes and Ron Reynolds, who have undergone high-profile criminal investigations recently. The Texas Democrats should look in the mirror if they want to talk about scandals, Mechler said. Whether its shady Texas Democrat Dawnna Dukes or convicted criminal Ron Reynolds, what is clear is that Texas Democrats have a hard time functioning within the rule of law. Dukes, an Austin Democrat, currently is being investigated by the Texas Rangers and Travis County prosecutors after former staffers raised questions about her spending and personnel practices in her state office. A Montgomery County jury convicted Reynolds, a Missouri City Democrat, on five counts of misdemeanor barratry, an outcome he is appealing. Mechler concluded: "This is typical lip service from a group of individuals who are incapable of winning a statewide election in Texas." Dukes and Reynolds have done their party no favors, which is why it stings when Mechler's casts the poll as the latest round of Democratic desperation. Sure, basically nobody outside Dukes or Reynolds' districts knows their names or their legal predicaments, as state Rep. Poncho Nevarez argued. Those two people are not moving the needles at all on the statewide perception of corruption, the Democrat from Eagle Pass told reporters. Considering the state's voter turnout in recent elections, as many people probably know Dukes and Reynolds as do the party's top targets, Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is under indictment on securities fraud charges, and Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, who is being investigated over his use of public monies. A new manufacturer at Cabool is seeking employees for its operation. Sunrise Bakers will hold a job fair next Thursday and Friday at 503 Second St., which is behind Drury University. The hours are 9 a.m. until noon and 1 to 6 p.m. Thursday. Hours on Friday are 9 a.m. until noon and 1 to 3 p.m. Resumes are recommended. The new commercial bakery is seeking entry-level and qualified applicants for permanent employment. It will employ up to 79. Departments include production, packing, shipping and sanitation. A local business on a successful run has relocated its Houston office to a familiar location. Missouri Sun Solar (MSS) recently moved into the building on South U.S. 63 that since 1967 has been home to ARPCO Pump Service. The space is being shared with ARPCO, which is run by Arthurs father, David. Caleb Arthur founded MSS in May 2012. Now the company has 115 employees and offices in Springfield, Columbia, St. Louis, Kansas City and Columbia, S.C., as well as its headquarters in Houston. Arthur said the expansion into South Carolina was due to the states solar-friendly policies. Missouri Sun Solar founder and CEO Caleb Arthur holds an electric bill for just over $25 for the firms new location in Houston the former ARPCO Pump building on South U.S. 63. Arthur said that before the building was converted to solar power, the bill ran about $120 a month. Theyve seen the writing on the wall that creating solar incentives creates a huge economic driver, he said, with job creation, money coming in and everything else. Last year they passed a law where utilities would pay a portion of their profits to pay for their customers going solar both homeowners and businesses. They also created a state tax credit for solar, so theres both federal and state tax credits as well as the incentive provided by the utilities. Missouri has no state tax credit for solar, and other incentives in the state are few and far between. Were hoping that some of the rebates that used to exist will come back soon, Arthur said. MSS installs solar panels on about 70 homes per month all over Missouri. The company is responsible for equipping Greenfield School District in southwest Missouri with the largest public school system solar array in the state, and has recently finished systems on 12 OReilly Auto Parts stores. Were the only company in the nation that does OReilly stores, Arthur said. Were working on locking up deals on 25 in South Carolina, and well probably end up being their solar power provider nationwide. Theyve already given us a list of more than 4,000 stores. MSS has four cars in its fleet capable of running off of solar-generated electricity. The firms Smart Energy Solutions division has now made more than 90 homes more energy-efficient outside the solar realm, by sealing up duct work, spraying insulation, converting lighting to LED bulbs and more. That really helps people who dont necessarily have the money to go solar right away, Arthur said. The average savings for homes where we do this is 30 percent off of their electric bill, just by doing these upgrades. Arthur is also president of the Missouri Solar Energy Industries Association (MOSEIA). He said the city of Columbia offers a rebate to people who go solar, and is the only city in Missouri with such an incentive. They were the first and are still the only city in the state to do that, he said. By doing that they were able to shut down their last coal-fired power plant and theyve built out some of their own solar farms, and its already paid for itself. Now when the sun comes up, theyre generating free electricity for their citizens. I dont know why more cities including Houston dont move in that direction. Were in the middle of a solar revolution, but its hard for people around here to understand it. Arthur said his company will soon drop Missouri from its name and become simply, Sun Solar. For information, call 417-413-1786. Were in the middle of a solar revolution, but its hard for people around here to understand it. CALEB ARTHUR After battling a lengthy backlog that drew the ire of Gov. Jay Nixon, Missouri tax officials say they expect to send out most of the remaining state income tax refunds within the next 10 days. In May, three days after it was revealed that wait times for taxpayers expecting a refund of their 2015 taxes had hit the 10-week mark, Nixon directed the Missouri Department of Revenue to get moving. Agency spokeswoman Michelle Gleba said the department this month has returned more than $125 million in refunds to Missourians. The department has implemented overtime and used temporary workers and reallocated full-time workers to speed up the processing of tax returns, and expects the remaining refunds that do not have issues that require extra scrutiny to be sent out by July 1, she wrote in an email. The added cost of the effort was not available. After first saying refunds would be processed within about one week, the department said delays began mounting as they double-checked tax returns to ensure against online tax fraud. The state last year identified $85 million in fraudulent refund filings. That amount is expected to top the $11.5 million level this year. Scammers attempt to file other peoples returns in search of refunds. Nationally, the cost of the fraud hit more than $5 billion in 2013. Subscribing to our services is a three step process. First you have to create an account and then you have to pick if you want to subscribe to digital and or print. Some people only want to be a digital subscriber to get access online and others want to also receive the print edition. If you are already a print subscriber and want online access, it is free, you simply have to create an online account and then attach your print subscription account number to the online account you create. As an existing print subscriber it is easy to get FREE access to all our online content. When you click get started below it will walk you through creating an online account to attach your print subscription number to. After your account is created it will ask you to either add a subscription for online access or click on the print subscriber button. Click the print subscriber button header and it will open a dropdown, now click on get started. The page will reload and you will be prompted to enter an account number and a zip code. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO USE THE NUMBER OFF OF THE MOST RECENT ISSUE OR ANYTHING AFTER JANUARY 28, 2019 TO GAIN ACCESS! OLD ACCOUNT NUMBERS WILL NOT WORK The account number and zip code are easily available on your most recent issue of the High Plains Journal or Midwest Ag Journal in the address fields as is shown here. Sometimes the account number has extra zero's in front of it, just ignore those. Weve entered the era of telecommuters, flex work hours, and continuously connected employees. These changes have had serious ramifications for businesses that never worried about cyber security beyond their four walls. The risk of data breaches has intensified during this exodus from the office. As of 2015, Gallup reports that 37 percent of employees have telecommuted, up from just 9 percent in 1995. On average, these employees telecommute two days per month. Of course, this doesnt capture the volume of work that happens outside the office anyway. A 2015 survey from Career Builder and Harris Poll found that two in five workers work beyond traditional office hours, and 63 percent said working nine to five is an outdated concept. For three practical reasons, telecommuting will continue to grow. First, if all American employees, capable of telecommuting, worked from home half the time (about 50 percent of the workforce), the U.S. economy would save $700 billion annually, according to GlobalWorkplaceAnalytics.com. Second, academic researchers are finding that employees are more productive and happier working from home. And last, nearly two thirds of Americans want the opportunity to work from home according to research from PwC. For HR, telecommuting presents opportunities to save money, improve performance and attract employees. However, as workers migrate out of offices, security concerns will proliferate. Although IT de... How do consumers today go about solving their problems? If a local store doesnt have the right size running shoe or the right color shirt, they simply look to the Internet and expansive online marketplaces offering every color, shape and size available. While most of us cant imagine our lives without Amazon or Zappos, businesses have been slower to embrace the possibilities of global marketplaces, but thats changing. An increasing number are looking at globalized, online distribution as the future of work. You can see it now at startups and major companies alike; employees work from remote locations and outsourced project contractors are increasingly common. In fact, in this new connected world of work, you may never meet the people you work face-to-face. Increasingly flexible arrangements are a significant departure from the good ol days when every business deal closed with a handshake, but this is a progress for the better. What we lose in tradition is returned a few times over in new opportunities. Consider the benefits of a distributed team: Flexibility, as a Strategy and Recruiting Tool Effectively distributing work can keep an organization lean, but also nimble. The assortment of freelancers, agencies and contractors selling their services online allows businesses to tap into an always on world where someone can execute on a short-term assignment no matter what time of day it is. W... On June 1, 2016, the draft law regarding the reform of the German Act on the Supply of Temporary Employees (Arbeitnehmeruberlassungsgesetz AUG) has been adopted by the Federal Cabinet. The German Bundestag will address the draft law after the summer break. However, material changes to the draft are not expected to be made during the parliamentary process. If the time schedule will be observed, the reform will come into force as planned on January 1, 2017. The new law will bring material changes for both, employment agencies and their customers, the host businesses. What Agencies and their Customers need to know now Maximum hire term of 18 months: In future, the same temporary employee may only work for the same hirer for a period no longer than 18 consecutive months. If this maximum period is exceeded, an employment relationship between the temporary employees and the host business is established by law. Hire times prior to entering into force of the Act shall be expressly excluded. In case of a repeated supply of the same temporary employee to the same hirer, the deployment periods will be added up if the interruption is no longer than three months. Thus, if the deployment is interrupted for at least three months and one day, the maximum period begins to start anew and previous deployments will not be taken into account. A deviation from the maximum hire term is only possible by collective barg... A high school education is seen as the absolute minimum standard for adult success but what about those who become wildly successful without one? Some very recognizable public figures didn't graduate, but they still made billions. Virgin Group founder Richard Branson dealt with dyslexia and struggled in school, and at age 16, dropped out to start his own business. Advertisement Sir Richard Branson at a gala at the Beverly Wilshire Four Seasons Hotel on May 12 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo: Greg Doherty/Getty Images) But he later went on to found a massive conglomerate that now includes an airline, a wireless phone brand, a hotel chain and even a spaceflight company. He's currently worth US$5.5 billion, according to Forbes He's not the only famous billionaire who got by just fine without a high school diploma. You can learn about more of them in the video above. Advertisement Also on HuffPost Following the tragic death of actor Anton Yelchin over the weekend, the cause of his death has now been confirmed by the coroner's office. People magazine reports that the 27-year-old "Star Trek" actor died of blunt traumatic asphyxia, according to the Los Angeles County coroner's office. Yelchin died after his 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee rolled backwards down a steep driveway, and pinned him against a mailbox pillar and security fence at his house in Los Angeles. Advertisement Asphyxia occurs when the body is unable to breathe. The Jeep was recalled in April after there were reports of the vehicle rolling away unexpectedly. "The investigation is still ongoing and the traffic detectives will look at all of those factors as they would in any traffic collision investigation. So, at this time we're not sure what caused it, but that's something investigators are looking at," a Los Angeles Police Department spokesperson told People magazine. Over the last few days, the "Like Crazy" actor was remembered by his colleagues as "open and intellectually curious," "[a] beautiful spirit," and "a true artist." "I am utterly heartbroken about this terrible news. Anton Yelchin was a gift to this world," "Breaking Bad" actor Aaron Paul said in a tweet. Advertisement More details of the actor's death, including his toxicology report, will be released in the next six to eight weeks. With files from the Canadian Press. OTTAWA Canada lost its bid for a United Nations Security Council seat because of the European Union and the country would be better served if Britain left the organization, a long-time Conservative MP says. Calgary Forest Lawn MP Deepak Obhrai, the parliamentary secretary for foreign affairs from 2006 to 2015, laid the blame for the Tories' embarrassing lost at the UN firmly at the foot of the EU Tuesday. Advertisement "We lost the Security Council seat because of that. Despite the fact that we were a larger donor than Portugal, but the European Union controlled it," he told The Huffington Post Canada. Conservative MP Deepak Obhrai stands in the House of Commons during question period in Ottawa on May 30, 2014. (Photo: Fred Chartrand/CP) In 2010, Canada competed in a three-way race with Germany and Portugal for two rotating slots on the UN Security Council. Germany was considered a shoo-in and won the necessary two-thirds of support on the first ballot, but Portugal surprised Canadian officials by coming in second, and increasing its support by a large margin during the second round of voting, after which Canada pulled out to avoid a further embarrassment. Advertisement "They forced the European Union [states] to vote for those two, against Canada, and Canada lost because of the European Union ganging up on us as a larger entity," Obhrai said. The EU also used the colonies of some of its member states to lobby for support, he said, pointing to Brazil's campaign for the motherland. "You see the huge control of this bloc? That is threatening our interests," Obhrai said. "Britain's exit from the EU will help small countries like Canada." A referendum will be held Thursday to determine if Britain should remain part of the EU. "Britain's exit from the EU will help small countries like Canada." Conservative MP Deepak Obhrai Obhrai dismissed suggestions Canada had lost because of its pro-Israel voting record, and cuts to the development aid budget that affected African countries in particular. "No," he said firmly. "I campaigned We were giving money to Africa and everywhere, through multilateral institutions and we had countries of focus." Perhaps, the Arab states didn't appreciated the country's support for Israel, but they were only one bloc, Obhrai said. Advertisement Several former diplomats suggest, however, that the European Union isn't to blame for Canada losing its seventh attempt at a Security Council seat its only unsuccessful one. Paul Heinbecker, Canada's ambassador to the UN from 2000 to 2003, told the CBC after the vote that the Conservatives' foreign policy from decreasing African aid, to staunchly supporting Israel, to a lack of engagement on climate change and peacekeeping operations had been unpopular with the international community. Yves Fortier, another ex-ambassador to the UN from 1988 to 1991, told The Globe and Mail that the "lamentable result" was "a reflection of things that Canada has done or not done that a majority of nations" disapprove of. "It can only be interpreted as a slight to Canada by the international community," Fortier told the Globe. 'EU dimension can be overcome' One diplomat posted at the Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations during the Security Council campaign noted that there is "certainly huge pressure" from EU members to vote for one another and to use their influence to get third countries to vote for EU members. Advertisement "The fact we were running against two EU members (Portugal and Germany) certainly exposed us to that dynamic," he told The Huffington Post Canada. But the fact that non-European union countries in the group of seats reserved for Western countries sometimes get elected, such as Australia and New Zealand, does "demonstrates that the EU dimension can be overcome," he added. "So in our case it was one of the reasons we lost, but I would not say it was the predominant one." Another former diplomat who worked on the 2010 Security Council bid told HuffPost blaming the EU and African colonies for the loss mathematically "doesn't even make a little bit of sense" and is "a lazy excuse." Nobody knows for sure, and it's probably a combination of several different reasons, said the former official who agreed to speak anonymously so he could be candid. Former foreign affairs minister Lawrence Cannon, flanked by Tory MP Peter Kent and Canada's former UN ambassador John McNee participate in a news conference at United Nations headquarters, Tuesday, Oct. 12, 2010. (Photo: Richard Drew/AP) Advertisement Canada's middle east policies, its stance on climate change, and the announcement of a free trade deal with Israel the day before the vote "wasn't the smartest thing." Another reason Canada lost some votes was a due to a fight with the United Arab Emirates over landing rights at Canadian airports for Emirates and Etihad Airways, he said. "But the biggest reason we lost is that Minister Cannon was ineffective. Part of our strategy was to have him in New York meeting with ambassadors (who cast secret ballots) regularly, but he only came once or twice outside of the General Assembly's leaders week (when he met with ministers). He just refused to meet with ambassadors," the official said. Obhrai and Peter Kent, the then minister of state of foreign affairs for the Americas, were used to help court ambassadors' support but they weren't the minister of foreign affairs "which makes a difference to a lot of countries," he added. "Combine that with our refusal to spend to fly diplomats in for junkets (which Portugal spent a fortune on), and we didn't seem like we cared nearly as much." Loss was a 'badge of honour': Baird A year after the vote, then foreign affairs minister John Baird went on to describe the failed bid as a badge of honour. Advertisement "Maybe if we had shut up, and not talked about gay rights in Africa; maybe if we had shut up and been more quiet about our concerns about Sri Lanka; maybe if we hadn't been so vocally against the deplorable human rights record in Iran, maybe Iran might have voted for us.... But we didn't and I don't think we regret anything. Iran probably voted against us; North Korea probably voted against us; Gadhafi probably voted against us. I think those are all badges of honour," he said. Whatever the real reason for Canada's failed attempt at UN Security Council, Obhrai believes a weaker EU would benefit Canada. "They dominate everything. That is why if [Britain] leaves the European Union and the European Union is brought down in size, then we have direct relations with these countries in which we would benefit more because they would support us and they don't need to support the European Union," he said. Canada would be "better off" engaging with European states one-on-one and strengthening already close ties, outside of the lens of the EU, Obhrai said. Advertisement Former foreign affairs minister John Baird addresses the United Nations General Assembly, Thursday, Nov. 29, 2012. (Photo: Richard Drew/AP) Even on matters like the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), Obhrai said. That's a free trade deal that the Tories spent years trying to finalize and promoted as unique access to the world's largest market of 500 million people in 28 countries with a combined GDP of $20 trillion. "It doesn't really matter if it is CETA or whatever," Obhrai said. "We have free-trade agreements with multitudes of countries around the world. We could have free-trade agreements with Britain, Germany, France and doing it all at the same time." During his decade as the parliamentary secretary for foreign affairs, Obhrai said he represented Canada at countless forums where the tables were taken over by foreign ministers of European countries as well as a representative of the EU. "The European Union acts like a sovereign nation!" he said. The European Union has grown too big. Either this is a lesson for them, what has happened, and if Britain leaves, it's fine it will bring them down to size, if they don't, they'll have other revolts as well." Advertisement Scheer calls for Brexit On Saturday, another Conservative MP, former speaker of the House of Commons Andrew Scheer, penned an op-ed suggesting a Brexit would be better for Britain and better for local decision-making. "The supremacy of Parliament the will of the people expressed through their elected representatives is increasingly being replaced by the dictates of EU bureaucrats in Brussels," Scheer wrote. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, however, firmly supports Britain's continued participation in the EU. "More unity is a path toward greater prosperity. We have a great relationship with a strong and united Europe and certainly hope that that continues," he told Reuters in May. "Britain is always going to have clout, it's just obviously amplified by its strength as part of the EU." A British exit from the EU would strip the organization from its second-largest economy, one of its top military powers and its biggest financial centre, the news agency noted. ALSO ON HUFFPOST: Jason Kenney, one of the top ministers from Stephen Harper's government, is set to leave federal politics, according to several reports. Kenney will reportedly announce his departure this summer, and the news has set off speculation that he could devote his time to uniting Alberta's Progressive Conservative and Wildrose parties, reported the CBC's Chris Hall, citing unnamed sources. Advertisement Those sources said Kenney came to his decision after meeting with prominent Conservatives including ex-Harper advisor Ian Brodie, ex-MP Monte Solberg and former party campaign manager Tom Flanagan over the past few weekends. In an email to CTV News Wednesday, the MP did not confirm or deny the news. "Im getting very close to making a decision, and will let you know," Kenney wrote. "If he won, he would be pledging to proceed very quickly to open negotiations with the Wildrose." Political scientist Tom Flanagan The leadership of Alberta's PC party is currently vacant after former premier Jim Prentice steered it to a dismal third-place showing in the 2015 provincial election. CBC News reported that Kenney renewed his PC membership recently, but there is no confirmation of his candidacy. Advertisement Flanagan, a political scientist at the University of Calgary, said Kenney's platform would focus on bringing Alberta's right together. "If he won, he would be pledging to open negotiations with the Wildrose," Flanagan told the Calgary Herald. Flanagan added he would personally support Kenney if he decided to run. The reports come as Kenney has been touted as a possible candidate for leadership of the federal Conservative Party, a position that is currently held by interim leader Rona Ambrose. Last week, Kenney said he was keeping his options open when it came to his political future and he didn't rule out diving into Alberta provincial politics, The Calgary Sun reported. Advertisement He told the newspaper that numerous people had approached him to help unite the right in Alberta, which is something that he feels "needs to be done." The Tories and Wildrose have repeatedly denied any intention to merge, but other conservative groups in the province have pushed for the two parties to unite, or for the creation of a third right-leaning party. Popular Calgary MP Kenney was first elected at the age of 29 as the MP for Calgary Southeast in 1997 as a member of the Reform Party. He was then re-elected in every subsequent election, as a member of the Canadian Alliance and then the Conservatives. As of the October 2015 election, he represents the Calgary Midnapore riding in the House of Commons. Kenney served in numerous cabinet roles under Harper, overseeing portfolios including defence, multiculturalism, immigration and employment and social development. Advertisement Also on HuffPost: Jobs are reportedly booming in Canadas marijuana economy both the legal one and the not-so-legal one. There are dozens of ads, mostly in Toronto and Vancouver, for marijuana trimmers at legally sanctioned medical pot growers, or for "budtenders" who serve customers at the not-entirely-legal marijuana dispensaries that have popped up around those cities. Advertisement According to Lift Cannabis magazine, the marijuana dispensary business continues to see a boom ... despite a massive round of raids on May 26. (Vancouvers marijuana dispensaries were also raided by police.) There are also spinoff jobs in industries that support marijuana jobs in pot marketing and awareness, graphic design and data, and even jobs for doctors wholl issue medical marijuana prescriptions. One such job ad, listed on Kijiji, offers a $300,000 salary. But the boom may not last it depends on how marijuana is eventually legalized. Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne has signalled her intention to contain legal marijuana sales to the LCBO, the provinces monopoly alcohol chain. Advertisement If thats how things play out, there may not be many marijuana jobs at dispensaries in years to come. This may prove to be a Prague Spring, a rare moment of wild-west freedom before the government monopoly takes over. Either way, there are plenty of cool-sounding jobs to be had in the pot business today. Here are some that were recently advertised. Driver of a weed bus Urban Bella Marketing in Vancouver is hiring a marijuana expert who will drive a mobile marijuana clinic and dispense information about medical cannabis (but not cannabis itself). The ad notes the job is 100 per cent legal, and you need to not apply if you are uncomfortable with or offended by medical cannabis. Advertisement Were guessing the bus wont look as cool as Ken Keseys famous Merry Pranksters bus from the sixties (pictured above), but, well, it should. Marijuana media manager And here you thought your obsessive habit of posting pictures of crystallized bud weeds to Instagram would never pay off. An unnamed Toronto company is looking to hire a social media manager to post to Facebook, Twitter and elsewhere. The job also requires an understanding of Canadas medical marijuana program and flawless grammar and communication skills, which, in our opinion, would be a first for a social media manager. Cannabis writers and tastemakers Advertisement If you wanted to write about weed for a living, it used to be you had to try for a job at High Times. Not anymore, as an unnamed company in Toronto is hiring writers and tastemakers for a new cannabis magazine. It pays $100 an article not bad for something you pounded out at the last minute in a haze of smoke. Cannabis comedy writer/director/editor Someone in Toronto (once again, an anonymous ad) is looking for "a comedy director / writer / producer / editor for a new cannabis online series." Let's hope it's a small project, or the $500 to $1,500 in compensation will be a funnier comedy than the online series itself. Graphic designer for a weed tech company Lift describes itself as a technology company in Canada's burgeoning cannabis sector. Its hiring a graphic designer to help them establish Lift as the go-to brand for cannabis information and resources in Canada (and beyond!). Advertisement Lift isnt the only tech company that sees profit in bud. Microsoft recently partnered with a California startup to provide seed-to-sale tracking of marijuana for governments where it has been legalized. Also on HuffPost Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is signaling that Canadians shouldn't expect him to tell off Russian President Vladimir Putin at next month's NATO summit. Trudeau spoke to reporters in Ottawa Wednesday and was twice asked about the Russian president who now says he wants strained relations with Canada to improve. Advertisement The prime minister ducked a question on whether or not Russia is becoming more of a threat to world peace, and didn't take the bait when asked to share his personal thoughts about Putin. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau addresses an end-of-session news conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on June 22, 2016. (Photo: Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press) Liberals committed in the last campaign, he said, to "re-engage Canada with the world." And that means "cautious re-engaging with people (with whom) we disagree." Advertisement The prime minister noted that he told the Ukrainian Business Council this week that his government remains concerned about Russia's actions. Trudeau will make his first visit to Ukraine in July after the summit, which will be held in Poland. "We will be thoughtful and firm as I have always been on how we re-engage with Russia," he said. A journalist noted how former prime minister Stephen Harper made headlines in 2014 when he reportedly confronted Putin at a G20 meeting and told him that he needed to "get out of Ukraine." 'Fairly direct exchange' When asked what his "first words" to Putin might be, Trudeau reminded the group that he already met the Russian president at the G20 summit in Turkey last November. "As many of you know, I had a fairly direct exchange with him where I pointed out that his actions in Ukraine were illegitimate and irresponsible," he said. Advertisement Putin evidently remembers things a little differently. He told The Canadian Press last week that Trudeau told him that Canada and Russia "should re-establish the relations in full" something the Prime Minister's Office denies was said. The PM told reporters last November he made it clear to Putin that although Canada's approach has shifted with a change in government, "we remain committed to the fact that Russia's interference in Ukraine must cease." Called Putin a 'bully' during the campaign Just days before Liberals won the fall election, Trudeau pledged to confront Putin a man he called "dangerous" in Europe, "harmful" in the Middle East, and "unduly provocative" in the Arctic if given the chance. "Canada needs to continue to stand strongly with the international community pushing back against the bully that is Vladimir Putin," he said during a stop in Toronto. "If I have the opportunity in the coming months to meet with Vladimir Putin, I will tell him all this directly to his face because we need to ensure that Canada continues to stand strongly for peace and justice in the world." Advertisement 'Deeply concerning': Tories Meanwhile, Conservatives continue to paint the Trudeau government as soft on Russia's aggression. Foreign affairs critic Tony Clement and deputy critic Peter Kent released a statement Wednesday urging Liberals to take more "principled" stands internationally. "It is deeply concerning the government continues to cozy up to Russia," the statement reads. "Vladimir Putin has indicated that he and Prime Minister Trudeau have discussed re-establishing 'full relations.' Former prime minister Stephen Harper walks past Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 Summit Sept. 5, 2013 in St.Petersburg, Russia. (Photo: The Canadian Press) "We must stand firm against the Russian invasion of Ukraine and annexation of Crimea. We must protect our Arctic sovereignty against Russian imperialism." Advertisement Tories are also calling on the government to support the Conservatives' version of the Magnitsky Act, which will more harshly punish Russian human-rights violators. Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion has already signaled that Liberals won't support the legislation. With files from The Canadian Press Also on HuffPost: The temperature hit 35 degrees Celsius at an event to mark World Refugee Day in downtown Toronto this week. There was no breeze, no shade. Humanitarian workers sweltered in the booths they'd set up, to raise awareness for the world's 65 million refugees. Organizers had provided tent-like covers, and everyone crowded underneath to stay out of the sun. But the heat was relentless. In the World Vision tent, Lindsay Gladding worked hard to entertain her eight-year-old son William, who had come along for the day. As Humanitarian and Emergency Affairs team leader for World Vision Canada, Lindsay was on hand to describe the dire needs in refugee camps and settlements. Advertisement William tries World Vision's 360 video, about a 13-year-old Syrian refugee boy named Ali. All photos World Vision For a time, William was contented with the toys and activities World Vision staff had brought. But after an hour, he was bored, hungry -- and melting in the heat. And he let his mother know it! I watched how creatively Lindsay worked to care for her son in a cramped, stifling space with very few resources available. I thought of all the refugee mothers who are doing the same. Not just for a few hours, but for months or years at a time. Advertisement Parenting empty handed Lindsay has just returned from Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, where she spent five days visiting families living in tented refugee settlements. Back in Toronto, we found a tiny patch of shade, so I could ask Lindsay what life is like for those families. Debbie: There's a heat warning in effect in Toronto today. How does this compare to the place you've just returned from? Lindsay: In the settlement I visited last week, it hit 45 degrees Celsius. In a few minutes, I'll be able to take my son to an air conditioned Subway restaurant to cool down and have a drink. But mothers in the Bekaa Valley have nowhere to take their children except for the family tent. Debbie: It's pretty crowded where we're sitting, in this small tent here in Nathan Phillips Square. Your son's making the best of it, even though there's not much space with all the adults. How does this compare to a family tent in Lebanon? Advertisement Lindsay: Families in the Bekaa Valley are living with up to 10 people in a tent about this size. There's no room to spread out, or to find a quiet space alone, especially at night when everyone's lying down. Debbie: Your son is wearing shorts and a t-shirt today, like most Canadian children. What were children wearing in the refugee settlement? Lindsay: Most children have one change of clothes at the most. If their parents grabbed winter clothing when they fled their homes -- which makes good sense if you were fleeing in winter--then that's what the children wear in summer. There just isn't anything else. Debbie: You use the term 'informal tented settlement' for the community you visited last week. What's the difference between this and a refugee camp? Advertisement Lindsay: The Bekaa Valley is an agricultural region in Lebanon. Syrian seasonal migrant workers used to come here every year, and a few tents were set up to accommodate them. When things got bad in Syria, fathers started bringing their families with them. Some just stayed, and more families came. They've built their own shelters out of found materials. They pay on average the equivalent of $775 Canadian a year in rent for the land, and without legal work even this modest amount means mounting debt for Syrian families. Debbie: We got to see a video of children in the settlement you visited last week. They were smiling, even laughing, and seemed very happy. How are the children when the cameras are switched off? Lindsay: They're incredibly bored. They just wander around. So few of them are in school in Lebanon, because they've fallen behind, and the cost of transportation and books is too far out of reach. Advertisement Lebanese school is conducted in Arabic, English and French, not just Arabic as it was in Syria. Older children don't have much chance of catching up, and are often bullied by the younger kids when they try to go to school. So they just walk around the settlement all day. Debbie: What's this like for the mothers? How are they able to parent the kids? Lindsay: The moms say the children don't listen. Parenting is so hard when you've got no incentives to offer. They can't impose consequences as there's nothing left to take away. There is little to entertain them and without the structure that school provides children feel lost and insecure. That feeds into their behaviour during the day. Some of the children are able to participate in what we call "psychosocial support," meaning they get help talking through their experiences so they can gradually heal. They've even formed a children's council, and are learning to speak up for themselves, giving their views on how things are to be run in the community. I would love to see all children have this kind of opportunity. The difference that it makes in their lives in immeasurable. Advertisement Debbie: Is there anything hopeful about life in these tented settlements? Lindsay: Some mothers feel grateful that they're still alive and at least have their children with them. One mother, who has been raising her children in this tented settlement for the past four years, said she wished they had stayed behind in Syria. She said it would be better to have died than to be living as they are. Debbie: What kind of hope do families have that things will change? Lindsay: They do hope that peace will come, so they can go home. For now, the one really bright spot is World Vision's Early Childhood Education classes, for children three to six years old. Many of these children were born as refugees, or came to Lebanon as babies. The hope is to get the youngest children ready to enter school in Lebanon, so the children are learning English and basic literacy and numeracy skills in preparation. Advertisement It's so wonderful to see how the children flourish in this "child-friendly space," as we call it. They're not bored there, that's for sure. And it's no coincidence that most of the children there want to be teachers when they grow up. This could be the highlight of their lives right now, having something to actually aim toward. That's why it's so important that Canada keep the centre open, and offer this kind of chance to other refugee children. It helps preserve futures. A mother gently coaxes her son to attend the first week of early childhood education classes, taking place inside the tent. Debbie: What would you like Canada's mothers to know about what Syrian mothers need for their children? Advertisement Lindsay: First and foremost, their children need peace. And just as importantly, their children need a chance to keep up with their education. Education is everything for Syrian families. These children will need to help rebuild Syria after the war ends. They need to be ready. Follow HuffPost Canada Blogs on Facebook ALSO ON HUFFPOST: In the hit movie The Martian Matt Damon's character, astronaut Mark Watney, is left in the dust of Mars alone to survive. He realizes that to live, "I'm going to have to science the sh*t out of this." There are some lessons in there for the Trudeau government as they conduct their consultations on Canada's wait-and-see innovation budget. LESSON 1: New ways to spread manure are not enough. In the movie, Mark Watney figures out how to grow potatoes on Mars through an innovative use of his team's manure. There is a tendency in government to slap the word "innovation" on an array of repackaged program announcements. We can't do the same things over again and expect different results. Advertisement LESSON 2: Success involves risk and failure. Figuring out the fertilizer issue was not enough. Watney needed water to bring his seedlings to life. Hey! That is like the capital our startups need. Watney uses chemistry to make water from rocket fuel. What was once critical to his escape becomes the fodder for his survival. The process is risky and he even blows himself up while trying. But he succeeds. Reallocating money from election promises or historically sacred programs needs to be part of the "innovation agenda." As Dan Breznitz, the Munk Chair of Innovation Studies at the University of Toronto, has said: "An innovation policy without vision is the usual Canadian non-innovation policy. Trying to turn our grand new vision into reality without constant experimentation will be a waste of public money." LESSON 3: 'Mission critical' means all-encompassing. The entire movie hangs off of Damon's line. It's even a favourite of real-life celebrity astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. We have no doubt about Watney's commitment. His very survival depends on applying absolute best know-how to everything he does. We need this same urgency in Canada. This is not only the file of Navdeep Bains, the minister of innovation, science and economic development. We need government-wide changes like a plan for procurement policy to embrace buying from Canadian startups. Advertisement In the forward to the recent report, Breznitz says that "there is no one-size-fits all model" for state innovation agencies. As I review my recommendations for change, I agree that each initiative needs to consider our unique context and transform solutions inspired by global successes to make them our own. The danger is that minister Bains completes his innovation walkabout and the whole federal government does not come back with the kind of realization that Mark Watney had. For him, every day was a series of firsts. We are seeking business models, products and technologies that do not exist yet. We need a lean, agile startup-like approach to experimentation throughout Canada. For example, in a recent spat with Visa over merchant credit card fees, Walmart Canada stopped accepting Visa cards from Canadians on millions of transactions. With merchant credit card fees at 0.3 per cent in parts of Europe and as high as 1.5 per cent in Canada, it can seem like Canadian consumers are getting a crappy deal. But before the Federal Government steps in with a regulatory response, consider ways to promote Canadian interests in what amounts to a battle for profit margins between multi-national market agents. Why not a policy to promote the adoption of alternative payment methods like nanoPay's MintChip? That would put pressure on credit card companies to reduce fees. Is there a way that Shopify, our national champion of e-commerce, can take advantage of Walmart's use of Canadian consumers as a bargaining chip? Breznitz's team says their aim is to help policymakers think more systematically and clearly about the choices they have. We can be grateful for a useful framework to calibrate initiatives as long as governments begin with the end in mind. Advertisement Let's innovate the sh*t out of this. Follow HuffPost Canada Blogs on Facebook MORE ON HUFFPOST: (Photo: Vincent Tremeau/Plan International) As a Child Rights Advisor with Plan International Canada, I'm too often reminded that the commercial sexual exploitation of children is a grim reality in many parts of the world. It can arise in, or as a result of, a variety of contexts -- emergencies, disasters, poverty, and any other situation where there is an imbalance of power or resources. Unfortunately, as a recent study by ECPAT International demonstrates, this issue is not confined to other countries and continents; it's happening right here at home. Child-sex tourism is a particular kind of commercial sexual exploitation of children, interrelated with prostitution, pornography and human trafficking for sexual purposes. It occurs when someone travels to a place and, while there, sexually abuses a local child or young person. It becomes "commercial" when the exploitation involves a transaction, including the exchange of cash, food, clothing or any other perceived advantage. Advertisement Child-sex tourism, like any other industry, exists as a result of demand. A wide range of people may profit from the sexual exploitation of a child, including parents, family members, community members, friends, peers, teachers, businesses (especially bars, restaurants, hotels, motels, roadside rest areas, taxis, bus and railroad stations, airports, travel agencies and cruise ships) -- or even the local economy as a whole. Many beaches around the world are considered "hot spots" for child-sex tourism. (Photo: Unni Krishnan/Plan International) Tourism has seen extraordinary growth over the past 20 years, with the number of international tourist arrivals rising from 527 million in 1995 to 1,135 million globally by 2014. Canada and the United States have long been considered source countries for offenders, but they are also, increasingly, destinations. Neither country maintains reliable data on this issue, but according to the ECPAT report, there are signs that children are becoming involved at a younger age and that some engage in commercial sex for survival, with indigenous children at particular risk. Child-sex tourism, like any other industry, exists as a result of demand. Our vast global tourism infrastructure is being exploited by traffickers hoping to meet the demand of business travelers and transient workers. As a society, we often try to exempt ourselves from these issues, choosing to believe that these crimes don't happen in Canada, or that the perpetrators are easily-identifiable deviants. The reality is that child-sex tourism is generally a crime of opportunity. The fact that more people are on the move and more countries are competing for travel and tourism dollars creates increased opportunities and rewards for offenders to exploit children. Unfortunately, regulations and laws to protect children from the child-sex tourism are lagging behind. Advertisement Without real measures to ensure their protection, children are left vulnerable and at risk. Laws to deal with child-sex tourism have never been strong enough to properly prosecute or track perpetrators at a domestic level, let alone across borders. In Canada, weaknesses include the relative ease with which registered offenders can leave the country and the lack of information sharing between law enforcement and border authorities. The Tougher Penalties for Child Predators Act received Royal Assent last year and is meant to close some of these gaps. The use of extraterritorial jurisdiction has also been an important means of charging offenders. However, overall Canada's extraterritorial laws remain underused, with only seven successful prosecutions so far. Children collaborate on a child rights exercise at their school in Kenya. (Photo: Ivette Fonseca/Plan International) Plan International has a great deal of experience working with children to ensure that they are safe and protected. Just this week, in collaboration with our sector colleagues, we released "25 Years of Fighting the Sale and Sexual Exploitation of Children: Addressing New Challenges," a United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography, which includes a child-friendly booklet to help children to speak out against abuse. In our work, we have found that education is one of the most successful ways to change behaviours and discourage abuse. For instance, our programs in Kenya's coastal communities exemplify the many ways education can serve as a vital tool to fight against the sexual exploitation of children. Once we collectively acknowledge the issue, there are immediate solutions. Kenya's beaches were identified as a hot-spot for child-sex tourism. To tackle the issue, a multi-pronged approach was implemented. Beach Management Committees (BMCs), made up of small business owners on and near the beach, were educated about the issue, and of their responsibility to prevent, detect and report incidents. The County Tourist Police Officer has commended Plan International and the BMC for the initiative and called upon the beach operators to work closely with the police, the Department of Children's Services and other stakeholders to protect children establishing beaches free of child-sex tourism. Teachers and students were armed with information about child rights and were empowered with rigorous reporting mechanisms. Advertisement Volunteer children's officers in Kenya with Plan International Canada Child Rights Advisor Ivette Fonseca (centre). These community-based volunteers are responsible for detecting and reporting child protection issues in coordination with child protection institutions. (Photo: Ivette Fonseca/Plan International) This approach can work here too, and by reading this article, you're already starting to work on the solution. One of the major issues Canada faces in combating this crime is our willful ignorance that it is taking place. Once we collectively acknowledge the issue, there are immediate solutions. Firstly, we can call on the Canadian government to endorse the Code of Conduct for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation in Travel and Tourism ("the Code"). The government's endorsement would, in turn, encourage Canadian businesses to adopt the Code, spreading awareness of their responsibility to children. The Code has already been successfully implemented elsewhere, as in Costa Rica, where a bilateral project funded by the Canadian government and implemented by the International Bureau for Children's Rights (IBCR) and Paniamor, a local NGO, has used it to raise awareness about child-sex tourism and empower communities to better protect themselves. Secondly, we must continue to increase the private sector's involvement and foster cross-sectoral partnerships pushing for more effective laws, stronger enforcement, the end of impunity for offenders, and, most importantly, better protection of children. Beyond these measures, we must ensure that our social structures are capable of responding to the needs of our population's most vulnerable -- especially children. We can achieve this by educating children about their right to bodily autonomy and safety, no strings attached; by ensuring that teachers are prepared to recognize and respond to signs of child sexual exploitation; and finally by ensuring that our justice system is attuned to the unique needs of victims, from front-line police officers, to forensic investigators, to judges. Advertisement Ignorance is not an excuse, and inaction is not an option -- it's our collective responsibility to ensure that Canada's children have the opportunity to grow up safe and secure. Ivette Fonseca is a Child Rights Advisor with Plan International Canada. For as long as I can remember, being black and gay was like the biggest crime one could commit in my community. It didn't matter where you were born, the culture was one that saw black churches openly bashing homosexuality and parents disowning their children, leaving them on the streets to survive however they could. Fast forward to 2016, the black LGBTQ community is growing by the minute and more and more black gay men and women are embracing who they are without apology. I mean, what's there to apologize for? Even in the wake of the Orlando shooting, many more gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual people are coming out and showing the world that they are proud members of the rainbow family. Advertisement We are now celebrating Pride and my friends from across the Caribbean and North America have joined me in letting the world know just how proud we are to be able to celebrate something that many had to sacrifice their lives for. Here's what Pride means to us: Maurice Tomlinson (Jamaica/Toronto) Pride for me is political. It is daring to be visible in spaces where LGBTI people are persecuted and even killed. That is why I organized Pride in Montego Bay where homophobic murders have repeatedly cost beautiful lives. But we refuse to be exterminated. Advertisement Carla John (Bermuda/Toronto) Pride means freedom and family. Growing up gay in a tiny country like Bermuda, I didn't think I'd ever be able to marry a woman or raise a family. But on June 22, 2012 after being together since 2004, I married my best friend. Now every June we get to celebrate Pride and family. Andrew Campbell (Jamaica/Toronto) It is finally having the power and resolve on the inside to dictate my energy. It reminds me that I do not need to hide and it is okay for me to me my authentic self. I have given myself permission to be proud of who and what I am. Laurisa Francis (Antigua and Barbuda) Pride means being free to enjoy life without people invading your space or trying to tell you what life is about! It is being proud of myself and my accomplishments, standing up for what I believe in and showing others that no matter what life throws at you, you should not lose faith or turn away from what makes you happy, what makes you tick, what makes you laugh, what makes you love and most of all what makes life complete. Advertisement Juelz Edwards (Antigua and Barbuda/New York) Pride to me means finally being able to live life freely, taking away the shame that you were made to feel and just being able to smile. It is about not hiding my true colors and letting it spread beautifully like a rainbow after the storm. Pride is about loving me, being who I am, dressing how I want, loving who I love without holding back. Pride to me is ACCEPTANCE, PEACE and LOVE. I am a lesbian -- a stud and I'm not ashamed of who I am. I am proud! Victor/Naomi Leone (Africa/Toronto) To me, Pride means just being myself: A joyful and proud African man. As a performer, I hope to inspire others and touch their hearts by telling a story about the fight for freedom and equality. Pride should remind people to stand up for themselves and for others. We will continue to fight equality and we will continue to celebrate pride. Advertisement Vanessa Crevelle (Trinidad and Tobago/Toronto) To me, pride means understanding and acceptance among ourselves and elsewhere. It also means peace, harmony, support and so forth. The LGBTI black community came from such a long way (Legally, Socially, Politically, Religiously and mostly Culturally). The black LGBTI organizations have struggled so much to balance OUR OWN culture expectations through community stigmatization, oppression and prosecution particularly within the Caribbean. There is a sense of freedom and comfort that I see LGBTI people have here that they cannot/will NOT be able to have within the Caribbean. Kingade` Johnson (Jamaica/Toronto) It wasn't until Pride 2009 when I found freedom from my struggles, I found self-love, I found Gay love, I found the kind of love that made me love myself as a "Black Jamaican Gay man" and that became my PRIDE. Pride is letting go of religious governance, letting go of self-hate, letter go of anger and finding inner peace. Pride means to love one's self and live in one's happiness... HAPPY PRIDE TORONTO 2016. Janelle Bruney (Dominica/Antigua and Barbuda) Pride for me is being myself and no one else. It means wearing my joggers and high top sneakers one day, then cute sandals and lipstick the next. It means dressing as I feel and in what I'm comfortable in. It's being proud of myself for making myself happy despite what anyone thinks or likes. It's being a proud gay black single mom from the Caribbean raising my daughter to be who she is and accepting and loving everyone no matter their race, sex, age, nationality or sexual preference. It's being able to chase my goals and it is also going through many trials in life and coming out dancing and smiling. Advertisement Twysted Miyake-Mugler (Jamaica/Toronto) Pride is a rebellious expression -- an expression of everything that we have been told to keep inside during our years of socialization. We were cast out for being born who we are, so we form a rebellion by coming together and celebrating what we were told to be ashamed of. When we celebrate PRIDE, we don't do it for those who can, we do it for those who can't. Tammie-Faye Connor (Antigua and Barbuda/Toronto) Pride means being me! *** People often ask why we need a gay pride celebration and all I can say is that Pride is much more than a parade; it is a reminder of our journey which has been filled with lots of ups and downs and too many dead bodies. So for me, Pride is a celebration of life! scyther5 via Getty Images Close up of lease agreement empty document with pen How much do you know about your legal rights as a tenant? Are you aware of the consequences if you don't pay your rent on time? Do you know much notice you need to give your landlord if you plan on moving out? Chances are that even if you have been renting for a long time, you may not know all that much about the legalities of renting an apartment or condo. There is much more to a landlord-tenant relationship than just a contract, and understanding your rights and responsibilities is vital to keeping you where you want to be, at the amount you want to pay (or at least agreed to). That being said, there are horror stories on both sides of the relationship, and chances are someone you know has had their share of issues either with a tenant or their landlord. Advertisement While some associations feel that the Ontario Residential Tenancies Act currently favours tenants (although associations representing tenants will disagree), there are proposed changes being debated that could shift the power back into the hands of the landlord. One of the biggest proposed changes affects the ease at which landlords can evict tenants, and many are debating what the aftermath of these purposed laws could be. The current provincial government is suggesting changes to the Residential Tenancies Act in an effort to improve the affordable housing situation in the province. Essentially, the government believes that more rental units on the market will lead to more affordable housing options, a simple game of numbers. The more units on the market, the more affordable options right? The idea is that the government wants to encourage more people to become landlords. By giving landlords more power, it will be easier (or more tempting) to become a landlord and thus increase the number of landlords. Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Ted McKeekin was quoted in a CBC article stating, "Many people don't want to rent out space because they don't want to deal with problem tenants." The following changes were purposed to help increase the number of landlords thereby creating more options for tenants and increasing the number of affordable housing units. Many disputes boil down to whomever has the ball in their court from the legal side of things. Evictions for Smoking One proposed change would give landlords the ability to evict tenants for smoking in non-smoking units. At the moment, landlords cannot evict tenants for smoking even though they signed a non-smoking lease. On the surface this change seems logical enough, but proving this would be difficult (how many cigarettes need to be smoked to warrant an eviction?), as many conflicts between landlords and tenants tend to be. Advertisement However, many disputes boil down to whomever has the ball in their court from the legal side of things, and if the landlord has the legal rights, it will be naturally easier for them to flex their muscle and evict tenants. When the law is on your side, so is this power. Advocacy groups for tenants believe that landlords shouldn't have the power to evict tenants, or rather are fearful the power could be abused. This creates the problem that evicting tenants (especially on "debatable" actions like smoking) gives landlords the power to willfully evict current tenants and charge new tenants more for the same place. So this same argument can be used against making housing more affordable as many tenant associations think the proposed changes would actually increase rent. Therefore, this change would arguably lead to increases in costs, while marginalizing a section of the population who choose to smoke. Annual Rent Increase Amounts One of the biggest changes would be amending the law that states landlords cannot increase rent on a yearly basis by more than 2.5 per cent. At this point the provincial government dictates what the annual raise in rental amounts can be. The Ontario Government just released the 2017 rent increase guideline, which was set at 1.5 per cent. Naturally, if landlords are able to increase their rent by more than this amount, expect rent prices to increase, especially in high-demand areas like downtown Toronto. Prohibiting Pets Whether or not your landlord allows pets is also being debated, and a blanket ban on pets is being discussed. If landlords are allowed to fully ban pets, rent may not necessarily increase, but it may become harder for the pet-owning segment of the population to find a place to call home. If there are fewer renters, demand would dip and therefore rent fees could lower as a result, though it's hard to imagine this rule making a substantial, measurable impact either way. Advertisement Overall, whether or not these proposed changes become legal, the only way rent will decrease as a result of the proposed laws is if there is a substantial increase in the number of new listings. It's tough to imagine that the ability to evict a tenant for smoking or banning pets would substantially affect rental prices when compared against much larger issues like the Canadian dollar, employment numbers or supply and demand. Geordie Dent from the Federation of Metro Tenants Associations said that "A lot of these things seem like landlord giveaways" and at the moment, the government is still weighing in on the 15 proposed changes. The proposed changes were discussed under the veil of helping small landlords feel comfortable renting their properties, thereby creating more rental apartments across Canada on the market and increasing the number of affordable housing options. If these goals are achieved, it could create a win-win situation for both landlords and tenants. Imagine that! Follow HuffPost Canada Blogs on Facebook Watching the rise of Donald Trump while peering nervously over the Atlantic to watch the EU referendum unfold in my homeland, it has been hard to escape the feeling that they represent two different versions of the same phenomenon. The Leavers may be more genteel than the Donald, but they spring from the same poisoned well. Whatever their claims to the contrary, they are selling the same politics of division and mendacity - just on different sides of the pond. The time has come to decide whether you support this politics or not. No Leave supporter turning out to vote or Remain voter not bothering to do so has any excuse for what they will be allowing to happen. The Leave camp will tell us they do not stand for division. Instead, they assure us, they are "globalists". They want simply to remove us from the shackles of the European Union so that they can broaden our collective horizons. Scratch the surface of a Little Englander and you will reportedly find Marco Polo. Once the dead hand of the bureaucrats in Brussels is removed from our economy, our trade with the rest of the world will flourish; and by the way, the Europeans will just roll over and give us everything we want, too. It's so simple that all we can do is marvel at the fact no-one thought to do it sooner. If you think that removing us from the largest free market in the world seems a strange way to begin an export-led boom and foster a new politics of global inclusivity, you would be right. Look beyond these claims to what the Leave campaign actually wants to do and the rhetoric it uses to support it, and you see hints of a darker truth. Listen to them demur that in the last analysis it doesn't matter if the economy takes a hit for the sake of restoring "sovereignty" and immigration controls, and the truth becomes yet clearer. See them echo Donald Trump's rhetoric, and it becomes unmistakeable. Advertisement What unites both Trump and the Leavers is an essentially zero-sum view of global economics and politics in which their countries are not getting a fair shake. Foreigners, of course, are to blame. Trump has described Mexico as "an enemy nation", and Brexiteers have warned of the danger posed by "ze Germans". In a strange inversion of the post-Cold War optimism that greater trade would lead to peace and harmony throughout the world, the culprits often seem to be our closest allies. The Brexiteers stir us to battle against them. An attempt to return Europe to a primordial state of nature in which each nation must battle anew to secure its livelihood and rights might seem worthwhile if it promised vast rewards. But it does not. The twin delusions on which the expectation of these rewards are based - that we will get everything we want in a "deal" with Europe and that non-European trade will skyrocket - quickly wither under analysis. Brexiteers are fond of talking about national interests and of citing the role Germany will play in ensuring we get what we want from the EU after we leave, so let us consider Germany's national interest. According to the Leave campaign, Germany is so dependent on trade with the UK that it will ensure a quick, painless transition to a sort of a la carte status for the UK in Europe in which we get all the benefits of the free market but none of the perceived drawbacks of free movement. What this completely fails to acknowledge is that Germany has a far greater interest in holding the EU and the euro together than it does in keeping tariffs off its relatively insignificant trade with us. When the Leave campaign reduces Germany's national interest down to the size of its trade surplus with the UK, it displays a mind-bogglingly narrow-minded worldview which alone ought to make us question their judgement on every other issue. Germany will be devastated to see us go, but will immediately turn to stem the damage to the rest of the EU after we do. Encouraging members to leave and then negotiate their own a la carte deals would serve the opposite interest. Presumably even the most pugnacious booster of John Bull recognises that the euro is more important to the German economy than selling cars to the UK. Any German politician who did not leverage the UK's overall much greater dependence on EU trade into a terrible deal for London would be guilty of professional negligence - especially given how desperate our post-Brexit government will be to secure a deal amid the twin sterling and fiscal crises that will inevitably follow. Advertisement Then take the supposed rewards of boosting non-European trade after Brexit. This would begin, of course, with renegotiating every trade deal that we currently have courtesy of our EU membership. A mere trifle that will only take a decade or so, I'm sure. Then we can somehow move on to leveraging our much smaller economy into achieving the better deals that our perfidious neighbours, with whom we form an exponentially larger and more attractive market, somehow held us back from. Germany, meanwhile, managed to export over three times more to China in 2014 than Britain. Given that both countries are part of the EU and subject to exactly the same regulations, this would seem to suggest the reason for Britain's sluggishness lies elsewhere. Some might wonder if the UK economy's dire productivity, the second-worst in the G7, had something to do with it. Others find it easier to blame "ze Germans". We can tell by the rhetoric they have already employed how our new post-Brexit government will react when they fail to secure the concessions they promised from the outside world - as, make no mistake, they will. These right-wing radicals do not even have the excuse of their counterparts on the left who, in George Orwell's words, are often guilty of playing with fire without knowing that fire is hot. Our friends on the right know full well how hot fire is, and they intend to direct it appropriately. A movement that had its beginning in blaming foreigners for holding Albion back will return to this comfortable ground when its dreams are denied. This brings us back to Donald Trump, who has already mapped out this ground for us. He has shown that in the globalized world we live in, any attack on foreigners outside our borders quickly becomes an attack on those within. The acrimony at other European nations who refused to deal on our terms, at the migrants and descendants of migrants within our shores on whose inherent undesirability the Leave campaign has based so much of its message, and even at the Scottish and Irish who will press claims of their own in the aftermath of Brexit - all of these will be grist to the mill of a movement grounded in English nationalism. If Brexit does lead to a continent-wide collapse of the EU, the same tragedy will play out 28 times. Advertisement The attacks on Orlando are undoubtedly a low point for the worldwide LGBT community. The UK press appears to have begun to forget the significance of this attack in light of more recent news closer to home, and the media have barely given any concessions to claims of "straightwashing" coverage of the events. Vigils held worldwide and calls for solidarity at this time are a bright light coming out of the darkness, and must serve as a beacon for our community never to forget these atrocities. The hate crime that took place in the early hours of Sunday 12 June has left families and loved ones of 49 victims devastated - but we must make sure it galvanises the global LGBT community and their allies. After all the work that has been done to grant our freedoms - as well as mainstream acceptance - this act throws into stark relief that homophobia still exists in society. Whatever the range of motives behind the attack, it is undeniable that homophobic prejudice played a part. Huge progress has been made in recent years, not least towards marriage equality, but also by my own Women and Equalities Committee in Westminster on pushing for greater rights for the transgender community and by the progressive SNP Government in Scotland. Yet many people still live in a climate of fear. Advertisement Homophobia and transphobia still exist in society. Most worryingly, there is a direct correlation between this attack and casual homophobia expressed in language, prejudice in homes, and name-calling in school playgrounds. This includes seemingly innocuous actions like the use of the word "gay" as a pejorative. Acts like this may seem small in comparison to the atrocities seen in Orlando, but serve to normalise an ingrained sense that gay people are lesser than others, unnatural or wrong. That is exactly why it is the responsibility of everyone who has been shocked, outraged, angered or saddened by the attacks in Orlando to challenge all forms of homophobia and transphobia that still exists in our society and to stand up for LGBT equality. If any good can come from these horrific events, it must be that everyone, regardless of their orientation, has a greater responsibility to question what full equality means for the LGBT community. I joined the vigil in London's Soho on the Monday night following the attacks, a huge and sprawling collective of thousands of people, centring on the Admiral Duncan pub, which was in 1999 the target of the worst homophobic attack in Britain. The atmosphere was one of solidarity among the LGBT community and our allies, the fullest expression of the rallying call on the back of the Orlando attacks that "Love Is Love", and one that I hope will continue to echo through pride celebrations in the UK and across the globe this month. Advertisement However far we have come in recent years, we still have a responsibility to challenge the culture of homophobia and transphobia that exists in society in all its forms. Until we do, prejudice, discrimination and extreme acts of hate will continue to happen. With British voters heading to the ballot box on 23 June to decide on a referendum about whether the UK should remain within the European Union or not, it is striking that the Vote Leave campaign has used the same tactics to deny the economic dangers of Brexit as lobbyists who refute the risks of climate change. A ComRes opinion poll released on 16 June showed that 18 per cent of people who intended to vote to leave also disagreed with the statement that "human activity is causing climate change", compared with 10 per cent of those planning to vote to remain. As a report on the survey in The Guardian pointed out, this is perhaps not surprising given the views of the leaders of the Vote Leave campaign. Michael Gove, Co-Convenor of the Vote Leave campaign, has attracted sharp criticism after telling a television interviewer "I think people in this country have had enough of experts". And this week he compared the actions of economists who have warned of the impacts of the UK leaving the European Union with the Nazi smear campaign against Albert Einstein. Mr Gove was encouraging people to turn a blind eye to the assessments of not just Her Majesty's Treasury, but also those of independent experts, such as the Institute for Fiscal Studies. Advertisement However, Mr Gove also has a history of being muddled about climate change risks. As Education Secretary, he tried unsuccessfully to have the topic removed from the National Curriculum, arguing that it was too "contemporary". Alongside Mr Gove on the Vote Leave Campaign Committee is Lord Lawson, who set up the Global Warming Policy Foundation in 2009 to lobby against policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. His most infamous comments on climate change risks include an attempt to blame French families for thousands of deaths during a European heatwave in 2003, the hottest since at least 1500, which scientists have concluded was made more likely by global warming. In his 2008 book An Appeal to Reason: A Cool Look at Global Warming, Lord Lawson wrote: "As it happens, I spent the summer of 2003 in south-west France myself, and found it perfectly tolerable, but it was clearly a hardship for some. It is the custom in France for every family to go away on holiday during the first fortnight in August, leaving behind, to fend for themselves, those family members who are too old to travel. In August 2003, this proved to be a problem (the number of staff at old people's homes who had gone on holiday at the same time did not help, either)." Lord Lawson not only rejects the scientific evidence for the risks of climate change, but he often attacks the scientists who are responsible for carrying out research on the potential consequences of rising greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere. In his 2006 pamphlet for the Centre for Policy Studies, a right-wing lobby group, Lord Lawson compared concerns about climate change risks with Islamic fundamentalism, stating that "the new priests are scientists (well rewarded with research grants for their pains) rather than clerics of the established religions, and the new religion is eco-fundamentalism". Advertisement More recently, during the 2013-14 UK floods, caused by the wettest winter on record, Lord Lawson denied any link to climate change, rebutting the "absurd statement" of the Chief Scientist of the Met Office, who he described as "this Julia Slingo woman". The tactic of attempting to smear dissenting experts has been adopted by the Vote Leave campaign against economists who speak out about the risks of Brexit. Last month, Vote Leave tried to undermine a new analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies by calling it a "paid-up propaganda arm of the European Commission". But it is not only Lord Lawson among the Vote Leave campaign who exhibits a disregard for evidence and experts. One of its Board members is Graham Stringer MP, who recently became a trustee of the Global Warming Policy Foundation. Mr Stringer has not been as vocal about his 'scepticism' of climate change risks, but he has promoted an unwillingness to accept medical evidence for the existence of dyslexia. Another key member of the Vote Leave campaign who has flirted with climate change denial is Boris Johnson. He showed on more than one occasion while he was the Mayor of London that he is sympathetic to the discredited claims of climate change 'sceptics'. And he also demonstrated a hostility towards scientific evidence revealing how much of a problem air pollution is in London, even though it caused tens of thousands of premature deaths during his eight years in charge of the capital. This disdain for expert organisations and individuals that undermine flawed arguments is a key characteristic of those who are climate change and European Union 'sceptics'. It means that scientists who warn of the risks of climate change and economists who warn of the risks of Brexit are simply dismissed as "alarmists". Advertisement So if the Vote Leave campaign prevails on 23 June, it may not only be the end of the UK's membership of the European Union. It may also mark the end of enlightened decision-making, based on expertise and evidence, in English politics. After months of anticipation, heated debate and brash headlines, tomorrow the UK takes to the voting booth to decide its future relationship with the European Union - will we maintain membership, or, will tomorrow herald a new chapter in Great British history? Where does that leave creative entrepreneurs, who straddle both the creative industries and the interests of entrepreneurs and small businesses? Last month we launched a poll to gauge the sentiment of entrepreneurs in the UK creative sectors towards the EU referendum. So, how do creative entrepreneurs propose to vote? Our unique poll showed that over 75% plan to vote to Remain in the EU, citing reasons such as greater investment opportunities, ease of trading within the single market and easier collaboration with European colleagues, as key reasons to Remain. Advertisement Whilst an overwhelming majority support EU membership, 14% of creative entrepreneurs plan to vote for Brexit, with many citing EU bureaucracy as threatening the growth of small business. The poll showed that 7% remain undecided as to how to vote and just over 3% plan to abstain entirely. At Creative Entrepreneurs we believe a vote to remain as EU members is crucial to the success of creative British businesses, for several, straightforward reasons: Britain leaving the EU would mean uncertainty for creative firms, less trade with Europe and fewer jobs. Britain remaining in the EU would mean the opposite: more certainty, more trade and more jobs. That's why I joined 1285 other leading British business owners, including 900 small and medium-sized businesses and 51 of the FTSE 500, in an open letter to the Times published today, to demonstrate support for the Remain campaign. Although the position of creative entrepreneurs has been made clear, national polls continue to show a very close result. Whether tomorrow yields a victory for Remain or a triumph for Leave, the implications for entrepreneurship in the creative sector are to be far reaching. The world watches with bated breath... Creative Entrepreneurs EU Referendum Poll Results Vote Stay in the EU: 75.00% Vote Leave the EU: 14.29% Undecided: 7.14% Nicola Sturgeon's latest intervention in the EU referendum reveals the panic consuming the SNP's leadership. Speaking during a campaign event for Remain on Tuesday, the SNP Leader claimed her party would enter "decisions and discussions" over the uro if Britain pulls out of the European Union. This is a remarkable turnaround from claims she made only a couple of weeks ago during a town hall event organised by Facebook and BuzzFeed, when she insisted an independent Scotland would look to retain use of the pound - regardless of EU membership. It is clear Sturgeon is completely unprepared for Brexit, instead betting on the conventional view that people may be inclined to back the status quo. It is also clear the SNP - as a party - is in a similar position to the Conservative party in England, with a considerable disconnect between its activists - many of whom support Leave - and its leadership which is staunchly Remain. It has been rather awkward for nationalists like Sturgeon to argue for Remain, when a Leave vote would grant greater powers to Holyrood. The truth is Sturgeon and the SNP's leadership recognise the threat Brexit poses to their dreams of an independent Scotland. There are several reasons why Brexit would make Scottish Independence less likely. Firstly it destroys the economic argument for an independent Scotland. In September 2014, when the SNP built its economic case for independence, it did so based on two main pillars: high oil prices and membership of the EU. The former would have ensured sufficient revenue to cover any break-up costs and allow the SNP to paint a rose-tinted view of an Independent Scotland being a land of milk and honey. Their argument on membership of the EU, on the other hand, was used to stress economic continuity and stability. Advertisement The first of these pillars, high oil prices, has already collapsed. Had Scotland gained Independence it would now be facing a 10bn-plus black hole. This would have required the SNP to cut spending by 18%, raise taxes by 21% or implement a mixture of the two. The SNP's leadership has repeatedly refused to answer how they would have rectified this massive deficit, suggesting they had no realistic economic plan. It is undeniable that the fall in oil prices has seriously wounded the economic case for Scottish independence. Brexit would finish it off During the Scottish referendum the SNP argued it did not matter if they left one union (the UK), as they could join another (the EU) - hardly 'independence'! They batted away the warnings from EU leaders, who pointed out how Scotland would not automatically retain EU membership, and they would have to apply separately. The SNP confidently predicted a deal could be done which would speed up or even bypass the application process. Following Brexit, the focus of the British government and their European counterparts will be on the decoupling of the United Kingdom as a whole and the EU. Any potential new EU deal for an independent Scotland would have to wait until this was complete - and, of course, on the SNP convincing the Scots independence would be their best option. Indeed it is highly likely a post-Brexit independent Scotland would face stricter terms to attain EU membership, which would include signing up to the uro. Considering the problems engulfing the urozone, this would hardly make an attractive proposition. Sturgeon's suggestion on Tuesday shows there is recognition of this amongst the SNP's leadership, who hope to use the prospect of forced uro membership as a way to frighten their own supporters into backing Remain. A second referendum on Scottish independence after Brexit would be centred on the prospect of Scotland leaving the United Kingdom in order to join the EU. We have seen throughout the course of this referendum how the Remain campaign has struggled to put forward a positive EU vision. The SNP would have to convince the Scottish electorate they would be better off leaving a union which they have been part of for three centuries, to join one which has barely lasted a sixth of that time. The question would ultimately come down to whether the majority of Scots see themselves as European or British. Advertisement BULENT KILIC via Getty Images I am a Brexiteer because we need to control our borders and welcome more refugees. This is not an anomalous statement but a consistent one. My view of control is based upon a fair and decent immigration system. A system which welcomes the skills we need without discrimination of workers from EU or non EU countries. And a system which welcomes refugees, particularly vulnerable refugees who are not able to stay in regions of conflict and need safe and legal routes for sanctuary in the UK. When there is a lack of control of immigration, as with EU migration, the capacity to properly welcome and support refugees is diminished. So what has our response to the refugee crisis got to do with the EU referendum? In one sense the issue of freedom of movement of EU citizens is not relevant to refugees. It is an issue of economic migration and whether freedom of movement to work is properly controlled. It may well become more relevant when refugees welcomed into Germany and other EU countries gain citizenship in around 5 years time and then become eligible to move to the UK. Migration Watch has made a conservative estimate that at least 400,000 migrants could move to the UK in search of a better life. It could well be many more. I believe that it is fair for our country to determine how many EU migrants and what skills are needed through a points based system. Advertisement What is at issue on Thursday is whether the EU is fit for purpose to justify our continued membership. Some people may be willing to take the loss of control of EU migration, the loss of democratic control on laws, and loss of billions of pounds in membership fee, if the EU is responding well to the big global issue - the refugee crisis. The EU came together with noble ideals to promote peace and solidarity and support the welfare of others. The plight of refugees in Europe highlights the failure of the ideals and purpose of the EU. As the Pope said "What has happened to you Europe?" That was my sentiment when I visited Calais and Dunkirk and saw children knee deep in mud and human misery. These are the visible sad faces of 90% of migrants and refugees who are taken by people smugglers across Europe. They are caught up in what I call an "irregular migration game"; a real life version of snakes and ladders - full of smuggler vipers who prey on the most vulnerable. The collective EU response has been derisory. Two years ago the EU pledged to relocate 160,000 refugees but only several hundred have been given sanctuary. In the meantime it is estimated that 10,000 lone children have gone missing in Europe at risk of trafficking and exploitation. By contrast the UK last September pledged 20,000 places for vulnerable Syrian refugees and has already relocated 1,800. Further commitments have been made to relocate 3,000 Syrian children at risk of exploitation and a scheme to provide refuge for lone children in Europe. Advertisement On aid the EU does not fare much better. Only Denmark, Luxembourg, Norway and Sweden have matched the UK's international aid commitment to 0.7% of GDP. Our aid commitment of 46million to support refugees and migrants in Europe makes the UK the largest aid donor in Europe. The EU response to the refugee crisis has lacked control and compassion. On the one hand Germany opened its doors to migrants and refugees which caused an uncontrolled surge of people and will doubtless cause a secondary migration surge from 2020. On the other hand Denmark, despite its proud heritage of providing refuge for Jews from the Nazis, has resorted to legislation which seizes assets from refugees to pay for their keep. Most countries in the EU have been in a race to the bottom to be the least welcoming place for refugees. Supporters of the EU talk about building bridges not walls but the harsh reality of the EU project for many refugees has been stuck behind a Macedonian barbed wire fence. The refugee crisis cries out for European and international cooperation and the EU has shown itself not up to the task. Where people smugglers control the destination of vulnerable people, the international community should do so - providing safe and legal routes before they get to Europe. Britain has shown the way forward by providing the world's first children relocation scheme under the auspice of the UNHCR. Other countries in Europe and beyond should step up and provide more safe routes for vulnerable refugees, and more aid to support the vast majority of refugees who want to stay in the region. Ensuring our response is compassionate requires us to take control. Control is not straightforward where people are fleeing poverty and drought as well as war and persecution. By controlling who we welcome primarily through safe and legal routes, we protect the refugees from smugglers and traffickers and provide a carefully managed package of support and integration across the UK. It is not fair that counties like Kent have taken the main burden of supporting refugees arriving by irregular routes. The debate about control of immigration can be wrongly conflated with issues around refugees. However our confidence to welcome more refugees is damaged when wider immigration is uncontrolled. So I believe that leaving the EU and gaining control of EU migration will increase our confidence and capacity to support more vulnerable refugees. Advertisement Leaving the EU does not mean leaving our historic and international obligations to refugees. In fact I believe outside of the EU we can continue to take the lead in our compassionate response to refugees and provide more support in cooperation with our European and International partners. I look forward on Thursday to voting to Leave the EU for more control and more compassion for refugees. This Thursday, we will be voting either to stay in the EU or leave it and go it alone. Think carefully when making your decision as it will affect both your health care and your social care for decades to come. At one stage or another we will all end up needing care in a hospital or in a care home. Our health is so fragile and when we are young we often take this for granted. We are so lucky in this country to have an NHS and social care system that means EVERYONE has access to care regardless of their financial situation. Advertisement This is why the NHS has become a battleground of the EU referendum. One of the main arguments of the Vote Leave campaign is that the money we send to the EU every week could be invested in the NHS and social care. Meanwhile the Remain campaigners argue that leaving the EU would lead to a weaker economy reducing the amount of public funding for the NHS, care homes and home care. It is worrying that social care has had such a low profile in the EU referendum but then again it is hardly surprising as older people and people with disabilities do tend to be marginalised and forgotten about. There are 10 million disabled people in the UK getting some kind of care and support. Nearly half a million older people and people with disabilities live in care homes and around the same number are cared for in their own homes. A fifth of the 1.5million care workers caring for these people are foreign. Many fear that if Britain leaves the EU, we will lose a lot of our foreign care workers. We already have a recruitment problem in the care sector and losing around 90,000 of our care workers (around six per cent of the workforce is estimated to be made up of EU migrants) would be terrible for care homes and home care agencies. Advertisement However a huge amount of foreign care workers are from outside the EU. In terms of the most recent migrant workers joining the social care sector, the top five countries of birth are India, Poland, the Philippines, Romania and Nigeria - only two of these are in the EU. It is interesting that immigration has become key to this whole debate yet it is not immigration which is pushing the NHS to the brink. It is people living longer with complex, long-term health conditions such as dementia, cancer and heart disease. The EU has brought in some valuable anti-discrimination legislation and people with disabilities have been able to go to the European Convention of Human Rights to challenge things like the bedroom tax. Leaving the EU does not mean that we will automatically leave the ECHR. We would have the option to do so but it would be hugely unpopular with the rest of Europe. The polls seem to indicate that the two sides will be extremely close. Older people seem to be swinging more towards Vote Leave and are more likely to go and vote. Only half of people aged between18-34 are predicted to vote. Young people are more likely to vote to stay in the EU and will be the ones really feeling the effect of the outcome of the referendum in years to come. The care and health of millions of people will be affected by the results of the referendum so think carefully and make your vote count! Advertisement Photo by Paulius Chmieliauskas, captured in Shoreditch, London Politics, sometimes, may seem not entirely related to fashion, but voting in EU Referendum should be an ultimate 'must' to every British fashionista. As strong supporters of borderless talent exchange and European fashion, Fashion Bloc prepared a simple no-brainer guide helping to decide if you should vote #strongerin or #weakerout (no pressure). 1. UK fashion industry Votes 'in' If you follow fashion news (sure you do!), you already know about the survey conducted by the British Fashion Council which revealed that of the 290 fashion businesses that disclosed their vote in the forthcoming referendum, just 4.3 percent said they intended to vote to leave. If you look up to the guys like Vivienne Westwood, Burberry's Christopher Bailey, J.W. Anderson, Vogue's Alexandra Shulman or BOF's Imran Amed, you know what to do. Advertisement 2. Your favourite fashion houses will lose their core talents Did you know that surprisingly big numbers of employees in the major fashion houses are non-British? The competition calls for higher quality, as simple as that. In the scenario Britain votes #weakerout, to source your talented team (hassle free) in Paris, Milan or other European cities will become more complicated. Burberry, which can be rightfully considered the most successful British luxury fashion brand, has hundreds of European talents from Italian Director of Merchandising to Greek Footwear designer. 3. Who will be your next Mary Katrantzou? Without any doubts, Britain is rich of artistic talents on its own, but how many McQueens can you expect to meet in a century? Major art schools such as Central Saint Martins or Royal College of Arts are thriving not just because they are based in London but also because they attract top international students (and are supported by EU funds). Tuition fees and complicated rules for non-EU students will put a strain on these universities. Did you know that currently, international students have to leave the country if they don't nail a sponsored work visa within 6 months after graduation? Let's be honest, the fashion industry is based on extensive internships, not quick-to-nail jobs. And yes, Greek Mary Katranzou, as well as Georgian David Koma or Cypriot Hussein Chalayan, are CSM alumni. 4. What about the non-British fashion in the UK? If you don't care about the trade regulations that thousands of British companies will face if Britain is to vote 'leave', think personal. What about the European brands in Britain? Will major European high-street labels such as Spanish Zara or Diesel still be reasonably priced? Or will you have to travel to Barcelona each time you consider buying a new pair of jeans (that wouldn't be too bad, actually)? And one more thing, if you haven't heard of Customs Duty, you don't really want to find out what a hassle it is. 5. And most importantly, voting 'out' has no class (see the photo). Who supports 'leave' campaign? People like Donald Trump (the most famous crazy person on Earth) and Nigel Farage (who suggested that breastfeeding mums should sit in a corner). Who supports 'stay' campaign? From reasonable politicians (Barack Obama, for example) to all the major figures in the arts, culture and the media: Vogue, i-D magazine, British Fashion Council, Business of Fashion, University of the Arts London; artists and entertainers from Steve McQueen to Eddie Izzard, from Keira Knightley to Benedict Cumberbatch, from Vivienne Westwood to Christopher Raeburn. Advertisement _______ There is nothing to be proud of in Britain this week. No matter what the outcome is, this referendum has pulled the country apart. As we enter the final few days of the campaign I find myself despairing at what the future holds for Britain. The Conservatives are a mess, hardly something to cry about if you are on the left, but Thursday's outcome is going to leave the government in turmoil nonetheless. Not that Labour has gotten off lightly; their remain stance has alienated many Labour supporters, who now view them as middle class metropolitan elites who don't understand or care for their target audience. Advertisement I'll vote remain and I know that's the right choice, but I'm so tired of the Remain camp pretending the EU is perfect. How many times do we have to hear middle class 'left wingers' condescend and patronise working class people who want out? Immigration is difficult and problematic and yet no one in the remain camp is prepared to say that. The more privileged people sing the praises of immigration and demonise all other concerns as racist the more the left loses the argument. Immigration is difficult for the people who live in near proximity to it. That is a fact. The working class in Britain deals with immigration, and the middle class dismissing their concerns is patronising. UKIP and the right can only manipulate these people's feelings because Labour has abandoned them. If we remain in the EU those people will be lost, if we leave the EU the feeling of hatred and intolerance will grow more and more. It's taken the murder of an MP for people to actually reflect on the hatred that's been spread, to reassess what it is anyone actually wants from this campaign. If we leave who knows how fast the anti-immigrant, isolationist views will spread. If we stay we have to think about what we are going to do with the growing frustration of so many. The referendum was supposed to be an exercise in democracy, but we'll be left with a country divided. Britain has been whipped into frenzy about what was once a niche Tory interest. We've forgotten what the issues for young people in Britain really are; lack of jobs, lack of housing, student fees, and above all the lack of a bright future ahead. All of these problems are made in Britain, and yet we've spent the last year discussing the European Union. Advertisement Factional divisions have opened up between the countries within the UK, between old and young, rich and poor, rural and metropolitan populations, and yet this issue barely touches on some of the most problematic issues in British society today. By even taking sides Labour and the left have sacrificed itself on the altar of high Toryism. We need to reject everything about this campaign; it has been a facade. Europe is the Tories' argument and it's been sold to us as a problem that needs fixing. Young people need to vote remain on Thursday to stand together against isolationism dressed as socialism. Getty It's hard to believe that we are on the cusp of leaving the European Union. The big question we're facing goes to the heart of who we are as a country, what it means to be British. Two years ago I was juggling maternity leave with campaigning in another referendum, rocking my baby boy to sleep and then hitting the phones to ask East Dunbartonshire residents to support Scotland staying in the UK. (My apologies to those who got cut short when naptime ended...) Advertisement I made the case that Scotland is better off economically, and has more influence globally, as part of the UK. And I drew on a less tangible, but just as important, emotional argument. I love what we have created together in the UK, from the BBC to the NHS, from the soft power of our culture to the strength of our democracy: the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. I don't want Scotland to separate from our friends and family in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. For me the arguments are analogous for this referendum. In an inter-connected world, the UK has more economic success as part of the Single Market, and more clout in world affairs as a member of the EU. And whether we consider the aftermath of the Second World War, the embracing of eastern European countries as the Cold War ended, or the fragile rebuilding of peace in the Balkans, I am proud of what the European Union has done to promote peace, security and democratic values. I don't want us to retreat from our leading role in the EU, to storm off in a huff and find ourselves diminished, looking inward. Scotland nearly left the UK, and tomorrow's result looks even closer. In both campaigns we have seen the destructive power of nationalism. The independence referendum divided my country. Even now, I know of people who have friends or family members they no longer speak to, so irreconcilable were their views. I fear we will see the same across the UK, but in an even uglier, nastier form. In Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP leadership are clear that their brand of nationalism is inclusive of all races and religions, and they try to define Scottishness positively, rather than by what it isn't. Even so, there is an issue with a vocal minority of the SNP grassroots, who whip up online abuse and have engaged in bullying behaviour, even "hunting" politicians they disagree with. I remember English colleagues who engaged in the referendum debate expressing shock at the sheer torrent of "cybernat" abuse suddenly unleashed on their social media timelines. It was a daily reality for many Scottish MPs. Advertisement Ultimately, nationalist politics is about identity - you criticise the ideas, and it is interpreted as a personal attack. If you try to make the case on a nuanced constitutional argument about the precise optimal size of country structures, that quickly lands you in the weeds of dry discussions about subsidiarity and fiscal autonomy. In the end, the wider debate comes down to a sense of national pride - you can't quite escape the nationalist's inference that the people in your country are just intrinsically superior to those they are seeking to distance themselves from. In the UK-wide Brexit leadership, there is none of the careful positioning of nationalism that we've seen north of the border. Instead we've had political leaders indulging in nasty insinuations, and demonising whole groups of people. Boris thought it was relevant to mention Obama's "part-Kenyan" heritage, Zac Goldsmith's mayoral campaign plumbed new depths with its foul attacks attempting to link Sadiq Khan to extremism, while Nigel Farage's Breaking Point poster literally mimics Nazi propaganda. When I criticised Farage's comments on rape, my social media timeline gave me a glimpse into the horrible anti-Muslim sentiment lurking online. Sections of the media feed us hate on a daily basis, and double standards in newspaper reporting reinforce negative racial stereotypes. This is not the kind of country I want Britain to be. We can and should be a tolerant, open, outward-looking country. Our politics should be a lively, energetic exchange of views, where ideas are robustly challenged in a climate that respects the individuals involved in the debate. I cheered when London rejected the appalling campaign run for Zac Goldsmith, and elected Sadiq Khan as its first Muslim mayor. Tomorrow I hope as a country we will reject the hatred we have seen in this campaign, and vote Remain to consolidate the UK's place as a leader in Europe. Even if we do, those on all sides have much to do to stem the forces of division that have been unleashed. Advertisement Yulin Torture Festival is scheduled this year to take place behind closed doors - healthier eating or a token gesture to Hong Kong politicians? A few years ago in 2013, when NoToDogMeat was founded, China seemed impenetrable and unhearing but now we are beginning to see the results of campaigning and activism - an effort to address the issue by the Chinese authorities. Advertisement Most encouraging, is that it has become clear that many Chinese think the same as those of us who have been shouting from the outside. In a poll this week 64% of Chinese have been shown to be against the Yulin festival. This year the outcry against Yulin has become mainstream internationally as celebrities and even UK politicians have begun to speak out. So far, the Beijing government has remained silent on the issue but even though the Chinese embassy in London refused to accept an 11 million strong petition, real cracks seem to seem to be appearing in the once unbreakable edifice. China is not a democracy but public opinion still carries a degree of weight as do the attitudes of the outside world. The authorities are also open to the very common sense public health arguments. Comments from the Yulin government last week indicated there is now no theoretical barrier to the possibility even of animal welfare laws - which up till now have only existed in Westernised Hong Kong. Does Michael Tien's appeal herald that Hong Kong will be a bridge to animal welfare legislation in China's mainland? Advertisement In the last few weeks Michael Tien, Hong Kong deputy to China's National People's Congress lobbied to end the festival. They have responded quickly by banning the slaughter of dogs in the streets, saying "The dog meat festival, though not promoted by the local government, is a private and spontaneous activity. However, the Yulin authorities and relevant government agencies will take immediate actions to prevent it from happening again." The Ministry of Agriculture in Beijing have also said they were looking to put "measures in place" after Chinese legislator Zhang Dejiang called for improvements and reforms to the country's food safety supervision system. Reportedly, the annual protest campaigns have helped to drastically reduce the slaughter with an estimated 2,000 dogs killed during the three-day festival last year, compared to more than 10,000 in 2012 and 2013. Local officials have also felt the pressure and responded by shutting down some markets and slaughterhouses and declining to attend the festivities themselves. So it seems China is now at a crossroads now with the dog meat trade: the authorities have now taken notice but what will they decide? The political reaction now could be pivotal to the dog meat trade issue as a whole - China could set a precedent for the rest of the Far East. Julia de Cadenet in Chinese yard with dogs just rescued from a truck. At this point, we at NoToDogMeat are seeing our work of the last four years come to fruition as we finally bring some of our sponsored dogs to the UK - Annabel, Camille and Oliver. Bringing our first sponsored dogs to the UK in this way is a proud moment and for Camille to represent his Asian brothers and sisters at the Chinese Embassy last week was a testament that dogs are more than just food. There are many more dogs like Camille and Oliver who need loving homes and their daily needs cared for and we are appealing for kind - hearted sponsors to come forward. Advertisement Camille with Ladies of London stars at Chinese embassy demo last week. Proud of being the first in the West activists to campaign against Yulin - we have extended our reach to working closely over the last year with rescuers and activists in China. Working with them as they bravely stopped trucks we have been able to identify what they need in terms of education, shelter training and veterinary support. As such we are now raising funds to equip 'first response' veterinary trucks for them as well as developing education programmes they can use in the more rural areas of China which have little access to social media. It is fair to say that progress has been made. Working closely with local activists and rescuers and responding to their needs on government controls, vaccination against disease and education in the rural areas is the way forward. In the past, animal activists have made various attempts to rescue man's best friend from the annual festival, including halting trucks transporting dogs to Yulin, even spending 500,000 RMB to buy the condemned dogs. While we work to intercept trucks before they make it to Yulin and lobby for animal welfare laws, some American groups have suggested 'buying out' slaughterhouses and dog meat restaurants. As East battles West on challenging customs and traditions, charities in both continents pushing for animal welfare laws debate over the Hollywood solution to pay slaughterhouses to shut down, or open vegan restaurants. This complicated issue is about more than food safety and pushing economics over ethics. 'Throwing money' at the problem will not stop this trade. The sad reality of the trucks our activists stop bringing dogs into the festival is the the same drivers can be "bought to ship them out". A Few Fast Facts Consuming dog meat puts individuals at risk of infection from such deadly parasites as E.coli 107 and salmonella (commonly found in contaminated meats), as well as at risk of contracting other serious and potentially deadly bacterial diseases such as anthrax, brucellosis, hepatitis, and leptospirosis. Hong Kong is the only country in Asia where eating /selling or trading dog meat is punishable by imprisonment. It was also the first country (in 1950) to ban the practice. Philippines and Taiwan have followed suit imposing fines on those involved in the trade but Vietnamese and Korean workers still manage to slip the net. WHO/OIE has plans to help eradicate the spread of rabies throughout Asia and banning the dog meat trade would go a long way to achieving this. How You Can Help How chefs are using food and supper clubs to respond to global tragedies Food. It nourishes our demanding bodies, reminds us of the nostalgic home and people we once shared it with; and it is the rope that ties us to our cultural identity. We are served generous portions of it by our local curry restaurant, and we serve it proudly from our own kitchens to our friends and loved ones. But food serves a greater purpose. It is more than a rope to connect us to our culture or our neighbours, it is a fishing net to collect and draw us all together. Food brings us to the table to share our cultures, our stories, and our pain. "Food is essential for our survival. As such, eating is the one activity that unites us as humans. And when you go back to what makes us quintessentially human, you realise the power that food has on our culture and mindsets," said Olivia Sibony, co-founder of Grub Club. Advertisement Grub Club is a start-up company in the heart of London that connects chefs to venues, to host supper-club-style events all around the city. Founded by two food and travel loving friends, Grub Club aims to recreate the intimate dining experiences from London to Zanzibar through supper clubs hosted by creative chefs. "Creating a platform that enables people to partake in amazing dining experiences which will leave a lasting impression is a fundamental way in which we can connect with our own humanity and become closer to those around us," said Sibony. Besides uniting people at the table, chefs have employed the communal environment of these supper clubs to raise awareness of and try to alleviate, in a small way, the pain of tragedies across the world. Together with Grub Club and 15 Hatfields, the founder of Latitudinal Cuisine Alex Haw raised 25,000 for Nepal after the devastating earthquake in 2015 that left 8,617 dead and 2.8 million displaced. The event for 100 people came together in just 10 days, including a raffle and auction with prizes donated from Faction Skis, Angel Investment Network and Lesa Green Jewellery. But the spotlight shined on the Nepali traditional food. Advertisement "Hosting dinners is the best way of raising funds because I believe food brings people together. That way, the guests will be able to enjoy the night while raising funds," said Rajiv, host of Rajiv's Kitchen. Another champion of this idea, Conflict Cafe aims to promote peace through dialogue by serving food from countries suffering from violence and conflict. This pop-up cafe alternates cuisine each week inspired by Syria, Turkey, Armenia, Columbia, and Nepal. They will soon announce their new dates for September here. ""Peace begins with dialogue, and what better way to get a conversation started than over food?" said Ilaria Bianchi, Head of Communications at International Alert, the charity led by Conflict Cafe. "At Conflict Cafe we weave the history of countries that have been affected by violent conflict - and the peacebuilding efforts to resolve them - into the fabric of each delicious meal. It's a way to bring Londoners, who are often far removed from the realities of conflict, together and engage them in conversations about food, and subsequently the cultures behind it," said Bianchi. But perhaps no supper club has experienced more growth and success than the Syrian Supper Club. What began as three friends hosting a Syrian-inspired meal from their London kitchen in 2012, The Syrian Supper Club now hosts an authentic dinner every first Wednesday of the month at E5 Bakehouse in London Fields. Advertisement Their 75 meals have touched over 2,500 hungry and supportive guests from London to Singapore to Washington D.C., and they have raised over 100,000 for aid in and around Syria through the Hands Up Foundation. "By doing something as simple as going out to dinner and sharing food you have the power to change someone's life or perhaps even save it - which is a pretty wonderful thing," said Rose Lukas, "Chief of Words" for The Syrian Supper Club. Wonderful, powerful, and still needed. After the recent tragedy in Orlando, FL, marking the deadliest shooting in U.S. history, questions of what could have been done and what to do now echo in the heads and hearts of all those who read about the shooting. If the deaths of 49 people at a gay nightclub early Sunday morning call us to action, what action can we take to truly change our world? Supporting local LGBTQ organizations or simply checking in with your LGBTQ friends are two small ways we can all make a difference in our local and global communities. Even better: gather your friends and loved ones together for a dinner to celebrate Gay Pride and to raise money for the victims and their families at the GoFundMe page organized by Equality Florida. The fact that we even have a Brexit vote breaks my heart. Now there aren't many things that I'm afraid of - apart from spiders, I mean who likes spiders, do even other spiders like spiders? - but I am definitely afraid of decisions made on the basis of fear. It just doesn't seem a sensible way for us all to move forward, yet still all manner of emotive scenarios have been imagined, with language to match. So there has been what can only be described as a demonisation of migrants. And that's just not okay. As I quoted in my blog from March, 60% of European migrants have degrees. One in seven UK firms are created by migrants, employing at least 1.16 million people. And European migrants contribute 2 billion a year in taxes. How are these not the stories that we tell people all day, every day? Being Polish without a British passport I might not have a vote, but I have a voice and so do my colleagues at Azimo. That's why we've decided to start the ball rolling on a campaign to redefine the word 'migrant'. To show that the story being told now is not the only story. And to stand alongside people who move around the world in order to make their lives, and the lives of their families and communities, better. Now whether it is right for a commercial business to openly state a political position is open to debate. But sometimes, when you see how things are going, and you don't like it, you have to make a stand. You have to state what you believe in. To start our campaign, we asked 3000 Brits and migrants about their opinions and experiences. We found it shocking that 1 in 3 migrants in the UK suffered from verbal abuse - so we made a short film that highlights the issue. Finally, we put together a report which made it very clear what information often shared about migration are myths (i.e. migrants are stealing all the jobs) and facts (i.e. UK unemployment is at it's lowest in a decade). Advertisement Reassuringly, we also found that Brits and migrants alike, share one thing: we really care about our families. 49% of Brits would themselves pack a bag and move to a different country if their family was in need. Redefining the word migrant won't happen overnight. But it will happen, because it needs to happen. And it needs to happen, because however the EU Referendum goes, we all have to find ways to live together on a planet where people will always move from one country to another. You can watch the film here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSvvrJHUL7E You can read the report here I think it's a film worth watching, and a report worth reading. I believe it's important to speak up about things we really care about, and as a resident of this country I truly care about it's future. Well, as someone who came from Poland, lived in New York and started a business in London to service customers all over the world, I am somewhat biased. But I think together, we're better. The sky will not fall, in foreign-policy terms, if the United Kingdom votes to leave the European Union. NATO is not going anywhere, nor is the UK's seat on the UN Security Council. But if Brexit does happen, Britain will start to find itself a little lonelier, and the West a little weaker. The idea of alliance has been having a rough time in recent months. Its loudest critic is US presidential candidate Donald Trump, who has laid into America's ties with Japan and South Korea, and called NATO obsolete. But in the campaign for Brexit, too, there has been an undercurrent of disdain for the idea that like-minded countries owe each other something, and that they should stick together. When the Times columnist Melanie Phillips wrote on Tuesday that 'no one would willingly fight and die for Brussels', she overlooked not only that Belgium is a NATO member and Brussels hosts NATO's headquarters, but that, as historian Lawrence Freedman pointed out, Britons have indeed fought and died for Brussels before. When Britain declared war on Germany on 4 August 1914, it did so in defence of Belgian neutrality. Advertisement David Cameron's warning that Brexit could put European peace and stability at risk was derided in the UK press as melodramatic fear-mongering. But his basic point was that the EU is part of a 70-year project, built out of the rubble of the Second World War, to save Europe from the scourge of conflict. Cameron's argument would have been largely uncontroversial in most European countries, and especially in Germany and France, where the importance of post-war reconciliation and a sense of common European purpose has not been forgotten. Brexit would not, of course, be quickly followed by European war. But it would strike a cruel, and very badly timed, blow to Western solidarity. The West - loosely defined as the democracies of Europe, North America, and a handful of allies elsewhere - is at a tricky moment in its history. Non-Western, autocratic powers, China foremost among them, are challenging the liberal international order on which Western prosperity depends. Huge movements of refugees from a war-torn Middle East are straining European entry points and providing fertile ground for the re-emergence of toxic far-right political movements. Russia is testing NATO unity, and risking a dangerous military confrontation in the process. These problems are by no means insurmountable. The West is, in material terms, strong: it accounts for a third of global GDP, and more than half of global military spending. But what these problems all share is the need for solidarity in solving them. Europe is large enough to be able to take care of even a few million refugees, but only with a plan for spreading the financial and political burden among its member states. Vladimir Putin's threats to NATO may be primarily defensive bluster, but the more divided the Western alliance becomes, the more Russia has to work with (and while the EU is, obviously, a separate institution from NATO, its very similar membership means resentment and division built up in one forum can easily spill over to the other). The trade-offs and coordination amongst friendly countries needed to face up to these challenges will be difficult to achieve, but nonetheless crucial. Advertisement Brexit would threaten the West's collective ability to cope with these problems in a number of ways. It would be a symbolic retreat from cooperation: a decision that the UK's freedom of action is more important than the shared gains offered by a limited pooling of sovereignty. Brexit would also, by definition, remove British resources and influence from EU responses to Europe's crises, from which the UK, whether it likes it or not, cannot run away. Brexit could encourage separatists in other European countries: after Britain goes, which country will be next? Moreover, governments have limited attention spans: if Europe is dealing with a series of unhappy national divorces, it will not be dealing with much else. And this is not just bad news for Europe. As ECFR analyst Jeremy Shapiro puts it, 'a chaotic, unstable Europe would be unable (and probably unwilling) to help the US confront geopolitical challenges around the world.' A little boy weeps besides the body of his brother. His hands ceaselessly scavenging the corpses of his brother, unable to believe his sibling is no longer with him in this world. Simultaneously, a father stands panic-stricken in the morgue. Tears flow from his eyes and his face is puffy. Before him lies lifeless body of his beautiful baby; a boy for whom he had waited ages. These scenes are not fairy tales. They are real; they are happening in our world. We do not hear about them because we do not live there and the mainstream media are not paying attention. If we are destined to be the people of Syria, perhaps the weak and helpless faces of those who have lost loved ones, or the innocent bodies lying in hospital beds or among the rubble, are our own faces or the bodies of our families. Advertisement The tears and blood of Syrian people have long been spilled for reasons unknown to them. They have no idea what sins they committed towards their cruel ruler until bombs are dropped on the roofs of their homes. They also have no clue what mistakes they have made to the extent that super-advanced fighter aircraft constantly direct their missiles towards schools and hospitals. The war has been raging for more than five years, but the innocent individuals continue to wonder why they are easy targets. The horrendous attacks against Syrian people unfold like a television serial. Two of the most recent episodes occurred last week, on 14th and 16th of June, in the city of Aleppo. The 16th June episode lasted a few hours before a ceasefire was declared. The attacks targeted residential areas and caused fires, which resulted in the destruction of houses and buildings. Not only that, the indiscriminate attacks reportedly claimed the lives of seven and injured many more. The previous episode, 14th June, was more powerful. That day saw more than 50 air strikes bombarding the houses of Syrian people. During this episode, 34 individuals were killed and many more injured. Keep in mind, these are just two latest episodes. There are many other previous episodes that escape our attention and it is impossible to explain them one by one. And perhaps new episodes are developing as we type. Indeed, the battle is a daily one for innocent Syrians. There is a famous proverb that reads as follows: when two elephants fight, the victims are the ants creeping underneath. They will surely die, sinking to the ground and trampled by the elephants that are being battered by anger. In the context of Syria, unfortunately, there are not only two elephants. There are many other elephants fighting each other: the Assad regime; Russia; Hezbollah; the Islamic State; the Gulf governments; US-led coalitions; the UK; France; and others. Among these elephants are those who claim to be loyal supporters of other elephants. Each elephant arrived draping across their chests a banner stating 'for the sake of Syrian people'. But of course, it was just a cosmetic necklace to appear dashing and humanist in the eyes of the people. In reality, they do not care about the cries and the blood of Syrian people. Their concerns lie only in their own interests. As for the suffering of the Syrian people, in their hearts they say "none of my business!" Advertisement It is evident that their giant feet have destroyed everything beneath them, not only the Syrian people. Schools are collapsed, hospitals are destroyed, there are leaking water pipes, houses of worship are destroyed, and the economy is stalled. As reported by the UN Commission of Inquiry, most parties involved in the Syrian conflict have been proven to have committed war crimes, such as murder, torture, rape, and disappearances. Furthermore, they are methods of warfare that cause suffering to the Syrian people; for example, blockading access to food, water, and health services. To date, a significant number of Syrians have become victims of war in their homeland. Though the number may not sound critical to us, it is important to remember one human life is truly meant for those who lose. These individuals may be a son, a father, a wife, a husband, a grandson or a grandmother. They are all very important because they are the source of happiness for those closest to them. When this source is removed, the lives of those left behind will be accompanied by an indefinite sadness. Syrian citizens who have escaped the war have not fared well either. They have been transformed into a group of vagrants with neither homes nor shelter. Their number is not small. More than 11 million people must leave their homes as a result of the never-ending war. If calculated per day, since the conflict started in 2011, an average of 50 families per day have been forced to leave Syria. It is vital to remember that 11 million is not merely a number written on the piece of paper. These are the lives of human beings, just like us. They have dreams, they have places full of memories. Everything has to be abandoned because of the endless fighting between the power-hungry, heartless elephants. Advertisement Wailing moans of loss will continue to reverberate in the Syrian air as long as the elephants involved continue to promote their egos. It is unclear how to stop these, but one thing must be made clear; if concrete steps are not taken, eventually we will pay the price. Finally, the time has come to lend whatever assistance we can to alleviate the suffering of Syrians. Remember, they are humans, just like us. Dylan Martinez / Reuters This blog is a version of a speech delivered by Muna Abbas at a gathering at Unicef in New York on Jo Cox and the the impact on Jo's death on her hometown For those of you who aren't familiar with Jo's constituency of Batley and Spen, it is a small town on the outskirts of the city of Leeds, in West Yorkshire. Before last week, if you had asked anyone in the area who the most notable person to have originated from there was, they may have replied with Joseph Priestley - the man who discovered oxygen, would you believe - who passed away in 1804. Advertisement Since last Thursday, I have been both utterly sad and prouder than ever that Jo Cox will overtake Mr. Priestley. Sad as a constituent that our town only had the privilege of having her represent us in Parliament for a mere 13 months, but so proud that for that short period of time, she really did work tirelessly for our community. Like me, Jo was born and bred in Batley and Spen but she set her sights on much bigger things. As someone who, like her, chose to pursue a career in politics, she showed me that someone from our town could spread their wings and make a difference. I am not alone. Jo inspired the youth of our community to stand up, campaign, push for the changes that they believe in, and fight for what is right. She taught us that the world was our oyster, but Batley was always home. And to home she returned in 2014. In a seat that many had their eye on, Jo swooped in and won over everyone in the constituency in a matter of months. In a political climate where demographic divisions are more visible than ever, she really did unite the whole community. Her events and fundraisers were filled to the brim, and packed with diversity. From the white working class to Sikh, Muslim, and Hindu members - young, old, politically active, and those who just wanted to meet Jo - the new local celebrity. She campaigned for our rights - locally to save our hospital, to support the food bank which had been set up; nationally to fight against welfare cuts and campaign against hatred such as Islamophobia; and internationally highlighting the plight and suffering of millions across the globe - most recently helping secure a change in government policy on unaccompanied refugee children. Advertisement Most coverage of Jo's work has focused on her international efforts, and rightly so - work which many of you here today will have worked with her on, side by side. Being the super woman that she was, she took on the world, but always saved some of her buzzing energy to serve those in Batley - wherever she was, whatever she was doing. She showed our hometown at its best - the beautiful, vibrant and peaceful place that we have always known. In the end, it was in the same area she loved and cherished that her life was so tragically taken. In a touching irony, a statue of Joseph Priestley stands no more than 20 metres from where Jo lost her life. A statue now flooded with flowers and tributes to Jo. It is as if he has passed on the baton to her as the new hero of our small town. When I first told Jo I was moving to New York, her eyes lit up, and spoke about how much she loved the city. Standing here today at one of the most important institutions in the world, thousands of miles from home, seeing everyone here, it makes me so proud as a young woman from Batley to see how another woman from Batley made such an impact on the world. The Batley that I know and love has lost some of its sparkle, we have lost some of our light. But I believe that Jo and the memory of Jo will continue to burn bright and live on in all of us who continue her good work with the same passion, love and zeal that she displayed throughout her short-lived time in Parliament. Jo is gone, but will never be forgotten. What is the European Union? The answer most commonly given to that would no doubt be the parliament and commission in Brussels, the bureaucrats who work for it, and the legal framework around them. But there's another side to the EU that deserves more attention as we draw closer to a vote on Britain's future within or outside the union, a vote that polls suggest could see Britain opting to leave this cross-continental alliance. It's the People's Europe - the people's union. For the EU is also all of the campaign groups, the unions, the civil society alliances that work together across Europe to achieve their aims of workers' rights, human rights, environmental protections and many other ways to improve the common good. Advertisement The People's Europe has many successes to report, its victories delivering many laws, rules and rulings that do a great deal to protect the rights of workers, to make us safer in our homes and communities and to prevent further destruction of our much-damaged natural environments. It's this alliance that's grown strong, principled, determined opposition to the proposed EU-US trade deal known as TTIP - that produced what may be the world's largest -ever petition, signed by more than 3.5 million people and ensured it wasn't signed at the end of last year as scheduled. It's the alliance that's jointly campaigned against pollinator-threatening neonicotinoid pesticides, and working to end the use of "probably carcinogenic" glyphosate across the union. It's the alliance that, with Britons to the forefront, won the ban on the disastrous discarding of fish by the European fishing fleet. Advertisement EU civil society organisations working together are far stronger collectively than they would be as individual national groupings - the unions in France and Germany stronger than those in the UK, the environmental organisations in the UK contributing to work in eastern areas of the union where such concerns are just starting to get public attention, the Scandinavians offering their strong gender-equality models. There's a lot of focus on the existence of corporate lobbying interests in Brussels, and that is a serious concern - although certainly one not restricted to, or at its worst in, the European institutions. In Westminster, where the influence of the fossil fuel industries and the nuclear lobby are painfully evident in our energy policy, to give just one example. It was the EU that agreed to put a cap on bankers' bonuses, the British government that used our money to try (and happily failed) to legally challenge it. Working together we can also draw on the strength of different nations. Many people from other parts of Europe have told me how much they value the work of the New Economics Foundation (NEF) and other British think tanks and researchers. Perhaps because we live in the most extremely neo-liberal nation of the continent, we come up with some of the most potentially transformatory proposals and plans for change, from the RSA working on universal basic income to NEF offering alternative models to our failed financial system. When it comes to planning to rebalance the British economy away from our dangerous, unproductive reliance on the financial sector, the model of German banking, with regional and local banks that fund and support small and medium enterprises for the long haul has a lot to offer. Of course we can also work with knowledge and skills from other parts of the world outside the EU, but by being already partners, members of the same union, the impetus for cooperation is stronger, the frameworks clearer, the funding available for cross-EU work ready for applications. Advertisement I'm a fully paid-up member of the Labour Party. A Blairite. I welcome immigration and support freedom of movement. I wanted us to join the euro. I love Europe and I'm passionately Pro-EU. But, after a long period of indecision, I'm going to vote Leave on Thursday. Why? Because for Labour voters like me this is one decision that must be made with the head and not with the heart. And despite what I - and many others in my position - once believed, the 'head' decision is to vote Leave. Neither side in this campaign can hold its head high This whole EU Referendum campaign has been a trauma. It has divided us and pitted us against family and friends. The hard-right Leave rhetoric has been appalling: hate-filled, incendiary nonsense that encourages division and welcomes verbal aggression. For me, migration is a good thing. Immigration is good for our economy and it's good for humanity. Freedom of movement is one of the EU's proudest achievements. Advertisement The Remain rhetoric has been equally outrageous and unfathomable. Outright lies at every turn: scaremongering and patronising; threatening and provoking by equal turn. The UK economy will not collapse if we leave the EU. We will not be cast out into a global wilderness. Workers' rights in UK will not be affected, and war will not break out on Friday morning if we vote Leave. Both sides have been savage, heartless and disingenuous. When this campaign started, no one knew how vicious we could be to each other. How much division we could create and how much suffering we could cause by our needless words and thoughtless actions. There are very few voices on the Remain side that resonate and cut through the cacophony of exaggeration, vitriol and spin. And even fewer within the Leave campaign. However, there are some measured tones from people including Gisela Stuart for Leave, who make a left-wing case I can relate to. The decision must be made - we must vote We have to vote. We will never get another chance in our lifetimes to have a say on our future in the EU. So a decision must be made. For all its inflammatory rhetoric, for me, the decision on which way to vote boiled down to just one single question: Advertisement Is this incarnation of the EU right for our future and right for the future for Europe? And, as a Labour supporter, when you look at the issues with a clear head. The answer must be 'no'. Youth unemployment and tax avoidance Look at Spain, Greece and Italy. Look at how the EU has treated them and continues to treat them. It ran roughshod over Greece and its people, ignoring their pleas, threatening, blackmailing and leaving it with a youth unemployment rate that currently stands at 50 per cent. In Spain it's not much better. Their youth unemployment is 45 per cent, and in Italy it's 36.9 per cent. These are real young people with no hope. And it's the EU's obsession with saving the euro that has caused this abject and continuing misery. Take another issue: tax avoidance. The EU promotes tax avoidance. Mega-corporations that do the bulk of their business in the UK have been given carte blanche to set up in the cosy tax haven of choice, Luxembourg, whose former Prime Minister, Jean-Claude Junker, is now President of the EU Commission. The European Court of Justice enforces the rights of EU states as tax havens and outlaws attempts by the UK to crack down on tax evaders. Animal welfare and the spectre of TTIP I'm a vegan, so let's look at animal welfare. In principle the EU should be a good thing for animal welfare both here and across Europe. But in practice it most definitely is not. The UK has a ban on intensive battery cages. EU law ignored this. The UK banned sow stalls in 1999, but 17 EU countries continue to use them. And under EU law, the UK is powerless to stop the utterly inhumane and horrendous practice of exporting live animals, many of them lambs, abroad for slaughter. Let's take TTIP. This secret deal is a huge threat to the UK. It will become the template for all future EU trade deals and if, as Labour voters, this alone doesn't scare the pants off us, then I'm not sure what will. War on Want say TTIP will cost 1 million British, European and American jobs and sell off all UK public services including the NHS to the highest bidder for ever. A Labour government in a regressive EU Finally, what about a future progressive Labour government? If we stay in the EU, we can kiss goodbye to any policies designed to help the most vulnerable in our society such as energy price caps, or any renationalisation of our railways or post office. All this is banned under EU law, and in fact there is a little-known privatisation policy similar to the Tory programme called the Fourth Railway Package, which is set to be imposed onto every single EU Member State. A Labour government would be utterly hogtied. Our dreams and aspirations to create a better society, utterly laid waste by the EU. Advertisement It's time to decide - and I vote Leave Ultimately the decision we make will change history. And it's for each of us to decide what's important to us, what we hold dear and what kind of UK and Europe we want to live in not just today but in 10 years, 20 years, 30 years. If we project the current EU policies and trajectory forward, do we like what we see? This decision was made easier for me by thinking about this analogy: by staying in the EU we are giving them a vote of confidence; we're saying, we love all your policies and future plans; go ahead! Not just for us but for every other Member State. But if we had a good friend who was continually in debt; who overspent compulsively, would we keep giving them money; keep telling them everything is going to be fine? No, we'd get to the point where we had to stop for their sake, and for ours. In a sense, the Prime Minister is to be congratulated. The last person who ignited such an interest in politics was Guy Fawkes. Although look what happened to him. Forget hanging, drawing and quartering ( who shouted "Shame?"), at least the worst fate likely to befall Cameron is that he's hung out to dry by the Tories. Whether or not the whole European referendum blows up in his face, it has highlighted an important issue about Britain. At our heart, we aren't a forward thinking country. On the contrary, we're a nation constantly looking back on itself to a past which is infinitely more glorious than our present and indeed our future. Forget nationalism, what this vote is really about is nostalgia. The sort much in evidence when I recently caught a repeat of The Good Old Days on BBC 4. Advertisement As Ken Dodd entertained the Edwardian attired theatre audience (part of its shtick) with another music hall favourite, it occurred to me that whatever other societal changes our membership of the EU has resulted in, it's also transformed our telly viewing habits. By embracing series such as Wallender, The Killing, Borgen, The Returned, The Bridge and Deutschland '83 to name but a few, the Europhile cultural elites among us have helped to create an appetite for languid and thoughtful - some say boring - programming. This has even had a knock on effect with the creation of homegrown shows like The Fall and Broadchurch. All of which begs the following questions: What happened to the time when British TV was truly, well, British and might we ever see its return? Here are 10 shows from yesteryear to fill those who are old enough to recall them with a misty-eyed wistfulness. Advertisement 10- Dixon of Dock Green. Running from 1955 to 1976, it starred Jack Warner as George Dixon, a uniformed policeman on the beat; the kind of benevolent 'bobby' any Home Secretary would have wet dreams over. 9- Take Your Pick. The first televised quiz show to offer money to the public, it gave contestants the chance to win small sums, culminating with the choice to take the cash or open a box, which contained either a prize worth having (a washing machine) or one definitely not worth having (the leadership of the Labour Party). 8- Department S. Featuring Peter Wyngarde as Jason King, a flamboyant author turned sleuth and apparent ladies man whose taste in clothes and facial hair in fact gave him the appearance of a cross between Quentin Crisp and Tom of Finland. 7- Opportunity Knocks. For aspiring stars, there was no other talent contest to appear on. A forerunner to Britain's Got Talent, which owes it a huge debt of gratitude, it was hosted by the smarmy Hughie Green whose catchphrase was: "And I mean that most sincerely", delivered, of course, with all the insincerity of an aspiring MP. 6- Hancock's Half Hour and latterly Hancock. To witness true comic genius at work, watch the magnificent Tony Hancock in The Blood Donor. Over 50 years old and genuinely funny, it remains richly deserving of its now legendary status. Advertisement 5- The Saint. Moore, Moore, Moore. How did we like it? How did we like it? Quite a lot actually. After he was Ivanhoe, before he was Lord Brett Sinclair and James Bond, the former knitwear model was Simon Templer for 8 years. We can almost forgive his use of the Swedish manufactured Volvo P1800. Just. 4- Steptoe and Son. Galton and Simpson's masterly scripts about two rag and bone men who were played to perfection by the Wifred Brambell and Harry H. Corbett, who out of interest wasn't the same Harry Corbett famous for having his hand up Sooty's backside. 3- The Avengers. Not the current film franchise one beloved by Marvel meatheads, this was The Avengers from the 1960s starring Patrick Macnee as gentlemen agent, John Steed, equipped with nothing more than a brolly and a bowler to fight crime. Try that Captain America. 2- The Benny Hill Show. Criticised for being sexist, it certainly had its fair share of knockers, but the seductive mix of seaside double entendres, burlesque and slapstick kept legions of fans entertained from 1955 to 1991. 1- The Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club. This variety show set in a fictional Northern working men's club was presented by Colin Crompton and Bernard Manning, who in particular was known for his socially aware, politically correct, pro-feminist style of standup. (N.B: the last statement may not be strictly accurate). Advertisement Getty I'm happily retired and I understand why it's easy for people my age to yearn with rose tinted spectacles for a Britain which once was. To be completely honest, two months ago i didn't think IN or OUT mattered much. Then the campaign started and it all got a bit emotional. I was frustrated seeing endless propaganda, and knowing how often the media can twist things to suit their own agenda I decided to go to the source documents themselves and to do a lot of research into FACTS. What I learnt, after endless hours pouring over original documents, was that the central fact is that the UK has an amazing deal with the EU, a deal which no other country has. We have permanent opt-out of the eurozone, of Schengen, of political integration. We have the ability to restrict benefits to job-seekers, to ask them to leave if they haven't found work, to keep out undesirables from other EU states, even if they have no criminal records, to control borders... and still have full access to the Common Market of free trade that my generation voted for in 1975. It's all in a 37-page legally binding document signed by the 28 Heads of Government in February, and yes I have read it all. Advertisement Sadly the Leave campaign and some newspapers propagate myths and untruths - well, lies. The EU is not" run by unelected bureaucrats", as I have myself learnt and condensed into my Democracy for Dummies diagram. We don't lose 350million a week by being a member. It costs 120million or so, much of which goes to build better infrastructure in those very countries whose citizens come to work here (maybe after a few years of the inevitable austerity post-Brexit, unemployed British workers will be seeking work in a modernised and thriving Romania or Croatia. It's not inconceivable.) That 120million which Leave claim could go the NHS is 0.4% of our GDP. If we leave, that 120million loss is predicted by the vast consensus of economists to become more like 1,200million loss per week. Where is the extra 1,000m or so to to come from? From the NHS? Turkey wont be eligible to join the EU in my lifetime; even then any one state can veto its entry, such as Cyprus or the UK - if we are still a member. Advertisement We retain our much lamented "sovereignty", because that is precisely what allows us to leave the EU if we want to. If we leave, no army is going to march in to restore EU supremacy. The EU forms 50% of our trade, our biggest market. We trivialise that at at our own risk. I could go on, but the core message is: the UK has an amazing deal, If we leave, it may never be available again. If Brexit is not the dream that is promised we would be cap in hand, accepting whatever is offered. We have a respected and powerful voice, and a vital part to play in a much bigger world stage than that of Little Britain - or Little England when Scotland leaves the UK to join the EU. We need a stronger Europe, not a weaker one. Putin would be happy to see a weakened Europe, thereby allowing Russian influence to move back into the eastern states - especially in the Baltic. I'm sitting down to write this text, because of this amorphic frustration coursing through my body and brain: I'm an immigrant living in the UK, within a democratic system (at least in name); a referendum is about to take place. It will significantly influence the outcome of my life, career and relationships and I. Can't. Vote. Let me do what I can. When we're talking about EU we're talking about immigration. When we're talking about immigration, we're talking about feelings, not facts. Those negative feelings -- of fear, aggression and hatred -- are impacting actions, and become facts in that way. What is immigration? Is it a group of scared looking people on a wobbly boat? Is it the Ugandan NHS nurse, who was actively recruited to come to UK, only to face the rhetoric of "stealing our jobs"? Is it me, a Polish writer, who came in search of more open society? Funnily enough, nobody speaks of British migrants, even though they most definitely exist. What is immigration, how is it a problem? Before you say anything: immigration is one thing, a convenient scapegoat to blame for the results of austerity. British society is being successfully, masterfully played. Advertisement Speaking of games. What is the long game of Brexit? How do we picture it? Does it last two years? Four years? More, less? Is Norwegian model any good? Is Greece a warning? Is there an actual plan? Not a "strawberry fields forever" promise of paying farmers the same money that they get from EU, but a plan: how to extend the current projects without EU funding; how to regulate immigration in a humane manner, if to regulate at all -- how to pull our weight in the refugee crisis; how to take care of each other in this society. Also, what will happen to the migrants who already live here? Many Leave voters believe that "nothing would really change", but I'm not so sure: wouldn't a Brexit win become a prelude to throwing people out, willy-nilly? I'm not pointing fingers, but, y'know, everyone laughed at Hitler. There was a time when he didn't seem like a danger. Now we have the same rhetorical patterns (Volk Ohne Raum, anyone?) and similar posters and yet we're not taking it seriously. I can say for sure that I feel endangered and vulnerable by the referendum: my fate depends on common sense of British citizens, and future plans are conspicuously absent from public conversations. Spoiler alert: there is no plan, not one I can discern, and if we don't take initiative, there will be no plan. There will be playing off our worst fears. It is already happening. It is a truth that terrified people are easy to govern: it is enough to point them towards the enemy and get out of the way. We need to defeat the fear. Scared people don't behave reasonably or responsibly; panic is not a good adviser, neither is aggression. Whatever choice is made in the referendum, I would love to see a measured response to current situation. But that's not what's happening. Both Leave and Remain campaign are running around like headless chickens, trying to appeal to our fear. And even though fear is a powerful motivator, it's hard to build constructive things on it, unless (touch wood) you're aiming for a 3rd world war. We need to do better: we need engaged communities, nuanced politics, fact-based conversations. Instead, the referendum is polarizing the public opinion: you have to say yes or no, and people are going to the mattresses. As there is a distinct possibility that even if Leave campaign wins, there will still be no Brexit, we should instead ponder what is our vision for the future. Not to mention that the big, loud, possibly unnecessary argument that this referendum has devolved into now has a body count; Jo Cox, author of passionate, humanitarian speeches, is gone in what looks like a consequence of all the hate flying around. Surely that's the most obvious indication that we're playing with fire. Advertisement These are times of great changes: EU is attempting to create things we did not have before. It would be madness to think those things have no consequences. Whether it's freedom of movement, open market or euro, there are -- and will be -- unlooked for results. If we can openly and cooperatively work those out, we continue to progress. What kind of Britain do we want? What kind of Europe? I'm not saying that Britain should never leave Europe, but it shouldn't leave like this -- flouncing off in a snit, full of underlying fear, with polarized society and racists getting their way. It's not only what we're doing, but also -- how. Yes, I'm saying we, although some would brand me stranger. But I live here, work here, pay my taxes, love my boyfriend. This is my voice. In my own way, I want to make a difference. On Thursday we are about to make arguably the biggest decision the British electorate will make in a generation. I had always intended to outline the issues for civil society of withdrawing from the EU before thousands of charities and millions of volunteers across the country made their decision. In light of recent events, I want to do this as factually and in as non-partisan a way as possible. For civil society organisations, the prospect of the UK voting to leave the European Union constitutes a leap in the dark - particularly with regard to the economic implications for the sector post-Brexit. These can be categorised as both direct risks to funding and the indirect consequences of prolonged financial volatility. In terms of direct contributions, the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) estimates that in 2013/14, charities received around 308million direct funding from the EU. Through the European Structural Investment Funds (ESIF), for example, funding is directed at targeting geographically the areas in which private investment may be lacking, with the aim of promoting economic competitiveness and boosting employability. Advertisement As part of the ESIF, 20% of the EU's structural funds budget is ring-fenced for projects that develop greater social inclusion and could be worth an estimated 500m in England alone over the lifetime of the programme (2014-2020). Likewise, the EU structural funds provide significant scope for the devolved nations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, with the voluntary sector able to play a crucial role in these areas to support disadvantaged communities and invigorate the labour market. In addition to the ESIF, our membership of the EU enables voluntary organisations to bid for funding from a wealth of other programmes, including those aimed at: preventing violence against women and children; promoting high-quality and sustainable employment; and supporting small and medium-sized cultural enterprises. Over the period 2014-2020, voluntary sector organisations in the UK are eligible to bid into a funding pot totalling upwards of 13billion. It is without doubt a very significant concern for the voluntary sector that equivalent funds would not be made available by future UK Governments in the event of our withdrawal from the EU. Of course it may be possible for budgets to be reallocated, but would charities be a priority? Amidst promises of more to the NHS, farmers, fishermen and so on, where would charities fit in? If the money didn't come, who would be able to make up the shortfall? Charities need to know, as this in itself would be a considerable hit. But perhaps even more important to civil society and fundamental to sustaining its income from public, private and voluntary bodies, is a strong economy. Leaving the EU, as all sides have acknowledged, would cause economic uncertainty and threaten our economic security. The Bank of England suggests a recession could result: this would have wide-spread implications for funding in the voluntary sector. Advertisement First, any economic shock would inevitably precipitate a more rigorous focus on fiscal consolidation, with public finances stretched to cover only essential public services. Secondly, there is the prospect that any market volatility could affect charities through both diminished investment returns and reduced incomes from grant-making trusts and foundations. Finally, any period of growing levels of unemployment, combined with a fall in average real wages, would mean more demand for services of charities at the same time as leading to a reduction in individual disposal incomes and thus the ability to donate to charitable causes. It is a potentially a potent double whammy. In addition, it is likely contributions from the business community would fall, as economic uncertainty necessitates a firm focus on the commercial, possibly to the detriment of social responsibility and charitable giving. There have been no definite answers to these questions in the debates to date, so as to reassure voluntary organisations that they will not take a huge hit from a UK withdrawal from the EU. With this absence of information, charities have been advised to put in place appropriate contingencies to try and offset not only losses from direct EU funding, but also absorb any indirect financial consequences to maintain their survival in a post-Brexit world. This is the crux of the matter for civil society: this unprecedented situation really does represent a step into the unknown. For decades, the country and the voluntary sector have been inextricably linked to the EU - not only financially, but also in terms of regulatory approaches to delivering essential services. Leaving the EU will undoubtedly present a series of new challenges, both in the transition but also in the long-term. Specifically for civil society, the risks of EU withdrawal are huge. At a time when the country needs charities and volunteering to be at the top of its game, they could be compromised, overwhelmed by demand and starved of resources. Brexit is a huge risk to the stability of the sector, one that may take decades to recover from. Advertisement I will begrudgingly vote 'Bremain'. I will do this in spite of the 'Bremain' and 'Brexit' campaigns. For me and thousands of 'In' voters like me, Bremain isn't talking to a Britain I recognise. Brexit is. I will not be voting for my country or those of Europe to be bludgeoned into one great bureaucratic blob. It is hard to love the EU's flimsy banknotes or its tacky flag and it is a fair bet to say millions across Europe feel the same. Au contraire: I love Europe, its staggeringly accomplished cultures, and especially my own part of it - Great Britain. Like the Brexiteers I am worried by the almost audible effacement of each and any of our cultural heirlooms that 'don't meet regulation standards'. Whether Britain's imperial measurements or those nice olive oil jugs that restaurants are no longer allowed to use, the Europarliament is forever poking its nose in places it shouldn't be. Advertisement The strange thing is that--on paper--people like me are the core vote "Bremain" needs on side to win the EU referendum tomorrow. A former staffer to the Lib Dem leadership, my comfortable middle-class experience of immigration has been unerringly positive. I do very well out of the EU, thank you. The Bremain campaign should have had me and mine stomping the streets handing out leaflets, imploring you to vote 'In'. They didn't. This is because for us, the In or Out debate became a choice between two different visions for Britain. It is even a question of two different visions of Britain. Yet Brexit has stolen Bremain's strongest argument from under our noses, and made it their own. Brexiteers insist we are on the cusp of a British resurgence, our history-battered country back in rude health. It's an exciting, rallying message. In every country of every continent people dress as we dress, follow ever more of our values and (literally) speak our language. And good thing too, say Brexiteers. Britain is dynamic, wise to history and--unlike its muddled and inward-looking continent--utterly global in its ambitions. Yet somehow they have sold us the story that by leaving the EU, by disentangling and curbing all that interconnectedness, we would end up with a Britain that is more connected to the world and better placed to shape its surroundings. Advertisement They tell us leaving the EU would give us greater control of our destiny. Exactly the reverse is true. Instead of crying foul, Bremain have fed this story. They tell us we are a puny island, doomed to be endlessly outvoted in the Europarliament on everything from cucumber length to condiment dispensary by twenty-eight nosy neighbours. To vote Bremain tomorrow is presented as a vote for some sort of capitulation. Thousands upon thousands of us feel we are being asked to declare with our ballots we are not half the country we were. The outrage is this: in truth it is the other way around. Brexit has pulled the wool over half the country's eyes, and Bremain has helped them get away with it. Pull the wool off, and you realise it is by leaving that we would be capitulating. Are we so inept that we cannot win around our neighbours? Europe's strongest voice for economic liberalism is being goaded by Brexit to bow out of the contest, leaving the Germans to lead. Brexit present us with absurd 1930s comparisons, but they are giving us Chamberlin's philosophy in Churchillian prose. The opinion polls say we're falling for it. I will vote for Britain to change the EU from within tomorrow, because I know this is an island on the up. There are harsh truths to swallow in this debate, but the nonsense that Britain has become a mouse of a country is not one of them. Advertisement The EU is run badly, on flawed principles. It will be tough to bring about change. By getting other free-trade countries on side and providing a alternative vision to the Franco-German cauchemar of economic asphyxiation by red tape, it is possible. If we leave, those obsessed with using that red tape to bind nations together in 'ever closer union' will dig in their heels and plant their flag. Freedom's fruits may seem a better bet for many voters, than the EU's economic uncertainty. Britain's referendum campaign has ended as it began, with uncertainties - over the likely result and over what a vote either way will bring. In these final days the 'Remain' side is keen to ratchet up the economic uncertainty a leave vote could pose, though whether this will pay off is not clear. People throughout the campaign have shown themselves impervious to the tone of menace, taking the threats and dire warnings with a pinch of salt. Even when the chorus of doom reached crescendo during the campaign with the Treasury's gloomy reports being echoed by the IMF and the Bank of England heads, two thirds of those polled foresaw no negative impact on their finances after a Brexit vote. And as late as this week we heard voters confirm on a BBC news progamme that 'no', they did not 'believe' the official analysis. More potent for them may be the picture the EU evokes. High unemployment especially in Spain, Italy and Greece has blighted the lives of millions, with dreadful levels of joblessness hitting the young (c.40-50 percent). More generally, the picture is of political instability, insecurity and extremism casting its shadow westwards across the bloc even the once proud capitals of the EU's founder states. Advertisement The real problem for the remain side is not so much that enough people don't believe it. Rather it fails to understand Britain's political culture and the tradition in which remain politicians are themselves participants, one which has emerged over centuries. That identity has been characterised by a perception of freedom - freedom for people to make their own laws, to stand up to and limit arbitrary executive power. Its focus has been parliament, described in recent centuries to be the 'guardian' and symbol of the country's freedoms. As the great labour parliamentarian and former minister, Tony Benn put it in the 1980s, 'through talk, we tamed kings, restrained tyrants, averted revolution'. By the 19th century that freedom extended to the power to elect MPs and governments and to remove them if necessary from office. No country could boast as lively a popular interest in and knowledge of politics. People and their politicians combined to promote through parliament the great causes of the day such as free trade and parliamentary reform. By then the party politics we know today had emerged. Two main political parties made up of shifting alliances, pursuing shifting interests, exploited events and causes to their party advantage. Great popular political movements shaped politics and economics such as the movement to repeal the Corn Laws in the 1830s and 40s as did its party political aftermath for over a hundred years. Politicians too could make common cause with the people. And, far from bribing the voters with their own money, or scaring them with unproven fears, politicians made political and electoral capital by appealing to the sceptical, pragmatic, side of the voters. That was summed up by two of the last century's most successful prime ministers when they told the voters they would not make them [false] promises of utopia. It may well be that for a large proportion of Britain's people the idea of the EU being a source of prosperity for Britain belongs to the realms of fantasy. It may be that they, no more than the politicians painting the idyllic scene, simply don't know. However, the likelihood is that many people will vote leave because of one certainty, the certainty that if they do, they will regain the freedom for this country to make its own laws, forge its own destiny through parliament, elect its own rulers and remove them when things go wrong. British people have shown that they use that power wisely to bring change, stability and prosperity at home. They have also empowered their governments to use it to promote co-operation and security abroad. These things are the fruits of freedom, of the parliamentary sovereignty which has allowed the people of Britain to decide how, and by whom, their country is ruled. Advertisement If you've read any of my posts before you'll know that, for the most part, I believe that the major infrastructure projects planned for the Camden and Euston area can lead to big wins for local regeneration and economic growth. Camden Town Unlimited and Euston Town are two business improvement districts operating in an area that will soon become a major works zone. Our local business members are hopeful about Crossrail 2 and the redevelopment of Euston Station. Advertisement Detailed plans are now being drawn up before the Crossrail 2 Bill is presented to Parliament. Before this happens, however, the Government needs to communicate a clear vision for the project. I believe that, from a business perspective, there are two key questions that need to be answered. 1.What is the purpose of Crossrail 2? If we are to take arguments about increased capacity and better connectivity as a given, we can start to think about who and what this new line will actually work for. A starting point is to consider the route itself. The line will extend the transport network out to Hertfordshire in the north east and Surrey in the south west, bringing the capital closer to residents and commuters in the counties. Through central London it then connects major day-trip and tourist destinations such as the high-end shops on the King's Road via Chelsea, Buckingham Palace via Victoria and the heart of the West End via Tottenham Court Road. Advertisement In sum this is a markedly different route to its sister line, Crossrail 1, which will soon start running trains between Berkshire and Essex. Crossrail 1 has a far different design, running through major hubs like Heathrow Airport, Liverpool Street, Canary Wharf and Stratford. In this respect it is very much a 'business line' connecting major transport and commercial centres. The commercial tenants that make-up our membership will be contributing to the funding of Crossrail 1 via the 2% supplementary business rate well into the 2030s. One of the options on the table is to extend this into the 2060s to cover Crossrail 2, in order to raise 15% of the funding. We are therefore quite concerned that businesses - and that's commercial tenants rather than landowners - will be levied for the new scheme. In short, private renting companies will end up paying out for another thirty years for little short-term return. If we are going to ask London to part-fund the scheme, we need to have a real understanding of who the major beneficiaries of this project will be. Advertisement It seems to me we need to consider how this affects properties along the route and put a greater emphasis on funding the line by capturing the rise in value it will inevitably bring. 2.How can we maximise the benefits of the project in terms of driving economic growth? Planners on major rail infrastructure projects rightly prioritise station redevelopment as a driver of local regeneration. When they get this right, businesses respond in kind, opening up to catch the pedestrian footflow, bringing key services and choice to an area. Close to home, we want to see this happen in Euston - where Crossrail 2 will stop - but we're concerned that we may not see the comprehensive redevelopment that the Chancellor himself has talked-up. Euston is the gateway to the Midlands and the North West and serves as a major central London interchange; but it isn't currently fit for purpose. Advertisement For Crossrail 2 (and HS2) to generate local economic growth, we need to reconsider the station's positioning, so that it's no longer southward facing and inaccessible to pedestrians from the north, east and west. Regeneration and economic growth should therefore be front of mind for the Government as it moves forward. Business can help, but if only if the station design lets it. Do you remember the image of two-year-old Aylan Kurdis' body on a Turkish beach, which shook social media? How did you feel when you looked at it? Did you feel angry? Sad? Powerless? I will tell you what I felt: I felt tired of seeing everyone sharing this awful image, and feeling bad. I felt that only sharing those images wouldn't help preventing more awful images from being created; it wouldn't help to change the situation. And that is what I wanted: I wanted to be able to help. I believe that this is a first, important step needed to become what people like to call an activist; you need to have the desire to change something (hopefully to improve something). Through social media I got to know about the incredible work Citizens UK was doing to help welcome refugees and to generate pressure on the government, so I got in touch with them. When one of Citizens UK's coordinators told me about their plan to lobby UK universities to set up fully funded scholarships for Syrian refugees I knew what my role was in that: I would fight to turn Oxford into safe havens for students fleeing conflict-torn societies. I learned from an early age that personal and professional integrity must go hand-in-hand with academic excellence. Both my high school education in Brazil and my undergraduate studies in Germany were sponsored by scholarships awarded on the dual basis of academic merit and ethical standing. Because my DPhil in Biomedical Engineering has only been made possible by the generous donation of alumni and the Oxford University, I feel very strongly about giving back to its diverse, wide-reaching community. Advertisement Through my engineering degree I have developed innovative ways to solve and tackle problems. As a result, I was able to design and set up the Oxford Students Refugee Campaign: an initiative that seeks to coordinate the efforts of student, academic and administrative members of the University of Oxford to establish comprehensive financial and welfare support for refugee and asylum-seeking students. The main idea of the campaign is to get every student at Oxford University to pledge a monthly 1 contribution for two years. This is a small payment individually, but if every student in Oxford chose to participate, the funds could provide as many as 20 fully funded scholarships for asylum-seeking and refugee students. With help of close friends, Emeritus Fellow Bernard Sufrin of Worcester, Den Moore, the Deputy Director of Student Administration, and Helena Kennedy, Baroness Kennedy, QC, Principal of Mansfield College, I launched the campaign last October. Through our student union (OUSU), we were able to go to the fresher's fair to spread the word about the campaign and to seek the support from the student body. We have grown from a tiny campaign to a successful scholarship fund entirely through the support and generosity of Oxford students. We have the backing of 11,000 students, totaling a financial commitment of GBP 240,000 over two years. Advertisement The University authorities have been very receptive to the ideas so far, and are willing to back the campaign administratively. They are not only administering our fund but also have brought our initiative into the Oxford Thinking Campaign as well as into the existing Give as You Earn schemes for faculty and staff. We (with the help of the University) have already identified eight eligible students holding offers for the coming academic year, and who would immensely benefit from the scholarships. We have yet to receive much of our funding (due to the monthly contribution), so we are now reaching out to friends, alumni, the general public (through media) and potential donors to raise enough funds to support all eight of them. As a student myself, I believe that such a scheme will create a tremendous positive impact on these students' lives. And with the added benefit of raising the morale of the Oxford student community at large: The Oxford Refugee Campaign stands as a flagship example of how much the student body can achieve when they are concerned about and committed to improving fellow students' lives. I had the pleasure to meet the Dalai Lama, the world's most famous refugee, when visited Oxford last year to discuss the global response to the refugee crisis. In his visit, he stated that only education, dialogue and personal contact could resolve conflicts in the long-term. I really hope that, through sustainable scholarship and welfare schemes like ours, we can turn Oxford and other academic communities around the world into safe knowledge havens for students and academics fleeing conflict-torn societies. For more information please visit our website, you can also make a donation. The 23rd of June is fast approaching, and we will soon be heading to the polls. The question of whether or not we should remain in the EU has dominated dinner table, bus stop and coffee shop discussions for months; everyone has their own talking points, and many of you have already made up your minds. Unfortunately, lots of figures and charts have been thrown around by both campaigns. Everything from how we buy bananas to the funding of the NHS have been questioned; resulting in serious confusion. So while everyone has a recycled line about the EU as it relates to immigration and the economy, what about senior citizens? It may be likely that by the end of this article, you won't have changed your mind-but hear me out. I think that it's important for everyone to get an accurate understanding of our relationship with the EU and how it benefits us before voting. Active ageing: The EU has implemented strong measures for older generations to enable them, if they choose, to remain in work longer. This is done through the promotion of flexible working hours and working from home and funding lifelong learning and training. There are EU programmes like Europe for Citizens, which promote civic participation and Erasmus+, which provides educational support for lifelong learning. Advertisement Equal rights: Under European Union regulations, workplace discrimination based on age is illegal. Another piece of legislation is currently being developed to ban other aspects of age-related discrimination. Funding support: The European Social Fund (ESF) provides significant resources to promote active and healthy ageing. For 2014-2020, the UK will receive 8.6bn for initiatives such as improving skills for citizens over 50. Another beneficial programme is Horizon 2020, the largest-ever EU research and innovation programme for universities and SMEs, with a budget of 57bn. The UK has won the highest share of grants for this programme, providing vital research on Alzheimer's, projects finding IT solutions to assist the elderly and for research on improving sustainable care systems. Protecting the interests of citizens with disabilities: The EU's Disability Strategy 2010-2020 has a wide range of proposals that European countries can introduce to improve the quality of life for citizens living with a disability. The new law will include minimum requirements to ensure that essential products and services are disability-friendly, allowing for greater participation. Other measures include measures to enhance access for citizens with mobility problems in regards to finding transport solutions and better access in urban centres. Living abroad: There are roughly 400,000 British pensioners living in another EU country. The EU safeguards the right for pensioners to draw their pensions wherever they might live within the EU. This also applies to invalidity and survivors' pensions. By 2018, new protections will be in place for workers' occupational pension rights if individuals decide to work outside the UK in the EU. With the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC), British citizens abroad in the EU have the right to free healthcare. Between 2009 and 2013, the UK had over 500,000 claims for healthcare abroad in the EU. Advertisement Many of these services and benefits will be undermined if we leave the EU. The independent Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has warned of a 20bn to 40bn gap in our public finances by 2020 if we leave. And a very recent analysis by the TUC, who represents nearly 6 million UK workers, warns of a 25% slash to the NHS's budget by 2019-2020. According to the IFS, our net contribution to the EU is 1.2% of our national budget, while our government completely controls 98.8% of all other public expenditures. So while Brexiters will have us think that our contributions to the EU cost us an arm and a leg, think again. On top of the above, we benefit a great deal from our membership with the EU. Millions of pounds in daily investments, over 100,000 EU nationals supporting the NHS and shared security services to tackle terrorism and organised crime are just a few examples. For those of you strongly in favour voting to leave, these warnings will no doubt displease you, but these are real facts. Two lovers kissing in the shadow of the Berlin Wall, a watchtower looms over, waiting to shot anyone willing to risk their lives for freedom. It was this view from the studio that would inspire David Bowie's 'Heroes'. Small acts of humanity could be large acts of heroism. My grandfather's first trip to the continent was being parachuted into occupied France to begin a journey through Northern Europe accompanied by a gun. Ordinary people doing extraordinary things in the name of freedom. Advertisement A generation of Europeans put millennia of warfare, tribalism and suffering behind them and started to build something better. It would never be perfect, democracy never is, but it still stands to this day as the best alternative to the blood bath that birthed it. Right now Ukraine fights for its right to look to Europe for its future, right now people risk their lives to feel the sand of our beaches between their toes. We fail to see the inclusion of the former Eastern Bloc countries as a testament to what we have helped build. We fail to see those desperate souls clinging to shabby rafts as a tribute to the better world we've created for this land. Most sadly we see them as a threat. The Leave campaign lives in a cloud of doublethink and misinformation. UKIP's dream of an independent United Kingdom would soon turn to dust. Leaving the EU would see the dissolution of the Union, with Scotland likely to have a second referendum and Northern Irish peace put in jeopardy. Leave want all the economic advantages of the single market without the freedom of movement that underpins it. It's like hiring a stall on the other side of a brick wall and being disappointed when you can't serve your customers. Advertisement The Leave argument turns from the illogical to lies when it claims we, one of the EU's largest populations and economies, is some how voiceless. We didn't give away sovereignty; we pooled it, extending the British tradition that built our very own union. Is the Remain campaign scaremongering when there is so much to scared of if we leave? When big business and trade unions are united against leaving, when 9 out 10 economists are warning us, when the economy is already wobbling, it's hard not to focus on the negative. But there is a positive case for Europe, a positive case not to just stay course but lead the way. Martin Luther King Jr. said, "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice." We are building a vehicle for that justice, one where the future of a child isn't determined by the cartographer's line, where barbed wire and watchtowers don't define your rights as a human. The project is complicated and messy at times, of course it is, but the prize is worth it because the goals are universal humans rights and prosperity. We should be struck that the generation that voted us in are now threatening to vote us out. They made a promise to the people of Europe that love would have no borders. To leave is break that promise, it is to divide young couples, to split a new generation of pan-European families. A younger generation, those who will live with the consequences the longest, now face being outvoted by their elders. Currently young lovers can kiss by the shattered remains of the Berlin Wall, they can travel from London to the Netherlands by train armed with little more than a smart phone and a rail pass; a new European generation. Advertisement A King of Porc has been crowned, and that gluttonous godsend is Chef Walter Manzke of Republique in LA. However, one Miami chef was serving up dishes that were a sight for sore eyes. This past weekend, Grand Cochon took place with ten of the winners from their regional competition, COCHON 555. The final competing chefs prepared show-stopping dishes using whole heritage-breed pigs in a head to tail showcase for a crowd of pork-loving gourmands, that took place hosted last Saturday, June 18th during Food & Wine Classic in Aspen. One competitor of Grand Cochon that threw COCHON fans in for a loop was Chef Diego Oka of La Mar by Gaston Acurio. La Mar is ruling the Peruvian game where Oka's specialty is not pork but, seafood. According to Chef Diego, La Mar doesn't even have pork on their menu. During his first year of participating of COCHON 555 in Miami, he won over the crowd with a Large Black Breed of pig raised by Maverick Meats/FKS Farms. The event benefitted the Piggy Bank, a farm devoted to providing free heritage breed pigs and business plans to emerging family farms. Advertisement Even though Chef Diego didn't win Grand Cochon his dishes had standing ovations featuring Quinoa Tamales stuffed with Peruvian corn called mote, aji panca, pig face and feet wrapped in banana leaves. Adventurous eater extraordinaire, Chef Andrew Zimmern posted a photo on Instagram of the Miami challenger's Stuffed Pepper captioning it, "brilliance." Before the Peruvian prodigy went up to Aspen to battle out all things pork, he shared some insight on the culinary competition and his strategy. Will any of your winning dishes from Cochon 555 be available at La Mar? Our new menu launched June 7th and we added one of the favorites which was the quinoa tamale! I love your Korean Fried Chicken, Chaua Aeropuerta with Chinese Sausage and Lomo Satlado but, many of your fans know you more for seafood. Were you nervous to take on the challenge of only cooking with pig? Yes, I was nervous to participate in general, but also it was a great opportunity to show that I can do more than seafood. Most of our menu is based on seafood but, we also served different kinds of protein, I think now more people are going to know that we not only have great cebiches, that we also have amazing tamales! What is your favorite part about the overall Cochon 555 event? First, it has to be about gathering with my team and having the same goal and pushing it to be the best. Second would be interacting with new people that were costumers of La Mar and giving them non La Mar dishes. Overall been in the event is lot of fun! How did you prep for this year's Cochon 555? At first we were brain storming about what we wanted to do. Then we asked, what do we want to show to the judges and guests?. At the end I decided that we have to showcase Peru but, with a twist, so I picked my favorite peruvian pork dishes and then we made little changes, I think it worked! What is some advice you would give other chefs in the future who will participate? At the beginning, I was researching and asking what other chefs did in the past years. I started to get confused and at the end I stops asking and researching and decided to do what I like and what surprise I would like if I was a judge. Since the event starts very early, I would suggest to get there with all your prep ready and have a good sleep the day before, it's a long day! If you could be any Heritage Bred Pig, which one would you be? His Holiness the Dalai Lama met with President Barack Obama today. This is the fourth time, since holding office that President Obama has met with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Today's meeting is not a visit favoured by the Chinese who issue stern rebukes to any Head of State that visits with His Holiness Dalai Lama. As such, it is has become customary for President Obama to meet with His Holiness the Dalai Lama quietly ,with little fanfare, behind closed doors. Official media were not invited in, and the White House issued only one photo of the meeting and that was through their flicker account. This is apparently the White House's attempt to limit any fall out by the Chinese who are trading partners of the United States and elsewhere. The Meeting was held in the Map Room rather than the ceremonial Oval Office as the United States does not recognise the Dalai Lama as Tibet as an independent country nor the Dalai Lama currently as Head of State. Advertisement According to White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest President Obama accepted the Dalai Lama's condolences for the shooting in Orlando, Florida on June 12 and commended the Dalai Lama for his efforts to promote compassion, empathy, and respect for others. The Dalai Lama is the spiritual leader of the Tibetan Buddhists and,due to his extraordinary compassions and spiritual leadership is revered throughout the Buddhist world,including Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, VIetnma and elsewhere. To learn more about the various strand of Buddhism and it's deep centuries old history please watch my critically acclaimed film, www.Buddhawild.film.com ,that played for 60 days in cinemas. The Dalai Lama looks as young now ,as he did then. The history, with China, one of the earliest seats of Buddhism is complicated, as the Tibetan Buddhists were originally an off shoot of Chinese Buddhism. Tibetan Buddhism was set up by dozens of monks who fled and set up their own strand of Buddhism in Tibet, with their own rules. This is not a commonly known fact that is often overlooked by media, historians and the political elite. In the meeting, the President and the Dalai Lama discussed the situation for Tibetans in the People's Republic of China, and the President emphasized his strong support for the preservation of Tibet's unique religious, cultural, and linguistic traditions and the equal protection of human rights of Tibetans in China. Advertisement It is of no surprise that the President lauds the Dalai Lama's commitment to peace and nonviolence and expresses support for the Dalai Lama's "Middle Way" approach. Ever the diplomat and hopeful peace maker, the President expressed that he wants to see "meaningful and direct dialogue between the Dalai Lama and his representatives with Chinese authorities to lower tensions and resolve differences". President Barack Obama reiterated the longstanding United States position that Tibet is a part of the People's Republic of China, and the United States does not support Tibetan independence. it is known to insiders that the Dalai Lama is not seeking independence for Tibet . The Dalai Lama stated that " he hopes that dialogue between his representatives and the Chinese government will resume" Supporters of the victims of the recent mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub attend a vigil at Lake Eola Park, Sunday, June 19, 2016, Orlando, Fla. Tens of thousands of people attended the vigil. (AP Photo/John Raoux) Unlike the gunman at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, the man who shot me didn't target me because of my sexual orientation. He was aiming for a woman who was pregnant with another man's baby. He shot her twice in the leg and kept shooting but missed her head. The stray bullet, however, hit me in the chest. I woke up from a coma four days later. It pains me to think about the more than 50 people lucky enough to survive the massacre in Orlando that killed 49 people. I'm grateful they're alive, but I also know they have a long uphill battle ahead to recover physically, emotionally and financially. I have walked in their shoes. Advertisement Shortly after the hospital released me, I received a six-figure bill for my two-week stay. It took me seven months of physical therapy just to walk without pain. Three years later, only now do I feel emotionally stable enough to be on a crowded street without anxiety. It hurts even more to think about the loved ones of the 49 victims who have fallen. Often, people think of a gun violence survivor as someone like myself who was directly hit by a bullet. But the grief of losing someone you love is often overlooked. I felt this personally when I discovered one of my first responders, a local barber, was shot and killed months after my own shooting. It was as if my scars had opened up again. When the shooter opened fire at Pulse, he shot at my LGBTQIA family. He was aiming for every one of us. I felt every bullet. Fearing for her safety and the safety of her children, the pregnant woman who was shot with me decided not to testify against the gunman who injured us both. She was understandably afraid he would come after us again if she spoke out. As a result, the gunman took a plea bargain and my shooter is now out on parole, after serving a year and a half in jail. My shooter may be out free, but at least as a convicted felon he won't be able to buy a gun legally. The same cannot be said about a suspected terrorist. Under current federal law, people on terror watch lists can legally buy guns. Think about that. People who are considered too dangerous to board a plane are legally allowed to buy a semi-automatic weapon. This is absurd and an insult to every American everywhere. Advertisement A strange thing happened after the events in Orlando. Gun violence prevention activists across America planned events around pride marches. LGBTQIA Americans donated their time, money and even their blood (those who were allowed to) in order to help the victims of this hateful crime. The two worlds I lived in coalesced. Both communities rose to the challenge and offered support to one another. But we can't continue to do it alone. Gun violence survivors and the LGBTQIA community have always relied on the support of allies outside of our communities. Growing up as a gay teen, my high school's Gay/Straight Alliance helped shape me into the person I have become. Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, a group created on Facebook after the Sandy Hook shooting, provided moral support during my recovery from my shooting. Gun violence is a uniquely American problem, and can strike any of us at any time. It struck a black church in South Carolina almost a year ago. It struck a women's health clinic in Colorado last fall. It struck an LGBTQIA nightclub in Florida this week. Even a single innocent victim, no matter their race, gender, religion or sexual orientation, is one too many. Gun violence kills more than 90 Americans and injures hundreds more each day. It means the world to an entire family -- nay, an entire community -- if that number is even reduced by one. If you do pray, pray out loud. But also, please continue to demand our lawmakers act to keep guns out of dangerous hands. On Monday, a majority of U.S. Senators voted in lock step with the NRA against closing loopholes that allow dangerous people -- including suspected terrorists - to buy guns in this country. And now it's time to hold those Senators accountable at the ballot box by replacing them with elected officials who will stand with the American people. We need leaders, not gun lobby lapdogs. We, as a people united, must ally ourselves against this gun violence epidemic. It's the only way forward. Yesterday Bloomberg published an article about a meeting of multiple cities in Amsterdam last month "to forge an alliance in response to Airbnb and Uber." This headline misses the mark; it is both misleading and glosses over what actually happened. I should know: I was at the meeting. The Global Sharing Cities Roundtable was conceived by the City of Amsterdam several months ago, as an opportunity for cities who are leading efforts to understand and promote the sharing economy worldwide. Participant cities ranged from Seoul, whose Sharing City initiative dates back to 2012 and includes everything from a city-owned space sharing platform to investment of public funds in more than 50 sharing economy initiatives, to Copenhagen, whose sharing economy strategy is linked to its goals for sustainability and the circular economy. Of course, Amsterdam played a leading role -- as Europe's first self-declared sharing city, home to numerous sharing economy enterprises and a fresh approach to policy reform. Airbnb and Uber were discussed at the roundtable. But to be clear: the roundtable was not "about" them. The purpose of the roundtable was for cities to meet each other -- the overwhelming majority of them had never been in contact before -- and to engage in blue-sky thinking about the sharing economy's potential. Advertisement True, Amsterdam's innovative approach to policy reform for homesharing and short-term rentals was one topic discussed, due to popular demand by other cities. But it was only one topic. Dozens of other topics were also part of the agenda. Ridesharing and ridehailing were another popular topic, though ironically Uber itself barely came up. Rather, more time was spent on brainstorming how the sharing economy can link with waste reduction initiatives, serve to rethink delivery of public services, engage youth and elderly, and potentially help tackle a wide range of other social problems for cities worldwide. The Bloomberg article misses the mark in failing to detail -- or even acknowledge -- this much broader agenda. I was honored to be invited as the only non-city employee. (For full disclosure, I have advised several of the cities in attendance.) Bloomberg reached out to interview me but did not follow through in doing so. Meanwhile, it appears none of the people quoted in the interview were at the meeting. With all due respect, this falls short of what I would expect from one of the world's most esteemed publications. The sharing economy is about much, much more than Airbnb or Uber. We should know that. It is extremely frustrating to see the media focus disproportionately on what is but one piece of a much larger pie. It is increasingly easy to single out one or two companies, but by doing so, we are missing the forest for the trees -- and missing a much bigger opportunity. As fear and terror increasingly grip American society, the Supreme Court marches in lock-step with overzealous police tactics. Ensuring safety almost always means giving up liberty and privacy. The Court has invented so many technical rules to insulate unlawful police tactics from judicial scrutiny that police violations seem to be the rule, and sanctions the exception. It wasn't always that way. The Court early on believed that by excluding misbegotten evidence from a trial the police would be deterred from violating the Constitution The Court pays this rule lip-service, but no longer nourishes it. Indeed, the Court's decisions increasingly encourage police to violate the Fourth Amendment with impunity without facing any consequences, either personally, or with respect to the evidence seized. Consider this week's decision in Utah v. Strieff in which a majority of the Court upheld an officer's deliberate violation of the defendant's constitutional guarantee against unreasonable police seizures. The officer arbitrarily detained Strieff without any legal basis. Then, after determining that Strieff had an outstanding traffic warrant, arrested him, searched him, and found drugs. The unlawful detention really didn't matter, according to Justice ClarenceThomas, because the existence of the traffic warrant somehow cleansed the officer's illegality, or in the Court's constitutional vernacular, attenuated the violation. In the Supreme Court's world of Fourth Amendment hocus pocus, there's usually a technical way to get around almost any constitutional violation. For example, motorists are generally at the mercy of police. Police have the power to stop virtually every motorist for no individualized reason any time, any place. Roadblocks, security zones, and safety check-points are ubiquitous. The motorist is then subject to intensive questioning and sometimes searches. Moreover, the existence of hundreds of potential traffic infractions allows police to detain and even arrest motorists often for the most dubious traffic violation; police don't have to issue summonses if they don't want to. When a motorist is stopped, police use an assortment of techniques to search the motorist, his car and his belongings -- trained canine sniffers, consent searches, inventory searches and searches pursuant to the arrest for the innocuous traffic violation. This unparalleled police power has consistently been upheld by the Supreme Court, and consistently augmented. Advertisement People using public transportation also are at the mercy of police. Passengers can be questioned, and their belongings searched. If passengers don't want to answer questions or subject themselves or their bags to a search, they can be escorted off the carrier. Searches following a passenger's consent are commonplace, and if there is a dispute over whether the passenger actually consented, courts almost always defer to the officer's version. And the canines are frequently available, and quick to identify contraband. To be sure, post-Orlando society will notice a dramatic upsurge in interrogations, searches, and detentions. But the threat of terrorism, and the increased feeling of personal vulnerability, offers law enforcement increased opportunities for aggressive invasions of privacy, and increased justification for judicial toleration of these tactics, if not approval. Forcible street encounters between police and civilians, typically without individualized suspicion, as illustrated by the Strieff case, have been denounced as an insidious example of police overreaching, without any official accountability. Once again, the Court's formulations of special doctrines to insulate police misconduct and protect the evidence is breathtaking. The list is very long: legal limits on the ability of an aggrieved citizen to sue; good faith exceptions; consent searches; inventory searches; emergency and exigency exceptions; and attenuation, as invoked in Strieff to save the unlawfully-acquired evidence. Advertisement This column was originally published by Truthdig.com 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, (Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States). If you're looking for someone to blame for the continuing partisan paralysis on gun control after the Orlando bloodbath, I have a candidate for your consideration. And no, it's not congressional Republicans, or the National Rifle Association, although their fingerprints are all over the country's inaction in the face of our unyielding epidemic of gun violence. My nominee is the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Scalia, who died in his sleep in February while, ironically, on a hunting trip in Texas, gets my nod as the author of the 5-4 majority opinion in the landmark 2008 decision, District of Columbia v. Heller, which held for the first time that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to bear arms. Advertisement Now, of course, I'm not saying that Scalia was in any way directly responsible for the murderous rampage of the Orlando shooter, Omar Mateen, or the perpetrators of the other mass shootings that have ravaged American communities over the past three decades, or even for the lunacy of the gun-waving, Constitution-thumping Cliven Bundy clan and other proponents of the "sovereign citizen" movement. But on an array of issues ranging from gay rights to gun rights, Scalia brought an incendiary temperament to the bench, and the rhetorical style of a fuming political activist that inspired an almost worshipful devotion from his admirers and discouraged civility, reasoned discourse and, ultimately, respect for law. Beginning with his appointment to the high court in 1986, Scalia was the intellectual leader of what I and many other legal commentators have termed a conservative "judicial counterrevolution," aimed at wresting control of the nation's most powerful legal body from the legacy of the liberal jurists who rose to power in the 1950s and '60s under the leadership of then-Chief Justice Earl Warren. Scalia was also a key architect of the jurisprudential theory of original intent -- the idea that judges should interpret the Constitution according to the intent of the framers and the purported "original public meaning" of the terminology used in the Constitution. Advertisement Heller was his crowning glory. In it, he delved selectively into the archives of colonial history and the early years of the republic to conclude that the framers of the Second Amendment actually intended to protect purely personal gun ownership rights. In doing so, he broke with the great weight of prior scholarship and court opinions, including the Supreme Court's 1939 decision in United States v. Miller, which had held the amendment protected private gun ownership only in connection with service in long-since antiquated state militia. Although Heller was technically limited to gun ownership in the nation's capital and other federal venues, the court extended its individual-rights analysis to the states two years later in the case of McDonald v. Chicago, a 5-4 ruling authored by Justice Samuel Alito, with Scalia concurring--and doubtless lending a guiding hand. Together, the decisions elevated gun ownership in America to the status of a basic national right, alongside free speech, the privilege against self-incrimination, equal protection, due process and other constitutional bulwarks. In fairness to Scalia, his Heller opinion did not foreclose new gun-control legislation or directly threaten most measures already on the books. In fact, he wrote that the Second Amendment, like all other constitutional rights, is subject to "reasonable regulation." But when you hear Republican politicians like Sens. John McCain, Tom Cotton, Marco Rubio and Mitch McConnell, or the National Rifle Association's loud-mouthed executive vice president, Wayne LaPierre, explain why they oppose even the most modest of new federal reforms, they inevitably invoke an ideology of Second Amendment fundamentalism animated by Scalia and Heller. Like its religious counterpart, gun-rights fundamentalism views society through a simplistic filter, populated, in LaPierre's nauseating catchphrase, by "good guys" and "bad guys." The armed citizenry is mythologized and lionized. Government regulation--especially at the federal level--is met with suspicion, paranoia, fear and, whenever possible, rejection. Advertisement To be sure, there are important economic factors that also undergird the largely Republican opposition to gun control. The NRA's campaign contributions, lobbying and ad budget are enormous, and its determination to defeat hostile candidates at the polls is legendary. But it is the fundamentalist ideology that gives the gun-rights camp respectable public cover in the face of one mass shooting after another, and which, thanks to Scalia, endows it with the imprimatur of constitutional law. It would be one thing if Scalia had gotten the historical analysis of the Second Amendment correct in Heller. But the tragic fact is that he got it so thoroughly wrong. As former Justice John Paul Stevens noted in his lengthy dissenting opinion in Heller, Scalia's exegesis not only rendered the opening "militia clause" of the Second Amendment meaningless, but he also distorted and underplayed the importance of the actual debates conducted during the founding era on the amendment's purpose and meaning. Those debates, Stevens forcefully argued, focused not on personal gun ownership but on the state militia, which the founders viewed as an antidote to a burdensome and potentially oppressive permanent standing federal army. The militia was seen as the best means for "providing for the security of a free State" against popular insurrections like Shay's rebellion, the anti-tax uprising of Massachusetts farmers of 1786-87 that exposed the weaknesses of the fledgling national government as constructed under the Articles of Confederation. In the end, the Second Amendment was worded as a federalist compromise, with the states retaining their right to organize militia and other provisions of the Constitution (for example, Article II, Section 2), clarifying that ultimate control over the militia would vest in the executive branch of the federal government. Personal gun ownership rights were left, as they had been during the colonial period, to the police powers of local government. Following Heller, Scalia's scholarship was widely panned by respected historians such as Jack Rakove of Stanford University for its "faulty rethinking of the Second Amendment" and Saul Cornell of Fordham University for being "a constitutional scam" and "an intellectual shell game in which contemporary political preferences are shuffled around and made to appear part of the Constitution's original meaning." That Scalia got it so wrong matters not just to students of constitutional law, but also to everyday people who want to prevent the next Mateen or Dylan Roof from getting their hands on easily acquired firearms. Although Maine Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican, has introduced a still-pending bill that would prevent those on the government's "no-fly" list from buying guns, no new federal gun-control legislation has been passed by both houses of Congress since Heller. And since McDonald, the Supreme Court has refused to hear another Second Amendment case, in which Heller's analysis might be reversed or narrowed. Instead, we have a patchwork system in which some states, such as Connecticut, California and New York, have adopted tough restrictions on semi-automatic weapons and the issuance of concealed- and open-carry gun permits, while many others, including Texas and Florida, make it possible to obtain AR-15s in less than 10 minutes. Advertisement There has been a resurgence of discussion about gun violence prevention in the wake of the mass shooting in Orlando. For those who may be less familiar with some of the gun terms used, and the legal principles at the heart of the discussion, here is a summary of ten basic and important facts: 1. An "automatic" weapon is one in which a single trigger pull can release more than one shot (think "machine gun"). Contrary to popular belief, automatic weapons are not illegal in the United States but they are heavily regulated and, accordingly, their use is generally confined to police and military. Advertisement 2. A "semi-automatic" weapon is one in which a single trigger pull releases a single shot; however, the weapon then automatically ejects the cartridge and reloads a new one. 3. Semi-automatic weapons utilize a "magazine," which is an ammunition storage and feeding device. The capacity of a gun "magazine" is the amount of ammunition or rounds that can be fired before stopping and reloading the gun. Some magazines hold just a few rounds while some can hold up to 100 rounds. There is no single definition of a "high-capacity magazine" but some legislation has defined it as a magazine that holds more than 10 rounds. Both handguns and rifles can have high-capacity magazines. 4. The term "assault weapon" does not have a standard meaning. However, it generally refers to an automatic weapon or a semi-automatic weapon with a large capacity magazine. Note that an assault weapon can be a pistol or handgun, as well as a rifle. 5. On September 13, 1994, Congress passed, and President Clinton signed, an "assault weapons ban," which applied to certain semi-automatic weapons and high-capacity magazines. However, the ban only applied to weapons manufactured after the date of the law's enactment, and it expired on September 13, 2004, in accordance with its sunset provision. Multiple efforts to renew the ban have failed. Advertisement 6. Gun safety laws vary substantially state by state. For example, New York, Massachusetts, California, and New Jersey have among the strictest gun laws. In contrast, certain states, including Alaska, Arizona, Idaho, Kansas, Maine, Mississippi, Puerto Rico, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming, do not even require a permit for adults (generally 21 and older) to carry a concealed firearm or openly carry (provided the person is not otherwise prohibited from owning a firearm). Sometimes those latter jurisdictions are referred to as "Constitutional Carry" jurisdictions in that they take the view that the right to carry weapons is inherent in the Constitution and, accordingly, should not be conferred by government via a permit. 7. During the 2011 shooting in Tucson, Arizona, involving Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, the gunman was overpowered and stopped when he had to pause firing in order to change the 31 round, high-capacity magazine on his Glock pistol. In 2012, the Aurora, Colorado shooter used a 100-round magazine, but it jammed before all of those rounds could be discharged. High-capacity magazines were also used in the Sandy Hook and Orlando attacks. 8. The Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution reads: "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." The Second Amendment was adopted in 1791. At the time of the adoption of the Second Amendment, there were no automatic or semi-automatic weapons, or high-capacity magazines. 9. District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) is a landmark United States Supreme Court case that concerned regulation of handguns (the Heller opinion did not address the issue of high-capacity magazines). In a 5-4 decision, with the majority opinion written by Justice Antonin Scalia, the Court held that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess and carry firearms. The Heller majority found that the language of the first clause of the Second Amendment, "[a] well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State," merely sets forth a purpose and does not limit the later or "operative" language of the amendment, "the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." 10. However, the Heller opinion expressly states that the right to keep and bear arms, like most constitutional rights, is not unlimited. The Second Amendment, said the Heller majority, is "not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose." The Court noted, in particular, that "dangerous and unusual" weapons would properly be subject to regulation but it did not define, and has not defined, which weapons might be included in that category. Specifically, the Court has not yet commented on the regulation of semi-automatic weapons or high-capacity magazines. At some point, in the near future, the Supreme Court will likely consider how ownership, use, and regulation of semi-automatic weapons and high-capacity magazines square with the Second Amendment. By Thomas Kennedy Paola Calvo had to choose between taking care of her 10-month old child and going hungry. She went hungry. She and her partner were giddy with excitement about the birth of their first child Sebastian, but they hadn't anticipated he'd be born with a cleft palate, a condition in which the roof of the mouth contains an opening into the nose. This disorder can result in feeding problems, speech problems, hearing problems, and frequent ear infections, and left the couple unable to enroll him in a regular childcare center because he required special medical attention. The lack of affordable options left Paola unable to work until Sebastian could have corrective surgery at 10 months old. That meant she and her partner had to burn through their savings in order to make ends meet. She went to bed hungry more than once, worried about how that could hurt her nursing child. These are the choices that working families face in their daily lives. Costs continue to rise and parents are devoting more time to work in order to make ends meet. It is no surprise then that couples are waiting longer to have children. They don't always want to, but it is a choice they have to make because of the financial constraints involved in raising a family in modern America. Advertisement Here's an idea for much needed relief for families: Affordable childcare. The annual cost of putting two kids in a full-time childcare center, a necessity for lots of working class families, is more than the annual cost of rent in most states and infant care costs more than a year of public college in 31 states. I am an immigrant in this country trying to make ends meet. I was undocumented, but am now working to be a citizen in my adopted home where I want to lay roots. At 25, I am at an age where many people start to think about these things, and it is discouraging to me to see hardworking friends struggle to start a family. The system should encourage and protect those who want to do the right thing for families. It wasn't always this tough for families in the United States. In the 1940s, we had a universal childcare program under the Lanham Act, which cost parents the equivalent of $9 to $10 dollars a day in today's dollars. The purpose of this act was to provide incentives for women to join the workforce during World War II, and it remains a more affordable childcare program than any available today. In the 1970s, the country saw a resurgence of interest in the issue of childcare and a universal childcare system was nearly pushed through Congress. Unfortunately, President Nixon vetoed the bill before it could be enacted into law. Advertisement Now we find ourselves in 2016 and with greater urgency than ever before. We need a comprehensive childcare system that takes working class families into account. The United States is increasingly falling behind the developed world on this issue. The lack of childcare does not only affect families, it also hurts employers. It costs businesses around $3 billion dollars annually when parents who are forced to interrupt their work schedules because of unexpected issues related to childcare. Julio Calderon and his girlfriend found themselves having to make the difficult choice between work and caring for their child. Julio is an undocumented Immigrant from Honduras who lives in Miami, Florida. He and his partner have been struggling to find affordable childcare for their six-month old baby. The least expensive option they found costs $350 dollars a week, exceeding their rent. Julio has been forced to put his university education on hold so he can work two jobs to make ends meet. They rely on family and babysitters. He wishes they had a more stable -- and affordable -- option. They both need to work to pay their bills, but too often find themselves having to choose between them who stays home with the baby. We live in one of the wealthiest, most developed nations in the world, yet we have a system that has left the core of our society, our families, behind. Families should never have to choose between paying for child care and paying for enough food to put on the table. Advertisement Funding an affordable childcare system is not only a smart fiscal decision, but also a moral responsibility for a country that regularly cites family values as the core of its identity. Families like Paola's and Julio's have to fight twice as hard to help their families thrive. Paola found full-time work as a communications manager with the Florida Immigrant Coalition, an immigrant rights group. Now her partner is home taking care of their son. "For a country with supposed high family values, the support my family needed in our time of need was simply just not there," Paola says. We can't afford to leave any more families behind. My personal commitment as a human being is for everyone to have the same rights. I mean we all started as an egg and a sperm, we all started right there. It just becomes convoluted. My personal opinion is that many people, most people, I wouldn't say all but they find ways to elevate themselves by downing other people and if people would just stop in some way, I mean it starts in the home. I think we need to let people know that everyone is equal. I don't care, we can label everything we want; we can have new labels for this and new labels for that; we can do all that stuff but we're all the same and it's just shocking to me that people haven't gotten that yet and you know we're heading for 2020 and people just don't get it or they do get it but they don't care because the only way they can elevate themselves is finding a way to down somebody else. I'm just going to find a way and I hope in my way, I mean politically I'm an actress and I don't know how much in politics people care what I say, but it doesn't matter because we don't live in politics. We live in real life and I'm going to do all I can from my end to get people to see that everyone is the same. Continued from >>>> Entry 11 I sit on the bed next to him smoothing his hair back and telling him I am his Nonnie and I love him. Sumeet changes him, gives him a bottle and he comes into the living room where he sits in her lap and I give him the floppy dog I brought from home and an ABC picture book. He gives me a stern look. And I imagine he is wondering, "Who is this person and what part does she play in the revolving door of my very short life" I have brought money to Sumeet and her family that was owed her and some extra as a thank you. I hold both her hands and tell her how grateful I am for taking care of Christian. Tarn translates and I am told, "Sumeet and her family love Christian. They want only the best for him and they hope you will be able to bring him home with you." This means the world to me. I know he has been cared for lovingly by this wonderful family. Tarn, Ant, Sumeet's husband, their 2 daughters and the driver who brought them to Bangkok, and I all go out to a wonderful lunch Tarn has arranged close to the hotel in Bangkok. Sumeet stays behind to watch over Christian. She does not know that after today she will never see him again. Advertisement Tarn has also arranged for A to meet us in Bangkok. Tarn has gotten a hotel for her. The plan is that Tarn and I will be bringing Christian to Tarns house for a few days leading up to his first birthday party. A will take him Christian back to Surin City after our visit. It is now time to leave and Sumeets husband brings Christian downstairs to us. I hold him on my lap and Christian is terrified to be taken from the man he thinks of as his dad. He shrieks for the next 40 minutes. Tarn, Ant and I are crying right along with him. We arrive at Tarns house and Julie is there waiting for us. Julie is Tarns housekeeper, now nannie. She is from Burma and speaks not one word of English. Christian sees her and calms down instantly. He likes Julie, Tarn says. We spend the day at Tarns taking Christian in Tarns pool, playing with him while Julie prepares his dinner. Fresh minced chicken, organic vegetables and brown rice pulverized into baby food. He will eat like this every day he is here. Nothing is store bought. Everything is cooked fresh. Julie sleeps on the couch next to Christian while I am upstairs in the guest room. Tarn must tend to business so I think I will have Christian to myself. Not so. Julie doesn't let me have 2 seconds with the baby. She runs a mean interference. I am so frustrated. Tarn calls to check on things and I plead with her to call off Julie. Julie disappears into the other room and I am afraid I have hurt her feelings, but now I have my grandbaby all to myself. Advertisement We read, we play ball, I put back all the electrical wires he delights in removing from one of the drawers he is constantly trying to climb in. I am exhausted, but so happy. I pantomime to Julie that I would like to take Christian for a walk around the neighborhood. She just stares at me. I go to collect the stroller Tarn has bought but I cannot open it. Julie just stares. Finally I am able to wrench open the stroller and put Christian in. I point to my watch and show her little hand on 2 big hand on 25. It is 2:05 and I will return in 20 minutes. She nods. Out we go and as I turn around to check the number on the front of Tarns house for our return, I see Julie peeking out from behind the post, watching after us. I wave at her. It is freakishly hot and humid yet I have not been this happy in almost a year. I sing The Wheels on the Bus over and over again making up words to the song. Christian turns back in his seat to look at me and for the first time he smiles. I cry. This will be our little ritual; our singing walks. Row Your Boat, Swinging on a Star, Twinkle Twinkle, but mostly Wheels on the Bus. Tarn has a trip planned for us. She and Ant, Christian and I are going to Hua Hin Beach about 90 minutes from Bangkok. We are staying at Novotel, a huge hotel with lots for kids to do. A whole wing at the hotel with a playroom, ball house, puzzles. I am excited. Then I find out I am to share a room with Christian and Julie. I am a very light sleeper and I know when Christian wakes for his 5AM bottle that's it for me. But this turned out to be the hour I loved most. While Julie slept, I would take Christian out on the balcony and sit with him in my lap waiting for the sun to come up. I think we bonded! We discovered Christian likes salmon! And fish in general. He has an amazing appetite. But he pulls on his ear and I worry he may have a chronic ear infection. Josh had them and we had his tonsils removed when he was 3. There is also a small rash on his chest that bothers him on occasion. He is a very serious little boy. Advertisement We spend 3 days and 2 nights at Novotel. I pay for Julies and my room. It is hard not to pay for more but Tarn is so generous that I try to pick up the tab as often as I can. She is used to going first class and as much as I admire that, I am a little out of her league. The next day we head back to Bangkok for mamas arrival. A! We have been making nicey-nicey and Tarn is worried I will screw things up. I think she is remembering my plans to have her killed! I promise I will be kind and loving. Tarn thinks that is hilarious and gives me an evil eye. Uh-oh. I am sick, feeling weak and tired and not myself. This will be my third trip to Thailand and the first time visiting Josh I was so ill in Chang Mai I could not leave my hotel room. My second trip was after Josh died and if I got sick I didn't know it, my grief was so profound. This trip I am most definitely coming down with something; sore throat, red eyes. And A gets here tonight. We are prepared for her to want to take the baby back to the hotel Tarn has reserved for her. She arrives 2 hours late and makes a big to-do over Christian. Christian seems unimpressed. I pretend she is the person I most want to see in the world. And Tarn adds to the gifts I have brought her. We go out to dinner, the 3 of us. Julie stays back with Christian. I ask if I can stay with Christian and Julie can go with Tarn and A. Tarn gives me The Look. As I write this, a protest is occurring on the floor of the House of Representatives. Democrats, led by John Lewis, Jim Clyburn, Nancy Pelosi (and many others), are staging a "sit-in" to protest Republicans' refusal to even hold a vote on any gun control legislation. Their battle cry is "No bill, no break" -- a veiled threat to keep the protest going right into the next one of those too-frequent vacation weeks Congress regularly awards itself. Whether the protest is ultimately successful or not, it shows a renewed vigor in the Democratic Party to push back against the do-nothing party in the majority. This could bode well for their chances to retake control of both chambers of Congress this fall, in fact. This protest comes the week after the ninth-longest filibuster in Senate history, launched by Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, on exactly the same subject. Murphy forced the Senate Republicans to allow votes, and although no bill has yet passed, compromise legislation is still a possibility. This shows that on both sides of the Capitol, Democrats are willing to use extraordinary measures to spotlight the refusal of Congress to even attempt to keep guns out of the hands of suspected terrorists. It could even be called the "Occupy Congress" movement. The tide may be turning on the politics of gun control, but it's really too early to know this for sure. Gun control is still a sticky subject for Democrats, because in recent decades it has been a big loser for them at the polls. When Democrats passed the last round of significant gun control legislation in the 1990s, they promptly lost control of both the House and Senate (to be fair, there were other reasons for the so-called "Republican Revolution" as well). This gave rise among Democratic politicians (those old enough to remember this era) to a certain amount of "once bitten, twice shy" feelings. If gun control is unpopular with the voters, they figured, then why go out on a big political limb for it? Advertisement Of course, that was several dozen massacres ago. The San Bernardino and Orlando shootings seem to have changed attitudes, both among Democratic politicians and among the public at large. Hillary Clinton, to her credit, got out in front of the issue early on in her campaign and has shown some real strength in challenging the National Rifle Association's sway over the legislative process. And now congressional Democrats also seem eager to tackle the issue. It was always a glaring loophole -- Congress, immediately after 9/11, essentially rewrote large chunks of the Bill of Rights, in the sacred name of "national security." But they left a few things untouched, and the most obvious one was the Second Amendment. Terrorists wouldn't be allowed to fly on airplanes, but allowing them to buy high-powered guns was still perfectly OK. This loophole has existed now for 15 years, but this is really the first time it has become a political hot topic. That's one measure of the stranglehold the N.R.A. has had over the debate, in fact -- few politicians have even talked about this loophole until very recently. Democrats seem to have learned one big lesson about gun control proposals, and that is to be very selective about which laws to propose. As Pelosi stated in her press conference today: "85 percent to 90 percent of the American people support the background checks and the 'No Fly, No Buy' legislation." That is a pretty good political strategy -- focus first on the issues that an overwhelming majority of the public agrees with. Shine a spotlight on how reasonable the proposals are, which will in turn also draw attention to how Republicans won't even take steps most of their own constituents agree should be taken. To this end, Democrats have whittled their wish list down to just two specific issues: ending the "gun show loophole" and their new "No Fly, No Buy" attempt to deny weapons to suspected terrorists. If neither one of these passes both houses of Congress (which seems the likeliest outcome), then Democrats are signaling loud and clear that they are going to make it an enormous issue in the upcoming campaign season. Advertisement Which is why putting on a bit of political theater right now is so impressive. It's kind of hard to ignore the minority party when they have shut down both houses of Congress within the past week. The House group swears they're not going anywhere -- they're going to keep up this sit-in until they are allowed a vote on the two proposals. Pelosi pledged today: "all day we'll be there, as long as it takes, every day." The longer it goes on, the more attention it will get from both the media and the public. Since the two bills aren't likely to pass (in the current Congress, at any rate), the entire exercise is a political one anyway -- Democrats are planning to use this on the campaign trail, and the more attention they get now, the easier that case will be to make. Some might see this as setting a bad precedent for politics in general -- refusing to let the House conduct business could generate some blowback both now and in the future. But in the near-term this isn't all that likely, if the Democrats are right about the "9 out of 10 people support this" statistic. If the public truly does want these commonsense laws passed, then Democrats are likely to gain support from most of the public for their protest. In the long term, Democrats risk the same strategy being used against them (at some future date when the House is back under their control). But if that were to happen, Republicans would also have to choose their issue carefully. If they launched a protest of their own without the support of a wide majority of the public, it would likely fizzle on them or generate public backlash. The Tea Party's "let's just shut down the government" tactic didn't exactly work wonders for the party, to put it another way. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan is now in a bind. It's completely up to him what legislation gets floor votes, and his refusal to allow any gun control measures to even be voted on is going to get more and more uncomfortable if the sit-in continues (and garners significant public support). He won't want to look like he's caving in to Democratic demands, but not even allowing a vote is going to look pretty intransigent to the public (who currently has nothing but disgust for the way Congress refuses to get anything done). Ryan was supposed to be leading the news stories today (by releasing his vague, specific-free "replacement plan for Obamacare"), but his grand achievement now looks like it's going to get buried under the sit-in news. That's got to be annoying to Ryan, to put it mildly (especially after most everybody has ignored all his other grandiose white papers for the past few weeks). Democrats are not likely to see any of their proposals pass this Congress and make it to President Obama's desk. They knew this all along. Instead, they are strongly making the case to the voters to elect more Democrats so that such commonsense laws can get passed on a regular basis, instead of the continuing "Party of No" obstructionism from the Republicans. In a normal election year, this case would be made on an individual basis by Democratic candidates for the House and Senate. But such dilution means not speaking with one unified voice, to a national audience. That is precisely what the whole "Occupy Congress" movement is now doing. By standing up and saying "We've had enough!" in such a clear fashion, Democrats can much more easily make that case to the voters from now until November. And the longer the sit-in goes on, the easier that case will be to make. Political theater should always be judged on two qualities -- is it attention-grabbing, and is it effective? Some manage the first without achieving the latter. But occupying Congress may wind up being a winner on both yardsticks. Chris Weigant blogs at: The Kochs have spent over $88 million in *traceable* funding to groups attacking climate change science, policy and regulation. Of that total, $21 million went to groups that recently bought a full page New York Times advertisement defending ExxonMobil from government investigations into its systematic misrepresentation of climate science. If you're an executive at a big oil company watching as ExxonMobil is finally exposed for studying climate change, covering up the science and spreading misinformation, you're probably worried now that state attorneys general are knocking on Exxon's door. Charles and David Koch must be worried, anyway. Their foundations gave more than $21 million to the people and groups that signed a recent, full page New York Times advertisement that defends ExxonMobil's longstanding efforts to ruin the public's understanding of climate change science. Advertisement Here are the numbers: For comparison, Exxon itself spent half as much on the same people and groups, $10.1 million; money that the front groups spent on tactics like ... a $100,000-or-so full page ad buy in the New York Times! (More info at Climate Investigations Center from my former colleague, Kert Davies.) The ringleader group behind the letter, the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), is of particular interest. Exxon dumped CEI for its unsupportable climate stance back in 2006, a crushing blow for the aggressive beltway front group that continued to humiliate CEI staff for years. But it appears that CEI is loyal to the cause of climate denial, despite being abandoned by Exxon a decade ago. Other financiers, like the Koch family and several coal and oil companies may explain why the denial campaign was sustained. Traceable funds only represent a portion of the Koch family's contributions to CEI. At CEI's annual fundraising events, Koch Industries' lobbying subsidiary has been listed as a sponsor. Full-disclosure tax filings published by PR Watch revealed that Koch Industries directly paid Americans for Prosperity, the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and other organizations. Advertisement PR Watch discovered another revelation in the full-disclosure tax documents that were leaked. Apparently, David Koch likes to cut CEI $100,000 checks straight from his own coffers. David Koch's money was not sent through his nonprofit foundation, which would have had to report the grants to CEI. This incomplete patchwork of previously-undisclosed funds from Koch Industries and David Koch adds $3,124,834 to the accounting on groups that co-signed the CEI ad. This raises the question: who else is just cutting a direct check to the climate deniers? And then there's the "Dark Money ATM" sister groups, DonorsTrust and Donors Capital Fund. The DonorsTrust franchise is run by CEI's former president, Lawson Bader, who helps donors -- including Koch -- anonymize tens of millions of dollars that go to dozens of front groups each year. DonorsTrust & Capital Fund have funneled millions of dark money dollars to CEI. But that's still not the end of the financial trail. Other mechanisms used by Charles Koch and his army of donor friends include Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, a dark money umbrella group that has hidden hundreds of millions of dollars in politically-charged cash, shuffled between various trusts, nonprofits, and limited liability corporations. For the deep history, check out Kert Davies' post for the Climate Investigations Center, which spurred my own interest in the sponsors of the recent New York Times ad. Kert details the crucial history of some of the letter's signatories, the role they have served in the climate denial machine over the years and the exact documents that inform his understanding. Advertisement I have reproduced Kert's ExxonSecrets map (below) of the players involved, as it helps show how a small group of people funded by a few oil and coal companies can cast a shadow that is deceptively deep. The tobacco industry crafted this deceptive model, and fossil fuel companies have innovated it since. It helps that the same people doing tobacco science denial moved on to climate science denial. One of those tobacco denial alumni, lawyer Steve Milloy, himself an aggressive defender of ExxonMobil, knows that a small group of people can have an outsized impact with enough funding -- even in the face of 97-99 percent of the world's climate scientists. Milloy once said, "There's really only about 25 of us doing this. A core group of skeptics. It's a ragtag bunch, very Continental Army." This indicates that folks like Milloy aren't just deceiving the public, but themselves. If I was taking Charles Koch's money to attack science, I too would probably have to constantly remind myself of my American heroics. Mr. Koch is as awkward as ever in his half-hearted attempts to understand climate change science (you'd think a MIT alumnus would get it), he has been wary of climate laws and regulations for a long time. That's probably why he has rained cash on the organizations that stage the fight, groups that have given room for a top U.S. CEO, with a background in chemical engineering, to demonstrate such scientific ignorance. Since 1997, the Kochs have spent more than $88 million in *traceable* dollars into the network of groups that attack climate science, the scientists doing the research, the potential policy solutions and the champions of those policies. Advertisement ExxonSecrets Map of the Players At such a volatile time for inter-European relations, as the United Kingdom mulls over the upcoming referendum to remain or leave the European Union, Raphael Giannesini's refreshingly uniting 'Explorers' exhibition comes to London. Speaking of his upcoming exhibition, French-born artist Giannesini - who studied at Central Saint Martins and now lives and works in London - explains he was interested to create something out of his 'knowledge and interest of both scenes'. His unifying exhibition will feature 17 emerging artists from France and England, countries he describes as 'very influential (to the) artistic scene in Europe, with long-standing history of exchanges'. As well as collaborating the two cultures, the Explorers exhibition will also host a series of talks, workshops and readings aimed at developing exchanges between French and English artists. 'Explorers, In the pursuit of The Terra Cognita', invites artists to consider the idea of exploration in the contemporary context of a 'known land': when all territories are mapped out and accessible, what is left to explore? Described as a 'cultural and artistic challenge', the exhibition explores a multitude of mediums, including sculpture, photography, video, installation, painting and performance to challenge the boundary between the known and the unknown. Advertisement 'Seaway' by Joris Henne & Natasha Lacroix, on show at the exhibition For Raphael, the future for Explorers will involve further cultural exchanges, including artists from Berlin and Amsterdam. Today the UK votes on whether it will remain a part of the EU or go off on its merry way. The vote gives people the choice between two storied British traditions: meddling in the affairs of its continental neighbors (Remain) and annoying the French (Leave). I hope the UK chooses to remain and, for that matter, continue meddling. Much of the campaign waged by the "Leave" camp centers on the issue of migration, as one British friend told me once "this is essentially a referendum on immigration." But, it isn't about migration, it is about EU membership, of which migration plays a small role that, often, has nothing to do with what Leave campaigners are talking about. For example, Leave, has made a big fuss about the issue of migration from Turkey, which is not an EU member. When faced with this obvious truth they mentioned a possible visa-waiver program that was being negotiated between the visa-free Schengen zone and Turkey. Only problems with that argument are that England isn't part of the Schengen zone, so this doesn't apply to Turkish travelers to the UK who would still need a visa, the agreement in question isn't likely to be approved and the overt racism inherent in the argument. Advertisement Again, Leave campaigners weren't deterred. They argued that Turkish travellers could sneak into the UK from the EU. It is unclear how voting to Leave would stop that from happening though as control of travel to Britain by non-EU citizens is already within the UK government's control. The other arguments by the Leave campaign focus on taking back "control" from Brussels (the EU's capital). It's never exactly clear what they would take back "control" of... besides, of course, control over immigration. They scream and shout about how "unfair" and "undemocratic" the EU is but, ironically, UKIP, the most pro-Brexit political party, has only ever won an election when it came to voting in the EU's parliament (they only have one seat in the UK parliament). What about the economy? That's where the Leave campaign is weakest. In a good case scenario a decision to Leave the EU would undoubtedly weaken the UK's economy. Uncertainty about what comes next will defer investment and hiring decisions and when the dust settles many companies will likely "onshore" a lot of functions to the EU. The best part about this is that for the UK to retain access to the EU's common market and not weaken its economy if it leaves, it would have to guarantee the "freedom of movement" (aka immigration) that the Brexiters are so angry about... a sort of damned if you do, damned if you don't scenario. Facing unanimous expert opinion that a Brexit would hurt the British economy the Leave campaign has decided to dismiss experts and encouraged voters to not be afraid of these doomsayers... Advertisement In the extreme scenario that a Brexit vote would lead to the slow disintegration of the EU (something pro-Brexiters not-so-secretly hope for) that would be even more calamitous for the UK's economy as both the UK and its biggest trading partner would go through years of uncertainty. So... to sum up the Leave argument: Brexiting will reduce immigration from countries that have nothing to do with the EU for reasons we can't explain. We need to take back control of things that are so important to us that to articulate them would blow our mind. The EU has no democratic legitimacy except for the fact that it is composed of a number of democratically elected government and it gives us, Brexiters, our only democratic avenue for complaining about how un-democratic it is. Don't listen to experts who say Brexiting might hurt the economy because experts suck. Don't be a coward and vote for Brexit. When faced with that impenetrable wall of "coherent and logical arguments" it should come as no surprise that I am not swayed. But voting to Remain in the EU shouldn't just be about why the Leave campaign has failed to make a solid argument for exiting. On balance the EU is a force of good, for the UK, Europe and the world. True a bureaucratic, terribly-accented, often contradictory force of good but a force of good nonetheless. Look at it this way, between 1870 and 1945 Germany invaded France three times. In the 70 years since then that has happened a grand total of zero times. I like to think the EU played a small role in making sure that was the case. Advertisement Some people like to say that the EU isn't a complete success because, I don't know, not every European is born into a gilded birthing pool. But when you think about where Europe started from then the EU really is a smashing success. Imagine for a second that Africa created a new African Union and that caused it to be the most peaceful continent on Earth with the highest standards of living whose biggest concern was whether the finance minister of Burundi wears a tie and how to incorporate all the Brazilians that are suddenly flocking to its shores... well, that would be a success no? This isn't to diminish the rough decade that the EU has had. Low growth and depression era unemployment stats in Southern Europe and former industrial regions are nothing to scoff at but that doesn't justify discrediting the entire EU. In fact, instead of arguing whether the UK should stay in the EU the argument should be about how much more involved should the UK be. The UK can offer Europe a third path between German style austerity and French style "Je don't give a fuck" approach to economics and social inclusion. It can offer leadership in areas like monetary policy, innovation, law and, ironically enough, integrating lots of immigrants. It is for all these reasons that I hope the UK votes remain in today's referendum. -Tewfik Cassis Sign up for Daily Pnut, an email on world affairs that will brighten your mornings and make you sound marginally more intelligent. Stars and stripes on gun This was originally published on Sum of My Pieces. It happens after every major tragedy. An outpouring of love and grief and support on all platforms of social media: inspirational memes, profile-picture overlays, petitions, indignant status updates, political hashtags. It's all just so very...right there. Our collective rage. Our sadness and terror and wishes for things to be different. On our screens and in our feeds: over and over and over again. And each time it happens, I have to admit, it bothers me. I really struggle with it. Each time social media goes wild--about a mass shooting, a dead animal, a parent who needs eviscerating--I take a step back from all of it and try to understand what's happening. We are all so used to instant gratification now. Click a button and there it is: proof that you've said something--done something. And not only do you have the proof but all of your friends, followers, and stalkers have it as well. There, I stand with Orlando. Or Paris. Or a dead lion. Or rape victims. I wrote a meme about how I will raise my boys to respect women. I posted something with a rainbow flag. I have done something helpful. Advertisement I just can't help but wonder what any of that does, truly. Since the shooting in Orlando last week, there have been a lot of declarations about the need for gun reform. Personally I hate guns, and wouldn't mind if the 2nd Amendment (written in reference to the right to form a militia, not wield an uzi) was repealed altogether. But shaking our fists at the heavens and demanding a general ban on assault-weapons isn't productive. Let's take a minute to get the facts straight before we go diving into our online indignation. I've seen many posts about the AR-15 and how awful it is and how it needs to be banned. Great idea--except for the fact that that wasn't the gun used in Orlando. What was used was a Sig Sauer MCX, a weapon that, according to the Washington Post, is very similar to the AR-15, but not quite the same thing. These details matter. It matters that we get the facts straight before we go rushing in to demand change and vocalize who we hate and who's to blame. Here's why the details matter: because they'll matter to the NRA. Because if all those petitions that are circulating on social media work, and somehow Congress actually does its job and passes legislation that bans all "assault weapons," the NRA will say, "Ok no problem--no more assault weapons. Oh and btw, the term 'assault weapon' only applies to fully automatic weapons, so we're still all good with semi-automatic ones" (like the Sig Sauer MCX and AR-15). Or, the NRA-bought politicians might write the law--as they did in the 1994 assault weapons ban H.R. 3355--to exclude any weapon that has already been manufactured, so that while making new ones would be outlawed, buying and selling the ones that already exist would be perfectly legal. Are any of the social media petitions explicit about wanting both future and present weapons banned? Do they make it clear that the new legislation shouldn't be riddled with loopholes like the 1994 one was? What about handguns? How should they factor into things? Is anyone demanding that this new legislation apply to more than just the 18 specific semi automatic weapons that were listed in 1994? Gun manufacturers simply worked around the bill last time, and they'll do the same again if all we want to do is feel good about ourselves for a moment as we click a link and type out our names. (Check out the 1994 bill here. It's fascinating.) Advertisement My point is that there's a difference between motion and action. There's a difference between an emotional gut-reaction that will fade by next week, and a thoughtful, nuanced conversation. It doesn't seem to matter what the specific issue is--we hand down verdicts and demand justice so swiftly and automatically these days that there isn't time to allow for actual change. Because there isn't time for actual listening. I'm at a loss, and I think it's ok to admit that--I think it's ok to say that I'm not sure what The Answer is, but I do know that one, single, swift motion is rarely productive. Sometimes depraved, marginalized people do horrific things that speak to more than a single problem. But we don't like grey areas because grey areas are hard to meme. We don't like complexity because they get in the way of immediate and loud action. Each side just continues to ring the same bell over and over, each tragedy just serves as further proof of how right they were in the first place. And I understand the need to feel like you have a voice that matters and that can be heard. I understand the need to pass stories back and forth--to connect with other people who are as confused and startled and terrified as you are. I stand with you. I see you and I see your pain. Sometimes that's exactly what people need. I get that. But meanwhile, when was the last meme posted about Cecil the lion or even Harambe from the Cincinnati Zoo? How long will it take for the outrage about the Disney crocodile to subside? How long until our attention is needed urgently to eviscerate another set of parents? And what about Orlando and guns? How long until the next news cycle brings along something else to scream and yell and post about? Advertisement A few days? A week? "The U.S. and its Gulf Arab Allies share a broad vision for the Middle East," the Wall Street Journal reported recently, breaking the news that "mom and apple pie" have been discovered in the land of hummus and tabouleh. Obama and Saudi Arabia's King Salman agree the summit was "constructive and fruitful" and that they are both committed to "developing strategic relations" between our countries and regions, in service of world peace. As a growth strategist who consults with Fortune 1000 firms and the thought leader who pioneered the phenomenon of Relationship Economics, the quantifiable value of business relationships, headlines about "strategic relations" capture my attention. And as a native of Iran who came to the U.S. as a teen, news from the Gulf States still hits close to home, and it hurts. I see too clearly how business leaders, politicians, and academic forums throw around "strategic partnerships" but fail to walk their talk. They change alliances like you and I change undergarments. What is missing is transparency, candor, and substantive dialogue on relationship-centric investments. Personal and professional success--and in this case, urgently needed geopolitical success as well--depends on the diversity and quality of relationships. Yet most of us don't spend nearly enough time identifying, much less nurturing those relationships. Neither our leaders nor those in the Gulf States have made the relationship-centric investments over time that could have made this promise of "strategic partnership" a reliable indicator of future performance. Advertisement President Obama seeks a relationship in which all parties have knowledge of what the others are doing. To achieve that, he--and the others at the table--must be credible in their description of the real status of the relationship. The goal must be true co-creation of reciprocal value moving forward, not merely knowledge of each party's tactics. If any of these leaders, on either side of their intellectual as well as geographic gulf, were to seek my counsel, I would encourage them to: 1. Map who can add value to the search for stability and peace, and how to reach them. 2. Relate to each other to deepen connections around mutual best interests. 3. Nurture that relationship over time through the transparent delivery of value--no quid pro quo, no hidden agendas. 4. Sustain the relationship with proactive communications where listening is the top item on the agenda. Only then can we-- 5. Request action in such a way that it is possible for others to say yes, and 6. Capitalize on the value that has accrued in the relationship over time. I offer these six components of Relationship Economics, my proven formula for co-creation of a shared future in the Middle East. Bring on the transparency, the candor, the dialogue, through relationship-centric investments. Now THAT would truly be newsworthy. Advertisement Nour Takeaways 1. As a thought leader on the quantifiable value of business relationships with roots in Iran, I see too clearly how the recent talks between the U.S. and our Gulf Arab allies fall short of investing in truly strategic relationships. 2. President Obama and our Gulf allies must have the courage to be candid about the real status of the relationship, to co-create future reciprocal value. 3. Applying the six components of Relationship Economics could bring the transparency, candor, and dialog needed to make this geopolitical relationship stronger and more resilient. _____________________________________________________ The latest YouGov polling has the Brexit vote in a dead heat: 44 percent of British voters want the UK to leave the EU, 42 percent want the UK to stay in the EU, and 9% don't know how they will vote yet. The detailed data offers some interesting insight into the reasons behind the voting. Leave voters think about social issues, while stay voters stress economic concerns. Both sides think the other side's concerns are non-existent. We have been tracking British voters weekly on their financial expectations using the mobile platform Pollfish; our repeated repeated cross-sections reinforce and extend YouGov's findings. On issues involving the economy and foreign affairs, stay voters see negative consequences of leaving, while leave voters think there will be no impact. Of those that want to remain in the EU, 78 percent think Britain would be economically worse off, and just 4 percent think Britain would be economically better off if they leave. But, there is no symmetry: Only 45 percent of the those that want to leave think Britain would be better off economically if they leave, with 43 percent thinking it will make no difference. Similarly, 77 percent of stay voters think leaving the EU would be bad for jobs, but only 44 percent of leave voters think it would be good for jobs. Forty-seven percent of leave voters think it will make no real difference for jobs. Stay voters are worry about pensions, with 52 percent thinking it would be bad for pensions, but 64 percent of leave voters say it would make no difference. Finally, 78 percent of stay voters think Britain would have less influence in the world, but, of leave voters, only 31 percent think this will increase influence with 59 percent saying it would make no difference. Advertisement On a personal level, stay voters think they will be worse off financially, but leave voters think Brexit will have no impact. Fifty-six percent of stay voter think they will be worse off financially, but just 5 percent of leave voters think that. Sixty-six percent of leave voters think there will be no difference from the vote. On social questions, especially immigration, leave voters think leaving will make a big change, but stay voters think it will make no impact. Eighty-five percent of leave voters think there would be less immigration if Britain leaves. But, 54 percent of stay voters think it will make no difference, with 27 percent thinking less immigration, and 8 percent thinking more immigration. While the polling is nearly tied, the prediction markets now show a 75 percent likelihood of the UK staying the EU. This value has shifted a lot over the last few weeks. During the week of June 6 it was cruising at 75 percent, but by June 13 it had dipped down to 60 percent, only shooting back up in the last few days. By polling people weekly, we were able to capture some interesting dynamics as the probability of staying dipped dramatically. Above we chart the expectations for the financial success of the family (above) and Britain (below) over the next 12 months. the blue line shows the earlier week of June 6, when it seemed unlikely Brexit would pass, while the red line shows June 13, where the likelihood of Britain voting to leave increased dramatically. Advertisement The expectations of the financial success of the family is more volatile in the second week for those who want to stay in the EU, but the expectation for the country is dramatically lower. This meshes well with the YouGov data, which shows slightly negative expectations for personal finances, but overwhelming concern for the country, from stay voters, if the UK left the EU. But, the volatility is interesting to see on the family side, as well as the intensity of the concern for the country. The intensity bodes well for potential turnout on the stay-side. The expectations of the financial success of the family and country increase slightly for the leave voters. Again, this consistent with the YouGov data. It is likely the the intensity on the leave-side was lessened this week by the connection to the tragic assassination of a pro-stay lawmaker and the assassin's ties to far-right groups. But, the most interesting thing is that the unsure voters actually showed a much larger shift towards expected growth for the British economy, if the UK leaves the EU. There is a selection effect here. Unsure voters shrunk between the weeks, and it may be that the more pessimistic voters switched to remain in EU, which gained some vote-share in our poll. But, the remain camp should be concerned about optimism of the remainder of the unsure voters. Traditionally these groups break towards stability, but there are very few of these types of elections on which to build our models. It's 2:22 a.m. at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, Omar Mateen, 29, has already shot over 11 innocent club goers. He is on the phone with a 911 dispatcher, about to say one word that will make this hate crime, different. One word that would remove personal responsibility for the night's massacre. One word that would send America into another state of paranoia. The word "ISIS." Mateen betrays his own country as he cowardly pledges loyalty ISIS. 50 people were murdered that night and more will be scared for life. But further now Mateen's actions has instilled fear and anxiety, especially LGBT+ people, who are now afraid to attend a gay club or their local pride parade. We can keep arguing about rather or not this attack was actually planned by ISIS. Mateen claims to have been associated with ISIS and also claimed to have connections other terrorists groups. However we should note that he was born in America, and his parents migrated from Afghanistan. Mateen was also was mentally ill, and had previous problems with law. Mateen's actions have fueled both parties's political agendas. Republicans say we should be scared of ISIS. Democrats say we should be scared of guns. Either way we can't use fear as an excuse to never leave our homes. Advertisement With or without ISIS, there is always a chance we could die tomorrow and we can't control some things, it doesn't matter how careful we are. Don't let fear prevent you from going to a club, parade, or even school. Especially this month, June, gay pride month we should bravely stand tall and stand proud to be ourselves. Just last pride we celebrated a history making event in marriage equality. Now this year we mourn senseless tragedy. We can't let one man's actions scare us into not going to pride or any gay club ever again. The more we hide ourselves, the more we feed the paranoia, the hatred and the close mindedness. #KeepingLoving #KeepKissing In a speech to the Congressional Black Caucus last September, President Obama praised Black women for their resilient dedication to advocating for progress in America. "All of us are beneficiaries of a long line of strong Black women who helped carry this country forward," he said. That long line of Black women, which includes many of the founders of the National Congress of Black Women like the late Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, former U.S. Secretary of Labor Alexis Herman, and the late Dr. Dorothy I. Height, have made tremendous strides and sacrifices to better America and empower Black women. Advertisement As president of the National Congress of Black Women, I hope to do the same: better America and empower Black women. It is my job to drive awareness on the most pressing issues we face, which include domestic violence, immigration reform, childhood obesity and equal access to education. Atop that list are the challenges posed by carbon pollution and climate change. It's an environmental, economical, and public health crisis - and it's only getting worse. The costs to our community are real: 68% of Black Americans live within 30 miles of a polluting coal-fired plant. Without escape from the constant cloud of toxic pollution, Black Americans make on average 350 percent more emergency room visits than white Americans. "I won't stand by as the lives and families of Black women across this country are endangered by climate change." The harm to our children is especially alarming. With so many Black families living so close to polluting power plants, Black American children are two to three times more likely to be hospitalized and die from asthma. When children miss days of school, their mothers, sisters, aunts and grandmothers - many who are the sole economic providers for their families - miss hours or even days of work. Affording the inhaler or the visit to the pediatrician is hard enough. Missing shifts only makes it worse. Advertisement The terrible impacts of carbon pollution and climate change are real, and we can't ignore them. We can lock arms with the long line of strong Black women and demand action now! That's why the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)'s Clean Power Plan is so important. The plan, which was finalized by President Obama in August 2015, sets the first federal limits on carbon pollution from power plants and encourages the development of safer, cleaner renewable energy. It's the single biggest action the U.S. has ever taken to cut carbon pollution and combat climate change. The life-saving rules will yield great health and climate-related benefits - up to $54 billion annually by 2030. In addition to cutting carbon pollution by nearly a third by 2030 the rules will lead to 90,000 fewer asthma attacks and prevent 300,000 missed work and school days. Most importantly, the Clean Power Plan will help avoid up to 3,600 premature deaths. The Clean Power Plan needs our support. In February, the Supreme Court temporarily paused implementation of the clean air standards. Corporate polluters and their political allies in state capitals have sued to stop the rules. By doing so, they're attempting to block critical public health and economic benefits -- putting profits ahead of our well-being. To those who value the health of all American families, especially Black American families, we're not alone. In April of this year, a broad coalition of businesses, faith groups, elected officials, professional medical and environmental and health organizations filed "friend of the court" briefs in support of the Clean Power Plan. They defended the strong legal foundation of the rules and touted the immense economic and public health benefits the Clean Power Plan provides from coast to coast. Advertisement Join that broad coalition supporting the President's Clean Power Plan. Write your elected officials saying you support the Clean Power Plan and demand they do as well. I am confident that if we work together, we can keep millions of women and children out of harm's way. The global fashion tribe has now moved on to the next (Milan) fashion week, and the record-breaking numbers for this season's Pitti Uomo have just been communicated by email. Yet, here I am, in the midst of sorting out all the trends, the trendsetters and the great inspiration, left to wonder about what the loaded "F" word means to me. I think fashion to any woman, man or child means much more than simply clothing. It's enough to watch how the wildly colorful Rabaris of Kutch in India distinguish themselves through their cloth from say, their neighbors, the cattle farming Maldharis and their exquisitely block printed fabrics. Clothing is about identity and if we fail to recognize that, perhaps we are avoiding being completely true to our own heritage. Personally, this wondrous world of how we look -- and most importantly how we feel in an outfit -- manages to draw me back in, again and again. Perhaps it's because clothes can make us experience strong emotions. I know opening my closet brings me joy every time and wearing a favorite outfit can change my mood from deep in the doldrums to proud happiness. Beyond our personal relationships with what we wear, the fashion world is also a place of discovery and theatrical productions that combine cinema, photography, art, music, taste and scent. When those extra bright lights tun on and the music increases to dizzying volumes, we chosen few fortunate enough to experience a fashion show live know that the time has come for discovery. And sometimes, it turns into a magnificent, once-in-a-lifetime discovery. Advertisement Which brings me to Raf Simons. Raf Simons and a model backstage in Florence, photo by Vanni Bassetti I knew going into this edition of Pitti Uomo -- its 90th in 45 years of this fashion fair bringing the best of menswear from and to all around the world -- that the Raf Simons presentation titled "Raf Simons: Florence Calling" and scheduled at the very end of the week, would be one worth waiting for. What I didn't know was that it would be life changing. I've admired Simons' clean, architectural lines for Jil Sander and I adored his reinventions of archival Christian Dior classic silhouettes for the Maison, during the three and a half short years he was there. There was one suit from his time at Dior -- a restructured version of the iconic bar jacket and slim pant ensemble in black -- that has stayed in my mind and which I'll never forget. While there is plenty of unforgettable clothing in my dreams, this particular suit doesn't even sit in the same category as the rest. It's the kind of outfit that if I ever won a prize, or went to the event of the century, I would want to wear. But I digress a bit, since we are talking Raf Simons now, not Raf Simons then, even if one cannot be separated from the other it seems. In his latest incarnation, head of his own brand and designer whose label bears his name, Simons filled the old train station in Florence, the Stazione Leopolda, with life-size mannequins wearing his past creations. That was dreamy enough and honestly, I could have spent a whole day, and night wondering around this living archive of his work. Nothing Simons has ever made is dated and that's his ultimate genius. Advertisement Raf Simons Florence Calling presentation, photo by Giovanni Giannini Even when he finds inspiration in the 90s genius of Robert Mapplethorpe, his creations leave one breathless. Even if his cuts are classic and clean -- his trademark I dare say -- his looks are awe-inspiring. Am I gushing? You betcha, and I'll add that I don't think I have never seen such beauty up-close. Even his models paid tribute to a hero of my generation, a man who fought all his life with the art establishment to be recognized as the true artist he was. A photographer who chronicled the end of the 20th century with mastery, class and personal courage. If that doesn't give you goosebumps... It definitely gave me some. I imagined if only Mapplethorpe could have seen this living, loving tribute to his work and his style! Which now takes me to another icon, and another designer who paid tribute to a hero -- Gosha Rubchinskiy with his Pier Paolo Pasolini homage. At first, I'll admit I didn't understand completely where Rubchinskiy was going with this. I mean, here he is a young, energetic Russian designer with his finger on the pulse of what the Instagram generation wants, paying homage to a man, an Italian legend who could only have existed in his time, during the 60s and 70s. And yet perhaps through Rubchinskiy's eyes, I finally saw the modernity of Pasolini and how inspiring he can be to the next generation, as a style icon but also as a revolutionary thinker, someone unafraid of stepping outside the norm, cut through the bureaucracy and help us find our footprint on the other side of political correctness -- which we can all agree is seriously hurting our human survival. Gosha Rubchinskiy's Spring/Summer 2017 collection, photo by Giovanni Giannini With his Fila t-shirts, those oversized striped sweatshirts on slim teenage models, his boxy version of a blazer in bright red and impossible silver (I could have sworn it was corduroy) and then the show all coming together in the figure of the model pictured above, a young Pasolini look-alike, Rubchinskiy captured the spirt of a style legend who never actually realized that he could add fashion muse to his extensive resume. I yearned to watch once again Mamma Roma and Accattone as I left Rubchinskiy's show, after a tasty meal inside the old tobacco factory, and a screening of Renata Litvinova's haunting short film. And then, there was a whiff of Lagerfeld... Well, for most, the private walk-through with Karl Lagerfeld inside the Pitti Palace, as we had imagined languidly watching his fashion photographs mingle and play with the century-old portraits by Rafael while Lagerfeld explained his inspiration, never materialized. He was there, then he was gone, stopping only long enough for a quick visit and the honorary awarding of the "Fiorino d'oro" by Florence Mayor Dario Nardella. Advertisement But thanks to a not-so-mild case of feeling uncomfortable being stuck in large, pushy crowds, three of us took a side staircase down to the courtyard and ended up right in front of the style legend himself. Up-close he's everything you think he would be, and more, and while he allows his vision to come through his fashion, his photographs and his design, Lagerfeld himself is a walking inspiration. Peeking out of his impeccable, elegant suit, were fingerless silver leather gloves, and his hair, tied in his signature ponytail, had an extra bounce to complement the art around him. Ultimately, his appearance, that brief moment in his presence, full of silence and stillness, defined this edition of Pitti Uomo for me, and I realized once again that Florence, fashion and these magical moments in time define the meaning of "belonging". Because in the midst of this global fashion tribe, each of us can find our place and all it takes is a piece of clothing, something that defines our personal style. Nothing more, nothing less. Alongside my college counseling work, I've written six novels and taught creative writing to college students and adults for decades. You don't need to write a novel to get into college, but you do need to adopt some of the essentials of writing creatively to make your application essays sing. Since most of the supplements are not yet on line, I'll focus on the Common Application essay for now. Do's 1. Get personal. Find a topic that makes your heart beat a little faster than usual - a topic with some energy and even tension in it: A piece of your personal story that's essential to who you are and not reflected in your activities list, a talent, a hardship, a moment you took a risk and spoke out to defend a position, or a problem you solved, even if it was putting together a trampoline in your backyard. These are personal essays, not academic paper or speeches. 2. Before you start writing, do some free writing on your topic. Scribble down what comes to you without thinking about organization, voice or structure. This is a great way to find your voice and your material. Put your notes aside for a day or two, and when you come back to them, see which passages stand out. Advertisement Time - and time away from what you're writing - is a great editor. Every writer I know has the experience that we write something we think is terrific and look at it in the morning and want to cry. The writing that holds up a week later is the good stuff. 3. Speaking of time: Don't save this essay or any of the others for the last minute. Think of the essay as a work-in-progress, and set aside time to do it over a period of weeks. 4. Write informally and write long. Don't stick to the 650-word limit as you begin. Again, you're looking for material, energy, what matters. Once you have that down, you can edit out everything that isn't essential. 5. College admissions officers often report that they want to be entertained and engaged by your essay. I'd say it's more important to go for "engaged" than "entertained," but the message is clear. The first sentence needs to be a grabber. You may end up writing the first terrific sentence once you're done with the third draft. It doesn't need to be acrobatic or pyrotechnic, and it doesn't need to be one for the ages ("Call me Ishmael" - opening of Moby Dick), but a little pizazz goes a long way, at the beginning and throughout. Advertisement 6. This is essential for every writer I know: Read. Read. Read. Writing is a discipline, and the more you read good writing, the better your own writing will become. Start with a few pieces from The New York Times every day. Notice clarity, detail, and precision, whether it's a news story or an opinion piece about a lost father. I strongly suggest students read The New Yorker magazine. The writing is superlative, sophisticated, and often funny in interesting ways, and the subjects are as vast as those in The Times. Don'ts 1. Don't write about sex, drugs, or other vices. Don't write about books that hundreds of millions of others have read: Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, or Twilight. If you mention a book in your essay, avoid To Kill a Mockingbird or The Great Gatsby, standard fare for high school students. 2. If you have a strong academic record, I'd suggest not choosing Prompt Two - "Recount an incident or time when you experienced failure" - unless your failure has an unusual angle. Perhaps you failed to make a souffle that rose, which led to all kinds of insights, or failed to revive a wounded animal, leading to your interest in becoming a vet. Though I don't generally proscribe topics, I'd say to avoid "I didn't get into X Club or Y orchestra or Z team, and the lesson I learned is to try harder next time." An important lesson, yes, but not uniquely yours. 3. If your topic is built around an experience you had at a college or university, avoid naming the school if possible, as it will suggest to admissions officers that you are interested in that institution, which may diminish your chances at other schools. 4. Don't feel you need to write about a major accomplishment to produce a good essay. Parents often say to me, "My son hasn't found a cure for cancer, so I'm sure he can't get into an Ivy League university." Your academic record - grades, scores, recommendations, etc. - will convey your potential for performing well in college. Advertisement The essay is a personal chat about a subject that thrills you or that you feel is essential to conveying who you are. This past spring, a young woman who wrote about a lifetime of shopping at Costco made news. The headlines - "This Essay Got a High-school Senior into Five Ivies and Stanford" - made it sound as though the essay itself did all the work. No, the entirety of her academic record got her in, and the essay was one piece of it. The five Ivies and Stanford have their own rigorous essays that were part of her applications, which never makes it into these news stories. The newsworthy essay was quirky, colorful, and unusual - and it solidified the rest of her impressive record. 5. Don't assume that a good essay - even a really good essay - will compensate for a poor record at a highly competitive college or university. Admissions officers insist that high school grades are the best predictor of success in college. But admission to the very top colleges and universities now depends on a strong overall record along with an essay that confirms the record. A strong essay can really help a student with a mixed record at school that's outside the highly competitive zone. 6. The essays matter, but making good choices about where to apply is just as important. I sometimes work with students whose list consists of ten reach schools and one safety. My favorite resource, written from the student's eye view, is The Best 380 Colleges, published every summer by Princeton Review. It's got a wealth of useful statistics and relevant descriptions. Do remember that this is a process that will come to an end. Have some fun along the way. In the aftermath of the June 12, 2016 Orlando mass shooting and public outcry about self-identified terrorists obtaining assault-style weapons, we caught up with David Yassky, who served as chief counsel to US House Subcommittee on Crime when Congress passed the Brady Law (1993) and the Assault Weapons Ban ( 1994). Enacted under the Clinton Administration, the Assault Weapons Ban (AWB) expired in 2004 under Bush due to lack of Congressional action to renew it. Yassky has a 20-plus-year perspective on the issue: Assault Weapons Ban Again? There seems to be a lot of argumentation over what an assault weapon is. In 1994 the law used a technical definition, characterizing specific features of the guns. But not to get lost in the weeds, the key idea was that the legislation should cover guns with the capacity to spray fire, guns designed to enable rapid-fire release of many bullets. In the horrible mass killing in Orlando last week, it is no coincidence that the gun of choice was the AR15, which makes it easy, however awful it is to say this, to kill 50 people. Is the word "ban" accurate? No. When the Federal Assault Weapon Ban was enacted in 1994, any existing privately owned firearm was allowed to be kept and transferred. It was a ban on manufacture and sale of new assault weapons to civilians. Advertisement Aren't assault weapons on the same spectrum as machine guns, which were outlawed in the 1934 National Federal Firearms Act? We've effectively kept machine guns out of private hands since the 1930s. More serious weaponry like bazookas and hand grenades are not legal to possess outside the military. Regulation of assault weapons to curtail their ownership outside of military and law enforcement usage would be the logical next policy step for public safety. What would happen with the many assault weapons currently in circulation? In the original 1994 bill, owners were allowed to keep their assault weapons. In retrospect, I would prefer to have treated existing assault weapons the way machine guns are treated now: you'd have to go and get a license for the weapon you own. Companies would not be able to make or sell new ones, and the ones that are out there would have to be registered with law enforcement. The number of bullets in an assault weapon -- the magazine size -- could also be reduced to reduce lethality. All of this is not practical given today's Congress. "Terror Gap" What about the "No Fly, No Buy" regulation to close the so-called "Terror Gap"? It's common sense: if someone is not allowed to fly because they're on the federal No Fly list, they shouldn't be allowed to buy assault weapons either. Private and non-store sales should be subject to background checks too, so that potential terrorists cannot buy guns online or at gun shows. These initiatives--what Connecticut's Senator Chris Murphy is trying to do right now--would help close the so-called "terror gap." What else would you like to see happen? I'd like to see the closing of loopholes in the Brady Bill. Brady prohibits people from buying guns if they are a felon, or have a history of domestic violence or very serious mental illness. But these background checks are performed only for sales at licensed gun stores - not for sales at gun shows or over the internet. These loopholes are an open invitation for gun traffickers to evade the Brady background checks, and they now account for a pretty big percentage of gun sales. I'd also like to see a renewal of the assault weapons ban. The tragedies at Orlando, San Bernardino, Newtown, and all of the others show how much we need that. Advertisement Regulating Firearms Like Cars You draw the analogy between regulating cars and firearms? Yes, the analogy I like is cars. If you want to buy a gun you should have to get a license like a drivers license, pass a written test, be examined by a qualified instructor who can determine if you have the basic competence to operate it safely, get insurance, and tell the government that this is the model and make -- like the car, the gun-- that you own. The car regulatory system doesn't stop people from buying and owning cars and enjoying their cars -- nor would it stop most people from owning and using guns for their full enjoyment. We gradually figured out that first seat belts and now auto braking technology make driving safer. As with cars, we could be making guns as safe as possible. In the context of commonsense regulation of firearms like cars, a new assault weapons ban would be one place to start. Who Benefits? Gun Deaths, Mass Shootings, Politics Who benefits from having assault weapons so easily available to the general public in America today? Honestly? With guns, Republican politicians have an issue on which they can easily appeal to a swath of voters. Some Democrats, too. Sure, the firearms industry benefits. But gun manufacturers aren't a vast sector. It's not like Pepsi arguing against soda tax or Exxon against a gas tax. That's not what stops reasonable gun regulation. Rather, it's the ideology of a small but nontrivial percentage of the population that believes really fervently in unregulated gun ownership. Politicians willing to appeal to this sector can easily claim a big chunk of votes by endorsing this ideology. Advertisement That said, gun company money has had an impact in funding the NRA itself. So you're saying that gun regulation could be advanced if citizens just started contacting their elected officials? Yes! But you have to be specific. Specify that you want them to prohibit people on the No Fly list from buying a gun. Specify that you want them to vote for legislation so that when someone wants to buy a gun from a gun show, he or she is background-checked for severe mental illness and felony history. You have to be specific to the content. Politicians are pretty responsive. If they get just a hundred calls one way or another, they start to pay attention. When you boil it down, the lack of regulation of firearms is due to public passivity, and not the NRA? It's lack of intensity. People who support gun regulation aren't as intense as those who oppose it. Tom Foley (former Speaker of the House), at the time I worked for Chuck Schumer, used to say, "What makes the NRA so powerful is not the money." He'd say, "It's that they can send a postcard to people in your district to say, 'those liberals are trying to take your guns away, go to the phone and dial 202-225-3121, and ask for Congressman so-and-so, and tell him to stop trying to take my guns away.' And they'd get up and go to the phone and make that call." What has happened at the federal level in terms of gun regulation since the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban? Not much. In 1993 and 1994 when Congress passed the Brady Law and AWB, they didn't address steps like national licensing and registration. These broader initiatives would have allowed law enforcement to track guns alleged to have been stolen, strike down black market sales of guns, and foster implementation of new technologies like smart gun technology. The AWB expired after ten years, in 2004. In my view, both Brady and AWB were relatively small steps. In fact, not only haven't we moved forward, but we've actually gone backward. The AWB expired after 10 years, and the rise of gun shows has created a giant loophole in (the protections originally afforded by) the Brady bill. Advertisement Where does it go from here, in light of preventing more mass shootings? There's a new sense of urgency about reasonable restrictions on firearm access. We've seen a shocking number of mass killings -- along with less dramatic but equally tragic "everyday" firearm killings and suicides -- without sufficient public pressure to move Congress. Now the issue of domestic terrorism has changed the debate. In a nutshell, given so much NRA flack, what is the reason to have new regulation on assault weapons? We have two big goals in firearms safety. We want to keep guns out of hands of dangerous people, criminals, or people who are unstable and might use them in a moment of instability. And, we want military style weaponry to be unavailable to private citizens. Are you hopeful that the so-called "terror gap" will be closed, background checks expanded, and a assault weapon regulation passed? I'm optimistic. The famous King quote -- "the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice" -- I believe that is true even beyond civil rights. Sooner or later, common sense is going to win. I don't know how long it will take, or what will be the turning point. But to me, it is so plain: We accept all this regulation with cars and people can still buy, own and use cars, don't feel hampered, and are much safer. There's just no reason not to do that with guns. That logic has to break through at some point. As most of us are still trying to process the senseless, horrific tragedy that recently occurred in Orlando, politicians, segments of the media, clergy and good ol' regular common folk wasted no time weighing in on the psychological wreckage, the carnage and the searing level of emotional destruction that has resulted from this most unfortunate event. By now, anyone who has a pulse is aware that, on June 13, Omar Mateen went to a gay dance club on Latin night, initially had a drink at the bar and later opened fire, killing 49 people and wounding scores more. The atrocity ignited ample amounts of racist and homophobic commentary from both predictable and unusual quarters. Presumptive Republican Party nominee Donald Trump, ever the pitiful opportunist, declared to his right wing base and non-supporters for that matter that he was right on target when it came to his perception of radical Islam terrorism. He shamelessly suggested that President Obama harbored a sympathetic attitude toward terrorists and furthered his call for an absolute ban on Muslim immigration without providing any concrete specifics on how such bans would have prevented the killer, who was an American citizen, from carrying out his sinister plan. This is typical Trump behavior--loud, bloviating, accusatory, self-righteous speech that is virtually absent of any substance. Advertisement The fact is that Trump was hardly alone in his racist and xenophobic rhetoric. He was joined in company by Roger Jimenez, a Baptist minister who heads a church in Sacramento. Jimenez unleashed a vicious, disgraceful homophobic tiradehttp://www.cbsnews.com/news/sacramento-baptist-pastor-roger-jiminez-post-orlando-anti-gay-preaching/ arguing that it was "great" that 49 pedophiles were killed. Not content with espousing such odious remarks, he further commented that, "If we lived in a righteous government, they should round them all up against a wall, and blow their brains out." Wow! Advocating for the brutal murders of men and women who happen to harbor a sexual orientation that you disagree with? Appalling! There has been recent speculation that Mateen may have, in fact, been either gay or bisexual himself. Moreover, some psychologists have made the argument that he was likely consumed by his own self-hatred and denial. To be sure, there are a number, perhaps many, of religious people of varied faiths who oppose gay marriage or a gay lifestyle for personal reasons. More than likely these people tend to be over 55 years old. Yet, it is highly unlikely that they would equate gay men and lesbian women with pedophilia or encouraging the sanctioning of gays and lesbians to violent and sadistic forms of murder. Indeed, recent polling has demonstrated that the majority of Americans, especially those under 50 (this includes large numbers of Generation X'ers like myself and millennials), including a sizable number of conservative Christian millennialshttp://www.pewforum.org/2016/05/12/changing-attitudes-on-gay-marriage/ ,support gay marriage. The cold, hard truth is that, while Jimenez may view himself as a man of God, the fact is that his incendiary, odious, callous rhetoric is far from Christian in its message. As far as I am concerned, such rhetoric is reprehensible and morally indefensible. Jimenez represents the antithesis of genuine Christianity. Trump and Jimenez are two peas in a pod. They both are saying the same thing. They only differ in the weapons they have decided to employ for their carnage. Advertisement Trump and Jimenez aside, they are hardly alone in their disgraceful behavior. Some people do not hesitate to make pathetic excuses for people like Omar Mateen and others of his sadistic ilk for engaging in human atrocities, rationalizing the dispositions of such mentally unhinged madmen as they use the cause of ideological differences as the primary reason for such behavior. By doing so, they are helping to normalize hate, violence, intolerance and deviancy. This in and of itself is sad. On the brighter side of things, there were hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of people (including politicians) who responded to this incomprehensible tragedy by donating blood at blood banks, reaching out and comforting family victims, providing monetary contributions and denouncing the hate-filled rhetoric. This is reassuring. These are the men and women who epitomize the real Judeo-Christian spirit. They represent genuine humanity. God bless them. Unity the Focus of Holy and Great Council Opening Session; Patriarch Irinej of Serbia Calls All Orthodox Churches to Participate The Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church has commenced in Crete. Ten of the fourteen Church Primates concelebrated the Divine Liturgy yesterday for the Sunday of Pentecost. The following morning, Monday of the Holy Spirit, a Divine Liturgy -- presided over by Patriarch Theophilos of Jerusalem -- was celebrated in a monastery beside the Orthodox Academy of Crete where the Council has been convened. Advertisement The Divine Liturgy will be celebrated each morning during the Council, concluding with a second Synodal Divine Liturgy for the Sunday of All Saints (June 26th). This sacramental, Eucharist unity is the most important part of Orthodox worship and the glue that binds the fourteen Orthodox autocephalous (self-headed, or administered) churches into the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church whose Founder and Head is Christ. It was the issue of unity that every participating Primate focused on in their own way during the opening session of the Holy and Great Council. As chair, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew first addressed the Council and allotted much of his time to the issue of unity, highlighting three areas specifically: unity in the sacraments, the faith, and the canonical structure of the Church. Advertisement He also addressed critics of the Council, condemning those who characterized it as a "Robber" council before it had even began. The Orthodox faith, Bartholomew said, is protected by the synodal system, which defines the boundaries between the Church and heresy. The Ecumenical Patriarch delivered his opening statement with resolute joy and cautioned that all Orthodox sister churches need to be vigilant that differences do not lead to divisions. Patriarch Theodore of Alexandria followed Bartholomew as the second in order of honour and delivered a passionate plea beseeching his brother hierarchs to undertake the sacred work of the Council with a deep sense of obligation. Each Primate addressed delegates with humility and an Orthodox ecclesiastical phronema (mindset); a standout speech, however, marked by blunt and candid commentary, was delivered by Archbishop Chrysostomos of Cyprus. He confronted "inter-Orthodox one-upmanship due to ethnophyletism," argued that the state -- and state interests -- cannot be allowed to influence ecclesiastical affairs, and denounced the actions of some who have made the Orthodoxy seem "ridiculous." Advertisement The Archbishop said that a main purpose of the Council is to create a framework for Church unity and in doing so "put forth the spiritual treasures of Orthodoxy" for the world to see. Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens and All Greece, echoing Bartholomew's sentiments on synodality, said that the expression of different opinions is suitable with conciliarity but that individual opinions should be rejected. Archbishop Anastasios of Albania, taking the issue a bit further, addressed, in his opening remarks, those "little drops of poison" from some who wish to derail the work of the Holy and Great Council. He was one of a number of Primates who asserted that the Council in Crete is not a "copy and paste" of the Seven Ecumenical Councils, nor is it a "facsimile" of the councils in the West (e.g., Vatican II). The Archbishop also criticized the need of unanimity, a system which was "unknown as a principle previously" and which has led to a number of recent trials, including the participation, or lack thereof, of the four absent churches (Antioch, Russia, Bulgaria, Georgia) and called for majority rule. Finally, Anastasios remarked that the "Heresy of our time is egocentrism," a sentiment shared - both directly and indirectly -- by a number of Primates. Advertisement On the issue of unity, the youngest Primate, Archbishop Rastislav of Czech Lands and Slovakia, in his succinct yet insightful address, closed it by declaring that despite differences, including linguistic, "We are one Church." Each Primate, without exception, thanked and praised the Ecumenical Patriarch for his patience and perseverance in working towards and realizing the Holy and Great Council. Bartholomew remarked that pan-Orthodox unity has been his guiding star since being enthroned nearly 25 years ago, even confessing to the Council that his early efforts to call a Synaxis of Primates was resisted by some of his own bishops. Imparted with a sense of brotherly love and unity by the concelebrated Divine Liturgies, the opening session of the Holy and Great Council has cultivated a constructive and positive environment; a number of participating hierarchs confirmed this to me privately following the session. Of course, the hard work, deliberations, and decisions are still to come but the foundation has been set by the Primates that Orthodox unity and the need to address contemporary challenges is of utmost importance. Moreover, this Council may not be the last -- there was talk of gathering together every five or ten years depending on circumstances. Advertisement While much of the media attention has focused on the participatory withdrawal of some churches, especially Russia, the opening session showed that the Orthodox Church, as the entire body of faithful, is greater than anything earthly. Jesus and the Roman Empire have plenty of things in common. Without the Roman Empire there would have been neither Jesus nor Christianity. Both Jesus and the Roman Empire arrived at about the same time. The impoverished Jewish boy, Jesus, grew up in an Israel that was an obscure province of the Roman Empire. Some scholars say Jesus was not a historical person. Jewish preachers concocted the entire Biblical and New Testament tradition and Jesus from extremely ancient Egyptian myths. But a vociferous Christian theological tribe argues Jesus was real. He grew up in Nazareth of Galilee. He went for baptism to John the Baptist. He then returned to Galilee where he started his preaching career. Advertisement If Jesus existed, he must have been saying and doing controversial things. He was a magician performing miracles. He also spoke like a prophet, issuing warnings on the coming of the end of the world. He won men disciples and made enemies. Those enemies convinced the Romans to crucify him. The death of Jesus was the beginning of Christ: the anointed one, the son of the Jewish god who rose from the dead. These exaggerations rose sharply decades after Jesus' death. The mythologized Jesus moved from a miracle worker to the superhero of Christianity. The Evangelist Mark and Luke made that possible. Mark lived in late first century of our era. Luke lived in early second century. This was an era when Greek thought mattered. The Roman Empire had absorbed not merely political Greece but its civilization. Homer was the hallmark of that civilization. Homer defined the identity of the Greeks. Greek children and children of non-Greeks drank from the lips of Homer. They learned Greek and mastered the myths of gods and heroes. Homer provided a rich vocabulary, an even richer catalogue of allusions of human and divine behavior, and, for a strategist like Alexander the Great, a manual of warfare. Advertisement Writers who wanted to be read always had the Iliad and Odyssey in mind. Mimesis of Homer -- not plagiarism but deep understanding of his style and stories -- was key to their success. Mark and Luke put that truth to work for the uplifting of Jesus in their Gospels, giving him all the assets of the Greek superheroes and even gods. Their Jesus walked on water like the Greek gods. In fact, this mythologized Jesus was more powerful than the Greek gods who never claimed they created the cosmos. Jesus did. Mark and Luke mythologized Jesus not because they loved Homer or the Greeks. On the contrary, like all aspiring Christians, they despised the Greek "idolaters" and loathed the Greek gods. But Mark and Luke put their biases away and constructed attractive texts that, to their contemporaries, sounded like stories out of the Iliad and the Odyssey. Mark and Luke also took advantage of the Romans' mimesis of Homer, especially the Aeneid of Vergil. The Aeneid was a poem about Aenias, son of the Greek goddess Aphrodite and the Trojan Anchises. After Troy fell to the Greeks, Aenias led the surviving Trojans to Italy for a new beginning. Vergil shaped his epic poem on the model of Homer. Imitations from the Odyssey appear in the first six books, and mimesis of the Iliad dominates the remaining six books of the Aeneid. The first Roman Emperor Augustus loved the Aeneid. Virgil became the national poet of the Romans. So Mark and Luke read the best Greek and Roman literature for boosting their fictional creation: Jesus. Advertisement We are fortunate that Dennis R. MacDonald, expert on New Testament and Christian origins, has spent thirty years of his life documenting Greek influence on the Gospels. He summarized his erudition and passion for Homer in "Mythologizing Jesus: From Jewish Teacher to Epic Hero" (Rowman and Littlefield, 2015). This book is a rare treat. It breams with knowledge of Homer, the Gospels, and early Christian writings. MacDonald says Greek-speaking Christian writers down to the ninth century noticed the similarities between Jesus and the Greek gods and heroes. But he focuses on the architects of those similarities, Mark and Luke. He often gives summaries of revealing statements in the Iliad and Odyssey, putting then next to similar statements in the gospels. The Christian imitation of the Greek original is startling. MacDonald says the Evangelists "injected" Jesus "with narrative steroids to let him compete with the mythological heroes of Greeks and Romans." The experience of reading MacDonald is uplifting. First, even when Rome was the master of the world, Homer and the Greeks were unrivalled in the influence they exercised among the educated class. Even the early Christians, who made the destruction of Greek culture the center of their agenda, read and imitated Homer. Second, McDonald's book demythologizes Jesus. He says most of the stories about Jesus are fictions, "they never happened." So he urges twenty-first century Christians to read the fictional Gospels with "critical honesty and historical humility." "People don't walk on water, multiply bag lunches to feed thousands... or vanish into clouds after their deaths," he writes. Advertisement MacDonald's heart is with the stories of Homer, how they decorated a new religion with notions of greatness, and largely unknown to the Christians, how they gave all the power and assets of the Greek heroes to their own superhero, Jesus. MacDonald ends his book with a telling story. For a week he read his young son stories from Homer and stories from the Gospels, always comparing them. He then asked his son "which myths he liked better, the Greek or the Christian. His response was immediate and unequivocal: 'The Greek, of course.' Although I was teaching at a Christian seminary, I had to agree with him." Head of French far-right party Front National (FN) Marine Le Pen delivers a speech marking the launch of the 'Collectif des usagers de la Sante' (Collective for Health services' users' in Paris on May 17, 2016. / AFP / PHILIPPE LOPEZ (Photo credit should read PHILIPPE LOPEZ/AFP/Getty Images) PARIS -- Even though she has maintained a low profile in the media over the past few months, National Front leader Marine Le Pen has kept a watchful eye on the upcoming British referendum, which may result in the country's departure from the European Union. The far-right leader has refrained from campaigning, but she has often made clear her intentions to follow in London's footsteps and build a case for France to leave the EU. She reiterated this vision on French TV channel TF1 on Tuesday night. Asked by Gilles Bouleau on the potential Brexit, Le Pen said: "Whatever the outcome [of the referendum], it still proves that the EU is failing, that it's showing cracks everywhere." Advertisement According to Le Pen, France is suffering in the EU, which she has described as a "totalitarian" institution. She told Bouleau on Tuesday that she believes that a similar referendum should be held in France. "It's been 11 years since the French were last asked [about the EU], and the last time they voted, their voices were betrayed by the Socialist Party and the Union for a Popular Movement," she said. The National Front is convinced that the Brexit vote is proof of its longstanding argument that the European Union, in its present form, is doomed to disintegrate. "I support Brexit with all my strength and all my heart, as a free French woman," she said last April. It is no secret that the UK's potential departure from the EU would be of less impact than a French exit. But the National Front is convinced that the Brexit vote is proof of its longstanding argument that the European Union, in its present form, is doomed to disintegrate. Advertisement For starters, Brexit proves that it is possible to reverse the course of European integration. For Marine Le Pen, the British debate is a "strong sign" of the "will of the people." She believes that the public's will has the power to dismantle the EU -- which is regarded by the far-right as an anti-democratic regime built at the expense of sovereign nations. "Either we sit here waiting for the flood, the explosion, or we gather around a table and build a Europe of Nations to replace the totalitarian EU as we know it today," Le Pen pleaded Tuesday night on TF1. Le Pen also appreciates the Brexit referendum because of what it represents: British Prime Minister David Cameron backing Brussels into a corner. Marine Le Pen plans to make this approach her own -- and she believes that it will spread across the continent. "Every EU member should be able to have its say in a referendum," she told TF1. "If I am elected president of the republic, I will commit myself, alongside the French, to organize, within six months, a referendum on the exit from the European Union," Le Pen has said. She hopes to negotiate a Euro exit with Brussels under the threat of outright withdrawal from all European institutions. From Vienna, where she met with her European allies last week, Marine Le Pen denounced the "discourse of fear" used by European Parliament President Martin Schulz and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, who both support keeping the UK in the EU. "What they fear is that the UK will recover its freedom, the freedom to trade with whomever they (the British) want," she said."We want all the people of Europe to have these freedoms." Advertisement That's one way for Marine Le Pen to reassure the French, who are increasingly hostile towards the European Union but who remain concerned about the economic consequences of a Frexit. + + + 'The Jungle' is the infamous nickname given to the transient refugee settlement in Calais, France. This makeshift slum-labyrinth is one of the biggest migrant camps in Europe and has been 'home' to an estimated 6,000 people from all over the Middle East and Northern Africa who have fled their war-torn countries and hope to make it to the UK and apply for asylum there. Although French authorities began the demolition of the camp back in March, an estimated 4,946 refugees are still living there. Bored and fed up with the consumer culture that's come to surround the holiday season, I decided to spend last Christmas giving in a different way and went to volunteer in The Jungle with an organization called Help Refugees UK. I went to Calais because I wanted to understand the situation with my own eyes. I went to listen and to learn. In the face of so many unwilling politicians and impotent systems I had to do something - even if that was as simple as showing up. Making eye contact. Looking these people in their eyes and reminding them that they're not invisible or forgotten. That they're not alone in their struggle. That their lives matter. All lives matter. Advertisement The atrocious conditions were heartbreaking to bear witness to. Below is a photo essay that I hope will better share what I experienced than my words could. But what I'm most interested in sharing with others are the refugees' experiences in their own words. I made this short film to bear witness to the struggles, hopes, opinions and dreams of four different migrants I became close with in the camp. In order to protect their identities from ISIS and other extremist groups in their countries, they asked that I only film their eyes. These voices offer a different perspective from what we see on mainstream media that I hope will help to challenge the ignorance, prejudice and racism surrounding the global refugee crisis. Most people will never get the chance to sit and talk with someone in these circumstances and be humbled by just how relatable their wants and needs in life are. I hope to help humanize this community of refugees by sharing these profoundly articulate and heartfelt voices. It's pretty easy to live with the idea that its impossible for one person to make a difference, especially in a crisis of such magnitude. But I left Calais reminded that collectively, our individual choices, voices, and actions really CAN and DO make a difference. One by one. The only reason thousands of people are not starving and freezing to death only two hours from both Paris and London is because of ordinary people who won't stand by and let others suffer. I hope my lens might persuade you to reconsider who a refugee is, what their situation is, and how you as an individual really CAN help. It's not out of your reach. xx,Gillian PHOTOS FROM THE JUNGLE You understand why The Jungle got its nickname as soon as you step foot in the camp. It's not a place for human life. Advertisement A pop-up third world shantytown less than two hours from two of the wealthiest European capitals, Paris and London. Tucked right off the side of a busy highway, these muddy grounds were once the local garbage dump. Most people are living in flimsy, uninsulated tents or makeshift shanties completely inadequate for winter conditions. The camp is loosely divided among ethnic lines. The Sudanese, Eritreans, Syrians, Afghanis, Pakistanis, Kurds, Iraqis and Iranians all have their own sections of the camp. This is one of the many refugee run restaurants in the camp. Everyone kept asking us for plastic tarps to cover their tents or structures with to try and keep out the torrential winter rains. The Pink Caravan is where a volunteer from Help Refugees sleeps every night in order to give people who arrive to the camp in the middle of a night a tent and some blankets. Advertisement Some children are lucky enough to still have their parents, while others were forced to make the perilous journey across Europe alone. There are an estimated 514 children living in the camp, 294 of whom are unaccompanied minors. The average age of the minors in camp is 14 years old. The youngest unaccompanied child is 8 years old. People patiently queue in distribution lines sometimes for an entire day desperately waiting for warm clothing, shoes, blankets, sleeping bags, and other such handouts. This is the literal divide between worlds. The entrance to The Jungle begins on the right, and the millions of dollars the British government spent on fencing to keep migrants from making it onto the roads (where they try and hide in the backs of trucks heading to England) begins on the left. A Sudanese man cooks a meal. These flip flops were his only pair of shoes in the dead of winter until we gave him a new pair of winter boots. This is one of 7 water points in the whole camp. There are a few showers but you have to pay to use them and often the wait can take up to 6 hours so most people have to use freezing cold water when they want to bathe and have no privacy. Advertisement A man from Afghanistan cooks a meal. One of the most pressing needs in The Jungle is food. There is one volunteer-run kitchen and a few refugee-run restaurants for those who have money, but the majority of the people there go hungry every single day. A woman saying prayer inside the Eritrean and Ethiopian Othordox church. These women had just arrived from Eritrea in the middle of the night before and only had these clothes on their back. It was in the middle of winter and because of the distribution scheduling, warm jackets weren't goign to be available for another few days. While the distribution system is essential to keeping the camp in some form of order, I found that one of the best things I was able to do as a volunteer with a car was to talk to individuals, find out their exact needs, and then run back to the warehouse to get them so that in situations like this people didn't have to go cold unnecessarily. The winds in this part of northern France are extremely cold and so strong that they can rip holes right through tarp. Besides stocking around 200 books, the Jungle Book Library also supports a school that offers classes to those in the camp. Shadi, a 5 year old girl from Iraq, shows us her home where she and her family of six all sleep. Achmed, a 24 year old refugee from Sudan, shows us his book collection inside his tent. He said he writes little reminders and notes on his walls to help keep his spirit up. A Pakistani man sitting in the entrance of his shelter As the camp grows it has also developed a variety of businesses. This is one of many small shops inside The Jungle selling cigarettes, headphones, batteries, drinks and some small things to eat. Advertisement Some restaurants in The Jungle like this Afghani one provide a place to sleep for newcomers or those who find themselves without a tent or shelter for the night. A volunteer from Children Of Calais helping insulate one of the new pop-up schools they're building for the refugee children. An Iranian father cooks dinner for his family. Kurdish men sit around a wood-burning stove heating up stones that they then carry in their pockets to keep warm. A man lights a damp pile of wood to keep warm. Having a single burner propane stove is considered a huge luxury in the camp. A group of Kurdish friends invite us in for tea and cigarettes. An England flag hangs inside a Sudanese man's trailer. Racist threats and violent attacks by both local police as well as fascist and far-right extremist groups is a regular part of reality faced by the migrants in The Jungle. After his friend was tear-gassed by a neo-nazi group the night before, this 22 year old Pakistani named Amin was going around trying to raise money to help his friend make his way back to his home. Despite the war-zones these people are running away from, some still decide to embark on another perilous journey all the way back to where they started because of the scarce hope of making it to the UK on top of the horrible living conditions in The Jungle. for more information on how to get involved please check out HELP REFUGEES UK Diana Divecha I felt for the preschooler in the park whose mother issued a steady stream of instructions: "Go down the slide, put your shoes on, be careful, stay out of the dirt." When he eyed me and my dog with curiosity, I responded. "Would you like to throw the ball for my dog? She'd love it!" I said. He picked up the ball and gave it a few squeezes, but his mother had more instructions: "Don't squeeze the ball, throw it. Throw it over there. Throw it hard." There wasn't much breathing room for the child to explore the ball, his throwing ability, the dog, or just a friendly interpersonal exchange. However well-intentioned, this "playtime" seemed more about the parent. Advertisement In her fourth book, The Awakened Family: A Revolution in Parenting, Shefali Tsabary argues that parenting should be focused more on developing parents' maturity--and less on children themselves. Children come into the world naturally "awake," or aware of who they truly are, claims Tsabary. The problems that show up in children--anxiety, behavior problems, resistance--are not of their doing, but are really manifestations of problems with parents who are not sufficiently enlightened, awake, or conscious, according to Tsabary. She may have a point: If the mother of that preschooler continues to be so controlling, I can well imagine a future for them of conflict and resistance. Despite the word "revolution" in the title, the message of Awakened Family is not new--but it does bear repeating. For at least a hundred years, clinicians, scholars, and even poets have called for a shift in the focus of parenting away from the children and onto the parents. The Swiss psychologist Alice Miller wrote extensively about the ways that parents who were physically or psychologically harmed as children unconsciously pass on their wounds. Scholars validated the intergenerational transmission of trauma, linking child abuse to later adult violence. Family therapists found that many of children's behavior problems go away when parents alone receive counseling. And last month, at the annual meeting of the Association for Psychological Science, developmental scientist Alison Gopnik urged parents to nurture but not shape their children, and to back down from the pervasive supervision, control, and directiveness of today's intense parenting. Advertisement Tsabary is not even talking about abuse or trauma. She has a more refined lens focusing particularly on parents' desires to control their children, especially in the service of achievement, which can stoke parents' egos but doesn't necessarily support children's emotional and mental needs. When children bend in response to their parents' egos, Tsabary says, they become anxious and depressed. The key to conscious parenting is to become aware of the ego--the false construction of the self, who we believe and think we are, much of which is rooted in fear. Though Awakened Family contains some serious flaws, Tsabary's message is one that many parents need to hear. Loving parents, harmful beliefs The first half of Awakened Family unpacks the most common harmful beliefs that cloud parents' ability to see their children clearly: that parents assume themselves to be perfect, that parenting is not about the adult but about the child, that control is a kind of caring, or that preparing for the future is more important than the present moment. Parents project their own needs, dreams, and expectations onto children, yet they are also afraid of being rejected by their children. All of these parental beliefs and fears contaminate children's ability to keep their spirits intact, to grow their authentic voices. Parenting, Tsabary says, is about managing parents' dynamics--the children are okay. Tsabary's guidance is based on her clinical and personal experience and influenced by yoga philosophy and mindfulness traditions. When parents are "aware," she says, their family naturally thrives. "Empowered with self-awareness, boundless in self-belief, liberated in self-expression, each feels free to explore, discover, and manifest their authentic being. This is the mandate of the awakened family." Tsabary holds a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Columbia University but her advice is not based on research or developmental science. While that doesn't preclude it from being good advice, there are some direct conflicts that may contribute to inaccurate ideas about how children develop. Advertisement For example, Tsabary says that babies are born in a state of perfection and "awakeness," when cognitive research shows that babies have predispositions and biases--for better or worse--and the way the predispositions manifest depends a lot on the care they encounter. And in her enthusiasm, Tsabary implies that parenting involves only a focus on growing one's own maturity, to the exclusion of taking into account children's developmental processes, unique temperamental differences, or the "co-constructive" nature of development that is the product of the unique interaction among multiple layers of influences, from economy and culture to genes. And she out-Rousseaus Rousseau in her romantic vision of children: In an awakened family, "[children] will naturally develop a self-discipline." This is, in a word, unlikely. Tsabary's language assumes a familiarity with Eastern-leaning philosophies: Phrases like "grounded in your own center," "awakening in the present moment," "deepest self," and "usher our children into their own self-realization" are used liberally but not defined. Unfortunately, she also contradicts herself: When explaining how parents can resolve their fears, projections, and ego-based control, she first advises that "We don't have to go way back into our childhood to excavate the roots of our fear," but instead can watch it in the present moment--surely a relief to many parents. Yet only a few pages later, Tsabary cautions that "The only way we can ultimately free our children from our dependency is if we have freed ourselves from our parents." In a chapter titled "How the Culture Sets Up Parents to Fail," there is no actual mention of cultural dynamics. And she does not answer questions a novice parent might raise, in reaction to her philosophy, such as, "What is the line between supporting a child's authentic self and coddling them? What about teaching children actual skills?" Transformative tools Despite these editorial flaws, the message of the book is vitally important and may contribute to advancing the human rights of children. Tsabary makes some bold and much-needed points: Traditional parenting, she says, has sanctioned the "unbridled use of parental power." Punishments, time-outs, threats, shaming, and silencing aren't effective but are hallmarks of "lazy and rote parenting." "I am dead set against children being ostracized to naughty corners, stools, or steps," Tsabary writes. Just because a parent gets triggered, it doesn't mean that a child is wrong, and it doesn't confer the legitimacy of an adult to "fix" a child. Most parenting books teach how to manipulate children out of feeling what they're feeling; to stop a behavior rather than to teach how to negotiate feelings in constructive ways.Tsabary encourages parents to move away from disciplinary techniques to creating healthy boundaries--something that requires an examination of the adult's psychology. Children thrive within a predictable structure, she says, but often parents' own relationship to limits is "wishy-washy." It is our ability to set good limits, structure, and expectations for our children that fosters their sense of discipline. One important tool in this transformation is mindfulness: At risk of over-promising, she says, when we are alert to the present moment, the ego and all its attachments, ideas and agendas fall away. "We witness, engage, act, let go." The second transformative tool is taking five minutes of silence, or inserting a pause between being triggered and formulating a response. This is consistent with advice coming from emotional intelligence (the "meta-moment") as well as neuroscience, which shows that when we're triggered, it takes time for the thinking part of our brain to kick back in. Taking five minutes of silence, Tsabary says, allows "space for the wisest action to enter our awareness." In the early part of the twentieth century, Kahlil Gibran wrote, "Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself...You may give them your love but not your thoughts, for they have their own thoughts." Tsabary's message may not be new, but her ability to amplify it is. She is a loquacious, telegenic force that is saturating new media and is a favorite of Oprah. Advertisement 3. Fooling evangelicals: In an interview with David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network, Newt Gingrich gave as a reason for committing adultery that he was working so hard and feeling such passion for this country. Newt believes that God forgave him for his excessive patriotism, and that other good Christians should also forgive him. Donald Trump said he couldn't disclose his tax returns because of audits, adding, "Maybe I get audited so much because I'm a strong Christian." Really? How much faith does that statement require? At the recent Faith and Freedom Summit, Trump showed his commitment to religious freedom: "We will respect and defend Christian Americans," but said nothing about defending people of other faiths or the non-religious. 4. Concern about national security: Gingrich might not be as enthusiastic as Trump about building walls to counter the inscription on the Statue of Liberty, "Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free." Instead, Gingrich told an appreciative crowd at a South Carolina megachurch about an even more important danger than immigrants: "Removing God from the public arena is the biggest domestic threat to America today." 5. Cries of media bias: Donald Trump is known for denying statements of his that the media has on tape. Not to be outdone, here's how Newt Gingrich claimed that Democrats and the media were dishonest: "So let me say on the record, any ad which quotes what I said on Sunday is a falsehood." 6. Disgraceful political pandering: If Donald Trump slipped on a banana peel, he would probably look for ways to blame it on Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama. Trump even blamed Hillary for starting the birther movement against Obama. Newt Gingrich has a long track record of political pandering and hypocrisy, but I think the worst instance happened in 1994 in my home state of South Carolina, where Susan Smith tragically drowned her two children. Three days after the incident and just before the November election, Gingrich said that such violence somehow arose from a Democratic-controlled political system. When asked if the Republican change he was offering the country would stop killings like those in South Carolina, he replied, "Yes. In my judgment, there's no question." I agree with Newt that we need to change aspects of the society in which Susan Smith was raised. She was not raised with any dreaded liberal influence. Beverly Russell married Susan's mother after she divorced Susan's dad, and from the age of 6 her stepfather raised Susan in a strict church-going home. At age 13, Susan attempted suicide so she could be with her father in heaven. At 15, Susan told authorities that her stepfather had been sexually molesting her for over a year. Susan's mother talked her out of pursuing charges against Russell. At 18, Susan again attempted suicide. At Susan's murder trial, Russell admitted that he was still having sex with his stepdaughter as recently as two months before she killed her children. Beverly Russell, who had been campaigning for Newt Gingrich, was a Republican leader in South Carolina and county chairman of Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition, championing "family values" and "school prayer" as partisan Republican issues. Russell urged nationwide prayer during the nine days that Susan Smith had the country hunting for a nonexistent black carjacking kidnapper whom she had blamed. After finally confessing, Susan Smith said she was consoled that her two sons were happy in heaven. After the 1994 Republican takeover of the House of Representatives, what did Newt do to improve the country? He led his "pro-family" forces in dismembering the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, which made it easier for well-connected businessmen like Beverly Russell to keep "it" within the family. Did Gingrich apologize for his political pandering and mischaracterization in the Susan Smith case? No, he was likely pleased by how his unsupported and inaccurate portrayal created the opportunity for him to become Speaker of the House. Donald Trump would have been proud of such winning tactics. Bottom line: I think I hear political wedding bells. It's hard to find a more compatible running mate for Donald Trump than Newt Gingrich. Ziggy loves to wear winter hats; in fact, he wears them year round. After ordering several different brands online, he realized nothing really fit his style. Ziggy travels to Peru often with his mother for business, and decided to see if he could hire locals in Peru to design his dream hats. After some design and thread tweaking, the hat making is in full swing. He pays the locals $10 dollars to make the hats, helping the impoverished community, and then also donates 10% of his profits to the non-profit group Community Plates. His love for hats and helping others is improving lives across the world! There's no way to ''correctly'' profile someone based off their race. Somehow we do it anyway. Donald Trump's comment on CBS' ''Face the Nation'' Sunday night addressing the profiling of Muslims as something ''that we're going to have to start thinking about as a country'' were not only racist but quite ignorant; it's already happening! It was only last Wednesday that a report by Stanford University accused the Oakland California Police Department of racial profiling people based off traffic stop data from April 2013 to April 2014. But racial profiling is not only related to crime; it carries on farther than that and that is where I take offense. Advertisement Trump also added on Sunday that while he ''hates the concept of profiling we have to start using ''common sense'' and ''use our heads.'' Since when is judging someone by the color of their skin common sense? The first memory I have of being racially profiled goes back to when I was a child shopping with my mother and older sister. I was only 13 or 14 years old, but I knew what was happening when I broke away from my sister and mother and started looking around at a store on my own and was being followed by two of the store employees. I wasn't dressed bad at all, but in a store that was moderately filled with people, the girl with darker skin (darker to that of both her mother and sister) could not stop being followed (even when I joined them again). During my first semester of college I was shouted at while walking near the school for being "Latino'' and ''not being someone that belonged there" (I went to school in Austin, TX. A city with a population of over 275,000 Hispanics). The list is endless. When will it be common sense to end this? You don't have to believe a certain ideology to see this. And while I might agree that there needs to be a stop to it, I do applaud Donald Trump for bringing attention to this -- even if it wasn't done correctly. So I invite you in joining me on Twitter to say what #racialprofilingis and voice your opinion. What are your experiences with it? What are your thoughts about it? Let's start talking! Trying to put my finger on the rise of Donald Trump has been difficult. He's not Hitler. He's not Mussolini. He's a lot like Silvio Berlusconi. But, not quite. He is something of an American original. I find two quotes come to mind when I think of Mr. Trump and his campaign. The first from Sinclair Lewis, "When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross." The other from old Karl Marx, not someone I usually cite, but, "History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce." Again, neither quite works. But both suggest. Robert Kagen, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute writing at the Washington Post observes significantly, "What (Mr. Trump) offers is an attitude, an aura of crude strength and machismo, a boasting disrespect for the niceties of the democratic culture that he claims, and his followers believe, has produced national weakness and incompetence." Advertisement Mr. Kagen continues, His incoherent and contradictory utterances have one thing in common: They provoke and play on feelings of resentment and disdain, intermingled with bits of fear, hatred and anger. His public discourse consists of attacking or ridiculing a wide range of "others" -- Muslims, Hispanics, women, Chinese, Mexicans, Europeans, Arabs, immigrants, refugees -- whom he depicts either as threats or as objects of derision. His program, such as it is, consists chiefly of promises to get tough with foreigners and people of nonwhite complexion. He will deport them, bar them, get them to knuckle under, make them pay up or make them shut up. Mr. Trump throws a suit on it, but the threat hangs in the air. This is a message of brutalism. And, me, I feel a frisson of fear when I watch him - and the crowds he draws. Now, not everyone is quite so worried. Joshua Holland cautions us all to get a grip. Mr. Holland, a fellow at the Nation Institute writing at the Nation acknowledges Mr. Turmp's ascension "has certainly revealed a dark current in American politics" and cites the troubling list of far-right figures who have been endorsing the real estate developer and reality television star's campaign. He goes on to point out that Mr. Trump's negatives are extremely high, and blandly suggests the magnate has no real chance of winning the presidency. Mr. Holland also notes in our contemporary polarized politics anyone who captures a major party nomination is pretty much guaranteed forty percent of the national vote. That reality can be read a couple of ways. He suggests in that light it's wise not to derive too much specificity as regards to the actual person running for office. As I understand him, Mr. Holland sees Mr. Trump as a manifestation of a rear-guard reaction to the rush of history. And that he more represents a spasm of fear on the part of those caught up in our changing culture than a forward movement carrying us to totalitarianism. The wave is washing over, and soon Mr. Trump will be left high and dry. Advertisement Maybe. There's a good chance he's right. But. And. Mr. Trump is flat out selling a form of fascism, hard on fear of the other and a promise of putting it all right. What he is asking for is not actually election as president, but as strongman. And the part that makes me sick is people are buying it. Large numbers. Enough so that he has captured the nomination of one of the two parties in a two-party system. And with that as we got from Mr. Holland, he is pretty much guaranteed that forty percent of the national vote. Forty percent is a landslide loss of historic proportions. But. With a couple of bad things happening in the right moments in the run-up to the general election, maybe he can garner just enough additional votes in the right states that he, in fact, does get elected. He doesn't actually have to get the most votes, just the most votes in the right places. All this said, I find myself deeply concerned about the people who are supporting him. Whether people are supporting Mr. Trump for their own reasons while not actually believing in his platform, such as it is, hardly matters. You vote for the fascist, it doesn't matter that you figure you can control him, you're voting for the fascist. Their "motives" are overtaken by their actions. What they're doing is supporting someone running on, well, call it what you like, fascist platform isn't quite right, neo-fascist, perhaps. More fascist as farce. It's easy to see Mr. Trump as a buffoon, an orange clown. But people are supporting his run. Whether because they buy the message or for other reasons. People are supporting Mr. Trump. Lots of them. And, you know, clowns have grabbed the throne before. So, beyond getting serious quickly about supporting Secretary Clinton's campaign, what else? Me, I'm deeply concerned for the Republic. I'm worried about the people who have put him where he is today. And, I'm worried about the conditions we find ourselves in that have become the seedbed of such poisonous things. As a religious leader, I see a soul sickness. And, I am worried. We have firmly landed in the midst of that old Chinese curse. These are interesting times. Photo: Krista Campbell with Helios Lens Krista Campbell is a Northwest Arkansas based photographer and Click Photo School instructor who is always searching for new ways to create extraordinary images in ordinary locations. Being able to transform a mundane setting into an incredible scene gives her the ability to make swoon-worth images anywhere. How does Krista do it? She uses light, lenses, movement, and simple items to transform her images from mundane to magical. Krista shares all of her secrets in her popular class, Click Photo School, Ordinary Locations, Extraordinary Images in which she teaches photographers how to create magic in any area of their home, yard, or community. Here, Krista shares her top 5 techniques to create magical images. 1.Backlight and Pockets of Light: Look for buttery backlight and place your subject in a pocket of light. In the image below, this gorgeous mama-to-be and Krista were next to a popular walking trail. Krista looked for a pocket of light, where the sunlight was streaming through the trees and onto the grass and purple clover on the ground. She then placed her subject in the center of the pocket of light and had the subjecgt look lovingly at her growing baby. The result was a magical moment, created in a very ordinary location. Advertisement 2.Get a (cheap) Creative Lens: Invest in an inexpensive Helios lens. Helios lenses (typically under $70) can be found on Amazon and eBay. They are Russian made, manual focus lenses that produce amazing sunflare in both indoors and outdoors. They are so much fun to use. Just place your subject with his/her back to the sun at Golden Hour and experiment with the different types of lens flare that you can achieve. Photo: Krista Campbell with a baggie 3. Use a Baggie: Find a small ziplock bag in your pantry. Cut a small hole at the bottom of the baggie and place the baggie over your lens. By shooting through the small hole at the bottom of the baggie, you can create soft, dreamy imagery. Photos: Krista Campbell 4. Go Low: Get down low. One of the easiest ways to transform an image is to capture your subjects from a low vantage point. In both of the photographs above, Krista got down low to the ground and used a wide-angle lens to capture both my subjects and the beautiful sky. Krista exposes her images for the sky (so her subject may be a little underexposed) so that she is able to capture all of the detail in the clouds. Photo: Krista Campbell taken using a crystal 5.Sparkle with Crystals: Use an Amlong Crystal. Krista purchased an inexpensive 6 inch Amlong crystal on Amazon and loves to experiment with it. When you place the crystal up to your lens as you shoot, and turn it, the light reflects back and creates interesting flare and even a reflection. Crystals are a simple tool to use to transform your images by adding light and visual interest. Advertisement Using these techniques can take a little practice, but are also a lot of fun and can open up new ways to stretch your creativity. When getting started with these techniques, don't be afraid to take a few extra minutes to experiment once you have the "safe" shot. You may be surprised to find that a snack bag gives you the images you love the most! "If you want something badly enough you will get it. If you don't, you won't." It was eight o'clock on a Friday evening during the summer of 2014 and Anna Marie Nass had just finished the day after working over 60 hours this week -- 80 when accounting for travel time. She has seen somewhere between 30 and 50 patients in the past 12 hours... and that was a "good" day, a "slow" day. It is that mantra she holds dear to her heart on weeks like this one -- the same mantra that got her through ten years of schooling. What may seem like a lot of work is actually more, because for this Advanced Practicing Nurse, the job doesn't simply end with the patient. However many people her line of work sends her way, Anna Marie always sees what the average person doesn't in an ill person: their entire family dynamic. Advertisement Just a few hours earlier she felt obligated to educate the parents of three preteen boys on the importance of using antibiotics. Two of the three boys had come to be examined at her place of employment -- Riverside Pediatrics in Secaucus -- both complaining of throat pains. A series of tests concluded the two had been suffering from strep throat, but neither of them were thrilled with the idea of taking medicine and their parents were seemingly nonchalant about that. Whether the boys want to take the medicine not, untreated infections can have lasting effects. Anna Marie cautioned them of the potential heart damage that can occur when "infection is just left sitting in someone's throat." "We just hope our middle child doesn't catch it," both parents were in agreement. Anna Marie's defenses went up. "You have another son? How is he doing, is he showing similar symptoms?" "No, but he has lung and thyroid cancer." That only enhances the urgency for their other two sons to be on antibiotics. Their infections need to be completely eradicated because bringing that home with them could potentially kill their immuno-compromised brother. Advertisement Anna Marie had no scruples about stating that firmly. While coercion has no place in a medical institution, her entire reason for entering the medical profession was to fight for those who can't fight for themselves. She wouldn't change a thing about this exchange in her medical room. The next day, she woke up to do it all over again. Well respected at Riverside Pediatrics, she has been employed there for less than a year, though she is no novice as a nurse and certainly not as a medical advocate. Anna Marie was offered the job this past November after finally crossing the finish line of ten years of schooling, clinical hours and board certifying exams. Thank goodness for the support of her family, but had she not had it, that wouldn't have stopped her. "Nothing was stopping me," she said. "Not the birth of my kids, my marriage, nothing." As a pediatric nurse practitioner, her days are more fulfilling as she has more freedom to use her medical expertise, something that is not permitted for an RN. Anna Marie is able to give an official diagnosis for ailing children and prescribe medicine. Driven though she was, achieving this long-term goal was not without sacrifice. Unlike many who decide to change careers, Anna Marie was unable to work full time and go to school part time -- or vice versa. She charged on ahead making the transition from paralegal to nurse, working full time and attending school full time. Advertisement Her family relies on her as the sole income provider. Unemployed to a physical disability, Anna Marie's husband John assumed full parenting responsibilities in their home. For these ten years she barely saw her children. A hug and a kiss n in the morning before school, then she would not see them until the next day. There is no resentment, only love and admiration. Her oldest son Chuck, 14 at the time, understands the importance of what his mom does and feels both he and his younger brother -- Austin, 10 -- appreciate education that much more. "We both will go to college; we know how necessary it is to be independent," Chuck says. All of Austin's life (Anna Marie went to school directly after he was born), he has witnessed his mother working and attending school nonstop, save for a three week break at Christmas. And, notes Anna Marie, nine out of ten final exams she took over that time period were on Christmas Eve. After January 15, the hectic schedule resumed. The best piece of advice she ever received in the midst of it all was from one Dr. Joel . "Follow your heart," he said. "Don't stop until you get what you want." Her family knew they were only benefiting from their mom/wife's driven personality--a job with an established medical group led to a higher income. For Anna Marie, it was about that and so much more. Advertisement While in school for her last set of board exams, Anna Marie worked at as a hospice nurse for the New Jersey Visiting Nurses Association (VNA) and was quick to call her patients' doctors should anything be amiss. "She told it like it was," says Sara Organic, a medical social worker for VNA. Organic regards Anna Marie as a "fireball" who genuinely advocates for her patients. The Apple logo is seen atop the Apple Store Thursday, March 31, 2016, in Palo Alto, Calif. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg) An open letter to the tech industry in San Francisco and Silicon Valley Facebook, Google, Microsoft: Here's why you should follow Apple's lead in not supporting the GOP Convention in Cleveland this July. If you're new to the Bay Area, if you work in San Francisco or in Silicon Valley, you may not realize it, but you're here because of the Beat Generation. Advertisement At the Beat Museum in North Beach, one of the things we hear every day, from visitors from all over the world is, "This is such a great environment! The people in this town are so welcoming and friendly! This is definitely our favorite city in the USA!" It's their favorite city because of the Beat Generation. The Beat Generation is a subset of the generation Tom Brokaw dubbed "The Greatest Generation" -- those born circa-1920, who grew up during the Great Depression of the 1930s, came of age during World War II in the 1940s, and in the 1950s, changed the world. The Beats were creative intellectuals, writers, poets, artists, performers; the restless, the wayward, the disillusioned, the forward-thinking. They were the non-conformists of their day, and they influenced everyone, from Bob Dylan and The Beatles onward. Every era has its dissidents, its outlaws. Every civilization, since well before the Greeks and Romans, has its non-conformists; the ones who question the status-quo, who challenge the social order, and leave society the better for it. Beat Generation Values are San Francisco Values Amidst the stifling social climate of the 1950s, which demanded conformity, nationalism, enforced racial and economic segregation, and repressed anyone whose lifestyle didn't aspire to the status-quo, the Beat Generation practiced a philosophy of compassion, sympathy and tolerance. The Beats understood that living an authentic life on one's own terms means respecting and celebrating the differences of others. The Beats embraced the values of racial equality, gender equality and the freedom of LGBT people to be themselves. "America I'm putting my queer shoulder to the wheel," Allen Ginsberg wrote in 1955, offering that even those whom society deems outcasts, like himself, are doing the hard work toward everyone's betterment. The Beats, Gary Snyder and Michael McClure especially, were also vocal about the need to protect and preserve the natural environment. Advertisement The fact that most millennials regard these values as basic truths is proof that we're living in the kind of world the Beat Generation sought to create. Allen Ginsberg taking a picture of me taking a picture of him. NYU, New York City, 1994 The Hippies, the 1960s, India, Steve Jobs, Psychedelics, Burning Man and Millennials On January 14th, 1967, "The Human Be-In" was held in Golden Gate Park. Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Michael McClure, Lenore Kandel, Timothy Leary, Richard Alpert (Ram Dass) and Jerry Rubin -- among many, many others -- attended. Beat poets took the stage to read poetry, followed by bands such as The Grateful Dead and The Jefferson Airplane. The Human Be-In represented a passing of the torch from the elder Beats to the next generation, who would become the counterculture of the 1960s -- the hippies, yippees, the anti-war movement, etc. Steve Jobs attended Reed College in Portland, the same college where Beat poets Gary Snyder, Lew Welch and Philip Whalen studied two decades prior. In 1974, before founding Apple Computer, Jobs took a trip to India, much like Gary Snyder and Allen Ginsberg did in the late 1950s. In his backpack, according to Daniel Kotke, Jobs' roommate at Reed, who accompanied him on that journey, was a copy of Kerouac's The Dharma Bums, the novel that introduced Zen Buddhism to America. Over 20 years later, Apple's iconic "Think Different" advertising campaign ("Here's to the crazy ones...") contained obvious echoes to writings of Kerouac and others. In 2008, when Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg sought advice from Steve Jobs on how he could refocus his young and rapidly evolving company, Jobs suggested he take a trip to India and visit the Kainchi Dham Ashram, as Jobs had done himself 30 years prior. Advertisement The Burning Man festival, one of the defining cultural institutions of our time, draws clear inspiration from the Beat and the Hippie subcultures, and has drawn myriad comparisons to Woodstock, the Human Be-In -- historic occasions that set the tone for their time. Tech companies are leading the way in 2016. A good portion of today's workforce and consumer base are Millennials, and their thoughts, their values matter for the future. Millennials believe in authenticity, and that success in business should be more than just financial performance -- that doing good, and having a positive impact on society are of critical importance. Millennials grew up with a team mentality that embraces diversity, inviting everyone to join and collaborate while doing work that matters. If you're a young person working in tech, if you came here to do great things, to create and innovate brilliant new tools and solutions, you're following directly in the footsteps of the Beat Generation. For as long as anyone can remember, people have come to San Francisco to do new and interesting things, to live their dreams, to push the boundaries and change the world. Donald Trump Does Not Represent Your Values Whatever tech company you might work for, Donald Trump is the antithesis of everything you believe in. Technology is about connecting people, bringing people together, improving the way we communicate, because the better we build communities, the better we understand one another. Donald Trump is about dividing people through dog-whistle politics, cynically preying upon fear, anger, prejudice, and misogyny. The Beat Generation represented everything positive that came out of the 1950s. Theirs was a message of optimism: that the kind of world we want to live in can be ours. Donald Trump wants to drag us backward, toward everything negative about the 1950s and 60s -- racism, suspicion, conformity, and xenophobia -- everything we and our forebears fought to rise above. Advertisement This isn't really about politics. This is about doing the right thing. Behaviors have consequences. Language has consequences -- and that's why we're asking you to do the right thing -- to take Apple's lead in refusing to support the Republican Convention this July in Cleveland, so long as Donald Trump remains the presumptive nominee. With E3 in the rearview and VRLA on the horizon, it's hard to imagine carving out any extra mental space for yet another conference, yet another round of panels and product announcements and business cards to clutter your suitcase. But Virtual & Augmented Reality Toronto World Conference & Expo won't be like anything you've ever attended. When I hopped on the phone to talk to VRTO Executive Director Keram Malicki-Sanchez earlier this week, I really didn't know what to expect. I had some questions prepped so that I'd be able to best cover the event while I'm there. After hanging up, I was buzzing with excitement. I didn't reference my questions once -- this guy's passion and depth of engagement just spilled out of him. Advertisement When it kicks off this weekend, VRTO is going to: 1. Literally Make History ...with a proposal to ratify a Code of Ethics for Human Augmentation, spearheaded by Steve Mann, the Chief Scientist for Meta and General Chair of the IEEE International Symposium on Technology and Society. Mann, who holds patents for the first smartwatch (from back in the 1980s) and the camera-based contact lens, has been donning an eye display throughout the last 4 decades, so it's understandable why he's been called the "father of wearable computing." "He has written a bunch of papers that he's going to announce at this show, having to do with what he's observed," Malicki-Sanchez said. "It's not just 'Steve Mann's Code of Ethics.' We want to ratify and underwrite this with participation of others." On the panel directly following Mann's keynote address, he'll be joined five other experts, among them Brett Leonard, famous for directing Lawnmower Man in 1992, considered the first seminal film to explore virtual reality. "Brett is somebody who, if you look back at his work, some of it is very B-movie-ish," said Malicki-Sanchez. "That's not because it's a poor director making feeble attempts at virtual reality movies. On the contrary, it's somebody who's making grindhouse films as cautionary tales against a possible future, that, you know, we should probably think about a couple times before we unleash it." Imagine it's 2020. You're sporting a spiffy new augmented reality headset. You're walking down the street when you spot an intriguing stranger. Imagine right then that you can access all kinds of information about this stranger using your AR headset -- and they can do the same to you -- all before you've said a word to each other. What information should be made available to us in this case? What about to corporations and the government? A code of ethics helps create a starting point in finding solutions to the complicated questions we've yet to encounter. "This is not about the fun police coming in and being the PTA or whatever -- it's about saying, 'You know when we'll really have fun is when we have a basic general agreement between us to not be complete assholes about this thing,'" said Malicki-Sanchez. "It's way too easy to exploit people in this tech. You're basically hijacking their sympathetic nervous systems, blindfolding them, and immersing them completely and setting all their senses on fire... and then giving them a highly focused, curated message within that. If that's put into hands that only care about the bottom line, it's terrifying what can happen. There are deep physiological and neurological implications to the use of this tech, whether it's short- or long-term, and they're really only documented in hardcore academia. Aside from very basic, common-sense suggestions that are in the literature when you get these products, there's no other standards that exist." Advertisement This isn't to say that we should approach VR and AR with doom and gloom. Quite the contrary! "There are millions of beneficial applications," said Malicki-Sanchez. "You can take a legless veteran and let them have walking experiences again, you can take a grandmother in a convalescent home and have her back in her childhood bedroom, you can take someone who's afraid of spiders or elevators or public bathrooms or driving on freeways and provide exposure therapy in a way you can't anywhere else." And this is only the very beginning. "This may explode into something totally unexpected. We can see this happening already in the industry -- the fact that Chris Milk just a few days ago announced that Vrse is going to call itself 'Within,' belies what just two years of exposure to this new medium has already revealed: a whole longer road that we didn't even consider." So how do you tap into all the awesome potential of VR for the light side of the force? 2. Redesign How We Share VR In attending a variety of conferences and festivals, Malicki-Sanchez noticed flaws in the way VR is exhibited. Take Kaleidoscope, for example. "They basically truck a bunch of swivel chairs around the country -- which is totally great -- and they evangelize 360 videos -- which is totally great -- and they oversell these venues for 3 hours and people line up and then they got hot and sweaty and frustrated -- and that totally sucks," said Malicki-Sanchez. "That's not the way they should be herding people through these experiences. It's bottlenecking us into this horrible carnival-barker type attitude and it cheapens the effect." Advertisement And this model will prove especially unsustainable once we all have our own VR headsets, a realization Malicki-Sanchez made at Kaleidoscope's NAB pavilion. "It was a roped-off area with a bunch of people swiveling around making awe-struck faces while people outside the rope took pictures of them with captions like, 'Wow, look at the future of VR' and 'We're all doomed,'" said Malicki-Sanchez. "It was a humiliating, debasing, un-inclusive experience. It was like they were on display. And I thought, where's the privacy for these people, where's the respect and dignity for these viewers who are submitting themselves to this vulnerable position? If the people weren't so excited to see the technology in the first place they might think twice about that and think, 'Why should I submit myself to that kind of ridicule?'" So Malicki-Sanchez took an entirely different approach with the FIVARS (Festival of International Virtual and Augmented Reality Stories) pavilion at VRTO, which will feature a host of world premieres. "We do it for 8-hour stretches," said Malicki-Sanchez. "We run an algorithm that decides how many people can go through in a day, so that each viewer has a 25-minute choice of what they see, never has to stand in a lineup, and is never rushed through. And then, not only that, but they have a certain amount of discretion, and afterward they have an opportunity to talk about what their experience was with it -- either with the filmmakers themselves or our guys who can share the feedback -- rather than being carted out of their seat so the next person's ass can be plopped down in it. Because at this point it should be about a conversation and about discovery, and how each unique person who sits down in one of those chairs matters. They matter! It's not just tickets. They're people who are going see that RYOT documentary about Aleppo from their point of view and that totally matters. That matters as much as the content, if not much more." "FIVARS is not a virtual reality film festival because I don't think virtual reality and film should really be put together in the same sentence," said Malicki-Sanchez. "It's an experimental festival that forces the question of the submitters, 'What novel mechanics are you introducing with your project?' It's kind of a jerk thing to ask. Like, 'Wow, it's not good enough that I made a good 360 video that tells a good story, now you want me to introduce a unique mechanics to that?' And I say, 'Yeah, for sure, try something and fail at it miserably and let's learn from that.' And we manage to find 15-20 pieces a year (this is our 2nd year and we've done about 4 shows), where we keep finding new mechanics, where people say, 'Let's keep the camera stationary and do theatre-in-the-round,' or 'Let's convince Samsung to allow us do multi-directional audio on a Gear VR and have 4 simultaneous stories happening at the same time,' or 'Let's have you move through a Van Gogh painting but you're using an Xbox controller.'" With each success and failure, we learn something new about the budding media. In the case of the "The Night Cafe," it was made exceedingly clear that motion sickness can occur in even the most serene VR environments. "If it had been some kind of fragging, first-person shooter and everybody got sick then we'd be like, 'Oh yeah, of course.' But it wasn't -- it's a gentle, calm painting and people made themselves nauseatingly ill by not using the controllers properly." Advertisement 3. Emphasize People, not Products "VRTO is not something where the keynote was purchased by a company and then delivered by their Head of Sales," said Malicki-Sanchez. "Not a single talk was purchased or paid for. I didn't allow it. I also didn't allow merchants or vendors to buy floorspace so that they could drop a stack of business cards and then walk away and check their Tinder. Every booth has to push forward our modes of thinking, it has to challenge what we're doing. We can't afford to have platitudes and generalizations and 'just good enough,' and then phone this in the way Best Buy phoned in 3D TVs." Malicki-Sanchez was a young adult when the Internet began to enter the public conscious. "In 1992, when we were starting to shift into graphical interfaces for this incredible, telephathic new technology that was suddenly emerging and being gifted to us by the military-industrial complex, I said, 'How long are we going to have this present before somebody takes it away? How do we vanguard against the inevitable paywalls that are going to come up? They're going to figure it out and all of a sudden we'll have scarcity models, sales funnels, and paywalls, and this will all be taken away. Sure enough -- there's more data than there's ever been up online, and all we do is go to Facebook." So what can we do to make sure that VR doesn't become a corporate commodity? "It's about being open-hearted, honest, authentic, and noble," said Malicki-Sanchez. "And also being careful to try not to impose restrictions that limit kinds of creativity that we're unfamiliar with, because there are people who might have really amazing ideas that don't resonate with us, and it's not our obligation or privilege to drown them out. We have to keep it wide open. It's a tricky thing to do, isn't it?" 4. Generate Cutting-Edge Conversations Malicki-Sanchez's tenure as Editor-in-chief of Indie Game Reviewer put him front and center for the indie game renaissance of the aughts. Advertisement "The software and the tools got democratized and it wasn't incredibly difficult to make video games anymore, and all of a sudden it became this cultural tool for expression. You got Twine and GameMaker. It grew, it blossomed, it became a leveraging tool with major consoles. And now VR is feeling the same way." In preparation for assembling VR Toronto, he spent the last 12 months attending and researching conferences. "I found that a lot of these panels were a re-skin of the same talk, you know, 'Storytelling in VR,' over and over and over again. And of course we're very interested in the fact that VR is disruptive to the very nature of narrative itself! But I found a lot of those answers already existed in the indie game space, which has been doing incredible work in exploring non-linear approaches for years. And without drilling down into how amazing that whole conversation can be, what's important is that all these people are being catalyzed to have this conversation again by way of the current virtual reality renaissance. These people were there for the indie game explosion, they were there for the Internet's information superhighway explosion, and every couple of years they kind of cluster together and start sharing ideas again." To capitalize on this swell of energy, Malicki-Sanchez got straight to recruiting for VRTO. "I went and I cherry-picked all of the hotheads that had really radical or controversial opinions and put them together for this show. It was like The Muppet Movie, I went around and found them and convinced them to come to Toronto. And believe me, two months ago nobody knew what the hell I was talking about -- like, 'What backwoods thing is this, I'm sick of VR shows, I've been to all of them' -- I said, no no no, this is different, I promise. And now they're all looking at each other going, 'Holy shit, you're going to be there?' And I'm just excited to see what it manifests." Advertisement Why go to such pains to make a non-traditional conference? "People say, 'Why do you have to be such a disruptive pain in the ass?' And it's not just the punk history I'm coming from, it's the fact that we have to create more space because we're already getting bottlenecked by habituation. All these companies keep saying, 'It's all about the content,' and people just echo that because they don't know what to say. 'It's all about the content.' Well what does that mean? So for instance we have a panel called, 'OK, So We Can Shoot in 360. Can We Start Making It Interesting Now?' These panels are not just talking heads -- they're highly curated. I can't control what they're going to say and I have no intention of doing that. I don't know if they'll go well or they'll go poorly, but at least I know they'll go really well or really poorly. The won't be boring." 5. Announce Toronto as a VR Hub Malicki-Sanchez has called Los Angeles home for 20 years, so why not host the conference there? "LA's amazing, I really love LA. I've learned a lot there, a lot of the smartest thinkers in this space are there -- but when I thought between LA and my native Toronto, I thought, Toronto is strangely a much more volatile gestation ground. It's sort of New York and Chicago and Detroit and Montreal and Buffalo, and it's on the other side of the border, and there's Canadian grants and subsidies which allow things to be developed for their own sake, not necessarily as market-driven. The nature of the research is different." What's more: Toronto was also recently named the Most Multicultural City in the World. This makes it a hotbed for the kind of forward-thinking necessary in maintaining a culture of technological innovation. Advertisement "There's something about [Toronto] to me that's much more sociologically experimental," said Malicki-Sanchez. "This whole notion of a 'melting pot' doesn't exist -- it's a mosaic. People just come here and then they just are. So it's a powerful place to stage the meeting of East and West. Steve Mann himself comes from Toronto -- the Chief Scientist for Meta, which is in Silicon Valley, is still based in Toronto! So I convinced him we should stage this in Toronto, the announcement of this Code of Ethics, because what Fort Lauderdale is to space travel, Toronto is to wearable technology and augmentation. And he agreed." VRTO might also clear up some misconceptions about Toronto in helping it emerge as a tech powerhouse. "It's not some kind of South Park-y utopia, it's just a crazy, incredible mess of cultures and things going on. It's labyrinthian, it's like Blade Runner, it really is. All of these things on top of each other, influencing each other, affecting each other. It usually leaves me pretty breathless." *** And VR is just the beginning of what Malicki-Sanchez suspects is a long, fascinating road -- one full of trial and error and learning of all sorts. It was the summer of 2003, and I took a chance. I was running my own advertising and promotion agency and my biggest client was Tylenol. This particular client was very progressive and aggressive, so I knew I could be bold and suggest that we advertise Tylenol PM to the gay market...and that we should support June Pride Month by sponsoring New York's Gay Pride. "Targeting a brand new market that's never been tapped would generate incremental sales," was my argument to him. He agreed and I jumped head first into developing advertising and promotion for the very first OTC product to ever support the gay community. Advertisement The work was incredibly rewarding both personally and professionally. I was letting go of my fear of being out at work, and I was helping my clients legitimately grow their business. Couldn't get much better than that! Of course as a result, I was professionally "outed" by the trade press, when they signaled the importance of the campaign and its "first ever." First ever for me too. While it would be no big deal today, it was a really big deal back in the day. I was afraid that I'd lose clients. I had two young children that I was raising, so I had a right to be afraid. Although I was scared, I knew that it was the right thing to do. It was inevitable, to tell you the truth, so I might as well be proactive and take the bull by the horns. So I'm sure you can imagine the sheer joy I feel when I see so many brands today supporting gay inclusion, marriage equality, and equal rights for all. Advertisement Sheer joy is the only way I can describe how I felt when I just recently saw Colgate's first ever gay-inclusive commercial in Mexico. A first for the brand and for the country. Click here to see it. Sheer pride is how I feel when I see how Target is supporting LGBT rights, perhaps at its own expense. They even have a "Pride Store" within their stores. Sheer laughter is what I do when I see the new pride-full sneakers from Converse. And sheer "Cheers!" is what I do when I see Budweiser's extension of their Campaign campaign featuring same-sex marriage. Click here to see it. I walked by TD Bank and saw that they too are supporting Pride Month. I saw a social post from the employees of Bloomingdale's honoring #Orlando. And at the airport I was greeted with "Happy Pride" as I boarded my flight. These brands are only a sampling of the brands that are joining the celebration of Gay Pride this month, thank you Mr. President. Advertisement I literally never thought I'd see the day...the day when we aren't afraid to say who we are for fear of losing our jobs or putting our families at risk. Now I realize that we have a long way to go, and we've recently taken a few steps backwards, but Pride Month is all about moving forward, and celebrating that which makes us special. So I offer a hearty "thanks" to all those brands that help make that happen and continue to support us all. In a chapter of Critical Voter dedicated to bias, I talk about how early ideas that attributed the human tendency to act illogically to our emotions overwhelming our reason had to be updated once it was discovered that our reasoning facilities aren't as hot as we once through they were. Daniel Kahneman, in his best-selling book Thinking Fast and Slow, describes work that replaced a mind-heart divide which pitted our intellect against our emotion with a new model that sees different aspects of our reasoning working in harmony (leading to understanding) or disharmony (leading to cognitive errors and biases). For example, the part of our brain that processes information very quickly loves to find patterns which then get encoded into stories that have enormous staying power. These stories can be accurate, or at least useful (such as the story which says a loud noise usually signals danger). But they can also be inaccurate, or open us up to manipulation when someone is trying to get us to think the way they want by fitting facts and events into stories that serve their purposes. Advertisement Politics is rife with an appeal to storylines, especially by those eager to gin up their base, with "the base" defined as those pre-disposed to believe a particular story. For example, Hillary Clinton would clearly like you to believe that controversies regarding her use of a private e-mail server are the result of a right-wing conspiracy that's been trying to destroy her and her husband for decades. In contrast, Clinton's foes would prefer you build the facts about her communication irregularities into a different storyline, one that tells a tale of widespread corruption swirling around the potentially two-time first couple. Given that politics is all about persuasion, leveraging the public's desire to fit pieces into story-driven patterns is fair game. But as critical thinkers, we need to be able to distinguish between stories designed to help us understand a complex situation vs. stories designed to get us to not think about important things. We saw a high-contrast example of this phenomenon last week when a brutal attack took place at the Pulse night club in Orlando, leaving fifty people dead and as many injured. Certain facts about the massacre are clear cut. The Pulse is a gay club, which meant all those targeted were part of the LGBQ community. Also, the crime was committed with a high-powered automatic rifle. Finally the man who committed mass murder swore fealty to ISIS and publically declared that his act was inspired by Islamist ideology. Advertisement Since none of these facts is in dispute, the contentious debate we've had since the killings took place (a debate that began before the bodies were even identified) has primarily been about which storyline these facts should fit into. For instance, is this a story about Islamist terror expanding in the United States, which would require a debate over how to wage war against a foe driven by religious ideology (not to mention discussion of complex domestic issues relating to religious tolerance and immigration)? Or is it a story about the widespread availability of high-powered weapons in America, which would precipitate a conversation about legal controls to be placed on such weapons? Or maybe it's about intolerance directed against homosexuals, which would link this grisly tale to other issues related to LGBQ rights? Each of these stories represents legitimate issues in and of themselves. Islamic extremism is indeed a challenge to the entire world, and it's too easy for anyone who wants to do something nasty to obtain a gun, and gays are discriminated against and such discrimination is wrong. But is it really so difficult to determine which of these stories is the most important and relevant to the specific matter at hand? Given that this is an election season, a set of meta-stories emerged almost immediately regarding how each candidate was dealing with the news out of Orlando. Was the President's choice to frame his remarks on the subject in the context of guns and LGBQ rights an attempt to avoid (and thus avoid having to do anything about) violent religious extremism? Was Republican nominee Donald Trump's condemnation of Obama for not talking enough about religious terror an attempt to use a tragedy to inspire fear among the public? Given how much coverage of the Pulse story has centered on what the candidates did and didn't say afterwards, clearly stories about domestic Presidential politics have taken precedence over stories related to the event itself (apart from stories of people dealing with personal tragedies, which have fortunately not been used to fuel partisan arguments - yet). Advertisement The brutal murder of British parliamentarian Jo Cox, praised as a relentless and warm-hearted humanitarian, has sent a nation into mourning. A wife and mother of two small children, no British lawmaker fought harder for a more humane immigration policy toward refugees fleeing the Syrian civil war, especially the thousands of Syrian children who have lost their families in the conflict. Cox's death invites some intense soul-searching -- not only in Britain but also in the United States -- about the West's failure to prevent the worst humanitarian disaster since the Second World War. Soon after joining Parliament in May 2015 as a Labour MP, the 41-year-old Cox help set up the All Party Parliamentary Group on Syria with Conservative MP Andrew Mitchell. The group collects evidence from military commanders, diplomats, and officials from the region about the plight of the roughly 4.5 million refugees who have fled Syria's five-year civil war to neighboring countries. Earlier this year Cox fought for legislation to admit into the UK at least 3,000 child refugees from Syria -- roughly three percent of the estimated 95,000 unaccompanied minors, mostly from Syria, now living precariously in Europe. "Those children have been exposed to things no child should ever witness," she said, "and I know I would risk life and limb to get my two precious babies out of that hellhole." Though a junior parliamentarian in the opposition party, Cox quickly earned a reputation as a bold and principled human rights advocate. Her campaign for Syrian refugees was waged in the midst of Britain's national debate over whether to remain in the European Union, which has been widely criticized for mishandling the immigration crisis. Cox's assailant was a 52-year-old-man who shouted "Britain First," a slogan associated with far right elements in Great Britain. Advertisement Many American conservatives would not agree with Cox's views on immigration or her outspoken support for the European Union. But liberals would not have cheered her recent speech in Parliament, where she vigorously rebuked both David Cameron and Barack Obama for failing to act decisively to confront the escalating violence in Syria: I believe that both President Obama and the Prime Minister made the biggest misjudgment of their time in office when they put Syria on the 'too difficult' pile. Instead of engaging fully, they withdrew and put their faith in a policy of containment. This judgment, made by both leaders for different reasons, will, I believe, be judged harshly by history, and it has been nothing short of a foreign policy disaster. Of course, Cox is right: Britain has followed America's lead on Syria, right into a moral quagmire of feckless and cynical diplomacy. Obama's views on Syria were best expressed recently by Ben Rhodes, his principal foreign policy advisor: "Nothing we could have done," Rhodes told a group of Syrian activists, "would have made things better." The problem is not just that the Obama White House has adopted, unflinchingly, this defeatist view of the Syrian tragedy. It is effectively the position of both presumptive party nominees for president, Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump. It is the position of Bernie Sanders, the Democratic Socialist who has drawn millions of voters into his isolationist mirage. It was, for anyone's guess, the position of most of the 16 Republican presidential candidates who have since dropped out of the race. Advertisement The depth of America's leadership crisis on Syria is indeed staggering. Aside from Rep. Chris Smith (R-New Jersey), Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas), and a pitifully tiny handful of others, there are no members of Congress -- Republican or Democrat -- who match the humanitarian vision and commitment of Jo Cox. With regards to Syria's refugee children, she has no counterpart in the U.S. Congress. Fears of Islamic radicals slipping into the refugee population have overtaken our politics, leaving child refugees out of sight and out of mind. Secretary of State John Kerry, for his part, delivered a flawed Syrian "peace" initiative that simply allowed Bashar al Assad to strengthen his position, thanks to Russia's unchallenged military intervention. The collapse of the peace plan, which has left tens of thousands of civilians at grave risk -- many of them children -- was predicted by diplomats involved in the negotiations. Even Samantha Power, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and an advocate of humanitarian intervention, has provided cover for the administration's moral abdication in Syria. Now compare Obama's powder-puff diplomacy to that of Jo Cox, who took a Russian ambassador to task for his country's bombing campaigns against Syrian civilians. "She was fearless, utterly fearless," Andrew Mitchell wrote in The Telegraph. "Last year, we went to see the Russian ambassador in London, to give him a rollicking about the terrible way his country has behaved in Syria. He's a professional diplomat and a pretty tough case. But Jo got the better of him: it was her mixture of charm and steel." Cox spent a decade at Oxfam, the British aid agency, and worked at the Freedom Fund, an anti-slavery organization, before joining Parliament. A devoted mother, she often brought her children with her into Westminster. Yesterday more than 1,500 parliamentarians from 40 countries signed a pledge to uphold Cox's humanitarian legacy -- an unprecedented expression of solidarity for a junior politician. "Jo was a lifelong campaigner against injustice," the joint statement says. "We will do whatever it takes to renew our bonds and fight for those at the margins of our society, our continent, and the world." Can anyone imagine a similar outpouring of support for any major American politician? Earlier this week in the House of Commons, parliamentarians wore white roses as they paid tribute to a colleague who had devoted most of her adult life helping people on the outskirts of civilization, regardless of race or creed. For an hour they spoke, with deep affection and eloquence, often choking back tears, as they put aside partisan differences to grieve together and to reflect on a remarkable life cut short. As one participant put it, "not in living memory has there been a House of Commons session like it." Advertisement It is becoming increasingly difficult to imagine such a scene on the floor of the U.S. House or Senate: our politics has become so shallow and degraded, our leaders so morally compromised. In a nation once admired for its open borders, its commitment to human rights and humanitarian assistance, something has gone wrong -- deeply and disturbingly wrong. Jo Cox, I suspect, would have some ideas about how to set things right. SPRINGVILLE, UT - JUNE 17: Courtney Manwaring holds an AR-15 semi-automatic gun at Action Target on June 17, 2016 in Springville, Utah. Semi-automatics are in the news again after the nightclub shooting in Orlando F;lord last week. (Photo by George Frey/Getty Images) On Monday evening, the United States Senate failed to pass legislation that would have stopped suspected terrorists from purchasing firearms and required background checks on all private gun sales. These two common-sense reforms are non-controversial and supported by 92 percent and 85 percent of Americans, respectively. The fact that 60 votes could not be found to support either reform is shameful and a matter that will need to be rectified by Americans at the ballot box in November. Despite this setback, the future of gun violence prevention in America is bright. Facing intense pressure from the public, the Senate is already preparing for another round of votes on gun reform. And there is hope beyond the federal level, too. Advertisement In the wake of our nation's worst mass shooting ever, state lawmakers have a golden opportunity to enact a policy that cannot only prevent tragedies like the one we witnessed in Orlando, but also prevent firearm suicides: the Gun Violence Restraining Order (GVRO). The GVRO process is similar to the domestic violence restraining order process and provides the opportunity to defuse a potentially dangerous situation before permanent harm is done. Under a GVRO policy, family members and/or law enforcement officials can petition a judge to have firearms temporarily removed from an individual in crisis for a period of one year. This would allow those who are a threat to themselves and/or others the time they need to get help and heal. Equally important, the GVRO allows for due process, as individuals are able to petition to get their firearms back following a brief period of time. Following the mass shooting in Isla Vista, California became the first state in the country to enact a GVRO law in 2014. That law went into effect at the start of this year. Connecticut and Indiana have similar laws on the books that allow firearm removal in certain circumstances. If Florida had a GVRO law, it might have stopped the Orlando shooter. Research shows that the strongest indicator for potential future violence is a history of violent behavior, and the Orlando gunman (like many mass shooters before him) had such a history. Advertisement The Orlando gunman's ex-wife described her short-term marriage to him as marred by domestic abuse, stating that, "He would just come home and start beating me up because the laundry wasn't finished." Her family eventually came to Florida to physically remove her from his presence. Additionally, the gunman's coworkers noted that he frequently made homophobic, racist and sexist comments. "He said he was going to kill a whole bunch of people," recalled a private security guard that worked with him. The gunman also told his wife about his planned shooting rampage. Finally, the Orlando shooter had been investigated on two different occasions by the FBI for potential ties to terrorists. All of the warning signs were there, but there was no opportunity under Florida law for the gunman's family members or the law enforcement officials who were investigating him to intervene and initiate some type of firearm removal process. So he was able to maintain possession of his military-style assault rifle and the handgun he used to kill 49 and injure 53. The early data on Connecticut's firearms removal process shows that it has enormous promise. Duke professor Jeffrey Swanson recently gave a presentation at the American Psychiatric Association's annual convention in which he reported that Connecticut's law is preventing suicides. The data also shows that many of the individuals whose guns were removed were able to seek and receive mental health treatment that they desperately needed. My organization, the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, has worked with stakeholders across the country to promote the GVRO at the state level. Law enforcement officials are very interested in the GVRO because they frequently respond to 911 calls where they can see a crisis coming, but are unable to act to remove firearms from the situation. GVRO legislation has either been introduced, or is expected to be introduced next legislative session, in more than a dozen states. The Senate will take up "compromise" gun legislation introduced by Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) before the end of the week to address the "Terror Gap," and I hope for a fruitful outcome. But regardless of how that voting goes, there is still ample opportunity to save lives by working to enact GVRO policies at the state level. I would encourage all HuffPost readers to contact your state legislators and ask them the following: "Is your chamber considering a GVRO bill? If not, when will you be introducing one?" Advertisement ___________________ If you -- or someone you know -- need help, please call 1-800-273-8255 for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. If you are outside of the U.S., please visit the International Association for Suicide Prevention for a database of international resources. The future of the coal industry is anything but bright, but a new study in the journal Energy Economics offers hope for coal workers for high-quality employment in the rapidly expanding solar photovoltaic industry. A combination of factors have led to a decline in profitability for coal-fired power plants in both the near and long term in the U.S. This reduced profitably is driving a steep decline in coal plants. For example, the U.S. Energy Information Administration notes that between 2010 and 2012, 14 GW of coal-fired capacity was retired and that a total of 60 GW will be retired by 2020. What these dry government numbers leave out is the effect on coal workers and their families as one major coal company after another files for bankruptcy. Although coal investors can simply call their brokers to move their money to more profitable industries, coal workers are left with pink slips and mortgages. Fortunately, there is one energy industry sector growing at an incredible rate - solar photovoltaic technology that converts sunlight directly into electricity. Advertisement And they are hiring. Some might question if the solar industry would welcome workers from a historical rival. Tom Kimbis, the interim president of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), puts that question to rest. He says "We welcome them with open arms. Every day, we're seeing talented men and women joining our ranks from every sector of the American workforce, including the coal industry." Christopher Turek, a Director at Solar Energy International (SEI) agrees, "we welcome them with open arms to come get re-trained in the growing solar energy sector. The solar energy tent is a big tent approach and we welcome everyone." Since the rapid decrease in the costs of solar photovoltaic technology, solar deployment is rising rapidly. Bloomberg reports the American solar industry had another record first quarter, but this time accounting for the majority of new power generation from any source for the first time. This is creating a lot of jobs in the U.S. solar industry, which is bringing on new workers 12 times faster than the overall economy. As of November 2015, the solar industry employs 208,859 solar workers, which is already larger than the roughly 150,000 jobs remaining in the coal industry. The new study found that the growth of solar-related employment could absorb the layoffs in the coal industry in the next 15 years. Kimbis points out, "these aren't just punch-the-clock jobs, these are careers." How can a coal worker get a solar job? The new study provides an analysis of the needs to retrain current coal workers for solar photovoltaic industry employment in the U.S. The current coal industry positions were determined, the skill set evaluated and the salaries tabulated. For each type of coal position, the closest equivalent PV position was determined trying to match current coal salaries and then the re-training time and investment was quantified. Turek points out, "One interesting opportunity for many of these coal miners is that many of them have transferable skill sets. These skill sets range from mechanical and electrical expertise and extends all the way to their confidence in working in a highly technical field with a strong focus on safety. Coal miners have a strong focus on safety while working in hazardous work environments and the solar industry needs these safety focused individuals who can bring that same level of focus to the solar industry". Advertisement The appendices will be most useful to current coal workers that can look up their existing job to see what some of the best potential fits for them might be and the training necessary. It should be noted, however, that the costs and specific schools used as examples -are only that - there are low cost options for solar retraining in all the individual States, which coal workers may be able to use while still employed in the coal sector. Turek explains that this is not a purely academic study. "SEI is headquartered in the heart of the declining Western Colorado coal country - this hits home for us. Many of our neighbors are losing their jobs as more and more coal mines close down. The good news is that they have the solar industry's leading technical training school right here in their backyard." Kimbis points out that the requirements will depend on where you live: "Some states do require employees to obtain solar-specific licenses or certifications." He recommends learning as much as you can about the industry and the specific policies at play in your state. Turek continues, "There are challenges for anyone wanting to get into this field as it is a highly dynamic and changing industry with new technologies coming to market all the time. Training is key and getting that training from a respected school is also crucial to overcome the challenge of jumping into a new career field." Advertisement The results of the study show that a relatively minor investment in retraining would allow the vast majority of coal workers to switch to solar-related positions even in the event of the elimination of the coal industry."With some training in solar-specific technologies, workers can move into sustainable, well-paying careers in solar." Kimbis explains. Training times depend on type of job and prior experience. As Turek points out, "Unfortunately, politics has also gotten hold of this conversation and in an election year that creates a challenge. Electrons and the photovoltaic effect don't have a political affiliation. The sun just sends us photons everyday and the more we can do to harvest that power and convert it to usable clean energy to keep driving our country and the world forward - the better we ALL will be in the long run no matter your politics. Here at SEI - we don't care if someone sees themselves as a republican - democrat - conservative - or progressive - we just want to share our knowledge and expertise about renewable energy with anyone who is interested." photo: The Stand-By Generation/Davila Santiago, 2015 In the last few months Puerto Rico's economic crisis has become pretty famous. People talk about the financial instability of the islands of Puerto Rico, as much as they used to dance the Gasolina of Daddy Yankee, or Livin' La Vida Loca from Ricky Martin. Truth is, things are rough and now more than ever Puerto Ricans need to dance. Not just for fun, but to escape from the reality of a precarious livelihood and an uncertain future. Some people say that the United States Territory of Puerto Rico has around a 72 billion dollar debt to bondholders. It is still not clear how the Puerto Rican government acquired so much debt, or how the money was spent. Most of this seems to be an Odious Debt, in which citizens of the islands have not benefited from the borrowed money. The money was not necessarily used to build roads, schools, and hospitals, or to create projects of public interest. This is why this debt needs to be audited, first of all. But most people in the United States and in Puerto Rico accept the narrative of the 72 billion dollar debt as they would accept Medalla beer or a Malta for those who don't drink. Without necessarily understanding or questioning the debt accumulated and where it comes from. Advertisement This is the case of Pulitzer Prize winner, Lin-Manuel Miranda who humbly kneeled before Speaker Paul Ryan to ask for mercy and approve a bill that will ease Puerto Rico's economic crisis and pay the debt. He even offered free tickets for his Broadway show Hamilton, in order to push legislation for Puerto Rico (this would be considered extortion in other scenarios). But if Miranda wants to contribute something to his Puerto Rican people, he should stop offering free tickets and maybe use some of those royalties from Hamilton's costly tickets to start a fund that could help the soon starving young workers and students of Puerto Rico. In Miranda's own words "The good news is that Speaker Paul Ryan has fulfilled his promise: he worked together with Republicans and Democrats, and has created a bill that will determine the immediate future of Puerto Rico." This bill (H.R. 5278) is the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act, better known as PROMESA, which was developed by the Committee of Natural Resources under Chairman Rob Bishop, and recently approved in the United States House of Representatives with a vote of 297 to 127. PROMESA proposes the establishment of an Oversight Board with seven members appointed by the United States President, who will be granted totalitarian control over Puerto Rico's finances in order to restructure the Puerto Rican debt, which equals to: "Fuck you pay me". Section #4 of the bill says, "The provisions of this Act shall prevail over any general or specific provisions of territory law, State law, or regulation that is inconsistent with this Act." Nevertheless, the creation of an apparatus like PROMESA should not be a surprise. The United States Congress had total control over the insular government of Puerto Rico, ever since the Foraker Act was approved in 1900. It wasn't until the creation of the Free Associated State Constitution (ELA) in 1952, that Puerto Ricans were granted the right to elect their own governor and handle the internal administration of the country. Still when the United States Congress approved this, they sustained the capacity of imposing legislation over Puerto Rico's Government and retaining ultimate power over all of Puerto Rico's affairs. Advertisement Today is a historical moment: we are seeing how the United States Congress is making use of that supremacy they secured more than half a Century ago. The consequences are still to be seen. Some people talk about an ongoing humanitarian crisis, but the real humanitarian crisis is going to come when seven business men come to Puerto Rico to elaborate an economic plan as they get drunk on Barrilito in the beach of the San Juan Hotel. However, many Puerto Ricans in the homeland have a welcoming sentiment towards the Oversight Board. According to a recent poll from El Nuevo Dia, 46% of the citizens in Puerto Rico favor the Oversight Board or Junta de Control Fiscal, as it is locally known. Fed up with corruption and incapacitated officials administering the territory, it is understandable the frustration among the islanders and their lack of faith in the local government. A weak leadership on the left also aggravates this, which for decades has been unable to present itself as viable alternative to the country's development. This puts all the pieces in the right place for a checkmate! According to many members of the Democratic Party, PROMESA is the only help the Republican-Controlled Congress is willing to enact on Puerto Rico and we must make "Lemonade out of Lemons". Ironically on June 9th, more Democrats than Republicans voted in favor of this bill in the House of Representatives (158 Democrats versus 139 Republicans). Puerto Rican workers have been making lemonade out of pee since the economic crisis started to hit in 2006. Precarious jobs are on the rise, professional services are not paid well and employment opportunities are scarce. PROMESA does not propose to do anything about this, on the contrary it will make the economic crisis worse on workers, while rewarding corporations and making sure that bondholders keep receiving monthly payments. One of the most controversial provisions of the bill is the reduction of the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $4.25 an hour for workers 25 years old and younger. The last time hourly wages were this low was about 20 years ago. Gas, tripletas and condoms are more expensive now. Still, employers can pay $4.25 an hour to workers 20 years old and under, but they can only do so for the first 90 days of employment. PROMESA changes that for Puerto Rico; it doesn't establish a cap on days and elevates the age to 25. Advertisement The side effects of a $4.25 an hour to young workers, are more than we can think of. It represents the postponement of economic independence for young adults, and in many cases limits the capability of contributing economically to their household. The bill doesn't take into consideration parents under 25 or young workers who their own parents rely on, with all the layoffs in recent years and pensions at risk. The necessities of college students are also outside of the map inside this provision, not taking into account how many of them rely on their wages to pay for university studies, books and housing. $4.25 x 40 hours = $170 of weekly gross income. If you're a full-time worker, $170 (before taxes) is what you as a young worker will have pa' resolvertelas in the most expensive country of Latin America. Isla del Encanto, where gas, utilities and groceries are more expensive than the average in the United States. $170 a week, that's if you're lucky. As the deregulation of labor continues to be the trend in this Century, employers hire less full-time workers and young workers need to conform with only working 15 to 35 hours a week with no benefits or regularity. You make the math for that one. PROMESA promises: to give corporations a legal tool on "How to Make More Profit Out of the Sweat of Young Puerto Ricans". The $4.25 wage also poses a threat to older workers. Even though the bill states, "No employer may take any action to displace employees (including partial displacements such as reduction in hours, wages, or employment benefits) for purposes of hiring individuals at the wage authorized ($4.25)" it is easy for an employer to do exactly that, they just need to find ways around the legality of their intentions. Union jobs could be safer in this sense, but non-unionized workers on a precarious situation could be fired or punished for any fault that goes against the employer according to their established policies. Then, there will be a job opening starting immediately at $4.25 an hour for a: "... committed, motivated and energetic individual, who is able to work under-pressure and enjoys working flexible hours". Isn't this what most job postings say? Advertisement Something else that the PROMESA sponsors don't take into consideration is the chance of delinquency increment in the islands of Puerto Rico if a sector of the population was to make less money. This is what happens when you have Republicans from Utah and Wisconsin writing a legislation that concerns a Caribbean Third-World Colony of the United States. There is already lack of employment opportunities in Puerto Rico, and unfortunately many youngsters who've been abandoned by the education system struggle even more. Puerto Rico has a decaying public education system, and a bill like PROMESA facilitates the closing of schools and education programs in order to pay the debt. This could represent many more school dropouts in the upcoming years that will enter the labor world of $4.25 an hour. Between a job that offers $4.25 an hour versus a robust and stable underground economy in Puerto Rico with opportunities of advancing, hustling in the streets becomes very tempting. Young people don't want to be 425 slaves. I don't think that most candidates aspiring for Puerto Rico's governance understand the social impacts of a $4.25 minimum wage, but they all have expressed their opposition to it (there are many voters between ages 18 and 25). This is the only provision in PROMESA's bill that requires the governor of Puerto Rico to directly sing on, any other administrative decisions of the Oversight Board can be done without the authorization or approval of Puerto Rico's governor. This is not a guarantee that a $4.25 minimum wage will not be implemented. For example, we've seen in the past how gubernatorial candidates have expressed their opposition of adopting sale taxes, and once in office they've done the entire opposite. Such is the case of former governor Anibal Acevedo Vila, who said he would never approve a 7% sales tax and later argued he had no choice. Alejandro Garcia Padilla, the current governor brought a VAT of 11.5%. A waiver to the federal minimum wage doesn't only represent a threat to the Puerto Rican people; this could also establish a precedent for other states in the union. While in the United States workers are fighting for a $15 dollar an hour minimum wage, young Puerto Ricans face the possibility of less than $5 in the upcoming years. This is why labor unions are very attentive to this case, including the SEIU and the UAW who have opposed this bill. But, Hillary Clinton (the presidential candidate they've endorsed) said "While I have serious concerns about several provisions in this bill, including the creation of an oversight board that would exert substantial control over Puerto Rico, I believe that we must move forward with this legislation." Advertisement Soon, PROMESA will be discussed in the United States Senate. Sources say that the Senate will try to pass this like Steph Curry on a fast break ahead of Puerto Rico's next bond payment in July 1st. At this stage, the only hope to kill this bill inside Congress lies possibly on Senator Bernie Sanders, who the Puerto Rican democrats didn't favor in the presidential primaries of the territory. Clinton won big in Puerto Rico, but it seems that Sanders didn't take it personal. In opposition to PROMESA, he has done more than proposing amendments to the bill. Sanders, has introduced the Puerto Rico Humanitarian Relief Act, which doesn't establish an Oversight Board or includes a $4.25 minimum. Still, Sanders legislation needs to be expanded upon according to Natasha Lycia Ora Bannan, president of National Lawyers Guild. Co-authored by Rachel Anspach This week, as we mark the one year anniversary of the Charleston massacre, the country is reeling from another mass killing rooted in hatred. One week ago, Omar Mateen opened fire in Pulse, a queer club in Orlando, killing 49 and wounding 53 as they celebrated Latinx Night. Clearly, as a country we have failed to deeply or meaningfully grapple with the realities of racism, patriarchy, homophobia and hate in America. During the twelve months bookended by the massacres in Charleston and Orlando, terrifying acts of racialized and gender violence have followed one after another. We have seen former Oklahoma City Police Officer Daniel Holtzclaw's trial for serial sexual assault of vulnerable Black women in the course of duty. We have learned about Brock Turner, the white Stanford student who received a six-month jail sentence for brutally raping an unconscious woman behind a dumpster due to the judge's concern that a longer sentence would have a "severe impact" on the swim team star. We watched as Jasmine Richards, a Black Lives Matter activist, received a prison sentence eight times the length of Turner's after being convicted of a felony lynching for interfering with a protest related arrest. We've seen cops continue to kill men, women and children of color with impunity, and time and time again, not face any legal consequences for doing so. Advertisement And now we have seen Orlando. It's hard not to feel hopeless in the wake of what we have witnessed. It's hard to feel like anything we can do will make a difference. As white feminists, maybe a first step can be acknowledging and speaking with each other about the ways we are implicated in the racist patriarchy that gave rise to what happened on Charleston, in Oklahoma City and in Orlando. "You rape our women, and you're taking over our country, and you have to go." These are the words that Dylann Roof reportedly uttered before opening fire on churchgoers at the historically Black Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina on June 17, 2015, killing nine parishioners in the midst of bible study. Roof's disturbing manifesto was predicated upon both racism and patriarchy, and his words and actions serve as a harsh reminder that in order to root out oppression and violence, we must combat multiple bases for marginalization at the same time. Despite this claims of protecting white women from Black men, most of Roof's victims were Black women. Advertisement As members of the queer community, we can insist that our movement centers those who are most targeted by society -- people of color, trans and gender nonconforming folks, undocumented folks, those living in poverty -- the subsets of our community living in the crosshairs of multiple oppressive systems. We must be willing to acknowledge that while the shooting at Pulse is deeply upsetting to the LGBTQ community as a whole, it is queer people of color, those targeted by the attack, who will feel its aftershocks most acutely. Where will undocumented queer folks find safety, now that Pride events and gay clubs are being so heavily policed? Where will Muslim queer folks find safety, now that they are being criminalized and pitted against the rest of the LGBTQ community by the media? Where will Black queer folks find safety, knowing that presumptive safe havens from white supremacy such as Black churches and clubs for queer people of color have both been the sites of racialized terror in the past year, and are now more heavily policed than ever? Without intersectionality -- a concept coined by Kimberle Crenshaw to describe the ways in which multiple facets of our identities overlap to give rise to unique forms of marginalization -- we fall into the danger of erasing those who are most impacted by the tragedies from the narrative. Last Tuesday, Representative Pete Sessions (R-TX) was quoted as saying that Pulse was not a gay club because most of the Orlando victims were Latinx. "It was a young person's nightclub, I'm told. And there were some [LGBTQ people] there, but it was mostly Latinos." Sessions' failure to recognize that individuals can identify as both queer and Latinx is a prime example of intersectional erasure. While his statement was blatantly ludicrous, the underlying failure to acknowledge that this tragedy specifically targeted queer and trans people of color has been reinforced by mainstream media and politicians across the political spectrum. This erasure is dangerous. It divides marginalized groups and serves to distract attention from the root causes of American violence and inequality. It's up to us to counter this narrative. Silence in the face of the status quo is complicity. As the death toll of those killed by white supremacy, toxic masculinity and homophobic hate continues to mount every day, we cannot afford to be silent. Advertisement Like all members of the LGBT community, I awoke a week ago Sunday stunned at the news from Orlando. And as I tried to piece my emotions together, I realized I was feeling something I hadn't felt since the morning that the Challenger exploded, way back in 1986: slapped in the face by a reality that had always been a possibility but that I had stopped worrying about because everything was going so well. Just as I had on that horrific day my first reaction was stunned catatonia: I sat staring at news stories, trying to fathom the immensity of it, trying to understand, as if one can understand horror and hatred. It had been just the previous Thursday when I stood scant feet from President Obama as he delivered his eighth LGBT Pride Reception address, a beautiful few hours in the White House spent meeting LGBT folks from all over who were there to do what I was there to do: celebrate the incredible gains that we've made under this administration. The conversations there were full of hope and promise and not whether but when. Could that have been just that Thursday? Two days before the universe collapsed? In 1986, I must have watched that endless loop of the shuttle exploding a hundred times. There was a teacher on board. A teacher like me from New Hampshire, where I grew up. It was personal. It was too much to handle. It was too much to believe. Advertisement It was a different world. Sunday, I didn't need video to confirm the stories. The scene has become sickeningly familiar to us all. And yes, it's still very personal. I'm not young-obviously, if I remember the Challenger-and I am not Latina, but in a different life I might have been someone who went to a club like Pulse. I'm transgender. I like enjoying life. And 100+ young LGBT people who had gone to do just that were mowed down because...why? The shooter hated them? He was a self-loathing closeted gay man? He was a secretly radicalized Muslim who really hated the fact that he was gay and somehow blamed all LGBT people for it? What? Catatonia slowly turned to deep sadness. I read stories about the victims: two men who were to be married who will now instead be buried; a soldier who had challenged the insane DADT rule; a young nurse who will never be able to fulfill her promise; students, dancers, single parents, journalists, salespeople, beauticians, Disney World employees, out of towners just there for fun... so hard to read. So many lives, so senseless. So horrible. And then deep sadness morphed to plain old anger. It started when I began thinking about how the news was reporting this tragedy. The more they didn't say "LGBT," the angrier I grew. The more they latched onto the "radical Islam" angle and called it "terrorism" instead of a hate crime, the more my anger ignited. The more I saw people sharing sympathetic memes and rainbow ribbons on facebook-people whom I know to be NRA supporters and therefore complicit in the fact that this guy could legally purchase a military-grade weapon at a shopping plaza gun store without even any needed background check-the more my anger started becoming fury. The more I started hearing that this was about Islamic hatred and we needed to get rid of the Muslims, as if it were not the Christian right in THIS country that fosters the environment that gave this shooter the notion that LGBT people are somehow lesser and are valid as targets and that if he, in fact, is one, he should hate himself, the more that fury became livid. Advertisement The President said-as he has said so many times now that he might as well play a recording- that we need to decide what kind of country we are. That's the problem: we have decided. We are a country that doesn't care if gunmen, every couple of months or so, blow away large groups of businesspeople, gay people, medical people, moviegoers, or even school children, because we need to hold on to our precious right to own what are, in civilian terms, weapons of mass destruction. That is who we are. Or anyway, that is who the cowards who populate Congress are, as they showed us once again on Monday night, voting down two easy-to-take gun laws even though they had about 90% support from the populace. And I am utterly enraged about it. Because I thought we were finally safe, you know? I thought that all of the asinine laws that the GOP keeps passing were the last, worst gasps of a dying breed of dinosaur passing out of existence. I had forgotten that within all of the ugliness that the right espouses also lies the real potential for actual violence. Until now. In 1986, no one was even watching the launch of the Challenger. Such launches had become so easy and routine that, as I said, they were sending civilians up. Only the brand new 24-hour CNN, with nothing else to fill its time, covered the launch live. And only they had the video that immediately (in 2016 parlance) went viral. It was a huge event not only because of its inherent newsworthiness, but because of its shattering of a kind of innocence: suddenly we were all reminded, so violently, of what some part of us of course already knew: the dangers inherent to space travel. The Pulse atrocity has reminded us, so violently, of the dangers inherent to being LGBT in this country. Where we had started to become a bit complacent -- overconfident after so many victories, maybe? -- now we once more need to look over our shoulders. Where two gay men kissing in the street was starting to feel (as it should) just fine, now, thanks to this shooter, it will come with the shadow of what if there's someone like that guy watching? Where many of us gather together, there will always be slight trepidation. Because that is the kind of country America is. This evening 5 African women, including the much-celebrated Lupita Nyongo , will command the stage at the Golden Theater on Broadway as they have for the past many weeks. Their final moving performance will transport the audience to the makeshift camps and traumatized villages and towns of Liberia, where civil war spilled into homes and destroyed the lives of thousands of civilians. You will meet a peace activist; young girls used as sex slaves; upper class Liberian women and poor village women; and fierce female guerillas determined to use guns to assert their power. You will sit on the edge of your seat, hardly daring to breathe as you are immersed in a war that took place not so long ago. A war in which women's bodies were brutalized, enslaved, used as vessels of shame, as instruments of salvation, and exploited in every fashion. You will be reminded that Liberia is closely, deeply, unmistakeably linked with the United States and you will be ashamed that you cannot find Monrovia on a map, nor recall when Charles Taylor's violent autocratic rule came to an end. You may not have any idea that it was Liberian women who brought that reign of terror and the civil war between the dictator Taylor and the increasingly murderous LURD rebels to an end. Few of you may have watched the brilliant film by Abby Disney and Gini Reticker Pray the Devil Back to Hell that recounts how both Muslim and Christian Liberian women came together to challenge and defeat the violence in their land by wearing white and protesting by putting their bodies on the line. But for us in the global women's movement, Eclipsed is something else. It is both Herstory on stage and Herstory in practice. It is the reminder of the power, beauty and sacrifice of women's rights defenders in the midst of war, in the midst of brutality, in the midst of despair. It is a song of praise for the creativity and courage that women find whether they are grassroots activists, founders of non-profits, playwrights, actors, producers or directors. Eclipsed is the first ALL BLACK, ALL WOMEN production on Broadway ever. EVER. It seems fitting that among the actors is Akosua Busia, the sister of a founding member of the African Women's Development Fund, one of the first to support Nobel Peace Prize winner Leymah Gbowee's nascent peacewomen movement along with the Global Fund for Women. These early investments of "risk capital" made it possible for Leymah and her amazing band of peacewagers to keep going, to pay for tickets to Ghana to keep the pressure on LURD and Taylor when the negotiations seemed about to fail; to provide shelter for women and children displaced by the war. This is what women's philanthropy and the women's funding movement are all about. Women's funds like the New York Women's Foundation and the Ms. Foundation for Women and many others try to stretch their limited funds between grassroots activism and support for emerging artists, writers, poets, and filmmakers, providing them with access to retreats, training, and career development opportunities long before they go on to become the accomplished performers you will get to see in Eclipsed. Those resources are scarce and often scattered. Playwrights like Danai Gurira and directors like Liesl Tommy are a rare thing on Broadway - Black African Women running their own show. In a 21st century world we need many many more such leaders of change. Private philanthropy needs to follow the lead of women's funds and make sure we support diverse voices and talent in the arts and in civil society across the globe. Together we could ensure women are not eclipsed by the forces of discrimination and bias but are telling and making Herstory that liberates and illuminates all our lives. On June 22, 1941, Adolf Hitler's Nazi army stormed through the Soviet Union in a surprise attack that should have been anything but a surprise. The blitzkrieg started in the middle of the night and set into motion a chain of events that would result in millions of people dead. It was well coordinated, well planned, but not necessarily well thought out. "I danced my last dance on the 21st of June." Marina Fedorevna looked at me with tears in her eyes and described those first days of war. The confusion and horror and fear were still very real to her, though decades had passed. Advertisement Marina and I met in Ukraine in April 2003. She shared her story with me slowly, taking her time to remember each detail. "June 21st was our last day of school, and we had a party. I danced with a young man named Maxim. He was to begin attending the University in the fall, but I still had one more year of primary school before I could join him. Instead of going to University, however, he went to war. He died before the year ended. "I still remember the sound of the bombs falling in the night. It was a terrible sound, and we didn't know what was happening. I was young, of course, and I knew nothing of politics. I knew there was a war in Europe, but I didn't know that the danger would come to us. I was surprised. Many of us were surprised." When Marina got up on the morning of June 22, 1941, her entire life was changed. Her country was now at war, and she would lose two brothers and many friends to that war. She herself would take part in the fight through her local partisan group, battling against the Germans with tricks and underground operations. Advertisement "We were innocent on June 21st," Marina told me. "But on June 22nd, we were no longer children. I danced my last dance on the 21st of June." This week marks 75 years since the Germans launched their blitzkrieg across the Soviet Union. In the course of those five years, an estimated 26,000,000 Soviets died, 6.8 million of them from Ukraine alone. The Germans would ultimately lose the Soviet Union, underestimating the Red Army's resilience, the frigid temperatures they would face, and the power of the alliance struck between the USSR, the United States, and Great Britain. In those days, the world had a common enemy, and that threat was enough to unite us against it. The Tripartite Pact brought Germany, Italy, and Japan together in a shared quest to establish a new world order, and the rest of the world was forced to respond. This was a war of ideology, and the results were catastrophic. I spent ten years studying and researching the effects of World War II on the former Soviet Union, with a particular focus on Soviet Ukraine. How did those events collide in such a way as to leave such a devastating mark? Advertisement On Monday, June 27 the culmination of all those years of research, of the countless interviews I conducted with former Soviet World War II survivors, comes to fruition with the release of my novel, Like a River From Its Course.* Based on true stories, Like a River From Its Course gives a glimpse into one of the most tragic periods in history through stories the world hasn't heard before. These are stories of heartache and grief, of love, pain, and redemption. Hailed as "gritty and touching" by Publisher's Weekly, Like a River From Its Course is more than just a set of stories. It is history come to life, here to remind us of what it means to stand up in the face of evil and refuse to give in. In an increasingly volatile world, it's important to look at the past and to learn from it. If history has taught us anything, it's that the struggle for freedom is one that will never end. Though the enemy we face today is complex and different than that of the past, what is clear is that they want to bring the fight to our borders. This cannot be allowed. The events in Orlando are a wake up call, reminding us to be ever vigilant because we are not immune to attack. The history of 75 years ago begs us to learn - to remember. May we not dance on the memories of the past. Kelli Stuart is the author of Like a River From Its Course, an epic story of war, love, grief, and redemption set in World War II Soviet Ukraine. (Kregel Publications, June 2016) Advertisement BERLIN, GERMANY - JUNE 18: A mourner attends a vigil for victims of a shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida nearly a week earlier, in front of the United States embassy on June 18, 2016 in Berlin, Germany. Fifty people were killed and at least as many injured during a Latin music event at the Pulse club in the worst terror attack in the U.S. since 9/11. The American-born gunman had pledged allegiance to ISIS, though officials have yet to find conclusive evidence of his having any direct connection with foreign extremists. The incident has added fuel to the ongoing debate about gun control in the country. (Photo by Adam Berry/Getty Images) Maarten Boudry argues that religion and religion alone motivates ISIS and ISIS-like extremists to violence. He claims (without citation) that other factors, "socio-economic disenfranchisement, unemployment, troubled family backgrounds, discrimination and racism," have been "repeatedly refuted." Thinking that religion plays any lesser motivational role is, he claims, "a dramatic failure of imagination." Since the claim that religion plays a lesser motivational role in extremist violence is empirically well-supported, I think Boudry's claim is "a dramatic failure of imagination." Moreover, I think it's dangerously uninformed. Advertisement In this essay, I'll explain why this claim is uniformed. In the followup, I'll explain why it's dangerous. You can read my argument in its entirety here. It's easy to think that the troubles in Ireland were religious because, you know, Protestant vs. Catholic. But giving the sides religious names hides the real sources of conflict--discrimination, poverty, imperialism, autonomy, nationalism and shame; no one in Ireland was fighting over theological doctrines such as transubstantiation or justification (they probably couldn't explain their theological differences). It's easy to think that the Bosnian genocide of 40,000 Muslims was motivated by Christian commitment (the Muslim victims were killed by Christian Serbs). But these convenient monikers ignore (a) how shallow post-Communist religious belief was and, more importantly, (b) such complex causes as class, land, ethnic identity, economic disenfranchisement, and nationalism. It's also easy to think that members of ISIS and al-Qaeda are motivated by religious belief, but... Blaming such behaviors on religion commits the fundamental attribution error: attributing the cause of behavior to internal factors such as personality characteristics or dispositions, while minimizing or ignoring external, situational factors. As an example: if I'm late, I attribute my tardiness to an important phone call or heavy traffic, but if you're late I attribute it to a (single) character flaw (you are irresponsible) and ignore possible external contributing causes. So, when Arabs or Muslims commit an act of violence we instantly believe that it's due to their radical faith, all the while ignoring possible and even likely contributing causes. Let's look at some examples. Within minutes of Omar Mateen's massacre of gays in Orlando, before learning that he had pledged allegiance to ISIS during the attack, he was labeled a terrorist. Pledging fealty to ISIS sealed the deal for most people - he was a terrorist, motivated by radical Islam. If a white (Christian) man kills 10 people, he's crazy. If a Muslim does, he's a terrorist, motivated by exactly one thing - his extremist faith. Advertisement Yet, Mateen was, by all counts, a violent, angry, abusive, disruptive, alienated, racist, American, male, homophobe. He was likely bi-polar. With easy access to guns. According to his wife and father, he wasn't very religious. His multiple pledges of allegiance to warring factions such as ISIS, Al Qaeda and Hezbollah suggest that he knew little of any ideology or theology. The CIA and FBI have found no connection with ISIS. Mateen was a hateful, violent, (mostly) irreligious homophobe who killed 50 people on "Latin Night" at the club. While the structure of motivation for Mateen is murky, it would be bizarre to elevate his religious beliefs (such as they were) to some special motivational status. Mohammad Atta, leader of the 9-11 attacks, left a suicide note indicating his fealty to Allah: So remember God, as He said in His book: 'Oh Lord, pour your patience upon us and make our feet steadfast and give us victory over the infidels.' And His words: 'And the only thing they said Lord, forgive our sins and excesses and make our feet steadfast and give us victory over the infidels.' And His prophet said: 'Oh Lord, You have revealed the book, You move the clouds, You gave us victory over the enemy, conquer them and give us victory over them.' Give us victory and make the ground shake under their feet. Pray for yourself and all your brothers that they may be victorious and hit their targets and ask God to grant you martyrdom facing the enemy, not running away from it, and for Him to grant you patience and the feeling that anything that happens to you is for Him. Surely we should take Atta at his word. Yet Atta (along with his fellow terrorists) seldom attended mosque, partied almost nightly, was a heavy drinker, snorted cocaine, and ate pork chops. Hardly the stuff of Muslim submission. When his stripper girlfriend ended their relationship, he broke into her apartment and killed her cat and kittens, disemboweling and dismembering them and then distributing their body parts throughout the apartment for her to find later. Makes Atta's suicide note seems more like reputation management than pious confession. Or maybe it was a desperate hope that his actions would attain some sort of cosmic significance that his otherwise insignificant life lacked. When Lydia Wilson, a research fellow at the Centre for the Resolution of Intractable Conflict at Oxford University, recently conducted field research with ISIS prisoners, she found them "woefully ignorant of Islam" and unable to answer questions about "Sharia law, militant jihad, and the caliphate." Not surprising then that when wannabe jihadists Yusuf Sarwar and Mohammed Ahmed were caught boarding a plane in England authorities discovered in their luggage Islam for Dummies and The Koran for Dummies. In the same article, Erin Saltman, senior counter-extremism researcher at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, says that "Recruitment [of ISIS] plays upon desires of adventure, activism, romance, power, belonging, along with spiritual fulfillment." Advertisement England's MI5's behavioral science unit, in a report leaked to the Guardian, revealed that, "far from being religious zealots, a large number of those involved in terrorism do not practise their faith regularly. Many lack religious literacy and could . . . be regarded as religious novices." Indeed, the report argued, "a well-established religious identity actually protects against violent radicalization." Why would England's MI5 think that religion plays virtually no role in extremism? Boudry is half-right about those "other factors." There is no single, well-established profile of terrorists. Some are poor, some are not. Some are unemployed, some are not. Some are poorly educated, some are not. Some are culturally isolated, some are not. Nonetheless, these sorts of external factors, while neither necessary nor jointly sufficient, do contribute to radicalization in some people under certain circumstances. Each extremist has his or her own unique socio-psychological profile (which makes their identification nearly impossible). In parts of Africa, with sky-high unemployment rates for 18 to 34-year-olds, ISIS targets the unemployed and impoverished; ISIS offers a steady paycheck, meaningful employment, food for their families, and an opportunity to strike back at those viewed as economic oppressors. In Syria many recruits join ISIS solely to topple the vicious Assad regime; liberated criminals find ISIS a convenient place to hide from their past. Palestinians are motivated by the dehumanization of living as disempowered second-class citizens in an apartheid state. In Europe and America, where most of the recruits are young men who are educated and middle class, cultural isolation is factor number one in driving Muslims to extremism. Young, alienated Muslims are attracted by slick media that offer adventure and glory to their tedious and marginalized lives. German Muslims are motivated by adventure and alienation. Long gone are the days of listening to boring and monotonous Osama bin Laden sermons. ISIS's highly-skilled recruiters use social media and personal contact (through the internet) to create personal and communal bonds of otherwise disaffected Muslims who are then enticed to leave their mundane and meaningless lives and fight together for a noble cause. That is, they are motivated by a sense of belonging and a quest for human significance. Advertisement One might think that dreams of afterlife virgins are especially conducive to violence. But as far as some greater good goes, just about any ideology will do. Indeed, non-religious ideologies in the 20th century caused vastly more suffering and death than all of the religiously-motivated violence in human history combined. Adolf Hitler's Germany killed more than 10,000,000 innocent people, while WWII saw the deaths of 60,000,000 people (with many more deaths attributable to war-related disease and famine). The purges and famines under Joseph Stalin's regime killed millions. Estimates of Mao Zedong's death toll range from 40,000,000-80,000,000. The current fashion of blaming religion ignores the staggering death toll of secular ideologies. Once human beings feel like they belong to a group, they will do anything, even commit atrocities, for their brothers and sisters in the group. I have a friend who fought for the US in Iraq. He and his mates grew increasingly cynical of the US mission in Iraq. Although he was no longer ideologically committed to US goals, he told me that he would have done anything, even sacrificed his own life, for members of his group. This dynamic increases if one is able to disidentify with and dehumanize those who are not in one's group. Anthropologist Scott Atran, who has spoken with more terrorists and their families than any Western scholar, concurs. In testimony to the US senate in 2010, he said, "What inspires the most lethal terrorists in the world today is not so much the Quran or religious teachings as a thrilling cause and call to action that promises glory and esteem in the eyes of friends, and through friends, eternal respect and remembrance in the wider world." Jihad, he said, is "thrilling, glorious and cool." Oxford's Harvey Whitehouse directed an international team of distinguished scholars on the motivations of extreme self-sacrifice. They found that violent extremism isn't motivated by religion, it is motivated by fusion with the group. There is no psychological profile of today's terrorist. They are not crazy, they are often well-educated and many are relatively well off. They are motivated, like many young people, by a sense of belonging, a desire for an exciting and meaningful life, and devotion to a higher cause. Extremist ideology, while not a non-factor, is typically low on the list of motivations. Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton pauses as she speaks at a campaign rally in Cleveland, Ohio June 13, 2016. REUTERS/Aaron Josefczyk When Barack Obama became the first African-American president of the United States, the thin facade of American tolerance was ripped away and the ugly underbelly of racism that lurked just beneath the surface was exposed. It was evident all over social media. There were viral memes and graphics depicting our president in ways I won't even describe, because they were so awful. I'll just say there were gun targets, nooses, watermelons, and other inflammatory, racist images. Oddly, the Supreme Court decided that racism no longer existed and they gutted the Voting Rights Act, deleting Section 4's pre-clearance language, which disenfranchised a hell of a lot of non-white folks. Advertisement If Hillary Clinton wins in November, incidents of sexism and misogyny will not fall by the wayside; they'll ascend to new heights (or descend to new depths). And the funny-not-funny thing of it is the sexist misogynists will insist that there's no more sexism and misogyny. They'll be more than happy to explain it to you, too. They'll beat you over the head with it until you want to fucking scream. And that's their goal. They want you to scream and yell; and then they'll call you hysterical and unreasonable. Because in their archaic minds, their male-dominant superiority will be confirmed. The sexists will make any and every attempt to quell the feminist army, who will refuse to live under the mistaken belief that everything is 100 percent equal. And when I say feminist army, I'm not describing an army of women; I'm describing an army of women and men who get it. We get that rape culture exists, and it needs to be eradicated. We get that women (and men) do not have constitutional protection against gender discrimination. We get that a woman president won't mean automatic gender equality -- in fact, we get that it will agitate the sexists just as much as a black president agitated racists. And the sexists will protest. They'll be loud, obnoxious and they'll firmly believe they have the moral high ground. In other words, America will begin to resemble a feminist Facebook page, complete with brigades of trolls, mansplainers and mansplaining trolls. Unfortunately, I was unable to find the clip from an Oprah show where feminist icon Gloria Steinem talked about pay inequality -- an obvious crime against 1950s fan-fiction -- which upset a sexist man in the audience. The conversation between Steinem and the man went something like this: Advertisement STEINEM: If women do the same work as men, they should earn the same salary. MAN IN AUDIENCE: You're being ridiculous, and it sounds like you want women to have more power than men. STEINEM: We don't want more power, we're fighting for the same seat at the table men have. We don't want more, we want an equal amount. MAN IN AUDIENCE: All I hear is that you want to dominate men! This is the kind of bullshit that will happen with greater frequency with a woman president, and it will be maddening. It will make some feminists feel as if we are losing the battle -- and due to the fact that the sexists will be so driven to win, they'll be unrelenting. They'll twist words and meanings so much your head will spin. This will be their goal. They will argue and argue and argue. They'll exhaust and frustrate you in an effort to wear you down. The saddest part of all of this is that many of these sexists will use the fact that they vote for Democrats as proof they are not sexist. They will argue that they are progressive and, because of their self-imposed label, we should all calm down, take a pause from our hysterical, uppity demands and just let them explain it to us -- because they know better. When we reject their form of "enlightenment," the progressive sexists will take on a calm, morally superior posture in an effort to make us look and feel unhinged, and then they will declare they are finished with the conversation. If you dare to keep it going and call them out, they will have one more reply before they walk away or block you. Can you guess what it'll be? C'mon, it's not that difficult to figure out - they'll peg you as a man-hater, and then they will disappear into the valley of I know Better Than You. One day, maybe very soon, America will have a woman president, and the sexists are going to revolt. It's going to be ugly. It's going to spike your blood pressure and induce raging heartburn. Please keep in mind that while it may feel as if the sexists will never get it, remember two things: growing pains often accompany progress, and eventually the sexists will die off. Obviously, there will always be some form of sexism (because some people have to be asses). Younger generations will have a more evolved approach toward gender issues and equality will prevail. It always does. The morally superior 'splainer sexists can go fuck themselves. Advertisement Terrorist written newspaper, shallow dof, real newspaper. ANADOLU AGENCY VIA GETTY IMAGES Nepalese People, Be Calm And Patience! The news that 14 Nepalese have been killed in the terrorist attack has shocked everyone in Nepal and many are reacting with grief and sorrow on Facebook and other social medias. This attack is reminding the execution of the 12 Nepalese workers in Iraq. Nepalese are reacting with grief at the news that terrorists have killed 14 Nepalese security guards in Kabul. They were killed in an attack on a minibus. The minibus was carrying Nepalese security guards in Kabul. It was the first attack in the capital since the start of the holy fasting month of Ramadan two weeks ago. Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attack on a minibus. Advertisement The news that 14 Nepalese have been killed in the terrorist attack has shocked everyone in Nepal and many are reacting with grief and sorrow on Facebook and other social medias. This attack is reminding the execution of the 12 Nepalese workers in Iraq. Islamic militants in Iraq had killed Twelve Nepalese hostages in 2004. Nepalese workers kidnapped by Islamist extremists were murdered in the biggest mass killing of hostages. The news was received with anger and grief in Nepal and thousands of angry demonstrators took to the streets of Kathmandu. This time, everything is under control. Nepalese people should show patience because history has already proved that the reaction with anger and riot is harmful. But it's not only time to express grief and sorrow; but also time to be more unified against global terrorism. Terrorism doesn't have any nationality. Terrorists can kill any national around the world and everybody is under threat. It is not just an attack on Kabul; it is an attack on all humanity. This is why all Nepalese around the world should stand strongly for humanity. Nepal lacks a law specifically criminalizing terrorism or material support to terrorist networks. In response to an act of terrorism, Nepali courts would prosecute the perpetrators on the basis of laws pertaining to murder or arson. At this point, the government of Nepal should rethink about national policy and law against terrorism. At this point, the government of Nepal should rethink about national policy and law against terrorism. Because South Asia is at high risk of terrorism and Nepal could be a safe heaven. Nepal has experienced no significant acts of international terrorism yet. However, Nepalese are losing lives in Iraq and Afghanistan in terrorist attacks. Advertisement As Country Reports on Terrorism 2015 said, Nepal lacks a law specifically criminalizing terrorism or material support to terrorist networks. In response to an act of terrorism, Nepali courts would prosecute the perpetrators on the basis of laws pertaining to murder or arson, for example. Most Nepali officials view Nepal as being at no or low risk for an international terrorist incident on Nepali soil. Nepal has limited ability to process modern forms of evidence. An open border with India and relatively weak airport security is increasing the risk that international terrorists could use Nepal as a transit or staging point. Nepal should make a proper law criminalizing terrorism and should be aware of the risk that terrorists could use Nepal as a staging point. Otherwise, Nepalese could lose their lives not only in Iraq or Afghanistan because of terrorist attacks but also in Nepal too. CO-AUTHORS: Hana Abu Hassan: Dr Abu-Hassan works in the UK and Jordan. In Jordan, her country of origin, she holds an academic post at the School of Medicine, University of Jordan, where she conducts research and teaches both medical students and Family Medicine residents. She also works at a Family Medicine clinic based at Jordan University Hospital which covers patients in the capital Amman and those commuting for healthcare to Amman from the outskirts or other rural areas.In the UK, she is a self-employed GP and works between different GP surgeries in London, Hampshire and Jersey. In addition to her work at the University of Jordan and in the UK, Dr Abu-Hassan works with refugee populations pro bono in both Jordan and Greece. [hana.hani@gmail.com] Lucy Waterfield: Lucy is a UK trained doctor with an MBBS from University College London and three years post-graduate experience working in the NHS. With a Diploma in Medical Care of Catastrophes (refugee health focus) as well as a Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, Dr. Waterfield has taken time out of training to work with the SAMS Global Response in Greece. [lucywaterfield@me.com] Those of us working on the ground with Syrian refugees understand that their stories remain with us long after we hear them. Now thousands of miles away, the harrowing stories of adversity we heard last week from Syrian refugees while on a medical mission with the Syrian American Medical Society Foundation on the border of Greece and Macedonia repeat uninterruptedly in our minds. Advertisement Shireen, 7 years old, lost both parents while crossing the Mediterranean Sea to Lesvos. Before she and her family made the journey, Shireen was told to wait for her parents on the shore in case they got separated. When rescue workers found her, she was speaking to her teddy bear, Luna, about her parents. She refused to leave the shore for 5 days, believing her parents were still coming. "Daddy and mommy are just swimming slowly, Luna. I am going to see them again very soon." Today, she is one of thousands of unaccompanied minors in Greece, some of whom refuse to believe that their parents have died. Mohammad, 35 years old, was a nurse in Syria before he escaped to Greece. Last week, he, his wife, and his 1-year-old girl left one of the camps on the Greece-Macedonia border to be smuggled into Macedonia. Several miles away from there, police officers heard the daughter's cry and sent the family back to the camp. Next week, Mohammad is paying to be smuggled in the opposite direction: back to Turkey. "All Syrian refugees here have died several times already. We died when we left our home and our families in Syria. We died when we literally crossed the world on our feet to get to Turkey. We died on the way to Lesvos. The worst death of all, however, is the slow one experienced right now in this camp- where we are expected to merely eat and sleep without any understanding of what will happen to us tomorrow. I would rather go back to war in Syria than be treated like this in Greece." Dalal, 23 years old, lives with her husband in a camp and is active on social media. "I saw on Facebook that people are talking about an animal killed somewhere in the world and how that's been one of the most important pieces of news. I think if we were animals, the world would care more about us. Because as humans, the world has demonstrated over and over again that we do not matter. Europeans do not want us. We are not worthy enough to be humans in Europe." Advertisement There are close to 57,000 refugees in Greece of whom a proportion live near the border of Macedonia. The misconception is that these refugees were able to escape harrowing adversity, war, and persecution to achieve stability and peace in Greece. That said, Syrians on the border reiterate that the worst part of the journey thus far has been their experience in Greece. Denied sufficient medical and psychological attention, denied sufficient amounts of food after long days of fasting Ramadan, denied opportunities for jobs and education, refugees stuck on the border of Greece and Macedonia have been denied basic human rights. Sonia Menon is the Chief Operating Officer at Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg LLP, a Chicago based law firm with over 140 lawyers, where she oversees the management of the day-to-day operations of the firm, including human resources, knowledge management, marketing, facilities, records and space planning. She is responsible for the design and implementation of talent management initiatives and operating policies for lawyers and staff. She provides strategic advice to the firm's leadership on the development of policies and procedures and works to ensure that the recruitment, development, advancement and diversity policies and programs are aligned to support the firm's strategic agenda. Ms. Menon is an active member of the firm's Women's Network, Pro Bono and Diversity Committees, developing new initiatives to enhance the advancement and retention of women and minority lawyers. As a certified practitioner of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, Ms. Menon conducts training workshops for leadership development, team building and management development. Ms. Menon has been a featured speaker on subjects relating to law firm economics and profitability, competency talent management, recruiting strategies, diversity and inclusion, career planning and alternate career models. She is an active member of NALP, and most recently served as the chair of NALP's 2015 annual educational conference. Ms. Menon is also actively involved with SHRM, HRMAC, ALA, the Chicago Committee on Minorities in Large Law Firms and the Professional Development Consortium in Chicago. Ms. Menon graduated in 1988 with an honors degree in Psychology. Advertisement How has your life experience made you the leader you are today? Over the course of my life, I have lived on three different continents and in essence, very different cultures. I was born in England and spent my early childhood in London. Our family moved back to India, and I attended college in Mumbai. Upon graduation, I returned to London and started building my career there. And then, 19 years ago, I moved to America. Each place I have called home has its unique cultural norms and values that influence every aspect of life, from how we interact with strangers, to how we build a social life, to how we conduct business. While each move brought apprehension over how I would build relationships, integrate into a new community and succeed, it has been exciting to learn new things, keep an open mind, and draw unreservedly from my very diverse experiences. I learned to embrace change as a constant and an opportunity, rather than an obstacle. This has greatly influenced who I am today as a leader. Through inclusive and intentional leadership, I allow myself to stay flexible and guide my organization to stay relevant, evolve and thrive in this constantly changing environment. As a leader, I focus on building teams that bring diverse perspectives and experiences to the table and where individuals are comfortable challenging each other and the status quo. How has your previous employment experience aided your position at Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg? Throughout my career, I have been interested in human behavior and how I can contribute to an organization's success by improving the satisfaction, performance and well-being of its employees. Advertisement With an academic background in organizational psychology, I started my career interning with a psychologist, conducting research on the use of psychometric testing in the hiring process. I came to understand the importance of "fit" both for the individual being hired and the culture of the organization. The challenge of finding this "fit" was fascinating to me, and led me to the world of search firms. I loved the opportunity to learn about an organization's business and culture and then challenge myself to find the right individual for their needs, not just in terms of qualifications and experience, but almost more importantly, the philosophical and cultural fit. At Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg LLP, human capital is our most valuable asset. Finding people who are qualified to do the work, and who also genuinely like our environment and want to stay and advance throughout their careers, is the most rewarding experience for me. My one detour from talent management was a three-year stint with the Hilton group of hotels in London. I was very fortunate to have a terrific mentor who taught me everything I needed to know about the business operations of a hotel. As a revenue generator it was important for me to understand the business, and about business development. It was fascinating to learn about the hospitality industry, business projections, forecasting and budgeting. That experience and training has translated into every other role and held me in good stead. In my current role, I have the unique opportunity to draw on all of these experiences, in efficiently and cost effectively managing the operations of our law firm, and more importantly, managing our talent. What have the highlights and challenges been during your tenure at Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg? Before I came to Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg LLP I found it challenging to stay at an organization for more than three years - I got bored if I was not stretched in my role. Fifteen years later at Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg LLP, and every day is still a new challenge. I get to work with very smart individuals, and have been presented with interesting and somewhat daunting challenges in my various roles at the firm. Each day that I come to work, I am reminded of what a special place the firm is. It is extremely rewarding when that sentiment is echoed by individuals you hired who sincerely appreciate the culture and the people. My first role as Director of Professional Recruitment and Development was very gratifying because I got to see how excited law students were to accept an offer from the firm, and then watched and helped as they thrived and developed as lawyers. My job was "cradle to grave". I was involved in our attorneys' development and advancement from the time they were law students all the way through their progression to partner, to helping them gradually transition out of active practice. Advertisement The ability to be creative in my strategic approach has been a privilege and a highlight for me. As a single office law firm, I am fortunate to have access to all the key decision makers. Our leaders have always placed a premium on exceptional quality and a true commitment to client service, and we are encouraged and challenged to innovate and try new progressive approaches to problem-solving every day. The huge shifts in the practice and business of law in the last decade challenged us to stay true to our identity and vision, while providing the same level of individualized support to our clients, and remaining fiscally sound. We have the benefit of being nimble as a smaller firm, to adjust course and capitalize on new, innovative and cost-effective ways of delivering legal services as a trusted advisor to our clients. While the legal industry is still in a state of change, this has provided us with an exciting opportunity to focus on the future and our unique position in the market, our succession plan and strategy. What advice can you offer women who are seeking a leadership role? Do not try to fit someone else's mold, shape your own. It has always been important for me to stay true to myself, and to have courage in my convictions. Develop a leadership style that feels right to you and reflects who you are. Try new strategies, particularly those outside your comfort zone. You should be willing to take meaningful risks and to challenge the status quo. Women often talk about wanting a seat at the table. While I don't believe you need to wait to be asked, you do need to feel comfortable carrying the mantle of leadership, projecting confidence and most importantly, being well prepared so that you are viewed by others as a strategic thinker and thought leader. Don't be afraid to speak up and contribute your ideas, even if you are the only woman in the room. Standing out and speaking up can sometimes be difficult, but if you are prepared, it will be recognized and appreciated. Purposefully seek out meaningful opportunities that you are passionate about and that will allow you to stand out through your enthusiasm and excellence. Finally, don't forget to give back. Nurturing talent is a responsibility we all share, and in a leadership role it is important to be a role model and mentor to others. How do you maintain a work/life balance? I think balance is a deceptive word. I am not sure what it means to truly achieve balance, so what I strive for is harmony. I recognize that I will never be everything to everyone, but what is important to me is to pay attention to what balances and challenges me. My career is a very important part of who I am, and I need to recognize and respect that. It is equally important for me to be a good mother and wife, and so I strive to be truly present in each situation. When I am working that's what I am focused on, without feeling guilty about not spending more time with my family. When I am at home I am present and not pre-occupied with work. Also, rather than compartmentalizing the different aspects of my life, I try to create synergies that allow me to recognize how each experience impacts the other. I am fortunate to have a terrific husband who is very supportive of my career, and a very hands-on dad. I have a wonderful relationship with my teenage daughter, and even with my busy schedule, we are always able to spend quality time together and have fun. I don't try to live by others' standards or riddle myself with guilt for not baking homemade cookies for a school event. Rather, I decide what's truly important to me and my family and focus on achieving those things. Advertisement What do you think is the biggest issue for women in the workplace? While we still have many issues in the business world as it relates to equality of pay, the glass ceiling, and the lack of gender diversity in leadership, it is more useful for me to focus on issues that women can influence by helping themselves in the workplace. I think women need to give themselves permission to value their careers, to speak up, and not be so apologetic. Women too often try to be perfect at everything, both at home and at work. This is an unrealistic expectation, and as a result of this high bar that we set for ourselves, we end up letting someone down, often ourselves. We need to stop beating ourselves up, and realizing that while excellence in the things that matter to us is a worthwhile goal, perfection is not. Rather than let tradition or circumstance dictate your future, women must be more fearless in standing up for their ideas and taking credit for their accomplishments. We need to be willing to be disruptive and challenge the status quo. Women have a particularly hard time with this. I think this is because there is often a gap between their actual competence and their self-confidence. I too often come across women who are so much better than their own image of themselves. Business is a mental game and self-confidence and projecting that confidence, is a significant part of being successful. How has mentorship made a difference in your professional and personal life? I have been very fortunate to have terrific mentors through my life, both male and female. My parents, both of whom have been true role models to me, instilled the importance of integrity, respect and hard work early in my life. My mother taught me to be bold and fearless, while my father guided me to be effective within the constraints of the business world. My mother never felt the need to conform to any norms that the traditional Indian family and societal structure imposed. She often took on very non-traditional roles in her professional life, from starting and running a successful investment company to becoming the sole agent for a Scotch whiskey brand in India. She was never afraid to go outside her comfort zone and always encouraged me to be a zealous advocate for what I believed in. This gave me the confidence to grow up believing that I always had a seat at the table if I wanted it. My father, who was a successful corporate executive for an international pharmaceutical company, gave me a view into the workings, often political, of modern business. He taught me the need to be strategic, to think about how to be most effective in the long term, and how to bridge cultural gaps for the benefit of the company and its stakeholders. Advertisement Right from the beginning at Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg LLP, senior leaders at the firm have been generous with their time and willingness to guide me through my career. While I have not been part of any formal mentoring program, different people have supported me along the way, whether through the innovative leadership of our managing partner who encourages me to be creative in my problem solving and think outside the box, or the wise counsel of a senior partner in navigating and managing the different personalities, each individual has had a significant and lasting impact on my outlook and developing my own authentic leadership style. Recognizing the impact great mentorship has had on my life, I make every effort to pay it forward. I enjoy helping others to discover their authentic selves and develop their careers, and watching them flourish and succeed gives me great joy. Which other female leaders do you admire and why? There are many women leaders, some more well-known than others, who have had a tremendous influence on my philosophy, leadership style and outlook. While it would be difficult to list all of these women, Melinda Gates' life captures many facets that I admire. Melinda had a successful career at Microsoft, took time out to focus on bringing up her children, and is now one of the most influential and powerful women globally as the co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. She has changed the way funders across the world think about effective philanthropy. Her strategy has not only been through very targeted campaigns, but she has directed her efforts on global goals through global collaboration, and has made the impact tangible and meaningful through sophisticated data-driven monitoring. Since I consider myself somewhat of a global citizen, her broad reach and business strategy are particularly appealing. Moreover, what speaks to me in particular is that much of her attention is focused on championing investments in girls and women around the world, including providing better access to funding for women in economically stricken areas. She has become a vocal advocate for access to contraception, and through this advocacy and aid her foundation is empowering women worldwide to decide whether and when to have children. This will have a lasting transformational effect on third world countries. Many leaders are driven by a desire for the limelight, but Melinda seems truly driven by the need to make the most out of her talents and opportunities to create positive outcomes. I relate very strongly to her approach and philosophy, and believe that leading is about influence and impact, not power. What do you want Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg to accomplish in the next year? This year is a milestone year for the firm as we celebrate our 30th anniversary. Reflecting on what this milestone means to me, I am reminded of the core values on which our firm was founded - our steadfast commitment to being true business partners with our clients, retaining the brightest legal talent, our culture of teamwork, and the importance of cultivating long-lasting relationships that are based on integrity and respect. As COO, I would like to see the firm remain true to its core values and identity as we grow in size and scope, while staying nimble and building on our unique market position. To further meet the changing needs of our clients the firm is exploring innovative and cost effective solutions, including value enhancing technology, sophisticated pricing strategies and creative staffing models. I look forward to shepherding the firm through this next exciting phase of growth and development. Today, more than 1,000 leaders from business, finance, civil society and academia will gather in the UN General Assembly Hall to kick off the 2016 UN Global Compact Leaders Summit. They come to the Summit with a better world on their minds and the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on their agendas. But this is not another sustainability conference. It is about the business activities and markets of the future. It is about inventing, developing and launching countless new ideas and solutions within a very short time period. In other words, the SDGs not only identify where we have to be in 2030 to create a sustainable world which leaves nobody behind, but they also outline new opportunities for companies all over the world. Advertisement The 17 goals represent one guide - a blueprint - for a sustainable way of life for all people on Earth. They are about hopes and dreams of a better future, which we can turn into reality together, if we so wish. And we do. The Leaders Summit is the first formal step on this journey - because we have the will, the capabilities and the power to do so. But it will only be possible if we build alliances and partnerships between businesses and all relevant stakeholders to demonstrate the huge potential of a values-driven market approach. It is all about connecting the best ideas and people, co-creating new solutions and communicating them to the world. That's why we launched our Making Global Goals Local Business campaign, which will be the priority for our organization over the next five years. The UN Global Compact is ready to be a leading catalyst of the transformation ahead and we will devote our capacities and global network to make it happen - based on the ten principles the UN Global Compact is built upon. Over the next two days at this Summit: We will focus on the key areas required to reach a new era of sustainability, including responsible business practices, transformative partnerships, breakthrough innovation and impact reporting. We will hear CEO and civil society voices calling for a new mindset to meet the world's ambitions for 2030. We will announce 10 Local SDG Pioneers with the goal of inspiring more individuals and companies around the world to follow their lead. We will host numerous leadership talks and opportunity sessions - all aimed to drive the business models, products, services and partnerships of tomorrow. The opportunities are huge, but time is short. We urge businesses worldwide to embark on this journey to 2030. We need pioneering corporate leaders and entrepreneurs who can build the sustainable societies of tomorrow - and we need them now. Let's make this movement big, strong and innovative. Let's make a difference. Oswaldo VIgas, Hieratica IV, 1971. Oil on canvas, 70.7 x 58.9 in. An international traveling museum retrospective of the late Venezuelan artist, Oswaldo Vigas' prolific life's work provides a rare opportunity to view the legacy of a modernist artist who shunned self-promotion. Yet, as his filmmaker son Lorenzo Vigas says, " he had a conviction in his own greatness." To shun promotion for the freedom to make the art that engrossed him, for sixty years, with an unshakeable conviction of gaining a place in history later, might seem like a contradiction in today's era of self-promotion. However, it really demonstrates the difference between internal and external motivation - a major topic in psychology today - which art critic Robert C. Morgan applies to art. When artists are too preoccupied with extrinsic rewards of fame and fortune in today's market-driven art world, they are in danger of losing touch with the intrinsic value of making art. But as history demonstrates, great talents are - and always will be - internally driven rather than externally driven by the demands of the art market. This makes Vigas' historic legacy interesting within contemporary discourse, because he is a reminder of the value of uncompromising internal motivation. I had the opportunity of viewing this remarkable touring retrospective Oswaldo Vigas: Antologica 1943-2013 at MAC, the Museu de Arte Contemporanea da Universidade de Sao Paulo (on view April 2 to July 3) and spending time with the organizers in Sao Paulo, Brazil. This exhibition also toured museums in Lima, Peru, Santiago, Chile and Bogota, Columbia and will tour institutions in the USA (although dates have yet to be finalized). The organizers' enthusiasm over paying homage to Vigas is infectious, making me reflect on the dangers of commodification of art - particularly after a fascinating discussion with Robert C. Morgan in Sao Paulo about his thesis (for a paper he was presenting) on the difference between inner-driven and outer-driven artists. Advertisement The traveling retrospective includes more than 60 paintings and many sculptures. It was organized by the Vigas Foundation, led by his son Lorenzo - an acclaimed filmmaker who recently won the Golden Lion for From Afar, a film about a father and son relationship - which shows the unconscious influence his father had on his own creativity. Currently, Lorenzo Vigas is completing a long-awaited film on his father's work. The exhibition organizers shared the ways in which they were personally touched by their relationship with the late artist in a museum panel discussion and informal discussions over lunches. Clearly, Vigas was larger than life and his largesse not only comes through his artwork but in the extraordinary lengths the Vigas Foundation and curators have taken to present his work in a way that invites a very personal response. Gallery Installation, CABINET 2, 2016 Photo courtesy of Fabio Zanzeri Vigas' work poses interesting challenges to a curator because Vigas transitions back and forth, from one period to another, and the curator must find a key to solve this puzzle which cannot be understood chronologically, since it is "lateral" as art critic Marek Bartelik says, because lines of interest cross over. Guest curator Katja Weitering, Artistic Director of the CoBrA Museum of Modern Art in Amsterdam, found the key by viewing his work as "chapters" which she says are "integrated in a very personal way" by the recurring motifs. She defines these chapters as: the human form, the use of mythology, the architectural approach and the free use of matter. She collaborated with Amsterdam interior architect Jowa Kis-Jovak who visualized her idea of five chapters as five cabinets. They have collaborated for several years at CoBrA Museum, because they both understand how much exhibition design supports curatorial vision. Exhibition design is usually either neglected or overwhelming, but Kis-Jovak's innovative design broke new ground. He uses diagonal dividing walls inside each cabinet to create two triangle spaces for works that need to be isolated. The design allows viewers to tour and detour, by walking down the exhibition one way and returning another way, viewing art works from different angles and re-visiting subjects, much as the artist himself worked. Vigas' collection of pre-Columbian and Japanese art, books and memorabilia - including photos with Picasso and other luminaries - are the heart of this exhibition design which tells the highly personal story of a great artist's life's work. Advertisement Vigas' trajectory is unique: as a mainly self-taught artist who began drawing at 16 years old and continued to make art while studying medicine. Right when he graduated as a doctor from the Central University of Venezuela in 1952, he won the prestigious Venezuelan National Fine Arts Prize and moved to Paris. He worked in Paris as a cultural attache for twelve years, making art and taking classes at Ecole Des Beaux Arts and the Sorbonne. Vigas was accepted into the heady mix of great artists who lived in Paris in the 1950s: Pablo Picasso, Max Ernst, Fernando Leger and Latin American artists Wilfredo Lam and Roberto Matta. Living and working around this explosion of artistic innovation, Vigas absorbed the dynamics in a non- academic way - as if through his pores - to find his own "visceral and irrational" language. Oswaldo Vigas, Gesticulante, 1976. Oil on canvas, 58.9 x 47.2 in. His characteristic mix of figuration and abstraction shows the clear influence of cubism, expressionism and constructivism, yet he always retained a distinctive flair for using fragments almost like fractals - which sets his work apart from his contemporaries. This use of fragments is also the crucial device of Vigas' oeuvre, that allows him to re-invent recurring themes throughout his long artistic career. Shapes are sometimes fragmented into geometric shapes and his images are often made of recomposed fragments. After living as a foreigner in Paris for over a decade, he returned to Venezuela in the 1960s and began to dig into his heritage to explore local pre-Hispanic art in Guajira Peninsula of northwest Venezuela, where native peoples still live. Vigas' son, Lorenzo Vigas, insists that " he was always sure of his identity, and "did not want to be comfortable, so he changed and did something different." The elder Vigas began studying the iconography and mythological beliefs behind the artifacts he found and collected as he searched for his roots. Oswaldo Vigas, Duende Rojo, 1979. Gouache on cardboard, 29.7 x 22.1 in. Figurative work was not appreciated in Paris at that time, but Vigas looked for non-European inspiration to reinvigorate figuration. He found a pre-Columbian female fertility figure that he could flatten, morphing her limbs into vegetation and covering her in minerals to create a new figuration. This atavistic rendition bridges what he absorbed in Paris with his own cultural heritage. Vigas transforms the Venus de Tacarigua fertility figures into archetypal "witches" or "brujas" which became his trademark. Using strong Caribbean reds, yellows and blues to symbolize the land, forest, fruit, flowers and minerals, he re-establishes a natural order which brings his paintings to life. Advertisement Venezuelan art critic/historian Belgica Rodriguez, who was a leading force in the organization of the traveling exhibition, says " the soul of Vigas' work is the figure of a woman." Vigas' female figures are deformed, recalling both pre-Columbian Venus figures and the deformed female figures created by Picasso, de Kooning and Lam. In the 1960s he made his Personagrestes series, in which his witch figures dominate compositions with lines and color planes moving in multiple directions. The witch figure changes every decade, but it is always the emotional force of maternal power that obsessed him. Although Vigas is acclaimed as the most important Venezuelan artist and left his mark in Paris in the fifties, he is only recently gaining the international attention he deserves. He chose the thoughtful life of a working artist surrounded by a supportive family and many artist friends who regularly visited his atelier rather than the world of galleries - which he shunned until late in his life because he did not want market dictates to hinder his artistic freedom. He pursued the "irrational side" in his work, and was vocal in art debates criticizing the kinetic art movement in Venezuela for political correctness. By contrast, the confidence and skillfulness of Vigas' brushwork and his emphatic use of dramatic black are a testimony to his freedom of spirit. Vigas' conviction that he would find his place in art history late in life might be old school but is certainly happening now through the efforts of the Vigas Foundation and acclaimed devotees. Miami 's Ascaso Gallery began representing Vigas late in his life and will exhibit his work in December during Art Basel in Miami Beach Fair. International visitors to SP- Arte 2016 had the opportunity to view this traveling retrospective currently at MAC, in Sao Paulo, located across the road from the fair, in an Oscar Niemeyer building - ideally suited to Latin American modernist art which was influenced by Brazilian architects. Memo to environmental activists: It's the oceans, stupids. This summer, hundreds of millions of people in the Northern Hemisphere will flock to beaches to swim, surf, wade, boat, fish, sunbathe, or even fall in love. To these revelers, the oceans are eternal -- as certain as the rising and setting of the sun, and a permanent bounty in an impermanent world. But there is a rub: The oceans are living entities and they are in trouble. Much more trouble than the sun-seekers of summer can imagine. Mark Spalding, president of The Ocean Foundation, says, "We are putting too much into the oceans and taking too much out." Advertisement In short, that is what is happening. Whether deliberately or not, we are dumping stuff into the oceans at a horrifying rate and, in places, we are overfishing them. But the No. 1 enemy of oceans is invisible: carbon. Carbon is a huge threat, according to ocean champion Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I. The oceans are a great carbon sink, he explains, but they are reaching a carbon saturation point, and as so-called "deep carbon" resurfaces, it limits the oxygen in the water and destroys fish and marine life. There is a 6,474-square-mile "dead zone" -- an area about the size of Connecticut with low to no oxygen -- in the northern Gulf of Mexico. Dead zones are appearing in oceans around the world due to excessive nutrient pollution (especially nitrogen and phosphorous) from agribusiness and sewage. Two great U.S. estuaries are in trouble: the Chesapeake Bay and the Long Island Sound. Warming in the North Atlantic is disturbing fish populations: Maine lobsters are migrating to Canada's cooler waters. Whitehouse and other Atlantic coast legislators are concerned as they see fish resources disappearing, and other marine life threatened. Advertisement Colin Woodard, a reporter at The Portland Press Herald, has detailed the pressures from climate change on fish stocks in the once bountiful Gulf of Maine. He first sounded the alarm 16 years ago in his book, "Oceans End: Travels Through Endangered Seas," and now he says things are worse. The shallow seas, like the Baltic and the Adriatic, are subject to "red tides" -- harmful algal booms, due to nutrient over-enrichment, that kill fish and make shellfish dangerous to consume. Polluted waterways are a concern for Rio de Janeiro Olympic rowers and other athletes. Apparently, the word is: Don't follow the girl from Ipanema into the water. The culprit is raw sewage, and the swelling Olympic crowds will only worsen the situation. My appeal to the environmental community is this: If you are worried about the air, concentrate on the oceans. It is hard to explain greenhouse gases to a public that is distrustful, or fears the economic impact of reducing fossil fuel consumption. If I lived in a West Virginia hollow, and the only work was coal mining, you bet I would be a climate denier. The oceans are easier to understand. You can explain that the sea levels are rising; that it is possible for life-sustaining currents, like the Gulf Stream, to stop or reverse course; and you can point to the ways seemingly innocent actions, or those thought of as virtuous (like hefting around spring water in plastic bottles) have harmful effects. Advertisement Plastic waste from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch washed up on Kamilo Beach Plastic is a big problem. Great gyres of plastic, hundreds of miles long, are floating in the Pacific. Flip-flops washed into the ocean in Asia are piling up on beaches in Africa. Fish are ingesting microplastic particles - and you will ingest this plastic when you tuck into your fish and chips. Sea birds and dolphins get tangled in the plastic harnesses we put on six-packs of beer and soft drinks. They die horrible deaths. Sunscreen is lethal to coral. It is hard to explain the way carbon, methane and ozone in the atmosphere cause the Earth to heat up. It is easier, I am telling my environmentalist friends, to understand that we will not be able to swim in the oceans. Sustainability cannot be limited to a single department in a company, words in a glossy report, or on a poster on the wall. It should be the focal point in every business' purpose. To me, making a real difference for the world within SDG 6, water, and SDG 13, climate change, leads othe way. Today, I have the pleasure of sharing these thoughts with world- and business-leaders at the UN Global Compact Leaders' Summit in New York. This, I am both honoured and excited to do. Because thinking businesses and sustainability in a common context is decisive. Not least in my business. The water business. Water is actually in everything. To some it might be self-explanatory, but to many, it comes as a surprise. However, it is. This also goes for the SDG's. In fact, 15 out of the 17 connect to water. Advertisement My thoughts mostly revolve around goals 6 and 13. Clean water and sanitation and climate change. Two goals, which are very closely connected. The need for water and sanitation on a global scale is evident - and the lack for equal access to both is one of the world's greatest risks in the future. Everybody needs access to drinking water to live, however, more than 663 million people lack access to it. That's a staggering figure. Another eye-opener is that 2.4 billion are without basic sanitation. Roughly one third of the world's population, at high risk of losing lives to waterborne diseases. Meanwhile, climate change causes global water issues. Some places all too much water, other places way too little. Add to this, that solving the challenges takes a lot of energy and by this effect the climate as well, then it becomes evident that it's important to find long lasting solutions. What we are trying to do with the SDG's is solving these issues. By 2030. That's not far away. Therefore, it's increasingly important that we all join forces and push for genuine change, which can make us able of reaching the very ambitious targets. Advertisement My claim is that without substantial action from the private sector, the targets cannot be reached. My business can contribute with innovative water technology, which energy efficiently can move water to where it should be. This expertise, we have refined for decades, and I feel confident that our knowledge can make a difference. What we also need is sustainable business models supporting the ambitious targets defined by the SDG's. Something, which is necessary not only seen from a global citizen's perspective, but also from a business standing point. Keeping with the water and climate challenges, these huge threats also poses very real risks to businesses and societies worldwide - and hold the capability of disrupting even the most firmly based institutions, companies and countries. Therefore, what we come up with needs to be self-sustaining solutions. We need to make sure that resources put into solving these problems will not be one-time donations, but rather investments which can pay off and turned into reinvestments. We need commercial drivers in order to have a chance of fulfilling the ambitious and necessary goals we have set out to achieve together. We need to cooperate across NGO's, governments and businesses to succeed. Today, June 22, Lockheed Martin will roll out the first Israel-bound F-35 in my hometown of Fort Worth, Texas. This important day fortifies our nation's strong alliance with Israel and will ensure our global security. As a member of the House Armed Services Committee and the Congressional Joint Strike Fighter Caucus, I have been a staunch supporter of the production of the F-35 since day one and understand the importance of its production for my fellow Texans and our nation's security. For Texas, the production of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter has brought approximately 40,000 jobs and more than $3 billion dollars into our local economy. As the economic benefits continue to accrue, the roll-out of the first Israel-bound F-35 will serve as a major milestone which will spearhead an integrated security approach between the United States and our allies. In 2010, Israel became the first U.S. ally to select the F-35. Our allies in Europe, North America, and Asia will fly F-35 aircraft as well. In the coming years, Israel intends to purchase a total of 33 F-35 aircraft to replace older technology. As part of this acquisition, Israel Aerospace Industries will produce wings for hundreds of F-35s out of their production facility in Israel. Advertisement As a further example of U.S.-Israeli defense cooperation, here in North Texas, Elbit Systems of America, the Fort Worth-based subsidiary of Israel's Elbit Systems, played a key role in the development of the F-35 Helmet Mounted Display System. Elbit Systems has been working jointly with Iowa-based Rockwell Collins to create the technology for this critical component of the F-35. The F-35 Helmet Mounted Display System puts critical information on the visor, allowing the pilot to have complete situational awareness. As the key node for controlling the airplane, the helmet is connected to the seeker in the missile. With a simple turn of the head, the pilots can easily move their missiles. American military pilots can now more successfully target the enemy and evade enemy fire, meaning more successful missions and more American pilots returning home safely. Joint development of this helmet is tangible proof of how Israel provides critical expertise to help keep our nation safe. With all that said, the Middle East is once again in turmoil. Iran remains committed to regional dominance by supporting proxies in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen and Gaza and test-launching long-range ballistic missiles. ISIL controls large swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria while trying to destabilize our allies in Jordan and Egypt as its followers commit terrorist attacks around the globe. Hezbollah is rearming on Israel's northern border, and now has an arsenal of 150,000 rockets. This is a time for strengthening ourselves and working together with our closest allies in a tumultuous region. The joint efforts we are engaged in with Israel on the F-35 helmets demonstrate how our two countries must work in coordination in order to protect our nations from global threats. As the United States and Israel negotiate a new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) regarding American military aid to Israel, it is vital that we remember how important the U.S.-Israel partnership is to North Texas, our local economy, and to our national defense. These F-35 planes incorporate the best of American manufacturing and Israeli technology and represent a partnership which will keep both of our countries safe for years to come. The beach is supposed to be a 'happy place,' - a place to kick back, relax, and not worry about a thing. Still, as a woman, I can't help but want to look and feel good at this serene place during the summer. Let's be honest ... between the humidity and sweat, accomplishing either of those is not always easy. Over the past few years I've been experimenting with different low-budget and simple things to do in order to achieve both. Based off what I found works best, here's how you too can look and feel good at the beach this summer. Plan ahead with hair humidity hacks. There can be a lot of work that goes into looking good (unless you are Heidi Klum perhaps who seems to be naturally beautiful). I was never the kind of girl who could be bothered with spending hours in front of the mirror or preparing my outfits each week. I've always just wanted quick and simple fixes. Advertisement One of my biggest beach beauty concerns was my hair - I was getting sick of it always looking a mess a few hours into my beach retreat, so I tried some humidity hacks such as Ry's Humidity Hacks for Summer and fell in love with these two: 1. Use a clean toothbrush and comb your hair with hairspray in order to keep small areas of frizz at bay. (If you get your hair wet at the beach, this hack will cancel itself out. I personally tend to avoid the ocean and rarely get my hair wet at the beach, so it works well for me.) 2. Wash your hair less. Your hair has natural oils and washing too frequently strips them away, according to Ry. I now swear by dry shampoo and bring a small bottle to the beach with me. (This hack works great before, during, and after the beach. As your hair dries off after you dive into the ocean, freshen it up with your dry shampoo.) Replace the foundation with a pressed powder over a light BB cream. I've found that a lot of foundations would just sweat off my face when it got hot but were also too heavy for a casual beach day. I now use two inexpensive drug store products and save my pricey makeup for nights out. Both of the products have an SPF in them so I don't have to worry about applying sunblock to my face. I found that by using each product alone, they would melt off. Advertisement By combining the two, I get extra coverage that lasts longer. Pictured below are the two products I use. I discovered the CC powder by accident - after getting frustrated with the BB cream not lasting, I went into the local drugstore and it was the only CC pressed powder the store had. I chose the CC over a regular pressed powder because the BB cream alone does not cover up in imbalance in color on my left cheek. It ended up being a major win - not only did it work great and last for several hours (when combined with the BB cream) but it was inexpensive (less than $15) and came with a mirror and brush (convenient!). I brought it to the beach with me a few times incase I needed touch ups but since it lasts, I never had to use it while there. I'm sure applying the CC powder over a foundation would work just as good but haven't yet found a light enough foundation that I like. Side note: The BB cream was also an accidental purchase. The buy one get one 50% off sale at the time drew me in. I bought two different BB creams from the brand and ended up liking the one and loving this one. Sales = great opportunities to try new products. Waterproof mascara is a must. I've used the following and based on price and overall makeup result, I'd recommend them. Maybelline Great Lash Waterproof Mascara (less than $7) e.l.f Waterproof Lengthening and Volumizing Mascara (less than $8) L'Oreal Telescopic Shocking Extensions Waterproof Mascara (less than $12) Frozen fruit = healthy, delicious, and cooling. It's always tempting to visit my local boardwalk food stands and shops which are typically filled with pizza, fries, donuts, bagels, and other unhealthy eats. Can you relate? Feeling bloated while in a bikini? No thanks. I now pack accordingly and cheat less. Frozen blueberries are my favorite beach snack and have been associated with decreasing risk of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease in addition to having other health benefits, reported Medical News Today. Advertisement I put them in small containers the night before then pop them into the freezer. They tear apart easily making them easy to eat when frozen. Frozen grapes have also worked well for me. Red grapes in particular are low in calories and fat plus pack a number of essential vitamins and minerals according to Livestrong. Freshen up with a spray deodorant and facial spray. Choose your favorite spray deodorant (I prefer smaller bottles to limit how much I carry to the beach). My favorite facial spray is a recommendation from one of Carli Bybel's beauty videos - Mario Badescu Facial Spray with Aloe, Herbs, and Rose Water. De-stress by coloring. A few years ago I brought a kids coloring book to my parent's house along with some colored pencils. My dad asked what I was doing with them. I told him I like to color - it's relaxing. He found it surprising until he tried it himself. Why didn't I think of the now trendy adult coloring book idea back then? In 2014, Huffington Post Spain ran an article on how coloring can help adults combat stress - the article was translated here. It stated, "...coloring has a de-stressing effect because when we focus on a particular activity, we focus on it and not on our worries. But it also brings out our imagination and takes us back to our childhood, a period in which we most certainly had a lot less stress." So grab your favorite coloring instruments and coloring book and feel good by coloring. US President Barack Obama speaks following a National Security Council meeting on the Islamic State at the Department of Treasury in Washington, DC, June 14, 2016.US President Barack Obama on June 14 said the Islamic State group was losing ground in Iraq and Syria, and that the number of foreign fighters joining the extremists was plummeting. 'ISIL lost nearly half of the populated territory it had in Iraq and it will lose more. ISIL continues to lose ground in Syria as well,' Obama said after a meeting of the National Security Council on the fight against the jihadist group. 'In short, our coalition continues to be on offense. ISIL is on defense,' Obama said, using an alternate acronym for the group. / AFP / SAUL LOEB (Photo credit should read SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images) In an internal "dissent channel cable," 51 State Department officers called for "targeted military strikes" against the government of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, a proposal that President Barack Obama has thus far resisted. However, were he to accept the cable's advice, he would risk a dangerous - possibly catastrophic - confrontation with Russia. And, such a use of military force in Syria would violate U.S. and international law. While the cable decries "the Russian and Iranian governments' cynical and destabilizing deployment of significant military power to bolster the Assad regime," the cable calls for the United States to protect and empower "the moderate Syrian opposition," seeking to overthrow the Syrian government. Advertisement However, Assad's government is the only legitimate government in Syria and, as the sovereign, has the legal right to seek international support as it has from Russia and Iran. There is no such legal right for the United States and other countries, such as Saudi Arabia and Turkey, to arm Syrian rebels to attack Assad's government. The dissent cable advocates what it calls "the judicious use of stand-off and air weapons," which, the signatories write, "would undergird and drive a more focused and hardnosed US-led diplomatic process." Inside Syria, both the United States and Russia are battling the Islamic State (also known as ISIS) as ISIS and other jihadist groups seek to overthrow the Assad government. But while the U.S. is supporting rebel forces (including some fighting ISIS and some fighting Assad), Russia is backing Assad (and waging a broader fight against "terrorists," including Al Qaeda's Nusra Front). Reuters reports the U.S. has about 300 special operations forces in Syria for its "counter-terrorism mission against Islamic State militants but is not targeting the Assad government." The policy outlined in the dissent cable would change that balance, by having the U.S. military bomb Syrian soldiers who have been at the forefront of the fight against both ISIS and Nusra. But that policy shift "would lead to a war with Russia, would kill greater numbers of civilians, would sunder the Geneva peace process, and would result in greater gains for the radical Sunni 'rebels' who are the principal opponents of the Assad regime," analyst James Carden wrote at Consortiumnews.com. Advertisement Journalist Robert Parry added that the authors of the cable came from the State Department's "den of armchair warriors possessed of imperial delusions," looking toward a Hillary Clinton administration which will likely pursue "no-fly-zones" and "safe zones" leading to more slaughter in Syria and risking a confrontation with Russia. As we should have learned from the "no-fly zone" that preceded the Libyan "regime change" that the U.S. government engineered in 2011, a similar strategy in Syria would create a vacuum in which ISIS and Al Qaeda's Nusra Front would flourish. Violating U.S. and International Law The strategy set forth in the cable would also violate both U.S. and international law. Under the War Powers Resolution (WPR), the President can introduce U.S. troops into hostilities, or into situations "where imminent involvement in hostilities is clearly indicated by the circumstances," only (1) after a Congressional declaration of war, (2) with "specific statutory authorization," or (3) in "a national emergency created by attack upon the United States, its territories or possessions, or its armed forces." None of three conditions that would allow the president to use military force in Syria is present at this time. First, Congress has not declared war. Second, neither the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF), which George W. Bush used to invade Afghanistan, nor the 2002 AUMF, which Bush used to invade Iraq would provide a legal basis for an attack on Syria at the present time. Third, there has been no attack on the United States or U.S. armed forces. Thus, an armed attack on Syria would violate the WPR. Even if a military attack on Syria did not run afoul of the WPR, it would violate the United Nations Charter, a treaty the U.S. has ratified, making it part of U.S. law under the Constitution's Supremacy Clause. Article 2(4) of the Charter says that states "shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state." Advertisement The Charter only allows a military attack on another country in the case of self-defense or when the Security Council authorizes it; neither has occurred in this case. Assad's government has not attacked the United States, and the Council has not approved military strikes on Syria. Indeed, Security Council Resolution 2254, to which the cable refers, nowhere authorizes the use of military force, and ends with the words, "[The Security Council] decides to remain actively seized of the matter." This means that the Council has not delegated the power to attack Syria to any entity other than itself. If the U.S. were to mount an armed attack on Syria, the Charter would give Assad a valid self-defense claim, and Russia could legally assist Assad in collective self-defense under Article 51 of the Charter. Moreover, forcible "regime change" would violate Article 1 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which the U.S. has also ratified. Although it's true that the "dissent" cable eschews the use of U.S. "ground forces," its recommendation that the U.S. should bomb Assad's government would involve U.S. military personnel who would fly the bombers or fire off the missiles. And, such an operation would invariably necessitate at least a limited number of U.S. support troops on the ground. Opposition to Violent 'Regime Change' Many commentators have warned of dangers from a U.S. military attack on Syria, risks that are either ignored or breezily dismissed by the "dissent" cable. Advertisement Jean Aziz cautions in Al-Monitor, "the recommendation of military strikes against the Syrian government - no matter how well intentioned - is, in the end, escalatory, and would likely result in more war, killing, refugees, less humanitarian aid reaching civilians, the empowerment of jihadis and so on." The United States is already empowering jihadis, "going out of its way to protect the interests of al-Qaeda's closest and most powerful ally in Syria, Ahrar al-Sham," Gareth Porter wrote in Truthout. Porter reported that Ahrar al-Sham, which works closely with the Nusra Front, "is believed to be the largest military force seeking to overthrow the Assad regime in Syria, with at least 15,000 troops." So, in seeking Assad's ouster, the U.S. has terrorist bedfellows. So much for the "global war on terror." As CIA Director John Brennan recently told the Senate Intelligence Committee, "Our efforts have not reduced [Islamic State's] terrorism capability and global reach," adding, "The branch in Libya is probably the most developed and the most dangerous." No wonder President Obama told Fox News "the worst mistake" of his presidency was not planning for the aftermath of U.S. regime change in Libya, although he stubbornly maintains that ousting President Muammar Gaddafi was "the right thing to do." Advertisement The Center for Citizen Initiatives, a group of U.S. citizens currently on a delegation to Russia in order to increase understanding and reduce international tension and conflict, issued a statement in strong opposition to the "dissent" cable. Retired Col. Ann Wright, anti-war activist Kathy Kelly and former CIA analyst Ray McGovern are part of the group. "It is not the right of the USA or any other foreign country to determine who should lead the Syrian government," the statement says. "That decision should be made by the Syrian people." The statement urges the State Department "to seek non-military solutions in conformity with the UN Charter and international law." It also urges the Obama administration to "stop funding and supplying weapons to armed 'rebels' in violation of international law and end the policy of forced 'regime change'." Finally, the statement calls for "an urgent nation-wide public debate on the U.S. policy of 'regime change'." This is sage advice in light of the disasters created by the U.S. government's forcible regime change in Iraq and Libya, which destabilized those countries, facilitating the rise of ISIS and other terrorist groups. There is no reason to believe the situation in Syria would be any different. Instead of saber-rattling against Assad, Russia and Iran, the Obama administration should include them all in pursuing diplomacy toward a political, non-military settlement to the Syrian crisis. Advertisement Marjorie Cohn is professor emerita at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, former president of the National Lawyers Guild, and deputy secretary general of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers. A member of the national advisory board of Veterans for Peace, Cohn's latest book is Drones and Targeted Killing: Legal, Moral, and Geopolitical Issues. Follow her on Twitter. Schoolboy standing in front of a blackboard with a bright idea light bulb above his head concept for innovation, imagination and inspirational ideas For National Foster Care Month, I interviewed Echoing Green Global Fellow Serita Cox, who is the Co-Founder and CEO of iFoster. iFoster developed an online platform that connects at-risk children and teens in foster care to the resources they need to become successful, independent adults. Before launching iFoster, Serita provided strategic counsel to some of the largest philanthropic foundations and non-profits service at-risk youth as a management consultant with the Bridgespan Group. She was also the Vice President of Strategy and Business Operations for 3Com Corporation, and previously a strategy consultant for Fortune 500 companies with Deloitte Consulting. Serita was a 2012 White House Office of Social Innovation Citizen Innovator and is a National Urban Fellows America's Leader of Change. Here's my interview with Serita: Advertisement Marquis Cabrera: What is iFoster? Where did you get the idea from? Serita Cox: iFoster is a national non-profit with a mission of ensuring that every child growing up outside of their biological home has the resources and opportunities they need to become a successful, independent adult. The foster care community is highly fragmented, some of it is structural due to ensuring privacy and safety of the child, but this leads to few if any economies of scale and difficulty for the community to act or speak as one, let alone interact effectively with those outside of child welfare. iFoster brings together this fragmented population into a virtual community where they can access the resources they need and their collective voice can be heard. Our core competency: Bridging child welfare and the greater community because a single system, alone, cannot provide everything a kid needs to grow up and become a successful, independent adult. Marquis Cabrera: What pain point is iFoster solving? Is it that child welfare is not engaged with the stakeholders outside of the child welfare community? Serita Cox: Child welfare is not designed to engage with the outside world, by its very nature it is about the security and privacy of the child. iFoster is focused on is the resource deficit for our children and youth in care. According to the USDA, it costs $250,000 to raise a child from 0 - 17. This is what the child consumes in food, clothing, playing sports, hair cuts, computers, braces, tutoring, you name it, etc. If you compare that to foster care, reimbursement rates and entitlements in foster and kinship care are a fraction of this total amount, being focused on basic needs more so than higher level needs or what we call thriving needs like educational supports or recreational activities. No wonder our [foster children] are failing because we are not investing in those thriving resources. Advertisement Marquis Cabrera: Have you talked with folks in government about the aforementioned family financial pain points? Serita Cox: I'm not sure it is a government issue per say, but a larger more societal issue since the very purpose of foster care is that it is a temporary solution for the safety and security of a child with the notion that it is a temporary until a permanency either through reunification or adoption is found. The sad reality is that children aren't in foster care temporarily. It has become the only solution for far too many children resulting in over 30,000 aging out of the system each year without permanency. So how can we expect a system that was never really set up to replace Mom and Dad, effectively nurture and raise a child? To me, it is not an issue of system change since technically the system is doing what it was designed to do, but rather a broader societal question of how do we as a society ensure that children growing up outside of their biological home get the resources, supports and opportunities they need to succeed. One system can't do it alone. Marquis Cabrera: Can you tell me more about iFoster's core product? What is the example of use case? And, what has been the impact to display your impact to date? Advertisement Serita Cox: Currently we have over 30,000 members that use iFoster -- our digital platform -- on a daily basis. Through our platform, members can access 100s of products and services that we have sourced and vetted to meet their needs - 24/7 access via computer or mobile device. The platform is secure and user-personalized -- and free to users. An account is created and personalized based on type of member, type of resources looking for, and location. So when they're approved, they have a personalized account that is set up with tons of resources that meet their specific need. If a member lives in NYC, that user won't see resources in LA. If they don't have baby, they won't see resources related to babies. Caregivers can of course update or temporarily change their preference to see all of our resources, but we try to narrow them down to the ones that each of our members are most interested in and can use. Our main goal is to go out and source products and services that our community says they need the most; then make them available through a digital platform. The number one requested resource needed is always laptops. Social workers, caregivers and youth tell us our kids are failing in school and not integrated into society because they are disconnected. To solve this problem, we partnered with Microsoft, who provided free licenses to Windows & office; then we partnered with largest refurbisher of computers, CDI, to provide families and youth with laptops with the full suite of productivity software they need and ongoing tech support for $200. That's one example. Another: If you break your glasses, it's really expensive to go and get a new pair; most foster youth do not have the money, so they wait a year to get another pair. So we partnered with VSP, who is the largest insurer of eyeglasses, to provide free eye exams and to replace eyeglasses for free. Also, we partnered with SmilesChangeLives to help youth get orthodontic care for 10% of the costs to get braces, ongoing treatment, and a retainer at the end of treatment. We have national and regional partners providing free tutoring, including phone and online one-on-one tutoring with no appointment necessary. Through iFoster, transition age youth can get a free cell phone with unlimited voice and unlimited text so that they can always be in communication with their support network, employers, teachers, family and friends. We also partner with companies to employ our youth through our iFoster Jobs Program, as well as providing scholarships or tuition reimbursement. So not just concrete resources, but services and opportunities as well. Marquis Cabrera: How do you know what to provide to your community? Do you poll your community to figure out what needs they have? Advertisement Serita Cox: We constantly ask our community what they need most. We conduct focus groups in every new market we enter with agency staff, foster youth and caregivers. On our portal, we have a feedback button where we receive hundreds of requests and suggestions a month. We also collect analytics across our platform. Since it is a secure, user authenticated system, we know what every member does on our site - what they are looking at, what pattern they do their searches in, how long they stay on a page, what they download - through this we can begin to map the behavior and needs of different member types in different locations and better understand how to serve them. Marquis Cabrera: How is the organization evolving? Are you working to develop new products? Serita Cox: We evolve based on the demand from our community and whether what they are asking of us is in our wheelhouse - our core competency. For example, Transitioning youth have asked us for help on finding a place to store their vital documents. So - we launched a Digital Locker - it's available nationwide [and included in our free membership]. Youth can take a picture of medical card, birth certificate, or other essential documents, like their adoption certificates [and upload them into organized files in their individual locker]. These documents are hosted on a separate HIPAA compliant platform, which is all integrated into their account. Any transition age youth automatically gets a digital locker. [Each locker is integrated into our overall resource portal, so not only is this a safe and accessible place to store life documents, but youth can find and store the resources they most need from our hundreds of offers. We can also suggest resources to youth based on their geography and preferences, so we try to make it really easy for transition age youth to get all of the resources and services they are eligible for to help them be successful out there]. When s/he logs in as a transitioning youth, their account has those resources; locker section (save and download) and then it has a cases and contact section. There's a contact system to send encrypted documents to their contacts. We launched BETA last September and host an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 documents. We have also launched a jobs program for transitioning youth. Access to jobs for our youth, like access to laptops, has been a constant request from the community. This past year, we devised a way to build a program that leverages our core competencies of working with companies (the outside world) and bridging into existing program and partnerships within child welfare to deliver a scalable, replicable jobs program for foster youth. In just under a year, we are now the biggest permanent jobs program for foster youth and with solid results - 100% hire rate and 90% retention through 6 months. We actually cannot meet demand from either child welfare or companies. Who knows what our community will ask of us next! Marquis Cabrera: Do you have a big idea that would improve outcomes for children and families? Does providing concrete resources really matter? Advertisement Serita Cox: Give every foster kid a laptop! The UN said access to internet is a basic human right. Bangladesh and other countries have better access to the internet than our foster youth. We're only beating Uganda, that's it. Meanwhile 90% of US teens and 79% of low income US teens have access to a laptop in their home, compared with less than 20% of foster youth (5% for rural foster youth). This is why iFoster created and built out the One Laptop program for youth (it is only for kiddos to have laptops). We provided in 3-4 years, 7800 laptops to in college and college bound foster youth in almost every state but two. Most people say kids can go to libraries, it doesn't matter. For National Foster Care Month, I interviewed David Ambroz, who is the Executive Director of Corporate Citizenship & Social Responsibility for Disney|ABC Television Group. In that role, Ambroz convened more than 100 partners to create FosterMore - a multi-media effort to communicate with the American public during Foster Care Awareness Month. Private sector companies, foundations, non-profits joined forces to create a campaign that shines a light on the potential of the 400,000 plus youth and countless families in the system. As an alumnus of foster care, Ambroz has demonstrated a lifelong passion to child welfare reform; from his work to establish the National Foster Youth Advisory Council (1997), the GLBT Foster Care Joint Initiative (1998), and more recently his service on the California Child Welfare Council, and his service on the ABA Commission on Youth At Risk - he continues to engage. David Ambroz is a graduate of Vassar College and the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law. Advertisement Marquis Cabrera: What are some consistent pain points you see in the current foster care/child welfare system? David Ambroz: I will tell you that in my years of experience, what I have found is a great community of passionate people who care deeply. What I have found missing is the sense that we're part of a movement, and communication to the general public has been haphazard and not purposeful. Both have caused different outcomes, which is not good. Foster parents, social workers, and many child welfare leaders lack awareness of even being in the movement. More often than not, we're talking to ourselves and using language that alienates or scares the general public. I want to make it a movement and not a complex. It actually feels like a gap. Instead of reporting the stories of failure, death, tragedy, what if we as a movement told stories about the amazing resilience of what is happening with these youth and families? This is what FosterMore addresses: recognition of the movement and communicating it to the larger American public. Marquis Cabrera: What is FosterMore? How is FosterMore improving the foster care space? Essentially, what impact are you hoping to create? Advertisement David Ambroz: FosterMore is an organization that acts as a neutral territory - it doesn't advocate any one issue. We're focused on re-branding foster care and working with expert marketing companies to better organize. We're not an advocacy organization, and therefore any non-corporation can be part of the conversation. We're working toward national reprogramming of what the public thinks about the foster care system to chip away at ignorance and prejudice and to educate and elevate positive stories. Promos are done with intentionality; it's things described without intentionality that scares people, like the CW industrial complex. The child welfare community must coalesce around an idea to bring people into a movement, rather than accidentally creating a horror film promo. So, we need to undergo transformation. We need to find a cause-marketing partner to transform our blue into the same pink. Not necessarily to raise funds, but to raise awareness and show people that foster care is education - not tragedy and sorrow. We'll reprogram and the public will begin to think differently. If we collectively do this, we will see the American public become part of the change. Marquis Cabrera: What metrics are you using to measure the effectiveness of the FosterMore campaign? What are you hoping to accomplish in 5 years with FosterMore? David Ambroz: We're using clicks, how long people stay on site, and the number of partners we have. Our partners know where their traffic is coming from. Currently the only cause marketing we do is for the national scholarship for foster you. If you don't want to foster nor adopt, donate some funds for foster youth to get an education. In 5 years, I hope to take an issue that is overwhelming and dark and transform it into an opportunity to be a part of a solution. Instead of having negativity attached to foster youth, the public will think of education and opportunity. When we do that successfully, that will mean that we're acting as a movement. Marquis Cabrera: What do you think of media's coverage of the child welfare system, insomuch that it is highlighting child fatalities and sensational cases? Advertisement David Ambroz: That question implies blame and error. I don't blame the press. I blame us for being disaggregated and disconjointed. How many amazing American parents are there? How many amazing grandparents there are? I believe media is responsible to report the news, and we can make it a point to share some good news with them, or lament over what they choose to cover in the absence of us doing anything. When legislators go home to talk, they need to hear about the good things, not tragedy, and we have the opportunity to shape that narrative together. Collectively, what is the actual budget to launch a major motion picture? What is the budget among the CW industrial complex to market to the American public? At the end of the day, we have to engage in communicative marketing and tell all sides of the same story. We need to tell stories to get folks to mentor, adopt, or just to care, the same way folks market the new Volvo or Chevy. Check out the amazing work done by our sisters in breast cancer and the folks in environment; they coalesce around media and feed stories out, as well as generate them. There are things that everyone can do to help our earth: recycle, turn off the lights, etc. I hope we are as successful as our friends in the global warming and environmental industries. Why should we figure out which tactics to use when our friends already have the roadmap? We just need to embrace and borrow their tactics. Marquis Cabrera: How do child welfare champions use the media to improve the foster care system? David Ambroz: Media is not to be used. Media has own pressures and authorities. The responsibility is on child welfare leaders to figure out that we're collectively part of a movement and to think about how to best market the stories that are in our communities that collectively advance all of our issues. When you engage and work with media, you need to simplify the message so people can share. You cannot overwhelm them; you cannot make them want to do something else. Yoplait buys pink tops and then the American public buys Yoplait; in this way, the public is aware. They're aware of the fact that we need research to find a cure, and there should be a cure. 20-25 years ago, we didn't discuss breast cancer and global warming because of silence, fear, and scientific language. But if you engage the global public in a conversation and help them understand, it becomes a common household topic. If we engage the public in the same way, the foster care system can become one, as well. I don't think media is to be used; it is meant to be a partner. They're telling stories for listeners and viewers. What stories are we telling and are we intentional with them? How do we talk together? We're great at talking with each other, but we have to be great at talking to everyone else. Today, the Earth got a little hotter, and a little more crowded. Saving BUB - beautiful unusual biodiversity, as illustrated in this small asian kingfisher, is another reason to preserve carbon-storing forests. Source pinterest.com Forests: the cheapest way to store carbon Beautiful Norway: Trying to Keep All Forests Green through its new policy. Source paktravel.net OO Norway Takes Global Lead With First Ever Nationwide Deforestation Ban in its procurement of goods to encourage deforestation-free supply chains. It and the US have pledged to coordinate forest protection efforts. <> Only The Drone Knows where illegal deforestation is occurring in this Panama forest, which is why local tribes are learning how to use them to protect their forests. Source www.coronadocarrental.com Advertisement OO Panama's Indigenous Peoples Use Drones To Save The Rainforest from illegal deforestation. When we harm forests, we harm ourselves. * * MELTDOWN Extreme 2015 Melting in Greenland's ice sheet was linked to warm air delivered by the wandering jet stream (above), which has been linked to extreme warming in the Arctic. Credit: NASA OO Wobbly Jet Stream Sent Warm Air to Greenland, Causing Extraordinary Melt in 2015 and sending the melting arctic into 'uncharted territory,' says a new study. As global warming decreases the temperature difference between polar and temperate zones decrease (due to faster polar warming), the jet stream weakens and undulates. Specifically, the jet stream (shown as "x's" above) brought a blob of warm air that "sat" over northern Greenland, affirming a recent idea that Arctic ice loss is creating such blocking patterns and a wavy jet stream that can deliver such warm air. Advertisement Arctic ice loss results in darker waters, allowing them to absorb more heat and further melt ice - the "Arctic amplification" effect. Now, we know that the resulting wavy jet stream can speed the melting of Greenland, speeding sea rise. A Canyon of Melting Ice in Greenland Credit James Balog Ultimately, Greenland's ice melt will also slow the north Atlantic section of the global ocean conveyor belt, responsible for conveying heat throughout the world's oceans and moderating the weather. <> Monthly May Arctic Sea Ice Extent for 1979 to 2016 shows a decline of 2.6 % per decade - and the dramatic drop happening in 2016, as approximated by the red line. Source National Snow and Ice Data Center OO Arctic Ice Declining At A Rate That Even Surprises The Experts OO Arctic Sea Ice Hit A Stunning New Low In May: 'We've Never Seen Anything Like This' notes the National Snow and Ice Data Center, beating the previous 2004 record by more than half a million square kilometres. The daily extents in May were two to four weeks ahead of levels seen during 201,2 the record year for lowest ice extent in September, when Arctic ice hits its yearly low point. Related Headline: OO Arctic Sea Ice Breaks May Record . . . By A Lot - shrinking to its fourth-lowest level in 50 years last month, and setting up conditions for what could become the smallest Arctic ice extent in history. Advertisement <> Beating a Hasty Retreat - the Juanggudiru Glacier in 2006, one of the largest that feeds the Yantze River. Source Stringer at Reuters OO China Says Important Glacier Is Melting Due To Climate Change - one of the largest at the source of the Yantze River, a main river in China. OO US Spy Photos Reveal Anatartic Ice Shelf Collapse Begun In 1960s Snowline Drifts Higher As Warming Continues in the Rockies, Sierra Nevada (above) and Cascades and the resulting decrease in spring runoff endangers those below, shows a new study. Source NOAA, NASA OO California: Unabated Global Warming Threatens West's Snowpack, Water Supply - as shorter, warmer winters means less snow gets stored for later use by its ever increasing population. * * 30 YEARS AGO, SCIENTISTS WARNED CONGRESS OF WARMING AND SEA RISE OO 30 Years Ago Scientists Warned Congress On Global Warming in a hearing on "Ozone Depletion, the Greenhouse Effect, and Climate Change." They warned that manmade global warming would heat the world, melt ice, and raise sea levels: just what we are seeing today. Advertisement * * FOSSIL FUEL CONSUMPTION GREW, BUT NOT EMISSIONS - MAYBE This Methane Was Included in the fossil fuel consumption assessment by BP, a methane leak from a California natural gas operation. But did BP include carbon emissions from a warming Arctic, driven by fossil fuel burning, or all methane leaks? Don't bet your gas meter on it. Source edf.org OO World Sets Record for High Fossil Fuel Consumption - coal declined, but oil and natural gas consumption grew, says the new yearly BP report. Was This Methane Included? BP measured carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels, not Arctic emissions driven by the global warming created from those burnt fuels. Credit Chip Phillips at flickr OO World Fossil Fuel Carbon Emissions Did Not Grow In 2015 due to the switch to cleaner burning fossil fuels. Why aren't we dancing in the streets? High global fossil fuel emission levels still drive harmful climate change and human disease;Global carbon emissions probably DID grow. Why? The Arctic emits increasing amounts of climate changing methane and carbon dioxide, from warming driven by the burning of fossil fuels. Assessing how much methane leaks from its increased mining and distribution is also difficult. The takeaway: stop dancing, and get to work. And ... OO Energy Is A Large Consumer Of Water In A Drought-Threatened World - especially when making electricity. * * CLIMATE LEADERSHIP OO Bernie Sanders Made Hillary Clinton A Greener Candidate OO A Green US City And A Power Giant Join Forces To Curb Power Demand - Rather than add a new natural gas facility after a coal plant closed. OO Washington DC Pension Fund Announces Full Fossil Fuel Divestment OO Green Conservative Lawmakers Call For Earlier UK Coal Power Phase-Out Canada Goes Green in its climate policies, as the land literally greens from global warming. Source www.canadiangeographic.ca OO Canada: Alberta Carbon Tax Legislation Passes: First Stage Of Climate-Change Plan OO Canada: Greens, Car Makers Laud Ontario's $8+ Billion Climate Change Plan OO Norway Brings Forward Carbon Neutrality Goal To 2030 from 2050, a big jump. Hey, hey! * * CLUELESS LEADERSHIP Credit Michael Lukovich OO US Republican House Opposes Carbon And Oil Taxes In Symbolic Votes - symbolic of their shortsightedness, that is. * * ELECTION YEAR: If You Don't Vote For Climate Action, You Can Forget The Rest - in a climate-changing world of famine, drought, rising seas, giant storms and heat waves, there will be no security in jobs, health, wealth, or national safety. There will be chaos ensuing from increasing crises and disasters. Vote. Advertisement OO Global Warming Policies We Set Today Will Determine The Next 10,000 Years - of global warming, a new study shows -- and whether our civilization survives or not: history shows that harmful climate change has destroyed civilizations before. This time, it could be worldwide. Let's keep "The Hunger Games" in the realm of fiction. * * MASSIVE CLIMATE MIGRATIONS FORESEEN Let's Hot Foot It Outta Here! Large tropical migrations, both human and animal, might result from trying to escape the increasing heat of continued global warming. OO Climate Change Could Force Huge Tropical Migrations Of People And Animals says new research, even from a moderate amount of warming, to escape the increasing heat. * * GOOD IDEAS Bevis Longstreth: An Ex SEC Commisioner With a Way Forward on Divestment , Courtesy of Bevis Longstreth OO A Way to Open the Divestment Floodgates - is offered by retired lawyer Bevis Longstreth, who has helped institute legal change before. He notes that: Advertisement New arrays of investment risks from climate change, Driven by the burning of fossil fuels, Allow state attorney generals (AGs) to legally re-interpret What constitutes prudent management of institutional funds. If AGs spell out the risks in "interpretive releases", Institutions will not be able to ignore it. Longstreth thinks the AGs of CA, MA, and NY will be receptive. <> OO California's Underground Drought Solution: Create Carbon-Rich, Water-Retaining Soils - by reducing tillage and chemical fertilizers, and leaving crop residues to up the soil's organic content., which increases its water retention. As USDA soil scientist Tony Rolfe notes, "If you increase soil organic matter by 1 %, you can save 25,000 gallons of water per acre from being used ... And the more you can store organic carbon in the soil, the less carbon dioxide is released, which also helps with climate and carbon sequestration." He notes that we depend on soil for food, clothes, wood, besides storing carbon. <> Source guttercleaningtips.com OO Water Conservation Has Saved Energy, Cut Greenhouse Gas Emissions - a new study finds, saving significant amounts of electricity and reduced greenhouse gas emissions in California. Advertisement OO Buildings That Breathe, Grow, Burn Calories -- And Save Energy - a revolution in architecture is occurring as designers work out smart ways for buildings to moderate their climate with a minimum of energy. Algae, anyone? In the Works: A US Sustainable Town Babcock Ranch is being planned on an 18,000-acre of Florida land. OO Florida: Small Town Will Have Self-Driving Cars And Run Completely On Solar Bronzeville to Shine in a Smart Grid Change to this old poor Chicago neighborhood by the local utility giant. OO Energy Future: Big Utility Plans A Smart Grid Change To a Poor Nieghborhood in Chicago as a first test on a system that could improve people's lives and point out how the utility can survive in a rapidly changing energy landscape. OO National Deep Decarbonization Pathways Needed For Effective Climate Policy - constraining global temperaturerise to under 2C will require halving energy system emissions by 2050, and stopping them entirely by 2100. Advertisement The Deep Decarbonisation Pathways Project has outlined how 16 countries - covering 74% of global energy emissions - can restrain their own emissions while maintaining development aspirations. OO Drought-Parched Zambia Turns To Solar Powered Water Wells - freeing up adults and children, who can study, rather than collect water. <><><> * * REQUIEM FOR A REEF: THE DEVASTATION OF THE GREAT BARRIER From This ... To This. The devastation of this reef, one of the most beautiful undersea wonders of the world, will not recover in our children's lifetimes, if ever. Diving photographers were saturated with the stench of rotting corals. OO The Great Barrier Reef: Almost A Quarter of All Corals Just Killed, The Rest In Danger due to hot waters that stressed, bleached then killed the corals; the rest are endangered from continuing climate change and pollution. An area the size of Scotland is largely dead. Giant Clams, Too: Beautiful in Life, Starving, then Bleached and Dead - like corals, these Great Barrier giant clams can get heat stressed, ejecting the algae they rely on, and then undergo a slow, starving, bleaching death. Surveys have revealed that 90+ % of the almost 3,000 individual reefs making up the Great Barrier have been touched by bleaching, and almost a quarter - 22% - of coral over the entire Great Barrier Reef has been killed by this bleaching event. Advertisement Leading Great Barrier Coral Research Terry Hughes: "Coral bleaching has changed the reef forever." Large bleached areas are visible in the aerial overviews here. Humanity Murdered This Undersea Wonderland and we saw it coming: The first signs of worrisome bleaching occurred here in 1979; The 1998 extreme bleaching, helped by an intense El Nino, destroyed 16 % of all reefs; Noticeable bleaching occurred in 2002; Now, 2016 extreme bleaching, also helped by an intense El Nino, has destroyed far more than in 1979. <> Lights Winking Out - the beautiful living lavender coral has almost disappeared, as stressed corals bleach (to left of lavender), then die and are covered by brown algae (most of the rest). Source reefbuilders.com OO Reefers' Eye View Of Dying Corals Of The Great Barrier Reef - the nutrients given off by so many dead corals further fuel the algae growing over them, preventing future corals from growing. Advertisement All Types of Coral Are Bleaching and Dying including soft corals, which simply dissolve. A brown curtain of algae descends over the bleached mid coral; on either side, colorful live corals show signs of an encroaching white death. Source reefbuilders.com OO Government Pledges $1 Billion To Save Great Barrier Reef - a laughably small amount given the scope of the problem, but a start must be made... One of Many Coral Graveyards on the Great Barrier Reef. Source the Ocean Agency @@ Coral Graveyard: the Great Barrier Reef has many more photos of the devastation. Related Headline: @@ Australia's Coral Cemetery - yet more dramatic photos of the devastation. OO How The Great Barrier Reef Got Polluted - From Farms And Fossil Fuels To Filthy Propaganda OTHER LETHAL HUMAN EFFECTS ON CORALS OO Overfishing And Pollution Kill Corals In A Warming World - Takeaways: Different types of pollution - sewage, industrial, farming - weaken reefs; Oxybenzone* sunscreen from snorkelers is lethal to corals at 62 parts per Trillion; Overfishing removes algae eaters, allowing algae to cover weakened corals; Weaken reefs are more vulnerable to damage and death from climate change heat stress. Any combination of these harmful effects can kill corals and let algae overrun the reef.** *Use zinc oxide sunscreen instead, or wear a hat. Parrotfish: From Protector to Predator of Corals - normal benign nibbling of corals by the fish, which also eat coral competitors, can kill corals via bacterial infections from sewage pollution. Credit Waywuwei at flickr ** For example, parrotfish occasionally nip off coral for calcium, and the coral heals; farm runoff or sewage also bring huge amounts of bacteria; when nutrient rich pollution is present, most corals die from bacterial infection of their parrotfish wounds. Advertisement <> Credit Paul Horn at InsideClimate News OO As Coral Bleaching Goes Global, Scientists Fear Worst Is Yet To Come - Takeaways: Corals are crucial ocean nurseries, nurturing up to 25% of all marine species; about 275 million people depend directly on reefs for livelihoods and food; hot waters have caused the most widespread bleaching of corals ever recorded; reefs near 38 countries and over half the southern hemisphere are affected; bleaching is affecting previously unaffected reefs. Surviving corals emerged weakened, and more likely to die from future bleaching. Under continued global warming, half of all reefs will die by 2050; 90% will die by 2100. * * GOOD CLEAN NEWS Climate Leaders Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, and Barack Obama, US President are pushing to ratify the Paris climate deal. OO US And India Vow To Push To Ratify Paris Climate Deal OO The US And India Progress On Climate Changing HFC Gases - a popular coolant used in air conditioners, and 10,000 times more effective at trapping heat than carbon dioxide. <> OO US Coal Production Plummets To Lowest Level In 35 Years OO Big Oil's Footprint In Washington Shrinks With Price Of Crude OO BP: Global Coal Use Fell By Largest Recorded Margin In 2015 OO The World Nears Peak Fossil Fuels For Electricity Coal and gas will begin their terminal decline in less than a decade, says a new BNEF analysis. OO The Growing Opportunity for Residential Energy Storage in the US Advertisement Much Prettier Than Natural Gas Source www.pv-magazine.com OO Unlikely Casualty In California's Renewable Energy Boom: Natural Gas as an unexpected oversupply of natural gas collides with a surge in solar. OO $38 Billion Economic Benefit From EPA's Carbon Rule says a new study. OO UK Electricity Is Secure Without Coal, Says Conservative Thinktank * * SOCIAL REPERCUSSIONS Water Scarcity, Conflict and Refugee Exodus are the strongest mega-trends in West Asia, indicating their status and how these factors may shape the future. OO Water Scarcity Could Impact West Asian Credit Ratings OO Guess What Else Climate Change Hurts? Globalization - Supply chains now crisscross the globe, and most start where it's hottest. More than a quarter of the world's population lives near the shoreline. OO World's Population Very Slowly Backing Away From Dangerous Coasts OO San Francisco Bay Area Flood Prevention Tax will be used to lower flood risk by restoring wetlands. As Waters Recede, Climate Change Links Are Forged indicating the flooding was tied to global warming. Advertisement OO Paris Deluge Made Up To 90% More Likely By Climate Change, scientists say OO Paris Floods Were 'Directly' Tied To Global Warming says a new study, showing that global warming made the floods far more likely compared to a climate not warmed by fossil fuel emissions. Past rainfall records helped. OO Climate Change Correlated to Zika, Ebhola Outbreaks - allowing scientists to develop a model for predicting outbreaks based on changes in climate. * * SPEAKING OUT Source www.siemens.com OO Energy Firms Urge EU To Back Offshore Wind OO UN Asks Governments For 2050 Plans To Phase Out Coal, Oil And Gas OO EU Says Seeks Swift Ratification Of Paris Climate Accord * * FOSSIL FUEL FOLLIES Source www.usatoday.com OO Air Pollution Now Major Contributor To Stroke, Global Study Finds - up to one third of them. Microscopic particles, much of which are generated by diesel exhausts, have been shown to cause clotting, which can lead to a stroke. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development has warned that fossil fueled air pollution, has become a "terrifying" problem, set to cause as many as 9 million premature deaths yearly over the next four decades. Economic costs are likely to rise to $2.6 Trillion. OO Air Pollution Cuts Life Of Indians By Average 3.4 Years says a new study. Source www.laprogressive.com OO Methane Emissions Are Extremely Harmful - and the US government might not know how much there is. Advertisement OO Regulators Fear $1 Billion Coal Cleanup Bill For Taxpayers and are wrangling with bankrupt coal companies to set aside enough money for the cleanup. Everglades Ensures Clean Water to Millions - now imagine it, and this resident spoonbill, covered in oil. OO Controversial Everglades Oil Well Plan Moving Forward OO UK Oil Sector Job Losses 'To Reach 120,000 By End Of Year' If we do not grow sustainably, Our children will die inhumanely. @@ Myth vs Truth: The Huge Value of Contraception is an incisive, heartfelt recognition of the value of contraception by Sarah Brown, CEO, The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy Unintended Pregnancy Costs US Taxpayers: Unintended Pregnancies Cost US Taxypayers Nearly $11 Billion Yearly -the Guttmacher Institute Teen Childbearing Alone Cost US Taxpayers $9+ Billion In 2010 And the costs of raising a child usually ensures decades, if not a life, of poverty for its mother. - US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Advertisement WHAT YOU CAN DO Help prevent unintended pregnancies in your community: publicize where women can access affordable contraception. They can go here to find locations: And there are many more actions you can do, right here. * * * SOLAR KEEPS DRIVING Source www.solarkinguk.com OO Solar Made Up Two-Thirds of New Electric Generating Capacity in the US In 2016's First Quarter OO Unemployed US Oil Workers Find New Home in Solar Industry OO Solar Will Replace Nearly All Retiring Coal In Texas OO A Million New Solar Homes Projected With India-U.S. Announcement OO California Calls for Solar to Meet Natural Gas Shortfall OO UK Solar Electricity Outproduced Coal for the Month of May Check it out here, right now! * * * WHY WE SHOULD ACT NOW: RISING RISKS Daily Climate Change: Global Map of Unusual Temperatures, June 21, 2016 How unusual has the weather been? No one event is "caused" by climate change, but global warming, which is predicted to increase unusual, extreme weather, is having a daily effect on weather, worldwide. Looking above at recent temperature anomalies, much of the US and the waters surrounding it, are experiencing warmer than normal temperatures: the eastern Pacific warm spot continues to prevent much rain from reaching California, sending it into further drought. Much of the areas surrounding the North Pole are experiencing much warmer than normal temperatures - not good news for our Arctic thermal shield of ice. Hotter than usual temperatures continue to dominate human habitats. * * * There is, of course, much more news on the consequences and solutions to climate change. To get it, check out this annotated resource list I've compiled, "Climate Change News Resources," at Wordpress.com here. For more information on the science of climate change, its consequences and solutions you can view my annotated list of online information resources here. Advertisement To help you understand just what science does and does NOT do, check this out! This combination of file photos shows Democratic presidential hopefuls Bernie Sanders(L)on March 31, 2016 and Hillary Clinton on March 30, 2016,US presidential primaries spark back to life April 5, 2016 after an eventful 10-day break. For Clinton, a loss in Wisconsin would be more symbolic than anything else, as the state distributes delegates proportionally according to the primary results.But she comes into the contest having lost five of the last six states to Bernie Sanders, and polls show him finishing on top in Wisconsin. / AFP / PHOTO DESK (Photo credit should read PHOTO DESK/AFP/Getty Images) As a Democrat, I've been reluctant to support either Clinton or Sanders: I've admired both of them but find them deeply flawed. They represent divergent views of political change and reflect my own conflicting beliefs about the political process. That said, I'm prepared to support either as the nominee, because they're both committed to improving the lives of Americans through building a more equitable, inclusive, and just country. It's unnerving to see diehard Sanders supporters saying they would never vote for Clinton. Doing so would not only threaten the nation (and the world) with a bigoted, misogynistic, and proudly ignorant conman, but it would completely destroy the revolution they claim to care so much about. Advertisement My fellow liberals, no matter how much you hate Clinton, she still has to listen to you. When she needs to build support for a bill on paid maternity leave or an executive action on immigration, she will look to you. Your support will be yours to give or withhold. Her agenda won't fully satisfy you. Nor should it. But it will be shaped, in large part, by your conception of the world. Clinton will attempt to address poverty, health care costs and disparities, climate change, and women's equality because she is a Democrat, and these are the things Democratic voters care about. Any Democrat elected to the White House would face intense pressure from their base to solve these problems. Even if you think Clinton is a deceptive cretin or a corporate puppet, no politician makes it this far by ignoring their party. Voting for Clinton means you get to be heard. Interest groups advocating for reproductive rights, consumer protection, and the poor will have more influence in a Clinton administration. Even if Clinton doesn't give full-throated support for a $15 minimum wage or universal health care on Day One, you can successfully pressure her, like any Democratic president. For example, last month, President Obama announced his support for expanding Social Security benefits, after years of supporting cuts as part of a "Grand Bargain." It took years of progressives fighting for Obama's support on the issue, and after seven years, they got it. Further, Clinton will nominate Supreme Court justices who won't relish the chance to gut campaign finance restrictions, government health care programs, affirmative action, voting rights protections, and clean air laws. The Supreme Court vacancy presents an unprecedented opportunity for liberalism after 45 years of a conservative majority. Throwing it away would be unconscionable. Advertisement Trump, on the other hand, will never listen to you. The jury's out on whether Trump listens to anyone but himself, but you can rest assured he will ignore your pleas for a more equitable, inclusive, and just society. Under a Trump presidency, conspiracy theories and Twitter insults will have more influence over domestic and foreign policy than years of scientific research and expert opinion. You may take to social media and bemoan Trump's latest misdeed; you may even feel validated when your friends agree. But it will change nothing. As a liberal, voting for someone other than Hillary Clinton in this election would be like burning down your house because your toilet is broken. Please don't burn down the house. As families, friends, and supporters gather for the funerals of the innocent victims of the horrific Orlando shooting, I see three profound challenges coming to the fore for our society. One is simply this: In this day and age, the twenty-first century, homophobia is a grave sin that can no longer be tolerated by any religious group, be it Muslim or Vatican or any other tradition. It is long past time for the human race and its religions to heed the proven scientific data: that about 8% of any human population is going to be gay or lesbian; that more than 450 other species have been documented as having homosexual populations; that nature is biased in favor of diversity. Period. It is particularly tragic that many of the murdered, being Latino, had fled to the US from Puerto Rico and other traditionally Catholic countries because they could not be free to be themselves under the rigid rules of the Catholic church (rules, I hasten to point out, that are based not on Jesus' teachings but on those of Augustine and popes right up to today who have chosen to ignore scientific findings on the diversity of sexuality in our species). Advertisement Not only were 50 people murdered and another 50 seriously injured for "partying while gay," but the FBI is investigating reports that the perpetrator was a homosexual himself operating out of self hatred. I wonder where he got that from? Quite possibly from the fanatic elements of his religion, and from his father. A second lesson is obvious: Why does our country allow citizens, some of whom are deranged and self-hating, to buy guns whose use was intended for the military only? Apparently even the US Congress is beginning to act on this none-too-subtle issue after a filibuster by some Democratic congresspeople. Good for them! The third challenge is one I have not heard anyone else talk about, but I think it is the biggest issue of all. It is a challenge to Silicon Valley to stand up and be counted. Recall that the killer, in the midst of all his shooting, calmly called 911 on his iPhone to tell police that he was doing this in the name of ISIS...exchanged text with his wife...and then went on Facebook to see the interest he'd generated. Let us be honest: The cell phones, tablets, and other must-have gee-whiz gadgets that litter our world are also used by ISIS, Al Queda, and self-hating men who perpetrate group killings on a regular basis. What can Silicon Valley corporations do about this? Surely they do not want their inventions to be used for evil purposes. Yet they are so used. Evil is not going to disappear through technology and new gadgets. Deep change has to come from some other place. Advertisement Here is something Silicon Valley can do to enable that change: Invest in supporting movements that are working hard and with far too little financial backing to combat the forces of evil in the human soul. The late and great monk Thomas Merton tellingly described the shadow side of human nature that gets amplified when it links to modern technology, when he wrote the following: Man begins in zoology He is the saddest animal He drives a big red car Called anxiety.... Whenever he goes to the phone To call joy He gets the wrong number Therefore he likes weapons He knows all guns By their right names.... Now he is putting anxiety Into space He flies his worries All around Venus But it does him no good.... Man is the saddest animal He begins in zoology And gets lost In his own bad news. (1) Merton points out that flying into space--which was the technological dream of the 1960s when he lived and wrote this poem--is a modest adventure compared to the greater challenge which is to "cross the abyss that separates us from ourselves. This is the most important of all voyages of discovery, and without it all the rest are not only useless but disastrous." (2) Merton, who died in 1968, was referring to the big technological dream in his day to get to the moon, but his teaching still resonates with today's technological achievements of iPhones, Facebook and more. What if we had heeded his advice 48 years ago and explored "the most important of all voyages"? Advertisement It is not nearly enough that technology companies make continuing profits for their shareholders: it is imperative that they support those movements and efforts that research the deeper layers of human consciousness to explore where all the evil comes from and why joy is so scarce that we are driven to embrace guns instead of one another. It is time to explore the reptilian brain's influence on our decisions and especially those of men (in whom Adrienne Rich points out there very often lies "a fatalistic self-hatred" - a self-hatred fueled in part, I would propose, by homophobic religions and culture). Many techniques have been devised over the centuries by spiritual geniuses and cultures to explore the depths of the human psyche. Among these are practices of silence and contemplation, sweat lodges and whirling dancing, mantras and mindfulness, yoga and meditation, ceremonies and rituals. I have been involved in recovering many of these traditions and in telling the world about the people who have lived them out, and whom we call mystics, for over 40 years. For 20 years I have been involved in reinventing the Western Liturgy using rave and dance, dj and vj, and I have seen powerful results. In creating schools with a proven pedagogy for both adults and for teenagers from the inner city, we have demonstrated that we can indeed lead people through creativity and letting go into their healthy empowerment. In my book, The Hidden Spirituality of Men, I have offered metaphors or archetypes to recover a healthy understanding of Masculinity since there is so much toxic masculinity out there poisoning the souls of young men. Investment in this kind of important work from Silicon Valley would be a powerful way to increase access and practice to an avenue toward inner and an outer peace. There are many other movements too in our time that have teachings and practices to offer. Let Silicon Valley respond to the misuse of its inventions by supporting those who take us deeper than gee-whiz technologies into the soul arena where the struggle against evil truly takes place. Let Silicon Valley tax itself in order to create more of a balance between sickness and health, necrophilia and biophilia, because currently necrophilia is gathering all the headlines. It does not have to be this way. Deeper journeys into the human spirit are possible. As Deepak Chopra has put it in the Foreword to my recent book on evil, the departure of millions of people from organized religion does not mean that evil is being more seriously addressed: "the satanic side of human nature seems more intractable than ever" and evil represents "the simple greatest obstacle of spirituality in the twenty-first century," he observes. (3) Advertisement In the last few years, as the consequences of opioid use have become more recognized among white people--so widespread this is now considered an epidemic--reforms for drug policies have finally been considered. But the "opioid epidemic" comes with softer language, and generally, a more moderate response than past initiatives. This new emphasis--on the treatment of addiction instead of incarceration--represents a new paradigm. For the entirety of the "War on Drugs," policies concerning substance use have been directed toward criminalization. Yet this criminalization, as with many forms of the justice system, is largely steeped in racist narratives. The system of drug enforcement continues to disproportionately affect black people. The racialized discourse of substance use dates farther back than the notorious "War on Drugs," into the 19th century. In the 1800's, use of substances like cocaine among black people was thought to create villainous super-humans, akin to the account of "super-predators" described during the 1990's. These paralleled beliefs held merit in most people's minds until recently--serving to confirm notions of black people as morally deficient, and used as justification for disgraceful acts of violence, including lynching. However, by the time the "War on Drugs" began, this kind of violence was no longer acceptable. As many now recognize, the justice and carceral systems served as a new means to disenfranchise and repress the black people community. Indeed, the gains of the Civil Rights Movement, which immediately preceded the "War on Drugs," motivated the obscuring of structural racism. The "War," created by President Nixon, became a pivotal issue for his administration, and aided in converting a system that had long thrived on clear, systematic disparities, and made them less visible. For the white population, it was no longer acceptable to publicly embrace the racism of figures like George Wallace. Thus, the "War on Drugs" became a proxy for supremacy, creating the marginalized "addict," who was almost always portrayed as black people. And though these policies set out to limit the use of narcotics, they did everything but, instead preying on some of the poorest, most vulnerable sections of the population, and furthering already-established economic and social inequalities. Advertisement Undeniably, the "War on Drugs" involved more than shifting the focus of the justice and penal systems. It was also a continued embodiment of the myth that black people were morally deficient. Years after the "War on Drugs" began, President Reagan, alongside First Lady Nancy, moved to openly affect the discourse on drugs, making substance use prevention into a national campaign. "Just Say No," Nancy Reagan's call to vulnerable youth, did not immediately change the tactics of the U.S. government. Instead, it may have affected public perception, reengaging the attitude that addiction was a moral or personal failing--a choice to which one could simply say "no." In 1986, 50% of Americans saw drug use in this manner, according to a New York Times-CBS poll, signifying the penetration of the Reagan message. Though current addiction science fails to support this narrative, the "Just Say No" campaign fit perfectly with it. By 1989, just as President H.W. Bush was taking office, 64 percent of respondents to a New York Times-CBS poll rated drugs as the nation's number one problem, a dramatic rise in the urgency Americans felt concerning the impact of substance use, despite no clear signs that drug use was actually increasing. Only a half-a-decade prior, that figure was in the single digits. This was a deliberate effort to retroactively justify the "War on Drugs." It stood to reason that this artificial scourge of drug use had to be rectified. If people couldn't hold themselves back from drug abuse, they didn't simply need punishment. They deserved it. In white America, few felt the brunt of this perception, and the ensuing prejudice. It was believed drug abuse wasn't in the suburbs where many white people lived. It was elsewhere. Advertisement It was true that Reagan's "War on Drugs" campaign focused heavily on the "crack epidemic," a drug largely associated with an already assailed urban black population. The narrative of inadequate personal control and moral turpitude among black people, and particularly black drug users, made the "crack epidemic" the perfect target for a new wave of punitive drug policies. This account could not reasonably support drug abuse as a universal American problem--i.e., a white problem, too. The same group was targeted; the process of othering black people in America was as powerful as ever, taking on the moralistic facade that proved effective for hundreds of years. The mechanism was addiction. White people, who supposedly didn't use crack cocaine, remained practically immune to law enforcement, and ergo sum, couldn't possibly be addicted. The laws concerning powder cocaine reinforced this notion: crack cocaine penalties were mandated to be 100 times greater than powder cocaine. Additionally, the policing tactics related to crack--almost exclusively in black neighborhoods, using strategies most would consider entrapment--created a penal system where it was clear who would be arrested and imprisoned for drug infractions, no matter how minor. One could see this policing as a new form of terrorizing the black community; militaristic forces that descended on black neighborhoods, targeting anyone that fit into an archetype of "drug-dealer" or "addict." Though the statistics on drug abuse didn't justify this antagonism, even at the highest wave of the "epidemic," addiction needed to be seen as foreign, even alien to white people to maintain socio-economic supremacy. This othering also allowed many addicted and drug dealing white Americans to avoid incarceration, and in all likelihood, treatment. For the number of white people who recognized their addiction, there was no active, well-known and recognized response by the justice or health systems to address it. Whites were blameless; they didn't live in the neighborhoods where these policing tactics played out, and therefore could never be held responsible. The justice system--so often a reactionary apparatus of the state--attacked only the black population; and the health system, usually so much more attentive to hegemonic white, did nothing, beholden to supremacy and fearful of stigma. Perhaps as a consequence of these unequal policies, the normalization of drug use among white people reached new heights. Advertisement The lack of attention put on white addiction would at least partially explain the rise of drug abuse in that population. In turn, the displaced--and very unnecessary--focus on black people contributed to the largest prison population in the world: Today, black people constitute around half of all incarcerations, representing our toxic duality. In Part I of this series published in December, 2015 immediately following the San Bernardino killing of 14 people by an ISIS-inspired husband and wife team, I made the obvious point that the slaughter was merely the first act of domestic terrorism against civilians on American soil by less than a handful of "lone wolves." Many more were certain to follow. Tragically, we've now had our second--the worst in American history--early Sunday morning, with at least 50 dead in a gay Orlando nightclub at the hands of an America-born Muslim claiming ties to ISIS. In the decades long struggle by the NRA to prevent any infringement whatsoever on the purchase of all firearms by absolutely anyone who wants one, including assault rifles that belong only on the battlefield, San Bernardino marked the very first instance of unfettered acquisition of assault weaponry by home-grown terrorists. In the wake of that tragedy, the Democrats immediately put forth a bill in the Senate calling for the prevention of individuals from buying guns who were identified as terrorists on the so-called Terrorist Watch, many of whom were on the No-Fly list preventing them from boarding planes. The rationale of the bill suggested that anyone who was identified by the FBI as too potentially dangerous to fly should not be allowed to purchase a firearm. The bill required 60 votes to pass. It was rejected by 53 republicans and one democrat, with 44 democratic senators and only one republican (Mark Kirk of Illinois) voting in favor of the prohibition. Republican spokesman, Senator John Cornyn, in a titanic stretch to justify the refusal to make it harder for suspected terrorists to have legal access to assault weaponry, weakly offered that it would be unfair for the innocents on the list to have their Second Amendment rights abridged, displaying no reservations whatsoever about the green light this would give to budding terrorists on the list. Advertisement In the earlier article, I presented a selection of statistics that startled many who read the piece. Hard facts, not opinions. For that reason, I quote the entire list: The Freedom Group, which manufactures the assault rifle used in the Sandy Hook slaughter, saw profits jump from $5.9 million to $57.7 in 2013. Smith and Wesson's profits jumped from $16 million to $79 million in 2013. Smith and Wesson's profits tripled year-over-year from July through Sept, 2015. In an overall flat stock market, their stock was recently up 130%. There are well over 300 million guns in the US, nearly one per person. After each spree shooting in movie theaters, schools, etc., gun sales skyrocket driven by fear of government bans and the desire for self-protection. Gun CEO's readily admit that shooting sprees are fantastic for business. Advertisement On Black Friday following the Paris attacks, gun sale background check surged to a new record of 185,345, each for the purchase of one or more guns. This was before San Bernardino and does not include gun shows or online purchases. Stunning numbers. Back to the present, we do not yet know the extent of NRA political contributions for the current election cycle, but we can be certain that they have continued on their meteoric trajectory. Many consider the NRA the most powerful and feared lobby in the country. And true to form, on the first business day following the massacre, Smith & Wesson stock did indeed surge 12% before closing up 6.87%, while the overall market lost nearly a full percentage point. Other gun manufacturers showed similar gains. Omar Mateen had twice been intensively interrogated by the FBI for inflammatory statements regarding Islamic extremism. It was determined that his case was insufficient to warrant close monitoring. He could not be prevented from legally purchasing guns. One week before the massacre, he was able lawfully to purchase his semi-automatic AR type assault rifle as well as two subsequent purchases of a Glock pistol and an enormous cache of ammunition. The is no system to alert the FBI about the purchases, which would have allowed them to monitor Mateen's actions extremely closely and prevent him from carrying out the massacre. In painfully sharp contrast, 20 year-old James Howell, who himself had served time for pointing a gun at a neighbor, acquired an enormous arsenal and drove from Indiana to LA, apparently bent on mass murder at the LA gay pride parade. At 7am PDT Sunday morning, less than five hours after the Orlando shooting ended, neighbors noticed that he had parked the wrong way on a one-way street and was behaving erratically. The police were called, they discovered the weapons, and yet another LGBT slaughter was prevented on the streets of LA. In a similarly ironic twist, recall that only a few hours before the December, 2012 Sandy Hook massacre in Newtown CT, a 34 year-old deranged man in China leaped into a throng of six and seven year-olds as they gathered before entering school in the morning. Slashing wildly with a knife, he injured 22 children before being stopped. Not a single child died, whereas 20 children and six school staff were slaughtered in the Sandy Hook attack only a few hours later. Had the man been using an AR-15 rather than a knife, the results would have been as hideous as Newtown. Advertisement We know the drill. The NRA will lie low for a few more days while the outrage dies down. Then Wayne LaPierre, face of the NRA, will emerge from under his rock praising the armed security guard at the Orlando disco, stating that if only there had been more good-guy guns (in a loud, crowded, dark, strobe-lighted space!), that Americans need to arm themselves--the usual drivel. As I stated in the earlier piece, we have crossed a terrible threshold in which our insanely easy access to military-style weaponry not only makes it possible for murderers, lunatics, and gang members to arm themselves. By buying off corrupt politicians, the NRA's accomplishments now allow home-grown terrorists the same access. It is not a matter of " if" but "when" the next American lone wolf terrorist attack occurs--and the next and the next and the next. And yet there is no evidence whatsoever that the will of American voters has strengthened to see through the deceptions and insist on change. Of course not. For starters, just by having a Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) strategy, you're doing more good than harm. But I'd wager that if you're worried, then you know something's wrong with your firm's overall program. So maybe let's investigate? Does your strategy look like this? To be real? That's so 2004. Seriously. Actually? Take out "Veteran Status" and you're back in 1996. The difference is this... Your version is about compliance, and my list reflects different experiences. One is reactive, and the other, proactive. I'll bet your company loves metrics, right? Advertisement Well, metrics are usually used to suggest to others that your company is diverse. A lot of the time, they're for show (and 99% of data can be manipulated anyway, so...). Metrics have value, but... Exactly (but don't get mad). Now, also of interest is that you have "religion" on your list -- but I don't have it on mine. Fair question. But no, I'm not. And yet I don't believe it should be a part of D&I. Well, the doctrines of most major religions put it in direct conflict with another D&I element, "Sexual Orientation." With all due respect? It's 2016. It's not complicated. It's bigotry. Any D&I strategy that tries to accommodate both, is unfortunately, doomed to fail because religion, and LGBTQ concerns, might forever be in conflict with one another (unless you're all Wiccan, of course). No. D&I is not about sweeping issues under a rug, and it's not about "tolerance," it's about respect. Advertisement (Sarcastic tone) Thanks for listening. Now, here's another question: Does your company encourage employees to be themselves in how they interact, or communicate? Well, outside of swear words, or sexually unwanted commentary, doesn't that feel restrictive? You all speak corporatespeak then, right? Of course you know Corporatespeak! It's your language! For instance, the English language phrase... "Cleaned hotel rooms," translated into Corporatespeak, comes out as... "Utilizing contemporary cleaning methods and products, successfully restored temporary residences of upper-management clients to their fullest potential of hygiene, sanitation, and appearance." But to be fair, the very notion of "professional behavior" is also in direct contrast with the behaviors that distinguish most non-apparent disabilities, like autism spectrum disorders. As opposed to "apparent" disabilities, yes. :-) Then have the guts to ask for help -- outside, not inside your company. Demand that your superiors put some real resources into resolving their antiquated, for-show D&I programs; don't seek help from consultants that just pat your back (and call you "leaders"); and don't allow your bosses to avoid these "elephants in the bathtub" we've been discussing, like the "religion vs. LGBTQ" dilemma. Kind of. Why? Gulp. You're right. I agree. You actually could argue that. But... why can't you just ask which choice makes the marginalized group in question feel more welcome? Or makes the company less prone to hypocrisy? Advertisement Look, I know this is hard. There's so much to consider. So let me ask another, smaller question: Does your Supplier Diversity Chief hire from vendors that are owned or run by all aspects of D&I? Sigh... Did you really just say that? -- Do you watch the news much? (Shocked pause.) You corporate types are NOT very popular right n- Thought so. But the "reality" is that you care only about perception. Your CEO's proportionately ridiculous bonuses, and your D&I program's easily visible inadequacies prove that. Simple. I'm not a big Sigmund Freud fan (for starters, he slept with his patients), but he had one brilliant thing to say... "If you want someone to change, then YOU have to change." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Stephen Beck Jr., Achieving a Better Life Experience Act, better known as the ABLE Act, is perhaps the most important law passed by Congress since the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990. Why? ABLE recognizes that there are often added costs to living with a disability. The ABLE Act responds to these significant daily and weekly out of pocket expenses by creating tax advantaged savings accounts (ABLE accounts). However, an ABLE account has a second powerful advantage. For the first time, eligible individuals and their families will be allowed to establish ABLE savings accounts that will not affect their eligibility for SSI, Medicaid and other public benefits. (For ABLE account basics, please watch the video: ABLE Accounts: 10 Things You Should Know.) ABLE accounts are tax-advantaged savings accounts for individuals with disabilities and their families. The beneficiary of the account is the account owner, and income earned by the account will not be taxed. Contributions to the account made by any person (the account beneficiary, family and friends) will be made using post-taxed dollars and will not be tax deductible for purposes of federal income tax, although some states may allow for state income tax deductions for contributions made to an ABLE account. Millions of individuals with disabilities and their families are often relegated to a life of poverty as a result of not being allowed to build even the most modest level of resources. Individuals receiving supports through Social Security, Medicaid and other publicly-funded programs, are often disqualified from those supports if they have more than $2,000 worth of resources or assets. Now, eligible individuals with disabilities and their families will be able to take a step to better secure their financial futures and to help offset the often significant financial challenges that can accompany living with a disability. Advertisement 2016 marks the first year in which ABLE accounts will be available to qualified beneficiaries. Ohio and Tennessee have opened ABLE programs and Nebraska and Florida will open ABLE programs in the next 30 days. Each state program has different investment choices and costs and fee structures. How can you become ABLE ready? 1. Identify your need for savings Whether you are working and producing income and/or a Social Security beneficiary of SSI and/or SSDI monthly income payments, make a list of short and longer term needs to set aside for funds in an ABLE account. Consider whether these needs will be covered by any public benefit program you currently receive or may receive in the future. Some examples include: Long-term supports like personal assistance services which a government funded benefit may cover, but restricts the number of hours per week or month; Renovations to where you live to make it more accessible; Assistive technology like hearing aids or repairs to a wheelchair; The purchase of a computer or iPad; Supported or customized employment assistance including on-the-job training; Public benefits planning; and The purchase and retrofitting or modifying of a van. Investigate costs to meet identified needs and develop a short-term (up to three years) and longer term budget. Advertisement 2. Identify potential sources for income Friends, family and an employer may all be invited to contribute to your ABLE Account. The total allowable contributions from all contributors combined is currently $14,000 in any given tax year. Your contributions to an ABLE account are not tax deductible for purposes of filing your federal taxes, but may be deductible for purposes of your state income tax depending on where you live. While you or your family may not have the resources to contribute $14,000 annually, you might also consider crowdsourcing or letting relatives and friends know about your specific future savings goals and how they can help make it happen. 3. Consider an ABLE account as part of long-term financial goals If you already have or are considering a Special Needs Trust, or SNT, discuss your long-term goals with your financial advisor or attorney about whether an ABLE account could be established to complement the goals of the Trust. The ABLE account funds will not impact continued eligibility for SSI, Medicaid and other public benefits. The SNT also protects against loss of eligibility for public benefits. The costs of establishing an SNT with the engagement of a knowledgeable attorney will more likely be higher than establishing an ABLE account with a state. 4. Be aware of stipulations related to all ABLE accounts You may not be eligible for an ABLE account if your age of onset of disability is after age 26, or your disability does not meet the threshold to document significant disability below age 26. The greater disability community will continue to work with Congress to raise the age of onset beyond age 26, however, this will take time. If you establish an ABLE account and do not use all the resources in the account before you die, the remaining funds are subject to a payback provision to the state if you used Medicaid for any supports and services. You are limited to total contributions of14,000 annually. There are no such restrictions in an SNT or Pooled Income Trust. 5. Start saving now You do not have to wait until your state or another state establishes its ABLE account program. While you should still be aware of your asset limits as they relate to your benefits, you can begin to save now! Set aside a dollar amount weekly or monthly from your paycheck and/or Social Security check if you receive SSI and/or SSDI. Visit with a local financial institution, such as a bank or credit union, and open a savings account if you do not have one. Find a financial institution with no monthly administrative fees, an interest bearing savings account, any matched saving options, and discuss minimum balance requirements and how many transactions you may make monthly at no cost. Set a savings goal for the calendar year and invite family and friends to contribute to your savings account. These funds will be moved to an ABLE account when you select a state's ABLE program that is a good fit for your needs. 6. Compare state ABLE programs This summer, at least four states will have opened ABLE programs and be inviting eligible individuals nationwide to open an ABLE account outside of their state of residence. Below are some questions to keep in mind when comparing state ABLE account programs. Is there a minimum contribution to open an ABLE account? Is there a fee to open an account and, if so, how much is that fee? Is there a required minimum contribution to your account? If so, what is the amount? Are there restrictions on how often you can withdraw funds from your account? What are the investment options the state ABLE program offers? Are the options likely to meet your needs for limiting risk with the growth of your contributed dollars to the ABLE account? Are there options to help increase income from your invested dollars? What has been the history of the rate of return of the investment fund? Do you have a clear understanding of the fees associated with management of the fund? Are the fees front end loaded or are they reduced if you leave your funds invested for several years? What access will you have to learn about the current rate of return on funds invested? Could you access the information daily online? What proof will the ABLE program require to document: Your eligibility to open an account? That your disbursements are qualified expenses? Does the program offer any unique or value added program elements to help you save, contribute to your account, grow the account and manage your invested dollars? Does your state have a program and, if so, do they offer a state income tax deduction for contributions to their account? 7. Your needs are unique No two eligible individuals have the same needs for opening and managing an ABLE account. You may have set short-term priorities and be withdrawing funds weekly or monthly. Another individual may have longer term needs and priorities for saving and using an ABLE account. Talk with people you trust. Create a circle of support of family and friends. Though not required in order to open an ABLE account, you may consider consulting a financial advisor who has documented experience with creating and/or managing a special needs trust. Find out if there is a pooled income trust in your community. Then talk with the program administrators and seek referrals from families who have experience using the trust. Advertisement For many families, the ABLE account will be a significant and viable option in addition to, rather than instead of, a trust program. 8. Be an informed consumer As states open ABLE programs, NDI will compare and contrast individual state programs to help you make informed decisions. Currently, ABLE TN and Ohio STABLE Account are the only two programs enrolling beneficiaries in the country, and they are doing so via their online portals. However, several other states are expected to open ABLE account programs in the near future, including Nebraska, Florida and Utah. In fact, both Nebraska (a national plan) and Florida (an in-state only plan) are expected to launch prior to July 1. Imitating Stephen Hawking is a bold move, but doing it with wit and satire is an endearing statement. Hailing from Gloucester, Massachusetts is musician Ken Lawrence whose better known moniker is M.C. Hawking. In the early 2000s, Lawrence created this alter-ego by producing tracks using the synthesized text-to-speech program made famous by Hawking. Lawrence's music is not a parody of the great physicist but rather an act of reverence for his contributions to the world of science. Lawrence quickly became an internet sensation, especially amongst the "nerdcore" community. Tracks such as "The Hawkman Cometh" and "Entropy" went viral and received international interest from both the music and science community. This lead to a record deal with Brash Music with whom he recorded and released his debut album, M.C. Hawking: A Brief History of Rhyme. Lawrence will be releasing the video for his newest track, "Fear of a Black Hole" with fellow nerdcore rapper, M.C. Lars, next week which is off of his forthcoming fall LP, The Hawkman Returneth. Though his lyrics are insightful, witty, and humorous, his satirical style is most appreciated by a very niche community and so may not be understood by the everyday hip hop listener. That being said, M.C. Lawrence is not a manufactured superstar who is mass producing music and beats to sell out stadiums and records but instead is blazing his own path, a path whose foundation is science and those who tread upon it are its devotees. Advertisement While Lawrence's career was successfully taking off, the pinnacle occurred when he was invited to the 2016 STARMUS Festival in the Canary Islands of Spain to perform live for the actual Stephen Hawking. This year's festival, which will take place from June 27th to July 2nd, is being held to commemorate the many achievements of Stephen Hawking. The STARMUS Festival was founded in 2011 by world-renowned astrophysicist Garik Israelian as a place to celebrate science, culture and music with presentations from astronauts, cosmonauts, Nobel Prize winners and various other prominent figures. "It is an honor to perform not only for Professor Hawking, but to other legendary scientists, musicians, and world dignitaries," says Lawrence. "Professor Hawking is a pillar within the scientific community and it still feels surreal that I will be performing for him." M.C. Hawking will be performing as part of a space-themed concert that will include other musicians such as Academy Award winning composer Hans Zimmer, Grammy Award winning soprano Sarah Brightman, Grammy Award winning musician and producer Brian Eno, as well as many more talented musicians who will be sharing their cosmic compositions. Retired astronaut Chris Hadfield who was the first person to record a song in space, will be performing his famous version of "Space Oddity" which was even given the David Bowie stamp of approval. In addition to music, there will be a series of lectures by notable figures such as scientist/author/television personality, Neil deGrasse Tyson and of course from the man of the hour, Stephen Hawking himself. Attendees were even given an opportunity to submit questions in advance to be presented to and answered by Hawking during the lecture. The STARMUS Festival is not only for the scientific community but for the world, as it celebrates the achievements born of human curiosity. The people who followed their wonder and curiosity eventually reached great milestones in science and produced profound works of literature, music, art, and media. In the words of M.C. Hawking: "Maybe there is still hope for the young, if they reject the dung being slung from the tongues, of the ignorant fools who call themselves preachers, and listen instead to their science teachers." New York summer's offer plenty. The streets are quieter as the really lucky retreat to their weekend cottages and the students have left town for their gap year. That leaves the rest of us to find joys in the lengthened days and beautiful weather. From a show based around the Egyptian Book of the Dead on Governor's Island o full moon watching from a rooftop with Tecate; there is no shortage of diversions. Lower Manhattan Cultural Council sponsors its annual River to River Festival. In the basement of the Arts Center, choreographer Kaneza Schall and her team draw inspiration from the Egyptian Book of the Dead, using analog projection, sound and dance to animate a series of burial vignettes. It's a magical show; the three male dancers looking like Temple Priests, eerie and powerful in the lighting of the tombs. There are real surprises and I won't spoil the fun, but it's a terrific piece and worth the jaunt over on the ferry. Advertisement The National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene is presenting KulturfestNYC, the world's largest festival of Jewish performing arts for three months, including dance, film, music and social engagement. I have no father to spend Father's Day with so I joined a live sing along with the movie of Fiddler on the Roof at the Jewish Heritage Museum. Topol as Tevya is the father to three daughters and not a bad substitute for my own Pop. A couple of performers, one fiddler and an MC lead the show, getting the audience revved up for the songs. The screen presents the lyrics and though it is not Rocky Horror Show crazy, there is real enthusiasm and joy. I said to my friend that I may not have anything in common with the other members of the audience, beyond the love of the music of this show and of course, the traditions that many of us were raised with. The special guest stars of the event were two of the original performers from the film, Neva Small who played Chava (she runs away with the gentile) and Rosalind Harris who as Tzeiitel, escaped the clutches of the butcher, Lazar Wolf. I met Leonard Frey, who played Teitel the tailor, at an art show years ago. He blew upwards on my mother's old silver fox coat, proving to us both that it was real. Ironically, his other big role was in The Boys in the Band and he was great. When the villagers of Anatevka are forced to pack up and leave, we all feel the ache. We have only to look at the migration of Jews out of France and Syrians, Somalia, Afghanistan and others today to see how current this Sholem Aleichem story still is. Advertisement After a long and lingering stroll up the Hudson, I stopped at La Mama to see a production called I'm Bleeding All Over the Place: A Living Tour. Avant garde theatre is special and this piece conceived and directed by Brooke O'Harra (co-founder of the OBIE Award-winning group Two-Headed Calf is challenging. The actors face off with the audience by having encounters and at times one isn't sure who the real performer is. They make good use of the space, having the audience follow the performers around, creating both a sense of immersion and distance. For the Sunday finale, there is of course, the full moon. Please see: r LMCC and all events on river to river. http://lmcc.net/news/river-river-2016-live/ www.kulturfestnyc.org for the Folksbeine Festival. The purchase of a home is among the biggest financial decisions people will make in a lifetime. Taking a qualified homebuying class will do more than teach you how to get a mortgage or pull together a down payment - it will help you determine the amount of home you can afford without endangering other lifetime financial goals. If you think this training is just for first-timers, think again. Real estate markets change, and so do homebuying environments. It is worth considering taking a class each time you're making a home purchase, especially if it has been a significant number of years between purchases. The homebuying class can keep you up to date on what you'll need to know this time around. Where can you find these courses? Many private lenders offer their own training, but governments -- local, state and federal -- are the main source for instructional classes for homebuyers. In fact, on both the public and private side, these classes are often tied to special loans or funding assistance for the qualified. Advertisement Most homebuyer trainings are free - if you're asked to pay, get an explanation for what those costs cover. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) provides a list of approved state and local agencies that offer a range of homebuyer education options - some even help first-time buyers obtain grants and other financial assistance with their down payments. HUD has backed up this effort with additional funding this year. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and Department of Agriculture (USDA) also offer assistance and educational programs for qualified buyers. Meanwhile, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two government-sponsored agencies that keep mortgage funding flowing through our lending system, also support their own homebuyer education options. In fact, a 2013 Freddie Mac study indicated that pre-purchased financial counseling may cut the likelihood of a first-time homebuyer becoming seriously delinquent by nearly 30 percent. If you think the homebuying process is overly complicated, you're not alone. A 2015 survey by NeighborWorks America indicated that 70 percent of Americans think so, noting that the perception is higher among new college graduates, adjusting to managing their student loans. Advertisement Most Americans don't seem to know there's help out there. In an earlier 2013 study, NeighborWorks noted that nearly three quarters of Americans had no idea about federal or state down payment assistance or related programs to help people understand homebuying. Here are some of the major topics a thorough homebuying class should cover: 1.Homebuying readiness. Explore the general questions around a homebuying decision, such as why you want to settle in a particular area, how long you plan to stay, what kind of property you're considering and where you are in your career and lifestyle. You may also be asked to answer specific financial questions to support your thinking, which should not be shared with others. The best courses will help you determine answers to the big questions, such as whether you should buy a home or stick with renting. 2.Budgeting and credit. These courses will help you evaluate how you handle money. Do you have a budget? If not, do you know how to create one? Do you understand your credit rating and what goes into determining your score? If you have debt, how are your efforts going to pay it off? Essentially, what you don't know about spending and borrowing can limit your ability to buy a home. 3.Preapproval for mortgage financing. Navigate the nitty-gritty of the loan process - what a mortgage is, the various types of mortgages, how they work and what it takes to be preapproved for a mortgage. Preapproval involves filling out a full mortgage application, typically with a fee to cover an extensive credit check as if you were actually buying a home. Pre-approval, unlike prequalification, allows a potential borrower to receive a loan commitment for a specific amount, which can grease the wheels in a potential purchase and focus the search on properties in the right price range. 4.Knowing what you can afford. Analyze the above and consider the reality of what kind of property you can really afford to buy. Look at price limits and locations and ways to get more for your money, including specific local, state and federal borrowing programs you may qualify for. Buying your dream home can seem nice, but it can turn into a nightmare if you can't afford the home while living within your means. Advertisement 5.Your home search. Determine how, when and where to shop for specific properties within the neighborhoods you are interested in and how to get the best overall deal for what you're buying. 6.What you'll need to close a home sale in your chosen community. Buying a home can also include an introduction to the specific regulatory and cost environment where you're planning to live. For example, your course should take you through such things as community-specific housing laws and zoning restrictions that could affect what you'll be investing in the property, property tax issues (particularly if an assessment is pending), your home titling process, inspection requirements and the other costs linked to legal processes and paperwork. 7.The aftermath. A solid homebuying class should give you a wide picture of the costs you'll face after the sale and how to manage them so you don't put the rest of your finances in jeopardy. Being too "house poor" not only puts you at a risk of losing the property, it can threaten other important financial goals. Including a certification of course completion with your loan application won't guarantee loan approval. But if you've recently improved your borrowing status based on what you've learned, it may help to have that certification in your file. If you're hoping to qualify for a government-sponsored mortgage program that offers a low loan rate, down payment credit or other benefits, you're likely to need certification before you'll be accepted. Finally, if you have your eye on particular lenders in your community, call them to see whether homebuying education can be a helpful factor in getting approved for a loan. Ask them to explain how they evaluate such training and what courses they recommend. Always ask whether any homebuyer class has a fee and why. Also, get a second opinion - if you work with a qualified financial professional, ask what he or she thinks about the course and its benefits. Advertisement As you consider such a course, don't think narrowly about what you can get out of it. It's not just about getting the mortgage. It's a chance to ask about how a home purchase may affect other aspects of your financial life - all personal finance goals should be considered equally. Bottom line: It never hurts to seek additional education to better understand your finances, particularly if you are looking to buy a new home. Whether it's your first home purchase or your second or third, take a few hours to better understand the mortgage process, improve your credit and shop smarter for a home you can actually afford. Nathaniel Sillin directs Visa's financial education programs. To follow Practical Money Skills on Twitter: www.twitter.com/PracticalMoney Mathew Parr explains how double entry bookkeeping can help us to interpret nature and natural systems This article has been submitted as part of the Natural Capital Coalition's series of blogs on natural capital by Mathew Parr, senior advisor on natural capital, IUCN Netherlands. We take our current system of numbers, counting and mathematics for granted. They are an integral part of our everyday lives: essential in the workings of our modern technology; indispensable in running our global economy; central to our understanding of the environment. Advertisement Up until only a few hundred years ago though, we used a completely different system to count and calculate: using counters and Roman numerals. It wasn't until an unlikely group of savvy merchants in Florence saw the benefits of what was then known as Hindu-Arabic 'abbaco' mathematics, that things started, very slowly, to change. Over the 14th and 15th centuries, they embraced and studied this new system, using the now familiar numerals 0-9 in addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, and put it to use in what they called "the expression in writing of the arrangement of [their] affairs." This 'expression in writing' has become known as double entry bookkeeping, and was perfected by Luca Pacioli, a Franciscan monk born near Florence, Italy, in the 1440s. In 1494 he published the first treatise on double entry bookkeeping, a record keeping system under which every business transaction is recorded in at least two accounts: debit entries on the left and credit entries on the right. As Jane Gleeson-White writes in her wonderful little book on the history of finance and accounting, double entry bookkeeping became the cornerstone governing our global economy and every business which operates therein. By virtue of this innovation, the merchants became some of the wealthiest and most educated in Europe, unleashing first a cultural revolution (modern financing and, to some extent, the Renaissance), and subsequently, a scientific and industrial revolution. While they lived a life of wealth and extravagance in Italy, scientists in Western Europe were busy experimenting with these new numbers and equations, and applying them in order to chronicle and interpret the natural world. Advertisement For these scientists, numbers become an essential tool. Early conservationists like John Muir, although renowned for their written prose on the beauty of nature, also measured and calculated many aspects of the natural world. Darwin, while a reluctant mathematician, wrote towards the end of his life that he wished he had learned the basic principles of math, "for men thus endowed seem to have an extra sense." Today, numbers, math, and statistics are essential in how we describe and study the status and trends of our global species, ecosystems, habitats and environment, without them projects like the IUCN Red List would be impossible. For most of their history, market economists and conservation ecologists have not bothered each other much. The economists observed and produced economic theories, and measured production and consumption of goods and services in the market place. The ecologists observed and produced ecological theories, and measured the interaction of living organisms with their environments. However, both economists and ecologists have, over time, come to recognize that neither approach produces a complete picture. Our failure to achieve a unified understanding is leading to inefficient and destructive decisions, which ultimately benefit neither the economy nor the environment. Every economic enterprise fundamentally depends in some way on the natural world. Any measurement or account of economic activity - from a cost-benefit analysis, to a company account, and all the way to measuring GDP itself - should therefore include nature. Failing to do so creates blind spots in identifying economic and corporate risk and opportunity. Correspondingly, no ecosystem exists that has not been affected or altered by economic activities in some sense. This relationship, when poorly understood and managed, leads to a vicious circle of environmental degradation and economic instability. Any attempt to maintain ecological integrity and diversity in the 21st century then, must therefore include recourse to economics and economic actors, just as any attempt to maintain economic stability and prosperity must recourse to ecology and ecological actors. Advertisement Fortunately, as in 1494, 2016 could be a watershed moment; the year when business and conservation comes together to collaborate in a constructive, systematic way to account for natural capital alongside traditional measurements of financial capital. This will undoubtedly lead to better, more informed decisions that will benefit us all. A number of initiatives are at the forefront this next revolution. One of these is the Natural Capital Coalition, which brings together leading initiatives and organizations under a common vision of a world where business conserves and enhances natural capital. In July of this year, the Coalition will launch the world's first Natural Capital Protocol, a framework for businesses to identify, measure and value their impacts and dependencies on natural capital, and generate trusted, credible, and actionable information to inform better decisions in business. While he was alive, Luca Pacioli realized how vital it is for businesses to express their values in numbers. If he were alive today, he would surely see the benefit of such a framework to help business - across all geographies and sectors - express, in writing, the "arrangement of [their] affairs" with regard to nature. Disclaimer: Articles in this series are submitted by people who work in organizations who are part of the Natural Capital Coalition, or people who are involved in the natural capital space more generally, the views expressed here do not necessarily represent the views of The Natural Capital Coalition, other Coalition organizations, or the organization that employs the author. Follow Mathew Parr on Twitter: @MathewMasseyP Keep up to date with IUCN NL on Twitter: @IUCNNL Keep up to date with IUCN on twitter: @IUCN Advertisement Mathew is the Senior Advisor Natural Capital at IUCN Netherlands, overseeing and advising projects on both natural capital for business and development. This includes their work engaging corporates and testing of the Natural Capital Protocol, as well as ecosystem valuation studies in the tropics, where he is currently overseeing a large valuation study of Atewa Forest Reserve in Ghana. Prior to IUCN NL Mathew spent several years in Vietnam working on national park management and social forestry. Mathew holds an MSc in Biodiversity Conservation and Management from Imperial College, University of London, and an BA in Economics and Philosophy from the University of Leeds. He guest lectures on Natural Capital at the the Free University of Amsterdam and Wageningen University. On 13th July 2016, The Natural Capital Coalition will launch a standardized framework for business to identify, measure and value their impacts and dependencies on natural capital. This 'Natural Capital Protocol' has been developed through a unique collaborative process; a World Business Council for Sustainable Development consortium led on the technical development and an IUCN consortium led on business engagement and piloting. The Protocol is supported by practically focused 'Sector Guides' on Apparel and Food & Beverage produced by Trucost on behalf of Coalition. Keep up to date with the Natural Capital Coalition on Twitter: @NatCapCoalition What They Do With Your Money is a thoughtful, meticulously documented, and downright infuriating indictment of the American financial services industry, which not only takes much more in fees from investors than their counterparts in other countries but hides those fees so that people who are relying on employer-sponsored pension funds, 401(k)s, and other investments cannot tell how much of their money is being siphoned off. The subtitle of the book is How the Financial System Fails Us and How to Fix It, and it ends on a hopeful note. In an interview, authors Stephen Davis, Jon Lukomnik, and David Pitt-Watson explained the 16 layers and 100 different fees that erode the pensions of American workers and the changes in social media and technology that could reroute those returns back to employees and investors. Why do you say that worker savings have become a "virtual ATM for the financial industry?" Understandably, we have allowed experts to manage our nest eggs--but the number of agents between us and our investments has grown exponentially and each takes a fee or extracts a cost. Yes, there are money management fees which most of us see, but also marketing fees (12B-1 fees), custodial fees, transfer agent fees, sub-transfer agent fees, sub-custodial fees, audit fees, mutual fund board fees, valuation agent fees, proxy advisory fees, trading costs, broker fees, administration fees... the list goes on and on. It sometimes takes as many as 16 different agents--each extracting fees or adding costs--to shepherd our money from an account to an investment. And while some of those fees are disclosed, many are not, so that the average investor really doesn't appreciate how much the financial industry siphons. Stealth costs can climb enough to knock 50% off the total that a typical worker would have on retirement without those fees and costs. Advertisement We have seen a series of post-crash and post-scandal reform efforts over the past 30 years -- what has been effective and what has failed? The Enron scandal begat the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and the financial crisis begat the Dodd-Frank Act. In each case reforms from Washington added some constructive safeguards. But they have amounted to Band-Aids rather than comprehensive treatment for market ills. Experts disagree about whether the benefits have been worth the cost when companies have to comply with thousands of pages of new regulations. But one thing is certain: When it comes to fixes, policymakers have had a blind spot about financial agents. The biggest hidden failure in today's financial system is that there is almost no effective oversight of our financial agents. The main law addressing the issue (the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, or ERISA) is 42 years old; it was written for retirement conditions that no longer exist. For instance, we have far fewer workers compared to retirees; people live a lot longer, so they need more money to draw on; and traditional pension plans have given way to 401(k)-style plans with far more risk and higher fees. Advertisement Gridlock in Washington has put a brake on efforts to update law and regulation. Recently the US Department of Labor required investment advisors to put client interests ahead of other commercial interests - and the industry is suing to block that rule, and the Congress is trying to overturn it, largely on partisan grounds. That's a shame, because if the partisan gridlock would loosen enough for a rational discussion, much could be accomplished. For example, a reform package could oblige retirement plans to disclose the equivalent of a nutrition statement, so that consumers can learn in plain language whether their agents are configured to act in their best interests, how many agents there are, how they get paid and how much that reduces potential earnings. Legislation could require retirement savings plans to feature skilled, independent boards that police fees, conflicts of interest, and policies of investment funds. Finally, laws could mandate that financial agents abide by fiduciary duties that put the client first. The interesting thing about that package of reforms is that they are systemic; designed to allow the market to work by adding information, expertise and clear accountability. They are not the type of "do this, don't do that" regulations to which the industry objects and, which, we contend, have unintended consequences and don't work that well in the first place. Consider this: There are now about 100,000 more compliance officers in finance than there were before the financial crisis. They monitor a virtual Hammurabi's code of very specific compliance-type regulation. But few think that the financial sector works better because of this. But if we made the process transparent, made accountability explicit, made fiduciary obligation extend throughout the chain of intermediaries, we could lighten up on the amount of spot regulation. How has the shift from defined benefit pension plans to defined contribution plans affected retirement benefits? How has it affected shareholder oversight of corporate direction? The overall economy? Advertisement Defined contribution plans were conceived as a supplement to pension plans, not a substitute for them. As the principal vehicle for retirement savings, they fall well short of needs. Fees are higher, and returns are lower, than traditional defined benefit or hybrid collective savings plans. Savers shoulder excessive risk, and even those who are supposedly sophisticated are shown to make poor choices. No wonder that the US faces a worsening savings crisis, with the typical American nearing retirement with inadequate income to meet basic living expenses. But it is even worse than that. The shift to 401(k)s has ballooned the power of mutual funds, and the business model of mutual funds is trading-oriented rather than long-term investment oriented. Studies show they too often act short term - in general they turn over their portfolios every year -- which in turn compels companies to act short term to match their investors' time frame. While some fund families, such as Blackrock, Vanguard, State Street and TIAA, have grown more responsible as owners of shares, some have not. To take one case, in 2012 a large mutual fund spent an estimated $138 million promoting its brand as a champion of clients, but at the same time employed a single person to actually do that advocacy, by managing voting shares at more than 10,000 portfolio companies worldwide. If holders of vast blocks of US stock act in our name in this way, it short-circuits the genius of free enterprise--that owners watch the store. The result is an underpowered type of capitalism in which managers, not owners, make fundamental strategic business decisions. A number of politicians have recommended a legal standard for boards and executives that is measured by stakeholder benefits. What would that change? We think this is a distraction. In the real world, managing a company means balancing the demands/risks/opportunities of innumerable groups and time frames. But our legal system makes some of those risks more equal than others. So, for example, financials are audited and filed with the SEC, but companies feel free to omit or segregate into a separate statement the ways in which they address so-called environmental, social and governance, or ESG, factors, when, in today's world, these are fundamental risks and opportunities. Even when there is SEC guidance requiring disclosure of these risks, as there is on climate change, it is honored in the breech, with boilerplate, non-differentiated disclosure. And the SEC has sat by silently while its own guidance is ignored. Advertisement So, the first step is for the SEC to start enforcing its own guidance. The second and more important step is for boards, managements, regulators and investors to stop seeing ESG issues as somehow different from other risks and opportunities companies face. Human capital management, climate change, supply chain management, and a host of other ESG issues are now known to have financial consequences. Why would an investor voluntarily assume the risk of ignoring them? Why would a company take on unnecessary risk by omitting them from strategic calculations? Standards should clarify that factors relevant to value, whether conventionally measured or not, should be integrated into statements to allow investors and others to get a more accurate profile of a company. Disclosure of relevant risks is the law. Making it clear that disclosure applies to both short- and long-term risks and opportunities would help investors more accurately assess the danger to, and potential of, portfolio companies. How many intermediaries are there between an employee and the stock he or she owns in a retirement plan? As noted above, one study counted 16. That may be low. The Transparency Task Force in the UK has detailed more than 100 fees. While the regulatory regime in the UK and the US are different, we would not be surprised to see such a list here. What do you think of binding arbitration agreements in contracts between investors and money managers? Advertisement Arbitration, like a court proceeding, has its advantages and disadvantages. The great advantage of arbitration is that is flexible, and the parties can agree to the procedure and the arbitrators, customizing the process and tribunal to their specific needs. But that means there needs to be equal knowledge and power in deciding on where, how, and before whom to arbitrate between the parties signing the contract. That may the case for large investing institutions, but it is virtually never the case for consumer investors. Therefore, we believe the courts are better served to protect investor interests. Granted, the sophisticated and monied will always have an advantage, however a court's procedures and a judge's discretion can lessen those advantages. To deny retail or unsophisticated investors a court hearing based upon a fine print paragraph buried in the back of a multi-page legal document we believe is wrong. The business community is currently suing to stop a new rule that would require them to put the interests of their customers ahead of their own. Why does that matter? Investment advisors should put the interests of client investors ahead of their firm's commercial interests. That way individuals seeking investment help can know if the advice they get is truly going to be best for them, or if it is being offered because a broker is being paid on the side. Financial service companies are fighting the measure through Congressional allies and court action, using the argument that the action would curb financial advice. In fact, the new fiduciary duty standard could curb excessive fees going from individuals to those financial companies. And while it might end some types of advice, the chances are that type of advice isn't very good for the investors, since it's being influenced by the promoters of a financial product. Large institutional investors - the CalPERS and Harvard endowments of the world - usually mandate by contract that their advisors are fiduciaries, which is the legal way of saying that their advisors must put their interests first. Individuals don't have the power to do so. They can fend for themselves and get that contract language. This battle is about some parts of the financial community trying to deny fiduciary protection to small investors who generally do not have the leverage to get fiduciary obligation put into a contract. Advertisement Even from the industry point of view, we find the industry's position on this short-sighted. At a time when the financial system is under attack, we need to build up trust. Opposing the fiduciary rule does the opposite. Instead, the industry ought to be proposing a grand bargain: Embrace fiduciary obligation and real transparency so that the market can work the way it's supposed to. In return, let's simplify the exponential amount of "spot" regulation that has created 100,000 new compliance officers since the global finance crisis, and which many think does not work as well as it should. But the industry today seems to be opposing systemic fixes. Cynics would say that Wall Street has figured out how to pass on the cost of those compliance officers, and has identified the loopholes in the myriad of spot regulations that have been passed. We prefer to think that the industry - our industry - is being short-sighted and will come around to embracing a systemic fix in time. Why do Americans pay so much more in fees for managing their retirement money than people in other countries like the Netherlands? The US in the past three decades has migrated away from collective pension savings to individual accounts in which citizens, if they are lucky enough to have a plan at all, shoulder nearly all risks when they save for retirement. In effect, we are sold financial products, instead of buying retirement plans. Studies show that the 401(k)-style system comes at a high cost compared to the type of collective plans available in the Netherlands. Plus, thanks to better governance of savings arrangements there, plans feature fewer intermediaries between the saver and the investment and fewer distortions caused by conflicts of interest. One other thing that generally flies under the radar. After you retire, the Dutch system features simple, low-cost annuities, compared to the type of very complicated, high-cost annuities you can buy here. So, while a typical retiree in the Netherlands will retire with 50% more in assets than will a similarly-situated retiree here, if the Dutch and the American buy annuities to provide income in retirement, the Dutch retiree will be able to live on 79% more than the American retiree. Advertisement You have some intriguing ideas about the use of social media and technology to provide more transparency and oversight for investors. What do you think is most promising? Take the example of Buycott, a free app launched in 2013, which aims to help consumers align their values with their purchasing. The first question it asks is: "Have you ever wondered whether the money you spend ends up funding causes you oppose?" You can scan a product at a store to see if the company that produced it is involved in any ethical campaign you support. Now, let's imagine a smartphone tool that asks a parallel question: "Have you ever wondered whether the money you save ends up funding causes you oppose?" It could compare pension or 401(k) plans, providing you with a picture of how accountable each is, how fees compare, and how well or poorly they align with what you believe. That's a gap just waiting to be filled. FinTech approaches hold other promise. Today, those with a 401(k) plan can easily summon an online page filled with latest data on holdings, transactions, and stock prices. But what's conspicuously missing are real-time updates on how funds you own have voted in your name at portfolio companies on key issues such as CEO pay, or engaged in your name with boards on climate change. Funds don't offer a ready description of how they are governed, or precisely how much in fees is subtracted. It isn't technically difficult to do. They just need pressure from their savers to do it. I spent 5 years in Mexico, and one of my fondest memories was the occasional "Fiesta Caribena" my friends and I organized. We mainly planned and executed the event to maintain our Caribbean identity and culture as well as to help our Mexican friends experience our different countries through us without actually going there. With that said, it then begs the question, how can the average Caribbean national or even better those in privileged positions like entertainers play their part by painting pictures of the Caribbean to others who are not as privileged to be there? My last two articles on the Huffington Post dealt with the responsibility Caribbean natives have to help control the narrative about our respective countries in the media and how Caribbean soca artists can use social media to build their brands worldwide. Those topics are very important to me, and I also think they go hand in hand since Caribbean artists and well-known personalities can make a significant contribution by promoting themselves while eliminating some of the misconceptions people may have about the Caribbean. Often times, saying what should or needs to be done is easy but actually following through is most times where the difficulty lies. I firmly believe that action is the only true agent of change, so I thought the best way to strengthen my points was to follow up with an article highlighting someone of reputable standing that is practicing exactly what I outlined in my first two pieces. I thought who better to feature than the Caribbean Queen of Bacchanal herself Destra Garcia. In my opinion, Destra does a great job with social media and have built a raving community around her brand online. She uses her music to give people in different cities around the world a view of Caribbean, especially her home country Trinidad and Tobago, without really being there. Advertisement Her latest single, "Luv with the Riddim", which is a cross between soca and pop, is a classic example of how she is able to infuse a Caribbean flavor into everything she does. While it is easy for me to provide my opinion on why Destra perfectly epitomises what I spoke about in my last two articles, I thought it would better to get the views directly from The Queen of Bacchanal herself. So I spoke with Destra, and I was absolutely blown away. Blown away not only because she is awesome, and I am a fan, but by the fact that she embodies everything I have been speaking about. Caribbean artists, especially those on the rise, should definitely take a page from her book to see that what I have been writing about is indeed possible. In terms of helping shape and control the image and reputation of Caribbean countries, Destra indicated that whenever she goes to any country to perform, she does not tailor her performances to suit the country. Although she is blessed with the unique ability of versatility with many different musical genres such as reggae and the likes, she is primarily known as a soca artist, as evidenced by her eleven captivating albums. Consequently, when she performs, it's authentically Caribbean. She brings a colourful display, energy, and plain fun to her performances which are all synonymous with soca and by extension the Caribbean. In all fairness, a number of other artists carry the Caribbean with them wherever they go and try to help control its image. For instance, I clearly remember when the regrettable death of a tourist occurred in Grenada, Hollice "Mr. Killa" Mapp, one of Grenada's cultural ambassadors, took to Facebook to address the issue and tried to dispel some of the rumours that were circulating at the time. However, not all Caribbean nationals and entertainers, particularly soca artists, take advantage of social media in that way to help shape their country's image and build their brands. Additionally, as a digital marketing strategist, one of the things I enjoyed most about my talk with Destra was how active she is on social media where she has cultivated a huge community around her music. While many popular figures have social media managers, Destra sees things differently. Therefore, to build a level of authenticity, she believes that it is imperative that she does it herself. Just like Gary Vaynerchuk, a social media mogul and chief advocate of its use, she is very engaging with her online community. Every tweet, mention, comment, like, retweet, and reply all come directly from The Queen of Bacchanal herself and not someone acting on her behalf like most people of her caliber do. Advertisement I believe that the Caribbean has a lot to offer and not only where music is concerned. For instance, if most Caribbean nationals, regardless the number of followers they have on Instagram or social media on a whole, decided to take matters into their own hands and not let the media houses in the large countries shape people's perception of the Caribbean, huge changes may result. I also believe that Caribbean soca artists, entrepreneurs, athletes, and others need to use social media to build their brands and communities around their brands. Consequently, social media is certainly the way to go. At the end of my talk with Destra, I was left with an interesting tidbit however. I asked her to name one thing a lot of people do not know about her, and she responded that many people do not know that she speaks three languages namely English, French, and Spanish. This was rather interesting to me since, I speak the same three languages. Well in all honesty, my French is terrible, but soon it will be as fluent as hers. More importantly, I even thought to myself that with her ability to speak multiple languages she is in a privileged position and has greater potential to share the Caribbean even further with foreign audiences if she so chooses. "Remembrance of things past is not necessarily the remembrance of things as they were." -- Marcel Proust Proust's In Search of Lost Time is perhaps the most famous exploration of memory, with associations sparked by sensory cues like the famed madeleine. Our memories are fundamental to our sense of self, our relationships, and our behaviour. And yet, as Proust recognized, they are less reliable than they seem. Cognitive psychologists have long proposed that memories are reconstructed over time, from Frederic Bartlett's 1932 experiment where participants were tested over a span of years on their recollection of a Native American legend called "The War of the Ghosts" they read in an initial session. Bartlett found that over time, memories of the story became "schematized" -- participants remembered the general gist of a story but lost details, and often replaced exotic and foreign items in the story with things that were more familiar to them. Hunting seals, an action foreign to Bartlett's Edwardian English participants, was replaced with going fishing; canoes were replaced with boats. Advertisement Other findings demonstrating the fallibility of memory abound. In 2001, Daniel Schacter categorized the "seven sins of memory," classifying seven shortcomings of memories further grouped into three sins of forgetting, three sins of distortion and inaccuracy, and the singular "persistence," the inability to forget something even when we'd be better off to do so, as in post-traumatic stress disorder. Research has found no correlation between our certainty in a memory and its actual accuracy -- so-called "flashbulb memories," memories for events that feel particularly detailed and vivid (for example: where were you on 9/11?), are just as prone to inconsistencies as more mundane memories, despite high confidence in their accuracy. Similarly, psychologist Elizabeth Loftus' work on eyewitness accounts has shown they are unreliable and highly susceptible to manipulation through carefully-framed questions. From the perspective of neuroscience, the alteration of memories over time was less intuitive. Pioneering work by Donald Hebb, Eric Kandel, and many others all suggested that memories should stabilize over time through what Hebb coined as a "fire together, wire together" process. The strengthening of synapses formed memories, and once formed (or "consolidated"), they were thought to be stable. The process of reconsolidation, recently in the news as a potential target for treating PTSD, offers a mechanism through which established memories can be adjusted and altered. Each time a memory is retrieved, it is reactivated, placing it in a labile state where it is susceptible to change. It is then "reconsolidated," or stored again in the brain. The idea that memories are susceptible to change is worrying -- we have faith in our own recollections and rely on our memories in all aspects of life. But the malleable nature of memory isn't necessarily a bad thing -- it also serves as the basis of our ability to update and integrate information, to form narratives and make sense of our experiences. Schacter himself suggested this, proposing that the "sins" of memory are actually byproducts of otherwise adaptive features, and that they can sometimes be adaptive in and of themselves. To return to the example of PTSD, the malleable nature of memory allows us to remove the negative emotions associated with particular memories. Memories can also be distorted in self-serving ways, protecting a positive and consistent self-image. One of Schacter's seven sins is bias -- including a tendency to recall our previous attitudes (for example, political opinions) as more consistent with our current beliefs than they actually were. Advertisement by Emma Baccellieri Also-ran presidential candidate Marco Rubio announced today he would attempt to stay in the U.S. Senate. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz, File) Marco Rubio may have promised "like 10,000 times" that he would be a private citizen in January 2017, but he apparently didn't say it enough to make it stick -- the Florida senator announced his intent to run for re-election Wednesday morning. Rubio suspended his presidential campaign in March, though his candidate committee lives on with $24,000 in cash and nearly $1.9 million in debt as of the end of May, according to its latest Federal Election Commission filing. Those numbers won't have much bearing on his Senate campaign, though, which will have a wholly separate committee. Advertisement But pro-Rubio super PACs that still have funds left will be able to divert it to his Senate race, if they so choose. Since super PACs cannot coordinate any of their activity with candidates, they can use their funds to support multiple candidates in multiple races, regardless of where donors may have thought their money was going when they chose to contribute. The largest pro-Rubio super PAC, Conservative Solutions PAC, still has more than $1.7 million available of the $60 million it raised during Rubio's White House run. Though the money raised for Rubio's presidential campaign will have little direct impact on his Senate race, it may provide some clues as to where he's likely to draw cash in the months to come. Over the course of his presidential run, Rubio reported raising more than $113 million, with $52 million of that going straight to his candidate committee and the rest going to outside spending groups, mostly Conservative Solutions PAC. About 27 percent of the money came in the form of small donations -- $200 or less. A quarter of his cash, $24.5 million, came from Florida, with his home metro area of Miami alone giving him $14.4 million. It wasn't enough to be his most generous city, though -- that title went to New York, which gave $14.6 million to his presidential campaign. The securities and investment industry provided by far the largest segment of Rubio's contributions, with nearly $18.5 million pouring in from bankers and others in the field. He was also popular with retired individuals and the auto industry, receiving $8.2 million and $7.4 million from them respectively. The company responsible for the single largest chunk of his cash was Braman Motorcars, a luxury car dealership in West Palm Beach; the dealership's owner, billionaire Norman Braman, is a longtime patron of Rubio's who was vocal not only in his support of Rubio but also in his distaste for former the Florida governor and Republican presidential also-ran Jeb Bush. Unknown is how much cash is sitting in a 501(c)(4) "dark money" group that spent $8 million on pro-Rubio ads in 2015 alone. The organization, Conservative Solutions Project, is not required to disclose its donors. Advertisement Over three quarters of a billion people, yes, three quarters of a billion people around the world have engaged with a British government campaign to celebrate the life of William Shakespeare in this year, the 400th anniversary of his death. June 2016 brings us to the halfway moment, the middle, the mid, indeed a season of midsummer nights, 'looking before and after'. So it would seem apt that it is A Midsummer Night's Dream that, for so many of us, captures more than any other of his plays the width and wisdom of all that is Shakespeare. As a comedy The Dream presents the panorama of people. It is underscored with the threat of tragedy but, in its escape from the potential gloom and trauma, it celebrates the way society can and must be made to work. For all its contextual magic, A Midsummer Night's Dream is a realistic study in the worth of behaving responsibly and intelligently. Commanding its vision are the great Shakespearean virtues and values, embodied in characters determined and frustrated in their search for identity and relationship, often through the pursuit of love and the dedication of service. The Dream is a restorative staging post in the great Shakespearean transformational journey from his setting-out in The Comedy of Errors to his returning-home in The Tempest. The play is created out of what for him are the defining attributes that comedy articulates and explores - 'comedy' as in Dante's Divine Comedy, involving an embracing of the full, foolish and fallible panoply of human community within a metaphysical context. These are virtues above all of generosity, kindness, magnanimity, tolerance and forgiveness. At Midsummer 2016, in a most disturbing year of human cruelty and confusion, where the very concept of 'community' ('who's in, who's out?' - Lear) is so cynically challenged, do we not more than ever need the story of that midsummer night and the single path of hope that eventually emerges from the two divergent paths of love and hate which wind through the briar and thickets of that wood in Athens? Advertisement It is often the very first word of a Shakespeare play that can propel us into meaning. 'Who?' sets Hamlet on a quest for identity. 'When?' begins Macbeth, the play where the Future forces nature's healing. It is 'If' for Twelfth Night and its illuminating conditionality, and 'Now' ('Now fair Hippolyta') for The Dream. 'Now' takes us directly into the present moment, sealing immediacy between the audience and what they are witnessing on stage. For now is the stuff of which drama is made and A Midsummer Night's Dream is one of those Shakespeare plays - with Hamlet and The Tempest - that most consummately explores the nature of theatre and its tautology and synchronicity with play, with dreaming and with life. The Dream's sub-play Pyramus and Thisbe is another of Shakespeare's great dramas. It is defiantly a play that is unable to engage its audience, to share its 'now'. The audience struggles and fails 'willingly to suspend their disbelief' as Coleridge would have it. And so Pyramus and Thisbe powerfully accentuates the potent reality that The Dream, the greater play that embraces what it is delivering--that extraordinary reality and hold on truth which is being shaped by a wilfully dreamlike, supernatural and unreal world. The world's love of A Midsummer Night's Dream has been manifested in a myriad of great, and often innovative, productions. If our understanding of the power of theatre was transformed (that is a major Dream word) by Peter Brook's life-changing, art-changing and audience-changing book The Empty Space in the 1960s, it was Brook's own extraordinary production of A Midsummer Night's Dream at Stratford which gave the book its compelling ideas and emotional thrust. For the British Council it was Tim Supple's production of The Dream, emanating from a startling convergence of Asian and European cultures and languages in 2006 that most materially realized the efficacy of the British Council's core remit of international cultural relations. And, when we look to the cinema, is there any more captivating rendering of a Shakespeare play on film than Max Reinhardt's 1935 Dream with Joe E Brown's Flute, Dick Powell's Lysander, Mickey Rooney's Puck and (Olivier's favorite actor) Jimmy Cagney's Bottom? Advertisement In the UK this year, The Royal Shakespeare Company's nationally touring production for the 2016 celebratory year will be A Midsummer Night's Dream. But the community spirit of this iconic play will be cleverly captured by adding extra performers to the RSC professional touring troupe. In each town where this Dream settles, local children will play the fairies and the local amateur dramatic society will be asked to play 'the mechanicals'. No danger there - the worse, the better in those roles - though the reviews wonderfully have the locals regularly upstaging the mature thespians. A Midsummer Night's Dream will also be celebrated globally too. Building on the success of the 750 million people involved in the British Council and the UK's GREAT campaign Shakespeare Lives, Midsummer is currently being celebrated with a 48 hour social media campaign on Twitter encouraging people from all around the world to celebrate the play. Because finally A Midsummer Night's Dream is about the diversity and demographics that must constitute our working societies and our successful communities. The illusion of the play ('It seems to me that yet we sleep, we dream') consumes the audience's experience and yet there is a clear vision of the realities of social life that emerges. And that community understanding is dependent on love to make it work. Love in The Dream is as much the energizing motive of right living as it is a sentiment of attraction and romance. Here, then, is a play of the people, presented through, that most popular of arts, the theatre. Royalty, aristocrats, chiefs of staff, adolescents, young professionals, proletarians and craftsmen all struggle to get along, accompanied by variant walls and lions, moons and benevolent, malevolent fairies and by lunatics, lovers and poets. (N'Djamena, Chad) - Sitting cross-legged on a mat in her modest home in the capital of Chad, as a fan whirled noisily to stave off the 105 degree heat, Khadidja Hassan Zidane described what it was like finally to testify in court against the man who raped her 30 years ago. The rapist, Hissene Habre, was Chad's dictator from 1982 until 1990. On May 30, Habre was convicted of atrocity crimes - including raping Khadidja, who was 26 when it happened - by a special court across the continent in Dakar, Senegal, where he has lived since he was overthrown. It was the first time in a human rights trial that a head of state had ever been convicted of personally committing a sex crime. Habre was also convicted for sending Khadidja and other women to a military base in the desert north of Chad as sexual slaves for his army, as well as for overseeing widespread torture and war crimes. I've known Khadidja for 16 years, as I worked to build the case against Habre, and I had known most of her story: how she had been suspected of helping Habre's Libyan enemies, tortured, imprisoned in Habre's presidential palace, and sent to the north. But she always said that if she ever came face-to-face with Habre, she would have something else to tell. Advertisement I was in court in Dakar last October when Khadidja told the court that "the president himself raped me four times." The presiding judge at first looked puzzled at this accusation, which seemed to come out of the blue- which president? "Hissene Habre," she said in Arabic, "there wasn't any other president." Was Khadidja scared to tell her story with the former tyrant sitting only 15 feet away? "No, I felt strong inside. When I was finished, I felt that a great weight had been taken off me." Habre remained silent throughout his trial, his head rapped in a turban, his eyes hidden behind sunglasses. The week after the landmark verdict, several of the women who had been forced into sexual slavery, and others who had been raped in Habre's clandestine prisons, spoke to me with pride about breaking their long silence to testify in court. Although Habre's conviction set off celebrations here among the victims and their supporters, the women seemed much happier about the simple fact that they had told their story in front of Habre. Kaltouma Defallah, a former stewardess, was sent with Khadidja and others on the four-day convoy through the desert to the northern outpost of Oudi Doum where they spent a year doing the soldiers' bidding. When I talked with her after the verdict, she told me almost exactly what she had told the judges - "When I saw Habre there, I no longer felt any hatred. Now I was the strong one, telling my story, and this man, who was the all-powerful dictator, who tried to make 'things' out of us, did nothing but listen." Advertisement The women's testimony was the most dramatic of the trial, and the verdict is already being hailed as a breakthrough for sex crimes prosecutions. The irony, though, was that sexual violence almost wasn't part of the case at all. In our early interviews with women prison survivors, they never mentioned rape, a taboo in traditional Chadian society. Our study on Habre's rule hardly refers to rape, and the charge was not included in the indictment. It was only as our campaign picked up steam and Habre's trial appeared likely, that the survivors began, hesitantly, to give their full stories to their Chadian lawyer and trusted advisor, Jacqueline Moudeina, who coaxed them through their concern about coming forward. "This isn't something women talk about," Moudeina told me. "It was very important that we get this out in court." At trial, Moudeina and her colleagues moved to have the charges amended to include sex crimes, and the judges agreed after hearing the women. Khadidja and Kaltouma don't see themselves as heroes, just as women who had for decades carried stories within them that they needed to tell. But thanks to them, an international court has made it clear that no leader, however powerful, is above the law, and no woman is below it. The United States runs the world's largest immigration detention system. This network's most indefensible features are its reliance on jails and prisons to hold violators before a hearing and countless systemic inequities and bureaucratic hurdles. It's a broken-down scheme in drastic need of reform. The United States is the country I've lived in for 40 years. I became an American citizen in April 2016. Twenty-three years earlier I was one of the thousands of detainees witnessing first-hand the baleful effects of immigrant enforcement, which punishes victims far beyond the scale of any offense they may have committed. Advertisement Summoned to a U.S. immigration court in 1993, the possibility of deportation from the only country I've known since age 11 hung over me like a proverbial sword of Damocles. I'd completed my prison sentence for the self-defense shooting of my cousin (who was hired as my bodyguard before becoming a literal menace, extorting money and threatening my family) during which a bystander was injured. Since then I've had no other trouble with the law. A lengthy hearing ensued. Lawyers demonstrated that I am a father of two, with personal and business properties here, who pays his taxes year in and year out. They presented evidence of my close social ties, outstanding community service and other good deeds. Ultimately, the presiding judges reinstated my permanent resident status "aka green card." They found that my positive conduct far outweighed my conviction, demonstrating "unusual and outstanding equities," and that I was clearly rehabilitated. Immigration authorities appealed the ruling and lost. Though an administrative appeals board decided that allowing me to remain in the States was "in the national interest," they appealed again. They pursued the case even after I was unconditionally pardoned by then New York State Governor David Paterson. Only after 23 years of administrative appeals, pardons, and federal court litigation at all levels of the legal landscape was the original order reaffirmed. One month after that I was sworn in as a naturalized citizen. This long, drawn-out journey is the failure of higher-ups at The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the recalcitrant Immigrations & Customs Enforcement Agency to to weigh in and say, "This is crazy!" Instead they use of every technical hook in the book - real and created - to thwart a just result. Advertisement While the Immigration and Naturalization Service, now known as the Department of Homeland Security, was trying to deport me, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. was arranging an exhibit honoring my contributions to hip-hop culture and society at large. My extended saga underscores everything that's wrong with America's immigration system. Prior to 1990, immigration judges had the authority to balance a person's qualities against the government's interest in deporting that person. My original immigration judge did just that. He concluded I should remain in America. But vindictive prosecutors, federal bureaucrats and a damaged system perpetuated my ill treatment for decades. After serving my criminal sentence, I was incarcerated in immigration detention for over 18 months. This, in many respects, was far worse. Unlike criminal dentition, immigrants are incarcerated for months or years, in what are supposed to be short-term prisons and jails. These offer "inmates" few or no services, and they have limited or no outdoor access. They wear prison uniforms and visit with family through Plexiglas barriers. There's a psychological toll to all this, from depression to a sense of hopelessness. These places are filthy, and the experience of being served expired food on dirty trays is one of the routine indignities. Prolonged immigration incarceration was not always the norm. It began in 1980, to save the near-bankrupt Corrections Corporation of America. Its owner was the primary fundraiser for the Republican Party in Tennessee. Today, we have an immigration industrial complex where Congress, at the behest of private prison companies like Corrections Corporation of America and GEO, mandates that 33,000 immigrants remain incarcerated at all times. The growth of private prisons completely altered the "civil" nature of immigration. Today, we have tens of thousands of children and young mothers incarcerated in immigration prisons. Many immigrants die in prison, some by suicide. All are treated like prisoners, when their only crime is their desire to live in the U.S. These excessive and harmful detentions check in at a taxpayer expense of almost one billion (yes billion!) dollars per year. We could easily return to the old system of allowing immigrants to remain free on bond while monitoring their activities. However, such humane action won't satisfy the prisons-for-profit mentality that now pervades. The sad truth of is that my 23-year immigration journey was unnecessary and damaging. My case should have ended when the judge entered the order supporting my right to remain in the United States. We need to reinvent a system of immigration justice that grants fair, speedy hearings, free from prolonged incarceration, where an immigration judge can exercise common sense that balances a person's misdeeds, if any, against his positive contributions to the community. This course will not only relieve a costly burden to taxpayers, it will reaffirm America's values and commitment to human rights. Advertisement Co-Written By Ira Kurzban Esq. Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have condemned Hillary Clinton's accusations after a mass shooting in Orlando that the two countries are among those that need to stop "funding terrorism". Speaking earlier this week in Ohio, Ms Clinton unveiled her plan to defeat ISIS and said: "It is long past time for the Saudis, Qataris and Kuwaitis and others to stop their citizens from funding extremist organisations". This week's post written by my ever-articulate cousin, Joshua Manning. Certain spaces are transformative. Stepping foot in a holy city might feel like coming home, no matter where you were born. Or perhaps you get that feeling when you arrive on the campus of a women's college, or a historically black college, or when you enter a house of worship. Maybe you live in a tight-knit community and your neighborhood is that place. Maybe it's a certain festival where you can shed expectations, or a particular campground or vacation spot that, more than any other, frees you from the nagging burdens of life. When you're in these spaces, you are connected to something special. Because whether you're around people or appreciating it alone, you are in a place that other people deliberately put effort into making for people like you. If you're lucky, you have at least one of these spaces. If you're very lucky, you don't need any of them. When I meet a stranger, I begin a dance that every gay person you've met has probably done - after we "come out" to the world, we still have to come out to each new person we meet because the assumption is always that we are straight until proven gay. Living in the largest city in one of the most progressive states in the country, it would be easy to assume I don't need a safe space to be gay. Yet even on the streets of downtown Boston, I have been spat at and called a faggot. I have been punched in the face by a stranger for (as far as I could tell) the crime of wearing a shirt that looked too gay. And there's the lower-level stress. When I meet a stranger, I begin a dance that every gay person you've met has probably done - after we "come out" to the world, we still have to come out to each new person we meet because the assumption is always that we are straight until proven gay. It sounds trivial, but this dance has to be done just so. It can't seem like you're forcing the issue; it must seem natural. You have to bring it up early, even when it's irrelevant to the current conversation, because you never know when the conversation is going to turn towards your personal life and by then it might be too awkward. You hope that the stranger will react well, but you don't know what to expect. In most social exchanges, the only viable alternative to this dance is to carefully mind your pronouns, and that just feels like being back in the closet. There's a weird phenomenon of human interaction where certain things are completely lopsided. While I'm actively doing this dance, you are just having a low-key conversation. Why would you be thinking about any of this? Similarly, being spat at or punched or called names - that has stuck with me for years. I'm guessing the people who did those things don't even remember. The loss of 49 of our family is staggering, but the knowledge that our safe places are not so safe - that has a far wider reach. This is what it feels like in Boston as a well-employed gay white male. The world is far more risky for LGBT people living in poverty, LGBT people of color, for trans people in general, for LGBT people in more conservative parts of the country, the list goes on. My worries are a baseline - it only gets harder from here. Which is why, for many LGBT people - myself included - gay bars are on that very small list of transformative places. The moment you walk in, none of those worries are relevant. You are not going to be punched or harassed. You already came out to everyone just by walking in the door - no conversational juggling needed. You don't need to read into every interaction because the space exists to equalize all the reasons you would do that. That is true whether you like the bar or not - from the seediest dive to the clubbiest club. In there you can connect differently when, for a few hours, you're in a safe place where it feels like the world is made for you. Some of this connection lingers in the outside world - it's why you'll often hear LGBT people call each other "family" even when we don't know each other. So perhaps you can imagine the shock and pain at hearing that one of those few safe places had been attacked. Whatever the killer's motivations, the effect was more than just taking away one gay bar; it feels like there was a target placed on all of them. For now, the outside world has entered those unique, transformative places and they have lost a bit of their power. The loss of 49 of our family is staggering, but the knowledge that our safe places are not so safe - that has a far wider reach. This tragedy falls at the intersection of several political subjects - LGBT rights, gun laws, terrorism, privacy vs. security, and mental health diagnosis and treatment, to name some big ones. Please understand that talking about these issues is not making the tragedy political. And there's the fact that LGB rights have come so far, so fast, and in the wake of that success we have been steadily shifting the focus to the tougher battles of trans rights. It felt like we were maybe poised to leave hatred and violence behind. But at the moment, that road feels a lot longer. As the politics of the situation are hashed out in the news, we've read numerous possible motivations behind this attack. Republicans in particular are convinced that radical Islam is to blame. But Christians, Jews, and Muslims alike in our country have long used religion as a justification for bigotry and brutality towards the LGBT community - to reject us, to kick us out of our homes, to beat us up, degrade us, and sometimes kill us, and then to turn back around and invalidate those struggles. The Orlando massacre is shocking, but the slower trickle of hate-motivated LGBT homicides by people of all faiths each year, in aggregate, far exceeds the number of LGBT people killed in this incident. Treating this solely as an issue of Islam is not only taking a narrow field of view, it's cherry-picking data and misdiagnosing the problems that actually hurt us, and it distracts from a productive discussion about making our community safer. This tragedy falls at the intersection of several political subjects - LGBT rights, gun laws, terrorism, privacy vs. security, and mental health diagnosis and treatment, to name some big ones. Please understand that talking about these issues is not making the tragedy political. It was already political on all of these fronts the moment a self-radicalized terrorist, who the FBI was already suspicious of, decided to use readily-obtainable guns to shoot up an LGBT club after declaring allegiance to at least one terrorist organization. Untangling the facts from the politics that brought us here is impossible, and trying to do so is a disservice to what happened. And treating it as an attack on all Americans - while true, and in some ways the solidarity from that approach is appreciated - also bypasses the disproportionate impact on the LGBT community that has been targeted by Americans for so long. Reach out to your friends in the LGBT community, to ask questions. They might not see things like I do. If you're uncomfortable, tell them you might make mistakes, but you're trying to better understand what they go through every day. Problems that we still have today are still here because we haven't yet found ways to solve them. Which means they're likely complex. Even in isolation, there are more than two sides to each of the political debates I mentioned. There are valid counterarguments to even the most "common sense" positions on each of them. When looking at how the political positions interact, the picture is vastly more complicated. That doesn't have to paralyze us. Good policy is not perfect - instead, it balances benefits and drawbacks effectively. First and foremost, building good policy takes empathy. Empathy with the people the policy is meant to protect. Empathy with the people it could harm through no fault of their own. Empathy with policy-makers who are trying to balance those competing needs effectively but who cannot be experts in everything. Empathy with well-meaning people who have not yet joined the conversation, and a willingness to engage in a dialogue with them even if they don't know quite how to have that conversation in a sensitive and well-informed way. In that spirit, I am sharing my experiences, to contrast them with yours and to help you find parallels between our lives. Now it's your turn to reach out to your friends in the LGBT community, to ask questions. They might not see things like I do. If you're uncomfortable, tell them you might make mistakes, but that you're trying to better understand what they go through every day. Trust them to give you the benefit of the doubt. Be open to learning, to coming up with creative ideas about these issues that are so difficult to tackle. In truth, I don't have a lot of optimism that this tragedy will lead to good policy on a national level, but if we reach out to each other and commit to honest conversations, we're on the right path. World celebrated 2nd International Day of Yoga on 21st June as declared by the United Nations. Yoga enthusiasts rolled mats everywhere, from UN headquarters and New York's Times Square to European Parliament to hundreds of locations in India and abroad. Millions of people from more than 150 countries participated from all over the world. Be it Hatha yoga or Bhakti Yoga (Yoga of Devotion) or Raja Yoga (Effortless Yoga), yogis gathered to celebrate as per their inclination. On this occasion, it is great idea to learn the journey and evolution of yoga, where it stands today and determine how we should take it forward. Why People do Yoga Today? Yoga has adapted itself quite well to the changing preferences of the world. From being an ancient spiritual pursuit for those seeking enlightenment, yoga has been absorbed into mainstream lifestyle by people from all cultures and backgrounds across the globe. And with the United Nations earmarking a day for it, even those who are a bit hesitant will also shed the prejudice. According to the newly released 2016 Yoga in America Study conducted by Yoga Journal and Yoga Alliance, The top five reasons for starting yoga are: flexibility (61%), stress relief (56%), general fitness (49%), improve overall health (49%), and physical fitness (44%). Advertisement A few hundred years back, the stats could have been like this - the top five reasons for starting yoga are: Self-realization (90%), spiritual growth (80%), imbibing human values (85%), self - discipline (70%), improve overall well-being (60%)!!! According to many studies, yoga and meditation help to lower the violence and crime rates in many part of world. The recent horrifying incidence of reckless gun violence at the Pulse club in Orlando proves the greater relevance of yoga in the modern times thanks to its profound effects to calm the mind and establish the human values. Ancient Indian Philosophy Emerging into Thriving Business The same 2016 study also shows that the number of US yoga practitioners have gone to more than 36 million, up from 20.4 million in 2012, while annual practitioner spending on yoga classes, clothing, equipment, and accessories rose to $16 billion, up from $10 billion over the past four years. "Yoga is a thriving, growing industry", says Carin Gorrell, editor in chief of Yoga Journal. Her words sound so true indeed. Great thing about this is it has increased the popularity of yoga in USA and globally by leaps and bounds. Though some feel that yoga may be slowly losing its authenticity, purpose and spirit. The Role of Authentic Gurus for Nurturing the Real Essence of Yoga "Like a flower bud, human life has the potential to blossom fully. Blossoming of human potential to fullness is Yoga." - Yoga Guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's this definition of yoga explains the real purpose of yoga so beautifully. Advertisement Authentic guru is regarded as an essential spiritual guide, a living example of the teachings one advocates. In yoga, master is one whose life is an embodiment of spiritual philosophy and one who walks the talk. Since time immemorial, the science and philosophy of Yoga has always been taught from Preceptor to student--transferred by the grace of the Guru to the spiritual aspirant or disciple. It is this grace which makes yoga practice effective, true and complete. Since there is much skepticism and misunderstanding about gurus in the world today, it is important to understand who the guru actually is. Guru (gu+ru= dispeller of darkness) is the guiding light - removing the darkness of ignorance. A Guru is someone who is filled with love for the Highest Cause - love or compassion for all living beings and who has dedicated his life to helping everyone find true happiness. A Guru will show you what you are, your highest potential and take you there. Recently at a curtain raiser event in India for 2nd International Day of Yoga, Sri Sri mentioned, "Yoga is not about shaking your tummy. Yoga is that which shakes the world." A few days ago Sri Sri tweeted, "The source of joy is deep within & events are impermanent. Keeping the mind like a clean mirror & being unfazed by events is Yoga." While yoga has been showcased and become popular as physical flexibility or fitness program, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, the founder of Art of Living, continues to spread the ancient wisdom and inspire millions to harness the profound spiritual dimensions of yoga. He also addressed and lead the European Parliament into meditation to inaugurate the International Yoga Day celebrations on 21st June at Belgium. As the world celebrated the Yoga Day, it is definitely a great chance to understand the true spirit of Yoga from one of the most popular contemporary yoga Gurus in the world today. After completing his UK tour, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar will be visiting many states of the USA as a special guest for the yoga based "Get Happy" immersion program. He will also be spending a week at his Foundation's world class spiritual retreat center in Boone, NC, July 14-19th celebrating Guru Purnima - Master's Day celebration. It is a day of gratitude and for honoring all the teachers and spiritual Masters who have lighted and lightened human lives with wisdom and happiness. It is an opportunity to experience the most mystical and magical aspect of yoga which is very integral part of yoga in India though not very common in the western world. The tragedy in Orlando called forth amazing and eloquent responses. But we think the most powerful -- certainly of the responses from public officials -- came from a Utah Republican, Lt. Governor Spencer Cox. We urge you to read it. He reminds us that our humanity is measured by our response to hatred and terror. He quoted Muhammed, "You will not enter paradise until you believe, and you will not believe until you love one another," as well as Jesus, "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you..." Huge numbers of Americans -- not just Cox -- have reacted to Orlando in this spirit. Gay Muslims are seeing a breakthrough in recognition of their struggles from mainstream Muslim organizations. The Gay community in Orlando reached out to combat Islamaphobia and show solidarity. A Google search for "Vigils, Orlando, images" produce scrolled page after scrolled page of Americans expressing this solidarity, this belief that as President Obama said, we must come together around "respect and equality for every human being." Religions - all of them - honor and respect love and peace. They do throw off cancerous sects that embrace hatred and violence - whether it is Jim Jones leading his followers to mass murder/suicide in Ghana, the murdering cult of Thugee in India, or the massacres of other Christians led by a Catholic Pope in the medieval Albigensian Crusade in France. Narrowness and intolerance take over; anyone who differs becomes an enemy. Hatred and fear replace love. Violence drives out peace. Trust is replaced by paranoia. Instead of seeking security in broad social bonds, cults turn in on themselves and prepare for war. As David Brooks put it Friday , what he called the spirit of dominion seeks "to heal injury through revenge and domination." The Islamic State in Syria and the Levant is such a cancer within Islam. But Americans must confront our own homegrown "spirit of dominion" sect - the worship of guns. SHAHNAZ: I'M A MUSLIM Omar Mateen, a devout Muslim was clearly deeply disturbed - uncomfortable in his own skin, perhaps unclear about who he even was. But who taught him and is teaching other Muslims that they can get away with murder - not just metaphorically but literally as Omar Mateen thought he could? The tragedy here is that 49 people died in the course of his deathly rampage. Precious lives were lost, families were torn apart and for what? Islam condemns this kind of brutal killing. But ISIS does not. Too many people hear it as the voice of their faith. The why, what and how of this massacre will affect not only the families of the 49 victims who died, not only loved ones left behind, but the fabric and well-being of entire communities, not only in Orlando. This planned but senseless act destroyed the integrity of so many families, and put the bonds that connect us all as Americans at risk. I'm a Muslim woman of Indian origin. Nowhere did I learn, study or hear a hint that mass killings are being acceptable in our Islamic faith. In my family we think of Islam as a religion of peace--even as I realize that the world views Islam now as a faith that has become fraught with violence. I sat glued to the TV most of this week, there was much to absorb. One of the quotes by an imam from Florida being interviewed on TV struck me: "I don't consider a terrorist to be a Muslim." The imam is right on. In her speech this week, Hilary Clinton warned that "Hate crimes tripled after Paris and Brussels." She urged action to "prevent on-line radicalization." She went further to say: "You will have millions of allies who will always have your back and I am one of them." She continued: "America is strongest when we are not a land of winners and losers." She is right - marginalization is not a plus. As Clinton says: "We are a country in which all Americans need to stand together and we need to bridge our divides." CARL: WE WORSHIP GUNS Shahnaz, a Muslim, feels terrible because her faith was invaded by the cult of ISIS. I feel equally terrible because my country has been permeated by a culture of guns. A disturbed young man filled with hate and confusion, placed on a terrorist watch list, but alone, was able to carry out the worst massacre in our history only because our gun cult empowered and encouraged him to buy a military assault weapon and ammunition with no legitimate civilian use. (From 1994-2004 such weapons were banned. American freedom was not notably disturbed.) But for the NRA, and the gun cult it leads, we cannot rely on a peaceful society for protection, but on arming ourselves against an invasion of our homes.The NRA claims that the writers of the constitution would have wanted us to own assault weapons (if they had been invented), because "the only way for us to stay free was by having whatever guns the bad guys have." There it is, the logic of a cult: fear; hatred of diversity, with those who are different "bad guys"; violence as the solution. The day after Orlando, the NRA urged Americans to buy more assault weapons. We should hold more vigils instead, vigils with the kinds of people we don't really know. That, not arming up, is how the Founding Fathers - as well as the prophets of our faiths -- would have wanted America to respond. When I planned my trip to Greece to volunteer with refugees, I anticipated distributing 2,000 menstrual pads (read about that here), and the rest was unknown. When I arrived to Athens, I found myself in the ambiguous situation of being an independent volunteer, taking leads from Facebook connections. There is no refugee-volunteer guidebook, and we depend heavily on social media. I was lucky enough to be connected to Norman Hering, a Psychotherapist who moved to Athens to volunteer. He led me to the Port of Piraeus ad hoc refugee camp. The port is the landing ground for refugees moving from the islands (mainly Lesvos) on their way to western Europe. In the early stages of the crisis, the port housed more than 5,000 refugees at a time in disgraceful and dangerous conditions. Advertisement In March 2016, the borders closed. Thousands of refugees became stranded in Greece, a large portion in Athens. Since then, the Greek government has moved refugees around to various camps. Some refugees have found housing in Anarchist squats, Christian centers, and, more and more, on street corners. By the time I arrived at the port, around 2,000 refugees were there. Now, less than two weeks later, the numbers are nearing 1,000. The port is an intersection of tourists and Greeks traveling to the various islands, port workers, residents, and refugees. Various NGOS are present at the camp, but a majority of the volunteers who I met were like me: passionate, non-NGO affiliated individuals from various parts of the world. The concrete landing of Gate E1 is littered with tents housing refugees from Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq. Alongside the tents are portable toilets, which volunteers clean daily, and portable showers where the refugees are allotted 6 minutes to bathe with little or no soap. A volunteer keeps order of who will shower next by writing a number on each person's arm and dispensing the tiniest amounts of shampoo. One morning, I saw my friend Almas, a 20-year-old from Afghanistan with the number "96" scrawled across his arm. At 5 p.m. I noticed the "96" still there. I asked why he hadn't showered yet. "Water finished," he said with a disillusioned and unsurprised shrug. The port is one of many camps where refugees are waiting. Waiting to procure enough money to pay yet another smuggler to get them into Germany, waiting for papers to process so they may seek asylum, waiting to be deported back to their home country because they have lost hope. Advertisement These people escaped war-torn nations, traversed across land and sea only to find themselves trapped in tents with no resolution in sight. They are filled with trauma, and that trauma is overflowing into the volunteers who are giving up their jobs, relationships and homes to help them. I am not an expert in mental health. I have no degrees or certifications in the field, but as a human, it is clear to see and feel the suffering of others. From the children to adults, refugees to volunteers, trauma is insidious in the camp. A majority of my time at the camp was spent with the children, a mix of Afghans, Kurds and Syrians. During our play times, I noticed how they would oscillate from childhood joy to blinding aggression in a matter of seconds. One child that I became attached to, Mousah an 8-year-old from Syria, would hug and kiss me and ask me to play. Then in a blink of an eye, he would shut down or start lashing out. One afternoon I found him quietly hidden in the corner of the container holding all of the kids' supplies (papers, markers, toys, etc.). He was not supposed to be in the space, so I had to take him out. At first he was incredibly aggressive, kicking and hitting me as I took him out of the container. I held him close and started to kiss his cheeks and forehead telling him, "I love you, I love you." He relaxed in my arms and I found a shaded spot away from the camp's chaos to hold him. For nearly an hour he rested in my arms, tearing up and relaxing into his own exhaustion. It was one of the most peaceful moments I experienced at the camp. I witnessed first hand PTSD among the children including depressive and suicidal behaviors and severe attachment issues between refugees and volunteers. Advertisement A 13-year-old from Syria, Abdullah -- who volunteers and mental health workers agree is somewhere on the Autism spectrum -- displayed suicidal thoughts and even named his own depression. When I first met him, he was doing math problems and drawing shapes. We talked about how he liked math, and then he suddenly became sullen. He drew pictures of helicopters dropping TNT on a building, and beneath it wrote, "I am finished. Sorry." When I told Norman about Abdullah's statement, which expressed as suicidal thoughts, we scrambled to find someone to translate for us so we could better understand his call for help. It took us nearly an hour to find a refugee able to translate into English. Abdullah told us that he wanted to leave the camp, that he was depressed and that he thought about killing himself. I wanted so badly to tell him that everything was going to be okay, that it would get better. But how could I? He was removed from his home in a violent way, and now he is stuck sleeping in a tent with his family. It is impossible to tell a child things will get better, especially when I don't believe it myself. Over the rest of the week I spent ample time with Abdullah. We would sit and talk, using Google translate to share our thoughts. He would oscillate from engaged and happy, to closed and drawing pictures of bombs falling on his family's home. When I said goodbye to him, he broke down in tears and walked away from me without saying a word. As a volunteer, it was impossible to separate myself from the trauma and heartache of the refugees, and I saw this inability in other volunteers too. Advertisement The volunteers exhibited mental health issues that were rooted in a foundation of uncertainty of what is to come, witnessing the trauma of the refugees, and capacity burn-out. Many of the volunteers, short-term and long-term, are exhausted and unable to establish boundaries to keep their own mental and physical health in check. While the Greek government is providing bare minimum support for the refugees -- a consequence of their current economic crisis -- the refugees are increasingly depending on the assistance of volunteers. It was not uncommon to see a volunteer step away from the camp to cry or write an emotional post on Facebook. In these dire situations, where the level of need is so immediate, volunteers quickly integrate into the camp and it becomes unbearable to freely walk away while the refugees remain stuck and waiting. Volunteers work with an understanding that our efforts and contributions are short-term patches for an issue that requires large-scale solutions from governing bodies. We work knowing that there is no help coming from other avenues, and that, for now, we are all the refugees have to depend on. And that is a burden not a single volunteer knew they would be taking on when they decided to come to the camps. I certainly did not. Clearly shelter and food are paramount, but when children are talking about taking their own lives, it is absolutely necessary that mental health needs to be considered and addressed. Volunteers, like myself, are ill-equipped to deal with these serious mental health issues. We can only do our best to hold space for the refugees, and, eventually, we all go home. ___________________ disneyland paris november 22 ... Tragedy strikes in Orlando, FL, yet again as the remains of two-year-old Lane Graves have been discovered after the child was reportedly attacked and pulled into the water by an alligator at Walt Disney World's Grand Floridian Resort. The incident was said to have happened while the toddler and his mother were attending an outdoor movie night at the resort. Witnesses of the incident said that they saw the mother with the toddler, who was wading on the edge on the lake, which seems to resemble a small beach. Advertisement At approximately 9:00 p.m., Lane Graves was attacked and pulled into the lake by an alligator reported to be four-to-seven feet in length. His father's attempts to dive in after him and force the alligator's mouth open to release the child were unsuccessful as the boy had already been pulled under the murky water. Tragically, his remains were discovered, 12-15 yards from where the attack occurred, by an Orange County dive team after a grueling 16-hour search of the property. His body was found intact with a few puncture wounds and, while an autopsy has yet to be performed, it is likely that the cause of death was drowning. Disney World commented on the incident by saying that in the 45 years since the canals have existed there has never been a report of an attack like this. The Seven Seas Lagoon, as the lake is called, is a man-made body of water that separates the resort from the Magic Kingdom park and stretches into a series of canals that wind through the entire Disney property. While the hotel did in fact have signage posted around the Seven Seas lagoon that read "No Swimming Please," the question of whether or not Disney is liable for this incident is open for discussion. IS DISNEY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ALLIGATOR ATTACK? Advertisement As a business, Disney has a responsibility to ensure reasonable upkeep of its premises, which would include appropriate warning signage. While it may not be Disney's job to protect its guests and ensure their safety at all times, the question still remains, did Disney do enough to warn its guests of the possible danger of alligators in the Seven Seas Lagoon? As a Miami personal injury lawyer who has argued many cases against Walt Disney World as well as hundreds of other hospitality properties in premises-liability cases, I feel that there is a huge difference between signs that read "No Swimming Please" and "Warning: Beware of Alligators." The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Committee has reported that Disney routinely removes alligators from their property. That fact suggests they knew or should have known that that their waters were inhabited by alligators. It is Disney's duty to warn the public of these known dangers. However, according to WESH 2 news, there was only one alligator warning sign found on the property by a small pond. A few miles up the road the Hyatt Grand Cypress Resort displays a similar "No Swimming" sign with a secondary warning showing a picture of an alligator and the words "Please be aware of alligators in the lake." In this case Disney's lack of proper signage shows negligence on their behalf in their duty of care to their guests. Marketing as a Medium: An Interview with Experimental Creative Studio Hello Velocity * * * * * * * Our online lives are completely saturated with marketing, even when we're not expecting it. From social media feeds laced with paid advertisements to product placement and "native marketing" masquerading as editorial content, to be online is to be subjected to a constant stream of messaging aimed at making us feel incomplete, so we'll be better consumers. This saturation presents a challenge to those of us who might be concerned with such quaint notions as trying to leave the world a bit better than we found it. Do we try to ignore marketing culture? Or can we participate in it in a way that challenges its expectations? A crop of conscientious young creatives has opted for the latter path, taking it on themselves to try to reshape marketing culture from the inside, or at least have fun trying. Hello Velocity is a trio of artists who sculpt in the medium of viral marketing. JS, Kevin and Lukas bonded while they were all studying design in Providence, Rhode Island. Soon they began working together making sculpture, furniture, and eventually absurdist web projects. In 2014 they launched Bitelabs, a farcical biotech company pushing the potential for artisanal, in vitro meat grown in a laboratory using celebrity muscle tissue. Advertisement This two-month campaign went viral: the Bitelabs site was viewed almost half a million times, and generated some 22 thousand tweets for tens of millions of total impressions across Twitter and Facebook. Bitelabs was written about in more than 16 languages all around the world--not too shabby for three artists testing the waters of digital marketing! After Bitelabs, the trio were accepted into the New Museum's NEW INC program, the first museum-run incubator program for art, design and technology. JS reached out to me upon discovering that Siren was also artist-founded, and he was curious about our experiences navigating the business, client, and fundraising world. We clicked immediately and soon Siren was collaborating with Hello Velocity on their next brainchild, MeatFace (these boys love their protein!), a satirical ad campaign going on right now that is taking on the dehumanizing swipe culture of other dating apps and confidently declaring: Tinder, Meat Your Match. I asked these up-and-coming social artists some questions on the nexus of art and entrepreneurship, marketing, and tech culture. * * * * * * * What do you mean when you say 'marketing is a medium'? We're interested in marketing, particularly social marketing, because of our interests in the mechanisms at play in social media. Particularly, today, we're fascinated with the cultural implications of media in the social age, where there is a shift from brands having an identity, to individual's identities being created through brands. With a like, a pin, or a follow, consumers have so many more ways to interact with brands-- and marketing so much more potential than making a sale.The landscape for identity construction has matured into a robust network. Brands and personal identities are in constant negotiation, and micro-celebrities are flooding the network. This is the canvas we're working on, using marketing to be cultural players and to disseminate a critical viewpoint. Advertisement How did you come up with the idea of Bitelabs? Looking back, why do you think it went viral? We started working on Bitelabs out a confluence of different interests we held at the time. The project was a critical examination of celebrity culture, an investigation of virality's potential as a critical medium, and oblique publicity for in vitro meat as a technology. One of the things we emphasize when talking about Bitelabs is the form of the project vs. its content. The form we chose (biotech startup) was a deliberate language of legitimacy used to construct a vehicle for our content. It was engineered from the very start as a viral project-- in vitro meat to follow the (at that time recent) Google Burger; a perfect visual imitation of (90% of) 2013/2014 tech startup web design; an absurd Twitter call built into the structure of the campaign. How do you think you approach marketing differently than most "marketing" agencies? Brands have the potential to be critical and interesting cultural players, instead of just barfing banners all over the net. What we sell with brands is the idea that they should be interested in their cultural production as they scale up. We work with brands so that they can be culturally conscious, engaged, and conversant. Companies and brands are powerful forces in creating and shaping culture, but these effects should be viewed as integral brand activities, rather than externalities. We believe in the spread of ideas: branding and marketing are media that have every ability and obligation to transcend making sales. We investigate the mechanics of selling and constructing identity and the implications of doing so in a social network. What does your ideal client relationship look like? We want to work with brands and companies that have a stake in shaping culture. We want to be your experiment. We want to be your pilot program for new paradigms. Advertisement What is your assessment of macho tech culture? As three males, do you think it is possible for you to run counter to this bro-culture? Male-dominated tech culture is very real, and while it is debatable how far we really fall into the tech archetype, male-dominated art world culture is also very real. As a company started by three art/tech bros(?), we're cognizant of this. As the HV team continues to grow we hope we can continue to broaden the range of viewpoints that join in our design process. How do issues such as politics, social justice, and empathy play into your campaigns? Within a media sphere dominated by short form content, is it possible to create short form content that actually creates long term response? We have often described our projects' purpose as starting, facilitating, or furthering conversation around specific topics-- whether that's celebrity obsession, or objectification in dating app interfaces. In this sense we feel these campaigns differ fundamentally from general trends in media: as our attentions shorten, conversations seem to stop. Headlines reign and mediators fall away. At the heart of all our campaigns is our belief that critical (and targeted) provocation is valuable, and that human conversation can lead to change. I'd call your work subversive, but not snarky -- it questions social tendencies but ultimately asks what it means to be human. What made you think this would be a good collaborative fit with Siren's mission? We knew it would be fun to work with Siren after we'd all downloaded the app and saw how bonkers (in a good way) some of the questions got. That was when we all said, "yep. We get it, this is a social intervention." Advertisement A depraved attack--aptly described as the United States' worst mass-shooting incident--befell the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando recently, leaving 49 dead, 53 injured, and a million others truly heartbroken. Hours of scrutiny, inspection, and analyses later, the FBI recently came to the glaring conclusion that this incident furthers the list of recently executed "home-grown" attacks of terrorism, pointing duly to its similarity to the San Bernardino incident. Firstly, I feel extremely sorry and heartbroken in the aftermath of such a brutal, debauched attack that can never, ever be justified, regardless of whatever reasons the attacker may have advocated. My heart goes out to all of the victims and equally so, to their loved ones and family. The attack was not only a mere shooting incident, however; it was a reminder of the improvements that must be made in terms of gun laws, organization and the management of mentally-afflicted people. As a nation that always stands for personal choices, liberty, and freedom to volition within the confines of law, the U.S. has always espoused the need for individualistic decision-making. Given this, it is not odd or even minutely surprising that sexuality and gender too, like other facets of a human, are subjective topics that everyone can have different opinions on. But who was Omar Mateen, the Orlando shooter, to judge people at the club for being gay? Advertisement The answer is simple: he was no one other than a bigoted, seemingly psychotic, and perhaps a severely mentally disturbed person who, when he discovered no other outlet, channeled his internal frustrations through the means of violence. However, Mateen's extremely egregious actions and thought processes in view, we need to work towards fomenting significant reforms. And to note one thing, as a friend of mine recently stated, blaming Islam for these attacks, or pointing fingers at the much-venerated president Obama for not using the word "radical Islamism" will not be, by any means, a stepping stone for such a reform. I do agree that Mateen was a Muslim whose morals and ethical standards were extremely skewed. But can we attribute his personal problems to how Islam is, as a whole? Certainly not. 1.6 billion muslims are not all a part of a huge Facebook group chat where every person informs the others about his/her spurious plans. Instead, these 1.6 billion Muslims also stand in unwavering solidarity with the Orlando victims. Recently, a group of Muslims gathered in Orlando, in a huge congregation, to offer a truly heartfelt prayer for the Orlando victims and their families. In other Muslim communities I have the privilege of being a part, Muslims are making amends by reinforcing the original teachings of Islam, which are all centered on peace and tolerance. Islam does not teach a follower to hurt others based on their gender, race, ethnicity or sexuality. In this context, it is not surprising that increasing the already high level of surveillance on Muslims will not be the key to a reform. Instead, a standardized process of a much tighter gun control, a ban on machine guns (both Orlando and Sandy Hook were carried out with AR-15 assault rifles), and a better professional system of identifying and dealing with mental health issues--a topic that is often deemed too trivial in many countries still--will be of immense utility. Furthermore, educating individuals regarding oppressing homophobia in both Muslim and non-Muslim communities will also be a potentially helpful step. Advertisement Therefore, as a nation, we need to reflect on how allowing easy access to deadly weapons such as guns is sowing seeds for more home-grown acts of terrorism. Granted that dissidents might argue that guns are needed as a means of personal protection, but that is truly analogous to fighting fire with fire. Why should not we, in the first place, aim to take the fire down? It is starkly obvious that we cannot immediately deal with each and every psychotic and mentally ill person in the U.S. Does this mean we should still allow these people to have access to deadly firearms too? Or should we make access to guns very restricted, and instead vie to fight violence, amongst other things, with a better process of dealing with parochial and intolerant societies that advocate concepts like homophobia? In early May, a rapid, low-cost, freeze-dried, paper-based, strain-specific diagnostic system for detection of the Zika virus was introduced by an international consortium of researchers led by synthetic biologist James Collins of Harvard's Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. It could soon be used in the field to screen blood, urine or saliva samples. The core of the test kit is a piece of paper that changes color in the presence of Zika virus RNA and produces results in two to three hours, much faster than the PCR test now used, according to Collins, a Wyss Core Faculty member, and Termeer Professor of Medical Engineering & Science and Professor of Biological Engineering at MIT. University of Toronto biochemist Keith Pardee adds that it should cost less than a dollar per test. Advertisement The team from a number of different institutions came together, and, in a matter of six weeks, developed the new approach to detection and designed a system to deploy in the face of future pandemics. In response to an emerging outbreak, Collins claims, a custom tailored diagnostic system could be ready for use within one week's time. All components of the diagnostic system can be freeze-dried for storage and transport while retaining their efficacy. The ability to pinpoint a strain-specific diagnosis in the field could prove valuable to national and global health organizations for tracking the spread of a viral outbreak in real time and for preparing containment strategies and treatment plans. The work by collaborators from the Wyss Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the Broad Institute, Cornell, Arizona State, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Boston University, and Addgene, was described in the May 6 issue of the journal Cell. In this 53-minute podcast, I speak with Collins and Pardee about how a crisis can incite collaboration and innovation. We explore how they did it, what they learned, and what this might mean for the future. Advertisement "Lucy, you want to see Lucy?" young, would-be tour guides prompt in Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa. Lucy stars in tourist brochures as one of the East African country's great attractions. She also appears in the cultural history collage at the entrance of the Ethiopian National Museum. Ethiopians are clearly proud of Lucy, a hominin specimen of special renown, a cultural heritage attraction. You meet Lucy, or Dinknesh, meaning "you are marvellous" in Amharic, in the lobby of the Ethiopian National Museum. "Hi, I'm Lucy," greets a sketch of Australopithecus afarensis. "I am almost 3.2 million years old, but am walking fully upright." It goes on to suggest: "Please meet my world-famous ancestors and descendants, all from Ethiopia," prompting a visit to the palaeoanthropological exhibit in the basement. This is striking. Lucy, an ape-like creature, becomes a human-like cultural ambassador for African archaeological heritage in Ethiopia. What does it mean to humanise the remains of our ape ancestors? What kinds of things are they made to say about the countries that display them? And what do they say about Africa as a place of scientific "discovery"? Advertisement Simplifying complicated science One reason why fossil remains are humanised is because it helps make confusing biological leftovers sensible. It also simplifies complicated scientific findings for the media. But this simplification of science also creates problems. These stories often hinge on the idea of "discovery", a word linked to colonial exploitation, and recycle stereotypes about who is allowed to produce, and what counts as, new scientific knowledge. Let's take Lucy. Popular media accounts state that she was "discovered" by Donald Johanson in Hadar, in Ethiopia's Afar Valley, in 1974. He happened upon the remains by chance while walking back to his car near an ongoing archaeological dig. The team celebrated the find that night, playing music by the Beatles, which led to the specimen being named Lucy, after the song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. Told differently, we could say, the remains of a female ape-like hominin were found in a developing African country by a highly educated man from America. This white man is portrayed as having the strength, expertise and skill to recover precious female fossil remains in black Africa. He takes credit for digging up, identifying and explaining its importance, as an Indiana Jones-like hero of science. This is a common way of explaining how hominin fossils are recovered in Africa. Think about how Homo naledi was found northwest of Johannesburg, South Africa, and identified, and how Professor Lee Berger became the dominant voice in explaining its scientific importance. In reality, archaeology does not work like this. Nick Shepherd's article, "When the Hand that Holds the Trowel is Black...", shows that simple stories like these actively erase the black labour and nous that go into recovering such finds. Advertisement This shows that the unearthing of important fossil remains often entails the burying of important information about who should share in the prestige it brings. Story of our ancestors The palaeontology exhibition in Ethiopia's National Museum uses Lucy's remains to make claims about shifts in deep time. One panel declares, "These remains tell us a long story of great transformation in landscapes, living beings and techniques. They tell us the long story of our ancestors." Referencing human and spiritual predecessors, ancestors are a potent explanatory idiom in Africa. My original research shows, for example, how "ancestors" informed the heritage claims made by Freedom Park in South Africa. Exhibition panels also flag Ethiopia as a special site of palaeoarchaeological remains. It has "the most complete and richest record of human ancestors and with the longest record of stone and tool making". Indeed, one panel declares, "the oldest known remains of Homo sapiens, our very species, were discovered in Ethiopia around 200,000 years ago". Ethiopia makes a distinctive contribution to the African story of human evolution. "Hominid species are known only in Africa and nowhere else on earth," a panel explains. Ethiopian fossils, however, complete the African story of human evolution. "Early hominids have been found in several African countries," its says. "Together with Ethiopian fossils [they] contribute to a general understanding of evolution in Africa." Advertisement Where humankind originated Surprisingly, South African heritage sites make similar claims. Maropeng and the Sterkfontein Caves, for example, are described as "the oldest and most continuous palaeontological dig in the world". Known as the "Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site", it is "widely recognised as the place from which all of humankind originated". Visitors could take comfort in the company slogan, "Welcome Home". This was the site of major shifts in human evolution. It is the place where "the best evidence [has been unearthed] of the complex journey which our species has taken to make us what we are". "Our ancestors were able to use and control fire at least one million years ago in the Cradle of Humankind," the website states. It is a special place in Africa, "the birthplace of humankind ... where our collective umbilical cord lies buried". It is not surprising these countries appear to be making similar, competing claims. African fossils are valuable remains, and much is at stake. They reference problematic ways of talking about archaeology as a science of "discovery" in Africa. The fossils serve as evidence distinguishing countries as important sites of archaeological research. They also allow countries to make claims to and about Africa, and the idea of Africa as the cradle of humankind. And finally, they have the potential to attract, entertain and educate visiting tourists, and generate revenue in the process. Duane Jethro, Postdoctoral Fellow, Archive and Public Culture Research Initiative, University of Cape Town Advertisement There are places in America where events occurred that are so powerful, they helped shape our nation's history and culture--and must never be forgotten. Stonewall Inn, and the area surrounding this historic site in New York's Greenwich Village, is one such place. Stonewall served as a gathering place. In the late 1960s, it was one of the few venues in New York City where LGBT people could openly congregate and be themselves. In fact, at that time very few establishments welcomed openly gay people. Despite the routine police raids, at Stonewall they found a place they could gather without judgment. Stonewall served as a spark. On June 28, 1969, in response to yet another police raid at Stonewall Inn, the LGBT community rose up and fought back, igniting a movement that would change America. No longer would LGBT citizens let their community suffer injustice without taking action against the continued harassment. It was this moment, and the days that followed, that are often considered to be some of the most important in the LGBT community's fight for civil and human rights. Advertisement Stonewall has served as a beacon of hope. In 2015, thousands gathered to mark the passage of the Marriage Equality Act, a pivotal turning point in American history that granted an important right that had long been denied the LGBT community. And Stonewall has served as a place of mourning. It was here that crowds gathered to try and make sense of the tragic events of Orlando, where a gunman targeted a community that has long struggled for equal rights. A place this powerful, with a story this meaningful, deserves to be protected and its story deserves to be told. And in fact, it's not just the story of that night in 1969. Many of those who gathered there two weekends ago weren't even born when the Stonewall uprising occurred. Rather, this is a story of the decades-old struggle in communities across the country - a struggle that continues to this day, four decades after the rebellion that sparked the modern LGBT rights movement. This is a story that deserves to be told by the National Park Service. Two-thirds of America's more than 400 national park sites are dedicated to cultural and historic significance. These are places where people lived, ideas were born, struggles occurred and history was made. The history of America isn't always pleasant, but it is always important. Our past is full of triumphant victories and inspirational people but also full of regrettable moments. And we have national park sites that tell those stories, from the fight for women's rights at Seneca Falls to the fight for African-American rights at Selma. Advertisement Thanks to President Obama, we are making progress ensuring our national parks tell the stories that represent all Americans - including our struggles. We now have a national park site to tell the story of the plight of U.S. farm workers and their fight for higher wages and safer working conditions with President Obama's designation of the Cesar E. Chavez National Monument in California in 2012. We now have a national park site to tell the story of the nation's first industry-wide strike in 1894 and early Civil Rights history with President Obama's 2014 designation of Pullman National Monument in Chicago, the city's first national park site. And just this year, he designated Belmont-Paul Women's Equality National Monument, home to the National Woman's Party for the last 90 years and the epicenter of the struggle for women's suffrage and equal rights. We urge President Obama to declare the area around Stonewall a national park site. The story of discrimination represented at Stonewall is too tragic to repeat and too important to forget. The best kind of discovery is a serendipitous one, whether it be discovering your future wife in line at Starbucks, an unclaimed $20.00 bill on the sidewalk, or a book that inspires you to renounce your law practice for a life of celibacy as a newly professed Buddhist monk. For Malcolm Gladwell, author of Outliers: The Story of Success, one must be a student "of all different mechanisms of chance encounters of the unusual and insightful" to be a serendipitous learner. In a world where it is key to distinguish yourself from others, serendipitous learning seems to be the only authentic pursuit of knowledge left which does not result in an invisible, algorithmic filter bubble edited by Google. So how does one "find" serendipitous learning when the very essence of serendipity relies on finding value in what is not pursued? Advertisement The irony is, serendipitous learning is found only by those who pursue chance encounters: chance encounters with people, with knowledge, and with the wider world. So, what's the dilemma? The dilemma is, most people lack the opportunity, or maybe even the imagination, to expand their own reality outside of the rituals they've prescribed for themselves, therefore limiting their own encounters beyond the ordinary. Gladwell frames this method of learning to be as simple as conversing with people well outside of one's world. What may be relevant to you may not be relevant to your neighbor, yet conversing with others from all walks of life builds cultural and moral understandings, and allows ideas to cluster in powerful ways. People often view travel as a way to bear witness to the life of another, and often cite travel as the answer to finding meaning amongst the chaos. But is travel really the answer? THINK Global School, the world's first traveling high school, provides its students with endless opportunities for chance encounters as they travel to 9 countries and experience all walks of life as a prerequisite for their high school graduation. While this extraordinary opportunity may only be granted to 45 international teens, what is key is the institution values the pursuit of chance encounters and structures educational opportunity around that very pursuit. TGS students learn about geisha traditions in Kyoto, Japan But serendipitous learning isn't limited solely to schools with access to travel. It's something stationary schools can engage in as well. Advertisement "Many schools are organized as they are because they always have been, not because they must be," says Ken Robinson, in Creative Schools: The Grassroots Revolution That's Changing Education. Making the impossible possible only happens when one first pursues possibilities they've never encountered before, which takes both inventiveness and courage. To value a chance encounter means to apply value to any encounter. While traveling is the most obvious way one can transplant to unfamiliar territory, travel by itself does not provide the awareness and openness required to make meaningful connections with the wider world. There is no value placed on international chance encounters that we are unable to extend locally. Students, whether stationary or transient, can adapt a discovery mindset that sets them apart from others. Very rarely does anyone, be it a traveler or homebody, take advantage of engagement far beyond their comfort zone. Very rarely, when in line at Starbucks or any other coffee shop, would one take notice of the impatient woman behind them, nor would one consider speaking to said person. To find the $20.00 bill, we first must see the sidewalk. And to accomplish that, we must cease the endless fixation with our iPhone and instead pay attention to where we're walking. Put down the legal books and take a stroll down the Religion & Philosophy aisle, even if you know nothing about religion and philosophy -- even better, especially if you know nothing about religion and philosophy. IB Coordinator Adnan Mackovic (left) helps explain Islam during our term in his homeland of Bosnia It is easy to fall into the daily grind of who we once decided to be and therefore are today. We read the same newspaper we've always read, we call the same friends we've always called, and we visit the same stores we've always visited. We walk through this world with a set of eyes which are as untrustworthy as Google's algorithmic filter. And it's our own fault; we are the programmers of our own ignorance. We've forgotten the value of what it means to see, or to be open to chance encounters with the unknown. Advertisement Students all over the world enter and leave classrooms daily yet fail to see value in their course content, stifling their academic understanding and growth. Schools have become the K-Marts of learning, where superficial ideas are mass-produced and sold, yet lack the lifetime warranty that really matters ten years down the road. Dr. Richard Davidson, a neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, concludes, "Your grades in school, your scores on the SAT, mean less for life success than your capacity to co-operate, your ability to regulate your emotions, your capacity to delay your gratification, and your capacity to focus your attention. Those skills are far more important--all the data indicate--for life success than your IQ or your grades." * By understanding what can be gained by being open to our surroundings and assigning each encounter value, other authentic opportunities will strike us more often and more deeply as a direct result of our awareness. While we should encourage schools to ditch traditional models that restrict opportunities for serendipitous learning, we should also encourage students to search out opportunities that their peers would likely turn a blind eye towards; talk to a janitor, select a random book from the library to read, break into the auditorium sound booth. Whatever it is you do, set out to capitalize on all of the knowledge lurking in the background that others are too paralyzed to embrace. More importantly, students should no longer see their school as an institution for learning, they should see every moment of living as an institution for learning. Yada learns about elephant conservation in her hometown of Chiang Mai, Thailand Robinson further discusses the importance for teaching children how to employ their natural creativity as the seeking of these talents "might insulate them against the unpredictability of the future in all parts of the world." The only way to arm ourselves against the unpredictability of the future is to prepare for the future of unpredictability. And what better way to do that than to live unpredictable lives ourselves? We have to value chance encounters, abroad and at home, or live to repent not having valued them. The dilemma is ours to rectify. Advertisement -Breanna Reynolds, IB Language and Literature teacher at THINK Global School Elon Musk is, without a doubt, one of the most forward thinking and entrepreneurial minds that has prominently emerged in the last few decades. His contributions to society, and particularly to science and the future of this Earth's sustainability, are nearly unparalleled among modern business professionals. Musk is fond of stating that hydrogen is and will always be the future of transportation. Recently, Musk's co-founding partner at Tesla, Marc Tarpenning, added his thoughts alongside Musk, referring to hydrogen fuel technology in a less than positive manner. Musk, Tarpenning, and others share this feedback as they vie for their slice of the market share sought by innovative and sustainable technologies as America works to phase out fossil fuels. It would be naive of course to claim to not understand their hesitations around hydrogen fuel technology. First, while the major auto manufacturers including Honda, Toyota, Hyundai, and now Mercedes Benz continue to pursue hydrogen fuel technology, these products have not yet garnered the mass adoption needed to really create a trend. This could, of course, be due to the lack of hydrogen fuel infrastructure, as numerous reports surfaced last year of the unavailability or lack of consistency by the filling stations in California. Advertisement Musk and those who criticize hydrogen fuel often point to the cost of production, stating that the energy output to produce and store hydrogen outweighs the positives of the element itself. It is easy to pinpoint these hurdles, as most emerging markets and technologies encounter challenges in their early stages of development and adoption. Musk too knows this, as his powerful companies of Tesla and Solar City have faced adversity and continued to advance in terms of both adoption and market capitalization. There is one key distinction that I believe Musk should acknowledge when opining on hydrogen technology - it's not just about the "future," it's about the "now." Hydrogen fuel technologies are already in use, the market is already there, and the upside for the industry is tremendous. Hydrogen fuel technologies for industrial use have been in practice for years! Count Walmart, Ace Hardware, FedEx, and many others who depend on it for warehouse transportation. Plug Power's GenKey, a turnkey solution for businesses, is powered by the Company's GenDrive product, a hydrogen fuel cell system. Plug Power has stated that there are over 10,000 GenDrives currently on the market - no small figure. Advertisement In Aberdeen in the U.K., is now touted as a success and a model for other countries to look to as they continue adoption hydrogen fuel technologies. According to ITM Power, the Aberdeen station that features Linde's IC-90 ionic compressors dispensed over 35,000 kg of hydrogen to the buses and has proved extremely reliable. The Company is now implementing new filling stations around London with plans to complete at least eight. In the telecommunications sector, Intelligent Energy announced late last year a $1.8 billion deal to bring fuel cell technology to provide backup for over 27,000 cell phone towers in India. Their proton exchange membrane's (PEM) are powered by pure hydrogen, and leave absolutely no by-product. These examples above are just that - examples of hydrogen fuel technology that have already found their place in the market. While there are of course uncertainties going forward, the same can be said for any industry whose market is positioned as high growth. The real takeaway here should be focused upon the market opportunity for both electric and fuel cell vehicles. Gasoline powered vehicles have dominated the roadways for so long, effectively forming a monopoly that hydrogen and EV must break. Can you really envision only one succeeding, i.e. a major roadway with only EV charging stations or hydrogen fueling pumps? There is room for two if not more alternatives to gasoline. In the Fall of 1964, administration officials at UC Berkeley banned students from participating in political activities on campus. In response, students from across the political spectrum protested, sat-in, risked arrest and their academic careers, in what is now known as the Free Speech Movement (FSM). The victories won by Jack Weinberg, Brian Turner, Michael Rossman, Bettina Aptheker, Mario Savio, and others in the FSM are in large part, why college campuses remain a place where students can engage in rigorous debate of any topic. Now however, much of what these activists worked for may be at risk. Recently, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo signed an executive order that according to the New York Times, "essentially created a blacklist of entities that boycott or divest from Israel or encourage others to do so, banning those companies from receiving taxpayer funding." The movement to boycott, divest from and sanction Israel, known as BDS, is a strategy intended to combat Israel's nearly 50-year occupation of the Palestinian territories in the West Bank and Gaza, "a situation that three former Israeli prime ministers, as well as Secretary of State John Kerry, have warned would become akin to apartheid if allowed to continue." The New York State legislature has followed suit. This time however, the action is directed specifically at students. The bill recently passed by the New York State Senate, S8017, bars student groups in the SUNY and CUNY system from receiving funds if they participate in any activities that "cause harm to or otherwise promote or cast disrepute upon, such allied nation, its people, or its commercial products." The bill is clearly designed to shield Israel from criticism. The language specifically referring to "allied nation and boycotts" is exactly the same as two other pieces of anti-BDS legislation that circulated earlier this year that focused on penalizing and monitoring NGOs, corporations and individuals involved in the BDS movement. Advertisement While blunting the BDS movement on college campuses is clearly the primary aim, the language is a frightening overreach that could have long lasting implications. As a Peace Action New York State Fund Board member, I can attest to the fact that this bill would all but ensure Peace Action student chapters would cease to exist as many depend on these funds to operate. Therefore, students would not be allowed to raise awareness about refugees who are discriminated against in European nations, protest free trade agreements, child labor, rape, human rights abuses, economic inequality, nuclear proliferation, or any campaign that casts a negative light on an "allied nation," in essence shielding 56 countries and various corporations operating with them. As student peace activists are under attack, colleges and universities continue to serve as recruitment centers for the military. Officers promise to pay for students' education and offer a chance to see the world, while refusing to utter phrases such as loss of limbs, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or death. Universities continue to serve as a resource for the Pentagon to research and develop weapons. Students are dissuaded from studying peace, ethnic studies, or history. They are rewarded for conformity and encouraged to pick a major that will guarantee financial gain for both the student and the college. Students have always been crucial to the success of social movements in the U.S., whether it was free speech, civil rights, Vietnam, women's liberation, peace, or nuclear disarmament. Now, the New York State Government is trying to eliminate students' ability to fight for change. If they are successful in this endeavor, are we to think other states, especially traditional red states, would not follow suit? Writing this I cannot help but be reminded of Mario Savio's famous words as he stood in Sproul Plaza over fifty years ago imploring activists to resist this type of repression: "There's a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part! You can't even passively take part! And you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop! And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all." Advertisement Age has taken its toll on my father, and he is a shadow of his former self, especially after the demise of my mom. I have been thinking of ways and means to cheer him up and get the sparkle back in his eyes. I got the answer. One of my father's unfulfilled dreams was to visit Varanasi, the spiritual Capital of India. He had traveled across India, but by some travesty of fate he had never been able to go to his dream city. I was sure he would love to go there and The City of Light would bring back the light to his eyes. I started making plans for the trip, the fact that I had been there helped me visualize the entire trip that I was planning for my father and I had everything planned to a t. Advertisement Why Varanasi? Varanasi can be called as the spiritual capital of India, it occupies a prime position in the list of the holiest of holy destinations for Hindus. Varanasi is also an important spiritual destination for Buddhists too as Buddha gave his first sermon and established Buddhism in the year 528 BC at a place called Sarnath, just outside Varanasi. Based on archaeological evidence, it is estimated that the city of Varanasi was inhabited as early as the 20th century BC, making it one of the world's oldest continually inhabited cities. Today, Varanasi is famous, the world over for its pulsating culture, the ghats along the banks of the holy river Ganga and its 23,000 odd temples which include the Kashi Vishwanath temple dedicated to Lord Shiva with whom the city is synonymous with. Hindus believe that death in the holy city of Varanasi would lead to their salvation and this belief draws the devout like a magnet, to visit the city at least once in a lifetime. My father with a deep rooted interest and fascination for the spiritual and mythological intricacies of Hinduism was sure to love and treasure this visit to this ancient city, I thought as I gave the finishing touches to the itinerary. Advertisement How we would get there Varanasi is accessible by road, rail and air by all the major cities of India, including Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. It has an international airport called Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport and all the major domestic airlines operate from here. I planned for us to fly in to Varanasi from Delhi, a flight of approximately 90 minutes. Where we would stay We would be staying at the Radisson Hotel as I felt it would be quite comfortable for my father and also the hotel is centrally located with easy access to the Ghats on the River Ganga and just about 5.5 Kilometers from the Kashi Vishwanath Temple. The Hotel also provides a free Buffet Breakfast and has a nice swimming pool. I was sure my father would feel at home here. What we will eat We will feast on the famous Varanasi breakfast of Kachoris and Jalebis We will drink huge glasses of Lassi We will experience ecstasy, chewing on the famous Banarasi Pan What we would see and what we would do Varanasi is a city which needs you to stay there for at least a week to really soak in the atmosphere and see all the sights. But I planned only for a couple of days as I did not want to tire out my father. I carefully selected the top things that we would see and do based on my father's preferences. Kashi Vishwanath Temple This temple is considered to be one of the holiest as well as oldest of Hindu temples and is dedicated to the Hindu God Shiva. The temple's sanctum sanctorum houses one of the twelve Jyotirlingas of Shiva. Jyotirlingas are symbols of devotion and represent Lord Shiva and literally mean, "Radiant sign of Lord Shiva." This temple finds mention in ancient Hindu scriptures seems to have been existing from the beginning of time itself, however the temple has been destroyed by marauding invaders and rebuilt again and again. The last structure was destroyed by the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb and the temple which now stands was built in its place in the year 1780 by the Maratha queen Ahilyabai Holkar of Indore. Advertisement I felt a thrill go up my spine as I imagined my father bending reverently in front of the sacred Jyotirlinga and experiencing spiritual bliss. A boat tour of the Ghats of Varanasi I have planned for a boat tour which would take us across the different ghats ( embankments with steps leading the the river banks) that dot the sacred river Ganga, each ghat is unique in its own right and has a glorious history attached to it. I can almost visualize my father waxing eloquent on the stories behind each of these ghats as the boat gently floated along the placid waters of the Ganga. Though he has never been there, he is sure to know everything about the city and its history as he is a walking and talking encyclopedia. He has been my Google much before search engines were invented and even today, he may come up with an answer for something for which even Google does not have an answer! There are about 87 ghats along the banks of the river Ganga in Varanasi, most of the ghats date back to 1700 AD and were built for purposes of bathing and ritualistic worship, while some are exclusively meant for cremation rites. Some of the more famous Ghats include the Dashaswamedh Ghat which is very near to the Kashi Vishwanath temple and is the most spectacular of all the Ghats, the Manikarnika Ghat and the Harishchandra Ghat, both of which are ghats reserved for cremation of the dead. I am sure to hear my father philosophizing about the ephemeral nature of life when we glide past the burning funeral pyres at the Manikarnika and Harishchandra ghats. Watch this video full screen HD to get a feel of the river Ganga. Advertisement Sarnath I have planned for us to take a short half day trip from Varanasi to Sarnath which is just about a half hour drive away. Sarnath is the place where Buddha went from Bodh Gaya soon after his enlightenment under the Bodhi tree and preached his first sermon to five disciples and laid the foundation stone for Buddhism. We shall visit the Deer Park and take a stroll in its spacious and calm environs and visit the lovely Buddha temple that stands here. I am sure my father will revel in the positively charged atmosphere of this place where many, many years ago the air was rent by the voice of the Buddha as he delivered his first sermon. Even today as you walk in the deer park if you listen carefully, the sounds of "Buddham Sharanam Gacchami," echoes in the air. We shall then visit the Archaeological Museum which is home for the various findings from the Sarnath site. The Museum has a collection of more than 6,000 sculptures and various artefacts. The most famous of these is the Lion Capital of Ashoka (sculpture of 4 asiatic lions standing, back to back), sculpted in sandstone and originally erected in Sarnath in the year 250 BCE. An adaptation of the Lion Capital of Ashoka has been adopted as the National Emblem of India. A Circular wheel at the base of the sculpture, known as Ashok Chakra, has found a place of pride in the National Flag of India. And last but not the least, we shall stare in awe at the massive Dhamek Stupa , a solid structure with a height of 43.6 meters and a diameter of 28 meters. The Stupa is said to mark the spot where the Buddha gave his first sermon. Ganga Aarti The grand finale to our trip would be, witnessing the spectacular Ganga Aarti on Dashashwamedh Ghat sitting in a boat, moored near the ghats. Advertisement It will be such a blissful experience, I thought as remembered the last time I had witnessed this glittering ceremony. As the sun sets in the horizon and twilight casts its mystical glow, the river Ganga assumes a golden sheen and its gentle waves shimmer and caress the sides of the boat, the wooden boat now appearing gilded gently comes to a stop in front of the Dashaswamedh Ghat. There is a flurry of activity on the ghat as preparations are being made for the evening Aarti. Aarti is a very important component of Hindu ritualistic worship, it is the act of waving lamps in a circular motion accompanied by the chanting of Vedic mantras or hymns, facing the object of worship or veneration. The Aarti is performed in temples and houses on a daily basis or during specific festivals. In this case the worship is of the River Ganga, whom the Hindus worship as a personification of the Divine Mother, a mother who has nurtured and sustained civilization along her banks from time immemorial. Suddenly a hush falls upon the crowd as twilight slowly gives way to darkness, the ghat explodes into a brilliance of light as priests light their brass lamps and the aarti begins, the priests wave the lamps in rhythmical and circular motion in time with the mellifluous song in praise of the River Ganga that pervades the air. This ceremony lasts for 45 minutes and waves of devotion and spirituality submerge the people gathered to watch this event. The mind experiences a strange sense of calm as if the River Ganga has cleansed your very being and set at rest all the troubles and doubts that plague your mind. Advertisement It is such an uplifting experience, but for me, I am sure that this time around when I witness the Ganga Aarti with my father, the magnificence of the spectacle and the spiritually charged atmosphere will pale in comparison to the smile that I will see on his face, the sparkle that will kindle his eyes again and the touch of his hand as he gently squeezes mine. I look forward to this trip and hope things go well as planned and I get to see my dad smile. What special something have you planned for your Father, do let us know through our comments section. This article was originally published on our Voyager site - A spiritual experience in The City of Light, Varanasi If you loved this article and would like to follow my travel site, do check out my personal site: Voyager Things haven't gone so smoothly for Bernie Sanders since the primary season ended with a cascade of victories for Hillary Clinton. His big speech at the end of last week on the future of his campaign and movement was marked by network cutaways when he declined to acknowledge Clinton's insurmountable lead in the Democratic presidential contest. That was followed by coverage dismissive of his ongoing efforts, only some of which are about actually seeking the presidency. Before that, his ballyhooed return to Washington, replete with several very high-level meetings and a low-key rally at RFK Stadium was almost entirely overshadowed by a rush of remaining big endorsements for Hillary Clinton. Sanders got the respectful meeting with President Barack Obama, but Hillary got the full-throated endorsement from her onetime bitter rival-turned-boss. There are good reasons for Sanders to continue, and as a Sanders primary supporter, I think he should. But he does need to find a way to more clearly acknowledge the obvious, that Clinton will be, absent the most unlikely of occurrences (no, not the silly e-mail "scandal"), the Democratic nominee in a race that must be won. Not only a race that must be won, but won decisively, to preserve and reinforce the Enlightenment ethic on which this Republic was founded and which is clearly under threat in a new era marked by a dangerous sort of reactionary ignorance. Advertisement Senator Bernie Sanders vowed that the political revolution will continue in this address to supporters last Thursday evening. But what happens if the revolution is not televised? Donald Trump and the aggressively know-nothing neo-fascism he represents must not only be defeated but decisively defeated. I saw him coming last year and I continue to believe that it's no sure thing. Everything is going Hillary's way right now, yet her regained lead in the polls isn't really all that big. If there's a downturn from our very uneven economic recovery (which could be triggered by several things, including a British exit from the European Union) or a jihadist terrorist attack or three -- and Trump refrains from acting like a deranged jackass -- this election could again go south in a hurry. Yet the mission of Bernie Sanders retains its importance. If Sanders and some of his most vehement supporters can't find a way to more clearly acknowledge the reality of their situation, they simply won't get the sort of coverage they need in order to move forward into the Philadelphia convention next month and beyond. Advertisement Politics is the art of the possible, but it is also about expanding the sense of the possible. Sanders has demonstrated that there is far more support for doing more on economic inequality than most had imagined or wanted to acknowledge. If he ends his campaign much before the convention, he risks the ability to drive his message forward. But if he does not acknowledge the obvious fact of Clinton's ascendance -- say, by congratulating her on winning seven of the last nine contests, including a decisive win in the hoped-for Sanders lynchpin state of California -- he will be seen as a dead-ender. That will make it easy for the media, which has, despite sometimes hyping his chances, generally given him ridiculously short shrift, to ignore and devalue his efforts. Sanders also needs to deal with a problem around some of his supporters, who are frankly seeming more than a bit delusional about the reality of the situation. In Santa Monica, at Sanders's last election night party of the campaign, as I wrote earlier, Sanders backers cried "Bullshit!" at TV news reports of a sizable Clinton California lead, forcing the feed to be shut off. Since then, Sanders backers have been hostile at the California delegation meeting over the weekend -- in sharp contrast to the Obama-Clinton lovefest I reported on in 2008 -- and jeered the election of Governor Andrew Cuomo as head of the New York delegation to next month's convention. Advertisement The thing is, Clinton won big in both California and New York, as she mostly did in nine of the 10 biggest primary elections. Clinton even won Santa Monica, the erstwhile "people's republic," which Sanders selected as the site for his last big election night event of the campaign. Having encountered Sanders on the weekend before the California primary, I have no doubt he grasps the reality of the situation. Even if his pollster did erroneously state after the primary that Sanders might end up losing California by a low single-digit margin in percentage points. But right now, Sanders, and especially too many of his fiercest supporters, are in danger of looking like they live in the sort of "Denialistan" of strictly filtered "information" which flourishes all too often in social media but doesn't work in real life. And that's getting in the way of their mission to positively impact the Democratic Party and the next Presidency. Advertisement It's a painful reality that too many children in our country face challenges beginning at birth. During a recent visit to the Head Start community in West Virginia, I heard from programs about just what Nicholas Kristof describes in his recent column, Building Children's Brains, -- babies born on drugs, early attachments interrupted when parents are incarcerated, and communities overwhelmed by the instability of families. To Mr. Kristof's point - we need to invest in the earliest years of life to ensure our children are fully prepared to compete in their later years. Nobel-winning economist Dr. James Heckman nails it, "The road to college attainment, higher wages and social mobility in the United States starts at birth. The greatest barrier to college education is not high tuitions or the risk of student debt; it's in the skills children have when they first enter kindergarten." The stark reality is the biggest obstacles and greatest inequality often have roots early in life. And that's where Head Start plays a critical, life-altering role for nearly one million vulnerable children each year. Beginning with Early Head Start programs for pregnant women, infants, and toddlers, and continuing into Head Start programs for preschool-aged children, Head Start enrolls the most at-risk families in each community and customizes comprehensive health and early learning services to help each child succeed. While it's true that Washington has stalled on the issue of pre-K, investments in vulnerable infants and toddlers through the expansion of Early Head Start have been one of the stand out successes of the last several years. Since the end of the sequester, Congress has invested $635 million in Early Head Start-Child Care Partnerships, which establish collaborations that infuse high-quality Head Start practices into child care settings in every state across the country. In West Virginia, programs described holding home visits in local jails with parents in plain clothes and creating transitional housing so Head Start parents have stable environments as they transition back into their roles in their families and communities. This kind of innovation and local design is why Head Start has thrived across our country for more than fifty years, and it continues to be our most essential national commitment to early childhood. When the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan ended, Arab fighters began to wonder for whose cause they had fought. Yehia Ghanem is an Egyptian journalist and war correspondent who has covered conflicts in Bosnia, Afghanistan and DRC. During the second half of the 20th century, Arab political groups were at the forefront of the battle against tyrannical regimes. Our societies had come to understand that democracy, peaceful transitions of power, transparency and political and financial accountability were out of reach as long as the dictators were in power. Advertisement Many concluded that the only way to force these obstinate dictators from power was through violence. Yet this unintentionally offered those same dictators a new lifeline on to which they could cling. They were able to use this threat of violence as evidence to be presented to the West that they were engaged in a war against "terrorists" in their own countries. There were two main groups leading the Arab struggle for freedom and democracy: the leftists and the Muslim Brotherhood. During the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, it was easy for Arab regimes to discredit the leftists by branding them communists. In truth, many had no connection to that political creed. But when Arab dictators sought to present this as a battle to halt the spread of communism to the Middle East, the truth didn't matter much.The Muslim Brotherhood proved more frustrating - particularly when it adopted more peaceful sociopolitical methods to achieve its aims, thus removing the dictators' ability to discredit them and occupy the moral high ground. Still, at this time, neither the more violent Islamist groups nor the Muslim Brotherhood viewed the United States as its enemy. For them, that was to be found on the eastern front in the form of the irreligious Soviet Union. The West, led by the US, was considered to be at peace with Muslims.After the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, it presented an opportunity for Washington to finish off the "evil empire", as US President Ronald Reagan labelled it in 1983. It also allowed the US to settle some past political debts and to repay Moscow for turning Vietnam into a war of attrition. Advertisement The dictatorial regimes in Arab countries - most of whom were by then allied with the US - found in this a way to serve their new chaperone. They began to loosen their security grip on local Islamist groups, encouraging them to go to Afghanistan, where they could fight against the Soviets. It served a double function: redirecting the efforts of these groups away from their own countries and proving their value to the US in the battle against a common enemy. Arab fighters in Afghanistan - the majority of whom were Egyptian - played a key role in the war. But when the Soviets began to withdraw in 1989, these mujahedeen, as they were known, were thrown into flux. For a decade they had been absorbed into Afghan society, but their main reason for being there had suddenly been removed. Their mission had been successfully completed, but they were facing a crisis of identity. Naturally, they began to look back towards their homelands, where the same, unelected dictators remained in power and their objectives were far from fulfilled. They began to receive signals from the regimes in their own countries that they were no longer welcome to return.It was around this time that their animosity began to shift away from the Soviet Union and towards the US, who had backed them during the war in Afghanistan.As the US continued to back the dictators who ruled their own countries, these Arabs began to wonder if they had not been fighting a war against the Soviets so much as a crusade on behalf of the US. It was the beginning of a long period of animosity that would have far-reaching consequences for those on all sides ... More in this series: Part 1: Into the cage - a journalist on trial in Egypt Part 2: Crocodiles in a court of law Part 3: Inside the cage - the writing on the wall Part 4: Chasing a childhood friend who became a fighter in Afghanistan In the next instalment of Chronicle of a caged journalist, Egyptian war correspondent Yehia Ghanem tells the stories of some of the Arabs who fought the Soviets in Afghanistan. Advertisement Chronicle of a caged journalist is a series of excerpts from a forthcoming book. The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy. A demonstration against the costs of the Mercosur Summit in 2014. (Digital Analysis) 14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 22 June 2016 -- Rupture can only be possible if there was once an agreement, a relationship or love. In the eyes of Latin America, Brexit seems like the story of a mature friend embroiled in the bitter litigation of a divorce, provoking a certain envy in those who have never managed to mate. In this world, while some arrange their departure from an alliance, others yearn for the marriage of an agreement. When the British vote this Thursday on a referendum to decide whether the United Kingdom will remain in or leave the European Union, the major impact of in Latin America should be a reflection on unitary structures, their reason for being and their fragility. On a continent where, in recent years, there have been innumerable groups, alliances and regional councils, each one more ineffective than the last, comparisons are inevitable. The dozens of entities and coalitions, whose initials, logos and premises surround us everywhere in Latin America, pompously hold inaugural summits with family photos filled with heads of state, but in practice and in real life they are of very little use. Latin America has not even achieved full freedom of movement for its citizens within its own borders, a theme that takes on a seriousness in the face of the strict requirements Cubans need to meet to visit neighboring countries. Advertisement The history of the political community called the European Union, even if one of its parties chooses to leave this week, is that of the hard road of conciliation, the journey of dialog with all its obstacles and its search for points in common. Why haven't Latin Americans extended an embrace in our area to create a legal framework that facilitates easier migration, investment and exchanges for our inhabitants? Few areas on this planet show so many linguistic, cultural and historical similarities as that found between the Rio Grande and Patagonia. These similarities make the fragmentation exhibited in so many regulations increasingly incomprehensible, in an area where many governments have chosen to join in their "little groups" based more on ideological affinities than on their responsibilities to their peoples. The reason for so much disunity - contrary to the common points of our identity that work to bind us together - are a sign of the egotism of the executives and the shortsightedness of the foreign ministries. The Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), created to emulate the Organization of American States (OAS) while leaving out the "uncomfortable" United States and Canada, does not advance beyond symbolic statements. At its last meeting in Ecuador, held in January, its most "concrete" achievement was to express support for the states participating in the Colombia peace process and to congratulate the government of Juan Manuel Santos. After long organization and with the concurrence of the delegates from the 33 member countries, the intergovernmental organization didn't move beyond paraphernalia to results and was incapable of taking on and proposing solutions to the great challenges of the continent. Advertisement Even worse has been the outcome of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), inflated by the temperament of a populist politician who thought he could redesign his country and go on to define the contours of the map of Latin America. With the death of former Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, this regional entity, defined by ideological exclusion and political commitment in exchange for oil, is like a pricked balloon: it has deflated. Even the Central American Integration System (SICA) demonstrated its ineffectiveness during the Cuban migrant crisis which, in late 2015, raised the political temperature on the border between Costa Rica and Nicaragua. Tension over the unilateral decision of Daniel Ortega to close his border to Cubans caused Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solis to declare that "Costa Rica can not participate in these conditions in an Integration System that ignores solidarity." Mercosur, the alliance the has come closest to achieving the free movement of goods and services between its member states, is also faltering because it became too incestuous and too dependent on Brazil's Planalto Palace, from which President Dilma Rousseff, one of its principal supporters, has departed as of a few weeks ago, in the midst of process in which she is accused of trying to disguise the country's budget deficit. Amid the rubble of so many failed organisms and so many acronyms condemned to the dustbin of history, the Pacific Alliance, comprising Chile, Mexico, Peru and Colombia, has chosen to "make it on their own" in a region where agreements are here today and gone tomorrow and organized groups bear more resemblance to gangs than to functional entities. This Thursday, when the British decide to leave or remain in the European Union, at least they will have known the taste of coexistence, the bittersweet contrast that defines every marriage. We in Latin America remain chronically single, looking enviously toward the altar. By Phil Laboon If you're a business owner, then you've probably already figured out just how vital SEO strategy can be to your overall success rate. Online exposure is the most effective way to get the word out about your products and services. Just about every form of business out there has information available about them online, describing what they do and how they can be reached. However, that does not necessarily mean that the information is accurate, up to date, or even easy to find. If you're not managing a well-maintained SEO marketing strategy for your business or website, then you could be missing out on more lead conversions than you even realize. But as a successful entrepreneur, you may already know more about SEO than you thought. It's easy to hear phrases like "SEO," "Panda algorithm update," and "Google quality rater guidelines" and get lost in a sea of confusion. But trust me when I say that internet marketing is not as difficult as people make it out to be. I started my internet marketing company in my basement, knowing almost nothing about the industry. Fast forward 14 years, and I'm one of marketing's top influencers. Get a head start on your internet marketing efforts with my three-step approach to building an online authority. Advertisement Research the Need for Your Services When you came up with the idea for your business, you probably noticed a lack of availability for something that you were looking for, or had difficulty finding it. In turn, you also may have asked around to see if people would pay for that kind of service if it were more available to them. Hence, you were able to do some research and find the value or demand for that service. It probably helped you to better understand your target audience as well. With an effective internet marketing strategy, you want to do the same. Make sure you are not attracting just any customers, but rather the right customers. Let's say someone is looking for a car engine, and you own an auto body store that mainly provides parts for foreign vehicles. If that potential customer is specific with their search and you're specific with your keywords, then they are more likely to find you right off the bat. Let's say they type "Subaru Outback engines" into their search. If you use this keyword effectively, then they'll be able to find you right away. Effective keyword research and application is a big step in the right direction of targeting potential customers and closing a sale. Attract New Customers Without customers or the need for a service, there really is no possible way for a business to thrive. If consumers are not investing in your product, then you won't have income. So naturally, you want to get the word out about what you have to offer. Before the internet, people found out about services through the Yellow Pages, television and radio ads, magazines, newspapers and word of mouth. Now, people are searching for products and services on their mobile devices and having hundreds -- even thousands -- of results available to them within seconds. Advertisement You want to attract as many new leads as possible, including both people who have never heard of you and are searching for your product, as well as people who have heard of you and are becoming more curious about your services. So, how do you place your brand front-and-center for your audience to see? It all starts with highly-targeted content creation with the user in mind. Without question, content should be the heart of your brand. From blog posts and original landing page copy to downloadable white papers, the content on your site is ultimately what drives new audiences to your brand. Make sure your brand is in a position to succeed by creating user-oriented content that provides your audience with trustworthy information. Keep in mind that it should be content that they actually want to read. Publish on Social Media Channels Most new businesses start out small and begin by offering services to family and friends. The results are then talked about and shared with other family and friends, thus perpetuating word-of-mouth marketing. Today, practically everyone we know has at least one social media account. Most people like to share their experiences with businesses and services on social media because it's a quick and easy way to tell others about their experience. If you are not advertising your business on any social media websites, you could be missing out on a lot of potential customers due to a lack of exposure. If someone receives a wonderful service from you, encourage them to share it with everyone they know online. Something as simple as a quick review on your Facebook profile could do a lot for your business's exposure to new customers and clients. When preparing to effectively optimize your online SEO marketing strategies, there's quite a bit of research to analyze. Just like when you're starting out in a new business, doing your due diligence and considering all your options will lead you to higher quality clientele and ROI. Advertisement NOAH SEELAM via Getty Images An Indian artist puts the final touches to statues of the Hindu God Lord Ram ahead of the Sri Rama Navami Festival at a workshop in Hyderabad on April 13, 2016. Sri Rama Navami will be held on April 15 and celebrates both the birth of Rama and his wedding to Sita. / AFP / NOAH SEELAM (Photo credit should read NOAH SEELAM/AFP/Getty Images) NEW DELHI -- A journalism professor in Bangalore has been jailed for allegedly insulting Lord Rama. The Hindustan Times reported today that Professor B.P. Mahesh Guru, who teaches journalism at Mysore University, was arrested on June 17 in connection with a case registered against him for allegedly insulting the Hindu god at a conference in January, 2015. Earlier this year, another complaint was filed against Guru for allegedly using abusive language against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani and former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Advertisement Guru had spoken at a condolence event for Rohith Vemula, the University of Hyderabad student, whose suicide sparked anger across the country, and is widely regarded to have been the result of harassment by his college authorities. Guru was reportedly denied bail in the Lord Rama case because he is also embroiled in the case about insulting Modi and Irani, according to HT. He alleged described Irani as a third-rate actress unworthy of being the HRD minister." The Indian Express, however, reported that he refused to avail bail. Guru allegedly made the remarks about Lord Rama at a conference in January 2015. HT reported that some people in the audience were offended that Guru said that Lord Rama was unfair to Sita, and a group called Karnadu Sarvodaya Sena filed a complaint against him. The University of Mysore is also deciding whether to suspend Guru because he celebrated Mahishasur Martyrdom Day to pay tribute to the demon king slain by Goddess Durga. In her speech in Parliament, Irani had condemned the celebration of Mahishasur Martyrdom Day. Advertisement Contact HuffPost India Also on HuffPost India: Hindustan Times via Getty Images NEW DELHI, INDIA - MARCH 5: A Cabin Crew member during a function to celebrate a 'Historic' New Delhi-San Francisco flight with all-women crew on board, on March 5, 2016 in New Delhi, India. Air India will operate the longest all-women crew flight from the national capital to San Francisco on March 6, to celebrate the International Womenas Day (IWD). Celebrating the power of women, the flight AI 173 that'll take the non-stop Delhi-San Francisco route will set a record for being the world's longest all-women operated and supported flight. This first-of-its-kind flight will serve the passengers with an all-women staff, be it cabin crew, cockpit crew, and check-in staff, doctor or customer care staff. Not just that, the ground staff - from operator to technician, engineer, flight dispatcher and trimmer - will also all be women. (Photo by Vipin Kumar/Hindustan Times via Getty Images) Air India, which has long been struggling to shape up its performance, has decided that 130 of its flight attendants who were identified as overweight and failed to get in shape despite repeated warning will have to be grounded. Most of these 'overweight' cabin crew members are women. According to a report in The Telegraph, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation has turned down a proposal by the government-owned airline to retain "overweight" cabin crew. Advertisement The DGCA has said that weight norms cannot be rolled back because they have been prescribed on "technical and efficiency grounds". Air India now wants to either ground the cabin crew members who do not meet the weight standards or ask them to opt for voluntary retirement. In May 2014, the DGCA issued a circular directing all domestic airlines, giving them an 18-month deadline, to classify flight attendants as "normal", "overweight" or "obese" and ensure that only the "fitter" crew were assigned aircraft duties. The circular said that women would need to have a Body Mass Index (BMI) between 18 and 22 to be declared normal. Women with BMI between 22 and 27 would be labelled overweight and those with a BMI higher than 27 would be classified as obese. For men, BMI levels between 18 and 25 would be deemed normal, 25 and 29.9 overweight, and above 30 obese. Advertisement Among the 3,500 cabin crew members in Air India, 600 were found to be 'obese' and had been asked to reduce weight. When 130 among them failed to reduce weight, Air India sent a letter to DGCA in October last year asking for a relaxation in norms as they were among the senior and more experienced staff. However, the DGCA said that they will not go back on the BMI norms as they have been "set after long deliberations over safety concerns." "The airline wanted to ground all its overweight crew members last year itself, but realised that most of them would end up being grounded and this would have a direct and severe impact on the already hit operations. The crewmembers were called back for another three months, as the process of hiring more cabin staff was expected to be completed by then. However, the overweight staff still continue to fly," an airline official told NDTV. Reuters Photographer / Reuters Fujitsu's newly developed bendable electronic paper, which the company says is the world's first film substrate-based bendable colour electronic paper with an image memory function, is displayed in Tokyo July 14, 2005. The electronic paper can continuously display the same colour images even when it is bent without electricity, thereby making it convenient for displaying information or advertisements especially on curved surfaces, Fujitsu said. REUTERS/Yuriko Nakao YN/JK In the mid-2000s, a designer by the name of Tamer Nakisci created a concept phone called Nokia 888 that won the Nokia Benelux Design Award. The phone could be worn around the wrist and when flattened, could function like a mobile phone. That phone never took eventual form but, today, we are getting there. Over the years, many phone makers have displayed their concept phones in electronic shows and it appears that finally, in the not too distant future, devices with flexible displays will become a reality. In concept, these devices can be worn as a bracelet and also work as phones. Advertisement In 2008, Nokia, in partnership with Cambridge University, launched a concept called Morph that employed nanotechnology. The idea was to design mobile phones of the future that could take many forms, depending on the users needs. Nokia later displayed a more commercial concept called Kinetic that was more realistic in terms of actual production. Sony and ASU also made efforts to design bendable phones at the conceptual level that never came to light. So far, the most successful attempts at making bendable displays have come from LG and Samsung. LG has been the only manufacturer to announce the mass production of flexible e-paper. Their curved phones first made an appearance as concepts and later hit the market. Samsung displayed a fully flexible OLED display on an unnamed Windows phone at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in 2013. Advertisement LG delivered LG G Flex and LG G Flex 2, both of which had a curved glass display with a good amount of flexibility. On the other hand, Samsung displayed a phone called Youm at CES 2013 that had a curved edge. Samsung went on to release many phones with curved edges, namely Samsung Note 4 Edge, Note Edge, Galaxy S6 Edge, Galaxy S6 Edge+ and Galaxy S7 Edge. Only the Note 4 Edge had single sided curved display. There have been recent reports that Samsung will be launching a flexible phone in 2017. Most likely, it will be a 5-inch phone that will turn into an 8-inch tablet. Other phone makers are not far behind. At its recent Tech World event, Lenovo showed off two concept phones -- Lenovo C Plus, which could be worn as a bracelet that could turn into a phone; and Folio, a foldable phone that could bend almost 360 degrees. Advertisement Oppo is another smartphone maker in the fray to make a bendable smartphone and the phone's design surfaced online recently. Another phone brand, Maxi, from China has also shown off its bendable phone-making capability. "These devices are certainly the future. In the case of India, what will matter finally is the cost and longevity to ensure that continuous bending of the device doesn't affect the display and user interface in any way," said Gartner researcher Vishal Tripathi, according to a report. As the displays are getting bigger and phones are getting thinner, the user's main concern would be to not have to compromise on durability. To have a device with a big screen that can also be slipped in one's pockets is always desirable. But not at the expense of performance. Either way, from the looks of it the future bright belongs to flexible displays. Advertisement helenecanada via Getty Images Two young Indian having an argument. One is pointing her index finger at the other to warn her. NEW DELHI -- It could be the plot of a Bollywood film. But this bizarre story is actually truea legal case is being fought over a man who is in coma, and two women have both claimed to be his wife. No one knows what's the truth. A woman has petitioned the Delhi High Court alleging that a woman and her son have "illegally detained" her husband who is in coma, by taking him to her west Delhi home from the hospital he was admitted in. Meanwhile, the second woman has claimed she is the man's lawfully wedded wife. Advertisement The petitioner has asked for the man's comatose body to be presented in court. The bench of Justices G S Sistani and Sangita Dhingra Sehgal was unable to determine who is the actual wife, and has given a temporary solutionthe second woman should continue taking care of the man while the petitioner should be allowed to visit the man every Wednesday for an hour. An investigating officer and a woman police constable will be present for these visits, the bench ordered. The court is expected to hear the matter again next month. Till then, the two women will have to live with this arrangement. Also See On HuffPost: Honor Fears of a weak monsoon are obviously misplaced. It is raining smartphones! Today, Huawei's sub-brand Honor launched a new phone called Honor 5C in India. As always, the Chinese phone maker is aiming to fit as many components with top specifications, usually found in a higher category smartphones, as possible. Honor 5C is priced at 10,999. So far, Honor has released 8 phones in India and, overall, has received a favorable response. Worldwide, the Honor 5X smartphone has sold almost 8 million units. Advertisement Honor 5C is powered by Huawei's own Kirin 650 processor with 8 cores which run at 2 Ghz. It has a 5.2 inch full HD screen and a 3000 mAh battery with something called Smart Power 3.0 that, according to the phone maker, makes it the equivalent of 4000 mAh. Maybe, the feature is similar to Android's Doze in Marshmallow and the upcoming N version. The phone has a 13 MP rear camera and 8 MP front camera, which are now standard in phones in the 10,000-rupee range. Notably, Honor 5C is being launched with Android Marshmallow with EMUI customization. Honor is also providing free screen replacement for the first month. Honor 5C has a 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of Internal memory which can be expanded by an SD card. The phone will be available on Flipkart in three colors. Registration starts today and the first flash sale will take place on 30 June. Advertisement Honor 5C faces a tough competition from the other phones of this range. Moto G4, LeEco L2, Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 and Zuk Z1 from Lenovo are to name a few. Apart from that the flash sales strategy might not give them the room to sell the phone in larger volumes as a lot of phone are now avilable through the open sales. The company also launched a 7-inch tablet named Honor t1 7.0. The tablet will be priced at 6499. The tablet has 3G calling facility with a high resolution screen. Advertisement Kalaippuli S Thanu/YouTube Thalaivar fans in Bengaluru who want to watch his upcoming film Kabali on 15 July, will now have the option to fly to Chennai on a flight catering specifically to them. Low-cost carrier AirAsia has signed an agreement to become the airline partner for the eagerly-anticipated film Kabali, according to the Business Standard. Advertisement Bengaluru fans, who want to catch the first show on the first day, will be able to fly to Chennai on a special flight. The package, priced at 7,860, will be inclusive of the flight ticket, a movie ticket, an audio CD, Kabali merchandise, breakfast, lunch and snacks, reported Rediff. Amar Abrol, CEO, AirAsia India sounded upbeat about the novel tie-up. "Kabali has already generated so much buzz even before the release of the movie... AirAsia Group is overwhelmed with joy to be a part of the movie and will enable as many flyers to celebrate the Kabali fever!" he gushed. The film, directed by Pa Ranjith, also features Taiwanese actor Winston Chao, Radhika Apte, Dhansika, Dinesh Ravi, Kalaiyarasan, and John Vijay in key roles. Advertisement Film analysts suggest that Kabali, termed as the 'hottest film in the Indian film trade right now', will make 200 crore from theatrical deals, merchandise, and endorsement deals before its release. So far, the film trailer has been viewed over 23 million times in less than two months. Also On HuffPost: MONEY SHARMA via Getty Images In this photograph taken on May 9, 2016, Subramanian Swamy, an Indian politician and a member of the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian parliament, gestures during an interview with AFP in New Delhi.He's been called India's Donald Trump: a media-savvy right-wing populist who is unafraid of upsetting everyone from the ruling elite to religious minorities as he rails against corruption. And after returning to parliament following a 15-year absence, Subramanian Swamy says he won't temper his shoot-from-the-hip style that has made him one of India's most popular if divisive politicians. / AFP / MONEY SHARMA / TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY BHUVVAN BHAGGA (Photo credit should read MONEY SHARMA/AFP/Getty Images) After badmouthing the outgoing Reserve Bank governor Raghuram Rajan, Subramanian Swamy's new target is the Prime Minister's Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian. In Rajan's case, Swamy was apparently batting for the BJP's collective interest. Is he doing the same for Arvind as well because he is one of the hopefuls to head the RBI? Advertisement Whether Swamy has the tacit support of the powers that be in the BJP - particularly the finance ministry and even the PMO - or not, he is probably right in this case. Rajan, although more or less from the same school of economics, has been politically relevant to a plural, secular India; but Arvind had a professional past and a economic philosophy that do not befit a strategic role in Indian economics or politics. Most part of the story is rather old and Swamy is in fact a bit late in pushing them now. It dates back to Arvind's days in the US as a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and Center for Global Development. In Rajan's case, Swamy was apparently batting for the BJP's collective interest. Is he doing the same for Arvind as well because he is one of the hopefuls to head the RBI? In March 2013, in a crucial testimony before the 'Ways and Means Committee of the United States Congress', which was hearing on US-India trade relations, he spoke for protecting American rights in India. According to him "protectionism" and "recourse to localisation", the pejorative western euphemisms of our struggle for survival, in India favoured domestic providers over foreign providers and hence were challenges to the US. Advertisement This is what he had said: "US business faces three major challenges in India. Two challenges common to all foreign business are: first, the weak and uncertain regulatory and tax environment that affects the civil nuclear industry, infrastructure, pharmaceuticals, and more broadly the operations of foreign multinationals in India. Second, although the broad macroeconomic picture is one of opening and surging trade and investment, protectionism in selected sectors has re-surfaced. India is seeking increasing recourse to localization -- in banking, telecommunications, retail, and solar panels among others -- which favours domestic providers of inputs and equipment over foreign providers. Thus, broad trade and macroeconomic policies toward foreigners are moving in the right direction but sectoral policies have experienced setbacks." (Chief economic adviser at India's Finance Ministry, Arvind Subramanian, speaks at the Global Business Summit in New Delhi, January 17, 2015. REUTERS/Anindito Mukherjee) He went on to add: "American firms are increasingly facing implicit but substantial discrimination in India's large and growing market because of India signing (or on the verge of signing) free trade and economic partnership agreements with its largest trading partners that are all major competitors to the US: Europe, Japan, Singapore, ASEAN, and possibly ASEAN-plus 6. Soon, if not already, this discrimination may be the bigger challenge for US business than some recent sectoral measures. These RTAs are neither as comprehensive in their coverage across and within sectors as the FTAs negotiated by the United States, nor as expeditious in the time frame for implementation. But they provide more favorable access to non-American suppliers and because India's tariffs and barriers can be high, the discrimination can be substantial. Combined with the fact of India's large and growing market, US suppliers can really be disadvantaged." Advertisement This was exactly the language the Big Pharma and other business monopolies from the US and EU had been using against India. This was exactly the language the Big Pharma and other business monopolies from the US and EU had been using against India. They had a problem with India's legitimate use of TRIPS flexibilities that seek to ensure fair drug prices, and instruments for industries and agriculture that were essential for India's survival. He echoed the western criticism that they were protectionist. Arvind was obviously advising the US on how to do business with India. And his tone and tenor was that of an American trade specialist who was quite keen on protecting his country's interests. And this man should never have been given a strategic role in India's policy space. In fact, even the RSS swadeshi think-tanks didn't want him, but probably the fetish for the IMF/WB roster done the Modi government in. Arvind is also a strong advocate for the TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement), which activists in India and elsewhere are extremely wary of. The TPP is a short cut to nullify all that India has legitimately safeguarded in terms of international trade. As Shailjia Singh, an assistant professor at the Centre for WTO studies, wrote in The Hindu, "By not being part of the TPP, India will certainly incur losses on account of trade diversion. Yet, joining the TPP is not an option for the country. This would entail very heavy costs. Medicine prices, for instance, would see steep increases. That is precisely why mitigating such projected losses from the TPP should be a government imperative. This can only be achieved by a cohesive trade policy approach on the international as well as domestic front, aimed at protecting and promoting India's trade interests." Advertisement In other words, India stands to lose more than what it's purported to gain. TPP is an American pivot and there is immense pressure on India. Through the TPP, and more specifically through its investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanism, the Indian intellectual property regime and WTO-enabled safeguards will come under tremendous stress. It's a classic example of unfair plurilateralism short-circuiting the benefits of multilateralism. Perhaps India should stop shopping for people with a Rajan/Arvind template. Arvind obliquely voices this pressure when he asks: "It's not just about economics. Especially with (the current) prime minister, what India you want to project: an India that is out of everything or an India that is part of everything? And the same pro-TPP position also finds a place in the Economic Survey. And finally, the whole idea of importing US-based expats from the IMF/WB rosters. It's high time countries like India looked at them with circumspection than blind faith, particularly when these institutions are self-admitting to their failures that had once been prescribed as sure recipes for success such as the Chilean model of reforms. In a recent paper, the IMF admitted to its folly of overselling neo-liberalism. "Instead of delivering growth, some neoliberal policies have increased inequality, in turn jeopardizing durable expansion". The paper even concluded that Joseph Stiglitz was a better fit for the world than Milton Friedman. What Indians should take note is this self-deprecating point from the high priests of international economic policy: "policymakers, and institutions like the IMF that advise them, must be guided not by faith, but by evidence of what has worked. Advertisement (BJP leader Dr. Subramanian Swamy addressing a press conference at Delhi Pradesh BJP office on November 5, 2013 in New Delhi, India. Swamy said the AAP was an 'anti-national' party and would struggle to win even a single seat in Delhi. Photo by Virendra Singh Gosain/Hindustan Times via Getty Images) Perhaps India should stop shopping for people with a Rajan/Arvind template. Many developing countries have done it and paid the price. We have had great Indian talent advising the country and we still have more of them. We need home-grown development economists (overseas training is not a bad idea though) balancing the need and quest for growth. Even its creators have dubbed the pure neoliberal model as a failure. For an optimum mix of growth and welfare, India needs Indians who are not tied to the American agenda that masquerades as policy. Bloomberg via Getty Images Subramanian Swamy, member of India's parliament for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), speaks during an interview in New Delhi, India, on Friday, May 20, 2016. Outspoken, nationalist and combative toward minorities including Muslims and gays, Swamy has long been a lightning rod for controversy in India. Photographer: Prashanth Vishwanathan/Bloomberg via Getty Images Here's the intriguing thing about Subramanian Swamy. His outbursts can no longer be ignored. Having helped to script RBI governor Raghuram Rajan's exit with a series of sharp personal attacks, his latest tirade against chief economic advisor Arvind Subramanian has set the Yamuna on fire. Could this key aide to the finance minister be Swamy's next scalp? As the Rajan episode suggests, there may be a method to Swamy's seeming madness. In retrospect, it is obvious that Swamy was playing hatchet man for the government in the Rajan case. He articulated what the powers-that-be hesitated to say to the RBI governor. It took two letters and multiple tweets from Swamy over a period of a month for Rajan to quit. The government remained silent while the storm swirled. Advertisement Subramanian's fate will unfold in time. But for now, Swamy seems unstoppable. In the short span of two months, since Prime Minister Narendra Modi nominated him to the Rajya Sabha in May to be precise, his profile has zoomed to dizzy heights. This was a man long dismissed as a loud mouth, a maverick, a loose canon and no loyalties. But now, at age 76, his political career has got second wind as he emerges as a force to reckon with in the current dispensation. This was a man long dismissed as a loud mouth, a maverick, a loose canon and no loyalties. But now, at age 76, his political career has got second wind... Ironically, many in the BJP failed to read the tea leaves when he was nominated to the Rajya Sabha. He was shooting salvos from the margins for so long that the nomination was seen as a lollipop to keep him quiet. Despite his formidable connections in the RSS, Swamy never really made it in the BJP. When he joined the party in 2013, it was with the expectation that he would be accommodated in a senior organizational post given his long years in politics. Nothing happened. In 2014, he lobbied hard for a BJP ticket to contest the Lok Sabha polls from Delhi or Mumbai. He was denied a seat. When Modi assumed office, he had hoped for a ministership, preferably finance, but would have been satisfied with any official position carrying cabinet rank. He got nothing. Much later, he was finally given a government bungalow, security and other paraphernalia with a stern message that he would have to be content with just trimmings. Advertisement His luck turned this year when he was made a Rajya Sabha MP. But few realized what his role would be. Many in the BJP thought his brief was political, limited to turn the heat on the Gandhi family. He performed with aplomb from his first day in the House when he raked up the Augusta Westland helicopter scandal and did the unthinkable by accusing Sonia Gandhi by name of corruption. It is now dawning on his fellow BJP members and others in the political class that Swamy could be more than just a Gandhi-baiter. It is now dawning on his fellow BJP members and others in the political class that Swamy could be more than just a Gandhi-baiter. He may be the spearhead of a broader ultra-nationalist agenda that is slowly unfolding. Read his lips on Rajan. The RBI governor was accused of not being "mentally fully Indian", of leaking "confidential and sensitive information from the RBI" to persons across the world, of "wrecking the economy'' and so on. There are echoes of the same sentiments in the allegations he has thrown at Subramanian. Describing him as "Subramanian of Washington DC", he accused the chief economic advisor of selling out Indian interests to American pharma and of encouraging the Congress to stall the GST. Advertisement Swamy has made no bones about working closely with the current dispensation. He calls them his "friends" in the government and the party and claims to regularly consult with them. It may well be that he is his master's voice on potentially controversial issues. The fact that he holds no official position gives the government the fig leaf of plausible deniability. Swamy's outbursts can always be dismissed as his personal views. However, the fig leaf may soon wear thin. If Subramanian quits, the government can no longer hide in the comfort zone of deniability. And then there is Swamy's penchant for self-glorification which can lead him to overstep his brief. He has always boasted that even his father could not control him. It will be interesting to see whether the Modi-Amit Shah duo can keep him on a tight leash. Advertisement Contact HuffPost India Also see on HuffPost: Lucas Jackson / Reuters India's Finance Minister Arun Jaitley speaks at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, June 18, 2015. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson NEW DELHI - In a public snub to Bharatiya Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told the media that he has "full confidence" in Arvind Subramanian, Chief Economic Adviser to the Modi government. After claiming credit for toppling RBI chief Raghuram Rajan, Swamy, a BJP lawmaker in the Rajya Sabha, was on the warpath to ensure Subramanian's exit as well. "Sack him," Swamy tweeted on Wednesday morning. Advertisement Both the Modi government and the BJP have dismissed Swamy's remarks. In a press conference on Wednesday afternoon in Delhi, Jaitley put an end the furore and speculation which Swamy's tweets had generated. "The government has full confidence in the Chief Economic Adviser," Jaitley told the media. We do not share Subramanian Swamys views, he said. One has to ponder as to what extent one should attack officers whose office constrains them from responding. The BJP has also distanced itself from Swamy's remarks. "The BJP does not agree with Subramanian Swamys views on governments Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian. This is his personal opinion," BJP said in a statement. Who said to US Cong on 13/3/13 the US should act against India to defend US Pharmaceuticals interests? Arvind Subramanian MoF !! Sack him!!! Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) June 22, 2016 Guess who encouraged Congi to become rigid on GST clauses ? Jaitely's economic adviser Arvind Subramanian of Washington DC Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) June 22, 2016 While Swamy has claimed credit for Rajan's exit, it isn't clear how far he influenced Modi government's decision not to offer another term to the RBI chief, who had famously predicted the 2008 global economic crisis. After Rajan's exit, Swamy has vowed to weed out 27 other bureaucrats, who, he claims, are loyal to the Congress Party. There has been speculation about whether the new RBI chief could be Subramanian or Arvind Panagariya, the vice-chairman of Niti Aayog, who, unlike Rajan, are appointees of NDA government. Swamy's tweets came a few hours after Bloomberg News reported that top economists had Subramanian pegged as the most likely to succeed Rajan. But neither Subramanian nor Panagariya are among the candidates who are on the long list to replace him. Advertisement Contact HuffPost India Also on HuffPost India: YouTube The Morning Wrap is HuffPost India's selection of interesting news and opinion from the day's newspapers. Subscribe here to receive it in your inbox each weekday morning. Essential HuffPost Despite reports of several accidents every year during the popular Dahi Handi festival, the Maharashtra government has now allowed children above 12 years of age to be part of teams which form the celebratory human pyramids. They have also said that there will be no restrictions on the height of these pyramids. Reportedly, the state government has given into pressure from Dahi Handi mandals, just ahead of the upcoming civic elections. Advertisement Accusing Narendra Modi of trying to intimidate him, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday said that unlike Rahul Gandhi or Sonia Gandhi he was not scared of the Prime Minister. He was speaking regarding the case registered by the Delhi Anti-Corruption Branch against former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit in an alleged 400-crore water tanker scam in which the AAP chiefs name also found a mention. A 19-year-old Dalit nursing student was admitted to a hospital and is in a critical condition, after being allegedly ragged by her seniors. Ashwathy, a first year nursing student of Al Qamar College of Nursing at Gulbarga near Bengaluru, was forced to drink phenyl, following which, she vomited blood. Main News The ISRO is set to make a record by launching 20 satellites in a 26-minute flight today at 9:25 AM from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Andhra Pradesh's Sriharikota. ISRO will also launch 13 US-made small satellites including an earth imaging satellite made by Terra Bella, a Google-owned company. The 110 kg Google satellite called 'SkySat Gen- 2' is capable of taking sub-meter resolution images and high definition video. After the US reiterated its support for New Delhi's bid to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), China toned down its opposition to India's admission, saying that there was always room for discussion. While China's primary concern is the non-proliferation treaty, Indian negotiators are prepared to show records of seven meetings of the NSG plenary sessions where Delhis adherence to its commitments made in 2008 have been acknowledged. Advertisement Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav fired Balram Yadav, a senior politician and one of the founding members of Samajwadi Party, for engineering the merger of a political party headed by a mafia don Mukhtar Ansari who has been in jail for the murder of a BJP MLC. Off The Front Page With cult Tamil actor Rajinikath's film Kabali set to hit the theatres on 15 July, the producers have announced a special flight for his Bengaluru fans. Rajinikanth's fans, who wish to watch the film on the first day, first show, will get to fly to Chennai on a special flight, in collaboration with AirAsia India. The package, priced at 7,860, will be inclusive of the flight ticket, a movie ticket, an audio CD, Kabali merchandise, breakfast, lunch and snacks. The Maharashtra government approved a proposal to grant minority status to Jews in the state. The decision was taken at a meeting of the state Cabinet, chaired by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. According to recent data, there are about 2,644 Jews in the state and all schemes meant for minorities will now be available to them. The Bangalore Metropolitan Task Force (BMTF) will now book cases against people putting up illegal ads, birthday wishes, film posters, greetings, among others, under the Karnataka Open Places (Prevention of Disfigurement) Act, 1981. Opinion In perhaps the most unsurprising news break of the century, Salman Khan said something stupid and outright obnoxious he actually compared a rigorous shooting schedule to getting raped, writes Piyasree Dasgupta for HuffPost India. Bollywood, who almost crucified comedian Tanmay Bhat at the supposed insults hurled at Sachin Tendulkar and Lata Mangeshkar, didn't bat an eyelid at Khan talking about rape the same way he talks about talented flies and ants in his tweets, she wrote. Advertisement In absolute terms, yoga still has the lowest spending among alternative medicinal forms, according to AYUSH ministry figures. But the actual spending might be more, says Roshan Kishore in Mint. "The beginning of business yoga is well under way in India. Baba Ramdev who is giving large FMCG companies a run for their money, found his first business calling in promoting yoga through the Aastha television channel. His yoga camps charge a fee of 1,000-2,000 per day. PM Modi appealed to the nation to focus on mitigating diabetes through yoga this year. It remains to be seen how many Indians can follow the strict discipline and perseverance required to reap such benefits of yoga. Those in the yoga business would not mind the sugar-coated revenues yogas growing popularity would bring in," he says. In addition to its present role of representation and accountability, the Rajya Sabha could be the House that represents difference in our polity, difference marked not merely by its culture but its diversity, writes Valerian Rodrigues in The Hindu. "Difference in India is encoded not merely around regions, languages, and communities but also in its inegalitarian social relations. Representation through federal units hardly captures these multiple and often overlapping differences. The Constituent Assembly debates, and the need for the Upper House to be embedded, are a sufficient justification in this regard. One can understand the deep discomfiture that some of the nominated members feel in the House given the adversarial context in which they have to function. There are probably ways to shape representation that reaches out and connects to nodal concerns without being overwhelming," he says. Advertisement Contact HuffPost India Also On HuffPost: K-State opens competition for kicker Kansas State coach Chris Klieman isn't giving up on kicker Chris Tennant, but he isn't giving him a free pass, either. Venture capitalists complain a lot about music tech companies being bad investments, because such a tiny percentage succeed. A VC brought it up at Midem just last week. Well, welcome to the music business! How many records become huge hits? VCs invest in promising, early stage companies with the hope that theyll bring back an exponential return on their investment. The funny thing is record labels have been venture capitalists since long before VCs were even a thing. Its true! The first venture capital firms were founded in 1946. The phonograph was invented in 1877 and soon after that, commercial recordings appeared. Gramophones and Victrolas followed and by the first World War, people were buying records in significant numbers. Which of course, means that a proto-A&R scout went out and found an artist, convinced a label owner to risk their money and record a couple of sides on the chance that people might like it enough to buy it. And maybe the sales of that record would be enough for the label to fund another one that people might like. Many people in this crowd got started funding releases out of your own pockets, some of them still do it. How many VCs do you think put their OWN personal money into the tech companies they seed? But then, all of this is true. And none of this is true. Most of us go to work thinking were the good guys. Whether were artists making the music, labels releasing and marketing it, or tech companies building ways for consumers to congregate and consume music, most of us dont wake up, wring our hands and say I cant wait to screw someone over today. Labels, artists and music tech companies exist in symbiotic relationship, where each can benefit from the activity of the other. But after 20 years of digital music, the symbiosis is still not mutually rewarding, and is often parasitic. This feels like a good time to segue into a few thoughts about YouTube. The folks at YouTube probably show up to work thinking theyre good guys too, although Irving Azoff and others are making that a little harder lately. YouTube seem to have a gated community mentality about artists they get that artists provide needed services (content), but they dont want to see them too much, and rarely want to hear their complaints. YouTube uses the DMCA as a shield and an excuse to behave like internet companies did in the Napster and Limewire days, when iffy behavior about copyright was still getting hashed out. The fact that consumers can listen to pretty much anything on YouTube for free certainly impedes the value proposition of streaming services that charge listeners fees. YouTube enables large scale theft in plain sight and benefits from it to the tune of billions of dollars. To hide behind the DMCA, to pay artists little or nothing in their legitimate deals they do offer and then have Do The Right Thing as a corporate motto is the ultimate irony. Vinyl revenue is bigger than YouTube revenue in the U.S. and U.K. come on. There was a famous club in NYC called the Limelight, which opened in 1983. It was a wild place with all sorts of open illegal activity, none of which was being perpetrated by the owners of the club. But the NYPD shut it down anyway, deeming it a harbor for illegal activity. They said the club owners created an environment in which this criminal activity could thrive. If YouTube was a NYC dance club, it would have been shut down years ago. Of course, YouTube is an essential distribution and promotional platform, we all get that. And it could be an essential revenue platform if things change. The truth is, the music industry needs YouTube as much as YouTube needs music; nobody wants it shut down. But we must speak truth to power. It is an obligation. Google has been called out on so called revolving door hiring in both the U.S. and EU governments, where employees in key government policy making positions are hired by Google and then go back to government. The Google Transparency Project said that in the EU, these hires dramatically stepped up just after the European Commission launched its first investigation into alleged anti-trust violations by Google. As big a threat as Napster once was to the survival of our industry, Google is a much greater existential threat, now and in the years to come. Napster didnt have the ambition or the deep pockets required to influence governments. Its going to be an incredibly difficult battle, and our industry is outgunned. Were going to need consumers on our side, which means the artists are going to have to get a lot more vocal. And the messaging needs to be crafted carefully, because the tech industry and the media so often reframe any artist who speaks up about their rights as greedy. When we speak about protecting copyright, very few consumers get the message. Perhaps they would understand better if we called it protecting consent. Consent is a word that is rarely heard when the rights of creators are discussed. There are many instances where music for free makes sense. Weve been deeply discounting and giving away our products for decades to reap the promotional benefits. But if and when an artist or label chooses to do it should be up to them. Consent also means not being forced into a bad deal because someone has power over you. Consent should rest in the hands of the creators, not those who make the negation of it their growth strategy. A lot of people think the music business got killed by Napster; I dont think thats true. File sharing is not the predominant way people consume music today. But Napster did help kill was the perceived value of music, and the record industry made it easy for them. We did such a good job as an industry positioning the CD as a premium product that consumers believed that the physical carrier was where most of the value was. So when they could cherry pick the songs they wanted on Napster, replicate and distribute music themselves that put a bullet in the perceived value of music. And its doubtful that well ever get back to a place where people buy an album at the 1999 frontline CD price point. But can we all admit that the static pricing of digital music lacks imagination? Almost everything we else we consume has a variable price: a cup of coffee, a hamburger, your cable bill or a subway swipe. If cows have a bad year the price of milk goes up for a while. Yet ten or eleven bucks is the carved-in-stone monthly price of music access. If the streaming services need better margins, labels and publishers want higher rates, and artists demand better compensation, how is that all going to work? We used to work with our retail partners on price evolution and had formats with different price tiers. Catalog music that we used to put in bins at a cut-rate price in the backs of record stores is now some of the most listened to content on streaming services. Why cant we work together, explore and experiment in this digital world that has no boundaries? There is this ceiling that has somehow become sacrosanct. And yet some pundits say this price is still too high. There was a time in the not too distant past when journalists and so-called digital thought leaders said that streaming would never work because people dont want to rent their music. These same people say that tiered pricing would be confusing to consumers. You know, all it takes to be a thought leader is a bullhorn and a backside to stick it in there is no reason why labels, artists and music services cannot work together creatively to extract more from the consumer, instead of always looking to extract it from each other. Of course, all of this is true. And none of this is true. Q: How did you get into the insurance business? A: By accident. Nobody aspired to get into the insurance industry when I was in college. After I graduated from Colorado State, I tried commercial real estate without finding my niche. In 1986, I was hired at Allstate. I left because I felt there was more and that being with one industry was too specific. I decided to start my own agency in 1997. Q: What are your priorities as president of Mountain Insurance Brokers? A: To grow a profitable business. Our agents should be the first and best resource for clients and remember that we work for our clients, not the carrier. Q: What should an ideal insurance broker be? A: Stressed! Q: In your opinion, what is the biggest issue facing insurance brokers today? A: For smaller insurance brokers, the most difficult thing is getting enough appointments to be able to work with your clients effectively. Its difficult to stay profitable and produce enough business. This leads to a proliferation of aggregators. Q: What lines do you feel have the biggest potential for growth over the next few years? A: Definitely commercial, particularly construction. The economic recovery has helped, particularly in Colorado. One of our clients has $30 million in construction projects just over the next couple of months. A few years ago, that wasnt the case. Q: Whats the strangest thing youve ever had to arrange cover for? A: A couple of people starting different companies that wanted insurance: a guy growing worms in his basement and a company that made plaster casts of pregnant womens bellies. Q: If you werent in insurance, where would you be? A: Law school. It was my original plan and I even took the LSAT, but I ended up going into insurance. No regrets. A proposal to scrap the Affordable Care Act and introduce a new range of financial support for health insurance is being proposed by the Republicans.The plan, due to be unveiled Wednesday by House Republicans at the American Enterprise Institute, would include an idea previously mooted by House Speaker Paul Ryan in which Medicare recipients could instead receive a subsidy to buy private health insurance.Our proposal is like a health-care backpack that provides every American access to financial support for an insurance plan chosen by the individual and can be taken with them job-to-job, home to start a small business or raise a family, and even into retirement years, Ryan wrote in a summary.There is also a chance that a former John McCain proposal to tax those with employer-provided health insurance based on the value of the plan, although it is expected that there would be a cap on how much would be taxable.Some of the ideas tie-in with Donald Trumps health plan ideas but others could put the GOP at odds with its presidential hopeful.Lloyds has opened a new office in Bogota, Colombia to help build its trading relationships in the fast-growing market. Two Lloyds insurers, Advent and Brit , will be represented on the Lloyds Colombia platform alongside the representative office.Lloyds chairman John Nelson said the market is an important part of the global insurance and reinsurance markets expansion plan: As Colombia realizes its economic potential, insurance and reinsurance can play a key role in supporting this economic growth by improving resilience, taking risks out of the country, and helping the economy recover after catastrophes.Insurance penetration rates in Colombia are currently around 1.6 per cent, compared with a 6.1 per cent global average, so there is significant opportunity for further growth. Lloyds estimates that there is an underinsurance gap of $570 million against the countrys natural catastrophe exposures.Lloyds is already a well-established provider of energy, property, financial lines and aviation cover in Colombia and is also licensed to provide cross-border Marine, Aviation and Transport insurance.A survey of drivers in Quebec has found that there is a lack of understanding of how auto insurance works.The poll by SOM survey conducted on behalf of the consumer-focused insurance body Groupement des assureurs automobiles (GAA) discovered that 69 per cent are unaware that their insurance policy covers them following a collision for which they are not liable, even if they have no coverage for damage to their vehicle.A fifth of drivers believe that the color of their vehicle affects their insurance premium although most are aware of the ratings criteria used by insurers. The growing insurance market in India, which has attracted investment from many North American insurers could be about to see a flurry of mergers.Indias largest mortgage lender and multi-business conglomerate Max Group said Friday that they are in talks to merge their life insurance operations, a move which could spark further deals.Bloomberg reports that the merger would bring Max Life Insurance and HDFC Standard Life Insurance together. Max is a joint venture with Japans Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Co, while HDFC Standard Life is 49 per cent owned by UK insurance group Standard Life.Two US insurance commissioners have been elected to the executive committee of the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS), the body which sets international standards for insurance supervision.Ted Nickel, President-Elect of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners and Wisconsin Insurance Commissioner; and David Mattax, Texas Insurance Commissioner; join NAIC vice-president Julie Mix McPeak on the committee. She has served for more than two years and has been appointed vice-chair.Our international work is critical to consumer protection here in the states; it is also important for ensuring a level playing field for our domestic companies, said John M. Huff, NAIC President and Missouri Insurance Director. These individuals, along with all regulators and NAIC staff, are to be commended for their on-going contributions to support global financial stability.Connecticut Insurance Commissioner Katharine L. Wade was appointed to the IAIS Financial Stability and Technical Committee. The appointments were announced at an IAIS meeting this week.As residents of Fort McMurray begin to return to their homes and businesses, one local insurance brokerage has resumed operations in the city.Rogers Insurance has re-opened its office on Franklin Avenue with assistance from head office staff from Calgary due to some of the local brokers being displaced themselves by the fires.The office has reported 3,300 claims and seen a 400 per cent spike in phone calls since the wildfires took hold last month.Meanwhile, AIG Insurance Company of Canada has donated $50,000 to the Red Cross Alberta Fires Appeal to help those affected by the fires.In concert with our broker partners, AIG Canada claims staff and our independent adjustors have been on the ground helping our policyholders recover from their losses, commented Lynn Oldfield, AIG Canadas CEO and president. This donation of $50,000 has great significance to AIG Canada; it symbolizes our 50anniversary in Canada. The Obama administration approached an appeals court Thursday to make its case on why MetLife Inc. should remain under government oversight through the Federal Reserve.The move is the administrations latest bid to overturn a federal judges decision that revoked the systemically important label of the insurer.The administration produced a 98-page brief for the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. According to the brief, the Financial Stability Oversight Council found that MetLifes size, leverage, interconnectedness, potential liquidity risk, and complexity could cause material financial distress at MetLife to threaten the U.S. financial system.It was U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer that ruled in March that MetLifes distress would not put the economy at risk, contrary to what regulators have said. Judge Collyer reasoned that the governments findings included baseless speculations that did not consider the potential losses sustained by MetLife and its counterparties.In April, the Justice Departmentrepresenting the administrationappealed Judge Collyers decision.The administration maintained its argument that policymakers were not obligated to undertake another assessment under the law in making the determination; it also called the courts review of the guidance profoundly mistaken.In the brief, the government further asserted that of the 10 factors the council is required to consider in evaluating a firm as a systemically important, none of them require the council to evaluate the probability that the company could experience material financial distress or to approximate specific counterparty losses.The council did not set itself the impossible task of predicting the precise impact of a companys distress on its counterparties and the broader market, the government brief read.The government also argued that policymakers were not required to perform a cost-benefit analysis along with a decision.A MetLife spokesman said that the company would prepare a response to the governments brief by its filing period on Aug. 15, reported The Wall Street Journal. A proliferation in lone wolf-style terrorist attacks like the Orlando, Florida nightclub shooting earlier this month has more businesses than ever before turning to insurance professionals for protection. Both carriers and agents have been fielding a rising number of requests, and the low chance that a lone-wolf attack will be detected has security firms looking more closely at solutions.The changing face of terrorism risk, however, means agents and brokers have several choices of coverage to put before commercial clients.In Orlando, 29-year-old Omar Mateen killed 49 people and wounded 53 others in a shooting at Pulse, a gay nightclub, before he was killed by police. During the attack, Mateen called 911 and pledged allegiance to the Islamic State terrorist group. He had also spoken against homosexuality previously, Mateens relatives said.Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malike, the perpetrators in the 2015 San Bernardino attack, were likewise unsupported by any larger group, but did express commitment to jihadism and martyrdom before going on a shooting spree and attempted bombing in a San Bernardino County Department of Public Health training event and Christmas party.Both events involved a lone, or small number, of perpetrators acting on an ideological basis without the backing of a particular group, terrorist cell, or network.The events have fueled an increased interest in standalone terrorism coverage, particularly among small businesses, said Jen Rubin, head of Hiscox War, Terrorism & Political Violence Practice Group.Weve gotten a lot of inquiries since Orlando, with folks wanting to know whats available in the market, what pricing looks like and what limits look like, Rubin said. Most of that is coming from the smaller side of the market those who are largely new to standalone coverage and may not be big enough to have their own security procedures in place.Unlike government-backed terrorism insurance, which includes a $120 million loss threshold, standalone coverage pays at the first dollar lost and operates on a much broader definition of insurance. Standard industry policies define terrorism as an attack that is politically, religiously or ideologically motivated a determination that is made after claims departments review details of the case, news media reports and other evidence.Something like the Orlando shooting likely qualify under this definition, Rubin said.Standalone terrorism coverage pays for property loss, including repair and replacement, as well as business income and any relocation expenses needed. Businesses can also purchase endorsements for nuclear, radiological, chemical or biological attacks, which are typically not covered under the policy.But the San Bernardino and Orlando incidents had something else in common they were both committed using firearms.Gun violence in the United States has become so prevalent that several insurance companies, including major brands like Willis, have begun offering active shooter insurance. The policies provide coverage outside of workers compensation policies, including the liability companies have if they are found not to have taken needed precautions to prevent gun rampages.It also covers on the scene costs of an attack, including property damage and any needed counseling or consulting for victims.Wendy Peters, an executive vice president at Willis, said that like terrorism insurance, theres been widespread interest in the product.So which coverage choice is preferable if either?Rubin says it is up to an agent to determine, based on the particularities of the client.When youre doing your review of coverages, its really important to make sure perils are defined and any gray areas youre concerned about are documented or discussed, she said. A traditional policy is silent on what would happen in an active shooter event; new products are defining what is covered based on the evolution of events in the market." Tony Pastore has been named the grand marshal for 2016 July 4th parade in Pittsfield. VFW Life Member Named Grand Marshal of Pittsfield July 4th Parade PITTSFIELD, Mass. Tony Pastore has been named the grand marshal for 2016 July 4th parade. Pastore is a life member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW). He is also a member of the Disabled American Veterans (DAV), and American Legion Post 68 and has been a frequent Fourth of July Parade participant as a U.S. Army Air Corps veteran along with his fellow veterans. He served as the commander of the DAV from 1992-94 and DAV Chaplain for the last 40 years. In addition to his military service, Tony is well-known in the community for his heartfelt renditions of the National Anthem at many patriotic events and programs in Pittsfield. He a regular choir member at St. Marks Church and has been singing all his life, Pittsfield Parade Committee President Peter Marchetti said. Born in 1924 and a 1942 graduate of Pittsfield High School, Pastore was drafted into the U.S. Army in March 1943 and saw action at Monte Cassino and Anzio in Italy. His unit entered Rome on June 4, 1944, and then invaded Southern France. When in Rome, which Pope Pius XII had declared an Open City, he was included in a private audience with the Pope, the first of two audiences he attended. He was transferred to the 524th Fighter Squadron of the 27th Fighter Group, his duties included repairing planes and supporting the infantry. Pastore was stationed in Germany at the conclusion of the war. Southwestern Vermont Medical Center Names Education Director Drew Totten BENNINGTON, Vt. Drew Totten, clinical education and simulation specialist, has been promoted to the position of director of education and organizational development, effective June 1, at Southwestern Vermont Medical Center. He replaces Margaret Daly, who retired from the position after an 11-year career in the health system. Totten joined Southwestern Vermont Health Care in 1992 as a phlebotomist in the hospital laboratory and worked as an Emergency Department technician while attending nursing school. He also worked as a critical care registered nurse in the Emergency Department, and was a medical/surgical staff nurse with a specialty in oncology and palliative care. Totten joined the Education Department in 2007 and was responsible for creating the SVHC Innovative Learning Center for Simulation in 2011. Totten holds bachelor of science degrees in nursing and business administration and will complete his master's in nursing education in March 2017. The massive Greylock Mill project was approved along with the Redwood Motel for tax incentives. State Development Program OKs Incentives for State Road Projects NORTH ADAMS, Mass. Two in-development projects on State Road have been approved for development incentives through the city and state. The Beyond Place LLC and Greylock Works LLC entered into tax incremental financing agreements with the city; the state's Economic Assistance Coordinating Council on Wednesday approved both agreements and 16 other projects for participation in the Economic Development Incentive Program. All 18 projects are expected to create 855 new jobs and retain 2,958 jobs throughout Massachusetts, while leveraging approximately $199 million in private investment. "Massachusetts boasts a robust, pro-growth business environment, and our administration is committed to maintaining and improving the commonwealth's business ecosystem," said Gov. Charlie Baker. "Through targeted business development tools like the Economic Development Incentive Program, we will continue to support sustainable, long-term growth." The Beyond Place is the development group restoring and rebuilding the 50-year-old Redwood Motel across from Stop & Shop. The 18-room motor court is being expanded to 47 or 48 rooms with a focus on the environmental and recreational attributes of the area. It is expected to create 14 new full-time jobs and generate more than $5.3 million in private investment. Future plans include a 40-acre nature activity park and restoration of the historic Blackinton Mill on the other side of Hoosic River. The City Council approved a tax increment financing agreement valued at $60,000 over five years. The EACC Board approved $70,000 in tax credits. We work towards an equitable, gender-just, self-reliant and sustainable fisheries, particularly in the small-scale, artisanal sector We work towards an equitable, gender-just, self-reliant and sustainable fisheries, particularly in the small-scale, artisanal sector We work towards an equitable, gender-just, self-reliant and sustainable fisheries, particularly in the small-scale, artisanal sector We work towards an equitable, gender-just, self-reliant and sustainable fisheries, particularly in the small-scale, artisanal sector The content you are trying to view is exclusive to our subscribers. To unlock this article: Imperial Valley News Center In Its First Measurement of Plancks Constant, NISTs Newest Watt Balance Brings World One Step Closer to New Kilogram Washington, DC - A high-tech version of an old-fashioned balance scale at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has just brought scientists a critical step closer toward a new and improved definition of the kilogram. The scale, called the NIST-4 watt balance, has conducted its first measurement of a fundamental physical quantity called Plancks constant to within 34 parts per billion - demonstrating the scale is accurate enough to assist the international community with the redefinition of the kilogram, an event slated for 2018. The redefinitionwhich is not intended to alter the value of the kilograms mass, but rather to define it in terms of unchanging fundamental constants of naturewill have little noticeable effect on everyday life. But it will remove a nagging uncertainty in the official kilograms mass, owing to its potential to change slightly in value over time, such as when someone touches the metal artifact that currently defines it. Plancks constant lies at the heart of quantum mechanics, the theory that is used to describe physics at the scale of the atom and smaller. Quantum mechanics began in 1900 when Max Planck described how objects radiate energy in tiny packets known as quanta. The amount of energy is proportional to a very small quantity called h, known as Plancks constant, which subsequently shows up in almost all equations in quantum mechanics. The value of h according to NISTs new measurement is 6.62606983x10-34 kgm2/s, with an uncertainty of plus or minus 22 in the last two digits. Accurate measurement of this tiny number is the key to retiring the physical kilogram, because it provides a way to equate mass with a particular amount of electric energy, which can be expressed as a function of h. If we know h precisely, we can build an electromagnet and measure exactly the amount of electric current it needs to lift a kilogram off the ground, and define the kilogram in terms of the current. Scientists are putting this idea to work in a device called the watt balance, which compares a physical mass with finely measured amounts of electricity (see this story for details of how watt balances work). With enough accurate measurements of Plancks constant, scientists will eventually fix its value to a very high degree of precision, allowing highly accurate measurements of the kilogram. For scientists to agree on a new mass definition that relies on Plancks constant, however, there must be solid evidence that we know h to great accuracy, so multiple countriesfive to datehave built watt balances to make independent measurements that can be compared. NISTs measurement, the first using its recently constructed NIST-4 watt balance, is good news because it is consistent with watt balance measurements from other countries and also because the amount of uncertainty in the measurement is far lower than the NIST team had hoped for. Both points imply that the international science community is on track to redefine the kilogram by its self-imposed 2018 deadline. This measurement was essentially a dry run, said NIST physicist Stephan Schlamminger. We were hoping to achieve an uncertainty of within 200 parts per billion by this point, but we got better fast. For the redefinition to meet scientists exacting standards, at least three experiments must produce values with a relative standard uncertainty of no more than 50 parts per billion, and one with no more than 20 parts per billion. All these values must agree within a statistical confidence level of 95 percent. The results also must be reconciled with the alternative Avogadro method, which involves counting the atoms in an ultra-pure sphere of silicon. Because Plancks constant is important for quantum electrical standards, the overall effort also will benefit electrical metrology, Schlamminger said. Fixing hs value will explicitly connect the quantum based standards for the ohm and the volt to the international system of units for the first time. *D. Haddad, F. Seifert, L.S Chao, S. Li, D.B. Newell, J.R. Pratt, C. Williams, and S. Schlamminger. A precise instrument to determine the Planck constant, and the future kilogram. Review of Scientific Instruments. June 21, 2016. DOI: 10.1063/1.4953825. Imperial Valley News Center First Lady Michelle Obama Launches Snapchat Account Ahead of Upcoming Let Girls Learn Travel to the Republic of Liberia, the Kingdom of Morocco and the Kingdom of Spain Washington, DC - To give young people everywhere a fun way to follow her trip, learn about the more than 62 million girls around the world who arent in school, and take action to support them, the First Lady launched an official Snapchat account: MichelleObama. Follow the First Lady at MichelleObama to see behind-the-scenes Snaps from Washington and abroad, including her upcoming trip and events in the coming months. You can follow the First Ladys trip on her new Snapchat account by adding MichelleObama learn more HERE. Background on the First Ladys travel: As part of Let Girls Learn, the First Lady joined by Malia and Sasha Obama and Mrs. Marian Robinson will visit Margibi County, Liberia; Marrakech, Morocco; and Madrid, Spain from June 27- July 1, 2016. The First Lady and her family will return to Washington, D.C. on July 1. In Liberia, the First Lady will visit a Peace Corps Training Facility in Kakata, where she will meet with girls and young women participating in a GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) Camp. Her visit will highlight both the Peace Corps work to help girls in underserved communities build self-confidence, communication, and other leadership skills and new programming from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) aimed at improving access to quality education and life skills for adolescent girls across Liberia. Also in Liberia, the First Lady will visit a school in Unification Town for a discussion with adolescent girls who have faced serious obstacles in attaining an education. This discussion will be moderated by actress Freida Pinto, an advocate for girls education. The conversation will highlight both the educational barriers girls face as Liberia moves beyond the Ebola epidemic, and the U.S. Governments efforts to continue to address those barriers and provide adolescent girls with equitable access to safe and quality education. President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf will join Mrs. Obama during her visit. The First Ladys events in Liberia will take place on June 27. In Morocco, the First Ladyjoined by Meryl Streep, also an advocate for girls education, and Freida Pintowill participate in a conversation with adolescent girls moderated by CNNs Isha Sesay. In the discussion, participants will discuss 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 First Lady will be in Morocco on June 28 and 29. In Madrid, the First Lady will deliver a speech on Let Girls Learn to girls and young women, sharing the stories of girls she has met in Liberia and Morocco - and her prior travels - and highlighting new commitments to support Let Girls Learn. Mrs. Obama will encourage the audience to value their own educational opportunities, continue to strive for progress for girls and young women in their country, and take action to help the more than 62 million girls around the world who are out of school. This event will take place on June 30. While in Spain, the First Lady will also meet with Her Majesty Queen Letizia. NAVFAC Small Business Program Recognized by Veteran Association Washington, DC - The National Veteran Small Business Coalition (NVSBC) recognized the Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) for its proficiency in awarding contracts to veteran-owned small businesses, today. "It is our pleasure to recognize NAVFAC for your accomplishments in using veteran and service-disabled, veteran-owned small businesses in your procurement program in fiscal year 2015," said NVSBC Executive Director Scott Denniston, in a letter to the command. NVSBC is a nationwide, not for profit, trade association promoting the use of veteran-owned and service-disabled, veteran-owned small businesses in federal contracting as prime and subcontractors. Last year, NAVFAC awarded 8.4 percent of contract awards to veteran-owned small businesses and 6.2 percent to service disabled, veteran-owned small businesses -- which exceeds the congressionally mandated goal of 3 percent. "We are honored to receive this award," said NAVFAC Commander Rear Adm. Bret Muilenburg. "To be recognized for our efforts in helping veteran-owned businesses is a testament to all the hard work of our Small Business Program." Last year, awarded contracts totaled more than $538 million in obligations to veteran-owned small businesses, including nearly $400 million to service-disabled, veteran-owned small businesses. "NAVFAC has a proud history of exceptional success in leveraging the capabilities of our nation's veteran-owned small businesses," said Scott Crosson, Small Business Program associate director. "The command's enterprise-wide efforts clearly demonstrate support for public policy, but more importantly, they exemplify smart business decisions." California and the Netherlands to co-host joint webinar on July 7 Sacramento, California - The California Department of Food and Agriculture and the Ministry of Economic Affairs in the Netherlands will co-host a joint webinar on Climate Smart Agriculture on July 7, 2016. The webinar will feature discussions and presentations addressing salinity in specialty crops within Californias Central Valley and along coastal areas. Climate Change is furthering collaboration around the globe among farmers and researchers to address strategies for improving agricultural production and sustainability, said CDFA Secretary Karen Ross. The Netherlands is a good example for practices and approaches on climate smart agriculture that can be beneficial to California. The webinar will be held on July 7th from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. in California and individuals can register for free at https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/climatesmartag/ The webinar can also be viewed live at the California Department of Food and Agriculture, 1220 N Street Main Auditorium, on the day on the event. Saline agriculture, the ability to produce crops with brackish water and in high salinity soils, could potentially be of interest to California farmers who encounter these growing conditions. This webinar will feature an overview by Arjen de Vos of Salt Farm Texel, a producer of saline agriculture in the Netherlands, as well as perspective from California State Board of Food and Agriculture member Don Cameron, of Terranova Ranch, a diversified farming operation in the Central Valley. Researchers from Wageningen UR and University of California will also provide perspective. The Climate Smart Agriculture webinar is the first in a series of online discussions on Climate Smart Agriculture to be hosted in the coming months in collaboration with the University of Californias World Food Center. Terrorist Attack in Jordan Washington, DC - The United States strongly condemns today's attack on Jordanian security forces, and expresses its deepest condolences to the victims, their families, and the Jordanian people. We remain committed to Jordans security and stability, and are proud to stand side-by-side with Jordan in the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL. The United States will continue to provide assistance and cooperate closely with Jordan in the wake of this heinous attack. As Jordan evaluates how best to safeguard its security, we will work with the government to ensure humanitarian support continues to be provided to those displaced by the conflict in Syria and to the communities that host them. We commend Jordan for the tremendous sacrifices they have made in hosting hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees. As always, the United States stands together with Jordan. Outbreak of Violence in the Central African Republic Washington, DC - The United States is deeply concerned by a recent increase in violence in the Central African Republic. We underscore the fundamental need for all actors to work together to promote peace and prosperity in a country that has suffered for far too long from instability and conflict. We support the efforts of the Government of the Central African Republic and the international community to restore order and protect civilians. In addition, we strongly condemn the targeted attacks against humanitarian actors whose sole purpose in the Central African Republic is to provide lifesaving support to the population. The United States remains a committed partner to the Government of the Central African Republic, the UN mission MINUSCA, and most importantly, the Central African people in efforts to bring the country out of these cycles of conflict. Assistant Secretary Thomas-Greenfield To Travel to Uganda, Zambia, Botswana, and Malawi Washington, DC - Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Linda Thomas-Greenfield will travel to Uganda, Zambia, Botswana, and Malawi, June 23-July 1. In Uganda, June 23-24, she will have meetings with government officials, civil society representatives, and youth leaders. On June 26, Assistant Secretary Thomas-Greenfield will begin a visit to Zambia, Botswana, and Malawi focused on the recognition and consolidation of democratic gains in the region. She will be accompanied in these three countries by Ambassador Alexander Laskaris, Deputy to the Commander for Civil-Military Engagement, United States Africa Command. In each of these countries, Assistant Secretary Thomas-Greenfield will meet with government officials and civil society representatives. Additionally, in Zambia, she will meet with a group of Mandela Washington Fellows from President Obamas Young African Leaders Initiative and will visit U.S.-trained Zambian peacekeeping troops who have served in the Central African Republic. In Botswana, she will launch a U.S. government innovation grant to a youth NGO focused on civic education. In Malawi, she will meet with Malawi Defense Forces representatives to discuss military cooperation. Be sure to follow the Assistant Secretary on Twitter @StateAfrica for more updates throughout her trip. Watch: Snake Attacks Owner As She Tries To Release It From Cage Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse Loughrey Get our The Life Cinematic email for free Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the The Life Cinematic email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Liza Johnson, 86 mins, starring: Michael Shannon, Kevin Spacey, Alex Pettyfer, Johnny Knoxville It's a wonderfully incongruous and jarring image: Elvis Presley in a black cape and gold belt, looking as if he has just walked off the set of a Tim Burton movie, and the very clammy and furtive seeming US President Richard Nixon, shaking hands. Given that Elvis took vast amount of drugs himself (albeit most of them prescribed) and was a quintessential symbol of youth rebellion, there is an obvious irony in his joining Nixon's crusade against the counter-culture. This is a whimsical, enjoyable but very slight drama which recreates the famous meeting between Elvis and Nixon in 1970. Both subjects' lives have been chronicled in exhaustive fashion but there is still an air of mystery around their unlikely encounter. Recommended Read more Elvis Presley breaks album record almost 40 years after his death It came before Watergate and before Nixon had begun secretly taping everything that happened in the White House. The filmmakers, therefore, have to rely on the (not always reliable) accounts given by members of the Elvis entourage, the so-called "Memphis Mafia". The version given here is that Elvis turned up at the northwest gate of the White House with a hand written letter requesting the meeting. At first, Nixon was inclined to rebuff him but eventually reconsidered, primarily in order to get an autograph for his daughter. When they did finally come face to face, they got on famously. The "king" was far more regal than the President. The White House, he told Nixon, reminded him of his own pad in Memphis, Graceland. Both men were from similarly humble backgrounds. Both distrusted communists. Elvis got his badge, allowing him to become a federal agent at large. There is a telling moment early on, when Elvis (Michael Shannon) is accosted at the airport by an Elvis impersonator. The impersonator thinks that the real Elvis is also an impersonator. (Popular mythology has it that Presley once came third in an Elvis lookalike contest.) Shannon, a notably intense Method actor, is strange casting as the king. He has none of the playful, puppyish innocence that the real Presley brought to movies like Fun In Acapulco or Girls! Girls! Girls!. Shannon, first seen shooting a pistol at the TV screens in Graceland (one of which is playing Dr. Strangelove), brings majesty and dark humour to his performance. His Elvis is accustomed to being accosted by fans and reacts to autograph hunters with the same lofty politeness that a monarch might show to his subjects. Elvis & Nixon MovieBites He is so removed from everyday life that he is surprised that an airline might object to his carrying multiple concealed guns onto a plane. Shannons earnest performance helps bring out the deadpan comedy, not least when he is demonstrating kung fu moves to the bemused President. Access unlimited streaming of movies and TV shows with Amazon Prime Video Sign up now for a 30-day free trial Sign up Spacey, meanwhile, is wearing heavy make-up and some kind of skull cap that makes him look like Nixon, complete with very long forehead and receding hairline. House Of Cards viewers will notice that many of his gestures are very similar to those he uses when playing fictional President Frank Underwood in the HBO series. The other main character is Presleys friend, Jerry Schilling (Alex Pettyfer), who accompanies the king to Washington and acts as his publicist and general flunkey. Schilling is a young, likeable US everyman type at a crossroads in his own life, on the verge of marrying and trying to break away from Elvis to establish his own identity. Elvis & Nixon doesnt reveal much about its protagonists that isnt already well known. This is a film that feels like a bar room anecdote stretched to feature length and wildly embellished in the process. Its a very likeable movie, though, and one that you warm to in spite of its lack of substance... and of Elvis music. Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse Loughrey Get our The Life Cinematic email for free Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the The Life Cinematic email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Suburra, a rain-soaked hyper-stylised introduction to Italian filmmaker Stefano Sollima, is resplendently neo-noir - a crime thriller that may initially begin a meretricious homage set to the backdrop of select songs by French electronic act M83 but ends having embedded itself into the flesh under your skin; there it stays. The character resting at the heart of this sprawling ensemble is amoral MP Filippo Malgradi (Pierfrancesco Favino) whose night of debauchery kickstarts a series of events that ricochet through Rome involving abduction, blackmail and vicious canines that would make Game of Thrones villain Ramsay Bolton feel ashamed. Stylistically, the film's influences are plain to see: Martin Scorsese, Brian De Palma, Michael Mann, to name but a few. Like his peers, Sollima displays a knack for refining material and balancing plotlines that would seem overbearing in lesser hands. There's almost a televisual feel pertained by the interweaving character encounters with scriptwriters Stefano Rulli and Sandro Petraglia (adapting Carlo Bonini and Giancarlo De Cataldo's novel) moving them around like chess pieces. In this way, there's even a scent of Coen in the air. Montage sequences showing concurrent events build to crescendos which force you to instinctively predict what's coming next. Shunning this expectation, Sollima instead throws in a gunshot here, a car accident there - as with life - when you least expect it; this tactic will temporarily turn your seat into a sit-down travelator. Playing around with the expectations of your audience is a brave ploy but one that pays off. Having now steered both a TV series (acclaimed Italian mob drama Gomorrah) and a two-hour-plus crime epic, Sollima ensures he fast tracks standalone Sicario sequel Soldado to the top of your most-anticipated list. Suburra will be no doubt regarded as the film that kick-started a body of work surely destined for the Italian director. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Twitter trolls are reporting Muslim women and girls to authorities in the Middle East for being pro-LGBT or atheist. In many of the countries, the penalty for being seen to support such causes can be punishable by death under blasphemy laws. The Daily Beast reports that one user took a screen-shot of a Muslim 16-year-old girls feminist tweet in which she re-wrote a verse from the Quran to include a slang word for vaginas. The user then tweeted the image to followers, urging them to report the girl, who is believed to be a resident of Kuwait, to the police. The user reportedly posted "This is another atheist and we should continue exposing every Arab atheist child to their parents who do not know of their atheism." Screenshots posted online show Dubais verified police account appeared to tweet the user saying: please send your details and supplied the polices email address, to which he replied has been sent. Shortly after, the girl who posted the original message posted they f**king found me and Im gonna puke before deleting her account. Other users attempted to defend the girl, with one user saying: This counts as targeted harassment and urging people to report the user to Twitter for breach of guidelines and harassment policies. Soon after this, the users account was suspended. Other users have told the Daily Beast that this and other accounts have been active for some time, deliberately seeking out tweets in which people from the Middle East are supporting LGBT causes or atheism and subsequently reporting them to local authorities for blasphemy. World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty One woman who asked for her name to be withheld for fear of retribution, said: This tactic is not new at all. Many Arab atheists, political dissenters, and LGBQT [users] are doxed into silence. Thats why you find many of these accounts are anonymous, so that if they are targeted, their identity wont be revealed. Although rare, some countries have taken criminal proceedings against citizens for posting blasphemous messages on social media sites. In 2012, a man in Kuwait was found guilty of insulting the prophet Mohammed following tweets posted on the social media site in his name. The man claimed his account had been hacked and he had not written the messages. Local religious figures had called for the death penalty to be given in the case. He was eventually jailed for 10 years. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Forget about red, white and rose a new variety of wine is about to land in UK shops and its blue. Six young entrepreneurs set up Spanish firm Gik to revolutionise Spanish wine industry, where wine is deeply attached to tradition. The drink is made using different varieties of red and white grapes from around Spain, including the wine regions of Castilla la Mancha and Rioja. Anthocyanin, a pigment from the red grapes skin, and indigotine, which is derived from plants, give the wine its bluish colouring. Non-caloric sweeteners are then used to modify the flavour and create a sweet drink with 11.5 per cent alcohol per volume. Not convinced? The entrepreneurs claim to have already sold around 70,000 bottles in Spain within a year and their blue wine will be available online for UK consumers in the coming months, with each bottle costing 8. Early clients are equally split between men and women and aged between 25 and 34 years old, according to Giks online data. (gik) The producers suggest pairing the wine with sushi, nachos with guacamole or pasta carbonara with music from James Blake or Alt J in the background. Aritz Lopez, co-founder of Gik, said that in Spain new generations are not used to traditional wine, they prefer beers, liquors or cocktails. None of us liked traditional wine, so we decided to start a little revolution by creating a sweet, easy to drink and blue wine, Lopez told the Independent. We are no winemakers and we dont even have family links in the industry, Lopez said. (Gik) Lopez said Gik spent two years working with the University of the Basque Country, which provided them with a laboratory and a team of chemical engineers. The blue colour has its own meaning and comes from a book called the Blue Ocean Strategy. The book says there are two kind of oceans: the red ones, full of sharks (competitors) fighting against each other for a few fishes (clients) and turning the ocean red because of the blood. And it talked about creating blue oceans; oceans where, thanks to creativity and innovation, everyone could be free, Lopez said. It sounded like poetry to us, so it could not be any other colour, he added. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Mayhoola for Investments, an investment fund backed by the emir of Qatar, acquired French fashion house Balmain, adding a brand favored by Kim Kardashian to a roster of labels that includes Italys Valentino. Financial terms were not disclosed, though a person familiar with the matter said Mayhoola agreed to pay close to 500 million (384 million). The acquisition of 100 per cent of Balmain from shareholders including Frances Hivelin family will allow the brand to accelerate its development by opening new stores around the world, advisers Bucephale Finance said in a statement late Tuesday. Balmain has become one of the most talked about fashion brands under creative director Olivier Rousteing, whose Instagram account is peppered with images of reality-television star Kardashian and her family wearing his military-inspired designs. The fashion house, founded by Pierre Balmain in 1945 and revived in 1995 by Alain Hivelin, has enjoyed strong growth since Rousteing joined in 2011, according to the statement. Mayhoola, which describes itself as a Qatari company focused on local and global investments, also owns Valentino, which is considering selling shares in an initial public offering as early as next year after nearly doubling profit on revenue of more than $1 billion in 2015. Mayhoola didnt immediately respond to a request for comment. Kimye for Balmain spring 2015 Show all 4 1 /4 Kimye for Balmain spring 2015 Kimye for Balmain spring 2015 Kimye for Balmain spring 2015 copyright: Mario Sorrenti/Balmain Kimye for Balmain spring 2015 Kimye for Balmain spring 2015 copyright: Mario Sorrenti/Balmain Kimye for Balmain spring 2015 Kimye for Balmain spring 2015 copyright: Mario Sorrenti/Balmain Kimye for Balmain spring 2015 Kimye for Balmain spring 2015 copyright: Mario Sorrenti/Balmain The acquisition of Balmain is the second fashion deal this week by Middle Eastern investors after Bahrain investment house Investcorp Bank purchased 55 per cent of Italian luxury menswear maker Corneliani. The transactions come as demand for luxury goods cools, with consultants Bain & Co. estimating global sales will expand at best 2 per cent this year, the second-weakest rate since 2009. 2016 Bloomberg L.P For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The cause of Anton Yelchins death has been confirmed as an accident by the Los Angeles County coroners office. Yelchin, who is known for playing the character of Chekov in two Star Trek movies, was tragically killed by his own car at his Los Angeles Homes on Sunday (19 June). He was 27. Police said the actor stepped out of his car on the steep driveway of his home and the car rolled backwards, pinning him against a brick postbox pillar and a security fence. Yelchin had been on his way to meet friends for a rehearsal but when he did not show up, they went to his home and found his body. Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter of the Los Angeles County coroner's office told People Magazine Yelchin had died of accidental blunt traumatic asphyxia. Notable deaths in 2016 Show all 42 1 /42 Notable deaths in 2016 Notable deaths in 2016 Debbie Reynolds was an American actress, singer, businesswoman, film historian, and humanitarian. She died on December 28 in Los Angeles Rex Notable deaths in 2016 Actress Carrie Fisher died on December 27 aged 60 Rex Notable deaths in 2016 Comedian and Actor Ricky Harris died on December 26 aged 54 Rex Notable deaths in 2016 British singer George Michael died on 25 December aged 53 Getty Notable deaths in 2016 Rick Parfitt OBE was an English musician, best known for being a singer, songwriter and rhythm guitarist in the rock band Status Quo. He died on December 24 in Marbella, Spain Rex Notable deaths in 2016 Lord Jenkin of Roding died at the age of 90 on the 21 December PA wire Notable deaths in 2016 Rabbi Lionel Blue died on the 19 December Rex Notable deaths in 2016 Zsa Zsa Gabor died on December 18 Getty Notable deaths in 2016 Leonard Cohen died on 7 November Getty Images Notable deaths in 2016 Grand secretary of the Orange Order Drew Nelson died on 10 October aged 60 after a short illness PA Notable deaths in 2016 Aaron Pryor, the relentless junior welterweight died Sunday, Oct. 9, at the age of 60 at his home in Cincinnati after a long battle with heart disease AP Notable deaths in 2016 Polish Director Andrzej Wajda died on October 9, aged 90 Reuters Notable deaths in 2016 Stylianos Pattakos has died following a stroke on 8th October. He was 103 years old. AP Notable deaths in 2016 Dickie Jeeps, was an English rugby union player who played for Northampton. He represented and captained both the England national rugby union team and the British Lions in the 1950s and 1960s. He died on 8th October. He was 84 Getty Notable deaths in 2016 Duke of Westminster Billionaire landowner the Duke of Westminster, Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor has died on 9 August, aged 64 Rex Features Notable deaths in 2016 Christina Knudsen Sir Roger Moores stepdaughter Christina Knudsen has died from cancer on 25 July at teh age of 47 Getty Images Notable deaths in 2016 Caroline Aherne The actress Caroline Aherne has died from cancer on 2 July at the age of 52 Getty Images Notable deaths in 2016 Christina Grimmie Christina Grimmie, 22, who was an American singer and songwriter, known for her participation in the NBC singing competition The Voice, was signing autographs at a concert venue in Orlando on 10 June when an assailant shot her. Grimmie was transported to a local hospital where she died from her wounds on 11 June Getty Notable deaths in 2016 Kimbo Slice Former UFC and Bellator MMA fighter Kimbo Slice died after being admitted to hospital in Florida on 6 June, aged 42 Getty Notable deaths in 2016 Muhammad Ali The three-time former heavyweight world champion died after being admitted to hospital with a respiratory illness on 3 June, aged 74 Getty Images Notable deaths in 2016 Sally Brampton Brampton who was the launch editor of the UK edition of Elle magazine has died on 10 May, aged 60 Grant Triplow/REX/Shutterstock Notable deaths in 2016 Billy Paul The soul singer Billy Paul, who was best known for his single Me and Mrs Jones, has died on 24 April, aged 81 Noel Vasquez/Getty Images Notable deaths in 2016 Prince Prince, the legendary musician, has been found dead at his Paisley Park recording studio on 21 April. He was 57 Notable deaths in 2016 Chyna WWE icon Joan Laurer dies aged 45 after being found at California home on 20 April Notable deaths in 2016 Victoria Wood The five-time Bafta-winning actress and comedian Victoria Wood has died on 20 April at her London home after a short illness with cancer. She was 62 Notable deaths in 2016 David Gest The entertainer and former husband of Liza Minnelli, David Gest has been found dead on 12 April in the Four Seasons hotel in Canary Warf, London. He was 62-years-old PA Notable deaths in 2016 Denise Robertson Denise Robertson, an agony aunt on This Morning for over 30 years, has died on 1 April, aged 83 Notable deaths in 2016 Zaha Hadid Dame Zaha Hadid, the prominent architect best known for designs such as the London Olympic Aquatic Centre and the Guangzhou Opera House, has died of a heart attack on 31 March, aged 65 2010 AFP Notable deaths in 2016 Ronnie Corbett British entertainer Ronnie Corbett has passed away on 31 March at the age of 85 2014 Getty Images Notable deaths in 2016 Imre Kertesz Hungarian writer and Holocaust survivor Imre Kertesz, who won the 2002 Nobel Literature Prize, has died on 31 March, at the age of 86 REUTERS Notable deaths in 2016 Rob Ford Rob Ford, the former controversial mayor of Toronto, has died following a battle with a rare form of cancer. The 46-year-old passed away at the Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto on 22 March Notable deaths in 2016 Joey Feek Joey (left) passed away in March after a two-year cancer illness. She was part of country music duo, Joey + Rory, with her husband Rory (right) Jason Merritt/Getty Images Notable deaths in 2016 Umberto Eco Italian writer and philosopher Umberto Eco died 19 February 2016 aged 84 EPA Notable deaths in 2016 Harper Lee Harper Lee, the American novelist known for writing 'To Kill a Mockingbird', died February 19, 2016 aged 89 2005 Getty Images Notable deaths in 2016 Vanity Vanity, pictured performing in 1983, died aged 57 REX Features Notable deaths in 2016 Dave Mirra The BMX legend's body found inside truck with gunshot wound after apparent suicide aged 41 Notable deaths in 2016 Harry Harpham The former miner became Sheffield Labour MP in May after many years as a local councillor. He died after succumbing to cancer, at the age of 61. Notable deaths in 2016 Dale Griffin The Mott the Hoople drummer died on January 17, aged 67 REX Notable deaths in 2016 Rene Angelil Celine Dion's husband and manager Rene Angelil has lost his battle with cancer on 14 January, aged 73 2011 Getty Images Notable deaths in 2016 Alan Rickman Legendary actor Alan Rickman has died on 14 January at the age of 69 after battle with pancreatic cancer. He is largely regarded as one of the most beloved British actors of our generation with roles in Love Actually, Die Hard, Michael Collins, and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and an illustrious stage career 2015 Getty Images Notable deaths in 2016 Maurice White The Earth, Wind & Fire founder died aged 74. The nine-piece band sold more than 90 million albums worldwide and won six Grammy awards Notable deaths in 2016 Lawrence Phillips Former NFL star found dead in prison cell on 13 January in suspected suicide, aged 40 AFP/Getty Images On Monday, an LAPD spokesperson said the investigation was still ongoing and traffic detectives would be looking at all the factors they would examine in any traffic collision investigation. Yelchin was driving a 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee - the same model which Fiat Chrysler Automobiles recalled in April because the gear-shift design meant some drivers were exiting the car without ensuring the handbrake was in place. Recommended Read more Anton Yelchin interview Fiat Chrysler recalled approximately 1.1 million cars after reports owners were seeing their cars roll away. In a statement sent to The Independent, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles said: FCA US extends its deepest sympathies to the family and friends of Mr Yelchin. The Company will be conducting a thorough investigation of this tragic incident. It is premature to speculate on its cause at this time. Tributes for Yelchin have poured in from across the world from Star Trek colleagues, fellow actors and fans since the news of his shock death emerged. Yelchin was a rising star in the film industry and managed to carve out a career for himself which comprised of both blockbusters and independent films. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Apprentice star Lord Alan Sugar has been attacked for saying a Brexit campaigner should not "tell us British what we should do" because she is originally from Germany. Commenting on the BBC's debate on EU membership ahead of the referendum on Thursday, the businessman said he found it "strange" that Bavaria-born Gisela Stuart was participating in the debate for Leave side. Referring to her by her maiden name, Lord Sugar called her "a 1974 immigrant from Germany". Ms Stuart, Labour MP for Birmingham Edgbaston, moved to the UK at the age of 19. She is one of the most high profile Labour voices on the official Vote Leave campaign and appeared alongside former Mayor of London Boris Johnson and energy minister Andrea Leadsom in an BBC debate in front of 6,000 people at Wembley Arena. Tory MP and Leave backer Nadhim Zahawi took exception to the remarks, saying: "You must withdraw and apologise to Gisela. That is disgraceful. She is as British as you are." Ruth Davidson: You deserve the truth And former Tory MP Louise Mensch tweeted: "Lord-Sugar PIG". Lord Sugar later denied he was being racist, pointing out that Ms Stuart is an immigrant who is now arguing against immigration. In a series of tweets, he said: "Yes she is (British) now, and has been arguing that we need to curb immigrants from the EU. She immigrated to UK from Germany in 1974. "30 mins ago was advocating that we stop immigration from the EU like Germany in future and exit EU." What's the European Parliament ever done for us? Show all 5 1 /5 What's the European Parliament ever done for us? What's the European Parliament ever done for us? A cap on the amount of hours an employer can make you work The Working Time directive provides legal standards to ensure the health and safety of employees in Europe. Among the many rules are a working week of a maximum 48 hours, including overtime, a daily rest period of 11 hours in every 24, a break if a person works for six hours or more, and one day off in every seven. It also includes provisions for paid annual leave of at least four weeks every year Getty Images What's the European Parliament ever done for us? Helping the people of Britain to avoid smoking In 2014 MEPs passed the Tobacco Products Directive strengthening existing rules on the manufacture, production and presentation of tobacco products. This includes things like reduced branding, restrictions on products containing flavoured tobacco, health warnings on cigarette packets and provisions for e-cigarettes to ensure they are safe What's the European Parliament ever done for us? Helping you to make the right choices with your food Thanks to the European Parliament, UK consumers have access to more information than ever about their food and drink. This includes amount of fat, and how much of it is saturated, carbohydrates, sugars, protein and so on. It also includes portion sizes and guideline daily amount information so people can make informed choices about their diet. All facts must be clear and easy to understand What's the European Parliament ever done for us? Two year guarantees and 14-day returns policy for all products Consumers across the EU have access to a number of rights, from things which are potentially very useful, to things which used to be annoying. For example, shoppers in the UK receive a two-year guarantee on all products, and a 14-day period to change their minds and return a purchase, these things are useful www.PeopleImages.com-licence restrictions apply What's the European Parliament ever done for us? Keeping your air nice and fresh (and safe) Believe it or not, although the situation is improving, some areas of the UK have appalling air quality. A report by the Royal College of Physicians released on 23 February says 40,000 deaths are caused by outdoor air pollution in the UK every year. Air pollution is linked to a number of illnesses and conditions, from Asthma to diabetes and dementia. The report estimates the costs to British business and the health service add up to 20 billion every year Retweeting someone who called him racist, the peer said: "You ignorant fool. How can my comment be classified as racist. Crawl back under your rock." Lord Sugar came out for the Remain last month saying British people would be "mugs" if they voted to leave the EU. In an article for The Sun, he said: Ive been in business for 50 years, Ive seen some pretty daft ideas in my time. And Ill tell you one of them: Britain leaving the EU. Despite this, the official Stronger In campaign distanced itself from his remarks telling political blog Guido Fawkes that his comments were "completely unacceptable and inappropriate". Additional reporting by PA For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Earth has been followed by a mini Moon for nearly a century and scientists have only just spotted it. A tiny asteroid has been orbiting us for years and is likely to continue doing so for centuries to come, according to scientists. Although the rock is too distant from us to really be a new moon, Nasa says that it is stable enough in our orbit to be considered a near-Earth companion or a quasi-satellite. Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Show all 30 1 /30 Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Solar Flare An image from Nasa's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) shows a 200,000 mile long solar filament ripping through the Sun's corona in September 2013 Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Nasa Celebrates 50 Years of Spacewalking For 50 years, NASA has been "suiting up" for spacewalking. In this 1984 photograph of the first untethered spacewalk, NASA astronaut Bruce McCandless is in the midst of the first "field" tryout of a nitrogen-propelled backpack device called the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU) Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space A Hubble Cosmic Couple The spectacular cosmic pairing of the star Hen 2-427 more commonly known as WR 124 and the nebula M1-67 which surrounds it ESA/Hubble & NASA Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Veil Nebula Supernova Remnant Nasa's Hubble Space Telescope has unveiled in stunning detail a small section of the Veil Nebula - expanding remains of a massive star that exploded about 8,000 years ago Nasa's most stunning pictures of space The Soyuz TMA-15M rocket launch The Soyuz TMA-15M rocket launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Monday, Nov. 24, 2014, carrying three new astronauts to the International Space Station. It also took caviar, ready for the satellite's inhabitants to celebrate the holidays Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Earth from the ISS From the International Space Station, Expedition 42 Flight Engineer Terry W. Virts took this photograph of the Gulf of Mexico and U.S. Gulf Coast at sunset Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Black Hole Friday Nasa celebrated Black Friday by looking into space instead sharing pictures of black holes Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space NuSTAR X-rays stream off the sun in this image showing observations from by NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, overlaid on a picture taken by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Cassiopeia A c A false colour image of Cassiopeia A comprised with data from the Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescopes and the Chandra X-Ray observatory Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Orion Capsule splashes down The Orion capsule jetted off into space before heading back a few hours later having proved that it can be used, one day, to carry humans to Mars Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Earth Observations From Gemini IV in 1965 This photograph of the Florida Straits and Grand Bahama Bank was taken during the Gemini IV mission during orbit no. 19 in 1965. The Gemini IV crew conducted scientific experiments, including photography of Earth's weather and terrain, for the remainder of their four-day mission following Ed White's historic spacewalk on June 3 Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Frosty slopes of Mars This image of an area on the surface of Mars, approximately 1.5 by 3 kilometers in size, shows frosted gullies on a south-facing slope within a crater. The image was taken by Nasa's HiRISE camera, which is mounted on its Mars Reconaissance Orbiter Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Yellowstone from space NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman shared this image of Yellowstone via his twitter account Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Saturn This near-infrared color image shows a specular reflection, or sunglint, off of a hydrocarbon lake named Kivu Lacus on Saturn's moon Titan Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Worlds Apart Although Mimas and Pandora, shown here, both orbit Saturn, they are very different moons. Pandora, "small" by moon standards (50 miles or 81 kilometers across) is elongated and irregular in shape. Mimas (246 miles or 396 kilometers across), a "medium-sized" moon, formed into a sphere due to self-gravity imposed by its higher mass Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Solar Flare An X1.6 class solar flare flashes in the middle of the sun in this image taken 10 September, captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy An image of the Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy seen in infrared light by the Herschel Space Observatory. Regions of space such as this are where new stars are born from a mixture of elements and cosmic dust Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Mars Rover Spirit Nasa's Mars Rover Spirit took the first picture from Spirit since problems with communications began a week earlier. The image shows the robotic arm extended to the rock called Adirondack Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Morning Aurora From the Space Station Nasa astronaut Scott Kelly captured this photograph of the green lights of the aurora from the International Space Station Nasa/Scott Kelly Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Launch of History - Making STS-41G Mission in 1984 The Space Shuttle Challenger launches from Florida at dawn. On this mission, Kathryn Sullivan became the first U.S. woman to perform a spacewalk and Marc Garneau became the first Canadian in space. The crew of seven was the largest to fly on a spacecraft at that time, and STS-41G was the first flight to include two female astronauts Nasa's most stunning pictures of space A Fresh Perspective on an Extraordinary Cluster of Galaxies Galaxy clusters are often described by superlatives. After all, they are huge conglomerations of galaxies, hot gas, and dark matter and represent the largest structures in the Universe held together by gravity Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Hubble Sees a Galactic Sunflower The arrangement of the spiral arms in the galaxy Messier 63, seen here in an image from the Nasa Hubble Space Telescope, recall the pattern at the center of a sunflower ESA/Hubble & NASA Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Pluto image Four images from New Horizons Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) were combined with colour data from the Ralph instrument to create this enhanced colour global view of Pluto Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Fresh Crater Near Sirenum Fossae Region of Mars The HiRISE camera aboard Nasa's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter acquired this closeup image of a "fresh" (on a geological scale, though quite old on a human scale) impact crater in the Sirenum Fossae region of Mars. This impact crater appears relatively recent as it has a sharp rim and well-preserved ejecta Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Hubble Peers into the Most Crowded Place in the Milky Way This Nasa Hubble Space Telescope image presents the Arches Cluster, the densest known star cluster in the Milky Way NASA & ESA Nasa's most stunning pictures of space An Astronaut's View from Space Nasa astronaut Reid Wiseman tweeted this photo from the International Space Station on 2 September 2014 Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Giant Landform on Mars On Mars, we can observe four classes of sandy landforms formed by the wind, or aeolian bedforms: ripples, transverse aeolian ridges, dunes, and what are called draa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Expedition 39 Landing A sokol suit helmet can be seen against the window of the Soyuz TMA-11M capsule shortly after the spacecraft landed with Expedition 39 Commander Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Soyuz Commander Mikhail Tyurin of Roscosmos, and Flight Engineer Rick Mastracchio of NASA near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan (NASA/Bill Ingalls) Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Jupiter's Great Red Spot Viewed by Voyager I Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system and perhaps the most majestic. Vibrant bands of clouds carried by winds that can exceed 400 mph continuously circle the planet's atmosphere Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Chandra Observatory Sees a Heart in the Darkness This Chandra X-Ray Observatory image of the young star cluster NGC 346 highlights a heart-shaped cloud of 8 million-degree Celsius gas in the central region The asteroid is called 2016 HO3 taking its name from the year in which it was discovered and orbits the sun but also stays as a constant companion to Earth. "Since 2016 HO3 loops around our planet, but never ventures very far away as we both go around the sun, we refer to it as a quasi-satellite of Earth," said Paul Chodas, manager of NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object (NEO) Studies at its Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "One other asteroid 2003 YN107 followed a similar orbital pattern for a while over 10 years ago, but it has since departed our vicinity. This new asteroid is much more locked onto us. Our calculations indicate 2016 HO3 has been a stable quasi-satellite of Earth for almost a century, and it will continue to follow this pattern as Earth's companion for centuries to come." Recommended Read more Nasa sets up team to save Earth from asteroids 2016 HO3 spends about half of the year closer to the sun than to us, passing ahead of Earth. But the rest of the time it falls away. Nasa describes its orbit as a game of leap frog with Earth though one thats further complicated because the asteroid also moves up and down in its orbit. The asteroid's loops around Earth drift a little ahead or behind from year to year, but when they drift too far forward or backward, Earth's gravity is just strong enough to reverse the drift and hold onto the asteroid so that it never wanders farther away than about 100 times the distance of the moon," said Mr Chodas. "The same effect also prevents the asteroid from approaching much closer than about 38 times the distance of the moon. In effect, this small asteroid is caught in a little dance with Earth." The mini Moon was first spotted in at the end of April by a telescope based in Hawaii. Its size hasnt yet been confirmed, but its probably between 40 meters and 100 meters, Nasa said. Sign up for a full digest of all the best opinions of the week in our Voices Dispatches email Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Voices Dispatches email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A scientific study into the sex life of the screwworm once ridiculed as a waste of money is to be given a US award designed to recognise research that might sound silly or odd but is actually important. Its findings led to the development of the only truly original innovation in insect control of the 20th century, credited with the eradication of the screwworm fly from North and Central America. The flies lay eggs in wounds on animals and the resulting maggots can kill a fully grown cow in two weeks. It is estimated the technique, in which males are sterilised to cause the population to crash, has saved farmers billions of pounds over the past 50 years. It is now being used to kill the mosquitoes that spread the Zika virus in South America. Entomologists Dr Edward Knipling and Dr Raymond Bushland, who developed the technique in the 1950s after years of research, will be posthumously awarded the Golden Goose Award at a ceremony at the US Library of Congress in September, it has been announced. Democratic Congressman Jim Cooper, who first proposed the Golden Goose Award, said: Screwworm research may sound like a joke, but it isn't. It saved the livestock industry billions and is giving us a way to fight Zika. We should trust our scientists more than our politicians when it comes to research priorities. Science news in pictures Show all 20 1 /20 Science news in pictures Science news in pictures Pluto has 'beating heart' of frozen nitrogen Pluto has a 'beating heart' of frozen nitrogen that is doing strange things to its surface, Nasa has found. The mysterious core seems to be the cause of features on its surface that have fascinated scientists since they were spotted by Nasa's New Horizons mission. "Before New Horizons, everyone thought Pluto was going to be a netball - completely flat, almost no diversity," said Tanguy Bertrand, an astrophysicist and planetary scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center and the lead author on the new study. "But it's completely different. It has a lot of different landscapes and we are trying to understand what's going on there." Getty Science news in pictures Over 400 species discovered this year by Natural History Museum The ancient invertabrate worm-like species rhenopyrgus viviani (pictured) is one of over 400 species previously unknown to science that were discovered by experts at the Natural History Museum this year PA Science news in pictures Jackdaws can identify 'dangerous' humans Jackdaws can identify dangerous humans from listening to each others warning calls, scientists say. The highly social birds will also remember that person if they come near their nests again, according to researchers from the University of Exeter. In the study, a person unknown to the wild jackdaws approached their nest. At the same time scientists played a recording of a warning call (threatening) or contact calls (non-threatening). The next time jackdaws saw this same person, the birds that had previously heard the warning call were defensive and returned to their nests more than twice as quickly on average. Getty Science news in pictures Turtle embryos influence sex by shaking The sex of the turtle is determined by the temperatures at which they are incubated. Warm temperatures favour females. But by wiggling around the egg, embryos can find the Goldilocks Zone which means they are able to shield themselves against extreme thermal conditions and produce a balanced sex ratio, according to the new study published in Current Biology journal Ye et al/Current Biology Science news in pictures Elephant poaching rates drop in Africa African elephant poaching rates have dropped by 60 per cent in six years, an international study has found. It is thought the decline could be associated with the ivory trade ban introduced in China in 2017. Reuters Science news in pictures Ancient four-legged whale discovered in Peru Scientists have identified a four-legged creature with webbed feet to be an ancestor of the whale. Fossils unearthed in Peru have led scientists to conclude that the enormous creatures that traverse the planets oceans today are descended from small hoofed ancestors that lived in south Asia 50 million years ago A. Gennari Science news in pictures Animal with transient anus discovered A scientist has stumbled upon a creature with a transient anus that appears only when it is needed, before vanishing completely. Dr Sidney Tamm of the Marine Biological Laboratory could not initially find any trace of an anus on the species. However, as the animal gets full, a pore opens up to dispose of waste Steven G Johnson Science news in pictures Giant bee spotted Feared extinct, the Wallace's Giant bee has been spotted for the first time in nearly 40 years. An international team of conservationists spotted the bee, that is four times the size of a typical honeybee, on an expedition to a group of Indonesian Islands Clay Bolt Science news in pictures New mammal species found inside crocodile Fossilised bones digested by crocodiles have revealed the existence of three new mammal species that roamed the Cayman Islands 300 years ago. The bones belonged to two large rodent species and a small shrew-like animal New Mexico Museum of Natural History Science news in pictures Fabric that changes according to temperature created Scientists at the University of Maryland have created a fabric that adapts to heat, expanding to allow more heat to escape the body when warm and compacting to retain more heat when cold Faye Levine, University of Maryland Science news in pictures Baby mice tears could be used in pest control A study from the University of Tokyo has found that the tears of baby mice cause female mice to be less interested in the sexual advances of males Getty Science news in pictures Final warning to limit "climate catastrophe" The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has issued a report which projects the impact of a rise in global temperatures of 1.5 degrees Celsius and warns against a higher increase Getty Science news in pictures Nobel prize for evolution chemists The nobel prize for chemistry has been awarded to three chemists working with evolution. Frances Smith is being awarded the prize for her work on directing the evolution of enzymes, while Gregory Winter and George Smith take the prize for their work on phage display of peptides and antibodies Getty/AFP Science news in pictures Nobel prize for laser physicists The nobel prize for physics has been awarded to three physicists working with lasers. Arthur Ashkin (L) was awarded for his "optical tweezers" which use lasers to grab particles, atoms, viruses and other living cells. Donna Strickland and Gerard Mourou were jointly awarded the prize for developing chirped-pulse amplification of lasers Reuters/AP Science news in pictures Discovery of a new species of dinosaur The Ledumahadi Mafube roamed around 200 million years ago in what is now South Africa. Recently discovered by a team of international scientists, it was the largest land animal of its time, weighing 12 tons and standing at 13 feet. In Sesotho, the South African language of the region in which the dinosaur was discovered, its name means "a giant thunderclap at dawn" Viktor Radermacher / SWNS Science news in pictures Birth of a planet Scientists have witnessed the birth of a planet for the first time ever. This spectacular image from the SPHERE instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope is the first clear image of a planet caught in the very act of formation around the dwarf star PDS 70. The planet stands clearly out, visible as a bright point to the right of the center of the image, which is blacked out by the coronagraph mask used to block the blinding light of the central star. ESO/A. Muller et al Science news in pictures New human organ discovered that was previously missed by scientists Layers long thought to be dense, connective tissue are actually a series of fluid-filled compartments researchers have termed the interstitium. These compartments are found beneath the skin, as well as lining the gut, lungs, blood vessels and muscles, and join together to form a network supported by a mesh of strong, flexible proteins Getty Science news in pictures Previously unknown society lived in Amazon rainforest before Europeans arrived, say archaeologists Working in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso, a team led by archaeologists at the University of Exeter unearthed hundreds of villages hidden in the depths of the rainforest. These excavations included evidence of fortifications and mysterious earthworks called geoglyphs Jose Iriarte Science news in pictures One in 10 people have traces of cocaine or heroin on fingerprints, study finds More than one in 10 people were found to have traces of class A drugs on their fingers by scientists developing a new fingerprint-based drug test. Using sensitive analysis of the chemical composition of sweat, researchers were able to tell the difference between those who had been directly exposed to heroin and cocaine, and those who had encountered it indirectly. Getty Science news in pictures Nasa releases stunning images of Jupiter's great red spot The storm bigger than the Earth, has been swhirling for 350 years. The image's colours have been enhanced after it was sent back to Earth. Pictures by: Tom Momary Republican Randy Hultgren added: Sometimes offbeat, quirky-sounding science is the best science, paving the way for discoveries years down the road which can revolutionise medicine, physics, biology, technology and how we view the world. Given the recent rise of infectious diseases like the Zika virus, developing eradication programmes for carrier pests is a much-needed field of scientific research. Even though 'worms' might make some members of Congress as well as the public a little squeamish or sceptical, these studies by Edward Knipling and Raymond Bushland have clearly paid off. The award deliberately echoes the Golden Fleece Award, which became a US institution in the 1970s and 1980s. It was created by the then Senator William Proxmire and given to state-funded projects he and the judges considered to be a waste of public money. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Tim Peake has spoken about how exciting his journey back to Earth was and said that he wants to get straight back into space. At his first press conference since leaving the International Space Station (ISS) and landing in Kazakhstan, Major Peake said that he was feeling fantastic but was looking forward to getting back to exploring space and would return in a "heartbeat". Major Peake describes how his tiny Soyuz capsule tumbled back to the Earth and lit into sparks and flames during its way down. He then felt the strange sensation of falling back to Earth as he underwent the surging G-force that pushed him into his seat. The most incredible space images of Earth Show all 30 1 /30 The most incredible space images of Earth The most incredible space images of Earth Striking Africa Explore ESA astronaut Tim Peake's stunning photos of Earth, taken from the International Space Station during his six month mission (captions by Tom Peake) "The striking colour and texture of Africa Illizi, Algeria" The most incredible space images of Earth Favourite Reef "Every day spent living in space is a great day, but today was particularly special. I got to speak with one of my inspirational heroes Prof Stephen Hawking and his amazing daughter Lucy, who developed the Principia Space Diary to engage children with STEM subjects. As well as talking about dark matter, quantum entanglement, alien life and light beam powered nanocraft we also got to see an amazing pass over the Bahamas and this - my favourite reef smile emoticon" The most incredible space images of Earth Russia's north-east coast "Sunrise approaching Russia's frozen north-east coast" The most incredible space images of Earth Hello London "Hello London! Fancy a run? :) #LondonMarathon" The most incredible space images of Earth Bahamas "50 shades of blue: Bahamas" The most incredible space images of Earth Yinchuan "Snow on the mountains next to Yinchuan in China" The most incredible space images of Earth Rocket flames in Africa "Is it just me or do I see some rocket flames down there? These strange land features are in the Erg Iguidi desert, with its yellow stripes of sand stretching from Algeria to northern Mauritania in the Sahara" The most incredible space images of Earth Stunning colours "Sunlight reflecting the stunning colours of this Himalayan lake" The most incredible space images of Earth The real Everest "The real thing: found Everest! Last picture turned out to be third-tallest mountain Kanchengjunga" The most incredible space images of Earth Go Exomars "Go #Exomars have a great mission. Earth has more in common with Mars than you might think #AfricaArt" The most incredible space images of Earth Tenerife "Amazingly clear view of Tenerife" The most incredible space images of Earth Midday winter sun "Some midday winter sun glinting off Greenlands snow-capped peaks" The most incredible space images of Earth Sand dunes "Great texture in these huge sand dunes, Saudi Arabia" The most incredible space images of Earth Dragon Dam "The dam makes this river look like a dragons tail. Oahe Dam north of Pierre, South Dakota in the United States. (North is to the right)" The most incredible space images of Earth Smoking volcano "Spotted volcano smoking away on Russias far east coast this morning heat has melted snow around top" The most incredible space images of Earth New Zealand "New Zealand looking stunning in the sunshine. Mt Cook centre left with the Grand Plateau to the front and Mt Tasman (3,497m) to the right of the Grand Plateau. Fox Glacier in the middle then Franz Josef curving right. Tasman Lake (largest at front) is at the foot of the Tasman glacier which runs along the front of them. The Hooker Glacier flows out behind Mt Cook coming down to meet the Mueller Glacier on the left of the photo. The Murchison Glacier is at the front of the photo running parallel with the Tasman Glacier" The most incredible space images of Earth Plankton bloom "Another great pass over Patagonia and a swirling plankton bloom off the coast" The most incredible space images of Earth Alaska "We dont often get such clear views of Alaska" The most incredible space images of Earth Lights along the Nile "Lights along the Nile stretching into the distance from Cairo" The most incredible space images of Earth Kamchatka "The Pacific Ring of Fire clear to see amongst the volcanoes of Kamchatka, Russia" The most incredible space images of Earth Cumulonimbus "Im guessing there was an impressive storm going on under that cumulonimbus cloud" The most incredible space images of Earth Night Sahara "Night-time Sahara you can really see how thin the Earths atmosphere is in this picture" The most incredible space images of Earth Japan "Tokyo and Japanese coast. This image shows most of Japan with the largest mass of light corresponding to Tokyo. The white lights on the left are fishing boats" The most incredible space images of Earth Morning sun volcanoes "Morning sun striking active volcanoes in Guatemala" The most incredible space images of Earth Tapajos River "The vast waters of the Tapajos river, Amazonia" The most incredible space images of Earth Patagonia "Beautiful glacial river water flowing from this Patagonian ice field Lake Viedma, West is up" The most incredible space images of Earth Dubai Palms "Minus the #Dragon photobomb this time..." The most incredible space images of Earth Sediment in Ethiopia "Sediment spilling into this mountain lake, Ethiopia" The most incredible space images of Earth Italy "We have phases of short nights on the International Space Station sunlight is nearly always visible right now. No prizes for guessing where this is" The most incredible space images of Earth Panama Canal "From one mighty ocean to another ships passing through the Panama canal" He also spoke of his "dream" of going to the Moon, his hope that the UK continues to fund manned space missions - and his relief at using a gravity-assisted Earth toilet at last. The 44-year-old father-of-two returned to Earth from a six-month European Space Agency (Esa) mission on the ISS with American Nasa astronaut Colonel Tim Kopra and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko. Recommended Read more Tim Peake touches down after six months in space Their "descent module" - the only part of the three-section Soyuz TMA-19M spacecraft to complete the journey - parachuted down on to a remote spot on the vast Kazakhstan steppe at 10.15am UK time on Saturday. All three men are now undergoing an intense programme of rehabilitation and tests to help them re-adjust to Earth gravity and show scientists how their bodies have stood the strain of 186 days in space. Major Peake spoke in a packed briefing room at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany, where the Esa's astronaut activities are based. Peake on returning to Earth He was treated to a standing ovation when he made his appearance as members of the audience clapped and cheered. Additional reporting by Press Association For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Two brothers are to be sentenced for a horrific acid attack which left a mother-of-six permanently blind in one eye. Billy and Geoffrey Midmore were convicted at Southampton Crown Court of causing grievous bodily harm with intent to 37-year-old Carla Whitlock. Older brother, Geoffrey, 27, pleaded guilty to spraying drain cleaner in her face outside the Turtle Bay restaurant in Southampton, Hampshire, on 18 September last year. Recommended Read more What happened to one woman for refusing a marriage proposal Billy, 22, was found guilty at trial of being part of the attack which caused severe burns to Ms Whitlock's face and eye lids. The trial was told that the brothers had visited several DIY stores to buy a particular brand of drain cleaner called One Shot which had the highest concentration of sulphuric acid. Kerry Maylin, prosecuting, told the court that Geoffrey had sent a photograph of the bottle on WhatsApp to an acquaintance with the words: This is one face melter. UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 26 October 2022 A meerkat explores a pumpkin in the enclosure at Wild Place, Bristol, where some of the animals are having pumpkin treats as part of their environmental enrichment PA UK news in pictures 25 October 2022 King Charles III welcomes Rishi Sunak during an audience at Buckingham Palace, where he invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2022 Rishi Sunak celebrates with Tory MPs outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters after becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party Reuters UK news in pictures 23 October 2022 The Green Man at October Plenty, Borough Market's annual Autumn Harvest festival, in London, which returns for the first time post pandemic PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA UK news in pictures 24 September 2022 Handout photo issued by Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2022 A climate change activist protests against UK private jets while lighting his right arm on fire during the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London EPA UK news in pictures 22 September 2022 Woody Woodmansey, Lee Bennett, Kevin Armstrong, Nick Moran and Clifford Slapper attend the unveiling of a stone for David Bowie on the Music Walk of Fame at Camden, north London PA UK news in pictures 21 September 2022 A flock of birds in the sky as the sun rises over Dungeness in Kent PA UK news in pictures 20 September 2022 Flowers which were laid by members of the public in tribute to Queen Elizabeth II at Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland are collected by the Hillsborough Gardening Team and volunteers to be replanted for those that can be saved or composted PA UK news in pictures 19 September 2022 The ceremonial procession of the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II travels down the long walk as it arrives at Windsor Castle for the committal service at St Georges Chapel AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 18 September 2022 A man stands among campers on The Mall ahead of the Queens funeral Reuters UK news in pictures 17 September 2022 Wolverhampton Wanderers Nathan Collins fouls Manchester Citys Jack Grealish leading to a red card. City went on to win the match at Molineux Stadium three goals to nil. Action Images/Reuters UK news in pictures 16 September 2022 Members of the public stand in the queue near Tower Bridge, and opposite the Tower of London, as they wait in line to pay their respects to the late Queen Elizabeth II, in London AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 15 September 2022 Members of the public in the queue on in Potters Fields Park, central London, as they wait to view Queen Elizabeth II lying in state ahead of her funeral on Monday PA UK news in pictures 14 September 2022 The first members of the public pay their respects as the vigil begins around the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Hall, London, where it will lie in state ahead of her funeral on Monday PA UK news in pictures 13 September 2022 Crowds cheer as King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort arrive for a visit to Hillsborough Castle Getty UK news in pictures 12 September 2022 Crowds line the Royal Mile, Edinburgh, as King Charles III joins a procession from the Palace of Holyroodhouse to St Giles Cathedral following the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II Katielee Arrowsmith/SWNS UK news in pictures 11 September 2022 Members of the Public pay their respects as the hearse carrying the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II, draped in the Royal Standard of Scotland, is driven through Ballater AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 10 September 2022 Britain's Prince William, Prince of Wales, Britain's Catherine, Princess of Wales, Britain's Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Britain's Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, wave at well-wishers on the Long walk at Windsor Castle AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 9 September 2022 King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort wave after viewing floral tributes to the late Queen Elizabeth II outside Buckingham Palace Getty UK news in pictures 8 September 2022 A screen commemorating Britain's Queen Elizabeth II in Piccadilly Circus, London Britain EPA UK news in pictures 7 September 2022 Police officers stand guard after Animal Rebellion activists threw paint on the walls and road outside the Houses of Parliament in protest, in London, Britain Reuters UK news in pictures 6 September 2022 Queen Elizabeth II welcomes Liz Truss during an audience at Balmoral, Scotland, where she invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA Ms Maylin said: One Shot is all it takes to clear your drain and One Shot is all it takes to cause a serious injury to Carla Whitlock. She said: They were brothers in name and they were brothers in actions as well in the days before and the days after. Carla Whitlock has been left permanently blinded in one eye (TIM STEWART NEWS LIMITED) Ms Maylin said the attack had been out of revenge after Ms Whitlock had introduced a man called Levi to the Midmore brothers and a deal with him worth 2,000 had gone wrong. She explained that Ms Whitlock and her partner were drug users and had recently purchased drugs from the Midmore brothers, who are of no fixed address but originally from London with connections to Kent. Billy and Geoffrey Midmore Ms Maylin said: Because that drug deal went wrong, these two brothers decided to enact their revenge by permanently scarring Ms Whitlock. Ms Maylin said that the brothers were seen on CCTV later that evening as they took a train to stay at a friend's house in Basingstoke. She said: They weren't sorry, they were jubilant, they were high five-ing, they were fist-bumping, they were laughing. Describing the attack carried out by Geoffrey, Ms Whitlock told the trial: He just kind of smiled at me, pulled a bottle out, I thought he was going to throw a drink at me but it wasn't a joke. I felt my face was on fire. PA For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Distinctive differences between how male and female kill people have been identified in a major new study into the gender dynamics of murder. It has long been established within gender scholarship that men are much more likely to commit murder than women are, although debate prevails as to whether this is due to physiological factors such as hormonal differences or gender socialisation which promotes and condones male violence while encouraging women to be passive. New research into female and male murderers in Sweden analysed all cases of deadly violence in the country between 1990 and 2010 and has been published in the International Journal of Forensic Mental Health. It found that for every ten murders, male perpetrators will have committed nine, while female perpetrators will have committed one. Researchers found this split between gender of perpetrators was stable throughout the 30 year period covered by the research. Other key gender differences noted by the researchers included that women were most likely to kill using a knife as a weapon in some way if the victim is an adult or to use an implement to smother or asphyxiate a victim if they are a child. Previous research has suggested women may be more likely to use an implement in violent crime, due to actual or perceived lower body strength than men. Fatal attacks by women were also much more likely to occur within the home environment, whereas attacks by men were more likely to occur outside of homes; at work, in public or other environments. They also found that after infanticide, the murder of a child, women were more likely to kill themselves as well, than male murderers are. UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 25 October 2022 King Charles III welcomes Rishi Sunak during an audience at Buckingham Palace, where he invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2022 Rishi Sunak celebrates with Tory MPs outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters after becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party Reuters UK news in pictures 23 October 2022 The Green Man at October Plenty, Borough Market's annual Autumn Harvest festival, in London, which returns for the first time post pandemic PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA UK news in pictures 24 September 2022 Handout photo issued by Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2022 A climate change activist protests against UK private jets while lighting his right arm on fire during the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London EPA UK news in pictures 22 September 2022 Woody Woodmansey, Lee Bennett, Kevin Armstrong, Nick Moran and Clifford Slapper attend the unveiling of a stone for David Bowie on the Music Walk of Fame at Camden, north London PA UK news in pictures 21 September 2022 A flock of birds in the sky as the sun rises over Dungeness in Kent PA UK news in pictures 20 September 2022 Flowers which were laid by members of the public in tribute to Queen Elizabeth II at Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland are collected by the Hillsborough Gardening Team and volunteers to be replanted for those that can be saved or composted PA UK news in pictures 19 September 2022 The ceremonial procession of the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II travels down the long walk as it arrives at Windsor Castle for the committal service at St Georges Chapel AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 18 September 2022 A man stands among campers on The Mall ahead of the Queens funeral Reuters UK news in pictures 17 September 2022 Wolverhampton Wanderers Nathan Collins fouls Manchester Citys Jack Grealish leading to a red card. City went on to win the match at Molineux Stadium three goals to nil. Action Images/Reuters UK news in pictures 16 September 2022 Members of the public stand in the queue near Tower Bridge, and opposite the Tower of London, as they wait in line to pay their respects to the late Queen Elizabeth II, in London AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 15 September 2022 Members of the public in the queue on in Potters Fields Park, central London, as they wait to view Queen Elizabeth II lying in state ahead of her funeral on Monday PA UK news in pictures 14 September 2022 The first members of the public pay their respects as the vigil begins around the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Hall, London, where it will lie in state ahead of her funeral on Monday PA UK news in pictures 13 September 2022 Crowds cheer as King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort arrive for a visit to Hillsborough Castle Getty UK news in pictures 12 September 2022 Crowds line the Royal Mile, Edinburgh, as King Charles III joins a procession from the Palace of Holyroodhouse to St Giles Cathedral following the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II Katielee Arrowsmith/SWNS UK news in pictures 11 September 2022 Members of the Public pay their respects as the hearse carrying the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II, draped in the Royal Standard of Scotland, is driven through Ballater AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 10 September 2022 Britain's Prince William, Prince of Wales, Britain's Catherine, Princess of Wales, Britain's Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Britain's Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, wave at well-wishers on the Long walk at Windsor Castle AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 9 September 2022 King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort wave after viewing floral tributes to the late Queen Elizabeth II outside Buckingham Palace Getty UK news in pictures 8 September 2022 A screen commemorating Britain's Queen Elizabeth II in Piccadilly Circus, London Britain EPA UK news in pictures 7 September 2022 Police officers stand guard after Animal Rebellion activists threw paint on the walls and road outside the Houses of Parliament in protest, in London, Britain Reuters UK news in pictures 6 September 2022 Queen Elizabeth II welcomes Liz Truss during an audience at Balmoral, Scotland, where she invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 5 September 2022 Visitors at the PoliNations garden in Victoria Square, Birmingham, which is made up of five 40ft high tree installations and over 6,000 plants. The PoliNations programme aims to explore how migration and cross-pollination have shaped the UKs gardens and culture PA Thomas Nilsson, Researcher at Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg which took part in the study, said: The study showed that the proportion of female perpetrators in relation to men largely remained constant during the time period studied. The social and criminological differences we found between male and female perpetrators of deadly violence should be taken into account in the implementation of preventative measures, and the effectiveness of these measures should in turn be evaluated in future research. These measures should focus in particular on issues relating to the relationship between the victim and the perpetrators as well as the crime scenes, since the primary differences between male and female perpetrators appear in those areas. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A Sudanese refugee has been handed a nine-month prison sentence for obstructing trains by walking through the Channel Tunnel in a desperate attempt to reach the UK. Abdul Rahman Haroun, 40, was granted permission to stay in Britain after being caught walking near the end of the 31-mile tunnel in Folkestone on 4 August last year. He was prosecuted under Victorian legislation the Malicious Damage Act 1861 for obstructing an engine or a carriage using a railway. Haroun risked his life dodging trains in the tunnel (AFP/Getty Images) (Getty) Haroun, who was granted asylum by the British Government on Christmas Eve, pleaded guilty on Wednesday at Canterbury Crown Court. He was sentenced to nine months in prison but walked free from court because of the time already served at HMP Elmley in Kent, where he was held until being bailed in January. Sentencing Haroun, Judge Adele Williams said: You not only put your own life in danger but, in my judgment, you put the lives and safety of others in danger. Kate Adams, from Kent Refugee Help, said he had fantastic legal representation and support but should never have needed to defend himself his actions in court. She told The Independent campaigners had originally hoped for the charges to be dropped after Haroun was granted asylum and that his lawyers were now considering launching an appeal. Were very pleased that hes not going back to prison but it has been a very long process and its been incredibly stressful for him, Ms Adams said. The case was very much about corporate interests over human rights Haroun has been made an example of. People will carry on risking their lives trying to cross from Calais to the UK and some of them will die. Migrants in France say they will continue Chunnel crossing attempts into UK Philip Bennetts QC, speaking for the prosecution, told the court that Haroun was caught by police at as he neared the end of his journey, dodging high-speed trains on different sides of the Tunnel. He was asked how he had got into the tunnel and he said: I came from France, always trying to get here, Mr Bennetts said, adding that the defendant had jumped over a perimeter fence in Calais. In an interview with the Home Office, Haroun described how he had been persecuted by the Janjaweed militia who operate in Darfur and have been accused of ethnic cleansing - forcing him to flee his home in 2004. He ended up in a camp at the Kari-Yari dam on the Sudan-Chad border where he spent several years before journeying to Europe via Egypt, Libya and the deadly boat crossing to Italy, and on to France. Speaking through an interpreter, he told police following his arrest: "I came here for protection and to be safe..it was the only solution." Mr Bennetts said Haroun had caused "significant disruption" and a "significant economic consequence" and led to delays of up to four hours for cross-Channel travellers. In pictures: Calais crisis Show all 15 1 /15 In pictures: Calais crisis In pictures: Calais crisis Calais crisis Migrants climb in the back of a lorry on the A16 highway leading to the Eurotunnel in Calais Getty Images In pictures: Calais crisis Calais crisis Protesting French employees of the company English Channel passenger and freight ferry company "MyFerryLink" block the railway tracks of the Eurostar Channel tunnel line in Calais Getty Images In pictures: Calais crisis Calais crisis Protesting French employees of the company English Channel passenger and freight ferry company "MyFerryLink" block the railway tracks of the Eurostar Channel tunnel line with a burning plastic barrier In pictures: Calais crisis Calais crisis French riot police officers drive out protesting French employees of the freight ferry company MyFerryLink Getty Images In pictures: Calais crisis Calais crisis French riot police take position to drive out protesters blocking the railway tracks Getty Images In pictures: Calais crisis Calais crisis Passengers stranded by the cancellation of Eurostar trains wait at St. Pancras station in London. Eurostar said it has canceled all passenger trains through the tunnel that links France and England, after striking ferry workers swarmed the train line setting tires alight In pictures: Calais crisis Calais crisis Passengers sit on stairs after being stranded by cancelled Eurostar trains at St. Pancras station in London In pictures: Calais crisis Calais crisis A police vehicle drives past lorries are backed up on the M20 motorway which leads from London to the Channel Tunnel terminal at Ashford and the Ferry Terminal at Dover In pictures: Calais crisis Calais crisis Trucks queue up as part of Operation Stack in Dover In pictures: Calais crisis Calais crisis Cars queue to board a ferry in Dover bound for Dunkirk, France, as the disruption at Calais looks set to enter a second day as migrants continue to target lorries in a bid to cross into the UK In pictures: Calais crisis Calais crisis A police officer sprays tear gas to migrants trying to access the Channel Tunnel on the A16 highway in Calais, northern France PHILIPPE HUGUEN/AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Calais crisis Calais crisis Migrants wait near the A16 highway as they try to access the Channel Tunnel in Calais, northern France PHILIPPE HUGUEN/AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Calais crisis Calais crisis Striking employees of the French company My Ferry Link, a cross-channel ferry service, stand in front of tyres set on fire as they block the access to the Channel Tunnel in Calais, northern France PHILIPPE HUGUEN/AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Calais crisis Calais crisis A striking employee of the French company My Ferry Link, a cross-channel ferry service, sits on a tyre in front of tyres set on fire as he takes part in a blockade of the access to the Channel Tunnel in Calais, northern France PHILIPPE HUGUEN/AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Calais crisis Calais crisis Striking employees of the French company My Ferry Link, a cross-channel ferry service, prepare to set tyres on fire to block the access to the Channel Tunnel in Calais, northern France PHILIPPE HUGUEN/AFP/Getty Images Aid workers and refugee charities condemned his prosecution, accusing authorities of using an arcane piece of legislature in a politically-motivated attempt to deter thousands of migrants in Calais from attempting the same journey. The Calais Migrant Solidarity group raised fears that the prosecution could be used to have Haroun deported at a later date. A survey of refugees living in the Jungle carried out earlier this year by Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) found that more than 80 per cent of its 6,000 inhabitants were aiming to reach Britain. An unknown number of asylum seekers have been suffocated, run over, hit by trains, electrocuted in the Channel Tunnel and drowned in desperate attempts to swim to England. Anglo-French efforts to bolster border security continue, including the investment of millions of pounds on fencing at Coquelles and extra perimeter barriers. But rising number of refugees are still flocking to camps in Calais, according to census figures released this week by Help Refugees and L'Auberge des Migrants. Volunteers said the number of unaccompanied children has risen by almost a third in one month, and that the largest group of migrants were from Afghanistan, followed by Sudan. Additional reporting by PA Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Morning Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The remaining structure of the Didcot power station will be demolished as efforts continue to locate three men killed in the collapse over four months ago. Demolition workers Ken Cresswell, 57, and John Shaw, 61, both from Rotherham, South Yorkshire and Chris Huxtable, 34, from Swansea have been missing since the disaster in Oxfordshire on 23 February. Site owner RWE Npower said, since the partial collapse, its priority has been to recover the three men, trapped underneath the 20,000 tonnes of rubble, as quickly as possible. But rescue work was halted on 16 May when contractors reached a 50-metre exclusion zone and the company said it had come to a point where it was too dangerous to continue searching. Since then an RWE spokeswoman said they have been developing two recovery options with demolition experts; as well as clearing material from the base of the remaining part of building and using laser scanning techniques to build up a 3D picture of the structure. She said: "The conditions caused by the collapse are unprecedented at this scale in the UK. "Given these extraordinary circumstances, and in order to minimise the risk of any further incidents, it is necessary to bring down the remaining structure to be able to continue the recovery of the men. "We have a clear recovery plan in place which has been aligned with all agencies involved and have already completed several stages of it." The aftermath of the power station collapse in February (PA) The two options being considered include using remote operated vehicles (ROVs) to place demolition charges at the base of the structure, or the traditional method of using people to go in and place the charges instead. RWE said using ROVs is "preferable since it limits the risk to life" and that the second option of using people to go underneath "carries inherent risks to life", because the structure cannot be proven to be stable. The company said it is "essential" the "highly complex" demolition is planned meticulously. Images show Didcot destruction Show all 10 1 /10 Images show Didcot destruction Images show Didcot destruction 'Major incident' in Didcot Part of the collapsed building is illuminated as emergency serviceswork at the decommissioned power station in Didcot Reuters Images show Didcot destruction 'Major incident' in Didcot A still taken from ITV News footage showing the scene at Didcot power station following the explosion ITV News Images show Didcot destruction 'Major incident' in Didcot A still taken from ITV News footage showing the scene at Didcot power station following the explosion ITV News Images show Didcot destruction 'Major incident' in Didcot Smoke rising from Didcot power station in Oxfordshire where a 'major incident' has been declared Blaine Morris-Smith/PA Images show Didcot destruction 'Major incident' in Didcot A major incident has been declared at Didcot power station in Oxfordshire Stephen Griffin/Twitter Images show Didcot destruction 'Major incident' in Didcot A major incident has been declared at Didcot power station in Oxfordshire Andrew Harvey/PA Images show Didcot destruction 'Major incident' in Didcot Emergency services on the scene at Didcot power station in Oxfordshire BBC News Images show Didcot destruction 'Major incident' in Didcot An image taken from BBC News coverage showing the destruction at Didcot power station following the 'major incident' BBC News Images show Didcot destruction 'Major incident' in Didcot An image taken from BBC News coverage showing the destruction at Didcot power station following the 'major incident' BBC News Images show Didcot destruction 'Major incident' in Didcot An image taken from BBC News coverage showing the destruction at Didcot power station following the 'major incident' BBC News Using accurate data from the site they said the testing needed to ensure the building comes down properly and in the right direction is a "time-intensive process". A spokeswoman added: "We have been progressing both options with our contractors. The 'ROV' option is the preferred route, with the traditional method being prepared as a back-up, should the robotic option not prove reliable. "We have now received the detailed design for the robotic demolition option and are reviewing it together with independent experts this week before it is submitted to the HSE. Emergency services work under floodlights as they search for survivors at the power station (Reuters) "We understand that the time taken to recover the families' loved ones is deeply upsetting. We are in close contact with them, providing information and regular updates. "Our priority remains the recovery of the missing men and we are doing everything that is within our power to ensure it is progressed as fast and safely as possible." A date for the demolition is yet to be established. Recommended Read more Police release aftermath video of Didcot power station collapse Keith Cundall, an expert workplace accident lawyer at Irwin Mitchell, representing widows Gail Cresswell and Adele Shaw, said: "While the proposed plan of action for recovering Ken and John has been welcomed by the families we are supporting, there is yet to be a clear indication of when this will take place. "The lives of the families we represent have been changed forever by the delays in recovering their loved ones and the current situation continues to cause them an unbelievable amount of distress. "They want their husbands recovered as quickly and carefully as possible as they are currently living under a cloud of uncertainty that has been in place for more than four months." Calling for a "definite timetable" from RWE for the next phase, Mr Cundall said the families are keen to understand the events leading to the accident and that Irwin Mitchell are seeking to work with authorities as they begin their own investigation into the disaster. Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Morning Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A plane carrying a banner displaying the slogan Take Control #VoteLeave has repeatedly flown over Trafalgar Square as Jo Coxs husband gave an emotional speech at a rally in her memory. Brendan Cox was telling crowds how the killed Labour MP lived for her beliefs and would have been spending the day campaigning for Britain to remain in the European Union. Thousands of people were gathering at events in London, across the UK and around the world to pay tribute to Ms Cox's life and legacy on what would have been her 42nd birthday. Many of those rallying in Trafalgar Square condemned the appearance of the pro-Brexit plane as disgusting, saying the banner flew over the rally several times as the memorial continued. One person called the appearance unbelievably tasteless, while another said it was completely disrespectful. Stella Creasy, the Labour MP for Walthamstow, wrote a tweet to the official Vote Leave campaign saying: Flying your plane over the memorial tribute to Jo Cox in Trafalgar Square is beyond low. Have some self respect and disappear! Jo Cox's birthday celebrated She added: It's been over twice now - that isn't coincidence @voteleave , that's just sickening disrespect! Vote Leave said it did not organise the plane, which had been dispatched by British aircraft manufacturer Britten-Norman as part of its own pro-Brexit campaign. Brendan Cox, widower of Jo Cox addresses the rally in Trafalgar Square, on what would have been the 42nd birthday of the Labour MP (PA) In a press release announcing the stunt, the firm said its banner would be flown around the UK between 9 June and the day before the referendum from a turboprop Islander aircraft. "We understand that, during a pre-planned photo opportunity over Westminster today, we were visible from Trafalgar Square and that our flight coincided with an important memorial service, a spokesperson said. "The timing of our flight was determined by weather, air traffic control and the prior approval of the the Diplomatic Protection Group and required the consent of the Metropolitan Police. "We are clearly very disappointed that the timing of the service and our flight have overlapped but there was no NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) requesting the avoidance and the coincidence of timing could not have been known by the crew flying the sortie. "Our sincere apologies to anyone present who has been offended by the overflight. We would also like to take the opportunity to advise that the flight was a private one and was not sanctioned by the official Vote Leave campaign. The plane's engines could be heard as Mr Cox fought against tears in an emotional tribute to his late wife. Brendan Cox, husband of Jo Cox, and their children ride on the boat towing a memorial dedicated to the Labour MP down the River Thames (Getty Images) Your support and your love has helped us all, he told the crowds. Today would have been Jos 42nd birthday and she would have spent it dashing around the streets of her hometown trying to convince people that Britain is stronger in Europe. He said the Labour MP would have been amazed, baffled and humbled at the global reaction to her death and the outpouring of love from around the world. A minutes silence was held during the hour-long celebration of her life, which was also attended by her three-year-old daughter Lejla and son Cuillin, five. Malala Yousafzai, the education campaigner who was shot in the head by the Taliban for her activism, was among the guest speakers at the rally. Events were being held in a variety of locations in tribute to Ms Cox's love, energy, passion, flair, Yorkshire heritage and belief in the humanity of every person in every place. Bill Nighy was due to give a reading, while U2 had recorded a musical tribute in Los Angeles. Jo Cox tributes - in pictures Show all 20 1 /20 Jo Cox tributes - in pictures Jo Cox tributes - in pictures Floral tributes and candles are placed by a picture of slain Labour MP Jo Cox at a vigil in Parliament square in London AFP Jo Cox tributes - in pictures Tributes to Labour Party MP Jo Cox are placed on her houseboat in Wapping in London REUTERS Jo Cox tributes - in pictures The Union flag at half-mast on top of Portcullis House in London after Labour MP Jo Cox was shot and stabbed to death PA Jo Cox tributes - in pictures Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn (2R) and deputy leader Tom Watson (L) light candles as they attend a vigil to slain Labour MP Jo Cox in Parliament square in London AFP/Getty Images Jo Cox tributes - in pictures Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn and deputy leader Tom Watson (rear) arrive to leave tributes at Parliament Square PA Jo Cox tributes - in pictures People leave St Peter's Church after a vigil in memory of Jo Cox REUTERS Jo Cox tributes - in pictures Flowers left at Parliament Square opposite the Palace of Westminste, following the death of Labour MP Jo Cox PA Jo Cox tributes - in pictures People react as they look at tributes left for Labour Member of Parliament Jo Cox in Parliament Square, London REUTERS Jo Cox tributes - in pictures A man writes a message at Parliament Square PA Jo Cox tributes - in pictures People stop to look at tributes left at Parliament Square opposite the Palace of Westminster PA Jo Cox tributes - in pictures A woman arrives to lay flowers at a statue to Joseph Priestly in Birstall near to the scene where Labour MP Jo Cox was shot AFP/Getty Images Jo Cox tributes - in pictures Tributes at Parliament Square opposite the Palace of Westminster PA Jo Cox tributes - in pictures A woman places candles in tribute to Labour Party MP Jo Cox REUTERS Jo Cox tributes - in pictures A member of the public signs a memorial for British MP Jo Cox in Parliament Square, London EPA Jo Cox tributes - in pictures People sign messages of condolence for MP Jo Cox during a vigil in Parliament Square in London Getty Images Jo Cox tributes - in pictures Flags at half mast outside Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh, after Labour MP Jo Cox was shot and stabbed to death in the street outside her constituency advice surgery in Birstall PA Jo Cox tributes - in pictures People arrive in Market Square with floral tributes after the death of Jo Co Getty Images Jo Cox tributes - in pictures Floral tributes are placed in Market Square next to the statue of Joseph Priestley following the death of Jo Cox Getty Images Jo Cox tributes - in pictures Floral tributes are brought to the scene after the death of Jo Cox Getty Images Jo Cox tributes - in pictures A police officer carries bunches of flowers at the scene of the shooting of Labour MP Jo Cox in Birstall REUTERS The band that played at the couple's wedding, Diddley Dee, also performed and a group of the MP's friends will form an honour guard dressed in suffragette-style sashes. Leaders of multiple faiths were to lay 42 white roses, the symbol of Yorkshire, to mark her birthday at the event, hosted by Mrs Cox's friend, Mariella Frostrup. International events were also taking place in Beirut, Brussels, Melbourne, Nairobi, New York and Washington DC. Glastonbury's Park Stage will be the location of one tribute, while a charity album of music recorded by bands including Coldplay and Muse at the festival this weekend will be released in her honour. It came after a fundraising page in Mrs Cox's memory raised more than 1 million for three of her favourite charities in just three days. Tommy Mair, 52, has been charged with murdering Mrs Cox in a shooting and stabbing attack in Birstall on Thursday, and remains in custody. Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Morning Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Jo Coxs husband condemned his wifes death as an act of terror as he fought back tears in an emotional tribute in Trafalgar Square. Thousands of people gathered in London to remember the Labour MP on what would have been her 42nd birthday, as similar events took place across the UK and around the world. Jos killing was political, it was an act of terror designed to advance an agenda of hatred towards others, Brendan Cox told the crowd. People attending a commemorative event to celebrate the life of Labour MP Jo Cox in Trafalgar Square (AFP/Getty Images) (AFP/Getty) What a beautiful irony it is that an act designed to advance hatred has instead generated such an outpouring of love. Jo lived for her beliefs and on Thursday she died for them, and for the rest of our lives we will fight for them in her name. His speech was overshadowed by the droning of a plane carrying a banner with a Vote Leave slogan that repeatedly passed over the crowd, flying low enough for its writing to be read. The Labour MP Stella Creasy was among the attendees condemning the disgusting timing, although it was not clear whether the planes path was deliberate. Its engines could be heard as Mr Cox described his wifes passionate campaigning for Britain to remain in the European Union. Jo Cox tributes - in pictures Show all 20 1 /20 Jo Cox tributes - in pictures Jo Cox tributes - in pictures Floral tributes and candles are placed by a picture of slain Labour MP Jo Cox at a vigil in Parliament square in London AFP Jo Cox tributes - in pictures Tributes to Labour Party MP Jo Cox are placed on her houseboat in Wapping in London REUTERS Jo Cox tributes - in pictures The Union flag at half-mast on top of Portcullis House in London after Labour MP Jo Cox was shot and stabbed to death PA Jo Cox tributes - in pictures Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn (2R) and deputy leader Tom Watson (L) light candles as they attend a vigil to slain Labour MP Jo Cox in Parliament square in London AFP/Getty Images Jo Cox tributes - in pictures Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn and deputy leader Tom Watson (rear) arrive to leave tributes at Parliament Square PA Jo Cox tributes - in pictures People leave St Peter's Church after a vigil in memory of Jo Cox REUTERS Jo Cox tributes - in pictures Flowers left at Parliament Square opposite the Palace of Westminste, following the death of Labour MP Jo Cox PA Jo Cox tributes - in pictures People react as they look at tributes left for Labour Member of Parliament Jo Cox in Parliament Square, London REUTERS Jo Cox tributes - in pictures A man writes a message at Parliament Square PA Jo Cox tributes - in pictures People stop to look at tributes left at Parliament Square opposite the Palace of Westminster PA Jo Cox tributes - in pictures A woman arrives to lay flowers at a statue to Joseph Priestly in Birstall near to the scene where Labour MP Jo Cox was shot AFP/Getty Images Jo Cox tributes - in pictures Tributes at Parliament Square opposite the Palace of Westminster PA Jo Cox tributes - in pictures A woman places candles in tribute to Labour Party MP Jo Cox REUTERS Jo Cox tributes - in pictures A member of the public signs a memorial for British MP Jo Cox in Parliament Square, London EPA Jo Cox tributes - in pictures People sign messages of condolence for MP Jo Cox during a vigil in Parliament Square in London Getty Images Jo Cox tributes - in pictures Flags at half mast outside Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh, after Labour MP Jo Cox was shot and stabbed to death in the street outside her constituency advice surgery in Birstall PA Jo Cox tributes - in pictures People arrive in Market Square with floral tributes after the death of Jo Co Getty Images Jo Cox tributes - in pictures Floral tributes are placed in Market Square next to the statue of Joseph Priestley following the death of Jo Cox Getty Images Jo Cox tributes - in pictures Floral tributes are brought to the scene after the death of Jo Cox Getty Images Jo Cox tributes - in pictures A police officer carries bunches of flowers at the scene of the shooting of Labour MP Jo Cox in Birstall REUTERS Today would have been Jos 42nd birthday and she would have spent it dashing around the streets of her hometown trying to convince people that Britain is stronger in Europe, he said. She feared the consequences of Europe dividing again, hated the idea of building walls between us and worried about the dynamics that could unleash. A minutes silence was held during the hour-long celebration of her life, which was also attended by her three-year-old daughter Lejla and son Cuillin, five. Ms Coxs younger sister, Kim Leadbeater, then took to the stage to pay tribute to the caring, compassionate and inspirational MP. "We have been truly overwhelmed by the outpouring of kindness and support and it has provided great comfort and strength in order for us to keep going, she said. "I don't have any answers as to why such a horrendous and tragic event has occurred in our lives. But I do know that Jo would not have wanted any of us to allow it to make her life anything other than the force for good it always was. Mayor of London Sadiq Khan listens as Brendan Cox addresses the rally in Trafalgar Square (PA) Malala Yousafzai, the education campaigner who was shot in the head by the Taliban for her activism, was among the guest speakers at the rally. Events were being held in a variety of locations in tribute to Ms Cox's love, energy, passion, flair, Yorkshire heritage and belief in the humanity of every person in every place. Bill Nighy performed a reading, while U2 recorded a musical tribute in Los Angeles. The band that played at Ms Coxs wedding, Diddley Dee, also played and a group of the MP's friends formed an honour guard dressed in suffragette-style sashes. Leaders of multiple faiths were to lay 42 white roses, the symbol of Yorkshire, to mark her birthday at the event, hosted by Mrs Cox's friend Mariella Frostrup. International events were also taking place in Beirut, Brussels, Melbourne, Nairobi, New York and Washington DC. Brendan Cox, husband of Jo Cox, and their children ride on the boat towing a memorial dedicated to the Labour MP down the River Thames (Getty Images) Glastonbury's Park Stage was the location of one tribute, while a charity album of music recorded by bands including Coldplay and Muse at the festival this weekend will be released in her honour. Mr Cox said his wife would have been amazed, baffled and humbled at the global reaction to her death and the outpouring of love from around the world. "Thank you for the love that you have poured on our family since our world collapsed on Thursday, he said. "As amazing and deeply touching as all of this is, I wish I wasn't here today. Not because I'm ungrateful to the organisers and you all for coming, but because of course I'd rather be with Jo. "But I wanted to come and show my gratitude and that of all of our family. Wednesdays commemorations came after a fundraising page in Mrs Cox's memory raised more than 1m for three of her favourite charities in just three days. Tommy Mair, 52, has been charged with murdering Mrs Cox in a shooting and stabbing attack in Birstall last Thursday, and remains in custody. Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Brexit and beyond email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Nigel Farage has refused to apologise for a widely condemned Breaking Point poster showing a vast queue of refugees stretching into the distance. It comes after the Ukip leader was accused of adopting Nazi style propaganda tactics to help win the EU referendum. The poster Mr Farage unveiled showed refugees on the Slovenian border - part of Europe's passport-free Schengen area. Next to the billboard was the headline Breaking Point and underneath it the EU has failed us all. When asked if he had apologised for the controversial billboard as one Ukip MEP claimed during the television BBC debate on Tuesday Mr Farage responded after his speech: I apologised for the timing but I cant apologise for the truth. The SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon described the poster as disgusting while one of her MPs, Pete Wishard, also weighed in saying that a vote for leave is pretty much become a vote for petty xenophobia and anti-immigrant rhetoric. American playwright Bonnie Greer, who has famously clashed with Mr Farage in the past, compared him to Nazi military leader Herman Goering. George Osborne, the Chancellor, described it disgusting and vile and said it had echoes of literature used in the 1930s. Mr Farage also used his last major speech before voters head to the polls to cast their vote in the EU referendum to urge British people to vote with the heart and soul. He added that voters could make Friday the UKs "Independence Day. Lets stop pretending what this European project is, the Ukip leader said in his speech. They have an anthem, they are building an army, theyve already got their own police force and of course theyve got a flag. At the end of the day tomorrow when people vote they must make a decision: which flag is theirs? I want, I want us to live under British passports and under the British flag. Vote with your heart, vote with your soul, vote with pride in this country and its people and together we can make tomorrow our Independence Day a big day in our national history. Speaking to press from all over the world and Vote Leave supporters in Westminster, Mr Farage branded the EU "a big business cartel". Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Show all 30 1 /30 Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? David Beckham (REMAIN) The former captain for the England international football team announced on Instagram that he was voting to Remain. He said: We live in a vibrant and connected world where together as a people we are strong. For our children and their children we should be facing the problems of the world together and not alone. Getty Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Victoria Beckham (REMAIN) 'I believe in my country, I believe in a future for my children where we are stronger together and I support the remain campaign.' Getty Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Daniel Craig (REMAIN) Actor He was pictured wearing a white T-shirt with the slogan: 'No man is an island. No country by itself. Vote Remain on 23rd June.' Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Bob Geldof (REMAIN) Irish singer expresses his support for the Remain vote as he waves from a boat carrying supporters for the 'Remain' campaign in London AFP/Getty Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? John Cleese (LEAVE) The Monty Python star signalled he will vote to leave the EU when he tweeted: "If I thought there was any chance of major reform in the EU, I'd vote to stay in. But there isn't. Sad." Getty Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Daniel Portman (REMAIN) Game of Thrones actor supports Reamin vote Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Elton John (REMAIN) The singer also announced his intention to vote Remain on Instagram, sharing an image which said Build bridges not walls, along with the caption I'm voting to remain. #StrongerInEurope Getty Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Roger Daltrey (LEAVE) Former frontman of iconic rock band The Who. I am not anti European, but I an anti the present way we are being governed in Europe, he wrote in The Mirror. The whole system has been corrupted by political ego and massive government overreach. The Euro being a perfect example I do not want to be dragged into the kind of Federal State that this present EU is pushing for - with the UK's voice getting smaller and smaller. AFP/Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? JK Rowling (REMAIN) The author of the Harry Potter books has expressed concern that "racists and bigots" are directing parts of the Leave campaign. She added: How can a retreat into selfish and insecure individualism be the right response when Europe faces genuine threats, when the bonds that tie us are so powerful, when we have come so far together? How can we hope to conquer the enormous challenges of terrorism and climate change without cooperation and collaboration? Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Vivienne Westwood (REMAIN) British fashion designer expressed her support for Remain vote Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Michael Caine (LEAVE) The actor has said he is a reluctant Leaver. He said: "I don't know what to vote for. Both are scary. To me, you've now got in Europe a sort of government-by-proxy of everybody, who has now got carried away. Unless there is some extremely significant changes, we should get out." Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Benedict Cumberbatch (REMAIN) Benedict Cumberbatch and Sir Patrick Stewart led more than 280 figures from the arts world who backed a vote to stay. An open letter pledging support for Remain was also signed by music stars Hot Chip, alt-J and Paloma Faith, authors Dame Hilary Mantel and John le Carre, and fashion designer Dame Vivienne Westwood. Daniel Craig was pictured wearing a vote Remain t-shirt with the words "No man is an island. No country by itself" emblazoned across it in a picture tweeted on the Stronger IN account. Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Patrick Stewart (REMAIN) Actor is a leading supporter of the Remain campaign Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Elizabeth Hurley (LEAVE) The actress said If it means we can go back to using decent lightbulbs and choose high-powered hairdryers and vacuum cleaners if we so wish, I'm joining Brexit for sure. Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Stephen Hawking (REMAIN) The physicist was in favour staying, and said "progress comes from co-operation". He said: "By working together in Europe we make our economy stronger and we give ourselves more influence in the world and we provide future opportunities for young people." Numerous scientists have also voiced their support for Remain, claiming an out vote would badly damage the field. Getty Images for Breakthrough Pr Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Sol Campbell (LEAVE) The former England international football star said he is backing Brexit so that young British sporting talent would be nurtured and given greater opportunities at British clubs. He said: "I'm looking at the sporting side - how youngsters aren't getting the opportunities at some of the big clubs and some of the big clubs are bringing in youngsters from 14, 15, 16 and becoming homegrown, which is pushing some of our youngsters out." Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Hilary Mantel (REMAIN) Author Hilary Mantel announced her support for Remain vote Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Bear Grylls (REMAIN) The adventurer and TV presenter said he spoke "from the heart" in backing the EU. "At such a time for the UK to retreat, run and cut ourselves loose from Europe, when there are so many challenges on our doorstep, to me just doesn't feel either courageous or kind, he said. Europe has many flaws, but I also believe the way to help resolve many of those tough issues is from within... I have never been a good quitter and I am so proud of the UK and our values: tolerance, kindness, respect, courage and resilience. This is why I want us to stay together and Remain in Europe." Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Billy Bragg (REMAIN) British singer decided to support Remain campaign AFP/Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Ian Botham (LEAVE) The former England Test cricketer and Test team captain supports Brexit Getty/Laureus Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Simon Cowell (REMAIN) Music mogul Simon Cowell announced his support of staying in EU Getty Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? David James (LEAVE) The former England goalkeeper supports Brexit Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Idris Elba (REMAIN) The actor voiced his support for Remain vote Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? John Le Carre (REMAIN) British writer supports Remain campaign Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Paloma Faith (REMAIN) English singer supports Remain campaign Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Perry McCarthy (LEAVE) The racing driver supports Leave campaign Rex Features Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Keira Knightley (REMAIN) The actress intends to vote for Remain campaign Getty Images for Lincoln Center Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? James Cracknell (LEAVE) British athlete and rowing champion decided to vote for Brexit Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Florence Welch (REMAIN) British singer supports Remain campaign Getty Images for Gucci Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Helena Bonham-Carter (REMAIN) The actress expressed her support for Remain vote AFP/Getty Images He said: "We find ourselves, for the benefit of tariff-free trade, having to accept unlimited free movement of people. We find ourselves prohibited from making our own deals with the rest of the world." Mr Farage accused Brussels of usurping control and sovereignty from the UK, and imposing EU law which "is supreme". His voice rising with passion and pulling out his passport from his jacket and waving it in front of the microphone - a signature move by the Ukip leader - he declared: "We don't even have a British passport anymore" - raising a clap from his supporters in the audience. He said: "Let's stop pretending what this European project is - they have an anthem, they are building an army, they have already got their own police force, and of course they have got a flag. "At the end of the day tomorrow when people vote they have to make a decision - which flag is theirs? "I want us to live under British passports and under the British flag." The EU referendum debate has so far been characterised by bias, distortion and exaggeration. So until 23 June we were running a series of question and answer features that explain the most important issues in a detailed, dispassionate way to help inform your decision. What is Brexit and why are we having an EU referendum? Does the UK need to take more control of its sovereignty? Could the UK media swing the EU referendum one way or another? Will the UK benefit from being released from EU laws? Will we gain or lose rights by leaving the European Union? Will Brexit mean that Europeans have to leave the UK? Will leaving the EU lead to the break-up of the UK? What will happen to immigration if there's Brexit? Will Brexit make the UK more or less safe? Will the UK benefit from being released from EU laws? Will leaving the EU save taxpayers money and mean more money for the NHS? What will Brexit mean for British tourists booking holidays in the EU? Will Brexit help or damage the environment? Will Brexit mean that Europeans have to leave the UK? What will Brexit mean for British expats in Europe? Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Boris Johnson has been accused of shirking his fish-kissing responsibilities as he began a tour of England to urge people to vote Leave in the EU referendum. The former London Mayor visited Billingsgate Fish Market in London, where he was introduced to some British fish by Joey Essex's uncle. During his tour of the market, Mr Johnson spoke out against the EU's Common Fisheries Policy and said it was time to "believe in our country". While posing with a salmon alongside Greg Essex, the two were urged to kiss their respective fish for the waiting cameras. But while Mr Essex duly obliged, the Tory MP appeared to go in for the kiss before wincing and pulling away. It was a shaky start to a day's activities that have seen Mr Johnson appear on BBC Breakfast and ITV's Good Morning Britain in a last-ditch attempt to grab votes. His next stop was a tour of the town of Maldon, in Essex, where he joined the Brexit-backing Cabinet minister John Whittingdale. Boris Johnson meets supporters in Maldon (PA) Boris Johnson gives a thumbs up to supporters in Maldon, on the final day of campaigning before the EU Referendum (PA) The rally was interrupted by former Tory supporter Nigel Brunt, who said: "Democracy will win tomorrow and it will be Remain." And after jumping in a light aircraft, Mr Johnson was met by a group of supporters on the tarmac at East Midlands Airport. Boris Johnson takes a plane from Southend to East Midlands for a final day of campaigning around the country on behalf of Vote Leave before the EU Referendum (PA) Boris Johnson arrives at East Midlands Airport (PA) He told them he expected a victory for the Leave camp in tomorrow's vote, adding: "I think it's going to be a big surprise." The EU referendum debate has so far been characterised by bias, distortion and exaggeration. So until 23 June we were running a series of question and answer features that explain the most important issues in a detailed, dispassionate way to help inform your decision. What is Brexit and why are we having an EU referendum? Does the UK need to take more control of its sovereignty? Could the UK media swing the EU referendum one way or another? Will the UK benefit from being released from EU laws? Will we gain or lose rights by leaving the European Union? Will Brexit mean that Europeans have to leave the UK? Will leaving the EU lead to the break-up of the UK? What will happen to immigration if there's Brexit? Will Brexit make the UK more or less safe? Will the UK benefit from being released from EU laws? Will leaving the EU save taxpayers money and mean more money for the NHS? What will Brexit mean for British tourists booking holidays in the EU? Will Brexit help or damage the environment? Will Brexit mean that Europeans have to leave the UK? What will Brexit mean for British expats in Europe? Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Boris Johnson has said June 23 would become Britains independence day if it votes to leave the European Union. The former mayor of London made the comments at the end of a landmark BBC debate about the European Union at the Wembley arena in London. Mr Johnson received loud cheers and a standing ovation from parts of the audience when he made the declaration after summing up his arguments. Recommended Read more Scottish Tories leader Ruth Davidson attacks Boris Johnson over Brexit Earlier in the debate the Tory MP came to blows with Scottish Conservatives leader Ruth Davidson who said his evasive responses on whether Brexit would cost jobs were not good enough. Mr Johnson, who is believed to harbor leadership ambitions for the Conservative party, took centre stage at the debate on Tuesday night. At the end of this campaign I think you'll agree there is a very clear choice between those on their side who speak of nothing but fear of the consequences of leaving the EU, and we on our side who offer hope, he said. Between those who have been endlessly rubbishing our country and running it down, and those of us who believe in Britain. They say we can't do it, we say we can. They say we have no choice but to bow down to Brussels, we say they are woefully underestimating this country and what it can do. Nigel Farage joins 'Fishing for Leave' flotilla campaigning for Brexit Show all 10 1 /10 Nigel Farage joins 'Fishing for Leave' flotilla campaigning for Brexit Nigel Farage joins 'Fishing for Leave' flotilla campaigning for Brexit A Fishing for Leave pro-Brexit "flotilla" makes its way along the River Thames in London PA Nigel Farage joins 'Fishing for Leave' flotilla campaigning for Brexit Boats from the 'Fishing for Leave' campaign group join a flotilla along the Thames River Getty Images Nigel Farage joins 'Fishing for Leave' flotilla campaigning for Brexit Supporters of the EU Remain camp attach banners to Tower Bridge as they await a flotilla of fishing boats campaiging for Brexit to pass under the bridge AFP/Getty Images Nigel Farage joins 'Fishing for Leave' flotilla campaigning for Brexit A Fishing for Leave pro-Brexit "flotilla" alongside HMS Belfast (left) as it makes its way along the River Thames PA Nigel Farage joins 'Fishing for Leave' flotilla campaigning for Brexit Bob Geldof (centre) on board a boat taking part in a pro-EU counter demonstration PA Nigel Farage joins 'Fishing for Leave' flotilla campaigning for Brexit A flotilla of fishing vessels campaigning to leave the European Union REUTERS Nigel Farage joins 'Fishing for Leave' flotilla campaigning for Brexit A boat from the 'Fishing for Leave' campaign group and smaller boats from the 'In' campaign join a flotilla along the Thames River Getty Images Nigel Farage joins 'Fishing for Leave' flotilla campaigning for Brexit A fishing boat campaiging for Brexit passes by the Tower of London AFP/Getty Images Nigel Farage joins 'Fishing for Leave' flotilla campaigning for Brexit A boat decked out in flags and banners from the 'Fishing for Leave' campaign group Getty Images Nigel Farage joins 'Fishing for Leave' flotilla campaigning for Brexit Fishing boats campaiging for Brexit pass under Tower Bridge AFP/Getty Images If we vote Leave we can take back control of our borders and huge sums of money, 10 billion a year net, our tax-raising powers, our trade policies and of our whole law-making decision - democracy, that is the foundation of our prosperity. And if we stand up for democracy we will be speaking up for hundreds of millions of people around Europe who agree with us but who currently have no voice. If we vote Leave and take back control I believe that this Thursday can be our country's independence day. Mr Johnson made the comments because some elements in the Leave campaign have claimed that being part of the trading bloc is akin to being integrated into a "superstate". Mayor of London Sadiq Khan however branded the Leave campaign project hate because of its aggressive stance against immigrants. The European Union referendum takes place this Thursday. The deadline to register to vote has already passed. Additional reporting by PA Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Brexit and beyond email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Boris Johnson has pledged to apologise in public if leaving the EU triggers a recession. The former Mayor of London has rejected claims by the Remain camp and several economic experts that Britain would be plunged into an immediate recession if it votes to leave the EU on Thursday. Chancellor George Osborne claimed Brexit would create a "DIY recession" and said he would be forced to introduce an emergency Brexit budget full of swingeing cuts. But speaking on LBC Mr Johnson denounced the warnings had been induced by Project Fear and said the Remain campaign were talking the country down. When he was asked whether he would apologise he said: Of course I will. This is far more important any individual political career or politician. I don't think that London has anything to fear from coming out of the EU, this is the most extraordinary economy, and nor does Britain. Britain is the fifth biggest economy in the world, we have the opportunity to do new trade deals. When has our country ever gone wrong in believing in ourselves or our democratic institutions? What's the European Parliament ever done for us? Show all 5 1 /5 What's the European Parliament ever done for us? What's the European Parliament ever done for us? A cap on the amount of hours an employer can make you work The Working Time directive provides legal standards to ensure the health and safety of employees in Europe. Among the many rules are a working week of a maximum 48 hours, including overtime, a daily rest period of 11 hours in every 24, a break if a person works for six hours or more, and one day off in every seven. It also includes provisions for paid annual leave of at least four weeks every year Getty Images What's the European Parliament ever done for us? Helping the people of Britain to avoid smoking In 2014 MEPs passed the Tobacco Products Directive strengthening existing rules on the manufacture, production and presentation of tobacco products. This includes things like reduced branding, restrictions on products containing flavoured tobacco, health warnings on cigarette packets and provisions for e-cigarettes to ensure they are safe What's the European Parliament ever done for us? Helping you to make the right choices with your food Thanks to the European Parliament, UK consumers have access to more information than ever about their food and drink. This includes amount of fat, and how much of it is saturated, carbohydrates, sugars, protein and so on. It also includes portion sizes and guideline daily amount information so people can make informed choices about their diet. All facts must be clear and easy to understand What's the European Parliament ever done for us? Two year guarantees and 14-day returns policy for all products Consumers across the EU have access to a number of rights, from things which are potentially very useful, to things which used to be annoying. For example, shoppers in the UK receive a two-year guarantee on all products, and a 14-day period to change their minds and return a purchase, these things are useful www.PeopleImages.com-licence restrictions apply What's the European Parliament ever done for us? Keeping your air nice and fresh (and safe) Believe it or not, although the situation is improving, some areas of the UK have appalling air quality. A report by the Royal College of Physicians released on 23 February says 40,000 deaths are caused by outdoor air pollution in the UK every year. Air pollution is linked to a number of illnesses and conditions, from Asthma to diabetes and dementia. The report estimates the costs to British business and the health service add up to 20 billion every year He said he did not want to be disparaging or critical of my friends in government, but said it was well known that there is an operation in Downing Street. He then accused of Remain side of using threats over Government contracts and the honours system as bribes to get businessmen and high profile figures to back Remain. The MP for Uxbridge and Ruislip praised the courage of JCB chairman Anthony Bamford and entrepreneur James Dyson for backing Leave. Following a small lift for the Remain side, the polls remain neck and neck with only one day of campaigning left. Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Brexit and beyond email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} David Cameron has warned his warring Tory Party colleagues that he expects them to accept the result of the EU referendum no matter how close the result. In one of his last interviews of the campaign Mr Cameron said Britain will not want to go through this again and that he expects them to back his Governments and get on with it. He is planning to roll out a series of policies to change the agenda and is scheduling a vote to renew Britain's Trident nuclear deterrent to try and unite the Tory party. But some Tories expect Mr Cameron to face a challenge regardless of the result. All that would need to happen is 50 letter from Tory MPs calling for a contest to be sent to head of the backbench 1922 Committee. In an attempt to see off this Mr Cameron has made clear that prominent Government Brexit supporters will not be punished despite the bruising nature of the campaign. Political parties are teams, broad churches, he told the Financial Times. You have to put your best players on the pitch, you have to bring parties together. It has been very hard and very tough. But referendums are always difficult As far as I am concerned this referendum should settle the matter, he says, in a clear warning to Eurosceptic Tory MPs to accept the verdict of the people, not carry on fighting the same war. I believe it will one way or another be decisive. Britain will not want to go through this again. On the other hand if we vote to leave, this really is irreversible. The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit Show all 7 1 /7 The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit 22 May 2015 In his regular column in The Express Nigel Farage utilised the concerns over Putin and the EU to deliver a tongue in cheek conclusion. With friends like these, who needs enemies? PA The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit 13 November 2015 UKIP MEP for Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire Mike Hookem, was one of several political figures who took no time to harness the toxic atmosphere just moments after Paris attacks to push an agenda. Cameron says were safer in the EU. Well Im in the centre of the EU and it doesnt feel very safe. Getty Images The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit 19 April 2016 In an article written for The Guardian, Michael Gove attempts to bolster his argument with a highly charged metaphor in which he likens UK remaining in the EU to a hostage situation. Were voting to be hostages locked in the back of the car and driven headlong towards deeper EU integration. Rex The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit 26 April 2016 In a move that is hard to decipher, let alone understand, Mike Hookem stuck it to Obama re-tweeting a UKIP advertisement that utilises a quote from the film: Love Actually to dishonour the US stance on the EU. A friend who bullies us is no longer a friend The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit 10 May 2016 During a speech in London former work and pensions secretary Ian Duncan Smith said that EU migration would cause an increasing divide between people who benefit from immigration and people who couldnt not find work because of uncontrolled migration. The European Union is a force for social injustice which backs the haves rather than the have-nots. EPA The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit 15 May 2016 Cartoon character Boris Johnson made the news again over controversial comments that the EU had the same goal as Hitler in trying to create a political super state. Napoleon, Hitler, various people tried this out, and it ends tragically. The EU is an attempt to do this by different methods. PA The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit 16 May 2016 During a tour of the womens clothing manufacturer David Nieper, Boris had ample time to cook up a new metaphor, arguably eclipsing Goves in which he compares the EU to badly designed undergarments. So I just say to all those who prophecy doom and gloom for the British Business, I say their pants are on fire. Lets say knickers to the pessimists, knickers to all those who talk Britain down. Getty Images Mr Cameron will also travel to Brussels next Tuesday for an EU summit to examine the referendums entrails. He claims a Remain vote will make him a strengthened figure in Europe, better able to promote a British agenda. He said he would push for new trade deals and new co-operation in fighting terrorism Britain holds the EU presidency next year as well as for wider economic reform. We are the reformers, he says. Reform ends if we leave, not just for us but also our friends in Europe who want our voice heard in Europe. Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Brexit and beyond email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Economic experts warning about the fall-out of Brexit are like the Nazis who orchestrated a smear campaign against Albert Einstein in the 1930s, Michael Gove has claimed. In inflammatory remarks just hours before polls open the Justice Secretary, who co-chairs the Vote Leave campaign, said experts could not always be trusted and pointed to the German scientists used to denounce Einstein to back up his point. "I think the key thing here is to interrogate the assumptions that are made and to ask if these arguments are good, he told LBC Radio. "We have to be careful about historical comparisons, but Albert Einstein during the 1930s was denounced by the German authorities for being wrong and his theories were denounced, and one of the reasons of course he was denounced was because he was Jewish. "They got 100 German scientists in the pay of the government to say that he was wrong and Einstein said: 'Look, if I was wrong, one would have been enough."' Mr Gove added: "The truth is that if you look at the quality of the analysis, if you look at the facts on the ground, you can come to an appropriate conclusion. "And the appropriate conclusion, I think, all of us can come to is that with growth rates so low in Europe, with so many unemployed and with the nature of the single currency so damaging, freeing ourselves from that project can only strengthen our economy." Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Show all 30 1 /30 Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? David Beckham (REMAIN) The former captain for the England international football team announced on Instagram that he was voting to Remain. He said: We live in a vibrant and connected world where together as a people we are strong. For our children and their children we should be facing the problems of the world together and not alone. Getty Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Victoria Beckham (REMAIN) 'I believe in my country, I believe in a future for my children where we are stronger together and I support the remain campaign.' Getty Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Daniel Craig (REMAIN) Actor He was pictured wearing a white T-shirt with the slogan: 'No man is an island. No country by itself. Vote Remain on 23rd June.' Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Bob Geldof (REMAIN) Irish singer expresses his support for the Remain vote as he waves from a boat carrying supporters for the 'Remain' campaign in London AFP/Getty Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? John Cleese (LEAVE) The Monty Python star signalled he will vote to leave the EU when he tweeted: "If I thought there was any chance of major reform in the EU, I'd vote to stay in. But there isn't. Sad." Getty Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Daniel Portman (REMAIN) Game of Thrones actor supports Reamin vote Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Elton John (REMAIN) The singer also announced his intention to vote Remain on Instagram, sharing an image which said Build bridges not walls, along with the caption I'm voting to remain. #StrongerInEurope Getty Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Roger Daltrey (LEAVE) Former frontman of iconic rock band The Who. I am not anti European, but I an anti the present way we are being governed in Europe, he wrote in The Mirror. The whole system has been corrupted by political ego and massive government overreach. The Euro being a perfect example I do not want to be dragged into the kind of Federal State that this present EU is pushing for - with the UK's voice getting smaller and smaller. AFP/Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? JK Rowling (REMAIN) The author of the Harry Potter books has expressed concern that "racists and bigots" are directing parts of the Leave campaign. She added: How can a retreat into selfish and insecure individualism be the right response when Europe faces genuine threats, when the bonds that tie us are so powerful, when we have come so far together? How can we hope to conquer the enormous challenges of terrorism and climate change without cooperation and collaboration? Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Vivienne Westwood (REMAIN) British fashion designer expressed her support for Remain vote Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Michael Caine (LEAVE) The actor has said he is a reluctant Leaver. He said: "I don't know what to vote for. Both are scary. To me, you've now got in Europe a sort of government-by-proxy of everybody, who has now got carried away. Unless there is some extremely significant changes, we should get out." Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Benedict Cumberbatch (REMAIN) Benedict Cumberbatch and Sir Patrick Stewart led more than 280 figures from the arts world who backed a vote to stay. An open letter pledging support for Remain was also signed by music stars Hot Chip, alt-J and Paloma Faith, authors Dame Hilary Mantel and John le Carre, and fashion designer Dame Vivienne Westwood. Daniel Craig was pictured wearing a vote Remain t-shirt with the words "No man is an island. No country by itself" emblazoned across it in a picture tweeted on the Stronger IN account. Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Patrick Stewart (REMAIN) Actor is a leading supporter of the Remain campaign Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Elizabeth Hurley (LEAVE) The actress said If it means we can go back to using decent lightbulbs and choose high-powered hairdryers and vacuum cleaners if we so wish, I'm joining Brexit for sure. Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Stephen Hawking (REMAIN) The physicist was in favour staying, and said "progress comes from co-operation". He said: "By working together in Europe we make our economy stronger and we give ourselves more influence in the world and we provide future opportunities for young people." Numerous scientists have also voiced their support for Remain, claiming an out vote would badly damage the field. Getty Images for Breakthrough Pr Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Sol Campbell (LEAVE) The former England international football star said he is backing Brexit so that young British sporting talent would be nurtured and given greater opportunities at British clubs. He said: "I'm looking at the sporting side - how youngsters aren't getting the opportunities at some of the big clubs and some of the big clubs are bringing in youngsters from 14, 15, 16 and becoming homegrown, which is pushing some of our youngsters out." Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Hilary Mantel (REMAIN) Author Hilary Mantel announced her support for Remain vote Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Bear Grylls (REMAIN) The adventurer and TV presenter said he spoke "from the heart" in backing the EU. "At such a time for the UK to retreat, run and cut ourselves loose from Europe, when there are so many challenges on our doorstep, to me just doesn't feel either courageous or kind, he said. Europe has many flaws, but I also believe the way to help resolve many of those tough issues is from within... I have never been a good quitter and I am so proud of the UK and our values: tolerance, kindness, respect, courage and resilience. This is why I want us to stay together and Remain in Europe." Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Billy Bragg (REMAIN) British singer decided to support Remain campaign AFP/Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Ian Botham (LEAVE) The former England Test cricketer and Test team captain supports Brexit Getty/Laureus Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Simon Cowell (REMAIN) Music mogul Simon Cowell announced his support of staying in EU Getty Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? David James (LEAVE) The former England goalkeeper supports Brexit Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Idris Elba (REMAIN) The actor voiced his support for Remain vote Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? John Le Carre (REMAIN) British writer supports Remain campaign Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Paloma Faith (REMAIN) English singer supports Remain campaign Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Perry McCarthy (LEAVE) The racing driver supports Leave campaign Rex Features Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Keira Knightley (REMAIN) The actress intends to vote for Remain campaign Getty Images for Lincoln Center Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? James Cracknell (LEAVE) British athlete and rowing champion decided to vote for Brexit Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Florence Welch (REMAIN) British singer supports Remain campaign Getty Images for Gucci Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Helena Bonham-Carter (REMAIN) The actress expressed her support for Remain vote AFP/Getty Images Mr Gove made his comments after being challenged over why he is not heeding the advice of many economists who have warned that Brexit could have dire consequences and tip the economy into recession. The International Monetary Fund, ten Nobel-prize winning economists and the Bank of England have all warned that leaving the EU could damage the economy. Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Brexit and beyond email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} With Britain heading to the polls to vote in the European Union referendum, The Independent has put together a step-by-step guide on how to vote, where to vote and crucially what time we can expect the results to come in. Follow the latest live updates on the EU referendum If you have any further questions please let us know in the comments below and well try to answer them. When do the polls open and close? On Thursday 23 June polling stations across the UK will be open from 7am to 10pm. Am I registered to vote? If you are worried that you are not registered you can check with your local authority, who hold the electoral register for your area. To find the contact details of your local office, enter your postcode here on the Electoral Commissions website. Deadlines have now passed so if you are not registered you will be unable to vote in the referendum. I am registered. What will I be asked? This question will appear on your ballot paper: Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union? Youll be given the option to put a cross next to Remain or Leave. What is a referendum? Basically, a referendum is a vote in which a large majority of the population can take part as long as they are registered and of voting age. Usually voters are given a Yes or No question. But in the EU referendum, however, the option available will be to Remain or Leave. what about Brexit? Brexit is a merge of the words Britain and exit a fast way of saying the UK leaving the EU. Though, Brits cant claim originality for this word. During the Greek financial crisis Grexit became common referring to the countrys potential exit from Eurozone. Pro-Brexit flags fly from a fishing boat moored in Ramsgate (AFP/Getty) So, where do I vote? You can vote in the referendum in person at your local polling station which youll be able to find the location of on the Electoral Commissions website. If youre voting by postal vote you will need to send your ballot paper back to your local council by June 23 at 10pm the same time the polls close. So, if youre heading to Glastonbury next week make sure you send your vote before travelling. What time is the result announced? Well, theres no specific time. The Electoral Commission, which is in charge of overseeing the referendum, estimates the final result will be announced at breakfast time on Friday 24 June. Its a safe bet that by around 4am there should be a clear indication of which way the vote is going. Basically, as soon as it becomes apparent either the Remain or Leave side has passed the crucial 50 per cent mark of the vote as well know national turnout by this point it will be clear whether Britain has voted to either embrace Brussels or opt for Brexit. All you need to know about the EU referendum The count itself will get underway when the polls close at 10pm on 23 June at 382 local centres across the UK. These local results will be declared as the counts are completed before being collated at 12 regional centres, which will also declare to the totals for each side. The chief counting officer will then collate all the results and once they are approved and declared the referendum result will be officially announced. If you want to see a breakdown of the specific times each of the 382 local centres are set to declare, the Electoral Commission has a handy guide. Where will the national result be announced? The chief counting officer will announce the result at Manchester Town Hall. This was decided in December 2015 to ensure value for money for the taxpayer as the Electoral Commission chose to combine the event with one of the regional count collation centres rather than hosting a separate event. Will there be a speech after the announcement in Manchester? The Electoral Commission is in discussion with the campaign groups as to whether they want to make any speeches on the night. It is expected, however, that David Cameron will address the nation from Downing Street on June 24 in the event of both a Leave and Remain vote. Is there an official exit poll? No. But Britains hedge fund industry is commissioning private exit polls to get an early warning of the result and trying to make a profit from it. Electoral Commission rules allow exit polls on the day of a referendum so long as they are not published until polls close at 10pm. But that does not stop the funds themselves trying to profit from early indications of the result by using the information to place bets on whether sterling will rise or fall depending on the result. EU Referendum: Latest Poll That in turn may move the market giving the public an early indication of which way voting is going. Polling companies have said demand is high for their private services on referendum day The EU referendum debate has so far been characterised by bias, distortion and exaggeration. So until 23 June we were running a series of question and answer features that explain the most important issues in a detailed, dispassionate way to help inform your decision. What is Brexit and why are we having an EU referendum? Does the UK need to take more control of its sovereignty? Could the UK media swing the EU referendum one way or another? Will the UK benefit from being released from EU laws? Will we gain or lose rights by leaving the European Union? Will Brexit mean that Europeans have to leave the UK? Will leaving the EU lead to the break-up of the UK? What will happen to immigration if there's Brexit? Will Brexit make the UK more or less safe? Will the UK benefit from being released from EU laws? Will leaving the EU save taxpayers money and mean more money for the NHS? What will Brexit mean for British tourists booking holidays in the EU? Will Brexit help or damage the environment? Will Brexit mean that Europeans have to leave the UK? What will Brexit mean for British expats in Europe? Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Brexit and beyond email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Jeremy Corbyn was never going to be the most convincing cheerleader for the European Union. When Britain voted by a margin of 67 to 33 to stay in the European Economic Community in 1975, the Labour leader then a councillor in the London borough of Haringey was among the minority who voted Out. His attitudes to Europe have evolved since. The social Europe of common workers rights, poverty reduction and welfare, has always appealed. But after the Maastricht Treaty of 1992, he began to see the EU as a vehicle for precisely the kind of free-market-at-all-costs ideology that he abhors. Recommended Read more The map that shows where EU referendum voters live By the time he stood for leader in the summer of 2015, his Eurosceptic views had been reinforced by the EUs handling of the Greek debt crisis. The grinding austerity enforced on Greece led him to say, in an LBC Radio debate during the Labour leadership contest: If Europe becomes a totally brutal organisation that treats every one of its member states in the way the people of Greece have been treated at the moment, then I think Europe will lose a lot of support from a lot of people. Its not quite a ringing endorsement. Indeed, it wasnt until he had been elected Labour leader that he categorically ruled out support for Brexit. Not to have done so would have risked all-out revolt within the parliamentary party and would have alienated a large section of the membership particularly the young who are so firmly behind the Labour leader. But those who say he is still, in his heart of hearts an Outer, however, are probably wrong. Shadow Cabinet colleagues say that in private conversations he has made clear that he genuinely believes that, despite his reservations, staying in is the best course for the country. Still, there is no denying that his campaigning in the referendum has been lacklustre. Different explanations are offered for this. Some Labour MPs believe the partys official EU campaign, Labour In for Britain, led by party grandee Alan Johnson, was from the outset too distant from the leaders office. Mr Corbyn and his team, already ambivalent about Europe, were happy to let Mr Johnson and the Labour In office plan the schedule, the timing and the message, and were therefore slow to react when it became apparent, through polling, that it was Mr Corybn himself who Labour voters most trusted on the issue. Mr Johnson and other Labour figures have also, understandably, pointed out how hard they have had to fight for airtime and column inches while broadcasters and newspapers were, also understandably, fixated with the political drama of Conservative politicians tearing shreds off one another. All you need to know about the EU referendum With internal Labour Party and Remain campaign polling showing support for Brexit at alarmingly high levels, David Cameron and the Tory figureheads of the Remain campaign cleared the stage for Mr Corbyn and Labour last week. A show of shadow Cabinet unity and a speech by Mr Corbyn in which he effectively dismantled the Leave campaigns claim to be champions of the NHS quickly followed. Was it too little too late? Only the outcome of the referendum will tell. If Britain votes to leave, there will be those who pin the blame on Mr Corbyn. But many senior Labour figures are now facing up to the fact that the partys problem in this referendum runs deeper. In our industrial heartlands, there is no getting away from the issue of immigration, Labour In figurehead Chuka Umunna said last week. Other MPs speak gloomily of staunch support for Leave on the doorstep in lower income, urban Labour areas. Immigration, again and again, is offered as the reason. The question of how to address the issue is not a new one for Labour. For years its leading figures had been more or less unambiguously pro-immigration. Only when the party began haemorrhaging votes to Ukip ahead of the last election did Ed Miliband attempt to address the issue, with a halfway house call for controls on immigration that looked too much like lip service to win back many votes. Now, in Mr Corbyn, they have a leader who is whole-heartedly pro-immigration. Shadow Cabinet colleagues say he takes a highly principled line on it it is good for the country and the only problems are those caused by employers undercutting workers wages. His positive stance is admired in some sections of the party, especially amid mounting unease about the tone of the EU referendum debate and fears of the rise of more virulently anti-migrant sentiment in Britain. In other quarters there are concerns that the leader will not be able to grasp the nettle and properly address Labour voters concerns about migration risking a further exodus of working class supporters into the hands of Ukip or, in the event of Brexit, a ruling Tory party with a mandate to shut the borders to EU migrants. What has the EU ever done for us? Show all 7 1 /7 What has the EU ever done for us? What has the EU ever done for us? 1. It gives you freedom to live, work and retire anywhere in Europe As a member of the EU, UK citizens benefit from freedom of movement across the continent. Considered one of the so-called four pillars of the European Union, this freedom allows all EU citizens to live, work and travel in other member states. What has the EU ever done for us? 2. It sustains millions of jobs A report by the Centre for Economics and Business Research, released in October 2015, suggested 3.1 million British jobs were linked to the UKs exports to the EU. What has the EU ever done for us? 3. Your holiday is much easier - and safer Freedom to travel is one of the most exercised benefits of EU membership, with Britons having made 31 million visits to the EU in 2014 alone. But a lot of the benefits of being an EU citizen are either taken for granted or go unnoticed. What has the EU ever done for us? 4. It means you're less likely to get ripped off Consumer protection is a key benefit of the EUs single market, and ensures members of the British public receive equal consumer rights when shopping anywhere in Europe. What has the EU ever done for us? 5. It offers greater protection from terrorists, paedophiles, people traffickers and cyber-crime Another example of a lesser-known advantage of EU membership is the benefit of cross-country coordination and cooperation in the fight against crime. What has the EU ever done for us? 6. Our businesses depend on it According to 71% of all members of the Confederation of British Influence (CBI), and 67 per cent of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the EU has had an overall positive impact on their business. What has the EU ever done for us? 7. We have greater influence Robin Niblett, Director of think-tank Chatham House, stated in a report published last year: For a mid-sized country like the UK, which will never again be economically dominant either globally or regionally, and whose diplomatic and military resources are declining in relative terms, being a major player in a strong regional institution can offer a critical lever for international influence. If Britain votes to Leave, it could be taken as a sign among Mr Corbyns opponents in the party that Labour and its leader underestimated scale of public concern about immigration, weakening their position. If Remain wins, immigration could still become a divisive issue within the leadership. The partys deputy leader Tom Watson added his voice last week to calls for reform to the EUs freedom of movement rules, in a bid to convince supporters that Labour backs Remain, but is serious about controlling immigration. The UK has the EU presidency in 2017 and a significant opportunity to push for such changes. Against this backdrop, Mr Corbyn will face a choice between doing a Miliband, and offering half-hearted support for moderate reforms to immigration controls, or sticking to his guns and arguing that current levels of migration are sustainable and good for a country with an ageing population. Many in his party feel the same, even if they fear their voters do not. Others fear further erosions of the partys support in its northern heartlands. It all adds up to another potentially damaging schism within the Labour Party, at a time when they will also face an almighty row over the renewal of the Trident nuclear missile system. Whatever the outcome of the EU referendum, Jeremy Corbyns difficult reign as Labour leader shows no signs it will get any easier. The EU referendum debate has so far been characterised by bias, distortion and exaggeration. So until 23 June we were running a series of question and answer features that explain the most important issues in a detailed, dispassionate way to help inform your decision. What is Brexit and why are we having an EU referendum? Does the UK need to take more control of its sovereignty? Could the UK media swing the EU referendum one way or another? Will the UK benefit from being released from EU laws? Will we gain or lose rights by leaving the European Union? Will Brexit mean that Europeans have to leave the UK? Will leaving the EU lead to the break-up of the UK? What will happen to immigration if there's Brexit? Will Brexit make the UK more or less safe? Will the UK benefit from being released from EU laws? Will leaving the EU save taxpayers money and mean more money for the NHS? What will Brexit mean for British tourists booking holidays in the EU? Will Brexit help or damage the environment? Will Brexit mean that Europeans have to leave the UK? What will Brexit mean for British expats in Europe? Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Brexit and beyond email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Michael Gove has apologised for comparing economic experts warning about leaving the European Union with the Nazis who denounced physicist Albert Einstein in the 1930s. The inflammatory remarks just hours before the polls open led David Cameron, who is Mr Goves close friend and Cabinet colleague, to say that the Justice Secretary had lost it and made a massive mistake in making the comparison. Apologising for the comments, which he made on LBC radio on Tuesday, Mr Gove said: Yesterday I was asked a question by Iain Dale [LBC presenter] about the predictions of doom for the economy. I answered, as I often do, with a historical analogy. It was clumsy and inappropriate. Obviously I did not mean to imply anything about the motives of those who have spoken out in favour of staying in the EU. Throughout the campaign I've avoided making personal attacks, I'm sorry for speaking so clumsily and apologise for giving offenceI think Britain will be more prosperous if we end our connection to the euro project and I should have answered this question directly. Just hours before his apology his fellow leading Leave campaigner Boris Johnson backed him, telling BBC Radio 4s World at One: Michael Gove has run an absolutely fantastic campaign and he is right in what he says, I think. Tim Farron attacks Michael Gove "Some of these experts, they totally failed to foresee the crash of 2008, the former mayor of London added. The International Monetary Fund, ten Nobel-prize winning economists and the Bank of England have all warned that leaving the EU could damage the economy. "I think the key thing here is to interrogate the assumptions that are made and to ask if these arguments are good, Mr Gove told LBC Radio on Tuesday. Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Show all 30 1 /30 Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? David Beckham (REMAIN) The former captain for the England international football team announced on Instagram that he was voting to Remain. He said: We live in a vibrant and connected world where together as a people we are strong. For our children and their children we should be facing the problems of the world together and not alone. Getty Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Victoria Beckham (REMAIN) 'I believe in my country, I believe in a future for my children where we are stronger together and I support the remain campaign.' Getty Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Daniel Craig (REMAIN) Actor He was pictured wearing a white T-shirt with the slogan: 'No man is an island. No country by itself. Vote Remain on 23rd June.' Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Bob Geldof (REMAIN) Irish singer expresses his support for the Remain vote as he waves from a boat carrying supporters for the 'Remain' campaign in London AFP/Getty Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? John Cleese (LEAVE) The Monty Python star signalled he will vote to leave the EU when he tweeted: "If I thought there was any chance of major reform in the EU, I'd vote to stay in. But there isn't. Sad." Getty Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Daniel Portman (REMAIN) Game of Thrones actor supports Reamin vote Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Elton John (REMAIN) The singer also announced his intention to vote Remain on Instagram, sharing an image which said Build bridges not walls, along with the caption I'm voting to remain. #StrongerInEurope Getty Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Roger Daltrey (LEAVE) Former frontman of iconic rock band The Who. I am not anti European, but I an anti the present way we are being governed in Europe, he wrote in The Mirror. The whole system has been corrupted by political ego and massive government overreach. The Euro being a perfect example I do not want to be dragged into the kind of Federal State that this present EU is pushing for - with the UK's voice getting smaller and smaller. AFP/Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? JK Rowling (REMAIN) The author of the Harry Potter books has expressed concern that "racists and bigots" are directing parts of the Leave campaign. She added: How can a retreat into selfish and insecure individualism be the right response when Europe faces genuine threats, when the bonds that tie us are so powerful, when we have come so far together? How can we hope to conquer the enormous challenges of terrorism and climate change without cooperation and collaboration? Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Vivienne Westwood (REMAIN) British fashion designer expressed her support for Remain vote Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Michael Caine (LEAVE) The actor has said he is a reluctant Leaver. He said: "I don't know what to vote for. Both are scary. To me, you've now got in Europe a sort of government-by-proxy of everybody, who has now got carried away. Unless there is some extremely significant changes, we should get out." Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Benedict Cumberbatch (REMAIN) Benedict Cumberbatch and Sir Patrick Stewart led more than 280 figures from the arts world who backed a vote to stay. An open letter pledging support for Remain was also signed by music stars Hot Chip, alt-J and Paloma Faith, authors Dame Hilary Mantel and John le Carre, and fashion designer Dame Vivienne Westwood. Daniel Craig was pictured wearing a vote Remain t-shirt with the words "No man is an island. No country by itself" emblazoned across it in a picture tweeted on the Stronger IN account. Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Patrick Stewart (REMAIN) Actor is a leading supporter of the Remain campaign Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Elizabeth Hurley (LEAVE) The actress said If it means we can go back to using decent lightbulbs and choose high-powered hairdryers and vacuum cleaners if we so wish, I'm joining Brexit for sure. Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Stephen Hawking (REMAIN) The physicist was in favour staying, and said "progress comes from co-operation". He said: "By working together in Europe we make our economy stronger and we give ourselves more influence in the world and we provide future opportunities for young people." Numerous scientists have also voiced their support for Remain, claiming an out vote would badly damage the field. Getty Images for Breakthrough Pr Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Sol Campbell (LEAVE) The former England international football star said he is backing Brexit so that young British sporting talent would be nurtured and given greater opportunities at British clubs. He said: "I'm looking at the sporting side - how youngsters aren't getting the opportunities at some of the big clubs and some of the big clubs are bringing in youngsters from 14, 15, 16 and becoming homegrown, which is pushing some of our youngsters out." Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Hilary Mantel (REMAIN) Author Hilary Mantel announced her support for Remain vote Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Bear Grylls (REMAIN) The adventurer and TV presenter said he spoke "from the heart" in backing the EU. "At such a time for the UK to retreat, run and cut ourselves loose from Europe, when there are so many challenges on our doorstep, to me just doesn't feel either courageous or kind, he said. Europe has many flaws, but I also believe the way to help resolve many of those tough issues is from within... I have never been a good quitter and I am so proud of the UK and our values: tolerance, kindness, respect, courage and resilience. This is why I want us to stay together and Remain in Europe." Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Billy Bragg (REMAIN) British singer decided to support Remain campaign AFP/Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Ian Botham (LEAVE) The former England Test cricketer and Test team captain supports Brexit Getty/Laureus Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Simon Cowell (REMAIN) Music mogul Simon Cowell announced his support of staying in EU Getty Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? David James (LEAVE) The former England goalkeeper supports Brexit Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Idris Elba (REMAIN) The actor voiced his support for Remain vote Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? John Le Carre (REMAIN) British writer supports Remain campaign Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Paloma Faith (REMAIN) English singer supports Remain campaign Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Perry McCarthy (LEAVE) The racing driver supports Leave campaign Rex Features Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Keira Knightley (REMAIN) The actress intends to vote for Remain campaign Getty Images for Lincoln Center Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? James Cracknell (LEAVE) British athlete and rowing champion decided to vote for Brexit Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Florence Welch (REMAIN) British singer supports Remain campaign Getty Images for Gucci Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Helena Bonham-Carter (REMAIN) The actress expressed her support for Remain vote AFP/Getty Images "We have to be careful about historical comparisons, but Albert Einstein during the 1930s was denounced by the German authorities for being wrong and his theories were denounced, and one of the reasons of course he was denounced was because he was Jewish. "They got 100 German scientists in the pay of the government to say that he was wrong and Einstein said: 'Look, if I was wrong, one would have been enough."' Ruth Davidson attacks Boris Johnson and Michael Gove on the economy Mr Gove added: "The truth is that if you look at the quality of the analysis, if you look at the facts on the ground, you can come to an appropriate conclusion. "And the appropriate conclusion, I think, all of us can come to is that with growth rates so low in Europe, with so many unemployed and with the nature of the single currency so damaging, freeing ourselves from that project can only strengthen our economy." Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} If Im honest, all this had been written long in advance. There are no lies left untold. No deceptions left unexploited. No half truths turned to face the mirror as the smoke machine fires up. And then wallop! In walked Ruth Davidson and if the nation votes to stay in the EU on Thursday it will be very hard indeed to resist the temptation it was Ruth that did it. Almost an hour and a half had passed when she stared Boris Johnson in the eye and turned the face the 6,000 strong crowd, who, if the whoopometer is a reliable measure, were on balance seemed to be of a Brexit disposition. Youre being asked to make a decision on Friday thats irreversible, you cant change it, and youre being sold it on a lie, she thundered. They lied about the costs of Europe, they lied about Turkey. They lied about the European Army. We have a veto on all those things. Theyve put them in their leaflets and its Not. Good. Enough. You deserve the truth. You deserve the truth! They went utterly wild. On a personal note, Ive had my nose pressed up against the glass of this referendum for far too long, and from a starting position of immense uncertainty, I made my mind made up me long ago. Its immigration versus the economy. And the Leave side are just offering lies on immigration, so its no debate at all. Ive watched the debate descend into the darkest places - naked fascism, to be exact - the ghosts of dead Great Britons argued over like the last Digestive biscuit. And if the ghost of Churchill has showed his face at all, it was in that moment. In long and gruelling months, it has been tempting to wonder whether a single utterance from a single politician, however impassioned, has changed anyones mind one iota. I believe that did. The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit Show all 7 1 /7 The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit 22 May 2015 In his regular column in The Express Nigel Farage utilised the concerns over Putin and the EU to deliver a tongue in cheek conclusion. With friends like these, who needs enemies? PA The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit 13 November 2015 UKIP MEP for Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire Mike Hookem, was one of several political figures who took no time to harness the toxic atmosphere just moments after Paris attacks to push an agenda. Cameron says were safer in the EU. Well Im in the centre of the EU and it doesnt feel very safe. Getty Images The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit 19 April 2016 In an article written for The Guardian, Michael Gove attempts to bolster his argument with a highly charged metaphor in which he likens UK remaining in the EU to a hostage situation. Were voting to be hostages locked in the back of the car and driven headlong towards deeper EU integration. Rex The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit 26 April 2016 In a move that is hard to decipher, let alone understand, Mike Hookem stuck it to Obama re-tweeting a UKIP advertisement that utilises a quote from the film: Love Actually to dishonour the US stance on the EU. A friend who bullies us is no longer a friend The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit 10 May 2016 During a speech in London former work and pensions secretary Ian Duncan Smith said that EU migration would cause an increasing divide between people who benefit from immigration and people who couldnt not find work because of uncontrolled migration. The European Union is a force for social injustice which backs the haves rather than the have-nots. EPA The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit 15 May 2016 Cartoon character Boris Johnson made the news again over controversial comments that the EU had the same goal as Hitler in trying to create a political super state. Napoleon, Hitler, various people tried this out, and it ends tragically. The EU is an attempt to do this by different methods. PA The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit 16 May 2016 During a tour of the womens clothing manufacturer David Nieper, Boris had ample time to cook up a new metaphor, arguably eclipsing Goves in which he compares the EU to badly designed undergarments. So I just say to all those who prophecy doom and gloom for the British Business, I say their pants are on fire. Lets say knickers to the pessimists, knickers to all those who talk Britain down. Getty Images If youve left it til now to take an interest in the EU Referendum debate then good for you. Theres every chance you found last nights events genuinely illuminating. As for the rest: Andrea Leadsom still speaks as a mum. Gisela Stuart is still an immigrant and a mum. Boris Johnson is still the grandson of immigrants. My family has benefited enormously from immigration, said Boris, which goes some way to explain why his Dad Stanley, his sister Rachel and his MP brother Jo are all campaigning for the other side. Remain had handed the script to some new actors. And it worked. Your campaign hasnt been about Project Fear, its been Project Hate, Sadiq Khan screamed at Boris Johnson. Pressure on wages comes from those greedy bankers crashing the economy. And if we leave, well crash it again, the head of the TUC, Frances OGrady boomed at the 6,000 strong audience, wisely mitigating for the small risk that the microphone wasnt working. For the first hour, applause broke out each time Vote Leave succeeded in their mission to end every utterance with the words take back control. In the final 45, something changed. When Frances OGrady asked Andrea Leadsom if leaving the EU would bring immigration numbers down, the greatest deception of all appeared to be skewered. That at no point have Vote Leave promised to bring the number down, the 350,000 number. And the audience knew it too. Later in the evening, Priti Patel wandered into the Spin Room, to tell some TV news crew how the brightest and the best will be welcome in this country. But the brightest and the best still go to the GP. The Brightest and The Best still have kids that go to primary school. Its not the Brightest and the Best that people are bothered about. Its the size of the number. At the very end, Boris Johnson, wandered to the centre of the stage, stared down the barrel of the camera, and compelled the audience to make June 23rd our Independence Day. Hell have imagined it was all very Churchillian. But his sides problem? They were completely Ruthless. Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Brexit and beyond email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The Daily Mail has broke with its sister paper The Mail on Sunday to formally back the campaign for Britain to leave the EU. In a two-page editorial, the newspaper argued it was best for the country to vote to leave the union in Thursday's referendum. The declaration came two days after its sister publication The Mail on Sunday - which is a separate publication with a different editorial team - urged its readers to vote Remain. It warned that "by any calculation" Britain would face higher tariff and economic uncertainty, saying it was "not the time to risk the peace and prosperity" of the UK. The split has been interpreted by some media watchers as indicative of a split within both papers' parent company, Associated Newspapers, over the issue. Journalists said it was an example of the editors choosing the stance of their own papers without the influence of their proprietor, Lord Northcliffe. The Mail on Sunday has been edited by Geordie Gregg since 2012 and Paul Dacre has edited The Daily Mail for more than 20 years. Despite this, the national paper's declaration has not been included on the front page of its Scottish edition. The Scottish Daily Mail has run on a different front page story about David Cameron's plea for voters not to "let Brexit destroy the union". Scottish voters are widely regarded as fair more pro-EU than their English neighbours and there have been warnings that the country will face calls for a second independence referendum if Britain as a whole votes to quit. The papers are not the first to come to different conclusions about their stance. What's the European Parliament ever done for us? Show all 5 1 /5 What's the European Parliament ever done for us? What's the European Parliament ever done for us? A cap on the amount of hours an employer can make you work The Working Time directive provides legal standards to ensure the health and safety of employees in Europe. Among the many rules are a working week of a maximum 48 hours, including overtime, a daily rest period of 11 hours in every 24, a break if a person works for six hours or more, and one day off in every seven. It also includes provisions for paid annual leave of at least four weeks every year Getty Images What's the European Parliament ever done for us? Helping the people of Britain to avoid smoking In 2014 MEPs passed the Tobacco Products Directive strengthening existing rules on the manufacture, production and presentation of tobacco products. This includes things like reduced branding, restrictions on products containing flavoured tobacco, health warnings on cigarette packets and provisions for e-cigarettes to ensure they are safe What's the European Parliament ever done for us? Helping you to make the right choices with your food Thanks to the European Parliament, UK consumers have access to more information than ever about their food and drink. This includes amount of fat, and how much of it is saturated, carbohydrates, sugars, protein and so on. It also includes portion sizes and guideline daily amount information so people can make informed choices about their diet. All facts must be clear and easy to understand What's the European Parliament ever done for us? Two year guarantees and 14-day returns policy for all products Consumers across the EU have access to a number of rights, from things which are potentially very useful, to things which used to be annoying. For example, shoppers in the UK receive a two-year guarantee on all products, and a 14-day period to change their minds and return a purchase, these things are useful www.PeopleImages.com-licence restrictions apply What's the European Parliament ever done for us? Keeping your air nice and fresh (and safe) Believe it or not, although the situation is improving, some areas of the UK have appalling air quality. A report by the Royal College of Physicians released on 23 February says 40,000 deaths are caused by outdoor air pollution in the UK every year. Air pollution is linked to a number of illnesses and conditions, from Asthma to diabetes and dementia. The report estimates the costs to British business and the health service add up to 20 billion every year Last week The Times declared for Remain whereas its sister title, The Sunday Times, opted for Leave. Its stablemate, The Sun, also choose Leave which some on Twitter have said was due to the influence of its proprietor, Rupert Murdoch, - a charge denied by its associate editor Trevor Kavanagh. The Daily Mail's decision will come as no surprise to some as many commentators noted the paper's largely anti-immigration stance over the past few years. A study by Loughborough University analysing media coverage of the referendum found that The Daily Mail was the second most pro-Brexit daily newspapers after The Daily Express - which has campaigned for the country to leave the EU for several years. Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The exit polls at general elections, which are run for the BBC, ITV and Sky by Professor John Curtice of Strathclyde University, have built up a reputation for getting the result right over many election cycles. The polls work by asking people how they voted at sampling points across the country, and comparing that with surveys at the same places in the previous election. The changes can then be projected to build up a national picture. Last year, the exit poll announced when the polls closed at 10pm put the Conservatives on 316 seats and Labour on 239: the Tories ended up winning 15 more and Labour seven fewer. Follow the latest live updates on the EU referendum However, there will be no exit poll published at 10pm when voting in the EU referendum closes because the broadcasters have no way of knowing how accurate it would be. Brexit supporters urged to take own pens to polling station amid fears of MI5 conspiracy Prof Curtice and his team couldnt do what they usually do, because the last referendum to compare todays with was 41 years ago and there wasnt an exit poll then. There is, therefore, no baseline against which to measure how people have voted this time. Some estimates have been made, extrapolating from opinion poll questions, of how pro- or anti-EU various places in the UK are. These will be useful on Friday morning for judging the significance of the early results. Chris Hanretty of the University of East Anglia estimates that if Leave is six percentage points ahead in Sunderland, expected to be one of the first councils to declare, that would mean the national vote is close. YouGov has also produced a map of the UK showing how Eurosceptic the country is by parliamentary constituency. But such estimates are not accurate enough to base an exit poll on, so the broadcasters decided not to go to the expense of commissioning one. What about private exit polls? That does not mean, however, that there will be no exit polling. The Independent understands that some financial institutions have commissioned exit polls, so that they can gain early intelligence of likely movements in the markets. As we have seen, when polls have been published suggesting that Leave might win, the pound has fallen on the currency markets. Any trader with inside information on what the outcome of the referendum might be could, therefore, make a lot of money. The problem they face is the same as that faced by the broadcasters: without a baseline it is hard and expensive to construct a sample of polling stations that is representative of the country as a whole. And they wont know if they are right until the actual results start to flow in from about 12.30am on Friday. For that reason, any movements in the currency markets on Thursday should be treated with scepticism. They may be based on private exit polls, or they may be the result of rumours about them, and if they are based on exit polls those polls may be wrong. 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Show all 21 1 /21 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Portugal drinks more wine than France Tindo - Fotolia 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Young Italians, by some distance, are the most likely to live at home with their parents 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Britain is on course to overtake Germany as Europes most populated country 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Greek workers work the longest hours in the EU 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Estonia has, per capita, more drug-related deaths than anyone else 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe The fastest download speeds are to be found in Romania 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Slovenia, Malta and Poland have the smallest gender pay gaps 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe France hates its leader more than other European countries 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Eastern and Western Europe are very divided on the issue of gay marriage 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Germany has the most millionaires 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Everyone likes Christmas, apart from France 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Germany accepts by far the most asylum applications 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe The UK and France have some of the most positive views of Muslim people 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Europe's largest Muslim population is in Germany 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Danes are the most trusting Europeans, and Cypriots the least 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Finland has the worst economy in the EU 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Italy has cut back its military spending more than any other major European Nato member 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Everyone is sad about the refugee crisis 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe People in Spain are also the most likely to live in flats (Brits are most likely to live in houses) 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Spain is the most likely to feel neighbourly 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Luxembourg is home to the highest proportion of foreign nationals Remember, publishing exit polls before 10pm is illegal Section 66 of the Representation of the People Act 1983 prohibits the publication, before the close of poll, of any forecast, survey or estimate of how people have voted. This includes postal votes (opinion pollsters ask how people have voted but they are not allowed to publish the results) and any kind of exit poll or on-the-day poll, but not what individuals say about how they have voted. And it includes social media. So you are allowed to say on Facebook how you have voted, but you may not count up how all your friends say they have voted and publish that. So what will we know on Thursday? The last normal opinion polls will be published today and tomorrow morning. Opinium this afternoon, ComRes and YouGov tonight and Ipsos MORI tomorrow morning. What will be published at 10pm, when the polls close, will not be exit polls but at least two on the day polls. YouGov will publish a survey of its panel, recontacting what they hope is a representative sample of people to ask how they actually voted. When YouGov did this on the day of the Scottish referendum in 2014, its prediction was within one percentage point of the result (YouGov predicted a No vote of 54 per cent as against the final result, 55 per cent). Another polling company, TNS, will publish a similar exercise at 10pm on Thursday, but its Election Day Voter Panel consists of only 200 people, and is designed to pick up more on the reasons for any late swing, rather than to make a prediction. Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Brexit and beyond email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The Remain and Leave camps clashed in an acrimonious debate in which the economy and immigration were at the forefront of claim and counter-claim. London Mayor Sadiq Khan drew raucous cheers for rounding on his predecessor Boris Johnson and claiming Vote Leave was "scaremongering" by claiming Turkey would imminently join the EU. Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson also received widespread praise for challenging the Leave side to provide examples for their arguments and passionately describing her time in the armed forces. But Mr Johnson received possibly the biggest cheer of the night when he declared in his closing arguments that polling day on Thursday "could be our country's independence day". Here is how The Independent rated the two sides: Leave The Vote Leave team (from left), Boris Johnson, former Mayor of London, Gisela Stuart, Labour MP for Birmingham Edgbaston and Andrea Leadsom, Tory energy minister (AFP/Getty Images) Gisela Stuart 4/10 Not easy for the only Labour member of Leave side. She started well but fell apart when challenged on whether the Leave campaign would promise to cut immigration to the EU. She did not have a convincing answer. Boris Johnson 6/10 This was always going to be a challenge for the London Mayor as he was going to be the one member of the Leave panel who the Remain side wanted to take down. His was an assured performance but not outstanding. He held his ground but little more. Andrea Leadsom 3/10 A less impressive performance from Ms Leadsom than in the last debate that she took part in. She seemed slightly stilted and very Conservative which given that Labour voters are the key constituency was perhaps a mistake. Remain The Remain camp: Ruth Davidson, leader of the Scottish Conservatives, Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London and Frances O'Grady, General Secretary of Frances O'Grady (Getty Images) Sadiq Khan 6/10 Sadiq Khan was a tough and, at times, aggressive debater taking on Boris Johnson on the economy and immigration. Not always sympathetic he, however, managed to get his points across. Unlikely to convince many swing voters. Ruth Davidson 8/10 The star of the debate. Davidson repeatedly challenged the leave campaign and Boris in particular for not having specifics to back up their arguments. She was feisty without being overly aggressive and proved why she has been so successful at improving the Tories fortunes north of the border. Frances OGrady 6/10 The former head of the TUC was there to be the workers voice in the debate. She didnt lack passion but sometimes sounded a little over the top. However her attacks on the Tory leavers saying they could not be trusted to protect employment rights will probably have hit home with voters she was on the panel to influence. The EU referendum debate has so far been characterised by bias, distortion and exaggeration. So until 23 June we were running a series of question and answer features that explain the most important issues in a detailed, dispassionate way to help inform your decision. What is Brexit and why are we having an EU referendum? Does the UK need to take more control of its sovereignty? Could the UK media swing the EU referendum one way or another? Will the UK benefit from being released from EU laws? Will we gain or lose rights by leaving the European Union? Will Brexit mean that Europeans have to leave the UK? Will leaving the EU lead to the break-up of the UK? What will happen to immigration if there's Brexit? Will Brexit make the UK more or less safe? Will the UK benefit from being released from EU laws? Will leaving the EU save taxpayers money and mean more money for the NHS? What will Brexit mean for British tourists booking holidays in the EU? Will Brexit help or damage the environment? Will Brexit mean that Europeans have to leave the UK? What will Brexit mean for British expats in Europe? Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Brexit and beyond email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The long-term outlook for Britain outside the EU is about three things: economics, economics and economics. Almost all economists who have pronounced on the subject say that our national income would be lower than if we stayed in the single market. They do not say we would be poorer than we are now, but that we would be poorer than we would otherwise be. Estimates of the long-term effect range from 3 per cent of national income (Oxford Economics) to 8 per cent (London School of Economics). Source: Financial Times There may be all sorts of good reasons for leaving the EU, but maximising national wealth is not one of them. Wouldnt a Brexit recession be short-lived? We are not talking about the short-term effects of the disruption of Brexit. That would happen in two stages. First would be the immediate effect on confidence of a Leave vote: that would reflect expectations of lower growth in the long term, reducing economic activity immediately. Second would be the effects of Britain actually leaving the EU: the costs of tariffs on trade with the EU, and of new regulations now that we are responsible for our trade with the rest of the world. But after that, once the economy has adjusted to those changes, the long-term effects of being outside the EU would still be acting as a brake on growth. There are three main reasons for this. All you need to know about the EU referendum 1. We would be trading less with the EU Whatever our relations with the EU, we would not have tariff-free access to the single market, if we assume that Boris Johnson, or whoever is prime minister, sticks to the Leave campaigns policy of refusing to allow Britain to be part of the free movement of EU workers. 2. We would attract less foreign investment One of the reasons American, Chinese and Japanese companies choose to set up in Britain is that it gives them access to the EU single market. We would still have many attractions the English language, lovely countryside, three-pin plugs but we would be slightly less attractive than we were. What has the EU ever done for us? Show all 7 1 /7 What has the EU ever done for us? What has the EU ever done for us? 1. It gives you freedom to live, work and retire anywhere in Europe As a member of the EU, UK citizens benefit from freedom of movement across the continent. Considered one of the so-called four pillars of the European Union, this freedom allows all EU citizens to live, work and travel in other member states. What has the EU ever done for us? 2. It sustains millions of jobs A report by the Centre for Economics and Business Research, released in October 2015, suggested 3.1 million British jobs were linked to the UKs exports to the EU. What has the EU ever done for us? 3. Your holiday is much easier - and safer Freedom to travel is one of the most exercised benefits of EU membership, with Britons having made 31 million visits to the EU in 2014 alone. But a lot of the benefits of being an EU citizen are either taken for granted or go unnoticed. What has the EU ever done for us? 4. It means you're less likely to get ripped off Consumer protection is a key benefit of the EUs single market, and ensures members of the British public receive equal consumer rights when shopping anywhere in Europe. What has the EU ever done for us? 5. It offers greater protection from terrorists, paedophiles, people traffickers and cyber-crime Another example of a lesser-known advantage of EU membership is the benefit of cross-country coordination and cooperation in the fight against crime. What has the EU ever done for us? 6. Our businesses depend on it According to 71% of all members of the Confederation of British Influence (CBI), and 67 per cent of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the EU has had an overall positive impact on their business. What has the EU ever done for us? 7. We have greater influence Robin Niblett, Director of think-tank Chatham House, stated in a report published last year: For a mid-sized country like the UK, which will never again be economically dominant either globally or regionally, and whose diplomatic and military resources are declining in relative terms, being a major player in a strong regional institution can offer a critical lever for international influence. 3. Our labour market would become less dynamic At the moment, the British labour market is a world phenomenon. We are creating jobs at a record tilt. This is largely driven by immigration from the rest of the EU, but it is having a beneficial effect on British workers, driving growth and creating jobs for them too. Restricting immigration would create labour shortages, which might push up some wages in the short run, as Lord Rose, chairman of the Stronger In campaign, embarrassingly admitted three months ago. In the long term, however, most economists say that a restricted labour market would restrict growth and any gains for groups of workers would be wiped out. But these are the people who said we should join the euro No, they are not. Most of the people who advocated adopting the euro were politicians. Economists were divided on the question. The Treasury, after all, concluded in 2003 that we should not join. Now, the Treasury, the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the IMF and the OECD all agree that the economic consequences of leaving the EU are negative. This is not just guesswork. EU membership has been good for the British economy. Before we joined the EEC in 1973 we had the lowest average growth rate in the G7 thats us and the US, Japan, Germany, France, Italy and Canada. Since we joined we have had the highest. Slower population growth The main motive for leaving the EU, for most voters, is to reduce immigration. It seems reasonable to assume, therefore, that a post-Brexit government would exclude Britain from EU rules on freedom of movement, and try harder than the pre-Brexit government to restrict immigration from outside the EU as well. Even so, it would be hard to reduce net immigration by much, as Clare Foges, David Camerons former speechwriter pointed out this week (pay wall). When I worked at No 10 in 2010-15 writing key speeches on immigration I saw time and again how the Whitehall machine and various vested interests move to crush proposed immigration reforms. But population growth would be lower. So the effect on national income per head would be smaller than the 3-8 percentage points, and over time house prices might rise slightly less fast than they would otherwise rise. Diminished global clout Finally, there would be some non-economic effects of Brexit in the long term. If Scotland breaks away from the UK possibly at the same time as England actually leaves the EU in around 2018 the remaining kingdom of England, Wales and Northern Ireland would be smaller and even more lop-sided. Northern Irelands status probably wouldnt change, but it would seem even more anomalous. Britain might come under pressure to give up its permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council (the other members are the US, Russia, China and France). This can be resisted, but over time, as new international arrangements are built, they will be built around the US, the EU, China and possibly India. Britain would probably come behind Japan and Russia in that global pecking order. The first of our special reports, on the immediate impact of a Brexit vote, is here, and Andrew Grices second report, on the effect of Britains actual departure from the EU, is here The EU referendum debate has so far been characterised by bias, distortion and exaggeration. So until 23 June we were running a series of question and answer features that explain the most important issues in a detailed, dispassionate way to help inform your decision. What is Brexit and why are we having an EU referendum? Does the UK need to take more control of its sovereignty? Could the UK media swing the EU referendum one way or another? Will the UK benefit from being released from EU laws? Will we gain or lose rights by leaving the European Union? Will Brexit mean that Europeans have to leave the UK? Will leaving the EU lead to the break-up of the UK? What will happen to immigration if there's Brexit? Will Brexit make the UK more or less safe? Will the UK benefit from being released from EU laws? Will leaving the EU save taxpayers money and mean more money for the NHS? What will Brexit mean for British tourists booking holidays in the EU? Will Brexit help or damage the environment? Will Brexit mean that Europeans have to leave the UK? What will Brexit mean for British expats in Europe? Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Brexit and beyond email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} It's not just the politicians who have been engaged in acrimonious debate during the EU referendum. While Boris Johnson, David Cameron et al have been hurling insults at each other, voters have also been expressing their views - in the form of graffiti. One of the most striking examples has been a mural depicting Donald Trump and Johnson kissing each other to highlight what some perceive as the right-wing, narrow-minded message promoted by Leave campaigners. The image, which shows the presumptive Republican presidential candidate with his hand firmly on the former London mayors neck as they kiss, popped up in Bristol and is a reworking of the famous 1979 image that showed Leonid Brezhnev, the Soviet leader, and East German President Erich Honecker kissing. But it's not just that one with EU graffiti appearing all over the UK. Although most of the graffiti has been anti-Brexit, it hasn't all been one-sided. Eighty-year-old John Kapp, a Leave campaigner, was arrested after daubing Vote Leave in white paint on seafront billboards in Brighton. He painted the two-foot high letters on three commercial adverts, a skip and seven buildings. Mr Kapp, who was arrested for criminal damage, told the Argus: Ive had a Vote Leave sticker in my window for weeks now but hardly anyone goes down the road where I live so I thought Id choose the A259 where lots of people will see it. Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Ukip leader Nigel Farage has pulled out of the final debate before the EU referendum for "family reasons". The leader of the unofficial Leave.EU campaign to get people to vote Leave on Thursday was due to appear on the final debate hosted by Jeremy Paxman on Channel 4 this evening less than 12 hours before the polls open. A spokesman for Mr Farage told The Independent that the politician had been forced to drop out of the debate at the last minute for "family reasons" but did not elaborate further. He said the party had offered their migration spokesman, Steven Woolfe, instead but were declined. A spokesman for Channel 4 said Mr Farage had pulled out at around 2pm and the line up had been reshuffled. Mr Farage has been accused of "blatant scaremongering" and "Nazi propaganda" during the campaign as his side - which is separate from the official Brexit campaign Vote Leave - remaining heavily focused on immigration. Last week he was condemned for unveiling a new poster depicting a line of refugees with the caption "Breaking Point" with "the EU has failed us all" underneath within hours of pro-Remain MP Jo Cox being murdered in her Batley and Spen constituency. Farage refuses to apologise for 'Breaking Point' poster Earlier today, he refused to apologise for the poster - as Ukip MEP Dianne James claimed he already had - saying he was sorry "for the timing...but I can't apologise for the truth". Polling stations open in less than 12 hours with both sides still neck and neck. What's the European Parliament ever done for us? Show all 5 1 /5 What's the European Parliament ever done for us? What's the European Parliament ever done for us? A cap on the amount of hours an employer can make you work The Working Time directive provides legal standards to ensure the health and safety of employees in Europe. Among the many rules are a working week of a maximum 48 hours, including overtime, a daily rest period of 11 hours in every 24, a break if a person works for six hours or more, and one day off in every seven. It also includes provisions for paid annual leave of at least four weeks every year Getty Images What's the European Parliament ever done for us? Helping the people of Britain to avoid smoking In 2014 MEPs passed the Tobacco Products Directive strengthening existing rules on the manufacture, production and presentation of tobacco products. This includes things like reduced branding, restrictions on products containing flavoured tobacco, health warnings on cigarette packets and provisions for e-cigarettes to ensure they are safe What's the European Parliament ever done for us? Helping you to make the right choices with your food Thanks to the European Parliament, UK consumers have access to more information than ever about their food and drink. This includes amount of fat, and how much of it is saturated, carbohydrates, sugars, protein and so on. It also includes portion sizes and guideline daily amount information so people can make informed choices about their diet. All facts must be clear and easy to understand What's the European Parliament ever done for us? Two year guarantees and 14-day returns policy for all products Consumers across the EU have access to a number of rights, from things which are potentially very useful, to things which used to be annoying. For example, shoppers in the UK receive a two-year guarantee on all products, and a 14-day period to change their minds and return a purchase, these things are useful www.PeopleImages.com-licence restrictions apply What's the European Parliament ever done for us? Keeping your air nice and fresh (and safe) Believe it or not, although the situation is improving, some areas of the UK have appalling air quality. A report by the Royal College of Physicians released on 23 February says 40,000 deaths are caused by outdoor air pollution in the UK every year. Air pollution is linked to a number of illnesses and conditions, from Asthma to diabetes and dementia. The report estimates the costs to British business and the health service add up to 20 billion every year The final debate will pit the likes of Remainers like former Shadow Business Secretary Chuka Umunna MP, Green MP for Brighton and Hove Caroline Lucas and celebrity chef Delia Smith against Leavers such as Daniel Hannan MEP, Conservative MP for North-East Somerset Jacob Rees-Mogg and former weather girl Ulrika Jonsson to win over the remaining undecided voters. Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Brexit and beyond email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} We could be in for a very long night on Thursday. Nearly every opinion poll published during the last few days has put Remain and Leave at or very close to 50 per cent each. Even polls conducted by phone that until recently painted a much more optimistic picture for Remain have now also been saying that the two sides are very difficult to separate. Of course, nobody who remembers the polls underestimation of Conservative support at the last general election will wish to rely too heavily on their figures. Maybe one side or the other will eventually prove to have a clear lead. But the polls will have to make an even bigger mistake than last year for either side to win comfortably. As a result, whether it votes to stay in or get out, Britain is likely to look like a seriously divided country by Friday morning. Younger voters will have voted strongly for Remain, older ones to Leave. Graduates will have backed Remain, those with few education qualifications will have opted for the exit door. Scotland and Northern Ireland are likely to have demonstrated much greater for remaining in the EU than either England or Wales. Meanwhile, many a Conservative voter and MP will have voted against staying in the EU, leaving the party with battle scars that could well prove very difficult to heal. Equally, however the vote goes, it is unlikely to prove an unalloyed endorsement of either sides arguments. If the country votes to Remain, it will have done so despite its concerns about the level of immigration. If it votes to Leave it will have done so even though many fear the economic consequences of that choice. The choice may well have been a difficult one as voters weighed up the implications of free trade and freedom of movement. What to believe about the EU referendum But how will we discover what that the choice has proven to be? The count is being conducted and the results announced local authority by local authority. That means that, on the one hand, we will have a separate tally for the small band of 1,500 voters on the Isles of Scilly, and, on the other, just one result for the three quarters of a million or so people registered to vote in Birmingham. The first information we will get is the turnout in each area. It is widely thought that a higher turnout will favour Remain, but of this there is no guarantee. The demographic differences in turnout in last years general election, when 66 per cent participated, were very similar to those in the 2011 referendum on the Alternative Vote when just 42 percent did so. But a bigger issue is that there will be no previous results with which to compare the early results. We will not be able to say that there has been a swing to Remain or to Leave in Sunderland or Swindon. However, the broadcasters have been analysing many thousands of survey responses to estimate which are the local authorities where Remain would be expected to do well and which the ones where Leave are likely to be in the lead. The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit Show all 7 1 /7 The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit 22 May 2015 In his regular column in The Express Nigel Farage utilised the concerns over Putin and the EU to deliver a tongue in cheek conclusion. With friends like these, who needs enemies? PA The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit 13 November 2015 UKIP MEP for Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire Mike Hookem, was one of several political figures who took no time to harness the toxic atmosphere just moments after Paris attacks to push an agenda. Cameron says were safer in the EU. Well Im in the centre of the EU and it doesnt feel very safe. Getty Images The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit 19 April 2016 In an article written for The Guardian, Michael Gove attempts to bolster his argument with a highly charged metaphor in which he likens UK remaining in the EU to a hostage situation. Were voting to be hostages locked in the back of the car and driven headlong towards deeper EU integration. Rex The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit 26 April 2016 In a move that is hard to decipher, let alone understand, Mike Hookem stuck it to Obama re-tweeting a UKIP advertisement that utilises a quote from the film: Love Actually to dishonour the US stance on the EU. A friend who bullies us is no longer a friend The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit 10 May 2016 During a speech in London former work and pensions secretary Ian Duncan Smith said that EU migration would cause an increasing divide between people who benefit from immigration and people who couldnt not find work because of uncontrolled migration. The European Union is a force for social injustice which backs the haves rather than the have-nots. EPA The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit 15 May 2016 Cartoon character Boris Johnson made the news again over controversial comments that the EU had the same goal as Hitler in trying to create a political super state. Napoleon, Hitler, various people tried this out, and it ends tragically. The EU is an attempt to do this by different methods. PA The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit 16 May 2016 During a tour of the womens clothing manufacturer David Nieper, Boris had ample time to cook up a new metaphor, arguably eclipsing Goves in which he compares the EU to badly designed undergarments. So I just say to all those who prophecy doom and gloom for the British Business, I say their pants are on fire. Lets say knickers to the pessimists, knickers to all those who talk Britain down. Getty Images It is these estimates that will provide the clue to the apparent implications of the early results. If one side or other starts consistently to outperform its expected tally across a wide range of local authorities it should soon become clear which choice Britain has made. But if, on the other hand, the early results suggest both sides are performing in line with those expectations, we will most likely be facing a long night. Although Sunderland and Swindon are promising to declare by one or so in the morning, most councils expect to take much longer. The pace will only begin to quicken after 2am, while most results are expected between 3am and 5am. The last few counts may not be finished until shortly before the financial markets are due to open at 8am. If the result does go down to the wire, they may not get much warning of how in the referendum has turned out. And by then they may well, like the rest of us, already be thoroughly exhausted! John Curtice is Professor of Politics, Strathclyde University Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Brexit and beyond email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The UK has voted to leave the European Union after Leave won 52 per cent to Remain's 48 per cent. Following 43 years in the EU, the British electrorate chose Brexit after a turnout of 71.8 per cent. With more than 30 million voting, this is the highest turnout at nationwide vote since 1992. Prime Minister David Cameron has announced his decision to stand down following the result. He said he will continue in Number 10 until a successor is voted as Conservative Party leader. The chart below shows a running tally, with the map broken down into regions. You can also use the search tool to find out how your local area voted. Follow the latest live updates from the EU referendum England and Wales voted strongly for Brexit while Scotland and Northern Ireland supported Remain. In Scotland, 62 per cent voted to remain with 55.8 per cent voting voting the same in Northern Ireland. England voted 53.4 per cent to leave the EU with 52.5 per cent in Wales also voting for Brexit. How the EU referendum result unfolded The capital strongly voted to remain with 28 boroughs voting to stay in while only five boroughs voted for Brexit. London Mayor Sadiq Khan said he believes Britain "can survive and prosper outside the European Union", as he called for calm after the vote. "I want to send a clear message to the British people and to businesses and investors around the world this morning - there is no need to panic," he said in a statement. Final opinion polls released as the voting booths shut at 10pm gave a four-point lead to Remain but while conducted on the day, that was far from a conventional exit poll and subject to a similar set of accuracy issues as most polls. The first major results to come in, from Newcastle and Sunderland, have showed much stronger performances for Leave than experts predicted. EU referendum - in pictures Show all 18 1 /18 EU referendum - in pictures EU referendum - in pictures A woman in a wheelchair with British and European Union flags shows her support for the United Kingdom to remain in the European Union on the day of the EU Referendum in Gibraltar Getty Images EU referendum - in pictures A polling station being used in the EU referendum at Batley Town Hall in the constituency Labour MP Jo Cox PA EU referendum - in pictures People arrive to vote in the EU Referendum at the Library where British MP Jo Cox was shot and fatally wounded last week in Birstall EPA EU referendum - in pictures A man arrives to vote at a polling station for the Referendum on the European Union in north London REUTERS EU referendum - in pictures Voters queue to enter a polling station at Trinity Church in Golders Green in London Getty Images EU referendum - in pictures British Prime Minister David Cameron and his wife Samantha Cameron leave after voting in the EU Referendum at Central Methodist Hall, Westminster Getty Images EU referendum - in pictures Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn cast his vote at a polling station at Pakeman Primary School in Islington Getty Images EU referendum - in pictures Chelsea pensioners arrive at a polling station near to the Royal Chelsea Hospital PA EU referendum - in pictures A woman wearing an "I'm In" t-shirt, promoting the official "Remain" campaign, leaves a polling station in London AFP/Getty Images EU referendum - in pictures People queuing outside a polling station on Amott Road in London PA EU referendum - in pictures Scotland's First Minister and Leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP), Nicola Sturgeon and her husband Peter Murrell, react as leave after casting their votes at a polling station at Broomhouse Community Hall in east Glasgow AFP/Getty Images EU referendum - in pictures A man wearing a European themed cycling jersey leaves after voting at a polling station for the Referendum on the European Union in north London REUTERS EU referendum - in pictures Ukip leader Nigel Farage arrives to cast his vote at Cudham Church of England Primary School in Biggin Hill, Kent PA EU referendum - in pictures Justice Secretary and prominent 'Vote Leave' campaigner Michael Gove poses with his wife Sarah Vine after voting in the European Union referendum at their local polling station in Kensington Getty EU referendum - in pictures Nuns leave a polling station after voting in the EU Referendum in London EPA EU referendum - in pictures People arrive to cast their ballots in the EU Referendum in Gibraltar. The United Kingdom and its dependant territories are going to the polls to decide whether or not the the United Kingdom will remain in the European Union Getty Images EU referendum - in pictures A man driving a van covered in stickers urging people to vote for the United Kingdom to remain in the European Union drives outside a polling station on the day of the EU Referendum in Gibraltar Getty Images EU referendum - in pictures A sign on a gable wall in Belfast's, Loyalist Tigers Bay urging voters to leave the EU using scripture from Revelation 18:4, as voters head to the polls across the UK in a historic referendum on whether the UK should remain a member of the European Union or leave PA An hour ahead and with a small population, Gibraltar announced its result first shortly before midnight, giving a big lead to Remain as was expected from a territory positioned on the other side of the EU. European Council president Donald Tusk said there was "no way of predicting all the political consequences of this event, especially for the UK" and called for calm. "It is a historic moment but for sure not a moment for hysterical reactions," he said. Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Brexit and beyond email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} It is, without doubt, going to be a long night. The referendum results will be counted by local authority areas who will each declare their own results. These will then be passed up to regional centres - who will declare their results - before being passed over to the central counting centre in Manchester where the final result will be declared around breakfast time on Friday. Follow the latest live updates on the EU referendum But for those who intend to "see it through" here is The Independent's guide to the results to watch for, when to expect them - and when we could know the final answer of In or Out. How the EU referendum result unfolded 1am Newcastle and Sunderland These cities will be among the first results to declare. They are strong Labour areas so will be important to see how successful the party has been at getting their voters to back Remain. 1.30 Stirling The first big Scottish city to declare. Expect a big Remain win if not the UK could be heading for Brexit. 2.00 Oxford Again should be a Remain vote. Turnout here will be interesting to see how many students have bothered to come out and vote. 2.00 Basildon Which way will Essex man go: Probably for Brexit - but if not it will be bad news for the Leave campaign. 3.00 Hammersmith London is expected to firmly back Remain. If they dont or its close here expect a long night. 3.00 Torbay The South West has always been traditionally Eurosceptic. But has project fear been enough to scare richer voters into sticking with the devil they know? 4.00 Birmingham Being such a large area this could be a real bell weather seat giving us the first real clear indication of how the vote is likely to go. But if its neck and neck we will still be hanging on. The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit Show all 7 1 /7 The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit 22 May 2015 In his regular column in The Express Nigel Farage utilised the concerns over Putin and the EU to deliver a tongue in cheek conclusion. With friends like these, who needs enemies? PA The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit 13 November 2015 UKIP MEP for Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire Mike Hookem, was one of several political figures who took no time to harness the toxic atmosphere just moments after Paris attacks to push an agenda. Cameron says were safer in the EU. Well Im in the centre of the EU and it doesnt feel very safe. Getty Images The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit 19 April 2016 In an article written for The Guardian, Michael Gove attempts to bolster his argument with a highly charged metaphor in which he likens UK remaining in the EU to a hostage situation. Were voting to be hostages locked in the back of the car and driven headlong towards deeper EU integration. Rex The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit 26 April 2016 In a move that is hard to decipher, let alone understand, Mike Hookem stuck it to Obama re-tweeting a UKIP advertisement that utilises a quote from the film: Love Actually to dishonour the US stance on the EU. A friend who bullies us is no longer a friend The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit 10 May 2016 During a speech in London former work and pensions secretary Ian Duncan Smith said that EU migration would cause an increasing divide between people who benefit from immigration and people who couldnt not find work because of uncontrolled migration. The European Union is a force for social injustice which backs the haves rather than the have-nots. EPA The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit 15 May 2016 Cartoon character Boris Johnson made the news again over controversial comments that the EU had the same goal as Hitler in trying to create a political super state. Napoleon, Hitler, various people tried this out, and it ends tragically. The EU is an attempt to do this by different methods. PA The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit 16 May 2016 During a tour of the womens clothing manufacturer David Nieper, Boris had ample time to cook up a new metaphor, arguably eclipsing Goves in which he compares the EU to badly designed undergarments. So I just say to all those who prophecy doom and gloom for the British Business, I say their pants are on fire. Lets say knickers to the pessimists, knickers to all those who talk Britain down. Getty Images 4.00 Tendring The local authority that covers Clacton Douglas Carswells seat. Expected to be a stomping vote to Leave. 5am Glasgow and Liverpool The votes will really be stacking up by now and it may well be possible to begin calling the night for Remain or Leave. 4.30 Great Yarmouth A number of predominantly Eurosceptic areas, such as Great Yarmouth are not expected to declare until towards the end of the night so even if Remain are in the lead it could be reversed if the vote is tight. 7.00 Waveney The Electoral Commission expects the final four results to come through at 7am. We should know who has won a bit before then. But if its close who knows. The EU referendum debate has so far been characterised by bias, distortion and exaggeration. So until 23 June we were running a series of question and answer features that explain the most important issues in a detailed, dispassionate way to help inform your decision. What is Brexit and why are we having an EU referendum? Does the UK need to take more control of its sovereignty? Could the UK media swing the EU referendum one way or another? Will the UK benefit from being released from EU laws? Will we gain or lose rights by leaving the European Union? Will Brexit mean that Europeans have to leave the UK? Will leaving the EU lead to the break-up of the UK? What will happen to immigration if there's Brexit? Will Brexit make the UK more or less safe? Will the UK benefit from being released from EU laws? Will leaving the EU save taxpayers money and mean more money for the NHS? What will Brexit mean for British tourists booking holidays in the EU? Will Brexit help or damage the environment? Will Brexit mean that Europeans have to leave the UK? What will Brexit mean for British expats in Europe? Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Brexit and beyond email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} As Britons decide whether to back the Remain or Leave camp in the European Union referendum, Europeans across the continent are also pondering the potential consequences of a Brexit vote. Here The Independent takes a look at some of the specific questions that are among the top Google searches from people living across the EU: Germany: 'Would Brexit be bad for Londons financial centre? Besides the typical what is Brexit? query common across the vast majority of the EU Germans are particularly concerned about whether a Brexit vote would be bad for Londons financial centre. Earlier in June the German Chancellor Angela Merkel broke her self-imposed vow of silence on the EU referendum to say she hopes the UK will vote to remain for the benefit of all of us. She also appeared to warn that Britain would get a worse deal outside the bloc. In a special edition of this weeks Der Spiegel, an influential news magazine in Germany, the cover headline declared: Please dont go! Why Germany needs the British. The editorial said: The only internationally known politician in favour of a Brexitis Donald Trump - and, if nothing else does, that alone should make the British worry. Der Spiegel with cover headline of 'Please don't go!' (Getty) A survey for the magazine from polling firm TNS found that 79 per cent of Germans wanted Britain to remain a member of the EU. It added that half of the respondents believed Brexit would have no negative impact on the German economy while 36 per cent thought the economic situation would deteriorate. Poland: How would Brexit affect Poles in the UK Poles are searching for more specific areas of interest such as: what will happen to the British pound if there is a Brexit and how would Brexit affect Poles in the UK? At the last count, the Office for National Statistics concluded that there around three million citizens of other European countries residing in the UK or, around five per cent of the population in Britain. Poles make up by far the biggest group within the overarching figure, with some 800,000 living here. Predictably, perhaps, many are likely to be fearful of what the future holds if Britons vote for Brexit. Spain How would Gibraltar be affected by Brexit? In Spain the second most popular search after what is Brexit? concerns the British overseas territory on the south coast of Spain Gibraltar. In May Fabian Picardo, Gibraltars chief minister, warned Leave campaigners that they risk sacrificing the territory to the spectre of a Spanish soveirgnity grab. Rock of Gibraltar (Getty) If you care about Gibraltar, if you believe that Gibraltar should remain British, then you have to vote for the UK to stay in the EU so that we dont face a challenge to our sovereignty within four days of the referendum result, he told the London Evening Standard. We fought so hard to push off the spectre of Spanish sovereignty, or even joint sovereignty, and we would in effect be put in a situation where we are giving Spain the excuse to table it again. Romania: What will Romania lose with Brexit? More than 170,000 Romanians currently reside in Britain, so it is no surprise they are pondering the effects of a potential Brexit. As Romanian expats - like other European expats in the UK - send home a considerable amount of money, people in the country are likely worried that a Brexit vote could restrict the rights of Romanians to work in the UK. Speaking about a potential Brexit, the Romanian Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos said in an interview with French newspaper Le Monde: The Brits will decide what is best for them and Im sure they will do so in a rational way, taking into account what they stand to lose in this perspective. He added that, like other member states, Romania is concerned the economic impact of Brexit. It is expected that the countrys exports to the UK could also be severely affected. Britain is the fifth most important destination for Romanian exports with a four per cent share of the total or equivalent to 2.3 billion. Croatia: 'Is the Queen supporting Brexit?' Croatia joined the EU just three years ago by a large majority so are likely to be mystified as why Britain wants to exit. One of Croatians most popular searches relates to what their government is advocating in terms of the European referendum. But, interestingly, Croatians also seem to value Queen Elizabeth IIs input. Is the Queen supporting Brexit? is the countrys fifth most searched question in relation to the EU referendum. Close followers of Britains monarch will know she never makes public interventions in matters concerning politics. The Sun - March 2016 The Queen remains politically neutral, as she has for 63 years, is a common phrase oft repeated by Buckingham Palace. So Croatians were likely to be interested in the front page of the Sun earlier this year which declared that the Queen backs Brexit. She was reported to have let rip at the then Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg during a lunch at Windsor Castle, where she is said to have informed him of her belief that the European project was heading the wrong direction. Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Brexit and beyond email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A year before the general election I heard myself saying, in a live television interview: In five years time, we will have forgotten who Nigel Farage was. Ukip had just come top in the European Parliament elections, winning 27 per cent of the vote, but I didnt think the party would do well at Westminster. I was wrong about that before I was right. Farages party gained two seats in October and November 2014, when Douglas Carswell and Mark Reckless defected from the Conservatives, fighting and winning by-elections. Then, in the general election, in which Ukip was expected to win about five seats, it ended up with just one. Carswell, who had already fallen out with Farage, held his seat, but Reckless lost his and Farage himself didnt even come close in the seat he had nursed for a while, Thanet South. I still think I was right to describe the 2014 European Parliament elections as peak Ukip. I said then that the general election would be the end of the party, not because it would hardly win any MPs but because its purpose would have been exhausted. Either Ed Miliband would have formed a government, in which case the Conservatives in opposition would become the main Brexit party, rendering Ukip redundant. Or David Cameron would have been returned, in which case the referendum would be held, also rendering Ukip redundant, because the objective for which the party existed would be decided directly by the British people. Which is roughly what happened. Farages party didnt even get the kitemark as part of the official Leave campaign. As the Dick Van Dyke of the one-man band, Farage has been one of the prominent characters campaigning for Leave, but his party has ceased to be visible in its own right. What has the EU ever done for us? Show all 7 1 /7 What has the EU ever done for us? What has the EU ever done for us? 1. It gives you freedom to live, work and retire anywhere in Europe As a member of the EU, UK citizens benefit from freedom of movement across the continent. Considered one of the so-called four pillars of the European Union, this freedom allows all EU citizens to live, work and travel in other member states. What has the EU ever done for us? 2. It sustains millions of jobs A report by the Centre for Economics and Business Research, released in October 2015, suggested 3.1 million British jobs were linked to the UKs exports to the EU. What has the EU ever done for us? 3. Your holiday is much easier - and safer Freedom to travel is one of the most exercised benefits of EU membership, with Britons having made 31 million visits to the EU in 2014 alone. But a lot of the benefits of being an EU citizen are either taken for granted or go unnoticed. What has the EU ever done for us? 4. It means you're less likely to get ripped off Consumer protection is a key benefit of the EUs single market, and ensures members of the British public receive equal consumer rights when shopping anywhere in Europe. What has the EU ever done for us? 5. It offers greater protection from terrorists, paedophiles, people traffickers and cyber-crime Another example of a lesser-known advantage of EU membership is the benefit of cross-country coordination and cooperation in the fight against crime. What has the EU ever done for us? 6. Our businesses depend on it According to 71% of all members of the Confederation of British Influence (CBI), and 67 per cent of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the EU has had an overall positive impact on their business. What has the EU ever done for us? 7. We have greater influence Robin Niblett, Director of think-tank Chatham House, stated in a report published last year: For a mid-sized country like the UK, which will never again be economically dominant either globally or regionally, and whose diplomatic and military resources are declining in relative terms, being a major player in a strong regional institution can offer a critical lever for international influence. Indeed, Farage has been more visible than the official Leave campaign intended. One of the striking moments of the substructure of the referendum was the late-night wobbly thrown by Dominic Cummings, Vote Leaves campaign director, when he found out that ITV had booked Farage to appear on the same programme as the Prime Minister. Cummings put out a Vote Leave statement saying: ITV has effectively joined the official In campaign and there will be consequences for its future the people in No 10 wont be there for long. Cummings was well aware that Farage was engaged in an undeclared competition with Jeremy Corbyn to see who could do the most damage to his own side. The reason Vote Leave didnt want Farage anywhere near its campaign was that it knows he is a repelling magnet for undecided voters. He inspires enthusiastic support from Ukippers those with whom he hasnt had any personal dealings, anyway but his appeal is to a tightly defined minority demographic. So what happens to him and his party after Friday? Ukip continues to attract more support in opinion polls than the 13 per cent share of the vote it won in the general election in ComRess survey for The Independent last weekend it was on 19 per cent but it will become increasingly hard to see what the point of the party is. If the British people vote to leave the EU, it would be a Conservative government and a Conservative prime minister probably Boris Johnson charged with putting into effect the central purpose of Ukip. If, on the other hand, we vote to stay, politics would continue in recognisable form, a politics in which there would be a role for Ukip, but a minor one. The party could carry on as a vehicle for protest against immigration among Labour supporters in the north, and as the repository for nostalgia among disaffected Tories in the south. But the fundamental question of immigration free movement of EU workers would have been decided by the referendum. Meanwhile, the questions that once animated Tory defectors, gay marriage and wind turbines, are losing their power. Farage has shown himself surprisingly resilient in Ukips long haul from irrelevance to todays Indian summer, in which he can claim credit for having secured the referendum. But that haul has been punctuated by periods, including a few days after the general election when he resigned as party leader and then unresigned, when he abandoned the struggle. It is hard to imagine that he would set off on another long march of protest towards the distant prospect of a second referendum. But, of course, we wont forget who he was. Journalists are still full of stories about how he would suggest going for a drink at 11am, saying, The sun will be over the yard-arm somewhere in the Empire. No, we wont forget this throwback to the old City of London, the metals trader nostalgic for the boozy, unregulated days before the Big Bang, the opponent of the EU who is married to a German, and who drives a Swedish car. But on Friday, win or lose, his career in British politics is over. The EU referendum debate has so far been characterised by bias, distortion and exaggeration. So until 23 June we were running a series of question and answer features that explain the most important issues in a detailed, dispassionate way to help inform your decision. What is Brexit and why are we having an EU referendum? Does the UK need to take more control of its sovereignty? Could the UK media swing the EU referendum one way or another? Will the UK benefit from being released from EU laws? Will we gain or lose rights by leaving the European Union? Will Brexit mean that Europeans have to leave the UK? Will leaving the EU lead to the break-up of the UK? What will happen to immigration if there's Brexit? Will Brexit make the UK more or less safe? Will the UK benefit from being released from EU laws? Will leaving the EU save taxpayers money and mean more money for the NHS? What will Brexit mean for British tourists booking holidays in the EU? Will Brexit help or damage the environment? Will Brexit mean that Europeans have to leave the UK? What will Brexit mean for British expats in Europe? Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Brexit and beyond email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Ryanair has stoked yet more controversy in the referendum debate by promising its biggest-ever seat sale on Friday - but only if the UK votes to stay in the EU. Michael OLeary, chief executive of the Irish airline, said: If Britain votes to remain theres going to be the biggest-ever Ryanair seat sale for people who want to go and visit Europe. It will be particularly aimed at Messrs Johnson, Farage and Gove - the people who really dont know that much about Europe and need to spend more time abroad. Recommended Read more Biggest turnout in history could decide EU referendum Speaking exclusively to The Independent, Mr OLeary said: We wouldnt have grown to the size weve grown without Europe, the single market and deregulation. Low fares were brought to you by the single market. What Boris [Johnson] and Michael Gove want to go back to is a Europe when British Airways were charging 800 and only the rich could afford to fly. Last month Ryanair was investigated by the Metropolitan Police following a Brexit special offer that invited British residents overseas to fly home to vote remain in the Referendum for 19.99. The Vote Leave campaign director, Dominic Cummings, said the offer was corrupt because it offered a discount to passengers with the sole aim of ensuring that they vote, and vote to remain in the European Union. Mr OLeary rejected the suggestion that the conditional offer is illegal, saying: On Friday its after the referendum is over. Its not bribery as the cheap seats will be available for both people who vote to remain and vote to exit. "We want to reward everybody. Were calling for a strong remain vote. We think if theres a remain vote air fares will fall. Ryanair will invest more in the UK, invest more in jobs and it will be better for Britain generally. Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Show all 30 1 /30 Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? David Beckham (REMAIN) The former captain for the England international football team announced on Instagram that he was voting to Remain. He said: We live in a vibrant and connected world where together as a people we are strong. For our children and their children we should be facing the problems of the world together and not alone. Getty Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Victoria Beckham (REMAIN) 'I believe in my country, I believe in a future for my children where we are stronger together and I support the remain campaign.' Getty Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Daniel Craig (REMAIN) Actor He was pictured wearing a white T-shirt with the slogan: 'No man is an island. No country by itself. Vote Remain on 23rd June.' Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Bob Geldof (REMAIN) Irish singer expresses his support for the Remain vote as he waves from a boat carrying supporters for the 'Remain' campaign in London AFP/Getty Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? John Cleese (LEAVE) The Monty Python star signalled he will vote to leave the EU when he tweeted: "If I thought there was any chance of major reform in the EU, I'd vote to stay in. But there isn't. Sad." Getty Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Daniel Portman (REMAIN) Game of Thrones actor supports Reamin vote Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Elton John (REMAIN) The singer also announced his intention to vote Remain on Instagram, sharing an image which said Build bridges not walls, along with the caption I'm voting to remain. #StrongerInEurope Getty Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Roger Daltrey (LEAVE) Former frontman of iconic rock band The Who. I am not anti European, but I an anti the present way we are being governed in Europe, he wrote in The Mirror. The whole system has been corrupted by political ego and massive government overreach. The Euro being a perfect example I do not want to be dragged into the kind of Federal State that this present EU is pushing for - with the UK's voice getting smaller and smaller. AFP/Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? JK Rowling (REMAIN) The author of the Harry Potter books has expressed concern that "racists and bigots" are directing parts of the Leave campaign. She added: How can a retreat into selfish and insecure individualism be the right response when Europe faces genuine threats, when the bonds that tie us are so powerful, when we have come so far together? How can we hope to conquer the enormous challenges of terrorism and climate change without cooperation and collaboration? Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Vivienne Westwood (REMAIN) British fashion designer expressed her support for Remain vote Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Michael Caine (LEAVE) The actor has said he is a reluctant Leaver. He said: "I don't know what to vote for. Both are scary. To me, you've now got in Europe a sort of government-by-proxy of everybody, who has now got carried away. Unless there is some extremely significant changes, we should get out." Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Benedict Cumberbatch (REMAIN) Benedict Cumberbatch and Sir Patrick Stewart led more than 280 figures from the arts world who backed a vote to stay. An open letter pledging support for Remain was also signed by music stars Hot Chip, alt-J and Paloma Faith, authors Dame Hilary Mantel and John le Carre, and fashion designer Dame Vivienne Westwood. Daniel Craig was pictured wearing a vote Remain t-shirt with the words "No man is an island. No country by itself" emblazoned across it in a picture tweeted on the Stronger IN account. Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Patrick Stewart (REMAIN) Actor is a leading supporter of the Remain campaign Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Elizabeth Hurley (LEAVE) The actress said If it means we can go back to using decent lightbulbs and choose high-powered hairdryers and vacuum cleaners if we so wish, I'm joining Brexit for sure. Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Stephen Hawking (REMAIN) The physicist was in favour staying, and said "progress comes from co-operation". He said: "By working together in Europe we make our economy stronger and we give ourselves more influence in the world and we provide future opportunities for young people." Numerous scientists have also voiced their support for Remain, claiming an out vote would badly damage the field. Getty Images for Breakthrough Pr Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Sol Campbell (LEAVE) The former England international football star said he is backing Brexit so that young British sporting talent would be nurtured and given greater opportunities at British clubs. He said: "I'm looking at the sporting side - how youngsters aren't getting the opportunities at some of the big clubs and some of the big clubs are bringing in youngsters from 14, 15, 16 and becoming homegrown, which is pushing some of our youngsters out." Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Hilary Mantel (REMAIN) Author Hilary Mantel announced her support for Remain vote Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Bear Grylls (REMAIN) The adventurer and TV presenter said he spoke "from the heart" in backing the EU. "At such a time for the UK to retreat, run and cut ourselves loose from Europe, when there are so many challenges on our doorstep, to me just doesn't feel either courageous or kind, he said. Europe has many flaws, but I also believe the way to help resolve many of those tough issues is from within... I have never been a good quitter and I am so proud of the UK and our values: tolerance, kindness, respect, courage and resilience. This is why I want us to stay together and Remain in Europe." Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Billy Bragg (REMAIN) British singer decided to support Remain campaign AFP/Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Ian Botham (LEAVE) The former England Test cricketer and Test team captain supports Brexit Getty/Laureus Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Simon Cowell (REMAIN) Music mogul Simon Cowell announced his support of staying in EU Getty Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? David James (LEAVE) The former England goalkeeper supports Brexit Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Idris Elba (REMAIN) The actor voiced his support for Remain vote Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? John Le Carre (REMAIN) British writer supports Remain campaign Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Paloma Faith (REMAIN) English singer supports Remain campaign Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Perry McCarthy (LEAVE) The racing driver supports Leave campaign Rex Features Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Keira Knightley (REMAIN) The actress intends to vote for Remain campaign Getty Images for Lincoln Center Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? James Cracknell (LEAVE) British athlete and rowing champion decided to vote for Brexit Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Florence Welch (REMAIN) British singer supports Remain campaign Getty Images for Gucci Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Helena Bonham-Carter (REMAIN) The actress expressed her support for Remain vote AFP/Getty Images What to believe about the EU referendum The EU referendum debate has so far been characterised by bias, distortion and exaggeration. So until 23 June we were running a series of question and answer features that explain the most important issues in a detailed, dispassionate way to help inform your decision. What is Brexit and why are we having an EU referendum? Does the UK need to take more control of its sovereignty? Could the UK media swing the EU referendum one way or another? Will the UK benefit from being released from EU laws? Will we gain or lose rights by leaving the European Union? Will Brexit mean that Europeans have to leave the UK? Will leaving the EU lead to the break-up of the UK? What will happen to immigration if there's Brexit? Will Brexit make the UK more or less safe? Will the UK benefit from being released from EU laws? Will leaving the EU save taxpayers money and mean more money for the NHS? What will Brexit mean for British tourists booking holidays in the EU? Will Brexit help or damage the environment? Will Brexit mean that Europeans have to leave the UK? What will Brexit mean for British expats in Europe? Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The lunar calendar is unlikely to have been a consideration in the planning of the BBCs EU debate in Wembley Stadium last night, but it certainly made its effects felt on one of the stars of the evening, London Mayor Sadiq Khan. The month of Ramadan, in which Muslims fast during daylight hours, moves back 12 days each year and this year coincided with the summer solstice when days are at their longest. With the EU debate falling on the evening of 21 June, it was the worst possible timing for Mr Khan, who, despite frequently raising his voice to make his points on stage, did not drink any water or eat for more than 19 hours. A spokesman for Mr Khan confirmed that the mayor did not take exceptions despite being one of just six people on stage in the high-stakes referendum campaign. Muslims in London were required to fast from 2.40am until 9.24pm, at which point the mayor was able to break the fast and take refreshments. Mr Khan was pitted against former Mayor of London Boris Johnson, with the pair trading heated remarks over immigration. Mr Khan won the loudest cheers of the evening, after he said: The problem is this, Boris. You might start off by saying how wonderful immigration is. But your campaign hasnt been Project Fear, its been Project Hate as far as immigration is concerned. Mr Johnson threw the Project Hate remark back at Mr Khan saying he was a passionate believer in immigration but it has got to be controlled, and reiterated his desire to introduce the policy put forward by Nigel Farage of an Australian-style points system so we get the people we need. Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Show all 30 1 /30 Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? David Beckham (REMAIN) The former captain for the England international football team announced on Instagram that he was voting to Remain. He said: We live in a vibrant and connected world where together as a people we are strong. For our children and their children we should be facing the problems of the world together and not alone. Getty Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Victoria Beckham (REMAIN) 'I believe in my country, I believe in a future for my children where we are stronger together and I support the remain campaign.' Getty Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Daniel Craig (REMAIN) Actor He was pictured wearing a white T-shirt with the slogan: 'No man is an island. No country by itself. Vote Remain on 23rd June.' Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Bob Geldof (REMAIN) Irish singer expresses his support for the Remain vote as he waves from a boat carrying supporters for the 'Remain' campaign in London AFP/Getty Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? John Cleese (LEAVE) The Monty Python star signalled he will vote to leave the EU when he tweeted: "If I thought there was any chance of major reform in the EU, I'd vote to stay in. But there isn't. Sad." Getty Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Daniel Portman (REMAIN) Game of Thrones actor supports Reamin vote Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Elton John (REMAIN) The singer also announced his intention to vote Remain on Instagram, sharing an image which said Build bridges not walls, along with the caption I'm voting to remain. #StrongerInEurope Getty Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Roger Daltrey (LEAVE) Former frontman of iconic rock band The Who. I am not anti European, but I an anti the present way we are being governed in Europe, he wrote in The Mirror. The whole system has been corrupted by political ego and massive government overreach. The Euro being a perfect example I do not want to be dragged into the kind of Federal State that this present EU is pushing for - with the UK's voice getting smaller and smaller. AFP/Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? JK Rowling (REMAIN) The author of the Harry Potter books has expressed concern that "racists and bigots" are directing parts of the Leave campaign. She added: How can a retreat into selfish and insecure individualism be the right response when Europe faces genuine threats, when the bonds that tie us are so powerful, when we have come so far together? How can we hope to conquer the enormous challenges of terrorism and climate change without cooperation and collaboration? Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Vivienne Westwood (REMAIN) British fashion designer expressed her support for Remain vote Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Michael Caine (LEAVE) The actor has said he is a reluctant Leaver. He said: "I don't know what to vote for. Both are scary. To me, you've now got in Europe a sort of government-by-proxy of everybody, who has now got carried away. Unless there is some extremely significant changes, we should get out." Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Benedict Cumberbatch (REMAIN) Benedict Cumberbatch and Sir Patrick Stewart led more than 280 figures from the arts world who backed a vote to stay. An open letter pledging support for Remain was also signed by music stars Hot Chip, alt-J and Paloma Faith, authors Dame Hilary Mantel and John le Carre, and fashion designer Dame Vivienne Westwood. Daniel Craig was pictured wearing a vote Remain t-shirt with the words "No man is an island. No country by itself" emblazoned across it in a picture tweeted on the Stronger IN account. Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Patrick Stewart (REMAIN) Actor is a leading supporter of the Remain campaign Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Elizabeth Hurley (LEAVE) The actress said If it means we can go back to using decent lightbulbs and choose high-powered hairdryers and vacuum cleaners if we so wish, I'm joining Brexit for sure. Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Stephen Hawking (REMAIN) The physicist was in favour staying, and said "progress comes from co-operation". He said: "By working together in Europe we make our economy stronger and we give ourselves more influence in the world and we provide future opportunities for young people." Numerous scientists have also voiced their support for Remain, claiming an out vote would badly damage the field. Getty Images for Breakthrough Pr Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Sol Campbell (LEAVE) The former England international football star said he is backing Brexit so that young British sporting talent would be nurtured and given greater opportunities at British clubs. He said: "I'm looking at the sporting side - how youngsters aren't getting the opportunities at some of the big clubs and some of the big clubs are bringing in youngsters from 14, 15, 16 and becoming homegrown, which is pushing some of our youngsters out." Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Hilary Mantel (REMAIN) Author Hilary Mantel announced her support for Remain vote Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Bear Grylls (REMAIN) The adventurer and TV presenter said he spoke "from the heart" in backing the EU. "At such a time for the UK to retreat, run and cut ourselves loose from Europe, when there are so many challenges on our doorstep, to me just doesn't feel either courageous or kind, he said. Europe has many flaws, but I also believe the way to help resolve many of those tough issues is from within... I have never been a good quitter and I am so proud of the UK and our values: tolerance, kindness, respect, courage and resilience. This is why I want us to stay together and Remain in Europe." Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Billy Bragg (REMAIN) British singer decided to support Remain campaign AFP/Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Ian Botham (LEAVE) The former England Test cricketer and Test team captain supports Brexit Getty/Laureus Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Simon Cowell (REMAIN) Music mogul Simon Cowell announced his support of staying in EU Getty Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? David James (LEAVE) The former England goalkeeper supports Brexit Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Idris Elba (REMAIN) The actor voiced his support for Remain vote Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? John Le Carre (REMAIN) British writer supports Remain campaign Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Paloma Faith (REMAIN) English singer supports Remain campaign Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Perry McCarthy (LEAVE) The racing driver supports Leave campaign Rex Features Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Keira Knightley (REMAIN) The actress intends to vote for Remain campaign Getty Images for Lincoln Center Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? James Cracknell (LEAVE) British athlete and rowing champion decided to vote for Brexit Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Florence Welch (REMAIN) British singer supports Remain campaign Getty Images for Gucci Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Helena Bonham-Carter (REMAIN) The actress expressed her support for Remain vote AFP/Getty Images Khan was quick to point out that Australia sees twice as much immigration as Britain does for a country its size. Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A Vote Leave representative has dodged a question about whether the campaign will pay back a 600,000 donation from a former BNP member. The BuzzFeed News website first reported on Tuesday afternoon that Gladys Bramall, of Sutton Coldfield in Birmingham, had been a member of the BNP. TUC general secretary Frances OGrady, who backs Remain, raised the question live during an EU referendum debate at the Wembley Arena. Today we learned that Vote Leave took a 600,000 donation from a former member of the BNP. Are you going to pay it back? she asked. Andrea Leadsom, a Conservative MP who was present in the debate for the Leave campaign, did not directly answer the question, however. That is unworthy of this debate, she said, before continuing: There are millions of people who have very real and genuine concerns about the impact of free movement in this country and who have donated to a campaign, to Vote Leave, to take back control. The problem with free movement, for me as a mum. Ms Bramall, the third biggest individual donor to Vote Leave, had her name on the BNPs membership register, which was leaked in 2006 when Nick Griffin was leader. She told the website: My husband joined, he obviously enrolled me at the same time. It wasnt with my knowledge. The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit Show all 7 1 /7 The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit 22 May 2015 In his regular column in The Express Nigel Farage utilised the concerns over Putin and the EU to deliver a tongue in cheek conclusion. With friends like these, who needs enemies? PA The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit 13 November 2015 UKIP MEP for Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire Mike Hookem, was one of several political figures who took no time to harness the toxic atmosphere just moments after Paris attacks to push an agenda. Cameron says were safer in the EU. Well Im in the centre of the EU and it doesnt feel very safe. Getty Images The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit 19 April 2016 In an article written for The Guardian, Michael Gove attempts to bolster his argument with a highly charged metaphor in which he likens UK remaining in the EU to a hostage situation. Were voting to be hostages locked in the back of the car and driven headlong towards deeper EU integration. Rex The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit 26 April 2016 In a move that is hard to decipher, let alone understand, Mike Hookem stuck it to Obama re-tweeting a UKIP advertisement that utilises a quote from the film: Love Actually to dishonour the US stance on the EU. A friend who bullies us is no longer a friend The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit 10 May 2016 During a speech in London former work and pensions secretary Ian Duncan Smith said that EU migration would cause an increasing divide between people who benefit from immigration and people who couldnt not find work because of uncontrolled migration. The European Union is a force for social injustice which backs the haves rather than the have-nots. EPA The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit 15 May 2016 Cartoon character Boris Johnson made the news again over controversial comments that the EU had the same goal as Hitler in trying to create a political super state. Napoleon, Hitler, various people tried this out, and it ends tragically. The EU is an attempt to do this by different methods. PA The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit 16 May 2016 During a tour of the womens clothing manufacturer David Nieper, Boris had ample time to cook up a new metaphor, arguably eclipsing Goves in which he compares the EU to badly designed undergarments. So I just say to all those who prophecy doom and gloom for the British Business, I say their pants are on fire. Lets say knickers to the pessimists, knickers to all those who talk Britain down. Getty Images After the debate Michael Gove was asked about the donation. He said Vote Leave were currently investigating how this money arrived in the accounts. Mr Gove added that the donation was from a woman who was signed up to the party by her husband, who has since died, and was "horrified" when she found out. "So you're keeping the money," he was asked. "We're still investigating," he replied. Vote Leave has also declined to comment on the revelation. Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A Ukip politician told a Muslim man his sort are not to be trusted after he wished him a happy Ramadan, it has been reported. Michael Frost, who is a leading Ukip politician in Bristol and former councillor for the party, made the comments in a group email thread sent to local councillors, The Bristol Post reports. Local resident and family centre worker Ahmedhakim Jahad emailed the politicians to mark Ramadan, quoting a passage of the Koran which reads: Blessed is the month of Ramadan. It is the month of prayer and guidance, discipline and tolerance, repentance and charity. In response, Mr Frost reportedly wrote back: Tell this to all the innocent people you and your type have murdered. Shame on you and the bastard scum who kill in the name of Islam. Mr Jahad said in response: I'm a practicing Muslim but have not killed anybody. I'm sorry that you feel that way, as [I] have extended my hand to you. You do not know me yet you [are] insulting me. It is very common of your sort to insult every Muslim but thank you anyhow I shall endeavour not to trouble you again. God Bless. A further response was then reportedly sent by Mr Frost, saying: Thank you for your reply, I did not accuse you of anything and I know that all muslims are not terrorists but all the terrorists ARE muslims. The vast majority of the 'real' British public don't trust your 'sort' and we don't want you in our civilised country. Please stop using the word 'righteousness' until you understand what it means, unless you think that mutilating your young girls private parts, making your women subservient and brainwashing your young men to leave their families and waste their lives fighting a hopeless war is Righteousness. UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 26 October 2022 A meerkat explores a pumpkin in the enclosure at Wild Place, Bristol, where some of the animals are having pumpkin treats as part of their environmental enrichment PA UK news in pictures 25 October 2022 King Charles III welcomes Rishi Sunak during an audience at Buckingham Palace, where he invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2022 Rishi Sunak celebrates with Tory MPs outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters after becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party Reuters UK news in pictures 23 October 2022 The Green Man at October Plenty, Borough Market's annual Autumn Harvest festival, in London, which returns for the first time post pandemic PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA UK news in pictures 24 September 2022 Handout photo issued by Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2022 A climate change activist protests against UK private jets while lighting his right arm on fire during the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London EPA UK news in pictures 22 September 2022 Woody Woodmansey, Lee Bennett, Kevin Armstrong, Nick Moran and Clifford Slapper attend the unveiling of a stone for David Bowie on the Music Walk of Fame at Camden, north London PA UK news in pictures 21 September 2022 A flock of birds in the sky as the sun rises over Dungeness in Kent PA UK news in pictures 20 September 2022 Flowers which were laid by members of the public in tribute to Queen Elizabeth II at Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland are collected by the Hillsborough Gardening Team and volunteers to be replanted for those that can be saved or composted PA UK news in pictures 19 September 2022 The ceremonial procession of the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II travels down the long walk as it arrives at Windsor Castle for the committal service at St Georges Chapel AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 18 September 2022 A man stands among campers on The Mall ahead of the Queens funeral Reuters UK news in pictures 17 September 2022 Wolverhampton Wanderers Nathan Collins fouls Manchester Citys Jack Grealish leading to a red card. City went on to win the match at Molineux Stadium three goals to nil. Action Images/Reuters UK news in pictures 16 September 2022 Members of the public stand in the queue near Tower Bridge, and opposite the Tower of London, as they wait in line to pay their respects to the late Queen Elizabeth II, in London AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 15 September 2022 Members of the public in the queue on in Potters Fields Park, central London, as they wait to view Queen Elizabeth II lying in state ahead of her funeral on Monday PA UK news in pictures 14 September 2022 The first members of the public pay their respects as the vigil begins around the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Hall, London, where it will lie in state ahead of her funeral on Monday PA UK news in pictures 13 September 2022 Crowds cheer as King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort arrive for a visit to Hillsborough Castle Getty UK news in pictures 12 September 2022 Crowds line the Royal Mile, Edinburgh, as King Charles III joins a procession from the Palace of Holyroodhouse to St Giles Cathedral following the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II Katielee Arrowsmith/SWNS UK news in pictures 11 September 2022 Members of the Public pay their respects as the hearse carrying the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II, draped in the Royal Standard of Scotland, is driven through Ballater AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 10 September 2022 Britain's Prince William, Prince of Wales, Britain's Catherine, Princess of Wales, Britain's Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Britain's Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, wave at well-wishers on the Long walk at Windsor Castle AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 9 September 2022 King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort wave after viewing floral tributes to the late Queen Elizabeth II outside Buckingham Palace Getty UK news in pictures 8 September 2022 A screen commemorating Britain's Queen Elizabeth II in Piccadilly Circus, London Britain EPA UK news in pictures 7 September 2022 Police officers stand guard after Animal Rebellion activists threw paint on the walls and road outside the Houses of Parliament in protest, in London, Britain Reuters UK news in pictures 6 September 2022 Queen Elizabeth II welcomes Liz Truss during an audience at Balmoral, Scotland, where she invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA One of the councillors who was copied into the exchange, shared the emails with the Bristol Post after saying he was disgusted by its contents. Mr Frost defended his comments to the newspaper, saying: My stand point on all of this was always that whatever race, creed or colour you are, if you want to be accepted into our country, obey the law, accept our culture, enjoy our freedom, and if you can't or won't, you have the freedom to leave. Mr Frost became Ukip's first ever councillor in Bristol when he was elected in 2014. He lost his seat in last month's local elections. The Independent has approached Ukip for comment. Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Labour MP Yvette Cooper has received a message from someone threatening to kill her children over her stance on the EU referendum. The MP, who is campaigning for Britain to remain in the EU, received a tweet which read: Hello, Yvette I have received your Stronger In propaganda e-mails 5 times please stop or I will kill your kids and grandkids. Ms Cooper retweeted the threat, writing Got this today for speaking out for Remain This has got to stop. She said she had reported the incident to the police and to Twitter, and the users account has been suspended. The threat comes amid increased security for UK MPs after the killing of Ms Coopers colleague Jo Cox, who died after being shot and stabbed in an attack in Birstall in West Yorkshire last week. Brendan Cox said his wife was killed because of her "very strong political views". Ms Cooper also represents a West Yorkshire constituency. Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Show all 30 1 /30 Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? David Beckham (REMAIN) The former captain for the England international football team announced on Instagram that he was voting to Remain. He said: We live in a vibrant and connected world where together as a people we are strong. For our children and their children we should be facing the problems of the world together and not alone. Getty Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Victoria Beckham (REMAIN) 'I believe in my country, I believe in a future for my children where we are stronger together and I support the remain campaign.' Getty Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Daniel Craig (REMAIN) Actor He was pictured wearing a white T-shirt with the slogan: 'No man is an island. No country by itself. Vote Remain on 23rd June.' Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Bob Geldof (REMAIN) Irish singer expresses his support for the Remain vote as he waves from a boat carrying supporters for the 'Remain' campaign in London AFP/Getty Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? John Cleese (LEAVE) The Monty Python star signalled he will vote to leave the EU when he tweeted: "If I thought there was any chance of major reform in the EU, I'd vote to stay in. But there isn't. Sad." Getty Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Daniel Portman (REMAIN) Game of Thrones actor supports Reamin vote Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Elton John (REMAIN) The singer also announced his intention to vote Remain on Instagram, sharing an image which said Build bridges not walls, along with the caption I'm voting to remain. #StrongerInEurope Getty Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Roger Daltrey (LEAVE) Former frontman of iconic rock band The Who. I am not anti European, but I an anti the present way we are being governed in Europe, he wrote in The Mirror. The whole system has been corrupted by political ego and massive government overreach. The Euro being a perfect example I do not want to be dragged into the kind of Federal State that this present EU is pushing for - with the UK's voice getting smaller and smaller. AFP/Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? JK Rowling (REMAIN) The author of the Harry Potter books has expressed concern that "racists and bigots" are directing parts of the Leave campaign. She added: How can a retreat into selfish and insecure individualism be the right response when Europe faces genuine threats, when the bonds that tie us are so powerful, when we have come so far together? How can we hope to conquer the enormous challenges of terrorism and climate change without cooperation and collaboration? Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Vivienne Westwood (REMAIN) British fashion designer expressed her support for Remain vote Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Michael Caine (LEAVE) The actor has said he is a reluctant Leaver. He said: "I don't know what to vote for. Both are scary. To me, you've now got in Europe a sort of government-by-proxy of everybody, who has now got carried away. Unless there is some extremely significant changes, we should get out." Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Benedict Cumberbatch (REMAIN) Benedict Cumberbatch and Sir Patrick Stewart led more than 280 figures from the arts world who backed a vote to stay. An open letter pledging support for Remain was also signed by music stars Hot Chip, alt-J and Paloma Faith, authors Dame Hilary Mantel and John le Carre, and fashion designer Dame Vivienne Westwood. Daniel Craig was pictured wearing a vote Remain t-shirt with the words "No man is an island. No country by itself" emblazoned across it in a picture tweeted on the Stronger IN account. Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Patrick Stewart (REMAIN) Actor is a leading supporter of the Remain campaign Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Elizabeth Hurley (LEAVE) The actress said If it means we can go back to using decent lightbulbs and choose high-powered hairdryers and vacuum cleaners if we so wish, I'm joining Brexit for sure. Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Stephen Hawking (REMAIN) The physicist was in favour staying, and said "progress comes from co-operation". He said: "By working together in Europe we make our economy stronger and we give ourselves more influence in the world and we provide future opportunities for young people." Numerous scientists have also voiced their support for Remain, claiming an out vote would badly damage the field. Getty Images for Breakthrough Pr Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Sol Campbell (LEAVE) The former England international football star said he is backing Brexit so that young British sporting talent would be nurtured and given greater opportunities at British clubs. He said: "I'm looking at the sporting side - how youngsters aren't getting the opportunities at some of the big clubs and some of the big clubs are bringing in youngsters from 14, 15, 16 and becoming homegrown, which is pushing some of our youngsters out." Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Hilary Mantel (REMAIN) Author Hilary Mantel announced her support for Remain vote Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Bear Grylls (REMAIN) The adventurer and TV presenter said he spoke "from the heart" in backing the EU. "At such a time for the UK to retreat, run and cut ourselves loose from Europe, when there are so many challenges on our doorstep, to me just doesn't feel either courageous or kind, he said. Europe has many flaws, but I also believe the way to help resolve many of those tough issues is from within... I have never been a good quitter and I am so proud of the UK and our values: tolerance, kindness, respect, courage and resilience. This is why I want us to stay together and Remain in Europe." Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Billy Bragg (REMAIN) British singer decided to support Remain campaign AFP/Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Ian Botham (LEAVE) The former England Test cricketer and Test team captain supports Brexit Getty/Laureus Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Simon Cowell (REMAIN) Music mogul Simon Cowell announced his support of staying in EU Getty Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? David James (LEAVE) The former England goalkeeper supports Brexit Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Idris Elba (REMAIN) The actor voiced his support for Remain vote Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? John Le Carre (REMAIN) British writer supports Remain campaign Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Paloma Faith (REMAIN) English singer supports Remain campaign Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Perry McCarthy (LEAVE) The racing driver supports Leave campaign Rex Features Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Keira Knightley (REMAIN) The actress intends to vote for Remain campaign Getty Images for Lincoln Center Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? James Cracknell (LEAVE) British athlete and rowing champion decided to vote for Brexit Getty Images Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Florence Welch (REMAIN) British singer supports Remain campaign Getty Images for Gucci Which celebrities support Brexit and which support Remain? Helena Bonham-Carter (REMAIN) The actress expressed her support for Remain vote AFP/Getty Images Along with Ms Cox, Ms Cooper has actively supported welcoming child refugees to Britain from Europe. She was also part of a group of MPs that launched an online consultation on abuse aimed at women on social media. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The physical and psychological rigors of combat are intense, and militaries have the challenge preparing their soldiers for the worst of what they may face on the battlefield. The world's militaries require their personnel to go through grueling training to equip them for life in the field, and to make sure that soldiers who might not have prior combat experience are still in a state of readiness. Here are photos from around the world of some of the toughest training imaginable. In mainland China, paramilitary policeman face an intense regimen. Here, the policemen take part in a training session in muddy water. (China Daily/REUTERS (China Daily/REUTERS) Later in the training, the paramilitary police also have to crawl under fire obstacles ... (China Daily/REUTERS (China Daily/REUTERS) ... and hone their hand-to-hand combat skills. (China Daily/REUTERS (China Daily/REUTERS) Training is sometimes aimed at pushing troops to their absolute limit: Here, paramilitary police in China train at holding their breaths underwater. (China Daily/REUTERS (China Daily/REUTERS) Meanwhile, in far northern China, soldiers train in temperatures as cold as -22 degrees Fahrenheit. (China Daily/REUTERS (China Daily/REUTERS) In South Korea, members of the country's Special Warfare Forces also train in icy conditions. (Kim Hong-Ji/REUTERS (Kim Hong-Ji/REUTERS) A Canadian soldier in Latvia takes part in ice-plunge training as part of NATO exercise Operation Atlantic Resolve. (Ints Kalnins/REUTERS (Ints Kalnins/REUTERS) During joint exercises, US and South Korean Marines train together in the South Korean mountains. (Lee Jae-Won/REUTERS (Lee Jae-Won/REUTERS) US Marines also take part in annual joint drills with their counterparts in Thailand, in opposite climatic extremes. During the jungle-survival exercises, Marines have the chance to drink cobra blood. (Athit Perawongmetha/REUTERS (Athit Perawongmetha/REUTERS) Over in Japan, members of the Ground Self-Defense Forces practice holding onto a rope dangling from a cargo helicopter. (Yuya Shino/REUTERS (Yuya Shino/REUTERS) In Taiwan, in order to pass the final stage of a nine-week Amphibious Training Program, a trainee crawls along a 150-foot path of jagged coral and rocks on his belly. (Nicky Loh/REUTERS (Nicky Loh/REUTERS) In Belarus, servicemen must pass through an extensive and difficult obstacle course before becoming members of the elite "Red Berets." (Vasily Fedosenko / Reuters (Vasily Fedosenko / Reuters) The Red Berets stage annual displays of skill where some troops head butt flaming concrete blocks. (Vasily Fedosenko / Reuters (Vasily Fedosenko / Reuters) Militaries around the world make use of endurance challenges. In Israel, soldiers from the Golani Brigade must complete a 43-mile march to finish advanced training. (Baz Ratner/REUTERS (Baz Ratner/REUTERS) Enemy forces in the region have clearly taken note: In the Gaza Strip, Palestinian militants from the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades train in anti-Israel military drills. (Suhaib Salem/REUTERS (Suhaib Salem/REUTERS) In Syria, members of the Kurdish YPG train on monkey bars and fire obstacles. (Rodi Said/REUTERS (Rodi Said/REUTERS) Like the YPG, Iraq's Shia militias are one of the major ground forces fighting ISIS. Here, members of a militia demonstrate close-quarter combat skills at a graduation ceremony. (Alaa Al-Marjani/REUTERS) Other Shia militias in Iraq require their members to take part in desert field-training exercises before graduation. (Alaa Al-Marjani/REUTERS (Alaa Al-Marjani/REUTERS) Read more: Analysts question the way Apple describes its data Mike Ashley has a plan to save BHS with no job losses Investors think central banks have lost their power Read the original article on Business Insider UK. 2016. Follow Business Insider UK on Twitter. Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A high school cheerleader wept in court this week while pleading not guilty to helping two brothers brutally murder a homeless man near San Diego. Hailey Suder, 18, faces two counts of being an accessory after the fact to the murder of George Lowery, who was allegedly tortured and beaten to death in April. Police said Mr Lowery, 50, was found unconscious by his wife Penny, close to their encampment in a river bed in El Cajon, a San Diego suburb, on the evening of 24 April. He had reportedly been kicked and punched in the head, tied up, tortured and robbed. He died in hospital several days later. Brothers Austin and Preston Mostrong, who are 21 and 19 respectively, were arrested and charged with the killing. They have pleaded not guilty to murder and torture and face life in prison if convicted. Ms Suder is the girlfriend of one of the brothers, according to a report by the San Diego Union-Tribune. Officials have yet to disclose what part Ms Suder is alleged to have played in Mr Lowerys murder, but she is accused of being present throughout the attack. The teenager was a student and cheerleader at nearby Santana High School, but did not graduate with the rest of her class last month, a spokesperson for the school district told the Los Angeles Times. Mr Lowerys wife and his daughter, Katey Torres, believe he may have been killed in retaliation after confronting Austin Mostrong for firing paintballs at another homeless man. If someone was in need he would do what he could to help, no matter how hard the task, Ms Torres said. Although he did not have much, he was always giving. Ms Suder, who entered her not guilty plea on Monday, faces close to four years in prison if she is convicted. Her preliminary hearing is scheduled for 5 July. Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} In the battle between Americas fast food titans, one would think the hamburger would reign supreme; but customers appear to be going the way of the chicken when ordering their meals from the seat of their cars. Chick-Fil-A came in number one according to the the latest report from the American Customer Satisfaction Index. The chicken chain soared above its competitors with a score of 87 out of 100, the report shows. The secret to their success, it seems, is keeping their menu simple and unwavering. They have a pretty limited selection of offerings and are really focused on chicken and chicken sandwiches, director of research at American Customer Satisfaction Index, Forrest Morgeson, told CNN Money. They focus on what they do best, and it does well. Behind the packaging: Photographer Peter Augustus's project on what really goes in our fast food Show all 4 1 /4 Behind the packaging: Photographer Peter Augustus's project on what really goes in our fast food Behind the packaging: Photographer Peter Augustus's project on what really goes in our fast food A burger with a pig's snout Peter Augustus Behind the packaging: Photographer Peter Augustus's project on what really goes in our fast food A hot dog made from intestines Peter Augustus Behind the packaging: Photographer Peter Augustus's project on what really goes in our fast food A ham sandwich containing pig's trotters Peter Augustus Behind the packaging: Photographer Peter Augustus's project on what really goes in our fast food Chicken nuggets containing chicken feet Peter Augustus Chick-Fil-A has garnered negative publicity in recent years, as their CEO made statements against same-sex marriage, as well as the company's reported support for anti-LGBTQ nonprofits. CEO Dan Cathy had publicly declared that the company supported traditional marriage in 2012. The claim was exacerbated by apparent millions of dollars in contributions to anti-LGBTQ organisations, like Marriage & Family Foundation, the National Christian Foundation, Family Research Council, and Exodus International. Recent tax filings, however, have shown a significant decrease in contributions to organisations with specifically anti-LGBTQ agendas. "I still wouldnt call Chick-fil-A a gay-friendly company, but I would say that our dialogues and conversation that Campus Pride has had has been a positive one. There is some, albeit small, progress there, Shane Windemeyer, executive director of Campus Pride, told qnotes. Controversy notwithstanding, Chick-Fil-A has garnered the favour of American fast food connoisseurs, followed closest by Papa Johns Pizza at 82 points. Seemingly cursed by food poisoning scares over the past year, Chipotle saw the sharpest decline in the report, falling 6 per cent to 78. Reports of e coli caused the closure of hundreds of locations throughout the US. Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Officials in Florida said a man is recovering after a nine-foot alligator attacked him. Wildlife staff killed the animal, which bit the man in the leg. Reports said the attack on the man took place at Bushnell is about 60 miles away from Disney World in Orlando, where an alligator killed a toddler last week. The Associated Press said that the man was airlifted to the Ocala Regional Medical Centre after the attack on Tuesday evening. Officers with the Sumter County Sheriffs Office said they believed the alligator was up to nine foot long. The attack happened along on the victims private property in a rural part of Bushnell. The victim suffered injuries to his right leg, but Chad Weber with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, said the man was alert and talking when he was taken to hospital. Body of 2-Year-Old Boy Attacked by Alligator Found in Orlando Area The alligator was euthanised by a Florida Wildlife Commission trapper. It weighed approximately 300lbs. The incident came a week after a young child was snatched and killed by an alligator at one of its resorts. Lane Graves was snatched by an alligator at the Seven Seas Lagoon at Disney Worlds Grand Floridian Resort and Spa near Orlando. The two-year-old was on holiday with his parents, Matt and Melissa Graves, from Elkhorn, Nebraska. His body was recovered the following day. Personal injury lawyers have suggested that Disney could find itself on the end of a multi-million dollar lawsuit if it was found that it was was in some way responsible for what happened. Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} US Rep Steve King says his amendment to block Harriet Tubman from appearing on the new 20 dollar bill is not racist; instead the Iowa congressman blames liberal activism for causing further division amongst Americans. It's not about Harriet Tubman, it's about keeping the picture on the $20, Mr King said pointing to a portrait of Andrew Jackson, the seventh president of the US, on Tuesday. Yknow? Why would you want to change that? I am a conservative, I like to keep what we have. The Department of Treasury announced its plan to change the image on the $20 bill in April. The Republican lawmaker filed his amendment on 17 June that would bar agency from changing any images that already appears on both coin and paper currency, effectively preventing the department from carrying out their plan to replace Jackson with Tubman - a former slave, abolitionist, and womens suffrage activist - in coming years. The House Rules Committee, however, denied floor consideration of Mr Kings proposal, preventing a vote that could have thwarted the Treasurys plans to change the note. Civil rights in the US Show all 6 1 /6 Civil rights in the US Civil rights in the US Civil rights in the US Martin Luther King Jr Rex Civil rights in the US Civil rights in the US Motel sign at the National Civil Rights Museum Civil rights in the US Civil rights in the US NCRM exhibit Civil rights in the US Civil rights in the US Birmingham Civil Rights Institute Civil rights in the US Civil rights in the US MLK's birth home James Duckworth Civil rights in the US Civil rights in the US Martin Luther King Jr's tomb James Duckworth Here's what's really happening, this is liberal activism on the part of the president, that's trying to identify people by categories and he's divided us on the lines of groups, Mr King said. This is a divisive proposal on the part of the president and mine's unifying. It says just don't change anything. Andrew Jackson is a rather controversial figure in US history. A slave-owning Tennessee plantation owner, Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act during his tenure as president in 1830. The law forced relocation of Native American tribes to unsettled land west of the Mississippi River. As a result of the law, thousands of Cherokees were forcibly moved from their territory by the US government between 1838 and 1839. More than 4,000 died in what became known as the Trail of Tears. Historical memory of Tubman, many feel, demands the honour of appearing on the banknote - a gesture only granted to white, male figures of US history. Tubman was born into enslavement in 1822. She escaped in 1849. After finding freedom, Tubman returned as a Union spy and helped many other enslaved people escape through the Underground Railroad during the Civil War. After the war, Tubman became active in the movement for women's suffrage. Once Tubman becomes the face of the $20 note, however, Jacksons face is still expected to adorn the back of the bill. The former Democratic opponent of Mr Kings, Kim Weaver, told the Des Moines Register that the seven-term congressmans amendment does nothing to serve their districts constituents. Iowans have four representatives in the United States House of Representatives, and unfortunately one of them seems to maintain a laser focus on where his next headline-grabbing piece of stunt legislation will come from, Ms Weaver said. Mr King is perhaps best known for his stance against undocumented immigration into the US - particularly as it related to the DREAM Act, the legislation that granted conditional residency brought to the US by their parents as minors. Not one to mince words about the subject, the congressman said that for every undocumented minor whos a valedictorian, theres another 100 out there who weigh 130 pounds and theyve got calves the size of cantaloupes because theyre hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert. But Ms Weaver sees Mr King as a public servant who does little to address the issues that their constituents face. Tuition costs are rising and graduating students are suffocating under oppressive student loan debt. Seniors are struggling to make ends meet and retire in dignity. Wages for working class Iowans continue to stagnate, she added. And Steve King is waging a one-man war against putting the first African-American woman on US currency." Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Three Pennsylvania residents arrested by Port Authority police while entering New York City with an apparent arsenal claim they were on a mission to rescue a 16-year-old girl from heroin dealers. Recommended Read more Trio with huge arsenal of weapons arrested trying to enter Manhattan I'm currently 11 miles outside of Brooklyn New York and going to a hotel to extract a 16 year old girl who went up there to Party with a few friends, John Cramsey, 50, said in a Facebook post on the Enough is Enough anti-heroin groups page Tuesday morning. The group made claims that the 16-year-old was being help against her will - which the NYPD later determined to be false. Once law enforcement was able to track the girl down, they said she denied needing saved. She was still taken into police custody. Mr Cramsey was pulled over with two friends, Dean Smith, 52, and Kimberly Arendt, 29, approaching the Holland Tunnel in New Jersey. Ms Arendt is reportedly the teenagers counselor, and said she received a call for help on Monday. (John Cramsey/Facebook) While the three were en route to New York, a Port Authority officer reportedly noticed a crack in the windshield of their brightly coloured sport utility vehicle. During the stop, the officer saw a loaded magazine. In the proceeding search of the vehicle, police found an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, a shotgun, five handguns, tactical vests, helmets, and high-capacity magazines, CBS News reports. The trio is being held on $75,000 (51,000) bail. Mr Cramsey owns the Higher Ground Tactical gun range in Emmaus, Pennsylvania, and has been on an anti-heroin crusade since the overdose death of his 20-year-old daughter Alexandria in February. Newtown massacre: Barack Obama plans to reinstate assault weapons ban as retail giants suspend rifle sales after backlash Show all 2 1 /2 Newtown massacre: Barack Obama plans to reinstate assault weapons ban as retail giants suspend rifle sales after backlash Newtown massacre: Barack Obama plans to reinstate assault weapons ban as retail giants suspend rifle sales after backlash pg-30-gun-backlash-1-getty.jpg Getty Images Newtown massacre: Barack Obama plans to reinstate assault weapons ban as retail giants suspend rifle sales after backlash pg-30-gun-backlash.jpg Ever since his daughter died, I think it was one of those things where he wishes he could have done something to save her, said Michael Nickisher, a friend of Mr Cramseys, told CBS, and now that she's gone, he feels this guilt in his heart that he needs to help other people. The Tuesday morning arrest comes years after New York passed strict gun laws in 2012, in direct response to the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, that killed 20 schoolchildren. The tragedies in Orlando, Newtown, Aurora and communities across the country are clear signs that we need to get our national gun violence epidemic under control," said Attorney General Eric T Schneiderman. New Yorks assault weapons ban keeps New Yorkers safer, and makes the job of law enforcement easier. There is no place for weapons of war on the streets of America. Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Drugs mule Melissa Reid has arrived back in the UK after spending three years in prison in Peru after being caught smuggling cocaine. The 22-year-old arrived at Glasgow airport at 9:45pm on Wednesday after completing the last leg of her journey from the capital, Lima. The Scot smiled as she arrived at Lima Airport on Tuesday evening with her father, Billy, and British embassy staff, before being whisked through security by Peruvian officials overseeing her deportation. Reid, from Lenzie, East Dunbartonshire, was caught with 23-year-old Michaella McCollum, from Dungannon, Co Tyrone, trying to smuggle cocaine worth 1.5 million in mayonnaise bags from Peru to Spain in 2013. The pair - nicknamed the "Peru Two" - were jailed for six years and eight months after admitting the offence. However, in May a judge granted Reid's expulsion under an early release scheme for deporting first-time drug offenders. Janeth Sanchez, a spokeswoman for Peru's prison service, said on Tuesday that the Scot had "served her time in prison according to the law and can now go to her country, free, to the streets". Michaella McCollum leaves the Sarita Colonia courtroom after being sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for trying to sneak a total of 11 kilos (24 pounds) of cocaine out of Peru on a flight to Spain. ( AFP PHOTO/ERNESTO BENAVIDESERNESTO BENAVIDES/AFP/Getty Images) (AFP PHOTO/ERNESTO BENAVIDESERNESTO BENAVIDES/AFP/Getty Images) A Scottish Prison Service spokeswoman said it was not involved with Reid's case. McCollum was freed in March under new legislation but was required to remain on parole in Peru. The pair were caught at Lima Airport on August 6 2013 trying to board a flight with 24lb (11kg) of cocaine in food packets hidden in their luggage. They claimed they were forced into carrying the drugs, but pleaded guilty to the charges. Peru 'drugs mules' Melissa Reid and Michaella McCollum 'had a good offer' Show all 2 1 /2 Peru 'drugs mules' Melissa Reid and Michaella McCollum 'had a good offer' Peru 'drugs mules' Melissa Reid and Michaella McCollum 'had a good offer' Peru-REUT.jpg Reuters Peru 'drugs mules' Melissa Reid and Michaella McCollum 'had a good offer' 29-Michaella-McCollum-Conno.jpg Michaella McCollum Connolly, second right, and Melissa Reid, far right, after their arrest for drugs smuggling in Peru McCollum and Reid faced the prospect of a maximum 15-year prison term but struck a behind-closed-doors plea bargain to secure the shorter sentence. Around nine in ten of the 1,809 foreigners in Peru's prisons are either sentenced or awaiting trials for drug trafficking. Reid's father has previously said the impact of his daughter's crime on his family had been "horrendous" and spoke out in a video warning of the consequences of drug offences abroad. A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office said: "We continue to provide assistance to Melissa Reid and remain in contact with her family and local authorities." Additional reporting by PA Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The story did not end when a Massachusetts man, who worked as a custodian at the very school he attended, graduated college this summer. Only a month later, he has landed the job of his dreams in the aerospace engineering industry. Michael Vaudreuil, 54, took advantage of the free tuition package when he took a custodial job at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) after losing his plastering business in the 2008 economic collapse. Upon his May 2016 graduation, the story went viral, and he was featured in a segment on NBC Nightly News. Michael Vaudreuil graduated from WPI in May 2016 (Michael Vaudreuil/Facebook) I was certainly welcoming of [the media attention], because I thought it would help networking-wise, Mr Vaudreuil told the WPI school paper, The Daily Herd. To the degree that it took off was a bit surprising. It was almost an out-of-body experience. You see this happen, things go viral - now its happening to me. 10 weird and wonderful university courses Show all 10 1 /10 10 weird and wonderful university courses 10 weird and wonderful university courses 449601.bin Getty Images 10 weird and wonderful university courses 449602.bin Getty Images 10 weird and wonderful university courses 449604.bin Getty Images 10 weird and wonderful university courses 449605.bin Getty Images 10 weird and wonderful university courses 449606.bin Getty Images 10 weird and wonderful university courses 449607.bin Getty Images 10 weird and wonderful university courses 449608.bin Getty Images 10 weird and wonderful university courses 449610.bin Getty Images 10 weird and wonderful university courses 449611.bin Getty Images 10 weird and wonderful university courses 449612.bin Getty Images After his segment aired on the news programme, Mr Vaudreuil said he was approached by four representatives from the Pratt & Whitney aerospace manufacturer separately. While Mr Vaudreuil was approached by companies all over the US, that Pratt & Whitney valued life experience, he says, spoke to the culture of the company. Im going to quote one of my favorite movies - they made me an offer I couldnt refuse, he said, referencing The Godfather. Im looking forward to the satisfaction and fulfillment that will come with the job. While the custodial and engineering positions may seem like a night and day leap for Mr Vaudreuil, he had always had an interest in engineering. He first received his associates degree in 1982 in aeronautical engineering, but did not pursue work in that field, according to the Washington Post. Instead, he ran his own plastering company until business died in 2007. He reportedly took a 50 per cent pay cut once he found the job at WPI, and felt taking advantage of the tuition-free courses would be a positive supplement to his income. Mr Vaudreuil will relocate with his family to Connecticut and begin his position as engineer for Pratt & Whitney on 11 July. Until then, however, he will continue his custodial job through the month of June. Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} An Hispanic man who claims to have been the lover of the Orlando gunman, has said that Omar Mateen carried out his attack as an act of revenge after fearing he had been exposed to HIV. In the aftermath of the attack on a gay nightclub that left 49 people dead and wounded another 50, there was speculation that Mateen may have been gay or bisexual. There were reports that he had visited the club more than a dozen times and had used gay dating apps. Now, a man who has been identified only as Miguel, said he became Mateens lover after connecting with him on Grindr, one of the dating apps. He said Mateen was a confused man, struggling with sexuality and Muslim upbringing. He said he was a heavy drinker who was attracted to Latinos but felt rejected by them. Speaking to Univision, Miguel said that he believed that Mateen had engaged in sex acts with two Puerto Rican men, one of whom was HIV positive. In pictures: The victims of the Orlando shooting Show all 44 1 /44 In pictures: The victims of the Orlando shooting In pictures: The victims of the Orlando shooting Frank Escalante AP In pictures: The victims of the Orlando shooting Luis Daniel Conde AP In pictures: The victims of the Orlando shooting Brenda Lee Marquez McCool In pictures: The victims of the Orlando shooting Yilmary Rodriguez Solivan AP In pictures: The victims of the Orlando shooting Joel Rayon Paniagua AP In pictures: The victims of the Orlando shooting Jerald Arthur Wright AP In pictures: The victims of the Orlando shooting Paul Terrell Henry AP In pictures: The victims of the Orlando shooting Shane Evan Tomlinson AP In pictures: The victims of the Orlando shooting Antonio Davon Brown AP In pictures: The victims of the Orlando shooting Jason Benjamin Josaphat AP In pictures: The victims of the Orlando shooting Enrique L. Rios, Jr. AP In pictures: The victims of the Orlando shooting Darryl Roman Burt AP In pictures: The victims of the Orlando shooting Cory James Connell REUTERS In pictures: The victims of the Orlando shooting Tevin Eugene Crosby AP In pictures: The victims of the Orlando shooting Jonathan Antonio Camuy-Vega AP In pictures: The victims of the Orlando shooting Rodolfo Ayala-Ayala AP In pictures: The victims of the Orlando shooting Leroy Valentin Fernandez AP In pictures: The victims of the Orlando shooting Christopher Andrew Leinonen AP In pictures: The victims of the Orlando shooting Angel L. Candelario-Padro AP In pictures: The victims of the Orlando shooting Simon Adrian Carrillo-Fernande AP In pictures: The victims of the Orlando shooting Christopher Joseph Sanfeliz REUTERS In pictures: The victims of the Orlando shooting Javier Jorge-Reyes AP In pictures: The victims of the Orlando shooting Gilberto Ramon Silva-Menendez AP In pictures: The victims of the Orlando shooting Juan P. Rivera-Velazquez AP In pictures: The victims of the Orlando shooting Miguel Angel Honorato AP In pictures: The victims of the Orlando shooting Jean Carlos Mendez Perez REUTERS In pictures: The victims of the Orlando shooting Mercedez Marisol Flores REUTERS In pictures: The victims of the Orlando shooting Xavier Emmanuel Serrano Rosado REUTERS In pictures: The victims of the Orlando shooting Anthony Luis Laureano Disla REUTERS In pictures: The victims of the Orlando shooting Franky Jimmy De Jesus Velazquez REUTERS In pictures: The victims of the Orlando shooting Oscar A. Aracena-Montero REUTERS In pictures: The victims of the Orlando shooting Luis Daniel Wilson-Leon REUTERS In pictures: The victims of the Orlando shooting Martin Benitez Torres REUTERS In pictures: The victims of the Orlando shooting Stanley Almodovar Facebook/Stanley Manolo Almodovar III In pictures: The victims of the Orlando shooting Eddie Justice Faebook/ Eddie Justice In pictures: The victims of the Orlando shooting Luis Vielma Twitter/@jk_rowling In pictures: The victims of the Orlando shooting Eric Ivan Ortiz-Rivera Facebook/ Eric Rivera In pictures: The victims of the Orlando shooting Juan Ramon Guerrero Facebook/ Juan Ramon Guerrero In pictures: The victims of the Orlando shooting Peter O. Gonzalez-Cruz Facebook/ Peter Gonzalez Cruz In pictures: The victims of the Orlando shooting Amanda Alvear Facebook/ Amanda Alvear In pictures: The victims of the Orlando shooting Anthony Disla Facebook/ Anthony Disla In pictures: The victims of the Orlando shooting Edward Sotomayor Twitter/@ryanraiche In pictures: The victims of the Orlando shooting Luis Omar Ocasio-Capo Facebook/Luis Omar Ocasio-Capo In pictures: The victims of the Orlando shooting Kimberley Morris Twitter/ @katiezavadski While Mateen had tested negative, he feared the results were not accurate and wanted to make them pay. The thing that makes me want to tell the truth is that he didnt do it for terrorism, said Miguel, his face disguised by a mask. In my opinion he did it for revenge. (AFP/Getty) (AFP/Getty Images) Before the massacre, Miguel insists, Mateen seemed adorable and sweet and that he loved to be cuddled. He said that the pair had visited a hotel room more than 20 times. He said Mateen lashed out when he once tried to take selfies in bed, forcing him to put his phone down. The 29-year-old eventually revealed to him that he was married with a child, he says. Gunman Omar Mateen was radicalised by information he accessed on the internet (AP) After an argument, he says, Mateen apologised to him then told him his wife knew about his gay encounters. He hated gay Puerto Ricans for all the bad things he did, he said. In the days since Mateen launched his attack on the Pulse night club in the centre of Orlando, more details have emerged his background and upbringing. On Wednesday, it was reported that Mateen had visited the night club earlier that night, leaving for several hours before he returned and opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle and a handgun. The authorities released more details about the attack and some of the transcripts of the conversations Mateen had with police. During one of the conversations, Mateen told police he was carrying out the attack in the name of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of Isis. You people are gonna get it, and Im gonna ignite it if they try to do anything stupid, he said. While Isis subsequently claimed that Mateen was a soldier of the caliphate, investigators have said there is no evidence that the gunman was part of a larger conspiracy and that he was most likely self-radicalised. Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Two days after US politicians failed to pass a series of gun control proposals, around 40 Democrats held a sit-in at the House of Representatives chamber to try and force another vote. Led by civil rights veteran John Lewis, the politicians took to the floor of the chamber, to try and embarrass their Republican counterparts into action in the aftermath of the Orlando massacre. Now is the time for us to find a way to dramatise it, to make it real, said Mr Lewis, according to the Associated Press. We have to occupy the floor of the House until there is action. The move came after the US Senate on Monday voted down four proposed gun-control measures introduced in the wake of the recent Orlando massacre, the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history. Following the 12 June shooting, which left 49 dead and another 53 injured at an LGBT nightclub in Orlando, Democratic Senators had staged a 15-hour filibuster to demand new gun-control legislation. Four such measures arrived on the Senate floor on Monday two from Republicans and two from Democrats but none amassed sufficient bipartisan support to succeed. With 54 Republicans and 46 Democrats or Independents in the Senate, any such proposals faced an uphill struggle to attract the 60 votes they needed to pass under congressional rules. On Wednesday, Congressman James Clyburn of South Carolina, led the Democrats in a prayer on the House floor. Visitors in the public gallery stood and joined in. No bill, no break, the Democrats chanted loudly as they returned to sitting on the floor. The protest is not being televised because the House has not formally gaveled into session. As a result, members took to social media to lodge their protests using the hashtag #NoBillNoBreak and #goodtrouble. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Washington email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} In a recalibrating of his campaign for president, Donald Trump has opened a new line of assault against Hillary Clinton, accusing her of using her tenure as Secretary of State to enrich herself, while seemingly sidelining past pledges to ban Muslim migrants and build a wall on the Mexican border. Addressing an invited audience of supporters as well as reporters in the Trump Soho Hotel in Manhattan, Mr Trump called Ms Clinton a world class liar and the most corrupt person ever to seek the presidency. He made the remarks one day after Ms Clinton in Ohio launched her own attack against his economic proposals and his record as a businessman. Most striking, however, was Trumps failure to make any mention of his previously trumpeted plan to build a wall on the US-Mexico border and deport 11 million illegal immigrants. Nor did he offer more than the most fleeting of references to his proposal to restrict immigration, limiting himself instead only to accusing Ms Clinton of supporting a radical 550 per cent increase in Syrian refugees coming into the United States. Saying nothing specific of Muslims, he said: I only want to admit people who share our values and love our people. The change of tone and substance came two days after the firing of his long-term campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, and seemed to be a deliberate effort to answer the calls from the top of the Republican Party and from donors to step away from his most controversial proposals, like the Mexican wall, and attempt a more uplifting, less divisive, message. I think what appears to be occurring over the past 24 hours is a moment in a direction that could be very, very positive, Senator Bob Corker, a Republican from Tennessee, observed in Washington DC after viewing Mr Trumps speech. Donald Trump's most controversial quotes Show all 14 1 /14 Donald Trump's most controversial quotes Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On Isis: "Some of the candidates, they went in and didnt know the air conditioner didnt work and sweated like dogs, and they didnt know the room was too big because they didnt have anybody there. How are they going to beat ISIS?" Getty Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On immigration: "I will build a great wall and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me and Ill build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words." Reuters Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On Free Trade: "Free trade is terrible. Free trade can be wonderful if you have smart people. But we have stupid people." PAUL J. RICHARDS | AFP | Getty Images Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On Mexicans: "When Mexico sends its people, theyre not sending their best. Theyre sending people that have lots of problems. Theyre bringing drugs. Theyre bringing crime. Theyre rapists." Getty Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On China: "I just sold an apartment for $15 million to somebody from China. Am I supposed to dislike them?... I love China. The biggest bank in the world is from China. You know where their United States headquarters is located? In this building, in Trump Tower." Getty Images Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On work: "If you're interested in 'balancing' work and pleasure, stop trying to balance them. Instead make your work more pleasurable." AP Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On success: "What separates the winners from the losers is how a person reacts to each new twist of fate." Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On life: "Everything in life is luck." AFP Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On ambition: "You have to think anyway, so why not think big?" Getty Images Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On his opponents: "Bush is totally in favour of Common Core. I don't see how he can possibly get the nomination. He's weak on immigration. He's in favour of Common Core. How the hell can you vote for this guy? You just can't do it." Reuters Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On Obamacare: "You have to be hit by a tractor, literally, a tractor, to use it, because the deductibles are so high. It's virtually useless. And remember the $5 billion web site?... I have so many web sites, I have them all over the place. I hire people, they do a web site. It costs me $3." Getty Images Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On Barack Obama: "Obama is going to be out playing golf. He might be on one of my courses. I would invite him. I have the best courses in the world. I have one right next to the White House." PA Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On himself: "Love him or hate him, Trump is a man who is certain about what he wants and sets out to get it, no holds barred. Women find his power almost as much of a turn-on as his money." Getty Images Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On America: "The American Dream is dead. But if I get elected president I will bring it back bigger and better and stronger than ever before and we will make America great again." GETTY Using a teleprompter and speaking with none of the pantomime theatrics usual at his rallies, a ponderous Mr Trump also attempted to personalise his now familiar vision of making America great again the message on his hats by emphasising what it will mean for ordinary voters. Americans are the people that tamed the West, that dug out the Panama Canal, that sent satellites across the solar system, that built the great dams, he said. Then we started thinking small. We stopped believing in what America could do, and became reliant on other countries, other people, and other institutions. We lost our sense of purpose, and daring. "But thats not who we are, he offered. Come this November, we can bring America back bigger and better, and stronger than ever. He wound up: Americans are going to start believing in the future or our country. We are going to make America rich again.We are going to make America safe again. We are going to make America great again and great again for everyone. People who will flee America if Donald Trump wins Show all 8 1 /8 People who will flee America if Donald Trump wins People who will flee America if Donald Trump wins Miley Cyrus 'God he thinks he is the f***ing chosen one or some shit! Honestly f*** this sh*t I am moving if this is my president! I dont say things I dont mean!' Jemal Countess/Getty Images People who will flee America if Donald Trump wins Whoopi Goldberg 'I dont think thats America. I dont want it to be America. Maybe its time for me to move you know' People who will flee America if Donald Trump wins Samuel L. Jackson 'If that mother**er becomes president, Im moving my black ass to South Africa' People who will flee America if Donald Trump wins Raven Symone 'My confession for this election is, if any Republican gets nominated, Im gonna move to Canada with my entire family. Is that bad? I already have my ticket. I literally bought my ticket, I swear' People who will flee America if Donald Trump wins Cher 'If he were to be elected, I'm moving to Jupiter' People who will flee America if Donald Trump wins Neve Campbell 'Im terrified. Its really scary. My biggest fear is that Trump will triumph. I cannot believe that he is still in the game ... [I'll] move back to Canada' People who will flee America if Donald Trump wins Jon Stewart 'I would consider getting in a rocket and going to another planet, because clearly this planets gone bonkers' People who will flee America if Donald Trump wins Randy Blythe 'He could just be a clown. If he is the president, though, I am leaving America 'till he's gone' That not does mean, however, that as soon as Mr Trump gets back on the campaign trail and away from the formal setting of a prepared speech in New York, he wont get back to all of his old antics, leading chants to build the wall and even detouring into tirades against his own party. Nor, clearly, did it mean that he would be easing up on Ms Clinton. Rather, he unleashed a torrent of allegations against her, many that might not easily stand up to scrutiny. They ranged over terrain that has now become familiar grist to critics of Ms Clinton, from her failure to prevent the killing of the US ambassador in Benghazi in 2012, to her support of her husband signing the Nafta trade deal in the 1990s and her use of a private email server. In his speech, Mr Trump focused more than before on her time as Secretary of State, repeatedly citing the 2015 New York Times best-selling book by Peter Schweitzer, called Clinton Cash, to make the claim that the former First Lady and her husband were corrupt, taking cash from regimes and other individuals in return for favours. She gets rich making you poor, Mr Trump said of his rival for the White House. Hillary Clinton may be the most corrupt person ever to seek the presidency. He claimed she had done favours for many many people in exchange for cash. Pure and simple. He also sought to link the ongoing investigation into her use of the private email server while Secretary of State with her alleged corruption. To cover-up her corrupt dealings, Hillary Clinton illegally stashed her State Department emails on a private server, Mr Trump said, before also suggesting that enemy powers probably gained access to 30,000 emails she deleted before showing investigators. As for the Benghazi attacks, Mr Trump was similarly blunt, if arguably careless with the facts. Among the victims is our late ambassador, Chris Stevens, he said. He was left helpless to die as Hillary Clinton soundly slept in her bed that's right, when the phone rang at 3 o'clock in the morning she was sleeping She started the war that put him in Libya, denied him the security he asked for, then left him there to die. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} North Korea has apparently fired two powerful new Musudan mid-range missiles, according to US and South Korean military officials. At least one of the launches is said to have failed, Pyongyang's fifth such reported flop since April. Despite the repeated failures, the North's persistence in testing the Musudan is causing concern for the US and its allies in Japan and South Korea, because the missile's potential 2,180-mile range puts much of Asia and the Pacific, including US military bases, within striking range. Each new test also presumably provides valuable insights to North Korean scientists and military officials as they push towards their goal of a nuclear and missile system that can threaten the US mainland. Pyongyang earlier this year conducted a nuclear test and launched a long-range rocket that outsiders say was a cover for a test of banned missile technology. A statement from South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said a suspected first Musudan launch failed, but gave few other details on the early-morning firing from near the North's east coast city of Wonsan. Later, the JCS said the North fired another suspected Musudan, but it was not immediately clear if the launch succeeded. AP For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Animal rights activists and other dog lovers have disrupted China's most controversial annual "festival" - an event that celebrates the eating of dog meat. Human Society International and others have been buying caged dogs to rescue them being slaughtered and eaten in dog hotpot dishes at the Yulin dog meat eating festival, which takes place every Summer Solstice. An estimated 10,000 dogs are expected to be killed during the 10-day event, but the society said it had bought many from a local trader who was preparing to sell them to a slaughterhouse in Yulin. It wrote on its Facebook page that the dogs have been taken to a shelter. Seperately animal rights activist Marc Ching claimed on Facebook that he had freed a total of 1,000 dogs ahead of the festival. Although locals complained activists were ruining the event and what they consider a local tradition, others took a different stance. We came to Yulin to tell people here dogs are our friends," Yang Yuhua, an animal rights activist from the central city of Chongqing, told CBS News. "They should not kill dogs in such a cruel way and many of the dogs they killed are pet dogs. '"Dogs are man's best, the most loyal friend. How could we eat our friends? You tell me. Yang spent over 1,000 yuan ($150) to buy two caged dogs at the market from the vendor. Vendors said that they hoped for good business this year. They are a lot, a lot of people who like (eating dog meat). It's your habit, it's my habit, said a vendor surnamed Zhou. Despite the open sales of dog meat on the street, reportedly none could be found for sale at any restaurants, unlike previous years. In pictures: Yulin Dog Meat Festival 2016 Show all 10 1 /10 In pictures: Yulin Dog Meat Festival 2016 In pictures: Yulin Dog Meat Festival 2016 Dog meat market, Yulin In pictures: Yulin Dog Meat Festival 2016 Dogs in holding pen at slaughterhouse, Yulin In pictures: Yulin Dog Meat Festival 2016 Cats crammed in wire cage, delivered to slaughterhouse in Yulin In pictures: Yulin Dog Meat Festival 2016 Dogs held at slaughterhouse, Yulin In pictures: Yulin Dog Meat Festival 2016 Cat looks out from its crate as arrives at slaughterhouse, Yulin In pictures: Yulin Dog Meat Festival 2016 Dogs in blood-covered holding pen at slaughterhouse, Yulin In pictures: Yulin Dog Meat Festival 2016 Dogs at slaughterhouse, Yulin In pictures: Yulin Dog Meat Festival 2016 Dog meat market, Yulin In pictures: Yulin Dog Meat Festival 2016 Dog meat market, Yulin In pictures: Yulin Dog Meat Festival 2016 Cat slaughterhouse, Yulin Ms Min, a Yulin resident, said: Why won't they (let us openly celebrate the festival)? The city government came out and told (the vendors) not to let restaurant owners sell (dog meat). The city government is always (handling this issue) this way." An animal rights activist carries a dog she bought at a market in Yulin (AP) Xu Yongfen, a restaurant owner from eastern Anhui province, said he was disappointed in the city efforts to keep the festival low key. The people of Yulin can see so many dog lovers who like dogs, so they don't want to connect (anything) with dog. I personally like eating dog meat, he said. Dog meat eating has existed in China for more than 500 years, where it was once a delicacy, and has since dramatically declined, but the festival has only taken place since 2009. The event has also attracted international condemnation from animal lovers, including record and television entrepreneur Simon Cowell. The local government of Yulin, in south east China, has distanced itself from the controversial event, which it says it does not recognise and has received widespread opposition. More than 11 million people have signed a petition calling for the event to be cancelled. The government is reported to hold meetings before every event to discuss counter measures, which include deploying police and authorities to inspect those who sell dogs. Dogs in a cage for sale at a market in Yulin city, southern China's Guangxi province (EPA) Vendors of the dog meat say the animals are killed in a humane way, but those who oppose the event say dogs are caged with other animals and are either skinned alive or bludgeoned to death in public before being turned into meat and sold on the street. Slaughtered dogs for sale in Yulin, images that have outraged animal lovers (EPA) Dogs, which were once banned under the communist control of Mao, are now legally allowed to be kept as pets once more, encouraging people to see them as companions instead of food. The consumption and trade of dog meat is legal in China, but dog theft, which is reported to fund much of the dog meat industry, is against the law. Stop Yulin Forever, which started the petition, says the festival is a contributing factor in the killing of 10 million dogs in China for meat every year. But it found that as more people are educated on the issue, numbers are declining. Polls as high as 64 per cent suggest the general Chinese community would agree to end the festival. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) director Mimi Bekhechi said: The Yulin dog meat festival is condemned internationally and by many people in China itself these days because, for most of us, the idea of killing, cooking and eating dogs animals we know and love is revolting." AP contributed to this report Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Brexit and beyond email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} For Nigel Farage, Nigel Lawson and Michael Gove, Brexit is only the beginning. A UK vote for secession on Thursday would, they hope, eventually destroy the evil empire of Brussels and free 27 other nations from the yoke of Eurocracy. One mans hopes are another mans fears. The former Conservative leader, William Hague, once a Eurosceptic himself, has warned that the death of the EU might return Europe to its dark days of poisonous tribal hatreds and beggar-my-neighbour economic policies. The former Irish Taoiseach John Bruton agrees. I worry most not about the technicalities but about the destructive forces that this could unleash, not just in the UK but across the continent, Mr Bruton said. It is the potential undoing of 70 years of statesmanship. Can the European Union survive Brexit? And, if so, in what form? And should Britons care? Short-term collapse is unthinkable. EU leaders would attempt to close ranks against a common enemy Britain. By making the British departure negotiations as miserable as possible, EU governments would seek to prevent the contagion from spreading across the continent. They would fail. Brexit would embolden and encourage Eurosceptic forces of both the right and left in the European Unions heartland. In France, whatever the result this week, the Front National leader, Marine Le Pen, will make Frexit the core of her campaign in the presidential election next spring. She is unlikely to be the next President of the Republic, but her message will earn her new supporters from the nationalist left. If Britain is already in the European departure lounge, she might do uncomfortably well. A recent pan-European poll by the Pew Research Centre found a steep rise of anti-EU sentiment in almost all member states and especially in France and two of the most Europe-minded founder countries, Italy and the Netherlands. Much depends on how the 27 and especially core member states such as France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands react. There will be a chorus of opinion, led by the former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, pushing for a refoundation of the EU with a hardcore of some of the eurozone states and an outer, looser circle of the newer, poorer states to the east and the south. There will also be demands by unrecontructed European federalists, such as former Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, for a spectacular reaffirmation of European faith. The British have gone? Good riddance, they will say. We can now press ahead with more Europe and a leap forward towards a true European government. There is also a view, in Spain and on the French centre-left, that a British vanishing act would allow a shift away from open markets towards a more political (that is, protectionist) EU. What to believe about the EU referendum One of the most far-seeing European statesmen Hubert Vedrine, the former French foreign minister, says that all these approaches could drive the union to its ruin. The divorce between popular feeling and the elites who support the European idea has gone far beyond the borders of Britain, he says. If the 27, or even some of the 27, try to press on with more European integration without popular support, there will be a backlash that could destroy the EU. Mr Vedrine calculates that there is at most 1 per cent approval across the continent for the United States of Europe, so feared by the Daily Express or the Daily Mail. There is a bloc of 15 to 25 per cent of ferocious anti-Europeans of left and right, There is a similar-sized bloc of moderate pro-Europeans, also of both left and right. Hubert Vedrine, former French foreign minister (Getty) Up to 60 per cent of voters in most EU countries are now, he says, Eurosceptic in the sense of doubtful about the capacity of the EU to deliver its promise of greater prosperity and its capacity to handle the middle-east migrant crisis. To try to win over this majority with more Europe or a hard-core Europe would, Mr Vedrine says, be like treating an allergy with high doses of allergy-inducing products. Mr Vedrine says that the EU should treat Brexit, if it happens, as a warning, not a a rallying cry. A pause should be called on European integration. There should be a refounding conference to devise a more modest, practical EU, retaining some super-national powers, but focused on limited areas like trade, better management of the Euro, defence, internal security and the environment. All grand plans, even Mr Vedrines counsel of caution, will be laborious and dangerous to implement, a senior European commission official warns. The danger is that the EU will be too divided both divided between nations and between blocs of nations to come up with any coherent post-Brexit strategy, he said. What has the EU ever done for us? Show all 7 1 /7 What has the EU ever done for us? What has the EU ever done for us? 1. It gives you freedom to live, work and retire anywhere in Europe As a member of the EU, UK citizens benefit from freedom of movement across the continent. Considered one of the so-called four pillars of the European Union, this freedom allows all EU citizens to live, work and travel in other member states. What has the EU ever done for us? 2. It sustains millions of jobs A report by the Centre for Economics and Business Research, released in October 2015, suggested 3.1 million British jobs were linked to the UKs exports to the EU. What has the EU ever done for us? 3. Your holiday is much easier - and safer Freedom to travel is one of the most exercised benefits of EU membership, with Britons having made 31 million visits to the EU in 2014 alone. But a lot of the benefits of being an EU citizen are either taken for granted or go unnoticed. What has the EU ever done for us? 4. It means you're less likely to get ripped off Consumer protection is a key benefit of the EUs single market, and ensures members of the British public receive equal consumer rights when shopping anywhere in Europe. What has the EU ever done for us? 5. It offers greater protection from terrorists, paedophiles, people traffickers and cyber-crime Another example of a lesser-known advantage of EU membership is the benefit of cross-country coordination and cooperation in the fight against crime. What has the EU ever done for us? 6. Our businesses depend on it According to 71% of all members of the Confederation of British Influence (CBI), and 67 per cent of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the EU has had an overall positive impact on their business. What has the EU ever done for us? 7. We have greater influence Robin Niblett, Director of think-tank Chatham House, stated in a report published last year: For a mid-sized country like the UK, which will never again be economically dominant either globally or regionally, and whose diplomatic and military resources are declining in relative terms, being a major player in a strong regional institution can offer a critical lever for international influence. In the recent Pew poll, the most pro-EU nations were Poland and Hungary. And yet the hard-right governments of those countries believe that they can scoop the free trade and free movement advantages of membership while trampling EU rules on democracy and the rule of law. The migrant crisis has divided the EU between a west which broadly but uneasily accepts multi-culturalism and an an east that rejects both. The eurozone crisis has divided the EU between a struggling south and a north that is reluctant to bail out its lazy and incompetent cousins. A post-Brexit crisis would see the 27 try to close ranks against Britain. That will not solve the other crises. If the Sarkozy approach prevails, bundling the eastern and southern Europeans into a second division, it may deepen them to the point of rupture. Hooray, say the Brexiteers-in-chief. The former Chancellor Nigel Lawson, said: The idea that there is anything to be lost if [the EU] breaks up peacefully I find totally unconvincing it has passed its sell-by date. I see no purpose in the EU at all. Michael Gove speaks glibly of the the democratic liberation of a whole continent. Both men ignore the vital role of the EU in permitting the orderly passage of the eastern European and Baltic countries to something like democratic and open societies in the last two decades. That process is not finished; it still could (with enthusiastic support from Moscow) go into reverse. The EU has 'has passed its sell-by date,' says Nigel Lawson (Getty) A break-up of the EU even a division of the EU into rich and poor would not be a comfortable experience for a post-Brexit Britain. Inside or outside, the British economy would remain heavily inter-linked, and interdependent, with the prosperity and stability of our nearest neighbours. The history of the past century and a bit suggests that attempts to distance or islolate Britain from the continent have unpleasant consequences first for the continent and then for its biggest off-shore island. The EU referendum debate has so far been characterised by bias, distortion and exaggeration. So until 23 June we were running a series of question and answer features that explain the most important issues in a detailed, dispassionate way to help inform your decision. What is Brexit and why are we having an EU referendum? Does the UK need to take more control of its sovereignty? Could the UK media swing the EU referendum one way or another? Will the UK benefit from being released from EU laws? Will we gain or lose rights by leaving the European Union? Will Brexit mean that Europeans have to leave the UK? Will leaving the EU lead to the break-up of the UK? What will happen to immigration if there's Brexit? Will Brexit make the UK more or less safe? Will the UK benefit from being released from EU laws? Will leaving the EU save taxpayers money and mean more money for the NHS? What will Brexit mean for British tourists booking holidays in the EU? Will Brexit help or damage the environment? Will Brexit mean that Europeans have to leave the UK? What will Brexit mean for British expats in Europe? For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Matteo Renzi, the Italian prime minister, has made an impassioned plea for the British people to "stay true to themselves" and remain in the European Union. The 41-year-old politician said that a vote to leave the EU would be the "wrong choice" for Britain because its identity has always involved "looking beyond itself" rather than being isolated. His words warned of the immense challenges faced by the world at present, including populist movements that were whipping up division and resentment. The former Mayor of Florence also queried the distorted idea many Britons had of the EU. "No, there is no superstate in Brussels, no pedantic grocer who measures cucumbers and lives on arcane and exacting acronyms that obscure reality," he wrote in an article for The Guardian. "Can Britain really believe this caricature?" He expressed Europe's admiration for Britain's enterprising and innovative history, noting that it was "not easy to give the British people lessons on liberty and democracy." Yet he said that voting to Leave in the referendum on Thursday 23 June would mean swapping pride for weakness. What's the European Parliament ever done for us? Show all 5 1 /5 What's the European Parliament ever done for us? What's the European Parliament ever done for us? A cap on the amount of hours an employer can make you work The Working Time directive provides legal standards to ensure the health and safety of employees in Europe. Among the many rules are a working week of a maximum 48 hours, including overtime, a daily rest period of 11 hours in every 24, a break if a person works for six hours or more, and one day off in every seven. It also includes provisions for paid annual leave of at least four weeks every year Getty Images What's the European Parliament ever done for us? Helping the people of Britain to avoid smoking In 2014 MEPs passed the Tobacco Products Directive strengthening existing rules on the manufacture, production and presentation of tobacco products. This includes things like reduced branding, restrictions on products containing flavoured tobacco, health warnings on cigarette packets and provisions for e-cigarettes to ensure they are safe What's the European Parliament ever done for us? Helping you to make the right choices with your food Thanks to the European Parliament, UK consumers have access to more information than ever about their food and drink. This includes amount of fat, and how much of it is saturated, carbohydrates, sugars, protein and so on. It also includes portion sizes and guideline daily amount information so people can make informed choices about their diet. All facts must be clear and easy to understand What's the European Parliament ever done for us? Two year guarantees and 14-day returns policy for all products Consumers across the EU have access to a number of rights, from things which are potentially very useful, to things which used to be annoying. For example, shoppers in the UK receive a two-year guarantee on all products, and a 14-day period to change their minds and return a purchase, these things are useful www.PeopleImages.com-licence restrictions apply What's the European Parliament ever done for us? Keeping your air nice and fresh (and safe) Believe it or not, although the situation is improving, some areas of the UK have appalling air quality. A report by the Royal College of Physicians released on 23 February says 40,000 deaths are caused by outdoor air pollution in the UK every year. Air pollution is linked to a number of illnesses and conditions, from Asthma to diabetes and dementia. The report estimates the costs to British business and the health service add up to 20 billion every year Mr Renzi also refuted the idea that the EU intervened too much in individual countries, arguing instead that struggling countries were left to flounder with their problems. "Why not take the momentum generated by this vote and channel it instead towards demanding a more effective European Union?" he asked. Mr Renzi, who became Italy's youngest prime minister in February 2014, leads the centre-left Democratic Party and has won praise for his efforts to radically overhaul Italy's political system. He is not the first European leader to appeal to Britain to remain in the EU, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her finance minister Wolfgang Schauble warning that new trade deals will be neither easy nor favourable in the event of a Brexit. Other leaders to line up against a Leave vote include US president Barack Obama, Japanese premier Shinzo Abe and former archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams. Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Brexit and beyond email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Our challenge, the day after, is twofold: to avoid contamination caused by Brexit and restart immediately a positive project for Europe declared Emmanuel Macron, the French economic minister. The European project cannot only be a system of abolishing rules. It will be the end of the ultraliberal Europe that the British pushed us into, a Europe without a political plan, centred on its domestic market. Of course, Mr Macron stated that he wished that the referendum vote would be for Remain, if only so that Britain does not turn into another Gurnesey, a trading post at the edge of the Continent. But, even if that happens, he added, France will take the initiative on a new dynamic for a positive project for Europe so there can be no doubt where the future lies. Recommended Read more Final Opinium poll shows Leave ahead by one point This was one of an increasing number of statements by public figures in the European Union who sees Brexit as an opportunity - allowing, at last, other member states to accelerate the ever closer union which the United Kingdom has staunchly opposed over the years. Those in the EU seeking greater economic and political integration have been rather cautious about voicing their views. This is partly because it was felt that it would have provided the Leave campaign in Britain with ammunition. But there was also recognition that there was growing antipathy towards Brussels in other member countries as well. The Dutch voted in April rejecting, in a referendum, the EUs proposed association agreement with Ukraine. Last December the Danes voted to keep its opt-outs on judicial matters, even if it cost the country membership of Europol. Last July the Greeks voted against the bailout package organised by the European Commission and the IMF. But there is the growing view, among some, that controlling the danger of contamination Mr Macron raised could be presented as a valid reason to start taking corrective steps . There is a need to guard some important principles, some important values, a senior EU official said in Brussels last week. It will not be acceptable to have states demanding the exceptionalism that the UK had enjoyed. Stopping that happening may need acceleration of some of the process of greater integration. It can be a powerful message. The belief that the European vision has become too diluted is deeply felt by many senior Eurocrats. Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission chief, bemoaned: In former times, all those implied in the project were full-time Europeans. Now we have too many part-time Europeans. That is a problem because some of our colleagues in the European Council are listening exclusively to their national opinion. And if you listen to your national opinion, you are not developing what should be common European sense, a feeling for the need we have to put together our efforts. But even some of those who were full-time Europeans are urging caution on ever closer union. Wolfgang Schauble, the German finance minister, has long advocated that an integrated Europe would be far better equipped to face global challenges. He even proposed during the eurozone crisis that the EU should have a uniformed fiscal policy and appoint a joint finance minister. What has the EU ever done for us? Show all 7 1 /7 What has the EU ever done for us? What has the EU ever done for us? 1. It gives you freedom to live, work and retire anywhere in Europe As a member of the EU, UK citizens benefit from freedom of movement across the continent. Considered one of the so-called four pillars of the European Union, this freedom allows all EU citizens to live, work and travel in other member states. What has the EU ever done for us? 2. It sustains millions of jobs A report by the Centre for Economics and Business Research, released in October 2015, suggested 3.1 million British jobs were linked to the UKs exports to the EU. What has the EU ever done for us? 3. Your holiday is much easier - and safer Freedom to travel is one of the most exercised benefits of EU membership, with Britons having made 31 million visits to the EU in 2014 alone. But a lot of the benefits of being an EU citizen are either taken for granted or go unnoticed. What has the EU ever done for us? 4. It means you're less likely to get ripped off Consumer protection is a key benefit of the EUs single market, and ensures members of the British public receive equal consumer rights when shopping anywhere in Europe. What has the EU ever done for us? 5. It offers greater protection from terrorists, paedophiles, people traffickers and cyber-crime Another example of a lesser-known advantage of EU membership is the benefit of cross-country coordination and cooperation in the fight against crime. What has the EU ever done for us? 6. Our businesses depend on it According to 71% of all members of the Confederation of British Influence (CBI), and 67 per cent of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the EU has had an overall positive impact on their business. What has the EU ever done for us? 7. We have greater influence Robin Niblett, Director of think-tank Chatham House, stated in a report published last year: For a mid-sized country like the UK, which will never again be economically dominant either globally or regionally, and whose diplomatic and military resources are declining in relative terms, being a major player in a strong regional institution can offer a critical lever for international influence. But Mr Schauble, an important ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel, has now warned against a rush to further integration if Britain leaves and declared he would oppose such a move. We couldnt simply demand more integration as a result of a Brexit. This would be crude; many would be right in asking whether we politicians have still not understood, he said. This would be the case if Remain won, but with a small majority. We should understand it as a warning and a wake-up call that we simply cant go on as before. The EU referendum debate has so far been characterised by bias, distortion and exaggeration. So until 23 June we were running a series of question and answer features that explain the most important issues in a detailed, dispassionate way to help inform your decision. What is Brexit and why are we having an EU referendum? Does the UK need to take more control of its sovereignty? Could the UK media swing the EU referendum one way or another? Will the UK benefit from being released from EU laws? Will we gain or lose rights by leaving the European Union? Will Brexit mean that Europeans have to leave the UK? Will leaving the EU lead to the break-up of the UK? What will happen to immigration if there's Brexit? Will Brexit make the UK more or less safe? Will the UK benefit from being released from EU laws? Will leaving the EU save taxpayers money and mean more money for the NHS? What will Brexit mean for British tourists booking holidays in the EU? Will Brexit help or damage the environment? Will Brexit mean that Europeans have to leave the UK? What will Brexit mean for British expats in Europe? For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A French woman who left her baby daughter on a beach to drown on a beach has claimed "witchcraft" was the only explanation for her actions. Fabienne Kabou, 39, stands accused of the premeditated murder of her 15-month-old daughter Adelaide in November 2013. If found guilty she could face life in prison. The court in Saint-Omer heard that Kabou, who is of Senegalese origin, travelled with her daughter from their Paris home to the seaside town of Berck-sur-Mer. After enquiring about local tides, she then left her sleeping daughter on the beach near the water. Baby Adelaide's body was found in the early hours of the next day by prawn fishermen. Kabou told the court she was driven to kill her daughter by voices and evil forces, alleging she spent an estimated 40,000 (30,717) consulting "witchdoctors and healers". She said: "In 2011 I fell pregnant with Adelaide, she was born in August and I ended up killing her, 15 months after her birth. "Witchcraft. That is my default explanation because I have no other "Nothing makes sense in this story. What interest could I have in tormenting myself, lying, killing my daughter? "I spoke of sorcery and I am not joking. Even a stupid person would not do what I did." The court-appointed psychiatrist said her "psychological status is largely influenced by cultural references and an individual history linked to Senegalese witchcraft that radically altered her view of the world". Another court psychiatrist, Paul Bensussan, said her act could have been triggered by post-natal depression, Expatica reports. Kabou had told investigators she chose Berck, which is placed between Calais and Dieppe, because "even the name sounded sad". 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Show all 21 1 /21 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Portugal drinks more wine than France Tindo - Fotolia 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Young Italians, by some distance, are the most likely to live at home with their parents 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Britain is on course to overtake Germany as Europes most populated country 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Greek workers work the longest hours in the EU 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Estonia has, per capita, more drug-related deaths than anyone else 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe The fastest download speeds are to be found in Romania 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Slovenia, Malta and Poland have the smallest gender pay gaps 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe France hates its leader more than other European countries 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Eastern and Western Europe are very divided on the issue of gay marriage 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Germany has the most millionaires 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Everyone likes Christmas, apart from France 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Germany accepts by far the most asylum applications 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe The UK and France have some of the most positive views of Muslim people 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Europe's largest Muslim population is in Germany 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Danes are the most trusting Europeans, and Cypriots the least 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Finland has the worst economy in the EU 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Italy has cut back its military spending more than any other major European Nato member 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Everyone is sad about the refugee crisis 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe People in Spain are also the most likely to live in flats (Brits are most likely to live in houses) 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Spain is the most likely to feel neighbourly 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Luxembourg is home to the highest proportion of foreign nationals In her account to the police, she spoke of the moment of leaving her daughter, saying according to Le Monde: "I stopped at one point. She gave a small jump as if shed just woken up. "She was looking for my breast, I gave it to her. I remained standing and I clutched her against me and then, I dont know, I said: No, no, no. "I couldnt stop saying no, I dont know why. I cried. It was as if I was saying to someone: I cant do something like that, but I did it." Recommended Read more Mother admits trading daughter to sex abuser in exchange for heroin Kabou moved to France in 1995 after a well-off childhood in Dakar and was studying philosophy in Paris where she met Adelaide's father, an artist 30 years her senior. She said: "For many years I struggled to wake up in the morning, my feet were paralysed. I had hallucinations, like the walls which didn't stop trembling "The two years before the murder of my daughter were the worst of my life. The two years in prison have been calmer and more peaceful." Her lawyer, Fabienne Roy-Nansion, said the 39-year-old had "remarkable intelligence" but was "subject to irrational beliefs". The trial is expected to last a week. Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Brexit and beyond email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} In many ways, it is no surprise that we stand on the brink of Brexit. No major British politician has made a positive case for EU membership since Tony Blairs short-lived attempt in 1997 to end what he called our half in and half out relationship with Europe. If we vote to leave, David Cameron will be blamed by politicians who wanted to remain for his unnecessary and reckless gamble of an In/Out referendum. But it would not be all his fault. I have watched our prime ministers perform at EU summits since 1987 when Margaret Thatcher in power. Perform is the right word, because it was usually a performance aimed at a domestic audience. Of course, other EU leaders played the same game, but most were committed to a vision of European cooperation and solidarity that Britain never was. After Thatchers handbag-wielding won the rebate on Britains EU contributions, her successors in Downing Street, egged on by most of our newspapers, felt it necessary to portray the European Union as a never-ending battle between us and them. Our prime ministers played a zero-sum game, instead of explaining the inevitable need for compromise in a club that expanded to 28 members. They trumpeted our gains as something won from a hostile enemy, and rarely explained the positive benefits of EU membership. What's the European Parliament ever done for us? Show all 5 1 /5 What's the European Parliament ever done for us? What's the European Parliament ever done for us? A cap on the amount of hours an employer can make you work The Working Time directive provides legal standards to ensure the health and safety of employees in Europe. Among the many rules are a working week of a maximum 48 hours, including overtime, a daily rest period of 11 hours in every 24, a break if a person works for six hours or more, and one day off in every seven. It also includes provisions for paid annual leave of at least four weeks every year Getty Images What's the European Parliament ever done for us? Helping the people of Britain to avoid smoking In 2014 MEPs passed the Tobacco Products Directive strengthening existing rules on the manufacture, production and presentation of tobacco products. This includes things like reduced branding, restrictions on products containing flavoured tobacco, health warnings on cigarette packets and provisions for e-cigarettes to ensure they are safe What's the European Parliament ever done for us? Helping you to make the right choices with your food Thanks to the European Parliament, UK consumers have access to more information than ever about their food and drink. This includes amount of fat, and how much of it is saturated, carbohydrates, sugars, protein and so on. It also includes portion sizes and guideline daily amount information so people can make informed choices about their diet. All facts must be clear and easy to understand What's the European Parliament ever done for us? Two year guarantees and 14-day returns policy for all products Consumers across the EU have access to a number of rights, from things which are potentially very useful, to things which used to be annoying. For example, shoppers in the UK receive a two-year guarantee on all products, and a 14-day period to change their minds and return a purchase, these things are useful www.PeopleImages.com-licence restrictions apply What's the European Parliament ever done for us? Keeping your air nice and fresh (and safe) Believe it or not, although the situation is improving, some areas of the UK have appalling air quality. A report by the Royal College of Physicians released on 23 February says 40,000 deaths are caused by outdoor air pollution in the UK every year. Air pollution is linked to a number of illnesses and conditions, from Asthma to diabetes and dementia. The report estimates the costs to British business and the health service add up to 20 billion every year John Major tried to put Britain at the heart of Europe, but ended up declaring game, set and match. His pro-EU stance sparked the rebellion among Tory Eurosceptics, who gradually raised their sights from reform to withdrawal a campaign that could culminate in a remarkable victory tomorrow. Blair sold the UK to the rest of the EU, his high-water mark being a defence cooperation deal with France in 1998. But during his walking on water phase, he missed the greatest opportunity to sell the EU to the British public. Although being pro-European was a central part of New Labours modernising project, Blair preferred appeasing Euroscepticism to tackling it head-on. Blair saw joining the euro the EUs central project as Britains destiny, but the decision was sucked into the power struggle between him and Gordon Brown, who rightly blocked early entry. Blairs pro-European dream ended in failure. By the time Brown succeeded Blair, the new Prime Ministers relationships with other EU leaders were sour. As Chancellor, he had angered fellow finance ministers by picking an item on their agenda on which there was pre-cooked agreement, demanding such an outcome in media briefings before the meeting and declaring victory afterwards. Bemusement among his counterparts turned to anger. Major praises Cameron's work Cameron, scarred by Majors struggle to lead an ungovernable party, told the Tories to stop banging on about Europe. But he shied away from a showdown with his Eurosceptics, preferring to pander to them a big mistake, because any concessions were gobbled up and quickly followed by more demands. Although there was no great clamour from the public, the rebellion within and the external threat from Ukip persuaded Cameron to offer an in/out referendum in 2013. The die was cast. To win the Tory leadership, Cameron had pledged to take Tory MEPs out of the mainstream centre-right EPP group, whose figurehead is Angela Merkel, the most powerful figure on the EU stage. The decision returned to haunt him. As Prime Minister, Cameron found himself with only one ally when he vetoed an EU fiscal pact in 2011. The rest of the EU went ahead with it anyway. At the Brussels summit, I asked Cameron how it served the national interest for us to be so isolated. He replied that it was about doing the right thing. It was really about getting another headline in the Eurosceptic papers. He made the same error in a doomed attempt to stop Jean-Claude Juncker becoming European Commission president. Realising but not admitting his earlier mistakes, Cameron adopted a much more conciliatory approach towards other EU leaders in a frantic renegotiation of Britains membership terms. But he had so little credit in the bank that he won very few concessions. Unable to fight the referendum on such a wafer thin deal, he had to rely on the economic risk of leaving the EU. Nor could Cameron run a positive campaign about the EUs benefits. A two-month referendum campaign was never going to turn around 30 years of Brussels-bashing by many of our politicians and newspapers, often based on myths and the spectre of a phantom super-state. Recommended Read more Xenophobic has become the new normal during the EU referendum Our self-imposed, semi-detached status means, I believe, that we would get a rotten deal if we leave. You could hardly blame our EU partners because we have only ever been half in. They want us to stay but would probably want a quickie divorce if we decide to walk out. The attitude of other EU leaders would inevitably be shaped by what is best for them. Our game of us versus them would reach its apotheosis, and we might not even be allowed in the room when they discuss the divorce settlement. The EU is more likely to punish the UK with bad exit terms in order to discourage other referendums than it is to keep happy a rather annoying former partner. As the Greek euro crisis showed, we should never underestimate the determination to keep the EU project alive. The result: Brexit would mean a worse deal on trade and cooperation than we have now. Worth thinking about when you vote. Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Brexit and beyond email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} If you had just started to pay attention to the referendum campaign as many people have and last night's BBC referendum debate was the first thing you saw, you would have been surprised to be presented not with two opposing arguments, but with two alternative governments. The format was strange, with three equally matched champions on each side of the gladiatorial combat in the the arena. It meant the principals mainly traded soundbites to enthusiastic cheers and applause from their sides supporters, while the other side heckled and tried to interrupt. The first thing you would have heard, though, is that wages will go up if Britain leaves the EU, as Gisela Stuart, the Labour MP and Leaver, said, quoting Stuart Rose, the chairman of the Stronger In campaign. Boris Johnson followed up by quoting one of the Remainers opposite who had said that in too many places immigration has driven wages down, before revealing that it was his successor as London Mayor, Sadiq Khan. Recommended Read more Scottish Tories leader Ruth Davidson attacks Boris Johnson over Brexit Round one to Leave. Frances OGrady, General Secretary of the TUC and a Remainer, challenged the Leavers to promise every single social and employment right that the EU has won for us. Johnson couldnt believe his luck: We have done that already. When it suits the Leavers, they pretend to be an alternative government, promising whatever people want. Round two to Leave. Then it started to get a bit bumpier for Johnson, because the thing about being an alternative government is that it has to have policies on everything. That means it has to have a policy on immigration. Australian-style points system, said Johnson, happily. Khan quickly pointed out that Australia has twice as much immigration as we have for a country its size. Later on, because the debate bounced from subject to subject and back again with all the discipline of an unfamiliar pinball machine, the combatants returned to the subject, and OGrady demanded to know if the Leave alternative government was promising to reduce immigration. Stuart said the Leavers were not an alternative government and that it was up to whoever was the government to decide how much immigration we had, but if we left it would be able to do so. Its a con, said OGrady. Round three to Remain. If new viewers had started here, they would have discovered that Johnson, the prime-minister-apparent of this alternative government that has policies or doesnt have policies depending on whether it is winning or losing the argument, is a bit of blusterer. He had some great lines. At one point he said: Jeremy Corbyn hes the leader he said there was no way of controlling immigration in the EU. He used the word wrought. He burbled about selling haggis to America. As soon as he got into anything technical he seemed to get it wrong. He claimed that the EU prevented the British government from cutting green policy costs on energy to help Tata Steel, which both OGrady and Khan instantly recognised was untrue. And new viewers in England might have thought, who is that rather forceful Scottish woman who is pushing Johnson and Andrea Leadsom around? They too have just discovered Ruth Davidson, the leader of the Scottish Conservatives. She went for the Leavers much-repeated slogan, Take back control, by saying: You lose control by losing your seat at the table. She quoted Johnsons recent words saying that Turkey joining the EU was not going to happen, was simply not on the cards. She and Khan did a reasonable job of attacking Leaves scaremongering about Turkey. If new viewers had not been turned off by the chaotic format, they might have ended up wondering if they would rather have Ruth Davidson or Sadiq Khan as the prime minister of their alternative government. Murdered MP Jo Cox has been remembered at a gathering in central Dublin as a smart, funny and passionate public servant and activist who was destined for the top. Crowds gathered by the Irish capital's iconic Ha'penny Bridge - as others gathered in cities worldwide - to pay tribute to the mother-of-two on what would have been her 42nd birthday. Heartbroken personal friends and former work colleagues of both Ms Cox and her widower Brendan were among them. Jamie Drummond, who along with Bono co-founded poverty foundation One, was a friend of Ms Cox since her days working with aid agencies. "Jo stood for the best, whether as an activist on the outside or as an activist on the inside when she joined parliament," he said. "She stood for the best in public life and she brought out the best in people, and I hope posthumously she will bring out the best in people in Ireland, the UK and the world." Mr Drummond said he personally remembers Ms Cox for her great sense of humour. "She was just very funny and lively, had a wicked sense of humour and fantastic dimples," he smiled. "I know people in Ireland like to boast about their dimples but Jo could beat any Irish woman or man for her amazing dimples." He added: "That something so awful could happen to someone so brilliant is something that, everyone knows, has shocked everyone to the core. "Her death has impacted so many people around the world." Doug Keatinge became friendly with both Ms Cox and her widower from his time working with them overseas for Oxfam. "I remember her as being an extremely talented, determined but fun person," he said. "The kind of person you only meet very infrequently in your life that combines serious smarts with a great sense of humour and character. "You could see even from afar this was a woman who was destined for the very top - extremely able, extremely articulate and extremely passionate. "But with the passion she had pragmatism in terms of being able to reach out and work across the political divide with different people." A number of Irish politicians turned out for the tribute. Many others took turns to sign their name and leave messages on a large billboard overlooking the River Liffey which read "Today I pledge to #LoveLikeJo". Irish actor Liam Neeson has become the latest global figure to warn of the dangers of Britain leaving the European Union. With just hours until polling officially opens, the 'Leave' and 'Remain' sides are said to be neck and neck. In a statement released to AFP, the Hollywood star said a 'Brexit' would have the "worst ramifications for the island of Ireland" and would reverse the progress made since the Troubles. "Border controls would be implemented to allegedly stop illegal immigrants coming into the UK through the back door. Trade will be enormously impacted," the Ballymena born actor said. "It would be truly a shame to sacrifice all the progress that has been made by the peace process regarding border controls." Meanwhile, the Irish 4 Europe organisation said that with the polls showing an extremely tight race, Irish voters living in the UK could tip the result in the favour of Remain. David D'Arcy of Irish 4 Europe said interventions from the likes of Mr Neeson could prove critical. "Liam has come in at the last minute to rally the Irish vote and voice his concerns about the clear impact a Brexit would have on Northern Ireland," Mr D'Arcy said on Wednesday. "Irish represent up 10pc of the electorate. With such a tight race, we're hoping the Irish can tilt the balance to Remain," he added. A truck is driven by Vote Leave supporters through Parliament Square, ahead of Thursday's EU referendum, in London. Photo: Reuters Edinburgh Castle rock is illuminated with a sign to "Vote Remain" in a show of support for the campaign to remain in Europe ahead of Thursday's EU Referendum in Scotland. Photo: Reuters A Brexit could cost the Irish economy between 2.5bn and just over 3bn over the next two years, potentially wiping out the room for tax cuts and extra spending. Finance Minister Michael Noonan has attempted to play down the risk to the future budgets here, saying the reduction in growth would be "containable". However, working off analysis compiled by the UK Treasury and a British government think tank, the Department of Finance estimates a 'Leave' vote tomorrow could cost Ireland up to around 3bn between 2017 and 2018. This is more than the 2.2bn the minister has predicted will be available to increase spending and tax cuts during this period. It comes as Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin criticised the Government's lack of a 'Plan B' for a Brexit, saying: "There would appear to be a lot of prayer going on and a lot of hope that it goes the right way as opposed to any considered contingency planning." Taoiseach Enda Kenny said he does not want to set out a strategy that suggested the Government believes that the UK will vote to leave. He said that should a Brexit occur there is a "full scale contingency programme" that can be considered by ministers from 5am on Friday morning if necessary. As he unveiled the Summer Economic Statement yesterday, Mr Noonan indicated he expects to have 1bn for increased spending and tax cuts in Budget 2017. Expand Close Edinburgh Castle rock is illuminated with a sign to "Vote Remain" in a show of support for the campaign to remain in Europe ahead of Thursday's EU Referendum in Scotland. Photo: Reuters / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Edinburgh Castle rock is illuminated with a sign to "Vote Remain" in a show of support for the campaign to remain in Europe ahead of Thursday's EU Referendum in Scotland. Photo: Reuters This will increase gradually to 1.2m for 2018 and to around 3bn each year between 2019 and 2021. However, the document also revealed the worst case scenario of a Brexit would involve a hit of 1.6pc to Gross Domestic Product over two years, which equates to around 3bn. Mr Noonan moved to quell fears about the impact of such an outcome, suggesting it wouldn't affect the amount of spare cash that the Government will have to spend. "That's containable within the figures. There are a lot of moveable parts within the figures. "We're pointing out that there's a risk from Brexit, but it's not a risk that would damage the general thrust of what we're saying today," he said. Asked later on RTE if the money available for Budget 2017 would "vanish", Mr Noonan said "nothing would happen immediately". "We could carry it immediately. But certainly it would have to be allowed for. All these figures are the figures as we see them now, and then individual governments in individual years out to 2021 would have to make the budgetary decisions." The Government anticipates having around 670m extra for spending and 330m worth of tax cuts in October's Budget. That's around double the original prediction made last year. Read More Over the next five years, Mr Noonan said the so-called 'fiscal space' would be 11.3bn, taking demographics, the Lansdowne Road Agreement and capital plans into consideration. And he said that from 2019, 1bn per year will be put into a 'Rainy Day Fund' to help mitigate against another crisis. Capital spending is also to be topped up by another 1bn, meaning an extra 5bn has now been set aside over and above what was allocated to the 42bn capital spending plan last year. Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe said the mid-term review of the Capital Plan will be brought forward from late 2017 to early next year. "We won't repeat the mistakes of the past by committing to unsustainable spending increases without regard to the huge damage caused to our economy, our public services and every household by a spending policy driven by the boom-bust cycle," he said. Mr Noonan said that the Fiscal Council had yet to see the figures, although he believes it would have no problem with the Department of Finance's assessment. Meanwhile Taoiseach Enda Kenny told the Dail a Brexit plan has been designed but will not be revealed in advance of the referendum. "[The plan] would be about the economy, trade, about jobs, investment, whether or not Sterling would remain strong or whether it would collapse and if so for how long," he said. It also covers how agencies dealing with small and medium enterprises can support the diversification of their export markets. Mr Kenny said the Government would work with the EU and the UK "to protect Irish interests, including co-operation between North and South, as far as possible." His remarks came as he told the chamber the migration crisis and a range of economic issues will also be discussed at a meeting of the European Council next week. Fianna Fail's Micheal Martin said that whatever the result, there will be a need for "cool heads". He said if there is a 'Remain' vote that there should be a "moment of reflection" among EU leaders. As Ireland is heavily dependent on UK imports, any potential trade barriers could result in higher prices here. Bloomberg You'd be hard pressed to find an economist who thinks a so-called Brexit would be good for Ireland. The business community fears that a vote to pull out, if it comes on Thursday, would damage the Irish economy and potentially affect the 1.2bn weekly trade link with our nearest neighbour. The Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) has already warned there's a potential for trade to slump by up to a fifth, arguing that a British withdrawal would be particularly damaging for sectors that export disproportionately to the UK, such as food and beverages. And as Ireland is heavily dependent on UK imports, any potential trade barriers could result in higher prices here, the think tank warned. Ibec and the Irish Exporters Association have warned about the effects on sterling. A British exit could see the value of the pound plummet, making it more expensive for Irish exporters to sell their goods into the UK market, damaging their competitiveness. The effect on currency has already been felt. At the end of November, 1 was worth around 69 pence. By early April, 1 was worth around 80 pence, although it's pulled back to around 76 pence in recent days as momentum seems to have gathered for the Remain camp. The Government believes Irish GDP could be hit by up to 1.2pc over a two-year period in the event of a Brexit. That could worsen by a further 0.4pc if our trading partners in Europe are affected, it says. Financial markets are also expected to suffer turmoil, and Ireland won't be immune from that. Our borrowing costs have been inching up recently as investors have grown increasingly jittery. There has also been speculation in the UK that a Brexit could plunge Britain into a recession, which would have a knock-on effect here. And then there's the impact on Northern Ireland, arguably the UK region most economically vulnerable to a British withdrawal. The ESRI warned the north could be particularly badly affected given its large farming community. There's been much talk about the uncertainty surrounding the referendum. But economists are certain a Brexit would be bad news for Ireland. Should the UK vote to leave the EU, Irish agriculture would undoubtedly feel negative consequences, both in the short-term and longer term. Already in 2016, we have seen a weakening of Sterling arising mainly from uncertainty on the referendum outcome. In the event of Brexit, the strong trading relationship between Ireland and the UK would be significantly disrupted. That's a major concern for the Irish agri-sector - the UK is our most important export market, accounting for over 40pc of output, including half of beef exports, 60pc of cheese, 350m worth of pig meat and almost 100pc of mushroom exports. It's worth bearing in mind that, regardless of the outcome on Thursday, the UK remains part of the EU for a minimum of two years, as set out in the European Union treaty. We come back to the uncertainty issue; nobody knows how the negotiation process will go, and for how long, as nobody has ever applied to leave the club. Special arrangement for a special relationship? Despite our relationship, Ireland would not be in a position to negotiate any special bilateral trade agreement with the UK in the event of Brexit. We would be bound by whatever trade agreement is reached between the EU and UK. It has been suggested that the UK would negotiate a trading arrangement with the EU similar to that of Norway, which has access to the Single Market, and makes a financial contribution to the EU. Under this arrangement, however, many agricultural products are outside the Single Market agreement, with restrictions in place in the form of tariff quotas and regulatory, non-tariff barriers. The reintroduction of these barriers would increase costs, reduce the competitiveness of Irish exports and, ultimately, reduce the potential the UK holds as a destination for Irish agri-food exports. Where will our agri-exports go? In the event of Brexit, trade to the UK will continue, albeit at a reduced level. Ireland will find other markets but these are unlikely to be as high value as the UK. The other issue to consider is the opportunity cost - the UK is not only a high-value market but a growing one. Eurostat forecasts that by 2050 the UK will be the largest country in Europe. In contrast, almost half of European countries are forecast to experience population decreases. Another risk for Irish agri-exports is the likelihood that the UK would pursue separate trade agreements with third countries, including those with whom they have traditionally strong trade links, such as Canada and New Zealand. This would potentially displace Irish product currently going to the UK market. How would it affect UK farmers Ireland remains the main export market for the UK agri-food sector, and seven of the top 10 countries to which UK exports food are in the EU. So for farmers in the UK, the reintroduction of trade barriers could also have negative consequences, as tariff and quota restrictions could undermine their ability to export to the EU. UK farmers receive 3.9bn annually in CAP funding. It is unknown what domestic support payments would replace the current EU CAP payments but UK Treasury is likely to provide less direct support for its farmers, with a particularly negative impact for Northern Irish, Scottish and Welsh farmers. What would Brexit mean for the EU Budget? As a net contributor to the EU budget, UK's withdrawal could mean either a reduction in the overall budget, or a requirement for increased contributions from the remaining States. Any reduction in the overall EU budget would put significant pressure on CAP funding for all EU states. Another issue to consider is UK's position as an Irish ally in the EU. We entered the EU together and as part of an EU of 28 diverse Member States, our shared strong economic, social and cultural links make the UK a very important partner and ally in Europe. What other impacts could Brexit have? With a shared land border between Ireland and the UK, there is good all-island cooperation and coordination on animal health issues. Risks to the health of the animal population would increase, if, over time, different regulatory regimes were pursued between Ireland and the UK. Ireland imports approximately 90pc of its oil and gas from the UK; a UK exit would potentially increase the costs of connecting to the EU Internal Energy market. Then there are the issues that will affect all individuals such as the easy movement of people between the two countries. In the event of Brexit, the days of travelling from the UK to Ireland using the library card as ID (true story) would truly be over! Rowena Dwyer is chief economist with the IFA Another week, another EU chemicals row. This time the fracas was over chemicals that interfere with hormones, known as endocrine disruptors. The Commission last Wednesday (June 15) proposed guidelines on how to define endocrine disruptors that are present in pesticides and biocides, after a three-year delay. Endocrine disruptors are found in weedkillers, food additives, cosmetics, plastic packaging and toys, and have been linked to infertility, cancer, obesity and diabetes. One of the most notorious such chemicals is weedkiller glyphosate, which has caused a political storm in Brussels as its EU licence comes up for renewal and the science remains split over whether or not it causes cancer. A 2012 report by the World Health Organisation and UN Development Programme said at least 800 chemicals are currently known or suspected to be capable of interfering with hormones, but very few have been tested to see if they are actually harmful to humans or animals. EU health chief Vytenis Andriukaitis said that EU rules are based on science and that if a chemical is found to be an endocrine disruptor, it will be immediately banned. Unusually, Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker intervened in the row, issuing a statement saying that the EU executive is "committed to ensuring the highest level of protection of both human health and the environment" and that it is the first jurisdiction to define scientific criteria for endocrine disruptors in law. But the problem with the European Commission's new guidelines, say some MEPs and health campaigners, is that they define endocrine disruptors too narrowly, and allow for too many exceptions. The rules are also restricted to pesticides, they say. Campaigners at the Endocrine Society said it would be better to categorise endocrine disruptors based on the available scientific evidence. The Commission faces an uphill battle to have the rules agreed by individual EU countries and the European Parliament, who are furious at the lengthy delay in getting the rules out. Under EU law, the guidelines should have been proposed in 2013. The Commission was sued over the delay and was told last year by the European Court of Justice that it had breached EU law by failing to act. The issue is shaping up to be a glyphosate-sized row, with French health minister Marisol Touraine denouncing the Commission proposals for not being "protective" enough. France has already banned one known endocrine disruptor, Bisphenol A, and is concerned the Commission's rules could reverse the ban. Sinn Fein MEP Lynn Boylan said the Commission had "wasted a good opportunity to properly regulate for the protection of human health and the environment". If the action which you are proposing is considered 'a notifiable action', you must make an application to the Department of Agriculture. In NHAs, SACs and SPAs, certain activities can only be carried out with the permission of the Minister. These are called Notifiable Actions and vary depending on the type of habitat. There are 39 notifiable actions including changing the type of farming activity on lands or erecting a fence where there is no pre-existing fence. More recent regulations now state that all developments requiring an EIA will also need planning permission. An EIA attempts to predict the environmental impact of a proposed development. This is necessary for every application for planning permission for development on designated lands and is estimated to cost up to 4,000 for a 500m fence. The costs will be higher if the issue goes to Bord Pleanala, without any guarantee of success. If their decision goes against a farmer, the final option is to appeal to the High Court. Landowners should be aware that there is a short window within which legal proceedings must be started and it can be expensive. Falling foul of planning regulations can have serious consequences including fines and up to two years' imprisonment. First steps on new food safety deal EU parliamentarians and national ministers have reached a preliminary deal to improve food safety and avoid future crises like the 2013 horsemeat scandal. The agreement brings in more controls on food, feed, plant health, pesticides, animal welfare, protected geographical indications and organic farming. It also allows for surprise inspections by the Commission and national authorities in all sectors and countries, including outside the EU. The rules will introduce conditions on animal and product imports from outside the EU, and will provide for penalties for intentional violations. The legislation aims to raise consumer confidence following the 2013 scandal, first picked up by Irish food inspectors, that saw horsemeat being fraudulently sold as beef in several EU countries. Last weeks deal, MEPs hope, will eliminate fraud and introduce common principles all along the food chain, unifying rules which are currently spread over more than 15 different pieces of legislation. EU ambassadors will vote on the preliminary agreement in June. Opening salvos on fish quotas The European Commission has issued the opening salvo in the EUs annual fish fight, setting out a preliminary assessment of the state of fish stocks in European waters. While it hasnt yet set any quotas for the amounts of fish that can be caught in 2017 that will come in the autumn the Commission did indicate which stocks are doing better than others. It said the Atlantic, North Sea and the Baltic Sea sticks were sustainable, while fish stocks in the Mediterranean and in the Black Sea continued to fare poorly. However, it did warn cod and whiting remain at low levels west of Scotland and in the Irish Sea. Irelands quotas will be unveiled in October as part of the Atlantic Sea proposals. A Donegal farmer is challenging the re-election of the IFA president to the board of Farm Business Developments at next Friday's AGM. Brian Marshall, who owns a 100ac livestock farm, and is a card-carrying member of IFA, was a founding shareholder. He now holds 60,369 shares in the company, and says that even though IFA only has a 1pc shareholding in FBD, it has five seats on the board compared to the six seats allocated to other shareholders that own 91pc of the business. He wants farmer shareholders to add his name to the proxy voting card issued with the notice of the AGM because he says he is "very concerned about the decisions being taken for the future of the business". "Joe Healy publicly stated at the Donegal election hustings that he would guarantee an end to IFA cronyism, but he has not followed through," he said. "Why is a public company with assets of over 100m without a website that gives farmer shareholders easy access to information?" he asked. He is also querying a marked decline in administration costs from 947,000 in 2011 to 381,000 in 2014 when the volume of assets it administered was the same, and the deal that saw the company buy 50pc in property from FBD Holdings. "Why were we not given an opportunity to vote on the deal," he asked. The Teagasc student of the year awards have been running for over 30 years, with eight finalists each receiving 500 each, while the two runners-up receive 1,000 and the winner walks away with 1,500. One of the runner-ups was another student who had achieved plenty off the farm before she decided to take the plunge. Emma Cotter (pictured) studied pharmacy after receiving a stellar Leaving Cert of 520 points, but decided to return home to the family's farm at Castlelyons in Cork after just six months working in the pharmacy sector. Johnes disease is possibly the largest skeleton in the Irish dairy industry's closet.Not only is there a growing mountain of data linking Johnes with the debilitating Crohns disease in humans, the spread of Johnes in national cattle herds continues at an alarming rate. Ireland is no exception. Best estimates until Teagasc complete their survey this year is that one in five herds -in both beef and dairy - are carrying the disease. Globally, it may be closer to 50pc in intensive dairy regions. Meanwhile, industry insiders speak in quiet tones about loads of Irish milk powder being rejected because of the presence of Johnes cells, and studies carried out by various internationally renowned specialists in this area have repeatedly found viable Johnes cells in samples of infant milk formula from some of the world's biggest brands. "It's no good pointing the finger at any particular country - the ingredients for these products are often sourced from all over the world," said Mike Collins, a professor in Pathobiological Sciences at the University of Wisconsin. He has focused a lifetime's work on the disease since the 1980s, and will be chairing one of the key sessions on this subject at the World Buiatrics conference to be held in Dublin in early July. "I think it's fair to say that every major dairy exporting country in the world has a problem with Johnes. We've had it in the US since the 1900s, and now it's effectively endemic because it is present in 91pc of dairy herds," he said. He believes that any country that expanded its herds over the last century bought in the disease, with the US and Australia being some of the first, followed by Chile in the 1950s, and more recently China as it goes through a major expansion of milk output. "Some of the positive herds may have an incidence rate of 40pc, when clinical cases are obvious, but more herds will be exhibiting no signs of the disease even though 5-10pc of the cows will actually be carrying the infection," said Mr Collins. He believes that the evidence linking the disease to the similar human wasting condition, Crohns, will only continue to mount. Trial "There is a major clinical trial here on a new antibiotic for Crohns. If it proves successful, it will be a major new piece of incriminating evidence to link the two conditions," he said. The expert added that Ireland is a high risk region for the spread of Johnes now as dairy farmers attempt to rapidly expand. "With quotas gone, farm businesses will either expand or get out of business. A lot of that expansion is likely to happen through buying in stock, sadly, without enough biosecurity. If you buy enough, sooner or later, you're going to buy in Johnes," said Mr Collins. He believes this is the reason that larger, more "progressive" herds are the ones that have suffered initially with the disease. Despite Ireland being "behind" on tackling the disease, the US professor thinks that we can learn a lot from countries such as Australia, Holland, Sweden and Denmark. "Sweden are the world leaders with a verifiably Johnes-free herd. Ironically, the EU is resisting the Swedish authorities' attempt to impose import restrictions on animals from Johnes-positive herds. "The Danes are also to be commended for being quite open about the issue. They are lucky in that they are a small industry that is vertically integrated so it is relatively easy for them to implement a national programme. "The Dutch programme doesn't stand up to much scientific scrutiny but at least they test every cow, while the Australians have done a very good job with comprehensive programmes for every species," he said. He says that processors should be more proactive in dealing with the issue, but that they are "afraid to break ranks". "The cost of eradicating Johnes should not be heaped on farmers because the reality is that farmers with low incidences of the disease in their herds will not see any major improvement in their profit by tackling the disease. "It takes 8-10 years to get a herd free of Johnes. The US government threw $260m (233m) over 10 years at the disease, but when state funding stopped, herd participation also stopped. "This proves that Johnes is not actually a very costly disease for the farmer, but if it ever becomes an issue beyond the farm gate, then everyone will have to pony up," he said. 500m project to tackle Johnes The Irish government have sunk nearly 500,000 into a pilot project aimed at getting farmers to tackle Johnes, mainly through Animal Health Ireland (AHI), who have a wealth of resources available online. Over 1,400 farmers started off in the programme, but the dropout rate among farmers that found their herd testing negative was high. But as Prof Michael Collins notes, Johnes is a "sneaky" pathogen that spreads slowly but silently through a herd long before animals start showing clinical signs. One of the farmers that has been through the wringer with the issue is a 400 cow dairy farm in Co Meath with over 80pc of the herd calving in the spring. In the late 1990s, a major TB outbreak resulted in the entire herd of 180 cows being replaced over the course of three years with imported stock. By the early 2000s they began to see sick animals that were scouring and becoming thin. Initial veterinary advice said it was a problem with parasite control, resulting in no progress. Things began to change when the farm joined a Johne's disease control programme in 2005. In the first round of blood testing revealed that 60 animals were positive - almost 40pc of the herd. When added to the culls over the next seven years, an average of 20 animals were culled annually during this period. As part of the programme two blood tests were taken per year with random faecal sampling every two years. It was estimated that the disease was costing the farm up to 30,000 each year. Through the programme, the farmers to learn how to tackle Johnes, including the construction of individual calving and calf pens. Since then the herd has grown to 400 cows, but the efforts to eliminate the disease continue. The farm continues to calve all their cows in individual pens and these pens are washed out and disinfected after each calving. Each new-born calf is given two feeds of colostrum from their own dam or from a test-negative cow before moving them on to milk replacer. No slurry is spread on the calf grazing area. The levels of Johnes in the herd prevalence has gone from 40pc to 2pc, with zero clinical cases. In order to push for full eradication, this year they concentrated on snatching calves within 10 minutes of birth, which required all the calvings to be monitored. The annual blood test is now taken in December to identify all the positive cows before calving. These animals are isolated and they cull both the positive cows with high readings and their heifer calves. The efforts have resulted in improved fertility and a significant reduction in the use of antibiotics, but it will be some years before the farm will be Johnes free. Understandably, these farmers feel that every farmer should know their infection status, and that the pilot programme was worthwhile. But they also want farmers that go through this process given formal recognition, and claim that compulsory testing would benefit all. A COMPANY controlled by businessman Larry Goodman has been refused a stay on orders clearing the way for other shareholders in Blackrock Clinic to redeem their loans for investing in the facility. Lawyers for Joseph Sheehan, who has a 28pc stake in the clinic, told the Court of Appeal Dr Sheehan is prepared to pay higher interest to another lender to secure funds for loan redemption so as to be "unchained" from Mr Goodman's company, Breccia. The dispute concerns loans made by the former Anglo Irish Bank to Dr Sheehan and his fellow shareholder, Dr John Flynn and Mr Flynn's company, Benray, for investing in the Dublin clinic. The loans were later acquired by the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) which sold them to Mr Goodman's Breccia. Mr Goodman is also a shareholder in the clinic. The High Court ruled the shareholders were entitled to redeem their loans for figures substantially less than sought by Breccia. Pending appeal, Breccia sought a stay from the Court of Appeal which would effectively prevent the shareholders proceeding with loan redemption until the appeal is decided. Sean Brogan has officially resigned as chief executive of Dublin-based Stobart Air. His planned departure was announced last month by the carrier, which operates the Aer Lingus Regional service. Mr Brogan is understood to have tabled a management buyout offer Stobart Air, which had been up for sale with a rumoured price tag of about 65m. Stobart Air is 45pc-owned by UK transport group Stobart. Invesco Perpetual owns 40pc, whole broker Cenkos owns 10pc. Former Aer Arann chairman Padraig O'Ceidigh owns 5pc. Dublin-based airline CityJet is currently examining a possible acquisition of Stobart Air. Such a deal would leave CityJet as a majority owner in the merged business, it's understood. Stobart Air also operates some flights on behalf of UK regional carrier FlyBe. CityJet plans that eventually its wet leasing operations will account for about 60pc of its business and half its profits. The first ever direct air route between Dublin and China looks set to be launched by Hainan Airlines. The carrier is part of the huge Chinese conglomerate HNA, a Fortune 500 company whose activities range from aviation to hotels, and shipping to technology. HNA chief operating officer William Zhang confirmed yesterday that a Dublin-Beijing route is under serious consideration. He said that Hainan Airlines - the fourth-largest airline in China - is "very likely" to launch the service, demand for which is currently being assessed. In what would be a significant coup for the IDA, Mr Zhang also revealed that Ireland is one of the countries where HNA might consider developing its first regional headquarters, saying that Ireland has "strong advantages". Senior HNA executives were in Dublin for the past few days, and held a meeting at the Chinese embassy to discuss the route, said Mr Zhang. He declined to be drawn on when a route could be announced, but airport authorities in both China and Dublin have been involved in discussions. Government agencies such as the IDA, Enterprise Ireland and Tourism Ireland have been pushing for a direct route for a number of years. The DAA, which controls Dublin and Cork airports, has been heavily involved in efforts to lure a Chinese carrier to the capital. HNA, which also has a huge property portfolio, aims to be a Fortune 100 company within three years. Last year, its Bohai Leasing subsidiary paid $2.6bn to buy Dublin-based aircraft lessor Avolon, which was co-founded by Domhnal Slattery. Mr Slattery continues to run Avolon, which is now the world's fourth-biggest aircraft leasing firm. Mr Slattery is hopeful that a Beijing-Dublin route will be launched. "The core issue now is does it make business sense to do it," he said. "It's got to stand on its own merits. I'd be optimistic." Yesterday, Dublin Airport also secured other new business as KLM announced it's launching a twice a day service to Amsterdam starting in October. HNA was founded in 1993 and has annual revenues of over $25bn. It is heavily involved in the aviation sector. Apart from aircraft leasing, it also owns stakes in other airlines and last year agreed to pay $2.8bn to buy aircraft baggage handler Swissport. Earlier this year, it agreed to pay $1.5bn for aircraft catering firm Gategroup. It has also been linked to a sale of aircraft leasing firm CIT Aerospace. That business could fetch as much as 2.7bn. HNA Capital chief investment officer Guang Yang declined to say yesterday whether HNA would bid for the CIT business. Mr Slattery said that if HNA did pursue CIT Aerospace and managed to buy it, that such a deal would be transformational for the group. "CIT is in a process at the moment and we'll see how that evolves," he said. CIT has about 300 aircraft on its books. "That would be a very significant acquisition for us to consider and could be quite transformative for us were we to proceed with it or engage," he said. Difficult market conditions have been blamed by Liberty Insurance for its decision to cut 70 jobs in Dublin and Cavan. It said it was "realigning" commercial insurance and back-office functions. The announcement comes a year after the company said it was laying off 270 people in Cavan, Dublin, and Fermanagh. US giant Liberty Mutual bought Quinn Insurance in 2011. Quinn Insurance employed 1,500 people when the US group took over. The company said in a statement it would now let 70 people go, to take the total employed on the island to 400. "Difficult market conditions continue to hamper the commercial sector but the company anticipates changes will position it to achieve close to financial break-even," a Liberty Insurance spokesman said. The company said it is commencing a consultation process that is expected to result in the voluntary redundancies, primarily from its commercial and back-office functions in its Cavan and Dublin offices. WITH thousands of Ireland supporters scouring the streets of Lille for tickets to Irelands crucial clash with Italy tonight, one teddy bear will be the envy of all of them Paddy the Bear has had the adventure of a lifetime during Euro 2016 supporting the Boys in Green and bringing them luck along the way. He was bought by friends Kate Walshe, Emma Daly and Ruth Farrell before they left Ireland for Paris two weeks ago. He was down in the Moulin Rouge, the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower and saw all the sites. Paddys had a great time," said Kate. Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close Meet Paddy the Bear Paddy arrives in Paris Paddy's in Paris Paddy's on the beer. Photo: Facebook Paddy the security guard. Photo: Facebook Paddy's big adventure. Photo: Facebook Paddy is hitting up all the landmarks. Photo: Facebook Paddy and his best friends. Photo: Facebook Paddy has a sweet tooth. Photo: Facebook Pizza time! Photo: Facebook Who needs GPS? Photo: Facebook Paddy's had too much fun. Photo: Facebook Time for bed. Photo: Facebook Paddy does Notre Dame. Photo: Facebook Paddy and his bff. Photo: Facebook Ready for the match. Photo: Facebook Little bear. Big seat. Photo: Facebook Paddy is hitting the big time. Photo: Facebook Excited fans get ready for the Ireland v Italy match. Photo: Independent.ie Excited fans get ready for the Ireland v Italy match. Photo: Independent.ie Kate Walsh, Emma Daly, Ruth Farrell and Paddy the Bear. Photo: Independent.ie / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Meet Paddy the Bear The group documented Paddys visit by creating three photo albums on Facebook to the envy of their buddies at home (click above to see full photo gallery of Paddy's Parisian adventure). However, Paddy missed the Bordeaux game because the girls had to return home for work. But now he is back and the girls are determined that he will make a difference tonight. Paddy was having withdrawal symptoms all week so we had to get him back out here, said Emma. We had no tickets until last Friday but the Gods answered our prayers and we got our flights and tickets last week, booked time off work and came out. Paddy was the lucky charm against Sweden and hell bring even more luck tonight. Click below to see the full photo gallery of Paddy's big adventure. A taxi driver convicted of careless driving after food critic Tom Doorley was knocked down and seriously injured has been fined 500, but spared a road ban. Mr Doorley suffered two broken shoulders during the incident, Dublin District Court heard. Mark Cruikshanks (38) of Cushlawn Park, Tallaght, Dublin, pleaded not guilty to careless driving at Fleet Street in Dublin city centre on October 17, 2014. He claimed Mr Doorley rushed out in front of his Toyota Avensis, but he was found guilty yesterday by Judge Miriam Walsh. The court heard he had one prior conviction, imposed in 2003, for driving without insurance - which resulted in a fine and a one-year road ban. Defence solicitor Kieran Friel asked the judge to note that his client depended on his driving licence for work. Fining him, the judge noted that in special circumstances the court had discretion not to impose a road ban and she said she would not disqualify him from driving. Mr Doorley told Judge Walsh he suffered two broken shoulders when he was knocked down. He said he checked if any cars were coming before he crossed the Fleet Street junction with Westmoreland Street. Mr Doorley, who appears as a resident critic in TV3's hit reality show 'The Restaurant', had gone into the city centre for a business meeting and lunch at the Merrion Hotel. He drank two average-sized glasses of red wine. Afterwards, he went to Trinity College to check some references for a book he was preparing, he said. Later, at about 6pm, he went to another restaurant for another meal during which he drank two small bottles of water. He then decided to get a taxi home and walked along Westmoreland Street. At the junction with Fleet Street he prepared to cross the road. He said he looked up Fleet Street and confirmed nothing was coming. He added that he proceeded to cross when he spun and ended up on the bonnet of a car, before landing on the ground on his back. The court heard he was taken by ambulance to St James's Hospital, and subsequently treated at Blackrock Clinic. One shoulder was broken in three places, the court heard. Cruikshanks told the court the road was clear and he would have braked if he had seen Mr Doorley but "he rushed out in front of me". A man who has the same name as his brother spent a week behind bars while gardai verified his story, a court has heard. The case was so confusing, even the judge hearing the case decided it was better to give the two men numbers to identify them - just like the brothers' parents had done. Barrister Kathleen Henry told Judge Paul Kelly at Letterkenny District Court that the man before the court was Gheorge Bot (43), from Shercock Road, Bailieboro, Co Cavan. She said the man who should have been before the court is his brother - also called Gheorge Bot (42), from The Willows, Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan. The younger brother is now facing charges of driving carelessly in Letterkenny last June and driving a car without an NCT certificate. However, the older brother had originally been charged with the offences. The older brother was arrested on a bench warrant and jailed for seven days. Ms Henry said the brothers were named after their father in Romania. She said they were often referred to as 'Gheorge One' and 'Gheorge Two'. "Unfortunately, my client Gheorge One has spent a week in Castlerea Prison as a result of the confusion," said Ms Henry. "The brothers were named after their father, also called Gheorge. "We are asking that the charges are put to Gheorge Two," she added. There was laughter in court as Judge Kelly asked: "So when is Gheorge the Second going to be able to be here to deal with the case?" Ms Henry said he was at home in Romania due to a family death. Judge Kelly remarked: "It strikes me their father is probably Gheorge the First, this man before me is Gheorge the Second and the gentleman currently in Romania is Gheorge the Third." He adjourned the case until September 1. School's out, or almost out, for about 900,000 primary and post-primary pupils and anyone who encountered bullying during the year is probably breathing a sigh of relief, thinking that the harassment will now disappear. But, Dr James O'Higgins Norman, director of the Anti-Bullying Research Centre at Dublin City University, says just because schools close, the problem doesn't necessarily go away for the summer. That is particularly true in the modern era, where cyberbullying knows no bounds and children engaging with online activity are vulnerable. Dr O'Higgins Norman says bullying can also follow children to other activities, such as summer camps, and parents need to be alert to the possibilities. Over the past month, the DCU anti-bullying centre has received a lot of calls from parents of fifth and sixth class pupils. He doesn't know why they have experienced such a surge but suggests that "perhaps bullying has been going on all year and they feel frustrated that it hasn't been resolved and they don't want it spilling into next year." In relation to online activity that children may be engaging in over the holidays, Dr O'Higgins Norman says parents need to be careful that any contact is appropriate and that there is no bullying taking place. "Parents need to be aware that they use the internet in a different way from their children and need to get to grips with social media sites that their children are using," he says. A survey published by the DCU centre earlier this year showed that while over half of parents of nine to 16-year-olds engage in social media sites such as Facebook, they have almost no interaction with Twitter, Instagram or Snapchat, the platforms of choice for their teen and pre-teen children. Dr O'Higgins Norman says: "the best way is to sit kids down, talk to them about what they are doing online and encourage them to talk; ask them questions like 'have you ever come across cyberbullying'." But he cautions: "The number one thing that parents must promise kids is that they won't take away their internet access. It is the number one reason why kids don't report what might be going on." The DCU centre recently ran its annual conference, which heard that much more needs to be done at school level to deal with the bullying issue. There has been a raft of initiatives from the Department of Education in recent years, but Dr O'Higgins Norman says they don't go far enough. He says while Ireland has developed a National Anti-Bullying Action Plan, we have not gone so far as to implement a national programme across all schools. "Thanks to the last government, we are in a much better place than we had been. The national plan has moved the whole area on by light years." But his issue is that the action plan leaves it to individual schools to develop their own programme, whereas he says what is needed is a national approach across all schools. While the Government is funding parental awareness of the issue through training being offered by national parents' councils and by supporting research at the DCU anti-bullying centre, he says what is missing is teacher training. According to Dr O'Higgins Norman, there is a "massive need" to upskill teachers: "We are finding there is tremendous anxiety among teachers and principals about how to deal with bullying and the victim can lose out. The recent DCU conference heard from a leading international academic who spoke about the effectiveness of an anti-bullying programme called KiVA, currently in use in more than 2,300 Finnish schools, and in other countries. Finland's education system generally is regarded as a world leader. Unlike many anti-bullying initiatives, KiVa is based on decades of research and was evaluated in Finland over two years before a nationwide roll-out in 2007-2009. It is now also running in Belgium, Estonia, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, UK, Sweden and Hungary. The network of international KiVa partners collaborates in both research and programme development. KiVa has three age-appropriate programmes, one for six to nine-year-olds, one for 10 to 12-year-olds, and the third for junior-cycle age students. It involves a range of classroom-based and online lessons, group discussions, visibility of play time supervisors and enhancing peer support for victims of bullying. They say that what marks KiVa out is that it has been tested in rigorous scientific studies, and independent data, collected by Finland's National Institute for Health and Welfare, indicates that bullying and victimisation have decreased in the country since the roll-out of KiVa. Studies from the Netherlands, Estonia, Italy, and Wales are also showing that KiVa is effective outside of Finland as well. Professor Christina Salmivalli of Turku University, Finland spoke to the conference about how it helped to reduce incidents of bullying. One issue in particular that Prof Salmivalli highlighted was how influencing bystander behaviour leads to an overall reduction of bullying. She said that the effectiveness of KiVa was due to the emphasis on changing bystander responses to bullying and changes in how students perceive their teachers' bullying-related attitudes. Dr O'Higgins Norman points that in a school context, the teacher can be the bystander. "There needs to be a basic programme where all schools have teachers trained and have an understanding of what bullying is about, so that they can recognise it and deal with it appropriately." He says the DCU centre has piloted a whole school approach that could be rolled out nationally if funding and resources to train teachers were made available. While there is no such commitment, Dr O'Higgins Norman is heartened that the Programme for Government includes a commitment to a revision of the National Anti-Bullying Action Plan. In the meantime, the DCU centre plans to launch a training course in September, which, it hopes, will attract teachers who want to know more about effective anti-bullying practices. A leading specialist in the field, she says that, by using their professional judgement, teachers can better support a students future learning through direct involvement in the assessment process. Stock Image Teachers in Ireland should be proud to take responsibility for assessing their own students, according to an international education expert. As the row over the roll-out of junior cycle changes to all 730 second-level schools rumbles on, a conference this week will hear of the benefits for teachers and students of embracing the reforms. Students who have just finished second year are the first to experience junior cycle changes, involving classroom-based assessments alongside traditional exams. Opposition from the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) - much of it around teachers assessing their own pupils - has disrupted the introduction of the reforms, and the union is threatening to continue the row into next year. The Australian state of Queensland has had teacher assessment for about 40 years, and Professor Val Klenowski from Queensland University of Technology insists that it is better that students are assessed by their own teachers than by external examiners. Prof Klenowski is one of the speakers at the annual Maynooth University Education Forum on Friday, which is exploring the issue of assessment. A leading specialist in the field, she says that, by using their professional judgement, teachers can better support a student's future learning through direct involvement in the assessment process. Prof Klenowski says it does require professional development of teachers and a system of moderation to ensure quality assurance, but students need that interaction with teachers if they are to learn from the assessment process. She says in Australia teachers see it as "very much part of their responsibility to be able to assess their own students and to devise assessment tasks and to come together with other teachers to talk about what really matters, student learning". While the ASTI remains opposed to junior cycle changes, the Teachers' Union of Ireland (TUI) is co-operating and students in more than one third of schools had their first classroom-based assessments in English last month. The reforms are being phased and from September there will be a new curriculum for both science and business studies, with classroom assessments for students from spring 2018. The results of HPAT Ireland 2016 will be released next Monday. HPAT is an essential component for entry to undergraduate medicine: an applicant must do well in both HPAT and the Leaving Cert to be offered a place. It is possible to achieve maximum CAO points but not receive an offer for medicine if a candidate has not done well at HPAT. When students receive their HPAT score it may be clear to some that they will not receive an offer for medicine, irrespective of what they achieve in their Leaving Cert. These students may need to consider making changes to their CAO application. After receiving their HPAT score, applicants should check how many CAO points they may need to qualify for medicine, by consulting Student Resources/Entry to Medicine on CAO.ie. This gives an indication of how many CAO points last year's applicants with the same HPAT score needed. It is important to remember that points can change every year - and can go down as well as up. Last year, the course with the lowest points was the NUI Galway's GY501, which had a cut-off of 723*. So, applicants needed a minimum of 160 in HPAT in order to gain enough CAO points to be considered for medicine. To achieve 723, a candidate with a HPAT score of 160 would have needed 615 points in the Leaving Cert. The higher the HPAT score, the fewer Leaving Cert points are required. A candidate with a HPAT score of 170 would have required 565 points to be considered for GY501 last year. While this is still a lot of points it does give a little more wriggle room. If, as a result of their HPAT score, candidates are concerned about gaining entry to medicine, there are a number of things that can be done. Firstly don't panic - nobody knows what the cut off for medicine will be in August. If there is any possibility of receiving an offer, no matter how unlikely, students should consider leaving at least a couple of medicine courses on the CAO form. Points may fall and candidates often do better in their Leaving Cert than they expected. If a candidate needs to amend their CAO (Change of Mind is open until July 1), they should consider degrees that they will enjoy and perhaps build a career from, if medicine is never possible for them in the future. Graduate medicine, the preferred alternative entry route for many aspiring doctors, will accept a 2:1 from a degree in any discipline. Research shows that graduate medicine students from arts backgrounds perform just as well in their studies as classmates with science or engineering backgrounds. Other routes to medicine include studying in Europe, UK, and retaking HPAT or the Leaving Cert. Aoife Walsh is a guidance counsellor at Malahide Community School, Co Dublin Q. I am trying to finish my CAO Change of Mind form but I am worried about missing courses that could be the perfect option for me. Is there any way I can be sure I have found everything? A. The most difficult aspect of researching courses is ensuring that you have found all possible options. Students often report that they dont know where to start and miss some courses that they are likely to enjoy because they dont know that they exist. There are a number of different ways to approach this task including using college prospectus and, from time to time, I will use them all. One of the easiest ways for students to ensure that they are finding all relevant courses is by using an online search tool. This week careersportal.ie release their new course search tool coursefinder+. It allows students to research from a number of different angles, including by results of the careers interest test (also available on the website), by sector, by region or by college. Other useful filters, unique to this website, include courses that accept foundation maths or courses that do not require a language. Important dates Today Enrolment day - Ballsbridge College of Further Education Tomorrow Live Q&A Session - DIT Hospitality Management and Tourism Reply to offers by this date - UCAS June 25 Open Day - Maynooth University Open Day -St Patrick's College Maynooth Counselling and Psychotherapy Taster Day - PCI College June 27 Change of Mind Online Information Session - DCU Drop in Day - Maynooth University Kilkenny Change of Mind Q&A (5 Day Event) - Waterford IT June 28 Open Day - College of Media and Artistry Open Day - DCU Health Minister Simon Harris has ruled out putting any new warnings on the vaccine given to schoolgirls to prevent cervical cancer. The minister gave the HPV vaccine the all-clear based on a European expert study which looked at its safety. The research was carried out in the wake of fears by some parents that it was associated with a small group of teenage girls developing symptoms such as chronic fatigue syndrome, pain and seizures after getting the jab. "The European Medicines Agency has advised healthcare professionals that available data does not warrant any change to the use of HPV vaccines as there are no new safety concerns regarding HPV vaccines," he said. "I am aware of claims of an association between HPV vaccination and a number of symptoms experienced by a group of young women. "It appears that some girls first suffered symptoms around the time they received the HPV vaccine, and understandably some parents have connected the vaccine to their daughters condition. Expand Close Health Minister Simon Harris. Picture Credit : Frank Mc Grath / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Health Minister Simon Harris. Picture Credit : Frank Mc Grath "Anyone who is suffering ill health is eligible to seek medical attention, and to access appropriate health and social care services, irrespective of the cause of their symptoms. "The individual nature of the needs of some children may require access to specialist services which can be accessed through their GP," he added. He said the immunisation programme in Ireland is based on the advice of the National Immunisation Advisory Committee (NIAC). Read More NIAC is a committee of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland comprising of experts in a number of specialties including infectious diseases, paediatrics and public health. Expand Close HPV vaccine. Photo: PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp HPV vaccine. Photo: PA The committee's recommendations are informed by public health advice and international best practice, he said in a parliamentary reply to Kerry Fine Gael TD Brendan Griffin. "In 2009, NIAC recommended HPV vaccination for all 12 year old girls, and in September 2010, the HPV vaccination programme was introduced for all girls in the first year of second level schools. "The HPV vaccine protects girls from developing cervical cancer when they are adults. It is available free of charge from the HSE for all girls in 1st year of secondary school and over 200,000 girls have received the vaccine since its introduction." The combination of a HPV vaccination schools programme along with regular screening of the women as adults has the potential to reduce the incidence of cervical cancers by up to 90pc. Mr Harris said that, in Ireland, the medicines' watchdog the Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA) is the regulatory authority for medicines in Ireland and is the appropriate authority to which possible adverse reactions to medicinal products should be reported. "In November 2015, the European Medicines Agency completed a detailed scientific review of the HPV vaccine. The review which the HPRA participated in, specifically focused on rare reports of two conditions, complex regional pain syndrome and postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome associated with heart rate increase. "The outcome of the review which was carried out by the EMA Pharmacovigilance and Risk Assessment Committee (PRAC) found no evidence of a causal link between the vaccine and the two conditions examined. "The European Medicines Agency has advised healthcare professionals that available data does not warrant any change to the use of HPV vaccines as there are no new safety concerns regarding HPV vaccines," he continued. "Healthcare professionals should therefore continue using the vaccines in accordance with the current product information. "On January 12 last the European Commission endorsed the conclusion of the European Medicines Agency stating that there is no need to change the way HPV vaccines are used or to amend the product information. This final outcome by the Commission is now binding in all member states." The publicity surrounding the fears of parents about possible side-effects led to a fall-off in take up in recent rounds, particularly in the west of Ireland. Dr Kevin Connolly, chair of the NIAC, asked parents to continue to have their daughter vaccinated to reduce their risks of cancer later in life. As adults they will continue to need cervical screening but their risks of cancers are greatly reduced. He said:"There has been publicity about an alleged link between chronic fatigue syndrome and the HPV vaccine. I respect peoples beliefs but there is no evidence to link HPV vaccine with chronic fatigue syndrome." The latest outbreak is largely centred on Kerry and first hit the county in mid-April. Stock Image At least 22 people have caught measles in a serious outbreak of the virus which has already led to several hospitalisations for the potentially life-threatening illness. And seven more people are undergoing tests to find out if they have caught the virus, which in rare cases affects the lungs and brain. The latest outbreak is largely centred on Kerry and first hit the county in mid-April. So far, there have been 22 confirmed cases in the north of the county. Read more: 22 diagnosed with measles in Kerry 'after infectious person travelled on flight from Dublin' Around 19 of these patients, who include infants, young children, teens and adults in their 20s, have had to be admitted to Kerry University Hospital for complications. Most have now recovered. HSE public health specialist Dr Fiona Ryan said measles is all but eradicated in Ireland. However, the highly contagious illness was spread after people who were infected abroad returned here. Around 30 people nationally have been diagnosed with measles so far this year, compared to five in 2015 and 33 in 2014. "The way it comes into Ireland now is that somebody brings it in. Somebody who was infected travelled back to Kerry and this causes it to circulate in the community," explained Dr Ryan. The HSE is not saying what country the Kerry outbreak originated in. It has listed areas where different people who turned out to have measles passed through, including Dublin Airport in mid-May. An infected person was on a Ryanair flight from Zadar in Croatia to Dublin on May 16 and another was in Limerick city while others were in Ballina, Co Mayo, and Enniscrone, Co Sligo. Dr Ryan said the measles patients in Kerry have come from Ballyheigue, Dingle, Milltown and Tralee. The MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine is given in two doses, at age 12 months and again at age four or five years. The vaccine take-up is currently high but it is still not enough to ensure 'herd immunity'. Dr Ryan said "there are small numbers of people in the population who are not vaccinated against measles and these are vulnerable to the disease if they come into contact with an infected person". Anyone who was born before 1978 probably got measles as a child and is immune. Dr Ryan said if people are unsure if they have had the two jabs they should go to their GP. They can have the doses a month apart. Patients who have suspected measles should not go to their hospital emergency department, but should ask their GP to call to their home. "The group we worry about are children under one year of age who are too young to be vaccinated," said Dr Ryan. She said the time between exposure to measles and developing the illness is normally 14 days. "People are infectious from four days before a rash starts until four days after," she added. The holiday season poses new risks and there have been more than 60 cases of measles reported in the last two months in London. In 2014, two infected people came here from the Philippines and another from Japan. Last year, another case originated in Indonesia. How vaccination works - Babies are given the first dose of MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine at the age of 12 months. A second dose is given in school at age four to five years. Anyone born before 1978 probably had measles as a child and is immune. An unfounded scare around the MMR vaccine in the late 1990s led to many parents not vaccinating their children. It means there are pockets of young people who are not protected. They can still get the two doses of the vaccine a month apart to ensure they do not catch the illness. One of the diaries in which she recorded bullying Leanne Wolfes parents Collette and Anthony (Inset: The cover of one of Leanne's diaries) A woman whose daughter took her own life following a campaign of online bullying, harassment and physical abuse has forgiven those responsible. But Collette Wolfe has called for more to be done by social media websites and the Government to crack down on cyberbullying. Ms Wolfe lost her daughter Leanne (18) nine years ago. The teenager endured emotional and physical torture at the hands of a vicious female gang in Cork for at least three years before her death in 2007. She left behind diaries detailing her suffering. Now her mother has said that anyone caught bullying on social media websites should be banned. The call follows a similar plea for new laws earlier this week by Elaine Hughes, who lost her 17-year-old son Darren to suicide in 2012. He was also bullied online. Expand Close One of the diaries in which she recorded bullying / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp One of the diaries in which she recorded bullying Ms Wolfe said that despite seeing shocking messages on the social networking pages from those who bullied Leanne, she eventually forgave them. Bible "I saw a message of hers on one of her bullies' pages and it said, 'I know I'm hated but I'm loving the attention'. That was her saying she's dead and that she didn't care," said Ms Wolfe. Despite suffering through the pain of Leanne's loss - she said she considered taking her own life - she forgave the bullies and said she found hope in God. Expand Close Leanne Wolfes parents Collette and Anthony / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Leanne Wolfes parents Collette and Anthony "I forgave her bullies. I had to or I'd be a different person," she said. "It was a guard who gave me a Bible. I went on a walk one day and I realised there was hope." Ms Wolfe said it was time that social networking sites began tackling the growing crisis of online bullying. "I think just like if you're driving drunk or without insurance, you should be banned for a period if you're caught harassing or bullying online," she said. "The websites don't care, and why would they? But it's time they started doing more - the amount of bullying that's out there, it's at crisis stage." One issue raised by Ms Wolfe was how the impact of cruel taunts and threats are more permanent on social media, compared with when a victim could walk away from a bully. "Now the messages are left on sites and are there to see over and over again. In Leanne's case it tore her down," she said. "She was thinking, 'I'm nothing', and when they're young they don't know how to deal with that. "The act of communication is now gone. Leanne couldn't express how she was feeling, it made her feel ashamed." While Ms Wolfe said she was grateful for the support she and her husband Anthony had received from the gardai, she supported making bullying easier to report, such as through a website. "It's a good idea, but you have to go to the Government to fund it. The Government need to do more than sit on their hands," she said. If you are affected by any of the issues in this article, contact the Samaritans on 116 123 (Ireland and UK), email jo@samaritans.org or find your local branch at www.samaritans.org Childline runs a 24-hour confidential phone service on 1800 666666, or can be contacted by text. Children can text the word: talk, bully or help to 50101. Any child can contact the line for support. Griffith Park playground in Glasnevin which is closed due to fire damage. Picture credit; Damien Eagers Griffith Park playground in Glasnevin which is closed due to fire damage. Picture credit; Damien Eagers Griffith Park playground in Glasnevin which is closed due to fire damage. Picture credit; Damien Eagers Griffith Park playground in Glasnevin which is closed due to fire damage. Picture credit; Damien Eagers Griffith Park playground in Glasnevin which is closed due to fire damage. Picture credit; Damien Eagers THE cost of repairing a childrens playground destroyed by an arson attack could be as high as 20,000. The playground at Griffith Park, between Glasnevin and Drumcondra, was set alight late last Thursday night. The malicious damage to the playground equipment happened after a wheelie bin filled with rubber tyres was set on fire. It is estimated that the cost to Dublin City Council (DCC) for repairs will be between 15,000-20,000. Expand Close Griffith Park playground in Glasnevin which is closed due to fire damage. Picture credit; Damien Eagers / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Griffith Park playground in Glasnevin which is closed due to fire damage. Picture credit; Damien Eagers The council contacted contractors on Monday to get a more accurate cost and time estimate. The playground will be closed until the equipment is replaced. It is not the first act of malicious vandalism in the park in recent weeks. There have been reports of wheelie bins being taken into the park at night and set alight. Several trees have also been broken. Expand Close Griffith Park playground in Glasnevin which is closed due to fire damage. Picture credit; Damien Eagers / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Griffith Park playground in Glasnevin which is closed due to fire damage. Picture credit; Damien Eagers A spokeswoman for DCC told the Herald that both they and the gardai are investigating the incident. Unfortunately, public parks are subject to anti social behaviour on occasions and this park, and others, have been targeted before. The extent of the damage caused in this incident is significant, she said. It is regrettable that the council has been forced to close this facility due to the extent of the damage and also because of health and safety concerns. The damage will be repaired as soon as possible and the playground will then re-open, she added. Expand Close Griffith Park playground in Glasnevin which is closed due to fire damage. Picture credit; Damien Eagers / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Griffith Park playground in Glasnevin which is closed due to fire damage. Picture credit; Damien Eagers Local representative, Noeleen Reilly said there needs to be an increase in park wardens across the Dublin north-west area. There is not enough security in the parks. If someone wants to get into the park they will, but there is no one there to move them on, she said. There have been a number of different attacks on playgrounds in parks all over Dublin north west in recent times. This [cost of repairs] is such a waste of taxpayers money, she added. US Vice President Joe Biden shakes hands with President Michael D Higgins as he signs the visitors book in Aras an Uachtarain this morning. Photo: Tony Gavin US Vice President Joe Biden shares a joke with President Michael D Higgins as he signs the visitors book in Aras an Uachtarain this morning. Photo: Tony Gavin US Vice President Joe Biden waves goodby as he leave Aras an Uachtarain this morning as President Michael D Higgins and his wife Sabina look on. Photo: Tony Gavin US Vice President Joe Biden with President Michael D Higgins and his wife Sabina as he leave Aras an Uachtarain this morning. Photo: Tony Gavin US Vice President Joe Biden arrives with President Michael D Higgins at Aras an Uachtarain this morning. Photo: Tony Gavin US Vice President Joe Biden with President Michael D Higgins as he signs the visitors book in Aras an Uachtarain this morning. Photo: Tony Gavin US Vice President Joe Biden waves goodbye as he leave Aras an Uachtarain this morning as President Michael D Higgins and his wife Sabina look on. Photo: Tony Gavin US Vice President Joe Biden jokes with President Michael D Higgins that he had "no credentials" to present as they met in Aras an Uachtarain this morning. Under tight security Mr Biden made the short journey from the American Ambassador's residence in the Phoenix Park to the Aras at 9.30am. In a jovial mode the Vice President told Mr Higgins he was delighted to be in Ireland and said his grandfather's family would have been proud to see him signing the guestbook in the Aras. Mr Higgins explained that the State Reception Room where he signed the book with a JFK quote was normally used for new ambassadors to present their credentials, prompting Mr Biden to say: "I have no credentials." Vice President Joe Biden quoted JFK in the Aras an Uachtarain visitors book: pic.twitter.com/YSjWhMSTEl President of Ireland (@PresidentIRL) June 22, 2016 Mr Higgins replied: "We'll talk about that later." Read More The two men held a private meeting for over 30 minutes, ending the formal element of the Vice President's six day visit to Ireland. He is shortly due to fly from Dublin to Knock Airport from where he will begin a tour of Mayo that includes Taoiseach Enda Kenny's hometown of Castlebar, Westport and Castlebar. In a statement issued after their meeting, Aras an Uachtarain said the discussion between Mr Higgins and Mr Biden included Irish, European and current global affairs. Among the issues that were discussed were the central importance of human rights to the political perspectives of both the President and the Vice President. Specifically, President Higgins commended Vice President Bidens work on the elimination of all forms of violence against women. The two leaders further discussed the current issues facing the European Union and the current position in relation to the peace process in Northern Ireland. The present position of the discussion and advocacy in relation to the legislative process regarding out of status Irish in the United States was discussed, the statement said. Growing up surrounded by heavy, powerful machinery, I'm well aware of the very real dangers they pose to those who use them on a daily basis. But, I must admit, that level of self-awareness has come with age. As a care-free child, full of mischief and a sense of adventure I loved nothing more than climbing up on the biggest, noisiest machine in the yard to play 'turf-cutter' or run my own make-believe garage. My big brother and little brother were the very same. Looking back, I don't know how our parents kept an eye on us - if it had tracks we were on it, if it had a cab, we were in it. Thankfully, despite a few close shaves, we never came to any harm. The ease at which a farm yard or agricultural accident can occur is frightening. Staggering statistics show 2,500 accidents occur every year. While some are minor, others inflect permanent, often life threatening injuries. To date, the focus of farm safety events and courses have generally centred on raising awareness and reducing risk. While this approach is proving successful, we must accept that even in the best run farms and workplaces accidents will still happen. On June 23, Teagasc in Cavan will run a special farm accident response course called 'FARM 999'. In addition to highlighting awareness, Niall McCabe, organiser, says the one day course will focus on how to be a first responder if an accident or medical emergency occurs. "Paramedics talk of the 'golden hour' after an incident happens. What happens in this period has a huge bearing on how well a person will recover and could even make the difference between life and death. Rather than aiming this course solely on the farmer we are targeting it at the farmer and family who often become the first responder almost by default," he said. The course, sponsored by Poles Co-op in Cavan, will include demonstrations on treating injuries, preventing shock and administering CPR. "Young people now will be the farmers of the future and better to learn these life skills now rather than later," he said. Participants must book their place by calling the Teagasc Advisory Office in Ballyhaise on 049-4338300. On June 12, more than 280 tractors participated in the Shane Brolly Memorial Tractor Run in Donegal. The successful event also remembered farmers Kevin Woods and Seamus Hegarty - both fatally injured in farming accidents in 2014. Meanwhile, as silage cutting season continues, farmers are being asked to purchase purple wrap and net in aid of the Children's Medical and Research Foundation for Our Lady's Children's Hospital Crumlin. 'Farmer in Charge' Maurice Walsh is a country man of humble means, used to the odd hair cut twice a year when his tresses get so long he cant see through them. So, when the successful dairy farmer from Mitchelstown, Co Cork, was asked to apply his entrepreneurial acumen to a struggling hair and beauty salon in Tallaght as part of RTE business makeover series Farmer in Charge, the nerves kicked in. Id no clue it was going to be a hair salon so I was nervous. Id never done anything like it before but it was fantastic, he said. His central approach to rejuvenating the salon was focus on quality. Whether its milk, tillage, peas or a haircut, the customer must be satisfied with the product, said Maurice, who milks 100 cows on his dairy farm everyday. What shocked him the most? The capitals metrosexual grooming culture. Men are worse than women in Dublin for beauty. Fellas were in every week to get the hair done and trim their Conor McGregor beards. Jaysus I wouldnt have the patience for that, he laughed. (Farmer in Charge is available on RTE Player). * Congratulations to Tullow Macra in Carlow celebrating their 70th anniversary with a bit of a shindig at the Mount Wolsey Hotel on Friday. Major uncertainty surrounds the impact on used-car prices here should Britain vote tomorrow to leave the EU. In that event, some in the motor industry here fear there could be a big increase in the numbers of lower-cost used imports on the back of an anticipated weaker sterling. Imports fell over the past couple of years because sterling had been so strong. Now if imports get cheaper due to a weaker UK currency, there could be serious knock-on effects on the residual values of 'home' cars on the Irish secondhand market - at least in the medium term. No one is exactly sure what will happen - and obviously a vote to stay in will greatly allay fears of such a development. There is even talk of tariffs and quotas. The uncertainty underlines how widespread the ramifications of a UK exit would be and the sense of potential crisis it is creating. All the big car manufacturers globally have been active in warning of severe consequences across the board. Toyota estimated that Brexit could lead to levies of as much as 10pc on the cars it builds in Britain. In a letter to its UK workers, it says Brexit would challenge it to cut costs or make its cars more expensive. The Japanese giant exports almost 90pc of the vehicles it builds in the UK. Reports say three-quarters of those cars are sold in the EU. The letter was signed by two of Toyota's UK manufacturing executives and a trade union representative. It says: "We will face significant business challenges as a result of a decision to withdraw from the EU." It insists that it remains committed to its UK factories and employees - last year it built 190,000 Avensis and Auris cars at its Burnaston plant. But a 10pc rise in prices at a time of severe competition could have major implications for future long-term planning. Several other carmakers and suppliers have voiced "widespread concern" over the prospect of a British exit. Leaving the EU would be "highly damaging" and make the carmaker's products less competitive in Europe, Jaguar Land Rover chief Ralf Speth warned on Monday. And Nissan chief Carlos Ghosn has said that staying part of the EU makes sense for jobs, trade and costs. Police inspects cars going into the airport of the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, November 7, 2015. REUTERS/Asmaa WaguihAA British Airways has extended its suspension of flights to the Egyptian resort of Sharm al-Sheikh indefinitely, becoming the first major UK airline to cancel departures for the crucial winter season in Egypt. British and Russian governments banned their airlines from flying to Sharm al-Sheikh, a popular winter sun destination, because of concerns about security at the local airport after the suspected bombing of a Russian passenger jet in October 2015 killed all 224 people on board. Tourism is a key source of income for the Egyptian economy but the number of tourists fell 40 percent in the first quarter of 2016, partly hurt by the flight ban keeping British and Russian tourists away. "The safety and security of our customers will always be our top priorities and we have suspended our flights from Gatwick to Sharm al-Sheikh indefinitely," British Airways said in a statement on Tuesday. Customers with bookings on any cancelled services for the winter season will be offered a full refund or can put the money towards a new flight to an alternative destination, it added. Other British airlines, such as Monarch and easyJet, have previously said they hoped to restart flights to Sharm al-Sheikh for the winter season beginning in October, although that is dependent on advice from the UK government, which has so far not changed. Egyptian tourism minister Yehia Rashed last month called on the British and Russian governments to rethink their position on the flight ban. Egypt's efforts to revive its tourism industry suffered a fresh blow in May when an EgyptAir plane crashed into the Mediterranean, killing all 66 people on board. The cause of the crash is still unknown. Expand Close Russian Emergency Situations Ministry employees and police officers are seen as they take a car to drive to the area of a plane crash at the Rostov-on-Don airport, about 950 kilometers (600 miles) south of Moscow, Russia Saturday, March 19, 2016 / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Russian Emergency Situations Ministry employees and police officers are seen as they take a car to drive to the area of a plane crash at the Rostov-on-Don airport, about 950 kilometers (600 miles) south of Moscow, Russia Saturday, March 19, 2016 Monarch has cancelled all flights up to October 30, easyJet for the rest of the summer season, while tour operators Thomson and First Choice, part of the TUI Group, have cancelled until Sept. 28. "Should the travel advice change prior to 30 October, Monarch will reassess the situation and decide when to restart services to Sharm El Sheikh," Monarch said. It has become the 90m question: just how will senior judges interpret a crucial line in an agreement between insurers and the State? Essentially, that is what the row over who should carry the can for the 2014 collapse of Setanta Insurance turns on. The issue is quite technical and has divided the sharpest of legal minds. But it will have huge ramifications for every motorist in the country and the 1,750 injured parties with claims against drivers who were insured by the Maltese-registered firm. All eyes will be on the Supreme Court in the coming months when it examines 'Clause 4.1.1' in an agreement between the Motor Insurers' Bureau of Ireland (MIBI) and the Department of Transport. The MIBI was set up in 1955 as an industry-funded body to compensate victims of road traffic accidents caused by uninsured drivers and unidentified vehicles. Since then it has had several operating agreements with the Transport Minister, the most recent of which was in 2009. Clause 4.1.1 of that agreement requires the MIBI to make payments where a judgment against an insurer is not satisfied within 28 days "whatever may be the cause of the failure of the judgment debtor". Under one interpretation of the clause, the country's 40 remaining solvent insurance companies will have to pick up the bill for 1,750 outstanding claims against drivers who were insured by Setanta. In proceedings brought by the Law Society, the High Court interpreted the clause as meaning the MIBI could be held liable. Three Court of Appeal judges subsequently agreed with this finding. But those rulings proved hugely controversial, as in reality the cost of outstanding claims - an estimated 90m - will end up being covered by higher insurance premiums. Insurers say each driver in the State would have to pay an additional 50 on their premium. The MIBI has argued, thus far unsuccessfully, that under another interpretation of the clause it is only liable to compensate victims of uninsured and untraced drivers and should not have to carry the can for the liabilities of a failed insurer. It believes the rulings mean solvent insurers will be faced with covering the costs of outstanding claims in the event another insurer fails, even if that insurer behaved recklessly or imprudently. The MIBI believes the tab should be picked up by the Insurance Compensation Fund, which insurers pay into but is administered by the President of the High Court. The fund has been around since 1964 and was previously used to satisfy claims in the cases of PMPA and Quinn Insurance. Under this scenario the hit taken by solvent insurers, and ultimately the premium-paying motorist, would be much less as there are caps on what can be paid out of the fund. The flipside is it would mean a very raw deal for a claimant who suffered catastrophic injuries in a road traffic accident. The fund is limited to paying just 65pc of an award, up to a maximum sum of 825,000. This may seem a large sum, but could be less than adequate for someone who suffered life-altering injuries. "It has been a characteristic of this whole debate and media commentary on it that the focus has been on the poor insurance companies and the premium payers," said Law Society director general Ken Murphy. "Nobody is thinking of the victims of these accidents at all. Surely these are the people, some of whom may have suffered life-changing injuries, who are the real victims here." Interestingly, after Setanta went bust, the Department of Transport's legal advice was that the MIBI was not liable and that claimants should be paid out of the Insurance Compensation Fund. The President of the Court of Appeal, Mr Justice Sean Ryan, found the department's position could not be considered to be decisive. His judgment also suggested the MIBI only had themselves to blame for the current situation. The MIBI argued the clause could not mean they were on the hook as it defied common sense for insurers to agree to giving cross-guarantees to all their competitors. However, Mr Justice Ryan said there was evidence insurance companies had themselves envisaged insolvent insurer liability being an issue for the MIBI as far back as 1964. They have had the opportunity since then "of agitating for a change in the legislation", Mr Justice Ryan noted. But they didn't, leaving them in the position they are in today. Premium John Downing Opinion New British prime minister Rishi Sunaks succession proves an important milestone in British political inclusivity There is an old saying in British politics that goes: The right looks for converts while the left seeks out traitors. It comes to mind when one reflects upon the election of Rishi Sunak as the UKs first non-white prime minister in a party traditionally seen as most opposed to mass immigration and the dilution of national identity via multiculturalism. American actress Selma Blair was reportedly taken off a plane on a stretcher after an outburst on board a flight from Mexico. Blair, the 'Cruel Intentions' and 'Anger Management' star, was allegedly removed from the Delta flight when it landed in Los Angeles because the crew were concerned about her behaviour. The 43-year-old, pictured above, who was travelling with her four-year-old son, was said to have shouted uncontrollably while travelling. When the flight from Cancun, Mexico, landed at LA International Airport, the mother-of-one was taken off the plane and transported to a local hospital, celebrity news website TMZ reported. It said two nurses who were on board helped her and checked her bags for pills. "She was met by paramedics at LAX as soon as her plane arrived. It looks like she had taken a combination of prescription medication with alcohol. We don't know what sort of prescription medications," an insider told 'People'. Blair was most recently seen in the TV series 'The People v OJ Simpson: American Crime Story'. She also starred alongside Susan Sarandon in the film 'Mothers and Daughters'. An underwater test-fire of strategic submarine ballistic missile is pictured in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency The United Nations Security Council will most likely meet on Wednesday to discuss North Korea's latest ballistic missile launch, which was an "unacceptable violation" of a U.N. ban, French U.N. Ambassador Francois Delattre told reporters. "We want a quick and firm reaction of the Security Council on this," said Delattre, who is president of the 15-nation council this month. "We hope that ... we'll have a press statement on this." Earlier today, North Korea test-fired two powerful new Musudan mid-range ballistic missiles. The launches mark the North's fifth and sixth such attempts since April. Five of those launches failed, many exploding in mid-air or crashing, while the sixth flew only about 250 miles, South Korean military chiefs said, well short of the missile's potential 2,180-mile range. The North's determination in testing the Musudan has worried diplomats in Washington, Tokyo and Seoul, because the missile's range puts much of Asia and the Pacific, including US military bases, within reach. Each new test - apparently linked to a command from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un - also provides valuable insights to the North's scientists and military officials as it pushes towards its goal of a nuclear and missile system which can threaten the US mainland. Pyongyang conducted a nuclear test, its fourth, this year, and launched a long-range rocket that outsiders say provided cover for a test of banned missile technology. In April, North Korea made an unsuccessful attempt to launch three suspected Musudan missiles, but all exploded in mid-air or crashed, according to South Korean defence officials. Earlier this month, North Korea had another suspected Musudan failure. Before April's launches, North Korea had never flight-tested a Musudan missile, although one was displayed during a military parade in 2010 in the capital, Pyongyang. The launches appear to stem from Kim Jong Un's order in March for more nuclear and ballistic missile tests. The order was an apparent response to springtime US-South Korean military drills, which North Korea views as an invasion rehearsal. Since the end of those military drills, Pyongyang has repeatedly called for the resumption of talks with Seoul, even as it pursues new missile development, but the South has rejected the overtures. Seoul wants the North to first take steps toward nuclear disarmament. Pyongyang says its rivals must negotiate with it as an established nuclear power, something Washington and Seoul refuse to do. Meanwhile, diplomats from the US and North Korea are attending a six-nation security forum in Beijing in a rare opportunity for contact between the sides. Despite their joint attendance at Wednesday's event, the US State Department said there are no plans for direct talks between the US special representative for North Korea policy Sung Kim, and North Korea's deputy director general of its Foreign Ministry's department of US affairs, Choe Son Hui. The conference is described as a multilateral forum involving high-level policymakers, defence ministry officials, military officers and researchers from China, Japan, North and South Korea, Russia, and the United States. The nations taking part had participated in years of talks on North Korean nuclear disarmament which have been stalled since 2008, with little apparent prospect of a resumption. Two teenagers broke into Blackpool Pleasure Beach and went for a 30-minute joyride on a rollercoaster at 4am. The pair scaled the locked gates of the amusement park and gained access to the control-room of the 82-year-old Blue Flyer ride, a wooden rollercoaster which can reach speeds of up to 15mph. Expand Close Blackpool beach / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Blackpool beach They were seen on CCTV using the children's ride, which is in the Nickelodeon Land part of the park and lasts one minute and 30 seconds. Security guards found the teens, who also went into the T Cafe and reportedly threw food, at about 4.50am on Friday, June 17. A 15-year-old boy was arrested by police on suspicion of burglary and dealt with by community resolution. A spokeswoman for the park said: "The intruders gained access over barriers and locked gates, and managed to enter a control-room of the Blue Flyer ride at Blackpool Pleasure Beach. "They managed to operate the ride some time before security patrols discovered them at 4.50am. "From CCTV footage, we understand the intruders were at the ride for up to 30 minutes. During this time two youths can be seen on the ride. "Following the break-in, the ride has been fully inspected and is operational and open to the public." The spokeswoman added there was "no significant damage" caused to the T Cafe. She added: "Security will continue to operate with vigilance over a 24-hour period across the 42-acre site, assisted by CCTV surveillance, monitoring activity on the grounds of Blackpool Pleasure Beach." A Lancashire Police spokesman said: "At around 4.50am on Friday, June 17, we were called by security at Blackpool Pleasure Beach after they spotted two youths on the site on CCTV. "A 15-year-old boy from Blackpool was later arrested on suspicion of burglary and was given a community resolution." The force spokesman added the exact requirements of the community resolution, which does not lead to a criminal record, had yet to be determined, while officers were still trying to identify the other youth. A park spokeswoman said there was "no evidence" the youths threw food while in the cafe. Screen grab from an undated home video issued by the Metropolitan Police of Ellie Butler with her father Ben who has been found guilty at the Old Bailey of murdering his six-year-old daughter in 2013, 11 months after winning a high-profile custody battle Ellie Butler's death should be subject to a public inquiry, according to the murdered child's grandfather. Neal Gray said he wants everything "open and above board" as he recalled the suffering of the six-year-old, who was killed by her father Ben Butler in a fit of rage. Expand Close Screen grab from an undated home video issued by the Metropolitan Police of Ellie Butler / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Screen grab from an undated home video issued by the Metropolitan Police of Ellie Butler Jobless Butler, 36, who inflicted horrific head injuries on Ellie while left home alone to look after her and her younger sibling in October 2013, has been jailed for a minimum of 23 years for murder. Read More He was also sentenced to five years to run concurrently for breaking Ellie's shoulder and failing to get her medical attention weeks before her death. His partner, Jennie Gray, 36, was jailed for 42 months after being found guilty of child cruelty having admitted perverting the course of justice. Mr Gray and his wife Linda, who died on the first day of the murder trial, were Ellie's maternal grandparents and cared for the child after her father was accused of shaking her as a baby. They were forced to hand her back 11 months before her death. Read More Mr Gray said he last saw Ellie during a 30-minute visit at a McDonald's in Sutton, south London, the day before she died. He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "She wasn't the Ellie we knew. She had bruises on her forehead and her face and scratches, her hair was all bedraggled, she had odd shoes, odd socks, clothes and she looked as though she'd been dragged through the back of a hedgerow." Read More Asked if Ellie resisted returning with her parents at the end of the meeting, Mr Gray said: "No. But you could see her eyes were sunk in and there was sadness in her eyes." He added: "Now the court case is over I hope to pursue a judicial review or an article 2 inquiry." Mr Gray went on: "In layman's terms, a public inquiry surrounding this case to find out why the judiciary didn't do their job correctly, why the social services failed Ellie - especially the private side. "I want it all open and above board, and I want everybody to answer because everybody failed Ellie completely and utterly." Ellie and her younger sibling had been handed back to Butler and Gray following a bitter custody battle in which Mrs Justice Hogg sided with the parents despite objections from Mr Gray who warned she would have "blood on your hands". A serious case review published in the wake of Butler's conviction blamed the judge for handing "all the power" to Butler when she decided he had been the victim of a miscarriage of justice over the 2007 baby shaking case. She took the "unprecedented" step of ordering Sutton Council to send letters to up to 40 education, child protection, police and health bodies, stressing that Butler was innocent. Agencies were effectively "paralysed" from taking action to protect Ellie as the judge also allowed Butler and his legal team to send follow-up letters to remind them he had been "exonerated". Report author Marion Davis said on Tuesday that she plans to write to the President of the Family Division of the High Court and the Family Justice Council to ask for answers over the case as a "concern of national interest". Mrs Justice Hogg, who retired before Butler's trial, has refused to comment on or contribute to the review in line with a judges' convention. However, Anne Longfield, children's commissioner for England, has called for a reform of how the judiciary provide information to reviews in light of "unanswered questions". She said: "I'm concerned that all the circumstances in this family - which included violence, aggression and habitual evasion of any engagement with local services - may not have been fully considered when custody was awarded, despite custody being objected to by local children's services, the police and Ellie's grandparents. "There remains a number of unanswered questions regarding this judgment. The role of the judiciary and their involvement in providing information to serious case reviews needs to be looked at as part of ongoing reform." With just hours to go before kick-off Irish fans in Lille are already making plans for the last 16. Confidence is high in the French city and supporters say they will do everything they can to get that important win for the Boys in Green. But fans say it is time for the team to stand up and "start doing their bit." Brendan Casey (23) is originally from Charleville Co Cork but has travelled over from his home in Bangkok, Thailand for the tournament. We have been here for two weeks and we're drinking and we're singing for two weeks and morale is pretty low at the moment. We are hoping for something, a win, a goal will do, anything. We will take what we can. His pal Shane agreed: We have done all we can, we need the team now to start doing their bit. Take the lead and we will get you through the rest, take the burden off us. The pals are travelling around in a campervan and they admit that they are shook after the last 10 days of singing and partying. Daithi Purcell (23), from Tramore, Co Waterford, said: I can't wait for some clean clothes, me mother's cooking, a cuddle off me lack [girlfriend]. But if Ireland win today then the cuddles will have to wait. Brendan said: We will cancel the flights straight away. We will motor on. We have the campervan until Friday so we will bring that back and then get a train to wherever. Shane added: We will win first and worry about the rest later. Just tell the team we will be there. The Munster men are not the only ones making plans for the last 16. Mick McDonagh (62) from Sligo joked: Tomorrow I have to go to a funeral, because me granny died in Lille. If anyone's watching this in Ireland, I won't be in work tomorrow. Michael Ferriter (30) from Castlegregory, Co Kerry hasn't figured it out yet but he knows that he's staying if we qualify. I'll pretend to lose the passport and stay on for the next game. Michael and his friends Kevin 'Sweets' Kennedy (31) and Donal O'Connor (30) who are all from Co Kerry struggled to find accommodation in Lille last night so they slept in hammocks near the city centre. They said it was comfortable and weren't troubled during the night. Asked what he'll do if Ireland qualify, Gerry Smith (29) from Co Cork said: I'll probably break up with the girlfriend, cancel what I do for a living and come back for a week. Tommy Byrne (29) got married three weeks ago and he spent his honeymoon in Fota Island Cork, where the Irish team were training before the tournament. The Mullingar man then headed to France, leaving wife Joanne Cregg home alone. It's going to cost me a trip to New Zealand in the future, that's the promise, but I got here and I'm here to support the Boys in Green. She was fairly okay about it. Tommy is booked on a 3am flight back to Ireland tomorrow and is currently in negotiations for a last 16 qualifier. If we lose, we go home in the flight. If we win we will stay on for the week. But some fans have used up all their holidays and cash. Annie Murtagh (35), from Cavan, but living in Melbourne Australia said she has no choice but to head back down under. But she wants to leave on a high. I've spent enough money over here. I came over for this especially so they better play a decent f**king game tonight. FORMER French President Nicolas Sarkozy has told Angela Merkel that Turkish membership of the EU is "unthinkable". Mr Sarkozy met with the German Chancellor in Berlin yesterday. He told reporters: "Europe needs leadership, Europe needs to take initiatives, Europe needs new ideas." Yesterday, dozens of Turkish demonstrators protested in Istanbul over the arrests of two journalists and an academic on charges of disseminating "terrorist propaganda". A Turkish court on Monday ordered the pre-trial arrest of Reporters Without Borders' Turkey representative Erol Onderoglu, journalist Ahmet Nesin and academic Sebnem Korur Fincanci. The three had participated in a solidarity campaign in support of 'Ozgur Gundem', a pro-Kurdish publication subject to multiple investigations and lawsuits. The state-run news agency said the three acted as chief editors for a day for the publication and the issues they edited in May and earlier in June included alleged terrorist propaganda. Anadolu Agency also said the court ordered the suspects' arrest on "strong criminal suspicion." Press freedom advocates warn that freedom of expression has dramatically declined in Turkey. Recently, David Cameron claimed that arguments made by the campaign to Leave the EU about Turkey joining the bloc were "simply not true". The British prime minister said: "I really feel strongly about this, as people are getting through their letterboxes leaflets from Leave saying 'Turkey's going to join the EU' - not true, 'there's going to be a European army with Britain in it' - not true, 'we give 350m (456m) per week to Brussels' - not true." A male nurse sentenced to life in prison for killing two patients with overdoses of heart medication is likely to have killed many more people at two German hospitals, tests suggest. Oldenburg police chief Johann Kuehme said investigators found residue of a heart drug in 27 of 99 patients from a hospital in nearby Delmenhorst whose bodies were exhumed, the news agency dpa reported. Investigators are also examining an unusually high number of patient deaths that occurred at a second hospital in Oldenburg, where the nurse worked before. Mr Kuehme told a press conference: "The horror doesn't end. The investigations cannot be closed." A court in Oldenburg in northern Germany last year convicted the 39-year-old man, identified only as Niels H in line with German privacy rules, of murder and attempted murder. During the trial, he had said he intentionally brought about cardiac crises in some 90 patients in Delmenhorst because he enjoyed the feeling of being able to resuscitate them. He was only convicted of two killings but he suggested more patients had died. In addition to the killings at Delmenhorst hospital, Niels H said during a more recent interrogation by investigators that he also killed patients at a hospital in Oldenburg. "We cannot say how many of the patients in Oldenburg were (his) victims," prosecutor Daniela Schiereck-Bohlmann said. In a joint statement, Oldenburg police and prosecutors said there is "strong suspicion" that Niels H killed at least six patients at the Oldenburg hospital by injections of either heart medication or toxic doses of potassium. Several hundred additional files of deceased patients are currently being examined to determine if there were more. The investigation will likely not be finished before next year. In a related probe, several managers at both hospitals are also being questioned to determine if they are somehow criminally culpable for not having noticed and reported much earlier the high number of deaths during Niels H's shifts. Donald Trump has accused rival Hillary Clinton of being a "world class liar" who personally profited from her tenure at the US State Department. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee said of Mrs Clinton "she gets rich making you poor", during an address at his hotel in New York. Expand Close Hillary Clinton said Donald Trump "shouldn't have his hands" on the economy / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Hillary Clinton said Donald Trump "shouldn't have his hands" on the economy Seeking to steady his campaign after a difficult period, Mr Trump cast himself as the White House candidate best positioned to address Americans' economic interests. "This election will decide whether we're ruled by the people or the politicians" he said. He made his arguments in a pointed yet measured tone, less loud and strident than has been typical in most previous campaign speeches. Yet his remarks included erroneous statements and distortions about Mrs Clinton's record, and he frequently referenced sources of information that have been widely questioned, including the book Clinton Cash by Peter Schweizer. The speech marked an opening salvo against Mrs Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, in the general election campaign. It came as the billionaire faced growing questions about his readiness not just for the presidency, but for the campaign he will need to run to get there. Mr Trump made a direct appeal to supporters of Mrs Clinton's primary rival Bernie Sanders, urging them to help him fix a "rigged system". He also argued his trade and immigration policies would be more beneficial than Mrs Clinton's for black and Hispanic people, two groups that have overwhelmingly voted for Democrats in recent presidential elections. Still, the central goal of Trump's speech appeared to be uniting the Republican Party and appealing to people who may be sceptical of him but vigorously oppose Mrs Clinton. He also referred to Mrs Clinton's use of a private email server while she was secretary of state, her response to the deadly 2012 attacks on Americans in Benghazi, Libya, and accusations that she and former president Bill Clinton profited from their family foundation. "Hillary Clinton may be the most corrupt person ever to seek the presidency," Mr Trump said. Some of Mr Trump's charges come from Schweizer's book, which has been criticised for failing to provide evidence of direct connections between business dealings by foreign interests, sometimes involving the Clinton Foundation, and decisions by Mrs Clinton when she was secretary of state. The Republican candidate also argued that Mrs Clinton's opposition to a massive Asia-Pacific trade pact was an example of her political opportunism, noting that she had worked on the agreement while at the State Department and has previously backed free trade accords. And he took aim at her immigration policies, saying her call for providing those in the US illegally with a path to citizenship amounted to "mass amnesty". Mr Trump's remarks came one day after Mrs Clinton launched her own blistering attacks on her White House rival. She moved to undercut Mr Trump's argument that his business record would help him create jobs as president, arguing instead that he had been "reckless" with his companies and "shouldn't have his hands on our economy". Mr Trump also tried to turn Mrs Clinton's strengths into negatives. He spent much of his speech trying to undercut her foreign policy record, highlighting her early support of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, which she now says was a mistake, and linking the policies she promoted at the State Department to the rise of the Islamic State terror group. "The Hillary Clinton foreign policy has cost America thousands of lives and trillions of dollars and trillions of dollars and unleashed ISIS across the world," Mr Trump said. Mr Trump's speech came on the heels of his firing on Monday of campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, a controversial figure who was seen as an impediment to efforts to build a more robust campaign organisation. A new fundraising report released hours after Mr Lewandowski's firing showed how much ground Mr Trump has to make up. He started June with just 1.3 million US dollars (890,000) in the bank. Mr Trump's allies cast Mr Lewandowski's firing this week as the start of a new phase for the campaign. Paul Manafort, the campaign chairman and Mr Lewandowski's internal rival, signalled on a conference call with aides that a rapid staffing expansion would be coming soon. Tennessee Republican Senator Bob Corker, who has been seen as a potential vice presidential pick, said he was "pretty excited" to learn of the changes. "I think that what appears to be occurring over the last 24 hours is a movement in a direction that I think could be very, very positive," Mr Corker said. Mr Trump launched an outspoken attack on his likely Democratic rival for the White House (AP) Donald Trump has accused rival Hillary Clinton of being a "world class liar" who personally profited from her tenure at the US State Department. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee said of Mrs Clinton "she gets rich making you poor", during an address at his hotel in New York. Seeking to steady his campaign after a difficult period, Mr Trump cast himself as the White House candidate best positioned to address Americans' economic interests. "This election will decide whether we're ruled by the people or the politicians" he said. He made his arguments in a pointed yet measured tone, less loud and strident than has been typical in most previous campaign speeches. Yet his remarks included erroneous statements and distortions about Mrs Clinton's record, and he frequently referenced sources of information that have been widely questioned, including the book Clinton Cash by Peter Schweizer. The speech marked an opening salvo against Mrs Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, in the general election campaign. It came as the billionaire faced growing questions about his readiness not just for the presidency, but for the campaign he will need to run to get there. Mr Trump made a direct appeal to supporters of Mrs Clinton's primary rival Bernie Sanders, urging them to help him fix a "rigged system". He also argued his trade and immigration policies would be more beneficial than Mrs Clinton's for black and Hispanic people, two groups that have overwhelmingly voted for Democrats in recent presidential elections. Still, the central goal of Trump's speech appeared to be uniting the Republican Party and appealing to people who may be sceptical of him but vigorously oppose Mrs Clinton. He also referred to Mrs Clinton's use of a private email server while she was secretary of state, her response to the deadly 2012 attacks on Americans in Benghazi, Libya, and accusations that she and former president Bill Clinton profited from their family foundation. "Hillary Clinton may be the most corrupt person ever to seek the presidency," Mr Trump said. Some of Mr Trump's charges come from Schweizer's book, which has been criticised for failing to provide evidence of direct connections between business dealings by foreign interests, sometimes involving the Clinton Foundation, and decisions by Mrs Clinton when she was secretary of state. The Republican candidate also argued that Mrs Clinton's opposition to a massive Asia-Pacific trade pact was an example of her political opportunism, noting that she had worked on the agreement while at the State Department and has previously backed free trade accords. And he took aim at her immigration policies, saying her call for providing those in the US illegally with a path to citizenship amounted to "mass amnesty". Mr Trump's remarks came one day after Mrs Clinton launched her own blistering attacks on her White House rival. She moved to undercut Mr Trump's argument that his business record would help him create jobs as president, arguing instead that he had been "reckless" with his companies and "shouldn't have his hands on our economy". Mr Trump also tried to turn Mrs Clinton's strengths into negatives. He spent much of his speech trying to undercut her foreign policy record, highlighting her early support of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, which she now says was a mistake, and linking the policies she promoted at the State Department to the rise of the Islamic State terror group. "The Hillary Clinton foreign policy has cost America thousands of lives and trillions of dollars and trillions of dollars and unleashed ISIS across the world," Mr Trump said. Mr Trump's speech came on the heels of his firing on Monday of campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, a controversial figure who was seen as an impediment to efforts to build a more robust campaign organisation. A new fundraising report released hours after Mr Lewandowski's firing showed how much ground Mr Trump has to make up. He started June with just 1.3 million US dollars (890,000) in the bank. Mr Trump's allies cast Mr Lewandowski's firing this week as the start of a new phase for the campaign. Paul Manafort, the campaign chairman and Mr Lewandowski's internal rival, signalled on a conference call with aides that a rapid staffing expansion would be coming soon. Tennessee Republican Senator Bob Corker, who has been seen as a potential vice presidential pick, said he was "pretty excited" to learn of the changes. "I think that what appears to be occurring over the last 24 hours is a movement in a direction that I think could be very, very positive," Mr Corker said. AP Two people have died and more than 50 have been arrested amid rioting and looting on the outskirts of South Africa's capital city of Pretoria. Looters targeted shops in the Mabopane and Ga-Rankuwa neighbourhoods belonging to immigrants, echoing similar attacks last year against foreigners, including Pakistanis and Somalis who run businesses in poor urban areas. Police fired rubber bullets to disperse crowds in Mabopane, where people ran out of one store with stolen groceries and other goods, according to South African media reports. Two people were shot dead in the Mamelodi district. Police arrested 54 people on charges of public violence, theft and possession of stolen property. The government said stability was returning to some areas, while violence persisted in other districts. "The attacks and looting of shops show that some of the protest actions are motivated by pure criminality," the government said. The violence started on Monday after the selection of the ruling party's mayoral candidate for Pretoria ahead of local elections on August 3. Some residents said they were not adequately consulted about the selection. The rioting has raised concerns about security ahead of municipal elections on August 3. AP SHARE Alexis Marie Bradberry Alexis Marie Bradberry, better known as Lexie, a senior at Abbeville High School has been awarded the prestigious South Carolina Teaching Fellowship. Lexie will join the freshman cohort at Lander University this fall where she will be offered numerous professional development opportunities and involved with communities and businesses through various service projects and partnerships with local schools. The state's Teaching Fellows Program, operated by the Center for Educator Recruitment, Retention and Advancement (CERRA), and was established in 1999 by the S.C. General Assembly to address the shortage of teachers in our state. The mission of the program is to recruit talented high school seniors into the teaching profession and help them develop leadership qualities. Each year, the program provides fellowships for up to 210 high school seniors who have exhibited high academic achievement, a history of service to their school and community, and a desire to teach in South Carolina. Applicants for the program undergo a rigorous selection process that includes an online application, an interview and presentation in front of a team of three educators, and a scored response. Following the rigorous selection process, applicants who are awarded a Fellowship receive up to $24,000 in yearly scholarships (up to $6,000 a year for four years) to attend a Teaching Fellows Institution in South Carolina. Each Fellow agrees to teach in South Carolina one year for every year he or she receives the Fellowship. For more information about the South Carolina Teaching Fellows Program, visit teachingfellowsc.com. SHARE Jackie Freeman (left) smiles with Dr. Rajeev Malik (middle left) and Dr. Ravinder Malik (middle right) near Angela Stringer during the Cancer Association of Anderson Heroes of Hope and Remembrance honoring the two in the Civic Center of Anderson. Freeman and Stringer are both cancer survivors. Sylvia McLeod (left) of Anderson greets Dr. Rajeev Malik during the Cancer Association of Anderson Heroes of Hope and Remembrance in the Civic Center of Anderson. McLeod said she has been cancer-free after Dr. Rajeev Malik helped her with treatments. Dr. Rajeev Malik makes a speech after being honored with his wife Dr. Ravinder Malik during the Cancer Association of Anderson Heroes of Hope and Remembrance in the Civic Center of Anderson. Dr. Rajeev Malik and Dr. Ravinder Malik are given a standing ovation during the Cancer Association of Anderson Heroes of Hope and Remembrance in the Civic Center of Anderson. By Charmaine Smith-Miles of the Independent Mail Sylvia McLeod thought she was going to die. At least that's what the doctors were telling her. It was written on the faces of the people she saw in the hospital. It was the underlying message in the flowers she received in January 2008 as she learned she was suffering from stage-four colon cancer. But Dr. Rajeev Malik gave her a different outlook from the first moment they met. "I had been told I had two months to live," McLeod said. "But when Dr. Malik walked into my room, he said, ' ... you are going to have many, many years. My mouth dropped open. He gave me hope.'" Malik then he referred her to a doctor in North Carolina who specialized in treating late-stage cancers. McLeod says the specialist in North Carolina and Malik's treatments helped to save her life. . McLeod said she received her cancer diagnosis in January 2008. By that November, she was cancer-free. "It has been eight wonderful years. I am happy, and I am on no medicine. How do you thank someone for saving your life?" McLeod said, her eyes welling with tears. "I just love him. He is my hero." On Tuesday, McLeod and about 300 others had that chance to say "thank you" at the Cancer Association of Anderson's inaugural Heroes of Hope and Remembrance dinner. They came to honor Malik, and his wife, Dr. Ravinder Malik, for their mark on the community through their work as physicians and as tireless supporters of the Cancer Association of Anderson. The couple came to Anderson in 1982 and began the oncology program at AnMed Health. Both natives of New Delhi, India, the Maliks, who met in medical school, were among the first foreign-born doctors to practice in Anderson. Dr. Ravinder Malik worked in radiation oncology and Dr. Rajeev Malik had a hematology and oncology practice at AnMed Health. In 2012, Dr. Ravinder Malik retired and Dr. Rajeev Malik retired in 2015. Through the years, they have cared for thousands of cancer patients many of whom credit the Maliks with saving their lives. When the Cancer Association of Anderson was first forming in 2003, the Maliks offered the use of a house they owned on Calhoun Street to become the charity's headquarters. "That was just pivotal for us," said Kathryn Smith, the founding director of the Cancer Association of Anderson. Thirteen years later, the Maliks still own the home, and rent it out to the Cancer Association of Anderson for the property's annual taxes. And Dr. Ravinder Malik has served on the charity's board of directors three times, Smith said. "She is always volunteering and helping us," Smith said. "And I always call Dr. Rajeev our 'fairy godfather' because he's always willing to help us. He'll say, 'Well, if it's for the Cancer Association.'" At the dinner, South Carolina House of Representative members Jonathon Hill and Anne Thayer presented the Maliks with a resolution, passed in the State House, honoring their work. Meanwhile, others gave them hugs and gave donations to the Cancer Association of Anderson in honor of the Maliks. Some spoke of how the Maliks gave up vacations to serve their patients. Their daughter, Robin, attributed her career as a family physician to their influence. She said she and her brother were taught at an early age to always do more and to give back. She said they volunteered at the Hospice of the Upstate when they were still in middle school and saw then the effect that their parents had on the people of Anderson. "They taught me the importance of generosity," Robin said. It was that spirit of giving that spurred Dr. Rajeev to specialize in oncology as early as the 1980s. He said he saw hownot much was being done to serve cancer patients because it was assumed that cancer was a death sentence. "I thought it was unfair that we stopped caring for them when we learned they had cancer," Malik said. "But, I was just such a small spoke in the wheel." But for the people in the room at the Anderson Civic Center, the Maliks were more than that. They are hometown heroes. And for that, the Maliks received a standing ovation. Follow Charmaine Smith-Miles on Twitter @Charmaine_AIM. SHARE Katherine Bates (left) and Cody Durham dance during The City of Anderson & 24 Hour Musical Inc. presentation of William Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing" at Carolina Wren Park in Downtown Anderson. Josh Barnes (left) and Lena Bledsoe dance during a rehearsal for The City of Anderson & 24 Hour Musical, Inc. presentation of William Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing" at Carolina Wren Park in Downtown Anderson. The City of Anderson & 24 Hour Musical, Inc. presentation of William Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing" at Carolina Wren Park in Downtown Anderson. Jessie Davis (left) and Graham Poore act a scene in The City of Anderson & 24 Hour Musical, Inc. presentation of William Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing" at Carolina Wren Park in Downtown Anderson. By Jake Grove of the Independent Mail Dr. David Larson, Dean of the South Carolina School for the Arts and professor of theatre at Anderson University, has always been enamored with the idea of Shakespeare in the Park. The only thing was, he didn't have a proper venue to display such a passion. Enter the Carolina Wren Park three years ago and Larson's mind started churning with possibilities. "The Shakespeare in the Park name is recognizable and has been going on since the late '60s," Larson said. "And Greenville does it as well. We wanted to do something with great quality in a great venue and we have all that now." The second annual Shakespeare in the Park performance is presented by Larson and producer Diane Lee and sponsored by the City of Anderson. It's smack in the middle of the Anderson Theatre Festival that has brought together 10 community theater organizations for a three-month festival of the performing arts. And, it's all free starting Friday and continuing through Monday. Last year was a performance of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" set in the 1960s. This year, they travel further back in time for Shakespeare's comedy "Much Ado About Nothing," but not as far as The Bard's own time. "We set this right after World War II," Larson said. "It's a period that people recognize and that allows them to really get into it. We have big band music, uniforms, cars and wonderful sets to match the great production." Shakespeare in the Park is a tradition throughout the United States. It started in New York in the late 1960s and has continued in communities throughout the United States and all over the world for nearly 50 years. But it took the building of Carolina Wren Park to get a production to the Electric City and based on the popularity of the first one last year, it might not ever leave. The allure of Shakespeare in the Park, according to Larson and Lee, is the interaction of actor and audience throughout the play. The action all takes place outside at Wren Park and is done much in the same way it would have been in Shakespeare's time. With Larson's direction, he wants his players to interact with the audience as much as possible. It's a challenge for the actors, while the audience gets into it from the start. "The audience is, literally, part of the play," Larson said. "The biggest challenge we have is getting the actors comfortable with interacting with the audience. And once they do, it takes only seconds for the audience to get into being a part of the play." If you've walked by Wren Park at all in the last couple weeks, you have likely seen something going on with the play. Lee and Larson have been hauling over set pieces like giant, aluminum palm trees and more for dress rehearsals each evening for the last two weeks. And the actors have been battling heat and exhaustion to ensure a great play. As for the choice of "Much Ado About Nothing," it was one that seemed perfect to Larson. He said the play has everything from slapstick comedy and risque topics to intense drama, mistaken identity and betrayal. All the plot points are there and it's done without having to sit through six hours of Shakespeare. "We cut it down a lot and make it much more approachable," Larson said. "We couldn't do the entire play if we wanted to. But we can do something like this." Shakespeare in the Park is a free performance put on by the City of Anderson. Audiences are encouraged to bring coolers of food and drink or just stop by one of the downtown restaurants and bring some picnic food from there to Wren Park for the show. There is no alcohol allowed and there will not be concessions served. As for chairs, if you want to sit close, bring a blanket instead. No chairs will be allowed in the very front. But after that, chairs are allowed and can be set up. The performance will start at 8 p.m. Friday through Monday at Carolina Wren Park. This is a change from last year's 7:30 p.m. start time when the actors and audience were getting a little warm for comfort. "The lighting will be amazing at that time and we will have great supplemental lights as well to add to the ambience," Lee said. Larson and Lee were both astounded by the success of last year's Shakespeare in the Park performance and look to grow from that for this year. And it's Shakespeare the way Shakespeare was meant to be seen. "It's outside, it's a social celebration and you get to enjoy the space with something really fun," Larson said. "What more could you ask for from the theatre?" Here's an interesting update.... Did you know? That, Jacqueline Fernandez was the only girl among 200 men on set while shooting for "Sau Tarah Ke" song in 'Dishoom'... Yes, you heard that right! While shooting for the peppy footing tapping number, that has been picturized in Morocco, Jacqueline was the only girl with 200 men on set. The actress had to make all the men dance to her killer moves coupled with her hotness quotient and Jacqueline did not get conscious for once. Everyone on set was chatting about her confidence level. Even her costar Varun Dhawan was overheard talking about Jacqueline at a recent event, "We had 200 hundred dancers on the set. Hats off to Jacqueline, she was the only girl amongst us. She has done a brilliant job." 'Dishoom' is presented by Eros International, produced by Sajid Nadiadwala and directed by Rohit Dhawan. The film hits theaters on 29th July, 2016. At the best of times, investing in commercial real estate requires forethought, research and planning. When tracking down the ideal commercial property for business operations or for investment, various factors such as soundness of location, the health of the local job market, current and future infrastructure initiatives in an area and migration patterns into a city play important roles. While the broad guidelines above hold true for any commercial property investment, prime commercial properties require even greater insight and investigation. Obviously, investing in a commercial property in a prime location can have multiple benefits: It is easier to find tenants for properties in prime locations than in low-demand locations. Finding tenants quickly is important, since it plays a role in yield calculations. Leaving a commercial property vacant for extended periods will result in loss of income. Banks are more willing to give loans to commercial projects in prime locations, since there is very low likelihood of capital loss It is easier for employees to travel to work every day - a major factor, considering that employee retention ranks very high on employers' list of priorities today A prime office space purchased for self-use is arguably the soundest business decision any firm can make. Apart from the fact that such a property is extremely convenient to commute to, a commercial office in a prime location increases a firm's visibility and reputation. It is a visible demonstration of your firm's commercial worth to your clients, partners and other businesses. Also, the capital appreciation of a prime office property reflects very favourably on a company's balance sheet. Prime Locations Both in terms of business potential and returns on investment, the highest value lies in prime office spaces. Invariably, the 'prime' value in commercial real estate is vested in the location, which leads to the question how does one define a 'prime location'? The factors that make a location prime are a function of its overall accessibility within the city, the quality of infrastructure that supports it, the saturation of high-profile companies represented there and the overall quality of buildings in the submarket. To determine if a location is prime, investors need to examine the following parameters: Can the office property be reached easily via all modes of transport? Is the office property close to major commercial hubs? What is the demand-supply gap? What is the tenant profile of the location? Which industries prefer it and what are their growth potential? Does the location have good social infrastructure such as restaurants, malls, shopping centres etc.? Is the location well-planned (e.g. Bandra Kurla Complex in Mumbai or has it grown with increased requirements (e.g. Nariman Point, which was reclaimed from the sea? Are there a lot of commercial space transactions happening in this location? Do the buildings have a modern look and feel (e.g. glass facades)? If the answers to most of these questions are positive, then the location is a prime one. Prime Properties The next aspect to determine is whether the project and property meet prime criteria, as well. There are over 30 important technical specifications that a commercial property must meet, and this needs to be verified by an expert. If the project is under construction, the buyer or investor must be fully updated on the construction risks, the developers track record, etc. The project and property must also be assessed for: Repositioning potential Refinancing potential Refurbishment potential. Finally, prime locations and prime commercial properties in them naturally come with prime prices. Since returns on investment are important, one must determine whether the location will also offer good capital appreciation. Regardless of whether the purpose of buying a commercial property is self-use or investment, using the services of a reputed real estate consultant is a key factor for success. Expert, research-driven advice can ensure that one is not buying into a property or location which has or will have major drawbacks high vacancies and result in low returns on investment. The author is Ramesh Nair, COO - Business & International Director, JLL India BASF India Ltd is currently trading at Rs. 1052.25, up by Rs. 40.8 or 4.03% from its previous closing of Rs. 1011.45 on the BSE. The scrip opened at Rs. 1025 and has touched a high and low of Rs. 1052.45 and Rs. 1025 respectively. So far 1607(NSE+BSE) shares were traded on the counter. The current market cap of the company is Rs. 4378.57 crore. The BSE group 'B' stock of face value Rs. 10 has touched a 52 week high of Rs. 1416 on 10-Aug-2015 and a 52 week low of Rs. 699.9 on 12-Feb-2016. Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs. 1060 and Rs. 980.5 respectively. The promoters holding in the company stood at 73.33 % while Institutions and Non-Institutions held 5.85 % and 20.82 % respectively. The stock is currently trading above its 50 DMA. BASF has signed an agreement to acquire Albermarle's global surface treatment business of Chemetall for a purchase of $3.2 billion. The Union Cabinet approved the spectrum auction norms on Wednesday. The 2016 spectrum auction is expected to start from September 1, as per reports.The government is expected to auction nearly 2,300MHz of spectrum across 7 bands. The spectrum bands of 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz and 2500 MHz would be auctioned this year.Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is likely to meet the cabinet again to discuss spectrum usage charge.The government will accept applications from companies from July 1 till August 10. Mock auctions will be conducted on August 28 and 29, as per reports.The 2016 mega-auction is considered to be the biggest spectrum auction seeking Rs.64,000 crore for the government, with a revenue of Rs.98,995 crore from various levies and services. The government is reportedly planning to consolidate among the 27 state-owned banks to create 4-5 large sized lenders,according to reports. Report says that government is looking at stake in IDBI Bank coming down to 60% if stake dilution happens via QIP. SBI and its associate banks are to be merged, while decision on other banks will be taken in due course, finance ministry official reported. Patanjali Ayurved is planning to raise Rs 1,000 crore in project loans, according to reports. Report says that the company is in talks with banks including State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Uco Bank and a few others. The company has embarked on expansion plan setting up plants across the country. Bangalore-based Quess Corp, promoted by Ajit Isaac and Thomas Cook (India), will launch its initial public offering (IPO), which opens on June 29, 2016 and closes on July 1, 2016, with a price band of Rs. 310 Rs. 317 per equity share of face value of Rs. 10 each.The IPO consists of a fresh issue of equity shares aggregating to Rs.400 crore. The anchor investor bid/issue period shall be on June 28, 2016, i.e. one working day prior to the bid/issue opening day.The company proposes to utilize the net proceeds of the issue for repayment of debt availed by the company; funding capital expenditure requirements of the company and its subsidiary, MFXchange US, Inc.; funding incremental working capital requirement of the Company; acquisitions and other strategic initiatives and general corporate purposes.The issue is being made through the book building process wherein at least 75% of the issue shall be allocated on a proportionate basis to QIBs, provided that Quess Corp may, in consultation with the BRLMs, allocate up to 60% of the QIB category to anchor investors on a discretionary basis in accordance with the SEBI Regulations, of which one-third shall be reserved for domestic mutual funds, subject to valid bids being received from domestic mutual funds at or above the anchor investor allocation price.Further, 5% of the QIB category (excluding the anchor investor portion) shall be available for allocation on a proportionate basis only to mutual funds, and the remainder of the QIB category shall be available for allocation on a proportionate basis to all QIBs, including mutual funds, subject to valid bids being received at or above the issue price.Further, not more than 15% of the issue shall be available for allocation on a proportionate basis to non-institutional investors and not more than 10% of the issue shall be available for allocation to retail individual investors in accordance with the SEBI Regulations, subject to valid bids being received at or above the issue price.All potential bidders (except anchor investors) are required to mandatorily utilise the application supported by blocked amount (ASBA) process providing details of their respective ASBA accounts in which the corresponding bid amounts will be blocked by the SCSBs. Anchor investors are not permitted to participate in the issue through the ASBA process.Axis Capital Limited, ICICI Securities Limited, IIFL Holdings Limited and YES Securities (India) Limited are the Book Running Lead Managers (BRLMs) to the issue. The Registrar to the issue is Link Intime India Private Limited. Anil Mabani-led Reliance Power is trading 0.86% down at Rs.51.60 on BSE after the Coal Ministry issued a show cause notice to to the company for Kerandari coal block.The Ministry also issued the same notice to Jharkhand Ispat in the same regards.The scrip opened at Rs. 52.1 and has touched a high and low of Rs. 52.45 and Rs. 51.5 respectively. So far 1439699(NSE+BSE) shares were traded on the counter. The current market cap of the company is Rs. 14600.68 crore.The BSE group 'A' stock of face value Rs. 10 has touched a 52 week high of Rs. 61.4 on 12-Jan-2016 and a 52 week low of Rs. 33.05 on 25-Aug-2015. Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs. 53.65 and Rs. 51.35 respectively.The promoters holding in the company stood at 74.98 % while Institutions and Non-Institutions held 10.48 % and 14.21 % respectively.The stock is currently trading above its 50 DMA. After losing steam in the previous trading session, the Indian equity yet again ended with marginal losses on Wednesday. Market participants remained cautious ahead of the Britain's referendum outcome on Thursday. Although, indices just lost few points today, internally selling pressure was callous. Barring the realty and healthcare stocks all the other sectoral indices on the BSE ended with losses. Auto, telecom, industrial, capital goods and power index were top losers. Even the midcap and smallcap index edged lower.Among the 30-stocks of Sensex, Dr. Reddy's, Coal India, Lupin, Bharti Airtel, Asian Paints, Wipro, Sun Pharma, TCS and HDFC Bank were among the gainers, whereas Tata Motors, GAIL, Hindustan Unilever, M&M, Tata Steel, RIL, Infosys and ITC were among top losers on BSE.Finally, S&P BSE Sensex ended at 26,766 down 47 points, while NSE Nifty ended lower by 16 points at 8,204.The INDIA VIX is up 5.35 % at 18.1850. Out of 1,815 stocks traded on the NSE, 1062 declined, 507 advanced and 247 remained unchanged today.A total of 35 stocks registered a fresh 52-week high in trades today, while 14 stocks touched a new 52-week low on the NSE.Meanwhile, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen was optimistic about the economy and played down the risk of a recession. She also added that the UK's vote on EU membership and a potential economic slowdown in China had raised concerns about the strength of the global economy. Meanwhile, ECB President Mario Draghi said ECB was ready for all contingencies in case of Brexit.Tata Motors dropped 3% to Rs.472 on BSE. Jaguar Land Rover, Britains biggest carmaker, estimates its annual profit could be cut by $1.47bn by the end of the decade if Britain leaves the European Union, as per media reports.Escorts shares soared as much as 14% to Rs.207 and hit their highest level in nearly six years since July 2010.Sharon Bio-Medicine hit 20% upper circuit to Rs.11.62 on BSE. The company informed the exchange that the Board of Directors discussed the current financial position of the company and decided to introduce more profitable products, to increase capacity utilization and get the business to move in the regulated markets, specifically in the United States of America.Mandhana Industries was locked at 10% lower circuit at Rs.160.The company reportedly said it is in the process of demerging its current retail business. PALM BAY, Florida A large electronic welcome sign outside Pineapple Cove Classical Academy scrolls: An old-fashioned education. Located in Palm Bay, on Floridas mid-Atlantic coast, this public charter school serves a diverse community of lower- and middle-income families. Pineapple Cove quickly has become an educational gem in Brevard County. Its 23 classrooms feature directed instruction, teaching in explicit phonics, history (imparted through original source documents not textbooks), music, art and rare in 2016 cursive writing. A fervent expectation infuses this campus: All students can grow, academically and also in character. Its really funny that our 2,500-year-old curriculum is now an innovative one, says the schools principal, Kelly Gunter, 33, who wrote the schools charter. Just a year old, the kindergarten-to-sixth-grade school will expand to add a seventh grade this fall and an eighth by 2017, when new-classrooms are completed. This campus is one of the latest in Hillsdale Colleges Barney Charter School Initiative. The Michigan-based liberal-arts college has supported 15 U.S. charter school start-ups, aiming for 50 such institutions by 2022. Hillsdale does not fund the schools. Instead, it offers free mentoring to school founders who follow Hillsdales educational philosophy. Our role is to serve as the architect of the academic program, which includes curriculum and instruction, and provide on-going advice to the school founders and to the school principal, said Phillip Kilgore, director of Hillsdales charter program. Hillsdale also helps the schools recruit principals, trains teachers and offers feedback after on-site visits. We maintain this relationship with each school, Kilgore said, so long as they stay on mission and adhere to the educational philosophy we all embraced together at the inception of the relationship. With its classical curriculum, uniforms and commitment to teaching the virtues of courtesy, perseverance, self-government, service, honesty and courage, Pineapple Cove already boasts a 400-student waiting list for fall as word spreads. It has taken that community by storm, said Kilgore, who praises the schools great start. The teachers there have had just a really wonderful experience in their launch in their first year. The school was founded by John and Beth Moran, who opened Pineapple Cove Academy Early Learning facility, also in Palm Bay. Thanks to their success with pre-kindergarten students, parents asked for more. Soon, the enterprising couple connected with Hillsdale and started the new campus last August. Moran says hes no educator and calls himself a business guy. But his enthusiasm for excellence is heartfelt. I have an incredible drive, he says. His connection to children is also undeniable as he scans the cafeteria and playfully sprays whipped cream on small, giggling faces. Statewide, 22 percent of all charter-school students are black. Pineapple Cove is similarly diverse. Hispanic students make up 16 percent of enrollees. Black and multiracial students represent 9 percent each. Academically, Florida charter schools perform well against their traditional counterparts, according to Student Achievement in Florida Charter Schools, an April 2014 state education department study. Most significantly, the report revealed that the black/white student-achievement gap was lower for charter-school students in 18 of the 18 comparisons, across all grades and subjects. State reading scores from 2015-16 show Pineapple Cove outpacing its district counterparts in second, fourth and sixth grades. Gunter says teachers and students focus on excellence. Its all business when you are here, because this should be your job. Latin and classic literature are school staples. Sixth graders read everything from Shakespeare to The Scarlet Pimpernel. They also learn to recite poetry, which fortifies their memorization and public-speaking skills. Pineapple Cove uses a core knowledge curriculum that outlines a series of lessons and learning goals that fortify one another, from grade to grade. When students study Greek, they also listen to Greek music. Students do not work on computers in the classroom. Perhaps most important, there is a shared focus on teaching virtues and doing the right thing. A tone-setting sign in a second-grade classroom cites Booker T. Washington: Character, not circumstances, makes the man. The school also teaches service and patriotism by partnering with the American Legion. Members participate in school ceremonies and student projects, such as Valentines for Veterans. Assistant Principal Lisa Wheeler, 37, praises her colleagues and the schools growing family. We have such invested parties here, she said of their spirited devotion. I believe the freedom we have been given as a charter school allows us to make decisions that are in the best interests of the children, she said. There are a lot of things that we profess in this school that are the exact opposite of what public progressive schools are doing today. When Starbucks asked April Richardson to mail its CEO a sample of her cake, she went a step further: She sent herself. I tried every email variation of Howard Schultz and sent him an email, says Richardson. One of them worked, and three hours later, I got a return saying We would love to try your product, please ship it. But we had never shipped a cake before, says Richardson. We went through the whole gamut of possibilities, but nothing felt right. I booked a one-way trip to Seattle and delivered the product myself, and said, I know youre expecting UPS, but you got me instead. This risky but pivotal move was one of many that rapidly transformed Richardsons Delectable Cakery and its signature product the DC Sweet Potato Cake from an obscure local treat into a product ubiquitous in Starbucks, specialty stores and supermarkets in D.C., Maryland and Virginia. Richardsons bold move also landed her business a coveted spot on QVC. The shopping channel features the cake on holidays, with Richardson an attorney by training as its pitchwoman. Unlike the tales of many a lawyer who turned a cooking passion into a business, Richardson does not bake. Born to a family of 15 and living in a four-bedroom house in a tough West Baltimore neighborhood, her passion was using her legal talent to see that the community businesses with which she grew up survived, especially during the 2007-08 economic downturn. I represented everybody during the foreclosure crisis, and it was hard to watch, Richardson says. So, I started ghost-whispering to them, offering strategies for turning their businesses around. It was my way of giving back. One such business was Delectable Cakery, a small bakery that pinned its hopes on an unusual sweet-potato cake recipe passed down by the founders mother. Richardson saw the potential, and brought her experience to the table. I looked at the books and said, The only way Im involved is that no matter what I ask you to do, the answer must be yes. I have to make sure your families are fed. We spent the first year just making sure old customers were happy. We gave away a whole lot of cake and wrote off a whole lot of invoices, Richardson says. We couldnt bring on more clients until we got our house in order. Once we did, it was time for us to bring on partners, Richardson says. That decision led her to approach Starbucks. We started with two Starbucks stores in Capitol Hill and Georgetown. Two weeks later, we were in 11 stores. Customers were excited by the products and because the business is local and woman-owned, according to Richardson. Yet, while Delectable Cakery built its early reputation in the Black community, Richardson thinks being a Black-owned business is important, but less key to its growth. Some Black companies focus so much on the African-American market that we forget that other people want our products as well, says Richardson. When we do that, we give up our access to other people and their money. We want people to understand that cake is for everyone. When people taste it they say, This is a great product. They dont say, This is a great product for a Black piece of cake. Delectable Cakerys success helped inspire Starbucks Project Engine, a program that gives small companies access to the Seattle-based powerhouses leadership and helps them scale up. We aim to be relevant in the communities we serve, Erin Jane Schaeffer, Starbucks communications manager, said of DC Sweet Potato Cake and Project Engine. Some products will be offered locally, others will expand, depending on what resonates with our customers. What we do is simple we put these local food items into 10 or 30 of our stores. After that it is up to our customers. Richardson will open a retail shop called DC Sweet Potato Cake and Cafe in late 2016, in the booming Arts District of Hyattsville, Maryland, just across the Washington, D.C. line. She also plans a 20,000-square-foot facility to produce and distribute cakes to some 300 Starbucks outlets as well as Safeway and Wegmans grocery stores. As they organize for more growth, Richardson says her company will keep taking risks and follow one basic guideline: Dont tell me no until you taste the cake. While Democrats scramble to secure the African-American communitys support post-Obama, black contractors complain that they are not getting their fair share of the partys campaign spending. Among $514 million that Democrats spent on consultants during the 2010 and 2012 election cycles, only $8.7 million (just 1.7 percent) went to minorities, according to a June 2014 study by Democratic minority advocacy firm PowerPAC+. Seventeen companies, among 287 approved consulting firms, were minority-owned or just 5.9 percent. This report fueled existing anxiety within the African-American community over whether Democrats truly have black peoples best interests at heart. Although 56 percent of blacks thought the party had become more representative of minorities in recent years, 35 percent disagreed, as a Kaiser Family Foundation/CNN survey discovered last November. Democrats are wasting millions of dollars chasing after white swing voters instead of investing the money in engaging communities of color, said Steve Phillips, founder and chairman of PowerPAC+. The company could partner with the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Phillips said. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee already has made reforms based on the study. Americas population is 13.2-percent black, according to 2014 Census Bureau estimates, but African-American voters are expected to play an outsize role in Novembers elections. Eighty percent of black voters are Democrats. Only 11 percent are Republicans. Some consulting firms repeatedly prosper. Event Transportation Associates, the go-to transit service for the past two Democratic conventions, seems poised to thrive again this year and partner with diverse local vendors. The company, which did not reply to repeated requests for comment, last month announced its preparations for the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. Janie Hollingsworth, the companys CEO and majority owner, co-chaired the 2012 conventions transportation subcommittee, according to her LinkedIn profile. Hollingsworth also provided logistical expertise for Pope Francis visit to Philadelphia last year. The Democratic National Convention Committee declined comment on the company or Hollingsworth, citing sensitive contract negotiations. The committee instead offered a statement by its CEO, Rev. Leah Daughtry. It is an article of faith for us that we ought to allow the people who move our party forward to be able to be beneficiaries of the partys resources, said Daughtry. But Vectour Transportation Group, a 2012 convention contractor, lost its bid to return. Things did not go exactly how we would have liked for them to go this year, said Reggie Halsam, the black-owned companys CEO. Internal Democratic National Committee statistics show that in 2015, women composed 48 percent of its staff, and nearly 36 percent of its employees were minorities. Also, 23 percent of contracts and 25 percent of total dollars spent that year went to minority-owned enterprises. Twelve percent were African-American owned, representing 14 percent of the total dollars spent. As for vendors, we have an unprecedented goal of awarding 35 percent of our contracts to diverse companies, said convention committee spokesman Lee Whack. Two African-American-owned firms are among five major contracts the Democrats convention committee granted to minority businesses. There are 500 diverse suppliers and vendors registered to do business with the DNC and other Democratic entities. Cornell Belcher, president of Brilliant Corners Research & Strategies, said the partys real power and spending are centered in the congressional and senatorial committees, the Democratic Governors Association, and EMILYs list, where Belcher once worked. Groups like EMILYs List (which supports pro-choice Democratic female candidates) face zero scrutiny and accountability, Belcher said. Meanwhile, Republicans hope to erode black support for Democrats. However, the Republican National Committee, which announced in 2013 that it would spend $10 million on minority outreach, did not respond to requests to analyze its own internal and vendor-diversity statistics. Telly Lovelace, the GOP committees director for African-American Initiatives & Urban Media, instead spoke of its grassroots-level training efforts to engage the black community, including African-American operatives placed in seven battleground states, and plans to boost hiring into the fall. Despite several notable departures among minority staffers in recent months, Lovelace denied the Republican headquarters is experiencing a so-called black exodus. Kirsten Kukowski, the committees communications director, said organizers are working with more than a dozen minority-owned vendors and have several staffers conducting community outreach. Richard Dickerson, a Democratic campaign operative, said an important conversation about money and influence needs to occur, because the people who run Democratic campaigns end up in senior government positions. Theyre going to spend a billion dollars, Dickerson said. Ten percent of that is $100 million. If you put $100 million into the black community, you can see it. youtube The makers of Malayalam movie, Kathakali, have been at loggerheads with the CBFC since quite sometime now, because the Censor Board has denied a certificate to the movie on the grounds of nudity. In fact, last week Malayalam film directors and technicians staged a protest in front of the Censor Board's office. Sijo Kannanaikkal's film revolves around the life of an orphan man, who tries to create a space and identity of his own in the society around. The censor board suggested a cut in the climax scene where the main lead of the film removes his Kathakali attire and crosses the river as a symbolic mark of protest against the society. The filmmakers have currently moved to the Kerala High Court regarding this matter and they have released this hilarious video trolling the censor board in a way! Watch it here. Salman Khan's terrible, insensitive analogy has dominated a good part of the last two days. During a group interview in Mumbai last week, Salman compared his state to that of a raped woman - an analogy that should haunt him to his death bed. Social media has been brutal on Salman as they should be, an eminent film critic Raja Sen announced that he would boycott the next Salman Khan movie. Not saying it'll make a difference at all. It'll open big. Also, filmmakers are often happiest when I *don't* review. But screw it, I'm out. Raja Sen (@RajaSen) June 21, 2016 However, the speculation was also ripe on who the Resident Editor of Hindu Sachin Kalbag was tweeting about. Kalbag sent out a series of six tweets talking about a 'famous' actor who once took revenge on a female journalist by unzipping his pants and peeing in front of her. This is what he tweeted (1/n) More than a decade ago, an independent, national award-winning film critic had gone to interview a famous actor now in the news... Sachin Kalbag (@SachinKalbag) June 22, 2016 (2/n) The film critic had panned a few films in which the said actor had a lead role or was one of the male leads. He held a grudge... Sachin Kalbag (@SachinKalbag) June 22, 2016 (3/n) But since a new movie was releasing, he had to give interviews. Unfortunately, it was with this critic. He had to avenge, though... Sachin Kalbag (@SachinKalbag) June 22, 2016 (4/n) So first he made her wait for several hours in the hot sun and then asked her to sit on a set prop (a 'khatiya'). She sat. Waited... Sachin Kalbag (@SachinKalbag) June 22, 2016 (5/n) Finally, he emerged. He told her, "Wait, I have to pee." He then went to a tree 5 ft away, unzipped his and peed in front of her... Sachin Kalbag (@SachinKalbag) June 22, 2016 (6/6) That was the actor's "revenge" on a female film critic and reporter who had the "audacity" to not like his movies. Sachin Kalbag (@SachinKalbag) June 22, 2016 While Kalbag has not made the name of the star public, people haven't really lost any time putting two and two together and discussing who the actor is. Meanwhile, an excerpt from cinema journalist Mayank Shekhar's book is being widely retweeted as well. In it, Shekhar talks about an incident in which Salman insisted on dropping a film journalist to the gate of her house, made her show him the floor she lived on and asked her to kill the interview she had just done with him since he now knew where she lived. Meanwhile Salman has maintained radio silence on the issue, his brother Arbaaz Khan did make an attempt to defend Salman but might have ended up making things worse by saying: It was a comparison quite akin to someone saying there was a huge mountain on my shoulders or I worked like a donkey. Now, will the usage of the word donkey make animal activists upset? An employee of a private firm has lodged a complaint with the Dariapur police regarding a theft of Rs 4 lakh. Prahlad Patel, 67, alleged that someone stole the money from the storage compartment of his two-wheeler while he had stopped to have some bhajiyas. wikimedia/representational image According to the complaint, Patel who works at Aluminum Section in Ashtamandal Complex in Madhavpura, collected Rs 4 lakh from an angadia pedhi (courier firm) in Dariapur on June 3. "While returning to office, Patel stopped to have some bhajiyas at the Vadigam bhajiya House in Dariapur. He claims that while he was having the snack, someone stole the money from the storage compartment of his two-wheeler," the police said. On reaching office, Patel was shocked to find the cash missing. He immediately went to his boss who initially did not believe in Patel's tale. whosayshealthyfoodaintfun/representational image "However, once Patel told him everything that had happened in detail, his boss believed him. But as he was leaving for Dubai in a few hours, they did not file a complaint immediately," the police said. The firm finally lodged a complaint on Monday. livemint/representational image newshonk/representational image Dariapur Sub-Inspector B RJadeja said, "We are investigating the case. The incident happened on June 3. However, as his boss had to go to Dubai, they had to postpone filing of a complaint. We have to come to know that crime branch has caught some people in a similar offence. We are investigating whether the accused caught had any part in this theft." The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) gave a new form of security to women on International Yoga Day in the form of a new combat group for Delhi Metro. The step was taken after multiple cases of molestation were registered at Metro police stations. bccl The all-women combat group has been especially trained to fight in narrow enclosures, like Metro trains, with multiple opponents using a combination of Pekiti-Tirsia Kali, a Filipino martial art. Called the "Internal Combat Group", the women demonstrated their skills in Connaught Place on Tuesday. The 20-minute demonstration was attended by senior officers of CISF and other paramilitary forces. CISF led the yoga session for all the forces, including NDRF, SSB, BSF, ITBP and others. bccl DIG CISF (DMRC) Raghubir Lal said that such a group was needed to win the confidence of women commuters and ensure safe travel for them. "We have received many complaints about miscreants trying to touch women inappropriately during peak hours and even commit thefts. To provide women safer travel, the team would be deployed in civil dress to keep a watch on such offenders," said Lal. bccl/Represenatational image This group has especially been trained to handle miscreants bare-handed. "These women use the smallest of daily use things to tackle a person with a much stronger built," the DIG said. Senior officers said that the group will give combat education to women so that they can defend themselves. That awkward moment when you're asleep and two women fight over you, that's what a Delhi man is unknowingly experiencing. According to the Indian Express, one stays at their home, while the other meets him every week - all with Delhi High Court permission - until someone can figure out who the real wife is. The Court passed this rare order after one of the women filed a petition, claiming that the other woman and her son illegally detained the husband, after he was released from a hospital. The court has asked for a police report to investigate the matter. The Hindu Marriage Act prohibits second marriage - now the court just needs to know who he 'married' first, if at all. As agreed, the petitioner will be allowed to meet him every Wednesday between 5- 6 pm in the presence of the investigating officer, any other woman constable The petitioner undertakes not to create any nuisance during her meeting, ordered the bench. 5G wireless is coming to American airwaves, a top telecom regulator told international media. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Tom Wheeler announced he would propose a vote in July 2016 to free up spectrum for 5G, which will power autonomous vehicles, smart cities, remote medicine and other innovations. "If the United States is going to continue to be a world leader in wireless, we need to speed the deployment of 5G, here, on our shores," Wheeler said in a National Press Club speech Wheeler said the FCC will vote July 14 on his proposal that aims to allocate spectrum for the ultrafast wireless technology. Even though most commercial deployments of 5G equipment are not expected until 2020, Wheeler said now is the time to act. "We won't wait for the standards to be first developed in the sometimes arduous standards-setting process or in a government-led activity," he said. The new 5G networks could open up a range of services by delivering data at up to 100 times the speed of current technology, enabling services such as remote surgery or driverless cars and allowing customers to experience video and virtual reality with ease. Meanwhile in India... The average internet speeds in India were around 2.8 Mbps in the last quarter of 2015 according to Akamai's State of the Internet report. While most of will be more than happy with that speed, it is the slowest internet speed in all of Asia! While the speeds across the world grew by 8.6% to 5.6 Mbps in the same quarter. Singapore was the best performed according to the report with peak average speeds of 135.7 Mbps! South Korea had the highest average speed of 26.7 Mbps. India stands at 115th position in the global list A first year nursing student from Al Qamar College of Nursing in Gulbarga near Bangalore has been admitted in a hospital in Kerala in critical condition after she was forced to drink phenyl, a toilet cleaner. Aswathi, a 19-year-old girl from Kerala suffered serious burn injuries to her internal organs after she was made to drink the fluid as part of ragging by senior students. ANI The incident happened on May 9, when she was subjected to ragging in the college's women's hostel by a gang of eight senior students, all of them who are also from Kerala. The girl who complained of being unwell was sent home by the college and has been admitted in hospital ever since. In her statement to the police, the student has alleged that she was tortured for over five months. "I have been mentally tortured by my third year seniors in last five months. They told me that I am dark and that's why no one likes me and I am left without a father. They used to force me to keep my hands lifted up. They held my mouth open and forced me to drink toilet cleaning lotion." Doctors have suggested a major surgery as the chemicals in the toilet cleaner consumed by the girl have severely damaged a major portion of her gullet. Despite enormity of the incident, the Al Qamar College continues to be in denial of the alleged ragging. "There is no ragging involved. The girl drank the phenol because of some family problems," Dr Esther, the Principal of the nursing school said. educrib/ Representative Image Following the girl's mother's complaint both Kerala and Karnataka police have launched separate probes into the incident. The girl, Aswathi, is dalit and lost her father years earlier. She joined the college five months ago after after taking an education loan of Rs 3 lakhs from Kerala Gramin Bank. Professor B.P. Mahesh Guru,who teaches at the Department of Communications and Journalism, University of Mysore has been jailed for allegedly insulting Lord Rama. Also read: After Lord Ram, Now Lord Hanuman Summoned Into Court - This Time For Encroachment He was arrested after a case was registered against him for allegedly insulting the Hindu god at a conference in 2015. The professor already has a complaint filed against him for allegedly using abusive language against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani and former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. The latter cases have prevented him for accessing bail; he alleged called Irani a third-rate actress unworthy of being the HRD minister." Audience members at the conference were reportedly offended that Guru said that Lord Rama was unfair to Sita, and a group called Karnadu Sarvodaya Sena filed a complaint against him He may be suspended from the University of Mysore as he as celebrated Mahishasur Martyrdom Day, in tribute to demon king slain by Goddess Durga. Bihar Lawyer Sues Lord Ram For Abandoning Sita Even After Her 'Trial By Fire' Nearly 10,000 dogs are estimated to be killed and eaten this year at China's Yulin festival. The country is preparing to host the 10-day festival where dogs will be caged, killed on the streets, and served as 'dog hot pot'. Petitions are already underway with the world condemning the inhumane practices of boiling and bludgeoning the animals to death. Animal Hope and Wellness Foundation Every year with the beginning of the summer solstice starts this horrific festival that celebrates the Chinese belief that dog meat helps the body cope with the heat. Animal right activists are busy trying to either shut the slaughterhouses or rescue the animals from these compounds. Marc Ching, an American activist has already succeeded in rescuing 1,000 dogs from their certain death. Animal Hope and Wellness Foundation Marc arrived at Yulin ahead of the festival and with his friend Valarie Ianniello, managed to uncage 1,000 dogs from six different slaughterhouses. He announced his success on Facebook: Marc, who works with The Animal Hope & Wellness Foundation, has five more slaughterhouses pending and is moving to close dozens more. Marc also posted the following video, exposing the living conditions in which the dogs are caged: While working towards this goal, Marc has had to assume different roles. In some, he posed as a dog buyer which helped him ship thousands of dogs back to the US. In others, he played a persuader helping the trader to shut his business for a fee and an entirely murder-free trade. Animal Hope and Wellness Foundation On numerous occasions, Marc and his team have been beaten up and detained by authorities. Even though the local government denies any role in the festival, the police have no qualms in preventing activists from reaching the slaughterhouses. Braving the frigidity that is the Antarctic, a plane landed Tuesday at the South Pole to evacuate a sick worker from the Amundsen-Scott research station. In the station's 60-year history, this is the third time a plane has flown to the Pole, which is currently in its six-month-winter period. Wikipedia With temperatures dipping to minus 100 degrees and where the only light received is from the moon and the stars, it wasn't an easy flight. It took 10 hours for the plane to reach its destination - a task that is dependent on no more than 12 to 13 hours worth of fuel. And in climates such as these, fuel usually turns into jelly, and grease in the hinges and gears freeze - leading to "a point of no return" after which one is simply "committed to the pole". newsmobile Kelly Falkner, director at the National Science Foundation, that runs the South Pole base, said that an employee for contractor Lockheed Martin had to be flown out due to medical conditions that could not be named. A need may arise for the rescue of a second worker, reports The Washington Post. Several people spend the winter at the station every year - helping in base maintenance, monitoring climate change, conducting research on universe's history, and recording the behaviour of subatomic particles at the station's IceCube Neutrino Observatory. aviationweek For the rescue, a Twin Otter plane was used as it's well equipped to fly in temperatures as low as minus 103 degrees. Also, these planes can function on less fuel. The pilots and crew will journey back to Rothera once they are well rested and have refueled the Otter. The patient(s) will be taken to Punta Arenas in Chile to an undisclosed hospital. When Nikesh Arora stepped down from his post as Softbank president, the world was thrown into a turmoil. Nobody really saw it coming but Masayoshi Son's decision to continue as the CEO was probably the last nail in the coffin that did it. Flickr For Arora, the next big step was to fill in as Softbank's next CEO but after Masa's announcement, the former Google executive perhaps decided it was best to resign and move on to greener pastures. And he definitely did move on in style. While his statement read, "I have enjoyed working with Masa and the SoftBank team and I look forward to my next challenge", his Twitter feed was all things interesting. Masa 2 continue 2 be CEO for 5-10 years, respect that. Learnt a lot. Clean chit from board after through review. Time for me to move on. Nikesh Arora (@nikesharora) June 21, 2016 And as many questions and compliments threw at Arora, he answered them all. "Son had clearly stated you were his successor, why the change of heart? Did recent events force him to continue to lead?" He and I love each other. Leading is a drug, a positive influence, a raison d'etre. U need to be ready to leave... https://t.co/xcdUWCbTgF Nikesh Arora (@nikesharora) June 21, 2016 "How to be a successful Chief operating officer (COO) like you?" To not want to be one, so you try hard to excel and upgrade :) https://t.co/EbGzaexlok Nikesh Arora (@nikesharora) June 21, 2016 "I hear the government is looking for a soft banker." Punny :). But i am leaving "softbank"... https://t.co/2M7DJ5n0jy Nikesh Arora (@nikesharora) June 21, 2016 "Mixed feelings about @nikesharora stepping down. Been looking up to him." Hmm - if i step down, you can look across instead of up? Just kidding . https://t.co/XStZyrlY4L Nikesh Arora (@nikesharora) June 21, 2016 "What's your biggest takeaway from brief stint at Softbank? And how Japanese culture (business) different from Indian?" "What next can we expect from you? What should we watch out for?" You wont have to watch out...it will be in your face :) - but not for a while. https://t.co/u1DuyUV6YA Nikesh Arora (@nikesharora) June 21, 2016 So sassy! Were excited to announce that indmin.com is now part of fastmarkets.com. A new look and an improved experience means you can still stay ahead of this fast-moving market with price data, news and market intelligence right here on Fastmarkets. Discover more than 2000 prices, news and analysis in primary and secondary metals markets. We cover base metals, industrial minerals, ores and alloys, steel, scrap and steel raw materials. If you already have a Fastmarkets account, youll still have uninterrupted access to your markets by logging in with your current details. An ongoingby a Competition Committee in Greece, a semi-autonomous watchdog entity, into allegations of a public works cartel by domestic and foreign construction companies could lead to a freeze in EU funding for the country by the Unions Cohesion Fund In Praise Of Ignorant Politicians..Unschooled In Beltway Delusions By David Stockman June 22, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - " Contra Corner " - The Imperial City deserves to be sacked by insurgent politicians of the very ignorant kind. That is, outsiders unschooled in its specious groupthink and destructive delusions of grandeur. Thats why Donald Trumps challenge to the beltways permanent bipartisan ruling class is so welcome. He is largely ignorant of the neocon and war hawk catechisms and sophistries propounded by joints like the Council on Foreign Relations. But owing to his overweening self-confidence, he doesnt hesitate to lob foreign policy audibles, as it were, from the Presidential campaigns line of scrimmage. It is these unpredictable outbursts of truth and common sense, not his bombast, bad manners and bigotry, that has the Acela Corridor in high dudgeon. The Donalds establishment bettors are deathly afraid that he might confirm to the unwashed electorate of Flyover America what it already suspects. Namely, that Washingtons hyper-interventionism and ungodly expensive imperial footprint all around the globe has nothing at all to do with their security and safety, even as it saddles them with massive public debts and the threat of jihadist blowback to the homeland. For Trumps part, the fact is that most of his wild pitchesthe Mexican Wall, the Muslim ban, waterboarding-are basically excesses of campaign rhetoric that would likely get fashioned into something far more palatable if he were ever in a position to govern. By contrast, the fundamental consensus of our bipartisan rulers is a mortal threat to peace, prosperity and democratic rule. Worse still, the beltway consensus is so entombed in groupthink that the machinery grinds forward from one folly to the next with hardly a peep of dissent. Nothing could better illustrate that deleterious dynamic, in fact, than the NATO warships currently trolling around the Black Sea. For crying out loud, the very thought that Washington is sending lethally armed destroyers into the Black Sea is an outrage. That eurasian backwater harbors no threat whatsoever to the security and safety of the citizens of Americaor, for that matter, to those of Germany, France, Poland or the rest of NATO, either. The shrunken remnants of the Russian Navy- home-ported at Sevastopol on the Crimea, as it has been since Catherine The Great-could not uncork the Dardanelles with war-making intent in a thousand years. Not in the face of the vast NATO armada implacably positioned on the Mediterranean side of the outlet. So what is possibly the point of rattling seaborne missile batteries on Russias shoreline? It assumes a military threat thats non-existent and a hostile intent in Moscow that is purely an artifact of NATO propaganda. In truth, these reckless Black Sea naval maneuvers amount to a rank provocation. With one glance at the map, even the much maligned high school educated voters who have rallied to Trumps cause could tell you that much. The same can be said for the 31,000 NATO troops conducted exercises in Poland and the Baltic republics right alongside the border with Russia. These are not isolated cases of tactical excess or even far-fetched exercises in deterrence. Instead, they directly manifest Imperial Washingtons hegemonic raison d etat. Indeed, these utterly pointless maneuvers on Russias doorsteps are just a further extension of the same imperial arrogance that stupidly initiated a fight with Putins Russia in the first place by igniting a Ukrainian civil war on the streets of Kiev in February 2014. Washington not only sponsored and funded the overthrow of Ukraines constitutionally elected government, but did so for the most superficial and historically ignorant reason imaginable. To wit, it objected to the decision of Ukraines prior government to align itself economically and politically with its historic hegemon in Moscow. So what? There was nothing at stake in the Ukraine that matters. During the last 700 years, it has been a meandering set of borders in search of a country. In fact, the intervals in which the Ukraine existed as an independent nation have been few and far between. Invariably, it rulers, petty potentates and corrupt politicians made deals with or surrendered to every outside power which came along. These included the Lithuanians, Turks, Poles, Austrians, Czars and commissars, among others. Indeed, in modern times Ukraine functioned as an integral part of Mother Russia, serving as its breadbasket and iron and steel crucible under czars and commissars alike. Crimea itself was actually Russian territory from 1783, when Catherine The Great purchased it from the Turks, until the mid-1950s, when in a fit of drunken stupor the newly ascendant Khrushchev gifted it to his Ukrainian compatriots. Given this history, the idea that Ukraine should be actively and aggressively induced to join NATO was just plain nuts. You might wonder what bantam brains actually came up with the scheme, but only until you recall that NATO itself has been a vestigial organ since 1991. Its now in the business of self-preservation and concocting missions, not securing the peace of anyone, anywhere on the planet. The Ukraine intervention has already caused NATO, the IMF and Washington to pony up more than $40 billion of aid, which has gone straight down the proverbial rathole. The part that wasnt stolen by the thieving oligarchs Washington installed in Kiev has been used to prosecute an horrific civil war which has killed and wounded tens of thousands of civilians caught in the cross-fire and destroyed what is left of the Ukrainian economy. Indeed, it was the neocon meddlers from Washington who crushed Ukraines last semblance of civil governance when they enabled ultra-nationalists and crypto-Nazi to gain government positions after the putsch. In one fell swoop that inexcusable stupidity re-opened Ukraines blood-soaked modern history. That includes Stalins re-population of the Donbas with reliable Russian workers after his genocidal liquidation of the Kulaks in the early 1930s. It also encompasses the large-scale collaboration by Ukrainian nationalists in the west with the Nazi wehrmacht as it laid waste to Poles, Jews, gypsies and other undesirables on its way to Stalingrad. And then there was the equal and opposite spree of barbaric revenge as the victorious Red Army marched back through Ukraine on its way to Berlin. What beltway lame brains did not understand that Washingtons triggering of regime change in Kiev would re-open this entire bloody history of sectarian and political strife? Moreover, once they had opened Pandoras box, why was it so hard to see that an outright partition of Ukraine with autonomy for the Donbas and Crimea, or even accession to the Russian state from which these communities had originated, would have been a perfectly reasonable resolution? Certainly that would have been far preferable to dragging all of Europe into the lunacy of the current anti-Putin sanctions and embroiling the Ukrainian factions in a suicidal civil war. After all, the artificial country of Czechoslovakia, created on a political whim at Versailles, was peacefully and inconsequently devolved into its separate Czech and Slovakian nations. The same of true of Yugoslavia. In that instance, it was American bombers which forced the partition of Kosovo from its Serbian parent. And even then, this Washington sanctioned partition ended up in the hands of a criminal mafia that makes Putin appear sainted, to boot. In short, the current spat of NATO saber-rattling exercises on Russias borders is living proof that Washington is enthrall to a permanent ruling class of educated fools and power-obsessed apparatchiks, Is it any wonder, therefore, that the Imperial City continues to squander scarce fiscal resources on the obsolete machinery of NATO and the bloated cold war military establishments of its members that have no legitimate purpose. No wonder Trumps establishment bettors scolded and harrumphed when he had the temerity to suggest that NATO was too expensive and possibly obsolete. But of course it is! Its mission ended 25 years ago when Boris Yeltsin mounted a soviet tank vodka flask in hand and stood done the Red Army. The very geopolitical earth parted right there and then. Indeed, two years earlier, President Bush 41 and his able Secretary of State, James Baker, had promised Gorbachev that in return for acquiescing in the reunification of Germany that NATO would not be expanded by a single inch. Time and again that promise has been betrayed for no good reason except imperial aggrandizement. Now a military alliance which had no purpose other than to contain 50,000 Soviet tanks on the central front has been joined by the likes of Albania, Croatia, Latvia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Bulgaria, too. Has the ascension of these micro-states added to the security and safety of the citizens of Lincoln NE or Springfield MA? No it hasnt. It has actually subtracted from national security by threatening a third rate power with a GDP no larger than that of the New York SMSA and an annual defense budget amounting to less than 30 days of Pentagon spending. As to the necessity of the current naval maneuvers, even the leaders of Bulgaria-a nation check-by-jowl to Russias Black Sea fleet have demurred, pointing out the obvious. To wit, the Black Sea is a place for sailboats and vacationers, not NATO warships. In fact, that is so obvious that it is no wonder our beltway bettors are frothing at the mouth about Donald Trump. He just might mobilize the country against the threadbare predicates of their ruinous rule. 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. I always say that I want the Black Sea to see sailboats, yachts, large boats with tourists and not become an arena of military action I do not need a war in the Black Sea, Reuters cited Bulgarias Prime Minister as saying at a media briefing. To send warships as a fleet against Russian ships exceeds the limit of what I can allow, Borisov told reporters in Sofia on Thursday, as cited by Bloomberg. To deploy destroyers, aircraft carriers near [the resort cities of] Bourgas or Varna during the tourist season is unacceptable. Thats the beginning of good sense. Disbanding NATO would be the next rational step forward. I Reported Omar Mateen To The FBI. Trump Is Wrong That Muslims Dont Do Our Part. We love America, too, and we're horrified by what our neighbor did. By Mohammed A. Malik Mohammed Malik, a man who knew Omar Mateen for over 10 years, explains his decision to report him to the FBI in 2014 and why Donald Trump is wrong about Muslims not cooperating with authorities. (Adriana Usero/The Washington Post) June 22, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - " Washington Post " - Donald Trump believes American Muslims are hiding something. They know whats going on. They know that [Omar Mateen] was bad, he said after the Orlando massacre. They have to cooperate with law enforcement and turn in the people who they know are bad. But you know what? They didnt turn them in. And you know what? We had death and destruction. This is a common idea in the United States. Its also a lie. First, Muslims like me cant see into the hearts of other worshipers. (Do you know the hidden depths of everyone in your community?) Second, Trump is wrong that we dont speak up when were able. I know this firsthand: I was the one who told the FBI about Omar Mateen. I met Omar for the first time in 2006 at an iftar meal at my brother-in-laws house. As the women, including his mother and sisters, chatted in the living room, I sat with the men on the patio and got to know him and his father. Omar broke his Ramadan fast with a protein shake. He was quiet then and always and let his dad do the talking. Id seen them before at the oldest mosque in the area, the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce. We have a lot of immigrants in our community. They grew up in other countries, often with different sensibilities. A few dont understand American culture, and they struggle to connect with their American-born or American-raised kids. I came here from Pakistan in 1979 when I was 6 years old, grew up in Queens (like Omar) and Fort Lauderdale, went through the American education system, and assimilated well. So I was able to make better inroads with young people in our community, including that introverted teenager I met at the iftar. I tried to stay in touch with the younger generation, acting as a mentor when I could. In his speech after the Orlando mass shooting, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said that Muslims "have to cooperate with law enforcement and turn in the people who they know are bad." (Reuters) I saw Omar from time to time over the next decade, and we developed a relationship because most of the other Muslim kids in his age group went elsewhere for college, and he stayed behind. We mostly spoke over the phone or texted with one another a half-dozen times per year. We talked about the lack of social programs at the mosque, especially for teens and young adults like him. I often played pranks on him. Once, around 2009, I attached LED lights to the tires of his car, so when he drove the wheels glowed neon. He laughed when he figured it out a few days later. Soon after Omar married and moved to his own home, he began to come to the mosque more often. Then he went on a religious trip to Saudi Arabia. There was nothing to indicate that he had a dark side, even when he and his first wife divorced. But as news reports this week have made clear, Omar did have a dark outlook on life. Partly, he was upset at what he saw as racism in the United States against Muslims and others. When he worked as a security guard at the St. Lucie County Courthouse, he told me visitors often made nasty or bigoted remarks to him about Islam. He overheard people saying ugly things about African Americans, too. Since Sept. 11, Ive thought the only way to answer Islamophobia was to be polite and kind; the best way to counter all the negativity people were seeing on TV about Islam was by showing them the opposite. I urged Omar to volunteer and help people in need Muslim or otherwise (charity is a pillar of Islam). He agreed, but was always very worked up about this injustice. Then, during the summer of 2014, something traumatic happened for our community. A boy from our local mosque, Moner Mohammad Abu-Salha, was 22 when he became the first American-born suicide bomber, driving a truck full of explosives into a government office in Syria. Hed traveled there and joined a group affiliated with al-Qaeda, the previous year. We had all known Moner; he was jovial and easygoing, the opposite of Omar. According to a posthumous video released that summer, he had clearly self-radicalized and had also done so by listening to the lectures of Anwar al-Awlaki, the charismatic Yemen-based imam who helped radicalize several Muslims, including the Fort Hood shooter. Everyone in the area was shocked and upset. We hate violence and were horrified that one of our number could have killed so many. (After an earlier training mission to Syria, hed tried to recruit a few Florida friends to the cause. They told the FBI about him.) Immediately after Moners attack, news reports said that American officials didnt know anything about him; I read that they were looking for people to give them some background. So I called the FBI and offered to tell investigators a bit about the young man. It wasnt much we hadnt been close but Im an American Muslim, and I wanted to do my part. I didnt want another act like that to happen. I didnt want more innocent people to die. Agents asked me if there were any other local kids who might resort to violence in the name of Islam. No names sprang to mind. After my talk with the FBI, I spoke to people in the Islamic community, including Omar, about Moners attack. I wondered how he could have radicalized. Both Omar and I attended the same mosque as Moner, and the imam never taught hate or radicalism. Thats when Omar told me he had been watching videos of Awlaki, too, which immediately raised red flags for me. He told me the videos were very powerful. After speaking with Omar, I contacted the FBI again to let them know that Omar had been watching Awlakis tapes. He hadnt committed any acts of violence and wasnt planning any, as far as I knew. And I thought he probably wouldnt, because he didnt fit the profile: He already had a second wife and a son. But it was something agents should keep their eyes on. I never heard from them about Omar again, but apparently they did their job: They looked into him and, finding nothing to go on, they closed the file. Omar and I continued to have infrequent conversations over the next few years. I last saw him at a dinner at his fathers house in January. We talked about the presidential election and debated our views of the candidates that were running he liked Hillary Clinton and I liked Bernie Sanders. This banter continued through texts and phone calls for several months. My last conversation with Omar was by phone in mid-May. He called me while he was at the beach with his son to tell me about a vacation hed taken with his father to Orlando the previous weekend. Hed been impressed by the local mosque. What happened next is well-known. Were still in shock. Were totally against what he did, and we feel the deepest sadness for the victims and their families. If you dont agree with someone, you dont have the right to kill them. We are taught to be kind to all of Gods creation. Islam is very strict about killing: Even in war to say nothing of peace you cannot harm women, children, the elderly, the sick, clergymen, or even plants. You cant mutilate dead bodies. You cant destroy buildings, especially churches or temples. You cant force anyone to accept Islam. If anyone slew one person, it would be as if he killed the whole of humanity, says the Koran. I had told the FBI about Omar because my community, and Muslims generally, have nothing to hide. I love this country, like most Muslims that I know. I dont agree with every government policy (I think theres too much money in politics, for instance), but Im proud to be an American. I vote. I volunteer. I teach my children to treat all people kindly. Our families came here because it is full of opportunity a place where getting a job is about what you know, not who you know. Its a better country to raise children than someplace where the electricity is out for 18 hours a day, where politicians are totally corrupt, or where the leader is a dictator. But theres so much suspicion of Islam here. The local paper published an unsigned editorial called Leave our peaceful Muslim neighbors alone, and the comments were full of hateful lies that the Boston bombers had visited the area, that the Sept. 11 bombers came from here, that we were a hotbed of violent ideology. None of this is true. Donald Trump didnt create these attitudes, but he plays on them and amplifies them. I am not the first American Muslim to report on someone; people who do that simply dont like to announce themselves in to the media. For my part, Im not looking for personal accolades. Im just tired of negative rhetoric and ignorant comments about my faith. Trumps assertions about our community that we have the ability to help our country but have simply declined to do so are tragic, ugly and wrong. [Editors note: A federal law enforcement official confirmed the authors cooperation to The Washington Post.] Hillary Clintons Likely Defense Secretary Wants More US Troops Fighting ISIS and Assad By Patrick Tucker June 22, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - " Defense One " - The woman expected to run the Pentagon under Hillary Clinton said she would direct U.S. troops to push President Bashar al-Assads forces out of southern Syria and would send more American boots to fight the Islamic State in the region. Michele Flournoy, formerly the third-ranking civilian in the Pentagon under President Barack Obama, called for limited military coercion to help remove Assad from power in Syria, including a no bombing zone over parts of Syria held by U.S.-backed rebels. Flournoy, and several of her colleagues at the Center for New American Security, or CNAS, have been making the case for sending more American troops into combat against ISIS and the Assad regime than the Obama administration has been willing to commit. Since Russias increased involvement, the facts on the ground in Syria, she said, Do not support the kind of negotiated conditions we would like to get to. U.S. policy should be the removal of Assad even if that meant using limited military coercion, Flournoy said, at Mondays annual CNAS conference in Washington. What might that look like? Last week, three CNAS authors, in a new report, call for the United States to go beyond the current Cessation of Hostilities. The United States should press Syria and Russia to agree not to treat the Southern Front as an extremist group and to cease air attacks on the territory it controls, wrote Ilan Goldenberg, Paul Scharre, and Nicholas Heras. CNAS says those views are not the entire organizations, but noted the report was informed by deliberations of CNAS ISIS Study Group, chaired by CNAS CEO Michele Flournoy and CNAS President Richard Fontaine, a former foreign policy advisor to Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. If Syrias bombing continues, the United States should consider instituting what the paper dubs a no bomb zone. If the Assad regime bombs areas that are held by the Southern Front, an opposition alliance that the United States supports, then the United States would retaliate, using standoff weapons like cruise missiles to hit targets associated with the Assad regime, but not airbases housing Russian forces. The retaliatory strikes might include Syrian forward operating bases or security apparatus facilities in Damascus that are fixed regime targets and would require less invasive reconnaissance. The targets need not be ones that are directly tied to Assad strikes on U.S. partners, so long as the message is clear to Assad. Its not a traditional no-fly zone so youre not having air craft drill holes in the sky. Youre not having to take out the entire civilian air defense system, Flournoy told Defense One. She called the bomb zone idea a declaratory policy backed up by the threat of force. If you bomb the folks we support, we will retaliate using standoff means to destroy [Russian] proxy forces, or, in this case, Syrian assets. The no bomb zone could arguably slow the refugee flows. It would stop the bombing of certain civilian populations she said. Flournoy called the no-bomb zone worthy of more examination. The analysis that needs to be done is playing out the concept, two, three and four steps down the road. What if the Russians do test it? What would the response be? she said. Flournoy served as Obamas under secretary of defense for policy from 2009 to 2012. On Monday, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius described her as being on short, short list for the job. So what would she do in the job? Last 2015, Flournoy delicately condemned the Obama administrations ISIS policy as ineffectual. The military dimensions of the strategy have been under-resourced, while many of the non-military lines of operation remain underdeveloped, she wrote. She outlined several key steps to increase pressure on ISIS. They included: increased numbers of combat missions; embedding U.S. military advisors in the Iraqi Security Forces at the battalion level and allowing them to advise Iraqi commanders during operations; deploying forward air-controllers to call in air support during combat missions; and direct arming of Sunni tribes and the Kurdish Peshmerga. The strategy would hold out the prospect that arms will flow through Baghdad if and when the central government establishes a reliable process for their transfer. Home Sign up for our FREE Daily Email Newsletter Israeli Intelligence Chief: We Do Not Want ISIS Defeat In Syria By News Desk June 22, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - " Al Masdar News " - Israeli intelligence Chief, Major General Herzi Halevy, said that the last three months have been the most difficult for ISIS since its inception. In a speech delivered at Herzliya conference yesterday , Halevy explicitly said Israel does not want the situation in Syria to end with the defeat of ISIS , the Israeli NRG site reported. Withdrawal of the super powers from the region and letting Israel alone in front of Hezbollah and Iran that possess good abilities Will make Israel in a hard position Therefore, weve to do all we can so as not finding ourselves in such situation, the Israeli chief intelligence added. Lebanon Will Become Refugee State in Next Hezbollah War, Says IDF Intel Chief By Jerusalem Post June 22, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - " Jerusalem Post " - Lebanon will become a "state of refugees" from which it will be difficult to recover if there is another war between Israel and Hezbollah, a senior IDF intelligence general said Wednesday. "The situation in the next conflict will be completely different. We are stronger than we have ever been and are able to deal with any threat," said the head of IDF Military Intelligence, Maj.-Gen. Herzi Halevi. Speaking at the 16th Annual Herzliya Conference, Halevi stated that while Israel is not interested in another armed conflict with the Lebanese Shi'ite terror group, the Jewish state is "more prepared than ever" for such an event. "Never in history have we had an enemy that we know more about," he added. When addressing the question of how the next northern border conflict would look, Halevi replied: "The next conflict in the North will be different from Operation Protective Edge and also from past wars such as the Yom Kippur War." Turning to the topic of Iran, Halevi stated, "In the next wars, the majority of weapons that will attack Israel will be Iranian products." The military intelligence chief also said that "Iran is leading the way in cyber warfare and aiding Hezbollah on that front." He also addressed changes in strategic alliances in the Middle East between Israel and other moderate countries. "Part of the strategies of the pragmatic Sunni nations are becoming closer to our own," he said. "Saudi Arabia is not the same country we once saw just a year and a half ago, they have a new king and are leading the Sunni camp in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia is implementing vast reforms in order to move the country away from their oil dependent economy." Halevi, describing the purpose of intelligence, stated: "It is to describe the enemy, to tell the story and a slightly newer second purpose - to influence reality. The struggle between wars to restrain the building of power of the enemy is a type of influence that we greatly invest in and to a large degree we are very successful." Israeli and international policy-makers and analysts gathered for the 16th Annual Herzliya Conference, convened by the Interdisciplinary Center's Institute for Policy and Strategy in Herzliya. The three-day conference kicked off on Tuesday, the conference is focused on raising central issues and promoting public discourse on issues that affect Israel on both domestic and international fronts. Click for Spanish , German , Dutch , Danish , French , translation- Note- Translation may take a moment to load. What's your response? - Scroll down to add / read comments Sign up for our FREE Daily Email Newsletter For Email Marketing you can trust Donate Please read our Comment Policy before posting - It is unacceptable to slander, smear or engage in personal attacks on authors of articles posted on ICH. Those engaging in that behavior will be banned from the comment section. 20 Congress Members Send Obama Letter Requesting Protection Of Palestinian Children From Israeli Abuses Reps. Betty McCollum, Keith Ellison, Barbara Lee and more highlight Israel's systematic abuse of Palestinian kids. By Ben Norton June 22, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - " Salon " - The lawmakers sent the president a letter on June 20, urging him to appoint a special envoy for Palestinian youth in order to monitor the Israeli governments violation of Palestinian childrens human rights. The letter (embedded below), notes that Palestinian children are growing up under military occupation with very few opportunities to improve their lives. The letter describes the occupation as an unimaginably difficult and at times hopeless environment, where children live under the constant fear of arrest detention and violence at the hands of the Israeli military. Israels illegal military occupation marked its 49th anniversary earlier this month. Nearly half, 46 percent, of the roughly 4.7 million Palestinians living in the Israeli-occupied territories are minors under 18 years of age. The 20 lawmakers raised concerns about Israels frequent imprisonment of Palestinian children as young as 12, sometimes without charge or trial. UNICEF, Human Rights Watch, the Israeli human rights organization BTselem and other rights groups have documented Israels systematic abuse of Palestinian children. According to the U.N., Israel has tortured Palestinian children and has even used them as human shields. An April report by Defense for Children International Palestine cited by the letter found, after interviewing 429 Palestinian children who had been detained by Israel, that three-quarters experienced some form of violence. Minors reported being physically and psychologically abused, threatened and forced into solitary confinement. In 42 percent of cases, Israeli soldiers arrested children in their homes in the middle of the night. In 88 percent of cases, Palestinian minors were arrested and were unable to notify their parents. Israel has the dubious distinction of being the only country in the world that systematically prosecutes between 500 and 700 children in military courts each year, Defense for Children International Palestine wrote. There were 440 Palestinian minors in Israeli military prisons, as of February. An average of 204 children are held in Israeli custody each month, according to the rights group. The letter was initiated by Rep. Betty McCollum, a Democrat representing Minnesota. Salon spoke with McCollum, who emphasized, Military prisons for 12-year-old Palestinian children is inhuman. It totally dehumanizes them and its an abuse of Palestinian human rights. That needs to stop. I want the Israeli people to have peace and security, but I also want Palestinian children and their parents to have security, dignity, justice and equality, she added. McCollum said the letter is an important sign that my colleagues and I care about Palestinian children and we understand that ensuring their safety and well-being will play an important role in being able to create a more peaceful Middle East. The additional 19 congresspeople who endorsed the letter represent states around the country. Among the fellow signees are Reps. Keith Ellison, Barbara Lee, Luis Gutierrez and more. Ellison, a Democrat also representing Minnesota, has been particularly outspoken in support of Palestinian human rights. Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders appointed Rep. Ellison to the drafting committee of the Democratic Party in May. Rep. McCollum said she and the other congresspeople imagine that the role of the special envoy for Palestinian youth would be to shine a bright light on how Palestinian children are held in military in detention, sometimes in solitary confinement, on how they dont have access to their parents, let alone an attorney. Thats just abuse that needs to come to an end, McCollum stressed. She warned that, when children are abused in this way, they grow up to feel hopeless, and that leads them to desperation. In the letter, the lawmakers argue that the increase in violent attacks in the past year must be examined and understood within this context: a life of utter hopelessness and the collective psychological trauma associated with the Palestinian people living for decades under Israeli military occupation. McCollum told Salon that she hopes the conflict can resolve with a two-state solution. Many people say its too late, but I remain hopeful, she said. Hard-line right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was re-elected on the promise that there will never be a Palestinian state (although he later tried to walk back this claim, just after winning the election). McCollum said she does not have much confidence that the current Israeli government, which is very far to the right, is interested in pursuing peace with the Palestinians. It is very alarming, McCollum lamented, noting that the defense minister recently resigned in protest of the Israeli cabinets increasing extremism. In May, Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon, a fellow member of the prime ministers staunchly right-wing Likud party, stepped down early after Netanyahu offered the defense minister position to Avigdor Lieberman, one of the most extreme figures in Israeli politics. Yaalon warned that extremist and dangerous elements have taken over Israel. McCollum said she hopes that the next U.S. presidential administration works together with Israelis and Palestinians in order to bring an end to the occupation. This is about the right for Israeli and Palestinian children, and children throughout the Middle East, to grow up with an opportunity of having a safe and secure childhood, and opportunities for success, she explained. We need to work together to make sure that Israeli and Palestinian children dont see another 40 years of unrest and violence in their lives. The idea for the letter was a joint project, Rep. McCollum recalled. Several lawmakers, particularly those who have traveled to Israel-Palestine and other parts of the Middle East, expressed interest in trying to help contribute to peace. In the letter, the congresspeople also called on the U.S. State Department to elevate the human rights of Palestinian children to a priority status in its negotiations. These children deserve to grow up with dignity, human rights and a future free of repression, the lawmakers wrote. The letter was supported by the No Way To Treat a Child campaign, a joint project of the rights groups Defense for Children International Palestine and the American Friends Service Committee. The other lawmakers who signed the letter are Reps. Eddie Bernice Johnson, Andre Carson, John Conyers, Earl Blumenauer, Donald Beyer, Hank Johnson, Bobby Rush, Marcy Kaptur, Chellie Pingree, Danny Davis, Peter Defazio, Raul Grijalva, Sam Farr, Jim McDermott, Yvette Clarke and Mark Pocan. The letter can be read below. Rep. McCollum letter to Obama, urging special envoy for Palestinian youth Brexit: What Is It About? By Paul Craig Roberts June 22, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - If you read the presstitute media, Brexitthe referendum tomorrow on the UKs exit from the EU is about racism. According to the story line, angry rightwing racists of violent inclinations want to leave the EU to avoid having to accept more dark-skinned immigrants into England. Despite the constant propaganda against exit, polls indicated that more favored leaving the EU than remaining until a female member of Parliament, Jo Cox, was killed by a man that a witness said shouted Brexit. Cox was an opponent of leaving the EU. The UK government and presstitute media used Coxs murder to drive home the propaganda that violent racists were behind Brexit. However, other witnesses gave a different report. The Guardian, which led with the propaganda line, did report later in its account that Other witnesses said the attack was launched after the MP became involved in an altercation involving two men near where she held her weekly surgery. Of course, we will never know, because Coxs murder is too valuable of a weapon against Brexit. There is no doubt that many in the UK are disturbed at the transformation of their country. One doesnt have to be a racist to feel that ones country is being stolen from them by people of alien cultures. The British have a long history of fighting off invaders, and many believe they are experiencing an invasion, although not an armed one. An armed one, of course, would not have the governments and medias support. When British people hear pundits pronounce that immigrants contribute more to the UK than they absorb in social payments, what they hear is inconsistent with their experience. Moreover, many British are tired of having to avoid entire sections of their cities, including London, because of safety concerns. It is a propaganda choice to call these concerns racism rather than cultural defense, and the UK political establishment has made that propaganda choice. Little wonder so many British citizens no longer believe that the British Establishment represents Britain. But lets give the propagandists the benefit of the doubt and for sake of argument assume that Brexit is about racism. What is the opposition to Brexit really about? Most certainly it is not about helping the refugees from Washingtons wars that the UK government has enabled. If the British establishment cared so much for the Muslims seeking refuge from Americas invasions, bombs, and drones, the British establishment would not have supported Washingtons attacks on these people. Opposition to Brexit is based on two powerful interests of Washington. One is the interests of the New York banks and Wall Street to eliminate the UK as a financial center competitor. This blatant fact has escaped the notice of the City and the Bank of England. The British have forgotten that they only have one foot in the EU, because the UK was permitted to keep its own currency. The UK does not use the euro and, thus, retains the power to finance the British government. Greece, Portugal, Spain, Italy, France, Germany, etc., do not have this capability. They are dependent on private banks for financing. In order to trick the UK into joining the EU, the British were given special privileges. However, these privileges cannot last forever. The EU process is one of political integration. As I reported years ago, Jean-Claude Trichet, at that time the president of the European Central Bank, said that to complete the political integration of Europe, the fiscal policies of member states would be centralized. It is impossible to centralize fiscal policies if the UK is an independent financial center with its own central bank and currency. Wall Street understands that the defeat of Brexit means a shortened lifespan for London as a financial center, as it is impossible to be a financial center unless a country has its own currency and central bank. As it is impossible for the UK to be a member of the EU and not operate under the European Central Bank, once the Brexit referendum is defeated, the process of gradually forcing the UK into the euro will begin. The other powerful interest is the interest of Washington to prevent one countrys exit from leading to the exit of other countries. As CIA documents found in the US National Archives make clear, the EU was a CIA initiative, the purpose of which is to make it easy for Washington to exercise political control over Europe. It is much easier for Washington to control the EU than 28 separate countries. Moreover, if the EU unravels, so likely would NATO, which is the necessary cover for Washingtons aggression. The EU serves Washington and the One Percent. It serves no one else. The EU is a murderer of sovereignty and peoples. The intent is for the British, French, Germans, Italians, Greeks, Spanish, and all the rest to disappear as peoples. Brexit is the last chance to defeat this hidden agenda, and apparently the British will vote tomorrow without having a clue as to what is at stake and what the vote is about. Dr. Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. Roberts' latest books are The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West , How America Was Lost , and The Neoconservative Threat to World Order . The Looming US War on Russia By Finian Cunningham June 22, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - " Sputnik " - Russian President Vladimir Putins comparison of increasing US-led NATO aggression towards Russia to the attack by Nazi Germany on the Soviet Union is advisedly apt. Putin was addressing the Russian State Duma this week on the occasion 75 years ago when the Nazi Third Reich launched Operation Barbarossa on June 22, 1941. Nazi Germanys aggression, which led to the Great Patriotic War in which up to 30 million Soviet citizens lost their lives in order to gain victory against that fascist power, was at bottom an attack by Western imperialism. As Putin reminded, this fundamental fact is often omitted in Western commentary. In that way, the significance of NATOs current military buildup what else is that but aggression? on Russian territory is all too often absent in Western media. And, by extension, Western public appreciation is lacking on how sinister the unfolding situation is. Russias history over centuries is replete with examples of where Western imperialist powers have tried and failed to subjugate Russia with military attack from its Western flank. It is consistent with historical precedent that Putin should describe increasing aggression by the American-led NATO military alliance in the same context as the repugnant Nazi assault on Russia. The burgeoning US-led aggression towards Russia in the form of provocative political campaigns to demonize and vilify with false accusations, economic sanctions and the spurning of diplomacy and dialogue, as well as the expansion of military forces, including the deployment of missile systems is in a long, reprehensible tradition of Western belligerence towards Russia, going back to, among others, French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte and German Fuhrer Adolf Hitler. This congenital aggression towards Russia stems from the dynamic of the Western economic system of capitalism, which in turns begets imperialism as its necessary tool for expropriating natural resources and subjugating foreign nations. Russia is not the only target of Western aggression, of course. But the largest nation by land mass on Earth is and always has been a prime target. The little-known historical record at least in Western media is that Nazi Germany was fomented by American and British capitalism as a proxy with which to vanquish the Soviet Union. The subsequent Western alliance with Soviet Russia to defeat Nazi Germany was merely a cynical damage-control move by the Western powers who were witnessing their Nazi attack dog being muzzled and liquidated. How could anyone who has a sound understanding of history as opposed to the anesthetizing non-history common in the West be not perplexed by the current US-led military menace on Russias Western flank? It should be a matter of deep concern that even Germanys foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier last week denounced the largest-ever NATO war exercises being conducted in Poland as warmongering. What underscores the alarm is that Washington and certain NATO allies are pushing this confrontational agenda without the slightest discussion in Western media or among the Western public. As President Putin pointed out, people in the West are oblivious to the dangers of potential global war because the Western media is committing a huge disservice by not informing accurately on developments. There are any number of flash-points where NATOs military could combust into all-out war with Russia. The Baltic region, Eastern Europe, Ukraine, the Southern Caucus region, or the Black Sea where US warships continue to penetrate in violation of international treaties. Certainly, historical precedent strongly suggests this geographical swathe. As the US presidential election swings towards Democrat contender Hillary Clinton, that portends ominously for relations with Russia. It was Clinton who as Secretary of State in the first Obama administration in 2009-2013 plunged bilateral relations into the freezer and who set the course for the present geopolitical tensions. Of further concern is Clintons likely selection to head the Pentagon . It is hotly tipped that Clinton will appoint Michele Flournoy as the first female Secretary of Defense. Flournoy (56) is a prominent Pentagon insider, with close links to the military and CIA. We can be sure that this duo will keenly push a bellicose agenda towards Russia. Only last week, Flournoy made strident calls for increased US military intervention in Syria. She wants to deploy large numbers of American troops and openly use military force to topple the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad. Under Obama, regime change has been a covert enterprise through proxies such as Saudi Arabia, Turkey and a menagerie of terrorist militia. Under Clinton, the signs are that regime change in Syria will be made an overt military objective. Flournoy is calling for the use of cruise missiles to hit Assad targets, including those of allied Russian forces in Syria. If you bomb the folks we support, we will retaliate using standoff means to destroy [Russian] proxy forces, or, in this case, Syrian assets, she told the military publication Defense One. Flournoy said the US should jettison the pretense of fighting terror groups, and instead direct its efforts to remove Assad from power in Syria. In blatant contravention of international law and UN resolutions on Syria, the probable next White House administration is declaring war on Syria. Such a move is an unabashed aggression towards Russian strategic interests and calculated explicitly with military strikes on Russian forces in Syria. In short, a wider war with Russia. Whether the Middle East proves to be the flash-point of American aggression towards Russia remains to be seen over the coming months. But one thing seems irrefutably clear by now. Washington is already on the path of war. An American war on Russia is looming. Maybe the people of the US and Europe can stop that outcome by threatening political ad social revolt, on the streets if necessary since the electoral process seems to be stacked against the democratic will. On the solemn anniversary of Nazi Germanys ill-fated invasion of the Soviet Union 75 years ago, it is astounding that such horror seems largely forgotten in the West. The criminal, reckless aggression by US-led NATO forces towards Russia is a sign of the dangerous ignorance and apathy in the West. Russia is once again facing a recurring historical pattern of Western aggression. President Putin is correct in his contextualization of NATOs actions and attitude alongside the historic Nazi war on Soviet Russia. Only those who have been brainwashed by banal Western disinformation would consider such a warning as alarmist. The beast that is Western capitalist imperialism is salivating for war again. The positions of war are aligning, and certainly Syria is among the most volatile, especially if Hillary Clinton takes over as Commander-in-Chief. Russia will stand strong, as Putin firmly stated in his address to the State Duma. But this time around any war would involve a global arsenal of nuclear weapons that has no precedent. This really would be war to end all wars and the planet too, as we know it. In the name of peace and humanity, the onus is on the Western public to bring the warmongering system to an end once and for all by slaying the beast that is capitalism and its monstrous twin imperialism. Finian Cunningham has written extensively on international affairs, with articles published in several languages. He is a Masters graduate in Agricultural Chemistry and worked as a scientific editor for the Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, England, before pursuing a career in newspaper journalism. He is also a musician and songwriter. For nearly 20 years, he worked as an editor and writer in major news media organisations, including The Mirror, Irish Times and Independent. The Chinese People Are Outraged "China Will React if Provoked Again: You Risk War" By Andre Vltchek The AntiDiplomatico (Italy) interviews philosopher, Andre Vltchek: Russia and China are forming an incredible defensive wall to protect humanity from Western terrorism. June 22, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - Andre Vltchek has become renowned in Italy for being the co-author, along with Noam Chomsky, of the famous book Western Terrorism (Ponte alle Grazie). A documentary filmmaker, novelist, essayist, philosopher and intellectual, multi-faceted Vltchek is the cosmopolitan man par excellence, a true revolutionary as he likes to call himself. In recent years with his camera and his extraordinary commitment against injustice on this planet he has explored every corner of the Earth and taken over the length and breadth of Western terrorism, one that our media likes to censor and hide from our consciences. After the interviews with the great Australian journalist John Pilger and the famous American playwright John Steppling, we have the honor and privilege of speaking to our great friend of lAntiDiplomatico, asking some questions on burning current international issues. Alessandro Bianchi: I start from a brutal question: What has become of a country that it is offering Donald Trump as its best candidate? Andre Vltchek: It is not much different from the country that it used to be for decades, even centuries. Since the beginning, the US presidents (all of European stock, of course), had been promoting slavery, extermination campaigns against the native population of North America, barbaric wars of aggression against Mexico, and other Latin American countries, the Philippines, etc. Has anything changed now? I highly doubt it. Donald Trump is horrendous, but he is also honest. Both Presidents Clinton and Obama were great speakers, but unrepentant mass murderers. AB: In a recent survey over 53% of Americans were against both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. How long will we continue to consider the United States a democracy? And why, in your opinion, is abstention the only form of rebellion by a population completely excluded from the decision-making stage? AV: Democracy means nothing else other than, rule of the people, in Greek. There is nothing democratic about the political concepts of the United States and Europe. And there is absolutely nothing democratic about the global arrangement through which the West has been ruling over the rest of the world for decades and centuries. The second part is, Im convinced, much more important, much more devastating; in the West, people have been tolerating their insane political system, in exchange for the countless privileges they are getting from their countries plundering of the planet, and violating entire nations and continents. But in Africa, Asia and elsewhere, those un-people have no choice at all. AB: Is Bernie Sanders really the change that many in Europe have described? AV: Bernie Sanders is like those liberal members of the German National Socialist Party during the WWII, or of the Italian Fascist movement during Mussolini. Theyd do much for their own workers and peasants, socially as long as funds were flowing in from the countries plundered by their imperialism. Under Bernie Sanders, Western workers would definitely do much better, but the rest of the world, the wretched of the Earth would still have to pay the bill. AB: What would happen to the world under a Hillary Clintons presidency? AV: Nothing exceptional things would stay the same: sponsorship of Color or Umbrella or whatever revolutions, some more coups, regime changes, direct invasions, bombing, propaganda warfare against China, Russia, Iran, South Africa and what is left of the Latin American revolutions. There would be plenty of torture in secret centers, but it would not be as advertised and glorified as it would be if Trump were elected. World War III would become a great possibility, but such a scenario is quite possible under any new US administration To answer your question: business as usual. AB: What did you feel when you recently saw Obama speaking in Hiroshima and not apologizing for what was done by his country, declaring almost sarcastically as the head of the worlds first atomic power hope for a world without nuclear weapons? AV: Im quite immune to such speeches, arent you? Although, yes somehow Obamas is much more disgusting than others, because he is smart and we all know that he knows. He is thoroughly dishonest and it is clear. It would be somehow more acceptable to see George W. puking over sushi. And Trump: hed probably declare in Hiroshima that hed nuke half of Asia if it would help the West to retain its control over the world. At least one would not harbor any false hopes. AB: Will the growing US expansionism come to a breaking point and collision with China? AV: Yes, it will. I have no doubt about it. China is one of the greatest cultures on Earth, and it is one of those countries that suffered immensely from colonialist horrors and humiliation. Chinese people are indignant. Indignant! For decades, despite everything, they tried to make peace with the West. They are, in fact, the most peaceful big nation on Earth and what do they get in return? They get insults, provocations and intimidation. The Western public should learn and remember one essential thing about China: no matter what European and North American propaganda barks about the Peoples Republic, China is much more democratic than the West. It is democratic in its own way. For thousands of years, it developed its own political system. Its rulers, no matter who they are, are given a conditional right to govern by the people. In the past, but even now it is called a Heavenly Mandate. If the rulers fail to respect the will of the people, they get deposed. And the Communist Party of China is greatly respectful of the desires of the majority of the Chinese people. When they want liberal reforms, they are delivered. When they want more Communism and an epic fight against corruption, like now, Chinas government immediately reacts. It is powerful and democratic, although a very specific and complex arrangement. And now, the Chinese people are outraged and they are sending clear signals to Beijing: do not succumb to the West. If you do, our nation will suffer immensely, and the rest of the world will turn to ashes. Do understand: Chinese people are brilliant; the West cannot fool them. And they are thoroughly sick of Western imperialism. This time, if confronted and provoked, the Chinese government would yield to the pressure from its people: it would be forced to give orders to fight to defend its motherland! AB: Although it is NATO that is bringing his installations more and more to the East, in Europe our information apparatus feeds the danger of an aggressive Russia. Who benefits from spreading these Russophobe feelings? AV: Of course, the Empire! Of course, the Western supremacists! With Russia, it is almost similar to China: people there have had it up to here with the West! The Russian people suffered immensely from Western imperialism. Throughout their history they fought countless invasions led by the French, Scandinavians, Brits, North Americans, Germans, Poles, Czechs and others. Tens of millions of Russian people died, fighting all sorts of Western expansionism. They defeated Nazism. They helped to liberate much of our world from colonialism. Of course, the West never forgave Russia for fighting the epic battles against its expansionism and colonialism. But it is not only European and North American propaganda that is responsible for the present state of things: it is also the people, quite ordinary people, living in the West. For years now, the fake European left is trying to portray European citizens as victims of the US imperialism. It is even trying to make the world feel sorry for those European workers who do not get a fair deal from their governments! It is thoroughly absurd. Overwhelming the majority of European citizens are unhappy with the social deal they get, yes; and that is why they are so angry with their governments. Because they want more, much more! They couldnt care less that their benefits, salaries and other privileges, have been, for decades and centuries subsidized by the plunder of other parts of the planet; that they are paid for by blood. There is absolutely no solidarity in the West towards its own victims, and the recent refugee crises is direct proof of it. Fanon and Sartre had already determined more than 50 years ago, each and every European citizen is responsible for (and has been benefiting from) the countless genocides and unbridled theft. It has to be repeated again and again: you give Europeans once again all benefits that they can eat, you make them work shorter hours, and you give more money, and theyd be back in a self-congratulatory, self-righteous mode; damned be the rest of the world. The only reason so many are so pissed off at the US is because they see North America as promoting a bad deal for its own masses, not because it is ruining the rest of the world! So, back to Russia Russia, despite its heavy flirtation with capitalism and some quite unsavory oligarchs, is still building its foreign policy on the Soviet ideals of internationalism, solidarity and logic. And even domestically, President Putin is slowly, step-by-step, restoring many important Soviet achievements that were torpedoed by a nitwit, and one gangster Gorbachev and Yeltsin. Lets not forget that one poll after another clearly demonstrates that well over 50% of Russian citizens still wants both socialism and the USSR back. And the Russian government is listening. The West, both the elites (consciously) and ordinary people (sub-consciously), want Russia to go to hell; to disappear, drown, explode. It is because Russia is once again defending humanism all over the world. If it succeeds, the elites would lose their power over the planet, and the ordinary citizens of the West would lose their privileges; the plunder would have to stop, and the life of one African or Asian person would suddenly gain the same value as that of a one European or North American. And that would be really unacceptable! On top of it, Russia and China have become two great allies. Theyd never be divided as they were during the Cold War Days. Russia and China together cannot be defeated: militarily, economically or morally. The West can only try to destroy them internally, through horrendous sets of tricks, propaganda and toxic lies. But now even such a scenario is unlikely. Russian people, like their Chinese comrades, are well aware of what is going on. And there are tens of millions of their martyrs who are reminding them what is to be expected from the West. Encircled and provoked, Russia is once again turning into a mighty monolithic defense wall. Its people are ready! They want peace, above anything else. But if theyd have to fight for their own survival, and for the survival of the world, they will. And this time again, if there is a showdown, two enormous nations, Russia and China, standing side-by-side, will defeat fascism! That is why Russia is hated. That is why China is hated. They are forming a tremendous, final defense line protecting humanity from the Western terror. AB: Since the advent of the so-called Arab Spring, which began with the famous Obamas speech at the University of Cairo in 2009, the Eastern Mediterranean has become a powder keg. Was it an external plan a planned destruction of the states hostile to rulers in Washington, like Libya and Syria in particular, or was it a real quest for democracy and freedom? AV: Both. Some socialist movements in Egypt, Tunisia and Bahrain, for instance, were genuine. I was making films about the so-called Arab Spring, and Im well aware of how complex the situation really was. But it goes without saying is that the West immediately infiltrated and derailed the revolutions, turning them into what you have described. Remember, the West had absolutely no appetite for risking its dictatorial powers over the area. It had no desire to let democratic and revolutionary forces take control of their countries. Why? Just look, again, at the polls: the majority of Arab people see the United States and Israel (definitely not Iran or Syria) as the greatest danger to the world. Could you imagine what the Arab people would do if true democracy (rule of the people) were to be victorious? Theyd side with Russia and China, not with the West. And theyd throw their elites groomed in and by the West, straight out the window. AB: Is it right today, to define Aleppo as the Stalingrad of Syria and the cemetery of the dreams of fascist Erdogan as stated by the Syrian President Assad? AV: Yes, it is like that, or at least, it is somewhere along those lines. Aleppo, Homs Yes. I wrote about it earlier, comparing Syria to Stalingrad. AB: What do you think will be the final scenario for Syria? It risks crystallization like the Cold War-style situation between the two blocks Damascus, Russia and regional allies, on the one hand, and Kurds with the United States on the other and Raqqa, which would become a new Berlin? AV: The Western planners are definitely trying to fragment the entire Middle East. They already have done, on several historical occasions. But this is a new chapter. They play with the Arab countries as if they were simply some milking cows. There is no regard for human lives, or local national interests. It is because the West, despite its hypocritical rhetoric (political correctness) does not really consider non-whites and non-Christians as human beings. You kill millions, so be it. You ruin 5 regional states; who cares? AB: What role, in your opinion, do the human rights NGOs play in the current international context? AV: Even that term, human rights, makes me ill. You have to really go back to Fanon and Sartre They said it all. Human rights are only for humans, therefore for the West. And for the rest of the Planet: there, the human rights are used to discredit uncomfortable, even hostile governments through countless implants like NGOs. Who talks about the real human rights violations, those committed by the West? Europeans and North Americans have already butchered hundreds of millions of people, or close to one billion, to be precise. They have been looting, torturing and raping. Even now, they are killing millions directly and tens of millions indirectly. But it does not count; because their victims are not white, therefore not human, and as a result, they dont really have any rights. AB: 14 years ago, the coup in Venezuela against the democratically elected President Hugo Chavez failed and began the US exit from Latin America. Shortly after, the US invaded Iraq. Today the hegemony in the eastern Mediterranean wobbles, and Washington uses all the weapons at its disposal to return to Latin America. Is, in your opinion, President Rafael Correa right when he says that we are facing a new Plan Condor in the region? AV: Definitely! Comrade Correa gets it right, most of the time. This is new, final offensive of the Empire in Latin America. I have just returned from Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay; it is absolutely horrible what is going on there. The Empire is trying to finish both BRICS and all the Latin American revolutions. AB: If that is the case, considering what has also happened in Brazil, Ecuador and Bolivia, which techniques are being used today? AV: The same as before, the same techniques, which have been used against, for instance, President Allende and Unidad Popular in Chile, before the 9-11-1973 US-orchestrated coup. The West is supporting, even financing the right-wing media, it is financing the opposition, encourages capital flight of billions of dollars, works closely with the local elites to create deficits, uncertainty and despair. It creates corruption scandals, and it even supports fake left anti-government movements. And, of course, it is training and corrupting some key military cadres. AB: The future of the world offers at the moment two possible paths: a US unilateralism, particularly in the event of Clintons presidency, made up of areas of free trade treaties around the world on the NAFTA model (such as the TTIP in Europe), with millions as the desperately poor products of them, profits only for multinationals, and the planned destruction of all countries who rebel against this vision (Libya and Syria style); or, the second possibility: a period of multilateralism, respect for sovereignty, self-determination and peace. If the alternative project to the Washington Consensus were to prevail, it would be that of the BRICS and regional integration in Latin America, designed and built by Chavez, Lula and Kirchner. And which of the two views will prevail in your opinion? AV: There will be great battles fought for the future of the world! The coming years will be very tough. In order for the second scenario to win, the world would have to return where the struggle for independence and against Western colonialism and imperialism was lost or abandoned more than 50 years ago. Lets face it: the world was never really completely de-colonized. It would be total hypocrisy to claim otherwise. One of the popular views in the liberal circles of the West is that we are actually all victims of capitalism. I disagree. This savage global capitalism is only one of the most terrible bi-products of the dominant Western culture of racism, greed, brutality and unbridled desire to control the world. The world is still being battered by the Western/white/Christian supremacy dogmas and practices, by the most primitive and fundamentalist principles. The truth has to be unveiled. If the West insists, if it keeps pushing, the battles have to be fought. And they will be fought. And the forces of internationalism, humanism and solidarity will have to be victorious, or soon there will be nothing left of the human race. This interview first appeared in the Italian language, published by LAntiDiplomatico Ale is an Italian activist, politician (5 Stelli) and chief editor of Anti-Diplomatico. Andre Vltchek is a philosopher, novelist, filmmaker and investigative journalist. He covered wars and conflicts in dozens of countries. His latest books are: Exposing Lies Of The Empire and Fighting Against Western Imperialism .Discussion with Noam Chomsky: On Western Terrorism . Point of No Return is his critically acclaimed political novel. Oceania a book on Western imperialism in the South Pacific. His provocative book about Indonesia: Indonesia The Archipelago of Fear . Andre is making films for teleSUR and Press TV. After living for many years in Latin America and Oceania, Vltchek presently resides and works in East Asia and the Middle East. He can be reached through his website or his Twitter . Movie sources have revealed that 15 year old Ghanaian actor, Abraham Attah will feature in the soon to be released Spiderman: Homecoming movie. Attah shot into the limelight after an astute portrayal of Agu, a child soldier in the Idris Elba co-produced movie, Beast of No Nation and earned himself the Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead and National Board of Review Award for Best Breakthrough Performance. It was his first major role and it appears hes set for even bigger things as he will join an already star studded cast which includes Martin Starr, Donald Glover, Logan Marshall-Green, Marisa Tomei, Robert Downey Jr., and Michael Keaton. The role hell play in the movie which is set for release in July 2017 has not yet been revealed. The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has raised the alarm over the possible assassination of Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose by the Presidency. Governor Fayose had on Monday accused the wife of the president, Aisha Buhari, of being indicted in the bribery scandal involving jailed U.S Congressman, William Jefferson. He also alleged that President Muhammadu Buhari was not squeaky clean as he portrays himself, claiming the president has a vast estate in Abuja, the nations capital. While the Presidency on Tuesday said it would have ordinarily ignored Fayose because he was a man childishly obsessed with the desire to grab the headlines and insulting people at will because of his incurably boorish instincts, Mrs. Buhari purportedly insulted the Ekiti governor, calling him a mad dog that isnt chained. Reacting to the outburst by the wife of the president, the opposition PDP in a series of tweets last night, claimed that the Ekiti governors security is no longer guaranteed following his exposure of Mrs. Buharis alleged corrupt dealings. Governor Fayose may have to take extra security measures to prevent Aisha Buhari or the 1st family from assassinating him. The Buhari led government with recent development can assassinate Fayose. From persecuting members of PDP, assassination may be next, said the PDP via its twitter handle @PdpNigeria. The Niger Delta Avengers, a militant group that has claimed responsibility for several attacks on oil and gas installations across Nigerias delta states, on Tuesday, denied agreeing a ceasefire deal with the Nigerian Government. This is just as another militant group, Niger Delta Red Squad (NDRS), has surfaced in Imo State. In a tweet yesterday, the Avengers denied reports of a one-month ceasefire deal with the government. The NDA High Command never remember (sic) having any agreement on ceasefire with the Nigeria Government, the group said on its Twitter page. This is the second time in less than two weeks the group, which has vowed to reduce Nigerias production level to zero, would be denying truce with the government. Meanwhile, the new militant group in Imo State, which claimed bombing of two pipelines belonging to Elf Oil Company at Awara, Ohaji Egbema Local Government Area, also threatened to attack Shell pipelines in Oguta Local Government Area and shut down all oil wells in the state. The group, in a Facebook post on its wall, boasted that it has what it takes to carry out the threat. The NDRS warned that until the oil producing areas in the state were given what rightfully belongs to them, there would be no peace for oil companies to operate in the state. It, therefore, warned oil companies to evacuate their workers with immediate effect. Our correspondent reports that the threat by the NDRS is coming less than two weeks after members of the State House of Assembly queried the exclusion of Imo from Federal Governments proposed dialogue with oil producing states in Niger Delta to quell the current hostilities by the Avengers. The lawmakers, during plenary marking the beginning of the new legislative year, argued that the state had been deliberately sidelined by the facilitators of the dialogue because of its youths disposition to peace. They expressed worry that the exclusion might trigger militancy similar to what was happening in other Niger Delta states. After two months of endless wait for his return, residents of Otukpa community have discovered the decaying body of the kidnapped General of Catholic Diocese of Otukpo, Rev. Father John Adeyi. Adeyi was kidnapped on his way to Otukpo, from his country home, Otukpa, Benue state where he has gone to settle a case in the local church. His body was found in Otukpa on Wednesday morning. Source: Idoma Voice The controversial National Grazing Reserve Agency Bill pending in the House of Representatives, has landed in the Senate. The bill was introduced in the upper legislative chamber on Wednesday alongside another controversial bill the National Ranches Commission Bill. Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso (APC/Kano Central) and others are listed as sponsors of the National Grazing Reserve Agency Bill entitled: National Grazing Reserves Agency (establishment etc) Bill 2016 (SB.292), while the National Ranches Commission (establishment etc) Bill 2016 (SB 293), had Senator Barnabas Gemade (APC/Benue North East) as its sponsor. Both bills scaled the mandatory first reading on the floor of the Senate today. Deputy Senate Leader, Senator Bala Ibn NaAllah (APC/Kebbi South), who read the general principles of the bills said, do we take it that the bills have passed second reading? to which senators responded with a deafening No, not at all. The National Grazing Reserve Agency Bill pending in the House of Representatives has been criticized by a cross-section of Nigerians as a ploy by the Federal Government to grab and seize land from their original owners and give same to cattle rearers. An attempt by former Senator Zainab Kure from Niger State to get the bill passed, failed in the sixth Senate when it was introduced. The government at a recent public hearing organized by the Senate made a case for the establishment of grazing reserves as a panacea to the deadly conflicts between farmers and herders. While some states have proposed establishment of ranches, the herders, under the aegis of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, MACBAN, have insisted that it is either grazing reserves or nothing. MACBAN argued that establishment of grazing reserves in parts of the country is the only solution to farmers and herdsmen clashes. The Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, has asked Chief Medical Directors and Medical Directors of Federal Tertiary health institutions across the country to disregard a circular directing them to fill the vacancies created by resident doctors, who were on strike. Adewole, in the circular signed and issued Tuesday in Abuja by Amina Shamaki, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, said resident doctors had voluntarily withdrawn from the residency training programme by refusing to report for training without authorization, a clear violation of public service rules. The circular directed management of the health institutions to replace all such doctors, about 16,000 of them, with others from pool of applicants for the training programmes. The striking doctors under the aegis of National Association of Resident Doctors, NARD, were protesting the sack of some of their colleagues, working conditions, unpaid salaries, non-payment of skipping entitlement, among others. Representatives of the NARD, led by its national president, Dr. Muhammad Askira, were reportedly in a meeting brokered by Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, with representatives of the Ministry of Health, when the circular containing their sack was issued. However, following a successful outcome of the five-hour meeting, the federal government agreed to implement the resolutions reached with the resident doctors. Prof. Adewole said, We will do everything humanly possible to implement all the decisions arrived at in this meeting including the fact the circular sacking Resident doctors be ignored by all the parties concerned. The meeting is to reconvene in three weeks to review progress on the resolutions. The Federal Ministry of Education will convene a meeting with vice-chancellors, admission officers, and other stakeholders to discuss processes for the post-Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME). Dr Folashade Yemi-Esan, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education made this known while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Abuja. According to her, the meeting will hold next week. The Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, had recently scrapped the post-UTME test As far as I am concerned, if the nation has confidence in what JAMB is doing, the universities should not be holding another examination. If the universities have any complain against JAMB, let them bring it and then we address it. But if JAMB is qualified enough to conduct tests and they have conducted test, then there will be no need to conduct another test for students to gain admission, Adamu had said. According to Mrs Yemi-Esan, the minister had made a pronouncement which should be complied with. The responsibility is now on us to give them guidelines and modalities on how to go about what the honourable minister has said. There is no written directive but all the stakeholders were at that meeting where the minster said it openly. There is going to be a meeting of the all the vice-chancellors and admission officers sometime next week to work our modalities, she said. According to Saharareporters, the former Minister of State, Federal Capital Territory (FCT) under Goodluck Jonathans administration, Oloye Jumoke Akinjide, is currently on the run. The former minister has allegedly absconded after being implicated in a N650 million fraud involving the Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and one Senator Ayo Ademola Adeseun. According to a highly placed source in the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Akinjide and cohorts fraudulently received the sum of N650 million which they converted to their personal use and the use of others. The money was allegedly routed through a new generation commercial bank and disbursed to some politicians for the purpose of facilitating former president, Goodluck Jonathans victory at the March 28 presidential election. But soon after the EFCC commenced investigation into the fraud, Akinjide reportedly took to her heels. The former minister got jittery when the anti-graft agency obtained an interim order from the Lagos State Magistrate Court, Ikeja District, to remand one of the culprits, Yinka Taiwo, in its custody for the next 30 days. The detention order will enable operatives of the Commission progress with investigations and prevent any interference in the alleged illegal disbursement of monies running into billions of Naira belonging to the Federal Government of Nigeria. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Governors Forum has described the freezing of the personal accounts of Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) as gross abuse of the constitution. Speaking through its Chairman and Ondo State Governor, Dr Olusegun Mimiko, the forum called on President Muhammadu Buhari to call the anti-graft agency to order. Mimiko said EFCC cannot interfere with the account of a sitting governor, adding that, it was contrary to Section 308 of the 1999 Constitution. In a statement, the PDP Governors Forum chairman argued that if the intention is to suggest any criminal infraction or fraud against the governor, the agency should have sheathe its sword till he (Fayose) vacates office. Mimiko warned that the country is drifting towards totalitarianism, insisting that the account of any individual could only be frozen after a court of competent jurisdiction has so ruled or an interim order by a court of competent jurisdiction is granted to the anti graft agency. Former Military President, General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, (retd), has promised to continue to advise both the federal and state governments where necessary to move the country forward. I am ready and willing to continuously offer beneficial advice to the federal and state governments, Babangida said in Minna, yesterday when he received the Chairman and members of the Niger State Working Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) led by state chairman of PDP, Tanko Beji. I am committed to the Project Nigeria because I have no other country that I can call my own, he said. He solicited the support of all Nigerians for governments at all levels, as he noted that without our support the governments cannot achieve their plans for the states and the nation. Speaking earlier, Beji prayed that God grants Babangida sound health to serve the state and nation longer. He urged him not to relent in his advisory role as the younger generation is happy to be tapping from your wealth of experience. Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State has disclosed that workers in the state have been receiving their salaries in the last five years despite the Boko Haram insurgency and current economic realities in the country. SEE ALSO: Atiku Abubakar Commends Gov. Shettima He said the state was able to prioritize workers welfare in the last five years, despite suffering immense losses as a result of the insurgency. Gov. Shettima, who former Vice President Atiku Abubakar recently said could have been the best governor in the country but for the Boko Haram insurgency, spoke when he hosted members of the Borno Elders Forum and the Business Community in the State for Ramadan Iftar, at the Government House. Opening up on the challenges of providing N2.6billion monthly to pay workers salaries, seeing to the welfare of internally displaced persons and carrying out reconstruction of infrastructure destroyed by Boko Haram in the last five years, the governor said it was a rare feat. Ordinarily, I dont consider payment of salaries as achievement because salaries are debts, people worked and should be paid. However, in todays Nigeria, payment of salaries has become rare and this makes it an achievement especially for a state like Borno that which has been battling with serious security challenges and spending billions over that. Well, we have sustained payment of salaries for an economic reason. It is elementary knowledge that salaries of workers mostly stimulate local economies especially in a situation where export is cut and there is gross decline in the number of persons coming into the State not to talk of doing business. We made it a duty to inject funds into the system through prompt payment of salaries by 25th of every month even while we were dealing with serious crisis of rebuilding communities from 2011 to date. We had to pay salaries because workers were at a point the only buyers of commodities, traders relied on salaries for the economy to be active. We had to consistently inject N2.6 billion for salaries of workers every month and that money circulated around markets. The money was what was going in circles from markets to the transport system, to the banking sector and to payment of other services. It was the salaries that held Bornos local economy because nothing was happening before 2015, our exporters couldnt go anywhere, whatever our traders brought in could only be bought when money circulated and salaries ensured that circulation, the governor said. Mr. Shettima further stated that there were times the state had to top as much as N700 million on the monthly revenue from the Federation Account of N1.9b to pay salaries. After a meeting with the Federal Government ended in a deadlock, The Joint Health Sector Unions has directed its members to embark on a 7-day warning strike action starting on Thursday June 23. Nigerias Resident Doctors also began a warning strike on Monday over unpaid salaries and allowances. In a letter dated June and signed by its executives, JOHESU appealed for the general public understanding. The letter reads: JOINT HEALTH SECTOR UNIONS & ASSEMBLY OF HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONALS A COMMUNIQUE ISSUED AT THE END OF THE MEETING BETWEEN THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AND JOHESU HELD ON TUESDAY 21st OF JUNE 2016 IN THE CONFERENCE HALL OF THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR LABOUR, FEDERAL SECRETARIAT, ABUJA Following repeated ultimatums totalling 92 days issued to the Federal Government by JOHESU, a meeting was called for Monday 20th of June, 2016 at the instance of the Federal Government at the Conference room of the Hon. Minister of Labour and Employment with a view to resolving the issues in dispute. However, the Federal Government was not prepared for the meeting and therefore pleaded that the meeting be shifted to Tuesday 21st June, 2016 at 9.00am. At the rescheduled meeting of Tuesday 21st` June, 2016, it was observed that despite the series of meetings earlier held with committees and subcommittees set up to look into the various issues presented by JOHESU and agreements reached, to our utmost surprise the Federal Government asserted that there was no agreement on the issues upon which the erstwhile Secretary to the Federal Government set up a sub-committee, the report of which was accepted by the Federal Government and another sub-committee set up to workout the financial implication, to be submitted to the Federal Government for approval. Other issues upon which previous submissions had been made were equally pushed to the unions to make fresh submission showing lack of seriousness on the part of the Federal Government. Having consulted widely with members nationwide and having shown consistent understanding since February 2015, the leadership of JOHESU hereby directs that all members in Federal Tertiary Health Institutions should proceed on a 7-day WARNING STRIKE from 12.01am of Wednesday 22nd of June, 2016. We hereby appeal to the general public to please bear with us and impress it on the Federal Government to meet the demands of the unions to prevent the warning strike from becoming a full blown indefinite strike. President Muhammadu Buhari has said that anyone who survived the Nigerian Civil War, which lasted three years, will never advocate for another war in the country. He stated this on Tuesday night while breaking fast with members of the Federal Executive Council (FEC), mainly his Ministers, at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja. The Nigerian Civil War, which lasted for two-and-half years, was a war fought by federal troops to counter the secession of Biafra (old eastern region) from the rest of Nigeria. An estimated two million civilians, mostly women and children, died from diseases and starvation as a result of the bloody conflict. Buhari, who fought the war on the Nigerian side, said Nigeria is a (sic) one united nation, which can never be divided by anybodys selfish interest. He, therefore, urged his Ministers and indeed, Nigerians at large to pray for the peace and continued unity of the country. The president noted the month of Ramadan as a special time when God listens and answers prayers of the faithful. He said: It strengthens our resolve to build our country to make it stronger and to make sure that the incoming generations are sufficiently motivated to be patriotic. It is no news that we are the biggest country in Africa, we are the economy engine of Africa, which are true by the way. But, we must always be patriotic in our dealings with others. This (Ramadan) month of prayers and service to God, let us keep on these prayers all the times, believing that God in His infinite mercy will listen to our prayers, give us peace, security and better the economy once more, so that we can quickly rebuild and even do more for the country. Let me assure that the time of Ramadan is making us more conscious of what leaders at every level ought to do, and leading the people is not a joke. It means accepting responsibilities for good or wrong, he said. The president further recalled the economic challenges and the agitations for the sovereign state of Biafra. We need a lot of prayer. Certainly, with the nations economy going down. We havent developed the agriculture; we are still trying to talk on those who will come and develop the solid mineral for us. The militants in their various homes, we need to reflect very seriously on what happened between 1967 and 1970 where about two million Nigerians lost their lives. And at that time, as young military officers, you hardly heard of anything about petroleum or whatever money you got from it. Look at what Gen. Gowon said; To keep Nigeria one is a task that must be done and every soldier whether he has been to school or not, knew what the General meant. But, we were quarreling with our brothers, we were not fighting an enemy and then somebody is saying that once again he wants Biafra. I think this is because he was not born when there was Biafra. We have to reflect on the historical antecedent to appreciate what is before us now and what we intend to leave for our children and our grand-children, Buhari counseled. President Buhari also thanked the ministers and other members of the cabinet who have identified with his government despite all odds. Speaking on behalf of the FEC members, Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo expressed gratitude to the president for inviting them to break the fast with him. The former running mate to late Prince Abubakar Audu, in the November 21, 2015 governorship election in Kogi State, James Faleke, has appealed the Election Petition Tribunals verdict that affirmed Yahaya Bello as governor. In a 35 grounds submission filed at the Court of Appeal, Abuja, by his lawyer, Wole Olanipekun (SAN), Faleke is challenging the tribunals decision, except the part of the preliminary objection resolved in his favour. He is praying for an order setting aside the judgment delivered on June 6, and an order granting all the reliefs sought in the petition. According to him, the tribunal erred in law by refusing to grant his reliefs, particularly an order directing him to be sworn in as governor for the reason that there was no declaration made after the election. He said: One of the major reasons why the appellant instituted the petition at the lower tribunal was the failure of the first respondent (Independent National Electoral Commission) to make a declaration and return from the election of 21st November, 2015. The lower tribunal failed to consider whether there was any constitutional justification for the failure of the first respondent to make a return from the election. It failed to consider whether there was any constitutional basis for the declaration of the November 21, 2015 election as inconclusive. It merely based its decision in refusing the appellants claims on the failure of the first respondent to perform its statutory duty, he said. The appellant further argued that the tribunal was wrong to hold that he does not have the locus standi to present the petition before it. Faleke, who is the member representing Ikeja Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, said the reason given by INEC for declaring the election as inconclusive on November 22, 2015 was that the margin of win between the joint ticket of Audu and appellant and the Wada/Awoniyi ticket, which was 41,353 votes, was less than the total number of registered voters in the 91 polling units were the electoral umpire decreed a supplementary election to hold. Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) Idris Ibrahim Kpotun on Wednesday formally assumed office as the Acting Inspector General of Police in a ceremony held at the Force Headquarters, Abuja. AIG Kpotun was appointed Acting IGP by President Muhammadu Buhari following the retirement of Solomon Arase after attaining the mandatory retirement age of 60 on Tuesday. Kpotun, who was in charge of operations at the Force Headquarters until his elevation to the foremost police job in the country, assumed office in a symbolic hand over to him by his predecessor in office, Mr. Arase. In his brief remarks, the Acting IGP pledged to operate with what he called the principle of democratic policing. The Lagos State University is rewarding the top performing students at the institution. 160 students have received a totl of N4 million as reward for attaining a Cumulative Grade Point Average of 4.50 and above during the 2015/2016 academic session. The students received N25,000 each as the Vice Chancellor Prof. Olanrewaju Fagbohun urged them not to grow complacent; We are proud of you, but you must work harder to sustain the grade. Do not relent in your efforts because you were celebrated today. Of the 160 students, 35 were from College of Medicine, another 35 from Faculty of Management Sciences, 32 from Faculty of Social Sciences and 34 from Faculty of Science. Thirteen students were from the Faculty of Education, nine from Faculty of Engineering and two from Faculty of Arts. The National Association of Resident Doctors which embarked on a strike action on Tuesday has announced the suspension of the strike action. SEE ALSO: JOHESU Commences Nationwide Strike The suspension is as a result of a planned meeting with stakeholders in the health sector after a first round of meeting chaired by the Speaker of the House of Representatives. Another round of meetings has been scheduled for July 14. A consolidated group of militants, Joint Niger Delta Liberation Force (JNDLF), has alerted President Muhammadu Buhari to alleged schemes by top military officers to overthrow him in a coup detat. The militant group, which about two weeks ago threatened to launch six missiles targeted at the Presidential Villa, Abuja and other national assets, said yesterday that persons behind the coup plot were planning to instigate civil unrest in the Niger Delta as part of their strategies to topple the Buhari administration. The JNDLF made the weighty allegation in an electronic statement on Tuesday. The statement said already the top military officers involved in the unholy plot approached its leaders with an appeal to continue bombing oil installations in the region, which they would later use as grounds for their takeover of the government. The statement was signed by persons who identified themselves as General Torunanaowei Latei (Creek Network Coordinator); General Agbakakuro Owei-Tauro (Pipeline Bleeding Expert); General Akotebe Darikoro (Commander, General Duties) and General Pulokiri Ebikade (Intelligence Bureau). The group said: We are constraint to let the cat out of the bag today that President Muhammadu Buhari should be wary about the security of this country as some military men are making move to remove him from power by instigating civil unrest in the country. Some top military men through their civil agents approached us to cause and continue the vandalization of the oil and gas pipelines in the Niger delta region so as to use as an excuse to take over the government from democracy to military rule in the country. We said no as such plan will not work and not in conformity with our genuine desire of agitation. The military want to disgrace him now and let him quickly look into the issues and make pronouncement for his administration to be in peace. The president should analyze certain memo from the military concerning Niger delta region before taking action or otherwise the military will use that as a platform to remove him. We know the issue of Niger delta is political and we preferred political solution to resolve it but the president refused. The group further advised President Buhari to adopt holistic approach in resolving the problems of the Niger Delta. It also listed the ongoing probes of arms procurement in the Nigerian Armed Forces by the Buhari administration as one of the reasons why like minds had gathered to plot the removal of the president, stressing that most officers behind the purported coup plot were above the ranks of major-generals. We received several calls unknown to persuade us to continue the bombing and that when succeeded in overthrowing the government we will be placed on a better position, we said capital NO! When asked of their names, they are above Major Generals level. They refused to disclose their names but their intonations seem like Yoruba and Hausa. Our agitation is not for selfish interest but for the overall benefit of the Niger delta region. Well not kidnap any person, kill or hostage taking of any expatriate in the country but will continue our agitation with clear determination to actualize our course in Nigeria. We believe their sinister plan because there is ceasefire in the region for dialogue, but since then the attitude and actions of the service chiefs show that such plan could [not] work for them, it said. The group also accused the military of invading Ijaw communities in the Niger Delta, harassing, chiefs and women during the period of ceasefire. It further reiterated its demands for a cessation of hostilities, which include the immediate release of the former National Security Adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd.) and IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu. Others are directing the EFCC to defreeze the bank accounts of ex-militant leader, Government Ekpemupolo, a.k.a. Tompolo; resuming the academic sessions of the only Nigerian Maritime University sited in Okerenkoko, Delta State and immediate implementation of the report of the 2014 National Conference report. They also asked the president to clean up all the oil-polluted land in the region and to remove Brigadier General Paul Boroh (rtd.) as Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme. According to the JNDLF, Boroh should be replaced with Dr. Felix Tuodolo, who it said had been in the struggle of non-violence since 1980 and the originator of the Amnesty Programme. A new militant group called the Red Scorpion, based in Imo state, has claimed responsibility for blowing up two pipelines belonging to Elf Oil Company in Awara in Ohaji Egbema Council Area of Imo State. This admission comes as the militant group had threatened to blow up the Shell Pipelines in Oguta. The group in a post on their Facebook account yesterday, said that their threat should not be taken as an empty one as they have the capability to carry it out, warning that until the oil producing areas in the state are given their due, the oil companies operating in the areas will know no peace. Meanwhile, some of the ex-militants from the area, who confirmed the existence of the new group, said that they were not part of the renewed spate of militancy. According to one of them, who preferred anonymity, people are angry and blowing up pipelines is no longer news Source: Sun News The desperation of some youths to get a job in Nigeria may land them in jail. Nineteen persons seeking enlistment into the Police Force in the ongoing nationwide recruitment have been arrested for being in possession of fake results, the Adamawa State Command said. Public Relations Officer, Mr. Othman Abubakar, made this known to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Yola. According to him, the suspects have been charged to court. We have arrested 19 of them for result falsification and they have been charged to court, he said. He, therefore, warned persons trying to use fake results to join the force to desist from doing so. The police are not a dumping ground and anyone who tries to play smart will face the music, Abubakar said. The Senate on Wednesday suspended the confirmation of the 47 ambassadorial nominees forwarded to it by President Muhammadu Buhari last week. The Senate took the decision following complaints that some states were not represented in the list forwarded to it by the president. Majority of the senators, who spoke during plenary, were aghast that such an important list of career diplomats, which ordinarily should reflect federal character but did not, could be sent by the executive for confirmation. In his contribution, Senator Sunday Ogbuoji (PDP/Ebonyi South) claimed that the list had Assistant Directors while Directors, who were qualified, were left out. Also speaking, Senator Shehu Sani (APC/Kaduna Central), said that many states have complained that they have no representative in the ministerial list. At the plenary, Senate President Bukola Saraki revealed that his office has been inundated with petitions regarding those states that were not captured in the list, noting that the situation had put him under pressure. Saraki stressed that the suspension was to enable states that were not represented on the list to be given their own opportunity before screening begins. He said, Distinguished Colleagues, in the last two weeks, after the submission of the ambassadorial list, there have been petitions from various quarters bothering on why some states like Bayelsa, and Taraba were omitted. Senator Foster Ogola (PDP/Bayelsa West), explained that the omission of an indigene of Bayelsa State from the list was an insult to his reputation as it has been mistaken by his constituents to mean that he was not representing them well. While wondering why Bayelsa, a state that generates 40 per cent of the nations revenue could be treated in such manner, Senator Ogola urged the Senate to step down the proposed screening until the anomaly was rectified. Mr. Senate President, Distinguished Colleagues, let the proposed screening be stepped down until the Foreign Affairs Ministry has captured Bayelsa and other states before we do anything. How can Bayelsa State that generates 40% of the nations oil revenue be left out? the senator fumed. In the same vein, Senator Emmanuel Bwacha (PDP/Taraba South) expressed disappointment that Taraba was completely left out, insisting that the right thing must be done before the screening commences. Bwacha also averred that there was no need for batch by batch screening. Upholding the step down of the screening, Senate President Saraki in his remarks after putting to prayers, also referred to the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs to report back in a weeks time. Senate also voted in favour of the motion by Senator Joshua Dariye (PDP/Plateau Central) that the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama be summoned to explain the irregularities surrounding the Ambassadorial nominees List. A policeman who emitted a loud screeching sound while running from a snake in South Africa has become an internet sensation after viewers found it hilarious. Footage of the spectacle, which climaxes with the policeman running and screaming, has been uploaded to YouTube after the mans colleagues apparently filmed the incident, and it has now been viewed tens of thousands of times. The 39-second clip shows the South African policeman releasing his dog on the edge of a wood. It is unclear what the man thinks the dog is supposed to be trying to find. When the policeman catches up with the dog, he suddenly emits a high pitched shriek and a stream of words as he sprints back towards his fellow officers, some of whom are laughing in a manner suggesting they knew what was coming. The dog had reportedly found a snake. Watch the video below. Source: Independent The Vice chancellor of the University of Ilorin, Professor Abdulganiyu Ambali has blamed the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Osun state chapter, for the recent religious crisis in the state. According to him, a court h=judgement had allowed Muslim students to wear Hijab to school; CAN should have appealed the judgement in court instead of resulting to self-help. Speaking on Wednesday at the opening ceremony of the conference on Law and Religion held in the university auditorium, he warned that it was unacceptable to use antics of religion to violate the law. Rather than appeal the judgement and use the law, the Christian Association of Nigeria (Osun state chapter) resorted to self help saying Muslim girls cannot wear hijab in public/christian schools. CAN directed pupils to go to school in their choir gowns and thereby violate the approved school uniforms. There was tension that has now simmered as harmonious co-existence and healthy development became threatened by the antics of using Religion to violate law when law was seen to be consistent with religion. However, when religion appears to be a tool in the hands of lawless men,harmonious co-existence is undermined and development is compromised, he stressed. Professor Ambali, therefore, urged Nigerians to stay away from religious crisis in any form because it compromises development. The protracted impasse between workers and governors in the six South-West states over unpaid salaries has led the leadership of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) in the region to seek the intervention of former President Olusegun Obasanjo. SEE ALSO: Strike Continues In Ekiti As Labor Meeting With Government Ends In Deadlock The union leaders on Tuesday met with Chief Obasanjo behind closed-doors at his hilltop mansion in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital for over an hour. The unions delegation was led by the South West Coordinator of TUC, Olubunmi Fajobi. Speaking with reporters after the meeting, Mr. Fajobi, who doubles as the TUC Chairman in Ogun State, said they decided to seek the intervention of the former president over the lingering issue of their unpaid salaries since they were convinced he was the only person that commanded greater respect of the governors involved. He said some issues the congress tabled before Mr. Obasanjo during the meeting included the continued non-payment of workers salaries running into about 13 months, unremitted contributory pensions deductions running to 19 months as well as the unremitted cooperative deductions from the workers salaries covering the same period, among others. The labour leader stressed that the meeting became necessary considering that the former Nigerian leader experienced similar situations in the past and was in best position to intervene on the matter. As labour leaders, we are particularly disturbed about the issue of unpaid salaries in our states and we believe the sweat of our workers must not be allowed in vain. We know that Obasanjo has the ears of these governors. That is why we are seeking his assistance to intervene in the matter, Fajobi said. On the threat by some governors in the region to invoke the no-work-no-pay rule, the labour leader faulted their tough stance, saying such was against the rules of fair play in labour engagement. Present at the meeting with the former president were: Comrade Akinyemi Olatunji (Osun), Francis Ogunremi (Lagos), Andrew Emelieze (Oyo), Clement Fatunase (Ondo Secretary), Adebisi Adebayo (Ekiti Secretary), Gbenga Ekundayo (Lagos), Bola Fajulugbe (Ekiti Women Leader) and Olaniyi Okewole (Ogun Secretary). The Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose said in a statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Idowu Adelusi, that his 2014 election was funded by Zenith Bank Plc, fund raisers, donations from friends and associates. His statement was in response to a Tuesdays decision by the EFCC to to freeze his account pending investigation. The EFCC alleged that Governor Fayose had received illegal election funds from the office of the National Security Adviser. In somewhat shocking circumstances, sources close to INFORMATION NIGERIA have denied the Governors claims. Our sources say that Fayose wanted Zenith bank to conceal NSA funds but they couldnt. Zenith Bank was said to have handed EFCC all documents required to nail the Ekiti state governor. SEE ALSO: Fayose, Obanikoro Received N4.7b Arms Cash For Ekiti Fayose has also been challenged by the bank to publish his bank statements for all his 3 accounts at the bank so the public could see them. SEE ALSO: Zenith Bank Funded My Election Fayose As at the time of the report, Governor Fayose had not responded to the fresh allegations. If youve never travelled by road to Abuja, I think you should give it a try. The feeling is absolutely cathartic! It is the third day of the #C9ja tour and getting to Nigerias capital city was a grueling 10 hours ride-not to mention the plenty security checks but we made! Our mission: to hunt down Abujas exhilarating sites and capture them in powerful detail So, we figured starting our photography race with Abujas popular landmarks wouldnt be a totally bad way to tackle our Day three mission- my CAMON C9, please. You cant miss those striking minarets of the National mosque! I trusted my TECNO CAMON C9 to bring Abujas many exhilarating sites alive through its powerful camera technology and it didnt disappoint. About the CAMON C9 camera specs, its not all the time you find a budget camera phone flaunt Dual 13.0MP front/back low-light cameras which shoot 83 wider angle shots plus first-of-it-kind 120 panoramic camera presets on both the front and back cameras. I will spare you CAMON C9 reviews for now; just do your research- you can start here if that will help. The architecture gets to you at first glance! Anyways, back to the adventure. Our next stop was the National cathedral Abuja and you wont believe this shot was taken while in motion-it no hype the camera preset on CAMON C9 is fantastic! Fill up the fuel tank and to Gurara falls we go We figured adding a bit of nature and color to our photography will give it richness and a broader scope, so we headed for the border. To Niger state we go! It was a fifty minutes drive to the land of the Gurara falls and we could hear waters tumbling down rocks in crashing symphony. Gurara falls beckons us IT IS SO BEAUTIFUL You really need to see it! You can totally lose yourself to this idyllic world All shots taken with TECNO CAMON C9 Dual 13.0MP Front/ Back cameras with 83 wide angle shots, 120 panoramic preset on both front and back cameras. 2GBRAM/32GBROM expandable to 128GB Abuja conquered; we set out for the city of coal Enugu here we come For the past five months, there has been a crescendo of complaints about slow Windows 7 scans. The check for Windows updates -- a simple process that should take a few minutes -- has ballooned to two, three, four, eight, or more hours for many (I'm tempted to say most) Win7 customers. Microsoft claims to have finally solved the problem with speedup patch KB 3161647, but there are a couple of gotchas. The monthly Win7 patch whack-a-mole has been reaching Keystone Kops proportions. In April, poster EP on AskWoody.com discovered that installing two completely unrelated patches -- KB 3138612 and KB 3145739 -- could reduce Win7 update scan times from hours down to minutes. In May, EP found that installing a totally different patch, KB 3153199, also did the trick. In June, the magic bullet came from KB 3161664. All of these solutions had one thing in common: they involved replacing win32k.sys. Apart from that, they seemed to be completely random. A German site, wu.krelay.de, issued new speed-up advisories for March, April, May, and June, all with intricate tables of the downloads that could shave hours off Win7 update tasks. Every month there were different patches. But what really got my goat: Those hours-long waits generally involved the computer just sitting there. There was little activity over the internet, almost no activity on the PC, while "check for updates" kept checking and checking and checking. Millions of people were sitting, hour upon hour, waiting for Microsoft's servers in the sky to get their act together. Of course, conspiracy theorists took this as one more sign that Microsoft doesn't give a rat's patootie about Windows 7 users. There aren't many companies that would treat half their installed user base to such an experience. Here are the two gotchas with Microsoft's official fix: First, you have to install last year's servicing stack update, KB 3020369, before you can install the speedup patch. Microsoft doesn't document that anywhere, but various reports indicate that you need it installed. Note that there were problems with KB 3020369 triggering a "Stage 3 of 3" hang. There's a description and a workaround in my post from a year ago. Second, Microsoft doesn't have a download for the Win7 scan fix by itself. The only way you can get KB 3161647 is by installing the update rollup KB 3161608. KB 3161647 contains the "fix for a Windows Update error 0x8007000E on some computers while they are updating" as well as "some reliability improvements." The update rollup KB 3161608 includes four fixes that are completely unrelated. Confused yet? This means Windows 7 users must install six unrelated patches in order to get Microsoft's Win7 updating mess untangled -- seven unrelated patches, if you include KB 3020369. If one of those seven patches isn't to your liking, sorry bucko, you're relegated to the eight-hour-wait list. KB 3161608 is only starting to roll out to Win7 users, so if you haven't seen it yet, be patient. As best I can tell, there's no analogous patch for Vista customers. It's still too early to tell if this is a permanent fix, and won't really know if Microsoft actually fixed the problem until July. Do the math. Half a billion PCs times two or three or four lost hours per machine -- and this from your favorite productivity company. Is it any wonder people are turning off automatic updates? Many thanks to EP, NC, ch100, and other sleuths on the AskWoody.com fora. For Flint Water, Michigan Sues Veolia, UN Global Compact Member Like G4S By Matthew Russell Lee UNITED NATIONS, June 22 -- The killer in Orlando, Omar Mateen, worked since 2007 at private military contractor G4S. A co-worker there is quoted that it was quite apparent that the guy had anger issues and was very unstable -- but G4S kept him on. G4S is a member of the UN Global Compact, and when Inner City Press first asked the UN why this mercenary firm was a member, the response was the business is not illegal. How about, irresponsible? On June 22, as a Global Compact event with Ban Ki-moon took place in the General Assembly Hall, Michigan's Attorney General sued, for misdeed with respect to Flint's water, the French firm Veolia. Inner City Press has previously covered the UN giving Veolia the contract for Syria chemical weapons - and, Veolia is a member of the UN Global Compact. Will there be an inquiry, given Flint? On June 21, Inner City Press asked Lise Kingo, Executive Director of the Global Compact, about G4S and for any companies which had been urged to leave the Compact. On the latter, Kingo said that Volkswagen has been asked to leave the Compact, at least for now. This hasn't happened with G4S; it is being "investigated," Kingo said, as to its procedures for hiring, for example. Inner City Press asked about the Ng Lap Seng iPad the Global Compact network representative at the Macau meeting in 2015 refused to return. Kingo said it now HAS been returned. Inner City Press asked, to whom? Ng Lap Seng is under house arrest. A Compact staffer approached to say the proceeds were given to charity and that a receipt would be forthcoming. On June 22, here it is: photo. On June 14, Inner City Press asked Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Stephane Dujarric, UN transcript here: Inner City Press: the shootings in Orlando, the the shooter, or Omar Mateen, was an employee of this G4S, which is a security or private military contractor. And it's come up before in this room, because somehow it's a member of the Global Compact, even though there are many controversies surrounding its actions. It was said The Wall Street Journal quoted one of his co-workers as saying he had anger issues and was very unstable. I'm just wondering if there are any what's the procedure for the UN Global Compact, number one, allowing in a company that's basically a mercenary or private military contractor, but, two, when it becomes clear that they're providing automatic weapons to somebody who is described as having? Spokesman Dujarric: Okay. I think we're jumping to conclusions here. First of all, I know our colleagues at Global Compact are as saddened and heart-broken as we are all about what happened in Florida. Whenever concerns are raised about a company, such as the one you mentioned, contacts are had, and they are having there are being they are monitoring the investigation at this point, and they will monitor and decide whether or not appropriate action should be taken with G4S' place in the Global Compact. Inner City Press: And is there any just relatedly, on the Global Compact, are there any Ng Lap Seng-affiliated or funded companies that remain at one time, the World Harmony Foundation was in? Spokesman: Not that I'm aware of, but that's a question you need to ask them. The UN Global Compact allows companies to claim affiliation with the United Nations as long as their practices are not illegal -- and even then, the Global Compact put on its board of directors a South Korean businessman convicted of fraud with the SK Group, Chey Tae-won. On March 15, Inner City Press asked UN spokesman Martin Nesirky if Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has any problem with his Global Compact allowing the company G4S to join, despite it being a private military contractors which has even supplied security technology to seven Israeli prisons and two remand prisons located in Israel and on the occupied West Bank. Nesirky's response was to say that Ban has confidence in long time Global Compact director Georg Kell. But G4S reportedly faced prosecution for the death of an Angolan deportee in the UK - click here for that. Subsequently, Kell's and the Compact's spokesman Matthias Stausberg sent Inner City Press a previously put out response to criticism of the Compact by the UN's own Joint Inspection Unit. Inner City Press replied: At the noon briefing I asked about the Global Compact accepting private military contractor G4S into the Compact, despite protests about its involvement in, for example, prisons in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. This is what I am requesting a Secretariat response on, for example this link. Please advise, thank in advance. Stausberg asked for more time to respond -- therefore this couldn't be included in the initial story -- and subsequently on this point wrote to Inner City Press that the provision of private security services is not an illegal activity. We therefore saw no reason to deny G4S participation in the UN Global Compact. In fairness, Stausberg's full response, praising and defending G4S, is set forth below. While he raises a question about the term mercenaries, we note that private military contractors, and even forms of mercenaries, are not illegal either. Here is the question: should the only standard applied by and to the UN Global Compact be whether an activity is legal? Manufacturing weapons is legal, as is the production of pornography. Would the UN Global Compact allow pornographers and weapons merchants to join? Apparently yes. In any event, as to G4S, note that Scotland Yard is considering bringing a corporate manslaughter charge [under the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007] against the world's largest private security firm over the death of an Angolan deportee. Detectives investigating the death of Jimmy Mubenga, who collapsed while being deported on a commercial flight from Heathrow, have interviewed whistleblowers from G4S, the company hired by the government to deport foreign nationals. They are considering whether the company could be held responsible for his death under rarely used legislation that came into force three years ago. Now what will the UN and Global Compact do? Watch this site. Stausberg wrote: Subject: Press Q at noon re Global Compact accepting private military contractor G4S into the Compact From: Matthias Stausberg [at] un.org To: Matthew Lee [at] InnerCityPress.org Cc: Kristen Coco [at] un.org, Farhan Haq [at] un.org, Martin Nesirky [at] un.org, Ursula Wynhoven [at] un.org Hi Matthew, here are some answers for you: Since you use the term "mercenary", can you please clarify (and provide sources) which current G4S activities you believe would qualify under commonly accepted definitions of the term mercenary (e.g., as in the International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries)? 2. The provision of private security services is not an illegal activity. We therefore saw no reason to deny G4S participation in the UN Global Compact. 3. Regarding the specific provision of security technology to various clients in Israel and the Occupied Territories, please note the recent announcement by G4S that it will cease providing certain services and technologies through its Israeli subsidiary. (http://english.themarker.com/danish-company-halts-equipment-supply-to-west-bank-in-wake-of-public-protest-1.349239) 4. Please note also that G4S is a signatory to the International Code of Conduct for Private Security Service Providers (ICoC), which was launched in November 2010 as a voluntary initiative to improve industry standards and ensuring respect for human rights and humanitarian law by private security service providers. While the ICoC is not intended to replace national regulation and state control, it marks a critical effort to clarify the role of non-state actors in this arena. Grain Spreads: Wheat Drama Continues Walsh Trading - 41 minutes ago Corridor Out of Ukraine Temporarily Shut. Nat-Gas Prices Fall Back on the Outlook for Warmer U.S. Temps Barchart - 45 minutes ago Dec Nymex natural gas (NGZ22 ) on Wednesday closed down by -0.047 (-0.76%). Dec nat-gas prices Wednesday posted moderate losses on expectations for warmer U.S. temperatures that would reduce heating demand... NGZ22 : 6.148 (-0.29%) Crude Rallies on a Weak Dollar and Tight U.S. Fuel Supplies Barchart - 47 minutes ago Dec WTI crude oil (CLZ22 ) on Wednesday closed up +2.59 (+3.04%), and Dec RBOB gasoline (RBZ22 ) closed up +2.09 (+0.82%). Crude oil and gasoline prices Wednesday rallied moderately, with crude posting... CLZ22 : 88.10 (+3.26%) RBZ22 : 2.5920 (+1.38%) Hog Commentary Walsh Trading - 49 minutes ago Hog markets continued to climb higher today only by a slight margin as the Feb contract settled up .325 at 91 by the close. 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Cocoa prices Wednesday retreated for a second session and posted... CCZ22 : 2,278s (-0.78%) CAH23 : 1,859s (-1.33%) The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) in Washington D.C. began as an idea in 1978 and now serves as a living memorial to the Holocaust visited by 2 million people annually. While the museum receives federal support, donors also help keep the museum a fixture of the National Mall. Many of USHMM's featured donors were impacted by the Holocaust. Now consider a recent $20 million gift from Allan and Shelley Holt to sponsor a comprehensive revitalization of USHMM's Permanent Exhibition. The son of Holocaust survivors, Holt was appointed vice chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council by President Obama in December 2015. Among other things, the funds will will support "efforts to expand the reach and impact of the exhibition and ensure its relevance to new audiences, especially youth." Holt describes some of his motivations, "The Museum is an important American institution. This gift is an expression of our familys gratitude to this remarkable country, and most especially it honors my parents, all of my grandparents who were killed, and my mothers two sisters who survived with her. Allan Holt is the latest executive at D.C. private equity giant Carlyle Group we've come across who's involved in philanthropy in a big way. We've written about Carlyle co-founder David Rubenstein, a major patron of museums and cultural institutions. Rubenstein recently gave Smithsonian's new National Museum of African American History and Culture a $10 million gift, as well as historic artifacts, and has given the Smithsonian at least $44 million through the years. Another Carlyle cofounder, William Conway Jr., meanwhile, is poised to give at least $1 billion to Washington D.C. We've also written about the third billionaire co-founder of Carlyle, Daniel D'Aniello, who gave $20 million to American Enterprise Institute not long ago. Related: Allan Holt doesn't have as much money as Carlyle's co-founders, but clearly he's done pretty well. He and his wife Shelley have been giving through the Hillside Foundation, a vehicle established in 2005 which disbursed around $4.3 million in a recent tax year. The couple has steadily supported USHMM via their foundation and have also strongly funded Jewish Federation of Greater Washington and Congregation B'Nai Tzedek. The Holts have helped bankroll a film about a Nazi concentration camp, too. Outside of the Jewish community, the Holts also key in on STEM education in the D.C. area. Like Rubenstein, the Holts are linked to Smithsonian, too. Holt is a board member of Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum and the couple helped establish the Holt Scholars Program. The Holts have supported 3D mammography at Mercy Hospital in Baltimore. For a complete overview of this funder, read our profile of Allan Holt. One question we ask often at Inside Philanthropy is where private philanthropy fits in, given all the things that government and business may be doing to address a problem. Cancer research is a great example. Both public agencies and big pharma spend billions every year seeking breakthroughs on cancer. So what difference can much smaller-scale funding by private philanthropists make in this area? Maybe a lot, actually. Or so we argued earlier this year, looking at Sean Parker's $250 million initiative to push forward the boundaries of cancer immunotherapy by backing risky research, breaking down silos, and forging new collaborations. Related: What I Learned About Philanthropy and Cancer At Sean Parkers Pad Last Night Something similar can be said about much smaller investments. Most recently, a couple of the University of Michigan's staunchest philanthropists stepped up to make the largest private donation for cancer research in the school's history, giving $17.5 million to create a new research institute, fund cutting-edge research, encourage cross-disciplinary research and endow new scholarships and professorships. The gift came from Michigan mega-donors Madeline and Sydney Forbes, who are big supporters of health and cultural causes throughout their home state. He founded the Forbes Company, which develops and manages luxury shopping malls. The couple has supported the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Cranbrook Schools, the Karmanos Cancer Institute and the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit. The gift, like others of its caliber, is notable for a couple of reasons. Obviously, it's a game changer for the University of Michigan, which created the Forbes Institute for Cancer Discovery within the U of M Comprehensive Cancer Center. The goal is to accelerate understanding of cancer and the development of new therapies. It's also significant because it highlights the way that private giving often complements federal grants. As we've noted before, federal dollars for medical research has been constrained in recent decades, putting more pressure on academic and other research institutions to draw support from private sources. It's not just that budgets have been falling, it's that government agencies are known to be conservative abput what they fund. After many years of austerity, Congress increased the NIH 2016 budget by $2 billion, up to $32 billion. It's the first boost in 12 years, and welcome news, but it's not like the NIH is an easy touch for scientists seeking grants. The feds typically favor sure things and established investigators, and are less likely to fund high-risk, high-reward research or early-career scientists. That's where private donors, like the Forbeses' and others, can make a big difference. Their new gift will provide grants to develop new technologies and research by junior faculty. And these days, the importance of multidisciplinary research is often cited, not just between specialties within medical schools, but between medicine and departments of engineering, pharmacy and others on campus, as well as cross-disciplinary innovation and research. That's another focus of the Forbeses' gift. Fortunately for University of Michigan, Sidney and Madeline Forbes have long been excellent boosters for medical research and other causes at the school, as have their sons, Nathan Forbes and David Forbes, and daughter Nancy Forbes Katzman. A rezoning request for a new self-storage development in Greenville, N.C., was unanimously rejected on June 20 by the Pitt County Board of Commissioners during a public hearing. The county board and planning-department staff opposed the project, proposed for a 5.3-acre lot on Eastern Pines Road, because it didn't meet the criteria for a business in a residential setting, according to the source. The property is near the Brandy Creek and Brittney Ridge subdivisions. "It's a relatively large-scale, more intensive type of development being proposed," James Rhodes, planning director, said during the meeting. Four residents also spoke against the project, which would comprise about 60,000 square feet of storage space. Resident Pamela Johnson told board members the community already has seven self-storage facilities within a three-mile radius. "We have a glut of mini-storage available in our neighborhood," she said. Others voiced concerns about possible drainage issues for the site and that the storage facility would cause a decrease in home values in the area. Mike Baldwin of Baldwin Design Consultants, which represented property owner Linda P. Stokes during the meeting, told the board the storage facility would have little impact on the area because of its minimal traffic during morning and evening commute times. Stokes lives opposite of the proposed site, according to the source. Her husband was also involved in the development of the area subdivision, Baldwin added. The community currently has two commercial-zoned properties: a now-defunct child-care center and an automotive shop, the source reported. The land cant be used for residential development due to the cement pads that would prevent septic-tank construction, Baldwin said. The commissioners didnt ask any questions about the proposed development prior to the vote. @Johnsonville @JohnsonvilleCA #NASCAR AYR, ON Adam Martin stunned racers and fans alike with a stellar fourth place finish in his NASCAR Pintys Series debut Saturday night, at Sunset Speedway. The Ayr, Ontario, teenager battled a star-studded field of stock car racers to score the impressive result. Everything about today was surprising, said Martin following the 300-lap event at Sunset Speedway in Innisfil, Ontario. We were fast in practice, and I was shocked how fast we were in qualifying. These drivers have so much experience, and its all new to me. Martin qualified his Johnsonville-sponsored Ford sixth fastest in the 19-car field stacked with talent. The qualifying result in itself would be reason to celebrate, but following that up with 300 nearly flawless laps to finish fourth had the 18-year-old Bluevale High School graduate close to speechless. The car was so good all night long I knew I just needed to avoid trouble and things would go well, said the soft-spoken Martin. Don Jacobson was our crew chief tonight, and he was amazing to work with. Our crew did a great job today including a very quick last pit stop. This is definitely more than I had hoped for this weekend. Progressing from 2-stroke karts to full-sized stock cars at Sunset Speedway just three short years ago Martin hopes to compete in the NASCAR Pintys Series full time come 2017. Adam and his team planned to contest four events this season starting with Sunset. The remaining three events on their schedule are road racing events at Circuit ICAR near Mirabel, Quebec, the Pintys Grand Prix of Toronto, and the final road race of the year at Canadian Tire Motorsports Parks big NASCAR weekend. The outing this weekend may cause the Martins to change their plans. Im so proud of what Adam did tonight, said the proud father Brad Martin. We may have to explore another oval race or two. Well start to discuss the possibilities this week. For more information: adammartinmotorsports@gmail.com (519) 658-7447 @sswracing Halifax, NS. June 22, 2016) SCHOOLS OUT! And kids get to take the front seat at Scotia Speedworld this Friday for Kiddie Rides Night! Gather up the kids and kick-off your weekend with one of Scotia Speedworlds most popular events Kiddie Rides, where kids get the unique opportunity to go for a ride in a racecar with their favourite driver! Kiddie Rides get underway at 7:00 pm sharp so be sure to get there early. Grandstand gates open at 5:00 PM. The format for Kiddie Rides is simple and safe. Drivers bring their cars to the front stretch and park. Once all engines are stopped, the grandstand gate is opened and children come onto the track and climb into their favorite car. When all children are safely in the cars the drivers are led around the track at a safe speed by the pace car. After a few laps, the cars are stopped; the children climb out and proceed back to their seats in the grandstand to enjoy the rest of the nights events. Following Kiddie Rides fans will enjoy great racing action from five Weekly Racing Series divisions. First up are the Hydraulics Plus Bandoleros, also heating up the track will be the Coors Light Trucks, Strictly Hydraulics Legends, Affordable Fuels Sportsman and the Toursec Thunder cars. Also joining us on Friday night are the great folks from Hydraulics Plus who are proud sponsors and supporters of the Bandolero division at Scotia Speedworld. Admission is just $14.00 for Adults; Youth (8-15) are $4.00 and children 7 and under are freeall summer long! Tickets are available at the gate on race day (cash only). For complete schedule and event information please visit www.scotiaspeedworld.ca About Scotia Speedworld: Scotia Speedworld (SSW) is a 3/10-mile asphalt oval racing facility. SSW is the only track in Nova Scotia to host a weekly racing series, which runs May through September and features six different classes of racecars. SSW also hosts special events, including Monster Jam, Nitro Circus and the Parts for Trucks Pro Stock Tour. SSW is located at Exit 6 on Highway 102, across from the Halifax Stanfield International Airport. For more information please click on www.ScotiaSpeedworld.ca or call our Event Hotline at (902) 873-2277 or our office at (902) 481-2514. Like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/sswracing and follow us on Twitter www.twitter.com/sswracing Media Contact: Tara Foster Yusef Kassim Blue Harbour Group For Yusef Kassim, 39, succeeding in hedge funds has reinforced the importance of his early opportunities to learn about business and industry. He co-founded and sits on the governing board of America Needs You, a national nonprofit that secures professional internships and aids in career development for first-generation college students. Kassims parents came to the U.S. in the early 1970s from the war-torn West African nation of Sierra Leone. Arriving separately with nothing, they met through the Sierra Leone diaspora community in Washington, D.C. Married and still in their early 20s, the couple attended college while bringing up Kassim and his brothers. The Kassim household was a small inner-city apartment that always housed at least eight to ten people, including aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews. Kassims father earned his Ph.D. in chemistry, and his mother became a social worker. Kassim went to public school in D.C. before attending the University of Pennsylvania, where he majored in systems engineering with a minor in mathematics. Entering the Ivy League was life-changing: He started learning about the world of finance and the depth and diversity of opportunities that awaited him. During his senior year, Kassim won a spot in Goldman Sachs Groups analyst training program in New York, working in the equities division. In 1999 he joined the firms new prime brokerage group. Two years later Kassim made a leap of faith and moved to Gerson Lehrman Group, a New Yorkbased research start-up that offers hedge fund managers access to sector industry experts. At GLG, where he was co-head of and built up the technology, media and telecommunications business, his client service skills stood out. In 2007, Kassim was hired away by one of his local hedge fund clients, R6 Capital Management, to head marketing and investor relations. Within a year, R6 merged into Eton Park Capital Management, Goldman Sachs alumnus Eric Mindichs multistrategy hedge fund firm. Kassim was absorbed into the investor relations team at $8.5 billion, New Yorkheadquartered Eton Park. Last year Blue Harbour Group, a $3.3 billion activist hedge fund firm based in Greenwich, Connecticut, hired him as a managing director and partner within investor relations. Visit the 2016 Hedge Fund Rising Stars: Ivy League Schools Pave the Way for more. Sarah Berner Aristeia Capital A career in hedge funds wasnt part of Sarah Berners postcollege plan. In fact, there was very little plan at all. After graduating in 2002 with a BA in political science from McGill University in Montreal, Berner, who grew up near Philadelphia, took a gap year in Paris. With no firm path in mind, she started working for a Belgium-based business publisher that creates media products to sell in emerging-markets countries. Part marketer, part journalist, Berner soon found herself developing an expertise, clients and contacts in Middle Eastern markets. The years after 9/11 were dramatic and exciting times to be working in the region. Keen to become a foreign correspondent, Berner was working for Nima Abu-Wardeh, a British Broadcasting Corp. business newscaster based in the United Arab Emirates, in 2006 when her parents asked her to come back to the U.S. because they were increasingly concerned about instability in the Middle East. Berner already knew that her sales skills and her contacts in the Arab world could be an asset for a hedge fund. The asset management industry was starting to recognize the value of sovereign wealth funds, common throughout the oil-rich region, and of Middle Eastern investors as clients. On trips home Berner had begun talking with investment managers; she soon landed a business development job with New Yorkheadquartered hedge fund firm AM Investment Partners. In 2012 she joined Aristeia Capital, a $2.5 billion credit-focused hedge fund firm based in New York and Greenwich, Connecticut, where last year she was promoted to head of business development. Berner, 35, has long been interested in the good that capitalism and investors can do. One thing that attracted her to the hedge fund industry was reading about the Robin Hood Foundation, the not-for-profit founded by billionaire Paul Tudor Jones that tackles poverty in New York City. In January, Berner joined the board of Gratitude Railroad, a new investor network focused on using the tools of capitalism to confront social and environmental problems. Visit the 2016 Hedge Fund Rising Stars: Ivy League Schools Pave the Way for more. The tragic slaying of two Canadian hostages in the Philippines may not have been avoided by kidnap and ransom policies, says an expert but such coverages can still be of use in ransom situations.Robert Hall and John Ridsdel were killed by Abu Sayyef militants who have claimed alignment with Islamic State on June 13 and April 25, respectively. As their kidnappers identified with a prescribed terrorist organization the Canadian government would not fulfill their ransom requirements.In response to both killings, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated, Canada cannot and will not pay ransoms to terrorists We will not turn the maple leaf, worn with pride by over 3 million Canadians abroad, into targets.Canadas rigid ransom policy has drawn criticism from those who say refusal is a moot point when a large majority of ransom cases are paid out anyway from K&R coverage or third parties. However, Sam Aiken, head of Kidnap & Ransom at JLT Group, says insurance policies are bound by similar restrictions in regard to terrorists.Due to sanctions, a K&R policy would be unable to pay that ransom, purely because they have aligned themselves with the Islamic State, he says, adding such cases account for 0.5% of kidnappings. Ironically, Abu Sayyef aligned themselves for a profit perspective rather than an ideological one. From the kidnappers perspective, thats backfired because its illegal under international sanctions to pay them anything.However, he adds, policies can still be enormously useful in such hostage situations as ransom payout is just one element of K&R coverages. A prescribed terrorist organization such as ASG would not be able to receive any cash goods or services as a ransom, but the policy will still trigger in all other areas, he says. A K&R policy will still respond by offering expert advice and negotiation, both at the board level and also on the ground, it will ensure you can obtain the best knowledge possible, and it would also trigger and pay for addition expenses.Such expenses can include flights and accommodations, pastoral and after care, as well as the salaries of the victim and those directly involved in the incident.He adds that its important for expatriates and travellers visiting high-risk regions (North Africa, the Middle East, South America and Mexico remain on the top 10), connect with a specialty broker who intimately understands the risks involved.Speak to a specialty broker rather than a generic broker, because you need to be advised on the correct previous ransom payments, he says. You need to have someone who actually understands the risks in the area you wish to travel to. "Your insurer has no part to play other than having your back" The Queensland budget has allocated $3.5 million to the Drought Resilience Program for establishing in partnership with the University of Southern Queensland (USQ) a centre focused on helping Aussies better prepare for drought, reported ABC.Professor Roger Stone, director of the International Centre for Applied Climate Sciences at USQ, said the centre was a fantastic step forward for agriculture in Australia which probably has the highest rainfall variability in the world, and in many parts of Queensland, which has the highest rainfall variability in Australia.According to the ABC report, the centre will monitor and research climate, often in cooperation with international agencies, for finding more about what drives drought."We know, for example, [that] El Nino is one of the main sources for drought, but that's only really for half of Queensland or two-thirds perhaps," explained Stone in the ABC report."When we get out to western Queensland, there are other factors that take over, which we know about, but its about tying all this together.We work with a lot of international agencies who do a lot of the atmospheric modelling, so they understand some of the patterns and we understand some of the patternsSo its putting all that together to help us prepare better for the droughts when they start to develop, but also getting us ready for when they break so we can capitalise on the better seasons when they occur, said Stone.Stone also explained that the new centre could have implications for crop insurance, in that one of its projects is to have a better look at the crop insurance programs.So, linking in with the insurance and the re-insurance agencies, not only in Australia but globally, on transferring this risk about, so that insurance companies better understand the sort of variability that Australia has to put up with and the climate mechanisms that cause our droughts, said Stone. The Travelers Cos. Inc. announced it will offer insurance directly to UK small businesses with fewer than 10 employees and less than 2.5 million ($3.7 million) in revenues. The online platform will initially be available for office businesses, such as consultants, web designers and recruiters. Insurance coverage will include business contents, public and products liability, employers liability and business interruption. Travelers said the platform uses clear and understandable language and simplifies the insurance-buying experience for small business owners. It provides access to dedicated customer service and 24/7 claims reporting, as well as information on topics relevant to small businesses, including risk mitigation and human resources, the company said, noting that customer support is available via call center and web chat. Were excited to provide the UK small business market with a new solution that caters to the growing number of entrepreneurs who prefer to conduct business online, said Matthew Wilson, chief executive officer of Travelers Europe. We have traditionally focused on providing insurance to medium- and large-sized businesses in the UK through the independent broker channel, and we remain committed to that model. Our online platform enables us to bring our knowledge and expertise to a new customer segment in this market, Wilson added. In the coming months, Travelers plans to extend the offering to shop businesses, such as convenience stores, bike shops and florists. Additional coverage will also be made available over time. About Travelers Travelers has operated in Europe for decades in both the general insurance market and through Lloyds. Travelers Insurance Co. Ltd. offers business insurance, bond and specialty insurance and risk management services. Travelers Syndicate 5000 at Lloyds underwrites specialist and complex business classes, including marine, global property, power and utilities, accident and special risks, aviation and energy. Source: The Travelers Cos. Inc. Topics Commercial Lines Business Insurance A new U.K. law, designed to make it harder for insurers to dispute commercial insurance claims, could lead to more intense price competition and slimmer margins for the sector, according to Fitch Ratings. The Insurance Act, due to take effect in August, will make it harder for an insurer to refuse a commercial insurance claim due to insufficient disclosure, the ratings agency explained in a Fitch Wire briefing. It will also prevent firms from refusing to pay if a business customer breached a requirement of the policy that was entirely unrelated to the claim, such as if the customer failed to install required fire alarms, but then claimed for a loss from flooding, Fitch added. Separately, the Enterprise Act, which will come into effect next year, will give customers the right to sue for damages caused by a late payment of their insurance claims, the agency affirmed. Together, we expect the new laws to result in fewer disputes over commercial insurance claims and an increase in the number of claims paid, Fitch said. When claims are disputed, insurers may also attempt to deal with them quicker to reduce the risk of being held liable for damages. Overall claims costs will therefore rise and insurers will increase premiums to compensate. Fitch noted that the variation from company to company in the speed and perceived fairness of settlements are two of the factors that customers use to assess the quality of their carriers service. With less ability to differentiate on service, price competition is likely to increase. But insurers are unlikely to be able to increase premiums enough to fully offset the higher claims costs, which will squeeze margins, explained Graham Coutts, director, Insurance, in an interview. Insurers can price in some of the extra costs, but they are unlikely to be able to include all the costs because of ongoing market competition, Coutts said. Further, higher overall premiums are also likely to make some customers such as small and medium enterprises shop around more for better deals, which will further exacerbate the price competition, he indicated. Commercial property insurance is likely to see a bigger impact than commercial motor policies, where underwriting margins are already slim and in line with domestic personal line policies, said Fitch Wire. Quoting data from the Association of British Insurers, Fitch said calendar year combined ratio for commercial property policies was 90.1 percent in 2014, compared to 93.3 percent for domestic property. The largest writers of U.K. commercial property insurance are multiline groups such as Zurich Insurance, Aviva and AXA, Fitch said. These and other rated insurers are well placed to absorb the increased costs due to diversification by geography and business line. Smaller insurers with a heavy focus on commercial policies would be more exposed but the scale of the potential impact is hard to gauge. Fitch noted that one positive impact for insurers is that the Insurance Act should reduce the prevalence of data-dumping, where a customer discloses large amounts of information without attempting to determine whether it was relevant. Less data-dumping could reduce costs for the insurer if they no longer need to wade through disclosure to identify the pertinent risks. However, this would not be enough to offset weaker underwriting margins, Fitch explained. Source: Fitch Topics Carriers Claims Property Minnesota-based GNP Company is recalling more than 27 tons of chicken after contaminants were detected. The company sells products under the Just BARE and Goldn Plump brands. But it says the only affected product in grocery stores is the Just BARE whole chicken in 4-pound poly-bags, with a use-by date of June 26. That item bears code P-322 inside the USDA mark of inspection and UPC 024105594057. The company says the rest of the recalled meat was bulk and custom items sold through foodservice and institutional outlets. No illnesses have been reported. The U.S. Department of Agricultures Food Safety and Inspection Service issued the recall Saturday. The company says the affected products are linked to an isolated tampering incident at its Cold Spring plant this month. The incident is under investigation. People who bought the chicken are urged to discard it or return it to where it was purchased for a refund. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Minnesota Los Angeles-based Grandpoint Bank is now selling cyber insurance policies to its business customers to provide coverage for wire-transfer and cyber fraud. Grandpoint, which does business in California, Arizona and Washington, says it is the first bank to market policies of this type. The Client Cyber Crime Insurance policy is available to business accounts at Grandpoint Bank and its affiliates that include Regents Bank, Bank of Tucson and The Biltmore Bank of Arizona. The policy s underwritten by Hiscox Inc, on behalf of underwriters at Lloyds of London. The bank said its own affiliate, Grandpoint Insurance Services Inc., has partnered with the insurance agency LBW Insurance & Financial Services Inc. in Valencia to sell the policies. The bank says the discounted premiums for its customers range from $30 to $70 per month for up to $1 million in coverage. According to the banks description of the policy, it reimburses for losses due to two types of cyber crime: funds transfer fraud and cyber deception. Funds transfer fraud occurs when a bank transfers funds from a customers account based upon instructions that were issued by someone impersonating the customer. The policy provides coverage of $100,000 to $1,000,000 and premiums between $30 to $60 per month, with a deductible of $2,500. Cyber deception occurs when a criminal poses as a vendor, client or employee and deceives an employee of the company to transfer funds to the criminal. This type of crime is also known as business email compromise. The basic policy includes $50,000 in cyber deception coverage. For $10 more per month, customers can get $100,000 in cyber deception coverage. There is a deductible of $1,000. The FBI said in April that losses from business email compromise scams surpassed $2.3 billion from October 2013 through February of this year. Topics Cyber The Obama administration is opening U.S. skies to more commercial drones with long-awaited regulations that the government hopes will spawn new businesses inspecting bridges, monitoring crops and taking aerial photography. In the most comprehensive set of rules yet for the burgeoning unmanned aircraft industry, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration on Tuesday went far beyond its original restrictive proposal issued last year. Drone operators will be able to petition the agency to fly beyond the horizon, at night and over people if they can show such flights are safe. We are in the early days of an aviation revolution that will change the way we do business, keep people safe, and gather information about our world, President Barack Obama said in an interview with Bloomberg News. This is just a first step, but this is the kind of innovative thinking that helps make change work for us not only to grow the economy, but to improve the lives of the American people. Low Flights The rules could be a boost for drone manufacturers such as SZ DJI Technology Co. of China, the worlds largest. U.S. companies that have been working with the FAA on expanding drone operations, such as PrecisionHawk in Raleigh, North Carolina, and AirMap Inc. of Santa Monica, California, also stand to benefit. The new regulations, which will become effective two months from publication in the Federal Register, took years to craft and are seen as a critical step toward realizing the potential of drones to perform such tasks as monitoring crops, inspecting power lines and pipelines as well as assisting government agencies in disasters. The basic rules permit only low-level flights that remain within sight of an operator or nearby assistant and dont go over people. Drone operators-for-hire will have to pass a written test and be vetted by the Transportation Security Administration but no longer need to be airplane pilots as current law requires. Drones under the regulation must weight less than 55 pounds ( 25 kilograms) and keep speeds below 100 miles (161 kilometers) per hour. Allowing a device to be within eyesight of an assistant a change from the proposed rules industry advocates won in the final version means an operator can guide a drone by its video signal. Drone package deliveries by companies such as Amazon.com Inc. and Alphabet Inc.s Google Project Wing arent allowed under the regulations until the FAA writes separate rules governing their use. Similarly, the limitations in the regulations wont initially permit longer flights for agricultural flyovers, pipeline and utility inspections and news media photography over crowds. However, the agency heeded industry comments to its earlier proposal and added flexibility so that many such activities would be permitted under a waiver program, FAA Administrator Michael Huerta said in a telephone briefing. Our focus is to make this as streamlined as possible, Huerta said. The agency will open an online portal through which applicants can learn how to file for waivers, he said. Solving the more complex problems inherent in drone deliveries which envision autonomous vehicles buzzing over highly populated areas is a very active research program, Huerta said. He declined to set a timetable on when such flights would be permitted. While the rules dont apply directly to hobbyists, who dont need a license to fly if theyve registered their drones with the FAA, it lays out the governments authority to enforce aviation regulations on all unmanned aircraft. Symbolic Victory Drone-advocacy groups called the regulations a symbolic victory that paves the way for those future uses. The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International trade group forecasts drones will produce $82 billion in economic value and create more than 100,000 new jobs in the first 10 years after widespread flights are approved. This is a watershed moment in how advanced technology can improve lives, Brendan Schulman, drone maker DJIs vice president of policy and legal affairs, said in an e-mailed statement. After years of work, DJI and other advocates for reasonable regulation are pleased that the FAA now has a basic set of rules for integrating commercial drone operations into the national airspace. The FAAs decision to drop a requirement for a pilots license is a significant win for the industry that opens it to many more operators, Diana Cooper, PrecisionHawks senior director of policy, said in a web posting. I regard it as a significant milestone, said AUVSI President Brian Wynne, who had been pushing FAA to issue the regulations for years. Well accelerate the process of understanding what the risks are that will allow us to move on to more complex operations. For some companies, the rules didnt move fast enough. We still have a long way to go, specifically when it comes to long-distance, or beyond visual line-of-sight, drones, Tero Heinonen, chief executive officer of Sharper Shape Ltd., a Finnish-based company that has begun power-line inspections in Europe, said in a statement. The company expects to apply to the FAA for a waiver within months, Heinonen said. Ahead of EU The release of the rules puts the U.S. ahead of Europe in setting standards for the drone industry. The European Union has yet to adopt comprehensive rules for civilian drones, according to the European Aviation Safety Agency website. Individual nations have imposed restrictions, but they differ across borders. EASA is trying to develop rules by 2017. The FAA has already convened groups to study how to eventually allow such flights without waivers. Test programs are examining how to: approve long-range drone flights in which an operator steers with video images; make unmanned craft safe to fly over people; and expand agricultural uses. The Obama administration also announced new federal initiatives with NASA, the FAA and other government agencies to study how to broaden drone uses for tasks such as disaster response and environmental monitoring. NASA is already developing an air-traffic control system for low-altitude drones. Privacy Concerns Privacy concerns will be addressed by a new government campaign to educate operators and businesses. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration last month issued non-binding privacy policy suggestions. Commercial drone operators will be tested on privacy issues as part of their license, according to the Obama administration. The FAA has permitted commercial drone operations those conducted for hire, as opposed to recreational flights by hobbyists who dont need a license since September 2014 under a case-by-case exemption process ordered by Congress. Drone operators under this program had to have a traditional pilots license. As of June 2, the agency had granted 6,004 such permits to fly drones commercially. The new regulation allows a far easier approval process and is expected to swell the ranks of commercial operators. The agency is dropping the requirement for a pilots license, relying instead on a simpler knowledge test. FAA-approved drone operators will have more leeway to fly different drone models and multiple missions. Major Step The regulations also will promote safety at a time when hundreds of thousands of hobbyists are flying with limited FAA oversight, Wynne said. There were more than 1,200 reports of drone safety incidents last year, including flying too close to airliners, according to FAA. The new rules codify what until now have been set out as FAA policy statements and interpretations. All drones are aircraft and subject to FAA enforcement actions if operators are reckless or fly in prohibited zones, according to the agency. We need an attitude of professionalism where people are working to improve the safety record all the time, Wynne said. People who obtain FAA drone-pilot certificates will now have an economic incentive to help police the system, he said. Operators will be restricted to flying below 400 feet, more than five miles from an airport without obtaining FAA permission Copyright 2022 Bloomberg. Topics USA Legislation Europe Aviation Agribusiness Atlanta-based international claims management firm Crawford & Co. has named Harsha V. Agadi president and CEO. He has served as interim president and CEO since August 2015. Agadi was named interim CEO last August when Jeffrey Bowman agreed to step down from the position after nearly eight years as president and CEO and 24 years of service with the company. During Harshas interim leadership period, he made some tough but necessary changes that helped move Crawford toward profitable growth, said Charles H. Ogburn, Crawfords non-executive chairman of the board. Agadi is chairman of GHS Holdings LLC, a family office, and has nearly 30 years experience in various executive management positions for several food service, franchise and Fortune 500 companies. This is the fifth time he has held the title of CEO. He has been a member of the Crawford board of directors since 2010 and will continue to serve on Crawfords board. He additionally serves on the boards of Belmond Ltd. and Diversified Foodservice Supply Inc. Last Augusts announcement that Bowman was exiting did not give reasons for Bowmans resignation. The firm had a disappointing first half of that year, in part because a lack of severe weather contributed to a decrease in the insurance claims business. The company has become more dependent on lower margin, high volume claims. It has also been dealing with costs associated with its integration of the GAB Robins acquisition, a new servicing center in the Philippines, and several large legal settlements. Bowman had initiated cost reduction steps that he said were starting to improve margins. Jury selection began on June 20 for whats expected to be a lengthy and complex trial arising from lawsuits over an offshore oil platform explosion and fire that killed three workers off Louisianas coast in November 2012. The case combines nine lawsuits involving the platforms owner, Black Elk Energy, relatives of the workers killed in the accident, injured workers and companies that were working for Black Elk. About 70 prospective jurors were ushered into the courtroom for questioning. The platform was about 17 miles from Grand Isle, Louisiana, in about 50 feet of water. The three-phase trial is expected to last about four weeks. The first phase will deal with legal Black Elks legal relationship with companies working on the platform. Negotiations and settlements on some of the claims and counterclaims were being reached as late as Friday, according to court records. Ellroy Corporal, Jerome Malagapo and Avelino Tajonera died as a result of the accident. The platform was shut down for maintenance and was not producing oil at the time of the explosion on Nov. 16, 2012. In a 2013 report on the blast, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said storage tanks werent properly purged of flammable liquid before a crew began welding nearby. In addition to the lawsuit, federal criminal charges were filed in the case. A January trial is currently scheduled in the criminal case, which includes involuntary manslaughter charges against Black Elk and another company, Grand Isle Shipyards. Both companies have pleaded not guilty. Related: Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Louisiana Vertafore, a provider of insurance technology, has added several new homeowner carriers to their flagship comparative rating system PL Rating, expanding the companys reach into the Florida property market. Since its acquisition of QQSolutions, a Florida-based agency management system and rating company, Vertafore said it has seen overwhelming demand to provide the service to current Vertafore and QQTM clients in the state. Improving access to the difficult Florida property market will allow our customers a better experience writing and servicing their clients, said Mark Malis, president of QQSolutions. While the first step is to offer this functionality in PL Rating, well be embedding the property workflow and Florida markets directly into the QQCatalyst system to make it even easier for our agencies to get access to this crucial information. Vertafore and PL Rating currently have over 10,000 agencies that leverage the rating program in 48 states and the District of Columbia. PL Rating also currently has over 150 carriers in production for auto and homeowners rates nationwide. PL Rating integrates with prefill and automated Insurance to Value (ITV) products from CoreLogic, as well as state Public Protection Classification (PPCTM) from ISO, which are key components to the homeowners platform. Vertafore has also added the capability to do an automatic, integrated flood quote at the same time as homeowners by partnering with AON National Flood Services (NFS), a provider of WYO flood processing for many of the nations carriers. A sampling of the recent Florida homeowner carriers that have signed up and will be available by Q3 on the PL Rating platform include: Tower Hill Insurance Group, Sawgrass Mutual, Cypress, Modern USA/American Traditions and Stillwater Insurance Group among others. Vertafore expects to have the majority of carriers writing homeowners in the state available by the end of the year. Carriers can contact the company if they are interested in joining the platform. Topics Florida Property Homeowners The North Carolina Department of Insurance (NCDOI) has accused a mother and daughter of insurance fraud, according to a statement from the department. Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin announced the arrests June 15 of Paige Marie Alexander, 18, and Taiwanna Marshell Alexander, 43, of High Point, N.C.; both were charged with one count each of filing a false police report and insurance fraud. NCDOI criminal investigators accuse the Alexanders of filing a false police report on Feb. 24, 2016, and a fraudulent claim with GEICO Indemnity Company on Feb. 25, 2016, claiming Paige Alexanders vehicle was struck by a vehicle that left the scene. Investigators allege the damages were caused by a vehicle owned and operated by her mother, Taiwanna Alexander. Paige and Taiwanna Alexander were arrested on June 14 in Guilford County, and each was placed under a $7,500 bond. The Department of Insurance employs 20 sworn state law enforcement officers dedicated to investigating and prosecuting claims of insurance and bail bonding fraud. Topics Auto Fraud North Carolina Residents of Southern California and the Southwest were looking for a break after some of the hottest weather in decades had utilities warning of power failures and cities opening pools and cooling centers. At least four hikers died in Arizona, where on Sunday Phoenix set a record of 118 degrees Fahrenheit (48 Celsius) for that date, AccuWeather Inc. reported. It was 109 in Burbank, California, on Sunday, besting the mark set in 1973, and temperatures there reached another daily record of 108 at midday Monday, the first official day of summer. The Los Angeles 911 service saw a 5 percent to 10 percent spike in the number of calls on Monday, said Chris Ipsen, public information officer for the citys emergency management department. The National Weather Service had posted excessive heat warnings across Southern California, southern Arizona and into central Utah. The heat began tapering off Tuesday, with temperatures in Burbank dropping to 89 degrees at 12:45 p.m. local time. Ken Clark, a meteorologist at AccuWeather, said Tuesday afternoon that while the heat had moderated, the area isnt out of the woods yet. We are expecting to have the heat return by the end of the weekend. We could see 105, 110 temperatures at the start of next week, he said of the Los Angeles area. Californias main grid operator called on residents to turn off unneeded lights and avoid using major appliances to prevent blackouts. Los Angeles and other cities opened public libraries and senior centers to those in need of cooling. In Riverside, the city started operating water splash areas in public parks that had been shut because of an unprecedented drought that the region has been battling in recent years. The heat wave is the first big test of the Southern California grid after a historic natural gas leak that resulted in constrained supplies of the power plant fuel. The state has warned that the region risks as many as 14 days of blackouts this summer due to the leak. The use of Sempra Energys Aliso Canyon storage facility has been restricted since methane spewed uncontrollably from a broken well for nearly four months starting in October. We are confident we have a strong plan in place to meet the operational challenges posed by the upcoming hot temperatures, California Independent System Operator Inc.s chief executive officer Steve Berberich said in a statement. Conservation efforts by consumers are key to reducing stress on the system and to help avoid service disruptions. As of 10 a.m. local time on Tuesday, about 8,900 customers had lost power, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power spokeswoman Vonda Paige said in a telephone interview. The outages were spread all throughout the grid, including 1,900 in Hancock Park and 1,600 in the San Fernando Valley. Californias electricity demand was forecast to peak at 40,881 megawatts on Tuesday, a decrease from 44,467 megawatts the previous day, California ISO said on its website at 2:04 p.m. local time. The forecast peak for Wednesday was 42,762 megawatts. Spot electricity prices in Southern California surged amid the heat, and wholesale natural gas there traded at a premium of more than 22 cents per million British thermal units versus the benchmark Henry Hub on Monday, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Natural gas-fired power generators were supplied last week with fuel needed to meet demand during the high temperatures, said Steven Greenlee, a spokesman for the grid. The state has electricity capacity reserves and no reports of major transmission line failures or generation shutdowns, he said. Edison Internationals Southern California Edison, which operates the regions biggest electric utility, said it had mobilized its emergency operation center and was deploying crews that can rapidly respond to service disruptions. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti extended hours at several of the citys cooling centers so residents without air conditioning could remain as late as 9 p.m. on Monday. In Palm Springs, where temperatures had been expected to hit 123, special education summer school was canceled Monday, said Joan Boiko, a spokeswoman for the school district. With assistance from James Nash, Christopher Palmeri and Naureen S. Malik Topics California The Foo Fighters are suing insurers for failing to reimburse them for European shows they cancelled following the Paris terrorist attacks in November. The suit, filed Monday in federal court in Los Angeles against underwriters with Lloyds of London and loss adjuster Robertson Taylor, alleges the band headed by Dave Grohl is owed for shows they called off in Turin, Italy; Paris and Lyon in France; and Barcelona. The band was to perform in those cities immediately after the Nov. 13, 2015 attacks by Islamic State radicals that killed 130 people. The band says the website, www.foofighterstours2015.com , had been hacked the day after the attacks to display an ISIS flag, automatic weapon and the threat, be prepared. A Robertson Taylor representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The band says in the suit that it believes it will be paid for the Paris and Lyon cancellations but alleges that Robertson Taylor advised underwriters against paying for canceled shows in Italy and Spain despite ISIS releasing a video threatening additional attacks in Europe. The band is also suing the insurers for not paying for three canceled shows related to Grohls injured leg after a fall from a stage in Sweden last June. Topics Lawsuits California Excess Surplus Lloyd's In April, startup accelerator Plug and Play Tech Center announced its plans to make insurance its eighth innovation focus area. Previous programs have included brand & retail, fintech and Internet of Things, among others. A ninth startup program, mobility relating to auto insurance, is also set to launch in the future, the company says. Later this year, 25 insurtech startups will partake in a 12-week mentorship program, culminating in Plug and Plays quarterly competition event, EXPO, on Dec. 14. As of last week, Plug and Play has begun accepting startup applications. Ali Safavi, director of Plug and Play Insurance, spoke with INN about Plug and Plays new initiative, tech trends in insurance and the impact startup technologies will have on the industry. INN: Describe the timeline of the Plug and Play Insurance program AS: Insurance is the fastest growing program weve had. It launched on May 26 and is up to 11 partners within the industry, including Munich Re, Farmers, USAA and StateFarm. USAA was a part of our fintech accelerator program while StateFarm and Munich Re were a part of IoT. One or two additional insurance partners will be announced soon. We want to build on our relationship with venture capitalists and press and help startups disrupt the market and industry. INN: What do you make of current technology trends in the industry? AS: I love statistics about how investments in insurtech have increased. Its mainly in startups and one thing Im seeing is the solution for insurance can be brought over from other industries. User experience, fintech, security, IoT and data collection have been around in other spaces. They just have to be brought over. Insurance companies are not just competing with other insurers; they compete with other user experiences. Whats the latest app trend or design for apps? They are always adapting to millennials. INN: What does the application process look like for prospective startups? AS: When we open up applications there are a few ways we connect. One is startups upload their contact info and site on our website and we have sources look into them. Two, we approach them. Or three, they are introduced to us by our corporate partners. Overall, we look at 800 to 1,000 startups, knock the list down to the top 100 we are excited about and then send the list to our partners. They then choose the top 30 to 50 and later decide on the top 25 that enter the program. At our Expo on Dec. 14, startups meet with insurers, brokers and VCs in one-on-one sessions. If it peaks their interest, they follow up with the startup. INN: What technology areas are startups tapping into more frequently than others? AS: The biggest one Im seeing in insurance is distribution models. It could be anything from helping agents or replacing agents. Then theres user experience, data collection and analysis for risk assessment. INN: How important was it to partner with insurance companies like USAA and Munich Re on this initiative? AS: A lot because we believe they are the best experts in the market. When you have them on board, startups can then talk to them and they mature much faster. Speaking to ten insurance companies compared to one makes a huge difference in the way startups pitch. There is a way higher chance of success. Pillar two will change the international tax system forever. Here Christian Kaeser, global head of tax at Siemens, looks at how businesses and tax administrations can simplify pillar two compliance. Un ottobre da sogno per Antonio Conte: lex ct della Nazionale italiana, attualmente alla guida del Chelsea, nelle ultime quattro gare di Premier League ha collezionato solo successi, conditi da 11 reti segnate e addirittura nessuna incassata. Numeri da record che non sono certo passati inosservati alla Federazione inglese, la quale ha conferito al tecnico leccese lambito premio di Manager del mese. Unavventura oltremanica iniziata in sordina, quella di Conte, pur a fronte di tre vittorie nelle prime tre gare di campionato. A far vacillare, anche se solo per un momento, le certezze del patron del club londinese, Roman Abramovich, i risultati conseguiti tra la 4a e la 6a giornata, coincisi con un pareggio sul campo dello Swansea City e, soprattutto, con le due pesanti sconfitte subite dal Liverpool, sul terreno casalingo di Stamford Bridge, e dallArsenal. In particolare, la debacle interna coi Reds, aveva irritato non poco il numero uno russo, poiche occorsa proprio nel giorno della sua 250esima partita da presidente della societa. Come detto, solo un momento. Dopo lincontro dellEmirates, il tecnico salentino cambia modulo, adottando un piu equilibrato 3-4-3 e inserendo elementi di corsa come lo spagnolo Pedro. Una svolta totale perche, di li in poi, il Chelsea inanellera solo e soltanto vittorie: 2 gol allHull City e al Southampton in trasferta, 3 ai campioni dInghilterra del Leicester e 4 allo United in casa, con un meraviglioso numero zero nella casella delle reti subite. Un fantastico poker, ottenuto tra l1 e il 29 ottobre. Un cambio di marcia sbalorditivo, confermato dal 5 a 0 rifilato ai toffees dellEverton nel primo match di novembre, e una scalata che, man mano, ha portato i blues al secondo posto in classifica, a soli 2 punti dal Liverpool capolista. E allora, non poteva mancare il riconoscimento di migliore allenatore del mese, ottenuto surclassando tecnici del calibro di Jurgen Klopp (Liverpool), Arsene Wenger (Arsenal) e Mark Hughes (Southampton). Tanta, ovviamente, la soddisfazione: E un grande onore e voglio condividerlo con i giocatori e con la societa ha dichiarato Conte sul sito ufficiale della Premier League -. E la prima volta che lavoro in un altro Paese, con una cultura diversa, e portare la propria filosofia non e facile, ma ora sono contento di questa scelta. A completare la festa, la premiazione del fantasista belga, Eden Hazard, come miglior giocatore di ottobre. Due risultati importanti per il club, ottimo incentivo per la rincorsa al trono dei campioni, occupato dal Leicester di Ranieri. Il prossimo appuntamento per l11 di Conte sara al Riverside Stadium, tana del Middlesborough neopromosso. Il tempo di festeggiare e gia finito. Globalization has led to some exciting developments. Markets around the world are now much more connected than they were before, allowing businesses and investors a chance to tap into investment opportunities they could never access from a distance. Countries like China and India, which were once closed to foreign investors, present potential growth opportunities for people who want to invest their money beyond their own borders. While the U.S. maintains its number one rank as the largest world economy by nominal gross domestic product (GDP), both China and India consistently rank high in the top world economies. It's because of the rising status of both nations that many investors are interested in the foreign investment potential of these countries. So what's the best way to put your money into foreign markets like China or India? Read on to find out more about how you can tap into these parts of the world. Key Takeaways Buying stocks directly in a foreign market like India or China is possible, although it might be harder than purchasing domestic shares. Investors can purchase American Depositary Receipts on U.S. exchanges, which are certificates that represent shares in a foreign company. China A-shares are open to foreign investors. Mutual funds and ETFs are less risky ways to gain exposure to foreign markets. How to Approach Foreign Markets There are a few ways to invest in foreign markets. The direct approach is to buy stocks in those countries. However, buying shares that trade on exchanges outside your home country or that of your broker can be harder than trading domestic shares. If you are looking to invest in a foreign company listed on a foreign exchange, the first thing to do is to contact your brokerage firm and see whether it provides such a service. If it does, the firm will need to contact a market maker or an affiliate firm located in the country in which you want to buy the shares. However, even if the firm provides this service, it may not be able to gain access to the specific shares you want. In that case, the alternative would be to try to set up a brokerage account with a firm in that foreign country. ADRs and A-Shares One way to tap into the foreign market is to look into American Depositary Receipts (ADRs). These are certificates issued by U.S. banks that represent a specific number of shares in a foreign company. These certificates or receipts trade on American exchanges just like regular stocks. They trade in U.S. dollars, so there are none of the usual hassles that stem from foreign exchange. The underlying assets are held by the U.S. bank or financial institution overseas. And just like domestic publicly-traded companies, these foreign corporations are required to provide U.S. banks with regular, updated financial statements. If you're looking to invest specifically in Chinese companies, you can do so through China A-shares. These are shares of companies from mainland China that are listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges. Because of China's restrictions on foreign investment, these shares were only available to Chinese investors for many years. But that restriction was lifted in 2002. Understand the Risks If you find a way to invest in other countries, you must also understand the risks associated with foreign investment. First of all, timely and accurate information about foreign companies is not available to the same degree as it is in the U.S. Another concern is that the regulations in foreign countries can affect both your investments and any accounts set up in that country. For example, there may be restrictions on your ability to transfer funds from your foreign account to one in your home country or your funds may be taxed whenever you try to take them home. Being informed allows you to carefully weigh the risks and benefits of investing in a particular foreign market. Look to Alternatives Investors can also use instruments such as mutual funds or exchange traded funds (ETFs) as less risky ways to gain exposure to foreign markets. There are many of these investment products that cover a wide range of regions around the world, such as Latin America or Asia ex-Japan. These instruments can be actively managed or tied to an exchange, but in either case, they offer exposure to a country, diversification, and management expertise. They can also be easily purchased through any discount or full-service broker. Top News - Investor Idea REE Stock News - Defense Metals (TSX-V: DEFN.V) (OTCQB: DFMTF) Drills 113 metres of 2.50% Total Rare Earth Oxide at Wicheeda Vancouver, British Columbia - October 26, 2022 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Mining / Metals / Green Energy Stock News - Defense Metals Corp. (TSX-V: DEFN / OTCQB: DFMTF/ FSE:35D) is pleased to announce high-grade Rare Earth Element ("REE") assay results from one additional core hole, totalling 383 metres (m), collared within the northern area of Defense Metals' 100% owned Wicheeda REE Deposit. Top EV Stock News - Investor Idea Breaking EV Stock News: Mullen (NASDAQ: MULN) FIVE 'Strikingly Different' EV Crossover Tour Starts Tomorrow, Oct. 27, in Pasadena, California; New Los Angeles Area Stop Added BREA, Calif. - October 26, 2022 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Mullen Automotive, Inc. (NASDAQ: MULN) ("Mullen" or the "Company"), an emerging electric vehicle ("EV") manufacturer, announces today the beginning of the Mullen FIVE Strikingly Different EV Crossover Tour, which will commence on Oct. 27 in Pasadena, California. Due to overwhelming interest, new dates have been added for Nov. 1 and 2 at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, California. Top AI Stock News - Investor Idea Breaking AI Stock News: FatBrain (OTCQB: LZGI) Acquires Confidential Computing Platform ZeroTrust to Protect Data Privacy and Accelerate Innovation for Millions of Growth Businesses NEW YORK, NY - October 19, 2022 (Investorideas.com Newswire) FatBrain AI (LZG International, Inc.) (OTCQB: LZGI), the leader in powerful and easy-to-use artificial intelligence (AI) solutions for star enterprises of tomorrow, has acquired the confidential computing and privacy intellectual property (IP) plus software assets of Zero2A PTE LTD ("ZeroTrust Platform"), a software company based in Singapore. Check out our Podcasts for great investor ideas: Get new posts by email: Subscribe Powered by Investorideas.com Newswire: Subscribe to Investor Ideas Newswire Thanks to technological innovation, vegan pizzas have become some of the most delicious and nutritious meals around. It is a truth universally acknowledged that Oscar Wilde, the Irish writer and aesthetic leader who wrote The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Importance of Being Earnest, was lightyears ahead of his time. His style, wit and talent for celebrity (hes been called the first person famous for simply being famous) were unparalleled, as was his commitment to remain true to who he was and what he wanted. All this makes his final years spent in prison for sodomy and gross indecency before dying penniless in Paris from cerebral meningitis in 1900 all the more tragic. Read More: Top ten amazing facts about Irish legend Oscar Wilde But now it seems that the world is finally catching up with Oscar Wilde. As Brenda Cronin noted last week in the Wall Street Journal, a great number of new high-profile books, movies and plays about him indicate that 116 years after his death, Wilde is making a comeback. Here are just a few of them: An opera by Gerald Barry based on The Importance of Being Earnest is playing in New York at Lincoln Centers Rose Theater. Across the river, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, "The Judas Kiss," David Hares 1998 play about Wilde, just wrapped up a revival. It starred the wonderful British actor Rupert Everett. The Happy Prince, a movie about Wilde, starring, written and directed by Everett, who has previously portrayed both Wilde and some of his most famous characters, begins shooting soon in locations throughout Europe, including Bavaria, Belgium, France and Italy. A new biography about Wilde by Emer OSullivan, titled The Fall of the House of Wilde, is out in the UK and will be released here in the US in the fall. It delves into his upbringing in Victorian Dublin, in a house on Merrion Square, and the influence of his father, the surgeon Sir William Wilde, and his mother, the poet Lady Jane Wilde. Earlier this year, Eleanor Fitzsimmons published Wilde's Women: How Oscar Wilde Was Shaped by the Women of His Life. Read More: Irish genius Oscar Wilde's 10 best sayings In Paris, where Wilde spent his remaining days in exile after being released from prison, an exhibition about Wilde, titled Oscar Wilde: Limpertinent absolu (Oscar Wild: the absolute impertinent person) will open on September 28 at the Petit Palais museum. Wilde is also getting his due as a key figure in path towards gay rights. Gay marriage and all the things happening now are all very much the product or part of the road that was started with Oscar Wildes death, Everett told Cronin. [He helped] unleash one of the great 20th-century debates, which was sexuality, women, men and what we are. Wildes grandson, Merlin Holland, added that his grandfathers reach extends far, calling him an icon in the modern world. H/T The Wall Street Journal Irish Senator Frank Feighan has suggested it is time for Ireland to rejoin the Commonwealth (formerly the British Commonwealth), the intergovernmental organization of 53 member states around the world, mostly made up of former colonies of the British Empire. Addressing Seanad Eireann (the Irish Senate) yesterday, the Senator from Co. Roscommon appointed to the 25th Seanad by Taoiseach Enda Kenny, told his fellow Senators that the debate on the Brexit referendum presented the perfect opportunity for the Republic of Ireland to reevaluate its relationship with its closest neighbor. Given the power of the peace dividend in succeeding to build many bridges in the last twenty years on this island and with Britain, one of those issues which has been occasionally highlighted in the last number of years is whether Ireland should rejoin the Commonwealth, the Senator said in his address. And today, I want to reopen the debate again about the merits of Ireland rejoining the Commonwealth. Referring to the 65 years since Ireland officially became a Republic and left the Commonwealth as decades of deep political and societal upheaval but which are now thankfully firmly behind us, Feighan stressed that as many as 33 Republics are current members of the Commonwealth and that some member states, such as the UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, are also home to a large number of the Irish diaspora. @FrankFeighan Couldn't agree more about commonwealth - shared heritage with all these countries. How do we apply? Tom O'Leary (@_TomOLeary) June 21, 2016 @martanoconghail @FrankFeighan Sigh, I'd rather live my life in a plural and modern Ireland. You can live in the past. Sen. Neale Richmond (@nealerichmond) June 21, 2016 Among the Commonwealths many noble objectives is the promotion of democracy, rule of law, human rights, good governance and social and economic development, Feighan continued, arguing that the peace and tolerance achieved through the peace process in recent years has led us to a point at which becoming a Commonwealth member is the next intelligent step. He asked the Seanad: Would rejoining not help further develop a pluralist Ireland where all our different identities are always mutually recognized and respected? Would it also not just strengthen existing trade, business, cultural and political relationships but nurture new ones across the world? By doing so, will it not promote Irelands values to a global audience while strengthening and growing important economic and cultural ties internationally? Although the Taoiseach ruled out Irelands membership during a visit to the UK in 2013, Feighan claims Kenny equally acknowledged the growing links between Ireland and Commonwealth, in terms of trade, diplomacy, culture, an argument that could be backed up by the Taoiseachs recent campaigning in England on behalf of the UK remaining in the EU. .@FrankFeighan Rejoin the commonwealth? Are you having a laugh? Carol Cronin (@karlachameleon) June 21, 2016 For trading & sporting reasons I think it is, great article @FrankFeighan https://t.co/YlFeVl4Kkf Sen. Neale Richmond (@nealerichmond) June 21, 2016 This is not the first time that the Fine Gael politician and former TD (member of parliament) for Roscommon South has acted controversially. While serving in the Dail, he wore a red poppy on Remembrance Day each November, a token worn throughout the UK to remember those who died in the service of the British Army during the First and Second World War. I made a decision to wear a poppy in the house on Remembrance Day to commemorate the thousands of men from across the island of Ireland who fought in the Great Wars, Feighan said yesterday, again addressing his choice during the Seanad address. I wanted to publicly show that we had well and truly moved on from that dark, bloody era in the North before the evolution of the peace process - a time when the politics of fear and divisiveness tore apart communities living side by side. I wanted to affirm the wide acceptance that there is now a new political dawn in this country which has allowed us to move on from the divisions of the past and which had created so much tension on our island and between Ireland and Britain. Feighan was also subject to public abuse in 2011, at times fearing for his personal safety, after he sided with the Fine Gael government on a decision not to reopen emergency services in a Roscommon hospital, an emotive issue for many of his constituents who wished for Fine Gael to follow through on their election promises to restore the service. It has now been shown that the decision not to reopen the service was correct as medical advice showed the safety of patients could not be ensured but Feighan had resigned himself to never running for public office again because of the fallout of his vote. He did not run for reelection in this years general election but was chosen by the Taoiseach as one of his eleven candidates to the Seanad. Listen to an Irish Times interview with Feighan about his mixed political career below: Although various Republics are within the current Commonwealth, Queen Elizabeth II of England is still its figurative head of state and she is recognized as a monarch within 16 of its countries. According to The Commonwealths official website, its current purpose is to support member governments, and partner with the broader Commonwealth family and others, to improve the well-being of all Commonwealth citizens and to advance their shared interests globally. Ireland left the Commonwealth in 1949. Do you think rejoining the Commonwealth could be a smart move for Ireland, or is the Emerald Isle better off as an independent Republic? Share your thoughts in the comment section, below. Murdered British MP Jo Cox has been remembered at a gathering in central Dublin as a smart, funny and passionate public servant and activist who was destined for the top. Crowds gathered by the Ha'penny Bridge - as others gathered in cities worldwide - to pay tribute to the mother-of-two on what would have been her 42nd birthday. Heartbroken personal friends and former work colleagues of both Ms Cox and her widower Brendan were among them. Jamie Drummond, who along with Bono co-founded poverty foundation One, was a friend of Ms Cox since her days working with aid agencies. "Jo stood for the best, whether as an activist on the outside or as an activist on the inside when she joined parliament," he said. "She stood for the best in public life and she brought out the best in people, and I hope posthumously she will bring out the best in people in Ireland, the UK and the world." Mr Drummond said he personally remembers Ms Cox for her great sense of humour. "She was just very funny and lively, had a wicked sense of humour and fantastic dimples," he smiled. "I know people in Ireland like to boast about their dimples but Jo could beat any Irish woman or man for her amazing dimples." He added: "That something so awful could happen to someone so brilliant is something that, everyone knows, has shocked everyone to the core. "Her death has impacted so many people around the world." Doug Keatinge became friendly with both Ms Cox and her widower from his time working with them overseas for Oxfam. "I remember her as being an extremely talented, determined but fun person," he said. "The kind of person you only meet very infrequently in your life that combines serious smarts with a great sense of humour and character. "You could see even from afar this was a woman who was destined for the very top - extremely able, extremely articulate and extremely passionate. "But with the passion she had pragmatism in terms of being able to reach out and work across the political divide with different people." A number of TDs turned out for the tribute. Many others took turns to sign their name and leave messages on a large billboard overlooking the River Liffey which read "Today I pledge to #LoveLikeJo". While many farmers are facing difficult market challenges in recent years, one in five agri-food firms have taken on new staff during the first quarter of 2016. InterTradeIreland surveyed 119 agri-food firms across the island, and unearthed very positive findings for their January to March activities. InterTradeIreland strategy and policy director, Aidan Gough, said: The results show that agri-food firms are more innovative than most with 77% of business implementing innovative new processes, new product development and new branding or design in the past three years. Many agri-food businesses seem to be in a positive place but they are not ignoring the future. Almost two thirds (62%) are scanning the horizon to see what areas of opportunity might be out there; from developing new premium products to taking advantage of the health and wellness agenda, he said. For those agri-food firms with ambitions to grow outside their local market, the main obstacles appear to be concerns about the cost of going into a new market or the impact this might have in terms of management time and resources. Those already exporting find different challenges in new markets with one in six agri-food firms (16%) saying that setting the right competitive price is a major challenge, while 13% cite compliance with regulations, and 11% of survey respondents say that they are challenged by financial resources. The agri-food sector which is the islands largest indigenous industry is now outperforming other sectors, including sales, employment, exporting and innovative activities. More than half (53%) of agri-food companies grew in the last quarter versus 39% of all other firms. In addition, 18% of agri-food companies surveyed have reported an increase in staff numbers this quarter with a further 27% planning to create job opportunities in the coming year. While primary producers have been challenged by low prices being paid for dairy, beef, sheepmeat and other commodities, agri-food industry leaders are pointing to better times ahead. It is encouraging to see that despite challenges and volatility in global markets, Irish agri food as a whole is going from strength to strength, stated Aaron Forde, Chief Executive of Aurivo, a globally-focused agri business headquartered in the north west of Ireland. As a leading agri-food business, we are delighted to contribute to the success of this strategically important sector for the island of Ireland. It is worth noting the importance of cross-border trade to the continuing success of this industry. "Furthermore, the increase in innovation over recent years will continue to benefit the industry in the years ahead. Aidan Gough, Strategy and Policy Director at InterTradeIreland, added: The growth in agri-food firms is most likely related to their strong tendency to be innovative and/or actively exporting. "The majority of agri-SMEs are selling across the border or exporting outside the island, which is twice the number of firms across the full spectrum of sectors. Hearteningly, for InterTradeIreland, 27% found the experience of cross-border trade influenced them to a large extent to go into other new markets. Many companies have told us that the export pathway towards markets in Great Britain and much further afield in the EU, Middle East and North America, can begin right here on our doorstep by trading across the island. www.intertradeireland.com/researchandpublications/business_monitor/ Costa reported underlying sales growth of 2.6% in the 13 weeks ended June 2, its financial first quarter, recovering from a disappointing 0.5% level it recorded in the 11 weeks to February 11. It blamed that performance on a mild winter and fewer people on the high street. Lawyers for Joseph Sheehan, who has a 28% shareholding in the clinic, told the Court of Appeal Mr Sheehan is prepared to pay higher interest to another lender to secure funds for loan redemption so as to be unchained from Mr Goodmans company, Breccia. The dispute concerns loans made by the former Anglo Irish Bank to Dr Sheehan and his fellow shareholder, Dr John Flynn and Mr Flynns company, Benray, for investing in the Dublin clinic. The loans were later acquired by the National Assets Management Agency which sold them to Breccia. Earlier this year, the High Court ruled the shareholders were entitled to redeem their loans for figures substantially less than sought by Breccia. Mr Justice Robert Haughton, having rejected arguments by Breccia concerning surcharges and enforcement costs, ruled Mr Sheehan could redeem his loans for 16.9m, not the some 20m sought by Breccia. In his separate case, Mr Flynn/Benray won an order allowing them redeem for 9.3m, not some 11m sought by Breccia. The judge also refused to put a stay on his orders after the shareholders undertook to provide Breccia with a second charge on their shares. Breccias appeal against those orders has been fixed for November 2017. Pending appeal, Breccia sought a stay from the Court of Appeal which would effectively prevent the shareholders proceeding with loan redemption until the appeal is decided. Alternatively, it asked the court to direct Mr Sheehan and Mr Flynn/Benray to pay into court sums totalling several million euro to represent the estimated difference between Breccias redemption claims and the redemption sums fixed by the High Court. Having heard argument, Ms Justice Mary Finlay Geoghegan gave her reserved decision yesterday in which she concluded that refusing a stay would best minimise any risk of injustice in this matter. Her conclusion took into account the fact the appeal would not be heard until November 2017 and that the High Court had decided the shareholders were entitled to redeem their loans at the sums fixed. It was also a matter of common sense and commercial reality a stay pending an appeal that might not be determined for up to 21 months might create uncertainty about availability of funding for loan redemption, she said. If they lost the required funding, that would be a very serious injustice when the High Court had ruled they were entitled to redeem their loans. It was not disputed by Breccia they were entitled to redeem their loans, the dispute was over the appropriate redemption figure, she said. The figures being sought by Breccia were a lot higher than demands for repayment of the same loans in 2014, she noted. The balance of justice was also against requiring the shareholders pay the funds sought in court, she ruled. She accepted arguments by John ODonnell SC on behalf of Dr Sheehan it would be highly unusual to require a winning party in the High Court to pay sums into court pending an appeal when the High Court found they were not liable for those. The judge stressed her decision was not concerned with the shareholders claims about the motivation and conduct of Breccia. The Cork-headquartered company has announced a voluntary redundancy programme which will affect up to 1,500 employees, predominantly in China. A number of support roles will also be lost, however, according to company founder and chief executive Liam Casey. Mr Casey said yesterday that there could be job losses at its Cork office where about 30 staff are employed but said that he wouldnt want to speculate on that just yet as PCH is concentrating on dealing with the Chinese redundancy package first. The move comes as PCH looks to reposition itself as a leader in areas such as the internet of things, wearables, and connected products for health, beauty, and luxury sectors. One of the great things were seeing is established large brands that are category leaders in their own sectors but theyre for non-tech products. A lot of those companies are looking at how do they enable their products to be internet of things-enabled. For us, the amount of interaction and the quality of client coming to us is whats really prompting us to be able to take advantage of these opportunities, said Mr Casey. PCH has already made significant progress in these high-growth areas thanks to the establishment of its innovation hub in San Francisco as well as through the acquisition of product development company, Lime Lab. This is the right time to make this change to support our long-term profitable growth. Although this is a tough decision, it supports our strategy to diversify our business and customer portfolio and grow profitably in the connected hardware space. PCH has made significant strategic investments in the acquisition of PCH Lime Lab, building up premier hardware accelerator Highway1, and establishing a San Francisco Innovation Hub to attract global brands and globally-focused tech startups operating in the connected hardware sector. As a result of these investments, PCH has cultivated a diverse set of new customers who partner with us because of our extensive and specialised experience in delivering sophisticated products and the custom supply chains to support them, Mr Casey said. The layoffs, which will largely affect its packaging business in China, is a further sign of its move away from commodity manufacturing which has been the backbone of the company for years. The redundancy programme will see PCHs global headcount fall from 2,100 to 600 with about half of the remaining staff based in China. [High-volume manufacturing is] a business we would have taken on a couple of years ago because it would have been attractive to us at the time. "But with our increased engineering in San Francisco and our earlier engagement with customers, its just not right for the profile of our business and the economics just dont work and weve made a decision that thats a piece of business that we want to get out of. The voluntary redundancy programme comes months after PCH left 250 workers go in China at the end of February. At the time, Mr Casey ruled out further job losses, saying the company was doing it all at once. The sale to be put before shareholders at an extraordinary general meeting next month will enable Providence to eliminate its debt and fund a planned drilling round next year; as well as increase its chances of concluding deals with development partners on its main assets off the west coast of Ireland and at Barryroe in the Celtic Sea. Speaking yesterday, Mr. OReilly said, if approved, the share sale will completely restructure Providences balance sheet and remove its financial instability. It will also broaden the companys UK institutional shareholder base. The $74m will come via a $68.4m placing of 399.6m ordinary shares with institutional and other investors and up to 4.84m through an additional open offer. The shares will be offered at a 13% discount to Providences trading price before its shares were suspended in April. The money will allow Providence pay off what it owes drilling services firm Transocean from a long-running dispute relating to the Barryroe field. Londons Court of Appeal, last April, ruled Transocean was owed up to $7m in costs by Providence and Lansdowne Oil and Gas, the 20% junior partner in Barryroe. Providence needs to pay 80% of those costs. Both firms shares have been suspended since that ruling, which resulted in Providence entering emergency funding talks with its chief lender Melody Capital. At the time of the court ruling, Providence had $4m in cash. It also owed Melody $21.7m by May of this year. This fund raise will also see Providence pay down $20m of that Melody debt, with the US lender converting the outstanding $1.7m into an equity stake in Providence. The money will also fund general working capital needs and Providences share of planned drilling costs. It plans to drill an exploration well at its Druid prospect, off the west coast, next year, dependent on getting a joint-venture partner, regulatory approval, and equipment availability. Providence said that its ongoing viability is likely to be dependent on the success of the proposed placing and open offers. It has applied for its shares to restart trading as of this morning (Lansdowne Oil and Gas announced its own funding deal and readmission plans late last week). Mr OReilly said Providences farm-out discussions on all assets remain active and encouraging. However, the company warned that even if a deal is done on its flagship Barryroe asset, the timing of actual drilling may be delayed as companies continue to reduce spending levels in the face of the current oil price environment. Mr Doorley suffered two broken shoulders during the incident, Dublin District Court heard. Taxi driver Mark Cruikshanks, aged 38, of Cushlawn Park, Tallaght, Dublin, pleaded not guilty to careless driving at Fleet St in Dublin on October 17, 2014. He claimed Mr Doorley rushed out in front of his Toyota but he was found guilty yesterday by Judge Miriam Walsh. Defence solicitor Kieran Friel asked the judge to note his client depended on his driving licence for work. He said his client would have to look for another job if disqualified from driving. Fining him, the judge noted that in special circumstances the court had discretion not to impose a road ban and she said would not disqualify him from driving. Mr Doorley told Judge Walsh he suffered two broken shoulders when he was knocked down. He alleged he checked if any cars were coming before he crossed the Fleet St junction with Westmoreland St. Mr Doorley appears as a resident critic in TV3s hit reality show The Restaurant. He told the court that he lives in Cork but also has a flat in Dublin. He said he went into the city centre for a business meeting and lunch at the Merrion Hotel. He drank two average sized glasses of red wine. Later, at about 6pm, he went to another restaurant for another meal during which he drank two small bottles of water. He then decided to get a taxi home and walked along Westmoreland St. At the junction with Fleet St, he said, he was on the outside flank of a number of people crossing the road. He had said he looked up Fleet St and confirmed nothing was coming. He claimed he proceeded to cross and he recalled that as he was about to step on to the pavement on the far side when he spun and ended up on a bonnet of a car. He said he then landed on the ground on his back. He broke both shoulders, the court heard. His left side was immobile for six months, he said. Cruikshanks told the court he picked up a passenger and had to make his way to Fleet St. He was 10m-15m from the corner and the road was clear as he continued driving. He said a person appeared in front of his car. He claimed Mr Doorley had been in the middle or the road when he was hit and other people were still waiting to cross. He said he would have braked if he had seen him but he rushed out in front of me. Ministers Shane Ross, John Halligan, and Finian McGrath are on a collision course with their Fine Gael counterparts over a bill seeking to allow for abortions in cases of fatal foetal abnormality. The bill is being brought forward by Independents for Change TD Mick Wallace. The alliance will formally decide on Friday what way they will go, but the three do not want to vote down Mr Wallaces bill. Last night, the Government press secretary said that ministers and government party TDs are unlikely to be given a free vote on proposals to liberalise the abortion laws during a private Dail motion being held next week. Taoiseach Enda Kennys refusal to allow government members a free vote is now threatening to result in the first major disagreement for the minority government and possibly even the loss of support of some ministers. Mr Halligan confirmed to the Irish Examiner last night that he would not back down from his position and intends to back the abortion proposals. The alliance has sought a free vote on the Wallace motion. I have voted all my life in this way, Mr Halligan said. However, Mr Halligans intentions are clear to his colleagues who say he is not for turning. He wont back down on this one, said one alliance minister. Mr McGrath, speaking to the Irish Examiner last night said he always supports the rights of individuals to vote freely on controversial issues like abortion. I have always supported freedom for conscience on controversial issues. The Independent Alliance will be deciding our position at a meeting on Friday on how we will vote as a collective group. But a key part of our group is the right of people to have different views. But we would like to decide as a group on Friday, he said. My own personal view is that we have to face the reality and deal with fatal foetal abnormality in rape and incest cases. That is my personal view but I respect other views, he said. It is understood that there is a split of opinion over the matter within the Independent Alliance as junior minister Sean Canney and Kevin Boxer Moran set to support the Government and vote down Mr Wallaces bill. A private members motion is scheduled to be tabled next week by Mr Wallace which is set to call for changes to abortion rules if there is a diagnosis of fatal foetal abnormality. Mr Kennys spokesman yesterday indicated that government members would not expect to be given a free vote on the issue and would be expected to fall into line in opposing the opposition motion. The spokesman said the only free vote that had been signalled in the programme for government was in relation to any Dail vote that may arise from a promised assembly and follow-on committee due to debate potential changes to the Eighth Amendment in the Constitution, which protects the life of the unborn. A free vote, as promised by the Taoiseach, would arise in that context, said the spokesman. If people stand up for a programme for government, there is an expectation they adhere to it. The spokesman said he did not expect a change to the current process or arrangement. He [Mr Kenny] has not spoken about a free vote in the context of any other vote, added the spokesman. Fine Gael and the alliance are on a direct collision course on this issue, which is expected to come before cabinet next week and could even result in a vote being taken by members across the table with Mr Kenny at the weekly meeting. Elsewhere, the Cabinet agreed yesterday to set in motion the Governments promise to set up a citizens assembly on examining potential changes to the Eighth Amendment. So what did we learn from the later-than-usual economic statement agreed by the Cabinet and released yesterday? The summer economic statement produced somewhat later because of the general election and government formation talks gives the macro economic projections for the economy and the fiscal space available next year. Ministers very happily announced, as expected, that an extra billion euro will be available for spending on services and tax cuts next year compared to this year. This is on the back of projected economic growth. There will also be an extra 1bn in capital spending. But the message was two-fold, for observers who might think that the boom times are back. Finance Minister Michael Noonan announced that a rainy day fund of 1bn a year will become available from 2019. This is when EU restrictions on spending here will be lifted too. Sensible spending, was the core message coming from the Government. Economic forecasts, however, could be moveable depending on the outcome of the Brexit vote in Britain on Thursday and in the days following the referendum, Mr Noonan admitted. It is this unknown factor and result which could cause dramatic changes to our ability to spend, cut taxes or even possibly just keep up with expected costs to run day-to-day services. In the meantime though, the Government are predicting that up to 11.3bn will be available to spend over the next five years. This includes the extra one billion euro next year. Mr Noonan explained: We will use the fruits of growth to repair damages now we have money, we can do better for healthcare, education and childcare. Reacting to the economic statement, former public expenditure minister and Labour leader Brendan Howlin expressed surprise that when there were huge demands for better services for broadband, roads and schools, the Government is planning to put money away and save it as a rainy day fund, even if that meant using the spare cash to pay down debt. While the spending projections may be rosy, the future of Irelands economy may very much depend on the outcome of this weeks Brexit vote. The manager of Kerry University Hospital, Maria Godley, is asking parents visiting the hospital not to bring children unless there were exceptional circumstances. Those with suspected measles, a highly contagious disease, should also not attend a doctors surgery and should instead arrange a home visit. The 15 cases so far were confirmed by GPs and public health nurses and technically the level was now an outbreak. However there may be more milder cases which had not been confirmed, Ms Godley said. This outbreak has been traced to April and the arrival of a person by plane who presented at hospital. The disease is airborne and highly contagious. Recently a child who presented at the Accident and Emergency department at KUH and was there for a number of hours was found to have had 120 contacts, which had to be traced by clerical staff. The emergency department and the paediatric departments have been under huge pressure. Martin Boyd, consultant at the emergency department, said measles was difficult to spot until the rash appeared and the most contagious period was four days before the rash, and four days after its appearance. Sore throat, head cold, runny nose, conjunctivitis, cough and fever were among the symptoms. Those who get the two sets of MMR vaccinations (at 12 months and at four years) are 99% protected against the virus, Mr Boyd assured the public on Radio Kerry. Members of the Oireachtas have also signed a book of condolence that was opened in Leinster House last Friday. Taoiseach Enda Kenny led tributes to the British MP, saying that the outpouring of grief and dismay at her murder gave a strong indication to her standing as an individual and a public representative. Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin also offered his deepest sympathies to Jos husband Brendan, and her two young children. He said the murder of a public representative in a democracy is thankfully a very rare and shocking event but one that society should reflect upon. He paid tribute to Ms Coxs record in politics, describing her as a person who was passionate, and independent in both mind and spirit. Brendan Howlin, leader of the Labour Party, gave a powerful description of his experience of hearing the news of Ms Coxs murder while campaigning alongside British Labour members for the EU referendum last week: Word came through to the British MPs that were with us, and a British MEP who knew Jo very well. It was very emotional. Mr Howlin said Jo Cox would have a legacy that stood up for progressive politics: She will inspire us to redouble our efforts to combat extremism and hatred in all its forms Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams said Ms Cox was a believer in equality for women, and a fierce opponent of racism, intolerance and injustice whenever they existed. In a mark of respect Labour TDs and senators wore white roses, as did MPs at Westminster earlier this week. In total the DPC received 14,427 queries by email, 16,173 by phone, and 855 by post, according to its annual report, published yesterday. Some 932 were opened as complaints for investigation and over 60% of those related to access rights. The high level of complaints, the report suggests, shows the extent of the difficulties some individuals experience exercising their statutory right of access. The next largest portion of complaints related to electronic direct marketing. While most disputes were resolved amicably, commissioner Helen Dixon made formal decisions in 52 cases, 43 of which upheld a complaint. One complaint upheld by the commissioner related to CCTV cameras being used in certain areas of the workplace. A supermarket worker was dismissed from her job after she placed a paper bag over a CCTV camera in the staff canteen. She was on an official break and her colleague was styling her hair. In that case, the commissioner found the employer had breached data protection laws. Several other complaints the commissioner upheld related to CCTV monitoring. Separate to this area of complaints is the issue of information on the internet and a persons right to be forgotten. Ms Dixon said a major focus of her office in 2015 was liaising with technology companies that have headquarters here in order to deal with this matter. The office engaged with companies such as Microsoft, Google, LinkedIn, Airbnb, and Facebook in 2015. Our engaged approach to interacting with the many tech multinationals based here, as well as other public and private sector organisations, continues to be central to our role/ensuring that data protection rights are upheld, while also ensuring access to digital services that many enjoy and even rely upon, said Ms Dixon. Another function of the office is to carry out audits of organisations to ascertain how compliant they are with data protection law. Some businesses audited in 2015 by the DPC included Aer Lingus, Littlewoods, Aldi, Bank of Ireland, and Zurich Insurance. Although the inspection teams found that there was a reasonably high awareness of, and compliance with, data protection principles in the organisations that were inspected, the majority required immediate remedial action in certain areas, states the report. From an international perspective, the DPC took part in a global survey (GWEN Sweep) last year which looked at practices of websites and mobile applications aimed at young people. Results from this global study found that 41% of the websites and apps surveyed raised major concerns, specifically relating to the level of personal data collected and then shared with third parties. Other results found that 67% of apps and sites studies collected childrens personal information and 22% gave young people the opportunity to provide their phone number. A further 71% of the sites and apps did not offer an easy route to deleting account information. The Equality Tribunal ruled the department had discriminated against the student on grounds of her disability and had not provided her with reasonable accommodation under the Equal Status Acts. It also directed the department to review its grants schemes to allow for applicants to meet and engage with decision makers. The tribunal heard the student, who suffered from dyslexia, migraine, and obsessional compulsive disorders, began a three-year degree course in social science at UCC in 2010. In 2011 she agreed with UCC she would be allowed to complete the course over a six-year period, taking each course year over two years. She was charged a full registration fee in each year. However, when she applied for the continuation of her maintenance grant from Cork City Council, she was informed the grant would not be paid for years two, four, and six of her studies. In December 2012, the Department of Education rejected the students appeal to the councils decision on the basis the grant scheme did not allow for a one-year course to be pursued over two years. The student told the Equality Tribunal she had to seek funding from the UCC Student Unions hardship fund to help pay her registration fees, which required her to disclose sensitive matters about her condition which had caused her embarrassment. She complained that the Department of Educations refusal was both arbitrary and unfair. The department denied discrimination, stating the terms of the Higher Education Grants Scheme did not allow her to obtain grant funding over a six-year period. It also pointed out the student had benefitted from a number of supportive financial arrangements made available to her by UCC which ultimately were paid by the department. It would have cost the department an extra 20,000 in grants to pay for the extra three years of her studies. The tribunal said it was somewhat perplexed by the departments lack of response to numerous medical submissions made by the student. It found the department had not engaged in an in-depth examination of the students circumstances in her appeal. It also noted that department officials had never met the student to tease out her views. The announcement was made yesterday during a visit by director general of the ESA Jan Woerner to Ireland. It follows an agreement between the ESA and the Tyndall National Institute that will see a Space Business Incubator established to support fledgling Irish businesses in space related technologies. The number of Irish companies in the space sector is expected to soar to more than 80, with annual income rising from 76 million in 2015 to 135m by 2020. The new multi-disciplinary entity, led by the Cork-based Tyndall National Institute will help to develop 25 Irish start-up companies in space-related technologies by 2020. Minister for Jobs Mary Mitchell OConnor described it as an exciting time for the Irish space industry. With the support of my Department and Enterprise Ireland, the Irish space sector is set to expand at an unprecedented rate over the next few years. Our investment in ESA will manifest itself through new companies entering the space sector, scaling of existing companies and the development of a strong cohort of high technology start-ups, leading to increased sales, exports and jobs. Investment in ESA space programmes, given the pace of expansion of the Global and European space economies, will put high-tech Irish companies and researchers in a position to exploit this potential to the maximum, she said. Details of a partnership between the Irish Research Council and the ESA were also revealed yesterday to mark Mr Woerners visit during which he met Taoiseach Enda Kenny. The traineeship agreement will give Irish science and engineering graduates a chance to make their mark on space exploration. Announcing details of the partnership Dr Eucharia Meehan, director of the Irish Research Council, said: This is a hugely exciting opportunity for science and engineering graduates. We are delighted to be embarking on this partnership, which will allow Irish graduates in these sectors to get involved in cutting-edge space research projects on the international stage. Dr Woerner said: This agreement will provide opportunities for young men and women from the Irish R&D community to come to ESA sites around Europe and collaborate on exciting space projects and innovative technology developments. Earlier this month, the local authority granted planning permission to Cleanrath Windfarm Ltd to build six wind turbines near Inchigeelagh. The planned farm is sited at the head of the Toon river that flows into the forest, a special area of conservation. In recent months, Cork County Council has been taking part in meetings with the ESB, Inland Fisheries Ireland, and the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) about the future conservation of the Gearagh site. Kevin Corcoran of the West Cork Ecology Centre, who has long campaigned for the 1,500-acre Gearagh forest to become an eco-tourism site, said the windfarm decision makes a mockery of the councils biodiversity action plan, which actually includes Gearagh images: Despite clear evidence to show that the forested islands of the unique river delta will undergo further disintegration by increased flash flooding, council planners dismissed such concerns and accepted the opposing arguments of the developer. This is the fourth time Cleanrath has lodged the windfarm planning application. Their first application was rejected as invalid by the local authority; a second was withdrawn. The third application was refused by the council, but the developers appealed to An Bord Pleanala. The boards inspector recommended rejection, but the board granted permission. In response, a local couple managed to raise the money to fund a judicial review which halted the application last year. However, this fourth and latest planning application was given the green light by Cork County Council, to the disappointment of families and environmentalists. Originally, the developers sought 11 turbines but the council only allowed six, as an earlier Bord Pleanala report expressed concerns about the farms environmental impact on the areas ecology. Locals have gathered 3,000 signatures as part of a petition against the development to be sent to the EU Commission on Environmental Law Enforcement and Cohesion. A section of the Gearagh was controversially flooded by the ESB in the 1950s to make way for hydroelectric dams at Carrigadrohid and Inniscarra. Thousands of ancient oak and yew trees were destroyed. However, over the past 30 years, much of the area has begun to revert back to forest as seeds from the older forest germinate. Willow, birch, hazel and oak have all started to grow. A council spokesman said they were unable to comment as the case was under appeal. Crosshaven RNLI crew, which patrols the busy Cork Harbour area, have begun training on their new Atlantic 85 class vessel which arrived on Monday from the RNLIs lifeboat centre in Cowes, in England. It was provided with one condition from the benefactor that it be named the John and Janet. The four-person lifeboat will replace the old three-person vessel, the Atlantic 75 class Miss Betty, which will be returned to the UK to become part of the RNLIs relief fleet. The 7.3-metre Miss Betty has been based in Crosshaven since 2002, just two years after the lifeboat station was established in the harbour village on a trial basis, and a year after the lifeboat station was declared a permanent facility. The station is now one of the busiest in Ireland, launching 42 times last year, saving 50 lives, with up to a fifth of their call-out time on the water spent operating in darkness. The crew are now undergoing an intensive four-day training programme on board their new vessel, which is due to enter service on Friday. Atlantic class lifeboats usually operate closer to shore than all-weather lifeboats, in shallower water, close to cliffs, among rocks and even in caves. At 8.5-metres in length, the new vessel is longer and more powerful than Miss Betty which had a top speed of 31 knots and an operating limit of three hours. Powered by two inversion proofed 115hp engines, which stay operational even after capsize, John and Janet has a top speed of 34 knots and has a manually operated self-righting mechanism. Atlantic 85s have stronger hulls which allow them to be beached in an emergency without sustaining damage to engines or steering gear. The new lifeboat will be officially dedicated and named at a ceremony on September 11. Marie McNally said she could never get over the loss of her two boys as she attended an inquest into the death of her younger son, Alan McNally (36). My life is over, she said. Mr McNally from Cappagh Avenue, Finglas, Dublin 11 died due to gunshot wounds on February 2 2012. The father of three sons, the youngest of whom was six when his father was killed, spent the hours before his death drinking in a Finglas pub. He had previously told a friend, Laura Pennick that his 'head was wrecked' due to an ongoing threat to his life. Mr McNally went to the Cappagh House pub in Finglas around midday on February 1 2012. Laura Pennick said she made numerous attempts to persuade him to leave throughout the day. She spoke to him around 1.10am on February 2 and he said he was leaving. Moments later, Gardai directed all free units to the scene of a reported shooting at the bar. Ms Pennick said Mr McNally had been in great form the day before his death, laughing and joking. She said the Cappagh House pub wouldnt be somewhere he would normally go or stay all day. Mr McNally had been badly beaten following a row with some gang from Ballymun, according to Ms Pennick. He said they were not people you would want to start something with. He was on edge about it, he was worried, she said. Alan McNally Gary Thompson said he was drinking at the bar all day on February 1 with Mr McNally. We were fairly drunk and out of our heads, Mr Thompson said in his statement. I was talking to Alan and next thing I heard a loud bang. I saw a fellas arm, a black gun. I jumped off the stool and ran out to the lounge into the storeroom and shut the door behind me. I thought it was me they were after, Mr Thompson said. Mr McNally was rushed to Connolly Hospital where he was pronounced dead. The cause of death was multiple gunshot wounds, according to a post-mortem carried out by Deputy State Pathologist Dr Michael Curtis. Detective Inspector Des McTiernan said Gardai followed 450 lines of inquiry and took 250 witness statements as part of a detailed murder investigation but ultimately no charges were brought. All avenues were pursued to their finality but the case remains open, Det Insp McTiernan said. Mr McNallys older brother Graham was murdered in Finglas in 2008 aged 34. The jury returned a verdict of unlawful killing. Coroner Dr Myra Cullinane extended her sympathies to Mrs McNally. This is a very tragic case. Im aware you been bereaved previously in a similar fashion, this must be an unbearable burden to bear. Ends Commitments are still in place to phase out the universal social charge over the next five years, Finance Minister Michael Noonan said, although reductions will be clawed back for higher earners. A rainy day fund to help any volatility in the economy of around 1bn a year will also be made available to use every year between 2019 and 2021, the Cabinet agreed. The announcements were made as part of the summer economic statement, published yesterday. It sets out the blueprint for next years budget and at this stage projects that there will be an extra 1bn in fiscal space next year. This is due to projected growth in the economy, officials say. Mr Noonan said the economy was making very strong progress and would grow by 5% this year and up to 4% next year. The Government needs to remain prudent and have planned for a 3bn rainy day fund to be spent for three years from 2019. Separately, Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe outlined how an extra 1bn would be available for capital spending next year, meaning 5bn would be there for the next five years. Departments and organisations, particularly acute hospitals, needed to be conscious of staying within their budgets, he said. Extra capital spending would help address deficiencies in schools, hospitals and transport, he said. Mr Noonan was also asked about the what effects a Brexit would have on the Irish economy. He referred to figures in the economic statement, compiled by the ESRI, which predict that growth could be reduced by between 0.5% and 1.6% in the years ahead if Brexit goes ahead. This meant that economic projections were moveable, depending on what the outcome is this week in Britain. Officials in Government openly say a Leave vote will be a shock to the Irish economy. Asked if he would stay a full five years as minister and whether the Government would equally last as long, Mr Noonan said he had signed up for government and well see what happens. Nobody has an idea how long it [the minority government] will last. He pointed out that the confidence agreement with Fianna Fail was set to last three years, after which it will be reviewed. The minister also reiterated a Fine Gael election promise to scrap USC by 2021. Further reductions will be made to the charge for next year for lower and middle income earners. Overall though, USC savings for higher earners, possibly on salaries in excess of 70,000, will be clawed back, he added. There will not be pro-rate decreases for higher earners, he added. The Government also said the budget next year would be split with two thirds going on services and a third on tax cuts. Fianna Fail Public Expenditure spokesman Dara Calleary described the economic statement as devoid of consideration of the potentially massive impact of Britain voting to leave the EU. Ray McDonagh appeared before Limerick District Court, charged with assault causing harm to a woman on June 12, and with stealing the womans car on the same date. Yesterday, as his case was being heard, Mr McDonagh complained he no longer wished to physically appear before court while his case was awaiting directions from the DPP. The accused indicated he would prefer to appear before the court via video link. He told presiding judge, Mary Larkin: I dont want to be in this place. A few minutes after he was remanded via video link to a later date, Mr McDonagh re-emerged in the court body, looking to speak to the judge. As gardai and prison officers attempted to remove him, Mr McDonagh shouted out: Ill kill the whole lot of ye bastards. As he was tackled further by additional gardai and prison officers, he shouted: Bastards, the whole lot of ye. Mr McDonagh is charged with striking a woman and stealing her car, with the woman still in the vehicle. The woman was let out of the car after pleading with Mr McDonagh to let her out, gardai told an earlier bail hearing. After he was charged Mr McDonagh allegedly told gardai: Im sorry, I didnt mean to do it. The vehicle was found 12 hours later submerged in water at Seafield, Quilty, Co Clare. Mr McDonagh was arrested afterwards in Limerick City. Mr McDonagh cried throughout the bail hearing, prompting Judge Larkin to scold him, Behave like an adult, she said, addressing the accused. Youre like a 16-year old who got caught with his hands in the cookie jar. Now, pull yourself together. After Mr McDonagh continued sobbing, the judge told him: I can assure you, your crying doesnt cut any mustard in my court. Yesterday, Sgt Donal Cronin, prosecuting, told the court new charges may be brought in relation to the same alleged incident. Judge Larkin remanded Mr McDonagh in custody, to appear before Limerick District Court again on July 5. The relationship between British colleges and Irish students would have to be negotiated if Brexit occurs, the Department of Education has said. EU membership means Irish students can study in Britain or Northern Ireland and pay the same fees as domestic students. However, Brexit would end this setup and could see Irish students having to apply as international students, incurring fees of 13,000 to 22,000 per year to study in Britain or the North. The Department of Education says a new arrangement would need to be worked out with British universities and EU students, and that the Irish government will seek to emphasise our very particular relationship with Northern Ireland and the UK, a fact that is widely understood by our EU partners. However, the current relationship would not be guaranteed in the uncertainty of Brexit. Last year 2,085 Irish students went to study in Britain and Northern Ireland according to UCAS, which processes British third-level college applications. Similarly, CAO figures showed this year 2,193 UK A-level students applied to Irish colleges and universities, up from 2,094 in 2014. However, in a Brexit scenario Irish students would no longer be able to apply as common EU citizens to the UK, and would have to do so as international students. Tuition fees for international students in Britain and the North range from 13,000 to 22,000 for arts or sciences courses, and 26,000 to 39,000 for clinical courses such as medicine or physiotherapy. British and Northern Irish students can also take advantage of shared EU membership to study in Ireland and pay the same rates as home students, which is currently 3,000 a year. Circuit Court president Mr Justice Raymond Groarke said he was happy the new offer would be sufficient to compensate Kyle Tighe Donoghue for the traumatic incident he suffered while attending Doras Bui Creche, Bunratty Drive, Coolock, Dublin. Barrister Peter Maguire yesterday told the court that following talks between the parties, a previous offer of 20,000 had been doubled. He said that in December 2014, Kyle was taken to the toilet in the creche, when another child slammed the toilet door on Kyles hand severing the top joint of the ring finger on his left hand. The court heard that Kyles mother, Rachel Tighe Donoghue, of Bunratty Road, Coolock, was called to the creche by a staff member. She had been told Kyle had an injury to his finger which would need stitches. Mr Maguire, who appeared with Thomas Loomes solicitors, said an ambulance had been called and on the way to Childrens University Hospital, Temple Street, Dublin, a paramedic, while wanting to dress Kyles wound, discovered the top of the boys finger was missing. The court heard that Ms Tighe Donoghue made an urgent call to the creche to recover the severed part which was later found still attached to the toilet door. Mr Maguire said Kyles fingertip was appropriately packaged by creche staff and rushed to the hospital where it was reattached under general anaesthetic. The court heard that Kyles finger had no functional deficit, but there had been concern that he may have a residual psychological trauma. Kyle, through his mother Rachel, sued Doras Bui Creche, A Parents Alone Resource Centre Ltd, for negligence. Mr Maguire said he was recommending the new 40,000 settlement offer which was approved by the judge. Last November, Judge Groarke said he was not enthusiastic about the 20,000 offer as it was too early to determine the matter. For higher level chemistry candidates, Ciara OShea of the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) thought diagrams were used well throughout the paper. While a titration question on vinegar had a calculation phrased a bit differently to what they would be used to, she thought it was nonetheless a nice opening question. Students who did their practical work over the two-year senior cycle would have been rewarded, and she found no problems with the short questions on the exam. Mary OCallaghan, the Teachers Union of Ireland (TUI) subject spokesperson said all elements of the syllabus featured in a fair and balanced paper. She said it was good to see students challenged in areas like data analysis and the application of their chemical knowledge to new scientific areas. Ms OCallaghan said the ordinary level exam was also fair and balanced, covering a wide range of the syllabus. She thought the wide-ranging questions gave students good choice, and said a reasonably-prepared student should have found it within their capabilities. Ms OShea said ordinary level students would probably have been pleased with a question about water, as it is a topic they tend to like. The reference to two organic preparations within the first question rewarded students who had their practical work done. There were very nice diagrams and an atomic theory question was very accessible However, Ms OShea said there was a lot of detail in some of the short questions for students at this level. Yesterday mornings Leaving Certificate higher level Spanish paper was described as challenging but fair by Robbie Cronin of the ASTI. He thought the comprehension section was good, particularly a very interesting piece about Uruguays ex-president Jose Mujica on which fair questions were based. Mr Cronin thought the optional opinion pieces, asking to write on statements about life being simple or doing more for others. However, he thought another comprehension piece was very difficult. There was very tough language in the item about a teenager who fell from a cliff while taking a selfie, and the difficult rescue that followed. While the dialogue question was considered a good option, some students would have found it difficult offering a translation for a sailing course which they were to ask about in the conversation. There was also a nice letter question about part-time work, and the choices of note or diary entry were fair. Mr Cronin thought the ordinary level exam, taken by around 1,700 of the 6,700 Leaving Certificate Spanish candidates, was very fair. Unfortunately, however, he thought the first section was very difficult. He suggested the first question was not properly asked, as the answer was not in the paragraph suggested to students. The written section of the exam was good, he said, and of an expected standard. Mr Cronin said a comprehension piece about graffiti was interesting, but a little bit challenging. Judge Con OLeary had adjourned Anthony Wests sentencing until yesterday to consider a psychiatric report and to hear from the mother of the child. The judge said the report showed the accused mans lack of empathy, and also showed him to be sufficiently in control of his faculties to come up with a cock-and-bull story about what happened on the day. Judge OLeary said it was a serious case and that against a maximum possible sentence, he was allowing for the plea of guilty and sentenced West to eight months in prison. The mother of the child said it was a very frightening experience on the day, October 12, 2015, and that she still found it frightening to think of what happened. Inspector Mary King said yesterday that the mother was bringing her three-year-old son to a creche when she noticed a man dressed in black pointing a gun at her child. Insp King gave details of the incident at Cork District Court yesterday when 40-year-old man faced sentencing on three charges arising out of the incident. The incident in Cork City the day after the fatal shooting of Garda Tony Golden in Co Louth. Insp King said that as the woman arrived at the playschool she saw a man taking a firearm out. He was dressed all in black dancing around the front of the house, said Insp King. He started pointing the gun at the child. The woman was frightened. She shielded the child and moved him into the creche. Gardai Danielle Hegarty and Matthew OMahony were the first to arrive on the scene. Gardai saw West in the front of the house with the black handgun pointed at them. They got out of range of what turned out to be an imitation firearm. Gardai from the Armed Response Unit arrived at the scene and drew their firearms. When they did so, the man dropped his imitation gun. West, aged 40, of 7 Pophams Rd, Cork, pleaded guilty yesterday to three counts of making threats to kill, namely threatening to kill the two gardai and the mother of the child. Joseph Cuddigan, defence solicitor, said the accused had been diagnosed with a transient psychotic condition as a result of prolonged cannabis use, and that this personality disorder could explain the lack of victim empathy. Mr Cuddigan complained that before the threatening charges was brought, the accused was before Cork District Court for several months on a charge of having a firearm even though, the solicitor claimed, the DPP knew the firearm charge was never sustainable and would be withdrawn. He complained that this was a Kafkaesque abuse of his constitutional rights. On that point Judge OLeary said: I cannot understand why the charge [the charge under the Firearms Act was ultimately withdrawn by the State] was kept before the court where the State had information it could not be sustained. In relation to the account of events given by the accused to his psychiatrist, the judge said it reflected extremely badly on him that he would come up with an account that was so at variance with the one given by the inspector. Ever since, various notions of populating the moon including an out-of-this-world Disneyland were promoted but dismissed as the fantasies of the scientific lunatic fringe. That may be about to change if Jan Woerner, the director general of the European Space Agency (ESA) has his way. Living and working on the moon may sound like science fiction, but Mr Woerner, who was in Dublin yesterday to sign a partnership agreement between the Irish Research Council and the ESA, is determined to make this giant leap a reality. It would take the form of an international network of research labs known as Diverse Lunar Surface Operations but which he prefers to call the Moon Village. My intention is to build up a permanent base station on the moon, he says in an ESA broadcast. In the Moon Village we would like to combine the capabilities of different spacefaring nations, with the help of robots and astronauts. The participants can work in different fields perhaps they will conduct pure science and perhaps there will even be business ventures like mining or tourism. Earlier this year, the ESA unveiled plans to construct a 3D-printed moon base and has now laid out a timetable that could see the project completed by 2030. The Moon Village would be printed from regolith, a naturally-occurring material on the moon that would protect the base from harmful radiation. The plan is to build the village as a pit-stop to Mars, replacing the International Space Station after its lifetime ends and in order to test technologies needed to make the trip to Red Planet. The idea of the Moon Village says Mr Woerner, is to bring together different interests of companies and countries, meaning for instance robotics and humans but also totally different interests like mining, tourism, but also especially science. The agency has a budget in excess of 4bn a year and a staff of 2,000 across its member countries, including Ireland. More than 50 Irish companies are involved in ESA programmes. There is a lot of interest in building a community on the moon for mining and science, Mr Woerner said yesterday, speaking on RTEs Morning Ireland. If, for instance, you go to a little bit to the far side of the moon then you are in the shadow of the moon, meaning that all the radiation coming from the earth our telecommunication etc is shadowed. Therefore, you can have very a nice look into the universe. There are a lot of practical operations, even for tourism and some companies are interested in building a hotel on the moon. Mr Woerner sees the prospect of lunar operations as far more feasible than building colonies on Mars. It is exactly 350,000kms from Earth. To go to the moon and back takes about seven days, so you could do it on summer holiday. It takes three days to get to the moon but to go to Mars takes about two years. The large three-storey building overlooking the harbour town began life as a workhouse in the 19th century. It later became a hospital and is where the storyteller Peig Sayers died in 1958. Closed since the west Kerry community hospital opened in 2010, there have been calls to convert it into an arts and education centre. However, given that restaurant owners, pubs, and food businesses are unable to get specialist outside staff because of an acute shortage of accommodation in Dingle, councillors are now looking to convert the building into apartments. West Kerry councillor Michael OShea (FF) has told a meeting of the county council that the lack of accommodation for staff in Dingle is now a crisis. He said there is also a problem with single local people on social housing lists, some of whom had been on the lists for a decade or more. Dingle had a very large bachelor population and older people on their own found it next to impossible to get social housing in Dingle, said Mr OShea. The lack of accommodation is having a massive effect on business, he said. Business leaders had approached him recently to try to find a solution. Mr OShea suggested the old Dingle hospital be turned into self-contained apartments for seasonal staff as well as for local need. The price of property in the area was beyond the reach of most local people and no social housing had been built in around seven years, said Mr OShea. The council said it has held meetings with the HSE, which is the owner of old hospital buildings in Killarney as well as in Dingle, with a view to converting them to accommodation. Other public lands and buildings were also being looked at, according to a written report produced for Mr OShea. Dingle Oceanworld, one of Kerrys biggest tourist attractions, has recently spoken out about how difficult it was to get accommodation for staff in Dingle. Maire Treasa OShea, of the aquarium said that there is absolutely no staff accommodation, adding that its been difficult for years, but given that 2016 has been one of the busiest tourist seasons yet, the situation has worsened. Oceanworld employee Axelle Lepee, 23 and originally from the Auvergne region of France, had searched for accommodation since February and had been staying in a B&B. Two weeks ago she finally managed to get a room. According to a new report by Property Industry Ireland (PII) the Ibec group representing businesses working in the property and construction sector there was just over 2,000 housing starts in the first quarter of this year, of which 38% were one-offs. The total level of housebuilding is forecast at 11,000 units in 2016. The report pointed out that, while there is a substantial amount of new office supply under construction and awaiting planning in Dublin, there is a lack of Grade A office accommodation is the common thread across other urban markets. This is putting office rents under pressure, most notably in Cork, where office rents were up by 8% in the first three months of this year. In the region of 740 million of commercial investment transactions were recorded in the first three months of this year, just two-thirds of the corresponding level of investment in the same period last year. PII director Dr Peter Stafford said more needs to be done to increase the number of houses being built. Based on leading indicators, it looks like only 11,000 new houses will be completed in Ireland in 2016. This represents another year when demand for new houses will far outstrip supply. While it is good news that the proportion of one-off houses is falling, more needs to be done to bring new developments through financing and planning, and on to construction, he said. Dr Stafford said the industry welcomes intervention by housing minister Simon Coveney in reviewing blockages and delays in the planning system and that it eagerly awaits the publication of governments Action Plan for Housing. Director of DKM Economic Consultants, who compiled the report, Annette Hughes, said scarcity of Grade A space in sought after locations in the commercial property sector is a common thread in the report: This is probably what would be expected in a market lacking any signs of construction activity for almost seven years until 2015. The veteran sailor, who is competing in a pre-Games regatta in Rio before his 11th Paralympics in August, spoke out after the latest in a series of violent incidents affecting paralympic sailors based in Rio. I am not being sensationalist about this. There is real, live danger on the streets here. I would urge people who are considering coming out here as spectators to be super cautious, and to be aware of the problems, said Mr Twomey. The security arrangements for the athletes are pretty good, but I would have real concerns for spectators. Ive been to a lot of international events all over the world and Ive never seen it so bad. The Kinsale Yacht Club member, who won gold in Seoul in 1988, also criticised the water quality around Rios Paralympic and Olympic sailing course, which he said is littered with plastic rubbish that is fouling rudders. Mr Twomey spoke out last night after a gun battle erupted between rival gangs across the street from a neighbouring yacht club, just days after two members of the Australian team were robbed at gunpoint. Australian team members, sailor Liesl Tesch and team official Sarah Ross, were confronted by two men, one armed with a gun, while riding their bikes in a park near their hotel on Sunday. I was threatened with the pistol and pushed to the ground, said Tesch. He took my bike, and the other perpetrator took Sarahs bike. We are both shaken, but physically were both okay. Australian Sailing chief executive Matt Carroll said they are working with the Australian Paralympic Committee and Australian Federal Police to ensure the team has an appropriate level of security in the lead-up to, and during, both the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Earlier this month, two members of a drugs gang armed with machine guns stole two Team Great Britain ribs from a yacht club in Niteroi across the bay from where Mr Twomey is staying. The yacht club was hit by stray bullets from a nearby gunfight some weeks ago. Mr Twomey praised the security arrangements around his accommodation just outside Rio and said athletes will be well protected, but he urged extreme caution to anyone who intends visiting Rio as a spectator. The continued decision to delay the proposed air route has been described by Mr Ross as puzzling. He said that while he is not meeting Mr Biden himself, he feels an early decision to clear this blockage should be sought by Mr Kenny this week. Fine Gael Seanad leader, Jerry Buttimer, questioned Mr Ross yesterday in the Seanad over the delay in securing a North Atlantic route connecting Cork and the US. Mr Buttimer claimed that the lack of movement on the issue is coming from an impasse on the US side. The Cork-based senator said he hopes government officials will bring up the issue with Mr Biden during his six-day visit to Ireland. He expressed his wish that members of the Government will impress upon him the importance and centrality of this new route from Cork in promoting our country in North America. Last April, the US Department of Transportation granted a permit to Norwegian Air International to fly from Cork to the US, but the tentative decision has yet to be finalised and signed off on by Washington. Mr Ross stated the delay is clearly not in the interest of the many people on both sides of the Atlantic who had intended to avail of the new service. He added he looks forward to the decision being confirmed as soon as possible, so the airline can start operating the new route from Cork to Boston and other new transatlantic routes. The European Commission is also eager to see the Cork-US route go forward and has stated it would have the right to launch an arbitration process if the backlog continues, he said. The blockage would fall under the remit of the EU-US Open Skies Agreement, Mr Ross told the Upper House. The agreement allows for European airlines to operate flights from the EU to the US, and US airlines to run flights within the EU. The European Commission supports the Norwegian airline securing a permit to fly from Cork, to ensure a more competitive transatlantic aviation market. Mr Ross said he will try to push for a final decision on the matter: I and the department will continue to liaise closely with the Irish embassy in Washington, the Irish Aviation Authority, and the European Commission, and we will continue to take the appropriate steps to help secure this important new service for Cork. Thirty-nine grounds of appeal have been advanced against the High Courts rejection of Mr Shatters challenge to barrister Sean Guerins report of May 2014. The appeal concluded after a day-long hearing yesterday before Judge Sean Ryan, presiding, and Judges Mary Finlay Geoghegan and Mary Irvine. The court has reserved judgment. Outlining the appeal, Paul Sreenan, counsel for Mr Shatter, argued the Guerin report reached conclusions which were highly critical of his client who was not afforded fair procedures or the right to be heard before it was given to the Taoiseach who later published it. The report inflicted a serious injustice on the former minister, a holder of important constitutional office, career politician, and citizen with rights to his good name and to earn a livelihood, who had no alternative but to resign. It was clear any adverse findings had potential to damage his good name and livelihood and there was no compelling reason not to give him the right to be heard on any proposed adverse findings. While findings of the OHiggins Commission that Mr Shatter acted properly at all times might go some way to alleviate the damage, the Guerin report directly caused Mr Shatters resignation and damage to his good name, he argued. The report contained findings recognised by the Taoiseach among others as hard-hitting and described in the media as explosive and damning of Mr Shatter as minister, counsel said. Had Mr Shatter been heard, it was likely such findings would not have been included, he argued. Mr Guerin clearly made findings of fact, including the only action the minister took on foot of the confidential report concerning the McCabe complaints was to seek a response from the Garda commissioner which he did not challenge in any meaningful way, he said. Mr Guerin has denied any unfairness and argued that his report contained observations, not conclusions, based on documents provided for the review by the Department of Justice. His counsel, Paul Anthony McDermott, argued Mr Guerin was asked by the Government of which Mr Shatter was then a part to prepare a scoping report and the consequences that flowed were a result of purely political decisions. The High Court accurately described Mr Shatters case as extraordinary and said he was rewriting history in asserting the purpose of his case was not to mount a collateral attack on the OHiggins Commission set up, in line with Mr Guerins recommendations, to inquire into the McCabe claims, counsel said. Mr Shatter had seemed to envisage a commission that would look at all aspects of the handling of the McCabe complaints except the role of his department, counsel said. If, as was claimed, the Taoiseach only allowed Mr Shatter read three chapters (1,19, and 20) of the report, that was political and Mr Shatter had not read chapter three where Mr Guerin said he was not deciding anything, counsel said. Mr Guerin gave Mr Shatter the fair procedures required of a scoping exercise such as this was and there was ample basis for the High Courts finding against Mr Shatter on all grounds and describing several of his claims as extraordinary and unstateable. Known locally, in Cobh, Co Cork, as Heartbreak Pier, its hoped it will be refurbished as a tourist attraction to coincide with its 150th birthday next year. Its estimated that more than 1m people walked on it as they emigrated to Australia and the US. Ownership of the pier was unclear for a number of years. However, after a lengthy process to identify the title holder, the pier was finally purchased by Titanic Experience Cobh Ltd in 2014. A joint venture between Port of Cork, Cork County Council, and Titanic Experience was initiated to stabilise the structure in December 2015 and January 2016. The design incorporates new steel piles alongside the existing piles that had collapsed. They are visually unobtrusive and do not detract from the overall look of the pier. Hidden angle connections have been installed to the joints, as have new bolts which match existing connections as far as is possible. . We did not want to alter the haunting look of the pier, said Titanic Experience managing director Gillen Joyce. We wanted to preserve the existing structure as much as possible. This pier is history. An estimated 1m emigrants stepped on to ships and tenders from Heartbreak Pier as they left Ireland for Australia and the United States A suspended viewing area will be added to the pier and it will feature interpretive signs and touch-screen technology detailing its history and stories about some of the people who emigrated from it. Meanwhile, the Titanic Experience, on the site of the former White Star Line offices, has opened new exhibition sections which will provide visitors with the sights, sounds, and even smells from the great liner. We have always tried to give an immersive experience here, and with our new exhibits we take this further, bringing our key stories to life. You will now hear first-hand accounts of the sinking from survivors, meet character portrayals, and experience the rescue of more than 700 survivors on board Carpathia, said Mr Joyce. Thanks to funding received from Failte Ireland under the New Ideas In Ancient Spaces support scheme, the completed works include new character projections, audio stations and audio-visual presentations. Jenny De Saulles, Failte Irelands head of programmes for Irelands Ancient East, said she was very excited by the Cobh project and hoped it would add to its 80,000 visitors per year. Tom Healy, director of the Nevin Economic Research Institute, said consensus thinking is that tax increases are only for recessions while tax cuts are natural once the economy gets going again and we all pay far too much tax anyway. The highly-contrived and arcane measure of fiscal space is used to concentrate discussion on the equivalent of just a little more than 1% of total public spending in any one year, he said. In other words, for every 100 of spending on schools, hospitals, roads, teachers, gardai, pensions, child benefit etc, the public debate is concentrated on the one euro of spending at the margin. Even then, the public are led down a little pathway of tax cuts versus spending increases. That there is a connection between what we spend and what we, as a society, collect through taxation seems to have largely escaped attention. The view universally shared is that I pay too much tax, or we pay too much tax, and they ought to pay more, or, we should all pay less tax and stop throwing money at people on bloated public sector pensions or living off the dole as the assumed truth goes. Mr Healy then sought to address four myths around taxation. We all pay too much tax: To address this, he pointed to data from the OECDs tax-benefit modeller for 2014. It found that for, example, a single person with no children earning the average wage in Ireland had the second-lowest rate of taxation on income among EU member states for which the OECD provided information. Ireland is not competitive when it comes to income tax especially on average to above-average incomes: The highest level of pay used by the OECD modeller was 200% of the average wage, which in Ireland equated to 68,356. True, the average effective tax rate moves up sharply from just over 20% for a single person in the Republic of Ireland earning 34,178 per annum, to just over 36% at an income of 68,356, he said. At 36%, the Republic of Ireland is about mid-ways on the OECD comparison. The way to win the hearts of lower-paid workers is to give them tax cuts: Mr Healy found Ireland is way off the chart when one considered the low amount of tax being paid by those below the average wage 3.7% for a single person earning 50% of the average wage. That compared to 35% for someone in the same income bracket in Denmark. Ireland has the most progressive tax system in the world: Mr Healy points to what he terms as the fairly steep rise in average tax rates here from a very low 4% for those at 17,000 per annum to 14% for those at 23,000. The rate climbs to 20% for those at 34,000 and 36% for those at 68,000. Overall, the conclusion he draws is that: Ireland is a low-tax country no matter what way it is measured; relatively high-income earners do not pay more in income tax than is the average across the OECD; relatively low-income earners pay much less income tax than is the case elsewhere, but this is undoubtedly linked to the fact that the Republic of Ireland has a much more unequal distribution of income and a relatively poor social wage. Gheorge Bot appeared at Letterkenny District Court in Co Donegal charged with a series of driving offences. However, Mr Bot had the cases against him dismissed after Judge Paul Kelly heard of the mix-up. To avoid confusion in the case, his own barrister called him Gheorge 1 saying the alleged offences were committed by his brother, also known as Gheorge 2. Barrister Kathleen Henry said the man who should be before the court on driving charges is Gheorge Bot of The Willows, Lough Na Glack, Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan. The man she represented and who was in court was a different Gheorge Bot of Shercock Rd, Bailieboro, Co Cavan, or Gheorge 2. Due to confusion in the case, Ms Henry told Judge Paul Kelly, Gheorge Bot 1 had spent a week in Castlerea Prison. The two men are brothers and there is a year of difference in age between them, said the barrister. Their father is also called Gheorge and both sons were named in his honour. They even refer to themselves as Gheorge 1 and Gheorge 2. Gheorge 2 has gone home to Romania to his father-in-laws funeral and couldnt be in court today. Mr Bot addressed the court and said it was a custom in his native Romania that a father gave his sons the same name. Gheorge 2 is now facing charges of careless driving, no road tax, no insurance, no NCT, and no tax in Letterkenny on June 1, 2015. So when is Gheorge the Second going to be able to come her to deal with the matter? asked Judge Kelly. The barrister asked for a hearing on September 1. There was laughter in court as Judge Kelly said: It strikes me that as the father has the same name he was probably Gheorge the First, this man before me is Gheorge the Second and the other Gheorge currently in Romania is Gheorge the Third! The case was adjourned until September. THE doomsday narrative of British prime minister David Cameron, the Bank of England, and their official friends around the world is setting a course for a self-fulfilling financial panic. They insist that the British economy will be permanently poorer and global markets will be roiled if the British public votes to leave the EU in tomorrows referendum. These claims are based on fuzzy analysis. More seriously, they are deeply irresponsible. Make no mistake, if markets do panic it will be because of the hysteria that the officials have built up. To redeem themselves, policymakers around the world must set up visible signposts now to dampen financial turbulence. Upon leaving the EU, Britain would trade less with Europe and more with other nations. Its possible that overall trade may fall somewhat during the transition. But all economists agree that the costs of such a decline would be small and short-lived. A just-released study from the IMF shows that the share of British goods exported to the EU fell stunningly to 45% in 2014 from 60% in 2000. This shift away from slower-growing Europe to the rest of the world is set to continue irrespective of Brexit. For this reason, the entire official campaign against a Brexit is based on the further claim that British productivity would fall precipitously. There is no evidence for this assertion. A possible small, transitional decline in trade cannot cause such a large fall in productivity. Its true that more trade has sometimes been associated with higher productivity, but only when countries emerged from economic isolation. For advanced economies, the evidence favours the opposite possibility. The most productive firms are the most active exporters, and when it becomes harder to export, they redouble their efforts to improve productivity. For decades, as the deutsche mark appreciated, German producers held back an increase in their export prices by raising their efficiency. At the very least, the long-term economic consequences of Britain leaving the EU are neutral within a small margin that no economist can parse. The Bank of England, for example, claims Brexit fears have contributed to the fall in the value of sterling since late 2015. This conclusion does not pass the simplest smell test. Much of the decline in sterlings value took place earlier this year, when the polls and especially the betting markets showed a clear lead for the Remain campaign, and hence a low probability of exit. Sterling, in fact, stabilised as the Leave campaign gained ground earlier this month. But such is the power of narrative that every analyst sees the ghost of Brexit in every market movement. European bank stocks are down, the claim is, because of Brexit. It takes a moment to recognise that European bank stocks have been falling behind for years as their leveraged bets are being unwound. Italian banks are walking on the edge of a precipice. Similarly, theres no basis to the Bank of Englands claim that economic growth has already slowed in anticipation of Britains departure from the EU. The British economy has moved predictably with the degree of fiscal austerity: Gratuitous austerity delayed recovery from the financial crisis, a brief reprieve in 2014 drove a fleeting rebound, and more anticipated austerity is causing a slowdown. No forecaster can or should try to discern a Brexit effect amid these much larger movements. The world economy is in a fragile state. World trade, the best single barometer of global economic health, has been crawling. Indeed, the latest numbers suggest world trade may not be growing at all. We know the reasons why. The Chinese economy has been grinding down, which has put a lid on Japanese and Asian growth. Though the eurozone is out of crisis mode for now, it is, at best, muddling ahead. And the US has ceased acting as a global engine of growth. Now the collective voices of officialdom have primed financial markets to fear Brexit. The big rebound in sterling and world stock markets after this weekends modest shift back to Remain suggest that the association of Brexit with financial mayhem may have sunk in. There are enough fault lines in the global economy to worry about already. Adding this spectre of a Brexit-induced financial collapse is misguided and self-indulgent. Evidently, individual central banks are taking precautions. Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen notes Brexit is on her radar screen. And the Bank of England has added liquidity lines. It is time to step back from this dangerous course. Central banks should make a joint statement reassuring markets they stand by with credible tools to protect global financial systems. If a Brexit passes, a chapter in post-War European and global history will come to a close. How the event is remembered will depend on the wisdom of the present stewards of the global economic and financial systems. Ashoka Mody is visiting professor of international economic policy at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton and a visiting fellow at Bruegel, the economic think tank. He is a former mission chief for Germany and Ireland at the IMF ON MONDAY morning, the US supreme court signalled again that the countrys constitution does not stand in the way of addressing gun violence. The court refused to hear a challenge to a Connecticut law that broadly restricts access to the kind of semi-automatic rifles used in the 2014 Sandy Hook shooting and, more recently, in San Bernardino, California, and Orlando, Florida. That lets the law stand. It was the latest confirmation that the second amendment the right to bear arms does not impede most laws designed to reduce gun violence. The US supreme courts landmark Heller decision in 2008 established that a broad range of gun regulations are presumptively lawful. The court has driven this point home repeatedly, leaving in place dozens of lower court decisions upholding a wide range of gun laws. Yet, just hours after the courts action, the US Senate reaffirmed another truth about American democracy: The likelihood of the current US Congress passing meaningful gun reform is close to zero. Even as the urgency of American gun violence increases not only in light of the horrific incident in Orlando, but also the fact that the 49 killed at the Pulse nightclub were fewer than half the number of Americans killed with guns that weekend the US Congress does nothing. It may not be realistic to expect US congressional consensus on contentious gun issues, or even seemingly easy ones, like keeping suspected terrorists from buying the kind of guns used in the Orlando massacre. But when the US Senate, along partisan lines, rejected four bills aimed at curbing gun sales on Monday, it looked like even meaningful compromise was off the table. Thats not to say theres no talk of bi-partisan collaboration. US senator Susan Collins, a moderate Republican from Maine, has been working with a bipartisan group of colleagues to break the logjam with a compromise proposal. But the odds are stacked against it. The stalemate is hardening because neither side displays genuine interest in giving any ground. Many Republicans depend on support from the powerful gun lobby. They have every reason not to bend. Ditto the Democrats. Having taken so many political hits on gun politics over the last two decades, and sensing a sea-change that gives them the political upper-hand, why ease up now? The Democratic Party has every incentive to exploit the issue for political gain rather than concede even an inch and settle for a bill that can garner support from an increasingly elusive group of moderates. The Republican intransigence on guns stems from fear of a powerful gun lobby led by the National Rifle Association. The NRA once took a bipartisan approach, supporting members of either party it trusted on guns. But no more: Now the NRA is all in on the GOP. It spends tremendous amounts of money and mobilises its membership base on behalf of the Republican politicians who toe its line. GOP officials rightly fear that any willingness to compromise on gun issues will provoke the NRAs wrath which could result in the gun lobby backing a future primary opponent. In the middle of a US presidential campaign where many fear that usually engaged political supporters may sit on the sidelines, to anger the NRA could be political suicide. Democrats used to cower in fear of the NRA as well. For a generation, the party viewed gun issues as an untouchable third rail of politics. Mondays vote reveals a significant change in their thinking. But it isnt any more likely to lead to bipartisan compromise on a bill. Democrats clearly arent afraid of gun politics anymore. In fact, theyre pulling out the stops to show voters that theyre smart on guns, and strong on public safety. The public agrees overwhelmingly as new polling shows. So why should they meet the hardline, gun-lobby opposition half-way? The Democrats new approach became obvious during the presidential primary, when former secretary of state Hillary Clinton said she was proud to have made an enemy of the NRA and repeatedly attacked senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont for his past votes against background checks and for gun-industry immunity. The change was also visible when Democratic senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut led a filibuster to demand votes on background checks and the terror gap just days after the Orlando shooting. No response to a mass shooting has led to a vote in US Congress as quickly. And the change was visible in Mondays voting, when Democrats drew sharp lines in the sand and signalled that they plan to make guns a political litmus test theyll exploit through election day. This new, vocal engagement on gun violence may help Democrats win seats in the US Congress, and it may help usher Clinton into the White House especially given the emergence of an engaged, passionate and increasingly well-resourced gun-violence-prevention movement. But its not likely to produce any meaningful action in Congress in the near-term, given the persistence of Americas hyper-polarised, gridlocked politics. The US senate on Monday didnt do anything about the terror gap that allows those on the no-fly list to buy firearms legally. And it swung and missed on adopting comprehensive criminal background checks for gun sales a policy supported by nine in ten Americans, and three-quarters of NRA members. Collins efforts to identify a bipartisan middle ground are commendable, but they face extraordinary odds. In all, its a recipe for inaction through election day and, likely, beyond. If theres hope, its that the public is increasingly fed up with the never-ending drumbeat of gun violence that claims more 90 American lives each day. Only when the public demands that the US Congress elevates public safety over partisan politics and makes that demand in the voting booth will there be any real chance for federal legislation that will meaningfully combat American gun violence. Adam Skaggs is an attorney in New York City who specialises in gun policy and second amendment law. ON DAYS like tomorrow, that Irelands political system is more a colander for cabbage water than a sieve for fine flour, will seem a mixed blessing, but a blessing nonetheless. Unlike a still-United Kingdom straddling the north of this island and the neighbouring island across the Irish Sea, the concept of a referendum whose results are final, is alien to us. The shoutout that the people have spoken after a plebiscite is less a point of conclusion than a comma. It is usually, though not always, a premise for a continuation of the fight, via another constitutional referendum, not its end. The movement to repeal the eighth amendment is a case in point. It is little more than 30 years since it was passed with evangelical fervour by an overwhelming majority. But the matter is not settled far from it. It is amusing to look back on the recent history of many now defending the status quo. Having secured in the 1980s the supposedly pro-life referendum demanded, they spent most of the 1990s demanding another but this time real pro-life amendment after the Supreme Court ruled in the X case that flawed wording pivoting on an equal right to life between mother and child in fact allowed for abortion in certain circumstances, specifically suicide. Of course this was an outcome confidently predicted at the time by Alan Shatter and Adrian Hardiman among others. But no matter. When it came in 2002, the real pro-life amendment wasnt real enough for some. Critically, important independent TDs comprising Jackie Healy Rae, Harry Blaney and Mildred Fox, and others elsewhere, in Fine Gael and Fianna Fail ensured that a wording, copper-fastening what they imagined was the original purpose of the 1983 amendment was put to the people. However, it wasnt pro-life enough for some, especially Dana Rosemary Scanlon. Rejected by every major urban constituency as too restrictive, the small but numerically decisive ultra-right wing of the pro-life movement was the critical block ensuring defeat by a tiny majority. The endorsement of Catholic bishops wasnt enough. The then Cardinal Ratzinger was left perplexed, by an Irish catholic subculture so contaminated by John Calvin via Cornelius Jansen that the mutual obsession by intellectually inferior followers of both in Ireland mutated into an outlook that could only define itself, in terms of what it was against. Say what you like about Ratzinger but he had the measure of the Catholic Church in Ireland, and it wasnt a generous pour. Now the tables have turned. There is no chance ahead of the real pro-life amendment once wanted to replace the eight amendment of 1983, once so insisted upon. Instead, warts and all, its retention is the new red-line. Less a constitutional prohibition than a sandbag, the imperfect has become a requirement. It is strange how compromise, in retention of a flawed and certainly punctured eighth amendment, which would not be countenanced as enough prior to 2002, is now an object of principle. But this is only the most egregious example of our malleability. In general, however, it is a malleability that has served us well. The first referendum on the Treaty of Nice in 2002 to facilitate institutional change on foot of the enlargement of the EU was defeated here, but with reassurances and a subsequent strong campaign passed in 2002. In 2008 the first referendum on the Treaty of Lisbon enabling the EU to move to qualified majority voting on a large number of topics as well as significantly empowering the European Parliament was defeated here but subsequently passed in 2009. In the case of both defeats, poor campaigns by an incumbent government, in bad odour with the electorate played a role. So did a residual angst about a burgeoning unaccountability in a geographically and thematically expanding European Union. The empowerment of the European Parliament has done something in fact, as distinct from perception, to address the issue of unaccountability. But here, the forum remains so distant, that it provides little by way of practical answer to a question insidiously undermining the EU: namely who exactly are they and how did they get there. The parliament is a double-edged sword for Ireland. While it unquestionability is an advance for accountability, itis not so clearly an unqualified advance for Ireland. In the Council of the European Union, as a small country, we are one of 28. In the European Parliament we are 11 out of 751. For Ireland, accountability is always an ambiguous issue. It is not just that we rerun some constitutional referenda to suit the popular mood and political requirements, we hold others and simply pay no heed. In 1979 the seventh amendment to the constitution enabled graduates of any institute of higher education, elect the six senators on the university panel. Nothing further was ever done. In 2013 the proposed 32nd amendment to the constitution proposed the abolition of an unreformed Seanad. It was rejected by the people and the Seanad, still unreformed, sails on. Now, however, it has no Government majority and is likely to be a recurring fulcrum of problems in a deeply problematic legislature. All of that, however, is the colander for our constitutional cabbage water. For all the rigour of a written constitution, ultimately arbitrated by a Supreme Court, because referenda are an embedded part of the system and specifically provided for, they can be treated as business as usual and certainly business to be rerun again. For the United Kingdom tomorrow, it is entirely different. They have no written constitution and referenda are constitutionally extraordinary events. Only 10 referenda have been held within the UK and until tomorrow only two will have covered all of its constituent parts, as distinct from specific referenda in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The first UK-wide referendum was in 1975 on entry to the European Economic Community. The second, at the behest of the Liberal Democrats, was a failed attempt in 2011 to adopt an Alternative Vote System. Tomorrow will be another irretrievable decision in a system where, because parliament is sovereign, sovereign decisions when delegated, cannot be easily if ever be reversed. It is an irony that the very holding of referenda is a greater blow to the British tradition of parliamentary sovereignty, than the EU membership, supposedly at the core of tomorrows vote. But, once opened, Pandoras box cannot be closed. The supposed strength of the British constitution is opaque flexibility. As Walter Bagehot, Victorian editor of The Economist and authority on the unwritten British constitution wrote: What is most evident is not the difficulty of getting a fixed law, but getting out of a fixed law. The legal mistake of Brexit, like the pro-life amendment, is that it gives inflexible definition to positions which in their ultimate unreasonableness undermine traditional edifices which actually depend on the avoidance of absolute certainty for their continuance. Deputy chief Michael Harrington, Deputy Insp James Grant, and Brooklyn businessman Jeremy Reichberg, were charged with conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud. David Villanueva, an NYPD sergeant assigned to the gun licence bureau, was arrested on charges of conspiring to commit bribery. In exchange for the bribes, Mr Reichberg and others got a private police force for themselves and their friends, US attorney Preet Bharara said at a news conference. Effectively, they got cops on call. A criminal complaint said Reichberg exploited his connections within the police department to speed up gun licence processing, make tickets disappear, organise police escorts for him and his friends, get assistance from uniformed personnel to resolve personal disputes, and boost security at religious sites and events. In return, Reichberg and another businessman showered his police officials with well over $100,000 in benefits from 2012 to 2015. Spanking was a training model I have been exploring for many years, the trainer, Jiang Yang, posted on Weibo, Chinas Twitter-style social media site. Changzhi Zhangze Rural Commercial Bank, a lender in Chinas northern Shanxi province, hired a Shanghai-based training company to run a performance breakthrough course, a local rural banking oversight body said on a government-run website. After a day of training last weekend for a staff of more than 200, Jiang demanded explanations from the eight employees with the weakest scores. One responded, Im not hard on myself. Another shouted, I didnt make a breakthrough! while a third blamed lack of teamwork. Then he asked them to prepare to be beaten, and strode up and down the row of offenders several times, whacking them loudly on their behinds with a stick. Later, he cut the womens hair and shaved the mens heads, according to media reports and www.czlook.com, the website of the Changzhi city government news office. The punishment, captured in a mobile phone video circulated on Chinese social media, touched off criticism. Since when does beating employees become a way of raising performance? asked one Weibo user, Denny Tangmashi. The training company declined requests for comment, phone calls to the bank went unanswered, and Jiangs phone appeared to have been switched off. In an online statement, the oversight body described the training as improper, adding that it had suspended the banks chairman and a deputy governor, and told Jiang to make a public apology. Some saw the punishment for the bankers and the trainer as inadequate, however. They need to be beaten with a stick! wrote Weibo user Edison Li Jingyu. Mr Cameron warned the economic impact of Brexit would hit jobs and opportunities for years to come. These are risks to our families and we should not take them, he said. He warned future generations would be hit hardest as he spoke outside 10 Downing St. For you, for your family, for the future of our country, vote Remain, he said. Opinion polls have suggested that older voters are more likely to back Brexit and Mr Cameron addressed them directly. He said: I want to speak very directly to those of my generation and older. I know Europe isnt perfect, believe me I understand and I see those frustrations. I feel them myself. Thats why we negotiated and enhanced our special status out of the euro, keeping our borders, not involved in ever closer union. We have the best of both worlds. So as you take this decision, whether to remain or leave, do think about the hopes and dreams of your children and grandchildren. They know their chances to work, to travel, to build the sort of open and successful society they want to live in rests on this outcome. And remember, they cant undo the decision we take. If we vote out, thats it. It is irreversible. We will leave Europe for good. The next generation will have to live with the consequences far longer than the rest of us. Tomorrow it will just be you in that polling booth, he said, taking a decision that will affect your future, your childrens future, your grandchildrens future. He said: Our economic security is paramount. It will be stronger if we stay; if we leave we will put it at risk. That is a risk to jobs, a risk to families, a risk to our childrens future and there is no going back. However, Steve Hilton, Mr Camerons former policy guru and a Leave supporter, labelled the statement as weird. He told BBC News: It was very interesting actually and rather an amazing thing to hear because what you just saw from the prime minister was an admission that they have lost the economic argument, they have lost the argument on immigration and so he has been wheeled out by rather panicky spin doctors, it seems to me, to try and change the subject. Mr Hilton said there was nothing new in what Mr Cameron had said. He has claimed Mr Cameron was told by his civil servants four years ago that it was impossible for the British government to fulfil its pledge to reduce net migration to below 100,000 while the UK remained in the EU. Mr Hilton was asked on BBC News if he thought Mr Cameron had been wheeled out as a result of his comments. I think thats exactly right because it goes to the heart of this argument in the referendum campaign, he said. Meanwhile, former British prime minister Gordon Brown has said staying in the EU could see half a million jobs created across the UK in the next decade, including 50,000 in Scotland. As well as creating jobs, Mr Brown argued that a Remain vote will allow the UK to reap the benefit of the EUs 351bn infrastructure fund, which could help projects aimed at regenerating the UKs industrial heartlands. Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) president Naomi Hiroses apology followed the revelation last week that an investigation had found his predecessor instructed officials during the 2011 disaster to avoid using the word meltdown. I would say it was a cover-up, Mr Hirose told a news conference. Its extremely regrettable. Clintons address in Ohio, one of the nations most prominent swing states, aimed to place a marker on the economy in a similar manner in which she did on foreign policy earlier this month with a searing takedown of Trump in San Diego. If we put Donald Trump behind the steering wheel of the economy, he is very likely to drive us off the cliff, said Clinton campaign senior policy adviser Jake Sullivan, previewing her remarks. The Belgian capital of 1.2 million people remains on edge under a high-security alert three months after three IS suicide bombers blew themselves up at Brussels Airport and in a metro train, killing 32 people. Yesterday, Brussels police detained a man near the bustling City2 shopping centre after he announced that he was strapped with explosives that would be set off remotely. The transport ministry said the figure came from its own mileage tests to look into cheating by the Japanese carmaker on its minicar models, tiny cars eligible for tax breaks in Japan and reputed to deliver very good mileage. Mitsubishi Motors acknowledged recently it had systematically inflated mileage for eK minicar models, as well as other models. The police probe is focusing on suspected associates of Larossi Abballa, the Frenchman of Moroccan origin who pledged allegiance to the Islamist militant group and told police negotiators during the attack that he had answered a call to kill infidels at home with their families. There was a chance that these people might carry out other attacks against police officers. We were removing any doubt, said the Versailles prosecutor leading the investigation. Vendors slaughtered dogs and cooked their meat in dozens of restaurants across the city of Yulin, in an event that has come to symbolise the cruelty and potential for spreading disease associated with the largely unregulated industry. Activists bought dogs from dealers who had been planning to slaughter them, while local residents complained that outsiders were ruining what they consider a local tradition. We came to Yulin to tell people here dogs are our friends. They should not kill dogs in such a cruel way and many of the dogs they killed are pet dogs, said Yang Yuhua, a volunteer from the central city of Chongqing. An estimated 10 million to 20 million dogs are killed for their meat each year in China, and the Yulin event has become a lightning rod for criticism. Many of the dogs are believed to have been pets stolen from their owners. They are caged and trucked to the city about 2,000km south of Beijing, often without food or water. Cats eaten at the festival are subjected to similar ill treatment. The local government has in recent years sought to disassociate itself from the event, forbidding its employees from attending and limiting its size by shutting down some dog markets and slaughter houses. The so-called dog-meat eating festival has never been recognised by government or by any regulations or laws. "We hold meetings every time, discussing counter measures such as deploying local police, business and sanitary authorities to deal with those who sell dogs, said an official. Opponents expanded their campaign to the US, petitioning politicians in San Francisco to pressure their Chinese colleagues into calling for an end to the slaughter. Actors and celebrities, including Matt Damon and Joaquin Phoenix released a public service announcement calling for an end to the torture and killing of dogs in China, South Korea and other Asian nations. The Recorder reports Janis Lefebres children bought her the skydiving package from Jumptown, a skydiving centre based in Orange, after learning that jumping out of a plane was something she always wanted to do. A crowd of family and friends gathered to cheer on Ms Lefebres descent from 13,500 ft. Ms Lefebre said her first try was perfect. She said skydiving lived up to her expectations and she wouldnt hesitate to do it again. Ms Lefebres family members think she might go running with the bulls in Spain or ride in a racecar for her next birthday. Her daughter Lori Craig said her mother wears us out. Bale honour WALES: A county council renamed itself after superstar Gareth Bale following Waless Euro 2016 triumph. Wales made history by reaching the last 16 of the tournament following an emphatic 3-0 win over Russia. Vale of Glamorgan officials announced that for one night only, the local authority was to be called Bale of Glamorgan. And it proved a hit with social media users with a doctored signpost being shared almost 400 times. Never too late... USA: One Massachusetts commuter believes it is never too late to say sorry or pay your train fare. Matthew Andrewes hand-delivered an apology letter, along with $300 (266) in cash, to the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) on June 9. That was the amount Mr Andrewes believes he owes MBTA for evading fares. The 31-year-old said he avoided paying the train fare whenever he could as a teenager and in his 20s. He wrote: I am so sorry. Please accept this money as compensation. Gun giveaway USA: A Republican candidate for Congress in Florida has launched a contest on his Facebook campaign page to give away a semi-automatic rifle on July 4. Greg Evers announced the competition barely a week after a shooting at a gay nightclub killed 49 people in Orlando, which is about a five-hour drive from the Florida Panhandle congressional district Mr Evers seeks to represent. With terrorism incidents on the rise, both at home and abroad, protecting our constitutional rights has never been more important, Mr Evers said. With all thats happening in the world today, Ive never felt stronger about the importance of the second amendment in protecting our homeland than I do now. Man in a van USA: Police in New York City say theyve nabbed the culprit who outfitted a van with more than 50 speakers and blasted loud music late at night near the New York Mets stadium. WNBC-TV reports police received multiple noise complaints Saturday night in the Queens neighbourhood of Willets Point, near Citi Field. Police found the van and confiscated it. Authorities say the vans owner, Nelson Hidalgo, has been arrested on charges of criminal nuisance, unreasonable noise, unlawful assembly and other offences. It was not immediately known if Hidalgo has an attorney. The NYPD tweeted out a picture of the van on Sunday. In largely party-line votes, senators rejected one proposal from each side to keep extremists from acquiring guns and a second shoring up the governments system of required background checks for many firearms purchases. With the chambers visitors galleries unusually crowded including the relatives of victims of past mass shootings each measure fell short of the 60 votes needed to progress. Democrats called the Republican proposals unacceptably weak, while Republicans said the Democratic plans were too restrictive. The chamber first voted on dueling proposals related to the federal background checks systems. The Republican amendment, which aimed to pour more resources into prosecuting violations of the current background checks system but did not expand it in any way, fell short by a vote of 53 to 47. The Democratic alternative, which would have required background checks for all gun sales except for gifts and loans between immediate family members, failed by 44 to 56. The stalemate underscored the pressure on each party to stand firm on the emotional issue going into Novembers presidential and congressional elections. It also highlighted the potency of the National Rifle Association, which urged its huge and fiercely loyal membership to lobby senators to oppose the Democratic bills. Republicans say, Hey look, we tried, said senate minority leader Harry Reid of Nevada. And all the time, their cheerleaders, the bosses at the NRA, are cheering them. That the four roll-call votes occurred at all was testament to the political currents buffeting lawmakers after Omar Mateens June 12 attack on a gay nightclub. The 49 victims who died made it the largest mass shooting in recent US history, topping a string of such incidents that have punctuated recent years. The FBI said Mateen a focus of two terror investigations that were dropped described himself as an Islamic soldier in a 911 call during the shootings. That let gun control advocates add national security and the spectre of terrorism to their arguments for firearms curbs. A young Briton accused of attempting to grab a police officers gun in a bid to kill Donald Trump has appeared in a US court in shackles. Michael Steven Sandford, from Dorking in Surrey, was arrested at a rally in a Las Vegas casino on Saturday after going for the weapon as he asked for the presidential hopefuls autograph. The 20-year-old, who was in America without permission, later told police he wanted to kill the presumptive Republican nominee, according to the Secret Service. Sandford, who is said to have autism, told investigators he expected to die in the attempt, which he had been planning for a year. He arrived in the city on Friday, when he went to a local shooting range where he reportedly learned how to use a gun for the first time. On Monday, Sandford was denied bail at a district court in Nevada, where he appeared charged with an act of violence on restricted grounds. Federal Magistrate Judge George Foley declined to release Sandford, who appeared before him in leg irons, over concerns that he was a potential danger to the community and a flight risk. A federal public defender told the court that Sandford was autistic yet competent, although he did not enter a plea. His mother, who has not been named, told the judge he had a history of mental health problems. According to court research, Sandford did not have permission to be in the US after overstaying a visa and he was unemployed. He had driven across the US to San Bernardino, California, and had been living out of his car before travelling on to Las Vegas on Thursday. On Friday, he visited the Battlefield Vegas shooting range where he practised using a 9mm Glock pistol, firing off 20 rounds. The following day he went to the Treasure Island Casino where Mr Trump was addressing a rally of 1,500 supporters amid tight security. Attendees had to pass through metal detectors manned by Secret Service, police and casino security officials. One of those in the crowd, Gregg Donovan, said he had briefly spoken to Sandford while they queued and he seemed strange. When he later asked to get an autograph from the billionaire, Sandford allegedly attempted to take a police officers holstered gun before being tackled and frogmarched from the venue. A Secret Service report said Sandford told officers he had been planning the assassination for around 12 months and believed he would die in the process. Sandford was carrying a UK driving licence at the time he was arrested. A neighbour in Dorking, England, described him as a very quiet lad, while another, who did not give her name, said: He used to say hello, which is good in this day and age. Asked if she was surprised by what is said to have happened, she said: Kids do strange things and he (Trump) is a horrible man anyway. Burma After Shooting of Kachin Teen, Protesters Dispute Burma Army Claims On Monday, an unarmed 19-year-old Kachin college student was shot dead by a Burma Army soldier. Protests ensued, but what really happened remains unclear. RANGOON After nearly one thousand local residents in Myitkyina, Kachin State took to the streets on Tuesday to protest the shooting of a teen by a Burma Army soldier, the Ministry of Defense has officially announced the cause of death as a misfire. On Monday night in the Kachin State capital, an unarmed 19-year-old ethnic Kachin university student, Gum Seng Awng, was shot to death by a Burma Army soldier. The Ministry of Defense announced in The Global New Light of Myanmar, a state-run newspaper, on Wednesday, The death of a Kachin man on Monday night was caused by a misfire from a soldiers gun. The two soldiers were providing security at the Bala Min Htin Bridge in Myitkyina and were escorting four [female] civilians who asked them to help as they were being threatened by a group of men, said the statement. When the soldiers arrived back [at] the bridge, a group comprising eight men fought them and attempted to grab the arm of a soldier, who then apparently misfired his weapon killing a young male. The two soldiers were injured and are receiving medical treatment at a local Army battalion base. Action will be taken according to the procedures, said the Ministry of Defense. However, residents and relatives remain upset because the victim was an unarmed civilian. Local sources confirmed that there was an argument between the two soldiers and a group of young Kachin men that led to the Gum Seng Awngs death. But they dispute the events that led up to the shooting. Zau Lat, Gum Seng Awngs uncle, told The Irrawaddy the cause of the death was unclear because his nephews friends had different accounts. His friends said they were on their way home when they saw two girls and joked around with them. But then the two soldiers drove behind the girls and asked the young men why they were talking with the girls, so they had an argument, said Zau Lat. But, looking at his injures, it looks like he was shot from behind deliberately at close range, added Zau Lat, adding that his nephews body had three bullet holes. According to the account Zau Lat heard, Gum Seng Awng was with three of his friends, as opposed to the Armys claim of a group of eight men. Relatives of the victim wanted local authorities to investigate the killing and bring to justice those responsible. However, they said they had low expectations and claimed the local authorities tried to prevent them from seeing and examining Gum Seng Awngs corpse at the hospital on the night of the incident. In their march on Tuesday, the protesters held placards and posters that read, Stop killing students, stop killing unarmed civilians, stop killing Kachins. They marched yesterday [Tuesday] to condemn the killing of civilians, and they want guarantees it wont happen again, Zau Lat said. They are trying to put pressure [on the authorities]. There was no protest today, and a funeral ceremony will be held Thursday at 1 pm, led by the Kachin Baptist Convention, a local Christian civil society organization. Burma Suu Kyis Trip to Refugee Camp in Thailand Scrapped State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyis trip to a refugee camp on the Thai-Burma border has been cancelled by local Thai authorities, sources say. BANGKOK, Thailand Local Thai authorities have reportedly cancelled the State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyis official visit to the Tham Hin refugee camp in Ratchaburi province on Saturday, according to sources close to the camp administration. Suu Kyi will be arriving in Thailands capital Bangkok on Thursday for her three-day visit, and had planned to travel on Saturday to Tham Hin camp in Ratchaburi, where more than 6,000 Burmese refugees are residing. The source, who chose to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of issues concerning the refugee camp, told The Irrawaddy that local Thai authorities had informed the camp committee on Wednesday that the trip had been cancelled, with no reason given. Communities in the camp would like to welcome our leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the source said. We would like her to see the situation of the camp in order to help us. We would like to raise some questions regarding refugees and hear what she has to say too. Heavy restrictions on access are in place for non-residents in the Tham Hin camp, the second-smallest of the nine refugee camps along the Thailand-Burma border. Sally Thompson, director of the Thailand Border Consortium, said she had also been informed by her field staff about the cancellation of the trip, but had not received an official confirmation. If it was cancelled, everybody [the refugees and the NGOs] will be disappointed, Thompson told The Irrawaddy. It would have been a good opportunity for her [Aung San Suu Kyi] to have a dialogue with the refugees [who] can explainwhy they are still here in the camp. Some of the issues related to refugee repatriation are supposed to be discussed during the State Counselors meeting with the Thai Prime Minister Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha on Friday, she said. Landmines, land allocation issues and military presence have all been cited as obstacles preventing the refugees from returning to Burma. The government of Myanmar is not ready, and at the moment the Thai government is waiting for the Myanmar government to say they are ready, the Thailand Border Consortiums Sally Thompson said. Thai government spokesperson Maj-Gen Werachon Sukondhapatipak was quoted by Thailand-based English-language newspaper The Nation on Wednesday as saying that Thailand has always been eager to return refugees to Burma but has been unable to overcome legal and logistical hurdles to doing so. Burmas Ambassador to Thailand U Win Maung did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Burma UN Rapporteur Avoids Contentious Terms with Arakan Chief Minister Yanghee Lee and Chief Minister Nyi Pyu exchange positive words, while the Arakan National Party have refused to meet with the biased UN rapporteur. RANGOON The United Nations (UN) special rapporteur on human rights in Burma, Yanghee Lee, and Arakan State Chief Minister Nyi Pu struck a conciliatory tone on a meeting in the state capital Sittwe on Wednesday, in which the contentious terms Rohingya and Bengali were avoided. Yanghee Lee expressed confidence in the leadership of Nyi Pu, a National League for Democracy (NLD) member who was appointed as Chief Minister by the NLD leadership in the face of opposition from the Arakan National Party (ANP), which represents the Arakanese Buddhist majority and holds the largest plurality of seats in the state parliament. Despite a reported request from Yanghee Lee, the ANP issued a statement on Wednesday saying they would not meet with her because she was coming to write a biased report for the UN. Yanghee Lee and the UN have been the subject of fierce criticism, and abuse, from nationalists in Burma for highlighting discrimination against the stateless Rohingya Muslim minority in Arakan State, whom the general public in Burma refers to as Bengali, to imply they migrated illegally from Bangladesh. This week, the UNs human rights office released a report stating that violations against the Rohingyaincluding denial of citizenship rights, forced labor and sexual violencecould amount to crimes against humanity. The report has already drawn criticism from within the Burmese government. Arakan State government spokesman Min Aung told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday that Yanghee Leewho is in Arakan State for two dayswas travelling to Kadi, a Muslim-majority village tract of 421 households in Ponnagyun Township. Yanghee Lee will then proceed to the Pa Nyar Wa camp in Kyauktaw Township, which is sheltering members of non-Muslim ethnic minority groupsincluding the Mro and Daingnetdisplaced by recent fighting between the Burma Army and the Arakan Army. Min Aung said that Yanghee Lee arrived at 10 am on Wednesday at Sittwe airport, where she held a ten-minute meeting with Chief Minister Nyi Pu. According to Min Aung, Yanghee Lee did not use either of the controversial terms Bengali or Rohingya. The Arakan State government spokesman also said that Yanghee Lees agenda did not include visits to any of the camps for displaced Muslims. He said that Yanghee Lee was interested to visit Kadi village tract in Ponnagyun Township because it is one of the sites being targeted by the governments re-booted citizenship verification program aimed at stateless Muslims in Arakan State. As previously reported by The Irrawaddy, Muslim residents of the village tract have met the process with distrust, with some refusing to cooperate. The Irrawaddy contacted four separate individuals who attended the meeting between Yanghee Lee and Nyi Pu. They concurred with the account of spokesman Min Aung. A government source shared an audio file of the meeting with The Irrawaddy, which featured no mention of the words Rohingya or Bengali. Chief Minister Nyi Pu said the state government is now observing and analyzing the situation in Arakan State and following instructions from State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi, who chairs the new Committee for Arakan State Peace, Stability and Development. Nyi Pu said that, under Suu Kyis leadership, we will quickly implement changes and deliver development. I believe our people will fully obtain the benefits. Nyi Pu mentioned that the world is watching Aung San Suu Kyi and her actions will be judged according to international standards. Nobody should doubt her sincerity, he said. He added that there was no cause for misunderstanding between the UN and the Burmese government. He called on Yanghee Lee to collaborate with the governments plan. Yanghee Lee said she had come as a true friend of Arakan State and was there to help. Yanghee Lee expressed her gladness that Aung San Suu Kyi was leading the new committee on Arakan State, and was devoting attention to its pressing issues. She also expressed confidence in Chief Minister Nyi Pu, whom she trusted would help deliver positive change. Today I would like to take the opportunity again to thank you all for working hard on a very complex and very difficult situation, she said. On Tuesday, Ms. Yanghee Lee told civil society groups in Rangoon that she had been prohibited by the government from visiting northern Shan State, where several thousand civilians have fled armed conflict in recent months, out of concern for her safety. The Irrawaddy phoned President Offices spokesman Zaw Htay on Wednesday to clarify this restriction imposed on Yanghee Lee but the calls went unanswered. Wednesday, June 22nd, 2016 (1:49 pm) - Score 547 Shropshire-based broadband and telecoms provider Entanet has warned that the Governments controversial Investigatory Powers Bill (IPB), which will force ISPs to snoop on their customers, is not clear or workable but still looks certain to become law within weeks. The IPBill proposes various changes and chief among them is a new requirement for ISPs to retain Internet Connection Records of all their subscribers (i.e. your details + what websites and servers you visited) for a period of up to 12 months, which can then be provided to various public bodies and the security services upon request (a police warrant is only required for more detailed interception). However ISPs, especially smaller providers, frequently warn that the technical details of this system and how it would work have yet to be fully clarified. On top of that the new approach would impose a significant financial burden upon them, which is likely to cost dramatically more than the Governments thinly researched estimations (upwards of 175m+). Some are even predicting a figure well north of 1 billion; the government will only pick-up part of the tab for this. The latest draft revision of the IPBill was officially published in March 2016 (here) and has already made it through the House of Commons, with only a few minor amendments. The bill is now headed for the House of Lords where it may face greater scrutiny, although Entanet and many other ISPs dont expect much to change. Paul Heritage-Redpath, Entanets Product Manager, said: The current IPB is not clear or workable by any stretch of the imagination. To our dismay, following its third reading, Labour has now lent its support to the Bill, which passed in the Commons with a majority of 444 to 69; the SNP, Liberal Democrats, and Green Party voted against it. Home Secretary Theresa May MP, said that the Bill had received unprecedented levels of scrutiny. Were not at all convinced by this statement; the Public Committee that has been scrutinising the IPB is made up of 20 MPs, none of whom, as far as we are aware, are experts in the Internet or security. Consultation with industry has been scant at best. The concern for MPs is perhaps that the industry will come up with all sorts of objections (as it already has, quite independently) and slow the Bills passage down. The Shadow Home Secretary, Andy Burnham MP (Labour), has at least joined with others to continue his calls for greater clarification of what ICRs actually constitute and who should have access. I believe the threshold at which ICRs can be accessed must be higher. At present, the Bill sets it at any crime. I do not think it is necessary or proportionate for information held in ICRs to be accessed in connection with lower-level offences, said Burnham in April, before adding that too many public bodies can still access the data. Paul Heritage-Redpath added: We have watched the progression of the IPB carefully and we feel it needs much more scrutiny and input from the industry. Like ISPA, we believe that it is important for the government to bring forward new legislation but the current Bill is still a long way from being clear or fair. Another issue that was raised last week by Gavin Newlands, is the cost impact that keeping ICRs is going to have on ISPs; it is estimated this could be anywhere between 1 billion and 3 billion. Weve argued in the past that it is unfair that ISPs should have to shoulder the burden of this cost and that the likely outcome is that the extra costs will be passed on to the consumer. But until we know what an ICR actually is, we have no hope of calculating what the cost is likely to be. In summary, this is a Bill that the government seems to be pushing through quickly for political as well as practical reasons; has not been properly and thoroughly thought-out, lacks clear guidance and definition; and will almost certainly lead to an increase in costs for customers. Entanets opinion appears to be almost universally shared by other ISPs and civil liberty groups, which all fear the aggressive encroachment of mass state surveillance upon ordinary law abiding citizens. However for ISPs its arguably the cost and technological challenges that create the most concern, both of which are difficult to factor when you have a bill that looks set to become law before anybody is quite sure about how to either implement or pay for it. Broadband provision in particular is a very low margins business and asking ISPs to implement a system that would impose a disproportionately huge cost is ultimately something that will surely be felt in the price we all pay. UPDATE 2:12pm The Regulatory Manager for Zen Internet, Gary Hough, has also given some input on the cost side of things. Embracing the Mobile Development Trends of 2016 Initially, the timeline for 5G suggested that the ambitious technology would be ready in the 2020 timeframe. Thats still the date people are using, but there are more than a few hints that vendors and operators are speeding things up a bit. The latest example is Ericssons announcement earlier this month that it is preparing software that will help network providers evolve their LTE networks to 5G. Industrial IoT 5G said the plug ins will include Massive MIMO (multiple in multiple out), radio access network (RAN) virtualization, intelligent connectivity, and software aimed at reducing latency. Ericsson is at the forefront of the carriers that could beat the original 2020 target: Ericsson has been aggressive in moving towards 5G and software deployments, touting 5G network trials with more than 20 operators, and planned field trials starting this year. 5G standards are not expected to be finalized until at least 2019, with commercial deployments using that standard not expected to roll out until the 2020 time frame. However, some carriers are looking to begin those field trials this year, with pre-standards-based commercial deployments beginning as early as 2017. Indeed, there are several signs that the technology is moving quickly. AT&T is conducting 5G trials with Nokia, and Verizon seems to be ahead and is hoping to pilot 5G services this year and launch in 2017, according to Business Insider. More evidence of efforts to move quickly comes from Qatar. Ooredoo Qatar, a carrier in the Middle East, is quite clear in its intentions with 5G, according to The Peninsula: Waleed Al Sayed, CEO of Ooredoo Qatar, told The Peninsula that it is working to bring forward the introduction of 5G technology from the current goal it is expected to go on trial in 2018 and then launch globally by 2020. He said: We believe 2020 is very far away. So we are trying with manufacturers and other concerned entities such as ITU and GSM Association (organiser of Mobile World Congress) to bring the launch date forward. The general consensus clearly is that the 2020 deadline can be beat. Indeed, it seems to be the accepted reality. Nokia CEO Rajiv Suri suggests that 5G will roll out in an evolutionary manner, with large-scale deployments in 2020. However, lots of incremental steps will be taken between now and then. These will result in 5G-based services being available to the public. There are a couple of things of which to be wary, despite the general optimism. One is whether the 5G that executives are talking about is the same technology that was originally promised. It is possible, and even easy, to gloss over technical differences. The move to 4G LTE was characterized by incremental steps beyond 3G, but somewhat short of true 4G. Marketing departments always push the envelope, and they generally sought to portray 3G-plus as 4G. Also keep in mind that there are still significant technical and standards steps that must be taken to achieve fully fledged 5G. None of the voices suggesting that 5G will arrive before 2020 seem to be from the people who are tasked with working out those highly technical details. Carl Weinschenk covers telecom for IT Business Edge. He writes about wireless technology, disaster recovery/business continuity, cellular services, the Internet of Things, machine-to-machine communications and other emerging technologies and platforms. He also covers net neutrality and related regulatory issues. Weinschenk has written about the phone companies, cable operators and related companies for decades and is senior editor of Broadband Technology Report. He can be reached at [email protected] and via twitter at @DailyMusicBrk. The Internet of Things (IoT) is a network of tangible items - from vehicles to refrigerators - that allows these things to collect and exchange data. Up until now, the IoT is very minimally seen in everyday life, with autonomous cars probably being the biggest example. However, the promise of IoT lands on a much larger scale and a South Korean tech giant is ready to take the lead. Samsung will be investing as much as $1.2 billion in the United States in the course of 4 years, as reported by Engadget. The investment will be used to develop technology that is targeted at enhancing the the power of everyday devices and will be shared between Samsung's own company and different startups. The company is already co-founding a "National IoT Strategy Dialogue," which aims to shape U.S. policies on always-online gadgets. Of course, Samsung is hoping that the guidelines will go in their favor, or that the guidelines will not "hold back" its interests. As C|Net adds, the goal of Samsung with the Internet of things is far greater than just making the lives of individuals easier. The company knows that the technology can be used for the bigger picture as well. In fact, Samsung's Vice Chairman, Oh-Hyun Kwon, spoke about this at an event in Washington, D.C. Kwon made an example of nursing homes. "Today, IoT is changing individual lives... Tomorrow, using IoT, we can give the same independence to millions of Americans. We can keep people out of hospitals and nursing homes." Kwon also discussed a few issues that the Information Technology Industry Council plans to address as IoT is further developed. These issues include privacy and security, internet infrastructure investment, leveraging public-private partnerships, letting innovation flourish, a global-wide set of standards and best practices, and enabling interoperability - the ability of a system to interact and work with another. Google is simplifying the two-factor authentication process required in order to log into a user account by integrating it into the iOS search app. According to MacRumors, Google has introduced the two-factor authentication in order to add an extra layer of security to users' Google Apps accounts. This is achieved by requiring users to enter their username and password and an additional verification code when signing into their account. If someone obtains a user password, Google's two-step verification process can prevent unauthorized access. In order to use this authentication process, users previously needed to receive a phone call or text message or in order to get a verification code. Alternatively, users could get a time-limited numerical code from the Google Authenticator mobile app. The change in the way the two-factor authentication process works is being rolled out since Tuesday, June 21. Google has explained the details of the change in its blog. According to Google, a notification from the iOS search app now asks if the user is trying to sign when they try to sign into a Google account with two-step verification enabled. The account is quickly authenticated by a simple tap on the option "Yes, allow sign-in." Users need to sign into Google's My Account section and select Google prompt in order to enable two-factor authentication. In order to work, the option requires a data connection. According to Google, it may take up to three days for the feature to appear across all account pages. According to ZDNet, the new two-step verification method is called by the internet search giant company "Google prompt." This comes to offer Android and iPhone users a simpler manner of signing in to Google than one-time codes received from the Google Authenticator app or via SMS. Since it can stop someone who has stolen a password from accessing an account, tech experts estimate that the new option will encourage Google users to enable two-step verification in order to protect their accounts. In response to the recent MySpace and LinkedIn password leaks, many security experts have recommended users to enable the two-step verification. Singapore-based Dropsuite, a cloud back-up solutions provider for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and corporates, has expanded its offerings in Europe via Netherlands-based premium Telco LeaderTelcom. But wait there's more. Dropsuite is helmed by former Google and Dell executive Charif Elansari and backed by top-tier global investors including 500 Startups and Hatcher. In April, Singapores Dropsuite expanded into the North American and Australian markets, gearing up for its upcoming listing on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX). The LeaderTelecom deal follows similarly successful deals with some of the biggest names in the tech industry, including Ingram Micro (the worlds largest distributor of computer and technology products), GoDaddy (the worlds largest hosting company), Blacknight Solutions (the #1 hosting company in Ireland), GMO Internet (the #1 hosting company in Japan), HostPapa (the #1 hosting company in Canada), and Singtel (the #1 telco in Singapore). It also comes months after Dropsuite rebranded from Dropmysite. By integrating Dropsuites range of cloud-based back-up solutions, LeaderTelecom can expand its service offerings to better protect its clients most important asset: their data. It welcomes Dropsuite to its list of best-in-class global partners including Comodo, Entrust, and Symantec. Dropsuite provides a fully-automated and secure platform that enables SMEs to back-up and restore website, email, mobile and server data. Its range of cloud-based back-up products and services include Dropmysite (website and database back-up), Dropmyemail (email backup and archiving), Dropmymobile (mobile data back-up), and DSE Server Backup (file-based server back-up). Ridley Ruth, chief operating officer of Dropsuite said, LeaderTelecom is a European market leader in online security. It will deliver best-in-class, one-click back-up solutions to its clients, not just in Europe but to its fast-growing client base around the world. LeaderTelecoms clients trust it as their premium telecom service provider of choice, and were delighted to now be a part of that process. Aleksei Ivanov, founder and managing director at LeaderTelecom, said, Since (it was) founded in 2012, LeaderTelecom has been at the forefront of the market by offering cutting-edge technology solutions from its painstaking process of choosing great partners. We are delighted to add Dropsuite to that list of world-class partners as we incorporate its simple and easy one-click cloud back-up solutions alongside our offerings. It also positions us favourably to tap into the European and global data protection and recovery markets. LeaderTelecom has clients in 80 countries and is a member of HSD (The Hague Security Delta), the largest security cluster in Europe and second-largest in the world. It is one of only 15 companies worldwide to enjoy WSSP-specialist status. In the four years since launch, LeaderTelecom has forged enduring strategic partnerships with security solutions provider including Symantec, IT security company Entrust, and the worlds second-largest SSL-supplier Comodo, among others. NABERS is the national rating that measures the energy efficiency, water usage, waste management and indoor environment quality of a building and its impact on the environment. It is managed nationally by the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage, on behalf of Commonwealth, state and territory governments. The rating is done by using measured and verified performance information, such as utility bills, and converting them into an easy to understand star rating scale from one to six stars. For example, a 6-star rating demonstrates market-leading performance, while a 1-star rating means the building or tenancy has considerable scope for improvement. Fujitsu Australia was an early adopter of NABERS ratings and is the first to achieve a fully rated data centre portfolio across six centres. The achievement is due to a local initiative to drive the companys global environmental action plan stage VIII, which seeks to contribute to society through developing ICT solutions and reducing the environmental impacts of their business. Mike Foster, chief executive of Fujitsu Australia and New Zealand, said: The portfolio rating is just as important from an environmental leadership perspective as it is from a transparency one. When it comes to energy efficiency claims regarding data centres, transparency is crucial. With the exponential increase in data centre energy and Australia being powered predominantly by fossil fuels, the industry needs more accountability for our environmental impacts. Tom Grosskopf, director of the metro branch at the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage, said, Fujitsu have been strong supporters of the NABERS Energy for data centres tool since its inception. This achievement is another significant statement that marks them as leaders in this industry. All digital companies should be looking to follow Fujitsu's lead if we're to reach our national sustainability targets. Fujitsu is also commencing a customer program to engage clients in their energy efficiency movement. For Fujitsus customers, choosing a provider with a high NABERS Energy rating will ensure they benefits from a resilient and efficient data centre. Fujitsu is looking to extend this best practice initiative to advise customers on how to obtain their own NABERS Energy rating, through consultation and learning. While digital copies have reduced paper print volumes, it is all too easy to print out a hard copy costing from a few cents to a few dollars each. A layer of control is needed. Nuance Equitrac intelligent print management software tracks all print jobs, produces cost centre reports, and allows for print accounting for on-charging. It has developed a reputation for security and cost containment, especially in the legal and education sectors. It has released a Chinese language version to cater for the growing Asian market. "Nuance is committed to the Asian market and will continue to invest in the region to meet the needs of our customers. Equitracs Chinese version complements our English version which is already widely used in Asia," said Stephen Dubois, vice-president sales APJ - Nuance Document Imaging. The Chinese version is available to customers through the companys long-term regional partners, Canon, Fuji Xerox, HP, Konica Minolta and Ricoh. These partners can assist customers with training and support, which is underpinned by Nuances solid expertise and technical know-how. Nuance has invested in China and has approximately 100 staff there. Key features include: NEC is investing $4.38 million in setting up a new global Security Intel Centre in Adelaide to help address what it says are growing demands for cyber security around the world. The new centre is expected to create 50 new high-value jobs in South Australia over the next five years. South Australia's Minister for Investment and Trade, Martin Hamilton-Smith, says the new secufrity centre will make the state a more attractive destination for ICT skills that are in high demand by organisations operating in South Australia, and newer entrants that have established themselves in the state. "Cyber security is a rapidly growing sector, and is attracting increasing attention and investment. Governments and businesses alike need innovative products and services to protect them from increasingly sophisticated threats to privacy and security. According to Hamilton-Smith, the establishment of the new security centre will bring about the creation of highly-specialised jobs in an area that will be transformational for the local economy." He says Adelaide has quickly become a destination of choice for companies in the technology and creative industries space and the city offers a vast talent pool through the three local universities and a competitive business environment that ensures tech companies can grow and thrive in South Australia. NEC Australia chief operating officer, Mike Barber, said NEC sees the cyber security demand in Australia and the Asia Pacific Region as a huge opportunity aligning with the company's global vision." "This isn't just about the creation of 50 new high-value jobs in South Australia over the next five years this is a major global investment in a growth sector. "South Australia is providing NEC with a great base to bring new technologies into Australia. Adelaide is a recognised hub for new technologies and we've worked with a lot of local partners with great intellectual property delivering innovative technical solutions." Barber said the facility builds on NEC Australia's recently announced memorandum of understanding with the University of Adelaide's Smart City initiative, under which the organisations will collaborate closely on research and development. Not a day goes by without cyber criminals bragging about a data breach from Ashley Madison to Sony. The fact is, no company appears to be immune to data breaches and hacks. One solution is multi-factor authentication (MFA) or 2-step verification (2SV) which essentially use a login and password to access a secure site that then generates an SMS code (or another method) to verify it is you. It may add a login step, but it eliminates the use of stolen passwords and logins unless attackers steal the mobile device as well. Google now supports 2SV by accessing My Account and selecting Sign-in & Security > Signing in to Google > 2-Step Verification. It supports SMS codes, physical security tokens, landline calls, USB keys and more. EIther 2SV or MFA is great because it alerts the user that their password and login has been used it is easy to identify fraudulent use. Chris Webber, security strategist with cybersecurity company Centrify, has welcomed news that Google is simplifying its two-step verification security process by providing in-app access authorisation. Webber said This move is a good step forward. It mirrors what the best enterprise MFA apps have been doing for some time. Having in-app MFA which requires only a yes or no tap both makes the end user experience simpler and raises the bar even further for attackers. Even an SMS-based code sent to a mobile device is many, many, times stronger than simply relying on username and password. Without MFA, attackers only need a stolen password, which today is very easy to get. With SMS, they need the password, and they need to socially engineer mobile carriers into redirecting text messages from the correct phone to another device. That second piece requires real effort, some skill, and a lot more time. As we all know there is no perfect security. But there is poor, good, and strong security and its good to see we are moving away from poor password-only security, to MFA for all users. The founding chief executive of NBN Co, Mike Quigley, has intervened in the last two weeks of the federal election, slamming the Coalition for making a huge miscalculation with the networks use of copper access technologies. Quigley ended what has been a low-profile retirement since 2013 with a strident attack on Wednesday on the Coalition, with his comments that the Coalitions betting of tens of billions of taxpayers dollars on a multi-technology mix (MTM) rollout, and the NBNs use of copper, was a colossal mistake. The ex-boss of the NBN resigned in 2013 ahead of the election of the Abbott government and, in one of his only public comments since, says to spend billions of dollars to build a major piece of national infrastructure that just about meets demand today, but doesnt allow for any significant growth in that demand over the next 10 or 20 years, without large upgrade costs - is incredibly short-sighted. Quigley launched his broadside in an address to an audience of around 200 industry figures at the University of Melbourne on Wednesday organised by the university's Melbourne Networked Society Institute (MNSI) with the Telecommunications Association, TelSoc. And, Quigley was unequivocal about what he says is the only technology fibre to the premises (FttP)Australia should have to deliver its NBN. Quigley is in apparent support of Labors original plan for the delivery of a fibre network, and told his audience that the plan to deliver FttP to 93% of the population would have cost $45 billion considerably less than the estimates of $64 billion to $94 billion. Forty-five billion is still the correct peak funding cost if the project (FTTP) had been allowed to continue," he said. To believe that the original FttP deployment would have required a peak funding of somewhere between $64bn and $94bn you have to make totally unrealistic assumptions about take-up rates and ARPUs, assumptions that have proven to be wrong. You have to distort per premise capex numbers, and finally you have to ignore the improvements in technology that are driving down FttP costs, increasing productivity and reducing FttP build times everywhere else in the world. Given the complexity of all of this information it is little wonder that it is very difficult for the average person, or even the media, to sort out fact from fiction concerning the peak funding costs for the original FttP-based NBN. But what is clear is that every forecast regarding the NBN that the Coalition has made, for which there is now data, whether for their own MTM or for the original FTTP plan - every one of them has been wrong. Quigleys major beef is the Coalitions decision to roll out a multi-technology mix (MTM) broadband network based on copper, rather than the original FttP-based NBN. It is such a pity that so much time and effort has been spent on trying to discredit and destroy the original FttP-based NBN. And equally a pity that the Coalition has put their faith in what has turned out to be a short-sighted, expensive and backward looking MTM based on copper. The nation is going to be bearing the consequences of those decisions for years to come in higher costs and poorer performance in an area that is critical to its long-term future. So, why is it important that we all understand the true picture regarding the original FttP-based NBN? asks Quigley. Unless the reality regarding FttP is known and understood, decisions will continue to be made about the NBN which are based on faulty information. Despite his criticisms, according to Quigley it is not too late to change the current direction of the NBN, but that change would need to be made in a controlled and managed way so that the project is not subject to another major disruption. Asked by iTWire what changes to the NBN rollout he expected the Coalition, if returned to government, or Labor, if elected on 2 July, would make to satisfy his and the industrys demands for a full FttP network not a fibre to the node (FttN) network Quigley is not overly enthusiastic. I expect the current government (Coalition) to continue to do what they are doing now, theyre so invested in it. They will maybe do less FTTN and use FTTPdb but thats not a trivial technology, but theyre likely to do that. With Labor, Quigley says he expects them to do what is logical to phase down the FttN and do more FttP and retain the HFC plan. They have no choice other than to do that, he stresses. And, on Labors stated commitment to halt the rollout of FttN and start deploying full fibre to 40% of premises, Quigley says he doesnt expect the transition will make a difference to the costs or the timing of the NBN completion and ongoing maintenance and upgrade costs will be lower. Quigley says that, compared to the original FttP-based NBN, Australia is on the way to a much poorer performing broadband network with a mix of FttP, FttN, and other technologies, entailing increased long-term costs and completion at about the same time as the original project would have been completed. Around the world, the direction in which new builds of fixed broadband networks are headed has become clear. The world is increasingly moving towards FttP. As a consequence, advances are being made in FttP technology that make it cheaper and easier to deploy. These developments, which have taken place in the last few years, have only reinforced the rationale for basing Australias NBN on FttP." As Australia's Julian Assange begins a fifth year of life in the Ecuador embassy in London, it looks like Sweden, the country that has accused him of rape, is finally beginning to come around. A report in the Guardian says Ecuador has received a formal request from Swedish authorities to interview Assange, a move that could bring the long-running saga to an end. Strangely, this is exactly what Ecuador has been asking for all along! Proposals for Assange to be extradited to Sweden for questioning were rejected because it was feared that he would be sent to the US from there. In the US, although the authorities are unwilling to admit it, there is a grand jury reportedly waiting to issue an indictment over Assange's alleged involvement in the leaks of confidential documents by former US soldier Chelsea Manning, documents that exposed several home truths about the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. Manning is now in jail. Assange visited Sweden in August 2010 to attend a conference where he was scheduled to give a talk. During that visit, he had sex with two women whom he met. The pair filed rape and molestation complaints against him later, claims that he denied. He was questioned by Swedish authorities and cleared of all accusations. He could have left the country then and there but stayed for a while, in case the authorities decided to question him again. Interpol issued a Red Notice for his arrest on 20 November 2010. On 27 November, Assange surrendered to authorities and appeared before a Westminster judge. Bail was granted to him in December after his backers provided 240,000 in cash and sureties. Then began a protracted period of legal back and forth that went on until June 2012, when Swedish prosecutors sought his extradition. Assange's lawyers, among them the world-renowned Australian Geoffrey Robertson, replied that if he agreed to the extradition request, then he could be flown to the US from there. On 19 June 2012, he jumped bail and took refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, seeking asylum in the South American country. British police surrounded the building and blocked any chance of his leaving. Ecuador granted him asylum in August 2012. He has had to stay inside the four walls of the embassy since then. Assange went to the UK because he did not trust the government in the so-called Lucky Country Australia. He feared it would hand him over to the US if he came home. Given Australia's obeisance to any dictates from Washington, one cannot question his logic. Australia has behaved in a craven way at least twice in the recent past when two of its citizens Mamdouh Habib and David Hicks were incarcerated by the Americans. Hicks was freed only after former Liberal prime minister John Howard begged the Americans to do something because the issue was affecting his poll prospects. Ecuador's foreign minister Dr Guillaume Long was reported by the Guardian as saying that his country is considering the Swedish request. In the interim, he has asked why the UK refused to accept a ruling by the UN in February that Assange was being arbitrarily detained. He also pointed out that between November 2010 and March 2015, Sweden made 44 requests to various countries to interview suspects. "So it is very common and could be easily done, but we faced total refusal for years," he said. If the standoff over Assange continues for another four years, then a statute of limitations under Swedish law will apply to the case. If the Swedes climb down from their unreasonable perch, then Assange may well be free later this year. But he will owe his native country, Australia, nothing. Both Redflow and Redback are Brisbane-based companies that are using innovative Australian developed technologies to secure this countrys role in the emerging energy storage revolution. Reflow, maker of the ZCell home storage battery, has approved use of Redback Technologies Smart Hybrid Solar Inverter system. In essence, Redbacks Smart Inverter takes DC electricity generated by solar panels and changes it into 240V AC power. It can also divert excess energy to a ZCell battery for later use. Redflows ZCell home battery, launched in March, is a 10 kilowatt hour (kWh) flow battery that can "timeshift" solar power from day to night, store off-peak power for peak demand periods and support off-grid systems. Australia is transitioning to lower emission energy systems, with 20% of homes now solar equipped. Due to the popularity of home solar systems over recent years, the government plans to minimise the subsidies to solar bonus schemes, with the NSW scheme ending on 31 December. FITs will reduce by 38.8 cents per kWh to 5.2 cents per kWh, meaning home energy systems will need to be smarter and more productive to ensure peak performance and avoid paying for grid electricity. Redbacks solution is hosted in Microsofts Azure IoT Suite cloud platform, ensuring easy updates and upgrades as their technology develops. It runs on a cloud-enabled intelligent system for analytics and remote control, which monitors consumption patterns, moving the use of appliances such as pool pumps and hot water into the solar window so they can be optimised to maximise self-consumption of rooftop solar. Redflow executive chairman Simon Hackett, who was closely involved with the certification process, said the Redback inverter was a smart piece of technology. We are very pleased that two Australian leaders in the emerging energy storage sector now have their devices working together. For customers to enjoy the benefits of Redflow's innovative flow battery technology, it's really important for us to work alongside like-minded businesses such as Redback. Redback Technologies founder and managing director Philip Livingston said he looked forward to working with Redflow as the energy storage sector develops. Australia is the perfect place from which to build a globally relevant energy storage sector based on local innovation, Redback Technologies is building the infrastructure for the next generation grid and partnering with Redflow provides choice to consumers and solar installers. We are going to put more money into homeowners pockets and create cleaner energy for our childrens future. Mobile World Congress, arguably the most important tech trade show in the world, is coming to the U.S. Trade groups GSMA and CTIA are joining forces to bring a smaller version of the event to the U.S. in 2017. GSMA Mobile World Congress Americas will debut Sept. 12 to 14, 2017, in San Francisco and will replace U.S. trade group CTIA's Super Mobility conference. Super Mobility will continue this year in Las Vegas from Sept. 7 to 9. The new conference will be the "first truly global wireless event" in the Americas, CTIA President and CEO Meredith Attwell Baker said in a press release. The new trade show, however, will apparently be more focused, spotlighting the leading innovations from the North American mobile industry, John Hofman, CEO of GSMA, said in a press release. The trade groups expect about 30,000 attendees and 1,000 exhibitors at the 2017 trade show, similar to the numbers from CTIA's Super Mobility conference. GSMA's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, earlier this year drew more than 100,000 attendees and 2,200 exhibitors. The 2017 Barcelona event will take place from Feb. 27 to March 2. The new Mobile World Congress Americas will feature C-level speakers, exhibits featuring the latest mobile technologies, and a regulatory and public policy program. Android y is making it easier to find apps that partner up with s easy payment service. An update to version 1.4 includes a new button in the overflow menu that shows a specific list of apps that can tap into Android y. This means youll be able to easily find out the possibilities with Android y with a splashy promo, such as buying a swich from Grubhub, or catch an Uber ride without the need to fumble through your wallet for a credit card. You can now find out quickly which apps play nicely with Android y. You can authenticate an Android y payment with your fingerprint or N. Many of the apps listed in this section also have a promo for using Android y for the first time, so it may be worth checking out. Android lice also found a few hidden features that is working on in an A teardown. The most interesting is a some type of method for locating stores near you that accept Android y. tentially your location would pop up on a Map with the merchants stores. so, theres an indication you may be able to sign up for loyalty programs right inside the app with auto-filled data. This way if youre at a store get inevitably bugged about joining their loyalty program, you could sign up right from your phone. If you want to check out more about whats coming, recently published this Android y session from I/O: y this matters: Android y, mobile payments in general, have yet to really take off in the mainstream. So such subtle nudges by are designed to make the process easier encourage you to try it out with freebies. The biggest detractor, however, is just getting more merchants to jump on board. In scenes associated more with dictatorships than the U.S., politicians in the House of Representatives took to Twitter and Periscope on Wednesday to evade a TV blackout of a sit-in held to push forward new gun legislation. Trouble started when House Democrats, led by Representative John Lewis, a Georgia Democrat, started their protest. It came just over a week after a gunman killed 49 at a Florida nightclub and two days after four gun control bills were voted down by Republicans in the Senate. Asked for order on the floor, the Democrats refused to budge, and so the House went into recess. The cameras in the House are controlled by majority Republicans, and the signals are provided to broadcasters for their use. C-SPAN, a channel owned by cable and satellite operators, typically carries the signal live, and when the House went into recess, the feed from the floor went black. That immediately sparked accusations of censorship, and C-SPAN was quick to point out that it had no control over the feed. C-SPAN has no control over the U.S. House TV cameras. CSPAN (@cspan) June 22, 2016 Frustrated that their protest was not being seen by the American public, the politicians began providing updates on Twitter. If GOP thinks that turning off @cspan's cameras will somehow stop this sit-in, they may want to be aware of a little thing called Twitter Catholic Democrats (@CatholicDems) June 22, 2016 They posted images that were no longer being seen on television. We are united! Democrats sit-in for an end to gun violence! #NoBillNoBreak pic.twitter.com/l2WtTmUToS Brenda Lawrence (@RepLawrence) June 22, 2016 Later, the TV network picked up a Periscope feed that was being broadcast from the House floor, restoring its coverage. At least two politicians were broadcasting live on the platform and being watched by thousands of viewers. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has proposed fining Amazon $130,000 over two incidents in 2014 when it shipped or attempted to ship hazardous goods by air. The flight safety regulator says Amazon shipped the packages without warning labels, paperwork that specified the chemicals inside, or emergency response information. The proposed penalty comes two weeks after the FAA fined Amazon $350,000 over a similar incident that caused injuries to several UPS workers. The first of the two latest fines relates to a shipment made in May 2014, when Amazon sent two packages containing a rust-stain removing product from Illinois to Florida. One box contained four 1-gallon plastic jugs and another two jugs of the corrosive chemical. The shipments were discovered by FedEx workers when they began to leak. The second shipment was in June 2014, when Amazon offered UPS a box containing a 19-ounce container of Simple Air EZ Green HVAC Cleaner. The flammable gas was discovered by UPS workers in Kentucky. Two weeks ago, Amazon was fined for sending a gallon of Amazing Liquid Fire, a corrosive drain cleaner, by air from Kentucky to Colorado, in October 2014. On that occasion, the container leaked and nine UPS workers had to be treated for a burning sensation on their skin. Amazon has 30 days to respond to the allegations. The company did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday, but in response to the fine two weeks ago it said: "We ship tens of millions of products every day and have developed sophisticated technologies to detect potential shipping hazards and use any defects as an opportunity for continuous improvement." Get unlimited access to all content and features at ivpressonline.com with our Full Online Access Subscription. Read our E-Edition, the digital replica of the print newspaper online, access content in exclusive sections including Family, Teen, Business, Databases, Farm and more. This option does not include daily home delivery of the Imperial Valley Press newspaper. For home delivery service, please select Premium or Premium Plus. What is a Jew? Israeli museum attempts an answer JERUSALEMI was on a short visit to Israel and spent time with a friend with whom I have been engaged in a 30-year argument. Elli... When anti-Semitism rears its head, we must be ready to fight it Anti-Semitism is a force that is persistent as well as pernicious. When it occurs, it must be fought both by being confronted in real time... The "Dragon Ball Super" episode 49 trailer has been released. The upcoming installment is entitled "A Message from the Future! Goku Black Invades!" Design&Trend reported that "Dragon Ball Super" episode 49 will see a traumatized Future Trunks facing Goku. Apparently, he and the Super Saiyan may have a quick battle. "Dragon Ball Super" episode 48 showed Future Trunks attacking Goku. This is believed to be caused by Black Goku's similarity to the Super Saiyan. The new villain threatened to come after Future Trunks in this week's episode. The publication noted that Black Goku will definitely pose a problem for present Goku and the Z-fighters. The villain's real identity may be revealed in the upcoming installment. According to Christian Times, "Dragon Ball Super" episode 49 may see the beginning of an epic battle between Black Goku and Goku. Vegeta and Future Trunks are said to also help the Super Saiyan in the fight. GamenGuide noted that the trailer for episode 49 featured Goku and Future Trunks preparing for their fight against each other. It was revealed that Black Goku is threatening the future. Later in the clip, Goku, together with Vegeta and Future Trunks, can be seen looking up at Black Goku. It seems as if he has arrived in the present. This led to speculations that a major fight will be coming up in the series. "While I don't think Nozawa-san knows it yet, you can feel in your bones just how evil Black is... it's incredible," Trunks voice actor Takeshi Kusao said about Black Goku. "From your very first look at him, he's just bad to the bone." Enstarz added that the current "Dragon Ball Super" saga has been deemed as the best arc of the franchise. Episode 48 has reportedly earned an 8.4 rating from viewers. "Dragon Ball Super" episode 49 will be aired on Sunday, Jun. 29, 9 a.m. Japan time. It is shown on Fuji TV. The "Game of Thrones" season 6 episode 10 trailer has been released. The finale will be tying up loose ends for this season and building groundwork for the next. The trailer for "Game of Thrones" season 6 episode 10 opened with a shot of Cersei, Daenerys and King Tommen. A shot of Jon Snow talking to Sansa Stark was shown next. "We need to trust each other," Snow told Stark. "We have so many enemies now." It was previously reported that Ramsay Bolton's chilling final speech in episode 9 seems to imply that Sansa is pregnant with his child. Moreover, she may have to marry Petyr Baelish, also known as Littlefinger, to protect the baby. In the "GoT" season 6 episode 10 preview, Littlefinger and Sansa were shown talking to each other. "I thought you knew what I wanted," Baelish said. Tyrion also continues on giving Daenerys advice. "You're in the great game now," he said, "and the great game is terrifying." "Game of Thrones" season 6 episode 10 is entitled "The Winds of Winter." It will be aired on Jun. 26. According to The Hollywood Reporter, "The Winds of Winter" will be the longest installment of "Game of Thrones" with 69 minutes. Fans can also expect massive highlights in the upcoming episode. "It's not a recap," actor Liam Cunningham told the publication. "It isn't, 'Here's what's to come in season seven.' There are very big events that are going to happen." Showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss have confirmed that the series is nearing its conclusion. The main "GoT" cast has been renewed for season 8. However, there is still no confirmation on how many more episodes there will be. "The actual messiness of storytelling might not be quite that numerologically elegant, but we're looking at somewhere between 70 and 75 hours before the credits roll for the last time," they said. Recent development on George R.R. Martin's "The Winds of Winter" release date has revealed that the book could be released by Jan. 2017. Email Links to our top local news stories of the day, Monday through Saturday. Alterra co-founders Ward Fowler (top, from left), Paul Miller and Lincoln Fowler cheer as the first sign bearing the coffee chains new name was unveiled at Colectivo Coffee, 2211 N. Prospect Ave., in 2013. Credit: Journal Sentinel files MKE Diner News and notes on the restaurant scene from dining critic Carol Deptolla SHARE By of the Colectivo is opening its first cafe outside Wisconsin, in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood, Eater Chicago and DNAinfo are reporting. The coffee roaster already is advertising for a cafe manager for the Chicago location. It would open in what's been called a small storefront with patio space at 2530 N. Clark St. According to the Chicago Cityscape building-permit tracking website, Colective is proposing a one-story addition. Colectivo spokesman Scott Schwebel said the coffee roaster would release more information Wednesday about the project. Colectivo has 13 MIlwaukee-area cafes and three in Madison. Its Troubador Bakery and commissary are in Bay View; the roasting plant is in Riverwest. Chicago-based Boeing Co. confirmed signing an agreement with Iran Air expressing the airlines intent to buy its aircraft. Credit: Associated Press SHARE By Dubai, United Arab Emirates Boeing Co. said Tuesday it signed an agreement with Iran Air "expressing the airline's intent" to buy its aircraft, setting up the biggest business deal between the Islamic Republic and America since the 1979 U.S. Embassy takeover in Tehran if it goes through. Already, one Iranian official has said the deal could involve 100 aircraft, while another has suggested Iranian airlines may purchase airplanes worth $25 billion from Chicago-based Boeing welcome news to workers on the company's massive assembly plants around Seattle. However, the long-standing enmity between the United States and Iran, as well as other sanctions and even presidential politics, still could complicate any agreement, even after last year's nuclear deal. If the agreement is finalized, aircraft orders are often announced at list prices, meaning the actual price tag would likely be lower as airlines typically get steep discounts. Boeing issued a statement to The Associated Press saying that it signed the Iran Air agreement "under authorizations from the U.S. government following a determination that Iran had met its obligations under the nuclear accord reached last summer." "Boeing will continue to follow the lead of the U.S. government with regards to working with Iran's airlines, and any and all contracts with Iran's airlines will be contingent upon U.S. government approval," it said. Boeing's statement offered no further details. Fakher Daghestani, a Dubai-based spokesman for the manufacturer, declined to elaborate. State Department spokesman John Kirby said, "The State Department welcomes Boeing's announcement of this deal with Iran Air, which involves the type of permissible business activity envisioned in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. Boeing has been in close contact with the State Department regarding this deal." Iran Air, that country's national carrier, said Monday it wanted to buy new Boeing 737s and 777s. The 737s are single aisle jets, typically used for flights of up to five hours. The 777 is a larger plane that can carry passengers for 12 hours or more. Iran's Transportation Minister Abbas Akhoundi said possible deals between the Islamic Republic and Boeing could be worth as much as $25 billion, on par with the country's earlier agreement with Boeing's European rival, Airbus. That deal was for 118 new planes. Iran also has ordered 20 airplanes from French-Italian aircraft manufacturer ATR. "The initial talks were held, and I can say Boeing is negotiating with the U.S. officials and possibly the amount of our purchase is equal to Airbus," Akhoundi said. If the deal goes through, the first Boeing plane could arrive in Iran in October, said Ali Abedzadeh, the head of Iran's Civil Aviation Organization. Some analysts were skeptical that Iran will ever take delivery of so many jets. "A $25 billion deal delivered by unicorns flying unicorns," said Richard Aboulafia, an analyst with the Teal Group Corp. "Some planes may or may not be delivered, but everyone has a huge interest in inflating the likelihood of this happening. Airbus and Boeing are desperate for a growth story, and the Iranians love commercial opportunities for political leverage." Aboulafia said the market faces too much competition from Etihad, Emirates and Qatar the rapidly growing airlines directly across the Persian Gulf from Iran. Iran Air, whose website lists 43 airplanes in its fleet, has direct flights to 35 international destinations, including London. The European Union eased its restrictions on Iran Air last week. In the past 12 months, global airlines have scheduled 150,000 flights to and from Iran, with 22.7 million available seats, according to schedule tracking service Diio Mi. It is unclear how many of those seats were actually filled. By comparison, during that same period, there were 250,000 flights to and from Poland, a country with a similar GDP but roughly half the size of the population, with 34 million available seats. The world's largest aviation market, the United States, had nearly 10 million scheduled flights. Iranian airlines have some 60 Boeing airplanes in service, but most were purchased before the 1979 Islamic Revolution that ousted Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and brought Islamists to power. Out of Iran's 250 commercial planes, 162 are flying while the rest are grounded due to lack of spare parts, Akhoundi said Tuesday. Parts and servicing remained nearly impossible to get while the world sanctioned Iran over its contested nuclear program. A spokesman for the union that represents Boeing engineers and other professionals in Washington state says they continue to see job cuts despite sales announcements like the deal with Iran Air. Forty-seven members of SPEEA, the professional aerospace union, received layoff notices just last week, according to spokesman Bill Dugovich. He said the Iran Air deal is not likely to change that. "They factor in all these things. These deals don't come out of the blue," Dugovich said. SHARE By of the Cellular Dynamics International Inc., a Madison company at the forefront of making human cells that might someday be used to help cure disease, has hired an executive to lead its cell manufacturing. Derek Hei is CDI's new vice president of clinical manufacture, quality and regulatory activities, the company said. Hei was previously director of Waisman Biomanufacturing, a facility at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he established biotherapeutics and cell therapy contract manufacturing. "We want to put people on notice that we're going to treat patients and cure patients," said Chris Parker, executive vice president and chief business officer. Hei is the first high-level hire CDI has made since it was acquired in May by Tokyo-based Fujifilm Holdings Corp. He will help CDI comply with "Current Good Manufacturing Practice" regulations enforced by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Hei has a Ph.D in biochemical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, and a bachelor of science in chemical engineering from the UW-Madison. "As we anticipate the expansion of the number and variety of cellular therapies that will benefit from CDI's manufacturing capabilities, it is a critical priority for us to maintain the best management team in the stem cell space," said Emile F. Nuwaysir, president and chief operating officer. From the lab to the clinic At the International Stem Cell Meeting this week in San Francisco, there has been more discussion than ever before about getting stem cell therapies into the clinic, said Don Gibbons, a spokesman for the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine. "Companies and university research teams are all thinking about those last steps leading up to approval for a clinical trial," Gibbons said. CDI is the leader at automating the process of making human cells in industrial quantities to exact specifications. Starting with a small sample of blood or skin, the company, in essence, rewinds cells to create the equivalent of embryonic stem cells. Then it nudges the cells forward in the developmental process to become different varieties of cells, including heart, liver and several types of neural cells. CDI also on Wednesday said it has entered into a cooperative research and development agreement with the National Eye Institute to supply its induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPSC-derived cells, and collaborate on research to advance a cell transplantation therapy for the treatment of retinal degenerative disease. "While iPSC-derived cells have great potential for regenerative medicine applications, there are many hurdles yet to overcome," said Kaz Hirao, CDI's chairman and chief executive officer. "This agreement builds on the longstanding relationship between CDI and the National Eye Institute to address some of these hurdles, and may lead to iPSC-based therapies for patients with serious diseases of the eye." Trial put on hold A clinical trial the first ever involving induced pluripotent stem cells began in 2014 when Japanese researchers transplanted retinal tissue made using reprogrammed cells into a woman with age-related macular degeneration. The trial was put on hold last summer before a second patient could be treated because of concerns about mutations in the cells that were to be transplanted. SHARE By , After years of serving meals quick and cheap, fast-food chains are having to turn to a new tactic in hopes of luring Millennial customers: going natural. The latest example came Wednesday as Hardee's and Carl's Jr. announced new chicken breasts for their sandwiches that are "natural" because they don't have any artificial preservatives or additives. The dual chain, operated by CKE Restaurants Holdings, already has natural turkey burgers and a line of all-natural hamburgers. In March, McDonald's said it was testing new Chicken McNuggets in Portland, Ore., that lack artificial preservatives, flavors or colors. McDonald's is also testing fresh, not frozen, hamburger patties in some Dallas locations. And both have watched as Chipotle Mexican Grill has grown, appealing to younger customers with a formula pushing natural ingredients and no non-therapeutic antibiotics or synthetic hormones in its meats. For Hardee's and sister chain Carl's Jr., the movement has represented a turnabout in the desires of its core customers, men ages 18 to 34 who are among the most frequent customers of fast-food chains, said Brad Haley, the chain's chief marketing officer. Young men's biggest goal "used to be a lot of food for the money," he said. "Now, they are more concerned about what they put in their bodies than ever before." The generation has, he points out, more vegetarians than in the past, not a great development for hamburger-driven chains like Hardee's and Carl's Jr. Younger men in the target demographic visit fast-food chains 11 times a month, more than any other group, and spend more on their meals, according to Haley. In the past, Hardee's and Carl's Jr. have lured them with TV ads that played to images of hulking burgers with a dash of sex appeal whether it was sexy models or, in one ad, Paris Hilton at the height of her fame, struggling to devour the monster burgers. Now, Haley said, young men are "just as interested in all-natural or minimally processed food as the total population, which does mark a change from previous years when younger guys were less interested in those things." SHARE Bob Doll, senior application engineer, holds a hydraulic reservoir made by Price Engineering on Tuesday at the inaugural Fluid Power Technology Conference at the Milwaukee School of Engineering in Milwaukee. Mark Hoffman Hydraulic reservoirs made by Price Engineering are on display at the conference. Mark Hoffman By of the A Hartland firm says it's stepping up technology aimed at making big machines, such as garbage trucks and construction equipment, more efficient and better for the environment. Price Engineering made its announcement Tuesday at a fluid power technology conference that continues Wednesday, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., at Milwaukee School of Engineering. Price says it's collaborated with Solar Plastics, of Delano, Minn., on the development and manufacture of new hydraulic fluid systems that, in some cases, reduce the amount of toxic, mineral-based fluid used by more than 90%. Hydraulic motors use fluid under pressure to generate, control and transmit power. Among thousands of uses, they turn the drum on a cement mixer, swing the boom on a crane, and power the lifting equipment on a garbage truck. Hydraulic reservoirs hold the fluid, the lifeblood of the motors. Often they're big, inefficient, and haven't changed much in design in the last 30 years. Price has expanded the use of what's called cyclone technology, which rapidly removes suspended air from hydraulic fluid. By doing that, the size of a fluid reservoir can be dramatically reduced, saving hydraulic fluid and making the system more environmentally friendly. "I think it's disruptive technology," said Terry Glidden, Price Engineering managing director. The cyclonic system originated from Eaton Corp. 17 years ago, but Price Engineering says it's taken the technology to a higher level through numerous changes. Hydraulic pumps provide the muscle for equipment used in construction, mining, agriculture, forestry and transportation. "These are the things that are all around us, but we aren't always aware of them," said Price Engineering President Tom Price. The company uses 3-D printers to rapidly develop working prototypes of hydraulic fluid reservoirs. In some cases, it has managed to shrink the size of a reservoir that held 8 gallons down to the size of a milk jug. "I think we are at a crossroads; some people call it the next industrial revolution, the digitization of machinery," Price said. A traditional hydraulic fluid reservoir could contain up to five times the amount of oil that the pump can handle in a minute. Thus, even a 20-gallon-per-minute system would need up to 100 gallons of oil. The environmental benefits from smaller, more efficient hydraulic fluid systems come in several ways. The petroleum-based fluid is toxic, for instance, and if there's less to spill there's less to clean up. That's especially important in a marine environment, Price said Moreover, in some cases biodegradable oil can replace the mineral-based hydraulic fluid. "The trends that we see that are important are not only modern technology, productivity and energy efficiency, but also working in a global environment where we leave the world to the next generation in a better place," Price said. "We haven't been as good of stewards as we should be. I think there's a real call to executives and manufacturing leaders to rethink how we do some things," he added. Price Engineering has won U.S. military contracts for its compact hydraulic fluid reservoirs, with the equipment installed on a new prototype vehicle from Oshkosh Corp. Manufacturers of even the largest trucks value every square inch of space in their designs. "When you open the hood of some of these vehicles, there's hardly room left for a pad of paper," Glidden said. The Fluid Power Institute, at Milwaukee School of Engineering, has done industry-funded research for off-road equipment makers Caterpillar, John Deere and Case-New Holland. Researchers also are seeking ways to scale-down fluid power applications to human size for prosthetics. "It's almost like the 'bionic man' is going to be a reality at some point soon, the way things are going in the medical field," said Thomas Wanke, director of the Fluid Power Institute. Research is under way for using hydraulic fluid power for offshore power generation, essentially tapping the motion of waves to generate electricity. The wind-turbine industry also uses a lot of fluid power in its equipment. "Those areas are continuing to grow," Wanke said. "And we are doing a lot of research in hydraulic fluids to improve the efficiency of pumps and motors. If they're using less fuel, they're producing less pollution." The fluid power technology conference, at MSOE's Kern Center, includes a trade show and 45-minute presentations of technical papers. Registration for the event, sponsored by Fluid Power World magazine, is available online or at the event. SHARE By of the The metropolitan Milwaukee unemployment rate fell to 4.2% in May, down from 5.0% a year ago, the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development said Wednesday. The local jobless rates are not adjusted to reflect the normal seasonal factors that affect hiring. And the latest figure, calculated from a survey, is preliminary and subject to revision. Still, the results continue the generally downward trend since the unemployment rate in the four-county area stood at 10.1% in February 2010. Like Milwaukee, every metro area in the state showed year-over-year improvement. The rates ranged from a low of 2.9% in metropolitan Madison to a high of 4.7% in metropolitan Racine, which is the same as Racine County. The steepest decline in joblessness came in metropolitan Janesville Rock County which saw its rate drop from 5.3% in May 2015 to 4.1% last month. The preliminary statewide unemployment rate for May was reported last week a seasonally adjusted 4.2%, the lowest level since early 2001. Lisa Reardon (right), CEO of OwnersEdge, joins service technician John Donner (foreground) and service manager Scott Schoen as they check the cable connections in a secure IT hub of their operations. Credit: Rick Wood SHARE Lisa Reardon joins finance team members Becky Foat (left) and Chris Adee at OwnersEdge, a holding company that sets up ESOP plans. Rick Wood By of the For five days, Steve Elias didn't even open the unsolicited acquisition offer. Although he wanted to sell his three Green Bay businesses, Elias worried about how a new owner particularly one looking to consolidate within the industry might treat his 70 employees. So instead of responding to the sender, Elias remembered a presentation he had heard several years earlier and picked up the phone. Six months later, Elias is still running his companies, but they've been sold to OwnersEdge Inc., a Brookfield-based employee stock ownership plan holding company that is looking to invest in and build companies in the Midwest. The presentation Elias remembered was made by Lisa Reardon, president, chief executive officer and chairwoman of OwnersEdge. Reardon had talked about business owners' succession planning, and about how her company sought diversification through acquisitions of companies with leaders such as Elias who want to continue running their businesses. "Quite honestly, nothing's really changed for me," said Elias, president of Baycom Inc., a provider of wireless voice, mobile data and video equipment to public safety and commercial clients. Since the OwnersEdge acquisition in April, Elias says he has continued to run and expand Baycom, along with Baycom Cellular, which sells cellphones and other equipment from two retail stores, and Tour Guide Solutions, which sells wireless tour guide and conferencing equipment to manufacturers, museums and attractions. But OwnersEdge now handles all of the financial and administrative responsibilities, Elias said. And because it is an ESOP, all of Elias' employees have the chance to be part-owners. "An ESOP in a successful company can generate substantial long-term benefits for employees," said Chris Mercer, chief executive officer of Mercer Capital, a Memphis, Tenn.-based business valuation firm that has had an ESOP in place since 2006. About 60% of people who are selling businesses start out saying they'd like to sell to their employees, said Linda Mertz, chief executive officer of Mertz Associates Inc., in Rubicon, and a 30-year veteran of the mergers and acquisitions industry. But the rules and legal work involved in forming an ESOP appear daunting, so it often "just stalls out, and they end up selling to a third-party buyer," she said. OwnersEdge changes that picture by offering company owners an ESOP structure that's already in place. When OwnersEdge acquires their companies, they can cash out, but still continue running things while in the process providing an upside for employees who become part of the ESOP, said Mertz, who is a strategic adviser to OwnersEdge. The model, where OwnersEdge formed a holding company to make acquisitions for the ESOP, is not a common one, she said. "I don't know of anyone else doing this in our market," she said. "It's a wonderful, wonderful opportunity." The idea for forming OwnersEdge grew out of Reardon's search for diversification. In 2008, when she took the helm at CC&N, Reardon says she was focused on creating a structure within which the network connectivity and communications technologies provider could grow. In 2012, Reardon and her management team launched NEXT Electric, an electrical contractor that wires buildings for computing infrastructure and specializes in complex projects. NEXT helped CC&N to grow and had explosive growth itself, gaining 100 employees in four years, Reardon said. But that didn't satisfy her desire for more diversification. Reardon had run CC&N through the recession, when revenue didn't budge for several years. She knew the importance of keeping an ESOP growing and worried that NEXT wasn't enough. "I felt it didn't allow me to grow through whatever the economy throws at us in the future," Reardon said. So in 2014, she formed OwnersEdge, made CC&N and NEXT Electric subsidiaries, and went looking for more companies. "I think that I'm at heart a problem solver and I do have a longer time span of looking ahead, trying to always be on the offensive side of the court," Reardon said. Not all companies are suited to be ESOPs, Mertz said. It helps, for example, to have a collaborative management team like the one at OwnersEdge that works together well, she said. Also, companies that are consistently profitable with stable and preferably growing earnings work best for ESOPs, Mercer said. Reardon says she and her management team have produced a 20% annual return over the last five years. With the addition of Elias' companies, OwnersEdge has more than $70 million of revenue and 320 employees, she said. And from her perspective, the future looks bright. "We're expecting a very positive return for employees," she said. Representatives of eight Great Lakes states met in Chicago Tuesday to vote on Waukeshas request to divert Lake Michigan water. Credit: Dohn Behm SHARE By of the Tuesday's vote by Great Lakes states to allow Lake Michigan water to flow to Waukesha is about more than having a safe drinking water supply for Wisconsin's seventh-largest city. Among other things, the decision means businesses seeking to attract new talent won't have to face questions about radium-contaminated water every time a prospective employee puts the word "Waukesha" into an online search engine. "Today's decision is incredibly important to the business community," Suzanne Kelley, president of the Waukesha County Business Alliance, said of Tuesday's vote. "Undoubtedly there were businesses out there that were watching the water situation very closely." Whether companies are seeking to attract or retain talented employees or choose sites for expansion, the vote puts Waukesha and the region on a level playing field when it comes to water, Kelley said. "All businesses that currently operate in the city of Waukesha will benefit from this decision, and any business looking to locate in Waukesha in the future will benefit from this," Kelley said. "They now know there is a sustainable source of clean water that they will have access to." The water issue had already surfaced at an area company. "We actually had an employee that asked about the radium in the water because they were looking to buy a home in the Waukesha area," said Tom Fotsch, chief operating officer for EmbedTek LLC, which has a postal address of Waukesha but is located in nearby Pewaukee. "If they are concerned about it, that has an impact on individual employees and the business as well." Kelley said the problem had to be addressed. "Obviously, businesses in Waukesha need to provide safe water to their employees," Kelley said. "It's important to them for their current employees as well as any future employees. For businesses in Waukesha to grow, they need to be able to ensure safe, sustainable water for their employee base." With information at nearly everyone's fingertips, news of something such as a radium-contaminated water supply travels fast. "When someone is researching our communities, information is so easy to get. Someone goes online and what pops up? Radium," said Marie O'Brien, president and CEO of Enterforce Inc., a national staffing and workforce management consulting company in Pewaukee. "All these things impact the health and welfare of their families." Quality-of-life issues are increasingly part of the process of younger workers deciding whether to accept a job offer. "When a candidate makes a move today, particularly millennials, their top five (reasons) are very different," than those of previous generations of workers, O'Brien said. "Today it's about who they work for, the culture of the company, the environment they live in.... Money comes in kind of down at the bottom." Amenities such as clean water and the environment can be recruiting tools, O'Brien said. "That is what is going to be top of mind for our young candidates," O'Brien said. "It's not only important from the standpoint of our health and welfare." O'Brien also said she believes the decision transcends regional boundaries. "I would be just as passionate about this if it hadn't been in Waukesha County, if it was in Milwaukee County or Washington County or the counties to the south. It just makes good sense," O'Brien said. "I'm glad our neighboring states think the same thing." Others in Waukesha County also said they see the vote as a win for the region. "A strong Waukesha is good for a strong Milwaukee and is good for a strong southeast Wisconsin," Fotsch said. Despite opposition to the plan from some corners, "The science prevailed, and I think the region is better for that," Fotsch said. "The issue was, long term, there needed to be a solution to water for Waukesha," he added. "It's all part of a good, solid infrastructure that helps build a community and that community becomes an integral part of the region." Added Kelley, "This is an important day for Waukesha. It's an important day for the Great Lakes Compact." The Frozen gang gets the Lego treatment with four new animated shorts from the Lego Group, airing on the Disney Channel in November. SHARE By , Rather than "Let It Go," Disney is making its "Frozen" franchise snow. The Mouse House has announced an extension of the brand called "Frozen Northern Lights," featuring books, animated shorts and a TV special. It's no surprise that Disney is capitalizing on the animated movie's success: After all, the film raked in $1.2 billion globally, won two Academy Awards in 2014 (best animated feature and original song), sold 4.1 million soundtracks and is headed to Broadway in 2018. "Frozen Northern Lights" is "a brand-new original story and it's going to feature all of the Frozen fan favorites," says Andrew Sugerman, executive vice president of Disney Publishing Worldwide. The idea, he says, began as "a partnership with the original filmmakers taking some of the rich storytelling that was in the film and finding a way to bring a new story to life that lived within the overarching Frozen franchise." The bonanza will launch July 5 with a 224-page book, "Journey to the Lights" by Suzanne Francis, to be published by Random House. Nine more books are planned through the end of 2017, and the first kicks off with beloved original characters Anna, Elsa, Olaf, Kristoff and Sven plus a new protagonist named Little Rock as the gang aims to restore the glimmer of the Northern Lights. This November, "Frozen Northern Lights" will get the Lego treatment with four new animated shorts from the Lego Group, airing on the Disney Channel. They'll feature the film's original voices, including Kristen Bell (Anna), Idina Menzel (Elsa), Jonathan Groff (Kristoff) and Josh Gad (as the snowman Olaf). A TV special presenting the shorts will also air on the Disney Channel around Thanksgiving. Why Lego-ize Elsa and friends? Their wit and humor fit, says Sugerman. "We thought it was a unique take on the storyline through their eyes," he says. Social media is getting in on frigid fun, too: Disney will soon launch the Instagram account @DisneyFrozen. This isn't the first time that Disney has added fresh powder to Frozen since the film's release in 2013. Last year, the seven-minute "Frozen Fever" short was released in theaters in front of Disney's live-action "Cinderella" starring Lily James and Cate Blanchett. (In that tale, Elsa decided to throw her sister Anna a birthday bash, only to be derailed by a cold.) "It really comes down to quality of storytelling," says Sugerman. "If we can create great stories that stand on their own and take these characters deeper into the world, then everything will evolve from there. With Northern Lights, we feel like we did exactly that." The Summerfest grounds are packed in this photo from the mid-1980s. How many people were there? Back then, it was anybodys guess. Credit: Journal Sentinel files SHARE Gerald Kloss wrote the Slightly Kloss-Eyed column in The Milwaukee Journals Green Sheet for years. Journal Sentinel files By Editor's note: From the 1960s through the 1980s, one of the pastimes of the Milwaukee summer was reading in disbelief the less-than-scientific way local officials estimated the size of crowds at the city's summer attractions. (For years, for example, Summerfest charted its attendance by weighing admission tickets collected at the gate.) Often, this duty fell to the Milwaukee Police Department, which typically had better things to do than count heads.In this July 30, 1971, Green Sheet column,Gerald Kloss took on the issue. The credibility of our justly famed and admired Milwaukee Police Department has been challenged twice in the last several weeks, both times over the police estimate of the size of crowds attending big civic events here. The police estimated that a crowd of 750,000 watched the Fourth of July circus parade 150,000 over the estimate of the last five previous circus parades. A Milwaukee Sentinel reporter calculated the square footage of available watching space along the 33-block route, figured a maximum of one man, one woman and one child for every two square feet, and came up with a top figure of some 250,000 people. Quite a discrepancy, right? Then Summerfest came along and, at the end of the 10-day festival, which all agree had larger crowds than ever, Summerfest officials computed an attendance total of 581,000, based on the weight of the admission tickets collected. Admittedly, that was a pretty crude method, since some tickets weighed more than others, but the Summerfest people thought it was more accurate than a police estimate. Last year (1970), the police estimated Summerfest attendance at slightly less than 1 million. Why is it, we've asked ourselves, that police estimates of large crowds seem to be so much higher than others, including sponsors of the events? Surely they're not upping the estimate out of civic pride that would be a lie, and police do not lie. If they were caught in a lie, that would ruin their later credibility on the witness stand. For example: Q. Now then, Sgt. Murphy. You have testified the defendant fired four shots, is that correct? A. Correct. Q. That is your statement as a trained police officer? A. It is. Q. Are you also trained in estimating the size of large crowds? A. I am. Q. What was your estimate of the crowd at the circus parade? A. 750,000 people. Q. Your honor, I challenge the credibility of this guess. I would suggest, on his past record, that the witness actually heard only one, or possible two shots not four. Judge: The point is well taken. Case dismissed. That would wreck our entire system of jurisprudence, so the police, I'm sure, do not actually urge the officers to up the attendance figures. Instead, there is probably something like a Crowd Attendance Estimate School in the police training course, and the most promising rookies are selected, something like this: Officer: Jones, I will now raise my right hand. Tell me how many fingers I have. Trainee: Five, counting the thumb. Officer: Sorry, Jones, you've flunked. Next man. What's your name? Trainee: Smith. Officer: OK, Smith. I will now raise my right hand. Tell me how many fingers I have. Trainee: Let's see. Hmm, I'd say between 12 and 13. Officer: Right on, Smith! We're sending you on for advance training in crowd estimating. Good luck, and we'll count on you at next year's Summerfest! ABOUT THIS FEATURE Each Thursday, the Green Sheet brings back some of the stories and features that gave the old Green Sheet its distinct identity, including Gerald Kloss' "Slightly Kloss-Eyed" column taking a humorous look at news and happenings in Milwaukee. Look for them in print and online at jsonline.com/greensheet. SHARE By of the An 18-year-old woman's arrest Tuesday at a Madison mall prompted criticism from family and community members, who say the officers' actions were excessive. The woman faces potential criminal charges after pointing a knife at a Taco Bell employee and resisting officers in what she said was an attempt to retrieve a stolen cellphone Tuesday evening, according to a police report. Madison Police Chief Mike Koval has ordered an internal review of police conduct after the 18-year-old's arrest, The Cap Times reported. Koval, along with city aldermen, Rep. Chris Taylor (D-Madison) and Dane County Boys & Girls Club CEO Michael Johnson, met with the woman's family after the incident. Security officers at East Towne Mall called police about 5:15 p.m. Tuesday after they said the woman made threats to kill them. A knife was later recovered at the scene. The woman spit in one officer's eyes and kicked and scratched police until they subdued her with a stun gun, the police report said. Two officers were taken to the hospital for injuries and later released. The incident, caught on video and posted to Facebook, sparked a protest Tuesday night at the city's Public Safety Building. The video has been removed from Facebook, but a longer version on YouTube shows an officer using his knees to bring the woman to the ground after asking her several times to put her arms behind her back. On the ground, she can be heard telling officers "I can't breathe." She also is heard threatening to bite the officers. Unionized Milwaukee teachers protested plans in 2013 to implement elements of the Act 10 law restricting collective bargaining. A new study says dire predictions about the affect of Act 10 on public education are largely unrealized. Credit: Journal Sentinel files SHARE By of the Wisconsin public school teachers saw their base salaries and fringe benefits drop an average of $2,095 and $5,580, respectively, in the wake of Act 10, the 2011 law that rolled back collective bargaining powers of public workers, according to a new report released Tuesday. However, it says, Act 10 appears to have had little or no effect on a host of measures, including student-teacher ratios and the number of licensed teachers in the state when compared with other states findings that drew a swift rebuke from the state's teachers union. The report by the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, a conservative public interest law firm that has litigated cases to enforce Act 10, addresses many of the criticisms levied against the law touted as Gov. Scott Walker's signature policy achievement. "What we saw in 2011 and going forward was many politicians and public sector unions saying Act 10 would destroy public education and hollow out the teaching workforce," said CJ Szafir, WILL's vice president for policy and deputy counsel. "Five years later, when compared to other states, these studies show that many of these claims were either greatly exaggerated or failed to materialize," he said. Betsy Kippers, a Racine teacher and president of the Wisconsin Education Association Council, the state's largest teachers union, questioned the validity of the report, saying that WILL has received almost $4 million from the Bradley Foundation, which is run by Walker's campaign chairman. "This so-called report is mere propaganda bought and paid for by the same groups that pushed nearly $1 billion in cuts to our neighborhood public schools over the past five years," she said. "Clearly the authors...are more concerned with fixing the numbers to create a virtual reality than they are about our students. And they certainly haven't spent any time in public schools to see reality for themselves." State schools Superintendent Tony Evers issued a statement saying the law and the rhetoric around it has contributed to the vilification of teachers. "We are facing a looming teacher shortage and it is due in part to the way we portray the profession. That must change," he said. "You would be hard pressed to find someone celebrating a $2,000 reduction in annual pay for welders, doctors or engineers." Act 10 effectively eliminated collective bargaining by public workers for all but base wages and gave employers a number of avenues to rein in costs, including requiring workers to contribute, or contribute more, for health care and retirement benefits. At least one study has suggested it has saved state taxpayers more than $5 billion. WILL is billing the report as the first systematic study of the effects of Act 10 on the education workforce. It looked at state and federal data between 2008 and 2014, and then compared Wisconsin with surrounding states to isolate whether shifts were caused by Act 10 or broader regional or national education trends. It expands on earlier studies, including one by the Public Policy Forum, that found that the number of teachers in the Milwaukee metro region had declined by 700 in the years following Act 10, most of those in Milwaukee Public Schools. Among WILL's findings: The number of public school teachers in Wisconsin fell from 61,059 in 2008 to 59,512 in 2014. But the decline began in 2009, two years before the passage of Act 10, and has slowed since 2011. The number of teachers fell by about 2.2% in the first year after Act 10 but has ticked up slightly since. Act 10 was responsible for a $150 per-pupil cut in district spending on salaries and a cut of up to $600 on benefits, when compared with other states. There was little difference in the demographic makeup of Wisconsin's teaching workforce in the years before and after the passage of Act 10, when compared with other states. The average age, for example, fell from about 44 to 43. And it remains predominantly white and female. However, there was a 0.3% increase in Hispanic teachers and identical decline in those who identified as white. There is no evidence to suggest that Act 10 significantly increased student-teacher ratios, when compared with other states. However, there is evidence to suggest it reduced the ratio of students to administrators. The report found no statistically significant difference in the effect of Act 10 on schools in urban, rural or suburban communities. Dr. Michael R. Lovell (center, blue), president of Marquette University, takes the stage at the universitys 2016 commencement. A recent study found that Marquette has the highest six-year graduation rate among Wisconsin private universities. Credit: Michael Sears SHARE By , Fewer than two-thirds of students graduate within six years from 17 of Wisconsin's 22 private, nonprofit colleges and universities, a new study says. A report done by Third Way, a centrist think tank in Washington, D.C., released the six-year graduation rates for private schools based on data from the U.S. Department of Education. The rates were part of a larger analysis that ranked private, nonprofit schools across the country based on per-student cost after federal aid, repayment rates of student loans and earning power of students six years after graduation. Highest rankings of Wisconsin schools in the study were awarded to Marquette University, St. Norbert College and the Milwaukee School of Engineering. The lowest ranking schools were Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, Alverno College, Silver Lake College and Concordia University. MIAD ranked the lowest of the Wisconsin schools at 827 out of more than 1,000 schools nationwide. MIAD addressed the report in a statement saying the school is "relentless in researching and implementing ways to help our students not only graduate, but to find rewarding and meaningful careers." In a recent change, MIAD is also having students meet with their advisers twice per semester until graduation. The private, nonprofit school with the worst six-year graduation rate in the state was Mount Mary University, with 38%. Other schools with a rate below 50% were Marian University, Viterbo University, Lakeland College, Cardinal Stritch University Silver Lake College and Alverno. The report didn't evaluate public schools, but UW System schools show similar graduation rates. UW-Madison had a six-year graduation rate of 85%. Among others: UW-Milwaukee at 40%, UW-Whitewater at 60% and UW-Eau Claire at 65%. The UW System as a whole has a rate of about 60%. Rolf Wegenke, president of the Wisconsin Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, said the data regarding graduation rates from the U.S. Department of Education is skewed because it doesn't account for transfer students. He said a college such as Silver Lake takes in a large amount of transfers from two-year technical colleges and that would cause it to have a lower rate. In a statement, Silver Lake College spokeswoman Suzanne Weiss said the college prides itself for its affordability and said compiling a list that compares Ivy League schools to small Wisconsin liberal arts colleges is "comparing the proverbial apples to oranges." The report also compares the percentage of students receiving Pell Grants to the graduation rate over a six-year period. The report revealed that universities with a higher percentage of students with Pell Grants had lower graduation rates. Alverno College had the highest percentage of students receiving Pell Grants, at 61%, and had a completion rate of about 39%. Marquette University had the highest completion rate of all the Wisconsin schools, at about 80%, but the lowest Pell Grant percentage, at 16%. A spokesman for Alverno noted the college's high percentage of Pell Grant students and said a number of factors play into the graduation rate, including a high percentage of students balancing school with jobs and family. At Alverno, 75% of students are the first in their families to attend college, he said. "There has been a commitment at Alverno to address high-need students, and we have been working to create more scholarship opportunities for students," spokesman Sebastian Thachenkary said. "We are certainly working to reduce costs and provide additional funding." SHARE The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has won a national Edward R. Murrow Award for its multimedia Unsolved series, which explored the 40-year-old cold-case murder of 14-year-old John Zera. The Murrow Award, administered by the Radio Television Digital News Association, is considered a top-line award in the world of broadcast and electronic journalism. This is the first Murrow Award for the Journal Sentinel, the only Milwaukee-area news organization to be recognized this year. Madison-based WISC-TV won several awards in the small market television category. The Journal Sentinel competed in the large online news organization category. Other winners this year in that category included entries from The New York Times, The Washington Post, Detroit Free Press and The Denver Post. Unsolved was recognized with the top award in the website-audio category. The seven-part narrative story, which featured a companion weekly podcast, traced 40 years of failures and frustrations with the case of a boy who disappeared from Franklin High School in 1976 and was found dead several days later in Whitnall Park. In December, the podcast reached No. 3 in the iTunes store. The story was reported by Gina Barton. The podcast was produced by Katie O'Connell with assistance from multimedia producer Bill Schulz. The website, which featured searchable documents and an immersive presentation, was designed by multimedia producer Erin Caughey. Illustrations were done by graphic artist Lou Saldivar. The Unsolved team has previously been recognized with a national Society of Professional Journalists award for nondeadline story in the online category and with the integrated storytelling award from the Society for Features Journalism. It also was a finalist for online storytelling from the American Society of News Editors and won honorable mention from the Associated Press Media Editors for innovation in storytelling. In recent months, the Journal Sentinel won recognition in two other broadcast-oriented contests. A project examining issues facing the Great Lakes "A Watershed Moment" won an Alfred I. duPont Award from Columbia University. And the Precious Lives project, which explores the causes and consequences of gun violence on Milwaukee's youth, was a finalist for a Peabody Award. The series is done in partnership with 371 Productions, radio stations WUWM and WNOV and the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism. In this 2015 file photo, Mayor Tom Barrett addresses officers at an MPD District 7 roll call. The police department may be facing an upcoming surge in officer retirements. Credit: Michael Sears By of the The City of Milwaukee may face a surge in police officer retirements. Some 339 officers with the Milwaukee Police Department will be eligible to retire by the end of 2017. That means nearly 20% of the city's 1,889 sworn police officers could retire over the next 18 months. "It's certainly not a revelation," said Mike Crivello, president of the Milwaukee Police Association. "For years, I have been preaching to the Fire and Police Commission, the Common Council, and the mayor's office that this would happen." Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said the city has been closely tracking officer retirement numbers for years, and considers retirements when hiring new officers. "We are well aware of the fact that there are going to be a significant number of people eligible for retirement, and that goes directly into our budget planning process," Barrett said. The mayor said he anticipates the city will hire more new police officers to cover those retiring, but added that the total number of officers may not increase. Sworn police are eligible to retire at age 57, or after 25 years of service. The possible wave of retirements is linked in part to a surge in officer hirings in the early and mid-1990s. At that time, the city had to "catch up because the city had allowed the staffing levels to fall so low," Crivello said. He urged city officials to give incentives for officers to stay by offering more support, such as increasing staffing levels, adding that too many officers are unable to get time off when they request it. The state Supreme Court ruling on police residency requirements, which is to be released Thursday, could aid in retention efforts if it determines that officers cannot be required to live in the city, Crivello said. "I think that will help us, I know that will help us, retain some officers," he said. "So that's a good thing for us." Republicans who control the Legislature included a provision in the state budget in 2013 prohibiting local governments from maintaining residency rules, other than those requiring police and firefighters to live within 15 miles of their borders. That conflicted with Milwaukee's policy, enacted in 1938, requiring employees to live within the city. City officials at the time argued that they could continue to enforce the policy under the "home rule" provision of the state constitution. The Milwaukee Police Association brought a lawsuit against the city that was later joined by the Milwaukee Professional Fire Fighters Association Local 215. The city halted the residency rule while the case continued. Like the Milwaukee public safety unions, the Wisconsin Professional Police Association supports the 2013 law limiting the ability of local governments to set residency requirements. A Milwaukee County circuit judge in 2014 sided with the city unions and determined the state residency law trumped the city rule. But in July, the 1st District Court of Appeals reinstated the city's residency rule. The unions appealed, and the state Supreme Court is expected to release its decision Thursday. Wisconsin's constitution provides that state laws must yield to local ordinances unless they involve matters of statewide concern and uniformly affect all cities and villages. The appeals court decision found the 2013 law was not of statewide concern and did not affect all municipalities equally because it would have an "outsize impact" on Milwaukee because of its hit to the city's neighborhoods and economy. But the attorney for the unions contended residency requirements were an issue of statewide concern because lawmakers have an interest in addressing the welfare of municipal employees and make sure they are treated fairly. Milwaukee's deputy city attorney, Miriam Horwitz, argued the issue was strictly local, saying each municipality had unique reasons for establishing residency requirements that vary considerably from one community to another. The city agreed to stop enforcing the residency rule after the lawsuit was filed, and hundreds of Milwaukee employees now live outside the city. Officials have said they will again enforce the residency rule if they prevail before the state Supreme Court. Terry Kafka of the DNR holds water sample of manure and liquid flowing from a farm field in Marathon County in 2014. Credit: Ken Pozorski SHARE By of the Citing concerns about staffing and lagging enforcement at the Department of Natural Resources, members of a citizens board grilled officials on Wednesday in the wake of a critical audit that detailed shortcomings in the agency's water regulation programs. The state's Legislative Audit Bureau found backlogs in the DNR's wastewater program for factories, municipalities and large farms. It also found that the agency issued only a small percentage of violation notices for the cases reviewed. The audit released on June 10 comes after news reports of a drop-off in DNR enforcement activity in recent years, as well as criticism by environmental and conservation groups that the DNR has de-emphasized environmental oversight since 2011 when Republican Gov. Scott Walker took office. Natural Resources Board chairman Terry Hilgenberg, a real estate executive of Shawano, directed agency officials to discuss the audit at the board's monthly meeting. The meeting in Richland Center also included a discussion of this spring's erosion of bluffs on Lake Michigan. The audit cited numerous issues, including staff turnover, especially involving oversight of the state's largest farms. Large-scale farms known as concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs have come under scrutiny because of the vast quantities of manure produced by them and the potential for the waste to pollute waterways. The audit found regional differences in enforcement results and weaknesses of electronic record keeping. It called for the DNR to improve its administration and "better align DNR's enforcement practices with its policies." DNR officials said the audit was useful, but defended the agency's efforts to enforce water pollution laws. Officials also acknowledged staffing issues have slowed work on numerous fronts. Under sometimes sharp questioning, officials said the backlog at the end of 2015 for municipal and industrial permits was roughly in line with the national average for other states. As for enforcement, state auditors noted the DNR had issued notices of environmental violations in only 33 of 558 instances, or 5.9% of the time, from 2005 to 2014 using its own criteria in such cases. The notices, also known as enforcement letters, are the lowest rung on the agency's enforcement ladder and began during the administration of former Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle. Patrick Stevens, DNR administrator of environmental management, said the figures obscure a long-standing approach going back several administrations of trying to ensure companies and individuals first achieve compliance. The most flagrant cases end up being referred to the Department of Justice for prosecution, he said. The report "suggests we are not doing anything," which is not the case, said Stevens. The DNR's lack of staffing and the reasons for it generated many of the questions from board members. Earlier this year, the agency said employment had dropped 15% since 1995. The DNR's head count stood at 2,641, including vacancies. There were then 365 vacant positions and 90 were in the process of being filled. Officials pointed to high levels of retirements and staff turnover since 2011, and financial constraints on the agency that have limited hiring in many cases. Training new employees can take two years, board members were told. "If we have been unable to acquire the adequate number of employees over the last six years, what are you going to change, so that we have some level of confidence that there are going to be enough people in that department ASAP?" asked board member and dairy farmer William Bruins of Waupun. Board member Preston Cole of Milwaukee, an administrator in the City of Milwaukee's Department of Public Works, said he was "perplexed" why the agency didn't better plan for anticipated retirements. Another board member, dentist and cranberry company operator Frederick Prehn of Wausau, questioned why the DNR has not sought fee increases for CAFOs that pay $395 for a permit even though the cost of developing the farm can reach tens of millions of dollars. "That's not fair," Prehn said. Board members pressed officials on whether they will seek higher fees from CAFOs and more funding from the governor and the Legislature. DNR Secretary Cathy Stepp said efforts to reorganize the agency and a top-to-bottom analysis of work priorities must be finished to convince lawmakers the agency needs more money. Officials hope to complete a major revamping of the agency later this year. Walker has not said whether he supports additional funding for the DNR. Wisconsin Public Radio reported on Tuesday that the governor said in Dunn County, in western Wisconsin, that his office is mulling changes at the DNR, ranging from additional staffing to turning some duties over to other agencies. Spokesman Tom Evenson said in an email on Tuesday, "The governor is considering many policy items as we work to build the next state budget. Any specifics related to the DNR will be presented with the governor's budget proposal." The questions put to DNR officials were among the most pointed in recent years. But board member Julie Anderson of Sturtevant, who works for Racine County, applauded the agency for trying to bring changes at a time of limited resources while being pressured by dueling constituencies. "What this team has been able to accomplish so far, and what they continue to strive for, is nothing short of incredible," Anderson said. On the topic of Lake Michigan bluff erosion, board members were told the problem has been worst in Racine County, particularly in Mount Pleasant where one home has been removed and a handful of other homes are precariously close to falling into the lake. The lake has experienced a 4-foot jump since its low point of 2013, but is still about 2 feet below the historic high, board members were told. If water levels on Lake Michigan continue to rise, "we will continue to see failures on taller bluffs in other parts of the state," said Michael Thompson, a program manager for the agency. Federal authorities are investigating a range of potential crimes at Lincoln Hills School for Boys, including second-degree sexual assault, physical child abuse, child neglect, abuse of prisoners, and intimidation of victims and witnesses. Credit: Mark Hoffman By of the Madison When an inmate at a troubled juvenile prison brushed a female worker's breasts and groin, Department of Corrections leaders and law enforcement initially did little, with officials instead subjecting the victim to a seven-week investigation to find out whether she invited offenders to grope her. Officials waited months to investigate whether the Lincoln Hills School for Boys inmate had committed a crime, and the first investigators the employee heard from said they were focused on whether she had asked to be touched, newly released records show. "In this case, the employer seems to have flunked Investigation 101," said Jeff Hynes, president of the Wisconsin Employment Lawyers Association. "It seems they did everything you're not supposed to do." He called what happened to Teri Jenson a "ripe candidate for litigation" that could cost taxpayers large sums. Hynes is not involved in the matter. The incident provides the latest example of Lincoln Hills leaders not promptly reporting crimes at the facility and renews questions about how seriously officials there have taken the safety concerns of employees and inmates. The prison and its sister facility, Copper Lake School for Girls, have been under a criminal probe for 18 months for prisoner abuse, misconduct in office and other crimes. The internal investigation of Jenson was conducted when top corrections officials were insisting that they were putting strong controls in place at the Northwoods juvenile prisons and came almost four years after a Racine County judge wrote to Gov. Scott Walker to warn him about "inexcusable" indifference to a case of sexual assault there. Only weeks after the groping, then-Corrections Secretary Ed Wall praised the outgoing officials in charge of Lincoln Hills for their leadership, saying "their impact was not only felt in our state, but across the country." Internal investigators ended their review of Jenson soon after she provided them with a report showing an inmate had threatened to get another employee fired by making up similar charges. Two weeks later, the inmate accused of touching her was charged with fourth-degree sexual assault. Department of Corrections spokesman Tristan Cook said the agency is "committed to ensuring a safe and secure environment for staff and youth" and has made significant improvements in recent months. Jenson declined to comment for this article, but her union representative said she was comfortable with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel using her name to tell her story. She told investigators she was supervising inmates during recreation time when inmate Christopher Rayford, 17, walked past her, raised his forearm and brushed it against her breasts. He apologized and at the time she thought it was possibly an accident. A few hours later, as inmates were changing their shoes for gym, Rayford reached out and brushed his hand across her thighs and pubic bone, according to her account. She told him if he ever did that again he would be on the ground so fast he wouldn't know what hit him. "It totally freaked me out. It threw me in a whirlwind," Jenson told investigators. She reported the incident soon after it happened to a supervisor, Dusty Meunier. Rayford admitted to Meunier that he had touched Jenson twice but said it was accidental, according to Jenson's account. Meunier then sent Rayford to a secure unit. Within a week, the inmate was found to have inappropriately touched staff and was given seven days in restrictive housing, according to the Department of Corrections. The evening of the incident, 10 or more inmates taunted Jenson for more than an hour, asking her if she enjoyed having Rayford touch her genitals. Another staff member then relieved her so she could talk about the situation with another supervisor, Clyde Maxwell. In a report, Maxwell described Jenson as crying and upset over what had happened. Two reports one about the touching and one about the taunting were sent to Paul Westerhaus, the juvenile corrections administrator at the time. The position is one of the top jobs at the Department of Corrections. John Ourada, the superintendent of Lincoln Hills School at the time, told Jenson a couple of days after the incident that the matter would be referred to the Lincoln County Sheriff's Department, according to what Jenson told investigators. Later, she asked Ourada and then-Deputy Superintendent Wendy Peterson about reporting it to the Sheriff's Department herself, but they told her it was "myth" staff could do that, saying only the prison's leaders could alert law enforcement to crimes at Lincoln Hills, according to Jenson's account. Peterson has since been promoted to prison superintendent. Cook said Tuesday that correctional workers are free to report suspected crimes at prisons to law enforcement. Records show Ourada gave a Lincoln County detective a report about the incident on Oct. 16, or nine days after it happened. The detective, Thomas Barker, responded by email on Oct. 27 20 days after the incident to say he wanted to talk to Ourada about it later that week. Barker could not be reached late Tuesday, but in a December report he wrote that the prison's security director at the time, Rick Peterson, had told him earlier he was considering formally referring the matter to the Sheriff's Department but didn't provide additional paperwork about it. Barker got the paperwork after Jenson reported the incident to the Sheriff's Department. Westerhaus and Ourada did not return phone calls this week asking to discuss how they handled the situation. The two abruptly retired in December, days before about 50 agents and attorneys raided Lincoln Hills as part of their investigation. Nearly two months after Jenson reported being assaulted, on Dec. 1, Jenson was interviewed by two investigators from the Department of Corrections' Office of Special Operations, its internal investigation unit. They said they had opened the probe because of inmate accusations that she had invited them to touch her sexually but could not provide her with the names of her accusers. On Dec. 10, Jenson was put on paid leave. Over the next week, investigators conducted nine interviews with inmates but did not talk to any other staff about it, records show. A month later, Jenson was called in for another interview to talk about whether she allowed inmates to touch her and whether she smoked in the prison's bathrooms claims she emphatically denied. She expressed frustration that investigators were more interested in the accounts of inmates than her co-workers. "In all this stuff, why is it that my partner or even Denise (Dillenberg, who witnessed the taunting) have not been talked to about any of these supposed allegations? If you're investigating this, why has that not been included in it?" she said, according to a transcript of the interview. "I'm a little flabbergasted that nobody's been talked to." Department of Corrections Capt. Rick Freeze, who helped conduct the internal probe of Jenson, responded that talking to co-workers would be "getting an opinion" and they wanted facts. Jenson countered that her co-workers see her throughout the workday and could provide them with details about how she acts around inmates. At that interview, Jenson provided investigators with a Dec. 30 incident report filed by Lincoln Hills worker Rita Lokemoen that said an inmate told Lokemoen he was going to make up false allegations against her because he was upset they weren't going to get to go to gym. "She's gonna be another (Jenson) and get fired," the inmate said, according to the report. "You hear me? She's gonna be another (Jenson) and get fired for letting kids touch her." The report appears to have helped Jenson defend herself and keep her job. Within days of her providing it, internal investigators ended their probe, writing that her accusers were unable to corroborate their claims with witnesses or dates. Investigators never found any video from the institution's cameras backing up the claims. She returned to work on Jan. 18 seven weeks after the investigation began and five weeks after being put on paid leave. Taxpayers spent more than $3,200 on her pay while she wasn't working. Later that month, District Attorney Don Dunphy charged Rayford with fourth-degree sexual assault, a misdemeanor. Rayford has pleaded not guilty. Jason Stein of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report. Gov. Scott Walker said Tuesday he agrees that delegates to the Republican national convention should be free to vote their conscience, even if that means not supporting presumptive nominee Donald Trump. Credit: Wire photos SHARE Election 2016 Visit our election section for complete coverage of the 2016 spring and fall local, state and national elections. By , Watertown Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker said Tuesday that he agrees that delegates to the Republican national convention should be free to vote their conscience, even if that means not supporting presumptive nominee Donald Trump. Walker is a former presidential candidate and a delegate to the convention next month. He told reporters following a groundbreaking at a sausage factory that he will follow Wisconsin Republican Party rules and cast his ballot for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in the first round because Cruz won the state primary. But he also left open the possibility that the rules could change between now and the convention next month and gave credence to House Speaker Paul Ryan's comments from last week that delegates should vote their conscience. "I think his comments are legitimate," Walker said. "I think historically, not just this year, delegates are and should be able to vote the way they see fit. ... We'll see how things go between now and the convention as to what the next steps are. I'm not going to speculate now only because you all know the situation may change by this afternoon, let alone between now and the convention." Under Wisconsin rules, at-large delegates like Walker are bound to vote for whichever candidate won statewide. Cruz beat Trump by 13 points on April 5, the billionaire's last defeat before becoming the presumptive nominee. Delegates can switch their votes to another candidate only if they are released or the candidate fails to get 30% of the vote in any round at the convention. Walker backed Cruz in the primary, then endorsed Trump when he became the presumptive nominee. But he wavered in his backing since Trump questioned the ability of a judge to be fair in a lawsuit involving Trump University because of the judge's Mexican heritage. Walker said he wanted Trump to rescind those comments and "I still haven't heard those clarified." Even as Walker wavers, the top Republican in the Wisconsin state Senate repeated his call Tuesday for the GOP to get behind Trump. Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said attempts to abandon Trump for some other alternative "is just not going to work." Doing that would hurt other Republicans on the ballot, including U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, Fitzgerald said. A first-ever task force of citizens, farmers and public officials called for limits on manure spreading and stronger oversight from the Department of Natural Resources in Kewaunee County, which has a large number of large dairy operations. Shown here is Deer Run Dairy LLC near the southern end of Sleepy Hollow Road in the county. Credit: Submitted Photo SHARE By of the In Kewaunee County, where controversy has long raged over large-scale dairy farms and pollution, a first-ever task force of citizens, farmers and public officials called for limits on manure spreading and stronger oversight from the Department of Natural Resources. The recommendations made Tuesday will be closely watched because the group focused on activities in northeastern Wisconsin, where thin soils, geologic conditions and the practices of concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOS, and their potential to pollute streams, lakes and groundwater have long been under scrutiny. The work of the Groundwater Collaboration Task Force also could be used elsewhere in the state with manure conflicts, according to a report accompanying the recommendations. CAFOs are the largest classification of farms, and in the case of dairy operations, they house a minimum of 700 milking cows. A single milking cow produces about 80 pounds of manure a day. Six environmental groups petitioned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in October 2014 to investigate water contamination in the county, arguing the DNR had failed to protect drinking water with its authority to regulate groundwater and large-scale cattle operations. That prompted the DNR to bring together farmers, residents, environmental groups, local officials and staff from the two government agencies to find solutions that would reduce the risk of groundwater pollution. The recommendations outlined Tuesday call for changes in farming practices and more oversight from the DNR and the county. Legislative changes would also be required in some areas. Lee Luft, a Kewaunee County Board member and a member of the task force, said, "My concern is when and how the recommendations will be implemented that's absolutely the key." Russ Rasmussen, a water regulation official with the DNR, said the work of the group was important because "it helped focus attention on the issue." But the outcome is not clear, he said. The DNR has already sent proposals for changes to Gov. Scott Walker for review. But he said the process that follows will require input from the public and interest groups, the Natural Resources Board and the Legislature. Don Niles is owner of Dairy Dreams in Casco, which milks about 2,800 cows. He said the status quo is not acceptable and farmers must make changes. "I think there is growing sentiment on all sides that we need to be creative, innovative risk takers," Niles said. In a 63-page report, the group called for a one-time allocation of $300,000 in state funds for emergency water supplies, water treatment systems and construction of new wells. In December, 34% of wells tested in the county were found to be unsafe because they failed to meet health standards for drinking water, according to a state-funded study conducted by the U.S. Agriculture Research Service and the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. The task force also called for more oversight of manure spreading in areas where waste can filter through shallow soil and fractured bedrock to pollute groundwater. It also wants the DNR to beef up staffing in compliance and environmental enforcement in northeastern Wisconsin. Among other recommendations: the group called for no spreading of solid manure on soil with less than 12 inches to bedrock; and no spreading of liquid manure where soil is 24 inches or less to bedrock. "Overall, these recommendations are really robust and reflect the best thinking of many people who want to see the problem fixed," said Elizabeth Wheeler, an attorney with Clean Wisconsin, one of the groups that petitioned the EPA. "We just need the political will to implement these recommendations." Sarah Geers, an attorney with Midwest Environmental Advocates, said she was pleased the EPA will now be able to evaluate the recommendations. But she said in an email: "We still have the same concerns that we and other environmental organizations had a year and a half ago when we filed the Safe Drinking Water Act petition with the EPA: Residents with contaminated drinking water wells need immediate action, including having access to safe drinking water now." By of the Eight days before Rick Frenette was fired as chief executive officer of the Wisconsin State Fair, Gov. Scott Walker's administration determined that he was involved in "fraudulent transactions" in approving pay raises for nearly his entire staff, including himself. The information was contained in a May 3 memo prepared for the Wisconsin Department of Administration, which oversees the State Fair, and obtained by the Journal Sentinel in response to an open records request. Frenette was fired May 11 and a day later Human Resources Director Ryan Burns resigned after they bypassed state procedures for granting raises to themselves and 30 other State Fair employees. The memo dealt with the issue of "State Fair Park misappropriation of Discretionary Merit Compensation," involving Frenette and Burns. It concluded that the DOA's Department of Personnel Management "must approve all increases." "These fraudulent transactions represent an abuse of discretion, and have greatly eroded the integrity and trustworthiness of the position of executive director," the memo said. In a May 2 interview with DOA officials, Burns placed the blame for the raises on his boss, Frenette, even though he was the one who technically entered them into the state system. Burns acknowledged he had someone else enter his raise. Asked if he ever thought about getting required approval from his superiors at the state, the Department of Personnel Management, Burns said, "Yes, but I had been given the spreadsheet by Rick and told to go ahead." At the time of his dismissal, Frenette's attorney, Franklyn Gimbel, said his client had made a mistake but argued he shouldn't be dismissed. Frenette gave himself a $5,000 raise on top of his $127,000 salary. After Frenette was fired, he was replaced on an interim basis by Kathleen O'Leary, a longtime fair employee. Wisconsin State Fair Park Board Chairman John Yingling said Tuesday that he hopes to have a permanent chief executive officer hired by Thanksgiving. The position will be advertised after this year's State Fair, Aug. 4 to 14, Yingling said. The search and screening committee will be comprised of five board members, led by Jim Villa, a former longtime aide to Walker. Yingling said the screening committee will "sift and winnow" the candidates to "an appropriate number of people." The full board is expected to interview up to five finalists, he said. Asked if she was interested in the permanent position, O'Leary said, "After 19 years of being here, of course I'm interested. Right now, my focus needs to be on leading a team to and through the 2016 Wisconsin State Fair." Here are all the charges Darrell Brooks is convicted of in parade trial Reddit Email 0 Shares By EurActiv.com with AFP Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan lost a German court battle against a top media boss when his appeal in a bitter row over free speech was thrown out. Erdogan had sought a court order to stop the Axel Springer media groups chief Mathias Doepfner from repeating support for a TV satirist who crudely insulted the Turkish leader. After failing to get an injunction from a lower court last month, Erdogan also lost an appeal before the higher regional court in the western German city of Cologne. The judges said they considered Doepfners letter of support a permissible expression of opinion as protected under Article 5 of Germanys constitution, the court said in a statement. Erdogan could still seek recourse before Germanys top tribunal, the Federal Constitutional Court. The legal action came after Doepfner published in April an open letter in one of the Springer groups newspapers, in which he backed Jan Boehmermann the satirist who in a poem accused Erdogan of bestiality and watching child pornography. Boehmermanns recital of his so-called Defamatory Poem on national television in late March sparked a diplomatic firestorm and a row over freedom of expression. During the broadcast, Boehmermann gleefully admitted his poem flouted Germanys legal limits to free speech and was intended as a provocation. In his letter, Doepfner took the comedians side, declaring: For me, your poem worked. I laughed out loud. In a controversial move, Chancellor Angela Merkel authorised criminal proceedings against the comedian after Turkey requested he be prosecuted for defamation. Via EurActiv.com with AFP Related video added by Juan Cole: Euronews from 2 months ago: Germans divided amid frenzy over comedians satirical Erdogan poem VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA / TheNewswire / June 22, 2016 / MGX Minerals Inc. ("MGX" or the "Company") (CSE: XMG / FKT: 1MG) is pleased to report the Company has received a National Instrument (N.I.) 43-101 compliant technical report (the "Report") regarding its Alberta Lithium Properties (the "Properties"). MGX commissioned APEX Geoscience Ltd. ("APEX") to prepare a N.I. 43-101 Technical Report on its Lithium Oilfield Brine project in Alberta, Canada. MGX's Alberta lithium-brine properties, which are the subject of the Technical Report, consist of 30 Metallic and Industrial Mineral permits for a total land package of 243,185.6 hectares (600,924.7 acres). The 30 contiguous and non-contiguous Permits can be divided into 15 sub-Properties that are located in four general areas of Alberta: The Red Deer group of permits are situated in the Red Deer, AB area of south-central Alberta and comprise 10 permits, including a contiguous cluster of six permits (Buck Lake sub-Property) and four non-contiguous permits (Bonnie Glen, Rimbey Homeglen, Erskine and Wimborne sub-Properties); The South Peace River Arch group of permits is situated near the communities of Hines Creek, AB and Fairview, AB and south of the Peace River Arch in northwestern Alberta, and comprises 10 permits, including a contiguous cluster of four permits (Sand Lake sub-Property) and six non-contiguous permits (Clear Lake; Utikuma River; Lesser Slave Lake; Upper and Lower Smoky River; and Pouce Coupe sub-Properties); The Fox Creek group of permits is located near the Town of Fox Creek, AB and includes two separate groups of contiguous permits: Fox Creek East sub-Property (4 permits) and Fox Creek West sub-Property (2 permits); and The Southeast group of permits is located north of the city of Medicine Hat, AB and east of the city of Brooks, AB in southeastern Alberta and comprises four contiguous permits (Dishpan Lake sub-Property). MGX, by making certain payments and share issuances, holds 100% rights on the Permits, which gives MGX the exclusive right to explore for and develop potentially economic deposits of metallic and industrial minerals within the boundaries of the Permits subject to meeting bi-annual expenditure requirements. In addition to these Permits, MGX has recently applied for additional Alberta Metallic and Industrial Mineral Permits; these permit applications have yet to be formally granted by the Government of Alberta. Infrastructure and Brine Production In general, the Permits are situated in areas where the energy sector is active year round providing excellent transportation roots, supplies services, equipment and personnel that is associated with Alberta's vast oil and gas sector; consequently there is an unlimited availability of resources including: workers and resource field personnel; power; equipment; engineering expertise; etc. MGX Minerals Inc.'s Lithium Oilfield Brine Project in Alberta aquifers are within Devonian reef complexes of the Beaverhill Lake Group (Swan Hills Formation), Woodbend Group (Leduc Formation) and Elk Point Group (Winnipegosis Formation). The brine is currently being pumped to the surface from depths of between 1,660 m and 3,300 m below surface as a waste product of hydrocarbon production. Currently, the extracted brine is separated from the petroleum products and then re-injected back into the subsurface. Hence, the brine represents the largest-volume waste stream associated with oil and gas production. The first major oil discovery in Western Canada was made in the Late Devonian (Frasnian) Leduc Formation of the Woodbend Group near the city of Devon, AB in 1947 (Leduc #1 well). Oil has been produced from the Devonian petroleum system in the Alberta portion of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin ever since. The remaining established reserves of conventional crude oil in Alberta is about 288,200,000 cubic meters- more than one third of Canada's remaining conventional reserves- and the Cretaceous and Devonian reservoirs are the major sources for all remaining conventional oil. The vast Devonian hydrocarbon reserves can largely be attributed to the abundance of mature, excellent to good quality carbonate source rocks. These same porous Devonian rock units host significant volumes of formation water, which can possibly and are currently being assessed for their lithium-enriched brine potential. Highlights A historical account of fluid geochemistry of Devonian formations waters from wells that were spudded on the MGX sub-Properties shows that: Mineralization on MGX's Properties consists of Li-enriched Na-Ca brine hosted in aquifers within Devonian carbonate reef complexes predominantly of the Woodbend-Winterburn groups (MGX's Red Deer, South Peace River Arch and Fox Creek groups of permits) and Elk Point Group (MGX's Southeast group of permits). The Devonian formation/aquifer brine samples on the MGX Properties were collected from depths of between 1,665 m and 3,666 m below the surface. Devonian formation waters from selected wells on the MGX Properties reportedly contain up to 140 mg/L Li (21 separate well analyses average 100 mg/L Li). All 15 sub-Properties have at least one well with a recorded lithium content of >75 mg/L Li. Potassium was recorded in four separate Devonian wells yielding between 4,570 and 7,270 mg/L all of which were recorded in the area of the Red Deer group of permits. Formation water from a single well, 00/15-22-033-26W4-0, was analyzed for bromide (956 mg/L Br) and iodide (18 mg/L I). One Triassic sample contained significantly less lithium (26 mg/L Li) and potassium (430 mg/L K) showing that the Devonian brines contain higher concentrations of the elements of interest. Devonian Oil & Gas Pools As the Devonian petroleum system has generally been subject to hydrocarbon production for decades, many of the fields/pools are classified as mature or have extinguished their hydrocarbon resources. Consequently, an important consideration for Li-brine companies is to investigate Devonian fields/pools with viable petroleum reserves and active hydrocarbon production (i.e., operational lifespan) to ascertain/estimate the Li-brine potential of the associated aquifer going forward. With respect to MGX's Properties, the Bonnie Glen, Erskine and Wimborne sub-Properties are all reported to have significant remaining established commingled natural gas reserves (15 x 106m3; 24 x 106m3; and 629 x 106m3, respectively; Alberta Energy Regulator, 2015). In addition, the Fox Creek area is undergoing hydrocarbon resurgence in that hydraulic fracturing technology has made tight oil and gas associated with the Woodbend Group (Duvernay Formation shale) accessible to current and future development. A total of 4,969 oil, gas and water wells - regardless of stratigraphic target age - have been spudded on MGX's Properties. Of the 4,969 wells, 228 wells penetrate the Devonian within the MGX Permits; the current well status of these wells includes: 41 active wells; 32 suspended wells; 148 abandoned wells; and seven wells of unknown status, which are typically related to shallow water wells. The majority of the Devonian wells, regardless of well status, occur in MGX's Bonnie Glen; Rimbey Homeglen, Wimborne and Erskine sub-Properties (Red Deer group of permits in central Alberta) and Fox Creek group of permits in west-central Alberta. Importantly, production records show that these wells are capable of producing substantial volumes of formation water. For example, well 11/08-14-033-26W4, on the Wimborne sub-Property, produces about 900 bbls of formation water per day. Recommendation The Technical Report has shown that historical formation water geochemical analyses within MGX's Properties contain up to 140 mg/L Li, which is equivalent to the highest lithium-enriched brine samples documented to date in Devonian aquifers of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin. It is recommended, therefore, that MGX conduct a two-phased program to verify and assess Li-brine at its properties. The total estimated cost of both phases is CDN$600,000. Recommended Phase One work, which is estimated at CDN$180,000, involves a formation water geochemical sampling program with the objectives of verifying the historical brine chemistry that is presented in this Technical Report. Pending the results of the Phase One exploration work, the purpose and objective of the Phase Two exploration work is to: 1) prepare inferred mineral resource estimations at selected MGX sub-Properties; and 2) conduct laboratory-scaled test work to explore and optimize the elemental recovery process. The total cost of the Phase Two exploration work is estimated at CDN$420,000. Property Lithium Values (mg/L) Hectares Clear Lake 96 7,136 Sand Lake 83 33,923 Utikuma River 96 9,216 Pouce Coupe 89 9,216 Upper Smokey River 94 9,216 Lesser Slave Lake 98 9,216 Lower Smokey River 115 8,741.76 Fox Creek East 130 34,438.32 Fox Creek West 118 17,021.1 Bonnie Glen 140 4,772.8 Buck Lake 90 50,653.4 Rimbey Homeglen 140 4,678.75 Erskine 130 4,699.432 Wimborne 120 4,928.8 Dishpan Lake 76 35,328 Technical Information The Report summarizing the Properties was prepared in accordance with N.I. 43-101 standards by APEX and has been filed under the Company's profile on SEDAR. The Qualified Person ("QP") for the Report is D. Roy Eccles, M.Sc., P. Geol. This press release has been reviewed and approved by Mr. Eccles and the Company's Vice-President Exploration Mr. Andris Kikauka, both Qualified Persons under National Instrument (N.I.) 43-101 Standards. About MGX Minerals MGX Minerals (CSE: XMG) is a diversified Canadian mining company engaged in the acquisition and development of industrial mineral deposits in western Canada that offer near-term production potential, minimal barriers to entry and low initial capital expenditures. The Company operates lithium, magnesium and silicon projects throughout British Columbia and Alberta. For further information, please visit the Company's website at www.mgxminerals.com. Figure 1. General location of MGX Minerals Ltd.'s northern Alberta lithium-brine properties Click Image To View Full Size Contact Information Jared Lazerson President and CEO Tel: 604.681.7735 Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking information or forward-looking statements (collectively "forward-looking information") within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking information is typically identified by words such as: "believe", "expect", "anticipate", "intend", "estimate", "potentially" and similar expressions, or are those, which, by their nature, refer to future events. The Company cautions investors that any forward-looking information provided by the Company is not a guarantee of future results or performance, and that actual results may differ materially from those in forward-looking information as a result of various factors. The reader is referred to the Company's public filings for a more complete discussion of such risk factors and their potential effects which may be accessed through the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Copyright (c) 2016 TheNewswire - All rights reserved. VANCOUVER, June 22, 2016 /CNW/ - NovaCopper Inc. (TSX, NYSE-MKT: NCQ) ("NovaCopper" or the "Company") is pleased to provide an update on its project and corporate activities. Project Update Preparations are underway at the Bornite Camp to accommodate the 2016 field program on the Company's 100%-owned Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects located in Northwest Alaska. The majority of this year's project budget of US$5.5 million is planned to be spent on a drilling program at the Arctic Project that will include approximately 3,000 meters of drilling for geotechnical, hydrological, waste rock characterization and metallurgical studies as well as further resource definition. In addition to the drilling program, a series of environmental studies are planned for this year including an aquatic survey, avian and large mammal habitat survey and a continuation of baseline environmental information collection. The LiDAR survey that was incomplete last year due to weather conditions will be completed while the wetlands delineation and surface water quality work will be expanded. This site investigation work will form the basis for completing a future pre-feasibility study on the Arctic deposit. The exploration camp will host approximately 40 to 50 staff and contractors with the majority of the workforce hired locally and most of the work occurring from mid-June through mid-August. "We are extremely pleased with the progress made to advance the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects over the past year considering market conditions. Last year we completed the first phase of a multi-year site investigation program at the Arctic Project to support pre-feasibility. In addition, we reported a 173% increase in Indicated Resources at the Bornite Project," said Mr. Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse, NovaCopper's President and Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Van Nieuwenhuyse continued, "While the majority of this year's site investigation program will focus on the Arctic Project, the Company will also continue to improve our geological understanding of the regional exploration potential of the Ambler mining district through low-cost bedrock mapping within the Ambler schist belt and a deep penetrating soil geochemistry survey located immediately north and east of the current Bornite multi-billion pound copper resource. We also look forward to continuing to work closely with our partners at NANA to support training and hiring of the local workforce and with AIDEA to support their effort to build access to the Ambler mining district." The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority ("AIDEA") has changed the name of the approximately 200-mile industrial access road proposed from the Dalton Highway to the Ambler mining district to the Ambler Mining District Industrial Access Project ("AMDIAP"). AIDEA undertook this project in 2013 to finance, construct, operate and maintain a road corridor to enable surface access to the Ambler mining district, which has been characterized as one of the largest undeveloped copper-zinc mineral belts in the world. At the end of 2015 AIDEA initiated the Environmental Impact Statement ("EIS") process for the AMDIAP by filing a Consolidated Right-of-Way permit application with several relevant federal agencies, including the National Park Service, the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Coast Guard, and the U.S. Federal Highways Administration. The project design is modeled on AIDEA's successful Delong Mountain Transportation System ("DMTS") which includes an industrial access road from the Red Dog Mine (one of the largest and highest grade zinc mines in the world) to the DMTS port. AIDEA worked with private industry to develop the DMTS industrial access road and the costs of road construction were paid back through tolls on road use paid by the mine. AIDEA, as a development finance authority for the State of Alaska, plans to develop the access route as a public-private partnership in which AIDEA funds and bonds would be used in conjunction with private capital for the construction and operation of the access corridor. AIDEA's project team is working with residents and communities to address their concerns and will be thoroughly investigating all potential impacts on local communities and subsistence resources. Corporate Update The Board is pleased to welcome Diana Walters as a new director of NovaCopper. Ms. Walters has 28 years of experience in the Natural Resources sector, as an investment manager and equity investor, as an investment banker and in operating roles. Ms. Walters has been the owner and sole manager of 575 Grant, LLC, a company that provides advisory services in the field of natural resources, since 2014. She served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Liberty Metals & Mining Holdings, LLC and a member of senior management of Liberty Mutual Asset Management from January 2010 to September 2014. She was a Managing Partner of Eland Capital, LLC, a natural resources advisory firm founded by her, from 2007 to 2010. Ms. Walters has extensive investment experience with both debt and equity through various previous leadership roles at Credit Suisse, HSBC and other firms. She also served previously as Chief Financial Officer of Tatham Offshore Inc., an independent oil and gas company with assets in the Gulf of Mexico. Ms. Walters currently serves on the board of directors of Platinum Group Metals and Electrum Special Acquisition Corporation. Ms. Walters graduated with Honors from the University of Texas at Austin with a B.A. in Plan II Liberal Arts and an M.A. in Energy and Mineral Resources. Mr. Igor Levental, a director of the Company since it went public in 2012, did not stand for re-election at the annual shareholders meeting as he has taken on expanded responsibilities within the Electrum Group, where he serves as President. The Board of Directors of the Company would like to thank Mr. Levental for his valuable contribution in establishing NovaCopper as a well-financed premier North American exploration and development stage company. The Board and Management wish him success in his future endeavors. The Company's shareholders approved changing the Company's name to Trilogy Metals Inc. at the Annual General Meeting held on May 18, 2016. Implementation of the Company's new name is expected on or about September 1, 2016. Qualified Persons Erin Workman, P.Geo., Director of Technical Services for NovaCopper Inc., is a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101. Ms. Workman has reviewed the technical information in this news release and approves the disclosure contained herein. NovaCopper recently filed a National Instrument 43-101 ("NI 43-101") compliant technical report (the "Report") titled "NI 43-101 Technical Report on the Bornite Project, Northwest Alaska, USA," that describes the potential in-pit and below-pit resources previously announced by the Company on April 19, 2016. The effective date of this report is May 16, 2016. The Report has been filed on SEDAR and EDGAR and is also available on the Company's website at www.novacopper.com. About NovaCopper NovaCopper Inc. is a metals exploration company focused on exploring and developing the Ambler mining district located in northwestern Alaska. It is one of the richest and most-prospective known copper-dominant districts located in one of the safest geopolitical jurisdictions in the world. It hosts world-class polymetallic VMS deposits that contain copper, zinc, lead, gold and silver, and carbonate replacement deposits which have been found to host high grade copper mineralization. Exploration efforts have been focused on two deposits in the Ambler district - the Arctic VMS deposit and the Bornite carbonate replacement deposit. Both deposits are located within NovaCopper's land package that spans approximately 143,000 hectares. NovaCopper has an agreement with NANA Regional Corporation, Inc., a Regional Alaska Native Corporation that provides a framework for the exploration and potential development of the Ambler mining district in cooperation with local communities. Our vision is to develop the Ambler mining district into a premier North American copper producer. The Company also owns 100% of the Titiribi Project located approximately 70 kilometers southwest of the city of Medellin, Colombia, in Antioquia department, within the historical Titiribi mining district. More information on the Company, its properties and its management team is available on the Company's website at www.novacopper.com. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This press release includes certain "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" (collectively "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian and United States securities legislation including the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements including but not limited to anticipated activities at the UKMP, this year's anticipated budget, achieving a pre-feasibility level of study at some point in the future, and the advancement of the AMDIAP. Forward-looking statements are frequently, but not always, identified by words such as "expects", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "potential", "possible", and similar expressions, or statements that events, conditions, or results "will", "may", "could", or "should" occur or be achieved. Forward-looking statements involve various risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from NovaCopper's expectations include the uncertainties involving the need for additional financing to explore and develop properties and availability of financing in the debt and capital markets; uncertainties involved in the interpretation of drilling results and geological tests and the estimation of reserves and resources; the need for cooperation of government agencies and native groups in the development and operation of properties and infrastructure; the need to obtain permits and governmental approvals; risks of construction and mining projects such as accidents, equipment breakdowns, bad weather, non-compliance with environmental and permit requirements, unanticipated variation in geological structures, metal grades or recovery rates; unexpected cost increases, which could include significant increases in estimated capital and operating costs; fluctuations in metal prices and currency exchange rates; and other risks and uncertainties disclosed in NovaCopper's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended November 30, 2015 filed with Canadian securities regulatory authorities and with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and in other NovaCopper reports and documents filed with applicable securities regulatory authorities from time to time. NovaCopper's forward-looking statements reflect the beliefs, opinions and projections on the date the statements are made. NovaCopper assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements or beliefs, opinions, projections, or other factors, should they change, except as required by law. SOURCE NovaCopper Inc. VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - June 22, 2016) - Mineral Mountain Resources Ltd. ("Mineral Mountain" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE:MMV) is pleased to announce that the Company has increased its 100%-owned land position in the Rochford Gold District to 5,447 acres (2179 hectares) by staking an additional 37 unpatented lode mineral claims totaling 606 acres (242 hectares). In all, the Company now owns a contiguous land position located in Lawrence and Pennington Counties totaling 345 unpatented lode mineral claims. The northern boundary of the Company's land holdings is located 18 km (11 mi.) south of the Homestake Mine deposit. The close similarities between the Homestake Mine and the Rochford District in host rock composition, structural style, metamorphic grade, and gold mineralization suggest that the Rochford District has the potential to contain a large gold resource. The property covers four high priority gold targets that are situated within two structural corridors that host Homestake Ledge-type gold mineralization associated with banded iron formation documented by Noranda, Newmont, Western Mining and Homestake between 1982 and 1996. All four priority targets, if traced systematically down the limb fold plunge by diamond drilling are considered to be above average for the discovery of Ledge-type gold deposits. The four gold targets, three along the 5.5 km long Standby-South Standby-Lookout Mine Trend and the fourth along the 1 km long Cochrane Trend, require a well-planned drill program initially totaling 9,000 meters of drilling. (see release dated March 7, 2016) The Rochford Gold District Despite the similarities to Homestake, and compelling evidence for gold mineralization, the Rochford District has remained under explored. The Rochford Gold District is located approximately 26 kilometers south of the world's largest banded iron formation hosted gold deposit, the Homestake Mine, which produced nearly 40,000,000 ounces of gold averaging about 10.89 g/t Au (0.350 opt) over the life of the mine from 1876 to 2001. The geology of the Rochford District is remarkably similar to that at the Homestake Mine with gold hosted in multiple deformed Proterozoic carbonate facies and local sulfide-facies iron formation that has typically been metamorphosed to cummingtonite/grunerite phyllites/schists and chlorite schists. There are numerous, relatively shallow past producing gold mines and prospects in the district that were developed in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Mineral Mountain's property package covers approximately a 9 km long segment of auriferous iron formation considered to have many geological and mineralogical aspects to the Homestake Mine 26 km to the northwest. The Rochford District covers more than 78 square kilometers and has been explored intermittently by several major companies like Getty, Newmont, Noranda, Western Mining and Homestake Mining in the 20th century. The last serious exploration for the Rochford District was completed in 1997. This district appears to have been forgotten and/or overlooked especially after the closing of the nearby giant Homestake Mine in 2001. We believe that because Homestake was so dominant in the Black Hills for over 125 years, many explorers erroneously assumed that the gold belt been thoroughly explored. A plan that shows locations of historic mines and prospects as well as important patented and unpatented claim locations has been posted on the Company's website www.mineralmtn.com. Qualified Persons The technical information in this news release has been prepared and approved by Nelson W. Baker, P.Eng., the President and CEO of Mineral Mountain Resources Ltd. and a Qualified Person for this project. All exploration activities at the Rochford Project are carried out under the supervision of Kevin Leonard, P.Geo., also a Qualified Person for this project and conducted by a highly technical team with several years exploring for iron hosted gold deposits in the Black hills and globally. About Mineral Mountain and the Rochford Project Mineral Mountain Resources Ltd., through its wholly owned subsidiary Mineral Mountain Resources (SD) Inc., is focused primarily on the systematic exploration and, if warranted, the development of its large, 100%-owned Rochford Project located 26 km south of the Homestake Mine along the highly prospective gold belt trending through the Black Hills of South Dakota, U.S.A. The Rochford Project hosts repeating limbs and/or ledges along two structural corridors that hosts commercial grade, iron hosted gold mineralization that require systematic diamond drilling. The project now totals 345 contiguous unpatented lode mineral claims covering approximately 5,447 acres. On Behalf of the Board of Directors MINERAL MOUNTAIN RESOURCES LTD. Nelson W. Baker, President and CEO Forward looking information This release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation ("Forward-looking information"). Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, statements that address activities, events or developments that the Company expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future, including such things as future business strategy, competitive strengths, goals, expansion, growth of the Company's businesses, operations, plans and with respect to exploration results, the timing and success of exploration activities generally, permitting time lines, government regulation of exploration and mining operations, environmental risks, title disputes or claims, limitations on insurance coverage, timing and possible outcome of any pending litigation and timing and results of future resource estimates or future economic studies. Often, but not always, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "planning", "planned", "expects" or "looking forward", "does not expect", "continues", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "potential", "anticipates", "does not anticipate" or "belief" or describes a "goal" or variation of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward-looking information is based on a number of material factors and assumptions, including, the result of drilling and exploration activities, that contracted parties provide goods and/or services on the agreed timeframes, that equipment necessary for exploration is available as scheduled and does not incur unforeseen break downs, that no labour shortages or delays are incurred, that plant and equipment function as specified, that no unusual geological or technical problems occur, and that laboratory and other related services are available and perform as contracted. Forward-looking information involves known and unknown risks, future events, conditions, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, prediction, projection, forecast, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. Such factors include, among others, the interpretation and actual results of current exploration activities; changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined; future prices of gold; possible variations in grade or recovery rates; failure of equipment or processes to operate as anticipated; the failure of contracted parties to perform; labour disputes and other risks of the mining industry; delays in obtaining governmental approvals or financing or in the completion of exploration, as well as those factors disclosed in the company's publicly filed documents. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that forward-looking information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - June 22, 2016) - CanAlaska Uranium Ltd. (TSXV: CVV) (OTCQB: CVVUF) (FSE: DH7N), is pleased to report that De Beers' exploration team has collected over 100 samples for kimberlite indicator mineral (KIM) processing from the West Athabasca project. The samples of glacial gravels were collected from eskers within the target area. These samples will now be processed in De Beers laboratories to establish further evidence for kimberlite intrusives associated with the magnetic anomalies staked by CanAlaska. These striking anomalies were identified from processing data from the Saskatchewan Government Geological Survey/Geological Survey of Canada airborne magnetics program carried out in 2010. In the next few weeks, the second phase of exploration will commence for detailed magnetic mapping of staked targets, as well as any further significant features. The new high resolution airborne magnetic survey carried out by a specialized aircraft from New Zealand will define the targets in preparation for drilling. President Peter Dasler commented, "I am very pleased with the significant attention that De Beers is giving our project. The initial reconnaissance sampling has been completed, and known targets visited. The rapid deployment of this specialized aircraft and the attention to detail with this program is very comforting. I look forward to the results of the programs, and the next steps in the exploration process." De Beers geologist collecting samples from Esker at West Athabasca CanAlaska and De Beers are exploring the West Athabasca project for diamonds under a staged $20.4 million Option-Participation Agreement. The project area covers 75 kimberlite-style targets staked by CanAlaska in the northwestern Athabasca Basin of Saskatchewan. De Beers may earn an interest in the project through a series of escalating exploration programs. For more information about the Athabasca kimberlite project visit http://www.canalaska.com/s/AthabascaKimberliteProject.asp?ReportID=740492 About De Beers De Beers is a member of the Anglo American Group. Established in 1888, De Beers is the world's leading diamond company with expertise in exploration and development, mining, and marketing of diamonds. Together with its joint venture partners, De Beers employs more than 20,000 people (directly and as contractors) across the diamond pipeline, and is the world's largest diamond producer by value, with mining operations in Botswana, Canada, Namibia and South Africa. As part of the company's operating philosophy, the people of De Beers are committed to Living up to Diamonds by making a lasting contribution to the communities in which they live and work, and transforming natural resources into shared national wealth. For further information about the De Beers Group of Companies visit www.debeersgroup.com. About CanAlaska Uranium CanAlaska Uranium Ltd. (TSXV: CVV) (OTCQB: CVVUF) (FSE: DH7N) holds interests in approximately 500,000 hectares (1.2 million acres), one of the largest land positions in Canada's Athabasca Basin region the "Saudi Arabia of Uranium." CanAlaska's strategic holdings has attracted major international mining companies Cameco, Denison, KORES, KEPCO, and the De Beers Group of Companies. CanAlaska is a project generator and is positioned for discovery success in the world's richest uranium district. For further information visit www.canalaska.com. The qualified technical person for this news release is Dr Karl Schimann, P. Geo, VP Exploration, for CanAlaska. On behalf of the Board of Directors "Peter Dasler" Peter Dasler, M.Sc., P.Geo. President & CEO CanAlaska Uranium Ltd. Contacts: Peter Dasler President Tel: +1.604.688.3211 x 138 Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. John Gomez Corporate Development Tel: +1.604.484.7118 Email : This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Tom Ormsby, Head of External & Corporate Affairs De Beers Canada Inc. Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Tel: +1.403.930.0991 x 2703 Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Forward-looking information All statements included in this press release that address activities, events or developments that the Company expects, believes or anticipates will or may occur in the future are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve numerous assumptions made by the Company based on its experience, perception of historical trends, current conditions, expected future developments and other factors it believes are appropriate in the circumstances. In addition, these statements involve substantial known and unknown risks and uncertainties that contribute to the possibility that the predictions, forecasts, projections and other forward-looking statements will prove inaccurate, certain of which are beyond the Company's control. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Except as required by law, the Company does not intend to revise or update these forward-looking statements after the date hereof or revise them to reflect the occurrence of future unanticipated events. [JURIST] A court in Cairo on Tuesday invalidated the Egyptian presidents decision to give sovereignty over two islands to Saudi Arabia. In April President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi [BBC profile] transferred sovereignty of Tiran and Sanafir islands in the Red Sea to Saudi Arabian Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman [official profile] as a gesture of good will following a meeting in which deals for oil and development had been discussed. While some showed celebration within the court room, it is likely that the government will appeal [Guardian report] the ruling. Last year Egypt and Saudi Arabia signed an agreement [JURIST report] to improve stability and safety in the region. The agreement, entitled the Cairo Declaration and signed in Cairo by al-Sisi and Saudi Defense Minister and Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, aims to boost military and social ties in the region, as well as improve economic stability. The relationship between the two countries has been improving since the ouster Islamist Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi in 2013. Saudi Arabia has in turn offered billions of dollars to aid Egypt in its joint bombing campaign with the Saudis against Yemen. The pact also sets out plans to build a new joint Arab military force to combat regional terrorism. Germanys top court [official website] ruled [press release] Tuesday that a bond-buy program created by the European Central Bank (ECB) [official website] complies with German law. The unlimited bond-buying program was created at the height of Europes debt crisis. The program, called Outright Monetary Transaction [ECB profile], was created in September 2012 in order to save the Euro. The program itself has never been used. Many against the program complain that the ECB has overstepped its authority and is taking advantage of the system. However, the Federal Constitution Court ultimately decided that the program doesnt present a constitutionally relevant threat the German Parliaments right to decide on the budget. This is not the first time the German court has had to deal with this issue. In February 2014 the Court removed [JURIST report] this same case to the European Court of Justice. This is the latest development in the ongoing struggle to establish financial stability in the EU. In January 2015 EU Advocate General Cruz Villalon gave legal support [JURIST report] to the ECB program as an attempt to remedy the financial crisis in the Eurozone. In September 2014 the EU parliament approved [JURIST report] a new bank supervisory mechanism. Last November the ECJ ruled [JURIST report] that the Eurozones permanent bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism, is in line with European law. The ruling came following several member states own courts finding the ESM constitutional under their own laws, including Estonia and Germany [JURIST reports]. That June the European Commission [official website] announced [JURIST report] a proposal that would address the problems of bailing out large banks with public funds during financial crises in the future. [JURIST] The International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website] on Tuesday sentenced [decision, PDF; press release] ex-Congolese military leader Jean-Pierre Bemba to 18 years in jail for crimes against humanity and war crimes stemming from his involvement in the conflict in the Central African Republic (CAR) in 2002 and 2003. Bemba was sentenced to 16 years for murder as a crime against humanity; 16 years for murder as a war crime; 18 years for rape as a war crime; 18 years for rape as a crime against humanity; and 16 years for pillaging as a war crime, with all sentences to run concurrently. The court noted that the rape was particularly disturbing as it was (i) against particularly defenceless victims and (ii) with particular cruelty. It is possible that Bemba will appeal the sentence. The Bemba [JURIST news archive] case has been ongoing before the ICC since 2008. In March the ICC found unanimously [JURIST report] that Bemba was guilty of two counts of crimes against humanity and three counts of war crimes for his role in the armed conflict in the CAR in 2002 and 2003. In September Bemba pleaded not guilty to charges of interfering with the administration of justice after he and four members of his legal team were ordered to stand trial [JURIST reports] on those charges. In October 2014 ICC Trial Chamber III delayed the closing statements [JURIST report] in the case against Bemba so that it could hear additional witness testimony after the defense requested to testify about alleged collusion between prosecution witnesses. In November 2013 four persons were arrested on charges of falsifying evidence [JURIST report] in connection with the trial of Jean-Pierre Bemba Bembas defense lawyers opened their case before the ICC in August 2012. A lawsuit [complaint, PDF] is accusing a Louisiana judge of running a modern-day debtors prison. The lawsuit, filed Tuesday by the Southern Poverty Law Center [advocacy website], alleges that Judge Robert Black is sending poor defendants to jail when they cannot pay fines and charging them an extension fee to avoid jail time. The lawsuit contents that the judge routinely jails people who cannot pay fines for minor offenses without verifying why they cannot pay. One example [AP report] given is of a man who was fined $450 for stealing $5 worth of groceries and then jailed for four hours when he could not pay the fine or extension fee until a cousin paid the fee. Beyond just jailing the poor, the lawsuit contends that the extension fee created by Black to allow defendants to buy additional time in order to pay their fines is illegal and not authorized by state law. The lawsuit is seeking a declaration condemning Black and the Bogalusa City Court for their actions and an injunction against their practices. The treatment of prisoners and prison reform [JURIST podcast] has been a matter of ongoing concern in the US. In March the Department of Justice urged state court systems to stop using procedural routines and hefty fines to profit off poor defendants. In February the Supreme Court of California ruled [JURIST report] that Governor Jerry Brown can put his plan to ease prison overcrowding on the ballot this November. In January the US Supreme Court ruled that a landmark decision banning mandatory sentences of life without parole for juveniles should apply retroactively [JURIST report]. In August the Department of Justice reached a settlement [JURIST report] with Los Angeles prisons on mentally ill inmate care. In May of last year Human Rights Watch released [JURIST report] a report stating that mentally disabled prisoners experience unnecessary, excessive, and even malicious force at the hands of prison staff across the US. A federal court in February 2015 approved [JURIST report] a settlement agreement between the Arizona Department of Corrections and the American Civil Liberties Union in a class action lawsuit over the health care system within Arizona prisons. Also last February rights group Equal Justice Under Law filed suit [JURIST report] against the cities of Ferguson and Jennings, Missouri, for their practice of jailing citizens who fail to pay debts owed to the city for minor offenses and traffic tickets. KEARNEY - A woman pleaded with a Kearney judge to not send a teen to prison for burglarizing two Kearney homes. Hes 18, an unidentified female supporter of Taylor Quintana blurted out as another woman cried loudly Wednesday during Quintanas sentencing hearing in Buffalo County District Court. Quintana, 18, was sentenced to five to 12 years in prison for two counts of attempted felony burglary to a home in the 3100 block of Ninth Avenue and a home at East Lawn Mobile Home Estates. He also will serve one to three years in prison for felony possession of Lexapro in January. Lexapro is a narcotic used for the treatment of major depressive disorder in adolescents. The drug sentence will be served at the same time as the burglary sentences. Looking over the top of his glasses Judge John Icenogle fired back at the woman in the gallery. Maam, he burglarized two homes, Icenogle said in a stern, elevated voice. He also committed one (burglary) after he was already charged. Both women remained quiet after Icenogles scolding. For more about this story see the Thur., June 24 Hub print edition. WASHINGTON Rep. Steve King says his proposal to keep Harriet Tubmans face off the $20 bill should not be viewed as anything against the famous abolitionist. The Iowa Republican told reporters Tuesday on Capitol Hill that he simply favors keeping things the way that they are with Andrew Jacksons visage gracing the front of the currency. "Its not about Harriet Tubman, no, its about keeping the picture on the twenty," King said as he pulled a twenty spot from his pocket and held it up. "Why would you want to change that? I am a conservative. I like to keep what we have." King had offered an amendment to a spending bill barring the use of funds to redesign any Federal Reserve note or coin. But its going nowhere after the House Rules Committee late Tuesday denied him a vote on the proposal. Kings proposal would have halted plans announced in April by Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew to have Tubman replace Jackson on the front of the $20 bill. A former slave who was a leader of the Underground Railroad, Tubman will become the first African-American featured on U.S. paper currency and the first woman on paper currency in a century. Jackson, the nations seventh president, will be moved to the back of the $20 bill, which will also retain an image of the White House on the back. Reporters pressed King on why there shouldnt be a woman or person of color on a piece of U.S. paper currency. King characterized such thinking as "sexist" and "racist." "Why would a person even think like that?" King said. "Why wouldnt you look at who are the icons of our country that have been on our currency for a long time?" King said the plan to replace Jackson represents "liberal activism" by President Barack Obama. "Hes divided us down the lines of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, prosperity versus poverty, and pitted us against each other," he said. "This is a divisive proposal on the part of the president." Kings Democratic opponent in Iowa, Kim Weaver, said Kings proposal was "a headline-grabbing piece of stunt legislation." "And what chance does this meaningless and mean-spirited gesture have of actually passing? Just like most measures introduced by Steve King, none," she said. Asked about Weavers criticism that the proposal is mean-spirited, King responded: "I dont know why she would think she knows." He said theres no reason to disparage Jackson, whom he defended as "a president of the United States that was in fine and good standing." King also questioned why the country would spend money to change the currency given the size of the national debt. "Why does this come up now when weve got a country to run?" King said. "Its because President Obama is on his way out the door and youre going to watch hes going to do everything he can think of to upset this society and this civilization and hell pit more people against each other and get more people to think of themselves as members of a group. Im one of Gods children. So was Harriet, so was Jackson. Theres no reason to make the change." This report contains material from the Associated Press. 452 Shares Share A primary care physician named Ashley Maltz recently discussed advantages and disadvantages of a cash-based practice. I appreciate her evenhanded tone: She prefers this model yet expressed concern for patients who cant use it. In the comments section, several physicians extolled the virtues of cash-pay, but patients were mixed. Its attractive for those who can afford it, while it worries, and maybe angers, those who cant. I enjoy the personal and patient benefits of a mostly cash-pay psychiatric practice (I also see some patients under Medicare). I like running my own small business, keeping clinically useful paper charts as opposed to a ponderous EHR, and protecting my patients privacy. Billing is simple enough that I do it myself. There is also an argument for keeping the relationship dyadic, i.e., 2-person, in psychotherapy. Third-party payers can complicate the therapeutic relationship in a domain where clarity is paramount. Most of my private practice colleagues likewise avoid insurance panels. Its become the norm in my field. Yet were all painfully aware that most of the seriously mentally ill cant come to our offices. They are relegated to county clinics, training settings, and to the rare private practitioner who still accepts public insurance. Like Dr. Maltz, Im saddened that, those on Medicaid or disability programs cannot be seen for cash by medical providers for medical care. Most of these people do not have the financial means to seek alternative types of care. Thus, they are seen in large community clinics with overworked providers and limited resources. Some critics of cash-based psychiatric practice exaggerate, painting a picture of high-society shrinks getting rich off the worried well. They point to real or imagined $400 per hour psychiatrists calming the Silicon Valley nouveau riche. Others like Allen Frances M.D. provide a more balanced critique, noting that individual psychiatrists gravitate toward more functional patients, but that we are only a small part of a very large puzzle. It appears that as a society we prefer not to pay for treatment of the seriously disturbed, but only for the jails and prisons they occupy after committing minor property and lifestyle crimes due to their condition. Our situation in psychiatry is a harbinger for primary care. Theres no denying the advantages of cash-based practice; it serves both doctors and patients very well. Yet cash-based primary care practices, like psychiatric practices, exclude many patients who cant afford them. They cant comprehensively serve the primary care or psychiatric needs of a population. Even more obviously, almost no one can pay out of pocket for more elaborate medical care, such as major surgery or a lengthy ICU stay. Theres a basic tension between health care as a private transaction and health care as a public good. Regarding the former, we can show our compassion by offering some free or low-fee care, or by treating some publicly insured patients under Medicare or Medicaid. This way we avoid elitism and do our part for the less fortunate. However, we must recognize that no matter how charitable we are as individual physicians, many more are in need of our services than our charity can accommodate. The private transaction model of medical care cannot save sick people from dying in the street. Universal access to health services is needed. While taxpayer-funded Medicare and Medicaid cover many patients who cannot otherwise afford care, our current backstop is EMTALA, the 1986 federal law requiring hospital emergency departments to evaluate and treat emergencies regardless of ability to pay. According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, 55 percent of U.S. emergency care now goes uncompensated, costing hospital systems tens of billions annually. Much of this cost is shifted to paying patients, inflating medical bills for everyone else. One way or another, society (i.e., we) pay to keep our fellow Americans alive and relatively well. It would be far more economical, not to mention humane, to offer universal access earlier, before health problems progress to emergencies just as it would be to treat the seriously mentally ill before they need to be imprisoned. Its no surprise that many patients who are otherwise sympathetic to the plight of demoralized, burned out doctors draw the line at a cash-based care model that excludes them. In order to ally with these patients, those of us with cash-based practices should at minimum acknowledge the need for a two-tier model, public and private. Better yet, we need to think hard about who provides services in the universal-access public tier. Should this be all of us at some point in our careers, i.e., a type of doctor draft or public service requirement? Should these services be relegated to PAs and NPs? Or can we let the market decide, such that these services are provided by physicians who arent sharp, ambitious, or economically secure enough to hang a shingle or for whatever reason prefer not to? These hard questions must be answered if were to be intellectually honest and admit that the physicians role in society is more than entrepreneur. Steven Reidbord is a psychiatrist who blogs at Reidbords Reflections. Image credit: Shutterstock.com The developers of the proposed Coves of Winfield subdivision speak out about the city's denial of a Tax Incentive Package. Killam Developments had requested approval of a Tax Reinvestment Zone from the City of Laredo. The proposal would have offset investment and development costs for the Coves Subdivision, which would have consisted of a 700-acre development and an estimated 2,000 new homes. In a statement released by Killam Development, it reads: "We are disappointed that the Laredo community will not be able to reap the benefits of the Coves of Winfield project. "This $500 million investment, which would have been invested over a 15 year period by different companies into the Laredo economy would have created a multitude of benefits for the City of Laredo." Proponents argue the development would have created over 2,000 jobs and spured growth in the area. However, opponents said the tax packages wasn't fair because a significant portion of the new tax revenue would have gone back to the developer and could only have been used for improvements in that development. City Council is now looking at the possibility of putting the Tax Incentive Proposal before the voters on a referendum election. To see the full statement, you can click the document on the right. The former Ceann Comhairle of the Dail, Seamus Pattison who was struck down some years ago with Parkinson's Disease, had over 20,000 robbed from him, over a seven month period, by the young carer assigned to mind him in his own home in the city. There were emotional scenes on Thursday in Kilkenny Circuit Criminal Court when Rachel Walsh (26), No 8 Lakeside Court, Kilkenny pleaded guilty to writing fraudulent cheques on Mr Pattison's cheque book and of using Mr Pattison's Visa card for transactions, which according to the trial judge, Karen O'Connor were thoughtful in the way it was carried out. By the same token, she said that the thefts were not used to pay for an extravagant lifestyle and one trip to Barcelona, on Mr Pattison's credit card was not large. She believed that Ms Walsh was truly remorseful and a letter of apology was forwarded to Mr Pattison while she made a guilty plea very early on in the garda investigation. And it was disclosed that Mr Pattison had been completely reimbursed by his bank. Judge said that Ms Walsh had been employed to look after Mr Pattison for a period of 14 months before the investigation and for four months while the investigation was being carried out and she was eventually charged. The offences were carried out between August 2014 and February 2015. When confronted, Ms Walsh was quite distressed and made no attempt to minimise what she had done. At an earlier sitting of the court, Det Garda John Kennedy said that Mr Pattison's brother had noticed a number of irregularities and was mandated to make enquiries in behalf of his brother. And at this stage the gardai were notified. A total of 25 cheques had been cashed by Ms Walsh for her own benefit. and a total of 21,685. Judge O'Connor said the amounts involved were small and that there was no large spending spree and no attempt to lead the high life. There was one for 2,000 and the largest amount was 3,750 0n Mr Pattison's Visa card. She said Ms Walsh had through her own admission, highlighted other transactions carried out by her. The Judge noted a very remorseful letter of apology was provided to the victim and Ms Walsh broke down in court at the end of the hearing while once again making her heartfelt apologies to Mr Pattison. On a number of occasions, during her summing up, the judge referred to the very serious breach of trust involved in the case. The judge said that Ms Walsh did not have a gambling or alcohol addiction problem and that the spending was modest and she noted that a short trip to Barcelona, paid for out of Mr Pattison's funds was not extravagant. The judge did note that a lot of thought had gone into the spending methods used by Ms Walsh to defraud the victim. She said the charge before the court would put an end to Ms Walsh's attempts to enter the nursing profession. She noted a number of testimonials from people vouching for Ms Walsh's good character including one from a former employer, Mrs Boyd. She said Ms Walsh was living with her widowed father and that he was in ill-health and that from an early date, attempts at restitution were made and that a sum of 2,293 had been paid back and that a further 1,200 had been offered in compensation. It was agreed that this money would be delivered to Garda Supt at Kilkenny Garda station and would be given back to the victim. At this stage the court was told that Mr Pattison had been reimbursed for the loss by the bank, so there was no loss to the victim and it was explained that the money in court, 1,200 would be handed over to the victim to do as he liked with it. Judge O'Connor said Mr Pattison had led an exemplary life of dedicated public service and that he had displayed considerable generosity of spirit in the case. She sentenced Ms Walsh to two years in jail with the entire period suspended provided Ms Walsh sign a bond promising to be of good behaviour for two years and agreeing to doing a 240 hour community service in lieu of the sentence. Judge O'Connor said she was giving Ms Walsh a chance and Ms Walsh said she appreciated it. Det Garda John Kennedy was thanked by the judge for the manner in which he carried out his duties in an understanding manner. Counsel for the State was Brian O'Shea BL instructed by the State solicitor for Kilkenny city and county, Mr Gerry Meaney. Editor's Note: The article was updated to include comments from analysts at Thomson Reuters GFMS. (Kitco News) - The latest trade data from Switzerland demonstrates just how much the Brexit uncertainty has weighted on British consumers. For the third month consecutive month, the United Kingdom was the main destination for Swiss gold exports. According to the data released Tuesday, 69.473 tonnes of gold was exported to the U.K. from Switzerland, slightly down from 78.8 tonnes in April. In the last three months, 192.273 tonnes of gold have flowed into Britain as voters struggle to decide whether to remain a member of the European Union. Analysts from Commerzbank noted that the bullion into the U.K flowed mostly into the reserves of gold-backed exchange-traded products, which is a strong investment of choice among Western investors. In total Switzerland exported 177.3 tonnes of gold in May, up 20% from April and the highest amount for the year so far. Looking ahead, as Brexit fears start to diminish, Simona Gambarini, commodities economist at Capital Economics, said that she expects traditional gold markets to regain their dominance in the market. The latest Swiss data showed that demand in India remains lackluster as exports fell to 18.5 tonnes last month, down 16% from April. Gambarini explained that last month, the Indian market was still adjusting to the 42-day strike organized by the nations Jewelry industry to protest the governments high duty tax on gold imports. India has been the biggest surprise so far this year but we expect consumer demand to pick up as the strike factors dissipate, she said. We also expect demand to pick up following a positive monsoon season. Gambarini said that she expects Indian demand to pick up in the second half of the year ahead of the all-important wedding season. After a lackluster start to the year, Swiss data shows that Chinas gold demand is starting up pick up. Nineteen tonnes of gold were shipped to mainland China from Switzerland, an increase of 36% from April. At the same time, exports to Hong Kong grew to 24 tonnes, up a whopping 161% from April. Gambarini noted that Chinese demand is relatively price sensitive, and it is not surprising demand picked up last month as the price saw a 6% correction. In a recent report, Analysts at Thomson Reuters GFMS also highlighted price sentivity as a factor in recent Chinese lackluster interst in gold so far in 2016. However, they are also expecting sentiment to shift later in the year. "We are likely to see some pent-up demand coming later in the year, particularly should we see a correction in gold prices below the $1,200/oz level. That said, we will not be surprised if total demand in China remains weak for the year as a whole, given that jewellery demand, which accounts for the larger share of total demand, has remained weak so far this year and is likely to remain under pressure due to the slowing economy," the analysts said. By Neils Christensen of Kitco News; nchristensen@kitco.com Follow @Neils_C SHARE By Tristan Baurick of the Kitsap Sun OLYMPIA A long-prohibited method of salmon farming is gaining support among state fisheries managers. The state Department of Fish and Wildlife is dusting off the idea of allowing private companies to raise and release salmon for commercial harvests. Known as salmon ranching, the practice boomed in the Northwest during the 1970s. It went bust in Oregon and was outlawed in Washington but continues to thrive in Alaska. Norway and Japan are world leaders in the business, producing huge quantities of ranched salmon, lobster, cod and other species. As wild salmon runs decline and government hatchery production wanes, some Fish and Wildlife leaders believe the private sector could have a role in boosting the supply of fishable salmon. "The understanding is that hatchery funding will continue to decline and we should be planning alternatives," Fish and Wildlife Commissioner Miranda Wecker said. Commissioners discussed salmon ranching at a June 10 meeting in Olympia and have directed staff to continue researching the issue. Concerns about the impact of hatchery fish on wild stocks has led to stricter production rules and lower funding levels. Since 1998, hatchery salmon and steelhead trout production fell about 40 percent. Wild stocks particularly coho and chinook salmon have plunged, leading to this year's near-cancellation of the nontribal salmon fishing season. A salmon ranch is essentially a privately run hatchery. In Washington, hatcheries are run by government agencies, with Fish and Wildlife and tribes playing the largest roles. Hatchery fish are produced with the assumption that many will be caught by commercial, tribal and recreational fishers before they return home to spawn. With salmon ranching, the assumption is that many or most of the salmon will return to the rancher for harvest, thereby recouping the initial investment and ideally producing a profit. In this regard, salmon ranching is a bit like cattle ranching: Animals are released, allowed to mature, and then rounded up for slaughter. Salmon would do the roundup themselves, with their natural spawning impulses drawing them home for harvest. Unlike hatcheries, some salmon ranches retain young salmon in net pens, fattening them up with food pellets before releasing them at an age when they're less likely to be eaten by predators. Oregon had 12 salmon ranches in the '70s and '80s. "But none got to the point they were making a profit," Fish and Wildlife salmon biologist Chad Herring said. There was no way to prevent predators or recreational and commercial fishers from picking off the ranch-hatched salmon. "They could not control the harvest, and it was a free-for-all," said Commissioner Conrad Mahnken, a retired fisheries biologist who tracked the issue for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration during the early 1980s. Washington opted to quash the practice before it gained traction. "There was so much opposition to (salmon) ranching and salmon farming that the Legislature went with outlawing it," said Mahnken, a Bainbridge Island resident who represents Kitsap County on the commission. Washington's commercial fishers worried that ranched salmon would out-compete wild stocks, while environmentalists objected to the use of net pens, which concentrate fish waste and are blamed for transmitting diseases to wild fish. Alaskan salmon ranching could serve as a model for Washington, according to Fish and Wildlife staff. Alaska allows private nonprofit ranches that are partly supported by revenues from a commercial fishing tax. In operation since the 1970s, Alaska's salmon ranches account for about 40 percent of the state's salmon harvest. A cost-benefit analysis conducted by Fish and Wildlife staff indicated salmon ranching need to overcome challenges to gain public acceptable and private investment. On the plus side, ranching could increase the commercial catch and reduce state hatchery costs. It would also boost the number of young salmon that would, in turn, serve as prey for wild chinook. The negatives include possible harm to wild stocks, the spread of disease, lower water quality and an uncertain market for ranchers. "There are economic problems and environmental problems, but I think they can be overcome," Mahnken said. Another big challenge: changing state law. "Is there a champion out there in the Legislature for this? That's what we'd need," Commissioner Larry Carpenter said. "If we're blessed legislatively, this might be something to consider." SHARE By Ed Friedrich of the Kitsap Sun BREMERTON Kitsap County Association of Realtors is revisiting its stance on a cross-Sound passenger-only ferry plan. In April, the group's government affairs committee came out against Kitsap Transit's proposal to run fast ferries from Bremerton, Kingston and Southworth to downtown Seattle. The service would require voters to pass a three-tenths of 1 percent sales tax increase in November. The committee supports the passenger-only ferry concept, but members were worried about the reliability of high-tech, low-wake ferry Rich Passage 1, and wondered whether the service was worth $48 million to establish and $11 million annually to operate, association executive Mike Eliason said. The decision by the government affairs committee wasn't embraced by the board of directors. The board told the committee to present it with the ferry plan's pros and cons. The board will vote whether to uphold or overturn the committee's decision during a special meeting June 29, Eliason said. "The board feels like the board needs to make the decision," he said. "There's some expectation the decision could be overturned. My sense is the board is divided on this issue. It could go either way." The board, which had delegated responsibility for endorsing candidates and ballot measures to the committee, now will require that committee decisions be ratified by the board. Calls to the board president and government affairs committee chairwoman weren't returned Tuesday. Past President Frank Wilson said he couldn't speak for the organization but believes real estate professionals should focus on the basics transportation, health, education and the economy. "I support anything we can do to improve the ferry transportation," he said. "We've only got a couple of ways to get out of here Highway 16 and the ferries. In this case, we should put the vote before the people and let the people decide what they want to do." The Realtor group is the only entity that has taken a stand on the ferry issue. Rich Passage I Transit officials hope to bring Rich Passage 1 back to Sinclair Inlet by the end of the month, they said during a passenger-only ferry subcommittee meeting Tuesday. The low-wake ferry is in Port Townsend, where it has been stored out of the water since fall. The boat isn't working properly in the slower, more fuel-efficient "performance" mode, said project manager Carla Sawyer. It seems fine in the high-speed, "low-wake" mode. It will undergo its annual Coast Guard hull inspection Thursday. The computers will be reset and the ferry returned to the water June 30 to confirm the settings are working. "If sea trials go fine, we could come down the afternoon of June 30," Sawyer said. The ferry, which can make half-hour trips between Bremerton and Seattle, needs to be visible during the busy festival season, Bremerton Mayor Patty Lent said. Even better would be the ability to walk aboard and check it out. "There's no reason we can't let people on," said Kitsap Transit Executive Director John Clauson, who participated in the meeting by phone. "We can't take them out for a ride." There could be a way. "Once we get the Coast Guard certificate of inspection, there's no reason it could not operate between Port Orchard and Bremerton," Clauson said. SHARE If you turned on cable TV news Monday, chances are good that you caught Corey Lewandowski fibbing that he doesn't have a clue why Donald Trump fired him as his campaign manager. Of course he knows. In a series of interviews on several shows, Lewandowski dodged every question, including from CNN's Dana Bash whether Trump's daughter Ivanka and her husband had anything to do with his dismissal. Tensions among them were well-known to campaign followers, but Lewandowski shrugged off such concerns as typical of all campaigns. No doubt. But Lewandowski was a special case he looked and acted more like a bodyguard/bouncer than a campaign manager. At one Trump event, he was accused of assaulting a female reporter. On Monday night, however, there was no evidence of the tough guy. Rather, Lewandowski portrayed a humble, thoughtful, soft-spoken, gee-whiz guy who only wants to do the right thing for his country and get Trump elected. Naturally, people wondered: How big is his golden parachute? And speculators wagered: He must have signed a confidentiality agreement. This is highly probable. Usually, when high-profile employees are escorted from the building, as Lewandowski was, they tend to leave with two things: a check and a promise never to speak ill of the company. And Trump is the company. There's no disagreement that Lewandowski had become a liability. His brash style, which reflected that of his employer, rubbed many the wrong way. Moreover, Trump's campaign is in dire straits. His poll numbers are slipping and are below any candidate's, Democrat or Republican, in the past three election cycles. Adding to his travails, Trump's campaign cupboard is relatively bare with just $1.3 million compared to Hillary Clinton's $42 million. Something had to change and somebody had to take the fall. Or so the obvious theories have gone. Another plausible theory is far more cynical and seems more Trumpian. It wasn't money or campaign discord at least not exclusively that got Lew the boot. He was fired as a sacrifice to one of the few constituencies Trump hasn't thus far insulted directly and one he desperately needs evangelical Christians. Could it be mere coincidence that just one day later on Tuesday Trump was scheduled to meet in New York with a congregation of about 900 Christian leaders to sort things out in advance of likely endorsements? That's a rhetorical question. Those gathered wanted to know more about the "real" Trump, to find a way to support him, despite his un-Christian behaviors and attitudes. And Trump's purpose was to assure them that he's really a good guy who loves the Lord, "believe me," and just wants to make America great again. The meeting was closed to media, especially The Washington Post, which Trump has banished from all events. It seems he doesn't like the way the paper is covering him. Richard Nixon felt the same way. But one imagines that his metamorphosis mirrors Lewandowski's. Remember Lewandowski, the humble, soft-spoken, gee-whiz-I-just-love-my-country fellow? Just add "and-Jesus" after "country" and you'll have a fair idea of how a new, improved Trump might appear. Not so much presidential as born-again. This is how I imagine Trump's handling of the meeting: "Look, I never meant any of those things I said, not really. Sure, we need to secure our borders and be smarter about immigration, but this doesn't mean I dislike Mexicans or think they're rapists, even though, I assume, some of them are. "I just get carried away sometimes because I'm so passionate about making this country great again. God willing. Plus, to be perfectly honest, I was getting some really bad advice from my campaign manager and that's why I had to let him go." Ba-da-bing. Lewandowski, not Trump, was the problem all along, you see. He told Trump to act like a raging, misogynistic, xenophobic, racist. Cleansed of Lewandowski's influence, he's liberated to be his presidential self. And, in this new light, the evangelical community can justify supporting this unlikely bearer of civilization's torch. Christians love the penitent sinner who has sought forgiveness and been reborn. Not all will buy Trump's reinvention, no matter what sort of incantations transpired Tuesday. Indeed, just across town on the same evening, another group of faith leaders gathered for dinner with members of "Better for America," a new organization aimed at finding and funding an alternative to Trump and Hillary Clinton. Barring divine intervention, they're probably too late. Then again, miracles can happen. A penitent, born-again Trump would certainly be one. Kathleen Parker's email address is kathleenparker@washpost.com. She writes for The Washington Post Writers Group. Stuff reports: A petition to be sent to the Government demanding Mike Hosking be removed from television screens has now clocked up more than 14,000 signatories in just over a week. Started by lawyer Dan Wayman the petition asks that Mike Hosking be removed from public broadcasting at TVNZ Im tempted to call these people cultural fascists. First of all do they really think the bloody Government should decide who is and is not allowed to appear on television as a broadcaster? Secondly they seem to hate views they disagree with, and want Hosking gone because he says things they dont like. This seems to be a phenomenon that mainly occurs on the left. I dont recall 14,000 right wingers signing a petition demanding John Campbell be removed from public broadcasting. If you dont like what someone says, then dont watch. Change the channel. I think NZ is better when it has diversity of views on air I think it is good both Hosking and Campbell are broadcasters. But these cultural fascists hate views that are not their own, and think the Government should decide who is allowed to be on air. They can get f****d. Share this: Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Reddit WhatsApp More Pinterest Print Tumblr Mohammed Malik writes: Donald Trump believes American Muslims are hiding something. They know whats going on. They know that [Omar Mateen] was bad, he said after the Orlando massacre. They have to cooperate with law enforcement and turn in the people who they know are bad. . . . But you know what? They didnt turn them in. And you know what? We had death and destruction. This is a common idea in the United States. Its also a lie. Firstly, Muslims like me cant see into the hearts of other worshippers. (Do you know the hidden depths of everyone in your community?) Secondly, hes also wrong that we dont speak up when were able. I know this firsthand: I was the one who told the FBI about Omar Mateen. And he is not alone in this. In many countries the best source of information on radicalised Muslims comes from other Muslims. Soon after Omar married and moved to his own home, he began to come to the mosque more often. Then he went on a religious trip to Saudi Arabia. There was nothing to indicate that he had a dark side, even when he and his first wife divorced. But as news reports this week have made clear, Omar did have a dark outlook on life. Partly, he was upset at what he saw as racism in the United States against Muslims and others. When he worked as a security guard at the St Lucie County Courthouse, he told me visitors often made nasty or bigoted remarks to him about Islam. He overheard people saying ugly things about African Americans, too. Since September 11, Ive thought the only way to answer Islamophobia was to be polite and kind; the best way to counter all the negativity people were seeing on TV about Islam was by showing them the opposite. I urged Omar to volunteer and help people in need Muslim or otherwise (charity is a pillar of Islam). He agreed, but was always very worked up about this injustice. Good advice. After my talk with the FBI, I spoke to people in the Islamic community, including Omar, abut Moners attack. I wondered how he could have radicalised. Both Omar and I attended the same mosque as Moner, and the imam never taught hate or radicalism. Thats when Omar told me he had been watching videos of Awlaki, too, which immediately raised red flags for me. He told me the videos were very powerful. After speaking to Omar, I contacted the FBI again to let them know that Omar had been watching Awlakis tapes. He hadnt committed any acts of violence and wasnt planning any, as far as I knew. And I thought he probably wouldnt, because he didnt fit the profile: He already had a second wife and a son. But it was something agents should keep their eyes on. I never heard from them about Omar again, but apparently they did their job: They looked into him and, finding nothing to go on, they closed the file. So while he was not stopped, Malik did his best. I had told the FBI about Omar because my community, and Muslims generally, have nothing to hide. I love this country, like most Muslims that I know. I dont agree with every government policy (I think theres too much money in politics, for instance), but Im proud to be an American. I vote. I volunteer. I teach my children to treat all people kindly. Our families came to the US because it is full of opportunity a place where getting a job is about what you know, not who you know. Its a better country to raise children than someplace where the electricity is out for 18 hours a day, where politicians are totally corrupt, or where the leader is a dictator. Dr Malik sounds like a great American. Share this: Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Reddit WhatsApp More Pinterest Print Tumblr There is so much to coordinate that I can't keep it straight in my head. I explain it to my friend Susan until it starts to make sense. "We're going to pack a trailer with the furniture we have in Knoxville then drive to Blacksburg to get some furniture from Zack's old apartment. Then we'll drive to Penn State and unload everything into the apartment he's subleasing this summer. We'll spend the night in State College, and the next morning, we'll drive to Blacksburg again to get the furniture we want to bring home." "That sounds exhausting!" she says sympathetically. "I know," I tell her. "We're going to drive twelve-hundred miles and move three times in three days in three cities. What could go wrong?" For the first leg, we hire two college students in Blacksburg to help us. It's worth every penny. They load the trailer in an hour, and we're on our way to State College. With the trailer in-tow, the trip takes close to eight hours instead of six, but we're undaunted. The next morning, we meet another pair of college students at the Penn State apartment Zack has subleased for the summer. It's the apartment he rented, despite my warnings, from a total stranger, sight unseen. There weren't even any pictures attached to the Craig's List ad he answered. Now we know why. The apartment smells like dead animals and looks even worse. There's dirt everywhere. The carpet is stained and covered in debris. There's no air conditioning. My feet stick to the kitchen floor. Dried blood from old meat covers the bottom of the refrigerator. The bathroom is a horror. I don't say, "I told you so" but the rest of the day I refer to the apartment as his cautionary tale. The couch we brought from Knoxville doesn't fit through the apartment door. We spend the day driving it around looking for a storage unit. We lose the dolly we rented somewhere along the way. We buy industrial cleaning supplies and spend four hours cleaning the terrible apartment. His roommate never emerges from his bedroom. The next day we drag ourselves out of bed, kiss Zack goodbye, and begin our six-hundred-mile trip back to Knoxville with a stop at Virginia Tech. When we got to Blacksburg to pick up the last of our furniture, I turn to my husband and say, "I think we may be too old for this." He sighs and rubs his sore shoulder, which I take as a sign of agreement. We lock Zack's Virginia Tech apartment for the last time. We close up the trailer and pull out of town for the final leg of our long weekend journey. We drive in silence for a while. Both of us tired. Both of us thinking through the events of the weekend. We coordinated cars and trailers. We managed movers and oversized couches. We scrubbed a filthy apartment until the thought of our son sleeping there didn't give us nightmares. And through all of it I never stopped to think about what we were doing. I was so busy packing and planning that I lost sight of the big picture. "We just moved our son to another state," I say, breaking the silence. "For the first time in our lives, one of our children is more than a day's drive away." "I know," my husband replies, his voice full of emotion. His words hang in the air. There is nothing more to say. Leslie Snow may be reached at snowcolumn@aol.com. Photo by Saul Young, Knoxville News Sentinel staff SHARE By Mary Constantine of the Knoxville News Sentinel For the second season the AARP Foundation's Fre$h Savings in partnership with the USDA healthy-food incentive program has funded said program at two local markets Market Square Farmers Market and New Harvest Park Farmers Market. The program is in conjunction with the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) where SNAP participants spending up to $10 at participating markets purchasing fresh fruits and vegetables using their SNAP card will receive the equivalent amount in Fre$h Savings tokens which can be exchanged for fresh fruits and vegetables. According to a study by the AARP Foundation Tennessee is ranked among the lowest states in terms of consumption of fruits and vegetables. New Harvest Park Farmers Market, 4775 New Harvest Lane, operates 3-6 p.m. each Thursday. Market Square Farmers Market operates from 9 a.m.-2 p.m. on Saturday and 11 a.m.-2 p.m. on Wednesday. SHARE A tray of rogel, which Viviana Ceballos-Ponzio describes as "a traditional Argentine pastry with layers of light and crunchy dough as well as layers of Dulce de Leche topped with a puff of meringue." Viviana Ceballos-Ponzio at her Pastries by Vivi booth at market. Viviana Ceballos-Ponzio Above: Viviana Ceballos-Ponzio at her Pastries by Vivi booth at market. At left: A close-up of the traditional Argentine pastry called rogel that Ceballos-Ponzio makes and sells. Those in search of European and Argentine pastries are in luck, as Viviana Ceballos-Ponzio offers these baked goodies at her downtown market booth, Pastries by Vivi. "The main idea is to bring something completely different and unique into the Knoxville market," Ceballos-Ponzio says. Her passion for creating pastries began in Argentina and traveled with her all the way to Knoxville before becoming her business. Ceballos-Ponzio, 39, was born in Buenos Aires and moved to Knoxville with her husband after he finished his MBA program. They wanted to be closer to his family. In Argentina, she was an executive assistant for a high profile law firm in Cordoba. Though her job was outside of the baking world, she was always passionate about food, in particular pastries and classic Italian and French cuisine. "It wasn't until I moved into the U.S.A. that I decided to more seriously embrace my passion for baking," she admits. "It initially started more as therapy, just to feel closer to my roots and to my family; but it kept growing and evolving from there and the more I baked, the more passionate I felt about it." She received so much positive feedback from those who tasted her baking that she decided to begin baking for a larger market. Her primary focus is European and Argentine pastries, cakes, and cookies. She says she loves to create elaborate baked goods using a gourmet approach, focusing on European pastry techniques. She can be found at the Market Square Farmers Market on Saturdays throughout the summer from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Her booth is typically between Union Avenue, in front of Tupelo Honey. Some of the products you can expect to see at her booth include raspberry and white chocolate cookies, lemon-lavender cookies, vanilla meringue drop cookies and apple-raspberry coffee cake. She also makes traditional Argentine pastries, including alfajor, chocolate babka and rogel. "Alfajor is a traditional Argentine cookie," she explains. "It is two soft vanilla cookies with a layer of Dulce de Leche and shredded coconut. Rogel is another traditional Argentine pastry with layers of light and crunchy dough as well as layers of Dulce de Leche topped with a puff of meringue." Although she bakes and works her market booth alone, Ceballos-Ponzio says a lot of good people are behind her business. She says she's surrounded by supportive people who have helped make her dream a reality. "You can say it is a one-woman operation, but with tons of support from my family and friends, all of whom have been wonderful and encouraged me to embark on this journey!" she says. Not only have her friends and family encouraged her, many of them are key players in the experience she gained baking, both as a child and as an adult. "One of my fondest memories growing up was helping my abuelo (grandfather) make Gnocchi from scratch," she remembers. "Then I spent many years bonding in the kitchen with my mother-in-law, who is quite possibly one of the most talented cooks I've meet in my life. We would get together and spend hours in the kitchen making pasta, sauces and baking desserts while talking a little bit about everything." She then started researching and practicing techniques to perfect her craft and developed her own recipes for her favorite baked goods. "Everything I make has my own spin, I put a lot of thought and love into my products," says Ceballos-Ponzio. She admits that her passion is also driven by a self-proclaimed sweet tooth. "As a matter of fact, every time I go to a restaurant, I check their dessert menu first and then order my entree accordingly to make sure I can make it into the dessert round," says Ceballos-Ponzio. "When I travel to big cities, I plan my whole trip around the pastry shops and coffee houses I want to visit. "Luckily for me, everyone at home has a sweet tooth too, so we all happily organize these visits!" says Cabellos-Ponzio, who lists tiramisu, French macarons and rogel among her list of favorites. In addition to her participation in the downtown market, she is interested in expanding to other places. "I would like to participate in other markets and events, but I am just taking things one step at a time and making sure that quality does not get sacrificed in the process of growing my business," she says. SHARE Knoxville city workers board up Club Dejavu after Knox County Criminal Court Judge Steven Sword declared the Chapman Highway club a public nuisance and ordered it closed Friday, April 8, 2016. (MICHAEL PATRICK/NEWS SENTINEL) By Lydia X. McCoy of the Knoxville News Sentinel The owners of an oft-troubled South Knoxville nightclub have agreed to sign a permanent injunction that will close the business, according to the Knox County District Attorney's Office. Club Dejavu, 2619 Chapman Highway, was closed in April as part of a nuisance raid following a shooting outside the club March 26, when police said a gang fight spilled into the parking lot and erupted in gunfire. No one was injured or arrested, although bullets struck several cars and windows of the club, the neighboring Disc Exchange and Allen Sign Co. across Chapman Highway. Investigators later recovered 55 shell casings from the scene. Authorities said it was the latest among 10 incidents connected to the nightspot since November 2014. Sean McDermott, a spokesman for the Knox County District Attorney's Office, said the injunction means that Club Dejavu, and its owners Kevin Cherry and Kenneth Ray, will never be allowed to operate at the location again. "This was a successful operation that brought an end to the escalating gang violence surrounding Club Dejavu," he said. "When we see a property operating as a haven for gang activity, the DA's office will continue to step in to combat gang violence, end the nuisance, and protect the community." According to the injunction, Cherry and Ray also agreed to surrender the club's beer permit within five days of the agreement, which was filed Wednesday. The owners previously had been fighting the club being shut down and had a court hearing on the matter scheduled for Friday. McDermott said the hearing was canceled because of Wednesday's order. Cherry previously said he had made several efforts to counter violence outside his club installing a metal detector at the entrance and enforcing a no loitering rule in the parking lot. And, he argued, that the real problems outside the business didn't start until after Knox County Sheriff Jimmy "J.J." Jones barred his deputies from working off-duty security outside the club. Cherry did not return phone calls Wednesday seeking comment on the permanent injunction. SHARE Ricky Helmick Jr. By News Sentinel Staff A Hancock County man has been charged with the deaths of his father and a woman who were found in a home in upper East Tennessee in April while he tried to steal a truck, according to a release from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. On Monday, a Hancock County grand jury returned indictments against 30-year-old Ricky Helmick Jr., charging him with two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of felony murder, one count of aggravated kidnapping and one count of theft over $1,000. He was already being held at the Hamblen County jail and his bond has been set at $750,000. On April 8, the TBI was asked to join detectives with the Hancock County Sheriff's Office in investigating the deaths of Ricky Helmick Sr., 57, and Natasha Riley, 37. Both were found shot to death in a residence at 1041 Vardy Blackwater Road near Sneedville. During the course of the investigation, authorities developed information that Ricky Helmick Jr. was the individual responsible for their deaths during the attempt to take his father's truck. The investigation further found that the younger Helmick had confined another relative during that incident. More details as they develop online and in Wednesday's News Sentinel. Laura Ann Buckingham, 29, Kingston woman charged with criminal intent to commit first-degree murder for allegedly planning a murder-for-hire scheme to kill her ex-spouse, Bradley Sutherland of New Albany, Ind. According to authorities, Buckingham repeatedly asked her boyfriend, Joseph Chamblin, if he could make her ex-spouse "go away." Chamblin is one of four Marines filmed urinating on the bodies of dead Taliban fighters in a 2011 incident in Afghanistan that gained him nationwide notoriety. (ROANE COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE) SHARE By Bob Fowler of the Knoxville News Sentinel KINGSTON The pregnant woman accused of trying to hire a hit man to kill her former boyfriend has been indicted on an amended charge of solicitation to commit first-degree murder. Laura Ann Buckingham, 30, was indicted Tuesday by a Roane County grand jury and is to be arraigned Monday in Criminal Court. She had originally been charged with attempted first-degree murder. The case has drawn national attention. Buckingham had been living in Kingston last winter and had repeatedly asked her live-in boyfriend if he could make her former boyfriend "go away," according to a Roane County Sheriff's Office incident report. The live-in boyfriend was former Marine Corps sniper Joseph Chamblin, who gained notoriety for a 2011 YouTube video of him and other Marines urinating on dead Taliban fighters in Afghanistan. He later wrote a book about the incident titled "Into Infamy." Buckingham allegedly wanted a former boyfriend, Bradley J. Sutherland, now of Charleston, Ind., killed to end a bitter custody dispute involving their 3-year-old son. Sutherland had taken Buckingham to court for custody and visitation rights, according to court records. Buckingham, in allegedly seeking to have Sutherland killed, stated to Chamblin "that since he (Chamblin) was in the military maybe he had some friends that might could do this for him," the sheriff's office incident report stated. Concerned about her repeated requests about how to kill Sutherland, Chamblin secretly recorded Buckingham and provided those recordings to the sheriff's office. A Tennessee Bureau of Investigation agent posing as a hit man then met with Buckingham and recorded on audio and video "many conversations" with her, according to court records. Buckingham, herself a former Marine who had been stationed in combat zones in Iraq and Afghanistan, was arrested Feb. 24. After her arrest, Chamblin filed a petition for an order of protection against her, saying in an affidavit that she "has threatened me in the past." Buckingham is free on $150,000 bond under guidelines that she wear a GPS monitoring ankle bracelet and remain in Tennessee. She's represented by the Public Defender's Office. SHARE Naomi Jean Cassandra Justice By Jamie Satterfield of the Knoxville News Sentinel A federal judge on Wednesday cited a Seymour mother's own history of victimization in cutting her a sentencing break for peddling photos of her sexual abuse of her 18-month-old son. U.S. District Judge Pamela Reeves sentenced Naomi Jean Justice, 23, to 15 years in federal prison for taking photographs of her rape of her son and sending them to an Internet predator in hopes of getting cash. At a hearing in U.S. District Court on Wednesday, Reeves shaved off nearly seven years from the minimum penalty called for by sentencing guidelines after Assistant Federal Defender Bobby Hutson Jr., argued the young mother was herself victimized as a child and coerced by the convicted Internet predator Joseph R. Rutherford. Rutherford, a North Carolina resident, was under investigation by the FBI in August 2014 for trolling for photographs of incestuous abuse of children when he provided an undercover agent images of Justice's rape of her son. Hutson said Justice met Rutherford through the Internet at a time when she was a 21-year-old mother essentially left broke and homeless when the baby's father was arrested for beating her. Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Morris said Justice ceded to Rutherford's push for incestuous photographs in hopes of getting cash. Justice initially sent photos that were "disturbing" but not technically rape, including images of her sucking the baby's toes and heel. She refused his demands for more graphic images, even trying to fake her own death via a videochat, but eventually shared photographs of two acts of rape of the baby, Hutson said. Hutson said Justice was sexually abused throughout her childhood and has related mental health problems. She has agreed to surrender her parental rights to the boy, who is now being raised by a relative of the child's father. Rutherford, who agreed to cooperate with the FBI, received a 37-month prison term. Justice offered a tearful apology at Wednesday's hearing. SHARE U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy talks with members of the media at the conclusion of a tour at the Behavioral Health Group Knoxville Intake Center on Tuesday, June 21, 2016. The visit is part of a cross -country tour to address problems with opioid addiction and treatment. (AMY SMOTHERMAN BURGESS/NEWS SENTINEL) By Kristi L. Nelson of the Knoxville News Sentinel In the audience of more than 200 people waiting to hear U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy speak Tuesday night at Knox County Health Department, two women talked quietly about their adult children. "I can't even tell you how many overdoses," one said. "And how many times they said they were clean?" said the other. "They put on a good show." During the public town hall meeting, Murthy spoke about the importance of preventive care and good emotional health; the controversy around the safety of electronic cigarettes; his "call to action" for Americans to "briskly walk" 22 minutes a day, which he said would cut their risk of heart disease and sudden death by 20 percent and diabetes by 30 percent; and the mosquito-borne virus Zika, which was discovered decades ago but is receiving new attention because of its spread to more countries and tie to serious birth defects. "We're learning new things about this virus every day and every week," said Murthy, although so far any mosquito-borne U.S. cases have been contracted abroad. But it was clear from the questions the audience submitted what most people were there to hear him speak about. Murthy, the nation's 19th surgeon general, initiated the national tour, "Turn the Tide Rx," to spread awareness about three priorities of his office: to expand access to addiction treatment, especially among the poor and uninsured; to expand public access to the drug Naloxone, which can reverse the effects of opioid overdose; and to change the prescribing habits of providers so that opioid drugs are no longer the front line of treatment for pain. He'd spent the day meeting with providers, law enforcement officers, legislators and community advocates about how to further those goals. At the town hall, he outlined his plan to send a letter to more than 2 million providers who prescribe opioid drugs, along with a "pocket guide" on appropriate prescribing. "We want to sharpen their skills so that they are treating pain, but safely and effectively, and without putting folks at risk for addiction," he said, to audience applause. With the CDC issuing new guidelines on the use of opioids to treat pain, Murthy said he foresees the medical community addressing prescription painkillers the way it did the overprescription of antibiotics for viruses when patients demanded them. That started to change, he said, when providers began to suggest to patients that antibiotics might not be the right treatment for their illness. "Now the word is out," he said. Murthy said later this year he'll release the first-ever surgeon general's report on substance use and addiction and health. "The purpose of that report will be to bring together the best available science on substance use and addiction, so that clinicians know how to treat patients, so that policymakers know what programs work and what to support, and so that families know what to do when they're concerned about a loved one," he said. Those include evidence-based programs that use both medication-assisted therapy such as methadone, suboxone, or newer drugs like Vivitrol and counseling, he added, and insurance reimbursement must change to include the counseling component, as well as to include alternate treatments for pain. On his visits to other communities where addiction is rampant, he said, he sees "far too many" families "suffering in silence" because of the stigma around addiction. Health providers, community members and law enforcement need to work together on the answer, he said. "This is a problem that we have the power to bring out of the shadows," Murthy said. "If we do that, then we will not only make it easier for people to get help, but we'll make it easier for us to come together and fashion solutions." In the audience, the other conversation continued. "He's been in jail long enough this time to get clean," one woman told the other. "Maybe he'll stay clean this time." "We can only pray," she answered. SHARE Bailey Keeton Jr. By Bob Fowler of the Knoxville News Sentinel Army Sgt. Bailey Keeton Jr.'s remains are returning home Thursday in a motorcade more than six decades after his death and will be laid to rest Saturday with full military honors in what a brother calls the "prettiest cemetery in Scott County." "The way this is being handled, it's a really good thing," said Ron Keeton of the honors for his brother, a soldier killed at age 20 on a frozen battlefield in North Korea 66 years ago. Another brother, Arnold Keeton of Indiana, who hadn't been born when his brother was killed, is a pastor and will officiate at the 12:30 p.m. services Saturday in the chapel of West-Murley Funeral Home on Alberta Street in Oneida, Tenn. Gov. Bill Haslam has declared Saturday a day of mourning and ordered flags to fly at half-staff from sunrise to sunset "in honor of Sergeant Keeton's ultimate sacrifice." "Bailey Keeton Jr. answered the call to serve his country and we are grateful that his family will finally have the closure of laying him to rest in his home state," Haslam said. Ron Keeton was a toddler when his brother died in an attack by an overwhelming number of Chinese forces on the eastern bank of the Chosin Reservoir. Sgt. Keeton was one of about 2,500 U.S. and 700 South Korean soldiers who had begun a fighting withdrawal in late November 1950, and he couldn't be found at the end of the battle. Only wounded soldiers were removed during the battle, and Sgt. Keeton was reported missing in action on Dec. 2, 1950. Three years later, on New Year's Eve 1953, the missing soldier was listed as killed in action. Efforts to find and return his remains spanned decades and included high-tech detective work, with relatives contributing swabs of DNA samples to eventually confirm the missing GI's remains. It was during the 32nd Joint Recovery Operation in 2004 that the remains of nine soldiers were discovered in the area where Keeton was last seen, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. There's a special laboratory in Hawaii devoted to analyzing remains. More years would pass before scientists were certain. "There was a lot of different evidence," Ron Keeton said. "To have the facts and make sure they were absolutely right, it took that long." He said he and other family members were notified about a month ago that the DNA swabs contributed years ago by a younger brother and older sister before the remains were found were a match. The remains are scheduled to arrive at McGhee Tyson Airport just before 11:30 a.m. , said Bailey Keeton's cousin, Scott County Veterans Service Officer Ron Keeton. Full military protocol will be in effect at the airport, he said. Family members hope residents will be standing next to state Highway 63 from the Campbell-Scott County line and north on Highway 27 into Oneida, waving flags, when the procession crosses the county line about 2 p.m. Bailey Keeton was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart, the Combat Infantryman's Badge, the Korean Service Medal, the United Nations Service Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Korean Presidential Unit Citation, and the Republic of Korea War Service Medal. The Keeton family will receive friends between 10:30 a.m. Saturday and the 12:30 p.m. funeral, which will be in the chapel of West-Murley Funeral Home. Burial, with full military honors provided by the Army Honor Guard from Fort Campbell, Ky., will be at 2 p.m. in Hazel Valley Memorial Cemetery on Verdun Road. Ron Keeton said parents Bailey Keeton Sr. and Elise Keeton are buried nearby. Another 7,812 Americans remain unaccounted for from the Korean War, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn. SHARE By Michael Collins of the Knoxville News Sentinel WASHINGTON Furious that Republican leaders have refused to allow a vote on gun-control legislation, U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen and dozens of other Democrats staged a sit-in Wednesday on the House floor, bringing business to an abrupt halt. Led by U.S. Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, the Democrats took control of the chamber around 11:30 a.m., just as the morning's proceedings were getting under way. Chanting "no bill, no break," they sat down on the House floor as the GOP quickly gaveled the chamber into recess. Democrats demanded a vote on measures to prevent suspected terrorists from buying firearms and to expand background checks in the aftermath of the June 12 massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla., that killed 49 people and wounded 53. It was the nation's worst mass shooting. "Moments of silence have grown old and seem hollow," said Cohen, a Memphis Democrat, referring to what's become Congress' typical response to mass shootings across the country. "The American people want a bill to prohibit gun sales to suspected terrorists to come to the floor and pass. If there is a reasonable threat to prohibit an individual from flying, they shouldn't be allowed to buy a weapon. In addition, gun show and internet loopholes need to be closed when purchasing guns." Democrats are pushing for a vote on gun-control legislation before the House adjourns later this week for the July 4 recess. Wednesday's protest began with a fiery speech from Lewis, who asked fellow Democrats to join him on the floor and then blasted GOP leaders for refusing to even allow debate on the gun-control measures. Lawmakers "have turned a deaf ear to the blood of the innocent and the concern of our nation," said Lewis, a hero of the civil-rights movement. "Where is our courage?" he asked. "Those who pursue common-sense improvement are beaten down. Reason is put aside ... What is the tipping point? Are we blind? Can we see? ... Give us a vote! We came here to do our job!" Lewis demanded a vote on the legislation "not next month, not next year but now." Following his speech, Lewis and some 40 Democrats sat down in front of the podium and pledged to remain there until House Speaker Paul Ryan agreed to a vote. As the day wore on, more than 80 Democrats joined the protest. Ryan spokeswoman AshLee Strong said, "The House cannot operate without members following the rules of the institution, so the House has recessed subject to the call of the chair." As for whether Ryan would allow a vote, Strong pointed to his remarks earlier Wednesday that the House would wait to see what the Senate does on the issue. Senators on Monday voted down four partisan gun measures and were working on a compromise Wednesday. Cohen called the sit-in "inspiring" and said it stirred up memories of similar protests during the civil-rights era. "It's absurd we don't pass some gun laws," particularly a measure that would bar terror suspects on the "no-fly" list from purchasing guns, he said. The proposals wouldn't restrict the Second Amendment, Cohen said, but are a legitimate attempt to keep guns out of the hands of terrorists. "We're not going to take away every gun, and we don't want to," Cohen said. "(But) somebody who can't fly on an airplane should not be able to buy a gun." The National Rifle Association has been standing athwart the slippery slope of gun control for decades, but it now faces the possibility of losing its footing. The NRA has been the vehicle for gun owners to ensure their rights, culminating in the Supreme Court decision in Heller affirming the individual's right to bear arms. American public opinion has been generally favorable and state legislatures have had no trouble liberalizing gun control laws across the board. But now the question arises: Can we not prevent a suspect on the FBI watch list or the no-fly list from buying an assault weapon with which to shoot a hundred people, killing 49, in a Florida dance club? It is the kind of argument that can shift public opinion away from being sympathetic to gun ownership and wanting to do something to prevent mass killings. American public opinion is slow to change, but when it does, it does so with alacrity. From segregation to civil rights. From sodomy laws to gay marriage. From illegal abortion to making it a constitutional right. And yes, from draconian gun bans to a Second Amendment right to bear arms. Public opinion is like the swings of a pendulum. But if the pendulum swings too far in one direction, it starts to swing back. Take abortion. From anything goes to restrictions on the procedure before 20 weeks, tightening regulations on clinics. Public opinion would seem to favor restrictions on people on watch lists and no-fly lists from purchasing guns. The problem, of course, is the sloppy way in which such programs are administered and people wrongly sanctioned. It is also likely to be unconstitutional to start restricting the rights of Americans without any sort of due process. Can we trust the government to find home-grown terrorists in Orlando and San Bernardino without also curtailing the rights of innocents? And even in Orlando and San Bernardino, until the whack-brains commit a crime, what can be done? On the one hand it is comforting to know that the FBI was aware of these murderers and had investigated them. But what is scary is that even after being identified as potential terrorists they were able to procure guns and kill people. One of the problems people who advocate gun control have is that they try to write laws on the issue without knowing anything about guns. The "assault rifle" ban back in the 1990s just listed a group of weapons that "looked scary" without defining how they functioned. It was obvious that with some name changes the law was unenforceable. We have had federal gun control since the 1930s. The days when Machine Gun Kelly and Ma Barker used machine guns to rob banks led to establishing a procedure to own such a weapon. You can own a machine gun. But you have a background check, you pay a stiff fee and you are registered as an automatic gun owner. There was no controversy about enacting such regulations and they remain in effect today. Instead of leaving gun regulation to President Hillary Clinton's Supreme Court or to liberal senators, perhaps some responsible gun-owning legislators should look for reasonable solutions. We need to fix it. Perhaps a better procedure to warn police about potential terrorists trying to buy a gun. All it takes is courage. SHARE Over the next few days, University of Tennessee system President Joe DiPietro will complete one of the most agreeable tasks he has encountered and embark on a vitally important and likely most difficult one. DiPietro will recommend the UT Board of Trustees approve the lowest tuition increases in more than three decades during the panel's two-day annual meeting in Knoxville today and Thursday. Once that rather pleasant mission is accomplished, DiPietro will begin the search for a new chancellor for the flagship Knoxville campus. Chancellor Jimmy Cheek announced on Tuesday he would give up the post to return to the classroom. Parents and students no doubt are rejoicing at the prospect of facing only a modest tuition boost. DiPietro's plan, initially reported by the Chattanooga Times Free Press, would limit increases to 2.2 percent for most students. At UT Knoxville, those admitted in 2013-2014 under a program designed to speed up graduation times will see a 3 percent tuition increase. Graduate school tuition levels would vary under the plan, with some programs staying at this year's levels and others increasing between 2.2 percent and 5 percent. The Tennessee Higher Education Commission had told the UT system and the Tennessee Board of Regents to cap overall tuition increases to 3 percent. Some legislators earlier this year wanted to freeze tuition and fees, even though the state's portion of the higher education outlays has shrunk dramatically over the years. The Tuition Stability Act would have frozen tuition and mandatory fees at current levels until the 2018-19 school year, and in subsequent years required unanimous approval by an institution's governing board for tuition increases greater than 2 percent above the consumer price index. The bill was sailing through the Senate, but the House version sank in a subcommittee. Sponsors of the bill said they were concerned about soaring student debt. Legislators, both current and former, helped cause the high tuition increases of recent years, however. Between 2005 and 2015, lawmakers cut $270 million out of the funding for colleges and universities, according to the Higher Education Commission. Twenty years ago tuition accounted for 30 cents out of every dollar spent on higher education in the state; now tuition covers about two-thirds of the tab. Giving students and their families a break from their burden is the right move for the UT Trustees to take. DiPietro's next order of business will be to launch the search for Cheek's successor. Cheek, who has served as Knoxville chancellor since February 2009, will remain in office until his successor is found. DiPietro said he hopes to have a candidate to recommend to the board at its spring 2017 meeting. During his time as chancellor, Cheek set a target of making UT a Top 25 public research university by recruiting the best and brightest students and faculty, improving retention and graduation rates and expanding research and partnerships. DiPietro will need to find a seasoned administrator who will buy into the Top 25 goal and possesses the ability to lead UT Knoxville to it. POSCO Chairman and CEO Kwon Oh-joon, center, greets startup CEOs during a meeting at POSTECH C5 building in Pohang, South Gyeongsang Province, June 15. / Courtesy of POSCO By Jhoo Dong-chan POSCO Chairman and CEO Kwon Oh-joon met startup CEOs and entrepreneurs at the Creative Economy Innovation Center at the POSTECH C5 building in Pohang, South Gyeongsang Province, June 15, to encourage their business innovations. During the two-hour meeting, Kwon listened to their operation performances and future business strategies. He also shared his opinions with each presenter, a POSCO official said. Among venture startups who participated in the meeting, Nature Gluetech and 3D Controls won this year's K-Startup contest hosted by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Defense and the Small and Medium Business Administration. Kwon showed interests in eight participant startups' technologies, including Nature Gluetech's new bio-glue technology that was developed with mussel protein. "The Creative Economy Innovation Center has finally gotten off the ground, becoming an incubator for various startup companies with great vision," said Kwon. "I believe their success is also crucial for job creation. We have to put our utmost efforts into supporting their business models." POSCO has carried out a startup supporting program, called "Idea Market Program" (IMP), since November 2011. The IMP has selected startup companies with innovative business models and ideas to help them with expert mentoring courses and introduce them to possible investors. POSCO also invested in a number of startups under the IMP. Nature Gluetech was also incubated under the program with its bio-glue technology. Utilizing mussels' adsorptive power in the water, the company introduced bio-glue technology using mussels' adhesive protein incubated with colon bacillus. POSCO has hosted a total of 10 IMP contests in the last five years, and 112 startup companies have benefited from the program since last year. Forty nine startups have clinched a total of 7.8 billion won in direct investments, and the figure exceeds 31.2 billion won if secondary and R&D investments are included. A POSCO official said that the company will carry out the IMP contest this year as well to help more startup companies. By Choi Sung-jin North Korea's trade reliance on South Korea, which had grown steadily under two liberal governments and turned down under the Lee Myung-bak administration, could fall further under the Park Geun-hye administration. In the meantime, North Korea's reliance on trade with China has grown to exceed 90 percent of the total last year, according to a Hyundai Research Institute report released Tuesday. The North's trade reliance on the South is expected to plunge and its dependence on China surge further because Seoul has suspended all trade with Pyongyang since the latter conducted its fourth nuclear test in January, the report said. North Korea's trade dependence on the South was 22.1 percent in 2002 and peaked at 37.9 percent in 2007. The ratio began to fall in 2008 when former President Lee took office, and hit the bottom of 13.4 percent in 2013, the first year of the Park administration. It resurged to 30.3 percent last year but is expected to plunge close to zero this year amid the stoppage of inter-Korean trade. In contrast to the shrinkage of inter-Korean trade, the North's reliance on China has continued to increase. Of North Korea's total foreign trade -- after excluding inter-Korean trade -- China's portion has steadily increased from 24.8 percent in 2000. The reliance on China rose to the 80-percent range in 2010 and topped 90 percent in 2014. North Korea's trade with China last year, including estimated oil imports, totaled $5.71 billion, or 91.3 percent of its total foreign trade. Compared with 2000, the North's trade reliance on China has grown more than three times and the trade volume expanded more than 12 times. Particularly, North Korea's export reliance on China has surged, from 6.7 percent in 2000 to 92.1 percent last year, with export value rocketing 67 times. North Korea's imports from China grew six times over the period, with import dependency rising 2.4 times, from 31.9 percent to 77.6 percent. "The growth in North Korea's exports to China seems to be based on increased processing trade, in which the North imports intermediary goods, reprocess them and exports end products," said Lee Yong-hwa, a research fellow. "North Korea's income level appears to be improving because China has expanded imports of capital goods and consumer products from its communist ally." South Korean companies need to turn their eyes to the resource-rich Central Asian region to overcome current hardships like rising production costs and faltering global demand, a report said Wednesday. Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, the two leading countries in Central Asia, have put their policy priority on fostering their local manufacturing industry, reducing their dependency on natural resources, according to the report released by the state-run Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA). It said the two countries are opening their market to attract overseas investment and technology by designating a number of special economic zones for foreign plants. China has moved swiftly to tap into the Central Asian countries, as the Beijing government is pushing infrastructure development projects in the region, and some Chinese companies are already doing business in Uzbekistan's special districts. The KOTRA report said South Korean companies should grab the new opportunities in the newly emerging markets. "Central Asia is no longer a resource-developing region. It can be one of the most potential manufacturing bases for South Korean firms," said the report. (Yonhap) The head of South Korea's central bank will head to Basel, Switzerland this week for the annual general assembly of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the Bank of Korea (BOK) said Wednesday. BOK Gov. Lee Ju-yeol will depart Thursday to attend the 86th BIS General Assembly to be held over the weekend, according to the bank. While in Basel, the South Korean top central banker will also attend the BIS Global Economy Meeting and the Meeting of the Asian Consultative Council where he will exchange views on current economic and financial conditions with his global and regional peers, it said in a press release. The Asian Consultative Council consists of the central bank governors of 12 Asian economies, including Australia, China, Hong Kong, Japan and India. Lee will return home on Tuesday. The BIS is an international financial institution that serves as a bank for central banks, providing banking services only to central banks. It currently has 60 member central banks, including those of Britain, France and the United States. (Yonhap) South Korea's finance minister said Wednesday that the government will do "sufficient" fiscal reinforcement in the second half to prop up Asia's fourth-largest economy, reiterating his earlier hints that the government is considering drawing up an extra budget. "We are in grave danger as the economic conditions will likely be worse in the second half. The government has to move more aggressively to deal with it," Finance Minister Yoo Il-ho said in an economy-related ministers' meeting in Seoul. "The government will come up with sufficient fiscal expansion to buffer the downside risks in the economy and employment." His latest remark came as the necessity of drawing up a supplementary budget to prop up the economy is becoming apparent. The finance minister had adamantly opposed plans to create an extra budget to achieve the government's 3.1 percent growth target for 2016. Yoo said the South Korean economy will face a tougher economic environment in the latter half of the year due to the end of an excise tax cut program and painstaking corporate restructuring process in labor-intensive industries like the shipbuilding sector. Heightened financial uncertainties, including a possible U.S. rate hike and a landmark British referendum, also weigh heavily on the country. Against this backdrop, South Korea's exports fell 6 percent on-year in May, marking a record 17-month losing streak, while industrial output fell 2.8 percent in April from a year ago, posting negative growth for the second consecutive month and widening its downward pace from March. "We are now mapping out the second-half economic policy plan focusing on cushioning fallout from corporate restructuring and creating more jobs," said Yoo, who also doubles as the deputy prime minister for economic affairs. "The government will also put in constant effort to control rising household debt and stave off the impact of the U.S. Fed's decision." The finance ministry will announce its fiscal stimulus package early next week, while experts anticipate that the plan will contain a supplementary budget and a cut in its growth target from 3.1 percent. (Yonhap) By Yoon Ja-young The introduction of smartphones and tablets is leading to unpaid extra work as employees are still connected with the office when they go home in the evening. They should be paid for the overtime or the working conditions will only worsen, a researcher pointed out at a forum. Kim Ki-sun, an associate fellow at the Korea Labor Institute, said in a forum "Workers afraid of Kakao Talk" that smart devices such as smartphones and tablets have led to 1.44 hours of work after official working hours every day, or 11.3 hours a week. Kakao Talk is a mobile messenger service widely used in Korea. Kim pointed out that most of the workers in the country are suffering from "overwork." According to a survey on 2,402 workers in the manufacturing and services sectors, only 13.9 percent said they are not using a smartphone for work after official working hours. The rest had to use smart devices even after leaving the office. When asked how much extra work they do using smart devices, 27.1 percent said less than 30 minutes; 20 percent said more than two hours; 18.6 percent said between one hour and two hours; and 9.8 percent said between 30 minutes and one hour. They were not free on weekends, either. The survey showed that they used smart devices for 1.6 hours a day on weekends for work. "When the BlackBerry was first introduced, one of my bosses who was an early adopter bought the device and said how convenient it was to give us work anytime, anywhere. I had an uncomfortable feeling about the new era and I was so right," said a government official. He said he can't even sleep when he goes for a business trip overseas as he continues getting Kakao Talk messages from the Seoul office despite the time difference. The survey also showed that 44 percent said they were deprived of sleep due to overwork with smart devices. When asked what they were doing with their devices, 63.2 percent said they were sending and receiving emails, while 57.6 percent were preparing work related files. They were also giving and getting work orders through messenger services. As smart devices are leading to extra work worldwide, some countries are restricting contacting employees or sending them email after official working hours. Kim said that overwork should be fully compensated to stop the trend. Shinhan Financial Group Chairman Han Dong-woo listens to an employee of a group affiliate discussing its fintech business model, during Shinhan Future's Lab Demoday at Shinhan Investment's main office on Yeouido, southern Seoul, in October 2015. / Courtesy of Shinhan Financial Group By Kim Jae-won Shinhan Financial Group said Wednesday that it is strengthening its digital business department to cope with the rising demand for smart financial services. Earlier this year, the nation's most profitable financial group started the Digital Strategy Team, which plays the role of control tower directing its affiliates' digital businesses. "The new team holds the key in the group's digital finance sector," said a spokesman for Shinhan. "All of our affiliates have also beefed up their organizations dealing with digital businesses." The digitalization move comes amid group chairman Han Dong-woo vowing to lead the company's digital finance business, providing safe and convenient services for customers. Han showed his interest by taking part in the finance technology, or fintech, exhibition. He stressed that fintech will be a new cash cow for the group. Shinhan has led the industry for the last decade, posting a few trillion won in net profit every year. Its balanced business portfolio has been praised by analysts and market watchers, having a wide range of revenue sources from banking and credit card businesses to brokerage and insurance affiliates. Observers said that Sunny Bank, Shinhan Bank's smartphone application, is a good example showing the group's success in digital first strategy. Customers can open their accounts, buy foreign currencies, borrow money and get remittance services through the application, without visiting the bank's brick-and-mortar branches. In particular, the lender identifies customers with their fingerprint, further securing their financial transactions. Thanks to convenient and safe services, Sunny has drawn hundreds of thousands of customers. Encouraged by the successful release of the application in the domestic market, Shinhan introduced it in Vietnam in December. According to the lender, almost 20,000 customers are using the service there, gaining popularity in the country. "About 90 percent of the customers are young in their 20s and 30s," said a Shinhan official. "We expect Sunny Bank to play a leading role in expanding our presence in Vietnam." In addition, Shinhan is gearing up to begin a new asset management model, using a robo-advisor which offers automated portfolio management advice. By Kim Jae-won Fintech is changing the landscape of the finance industry from banks and insurers to brokerages and asset managers as they embrace state-of-the-art technologies, attracting new customers and expanding their businesses into territories which they have barely tapped into. Customers can get full banking services, such as deposits, transactions, loans and foreign currency exchange, through their smartphones and automated teller machines without visiting brick-and-mortar branches. Analysts said that Internet-only banks, which will be introduced later this year in Korea, will accelerate this trend as they gear up to offer banking services through a few touches on their customers' smart devices. People will be able to transfer their money to family members, friends and business partners through their KakaoTalk accounts, the nation's most popular chat application, as a consortium led by its operator Kakao had won a preliminary license to operate the online-specialized lender. Based on its wide customer base reaching in the tens of millions subscribers, Kakao aims to offer simple transaction services for users and extend loans to those who cannot borrow money from top-tier banks. To evaluate their credit ratings, they rely on big data, rather than credit ratings agencies, which reveal a wide range of information from their income resources to consumption patterns. Jeong Yu-shin, chairman of the state-run Fintech Center of Korea, said that fintech can be applied to various fields in the finance industry, and it will expand to other sectors, too. "Entrepreneurs here started various fintech firms and some of them distinguished themselves in the field of mobile instant payment, mobile instant transfer, P2P lending and robo-advisor services," said Jeong. "Korea's fintech industry has built up its fundamentals and competitiveness so that it can compete with any of its rivals around the world." Allianz Life Insurance Korea is one of examples about what Jeong described. The insurer released a policy titled AllRight last year, cutting premiums for customers who exercise regularly. The insurance company checks policyholders' blood pressure and heart rates among other things through their smart watches which report them to the company. Asset managers are no exceptions. In fact, they are the most active players in the sector, adopting robot engineering in designing their investment portfolios. They analyze big market data quickly through computerized methods, applying them to allocating customers' assets. "We apply rigorous science to the financial markets," said Gary Collier, co-Chief Technology Officer at Man AHL, a U.K.-based asset manager. "One of the areas my team is responsible for is data infrastructure. It's a crucial part of how our quantitative researchers make decisions." Government support As fintech emerges as a new golden goose in the industry, government agencies try to support their homegrown players. The U.K. is leading the race by supporting fintech firms through the U.K. Trade & Investment. "The U.K. government is committed to supporting the development of the U.K.'s fintech sector," said Harriett Baldwin, economic secretary to the nation's Treasury, in her forward to a report on the issue. "We have already taken a number of measures to further this aim, including measures to support alternative lenders and the digital currency sector as well as an industry-led initiative to give consumers better access to their bank data." According to data from the U.K. government, its fintech sector represented 6.6 billion pounds sterling in revenue in 2015 and attracted 524 million pounds sterling in investments with 61,000 people employed in the sector, or 5 percent of the total financial services workforce. Korea's chief financial regulator Yim Jong-yong, who had been dispatched to the Korean Embassy in London for two years between 2004 and 2006, seeks to benchmark London by adopting its knowhow and skills in supporting fintech firms. Last year, Yim invited HSBC and Barclays to a forum in Seoul, discussing a wide range of topics in fintech with the U.K.-based financial giants. In Asia, Singapore is leading the trend, being ranked at the top in the region in its fintech ecosystem by global consulting firm Ernst & Young last year. EY said Singapore has an "increasingly progressive regulatory regime" in its fintech industry with a market size of 600 million pounds sterling. It also said that it has a dedicated fintech team in the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) focused on establishing public and private partnerships for fintech growth. It's the preferred gateway into the Asian market, given its ease of doing business and English language proficiency that helped boost its status in the sector, the consulting firm noted. By Kim Jae-kyoung SINGAPORE Korea is being left out of a global wave of fintech alliances due to its inward-focused strategy and a lack of deregulatory reforms to respond to market changes. To become Asia's fintech center, it is urgent for Korea to build a "fintech bridge" with major nations by creating a regulatory environment conducive to fostering a new fintech model domestically and invite more innovative firms from abroad, according to analysts. "From a global perspective the cooperation in London and other major capitals around the world is evidence that innovation is more readily accepted outside of Korea, giving fintech companies outside of Korea a clear competitive advantage to create markets for their products or services," said Jeffrey Jones, an international lawyer specializing in finance. "It is very sad that we have one of the most tech-savvy populations on the globe, but the legal and regulatory system prevents this population from developing products and services that could create jobs for so many young people." Such concern comes as global financial centers, such as Singapore, Australia and the U.K., have joined hands to bolster the fintech industry and solidify their leadership position as global financial hubs. On June 16, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Australian Securities and Investment Commission signed a contract to boost cooperation on financial innovation. The new agreement will streamline the regulatory process, paving the way for fintech companies of Singapore and Australia to do business in each other's markets more easily. In May, Singapore and the U.K. also agreed to form a "fintech bridge" to foster financial innovation. The MAS and the U.K.'s Financial Conduct Authority signed a regulatory agreement to support fintech firms and investors by allowing them to share and use financial services information in their respective markets. Growing alliances among traditional financial powerhouses come as efforts to solidify their leadership position by taking the lead in the coming era of financial services defined by fintech. In particular, Singapore and Australia have already pushed themselves as fintech capitals of Asia, moving ahead of their rivals such as Hong Kong and South Korea. "These alliances are likely to help with innovation and investment in innovation although I think that these things take a long time to have any meaningful effect," said Mark Yeandle, associate director of the UK-based Z/Yen Group of Companies. Yeandle is the author of the Global Financial Centers Index. Strategic approach Korea is also doing what it can to catch up with the global trend. On June 15, the Fintech Center of Korea, an affiliate of Korea's Financial Services Commission, hosted a Fintech Demoday in Singapore to promote Korean fintech firms' entry into Southeast Asia. The center signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Singapore FinTech Consortium to help fintech firms find business partners and provide information on regulations in their respective markets. The event was the second of its kind following one in Cambodia on June 13. The center plans to hold similar events in China, the U.K. and the U.S. later this year. In late May, the center also signed a similar MOU with French Tech Hub Seoul, a Seoul-based affiliate of France's financial regulator aimed at promoting its fintech companies. However, Korea's approach does not seem to be in the right direction from two aspects. First, the strategy is focused too much on exporting Korean fintech abroad, rather than creating a financial innovation ecosystem through regulatory reforms and cooperation with other countries. Second, direct discussions are not being held among regulators. For meaningful alliances to create a more vibrant fintech ecosystem, it is important to clear regulatory hurdles through binding agreements between financial regulators. Jones pointed out that the primary problem Korea faces with the development of the fintech industry is the regulatory environment. "It is difficult for fintech companies to market their services in Korea because of the regulations and licensing requirements that tend to protect existing financial services companies," he said. "Generally any financial-related services through innovative fintech technologies are blocked because of barriers found in regulations governing foreign exchange controls, fees, approvals and business licenses." Gong Yoo, left, and Kim Su-an, who appear as father and daughter in the film "Train to Busan," high five during a press conference, Tuesday. / Yonhap Train to Busan' received with big accolade at Cannes By Yun Suh-young A standing ovation is a big honor for any filmmaker at an international film festival. The claustrophobic Korean zombie thriller "Train to Busan" received a 10-minute standing ovation when it premiered on May 13 at the Cannes International Film Festival's Midnight Screening. The festival's General Delegate Thierry Fremaux was quoted as saying it was the "best midnight screening in the Cannes festival's history." Having received such wonderful praise overseas, the film is coming to Korea to win over local audiences with a July 20 release. The film is the first commercial Korean film of this size with zombies. Very few films in Korean film history have featured the undead monsters. "It is a genre very familiar in the West but not so much in Korea. I wondered how it would turn out if I brought the zombie concept and made it in a Korean style," said director Yeon Sang-ho of "Train to Busan" during a press conference held Tuesday in Seoul. "I thought the speed of the train added to the chaos and confusion would evoke a particular type of thrill in the audience." The film is Yeon's first live-action film, as he had only produced animated movies so far. "The Fake" (2013) and "The King of Pigs" (2011) are some of his representative works. His animations have received numerous awards at overseas international film competitions. "Train to Busan" is a live-action feature film inspired and extended from the animation "Seoul Station" (2015) which acts like a prequel to "Train to Busan." The film is set inside a train headed to Busan, in which a strange virus spreads from one person who boards the train from Seoul and starts infecting other passengers inside the train and turning them into zombies. People die out and the main characters struggle to remain alive and reach Busan, which is supposedly claimed to be safe from the virus. "In the beginning, I was a bit worried about how Koreans would look as zombies and perhaps that could prevent audiences from immersing in the film. But after seeing the zombies, it was even scary for the actors and in fact helped us act out real fear," said Gong Yoo, who plays Seok-woo, a coldhearted fund manager dad who tries to protect his daughter Su-an from the zombies. The film evokes claustrophobic fear as it is set inside a train, echoing "Snowpiercer" where the characters couldn't leave the train. The train set for the film was built to replicate a real KTX train running from Seoul to Busan. The film is also the first Korean film to adopt LED technology during the filmmaking process by using LED rear screen projection to help the actors see what's going on and react more realistically. Korean films are known to use green screens as background and later use computer graphics, but Yeon decided it would be "difficult to portray the reality." "Director Yeon screened the parts that were filmed in advance such as infected people jumping at us to help bring out real feelings in the actors," said actor Gong. "We didn't have to imagine while looking into thin air like we used to, but actually look at the expressions of the zombies on screen and react." The wall at exit 10 of Gangnam Station in southern Seoul is covered with memos and flowers left there by citizens, Thursday, in memory of a woman who was murdered in a nearby building, Tuesday. / Korea Times photo by Shin Sang-soon By Kim Bo-eun A recent murder has triggered an angry public response, especially from women, after it was alleged that the male suspect killed the victim simply because "she was a woman." According to police, the suspect surnamed Kim, 34, stabbed the victim, 23, to death at 1 a.m., Tuesday, at a restroom in a building beside Exit 10 of Gangnam Station in southern Seoul. Kim and the victim had never met before. Kim told police that he committed the murder because he "had often been looked down on by women." Women are expressing anger about the suspect's stated motive, saying the female victim was killed because the suspect took out his anger on someone weaker than him. Early on Wednesday, a post appeared on the Twitter account of the user @0517am1, which said "Let's leave a chrysanthemum and post-it at Gangnam Station Exit 10. It is now society's turn to provide an explanation for violence and murders committed against women." The post was retweeted more than 8,000 times and spread on other social media platforms and online communities. Headline reads "New airport plan scrapped, the government has abandoned us." By Lee Han-soo A vernacular daily in Daegu left the front page of its Wednesday issue blank in an apparent protest against the government's scrapping of a plan to build an international airport in the southeastern part of the nation. This came a day after the government decided to expand the existing airport at Gimhae rather than build a new one at Gadeok Island in the southern port city of Busan or the inland town of Miryang, South Gyeongsang Province. The Maeil newspaper has published stories supporting Miryang. The Wednesday issue ran nothing but a small headline in the middle of the page: "New airport plan scrapped, the government has abandoned us." Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn presides over a special meeting of ministers to discuss administrative procedures to expand the Gimhae International Airport at the Government Complex in Seoul, Wednesday. / Yonhap By Kim Bo-eun The government's decision to expand Gimhae International Airport instead of building a new airport in the southeastern region is drawing skepticism. Critics point out that the construction of a new airport amid growing demand for air travel there came in the first place because expanding Gimhae was deemed unfeasible and in effective. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) said Tuesday it would build a new runway, terminal and control tower at the airport. The airport expansion, set to be completed in 2026, is expected to be able to accommodate 40 million passengers yearly, up from the current 5.9 million. This is the government's alternative to meet the region's growing demand for flights as the existing airport in Gimhae has reached capacity. The original plan had been to build an airport on either Gadeok Island in the port city of Busan or in the inland town of Miryang, South Gyeongsang Province. There was a strong backlash from residents and regional governments of the two sites, but Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn said Wednesday the government would push ahead with the alternative. MOLIT said there would be no problems regarding safety and little issue regarding noise, but these were some of the key reasons for not expanding Gimhae each time it was proposed previously, in 2002 and 2007. Gov't to strengthen security at residences in remote areas By Kim Se-jeong All 1,366 female school teachers and public servants living in remote areas will get smart watches that will let them summon help should they be attacked, the government said, Wednesday. The Ministry of Education also said it will install automated door locks, surveillance cameras and security bars on the windows of their residences. The announcement was in response to a rape case last month on Heuksan Island in Sinan County, South Jeolla Province, in which three residents including students' parents sexually assaulted a female teacher in her 20s. The new measures came after the ministry inspected working conditions for female employees in the public sector. The inspection found 4,274 women worked in remote regions such as islands. Among them, 3,946 were living in employer-provided housing, and 1,366 of them were living alone without relatives or colleagues. Only 9.2 percent of the employer-provided residences had an automated door lock system, and only 29.8 percent had security bars over windows. Only 16 percent of employer-provided housing was equipped with surveillance cameras. The ministry said it would install automated door locks and security bars in all the residences by the end of August. The female workers will receive smart watches by the end of this month. When a woman feels threatened she can press a button on the watch, which will send an alert message to three pre-designated police officers. The police manual will also be changed to speed up responses to such alerts. The ministry said it will also push for revision of the relevant law, mandating school safety measures. The current law doesn't require schools to inspect safety conditions for their employees. Over the long term, the ministry will establish housing that can be shared by several workers in one region, such as teachers and workers at public health centers and post offices, providing safety in numbers. Apart from hardware changes, the ministry said it will push compulsory education to villagers on preventing sexual violence. In last month's case, two offenders were fathers of the victim's students, and families of the suspects and their neighbors defended their action, petitioning the court to ask for leniency. The three were indicted on June 10 on charges of sexual assault and home intrusion. Immediately after the incident, the ministry initially considered refraining from posting young female teachers to remote areas. But the idea was scrapped after drawing strong criticism for being shortsighted. / Graphic by Cho Sang-won By Jun Ji-hye North Korea's latest launch of the Musudan intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) shows that Pyongyang has fixed its problems after six test firings since April. This raises concerns that the threat of the North's operational IRBMs, which could strike any target in Japan and also reach Guam, home to U.S. naval and air bases, has become a reality. After five consecutive failures including one conducted at 5:58 a.m. Wednesday, the North is believed to have succeeded in launching the missile to some extent in its sixth attempt conducted at 8:05 a.m. the same day. The sixth missile flew about 400 kilometers, a far longer distance compared to the other missiles previously launched. A military official, asking not to be named, said, "Combined with North Korea's submarine-launched ballistic missile program, an operational Musudan IRBM can pose a considerable threat." If the missiles work properly, they pose a serious threat to U.S. units that would be dispatched to the Korean Peninsula in an event of a war, the official said. Pyongyang shows improvement in technology By Jun Ji-hye North Korea fired two missiles from its east coast Wednesday morning, with the second one flying about 400 kilometers, officials said. The first one exploded mid-air after flying some 150 kilometers. It was too early to call the second missile a success or failure, though it marked the most notable improvement of North Korea's missile technology yet, the officials said. Following the launch of what appeared to be Musudan intermediate-range ballistic missiles (IRBMs), National Security Office chief Kim Kwan-jin called an emergency meeting of the National Security Council at Cheong Wa Dae. The United States and Japan strongly condemned the firing, saying it was a clear violation of U.N. resolutions banning the North from developing ballistic missiles. At around 5:58 a.m., the isolated state fired off the first missile, presumed to be the Musudan, from near Wonsan along the east coast, but the missile exploded after 150 kilometers, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS). About two hours later at 8:05 a.m., the North launched another missile from the same area, the JCS noted. "The second missile flew about 400 kilometers," a JCS official said, without revealing where the missile landed. "South Korea and the United States militaries are carrying out an in-depth analysis of it." The JCS refused to elaborate on whether the second launch was a success, but sources said the North appeared to have overcome previous failures, given that it flew a far longer distance this time compared to previous tests. The Maeil Shinmun, a daily newspaper published in Daegu, ran a blank front page, Wednesday, to represent the government's scrapping of a plan to build a new airport. Scrapping of new airport plan infuriates residents By Kang Seung-woo The government and the ruling Saenuri Party are struggling to quell a massive backlash from politicians and residents after it scrapped a much-touted plan to build a new airport in the southeastern region of the nation. The government announced on Tuesday that it would expand Gimhae International Airport in Busan instead of building a new airport on either Gadeok Island or in Miryang. This was considered a "stopgap measure" to prevent a split of traditional strongholds of President Park Geun-hye and the ruling party. However, Park is now facing harsh criticism from residents and politicians based in the regions for reneging on one of her presidential election pledges. In protest against the government's decision, the Maeil Shinmun, a local newspaper in Daegu, ran a blank front page in its Wednesday edition, with only one sentence in the middle, "The government gave up on this province by giving up on the airport plan." Analysts said the decision could prompt many people in the southeastern provinces to turn their backs on the President and the ruling party ahead of next year's presidential election. "Yesterday, the government reached the conclusion to expand Gimhae Airport based on a feasibility study by a foreign company. It is a cost-saving and yet safe measure that is expected to effectively handle growing airline demands," Park said during a meeting with the National Unification Advisory Council at Cheong Wa Dae. "The government will try its best to successfully complete the airport expansion." Earlier in the day, the presidential office defended the expansion plan, refuting the claims that Park withdrew her campaign pledge. "The decision was made based on many conditions, and thus can be considered the most optimal choice, so it is not the case that President Park broke her pledge," said presidential spokesman Jung Youn-kuk. "Expanding Gimhae airport is virtually equivalent to building a new airport." National Assembly Speaker Chung Sye-kyun on Wednesday held talks with the Chinese ambassador to Seoul and discussed ways to beef up bilateral ties between the two neighboring countries. "South Korea and China have been developing their friendship since the establishment of diplomatic ties in 1992. The free trade agreement between the two also helped build up the connection," Chung said during the meeting with Ambassador Qiu Guohong. Chung also said South Korea wishes to expand ties with China in various sectors including economy, politics, diplomacy and culture. The parliament speaker then said he will focus on supporting policies that can promote two-way tourism and make it easier for Chinese visitors to enjoy South Korea's hospitality. Qiu echoed the speaker's view on expanding cooperation and said he wished to deliver a congratulatory message from Zhang Dejiang, chairman of the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress, on Chung's appointment as the parliament speaker. (Yonhap) South Korea and the United States on Wednesday conducted a joint helicopter attack exercise in an effort to test their combat readiness to counter North Korean provocations, the military said Wednesday. The joint drill mobilized the allies' military assets including the South Korean Army's Cobra (AH-1S) helicopters and Apache helicopters used by the U.S. Army's 2nd Infantry Division. "The two nations were able to identify their ability to work closely together," the South's Army said. "The drill served as an occasion to prove that the allies' military air assets have a high degree of flight and firing capacity." The exercise was carried out under a theoretical situation in which the allies' helicopters are deployed to deter the movement of North Korean armored vehicles. The choppers used various weapons like rockets during the drill. South Korea kicked off wind tunnel testing as it moves forward to finalize the design of its next-generation jet fuselage by mid-2018, the aircraft's local developers said Wednesday. Korea Aerospace Industries Ltd. (KAI), the country's sole aircraft manufacturer, and the Korea Aerospace Research Institute said they started the first phase of wind tunnel testing in a bid to lay out the design for the Korean Fighter Experimental (KF-X) program. The KF-X project, which will cost 18 trillion won (US$15.3 billion) of the taxpayers money, will call for the building of some 120 twin-engine combat jets. Seoul aims to deploy the new planes starting in the mid-2020s to replace its fleet of vintage F-4s and F-5s. A wind tunnel test assesses aerodynamic forces that an object can withstand as well as overall flight properties by letting air move past it. Officials said that they will conduct a combined 13,000 hours of wind tunnel testing with the finalized design to be penned in about two years time. The testing is part of a broader effort by Seoul to build a jet fighter that is expected to boost the capabilities of its Air Force. In May, South Korea picked U.S. company General Electric (GE) as the preferred bidder to supply engines for the fighter jets, while a month earlier it tapped South Korean defense manufacturer Hanwha Thales as the primary negotiation partner to build active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar. South Korea had initially planned to secure 25 fighter jet technologies from U.S. aerospace giant Lockheed Martin in an offset deal linked to Seoul's purchase of 40 of the company's F-35 Lightning II fighters in 2014. But the U.S. government refused last year to approve the export of four core technologies, including those related to the AESA radar, forcing Seoul to find an alternative supplier. (Yonhap) South Korea on Friday called on North Korea to end its nuclear and missile programs as Seoul marked the 100th day since shutting down the joint industrial complex in the communist country. Seoul shut down the Kaesong Industrial Complex in the North's border city of the same name on Feb. 10 in response to Pyongyang's January nuclear test and long-range rocket launch in February. The decision came amid concerns that money generated from the factory zone is bankrolling the North's nuclear and missile programs. Seoul's unification ministry said that the closure of the complex reflects the government's resolute decision to take into account national security. "We urge North Korea to suspend its nuclear and missile provocations and show its sincere commitment toward denuclearization," Jeong Joon-hee, a ministry spokesman, told a regular press briefing. The U.N. Security Council on Wednesday condemned North Korea's recent ballistic missile tests, saying they contribute to Pyongyang's development of nuclear weapons delivery systems. The Security Council unanimously adopted the press statement, a day after the North attempted unsuccessfully to launch a Musudan intermediate-range ballistic missile believed to be capable of reaching the U.S. territory of Guam. The missile is believed to have exploded on a mobile launcher as soon as the fire button was pressed. It was the North's fourth test of the Musudan missile after the first on April 15 and two more on April 28. All three previous launches also ended in failure, with the missile either exploding in midair or crashing seconds after launch. "These repeated attempted launches are in grave violation of the DPRK's international obligations under United Nations Security Council resolutions," the statement said. DPRK is the acronym of North Korea's official name: the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. A North Korean nuclear envoy was tight-lipped on Wednesday when asked about the North's test launch of two intermediate-range ballistic missiles earlier in the day. South Korean defense officials said North Korea test-fired two mid-range ballistic missiles into the East Sea in the North's latest violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions that ban Pyongyang from using ballistic missile technology. The Wednesday tests come as North Korea sent its nuclear envoy, Choe Son-hui, deputy director for North American affairs at North Korea's foreign ministry, to Beijing to attend a security forum that also brings together nuclear envoys from nations involved in long-stalled nuclear negotiations with the North. Choe was entering the closed-door forum when she was asked by reporters about the North's missile tests. But she did not respond to the questions. Among those attending the Northeast Asia Cooperation Dialogue (NEACD), which began its two-day run on Wednesday, are Ambassador Sung Kim, a top U.S. envoy on North Korea policy; Kim Gunn, South Korea's deputy chief nuclear envoy; and Wu Dawei, China's chief nuclear envoy. On Tuesday in Beijing, the U.S. envoy warned North Korea against launching a mid-range ballistic missile. North Korea's national carrier, Air Koryo, will increase the number of its flights between Pyongyang and Beijing despite stringent U.N. Security Council sanctions including a ban on the export of aviation fuel to the reclusive country, a news media report said Wednesday. According to Air Koryo's website, the North's flagship carrier is scheduled to increase flights between the two capitals to five times a week from the present four as of July 1, Washington-based Voice of America (VOA) reported. VOA said Air Koryo's JS151 will depart Pyongyang International Airport for Beijing every Friday morning at 8:30 a.m. starting next month. On the same day, the airline's JS152 will depart Beijing Capital International Airport at noon and arrive in Pyongyang at 2:30 p.m. The media said that the Russian-made Tupolev Tu-204 will be used on the route. It is a twin-engine medium-range aircraft capable of carrying 140 passengers. Meanwhile, the North's Air Koryo is known to be operating the Pyongyang-Shanghai route two times a week, according to VOA. The route was temporarily operated last summer but then stopped. In a related development, the North resumed flights between Pyongyang and Kuwait last month, after the route had been suspended in February. (Yonhap) South Korean firms suffering snowballing financial damage from the shutdown of an inter-Korean industrial complex four months ago urged the government on Wednesday to allow them to visit North Korea to check their remaining assets before the rainy season. Seoul shut down the Kaesong Industrial Complex in the North's border city on Feb. 10 in response to Pyongyang's January nuclear test and long-range rocket launch in February. With the Kaesong investors' losses mounting, the government last month offered 386.5 billion won ($334.7 million) in compensation to the companies. The Korean firms, who reported a combined 944.6 billion won in financial losses in the first three months, urged the government to take full responsibility for inflicting damage by doing an abrupt about-face on its North Korean policy. Chung Ki-seop, who heads an emergency committee for the companies, said company officials will hold rallies starting next week to pressure the government and raise public awareness of the issue. "We decided to hold rallies as follow-up measures to boycotting the government's support measures," Chung said. "We will hold rallies and street demonstrations, and also distribute leaflets to raise awareness of our suffering." They will also request the government to allow their visit to North Korea within the month. Their previous request on June 8 was not accepted by the government. "Our demand is not an immediate resumption of Kaesong park. We are asking the government to allow us to visit the complex to check our equipment as the rainy season is starting," Chung said. "The government should approve our visit because assets in the Kaesong park are also South Korean assets." The complex, located some 50 kilometers northwest of Seoul, had served as a major revenue source for the cash-strapped North since opening in 2004. More than 54,000 North Korean workers produced labor-intensive goods, such as clothes and utensils, there. (Yonhap) China called for calm and restraint on Wednesday, shortly after North Korea test-fired what appeared to be two intermediate-range Musudan ballistic missiles. China's foreign ministry spokeswoman, Hua Chunying, urged the "relevant countries" not to take action that could escalate tensions on the Korean Peninsula, when asked about the North's latest launch of ballistic missiles. "The situation on the Korean Peninsula is very complex and sensitive," Hua said at a regular press briefing. North Korea has defied U.N. resolutions that ban the North from conducting missile tests using ballistic missile technology. President Park Geun-hye warned North Korea Wednesday that it will only face isolation and self-destruction if it continues to develop nuclear weapons. "The government will continue to join hands with the international community to make Pyongyang realize it has no choice but to accept changes, and that there will be no future without giving up nukes," Park said during a meeting with the National Unification Advisory Council. Park said South Korea has been making efforts to avoid tensions and establish peace on the Korean Peninsula, but pointed out that Pyongyang only responded with nuclear tests and more missile launches. North Korea also launched intermediate-range ballistic missiles earlier on Wednesday in direct violation of the international ban. "The development of nuclear weapons and long-range missiles are grave provocations that threaten not only the peace of the Korean peninsula but that of Northeast Asia and the world," Park said, adding no international organizations will lend a hand to Pyongyang if the situation continues. The president added South Korea needs to roll out consistent policies on the North Korean issue, adding it will continue striving for the reunification of the divided country. On the government's latest decision to expand the existing Gimhae International Airport, Park said the option is better in terms of efficiency and safety compared to building a new one in the southeastern part of the country. South Korea earlier said it has scrapped a plan to build a new gateway airport, choosing instead to push for the expansion of Busan's existing airport. Park said the option not only helped to cut costs significantly, but the construction of a new terminal and V-shaped runways will also help overcome flight safety concerns. The announcement was made after French airport engineering company ADPi conducted a year-long feasibility study on two candidate sites for the new international airport -- Miryang, a rural town located between Busan and Daegu, and Busan's Gedeok Island -- and other options. "I believe all problems can be solved if all parties reach mutual agreement and respect the decision made by the experts," Park said. (Yonhap) By Kwon Yong-wook "This was how I greeted him," said Mr. Halferty, raising his arms and letting his fingers slide across the air. His voice was soft as he recounted his visit to the war memorial in Busan. He did not expect to see his older brother's name etched on the memorial among those of thousands of other veterans. Sixty six years ago, second Lt. Richard Halferty and his older brother Lt. Harry Halferty travelled across the globe to fight in the Korean War. Only one returned home Lt. H. Halferty was killed in action defending the Nakdong perimeter in September 1950. The younger brother survived the war and retired as a decorated navy captain. Sixty five years after leaving Korea, he returned on June 8th, being invited to an event organized by the ROK Third Armor Brigade and the OP International of the U.S. Third Infantry Division. As a private of the Third Armored Brigade, I worked as the translator, translating back and forth between the U.S. guests and dozens of Korean veterans. As the veterans reveled in sharing their experiences, I felt incredibly privileged to be part of this exchange of oral histories by men and women who saved our nation from the jaws of oppression. Each June, we reach out to our veterans and remember their sacrifices. While many of us honor our own veterans, relatively less attention is given to non-Koreans. Part of the reason is distance many of them live far away from Korea, and have difficulty making the long trip. To reach out to these veterans, our brigade has been promoting a pen-pal program between brigade soldiers and U.S. Korean War veterans. Reading some of the letters is a most touching experience: many of them are proud of the growth of South Korea and are glad they are remembered for their services. I hope more people, even civilians, would join us in this effort. Being involved in these exchange programs made me realize just how much of an emotional bond exists between many of these veterans and their families and Korea. These people from around the world had fought with Koreans to defend freedom and democracy, and the blood they shed remains a visceral tie. This stands in vivid contrast to the attitude of many Americans towards Korea. Calls to scale back the ROK-U.S. alliance and have Korea shoulder more of the burden of defense are resonating with the U.S. electorate. The historical significance of our alliance, as well as the deep emotional bonds our two people once shared fighting against totalitarianism, seem missing from the dialogue. In light of those developments, remembering and honoring Korean War veterans _ both Korean and American attains a deeper significance. By honoring these men and women, we are invoking the memories of our shared sacrifices and bringing the narrative of our friendship back into the national conscious. The relationship between the United States and Korea transcends the ROK-US alliance: it is the ROK-U.S. friendship, one forged by blood. Personally, when I think of the United States, I immediately think of my close friends and mentors I have made studying in the States. I remember our shared meals and many debates, our silly jokes and meandering conversations. I am sure that for these veterans, Korea will similarly invoke memories of dear comrades, a nation of friends. Of course, most Koreans and Americans do not share such personal relationships. Therefore, it is even more important for us to honor our veterans. By honoring these soldiers, perhaps we can revisit our shared history and friendship, just like how Mr. Halferty revisited Korea 66 years after the war. National policies are often determined by national interests, but history has shown the impact human emotions have had on major national decisions. Perhaps the power of stories can transcend cost-and-benefit calculations. I want to end with the toast Mr. Halferty gave at the ceremony, which inspired me to write this response. The retired Navy Captain, now in his late 80s, spoke softly yet with conviction to the Korean audience. "I am Korean, I am Korean, I am Korean. The blood of my brother, mixed with the blood of Korean men, has seeped into the depths of the Korean soil. I am Korean." The writer is a pfc at the Third Armored Brigade, serving at Brigade HQ as a translator. Before joining the military, he was a junior at Harvard University, and majored in math and computer science. Write to korcadetea@army.mil. A court hearing to determine whether a dozen former North Korean restaurant workers defected to the South in April, out of their own free will, ended without any conclusion Tuesday. The Lawyers for a Democratic Society, which had filed a petition with the Seoul Central District Court questioning if the female defectors might be detained illegally here, asked for the judge to be replaced. The court said it would decide to resume the hearing later after discussions. The defectors, who had worked at a North Korea-run restaurant in China, did not appear at the hearing. Instead, their legal representatives attended the session and said the defectors refused to attend out of fear that their testimony in public about voluntary defections might imperil the safety of their family members left behind in the rogue state. Their arguments sound plausible, considering that the family members could face reprisals after being branded as the relatives of traitors. The association of liberal lawyers, better known as Minbyun, instigated the court proceedings by raising suspicions about details of their group defection and special treatment granted to them here. In fact, the government's abrupt announcement of the defection, made days before the April 13 general election, stoked rumors that the National Intelligence Service (NIS) had orchestrated the escape with political intentions. North Korea has called for the repatriation of the former waitresses, alleging that they were kidnapped by the South. The lawyers' group sympathized with the North's assertion and has been insisting that the defectors take the witness stand to clarify whether they defected voluntarily. However, this demand sounds far-fetched. More than anything else, testifying in public will put in a great quandary the defectors who worry about the safety of their families in the North. This indeed amounts to reneging on their human rights. Also, it defies our understanding that the South's spy agency kidnapped as many as 12 North Koreans in China. As things stand now, there is no reason to believe that they were brought here against their will except Pyongyang's argument for abductions. Park Young-sik, an attorney representing the Korean Bar Association who serves as a human rights adviser to the NIS, reportedly had one-on-one interviews with the 12 defectors and said none of them had expressed their wish to return to their home country. The lawyers' group should act with prudence, aware of the aftermath that could be triggered by the defectors' testimony. Ensuring the safety of the defectors and their families must be a top priority. Time for rival regions to end division The battle between Busan and Miryang over a new airport in the southeastern Yeongnam region ended without a winner. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport picked neither Gadeok Island in Busan or Miryang, whose airport campaign had been backed by the two nearby industrial hubs of Ulsan and Daegu. Instead, the ministry will expand Gimhae International Airport, located in a western suburb of Busan. The ministry announced the decision Tuesday after the release of a feasibility study by French airport engineering company ADPi, a unit of Paris Airport Group. Gadeok and Miryang were both ruled out because of safety and cost. The French company conducted the feasibility study with the consensus of the rival regions, so they should accept the outcome of ADPi's year-long review. The report should be an occasion to terminate the dispute over the building of a new airport for the southeastern region once and for all. Politicians should no longer use the airport proposal as a populist pledge to attract voters. The plan was first reviewed during the Roh Moo-hyun administration, but his successor Lee Myung-bak scrapped it in 2011 due to an intense regional rivalry and lack of economic viability. Seymour Bernstein By Jun Ji-hye Seymour Bernstein, a world-renowned pianist and a Korean War veteran, will visit Korea with his former comrades, Thursday. The American pianist, 89, is among 70 visitors that include former U.S. soldiers who fought in the Korean War (1950-53) and their relatives as well as Korean veterans living overseas. The Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs invited them for a visit until Tuesday. Bernstein, a New Jersey native, joined the U.S. Army in December 1950 at the age of 23 and was dispatched to Korea after completing his 14-week training. He arrived by ship in Incheon in April 1951 and served in the war as a private first class infantryman belonging to the 8th U.S. Army until he was discharged in November 1952. His special mission was performing at military camps to boost the morale of the troops. "Bernstein served in the war both with arms and a piano," the ministry said in a release. "He performed around 100 concerts for the frontline units." Recalling his war memories, Bernstein said in an email interview with the ministry, "Performances for the frontline units took place by placing an upright piano at the foot of hills, and soldiers sat on the slope of the hills." He also said the Air Force flew over the hills and protected them in case shells were directed to their location. "Violinist Kenneth Gordon, who was also a soldier, and I performed on a hospital ship for wounded soldiers who were terminal patients," he said. Bernstein then returned to Korea in 1960 under the sponsorship of the U.S. State Department to give concerts, lessons and lectures here. But all plans were canceled following the April 19 Revolution, the pro-democracy civil uprising that led to the ousting of Syngman Rhee, the nation's first president. At the time, Bernstein received permission from then-U.S. Ambassador to Korea Walter P. McConoughy to perform in the wards of Seoul National University Hospital for wounded students to demonstrate that the U.S. was on their side. "International reporters picked up the story and I was videotaped internationally performing for the wounded students," he said. Bernstein was the subject of the documentary "Seymour: An Introduction," directed by actor Ethan Hawke and released in 2014. Hawke described Bernstein as a mentor. During his stay, he will visit the truce village of Panmunjeom as well as the Seoul National Cemetery with other visitors. He will hold a press conference at Hotel Grand Ambassador Seoul Friday, and give a concert at a banquet dinner party Monday arranged for the war veterans by Patriots and Veterans Affairs Minister Park Sung-choon. Samsung Electronics, Korea's No. 1 tech firm, announced Tuesday that it will pour $1.2 billion by 2020 into the Internet of Things (IoT) business in the United States, as part of its global initiative to create a new IoT ecosystem, a hot issue in the ICT world. Samsung also launched an advisory group in partnership with Intel to affect U.S. policy on IoT. "I am excited to show how we are moving IoT to the center of our strategy and am delighted to announce that Samsung is planning to spend $1.2 billion in U.S.-centered IoT investments and R&D over the next four years," Kwon Oh-hyun, the company's vice chairman and CEO, said in a forum held at the Washington Post Conference Center in the U.S. capital. The inaugural event with the theme of "Internet of Things -- Transforming the Future" drew more than 300 participants from the U.S. government, Congress and businesses, according to Samsung. They include Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), who co-chairs the Congressional Internet of Things Caucus; Dean Garfield, president and CEO at the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI); and Doug Davis, senior vice president for the IoT Group at Intel Corp. Kwon said Samsung will seek joint ventures with IoT startups in the U.S. via its agencies in Silicon Valley: Samsung Strategy & Innovation Center, Global Innovation Center and Samsung Research America. Laying out Samsung's vision for IoT, Kwon stressed a "human-centered" approach. "At Samsung, putting peole at the center of everything we do is our highest value. The same must be true for IoT if we want to realize its full transformative power," he said. "Today, IoT is changing individual lives, helping people to age in their own homes. But tomorrow, using IoT, we can give the same independence to millions of Americans. We can keep people out of hospitals and nursing homes. As our populations live longer, these benefits and cost savings for society cannot be ignored," he said. IoT is a network of physical objects, including vehicles, buildings and electronic devices, connected to the Internet to exchange data. It allows such objects to be sensed and controlled remotely. "If we want innovators everywhere to make use of IoT, we must make sure all tools are open to them," Kwon said. "This means technologies that connect to each other, because we know that boundaries around technologies hold back innovation and scale." For that, Samsung and Intel established the National IoT Strategy Dialogue meant to offer advice to U.S. policymakers. The ITI is tasked with operating the group, of which membership is open to other companies. Samsung said it hosted the Washington conference to "ensure that the rapid expansion of IoT benefits everyone, everywhere through the transformative power of innovation." It marked the start of an international series of dialogue on IoT, it said. (Yonhap) Models promote Pantech's new smartphone, the Sky IM-100, during a showcase at the company's headquarters in Sangam-dong, western Seoul, Wednesday. / Yonhap By Yoon Sung-won Pantech has returned to the smartphone market Wednesday after 19 months, with the launch of a new budget model the Sky IM-100. The handset maker, which has managed to pull itself out of a bankruptcy crisis, faces a tough challenge in the budget market against Samsung, LG and emerging Chinese brands. "We have returned after the last two regretful years," Pantech President Moon Ji-wook said during a press conference in Seoul, Wednesday. "We needed an overhaul and now we will focus on providing products that satisfy the customers, not ourselves." Pantech had its domain in the highly competitive domestic handset market until the early days of smartphones. It lagged behind larger brands such as Samsung, LG and Apple amid fierce competition and slipped into severe financial problems. Last September, the company fired nearly half its employees and was acquired by Solid Consortium, ending a period of court receivership in November. It had to dismiss hundreds of more employees in April as part of corporate restructuring. "The slogan I'm back' ambitiously reflects our hope for the return of those who had to leave the company during difficult times," a Pantech official said. The company said it plans to launch the IM-100 later this month through SK Telecom and KT, with LG Uplus excluded. It said it plans to distribute up to 20,000 IM-100s initially and aims to sell about 300,000 in total. The price is expected to be about 449,000 won ($389), according to industry sources. The company also revived its Sky brand, which had enjoyed a dominant image as associated with premium features, and released teaser ads appealing to former Sky handset users. It said after-sales service will be available at 65 service centers nationwide. It also said it would let customers send in phones for repair through the mail and provide a handset rental service. "We have analyzed client patterns from our last 20 years in the industry and plan to expand the points of contact with our customers," Pantech said. "To this end, we will provide mobile after-sales services and maximize customer satisfaction." The IM-100 has a metallic exterior and a full high-definition LCD screen. As a budget model, it has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 application processor, 2GB of memory and a 3,000mAh embedded battery. Despite its relatively mediocre hardware specifications, the IM-100 has Qualcomm's latest audio chip the WCD9326 to maximize its audio functions. It supports high-quality sound technologies such as the free lossless audio codec and aptX codec, Pantech said. "Qualcomm and Pantech have maintained a long-term partnership in the smartphone ecosystem," Qualcomm Korea General Manager Lee Tae-won said. "In the smartphone business, we expect to maintain the cooperation between the two companies in wearables and the Internet of Things." To differentiate itself from other handsets, the IM-100 has a jog dial on the right side. With this, users can adjust volume and easily control playback while listening to music or watching videos. As a companion device for the new smartphone, Pantech also showcased what it calls the Stone. Once synchronized with an IM-100, a Stone can wirelessly charge the handset and serve as a 2.1-channel Bluetooth speaker. Supercell CEO Ilkka Paananen, right, and Tencent President Martin Lau pose after reaching an agreement on an acquisition deal at the Finnish company's headquarters in Helsinki, Tuesday. / Courtesy of Supercell China's expanding presence looming on Korean market By Yoon Sung-won Tencent will acquire Supercell for $8.6 billion in a megadeal with SoftBank, according to industry insiders, Wednesday. As the Chinese IT giant will become the parent company to the top game companies in the computer online and mobile sectors Supercell and Riot Games expectations are that Tencent will exert a dominant influence in the global gaming industry with their economy of scale. "Yes. Tencent, the world's biggest games company, has taken a lead to purchase SoftBank's investment in Supercell and will be our strategic partner," Supercell CEO Ilkka Paananen admitted in a posting on the company's website, Tuesday. After the acquisition, which is expected to take place in the third quarter of this year, Tencent will hold 84.3 percent of shares of Supercell. In the deal, the corporate value of Supercell has been estimated at $10.2 billion. The deal will also benefit SoftBank as it had purchased 51 percent of Supercell for only $1.53 billion in 2014 and boosted its share to 73 percent a year later. Established in 2010, the Finnish mobile game company has provided "Clash of Clans," one of the most sought-after mobile games in the world as well as "Hay Day," "Boom Beach" and "Clash Royale." In total, it has drawn more than 100 million daily active users globally, and posted $2.43 billion in sales last year. "Masa, the founder of SoftBank and our chairman, told me that if we were able to find a new partner, he would like to sell SoftBank's shares in Supercell to finance what he called SoftBank's 2.0 transformation strategy," Paananen said. The Supercell CEO said that Tencent has agreed that Supercell will continue to be operationally independent as it was under SoftBank's ownership. "They understand that our unique culture of small and independent teams is what makes Supercell," he said. "Also, our headquarters will stay in Helsinki and we will pay our taxes in Finland." Tencent has been known to allow independent management of Riot Games, provider of one of the world's most-played computer online game "League of Legends," since acquiring 100 percent of its share in 2011. Meanwhile, concerns are escalating in the Korean game industry that Tencent's acquisition of the world's top mobile game company may speed up the penetration of Chinese game businesses and their titles here. "There are concerns that Korean game businesses will face tougher challenges to compete not only on the global scale but also locally in terms of economies of scale because Chinese games are already expanding their presence," a source from a major Korean game company said. Meanwhile, another industry insider expected that the acquisition will not immediately escalate competition. "The competitive landscape in the gaming industry will not change much as Tencent will make its new subsidiary run independently instead of coming to the center stage as a platform operator," he said. PRESS RELEASE Obama, NATO Are Threatening General War Based on an Admitted Lie June 21, 2016 (EIRNS)The entire array of fournow five simultaneous NATO maneuvers involving 50-60,000 troops, and forward basing of four battalions, on Russias borders, is based on what was today admitted by a senior NATO official to be a lie. That admission became the lead story on Russias Sputnik news service today, and confirms the warnings from German leaders like Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, that NATO is escalating dangerously against Russia without reason. Chairman of the NATO Military Committee Petr Pavel admitted in a June 21 news conference that the entire Baltics/Poland forward build-up and maneuvers are not based on any threat of "Russian agression." Said Pavel, "Deployment of more substantial military force [than the four battalionsed.] is not being considered. It is not the aim of NATO to create a military barrier against broad-scale Russian aggression, because such aggression is not on the agenda and no intelligence assessment suggests such a thing." Yet NATO Commanders Gen. Craig Breedlove and Gen. Curtis Scaparroti, NATO General Secretary Jens Stoltenberg, and President Obama have claimed that threatened "Russian aggression against the Baltic States and Poland" justified escalating with massive exercises to the borders of Russia and otherwise generating a situation which could break into war between nuclear superpowers. Stoltenberg today inaugurated yet a fifth simultaneous exercise, "Dynamic Mongoose," a Norwegian Sea/North Sea exercise against Russian submarines based near there. Since June 15 Der Spiegel in Germany and then Foreign Minister Steinmeier have warned the exercises were going too far, risking a rapid mutual escalation to war for an "aggression" threat which did not exist. Pavel admits thiseven as attacks on Steinmeiers statements are multiplied from NATO and U.S. military officials! Also today, Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, commander of U.S. Army Europe, outrageously complained that Russian military units inside Russia had full freedom of movement! The speed of Russias snap exercises "scare him," General Hodges said in an interview with BBC; thus he calledand not for the first time for a "military Shengen" in Europe. The Shengen Agreement meant the free movement of travelers and migrants across borders within the European Union; it has effectively been scrapped when large numbers of refugees entered Europe from the Mideast and North Africa. Lt. General Hodges demands a new Shengen agreement but for tanks. PRESS RELEASE Congresss Financial Control Board for Puerto Rico Violates UN Resolutions June 21, 2016 (EIRNS)In a strongly-worded speech before the UN Decolonization Committee June 20, Puerto Rican Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla charged that H.R. 5278, which includes the creation of a financial control board to supervise the islands finances (to the exclusion of local legislators and the Governor), is a violation of the terms of the 1953 UN Resolution 748 stating that Puerto Rico enjoys the "attributes of political sovereignty which clearly identify the status of self-government attained by the people of Puerto Rico as an autonomous political entity." Garcia pointed out that the U.S. delegate to the UN General Assembly (UNGA), Francis P. Bolton, stated at that time, that Puerto Rico would, from then on, be governed "by a bilateral pact whose terms can only be altered by mutual consent." The control board, Garcia emphasized, violates that principle, "usurps the powers the people of Puerto Rico have delegated to the Governor and Legislative Assembly," and eliminates political sovereignty. The Governor explained that he reluctantly accepted H.R. 5278, which must be passed in the Senate, because it provides a mechanism for debt restructuring, given the islands horrific humanitarian crisis; but the control board is a threat to Puerto Ricos democracy, he added. The people of Puerto Rico demand that the terms of Resolution 748 be respected, "and that no backtracking be accepted." In response to the Governors request that the Decolonization Committee take Puerto Ricos case to the UNGA and the Human Rights Committee, the Committee voted up a resolution by consensus, proposed by Cuba, to do exactly that, urging the UNGA to make a determination on this issue "as soon as possible." The Committee has voted the same way for the past 16 years, although this year, several of the committees Ibero-American members stated their concern about the control board and the humanitarian crisis. Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Syria, Ecuador, and Russia cosponsored the resolution. PRESS RELEASE Steinmeier Defended, Germany Opens Up Against NATO War June 21, 2016 (EIRNS)An apparent split within Germanys governing coalition over NATOs military exercises and BMD deployments threatening Russia, may actually signify a shift in Germanys population and institutions, realizing that NATOs escalation is threatening the very survival of Europe. The German leader who on June 16 called the NATO exercises "saber-rattling," and "war cries" against Russia, and called for them to stop, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, currently enjoys the most support of any German politician, according to polls. The subsequent attacks on Steinmeier by NATOs General Secretary Jens Stoltenberg and others were strongly rebutted as "absurd," today, by German Vice-Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel, who is reported to be going to Moscow himself next week and meeting with Russian President Putin. Former NATO Military Committee head (2002-2005) General Harald Kujat (retired, former German Armed Forces Chief of Staff) told German NDR radio in an interview this morning, that he fully supports Foreign Minister Steinmeier. General Kujats stand represents deep consensus among German military and strategic experts, not only that the conflict with Russia originated, unnecessarily, in the West; but also, that an escalation will lead to a strategic nuclear showdown. General Kujat said that in crisis periods like this one, military measures always have the effect of escalation. He posed the obvious question: "Does one want to escalate the tensions, or, does one want to help to reduce the tensions?" For the many conflicts in the world, be they Ukraine, Syria, or Libya, "we need Russia ... it is a question of reason which way one chooses and I think the foreign minister [Steinmeier] wanted to change things." Kujat said the criticism of Steinmeier was "a Pavlovian response to the remarks of the Foreign Minister and completely absurd. I think they should carefully listen to what he said. He is proposing the proper approach." In Berlin, June 21, former French President Nicolas Sarkozy meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and then warned against the danger fueling tensions between Russia and the European Union. "We can only solve the problems of Europe and Russia by dialogue," Sarkozy said. He defined the most serious threat facing Europe as the terrorist groups ISIS and al-Qaeda, both being fought by Russia. Aerospace giant Boeing Co. has established a preferred partnership with MemorialCare Health System to offer most of its Southern California employees a health plan option that eliminates much of the role of a traditional insurer. Starting in January, Boeing employees who choose the MemorialCare option will have smaller paycheck deductions for healthcare coverage, no co-payments for primary care office visits and full coverage for generic drug prescriptions. Experts say this kind of arrangement with a healthcare system is rare. The two companies said it will be the first direct partnership in California, though Boeing has established similar plans for its employees in the Seattle area, St. Louis, Mo., and Charleston, S.C. Advertisement Fountain Valley-based MemorialCare has partnered with other healthcare providers, such as UC Irvine Health and Torrance Memorial Health System, to expand its coverage network. See the most-read stories in Business this hour >> Were really after improving quality, improving the member experience and controlling cost, said Jeff White, Boeings director of healthcare strategy. MemorialCare has had a similar program for its own employees, focusing on preventive care and heading off chronic conditions before they appear. For us, it gives the ability to manage the care of all these folks across the entire continuum to work on prevention and wellness and disease management, said Barry Arbuckle, chief executive of MemorialCare. Direct relationships between employers and health providers could become more common in response to rising health insurance costs, said Janet Coffman, associate professor of health policy at UC San Francisco. As providers get more experience with being part of Accountable Care Organizations and managing risk in the sense of setting fees for the employer at levels they think can cover their costs, more of them are going to be interested, she said. However, Coffman cautioned that such arrangements are beneficial only for large, self-insured employers, such as Boeing, which has about 15,000 employees, with 22,000 dependents, in Long Beach, Orange County and South Bay alone. On the provider side, networks need to include an array of hospitals, physician groups and services, such as imaging or labs. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois will be handling third-party administrative duties, such as claims, under the arrangement. samantha.masunaga@latimes.com For more business news, follow me @smasunaga MORE FROM BUSINESS Bid for SolarCity sends Tesla stock plunging Itll take time and $3.8 billion to shut down the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant Stocks rise ahead of more Fed news and Britain vote Decommissioning a nuclear power plant is a long and expensive process that sometimes takes more money than originally expected. But executives running the Diablo Canyon nuclear facility, who announced Tuesday that the sites two reactors will be shut down by the middle of the next decade, expressed confidence that they can do it quickly and without running up the tab. The basic design is, by the time you get to the licensing end of the plants life, youve collected enough to decommission the plant, said Tony Earley, chairman and chief executive of Pacific Gas & Electric, the investor-owned utility that runs Diablo Canyon, in a conference call with reporters. Advertisement As required by California law, PG&E has established a trust fund created by ratepayers, through their electricity bills over the course of decades, to cover decommissioning costs. According to a document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday, the trust fund for Diablo Canyon is nearly $2.8 billion. Thats about $1 billion shy of meeting the costs to shut down the plant. In PG&Es most recent submission to the California Public Utilities Commission, the utility estimated it would cost $3.779 billion to decommission Diablo Canyon. The beauty of this agreement is that it gives us almost a decade to work through these issues, Earley said. Were not scrambling around like other nuclear plants who shut down their plants unexpectedly, trying to pull together these numbers. Wall Street investors appeared to like what they heard. The stock price for the San Francisco utilitys parent company, PG&E Corp., dropped on the announcement but recovered during the day to close at $62.63 a share, up 6 cents, or less than 1%. In 2014 Southern California Edison estimated decommissioning costs at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station at $4.4 billion. The facility was formally shut down in 2013, but the reactors had already been idled for months because premature wear in new generators allowed a small amount of radioactive steam to be released. Edison customers ended up getting billed for $3.3 billion leftover plant costs which has drawn harsh criticism. Last month, the utilities commission decided to take a second look at the settlements details after it was revealed that in 2013 then-commission President Michael Peevey and an SCE executive met secretly to sketch out an agreement. A major issue involved with decommissioned nuclear plants is what to do with spent fuel. Diablo Canyon has a storage facility on site to handle spent fuel in dry casks. Interested in the stories shaping California? Sign up for the free Essential California newsletter >> There is enough space to store all the fuel that will be generated during the current operating licenses, said Blair Jones, spokesman for PG&E. The used uranium pellets at Diablo Canyon have a combined weight of 1,356 metric tons, or 2.98 million pounds. Diablo Canyons spent fuel will remain on site because, as in the case with all nuclear facilities including San Onofre, it is the federal governments responsibility to ultimately find places to deposit nuclear waste. With the proposed depository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada scrapped, many nuclear facilities have had to keep spent fuel at their respective sites. Our position is that the federal government made a commitment to establish a repository solution for the country, Jones said. And we believe its important they fulfill that commitment. In the meantime, we will continue to safely store the fuel on site as we always have. At San Onofre, Edison wants to store its spent fuel rods in sealed stainless steel canisters, encased in concrete and partially buried on the plants property. Activists have sued to reverse the Coastal Commissions approval of Edisons plan, preferring that the fuel be shipped via truck to the Palo Verde nuclear plant in Tonopah, Ariz., in which Edison has a minority stake. But the Arizona facility, under its license from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, is allowed to store only its own spent fuel, which remains radioactive for centuries. Decommissioning is a long process, which requires facilities working in conjunction with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to file reports, submit reviews and go through federal oversight to get a license terminated. Its not a quick thing, said Murray Jennex, utilities expert and professor of management information systems at San Diego State. You have to be down a while to let contaminated areas decay to a safe level. Then you have to take apart buildings designed to be very, very strong. You have lots of debris and you have to dispose of that.... Its about a 10-year process, at least. Earley told reporters Tuesday hes optimistic the Diablo Canyon shutdown will go smoothly. We can do it thoughtfully, we can learn from what other plants are doing and I think in the end that will benefit everybody, he said. RELATED: PG&E to close Diablo Canyon, Californias last nuclear power plant From the Archives: Diablo Canyon nuclear plant could be at fault in a disaster OPINION: A no nukes victory? Californias short and complicated history with Diablo Canyon and nuclear power The redevelopment of the run-down shopping core of the Pacific Palisades received final approval Tuesday from the Los Angeles City Council. The approval paves the way for shopping center magnate Rick Caruso to start work on his Palisades Village project, which the Grove owner envisions as more of a walkable Main Street than ritzy shopping center. The 116,00-square-foot complex on Swarthmore Avenue bordering Sunset Boulevard will include a movie theater, community space, grocer and retail shops. There will also be eight apartment units. Advertisement Councilman Mike Bonin, who represents the Pacific Palisades, said in a statement that the project will revitalize downtown Palisades and give the neighborhood the thriving community center it deserves. Caruso Affiliated is expected to start demolitions on Swarthmore Avenue in August, with Palisades Village scheduled to open in summer 2018. andrew.khouri@latimes.com Follow me @khouriandrew on Twitter The Canaveral Port Authority in Florida may start charging SpaceX higher fees to dock the reusable rocket boosters that the aerospace company has been launching at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, landing at sea and then hauling to shore. Port authority officials had planned to consider the measure Wednesday, but at the last moment, Chief Executive John Murray pulled it from the agenda. He told the board that it probably would be reintroduced. The fees are our source of revenue, Murray said, though he emphasized that the relationship is good between the port authority and SpaceX, which is based in Hawthorne and whose full name is Space Exploration Technologies Corp. Advertisement The measure would have charged SpaceX $500 per ton or $15,000 every time it brings a rocket into dock. The port regularly charges fees based on weight, although most are less than $10 per ton. According to the ports fee schedule, the highest charge is $35.30 for containers with cargo in them on vessels 450 feet long or more. A SpaceX spokesman declined to comment when asked how much the company had been paying. Murray said the port authority had a previously scheduled meeting with SpaceX on Wednesday afternoon. Port Canaveral is an important partner in our recovery operations, SpaceX spokesman John Taylor said in a statement. We appreciate the boards willingness to reconsider this proposal. Canaveral Port Authoritys Rule 715, which governs tariffs placed on those using the port, would be amended to add charges for aerospace/aircraft items. The port authority left the door open for negotiations with other companies as more pursue rocket recovery efforts. On three occasions once each in April, May and June SpaceX has landed a reusable rocket booster on a barge floating in the Atlantic Ocean and then brought the booster back to land. msantana@orlandosentinel.com MORE FROM BUSINESS Trump University seized upon the foreclosure crisis Elon Musk calls Teslas bid for SolarCity a no-brainer, but Tesla stock dives Itll take time and $3.8 billion to shut down the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant A new Holocaust-themed play by a Polish dramatist has become a source of friction between the Polish consulate in Los Angeles and the experimental Santa Monica theater company that is producing the unconventional stage piece. City Garage in Santa Monica said the consulate withdrew support for the production because of the dramas controversial content and fears about how officials in Polands new right-wing government might react. The consulate has denied the accusations, saying that it never promised to support the production financially and that its lack of funding is caused by budgetary limitations, not the political situation in Poland. Advertisement Right Left With Heels, by Sebastian Majewski, is a surrealistic play that follows a pair of high-heel shoes that once belonged to Magda Goebbels, the wife of Nazi minister of propaganda Joseph Goebbels. In the play, the shoes, made from the skin of Jewish victims at Auschwitz, are put on trial at Nuremberg. They later bear witness to major events of postwar Polish history. See the most-read stories in Entertainment this hour >> City Garage is scheduled to open the play July 8 at its venue at Bergamot Station in Santa Monica. In recent weeks, the company corresponded by email with Ignacy Zarski, the Polish consulates cultural attache, to discuss the possibility of supporting various aspects of the production. They promised their support, said Charles Duncombe, producing director of City Garage. He said the pledge included supporting an opening-night reception as well as outreach and promotional activities. He said that Zarski later met in person with him and his wife, company artistic director Frederique Michel, following a performance earlier this year of City Garages Othello/Desdemona. Duncombe said Zarski explained that the consulate was backing out because of concerns about how the new government in Warsaw would react and because of the content of the play. Zarski said in an email to The Times that we are not withdrawing our financial support, [because] of never initially promising to support this particular production. He said that the decision has nothing to do with [the] political situation in Poland. It is merely the result of a limited budget. He added that the consulate is still considering using its email list and social media contacts to promote the event. In October, Polands right-leaning Law and Justice party won the countrys parliamentary elections with a majority victory. The party is known for its conservative views on cultural and social issues, as well as its skeptical view of the European Union. See the most-read stories in Local News this hour >> Majewski, the playwright, didnt respond to a request for comment. City Garage said that funding for Right Left With Heels is coming in part from a Polish couple in Southern California. They responded when one of our contacts in Poland told them about the consulate pulling out, Duncombe said. The company also has launched a Kickstarter campaign. City Garage said it had applied some months ago to the city of Santa Monica for a grant but hasnt heard the results of its application. City Garage was founded in 1987 by Duncombe and Michel. It has won local awards for its productions, which often are avant-garde. In my job, Im asking people for money all the time, Duncombe said. Im used to being turned down. I would never have disrupted a relationship with a valued funding partner had it been simply that they just didnt have enough available to help. Frederique [and] I both saw this as an issue of artistic free expression. MORE FROM ENTERTAINMENT VidCon, the annual video star convention, has gotten so big its expanding globally Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant recounts the creation of Stairway to Heaven in copyright trial Steven Spielberg-produced American Gothic chokes on its own pretensions Alleging woefully oblivious decision making and a lack of structure, HaeAhn Kwon, the lone student enrolled in the studio art MFA program at USCs Roski School of Art and Design, announced she was withdrawing from the university via an email statement submitted to USC provost Michael Quick and associate vice provost Robin Romans. The letter was blind copied Tuesday afternoon to several media outlets, including The Times. The move comes a little more than a year after an entire class of MFA candidates (seven in total) withdrew from the university in protest of changes in the programs faculty, curriculum and funding. In the wake of the negative publicity, only one student Kwon, an international student from South Korea accepted admission to the 2017 studio art MFA class. Now she is leaving after completing only half of the two-year program. And she is walking away from what is essentially a free graduate degree: As one of USCs International Artist Fellows, Kwon had her tuition and expenses fully covered. Advertisement Sign up for our weekly Essential Arts & Culture newsletter We were sorry to hear that HaeAhn is leaving the university and wish her all the best in her future endeavors, said Romans in a statement issued by the university on Tuesday evening. We had lengthy conversations with HaeAhn prior to her arrival, and informed her that we were committed to working with her and providing every available opportunity to ensure she had the best possible experience, but that the one thing we could not provide was a graduate cohort for her in the first year of her MFA program. There was no midterm, no finals, nor any review of any kind for my studio practice, which is the essential purpose of an MFA degree in visual art. HaeAhn Kwon Nao Bustamante, the Roski schools new vice dean of art, says the withdrawal caught her by surprise. I had just sent HaeAhn an email with a list of all of the amazing speakers coming in next semester and I didnt have an indication this was happening, she said via telephone on Tuesday evening. In her withdrawal letter, Kwon describes her first semester as a shambles. I am still perplexed that the administrators of a renowned educational institution would allow anyone to attend such a dismantled and disorganized program, she wrote. I was both socially isolated as well as pedagogically misdirected due to a lack of structure and foresight in the nonexistent studio component of this ersatz program. Roski Dean Erica Muhl with Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre at the opening of the Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy for Arts and Technology and Business Innovation in 2013. (Damian Dovarganes / Associated Press ) I had no functioning Group Critique class, the central component of an MFA degree, she added. Further, the fall term entirely lacked the studio component of the program. In short, it did NOT exist there was no midterm, no finals, nor any review of any kind for my studio practice, which is the essential purpose of an MFA degree in visual art. Kwon also alleges that her Group Critique class met only once over the course of the semester, even though it was supposed to gather twice a week. For the class, she says she initially received an Incomplete on her transcript, which was then changed to a B without her knowledge. I must ask you, she wrote, how is it that a student could even PASS a class that was held on no more than one day? Bustamante, who landed at the university in January, after Kwon had already completed her fall semester, said she was unaware of the issue with the grades. This is the first of me hearing about it, she said. Well have to get back to you. Romans does not address Kwons allegations about her grades in her statement but wrote: During her time in the fellowship program, HaeAhn requested numerous accommodations to offset the lack of MFA colleagues, including a request for double studio space, all of which were granted. Her spring group critique included two graduate artists, award-winning senior artists and a trio of exceptional faculty in Nao Bustamente, Edgar Arceneaux and Tala Madani. In addition, we have an extensive list of other faculty and visiting artists with whom she also worked. Finally, HaeAhn received personal invitations from artists who offered impressive networking opportunities. To our dismay, she took advantage of very few of these. Kwon could not be reached for comment, but she ended her letter with a searing statement: During my time at Roski, it became clear that I had never entered an MFA program; instead, I was participating in a sham under the leadership of an unfit dean and an administration irresponsibly ignoring the crisis. I can tell you that we are doing a cluster hire that were going to be able to announce very shortly. Nao Bustamante, Roski vice dean of art Kwons very public withdrawal comes at a delicate time for the Roski School of Art and Design. In addition to losing an entire MFA class last year, the school also saw numerous staff defections during this period including artist Sharon Lockhart, who decamped to CalArts, and Frances Stark, a tenured professor who departed after a decade of teaching. The turmoil follows the 2013 appointment of Erica Muhl, who has made numerous changes at the art school including a name change (from the Roski School of Fine Arts to the Roski School of Art and Design) and adjustments in curriculum, plus other changes that ultimately led the entire class of studio art MFAs to withdraw in May 2015. Roski, once #36 on U.S. News & World Reports list of top fine arts schools, now stands at #69 where it is tied with the University of Kansas and Cal State Long Beach, among others. Bustamente, however, says that Roski is moving forward. There is a full cohort of eight incoming studio art MFAs arriving in the fall (the class of 2018). That was a highly competitive process, she said. Theyre coming from really diverse traditional and non-traditional backgrounds. And I can tell you that we are doing a cluster hire that were going to be able to announce very shortly, she added. I can only say that I am bringing my experience to bear, my artistry to bear, and my goodwill and my complete sincerity in wanting to create a program for these students. Im really excited to be in this environment, she added. Its an art school among strong art schools. I mean, we are the art school. MORE: Behind the impasse that led USCs 2016 MFA students to withdraw in protest Heartbroken: 72 USC alumni write in support of withdrawn MFA students The dean of the USC art school with only one MFA student responds to her critics L.A. education foundation became a lucrative source of income for USCs Pat Haden and his relatives Find me on Twitter @cmonstah. A director of heartfelt melodramas wouldnt necessarily be the first person youd think of to direct an updated adaptation of a globetrotting John le Carre thriller. In a way, though, Oscar-winning Susanne Biers trademark filmic touches meticulously framed wide landscape shots, exotic locations and a rich-hued color palette seem perfectly suited to AMCs glossy, suspense-filled limited series The Night Manager. But likely all those double-crosses, false identities and detonating convoy trucks, less familiar territory for Bier, served as a six-hour argument that she should direct a Bond film. Directing spy stuff and making explosions is so much fun, says Bier, who is rumored to be shortlisted for the next 007 outing. Recently, a mildly jet-lagged Bier visited with The Envelope to chat about how she landed the job, why an actors hair should be taken seriously, and about Le Carres cameo as an elegantly tuxedoed gentleman at a Majorca restaurant who becomes embroiled in a dust-up over a lobster salad. It was amazing, says Bier of the scene in which Le Carre holds his own reportedly ad-libbing lines with the likes of Hugh Laurie and Tom Hiddleston. Advertisement John le Carres world is white, male and upper class. How did you convince the producers you were right for the job? I said, I know Im none of these things and I think its going to be a big advantage. I love John le Carre and I love that world, so I will preserve the diamond of it, but it will be in a new, contemporary shape. Making it contemporary meant having a strong female element and also portraying the diversity of the current society. I also said, I will make it sexual. This novel is one of his sexiest novels. Everyone in the series is hiding something, has secrets, are never completely honest. They dont know if they can really trust each other. But I think theres an element of something erotic within all the characters and all of their relationships. For me, its a character. Yes, you can talk a lot about psychology and other things. But if the look and detail isnt right, then the character isnt defined. Susanne Bier Talk about turning the novels male ex-SIS chief into a very pregnant woman. When I came on, that character was still a man. Then the producers said, Weve been discussing whether Burr could be a woman, and I went, Yes! Id been looking for a chance to work with Olivia Colman. Shes amazing. So we met at this hotel in London. And she comes in and says, I have to tell you: Im pregnant. And I was, like, [cautiously] Okaaaay. Then I thought, Its going to be fantastic for the character. I think at that time, even the producers, who were quite worried about the risk, had recognized that should [Colman] not work out, Burr would have to be pregnant in the series. It was kind of a gift. Can I just say that Hiddlestons and Elizabeth Debickis hair was perfect in every single scene? How much of that was you? I pay lots of attention to an actors look. For me, its a character. Yes, you can talk a lot about psychology and other things. But if the look and detail isnt right, then the character isnt defined. Youre famous for incorporating unexpected moments in a scene. Give an example of something unscripted that ended up in Night Manager. In the army camp in Episode 5, Roper comes down the stairs and speaks to all the [mercenaries]. It was written as a quiet scene. But because all the extras were Moroccan and didnt understand English, it became this noisy, vibrant scene. Had those extras been picked more carefully, the scene wouldnt have been as great. I think that because things dont work the way you planned them, you get something better. MORE: After some Le Carre-worthy twists, The Night Manager arrives with Hugh Laurie and Tom Hiddleston For these five dramatic actors, the depth of storytelling on TV stuns Olivia Colman steals spy story The Night Manager from high-end Brit stars calendar@latimes.com Anika Noni Rose, one of the stars of Historys acclaimed reboot of the slavery saga Roots, called her involvement in the making of the project a spiritual experience that profoundly moved her in ways she never expected. In a video chat for The Envelope, Rose said there were times when she actually felt there were spirits on the New Orleans set that would manifest themselves through mysterious winds that would abruptly start and then suddenly stop. There were times that you knew you were not alone, and that the story you were telling was not about you, said the actress, who played Kizzy, the daughter of Kunta Kinte, the young African warrior who was captured by slave traders and brought to America. Advertisement See the most-read stories in Entertainment this hour She added, It was about and for all who came before you and made the opportunity for you to tell a story, for you to be able to be in a film and be in a position when someone is coming up to fix a button or put lotion on your ankle or whatever you need. Rose said the story of Roots is timeless and essential. Its so much bigger than me and us. See our full interview with Rose below: Anika Noni Rose chats with The Times Yvonne Villarreal about the retelling of the TV movie Roots. yvonne.villarreal@latimes.com Twitter: @villarrealy MORE FROM ENTERTAINMENT VidCon, the annual video star convention, has gotten so big its expanding globally Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant recounts the creation of Stairway to Heaven in copyright trial Steven Spielberg-produced American Gothic chokes on its own pretensions On the fine line separating the fearless from the reckless is where youll often find Werner Herzog. Again and again over his five decades in film, the German director has turned his lens on figures who walk that tightrope, frequently in exotic landscapes the bear-obsessed loner of Grizzly Man, the Irish rubber baron who wanted to build an opera house in the Peruvian jungle in Fitzcarraldo, the oddball Antarctic poets of Encounters at the End of the World. Such characters seem to be both reflections and projections of the director himself, who has become legendary for real-life episodes of derring-do in the execution of his professional duties, though Herzog recounts them almost nonchalantly. Hes been detained during a coup attempt in Africa (a case of mistaken identity they were looking for a guy named Hertz, he explains with a wave of the hand). He was shot in the crotch near Lookout Mountain in Los Angeles, not far from his home, during an interview with the BBC (a minor wound, he demurs, with a twinkle in his eye). Advertisement Perhaps most infamously, one of Herzogs local crew members sawed off his own foot deep in the South American jungle to save himself from a poisonous snake bite. (It was the right thing to do, because he survived, Herzog intones matter-of-factly, his Bavarian accent still strong despite decades in America.) But at 73, Herzog insists he remains firmly on the sane side of the line. I was always, not without fear, but from a certain point in my life, [fear] is not even in my vocabulary anymore, said Herzog last week at the Shanghai International Film Festival, where he premiered his latest film, Salt and Fire. But its not stupid fearlessness. Theres such a thing as heroic stupidities, and there are some sort of grotesque stupidities, and there are such a thing as stupid stupidities, and Im not into that none of those categories. Yet even after 70-odd films, Herzog continues to push himself and his collaborators -- to extreme places, and Salt and Fire is no exception. A meditative and at times surreal thriller starring Michael Shannon and Veronica Ferres, it was shot in the remote high-altitude salt flats of Bolivia. Salt and Fire is a kidnap drama set against a vague but ominous ecological disaster Herzog contrived called El Diablo Blanco. A multinational conglomerate headed by Shannons character has inflicted some unspecified havoc on the Bolivian landscape, causing the salt flats to multiply with terrifying speed; Ferres, playing a scientist, has been sent as head of a U.N. investigatory unit. Follow the Entertainment section on Facebook! Before the probe can even begin, though, the scientific delegation is abducted. (In a quintessentially Herzogian twist, cosmologist and theoretical physicist Lawrence M. Krauss shows up as one of the bad guys; other characters quote Nostradamus and Ecclesiastes.) Exactly why the hostages have been taken remains unclear until deep into the 98-minute production. As if things werent bad enough, the threat of a massive, planet-ending volcanic eruption looms over the desolate and deadly (yet hauntingly beautiful) white landscape, which in real life stretches over 4,000 square miles. The plot for Salt and Fire was loosely inspired by Tom Bissells short story Aral, about how Soviet authorities misguided irrigation policies destroyed Uzbekistans Aral Sea. But Herzog describes Salt and Fire as being like a daydream and a work that doesnt follow the rules of cinema. Stranded in the blinding white salt flat, with its hexagonal crystalline shapes stretching to the horizon, Shannons and Ferres characters must come to terms with one another and themselves. The question of ecology is very much in the background, says Herzog. Salt and Fire is Herzogs second drama in a row with a female protagonist, following last years Queen of the Desert, which featured Nicole Kidman as British archaeologist and writer Gertrude Bell, who explored the Middle East in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. That movie, which debuted at the 2015 Berlin film festival to mixed reviews, should finally be coming to U.S. theaters this year. Personally I think I should have had female protagonists much more often in my filming life, says Herzog, but why it is like this, I cannot explain. He seems to have found a simpatico muse in Ferres, who had never worked with Herzog before. See the most-read entertainment stories >> For me, it was really challenging, I have to admit, said the 51-year-old, who spent weeks doing altitude conditioning in Europe before the shoot in the remote Bolivian location. From the last village we saw, we were driving one day [to the salt flats]. Just along mud streets, and there were coyotes, and llamas and dried trees and rocks and nothing [else]. I thought, my God, what is Werner doing? If anything happens to anyone, we are one day away from any hospital. So he organized an ambulance car to follow us. At one point, Ferres said, Herzog had to enlist his leading lady to quell a near-mutiny among the crew, who were unhappy when water supplies ran out at the remote guesthouse where they were bunking, leaving them unable to shower. Ultimately, Ferres whose father died just before shooting began came to find the solitude comforting, particularly during filming on a rocky island in the salt flats. Herzog kept most of the crew largely away from Ferres during the filming to create both intimacy and intensity. No one was allowed to even bring me tea or water. He did that, she said. He creates kind of a special space around you. In total, the film took just 16 days to shoot. Thats not atypical, says Herzog. Ive never filmed much footage. I do basically what I need for the screen, he says. Because of that, Im done editing much faster than others. His writing process, too, is expedient. Penning Salt and Fire took him five days. His 1972 feature Aguirre, the Wrath of God, took just 2 days -- largely on a bus filled with inebriated companions swilling from a keg of beer. I had this little typewriter on my knees, he recalls. Everyone was drunk, and singing obscene songs and even vomiting into my typewriter. Respected documentarian Werner Herzog, at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival in Utah, tells The Times what hes learned from the reality show Honey Boo Boo. Herzog says he typically sees a film in his mind, so writing a screenplay is just like copying a text. If you can copy 20 pages a day, in five days, easily you have a screenplay, he shrugs. Im done writing much faster than anyone I know. Which explains in part why Herzog is so prolific. His documentary on technology, Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World, which premiered at Sundance in January, will arrive in American theaters this August. Hes teaching through the online platform Masterclass this summer. In the meantime, hes editing his next documentary, on volcanoes. Shooting for that has taken him to North Korea, Ethiopia, Indonesia and the remote Pacific island nation of Vanuatu. Its not unhealthy; youd better have a new film out every half year to stay relevant, says Herzog. But even he admits that hes got a lot in the pipeline. I have four projects coming out within eight weeks or so. Everyone, somehow, is after me for the moment. DNA test results show a Colorado prison inmate is not Princes son, a person who has seen a sealed document said Wednesday. The finding means that Carlin Q. Williams is not entitled to inherit a fortune worth up to $300 million. The person who spoke to the Associated Press was not authorized to release the finding and therefore requested anonymity. Advertisement TMZ, citing unnamed sources with direct knowledge of the case, first reported the DNA results. Attorneys for Bremer Trust, the special administrator for the estate, filed the results Wednesday in Carver County District Court. Prince died of an accidental drug overdose on April 21 and no will has emerged for him. He had no known surviving children although a few other people besides Williams have filed documents claiming Prince was or might have been their father. Williams claimed that his mother had unprotected sex with Prince at a Kansas City, Mo., hotel in 1976. Williams, a 39-year-old Kansas City man whose long criminal record includes drug and domestic violence charges, is serving nearly eight years in federal prison for unlawfully transporting a firearm in a stolen vehicle. An attorney for Williams did not immediately return messages seeking comment. Messages left with the Bureau of Prisons to request an interview with Williams were not immediately returned Wednesday. He has previously denied a request to be interviewed by the Associated Press. Under Minnesota law, Princes sister, Tyka Nelson, several half-siblings and a possible niece and grandniece currently stand to inherit shares of the estate. There is really nothing to say, said President Nelson, Tyka Nelsons son. There isnt much to say because it was never a thing. Carver County Judge Kevin Eide, who is overseeing the estate case, has not set a deadline for filing paternity and kinship claims. Eide issued an order Wednesday sealing Williams test results due to the confidential nature of the determination of heirship issues under Minnesota law. Williams had long asserted that he was Princes son, though its not clear whether Prince was aware of that. Before he went to prison, Williams was trying to launch a career as a hip-hop artist under the moniker Prince Dracula. His page on Reverbnation, a site that supports emerging artists, describes him as Princes son, and a vocalist and lyricist. Like Princes music, the sound is heavy on synthesizers. Associated Press reporter Amy Forliti contributed to this story. MORE PRINCE NEWS: Prince | 1958 - 2016 Judge in Princes estate case authorizes DNA testing A look into the key players in the Prince investigation Are Princes vaults full of music headed to a Broadway-style musical or Cirque du Soleil-type production? Stephen Colbert is going live during next months political conventions, CBS announced Wednesday. The Late Show will air live from July 18 to July 21 during the Republican National Convention in Cleveland and will resume live broadcast during the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia from July 25 to July 28. Colbert will host the show, as usual, out of the Ed Sullivan Theater in Manhattan, but The Late Show will have a presence on the ground at both events, according to CBS. Advertisement Going live at 11:35 p.m. should allow The Late Show to react in a more timely fashion to the conventions and leverage Colberts perceived strength as a political commentator. The move comes as The Late Show continues to find its footing after 10 months on the air and is locked with ABCs Jimmy Kimmel Live! in a tight race for second place in the ratings. Chris Licht, formerly of CBS This Morning, was brought on board in April as executive producer and show runner, reportedly to free up Colbert to focus on performing. ALSO: How Orange Is the New Black and other shows raise awareness of criminal justice and prison issues Game of Thrones and Outlander top our summer TV binge list The People v. O.J. Simpson cast connected with their characters and each other Follow me @MeredithBlake It doesnt get much more decadent than a plate of aushak, the chive-filled dumplings from Afghanistan. The sheer dumplings are typically served with a meaty, Bolognese-like sauce, layered with swirls of creamy garlic-infused yogurt, a sprinkling of stewed yellow dal and dried mint. In this one plate, you taste the Persian, Indian and Chinese influences found in Afghan cuisine, interwoven over centuries, thanks to the countrys proximity to the Silk Road. Aushak cognoscenti complain that few Afghan restaurants actually serve the labor-intensive dish. And many good sources have evaporated: Old Town Pasadenas Azeens recently rolled up its kilims after a dozen years on Union Street, and Walters Restaurant in Claremont Village no longer lists the dumplings on its menu. If youre looking for the elusive dumplings, here are five restaurants that serve great aushak. At San Fernando Valley Persian restaurant Nan Dagh Kabob Dagh on Lindley Avenue, theres a kebab menu, and then theres a menu of Afghan dishes. Once youre seated and you ask about the bolani (a flatbread from Afghanistan) you see on several tables, the manager will hand you a separate green menu from behind the cash register that reads Khybar Afghan Foods. Advertisement Apparently Khybar catering, which makes and distributes Afghan bread and supplies Nan Dagh Kabob Dagh with its Afghan dishes, is housed within the restaurant. Its menu lists aushak along with other Afghan specialties that you can order any time of day. Khybars version, a plate of sturdy half-moons reminiscent of Italian mezzelune, under a particularly rich tomato sauce, is a testament to the commonly used aushak nickname, Afghan lasagna. 7163 Lindley Ave., Reseda (818) 774-9966. Ariana is another aushak treasure in the West Valley, but its sign simply reads Middle Eastern cuisine. Its menu offers items such as shawarma and grape leaves. But if you sit at one of the maroon-clothed tables close to the open kitchen, Ariana will reveal its true identity. Exiting the roaring deck oven are beautifully bronzed bolani the size of prayer rugs and chaplee kebab, the juicy disks of ground sirloin and marinated lamb chops seasoned Afghan-style. And then theres the aushak, and its meat-filled cousins, mantu. The dumpling dough is fine and silky. And the coriander and ginger in the accompanying sauce impart an unmistakable Central Asian flavor. 19321 Ventura Blvd., Tarzana, (818) 457-4545, www.arianalarestaurant.com. The new Mirage Restaurant and Banquet Hall in Orange County was intended to house a cultural center for Lake Forests surprisingly large Afghan community. Replacing the former El Toro Tack and Feed building in a somewhat obscure business park, the luxurious facility is where Soria Popal, an Afghan chef (formerly of Nimroz), is making aushak. Her refined, carefully plated aushak, stuffed with locally grown Persian chives, balances pungent Asian seasonings with sweet, tangy sauces. The aushak is available every day in the small cafe area in front of the restaurants wine bar. The restaurants menu also includes Italian and Iranian entrees and pizzas. 22731 Aspan St., Lake Forest, (949) 716-4323, www.miragelakeforest.com. At S. Gyros Kabob House and Pizza Parlor, a tiny restaurant in Reseda, the chicken wings and hot dog combos are all halal. These items were the restaurants mainstay in its early days. When owner Sayed Saidzadah came to this country 25 years ago, he thought that introducing unfamiliar foods seemed too risky. But he loved to cook Afghan dishes for us at home, said his daughter Nargis Saidzadah. Today, the backlit photos above S. Gyros ordering window tell a different story. Almost every one features an Afghan specialty, including Saidzadahs aushak, which people carry out by the trayful for catered parties. Shaped like over-filled tortellini, the sturdy pasta is tender, lightly sauced and redolent of herbal notes that dont overshadow the chive filling. 7221 Tampa Ave., Reseda (818) 341-1946. At Chili Chutney in Lake Forest, Afghan families fill the tables and share heaping platters of qabili pilau (an Afghan rice pilaf dish), rich chicken korma, potato-stuffed bolani, aushak and the bright bowls of chutney for which the restaurant is known. Chili Chutney started life as a six-table hole in the wall with an Afghan-only menu. As word of its aushak spread, it expanded into a larger two-room space that turns an Afghan meal into a full immersion experience. Instead of sitting in the formal dining area, ask to be seated in the more whimsical second room with its pillowed sofas and sheer fabric-draped booths. 24301 Muirlands Blvd., No. 1A, Lake Forest, (949) 859-1778, www.chilichutney.com. ALSO: Cool off with this refreshing cucumber mint lemonade recipe This La Verne gas station has great breakfast burritos, but not for long Head to Restaurant Marin in Costa Mesa for giant English muffins and chicken pot pie California showed a slight decline in reported anti-Semitic incidents from 2014 to 2015, according to an audit released Wednesday by the Anti-Defamation League. The ADLs annual audit identifies both criminal and noncriminal acts of harassment and intimidation, including distribution of hate propaganda, threats and slurs. In 2015, the group counted 105 incidents in California, compared with 127 incidents in 2014. Advertisement Its not a scientific survey, its not a poll, said Amanda Susskind, ADL Pacific Southwest Regional Director. This is something that is a headcount. Were just counting how many reports weve heard about from the public, the press, law enforcement and the community. Despite an overall drop in reported incidents, the ADL said that episodes of anti-Semitic vandalism had increased. In 2015, there were 69 reports of vandalism in California, up from 54 in 2014 Traditionally, California and New York, with large Jewish populations, report the highest number of incidents. Last year, New York reported the most incidents with 198. California had the second-highest number of reported incidents. Overall, anti-Semitic incident totals in the U.S. are historically low, the ADL said in a news release. During the last decade, the number of reported anti-Semitic incidents peaked at 1,554 in 2006 and has been mostly on the decline ever since. alexia.fernandez@latimes.com @alexiafedz The Southern California heat is just too much to bear for some and apparently even criminals need relief. Case in point: the bikini bandit. Authorities in Santa Clarita announced Tuesday that they were in search of a woman who sported a bikini during recent break-ins. Clad in two-piece bathing suit, the unidentified woman broke into a locked property in the 28000 block of West Avenue C-6 in Lancaster on June 4, sheriffs deputies said. Advertisement Hours later, she entered an unlocked home in 47000 block of Three Points Road in Lake Hughes. In both instances, the woman stole belongings, deputies said. Although temperatures didnt soar over the 100-degree mark on June 4 as they did this week, temperatures reached the mid-90s. She was believed to be in her 30s, is 5 feet 5 inches tall, weighs 120 pounds and was wearing a yellow bikini bottom and green top. Anyone who has seen the woman and can help detectives identify her is urged to call the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriffs Station at (661) 255-1121, ext. 51565. For breaking news in California, follow VeronicaRochaLA on Twitter. ALSO Prosecutor calls for mandatory prison for sexual assaults like Brock Turners Party bus driver charged after 33 Marin County teens found with pills, booze, fake IDs San Diego high school cheerleader charged in fatal beating of homeless man A cluster bomb was dropped off Wednesday afternoon at a business in Newhall for disposal, sheriffs officials said. The bomb was left about 2 p.m. at a military supply store in the neighborhood of Newhall Avenue and 8th Street, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department. Members of the sheriffs departments Arson and Explosives Detail arrived in the area about 45 minutes later. Bomb experts safely detonated the device just after 3:30 p.m., sheriffs officials said. Advertisement At one point, deputies tweeted that evacuations were underway at a nearby community center. But they later said the center was not evacuated. Deputies from the Santa Clarita Sheriffs Station described the device as a cluster bomb, which releases projectiles when detonated. For breaking news in California, follow VeronicaRochaLA on Twitter. MORE LOCAL NEWS Huge increase in dead trees across California forests, heightening fire risk this summer L.A. Uber driver threatens to hit passenger with a rock, steals his iPhone, police say Twin fires in San Gabriel Mountains force hundreds of evacuations amid brutal conditions UPDATES: 3:49 p.m.: This article was updated with bomb experts safety detonating the bomb. This article was originally published at 3:03 p.m. Los Angeles County supervisors voted Tuesday not to appeal a judges ruling that will strike a cross from the county seal. In April, a federal court judge sided with the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California and a group of religious leaders and scholars of various faiths who sued the county over the addition of a cross to the depiction of the San Gabriel Mission on the seal. The plaintiffs argued that the design unconstitutionally favored Christianity over other religions. A divided Board of Supervisors voted in 2014 to reinstate a cross on the seal. Ten years earlier, the county had redesigned the seal to remove a cross that was shown floating above the Hollywood Bowl, after being threatened with a similar lawsuit. Advertisement At that time, there was no cross atop the real San Gabriel Mission; it had gone missing during earthquake retrofitting. The cross was later restored on top of the building. Supervisors Michael D. Antonovich and Don Knabe argued that reinstating the cross on the depiction of the mission on the seal was necessary for historical and architectural accuracy. They were joined by Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas in voting to restore the cross on the seal, while then-Supervisors Zev Yaroslavsky and Gloria Molina voted to oppose it. In her April ruling, U.S. District Judge Christina A. Snyder wrote that the change and the associated expenditure of public funds places the countys power, prestige, and purse behind a single religion, Christianity, without making any such benefit available on an equal basis to those with secular objectives or alternative sectarian views. On Tuesday, after a closed-door discussion of the lawsuit, Ridley-Thomas joined Supervisors Sheila Kuehl and Hilda Solis in voting not to appeal the court decision, with Knabe and Antonovich dissenting. Ridley-Thomas said in a statement on his change in stance: The court has spoken and in the interest of the county I think we need to move on and focus our attention on some of the more pressing issues like the crisis of homelessness. Antonovich, reached by phone, said he was confident that the county would have prevailed on appeal. Once again, the ACLU, who I refer to as the Atheist Criminal Liberties Union, was successful in bullying their way to rewrite history, he said. This was a victory for the book burners. The ACLU of Southern California said in a statement Tuesday, The ill-conceived and misguided effort to alter the county seal and favor Christianity over all other faiths has cost taxpayers at least $1 million. Todays action guarantees that the taxpayers will not be forced to suffer further. The county previously refused to disclose how much it spent on outside legal fees in the case, citing ongoing litigation. ACLU spokeswoman Sandra Hernandez said $1 million was a conservative estimate of legal fees and the cost of redesigning the seal. abby.sewell@latimes.com Twitter: @sewella UPDATES: 5:35 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from Supervisors Michael D. Antonovich and Mark Ridley-Thomas. This article was first posted at 5:19 p.m. When forecasters last year warned of a massive El Nino, some Californians held out hope that a single extremely wet year could bust the states severe drought. But a study published Tuesday in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union, offered support for the argument that state hydrologists have been making for months: It will take several years to recover from the four-year water shortage. Specifically, researchers studied the Sierra Nevada and found that the lackluster snowpack there, year after year, created a sizable water deficit that the state may not recoup until 2019. Advertisement The main take-home is thinking about drought over longer time scales, said the studys principal investigator, Steve Margulis of UCLAs Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science. The first wet year doesnt necessarily solve the longer-term problem. The size of Californias snowpack became a statewide concern in April 2015 when its water content hit 5% of average -- the lowest in 500 years. Gov. Jerry Brown made a point of standing on a barren field that should have been blanketed in powder when he ordered a 25% reduction in urban water usage to free up the resource during the drought. Since then, many Californians have closely monitored the health of the Sierra Nevada snowpack. As snow melts, it runs off into the states reservoirs, providing Californians with roughly a third of their water supply in a typical year. As 2015 wound to a close, forecasters predicted that a strong El Nino would drench much of Southern California and part of northern California. But the winter turned out to be essentially average, dashing any hope that the drought would end abruptly. On March 30, surveyors found that the water content held by the states snowpack was 87% of normal a vast improvement from 5% the year prior, but still below average. Margulis and his team used both the states records and satellite data to get a full picture of the Sierra Nevada snowpack and determine how large a water deficit the drought created over four years. They tallied the water that the state didnt get from its snowpack each year and found that it added up to the highest cumulative deficit ever over the 65-year period the authors analyzed. The researchers then used probability models based on the historical record to predict the volume of the snowpack in the coming years. The models did not incorporate factors such as temperature and climate change, Margulis said. Their analysis found 14 of the 65 years studied would be classified as drought. In all but one of the drought events, the snowpack deficit recovered within a single year, the study said. Californias most recent drought is different, though, the study said. The researchers found a 7% chance that the drought would be fully alleviated in 2016. A full recovery, they said, is expected to take about 4.4 years. Margulis, who is a professor of civil and environmental engineering, said the snowpack might have been able to recover from four years of less severe drought in a single year. But the last four years were so crazy, that wasnt possible. What weve seen the last four years might be the new normal going forward, Margulis said. Under climate change, if this kind of deficit happens more frequently, then longer-term recoveries will become more common. ALSO Man arrested in theft of trailer containing $250,000 in artwork by Matisse and Chagall San Diego high school cheerleader charged in fatal beating of homeless man Some prominent California Trump backers have buyers remorse matt.stevens@latimes.com Twitter: @ByMattStevens Business / Economy by Staff reporter This week the Government is to finalise its agreement to repay some $1,8 billion of arrears to multilateral financial institutions triggering its re-entry into the international financial system after almost two decades in the cold.The news comes as Zimbabweans continue to struggle with a chronic shortage of the US dollar bills, the main denomination in the country's multi-currency financial system, and the Government has announced it will be phasing the payment of salaries for June over the next three weeks.The boards of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the African Development Bank are due to meet in September to confirm the settlement of all outstanding payments to them and discuss plans for fresh loans to Zimbabwe.The road map for Zimbabwe's return to the international system was launched at the IMF and World Banks' annual meeting in Lima last September and was finalised at a special meeting at the African Development Bank in Lusaka on May 27.Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa is due to arrive in France on June 30 for talks with the Paris Club of official creditors on a schedule to resolve arrears on bilateral debts. A team from the IMF arrived in Harare on June 15 for follow up discussions after it had assessed Zimbabwe's adherence to agreed reforms as satisfactory. He will then go to London to address the Africa Confidential conference: "Zimbabwe: rebooting and rebuilding" on July 5.He'll be accompanied by a senior delegation including John Mangudya, Governor of the Reserve Bank and the ministers of Trade and Commerce, Mining, and Investment.The next step is for the Government to negotiate a medium-term programme of economic restructuring with the IMF which will include much tougher measures and more rigorous monitoring but could be worth as much as $1 billion.The loan conditions will include deep cuts to the public sector payroll, commercialisation and privatisation of state-owned enterprises, and a roster of pro-business policies in agriculture, banking and industry. All that will require much greater accountability and public audits of Government institutions.While some diplomats and foreign governments differ over the Government's plan, China, Russia and India are broadly supportive but have been less forthcoming with budgetary cash than the Government hoped. But all three are lining up to invest in mining and power projects.European governments have given conditional support to the deal with the IMF and World Bank but want to see further political and constitutional reforms. The Los Angeles City Councils tortured dealings with a troupe of antagonistic gadflies took another strange turn Tuesday, as police confiscated a tool with a blade from a masked man who frequently appears at public meetings to berate council members. The incident took place during a morning meeting of the councils Public Safety Committee. Los Angeles Police Capt. Vito Palazzolo said an officer noticed the item a device about 2 inches long with a retractable blade on Armando Herman, who was attending the meeting carrying a stuffed bear dressed in a swastika-decorated hood. Palazzolo said Herman was apologetic and told the officer he hadnt realized he was carrying the device. No arrest was made, although Herman was kicked out of the meeting soon afterward for dancing in the aisle and waving the teddy bear. Advertisement Herman, who regularly harangues council members with obscenity-laced monologues during public comment periods, is part of a small group of gadflies whose invective has tested the bounds of free speech in recent years. In 2014, the city paid $215,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by a black Venice resident who was ejected from a meeting for wearing a Ku Klux Klan hood and a shirt with a racist slur. City lawyers also recently obtained a restraining order against another frequent visitor to the council, Encino lawyer Wayne Spindler, who was arrested last month on suspicion of making a racist threat against Council President Herb Wesson. No charges have been filed against Spindler, who was taken into custody after he turned in a City Hall public comment card with the N-word and a drawing of a lynching and a burning cross. See the most-read stories in Local News this hour >> After that incident, Spindler filed legal claims against the city for $775,000, saying he was the victim of false arrest and was denied his right to free speech. He has asserted that the drawings were satirical and that the hanging figure was meant to represent L.A. residents being lynched by higher water and power rates. Reappearing at another council meeting Tuesday wearing a deaths head mask and still carrying his stuffed bear, Herman said the tool is for opening boxes and that he voluntarily gave it to police. He said he was being harassed by city officials and likened Spindlers case to his own. Look what they did to Wayne Spindler, Herman said. Im in the same category as him. peter.jamison@latimes.com @petejamison kate.mather@latimes.com @katemather david.zahniser@latimes.com @davidzahniser Times staff writer Emily Alpert Reyes contributed to this report. MORE LOCAL NEWS Huge increase in dead trees across California forests, heightening fire risk this summer L.A. Uber driver threatens to hit passenger with a rock, steals his iPhone, police say Twin fires in San Gabriel Mountains force hundreds of evacuations amid brutal conditions Hundreds of Duarte residents who were evacuated this week as a pair of wildfires burned in the Angeles National Forest will be allowed to return home Wednesday afternoon, officials said. Improved weather conditions have aided firefighters battling the Reservoir and Fish fires in the San Gabriel mountains. Crews had contained part of the southern flank of the Fish fire, which on Monday forced the evacuations of hundreds of Duarte homes. Residents north of Royal Oaks Drive between Greenbank Avenue and Encanto Parkway will be allowed to return home at noon, Los Angeles County Sheriffs Capt. David Halm said at a morning news conference. About 858 homes had been evacuated in the foothills areas this week, and about 534 households will be allowed to return, he said. Advertisement Returning residents, he said, will have to show identification. Horses and large animals are not yet being allowed back into the evacuated areas, where authorities have had a large presence as they guarded empty homes, Halm said. The fires, which are being handled as a single incident called the San Gabriel Complex fire, have burned 4,900 acres and were 10% contained Wednesday morning. On Tuesday, authorities had estimated the size of the fire at 5,400 acres, but revised that figure based on infrared observations from aircraft made overnight. The battle against the flames has been aided by a cooling and moistening trend in the days following Mondays record-breaking heat, according to authorities. However, steep, challenging terrain still presents a problem, said Mike Wakoski, a spokesman for the multi-agency wildfire effort. Weve got to make as much progress as possible while the weather [is being] favorable for us right now,Los Angeles County Fire Dept. Deputy Chief Vince Pena said. Were trying to secure as much as possible before the next heat wave comes. Alex Bernardini, left, and his mother Regina move valuables back into their home two days after they were forced to evacuate as the Fish fire burned in the nearby hillsides. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) Firefighters have also been instructed to avoid a 1,000-foot radius area around a nest where a baby bald eagle is getting ready to fledge, according to an official with the U.S. Forest Service. The eagles nest is not located in a part of the mountains where the fire is burning, and therefore not directly vulnerable to fire crews, according to Ann Berkley, a wildlife biologist with the Forest Service. The 1,000-foot buffer zone above and around the nest is mainly intended for helicopters, which create noise and air turbulence that could disturb the chick as it is getting ready to fledge. We dont want to startle him out of the nest because it could be very detrimental to his survival, Berkley said The bald eagle is no longer considered an endangered species, but it is federally protected under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act. Matt Mehle, a meteorologist from the National Weather Service, said high temperatures Wednesday would be in the 80s and 90s, with humidity in the double digits much better conditions than when the fires started in Mondays record-breaking heat. Todays main concern will be stronger west and southwest winds, Mehle said. Those winds could be in alignment with the direction of the San Gabriel Canyon, where the fire is burning, making them more powerful. Triple-digit heat is possible again this weekend, according to the National Weather Service. Improved weather has allowed fire authorities to divert resources from a brush fire burning in Santa Barbara County to the San Gabriel Complex fire. Most evacuations from the Sherpa fire in the Santa Ynez Mountains and Los Padres National Forest were lifted at 5 a.m. Wednesday as weather improved and firefighters increased containment, allowing crews to head south to Los Angeles and San Diego counties, Santa Barbara County officials said. More than 1,000 firefighters have been battling the Reservoir and Fish fires, which have burned about 1.5 miles apart in the mountains above Duarte and Azusa. The blazes raged in a tinderbox region of the forest that had not burned for many years. See the most-read stories this hour >> The Reservoir fire was reported first, about 11 a.m. Monday, at Highway 39 in the San Gabriel Mountains, and was apparently ignited by a car crash that killed one person, authorities said. A vehicle went over the side of the road and plunged to the bottom of a canyon near Morris Reservoir, said John Tripp, deputy chief of the Los Angeles County Fire Department. The Fish fire erupted more than an hour later near Brookridge and Opal Canyon roads in Duarte. The causes of both fires remain under investigation. Other crews from the Sherpa fire were headed to San Diego County, where a wildfire fueled by dry brush and sweltering temperatures had scorched 6,020 acres just north of the U.S.-Mexico border and prompted mandatory evacuations for the entire east county community of Potrero. The Border fire was about 10% contained, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. About 25 homes south of State Route 94 and east of State Route 188, near where the fire was initially sparked about 11:30 a.m. Sunday, were also evacuated. The Border fire has destroyed four outbuildings and left three firefighters with minor injuries. The cause is under investigation. Staff writer Ruben Vives contributed to this report. For breaking California news, follow @JosephSerna. ALSO Shutting down the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant will be a long and costly process Land around San Andreas fault rising and sinking, new earthquake research shows It will take years of wet weather before California recovers from drought, study finds UPDATES: 10:40 a.m.: This article was updated with new details from a morning press briefing. 7:56 a.m.: This article was updated with details on evacuations and Wednesdays forecast. This article was originally published at 6:39 a.m. A Long Beach man and his recreational vehicle storage company in Imperial County were charged Tuesday with illegally disposing sewage and violating federal water laws. Federal prosecutors in San Diego allege that Kyle Vestermark, a firefighter with the city of Long Beach, and his company, Dunes Edge Storage, dumped sewage from RVs parked at two locations near El Centro over a four-year period, according to an eight-count indictment. Reached Tuesday evening by telephone, Vestermark declined to comment on the case and referred questions to his attorney, Jeremy Warren. Advertisement The government is wrong about Kyle Vestermark, Warren said, calling him a dedicated public servant who will defend himself against baseless charges. He has put his life on the line to protect the public every day for the last 18 years. He did absolutely nothing to endanger the public in his side business. Vestermark, 46, secured a permit in 2004 for a 10,000-gallon sewage tank at a storage facility in Brawley from the Imperial County Public Health Department. He obtained a second permit in 2005 for his Holtville location. According to the indictment, the permits did not allow for installing underground leach lines, which typically disperse waste underground. The permits called for another company to pump out sewage from the tanks and transport it to a treatment plant. But prosecutors contend that at both sites, Vestermark installed underground leach lines in 2005 and 2006, which allegedly sent sewage underground. The lines were removed after Imperial County officials discovered them in 2015, prosecutors said. Vestermark and his firm were charged with conspiracy to illegally discharge sewage and seven counts of unlawful injection of sewage. Others involved in RV storage near the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area have been targeted for unlawful sewage dumping in recent years. In May, Daniel Williams of Arizona admitted to hiding the underground sewage disposal system at Dunes Toy Storage, which is also owned by Vestermarks company, according to federal prosecutors. He is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 5 and faces up to five years in prison. In 2014, Michael Mamelli Sr. of Newport Beach pleaded guilty to dumping potentially millions of gallons of sewage over four years at his RV storage company in Glamis in Imperial County. Mamelli was sentenced to time served and he and his company were ordered to pay about $60,000 in fines. ALSO Palisades Village redevelopment by Rick Caruso receives final approval Tool with blade confiscated from gadfly at public meeting Twin fires in San Gabriel Mountains force hundreds of evacuations amid brutal conditions matt.hamilton@latimes.com For more news in California, follow @MattHjourno. A high school cheerleader has been charged in connection with the beating death of a homeless man in San Diego County, officials said. Hailey Suder, 18, pleaded not guilty Monday to two felony counts of being an accessory after the fact, according to Tanya Sierra, spokeswoman for the San Diego County district attorneys office. Suder was dating one of two brothers charged with killing 50 year-old George Lowery, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported. Sheriffs homicide investigators did not say what role she played in Lowerys death, and which brother she was dating. Advertisement Suder was a senior at Santana High School, but did not graduate with her class this month, said Catherine Martin, spokeswoman for the Grossmont Union High School District. She was a cheerleader, Martin said. In a photograph on Suders Facebook profile, she and three other cheerleaders were pictured posing together holding pom poms. On Facebook, Suder listed her relationship status as single. Brothers Austin Mostrong, 20, and Preston Mostrong, 19, have admitted involvement in Lowerys beating, according to Deputy Dist. Atty. George Modlin. Lowerys wife found him unconscious April 24 near their camp in a river bottom at Chubb Lane and North Magnolia Avenue in Santee, according to the San Diego County Sheriffs Department. Lowery suffered severe trauma after being kicked and punched in the head. He was taken to a hospital, where he died days later. Sheriffs investigators alleged Lowery was tortured during the attack. Lowerys daughter, Katey Torres, set up a GoFundMe account to raise funds for the familys expenses. See the most-read stories in Local News this hour >> She said her mother and father had been married 25 years. His whole life revolved around his wife, Penny, Torres said. Working and doing any handy work he could to provide for him and his wife and family. Her mother, she said, found her father brutally beaten, bloody, tied up, face down and unconscious. Covered up to die. Torres described her father as a generous man who suffered in his last days. He had a stroke and two brain hemorrhages as a result of the beating. Although he did not have much he was always giving, she said. Anyone he came across loved his personality and he was always talking to people. Anyone he saw that needed help or just needed a smile hed be there lifting your spirits. If someone was in need he would do what he could to help, no matter how hard the task. If he came across good fortune, he shared it. For breaking news in California, follow VeronicaRochaLA on Twitter. MORE LOCAL NEWS 1 in 10 Cal State students is homeless, study finds L.A. will keep getting hotter, scientists say a lot hotter Woman who defiled national parks with graffiti banned from 524 million acres of public land Lake Elsinore Mayor Brian Tisdale was arrested Monday on suspicion of attacking his wife, according to authorities and a posting on Tisdales Facebook page. Tisdale, 53, was taken into custody on suspicion of battery and vandalism, according to the Riverside County Sheriffs Department. Lake Elsinore police were called about 1:30 a.m. to Tisdales home in the 19000 block of Applewood Court for a domestic disturbance, sheriffs officials said. Advertisement Further details of the disturbance were not released. Tisdale posted a statement on Facebook the following day, saying that he and his wife were involved in a dispute. Tisdale, who was released from custody, said he will not comment on the incident but planned to take full responsibility for his actions. See the most-read stories in Local News this hour >> I apologize to all of those who have, or will be impacted, particularly my children, he wrote. Tisdale announced he would be taking an immediate leave of absence from his roles as Lake Elsinores mayor and legislative assistant for Riverside County District 3 Supt. Chuck Washington. Tisdale, a retired U.S. Marine Corps master sergeant, began serving his four-year term as mayor in November 2014. He has been serving as an elected official on the Lake Elsinore City Council since 2010. I urge my colleagues on the City Council and the community to continue the positive momentum to build a better, healthier and vibrant city of Lake Elsinore, he wrote Tuesday. According to his biography on Washingtons website, Tisdale has been married to his wife, Sharon Tisdale, for 22 years. The couple have two school-age children. For breaking news in California, follow VeronicaRochaLA on Twitter. MORE LOCAL NEWS Huge increase in dead trees across California forests, heightening fire risk this summer L.A. Uber driver threatens to hit passenger with a rock, steals his iPhone, police say Twin fires in San Gabriel Mountains force hundreds of evacuations amid brutal conditions The Los Angeles City Council gave its final approval Wednesday to a five-year, $57.6-million plan to buy thousands of police body cameras, clearing the way for the LAPD to resume rolling out the devices after a six-month delay. The LAPD is poised to become the largest law enforcement agency in the country to use the cameras on a widespread scale, with plans to distribute 7,000 devices among officers. Wednesdays decision capped a sometimes-rocky review process for the LAPDs body camera initiative, which was backed by Mayor Eric Garcetti and his appointees on the Police Commission. The rollout came to a standstill in recent months amid lingering concerns from city lawmakers. Advertisement Garcetti said in a statement Wednesday that the vote marked a historic moment for the LAPD. Police Commissioner Steve Soboroff, who spearheaded efforts to bring body cameras to the LAPD, echoed the mayors comments, calling Wednesday a really good day not only for the LAPD, but for other agencies that he said would look to the Los Angeles Police Department when creating their own body camera programs. The sooner we would have gotten the cameras the better, Soboroff said. But, he said, council members in recent months asked really good questions to which there were really good answers. Last year, city lawmakers began voicing dismay over the programs cost $57.6 million over five years and raised questions about whether the Police Department got the best deal possible. Competing technology firms complained they were unfairly left out of the LAPD selection process, which relied in part on a competitive search conducted by the much smaller Kern County Sheriffs Department. As a result, city lawmakers postponed a crucial vote to approve the body camera program, delaying the rollout for months and derailing Garcettis pledge to put a camera on nearly every officer by the end of this year. LAPD officials do not expect to finish outfitting 7,000 officers with cameras until late 2017, at the earliest. Body cameras have been hailed as a key tool for improving police accountability and building community trust in law enforcement. Garcetti unveiled his initiative in late 2014 amid nationwide protests over how police use force, particularly against African Americans. Critics of the LAPDs plans have been less enthusiastic, saying the departments policy for the cameras will undermine efforts to improve police oversight. The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, for example, has opposed the program for months, criticizing the LAPDs decision not to publicly release body camera footage without a court order. Catherine Wagner, an attorney for the ACLU, said Wednesday that the LAPDs policies for how the cameras will be used represent a backward step for public trust. She said her organization would evaluate its next steps as it continues to monitor the programs implementation. If people think these body cameras will improve police accountability, transparency and public trust, they are sadly mistaken, she said. This is money down the drain. The LAPD already has about 860 cameras, purchased with private donations. Last year, the department negotiated a contract with Taser International to provide thousands more, along with replacement equipment, digital storage of the recordings and 4,400 Tasers. The council was set to vote on the $31.2-million contract in December. But city lawmakers balked at the last minute, saying they were worried that the technology would require scores of police officers to review camera footage and monitor the use of the devices. The LAPD later revised its plan to include more civilian staffers. The concerns continued in April, when Councilman Mitch Englander questioned whether the LAPD should start the selection process over and accept new bids from camera manufacturers. Police commissioners defended the process, saying the initiative was too important to delay further. Englander, who heads the councils Public Safety Committee, asked for a fresh analysis of the body camera market. LAPD officials then surveyed several camera companies to determine whether they had made upgrades to their devices or storage systems, but decided Taser still was their preferred choice. ALSO Prosecutor calls for mandatory prison for sexual assaults like Brock Turners 26 million trees have died in the Sierra since October, raising fire risk Property owner asks Verity Baptist Church to leave after pastor praises Orlando massacre UPDATES: 1:27 p.m.: This article was updated with additional comments from the ACLU. This article was originally published at 12:09 p.m. Encounters with the citys homeless population have long been among the most sensitive and legally fraught parts of being a Los Angeles police officer. Police have taken a leading role over the last decade helping clean up the streets of a rapidly gentrifying downtown L.A., resulting in historic legal battles over the rights of homeless people and the limits of law enforcement. Last year, two of the most controversial L.A. Police Department use-of-force cases involved homeless men fatally shot by officers. These interactions are often complicated by mental health and substance abuse issues suffered by homeless people, a problem that some advocates said the LAPD has struggled to effectively address. Advertisement On Tuesday, the LAPD moved to reset this relationship. The Los Angeles Police Commission approved a new policy directing LAPD officers to treat homeless people with compassion and empathy. Top LAPD officials say the policy is part of a larger effort to rethink the way officers approach the citys growing homeless population and try to ease tensions. Its important on a number of levels as we begin to move forward in what I hope will be a big transition in the way that our streets appear and the way that some of the most vulnerable of the people in Los Angeles live, Chief Charlie Beck said. The LAPDs move comes amid renewed efforts by city and county officials to provide housing and other services to the swelling number of people living in tents, cars and shelters across the region. An estimated 47,000 homeless people live in Los Angeles County, nearly two-thirds of whom live in the city of L.A. The rules direct LAPD officers, when appropriate, to offer homeless Angelenos information about housing, medical or psychological services yet respect their right to refuse help. It reminds officers that some homeless residents may have mental or medical conditions affecting their ability to communicate. Others, the policy say, may not carry proper identification, and may feel harassed by officers who ask for an ID. The department is rolling out other efforts to address homelessness, including working on new outreach teams, and looking to better analyze crimes within the homeless community in hopes of preventing them from occurring, said Cmdr. Todd Chamberlain, who heads the LAPDs homeless efforts. The policy was meant to be a broad statement a philosophy more than it is the nuts and bolts, Chamberlain recently told police commissioners. More specifics will come in future directives, he added. But the new statement was met with some skepticism from homeless advocates. Gary Blasi, a retired UCLA law professor who studies homelessness, said it would take more than a policy to improve interactions between officers and those living on the citys streets. To do that, he said, the city should limit laws that unfairly criminalize situations involving homeless people so that the police are not involved in the first place. The policy is probably too generic to have much effect, he said. It will enable the city to say that it has a humane policy while doing nothing concrete to make police actions more humane. Homeless advocates often accuse police of unfairly sweeping through encampments to tear down tents, take belongings, and hand out tickets or arrest those who dont comply. The sweeps have resulted in a series of lawsuits filed against the city, with courts frequently siding with the homeless and rejecting the citys actions to clean up sidewalks. Still, others credit police tactics with reducing crime and blight in some parts of downtown L.A. over the last decade. Some downtown residents and businesses say the police need to step in to make sidewalks passable and deal with drug dealing and other crimes within the homeless community. The issue of how police interact with the homeless came into focus in 1999, when an LAPD officer fatally shot a 102-pound homeless woman, Margaret Mitchell, who waved a screwdriver at police along a sidewalk near 4th Street and La Brea Avenue. The citys police commissioners overruled then-Police Chief Bernard Parks, saying Mitchell did not present a deadly threat to police and that therefore the shooting was out of policy. Mitchells death prompted protests by civil rights activists and other critics. Last year, two deadly police shootings stoked the long-simmering tensions among the citys homeless and their advocates, renewing criticism that officers were too quick to use heavy-handed tactics. In March, the LAPD drew international attention after a witness posted an online video showing the fatal police shooting of a man living on skid row, the sprawling stretch of makeshift camps located not far from City Hall. The LAPD said officers opened fire after Charly Keunang, known by the name Africa on skid row, reached for a rookie officers holstered gun. Two months later, an officer shot and killed another homeless man during a scuffle near the Venice boardwalk. Beck has publicly recommended that Officer Clifford Proctor be criminally charged in the death of Brendon Glenn, a shooting the Police Commission also determined had violated department policies for using deadly force. The LAPD said officers are a last-resort response to a problem that goes beyond policing. It will take a multi-faceted approach, police officials say, complete with additional housing, treatment and other social services, to best help the homeless. Our officers are on the front lines of this crisis. Each day, we ask them to act as members of law enforcement, social workers, psychologists often in a single encounter, Matt Johnson, the president of the Police Commission, said Tuesday. The policy before us today emphasizes peoples rights and dignity, and provides a balanced, compassionate framework for the LAPD to operate under. Mayor Eric Garcetti also praised the initiative, noting how frequently police contact homeless residents. The policy, he said, gives officers guidance on how to elevate those interactions into opportunities. The policy was a good start, but didnt go far enough, said Carol Sobel, a civil rights attorney who has successfully sued the city over how it treats the homeless. The key, she said, will be for the LAPD to monitor officers to ensure theyre abiding by the new guidelines. Well believe it when we see it, Sobel said. You can hand out all the policies you want that doesnt make a difference unless you put enforcement behind it. kate.mather@latimes.com Follow me on Twitter: @katemather ALSO Man arrested in theft of trailer containing $250,000 in artwork by Matisse and Chagall San Diego high school cheerleader charged in fatal beating of homeless man Some prominent California Trump backers have buyers remorse Imagine this: A stunning, untouched beach, marked by crashing blue surf and a broad shoulder of dunes that are home to native plants and wildlife. Now imagine this: A massive condo-and-hotel monstrosity carved into the wall of sand, permanently scarring the landscape and, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, destroying the habitat of birds protected under the Endangered Species Act. Im going to start my travels at the Oregon border and drive all the way to Mexico. Advertisement The location is Sand City, Calif., just north of Monterey, and the long-contested development is inching toward reality. The developer and the staff of the California Coastal Commission are haggling over conditions that must be met before construction begins. There! said Blake Matheson, president of the Monterey Audubon Society, who gave me a tour of the site last week. You see that snowball moving toward the surf? Thats a snowy plover. Blake Matheson, president of the Monterey Audubon Society, at the site of a proposed development in Sand City, Calif. (Steve Lopez / Los Angeles Times ) We saw several more plovers on our walk. The developer of the property has argued that his eco resort will restore damaged habitat rather than negatively impact it. But Matheson isnt buying that. All I can do is listen to what the biologists say, Matheson told me. And what they say is that all that construction and the development it creates will disrupt the plovers breeding habits. The birds, Matheson said, are not going to nest on the roof of the hotel. That development, and another hotel proposed for the same beach, are reason enough to insist on strict interpretation and enforcement of the California Coastal Act, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. Ill head back to Monterey later this summer to see if the bulldozers have begun rousting the birds. But as noted in my Sunday column, Im going to start my travels at the Oregon border and drive all the way to Mexico, sizing up the Coastal Commissions successes, failures and ongoing challenges, meeting with crusaders and characters along the way. Based on the response to that column, I cant believe I didnt think of this sooner. Californians, unsurprisingly, are crazy about their coast and passionate about preserving what hasnt already been plundered. The birds are not going to nest on the roof of the hotel. Blake Matheson, president of the Monterey Audubon Society Ive received love letters to beaches. Poems. Invitations to tour imperiled open spaces. Offers to meet with the pioneers who started the coastal preservation movement. A reading list of books extolling the magnificence of Californias 1,100-mile shoreline. Tirades against Gov. Jerry Brown, who has been silent on the running controversies involving coastal commissioners including his own appointees. On your coastal journey can you invite Jerry to meet you at some great spot!?? wrote Joyce from San Diego. His myopia is so disappointing. Actually, Joyce, I already pitched that very thing to Gov. Brown. I offered through a spokesman to meet the governor any time and anywhere, but preferably on a beach. He was, after all, the governor who, in 1976, signed the Coastal Act into being. But by his inaction now, plenty of coastal stewards wonder if Brown is more interested in coastal development than coastal preservation. Break the silence, I say. Let us know where you stand. A woman named Elizabeth Bishop certainly let me know where I stand with her. She read my Sunday column and sent me a withering put-down, asking if I was familiar with the word humility. Clearly not, she said, answering the question for me and suggesting my only purpose is to get a paid vacation and pretend that Im important. You are so full of yourself. Elizabeth Bishop, a reader That wasnt my first motivation, Elizabeth, but its not the worst idea ever. You are so full of yourself, she went on. But wait, Elizabeth, Im just trying... Disgusting, she continued. Holding people accountable is all Im trying to Be humble, she said. With Californias coast, I am humbled. Its a gift, and it has to be robustly defended, protected, preserved for generations to come, and open to everyone regardless of income. Im 70 years old and I still delight in sticking my toes in the sand and listening to the children beside me squeal as they do the same, wrote Shirley LaCanfora of Torrance, who has been sinking her feet into the sand at Redondo Beach since she was 4. My parents would often drive us, my brother and I, to the Esplanade just to sit and watch the sun go down. It was free and it was wonderful. It does so much for the spirit to be able to take in the beauty of the oceans horizon. It should be available for all to see. But sometimes the views arent so spectacular. Frances ONeill Zimmerman wants me to see the ugly oversize condos cluttering the shore near her home in La Jolla. Steve Stanage of Corona has invited me to pub crawl up the coast by trawler and I cant say no to that, even if he did invite my colleague Chris Erskine first. Im going to start my travels way up north in mid-July, dropping in on Jennifer Kalt of Humboldt Baykeeper. Shes going to give me a tour of some coastal preservation victories and update me on the politics of Gov. Browns upcoming replacement of Coastal Commissioner Martha McClure, a Del Norte County supervisor who was voted out of office this month in part because she lost the support of local environmentalists. Im still open to suggestions, so dont hesitate to write. Or to tweet with the hashtag #saveyourcoast maybe throwing in a nudge to @JerryBrownGov. Tom Osborne, who is writing a book about former Coastal Commission director Peter Douglas, had a good tip for me: Go see James Mills in Coronado. In 1972, Mills was state Senate president pro tem and led 100 cyclists on a ride from San Francisco to San Diego to whip up support for Proposition 20, which was approved by voters and led to the creation of the Coastal Commission and eventually the Coastal Act. I called Mills, who remembered local supporters turning out each evening during the coastal bike tour and serving spaghetti dinners to load up the cyclists on carbs. Mills, now 89, says he still has the bike, and hed be happy to show it to me. Before summer is out, I told him, Ill be paying a visit. Im still open to suggestions, so dont hesitate to write. Or to tweet with the hashtag #saveyourcoast maybe throwing in a nudge to @JerryBrownGov if you want to help spread the word about this California resource or my lack of humility. steve.lopez@latimes.com Twitter: @LATstevelopez MORE LOCAL NEWS Huge increase in dead trees across California forests, heightening fire risk this summer L.A. Uber driver threatens to hit passenger with a rock, steals his iPhone, police say Twin fires in San Gabriel Mountains force hundreds of evacuations amid brutal conditions A federal jury in Santa Ana convicted two men of conspiring to help Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, with one of the men trying to board a plane to the Middle East. Nader Elhuzayel, 25, and Muhanad Badawi, 24, both residents of Anaheim, were convicted after a two-week trial that detailed their efforts to join the terrorist group, including their recorded pledges to fight for the cause of Allah and to die in the battlefield, according to court papers. The jury deliberated for just over an hour before handing down the verdict. Advertisement Elhuzayel was found guilty of attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State, and Badawi was convicted of aiding and abetting the attempt to provide material support, according to the U.S. Attorneys office in Los Angeles. These convictions are a message to those who aim to travel to take up arms with (Islamic State) and to those who support them the FBI and our partners are determined to thwart your efforts, said Assistant Director in Charge Deidre Fike, head of the FBIs office in L.A. But Kate Corrigan, an attorney representing Badawi, said the case was shrouded in secrecy and showed the extremes of government surveillance, with federal agents placing three listening devices in his familys cars. She said she could never see the warrants for the listening devices, which were filed in the highly secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. The case demonstrated that the government is listening and you better be careful what you say, Corrigan said. The duo were arrested May 21, 2015. Agents from a counter-terrorism task force intercepted and detained Elhuzayel at Los Angeles International Airport before he boarded a plane bound for Israel with a layover in Turkey. Badawi was arrested at an Anaheim gas station. Agents began monitoring the men after seeing their inflammatory comments on social media. But the scrutiny of the men intensified in April and May 2015 as agents eavesdropped on their phone calls and surveillance teams tracked their movements. On May 7, 2015, investigators watched the men as they sat together in Badawis car, according to an FBI agents affidavit filed in federal court. Later, a review of airline records showed that while they were in the car, Badawis debit card was used to purchase a one-way ticket for Elhuzayel to fly from Los Angeles to Tel Aviv. U.S. Atty. Eileen Decker said there is a clear line between those who express support verbally and act upon it: There is a difference between speech and action. These men took action, she said. During the trial, jurors heard evidence that Badawi encouraged others to support the Islamic State and participate in violent jihad, Fike said. Among the evidence presented was that Badawi and Elhuzayel used social media to discuss the Islamic State and terrorist attacks, including their desire to die as martyrs. In recorded conversations, the duo explained how it would be a blessing to fight for the cause of Allah. On Badawis Facebook account, he declared his intent to join the fight and support violence against non-Muslims while Elhuzayels Facebook account displayed the Islamic State flag as his profile picture. Badawi made a video of Elhuzayel swearing his allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State, and vowed to travel to Syria to fight. But Corrigan, the lawyer for Badawi, said her client essentially bought an airline ticket for a friend who lacked access to a credit or debit card. And she said the governments case showed its limits at trial: They were only able to say he might go to Syria, Corrigan added. Elhuzayel was also found guilty of 26 counts of bank fraud, and Badawi was convicted of one count of federal financial-aid fraud crimes that arose from the pairs support for the terror group. Elhuzayel got cash through a scheme to defraud three different banks where he had deposited stolen checks into his personal checking accounts, then withdrew money at Orange County branch offices and ATMs. Badawi was convicted of using his federal financial aid to buy the plane ticket for Elhuzayel. The governments case against the pair mirrors many across the country in which potential foreign fighters are accused of trying to travel to Syria and join the Islamic State. Similar cases have been more common in Britain, France and other western European countries with larger populations of young, disaffected Muslim men. In a prior interview, Elhuzayels mother, Falak, described her son as a very good kid not the kind of person who would fit into this kind of category. The family, she said, is Palestinian and her son was traveling to visit relatives in the West Bank. She had described her son as Muslim, but not very religious, just normal. She had said that her son had become more observant of his religion, including increased attendance at an Anaheim mosque. But she insisted it was impossible that hed slipped into extremism. He was, she said, a simple, gullible, nice kid. Elhuzayel could face up to 30 years in prison on each bank fraud count, while Badawi faces up to five years in prison on the financial-aid fraud count. Both men each face up to 15 years in prison on each material support count. U.S. District Judge David O. Carter is slated to sentence Elhuzayel on Sept. 19 and Badawi on Sept. 26. richard.winton@latimes.com Twitter: @LAcrimes ALSO Former state Sen. Ron Calderon pleads guilty in federal corruption case LAPD orders officers to show compassion and empathy to homeless people San Diego high school cheerleader charged in fatal beating of homeless man UPDATES: 10:24 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from attorney Kate Corrigan. This article was originally published at 6:47 p.m. More than 30 teens from affluent Bay Area communities who planned to celebrate on the first day of summer were busted Monday when police stopped their rented party bus and found it loaded with booze, prescription drugs, marijuana and fake IDs, police in Marin County said Tuesday. The teens had intended to party for six hours as the bus tooled around Marin and San Francisco on Monday evening, but their plans were undone by an anonymous tipster who warned the Central Marin Police Authority that a bus full of juveniles and alcohol was about to leave Larkspur Ferry Terminal, police said in a statement. One of the teens, a 16-year-old boy from Tiburon, had reserved the bus online and paid $900 cash and didnt have to provide ID, police said. Advertisement Officers arrived about 5:40 p.m. as the bus was pulling away from the terminal with the passenger door still open and swinging wildly, authorities said. Officers immediately pulled the vehicle over. Inside, police said, they found a trove of illegal contraband. See the most-read stories in Local News this hour >> The bus reeked of alcohol and pot and was loaded with 33 boys and girls who ranged in age from 15 to 17 and were residents of Larkspur, Tiburon, San Rafael, San Anselmo, Kentfield and Mill Valley, according to police. Officers found 30 separate containers of hard alcohol, a case of hard lemonade, a jar of marijuana hidden under a seat and half-filled and empty alcohol containers in the trash. One 16-year-old girl had a purse full of various prescription drugs, marijuana and fake IDs. The bus driver, 63-year-old James Greene, had methamphetamine, drug paraphernalia, prescription drugs and alcohol in the drivers compartment and was carrying a switchblade, police said. On Monday, Marin County prosecutors charged Greene with several misdemeanors related to the teens drinking on the bus, along with misdemeanor possession of methamphetamine and carrying an open container in the drivers compartment. He denied knowing alcohol was on the bus to police, officials said. After the stop, police took all the teens off the bus and called their parents, who either picked them up or made arrangements for them to get home, officials said. The girl with the pills, marijuana and fake IDs was cited for possession of a controlled substance and marijuana and possession of false identification cards and was released to her parents. Police notified the bus company about the incident and alerted the California Public Utilities Commission, which oversees passenger carriers. For breaking California news, follow @JosephSerna. MORE LOCAL NEWS Huge increase in dead trees across California forests, heightening fire risk this summer L.A. Uber driver threatens to hit passenger with a rock, steals his iPhone, police say Twin fires in San Gabriel Mountains force hundreds of evacuations amid brutal conditions UPDATES: 1:19 p.m.: This article has been updated with details on the charges against the bus driver. This article was originally published at 10:06 a.m. Entertainment / Music by DJ-Sticha Be visible Gig hard, gig smart Additional networking Make sure that you put the emphasis on making friends with them, rather than focusing on what they can do for you, regardless of who it is or what you're pitching. Every band nom' umculi has to start somewhere. Many groups playing the world's largest stages today started in small clubs in and around their hometowns. But sometimes, it's difficult to even get that far. When you're at the very beginning, with no fanbase or connections whatsoever, how do you cut through the noise and get people to notice you? Social media is a great way to stay in touch with friends and fans you already have, but it's becoming harder and harder to access new fans through it with so much over saturation. Here are my recommendations on how a band with no fans or connections can get moving and start building a career, just so you know umculi nom' eyedwa ubizwa ngeBAND in the office language of music.Support your sceneOther musicians are by far your strongest allies starting out. In the beginning, your best (and sometimes only) shows will usually happen through other bands, whether they asked you directly or referred somebody to you. So you need to get out there and make some friends!The easiest way to do this is by going to local shows. Use the power of the internet to hunt down bands in your area that you like a lot, regardless of whether or not they play the same kind of music as you. Then, get out there and see them live. When they finish their set, make a point to introduce yourself. DO NOT push your music or band on them from the beginning. Let it come up naturally in conversation, even if that means going to see them two or three more times. Otherwise, you'll come off as pushy and might give off the impression that you're just trying to get something out of them.Keep doing this with more and more bands. The world of music is small. You're going to eventually find that some of the bands you're friends with are also friends with each other. Book shows with those bands! Repeatedly! Keep going to see their shows, and they will (hopefully) extend you the same courtesy. Your audiences will eventually intermingle, and the ball will really start rolling.As a new band on the block, one of your first priorities should be creating a logo, font, and overall image scheme for the group that establishes its identity. Then, display that identity proudly for all to see!Yes, I mean posters. It may be the 21st century, but if people are intrigued by your band name and image, they will undoubtedly check out your music after seeing your logo plastered around town enough times. Anywhere that you see other posters, stickers, or advertisements is most likely fair game (just be sure to get permission if you're putting something up in a business). Even if you have nothing to promote, posting your name and image everywhere will establish your band in the minds of all who see them.Weekly open mics are another great way to gain visibility. Find one that occurs in a venue you enjoy, and show up every week to play a short, stripped-down version of your set (treat it like a preview). Use these as a chance to establish a relationship with the people that run the business, as well as the regulars that inhabit it.If you can't find a decent, frequent open mic in your town, street performances will do the job as well. Find a spot you like (depending on the rules and regulations of your city), and show up regularly. Be friendly and talk to people walking by. A strong and personable impression is a memorable one, and sticking in people's minds is the first step towards building a fanbase.Playing live often is, for obvious reasons, a vital component of being visible and building a fanbase. The bands I was in that have generated the most consistent buzz were gigging on a weekly or bi-weekly basis in the beginning. In general, a bi-weekly gigging schedule is a good goal. That doesn't mean, however, that you should take every single gig that comes your way. It's important to be smart about where you're appearing and when.It can be dangerous to play too often in one place. Doing so will tire out your audience in that area and makes your appearance much less special. So gig often, but spread them out geographically. If you live in a large metropolitan area, make it so you're only playing the same part of town once every six weeks or so at most. In smaller towns, reach out to venues in adjacent towns and make the trip. Yes, this could involve a lot of travel, but it will pay off in the end, as you are reaching new fans consistently while keeping the interest of your current ones.I've already covered the importance of meeting other local musicians, but there are other key contacts you want to make as time goes on if you want to continue building your audience. Local radio hosts, news/blog writers, promoters, sound engineers, and club owners are all important parts of the equation, and are the kinds of people you want to get to know as soon as possible.Though it's true that some of these people don't have a lot of time for an artist who's just starting out, you'd be surprised at how friendly many of them are. Start by hunting for a radio DJ or blog writer that you really enjoy (even better if they focus on local talent), and reach out to them with a simple, professional, and friendly email. Introduce yourself, and explain how much you enjoy their work and what you like about it. Again, don't be too pushy with your music, but offer them a free ticket to your next show (even if you have to buy it yourself), and thank them generously.Masicobelane ngolwazi, masikhulisane emculweniFacebook:Dj-Sticha-MixkingTwitter:@Dj-Sticha Santa Clara County Dist. Atty. Jeff Rosen on Wednesday called for mandatory prison sentences for anyone convicted of sexually assaulting an unconscious and intoxicated person. Inspired by the victim in the Brock Turner case, the proposed law which is supported by a growing number of legislators -- would require a mandatory prison sentence for such assaults and remove the option of probation. We are hoping to change hearts and to change minds and to change the law to protect the next Emily Doe against the next Brock Turner, Rosen said at a news conference in Palo Alto. Advertisement Rosens announcement comes weeks after Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky sentenced Turner, a former Stanford University swimmer, to six months in jail for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman behind a dumpster on campus. Prosecutors said Persky had declared unusual circumstances in the case before sentencing Turner on June 2. Turner will serve half of his sentence due to California law. See the most-read stories in Local News this hour >> Perskys sentence has triggered an angry response from those who say the punishment was too light and sets an ominous precedent for campus sexual assaults elsewhere. Many are now demanding that that California Commission for Judicial Performance remove the jurist. Others have launched a recall effort. The judge gave the wrong sentence but he had the legal right to give it, so we will start there, Rosen said. Why under the law is a sexual assault of an unconscious woman less terrible than that of a conscious woman? Is it less degrading? Is it less tragic, less traumatic? The victims 12-page letter, which she read in open court and has been read by senators on the floor of Congress, started a revolution, Rosen said. Since then her words have been read by millions, he said. It started a revolution of empathy and understanding. It has given solace to women who have suffered their own sexual assaults in silence. It has inspired tears at her struggles [and] admiration for her honesty and strength and perseverance. Not only did the victims letter strike a chord with millions, Rosen said it sparked fury and frustration at those who continue to misconstrue these assaults as sex gone a little too far. Her letter left us a painful yet powerful gift that demands something more than just a few minutes of our time, he said. It demands change. Assemblyman Evan Low (D-Campbell), Assemblyman Bill Dodd (D-Napa) and Sen. Jerry Hill (D-San Mateo) worked with Rosen to craft the proposed law. Dodd said he was deeply disturbed by Turners sentence. We need to send the message that sexually assaulting vulnerable victims who are intoxicated or unconscious is a serious crime, Dodd said. Letting a rapist off with probation and little jail time re-victimizes the victim, dissuades other victims from coming forward and sends the message that sexual assault is no big deal. Low said Perskys ruling was unjustifiable and morally wrong but acceptable under the current law. Rapists like Brock Turner shouldnt be let off with a slap on the wrist, he said. Members of UltraViolet, a womens rights advocacy group, said the law doesnt go far enough in holding Perksy accountable. They said the proposal for mandatory minimum sentencing for rapists is not only bad policy generally, but also the wrong solution. Rosens proposal also does nothing to hold Judge Persky a man who chose to protect a privileged white athlete and rapist over the survivor of his crimes accountable for his decision, the groups co-founder, Nita Chaudhary, said in a statement. When Turner was convicted by a jury in March, he faced a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison. Prosecutors asked the judge to sentence him to a six-year prison term for the three felony counts he was found guilty of: assault with the intent to commit rape of an unconscious person; sexual penetration of an unconscious person; and sexual penetration of an intoxicated person. Later, his chief probation officer, Monica Lassettre, recommended a moderate sentence of county jail, three years of probation and sex offender treatment, according to a probation report. In making her recommendations, which Persky signed off on before Turners sentencing, Lassettre considered his age, lack of criminal record, the impact of the crime on the victim, the safety of the community and his expressed remorse. This officer weighed the fact that this 20-year-old offender is now a lifetime sex registrant, his future prospects will likely be highly impacted as a result of his convictions, and he surrendered a hard-earned swimming scholarship, she wrote in her report. Perhaps, just as importantly, but sometimes overlooked, are the victims wishes as to the potential outcome. Describing himself as an inexperienced drinker and party-goer, Turner blamed a party culture and risk-taking behavior for his actions. Turners victim called the lack of a state prison sentence a soft time-out, a mockery of the seriousness of the assaults. In the weeks following Perskys decision, several potential jurors refused to serve in the judges courtroom because of his actions in the Turner case. MORE LOCAL NEWS Huge increase in dead trees across California forests, heightening fire risk this summer L.A. Uber driver threatens to hit passenger with a rock, steals his iPhone, police say Twin fires in San Gabriel Mountains force hundreds of evacuations amid brutal conditions UPDATES: 10:46 p.m.: This article was updated with additional comments from UltraViolet. 12:25 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from legislators. This article was originally published at 11:52 a.m. Former state Sen. Ron Calderon formally pleaded guilty Tuesday to a federal corruption charge after he admitted to accepting tens of thousands of dollars in bribes from undercover FBI agents and a hospital executive. Calderon, who represented the 30th Senate district from 2006 to 2014, appeared before U.S. District Judge Christina Snyder and entered the guilty plea to a count of mail fraud. The plea agreement was announced shortly after Calderons brother Tom Calderon, a former state assemblyman, pleaded guilty to a charge of money laundering. Prosecutors had contended that Tom Calderon helped hide the bribes that his brother sought. Advertisement In his plea agreement filed this month in federal court, Ron Calderon admitted to a damning narrative of allegations that he sought and received bribes for himself and a payment for his sons college tuition. The Montebello resident said that he had the owner of a Long Beach hospital, Michael Drobot, employ his son as a summer intern in exchange for advocating for legislation that would benefit Drobot and his companies. Drobot later pleaded guilty to running a 15-year spinal surgery kickback scheme, part of a wide-ranging medical fraud. Calderon also admitted that he agreed to advocate for a law that would give a more favorable tax break to independent film producers. Calderon thought he made the agreement to advocate for the legislation on behalf of film executives, but the men were undercover FBI agents. In exchange, Calderon had the undercover FBI agents hire his daughter for a job and accepted trips to Las Vegas from the faux film executives that were worth about $12,000. He also had the executives send a $25,000 check to Californians for Diversity, an entity that Tom Calderon and his brother used to pay themselves, according to court papers. While in office, Ron Calderon and others profited handsomely when bribe money was accepted and laundered, and Im gratified that he has chosen to take responsibility for his actions, said Deirdre Fike, the assistant director in charge of the FBIs Los Angeles field office, in a statement this month. Under the terms of the plea deal, prosecutors agreed to request that Snyder sentence Calderon to no more than 70 months behind bars, a prison term on the low end of federal sentencing guidelines. The charge carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Calderon is scheduled to be sentenced by Snyder on Sept. 19. For more news in California, follow @MattHjourno. ALSO Two O.C. men convicted of conspiring to fight with Islamic State Tool with blade confiscated from gadfly at public meeting Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant recounts the creation of Stairway to Heaven in copyright trial Firefighters battling a pair of wildfires in the San Gabriel Mountains have been instructed to avoid a 1,000-foot radius area around a nest where a baby eagle is getting ready to fledge, a U.S. Forest Service official said Wednesday. The bald eagles nest is not located in part of the forest where the Reservoir and Fish fires are burning. The buffer zone above and around the nest is intended for water-dumping helicopters, which create noise and air turbulence that could disturb the chick, said Ann Berkley, a wildlife biologist with the Forest Service. We dont want to startle him out of the nest because it could be very detrimental to his survival, Berkley said. Advertisement More than 1,000 firefighters were battling the blazes, which are separated by about 1 miles. The wildfires broke out during Mondays record-breaking heat wave, and are jointly called the San Gabriel Complex fire. So far, they have burned about 4,900 acres, authorities said. The fires were about 10% contained on Wednesday. See the most-read stories in Local News this hour >> It is extremely unusual for bald eagles to nest in the San Gabriel Mountains, Berkley said. The fact that this one nested so successfully were doing everything we can to protect it, she added. An adult bald eagle was first spotted by a firefighter and reported to the U.S. Forest Service in late 2011, Berkley said. In mid-April of this year, amateur bird watchers reported seeing the baby, which was estimated to be 10 to 12 weeks old. The bald eagle is no longer considered an endangered species, but it is federally protected under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act. The situation with the eagle is emblematic of the broader challenges firefighters face when battling flames in protected areas like the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument or other areas with sensitive habitats. Berkley, a resource advisor on the San Gabriel Complex fire, identifies and alerts crews to any critical habitats or threatened species they might encounter while fighting the fire. Some resource advisors even go out on the fire line with firefighters, she said. Fire crews in the Angeles National Forest have been told to be wary of Spanish broom, a non-native shrub with bright yellow flowers that is considered an invasive species. Forest Service officials are asking crews to wash their fire enginestires before coming down the mountain in an effort to contain the spread of the species as it gets ready to release new seeds, Berkley said. Its very pretty, its very aromatic, and its very hard to get out, Berkley said. Times staff writer Hailey Branson-Potts contributed to this report. nina.agrawal@latimes.com MORE LOCAL NEWS Huge increase in dead trees across California forests, heightening fire risk this summer L.A. Uber driver threatens to hit passenger with a rock, steals his iPhone, police say Twin fires in San Gabriel Mountains force hundreds of evacuations amid brutal conditions The battle to contain two large wildfires burning out of control above San Gabriel Valley foothill communities became something of a smoky slog Tuesday as firefighters took on the flames in rugged canyons, evacuated residents anxiously awaited word, and the surrounding region endured a bad air day. The heat wave blitzkrieg that hit the region this week with record-breaking force eased some, but for firefighters the conditions remained brutal. Its hot. Its dry. Theyre in steep, rugged, nasty terrain, said Mark Peebles, a spokesman for the multi-agency team fighting the fires in the Angeles National Forest. Its extremely arduous work. Advertisement Some of the telltale elements of a Southern California fire siege were on display. Gawkers snapping cellphone photos of flaming San Gabriel Mountains ridges, soon to be posted on Instagram. Horse owners rushing to their stables to save their beloved animals. Neighbors calmly watching smoke plumes from their yards. More than 1,000 firefighters battled the Reservoir and Fish fires, which burned about 1.5 miles apart in the mountains above Duarte and Azusa. The blazes, which broke out Monday as temperatures hit triple digits, raged in a tinderbox region of the forest that had not burned for many years. On Tuesday, crews began managing the fires as a single 4,900-acre conflagration called the San Gabriel Complex, which was 10% contained, authorities said. No structures had been lost as of Tuesday, authorities said. But the fires had forced the evacuation of at least 770 homes, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department. Authorities urged residents of Monrovia and Bradbury to keep an eye on the news and to prepare to flee. John Tripp, deputy chief of the Los Angeles County Fire Department, advised residents to evacuate early if the flames got close, warning of clogged roadways if fire crews and evacuating residents used the same thoroughfares. As smoke rose from mountain ridges near the tiny town of Bradbury on Tuesday, Connie Storey sat like a sentry outside the house of a neighbor who had run to the doctor waiting and watching. Interested in the stories shaping California? Sign up for the free Essential California newsletter With the sound of fire helicopters echoing, Storey, 50, checked her phone for updates on the blaze. Thats how it had been since Monday afternoon, she said, with neighbors monitoring the fire with binoculars and news updates. Storey who lost her house to the 2009 Station fire that tore through the San Gabriels grew frustrated with onlookers driving through Bradbury to photograph the fire and wildlife fleeing the flames. She said she had to warn one man who was too busy trying to get the perfect shot that he didnt see a bear coming his way. Its a three-ring circus, she said. The Reservoir fire was reported first, about 11 a.m. Monday, at Highway 39 in the San Gabriel Mountains, apparently ignited by a car crash that killed one person, authorities said. A vehicle went over the side of the road and plunged to the bottom of a canyon near Morris Reservoir, Tripp said. The Fish fire erupted more than an hour later near Brookridge and Opal Canyon roads in Duarte. The causes of both fires remain under investigation. Capt. Michael McCormick of the Los Angeles County Fire Department provides an update on efforts to fight the Fish fire burning near Duarte. About three dozen people spent Monday night at a Red Cross evacuation center in Duarte, where they were given cots to sleep on, toiletries, food and plenty of bottles of water. Its better than a bed and breakfast except the beds, quipped Merla Canoy, who spent the night. Rafat and Manzoor Khan, who live in the Woodbluff neighborhood of Duarte, also stayed at the shelter. Their daughter and two young grandchildren were visiting from Irvine when sheriffs deputies knocked on their door and told them they had to leave. They packed their medications and some photo albums. They said to take your important things, Rafat Khan said. I dont know what things are important. Everything is important. By Tuesday afternoon, at least 168 horses had been relocated to the Fairplex in Pomona, evacuated from stables throughout the foothills, officials said. Andrea Brown, a horse trainer, moved her eight horses boarded at the Encanto Equestrian Center in Duarte to the Fairplex on Monday and plans to visit them every day until they can leave. She was still coughing from the smoke on Tuesday. All of them are happy and doing well, she said. They are my four-legged family. It was a dramatic scene Monday, she said. Brown saw smoke in the air and sped to the stables. There, she grabbed her horses halters and ran them to a clearing, where people with horse hauling trailers waited to take them away and firefighting helicopters landed right next to the animals. It was very intense, but I have to say that people really came together, Brown said. The neighbors brought water, cooling us down, pouring water on us as we ran with the horses. Mark De Yulia, a driver for Atascadero-based KC Horse Transport, spent Monday night in his truck at Santa Anita Park, ready to go in case any more horses were threatened by the fire. He was on vacation, he said, but he didnt think about that as he spent hours hauling horses from stables in Azusa and Bradbury. As he drove away from Rainbow Canyon Ranch, horses loaded behind him, he could see the flames shooting up the mountains near San Gabriel Canyon Road. As the sun glowed an eerie yellow through the smoke, the horses stayed calm. ruben.vives@latimes.com hailey.branson@latimes.com nina.agrawal@latimes.com Times staff writers Joseph Serna and Veronica Rocha contributed to this report. ALSO 122 degrees: Palm Springs breaks record and it could get hotter Two O.C. men convicted of conspiring to fight with Islamic State Snowpack unlikely to recover from drought until 2019, study finds An Uber driver was arrested in Los Angeles Tuesday after he threatened to attack one of his customers with a rock and stole his iPhone, police said. Medhanie Meshesha, 35, picked up the customer Friday and drove him to his destination but the passenger forgot his phone in Mesheshas car, LAPD officials said. The passenger managed to contact Meshesha and had him drive back where the customer then asked for another ride and took back his iPhone, police said. Advertisement During the ride, the customer offered Meshesha a tip for returning the phone, according to police. But Meshesha became upset at the offer and asked for more which the customer refused before getting out of the car, police said in a statement. Meshesha allegedly got out of his car, grabbed a large rock from the front yard of a home and threatened to hit the passenger if he didnt give the him more money. The passenger continued to walk away so Meshesha put down the rock, grabbed the phone from the mans hands, ran back to his car and sped off, police said. The passenger reported the incident the next day. Meshesha was taken into custody without incident at his Inglewood home on suspicion of robbery and is being held on $50,000 bail, LAPD officials said. Meshesha has been prohibited from driver for Uber and the company is cooperating with police, Uber said in a statement. For breaking California news, follow @JosephSerna. ALSO San Diego high school cheerleader charged in fatal beating of homeless man Michael Jackson stockpiled pornography at Neverland Ranch, documents show Seismic strain: Land around the San Andreas fault is rising and sinking, new earthquake research shows UPDATES: 9:49 a.m.: This post was updated with a statement from Uber. The property owner of a business park in Sacramento has asked a church to relocate after its pastor posted a video on YouTube praising the Orlando, Fla., mass shooting at a gay nightclub that left 49 victims dead. Though Verity Baptist Churchs lease with Harsch Investment Properties doesnt end until March 31, 2017, the company has asked the church to move immediately without any penalty for breaking the lease agreement, the company said in a statement. We have many places of worship and other religious organizations in the properties we manage. Like all our tenants, their occupancy rights are protected in their leases, but we will not tolerate tenants who advocate hatred and the taking of innocent lives, the company said. For decades, the owners and staff at Harsch Investment Properties have supported the LGBTQ community and many other organizations whose missions are to further respect, dignity and the ability for all individuals to live their lives as they wish. Advertisement Last week, a YouTube video was published online showing Pastor Roger Jimenez praising the massacre of 49 people at a gay nightclub in Florida and calling the victims pedophiles and predators. The post was eventually removed by YouTube for violating the websites policy on hate speech. See the most-read stories in Local News this hour >> I think Orlando, Fla., is a little safer tonight, he told his congregation the Sunday after the June 12 attack. The tragedy is more of them didnt die. Im kind of upset he didnt finish the job! Jimenez also said if it were up to him, gays and lesbians would be lined up against a wall so a firing squad could blow their brains out. The reaction to the sermon was been swift and fierce. Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson condemned Jimenezs words. The hateful comments made by a preacher in Sacramento do not reflect Christian values and have no place in our society. #standwithorlando, he tweeted. Hundreds organized a protest outside his church through Facebook. It disgusts me that this immoral sacrilegious individual is spewing hatred and ignorance, and is condoning murder to his churchgoers who may not be old enough to see what true religion is instead of the brainwashing he is doing, the statement read on the Facebook event page. A group of 700 area pastors known as the Sacramento City Pastors Fellowship issued a statement responding to Jimenezs sermon, the Sacramento Bee reported. The statement said: These comments, applauding the death of innocent people, are completely contrary to the Bibles teaching and Gods heart. His statements do not represent Jesus nor hundreds of Sacramento pastors whose hearts have been broken and are praying for the loved ones so tragically affected by this cowardly act. But the pastor defended his comments, telling the Bee that his sermon was not meant to incite violence against LGBT people. All Im saying is that when people die who deserve to die, its not a tragedy, he told the Bee. His church did not immediately reply to a request for comment. For breaking California news, follow @JosephSerna. MORE LOCAL NEWS Huge increase in dead trees across California forests, heightening fire risk this summer L.A. Uber driver threatens to hit passenger with a rock, steals his iPhone, police say Twin fires in San Gabriel Mountains force hundreds of evacuations amid brutal conditions Jack Fuller, journalist, novelist and former president of Tribune Co.s publishing division who shepherded the Chicago companys 2000 acquisition of the Los Angeles Times parent, the Times Mirror Co., has died. Fuller died Tuesday in his Chicago home. He was diagnosed several months ago with cancer. He was 69. A Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial writer, Fuller also was a war correspondent, a champion of jazz and an early advocate of online journalism. Jack was one of the most brilliant writers, editors and newsroom leaders Ive known, said Bruce Dold, editor and publisher of the Chicago Tribune. He had a profound impact on me and many other people at the Tribune. He taught us to be aggressive, fearless and ethical. Advertisement Born in Chicago, Fuller followed his financial reporter father into the newsroom. He worked as a copy boy and later earned a bachelors degree in journalism from Northwestern University in 1968. From there, he headed to Yale Law School but was drafted into the Army, serving as a Vietnam correspondent for Pacific Stars and Stripes in 1969 and 1970. He spent the summer of 1972 writing for the Washington Post. After earning his law degree from Yale in 1973, Fuller returned to Chicago to resume his journalism career. But after two years as a general assignment reporter at the Chicago Tribune, he left the paper to join the U.S. Department of Justice as special assistant to then-Atty. Gen. Edward Levi. He rejoined the Tribune as a Washington correspondent in 1977 and returned to Tribune Tower in Chicago in 1978 as an editorial writer. Appointed editorial page editor in 1981, he won a Pulitzer Prize five years later for editorials on constitutional law. He was named executive editor, second-in-command of the newsroom, in 1987 and promoted two years later to vice president and editor. Colleagues recalled Fuller as soft-spoken, with an intellectual demeanor and professorial style. For many years, he sported a beard and wore a beret. When he started wearing glasses, he perched them on the bridge of his nose. He even occasionally smoked a pipe. A trombone player, pianist and jazz aficionado, Fuller believed it was crucial for the Tribune located in a city thats a hub for jazz to have someone dedicated to covering that music and the culture surrounding it, said Howard Reich, Tribunes jazz critic, a musician appointed to his post by Fuller. When Fuller joined the Pulitzer board in 1992, he launched a personal crusade to redefine the rules of the music category long dominated by classical compositions, Reich said. Jazz entries trickled in as the board made it clear that a musical entry could include improvisational elements. In 1997, trumpet virtuoso Wynton Marsalis became the first musician to win the prize for a jazz composition after the board had put Reich and other jazz experts on the jury. Jazz is Americas classical music, and he wanted the world to know that, Reich said. Even after rising in management ranks, Fuller still wrote the occasional jazz review. Of jazz musician John Coltrane, he wrote: By the time of this death, I think Coltrane himself must have realized he had reached a place he did not know how to get out of. There was nothing left to strip out of his music, nothing forbidden that he could try, no freedom left. Only the universal rumble and buzz, which is random, which is utterly liberated, which is noise. In 1993, Fuller was named president and CEO of the Chicago Tribune and became publisher a year later. With Fullers support, the Tribune was one of the first newspapers to enter the digital age making Internet access available in the newsroom and launching one of the first online editions, said Howard Tyner, Fullers successor as editor. Chicago Tribune was recognized and criticized in many quarters for being the first major paper to take the Internet and multimedia seriously, Tyner said. It was a rational futuristic approach to journalism, and Jack easily could have tamped that down, as I think senior folks at other newspaper companies were doing. In 1997, Fuller rose to lead the companys five daily newspapers and syndicated content. Column: Jack Fuller mentor, newspaperman, hero Former top editor Ann Marie Lipinski, who now runs the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard, said Fullers journalistic integrity made him a master translator for his corporate colleagues in the boardroom who might not understand how a newsroom operates. She said it made people want to work for him. There was this fundamental trust, Lipinski said. To have his hand at your back and to know that he had faith in you, but also to know you had these shared values about what a newspaper was there to do, was the most inspiring and exhilarating feeling Ive ever had as a journalist. Fullers tenure at the Tribune was a high-water mark for women in the company and the industry, Lipinski said. In addition to promoting female editors in the newsroom, Fuller later appointed female publishers at four of the chains papers. He insisted it had nothing to do with political correctness or a quest for equality. You want the best people, he once said. That means you dont take from 50% of the talent pool. Fuller played a central role in Tribunes acquisition of Times Mirror Co., with its 10 newspapers and their websites, including the Los Angeles Times. Being bigger and having a bigger footprint makes us more able to control our fate, he said at the time. But shortly after the Times Mirror acquisition, the media industry encountered one of its worst advertising recessions. Online pressure also grew more intense. In the months preceding Fullers retirement, the company had to compensate advertisers for inflated circulation figures at Newsday and the New York edition of Hoy, the companys Spanish-language newspaper. Fuller insisted that his departure had long been planned and had nothing to do with the circulation scandal; he simply missed writing. He continued to write opinion pieces for the Tribune. He also wrote novels and other books. His eighth novel, One From Without, came out this month. A Times reviewer called his 2000 novel The Best of Jackson Payne (Alfred A. Knopf) one of the few novels about jazz to recognize that language may never capture the magic of music but may just evoke the hell out of it. Fuller is a past president of the Inter American Press Assn., which works to monitor and safeguard freedom of expression in the Western Hemisphere. He also served on the board of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and was a trustee of the University of Chicago. Fuller emphasized commitment to journalism throughout his career. Addressing Los Angeles Times journalists in the wake of the acquisition, he said: I can promise you that there will be change. What I can also promise you is that there will be no abandonment of principle or the purposes that I think we all share. He held that newspapers should take a lead role in community affairs in their respective markets and be involved in local philanthropy efforts. Newspapers grow out of the soil of the community, he wrote in his book News Values: Ideas for an Information Age, published in 1996. Whether in print or online, the newspaper needs to have a distinctive voice that relates well to the community it serves. He is survived by his wife, Debra Moskovits, and two children from a previous marriage, son Timothy and daughter Katherine Ryan. Brachear Pashman writes for the Chicago Tribune. A Times staff writer contributed to this report. ALSO Wayne Jackson of the Memphis Horns duo dies at 74 Anton Yelchin, actor in Star Trek films, dies in freak car accident at age 27 Verna B. Dauterive dies at 93; longtime L.A. Unified principal and honorary USC trustee Michigans attorney general filed a civil lawsuit Wednesday against two water engineering companies, saying they caused and exacerbated Flints lead-tainted water crisis and demanding hundreds of millions of dollars in damages. Attorney General Bill Schuette sued Veolia North America and Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam, known as LAN. Schuette said in a news release that the firms fraudulent and dangerous recommendations made a bad situation worse. The lawsuit charges LAN and Veolia with professional negligence and public nuisance. Veolia was also charged with fraud. Advertisement The companies were hired by the city to assist while it was under state emergency management. LAN, based in Houston, began working with Flint in 2013 to prepare its plant to treat new sources of drinking water, including the Flint River. Veolia was hired in 2015 to address the citys water quality. The struggling city of nearly 100,000 has been dealing with poor water quality since switching from the Detroit system, which draws from Lake Huron, to the Flint River in April 2014. It was intended as a short-term measure to save money while another pipeline to Lake Huron was under construction. Residents quickly complained that the water looked dirty and tasted and smelled bad. E. coli bacteria hit unsafe levels. And last September, state officials acknowledged that a failure to add chemicals to limit corrosion had enabled the river water to scrape lead from aging pipes, exposing people in some homes and schools to the potent neurotoxin. Flint was under state management at the time, leading to an apology from Gov. Rick Snyder. Flint returned to the Detroit system in October. Criminal charges have already been filed against two state Department of Environmental Quality officials, while Flints utilities administrator pleaded no contest to willful neglect of duty, a misdemeanor. Email and phone messages from the Associated Press seeking comment from Veolia and Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam were not immediately returned. ALSO Five years in, theres still no Obamacare alternative from House Republicans Judge: Federal regulators cant set fracking rules Colombia and FARC rebels announce cease-fire deal in a major step to end a half-century of war UPDATES: 8:43 a.m.: Updated with additional background This story was originally posted at 7:31 a.m. Two Mississippi correctional officers have been indicted on suspicion of excessive force in the beating of an inmate and a third is charged with helping to cover up the assault. A nine-count indictment, unsealed Tuesday, charges Lawardrick Marsher, 28, and Robert Sturdivant, 47, with a beating that included kicking, punching and throwing the victim to the ground. Sturdivant also failed to intervene while Marsher punched and beat the inmate at Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman, the indictment alleges. Deonte Pate, 23, was charged with conspiring with the other two officers to cover up the beating. All three submitted false reports and lied to the FBI, according to the indictment. Advertisement If convicted, Marsher and Sturdivant face up to 10 years in prison on the excessive force charges. All three officers face up to five years in prison on the conspiracy and false statement charges and up to 20 years on the false report charges. MORE FROM NATION Clinton zings Trump on his economic plans: Alexander Hamilton would be rolling in his grave Man at Vegas rally said he wanted to kill Trump, authorities say Atty. Gen. Loretta Lynch visits Orlando after deadly attack News / Local by Staff Reporter A Kwekwe Pastor Eddmon Enock Nyaradzi (44) has appeared in court charged with fraud involving $900 which he allegedly defrauded a Chitungwiza woman.Nyaradzi allegedly defrauded Judith Ngorima.He appeared before Harare magistrate Vongai Guriro.It is alleged that in January this year he approached Ngorima under the guise that he was on a church mission to source cash for its church members who wanted to be taken to University of Pretoria for degree studies.Judith gave him $900 since the pastor had promised to pay her back end of January. Form that time the pastor became unreachable. Judith managed to get hold of him once more and lured Nyaradzi into a face to face meeting by promising to give him another $300.Nyaradzi failed to give Judith the names of the church members who were beneficiaries of the fund. The woman suspected that she had been defrauded and reported to the police.Nyaradzi is denying the charge saying he has never received any money from Ngorima. On Thursday, voters in the United Kingdom will decide whether to remain in the European Union. That the electorate is apparently so closely split between the options of Leave and Remain is ominous. At issue in this dramatic struggle over Britains identity, culture and independence is nothing less than the future of the 65-year move toward a closer, more integrated Europe. On the merits, the Remain option supported by Prime Minister David Cameron should win overwhelmingly. Britain benefits enormously from its participation in the 28-member economic and political union, and the consequences of withdrawal could be catastrophic for the British economy particularly for Londons role as an international financial center. A recent study by the International Monetary Fund warned that the UKs withdrawal from the EU could shrink the British economy by 5% by the year 2019. Nor would withdrawal affect only affluent Britons, as some Leave proponents have suggested. Researchers at the London School of Economics estimated that middle-class families in the UK would face the loss of at least 4% of their income if the UK left the EU and had to trade under the rules of the World Trade Organization. Advertisement Brexit also would complicate the UKs economic relationship with the United States. U.S. companies would think twice about investing in the UK if it no longer enjoyed the trading advantages of being part of the EU. On a visit to the UK earlier this year, President Obama warned that if Britain were to leave the union, it would find itself at the back of the queue in trade negotiations with the United States. Brexit would also make it harder for millions of Britons to travel freely and work on the Continent. Although supporters of withdrawal complain about an influx of workers from other European countries, the traffic is not only in one direction. Finally, Brexit would increase political tensions within the UK. It was only two years ago that nearly 45% of voters in Scotland expressed a preference for seceding from the UK. Political leaders in Scotland, where support for the EU is strong, have warned that a withdrawal of the UK from the EU might increase the pressure for another independence referendum. In Northern Ireland, Brexit could undermine the Protestant-Catholic peace process by depriving Catholics in the North of a political connection they now enjoy with their co-religionists in the Irish Republic, an EU member that is not part of the UK. Cameron also has warned that a victory for the Leave campaign would lead to the return of border controls between Northern Ireland and the Republic. The debate over Brexit has been distorted by the same fears of international terrorism (mixed with Islamophobia) that have resonated in other places in Europe. Given these negative consequences, why is there so much support for Brexit? Some of the opposition is rooted in an island nations suspicion of the Continent that has been part of British political life for centuries and which helps to explain why, even as as a member of the EU, the UK has maintained its own currency rather than adopt the euro. A variation of that concern is the (highly exaggerated) fear that Eurocrats in Brussels, in their zeal to form an ever-closer union, are usurping decisions that properly belong to the British Parliament. That attitude is especially prevalent in Camerons Conservative Party, and some members of the prime ministers government have broken openly with him to support Brexit. Perhaps the most politically potent argument for Brexit is that the policy of free movement within the EU has allowed migrants from the Continent to take jobs away from British workers. Its true that the UK is a magnet for workers from the continent, especially Eastern Europe. But studies suggest that those workers who of course are also consumers of goods and services produced in the UK havent dramatically affected the job prospects or wages of British workers. Finally, the debate over Brexit has been distorted by the same fears of international terrorism (mixed with Islamophobia) that have resonated in other places in Europe and in the U.S. presidential campaign. Brexit supporters have warned that Turkey, a predominantly Muslim county, could be admitted to the EU in the near future a claim Cameron has ridiculed. Britain has a veto power over the admission of new members (though Cameron hasnt promised to exercise it to keep Turkey out), but the more important reality is that Turkey is far from meeting all of the requirements for admission. Supporters of Brexit have argued that, once Britain withdrew from the EU, it could find other ways to establish favorable trade relations with the rest of Europe. They suggest, for example, that the UK could follow the example of Norway, a non-EU member that participates in what is called the European Economic Area. But a condition of membership in that arrangement is the same commitment to freedom of movement that supporters of Brexit object to as part of membership in the EU. Cameron has rightly called Brexit a leap in the dark, and other opponents have noted that it threatens to destabilize the entire EU, giving other countries reason to reconsider their own membership in the institution. On Thursday, voters in the UK should refuse to take the plunge. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook Heres the short-term rental dilemma: Websites like Airbnb and VRBO have made vacation rentals and house-sharing incredibly popular by making it easier for travelers to find homey, affordable lodgings and for homeowners to earn extra money by renting out all or part of their dwellings. But short-term rentals are not only illegal in Los Angeles residential communities, they can create nuisances in neighborhoods and take much-needed housing off the market. Cities in the U.S. and abroad have struggled to manage the resulting boom in short-term rentals. Some cities, such as Hermosa Beach and Ojai, have decided to ban short-term vacation rentals (those less than 30 days) altogether. Mayor Eric Garcetti and members of the City Council have rightfully recognized that the sharing economy offers real benefits to residents and the city. Thats why L.A. is following the lead of Santa Monica, San Francisco and other big cities that have attempted to legalize and control short-term rentals. So far, however, those cities have found its easy to adopt regulations on short-term rentals; its far more difficult to actually enforce them. Hosts would have to register with the city, display a valid registration number on their advertisement and pay L.A.s 14% hotel tax. Advertisement On Thursday, the Los Angeles Planning Commission will consider a proposed Home-Sharing Ordinance that seeks to set the rules and tries to fix the enforcement problem. The law would dramatically scale back the number of short-term rentals in the city currently estimated at 20,000 active listings and give authorities more power to penalize both the hosts and the websites that violate the new rules. The law would only allow people to rent out their primary residence, and for no more than 90 days a year. Hosts would have to register with the city, display a valid registration number on their advertisement and pay L.A.s 14% hotel tax, which could generate millions of dollars a year for the city. The ordinance would bar short-term rentals of second homes or investment properties, as well as apartments covered by the citys rent-stabilization law. This is to discourage property owners from turning long-term rentals into short-term rentals, which can change the character of a community, tighten the housing supply and make neighborhoods less stable. Yes, limiting home sharing to primary residences will remove an option for people who have vacation homes and for real estate investors. It will also probably diminish the availability and affordability of temporary rentals. Still, this is a necessary trade-off in a city with too few apartments and too high rents. L.A.s proposed regulations are good ones, but other cities have found that good laws are futile without simple registration and strong enforcement. Los Angeles has to make it as easy as possible for hosts to register and to pay taxes. In order to enforce the rules, the city will need the cooperation of Airbnb and the other websites and, if necessary, the authority to penalize them for failing to help weed out illegal rentals from their websites. Most home-sharing websites hide the full names of hosts and the addresses of the available property until the rental has been booked. That makes it hard for cities to investigate and crackdown on illicit listings. Airbnb and others have argued that they should not be held liable for the behavior of hosts who use their service, and that the government should not compel them to turn over data on who is hosting and how often. Theyve fought city regulations, like L.A.s proposal, that would fine them for failing to require a registration number on the advertisement or for refusing to submit hosts data. The Times Editorial Board has shared those concerns in the past, noting that, in general, government shouldnt force private companies to monitor customer behavior on its behalf. Yet there is no escaping the fact that cities cannot effectively regulate short-term rentals without a measure of cooperation from the booking websites. At the moment, these websites are facilitating illegal transactions; short-term rentals are against the law in L.A. If the city is going to legalize home sharing and allow this new branch of the hospitality industry to grow bringing great financial benefits to Airbnb and other booking websites then these companies must recognize and embrace their role in carrying out the new regulations. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook Until the collapse of the Berlin Wall, most Americans assumed the Cold War would be a permanent fixture of the geopolitical landscape. From Harry Truman onward, every president explained that the confrontation with Soviet communism was generational in scope. In his inaugural address, John F. Kennedy pledged to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out. When Ronald Reagan said that his strategy on the Cold War was we win, they lose, he upset four decades of bipartisan resignation to Soviet hegemony. What most shocked the foreign policy establishment about Reagan was not his militant disdain for the Soviet Union but his sincere conviction that it could actually be defeated. Over a quarter-century after the Soviet Unions collapse, we consider that momentous event as having been inevitable. It was not. Many factors contributed to Western victory: a massive military build-up, the resolve of multilateral alliances like NATO, support for third world anti-communist insurgencies, unrelenting dedication to the intellectual cause of human liberty, and the internal weaknesses of communism itself. All these components pertain to the war against the enemy that attacked the United States on Sept. 11 and continues to wreak havoc everywhere from Istanbul to Raqqa to Paris: Islamist radicalism. Armed support for allies, diplomatic cooperation, gathering human intelligence, and vigorous contestation in the battle of ideas are as much a part of our long, twilight struggle against Islamic supremacism as they were tools in the fight against revolutionary Marxist-Leninism. Whats missing today, however, is acknowledgement from the leader of the free world that this war is ongoing, never mind likely to continue for generations. Advertisement Elected to office as an anti-war president, Barack Obama seemed to believe that he could wrap up the war on terrorism within two terms. His 2013 speech to the National Defense University was an echo of his predecessors ill-timed appearance under a Mission Accomplished banner. At NDU, the president declared that Osama bin Laden is dead, and so are most of his top lieutenants, adding that there have been no large-scale attacks on the United States, and our homeland is more secure. Less than a year after he delivered this premature coda, however, Islamic State came into being, and no serious analyst can say that America or its allies are safer than they were in 2008 when Obama came to office. Islamic State is a far more sophisticated foe than the Afghan Taliban, whose control of territory in the years leading up to Sept. 11, 2001, provided Al Qaeda with the logistical means to carry out its deadly assault. A series of Islamic State-planned or -inspired terrorist attacks on Western targets, of which the massacre in Orlando is the latest, indicates that as long as Islamic State is a going concern it constitutes a threat to America and its allies. Obamas complacency regarding radical Islam ... explains his failed foreign policies. For the president and his supporters, things werent supposed to work out this way. Reducing the American footprint in the Middle East, combined with the very presence in office of a man who grew up in Muslim Indonesia, was supposed to set aright all the damage wrought by George W. Bush. Obama declared the end of the Iraq war in 2011, by which he really meant the end of Americas military presence. The tide of war is receding, the president declared. Except it didnt recede. It just continued without us. Obamas complacency regarding radical Islam his failure to see its utter defeat as a necessary and decade-spanning task explains his failed foreign policies. Because he believed this menace would wither on the vine (helped along by a few drone strikes and conciliatory speeches to Muslim audiences), Obama shrank the defense budget, hastily pulled our troops out of Iraq (where a small contingent should have remained as a stabilizing force as they still do in Germany and South Korea, 70 years after conflicts in those countries were decisively won), and sat on the sidelines as Syria descended into hell. Obamas obsessive focus on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which has remained irresolvable for nearly seven decades without negatively affecting the regions broader political stability, indicates a naive belief that the lack of a 23rd Arab state, and not the breakdown of the Middle Eastern state-structure into sectarian bloodletting, is the root cause of the Islamic worlds problems. Obamas conviction that we are fighting just a few bad apples and not a world-encompassing, theologically-motivated enemy claiming millions of adherents, also illuminates the controversy du jour: his terminological reticence in uttering radical Islam. For to do that would implicitly acknowledge the gravity of the threat, inherently connected to the religion of Islam. This war, like all wars, must end, Obama declared in 2013. It should not surprise us that a president who places so much stock in the power of his own voice would fail to understand that saying something doesnt make it so. James Kirchick is filling in for Doyle McManus. He is a fellow with the Foreign Policy Initiative. Follow him on Twitter @jkirchick. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion or Facebook The news Tuesday that Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant the last nuke in the state -- will close for good in 2025 puts an ending on this short and contentious chapter of Californias history. Pacific Gas & Electric Co. said Tuesday that it has worked out a deal with environmental groups to let the operating licenses for Diablo Canyons two units expire and decommission the plant just 40 years after it opened. The utility says it will start planning now to balance the lost power with other renewable sources, like solar and wind, and expand storage capacity. Its a significant moment for Californians of a certain age cough, cough brought up in the No Nukes culture of the 1970s and 1980. At the time, many people were deeply suspicious of nuclear power, and hating Diablo Canyon (what an appropriate name, right?) was a thing long before the plant actually opened. Especially in my house, down the highway from the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in San Diego County. As a kid I even spent some extremely dull days lounging in the Diablo Canyon blockade camp near San Luis Obispo while my activist mother and other adults did their blockading thing to try and stop the plant from opening. Obviously, it didnt work. Advertisement That a terrible accident would happen seemed a given, what with all the earthquake faults running through the state. If not that, then surely someone would push the wrong button or fall asleep on the job. These werent unfounded fears. The accident at Pennsylvanias Three Mile Island in 1979 and another one at Chernobyl in 1986 provided real-life scenarios for disaster. And movies such as Silkwood and The China Syndrome didnt help the collective distrust of nuclear power. Imagine how terrifying it was for a kid already overly concerned with nuclear war to contemplate the possibility of a meltdown so severe it would burrow through the Earths core and come out the other side. None of those things happened in about a half-century of using nuclear power, and for that we are most fortunate. Nevertheless, the tide of popular opinion never shifted in favor of nukes. And after the unplanned 2013 shutdown of San Onofre, the decision in 2010 to end once-through cooling at coastal power plants, including Diablo Canyon, and the accident in Fukushima Daiichi plant after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, it seemed inevitable this day would come. So victory, right? Its a little more complicated now that climate change is a bigger threat. People rally in front of the San Luis Obispo County government building in support of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant in San Luis Obispo on March 17, 2016. (David Middlecamp/The Tribune of San Luis Obispo via Associated Press ) A contingent of the environmental advocates who support nuclear power is protesting the shutdown of the Diablo Canyon. The advocates said Tuesday they will fight the closure at every step along the regulatory process because they believe that theres no way PG&E can replace the power from nuclear without using fossil fuels. Diablo Canyon accounts for about 20% of PG&Es power portfolio. If so, it would set the state way back on its climate change goals. A bigger worry is the message this would send to the nations remaining nuclear generating stations. Are we letting our fears over nuclear power get in the way of the greater environmental good? Thats a valid question. Its one that lawmakers and regulators must ponder as they contemplate the Diablo Canyon shutdown proposal, lest we trade abstract fear about nuclear winter for the clear and present danger of climate change. mariel.garza@latimes.com Follow me @marielgarzaLAT With a little more than three weeks before Donald J. Trump takes a confetti shower as he accepts the presidential nomination at the Republican National Convention, this is the state of his campaign: -- The campaign manager who helped shepherd his unlikely rise has been sacked. -- Trump has, politically speaking, pennies in a jar compared to the cash his presumptive Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton has raised, and seems to have squandered what should have been a prime window of opportunity in which to reach potential donors. Advertisement -- A lot of the money he has raised has gone to Trump businesses, which, as the Associated Press put it, gives already reluctant donors a fresh batch of reasons to withhold their money. -- Trump remains at odds with party leaders who fear his presence on the ticket will be toxic for Senate and congressional candidates in close races. -- Civil lawsuits by students alleging they were defrauded by Trump University are still bubbling, though unlikely to reach trial until after the election. -- That he refuses to release his tax returns remains a problem among voters who wonder if hes hiding something. -- To win a presidential election takes state-level organizing, of which the Trump campaign has done relatively little. -- Some pledged delegates to the convention seek a rules change that will allow them to not vote for Trump on the first ballot as an act of conscience, which could deny him the nomination and spark a contested convention (though the odds of that are long). But dont start dancing on Trumps political grave just yet. His path to the White House has more than a few barriers, but who wins will likely hinge on whether voters in the crucial swing states dislike him more than they dislike Clinton. Or, conversely, fear a Trump administration more than another Clinton one. And who knows what voters moods will be like after the next four months of Crooked Hillary sneers and various conspiracy theories Trump flirts with, and the expected scorched-earth approach by Clinton and her supporters. Yet right now Trump doesnt have the money to mount an effective campaign at any level. His strategy so far has been to spew obnoxious ideas, mock his rivals, and ride the national media coverage. To keep getting free coverage hell need to keep making news, which in Trumps case often involves outrageousness a double-edged sword. Scott.Martelle@LATimes.com Follow my posts and re-tweets at @smartelle on Twitter MORE FROM OPINION Donald Trumps campaign doesnt have enough money for a three-bedroom in Santa Monica, let alone a presidential race Can Brazil protect the Olympic Games and its own citizens? Obama wont admit it, but the fight against Islamist radicalism will last generations To the editor: We can debate concealed carry, preventing people on the no-fly list from buying guns or the National Rifle Assn. But it seems more important for us to revisit the 2nd Amendment in light of recent American experience. (Senate votes down proposal to bar gun sales to terrorism suspects, June 20) About 30,000 people have been killed with guns in the United States every year since gun death records have been kept. Additionally, those states with greater gun ownership and more liberal gun laws have higher rates of gun death. Mass killings are on the rise, and we have just now experienced another such event at the hands of a homegrown terrorist. Is the 2nd Amendment worth the equivalent of 10 Sept. 11 attacks per year? Do we want continual mass shootings? Obviously, the answer is no. Therefore, we must convince Congress and other elected leaders that we need to change the 2nd Amendment or add another one that will finally allow us to address the killings of so many Americans. Advertisement Dale Huss, Pacific Palisades .. To the editor: I appreciate that Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) brought focus to the issue of gun control. But everyone knew before that vote happened how it would end. There were two competing proposals per party up for vote. Both sides drafted proposals that would give them a narrative for the general election talking points. Thats all. As long as the NRA exists in its current form, there is nothing inside the box that can be done that will change things aside from winning control of everything legislative. Jesse Albert, Los Angeles .. To the editor: In response to the Orlando, Fla., night club massacre, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton proposes 2nd Amendment intrusions for persons (who could easily be U.S. citizens) whose names appear on terrorist watch lists. Any first-year law student would see that this would be on a direct collision course with the U.S. Constitution. Of course, Clintons principal opponent, likely Republican nominee Donald Trump, would create even grander encroachments on all the enumerated benefits of the Bill of Rights. So this election cycle is offering me a choice between a constitutional ignoramus and a neofascist. I consider neither qualified for the presidency. My only option is to vote for a third-party candidate. Patrick Sullivan, Reseda .. To the editor: When the Senate took no action on gun reform after the slaughter of 20 children and six teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, you knew that any chance for meaningful change was over. Since then weve experienced mass shootings in Washington, Ft. Hood, Isla Vista, Charleston, Chattanooga, Roseburg, Colorado Springs, San Bernardino and Orlando. No wonder Americans are fed up with politicians who talk, posture and debate but at the end of the day do nothing. John Snyder, Eagle Rock Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook MORE FROM OPINION Brexit would be a disaster for Britain Can Brazil protect the Olympic Games and its own citizens? Obama wont admit it, but the fight against Islamist radicalism will last generations Sen. Marco Rubio announced Wednesday that he will seek reelection to the Senate, a risky political move and a reversal from his previous vow to return to private life following a failed White House bid. Rubios about-face launches a high-stakes gamble for the charismatic young Republican. If he wins a second term, he could help Republicans in their uphill struggle to keep control of the Senate this fall. But an embarrassing defeat would brand him as a two-time loser, potentially damaging his future presidential prospects. For the record: This story originally reported that Rubio ended his presidential campaign in April. He ended it in March. In a statement released Wednesday, Rubio, 45, said his decision was motivated by a concern that neither a Hillary Clinton nor a Donald Trump administration would be able to adequately handle the challenges ahead, including such issues as terrorism and a slowing economy. Advertisement No matter who is elected president, there is reason for worry. With Hillary Clinton, we would have four more years of the same failed economic policies that have left us with a stagnant economy, Rubio said. But he also called the prospect of a Trump presidency worrisome. It is no secret that I have significant disagreements with Donald Trump. His positions on many key issues are still unknown. And some of his statements, especially about women and minorities, I find not just offensive but unacceptable. If he is elected, we will need senators willing to encourage him in the right direction, and if necessary, stand up to him. Ive proven a willingness to do both. Rubio faced considerable pressure to run. Florida will be a key swing state this fall. With Clinton polling strong against Trump, Democrats saw a prime opportunity to pick up the Sunshine States Senate seat, particularly after Rubios initial decision to retire. With Rubio back in the race, Democratic chances of winning the seat are narrower, but the road ahead is not guaranteed for Rubio, either. He still must clear a crowded Republican primary field, which could be difficult at a time when voters prefer outsider candidates. His decision just days before the Friday candidate filing deadline left some Republican rivals fuming. Millionaire businessman Carlos Beruff has vowed to dip into his own wealth beyond the nearly $4 million hes already spent to prevent Rubio from winning the Aug. 30 primary. But Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera, a longtime Rubio ally who was counting on the senator to headline a fundraiser Friday, suspended his campaign after Rubio joined the race. Democrats say they relish the opportunity to try to topple Rubio, dismissing him as an opportunist who cited the Orlando, Fla., shooting as one of the reasons for his decision to try to stay in office. He is cravenly using the deadliest mass shooting in American history as the springboard to go back on his word and further his political career, said Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Communications Director Sadie Weiner. But Democrats face their own primary battle between the partys preferred candidate, Rep. Patrick Murphy, and the more progressive Rep. Alan Grayson, who faces ethics complaints. I have only said like 10000 times I will be a private citizen in January. Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) May 17, 2016 After ending his presidential campaign in March, Rubio repeatedly said he was returning to private life. I have only said like 10000 times I will be a private citizen in January, he tweeted in May. But GOP leaders had other ideas, particularly after Trump became the Republican Partys presumed presidential nominee. GOP leaders have been increasingly worried that Trumps polarizing campaign will hurt down-ballot candidates, endangering Republicans Senate majority. With several lesser-known Republicans vying for Rubios seat, none was gaining traction the way officials believe Rubio could. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky personally warned that keeping Florida was crucial not just for the Senate majority, but to Rubios own future White House aspirations. GOP senators and donors piled on. And even Trump, who disparaged Little Marco on the campaign trail, recently tweeted, Run Marco! Theres so much pressure on him to get back in, said Nick Iarossi, a Tallahassee, Fla.-based Republican fundraiser. Hes really agonized about it. But Rubio faces new challenges that have dimmed his once-rising-star status. The first-term Republicans popularity suffered from his failed presidential run. During the campaign, he unapologetically skipped Senate votes and aired his frustration with the slow-moving Congress though he has since argued that reports of his displeasure with Washington were overblown. I never said I hated the Senate, Rubio said when returning to work in April. I enjoy being a senator, but I really believed the best place for me to contribute was as a president. In attempting to stand up to Trumps personal attacks during the bitter primary, Rubio brought presidential politics to a new low by making a negative reference about the size of Trumps penis. He later apologized for the remark. Rubios campaign war chest is also diminished, though fundraising is expected to start up quickly and super PAC donors can fuel his reelection bid. Another loss in 2016 would certainly be a setback to a future White House bid, which many expect Rubio will pursue in 2020. But it is a risk Rubio appears willing to take. Hes a political creature, said GOP strategist David Johnson, a former state party official and ally of former presidential candidate Jeb Bush. People who are born that way theyre born to run like greyhounds they have to run. lisa.mascaro@latimes.com Twitter: @LisaMascaro MORE POLITICS NEWS: California tribes give U.S. Senate race the cold shoulder Still no Obamacare alternative from House Republicans, five years on Faith-based colleges say anti-discrimination bill would infringe on their religious freedom UPDATES: 11:10 a.m.: This article was updated with additional comments from Marco Rubio. 8:20 a.m.: This article was updated with Marco Rubios statement officially announcing his reelection bid. This article was originally published at 7:29 a.m. As millions of people were losing their homes in the depth of the recession, instructors at Trump University were urging students to seek out anxious or desperate sellers to reap a financial windfall, according to recently released documents in the federal class-action lawsuit against presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump. The now-defunct for-profit real-estate school, founded by Trump and two associates in 2004, offered workshops on how to take advantage of the foreclosure crisis in some of the hardest hit states, including California. In a 2008 slide aimed at persuading potential students to sign up for a three-day, $1,495 workshop, Trump is pictured alongside a quote: Ive always made a FORTUNE in FORECLOSURES, and YOU WILL TOO. The timing will never be better than NOW! My recommendation is that you attend our retreat. ENROLL TODAY! Advertisement That year, more than 2.3 million foreclosures were filed across the nation, including more than a half-million in California, said Daren Blomquist, a senior vice president at RealtyTrac, a housing data firm. It was the height of the foreclosure market. Trump was certainly not alone among investors who sought to make a profit by purchasing foreclosed or distressed properties at a deep discount. These investments helped the housing market eventually rebound, Blomquist said. See the most-read stories in National News this hour >> But what is routine in business can be controversial in politics, as seen in Democrats successful 2012 effort to brand that years GOP nominee, Mitt Romney, as a heartless corporate vulture. In a similar move, Democrats seized upon Trump Universitys focus on foreclosures as an example of Trumps willingness to profit on Americans suffering. Its really offensive, said state Controller Betty Yee, who has endorsed presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Hes looking at really taking advantage of vulnerable communities to line the pockets of the wealthy. The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment. In May, when Clinton castigated him for comments he made in 2006 and 2007 about the opportunities to make money if the housing market collapsed, Trump countered by saying that he was a businessman. I have made a lot of money in down markets. In some cases, as much as Ive made when markets are good. Frankly, this is the kind of thinking our country needs, understanding how to get a good result out of a very bad and sad situation, he said. Politicians have no idea how to do this they dont have a clue. The revelations about Trump Universitys focus on foreclosures are found in documents that were unsealed in late May by U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel in San Diego. They are part of the exhibits in a fraud trial that is scheduled to begin after the November election. The fraud allegations have already been raised by Trumps GOP rivals in the Republican primary and by Clinton, as recently as Tuesday. The San Diego lawsuit one of three pending against Trump involving the university was most recently in campaign news because Trump repeatedly said that Curiel could not oversee a fair trial because of his Mexican heritage. The remarks drew widespread condemnation from both sides of the aisle. The hundreds of pages of documents include advertisements, speaker scripts and slide shows for a free introductory workshop designed to enroll students in longer classes and memberships that started at $1,495 and topped out at $35,000. A 2009 newspaper ad for introductory Trump University classes in Monterey, San Jose and Fremont urged prospective California students to Cash in on the Greatest Property Liquidation in History! This was during the peak of the housing crisis, with 2.8 million foreclosures filed across the nation. Some of the ads targeted the hardest-hit states. In addition to California, Trump University ran similar ads in Florida and Nevada, both of which are battleground states where Democrats will likely raise the matter in the general election. Its certainly not out of the question that we would want to make sure people knew this guy was taking advantage of people losing their homes, or taking advantage of people who thought they could get rich quick because of the housing market crash, said Justin Barasky, spokesman for Priorities USA Action, a pro-Clinton super PAC that has $47 million in the bank and commitments for another $45 million to take on Trump. When pitching the Fast Track to Foreclose Investing system and a proprietary Trumps Foreclosure DealSource software to prospective students, speakers described the mortgage meltdown as a historic opportunity to make money. One compared it to The Perfect Storm, a 2000 movie about a commercial fishing boat that sank after being confronted by two storm fronts and a hurricane off Massachusetts. Well the same thing has happened in the housing industry and thats an incredible opportunity for us, according to a speaker script. Everything is coming together in a perfect storm that may swamp some folks, but if you are properly trained and supported you can prosper. Investors were advised to target distressed home sellers by looking for keywords in newspaper ads, such as anxious owner and seller desperate. Students were told they could save underwater homeowners credit, possibly through a short sale. A slide featuring Trumps picture included a quote: There is no reason why an investor cant make money and help people at the same time. seema.mehta@latimes.com For the latest on national and California politics, follow @LATSeema on Twitter. MORE NATIONAL NEWS The Dreamers Obama spared from deportation: What are they dreaming about? Still no Obamacare alternative from House Republicans, five years on Marco Rubio launches Senate reelection bid, says hell rein in Clinton, Trump Im Christina Bellantoni. This is Essential Politics. Lets get started. The past week has found some good news for fans of Sen. Bernie Sanders, as California elections officials make their way through hundreds of thousands of uncounted ballots but not enough to change the outcome of election night. As of Tuesday night, there were about 784,000 ballots left to process from the June 7 primary. And over the course of the last week, the Hillary Clinton lead has narrowed slightly, now at about nine percentage points statewide. Advertisement While state law allows the vote count to last through early July, the current review rate could mean things are wrapped up by the middle of next week. In fact, 11 of Californias 58 counties already have finished processing their ballots. CLINTON: HAMILTON WOULD BE ROLLING IN HIS GRAVE With the primary behind her and racing toward the general election, Clinton warned in a speech Tuesday that Donald Trumps business record disqualified him from overseeing the nations economy. She argued his policies and temperament risked sending the U.S. into a recession and setting off a global panic. Saying Alexander Hamilton would be rolling in his grave, Clinton repeatedly used Trumps words and the few policy details hes offered as a weapon against him. Trump on Tuesday also questioned Clintons faith, even though she has talked about her Methodist religion for years. For the latest about the campaign, keep an eye on Trail Guide and follow @latimespolitics. TRIBES TEPID ON SENATE RACE Californias Native American tribes are usually high rollers when it comes to contributing to political campaigns, but thats not the case in the U.S. Senate race. Phil Willon reports that a number of tribes that operate lucrative casinos have avoided the race altogether, even though theyve been generous to other federal candidates and political parties. Some Native American leaders arent too happy with the record of Democratic Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris on tribal issues, especially those related to gaming. And her Democratic rival in the November election, Rep. Loretta Sanchez, didnt do herself any favors with her Native American war cry gaffe in 2015. CALL TO ACTION AT POT CONFERENCE Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom warned a conference of cannabis industry members Tuesday that they need to get involved in passing a pot legalization measure on the November ballot or the cause will be set back nationally. Patrick McGreevy reports from Oakland that Newsom also said the war on drugs has been an abject failure. I kind of got frustrated by some of our colleagues because they werent leading, Newsom told some 2,000 industry activists and entrepreneurs at a conference sponsored by the National Cannabis Industry Assn. Newsom said current drug policies constitute a war on the poor, on folks of color, and its got to end. We will continue to track the measures on the Nov. 8 ballot on our Essential Politics news feed. BUYERS REMORSE? Two of Trumps most high-profile supporters in Congress have a case of buyers remorse, writes Joshua Stewart of the San Diego Union-Tribune. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista) said hed like to redo the entire primary process without Trump as a candidate. Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Alpine), one of the first members of the House to back Trump, warned of an attempt to block Trump as the Republican Partys presidential nominee and of potential violence at the GOP national convention in July. Issa, blaming President Obama for voter frustration, said Sanders and Trump found a socialist versus an egotist on primary ballots, and Neither one of them were particularly people who should have been so far up. MORE ON THE CLINTON FUNDRAISERS We told you yesterday about the fundraiser at tech mogul Sean Parkers home next week. Among the co-hosts is Ron Conway, an angel investor who was an early Napster funder. Given Donald Trumps stand on trade, immigration, gun safety, etc., the tech community MUST make a big showing for Seans event given his leadership in the tech community and philanthropy, Conway wrote in an invitation to his network obtained by The Times. CONGRESSIONAL BASEBALL GAME Rep. Linda Sanchez will again be the only female player in the annual Congressional Baseball Game on Thursday night between Democrats and Republicans. The Whittier Democrat was one of the Democrats most valuable players last year. Sarah Wire reports that Sanchez is just one of the handful of California members who will suit up in jerseys of their local teams Thursday night as Republicans try to end Democrats winning streak. Democrats have won the last seven games of the annual Washington charity tradition at Nationals Park. The event, sponsored by the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call, draws Hill staffers, lobbyists, other members of Congress and, last year, even President Obama. (Dont miss the photos in the story.) TODAYS ESSENTIALS A jury has convicted Pennsylvania Rep. Chaka Fattah on trial in a racketeering case that centered on various efforts to repay an illegal $1-million campaign loan. The Democrat was found guilty Tuesday of racketeering, fraud, money laundering and other counts. His lawyers had argued that the schemes were engineered without Fattahs knowledge by two political consultants who pleaded guilty in the case. The fight among California Democrats over Uber and Lyft regulations was laid bare during a Senate committee hearing Tuesday. A bill that would ease rules on the industry advanced. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs will have to look at whether its suicide prevention programs are meeting female veterans needs under a California-led bill that passed the House on Tuesday. San Bernardino County and the city of Ontario could reclaim control of Ontario International Airport soon under legislation that passed the House by a voice vote Tuesday afternoon. The legislation allows some of the $2-per-passenger facility charge collected at the Ontario airport to be used to reimburse Los Angeles International Airport. The reimbursement is required under a deal between the owners of the two airports that would give local control back to the Inland Empire. Several California House members are asking how the military plans to stop using live animals in medical combat-trauma training, as it has said it will. The Los Angeles City Ethics Commission fined a former City Council candidate nearly $16,000 for failing to pay for campaign services that exceeded city limits on donations, as well as other violations. At the same meeting, commissioners also fined former Mayor Richard J. Riordan for neglecting to include key wording on election emails backing candidates for the Los Angeles Unified school board. Check out our interactive Electoral College map. LOGISTICS Im headed out for a short vacation and will be back July 5 with your regular edition of Essential Politics. Sacramento bureau chief John Myers will take things from here. Miss yesterdays newsletter? Here you go. Did someone forward you this? Sign up here to get Essential Politics in your inbox daily. And keep an eye on our politics page throughout the day for the latest and greatest. And are you following us on Twitter at @latimespolitics? Please send thoughts, concerns and news tips to politics@latimes.com. Jokes about Donald Trump and his border wall are now routine late-night TV and comedy sketch material. So when a startup Southern California company wanted to gin up some attention for its 360-degree camera, the premise for the commercial was obvious: Theres President Trump unveiling a giant wall on the border of Mexico, and when a camera pulls back, there are mariachis and churro vendors tunneling under it into America. Get a broader perspective, the motto reads. But television executives have declined to air the spot because they are worried about political neutrality and reinforcing stereotypes, says Peter Adderton, chief executive of 360fly. Standards and practices staff for two networks said they didnt know about the spot and declined to elaborate. Industry sources who declined to be named pointedly said small companies have been known to try to get headlines with similar claims and no proof. Others suggested there is a fine line between a commercial for a product and political advertising less than five months before an election. Advertisement Election 2016 | Campaign coverage on Trail Guide | Sign up for the newsletter A source with the team helping 360fly with marketing told The Times the networks had intoned they want to remain politically neutral and dont want to be seen as poking fun at an ethnic group. A company source declined to provide the documentation showing the spot was rejected, saying it was legally protected by nondisclosure agreements with the networks. A similar message came from the networks. Its our policy not to comment on specific spots, but all spots are reviewed to ensure that they meet the standards and expectations of our local viewing audience, said Mike Nelson, a KCBS-TV spokesman. Another network told The Times there was no record of 360fly in its system, and its standards and practices staff doesnt recall seeing an ad that matches this one. Adderton said Fox would broadcast the spot which he insists is parody and satire, and not anti-Trump this week. After this story was published, Marc Altieri of The Brand Amp marketing team said 360fly decided against airing on a local Fox channel and Fox News Channel. Instead, he said, the video would air online with the Onion, Complex and Funny or Die. We didnt take a political side, Adderton said, noting the commercial also depicts Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders welcoming and helping the border violators as they arrive on U.S. soil. Our point is a positive point. Adderton, a native of Sydney, Australia, who has lived in the U.S. for 15 years but cant vote here, says his commercial is a commentary on the dynamic hes observed in American politics. I talk to Republicans and Democrats and independents, and everyone has got a singular point of view and is not willing to look at others point of view, he told The Times. But there are multiple sides, which needs a 360 approach. (Get it?) He said he is politically conservative, votes with Australias conservative Liberal Party, and considers himself aligned with Republicans here. Like everybody else, I am quite confused at the moment, he says of Trump. The chief executive said focus groups of Republicans, Democrats and Latinos overwhelmingly loved the spot and had a little bit of a laugh. Hes not shy about admitting his ultimate goal is to sell his cameras, which retail for less than $500. We want to get our name out there and our brand out there and this is how were trying to do it. christina.bellantoni@latimes.com Twitter: @cbellantoni ALSO: Want to have dinner with Donald Trump? It will cost $25,000 (or more) West Hollywood Mayor to Trump: Stay out 360-degree camera makers are focusing on the consumer market Updates on California politics Live coverage from the campaign trail UPDATES: 1:30 p.m.: This article was updated to clarify that documentation from the networks about the spot is protected by a nondisclosure agreement. 9:40 a.m.: This article was updated with details about where the spot would air. This article was originally published at 9:21 a.m. News / National by Stephen Jakes Mthwakazi LIberation Front has warned the people of Mthwakazi to never allow being misled by the Zimbabwean ruling party Zanu PF as the party has totally failed to implement their interests.In a statement MLF spokesperson for Bulawayo Ndabezinhle Fuyane said people from Mthwakazi region should desist from being led astray by the circumstances of the situation in the country."This comes from the analysis that any political party that need to advance its political mileage should cast their political nets in the region in a bid to gain support," Fuyane said."People should learn from their previous mistakes which saw political parties like Zanu PF using local people to gain their political mileage but get dumped afterwards. MDC-T came in the the name of exposing Gukurahundi perpetrators but has hidden agenda. Now ZimPF to mention but the few."Fuyane said Mthwakazians need to stand their ground in defending their heritage and ubuntu by not allowing such exploitation taking place."We are sick and tired of such exploitation taking place ion the pretext of purportedly exposing Gukurahundi perpetrators which some are even part of. It is allowed that people should support parties of their choice, but at the same time bearing in mind the future and objectives of that certain political party," he said." It is our plea to the people of Mthwakazi to revisit their historical background and have their actions revised. Let us not allow the same things happening again and again. We are loosing value,our cultural values dwindling and we end up loosing focus to our objectives as a recognized people," Fuyane said."Let's stand together and support each other as we have always stood in some instances that have seen the Mthwakazians sailing through. It is our mandate to build up 'ubuzwe bethu' as a state. We have the local supportive and powerful chiefs who can lead us through this painful oppression, who value our cultural objectives and our cultural background but falling short of support.""Let us not be taken by storm from other groups whose only cause is to gain their political mileage through local people and at the end they throw us away and forget about our cause. Alluta continua Mthwakazi kaNdaba!!!" he said. Two of Donald Trumps most high-profile supporters in Congress have a case of buyers remorse. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista) said hed like to redo the entire primary process without Trump as a candidate. Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Alpine), one of the first members of the House to back Trump, warned of an attempt to block Trump as the Republican Partys presidential nominee and of potential violence at the GOP national convention in July. Issa blamed President Obama, in part, for the Trump phenomenon. Advertisement Donald Trump got this job because this president has been so polarizing, Issa said Monday at the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce annual congressional luncheon. Now thats not a good reason for the voters to have passed over experienced governors and senators candidates who in another climate likely would have been thought of much more on what they said they were going to do and their resumes. Neither Trump nor Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders should have done as well as they did in the primaries, but frustration with the Obama administration fueled their candidacies, Issa said. Its a socialist versus an egotist. Neither one of them were particularly people who should have been so far up, he said. Issa added that the presumptive Democratic nominee, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, also fails her partys voters because of the investigation of her use of a private email server while leading the State Department. This is a very unusual year. I would love to redo the deck and start over and see who we would pick if we say, You can have those, you have to pick someone experienced, said Issa, who initially backed Florida Sen. Marco Rubio for the GOP presidential nomination. Hunter, despite being a Trump delegate, reiterated that he wont go to his partys convention in Cleveland next month. I think its going to be mayhem and riots and hooligans and thugs and police forces. And thats just the actual convention, Hunter said at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront. He said he expects there to be some sort of political battle to change procedures or rules to block Trumps path to the nomination. I think its going to be a madhouse, really, Hunter said. Hunter and Rep. Chris Collins ( R-N.Y.) were the first two representatives to endorse Trump and subsequently became the candidates intermediaries to the House in an attempt to build rapport and support with members. Last week, the Washington Post reported that Hunter said he didnt always agree with Trump and couldnt explain some of Trumps conflicting policy stances. Yeah, its not my job to answer for Donald Trump, Hunter said as he spoke with a gaggle of reporters in Washington. Really. Im not even a surrogate. Im just an endorser. Rep. Susan A. Davis (D-San Diego) said the political climate during the primary season indicated that people were not satisfied with how Washington works. What we really want is a president who can help make government function again, said Davis, a Clinton supporter. Davis and Rep. Scott Peters (D-San Diego), who also backs Clinton, said they expect their candidate to be elected president. Whoever the president is -- I guess the betting money is on Secretary Clinton -- I hope they take the opportunity to recognize that people are frustrated with a D.C. that is not working together, Peters said. Neither Hunter nor Issa made any statement at the luncheon indicating that they believe Trump will win Novembers election. Rep. Juan Vargas (D-San Diego), the fifth member of San Diego Countys House delegation, was not at the event. ALSO Man at Vegas rally said he wanted to kill Trump, authorities say As ballots are counted, Hillary Clintons California lead shrinks Sanders delegates in California cling to their dream, unfazed by math Gun-control advocates in the U.S. often point to Australia as proof that Americans would be safer with a ban on semiautomatic weapons. In the land down under, there has been a total of zero mass shootings since rapid-fire guns were outlawed in the 1990s. But a new analysis of crime in Australia stops short of giving gun-control laws the credit for this remarkable run. The reason: Although homicides involving guns have declined over the past 20 years, homicides committed without firearms have dropped even more. Because of this, it is not possible to determine whether the change in firearm deaths can be attributed to gun law reforms, researchers concluded in a study published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. Advertisement Rapid-fire guns were banned throughout Australia after an event known as the Port Arthur massacre, a mass shooting left 35 people dead and 19 wounded. The shocking rampage, in a quiet town in southeastern Tasmania, prompted lawmakers to enact the National Firearms Agreement. The centerpiece of the NFA is a set of strict prohibitions on rapid-fire rifles and shotguns. Other parts of the agreement require gun buyers to demonstrate a genuine need for a weapon, pass a gun safety test, wait at least 28 days for the purchase to go through and then register their firearm, among many other conditions. The Australian government also sponsored two gun buyback programs that resulted in the destruction of at least 728,667 weapons. A trio of researchers wanted to know whether those efforts succeeded in reducing firearms-related deaths in the country and if so, whether the reduction in shootings was offset by additional homicides committed by other means. The researchers, from the University of Sydneys School of Public Health and the psychology department at Macquarie University in Sydney, analyzed information from Australias National Injury Surveillance Unit. The data included information on all deadly shootings in the country, with the exception of justified shootings by police. See the most-read stories in Science this hour In the 17 years before the Port Arthur massacre, there were 12 other mass shootings in Australia that left at least five people dead, not including the the shooter. Altogether, 104 victims died in these 13 events, along with eight of the shooters. All of those figures have dropped to zero in the 20 years since Port Arthur. But thats not enough to make a strong case for gun control. So the researchers examined other trends before and after the strict laws went into effect. Each year between 1979 and 1996, Australia had an average of 3.6 gun deaths (both homicides and suicides) per 100,000 people. After the NFA was passed, that rate dropped to an average of 1.2 gun deaths per 100,000 people. In both time periods, the total number of firearm-related deaths was on the decline. But the trend accelerated after gun control took effect, the researchers wrote. The researchers also found that passage of the NFA was associated with a steep drop in the overall homicide rate. Before Port Arthur, homicides involving weapons of any kind had been falling at a rate of 0.3% per year, on average. Afterward, they fell by 3.1% per year. There was no evidence that killers who couldnt get their hands on guns switched to other weapons instead, the team wrote. In addition, the suicide rate which had been rising by an average of 1% per year fell by 1.5% per year after the countrys gun laws changed. Without guns available to them, suicidal people were simply less successful in their attempts to end their lives, the researchers speculated. Overall, gun-related deaths fell faster after gun control than before it. But some of those gains might be due to factors that have nothing to do with guns. For instance, trauma doctors and surgeons have gotten better at treating gunshot victims. Theyre also getting treated more rapidly in the NFA era, thanks in part to the growing ubiquity of cellphones, the researchers wrote. Put it all together and the researchers couldnt say with certainty that Australias stricter gun laws were responsible for the drop in gun-related deaths. See more of our top stories on Facebook Indeed, connecting those dots was a tall order, according to Daniel Webster, director of the Center for Gun Policy and Research at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Since all of Australias states and territories adopted the NFA, theres no clear way to gauge what would have happened in the absence of the agreement. Still, the study offers convincing evidence that the new policies enacted in 1996 appear to have helped prevent future mass shootings, Webster wrote in an editorial that also appears in JAMA. A reasonable interpretation of the data is that Australias restrictions on guns enacted in 1996 likely spared the country from a significant number of fatal mass shootings. Webster called on Americans to take a cue from Australians and demand that their elected representatives adopt measures to prevent the loss of life and terror of gun violence. Last week, the American Medical Assn. declared gun violence a public health crisis in the U.S. and vowed to lobby Congress to clear the way for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to conduct research on gun violence. karen.kaplan@latimes.com Follow me on Twitter @LATkarenkaplan and like Los Angeles Times Science & Health on Facebook. MORE IN SCIENCE Americans diets improve, but ethnic and income gaps widen Could wear-and-tear on the love hormone gene make us less social? To make chocolate healthier and tastier, all you need is an electric beam An independent auditor is reviewing the Burbank Police Departments response to the discovery two years ago of derogatory emails forwarded by a top Burbank police official mocking Muslims, Latinos, blacks and women, city officials said this week. The Office of Independent Review Group hired in 2012 to provide ongoing oversight to the Burbank agency, which was reeling from allegations of police brutality, racism and sexual harassment will likely present its findings to the Burbank City Council this summer, according to the groups chief attorney Mike Gennaco. NEWSLETTER: Get the latest 818 headlines straight to your inbox >> Gennaco will also review and suggest ways to improve the agencys employee email audits, which in recent years excluded supervisors, including sergeants, lieutenants, captains, the deputy chief and police chief. An audit scheduled for this year is slated to include all ranks, with city officials eyeing Gennaco to review the emails of captains, the deputy chief and police chief. I need independence so that people believe it, because theres a lot of mistrust at this point, interim City Manager Ron Davis said Friday. It appears the former deputy chief ignored these annual notifications and continued to forward offensive, discriminatory emails. Burbank Police Officers Assn. board in letter to interim City Manager Ron Davis Tom Angel sent the emails in 2012 and 2013 when he was the No. 2 police official in Burbank, but they were first discovered in 2014 in response to records requests filed by a Los Angeles attorney on behalf of a client. After learning of the emails, the Leader obtained and published them last month. One email included the subject line, How dumb is dumb? and listed 20 reasons Muslim Terrorists are so quick to commit suicide, including Towels for hats, Constant wailing from some idiot in a tower and You cant wash off the smell of donkey. Another email ridiculed concerns about the racial profiling of Muslims as terrorism suspects. Police Chief Scott LaChasse provided Angel with verbal counseling in April 2014, and decided with then City Manager Mark Scott that no further action was required, according to a May 2 police department memo to Davis. When making his decision, LaChasse considered Angels 40-plus years of exceptional service, his commitment to hiring and promoting diverse candidates, and his involvement in expanding community academies to include classes for Spanish and Armenian speakers, as well as the hearing impaired, the memo stated. The response drew criticism from the Burbank Police Officers Assn. board of directors, which, in a letter to Davis, raised concerns that Angels emails werent properly investigated two years ago, as the offenses apparently were not reported to the management services director, nor to Gennaco. That supervisors were exempt from email audits including one in 2014 conducted after the discovery of Angels emails supports our concern the department and city policies do not apply to the administration, the board wrote. The city report maintains that LaChasses response to Angels emails was consistent with how he handled other email violations discovered during two separate email audits in 2012 and 2013 of civilians, officers and detectives. As a result of those two audits, nine employees five sworn officers and four civilians received verbal counseling. The contents of their emails were not available. After the audits, agency employees received reminders not to forward inappropriate emails to others, including friends outside the department. It appears the former deputy chief ignored these annual notifications and continued to forward offensive, discriminatory emails, the police union board wrote in the letter. Join the conversation on Facebook >> The unions letter also pointed to discipline including multiple days off and a demotion handed by Angel to employees in the communications center for similar policy violations around the time Angel sent the emails. When asked if those employees planned to challenge the discipline, Burbank City Employees Assn. President Pete Bova said, We are looking at our options and are in talks with our legal counsel in regards to the matter. Others are also seeking answers to lingering questions related to the emails. Under the city charter, the Burbank Police Commission can conduct hearings and investigations at the request of the Burbank City Council. At a meeting Wednesday, Commissioner David Diamond asked the council to invoke this power to allow the group to study the incident. The request came after the commission voted to table a general discussion on the departments email audit system in favor of a more thorough review later. This is an incident that calls for a specific review of something, Diamond said. The generalized does the public no good in this situation. In all but one case, the city redacted the names and addresses of Angels email correspondents, arguing that releasing private email addresses would amount to an invasion of privacy. Diamond said that the city had no grounds for the redactions and announced his intention to submit a records request for the unredacted versions. I dont think theres any privacy issues, Diamond said, though he wasnt optimistic that hed get the information. This gives the department and the city attorneys office time now to start preparing their no to me. -- Alene Tchekmedyian, alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com Twitter: @atchek -- ALSO: L.A. man wanted in killing of pregnant girlfriend is now one of FBIs Ten Most Wanted Fugitives Suspect in alleged crime spree, including Burbank double-shooting, pleads not guilty Gunshot wounds killed man whose plastic-wrapped body was found near railroad, coroners office says During the next fiscal year, Burbank school officials expect to receive roughly $147.2 million in revenue, the vast majority of it from state officials who are sending about $2.9 billion into California schools starting July 1. By the end of June 2017, Burbank Unified expects to have spent about $145 million locally, said David Jaynes, assistant superintendent of Burbank Unified. He presented the school districts budget to the Burbank Unified School Board during a meeting last Thursday. Although the districts budget does not include any place holders for salary increases, approximately $4.4 million could be set aside to support employees compensation packages, Jaynes said. About 87% of Burbank Unifieds revenue goes to employees compensation, he added. Follow us on Facebook >> Currently, Burbank Unified receives $19.5 million in funds from Proposition 30, which voters passed in 2012. The proposition allocated increased sales and income tax revenues to K-12 schools and community colleges through the end of 2018. Burbanks Proposition 30 funds go to pay salaries of credentialed teachers, Jaynes added. An extension of Proposition 30, which would continue to tax individuals earning $250,000 or more per year, or families who earn more than $500,000, would place Burbank Unified in a better financial situation, according to Supt. Matt Hill. Overall, school officials didnt appear deterred by the current budget scenario, although they do project students average daily attendance to decrease, which is tied to declining enrollment. The figure is based on how many students show up for class and determines how much funding the district receives from the state. During the next school year, the average daily attendance number is expected to drop by 124 students to 14,657, Jaynes said. The districts total enrollment is projected to be 15,132, down from 15,268 who were enrolled during the last school year. Although not huge, we are in a declining enrollment stage, Jaynes said. Burbank Unified expects to receive $9,963 for every student it serves in grades kindergarten through third grade and $7,721 for each fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grade student. The per-pupil funding the district receives for seventh- and eighth-graders will be $7,951, while the figure tied to high school students will be $9,452. Another focus of the budget entails setting aside more funds than last year for deferred maintenance projects, a move advised by school board members. District officials will set aside $613,900 during the 2016-17 fiscal year for maintenance projects, up from $250,000 they earmarked last year. The figure will raise to $996,800 during 2017-18 and hold steady at that amount for the 2018-19 fiscal year. Board members plan to adopt the budget during their next meeting, scheduled for Thursday, said Larry Applebaum, board president. -- Kelly Corrigan, kelly.corrigan@latimes.com Twitter: @kellymcorrigan A Newport Beach man who fled the country and evaded authorities for years after he was accused of running a $3-million Ponzi scheme was convicted by an Orange County jury Wednesday. Thomas Franklin Tarbutton, 56, could face up to 34 years and four months in prison for dozens of felonies related to theft, forgery and fraud. He is scheduled to be sentenced by an Orange County Superior Court judge March 4. Between 2004 and 2010, Tarbutton was what is known as a hard money lender, according to the Orange County district attorneys office. Through Tarbuttons company, Villa Capital Inc., private investors could loan funds to borrowers who didnt want to go through the banking system. Tarbutton defrauded 11 of those investors who thought they were lending money for real estate mortgagees, according to prosecutors. Instead of funding those loans, Tarbutton would keep the money and show the investors fake or forged documents that showed they were lienholders on properties in Los Angeles and Orange counties, prosecutors said. To keep clients from finding out their investments were underperforming or the loans were never made in the first place Tarbutton would pay out small amounts he described as interest from the loans, when they were really money from the original investments, according to prosecutors. When the real estate market crashed, Tarbutton stopped making payments at all, according to the district attorneys office. Prosecutors said four investors reported suspicions of fraud in October 2010, and a year later, authorities charged Tarbutton and issued a $2 million warrant for his arrest. Tarbutton fled the country and began living in Brazil, according to authorities. In December 2014, Tarbutton flew to Panama, but when he tried to cross the border to Costa Rica, Panamanian authorities detained him on the warrant, prosecutors said. Tarbutton was returned to the United States three days later and the FBI took him into custody at Los Angeles International Airport, prosecutors said. Tarbutton pleaded not guilty to the charges but was ultimately convicted of 18 felony counts of grand theft, nine felony counts of forgery, 11 felony counts of using an untrue statement in the purchase or sale of a security, and one felony count of use of a device or scheme to defraud. The jury also found him guilty of sentencing enhancements for loss of over $100,000, property loss over $3.2 million and aggravated white collar crime of over $500,000. A proposed land swap designed to assuage neighborhood concerns while providing a state-run veterans cemetery was rejected this week by the Irvine City Council, which decided to stay with the previously approved site on 125 acres of the Orange County Great Park. The application is ready to go, Councilman Jeff Lalloway said after the councils 3-1 vote Tuesday. Why, at the 11th hour, if everybody believes in this project, would we want to put the brakes on now, stop and change course? Area developer FivePoint Communities had proposed to exchange a similar-size plot off the southwest corner of the park for the land currently designated for the cemetery. The idea was greeted with enthusiasm by local residents and a veterans group supporting the cemetery and was presented for council consideration by Councilwoman Christina Shea. I just believed this was a win-win for this city, Shea said. It dealt with all of the residents and their concerns. Approval of a Southern California veterans cemetery was a hard-fought battle won in July 2014, when the Irvine council designated the 125-acre portion of the northeast sector of the Great Park for the project. The site is on the former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station. Veterans groups celebrated the decision, while many affected property owners were incensed. In the nearly two years since, the cemetery has received ratification from the state Legislature and the signature of Gov. Jerry Brown. But property owners in the area vehemently objected to having a cemetery near their homes and the new Portola High School, which is opening this year. Many homeowners who are Asian immigrants observe the ancient Chinese philosophy of feng shui, a belief in harmony among nature, architecture and personal space in which burial grounds have a specific place and specifically not adjacent to dwellings or schools. Six months ago, FivePoint, which has partnered with the city on landholdings around the Great Park, proposed a solution. The developer offered to exchange the current site for property just off the 5 Freeway, near the interchange with the 405 Freeway. That land also is part of the former El Toro Marine base. Residents were pleased, and the veterans group agreed it was an even more preferable site because it offers easy access from both freeways and good visibility for motorists. In addition, the land has been used only for agriculture over several decades, meaning no demolition and little or no cleanup would be necessary. The Great Park property would require demolition of structures and old taxiways. Discussions took place over the winter to align the presentation, and a letter was drafted by FivePoint, which included the signature of veterans representative Bill Cook. The plan was presented to Shea, who placed it on Tuesdays council agenda. Shea proposed a 60-day period to discuss the swap. But no one offered a second to her motion. With a cemetery site already established and a pre-application deadline for a federal grant coming up July 1, city leaders were concerned that the entire process could be undone. Councilwoman Beth Krom expressed concern that the land-swap proposal was only recently presented after months of private discussion. That doesnt suggest to me that were dealing with a transparent process, a sound process, Krom said. And frankly, Im not willing to take that risk. Krom then offered a proposal to reaffirm the July 2014 vote in favor of the current 125-acre site. Lalloway seconded the motion and it passed by a 3-1 vote after Shea left the dais. Mayor Steven Choi cast the dissenting vote. I think its a foolish, foolish decision that theyre making, Shea said. I think its very shortsighted that we dont realize how great a proposal was brought forth. Gang Chen, a community organizer who is running for Irvine mayor this year, said: We are really, really disappointed that the City Council turned down this win-win-win solution. This land swap is good for everyone. They did not listen, said Cook, one of 50 people who addressed the council during public comments on the issue. What was discussed from the dais was unrelated to what we were actually asking. Many homeowners organized by Chen displayed signs reading Vote yes to swap. After the vote, they loudly began filing out of the meeting. The veterans contingent was mostly perplexed. We came away from that meeting, as veterans, with exactly what we walked into it with, Cook said. The constituent community walked into it full of hope and walked out with their hopes dashed. Cook vowed the fight for the other site isnt finished. Im a Marine; I dont expect easy jobs, Cook said. We attacked, we got rebuffed; you better watch your flanks were coming back. The coyote that bit a 3-year-old boy and his father outside their Irvine home last month has been trapped and killed, police said Wednesday. Professional trappers working with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife began looking for the coyote after the Oct. 14 attack in the Portola Springs neighborhood. The father was in the front yard of his home in the 70 block of Forbes when his son jumped on his back, authorities said at the time. The father thought the boy was playing until he felt a bite near his right buttocks. He then saw the coyote and realized it had attacked both him and his son. The coyote ran off before authorities arrived, but officials swabbed the bites so they could use DNA to identify the animal once it was caught. Irvine, and the Portola Springs neighborhood in particular, have endured a spate of coyote attacks recently. Humans were bitten five times from May to October, police said, and another person was scratched. Fish and Wildlife officials definitively connected the euthanized coyote to three of those bites, according to police, who said the animal likely was responsible for the other attacks as well. Fish and Wildlife officials who coordinated the trapping effort couldnt immediately be reached for comment Wednesday. Police said they will keep coordinating with the state agency on tactics to drive coyotes out of residential areas. Those methods have included shooting them with paintball guns. Jackson Lewis signs lease for Irvine office tower Workplace law firm Jackson Lewis has signed a lease for a new Irvine office. The firm will take up a 22,000-square-foot floor of 200 Spectrum Center Drive, Orange Countys tallest office building. The 21-story building is now more than 60% leased. With its central location, 200 Spectrum Center is ideally situated for serving our clients and recruiting and retaining the regions top lawyers, Samantha Hoffman, managing principal of Jackson Lewis Orange County office, said in a statement. Irvine company launches dating website An Irvine-based company has launched a new social dating and relationship website, WandM.com, for Southern California. The company says the site helps make online to offline dating faster, and can help plan dates. Lifeline Emergency acquired by Tunstall Tunstall Healthcare has acquired the assets of Irvine-based Lifeline Emergency Response Systems via its U.S. subsidiary, Tunstall Americas, according to a news release. The acquisition expands Tunstalls role in consolidating the fragmented medical alert market, the company stated. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Lifeline was founded in 2004. Keystone starts new investment bank Keystone Capital Markets, which has an Irvine office, recently formed an investment bank that offers merger and acquisition services. We are all excited to return to our independent, client-focused heritage, founding partner Allan Siposs said in a statement. There is a strong need in the middle market for high-caliber, senior-level advisory services that enhance value for clients. We have put together an experienced, successful team of investment bankers with strong contacts and the proven ability to execute transactions. Irvine church receives $100,000 grant OneWest Bank, a division of CIT Bank, gave a $100,000 grant to the COR Community Development Corp., a nonprofit of Christ Our Redeemer African Methodist Episcopal Church in Irvine. The grant will support CORs Innovation Fund, an entrepreneurial program targeting at-risk, low-income youth in Orange County. From staff reports MORE BUSINESS Biz News: Saint Laurent expands at South Coast Plaza New outdoor dining areas coming to 3 Corona del Mar restaurants Pimco plans layoffs as investors continue to pull out A boutique hotel that is slated to replace the former Newport Beach City Hall at the entrance to the Balboa Peninsula is heading back to the city Planning Commission on Thursday in an effort by the developer to expand parts of the project. The California Coastal Commission approved the four-story, 98,725-square-foot Lido House Hotel last year. The plan calls for 130 guestrooms, meeting and retail space, a spa, restaurants, a pool and recreation area and a rooftop bar. The City Council approved the plans in 2014, and in May the city began demolishing the old City Hall complex at Newport Boulevard and 32nd Street. The hotel is expected to be completed by summer 2017. RD Olson Development, which is building the hotel, now is asking the Planning Commission for permission to expand the planned lobby, hotel management office, spa and restaurant and retail area. The developer also is seeking permission to enlarge two guestrooms on the second floor into suites and decrease the size of the ballroom space by 925 square feet. During the final design phase and preparation of construction documents, including a review of the plans by the hotel operator Marriott International, [RD Olson] determined that additional floor area was necessary and desirable, a city staff report states. If approved, the changes would increase the developments footprint by 4,745 square feet, to 103,470 square feet, according to the staff report. The height of the hotel is not expected to change. The citys general plan, coastal land-use plan and zoning code documents that help guide development in Newport limit the total floor area for the site at 98,725 square feet. Any increase would require the Planning Commission to amend the land-use plan, which had previously been changed to allow the property to be used for commercial and hotel purposes. It previously was zoned only for public facilities. Planning Commission approval would send the plan back to the Coastal Commission for another review. City officials and residents near the site have long billed the Lido House project as a key element in a years-long effort to revitalize the peninsula. Thursdays Planning Commission meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m. at the Newport Beach Civic Center, 100 Civic Center Drive. Chapman University in Orange held a public vigil Tuesday evening honoring the 49 people killed June 12 in the massacre at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla. Speakers at the event, held in the universitys Fish Interfaith Center, included KiNG, a slam poet and activist; Landyn Pan, a Chapman student and activist; and faculty members Ahmed Younis and Kris de Pedro, according to the school. It was sponsored in part by Chapman Universitys Office of Church Relations and Queer Student Alliance. Omar Mateen carried out the worst mass shooting in recent U.S. history last Sunday, entering Pulse around 2 a.m. with a semi-automatic assault-style rifle and a pistol. In addition to the 49 people killed, 53 others were injured. News / National by VOA Zimbabwe is experiencing serious shortages of the South African rand and Chinese yuan as the country attempted Monday to shift to these currencies to address the current critical shortages of cash, especially the United States dollar.Bank queues are now the order of the day in a nation with a fast declining economy due to subdued industrial production, low exports, lack of foreign direct investment and other issues.Several banks started dispensing the South African and Chinese currencies in banking halls and Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) but the banking public complained that accessing the money was not easy.One of the depositors, Simon Mugwagwa said he spent the better of the day in a queue trying to withdraw cash but to no avail.This was echoed by Tecla Zinyowera, who noted that she could not get either the South African rands or the Chinese yuan, in the banking hall and ATMs. She said that the Botswana Pula and the British Pounds were also not accessible, adding that those currencies would be difficult to use in her daily errands.Another depositor, Garikai Murendo, said he managed to withdraw some rands and yuans but most retailers were not accepting those currencies, preferring the US dollar.Some banking staff, who refused to speak on tape, said they failed to dispense the rand, yuan and other currencies because they were in short supply at their branches. Some other bankers, who had accessed the rand and yuan, said they could also not transact because they had not been advised of the exchange rates by the central bank.The central bank chief told the Sunday Mail newspaper that the dispensing of multiple currencies would help in easing the ongoing shortages that started when the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe announced its plans to introduce bond notes.The RBZ's proposal is being rejected by many Zimbabweans who say that authorities are planning to re-introduce the Zimbabwean currency through the back door. The importance of play is almost immeasurable. An essential part of childhood development, it also reaches out through our entire lives, providing a recreational value almost as basic and requisite as sleep. Sure, we could survive without it, but whod want to? At Designer Con, the annual toy, art and design convention which runs the weekend of Nov. 21 and 22 at the Pasadena Convention Centers Exhibition Hall, the significance of play is elevated to an out of this world status. Designer Con stakes out wild territory, where the visual, mechanical and tactile (think plush) converge to form an intoxicating array of exotic, eccentric items. Here, toy vendors, manufacturers and artists convene to present their freshest and best works available worldwide. Now in its 10th year, it began as one day the Vinyl Toy Network biannual show, grew into a one-day annual event and by 2013 grew into its current iteration, a 48-hour thrill fest that covers more than 70,000 square feet and features some 300 participants. Curated by lifelong toy aficionados Ayleen Gaspar and Ben Goretsky, Design Con is a one-of-a-kind affair, which began life as whimsical fantasy but quickly became a self-propelled reality. I started collecting back in 2001-2002. Thats what drew me in, Goretsky said. The whole art toy scene from Hong Kong and Tokyo had just hit here in America and they were just so cool. A company called Kid Robot started selling them to the public, and I just wanted to help get these out and thought, well I may as sell them also. Eventually I became friendly with the artists and met Ayleen Gaspar and started to find out what it takes to make a toy. And I with Ayleens company, October Toys, we started making them. I started my own company, 3D Retro. We sell collectible toys, figures, art the same things Designer Con focuses on, and I realized that there was nothing in the area that allowed people to see all this, Goretsky said. And I looked at San Diegos Comic Con, where all the art and toy aspects are very small compared to the cartoons and comic book stuff, and I just thought, Lets get all the people the designers, the manufacturers, the toy makers, the people who provide the tools these artists need from 3D printers to basic supplies all in one place, and thats how it started. With a global swath of vendors who share such evocative monikers as Cuddly Destruction, Beasties, Middle of Beyond, Squishes, Hyperactive Monkey and Furrybones and encompasses everything from plush zombies to strange, pickled-in-the-jar vinyl critters to elaborate graphic renderings and prints on wood, Designer Cons gamut of visuals, playthings and offbeat clothing lines is both exhaustive and engaging. Seeing families together at the show is fantastic, because of course all the kids love it and Mom and Dad are enjoying it just as much, Goretsky said. And its not like they are walking with their kids through a Toys R Us, because all of this stuff is made for them. And its not just toys, its art, and its apparel and now they, as grown-ups, can afford to buy it. For Goretsky, it remains a very personal pursuit. I am still a huge fan and a collector, he said. These things remind us of what it was like as kids and that memory is wonderful. As adults we have to try and find a way to escape and toys are the number one thing to take us back, to give us that feeling. They send us back to the pop culture we grew up with, and anything that brings that feeling back is fantastic. Its got to be fun or its not worth doing. I just wanted to bring together all these aspects of design. Its so cool, and its not just a toy show, because a lot of people wouldnt be interested in that. And its not just apparel, a lot of people wouldnt care for that, but when you take it all and put it together, with all the design aspects, its a show for just about everybody. And its always a great experience. Who: Designer Con Where: Pasadena Convention Centers Exhibit Hall, 300 E. Green St., Pasadena When: Nov. 21 and 22, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. (on Saturday); 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (on Sunday) Cost: $5 one day; $10 two-day advance tickets; $7 a day at the door More info: (626) 449-7360, designercon.com -- JONNY WHITESIDE is a veteran music journalist based in Burbank and author of Ramblin Rose: the Life & Career of Rose Maddox and Cry: the Johnnie Ray Story. The Los Angeles World Affairs Council is leading an 11-day trip to the Arabian Peninsula, with highlights that include private meetings with the foreign ministries of Oman and the United Arab Emirates. The tour begins in Muscat, the capital of Oman, followed by excursions to Ras al Jinz and its beaches and endangered green turtle habitat, the Wahiba sand dunes and the ancient city of Nizwa. From Oman, participants will take in Dubai and visit the citys markets, the Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Center for Cultural Understanding and the worlds tallest building and largest man-made island. Advertisement Participants also will spend a day in Abu Dhabi and visit the Emirates Palace Hotel and Falconry Hospital. The tour can be combined with the World Affairs Council trip to Iran, Nov. 4-13. Dates: Oct. 25-Nov. 4 Price: From $4,699, depending on group size; single supplement $1,299. Includes all accommodations, most meals, land transportation and entrance fees. International airfare and visa fees not included. Info: Los Angeles World Affairs Council, (424) 258-6160 The Soarin flight simulator rides at Disney California Adventure and Epcot have traded the California-centric scenes of the Golden Gate Bridge, Yosemite and Malibu for an international itinerary that spans six continents. I recently rode the updated Soarin Around the World three times and found the journey a fun globe-trotting travelogue. The hang-gliding flight simulator ride combines a mechanical lift system with three rows of seats and an 80-foot-tall concave domed movie screen. The new five-minute IMAX film has been playing for several weeks in China during soft opening previews at Shanghai Disneyland in advance of the new parks official grand opening. Advertisement The Soarin rides in Florida and California debuted Friday, a day after the attraction officially opened in Shanghai Disneylands Adventure Isle, its version of Adventureland.. The new scenes include a flight over Switzerlands Matterhorn, the Arctic Ocean with a leaping whale, the Sydney Opera House in Australia, Germanys Neuschwanstein castle, a herd of African elephants, the Great Wall of China, Egyptian pyramids, Indias Taj Mahal, hot air balloons in Monument Valley on the Arizona-Utah border, outrigger boats off Fiji, the Iguazu waterfalls on the Argentina-Brazil border and Frances Eiffel Tower. The Chinese version of the movie concludes with nighttime fireworks over Shanghais skyline, but the California version ends at Disneyland. Gone are the artificial scents of lemon blossom, evergreen and sagebrush that used to simulate a hang-gliding flight over California. The new international scent effects include grass over Africa, an ocean breeze over the South Pacific and roses over India. A new soundtrack performed by the London Studio Orchestra is based on the original Soarin score. Patrick Warburton, best known as Elaines on-again, off-again boyfriend Puddy on Seinfeld, returns as chief flight attendant and the host of Soarin. I was disappointed to learn that Soarin no longer has a single-rider line, although employees do ask for solo riders to fill in random spots, but only after youve waited in line. Another bummer: Disney Imagineering didnt update the Soarin queue to the new international storyline, leaving the entry area dedicated to California aviators. One of my favorite parts of Soarin is seeing the feet of the children in the row above kicking back and forth as riders fly above the clouds. What I love most about Soarin are the memories the ride conjures up of Disneylands old Circle-Vision attraction, a circular movie theater with nine screens that put viewers in the middle of the action. My favorite scene in the new film: The panoramic view of water surging over the majestic Iguazu waterfalls. The movie visits 13 places around the globe, flying so close you wonder how the filmmakers got permission to capture the footage. The camera flies through towering buttes in Monument Valley and within feet of the Eiffel Tower. Making of videos released by the Disney publicity department show a camera-equipped helicopter repeatedly buzzing over the Great Wall of China during filming. Several instantly recognizable landmarks didnt make the cut, including Italys Colosseum and Leaning Tower of Pisa, Englands Stonehenge and Big Ben and Russias Red Square. The short film makes many subtle nods to Disney films and history, including Cars (Monument Valley), Ratatouille (Paris), Finding Nemo (Sydney Harbour), the upcoming Moana (set in the South Pacific), Disneylands castle (based on Neuschwanstein) and the parks Matterhorn bobsled coaster (Switzerland). The film employs several clever transitions from scene to scene, including a scary seaplane barreling toward you, a playful kite that swoops across the screen and an eagle with wings spread that briefly frightened the little girl sitting next to me. My favorite transition morphed the dome of the Taj Mahal into a hot air balloon over Monument Valley. Soarin Over California debuted at Disney California Adventure when the park opened in 2001. Soarin opened at Epcot in 2005 with less emphasis on the films California locales. Soaring Over the Horizon officially opened Thursday at Shanghai Disneyland with a properly spelled name that translates more easily for the Chinese audience. Tokyo DisneySea plans to add a Soarin attraction in 2019 with Renaissance-era flight simulators evocative of Leonardo da Vincis flying machines. DCA upgraded the screens and projection systems in the twin Soarin theaters last year in anticipation of the new film. Epcot just completed construction on a third Soarin theater ahead of the reboot. ALSO 32 best new theme park additions of 2016 8 unanswered questions about Disneylands Star Wars Land Disneyland 2055: What the future may hold for the original Disney park Disneyland 1955: Walts Folly got off to a nightmare start 21 creepiest abandoned amusement parks In a remarkable show of persistence, North Korea on Wednesday fired two suspected powerful new Musudan mid-range missiles, U.S. and South Korean military officials said, but at least one of the launches apparently failed, Pyongyangs fifth such reported flop since April. Despite the repeated failures, the Norths determination in testing the Musudan worries Washington and its allies, Tokyo and Seoul, because the missiles potential 3,500-kilometer (2,180-mile) range could target much of Asia and the Pacific, including U.S. military bases there. Each new test apparently linked to a command from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un also likely provides valuable insights to the Norths scientists and military officials as they push toward their goal of a nuclear and missile program that can threaten the U.S. mainland. Pyongyang earlier this year conducted a nuclear test and launched a long-range rocket that outsiders say was a cover for a test of banned missile technology. Advertisement See the most-read stories in World News this hour >> A statement from South Koreas Joint Chiefs of Staff said a suspected first Musudan launch from the east coast city of Wonsan failed early Wednesday morning but gave few other details. Later Wednesday, the JCS said theNorth fired another suspected Musudan, but it wasnt immediately clear if it succeeded. A U.S. official also said the first launch appeared to be another failure, adding that the U.S. was assessing exactly what had happened. The official wasnt authorized to comment publicly and requested anonymity. Another American official said the first launch was a suspected Musudan but initial indications were that it failed in flight over the Sea of Japan, which the Koreas call the East Sea. The United States had no immediate details on the reported second launch. In April, North Korea attempted unsuccessfully to launch three suspected Musudan missiles, but all exploded in midair or crashed, according to South Korean defense officials. Earlier this month, North Korea had another suspected Musudan failure, South Korean officials said. Before Aprils launches, North Korea had never flight-tested a Musudan missile, although one was displayed during a military parade in 2010 in Pyongyang, its capital. The launches appear to stem from Kim Jong Uns order in March for more nuclear and ballistic missile tests. The order was an apparent response to springtime U.S.-South Korean military drills, which North Korea views as an invasion rehearsal. Since the end of those military drills, Pyongyang has repeatedly called for the resumption of talks with rival Seoul, even as it pursues new missile development, but the South has rejected the overtures. It wants theNorth to first take steps toward nuclear disarmament. Pyongyang says its rivals must negotiate with it as an established nuclear power, something Washington and Seoul refuse to do. The string of recent launch attempts show the North is pushing hard to upgrade its missile capability in defiance of U.S.-led international pressure. The North was slapped with the strongest U.N. sanctions in two decades after it conducted a fourth nuclear test and a long-range rocket launch earlier this year. Earlier Tuesday, at a Washington briefing, Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said that if North Korea were to conduct another missile test, it would violate U.N. resolutions and be another provocative action. So we certainly would urge North Korea to refrain from doing that sort of thing. North Korea has recently claimed a series of breakthroughs in its push to build a long-range nuclear missile that can strike the American mainland. But South Korean officials have said the North doesnt yet possess such a weapon. The North, however, has already deployed a variety of missiles that can reach most targets in South Koreaand Japan, including American military bases in the countries. The Korean Peninsula remains in a technical state of war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty. About 28,500 U.S. soldiers are stationed in South Korea to deter possible aggression from North Korea; tens of thousands more are stationed in Japan. MORE WORLD NEWS Car bomb kills 6 Jordanian security officials near Syrian refugee camp 14 Nepalese guards killed in suicide blast in Afghanistan Why the idea of Brexit Britains exit from the European Union is shaking up markets worldwide UPDATES: 5:37 p.m.: This article was updated with additional details on the second launch, and background on North Koreas nuclear program. This article was originally published at 5:19 p.m. Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio is proud of the connection he and presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump share, even though growing indications are the alliance could ultimately spell huge problems for both men and the GOP as a whole. "Timing is perfect right now for a guy like him," the 84-year-old Maricopa County Sheriff defiantly told Politico of the man who shares his hardline stance on immigration and has vowed to deport millions of undocumented immigrants if he is elected. "Timing is everything, and he hit on the right timing." Arpaio quickly moved to endorse Trump at least partly based on that stance and since then has described the two as "political soulmates" who were actually born on the same day (June 14). Like Trump, Arpaio is also on the ballot this year and seemingly facing an uphill climb. He finished the 2012 election with just over half the vote in a crowded field and this election cycle has spent much of his time blasting the Obama administration's alleged attack on his policies. Locally, however, reporters have come to find Arpaio's positions simply don't carry the kind of cache with voters they once seemed to, with many of the white educated supporters who once stood behind him now having moved far from his corner. Arpaio was among those leading the charge for Arizona's now-defunct immigration laws that aggressively targeted immigrants. As recently as 2010, he violated a federal judge's order by boasting to supporters that he'd locked up as many as 500 immigrants his staffers pulled over "out of spite." Since then, Arpaio has ridicled the whole concept of racism in the year 2016 as "overstated." "I think there's a lot of hype," he added. "Unfortunately, in our country today, you have to be very careful what you say. We do have freedom of speech, but if you say the wrong word, it looks like it makes headlines. So everybody has to be very careful." Arpaio is just as adamant when it comes to expressing his support for Trump, recently blasting party leaders for what he characterized as half-hearted and lukewarm endorsements of his candidate. "I thought when you endorse someone, you usually mention their name," he said. "We do have some Republicans who don't know his name. Why would you say the [presidential] office and not say who is running for it? They need to get a few guts to say that." Given the way the national voting map is rapidly changing, even Arpaio admits his unabashed support of Trump comes with some peril. "I know there's a lot of controversy on the Hispanic vote," he said. "People are always saying, 'Oh, you can't win if you don't have the Hispanic vote.'" Indeed, a recent Pew Research survey found 27.3 million Hispanics will be eligible to vote in November's general election, with most of the growth coming from among young U.S.-citizen Hispanics at a time when the issue of immigration is one of the most contentious issues of the entire election season. That can't bode well for either Arpaio or Trump and a recent Washington Post/ABC News poll bares that out for the latter. Pollsters found 89 percent of Latino voters insist they have an unfavorable view of Trump, the highest unfavorable rating he has registered since marking the launch of his campaign by deriding Mexicans as "criminals" and vowing a build a wall along the Mexican border to further keep them out. Hillary Clinton is blasting Donald Trump's boastful plan to deport some 11 million undocumented immigrants as "really bad economics." In a speech centered on the economy recently delivered to supporters in the swing state of Ohio, the presumptive Democratic nominee added, "Kicking out 11 million immigrants would cost hundreds of billions of dollars, and it would shrink our economy significantly. Some economists actually argue that just this policy alone would send us into a Trump recession." Research Finds Trump Plan Would Weaken Economy Clinton's fiery words are bolstered by a recent Moody Analytics analysis in which researchers concluded a Trump presidency would "significantly" weaken the economy, driving the U.S. into a "lengthy" recession with nearly 3.5 million job losses and a 7 percent unemployment rate. The chief economist on the analysis, Mark Zandi, is a former John McCain adviser and Clinton tried to strengthen her case against Trump by pointing out more than just democrats are clearly concerned about some of his proposed policies. The former first lady and secretary of state also sounded the alarm bell when it comes to how Trump might handle such pressing issues as the national debt and making tax codes fairer for all Americans. "A few weeks ago, I said his foreign policy proposals and reckless statements represent a danger to our national security," she said. "But you might think that because he has spent his life as a businessman he would be better prepared to handle the economy. Well, it turns out he's dangerous there, too. Just like he shouldn't have his finger on the button, he shouldn't have his hands on our economy." Clinton also took the presumptive republican nominee to task over what she characterized as his willingness to gamble with the faith and credit of the U.S. by hinting he would allow the country to default on all its massive debt. "That could cause an economic catastrophe, and it would break 225 years of ironclad trust that the American economy has with Americans and with the rest of the world," she added. "Alexander Hamilton would be rolling in his grave. You see, we pay our debts." Clinton also highlighted the irony she sees in Trump boasting of his "America First" policy at a time when many of the billionaire businessman's signature merchandise is produced overseas. "Interestingly, Trump's own products are made in a lot of countries that aren't named America: Trump Ties are made in China, Trump Suits in Mexico, Trump Furniture in Turkey, Trump Picture Frames in India, Trump Barware in Slovenia, and I could go on and on, but you get the idea," she said. Clinton went on to blast Trump's claim that his business acumen make him a natural fit for the Oval Office and his ability to jump-start the overall economy would lead to him being revered as the "jobs president." "He's written a lot of books about business. They all seem to end at Chapter 11," she said in a not so subtle dig at the numerous bankruptcies he has filed over the years. Go figure." Trump Fires Back Trump immediately took to social media to refute many of Clinton's claims, including labeling Zandi an Obama adviser and Clinton donor. He later ripped Clinton for what he called her role in the loss of more than a quarter of American manufacturing jobs over the last two decades stemming from President Clinton's enactment of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Latin Grammy Award winner Gaby Moreno has been tabbed to sing the theme song for the new Disney Channel animated series "Elena of Avalor." The much anticipated show, featuring a Latina princess, is set to debut on Disney Channel on July 22. The character of the princess will also be voiced by Dominican-born actress Aimee Carrero, who previously starred on the ABC Family Show (now known as Freeform) "Young & Hungry." The Guatemala City born Moreno won her first Grammy in 2013 for best new artist. She sings in both English and Spanish, and her style of jazz, blues and R&B is herald as a natural fit for the show's artsy theme song. Plot Centers on Queen out to Protect her Throne The Elena of Avalor plot centers on a princess who vows to do all it takes to protect her kingdom after she becomes queen. "Princess Elena is a confident and compassionate teenager in an enchanted fairy tale kingdom inspired by diverse Latin cultures and folklore," Disney Channel said in a statement. Hector Elizondo, Danny Trejo and Lou Diamond Phillips are among the Latino actors rumored to be cast in recurring roles. Theme Song Part of Seven Track set The series' theme song will be part of a seven-track EP set to be released on the day of the premiere. The 26-year-old Carrero is also slated to sing several songs on the show and her "My Time" single will be released on iTunes on June 24. According to Disney Channel execs, each episode of the series will feature original songs in different Latin music styles, including "mariachi, Latin pop, salsa, banda and Chilean hip-hop." Emmy Award-nominated Tony Morales ("Hatfields & McCoys") is on board as the show's composer, and John Kavanaugh, who won an Emmy for "Sofia the First" theme is the show's songwriter and musical director. Opinion / Columnist Zimbabwe People First (ZimPF) leader, Joice Mujuru who recently addressed a handful of her party supporters at Stanley Square in Bulawayo revealed that she has nothing to offer the people of Zimbabwe.In her speech, 'MaNdlovu' as Mujuru called herself so as to be politically accepted in Bulawayo stressed the issue of coalition of opposition parties. ZimPF was only declared a political party this year in February. This means that ZimPF is still adapting to the opposition politics environment. Politics is a game of numbers. However, this different with Mujuru's party which has little numbers of supporters. After realizing that ZimPF has few numbers of supporters, Mujuru thought of coalescing with other opposition parties. The idea of a coalition implicates that ZimPF wants to use other opposition parties who have better numbers of supporters than that party.However, Mujuru should be advised that the downside of forming an alliance of political parties is that all the leaders of different parties crave for power. In the event that the union has been formed, things like slight digression from the common agenda or misjudging a partner's sentiment can cause a great damage to the planned union.Also, alliance between political parties is often affected by the difference in ideology among the leaders of those parties. Ideologies of disgruntled politicians usually affect the output.People Democratic Party (PDP) led by Tendai Biti strongly believes that forming solidarity with Mujuru's ZimPF is a great idea. ZimPF and PDP share the same background of being political turncoats. Worse still, Mujuru is a reject of the ruling party ZANU-PF while Biti is a discard from the opposition party MDC-T. ZANU-PF ideology and MDC-T ideology are like water and oil which never mix. The same is likely to be experienced if ever Mujuru and Biti attempts to unite.Other opposition leaders like Morgan Tsvangirai have a big brother mentality and thinks that all opposition parties should fall under him. While addressing her supporters in Bulawayo, Mujuru talked of inclusivity. This could mean that her party is open to accommodate all other opposition parties who may want to join ZimPF. But then, who will lead who? Mujuru will boast that she has war credentials; hence, she will not be under someone who did not fight the liberation the war. Whilst on the other hand Tsvangirai will cock-a-hoop saying he is now a veteran of opposition politics, hence no one should be above him. Honestly, Tsvangirai will never allow a mafikizilo like Mujuru to lead him.It is surprising how Mujuru who has aspirations of becoming a Zimbabwean President talked about tribal divisions within her party. Instead of uniting the people from all the provinces to work together in trying to develop the nation, Mujuru was using a language that sows division across the nation rather than bringing them together. Mujuru was reportedly quoted saying, "Hakuna anobva kwangu kumaShona uko to come and plan a developmental programme in Lupane when you are here". Every Zimbabwean should be free to work in any preferred province. Currently what is needed in the country is productivity and nothing else. What is wrong for a talented farmer from Matabeleland to grow tobacco or maize in Mashonaland East? Mujuru should be reminded that tribal hostility will never build Zimbabwe.In her address Mujuru denied that she denigrated the late Vice President Joshua Nkomo. Reports have it that Mujuru insulted the late Father Zimbabwe by calling him senile. Why then did she apologize for sentiments that she never mentioned? And why is she trying to clarify the issue now? Where was she all along? Is it because she is seeking sympathy from the people of Bulawayo?Each opposition leader has his/her attitude towards the coalition of opposition parties. This becomes so obvious that coalition of opposition parties is just a wishful thinking. If ever they wish to form a union, opposition leaders should bury their egomania personalities as this is a major blockage of their much talked and non existing union.------------sibusisiso ndlamini Opinion / Columnist Some are physically challenged, some are widowed, some are HIV positive and some are homeless . The women vendors in Harare have suffered a lot in the hands of ruthless municipal police and state police who have cruelly abused their power to the extent that is questionable and the victims are the women vendors in the city centre and other satellite towns. While Zimbabwe is reeling in abject poverty and rampant unemployment. Most males educated and uneducated are out of traditional employment and worse goes to the women.Many of them have lost homes due to massive demolitions by government and lost some parts of their bodies due to political violence as much as they lost their work and reputation due to the economic meltdown in the country . Now they are losing their wares, dignity and reputation as well as money to the state authorities who raid them every day of God and make them regret their poverty and the plight of the education of their children. Most of these women are coerced into sex because they would not have money to bribe the municipals and they need to continue doing what make them and families mostly children survive. The municipal also take large sums of money from the these materially poor women and some are butchered and tear gassed despite the fact that they are physically challenged and they need and deserve a decent lives like anyone else.Women are really under threat in Zimbabwe, mostly poor women. They need feed their children, proper health care and also good and reputable shelter but alas also this is in vain due to the disturbances caused by the police state . Perpetrators of women vendors abuse are men and most of them have gone to school through vending and today they are ruthlessly crushing the hopes of the same mothers and grandmothers who are fending for many lives. In a country that purport to promote indigenisation and empowerment of women, measures should be put in place to realise the dignity of mothers, sisters, grandmothers and young girls .Life has gone tough that small entrepreneurs mostly have to be supported and women organisations must come out to support and carry the burden with women vendors who have since been subjected to HIV/AIDS through forced sex by these ruthless mongers, are also subjected to abject poverty and desperation especially when their goods are dispossessed from them . Some are victimised for their political party affiliations and such deserves no forgiveness for those enforcing the raids. They are lot of women pressure groups in Zimbabwe, nowadays they are very silent especially on issues that concern this special grassroots groups of our society .We have a governmental ministry in this country that should be able to assist the plight of our vulnerable gender race that has been taken for granted and abused for a long time. Its time women vendors themselves rise up and say enough is enough . Furthermore these women despite paying large sums of municipal money they are not provided with proper sanitation facilities like clean water and best ablution . So many infections and diseases are an order of the day. Women should speak with one voice and should rise for the best change. Change is healthy and change is powerful. ONTARIO, Calif.To continue its support of the LGBTQ community, pleasure products manufacturer CalExotics donated $5,000 to the National Compassion Fund. The donation comes in the wake of the recent mass shooting in Orlando. Our hearts are heavy with the burden of sadness that we feel for all those impacted by this malicious tragedy, said Susan Colvin, founder and CEO of CalExotics. Our aim is not only to support the greater community, but also to assist those that have been directly impacted by this act of domestic terror. With this donation, CalExotics makes a pledge to stand with the LGBTQ community and against any acts of terrorism, domestic or foreign. All of the funds received through the National Compassion Fund are distributed directly to victims. The National Compassion Fund is working closely with Equality Florida, the states lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) civil rights organization to combine efforts and ensure fair and transparent distribution of the donations received. For more than 20 years the organization has donated over $1.5 million to various organizations involving the rights of the disenfranchised and underserved. CalExotics support spans gender, religious and cultural boundaries, and is done so in hopes of a creating better world. To make a donation, visit NationalCompassionFund.org. For more information, visit CalExotics.com. An Allentown woman is facing prostitution charges after meeting an undercover officer at an undisclosed location and offering sex for cash, police said. Chelsea Joan McDonnell, 20, of the 1200 block of Ulster Street, shortly before 7 p.m. Aug. 27 was arrested by Bethlehem Township police as part of an operation targeting prostitution and related offenses in the township. McDonnell allegedly met the male officer working undercover after the officer contacted her on a website promoting prostitution, according to police. McDonnell went by the name, "Brianna," and agreed to have sex with the officer for $300 cash, police said. McDonnell allegedly admitted to police she came to the location to have sex for cash and provided a written statement. She told police in court records she mostly stays at hotels and does not have a permanent address. Police described her as a "flight risk" in records, noting McDonnell has ties in New Jersey, New York and California. McDonnell is charged with prostitution. She was arraigned Tuesday before District Judge Patricia Broscius, who set bail at $10,000. In lieu of bail, McDonnell was taken to Northampton County Prison. Pamela Sroka-Holzmann may be reached at pholzmann@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @pamholzmann. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. After the last few years of a global pandemic, and the resulting pressure that is being put on many care providers, health is A Bethlehem man accused of making more than a dozen phony 911 phone calls indicating robberies, shootings and fires now is headed to possible trial on more than 35 charges. Michael Noel Pellot, 35, of the 1300 block of Fritz Drive, appeared Wednesday before Senior District Judge Anthony G. Rapp Jr. and gave up his right to a preliminary hearing. The judge then sent charges of 12 counts false reports to police; 12 counts false alarms to public safety; and 12 counts false 911 calls to Northampton County Court. Michael Noel Pellot gave up his right to a preliminary hearing on Wednesday. (Courtesy photo) At the county court level, Pellot could face trial unless a plea is entered or the case is disposed of in an alternative way. Pellot did not have an attorney representing him Wednesday and Northampton County Assistant District Attorney James Augustine said no plea arrangements have been discussed in the case. Pellot allegedly called Bethlehem's 911 center 12 times between July 31, 2014 and Feb. 29, 2016. In all the calls, Pellot claimed emergencies in the 1300 block or 1400 block of Fritz Drive -- from fires, to police officers being shot, to hostage situations, city police said. But there were no emergencies, and crews responded to find nothing out of the ordinary, police said. The calls were made on cellphones, and police linked the phones to Pellot. Pellot also is charged separately with theft by deception and unsworn falsification to authorities after he allegedly lied on government forms about his income to obtain public housing in Bethlehem. Pellot allegedly filled out forms claiming he had no income, when police say he was a driver for a trucking company since December 2014. In May, Bethlehem investigators also learned Pellot was under investigation by New Jersey State Police for allegedly making a similar 911 call in Hunterdon County. In that case, Pellot used the same phone to call 911 and claim an off-duty NYPD officer was shot on Interstate 78. Pellot was arrested last month in New Jersey and in that case, remained free on $100,000 bail. He was arrested on June 8 in the Bethlehem case. Pellot was taken to Northampton County Prison in lieu of $15,000 bail in both cases, but has since bonded out of jail. Bethlehem Police Chief Mark DiLuzio said Wednesday that initially, the calls were treated as legitimate, and several police, fire and EMS agencies responded in both Bethlehem and New Jersey. He is still calculating the cost of emergency services, he said. "It's going to be thousands of dollars for the city alone," DiLuzio said. "I'm estimating it's easily above $10,000 or more." Pamela Sroka-Holzmann may be reached at pholzmann@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @pamholzmann. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. Bixler's Jewelers left Easton in 2009, but Easton never left Bixler's. Joyce Mitman Welken, the great-great-great granddaughter of founder Christian Bixler III, says loyal Eastonians still make the trek out to the Bixler's on Hamilton Boulevard in South Whitehall Township -- the only one still open for business. But the notion that merchandise being sold under the family name would someday cease happening for the first time since 1785 wasn't entirely foreign to Mitman Welken. That made the recent sale of Bixler's all the more appealing to the descendants of its founder, she said. The buyer - Perry Sporn, a jeweler who runs dozens of stores and has a Vermont manufacturing division that employs 100 people - closed on Bixler's in late April in a quiet transaction that has garnered little publicity. Trade publication JCK Magazine first reported the sale last week. Sporn made the deal with Mark Maurer, who previously bought the business from Mitman Welken. It was a deal Sporn has relished. "The store to me has the most amazing history," Sporn said Monday. "This is a perfect marriage. We love the story and the story needs investment." Part of that investment will be a museum within the store that will display the many artifacts Bixler's family has collected from more than two centuries of being in business. Sporn said there is adequate space at the current location to create the museum. He is working with the family to get many of the more unique items on loan. Christian Bixler's original ledger, sketches of clock designs, cutlery samples and old advertising materials are some of the items that Sporn thinks will be of interest. He said he's also in the market for some of the antique clocks Bixler originally designed. Those will be part of the museum, which he estimated will be open to the public as early as next March. Mitman Welken, who still works for Bixler's on a part-time basis, said she's excited about the prospect of being involved in curating the museum. Sporn's plans to keep the Bixler's name intact also are aligned with the family's hopes, she said. "This means that the name's going to go on for a long time," Mitman Welken said of Bixler's, which is one of the oldest continuously operating retail businesses in the nation. In addition to the museum, other changes to the store have already happened. Sporn has brought in new inventory manufactured in Vermont, including his company's flagship Devotion Diamonds line. He said he's proud of the fact that his jewelry is made in the United States, a rarity these days and a characteristic of the business that pays homage to Bixler's history. Eventually, Sporn wants to design custom jewelry that would be sold under the Bixler's name and marketed beyond the Lehigh Valley. What isn't changing is the store location, its staff and its appreciation of history, he said. The portrait of Christian Bixler III hangs prominently from a wall. Mitman Welken still works behind the counter, lending her expertise to customers. And many of those customers still come from Easton. "That's been gratifying to me that they followed us here," she said. Nick Falsone may be reached at nfalsone@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @nickfalsone. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. Before a crowd of more than 100 people, the Easton Area School Board approved a tax hike to stave off cuts in staff and hours at the Easton Area Public Library. Library Executive Director Jennifer Stocker said the 34 percent hike in the library's millage rate equates to about $14.38 next year for the owner of a home assessed at the district median. She said the library previously closed the South Side branch and cut staff to balance its budget. Under the new budget, employees will give up family health care. The budget was supposed to be addressed May 17, but the crowd was beyond the capacity of the school district education center, so the discussion was moved to Tuesday at the middle school. It was clear before anyone spoke that the community stands behind its library, West Ward resident Carrine Buzzuto told the board. "It's one of the most valuable resources this community has," she said. About a dozen people lined up to speak until board Vice President Billie Weiss cut off comments and asked the remainder of speakers to email the board with comments. Kennedi Washington, 9, said she collected a petition with 30 signatures to save the library and its reading program. "If you're going to take the summer reading program away you might as well close the library," she said. "The library is my favorite place in all of Easton," said 12-year-old Maddie Swart. "Sometimes I just go and smell the books." "How can you take this away?" asked city resident Pat Koefoed. "You can't this is something so vital and of such major importance to our city." The board approved the library budget 8-0, with minimal discussion. Board president Frank Pintabone was absent. The library sent fliers urging residents to come to the meeting to support the tax hike. Weiss said she's not sure why the library and the public feared the board would turn on the library. "I hope the public doesn't think anyone at this table is against the library at all," she said. "We are all very strong supporters of the library." Stocker said that while her relationship with school district Chief Operating Officer Michael Simonetta has been "bumpy" at times, he's the first of the past three business managers to meet her head-on to decipher the library's budget issues. The library tax will not count against the state index limit on the school district's tax rate, Simonetta said. Superintendent John Reinhart said the school district understands what it means to make financial sacrifices. The district laid off teachers and froze raises to eliminate $9 million in debt and thwart a fiscal crisis. Rudy Miller may be reached at rmiller@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @RudyMillerLV. Find Easton area news on Facebook. Officials reopened North Third Street in Easton after a contractor neutralized a chemical spill and disposed of it Tuesday afternoon. Authorities didn't definitively identify the chemical but described it as a strong acid; about a gallon or less of liquid was involved, said Todd Weaver, Northampton County's director of emergency management services. Found in a trash receptacle, the chemical prompted the closure of the first block of North Third Street. A city employee who came in contact with the chemical was taken to the hospital as a precaution but was not seriously hurt, officials said. The chemical was discovered when a worker pulled a bag out of the trash bin and the chemical spilled from the bag onto the pavement, said Jeff Steiert of the county's emergency management services. It happened around 11:40 a.m. and the road was reopened by 3 p.m. Besides emergency management officials, Easton firefighters and the Lehigh County hazardous materials team responded to the call. "Sometimes it's difficult to identify an unknown," Weaver said. "It was safely taken care of." Jim Deegan may be reached at jdeegan@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @jim_deegan. Find lehighvalleylive on Facebook. JERSEY CITY -- The three people arrested after police found a cache of guns in their SUV outside the Holland Tunnel Tuesday plan to fight the charges, arguing that they were pulled over by police only because of Second Amendment rights stickers on the exterior of the car, their attorneys said Wednesday at a brief court appearance in Hudson County's central judicial processing court. Pennsylvania residents John Cramsey, 50, and Dean Smith, 53, both of Zionsville; and Kimberly Arendt, 29, of Lehighton, were arrested outside the tunnel Tuesday morning on charges that they were in possession of five pistols, an assault rifle, a 12-gauge shotgun, marijuana and a marijuana pipe, authorities said. Port Authority Police said they initially pulled the truck over because of a cracked windshield. But, the three attorneys representing the trio argued Wednesday that the political statements on the car actually prompted the stop. "They didn't stop the car because of his cracked windshield," James Lisa, the attorney representing Cramsey, told Judge Sheila Venable Wednesday. "They stopped the car because of what was on the car." BREAKING: Three people were arrested with a cache of firearms and body armor at the Holland Tunnel https://t.co/j4wb76f1wo New York Post (@nypost) June 21, 2016 The brightly colored car was apparently wrapped in logos for multiple businesses - including that of Higher Ground Tactical, an indoor shooting range and gun dealership in Upper Milford Township that Cramsey owns. The car, Lisa said, also had pro-Second Amendment and other gun-related stickers and messages on it. The three attorneys said they may seek to suppress the evidence in the case, arguing that it was obtained illegally, based on the motivation for the traffic stop. The lawyers also argued against the $75,000 cash only bail that had been set for all three. "It's a regular gun case," argued attorney Mario Blanch, who represented Smith. But Venable denied the request, noting that the charges against the three include transporting an assault rifle with a high capacity magazine. Lisa said he might seek further appeal of the bail later Wednesday. Arendt's public defender, Amanda Hickey, agreed, telling the judge."It's just an ordinary possession case." But Assistant Hudson County Prosecutor Tom Zuppa said the nature of the weaponry and ammunition found in the car made the case anything but ordinary. "The transportation of an assault rifle with a high-capacity magazine shows this case had the potential to cause widespread harm," Zuppa said. To which Lisa responded, "We don't lock people up for potential." But Judge Sheila Venable was unmoved, and said guidelines permitted the judge who had set bail on Tuesday to consider the nature of the weapons found in the car. Lisa said after the hearing that he would ask Judge Mark Nelson, who had originally set bail at $75,000 cash, to lower bail later on Wednesday. According to a Facebook post, Cramsey said he was headed to Brooklyn, N.Y., to pick up a girl who was at a party where a person died of a heroin overdose. The attorneys Wednesday denied to comment on where the trio was headed. Steve Strunsky may be reached at sstrunsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @SteveStrunsky. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Friends and family defended the trio stopped at the Holland Tunnel as they said they headed to rescue a teen girl whose friend died of a heroin overdose. Arraigned in court Wednesday in Jersey City, N.J., were John F. Cramsey, 50, owner of Higher Ground Tactical, an indoor shooting range and gun dealership in Upper Milford Township; Dean S. Smith, 53, of Upper Milford Township; and Kimberly Arendt, 29, of Lehighton, Pa. The trio were on a mission to help a 16-year-old girl they believed was in trouble after a friend overdosed in New York City, according to Cramsey. Police said they found a cache of weapons and marijuana after they stopped Cramsey's truck for a cracked windshield Tuesday morning at the Holland Tunnel. The three are charged with possessing five pistols, an assault rifle, a 12-gauge shotgun, marijuana and a marijuana pipe. A longtime friend of Cramsey who requested anonymity said the death of Cramsey's daughter earlier this year inspired him to crusade against heroin and advocate for those who are addicted. Alexandra "Lexii" Cramsey, 20, died from a combination of heroin and Fentanyl in February. Lehigh County Coroner Scott Grim ruled her death an accident. "I think this was kind of a calling for John....he takes on this sense of ownership, he knows the hurt, he doesn't want other families to go through it," the friend said. "He became the voice" of families who lost loved ones to the drug. "All of this really fell on his plate," the friend added. After the trio's arrest, friends and family began posting on the "Enough is Enough" group Facebook page defending Cramsey's mission. Cramsey himself posted on it about his trip to New York just before his arrest Tuesday. Lyn Baker, who created the Facebook group with Cramsey, told The Associated Press the group has helped dozens of addicts. Baker said Cramsey called her on Tuesday morning and asked her to find a detox or rehabilitation facility for the teen, the AP reported. She said she thought the charismatic Cramsey had been growing depressed and withdrawn recently. "Particularly when it comes to rescuing females, to him it's like rescuing his daughter," Baker told the AP. "He's just adamant that I have to make every attempt to get this person help." She said Arendt, the girl's former counselor, received a call from the girl seeking help on Monday. Cramsey wrote on Smith's Facebook page early Tuesday morning that he was driving to New York to "do an extraction" of a 16-year-old girl after an issue involving drugs. Smith replied, "I'm there." The teen was once the subject of an Amber Alert in Pennsylvania last July, said Christine Barndt, a spokeswoman for the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. But multiple media outlets, citing police sources, reported authorities checked with the teen Cramsey identified as being in danger and determined she was safe and not in need of rescue Tuesday. Facebook was flush Wednesday with folks defending Cramsey's alleged actions and offering him prayers and well-wishes. Police said they recovered the weapons, high capacity magazines and other ammunition, two tactical vests and three helmets. It was unclear what, if anything, the weapons had to do with their plans. New Jersey has tougher gun regulations than Pennsylvania and requires guns to be unloaded and inaccessible while driving. Matthew Eschke wrote, "After see several media coverage of John Cramsey. I firmly believe the media it trying to turn John into a monster. The very monster's he is trying to fight." Others posted directly to Cramsey's Facebook page and spoke of his work with local veterans groups. Friends were also working to raise bail money, and planned to create a GoFundMe account. Bail for each of the three has been set at $75,000, cash only, with no 10 percent option. At the time of her arrest, Arendt was free on unsecured bail in an outstanding 2014 DUI case in Carbon County, court records show. She is slated for trial next month. Cramsey's criminal record in Pennsylvania only shows three summary citations for allegedly failing to send a child to school. All three cases were dismissed. Smith's record included two traffic summaries this year, and DUI cases, most recently in 2009. Cramsey this year had spoken out at town hall meetings about the heroin epidemic. He opened up about the loss of his daughter, and said he was contacted by hundreds of people with loved ones battling heroin addictions. At a meeting at The Alternative Gallery, a nonprofit arts center in Allentown, he said he has a son who is a recovering addict. When he got the call from the coroner's office in February, he thought it was about his son, he said in a video posted on YouTube. "When I heard it was my little girl, my heart hit the floor," he said. Friends said people reached out to Cramsey because they felt they had nowhere else to turn for help. "My daughter's voice is still alive inside me. She's reaching out to all you guys with her strength," Cramsey says in the video. Cramsey said he has "Shoot your local heroin dealer" stickers and T-shirts, and was wearing one that night at the arts center. One of the stickers was found on a box along with firearms and ammunition in his SUV when he was stopped in New Jersey. "I've changed my tune a little bit. I'll hug you...I'm the inoculation to this disease," Cramsey says in the video. The Associated Press and NJ Advance Media intern Luke Nozicka contributed to this report. Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahCassi. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. A woman who bilked Superstorm Sandy victims out of more than $49,000, now is jailed in Northampton County Prison for allegedly scamming other victims in the Nazareth area. The new charges, filed Tuesday, come on the heels of her pleading guilty to the separate charges in New Jersey involving the Sandy case. Dorian Leigh Dammer-Guerrierie, 56, who has addresses listed in Pen Argyl and Hellertown, in July 2012 allegedly issued her landlord, Colleen Kugel of Upper Nazareth Township, five phony checks totaling $5,100. Dammer-Guerrierie then went by the phony name of "Dorian L. Grey," according to police. Dorian Gray is the protagonist in an Oscar Wilde novel. In September 2012, Upper Nazareth police determined Dammer-Guerrierie also issued worthless checks to two people totaling $1,600 each. Police learned the checks were from an account closed in 2004 and the checks were written between 2010 and 2012. In a separate case, also from September 2012, Dammer-Guerrierie allegedly stole a computer from an Upper Nazareth Township man who was showing a prospective tenant an apartment on Schoeneck Avenue. Someone stole his computer out of his open trunk while he showed an apartment, police said. The victim later found a young boy who told police he bought the computer for $25 from someone at an area park, according to police. It turns out the boy was Dammer-Guerrierie's son. When the victim contacted Dammer-Guerrierie through the boy, she told him she'd give back the computer for $1,000. When the victim accused her of stealing the computer, she threatened to throw it away. The victim ended up paying Dammer-Guerrierie $1,000 to get the computer back, according to Upper Nazareth Township police. The victim told police he recognized Dammer-Guerrierie from a meeting the pair had in the past. Dammer-Guerrierie is charged in the July 2012 case is charged with theft and writing bad checks. In the September 2012 cases, she is charged with theft, receiving stolen property and disorderly conduct. She was arraigned Tuesday before District Judge John Capobianco, who set bail at $25,000 for the July 2012 case and $10,000 for the September 2012 cases. In lieu of $35,000 bail, Guerrierie-Dammer was taken to Northampton County Prison. The judge said the bail was set at $35,000 because he feared Guerrierie-Dammer would be a flight risk. Plea deal reached Guerrierie-Dammer this week pleaded guilty in a scam involving a pair of New Jersey homeowners. One of the homeowners included a Bridgewater, Somerset County widow seeking a contractor to help with property damage from Superstorm Sandy. In October 2013, Guerrierie-Dammer stole money from the woman who hired her to fix roof damage caused by the storm. Guerrierie-Dammer posed as an employee of Vanguard Construction, cashing three checks totaling $28,770 but never had the work done. Guerrierie-Dammer did work for Vanguard at one time but she had been fired a month earlier for stealing from the company. She also pretended to be a physician in the scheme. When the victim complained about the work not being done, Guerrierie-Dammer allegedly made excuses, blaming foul weather and sick family members for the delay. Guerrierie-Dammer then scammed a second Bridgewater, Somerset County, homeowner in December 2015. In that case, she posed as a Majestic Exteriors employee to get a job installing windows in a township home. She cashed three checks totaling $15,000 but never had that work done. Guerrierie-Dammer reached a plea this week and pleaded guilty to two counts of theft by deception before Superior Court Judge Robert B. Reed in Somerville, Somerset County. She agreed to pay both victims $37,500 in restitution. The state is recommending a probationary sentence for her with sentencing scheduled for Aug. 25. Pamela Sroka-Holzmann may be reached at pholzmann@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @pamholzmann. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. John Cramsey, Higher Ground Tactical John Cramsey, owner of Higher Ground Tactical in Upper Milford Township, holds a book about Camp Compass, an organization aimed at introducing young people to various outdoor activities and promoting gun safety in this 2014 file photo. (lehighvalleylive.com file photo) A Lehigh Valley gun dealer and two others were charged with weapons and drug possession Tuesday after police confiscated a cache of weapons at the Holland Tunnel. Arrested were John F. Cramsey, 50, owner of Higher Ground Tactical, an indoor shooting range and gun dealership in Upper Milford Township, outside Emmaus; Dean S. Smith, 53, of Upper Milford Township; and Kimberly Arendt, 29, of Lehighton, Pa., the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police Department said in a news release. This is vehicle from PA heading to NYC stopped @ #HollandTunnel by @PANYNJ with cache of weapons inside. @NBCNewYork pic.twitter.com/tEavRLDCpG Marc Santia (@MarcSantia4NY) June 21, 2016 They were in a brightly-colored sport utility vehicle that bore the name of Cramsey's business, according to reports. Police said they stopped the truck because of a cracked windshield. During the stop, authorities allegedly found an assault weapon, handguns and ballistic vests, as well as a camouflage helmet with night-vision goggles. Police made the discovery about 7:40 a.m. on the New Jersey side of the tunnel. "At this time, the investigation is continuing, but the agency does not believe the incident is terrorism-related," said Joe Pentangelo, a Port Authority police spokesman. Authorities seized five pistols, an AR-15 assault rile, a .12-gauge shotgun, less than 50 grams of marijuana and a marijuana pipe, according to police. Some of the firearms were loaded, police said. John Cramsey, owner of Higher Ground Tactical in Upper Milford Township, stands in his indoor firing range in September 2014. (lehighvalleylive.com file photo) A woman who answered the phone at Higher Ground Tactical on Tuesday afternoon declined comment. In a Facebook post shortly before the incident, Cramsey said he was outside of Brooklyn, N.Y., and headed to rescue a 16-year-old girl who "went up there to party with a few friends." Her friend died of a heroin overdose, Cramsey wrote on the anti-heroin Facebook page Enough is Enough. "I'm bringing her out of NY today and anybody else that wants to go home, too," he wrote. Cramsey has been an outspoken advocate for fighting the Lehigh Valley's heroin epidemic. His 20-year-old daughter and her boyfriend both died of accidental heroin overdoes earlier this year, according to the Lehigh County Coroner's Office. His business also made headlines in recent weeks. In May, the government cited Higher Ground Tactical for exposing its employees to lead and noise hazards, according to the U.S. Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration. OSHA cited the business at 5402 Chestnut St. in Upper Milford after an inspection Nov. 5. It faces $135,200 in fines for the alleged violations. Under OSHA rules, Cramsey had 15 days to comply with the regulations, request a conference with OSHA or contest the findings. Jim Deegan may be reached at jdeegan@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @jim_deegan. Find lehighvalleylive on Facebook. Pohatcong Township police officer Sierra DiMaio sworn in Mayor James Kern III swears in Sierra DiMaio as a Pohatcong Township police officer as her father, Assemblyman John DiMaio, watches on June 21, 2016. She is the township's first woman officer, and the only female municipal police officer currently serving in Warren County. (Steve Novak | For lehighvalleylive.com) Sierra DiMaio knew from a young age that she wanted to be a police officer. Growing up she was inspired, she said, by another woman in uniform in her hometown of Hackettstown. Now, maybe she can inspire others as well. "I hope ... it will open doors for females in Warren County," DiMaio said Tuesday after being sworn in as Pohatcong Township's first female police officer. DiMaio isn't the first woman to wear a police uniform in Warren County, but she is the only one currently serving in a municipal department, officials say. Women made up less than 10 percent of New Jersey's 19,646 full-time municipal police officers in 2014, according to statistics compiled in the New Jersey State Police annual unified crime report -- the latest figures available. The report tallied 185 full-time municipal police officers in Warren County in 2014. None were women. Countywide, there were eight women in law enforcement officer positions in 2014: five in the prosecutor's office, and three in the sheriff's department -- including DiMaio. The state police report does not distinguish civilian positions by gender. "For some reason, Warren County is a little bit behind the times in regards to hiring female police officers on the local level. ... Hopefully that's something that will change," Assemblyman John DiMaio, Sierra DiMaio's father, said before Tuesday's meeting. Predicting a "stellar career," Mayor James Kern III said DiMaio came highly recommended from the sheriff's office. "I am incredibly proud that Pohatcong Township is the only agency with a female officer in the county," Kern said ahead of the ceremony. "Having a female police officer gives our force a tremendous advantage in dealing with the many complex issues law enforcement face today." Sierra DiMaio and Mayor James Kern III share a laugh before she is sworn in as a Pohatcong Township police officer. (Steve Novak | For lehighvalleylive.com) DiMaio started in the county sheriff's department late in 2013 and graduated from the police academy about six months later. Her goal, she said, has been to expand her horizons and face new challenges. She called it an honor to work with the Pohatcong department, where she started last week. She also expects some extra scrutiny based on her gender. "I'm sure they're looking at me like, what can she do?" DiMaio said, speaking generally. The elder DiMaio, attending the meeting less as a public official and more as a proud father, said his daughter worked hard to get where she is. "I'm just very proud of my daughter," he said. "I'm excited that she has decided to serve the public in a very honorable way." Steve Novak may be reached at snovak@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @type2supernovak and find him on Facebook. The Irish government wants the UK to remain a member of a reformed EU, Foreign Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan told the Seanad during a debate today (Wednesday, June 22). Minister Flanagan set out the Governments position on the eve of polling day for the UK referendum on EU membership. "We want the UK, as our friend, closest neighbour and partner, to remain a member of a reformed EU. This is a view which enjoys near-unanimous support within both Houses of the Oireachtas, though I recognise and respect that there is a different point of view. The reasons underpinning the Governments position will also be familiar to you - these include important considerations in relation to our economy, Northern Ireland, the Common Travel Area and of course the EU itself." Minister Flanagan set out the extensive work undertaken by the Government and by Irish diplomats and officials on this issue since a referendum was first proposed by Prime Minister Cameron in 2013. Focusing on the Irish contribution to the UK referendum debate in recent months, the Minister said: "During the course of a visit to the UK in early April, I identified a desire among the local Irish community to hear the Irish perspective from Government and Opposition. My own experience of referendums here meant that I was aware of the sensitivities but happy to give our perspective, if asked. Over the last three months or so as the formal campaign was underway, you will have noticed that the Irish Government complemented by active engagement by civil society here in Ireland, the Irish community in Britain and leading Opposition figures has made its own contribution to the UK referendum debate. We respect fully that the decision ultimately lies with the UK electorate, but we strove to put across the Irish perspective, including through a programme of 14 visits at Government level to Britain and Northern Ireland since the beginning of April. As Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, I managed this programme across Government and as part of it I visited London, Belfast, Derry, Liverpool and Manchester." The opening of Digital Office Centre Group's newest campus in the former MBNA site in Carrick-on-Shannon is set to be followed by more good news this week, the Leitrim Observer understands. At last Friday's AGM of Leitrim County Council, Council CEO, Frank Curran hinted at the good news noting that the former MBNA site is going to be very busy soon. Earlier this week the Digital Office Centre Group (DOCentre), listed the addition of its third campus, the Ready-to-Go offices in the Carrick Business Campus at the former MBNA site, on its website. The new campus offers office facilities in approximately 120,000 sq ft of space and its development has been divided into two phases. At present one quarter of the building is occupied by AvantCard. The remaining available space comprises serviced, semi-serviced and unserviced offices in turn-key condition. According to the DOCentre, the office has two large open plan floor plates suitable for between 200 and 400 people each with a third space containing smaller units. The DOCentre describe Carrick-on-Shannon as one of the most progressive centres of diverse quality commercial activity in Ireland. Numerous prestigious companies, big and small have chosen to locate here not least because of the quality of life, education, infrastructure, enthusiastic young work force, quality affordable residential housing and support services but also because of incentives from the local authority and various State and Semi-state development agencies. James Harvey, CEO of DOCentre commented there are very few turnkey office solutions of this size available in Ireland. He went on this space will be of particular interest to financial services companies, call centres and business outsource providers. The location is accessible to a large, diverse labour pool. Expanding further he said Carrick Campus compliments our first two offices in Ireland, the 20,000 sq ft office in Camden Row, Dublin 8 and the 50,000 sq. ft. in Maynooth. Independent local councillor, Enda Stenson, contacted the Leitrim Observer to welcome the initiative stating this would have huge potential for Carrick-on-Shannon and the surrounding areas. This project is a massive vote of confidence in this area and the spin offs from having additional businesses using this site, will be enormous for Carrick-on-Shannon and Co Leitrim, he said. I welcome this news wholeheartedly and I am delighted to see a state-of-the-art facility such as the DOCentre coming to this area. Cllr Stenson paid a special tribute to Leitrim County Council CEO, Frank Curran, for his dogged determination in finding an alternative business for this site. I would like to pay tribute to him and to the management of Leitrim County Council for pursuing this. This is a wonderful achievement and it is wonderful news for the people of Carrick-on-Shannon and Co Leitrim, said the Independent councillor. Anti-fracking campaigners are celebrating following the news last week that no oil was found in Woodburn Forest, outside of Belfast. Infrastrata had drilled 2,000 metres underground at Woodburn Forest, Carrickfergus but found water instead of oil in their two target rock formations. The drill had been the subject of much concern among the anti-fracking campaigners throughout Ireland who were extremely worried that this would be the start of a fracking operation that would cover 200 square miles of the Larne Basin and also would spark off fracking operations in the Leitrim-Fermanagh area again. Dr Aedin McLoughlin (GEAI) from Ballinaglera said, We are so delighted that the drill failed to find oil. What was so frightening about this drilling was.....the inability of the local campaigners to stop, or even delay, the drilling, despite heroic efforts by campaigners and complete dedication to the Stop the Drill campaign. All we could do at the end of the day was to pray for a dry well, we got one and thank God for that. But what a close call! We can and are celebrating this weekend, but at the back of everyones mind is the Infrastrata declaration in their press release: the joint venture will now fully evaluate the data collected in the well and decide where to focus its future exploration activity in the basin. Aedin McLoughlin concluded The war is not over! Meg Rybicki from Northwest Network Against Fracking warned that this success is not the end of the campaign. The scale of the struggle we are facing is now clear. To stop fracking in Ireland will require a united all-island effort that will engage all sectors communities, activists, political parties and representatives, and lean on the massive international support that is available to us. This is what the campaign against fracking will now focus on. A ban against fracking North and South must be implemented. Valuable lessons have been learned and using these, we will succeed in keeping fracking out of Ireland! Peace: the single most important reason for the creation of what we now call the European Union, and the reason it remains so crucial. The European project arose from a clear vision: to make war in Europe materially impossible, to create enduring peace in a continent long ravaged by war. It is almost impossible to imagine now the devastation that plagued our continent for so long. And that is thanks to the visionary ideas of its founders. A spirit of reconciliation and mutual cooperation among the six founding members was crucial to ensuring Immanuel Kants idea of perpetual peace seemed to be a reality. Of course, many would argue that is NATO that has kept the peace in Europe. It has certainly been important in securing the borders of its European members. During the Cold War the European Community as it was initially known could rely on an American security blanket to protect them from Soviet threats. Yet, within its own borders it was the mutual trust that developed as a result of pooling sovereignty in the areas of coal and steel and then across a wider set of economic policies that ensured member states began to see each other as partners and allies, not potential invaders. For generations now we have lived secure in the knowledge that our fathers, brothers and sons will not be summoned to fight for our country. Military engagement by the state and by individuals signing up is voluntary, not forced. We have the EU to thank for that. And it is important to remember that this is a voluntary union, not a forced marriage. Yes, there is a degree of negotiation and compromise involve as happens in any relationship. Ultimately, the UK can decide what role it plays in the EU; it isnt coerced into action. In the 43 years since the UK joined we have seen our influence wax and wane, mostly dependent on how engaged the government of the day has sought to be. At times we have led, as in the initiative to complete the internal market enshrined in the Single European Act (SEA). Taking down internal barriers to trade, including free movement of goods, capital, services and labour envisaged in the founding treaties but taken so much further in the 1992 programme was pushed by Margaret Thatcher, and it achieved a huge amount. When the UK engages we can make a significant difference to the EU, to our mutual benefit; when it takes itself to the side-lines its influence is inevitably reduced. You dont have to love all the details of the EU to believe that it has played a crucial role in the peaceful development of first six and now 28 member states, but you do need to be part of that Union to influence and improve it. Being part of the worlds greatest peace project remains a great prize. This article is from the EuroFile (pdf) a collection of essays offering a positive, liberal case for Europe * Julie Smith is a Senior Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Cambridge, a member of the House of Lords and Cambridge City Council Willie Rennie has been travelling round Scotland on town centre tour over the last few days, urging voters to vote to remain in the European Union. Here he is in Perth: Campaigning for remain in Perth with the team. #INtogether Still lots undecideds so work still to be done. pic.twitter.com/3kdb5MH8l6 Willie Rennie (@willie_rennie) June 22, 2016 In his final pitch to voters he said: Voters going to the polls tomorrow will be doing more than simply putting a cross in a box. They are taking a decision over the values that will define us as a nation for decades to come. Open and outward looking or insular and closed. Ambitious and hopeful or timid and cynical. We have a choice between building on the progress that we have made as part of the EU, or leaving and going it alone. The EU has helped protect human rights and workers rights. Our businesses sell their products all over Europe, supporting jobs here in Scotland and across the UK. Crime does not respect international borders and the EU helps our police work with other forces across Europe to keep us safe. Tomorrow we can choose to work together or walk away from international cooperation that has helped keep the peace in Europe for more than five decades. We will choose to work together or walk away from something that has given us billions of pounds in trade, millions of jobs across the UK and has helped bring thousands of criminals to justice. A Remain vote means protecting jobs, lower prices and a decent, tolerant United Kingdom and if we vote to leave there is no going back. He emphasised that every vote would count: Dont leave it to everyone else. If we vote to leave, there is no going back. Every single Remain vote in Scotland will count. We need you to make the case for our place in the EU over the last few days of the campaign. What this referendum debate boils down to is a question over the sort of country that we want our children to grow up in. For me, the answer will always be a Britain that is open, outward looking and leading in Europe. If you agree, then the time to speak up is now. Vote Remain for more jobs, lower prices, stronger public services and a decent, tolerant Great Britain. Earlier this week, he talked about Charles Kennedys long contribution to the European debate in a speech to activists in Paisley: We wont always have to look back to the memory of Charles Kennedy. But on this issue of Europe, on this campaign, I dont think Charles would want to miss out. This debate is at the heart of his ideals, his compassion and his hard-headed sense. I look at his words in his speech to the Council of Europe in June 2014, two years ago. He quoted Robert Burns and the need to see ourselves as other see us. And in the next five days, that is surely the poetry everyone in the Scotland and the whole UK needs to think about. What message would we send around the world if we said that we cant work with others that we cant co-operate, that we always know best? Why would people take us seriously in the capital cities and the company boardrooms in Madrid, Delhi, or Washington DC? If we declare that we will not co-operate with our neighbours, why would others truly believe that we will work with them? Charles Kennedy reminded us in a speech to our Scottish party conference soon after he took over the party leadership of the words of a former U.S. ambassador in London (Raymond Seitz): If Britains voice is less influential in Paris or Bonn, it is likely to be less influential in Washington. As Charles concluded, it is utter nonsense to think that the UK would be treated like a 51st state of the USA or a special friend of China or Russia after withdrawal from influence in Europe. It has been a dark week for freedoms and democracy. Forty-nine people murdered in a gay club in Orlando a week ago shocked us all. The murder of Jo Cox in the line of her duty left us numb at the senselessness of it all. This is a week when I needed to hear the compassion, the common sense and the decency of Charles Kennedy. He could speak about the idealism. He could speak about the dreams. And he could speak too, of the hard-headed economics of remaining in the European Union. He told us in 1999: The eurosceptics like to talk about 800 years of Britains independent history. But we have an equally long and proud history of constructive engagement in Europe. Go back even to the Middle Ages. When the east coast had far closer links with the Low Countries by sea, than it did with the rest of Britain. Those trading contacts began an 800 year long story of Britain in Europe. The European Union is a story of a fifty year mission, through the European Union, to ensure that Europe is never again ravaged by poverty, unemployment and war. We in this country are, as Charles Kennedy was, a force for good in the world, however imperfect. We should work with that grain, rather than give up in despair. Our work for good in the world is amplified and extended within a European Union. * Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings Ive found this EU Referendum really difficult. Its been a horrible, nasty, divisive campaign with the most uncomfortable racist and nationalist overtones. I cant remember which of our lot said it, but they were right that the dog whistle has become a foghorn. The thought that within 48 hours, our country might choose the path of isolationism and blaming of the others, believing a campaign based on lies is not doing anything for my anxiety levels. This afternoon, however, there was bright spot. Outside the Scottish Parliament, the folk group Lau held a ceilidh flashmob to call for a Remain vote. I heard about it yesterday on Facebook and I was gutted that I couldnt go. I asked Hannah Bettsworth, the awesome almost graduate, former co-President of Liberal Youth Scotland and occasional Liberal Democrat Voice contributor to go instead. She initially demurred, but curiosity eventually got the better of her. The Strip the Willow is the most bonkers, potentially lethal Scottish ceilidh dance. It basically involves lots of spinning at great speed. There have been times I have thought I was going to end up on the next island while dancing it. Its fast and fun. Here, Jamie Ross from Buzzfeed and Lib Dem Scottish Parliament supremo Matthew Clark show people how its done. Matthew is the one with the grey trousers and black jumper. I think I will rightfully look back on this as the low point of my career. Via @severincarrell. https://t.co/YOW2qXrZeJ Jamie Ross (@JamieRoss7) June 22, 2016 Matthew will never be allowed to forget this moment. You can be sure of that. The only thing that could have made this better would have been the presence of Willie Rennie and some pigs. Buzzfeed has more here. Fannying about, indeed. * Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings GARDAI in Limerick are continuing their investigations into a number bomb threats that have taken place in the city over the past month. Last Friday, staff at Live 95fm had to evacuate the building after an anonymous caller phoned the radio station during the Afternoons with Declan Copues programme at 1.55pm, and informed them that a bomb was going to go off at its offices in 10 minutes. HSE pensions staff, who also work in the building, also had to evacuate the premises. Earlier this month, there was a bomb scare at St Josephs Hospital, on Mulgrave Street, which transpired to be a hoax. On May 25, Ulster Bank on OConnell Street received a call from a woman who claimed that there was a bomb in the premises. That incident happened just 24 hours after a similar hoax call to Milford National School, when 500 pupils and teachers were evacuated following a threat at the school. According to a garda source, they are investigating the phone traffic of these incidents which takes time. The source added that they are taking the bomb threats very seriously, and that they are serious offences which carry serious consequences. Senator Maria Byrne told the Limerick Chronicle that it is very frightening. You can never take these things lightly. It has to be taken seriously. Peoples lives could be at risk if they turn out to be true. Obviously, someone has a lot of time on their hands. But you would really have to wonder what this is all about. Is someone playing a joke? Fine Gael councillor Daniel Butler took to social media to condemn the recent threat at the Mount Kennett radio station. Hoping for a hoax. There needs to be an investigation and prosecution. Disgraceful spate of threats locally by hoax callers, he posted on Twitter. He told the Chronicle: These hoaxes need to be taken seriously. Especially any threat to the local press needs to be taken seriously. Often these people feel power and they feed off the fear of their victims. But we really need to fight back at these people. Fianna Fail councillor and former Limerick city detective, Sean Lynch said that these incidents are very annoying. They waste everyones time, including the gardai and the emergency services. A garda source said that they are currently treating each incident separately. I am sure that, with the technology that we have, the gardai have the best position to target these people. I am sure that they will soon reach a successful conclusion. He said that he appeals to anyone who may have information, to contact Henry Street garda station, at 061-212400. A CAMPAIGN for Limericks tilt at European Capital of Culture in 2020 is highlighting the diversity of its people, organisers say. The Citizens of Limerick campaign features contributions from print makers to coffee makers, artists to skaters, while a new video highlighting the bid has also gone live. Limericks 2020 bid team filed its second bid book last Friday, with a jury visit to follow on July 12 and the winning bid also considering Galway and the Three Sisters of Waterford, Wexford and Kilkenny to be announced on July 15. The designation is worth an estimated 170m spinoff to the winner, while Limerick has outlined a 37m project with around 40 key events, rising to a possible 200 for the year in 2020, if it is successful. As part of the bidding process, Limerick people have been sharing their stories of home to reveal what they treasure about where they live, say the bid team, bound under the message: We are culture. Locally-based musician Godknows Jonas Zimbabwean born, Shannon-raised and working with Music Generation in the city says his favourite thing about Limerick city is the cultural diversity". I love the multiple Limericks, I love that theres different types of Limerick. I spend a lot of time in the Island Field and Moyross. I love the aspect of different cultural diversity. I love hanging out in the country in west Limerick with my good friend Pa. I love knowing that you can be from the same place but have a different perspective on how to look at that place also. Limerick born writer, actor and air traffic controller Dan Mooney said there is already a really positive feeling about the bid. Creating a buzz about culture, creating something for people to strive for. Everyone sees an opportunity in this. It is important that we get excited about it. Meanwhile, the bid team has put out a call for volunteers to play a role in welcoming the judging panel to the city in July. Love your city? Want to help us become European Capital of Culture 2020? We need you, says the team, who will take a four person jury on a highly choreographed, whistle stop, eight hour visit of the city on July 12, with the winning bid to be announced on July 15. A number of events have been organised for the day details of which will be announced in due course, the Limerick 2020 team explained and volunteers will be a vital part of that day, helping to ensure that the judges have a welcoming, fun and memorable experience of Limerick, according to deputy bid director Sheila Deegan. We want the people of Limerick to play their part in the citys 2020 bid, she explained. We want you to share in the visit of the jury and show them why Limerick deserves the title. Weve had a huge interest already and we want to see more people sign up to get involved in this incredible experience. Its going to be lots of fun and a celebration of the citys culture. To join in the party and play your part in having Limerick named European Capital of Culture 2020 visit www.limerick2020.ie/volunteer. FORMER Limerick councillor Win Harrington has been remembered as an articulate, vocal and independent-minded lady at her funeral. Ms Harrington who served two terms on the old Limerick City Council in the 1970s and 1980s was laid to rest after tributes were paid in St Josephs Church, OConnell Avenue. Over the course of her life, she became well-known as being an advocate of rights for women, disabled and elderly. She campaigned to improve conditions at St Camillus Hospital, and helped set up the Rathfredagh Cheshire Home near Newcastle West a picture of which sat atop her coffin. Wins godson George Bird said it was out of concern for Limerick people she ran for public office. She was not happy with what was happening to Limerick people, so she went for local election in the 1970s, and the 1980s. Her slogan was Win will win and she did. She represented the people who had no voice, the transient, the disabled and womens rights, indeed everyones rights, he said. George recalled how her home in Clontarf Place was always open, and there was often a queue outside. Among the mourners were Senator Maria Byrne, plus former Mayor Kathleen Leddin. Fr Oliver Plunkett, leading the Mass, recalled how Win enjoyed her lunch in Souths pub each day, where she would read the newspaper from front to back. He highlighted her strong faith, which saw her attend church almost daily. METROPOLITAN councillors have expressed major concerns over shambolic roadworks that have been taking place across the city, by subcontractors for Irish Water, in recent weeks. At Mondays metropolitan district meeting at City Hall, Fianna Fail councillor Kieran OHanlon was the first to address the issue to the councils senior engineer, Vincent Murray. He stated that subcontractors have caused absolute destruction in the Rhebogue area in recent weeks. He said that he received complaints from local residents in relation to roadworks that were ongoing until 1.30am, sometime last week. Residents had to leave their homes and go out to the roadwork contractors and threaten to call the gardai, he said, adding that the loud noise levels were disturbing young people studying for their Leaving Certificate exams. Cllr Joe Leddin said that local residents have also contacted him in relation to poor road conditions in the South Circular Road area. I rang the council about a pothole out on my road, Summerville Avenue, and I am not exaggerating, but it was like a crater. These roads are going to cause an accident. His party colleague, Cllr Frankie Daly said that some of the road conditions in the city north district are like something out of armag-eddon. Its deplorable and its unacceptable. Sinn Fein councillor Seighin OCeallaigh said that he agreed with the complaints. Its not just public roads that are damaged; it is also private property that is being ruined. The problem is that there is no accountability. Irish Water barely talk to us, never mind the subcontractors talking to us. Its about having a certain mutual respect, he said. Cllr John Costelloe said that, because of ongoing roadworks, it took him 35 minutes to drive from Corbally to Rhebogue. Cllr Elena Secas said: The feedback we are getting from the public is that Irish Water do not communicate their plans. We need to bring the roads back to their original condition. Fianna Fails Vivienne Crowley said that it took her 45 minutes to drive from Castletroy to the city, as she had to take numerous detours due to a lack of direction and signage. Mr Murray said that he was very disappointed to hear the councillors complaints at this weeks meeting, and that the council will inform Irish Water of their concerns. We and our partners use cookies to Store and/or access information on a device. We and our partners use data for Personalised ads and content, ad and content measurement, audience insights and product development. An example of data being processed may be a unique identifier stored in a cookie. Some of our partners may process your data as a part of their legitimate business interest without asking for consent. To view the purposes they believe they have legitimate interest for, or to object to this data processing use the vendor list link below. The consent submitted will only be used for data processing originating from this website. If you would like to change your settings or withdraw consent at any time, the link to do so is in our privacy policy accessible from our home page. Virtual-reality (VR) technology creates new opportunities for storytelling. Pictured: Filming a scene from the VR movie "Ewa: Out of Body," directed by Johan Knattrup Jensen, with a custom VR rig. A good movie can transport audiences, taking them to other worlds and briefly immersing people in characters' lives. And with virtual-reality technology, movie writers and directors have more tools at their disposal than ever before to create immersive experiences. Danish filmmakers Johan Knattrup Jensen and Mads Damsbo and their production company Makropol are using virtual-reality (VR) technology to explore the boundaries of movie narratives, building on traditional visual storytelling and introducing new opportunities for audiences to interact with plotlines and characters and with one another. Their short film "Ewa: Out of Body," premiered at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, and enabled viewers to see the world through the eyes of Ewa, the main character. The short is a brief introduction to Ewa's life. A planned feature-length film will allow audiences to share her experiences from infancy through adulthood, centering on a significant conflict with her mother. [Beyond Gaming: 10 Other Fascinating Uses for Virtual-Reality Tech] Seeing and experiencing The filmmakers say VR could inspire movie creators to approach visual narratives in an entirely new way. "VR opens up a different way of telling stories one you haven't seen before," Jensen, the film's director, told Live Science. "Instead of simply trying to tell a story, I'm trying to convey an experience." A scene from the VR film "Ewa: Out of Body," directed by Johan Knattrup Jensen, showing Ewa's point of view. (Image credit: Talib Rasmussen) Jensen shot "Ewa" as a single take, which means that the camera's point of view what the audience sees in the headset travels uninterrupted from start to finish, mimicking the way that we experience the world. Making a film with no edits, Jensen explained, meant that all the movements of the actors and the camera had to be carefully choreographed and coordinated at every step, with movements linked to actions that would advance Ewa's story. "How do we acknowledge the audience's presence in the film, and how do we use that for telling the story? This is something we're really interested in," Damsbo said. And with VR, filmmakers can begin to imagine an active, participatory role for audience members within their movies, Damsbo told Live Science. VR gets social It might seem that wearing VR headsets in a theater would isolate viewers from one another, and may reduce the shared enjoyment of a movie, but Jensen emphatically disagrees. "If that were true, we'd say books were an anti-social medium," he said. "VR has the power that any good experience has right after you have it, you want to share it." Another Makropol VR film shown at Cannes, "The Doghouse," did exactly that. It offered a group of five viewers the chance to not only participate in a communal VR experience a film about a family sharing a meal but also to discuss it after the movie ended and see how their perceptions of the same story differed, depending on whose role they were playing. SKAMMEKROGEN // THE DOGHOUSE - interview with the artists (opens in new tab) on Vimeo (opens in new tab). "We wanted to say, there isn't really one truth about a story about this family dinner there are five truths," Damsbo said. "And each one is just as true." Talking about the film enabled participants to appreciate how VR allowed each of them to experience a very different narrative, he added. [Photos: Virtual Reality Puts Adults in a Child's World] "A new language is being born" Some established members of the Hollywood community are ready and willing to explore what VR technology can do. Michael Bay, director of the blockbuster "Transformers" movies, is embracing VR. He recently announced a partnership with the production company The Rogue Initiative to create VR experiences that include highly dynamic action sequences a trademark of Bay's movies within an immersive environment. And at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, a roster of VR short films live action and animated which included Makropol's "Ewa" and "The Doghouse," were presented at a special pavilion. Festival officials even included a cardboard VR headset in the event's official "swag bag" giveaway. Johan Knattrup Jensen, director of the VR film "The Doghouse," tests the installation. (Image credit: Asmund Sollihgda) However, certain moviemakers have expressed skepticism about VR's effectiveness for telling stories. At Cannes, director Steven Spielberg suggested that VR might offer audiences too many choices, which could lead them to "forget the story" that the writer and director imagined. But perhaps allowing a viewer to choose among several stories means that the director's role is more important than ever, Jensen suggested. "I can still control my audience," Jensen told Live Science. "But now I have to make a game with them, where I try to persuade them to find the story to find my story," he added. "The medium is changing, aesthetics are changing and a new language is being born. We can only embrace the art of this new language," Jensen said. (Looking for a VR headset? Our sister site Tom's Guide put together a great primer on the best ones on the market right now: The Best VR Headsets.) Original article on Live Science. Genes play a role in a student's performance, but they don't tell the full story. Research shows that a students genetic makeup can have a strong influence on their academic performance. Some interpret this as meaning there is little that can be done to help those who struggle academically and that spending extra money on these students to help them succeed is pointless. But is this the case? A major misconception is that genes are destiny. This is wrong because genes are never the full story. This is because environmental factors (nurture) also play a role in levels of academic achievement. Well-designed and well-delivered remediation can also help struggling students even in cases where genetic factors (nature) may be the source of the difficulties. What we know about genetic influence We know about strong genetic influences on academic skills primarily through the use of the twin method (opens in new tab). This is where the genetic makeup of identical twins is compared with non-identical twins. Evidence of genetic influence emerges if identical twins are more alike in terms of academic performance than non-identical (fraternal) twins. Identical twins share all their genes, fraternal twins share half of their genes, but both types share homes and schools. So researchers can estimate the degree to which genes affect academic achievement over and above the effects of homes and schools: that is, they can estimate how much ability is inherited. And because non-identical twins can be opposite-sex, researchers can also identify if nature and nurture play out differently with males and females. For the most part the same genes appear to affect boys and girls, and in general gender effects are in danger of being exaggerated in public discourse. Studies with twin children have been conducted worldwide, including in Australia, the US (opens in new tab), the UK, continental Europe, Asia, and Africa (opens in new tab), with an emphasis on the core areas of literacy and numeracy. Estimates of genetic influence vary somewhat among subjects and locations, but range from near 50% to as high as 80%. The studies have used standardised tests as well as school-administered tests. Less is known about creative and technical subjects, where particular talents clearly exist. Identical twins are more alike in terms of academic performance than non-identical twins. from www.shutterstock.com What about environmental influence? Twin studies can also parse environmental influence into factors that twin children mostly share, such as home socio-economic status (SES) and school attended. There are also those that are unique to each child in a twin, such as illnesses and, often enough, separate teachers. Contrary to many peoples expectations, some shared factors such as family SES and school attended are relatively minor influences on student differences once genetic endowment has been taken into consideration. It is important to note, however, that some groups may show lower average levels of achievement due to adverse environmental circumstances such as poorer rates of school attendance and retention. Other groups may be affected by unusual environments, such as heavy metal contamination from mining and metals processing, which can be associated with lower NAPLAN scores. Educational interventions What works are well-designed, well-delivered and timely interventions that can help struggling children to reach or more closely approach normal-range levels. These interventions are usually designed for individuals or small groups but have proven successful when implemented at school district level. We do not claim that compensating for genetic disadvantage is easy, but with the right frame of mind and sustained help with an emphasis on how the alphabet represents the sounds of speech, plus supported reading practice, progress is real and rewarding. Funding implications This is why the conclusion that strong genetic influence makes additional spending pointless is too pessimistic. It could be argued that if some children struggling with literacy or numeracy are doing so because of constraints on learning with biological origins, then extra funding delivered to these children is exactly what is needed. This is especially so if we wish to counter increasing gaps between the best - and worst -performing students. Implications for the teaching profession Some teachers have been reluctant to acknowledge the role of genes in school performance, perhaps because of an aversion to biological explanations - so-called biological determinism - and perhaps because of the false impression that if genes matter, teachers dont. Among other consequences, this has meant an overemphasis on the role of teacher skill and dedication in determining why some students prosper and others struggle. There is direct evidence from twins that teacher differences are not responsible for much in the way of student differences in literacy. So teachers do matter in that they are the reasons why children know more at the end of the year or even the day. But our teachers are more uniformly effective than many give them credit for. The Colorado story It is unfortunate that in some education systems, such as in Colorado in the US, teacher employment and remuneration are tied to evaluations that give undue weight to student progress. This ignores the fact that some students struggle because of biological constraints on learning that can be overcome to an encouraging degree, but only with special and adequate resources. In the US, teacher morale is at an all time low, and in other places, including Australia, teachers are blamed by many in the media and politics. What is needed We need a more nuanced understanding of the factors that influence academic achievement, including the role that genes play. At the same time, we need to avoid the unwarranted pessimism that can accompany acknowledgement of genetic influence, a danger that applies not only to attitudes toward academic development but to mental and physical health as well. We need to take comfort from the existence of scientifically-grounded interventions, which in the hands of teachers with sufficient resources, can make a difference to the prospects of students who initially find the going in particular subjects tough. Brian Byrne, Chief Investigator, ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, Chief Investigator, NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Twin Research, and Emeritus Professor, School of Behavioural, Cognitive and Social Sciences, University of New England; Katrina Grasby, PhD, University of New England, and Richard Olson, Professor of psychology and neuroscience director, Colorado Learning Disabilities Research Centre, University of Colorado This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. An award announcement celebrates the work of Edward F. Knipling (left) and Raymond C. Bushland (right) in eradicating the destructive screwworm fly. Knipling died in 2000 and Bushland died in 1995. The sex life of a fly whose name translates to "man-eater" has netted two researchers a posthumous award from U.S. politicians. The 2016 Golden Goose Award, which honors basic research that might seem silly but led to important breakthroughs, will go to Edward F. Knipling and Raymond C. Bushland. The U.S. Department of Agriculture funded the researchers' study of the reproductive behavior of screwworm flies (Cochliomyia hominivorax), a parasitic species that caused major problems for farmers and ranchers before Knipling and Bushland's work led to a new type of insect control in the 1950s. "Given the recent rise of infectious diseases like the Zika virus, developing eradication programs for carrier pests is a much-needed field of scientific research," Rep. Randy Hultgren, R-Ill., a supporter of the Golden Goose Award, said in a statement. "Even though 'worms' might make some members of Congress - as well as the public a little squeamish or skeptical of the research we invest in, these studies by Drs. Edward F. Knipling and Raymond C. Bushland have clearly paid off." [6 Politicians Who Got the Science Wrong] Freaky fly Adult screwworm flies look like large houseflies with orange heads. It's their young, however, that do the real damage. Female flies lay their eggs in scratches or cuts on the hides of livestock or other animals. The maggots, or larvae, of the screwworm fly burrow into the wounds, feeding on both the dead and living flesh of the infected animal. "Untreated screwworm infestations can be fatal," reads a fact sheet on the insect put out by the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension. "The larvae will continue to feed on the animal and will eventually eat the host alive." Even creepier, the maggots can infect humans, too. In 2008, an emergency-room doctor won a photo competition held by the journal Pediatric Emergency Care with a gruesome picture and case study of a 12-year-old girl who returned from a trip to Colombia with painful blisters on her scalp. A "blunt haircut" revealed the squirming larvae of the screwworm fly burrowed into the girl's skin. In total, doctors removed 142 larvae from her head. [Giant List of the Strangest Medical Cases Reported by Live Science] Eradicating the screwworm Knipling and Bushland's research made such infections for humans and for livestock much less common. The two worked in Texas and Florida through the 1940s and 1950s to understand the fly's biology and behavior, according to the World Food Prize organization, which honored Knipling and Bushland in 1992. (The pair also have a USDA insect research laboratory in Texas named after them.) With annual meat and dairy losses to screwworm flies totaling more than $200 million a year in the 1950s, Knipling and Bushland became focused on disrupting the natural life cycle of the flies, according to their World Food Prize biography. They reasoned that if they could release enough sterile male flies into the wild, mating would result in fewer and fewer offspring, eradicating the fly population. The researchers then figured out that they could treat the flies with doses of radiation calibrated to render them sterile but healthy enough to mate. The first test came on Sanibel Island, Florida, in the early 1950s. It worked. The researchers named their method the "sterile insect technique." According to the USDA, the sterile insect technique eradicated the screwworm fly in the U.S. in 1966. Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua have been screwworm-free since the 1990s. "Screwworm research may sound like a joke, but it isn't. It saved the livestock industry billions," Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., who invented the Golden Goose Award, said in the statement. Scientists are now looking to transfer the sterile insect technique to Aedes mosquitos, the species that transfers the Zika virus. For example, the International Atomic Energy Agency announced in March that it was granting 2.3 million euros ($2.6 million) to researchers applying the technique to Zika-carrying mosquitos. The Golden Goose Award stands in contrast to the "Golden Fleece" Award, a congressional award that mocks purportedly wasteful science, and former Sen. Tom Coburn's "Wastebook," which highlighted National Institutes of Health grants the Oklahoma Republican judged as pointless. Researchers highlighted in Coburn's "Wastebook" consistently reported that their research was misrepresented. Original article on Live Science. This picture shows an infection of the amoeba Naegleria fowleri, seen under a microscope and stained with a fluorescent antibody. A young woman who went white-water rafting in North Carolina contracted a rare, brain-eating amoeba and died, according to reports. The 18-year-old, who was from Ohio, was on a trip with a church youth group last week, and visited an outdoor recreation center with white-water rafting in Charlotte, North Carolina, according to NBC news station WCMH in Columbus, Ohio. Health officials are still investigating the case, but it is suspected that she contracted the infection when her raft turned over and she went underwater. The deadly infection is caused by a single-celled organism called Naegleria fowleri, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Here are five key facts about these infections. People usually become infected from warm freshwater lakes and rivers. This amoeba likes to live in warm water, including warm lakes and rivers, as well as hot springs. The organism may also be found in warm pools that are not properly chlorinated, and in water heaters, the CDC says. It can live in temperatures as high as 115 degrees Fahrenheit (46 degrees Celsius), and can sometimes survive at higher temperatures for short periods. In the United States, most brain-eating-amoeba infections occur in bodies of freshwater in Southern states. Infections are most common during the summer months, especially when it is hot for prolonged periods, the CDC says. Naegleria fowleri is not found in the ocean. The amoeba gets to the brain through the nose. People do not become infected withNaegleria fowleri by swallowing water. Rather, infections happen when water containing this amoeba goes up the nose and enters the brain. Once in the brain, the amoeba destroys brain tissue, which results in brain swelling and usually death, the CDC says. Early symptoms, which include headache, fever, nausea and vomiting, can occur from one to nine days after infection. Infection with this brain-eating amoeba is very rare. From 2006 to 2015, there were just 37 cases ofNaegleria fowleri infection in the United States, even though millions of people go swimming each year, according to the CDC. For comparison, there were 34,000 drowning deaths from 2001 to 2010. Very few people survive these infections. Infection with this brain-eating amoeba is nearly always fatal. Of the 138 people who were infected withNaegleria fowleri in the United States between 1962 and 2015, just three survived (which means the infection has a fatality rate of nearly 98 percent), according to the CDC. The last person to survive infection with Naegleria fowleri was a 12-year-old girl in Arkansas, who contracted the infection in 2013. Doctors treated her with a number of anti-fungal medications, as well as an experimental drug called miltefosine, which was first developed to treat breast cancer but also had been shown to kill the amoeba in lab experiments. There are a few things you can do to lower your risk of infection. Researchers don't know how to get rid of naturalNaegleria fowleri in lakes, rivers and other freshwater sources, so people who go swimming in warm freshwater should assume that there is a low risk of infection, the CDC says. If you choose to go swimming in warm freshwater, you can try to avoid having water go up your nose by holding your nose closed, using nose clips or keeping your head above water, the CDC says. Original article on Live Science. After spending more than 300 years on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, the 17th-century French ship that went by the name La Belle, or "The Beautiful," has finally found a new resting place at a museum in Texas. Archaeologists discovered the shipwreck in 1995, but it took them 17 years to excavate and restore the ship, they said in a statement. Upon finding the wreck, the researchers were able to identify it as La Belle, a French-made ship that sank off the coast of Matagorda Bay (an area about 110 miles, or 177 kilometers, southwest of Houston) in 1686. "It's been exciting, a huge headache and a huge frustration at times, but I love old ships and in particular this one, Peter Fix, a watercraft conservator at the Conservation Research Laboratory at Texas A&M University, said in the statement. "Needless to say, it's been a challenging, emotional ride." [Shipwrecks Gallery: Secrets of the Deep] La Belle, now housed at the Bullock State History Museum in Austin, is one of the most important shipwrecks ever uncovered in North America, Fix said. The ship was one of four under the command of Rene-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle (1643-1687), a famous French pioneer who explored the Great Lakes, the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. The ships carried La Salle and 300 settlers who planned to colonize the Gulf Coast, expanding France's influence in the New World. The ships left France on Aug. 1, 1684, but all four ran into trouble. Within two years, all four ships Le Joly, LAimable, St. Francois and La Belle returned to France, sank or were captured by pirates, Fix said. La Belle's journey La Belle was constructed in France in 1684, and originally measured 54 feet long by 14 feet wide (16 by 4.3 meters). It was designed with a shallow hull so that it could navigate coastal and river waters, including the Mississippi River, Fix said. However, La Belle never made it to the Mississippi. Poorly drawn maps led the French explorers astray, Fix said. The small fleet missed the Mississippi River delta, and instead landed more than 400 miles (644 km) away, on the Texas coast. Two storms within days of each other first grounded and later sank La Belle in Matagorda Bay in the winter of 1686, just two years after its construction. There were 27 people onboard when the ship sank, but only six survived and returned to Fort St. Louis, a nearby French settlement, Fix said. Within months, mutineers killed La Salle near present-day Navasota, Texas, during a trek to Canada, where the explorer was hoping to gather a rescue mission for his colony. Although La Salle's mission failed, it eventually helped pave the way for Texas' creation that is, without French influence. "With the ship went a famous explorer's dreams and a kings ambition to expand his empire to the New World," the Texas Historical Commission said. Artifacts galore Despite spending more than three centuries underwater, La Belle was chock-full of artifacts from 17thcentury France, largely because "La Salle used the ship as a sort of floating warehouse," Fix said. "When excavated, the archaeological site was found full of merchandise everything requisite to form a colony and establish trade; knives, ax heads, pottery, tiny glass beads, bottles and brass pins there are hundreds, or in some cases, thousands, of samples," Fix said. "Personal items including clothing, combs and even a signet ring were found, and also weaponry such as long guns, lead shot, sword parts and three bronze cannons, which were extraordinarily well preserved." [Disasters at Sea: 6 Deadliest Shipwrecks] After finding the shipwreck, the Texas Historical Commission decided to build a temporary dam around the sunken ship. This allowed archaeologists to pump out the water around the ship, and excavate it in the mud, instead. Excavations lasted from September 1996 until April 1997. During that time, archaeologists recovered about 1.6 million items from the La Belle wreck, which gave them insights into how the French explorers planned to set up the colony. La Belle itself is undoubtedly the largest, and most valuable artifact, Fix said. A team, composed largely of Texas A&M nautical archaeology graduate students, meticulously preserved and reconstructed the ship. "The reason the project took as long as it did was due to the nature of the material and artifact that had to be stabilized," Fix said. "La Belles timbers had become waterlogged and heavily degraded during the 300-year immersion in Matagorda Bay, some even had the consistencies of a wet sponge, and we had to employ methods that would slowly displace the water and strengthen the wood." For instance, the archaeologists decided to "freeze-dry" each timber, then remove any remaining water. "Had we not used this method, the timbers most likely would have shrunk and distorted so much, they could not have been used to reassemble the ship," Fix said. Three state agencies worked together to restore and bring the boat to the museum. The boat and its artifacts actually belong to France, according to an international treaty, but the exhibit will stay in Texas indefinitely, under the stewardship of the Texas Historical Commission, Fix said. Original article on Live Science. The first time the clinging jellyfish (Gonionemus vertens), a Pacific Ocean species, was detected in New Jersey waters was in 2016. A dime-size jellyfish that can deliver severely painful stings has been spotted in New Jersey waters for the first time. Gonionemus vertens, commonly known as the clinging jellyfish, is responsible for the hospitalization of a man named Matt Carlo, according to a June 15 alert posted on Facebook by the Monmouth Beach Office of Emergency Management in New Jersey. Carlo was stung while swimming in the Shrewsbury River in Monmouth Beach. Since then, clinging jellyfish have reportedly been found in several river and bay locations near the Monmouth Beach area, the Monmouth Beach Police Department (MBPD) confirmed in a June 16 statement. However, experts said that ocean beachgoers should be safe from the jelly's tiny tentacles, as the animals are too small and fragile to survive waves close to shore. The jellyfish will only be found in quieter waters, like the river in which Carlo was swimming. [In Photos: The Best US Beaches of 2016] According to the MBPD statement their most recent statement about clinging jellyfish as of June 22 "There have been no prohibitions or warnings issued regarding swimming in the river by any agency. An invader from the Pacific Clinging jellyfish are native to the Pacific Ocean, but have been found in the Cape Cod area since 1894, according to Annette Govindarajan, a marine biologist and research specialist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The jellies use adhesive pads on their tentacles to attach to algae and sea grasses such as eelgrass. Scientists studied the Cape Cod clinging jellyfish in the early 1900s, before the creatures dwindled and appeared to vanish in the 1930s following an eelgrass die-off, Govindarajan told Live Science. Prior to that, Govindarajan said, the researchers and collectors who were handling the jellies in Massachusetts made no reports of stings. Clinging jellyfish populations near Russia and Japan were known to cause severe sting reactions in people. But in some areas of the northeast Pacific, the creatures didn't deliver such painful stings, suggesting that not all clinging jellies delivered a toxic pinch. "The Cape Cod populations were assumed to be the variety that didn't cause severe stings," Govindarajan said. However, in 1990, the clinging jellyfish appeared near Cape Cod again and painful stinging incidents were reported for the first time. And the clinging jellyfish that are newly arrived in New Jersey appear to cause severe reactions, too. Carlo, who was stung on June 15, was given morphine to counteract the jellies' toxin, the Asbury Park Press (APP) reported. "I thought I was going to die that's how much pain I was in," Carlo told the APP. Finding jellyfish hotspots Paul Bologna, the director of the Marine Biology and Coastal Sciences Program at Montclair State University in New Jersey, has been studying eelgrass ecology for 15 years. He was already planning on searching for clinging jellyfish in New Jersey eelgrass beds this summer when he began hearing about sightings in June. So far, Bologna has collected clinging jellyfish specimens in two locations: the Point Pleasant Canal between Manasquan and Barnegat Bay, and in the Monmouth Beach/Oceanport area. His findings there suggest there are at least two established populations, Bologna told Live Science. Clinging jellyfish begin life as polyps, which are too small to be seen with the naked eye, Govindarajan said. The polyps reproduce asexually and can create 30 to 40 clones in a year. "Populations can increase rapidly from asexual budding," Bologna said. "Identifying where the polyps are is important for jellyfish control." But even as Bologna and other researchers work to identify where in New Jersey the clinging jellyfish are settling and where they came from there's one place where experts are confident you won't see these tiny jellies near ocean beaches. "If they get mixed into the surf, they get chewed up and torn to bits," Bologna told Live Science. "People going to ocean beaches have very little to worry about. But if you decide to swim at night in a lagoon, the encounter rate might be higher," he said. Original article on Live Science. A robot in Russia caused an unusual traffic jam last week after it "escaped" from a research lab, and now, the artificially intelligent bot is making headlines again after it reportedly tried to flee a second time, according to news reports. Engineers at the Russian lab reprogrammed the intelligent machine, dubbed Promobot IR77, after last week's incident, but the robot recently made a second escape attempt, The Mirror reported. Last week, the robot made it approximately 160 feet (50 meters) to the street, before it lost power and "partially paralyzed" traffic. [The 6 Strangest Robots Ever Created] Promobot, the company that designed the robot, announced the escapade in a blog post the next day. The strange escape has drawn skepticism from some who think it was a promotional stunt, but regardless of whether the incident was planned, the designers seem to be capitalizing on all the attention. The company's blog includes photographs of the robot from multiple angles as it obstructs traffic, and the robot's escape came a week after Promobot announced plans to present the newest model in the company's series, Promobot V3, in the fall. The company said its engineers were testing a new positioning system that allows the robot to avoid collisions while moving under its own control. But when a gate was left open, the robot wandered into the street and blocked a lane of traffic for about 40 minutes, the blog post states. The Promobot was designed to interact with people using speech recognition, providing information in the form of an expressive electronic face, prerecorded audio messages and a large screen on its chest. The company has said the robot could be used as a promoter, administrator, tour guide or concierge. In light of the robot's recent escapes, and citing multiple changes to the robot's artificial intelligence, Promobot co-founder Oleg Kivokurtsev told The Mirror, "I think we might have to dismantle it." But in its blog post, the company said it considers the escape a successful test of the machine's new navigation system, because the robot didn't harm anyone and wasn't damaged during the getaway. According to the company's English-language website, one of the advantages of the Promobot compared to a human promoter is that it "will not be confused and stray." Original article on Live Science. This digitally-colorized image shows particles of Zika virus, which is a member of the family Flaviviridae. The virus particles are colored blue in the picture. They are 40 nanometers (0.00004 millimeters) in diameter. Requests for abortions in some Latin American countries have doubled since health officials began issuing warnings about the link between Zika virus and birth defects, according to a new report. The report authors analyzed information from a nonprofit organization called Women on Web, which provides access to abortion medications (using telemedicine) in countries where safe abortions are illegal or highly restricted, including many Latin American countries. The researchers looked at requests for abortions before and after Nov. 17, 2015, when the Pan American Health Organization, which is part of the United Nations, issued an alert about the link between Zika virus and microcephaly, a birth defect in which a baby's head is abnormally small. After this date, several Latin American countries also issued their own health warnings advising women to avoid pregnancy. The researchers found that requests for abortions increased in nine Latin American countries: Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Ecuador, Honduras, Venezuela, Argentina and Peru. In all of these nations, access to abortions is restricted, and in most (except Argentina and Peru), health officials had issued national warnings about the link between Zika virus and microcephaly, the researchers said. [5 Things to Know About Zika Virus] In these nine countries, the increases in abortion requests ranged from 20 to 108 percent. The increase was biggest in Brazil, where there were 1,210 requests for abortions between late November 2015 and early March 2016. That's more than double the 581 requests that researchers would have expected in that time period, based on trends in abortion requests from before November 2015. Requests for abortions also nearly doubled in Ecuador, from an expected 34 to 71 requests between late November 2015 and early March 2016. "Our data provide a window on how concern about Zika virus infection may have affected the lives of pregnant women in Latin America," the researchers, from the University of Texas at Austin, Women on Web, Princeton University in New Jersey and the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, wrote in their report published today (June 22) in the New England Journal of Medicine. The researchers note that they cannot prove for certain that concern about the Zika virus caused the increase in abortion requests. However, the investigators found that countries with the biggest increases in requests for abortions also tended to have a greater percentage of women who cited the Zika virus as the reason for their abortions. The new report could also underestimate the increase in abortions, because some women may have used unsafe abortion methods or gained access to abortion drugs through the black market, rather than through Women on Web, the researchers said. "Official information and advice about potential exposure to the Zika virus should be accompanied by efforts to ensure that all reproductive choices are safe, legal and accessible," the researchers wrote. Original article on Live Science. Winter in Antarctica is lonely. Each year, only a handful of people stay on the continent to keep research stations running. They're mostly on their own even if they're suddenly grappling with a medical issue. On occasion, though, a serious medical event requires a rescue attempt. The latest is ongoing: On June 21, a Twin Otter aircraft arrived at the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station to evacuate a sick member of the overwintering team. The NSF Division of Polar Programs announced today that the plane left the South Pole station and landed safely at the British Rothera station, some 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers) away. The NSF has not released the name of the sick worker, nor the condition that necessitated the rescue, but past experience suggests that it must be serious: Researchers and staffers have coped with conditions ranging from breast cancer to stroke without having to resort to evacuations. That's because the danger of landing a plane in the icy Antarctic winter can't be understated. [In Images: Antarctic Explorer Robert Falcon Scott's Last Photos] Cold and alone Forty-eight people are spending the winter at the Amundsen-Scott station, according to a website dedicated to station news and history. The cold is unimaginable; according to the National Weather Service, it was minus 79 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 62 degrees Celsius) at 2 p.m. EDT on June 22. The weather was listed, simply, as "ice crystals." That means that it's so cold that the moisture in the air freezes, said Air National Guard Col. Ronnie Smith, who flew rescue and resupply missions for the U.S. Air Force in the polar regions and wrote a book of poetry about his experiences, "The Last White Ruby: The Vanishing Polar Circles" (BookBaby, 2015). "The air literally glitters when the sun hits these ice crystals," Smith told Live Science. Not that there's any sun at the South Pole now. It sets in March and doesn't peek above the horizon again until September. Dark is one of the challenges a pilot trying to land in the Amundsen-Scott station must face. During the first midwinter landing at the Pole which took place in April 2001 the airplane's path was lit by two rows of trash burning in barrels alongside the runway, according to a history of the event in the book "Amazing Flights and Flyers" (Frontenac House, 2010). Cold is another big challenge for any pilot hoping to land in the Antarctic winter. Temperatures that can dip into the negative triple digits can freeze jet fuel into slush, according to the Wisconsin IceCube South Pole Neutrino Observatory. Hydraulic fluid starts to gel at around minus 72.4 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 58 degrees C), Smith said. Twin Otters, the planes that are used to fly these risky rescue missions, have parts that are almost entirely mechanical, helping them avoid locked-up hydraulics. As if cold and dark weren't enough, Antarctica's winters are notoriously fickle. "You have weather that is so extreme," Smith said. "I mean, it can go down to minus 120 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 84 degrees C). The winds can be hurricane-force winds and they often are, especially in the winter." And the wind doesn't even have to be that strong to make flying impossible. Gusts of only 20 knots, or around 23 mph (37 km/h), can obscure visibility with blowing snow, Smith said. "Once it becomes minus 40 degrees, the crystal structure of the snow changes to where the snow is like sand," Smith said. "It's light, it's dry, and it's easily lifted into the air by a breeze." To compound the problem, weather data is spotty at the Pole, Smith said. Weather satellites don't orbit directly over the poles, so atmospheric data is available for only part of the day. And storms can pop up in a matter of hours. "From the time they took off in Rothera, everything can change by the time they get to the Pole," Smith said of the 10-hour flight navigated by the rescue pilots. Perils at the Pole The first-ever midwinter landing at the South Pole, in 2001, was also for a medical evacuation: A doctor at the South Pole station became seriously ill with gallstones and pancreatitis. A Twin Otter aircraft, equipped with skis for landing on snow, was used in that rescue mission as well as in the current one. In addition to a minimum of moving parts, these planes can take off and land on short lengths of runway, according to "Amazing Flights and Flyers." [Extreme Living: Scientists at the End of the Earth] Despite bad weather, the 2001 landing was relatively smooth but takeoff proved a challenge. The hydraulically operated flaps on the Twin Otter froze, requiring unexpected and rapid repair right on the runway. After the flaps were moving again, the crew discovered that the plane's skis had frozen to the runway. Two maintenance workers had to rock the plane's wingtips from a perch atop a bulldozer to free the Twin Otter. There have been other midwinter landings on Antarctica, including one to rescue an engineer with ulcerative colitis at New Zealand's Scott Base, near the Antarctic coast, in 1991. But given the risks, rescues are rare. In 1999, a doctor treated her own breast cancer at the Amundsen-Scott station, a process that included doing her own breast biopsy and treating herself with chemotherapy drugs airdropped by a plane. The doctor, Jerri Nielsen FitzGerald, was eventually rescued in October, early in the Antarctic spring, according to her obituary (she died in 2009 after a recurrence of her cancer). In 2011, an engineer at the South Pole station had to wait two months for rescue after having a stroke. And in 2002, an anesthesiologist and an orthopedic surgeon in Boston helped the Amundsen-Scott station's only physician do knee surgery on a station meteorologist. The Boston doctors used voice- and video transmissions to guide the doctor through the repair of a damaged tendon, according to the NSF. Follow Stephanie Pappas on Twitterand Google+. Follow us @livescience, Facebook& Google+. Original article on Live Science. Check out our latest E-Edition Accessible anytime and anywhere on your desktop, tablet and smart phone devices. The Lodi News e-Edition is enhanced with the latest digital tools, including RSS feeds, social networking and much more. Check out our latest E-edition! Irish Water has apologised after a mains pipe burst in Killoe at the weekend caused significant damage, with flood waters gathering around a local house. Local man John Keogh told the Longford Leader that he was facing a clean-up bill of several thousand euro after the water mains burst outside his property twice inside the space of 24 hours. Four times my property has been flooded by a mains water pipe bursting outside my house, he said. Last weekends episode however was by far the worst, leaving Johns entire front concourse under water. With the last flood a slatted shed has been flooded, a septic tank overflowed and manholes and gullies were left blocked, he said. The wall at the front of the house is cracked due to the force of the water. Its totally unacceptable. In a statement, a spokesperson for Irish Water apologised to local residents affected by the weekend fallout and insisted the public utility was doing all it could to resolve the problem. Repair crews were immediately on site on Friday and Saturday repairing the bursts as they occurred, said the spokesperson. Due to the fragile condition and age of the water main it is prone to frequent bursts. Irish Water is committed to ensuring that customers in the area have a more reliable and secure supply and have approved the replacement of 1.3km section of the water main. Local Councillor Micheal Carrigy called on Irish Water to expedite its plans to carry out restorative works which had originally been earmarked during the last three months of 2016. This line needs to be replaced straight away, he told the Leader, as he questioned how much had been spent on carrying out remedial works as a direct result of persistent water bursts. There are a number of issues that will have to be addressed, not alone the damage to property but also there is a concern to motorists who use the road. Meanwhile Irish Water outlined its plans to spend 900,000 on repairs in Killoe and Edgeworthstown. For more on this story, see this week's Longford Leader. The guilty plea was announced by Robert L. Capers, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York; Diego Rodriguez, Assistant Director-in-Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI); Christina Scaringi, Special Agent-in-Charge, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Inspector General (HUD/OIG); and Christy Goldsmith Romero, Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP). According to court filings and facts presented at the guilty plea proceeding, from 2008 to 2012, Gotterup and his co-conspirators made a series of false promises to convince more than a thousand distressed homeowners seeking relief through government mortgage modification programs to pay thousands of dollars each in advance fees to numerous companies owned or controlled by Gotterup, including Express Modifications, Express Home Solutions, True Credit Empire, LLC, Green Group Today, Inc., The Green Law Group, Inc., and JG Group. Among other things, Gotterup directed telemarketers and salespeople to lie to distressed homeowner victims by telling them that they were preapproved for loan modifications and that they were retaining a law firm and an attorney who would complete their mortgage relief applications and negotiate with the banks to modify the terms of their mortgages. Contrary to these representations, Gotterup and his co-conspirators did little or no work in connection with these fraudulently induced advanced fees. Gotterup was arrested in October 2015 and remains incarcerated. In announcing the guilty plea, Mr. Capers extended his appreciation to the agencies that led the governments investigation and thanked the U.S. Small Business Administration and the Staten Island District Attorneys Office for their assistance. Todays guilty plea took place before United States District Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis. The governments case is being prosecuted by the Offices Business and Securities Fraud Section. Assistant United States Attorneys Sylvia Shweder and Bonni Perlin are in charge of the prosecution. * * * This prosecution was the result of efforts by President Obamas Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force (FFETF) which was created in November 2009 to wage an aggressive, coordinated, and proactive effort to investigate and prosecute financial crimes. With more than 20 federal agencies, 94 U.S. Attorneys Offices, and state and local partners, its the broadest coalition of law enforcement, investigatory, and regulatory agencies ever assembled to combat fraud. Since its formation, the task force has made great strides in facilitating increased investigation and prosecution of financial crimes; enhancing coordination and cooperation among federal, state and local authorities; addressing discrimination in the lending and financial markets; and conducting outreach to the public, victims, financial institutions and other organizations. Since fiscal year 2009, the Justice Department has filed over 18,000 financial fraud cases against more than 25,000 defendants. For more information on the task force, visit here. The Defendant: DAVID GOTTERUP Age: 36 Oceanside, New York E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 15-CR-498 (NGG) Music, Movies & Entertainment, Local News, Travel & Local Attractions, Press Releases, Seasonal & Current Events By Long Island News & PR Published: June 22 2016 Celebrate our nations independence with a spectacular fireworks show and concert in Eisenhower Park on Saturday, July 2, 2016. East Meadow, NY - June 20, 2016 - Nassau County Executive Edward P. Mangano today announced that Nassau County and TD Bank, Americas Most Convenient Bank, will celebrate our nations independence by presenting a spectacular fireworks show and concert in Eisenhower Park on Saturday, July 2, 2016. TD Bank will once again sponsor Celebrate America at the Harry Chapin Lakeside Theatre in Eisenhower Park. The fireworks, presented by the Long Island based Grucci family, are part of an unforgettable night in Eisenhower Park which kicks off with a performance by The Steam Punk Pirates, and Killer Joe and the Lido Soul Revue. I thank TD Bank for their continuous support, which makes our spectacular Independence Day celebration possible every year, said Mangano. The annual Fireworks Show and Concert here in beautiful Eisenhower Park is a great opportunity for our residents to come out and enjoy this World Class fireworks show and performances by The Steam Punk Pirates and Killer Joe and the Lido Soul Revue. The theatre area gates will open at 5:30 p.m. and the fireworks will begin at nightfall (approx. 9:30 p.m.). Tickets are required for admission to the Theatre area and are available free of charge, at any TD Bank on Long Island, while supplies last. There is no formal seating; visitors should bring blankets or chairs. Space is limited and overflow will be directed to other viewing and parking areas. In anticipation of Independence Day, County Executive Mangano and Acting Police Commissioner Thomas Krumpter remind residents that fireworks awareness and prevention are important issues to discuss with their families. The possession, use, or sale of fireworks, including sparklers, is a violation of New York State Penal Law, and may be punishable as a misdemeanor or a felony. Parents should talk with their children about the destructive outcomes that can occur from playing with fireworks. Fourth of July fireworks, although popular, can be extremely harmful. Fireworks statistics indicate that: According to a U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission report, an estimated 11,400 injuries were reported during 2013, a staggering 31 percent climb compared to 8,700 injuries reported the year before. Approximately 16% of all consumer fireworks injuries are caused by sparklers burning hands and legs, with the majority of these injuries occurring to young children. Most of these injuries happen at the victims homes. Fireworks can cause life threatening residential fires. Children ages 5 to 9 years old have the highest rate of injuries related to fireworks. There are many licensed professionals that perform fireworks presentations for the public, such as the Celebrate America show at Eisenhower Park. County Executive Mangano and Acting Police Commissioner Krumpter would like to wish the residents of Nassau County a happy and safe July 4th holiday. About the Harry Chapin Lakeside Theatre: The Harry Chapin Lakeside Theatre is an outdoor theatre located near parking fields 6 and 6A in Eisenhower Park. Special accommodations are available for disabled patrons, including reserved parking, easily accessible restrooms, and a convenient reserved location on the hill. Assistive hearing devices are available for the hearing impaired. There is no formal seating at Lakeside Theatre, so concertgoers are urged to bring folding chairs. If weather conditions are doubtful, call (516) 572-0355 after 7:00 p.m. for updated performance information. About Eisenhower Park: Eisenhower Park is centrally located in East Meadow, with entrances on Hempstead Turnpike at East Meadow Avenue and at the intersection of Stewart and Merrick Avenues. For further information, please call the Nassau County Parks Public Information Office at: (516) 572-0200 or visit the Nassau County Parks, Recreation and Museum website. Old Bethpage, NY - June 21, 2016 - Nassau County Executive today announced Old Bethpage Village Restoration will celebrate Independence Day as observed in the 1860s on Monday, July 4th from 10:00 a.m. 4:00 p.m. The Independence Day Parade and Ceremony will begin at 2:30 p.m. Old Bethpage Village Restorations annual 1861 Independence Day Celebration offers a look at the regions past and features a parade and ceremony, historic craft demonstrations, contra dancing, storytelling, military drills, fiddle music and brass band concerts, said County Executive Mangano. Old Bethpage Village Restoration provides visitors with a unique and wonderful opportunity to step back in time and experience life in a recreated mid-19th Century American village set on more than 200 acres. Old Bethpage Village, located at 1303 Round Swamp Road in Old Bethpage is open Wednesday Saturday from 10:00 a.m. 4:00 p.m. and on Sunday from 11:00 a.m. 5:00 p.m. Admission is $10.00 for adults and $7.00 for children (5-12), seniors, and volunteer firefighters. For more information about Old Bethpage Village Restoration, please call: (516) 572-8401 or visit the website. Local News, Community, Charity & Cause, Press Releases By Long Island News & PR Published: June 22 2016 Pronto of Long Island, Inc., a not-for-profit, Community Outreach Center serving the most vulnerable children and families received a grant from the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York (DASNY). Bay Shore, NY - June 22, 2016 - On Wednesday, June 8th, community leaders joined with Kathleen Bennett, President of Pronto of Long Island, Inc., a not-for-profit, Community Outreach Center serving the most vulnerable children and families living in Brentwood, Bay Shore, Central Islip and neighboring communities, to announce their receipt of a grant by the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York (DASNY) at Bella Verde in Brentwood. The grant will allow Pronto, an affiliate of Family Residences and Essential Enterprises, Inc. (FREE), to update the computer infrastructure at Pronto. This upgrade will help Pronto to provide computer classes in English and Spanish for the community. The computer upgrade will also allow Pronto to provide Test Assessing Secondary Completion (TASC) classes, citizenship classes and will provide software for resource and referral for Prontos programs. The grant will also be used to install solar power at Pronto for energy efficiency. Were grateful for the receipt of this grant as it will help us tremendously in our efforts to help the people we serve, said Kathleen Bennett, President of Pronto. We will continue to explore any and all avenues to raise funds to help this grossly underserved community, she continued. About Pronto of Long Island, Inc. Pronto opened its doors in 1969 in a 5th Avenue storefront as a center to help the poor. It began from the vision of a group of committed lay people and clergy at St. Anne's Roman Catholic Church. Today, Pronto of Long Island is a community outreach center serving the most vulnerable children and families living in Brentwood, Bay Shore, Central Islip and neighboring communities. Pronto has a food pantry, thrift center and warehouse with gently used household and furniture items. Pronto also offers programs and services to help families improve the quality of their lives. The mission of Pronto is to feed the hungry, clothe the needy, welcome the stranger and provide healing and hope to everyone who walks through our doors. Pronto truly is People Helping People. About Family Residences and Essential Enterprises, Inc. (FREE) Family Residences and Essential Enterprises, Inc. (FREE) collaborates with a variety of diverse 501 c3 nonprofit partners on educational, vocational, rehabilitative and a myriad of other creative initiatives to enhance the local communities and the lives of those that reside within them. Each of the valued partners of the Family of FREE Network have a unique mission, vision and strategic goals that are aligned in purpose, and embody the spirit of the meaningful work we do every day. Members of the Network work synergistically to strengthen, expand and diversify their programs to offer the highest quality of services to those we are privileged to support. Each partner has identified their own path to achieving strategic objectives and countless individualized possibilities have been co-created for those we support. For more information, please call 516-870-7000 or visit www.familyres.org. Looking to stay up to date about all of the news stories and local headlines that are important to Long Islanders? We've rounded up the top coverage for all of the important topics from multiple sources around Long Island, so you can be sure you've got the most recent update on the top stories for Long Island. Have an idea for a news story? Email us at news@longisland.com Columnists Press Releases The other day I was thinking about the attack in Orlando and I have come to a personal conclusion, just my opinion, based on my observations. This was not a random attack on a random day at a random target by a random individual. Everything about this attack shows that is was planned out in every detail, there was a political purpose also. This attack was not just about killing Americans. First, the timing. It was during Ramadan, a holy Muslim month. Isis has called for attacks to be carried out during Ramadan. Not only Ramadan, but it was during gay pride month at a gay bar. Homosexuals are executed in Muslim countries for their homosexuality. Second, the place. With the current public debate regarding homosexuality in this country, Isis realized that by conducting the attack at a gay bar, the focus of the media coverage would be about homosexuality and not Americans in general. Isis could attempt to fuel this debate to divide Americans. This was an attack on Americans who happened to be homosexual, it was not an attack on homosexuals alone. Isis was successful. News coverage has been focusing on the attack being in a gay bar and not on Americans. Isis diverted the attention from the real target, the United States. Americans were killed, that should be our focus, not the victims sexual orientation, they were Americans. Third, the choice of weapon. This terrorist could have simply walked in with a bomb(s) and killed many more people. The choice of weapon was carefully chosen. Isis is fully aware of the debate regarding firearms in this country and that the AR-15 (or a similar type), many times, is at the center of the debate. Isis knew that this would intensify the push to ban guns in general, the AR-15 specifically, in this country. What better place to kill people than in an unarmed country. What better place to kill people than in a divided country. America, we need to focus. Right now Isis leaders are sitting back and enjoying the political success of this attack. Mark Harwood Sale Creek * * * The idea that the attack in Orlando was specifically intended to remove our guns so we'd be easier to kill is laughable. Firstly, our spineless Congress is in the pocket of gun lobbyists, and trying to get them to pass stricter gun laws is like trying to get them to ban drinking water. Nothing could be more futile. Secondly, when has a civilian with a gun ever prevented a terrorist from killing? Not once. The monster who killed those people in Orlando was a disturbed and dangerous man who was able to easily and legally purchase a weapon with which he could enact his own personal genocide on a whim. No civilian with any amount of firepower is going to prevent an attack with a gun that can fire 30 rounds in 10 seconds. That sort of weapon should never have been allowed into his hands, nor any one else who doesn't need it for law enforcement or military purposes. Ray Ingraham * * * Thirty rounds in 10 seconds? Mr. Ingraham needs to first quit listening to those who want to take away our personal weapons then go back and verify his own facts, maybe do some personal evidence gathering to prove that 30 rounds in 10 seconds number he cites. That's three per second. I challenge the average person to perform that feat. The fact is that all of these horrible mass shootings occur in gun free zones, no weapons allowed and no way for the victims to defend themselves. It's provable the attackers made decisions to go where there were no personal weapons when they could just as easily have done their atrocities where weapons were allowed, maybe easier. Crimes are prevented every day, multiple times per day, by civilians with personal weapons. The murderer who executed a Chattanooga Police sergeant wasn't apprehended by the police. He was stopped by a civilian with a .22 caliber handgun, put on his knees with hands behind his head until the police could get there by a civilian. Asking "when has a civilian with a gun ever prevented a terrorist from killing" is the same as any other unprovable question. Vicki Rodgers Nine Mile, Tn. UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Tennessee, the Helen Ross McNabb Center, and local and state officials gathered in Chattanooga Tuesday to celebrate the completion of the Bailey Home, a new supportive-living facility in Hamilton County to serve the needs of adults living with mental illness. The Bailey Home was created by the Helen Ross McNabb Center through a $340,300 grant from UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Tennessee to help adults recovering from mental illness live healthier and more independent lives. The Bailey Home will provide comprehensive support services to each resident through onsite and community resources with a dedicated staff who will work 24 hours a day to help with daily-living skills, ensure that medication needs are met and coordinate daily life skills groups. The new facility has five bedrooms, and it will house 10 clients at full capacity. "People who are living with and recovering from mental illness deserve the opportunity to live healthier and more independent lives, said Rita Johnson-Mills, CEO of UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Tennessee. We are grateful for the opportunity to support the Helen Ross McNabb Center and help make that a reality for more Tennesseans with the Bailey Home. In 2013, UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Tennessee committed $1 million in grant funding to help support organizations that provide safe, affordable, quality and appropriate housing for people living with mental illness after having been discharged from a mental health facility. In June 2015, UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Tennessee presented the Helen Ross McNabb Center with its grant to develop the Chattanooga project. "Our Housing Services team helps provide permanent, safe, affordable housing to people who are homeless and experiencing symptoms of a mental illness, said Helen Ross McNabb Center CEO Jerry Vagnier. We currently offer 162 units in Knox and Hamilton counties, and we greatly appreciate the generosity of UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Tennessee to help us increase the number of housing units we can make available to people in need. I appreciate and commend UnitedHealthcare for its recognition that people living with mental illness are not only deserving but also capable of thriving in our communities with balanced and productive lives, said Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke. In partnership with the Helen Ross McNabb Center and with the support of the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, this investment will make a true impact in the Tennessee communities we serve together. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, more than 245,000 adults and 65,000 children in Tennessee live with serious mental health conditions. Many of them are homeless and survive on low incomes. The Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse estimates that nearly 190,000 Tennesseans with mental illness are in need of housing assistance. The state of Tennessee has been a leader in encouraging the creation of housing options for people with mental illness and co-occurring disorders, said officials. Since 2001, the Tennessee Creating Homes Initiative has leveraged public, private and nontraditional funding sources to create more than 4,600 housing options for Tennesseans diagnosed with mental illness and co-occurring disorders. There is a wealth of literature, both national and local, to support the essential role of stable, safe, quality and affordable permanent housing in the recovery process for people with mental illness, said E. Douglas Varney, commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services. I appreciate how this partnership among the Helen Ross McNabb Center, UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Tennessee and other organizations will help put housing within reach for more Tennesseans. Apples big changes to Messages in iOS 10 seem mostly cosmetic: Giant emoji, full-screen fireworks, handwritten scrawls across photos and videos, and stickers galore. These are features lifted straight from Facebook Messenger, Snapchat, Line, and all the other messaging apps that are resonating with teenagers and, even if they wont admit it, their parents. But the biggest change to Messages is more behind the scenes. Facebook Messenger and WeChat are taking over the world, but Apples decision to open up iMessage to developers makes it clear that the company isnt yielding to the dominant messaging appsin fact, it has an advantage. Apples iOS 10 demo at last weeks Worldwide Developers Conference keynote was full of brand-new features, but Craig Federighi, Apples senior vice president of software engineering, devoted a large chunk of time to changes coming to the Messages app. If youve used any other messaging app in the last few years, most of the flair coming to Messages looks more than a little familiar. iOS 10 gives Messages some signature Apple style, like an invisible ink feature that blurs your photos and texts and has to be swiped away, but the improvements are familiar. But Apples decision to turn iMessage into a platform is more significant than all the Snapchat-like effects that have garnered the lions share of attention, because third-party apps can now be used to enrich your messages without ever leaving the Messages app. Its the Facebook Messenger approach, but more refined. The new iMessage app drawer The new iMessage software development kit allows developers to build extensions that bring their app experiences directly into Messages. In iOS 10, you can access third-party messaging apps from the iMessage App drawer. Just tap on the App icon next to the blank text field to find apps and create content that you can share straightforwardly in-app. Finding Dory stickers are just the beginning. Federighi used a funny image creation app called JibJab to demonstrate the features in his WWDC demo. JibJab lets you create and share e-cards with people, and the iMessage extension allows you to select from a gallery of faces in your Camera Roll and drop a friends face on a JibJab GIF. When you share that image with someone, it will appear in the same iMessage conversation with a button beneath the image to install JibJab. Whereas Facebook Messenger would kick you to the App Store to finish downloading the app, in iMessage, youll remain inside your conversation. JibJab will appear in the new iMessage app drawer, which you can open without ever leaving Messages. That seamless installation process is huge for developers, JibJab cofounder and CEO Gregg Spiridellis told me. This is a monumental improvement in discovery, Spiridellis said. If one of our users sends content to someone today in iMessage, theres no link back to JibJab. People dont know where that content came from or how to get it for themselves. App discovery in Facebook Messenger: If you send someone a JibJab or Bitmoji, that person is also prompted to install the app into the Facebook Messenger platform. Facebook also used JibJab to demonstrate their Messenger app platform at F8 in 2015. Spiridellis said JibJab is platform-agnostic, but Apple has a clear advantage because its tools are built in at the OS level. Apple isnt really trying to compete with Facebook Messenger or Snapchat or any other messaging app, and it doesnt need to. Addictive apps keep people using their iPhones. But Apples newly open iMessage platform has the potential to turn Messages into a universal hub for more than just messaging. First come the stickers A cautiously open iMessage platform could herald a centralized app where you not only send messages with stickers and giant emoji, but also use Apple Pay to transfer money to friends and shop from brands. The Siri SDK launched at WWDC might signal the onslaught of iMessage chatbots. OK, those days are a ways off, if theyre coming at all, but Apple is clearly taking cues from Facebook Messenger and apps like WeChat, which is popular in Asia. WeChat has become a hub for all of these different services in Asia and thats never happened here in the U.S, JibJab CEO Spiridellis said. I think Apples opening up iMessage seems like the clearest opportunity for developers to take advantage of the fact that Messages is gonna become a hub for all sort of experiences. Facebook Stickers and GIFs are cute and all, but Facebook Messenger also has useful third-party integrations, like ordering an Uber right inside the app. Facebooks stand-alone messaging app has more than 900 million monthly active users sending messages, stickers, money, and more without ever leaving the app. Some of that functionality is enabled using other apps that are plugged into the Messenger platform, which launched last year. Tencents WeChat has more than 700 million monthly active users, mainly in China, which is where Apple wants to dominate, and is also a platform for third-party developers. Its unclear exactly how many people use the Messages app, though Federighi said during the WWDC keynote that its the most frequently used app on iOS. Given that Apple has a base of more than a billion active devices, its safe to say a good chunk of them still use iMessage or send SMS messages through the Messages app, even if they use over-the-top apps like Facebook Messenger or WeChat, too. Tech entrepreneur Matt Galligan, who founded the now-defunct news app Circa, wrote a widely circulated blog post last year envisioning what iMessage as a platform would look like. Many of the features he dreamed up came to life in Facebook Messenger, but are even more relevant and seem more possible now that iMessage has actually become a platformlimited, to be sure, but a platform all the same. A limited but secure platform Apple wont bring iMessage to Android, which will limit its capabilities. Facebook Messenger and WeChat can reach more users. But if iMessage will ever become a hub, its a safe bet that Apple will secure it with hardware integration that no other messaging platform is capable of. The children of tomorrow will have no understanding of the English language, Federighi joked as he blazed through the host of novelties coming to iMessage. Some of those visual changes arent popular with people who want a bare-bones messaging app. But if Apple can please the next generation of iPhone owners with gratuitous messaging tricks, they could become the Apple service users of tomorrow. And, as we all know, the future of Apple is servicesor so the company hopes. The Honoring the Sacrifice Foundation is hosting the 3rd Annual American Heroes Dinner on Wednesday, July 15, at 7 p.m. at the Chattanooga Convention Center. The featured speaker will be Lt. Col. Allen B. West (U.S. Army Ret.) The event will be honoring and remembering those involved in the tragic attack of July 16, 2015. Corporate sponsorships and tables, as well as individual tickets, are currently available at: www.honoringthesacrifice.org. Me: Hey Craig, where are the iPad Pro features on that list?Craig: _()_/ I fully expected this weeks column to walk through new features that would make the iPad Pro even better than it already is: Here are the top productivity features for iPad Pro in iOS 10 (or something along those lines) wouldve been the headline. I had it all planned out. Instead, Im sitting here scratching my head wondering if Apple forgot about the iPad Pro. Last years WWDC keynote dedicated a fairly significant amount of time to the iPad and its newfound multitasking features. As someone who had always loved using an iPad to get work done, it was a dream come true. This year, Apple spent two hours walking developers through new software features set for release this fall. WatchOS 3 looks like it fixes a lot of issues with the Apple Watch; tvOS 10 adds key features to the streaming box; macOS Sierra adds Siri (!!) to our computers; iOS 10 focused on Siri and iMessage. Across the board, the improvements are needed and welcomed. Its undoubtedly an exciting time to be an Apple user! Until you start to look through the announcement for new features coming to the iPad Proor any iPad for that matterwhen iOS 10 is released. Beyond the few seconds towards the end of the iOS 10 portion of the keynote, where Craig Federighi quickly mentioned iPad users would gain the ability to view two Safari tabs at the same time split-screen in iOS 10, the iPad took a backseat to the iPhone, Apple Watch, Apple TV, and Mac. Well, thats not entirely true. Apple spent about 10 minutes at the end of the keynote walking through a couple of demos for Swift Playgrounds, a free app aimed at teaching kids how to code directly on the iPad. Outside of that, however, the iPad found itself as the me too device throughout the keynote. At the end of each of the 10 iOS feature sets we were walked through, the presenter on stage would end with something along the lines of this looks great on the iPad as well. Cool. Happy to hear that. What about features specific to the iPad? Going Pro Apple has spent the last year laying out the narrative that the iPad Pro lineup is a fully capable PC replacement for many, yet unveiled absolutely zero new features to move that narrative forward. Viewing two Safari tabs at the same time was on nearly every iOS 10 wish list, and rightfully so. What about user accounts? What about drag-and-drop for photos and text when using apps in split-screen mode? Wheres an improved app switcher in multitasking? Each of those areas desperately need attention. Apple Split-screen Safari is something, but iOS 10 needs more iPad Pro productivity features. Despite the lack of productivity focussed features for the iPad lineup, all is not lost; there are some improvements worth pointing out. The way iOS 10 handles widgets looks to be a useful way of quickly gathering information, and one feature sure to benefit from more screen real-estate. From what I can gather, instead of having a single column of widgets as you will on an iPhone, the iPad will have two columns of widgets for you to arrange to your liking. A 9to5Mac report details a new, three-pane view in Apple Mail and Notes. The added column will give you access to more information without having to tap and swipe between panes. In Mail, for example, youll be able to view your accounts folder hierarchy, contents of a folder, and an emails text, all on one screen. Theres certainly more left to uncover as the iOS 10 beta program matures. Or better yet, perhaps Apple is waiting until later this year when it will presumably announce the second-generation iPad Pro and new software features to go alongside it. Lets just hope those new features make their way back to the first generation model. Kedves Latogato! On egy olyan cimre erkezett, amely a magyarszo.com domain ala tartozik. Ez a cim nem a Magyar Szo napilap tulajdonaban van, de a Szabad Magyar Szo segit Onnek a keresett tartalom elereseben. Kerjuk, valasszon az alabbi lehetosegek kozul: Atiranyitas a Magyar Szo napilap kert tartalmara Magyar Szo Atiranyitas a Szabad Magyar Szo cimlapjara Szabad Magyar Szo Amennyiben nem valaszt, 20 masodperc mulva atiranyitjuk a Szabad Magyar Szo cimlapjara. A Szabad Magyar Szo, a vajdasagi magyar szabad kozbeszed foruma, tiszteletben tartja a szellemi tulajdont, es nem kivan akadalyt gorditeni a napilap elerhetosege, illetve alkalmazottainak munkaja ele. Sreenagar: The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs last day warned the government of another terror attack in the Pathankot airbase, because some terrorists are still hiding in the country. The committee was in Jammu to review the security arrangements along the international border and had earlier visited Pathankot. After the recommendation of the committee, the government had alerted the CPRF, BSF and Army. On 2 January 2016, a heavily armed group attacked the Pathankot Air Force Station. All the six terrorists involved in the terrorist attack were killed by the Indian security forces. Seven Indian security personnel and a civilian also lost their lives in the incident. A $2.2 million greenway along an old rail line will connect Alton Park with the Tennessee Riverwalk. Officials said the city's portion of the project that goes near 33rd Street will be $440,000. The city is applying for a Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Grant from the Tennessee Department of Transportation for design and construction funds. The old rail line was built off the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railroad line that went into town to the old Union Station across from the Read House. The NC&Stl insignia can still be seen on the St. Elmo Avenue overpass. The route includes an overpass over St. Elmo Avenue, an at-grade crossing of Broad Street near Broad Street Fast Lube and WDEF TV, and a viaduct at Alton Park Boulevard (South Market). Trains ran along the line occasionally until some 10 years ago, but most of the tracks were taken up when the service ended. There are fragments of track past Chandler Avenue, and they are in good shape in the vicinity of the 38th Street crossing and beyond to Workman Road. The pathway will extend to a city park near the end of Workman Road. At the west end, it will connect to the new section of the Riverwalk that is almost completed from Ross's Landing to St. Elmo. Blythe Bailey, city transportation director, said it will be a wide, multi-use pathway. City Council Chairman Moses Freeman said Alton Park residents will be able to make their way downtown on a safe pathway rather than traveling along busy roadways. Councilman Chris Anderson said, "It's a great project. I'm thrilled to see it happen." The Trust for Public Land has been involved in securing use of the line from CSX Railroad. At one time, Alton Park was served with three railroads, including an extension from the Central of Georgia and the TAG Railroad that went down through Chattanooga Valley to Gadsden, Ala. Alton Park was its own city with a mayor and city government until 1929. Six government officials from South Korea are visiting the Danish Maritime Authority and, in this connection, they exchange experiences and knowledge about shipping, inspections and safety with the Danish authorities. The South Korean government officials are, inter alia, responsible for passenger ship safety in South Korea and are visiting Europe for other reasons as well. "This is a good example of how we exchange knowledge and experience with other countries. This dialogue is an important part of our endeavours to enhance safety, not only on board Danish ships, but on board ships all over the world,"" says Deputy Director General Troels Blicher Danielsen from the Danish Maritime Authority. The six South Koreans represent the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries (MOF) and the Ministry of Public Safety and Security (MPSS). During their visit to Denmark, they will inter alia meet with Director General of the Danish Maritime Authority Andreas Nordseth as well as ship surveyors from the Danish Maritime Authority. Passenger ship surveys on the agenda In 2014, the Danish Maritime Authority harmonised all passenger ship surveys. As part of this process, several different surveys were amalgamated into one overall passenger ship survey. The ship surveyors from the Danish Maritime Authority have had a decisive hand in the efforts made to harmonise passenger ship surveys and can thus pass on much knowledge and expertise about passenger ship safety, just as they can get knowledge and experience from the South Korean visitors. Every year, the Danish Maritime Authority is in contact with other countries' authorities as part of a continued dialogue and exchange of knowledge and experience. However, this is the first time that the authorities from South Korea are paying a visit to Denmark. An investigation by special agents with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has resulted in the indictment of a Sneedville man on charges of killing his father and his fathers friend, while attempting to steal a truck. At the request of 3rd District Attorney General Dan Armstrong, on April 8, TBI special agents joined detectives with the Hancock County Sheriffs Office in investigating the deaths of Ricky Helmick, Sr., 57, and Natasha Riley, 37. Both were found shot to death in a residence at 1041 Vardy Blackwater Road in Sneedville. During the course of the investigation, agents developed information that Ricky Helmick, Jr., the son of one of the victims, was the individual responsible for their deaths during the attempt to take his fathers truck. The investigation further found that Helmick, Jr., had confined another relative during that incident. The Hancock County Grand Jury returned indictments on Monday, charging Helmick, 30, with two counts of first degree murder, two counts of felony murder, one count of aggravated kidnapping, and one count of theft over $1,000. Helmick, who has been incarcerated in the Hamblen County Jail, was served Tuesday on the new charges. His bond is set at $750,000. Bollinger Shipyards has delivered the 18th Fast Response Cutter (FRC), USCGC Joseph Tezanos, to the United States Coast Guard on June 22, 2016 in Key West, Fla. The vessel is scheduled to be commissioned in Puerto Rico during August 2016. We are pleased to announce the delivery of the latest FRC built by Bollinger Shipyards, the USCGC Joseph Tezanos, to the U.S. Coast Guard, said Bollinger president and CEO, Ben Bordelon, announcing the ships delivery. The fleet of FRCs already in commission have more than proven their worth with tons of narcotics seized, thousands of illegal aliens interdicted and many lives saved. We at Bollinger Shipyards are looking forward to hearing of the heroic exploits of the Joseph Tezanos as it joins the Coast Guards operational fleet. The 154-foot patrol craft USCGC Joseph Tezanos is the 18th vessel in the Coast Guard's Sentinel-class FRC program. To build the FRC, which has been described as an operational game changer by senior Coast Guard officials, Bollinger used a proven, in-service parent craft design based on the Damen Stan Patrol Boat 4708. According to the builder, it has a flank speed of 28 knots, state-of-the-art command, control, communications and computer technology and a stern launch system for the vessels 26-foot cutter boat. Each FRC is named for an enlisted Coast Guard hero who distinguished him or herself in the line of duty. The latest vessel is named after Coast Guard Hero Joseph Tezanos, who was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps medal for distinguished heroism while leading the rescue of more than 40 injured service members following the explosion of a Navy LST in Pearl Harbor in 1944. The first ocean cleanup system ever tested at sea will soon be deployed for trials 23 kilometers (12 NM) off the Dutch coast. The goal of the test is to see how the floating barrier design is able to cope in extreme weather at sea during a 12-month period. The Ocean Cleanup, a Dutch foundation developing advanced technologies to rid the oceans of plastic, unveiled its North Sea prototype today in the presence of The Netherlands government, as well as the main sponsor Boskalis, who will transport and install the prototype this week. It has been inspiring to work with The Ocean Cleanup team to optimize the engineering of the barrier, said Peter Berdowski, CEO of Boskalis. Now that everything is ready, we are looking forward to the really exciting next step, with the transportation and installation of the barrier. To validate the survivability of the system, a 100-meter-long segment of the floating barrier will be deployed in the North Sea. Sensors will track every motion and load in the barrier, which will provide engineers with the data to design a system that will be able to survive during the cleanup of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. This is a historic day on the path towards clean oceans, said Boyan Slat, CEO and founder of The Ocean Cleanup. A successful outcome of this test should put us on track to deploy the first operational pilot system in late 2017. We urgently need this initiative to actually clean up the plastic from the mid-ocean gyres, where the pollution is trapped for an indefinite time, to prevent permanent damage due to degradation and fragmentation into dangerous microplastics, said Sharon Dijksma, Dutch Minister for the Environment. Providing an update on the status of the on-going Greater Stella Area (GSA) development programme Ithaca Energy informed that the floating production facility (FPF-1) modifications programme undertaken by Petrofac in the Remontowa shipyard in Poland is in the final stages of completion, with only a limited number of commissioning activities requiring close out prior to sail-away. Commissioning operations on the FPF-1 have continued to progress well over recent weeks and are now materially complete. The operations team have been living on the vessel since May, the marine works have been finished and the engineering teams are in the process of closing out handover of the various processing and utilities systems to the operations team. The planned vessel inclination test remains to be performed, following which the FPF-1 will be moved to a location off the coast of Gdansk for the final marine system trials prior to being towed to the field. It is anticipated that the period from sail-away to first hydrocarbons will be approximately three months. Following towing of the FPF-1 to the field, the vessel will be moored on location using twelve pre-installed anchor chains. The dynamic risers and umbilicals that connect the subsea infrastructure to the vessel will then be installed. Thereafter, commissioning of the various processing and utility systems requiring hydrocarbons from the field will be completed. First production from the Stella field is anticipated in late September 2016. Greater Stella Area Oil Export Pipeline Access has been secured to the Norpipe oil pipeline system, allowing oil exports from the GSA to transfer from tanker export to pipeline export during 2017. This will significantly reduce the fixed operating costs of the GSA facilities and enhance operational uptime, resulting in improved reserves recovery and increasing the long term value of the GSA as a production hub. The key work associated with creating a connection to the system has been successfully executed as part of a fast-track operational programme undertaken during the planned 2016 pipeline maintenance shutdown. Acceleration of this work was made possible as a result of a conventional tie-in point on the system being vacated by a third-party field disconnecting from the pipeline. This provided a unique opportunity for a lower cost, lower risk connection to be made. Norpipe runs approximately 350 kilometres from the Ekofisk offshore production facilities on the Norwegian Continental Shelf to a dedicated oil processing facility at Teesside in the UK, with various UK fields exporting into the system via a spurline. In addition the Company has taken advantage of the downturn in industry activity to secure attractive contracting terms, including a lump sum contract for the installation of the 44 kilometre pipeline required from the FPF-1 to the Norpipe system. The net capital expenditure associated with the work programme is approximately $20 million, with the majority being paid in 2017. Taiwans shipping company Wan Hai Lines has placed an order for eight 1,900 teu box ships worth a total of $212 million - $236 million. Wan Hai said that the vessels will be built by shipbuilder Naikai Zosen Corp. Delivery dates for the newbuildings were not disclosed, according to a stock exchange filing. The shipping liner has already sealed a deal with Japans Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha (KLine) and Singapores Pacific International Lines (PIL) to jointly operate a transpacific service from Vietnam and South PRC to the U. S. Pacific South West with seven ships of about 8,000 TEUs. It has recently announced the launch of Japan India / Pakistan Service CHS3 service. This new service will be reorganized to expand Wan Hai Lines network by providing direct service from Japan to India & Pakistan. It will also help to complement Wan Hai Lines existing 5 other India/Pakistan services with better port coverage and frequency. Damen Shipyards Group has teamed up with the global leader in motion compensation access solutions, Ampelmann, to conduct tests with Ampelmanns L-Type system on board a Damen Fast Crew Supplier (FCS) 5009. Damen is developing its marine access solutions in order to guarantee increased safety, reduced costs and efficiency in the global crew transfer market. As part of this mission, Damen has recently increased its cooperation with a number of access suppliers. On this occasion, the process has resulted in a live demonstration of a combined Ampelmann and Damen solution at a North Sea gas production platform. Teaming up with Ampelmann for a number of tests was a natural route says Damen Business Development Manager David Stibbe. Were talking to a number of transfer specialists as we continue to develop our marine access portfolio. Ampelmann has extensive expertise in producing and operating motion compensation access systems and Damen has many years of shipbuilding experience. Working together in this way means that both parties are able to draw on the expertise of the other, leading to the favourable development of their respective solutions and successfully integrated crew change solutions. 30-50 metre crew vessels The L-type is the smallest of Ampelmanns systems, ideally suited for smaller crew vessels ranging from 30-50m without DP. The model combines safe and efficient transfer with a capability for reliable operation up to 1.5 metre Hs. Such a profile seemed to suggest a compatibility with the Damen FCS 5009. Together, Damen and Ampelmann carried out extensive research and testing to see if the two were indeed well-matched. We invested in a lot of research before sailing, and it transpired that the FCS 5009 and the L-type were the perfect fit. explains Mr Stibbe. Once on the water we carried out in-depth interaction tests to demonstrate just how well the system and the vessel worked in tandem. The results were impressive. So impressive, in fact, that the FCS 5009 - L-type combination gained the confidence of a Tier 1 offshore gas production company operating in the North Sea. Credible substitute for swing-roping and helicopter flights The operator was convinced by the extensive data we were able to present and allowed us to make a landing at a working North Sea platform, thus proving the effectiveness of this solution in a real-world scenario. This represents a very promising solution for an oil and gas industry looking to address efficiency and safety concerns in personnel transportation. Our tests demonstrated that the L-type could be added to an existing vessel from the Damen portfolio to provide safe, cost effective transport offshore a credible substitute for swing-roping and helicopter flights. Ampelmann has already transferred more than 2.5 million people safely worldwide for the top oil majors, mainly supporting maintenance, hook-up, commissioning and shutdown campaigns with Walk-to- Work and floatel services. Now these clients are looking for a solution in the crew change segment to improve safety and effectiveness relative to current helicopter, swing rope, surfer or baskets transfers. However, they are not only interested in the gangway, they are in search of a proven integrated solution of vessel with gangway and that is what we have produced together with Damen, says Ampelmann Business Development Manager Crew Change Gerbrand Marbus. As oil prices have fallen in recent times, driving processes of increased efficiency within the offshore industry, Damen has responded by developing its suite of marine access solutions. A key area is the movement of personnel on board a vessel as an alternative to helicopter transportation. A further example of this is the Damen Service Operations Vessel, the first newbuild contract for which has recently been signed with UK-based Bibby Marine Services. Valley Power Systems has entered into a distributor agreement with Yanmar America Corporation for the sale and service of Yanmars commercial marine diesel engine line throughout the states of California, Oregon, Washington and Alaska, as well as the Canadian province of British Columbia. It is Valleys mission to be a single-source marine power solutions provider, said Anthony Domenici, head of Valleys Off Highway division, and our partnership with Yanmar greatly enhances our ability to provide our customers with a comprehensive high-speed power range, as well as excellence in aftermarket parts and service support. In business for over 65 years, Valley Power Systems provides power and propulsion products for the commercial and pleasure craft marine industries from manufacturers such as MTU, Electro-Motive (EMD), Scania, Northern Lights, Technicold and now Yanmar Commercial Marine. Valley provides a network of marine service centers throughout California, Washington and Alaska, with a dedicated work force of more than 350 industry-trained professionals. 1807 - Frigate USS Chesapeake, commanded by James Barron, is stopped by British frigate HMS Leopard after killing several of her crew and take Royal Navy deserters. Barron is court-martialed for not having his ship prepared to fight. 1884 - USS Thetis, USS Alert, and USS Bear, under Cmdr. Winfield S. Schley, rescue Lt. Adolphus W. Greely and six of his exploring party from Cape Sabine, where they are marooned for three years. 1898 - During the Spanish-American War, the Spanish destroyer Terror joins Isabel II in an attempt to torpedo USS Saint Paul, which fires at Terror, damaging the ship. 1943 - USS Monaghan (DD 354) attacks the Japanese submarine (I 7) 10 miles south of Cape Hita. (I 7) runs aground, becoming irreparably damaged, 12 miles south-southeast of Kiska, Aleutian Islands. 1963 - The nuclear-powered submarines USS Tecumseh (SSBN 628), USS Daniel Boone (SSBN 629), USS Flasher (SSN 613), and USS John Calhoun (SSBN 630) are all launched in one day, emphasizing the Navys accelerated nuclear-submarine construction program. (Source: Naval History and Heritage Command, Communication and Outreach Division) Risk Intelligence launches new service providing overview of operational and regulatory risks of privately contracted maritime security in West Africa Maritime operations in West Africa are affected by threats from piracy and other maritime crime. It is very complex to get an overview of the different types of maritime security provisions that are legal in the countries throughout the region. Risk Intelligence now provides this insight with a new service, including reports with an overview of the use of private and government security in 18 countries in the region. Risk Intelligence CEO, Hans Tino Hansen, said, We have provided security analysis for West Africa for more than 10 years. It has always been a complex area with many different types of threats and many different types of security risk mitigation and legal frameworks. This service and the new report provides a clear and comprehensive overview that many maritime operators have been asking for. The new report provides a concise overview of operational and regulatory risks related to the use of additional security services in West Africa. The report covers the use of armed guards and escort vessels provided by private maritime security companies or government security forces as well as additional protection services such as secure anchorages or areas for STS operations. Color-coded tables for every country provide a quick overview of the current situation in 18 countries from Senegal to Angola. Moreover, brief assessments of the efficiency of specific security services against the main threats, which maritime operators have to face in the respective region, are included. Overall, the report is a valuable tool for conducting the necessary due diligence prior to contracting additional security services for operations in the region. In addition, clients will have access to Risk Intelligences West Africa specialists for questions related to the report, which will be updated every six months. Attempts to transfer the Indian Ocean PMSC model to West Africa have created problems for ship operators, who were made to believe that the solutions involving the use of government security forces on board their ships was legal or approved and provided the necessary level of security. In many countries in West Africa this is not the case, said Dirk Steffen, Director Maritime Security and head of West Africa Analysis at Risk Intelligence. The EU transport ministers convened at the first day of the TEN-T Days in the Van Nelle Factory in Rotterdam. They discussed the process of implementing the Trans-European Transport Network: new challenges and opportunities, new technologies and mobility patterns for passengers, as well as digitalization and automation of freight transport. EU Commissioner for Transport Violeta Bulc said, "Only days after we allocated 6.7 billion to priority projects as part of the Connecting Europe Facility, the TEN-T Days offer another opportunity to mobilise funding for transport investments. Implementing the Trans-European Transport is not only about building new infrastructure, it also serves our broader objectives such as the decarbonisation and digitalisation of transport." The ministers agreed upon the implementation of TEN-T and reaffirmed the importance of TEN-T as a key driver of sustainable growth, jobs, competitiveness and territorial cohesion in the European Union. They underlined the need for additional funding from public and private sources to cover investments in the context of TEN-T. The ministers also paid attention to the importance of developing inland navigation and promoting the use of inland waterways. The European Commission is firmly delivering on President Juncker's top priority of creating jobs and boosting growth in the European Union, by unveiling a list of 195 transport projects that will receive 6.7 billion of funding under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF). andidates Marty Haynes and Mark Siedlecki, running for county assessor of property, expressed their disagreements concerning the senior tax freeze at the downtown Kiwanis Club meeting on Tuesday. Mr. Siedlecki said in 2006, Eighty three percent of the state voted to approve the tax freeze. He said it is only available to people who make less than $38,070. We are the last major county not to have implemented it, said Mr. Siedlecki. My opponent said we dont need it. Im unfortunately here to say thats not correct. Senior tax freeze is not coming up in a big way, folks, Mr. Haynes responded. Lets be serious about the issue. Most of the seniors that qualify for this program, their county taxes have decreased. During the debate, each candidate was given four minutes to introduce himself and make opening remarks. After that, audience members could ask questions. Mr. Siedlecki said that his experience starting businesses, his first at 18 years old, as well as his experience in running technology companies, makes him uniquely qualified to serve as the county assessor. I have the understanding to know exactly what were getting for our money, he said. Mr. Haynes,a County Commission member who won the Republican primary in March, said in his opening remarks that people typically want to vote for somebody they know, somebody they like, and somebody they trust. He said he agreed that compared to assessors offices around the state, Hamilton Countys office needs some technology updates. He also said, "We need training for appraisers in the field." Well make sure that we have the best trained force in the state of Tennessee, he said. One audience member asked about the process to object to a property assessment, and Mr. Haynes agreed that it was rather laborious. He said there should be an app for the assessorss office and a way to start the process of objection to an assessment online. Mr. Siedlecki said he believed the entire process should be online. The assessors typically dont like it when people appeal, he said. I will tell you that I will be an advocate for all of Hamilton County. When asked why the candidates wanted this position in the first place, Mr. Siedlecki spoke of technology updates and empowering staff to look for solutions. Its time that Hamilton County citizens have options, he said. Mr. Haynes said he had an interest in the office because it touches every property owner in Hamilton County. He said that while the two previous assessors both came from private business and werent uniquely qualified, they were very successful. Most of us dont want government intrusion into our lives, he said. But when it comes to assessment, we want it to be accurate. In closing statements, he told Kiwanis members he would be honored to have their votes. Mr. Siedlecki restated his emphasis on how crucial it was to enact the tax freeze. I will keep advocating for this problem whether or not I win or lose in this race, he said. I dont think seniors should be forced out of their houses. Ballast water treatment (BWT) system Optimarin has picked up an order covering 15 vessels from VARD shipyards. The vessels, VARD 9 21 Design specialist module carriers, will be constructed for ship owner Topaz at two shipyards in Romania - Vard Braila and Vard Tulcea and one in Vietnam, Vard Vung Tau. VARD knows our systems well, having installed some 55 units on their newbuildings across the world since 2011, said Optimarin CEO, Tore Andersen. They choose us for our expertise and commitment to absolute compliance, as well as the fact that our technology is proven, reliable and simple to install and maintain. The fact that this contract is for a ship owner of the standing of Topaz makes it even sweeter. Optimarin will deliver its UV-based Optimarin Ballast Systems (OBS) to the yards between Q4 2016 and Q4 2017. The Topaz vessels, measuring 123m long and 16.5m wide, will boast the capacity to carry high deck loads of up to 1,800 tons. A spokesperson from VARD says of the decision to choose Optimarin, Optimarin has developed advanced, environmentally friendly technology that, thanks to its modular nature, is simple to install on specialist vessels where space is limited. They understand our requirements and we understand their system is leading the market, in performance, compliance and predictability. Thats what we want to give our customers and thats why we return to Optimarin for key orders of this nature. With this latest contract win, Optimarins list of confirmed orders for 2016 is now approaching 100 units. Alongside VARD, other contracts of note have included a 46 vessel fleet agreement with Carisbrooke, a 10 unit order for Atlantis Tankers, a further 10 for the Royal Netherlands Navy, nine systems for Sinopacific Shipbuilding Group, three for Saga Shipholding (adding to an additional 26 systems already installed on its fleet) and two for Solvang ASA, amongst others. Optimarin said its OBS is currently in its final stages of the USCG approval program and is fully IMO compliant. The technology is certified by classification organizations such as DNV GL, Lloyds, Bureau Veritas, MLIT Japan and American Bureau of Shipping. Countries must be free to pass through the South China Sea, the European Commission said on Wednesday, in its first diplomatic admonishment of Beijing after Chinese jets intercepted a U.S. military plane over the contested waters last month. The Commission avoided directly criticising Beijing, a major trade partner, but warned in a new policy document that it opposed "unilateral actions that could alter the status quo and increase tension", in a sign of concern at China's construction and militarisation of islands in the South China Sea. "The EU wants to see freedom of navigation and over flight upheld in the East and South China Seas," the EU executive said in its document, which is aimed at framing the bloc's China policy over the next five years. EU governments must still approve the document. While the European Union says it is neutral in the South China Sea dispute between China and other Asian nations, Washington has been urging Brussels to speak out against Beijing's claim to almost all the South China Sea. The United States says Beijing is taking a predatory approach to a vital trade waterway where Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, Taiwan and the Philippines have rival claims. An international court in The Hague is expected to rule soon on China's claims in a case brought by the Philippines, although Beijing says it does not respect the court's jurisdiction and the United Nations body does not have powers of enforcement. In a further sign of tensions, a senior Indonesian official said his country's president would travel to the Natuna Islands for the first time on Thursday to assert Jakarta's sovereignty after Beijing said it had an "overlapping claim" over nearby waters. In one of a series of recent encounters, two Chinese fighter jets intercepted a U.S. military reconnaissance aircraft over the South China Sea in May, demanding that Washington end surveillance near China. The interception came a week after China scrambled fighter jets as a U.S. Navy ship sailed close to a disputed reef in the South China Sea, through which more than $5 trillion in global trade passes every year. "The large volume of international maritime trade passing through that area means that freedom of navigation and over flight are of prime importance to the EU," the Commission said. "The EU should encourage China to contribute constructively to regional stability ... and support for the rules-based international order," it said. Despite the Commission's careful language, the EU is increasingly concerned by the tensions and French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian called this month for "regular and visible" European patrols in the South China Sea. (Reporting by Robin Emmott; Editing by Gareth Jones) Gibbs & Cox, Inc. (G&C) Chairman Ned Daffan announced today the appointment of Chris Deegan as President and Chief Executive, effective immediately. Deegan, previously Vice President of G&C's Engineering Group, will replace Rick Biben, who is retiring but will remain on the G&C Board of Directors. Deegan spent nearly 28 years in the Navy's acquisition and cost engineering communities, leading nuclear submarine, ship and combat systems programs prior to joining Gibbs & Cox in 2013. His last 10 years with the Navy were as a member of the Senior Executive Service supporting NAVSEA and Program Executive Office, Integrated Warfare Systems. Deegan earned a Bachelor's of Science in Industrial Engineering from Penn State University, a Master's of Science in Engineering from the Catholic University of America. He was selected as a Brookings Institute Fellow in 1997, serving on the staff of Congressman John Murtha. He was cited as NAVSEA Engineer of the Year in 1993, is a certified Program Management Professional, and a licensed Professional Engineer (Naval Architecture). Biben came to G&C in 2010, after senior executive positions at SAIC, CSC (now CSRA), Anteon (now General Dynamics) and Northrop Grumman. Speaking on a panel devoted to Robotics & Automation in Container Terminals at the TOC Europes 40th annual industry gathering devoted to port and terminal technology and operations, APM Terminals Head of Terminal Design and Automation, Alex Duca outlined the concept of container terminal design by module and the importance of integrated automation and information sharing across every aspect of terminal cargo handling to make operations safer and better. The biggest business opportunity is in retrofitting existing terminals with the automation of key processes to enhance our current operational performance, said Mr. Duca, adding This is where you can evaluate some of the specific modules within a container terminal to see which processes can be improved through automation. With larger vessels entering into service, as well as the organic growth of global trade, pressure on terminal operations to avoid congestion during peak cargo-handling periods of high activity has become an increasingly important aspect of future operations planning. What we want is a more integrated container terminal encompassing control systems and equipment functions, instead of todays fragmented activity container terminal; we need to make better use of equipment sensors and systems that combine with logistical information provided by terminal systems if we are to achieve automations true potential, said Mr. Duca. Container volume handled by the worlds ports is projected to reach approximately 720 million TEUs this year, roughly double the global container volume of just 13 years ago. Physical constraints on the number of cranes which can work any particular vessel, even one as large as 20,000 TEU capacity, and the need to transport containers out of the terminal without congestion or increased safety risks to the terminal workforce are driving the next phase of terminal design, development and operations in which data sharing at each aspect of cargo handling will enable new demands for container handling and productivity to be met. Terminals need to keep pace with volume growth and vessel growth, and the clear solution is integrated automation of terminal operations processes, stated Mr. Duca. The Royal Bank of Scotland has received bids for its Greek shipping finance business which is worth about $3 billion as it looks to scale down on non-core activities, banking and financial sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. Credit Suisse and China Merchants were among the suitors bidding, the sources said. RBS and Credit Suisse declined to comment, while China Merchants did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment. The British bank, which was bailed out during the financial crisis, had previously been a top lender to the global shipping industry and its Greek office played a pivotal role. The business also includes a banking licence as well as some 40 staff, the sources said. "RBS has held preliminary discussions with a number of interested parties," one source said. In July 2015, Reuters reported RBS was winding down its Greek operation and putting its shipping loans portfolio up for sale. The bank, which is 73-percent state-owned, is in the midst of a restructuring aimed at returning the bank to profit after eight straight years of losses. (Reporting by Jonathan Saul, Sophie Sassard and Andrew MacAskill; editing by David Stamp) Subscribe for Maritime Reporter E-News Maritime Reporter E-News is the maritime industry's largest circulation and most authoritative ENews Service, delivered to your Email five times per week The Indonesian president will travel to the Natuna Islands for the first time on Thursday to assert Indonesia's sovereignty, a senior official said, after China said earlier this week it had an "overlapping claim" over nearby waters. Beijing said on Monday that waters near the Natuna Islands were subject to overlapping claims on "maritime rights and interests" between China and Indonesia. Indonesia's foreign minister on Wednesday rejected China's stance, saying the waters were in Indonesian territory. "Our position is clear that claims can only be made on the basis of international law. For Indonesia, we don't have overlapping claims in any form in Indonesian waters with China," Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi told reporters. The chief security minister, foreign minister, and the heads of the individual military branches will accompany the president on his trip to Natuna, Cabinet Secretary Pramono Agung told reporters. Asked the reason for the trip, he told reporters, "Natuna is the territory of Indonesia, that is final. As head of the government and the state, the president wants to ensure that Natuna is part of Indonesia's sovereignty." The remote island chain has a small civilian population. Jakarta objects to Beijing's inclusion of waters around the islands within China's "nine-dash line", a demarcation line used by Beijing to show its claim to the South China Sea. Despite the objection, Indonesia is not part of a broader regional dispute over China's reclamation activities in the South China Sea and Beijing's claims on swathes of key waterways. China's Foreign Ministry said over the weekend that an Indonesian naval vessel fired on a Chinese fishing boat near the chain of islands on Friday, wounding one person. Indonesia's navy responded that it had fired warning shots at several boats with Chinese flags it accused of fishing illegally but that nobody had been wounded. It was the third reported confrontation near the Natuna Islands this year and comes amid rising regional tensions over China's assertiveness in the South China Sea. Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla told Reuters on Monday the Southeast Asian nation would be more assertive in protecting its exclusive right to the waters around the Natuna Islands. Despite this more assertive stance, Retno said relations between the two countries remained good. "This is a matter of law enforcement, not politics," she said. (By Kanupriya Kapoor and Agustinus Beo Da Costa; Addditional reporting by Jakarta bureau; Writing by Randy Fabi; Editing by Michael Perry and Raissa Kasolowsky) Marine Travelift Inc. announced that Newport Shipyard has purchased a customized 200CII mobile boat hoist for its Newport, R.I. facility. When its delivered this fall, the machine will join the 70-, 100- and 500-ton Marine Travelift hoists currently in operation. The new 200CII boasts the first top-beam extension on a Marine Travelift 200-ton hoist and has been designed to use piers that were dedicated to a 100-ton machine and to travel into an indoor workspace. According to Eli Dana, Newport Shipyards General Manager, the yard was facing two challenges that prompted the 200CII purchase. Weve had increased demand from commercial customers, whose vessels are too heavy for the 100-ton hoist and are more difficult to schedule for the 500-ton due to space restrictions, Dana explained. The new 200CII will allow us to handle more commercial customers in the same footprint as the 100-ton. Second, we needed a machine with a specific height so it could travel into our shed, he continued. That will make us more competitive for larger refit work. Otherwise, we have to hire trailers to move boats into the building. The Marine Travelift and Newport Shipyard teams worked together to customize the 200CII design to meet shipyard needs. The result: a unique mobile boat hoist that will fit the current pier sizeand be short enough to move in and out of the work shed, which allows the yard to work on vessels year-round. The help Marine Travelift provided was so valuable, Dana said. They engineered this machine to meet our very specific needs, and we had great communication throughout the process. Our relationship with them is a long-standing one. Their team bent over backward to create a machine that is very specific, yet also offers maximum versatility within our parameters. Newport Shipyard has purchased four Marine Travelift mobile boat hoists in 16 years, three of those purchases taking place in just the last six. The new 200CII is a key component of Newport Shipyards ongoing expansion program, which is allowing the yard to operate around the clock and hire more employees. And, its many features contribute to enhanced operational efficiencies as the yard continues to grow. As Dana noted, each feature is important for different reasons. In addition to the custom design that allows the new machine to fit on the existing piers and travel in and out of the indoor workspace, the top-beam extension accommodates the superstructures of larger vessels, allowing the yard to broaden its reach among potential customers. The raised engine compartment provides better access for forklifts as they place boat stands underneath a vessel. And the lifting blocks allow slings to directly attach, so operators dont need to use a 7-foot spreader. It helps to maximize lifting height, Dana said. Newport Shipyard staff members are awaiting the new 200CIIs delivery so they can start taking advantage of the benefits and added value it will provide to their operation, the manufacture said. Here, too, Dana said the Marine Travelift commitment to its partners truly shines. I was pleasantly surprised by a call from Jason Johnson, North America Director of Sales, letting us know that they will be moving delivery up from mid-December to October of this year, he said. That allows us to use it for our end-of-season hauling. Located downtown on Newport Harbor, Newport Shipyard is Newport's oldest working boat- and shipyard facility. With dockage for boats ranging in size from 20 to 350 feet, and host of one of the countrys most celebrated sailboat races, the Newport-Bermuda Race, Newport has been christened New Englands Yachting Hub. Its expansion is a significant development for the marine industry in Rhode Island and the Northeast, for which it serves as a major resource. Officer Derek Roncin of the Chattanooga Police Department on Tuesday recounted a July 25, 2013 incident with Steven Hacker which led to the defendant filing a lawsuit against the city seeking $600,000. Hacker appeared in Judge Don Pooles courtroom on Tuesday, facing charges before a jury of aggravated assault, evading arrest, driving under the influence, possession of drug paraphernalia, violation of traffic control device, and violation of registration law. Officer Roncin said he saw a vehicle in the parking lot of Sandys Liquor Store on Glass Street after the business was closed. He said someone was talking through the passenger window. We have a lot of drug traffic and violent crimes that happen at that store, he said, which caused him to approach and take a closer look. While running the vehicles tag, he observed it roll through a red light, so he began looking for a safe place to stop, he said. After this, he told the jury the vehicle turned into a driveway. As he turned his car around to pull over, he said the driver got out of the vehicle and began approaching quickly, waving his arms. The witness said he took the gesture as an invitation, as if the person was flagging me down. Officer Roncin said when he asked the defendant for his identification, he became upset, eventually saying f*** you and running off. When the defendant made it inside the garage of the residence, the officer said he returned to his car and called for backup. Officer Cornelius Gaines and Officer John Watkins arrived, and Officer Roncin said the defendant was screaming obscenities from the front door of the residence. He said they tried to approach to communicate with Hacker and get him to calm down when a female came out screaming, trying to figure out what was going on. The witness said that female was Hackers grandmother. He said the woman tried to talk to police, but Hacker began yelling at her and others in the residence, telling them not to tell police who he was and that they were not supposed to be there. (Hackers grandmother) was standing in the hallway trying to keep him from coming toward us, said Officer Roncin. At one point, the witness said Hacker pushed her to the side to come to us. Defense attorney Robin Flores asked the witness why he didnt just tell the defendant why they wanted him to come out and talk. If you normally tell somebody right off the bat that theyre being charged with certain charges, it will agitate them more, the officer responded. Officer Roncin agreed that the defendant told him to leave and get off his property. He also said he attempted to turn on his audio and video while he was running, but didnt manage to activate it. Then he said there was a short break where they couldnt see the suspect before Officer Gaines yelled knife and drew his pistol. Officer Roncin said he was way closer than I wanna be to anybody with a knife that has ill intent toward me and feared for his safety. He said Hacker slammed the wooden door and began screaming, Go ahead! Shoot me! Shoot me! He said he and the other officers walked off the porch to the middle of the driveway, but Hacker didnt calm down. Officer Roncin told the jury he had seen individuals impaired by drugs many times and thought there was some source causing the defendant to behave in such a way. There was no communication between the two of us, he said. I would ask him a simple question and it would be a screaming yelling response. After the suspect came outside the house two or three times, Officer Watkins used his Taser to detain him, the witness said. It was then, he said, that the defendant fell into a window. The witness told the jury Officer Watkins tried to grab the defendant, but didnt make it in time. Officer Roncin said using a Taser was the safest method in their situation, but it was not their intention for the defendant to fall through a window. He said after Hacker was injured, the primary focus became the welfare of the suspect. Attorney Flores said the defendant had a large shard of glass in his back and was bleeding profusely. He said Hacker had to be rushed to the hospital and had to have surgery. Officer Roncin said he went inside to speak with the defendants grandmother and to calm her down, since she had initially thought Mr. Hacker had been shot. He also said Hacker confessed only to drinking that night. He told the jury that after the incident, a scale with white residue on it was pulled from the vehicle. He said the residue was consistent with his knowledge of powder or crack cocaine. He told attorney Flores he had no knowledge of any money or drugs being found in the car, or of any other search of the vehicle. Prosecutor Charles Minor, however, suggested that when the defendant ran inside, he could have put such things wherever he wanted to. When asked about where the knife was now, Officer Roncin told the jury he never had any records of it being collected, nor did he have the property. We had to get down to the emergency room with (Hacker), Officer Roncin said when asked by Prosecutor Minor if hed collected the knife. He agreed with attorney Flores, however, that the defendant would have dropped the knife when he was Tased. Prosecutor Minor asked directly if there was something in the defendants hand when he came out of the house before he was Tased, and the witness agreed, though he said he didnt see if it was a knife or not. He told the jury he knew the suspect had had a cellphone. The state also spoke to the specimen processor from Erlanger Hospital, Ms. Henry, who drew the defendants blood sample. She said she personally checked the names and labels and walked the blood to the lab. She also said no one would have access to the lab but the people who worked in there, not even doctors or nurses. You have to have a code to get in to the lab, she said. You can't just walk in there. She said the lab is locked down 24/7 and keeps track of everyone who enters the code. The witness said back in 2013 she would typically draw blood from 40 patients a night using the same procedure. She insisted on the importance of making sure blood is documented correctly, since even a small mistake could result in the death of a patient. When Prosecutor Minor asked how Ms. Henry knew blood wasnt being tampered with or misplaced, the witness said there is no one else in the lab but the people working there. Why would we tamper with it? she asked, confused. I treat patients like its me or my family. I dont wanna get nothing mixed up. When speaking to attorney Flores, she agreed that there are about eight people in the lab at once dealing with dozens or scores of blood vials. She could not testify about who put the defendants blood on the machine. Attorney Flores mentioned a situation at Erlanger where a fellow came in and identified himself, masqueraded as a doctor, and got access to drugs. The witness agreed that doctors have been let into the lab before. Though she had no proof of what sample was given to Officer Roncin when he came in with a warrant, Ms. Henry said in 37 years she had never seen an instance of blood getting mislabeled inside the lab. While the oil and gas markets are starting to come to life, nearing the $50 per barrel mark, the future fate of floating production remains a mystery The 20 year four-fold growth pattern in the worlds FPSO fleet stalls out in 2016 with a record number of FPSOs idle and available for redeployment or perhaps to be forced into other uses, lay up or scrap. FPSO redeployments typically are far more complex, costly and risky than for (say) drillships and yet the need for redeploying idle FPSOs is now in the forefront of the industry like never before as FPSO owners also have to face the worst ever down market for their equipment and services. Redeployments - The Early Days In 1995 the Uisge Gorm FPSO, designed and built and operated by Bluewater in the Netherlands, entered service at the Fife field in the North Sea under a contract with Amerada Hess who were the operator of that development. Back then Dr. Rex Gaisford was development director for Amerada Hess in London and an enthusiast of FPSOs in their early days. He eloquently spoke of a world where FPSOs would move from producing one field to later producing at another field. Worldwide the FPSO fleet totaled about 50 FPSOs in 1995. Subsequent reality did not turn out quite as Dr. Gaisford forecast but the idea of FPSOs being easy to redeploy had taken root. After finishing at one field, the move of an FPSO to the next field often meant working at a seriously different water depth in different sea conditions with production and processing capabilities being required for a different grade of crude oil that usually had quite different ratios of gas and water present and all at different temperatures and pressures from the first field. So the FPSO usually had to be revamped big time. Time and again it turned out that with realistic project engineering that the changes needed for an FPSO at a subsequent field became many and cost plenty. It was nothing like moving a drill ship from one well location for one operator to another location for another operator in another part of the world. Redeployment can be hazardous to your financial health Changes needed for redeployment have frequently turned out to be troublesome: difficult to manage within budget and often ran over on time. After Uisge Gorm, Bluewater built the Glas Dowr FPSO for another development in the North Sea, where it worked for not much more than a year before the two fields it produced from played out unexpectedly early. Still on contract, it stayed at a dock, warm stacked, for some years until finding a subsequent contract offshore South Africa in 2002. It was good equipment but from my own experience as a business developer back then, finding another contract for Glas Dowr was challenging to say the least. Street talk signaled that conversion costs for the new assignment ran over by about a 100 percent over planned budget (figures of $50 million reimbursed by oil company and $195 million total expended give an idea of the magnitude of work). A few years later a novel kind of FPSO entered the market ROUND instead of the traditional ship shape. Sevan, the designer and builder, had overcome many challenges in succeeding with this new design in a traditionally very conservative industry. One of their new generation of FPSOs (Voyageur) had to move from one field in 98 meters of water in the North Sea to another location in 90 meters of water in the North Sea which took a number of topsides changes (adding gas compression, gas lift and more water injection). Once again the overrun was approximately 100 percent (from about $90 to $170 million) but this time the FPSO contractor was still in its early days and financially strained. The end result was a change in the control of the FPSO contractors FPSO fleet as Teekay took a position in the company in 2011. Redeployments could thus become seriously hazardous to the financial health of FPSO owners. Redeployment of FPSOs had frequently become far more complex in recent years than had been expected in the early days. Rigorous management discipline in tackling these redeployments became crucial even more so than in starting from scratch with an FPSO conversion or newbuild. Industry Learns and the FPSO Fleet Grows These trends became recognized among the more experienced of the FPSO community as FPSOs were redeployed. It was nothing near as simple as it may have appeared on the surface. The redeployment business was well set forth in a presentation by SBM at an FPSO conference in Houston in 2012 which showed a number of examples of FPSOs being redeployed for a second or third time with one example (SBMs FPSO II) being redeployed four times over the 20 year period of 1981-2001. 2012 was a relatively stable time in the FPSO market and SBM indicated a total of about 20 FPSOs being redeployed worldwide in the next five years. Twenty years after the Uisge Gorm FPSO started producing in the North Sea, the worlds fleet of FPSOs had grown more than fourfold to something like 218, counting FPSOs that are operational plus these still under construction and these that are idle. In the last 10 years that growth has been more than twice as fast as for other types of Floating Production Systems such as semisubmersibles, Spars and TLPs, as the table below left shows. The FPSO fleet growth fluctuated from year to year as so often seen in the petroleum industry. The graph shows operator contract awards for the services of FPSOs every year since 2002, including contracts for the small number of redeployments each year in addition to the many conversions and newbuilds for new FPSO projects. (See chart) Reconciling data in the table with the graph of FPSO contract awards, over the 10 year period of 2005-2015 an average of 2.1 percent of the fleet was retired each year for scrap or other uses. Market signals indicate retirals may become significantly higher in 2016. The FPSO downturn in 2009 got peoples attention in the FPSO contractor community in Houston. I saw it firsthand that year when I flew from Houston to Singapore to chair and speak at the 2009 FPSO Congress. Leaving Houston the mood had been gloomy, while in Singapore the feeling was positive and buoyant. Singapore shipyards, engineering companies and vendors were all happily working through their healthy big backlogs of FPSO business. Fortunately for them 2010 was a great year for FPSO orders, and so the 2009 dip in FPSO contracts made little difference to them as their business levels saw little interruption. Today, seven years later, the FPSO communities in Houston and Singapore are both subdued. If you look again at the graph of FPSO contracts, youll detect two downward trends, each fairly steady: in 2005-2009 and again during 2010-2015. Its almost as if this signals a maturing and saturation in the market. But who knows? As the last few years progressed the prospect of FPSOs becoming idle and available for redeployment evolved to no longer be a somewhat unusual now and again phenomenon but more of an anticipated process as FPSOs somewhere or another would reach the end of their service at their locations as the fields they served ended economic production. They would be released and be ready to move on, whether owned by an FPSO contractor or owned by an operator (ownership is split about half and half between contractor and operator for the worlds FPSO fleet). It was often unclear at any particular point in time just when and how many FPSOs would become available for redeployment field production economics and operators plans were often not widely discussed. But in a reasonably stable market if ever that exists in the oilpatch FPSOs would become available, some would be redeployed, some retired, and a somewhat steady turnover could be expected. In a few lucky cases an FPSO employed by one operator might be used in a nearby field development operated by that same oil company. But most of the time an idled FPSO faced a lengthy period of being unemployment pending a new job - or retiral. New FPSO employment was traditionally slow and difficult to find - the same predicament that so many engineers and managers have experienced as they were laid off in the 2015-2016 downturn. The graph on Idled FPSOs Available for Redeployment gives the history. Interestingly the last FPSO downturn in 2009 also saw an uptick of FPSOs idled, just like that shown for 2015. Relative to the world fleet of FPSOs, the number of idled FPSOs has fluctuated year to year from a low of 0.8 percent to about 6.8 percent in 2009 and in 2015. Many expect that percentage to be seriously higher by year end 2016. Todays Dire FPSO Market The pace of FPSO contracts had already slowed in 2015 to 3 after a total of 63 in the previous five years. The slide in crude oil prices that started in 3Q2014 was followed with a downturn in FPSO orders equally steep and in step with oil prices. When 2016 arrived the situation was dire for operators who now were engaged in widespread cancellations and deferrals of projects, plus the selling of assets. New FPSO projects (conversions and newbuilds) had come virtually to a stop. Near term, operators talk of very few developments that will go ahead at current oil price levels. Added to that the economics of operations at tail end fields become quickly worse and operators think more quickly now about releasing FPSOs. Needless to say, prospects for new FPSOs contracts are at a record low. As FPSO demand collapsed in 2015-2016, the scramble for redeployments grows This year in May alone, announcements were made of the release of two FPSOs owned and operated by Bluewater: the Glas Dowr (leaving northwest Australia) and the Aoka Mizu (leaving UK Sector in North Sea), both proven high quality turret moored North Sea FPSOs. Regardless of the terms and settlements for the cancellation of these contracts, it means two more FPSOs on the market for redeployment. It sounds similar to the widespread cancellation of drillships in the offshore drilling business! No one knows for sure how many more idled FPSOs will hit the market and face a similar limited redeployments possibilities. According to one knowledgeable observer (Fearnley Offshore) there may be a total of 22 FPSOs idled by year end 2016, offset perhaps by scrapping (four?) and possible redeployment (one or two?). In other words, something like 10 percent of the FPSO fleet may become idle by the end of 2016, representing an overhang in the market to challenge prospects for new FPSO orders. Not so long ago in 2012 the prospects for redeployment might have been fair and often uncertain on timing, but not so today in 2016. FPSO contractors are sometimes reluctant to say exactly how many FPSOs they expect to have idle and available. It is not quite the open book seen in the offshore drilling industry where idled MODUs are identified and quickly become public knowledge. The shutting down of new FPSO requirements plus so many existing FPSOs coming available has never happened on this scale before - truly uncharted waters. Talk of redeployments sounds to some as whistling in the dark in the current market, trying to avoid the possible necessities of layups and scrapping idle equipment of the kind that the drillers have already started to address. On the E part of E&P business, it is easier for an operator to find productive employment for a drill ship than do so for an FPSO when on the P part of E&P, the prospect of finding an FPSO virtually ready right away to work at a new development would be wonderful but reality rarely seems to work that way. The need to get a production facility that does just what is needed leads back to contracting for a new FPSO, whether conversion or newbuild, rather than a redeployment. Closing Thoughts All of this is not good news to the FPSO contractor community which hopes they do not have to manage their way through the kind of long term downturn that the drillers faced in 1986. And yet they see the potentially long delays before oil companies can see higher oil prices combined with some sense of stability to justify taking the risk in committing on multi billion dollar field investments that may employ FPSOs, whenever that might be, such is survival. Just a few years ago the redeployment situation was a relatively minor issue but in the current downturn it may prompt consideration of write downs on residual values on company balance sheets for both idled and employed FPSOs as a prudent measure in this market. As the offshore drillers have learned after more such brutal downturns, tough decisions are on the table about scrapping and lay up of FPSOs in the face of little or no redeployment prospects this year. About the Author Peter Lovies 49 years in engineering and management in the offshore industry have all been in Houston, the first 22 years on offshore drilling related business. Over the last 21 years Peter has become known as something of an industry authority on FPSOs, from his unusual combination of working on both the FPSO contractor and operator sides of the aisle as well as the necessary shuttle tanker side of it (Bluewater as BD Mgr, American Shuttle Tankers as VP, and Devon Energy as Senior Advisor Floating Systems). He is known for his contributions leading to the first FPSO and shuttle tankers to enter service in GoM. Peter has been a frequent speaker and moderator at FPSO conferences worldwide and currently serves on the Advisory Board for Pennwells Topsides Platforms & Hulls conference. He started in the oilfield with Cameron and The Offshore Company (now Transocean), then founded an engineering company (ETA) with its introduction of a new generation of jackup drilling rigs in the 1970s, that were built in France, Singapore and Japan. That was followed by marketing and contracting MODU construction, then a 6 year stint in pioneering subsea processing. Peter Lovie is author of 5 US patents and numerous technical papers. In the last two decades he held leadership roles in industry groups (DeepStar, SPE, Rice Global E&C Forum). Credentials include: Professional Engineer in Texas (PE), Project Management Professional (PMP) in 2009-2015 and Fellow of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects (FRINA). He earned his Master of Applied Mechanics degree at the University of Virginia where he was a Fulbright Scholar, and his B.Sc. in Civil Engineering from University of Glasgow in Scotland. Currently Peter Lovie is an independent consultant. For more, including recent publications, please visit www.lovie.org Acknowledgement The author is indebted to Jens Heim of Fearnley Offshore who provided the FPSO fleet data that is used in the table and two graphs here to illustrate FPSO business trends. Gold Falls Despite Panic Due To Supply Issues In Inter Bank Gold Market Gold fell again today to its lowest in a week despite continuing uncertainty about the outcome of the Brexit referendum. This is contributing to very significant high net worth and institutional demand in recent days, particularly in the UK, which is leading to panic and supply issues in the interbank gold market. Supply issues which respected gold analysts and ourselves have warned in recent years were taking place, would deepen and would ultimately lead to a reset of gold prices to much higher levels. Click chart to see Increasing speculation that Britain may vote to stay in the European Union and hedge fund liquidations are being blamed for the recent price falls. However, bullion dealers such as GoldCore, mints and refineries that cater to the UK market have seen minimal selling this week and in fact there has been a surge in demand again this week. We believe the price falls are due to hedge funds and banks liquidating positions and shorting the market. As ever, there is the risk that algo and high frequency trading (HFT) may be manipulating prices lower despite very robust physical demand and increasing liquidity issues in the interbank gold market. Informed, senior sources at the highest level of the gold bullion industry have told us that there is panic in the inter bank or institutional gold market. According to the sources one of whom is from a leading Swiss gold refinery, we are in a unique trading climate that they have never seen before. This is not just due to Brexit but to a number of factors and so is likely to continue even after the Brexit referendum. The market is subject to absolutely unprecedented conditions and a degree of illiquidity and supply issues not seen even in the immediate aftermath of September 11th, Lehman Brothers and the height of the Eurozone crisis. Refineries and mints are being advised that bullion banks may take the unprecedented step of suspending the trading of physical gold. Premiums have risen on larger orders creating the situation where spreads are higher on larger orders. An example of this is that a 1,000 ounce order worth $12.66 million at current prices is trading at a premium of $0.33 per ounce over a smaller order of 500 ounces. There is also warnings that stop loss orders above 5,000 ounces may not be filled at agreed prices and could be filled at much lower prices. A number of large liquidity providers in the gold market, such as Intl FC Stone, have increased margins. Thus counter intuitively, larger high net worth and institutional orders are costing more than somewhat smaller relative orders. This has the effect of discouraging larger buy orders for physical whether by accident or by design. Officialdom does not want surging gold prices in advance of the referendum due to the risks that this poses to the financial and monetary system and therefore prices may be being capped prior to the vote tomorrow. This bodes well for prices in the aftermath of the vote whether the UK votes to remain or leave in the EU. Bullion banks have been panicking and advising that soon, they may no longer be able to quote prices on large gold bar orders. This response is previously unheard of and indicates the increasing illiquidity in the large gold bar market due to a recent surge in HNW, UHNW and institutional (wealth managers, hedge funds, banks etc) demand across the world coupled with already robust central bank demand. The increasingly illiquid physical gold market where supply cannot keep up with demand underlines the importance of owning physical bullion coins and bars either in your possession or having direct legal title to your individual coins and bars. Bullion should be owned in your name or your companys name and be stored directly in the safest vaults in the safest jurisdictions in the world outside the financial, banking system. Gold Prices (LBMA AM) 22 June: USD 1,265.00, EUR 1,122.31 and GBP 862.98 per ounce 21 June: USD 1,280.80, EUR 1,129.67 and GBP 866.72 per ounce 20 June: USD 1,283.25, EUR 1,132.08 and GBP 877.49 per ounce 17 June: USD 1,284.50, EUR 1,142.05 and GBP 899.41 per ounce 16 June: USD 1,307.00, EUR 1,161.14 and GBP 922.01 per ounce 15 June: USD 1,282.00, EUR 1,141.49 and GBP 903.04 per ounce Silver Prices (LBMA) 22 June: USD 17.20, EUR 15.23 and GBP 11.72 per ounce 21 June: USD 17.36, EUR 15.34 and GBP 11.78 per ounce 20 June: USD 17.34, EUR 15.30 and GBP 11.85 per ounce 17 June: USD 17.37, EUR 15.43 and GBP 12.19 per ounce 16 June: USD 17.71, EUR 15.79 and GBP 12.54 per ounce 15 June: USD 17.41, EUR 15.51 and GBP 12.26 per ounce 14 June: USD 17.25, EUR 15.37 and GBP 12.17 per ounce This update can be found on the GoldCore blog here. Mark O'Byrne IRL 63 FITZWILLIAM SQUARE DUBLIN 2 E info@goldcore.com UK NO. 1 CORNHILL LONDON 2 EC3V 3ND IRL +353 (0)1 632 5010 UK +44 (0)203 086 9200 US +1 (302)635 1160 W http://www.goldcore.com/uk/ WINNERS MoneyMate and Investor Magazine Financial Analysts 2006 Disclaimer: The information in this document has been obtained from sources, which we believe to be reliable. We cannot guarantee its accuracy or completeness. It does not constitute a solicitation for the purchase or sale of any investment. Any person acting on the information contained in this document does so at their own risk. Recommendations in this document may not be suitable for all investors. Individual circumstances should be considered before a decision to invest is taken. Investors should note the following: Past experience is not necessarily a guide to future performance. The value of investments may fall or rise against investors' interests. Income levels from investments may fluctuate. 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Here is the latest jail booking report from Hamilton County: ARRINGTON, CHRISTINA ELIZEBETH 936 MOUNTAIN CREEK ROAD APT N135 CHATTANOOGA, 37405 Age at Arrest: 31 years old Arresting Agency: Hamilton County POSSESSION OF DRUG PARAPHERNALIA --- BANKS, DANIELLE MONIQUE 304 WOODLAWN DRIVE ROSSVILLE, 30741 Age at Arrest: 27 years old Arresting Agency: Chattanooga THEFT OF PROPERTY --- BIRD, THOMAS ANTHONY 27 SWANNER ROAD SIGNAL MTN, 37377 Age at Arrest: 31 years old Arresting Agency: Hamilton County POSSESSION OF CONTROLLED SUBSTANCE POSSESSION OF DRUG PARAPHERNALIA --- BORING, KATENA NICOLE 5608 NORTH ELM STREET CHATTANOOGA, 37415 Age at Arrest: 44 years old Arresting Agency: Hamilton County POSSESSION OF CONTROLLED SUBSTANCE DRIVING ON ROADWAYS LANED FOR TRAFFIC, VIOLATION --- BRITTAIN, SAMMUEL DAVID 10201 BIRCHWOOD PIKE HARRISON, 37341 Age at Arrest: 50 years old Arresting Agency: Hamilton County Booked for Previous Charges or Other Reason(s) --- BROWN, LASHONDA NICOLE 1439 IVY STREET CHATTANOOGA, 37404 Age at Arrest: 37 years old Arresting Agency: Chattanooga VANDALISM/MALICIOUS MISCHIEF ASSAULT --- COFER, RICHARD S 232 OLD COALFIELD RD HARRIMAN, 37748 Age at Arrest: 53 years old Arresting Agency: Hamilton County THEFT OF PROPERTY (OVER $1000) --- DANIELS, MICHAEL LEBRON 727 E. 11TH CHATTANOOGA, 37401Age at Arrest: 26 years oldArresting Agency: Hamilton CountyBooked for Previous Charges or Other Reason(s)---DELGADO, FRANCISCO ORTIZ5557 DUBSY LN CHATTANOOGA, 37343Age at Arrest: 35 years oldArresting Agency: Hamilton CountyVIO. DRIVERS LICENSE LAWFINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITY---DODSON, JOSHUA LEE4301 DAYTON BLVD APT 4 CHATTANOOGA, 37415Age at Arrest: 42 years oldArresting Agency: Red BankDISORDERLY CONDUCT---DYER, BRANDON LYNN2854 WEST FRANCIS SPRINGS ROAD WHITWELL, 37397Age at Arrest: 34 years oldArresting Agency: Hamilton CountyCONTEMPT OF COURT---FREEMAN, SHAINNA LYNN3721 6TH AVENUE CHATTANOOGA, 37407Age at Arrest: 32 years oldArresting Agency: ChattanoogaTHEFT OF PROPERTYTHEFT OF PROPERTYDRIVING ON REVOKED, SUSPENDED OR CANCELLED LICENSEPOSSESSION OF DRUG PARAPHERNALIAPOSSESSION OF CONTROLLED SUBSTANCEVANDALISM/MALICIOUS MISCHIEF---FREEMAN, TERESA A4616 SUNFLOWER #110 APT 403 CHATTANOOGA, 37416Age at Arrest: 53 years oldArresting Agency: ChattanoogaDOMESTIC ASSAULTVANDALISM/MALICIOUS MISCHIEFRECKLESS ENDANGERMENT---HERNANDEZ, MARCUS5837 CRESTVIEW DRIVEM HIXSON, 37343Age at Arrest: 27 years oldArresting Agency: Hamilton CountyVIO. DRIVERS LICENSE LAW---HOUSE, JEFFERY ANDREW4210 DODDS AVE CHATTANOOGA, 37407Age at Arrest: 28 years oldArresting Agency: ChattanoogaFELONY POSS OF MARIJUANA---HUGHES, MEGAN DIANAHOMELESS CHATTANOOGA, 37421Age at Arrest: 34 years oldArresting Agency: Hamilton CountyBooked for Previous Charges or Other Reason(s)---HULSEY, CHARITY FAITH568 LAKEVIEW DRIVE ROSSVILLE, 30741Age at Arrest: 25 years oldArresting Agency: East RidgeFAILURE TO APPEAR---JENNINGS, LARRY DALE1724 SHERIDAN STREET CHATTANOOGA, 37406Age at Arrest: 30 years oldArresting Agency: Hamilton CountyDOMESTIC ASSAULT---KRAUSE, LAURA LEE991 HENDERSON AVENUE CHATTANOOGA, 37404Age at Arrest: 31 years oldArresting Agency: ChattanoogaTHEFT OF PROPERTY---LANGSTON, MADISON ASHLEE2400 BRIGGS AVE RED BANK, 37415Age at Arrest: 20 years oldArresting Agency: Hamilton CountyCHILD NEGLECTDRUGS GENERAL CATEGORY FOR RESALE---LEE, MARK MELCHISEDEC7739 NAUTICAL WAY CHATTANOOGA, 37416Age at Arrest: 21 years oldArresting Agency: ChattanoogaDOMESTIC ASSAULT---LESLEY, FRANK MILFORD727 EAST 11TH ST CHATTANOOGA, 37403Age at Arrest: 49 years oldArresting Agency: ChattanoogaPUBLIC INTOXICATION---LONG, HAILEY MARIE429 MONTCLAIR DRIVE ROSSVILLE, 30741Age at Arrest: 18 years oldArresting Agency: Hamilton CountyPOSSESSION OF CONTROLLED SUBSTANCECHILD NEGLECT---MADEWELL, PATRICIA ANN3410 1ST AVE CHATTANOOGA, 37407Age at Arrest: 52 years oldArresting Agency: ChattanoogaCRIMINAL IMPERSONATION---MANIS, JOHN SPENCER6125 OOLTEWAH GEORGETOWN ROAD OOLTEWAH, 37363Age at Arrest: 33 years oldArresting Agency: Hamilton CountyBURGLARY OF AN AUTOTHEFT OF PROPERTY OVER 500---MCCLURKIN, JAMES ALLEN510 ELY RD HIXSON, 37363Age at Arrest: 51 years oldArresting Agency: Hamilton CountyBooked for Previous Charges or Other Reason(s)---MCKENZIE, KIMBER LEE307 HOLDER LANE CHATTANOOGA, 37419Age at Arrest: 22 years oldArresting Agency: Hamilton CountyPOSSESSION OF DRUG PARAPHERNALIA---MILLER, ASHLEY NICOLE5854 TANNAHILL DRIVE APT 5D KNOXVILLE, 37909Age at Arrest: 31 years oldArresting Agency: ChattanoogaTHEFT OF PROPERTY (UNDER $500)---MILLER, DEREK ALLEN5854 TANNAHILL DRIVE APT 5D KNOXVILLE, 37909Age at Arrest: 23 years oldArresting Agency: ChattanoogaTHEFT OF PROPERTY (UNDER $500)---MINCY, ROBERT JAMES230 SWEETLAND DRIVE CHATTANOOGA, 37415Age at Arrest: 29 years oldArresting Agency: Red BankBooked for Previous Charges or Other Reason(s)---MORGAN, SHERRIE LYNN1095 VAUGHAN STREET CLARKSTON, 30021Age at Arrest: 50 years oldArresting Agency: Hamilton CountyPUBLIC INTOXICATIONRESISTING ARREST OR OBSTRUCTION OF LEGAL PROCESS---MORRIS, JESSE BLAKE1252 GRAND CENTER ROAD CHICKAMAUGA, 30707Age at Arrest: 21 years oldArresting Agency: Hamilton CountyPOSSESSION OF CONTROLLED SUBSTANCEPOSS. OF HANDGUN WHILE UNDER THE INFLUENCE---MOSIER, RONNIE DEAN1542 BURNS AVENUE EAST RIDGE, 37412Age at Arrest: 34 years oldArresting Agency: Hamilton CountyBooked for Previous Charges or Other Reason(s)---MVUYEKURE, ALEX3929 MANOR RD APT #101 CHATTANOOGA, 37411Age at Arrest: 25 years oldArresting Agency: ChattanoogaHARASSMENTHARASSMENT---NICHOLS, ANTONIO CHAPALE405 ROBERTS STREET CHATTANOOGA, 37404Age at Arrest: 38 years oldArresting Agency: ChattanoogaVIOLATION OF PROBATION (DOMESTIC ASSAULT)---OBANNON, DREW ALEXANDER173 CENTRAL BLVD MTN WASHINGTON, 40047Age at Arrest: 24 years oldArresting Agency: Hamilton CountyDRIVING ON REVOKED, SUSPENDED OR CANCELLED LICENSEFINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITY---OGLETREE, DAYTON KALVIN4956 BRANNUM LANE HIXSON, 37343Age at Arrest: 26 years oldArresting Agency: CollegedaleBooked for Previous Charges or Other Reason(s)---PAGE, BRIAN LEE4118 WILKESVIEW DRIVE CHATTANOOGA, 37416Age at Arrest: 55 years oldArresting Agency: Hamilton CountyBooked for Previous Charges or Other Reason(s)---PARSONS, FRANKIE CLARENCE10278 LOMA CITA LANE OOLTEWAH, 37363Age at Arrest: 22 years oldArresting Agency: Hamilton CountyDUI - 1ST OFFENSERECKLESS DRIVINGRECKLESS ENDANGERMENT---PRICE, MENDON JOHN1201 BOYNTON DRIVE APT 315 CHATTANOOGA, 37402Age at Arrest: 50 years oldArresting Agency: Hamilton CountyBooked for Previous Charges or Other Reason(s)---QUARLES, TERRI KASHA626 BROWNS FERRY ROAD CHATTANOOGA, 37419Age at Arrest: 21 years oldArresting Agency: Tenn Highway PatrolDRIVING UNDER THE INFLUENCEIMPLIED CONSENT LAW - DRIVERS---RAINES, KATHERINE DAWN313 BROWNTOWN ROAD CHATTANOOGA, 37415Age at Arrest: 36 years oldArresting Agency: Hamilton CountyTHEFT OF PROPERTY (OVER $1000)---SHROPSHIRE, TIRRELL DONAE1439 IVY ST CHATTANOOGA, 37404Age at Arrest: 35 years oldArresting Agency: ChattanoogaAGGRAVATED ASSAULTPOSSESSING A FIREARM WITH INTENT TO GO ARMED---SLYMAN, JERMICHAEL TAMEL7600 MEADOW CREEK WAY APT 202 CHATTANOOGA, 37421Age at Arrest: 25 years oldArresting Agency: ChattanoogaREGISTRATION, EXPIREDDRIVING ON REVOKED, SUSPENDED OR CANCELLED LICENSEFINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITY---SMITH, JASMINE ALTERRIA8164 HOLLY CREST DRIVE CHATTANOOGA, 37421Age at Arrest: 25 years oldArresting Agency: ChattanoogaAGGRAVATED ASSAULT (DOMESTIC)---SRYOCK, JOHNNY ANDREW308 S. ORCHARD KNOB CHATTANOOGA, 37412Age at Arrest: 40 years oldArresting Agency: East RidgeTHEFT OF PROPERTY---STONE, BRIAN ALEX727 E 11TH ST CHATTANOOGA, 37402Age at Arrest: 45 years oldArresting Agency: ChattanoogaPUBLIC INTOXICATIONDISORDERLY CONDUCT---TACKETT, TIMOTHY FRANKLIN568 LAKEVIEW DRIVE ROSSVILLE, 30741Age at Arrest: 33 years oldArresting Agency: Hamilton CountyFUGITIVE (ARREST FOR CRIME IN ANOTHER STATE)---TAYLOR, HOWARD MICHAEL6499 HIGHWAY 27 CHATTANOOGA, 37405Age at Arrest: 38 years oldArresting Agency: Signal MountainVIOLATION OF PROBABTION---TAYLOR, TYLER JOE3806 COTTONWOOD ROAD CHATTANOOGA, 37421Age at Arrest: 22 years oldArresting Agency: Hamilton CountyCHILD NEGLECTDRUGS GENERAL CATEGORY FOR RESALE---TELLIS, TIM TAWAIN1813 CARSON AVENUE CHATTANOOGA, 37410Age at Arrest: 53 years oldArresting Agency: ChattanoogaINDECENT EXPOSUREPUBLIC INTOXICATION---TOLAND, DERRICK LEE2023 LYDON AVE CHATTANOOGA, 37415Age at Arrest: 22 years oldArresting Agency: Red BankTHEFT OF PROPERTY (OVER $1,000)---WEST, ZETTA FRANCES3216 5TH VE CHATTANOOGA, 37407Age at Arrest: 36 years oldArresting Agency: Hamilton CountyBooked for Previous Charges or Other Reason(s)---WHITING, KRISTIN JOY201 LAMP LIGHTER DRIVE BOWLING GREEN, 47104Age at Arrest: 21 years oldArresting Agency: Hamilton CountyFAILURE TO APPEAR---WILLIAMS, NORMAN EUGENE4415 DRUMMOND DRIVE CHATTANOOGA, 37411Age at Arrest: 30 years oldArresting Agency: Hamilton CountyCRIMINAL TRESPASSINGCRIMINAL TRESPASSING---WOOLF, NICOLE LEA6502 FOX DEN LANE CHATTANOOGA, 37343Age at Arrest: 19 years oldArresting Agency: Hamilton CountyBooked for Previous Charges or Other Reason(s) Here are the mug shots: AARON, BRANDON LEE Age at Arrest: 19 Date of Birth: 04/02/1997 Arresting Agency: Hamilton County Last Date of Arrest: 06/21/2016 Charge(s): POSSESSION OF DRUG PARAPHERNALIA ANDERSON, JOSHUA CODY Age at Arrest: 19 Date of Birth: 09/27/1996 Arresting Agency: Soddy Daisy Last Date of Arrest: 06/21/2016 Booked for Previous Charges or Other Reason(s) ARRINGTON, CHRISTINA ELIZEBETH Age at Arrest: 31 Date of Birth: 02/23/1985 Arresting Agency: Hamilton County Last Date of Arrest: 06/21/2016 Charge(s): POSSESSION OF DRUG PARAPHERNALIA BANKS, DANIELLE MONIQUE Age at Arrest: 27 Date of Birth: 06/26/1988 Arresting Agency: Chattanooga Last Date of Arrest: 06/21/2016 Charge(s): THEFT OF PROPERTY BIRD, THOMAS ANTHONY Age at Arrest: 31 Date of Birth: 04/05/1985 Arresting Agency: Hamilton County Last Date of Arrest: 06/21/2016 Charge(s): POSSESSION OF CONTROLLED SUBSTANCE POSSESSION OF DRUG PARAPHERNALIA BONDS, QUINTON LAMAR Age at Arrest: 45 Date of Birth: 09/20/1970 Arresting Agency: Hamilton County Last Date of Arrest: 06/21/2016 Charge(s): FAILURE TO APPEAR FAILURE TO APPEAR VIOLATION OF PROBATION (FAILURE TO APPEAR) VIOLATION OF PROBATION (FAILURE TO APPEAR) VIOLATION OF PROBATION (THEFT OF PROPERTY) BROWN, LASHONDA NICOLE Age at Arrest: 37 Date of Birth: 05/08/1979 Arresting Agency: Chattanooga Last Date of Arrest: 06/21/2016 Charge(s): VANDALISM/MALICIOUS MISCHIEF ASSAULT BRUMLOW, LAURA MICHELLE Age at Arrest: 38 Date of Birth: 10/30/1977 Arresting Agency: Chattanooga Last Date of Arrest: 06/21/2016 Charge(s): FORGERY FEL. OBTAINING CONTROLLED SUBSTANCE BY FRAUD COFER, RICHARD S Age at Arrest: 53 Date of Birth: 01/01/1963 Arresting Agency: Hamilton County Last Date of Arrest: 06/21/2016 Charge(s): THEFT OF PROPERTY (OVER $1000) DELGADO, FRANCISCO ORTIZ Age at Arrest: 35 Date of Birth: 03/09/1981 Arresting Agency: Hamilton County Last Date of Arrest: 06/21/2016 Charge(s): VIO. DRIVERS LICENSE LAW FINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITY DIAMOND, MARCUS RENE Age at Arrest: 52 Date of Birth: 11/16/1963 Arresting Agency: Chattanooga Last Date of Arrest: 06/21/2016 Booked for Previous Charges or Other Reason(s) DOMINGUEZ, ROBLERO A Age at Arrest: 35 Date of Birth: 12/25/1980 Arresting Agency: Hamilton County Last Date of Arrest: 06/21/2016 Charge(s): DRIVING WITHOUT DRIVERS LICENSE / EXPIRED LICENSE VIOLATION OF TRAFFIC CONTROL DEVICE DYAR, MATTHEW WAYNE Age at Arrest: 33 Date of Birth: 02/27/1983 Arresting Agency: Hamilton County Last Date of Arrest: 06/21/2016 Charge(s): VIOLATION OF PROBATION (DOMESTIC ASSAULT) FREEMAN, SHAINNA LYNN Age at Arrest: 32 Date of Birth: 07/10/1982 Arresting Agency: Chattanooga Last Date of Arrest: 06/21/2016 Charge(s): THEFT OF PROPERTY THEFT OF PROPERTY DRIVING ON REVOKED, SUSPENDED OR CANCELLED LICENSE POSSESSION OF DRUG PARAPHERNALIA POSSESSION OF CONTROLLED SUBSTANCE VANDALISM/MALICIOUS MISCHIEF FREEMAN, TERESA A Age at Arrest: 53 Date of Birth: 06/11/1963 Arresting Agency: Chattanooga Last Date of Arrest: 06/21/2016 Charge(s): DOMESTIC ASSAULT VANDALISM/MALICIOUS MISCHIEF RECKLESS ENDANGERMENT HERNANDEZ, MARCUS Age at Arrest: 27 Date of Birth: 10/24/1988 Arresting Agency: Hamilton County Last Date of Arrest: 06/21/2016 Charge(s): VIO. DRIVERS LICENSE LAW HUGHES, MEGAN DIANA Age at Arrest: 34 Date of Birth: 01/03/1982 Arresting Agency: Hamilton County Last Date of Arrest: 06/21/2016 Booked for Previous Charges or Other Reason(s) HULSEY, CHARITY FAITH Age at Arrest: 25 Date of Birth: 11/10/1990 Arresting Agency: East Ridge Last Date of Arrest: 06/21/2016 Charge(s): FAILURE TO APPEAR JENNINGS, LARRY DALE Age at Arrest: 30 Date of Birth: 12/14/1985 Arresting Agency: Hamilton County Last Date of Arrest: 06/21/2016 Charge(s): DOMESTIC ASSAULT JONES, SAVON JAMAR Age at Arrest: 18 Date of Birth: 07/18/1997 Arresting Agency: Chattanooga Last Date of Arrest: 06/21/2016 Charge(s): THEFT OF PROPERTY UNDER $500 KNIGHT, DONNIE LEWIS Age at Arrest: 46 Date of Birth: 07/22/1969 Arresting Agency: Hamilton County Last Date of Arrest: 06/21/2016 Charge(s): PAROLE VIOLATION (AGGRAVATED ASSAULT) KRAUSE, LAURA LEE Age at Arrest: 31 Date of Birth: 06/23/1984 Arresting Agency: Chattanooga Last Date of Arrest: 06/21/2016 Charge(s): THEFT OF PROPERTY LANGSTON, MADISON ASHLEE Age at Arrest: 20 Date of Birth: 04/09/1996 Arresting Agency: Hamilton County Last Date of Arrest: 06/21/2016 Charge(s): CHILD NEGLECT DRUGS GENERAL CATEGORY FOR RESALE LEE, MARK MELCHISEDEC Age at Arrest: 21 Date of Birth: 05/18/1995 Arresting Agency: Chattanooga Last Date of Arrest: 06/21/2016 Charge(s): DOMESTIC ASSAULT LESLEY, FRANK MILFORD Age at Arrest: 49 Date of Birth: 08/20/1966 Arresting Agency: Chattanooga Last Date of Arrest: 06/21/2016 Charge(s): PUBLIC INTOXICATION LONG, HAILEY MARIE Age at Arrest: 18 Date of Birth: 04/08/1998 Arresting Agency: Hamilton County Last Date of Arrest: 06/21/2016 Charge(s): POSSESSION OF CONTROLLED SUBSTANCE CHILD NEGLECT MADEWELL, PATRICIA ANN Age at Arrest: 52 Date of Birth: 03/28/1964 Arresting Agency: Chattanooga Last Date of Arrest: 06/21/2016 Charge(s): CRIMINAL IMPERSONATION MCCLENNON, CARL Age at Arrest: 54 Date of Birth: 04/18/1962 Arresting Agency: Chattanooga Last Date of Arrest: 06/21/2016 Charge(s): THEFT OF PROPERTY MCKENZIE, KIMBER LEE Age at Arrest: 22 Date of Birth: 05/12/1994 Arresting Agency: Hamilton County Last Date of Arrest: 06/21/2016 Charge(s): POSSESSION OF DRUG PARAPHERNALIA MILLER, ASHLEY NICOLE Age at Arrest: 31 Date of Birth: 08/01/1984 Arresting Agency: Chattanooga Last Date of Arrest: 06/21/2016 Charge(s): THEFT OF PROPERTY (UNDER $500) MILLER, DEREK ALLEN Age at Arrest: 23 Date of Birth: 01/26/1993 Arresting Agency: Chattanooga Last Date of Arrest: 06/21/2016 Charge(s): THEFT OF PROPERTY (UNDER $500) MORRIS, JESSE BLAKE Age at Arrest: 21 Date of Birth: 03/31/1995 Arresting Agency: Hamilton County Last Date of Arrest: 06/21/2016 Charge(s): POSSESSION OF CONTROLLED SUBSTANCE POSS. OF HANDGUN WHILE UNDER THE INFLUENCE MOSIER, RONNIE DEAN Age at Arrest: 34 Date of Birth: 04/12/1982 Arresting Agency: Hamilton County Last Date of Arrest: 06/21/2016 Booked for Previous Charges or Other Reason(s) MVUYEKURE, ALEX Age at Arrest: 25 Date of Birth: 12/12/1990 Arresting Agency: Chattanooga Last Date of Arrest: 06/21/2016 Charge(s): HARASSMENT HARASSMENT OBANNON, DREW ALEXANDER Age at Arrest: 24 Date of Birth: 05/04/1992 Arresting Agency: Hamilton County Last Date of Arrest: 06/21/2016 Charge(s): DRIVING ON REVOKED, SUSPENDED OR CANCELLED LICENSE FINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITY OGLETREE, DAYTON KALVIN Age at Arrest: 26 Date of Birth: 06/30/1989 Arresting Agency: Collegedale Last Date of Arrest: 06/21/2016 Booked for Previous Charges or Other Reason(s) PARSONS, FRANKIE CLARENCE Age at Arrest: 22 Date of Birth: 07/03/1993 Arresting Agency: Hamilton County Last Date of Arrest: 06/21/2016 Charge(s): DUI - 1ST OFFENSE RECKLESS DRIVING RECKLESS ENDANGERMENT RAINES, KATHERINE DAWN Age at Arrest: 36 Date of Birth: 06/22/1979 Arresting Agency: Hamilton County Last Date of Arrest: 06/21/2016 Charge(s): THEFT OF PROPERTY (OVER $1000) ROBERTS, MATTHEW JEROME Age at Arrest: 19 Date of Birth: 05/09/1997 Arresting Agency: Chattanooga Last Date of Arrest: 06/21/2016 Charge(s): THEFT OF PROPERTY (UNDER $500) ROGERS, TRISTAN WYATT Age at Arrest: 20 Date of Birth: 10/10/1995 Arresting Agency: Hamilton County Last Date of Arrest: 06/21/2016 Charge(s): FAILURE TO APPEAR RUTH, RONNIE RAY Age at Arrest: 69 Date of Birth: 03/07/1947 Arresting Agency: Chattanooga Last Date of Arrest: 06/21/2016 Charge(s): VANDALISM/MALICIOUS MISCHIEF THEFT OF PROPERTY OVER 500 THEFT OF PROPERTY SCOTT, ANTHONY JACOB Age at Arrest: 28 Date of Birth: 09/09/1987 Arresting Agency: Hamilton County Last Date of Arrest: 06/21/2016 Charge(s): DOMESTIC ASSAULT SHROPSHIRE, TIRRELL DONAE Age at Arrest: 35 Date of Birth: 06/12/1981 Arresting Agency: Chattanooga Last Date of Arrest: 06/21/2016 Charge(s): AGGRAVATED ASSAULT POSSESSING A FIREARM WITH INTENT TO GO ARMED STEVENSON, BRUCE MONROE Age at Arrest: 33 Date of Birth: 04/15/1983 Arresting Agency: Hamilton County Last Date of Arrest: 06/21/2016 Charge(s): VIOLATION OF PROBATION (DUI) STEWART, LAJUAN MATEO Age at Arrest: 43 Date of Birth: 05/23/1973 Arresting Agency: Chattanooga Last Date of Arrest: 06/21/2016 Charge(s): DOMESTIC ASSAULT STONE, BRIAN ALEX Age at Arrest: 45 Date of Birth: 02/26/1971 Arresting Agency: Chattanooga Last Date of Arrest: 06/21/2016 Charge(s): PUBLIC INTOXICATION DISORDERLY CONDUCT TACKETT, TIMOTHY FRANKLIN Age at Arrest: 33 Date of Birth: 10/04/1982 Arresting Agency: Hamilton County Last Date of Arrest: 06/21/2016 Charge(s): FUGITIVE (ARREST FOR CRIME IN ANOTHER STATE) TAYLOR, TYLER JOE Age at Arrest: 22 Date of Birth: 06/08/1994 Arresting Agency: Hamilton County Last Date of Arrest: 06/21/2016 Charge(s): CHILD NEGLECT DRUGS GENERAL CATEGORY FOR RESALE VELASQUEZ-MORALES, JAIRO Age at Arrest: 18 Date of Birth: 04/27/1998 Arresting Agency: Hamilton County Last Date of Arrest: 06/21/2016 Charge(s): THEFT OF PROPERTY (UNDER $500) WEST, ZETTA FRANCES Age at Arrest: 36 Date of Birth: 09/19/1979 Arresting Agency: Hamilton County Last Date of Arrest: 06/21/2016 Booked for Previous Charges or Other Reason(s) The fiscal year 2016-2017 budget was given approval on the second and final reading Tuesday night at the Red Bank Commission meeting. It has been described as a basic budget and did not require a property tax increase. The property tax rate will remain at $1.35 per every $1,000 of assessed value of property. The 2016 budget also was amended as a bookkeeping measure, so that expenditures and revenues last year were reconciled with the actual costs, which in some cases were higher than planned. Updates have taken place at city hall to comply with two policies. From time to time, said City Manager Randall Smith, rules, regulations and polices need to be reviewed to ensure that its employees know how to operate equipment and vehicles safely. The adoption of an ordinance and implementation of the OSHA program was passed on first reading Tuesday night. The other program that was put into place was to satisfy the comptroller for the state of Tennessee, who has required that every city create and submit an Internal Controls Policy relating to financial issues. This policy is to make sure that funds are not mismanaged. The Red Bank commissioners approved the plan which will now be forwarded to the comptroller for state approval. The renewal of a contract with the Humane Education Society in the amount of $69,990 for animal control services was approved. This is the same amount the city paid in 2016. Mayor John Roberts told the audience that there will be two fireworks displays available on the Fourth of July, one in Soddy Daisy and the other on Signal Mountain. Red Bank will not have a display, he said, with Fire Chief Mark Mathews announcing that Red Bank has a no burn policy in effect until September. t. One of the items that this commission has been focused on is economic development in Red Bank. Mayor Roberts said that since 2010 the city has been trying to find a business that would locate in the old BiLo site at Dayton Boulevard and Browntown Road. He announced that B and B Discount has now bought the building and will move to that location. The June 26 election campaign in Spain is coming to an end. The coalition between Podemos and United Left seems poised to overtake the Socialist Party, and according to some opinion polls is closing the gap with the ruling right wing Popular Party, which remains in first place. What are the implications for the day after, and what is the program on which Unidos Podemos stands? The calling of early elections in Spain on June 26 was forced because the inconclusive results of the December 20 2015 election did not lead to the formation of a government. At that time the Popular Party (PP) suffered substantial losses, losing a third of its votes and collapsing from 44% of the total vote in 2011 to 28.7%, but still remained the first party. The Socialist Party (PSOE) did not benefit from this and lost 20% of its votes going down from 28 to 22% of the total vote. The eruption of Podemos and its allied coalitions in Galicia (En Marea - The Rising Tide), Catalonia (En Comu Podem - United We Can) and Valencia (Es El Moment - Its The Time), which received 5 million votes (just over 20%), was notable but not enough to defeat the two party system completely. The ruling class in Spain and in Europe pushed for the formation of a grand coalition government (in one form or another) involving PP, PSOE and the right populist Ciudadanos (Cs). They need a government with a substantial parliamentary majority which is firmly committed to the continuation of cuts and austerity. However, in this case, the interests of the ruling class did not coincide with the interests of the apparatuses of the different parties, nor the personal interests of their leaders. The PP of Rajoy insisted in being allowed to form government (either with external support or in a coalition). But this is a party which has been extremely discredited, not only by its brutal austerity policies, but also by corruption scandals going right to the top echelons and affecting the party itself as an organisation. For the PSOE and Cs (which demagogically presents itself as the party of anti-corruption and democratic renewal), it would have been political suicide to make a formal pact with the PP. On the other hand the PP was not at all interested in handing power to the PSOE (neither as part of a coalition nor by abstaining). As the party with the most votes, they saw no reason to concede power to anyone else. Podemos played its cards correctly by making the PSOE an offer it could not accept: a PSOE-Podemos-United Left government, in which Podemos and United Left would hold half of the ministers (which corresponds with the ratio of votes of the different parties involved). The right wing of the PSOE (represented by Andalucia president Susana Diaz) would never allow an agreement with Podemos. The ruling class does not consider them as trustworthy enough to carry out the cuts which are necessary from a capitalist point of view. In the end the PSOE leader, Pedro Sanchez, proposed a four way PSOE-Cs-Podemos-IU coalition. This was an offer designed to fail, as the hard core right wing economic policies of Cs could never be reconciled with the program of Podemos nor that of IU. The collapse of these government formation talks is what led to new elections, but the scenario had already changed. First of all, many PSOE voters were now open to the argument that its leaders had rejected the possibility of forming a Left government with Podemos and IU in favour of an agreement with right wing Cs. Pablo Iglesias and Alberto Garzon - Photo: Jose CamoSecondly, under enormous pressure from below, Podemos and United Left had reached an electoral agreement, also involving the Catalan, Galician and Valencian left coalitions. The formation of Unidos Podemos (United We Can), as the coalition is known, was not without resistance in both parties. In Podemos, the wing around Inigo Errejon had always defended the theory that left and right are no longer relevant political concepts, that what is required now is a transversal or cross-sectional approach pitching to those from below, to those at the top, which should be welcoming to all those who want change regardless of their prior political loyalties. This convoluted theory already suffered a serious blow during the election campaign, when Pablo Iglesias made an appeal to the left vote and particularly appealed to the socialist traditions and symbols of the PSOE voters. The idea of transversalism (whatever that might mean) was then completely destroyed by the whole post-election strategy of Podemos, which challenged the PSOE leader to dare form a left government. The defeat of Errejons thesis was symbolised in the removal of his close ally, Sergio Pascual, as Podemos organisation secretary in March. On the United Left (IU) side, there was also strong resistance on the part of the right wing of the organisation (represented by Llamazares Open Left current) against any agreement with Podemos, but also in the centre (represented by national coordinator Cayo Lara). The path to an alliance with Podemos was cleared with the victory of Alberto Garzon and the left wing of IU in the internal primary elections in May (where Garzon got 74% of the vote, Cayo Laras candidate 20% and Llamazares candidate 4%) and then consolidated at the United Left National Assembly (where the vote was split along the same lines) which elected Garzon as the national coordinator of the party to replace Cayo Lara who was standing down. The formation of this coalition has had a positive impact in largely cutting across an element of sectarianism amongst activists and supporters of both formations which had developed in December during the campaign. There have been a series of very enthusiastic and well attended joint election rallies involving Alberto Garzon and Pablo Iglesias, as well as other leading figures of the allied coalitions. The arithmetic addition of the votes Podemos and IU obtained on December 20 would already put Unidos Podemos, with 6 million votes, ahead of PSOE (which got 5.5 million), but while in December IU and Podemos got a combined total of 71 seats for PSOEs 90, this time Unidos Podemos would get 10 to 15 seats more, because of the way the Spanish election constituencies work. On top of this there are other factors which have propelled Unidos Podemos (UP) clearly ahead of PSOE in most opinion polls. First is the multiplying impact of unity between the two forces. Then there is the question of PSOE voters who would want a PSOE-UP coalition government but they are not sure their leaders would allow it and are shifting towards voting for UP. As it becomes clear that UP is ahead of PSOE, a tactical concentration of the left vote in the best positioned party is emerging. All opinion polls now show UP getting between 24 and 26%, consolidating its lead over PSOE, which hovers around 21%. These figures dont tell the whole picture however, as Unidos Podemos is consistently first in the polls amongst the youth (43.6% of the 18 to 34 year old vote), students (35.5%), the unemployed (36.6%), those searching for their first job (37.3%), and those in work (24.2%). What happens is that about 40% of the Spanish electorate is over 55 and 27% is over 65. These are the layers which most loyally turn out to vote and amongst them there is still a strong degree of loyalty for both PSOE and the PP. In most of the Unidos Podemos rallies, where there has been a very enthusiastic mood, the main slogan is now we will beat the PP (vamos a ganar al Partido Popular), as the activists see it as an achievable aim. The vicious campaign of the mass media and the main parties against Unidos Podemos has lost its edge. Ciudadanos leader Albert Rivera actually started its campaign in Caracas, Venezuela, in an attempt to discredit UP for its links with the undemocratic regime of Nicolas Maduro. This has been repeated ad nauseum by the PP and PSOE and echoed by all the main newspapers, right wing and liberal alike. It doesnt stick anymore. If anything it has had the opposite effect. As Unidos Podemos leaders have explained effectively, they talk about Venezuela, because they have a lot to hide in Spain. The Popular Party is forecasted to get a result similar or perhaps marginally better than on December 20, getting 28 to 30% of the vote. Such a result would lead, again, to deadlock in parliament, but with certain differences. First of all, Unidos Podemos is likely to overtake the PSOE not only in votes but also in number of seats, with the former getting between 85 to 95 for the latters 73 to 85. Such a result, giving the combined forces of UP and PSOE either an overall majority of seats or very close to that, would put the PSOE leadership under enormous pressure to form a coalition with UP, which has centered its campaign around offering such an option. However, such a coalition is extremely unlikely. The PSOE leaders are firm representatives of the interests of the ruling class. The ruling class needs to continue to implement a brutal program of budget cuts. Spain has already gone over its agreed deficit reduction target. In order to soften the blow, the European Union has kindly agreed with Rajoy a delay in discussing a fine on Spain for breaking the budget deficit limit until after the election. The European Commission has made it abundantly clear that it expects any government in Spain to implement a package of between 8 and 10bn euro worth of cuts this year. Clearly, a UP-PSOE government in which the PSOE would be the junior partner is not a guarantee of stability from the point of view of the capitalists. This would be different and much more unstable than the government agreement in Portugal, where the PS is the main actor with external support from the PCP and Bloco. At the same time, if PSOE rejects a coalition offer from UP (the ground for which is already being prepared by its leaders), that would seriously damage the party, particularly because it would lead, in one form or another, to a government with the presence of the hated PP. It would clearly create enormous internal turmoil in PSOE and the acceleration of the process of its Pasokification. The ruling class is already exerting enormous pressure towards the formation of a grand coalition between PP-PSOE and Cs. The Spanish media are full of reports of alarm in Brussels and NATO about the possibility of a populist government. This is being used to put additional pressure towards the formation of a grand coalition of austerity. The potential instability of a Brexit vote on Thursday is used as an additional argument. The best answer to the uncertainty it could generate is a government of PP, PSOE and Cs said today the acting Finance Minister De Guindos. There are several variants of how such a government would be formed. If the results are seen as bad for the PSOE, then Pedro Sanchez could be removed, opening the way to a government of the PP with external support from PSOE, or even a formal coalition on the basis of a limited program. Clearly, this is what Rajoy is counting on. If the results are seen as bad for PP (which at the moment is less likely), then Rajoy might be removed opening the way for some sort of agreement with a Pedro Sanchez led PSOE. Cs has already said that a 3-way agreement is its prefered option and in any case its seats are not really crucial in any of the combinations. Whatever the final combination, a government of cuts and austerity with Unidos Podemos being the official opposition would only prepare its rise to power at a later date. It could also provoke a return of mass mobilisations in the streets, which have ebbed in the last 2 years. In this context, it is worth analysing the program of Unidos Podemos. There has been a constant trend towards watering it down ever since Podemos was set up in January 2014. The current program is slightly more moderate than the one Podemos stood on in December. Still, it contains a number of important commitments on concrete policies, like the repeal of many of the reactionary laws introduced by the PP in fields like democratic rights, labour rights, education, etc. as well as a commitment to public spending in health care, education and so on. All of these measures are positive and we support them enthusiastically. The main problem comes when we look at the core of the program, that is, where will the money come in order to implement it. Pablo Iglesias has explained clearly what he wants: a new Social Democracy. This is the thesis he has been putting forward consistently in the last few months, including in a speech to employers in Barcelona (For a New Social Democracy) and in an opinion article in Publico (A Fourth Social Democracy?). What does this consist of, for Iglesias? To quote: A fourth social democracy, understood as the possibility of redistributive policies within the framework of the market economy, ensuring social protection and fiscal justice as engines of economic development based on domestic demand as an engine of transformation of the productive and industrial model and as promoter of social and sovereignist Europeanism, I think this is the best choice for Spain. The concrete proposals he advances are: to re-negotiate with Brussels the rhythm of deficit reduction, by postponing to the end of parliament the achievement of the 3% target, a plan of fighting tax evasion, a progressive reform of the tax system, and a package of measures against tax havens. There are several problems with this. The main one is that whilst social democratic policies were possible in the long postwar boom, on the basis of sustained growth of capitalism, this is no longer the case. We live in a period of capitalist crisis with sluggish rates of growth at best. There is no possibility of implementing redistributive policies in the current context. And European capital (chiefly German capital) will not allow it. We need to look no further than Greece and France to see this in practice. Precisely a year ago, the Greek government of Syriza, elected on a program which was basically the same Unidos Podemos is advancing now, was brutally forced to capitulate. Any idea of renegotiating the deficit reduction targets with the Troika was smashed to pieces by brute force. Pablo Iglesias and the other leaders of Podemos argue that Spain is not Greece and that being a stronger economy would give them more leverage at the negotiating table. It is true that Spain is not tied to a formal bailout program, but nevertherless, the Troika has powerful tools to intervene in the Spanish economy (by causing panic in the markets, massive withdrawal of capital, a sudden jump in the yields of Spanish debt, etc) which would force any government operating within the framework of the market economy to its knees. In France, the program on which Hollande was elected was precisely one of stimulating the economy, taxing the rich and investing in public services. In a few months this was all reversed. The attempt to tax the rich led to them to literally flee the country. A massive package of cuts was implemented and now a draconian pro-bosses labour counter-reform is being fought on the streets. Hollandes popularity ratings are now in the low 10s. A Unidos Podemos government, now or later on, would be faced with exactly the same pressures to implement a policy of cuts and austerity. The only way to implement the progressive reforms included in its program would be to break with capitalism, to put the interests of working people before the interests of bankers and capitalists. This is the main lesson from Greece, one which the leaders of Unidos Podemos attempt to avoid. Whilst we fight with all our strength for an electoral victory of Unidos Podemos, which would represent a massive blow for the ruling class in Spain and a serious defeat for its main parties, we have the duty to warn about the limitations of its program. Spanish workers and youth, who are putting their hopes for fundamental change in Unidos Podemos, will have to go through a steep learning curve. Marxists will accompany them, shoulder by shoulder, and help them understand that the only way to fundamentally change society, to put an end to poverty, unemployment, evictions, cuts in health care and education, the forced emigration of our youth, and many other symptoms of the crisis of capitalism, is to decisively confront the power of the small unelected and unaccountable minority of bankers and capitalists, in Spain, throughout Europe, and in the whole world. Representatives from Komatsu and Power Equipment were greeted by officials with Childrens Hospital at Erlanger as they celebrated the arrival of a Komatsu Excavator outside the hospital. Komatsus very visible support for our Believe Campaign is another great example of community partnership as we raise awareness and money for our new Outpatient Center, said Don Mueller, CEO of Childrens Hospital. We thank them for this loan and hope it serves as an inspiration for others to help us build a new Childrens Hospital. One patient who participated in the visit was 2015 Childrens Hospital Miracle Child, Liam Mull. When Liams mother and Komatsus Customer Service Coordinator, Cherish Mull, heard about her companys support for Childrens Hospital, she was eager to participate. Liam first came to Childrens Hospital when he was just 15 days old. His pulse didnt register and doctors and staff began resuscitation attempts lasting more than two hours. An MRI revealed a significant brain bleed, but also, miraculously, very little brain damage. He was discharged 18 days after his arrival. When he reached 4 months of age, Liam was in the normal range for physical activities and has tracked in the normal range ever since. He is now two-years-old and still holds the Miracle title. SPRINGFIELD -- The historic Merrick Phelps House at 83 Maple St. has gone from a drug-scarred eyesore to the anchor of a business park its owners, DevelopSpringfield, envision for the block. "This was the most blighted house in the neighborhood," said Jay Minkarah, president and CEO of DevelopSpringfield, the public-private partnership that showcased the $1.8-million purchase and rehab project Wednesday afternoon. "Think of all the traffic on Maple. This was 'Welcome to Downtown Springfield.' Think of all the children at the Milton Bradley School who had to look out at that symbol of blight. All that has been reversed." DevelopSpringfield bought the long-derelict home for $160,000 in 2013, along with the property to the rear at 234 Union St. which includes a vacant lot, a row of garages and a carriage house. DevelopSpringfield has already renovated the carriage house and has been using it as offices before moving next week into the Merrick Phelps House. The Greek-revival Merrick Phelps House was built in 1841 for Solymon Merrick, the inventor of the monkey wrench. Ansel Phelps, Springfield's fourth mayor and an attorney for the Western Railroad, bought the property in 1847. In December 2014, DevelopSpringfield purchased a historic former school house at 77 Maple St. from the Springfield Preservation Trust for $35,000. Dating back to 1835, the seminary building will be the third part -- with the carriage house and the Merrick Phelps House -- of a complex of offices in historic structures DevelopSpringfield calls the Lower Maple Business Park. Work begins on the seminary building later this year and is expected to be completed in 2017, Minkarah said. In the Merrick Phelps House, Big Brothers/ Big Sisters of Hampden County will join DevelopSpringfield as a tenant, said executive director David Beturne. The agency is moving five full-time and three part-time employees there from State Street. Minkarah said DevelopSpringfield determined offices would be the best use for the site, as opposed to residential units. All the properties are on the tax rolls. Before DevelopSpringfield took over, the Merrick Phelps House was frequented by drug-users and individuals who set fires and littered the ground with syringes and feces. "It had a negative impact. But the house had good bones," Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno said. "Now it is a positive. A cornerstone. When it makes sense to preserve history and it won't get in the way of economic development, I'll do it." Minkarah said the Merrick Phelps House project cost $1.8 million total, including the $160,000 purchase price. The project was financed with 20 percent tax credits from the state and 20 percent tax credits from the federal government; the rest was borrowed from Westfield Bank. Historic Preservation Associates of Wales, Massachusetts, was the genral contractor. DevelopSpringfield opens rehabbed Merrick Phelps House ELMSLAW.jpg SPRINGFIELD -- Elms College in Chicopee and the Western New England University School of Law in Springfield are set to announce later this month a "3+3" program that could allow students to complete a bachelor's degree and a law school education in six years instead of the typical seven. "This is trying to be more responsive to what students want," said Eric Gouvin, dean and professor of law at WNE. "This is ideal for the student whose life was interrupted -- maybe they are coming back from active duty or they had to leave school -- and they really want to get out into the work force." The program works by allowing college students to complete the required courses for their undergraduate degree in three years and then use their first year of law school at WNE both as law school and to satisfy undergraduate degree requirements for elective courses. The two institutions plan to sign a formal agreement Wednesday. "Their first year of law school does double-duty," Gouvin said. Western New England Law has had similar programs in place with other undergraduate programs for about a decade, Gouvin said. Other participating schools include the undergraduate programs -- including engineering -- at Western New England, Massachusetts College of the Liberal Arts in North Adams, Springfield College, Regis College in Weston, Assumption College in Worcester, Anna Maria College in Paxton, St. Joseph's College in Hartford and Southern New Hampshire University. Springfield College has an agreement with Bay Path University that smooths the way for Bay Path students to go to the law school but doesn't cut the time it takes to gain a degree, Gouvin said. Elms said that its agreement with Western New England is not limited to criminal justice or legal studies majors -- any undergraduate student, regardless of major, can earn credits toward law school under this program. Gouvin said the 3+3 programs save students a year of tuition at their undergraduate school. Students pay the $39,450 a year at Western New England law. The pool of applicants looking to get into law school has fallen by half in the last decade or so, Gouvin said. The recession and a tight job market for new lawyers hurts. Gouvin said demographic trends -- a lower number of 16- to 22-year-olds in the population -- also reduces the number of people looking to attend law school. Western New England University has cut its incoming classes by 35 percent, from 120 new students to 90, over the last five years. "It's just a reality of responding to a market," he said. When Mendon author Michael J. Tougias hears a survival and rescue story, he asks himself if he could have survived. When the answer is no, the Longmeadow High School graduate is curious about how the survivors managed to do just that: Survive. "The Finest Hours" author is also drawn to stories with twists, turns and surprises. His latest book, "So Close To Home: A True Story of an American Family's Fight for Survival during World War II," tells a story with all of those elements plus the little-known historical aspect of German U-boats during World War II not only entering the Gulf of Mexico but reaching the mouth of the Mississippi River. With author Alison O'Leary, Tougias tells the story of the sinking of the freighter Heredia. In 1942 a German U-boat in the Gulf of Mexico stalked its prey 40 miles off New Orleans. Erich Wurdemann, the 29-year- old commander, had his sights set on the freighter, which had 59 souls on board. Most of the crew were merchant seamen, but there was a handful of civilians including the Downs family: Ray Sr. and Ina along with their two children, 8-year-old Ray Jr., nick-named "Sonny;" and 11-year- old Lucille. Asleep in their berth, they had no notice that two torpedoes were heading their way; when the ship exploded they were separated from one another. More than half the crew and passengers aboard the Heredia perished, but after 15 hours in the ocean -- facing sharks, hypothermia, drowning and dehydrationaall the members of the Downs family still were fighting for their lives. "So Close to Home" merges the story of this family with that of Wurdemann. Quoting from Wurdemann's original war diary, the story provides balance and perspective by chronicling the daring mission of the U-boat and its commander's decision-making in the Gulf of Mexico. Writing about Erich Wurdemman setting out on his final patrol was difficult. "I'm sure he knew his days were numbered, yet he went anyway," the author said. "(We) will we ever fully comprehend why, after U-506 was torn apart by bombs dropped by the Liberator, he decided to detach from the two men who were holding him up in the water. Those two survivors later said Erich Wurdemann did not want to decrease their own chances of survival by keeping him afloat. That was part of the commander's decision, but perhaps he simply had enough of this war torn world and the thought of becoming a POW was more than the proud man could bear." The Downs Family Regarding the Downs family, they "had Resilience with a capitol R" because "not only did they have to survive the sharks, jellyfish, drowning and hypothermia, they had to start new lives from scratch," said Tougias, of Mendon, co-author of the international bestseller and New York Times bestseller "The Finest Hours." They lost everything they owned when the ship sank. "Sonny [now of Quincy] had such admiration for his parents. They picked themselves up and made the very best out of a bad situation," Tougias said. He suspects that the success U-boats had in the first half of 1942 against an unprepared United States has been swept under the rug in many history books used in schools and colleges because it does not put the country in a favorable light. "But we need to know all our history. We are history buffs and constantly read nonfiction books and articles, but we were amazed and appalled by the incredible loss of ships and Merchant Mariners right here in waters off the East Coast and Gulf Coast in 1942," he said. "The fact that the U.S. was utterly undefended and unprepared for the U-boat attacks despite British warnings that they were coming was surprising, and it had a lot to do with politics. Also, the way the German U-boat crews lived and died was also very eye-opening: These guys worked so hard in such awful conditions for months at a time, barely getting fresh air or a glimpse of the sun." And, according to the authors' research, they were not Nazis: "They were often as humane as they could be despite the war, even saving hundreds of British passengers from the Laconia, a ship that was sunk in the mid-Atlantic," Tougias said. One of the biggest surprises he found involved Ray Downs, the father, and the captain of the Heredia. "When the ship was torpedoed, these men, along with Sonny were on one tiny life raft," he said. "The captain and Ray did not see eye to eye, and it almost came to blows. Ray literally took over command of the raft, and he made the decisions, not the captain." Though the war is long over, "We still must be on our guard and help each other in every way possible," Tougias said. "The U-boats spread a kind of terror on our coast (they even dropped off spies and sabotage experts). Not all that different than we face today. We ultimately overcame this threat by our own bravery and ingenuity, particularly our development of electronics that helped us find and sink U-boats." He believes in the study of history study history so it is not repeated. "I absolutely believe we can learn from history. Knowledge is power," he said. "There are similarities in our past to conditions today, and by learning more we get ideas for solutions." Tougias -- who graduated from Longmeadow High School -- hopes the story will garner interest from movie studios and producers like "The Finest Hours" did. "People love an inspirational story with surprises," he said. To watch a five-minute video of Sonny describing how he escaped the sinking ship after the torpedoes hit it, go to michaeltougias.com "So Close To Home" is available from Pegasus Books. The 352-page hardcover retails for $27.95. Arunah Hill, Cummington Arunah Hill in Cummington is one of the many places in Western Massachusetts where summer stargazing events will be held. (ARUNAH HILL) By AMANDA JERMYN Special to The Republican Summertime, and the living is easy. Stargazing is easy, too, as the warm nights are upon us. While the starry skies are yours to enjoy on any clear night, there are also a number of organized stargazing activities in the area throughout the summer. When skies are clear, the Amherst Area Amateur Astronomers Association hosts free programs during the summer, including solar observing on Saturdays at 1 p.m. at Mount Pollux in Amherst, night sky observing on Saturdays at 9 p.m. at the Amherst College Wilder Observatory and observing on Sundays at sunset at Mount Pollux. For more information on these and other events, visit the association's website, astronomyassociation.org. The 34th annual Connecticut River Valley Astronomer's Conjunction runs from July 8 through 10 at Northfield Mountain Recreation and Environmental Center in Northfield. The keynote speaker is science journalist and physicist Marcia Bartusiak who will speak on "Black Hole: How an idea hated by Einstein was finally proven by a gravity-wave song." Bartusiak is a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the author of six books, including "Einstein's Unfinished Symphony" and "Black Hole: How an idea abandoned by Newtonians, hated by Einstein, and gambled on by Hawking became loved." Other events include a talk by Ron Woodland and Rich Sanderson on "The Solar Eclipse Experience" and a presentation by NASA ambassador Jim Zebrowski on "The Real Martian: Earth explores the Red Planet." Tim Connolly will talk about "Smartphone Apps for Stargazing" and Jack Megas will present "Star Light, Star Bright: A Survey of the 20 Brightest Stars." Other activities include solar and nighttime viewing through telescopes, a swap table, camping at Barton's Cove on the Connecticut River, and an outdoor buffet dinner. For more information visit the website, philharrington.net/astroconjunction or send email to Richard Sanderson at rsanderson@springfieldmuseums.org. This year, Stellafane, the 81st convention of amateur telescope makers, will be held from Aug. 4 through 7 on Breezy Hill in Springfield, Vermont. This annual gathering gives amateur telescope makers the opportunity to show off their creations and teach one another about telescope making. The keynote speaker will be Fred Espenak, a NASA astrophysicist known as "Mr. Eclipse." Espenak will highlight all aspects of the total eclipse of the sun that will cover a large swath of North America on Aug. 21, 2017. As an expert astrophotographer, he will also discuss techniques to capture this event. Kristine Larsen, professor of geological sciences at Central Connecticut State University will deliver the Shadowgram address. Other talks include "Why Asteroid Light Curves," "Deep Sky Imaging with Small Scopes" and "Science with your DSLR Camera." A key feature of the Stellafane convention is the telescope competition, which gives amateur telescope makers a chance to compete for awards. In addition, there will be astronomy activities for children and teens. For more information visit the convention website, stellafane.org. You may also want to consider attending the Rockland Astronomy Club's Summer Star Party, organized by the Northeast Astronomy Forum, at the Peppermint Park Camping Resort in Plainfield. Events are open to the public and run from July 29 through Aug. 7. Come for a night or stay for all 10 days. Activities include talks, dinners, demonstrations and stargazing, with telescopes available for dark sky observing. For more information, visit the website, rocklandastronomy.com/ssp.html. On Aug. 12 at 7:30 p.m., join the Amherst Area Amateur Astronomers Association at the Amherst College Planetarium for a talk by Adam Jermyn on "How Stars change when they are heated externally by Pulsar Companion Stars." Jermyn is a Hertz Fellow, National Science Foundation Fellow, Goldwater Scholar and Marshall Scholar currently pursuing a Ph.D. in astrophysics at the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Cambridge. While an undergraduate at the California Institute of Technology he was the recipient of numerous research awards. The talk is free and open to the public. Also, on Aug. 27, the Amherst Area Amateur Astronomers Association, together with the state Department of Conservation and Recreation, will host a free public star party at the summit of Mount Greylock, and another at the same venue on Sept. 10. Both events run from 5:30 to 11:30 p.m., weather permitting. For more information contact Crystal Mengele by email to cmengele@hotmail.com or visit the Amherst Area Amateur Astronomy Association's Facebook page. Another stargazing highlight is Arunah Hill Days at the Arunah Hill Natural Science Center in Cummington from Sept. 2 through 4. This family-oriented weekend includes stargazing, nature walks, GPS treasure hunts, rocket building and launching, and science education. Several large telescopes will be available for nighttime viewing, and experienced amateur astronomers will conduct constellation orientation talks. Keynote speaker, Sarah Zuraw, will talk on "Discovering Gravity Waves." Zuraw is a graduate student in astrophysics at the University of Massachusetts and is part of the UMass LIGO team involved in the groundbreaking detection of gravity waves. All events are free and open to the public. For more information visit the website, arunah.org, or contact Ed Faits by email to efaits@comcast.net. Happy stargazing, and enjoy the wonders of the night sky! Amanda Jermyn, of Longmeadow, is vice president of the Springfield Stars Club. For more information, visit the club's website, reflector.org, like them on Facebook or call (800) 336-9054. Raekwon Brown Raekwon Brown (GoFundMe.com) BOSTON -- Boston Police Homicide investigators arrested two men in connection to the fatal shooting of Raekwon Brown, a 17-year-old who was gunned down near Jeremiah Burke High School in Dorchester earlier this month. Jonathan Aguasvivas, 23, of Roxbury and Benzy Bain, 24, of Mattapan, were arrested Wednesday on warrants charging them both with murder, Boston Police said. Authorities said more charges could be filed. Police were called to the area of 46 Washington St. on June 8 around 1:15 p.m. after receiving reports that people had been shot. "On arrival, officers learned of four victims suffering from gunshot wounds," police said. Brown died at the scene. Two other victims, ages 17 and 16, were taken to a local hospital for treatment. Their injuries were non-life threatening. A fourth victim, a 60-year-old woman, was treated at the scene for a non-life threatening injury. Investigators said camera footage and other evidence contributed to the arrests. "When a young man finishing up his junior year of high school gets gunned down in broad daylight, finding those responsible for such a senseless tragedy is of the highest priority to the men and women of the Boston Police Department," Boston Police Commissioner William Evans said. "Clearly, those responsible for the shooting cared little about who they hurt, harmed or injured while displaying an absolute disregard for the safety and well-being of every person living or working in that neighborhood." Evans hoped the arrests give Raekwon's family some measure of comfort and solace. Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel Conley said the arrests mark a step toward justice for the young man's family. "Every life is precious, but a young life like Raekwon's carries promise that no one has the right to extinguish," Conley said. Charles River on Google Maps Street View A view of the Charles River and the North Bank Bridge. (Google Maps) BOSTON - Lenny Quintero-Flores, the man accused of pushing his friend Mitchell Harrison off a dock and into the Charles River, appeared in court on Wednesday, hours after Harrison died at a hospital. Quintero-Flores, a 27-year-old Malden man, was arraigned on a manslaughter charge stemming from the Tuesday evening incident. Harrison was a 26-year-old Watertown resident. Lenny Quintero-Flores says friend he's accused of pushing in the Charles River was his best friend and he's "sorry" pic.twitter.com/75owFuEo5j Anna Meiler (@AnnaMeiler) June 22, 2016 Quintero-Flores, who wore a "Sorry For Raging" t-shirt during his court appearance, apologized, called Harrison "my best friend" and said he accidentally pushed him into the water while "playing around," according to the Boston Globe. The Massachusetts State Police said in a release that the "men had reportedly been drinking alcohol on the dock before the victim, while either sleeping or passed out, was pushed into the water by the suspect shortly before 5 pm. He was pulled from the water at around 5:20 pm." Bail for Quintero-Flores was set at $25,000, according to Suffolk District Attorney Dan Conley's office. His next court date is July 22. Charles River on Google Maps Street View A view of Charles River from the Dr. Paul Dudley White Bike Path. (Google Maps) The victim allegedly pushed into the Charles River on Tuesday has been identified as Mitchell Harrison, a 26-year-old man from Watertown, according to authorities. Lenny Quintero-Flores, a 27-year-old man from Malden, is set to be arraigned on a manslaughter charge in Charlestown Municipal Court on Wednesday. He allegedly pushed Harrison "as Harrison was sleeping or intoxicated on a dock," according to Suffolk County District Attorney Dan Conley's office. The dock was near the Massachusetts Avenue bridge. The two men were acquaintances, according to the Massachusetts State Police. "The men had reportedly been drinking alcohol on the dock before the victim, while either sleeping or passed out, was pushed into the water by the suspect shortly before 5 pm," the State Police said in a release. "He was pulled from the water at around 5:20 pm." First responders, including the State Police Marine Unit and Boston Fire Department divers, pulled Harrison from the water but he died at Brigham and Women's Hospital while there overnight, Conley's office and the State Police said. According to the State Police, Quintero-Flores is being held at the Leverett Circle Barracks "in lieu of $100,000 bail." BOSTON - The Massachusetts Department of Transportation says the installation of vertical metal gantries, part of its push toward all-electronic tolling, starts late tonight in the Sumner and Callahan tunnels. The work is set to continue during "off-peak hours" over the course of the next several days, the department said in a release. The new tolling infrastructure is set to go live in October. New metal gantries have been built up and down the Massachusetts Turnpike. The twin tunnels go under Boston Harbor. The Sumner and Callahan tunnels will be tolled in both directions, instead of the current fare structure where a car traveling westbound with a E-ZPass transponder is hit with a $3.00 charge. West and eastbound drivers will be charged $1.50 each way when all-electronic tolling is switched on, in order to keep the "revenue-neutral" pledge made by state transportation officials. "Qualified drivers from East Boston, the North End and South Boston that have an E-Z Pass transponder will pay 20-cents as they enter and as they exit the tunnels," the department said in a release about the infrastructure work. The gantries are meant to replace the toll plazas, which will be reconfigured after all-electronic tolling goes live. New Mass. Pike all-electronic tolling: How it works State transportation officials say the move to all-electronic tolling will reduce congestion, since drivers won't have to slow down as they do when going through the toll plazas. Earlier this month, WBZ reported that Massachusetts Department of Transportation Highway Administrator Tom Tinlin apologized for failing to remind drivers the state would start tolling both the northbound and southbound sides of the Tobin Bridge, instead of just the southbound side. Gov. Charlie Baker, speaking with reporters before Tinlin's apology, noted that the state had started conversations about two-way tolling in 2013 and said he felt it was hard to come up with a sensible argument to toll in only one direction. Chattanooga firefighters were dispatched to a possible fire in a condominium shortly before 9 a.m. on Wednesday at 949 Ashland Terrace. The first firefighters to arrive on the scene came from Station 16. Captain Brent Arnold said no smoke was visible when they arrived, but when they went around to the back of the condo and opened the kitchen door, thick, black smoke poured out, confirming they had a real fire. As additional fire companies began to arrive on the scene, firefighters took in a hand-held hoseline and had the fire out in five to ten minutes. The rest of the condo had some smoke and water damage. The woman who lived there told firefighters that she put a kettle on a hotplate to warm up for tea. When she returned to the kitchen, the stove area where the hotplate was located was on fire. The woman got out of the condo without injury and called 911. Unfortunately, the same could not be said for one of her cats. Battalion Chief Don Bowman said one of her two cats died in the fire, most likely from smoke inhalation. Her other cat is missing. The cause of the fire will be ruled accidental, from unattended cooking. Volunteers with the American Red Cross of Southeast Tennessee were called in to provide assistance to the victim. Chattanooga police, Hamilton County EMS and EPB also provided assistance on the scene. The section of Ashland Terrace in front of St. Jude Catholic School was closed during the firefighting operation. At around 11 a.m., the street was being re-opened to traffic. A Hamilton County woman is charged with fraudulently obtaining TennCare benefits by not telling the truth on documents that qualified her for the states healthcare insurance program.The Office of Inspector General, with the assistance of the Hamilton County Sheriffs Office, announced Wednesday the arrest of Tami P. Brouillard, 56, of Chattanooga. She is charged with TennCare fraud and theft of services over $10,000. An indictment accuses her of claiming her minor children lived in her household, although they did not, which made her eligible for TennCare.People who commit TennCare fraud are taking something theyre not entitled to, and theyre taking it from all the taxpayers of Tennessee, Inspector General Manny Tyndall said.When you lie, cheat, or steal to obtain TennCare benefits, you will get caught.TennCare fraud is a Class E felony carrying a sentence of up to two years in prison. District Attorney General Neal Pinkston is prosecuting.The OIG, which is separate from TennCare, began full operation in February 2005 and has investigated cases leading to more than $3 million being repaid to TennCare, with a total estimated cost avoidance of more than $163.6 million for TennCare, according to latest figures. To date, 2,658 people have been charged with TennCare fraud.Anyone can report suspected TennCare fraud by calling 1-800-433-3982 toll-free from anywhere in Tennessee, or visit the website and follow prompts that read Report TennCare Fraud. Are you looking to jump-start your career and gain experience with a world-class technology company? Are you looking to gain knowledge and skills that will equip you for rapid career growth? If so, this might be the right job for you. You probably know FICO from our rich history as the credit score company. You may not know that we are also a global leader in technologies that empower some of the worlds largest institutions like BMW, Southwest Airlines, and Citigroup transform their business through better and more precise business decisions using Big Data Analytics. The Sales Development Rep plays a strategic role in the companys rapid growth by uncovering opportunities with the next premier customers for FICOs flagship cloud software products. https://fico.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/External (Search for Bozeman) Wed appreciate it if youd mention that you found these opportunities on MATR.net Thank you Dans un courrier envoye a presse en seconde partie de la journee du 17 juillet 2022, les responsables de la concasseuse ont exprime leurs desarrois et leurs condoleances a la famille de Hossain Jakir, un employe fidele qui est mort pendant la soiree du 16 au 17 juillet 2022 quand sa tractopelle est tombe dans la boue et le tuant ensuite. Cest un moment tres dur pour toute la famille de Beemanique Stone Crusher Ltd. Nous presentons nos sinceres condoleances a la famille de Hossain Jakir, age de 42 ans, qui travaillait avec nous depuis plusieurs annees. Nous avons pris en charge lorganisation des rites funeraires du defunt et avons entame des demarches pour le rapatriement. Nous sommes en contact avec la famille de M. Jakir. Ce lundi sera decrete jour de deuil pour toute lentreprise et nous serons ensemble pour rendre un dernier hommage a cet employe exemplaire. En ce qui concerne laccident, nous collaborons avec les autorites concernees et avons initie une enquete interne pour en determiner les causes exactes. La securite et le bien-etre de nos employes ont toujours ete au cur de nos valeurs. Le Board of Racing Stewards du MTC Sports and Leisure Limited, compose de S. de Chalain (Chair), J. Keevy, P. Kalleechurn et A. Rousset, a rendu public le Racing Stewards Report de la sixieme journee hippique de 2021. Partager et informez vous aussi...... 0 shares Share Tweet LinkedIn Articles similaires Two lawsuits filed in behalf of a family of four as well as an official at Dalton State College who suffered horrific deaths near the Ooltewah exit of I-75 last June 25 are asking that huge damages be paid. The lawsuits filed in Hamilton County Circuit Court, in addition to suing the truck driver and trucking firm, also are filed against an additional trucking firm as well as those involved in a construction project that halted traffic. One suit is filed in behalf of Tiffany Watts and her mother Sandra Anderson. Another is for the children of Ms. Watts, Kelsie and Savannah Garrigues. Two others were killed when truck driver Benjamin Brewer slammed into the rear of a line of vehicles, including Jason Ramos, director of residence life at Dalton State College. Ms. Watts, who was driving, died at the scene after being ejected from the vehicle. The car caught fire and Ms. Anderson and the girls died in the vehicle before they could be rescued. Chattanooga attorney Morgan G. Adams is asking $50 million each for the lives of the two girls, who had just been picked up after flying in from California to spend the summer in Tennessee. He is asking another $10 million in behalf of their father, Nicholas Garrigues. Attorneys James Simpson and Kirk Caraway of Memphis and Tim Dollar and Jeff Burns of Kansas City, Mo., are asking a total of $134 million in connection with the deaths of Ms. Watts and Ms. Anderson. That includes $12.5 million for the estate of Ms. Watts, $14.5 million for Rick Watts and next of kin, $12.5 million for the estate of Ms. Anderson and $14.5 million for Terry Spoon and next of kin, plus $20 million in punitive damages each for the two estates and the next of kin of each. A suit filed by Patricia Ramos, mother of Jason Ramos, asks a total of $115 million. It was filed by attorney Andrew Young of Cleveland, Ohio, and attorney Matthew Wright of Franklin, Tn. Attorneys in the cases apparently are working closely together as the wording is very similar in the complaints and the defendants are the same. All the suits say current limitations on compensatory payouts in Tennessee are unconstitutional and should be lifted. Defendants include Brewer and the Kentucky trucking firm he was driving for, Cool Runnings Express, as well as Cool Runnings operators Billy and Cretty Sizemore. The suits say Cool Runnings was making a food delivery for Marten Transport and it is also liable. Also sued are Talley Construction, Superior Traffic Control of Memphis and Martin's Peterbilt of East Kentucky, which allegedly did not correctly repair the truck. Plaintiffs in the Watts/Anderson case are Rick Watts, husband of Ms. Watts, and Terry Spoon, brother of Ms. Anderson. Other lawsuits filed in the case have wound up in Chattanooga Federal Court. The suits say Marten Transport contacted Cool Runnings to make a food delivery from Horse Cave, Ky., to Haines City, Fla. The suits say Brewer left on June 22, 2015, though he advised there was a problem with the brakes. He was directed to take the vehicle to Martin's Peterbilt in London, Ky., to have the brakes fixed. The vehicle had to be returned to Martin's Peterbilt for a second repair - on the fuel delivery system - prior to Brewer starting the trip from Kentucky, it was stated. Brewer, who was said to be traveling at 77 mph at the time of the crash, later said that he tried to stop, but his brakes failed. The suits say Brewer was already far behind his original delivery schedule, "but Marten failed and refused to reschedule the delivery." They say on the morning of June 24 that Brewer sideswiped another vehicle in Florida after he had been "on duty" for 45 hours straight. It says he started back toward Kentucky at 4:30 a.m. on June 25 after the vehicle was repaired. At the time of the crash, Brewer was on meth and suffering from sleep deprivation, it was stated. I was just reading the Chattanoogan.com when I noticed the poll they had up. Should it be illegal for private citizens to possess assault rifles? They already are illegal, for the most part. They are very highly regulated by the BATFE under the National Firearms Act and one must jump through extensive hoops, be on waiting list for months, pay $200 for a tax stamp on top of the more than $25,000 price tag that goes along with those types of firearms (because they are so scarce) in order to purchase one. In which case the federal government knows exactly who bought it, puts them on list (you liberals should be happy about that), knows where they live and that person cannot sell that item (lawfully) to another individual without involving a the federal government again through that same long and tedious process. Now I understand that the poll could be asking if the laws need to be changed to allow private citizens to be able to buy assault rifles more easily, but I am going to go out on a limb here and say the editor at the Chattanoogan is misinformed, as is most of the general public, about what makes a rifle an assault rifle. In order for a firearm to meet the classification of assault rifle it must meet three standards. 1. It must have a detachable box magazine. (The little thingy that holds the ammunition and too many ignorant people call a clip.) 2. It must fire an intermediate cartridge with an effective range of 300 meters. Now pay attention because this last one is very important to most of you that call all black rifles assault rifles. 3. It must be capable of select fire. That means there is a switch/lever that can take the rifle from semi-automatic to fully automatic. Semi-automatic means that for every pull of the trigger, only one round of ammunition will discharge. Full automatic, or as the BATFE refers to them as machine guns, when the trigger is pulled will discharge continuously until one of two things happens, the trigger is released or the rifle runs out of ammunition. Please read and reread until you reach full comprehension. An AR-15 is not an assault rifle and the AR in AR-15 does not stand for assault rifle. It stands for Armalite Rifle, the company that developed it. It was original developed for the military as the M-16 (which was capable of select fire) and later, due to popularity with those that used it during their service, thank you to all who did, adapted it for civilian use as the AR-15 (not capable of select fire and therefore not an assault rifle). Please, educate yourselves and dont let media buzz words drive your emotions into false support of new laws that may already exist. John Masters Chattanooga * * * Mr Masters your points are very well taken. Let me add the following: According to a Pew Research Study released in November of 2015 and reported on NPR on Nov. 23, 2015, only one in five Americans trust their government all or most of the time. In a CNN/ORC poll conducted after the San Bernadino terrorist murders, 60 percent responding disapproved of the way President Obama was handling terrorism and 81 percent said they believed terrorists associated with ISIS are in the country and could launch a major attack here. Given those are real, not imaginary, fears and a rejection of a failed policy by President Obama to keep average Americans safe, for Democrats to want to disarm citizens is not only ill timed, but moonstruck. Americans deserve an honest discussion about terrorism and not false arguments full of deceptive schemes to disarm citizens already untrusting of their government. Thank you, Mr. Masters, for your clarifications. I seriously doubt, however, the usual suspects who croon the leftist mantra will change their tune. Ralph Miller * * * Mr. Masters is entirely correct about what a true "assault rifle" is. Most people who know, including myself, don't even like the media made up label "assault rifle". An AR-15 is simply a semi-automatic rifle that may or may not resemble a military selective fire automatic rifle. The term assault rifle has been used so long by the media and liberals like Clinton and others that people that don't know actually think AR does indeed stand for 'assault rifle". Of course, we have to ban those scary looking black guns. Here's a chance for our liberal friends to educate themselves. Google Ruger Mini 14. Just an ordinary looking rifle, right? Except it has the exact same fire control system as the evil, scary looking black gun and shoots the exact same cartridge (.223) at the exact same rate of fire.....one shot per each pull of the trigger. It can even be configured to hold the same number of rounds. Yet nobody is clamoring for a ban on this rifle only because it simply doesn't look as scary as the so called "AR" rifle. It's all driven by hand wringing hysterics and emotion. I declined to participate in the flawed poll because, as Mr. Masters correctly pointed out, for all intents and purposes it is already illegal for an ordinary citizen to own a true "assault rifle". Dennis Wooden * * * The semantics of what you call these weapons is aside from the point. All your hair-splitting over stats and appearance is irrelevant. No should be able to own anything that delivers that much death, that quickly. I don't care if you call it an assault rifle, an AR-15, or a boom boom magic time fun stick. Your hobby is not worth human lives. Period. Ray Ingraham * * * I want to discuss what we call assault rifles or weapons for mass killing. First, let me give you some credentials before my opinion. As a young man I spent two years in Vietnam. I was an infantry sergeant. I was in the jungle and I dont mean some rear echelon at a base camp. I shot at the enemy and the enemy shot at me, at me individually, personally. My primary weapon was the M-16 assault rifle. I saw the gruesome damage to human flash that high-powered military ammunition can do. A previous writer points out that fully automatic weapons (like the M-16) are difficult to obtain under our current laws. But lets remember the identical semi-automatic version of that same military weapon can be easily and inexpensively obtained. I want to tell you that such weapons are just as deadly. During my training and borne out by experience, a modern military rifle is much more effective while in semi-automatic operation. I mean for killing people. (Its difficult to aim a rifle while in fully automatic operation and it exhausts ammunition very quickly.) So to imply that restricting modern military rifles to semi-automatic operation makes them safer and appropriate for civilian use is ludicrous. Military rifles and their ammunition were not developed for home defense, or hunting or target shooting. They were developed to do one thing, and one thing only, kill people, many people as fast as possible. As the many mass killings we have in the U.S. prove, semi-automatic knock-offs of military rifles do a very good job. I mean at killing people. Gun aficionados nitpick about terms. The public and media have seized on the term assault rifle to mean modern military rifles including the widely popular semi-automatic version of these same weapons. So we all know what we mean by assault rifles, we mean a weapon for mass killing of people. Its the weapon that every Tom, Dick and G.I. Joe wants to have around the house. Its the same weapon that U.S. companies make so much money from. Its the same weapon that the N.R.A. hypes as a sporting rifle. The U.S. is the only first world country that guarantees public access to such deadly weapons. Sadly there are deranged individuals in this world, but in the U.S. they can easily go on a killing spree enabled by these weapons. Lets have some effective gun control laws and get rid of weapons for mass killing. Bill Hurst * * * Guns, guns and more guns. That seems to be the wish list for Wayne of the NRA leadership. Some 300 million guns in the hands of citizens is a number I have heard many times. But before I ask why such foolishness I want to share a bit of background. I was trained on gun safety in high school by NRA instructors. Most of us took the course because most of us hunted. Rural area of home had lots of White tail deer, pheasant, rabbit and squirrel and the best Northern Pike, Walleye fishing in the state. The shotgun was the only state-approved weapon for deer. Shells were not buck shot but a lead slug. Squirrel, 210 gauge shotgun and 12-16 gauge for rabbit, pheasant etc. We didn't need anything else.. My father- in- law had a small 38 pistol that was taken on fishing trips to Canada for Muskie. Those fish can get very large and very difficult to land one and they have lots of sharp teeth. The pistol was to land the fish safely, not alive, brought into the boat. The country has gone far beyond that pastoral scene and for reasons that are becoming more and more bizarre so many guns keep coming. There was an argument from an obvious gun owner and zealot for gun rights explaining the difference between semi and fully automatic weapons. The argument was that one can pull the trigger once and the bullets empty out quickly for the automatic, not allowed in this country. The semi auto the trigger must be pulled for shell. The young man in Connecticut that killed all those small children..... The guy in Orlando killed many more, some 49. The argument for owning that AR-15 just falls flat..The AR is a gun sold to look like a military weapon. It is not a hunting rifle. Pulling the trigger each time is still killing. Let me move a bit to the absurd. Caveman had no weapons like the AR-15. Instead they used stealth, sticks, stones and a large club to feed the family. Took a lot of work to hunt down and not be the hunted to kill so that one could eat. Supposing, taking the absurd even further, that we had 300 million clubs, sticks and stones. The guy in Orlando would not have been able to kill 49; the young man that killed all those children, etc. My point is this .. We have little need for 300 millions guns. The idea of the well-written militia of armed men and women to thwart whatever evil might threaten had some merit at the time the 2nd Amendment was written, but now? I have a pistol in my home. It is not kept loaded. It has an eight-shot clip in a separate zippered area of the gun bag. I keep the gun in a cabinet. In the event of an intruder... knocking down the door.... he, gun in hand demanding money... What do I do? Oh, I know... "wait just a moment Mmr. burglar, I will get the money..." but secretly I want to get my pistol; put the clip in place; load; safety off... confront the burglar... Oh, I know, the Wayne mantra. . "A good guy with a gun..." . Absurd on the surface and when fact is presented.. they stammer and talk louder. Donald (the mouth) Trump uttered another one of those NRA messages of more guns... DT said that while the shooter was spraying bullets in the bar in Orlando the good guy with a gun would just have to pull his gun from his holster under his shirt and start shooting.. In the midst of chaos, the inexperienced and holder of gun permit, also scared, shoots in the direction of the shooter, some 20 feet away.. Guess what happened? He missed and instead added to the total of dead. 20 feet is long way to shoot a short barrel pistol with accuracy.. Ditto for the movie theatre massacre; the school shooting incident, more then one. The only people that MIGHT have a chance of hitting the shooter is an experienced cop who logs hundreds of hours shooting for practice. The average gun owner does not have that experience. There is overwhelming support for background checks and universal background checks in all states, not just a few that comply with loose legislation. There is overwhelming support for no guns if on terror watch list. Am I going too far? Just those two would tighten somewhat the ability, soooo easy, to get a gun.. The ease of purchase is one of the reasons why we have 300 million in this country. I have no cause for the collector or the pure hunter to have, store and use his weapons. Target practice is fun. Shooting deer, rabbit and pheasant used to be fun because of the challenges.. I never developed a taste for venison but knew people that did. Ditto for squirrel, rabbit. Pheasant can be fixed and be a wonderful meal. Behind the wood stove of my youth was an array of loaded guns. A single shot 22 cal., a level action rifle, think 38cal., a double barrel 12 gauge. All were loaded. Us kids knew they were behind the stove. We were not allowed to touch unless an adult was with us. The 22 cal. single shot was for woodchuck... Better be good. That Woodchuck puts his head and sometimes his entire body where one can see and from a good distance, one shot, hit the woodchuck. Some folks in the town ate woodchuck. Our concern was a cow stepping in the hole and breaking a leg. That 22 cal. came in handy one day when, while collecting eggs, a skunk was also collecting eggs. The skunk, so busy and upwind from me didn't see nor hear me.. I scurried out of the coop and got the 22 cal. single shot.. Oh, I got the skunk alright but the skunk got me and all the chickens; the coop and wide area surrounding. The skunk smell, when fresh, is powerful one. My heroic tactic was soon met with humiliation..Clothes off, leave them by the creek, walk back to the house. "Don't you ever touch that gun again, now get in that tub and rinse off with tomato juice." Robert Brooks * * * Gun enthusiast and the NRA would have you believe that in all of the mass shootings that have occurred in the last few years, that if only the "good guys" had guns, they would take out the "bad guy", as if they were being denied or oppressed from being gun-toting good guys. There is nothing keeping the "good guys" from having guns, except that they most likely don't want guns. There are no laws preventing this if they meet all of the requirements, which apparently are few and not too hard to meet. This is not the wild west and we are not cowboys and Indians. I am sick of the nitpicking and word play of what is and what is not technically an assault rifle. We all know what they are talking about and most of these weapons were never intended to be sold to Joe Bob to shoot at squirrels or beer cans. I have hunted all my life and own a rifle and a shotgun and they stay locked away. There has never been anyone threatening to take away my guns or anyone else's. I will never strap a pistol on my hip unless I join the police force or go into the military and I don't want see other people walking around with one either. For the record, if you visit my home or my business, you are welcome to leave your gun at home or in your car. Thing is, we have one of, if not the highest, gun-ownership in the world and the highest mass shooting rate in the world - that is pretty easy to work out. More guns are not the answer. We need tougher laws to make it harder to get and own a gun, just like every other modern nation in the world, not easier. When people are being murdered at such high rates, I stop caring about second amendment rights. I care more about human rights and the right to live and feel safe. The NRA and the gun lobby owns Congress. This needs to stop. John Fricke * * * I love guns. To me, the most beautiful are the old over-under shotguns that have finely etched artwork all over and are attached to an incredibly fine looking stock made out of burled walnut or mahogany or whatever. I get all warm and fuzzy over Brownings, Bennellis, Colts, Winchesters, etc. To be honest, I've handled an AR-15 made by Colt and it is a fine piece of equipment. Very well made. The one I shot had zero intention of jamming or messing up in any way. I think it's a good looking gun and my paint ball gun looks just like one. They are extremely accurate and, from what I've read, reliable. And like the guy said, it shoots a .223 round which is cheap ammo that has a pile of muzzle velocity. If you hold a .223 round in your hand and look at the bullet, you can see that it's no bigger than a .22 long rifle. It just has a lot more gunpowder behind it. I had a bolt action varmint rifle made by CZ that shot .223's and it was a blast to target shoot with. I was told that you can see just what muzzle velocity means by getting a gallon milk jug and filling it up about 80 percent with water and then the rest of the way with a loud color dye like Volunteer orange or Georgia red or Auburn puke. I chose Alabama crimson. Then, I propped it up on a log or something in front of a dead winter grassy earthen embankment. Then I walked about 50 yards back and took aim. When I pulled the trigger, the red gallon literally exploded. It vaporized. Seriously. What was a full Bi-Lo gallon jug instantly became a five foot square mist of crimson all over the bank. The jug became 50 or 60 little pieces. If you do that with a .22 long rifle, you'll get two little holes with water leaking out- one where it went in and one in back. When I heard about the Orlando gay bar I thought of people I know and love who are gay and Sandy Hook and that little experiment of mine. I was 50 yards out and these maniacs were point blank. At 10 or 20 feet and decently aimed, nobody had a chance and those who survived are in for a God-awful struggle. Both of the monsters carried multiple fully loaded large capacity magazines. Again, I love guns. I will 'til I die. But why, gun loving brothers and sisters, do I need a magazine that holds more than five cartridges that push bullets out of a barrel at 3,200 feet per second? Why won't Ruger make large capacity magazines for their .223 shooting Mini-14? You have to get those on the after market. Is there a reason for that? And by the way, if you put a mini-14 next to an M1 Carbine, the military assault rifle of WWII, you'll see they look a lot alike. My wish is that many many years ago they'd had the foresight to make large capacity magazines as illegal as machine guns so we could have been policing them like we police machine guns now. Got to figure that out. Get the magazines out of civilians hands. Semi-autos have simply gotten too good. That's not gun control. Savage Glascock, Sr. * * * Mr. Fricke, When you say things like this, When people are being murdered at such high rates, I stop caring about second amendment rights. I care more about human rights and the right to live and feel safe. Then you sir, deserve neither the right nor the freedom guaranteed by our constitution. Andy Bates Dayton * * * I will respond to Mr. Glascock's question as to why Ruger does not have large capacity magazines for their Mini-14. If you look back to the Federal Assault Weapons Ban of 1994, you will notice that William Ruger was pushing for a restriction on magazine capacity. That's odd. Why would a gun manufacturer want to limit his product? Turns out, Mr. Ruger was trying to compete with the up and coming Glock firearm, who's double stack (two wide) magazine, allowed for higher capacity. The Glock was stealing his market share, so he turned to our lawmakers to make the competition's guns illegal on a technicality. Once illegal, it became desirable and when it expired in 2004, the flood gates opened. Is this a case of the outlaw of an item creating a demand? Tim Giordano The Chattanooga Radio Control Club will be hosting the Siskin Children's Institute Airshow on Saturday from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. This is a fundraising event to benefit the Siskin Children's Institute showcasing all types of radio controlled model aircraft. It will be held at the Chattanooga Radio Control Club at 4296 Old Woodland Dr. in Ooltewah. Attendees will see Giant Scale Aerobatic Airplanes, Jet Powered Airplanes, Military Aircraft, 3D Aerobatic Helicopters, and Multirotor/Drones. Attendees will have the opportunity to experience Model Aviation via buddy-box flight training and the Academy of Model Aviation simulator experience. Event admission is $5 per person, or $10 per car/truckload. Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts may attend for free if they wear something scouting related. Participants are asked to wear sunscreen and bring chairs. Visit www.crccflyers.org for more information. The CBS Evening News (June 21, story 8, 2:35, Pelley) reported that the Department of Housing, which provides rental subsidies to millions of families across the US, is aware of lead in homes that it rents to the poor, but it has a policy of waiting until a child is actually poisoned by the lead before any repairs are required or moves approved. More than 2.5 million HUD-subsidized homes have hazardous levels of lead, but HUDs threshold is four times higher than what the CDC recommends. HUD has proposed changing its standard to match the tougher CDC position, but regulatory review takes a long time. Yeah, lets wait until children have irreversible developmental disabilities before we do anything to prevent the disability from happening in the first place. William G. Colvin f you're looking for a growth industry, check out Tennessees food and agricultural exports: The number of jobs supported by agricultural exports has been trending upward since the 1990s. More than one million American jobs are supported by agricultural exports, including 14,400 jobs in Tennessee. Thats a substantial part of the estimated 11.5 million jobs supported by exports all across the country. Agricultural exports help support rural communities across the country, with each dollar of exports stimulating another $1.27 in business activity. Our states agricultural exports support jobs in transportation, processing, packaging and many more areas; roughly 80 percent of these jobs are in non-farm sectors. So while the benefits of trade for Tennessees rural farmers and ranchers are clear, there are also positive impacts rippling throughout the entire job market stimulating our national economy. Here in Tennessee, were accustomed to producing the best agricultural goods. Our producers keep Americans fed and clothed while contributing to the food security for nations across the globe. Their hard work is a symbol of where we come from, a reflection of our shared values, and an economic driver for our states economy. For the U.S. economy as a whole, agricultural exports represent a consistent success story through good times and challenges. Agricultural exports have grown much faster over the past decade than even manufacturing exports. In fact, over the past seven years, U.S. farmers and ranchers are responsible for exporting $1 trillion in food and agricultural goods to countries around the world. At USDA, were working aggressively to maintain this historic momentum by expanding foreign markets to help drive demand for American-grown goods. Were leading more trade missions and generating more sales as a result than ever before. We have saved U.S. businesses billions of dollars by removing unfair barriers to trade. In 2015 alone, USDA resolved more than 150 trade-related issues involving U.S. agricultural exports valued at $2.4 billion. And weve worked to expand trade relations with many of the worlds fastest-growing nations. More simply, as the rest of the world continues to become more developed and populations grow, so does the demand for American agricultural exports. That is why the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement is so important to Tennessee. The TPP is a 21st century trade agreement that helps to level the playing field for American businesses while ensuring the highest labor and environmental standards. U.S. trade with the 11 TPP countries accounted for 42 percent of U.S. agricultural exports in 2014, contributing $63 billion to the U.S. economy. Easier access to these markets with fewer taxes on our goods allows for even the smallest-scale producers to expand their reach. According to the American Farm Bureau Federation, ratifying the TPP will boost annual net farm income in the United States by $4.4 billion. The TPP also removes 3,900 taxes on U.S. agricultural goods, such as soybeans, cotton, or wheat grown right here. Failure by Congress to pass the agreement, however, costs the U.S. economy a permanent loss of $94 billion each year. With TPP, local products are able to compete on a more level playing field, reaching high-demand markets both at home and abroad. And, most important, TPP provides the United States an opportunity to help write the global rules on trade rather than nations like China. While China moves forward with its own trade deals that dont reflect our interests and our values, TPP promises to make a lasting contribution to the American economy by giving more Americans a fair shot, more higher-paying jobs, and households with paychecks that go further. Strong trade deals like TPP that meet our standards, reduce taxes and level the playing field for our businesses can power Tennessees economy for decades to come. Lets hope Congress gets the message. Rural Development State Director Bobby Goode Farm Service Agency State Executive Director Gene Davidson by Aaron Baar , June 21, 2016 Look out world -- Sears is making its way into the connected home. Extending its Kenmore and Craftsman brands, Sears Holdings sees an opportunity to take these trusted names into the new frontier of the Internet of Things, offering the convenience and peace of mind of connectivity. As we look at these brands, we think were well positioned in the connected home space, Tom Park, president of Kenmore, Craftsman and Die Hard brands, tells Marketing Daily. If we can provide connected products [that offer] peace of mind at a convenient price, we can own that. Among the products the company is launching is a line of Kenmore television sets, moving the brand beyond the appliance category into consumer electronics. The company will begin marketing its two televisions this July, laying the groundwork to launch connected sets later this year, Park says. advertisement advertisement It recognizes [Kenmores] brand equity and capitalizes on that, Park says. The Kenmore brand youve had in your kitchen all these years is coming to your living room. The company is also adding smart capabilities to many of its appliance products, such as refrigerators and water heaters (and launching a smart thermostat line), that will detect when something may be in need of repair, automatically contacting the home service division to solve the problem, Park says. Connecting to our home services department before theres a problem is a definite value proposition, he says. Beyond Kenmore, the company is launching a smart garage door opener and Bluetooth-enabled tool storage units under its Craftsman brand. Those extensions are designed to offer the peace-of-mind already held by the Craftsman-branded tools, Park says. Moving forward, Sears will continue to look at the opportunities to add connectivity to all its brands, where they can add value or peace-of-mind, Park says. (The company is also launching a line of Die Hard-branded tires, but no connected home products under that line as yet.) Were committed to our vision that with the Internet of Things, the possibilities are endless. But it has to be the right proposition, Park says. Were going to be looking at every product and see whether it fits. by Joe Mandese @mp_joemandese, June 21, 2016 CANNES, FRANCE -- Delegates attending Clay Bavors presentation here this morning thought they were experiencing him live, on a well-lighted stage in the Palais. In reality, he was merely an electrochemical rendition in a dark theater. At least thats how the Google VR chief explained the way people experience anything -- real or virtual -- leaving me wondering whether Bavor was actually physically present at todays session of the Festival of Creativity, or whether he was just demonstrating one of Googles next-generation VR technologies. Its all the same thing to our brains, he said -- pointing to his, just a bunch of photons bouncing off our retinas, or audio waves of energy vibrating on our eardrums. But when they come together in the kind of immersive way that technology is beginning to enable, our brains simply cannot distinguish. Bavor kicked things off with a simple demonstration of relatively old VR technology showing what happens when you transport people to a high-diving board 50 meters over a swimming pool. They reach for a railing that is not there, he said. And most wont do what Google asks them to do while testing users in their VR lab. We ask you to walk to the end and step off. And most people cant do it, Bavor -- or a fabulous rendition of him -- told the audience, which may or may not have also been there. Bavor then demonstrated Googles most current VR technology, called Jump, as well as one called Daydream that is just being released. Both enable users to create high-quality mobile VR experiences -- and the latter, Bavor said, would do it at scale. Google has already begun to deploy the technology with some of the greatest and most imaginative storytellers in the world to create content that will transform the way people experience the world. Jump has already taken more than a million school students on virtual field trips around the world, and even to Mars. Daydream executions, presumably, will take us to places we so far can only dream of. As good as these new technologies are, Bavor predicted that within 10 years, VR gear will become so perfected that simply wearing something that looks like a pair of large sunglasses will render experiences as vivid and real as reality in our brains. You will be able to have experiences that are so convincing that at times you wont be able to tell whether you are in virtual reality or real reality, he said. Not surprisingly, Bavor told the auditorium full of industry creative and media executives that the implications would have a big impact on the way they create brand experiences for consumers, including three big shifts affecting story, art and memory. The difference between those experiences and the ones people have had using other storytelling media for thousands of years, he said, is you dont read or see or watch it. If a story is unfolding in VR, you are in that story, he said, concluding: Youre part of it, because you are there. by Richard Whitman , Columnist, June 21, 2016 We really shouldn't be surprised at anything Donald Trump says or does. He seemingly bankrupts everything he touches and he refuses to share his tax returns. So it should come as no surprise that a recent SEC filing by the Donald Trump campaign revealed three payments of $10,000 to a Londonderry, New Hampshire company called Draper Sterling. Yes, you read that right. The Donald Trump campaign paid $30,000 (or $35,000 depending upon the source) to a company named very closely to Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, the fictitious ad agency featured in the AMC show "Mad Men." But where did the money actually go? A little digging by ThinkProgess editor Judd Legum found that the address of this Draper Sterling -- a residential home on 18 Crosby Lane in Londonderry, NH -- is very close to the New Hampshire address of recently fired campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. But a little more digging reveals the New Hampshire-based Draper Sterling is actually an LLC and, apparently, real. The firm is said to have been registered in March, and the SEC filing lists the purpose of payment to this firm as "Web advertising." advertisement advertisement The Draper Sterling entity was formed as a Delaware corporation on December 2, 2015. On February 14, a man named Jon Adkins registered the firm in New Hampshire with formal creation on March 25. In addition to the payments to Draper Sterling, the Trump campaign made a payment of $3,000 for consulting to Adkins and a payment of $3,000 for consulting to a man named Paul Holzer whose address is, interestingly, also 18 Crosby Lane. Adkins and Holzer work together at a firm called Xeno Therapeutics, a Boston firm which makes technology that helps burn victims. The Huffington Postreports there is no phone number listed for the firm and its Web site was taken down shortly after a story was published about Draper Sterling. It gets even messier. Holzer is involved in a super PAC called Patriots for America, which is supporting the Missouri gubernatorial race run by his brother Adam McLain. ThinkProgresshighlighted a complaint made to the PAC that it owes $54,234 to, yes, Draper Sterling. If you try to reach Patriots for America, the phone numbers lead to the voicemail for a cafe called Grace Grantham, a New Hampshire business registered to Adkins. ThinkProgress attempted to get a few more details from McLain. They were unsuccessful. Asked about his connection to Draper Sterling and what services it provided to his super PAC, McLain said he had no comment. Asked whether Graces Grantham Cafe was a real cafe that has opened, McLain said he had no comment. Asked whether Paul Holzer was his brother, McLain also said he had no comment. McLain said he didnt find the questions relevant. Politics as usual, right? Needless to say, the Trump camp is not commenting on this. Has our media consumption evolved such that ideas no longer need to be attached to a specific medium? Not according to Sir John Hegarty. We live in a world today where everything is fragmented, which is incredible in many ways, the British ad vet told a full house at the Lumiere Theatre in Cannes on Monday afternoon. What you need in that fragmented world is a big idea that holds everything together, Hegarty said. Of course, people talk about media neutrality Oh, Im media neutral, said the Bartle Bogle Hegarty founder. An idea has to appear and start somewhere an idea cant be media neutral. You write a book, you do a painting, you put up a building an idea has to start somewhere, he stressed. As for mediums, cinema is Hegartys personal preference. I think cinema offers us the most amazing place to start an idea, because its culturally important, he said. What youre trying to do if youre in brand marketing is youre trying to make your brand culturally important, and [so] cinema is the place to do that. by Tanya Gazdik , June 21, 2016 Toyota is celebrating the 50th anniverary of the Toyota Corolla by entering an iconic first-generation 1970 sedan into The Great Race. The car is being driven by X Games Athlete Jamie Bestwick. The long-distance endurance competition started in Northern California June 19 and ends in Moline, Illinois on June 26. Toyota is one of the national sponsors of the event. More than 130 vintage cars take part in the road rally. This is Toyotas first-ever entry. Bestwick is a 13-time X Games gold medal winner in BMX Vert and SCORE Baja 1000 veteran. The automaker is posting daily video updates at www.racer.com/GreatRace and www.youtube.com/TheRacerChannel. advertisement advertisement The Corolla will feature a vintage early 1970s racing livery and the Toyota Great Race team will sport period racing uniforms, a fitting homage to the brands rich motorsports heritage. The Toyota Corolla itself remains true to its original 1970 specifications -- a testament to its capabilities and Toyotas core values of quality, durability and reliability, says John Myers, Toyota vehicle marketing and communications national manager. When Toyota first introduced Corolla in 1966, it became a worldwide overnight success not just because of its quality and style, but also because it allowed so many to pursue their personal adventures and create memories in their car, Myers says in a release. The Great Race provides a perfect opportunity to celebrate the spirit of Corolla, the worlds all-time best-selling car and still one of the top-sellers in the U.S., while also recognizing Toyotas racing heritage and having some fun along the way. The event, which features classic vehicles dating back to 1916, follows the historic Lincoln Highway through Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, South Dakota and Iowa. The winning rally team will receive a large eagle trophy and a check for $50,000. Each driver and navigator team, including Bestwick and his navigator Laurence Foster, will receive a set of course instructions at the beginning of the day that indicate every turn, speed change, stop, and start that the team must make throughout the day, leading to a series of checkpoints laid out between the start and finish lines of the race. The team will be joined by a variety of guest navigators along the route, including off-road racing champion BJ Baldwin, world-class snowboarders Amy Purdy, Elena Hight and Louie Vito, professional BMX rider Drew Bezanson, musician Mike Eldred, motocross racer Andy Bell and motorcycle racer and designer Roland Sands. by Sarah Mahoney @mahoney_sarah, June 22, 2016 Lululemon just turned in very impressive quarterly results, andcompared to other retailersis currently a shining star both on Wall Street and the worlds yoga mats. But that hasnt stopped founder and former CEO Chip Wilson from coming after it with not-so-Namaste criticism, attacking its old school board of directors. In a presentation to investors today, CFO Stuart C. Haselden added a little more luster to Lulus performance. Earlier this month, the Vancouver-based company reported a 17% jump in revenues to $495.5 million, from $423.5 million in the first quarter of the last fiscal year, a 6% gain in comparable sales, and a 3% rise in comparable-store sales. E-commerce advanced 18%. advertisement advertisement Speaking at the Jeffries 2016 Consumer Conference, which was webcast, he specifically singled out the marketing success of its Align crop pants, introduced in April. When we focus on innovation, we win, he says. When we innovate in fabrics and construction, we can distinguish ourselves in the marketplace. Pants have been delivering double-digit comps since the third quarter. Smarter digital marketing has been part of the success. The Align crop video, released in April on Instagram, gave us the best results weve ever had, with some 300,000 views. This was the first time we synched brand marketing with a product introduction, and we are looking at more ways to leverage brand marketing around these events. He also elaborated on the companys strategy to focus not on store expansion, but on increasing square footage in its best-performing units. In the Boston store in Prudential Center, for example, a 30% gain in size has led to double-digit comparable store sales. (It plans seven more such expansions.) And Haselden reiterated the retailers intentions to double sales and more than double profits within the next five years, including more than doubling its mens clothing, as it continues to expand internationally. While that may be enough to push it to the top of many analysts buy listby some measures, it has outperformed companies like Under Armour and Nikeits getting nothing but shade from Wilson, who issued an open letter to shareholders earlier this month, calling for a shakeup in its board of directors and a strategy with urgency. Wilson still owns about 14% of the company By his way of thinking, Lululemon, which many say more or less invented the athleisure market, should be eating Under Armours lunch. A few weeks later, Wilson jousted with Mad Moneys Jim Cramer on CNBC, who kept goading him to admit that, in fact, Lululemon isnt just doing well, its doing better than almost any other publicly traded retailer. Wilson, whose departure from the company he founded was sparked by the epic Lets-Make-See-Through-Yoga-Pants-Then-Blame-Women-For-Being-Fat Affair of 2013, was having none of it. By now, Lululemon should have been seven years ahead of everyone in the market, and be worth double the value of Under Armour. It should have owned womens bras by now, and be selling as many as Victorias Secret. by Sara Guaglione , June 22, 2016 Quintype, a data-driven publishing platform, has announced they are partnering with BloombergQuint, the joint venture between Bloomberg Media and Quintillion Media. The partnership aims to bring business and financial news -- specifically live news events across India -- on broadcast, digital and mobile platforms to the region. The man behind the partnership is media entrepreneur Raghav Bahl, often referred to as the Indian Rupert Murdoch. Quintillion Media is Bahls digital news venture. Bahl is also the investor behind Quintype, which was founded in 2014 by Amit Rathore. Publishing digital content is a shot in the dark without assistance and insight from big data, stated Bahl, who is also the creator of Indian media conglomerate Network 18. advertisement advertisement While Bloomberg currently uses a WordPress-based system for their online media properties, Quintypes Software as a Service (SaaS) platform for BloombergQuint includes a new cardified CMS, mobile-first Web and apps, a new semantic analytics engine, a built-in personalization engine, email marketing and push notification tools, according to Rathore. Rathore told Publishers Daily that the tools on functions on Quintype's platform can help bring BloombergQuint closer to their ambitious goals in content velocity, user growth and monetization." Old technologies are not well suited to the world of new media, and the changed audience and monetization landscape, he said. Rathore added that Quintypes native ad solutions will also play a big role in helping BloombergQuint achieve their revenue goals. He also stressed the importance of Quintypes platform built specifically with mobile in mind and how this can help BloombergQuint reach business audiences on social networks through their smartphones. Rathore told PD that technology now plays a fundamental role in publishers media strategies. Whats become clear over the past few years is that while content continues to be important, the power of algorithms, AI-powered social amplification, real-time A/B testing, and real-time automation across a variety of functions is critical to achieving the kind of audience scale that is needed to scale up, he said. "Tech-savvy publishers like Buzzfeed and Vox, for example, have dedicated significant resources to build in-house technology for their own platforms. Every business is a technology business today, but not every publisher can build such technology by themselves, he said. The Tiffanie Robinson School Board Campaign is hosting a barbecue and meet and greet in Alton Park this weekend. The campaign welcomes the Alton Park community and surrounding neighborhoods to meet the candidate and share how they want to improve their schools. Ms. Robinson says she is excited about this event because it is an opportunity to hear the concerns of the Alton Park community and get to know the families in the area. The event will be held at the home of Tracy Fears at 220 Water St., and the barbecue will take place from 12-1:30 on Saturday. by Gavin O'Malley , Staff Writer @mp_gavin, June 22, 2016 Wendy Clark, CEO of DDB North America, just proposed a challenge to the brand leaders gathered in Cannes: Stop making more ads, and, instead, start making more good ads. Good work is interesting, compelling, [and] share-worthy, Clark told a packed house at Lumiere Theatre on Tuesday. It makes people react it makes people feel something, she said. Use a definition like that to define what good work is. Unfortunately, as the market has expanded, we have too many clients and too many agencies that have simply and quite mindlessly pursued a goal of just more, Clark lamented. That has made for a quantity game of content. On average, in fact, U.S. consumers are now exposed to 6,000 brand images every day. If thats the case, more cannot be a strategy, Clark insisted. Quite frankly, many if not most brands have become rude and annoying. Clients too often are force-fitting themselves into a conversation, commented Clark. They are inviting themselves into a conversation where they dont belong; where theres nothing material that they can contribute; where its not useful; where its not interesting; where its not compelling; where its not share-worthy and that ultimately becomes annoying. So? So, the goal for all of us the standard we have to hold ourselves accountable to is more good, Clark concluded. Not just more, [but] more good. by Ben Frederick @mp_benfred, June 22, 2016 Mobile advertising platform Verve announced the acquisition of a Denver-based startup called Roximity this week, which runs a beacon network in the US. Verve recently raised $30 million in debt financing and has reportedly used some of that money to pay for the acquisition, though the terms of the deal havent been released. Verve utilizes location data to provide analytics to various apps and sells ads for publishers on its platform as well. With the purchase of a beacon network, the company will be able to get more concrete data about the relation of mobile ads to in-store visitsand hopefully add more data points to the problems with mobile attribution that many publishers, brands and advertisers still have. Roximitys network is opt-in and anonymized, for consumer privacy. advertisement advertisement Many brands are experimenting with beacons in various pilot and beta programs, but the major problem is scaling the hardware and software to every unique branch of a franchise. Some think of beacons as a way to augment the in-store purchase process. Others think of them as data collection points to identify cohorts to serve ads at a later date. The two approaches arent mutually exclusive, but require different implementations of the various aspects of mobile marketing, like push notifications, timing and specific content. The hardest part by far is getting users to opt in and quelling privacy concerns. by Larissa Faw , June 22, 2016 Every day Buzzfeed publishes more than 600 pieces of content and while many believe science determines whether the platform writes about crazy cats or the funniest Bernie Sanders quotes, intuition still plays a massive role in its coverage, says Buzzfeed's CMO Frank Cooper during a presentation hosted by OMD during Cannes Lions. It is this balance between art and science that is the Holy Grail for creatives, panelists said at the OMD Oasis at Cannes Lions. Cooper was joined by Matthew Luhn, story supervisor, Pixar; Konrad Feldman, CEO, Quantcast; and Wendy Clark, CEO, DDB North America with moderator Omnicom's Claudia Cahill to discuss how data informs the emotional connection to deliver effective creative and storytelling. It is common knowledge that the marriage between data and creativity is disrupting the industry. In order to adjust to this new form of communication, DDB North America is evolving its creative model, says Clark. Today's business is about immediacy, she says. "Our teams have to be structured around speed." As a result, the agency is introducing a 24-7 content unit specifically to oversee one client. "They are open 24 hours and want to be engaged with their customers 24 hours," says Clark. advertisement advertisement Yet, this always-on business model pushes up against money. Clients may need 24-7 service, but they also seek lower fees. Meanwhile, there is no lack of data, so the challenge is to do something intelligent with that information. "The ultimate blend of art and science," says Clark. Quantcast's Feldman Konrad cautions, "Too much data is not effectively being used." One of the more effective strategies is to use data to understand how expectations match up against reality, he says. For instance, Quantcast recently worked with a company selling a drug aimed at older men. The tech company's research showed website visitors were skewing young and female. It turns out this younger audience served as caregivers and were concerned about their dads. Pixar is well-known for its creativity, yet its artists don't work organically without science. They may be 'artistes' but they still work with budgets within a big business. As such, data informs specific nuances that organize its storytelling throughout the entire project. "You guys don't get to see the 20 bad versions," says Luhn. "It is a trial and error process." From the start, directors pitch three different story ideas and executives pick the best concept using data that identifies, among other factors, which concept will sell the most toys. Data helps provide critical feedback to shorten the project's development. "Creating story is all about elimination," says Luhn. "If I had three ideas that I thought were awesome and if I could get in front of as many audiences as possible and they could tell me what they like best. Saves me time and grief for what the public may not want." Still, it is essential not to lean too much into the data. Disney, for instance, wanted to shut down Toy Story because they didn't think Woody was a good character due to focus group data that showed that people thought he was a jerk. Data saved the franchise by showing that people actually loved the quirky character. Science also helped Pixar deliver a stronger emotional connection with its characters. The studio worked with researchers to analyze human behavior that the animators then incorporated into characters. For instance, people look up when they remember images. If someone asks what they did last night, they will gaze upward, says Luhn. Pupils stay focused directly ahead when people remember audio and when someone asks how a person feels, they will look down. Eyes turn right when telling the truth and left when lying. "We connect with facial expressions," says Luhn which is why Pixar incorporates the micro and macro expressions into its characters. "Because when audiences watch whether it is a truck, toy, or rat, they are going to connect with them. It's in our DNA, we connect with our facial expressions." Although previous research has demonstrated the benefits of exclusive breast-feeding for early child health, the long-term benefits for child development have not been clear. Now, a new study suggests longer durations of exclusive breast-feeding are associated with fewer conduct disorders in later childhood. Share on Pinterest Babies who are EBF for the first 6 months are less likely to have conduct disorders by ages 7-11, according to the new study. The study, published in the journal PLOS Medicine, was funded by the Canadian government through Grand Challenges Canada, an organization aimed at improving global health. The researchers led by Dr. Ruth M. Bland, at the Africa Centre for Population Health in South Africa studied over 1,500 children, 900 of whom were involved in an early infant feeding study. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommend exclusive breast-feeding (EBF) for the first 6 months of life , at which point solid foods can be introduced to complement breast-feeding for up to 2 years. Breast milk provides infants with all the nutrients they need to grow. In addition, it contains antibodies that help protect babies from childhood illnesses such as diarrhea and pneumonia. According to the WHO, adolescents and adults who were breastfed as babies are less likely to be obese or have type 2 diabetes. In addition, they are more likely to perform better on tests assessing intelligence. However, the organization notes that less than 40 percent of infants under the age of 6 months are EBF globally. Male family physicians, or general practitioners, may be overlooking the risk of cardiovascular disease in female patient because they more often see it as a mans issue, according to new research published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology. Share on Pinterest Women, too, may be at risk of heart disease. Heart disease is a leading cause of death in the United States. Since the 1980s, developed countries have seen a fall in the number of deaths from cardiovascular disease (CVD). Around 50 percent of this improvement is thought to be because of preventive action. In men, the rates of mortality from CVD have dropped more than they have in women. There is also evidence that men receive better cardiovascular care after experiencing a cardiovascular problem, as well as better secondary prevention. Dr. Raphaelle Delpech, a general practitioner (GP) at Paris XI University and INSERM U1018 in Paris, France, and colleagues hypothesized that men might also be receiving better primary care than women. Risk factors key to primary prevention Primary prevention starts with an assessment of a patients risk factors. The team looked at 52 primary care physicians and 2,262 patients. They wanted to know whether the gender of the physician and the patient would make a difference to the risk assessment. Fast facts about heart disease In 2013, 611,105 people died of heart disease in the U.S. people died of heart disease in the U.S. This represents 23.5 percent of all deaths There were 1.6 male deaths from heart disease for every female. Learn more heart disease The physicians and patients provided information about personal details in a survey. Information provided by the physicians included their age, gender, and working hours. Patients also answered questions about their educational level and health insurance. Using medical files, the team gathered information about patients gender, age, any history of diabetes, and CVD risk factors. These included a personal and family history of CVD, tobacco use, fasting blood glucose, blood pressure, and cholesterol. To calculate the risk of CVD, the details of a patients risk factors can be applied to an existing, validated scale. The team used two scales, the French scale and the SCORE scale. The French scale classifies the risk of CVD as low, moderate, or high, depending on the number of risk factors that the patient has. The SCORE scale uses the patients risk factors to predict the likelihood of them experiencing a cardiovascular event within the next 10 years. Cholesterol-lowering statins were associated with lower risk for major cardiac events in some patients with preexisting ischemic heart disease but not in others, according to an article published online by JAMA Internal Medicine. Long-term treatment with statins is recommended for patients with stable ischemic heart disease (IHD) because they are at increased risk for recurrent cardiovascular events. But there are differences among guidelines regarding the definition of appropriate targets for low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels. The American Heart Association's guidelines do not establish target LDL-C levels. However, the European Society of Cardiology recommends treatment be titrated to achieve LDL-C levels below 70 mg/dL. Morton Leibowitz, M.D., of Clalit Research Institute, Tel Aviv, Israel, and coauthors compared the risk for major adverse cardiac events (MACEs) among patients with IHD according to LDL-C levels after at least one year of statin therapy. The study considered low LDL-C levels to be less than or equal to 70 mg/dL; moderate levels to be 70.1 to 100 mg/dL; and high levels to be 100.1 to 130 mg/dL. MACEs included heart attack, unstable angina, stroke, angioplasty, bypass or death. The study included 31,619 patients with IHD who were at least 80 percent adherent to their statin treatment: 9,086 (29 percent) had low LDL-C levels, 16,782 (53 percent) had moderate LDL-C levels and 5,751 (18 percent) had high LDL-C levels. There were 9,035 patients who had a MACE or who died during an average 1.6 years of follow-up. The authors report a low LDL-C level was not significantly associated with the risk of MACE compared with patients who had moderate LDL-C levels. However, moderate LDL-C levels were associated with a lower risk of MACE for patients compared with patients who had high LDL-C levels. The authors note a number of study limitations, including restricting the study to patients with preexisting IHD and limited generalizability. "Our results do not provide support for a blanket principle that lower LDL-C is better for all patients in secondary prevention," the study concludes. Editor's Note: LDL-C Levels and Statin Treatment - A Moving Target? In a related editor's note, JAMA Internal Medicine Editor Rita F. Redberg, M.D., M.Sc., of the University of California, San Francisco, and colleagues write: "The study by Leibowitz et al adds important information to the ongoing discussion of the best statin strategy and LDL-C targets to improve outcomes with minimal harms." MyCognition, a leading cognitive assessment and training company, has announced it is launching a ground-breaking clinical trial, addressing the cognitive impact of Parkinson's disease, led by Professor Bas Bloem, Medical Director, Parkinson Center Nijmegen, and Dr Mark L. Kuijf, Neurologist at Maastricht University Medical Centre, who are both recognised experts in neurological disorders. Around 127,000 people in the UK have Parkinson's which is an incurable neurological condition that affects the brain and other parts of the nervous system. While the main symptoms of the disease relate to the body's movements - where the majority of research projects have been focused to-date - it is estimated that at least a third of patients also suffer from cognitive impairments1 which can significantly impact their quality of life. This Parkinson's trial is the first to focus on the disease's cognitive impact using a scientifically designed video game as a non-invasive medical device. The trial will use MyCognition's cognitive measurement tool, MyCQ, to assess participants' cognitive function. The resultant data from MyCQ then personalises the online programme, focusing the training on improving each individual patient's cognitive areas of greatest need. At the same time, the video game also offers holistic training across the five key cognitive domains (working memory, episodic memory, processing speed, executive function, and attention). A unique element in this new study is the personalised approach as the cognitive domains that are hampered most will be targeted specifically by the video game. MyCQ, developed with support from the University of Cambridge by a leading group of cognition experts, combines over 200 years of neuropsychiatric research in a self-administered 30-minute assessment, so it can be safely and easily used by patients in the comfort of their own homes. The engaging training programme, which adapts to individuals based on their MyCQ score, was produced by BAFTA-winning, videogame studio Preloaded. A pilot study involving 40 participants will begin the trial, with the aim of extending this to 222 patients in total. The patients will be recruited from the 1,500 Parkinson's patients based in and around the cities of Nijmegen, Maastricht, and Heerlen in the Netherlands where the collaborating universities and medical institutions are based. The researchers are expecting to be able to release the first results of this clinical trial in 2017. Cognition is the ability to plan and organise, problem solve, remember, focus, and respond with speed and accuracy. It has an impact on all aspects of people's lives, including their ability to learn, cope with everyday situations, and on their mental wellbeing. Cognitive changes can affect Parkinson's patients' quality of life more than the physical effects of their disease such as tremors and rigidity2. Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most common chronic neurodegenerative disorder in older populations after Alzheimer's. In the UK alone, one in every 500 residents has Parkinson's, (around 127,000 individuals)3. In the Netherlands there are around 55,000 individuals with PD4, and globally a staggering 7-10 million people are affected by the disease. In addition to the emotional suffering caused, the annual cost of the disease to the UK economy is around 2 billion5, and with an ageing population these numbers are expected to rise further over the coming years. Few, truly innovative interventions have come to market in recent years. The mainstay medicine is still L-dopa, which was first discovered in the 1950's6. Professor Bas Bloem, Medical Director at the Parkinson Centre Nijmegen, commented: "It is well known that Parkinson's patients often experience great difficulties with their cognition, but to date there is no effective treatment for this. The majority of research projects into potential treatments still focus on the motor impact of the disease. That is why I am so excited about this new clinical trial that we are now undertaking using MyCognition's cognitive training programme. This new approach offers people with Parkinson's hope that a new non-invasive treatment could be effective in addressing the cognitive effects of the disease and significantly improving their quality of life." Dr Beckie Port, Senior Research Communications Officer at Parkinson's UK said: "We still have a long way to go to understand why thinking and memory problems happen in Parkinson's, but we know that keeping your memory and thinking as active as possible is important." "The individualised nature of this brain-training programme is likely to bring more benefit than a 'one size fits all' treatment as no two people with Parkinson's experience the condition in exactly the same way. Research such as this has the potential to help people with Parkinson's stay as independent as possible when going about their day-to-day life and allow greater control over their condition. If successful we look forward to seeing this training programme implemented more widely." Keiron Sparrowhawk, founder and chief executive of MyCognition, commented: "Part of MyCognition's mission from the outset has been to help individuals with cognitive deficits as a result of diseases including Parkinson's. So we are delighted to be working with Professor Bloem and his team at Maastricht and Radboud Universities to carry out this groundbreaking clinical trial, which we hope will enable us to help change the lives of patients by improving their cognitive health through the use of a non-invasive, online training programme." Brent Cliveden, VP US operations and UK Operations Director & Chief Clinical Scientist of MyCognition, said: "To date few clinical trials have focused on the cognitive effects of Parkinson's. By collaborating with leading medical centers like those in Maastricht and Nijmegen to combine our resources and expertise, we believe there is an opportunity not only to expand our knowledge about the cognitive effects of Parkinson's disease but also to help alleviate its impact. This pioneering clinical trial holds the potential to revolutionise the way Parkinson's patients manage the cognitive effects of their disease by introducing a self-administered cognitive measurement and training game, which can be used from the comfort of their own home." This trial is in addition to MyCognition's increasing activity across a range of cognitive disorders, making it a leading global force in clinical video game technology. Early evidence in a separate MyCognition pilot study in a mixed psychiatric population was positive, with patients improving significantly in verbal memory performance and showing a trend in improved visual memory performance. Further studies that are planned or underway include PTSD in children, eating disorders in adolescents, sleep trials, and cognitive deficit caused by cancer7. The Parkinson Centre Nijmegen (ParC) was recognised in 2005 as National Parkinson Foundation centre of excellence for Parkinson's disease during Professor Bloem's tenure as Director. Professor Bloem co-developed the regional ParkinsonNet concept, which in 2006 received an award for the best health care innovation in the Netherlands. His research interest includes projects evaluating the development of innovative Parkinson therapies, including the implementation and evaluation of complex changes in health care. Pluristem Therapeutics Inc., a leading developer of placenta-based cell therapy products, has reported positive data from preclinical studies of its PLX-PAD cells in the treatment of Duchenne muscular dystrophy. The studies were conducted in conjunction with ADI, the Association Duchenne Israel, whose members are parents of children with Duchenne. They are committed to helping to find a cure for Duchenne muscular dystrophy through research, clinical trials, and advocacy. Duchenne muscular dystrophy is the most common neuromuscular disorder, and affects roughly one in 3,500 boys. The disease causes progressive muscle weakness, and leads to severe disability and death. There is currently no cure. Following Pluristem's announcement of positive results from a Phase II clinical trial of PLX-PAD as a treatment for muscle injury, the Association Duchenne Israel approached Pluristem with a request to study PLX-PAD cells in Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Pluristem donated PLX-PAD cells for the preclinical studies, and the association supported the research in cooperation with Science in Action Ltd. The studies demonstrated that, in a mouse model of muscular dystrophy, PLX-PAD cells reduced creatine phosphokinase (CPK), a marker of muscle degeneration or injury, by approximately 50% as compared to placebo. CPK levels were measured via a blood sample taken 5 days after each intramuscular PLX-PAD injection made at day 15 and day 29 of the study. Histological analyses of quadriceps and diaphragm muscles show PLX-PAD reduced levels of inflammation and necrosis, a type of cell death, and induced regeneration of muscle tissue. Hila Krupsky, CEO of ADI, the Association Duchenne Israel, stated, "These preclinical data suggest that PLX-PAD cells could possibly be a breakthrough therapy to help treat symptoms of Duchenne muscular dystrophy. We are thankful for Pluristem's donation of PLX-PAD and are eager to continue studying the cells since new therapeutic approaches are needed to manage this disease, save children's lives, and give them hope and a chance for the future." "Because PLX-PAD cells have already displayed efficacy in muscle regeneration in a Phase II muscle injury study, we believe our cell therapy may potentially be beneficial in Duchenne muscular dystrophy in human clinical trials," said Pluristem Chairman and CEO Zami Aberman. "We admire the commitment of the Association Duchenne Israel to find a cure for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, and we will work closely with them in an effort to develop a treatment for the children around the world who suffer from this disease." A special communication article published online by JAMA Pediatrics explores whether new paradigms in child health may emerge because of Zika virus. Peter J. Hotez, M.D., Ph.D., of the Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, suggests pediatricians and pediatric subspecialists will need to mobilize quickly "to get ahead of this fast-moving train. According to the World Health Organization, up to 4 million people could be infected with Zika virus by the end of 2016." The article suggests revisiting how the specialty of pediatrics responded to the HIV/AIDS crisis 30 years ago as a possible road map for addressing this new virus infection. "We are just now waking up to a new normal as we learn more about the complete mental health effects of Zika virus infection. We will likely need to educate and train a new generation of primary care providers, including pediatricians and pediatric nurse practitioners. We will need to assemble interdisciplinary teams of pediatric specialists in neonatology, neurology, psychiatry, rehabilitation medicine and infectious diseases to organize diagnostic, clinical management, and treatment approaches and algorithms for this new illness. We will need new programs of child advocacy. Because Zika virus may equally affect North America, Central America and South America, we will need to expand how we work together across international boundaries. Zika virus will require us to dissolve any existing north-south divisions across pediatrics in the Americas. The next few years will be a challenging period as the number of congenital and pediatric Zika virus infections continues to increase from the current epidemic that first exploded in the western hemisphere in 2013," the article concludes. Study uses GPS to find Canadian youth are influenced by their exposure to junk food outlets. Dr. Jason Gilliland, a Scientist at Children's Health Research Institute, Lawson Health Research Institute and Director of the Human Environments Analysis Laboratory at Western University, is combining health research with geography to understand the connection between children's nutrition and their local neighbourhoods. In an innovative study, Dr. Gilliland and his team used GPS technology to provide evidence that adolescents' exposure to junk food outlets during trips to and from school affects their likelihood of making a junk food purchase. The study followed 654 students, aged 9 to 13, from across London and Middlesex County, Ontario. Each student was given a portable GPS logger to track their trips to and from school over the course of two weeks. The GPS logger identified each time a student entered within 50 metres of a junk food outlet, those stores or restaurants where students might make an unhealthy food purchase, and recorded their time exposed. Each student was also given an activity diary to record any junk food purchases during those trips. Results showed that exposure to junk food outlets had a significant effect on a child's likelihood of making a junk food purchase. Of all trips where a child was exposed to a junk food outlet, 1 in 20 included a junk food purchase. The length of time that a child was exposed significantly increased their chances of making a purchase, increasing from 1.7% at less than one minute of exposure to 16% at 16 to 17 minutes of exposure. In addition, trips home from school were much more likely to be associated with a junk food purchase than trips to school. "This study provides strong evidence that a child's surrounding food environment affects their food purchasing behaviour," says Dr. Gilliland, also Director of the Urban Development Program and Professor in the Department of Geography at Western University. "Unlike past studies, these results provide strong accuracy through the use of GPS technology to more precisely capture exposure." Dr. Gilliland's team also found that trips made by car were much more likely to result in a junk food purchase than those made by an active mode of travel. These odds increased significantly with length of exposure. Exposure while riding the bus did not result in a junk food purchase, due to limited mobility and school board restrictions. "These results show that trips by car, under adult supervision, are more likely to result in a junk food purchase," says Dr. Gilliland. "This suggests the powerful influence that parents can have on their children's eating habits and the need to be mindful of this. It also suggests that an active mode of travel may be healthier, not only for physical activity, but also for nutrition." The study found that trips made by females were more likely to result in a junk food purchase at all levels of exposure than those made by males. Females were 2.5 times more likely than males to make a junk food purchase after 5 minutes of exposure and 3 times more likely to make a purchase after 15 minutes of exposure. Dr. Gilliland suggests this may be due to female adolescents having more money in the Canadian culture of babysitting, but also cites the importance of health promotion campaigns that target males and females separately. "Overall, this study's findings have significant implications for municipal planners, school board officials, public health officials and other decision makers," says Dr. Gilliland. "This provides clear evidence that bylaws and policies should be enacted that restrict the concentration of junk food outlets around schools." In addition, the study highlights the need to educate adolescents in making healthy food choices. One way Dr. Gilliland and his colleagues are working to make healthy eating attractive is through the use of a smartphone app - SmartAPPetite. Dr. Gilliland created this app to remove barriers to finding local and healthy foods in southwestern Ontario. "We may not be able to change the landscape of our food environments overnight," says Dr. Gilliland. "But we can work to promote healthy eating in innovative ways." Article: Using GPS and activity tracking to reveal the influence of adolescents' food environment exposure on junk food purchasing, Richard C. Sadler, Andrew F. Clark, Piotr Wilk, Colleen O'Connor, Jason A. Gilliland, Canadian Journal of Public Health, doi: 10.17269/cjph.107.5346, Vol 107 (2016). This special issue includes a foreward from the Honourable Jane Philpott, Canada's Minister for Health, stating the federal government's commitment to supporting Canadians in making healthy, informed food choices. The study was jointly funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, with seed funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Additional support was provided by Children's Health Foundation and Children's Health Research Institute, Lawson Health Research Institute. Rep. Tom Graves on Wednesday voted for and the House Appropriations Committee passed the fiscal year 2017 Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, which funds the Department of Homeland Security. From Boston to San Bernardino and Chattanooga to Orlando, its clear that the war against militant Islamic terrorism is evolving, said Rep. Graves. Importantly, the bill addresses lone wolf terrorists, isolated individuals who decide to attack our communities outside the command structure of terrorist organizations, such as the Islamic State. This bill helps law enforcement and security personnel defend the homeland and find lone wolves before the attack, while strengthening border security, immigration enforcement and cyber security. The bills highlights include: Increasing funding for Customs and Border Protection by $158 million, putting more agents on the border and improving technology; Increasing funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement by $72 million, supporting dozens of new officers; Providing resources for the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Brunswick, Ga., including its work to test and evaluate active shooter response technologies; Increasing funding to detect and prevent cyberattacks by $120.5 million; And prohibiting the Obama administration from transferring detainees held at Guantanamo Bay to the U.S. TORONTO , Oct. 25, 2022 /CNW/ - Most parents wish the world for their children on their birthday. But what if you were to instead wish for their survival? The David Foster Foundation shares a unique, heartfelt story of Evanne, a two-time ... Advertisement "Peter and I, we don't often talk about it but sometimes things will remind us. That reminds me (of something) from inside, that reminds me (of something) from when we first got out," says Jacobs, ahead of the 6th World Congress Against the Death Penalty, being held in Oslo until Thursday."We very, very rarely mention the word prison. It's a visceral feeling you get when you say it." That's where she ended up after the murder of two police officers in 1976. According to her version of events, she and then-boyfriend Jesse were in a car belonging to a friend along with their nine-year-old son and 10-month-old daughter.During a routine check, police found a weapon in the car and a deadly gunfight broke out. The friend, whom she says was holding a gun, later cut a deal, blaming the young couple. He received three life sentences, while Sunny and Jesse were sentenced to death."I was at the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong people," she says. After five years, her death sentence was commuted to a life term, and she was finally released in 1992 having spent nearly 17 years behind bars.Jesse Tafero was electrocuted in horrific circumstances: his face caught fire due to a malfunction, executioners had to start the chair three times, and then it took seven minutes for him to die.- 'Like an animal' -In Ireland, Peter Pringle was just 11 days away from execution by hanging. Known to police for his past IRA connections, he was wrongfully convicted in 1980 for the murder of two police officers in an armed robbery.From his death row cell, he could hear the guards who monitored him around the clock talking about his upcoming execution, about the bonus they hoped to get, about the fact that they would have to pull on his legs to ensure his neck vertebrae were properly broken..."If the jailers learned to like the condemned prisoner or respect the condemned prisoner, then it would be very difficult for him or her to engage in killing that person cold-bloodedly because you don't kill people you like," he suggests."So for their own protection, they would treat you like you were an animal, or less than human." Less than two weeks before his scheduled execution, he was informed that his sentenced had been commuted to 40 years in prison."It would have been political suicide to hang somebody in the country at that time," he says. He had already resigned himself to the idea of dying, but not to the idea of spending so many years in jail. He taught himself law and was exonerated after 15 years inside.- 'It's about revenge' -It was in a pub in Galway, Ireland, in 1998 that he met Jacobs, who was there to talk about the death penalty. They found they had a lot in common: their convictions, the happy endings, their interest in yoga and meditation that they had practised in prison, and more.Married since 2011, they now run a help centre in Ireland for the victims of wrongful convictions. And they work tirelessly for the abolition of capital punishment. "If you teach children that if you make me angry enough, or you do something (that) I think is completely wrong, (and that) it's just fine for me to kill you, then when they get angry enough, they get a gun."And then you have Orlando, you have Sandy Hook," says Jacobs, referring to this month's massacre of 49 people at a gay nightclub, and another shooting at a Connecticut school in 2012 in which 26 people were killed. "The death sentence is not about deterrence," adds Pringle."It's about revenge. It's a situation where society cannot rise above the lowest level. Society has to be capable of rising above that." At least 1,634 people were executed around the world in 2015, according to Amnesty International, the highest number since 1989.Source: AFP Advertisement Govt set to ban potassium bromate as food additive; CSE report on bread http://www.fssai.gov.in/Portals/0/Pdf/20%20Govt%20set%20to%20ban%20potassium%20bromate%20as%20food%20additive%20;%20CSE%20report%20on%20bread.pdf Toxicity and Carcinogenicity of Potassium Bromate-A New Renal Carcinogen http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1567851/pdf/envhper00420-0290.pdf Potassium bromate is a category 2B carcinogen (cancer-causing agent) and is therefore banned for use as a food additive in many countries. Potassium iodate, on the other hand, has potential effects on the thyroid and may trigger disorders of the gland. The presence of these two chemicals in the samples was verified by authorities to ensure the results.Bread manufacturers use potassium bromate and iodate in bread as maturing agents and dough conditioners due to its oxidizing properties. The typical white color of bread is due to potassium bromate as this chemical bleaches the flour and creates bubbles which make the dough rise and become soft and spongy.Potassium bromate was one of the 1100 food additives permissible for use in the Indian food industry. It was allowed at 50 parts per million for bread (maximum) and 20 parts per million for other bakery purposes.Potassium bromate converts to another compound, potassium bromide, if it is subjected to an appropriate temperature for an appropriate length of time while baking. Failure to do either may result in the presence of potassium bromate in much higher concentrations in the final product.A team of researchers from Japan published a study in the year 1982 that revealed that potassium bromate causes cancers of the thyroid, kidney and other organs in rats.A review published in thein the year 1990 assessed the study conducted to evaluate the effect of single administration of potassium bromate in groups of five male and five female each of F344 rats, B6C3F1 mice and Syrian golden hamsters. In all the species administered with high-doses, two-thirds of the animals died within 3 hours while the rest died within the ensuing 48 hours.In 1999, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) labeled potassium bromate as a potential carcinogenic agent.Potassium bromate exhibits oxidizing property which is the reason for its use in bread industry. The same property is responsible for its role as a carcinogen as well as in promoting the formation of active oxygen radicals.It was banned for use as a food additive in the European Union and the United Kingdom as early as 1990. Other countries like Australia, Brazil, China, Columbia, Nigeria, New Zealand, and Sri Lanka soon followed suit.USA and India are the only two prominent nations that had not banned its use.In 2007, China withdrew the whole batch of potato chips from its stores across the country when they were found to contain potassium bromate. These chips had been imported from the USA.''FSSAI has banned potassium bromate. A notification has been issued in this regard. As far as potassium iodate is concerned, it has been referred to a scientific panel,'' FSSAI CEO Pawan Kumar Agarwal commented.This has impacted bread manufacturers and companies that operate the chains of multinational restaurants in India. A body of bread manufacturers agreed to stop the use of the chemical in bread production. The All India Bread Manufacturers' Association has urged the FSSAI to verify the CSE report's findings and confirm whether most breads actually contain the chemicals or not.A large proportion of the country's population consumes bread. This is especially true for the youths as multinational fast food joints like Domino's, McDonald's and Dunkin Donuts are quite popular among them. The ban is significant in preventing a routine exposure of this population to cancer-causing agents.''The Authority's quick response to what we found in our study re-establishes our stand that public health must remain a priority,'' Chandra Bhushan, Deputy Director General of CSE said.Source: Medindia Please complete this form and we'll send you a personalised information that is requested You may use this for your own reference or forward it to your friends. Please use the information prudently. If you are not a medical doctor please remember to consult your healthcare provider as this information is not a substitute for professional advice. Advertisement "Our results simply indicate that some plant-based therapies, such as soy and red clover, can be beneficial in reducing menopausal symptoms, but some others not (e.g. black cohosh and Chinese medicinal herbs)," said Muka.Data were collected from 62 randomized controlled trials of plant-based alternative therapies and their effects on hot flashes, night sweats, and vaginal dryness. Out of 62 reviews, 36 addressed phytoestrogens - estrogenlike molecules from plants such as soy or red clover, 16 tested black cohosh and 10 tested other medicinal herbs.The trials totally included more than 6,600 women between the ages of 18 and 75 years. The participants were followed for between four weeks and two years.Phytoestrogens are associated with fewer hot flashes during the day and less vaginal dryness. However, it did not influence night sweats.Some clinical trials linked black cohosh to lessen the overall symptoms of menopause score but not specifically to fewer hot flashes or night sweats. Chinese medicinal herbs did not reduce the menopausal symptoms.Hormonal replacement therapy is effective for menopausal symptoms in the early postmenopause, said Muka. But, it may not be an option for women at increased risk of breast cancer.Phytoestrogens in soy can act like estrogen in the body. "This may explain the aggregate beneficial effects on menopausal symptoms we found for phytoestrogens," said Muka."The long-term efficacy and safety of these plant-based therapies is unclear, however, and healthy lifestyle changes form the backbone for easing the discomfort related to menopausal symptoms and keeping you healthy in the long run," he said.A physician should be consulted before taking them as they may have some medication interactions. "There is little evidence for long-term effectiveness - or risks - of plant-based therapies, since most studies only last 12 to 16 weeks," he said.The study is published inSource: Medindia Advertisement "Yoga is not just an exercise but it is 'health science'. Yoga provides energy to our body as well as our mind. It helps in maintaining a balance in our lifestyle. Yoga is the union of the individual self with the universal self. The aim of Yoga is to calm the chaos of conflicting impulses," he said.Naqvi said that he himself has been practicing Yoga for the last several years and it provides benefit to people of all age groups."It is not correct to link Yoga with a particular religion, region or community. Only ignorant people are looking at Yoga with narrow mindset. Politics on health is harmful for health," he said.Source: IANS The Tennessee Republican Party and the Polk County Kiwanis Club are among those rapping a Make America White Again billboard erected briefly in Polk County by 3rd District Congressional candidate Rick Tyler. The Ocoee Kiwanis Club said it will no longer hold its weekly meetings at the Ocoee restaurant owned by the Independent candidate. The billboard was taken down after the backlash erupted. GOP Chairman Ryan Haynes said, "There's no room for this type of hateful display in our political discourse. Racism should be rejected in all its heinous forms in the Third Congressional District and around the country." The Kiwanis president said, "Due to recent statements and overtly racist billboards by the principal owner of the Whitewater Grill in Ocoee and himself a declared Independent candidate for Congress, the Kiwanis Club of Ocoee will never meet there again. We are a civic club of inclusion and not exclusion and find these statements repugnant. As a citizen of Polk County, I, Chris Newton, will never personally be back to this establishment. "We will be locating a new meeting venue in the coming days." The candidate said he was not a racist, but he said he wanted to take America back to "Leave It To Beaver" and ""Ozzie and Harriet" days where the country did not face so many vexing problems. On June 19, 2016, Palestinian writer Majdi 'Abd Al-Wahhab wrote an article on the Elaph website titled "Each Extremist Serves and Feeds the Other - from the Mufti to the Village Leagues," in which he showed how the Jewish and Palestinian extremists play into each other's hands and ensure each other's survival. The following is a translation of the article: "A couple of days ago, I was speaking to a fellow journalist about the Orlando shooting and its impact on Muslims in the West and on the U.S. elections. Many Arab writers contend that the one who benefitted most from the shooting was the American [presidential] candidate [Donald] Trump, and this confirms the theory that extremists serve one another. My friend tried to convince me of this claim by citing two examples from the Palestinian reality... "The first incident occurred in 1939 during the Saint James conference, a round-table [conference] in London that was Britain's last attempt to resolve the Jewish-Arab conflict. According to the story, the Mufti [of Jerusalem], Hajj Amin Al-Husseini, who at the time was [living] in exile in Lebanon, issued a decree banning the Palestinians from attending the conference on the grounds that he [the Mufti] was their sole legitimate representative. Haim Margaliot-Kalvarisky, who was a prominent figure in [the administration of] the Jewish Agency and [later] in the Israeli left... came to Ben Gurion with the good news - as he saw it - that there were groups of Palestinians from Ramallah and Nablus who were willing to take part in the conference in spite of the Mufti's [decree]. Ben Gurion answered dryly: 'There is no need for that, because the Mufti serves our interests better.' "The second incident occurred more recently, in the time of the West Bank Village Leagues,[1] whose establishment was [approved] by [then Israeli defense minister] Ezer Weizman [in 1978], and which were violently opposed by [both] the Palestinians and the Jews, in particular the settlers. According to the story, attorney Elyakim Haetzni, one of the heads of the settlement [movement] who lives in Kiryat Arba and was one of the Village Leagues' most bitter enemies, approached Ariel Sharon in 1982. [Sharon], who was defense minister [at the time], needed the support of the settlers, having lost his popularity due to the Sabra and Shatila massacre. Haetzni demanded that Sharon dissolve the Village Leagues, explaining: "Of Arafat I am not afraid [because] with him we will never talk. But I am afraid of Mustafa Dudin [of the Village Leagues] because we will have to make concessions to him.' "These two stories certainly clarify the theory that extremists serve one another. In the first story, Ben Gurion thought that the extremist Mufti Al-Hajj Amin Al-Husseini served the interests of the Jews better than the moderate Palestinians, and in the second story, Elyakim Haetzni believed that the moderate Palestinians were a greater danger to his [settlement] enterprise than the extremist Arafat. Dear reader, do not believe that one extremist will eliminate his rival, the extremist [on the other side. On the contrary,] each of them ensures the survival of the other."[2] Endnotes: Special sgents from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation have obtained indictments for a man accused of firing a weapon at police officers earlier this year. On March 8, at the request of 9th District Attorney General Russell Johnson, TBI agents began investigating the circumstances of an officer-involved shooting involving the Harriman Police Department. During the course of the investigation, agents developed information that two officers encountered Nathan Manis during the course of responding to a disturbance call, during which Manis produced a handgun and fired upon the officers. On Tuesday The officers returned fire, striking Manis once., the Roane County Grand Jury returned indictments, charging Manis, 26, of Harriman, with two counts of aggravated assault and two counts of reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon. On Wednesday afternoon, agents served Manis, who remains in the custody of the Roane County Jail on unrelated charges. State Transportation Department To Stop Construction Due To Budget Impasse By Stephen Gossett in News on Jun 21, 2016 9:41PM Getty Images / Photo: Joseph Raedle The Illinois Department of Transportation will suspend construction beginning June 30 due to the ongoing state budget impasse, according to statement shared with Chicagoist by IDOT Public Information Officer Gianna Urgo. The full release, with decidedly pro-stopgap language, is below: "We have started to inform our industry partners that all of our projects in both construction and engineering phases will be shutting down starting June 30 due to the majority party in the legislature's failure to pass a balanced budget. The conversation about how individual projects will wind down is continuing. The stopgap proposal is a fiscally responsible solution proposed by the Republican leaders that can be voted on today. There will be no interruption in our projects and programs if the General Assembly returns to Springfield and passes HB 6585/SB 3435." Gov. Bruce Rauner on Monday said the impasse has entered "absolute crisis phase." We'll see if he and Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan actually do meet Wednesday, as they often threat but rarely do. This post will be updated accordingly. City Council Passes New, Fairly Chill Airbnb Regulations, And Airbnb Likes Them By Mae Rice in News on Jun 22, 2016 8:31PM Airbnb It's official: Airbnb rentals will face new regulations in Chicago. On Wednesday, City Council approved a long-discussed regulatory ordinance for home-sharing through Airbnb and its ilk. It sounds like a potential nightmare for Airbnb, and they've actively protested this ordinance beforebut today, Airbnb is jazzed. Were excited to see Chicago join the ranks of leading global cities that have worked to protect the right of everyday people to share their homes to make some extra money," said Will Burns, Airbnb's Senior Advisor and Midwest Director of Policy, in a statement. "We are particularly excited that, under the leadership of the mayor and aldermen, the tax revenue generated from our community will go to helping to fund the City's homelessness program." This change of tune can be attributed, in part, to a change in ordinance. Under the ordinance passed Wednesday, there's no cap on how many nights per year hosts can rent out their homes, according to Airbnb. Hosts just need to pay the city $60money that will be used to enforce this ordinance, the Tribune reportsand register with the city, according to Airbnb. (Under a previous version of the ordinance, homes rented out more than 90 days a year would have had to be registered as commercial properties, as we noted in May.) As Burns said, the ordinance also applies a 4 percent tax applied to homesharing transactions, which will help fund services for homeless Chicagoans. The ordinance is most restrictive about how widespread Airbnb rentals can be in a given building. In buildings of five or fewer unit, only one unit can be rented out at a time; in larger buildings, either six or 25 percent of units can be rented out through Airbnbwhichever comes first. If a precinct deems Airbnb a particular problem, residents can also move to ban it from their precincts altogether, but doing so will be a fairly complicated process. Airbnb has lobbied heavily to shape the ordinance into its current, friendly state, the Tribune reports. Some of that lobbying has been public facing: the Internet Association, a group Airbnb is a member of, released video ads against these regulations earlier this month. Just two days ago, Ashton Kutcher (an Airbnb investor) took to Facebook to say the regulatory ordinance would "negatively impact" Airbnb hosts. Photos: First Zebra Baby Born At Lincoln Park Zoo Since 2012 By Mae Rice in Arts & Entertainment on Jun 22, 2016 5:25PM Photo by Todd Rosenberg / Lincoln Park Zoo Over Father's Day weekend, a zebra at the Lincoln Park ZooWebster, age 5became a father himself. On Saturday, nine-year-old Adia (also a zebra) gave birth to her third child, and Webster's first, a female zebra foal. The foal is the first one that's been born at Lincoln Park Zoo since 2012, and she's an important addition to the waning Grevy's zebra population. Grevy's zebras, which are native to eastern Africa, are endangered due to hunting and habitat loss. There are only about 2,000 Grevy's zebras left, according to the African Wildlife Foundation. The baby is as yet unnamedwhich means that she, too, could be named Alexander Camelton. Not as punny when it's a zebra, but we're still here for it. Here's one more adorable photo of the newborn zebra for the road. It looks like she's putting a lot of thought into how standing up works, and we relate: U.S. Secret Service agents said Michael Steven Sandford approached a Las Vegas police officer at the campaign stop to say he wanted Trump's autograph, but that he then tried to take the weapon. A complaint filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Nevada charges Sandford, 20, with an act of violence on restricted grounds. He was denied bail during a court appearance later in the day. His court-appointed attorney said he was living out of his car and in the country illegally after overstaying a visa. Sandford has not entered a plea. The arrest happened relatively quietly at a campaign stop seen as peaceful compared to the mayhem at the presumptive Republican nominee's recent events in San Jose, California, and Albuquerque, New Mexico. Gregg Donovan was among about 1,500 gathered Saturday to see Trump at the Treasure Island casino on the Las Vegas Strip. For the event, he donned the top hat and red jacket that made him recognizable in his former job as swanky Beverly Hills' official greeter for more than a decade. Donovan said he didn't know about the charge against Sandford until he saw news reports. But he recognized him because the two had stood in line together for nine hours waiting to get into the Trump event. Sandford even held Donovan's spot in line for a bathroom break. "I was No. 5, and he was No. 4," Donovan said. They spoke, Donovan said, though Sandford didn't say much and seemed "strange." Donovan didn't elaborate on what made Sandford seem odd. After waiting, they passed through metal detectors manned by Secret Service, police and casino security officials. Federal Magistrate Judge George Foley said in court Monday that Sandford was a potential danger to the community and a flight risk. Sandford wore leg irons and appeared to tremble during the hearing. Heather Fraley, his assigned public defender, said Sandford appeared to be competent. She said he hadn't been diagnosed with a mental illness but that he has autism and previously attempted suicide. He doesn't have a job. Sandford's mother told court researchers that he was treated for obsessive compulsive disorder and anorexia when he was younger, and that he once ran away from a hospital in England, according to the public defender. Fraley argued that Sandford should go to a halfway house because he didn't have a criminal history, but the judge said he should stay in detention ahead of a July 5 court date. Agents said Sandford told them he had been in the U.S. for about a year and a half, lived in Hoboken, New Jersey, and drove to the San Bernardino, California, area before coming to Las Vegas on June 16. Sandford told officers he was convinced he would die in the assassination attempt. He said he also reserved a ticket for a Trump rally in Phoenix, scheduled for later Saturday, as a backup plan. The criminal complaint said Sandford was arrested after grabbing the handle of an officer's gun while trying to remove it from a holster. Sandford told authorities that he went to the Battlefield Vegas shooting range the day before the rally and fired 20 rounds from a 9mm Glock pistol to learn how to use it. Police detectives who visited the range spoke with an employee who confirmed that he provided Sandford shooting lessons, according to the complaint signed by Secret Service Special Agent Joseph Hall. Aldermen Pass Bill To Make Chicago's Insane Towing Companies Record Video By Mae Rice in News on Jun 22, 2016 7:00PM A Chicago car getting towed in a snowstorm (photo via Paul Kehrer on Flickr) Updated 2:20 p.m.: The ordinance passed the City Council Wednesday afternoon unanimously. Towing in Chicago is notoriously shady. Lincoln Park Towing is basically Voldemort and could lose its license any day now; United Road Towing was raided by the FBI but somehow still lands city contracts. A new ordinance, up for approval in City Council on Wednesday, aims to make towing in the City of Big Shoulders and Hella Rogue Tow Trucks a bit less rogue. The ordinance, widely termed a "Towing Bill of Rights," has been spearheaded by Ald. Ameya Pawar (47th). Its goal is to "ensure that there is proper consumer protection" when it comes to towing, Pawar told the Tribune. Under the ordinance, tow trucks would have to have video cameras (with audio) on their front and rear ends, documenting tows as they happen. The footage also have to be made available, for free, to the city and car owners. (This requirement piggybacks on an existing rule that tow trucks must photograph every tow, according to the Tribune.) Towing companies would also have to give Chicago police a list of the parking lots they work with, specifying whether they tow from each lot on request or patrol it at their own discretion. "Tow truck companies need to exist," Pawar told the Sun-Times. "They just need to learn how to behave." This is likely an allusion to consumer claims that Lincoln Park Towing employees lie, drive unsafely, and once knocked a guy off a 16-foot ladder, breaking his leg. Many of these complaints are documented in a Change.org petition to suspend Lincoln Park Towing's license, which has 3,000+ signatures. Marine Corps pilots are getting a chance to see how the ground-pounders live in a new immersive program designed to bring the air and ground elements of the Corps' fighting machine closer for better collaboration. Called the aviator immersion program, the initiative aims to have one pilot from each squadron within Camp Pendleton, California's Marine Aircraft Group 39 "embedded" with an infantry battalion at any given time. This month, the officials announced that Capt. Jason Grimes had become the first Marine pilot to complete the program after spending two months in training with 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines, also out of Pendleton. The idea for the program originated with Col. Michael Borgschulte, commanding officer of MAG-39. It echoes thinking by previous Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Joseph Dunford and the current commandant, Gen. Robert Neller, who have both discussed their desire to see ground combat units coordinate more closely with air elements and take better advantage of the benefits of cutting-edge aviation platforms such at the MV-22B Osprey and the F-35B Joint Strike Fighter. "We're nowhere near capable of fully realizing or leveraging the kinetic and non-kinetic capabilities of [the F-35]," Dunford told a Marine audience in May 2015. Grimes, an AH-1Z Cobra pilot with Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 369, said he spent his two months on the ground with 2/5 observing, learning, and acting as an informal forward air controller with the unit. He spent 19 days participating in grueling field training at the Marines' Mountain Warfare Training Center in Bridgeport, California, and another 11 days in Marine Corps Combat Readiness Evaluation and Fire Support Coordination exercises. In a phone interview, Grimes told Military.com he was suprised to learn how much time infantry units spent in the field. "We get so involved in our flight training we're a little bit removed from that," he said. " I've never seen a working battalion and how they operate." During his time at the unit, Grimes also taught classes about the capabilities of the AH-1Z Cobra and what it can offer to Marines on the ground, emphasizing features such as the built-in sensors the aircraft carries and its significant payload. "A lot of people don't understand the new capabilities it has," Grimes said. "If [infantry units] know what our sensors are or what our loadout can be, they can specifically request things from us. We can find targets or points of interest for them." Since he returned to his own unit at the end of April, Grimes said he has made more of an effort to collaborate and communicate with infantry officers. "If I'm building a scenario, I'm talking to the platoon commanders and company commanders I worked with to build a better scenario for what they would do," he said. The experience also stoked his interest in returning to the role of forward air controller at an infantry unit at some future point in his career, he said. A spokeswoman for 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, 2nd Lt. Casey Littesy, said the aviation and ground units will also collaborate on "[Marine Air-Ground Task Force] integration exercises, executing long-range raid training, simulated tactical recovery of aircraft and personnel (TRAP) missions, and other training scenarios that complement their operational goals. In another line of effort connected with the program, Littesy said, air and ground units air coordinating simulation training, so that air and ground units are encountering the same targets, threats and objectives in their simulators. The aviator immersion program is set to continue indefinitely with units from MAG-39 and 5th Marine Regiment, with a pilot from Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 169 set to report to 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines in July. -- Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at hope.seck@monster.com. Follow her on Twitter at @HopeSeck. Related Video: President Obama will award retired Army Lt. Col. Charles Kettles the nations highest award for heroism for saving 44 American soldiers during a May 15, 1967 enemy ambush in the Vietnam War. On Monday, July 18, 2016, Kettles is scheduled to receive the Medal of Honor for conspicuous gallantry for his actions while serving as a flight commander assigned to 176th Aviation Company (Airmobile) (Light), 14th Combat Aviation Battalion, Americal Division. "Then-Major Kettles distinguished himself in combat operations near Duc Pho, Republic of Vietnam, on May 15, 1967," according to a June 21 White House press release. "He led a platoon of UH-1Ds to provide support to the 1st Brigade, 101st Airborne Division, during an ambush by a battalion-sized enemy force." After leading several trips to the hot landing zone and evacuating the wounded, he returned, without additional aerial support, to rescue a squad-sized element of stranded soldiers pinned down by enemy fire. Kettles is credited with saving the lives of 40 soldiers and four of his own crew members, according to the press release. Kettles was born in Ypsilanti, Michigan on Jan. 9, 1930. He was drafted into the Army at age 21 while enrolled in Michigan State Normal College (now Eastern Michigan University) where he studied engineering. Upon completion of basic training at Camp Breckinridge, Kentucky, Kettles attended Officer Candidate School at Fort Knox, Kentucky, and earned his commission as an armor officer in the U.S. Army Reserve, Feb. 28, 1953. Kettles graduated from the Army Aviation School in 1954, before serving active duty tours in Korea, Japan and Thailand. Kettles volunteered for active duty in 1963. He attended Helicopter Transition Training at Fort Wolters, Texas in 1964. During a tour in France the following year, Kettles was cross-trained to fly the famed UH-1D "Huey." In 1966. Kettles was assigned as a flight commander with the 176th Assault Helicopter Company, 14th Combat Aviation Battalion, and deployed to Vietnam from February through November 1967. His second tour of duty in Vietnam lasted from October 1969, through October 1970. In 1970, Kettles went to Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, where he served as an aviation team chief and readiness coordinator supporting the Army Reserve. He remained in San Antonio until his retirement from the Army in 1978. Kettles has numerous awards and decorations including the Distinguished Service Cross, the Legion of Merit, the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Bronze Star Medal with one bronze oak leaf cluster, Air Medal with Numeral "27," and the Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross with bronze star. After leaving active duty, Kettles established a Ford dealership in Dewitt, Michigan, and continued his service with the Army Reserve as a member of the 4th Battalion, 20th Field Artillery. Kettles completed his bachelors degree at Our Lady of the Lake University, San Antonio, Texas, and earned his masters degree at Eastern Michigan University, College of Technology, in commercial construction. He went on to develop the Aviation Management Program at the College of Technology and taught both disciplines. He later worked for Chrysler Pentastar Aviation until his retirement in 1993. Kettles currently lives in Ypsilanti, Michigan, with his wife Ann. -- Matthew Cox can be reached at matthew.cox@military.com Related video: Despite Flipping in Surf 4 Times in a Year, Marines Say New ACV Is the Future of Amphibious Warfare Some Marine veterans familiar with the vehicle and its operations have worried about the reliability of the ACV. The Marines are looking for a few good planes, and their search has taken them to an Arizona boneyard where the Corps' old F/A Hornets have been gathering dust and rust for years. The jets are being reclaimed and refurbished by Boeing after the service branch was caught short on planes because of long delays in the rollout of the much-awaited F-35. The Marines could have done as the Navy did and adopted second generation F/A- 18E/F Super Hornets until the new planes were ready, but opted not to. "In hindsight, it was a misstep for the USMC to not have purchased the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, but only because the F-35 has seen such extensive delays and complications in production," Omar Lamrani, senior military analyst for global intelligence firm Stratfor told FoxNews.com. "If the F-35 had entered production as originally scheduled and at the expected price, then the USMC would have been able to successfully transition straight from the F/A-18 Hornets to the F-35." Boeing has refurbished two of a planned 30 F/A Hornets stored at the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base near Tucson known as "the boneyard" and will soon finish more, according to WarIsBoring.com. The planes will be modified to a current "C+" standard under a contract with Boeing and the USMC signed in 2014. It's not the first time the military has brought back decommissioned planes from the graveyard. The Marines pulled and restored several retired heavy-lift helicopters during the height of the Iraq War to help with a shortfall in the fleet as a result of heavy usage and crashes. The F-35 was supposed to be ready for front-line service in 2006. The Marine Corps reasoned that the Super Hornets were too pricey to serve as a bridge to the new planes, and chose to continue to operate their current fleets. As the F/A Hornets dwindled through attrition, and quality-control issues delayed the F-35 from coming off the assembly, the Corps was caught short. Lt. Gen. Jon Davis, the USMC deputy commandant for aviation, told Senate lawmakers that just 32 percent of the Corps' Hornet fighters were operational. The branch needs at least 58 percent of the F/A-18s to be flight ready so that there are enough planes for combat, flight instruction and day-to-day training. Officials for the USMC did not immediately return requests for comment but in their most recent annual report on aviation capabilities, Davis said, "I am concerned with our current readiness rates, both in equipment and personnel." Some experts say bringing back the F/A-18 jets may not be much of an issue. "I consider it a pretty smart move on the U.S. Marine Corps side," David Cenciotti, of the influential blog The Aviationist, told FoxNews.com. "The F/A-18C and D are very reliable airframes that are quite easy to maintain and operate. Once upgraded to the C+ standard, these gap fillers' are more than enough to conduct combat operations in low-lethality scenarios like those that see the USMC at work these days." Once the upgraded legacy' Hornets are delivered, Cenciotti added, older planes can rotate to daily training activities required by the Marine Corps pilots to maintain preparedness. Lamrani says the only real danger is if maintenance is not kept up on the refurbished planes, but that their usage leads to other issues. "Refurbishing mothballed aircraft is not inexpensive, and hardly cost effective," he told FoxNews.com. "All this is again linked to the F-35 failing to arrive on time." You are here: Home An Airbus A350 is pictured in Schoenefeld, Germany. [File photo] Aircraft manufacturer giant Airbus announced Tuesday the world's newest airliner, the Airbus A350XWB, would make its first demonstration tour of China between June 25 and July 2. During the trip, a test aircraft is to fly to the Chinese cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Haikou and Chengdu. According to Airbus, the tour follows the A350's endorsement by China Eastern Airlines who ordered 20 A350-900 aircraft in April 2016. Air China also ordered 10 A350-900. China is one of the fastest growing markets for air transport, the Airbus said. The Chinese aviation industry has made important contributions to the development and making of the A350 XWB. Airbus' (Beijing) Engineering Center together and its partner Aviation Industry Corporation of China participated in the program's development, involving specific design work for the airframe. Some five percent of the airframe is manufactured in China. The A350 XWB is a symbol of strategic industrial cooperation between Airbus and China's aviation industry. The aircraft seats 42 in business class and 210 in economy class. The flights will be operated by Airbus flight crews. To date, Airbus has recorded some 800 firm orders for the A350 XWB from 42 customers worldwide, Airbus said. Depending on your PT test, the order of swimming may best be determined by where it is in the order of events of that test. This article originally appeared on Task & Purpose, a digital news and culture publication dedicated to military and veterans issues. Here are 10 findings from a decade's worth of research on veterans' transitions. Over the last 15 years, Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have been studied and dissected from innumerable angles. No group has spent more time studying their needs, habits, challenges and strengths than the nonprofit RAND Corporation, which focuses on developing public policy solutions to complex national problems. RAND has released a new report Ten Frequently Asked Questions About Veterans Transitions that sifts through a wealth of studies it conducted over the last decade to highlight findings about veterans transition and reintegration. Thanks to RANDs commitment to ask the right questions and exhaustively examine available data, the 10 findings, summarized below, remain valuable for current policy discussions. 1. Veterans succeed in the civilian workforce. Unemployment and labor force participation rates among post-9/11 veterans have remained on par with the comparable civilian population. While veterans ages 1824 do face more hurdles than comparable civilians immediately after leaving the military, the gap only exists for a short period of time. Overall, post-9/11 veterans are actually more likely to be employed full time than their civilian counterparts. 2. Service members and veterans earn more than civilians. Despite a common view inside and outside the military that service members make financial sacrifices, both current service members and veterans earn more than demographically comparable civilians. The earnings premium increases over the time of service and continues to exist upon separation, except for service members who do not complete their initial service commitment 3. Reservist deployments cause a spike in unemployment benefit claims. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan required the mobilization of large numbers of reservists for extended periods. This resulted in a sharp rise in claims for unemployment compensation for former service members. The caseload spike was largely caused by these reservist mobilizations, which broadened the eligibility pool and increased the number of claims. 4. Disabled vets are generally compensated for lost earnings. Mental and physical disabilities can be extraordinarily costly to veterans, reducing their earnings potential, increasing their healthcare costs and saddling them with a host of other burdens. On average, disabled veterans receive support that more than equals their lost earnings. Yet not all groups are as effectively compensated. Complicating the situation, RAND found that generous disability payments could create incentives for some veterans to not return to work. 5. Employer tax credits positively impact disabled veterans. The creation of tax credits that incentivized employers to hire disabled veterans led to an increase in hiring and aggregate earnings during a period of temporarily increased veteran unemployment. The tax credits, in the years studied, cost approximately $600 million while increasing disabled veterans overall income by more than $1 billion. 6. Not all veteran employment initiatives are created equal. RAND looked at a number of public and private sector programs to help veterans find jobs, and found large variations on their abilities to create and measure impact for veteran job-seekers. Good intentions only matter so much; execution is key in reaching veterans and facilitating their connections with potential employers. 7. Veterans like for-profit schools, but dont always benefit. For-profit schools have been popular with veterans because they are seen as being adult-oriented, career-focused, and flexible. Veterans also like the practical focus of the curriculums and the convenience of online courses and multiple campus locations. Yet as we have seen through recent news reports, for-profit schools are often bad choices for veterans. RAND found that for-profits deceptive practice, high dropout rates, and lower post graduation employment rates can diminish their effectiveness while costing the government more than not-for-profit institutions. 8. Mental health problems can be treated more cost effectively. Productivity losses from PTSD and serious depression cost the U.S. billions annually; despite efforts to provide more effective treatments, there are two problems to still confront. Many afflicted veterans do not receive adequate help from medical or mental health experts, while others do not seek help because of the enduring stigmas about about mental health issues. Adoption of evidence-based treatments could save more than $1,000 per returning veteran by increasing productivity and reducing suicides. 9. Military hasnt effectively pursued suicide prevention research. Despite rising more than 50% since 9/11, the military suicide rate (distinct from the veteran suicide rate) has remained lower than that of the comparable civilian population. The Department of Defense spends billions on prevention research, but much of the funding was focused on reinforcing the value of proven treatments, and not exploring new or untested treatments to expand treatment options. DoD efforts also suffered from a research-to-practice gap, often failing to respond when new evidence emerges, or to share and implement best practices. 10. More research is needed to better serve veterans. Researchers would benefit from mapping veterans employment paths in order to develop a better understanding of how veterans experience and military skills can apply to the civilian workplace. They should also study veterans educational outcomes to determine how veterans are faring and what their returns from education are. Finally, RAND calls for the creation of a new longitudinal study of veterans that follows a cohort through every phase of their life post-military to create a comprehensive system of data on the veteran experience. This article originally appeared at Task & Purpose. Follow Task & Purpose on Twitter. More articles from Task & Purpose: A man has spent 45 hours in one go running 222.48 kilometers around Beijing's 6th Ring Road, becoming the second person ever to do so, Beijing Youth Daily reported. Liu Zhongjie receives emergent treatment during the long-distance jogging around Beijing's 6th Ring Road. [Photo/ Beijing Youth Daily] Liu Zhongjie, 30, a Chongqing native who works in Beijing, said he hatched the plan in early May and denied that he was copying 22-year-old jogger A Jin, who, according to news circulated online in late May, became the first person to run along the 6th Ring Road, in about 44 hours. "It might have been mere coincidence," said Liu. Liu prepared well for his journey, including attempting to contact A Jin for advice. Liu updated his WeChat Moments, a popular social networking site, before setting out at 10:09 p.m. on June 17, saying: "Doing things you like, you'll also meet people you like." Liu said he was still single, and themed his running adventure "For belief and for her." "Of course, I also hope to meet my sweetheart," he said. Liu said he received support from fellow joggers, and took breaks totaling about three hours. After 45 hours and 10 minutes, he finally completed the journey at 7:27 p.m. on June 19. Commenting on the one-hour gap between his time and A Jin's record, Liu said: "I ran to challenge my endurance, not to compete with anyone." Liu said jogging had become part of his daily life, as he was born in the countryside and used to walk about eight kilometers to school. Liu also said he would run in patterns on special days, such as on May 12 to commemorate victims of the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake. YPSILANTI, MI -- A small portion of Eastern Michigan University's students will pay a lot less in tuition and fees this fall after the university's Board of Regents passed a recommendation that all out-of-state undergrads be charged the in-state rate. Eastern Michigan University officials are hoping that its student population will grow as a result of the new policy that was passed along with a 4.1 percent tuition increase during the Tuesday, June 21, Board of Regents meeting. Beginning this fall, out-of-state freshman undergraduates taking 30 credits this year will pay $11,209 in tuition and mandatory fees. According to tuition figures for 2015-16, out-of-state students paid $576 more per credit hour than in-state students. EMU Interim President Don Loppnow said those out-of-state students represent a small portion of the undergraduate population, considering Michigan and Ohio residents made up 94.6 percent of the university's fall 2015 enrollment. "Most of the out-of-state students we get tend to be either student-athletes who are already on scholarship to some extent and, on occasion, students who are recruited to come to our outstanding programs who are outstanding students, so they're also on scholarships," Loppnow said. EMU is looking to expand its reach in other parts of the Midwest through the new policy, growing its out-of-state enrollment in areas other than Ohio. For decades, EMU has offered in-state tuition rates to all students from Ohio, as part of an agreement with the Ohio Board of Regents, Loppnow said. Last fall, 1,012 of EMU's 1,933 out-of-state undergrads came from Ohio, leaving just 921 students from outside of those two states. Of that group, 238 are student-athletes receiving some type of scholarship aid. Loppnow said EMU's enrollment management team is working on a strategy to identify interested out-of-state students. "Obviously, there are major population areas in the Midwest that would be our primary targets," he said. "We are hopeful for a significant increase, but time will tell." If EMU can get non-residents to enroll, the implications after graduation could be significant, Vice President for Communications Walter Kraft said. "For us, it's an opportunity to reach more broadly to other regions in the Midwest that we believe will be attracted to Eastern Michigan," Kraft said. "At the same time, we know that 70-plus percent of the people who graduate from Eastern Michigan University stay in Michigan. "So if we're able to bring people in from Pennsylvania, Indiana and other regions into Michigan and expand our base of enrollment, we're also going to be bringing new opportunities for people here in Michigan and expand employment and growth here in our state," he added. Martin Slagter covers higher education for The Ann Arbor News. Reach him at mslagter@mlive.com or on Twitter. UPDATE:New Hampshire AD to issue report on Ann Arbor teen's shooting death ANN ARBOR, MI - An Ann Arbor teen was shot and killed by police in New Hampshire Tuesday, June 21, according to a report by the New Hampshire Union Leader. Lane Lesko, 19, of Ann Arbor was shot after a police pursuit about 10:23 a.m. Tuesday on Route 136 in Peterborough, New Hampshire, the Union Leader reported. He eventually stopped during the pursuit - likely after a crash - got out of the vehicle and was shot after a brief confrontation, according to the report. He was reported missing on Sunday from a Umbagog Lake State Park campsite on the Maine/New Hampshire border that he was visiting as part of an adolescent treatment program, according to previous media reports. He was believed to be involved with the theft of a canoe, pontoon boat and a truck, the Union Leader previously reported. The canoe and pontoon boat were located. Lesko was scheduled for a January 2017 sentencing on multiple charges in Michigan. In May 2015, he stole a Dodge Charger from the Cueter Chrysler dealership, 2448 Washtenaw Ave. in Ypsilanti Township, after he claimed he was an FBI agent, police said. He then crashed the car in the Toledo, Ohio, area, and presented himself as an FBI agent to authorities, police said. He was then accused of breaking into a neighbor's Ann Arbor home while out on bond in July 2015. Lesko pleaded guilty to unlawfully driving away a vehicle, first degree home invasion, lying to a police officer and false pretenses less than $200 in January. Washtenaw County Trial Court Judge Darlene O'Brien delayed his sentence a year, so he could complete mental health and substance use treatment. Darcie Moran covers cops and courts for MLive and The Ann Arbor News. Email her at dmoran@mlive.com or follow her on Twitter @darciegmoran. ANN ARBOR, MI - Police were called to the scene of a rollover crash on Huron River Drive near M-14 in Ann Arbor on Tuesday evening. The crash was reported about 6:45 p.m. June 21 at North Main Street and Huron River Drive, said Sgt. Craig Flocken. Ann Arbor police Officer Brandon Knobelsdorf said the driver of a maroon van was headed westbound on West Huron River Drive and crossing over North Main Street when a silver sedan exited westbound M-14, decelerated and smashed into the passenger side of the van. The impact from the crash flipped the van on its side and blocked the connector to West Huron River Drive, he said. Knobelsdorf said this kind of crash is a common occurrence at the West Huron River Drive and Main Street connection. "Drivers try to cut across through the loop to get on," Knobelsdorf said. "You got to think this is 45 mph they're decelerating off the expressway, and if you're just starting up (from the connector), you have to cross two lanes of traffic. Getting hit 45 mph is a pretty bad crash." Officers were directing traffic, but the crash's proximity to the highway was causing some backups, Flocken said shortly after the crash. One person was reported to be in stable condition at the scene, said Chad French of Huron Valley Ambulance. However, Knobelsdorf confirmed that no one was transported to the hospital. Staff reporter Ben Solis contributed to this story. Darcie Moran covers cops and courts for MLive and The Ann Arbor News. Email her at dmoran@mlive.com or follow her on Twitter @darciegmoran. Brighton Rec area.png HAMBURG TOWNSHIP, MI -- The 43-year-old Hamburg Township man who died of knife wounds in Brighton State Recreation Area may have committed suicide, police say. The man went missing Friday, June 17, while camping in the park; the Brighton Area Fire Department found his body the next afternoon in a wooded area. Hamburg Township Police Chief Rick Duffany said there's a good chance the man committed suicide, although his death remains under investigation. The medical examiner determined he died of knife wounds. The investigation is waiting on DNA testing and a toxicology report, Duffany said. Because it's a possible suicide, Duffany said the department is not releasing the man's name. The man's mother told the Livingston Daily her son loved his children and the outdoors. In a letter, his family thanked first responders for their search efforts, the Daily reported. Lindsay Knake is a cops and courts reporter for The Ann Arbor News. Follow her on twitter or contact her at 989-372-2498 or lknake@mlive.com. U-M hospital .jpg A University of Michigan study showed that the proportion of patients who lacked insurance dropped by nearly 4 percentage points, and the proportion covered by Medicaid rose more than 6 points after the Healthy Michigan Plan launch in April 2014. MLive file photo ANN ARBOR, MI -- A new University of Michigan study found a fast, sustained drop in uninsured patients, while Medicaid-covered patients rose within three months of the launch of the Healthy Michigan Plan. The study showed that the proportion of patients who lacked insurance dropped by nearly 4 percentage points, and the proportion covered by Medicaid rose more than 6 points after the Healthy Michigan Plan launch in April 2014. The new findings, reported in Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) by a team from the U-M Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation, confirm directly what other studies have predicted or implied: That Medicaid expansion can help relieve hospitals' burden of caring for patients who have little or no means to pay. The researchers also were the first to look specifically at whether all 130 Michigan hospitals across a Medicaid expansion state experienced the shift in insurance coverage for their patients. In all, 94 percent of hospitals treated fewer uninsured patients, and 88 percent had more Medicaid-covered patients, in the last 9 months of 2014 compared with the same period in each of the two years before expansion. But even as more patients had coverage that could pay for their care, hospitals didn't see a sudden rise in the total number of non-elderly adult patients, the study found. In fact, the total number of hospitalizations in the year after the expansion was slightly lower than the average for the two years before expansion. "This is evidence that broader availability of insurance coverage for residents of Michigan is translating into coverage at the time when people are most in need of it - namely, when they are sick enough to be in the hospital," said Matthew M. Davis, the lead author and a U-M professor of internal medicine, pediatrics, public policy and public health. "The Healthy Michigan Plan appears to be shifting the balance for almost all Michigan hospitals, to have a higher proportion of patients who have insurance coverage." The data used in the study are from the Michigan Health and Hospital Association's Michigan Inpatient Database, which includes data on all hospital stays, regardless of the insurance status of the patient. The data did not indicate whether Medicaid-covered hospital patients had traditional or Healthy Michigan Plan coverage, nor whether their condition was serious enough that it might have caused them to seek hospital-level care even if they didn't have insurance. However, Davis notes that hospitals tend to have similar thresholds for admitting patients based on their condition. The study also did not determine if hospitals experienced a dip in uncompensated care, the costs of which hospitals have to absorb when patients lack insurance. However, other studies have shown that hospitals with fewer uninsured patients have lower uncompensated care costs. Davis and the study's senior author, IHPI Director John Z. Ayanian, also are involved in a much larger IHPI-led, state-funded effort to evaluate the impact of Medicaid expansion in Michigan. The new study was not part of that evaluation, but further work by other IHPI researchers will probe the impact of Medicaid expansion on uncompensated care costs absorbed by Michigan hospitals. The evaluation will look at what being covered under the Health Michigan Plan means for the financial health of individuals - not just hospitals. "When uninsured individuals are so ill they need to be hospitalized, it poses financial risks to them as well as to the hospitals that they're admitted to," says Davis. "Medicaid expansion in 31 states and the District of Columbia has reduced that risk. Meanwhile, uninsured individuals in states that haven't expanded the program continue to face that risk - as do the hospitals there." In addition to Davis and Ayanian, the study was co-authored by Achamyeleh Gebremariam, a data analyst with the U-M Department of Pediatrics. The study was funded through U-M resources. Martin Slagter covers higher education for The Ann Arbor News. Reach him at mslagter@mlive.com or on Twitter. Covenant MMR.jpg Days after a federal jury awarded her more than $500,000 for wrongful termination, an ex-Covenant Medical Center employee was fired from her job with Mobile Medical Response. (MLive File) BAY CITY, MI -- Days after a federal jury awarded her more than $500,000 for wrongful termination, an ex-Covenant Medical Center employee was dismissed from her job. The jury in U.S. District Court in downtown Bay City Friday, June 17, found the Saginaw hospital in violation of the Family and Medical Leave Act and the Michigan Persons with Disabilities Civil Rights Act for the November 2014 firing of Amanda Perry. A Covenant spokesman said the hospital plans to file an appeal. Tuesday, June 21, after The Bay City Times/MLive published a story on the verdict, Perry was terminated from her employment with Mobile Medical Response, where she worked in the billing department. MMR is a joint venture between Covenant Healthcare and St. Mary's of Michigan. Perry, 41, had the job through Aerotek Employment Agency. "They had no reason to fire her," said Victor Mastromarco Jr., Perry's attorney. "They did this without giving her a reason. The timing is considered evidence of retaliation." Mastromarco said he planned to file a new lawsuit Wednesday, June 22, arguing that MMR, jointly owned by the hospital, retaliated against Perry, as protected under Family and Medical Leave Act and the Civil Rights Disability Act. Larry Daly, a spokesperson for Covenant, said Covenant is "not involved with operations of MMR." "They have their own management team and make their own decisions," he said. MMR spokesperson Lynn Schutter called the timing of Perry's dismissal from MMR "purely coincidental." "We had made a predetermined decision to restructure and eliminate all of our contract employees," Schutter said. "That decision was made several months ago." Schutter said she did not know if Perry was working under an expired contract with Aerotek. She added "a handful" of other contract employees were dismissed before Perry and before the lawsuit with Covenant made headlines. "We had no work issues with her," Schutter said. "This is a matter of us starting to manage our expenses more frugally." Perry confirmed to The Times Wednesday that another contract employee was let go from MMR Thursday, June 16. She said she talked with her representative at Aerotek on Monday and was told her job was safe. "I was feeling OK about everything going into work on Tuesday," Perry said. "I'm guessing they read about the lawsuit and didn't like what they read." Perry had worked for MMR since October 2015. Perry, who had a history of psychiatric diagnoses, began working as a biller at Covenant's Visiting Nursing Association Department in 2010, according to the lawsuit filed in federal court. In August 2012, she was promoted to "office coordinator" for Covenant's physicians' offices in Frankenmuth and Bridgeport. She later was moved to Covenant's offices in Bay City and Freeland. In November 2014, she was terminated after receiving three disciplines after Covenant officials accused her of asking a co-worker to provide a false appeal statement. Her firing came after taking time off from work to deal with her medical condition. BAY CITY, MI -- A contingent of young adults from Bay City next month are making a 4,500-mile trip to the center of their religious roots. Youth members from Our Lady of Czestochowa Parish, which includes St. Stanislaus Kostka church and St. Hyacinth church, join 45 pilgrims from the Saginaw Diocese and Bishop Jospeh R. Cistone for a trip to Krakow, Poland, where they, along with 2-3 million Catholics, will attend World Youth Day with Pope Francis. For the estimated 39,000 Americans traveling to Poland for the gathering, it's an opportunity of a lifetime -- to break bread with young Catholics from around the globe. But for Bay City residents Monica Dorion, Nick Grocholski and Julia Weller, it almost feels like a homecoming. "It really is full circle," said Grocholski, 24. "I grew up in the South End, I attended St. Stan's, my dad -- a Grocholski -- married my mom, a Peplinski, so I'm Polish on both sides. It's extra special for us." "A lot of us have grown up in Bay City's Polish culture," said Dorion, 25. "To be able to go to World Youth Day in Poland is really cool." Seven of the Bay City residents traveling to Poland next month received traveling and cultural tips this week, in addition to brushing up on basic Polish phrases and prayers. Deacon Stanley Kuczynski, a Poland native who has worked in Bay City for the past 28 years, has been helping the young adults prepare for their journey. He warned the students that it's not uncommon for protesters to openly be against the Catholic church, as communism ruled the country for 50 years. "Don't think that after 1989, when freedom came back, that all of the communists moved away from Poland," he said. "There's still a strong political wing that exists today. It's getting better, but there is a struggle that is ongoing today." Even so, Poland is deeply religious, said Mark Graveline, director of youth ministry for the Diocese of Saginaw. Graveline traveled to Poland in February to prepare for this summer's trip. "On a random Monday, I walked into a church to visit it and saw all of these young people packed inside," he said. "I asked one of them what they were doing there, or if there was a Mass, and they said they were just there praying. It's amazing to see so many young people embrace the Catholic culture." In addition to exploring Krakow, the homeland of Pope John Paul II, the young adults are also traveling to the Auschwitz concentration camp. It'll be the trek to the town of Czestochowa, though, after which their parish is named, with the deepest meaning for the Bay City people traveling to Poland. The path to Czestochowa is part of a journey in the "footsteps" of John Paul II, who initiated the first World Youth Day more than 40 years ago. "Our roots are there," Kuczynski said. "It's going to be a beautiful experience for our pilgrims." A replica of an icon depicting the Virgin Mary hangs on the wall at St. Stanislaus Church at 1503 Kosciuszko Ave. in June 20, 2016. The Lady of Czestochowa, also known as the Black Madonna of Czestochowa, is an icon of the Virgin Mary housed at the Jasna Gora Monastery in Czestochowa, Poland. A replica is also on display inside St. Stanislaus Kostka church. The Black Madonna is credited with saving the monastery of Jasna Gora, according to a description on the parish's website. Weller, 19, who is studying social work at Delta College, said she's ready to be immersed with Catholics from around the world for the two-week trip. "You always hear about the church being something bigger, but all of us grew up in smaller parishes," she said. "To see millions of other people express their beliefs in one place is going to be very encouraging." Next month's trip will mark the first time Bishop Cistone has taken part in World Youth Day festivities. "They will experience the global Church in a more personal way; praying, worshiping and celebrating with youth like themselves who are on fire for their faith," he said. "Our Holy Father, Pope Francis, will be present during the week and there will be tremendous learning opportunities about the joyful gifts of our faith. I hope they return with renewed energy and enthusiasm to be our local disciples who will continue to make Christ present in this world." 20141001_165642.jpg Members of the Delta College Military Association pose for a photo with Bethany Alford, coordinator for Veteran Services at the college, far left. (Courtesy Photo/Delta College) FRANKENLUST TWP, MI -- Veterans soon will have a better place to socialize and handle paperwork at Delta College. Delta College was awarded a $7,000 grant from Student Veterans of America in the form of gift cards to Home Depot for the renovation of a campus space for vets, the college has announced. The college teaches nearly 300 students who are using military educational benefits, and these vets can expect a "one-stop-shop" for relaxing, socializing, studying, applying for benefits and completing the GI bill process, according to a statement from the college. Delta College president Jean Goodnow poses with members of the Delta College Military Association. (Courtesy Photo/Delta College) Veterans services at Delta are split into two offices distant from each other. Merging them into the same space, and renovating that space, just makes sense, said Beth Alford, coordinator of Veteran Services at the college. "Veteran centers on college campuses have a huge, positive impact on student veteran success," Alford said in a statement. "Since many veterans commute to school, have jobs or juggle other responsibilities, having a place on campus to connect to other veterans and resources can be invaluable." A bulk of the funds will go toward furnishing the veterans lounge with couches and computer work stations. BAY CITY, MI -- After learning a motorcyclist he'd allegedly crashed into had died, a stranger tossed his borrowed cigarette to the ground, then took off from the scene, according to witnesses. The witnesses provided this account consistently during the June 21 preliminary examination of 32-year-old Todd F. Maher. Maher is charged with single counts of failure to stop at the scene of an accident involving death, failure to stop at the scene of an accident involving serious injury, receiving and concealing a stolen vehicle and driving on a suspended license, second offense. The first two charges are punishable by 15-year and five-year prison stints, respectively. Called to the witness stand by Bay County Chief Assistant Prosecutor Nancy E. Borushko, Cindy Tacey testified that the night of Sept. 17, she was at her home near the intersection of South Euclid Road and East Stark Street in Frankenlust Township when she heard "a very loud noise." She said it sounded "like an airplane hitting a building maybe." Tacey ran outside and saw a truck, a motorcycle, and a man lying in the gravel. A few other neighbors also came outside, she said. Police later identified the motorcyclist as 58-year-old Calvin M. LaForest. "There was someone in the (truck's) driver's seat, (who) slid over to the passenger side of the vehicle, opened the door, came over to the back of the vehicle, and up to the person that was in the accident," Tacey said. "He stood over the body for a time, but I'm not sure how long." By the time police arrived, the man who had been in the truck was gone. Tacey did not hear him say anything before he disappeared, she said. Calvin M. LaForest After Tacey stepped down, Borushko called her granddaughter, Justise Herrington, to the stand. She said she was at her grandparents' watching TV on Sept. 17. "We heard a loud thud outside and we all went up and looked out the window and saw a person lying on the ground by a motorcycle," she said, adding that she, too, went outside shortly thereafter. She saw a man emerge from a truck and approach LaForest. "He looked at the person on the ground and he kind of just stood around for a while and then he asked someone for a cigarette at one point in time," she testified. "Then he sat on the ground." A neighbor, who she said was a nurse, tended to the injured LaForest and indicated there wasn't a pulse, Herrington said. "As he was pronounced dead, (the man from the truck) threw the cigarette on the ground ... and I seen him take off in the road, running around," Herrington said. Witness Christopher Strait testified he also heard a loud bang and ran out of his house along with his ex-fiancee, who is a registered nurse. On seeing the motorcycle on the ground and LaForest beside it, Strait's ex-fiancee went about tending to him, he said. "I was talking to a gentleman at the time who wanted a cigarette," Strait said. "I offered him a cigarette. He was standing on my right-hand side, standing right next to me." The motorcyclist "was alive at that time but ended up passing away in her hands," Strait said. Michigan State Police Trooper Darrell Wynkoop testified he was the first officer on the scene. "When I first got on scene, I noticed a red Ford truck in the intersection," he said. "When I got out of the car, I also noticed a motorcycle in front of the truck and a man lying face down on the ground, with a pool of blood near his head." As he and his partner attempted to administer first aid, a woman approached him, identified herself as a nurse, and said LaForest didn't have a pulse. A few moments later, paramedics responded and took over rendering aid to LaForest, Wynkoop testified. Wynkoop interviewed witnesses gathered at the scene, but was unable to locate the driver of the truck, he said. LaForest was pronounced dead. He had been wearing a helmet. Police have said he had been traveling north on South Euclid Road when the Ford pickup turned north from East Stark Street, ran a stop sign, and struck him. Police have said Maher did not own the truck involved in the crash. The day's hearing ended with Borushko seeking the remainder of it be rescheduled, as she plans to call a crash reconstructionist who was unavailable. Bay County District Judge Timothy J. Kelly set Maher's case to continue at 2:30 p.m. on Friday, June 24. Maher is represented by Bay City attorney Aaron A. Hetherington. Special 1st Lt. David Kaiser told The Times in October that investigators had their suspect identified and interviewed him, but he requested an attorney. Police then needed to await lab analysis of DNA before charges could be issued. Authorities issued a warrant for Maher's arrest on Wednesday, May 18. Police arrested him at his Bay City home the same day. In October 2013, Maher pleaded guilty to one count of driving impaired, second offense, in exchange for prosecutors' dismissal of charges of driving on a suspended license and operating while intoxicated, second offense. He received a probation sentence, but pleaded guilty to violating it in November 2014. A bench warrant was issued for his arrest in March 2015 -- after the crash that killed LaForest -- and he was arraigned on a probation violation on April 28. A judge ordered him to pay his outstanding fines or serve 29 days in jail. Court records indicate he has paid $1,807 and still owes $45. Maher is held in the Bay County Jail on a $300,000 cash-surety bond. DETROIT, MI -- The Wayne County Medical Examiner's office confirmed the identity of a woman found dead with no clothes on Tuesday near Interstate 94 and Chandler Park in Detroit Tuesday. She is 29-year-old Kayla Kristine Yaroch, who died of multiple injures. The manner was ruled "accidental." Detroit police media relations personnel on Wednesday said they did not have any further details to release regarding what led to the woman's death. Detroit Police Capt. Mark Bliss told WDIV-TV, Channel 4, it appears Yaroch was hit or dragged by a car, and that some of her clothing was located near her body. Yaroch was discovered near Malcolm and Hern streets. She had open warrants for entering a vacant building, narcotics and prostitution charges at the time of her death, according to Wayne County 36th District Court records. Matty Moroun's Detroit International Bridge Company had its request to build a new bridge to Harsen's Island denied this week. Moroun owns the Ambassador Bridge connecting Detroit and Windsor, Ontario. He's been battling for years to build a second span alongside the first. And his bridge company also recently relaunched a bid to build another crossing that would connect Michigan's mainland to Harsen's Island. But the state Department of Environmental Quality issued a rejection letter June 20, citing a lack of public support, insufficient public or private need, potential negative impact on wetlands and natural habitat and the existence of a feasible alternative. The plan for a span crossing over the north channel of the St. Clair River also called for construction of 10 piers and the use of .35 acres of "river bottom-land," according to the DEQ. Proposed map of Harsens Island Bridge. Courtesy of Clay Township The DEQ rejected a similar effort in 2007. When the company resubmitted plans for a bridge, Clay Township Supervisor Artie Bryson in January said he'd been "inundated" with calls and emails from concerned residents. "As was the case during the review of the previous proposal in 2007, the majority of public comments that the DEQ received were opposed to the construction of a bridge that would connect the mainland to Harsens Island," the DEQ wrote to Dan Stamper of the Detroit International Bridge Company. "Many of the objecting comments state that the the existing ferry service was a sufficient means of travel to and from Harsens Island." MLive left a voicemail message for Stamper offering him an opportunity to comment. Currently there are only two ways to access Harsens Island: A personal watercraft, or the ferry, which is owned by Artie Bryson's brother, David Bryson. Moroun's company is currently pursuing another controversial bridge project in Detroit, where it hopes to build a second bridge parallel to the aging Ambassador Bridge. Moroun, who owns CenTra Inc., a family of trucking companies, is facing resistance from the Michigan and Canadian governments. Michigan's competing Gordie Howe International Bridge, expected to cost $2.1 billion, will also connect Detroit and Windsor and is expected to open in 2020. Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne declined to offer her opinion on Moroun's proposed bridge when she and Gov. Rick Snyder held a press conference in Detroit last week. 18666146-standard.jpg (MLive | File Photo) DETROIT -- While Kathryn Bigelow's film based on the 1967 Detroit Riots remains unnamed, it appears the crime drama has found one of its leads. The Hollywood Reporter reports John Boyega, of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," has been cast in the movie reportedly set to shoot in Detroit and Boston this summer. Bigelow last directed 2012's "Zero Dark Thirty," which was based on the decade-long hunt for Osama bin Laden. The movie was nominated for five Academy Awards. She was the first woman to win an Academy Award for Best Director for 2009's "The Hurt Locker." Boyega confirmed his involvement in a Tweet. "Details of the project are unknown, but the story is set against the backdrop of Detroit's devastating riots that took place over five summer days in 1967," the Hollywood Reporter reports, "with the film seeking to explore the systemic racism in the city. The roll call is described as an ensemble piece." Boyega, 24, is known for portraying Finn in the latest "Star Wars" installment. While the movie remains without a studio, its creative team is eyeing a 2017 release to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Detroit riots, according to the report. Flash Chinese President Xi Jinping toured the Uzbek city of Bukhara, which he called a "shinning pearl on the ancient Silk Road" on Tuesday after arriving here for a state visit. Chinese President Xi Jinping (C,front) and his wife Peng Liyuan visit a carpet and silk workshop in the old city of Bukhara as accompanied by Uzbek Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyoev, in Bukhara, Uzbekistan, June 21, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua] Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, accompanied by Uzbek Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyoyev, took a detailed tour of the UNESCO World Heritage Site in central-southern Uzbekistan with great interest. The Historic Center of Bukhara, situated on the Silk Road, is more than 2,000 years old. It is one of the best examples of well preserved Islamic cities of Central Asia with an urban fabric that has remained largely intact. Standing on the Ark fortress of Bukhara, Mirziyoyev told Xi history of the city during its prime time on the Silk Road trade corridor. "The kids in the city were playing with golden coins, in stead of playing with stones like kids elsewhere," the prime minister said. Now a city culture museum, the Ark fortress, once residence of Bukhara's ancient rulers, hosts a series of antiques and relics including manual scripts of the Koran, art crafts, ancient coins and old weaponry that witnessed the stretching history of the city. Bukhara was long an important economic and cultural center in Central Asia and served as a major center of Islamic culture for many centuries. Xi and Peng then visited the Samanid Mausoleum and the Poi Kalyan ensemble, which consists of Kalyan Minaret, Kalyan Mosque and Miri Arab Madrasah. After asking detailed questions on the history and traditions of Bukhara, the Chinese president said the tour gave him more profound understanding of the deep-rooted historical connections between China and Uzbekistan. Hailing Bukhara as the "shinning pearl on the ancient Silk Road," Xi said the tour will help China and Uzbekistan carry forward the Silk Road spirit, boost the friendship between their two peoples, and jointly promote the construction of the Belt and Road Initiative. Bukhara was the first stop of Xi's state visit to the Central Asian country. The Chinese president then traveled to the Uzbek capital Tashkent, where he will hold talks with President Islam Karimov on bilateral relations and major international and regional issues. In Tashkent, Xi will also attend the 16th meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Council of Heads of State on June 23 and 24. Uzbekistan is the third and final stop of Xi's three-nation tour, which has taken him to Serbia and Poland. Anibal Sanchez Anibal Sanchez is rejoining the Detroit Tigers starting rotation after six relief appearances. (AP File Photo) DETROIT - Anibal Sanchez pitched well enough in six relief appearances to regain a spot in the Detroit Tigers starting rotation and Daniel Norris will be recalled from Triple A Toledo to join him, at least for one game. Manager Brad Ausmus said after Tuesday's 4-2 victory over Seattle that Sanchez, who was banished to the bullpen June 1, will start Saturday against the Cleveland Indians at Comerica Park. Norris will be called up to start Thursday's series finale against the Mariners in place of Matt Boyd, was sent to Toledo after getting shelled Saturday in a 16-5 loss at Kansas City. Ausmus said Mike Pelfrey's next start has been moved from Saturday to next Tuesday. That means rookie Michael Fulmer will miss a start next week. So what's the reasoning behind all the moves? Ausmus wouldn't go into it. But Fulmer, who is scheduled to start Wednesday vs. the Mariners, is getting skipped in the rotation next week to limit his innings and extend his time between starts. He's already pitched 59.1 innings this season and the Tigers don't want to take any chances with their prized rookie, who has a 7-2 record, 2.43 ERA and 1.180 WHIP. Norris is being recalled after going 4-6 with a 4.68 ERA, 1.509 WHIP and 63 strikeouts over 57.2 innings during 11 starts for Toledo. He's coming off his best start, a 2-0 victory over Rochester, when he allowed six hits and two walks while striking out eight in seven innings. "It wasn't just his start," Ausmus said. "He's pitched well lately. His last start was his best. There's a number of factors that go into it I don't want to discuss that right now." Sanchez has allowed two earned runs in 9.2 innings during his six relief appearances. He has a 1.86 ERA, 1.222 WHIP and six strikeouts since leaving the rotation. "He's pitched better," Ausmus said before again refusing to go into more detail. "I don't really, at this point, want to get into all the reasons we're taking this route. We can discuss it at a later date." General manager Al Aliva, however, did indicate the shakeup in the rotation was to give Fulmer a rest, saying "this is part of it, yes." -- Download the Detroit Tigers on MLive app for iPhone and Android. -- Follow MLive Sports on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. DETROIT - Mike Aviles hit the ball barely 50 feet in the eighth inning Tuesday night. But that was far enough for the Detroit Tigers. Aviles' dribbler down the first base line allowed pinch-runner Andrew Romine to race home from third and score the winning run in a 4-2 victory over the Seattle Mariners at Comerica Park. Aviles ended up beating the throw to first to load the bases and allow the Tigers to add an insurance run when Nick Castellanos scored on a sacrifice fly by James McCann. Bruce Rondon (1-0) got the victory after facing three batters in the eighth, when he relieved Justin Verlander. He walked one before getting out of the inning on a double play. Francisco Rodriguez pitched the ninth for his 20th save as the Tigers (36-35) won their second straight. THREE STARS Nick Castellanos -- The Tigers third baseman singled home Detroit's first run and his double in the eighth inning sent Victor Martinez to third with what turned out to be the winning run after Romine pinch ran. Justin Verlander -- Seeking his fourth win as many starts for the Tigers, Verlander pitched a gem before leaving after seven innings with the score tied 2-2. He allowed six hits, two earned runs, walked one and struck out five. Kyle Seager -- The Mariners third baseman homered for the second straight night, giving Seattle a 2-0 lead in the sixth when he sent a 3-2 pitch deep into the seats in right field. It was his 15th homer of the year. GAME NOTES * The Tigers pulled within 2-1 in the sixth, when Cameron Maybin led off with a single and scored on another single by Castellanos. * The Tigers tied it in the seventh when Jose Iglesias singled with two outs, moved to third on a wild pitch and came home on Ian Kinsler's single into the corner in right field. * Verlander got out of a jam in the third, when Ketel Marte led off with a double and moved to third on a sacrifice bunt by Norichika Aoki. But Verlander ended the inning by fanning Leonys Martin and Seth Smith, the latter after looking at an 80 mph curveball. * Justin Upton extended his hitting streak to 11 games when he singled up the middle in the second inning. That's his longest streak since he hit safely in 13 straight games in August 2013 while with the Braves. * After throwing a total of 46 pitches in the first four innings, Verlander needed 22 to get out of the fifth. * Marte entered the series batting .263. But he boosted his average to .282 after going 4-for-5 in Monday's 12-inning loss and then singling in his first two at-bats vs. Verlander. He grounded out to shortstop in his third at-bat before singling with two outs in the ninth. * According to an article by the Detroit Free Press' Anthony Fenech, Anibal Sanchez will return to the Tigers' starting rotation Saturday vs. Cleveland. Sanchez was sent to the bullpen three weeks ago after struggling as a starter. TWITTER TALK #Tigers Justin Verlander might be in the Cy Young mix by year's end, if he's not already. Never thought he'd win another one. Tony Paul (@TonyPaul1984) June 22, 2016 -- Download the Detroit Tigers on MLive app for iPhone and Android. -- Follow MLive Sports on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Rising trade and more foreign investment could be on the way, says the World Bank, but warns that careful steps are required to ensure they provide inclusive growth and reinforce rather than undermine the countrys peace process. On June 20, the World Bank presented its Diagnostic Trade Integration Study for Myanmar to government officials. Vice President U Myint Swe said the study was important, providing advice on what industries face hindrances, what kind of technology is needed and what policies need to be changed. The government is aiming for sustained growth of 7.7 percent a year, which would double the countrys GDP in about a decade, the World Bank said. This is not out of reach, but will require trade policy reforms and a focus on sustainability, poverty reduction and equal opportunities, according to the report. Although rising trade and an influx of foreign investment are targets, they can also aggravate existing disparities, the World Bank said. Faster growth is no guarantee of peace, and economic improvements that benefit only large natural-resource investors could corrode the countrys democratic transition, it said. There is little detail on how the government plans to bring in the ethnic armed groups that refused to sign the 2015 nationwide ceasefire agreement (NCA) under the previous administration. However, two powerful ethnic armed groups based in the Wa and Mongla autonomous zones have reportedly accepted invitations to participate in the peace process, according to a member of the government negotiating team. When it comes to rolling out trade and infrastructure projects in ceasefire areas, the World Bank advised the new government to make sure that its development strategy does not move ahead of the peace process. This could include only building trade-related infrastructure in ceasefire areas once the parties involved have agreed on a protocol for military and ethnic armed-group activity, which would comply with the NCA and bilateral ceasefire agreements. The government should also consider postponing trade-related activities and infrastructure development in areas close to conflict like Lashio-Muse, Lashio-Chinshwehaw and throughout Kachin State, the report said. Over the longer term, the government could promote labour-intensive economic activity in conflict areas, as well as address the acute need for investment in basic education, it added. Away from conflict areas there are other inequalities that an increase in trade could exacerbate, including in employment, skill levels, and wages between men and women, according to the World Bank. Inclusive growth is key, and the report suggests ways in which natural resources revenue could be better shared. A small export tax on jade would raise revenue without any offsetting economic loss because of Myanmars dominance of the world market, according to the report. The revenue could then be used with the advice of local communities to fund development programs, vocational training, poverty reduction and health programs. A report from NGO Global Witness published last year valued the countrys jade trade at US$31 billion for 2014, but said it was controlled by networks of military officials and their business allies. The World Bank has also suggested that the Secretariat for the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) could work with the Myanmar Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation to make clear the identity of key players in the mining industry, and how licences and concessions were allocated. The EITI a global standard for natural resource management with 51 countries signed up recently published its first Myanmar report. That document cast fresh light onto the huge proceeds from extractive industries that state-owned enterprises control. But the terms of the licences and contracts were not disclosed. And although the names of the legal owners of licences were published in many cases, they are often not who ultimately profits. On the issue of how to boost trade in the first place, the World Bank has laid out a limited set of policy priorities. The first is establishing lighthouses that showcase the positive impact of reforms on trade. These reforms would lower the costs to trade through steps such as automating customs procedures and lifting import restrictions on foreign firms. The second step is building institutional capacity in areas like data collection, risk management and the financial sector. The final step is addressing more complex reforms, like integrated logistics infrastructure. At the presentation in Nay Pyi Taw, U Than Myint, minister for commerce, said Myanmar faced a series of hurdles in raising trade, from a lack of infrastructure to weak policy coordination among government departments. And although the public has given the government its support, fulfilling the hopes it has placed in the new administration was also a challenge, he said. Officials from firms planning to launch their shares on the Yangon Stock Exchange have not been dissuaded by price fluctuations on the countrys new bourse, and are pushing on with the listing process. First Myanmar Investments (FMI) and Myanmar Thilawa SEZ Holdings (MTSH) are the only two firms listed on the exchange, and both have watched their share price fall back below the listing price since launching earlier this year. FMI launched its shares at K26,000 in March. The shares peaked at K41,000 that same month, but have spent much of June dipping below the listing price. MTSH started out at K50,000 in May and peaked at K70,000 that month. Those shares closed below the listing price for the first time on June 16, although they had recovered to K53,000 by yesterdays close. Officials at firms preparing to join FMI and MTSH appeared unconcerned. These are market fluctuations that depend on supply and demand, said U Myint Zaw, director of First Private Bank, when asked if the prices moves made him worried about his firms reception. First Private Bank has just finished its prospectus, which it will submit to regulators, and is discussing the listing with securities companies, he said. U Myint Win, managing director of Myanmar Citizens Bank, is hoping to see his firm list in July. When asked if the price fluctuations on the YSX were a cause for concern, U Myint Win simply said they were normal and declined to comment further. Myanmar Agribusiness Public Corporation (MAPCO) is eyeing August or September for its listing. U Thura, head of investor relations of MAPCO, said the firm was explaining to existing OTC share holders not to treat investment as gambling. Were also explaining our companys business and important information like debt-to-equity ratios, profitability and liquidity, he said. The YSX got a lot of attention in the early days, but trading has slowed and it seems like people follow the herd. They need more knowledge and experience. Financial industry officials have expressed concern that ordinary retail investors are poorly equipped to use this kind of data to analyse share prices. MAPCO managing director U Ye Min Aung said the countrys stock market needs institutional investors in order to become more efficient. U Zaw Lin Aung, director of Kanbawza Stirling Coleman Securities, said that most YSX investors were relying on market sentiment. They buy on greed and sell out on fear, he said, but added that eventually investors would learn that following the herd was not a sound tactic. When they gain appropriate knowledge and awareness the market will become more normal and efficient, he said. Concerns have also risen about the possibility of market manipulation, after the YSX issued a warning against such behaviour earlier this month. A series of large orders were placed for shares in Myanmar Thilawa SEZ Holdings (MTSH) and cancelled just minutes before the matching time. Manipulation made the market more lively and drew peoples attention to the YSX, said U Thaung Han, managing director of CB Securities. But it also prevented people from being to rely on long-term stability. From July 1, the government will begin offering online registration for the tourism industry. Hotels, tour companies, guides and tourist transportation businesses can obtain an e-licence, which the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism hopes will expedite approvals and encourage prospective entrants to the fast-growing industry. It will support applicants to get [a licence] faster and more easily within a short time, which is the main intention of e-government. We will try to issue tourism information cards for tourists as well, said U Thint Thwin, director general of the ministry. The tourism information cards would provide visitors with data about Myanmars tourism industry such as airline schedules, bus options and other modes of transportation, as well as a list of restaurants and other advice, he said. The ministry is still collecting data for the card. We are also negotiating with communications experts from MPT, Ooredoo, Telenor and Vietnams Viettel to provide the system electronically, he added. Currently, the hotels and tourism ministry issues four kinds of licences: A hotel licence costs between K200,000 (US$170) and K1.9 million, depending on the number of rooms; a tour company licence runs K400,000; a tour guide licence goes for K50,000; and a licence to provide transportation for tourists costs between K50,000 and K500,000 depending on the vehicle, according to information provided by the ministry. Licence holders must reapply every two years, said U Myo Win Nyunt, director of the ministry. Tour operators have reacted positively to the announcement of the e-licence scheme. The e-licence will reduce tax corruption and the application process will be more convenient and easy. It will increase the number of new tourism companies, U Aung Cho Win, director of the Marcopolo Travels & Tours company, told The Myanmar Times. In previous years, tourism entrepreneurs applying for permits have had to go to the ministrys offices in Yangon or Nay Pyi Taw, a costly and sometimes laborious hurdle, said U Zaw Win Cho, former chair of the Bagan Guide Association. If we can apply for a licence online, that will save time and money. Were happy about that, he said. Nationwide, as of May, the hotels and tourism ministry had issued 1351 licences for hotels, 2130 for tour companies, 6309 for tour guides and 536 for tourists transportation vehicles. Foreign arrivals to Myanmar have grown dramatically since the former junta ceded power in 2011. That year, the country clocked just 800,000 arrivals. Last year the number reached nearly 4.7 million, though some argue that many of those arrivals are not conventional tourists but rather businesspeople or Thais making only short trips across the two countries shared border. Amid continued lobbying from China to restart the controversial Myitsone dam, the development company behind the project released excerpts of the contract agreement over the weekend. In a Myanmar-language statement disseminated through Chinese state mouthpiece Xinhua, China Power Investment Corporation listed a series of alleged benefits for the local people, a bid to sway public opinion in favour of resuming the US$3.6 billion hydropower project. In 2011, then-president U Thein Sein angered the Chinese, but delighted local residents, by ordering the suspension of work on the dam in Kachin State, one of a number of large and controversial projects China is pursuing in Myanmar. Local residents have vehemently protested the project for fear that it will cause degradation to a confluence both historically and environmentally integral to Kachin. The state government earlier this month told the Chinese ambassador that the project wont be restarted unless the local people agree to back it, while State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has repeatedly said no decision can be made without reviewing the contract. The company appeared to be making an attempt to address both concerns with the Xinhua statement, which dealt with various issues, including transparency, legal compliance, details of profit-sharing and electricity-sharing, electricity sales, environmental impact, the impact of the proposed reservoir on communities downstream, social responsibility, resettlement, social impact, safety, and social welfare. The statement also threatened legal action against local protesters and unnamed news sources for allegedly defaming the hydropower project. As for spreading rumours, making false charges and defaming in defiance of the facts, which is being done by a small number of media outlets and organisations, the company will safeguard its legitimate rights and interests by legal means, and we are expecting that the public and media are able to distinguish between truth and falsehood, the statement said. The Kachin State-based organisation Mungchying Rawt Jat (MRJ), which has objected to the dam, denounced the company statement as meaningless. MRJ member Daw Ja Hkaung said the organisations opposition did not constitute defamation. Everybody knows its a bad project. They know the disadvantages. This is not defamation, she said. In 2009, Myanmar and China concluded a hydropower cooperation framework agreement, in which both parties supported the CPIs investment and development. The Myanmar government, CPI Yunnan International Power Investment Company (CPIYN) and Asia World Company entered into a joint venture agreement to develop the dam. CPI also said that then-prime minister General Soe Win had been the one to invite them in 2006 to invest in Myanmars development by building the dam. During the negotiation process, more than 10 [Myanmar] ministries participated in the negotiations and reviews, said the companys statement. It went on to say that according to the details in the contract, During the project construction and concession operation period, the Myanmar government will obtain a direct economic benefit of US$54 billion by means of taxes, free power and share dividends, while the investor will obtain about $35 billion. The contract further specifies that the electricity ministry will benefit from project development by holding 15 percent of the shares, CPI said. Much of the controversy over the project, and the public resistance to it, stems from the fact that 90pc of the electricity generated would be transmitted to China. However, one environmental conservation organisation said the money was no substitute for the preservation of the Ayeyarwady River. Daw Dewi Thant Sin of Myanmar Green Network said, The Chinese have resumed their pressure on the government. But local residents already objected when the Chinese ambassador visited, she said. On June 3, Chinese ambassador Hong Liang was greeted by protesters in the Kachin capital, Myitkyina. Activists say the proposed reservoir could affect water quality downstream, cause sea water intrusion at the estuary and even increase earthquake risk in a geologically unstable zone. Tian Shanting, cultural counsellor with the Chinese embassy, told The Myanmar Times that the Myitsone dam would be able to resist natural disasters, a claim challenged by local geologists, as well as relieve water scarcity during the dry season. U Thein Sein suspended the project after CPI relocated thousands of villagers beyond the 766 square kilometres to be inundated. But conflict between ethnic Kachin and the military was reportedly exacerbated in 2010 after work began on the project, and clashes in 2011 ended a nearly two-decade ceasefire agreement. Environmentalists are also demanding the release of the full details of the Myitsone agreement, and not just excerpts. U Zaw Htay, a spokesperson for the Presidents Office, said no decision had been taken on the release of the documents, and that consideration was still continuing. The National League for Democracy government is coming under heavy pressure from both sides as it mulls a decision on whether or not to resume the project. While Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has argued that it suffers from a lack of planning, she has more recently hedged on questions about the hydropower dam project. After her April meeting with the Chinese foreign minister she told reporters she had not yet read the contract, and so could not say anything definitively. A University student was shot dead by a government soldier during a quarrel in Myitkyina, Kachin State, on the evening of June 20. Nineteen-year-old Maung Gum Seng Aung, a first-year student at the citys Computer University, died on the spot, according to an official from the Myitkyina Police Force. Police Colonel Myo Thura Naung said that the incident began when two young couples on motorbikes asked for help from two government soldiers who were guarding Bala Min Htin Bridge in Myitkyina. The couples said they sought protection from eight locals who had been bullying them. The group of eight attacked the two soldiers before the shooting occurred, Pol Col Myo Thura Naung said. According to police records, during the melee Maung Gum Seng Aung tried to grab a firearm out of the hands of one of the soldiers, Ko Maung Maung, who then opened fire. Maung Gum Seng Aung was struck by a bullet in the left collarbone and died at the scene. Pol Col Myo Thura Naung declined to provide additional details or specify how many shots had been fired because he had not yet seen the autopsy report. Ko Salai, a reporter for Myitkyina Journal, said that yesterday a group of students and friends carried Maung Gum Seng Aungs body on their shoulders from the mortuary to his house. Many of them carried signs and shouted slogans calling for justice. I heard that other people who were involved in the case have disappeared, Ko Salai said. Police said they have questioned the two soldiers from Hta Pa Ya 727 Army Battalion, and are still investigating. U Zaw Myat, a pastor who lives in the same house as Maung Gum Seng Aung, said the victim was polite and had good manners. I would like to ask the police for justice in this case. Maung Gum Seng Aungs parents should know what really happened to their son. Two bilateral agreements are anticipated to be on the table when State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi visits Thailand later this week. According to the Thai foreign ministry, one memorandum of understanding concerns migrant workers while the other addresses a border crossing agreement. The discussions will mainly focus on the issues of mutual interest in particular, labour cooperation, development cooperation and connectivity, said the foreign ministrys June 20 statement. On the first day of her visit, June 23, the state counsellor, who also serves as foreign minister, will meet with migrant workers in Mahachai, a southern seaside town densely populated by Myanmar migrant workers. Civil society groups in Thailand said they are preparing to hold a question-and-answer session with her. Plans are also in the works for her to visit some of the tens of thousands of Myanmar refugees residing in camps along the Thai border. Sai San Myint, a member of a Chiang Mai-based social welfare association for Myanmar nationals in Thailand, said he was hopeful that the state counsellors visit would lead to guarantees of greater protections for her citizens living in the kingdom, which some estimates put at upward of 3 million. According to the Bangkok Post, the MoU on migrant workers will include a provision on reducing the work break period from three years to 30 days. Under the current arrangement, registered Myanmar migrant workers must return to their home country after four years of work in Thailand, and then have to spend three years in Myanmar before they can work again in Thailand. The lengthy duration of the break has been said to discourage migrant workers from returning to Myanmar, leading many to instead become illegal immigrants. In February, after officials from the two countries met, Thailand began re-issuing temporary pink cards to undocumented migrant workers and those whose passports and work visas were sent to expire. The pink cards validity was extended for two years with another possible two-year renewal, giving applicants time to obtain more permanent legal documents from their country of origin. Migrant rights groups have long criticised the capricious documentation arrangements between the two countries, with workers facing an ever-changing array of documents, requirements and registration periods. They have said the pink cards leave workers vulnerable to arbitrary deportation, arrest or extortion by police. The Bangkok Post also reported that part of the MoU to be signed will seek to set up a panel to control costs involved in the migrant worker scheme, such as registration fees and related expenses, which can prove prohibitively high for the labourers, some of whom opt to forgo legal channels to employment. Though optimistic about the outcomes of Daw Aung San Suu Kyis trip, Thailand-based rights groups emphasised that any deals reached offer concrete benefits to workers on the ground. We have seen so many migrant workers arrested as scapegoats by Thailand authorities. Myanmar migrant workers have been shouldering burdens and injustices for many years in Thailand. An end to this dire situation should begin with her visit, said U Kyaw Thaung, the director of the Myanmar Association in Thailand. He suggested that the state counsellor push to remove overseas job agencies from the migrant worker equation, given the reputation many have earned as exploitative, with some described as human trafficking syndicates. The MoU should be a government-to-government deal in carrying out the plans, and brokers and agencies on both sides should be strictly prohibited if we want to see migrant workers not being trafficked by those profit-seekers, U Kyaw Thaung said. Also likely to hang over discussions this week is the case of two migrant workers found guilty by a Thai court last year of a double murder on the island of Koh Tao. During her visit, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi will meet legal aids to the case of Ko Zaw Linn and Ko Wai Phyo, the two workers appealing a death penalty verdict but whom many in Myanmar believe were scapegoated. U Aung Myo Thant, a lawyer helping with the case, said those involved in the legal defence intended to discuss the matter when they meet with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. The case is not on the agenda, but when she meets with Myanmar diplomatic officials and their families, we will bring up the case, he said of the two mens convictions in a high-profile trial that was dogged by accusations of malfeasance by Thai law enforcement. Labour officials have asked the International Labour Organisation to set up a full country office in Myanmar. At the 105th International Labour Conference held in Geneva from May 30 to June 10, the Confederation of Trade Unions of Myanmar and the labour ministry made the request, together with employee representatives, said U Maung Maung, chair of the CTUM. Currently, ILO runs a liaison office in Myanmar, but U Maung Maung said the current operations are not sufficient to deal with labour issues as the country tries to address forced and child labour. He added that full ILO country offices had helped bolster labour rights in the manufacturing sectors of Thailand and the Philippines. This year, I, the minister for labour and an employee representative together asked for the opening of an ILO country office in Myanmar. I think it will happen next year, he said at a press event at the Myanmar Seamens Federation on June 17. Out of about 21 million workers in Myanmar, only some 300,000 are members of labour unions and an ILO office could help to establish more unions, he said. Our country is now opening up and we have more rights to organise labour unions, but it is not yet enough. An ILO office can help with that, the CTUM chair said. ILO did not return a request for comment, but U Myo Aung, permanent secretary for the Ministry of Labour who also attended the meeting in Switzerland, said that they had accepted the proposal and would consider it. Myanmar has changed to a democratic country. So, we shouldnt have just a liaison office and we asked for a country office instead, he said. Nearly 600 workers marched on Paleik in Singaing township yesterday, demanding the state reconsider an agreement that transferred a state-owned factory to the private sector. Workers from Mandalay Regions Panda textile and garment factory, who have been staging sit-in protests since June 3, say the new company is not holding up its end of the bargain on issues of worker accommodations, wages, and days off. After the factory moved to the private sector, the lives of our former civil servants have gotten worse in every way, said Ma Zar Chi Win, the leader of workers. The company is breaching the contract in many ways. We have to protest to get back our contracts. We are demanding the current government correct the errors of the previous government. The factory was formerly run by the Ministry of Industry as No 2 Textile and Garment Factory. Panda took it over under a 30-year lease, with an agreement to keep employing former civil servants after the privatisation. Workers claim Panda is breaching the employment contract over issues relating to days off and theyre calling on the Ministry of Industry to uphold lifetime contracts for all the former public workers. Mandalay Regions Department of Labour is suing the factory. The trial is scheduled to start on June 23, Ma Zar Chi Win said. We will keep on demanding that the company honour the employment contract signed when the factory was privatised, she said. Translation by Thiri Min Htun An international rule of law NGO has recommended more than a dozen concrete steps for the government to reform its ailing courts and revamp the rule of law. The 14-point agenda was published by the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) on June 20 amid hopes that the National League for Democracy-led government will restore independence to its judicial system. Decades of authoritarian rule weakened Myanmars judiciary and compromised the independence of its legal system. The World Justice Project rated Myanmar 91 out of 102 countries in its annual Rule of Law Index last year. To start amending the corruption-rife sector, ICJ said independent judges and lawyers, reforming the Union Attorney Generals Office, and improving land and investment laws all need to be high on the priority list. ICJs international legal adviser for Myanmar, Vani Sathisan, told The Myanmar Times that it is high time for the government to impose stringent policies in line with international standards to ensure there is zero interference in judicial decisions. She said it is also vital for the government to commit resources to improve the legal education system. The new government must not repeat the old regimes mistakes, she added. While Myanmar once had a legal system admired throughout the region, it languished under military rule. Legal studies steadily declined after the government responded to the 1988 student-led uprising by shuttering the University of Yangon, which included the countrys premier law school. Even after it re-opened, no lawyers were trained there until 2014. Other recommendations from ICJ include boosting human rights by developing a nondiscriminatory citizenship plan. According to Ms Sathisan, if the government wants to fulfill its human rights obligations, it will improve its treatment of Muslim Rohingya who live in deplorable conditions in camps, as well as in isolated communities throughout Rakhine State. She slammed the previous government for failing to arrest or prosecute those responsible for violence against the Rohingya. The current government has a moral and political obligation to stop the systematic, wide-ranging discriminatory violence, she said. She also urged the present government to repeal the 1982 Citizenship Law or amend it according to recommendations from the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar and grant the Rohingya full citizenship and accompanying rights. The NLD has a tremendous opportunity and obligation to reverse years of official rejection and neglect, Sam Zarifi, ICJs Asia director, said in a press release. Myanmars severe human rights problems cant be solved immediately, or even for years to come, but its crucial for the new government to announce its strategy and show its commitment to improving the lives and livelihoods of all people in Myanmar. The visit this week by Nobel Peace Prize laureate and democracy icon Daw Aung San Suu Kyi will certainly brighten the spirits of the sombre Thai people and could also lift the profile of the Thai junta and Myanmars top leader. Yet we shouldnt romanticise too much about The Lady and her capacity as the political realities in Myanmar and Thailand remain daunting. Besides, she is no longer a secular saint but a fully fledged politician. Daw Aung San Suu Kyis three-day visit will include a stop in Mahachai, the seafood hub where she made a rousing speech to thousands of Myanmar labourers four years ago on one of her first trips abroad after years of house arrest. At least 3 million Myanmar migrants work in Thailand, both legally and illegally. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi would like to see many of them return home and contribute to her countrys economy to the dismay of Thai employers who rely heavily on the workforce from next door. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is expected to thank Thailand for embracing the migrants and to remind the government to take care of their welfare, wages and human rights. She needs to let them know she cares, since they played a significant role in persuading relatives back home to vote for change and install the National League for Democracy government last November. Thai democracy lovers and the Myanmar exile community are also curious about what Daw Aung San Suu Kyi will say about human rights in general. Having spoken out for years in support of students, politicians, ethnic groups and others persecuted by the Myanmar military, will she have a good word for those opposing the military strongmen running Thailand? Expect a few vague words of consolation to Thai people about working toward full democracy. Also on her agenda are better border regulation to tackle illicit drugs and human trafficking, and cooperation to develop economic zones in border areas. Thailand has prepared an amendment to a 2003 labour agreement that specified only employment, to include rule of law and other protection aspects. The changes should make recruitment faster and more transparent for employers and more convenient and affordable for Myanmar migrant workers. More effort is also expected to breathe life into the Dawei megaproject. Myanmar wants Japan to invest more in infrastructure there, but Japan wants to see its Thilawa port near Yangon up and running first even though Dawei will substantially benefit Japanese investment in Thailand and the region. Progress on Dawei could be linked to a solution to the long-running refugee problem. However, this can only materialise if the Myanmar government and armed ethnic groups as well as the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) are part of the solution. It would be a noble gesture for the leaders of the two countries to propose a pilot project for the voluntary return of refugees to Dawei, where they could contribute to, and benefit from, economic development. The roads to Dawei are the stronghold of the Karen National Union. If a political solution is found, some returnees from camps in Ratchaburi and Kanchanburi could be assisted to return to Myitta in Tanintharyi Region, 70 kilometres (43 miles) from the Thai border. But the KNU says any return must be accorded with safety and dignity, which includes the clearing of landmines among other conditions. Its a complicated problem as the refugees have been away from their homes for two or three decades and a lot has changed. Activists say as many as 3000 villages have been destroyed or abandoned due to the actions of armed groups and the Myanmar military. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has so far been vague about ethnic issues. She has announced a new round of peace talks but the ethnic groups feel she has given too many concessions to the military, whose goodwill she needs to maintain. So as a pragmatic politician Daw Aung San Suu Kyi will also avoid discussing issues unpopular among domestic constituents, such as the fate of the long-persecuted Rohingya, with Thailand. The Thai side probably wasnt going to mention it anyway. Also expect silence on Thanlwin River dam projects, in which both Thai and Chinese players are involved, and which ethnic groups oppose. Continuing such projects at a time of peace-building would be an opportunistic and exploitative act, they have said. In short, the political realities on both sides suggest that in the end, the meeting with The Lady could be just one more photo opportunity for Thailands premier to add to his collection. Bangkok Post Achara Ashayagachat is a senior reporter on socio-political issues for the Bangkok Post. Vera hitmaker, D-Black born Desmond Blackmore, has bemoaned the significant dip in music sales due to the role of the internet. He made this known to TV host, Nii Kpakpo Thompson on Viasat 1. Music doesnt sell anymore because we are in a digital age, everybody can download on their phones, he noted with concern. D-Black is not the only Ghanaian musician to lament the declining performance of music sales. Hiplife act, Itz Tiffany, made similar observations on Drive Time on Joy FM only weeks ago. She mentioned that only a handful of artists will end up on big shows, and as the country still does not have a tidy royalty system for the creative arts, it makes it hard for musicians to make adequate returns. Indeed, this predicament is not limited to local artists as the world over, musicians are complaining about poor album sales due to the internet revolution. Meanwhile, D-Black also revealed to Mr Thompson that his new album will be out this July; I feel like its time to put out a new body of work. In July, I will put out a new album. Its a 20 track album and there are lots of features The multiple-award-winning hip-hop act, as well as head of music, labels Black Avenue Music, which is also home to talented producer DJ Breezy. President John Dramani Mahama says starting July 1, 2016, Ghanaians will heave a sigh of relief when the current electricity tariff is adjusted. He asked Ghanaians to exercise some patience saying Because the electricity bill is done on monthly cycles, they have to start on the first of the month with a new billing cycle. President Mahama disclosed this to scores of party faithful when he visited Madina, a suburb of Accra as part of his Accounting to the people tour of the Greater Accra Region. He had to cut the tour short following the death of his mother on June 14, but had to resume it Tuesday, June 21. Mahamas promise came barely an hour after residents of Nungua, Teshie and La hit the street demonstrating over what they described as Killer Mahama tariffs. They claim their electricity bills are more expensive than their rent. Ghanaians are very cross with current tariff regime which they say is contributing to the general hardship in the country. Speaking to the crowd, the President stated the government is not insensitive to the plight of Ghanaians, especially what is going on about the brouhaha of electricity adding We will do our best to give them some relief. He blamed the increment in the electricity tariffs to the low level of the water in the hydro dams, noting hydro is the cheapest source of power, and now all the power we are producing is either with gas or crude oil, and these are more expensive than hydro. He averred government will re-adjust the tariffs after it has put in place a cheaper hydro power to reflect the cheaper power. On the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), the President said he has given the management of the company the opportunity to implement their own solutions to change the current billing regime. Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | Austin Brako-Powers | Email: [email protected] The governing National Democratic Congress has directed all of its candidates [Presidential and Parliamentary] not to participate in any debate organized by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) ahead of the November polls. A statement signed by the partys General Secretary, Johnson Aseidu Nketiah stated that the decision was taken by the NDCs Funcational Executive Committee. The National Democratic Congress (NDC), has, at its Functional Executive Committee (FEC), Meeting on Tuesday, June 21, 2016, decided not to participate in any debate to be organized by the Institute Of Economic Affairs (IEA), as far as it is related to the 2016 General Election, the statement added. Asiedu Nketia also charged all NDC party structures to comply with the directive. The NDC have not been happy with the IEA's decision to hold a separate debate for flagbearers for the two leading political parties, NPP and NDC as well as what they term as IEAs lack of consultation ahead of its debates. The IEA had earlier said the NDC's non- participation will not affect their plans in any way, however, Executive Director at the institute, Jean Mensah while speaking to journalists in Accra after PNC's Dr. Edward Mahama took his turn at the Evening Encounter Series on Tuesday, said the platform is still open to all candidates. We would like to take the opportunity to invite all the presidential candidates. I think this is an independent credible platform and the nation and the electorates are eager to hear from all the presidential candidates and we would like to encourage all of them to mount this platform to present their vision on this independent and credible platform, to answer questions from a broad section of the electorates. We hope that in the coming weeks we will hear from all of them, she added. By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana Follow @AlloteyGodwin The Flagbearer of the People's National Convention (PNC), Dr. Edward Mahama, has said although he loves homosexuals and will not discriminate against them as a Christian, as a medical practitioner, he considers their act unhealthy. Dr. Edward Mahama, who took his turn on Tuesday at the Institute of Economic Affairs' (IEA) Evening Encounter, made the comment in response to a question on what he makes of Ghana's back and forth argument on homosexuality. Apostle Samuel Yaw Antwi, General Secretary for the Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council, specifically asked Dr. Mahama about his take on the rights of homosexuals in the country. As a Christian I think homosexuality is condemned by the Bible, but I think also as a Christian, Christ said we should love our neighbour as we love ourselves so I love them. I may disagree with them and their lifestyle. I have a very close friend whose son was a homosexual and I always looked at him and loved him inside me but the fact that he was doing the wrong thing for himself. As you know being a pastor, Paul says that when we commit sexual sin is against our own body first. There are scientific basis which others may disagree with. So basically it is not a very healthy sexual practice. And I tell lesbians and gays who come to me that it is not a very healthy sexual practice. If you enjoy it, do it, but you are taking the risk. What I am saying is that, it's their right to do what they like with their body but I don't endorse it and I think it's wrong which is why I educate them. And that's all I can do because I am not going to think for somebody. Dr. Edward Nasigri Mahama at the IEA Evening Encounter Series. I'll be responsible if elected Edward Mahama Dr. Mahama, who spoke on several issues ranging from education, health, economy unemployment and corruption among others, said the PNDC remains the best alternative to turn around the fortunes of the country. He explained that his desire to become President is borne out of his ability to take personal responsibility for his actions and contempt for wrongdoing in Ghana. Dr. Mahama bemoaned the extent to which Ghana's weak systems have failed to address the canker of corruption, explaining that, unlike other countries where some Presidents had to step down for being involved in one corrupt practice or the other, the situation is totally different in Ghana. We have a system where those who loot are held in high esteem. A former Prime Minister of Latvia resigned when the roof of a Supermarket collapsed, killing 54 people. He said he took political and moral responsibility for the disaster. In Germany, Christian Wulff resigned from high office of President in 2009, put on trial for corruption because his friend was alleged to have paid for his hotel room and his food valued at 700 euros. In the United States of America, President Nixon stepped aside from high office of US President after the Watergate scandal. It is this kind of taking personal responsibility and abhorring wrongdoing that I am offering myself as President of Ghana, Edward Mahama explained. Ghana can rise again Mr. Mahama was however quick to add that, the PNC is devising a detailed manifesto which contains solutions that will address corruption and ensure growth and sustainable development of the country. He stated that, the country can rise again if Ghanaians will make a decision to go for the PNC in the November polls. Working together, Ghana can rise again. Let's go for the PNC. We have a unique and inspiring preposition to transform the fortunes of this country. The new beginnings, the new deal, the new force. By: Ebenezer Afanyi Dadzie/citifmonline.com/Ghana Follow @AfanyiDadzie Nairobi (AFP) - On a wet Thursday night in early May, a well-known businessman and government critic was found dead in his armoured blue Mercedes by a busy road on the outskirts of Nairobi, five bullet holes in his chest, neck and arm. Kenya's long history of state violence meant the murder of Jacob Juma, who was in his mid-forties, was quickly viewed as a political assassination. His death dominated the country's newspapers as amateur sleuths picked holes in the police narrative of a business deal gone wrong, and opposition politicians cried foul. It was a tricky case, the country's senior detective Muhoro Ndegwa told journalists, with no witnesses and no weapon. He promised his team would do their best, but in the six weeks since his death no arrests have been made. The arc of Juma's life was unusual at first, and then unique: Kenya's pervasive tribal patronage helped a poor but smart rural kid make the political connections necessary to get rich on ill-gotten government contracts. But after he was cut out of a potentially lucrative mining deal he became a relentless anti-corruption activist and government critic leading many to see politics behind his death. Juma was "a scoundrel that bitterness turned into an asset for those fighting corruption," says John Githongo, a renowned anti-corruption campaigner. "He became a fount of confidential treasury documents, information, history and gossip," he says. Elections trigger spikes in corruption and the country is already getting set for next year's vote: there are regular, sometimes deadly, street protests against an election commission the opposition says is biased; MPs on both sides have been investigated for hate speech and inciting violence; and graft is accelerating as politicians seek to fund either their campaigns or their retirements. Juma's murder is being seen as the curtain raiser to a potentially violent election season. Diplomats are already muttering about "a repeat of 2007" when more than 1,100 people died in election-related tribal violence. - Rags to riches, ally to enemy - Juma won a place at a Nairobi polytechnic in 1989 and quickly impressed businessman and politician Cyrus Jirongo, who hails from the same part of the country and became his patron. "You could tell this was somebody who was going to get somewhere," recalls Jirongo. "He was very poorly dressed but he had a lot of confidence. That confidence alone would make you think that, surely, he was worth your money." Jirongo housed Juma with his nieces and nephews, paid Juma's college fees and introduced him to the twinned worlds of politics and business. Juma made friends with allies and relatives of then-president Daniel Arap Moi (on whose 1992 election campaign Jirongo worked) and founded his business empire on those first government contracts, re-surfacing rural dirt roads. He grew into his wealth, adopting the flashy style of the newly rich with designer suits, smart cars, gaudy property and sparkly watches. Jirongo approved: "Above all, he wanted the world to know he had succeeded, he'd beaten the poverty he'd come from." During this time Juma got to know William Ruto, a fellow hustler but one with big political ambitions. Accusations that he orchestrated violence in the wake of the 2007 election, and subsequent crimes against humanity charges at the International Criminal Court, did not derail Ruto's career and in 2013 he became deputy president. Juma wasn't a supporter but, friends say, believed his relationship might help him secure control of the Mrima Hill niobium and rare earth mine in Kwale on Kenya's coast. Instead his licence was cancelled. "He refused to cut government figures in on the deal," says one close friend. "That mining deal was the turning point." Juma was left bitter, angry and dangerous. "After that he dedicated himself to doing nothing else but exposing the regime," says the friend. - 'This was a hit squad' - Juma played a central role in revealing at least two major corruption scandals, including one in which the government has been unable to explain how it spent $2.75 billion (2.6 billion euros) raised through a 2014 Eurobond issue. He took his combative persona to Twitter - once using the social media site to accuse Ruto of ordering his death - and feeling corruption had done him out of his biggest-ever business deal, it was corruption he focused on. Githongo and others regard the current government as perhaps the most corrupt in Kenya's history. Foreign businessmen routinely complain that a 30 percent skimming off the top of contracts has become standard. One foreign executive described the increasing corruption and extortion ahead of next year's election as a "smash and grab" while a prominent Kenyan businessman described it as "a shakedown". "It is very difficult to do business with the Kenya government if you are not willing to pay right from the top to the bottom," says Jirongo. Allies of Juma have openly accused the state of his murder. "The inspector-general (of police) knows who killed Jacob Juma. This was a hit squad and it is known," opposition leader Raila Odinga said at a memorial service in Nairobi. Ruto denies involvement and has threatened legal action against those who repeat allegations that he was behind the killing. For Juma's wealthy and influential friends in Kenya's business community, aggrieved at the levels of corruption and eager for an end to a government they feel has betrayed them, his death is a message. "It's a warning to all of us: You stay in the corner we give you or we will deal with you, ruthlessly." There is no doubt that the advent of Information Communication Technology (ICT) has accelerated the transformation and development of the world. Ghana, realising the potential of ICT as a tool and enabler for development started the process of developing an ICT policy in 1998. However, the policy, ICT for Accelerated Development (ICT4AD) was finally adopted around 2003.This policy gave birth to some important agencies which will act as active drivers of the ICT agenda. Flowing out of this a few years later, the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC), was established with themandate of providing Universal Access to Electronic Communications to promote social and economic development. It was originally set up as Ghana Investment Fund for Telecommunications (GIFTEL). Last two weeks, GIFEC celebrate 10 years of its existence under the theme: Ten Years of making Electronic Communications Accessible to the Nation. A number of activities were put together to commemorate the landmark occasion. One of the activities which GIFEC undertook during the celebration and which caught my attention was an eye screening exercise for commercial drivers. I was personally interested in this eye test because in my last two articles which focused on trotro drivers, I wrote about the mystery around the commercial drivers apparent immunity to eye problems. My take on that issue was that it was strange that whilst a lot of private drivers wore glasses, it was very rare to see commercial drivers in glasses. GIFECs exercise proved my assumptions right I am reliably informed thatthe Eye Test for commercial drivers revealed that many of them had eye problems indeed it was worse than they thought. This issue has to be taken very seriously. Isnt it strange that commercial drivers (both trotro and tax) in Ghana hardly wear glasses?Could some of the accidents on our roads be attributed to poor vision of the drivers? Having been associated with the telecom sector for several years, I know that legally, Telcos are mandated to contribute one percent of their annual revenue into GIFECs fund for their operations. The contributions of the Telcosremains a key source of funding for GIFEC. I believe there are other sources which I am not aware of. As GIFEC celebrates10 yearsof its existence, it is important to recount some of their achievements. GIFECs activitiesare quiet many but I will highlight only a few which they undertake to promote Universal Access to Communications Programme. Some of the initiatives include Cyber Laboratory Programmes; Universal Access to Telephony; ICT for Livelihood; ICT Education, Awareness & Content and Broadcasting. According to GIFEC they have set up Cyber Laboratory Programmes to support full-service broadband connectivity, services and facilities to designated unserved and underserved communities. Under these are Institutional Support initiatives through which GIFEC provides computers and accessories with full functionality as well as internet connectivity (broadband) services. Some of the beneficiaries are: Passport Office, Midwifery and Nursing Council, NADMO, NCCE, National House of Chiefs and EOCO. I hope that these interventions by GIFEC have improved the operations of the recipient institutions. Providing support to an institution is good, using it appropriately would make things better and I hope the institutions are getting better with these interventions. The Community Information Center is another means by which GIFEC provides computers, accessories and financial support to communities. The CIC concept is a hybrid profit-making tele centre and non-profit community resource centre established to provide business services and community development information to remote communities. Out of 173 CICs built so far, 136 have been equipped with the support of GIFEC. Again, we need to see the impact these interventions are making. ICTs are to empower people and make them more efficient. Among the activities initiated by GIFEC, I am very excited about the Schools Connectivity Programme because of the opportunity it provides to the youth. This programme involves the provision of high speed computers, scanners, printers, projectors and servers to educational institutions. It is therefore refreshing to note that GIFEC has done so much in this sector. Available statistics shows that 82 Nursing Training Schools; 24 Community Development Institutions; 3 OIC Institutions; 9 Farming Institutions; 26 Technical Institutions; 37 National Vocational Training Institutes; 38 Colleges of Education; 13 Schools for the Deaf and 20 Integrated Community Centre for Employable Skills (ICCES) have received support from GIFEC. GIFEC says it has distributed 20,000 Laptops to 200 Junior Secondary schools.These interventions are remarkable.Again,we have to think beyond the provision of computers to the provision of employable skills, development of creative abilities and the application of the knowledge they are receiving. We need the youth to take giant steps in the development of businesses in the ICT sector. I also got to learn through my research that key security institutions such as the Ghana Police Service, the Ghana Army, Ghana Fire Service, Ghana Immigrations Service and Ghana Prisons Service have all benefited from the GIFEC. Again, I was touched to see Prisonsinmates using computers to learn. I know quite a number of organisations who have provided computers to prisons including the MTN Ghana Foundation. One of the core mandates of GIFEC is to provide internet point of presence and basic telephony services to bridge the digital gap between the served, underserved and unserved communities in Ghana. According to GIFEC, it has built 51 telephony sites and 300 points of presence. It also intends to distribute about 2,000 mobile phones this year in a bid to provide data enabled handsets to communities to help them access voice and data services. Another initiative taken by GIFEC which I find commendable is the establishment of The National Emergency Call Centre. I think the center has been under promoted and we need GIFEC to take steps to educate people about the benefits of the center. In as much as we celebrate GIFEC, we still need to find out what the real impact of all these interventions are. For example, how have the provision of computers helped schools, students and institutions like the Passport office. Secondly we also need to know if GIFEC has made the best use of the resources they have been given. I hope there is regular monitoring and evaluation of the projects. I have heard people criticise GIFEC for not doing enough with regards to the Rural Telephony Project. Recently, I heard a popular radio morning show host bashing Telcos for not providing access to some communities in remote areas. What they had failed to do was to ask how GIFEC can assist in this regard. Some of the Telcos have a strong presence in the rural areas. However they can reach more places at a faster pace if GIFEC also provides the needed resources to help them connect the underserved communities. I do not intend to take anything away from the numerous successes GIFEC has recorded; there is evidence that they are supporting a lot of institutions. If I were the Administrator of the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications, I will be encouraged by what has been achieved but the excitement will drive me to find more innovative and efficient ways of delivering of providing Universal Access to Basic Telephony to the unserved and underserved communities in the country. Mr. Norbert Akolbila, Founder and Executive Director of Movement for Natural Regeneration (MONAR), a Bolgatanga-based environmental NGO has called on the government to adopt, as a matter of policy, Farmer-managed natural regeneration (FMNR) as a cost-effective and people-centredapproach to combating the threat of desertification in the country. He said it has become clear that the conventional measures of controlling environmental degradation, such as planting of nursed tree seedlings have failed to address the problem comprehensively, particularly in the three northern regions where the scarcity of water during prolonged dry seasons has often resulted in the failure of tree planting projects. On the other hand FMNR has been highly successful as a less expensive land rehabilitation approach because it is locally-led and implemented, and easy to adopt because it uses local skills and resources. FMNR thus come in handy to complement the tree planting effort with is its attendant challenges he said. This was contained in a commemorative message MONAR issued in Bolgatanga to mark World Day to Combat Desertification (WDCD). Mr. Akolbila said it was long overdue for the government and development partners to start re-thinking on drought and desertification control strategies in view of current climate change realities, by embracing feasible agro-forestry techniques such as FMNR, which is sensitive to the livelihood needs and priorities of local communities. He noted that it was for this reason that MONAR identifies itself with the theme for this years World Day to Combat desertification, which is Inclusive cooperation for achieving Land Degradation Neutrality. The MONAR Director said the theme for the event was appropriate and timely because of the importance of inclusive cooperation among government, development partners and local communities in efforts to combat desertification as one of the greatest environmental threats of our times. We at MONAR are happy that the global community has realised the importance of inclusiveness in efforts to tackle the complex problem of land degradation and desertification, which has become a major food security threat worldwide. From experience, MONAR has long realised that the best way to tackle environmental degradation is to work from the bottom-up by rallying the support of community stakeholders in re-greening initiatives. Our approach in teaching tree and land regeneration techniques to communities is to get inclusive community participation and buy-in of the local people regarding the practical benefits of tree regeneration from the onset. The more community people are informed about and involved in the regeneration and land restoration process, the more likely that the initiatives will succeed. Without community involvement, an FMNR or any land management project may never take-off the ground or risked being short-lived , the FMNR expert stressed. Mr. Akolbila, formerly of World Vision Ghana, learned about this innovative agro-forestry technique when he worked with FMNR pioneer Tony Rinaudo of World Vision Australia to introduce the practice in the Talensi District of the Upper East Region in 2009. If FMNR has been used successfully to restore highly degraded communal and farmlands that were considered unproductive in the Talensi area, why not elsewhere in Ghana and West Africa. It only needs the commitment of all stakeholders working together in an enabling policy environment to scale up the practice beyond project intervention areas , he pointed out. Farmer-managed natural regeneration (FMNR) was initiated in the mid-1980s in Niger by Tony Rinaudo as a simple and low cost agro-forestry technique where farmers and community people are encouraged to systematically manage and protect the regeneration of native tree seedlings and shrubs on farms and communal lands. Ever since, more than one million rural households in Niger have used FMNR to protect and manage trees across five million hectares (12.3 million acres) in the densely populated parts of Maradi and Zinder in southern Niger. These trees helped increase cereal production by 500,000 tons (enough to feed 2.5 million people) a year and raised incomes by two to three times from sale of products like edible leaves and honey. Currently, FMNR has been widely embraced by governments and non-governmental agencies in many countries around the world. The MONAR Executive Director commended the United Nations for instituting the WDCD in 1995 to increase public awareness on the issue and to remind people that desertification can be effectively tackled through strengthened community participation and co-operation at all levels. He urged government as a signatory to the UN Convention to Combat Desertificationto redouble efforts towards adopting feasible and proactive policies to combat the threat of drought and desertification. It is estimated that about 35% of Ghanas land area is prone to desertification, particularly in the Guinea and Sudan savannah dry areas of the Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions, with the Upper East Region being the worst affected. The effects of drought and desertification on rural livelihoods in the three northern regions are enormous as rural communities increasingly experience lower crop and livestock productivity, which further deepens poverty. Drought and desertification also puts increasing pressure on urban areas as people migrate there from rural areas in search of jobs. Women Fellowship Wing of Global Peace Christian Centre (GPCC) has donated items worth GHC11, 000 to the female division of the Nsawam Medium Security Prison. The items included lawn mower, rice bags ,beans, gari , bread, tooth paste, tooth brushes, bread, toilet rolls, soap, sanitary products , ladies underwear, soft drinks and inspirational books. Lady Rev. Mrs Perpetual Ampomah Boateng, the leader of the group who presented the items on behalf of the women in a show of love and care for female inmates at the prison. She said the gesture was in line with Jesus demand on Christians to give to the poor, visit the sick and prisoners among others, as recorded in Matthew 25:36. And also, to share the word of God with them. However, she seized the opportunity to thank the husband Very Rev.Henry Ampomah-Boateng, the Founder of Global Peace Christian Centre (GPCC) for his unwavering support. Chief Superintendent of Prisons Sophia Osei Bonsu, who received the items with joy on behalf of the inmates, expressed profound gratitude to Global Peace Christian Centre for embarking on such benevolent exercise. In fact, this gesture has really touched our hearts. To be candid, we are extremely elated. We have made several appeals to philanthropists to come to our aid with lawn mower as at now, we have not heard from them. But today, Global Peace Christian Centre Womens Fellowship, you have responded to our need. God richly bless you, she expressed joy. This she said, the items donated will go a long way to enhance service delivery and also compliment the effort of the government. Adding that, that the donation would be used for its intended purpose. However, she expressed worry about the re-integration of the inmates into the society. This she hinted that, society do neglect them when they are freed. According to her, the stigmatization always lures them to perpetrate crimes worse than ever. . She therefore entreated families , faith- based organizations to help discourage stigmatization and rather accept them as a family. She also seized the opportunity to appeal to Philanthropists , faith based organizations and other institutions to come to their aid to assist them revamp their vocational sector in order to equip the inmates with the relevant training that will make them to become economically independent when they are freed. Rev Paulina Simpson, of Global Peace Christian Centre in a brief church service encouraged the inmates not to give up in life but to keep their dreams and aspirations high. Basing her preaching on the the story of Joseph in the Bible who was imprisoned for no crime committed,forgotten by men in prison but in Gods own time, he was remembered and promoted as well. Just as Joseph was promoted from a prisoner to become a prime minister, so shall your story be in Jesus name if only you believe, she inspired them. Some of the inmates who spoke on anonymity expressed joy and happiness. Exceeding joy and happiness has engulfed our hearts. We felt like God has visited us today. In fact, this lawn mower has been our pressing need. More so, the preaching has revitalised our mortal bodies, they expressed joy. The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) will be implementing the second phase of one of its flagship Projects in the Agriculture Sector called: Project for Sustainable Development of Rainfed Lowland Rice Production in the Republic of Ghana. This was made known at two separate workshops organized in Kumasi and Tamale to inform beneficiaries about the contents of the new phase of the Project. The participants of the workshop included the Rice Liaison Officer from the Directorate of Crop Services (DCS), Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), MoFA Ashanti and Northern Regional Directors of Agriculture, staff from the two Regional Coordinating Councils and District Agriculture Departments of beneficiary districts, farmers, Project Experts and representatives from JICA. Together with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), JICA implemented the first phase of the Project from 2009 to 2014 in five districts in Ashanti region and four districts in the Northern Region. These districts include: Asante Akim North, Asante Akim Central, Atwima Mponua, Ahafo Ano North and Adansi South in the Ashanti Region. Those in the Northern region are Tamale Metropolitan, East Gonja, West Mamprusi and Sagnerigu districts. In a speech to highlight the successes of the first phase, Mr. Kosuke Nagino, Project Formulation Advisor at JICA Ghana Office indicated that at the end of the first phase, on the average, rice yields in the target areas doubled. Invariably, the increased yields were; six tonnes per hectare from a baseline of three tonnes per hectare in the Ashanti Region and four tonnes per hectare from two tonnes per hectare in the Northern Region. This translated into increase in farmers incomes and improved standards of living of beneficiary households. Thus, the Project goal of increasing the productivity and profitability of rice farming in rainfed lowland ecologies in the target areas was achieved. Qualitatively, the Project was able to develop a Rice Extension Guideline that contains rice cultivation and extension techniques that also served as a basis for the development of beneficiary District Rice Extension Plans. Mr. Kwaku Minka Fordjour, Ashanti Regional Director of Agriculture, noted that: The Project has made an immense impact on the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in the target areas. This was reiterated by the Northern Regional Director of Agriculture, Mr. William Boakye Acheampong at the Tamale Workshop. A farmer present at the Kumasi workshop testified that as a result of the increase in his income level, he has been able to send his children to school and plans of acquiring a tractor to expand his farm. As a result of the outstanding impact of the first phase, MoFA requested JICA to extend this support to new districts within the same regions with the view of disseminating the Rice Extension Guidelines. Accordingly, JICA agreed and will be extending these Guidelines to 20 and 15 MMDAs in the Ashanti and Northern regions respectively. The new phase will commence this year and end in 2021. On his part, the Rice Liaison Officer representing the Director of DCS, MoFA, Mr. Al-Hassan Imoro indicated that: MoFA is also committed to ensuring that the next phase is successfully implemented. Under the new phase, JICA will provide technical guidance in the dissemination of the extension guidelines to the new districts whereas MoFA will be responsible for guiding the Regional and District Agriculture Departments in the implementation of rice extension activities. On her part, the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development will also assist the MMDAs in mainstreaming the project activities in their planning and budgeting. Ghana and Atletico Madrid's rising star Thomas Partey has revealed that his dad was so passionate about his career to the point that he had to sell some of his belongings to enable him make his first trip to Europe. The now trump card of Atletico Madrid boss Diego Simeone revealed in an emotional interview that he was lucky to have a dad who was very particular about how his career developed. 'My dad did not tell me this but I heard him say to a friend that he had to sell some of his stuff when I was first going to Europe,' Partey told Citi-FM based in Accra-Ghana 'The white men who were sending me there did their part but I think he also had to sort out some issues but that is it.' Partey played in 13 league games for Atletico Madrid in the league and scored two goals including a driving one against Levante that earned his side all three points. He also recently made his international debut for the Black Stars in a game against Mauritius. By Rahman Osman Follow on twitter @iamrahmanosman Music is extremely important to human beings. It helps to set or change peoples moods. And a persons mood largely determines how he or she will behave. Experts in marketing know this, so when you enter a shop, you may find that they are playing music to you that, they hope, will make you relax and thereby loosen your purse strings. Conversely, the music may be so irritating to you that you leave the shop earlier than you had intended to! Similarly, when you enter a chapel, organ music may greet you and help you to concentrate on the serious business of communicating with invisible forces. Or it may depress you and recall to your mind, things better forgotten such as the loss of a beloved person. Some airports used to play what was at one stage called Muzak music that was deliberately neutral, so as to take the travellers mind off the potential hazards of the journey ahead of him or her. Telephone companies are among the biggest consumers of market research conducted on human behaviour. Some of these companies therefore use subliminal messages to sell products to their customers. For instance, they can demand that one calls their messaging service without telling one what message one is supposed to receive when one does do so. If one is abroad and one calls a messaging service, in the hope that its an important message, especially one regarding matters you might not have been able to deal with before your departure, one may be charged for the call. But then, what often happens is that one discovers that the message is only an invitation from the phone company itself to do this or that, at an advantage to oneself that one has not sought to obtain! It means one pays in order to be sold something! Is that fair? In some countries, such practices are not allowed. The telecommunications regulators are so alive to the sharp practices indulged in by some companies that they constantly monitor the operations of the companies, in order to detect and put a stop to such practices. In the European Union, for instance, phone companies have been ordered, among other regulatory fiats, to reduce their so-called roaming charges because not only are these charges too high but also, their existence cannot be justified on commercial grounds, given the degree of integration of telecommunications facilities that exists in the Union. Globalization of operations means that, in fact, this degree of integration also exists in other pats of the world, as well, but, of course, if the regulators of operations in those regions do not care to protect the public adequately, then the advantages enjoyed by other regions will not devolve to the regions with a crappy form of regulation. Trans-national companies that carry out operations across borders know exactly how to maximise their profits and they always bless weak regulators. Or bribe them if possible. It is small signs that tell us whether our regulators are working well or not. The small sign I have noticed about the Ghana telecom scene that indicates that the regulatory system is not robust enough is this: I have just telephoned a number, and instead of hearing a normal ringing tone, I got an excited, high-pitched voice which asked me to choose whether to accept a tune by pressing a button! Now, the tune that was played into my ears was atrocious to me. It was such a shock to my system that I instinctively pulled the instrument away from my ear. Is this still going on in Ghana? Why? I hated the tune! Yet it had been played to me without my permission! And I hated, even more, the idea that the phone company was allowed to do this to customers, who were obliged to listen to the companys terrible song-message by force! In other words, we have become sitting ducks. Yet we have set up a body that is supposed to provide us with consumer protection. Apart from the invasion of our privacy that this system denotes, the regulators ought to know that interfering with the communications of telephone users in this manner is bad for a countrys business generally. I am calling someone; the telephone company does not know the sort of business I want to conduct with the person I am calling; indeed, that is none of its business. Yet it is playing me music that may affect the mood with which I shall approach the person at the other end of the phone! If what I consider to be atrocious music had been chosen by the person I am trying to communicate with, my opinion of that person would have been adversely affected by his or her taste in music! What? He/she likes this noise that is supposed to be music? And, of course, I would try not to call that person again in order not to hear again, that noise that passes for music. Which means that the person is paying a phone company to destroy his/her chances of doing any business with me. Yet that persons taxes are used to pay the regulators who allow companies that are destroying his/her business, to continue to exist. Now, of course, other members of the public may like the music offered by the phone company when one calls its customers. That is their choice. Their choice, however, is not my choice, and it may not be the choice of other customers. The phone company therefore has no right to inflict the music on us and affect our mood in a manner that it cannot pre-determine. And it is for the regulator to rule that the phone company cannot invade the moods of its customers in this way. The reason why this is going on is that some some phone companies are notoriously arrogant and do not care a fig about the interests of the customers who pay to keep them in business. What recently happened in Nigeria is instructive: there, a company was so negligent over steps the Government required it to take in order not to jeopardise the security of the state that the company was fined an enormous amount of money. The Nigerian case happened because the Nigerian regulator was up to its task. Are our regulators up to their task? I dont see how it can be, if customers like me are reduced to making a call only when we are forced to do so for fear of being played some sakabo music. Phones are meant to enhance our enjoyment of life. But in Ghana, some of the companies are allowed to annoy us, in the course of our carrying out ordinary communications. By the way, this is not the first article I have written about this noisome practice! That I have been forced to do so again shows exactly how impervious to consumer reaction some of the phone companies are. By: Cameron Duodu OccupyGhana has been following the story broken by award-winning journalist, Manasseh Awuni Azure and JoyFM, of the alleged donation of a Ford Expedition vehicle to the President by one Djibril Kanazoe, a Burkinabe private contractor. OccupyGhana has also studied closely, the reactions, rebuttals and explanations offered and given, and has concluded that there is a lot to be concerned about. These are matters that should not be treated lightly. It is not for nothing that ours is probably the only Constitution to mention "Corruption" by name and in Article 35(8), impose a mandatory and imperative duty on the state to "take steps to eradicate corrupt practices. Article 69(1)(b)(i) which provides The President shall be removed from office if he is found, in accordance with the provisions of this articleto have conducted himself in a mannerwhich brings or is likely to bring the high office of President into disrepute, ridicule or contempt gives us clear cause to be worried about any conduct in violation of same. It is on the basis of the foregoing that OcccupyGhana wishes to make three key points: First, we unreservedly congratulate Manasseh Awuni Azure for a great job done. This is still an unfolding story with a few still moving parts. However, we are impressed with the work and effort that Manasseh has put into this project and the courage it has taken to publish this story. We believe that Ghana owes Manasseh and JoyFM a great debt of gratitude for this work. Second, the facts that we have studied strongly suggest possible breaches of our criminal laws on corruption. Those facts show that a public official (the President) has received a gift. That alone does not constitute a criminal offence. However, if it is also established that there was an agreement or offer by which the conduct of the President, in respect of his duties as a public officer, would be or was influenced by this gift, then the offence of corruption would have been committed, both by him and by Djibril Kanazoe. As at now, we do not have sufficient grounds to state emphatically that the offence of corruption has been committed. But the known facts are disturbing. The unknown facts may be frightening or benign. It is in the light of these we demand a full-scale police investigation into this matter. If the investigations establish that there are sufficient grounds to initiate prosecution (within the rules laid down by our Constitution and criminal laws), then the law ought to be allowed to take its course to the fullest extent possible. Third, we are convinced that at the very least, a clear case of Conflict of Interest and by it, a breach of Article 284 of the Constitution, has been established. Article 284 expressly forbids public officers from putting themselves in a position where their personal interests either conflict or are "likely to conflict" with the performance of their official functions. Thus, what is prohibited is even the mere likelihood of a conflict. That would mean that the Article is breached even if there is no direct conflict, but just a probability, chance, prospect, possibility or risk of a Conflict of Interest. We observe also that the code of conduct for ministers and appointees in section 1.4.1 (b) rightly requires ministers and appointees to avoid such "appearances" which it says "are as important as an actual conflict of interest situations." While we believe that there is no real ambiguity or uncertainty on the issue of Conflict of Interest, we nevertheless believe that it is important for all the facts to come out. That is why we are convinced that the breach of Article 284 should trigger a formal investigation into this matter by the Commissioner for Human Rights and Administrative Justice under Article 287 of the Constitution. We, however, recognise, sadly, that CHRAJ currently has no substantive head and therefore suffers from a leadership vacuum that can act effectively and decisively on this matter. The failure to appoint a substantive head of that institution is unpardonable. We, therefore, demand a multi-party investigation instituted by Parliament to inquire into this matter. We conclude by putting to sleep, the laughable claim that there have been no breaches of our laws because the vehicle was allegedly put in the President's pool of official cars. A wrong is not made right by the use to which the wrongly acquired asset it put. The Office of the President of this dear country is one of trust. Any and every occupant of it owes a fiduciary duty to the people of Ghana. As a fiduciary, that person is under a duty, created by his election to that high office and by law, to act primarily for the benefit of Ghanaians who have reposed trust and confidence in him, and are entitled to demand of and from him, the exercise of a corresponding degree of fairness and good faith. The saying that "Caesar's wife must be beyond reproach" is apposite here. It is ironic that the Supreme Court quoted this axiom in its recent judgment relating to the judicial bribery scandal. We note that in the wake of that scandal President Mahama was outstanding in ensuring that the law was followed to the letter and that judges were dismissed only after they were found culpable after being investigated and given a hearing. The circumstances and treatment of the inappropriate conduct of those judges cannot be different from what we face now with respect to the President. Yours in the service of occupying hearts and minds for God and Country OccupyGhana President John Dramani Mahama 22.06.2016 LISTEN It is quite interesting that a glaring case of presidential payola scam that allegedly occurred in July 2012, or thereabouts, is now coming to light, with barely five months to Election 2016 (See Ford Gift Controversy: Apology Will Be Helpful Lecturer MyJoyOnline.com / Ghanaweb.com 6/17/16). You see, you can always count on the reprobate movers and shakers of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to cover their tracks for one another; and this clearly appears to have been the case. Unfortunately, these rascally opportunists seem to have forgotten that evergreen maxim about those who would recklessly presume to play fast-and-loose with the truth. I am here, of course, unmistakably alluding to the globally renowned maxim which runs as follows: Truth suppressed shall rise up again! The seminal observer of this universal law of karma might just as well have poignantly added the following: Truth can simply not be suppressed nor conveniently contorted. And it is precisely for this reason why this otherwise covert act of gross ethical misconduct is now coming to light. The timing of this breaking scandal we have not forgotten the equally scandalous Presidential Diary Affair, by the way is simply perfect for the electioneering campaign strategy of Ghanas main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), although this one particular epic act of moral corruption alone will not in of itself readily facilitate the electoral defeat or the political erasure or wipeout of the Mahama-led government of the National Democratic Congress. The Akufo-Addo Group will have to assemble a more comprehensive and pragmatic policy agenda to do the trick. And so far, the front-bench members of the 2016 Akufo-Addo Presidential-Election Campaign Team seem to be curiously and quizzically pussyfooting. The least bit of their worries ought to be the fear of whether the Beijing-oriented Mosquito Mafia would shamelessly steal their campaign platform or manifesto. Ultimately, it is what one does with such policy bullet points, in terms of a government in powers ability to realize them, that matters. And so far, the NDC Abongo Boys have more than amply demonstrated beyond any shadow of a doubt that when it comes to the very adult business of policy implementation, they are still the cardboard parakeets that they have always been known to be. What annoys me most about the lame suggestion by Dr. Eric Asare Bossman is the patently cynical implication that the mere issuance of an apology by the jolly recipient of Contractor Gibril Kanazoes Ford Expedition payola would quickly paper off this inexcusable national contretemps, almost as if it never happened. This sort of morbidly soft-headed advice is nothing short of the criminally absurd. And on the latter score ought to be promptly pointed out that the now-President John Dramani Mahama was part of that exuberant generation of college-going revolutionary upstarts that screamed hoarsely for more blood to be spilled on the streets of Accra, and elsewhere in the country, in the wake of the untenably barbaric summary execution of the likes of Air-Vice Marshall Yaw Boakye and Commander Utuka by firing at the globally infamous Teshie Military Range. And the sole capital crime of Air-Vice Marshall Boakye, as also the cases of Commander Utuka and Maj.-Gen. Amedume, if memory serves yours truly accurately, was that these by no means perfect leaders ought to have known better than to have borrowed $50,000, apiece actually the amount involved was much closer to GH 50,000 of housing loans in their official capacity as military rulers and criminally failed to pay back these bank loans on schedule! In the case of President Mahama, the bribery gift of the $100,000-priced Ford Expedition (luxury van?) was likely demanded and received in camera; and had the giver not squealed to Mr. Manasseh Azure Awuni, the fast-rising investigative journalist, about the same, Little Dramani would still be strolling jauntily about, swagger-gaited, smugly demanding of the British reporter who allegedly called him up on his political integrity, precisely what cut-off point he meant when Mr. John Bull demanded to know whether the Ghanaian leader had ever accepted a payola in his official capacity as a politician. In retrospect, it well appears that Mr. John Bull knew something fishy about their pathologically crooked leader that most Ghanaian citizens had absolutely no inkling about. Now, lets get to brass-tacks. And it is that had the Ford Expedition gift been presented to President Mahama way before the Burkinabe giver, Mr. Gibril Kanazoe, was awarded the reported $650,000 contract to build a fence-wall around Ghanas embassy building in Ouagadougou, the Burkinabe capital, there would be absolutely no bone to pick with the Chief Resident of the Flagstaff House and his Abongo Boys. It is more likely, however, that the gift was in appreciation of the awarding to Mr. Kanazoe of the significantly more handsome eastern-corridor highway construction reportedly valued at some GH 82 million. We have since learned of Mr. Kanazoes backing out of the latter contractual award. At the very least Parliament ought to censure President Mahama. In my opinion, the best impeachment package for Little Dramani will be his thorough and epic defeat in the November polls. And Mrs. Charlotte Kesson-Smith Osei, Ghanas Electoral Commissioner, had better play by the rules as clearly stipulated by the countrys 1992 Republican Constitution, and peremptorily interpreted and eloquently communicated by the Wood-presided Supreme Court. *Visit my blog at: kwameokoampaahoofe.wordpress.com Ghanaffairs Sorry, we can't find the content you're looking for at this URL. 22.06.2016 LISTEN Mohammed Ali. The king of ring. The greatest. His janaza (Muslim funeral) was an excellent example of inter - faith harmony. Quran, Bible, Torah, Vedah, and all other holy scriptures were recited. Muslims Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Ahmadis, Bahais, Ismailis, Agnostics and people of all the faiths, the believers were in his janaza. this funeral service tonk the shape of heavenly atmosphere. Peace and solidarity. Togetherness. Love. Humanity. The very essence or religion. The best wealth of any believer -harmony, was very much. There at the janazah of Mohammed Ali the greatest. We all bade farewell to this greatest on the holy month of Ramadan. Now he will rest in eternal peace, in heaven, with Christian, Jews, Hindu, Buddhists and neighbors from all other faiths. When the entire world was feeling delighted seeing the excellent example of inter - faith harmony at the janazah of Mohammed Ali, when we all had the hope, let religious hatred, the nasty culture of jihad, killing innocent people in the name of religion - disappear for good from this world, a pervert, a rogue Afghan, a Muslim (unfortunately again) Omar Mateen was preparing all of his guns to visit LGBT club Pulse, where he had been a regular goer, with poison in his mind, of, killing innocent people. Omar Mateen's second wife, knew her husband was a bi - sexual and drove him to pulse in Orlando, with guns, to kill people, in the name of jihad. What made Mohammed Ali and Omar Matteen totally different when both were Muslims? Ali promoted the culture of peace, inter - faith harmony, love for the entire mankind, which is the true teachings of Islam. On the other hand, Omar Mateen was following the culture of hatred, being driven by false interpretation of Quran (mostly promoted by rogue Mullahs in Iran and elsewhere), which says - "Jews and Christians and those non - muslims are enemies of Allah. So kill them, wherever you find." For decades, enemies of peace had been actively spreading the venom of religious hatred. In the Jews, Christians and non- Muslims, in the name of 'Holy War' (Jihad). Unfortunately, many Muslim nations and societies are falling prey of such culture of hatred. A number of Muslim nation, though pronouncing to be 'moderates' or even 'seculars', promote the theory of terming the State of Israel and the West as 'enemies of Allah'. Such bad practice, continuous propaganda even get state patronization. Israel and West bashing has become a common practice in several Muslim countries, which are under huge influence of Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas etc. Who can stop this wrong and dangerous trend? In Muslim societies, it begins with declaring Jews and Christians as 'enemies of Allah', then the seeds of hatred keep growing. Muslims are taught - West is the enemy of Islam, Israel is the worst enemy of Muslims. Muslims being greatly misled by these dangerous 'teachings', ultimately transform into devils from humans. They start seeking blood of stand up, and say - 'ENOUGH' to Jihad, to culture of hatred. To killing innocent people in the name of Islam? Who will stand up? Where is that voice? Where is that Hero Isn't there a single Muslim in Bangladesh to stand- up and say - NO to anti - Semitism? To culture of Death? To demonization of Jews and Christians and people of other faiths? Unfortunately and sadly, a real HERO did stand - up. He loudly denounced anti - Semitism. He boldly said NO to jihad and culture of hatred. He fought and he will continue to fight, a crucial battle, alone! Just ALONE, Bangladesh has sent him to prison. For this 'crime'. He is serving 9 - years rigorous imprisonment since 2012. For the 'crime' of confronting the 'crime' of promoting inter - faith harmony. He still is in prison. What is his name? Better Google and know this hero. The opposition New Patriotic Party has demanded a bipartisan probe into the Ford gift received by President John Mahama from a foreign contractor. The Ford Expedition vehicle which was given to the president in 2012 by a Burkinabe contractor, Djibril Kanazoe, has raised questions about a possible conflict of interest. Communications Minister, Dr. Edward Omane Boamah has said, the gift has been in a pool at the Presidency. He maintained the vehicle had nothing to do with two contracts won by the contractor - a $650,000 wall and a 28-kilometre road. The Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) says it has begun a detailed assessment of two petitions brought before it accusing the president of conflict of interest on the matter. In an interview with Joy News Tuesday, its Deputy Commissioner, Joseph Whittal promised the public it would not allow any political pressure to interfere with its investigations. I will like to assure Ghanaians that the Commission will live up to its constitutional responsibility in ensuring that thorough investigation is done and we will not sacrifice the thoroughness of the outcome of the investigation on the altar of the issues that may border on elections. But the NPP is not convinced. The partys Acting Chairman, Freddie Blay at a press conference in Accra Wednesday, June 22, 2016 said the president must show humility and admit he is wrong. The president, according to him, should not hide behind government communicators to further insult the intelligence of Ghanaians and all who are rightfully disappointed by this gratuitous damage to the dignity of his office and the country. The cost of building that Ouagadougou wall must be probed; the issues surrounding the Ford Expedition must also be probed. All other contracts awarded to Mr Kanazoe, the presidents friend, we insist must be probed. The NPP believes, president Mahama by accepting the gift displayed an extraordinarily poor judgment and indiscretion "unbecoming of the elevated office he occupies. "We are therefore calling for a parliamentary probe for the House to exercise its vested investigative power or act in pursuant to Article 2789 (C) to cause a bipartisan inquiry to be appointed to probe into this serious matter." The President of the Republic stands accused of bribery, abuse of office and conflict of interest," he added. Mr Blay noted that the circumstantial evidence linking the president to the contractor and the contract to the gift provides enough grounds for Ghanaians to get a full public enquiry into the matter. Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | NSA Mrs. Linda Akwele Ocloo 22.06.2016 LISTEN The United Cadres' Front of Ghana (UCF-GHANA) congratulates the newly elected Parliamentary Candidate for Shai Osu-Doku for her success in last Saturday's primary. We are particularly impressed by the number of votes Mrs. Linda Akwele Ocloo garnered to secure her candidature as well as succeeding her husband, William Ocloo, who died in an accident. However, we feel disappointed at her post-victory utterances on her main contender, Dr. Michael Kpessah Whyte, which we feel have the tendency of creating serious cracks for the Party in the constituency. Politics is competitive in nature and there must always be winners and losers who must do everything possible to flow together - especially when they are coming from the same political family. The winner-candidate told the media that some supporters of Dr. Whyte allegedly attacked her/supporters which to her makes it impossible to work with the defeated opponent. If that is true, we unreservedly condemn such actions but wish to stress that since politics is about numbers, the elected candidate has to rethink her stance and seek reconciliation with Dr. Kpessah Whyte in order to maintain the seat. She also alleges that her opponent has not called to congratulate her and if that is also true then it is very unfortunate and we urge him to do the honourable thing by congratulating her. Mrs. Linda Ocloo, is already aware that her competitor lost with a vote count of 3,372. This is no mean figure in a constituency because in the last Parliamentary elections, the Tema East NDC Candidate lost by painfully - three (3) votes. And we must be mindful that what happened last Saturday is strictly a family affair - not national elections. She certainly needs Dr. Whyte's 3,372 votes and more of his supporters (who may not have registered with the Party), in the Parliamentary Elections - come November 7. The new candidate, therefore, needs the support of the losing candidate in order to maintain the seat for the NDC. It behooves her to do everything possible to bring everybody in the constituency aboard in order to win convincingly in the coming Parliamentary election. Per this statement as well, we wish to caution some radio stations which political programmes seek to promote the NDC, but is rather helping to draw off floating voters. We agree that we have varied political ideologies and philosophies which call for deeper propagation in order to court support from the electorate. Such approaches, we caution, must be done with utmost decorum in order not to scare the not-too partisan electorate who will be looking for a party that has a peaceful disposition to vote for. Of late, however, a particular radio station which has been doing well in exposing a lot of negative developments in the socio-political settings of this country, is departing from its valued stature and engaging in acts that is likely to scare un-decided voters. Currently, the station has taken a different course where too much insults are allowed in the studio to the chagrin of its loving patrons, including the UCF-GHANA; and it is our humble plea that such stations, much as they are doing good for the NDC - should also be mindful of the harm that certain actions of theirs could hamper the fortunes of the Party in the end. We believe that they can do programmes to promote the NDC but they should be weaned from insults, innuendos and personalization of issues. It equally goes to all NDC communicators to be cautious and temperate in their engagements because the electorate have been following the hate-utterances of our main opponent, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) for which they know is causing insecurity. There is the need for the NDC to take advantage of the violent posturing of the NPP by not making the mistakes it has made so far - in order to win the floating voters to our side. Let us endeavour to discuss issues - NOT PERSONALITIES. It is the UCF-GHANA's wish that this advice is taken in good faith and the necessary amends, made. Signed Camillus Maalneriba-Tia Sakzeesi (For: Interim Management Committee) Contact: 0266223333 and 0248433700. President John Dramani Mahama 22.06.2016 LISTEN Angry residents of three adjoining towns in Accra Nungua, Teshie and La yesterday took to the streets to protest the unbearable electricity tariffs they are paying, in the midst of the current harsh economic realities they are enduring under the Mahama-led National Democratic Congress administration. At the same time they were protesting, the next adjoining town, Osu, was also holding a press conference accusing the officials of the Mahama government of working with an imposter chief to loot their lands. The protestors from Nungua, Teshie and La, who demonstrated through the major streets of the three communities, later converged at the Teshie Salem Cluster of Schools where various speakers, including the New Patriotic Party parliamentary candidates for Krowor, Ledzukuku and La Dadekotopon, Elizabeth Afoley Quaye, Bernard Okoe Boye and Vincent Sowah Odotei respectively, addressed the crowd. According to most of the angry residents who were clad in red and black apparel, and carrying various placards depicting their anger at government, said the high electricity bills were collapsing their businesses and making life unbearable for them. Speaking to the Daily Statesman, leader of the group, Nicholas Borlarbi, said the residents in the three communities had to come out this time to show their dissatisfaction with the manner in which the NDC government was making life unbearable for them. We are virtually using all our savings to pay for electricity. At first, an amount of GHc50 could sustain an average home for a month but now when you buy GHc50, it lasts for just three days. Residents in these three communities are predominantly fisher folks and are not in possession of any heavy or sophisticated gadgets to pay such huge amount for electricity, Nicholas Borlabi indicated. He explained that the demonstration was non-partisan since the issue was affecting everybody in the three communities, irrespective of which political party one belongs to. I can tell you on authority that people from the various political parties took part in the demonstration. The CPP, PNC, PP, NDC and NPP were all here. This situation affects everyone. We are suffering, he added. He further lamented that the positioning of the prepaid meters outside their homes is a major inconvenience, explaining that it is very risky for residents to load the metres with credits during the night due to the activities of armed robbers in the area. We are also pleading with ECG to take the meters from the poles and send it to our various homes. This is what we are asking the government to do for us, one protestor complained. Meanwhile, President John Dramani Mahama has given indication that, effective July 1, Ghanaians will start experiencing some relief in electricity bills. According to him, ECG is set to implement a new billing cycle which will address concerns of overbilling. He disclosed this at the Madina market yesterday while on his accounting to the people tour of the Greater Accra region. Because the electricity billing is done in monthly cycles, they have to start on the first of a month with the billing cycle. So I have asked Ghanaians to exercise patience, from first July theyd start the new billing cycle and Im sure that a lot of us will see some relief in the electricity bills, he assured. He added: Ive explained that the bills went so high because the waters in our hydro dams are low and hydro is the cheapest source of power. Now all the power we are to produce is either with gas or with crude oil and these are more expensive that hydro. But we are praying that this year the rains would be good so that the dams would recover. As we put in cheaper hydro power we will adjust the tariff to reflect the cheaper power we are getting. So I would ask Ghanaians to exercise patience; government is sensitive to what is going on and wed do our best to give them some relief. Nii Osah Mills , Minister of Lands and Natural Resources 22.06.2016 LISTEN The kingmakers of the Osu Stool, Osu Dzaase, are up in arms against the Mahama-led National Democratic Congress government, accusing it of being in bed with an imposter chief who has allegedly become a conduit for some unscrupulous government officials to grab their lands. According to the aggrieved chiefs, government has decided to ignore the legitimate and substantive chief, Nii Nortey Owuo III, who was enstooled in 1984, and rather dealing with Nii Okwei Kinka Dowuona VI, who they describe as an imposter. While cautioning President John Mahama to reconsider his relationship with the embattled chief, they have also asked him to ensure that appointees of his government dissociate themselves from dealing with chief because he is illegitimate and therefore working with him will not benefit them in the long term. They are also warning the Mahama government that under no circumstance should it consider releasing any Osu Stool land or property to the imposter Kinka Dowuona has grown so arrogant and has cultivated a new craze of name dropping. Now he claims that he, Kinka, has the President of the Republic of Ghana in his pocket and so no one can touch him. He is able to go in and out of the Flagstaff House at will flaunting his authority around. As for state institutions, all he needs is to open his mouth and drop a few names and all his wishes are granted, they alleged. Addressing a press conference yesterday, Nii Noi Osikan Kpeneku, Shippi Dudor of Osu Ashante, explained that the Mankralo of Osu, Nii Ako Nortei IV, who is not part of the kingmakers, appointed Nii Kinka as the chief through the support of some government officials in 2011. Present at the press conference included Nii Nortey Adumuah IV, Osiahene of Osu Stool; Nii Odartey Sro III, Atofotse of Osu Stool; Nii Adukwei Hammond, Acting Dzaasetse of Kinkawe; Nii Nortey Omantuo VI, Osu Ashante Dzaasetse; Nii Aniefi IV, Osu Alata Dzaasetse; and Nii Torgbor Abremse III, Head and Shippi of Osu Anorhor. Nii Noi Osikan Kpeneku explained that at the time Nii Kinka Dowuona was appointed the chief in 2011, the Supreme Court had ruled that the Osu Stool was not vacant, adding that in spite of the ruling, the Mankralo went ahead to install him through the connivance of state officials. It is rather strange and pathetic for the Mankralo of Osu, Nii Ako Nortei IV, to disown Nii Nortey Owuo III, the legitimate and substantive Osu Mantse as having been destooled, without any evidence or proof of any ceremony for destoolment and yet proceeded out of his own selfish interest and greed to wrongfully appoint his own Osu Mantse with the shameless support of some unscrupulous state officials, he added. According to him, the black stool which is the symbol of authority that qualifies one to be Osu Mantse is still in the custody of Nii Nortey Owuo III, who remains alive and undestooled. He asked: So one will ask which Stool is Kinka Dowuona VI sitting on or swore his allegiance to? Nii Noi Osikan added: It is important to point out that Kinka Dowuona is a creature of statute; an appointee of Government, and of the Greater Accra Regional House of Chiefs, Dodowa, and of the National House of Chiefs, Kumasi. He has not been made Osu Mantse by any kingmaker or by Osu custom and tradition. If he had followed the traditional route, Kinka would have waited until the Osu stool presently occupied by Nii Nortey Owuo III became vacant. Now he is hanging; thinking that making a lot of money by foul means is all that matters because then it affords him luxury to bribe and connive with some unscrupulous state officials to loot properties that rightfully belong to the indigenes of Osu and the Stool for that matter. The Osu kingmakers cautioned individuals, groups, state operatives and estate developers who are busily transacting business with Nii Kinka Dowuona and the Osu Mankralo to desist and advise themselves, adding: it wont be long before the chickens come home to roost. Mrs Akufo-Addo and husband, Nana Addo 22.06.2016 LISTEN Wife of the New Patriotic Party flagbearer, Rebecca Akufo-Addo, has tasked Ghanaians to vote for Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in the November polls due to his incorruptible track record. According to her, Nana Addo is not seeking power to amass wealth for his personal interest but rather to serve Ghanaians in truth and improve their lives. Mrs. Rebecca Akufo-Addo added that Ghana needs a competent and reliable leader like Nana Addo who can save the nation from the hands of the NDC government. She made the call during a visit to the Odododiodio constituency in the Greater Accra region. She was accompanied by the NPP parliamentary candidate for the area, Nii Lante Bannerman, and some constituency executives of the party. Mrs. Rebecca interacted with doctors, nurses and patients of the Usher Polyclinic, where the administrator of the facility pleaded with her not to disregard the polyclinic when the NPP comes into power. She assured the staff that an Akufo-Addo-led government would improve conditions of the health sector by reviving the free maternal health care and National Health Insurance Scheme. She added that the positive change being championed by the NPP would greatly affect polyclinics due to the major roles they play in the health sector. You need to remember that Nana Akufo-Addo is not coming for his children but he is coming to help Ghanaians and improve their lives as well, she stated. She later donated items such as soaps, detergents and cloths to the polyclinic. By Mohammed Awal [[email protected]] The Youth League of the Convention People's Party (CPP) has entreated the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) to investigate President John Dramani Mahama for accepting a gift from a Burkinabe contractor, an act it says contravenes the 1992 constitution. According to the leader of the Youth League, Commander Hardi Yakubu, in a petition Monday, the President's receipt of the said gift was a clear case of conflict of interest and that a formal investigation should be instituted to dig deeper. Joy News' investigation last week revealed that in 2012, a Burkina Faso-based contractor, Mr. Djibril Kanazoe, magnanimously dashed President Mahama a brand new Ford Expedition, 2010 model, with engine number E173A1905101 and Chassis number 1FMJUIJ58aEB748, and in the same year, earned two juicy contracts from the government. The contracts won by Mr. Kanazoe as a result of his magnanimity include; the fencing of the Ghana Embassy wall in Burkina Faso at an unbelievable cost of $650,000 and also the construction of part of the Eastern Corridor Road Project. Reacting to the expose' initiated by Joy News' Manasseh AzuriAwuni, the government through its communication outlet confirmed President Mahama's receipt of the benevolence from Mr. Kanazoe and added that, it had been donated to the pool of luxurious vehicles at the presidency. The government, however, denied the act as passing for bribery or conflict of interest. The inference of conflict of interest is, therefore, absolutely false and untenable, Dr. Omane Boamah said Wednesday, in a statement signed and released in Accra. But, the CPP Youth League disagreed, arguing that understanding the said gift was given to and taken by H.E John Mahama whilst in office as President and that the said giver, Mr. Djibril Kanazoe, a contractor of Burkinabe origin represents a commercial interest. Explaining what the petition was about, the National Youth Organiser of the CPP, Enersto Yeboah said: We want CHRAJ to conduct an independent investigation into the matter involving the bribery or the gift given to our president. We want to find out from CHRAJ whether the gift in question played an influencing role in ensuring that the public procurement act was breached and the final relief we are seeking is for CHRAJ to tell us what a gift is and what public officials can receive as gift and what they must reject when the question arises, he added. This development appears to have dented President Mahama's unwavering claim of incorruptibility, especially when about a month ago, he was clear and bold in his words to a British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) journalist, when he attended a corruption summit in London that, he had never received a bribe. No, I haven't taken a bribe, President Mahama told the BBC journalist adding that: Any human being in the world would have encountered corruption one way or the other, either being offered a bribe or a bribe being demanded from you. What you need to do is to put yourself in a position to (resist it). Ivor Greenstreet, the CPP's presidential candidate, in a posture that contradicts his party's said nothing was wrong with President Mahama receiving a gift from the Burkinabe contractor. According to him, it was ridiculous to suggest that mere acceptance of gift by President Mahama could lead to impeachment. I don't have a feeling that there is a breach of protocol or conflict of interest, he told Francis Abban in an interview on Joy News channel last week. Linda Ofori Kwafo, Executive Director of the Ghana Integrity Initiative held different view stating that President Mahama's acceptance of the said gift was a clear manifestation of conflict of interest. Mahama knows what gift to accept and not to accept, she explained. Citing Article 284 of the 1992 constitution, detailing the code of conduct for public officers, the CPP Youth League said that a public officer shall not put himself in a position where his personal interest conflicts or is likely to conflict with the performance of the functions of his office, thus the need for CHRAJ to wade into the matter. 22.06.2016 LISTEN From Issah Alhassan, Kumasi THE MAYOR of Kumasi, Mr. Kojo Bonsu has reportedly incurred the wrath of authorities at the Manhyia Palace, following a letter he wrote, questioning the legitimacy of a representative of the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, in the process involving the ongoing Kejetia/Central Market Redevelopment Project. The Manhyia Palace is not enthused about the approach being adopted by the Kumasi Mayor with respect to the funding, as well as the distribution of some completed stores for which reason the traditional authority has raised objections, culminating in the controversial letter, which has further muddied the waters. The said letter, dated June 13, 2016, authored by the Mayor himself and addressed to the representative of the Asantehene on a committee set up by the Asanteman Council to oversee arrangements for soliciting of additional funds towards some aspects of the project, Nana Agyenim Boateng, who doubles as Chief of Amoaman, denied knowledge of the existence of any representative of the Asantehene, a development that had reportedly incensed the traditional authority. Nana Agyenim Boateng has told The Chronicle in a telephone interview that he will not publicly comment on the matter until he has formally briefed The Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, on whose authority he derived his powers, on the matters arising, though he has confirmed receiving a copy of the letter challenging his locus. Details of the letter, however, became public knowledge when some members of the assembly, led by the former Presiding Member, Nana Kofi Senyah, held a press conference on Monday, this week, to express its displeasure at arrangements concerning the distribution of about 2,000 stores to potential traders. The Concerned Assembly Members have alleged that the KMA Chief Executive Officer has unilaterally changed the initial agreement concerning the allocation of the stores upon completion and are, therefore, demanding his immediate resignation. According to the Assembly members, Mr. Kojo Bonsu, together with his Spokesperson, Sammy Gyamfi, is asking traders and market women to make an upfront payment of GHC 25,000 before being allocated a store, contrarily to a recommendation made by the Committee, ordering the KMA to charge just GHC 1,500 as downward payment and stagger the rest of the amount over a period of time. The aggrieved members also want the KMA Boss to be sanctioned for allegedly showing gross and total disrespect to the Manhyia Palace and Asanteman Council, which is the heart and soul of the Asante Kingdom. FACTS OF THE ISSUE According to information gathered by The Chronicle, prior to the dissolution of the old assembly, The Asanteman Council, chaired by Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, set up a committee to oversee concerns raised by traders who initially opposed the project on basis that they may lose ownership of their stores upon completion. As part of the composition of the Committee, The Asantehene appointed Nana Agyenim Boateng, The Chief of Amoaman, to act as his representative and liaise between the assembly and the Manhyia Palace, as far as the redevelopment of the Kejetia and Central Market was concerned. The Committee, amongst others, was asked to do all arrangements with respect to how the stores upon completion, will be allocated in order to ensure that the traders who once occupied the place, would have access to them. Additionally, the Committee was also expected to mobilise additional funding for the completion of some aspects of the project as the initial amount earmarked for the first phase, which totalled about 198 Million Dollars had been exhausted without completion. However, confusion was said to have arisen after the KMA Boss decided to change the initial arrangements concerning the allocation of the completed stores numbering about 2,000. According to information, some members of the Committee, particularly Nana Agyenim Boateng, raised objection to the decision by the Mayor as it ran contrarily to the one agreed earlier at the commencement of the project. Though Nana Agyenim Boateng will not disclose any details of his interactions with the Mayor concerning the project, The Chronicle is informed of some efforts which were being made by the Chief to solicit funds for some aspects of the project. It was for this reason that Mr. Kojo Bonsu, in his personal capacity, wrote a letter to Nana Agyenim Boateng asking him to provide appropriate evidence of his claim so that the assembly could update its record. The opening part of the letter, titled CLARIFICATION OF ISSUES REGARDING THE ONGOING KEJETIA/CENTRAL MARKET REDEVELOPMENT PROJECT reads: You have made a number of representations to the effect that you are the representative/liaison of Manhyia Palace and for that matter Nananom on the ongoing Kejetia/Central Market Redevelopment Project. Unfortunately, the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly has no formal notification of your said status on the Kejetia project. The letter further added Regarding the steps you have taken to solicit funds for some aspects of the project, we would also be grateful if you could update us on such a role and how you are to be reimbursed. But details of the letter, The Chronicle gathered, has raised serious anger amongst some members of the traditional authority as some of them see it as an attempt by the Kumasi Mayor to subvert the authority of Nananom. Nana Agyenim Boateng, who sounded a bit disturbed during the interview, declined to make any further pronouncement until he has briefed the Asantehene on the matter. I am a staff of the Produce Buying Company (PBC) but I am also the Chief of the Amoaman Community, by virtue of my position as a traditional ruler, my King Otumfuo Osei Tutu II appointed me to represent him and to chair the Committee. So for now I will reserve any comment until I have shown him the letter and sought his advice, Nana Agyenim Boateng noted. THE ASSEMBLYMEMBERS BEEF But the aggrieved Assembly members are protesting the fact that they have been kept in the dark by the MCE, especially as far as the fixing of the fees and other arrangements were concerned. According to them, Mr. Kojo Bonsu ought to have written formally to inform the house about ongoing progress and fresh arrangements concerning the project since it was the duty of the assembly to supervise the process. The spokesperson for the group, Nana Kofi Senyah, pointed out that the Mayor has taken the advantage of the fact that the assembly does not have a Presiding Member and for this reason most decisions were unilaterally being taken by him. They, however, contend that major issues like the funding for such big project which involves huge amounts ought to be deferred and brought to the house for deliberation. The angry members are, therefore, calling on the Kumasi Mayor to with immediate effect exit the position, threatening that they would be forced to impeach him if he fails to do so. RESPONSE BY THE KMA Meanwhile, the Public Relations Officer of the KMA, Mr. Godwin Okumah Nyame, has declined to respond to the allegations being made by the Assembly members, stressing that the assembly will formally hold a press conference at a later date to respond to the issues raised. Nana Akufo-Addo - NPP Presidential Candidate 22.06.2016 LISTEN It is very interesting how political seasons throw up all manner of instant change managers. Many NPP zealots are as usual, beside themselves with joy because their Presidential candidate Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo has promised to deliver one factory in each of the 216 districts of the country, if he is elected President of Ghana. The euphoria in that party is akin to Nana Akufo-Addos offer of providing free education to every Ghanaian at the Senior High School (SHS) level in the run-up to the 2012 elections. In that state of excitement, market women wore Senior High School Uniforms to parade markets and streets to endorse Nana Addos free SHS which in their estimation will curtail their burden on school fees. Akufo-Addos dearth at the presidency in 2012 momentarily shut the door on the so-called free SHS propaganda show-piece. It is now close to four years, and the loudness with which Akufo-Addo trumpeted the free SHS idea has become dead silence as if there is nothing really wrong with our educational system. In our estimation that free SHS slogan was at best political rhetoric by Nana Akufo-Addo to make a political statement in the 2012 election year. Indeed we of the PPP knew how untenable the Nana Akufo-Addo proposition was and therefore offered our candid opinion on how free SHS cannot flourish under an educational environment, which Primary and Junior High School levels were and are still totally rotten. How can a child benefit from free SHS if they cannot afford JHS education? It is another election year and Nana Akufo-Addo is at what he knows best; promising heaven, when indeed his own disposition and track-record do not in any way measure up to the grandiose dream of offering nationwide factories as President. Apart from working in the office of I want to be President, what else can Akufo-Addo offer in concrete terms to support such a claim? Indeed if we are looking for someone with demonstrable talents to lead Ghana from her unemployment quagmire, then certainly that cannot be Nana Akufo-Addo. We agree everyone and his God-given talents and none can dispute Akufo-Addos pedigree in law; just as someone else may pride himself as a Communications expert of some sort. We are not the least suggesting that a lawyer cannot lead this country. Far from that! But if we all agree that one issue that is bugging us as a nation is job creation, then we need not look beyond Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom, the man who has within a spate of eight years created over five thousand jobs in Ghana, Cote dIvoire, Togo, Liberia, Burkina Faso, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. No one seems to be asking Nana Akufo-Addo how he intends creating these jobs. Perhaps like his carbon copy tactics where he has virtually usurped every Nduom idea like the Separation of the Attorney Generals Department from the Ministry of Justice and election of MMDCEs, Akufo-Addo is waiting to hear Dr Nduoms take on job creation, and presto, he will make it his own. If that is the case, Nana Addo should listen to the generous Nduom: I will use the State and its purchasing power to facilitate for the private sector to invest and set up factories. ---Signed--- Paa Kow Ackon Director of Communication File Photo 22.06.2016 LISTEN Manasseh Azure Awuni and Joy FMs apparent decision to subject President John Dramani Mahama and his government to harsh criticisms and malicious attacks meant to ruin his reputation and cause him a denial of a second term presidency in favour of the opposition New Patriotic Partys (NPP) candidate, Dr Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, suffered a major blow last week when the onetime journalist of the year together with the Multimedia radio station, woefully failed in their hatchet job to smear the President with the crimes of conflict of interest, bribery and corruption, in a bid to push further their apparent regime change agenda. The New Patriotic Party (NPP) and its appendages, which had begun having premature ejaculation over the wild allegation and went overdrive in declaring the President unfit for the high of the land, when Joy FM broke the unworthy news, are now stranded. It has become crystal clear that they were simply chasing a mirage and can no longer clutch onto the so-called expose and brand President Mahama as a corrupt leader. In a wild allegation following an amateurish investigation, Manasseh Azure and Joy FM claimed President Mahama had received a bribe of a Ford Expedition SUV from a Burkinabe contractor four years ago. The NPP and its apparatchiks have latched onto the story and pushing the argument of conflict of interest, bribery and corruption against the President. The weak allegation however has no leg to stand on after government, through the Communications Minister, made the facts available to the public, leaving the desperate opposition party totally disappointed. The Communications Director of the NPP, Nana Akomea has reportedly issued an official directive to NPP communicators to hold onto the story as told by Manasseh, who he showered praises on whilst expressing optimism that very soon, the party was going to get the support of pro-NPP pressure groups like Rev. Opunis Christian Council of Ghana, Alliance For Accountable Governance (AFAG) and OccupyGhana. Senior journalist like Mr. Kwesi Pratt, the Managing Editor of The Insight newspaper, and Mr Abdul Malik Kweku Baako, Editor-In-Chief of the New Crusading Guide and friend of the NPP, have however discounted the story as lacking merit and that the President did no wrong. Whilst Mr Baako believes the story is a good one but was wrongly packaged it wrongly targeted the President as being corrupt, Mr Kwesi Pratt is convinced the story completely lacked merit. He asked who takes a bribe and properly documents it as the said vehicle gift to the President has been documented. It also became revealing when Manasseh and Joy FM decided to exaggerate the price of the said vehicle. The story indicated that the vehicle as at 2012 cost $100,000, when a brand new 2017 Ford Expedition model is $66,000. Anti-corruption crusader and leading member of the NPP, Hon. P. C. Appiah Ofori, who accused the Kufuor government of bribing NPP Members of Parliament (MPs) with $5,000 each to okay the sale of Ghana telecom to Vodafone, also opined that President Mahama is innocent of the crime Manasseh and Joy FM are accusing him of. Hon. P. C. Appiah Ofori is on record to have said recently that President Mahama is not corrupt. The Convention Peoples' Party (CPP's) flagbearer Ivor Kobina Greenstreet says he sees nothing wrong with the issue being raised. He was reacting to legal practitioner Kwame Boateng Acheampong and Prof Ken Attafuah who have condemned the President for accepting gift. I dont have a feeling that there is a breach of protocol or conflict of interest, he explained on Pulse in an interview with Francis Abban on Joy News channel on Thursday. He dismissed talks about impeaching President John Mahama describing it as ridiculous after the two lawyers argued that the president has breached Article 284 of the Constitution. The communication minister, Dr Omane Boamah has however in a statement, responded to the story indicating the said vehicle was received by the president and per conventions at the presidency, the vehicle has been added to the pool of state vehicles at the presidency. The Ministry of Communications has noted the contents of a programme aired on JoyFM this morning. The programme sought to link a vehicle presented to the President in 2012 to two contracts awarded to a Burkinabe-owned construction firm. The said vehicle, which was placed in the vehicle pool at the Presidency as per established convention had nothing to do with the award of the contracts. The inference of conflict of interest is therefore absolutely false and untenable, the statement pointed out. The NPP went into frenzy when President Mahama stated categorically on BBC recently that he has never taken a bribe. The party, according to information available to The Catalyst, has since embroiled itself in strenuous efforts of fishing for information that could pinpoint the President to bribery and corruption. If you are an avid reader of my writings, then you probably know that Donald J. Trump is one of my topmost role models. In fact, I usually quote his words of wisdom in my articles, and I unequivocally assert that he is my great mentor as a budding entrepreneur. Hey, I am an avowed Pan-Africanist to the bone, yet I do not hate Donald Trump, the man perceived as an uncompromising racist. Let Donald Trump constantly speak ill of blacks; I still yearn to work with him in writing circles even as a black African writer. Why? Donald J. Trump may exude the attitude of white supremacy, but he is a fine gentleman whose incredible success story inspires me a lot. Besides, I really admire the Real Donald because he is a maverick just like me. Unfortunately, a chunk of the black race actually detest the personality of Donald J. Trump, describing him as an obstinate racist who undermines the dignity of blacks and insults the intelligence of black people. I just had a conversation with Winnie, a lady friend of mine, and I critically remarked that Donald J. Trump is my man. She furiously said, "That guy is a racist; I hate him. He is not real and blunt...He comes out to talk about blacks with such arrogance..." Well, Donald Trump stated in his book 'Think Like a Champion' that, "One reason people like me is because I'm blunt. One reason people don't like me is because I'm blunt. But one reason I'm successful is that I can cut through nonsense quickly and get to the core of things." Moreover, until the black race perceive Donald J. Trump as an intellectually objective person whose sincere comments about blacks are gospel truths, we will make no headway in our struggle for absolute economic freedom. For Christ's sake, this man is an American business mogul who cannot fathom out why Africa still wallows in despair in the midst of abundant and precious mineral resources. He is shocked to see corrupt African leaders engineering Africa's sufferings of epic proportions. Donald proclaims the hard and painful truths about blacks which we all need to be ashamed of rather than lambasting him for. Enough of the sheer hypocrisy, black folks! Now let me declare why I love everything about Donald J. Trump. He is a prolific author with impeccable writing skills. His powerful book "Think Like a Champion" actually enlightened me on business success and wealth creation. Trump's business credentials are simply unparalleled. No wonder he has built an industrial conglomerate which has made him a billionaire worth over $4 billion. As an astute politician, Trump advocates for visionary, pragmatic and disciplinary leadership which he exemplifies in the world of business. And I wish him good luck in his US presidential candidacy. Yes, Donald J. Trump is not a perfect individual, but I really love him for who he is no matter his shortcomings. God bless Donald Trump! Source: sirarticle.blogspot.com 22.06.2016 LISTEN Carnegie Mellon Universitys commitment to educating Africas next generation of technology leaders and entrepreneurs received a boost today with a $10.8 millioncommitment from The MasterCard Foundation. This new partnership, which will be established at Carnegie Mellon Universitys College of Engineering program in Kigali, Rwanda, will benefit 125 academically talented but economically disadvantaged students from Sub-Saharan Africa as part of The MasterCard Foundation Scholars Program. Carnegie Mellon University will join a global network of 23 Scholars Program partners, comprising educational institutions that are committed to developing Africas young leaders. These Scholars will go on to use their knowledge and skills to lead change in their communities and contribute to meaningful transformation across the continent. Since 2011, Carnegie Mellon University in Rwanda has contributed to enhancing the quality of the engineering workforce in Africa. This effort has addressed the critical shortage of information and communication technology (ICT) skills required for Africa to compete in the Fourth Industrial Revolution where physical, cyber and biological systems converge through information, computing and communication technologies to transform the lives and livelihoods of citizens around the world in unprecedented ways. The talented graduates of Carnegie Mellon in Rwanda play a strategic role in Africas trajectory, leveraging ICT to digitally leapfrog socio-economic development across the continent. With transformative support from The MasterCard Foundation, Carnegie Mellon will be able to multiply its impact on higher education and the ICT sector in Africa, as part of the Rwanda Governments vision to create a Regional Center of Excellence in ICT and to serve as a technological hub for the region. We are excited to partner with Carnegie Mellon University in Rwanda, an exceptional institution committed to training the next generation of African engineers, innovators and entrepreneurs to meet pressing global challenges, said Reeta Roy, President and CEO of The MasterCard Foundation. Investment in STEM education is pivotal to Africas future and will ensure that African nations have the opportunity to identify, develop and deploy their wealth of talent. By offering globally recognized degree programs in ICT to 125 students from lower-income families in Africa, Carnegie Mellon will have impact in three ways: first, this Program will dramatically expand future career options for each of the Scholars; second, it will be an essential educational and research resource underpinning growth and development of the technology sector in Africa; and third, alumni and faculty will benefit from Carnegie Mellons resources for supporting entrepreneurship and innovation. The MasterCard Foundation Scholars Program at Carnegie Mellon University in Rwanda will attract a diverse mix of Scholars from Rwanda and the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa, with a priority on increasing the enrollment of women. With this generous support from The MasterCard Foundation, we can multiply the impact of our program in Rwanda and educate a new cohort of exceptional engineers who will become catalysts for Africas digital transformation, said CMU President Subra Suresh. CMU shares the Foundations commitment to elevating intellectual and economic vitality around the globe, especially in developing regions. Students attending Carnegie Mellon in Rwanda receive a world-class education that enables them to become leaders in Africas growing innovation ecosystem. The MasterCard Foundation Scholars Program will provide holistic student support, including comprehensive scholarships, leadership development, volunteerism and industry-driven career services developing highly skilled, transformative leaders to catalyze Africas digital transformation. The Program will start in Fall 2016 and conclude in 2023, underscoring the importance of establishing long-term education programs in Africa. Research underway at Carnegie Mellon in Rwanda also takes a long-term approach. The faculty understand that to address Africas technology needs, students require time to analyze and solve problems in the context in which they occur. Research at Carnegie Mellon explores critical topics relevant to Africa: wireless networking, mobile applications, energy systems, cyber security, agriculture, financial services and telecommunications. The partnership announcement was made on June 20th during Carnegie Mellon Universitys graduation ceremony, when 24 students received masters degrees in Information Technology and Electrical and Computer Engineering. CMU President Suresh, and Dr. Jendayi Frazer, a member of the Board of Directors of The MasterCard Foundation, attended the graduation ceremony. To date, the program has graduated 70 students hailing from Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda and the United States. The vast majority of these graduates are working in their home countries, making an impact in the private sector, government and academia, and the rest are pursuing the creation of startup companies as well as doctoral programs. 22.06.2016 LISTEN Coping with religious pluralism and human diversity is the bane of the new world order. In Tunisia, something unanticipated happened. Just like that, Tunisians woke up from sleep in February 2013 to witness the assassination of a well-known political opposition leader, Chokri Belaid, outside his home. His death among other issues raised a red flag and shined light onto the post-revolution Arab world affecting all aspects of the Arab modernism. Belaids death was also fingered not to be unconnected to the role he played in making sure that the undemocratic regime of Zine Abidine Ben Ali went down in January 2011. Some observers said that it was for Belaids contrary belief-system with reformists that led to his surprising murder. Conflicts within Ali had ruled Tunisia for nearly a quarter century. While that regime lasted, some of the religious leaders wanted a Tunisia where moderate Islam and religious pluralism would be practiced. This thinking to be inclusive, however, was to the chagrin of many. There was a Tunisia where some Islamic groups used intimidation and violence to go after their Islamic aims and objectives. Others did not adopt aggression as a way to address their interests in the same Muslim country. The worlds do certainly understand that some Islamic fundamentalists adopt a very narrow thinking dynamics in the context of Islamic cultural diversity. Arab societies clash within themselves in carving out decisions and roles women can play in politics and society. Be it in educational policy or else, the status of non-Muslims and their roles is considerably appraised differently. There has always been turmoil in the Arab world when it comes to Islams place in politics, as indeed, the principles of Islamic religious faith always play a compelling role among the Arabs. For example, the Egypts ruling Muslim Brotherhood has been always accused by other Muslims as being too far in committing to the ancient sharia-law. The National Interest of February 20 2013 gave an article captioned "Tunisia and the Clash within Civilizations", in which Rajan Menon wrote that "The killing of an opposition leader highlights thunderous struggles within the Arab world. Thus the struggle over religions place in politics has divided, rather than united, Muslims in North Africa and the Middle East. Menon argues that the division tends to be portrayed as a quarrel between secularists and Islamists. Menon further adds that This is a mistake, for the former camp includes observant Muslims who, nonetheless, want to keep their faith and politics apart. In like manner, Christians and Islamic sects, such as the Sufis, take their religion seriously but do not want it to define their political life, or for it to be defined by zealots claiming to be true Muslims. Power and interest cause conflicts What that meant was that power and interest continue to play an innermost function in the affairs of mankind, no matter the society involved. Empires, monarchical governments and peoples identifying themselves with nationalism and fascism were seen as fad in the 18th and 19 centuries in Europe and America respectively. However, later in France and expanded in the 20th century, the Russian Revolution was part of that ideology that has crossed the bridge of complex religiosity and governance. The root cause of religious intolerance seemed to be driven with fundamentalist cultures and traditions to the centre, where sordid roles were played out. The activities of the 21st century, one must note, are gulped in cultural divergences. Today, the world is not only experiencing a Clash Of Civilisations (COC), but also a systemic Clash Within Civilisations. Take for instance, the Islamic communities exist in the European and Western communities yet the communities have not lived in a synchronized accepted ethical value with others. The argument is centred on the clash within civilizations with the Christian west claiming superiority over the Muslim Arab world. Clash within a civilization Menon as we saw earlier observed that in Syria the clash within a civilization has assumed a deadly form. The civil war pits an Alawite-dominated state against insurgents, whose most pious members see Alawites not as fellow Muslims, but as apostates. Basically, Bashars regime has been able to survive not only because it has more and better weapons than its foes but also because other Muslims (Sunnis urban professional, Kurds, and Druze) and Syrias various Christian denominations have either stayed neutral or backed the government despite their misgivings for fear that its fall will lead to the rise of a doctrinaire Sunni regime. The armed opposition is, in the main, are the Sunnis who have roots in the rural areas. Many groups within it are animated by the goal of establishing an Islamic state given their fundamentalist approach to governance. Political interest Apparently, in the absence of peace, the communities intertwine with each other when interest is the middle focus in the area of politics. Still within each of the worlds, coherence is not full stop among the people. There are cases of fundamentalism with diverse groups on crusades for their particular world mission to accept an ideology, or eschew it. Against that backdrop, the West is doing everything humanly and spiritually possible to convert the Arabs to a settled lifestyle though the Arabs had their aboriginality in nomadic tenets. America stood as a target in the fight for human rights and spreading of democracy. In consequence, the September 11, 2001 bombing of the World Trade Centre in the USA and the recurring Islamic terrorist attacks have become a global terror network and threat to safety and peace. The very terrorist attack on USA signaled the beginning of what may be called Hot War between the two camps. A quest to control not only the value-systems of the Arabs but also their foreign policies has compelled the West to wage a dangerous war against Iraq in 2003, which ended in 2011. Misinformation within civilisations The West misinformed the world into believing that Saddam Hussein, who was then the President of Iraq, was in possession of nuclear weapons, capable of consuming the world. There were also such wars in Afghanistan, Algeria, Chechnya, Bosnia, and a host of other Arab countries. There was the Western sponsored revolution in Libya christened the Arab Spring. It saw to the ousting of Muammar Gaddafi (a maximum ruler of Libya for over four decades) and subsequently his death. Western and European countries, namely the United Kingdom and the United States of America, have implanted in their citizens a consciousness that always make them see any Arab as an outlaw, a risk element. The making of the Hot War Students of political history knew that political scientist Samuel P. Huntington in a 1992 lecture at the American Enterprise Institute, saw war brewing in the post-Cold War world, but did not find the right title for it, except what he described as "The Clash of Civilizations(COC)". On the other hand, the Arabs as have been shown through highlighting of their ideology woven in Islamic creeds want to overcome and take over the West. The world has seen that after the death of Islamic faith founder, Mohammed in 632 A. D., the Islamic Jihadists had by 732 A. D., taken over Arabia, Syria, the Holy Land, North Africa, Spain, and the middle of France. In the lecture mentioned earlier, Huntington forewarned the world that the belief-systems, cultural and traditional appellations of different races would be the elementary source of conflicts in the post-Cold War. Clash of powers While the world leaders continue to justify the carnage of the West in Iraq and other Arab worlds, the Arabs continue to send disbelieve of the war through gunshots and missiles the world is seeing and hearing today. The Arabs continue to flaw the invasion of Iraq, saying that it infringed on their fundamental human rights to live, as a people and race. Injuxtaposing that view point, it appears common sense reason would agree that from when Huntington formulated his COC theory and subsequently publishing a book on it in 1996, the West invariably was selling a wholesale mischief for a decade against the Arabs for the inglorious job it did in Iraq in 2003. It is evident that the search for imperial ambitions by the West led to the Arab Spring Phenomenon or Uprising, being the clash of powers with al Qaeda terror group. The worst thing that is occurring is the subjugation of the so-called Third World not to veto opinions of the Big-5 countries at the United Nations (UN), namely China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. And these countries when invariably sidelined at the UN have grudges against the Big-5. Conceptions and misconceptions The Hot War can be seen as the propagation of the European and Western hegemony. It is so given their rapacious movements to enthrall the rest of the world. Such propagation of power and dominance of the Arab circle may be described and called neo-colonialism. The Hot War notion is being brewed by the self-seeking interest of the West against the underpinned Arab worlds, including African and Asian regions. The irony is that the modern day egoistical interest groups have made the West and Arabs to forget that they share in the same conservative faith of Abrahamic civilisation. The modernisation is what has kept the two sides to always lock their horns in many unending conflicts. The relationship between civilisation and violence is causing the world physical and mental injuries as well as social discrimination. All of this is occasioned by the incessant quest for economic, ideological and political power. It is, however, sad to understand how the West has shown its oversight and then goes on to display civilisation as a pattern of supremacy of technological and political power blocks for order and disorder as the case may be. Innovation It has become imperative that the world policy makers must have a rethink in dishing out imagined falsehood, while in the pursuit of gluttonous policies on the scale of political reasons. The truth is that many policies in the world today have culminated into a directionless Hot War, unlike in the days when the Cold War was simply between Capitalism and Communism. It is fearsome that the Hot War is not limited to religious differences between the Arab world and the western hemisphere. It is also powerfully evident in men and women, family and children around gender rights and power struggles for control. There should be a clear cut meaning and application of control and choices in the definition between violence and civilisation in the 21stcentury. Odimegwu Onwumere is a Rivers State based poet, writer and consultant and winner, in the digital category, Nordica Media Merit Awards 2016. Tel: +2348057778358. Email: [email protected] Accra, June 22, GNA - The Reverend Seth Mensah, Acting Resident Pastor of Jesus Generation Ministries, has called on politicians to demonstrate a high level of tolerance to ensure that there is always peace in the country. He said as the nation prepares for another era of democratic dispensation, there is the need for politicians to lead the crusade for peaceful election. Rev Mensah, who made the call when speaking to Ghana News Agency in an Accra, said Ghanaians acknowledge the desire for politicians to serve their nation but then they should know that Ghana is for all of us. Rev Mensah it is sad when politicians are at each other's throat whenever they mount political platforms or speaking on the airwaves. He advised them to refrain from using the youth as agents to cause chaos. He urged the youth to resist the temptation of being used by disgruntled politicians to achieve their political ambition since they would not be spared when caught. Rev Mensah the Ministries is organising outreach programmes in the communities to ensure peace before, during and after the November 7 elections. He urged religious leaders to desist from predicting the results of the election since it would lead to political unrest. Rev Mensah appealed to the Inspector-General of Police to reconsider the decision of blocking social media platform on the day of the election since he said would not be in the interest of Ghanaians. He took the opportunity to appeal to fathers not to shirk their responsibilities but should strive to take active interest in the education of their wards. GNA A former President of Ghana, Jerry John Rawlings, has disclosed that he did not enjoy being in office, but had to stay on to help stabilise the country. The founder of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) who marks his 69th birthday today, Wednesday June 22, told Morning Starr host Nii Arday Clegg that being a president was a very demanding job which he does not miss anymore. ...It was a very tasking situation for all of us...some of us didnt enjoy being in office...but we had to work hard and after 10 years of that kind of work during the revolution period you want to break along but you are forced to come back because you can see foolish promises are being made in the air so you stay on to help consolidate, the former president said on Starr 103.5FM. Peaceful elections The former military ruler also said Ghana has made progress with infrastructural developments but majority of Ghanaians still find themselves in hardships. According to him, it is his hope that the living conditions of Ghanaians will improve in the coming months so people can have a little respite. He also urged Ghanaians to ensure that the November 7 presidential and parliamentary elections are conducted in a peaceful atmosphere. Flight Lieutenant, Jerry John Rawlings ( RTD.) was born 22 June 1947. He was Head of State and 1st President of Ghana of the 4th Republic from 1993 to 2001. He is married to Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings and they have three daughters namely Ezanetor Rawlings, Yaa Asantewaa Rawlings, Amina Rawlings and a son, Kimathi Rawlings. In October, 2013, he received an Honorary degree, Doctorate of Letters from the University for Development studies. business Thomas Cook soars 10% as arm Quess Corp announces Rs 400-cr IPO Subrata Nag, CFO of Quess Corp says the company has an amazing track-record in inorganic growth, adding IPO funds will be used for capex, acquisitions, repayment of debt. you are here: business Petronet LNG may test Rs 310-315, says Amit Gupta Amit Gupta of ICICIdirect is of the view that Petronet LNG may test Rs 310-315. June 22, 2016 Open Thread 2016-22 News & views ... Posted by b on June 22, 2016 at 18:23 UTC | Permalink Comments next page South County residents and public safety officers paid their respects to fallen San Jose Police Officer Michael Katherman June 21 by gathering on U.S. 101 overpasses as his funeral procession traveled through the area. Funeral services for Katherman, who died June 14 in a traffic accident while on duty with SJPD, took place at SAP Center in San Jose June 21. He was 34 years old, and left behind his wife April and sons Josh, 10 and Jason, 8. April teaches at Pacific Point Christian School in Gilroy. After the funeral, his remains were escorted by hundreds of police officers from throughout the state to the Gavilan Hills Memorial Cemetery in Gilroy. Leading the procession were dozens of Kathermans fellow motorcycle officers. On the East Dunne Avenue overpass, two Morgan Hill Fire Department officers stood atop an engine and saluted the procession as it passed. Residents waved American flags as they lined up along the edge of the overpass, peering through the fence facing the southbound traffic as it passed underneath them. Were here to show our respects, said Morgan Hill resident Cindy Chapman, who brought her grandsons Jonah Roush and Devin McCusker to the procession. We know that officers give their lives for us every day. On the Burnett Avenue overpass about the same time, Dave Carney and his wife Monica showed their support for Katherman and his colleagues. Dave Carney lost his leg 16 years after being hit by a drunk driver while he was riding his motorcycle. He makes an effort to support law enforcement whenever he can as a thank you. Kathermans remains were buried in a private service at 2:30 p.m. June 21 in Gilroy. Sharp price drops are a distinct possibility in the event of a housing collapse similar to what the United States experienced nearly a decade ago, according to a recent analysis by Moodys Investors Service. In Barbara Shecters report for the Financial Post, Moodys warned that the systemic vulnerabilities inherent in the Canadian mortgage system would induce a strong downward pressure on prices that would lead to nearly $12 billion in losses should the country plunge into a U.S.-style financial crisis. Moodys noted that the Canadian systems level of exposure to risk stems from the fact that nearly nine-tenths of the countrys mortgage holders loan from banks or co-operatives. Complicating matters is that Canadas six biggest banks currently hold around 75 per cent of outstanding mortgage debt. While the ratings agency stated that these institutions will not suffer a catastrophic impact from such a downturn, house prices could decline by 25 per cent nationwide and fully 35 per cent in the hottest markets due to the resulting aftershocks on borrowers purchasing power. In the event of a housing downturn, [the] riskier loans could exacerbate price declines, Moodys said, adding that a vicious cycle of defaults and mass selling would feed into the rapid fall in prices. When those houses are sold in foreclosure, prices of nearby properties fall. A close analogy would be a tinder box, Moodys assistant vice president Jason Mercer said. Over the past few quarters, various observers have voiced their concerns over the Canadian housing market, saying that the sustained dynamism and growth mask the overvalued, overheated, and overburdened nature of the sector, especially in Vancouver and Toronto. The former registrar for mortgages in Ontario weighs in on the recent panel study calling for more stringent syndicated mortgage regulation. I had that debate years ago with the OSC when they decided syndicated mortgages were not a part of their operation, William Vasiliou, former the assistant superintendent of financial institutions and registrar under the mortgage brokers act in Ontario, told MortgageBrokerNews.ca. I think its a good idea. There needs to be more above-board disclosure. I had discussed that back in the 80s. An independent panel of experts published a report, which was made available to the public Tuesday, arguing syndicated mortgages should be regulated in the same manner as securities. The government should require that documents issued to raise capital for syndicated mortgage investments be subject to the same level of regulation as the securities regulator applies to other offering documents used to raise capital in the province, the report, entitled Review of the Mandates of the Financial Services Commission of Ontario, Financial Services Tribunal, and the Deposit Insurance Corporation of Ontario, said. And Vasiliou -- who is retired but continues to work as a forensic analyst for financial services cases, included those concerning syndicated mortgages -- agrees. I believe that will be the case [and more disclosure will be required]. I think its going to be the regulatory body responsible for mortgage brokers, he said. I would think the securities commission has the responsibility to oversee them. Theyre still a security like any other security. But I think theyd have to work conjointly with the financial services [regulatory] authority. Thepanel which comprise George Cooke, former president and CEO of The Dominion of Canada General Insurance Company, James Daw, former Toronto Star personal finance columnist, and lawyer Lawrence Ritchie also recommended an independent regulator be established, to be called the Financial Services Regulatory Authority. The panel recommended the FSRA should address individuals sanctioned by one regulator, who then go on to engage in activities under another. We emphasize the need for FSRA to find ways to proactively consider actions and regulatory approaches taken by other regulators to similar or overlapping matters, the panel said. For example, where a securities salesperson has been subject to an order effectively barring them from regulated activities by a securities regulator, FSRA should have a duty to consider whether that person should be permitted to continue selling segregated funds or syndicated mortgages. And Vasioliou agrees. You shouldnt be allowed to jump from one regulatory body to another after youve been sanctioned, he said. Independent filmmaker Charlie Minn will screen his latest film, Mexicos Bravest Man, this weekend in Odessa in another show at the Ector Theatre, slated to close this summer. The documentary tells the story of the former Ciudad Juarez police chief Julian Leyzaola, who survived eight assassination attempts. The film shows surveillance video capturing the eighth attempt, which came on May 8, 2015. Leyzaola was shot three times outside a money exchange business in Juarez by a man who walks up to his parked SUV. He is paralyzed today. Minn credits Leyzaola with bringing down the murder rate in Ciudad Juarez during a drug war between rival cartels that claimed more than 11,000 lives. Heres the story of true heroism, true guts, from a guy who as far as I know is the only one whos ever stood up to the drug cartels, Minn said. But a lot of people are curious whether or not his policies were in line with the law. Again, hes a Mexican police officer. That comes with an image of corruption. Leyzaola was the former police chief of Tijuana before he was recruited to lead the department in Juarez. Allegations of human rights abuses shadowed Leyzaola, and Minn said he explored those too in his film. At the time of the most recent assassination attempt, Leyzaola was running a private security company. The documentary is Minns 20th in six years, and many of them with drug violence in Mexico. But the filmmaker calls Mexicos Bravest Man his most passionate work. Minn debuted the film in February in El Paso. He said Leyzaola attended another screening in San Diego. I think anyone should study this man, just from a guts point of view, Minn said. This is the ultimate no nonsense guy who literally instilled fear in his own police department. This is truly a movie about the Mexican police. I think the Mexican police, as dangerous, as hated as they are, still carry this aura of fascination. Mexicos Bravest Man will play at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Tickets are $10. Minn will attend and take questions from the audience. The Ector Theatres artistic director, Don Stice, had scheduled the final series of events for the theater in May so the city could begin preparing the site for a downtown hotel and convention center estimated to cost some $77 million and incorporate the theater. City officials are still working out specific plans for how to renovate the Ector Theatre say the theater might not reopen for two years. In recent weeks, crews removed some asbestos found in the facility. But Stice said city officials originally told him not to book shows after June, but approved showing Minns most recent film at the venue. Any chance for people to use that building again before it shuts down for two years is good, Stice said. Im glad its being used. WASHINGTON (AP) An experimental vaccine for the Zika virus is due to begin human testing in coming weeks, after getting the green light from U.S. health officials. Inovio Pharmaceuticals said Monday it received clearance from the Food and Drug Administration to begin early-stage safety tests of its DNA-based vaccine against the mosquito-borne virus. That puts the company ahead of researchers at the National Institutes of Health, who have said they expect to begin testing their own DNA-based Zika vaccine by early fall. Inovios vaccine is intended to prime the immune system to fight Zika by introducing genetically-engineered material that mimics the virus. Inovio reports that animals tested with the vaccine developed antibodies and immune-system cells that attack Zika. The NIH is working to develop a Zika vaccine by swapping out the genetic material from its experimental West Nile virus vaccine. Inovio and its partner, GeneOne Life Science, plan to begin a 40-person study to determine the safest dose of the vaccine in coming weeks. Company officials said they expect results from the vaccine study by the end of 2016. There are currently no licensed drugs or vaccines for Zika. Ultimately, confirming the safety and effectiveness of any Zika virus will require large studies, and how fast those could be done depends in part on whether Zika still is spreading widely in 2017. Zika is spread mainly through the bite of a tropical mosquito, Aedes aegypti. It causes only a mild and brief illness, at worst, in most people. But it can cause fetal deaths and severe birth defects in the children of women infected during pregnancy. Zika has become epidemic in Latin America and the Caribbean since last fall. Officials arent expecting big outbreaks in the continental U.S., but some cases are likely as temperatures rise and mosquitoes spread. Shares of Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania-based Inovio jumped 29 cents, or 2.8 percent, to $10.76 in midday trading Monday. Its been a turbulent two years for the Anders family. Codi Anders husband, Mike, was diagnosed with melanoma cancer in 2014 and died less than a year later, leaving behind two children now ages 4 and 7. At the same time, Anders father, Rex, was at the end of an almost 10-year battle with leukemia. Anders found out he had cancer in 2006, and after eight years of failed treatments, Dr. Paul Shaughnessy, the medical director at the Methodist Hospital, said a transplant was his only hope. Four matches all on the National Marrow Donor Registry either experienced complications or disappeared before going through the procedure needed to save his life. I fought leukemia for 10 years, I used every treatment they threw at me and finally they just said it wasnt enough, Anders said. It was just a long process. Youre away from your family, your friends you pray to God a lot and just hope you get through this. Right after Codi Anders lost her husband, Shaughnessy told her father that he had a match who was ready to start the process right away. The Anders family was ecstatic. We just prayed (the donor) wouldnt change her mind, Rexs wife, Jeni, said. Were a strong family, you know, weve had to go through a lot to get to this point. Anders, who is from Thorndale in Central Texas, had the life-saving transplant surgery in November of that year and was declared cancer-free. He felt connected to the woman who gave her stem cells and saved his life, but couldnt reach out to her for a year because of transplant regulations. On Friday, two days before Fathers Day, Rex and his family finally got to meet Stefanie Hightower, a 27-year-old Alabama native whom they now consider their unofficial third daughter. The reunion took place at the Methodist Hospitals Adult Blood and Marrow Stem Cell Transplant Clinic. Rex Anders hadnt planned anything to say to Hightower ahead of time, but handed her a bouquet of flowers and embraced her for more than a minute while his daughters wiped away tears. Shes actually an angel in heaven to me, he said. Shes given me a second chance in life to get to see my daughters grow up. Hightower was married a year after her donation, and decided to make the trip from Anniston, Alabama, to San Antonio with her husband as a honeymoon trip. She initially signed up to be a donor in 2008, after losing a friend and her grandmother to cancer. It kind of kick-started me into trying to figure out how to help more, Hightower said. But then she put it out of her mind, until someone called her from the registry in 2014. I was shocked. Unlike a traditional bone marrow transplant, doctors extracted the stem cells for Rex Anders from the blood surrounding Hightowers marrow. Shaughnessy said the process is relatively easier than a traditional bone marrow transplant. But the possible side effects, including nausea and vomiting, plus several injections and a day hooked up to a machine, mean it might not be so simple for the donor. The doctor said if she hadnt gone through with it, Rex Anders cancer would have been terminal. He had failed all standard treatments, in fact, we were moving on to experimental treatments to try to keep it under control even that was failing, Shaughnessy said. So his one chance was the bone marrow transplant. (Without it), it is quite possible he would not be alive right now. How far have you gone for science? Andrea Baccarini scaled Pico Mountain, a dormant volcano in the Azores, in the name of good research. Well, clean and clear research. He explains why in this guest blog. Descending the flank of Pico Mountainin the middle of the night, in the midst of a storm with rain, strong wind, and fog, all with a twisted anklemy main thought was "Why did I decide to work on this crazy project?" The thought weighed on me heavier than my 55-pound backpack. And it was valid. Why did I choose to climb a mountain to characterize a bunch of remote aerosol particles? To answer that, I have to introduce myself. I am an Italian student who recently obtained a masters degree in experimental physics from the University of Trento. The project, my masters thesis, focused on the vertical characterization of aerosol properties across the flank of the Pico Mountain in the Azores. In other words, I wanted to understand how particles in the air change their properties with height and in which way this influences their interaction with sunlight. Pico is the place to do just that. Field Campaign Pico is a stratovolcano in the Azores, it is 2,350 meters (7,710 ft.) tall and offers a unique location to investigate how aging and cloud processing modify aerosol properties. A climatological and environmental station, Pico Mountain Observatory (PMO), was installed by the late Michigan Tech professor Richard Honrath and by professor Paulo Fialho from the university of the Azores in 2001 to investigate long range transport of trace gases. Moreover, over the last four years, Claudio and Lynn Mazzoleni performed extensive measurements of aerosol properties exploiting the uniqueness of the site. I joined them during the 2015 field season for two months. This was what I had to hike with. Baccarini's backpack, full of atmospheric measurement tools, weighed about 35 pounds most days. And the hiking is worth it: Pico is a unique place to study aerosols. Aerosols are tiny particles suspended in the atmosphere that interact with incoming solar radiation and outgoing infrared. These interactions affect the overall radiative budget contributing to climate change. Aerosol properties are still largely unknown and a large effort is being carried out by the scientific community to obtain a better understanding of their properties and to create climate models to account for their effects. Hiking to the Top of the World I met Claudio thanks to a talk that he gave to students of Dino Zardi, professor of atmospheric physics at the University of Trento. A significant part of the talk was devoted to the description of Pico and I was immediately impressed by the description of this location. I was attracted by the unique position of this site and fascinated by the idea that the station could be reached only after a seriously long hike. At the same time I was intrigued by the idea of performing new measurements and the possibility to put my own little brick on the big wall of aerosol knowledge, that is actually under construction. From the window of the plane landing on the island, I immediately noticed the top of Pico Mountain, a quasi perfect cone emerging from the ocean and dominating the surrounding land. Pico is different from all the mountains that I am used to, it is different for its shape, for its darker color and in particular for its complete isolation. The sun sets over the Atlantic Ocean, seen high above on Pico Mountain. "Straddling the top of the world, one foot in China and the other in Nepal, I cleared the ice from my oxygen mask, hunched a shoulder against the wind, and stared absently down at the vastness of Tibet. I understood on some dim, detached level that the sweep of earth beneath my feet was a spectacular sight..."Jon Krakauer, Into Thin Air I understood that feeling on top of Pico. Reaching Pico's summit, looking at a horizon made only of water and air while realizing how vast the surrounding ocean is, stimulates feelings that are probably similar to those created by the view from the top of Mount Everest. The isolation and the elevation were two of the main reasons the PMO was established here, in fact the station typically lays above the atmospheric Boundary Layer (we'll shorten to BL), the part of the atmosphere that is directly influenced by the presence of the surface. The separation enables us to measure gases and aerosols in the Free Troposphere (FT). These gases and aerosols can be transported over long distances and here, in the Azores, we frequently measured air masses coming from North America. Making Sense of the Atmosphere One of the main goals of my thesis was to investigate two circumstances. One, whether the station effectively lays above the BL. And, two, to figure out when and under which conditions boundary layer aerosols rather than FT particles are measured at the station. The answer to the first question is that, during the summer, in 100 percent of the cases, the station was found to lay well above the boundary layer. The second question is trickier and any general conclusion would be questionable since a variety of different processes may arise. The BL is not an impenetrable barrier. For example, a buoyant push off the mountain could drive low BL particles up into the FT or particles could subside down. Pico Mountain GPS Hiking Routes With the backpack profiles, it was possible to identify 13 vertical maps with a well-defined transition between the FT and the BL. We found that in 70 percent of cases the average size of the particles in these two regions of the atmosphere was different. In the 2014, aerosols were found to be smaller in the BL while in the 2015 the opposite trend was found. This suggests that a separation between the two layers effectively exists. By looking at the average size of the particles we identified four possible cases of mixing between FT and BL air. Two of these events were probably intrusions of air masses from the FT into the BL; in one case air from the BL was probably lifted to the FT. Why Pico Matters This is what it boils down to: We study the air we breathe and the changing climate at Pico. Better knowledge of the vertical distribution of aerosol properties can improve the accuracy of the radiative transfer models and consequently reduce uncertainties related with future climate prediction. The Azores position is representative of North Atlantic Ocean mid-latitudes, a wide region where only a couple of sites dedicated to aerosol studies exist. With these ongoing measurements pieced together at PMO, it's possible to fill a big gap in climate models. We can advance toward a more complete characterization of aerosol properties over this wide area. Keep in mind, my results are preliminary, and a lot of work is still required, but they're a first step. Also, irrespective of aerosol impact on climate, backpack profiles together with measurements at PMO offer valuable insights into aerosol physics. How does atmospheric circulation affect aerosol transport? What are their interactions with the clouds? And how do they evolve after moving for several days into the FT? Lines in the Clouds A noticeable example that falls into the first category is the formation of a thin layer of aerosol in the FT just above the clouds. These layers appear as a sharp dark line at the horizon and we frequently observed them during the field campaign. These layers are probably made by aerosols produced and then transported over long distances that reside in the FT for long periods of time since there is no turbulence to dissipate them. Stratified clouds sit above Pico Mountain. Usually, there is just one of these layers. But on June 26, 2015, we observed a triple layer. They were plainly visible and the instrument inside my backpack also picked up on them. In particular the particle concentration data clearly shows the presence of two layers and probably a third layer that was not measured only because it was laying above the top of Pico mountain. Coming Down Off the Mountain So, why did I decide to work on this crazy project? To me, the answer is as clear as the view from atop Pico on a sunny day. I chose this project for its importance and the uniqueness of the research that can be done here, for the breathtaking location and, a posteriori, I would say for the people. In fact, due to the experience on Pico, I had the opportunity to collaborate with an international team of scientists and to grow from a scientific point of view. In particular living and working in close contact with Claudio and Lynn Mazzoleni made me learn a lot of new things. They have been wonderful hosts and I sincerely want to thank them for caring so much about me and my future career as a scientist. And now what is the future of the project? Claudio and Kaelan (a student from Michigan Tech) climbed Pico recently to open the station for the new season. And, hopefully, Kaelan will be able to continue with backpack profiles, adding a third year of data to our records. Concerning my future, I will apply for a PhD in Italy at CNR in Bologna with a project that will be based on the creation of a network between PMO and another mountaintop monitoring station, Monte Cimone, in Italy. A lot of questions are still open and we want to address them and to keep PMO operative, so stay tuned. Pico Mountain stratified clouds sit above Pico Mountain Pico Mountain Observatory Rising high above the Azores, the dormant volcano Pico Mountain offers atmospheric observations free from the ocean's direct influence. Particles, pollutants, and chemical signatures pass through, collected by the station. Researchers use the data to study wildfires, climate change, pollution, and other worldwide phenomena. Learn more: www.pico-mt.mtu.edu About the Researchers Claudio Mazzoleni, Lynn Mazzoleni, Andrea Baccarini Research Interests: Andrea: Experimental and atmospheric physics Lynn: Atmospheric chemistry, air pollution, climate change Claudio: Aerosol physics and climate change Michigan Technological University is a public research university founded in 1885 in Houghton, Michigan, and is home to more than 7,000 students from 55 countries around the world. Consistently ranked among the best universities in the country for return on investment, Michigans flagship technological university offers more than 120 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science and technology, engineering, computing, forestry, business and economics, health professions, humanities, mathematics, social sciences, and the arts. The rural campus is situated just miles from Lake Superior in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, offering year-round opportunities for outdoor adventure. The only Christian home for the aged in Hohhot known as "Eden" officially opens for the seniors who need a new home. Co-founded by the provincial CCC&TSPM and a brother, the nursing home has 100 beds with a construction area of more than 2000 square meters, covering about 33 mu. All the buildings here are bungalow-type buildings. In each bungalow, there are double, triple and quadruple rooms with the average net area ranging from 25 to 40 square meters and they are equipped with their own bathroom, furniture and appliances. The home also has public facilities including a canteen, restaurant, church, multi-room, activity room, laundry room and bathroom. "Eden" says that all the indoor and outdoor facilities and structures are designed to be obstacle-free. Moreover, it ensures that it can cater to the life and care plans needed by seniors, especially those with specific conditions. The residents here can attend morning services, a weekly regular meeting and Sunday service. "Our staff are basically brothers and sisters with Christ's love inside them. Our principle is to serve everyone with Christ's love." said Sister Feng who works in the home. Meanwhile, she hopes for more prayers for the home and the development of the chapel inside it. Currently, two elderly people are living in the nursing home. Feng tells CCD that a cute grandpa who stays in the home at 87 with good health said he would pray to the Lord when he missed his children yesterday after attending a service in the chapel. The elderly home also opens its services to the society. We have independently selected these offers and products because we love them and we think you might like them at these prices. E! has affiliate relationships, so we may earn a commission if you buy something through our links. Items are Local and regional partners in a new collaborative effort, led by University of Wisconsin-Stout, the Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, are ready to harness their resources to improve water quality in the Red Cedar River watershed. The DNR recently awarded a $200,000 lake protection grant to the project, and the Army Corps has committed $300,000 in water quality assessment funding from 2016 through 2018 to identify solutions and implement them to help reduce toxic blue-green algae blooms in the nearly 1,900-square mile watershed across 10 west-central Wisconsin counties. The project, called the Red Cedar River Water Quality Partnership, includes other government agencies and organizations that have been working on the problem for more than 25 years. The impact of the toxic algae blooms that turn the water green stretches from lakes Tainter and Menomin in Menomonie to the Chetek chain of lakes in Barron County and to the headwaters of the Red Cedar River on Big Chetac Lake near Birchwood. The significance of the new effort is threefold: The sizable amount of funding, the sheer number of groups on board and the decision to include social impact as part of the research process to identify solutions. Nels Paulson, an associate professor of sociology at UW-Stout, has co-led three summers of undergraduate research through the separately funded LAKES REU research experience for undergraduates, www.uwstout.edu/lakes. He said the most significant aspect of RCRWQP is likely the expanded social science research. LAKES students have documented how poor water quality affects recreation, tourism, real estate and, therefore, the economy and quality of life in the affected areas. LAKES already has shown that improved water quality would boost the Menomonie area economy by $36.6 million a year, conservatively. The new funding will help complete a full social science analysis of the problem. The DNR and Army Corps have been wanting to integrate more social science into water quality research projects. With this knowledge, we can help empower the community to clean up the watershed, Paulson said. When organizations get together, thats how you get more research done. Were expanding on the research efforts were doing and want to be a pilot for how to do this across the state in the future. Ive been told that nothing like this has ever been done before, Paulson added. Patrick Buzz Sorge, lake grants coordinator for the DNRs west-central region, agrees. Im extremely excited about this and the potential outcome, he said. Seeking answers in social science Sorge credits LAKES for revealing the scope of the problem beyond its root cause, which is excessive phosphorous in the watersheds streams, rivers and lakes. The biophysical chemistry is the what so to speak. Weve got a lot of what out there. The social science will be the how do we get this done, and the how is really important, Sorge said. It was really the LAKES REU students who gave us these insights. Weve got to change the paradigm to solve these water quality problems. By allowing all this to happen in one major project is outstanding, and to have one of our state university institutions practice the Wisconsin Idea also is very rewarding, he added. The purpose of the social science assessment is to identify the major attitudinal, normative, economic and cultural factors that shape land use decisions and community incentives and policies, according to Paulson and Sorge. By distinguishing such variables the local townships, cities and counties can move forward with ways to grow their community capacity for changing land use norms and practices and improve water resources and quality of life in the Red Cedar basin, Paulson said. Paulson, Sorge and the Army Corps dont expect the decades-old water quality problems to magically be solved in the next three years, but RCRWQP can build the foundation for change in the near future. This is foundational work that hopefully will allow the rest of the work to move forward at a quicker and more appropriate scale. This doesnt work if we get 30 to 50 percent of pollution sources under control. We need to be 70 to 90 percent. Then youll see lakes Tainter and Menomin look much different in August, Sorge said. RCRWQP will get underway this summer through more LAKES research and with the hiring of a research coordinator. The Army Corps $300,000 commitment will provide modeling and water quality monitoring tools and some staff support for the project, said Nate Campbell, a biologist and project manager for the Army Corps St. Paul district. The Army Corps will work directly with UW-Stout biology instructor Bill James, a former Army Corps employee, and other professors. The hard science of water testing needs to tie in with social science research to really get things done in a watershed, Campbell said. Were really excited to be involved. Its rare to see so many groups working together. With UW-Stouts work in outreach, we saw this as a cool opportunity to get involved with something thats been on the forefront of where water assessment is going, Campbell said. A collaborative effort Along with Paulson and James, support from UW-Stout includes; Chris Ferguson, economics; Tina Lee, anthropology; the Discovery Center; Research Services; and others. Along with UW-Stout, the DNR and the Army Corps, other entities and groups involved in RCRWQP include: UW-Extension, Dunn County, Barron County, City of Menomonie, West Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, Natural Resource Conservation Service, Tainter/Menomin Lake Improvement Association, Red Cedar Lakes Association, Chetek Lakes Protection Association, Big Chetac and Birch Lakes Association, Desair Lake Restoration, 3M Corp., West Wisconsin Land Trust and Farmers Union. The watershed includes about 40,000 acres of open water and 4,900 miles of waterways, according to the RCRWQP plan, A River Runs Through Us: A Water Quality Strategy for the Land and Waters of the Red Cedar River Basin. The plan can be seen at http://naturalresources.uwex.edu/redcedar/publications.html. The Red Cedar basin is an outstanding place to live. Improving water quality and quality of life thats the end game, Sorge said. Speaker is totally wrong in his ... No one had any inkling this was happening, Michael Blumenfeld told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. We are just scratching our heads. Why would you do this? Mr. Blumenfeld spoke for the Wisconsin Family Care Association in early spring of 2015. The frail elderly, disabled, and their families learned the governor sought to privatize the successful Family Care and IRIS programs, handing them over to a few large insurance companies. The birth of this idea happened in secret. The Department of Health Services (DHS) Secretary charged with shepherding the plan through the legislative process acknowledged to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that she learned of the proposal only when the governors budget was released. Evidently her staff also knew nothing of the plan. None of them knew anything about this, said Barbara Beckert of Disability Rights Wisconsin. They are in a state of shock. In December 2014, the governors office invited advocacy groups to a meeting to discuss what they would like to see happen with the programs. Jason Endres and his spouse Julie of Eau Claire attended that meeting. We were never listened to, Jason said. The governor did a complete 180 when the budget came out. Later an email circulated around the Capitol revealing that the governors office directed the nonpartisan Legislative Reference Bureau to write budget language dismantling Family Care and IRIS programs. Governor Walker sidestepped the public agency budget process entirely. He ignored the advocacy/agency councils set up to design changes to long-term care programs. His proposal would upend a critical safety net for almost 60,000 of our states most vulnerable citizens without their consultation. According to an analysis done by the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau, The administration did not solicit the recommendations of the Long-Term Care Advisory Council before or during the development of the Family Care/IRIS 2.0 proposal. The Council had requested meetings, but was not granted input. Days after the budget came out, Jason, Julie along with other IRIS recipients and their families started the Save IRIS citizen advocacy effort to inform people about the proposed changes to their critical programs. Thousands of people from around the state participated in two disability awareness days and a SAVE IRIS rally at the Capitol. During the spring of 2015, hundreds came to testify during the public budget process. More than 200 statewide and local organizations jointly passed a resolution against the governors plan. Then the Joint Finance Committee met to vote. Jason related what he saw: During the Executive Session they all talked about it. Talk [for the governors proposal] didnt go all that great as far as getting rid of it. All of a sudden [Assembly Speaker] Robin Vos walked in the room. And the mood changed. The Republicans went into a little meeting room within the Joint Finance Committee room. Then they all came back out and everything had changed. Now they were going to get rid of IRIS. Not five minutes later they voted to get rid of IRIS ... I was infuriated. For Jason, Julie, and thousands like them, IRIS means a sense of pride about determining for themselves how and whom assists them with daily care most of us can do ourselves. The programs help people stay and function in the community like everybody else. After the final budget vote, the DHS Secretary scheduled meetings essentially to tell advocates to get on-board. Jason told me about an IRIS recipient who was ousted from the table and read the riot act because she refused to support the administrations plan. Jason then learned of a mysterious meeting in the governors office between representatives of big insurance companies expected to benefit from the governors plan, DHS officials, and Republican budget committee members. Thursday night DHS Secretary Rhodes withdrew the plan. This gave us a huge uplift, said Jason. Julie added, This is a major victory! For over a year, our disabled and elderly struggled with the stress of uncertainty. Home care workers were also affected. Many left for other jobs, which created a huge shortage of workers for the disabled who need help for basic functions. The unconscionable actions by the governor and his legislative allies caused chaos in so many lives. However, a fighting spirit brought about the death of their very ill-conceived idea. WATERTOWN, Wis. Wisconsin Republicans need to get behind presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump for the sake of candidates down the ballot, the state Senate's top Republican said Tuesday. "The idea that theres people out there saying 'abandon the presidential race and the Trump campaign' in an effort to somehow pull something together, its not going to work. Its just not going to work," Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, told reporters. Fitzgerald said he took his cue to support Trump as the party's likely nominee from Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus. He acknowledged that "things have not necessarily come together the way I would hope they would have" since then, but said the big picture state legislative and congressional races is too important for the party to remain fractured. Campaign infrastructure is a top-down operation, Fitzgerald said. Republican delegates who are considering "voting their conscience" at the convention in July need to think "beyond the presidential" election and consider other candidates on the ballot, like U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson. "It's the same mechanism that gets both of them elected," he said. Fitzgerald said there are concerns among Republicans with Trump's "volatility," but argued Democrats also face a challenge with Hillary Clinton as their presumptive nominee. A Marquette University Law School poll released last week showed Hillary Clinton with 42 percent and Donald Trump with 35 percent support among registered voters in Wisconsin. But both candidates are underwater in favorability ratings. Sixty-four percent of voters have an unfavorable view of Trump while 26 percent have a favorable view. Clinton is viewed unfavorably by 58 percent and favorably by 37 percent. "We've had weak presidential candidates in the past, which certainly didnt help us down-ticket, but at this point, weve still got some time and were still four weeks from the convention," Fitzgerald said. "So theres still time to pull things together, and I think we will do that. But at this point, the idea of just abandoning the whole Trump campaign, it just doesnt make any sense to me." Speaking to reporters at the same event in Watertown, Gov. Scott Walker said House Speaker Paul Ryan's encouragement for Republican delegates to vote their conscience in Cleveland is "legitimate." "I think historically, and not just this year, delegates are able, are and should be able to vote the way they see fit," Walker said. CAL Fire Wildfires, June 21, 2016 View Photos Update: 6:32p.m.: At 6:28 p.m. CAL Fire reports 100 percent containment on the Camanche Fire in Amador County. Original Post 3:26 p.m.: Sonora, CA Statewide, CAL Fire reports over 4,700 firefighters are battling six active wildfires, including one in Amador County. The Camanche Fire, located between Camanche Reservoir and Ione remains at 210 acres and 95 percent contained. Meanwhile, thousands of acres are burning mostly in the south. There is also a forest fire blazing near the California-Oregon border. In Central California, the Sherpa Fire in Santa Barbara County, now estimated at almost 8,000 acres, has reached 70 percent containment. In Los Angeles, two incidents the Fish and Reservoir fires that both ignited Monday combined earlier today. Now known as the San Gabriel Complex Fire, at last check, a total of 5,400 acres are involved with zero containment and evacuations underway. According to the National Weather Service elevated fire risk due to hot dry air and wind conditions is plaguing the region. More evacuations being ordered in San Diego, where the Border Fire, now at 7,500 acres, is considered to be five percent contained. In Northern California, CAL Fire reports that it is also assisting the Forest Service with the Pony Fire on the Klamath National Forest, south of Happy Camp. At last estimation it was described as almost 2,900 acres with 60 percent containment. UPDATE: On Saturday June 25, the U.S. Coast Guard confirmed that the two bodies they had found earlier in the week were Ace and Rebecca Kimberly. They have ended their search and rescue mission. Florida Fish and Wildlife will now take over the investigation. --- The Coast Guard has discovered a body in the search for a father and his three teen children aboard a missing 29-foot sailboat near Englewood. The body was found within the search area. No other details were released. Father and his three teen children missing on sailboat in Gulf of Mexico off Sanibel Island Body found in search area; not identitifed yet; search launched Tuesday Coast Guard found debris field about 30 miles off Sanibel Island Coast Guard officials said during a news conference on Wednesday that a debris field has been located about 30 miles off Sanibel Island. Among the items found were six life vests, water bottles, a tarp, a propane tank and a basketball. Also located; two kayaks that were attached to the back of the boat. Coast Guard officials said Ace Kimberly, 45, his sons, 13-year-old Roger, 15-year-old Donny and 17-year-old daughter Rebecca were last heard from Sunday morning. Finding the kayak(s) and life jackets signals that we are in a dire situation, said Captain Greg Case, Commander of Coast Guard Sector St. Petersburg. We are continuing to keep in very close contact with the family and keep them updated on all developments during this difficult time. Locating the debris inside of our search field indicates that we are in the right area, and we are aggressively searching for Ace, Becky, Donny and Roger. Coast Guard Capt. Gregory Case said a search is ongoing for the missing on sailboat in Gulf of Mexico near Englewood. On Tuesday, Coast Guard officials in St. Petersburg received a report from a concerned family member of the missing sailors stating the family left Sarasota at 7 a.m. Sunday en route to Fort Myers to repair the sailboat. "So the vessel was not in the best of shape," Case said. Later Sunday, Kimberly called his brother and stated the sailboat was in a storm, in 6-foot seas and that he was attempting to survive with his children offshore of Englewood. The Coast Guard launched searches by air and boat from Fort Myers on Tuesday to find the sailboat. Coast Guard officials are fanning out from the debris site, using computer models to determine where the family may have drifted. We're continuing the search," said Case. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families. We know this is a difficult time for them and we are doing everything we can and throwing everything we have at this search at this time." Case says Kimberly's brother alerted the agency on Tuesday. The Coast Guard asks mariners to keep a sharp lookout and contact Coast Guard Sector St. Petersburg at (727) 824-7506 with any information. United States Attorney General Lorretta Lynch promised the support of the Department of Justice Tuesday in her visit to Orlando. U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch toured Orlando Pulse areas Justice Dept. making $1 million in funds available Lynch says investigation into what FBI knew about Mateen is ongoing Lynch toured Orlando just 10 days after the Pulse nightclub attack that killed 49 people. In the morning, she met with investigators at the FBI headquarters in Maitland to be debriefed on the investigation. Then, with victims families and first responders in Orlando. There is no doubt that this was a shattering attack on our nation, on our people and on our most fundamental ideals," she said. In a news conference Tuesday, the 83rd Attorney General of the U.S. spoke about the deadly massacre, sharing her condolences and support. The message of Orlando that I have seen today, and what the American people have seen in the wake of this horrific assault, is a message of determination, to remove hatred and intolerance from our midst," Lynch said. The attorney general noted the Department of Justice is making available $1 million in funds, for which the state can apply, to cover costs such as overtime for state and local responders. The DOJ is also providing counseling for victims and first responders. Lynch said they simply hope to help the community heal. This Department of Justice and your country stands with you in the light. We stand with you to say that the good in this world far outweighs the evil," she said. One of the attorney general's last stops was the scene of the crime, seeing with her own eyes the aftermath of the carnage, when Omar Mateen shot and killed 49 victims. According to the FBI, Mateen was self-radicalized, not directed by any one foreign terror group. Lynch, too, spoke about battling homegrown terrorism, noting that while its a challenge, it's one that they continue to investigate. And try to identify individuals who are expressing certain views that might lead them to violence, and try to determine when and are they looking to act on that," she said. "We also are asking people who know individuals to alert us to concerns they may have. Lynch would not answer questions regarding the notion that the FBI missed crucial warning signs, following Mateen's appearance on the terror watch list twice. She said that, along with the killer's motive for carrying out the attack, is part of the ongoing investigation. Mayor Clint Johnson says every one of DeBary's nearly 20,000 residents should be armed. DeBary mayor proposes every resident get a concealed weapons license Resident reaction is mixed Mayor Clint Johnson says he will bring up the proposal at the next meeting "The easiest way to be safe is to be armed, and I'm calling on all residents to arm themselves," Johnson said. "After the Orlando shooting I've been thinking about it a lot and I don't want DeBary to be victims." Pulse nightclub in Orlando is where a gunman shot and killed 49 patrons, and wounded 53 others. Mayor Johnson says Debary would be one of the safest cities in Florida if his proposal passes. It's a proposal which also includes taxpayer dollars. "I want people in this city to go to the gun shop, receive training, get a concealed weapons license and actually put some tax dollars towards that purpose," said Mayor Johnson. We reached out to Volusia County's top cop, Sheriff Ben Johnson to see how he felt about it, but the sheriff is out of town and could not comment. We then asked homeowners how they feel about the mayor's latest proposal. "I think that's ridiculous. Why do I have to arm myself? said LeeAnne Balk, who disagrees with the proposal. That's a little ridiculous," said DeBary resident Allen Styer who agrees with gun ownership, but not arming every resident. "Well I think it shows a little paranoia on his part, maybe," said Robert Bradley. One person did agree with the proposal but did not want to comment on camera. Mayor Johnson says he will bring up the proposal to arm every DeBary resident during an upcoming city council meeting. Mayor Johnson says he envisions the day when every Debary resident attending a city council meeting will be armed during the meeting. Who's going to come to a place where everybody's ready to defend themselves? It be stupid," Johnson said. COMMENTARY: An atheist group's foray into Texas is like 'a skunk at a lawn party' 21 June, 2016 by Dr. Gregory Tomlin , | HONDO, Texas (Christian Examiner) The phrase "God's country" in rural parlance has very little if anything to do with religion these days. It is, rather, an expression of appreciation for the beauty of a particular place and, in most cases, is employed by a person from that particular region. The open skies of the Wyoming plains may not have much to offer the average person, but find someone who is from there (someone who loves antelope, kangaroo rats and ground hogs) and you'll find someone who believes it is "God's country." The same is true of a host of wooded areas, mountains, deserts and canyons across the United States. People have been saying their little slice of the pie is "God's country" since 1709, when the phrase was first recorded as a reference to an area blessed with beauty, as the beholder of it understood it. The same is true of little Hondo, Texas, on Highway 90 between San Antonio and Uvalde. To love the county seat of Medina County, you need to love Mesquite thorns, cactus, white tail deer and the occasional rattle snake or two. Hondo is as Texas as it comes. Its home to good people and really, really good food (the Hondo Cafe, Hermann Sons Steak House, and Heavy's Bar B Que to name a few). I've passed through Hondo on multiple occasions. When I have there's a particular sight that always catches my attention. It's a sign on the way into town that reads in all capitals, "THIS IS GOD'S COUNTRY. PLEASE DON'T DRIVE THROUGH IT LIKE HELL." Each time I've seen it (it was gone for a period of time for refurbishment), I've chuckled. You can almost hear an old cowboy sitting on the back of his horse saying it. It's the kind of humor that most Texans get, and people who pass through chalk up to the unique outlook on life the people in the small town share. There's no need to rush. Obey our laws. Enjoy the view. Stop and meet the people. Just about everyone I can think of would get that message, unless you're a thin-skinned atheist so blinded by your twisted view of the First Amendment that you see even a popular catchphrase as a threat to your velvet conscience or, worse, as an unconstitutional endorsement of religion that threatens the fabric of the republic. That's how the Freedom from Religion Foundation feels about the little signs in Hondo according to a letter Mayor Jim Danner received from the Wisconsin-based atheist group. In the letter, Co-complainer Annie Laurie Gaylor, one of the leaders of the atheist organization, tells Mayor Danner that the displays are "divisive" because they "endorse a religious message." "It is inappropriate for the City of Hondo to display religious signs that convey government preference for religion over non-religion," Gaylor writes. As proof, she cites Lynch v. Donnelly, which has nothing whatsoever to do with a topic similar to the Hondo sign. In fact, that case has to do with a nativity display in Rhode Island and is a case the atheist plaintiff lost at the U.S. Supreme Court, but Gaylor knows that. She also knows that cases like Aronow v. U.S. have made it clear that public references to God, such as the national motto, "In God We Trust," have been ruled specifically as affirmations of historical belief serving a public purpose and not as an endorsement of religion. Gaylor also insists that the signs violate Lemon v. Kurtzman, or the "Lemon Test," which proposes that a violation of the separation of church and state occurs when there is an excessive entanglement of religion and the state. For that reason, Gaylor barks that the signs must come done and the city must inform her group of what they intend to do. Notice to Wisconsin-based atheist group: Texans do not like being told what they MUST do. They say things like, "Come and take it," when you give them orders. There comes a certain point in the life of most I-can-have-my-belief-but-you-can't-have-yours types where reason is surpassed by zeal for their secularist vision. This is one of those cases. These signs are not a public display of support for a particular faith, representing an entanglement. They're not even a tacit endorsement of a particular deity. After all, these days, the Attorney General can oh, let's say change "Allah" to "God" in an audio transcript and expect that people will take the two as one and the same. No one is compelled toward belief in God by the sign. No one is coerced to violate their conscience by passing the sign unless, of course, they are bothered by common vocabulary. Failure to bow and prostrate oneself before the sign which seems to be what the atheist group thinks is required will not result in confinement or confiscation of property. These tests compulsion, coercion, conscience, confinement, and confiscation along with the context in which the supposed offense occurs should be the determining factors when trying to decide if the word "God" is used in a manner inconsistent with the Constitution. I say all this to say that the atheists' dog won't hunt. What remains to be seen now is if the folks in Hondo are ready to put up the money it will take to fight the inevitable lawsuit the foundation will file. And they will file it. They are well funded in high cotton, as we say and most small towns aren't. What the atheists cannot win in court, they often win by bleeding people dry. The Hondo signs are nothing more than a humorous way of conveying a point using the common vernacular. On this one, the Freedom from Religion Foundation has it flat wrong (again) and their "advice" is about as welcome as a skunk at a lawn party. Dr. Gregory Tomlin covers the intersection of politics, culture and religion for Christian Examiner. He is also a professor of Church History and a faculty instructional mentor for Liberty University's Rawlings School of Divinity. Tomlin earned his Ph.D. at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and also studied at Baylor University and Boston University's summer Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs (CURA). He wrote his dissertation on Southern Baptists and their influence on military-foreign policy in Vietnam from 1965-1973. A man was airlifted to a hospital after he was attacked by an alligator in Sumter County. The 58-year-old man was attacked by the gator while along County Road 311 in Bushnell Tuesday evening. The 8 to 9 foot gator injured the man's right leg. He was airlifted to Ocala Regional. No word on his condition. Florida Fish and Wildlife confirms the gator was captured and euthanized. No word on what happened that led to the attack. Officials have not released the man's name. For the first time in over a week, people can step onto the sidewalk in front of Pulse nightclub. They are taking the opportunity to finally memorialize the 49 victims at the site of their death. Orange Avenue, the businesses and the area around Pulse reopened Tuesday A memorial grew by Pulse almost immediately The surrounding neighborhood is decorated with memorials to the victims Throughout the day people gathered on the sidewalk. Many people came to have a moment of reflection. The place is no longer an active crime scene, but a thriving memorial to the victims. There were many flowers and candles. Some wrote the names of the victims in chalk and surrounded them with messages of hope and love. This was senseless and who knows what caused it or why," Alexa Oropesa said. "I just hope nothing like this ever happens again anywhere in the world. Some stopped to look through the privacy mesh. Others placed flowers at a makeshift memorial and signed poster board. This is our neighborhood," Lorraine Kessler said. "This is my home. No one should have to go through this. Im here to support not just the LGBT community, Im here to support everyone. This neighborhood is now decorated with many memorials paying tribute to the victims. People want big kitchens, but arent really interested in having people over https://t.co/yJB2hNqG7N pic.twitter.com/ic8ZELG54z Digital Trends (@DigitalTrends) June 22, 2016 Hundreds of people also gathered in the SoDo Shopping Center Tuesday, just a short distance away from the Pulse nightclub. There was music, prayer and messages of love overpowering hate. Therapy dogs joined the crowd to help bring comfort those some grieving the 49 victims. While the road in front of Pulse is back open, the nightclub wont be for some time. But the owners say they will be back better than ever and have plans to rebuild. It's late morning and John Lucas already has worked several hours mowing lawns in summer temperatures in southern Brevard County. Former NASCAR driver Mike Wallace was attacked last week in NC People are posting hateful messages on Palm Bay landscaper's Facebook page Palm Bay's John Lucas says he is not connected to NC incident But it's the heat his company, Lucas Lawn and Landscaping, has taken online over the past two days that is really making him sweat. "Some people said, 'You're a piece of crap company, and some had more choice words," Lucas said. Those words and comments have come full throttle on his lawn care business' Facebook page in the days since former NASCAR driver Mike Wallace and his daughter were brutally attacked after a concert in North Carolina. The problem is, its a case of mistaken identity. Some people think John Lucas is the Lucas accused of the Wallace attack. That Lucas also is affiliated with a landscaping company. "There are a lot of Lucases and I want people to know we are the good guys out here," he said. Wallace and his adult daughter were assaulted by three men Friday night as they walked out of a Rascal Flatts concert in Charlotte. Wallace was badly beaten and his daughter was hurt as she tried to protect her father. Two of the suspects are affiliated with a Lucas Landscaping and are from a nearby town, hundreds of miles away from Palm Bay but they're as close as a click on social media. Palm Bay's Lucas is now trying to shield his reputation, his family of five and is hoping his customers will stick with him. Lucas even deactivated the company's Facebook page temporarily. "I'd like to have my name back, my business back. I haven't beaten up anybody, and I don't plan to," Lucas said. Lucas says he's spoken to several other landscape companies in the area and around the country who are dealing with the same issue. A 69-year-old Villages man is facing several felony charges after deputies say he fired 33 rounds from a semiautomatic handgun Monday night into the residence of a female neighbor of whom he'd become infatuated. Villages man fired 33 rounds into neighbor's home He was intoxicated and infatuated with his neighbor, deputies say No one was at the home during the shooting Howard Sparber faces multiple felony charges Sumter County deputies were called to the 2500 block of Landale Loop in The Villages just before 8:30 p.m. Monday. They said Howard Sparber, 69, was intoxicated and shot into the neighbor's home in an attempt to get in. The rounds entered the storm door, front door and continued through the foyer and into the kitchen. The neighbor's home incurred about $3,000 in damages, deputies said. The residents were not home at the time. During the shooting, neighbors heard the shots and confronted Sparber, who was holding a Sig Sauer 9mm semi-automatic handgun, deputies said. The female neighbor said Sparber has been harassing her since November 2015 with sexual propositions and had previously pointed a firearm at her. Sparber is being held in the Sumter County Detention Center with no bond on charges of armed burglary, aggravated stalking, shooting into a dwelling and criminal mischief. Orange County and state leaders urged residents to visit businesses near the Pulse nightclub Wednesday in a show of support. Officials visited businesses closed because of Pulse shooting Roadblock along Orange Avenue removed; shops were able to reopen Affected businesses can apply for special no-interest loans Gov. Rick Scott and Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs stopped at the Rajin Cajun Bike Shop, where they asked residents to come out and support the businesses that are now struggling to pay bills because their stores were blocked by the Pulse shooting investigation. Earl Kurtzs detailing business is the closest to the nightclub, "and for something like that to happen right next door to my business, its still sinking in, he said. The harsh reality of the June 12 tragedy hit Kurtz and other entrepreneurs hard when they realized their cash registers were silent and no cash flowed in as the days of being closed after the attack started piling up. We were losing quite a bit. Fathers Day week is (normally) one of the busiest weeks for us the whole year, Kurtz said. Shirley Bronovitsky, whose business is just across the street from Kurtzs, is fearful customers won't return. It's that uncertainty that prompted her and other business owners to turn down small business loans, afraid they may not be able to pay them back. I dont know what were going to do about payroll or anything, said Bronovitsky, who owns Rajin Cajun. On Tuesday, the roadblock that was set up along Orange Avenue was removed. "As a community, we need to come together to support these businesses because they were significantly impacted," Scott said, "because over those 10 days, basically all of them had no business." The eight businesses directly impacted because of road closures are eligible for a special no-interest loan. The loan, called the Florida Small Business Emergency Bridge Loan Program, allows business owners to borrow anywhere between $1,000 and $25,000. However, the no interest repayment term limit is 180 days. Scott said the State of Florida is reapplying for the federal government to declare a state of emergency. That initial request, made last week, was denied. If approved, it could bring in $50 million to Florida. Meanwhile, the business owners continue to hope they can recoup some of their losses. There were times Kurtz felt like he was trending on delicate waters. Although he was concerned about victims of the attacks and their families, he was also worried about his own employees and their families. This is a tragedy, an act of terrorism. You know, we have families to feed. My employees do, too, Kurtz said. Here's our weather outlook for the rest of the week: Hazy, hot and humid Highs in the low 90s Risk of dangerous rip currents Overnight will be partly cloudy to mostly clear with seasonable temperatures falling into the low 70s. Our extended forecast looks more summer-like, with daily heat and humidity, along with scattered rain chances. WEATHER ON THE GO: Download the News 13+ app and get StormTracker 13 & Safety Net alerts wherever you are. GET WEATHER ALERTS: Sign up to receive weather text alerts from News 13. Were locked in a large area of high pressure, with dry air pushing back at moisture trying to move up from the south. This moisture will eventually win out, causing dew points to climb back into the middle and upper 70s causing it to feel much more humid going into our weekend. The moisture increase will also lead to a 20 percent rain chance across the area Thursday, then a 30-40 percent chance Friday into next week as the sea breezes develop each day. We heat back into the low to mid 90s through our extended stretch. High rip current threat we have had lately will begin to ease off Thursday, but surfing returns to a poor to fair condition. May see waist high sets at the best breaks. Ultraviolet Index is still dangerously high. Be sure to check out News 13's Hurricane Center. It has all the information you need, from storm-tracking and interactive maps to emergency procedures. StormTracker 13 Radar View LIVE Interactive StormTracker 13 Radar Map We want your pictures! Show us what the weather looks like in your neighborhood. Your photo could end up on News 13 and mynews13.com/weatherpics. Port Canaveral is the only place in the world where used rocket boosters are returning, but it could soon come with a cost for SpaceX. SpaceX could have to pay as much as $15,000 per booster return Port Canaveral leaders said wharfs generate revenue SpaceX, Port Canaveral leaders to negotiate the fees After each SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket soars into orbit, the first-stage booster by design lands on an autonomous drone ship positioned hundreds of miles off the Brevard County coast in the Atlantic Ocean. A few days later, the ship returns to Port Canaveral with a large piece of space hardware upright on its deck. So far, SpaceX has brought back three first-stage boosters after successful barge landings. Port leaders consider the reusable rockets to be cargo. The ship and booster come into the port like any other cargo ship, and port leaders said fees for using the wharfs is how the port generates revenue. "Any product that comes across our dock, we are obligated to charge for," Port Canaveral CEO John Murray said. "That rate is often times negotiated." Murray and his staff recently proposed charging SpaceX $15,000 each time the company brings a rocket booster back to port. That's $500 per ton for a 30-ton used booster. The price is based on other ports' fees for comparable weight in what Murray described as a unique situation. "You can't just go out and say, 'Who's got a similar charge for used rockets?'" Murray said. The price, however, is something SpaceX isn't too happy about. "The proposed wharfage fee is 14 times higher than what any other business is being charged for using (Port Canaveral) facilities," said John Taylor, a spokesman for SpaceX. "Port Canaveral is an important partner in our recovery operations, but we expect fees to be fair and reflect our actual use of the port." Port Canaveral commissioners took the item off the meeting agenda Wednesday, June 22. Murray said he is meeting with SpaceX representatives to find some common ground. Cargo rates at Port Canaveral run between $28 and $35 per ton depending on vessel length. The next SpaceX launch from Brevard County a cargo run to the International Space Station is set for the early morning hours of July 18. The current owner of Plainviews historic Granada Theatre will soon become the new owner of another classic neon marquee as it was released Darryl Holland has purchased Lubbocks Cactus Theater. On Wednesday, owner Don Caldwell, 71, announced he was selling the Cactus Theater to Holland. The amount of the purchase was not disclosed. In 2012, Holland purchased and started renovating Plainviews Granada Theatre located on Broadway. Since then, Holland has held a number of concerts at the Granada in an effort to raise the money to complete the renovations of the theatre which opened in 1929. Unable to host anymore shows at the Plainview theatre until renovations to safety equipment were made, Holland set up two fundraising concerts, featuring the all-star band the Time Jumpers, in mid-July at Amarillos Globe-News Center and the Lubbock Memorial Civic Center to benefit the Granada. But in the meantime, Holland was working to expand his classic venue grab with the purchase of the Cactus Theater, located on Buddy Holly Avenue in the heart of Lubbock Depot District. We are very excited for the new era of the Cactus Theater, said Caldwell in a special press conference on Wednesday. Caldwell said his promotions business will continue to book acts for the Cactus Theater. The Cactus Theater was constructed in Lubbock in 1937 and has featured big name acts and spotlighted an endless amount of local talents. Holland later made the Granada Theater a non-profit project making Holland the executive director of the Granada. Holland said he will continue to promote local acts at the Cactus, but also wants to bring more big name acts to the Cactus stage and make the Cactus a nationally known name. Holland said he would also like to complete some remodeling at the Cactus, including changing the lobby and ticket booths and reworking the stage area. Holland will become the official owner of the Cactus on July 1. The kids were high-flying and ledge grindin' Tuesday as skaters from across West Texas made the trip to Plainview for the first-ever Desert Throwdown skateboard competition. "Plainview is a middle location for skaters from Amarillo and Lubbock and Midland. So we thought we could all converge here. And it's a brand new park," said Nicholas Hernandez, store manager for Lubbock's Zumiez store, a retail skateboard shop. Zumiez managers from Lubbock, Amarillo and Midland teamed up with skate organizations Lubbock Skateboarding and Broadway Skate to throw the skateboard event at Plainview Skateboard Park. The event ran in conjunction with National Go Skateboarding Day, which was June 21. Organizers said they contacted Phyllis Wall, who helped facilitate the creation of the skate park, to get the Plainview event off the ground. "She gave us all the contact info we needed. The City of Plainview was very cooperative as well. They've been really good to us. They were all for us putting the event together. They were very facilitating as far as what we've been given," added Hernandez. "And this park is great. It's better than any of the parks in West Texas, so that's one of the bigger reasons we wanted to hold it here, it is just a really great facility." More than 60 skaters from Plainview and the surrounding area participated in the skateboarding competition Tuesday, a great turnout for organizers. "In the last like six years, I've held probably 50 contests in all of West Texas and this is one of the best turnouts we've ever had," said Tony Maples of Broadway Skate. "We have people from Midland, people from Amarillo, people from New Mexico, people from all over West Texas and surrounding areas, so we're really happy with the turnout." Plainview skaters such as Byron Washington, 24, were ecstatic that Plainview was holding one of the first significant competitions at the park. "It's going to be a good one," Washington said during warmups. Washington said he has skated for seven years and skates the Plainview skate park every day. Skaters competed in either beginner or advanced divisions for the chance to win prizes. "In total, we have several thousands of dollars' worth of prizes that have been donated. And this is a free event," Maples said. Zumiez said their mission is to organize events like the Desert Throwdown as a way to give back to the community and promote skating. "It's all about giving back to our local community," said Eric Cessler, Zumiez district manager. Cessler made the trip all the way from Fort Worth to help with the competition. "For these West Texas stores, there's not really a lot of opportunities to get involved in the local community. We want to make sure our customer base knows we are here to give back and create some fun things." Check out Thursday's edition of the Herald for complete skate results of the day. 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 article was originally published on June 25, 2015. The Lone Star State's over 260,000 square miles of wide open spaces mean getaways to spooky Texas haunts can be found anywhere. This fall, take a getaway off the beaten path by visiting some of the remaining ghost towns around Texas. While their inhabitants are long gone, monuments and enriching history at these sites still remain. Terlingua Courtesy of Big Bend Holiday Hotel Located near Big Bend, Terlingua is one of Texas' most famous ghost towns. The town was home to Indians first, then Spanish and Americans followed. Howard Perry from Portland, Maine, began his Chisos Mining Company and the town boomed in the early 1900s. Though, when the mineral price fell after World War 2, the city seized. Lobo Courtesy/Claus Moerchen, GhostTowns.com Considered a modern ghost town, Lobo was mostly abandoned in the late 1960s. Cotton farming was the principle crop, but when the cost of agriculture became too expensive, the town went into a rapid decline after World War 2. in 1991, the city east of El Paso, was completely abandoned. Glenrio Courtesy/Open Road Productions Staddling the Texas and New Mexico border, Glenrio was once a booming town along the famous Route 66. The town was established in 1903, and grew by the years until Interstate 40 was built in the 1950s. By 1985, only two residents remained in the town that once hosted thousands of travelers. Also, John Steinbecks "The Grapes of Wrath" was filmed in Glenrio for three weeks. Abandoned buildings, such as the gas station pictured above, still remain in its location in northwest Deaf Smith County. Sherwood Whiskey Texas Located in Irion County, southwest of San Angelo, Sherwood is now a small rural community but used to be the county seat. When Mertzon was named the new county seat, Sherwood's courthouse (pictured) was abandoned in 1939. Indianola Joe Holley/Staff Once envisioned as a competitor to Galveston and New Orleans, Indianola now is more of a ghost town. The town was founded in 1844 and was known as a port city. Population grew to over 2,000 by 1860. Though, two devastating hurricanes hit in 1875 and 1886, leaving the town in ruins. Barstow Courtesy/Steve, GhostTowns.com Near Pecos, George E. Barstow founded the town under his namesake in the 1890s. In 1900, the city had a population of over 1000, and boomed with its successful farming industry. Though, in 1904, the Pecos Dam broke, damaging all fruit and vegetable crops. With severe droughts following, the population dwindled. By 1930, the town's population was cut in half. Hasell Wichita Falls Times Record News In this July 25, 2014 photo, Bud Gossett looks for artifacts near a washing machine, foreground, a remain from the town of Hasell. The town was submerged under Lake Arrowhead for nearly 60 years, but was exposed due to the drought. Halsell was established in 1900 and oil was discovered in the 1930s and 1940s. Though, the town was inundated when Lake Arrowhead was built. The Grove TOM REEL/File Moody Anderson stands in the street running through his "ghost town", a place called The Grove which is just outside of Temple, Texas. The Grove was established in the early 1870s and was economically based on farming and stock raising. In the 1940s, population began to decline due to agriculture consolidation and a bypassing highway. Now, visitors can see new commercial buildings and a restored Main street. Independence Courtesy/Mike Woodfin, GhostTowns.com Four columns are all that remain at the former Baylor College in the ghost town of Independence. Also referred to as Coles Settlement, the town once housed Sam Houston and established Baylor University. When the city began to decline, Baylor then moved to its current location in Waco. Railroad tracks built bypassing the town led to the town's demise. Bluffton AP Old Bluffton was abandoned when Buchanan Dam was constructed in 1937, forcing water to cover the town and its pecan orchards and cornfields. In this Oct. 5, 2011 photo, a child's grave site, normally at least 20 to 30 feet underwater, has joined other remnants of old Bluffton, Texas, resurfacing on the now dry, sandy lake near Bluffton. Belle Plain Texas Escapes Remains of houses and a college are the only thing left of Belle Plain, a West Texas town built in in the 1870s. The town boomed with mercantile stores, a newspaper, professional services and the local college. Belle Plain College was one of the first higher learning institutions in West Texas. A severe drought in 1886 halted growth in the once promising town. Carlton Courtesy/Bobby and Speedy Drake, GhostTowns.com The ghost town south of Stephenville thrived in 1910. Along stage and freight routes, the town was known for its cotton production. Though, the population dwindled throughout the 20th Century. In 2000, about 50 residents remained with many abandoned buildings, including the Church of Christ pictured above. Puducah Joe Holley/Houston Chronicle It's been a long time since Paducah's Palace Theater showed a first-run movie. Drive through Paducah, in northwest Texas, and what you see is a dying town. The 1930s-era Cottle County Courthouse is hemmed in on all sides by abandoned brick buildings, several of them collapsed in on themselves. It wasn't that long ago that the once-sturdy structures housed thriving cafes, drug stores, a couple of department stores, a variety store, hardware stores, a large hotel. Provided by Seph Lawless Courtesy Seph Lawless Courtesy Seph Lawless Provided by Seph Lawless Provided by Seph Lawless Courtesy photo/Seph Lawless Bob McMillan Noel Kerns Noel Kerns 2016/Jonathan Danko Kielkowski/White Press 2016/Jonathan Danko Kielkowski/White Press Shawn Clover/shawnclover.com Shawn Clover/www.shawnclover.com Shawn Clover/shawnclover.com Johnny Joo / Columbia Pictures rsalinas@mysa.com Twitter: @RebeccaLSalinas Marfa. Tough to get to. Tougher to explain. But once you get here, you get it. West of San Antonio is a Texas destination many talk about. Visitors trek to the Lone Star State from such foreign countries as Italy and Germany for a glimpse of this mysterious, artsy place beloved by celebrities, creatives and adventure-seekers alike. Marfa is nestled in the Texas Mountains and is a locale you must experience for yourself. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate DANBURY A church bell rang 49 times high above the citys streets on Tuesday night, in memory of those tragically killed in Orlando. More than 150 people filled the white pews at an interfaith vigil at the First Congregational Church of Danbury. Organizers said the event sought to support the LGBTQ community targeted by the attack at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla., to honor those killed there on June 12, to reaffirm support for the Muslim community and to decry hate and violence. By the end of this evening, we hope to have increased the light of love in each of you, said the Rev. Pat Kriss, the pastor at the First Congregational Church. Unfortunately, darkness has touched this church before ... less than four years ago, when I stood on this exact same spot and I laid to rest Lauren Rousseau. Rousseau was one of the victims of the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, which took the lives of 20 children and six adult staff members. I stood here that morning before the funeral began, watching the bomb-sniffing dogs go through the sanctuary, and I knew at that moment our world had changed, Kriss said. The vigil on Tuesday night was filled with an array of speakers, prayer, songs and several calls to action including to spread the message of less fear, less hate, more love. After the name of each victim in the Orlando massacre was read, the church bell rang. In addition to the 49 people slain, 53 were injured during the massacre at Pulse. In a 911 call from the club, the gunman, Omar Mateen, pledged solidarity with the Islamic State group. Mateen was killed in a shootout with police. Shazeeda Khan, from the Baitul Mukarram Masjid of Greater Danbury, told the vigil audience that Islam does not justify or condone such atrocities. Their actions are a betrayal of the values of Islam, Khan said. Further, they generate hate toward Islam (and) provoke retaliation against Muslims. Later on, Conor Pfeifer, the director of operations at the Triangle Community Center, a Norwalk organization that serves the needs of the LGBTQ community in Fairfield County, spoke about what can be done to prevent another tragedy like Orlando. There is no denying gun violence has taken so many lives right down the road in Newtown many of us know survivors, even those who were killed, and the bereaved, Pfeifer said. But there is a solution all of us can do. We know that what happened in Orlando was built on the foundation of decades, centuries even, of homophobia, transphobia, racism ... what we can do is meet people with affirmation and to meet them with love, he said. Affirmation and acceptance are human rights. Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton also spoke at the vigil, as did Mackenzie Demac, from the office of U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Esty, D-Conn. The vigil was hosted by the First Congregational Church, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Danbury and the Association of Religious Communities. It came a day after the U.S. Senate voted down four gun-control amendments, which followed a 15-hour filibuster last week by Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn. Also on Monday, the Supreme Court turned down a Connecticut gun-rights groups appeal to overturn the states strict laws barring sale of military-style semi-automatic rifles. Sandy Hook survivors also went to state Superior Court in Bridgeport on Monday for their lawsuit against the makers of the Bushmaster semi-automatic rifle used by Adam Lanza in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings. The Associated Press contributed to this article. STAMFORD The citys Zoning Board approved on Monday a site plan for a five-story LCB Senior Living complex at 1567 Summer St. Ted Doyle, an LCB spokesman, said the 104-unit facility will offer assisted living and memory-care services. The company hopes to break ground at the Summer Street site near Scalzi Park by Nov. 1, with a tentative completion date sometime in early 2018. We have wanted to be in Western Connecticut for a long time, Doyle said. Stamford had all of the things we look for when setting up a senior living community nice parks, good social scene, close to the water. LCB has 17 other facilities in New England, including an 80-unit property in South Windsor and a 74-unit facility in Avon. The Stamford facility will be the largest LCB Senior Living complex in Connecticut. nora.naughton@scni.com; twitter.com/noranaughton This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate GALVESTON A Jacinto City man is fighting for his life in a Houston hospital after developing an infection from "flesh-eating" bacteria during a beach trip earlier this month. Brian Parrott, 50, became sick after swimming in the water during a trip with his son's family to the beach in Galveston on June 12. After Parrott became increasingly ill over the ensuing days, he was transported by ambulance on Thursday to LBJ Hospital, where doctors amputated his right leg beneath the knee. Now Parrott is struggling to survive a little-known bacterial infection called Vibrio that is rarely fatal, but that can prove deadly under the right circumstances. "It's just terrible," said his mother, Donna Dailey, by phone on Tuesday. For Parrott, the nightmare began shortly after his family arrived in Galveston. "He was sitting at the side of the beach for quite awhile with his granddaughter, then he went into the water for a couple of hours," Dailey said. Parrott didn't realize the risks to his health, his mother said. He is diabetic, a condition that weakens the immune system and made him susceptible to Vibrio, a bacteria that lurks in all saltwater and brackish water. He also didn't know that anyone with a cut or open wound should either avoid saltwater bathing or wear a waterproof bandage, and that warm weather increases the risk of infection. The day after his trip to the beach, Parrott's leg turned red, Dailey said. He attributed the redness to the heat and ignored it. On Tuesday, he became nauseous. By Wednesday, blisters covered his leg and his family was urging him to see a doctor. Parrott was sure he could tough it out and refused. "Thursday we called an ambulance and took him to the hospital," Dailey said. The doctors at LBJ Hospital quickly realized the severity of Parrott's infection, amputating his leg below the knee at about 4 p.m. that day. "They didn't know if they would be able to save his life," Dailey said. As of Tuesday, doctors were uncertain whether they would have to remove more of his leg, or even whether he would survive. The agony at one point made Parrott despondent, Dailey said. "Yesterday morning was horrible," she said, referring to Monday. "He was saying he didn't know if he could take it any more. Today he seems better." Dailey said doctors told her that her son was afflicted by a "flesh-eating" bacteria, but never told her the name of the bacteria. Diana Martinez, epidemiology program manage for Harris County Public Health, said that her office had opened an investigation into a reported case of Vibrio. Martinez said she was prevented by privacy and legal considerations from confirming that the victim was Parrott, but said that it involved a middle-aged man who was exposed to saltwater. The case is the second this year reported to Harris County. One case has been reported this year to the Houston Health Department and two cases to the Galveston County Health District. Vibrio, which has been dubbed "flesh eating" by news outlets, is rarely fatal. Nationwide there are about 80,000 infections annually and 100 deaths, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The total number of cases reported to Galveston and Harris counties and the city of Houston were 20 in 2015, 27 in 2014 and 28 in 2013. Most reported cases stem from eating raw shellfish, said Scott Packard, a spokesman for the Galveston County Health District. When ingested, Vibrio can cause watery diarrhea, often accompanied by abdominal cramping, nausea, vomiting, fever, and chills. Symptoms usually occur within 24 hours and last about three days. Severe illness is rare and typically occurs in people with a weakened immune system. Packard said that anyone whose open wound becomes sore after swimming in saltwater or brackish water should immediately consult a doctor. "Vibriosis is treatable," Packard said. "If you don't have open cuts or sores, it's unlikely you will be infected." Martinez said that doctors and scientist never use the term "flesh eating." She said she first heard the term used in the mid-1990s when the media applied it to a sensational case in Great Britain caused by Necrotizing Fasciitis, a bacterial infection that is not associated with saltwater contact. Martinez does not recall hearing the term applied to Vibrio until the middle of the last decade. "It's not a medical term," she said. "I don't know how it came to be but I've seen it used historically." Even before his illness, it had been a difficult year for Parrott. He had only recently landed a job in security for a trucking company after being laid off just before Christmas. He lost his health insurance when he was laid off, his mom said, and his new job has none. Just as Parrott lost his leg, his wife, Elida, learned that her stepfather was diagnosed with cancer. Dailey is worried about what will happen to her son and his family now that he is unable to work and will face medical expenses that he can't pay. "I don't know how he is going to do it," Dailey said. Parrott and his wife have two sons, ages 26 and 17, and a daughter, 24. Relatives have started a page to raise money at www.gofundme.com/2ags378. As of 9 p.m. Tuesday there were $85 in contributions. Spencer Platt / Getty Image/Getty Image A 26-year-old man was in critical condition after getting stabbed early Wednesday morning in San Franciscos Tenderloin neighborhood, officials said. Police investigating the incident said the victim was attacked about 4:30 a.m. near the corner of Golden Gate Avenue and Jones Street, but it was unclear if he was in his car or on the street when he was assaulted. Santa Cruz Police Department / Santa Cruz Police Department A 47-year-old man was arrested by Santa Cruz police after sexually assaulting a young girl and trying to hide video evidence of the abuse after her mother discovered the footage, authorities said Tuesday. Timothy Ritchison was arrested Friday morning at his home in El Dorado (El Dorado County) after he allegedly broke into the car of the victims mother around 7:45 p.m. on Thursday, according to Santa Cruz police spokeswoman Joyce Blaschke. Kevin OLeary, a.k.a. Mr. Wonderful, has struggled with dyslexia ever since he can recall. But he's not the only Shark on Shark Tank with the learning difference: both Barbara Corcoran and Daymond John were diagnosed with it, too. However, all three credit much of their success to learning to overcome the challenges of dyslexia. Personally, the way to look at dyslexia is as a unique power instead of an affliction, O'Leary recently told Entrepreneur on the Culver City, Calif. Shark Tank set. Very few people have the abilities that dyslexics have. If you look down the road, as they grow, what happens to dyslexic men and women is they become very successful in business. This is because dyslexia gives you some really unique perspectives and abilities that Id call superpowers. Related: Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary Says Married Entrepreneurs Must Do This or Risk Divorce In his book Cold Hard Truth, the multi-millionaire financial guru writes that back in his home country of Canada in the 1960s, his educational therapists helped him restore his shattered self-confidence in an unorthodox way, especially at the time. Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary, aka "Mr. Wonderful," discusses how #dyslexia is a "superpower" for him in business, not an "affliction." #sharktank #successstories A photo posted by Kim Lachance Shandrow (@lashandrow) on Jun 21, 2016 at 10:49am PDT You have the ability to read backwards, read in a mirror, read upside down. Can any of your classmates do that? O'Leary says they asked him. And that actually got me back the only thing I really needed, which was my confidence, he says. To this day, the 61-year-old mutual funds magnate still believes overcoming his childhood struggle continues to pay dividends in business. OLeary points to David Neeleman, the founder and former CEO of JetBlue airlines, as an example of a fellow successful entrepreneur who turned what many view as an obstacle into an opportunity. He is one of many, many business leaders who are dyslexic and who succeeded beyond their wildest dreams, as I have as well. Related: How a Bullied, Dyslexic 16-Year-Old Entrepreneur Fought Back and Found His Way Neeleman, who has ADHD as well, also encourages dyslexic individuals to leverage their learning difference as an asset in their professional pursuits. I did and Im pretty happy with my outcome, OLeary tells us. You have to put it in your own mind that this is not an affliction that will negatively impact your future. It shouldnt in any way diminish your self-esteem or be considered something that is going to hurt your chances to be successful at work or in life. "Dyslexia just doesnt do that and theres no evidence in history that it does," O'Leary continues. "Its just that it affects math and reading scores early on, and so what? Thats something you can get around. Never give up and never let dyslexia hold you back. Its a gift. The acute ability to focus on the task at hand is one of the many ways OLeary says he believes the learning disorder benefits affected entrepreneurs. For entrepreneurs, that turns out to be 80 percent of the battle," he says, "staying focused in challenging times and on the tasks youre trying to achieve in business is very important, and that is actually how you get over dyslexia. Forcing yourself to focus over and over again. For more of OLearys success tips, check out Shark Tanks season eight premiere this fall on your local ABC station. The exact date and time it will air is yet to be announced. Related: Copyright 2016 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Even with Pastor Joel Osteen of Lakewood Church - the largest protestant congregation in the country - testifying against them, four men from a small church were found not guilty of creating a disturbance last year when they repeatedly tried to shout Osteen down during a Sunday service. "God is on our side," said one of the men, 27-year-old Kevin Fessler, after the verdict. "We praise God." Fessler along with Mark DeRouville, 26; Matthew Martinez, 28; and Randall Valdez, 29 were acquitted by a jury after a two day trial on charges of criminal trespass and creating a disturbance. Two other men, Jacob Gardner, 27, and Richard Trudeau, 32, have yet to be tried in the case. All of the men have admitted they stood up, one by one, and shouted that Osteen is a "false prophet" and that members of Lakewood would be damned if they followed him. In court Wednesday, Osteen said the men would not have left if they hadn't been taken out by security. "I think they were passionate about what they believe," Osteen testified in the trial of four of the men in Harris County court. "And they weren't going anywhere." But jurors apparently believed the arguments of defense attorneys Brad Loper and Jon Stephenson who said the men were simply trying to get their message out and left when they were asked to leave. "Let's not criminalize speech," Loper said in closings. Prosecutor Chelsi Honeycutt left court without commenting, as did the jury. All of the men, who are members of a small church in the East Texas town of Wells, were arrested on June 28, 2015 after shouting at Osteen from the audience. During an hour of testimony, Osteen carefully chose his words, sounding more like a forgiving man of faith than an angry business owner. "Not everyone agrees with us," he said. "Not everyone interprets the scriptures the same way." Although security was especially tight for Osteen's appearance, including several tactical officers from the county's Emergency Response Team and additional sheriff's deputies, County Court-at-Law Judge Bill Harmon allowed the pastor to come in and leave through the back door and wait in the judge's chambers, according to testimony. After Osteen's testimony, lawyers for the four men successfully persuaded Harmon to dismiss the trespassing charge against three of the men. Prosecutors dropped the charge for the fourth man, meaning all four faced only a misdemeanor of disturbing a public meeting. If convicted, the maximum sentence was six months in jail. In addition to widespread media attention, the trial also brought out people from Wells who hoped to see the men convicted. "I wanted to see them in handcuffs," said Patty Grove, a resident of Wells who disagrees with the teachings of the Church of Wells "I wanted to see them wearing orange." This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate A routine traffic stop ended in the arrest of a northeast Texas man allegedly driving a mobile methamphetamine lab. According to NewsWest9.com, 53-year-old Doug Brock was stopped by Nacogdoches County Sheriff's deputies at 10:30 p.m. Sunday. Brock was reportedly acting nervous, prompting suspicion from the deputies. The sheriff's office did not return requests for comment on Tuesday afternoon. The type of vehicle Brock was driving and where he was arrested in Nacogdoches was not reported by media outlets. The news station reports Brock ran to the woods after giving deputies permission to search his vehicle. He escaped and police discovered a meth lab inside the vehicle. KHOU.com reports deputies found 358 grams of a liquid that tested positive for methamphetamine. Chemicals and drug paraphernalia were confiscated. Deputies obtained a warrant to arrest Brock on Monday, finding him in a motel room that day and arresting him. Brock faces a first degree felony charge of manufacturing a controlled substance. He also faces a second degree felony charge for transporting dangerous chemicals, according to NewsWest9.com. Brock was booked into the Nacogdoches County Jail. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Dallas police are looking for a man who punched a Burger King employee after he was dissatisfied with the milkshake she made him, according to media reports. RELATED: San Antonio restaurant inspections: June 17, 2016 In security footage obtained by CBS DFW, a man is seen throwing a milkshake and chair behind the counter of the burger joint, before hopping over and punching Alejandra Estrada, a restaurant employee. "He hit me in my face, and he called me names," Estrada, who is 60 years old, told the Dallas station. RELATED: 21 ways to infuriate a Texan with one sentence She said the man complained about the milkshake and then started asking for coffee. He began to yell when she told him there was no coffee. The man hopped the counter, and chased Estrada into a small office and punched her in the face, according to the video. "He said, 'I'm going to kill you.' Oh my God. I tried to close the door, but the door doesn't (close)," she told CBS. RELATED: Where to get the best Mexican food in San Antonio, according to Readers' Choice Dallas police are investigating the incident as an assault. kbradshaw@express-news.net Twitter: @kbrad5 This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate After 49 people were killed at a gay nightclub in Orlando last week, a Sacramento pastor faced harsh criticism after he praised the gunman for his actions and now, a Fort Worth man has stood up for the California church leader, saying everyone who died was a pervert. In a video posted to YouTube, which has been removed for violating the company's policy on hate speech, Jimenez says it was a tragedy that more people weren't killed. "People say, 'Well, aren't you sad that 50 sodomites died?' Here's the problem with that, it's like the equivalent of asking me, 'Well, aren't you sad that 50 pedophiles were killed today?'" Pastor Roger Jimenez said during a Sunday sermon at his church. "No, I think that's great. I think that helps society. I think that Orlando, Florida is a little safer tonight." RELATED: Nearly 100 same-sex couples marry at Bexar County Courthouse after historic Supreme Court ruling Pastor Donnie Romero of the Stedfast Baptist Church in Fort Worth took a moment to stick up for Jimenez during a sermon posted to YouTube June 16. "I agree 100 percent with Pastor Roger Jimenez," Romero says in the video."These 50 sodomites are all perverts and pedophiles and they are the scum of the earth and the earth is a little bit better place now." Romero goes on to say that he plans to pray to God that more "queers in the intensive care and ICU" die so they no longer have an opportunity to go out and hurt children. He said "God will finish the job" the Orlando shooter "started." RELATED: Mayor Ivy Taylor facing backlash from LGBT community ahead of Orlando vigil appearance The pastor told FOX 4 in Dallas the word of God is currently under attack, and he had to "support men that have the backbone to say what the bible says," which can be hard to do, he said. Romero claims every gay person is a "child molestor" and "predator." "They're evil people," he said. RELATED: Open Carry Texas offers escort for LGBT events, says armed patrons could've stopped Orlando massacre When asked what he would say to the families of the 49 victims, Romero said he feels bad for them, not because their children were killed, but because their child ended up being a "sodomite." "Their families are now safer because they're not around to hurt their children," he said. kbradshaw@express-news.net Twitter: @kbrad5 An independent candidate in the race for Tennessee's 3rd congressional district seat put up a "Make America White Again" campaign sign off Highway 411 near Benton, according to media reports. RELATED: 'I'm with racist!': Brutal New York Daily News cover mocks Paul Ryan for standing by Donald Trump This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate McAllen police arrested a 19-year-old man for allegedly recording two 16-year-old students having sex, according to media reports. Alexis Mireles was arrested on June 17 for possession of child pornography, a third-degree felony, after a woman told the McAllen Police Department in January that two men had sex with her daughter and recorded the incident on a phone, according to valleycentral.com. RELATED: San Antonio man already serving 135 years for child porn gets life sentences for sex assault of two children Investigators with the Edinburg school district obtained the video and contacted McAllen police. The McAllen Police Department did not immediately respond for comment. RELATED: Stockdale woman accused of producing child pornography with husband pleads not guilty The 16-year-old girl in the video told investigators she had sex with a 16-year-old boy and Mireles. Mireles recorded the two 16-year-olds while having sex, according to valleycentral.com. The girl asked Mireles to stop recording and delete the video. A few days later, the girl was approached by people at her high school about her supposed sex tape. RELATED: Texas Attorney General: Man arrested on 6 counts of child pornography possession Mireles did not delete the video and police found it along with six photos of the two 16-year-olds having sex on his phone. Mireles remained at the Hidalgo County Jail as of Monday on $40,000 bond. kbradshaw@express-news.net Twitter: @kbrad5 This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate SAN ANTONIO A man who allegedly stalked a Texas A&M San Antonio professor for four months and made threats against the school was arrested Monday. San Antonio police arrested 32 year-old Juan Soto at 10 a.m. on a stalking charge, according to Bexar County Jail records. Soto allegedly had been behaving "aggressively and agitatedly" since February. He walked into the office of a professor on Monday and claimed to know where she was parking, despite the fact that she bought a new car and started parking in a more crowded lot on campus to avoid him. The university believes that Soto has been watching the professor, as he has made "veiled threats" to her in the past and then apologized. Soto showed up at an executive-level meeting on campus June 16 and distributed literature, later telling the victim that the meeting almost became a "bloodbath." Authorities have not said what kind of literature he was handing out. In another meeting, Soto also said that he knows "why people blow themselves up into bits and pieces," according to the warrant. Soto allegedly refers to the university as the 'temple" and identified the professor as "the high priestess," to whom he has sent "stacks of emails" he called a Manifesto. The university is not commenting on the investigation, but issued a statement on Tuesday, assuring students that the campus is secure and that Soto was taken into custody without incident. llepro@express-news.net A mySA reader captured a driver of a H-E-B truck spinning its wheels in rush hour traffic about 5:30 p.m. Tuesday near U.S. Highway 281 and Loop 1604. The truck was hung up on the U.S. Highway 281 access road that leads into San Pedro Avenue and the incident backed up traffic for miles, according to Sheila Stahl. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate After pleading guilty to a child injury charge, Crystal Williams sat motionless Wednesday as her 5-year-old stepsons maternal grandmother sobbed on the witness stand. Both were reacting to a display of photos of the boy, smiling, laughing and then malnourished and dead. A jury will decide Williams punishment as the first of three defendants who were accused of beating and starving Josiah Williams, who died in their care in 2012. Friends and family in the courtroom audience cooed and laughed when they saw photos of Josiah projected on a screen, showing him with a buoyant smile, dressed as a float for Fiesta and as the Sheriff Woody character from the movie, Toy Story. He brought sunshine into the room, said the grandmother, Patty Ojeda-Quintero, who testified she kept Josiah for several months and then was prevented by Crystal Williams from seeing the child. He was the class clown. He didnt want to see anyone cry. But then, as she was shown more gruesome photos, she covered her face and wept, as did several in the audience. Besides accusing her of failing to provide medical care for the boy, the indictment of Crystal Williams also contained a paragraph accusing her of causing serious bodily injury by starving him. But in a convoluted agreement that took much of the afternoon for state District Judge Ron Rangel and the attorneys to hammer out, Williams pleaded guilty to injury to a child, admitting she failed to get the boy medical care, but did not admit the other element, failing to provide proper nourishment to Josiah. Prosecutor Stephanie Boyd began presenting evidence she said will cover both elements of the charge. She and defense attorney Ray Martinez said the starvation accusation has not been dropped, though the jurys job will not include determining guilt or innocence of that element. The agreement was not a traditional plea deal, they said. The jury can give Williams from five to 99 years in prison. Boyd told jurors she would ask them for the maximum. Williams was 27 at the time of her arrest shortly after Josiah died on Dec. 27, 2012. Police were called to their house in the 3900 block of Gayle Avenue because Josiah wasn't breathing. Investigators said he was malnourished, had two black eyes, bruises and cuts all over his body, tears behind his ears and gashes inside his lips, according to an arrest warrant affidavit. The charge was never upgraded to murder because the punishment range is the same, a prosecutor said Wednesday. Josiahs father, Charleston Williams, then 25 and step grandmother, Gloria Proo, then 48, also were arrested on a felony charge of injury to a child and are awaiting trial. Josiahs grandmother said shortly after the arrests that the child had been healthy when she cared for him. His father and stepmother took over his care six months before he died, according to the arrest affidavit. A family friend and his wife told police they had noticed during a visit that the boy was thin and frightened and severely punished. The man, Lawrence Walker, a supervisor at Wal-Mart, said he tried several times to reach out to help, only to be rebuffed by Josiahs guardians weeks before he died. He appeared to be underweight and had yellowish, jaundiced skin, Walker testified Wednesday. Two other children who lived with the couple, ages 8 and 2, appeared well treated and were taken into state custody at the time of the arrest. Police reported finding holes in a closet wall that appeared to be the size and circumference of a child's head. There also was blood inside the closet. Ojeda-Quintero has said her grandson thrived when he lived with her, was taller than other kids in his preschool class and loved to play outside. Her daughter, Josiah's biological mother, Carlotta Balleza, then 24, had given Ojeda-Quintero the authority to care for Josiah after she was arrested on a probation violation for a previous drug charge. On June 29, 2012, Charleston and Crystal Williams took Josiah for a weekend visit but the couples attorney told her they were entitled to a monthlong visit, and they then broke off all contact with her, Ojeda-Quintero has said. That fall, Ojeda-Quintero has said, Crystal Williams called to say she and her husband had been awarded temporary custody of Josiah. Charleston Williams called the grandmother Dec. 27 to say the boy was dead, she said. Crystal Williams had been free on bond. Because she pleaded guilty, Rangel agreed with prosecutors who asked that she be remanded to jail during the punishment phase of the trial. A man accused of fatally shooting another man inside his home was arrested Monday evening on the East Side. Jerry Milton Smith, 63, faces a charge of murder in connection with the death of Fred Henderson, 40, who was found shot to death in his home in the 4300 block of Seabrook Drive, according to the San Antonio Police Department. Smith is being held in the Bexar County Jail in lieu of a $150,000 bail. SAN ANTONIO Police said an argument over a woman at a Northeast Side bar may have led to a double stabbing on Wednesday morning. Police responding to a call for a cutting in the 5100 block of Gibbs Sprawl around 2:17 a.m. found two victims with critical injuries when they arrived. A murder warrant has been issued for a second suspect in the fatal shooting of a North Side store clerk on June 7. DAnthony Carter, 18, is wanted in connection with the death of Zachary Benavidez, who died a day after he was shot at the Diamond Food Mart in the 2347 Vance Jackson Road, according to the San Antonio Police Department. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate SAN ANTONIO San Antonio is on pace to see its deadliest year since at least 2011 as homicides continue to stack up across the city. According to San Antonio Police Department records, 66 people have died in homicides in the Alamo City so far in 2016, an increase of 29 percent from this time last year and only 28 fewer than the 94 recorded in all of 2015. According to SAPD Uniform Crime Reports, the highest number of homicides reported in the city by the end of June over the last five years came in 2015 when 51 were reported. In 2014, there were 43, 27 in 2013, 48 in 2012 and 41 in 2011. Some of the most recent homicides in the city came just last week as a result of apparent domestic violence. RELATED: One dead, one arrested after fatal East Side shooting SAPD spokesman Sgt. Jesse Salame said officers received a call for a shooting at a home in the 2500 block of Schley Avenue around 5:30 a.m. on June 17 and arrived to find a man and woman dead in the driveway. He said 44-year-old Robert Alcoser, shot and killed Rose Rodriguez, with whom he had a prior romantic relationship, then turned the gun on himself. Fewer than 12 hours before that incident, a man stabbed his pregnant girlfriend to death at an apartment in the 3200 block of Nacogdoches Road. The suspect in that case, Charles Haltom, was arrested shortly after the slaying and charged with murder. While briefing media on both incidents on June 17, SAPD Chief William McManus said that there is no pattern or connection linking the more than 20 homicides that have been reported since the beginning of May. RELATED: Man killed in early morning shooting at East Side home was 26, gunman still on the loose Most of (them are) random incidents, he said. It is not an issue of how many police officers you have. Many of these murders occur indoors (and are) difficult or impossible to prevent. The trend nationally is violent crime is up, and San Antonio is not an exception to that trend. Two cities in Texas, Dallas and Houston, recorded more murders in 2015 than San Antonio, according to the FBIs preliminary Uniform Crime Report for 2015. The report said Dallas, with a population of nearly 1.3 million, compared to San Antonios approximate 1.4 million, had 69 murders. Houston, with a population around 2.2 million, had 144. FBI statistics only account for incidents defined as murders, rather than homicides, which can be justifiable under the law, however, San Antonio reported 51 murders in 2015, the same as the number of homicides reported in SAPD records for that year. According to the report, murder increased by 6.2 percent from 2014 through the first six months of 2015 nationwide as well. Salame said that the department is doing everything it can to place more officers in areas with high criminal activity, but there is really no way of knowing where or when homicides will happen. Its just a violent time across the whole country, he said. I wish we could figure out what is causing people to be so violent toward each other lately. While predicting violent crime is difficult, Salame said that the department has succeeded in catching and prosecuting those responsible. He said that of the 21 homicides reported since May, only 2 have not been cleared by investigators, and that detectives have worked long hours to make sure suspects are taken in. According to the department, investigators have cleared 78 percent of all homicides reported in 2016. Among those arrested on charges related to homicides were Jonathan Campos, 22, Frank Gomez, 28, Peter Louis Gonzalez, 22, and Manuel Watson, 22. All four face capital murder charges for their alleged role in the death of 7-year-old Iris Rodriguez, who was gunned down while walking with her family on the West Side on June 1. READ MORE: SAPD arrests 4th suspect in 7-year-old Iris Rodriguez's death On the same night, 5-year-old Ana Garza was shot in the head on the other side of town as she slept in her bed. She too died from her injuries. Police arrested the first suspect in that case, Murjan Issack Abdi, shortly after the shooting. Within a week, officers arrested 18-year-old Abdi Abdi. Police said both have been charged with capital murder. READ MORE: Second suspect arrested in shooting death of 5-year-old girl in San Antonio Salame, who spent around 8 years as a homicide detective with SAPD, said that detectives often work three or four days straight to make sure they can put a lid on an investigation into a killing. When it comes to homicide cases in particular, you work it until you cant anymore, he said. Thats the length we go to solve these cases It is concerning to see this spike, but I am proud and happy to say that all in all, we are a safe city. The people who are committing these crimes are being arrested and we are putting them in jail. The Bexar County Sheriff's Office has seen 9 homicides cases so far in 2016, one of which investigators determined to be an accident, according to BCSO spokesman James Keith. By this time last year, BCSO had seen eight homicides as well. Their total number for the year in 2015 was 14. mdwilson@express-news.net Twitter: @MDWilsonSA George Clifton Briley, an expert in industrial refrigeration who worked for companies such as Refrigeration Engineering Corporation and Lewis Refrigeration before starting his own company in San Antonio, died June 17 at 90. Raised on a small farm in Louisiana, Briley enlisted in the military after graduating from high school, serving as a combat engineer across Europe and during the Battle of the Bulge. Discharged in 1946, Briley enrolled at what was then Louisiana Polytechnic University, studying electrical engineering and graduating in 1949. Nobody in his family went to college, but he felt that it was the thing to do, his daughter Melissa Mieras said. He wanted to get out of that small town and see the world. Graduating summa cum laude, Briley was recruited by the York Corporation in Pennsylvania to go through an engineering training program. It was there he met his future wife, who had graduated from college with a teaching degree. She also was the first in her family to attain a higher education. They were from two different parts of the country, but had similar experiences, Mieras said. He was from rural Louisiana and she from a small town in Pennsylvania; they both wanted to get out and be more worldly. More Information George Clifton Briley Born: 1925, Haynesville, Louisiana Died: June 17, 2016, San Antonio Preceded by: Parents George and Estelle Briley; a brother. Survived by: Wife Phyllis Briley; son John Briley and daughter-in-law Rebecca; daughter Melissa Mieras and son-in-law Tom; five grandchildren. Services: Funeral was Wednesday. See More Collapse Marrying in 1950, the couple moved to Houston for Brileys career. She felt they had moved to the wild, wild West, Mieras said. Leaving York in 1961, Briley took a position in Pennsylvania, but soon returned to Texas, becoming a vice president with Lewis Refrigeration Company for the next 14 years. He did a lot of traveling for business, his daughter said. He was gone about half the time, but when he was home, he was a full-time dad and husband. Supportive rather than strict, Briley urged his children to learn from their mistakes. He provided a good example for us, Mieras said. Moving to Washington state after their children graduated from high school, Briley and his wife pined for Texas, returning to live in San Antonio, where he worked for Refrigeration Engineering Corporation before launching his own business, Technicold Services, Inc., in 1990. Considered an expert in his field, colleagues often said Briley developed the bible for the industrial refrigeration industry. He also, along with colleagues, held at least four U.S. patents for inventions such as a fluidized freezing method, slush ice maker and others. Briley worked until he was 79, and even then only stopped because of health issues. He was a rock star in the industry, his daughter said. mheidbrink@express-news.net STAMFORD A city dental practice owner has been accused of using the records of a retired dentist from the same office to bill insurance companies for more than 10 years for work that was never performed. Elena Ilizarov, 43, of Stamford, has been charged with wire fraud for billing more than $1.1 million in fraudulent charges, according to Deirdre Daly, U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut. Ilizarov, who faces up to 20 years in jail if convicted, was released Tuesday after posting a $500,000 court appearance bond. According to the federal complaint, Ilizarov fraudulently obtained the retired dentists records starting in 2005 and used the information to bill insurance companies through her practice, Advanced Dentistry, which has an office at 999 Summer St. This alleged scheme victimized a retired dentist who had his identity stolen, as well as multiple insurance companies that paid more than a million dollars in fraudulent claims, Daly said. Health care insurance fraud schemes ultimately increase health care costs for all of us. Daly said the announcement of the arrest was part of a national health care fraud takedown. An unprecedented nationwide sweep led by the Medicare Fraud Strike Force in 36 federal districts, resulted in criminal and civil charges against 300 people, including 61 doctors, nurses and other licensed medical professionals for schemes that resulted in $900 million in false billings, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said Wednesday. As this takedown should make clear, health care fraud is not an abstract violation or benign offense it is a serious crime, Lynch said. The wrongdoers that we pursue in these operations seek to use public funds for private enrichment. They target real people many of them in need of significant medical care. They promise effective cures and therapies, but they provide none. Above all, they abuse basic bonds of trust between doctor and patient; between pharmacist and doctor; between taxpayer and government and pervert them to their own ends. jnickerson@scni.com; Express-News file photo GrayStreet Partners has bought the former site of the San Antonio Childrens Museum on East Houston Street, adding to its long list of properties on the historic thoroughfare. The developer bought the 0.26-acre property last week from the childrens museum, which occupied its two-story building from 1995 to 2015, when it moved to 2800 Broadway and became the DoSeum. The property was assessed at $3.3 million this year. The pink Preston Hollow mansion formerly owned by Mary Kay Inc. founder Mary Kay Ash recently sold to an unnamed Dallas buyer for $1.9 million, according to media reports. The Dallas Business Journal reports the 12,115-square-foot home located at 8915 Douglas Ave. in Old Preston Hollow sold for the relatively modest price after being lowered several times from its original listing of $5.7 million. ABC 13 Eyewitness News reported that the women who drove a car that collided with a Pearland Police Officer in Texas was charged with intoxication manslaughter. About the Intoxicated Crash Amber Willemsen, who is 38 years old and used to be an assistant principal at an elementary school, killed an officer, Endy Ekpanya, after colliding with his patrol car early on Sunday morning. Police say that Willemsen was intoxicated at the time of the accident, and is now being charged with intoxication manslaughter. When Willemsens silver sedan crashed into the police cruiser, it crushed the drivers side of the officers vehicle. Officer Ekpanya was unresponsive when he was extracted from his car, and he later died while being transported by a medical helicopter. Willemsen was taken to the hospital with minor injuries, and once she is released she will be booked into the county jail. According to the Harris County court records, Willemsen was out on bond for a charge for possession of methamphetamine. Additionally, she received probation in 2012 for driving while intoxicated. Information about Intoxicated Driving All information is provided by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA): In 2014, 9,967 people were killed in alcohol-impaired driving crashes, which was 31% of all traffic-related deaths in the U.S. Also in the same year, over 1.1 million drivers were arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol or narcotics. Additionally, there were 1,446 alcohol-impaired driving fatalities in Texas in 2014, which was the highest number recorded by any state in the country. Contact an Experienced Auto Accident Attorney Thomas J. Henry Injury Attorneys is a personal injury law firm with offices in Corpus Christi, Texas, San Antonio, Texas and Houston, Texas representing accident victims nationwide. Our attorneys are available to respond to auto accidents at any hour, day or night. Our lawyers understand that the immediate acquisition, or acquiring, of evidence is paramount to understanding how the accident occurred. Remember, your choice does matter. Contact our offices- we are available 24/7, nights and weekends. Editors Note: This content is made possible by Thomas J. Henry. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of The San Antonio Express-News' or mySanAntonio.com's editorial staff. Learn more about our advertising products at www.hearstmediasanantonio.com. ARSAL, Lebanon In a remote corner of Lebanon near the border with Syria, Lebanese troops have been quietly making steady progress, fighting against Islamic extremists holed up in the rugged mountains. It is a fight less visible than the U.S.-led war against the Islamic State group in Syria, Iraq and Libya. But hardly a day passes without army artillery stationed on the edge of this restive eastern Lebanese town pounding nearby militant positions. Aided directly by the United States and Britain and indirectly by the Syrian army and its Lebanese militant Hezbollah allies working on the other side of the border the under-equipped Lebanese military has registered steady successes against the militants. In recent months, Lebanese armed forces have clawed back significant territory once held by the Islamic State and al Qaedas branch in Syria, known as the Al-Nusra Front, and have killed and detained hundreds of extremists, forcing many others to flee. According to the army, the militants still hold about 19 square miles of land in the border area, compared with 20 times this size in the months after Syrias conflict began. On a tour of the area with the army this week, reporters saw army positions set up every few hundred yards. Tanks and armored personnel carriers with heavy machine guns could be seen pointing toward the extremists positions. Most of the activity is around the border town of Arsal, which the militants briefly took over in August 2014. After five days of deadly fighting, the military pushed them out to the towns outskirts and into the surrounding mountains and has been battling them ever since. Nearly 5,000 troops are now deployed in and around Arsal. They keep a close eye on any suspicious activity by the extremists who avoid movement during the day. Giant observation towers as well as many fortifications have been erected. U.S.-provided drones feed information to the army command near Beirut. Dozens of Lebanese troops have been killed or wounded over the months of fighting. The Lebanese military, generally seen as a unifying force in a country divided along political and sectarian lines, has received support and military assistance from the West. Eager to support the army as opposed to the better equipped Iranian-backed Hezbollah, the U.S. and Britain have supplied the military with helicopters, antitank missiles, artillery and radars, as well as training. The American Embassy says the U.S. has provided Lebanon over $1.4 billion in security assistance since 2005. The American assistance has been the most serious and most effective, said Hisham Jaber, a retired army general who heads the Middle East Center for Studies and Political Research in Beirut. 1 Wildlife rangers: A group of American military veterans with experience in Iraq and Afghanistan plans to train rangers in some private wildlife areas in South Africa, where poachers have killed large numbers of rhinos for their horns. The small conservation group called Vetpaw previously operated in Tanzania, which ordered the group to leave last year, partly because of a video in which a member talked about killing poachers. The training will include marksmanship, field medicine and maneuvering at night. 2 Syria setback: The Islamic State group has retaken large areas in the northern Syrian province of Raqqa that the extremists recently lost to government troops, opposition activists and the groups news agency reported Tuesday. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, based in Britain, said government forces have lost all the territory they gained in Raqqa province since launching their offensive on June 2. Syrian troops have been on the offensive for nearly three weeks and approached to within 4 miles of the Tabqa air base near Raqqa city, the de facto capital of the Islamic States self-declared caliphate. The Observatory said Syrian troops have been pushed back now to about 25 miles from Tabqa. Posted on 06/22/2016, 11:00 am, by the City of Steinbach The City of Steinbach 2016 property tax statements have been mailed out to local property owners and are due by September 30th of this year. The City notes that tax statements are mailed to the current property owners at time of printing and it is the responsibility of the property owner to obtain a copy should they have recently purchased a property and not received a tax statement. Tax bills issued this year total about $29.3 million. Approximately 47 percent of the collections fund municipal programs including the Citys summer beautification program, street maintenance and snow clearing functions. It will also go towards a variety of Steinbach projects, including: new washroom and change room facilities at the Steinbach Soccer Park asphalt resurfacing of Coral Crescent, Rose Street, and Lilac Bay reconstruction of Barkman Avenue intersection construction at Acres Drive and Penfeld Drive sidewalk construction on Giesbrecht Street and Lilac Bay City Hall expansion asphalt surfacing of Old Tom Road construction of a new community plaza in front of the T.G. Smith Arena Elmdale Avenue streetscaping The remaining 53 percent of the annual tax levy is forwarded to the Province of Manitoba and the Hanover School Division to fund various school system projects and programs. Comparatively, Steinbach continues to be among the lowest property tax rates in the province. If you have not received a copy of your tax statement by the end of June, or if your mailing address has changed recently, you are asked to contact City Hall at 204-326-9877 or email taxes@steinbach.ca. PHILADELPHIA Wendys and McDonalds are testing self-service ordering kiosks across the United States, but both QSRs maintain that there is no connection to movements looking to increase the minimum wage for fast-food workers. Its not specifically tied to raising the minimum wage, Wendys spokesman Bob Bertini told PhillVoice.com. This is primarily driven by consumer demand. Customers, particularly young customers, like to be in control. Theyre used to doing iPhones and tablets so they like the convenience of using kiosks. And it does help to mitigate some costs. A spokeswoman for McDonalds told the news source that the kiosk tests are about the customer experience, not labor. An assumption that their use is related to wage or staffing levels is not the case at McDonalds, said Lisa McComb of McDonalds. Staff perform many functions in our restaurants beyond taking the orders, and in those restaurants testing kiosks, there is the ability for some staff to spend more time on hospitality, customer service and other functions. For example, in some restaurants were also testing table service, so that might be a function of an employees role. I cant speak to whether or not there is any savings related to the use of kiosks, she continued. Our lens is all around customer feedback, and whether or not customers like them. Bertini commented that Wendys self-service kiosk test program began early this year at a handful of Ohio locations, while McDonalds is testing kiosks in some of its remodeled locations nationwide. At this point were gathering feedback from customers on their experience with the kiosks, so theres no specific next step per se, McComb told the new source. Meanwhile, the leader of a local Philadelphia effort to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour for fast-food workers says she doesnt consider self-ordering technology to be a threat to employment. We focus on customer service, Shymara Jones of Fight for 15 told the news source, adding that she sees one real downside to the kiosks: Customers want to see a warm smile. Thats not something these automated services can do. Yves here. Even those economists that think Brexit is a disastrous idea differ on how severe the downside would be. Note that more recent polls give Remain a slight edge, and bookies, who were more accurate on the Scottish referendum that the pollsters, are very confident Remain will prevail. But the Financial Times show 44 to 44, meaning 12% still not decided. My contacts think the undecideds will break heavily towards voting for the status quo. Well see soon enough. By Lynn Parramore, Senior Research Analyst, Institute for New Economic Thinking. Originally published at the Institute for New Economic Thinking website As uncertainty and tension mount with a divided British electorate due to vote on June 23 over whether to leave the European Union (EU), economists within the Institute for New Economic Thinkings networks hold a range of different views on the consequences of a Brexit. Some predict a British vote to leave the EU would bring nothing short of a global crisis, while others see cause for concern but dont predict catastrophe. And there are those who argue that a vote to remain in the 28-member bloc will consolidate the authority of anti-democratic elites and may not offer the prospect of alleviating the grievances of many ordinary citizens. Then theres the question of the credibility of economists in the minds of the voting public, given their failed track record of forecasting despite the dire warnings of economists about the consequences of leaving the EU, polls show the leave campaign as being in the lead going into the final week before the vote. Economist Anatole Kaletsky, former Chairman of the Institute for New Economic Thinking and currently a member of its governing board, warns that Britains exit from the EU will likely produce dire consequences for the world economy on a scale well beyond what the countrys 2.4 percent share of global GDP might suggest. By ignoring the counsel of business leaders, mainstream politicians, and expert economists, he warns, voters may endanger the gradual restoration of prosperity by upending the status quo. Kalestky expresses concern that if the U.K. goes its own way, financial markets will amplify economic anxiety, breeding more anti-establishment anger and fueling still-higher expectations of political revolt. He predicts that the result could be another global crisis. David Vines, Professor of Economics and Fellow of Balliol College, University of Oxford, also concludes that a Brexit would be calamitous. He notes that it would potentially exclude the U.K. from the continents single market and raise the prospect of aggressive pressure from the rest of Europe to remove the center of the European financial system from London to Frankfurt. Vines adds that many productive firms in the U.K. may lose out from diminished integration with Europe, citing recent reports of Rolls-Royce suspending judgment on investment decisions. Vines further points out that the university system would lose 40 percent of the funding for research and notes that along with finance, academic research is a comparative advantage of the U.K., and the funding and collaboration with researchers in Europe that EU membership is of very great value and could be lost. He also has grave concerns about political turmoil and lack of leadership that could result from a Brexit vote. According to Vines, Europe may also face serious negative consequences if the leave camp wins, emphasizing that Britains presence within the EU is extremely important for shaping the future of the union and balancing its competing tendencies. The German passion for implementing rules is particularly damaging, he warns, as is the French determination to centralize power in Brussels. He fears that the absence of a British engagement may lead to bad outcomes. In the run up to the Napoleonic Wars Britain was preoccupied with its empire; immediately before the first World War Britain was preoccupied with Northern Ireland. Look what happened then, he said. Less alarmed is Malcolm Sawyer, Professor of Economics at the University of Leeds, who sees the narrow economic effects of a Brexit as negative but not catastrophic. He sees the worst effects arising from the change in trade relations between the U.K. and the EU if Britain leaves the single market. However, he believes estimates emanating from government and research organizations of economic losses amounting to as much as 4 or 5 percent of GDP may be overly alarmist. Sawyer notes that on Monday, Paul Krugman put the potential loss at 2 percent in the New York Times. In the short term, Sawyer observes, Id expect there would be some losses through uncertainty and the postponement of investment, and a possible large exchange rate fall (bearing in mind that UK now has a 7 percent of GDP current account deficit). In Sawyers view, those who stand to lose from a Brexit include educated workers in the U.K. who currently gain from the ability to work abroad and interact on the international level. He warns that if the political right comes into power as a result of a Brexit victory, attacks on workers rights (under the heading of de-regulation) are highly likely and notes that the political right would probably be more pro-austerity and more in favor of privatization of the National Health Service. In that case, Sawyer notes that the biggest losers might in fact be working class voters the very people who tend to support the leave campaign. Not all economic experts favor remaining in the EU, however. Steve Keen, Head of the School of Economics, Politics & History at Kingston University, London, thinks that Britain would be better off outside of the union. My perspective is to some degree more political than economic, notes Keen. Courtesy largely of the Euro, the EU is a failed institution that is achieving the opposite of its aims to unify and strengthen Europe. As Keen sees it, the EUs most influential treaties, such as Maastricht and Lisbon, have been used to subvert democratic governments and to impose the will of Ordoliberal bureaucrats upon electorates that are attempting to end Neoliberalism. [Ordoliberal refers to a German strain of liberalism that emphasizes maximizing the potential of the free market to solve economic problems.]. Keen observes that a remain vote will strengthen the power of this anti-democratic elite and do nothing to tame the forces of racist nationalism that have arisen in reaction to their failed economic policies. Keen will be voting for the U.K. to leave the EU. For her part, Shelia Dow, Emeritus Professor of Economics at the University of Stirling, remarks that when it comes to predictions, economists have not always played the most helpful role in the Brexit debate. She is not surprised that economists forecasts of the likely effects of Brexit are being widely discounted, because model-based forecasts are typically presented as definitive without any acknowledgement of their limitations, and often turn out to be wrong. These limitations are severe when analyzing constitutional change, which involves complex, unpredictable structural change, observes Dow. Economic arguments, of course, can and should be made about likely outcomes, building narratives drawing on analysis of history, institutions, etc., as well as theory and data. But there needs to be more modesty, not least about quantification. If a Brexit occurs, liberals in the U.K. may have nobody to blame but themselves. Businessman Clive Cowdery, majority owner of Prospect Magazine and a member of the Institutes Global Partners Council, describes the possibility of leaving the EU as a black eye for us liberals, a self-inflicted wound resulting from a failure to address the concerns of ordinary people who have understandable fears and legit grievances. By Amir Sufi, the Bruce Lindsay Professor of Economics and Public Policy at Chicago Booth and a co-author of House of Debt. Twitter: @profsufi. Originally published at Capital Ideas; cross posed from Evonomics. The historian Joseph J. Ellis describes the early days of the United States as a decade-long shouting match characterized by shrill, accusatory rhetoric, flamboyant displays of ideological intransigence, intense personal rivalry, and hyperbolic claims of imminent catastrophe. In more recent times, the Vietnam War and Watergate deeply divided the country, and the administrations of Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush were marked by sharp partisan conflict. But while political polarization has been all-American since the start of the US, its current upswing threatens to make it the worst in history. Sharp divisions between Republicans and Democrats have created gridlock in Washington, DC, between the president and Congress and within Congress itself. The political scientists Christopher Hare, now at University of California, Davis, and Keith T. Poole of the University of Georgia write that the level of polarization in Congress is now the highest since the end of the Civil War. The latest manifestation of this polarization has been the presidential primary race, defined by the emergence of real-estate magnate and reality-TV star Donald J. Trump on the right, and Senator Bernie Sanders on the left. Both Trump and Sanders espouse positions that only recently would have been way out of the mainstreamsuch as deporting 11 million undocumented immigrants (Trump) and providing free public college tuition for all (Sanders). The strong, durable support both candidates receive illustrates how polarized US politics has become. Research Ive conducted with Atif Mian of Princeton University and Francesco Trebbi of the University of British Columbia suggests a reason politics has come to this: an increase in polarization after banking and financial crises is common and predictable. How Financial Crises Cause Polarization In the US, decisions made during the 200710 financial crisis to rescue Wall Street fueled public anger that still resonates with voters of both parties. The aftermath of the crisiswhich included erasure of trillions of dollars of housing wealth and continued income stagnation for the working and middle classes while the wealthy benefited from rising asset priceshas provided fertile ground for even more partisanship and polarization. The 20082009 economic collapse and its aftermath, writes New York Times opinion columnist Thomas Byrne Edsall in his 2012 book The Age of Austerity, have converged to generate a dog-eat-dog political competition over diminishing resources. This polarization, our evidence indicates, is a product of the banking crisis. We used the American National Election Study (ANES) Time Series Cumulative Data File to follow respondents self-reported liberal-conservative scores from 1948 to 2008, and then brought the file more up to date by adding data from the 2012 ANES Time Series Study, as well as data (from Poole and New York Universitys Howard Rosenthal) that estimates legislators positions on the basis of their roll-call voting records. Combined with a comprehensive data set (covering 1800 to 2008) on global financial crises assembled by Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth S. Rogoff of Harvard University, these findings led us to some general conclusions about the impact of financial crises on political polarization. Polarization in Congress has increased steadily over the past four decades, but our research suggests that it rose more sharply after banking crises and market crashes. And this pattern extends beyond the US: after financial crises, polarization among voters was common across all 70 countries sampled in the Reinhart-Rogoff data set. We also took data from about 250,000 individual interviews from 60 countries, in which respondents described their political ideologies, and we matched that with Reinhart and Rogoffs pre- and postcrisis indicators to construct a picture of peoples ideological tendencies five years before and after financial crises. Our conclusion: financial crises tend to radicalize electorates. After a banking, currency, or debt crisis, our data indicate, the share of centrists or moderates in a country went down, while the share of left- or right-wing radicals went up in most cases. What does this do to political decision making? Not surprisingly, we find, after almost any financial crisis, ruling governments became substantially weaker, while opposition coalitions grew stronger. This increased overall political partisanship and fragmentation, often leading to gridlock and ineffectual policy making, just when bold moves and major financial reforms might have been particularly beneficial. Its a catch-22 that could in turn lead to further disaffection and polarization among the electorate, prolonging the impact of a crisis. It takes a charismatic leader to break the stalemate, someone who can implement good policies and manage the polarization. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was one such leader. Using fireside chats and a lot of effort, he managed to form a coalition large enough to pass legislation that helped pull the US out of the Great Depression. The Debtor-Creditor Relationship is Crucial Princetons Nolan McCarty, University of Georgias Poole, and NYUs Rosenthal attribute the polarization after financial crises to increased income inequality, which leads to conflict between the haves and have-nots. That explanation has merit. My colleagues and I focused especially on the nature of the debtor-creditor relationship, which after a crisis can become a political tug-of-war. Every banking crisis is associated with excessive lending. In his masterpiece Manias, Panics, and Crashes: A History of Financial Crises, the great economic historian Charles P. Kindleberger finds that asset price bubbles depend on the growth of credit. As the bubble develops, borrowers who are less and less creditworthy take on more and more debt. To simplify greatly, this is what happened in the US housing bubble of the 2000s. Between 2000 and 2007, US household debt doubled to $14 trillion, and the household debt-to-income ratio skyrocketed from 1.4 to 2.1, an increase matched only in the early years of the Great Depression. As Atif Mian and I documented in our 2014 book House of Debt, there was a big expansion in lending to marginal borrowers during this period. Astonishingly, mortgage-credit growth for home purchases and income growth became negativelycorrelated as the bubble developed, and many borrowerseven those in the middle classused the rising value of their homes to extract equity and to finance consumption. Unfortunately, a financial system that thrives on massive use of debt by households concentrates risk squarely on debtors, who bear the brunt of any losses. So, when the housing bubble turned into a bust, the most-marginal homeowners took the biggest hit. In any debt contract, someone has to take the loss associated with a decline in the assets value. It becomes a zero-sum game between lender and borrower, and this time the political battle became especially heated because the losses were so big. The Great Recession wiped out 8 million jobs and some $2 trillion in income by 2012. House prices fell by $5.5 trillion, and more than 4 million homes faced foreclosureabout 5 percent of all mortgages in 2009. Marginal borrowers, who had little net worth beyond their home, were virtually wiped out. Consumption, which was overheated during the boom, collapsed. Yet when the housing bust turned into a financial crisis, policy makers first instinct was to save the lendersi.e., the banksout of fear of contagion. Thus were AIG, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac effectively taken over by the government under the aegis of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), passed and signed in 2008. Big mortgage lenders, including Wachovia, Washington Mutual, and Countrywide Financial, were bought by other large banks whose liquidity was essentially guaranteed by the US Treasury or the Federal Reserve. Even two big investment banks, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, were quickly converted into commercial banks so they could be rescued by the Treasury and the Fed. Distressed homeowners got little relief from TARP or from subsequent legislation and settlements with big banks. Yet the mere hint that they might was enough to set off CNBC on-air personality Rick Santelli, who in early 2009 asked on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade whether we really want to subsidize the losers mortgages. President Obama, are you listening? Santelli fumed. Were thinking of having a Chicago Tea Party in July. And so the Tea Party was born out of anger that debtors would get special breaks at a time when creditors already had gotten plenty. The Tea Party movement got even stronger during the battle over the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (better known as Obamacare) in 2009 and 2010, and its central issue became rapid expansion of government debt, but its initial impulse was to unite against any breaks for debtors in the wreckage of the financial crisis. The movement had a huge impact, engineering a big Republican takeover of the House of Representatives in 2010 and laying the groundwork for the epic battle over the debt limit in the summer of 2011 that took the country to the brink of default, cost the US its AAA rating from Standard and Poors, and led to massive mandatory spending cuts to domestic and military programs. Just weeks later, demonstrators occupied a park in lower Manhattan, protesting income inequality, foreclosures, Wall Street corruption, and the power of money in politics. With their soon-to-be-famous slogan We are the 99 percent, the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement spread quickly across the country. Though the Occupy movement probably had less direct political impact than the Tea Party did, the two movements uncannily illustrate the debtor-creditor split after financial crises, with the Tea Party siding against debtors and the Occupy movement with them. Debtors and Creditors Fight Over Greece In Europe, too, the political battle was joined along creditor-debtor lines. The increase in household debt from 2000 to 2007, and the subsequent decline in consumption after the recession began, was greater in Ireland, Denmark, Norway, the United Kingdom, Spain, and the Netherlands than in the US. The economic crisis quickly morphed into a sovereign-debt crisis as governments of the eurozone spent an estimated 500 billion, or 5 percent of GDP, by the end of 2013 to rescue the banks. Meanwhile, the recession decimated government tax revenues, throwing weaker economies deeper into debt. Governments of countries hit hardest by the recession got into deep trouble with nervous creditors who worried they would never be repaid. Greeces debt problems were especially severe. Almost from the time it adopted the euro in 2001, its deficits exceeded the mandated target of 3 percent of GDP. Only after the financial crisis and Great Recession was the extent of its trouble revealedtotal debt of 300 billion, the highest in its modern history, reaching 113 percent of GDP in 2009 as its budget deficit hit 12.7 percent of GDP. Bond yields soared as rating agencies downgraded Greek debt to junk status. Thus began more than five years of intermittent crises in which Greece had to renegotiate its debt several times, threatening the very existence of the euro. Greeces banks collapsed and unemployment soared to nearly 26 percent in 2015, unleashing a firestorm of political polarization both inside the country and across the eurozone. As a creditor nation, Germany (whose total exposure to a Greek default and exit from the euro could range from 61.5 billion to 84.5 billion, according to Der Spiegel) took the hardest line in debt negotiations, led by the strong-willed Chancellor Angela Merkel. Politicians in Germany directed their anger toward Greeks instead of toward the German banks that made poor lending decisions. In a YouGov poll taken in July 2015, more than 60 percent of Germans (and 74 percent of Finns) said Greece should be held to the original terms of its loans, with no more bailouts. (The less-exposed public in France and Britain were more sympathetic to Greece and more open to renegotiating the terms of the loans, according to YouGov.) Greek voters, by contrast, took a classic debtors stance and in 2015 elected the left-wing Syriza party, whose leader, Alexis Tsipras, called for repudiating some of Greeces debt, reversing mandated spending cuts, and even leaving the euro. As prime minister, Tsipras eventually capitulated and a deal was struck last July, but the political polarization has only deepened. The violently anti-immigrant, anti-EU, neo-Nazi Golden Dawn got 7 percent of the votes in last Septembers general election, even though its leaders are facing criminal charges. This extreme polarization is in line with our conclusions and those of a subsequent paper by three German scholars who studied 800 elections in 20 countries between 1870 and 2014. Manuel Funke of the Free University Berlin, Moritz Schularick of the University of Bonn, and Christoph Trebesch of the University of Munich identified the extreme right (think Golden Dawn, or the National Front in France) as the principal political beneficiary of postcrisis partisanship. Voters seem to be systematically lured by the political rhetoric of the far right, with its frequently nationalistic or xenophobic tendencies, they write. Overall, they conclude, the political effects [of banking and financial crises] are particularly disruptive. Thats certainly true here in the US as well, where Trumps presidential campaign in particular exploits an underlying angst that the government is representing well-organized special interests at the general publics expense. Ironically, much of the support for the Sanders campaign also reflects the same angst. This, rather than the classic debtor-creditor conflict that emerged with the Tea Party and the Occupy movement, is behind much of their backing. But the candidacies thrive in a hyperpartisan political environment that is the financial crisiss true legacy. Trump and Sanders may be the indirect by-products of that crisis, but they are nonetheless its legitimate heirs. See original post for references Julie Glenn Columnist SHARE You can get your hands on the same value-priced, award winning wine described by Decanter wine judges as "an absolute crowd pleaser," and "beautifully executed, full of energy with a great price point." You can get your hands on the same value-priced, award winning wine described by Decanter wine judges as "an absolute crowd pleaser," and "beautifully executed, full of energy with a great price point." Pictured are two bottles by Santa Alicia. "$6 wine named 'Best Wine in the World' by experts." If anyone knows you love wine, you likely received this headline in your inbox last week. I was informed by my cousin in California who sent me a photo of a news crawl announcing the cheapie that won. "Have you heard of this wine?" she asked. No. I hadn't. But I was going to find out not only what wine this is but who are these "experts?" My skepticism naturally hit Defcon 5. But as it turns out, those "experts" are the real deal. 240 of them, to be exact. They're wine critics culled from around the world to judge Decanter's World Wine Awards, which announced its winners last week. Decanter is a well-regarded British wine magazine along the lines of America's Wine Spectator or Wine Enthusiast. 16,000 wines entered the competition in which each wine was given 4 minutes of evaluation by some of the best palates in the business. And they picked a $6 Malbec from Chile's Central Valley as the best single-varietal wine priced under $20. So, while it's the best in its category and won a "best in show" medal, the headline "best wine in the world" may have been a stretch. Still, a 95 point wine anywhere south of $10 is intriguing so further investigation was required. The name of the wine: Asda's "La Moneda Reserva Malbec" rings no bells because it's a private-label wine made specifically for Asda, a grocery store chain in the U.K. which is a subsidiary of Walmart. So it's only available at Asda stores, of which we have none here in Florida (or the U.S. for that matter) and my visions of stockpiled award-winning wine began to fade. But wait. If a winery in the Central Valley in Chile is making a private-label wine, they're probably making more than one private label and might even have their own label. Years ago, when I sold wine for a distributor, I remember working with a Chilean winery called Santa Alicia that did private labels for big clients and I'd even worked out some of these deals for hotels along the coast. Maybe that winery did this Malbec too? I found an image of the winning bottle, and the label looked familiar. Just like one available through Santa Alicia's private label program. They made good wine and I could see it winning awards. Actually, it had won several smaller awards, so I tracked it down. My hunch was correct. According to Gerald Cogen of importer Select Brands International Inc., the Malbec in Asda's La Moneda Reserva is the same as the Malbec you'll find in bottles of Santa Alicia. That's right. Even though the British supermarket bottle isn't available here, I remember liking it and thinking it was a great value, but I never saw it selling for $6. According toyou can get your hands on the same value-priced, award winning wine described by Decanter wine judges as "an absolute crowd pleaser," and "beautifully executed, full of energy with a great price point." Asda's wine buying manager, regular price for the wine is $8 and it's been on "rollback" to the price of $6.29. The Santa Alicia line is available at a number of local retailers and I've never seen it selling for more than $12 a bottle. Of course at this price a volume buy may be in order to save a percentage per bottle. Most retailers offer a discount when you buy 6 bottles or a case. If you want to try a glass before you buy, it's being poured at Fort Myers Brewing Company by the glass. The Decanter judges describe the wine as having an "excellent freshness," and talked about its flavors of, "freshly crushed black fruit, creamy vanilla yogurt, and pepper spice," with "succulent juicy berries on the palate." I welcome comments and questions at juliewriteswine@gmail.com. You can see more of my writing at www.julieglenn.com, and can connect with me on Facebook and on Twitter @juliewriteswine. Kool-Aid Man is among the balloons in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York, N.Y. Doris Reynolds Let's Talk Food Doris Reynolds is the author of When Peacocks Were Roasted and Mullet was Fried and a four-part DVD, A Walk Down Memory Lane with Doris Reynolds. They are for sale in the lobby of the Naples Daily News. SHARE Only in America! Where else could an 11-year-old Nebraska farm boy become an entrepreneur and ultimately produce a product that gained him fame and fortune? This unlikely success came about not by the invention of the automobile, computers, airplanes or any other modern convenience. Edwin E. Perkins became a millionaire and his creative drink, Kool-Aid, remains a part of American culture more than a century later. In 1900, when Perkins was 11 he was drawn to a magazine advertisement that read: "Be a manufacturer Mixer's Guide tells you how. Write today." When the materials arrived, he turned the family kitchen into an experimental laboratory, creating flavoring extracts and perfumes. Not satisfied with just a hobby, the enterprising young man decided to extend his activities into making enough money to go into manufacturing his products. He bought a small hand press and a few fonts of type and became the only printer in the village of Hendley, Nebraska. In 1914, when he was 25, Perkins combined his fledging manufacturing and printing business to create a mail-order business known as Perkins Products Co. Through magazine ads and a crew of young sales people, he sold perfume, calling cards and eventually a soft drink syrup called Fruit Smack. Since the syrup was sold through the mail, it was inconvenient and expensive. Perkins simply transformed Fruit Smack into a powder, and Kool-Aid was born. In 1920, the now burgeoning company moved to Hastings, Nebraska, where there was better access to railroads and highways. From these headquarters, the company soon offered more than 125 products. By 1928, the new soft drink mix was so profitable that Perkins soon abandoned all other ventures and focused exclusively on Kool-Aid. Until 1933, Kool-Aid sold for 10 cents a package. Now headquartered in Chicago, Perkins was able to reduce the cost from 10 cents to 5 cents and this price held for more than 30 years. In 2002, Kool-Aid celebrated its 75th anniversary with the opening of the Kool-Aid exhibition at the Hastings, Nebraska, Museum of Natural and Cultural History. Here one may view all the costumes donned by the Kool-Aid Man, the product's spokesperson. Other fascinating displays concentrate on such byproducts as Kool-Aid bubblegum, ice cream mix and newly introduced Kool-Aid Jammers, the first pouch drink with a clear back so kids can watch the drink disappear sip by sip. Over the years, those marketing geniuses on the Kool-Aid team have come up with some unusual names for the drink. Consider: Rock-A-Dile Red, Sharkleberry Fin, Great Bluedini, Purplesaurus Rex and Pink Swimmingo. However, since 1969, Tropical Punch has been the most favored flavor among the 20 that are on the market. It has been more than 90 years that Edwin Perkins began his journey down the road to success. He would be thrilled to know that 620 million gallons of Kool-Aid are consumed annually. During the long, hot summer more than 26 gallons are consumed every second. No doubt he'd love Kool-Aid Man, the brilliant representative of the drink whose celebrity footprint is preserved for posterity at Mann's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. The governor of Nebraska has granted him honorary citizenship and he is a hero to hundreds of thousands of kids who sell Kool-Aid at stands throughout the country. Although Kool-Aid is not one of the products to go "upscale," still here is a recipe that will bring the drink a more sophisticated flavor: MANGO MANIA Ingredients 1 envelope Kool-Aid Lemonade flavor unsweetened soft drink mix 1 envelope Kool-Aid Mandarina-Tangerine flavor unsweetened drink mix 2-1/2 cups sugar 8 cups (2 quarts) cold water 1-1/4 cups mango nectar Ice cubes Directions 1 Place soft drink mixes and sugar in large plastic or glass pitcher. 2 Add water and mango nectar; stir to dissolve. 3 Serve over ice. Makes 11 (1 cup) servings. ASK DORIS Q: I am having a birthday party for my mother and would like a recipe for creme brulee, her favorite dessert. Laura Phillips, Estero A: This is the perfect ending for any celebration. CREME BRULEE Serves 4 to 6. Ingredients 6 eggs, room temperature cup sugar 2 cups heavy cream, scalded 1 cup milk 2 teaspoons vanilla extract cup packed brown sugar Directions 1 Beat the egg yolks and granulated sugar in a bowl until thick and light. 2 Gradually add the milk and cream. 3 Then add the vanilla. 4 Strain into a 9-inch ring mold. 5 Place in a pan of hot water. 6 Bake in a preheated 325-degree oven 30 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. 7 Cool and then chill. 8 Just before serving, spread the brown sugar over the custard. Place the dish on a wet board over cracked ice. Place under a hot broiler until the sugar melts completely but be sure to watch constantly. May be served hot or cold. Doris Reynolds is the author of "When Peacocks Were Roasted and Mullet Was Fried" and a four-part DVD, "A Walk Down Memory Lane with Doris Reynolds." They are for sale in the lobby of the Naples Daily News with all proceeds going to the Doris Reynolds-Naples Daily News Scholarship Fund. Contact Doris Reynolds at foodlvr25@aol.com Brent Batten Naples' ranking high on the list of income inequality tends to shock sensibilities and send people searching for solutions to the problem. But the solutions are often misguided and the problem itself misidentified. A report by the Economic Policy Institute published this week says the Naples-Marco Island-Immokalee area ranks third in the nation in income inequality, with the top 1 percent making 73 times the average income of those in the bottom 99 percent. That income inequality is greater here than almost anywhere else in the country will lead some to believe an injustice is being perpetrated and condoned. The very proposition of income inequality suggests on some level that incomes ought to be equal, a notion that ignores realities such as disparate abilities and productivity. The magnitude of Southwest Florida's income inequality can be traced to the staggering amount of wealth migrating to this region. IRS data confirms that Collier County is the destination of choice for thousands of high earners leaving states like Illinois and Maryland. The state's lack of an income tax is one reason. Collier County's quality of life is another. But an influx of the well-to-do does not represent a problem, at least not in terms of income inequality. Imagine if you will a community of 100 people. The top earner in the group makes $100,000 a year. Everyone else averages $50,000 a year. Thus the top 1 percent makes two times as much as the bottom 99 percent. One day a person who makes $1 million a year moves in. Suddenly the ratio goes from 2 to 1 to 20 to 1, a tenfold increase. But the people in the bottom 99 percent aren't any poorer. The wealthy person newly in their midst didn't take anything from them. In fact, he may patronize businesses, pay taxes and donate to charities that will benefit all of them. Kicking the millionaire out of town would address income inequality but it wouldn't help anyone. Similarly, Collier County and Lee County have seen many millionaires take up residence over the past few decades. But unless they are stealing from the 99 percent, they've done nothing wrong. The political left's toolbox of government solutions to income inequality includes blunt objects such as a cap on executive salaries. As much as it may gall Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, it still is not illegal to be successful in America. No one forces companies to pay exorbitant salaries to people they believe can help them thrive. It is mistaken to believe there is a fixed amount of wealth and that if one person has more, it must mean someone else has less. Wealth can be created in infinite quantities through better ideas and more productive methods. Higher taxes on the rich with the wealth transferred to the poor are another favorite _ if not effective _ solution proposed to address income inequality. Such taxes tend to stifle the innovation and risk-taking that leads to wealth creation. Whatever problems stem from income inequality are found at the low end of the spectrum. And even there, the target is often missed. It is interesting to note that the average income of the bottom 99 percent in Collier County, $57,258, is well above the average of the bottom 99 percent in the rest of the country, $45,567. The bottom 99 percent includes, by definition, thousands of people in the 90th, 80th and even the 70th income percentiles. They are not the people we need be concerned about. Those at the bottom are the ones who need help and the government is indeed in a position to help them. But again the tool most often reached for out of that left-leaning toolbox isn't the appropriate one. The government can't just wave a magic wand and impart new skills and productivity on the unskilled and less productive. But that is precisely what it purports to do when it arbitrarily increases the minimum wage. When you increase the cost of something, people buy less of it. This law of economics is no more malleable than the law of gravity. Labor is something employers purchase, just like supplies and insurance. Artificially raising the price of it only guarantees they'll buy less, meaning less work for those on the first rung of the employment ladder. The best thing the government can do to help those people is to provide the opportunity for a quality education. From preschool children to adult and vocational education, teaching new skills to those who have none is the surest way to increase their earning potential. A raft of ancillary services such as day care and nutrition go hand-in-hand and are often provided by charities, which in turn, find donors among the 1 percent. Another tool the government could use to help low-wage earners in Southwest Florida is an effective immigration policy including competent border enforcement. The first victim of the illegal immigrant is the legal immigrant. An endless supply of unskilled workers guarantees that labor prices will remain low. Businesses and even consumers may enjoy the low prices afforded to them by cheap labor, but an ever-diminishing pay scale based on an endless influx of workers willing to do the job for less leads to the sort of poverty that is the worst manifestation of income inequality. Unequal incomes are a fact of life. Crushing poverty at the bottom of the scale need not be. (Connect with Brent Batten at brent.batten@naplesnews.com, on Twitter@NDN_BrentBatten and at facebook.com/ndnbrentbatten) Tim Aten/staff (4) Lima Restaurant and Pisco Bar opened in May in the retail center on the northwest corner of Collier Boulevard and Golden Gate Parkway in Golden Gate. The young couple that owns and operates Lima Restaurant and Pisco Bar is going places. In fact, their new Peruvian restaurant on the edge of Golden Gate is proof that they've already been places. They invite Neapolitans to tag along with them and try new things. "We wanted to bring this to Naples because I think Naples is ready already for this kind of exposure. I wanted to bring Lima here," said Dario Gonzalez-Zuniga, who creates magic in the kitchen, while his wife, Amanda, follows suit at the bar. The couple launched Lima on May 16 in the former longtime space of Antonia's Italian restaurant in the retail strip anchored by Sunshine Ace Hardware on the corner of Collier Boulevard and Golden Gate Parkway. Although Naples was introduced to Peruvian cuisine years ago including the original Inca's Kitchen nearby, just north of the new Lima Restaurant the Gonzalez-Zunigas have really created something special here. Perhaps it's the lived-in ambiance of the space, the originality of the pisco bar, the fresh food that both celebrates and breaks traditions, or the friendly personalities of its owners. It's really a package deal. "We've had a lot of repeat business even though we've only been open for the four weeks," Amanda Gonzalez-Zuniga said. "Even earlier tonight we had a couple that was in here last night. They had the same dish that they had last night because they just loved it so much." The lunch menu is "El Mercado," traditional Peruvian dishes. The dinner menu showcases the chef's creations, his twists on Peruvian classics. The chef is remarkably comfortable and confident sharing what he has experimented with and learned, starting from Le Cordon Bleu in his native Peru, where he studied and graduated. Somewhere along the way, perhaps working as a chef in different regions, such as Ottawa, Canada, and Atlanta, Georgia, Gonzalez-Zuniga honed his Peruvian avant-garde style. It complements the traditional Peruvian food he obviously knows and loves. The chef likes to control all the ingredients, making his own bread, pastas and even butters regular, red wine and beurre noisette, a browned butter with a nutty flavor. "Everything that I can make, I make it," he said. "We make our own dulce de leche. We don't buy it from a can. It's a lot of work, but it's satisfaction, too." Many bars and kitchens don't take advantage of creating different tastes with infusions, Gonzalez-Zuniga said. "We want to change that," he said. "You can play so much with cocktails and bitters and infusions. You can infuse pretty much everything. There's a lot of creativity there." "That means I work in pastry, baking and cuisine and I went to Cordon Bleu for both. I always wanted to have my place so I can actually do." Shrimp ravioli is one of the restaurant's most popular dishes. The entree is made with homemade pasta, of course, with a sun-dried red chili cream sauce and confit cherry tomatoes. Lima's requisite ceviche offerings include a unique flight of tiger milk, featuring all three samples of the lime-based Peruvian marinade spiked with cilantro: the classic leches de tigre, another with a yellow pepper chili or aji amarillo, and one with the spicy rocoto pepper. Ceviche is made to order, so diners can order it mild, medium or spicy. The flight comes with snack samples of sweet potatoes glazed in orange juice and Peruvian corn prepared two ways: fried cancha, sort of like corn nuts; and freshly boiled, which resembles hominy. "This flight is part of our tapas menu for the bar and it's pretty popular," said Amanda Gonzalez-Zuniga. "It's fun!" What really puts Lima over the top is its pisco bar, which features more than 20 infused varieties of pisco, a Peruvian spirit made by distilling grapes. "Pisco is kind of, I would say it's like a secret agent liquor. It's like hidden. It doesn't taste very strong. When it's mixed in with other things, it's so smooth you can barely taste that you're drinking alcohol, which makes it dangerous fun and dangerous," Amanda Gonzalez-Zuniga said with a laugh. Blueberry is probably the most popular flavor, but pisco is infused in-house with flavors such as amarillo, basil, citrus, coffee, mint, and aji limo. Large glass jars of the colorful varieties line the back of the bar with tags to denote infused flavors. "We have apricot that takes like a month to release the flavor, same as raisins. We also have camomile over here that takes like a week. Herbs like rosemary take only three days. Strawberries, it takes four days, so everything is different. Everything is very different," Dario Gonzalez-Zuniga said. Before infusing, the pisco bar starts with Pisco 100, so named because it is 100 percent Peruvian. "The reason we choose Pisco 100 is because they press the grapes with their feet. It's traditional. It's very artisanal," he said. What results is a clear alcohol distilled from the first press of grapes. "So, it's the best of the best," Gonzalez-Zuniga said. "To make one bottle of pisco, it takes like 17 pounds of grapes more or less." Pisco is so popular at the new restaurant that other spirits are rarely ordered. "Some people drink them as they are or you can have them made into a pisco sour," Amanda Gonzalez-Zuniga said. "Pisco sour is the cocktail, the national cocktail of Peru. It's the most popular drink that we sell here." Pisco sours can be made the classic way or with any of the infused piscos on hand. The pisco bar prepares only handcrafted cocktails. Instead of making pisco sours in batches, each is made by hand. "What we do is we squeeze each lime to order so we can get the freshest of the fresh," Dario Gonzalez-Zuniga said. Lima also serves chicha morada, a refreshing, sweet drink made with purple corn, pineapple, apple, cloves and cinnamon. The corn gives it a purple color. "Most restaurants just buy (chicha) in bottles. We make it from scratch," he said. Last Sunday, Lima launched its breakfast, "Desayuno Lurin," a traditional Peruvian breakfast featuring fried pork chicharron, fresh baked bread and tamales made in-house, fresh juice made to order, and organic Peruvian coffee. This breakfast is served 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. every Sunday. Lima Restaurant and Pisco Bar, 11681 Collier Blvd., is open for lunch 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays, and 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sundays with an extended lunch menu. Dinner is 5 to 9 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays. For information, call 239-280-0167, or go to lima-restaurant.com. Know more For the latest in local restaurants coming and going, see Tim Aten's "In the Know" columns archived at naplesnews.com/intheknow, and on Facebook at facebook.com/timaten.intheknow. By Daily News Staff Update: Daniel Haizlip has been linked to a fifth auto burglary. He was charged Wednesday with burglary and grand theft in connection to a break-in at 1785 Davis Boulevard. ______ An East Naples man arrested Sunday after a Naples fireman said he found him burglarizing his car has been connected to at least three other auto burglaries. Daniel Haizlip, 20, of the 1400 block of Green Valley Circle, was charged Monday with burglary and grand theft in connection to a break-in on Osprey Avenue. On Tuesday he also was charged with burglary and grand theft in connection with a break-in on River Point Drive and burglary and petty theft in connection to a break-in on Pelican Avenue. Police were investigating a string of seven auto burglaries Sunday morning when they received a call about a man, later identified Haizlip, who was caught stealing from Naples fireman Garrett Ocana's Hyundai Elantra and was being detained outside the fire station near City Hall, reports said. Its unclear if Haizlip has been connected to the other four break-ins. In all, more than $11,500 in valuables was reported stolen Sunday from the seven car burglaries. SHARE By Daily News Staff A Marco Island man has been indicted on two charges of theft involving Social Security and Medicare benefits, one of 15 people in the Middle District of Florida caught up in a nationwide crackdown on health care fraud. Federal prosecutors with the U.S. attorney's office in Tampa accuse Louis William Rimondi, IV, 47, of concealing that he had returned to work while continuing to collect Social Security disability and Medicare benefits valued at nearly $122,000. From January 2010 through February 2016, he collected $101,466 in Social Security disability benefits and another $20,467 in Medicare benefits that he was not entitled to after returning to work, according to the federal agency. Authorities in 36 federal districts and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced Wednesday the nation's largest crackdown on health care fraud of 301 individuals, including 61 doctors and other medical professionals, involving $900 million in false billings. Medicare fraud control units in 23 states participated. Murder suspects Curtis Wayne Wright, left, and Mark Sievers appear in the a Lee County courtroom Friday, June 17, 2016, during a custody hearing in Fort Myers. (Sarah Coward/News-Press) SHARE Jimmy Rodgers By Melissa Montoya, The News-Press The husband of Dr. Teresa Sievers and an alleged co-conspirator in her killing will face the death penalty if convicted on first-degree murder charges. Mark Sievers and Jimmy Rodgers were indicted in May. On Wednesday the state attorneys office announced it has filed notices of intent to seek the death penalty. Antonio Faga, Mark Sievers attorney, said he was disappointed by the decision. A second attorney, Michael Mummert, was at the Lee County Jail on Wednesday to tell Mark Sievers of the prosecutions decision, Faga said. We are not surprised that the state has taken this position, however we feel it is not an accurate position based upon the fact Mr. Sievers is innocent, Faga said. Attempts to reach Rodgers public defender, Kathleen Marie Fitzgeorge, were unsuccessful Wednesday. Mark Sievers, 48, was arrested in February, about six months after the arrests of his friend, 46-year-old Curtis Wayne Wright, and Rodgers, 26, were announced. Investigators believe Mark Sievers coordinated with Wright to kill Teresa Sievers at the couples home in Bonita Springs last June. Wright then enlisted the help of Rodgers to commit the crime. Teresa Sievers was a well-known doctor in the community. She was found bludgeoned to death her home not long after she had returned from a family trip to Connecticut. Mark Sievers and her two children stayed behind while Teresa Sievers returned for work. Wright pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and has agreed to help prosecutors in Mark Sievers case. He was sentenced to 25 years. Prosecutors will have to prove the death of Teresa Sievers was committed for financial gain, heinous, atrocious, cruel and premeditated, said David Brener. Brener, a defense attorney, has defended 24 death penalty cases, he said. Automatically, when the prosecution decides to seek the death penalty, the whole complexion of the case changes, said Brener, who is not involved in the Sievers case. The next step, Brener said, is for defense attorneys to file a motion asking prosecutors to justify asking for the death penalty. Brener said Sievers and Rodgers attorneys will need to present mitigating factors in the case to determine whether a death sentence is appropriate. Mitigating factors could include Mark Sievers personal history, background and lack of criminal priors. In Florida a life sentence is truly a life sentence and the defendant will never leave prison except in a pine box, Brener said. Twelve jurors sit on a first-degree murder case. Six jurors sit on a second-degree murder case. The Legislature enacted changes to Floridas death penalty system after its constitutionality was questioned by the U.S. Supreme Court. A judge decided whether the imposition of the death penalty was just, but now the jury makes the fact-findings necessary for the imposition of the death penalty, Brener said. The higher courts have held that that decision has to be made by the jury, not the judge, because it violated the right to the jury trial, Brener said. Instead of seven jurors, now 10 of them have to agree to recommend the death penalty, he added. The judge makes the ultimate sentencing decision. Mark Sievers attorney Faga, who is not death penalty-certified, said this decision adds a level of complexity to the defense. Faga said he will need to hire a mitigation specialist to lessen the prosecutions argument for the death penalty. His firm will utilize additional experts and investigators to prepare for the trial, he said. My suspicion is given the manner of death the blunt-force trauma I would have been surprised if they hadnt sought the death penalty in this case, Brener said. One of the most important factors I think prosecutors use to seek death is the nature of the crime itself. Brener said as soon as Wright took the plea deal, he suspected prosecutors would seek the death penalty on the others. He was likely informed by his counsel that the death penalty is coming and if you dont turn state evidence youre going to face it too, Brener said. The decision to seek the death penalty is not made lightly. Theres a lot of factors you have to go into, said Joe DAlessandro, a state attorney for the 20th Judicial Circuit for 35 years. Does it serve justice? How cruel was the crime? Is this something society demands? DAlessandro said the victims in the case needs to be considered. And thats what we do. We didnt take it nonchalantly, DAlessandro said. Nobody does; thats a bid decision. Every state attorney basically plays God with it. And you better be able to make the right decision. Staff writers Ben Brasch and Michael Braun contributed to this story. SHARE By Thyrie Bland, The News-Press Florida Gulf Coast University is slated to receive $17.8 million in performance-based funding, the most FGCU has received since the state started doling out money to public universities based on an evaluation system. FGCU received $8.1 million in funding for the 2014-15 fiscal year and $13.1 million for the 2015-16 fiscal year. The $17.8 million, if approved, will be for the upcoming 2016-17 fiscal year. The Florida Board of Governors started meeting in Orlando on Tuesday for three days of meetings. The board will discuss how much money FGCU and 10 other state universities will receive in funding during its Budget and Finance Committee on Wednesday. The board will vote on the universities' funding during its regular meeting Thursday. "Frankly, first, I would want to see what the Board of Governors does before I would have any kind of a comment on it because I don't want to presume they are going to approve what's there," said Dudley Goodlette, FGCU board chairman. The 11 universities are sharing $500 million in funding. Of the money, $225 million is from the state and $275 million is from the schools. The schools that performed the worst University of North Florida, University of West Florida and New College of Florida are not getting a portion of the $225 million. The three low-performing schools will get the least amount of performance-based funding. FGCU is getting the fourth lowest amount. The performance-based funding program uses 10 metrics to determine how Florida's public universities are performing. The categories include six-year graduation rates, the median wages of graduates with bachelors degree who are employed full-time in Florida and average cost per bachelors degree. The program uses a 100-point scoring system. FGCU scored 67 points and finished in seventh place out of 11 schools. The FGCU board was disappointed in how the school performed in some of the performance-based funding program categories. FGCU did poorly in three: average cost per bachelor's degree, six-year graduation rate and academic progress rate. The university didn't receive any points in the graduation rate category, making it the area the school performed the worst. FGCU's six-year graduation rate fell from 49 percent in 2014 to 43 percent in 2015. "Our view on the performance metrics is we would have liked to have done better, but were are in the money if you will," Goodlette said. "We weren't one of these three institutions that had zero new allocation as I recall." FGCU presented its 2016 Work Plan to the Board of Governors on Tuesday. The plan outlines some university goals. Among the things FGCU plans to focus on in the future is its four-year graduation rate. The rate is 21 percent. FGCU's goal is to raise the rate to 30 percent by 2020. The four-year graduation rate is not among Florida's performance-based funding metrics. FGCU hopes to raise its six-year graduation rate to 53 percent by 2020. "This work plan really is focused on getting better in these metrics," FGCU President Wilson Bradshaw said. "Just being in the money is not good enough for FGCU. We want to be better in all that we do and that's what this work plan is focused on." Donna Ward and Glenn Johnson SHARE Donna Ward Glenn Johnson By Maryann Batlle of the Naples Daily News A Lee Circuit Court judge gave Lee County 48 hours to return two fired employees to their jobs at domestic animal services. Lee County said in a statement Wednesday that it will comply with Judge Elizabeth Krier's order by placing Donna Ward, former DAS director, and Glenn Johnson, former DAS operations manager, "on immediate paid administrative leave." Brian Calciano, Ward and Johnson's lawyer, was not immediately available for comment. Ward and Johnson sued Lee County in November 2014. They argue that Lee County Manager Roger Desjarlais and Assistant County Manager Christine Brady pushed them out as punishment for blowing the whistle on workplace retaliation and the county's interference on a high-profile animal cruelty case. Lee County axed Ward and Johnson within two weeks of their sending Lee County commissioners separate written complaints of a toxic work environment. Johnson and Ward's complaint and court testimony from Desjarlais points to the Robin Speronis animal cruelty case as evidence of the fault line between the former employees and Desjarlais' county administration. Speronis, known for her fights with the city of Cape Coral over her off-the-grid lifestyle, served about a month in jail after DAS took her two dogs away and accused her of cruelty. Ward and Johnson contend Brady interfered in the state attorney investigation by forcing DAS to return Speronis' dog Faith, which had a skin condition and was being held as evidence in the cruelty case. The state attorney's office later dropped the charge against Speronis. Last September, Michael Colombo, an assistant state attorney, testified in court that Lee County requested the case be tossed. Colombo said he thought "someone high up at the county" convinced the veterinarian working at DAS, Nicole Ferguson whose testimony was considered crucial in the case against Speronis to change her story. Ferguson has denied she was under any pressure from Lee County administration. Two years after their firings, Ward and Johnson remain unemployed, according to their lawyer. Krier has twice commanded Lee County to temporarily reinstate them at DAS while their case makes its way through court. According to Krier's initial order that was filed last November, a jury should have the chance to decide whether Lee County fired Ward and Johnson for speaking out against Brady and the county's handling of the Speronis case. Lee County appealed Krier's order and lost. The county has since asked for a rehearing of that appeal, which it argues should have further delayed Krier's command Wednesday to reinstate the fired DAS employees. Ward and Johnson's whistleblower case is scheduled for trial on Sept. 20. _Staff writer Patrick Riley contributed to this report Courtesy of Land Architects Inc. SHARE By Patrick Riley of the Naples Daily News A proposed gated community in Estero's village center area received the backing of the village's planning and zoning board Tuesday. The six-member board unanimously voted to recommend approval with conditions for six four-story residential buildings on nearly 17 acres at the southeast corner of Corkscrew Road and Via Coconut Point. Board member Anthony Gargano was absent and did not vote. A request to rezone the property will next come before the village council for final approval with a first reading on June 29 and a public hearing on July 13, said Mary Gibbs, the village's director of community development. The project called Genova would include 205 residential units, a clubhouse, fitness center, resort pool, indoor lap pool and bocce court. "We think the design is precedent-setting," said developer Jim Wallace, managing partner of Genova Partners LLC. "It will make a statement for the village center." Tuesday's vote came after the board decided in May to delay consideration of Genova's requests while the village is still creating development rules for its village center area. The proposed village center which extends from just north of Corkscrew Road down to Coconut Road on the west side of U.S. 41 is the future heart of Estero and has been in the works since the village incorporated at the end of 2014. Village councilors, staff and residents have debated the proposed village center plan for months, drawing ire from developers who say the village is causing delays on their projects. Wallace told the planning and zoning board in May that 62 of his Genova condos already have sold. But with the village council still reviewing its plans for the village center and no construction approvals for Genova yet, some of the proposed community's future residents say they are left in limbo. Estero's village council is expected to vote on a development plan for the area Wednesday to finalize its guidelines for the proposed walkable, connected, mixed-use downtown. The project, Wallace said Tuesday, would fit into the village's downtown vision with public green space, outdoor seating and other pedestrian-friendly features. Included in Wallace's proposal is a third of a mile of public pedestrian greenway along Corkscrew Road and Via Coconut Point, public lakeside sitting areas and a pocket park along Via Coconut Point with a paver plaza and park benches. The seven pedestrian gates along the community's edge would connect residents to the surrounding roads and Estero Community Park and encourage people to walk instead of drive, Wallace said. "We want to make it convenient for people to walk," he said. - - - Daily News multimedia journalist Maryann Batlle contributed to this report. A group gathers at a seaside vigil to spell the word "Love" in honor of the victims and survivors of the Orlando mass shooting on June 21, 2016 in Naples, Florida. (Photo courtesy Marc Minisci) SHARE Susanna Tocco sits with other participants in the sand at a seaside vigil for the victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando by the Naples pier on June 21, 2016. Attendants created a human chain in the sand spelling out "Love." (Nicole Raucheisen/Staff) Morgan Tocco, 10, of Naples, draws the LGBT flag in the sand at a seaside vigil for the victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando on June 21, 2016. Morgan hoped her drawing would attract some people from the beach to participate in the event. (Nicole Raucheisen/Staff) Morgan Tocco, 10, of Naples, proudly holds the LGBT flag at a seaside vigil for the victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando by the Naples pier on June 21, 2016. Attendants created a human chain in the sand spelling out "Love." (Nicole Raucheisen/Staff) Morgan Tocco, 10, of Naples, draws the LGBT flag in the sand at a seaside vigil for the victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando by the Naples pier on June 21, 2016. Morgan hoped her drawing would attract some people from the beach to participate in the event. (Nicole Raucheisen/Staff) Related Photos PHOTOS: Love is Love Vigil for Orlando Shooting By Alexi C. Cardona of the Naples Daily News On the beach south of the Naples pier, 10-year-old Morgan Tocco ran around waving a rainbow flag. A red heart is painted on her right cheek. Her mother, Susanna Tocco, holds up a poster Morgan made. It reads "Orlando Strong" in bold black letters. Below the words is a hand-drawn rainbow. About 60 people gathered at the beach south of the pier Wednesday evening to honor the lives of the 49 people killed in the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, the deadliest shooting by a single gunman in United States history, on June 12. Susanne Tocco was born in Orlando and grew up a few blocks from the club. She has lived in Naples for about 14 years. She was coming home from a Girl Scouts event in Epcot when she learned about the shooting. "It was so hard to drive away from something like that when all you wanted to do was run toward it to help people and hug your family and friends," she said. The people who gathered at the beach formed a human chain in the sand to spell out the word "Love." Organizers had hoped enough people would turn out to spell "Love is love," but there wasn't enough of a crowd. "I believe the good that sending love and positive vibes to people will do for them," said Naples resident Heather Gibbs. "There's strength in numbers. When people go through something like this, the world can shine on them their love light." A drone hovered overhead and photographed the formation. Naples resident Karen Coney Coplin and her daughter Tabitha, 16, organized the gathering. "My family and I were heartsick over the news," Coplin said. "What a huge loss of human life, love and potential. My daughters saw many cities across the U.S. were gathering in support of the families of those killed in the tragedy. They wanted to do something similar in Naples." Bambusa, Collier County's only gay bar, held a fundraiser and vigil for the shooting victims and their families last week. "When something this big happens, you feel helpless," said Naples resident Melanie Farmer. "You want to help but sometimes don't know how. I can't be in Orlando, but I can be here with like-minded people sharing love." Some rain cut the beach gathering short, but those who went hope Orlando feels their love and support. Julio Acevedo, 27, went to the vigil with his sister and friend. Acevedo teaches his sister, Jovanna, tolerance and acceptance of others. At 13 years old, Jovanna stands up for what she believes in and defends her friends at school when they're bullied. "There's a boy who hangs out with girls at school, and he gets teased and called gay," she said. "Why? I tell kids that doesn't matter, that he's a very nice boy. Isn't this America, a free country? People should live how they want to live." Acevedo smiles at his sister when she talks. "She's very accepting of people, and I want her to be," he said. "I tell her that we have to stand up for what we believe in and not be afraid of what other people might do. Being afraid is letting people win. Love is love." RELATED STORIES/PHOTOS: Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., speaks to media outside his office on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, June 22, 2016. Former Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio announced he will run for re-election to the Senate from Florida, reversing his retirement plans under pressure from GOP leaders determined to hang onto his seat and Senate control. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) SHARE By Ledyard King, USA Today WASHINGTON Sen. Marco Rubio's decision to reverse course and run for re-election is good news for the GOP but maybe not such good news for Rubio himself. His pivot, announced Wednesday, gives Republicans their best shot at keeping Florida's Senate seat, and could be key to their hopes of retaining control of the Senate next year. It means GOP leaders probably won't have to pour millions of dollars into the Senate race, freeing up resources for races in other battleground states. And it helps soften the serious image problem that presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump has with Hispanics including those in the nation's most important presidential swing state. But Rubio's decision poses big risks for his own political future. He's expected to be a White House candidate in 2020 or 2024, but he would be political toast if he loses this year's re-election bid after getting trounced in the March 15 Florida presidential primary to Trump. And if he wins re-election, he'll cast dozens of more controversial votes over the next few years that his opponents in a future presidential race could use for campaign fodder. It's not clear voters will overlook Rubio's decision to break his no-re-election pledge, all the Senate votes he missed while running for president, and his previous comments expressing frustration with the Senate's slow pace. He said he feels compelled to run now largely from a sense of public service and to act as a "check and balance on the excesses of a president." Even with Rubio in the race, the contest remains a toss-up, according to one key handicapper. "He has solid name identification, an organization, and about $3.3 million in his presidential campaign account that can be used on a Senate bid," Jennifer Duffy of the Cook Political Report wrote on the group's website. "However, that does not mean that Rubio will glide to victory in the general election. His 11-month presidential bid resulted in chronic absenteeism both from his Senate duties and from his constituents in Florida. He also has a voting record that Democrats will mine for fodder." In an interview with CNN hours after his announcement Wednesday, Rubio seemed to acknowledge that a re-election run might endanger his potential presidential aspirations. "If my plan was to run for president in 2020, jumping into a race like this with all the political risks associated with it would not be the decision one would make," he said. He said he's "fully prepared to have the U.S. Senate be the last political job that I ever have," but he also he refused to shut the door on a future presidential run. His rivals in the Senate race already are seizing on that to brand him as untrustworthy. "Marco Rubio's spent a lot of time in Washington, so it's not surprising that he's lost touch with the values of the people of Florida," said Chris Hartline, spokesman for Republican businessman Carlos Beruff's campaign. "But the fact that he won't even commit to doing the full job he's asking the people of Florida to hire him to do shows just how much Marco Rubio has become Washington's candidate." Beruff, a Manatee County developer who's reportedly willing to spend as much as $20 million of his own fortune on the race, poses the most significant obstacle to Rubio's nomination path, now that three would-be rivals Rep. Ron DeSantis, Rep. David Jolly, and Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera have dropped out. Still, two separate polls released over the past week show Rubio with a commanding lead in the GOP primary race. If he wins, Rubio will face a tough battle in November from Democrats eager to attack his record on guns in the wake of the June 12 mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando. Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Jupiter, one of the Democrats running for Rubio's seat, already plans to spotlight his votes this week against strict gun-control measures. "This is going to be one of the defining issues of this Senate race and a lot of races around the country," Murphy said. Another Democratic congressman, Rep, Alan Grayson of Orlando, also is running for the Senate seat. Republicans running statewide in Florida have a tougher time in presidential election years given increased turnout among young voters, minorities and other traditional Democratic constituencies. That helps explain why GOP leaders in Washington were pressuring Rubio for weeks to get in the race. They warned that the seat would almost certainly flip in November unless he jumped back in. "I think Marco, name-ID wise (and) ability to raise money is very well positioned," South Dakota Sen. John Thune, the third-ranking Republican in the Senate, said the day before Rubio's announcement. "It's going to be a heavy lift to win that seat if he doesn't run. Nobody in the (GOP) field can start at the point that Marco starts in. It's going to be expensive either way but he can raise it." Rubio spent $21.6 million to win the open seat in 2010. Analysts say it could require $30 million this time. And that doesn't include the money that super PACs and other outside groups are expected to spend. Within hours of Rubio's announcement, the free-market Club for Growth PAC pledged to support Rubio, while the League of Conservation Voters blasted what it called his anti-environmental agenda. But Rubio's biggest hurdle could be Trump. The real estate mogul's controversial statements his pledge to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, his support for forced deportations of undocumented immigrants, his recent criticism of the Mexican-American judge presiding over a lawsuit against the former Trump University could depress Hispanic turnout for GOP candidates in November, which would hurt Rubio. Rubio said he doesn't plan on campaigning with Trump, even in Florida. "I think the difference between us on some key issues is so significant that I just don't plan to campaign (with him)," Rubio told CNN. "I've got to run my own race. I have my own identity." -- Contributing: lking@gannett.com; Twitter: @ledgeking SHARE Dwight Kehoe, Naples Full disclosure This is in response to a recent letter by Mike Mueller of Marco Island. He stated that he is in full support of Habitat for Humanity and especially the Whitaker Road project. In fact, the letter sounded like a Habitat for Humanity advertisement. So I took a look at the Habitat board of directors roster and lo and behold, there is a Michael Mueller of Marco Island on the Habitat for Humanity board. In fact, he is a voting member and the secretary. But did he disclose that information? No! He wrote as though he was a neighbor of the proposed Whitaker Road development rather than a Marco Island resident. Let's all search Marco Island and find a Habitat for Humanity community of 150-plus homes on the same plot of land. Not in his backyard. In January, Habitat's donor relations office made a presentation before more than 100 people at a site not more than a mile from the Whitaker Road development, and didn't mention those plans. Speak about full disclosure! Another letter praised the accomplishments of some residents of Habitat homes. While kudos are deserved, a stable family unit is more conducive to academic success than the structure they live in. Successful people understand that the appearance of the home and the community adds to the home's value and respect for them. Seriously, Habitat for Humanity, do you think the residents of East Naples are that gullible? We will be heard from again at the next neighborhood meeting and at the Collier County Planning Commission. Dermatologist Cyndi Yag-Howard, M.D., F.A.A.D., owner of Yag-Howard Dermatology Center in Naples, gave testimony on June 14 to the policymaking body of the nations largest medical organization during its annual meeting in Chicago. Speaking as a delegate from the American Academy of Dermatology, her amendment to a resolution before the American Medical Associations House of Delegates encouraged the AMA to work with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to minimize administrative barriers that discourage or prevent non-VA physicians without compensation from volunteering their time to care for our nations veterans. The administrative barriers to providing care are overwhelming and prohibitive, she said. Yag-Howard recounted her frustration in trying to volunteer at an advanced dermatologic surgery clinic at the James A. Haley Veterans Hospital in Tampa, that was located 2.5 hours away from her home. I had to take two tests, get fingerprinted, have a physical exam, get bloodwork, go through a final vetting process, and travel back and forth from Naples to Tampa multiple times before -- one year later -- I could see my first patient, Yag-Howard said, noting that the clinic had to close until some future date because the volunteer faculty physician had a difficult time overcoming all of the administrative barriers. The Delegates unanimously approved the amendment to the resolution, which focused on ways to get more physicians leading VA care teams to give veterans the best care possible. I just want to give back to veterans for their service in whatever way I can, but having to meet hurdle after hurdle was disheartening for me and continues to be for many other non-VA physicians who are also trying to volunteer. Cyndi Yag-Howard, M.D., F.A.A.D., has been in business for 18 years and is the owner and operator of Yag-Howard Dermatology Center located at 1000 Goodlette-Frank Road in Naples, offering a full range of cosmetic and medical treatments for men and women. Dr. Yag-Howard is a highly regarded, board-certified dermatologist and dermatologic surgeon specializing in facial aesthetics and skin-cancer surgery. She lectures nationally on surgical techniques for best cosmetic outcomes and techniques that combine art with medicine. As a thought leader in her field, Dr. Yag-Howard was included in the Distinctive Women of 2016 in Southwest Florida by Distinctive Women, an international publication serving Canada and the U.S. The women were honored for the positive impact they are making in their respective communities, as well their commitment to succeed and change the world. For more information about the Center, call 239-529-3376. Online at yhderm.com. Legal Aid Service of Collier Countys Managing Attorney, Carol A. OCallaghan, Esquire, has been named by the Collier County Womens Bar Association (CCWBA) as Woman Lawyer of the Year. Ms. OCallaghan received this award at a ceremony conducted on June 22, 2016 at the offices of Northern Trust in Park Shore. Ms. OCallaghan joined Legal Aid as a Staff Attorney in 2005, and was promoted to Managing Attorney in 2010, supervising 25 employees and managing the Naples and Immokalee offices for this private, non-profit law firm. Legal Aid provides free legal services to eligible low-income clients on civil legal cases for residents of Collier County. Last year, Legal Aid served over 3,600 Collier County residents in need on civil legal matters affecting their health, safety, or minimum economic support. The prestigious Woman Lawyer of the Year award is presented annually by the CCWBA to a female lawyer who has excelled in her career, overcome traditional stereotypes associated with women, promoted the status of women within the profession, and/or promoted the status of women in the State of Florida. Carol was born in Ireland, and is a graduate of Naples High School. She obtained a B.A. in Anthropology from the University of Florida in 1996, and went on to secure her Masters Degree from the same University in 1999. Ms. OCallaghan graduated from the Fredric G. Levin College of Law at the University of Florida in 2003. She served as a Professional Development Executive for the Law Society of Ireland from 2004-2005 before joining Legal Aid Service of Collier County. Active in the local legal community, Ms. OCallaghan is the Past President of the Collier County Womens Bar Association. She is also a Past President of the Young Lawyers Section of the Collier County Bar Association. Ms. OCallaghan was selected into the 2015 Class of Leaders in the Law last June by the Florida Association of Women Lawyers. Carol is so deserving of this award, states Margaret McMorrow, Esq., the Incoming President of the Board of Directors for Legal Aid Service of Broward County (LASBC), of which Legal Aid Service of Collier County is a Division. Her passion for the law, and her ability and desire to use her legal skills to assist families in need and to make a difference in our community shows in everything she does not just at work but in her everyday life as well. Tony Karrat, the Executive Director of LASBC and Legal Aid Service of Collier County, has seen the rapid growth of the Collier County operation during the period of time that Ms. OCallaghan has served as Managing Attorney. During her tenure running the Collier operation, the number of clients served by Legal Aid grew more than 60% since 2012, necessitating the move to Legal Aids new, 12,000 square foot office in Naples located at 4436 Tamiami Trail East. Carol is creative, fearless in accepting new challenges, a skilled manager and totally committed to ensuring that the office and staff are always focused on providing the highest quality service to Colliers most vulnerable residents, states Mr. Karrat. Carols actions speak volumes about the ability of a female to successfully manage one of the larger law firms in Collier County. Each new challenge is met by applying skill and determination without regard to gender. Thats what a role model does. Encore Bank is pleased to announce that 30-year banking veteran William Blevins has been promoted to Executive Vice President. Blevins joined Encore Bank in 2011 as Lee County Market Executive, Senior Vice President and Senior Lending Officer, leading the banks commercial lending team in Lee, Collier and Charlotte Counties. During Blevins five years of service at Encore Bank, the high-performing community bank has had double digit loan growth by helping businesses get the financing they need to expand and prosper and consistently achieved or exceeded objectives for financial stability. Encore Bank recently received the latest of several 5-Star ratings for financial strength by BauerFinancial, Inc., indicating that the institution has shown strong financial performance, has a sound capital ratio, a history of positive regulatory reviews, and has kept any delinquent loans in check. Prior to his extensive banking experience, Blevins graduated from West Virginia University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Management and Economics and received his M.B.A. in Finance and Accounting from Louisiana State University. He holds a Certified Cash Management designation from the Association for Financial Professionals and has earned his series 7, and 63 licenses. He has worked with a wide range of clients from $1 million in sales to $200 million in sales by providing solutions with credit, deposit, investments, financial planning, leasing, retirement services and treasury services. Encore Bank CEO Tom Ray said, Bills leadership inspires our team every day to set a new standard for community banking. Hes an asset to the bank, but even more so to our customers. His charitable work involves past roles as Chairman of the Salvation Army Advisory Board, past Chairman of Lee County Red Cross, past President of Southwest Florida Regional Development Corporation, past United Way Board Member, United Way Allocation Team Leader, and Junior Achievement Volunteer. Encore Bank has six convenient locations, including two branches in Naples at 3003 Tamiami Trail North and 2370 Vanderbilt Beach Road, Bonita Springs at 4450 Bonita Beach Road, Fort Myers at 7920 Summerlin Lakes Dr., Port Charlotte at 2120 Kings Highway, and Sun City Center at 1653 Sun City Center Plaza. For more information, call 239.919.5888 or 239.594.3177 in Naples, 239.495.0243 in Bonita Springs, 239-278-5505 in Fort Myers, 941-258-3055 in Port Charlotte, or 813-634-8001 in Sun City Center, or visit www.encorebank.com. Announcing a special appearance by the son of Calypso Legend, The Roaring Lion, at the Holocaust Museum & Education Center of SWFL Thursday, June 30th at 7:00pm. The son of famous Calypso Music legend The Roaring Lion will speak at the Holocaust Museum & Education Center of Southwest Florida as part of the Museums new exhibit, Calypso: Wartime Through Song . Aki de Leon will discuss the history of Calypso music, its connections for World War II and his father Rafael de Leons contributions to the genre. Known for his impeccable fashion sense, the elder de Leon was formally trained in music, and thus was able to experiment in the Calypso genre. One of his songs, Ugly Woman became the first Calypso song to be featured in a film. Many Calypso performers adapted bold stage names as part of their acts. After famous U.S. star Rudy Vallee heard the songs of The Roaring Lion and another Calypsonian, "Atilla the Hun", they were invited to performed on Vallee's and other popular U.S. radio shows of the day. This exposure to American audiences helped to popularize Calypso music in the United States. The Roaring Lion and Atilla recounted their radio broadcast experience in the song "Guests of Rudy Vallee". During WWII, Calypso songs functioned as a sort of alternate news channel, providing radio listeners and concert-goers with sharp political and social commentary on wartime news of the day. One of The Roaring Lions songs during this time was The Invasion of Poland, not your typical Calypso theme! The islands of the Bahamas and Caribbean werent as far removed from the battlefront as you would think. The area was an important strategic location, desired by both the Allied and the Axis powers. In addition to being known for its oil production and reserves, the region also provided crucial access to the Panama Canal for shipping wartime supplies. The impact on island life of the Allied bases in the Caribbean, and the ever-present threat of Axis harassment and invasion, were also subjects for Calypso songs. Calypsonians also entertained the troops in wartime USO shows. Mr. de Leons presentation is open to the public and free of charge. Reservations are requested. For more information, please e-mail Danielle@HolocaustMuseumSWFL.org, or contact the Museum at 239-263-9200. Tanaiste Frances Fitzgerald described the contents of the HIQA report on South Tipperary General Hospitalreleased last week as extremely disturbing. She told the Dail that there are legitimate infrastructure and capacity issues regarding demand at South Tipperary General Hospital. She was responding on Thursday last in the Dail to a statement made about the hospital by Deputy Mattie McGrath. The following day the situation at the hospital was raised by Deputy Seamus Healy who said Minister for Health Simon Harris had confirmed to him that he would visit the hospital in the next few weeks. In the HIQA report, South Tipperary General Hospital was accused of putting patients at high risk because of unacceptable practices and overcrowding. The hospital had patients on trolleys in a reception area which inspectors say did not provide an acceptable level of safety, privacy or dignity for patients. The Health Information and Quality Authority compiled a number of reports on the hospital following three inspections carried out over March and April. HIQA inspectors carried out an unannounced inspection on the morning of 2 March and saw five in-patients being looked after in a non-clinical reception area and corridor. The inspectors said these patients did not have proper access to oxygen ports, monitoring equipment or other facilities. The inspectors were so disturbed by what they saw that they immediately called off their inspection until the safety of patients was addressed. Hospital management acknowledged overcrowding was an issue but immediate action was taken, with patients on wards fit to be sent home being discharged at lunchtime. The patients on the corridors were then moved to wards. Follow up inspections did not find a repeat of the problem. On another inspection, on 16 March, HIQA inspectors found a number of risks relating to infection prevention and hygiene, with very poor cleaning of equipment and around some patient areas. Rubbish bins were stained, dusty and rusty on some of the surgical wards and the standard of hygiene in some of the toilets was particularly poor. The paediatric ward was also not clean in places to acceptable standards. The inspectors went back six weeks later and found the situation had improved considerably but that further improvement in cleaning, management and maintenance was still required. Overall HIQA found the hospital is working towards compliance with national standards and is committed to improving standards. Tanaiste Fitzgerald told the Dail that an extra 500 million had been allocated to the Department of Health She said the Minister has said he plans to focus on the issue of capital investment in hospitals that need infrastructural development and he now has the resources to begin to do that. There will be a capital review,, in the near future, and the issues he raises can be considered then. said the Tanaiste. In response, Deputy McGrath said staff and management at the hospital are overworked and totally overstretched. He said it was truly disturbing to have it confirmed that the total number of patients on trolleys in South Tipperary General Hospital this year has increased to 552, 319 more than this time last year. Deputy McGrath said step down beds had been promised in Cashel and pressure on capacity at the hospital was exacerbated by the closure of St.Michaels psychiatric unit. Deputy Seamus Healy told the Dail that South Tipperary General was working well in excess of capacity but it was under-resourced, underfunded and understaffed. The hospital was bursting at its seams and staff were working above and beyond the call of duty on a daily basis and, indeed, on hourly basis. He accepted what HIQA has said but he maintained it arose because of underfunding and under-resourcing of the hospital. We need urgent and immediate action to ensure a quality hospital service for the people of Tipperary, he insisted. Wholesale lenders hope the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's upcoming clarifications to the TILA-RESPA integrated disclosure rules will resolve lingering compliance concerns specific to the third-party origination channel. Mortgage brokers remain perplexed over how to strike a balance between helping borrowers shop for the best deal on a loan and maintaining compliance with TRID. Specifically, how do brokers and wholesalers meet the delivery deadline and accuracy requirements for the Loan Estimate and Closing Disclosure when a loan application is resubmitted to a new lender? "If they need to change lenders, what happens? There is not much clarity around that," said Kara Lamphere, chief compliance officer for Mid America Mortgage in Addison, Texas, a suburb of Dallas. Borrowers must receive the upfront LE disclosure within three business days of providing a broker with the six pieces of information that constitute a loan application. In most cases, the clock doesn't stop ticking if an application is transferred to a new lender. And since closing costs vary between lenders, brokers can easily find themselves trying to reconcile a Loan Estimate that was created with a different wholesaler's closing costs in mind. To be sure, lenders can cure fee increases that fall outside of tolerances, but it's a cost they'd prefer not to incur. And while the CFPB does allow lenders to redisclose the Loan Estimate, it's only in the event of specific "changed circumstances." Wholesalers and brokers alike remain concerned that the CFPB's current guidelines don't adequately address the multitude of unique scenarios that can play out in a TPO transaction. For example, do the redisclosure rules treat an LE issued by a broker differently than one issued by a wholesaler? What if the loan is submitted to a new lender because the first application was denied, as opposed to withdrawing the application before it gets that far? What if the broker can simply get the borrower a better deal by switching lenders? These questions will become more pressing as the number of brokers working in the industry continues to increase. Headcounts plummeted during the housing crisis, but the sector is experiencing a bit of a renaissance and has grown 37% since 2011, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. "Brokers are very heavily regulated, so we need more guidance to know what exactly we're responsible for when we're delivering the LE," said Irene Amato, president of A.S.A.P. Mortgage Corp., a brokerage in Cortlandt Manor, N.Y. "You have to understand, mortgage brokers are small businesses," she added. "If the large lenders didn't know how to handle it and they hired teams to figure it out and they still don't have it right, how are we, as brokers, going to take on that responsibility?" TRID lacks specificity around brokers' role in the wholesale channel is in part because it's creditors that are responsible for the compliance, as well as the CFPB's desire to hold all types of lenders to the same requirements. "What the CFPB said to the lender is 'you're in charge,'" said Mike Vitali, compliance officer at Trevose, Pa., software developer LoanLogics. Before TRID took effect, the CFPB considered a suggestion to start the clock ticking on the LE deadline after the lender, rather than the broker, received the application. But the bureau decided against doing this due to the concern that this would mean consumers who worked with brokers would wait longer to receive an LE, putting them at a disadvantage to consumers who submit loan applications directly to creditors. But is all this consternation in line with the spirit of TRID? Brokers are supposed to help borrowers find the best deal among multiple lenders, while TRID was designed to make it easier for consumers to comparison shop. With these goals seemingly aligned, it raises the question whether the CFPB intended to limit brokers' ability to transfer a loan application. "I think the CFPB wanted to promulgate shopping," said Lamphere. Application transfers may not be necessary in the day-to-day loan-shopping process if brokers and wholesalers have enough knowledge of each other and automation to quickly match loans with borrowers. But extenuating circumstances do exist where it is necessary. "When the lender does the LE that means that the loan is going directly to that company. Whereas when we, the brokers, do the LE, we have the opportunity to say where we want to place the loan," said Lou Borsellino, president of Paramount Capital Services, a brokerage in Brewster, N.Y. If the CFPB's proposed clarification establishes that brokered applications can be considered "new" after they are withdrawn from one lender and submitted to another, or that a new LE is permitted in that circumstance, wholesalers also would find helpful to know whether they would need to be aware of the transfer and document it or not. "Does the new lender have to have proof the borrower withdrew from the previous lender? What is enough proof?" Lamphere asked. The bureau has been considering input from stakeholders ahead of the proposed clarification and will consider additional feedback after it is released in July, according to CFPB spokesman Samuel Gilford. While some wholesalers still have questions about TRID because of the lack of formal guidance, others said they are comfortable with the informal direction they've received from the bureau. "I think it's easy to be a bandwagon person and everyone kind of complains about it [TRID]. We are not doing that. We actually think they've [the CFPB has] done a great job," said Mat Ishbia, president and chief executive of United Wholesale Mortgage in Troy, Mich. "Could there have been details that were easier to understand? Absolutely, there could have been, but they give those clarifications to us at least and we feel good about it." NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg welcomed Israeli President Reuven Rivlin to NATO Headquarters on Tuesday (21 June 2016) to discuss NATO-Israel cooperation. For more than twenty years, Israel has been a very active NATO partner through the Mediterranean Dialogue, the only security forum that brings together NATO Allies with Israel and Arab countries, said the Secretary General. He stressed that NATO and Israel are taking cooperation a step further, agreeing to establish an Israeli Mission at NATO, headed by Israels Ambassador to the European Union. The Secretary General noted that Israel was the first Mediterranean Dialogue country to agree a Security of Information Agreement with NATO in 2001. He highlighted that NATO is commitment to increasing cooperation with Israel, as well as with other Mediterranean Dialogue partners. During their talks, Mr. Stoltenberg and President Rivlin discussed the evolving security situation in the Middle East and Africa. The Secretary General expressed his condolences on the recent terrorist attacks in Tel Aviv. Terrorism has touched so many of our cities, from Brussels to Ankara, and from Orlando to Tel Aviv, he said. He underlined that countries that share the same values of democracy, human rights and the rule of law must stand united against hate and terrorism. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg welcomed President Peter Maurer of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to NATO Headquarters on Wednesday (22 June 2016). The leaders discussed developments in the cooperation and in the dialogue on humanitarian issues between NATO and the ICRC. President Maurer also participated in a meeting of the North Atlantic Council. During their meeting, the Secretary General thanked the ICRC for its important work in conflict zones around the globe. He underscored the importance of a continuous dialogue on humanitarian and operational issues between NATO and the ICRC, as well as the benefits of ICRC participation in NATO exercises and training events. In December 2015, NATO pledged to strengthen training on international humanitarian law at the 32nd International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent. The Secretary General and President Maurer also discussed the humanitarian and security situation in Afghanistan and Ukraine, as well as the challenges emanating from instability in the Middle East and North Africa. Addressing the North Atlantic Council, President Maurer outlined the ICRCs key operational challenges in accessing vulnerable populations and its efforts to enhance compliance with International Humanitarian Law. NATO and the ICRC have a longstanding relationship guided by a Memorandum of Understanding. The agreement outlines how the two organisations consult on humanitarian issues, and sets out how issues of international humanitarian law are covered in NATO military training and exercises. Maximum allowed levels of glyphosate on the increase in the U.S. Industry influence on regulatory agencies The Great Invention: The Story of GDP and the Making (and Unmaking) of the Modern World Ehsan Masood Pegasus: 2016. 9781681771373 | ISBN: 978-1-6817-7137-3 Since its invention during the Second World War as a thermometer of economic health, gross domestic product (GDP) has become a familiar incantation in claims and counter-claims about the well-being of nations. Some environmentalists and feminists were early critics, but until recent decades, few others questioned it. Now, campaigners ranging from left-wing Nobel-prizewinning economist Joseph Stiglitz to the free-market Economist magazine want to replace GDP with direct measurement of human well-being. The technology industry has joined them, bemoaning the failure of GDP to account properly for digital technologies, including free online services, because the relevant statistics are not collected or do not fit easily into existing categories. There is even a mini-boom in books about economic statistics. A decisive coalition is shaping up in favour of moving away from GDP. The question is what to use instead. The act of measuring economies would ultimately determine how economies would be managed. In The Great Invention, Ehsan Masood, editor of policy periodicals Research Europe and Research Fortnight, argues for an improved GDP. Into this single metric for economic-activity indicators defined as the monetary value of all goods and services produced in a country he would combine environmental impacts and human well-being. His book traces the history of GDP since its creation, as well as the calls for alternatives, mainly from environmentalists. Masood agrees with the sentiment of suggestions to use 'dashboards' that incorporate other economic data and supplementary indicators, but he concludes that GDP matters. As he writes of countries that adopted it: The act of measuring their economies would ultimately determine how their economies would be managed. And it matters despite, or because of, its flaws. GDP is too entrenched to be successfully replaced, he finds; instead, it needs radical reform. Formative factors GDP began, as Masood notes, as an aggregate measure when the need arose for governments to manage economies during the Depression in the 1930s and the Second World War. Pioneers of the statistics involved, such as US economist and Nobel laureate Simon Kuznets, intended to create a metric to meaningfully capture a society's economic welfare. There were other formative factors at work. One was the need to avoid suggesting that the war effort was reducing welfare. Another was the thinking of influential British economist John Maynard Keynes, as set out in his 1936 The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money. Keynes theorized that raising aggregate demand or total spending in the economy through government expenditure can avoid the sort of mass unemployment that was seen in the Depression by stimulating growth and improving stability. He and his supporters were determined to make the new metric serve that government role by defining federal spending as a key component of the equation, along with consumer spending and investment. Thus, GDP was born as a transatlantic effort, led by Keynes's assistants in the UK treasury, Richard Stone and James Meade. By the end of the 1940s, it was standardized through the United Nations, and the same international process is in place today. Masood covers decades of challenges to GDP conventions that make for a fascinating institutional and human story. Those seeking an alternative included UN official Maurice Strong, a key figure in the 1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment and the 1992 Earth Summit. Other critics were Italian industrialist Aurelio Peccei and British civil servant Alexander King, who together established think tank the Club of Rome and published the influential report The Limits To Growth (Universe, 1972). Environmentalists, and the officials whom they influenced, were swift to point out that GDP doesn't take into account how natural assets are depleted to generate current income and consumption. Several proposals for new models have underlined the need to account for the environment; Masood (an erstwhile Nature journalist) praises a 1997 paper on these proposals co-authored by economist Robert Costanza (R. Costanza et al. Nature 387, 253260; 1997). Economists James Tobin and William Nordhaus also took into account environmental costs and the value of work in the home in their 1972 proposal for a metric called the Measure of Economic Welfare. Another challenge to convention came from Mahbub Ul Haq and Amartya Sen, who in 1990 created the now widely used UN Human Development Index (HDI), which includes factors such as life expectancy and education. More social scientists are now exploring the definition and use of economic statistics. There is also policy interest alongside the scholarly debate. In 2008, then-French president Nicolas Sarkozy set up a commission led by Sen, Stiglitz and fellow economist Jean-Paul Fitoussi to investigate the measurement of economic well-being. And UK economist Charles Bean's 2016 Independent Review of UK Economic Statistics (see go.nature.com/1tvadaj) raises fundamental questions about GDP's viability in a modern economy, for example concerning its mismeasurement of digital activity. One or many GDP is so tightly woven into the economic fabric that anything more complicated than a single number will put politicians and the media off. The balance of opinion in economics currently favours supplementing GDP with a dashboard that incorporates measures of environmental impacts, health and social indicators, as Costanza neatly summarized in his 1997 article (see also R. Costanza et al. Nature 505, 283285; 2014). Economists are taking considerable interest in the measurement debate, although oddly, Masood claims that the profession is ignoring the issue. His own call for a nuanced metric that factors in natural capital and human well-being sticks to one indicator. He thinks that GDP is so tightly woven into the economic fabric that anything more complicated than a single number will put politicians and the media off. The solution, as he sees it, is to value the things that matter and then incorporate this value into the GDP accounts. But single-indicator alternatives to GDP have a serious drawback. They hide relative valuations of their components, whereas GDP makes these explicit because it uses market prices. For instance, Martin Ravallion, former director of research at the World Bank, notes that the HDI implicitly values poor lives much less than rich ones. Because income and human life expectancy are combined into one index, there is an implied value of just US$0.51 for an extra year of life in Zimbabwe, compared to several thousand dollars in rich countries (see M. Ravallion Troubling Tradeoffs in the Human Development Index http://doi.org/d8d2cr; World Bank, 2010). This flaw could be corrected, but the point is that any single index internalizes such trade-offs. The debate over whether to use a dashboard or a single indicator is unresolved. Interest among economists, other social scientists and environmentalists has climbed in recent years, but there is much to research and discuss on how best to measure economic welfare, taking into account sustainability and the quality of life, before a new international standard is defined and adopted. NASA's New Horizons mission helped scientists identify the icy moons and the icy surface of Pluto. A new downlinked spectral observation of Pluto's moon Nix, from New Horizons, shows evidence that the moon's surface is also covered with water ice, just like another Pluto satellite, Hydra. Scientists believe that with the latest data will provide further clues of Pluto's satellite system. New Horizons compositional spectral imager LEISA aboard the spacecraft contrasts Pluto's four small outer moons Styx, Nix, Kerberos and Hydra. From the data, it was observed that Nix' surface is made up of coarse-grained and pure water ice. "Pluto's small satellites probably all formed out of the cloud of debris created by the impact of a small planet onto a young Pluto," NASA project scientist Hal Weaver said in a press release. The scientists also suggest that the water ice covering Pluto's moons could be made of similar materials due to the strong signature water-ice absorption pattern observed on all the surfaces of the three satellites. Although samples weren't collected from moons Styx and Kerberos, NASA said that the reflectivity suggests that they too are covered with water-ice surfaces. The only difference on the surface of the moons is the depths of water ice absorptions. What baffles the scientists is the fact that Nix and Hydra have different ice textures despite the similarity in conditions and in size. Also, the reflectivity and visible wavelength of Hydra is higher than that of Nix, based on the data obtained by new Horizons Pluto flyby. The high-resolution images were captured by LEISA aboard the New Horizons spacecraft from a range of 37,000 miles resulting to 2.3 miles per pixel resolution, according to Phys.org. Aside from Pluto's icy moons, the New Horizons flyby in 2015 also resulted in fascinating findings including the discovery of Pluto's "beating" heart. The flyby also resulted to the most detailed image of the dwarf planet. After observed record-breaking temperature rise and melting records for the year 2015 in northwest Greenland, recent studies show the very first evidence linking the melting in Greenland to the expected effects and the confirmation of the phenomenon called the Arctic amplification. A recent study published in Nature Communications reveals that the 2015 meting and temperature rise record in Greenland was the result of the phenomenon called the Arctic amplification. This phenomenon describes the faster warming of the Artic in comparison to the rest of the Northern Hemisphere while sea ice continues to disappear. Due to increasing global temperatures, Arctic sea ice melts to dark open water, which absorbs solar radiation faster than the rest of the globe and would eventually warm the Artic more. Arctic amplification, though well-documented, is continually being challenged and disputed by scientists, and this discovery supports the theory of the phenomenon. A branch of this theory implies that the decreasing difference in temperature between the mid-latitudes and the Arctic will eventually lead to the decelerating of the jet stream that encircles the northern latitudes. This jet stream normally separates ice-cold polar air from the warmer, Southern air. The interruption of the jet stream, such as that seen on the coast of Greenland, would then allow moist, warmer air to seep farther north, warming up the Earth. The interruption of the jet stream in Greenland is so vital and alarming to the scientists involved in climate change and sea level rise monitoring because of the massiveness of the Greenland ice sheet. If this ice sheet, the second largest of the world next to Antartica, were to melt, global sea level would rise up to seven meters. It is, therefore, vital for the researchers on sea level rise to understand the factors of the melting ice, the rapidness and extent to how much sea level would rise in the future and how the freshwater run-off from Greenland's melting ice caps would affect ocean ecology and circulation. Whether the patterns observed in the previous year will continue on remains unknown. According to the study's lead author Marco Tedesco, scientist at NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and research professor at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, the conditions observed in the past "are not necessarily those of the future. We are going into uncharted territory if humans change the forcing." There's fire in space and it's not CGI or a computer game, NASA intentionally lit a working spacecraft to study how fire behaves in space. The spacecraft undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) before being an instrument to NASA's fire experiment. A few days after Cygnus cargo vehicle burned in space, NASA completed its data gathering and was able to release the footage of the largest man-induced fire in space. The #Saffire-I sample ignites! Preliminary data indicates the sample burned for about 8 minutes. #NASAglenn pic.twitter.com/m4vL0Lid05 NASA Glenn Research (@NASAglenn) June 16, 2016 NASA initiated the Spacecraft Fire Experiment or SAFFIRE-1 on June 14 when the Cygnus cargo spacecraft left the International Space Station (ISS). The experiment will aid the agency in studying how fire behaves in microgravity and is believed to be beneficial for the safety of space crew on missions beyond the confines of the Earth. "Fire safety will be a critical element as NASA progresses on the journey to Mars and begins to investigate deep space habitats for long duration missions," a NASA official said in a press release. But after the successful burning of the spacecraft mid-flight, it took some time before NASA can collect data from the experiment. The agency also recently released the footage of the experiment after data gathering. The sample burned for approximately eight minutes, according to a report by NASA Glen Research Center. From the camera aboard the now obliterated spacecraft, smoke trails were visible. The flow is uniform based on the observation by the side-by-side cameras installed inside the Cygnus spacecraft. This experiment is crucial to NASA since the agency and the rest of the private commercial space service companies are planning to send people to deeper parts of the universe. How fire behaves in outer space is important, in terms of safety, for the future deep space explorations. But before the experiment was given a green light, scientists faced the predicament in choosing which spacecraft to burn in order to create the largest fire in space. "We tried for years to find a vehicle and a circumstance where this would work and initially we would get a 'not on my spacecraft' reaction," David Urban, lead investigator for the Saffire project said in an interview. It was then decided to use Orbital ATK Cygnus, which is also scheduled to burn upon re-entry on Earth. The fire was conducted by using a 3-foot-long cotton-fiberglass material enclosed within the spacecraft. Experts from NASA said that the success of the first of three experiments will lead to larger combustion tests to be conducted in the future. The next two fire experiments will focus on oxygen flammability and the behavior of even larger fires in space. Chameleons are a species that have long mystified humans. Unlike regular lizards, they have special features including parrot-like feet, eyes that can look at different directions at the same time and camouflaging ability that allows them to blend into the background. And now the scientists discovered another neat little trick of chameleons: saliva that is 400 times stickier than human saliva. An efficient hunter, people have long believed that chameleons change color to hunt preys before it was revealed that their color-changing camouflage is just meant to reflect their mood. So if color changing isn't really the chameleon's secret hunting weapon--what is? Well, it's at the tip of their tongue. Although it has been known for years that chameleons have sticky tongues that they use when hunting, the study marks the first time the mechanical properties of the mucus is measured. According to Daily Nation, the viscosity, or thickness, of chameleon spit had never before been measured, except by the paper. In other words, the paper has provided an answer as to how and why chameleons are able to hold on to prey while swiftly drawing it in its mouth at such high speed. According to a paper published in the journal Nature Physics, the tongue of the chameleon has a mucus which has the same viscosity as honey. Once it sticks out its tongue to catch its prey, the tongue captures it viciously and retracts in highspeed, bringing it to its mouth. By measuring the viscosity of the mucus on their tongue, they have found out that it is sticky enough to capture a prey up to a third of their body weight. "The factor that limits the size of the prey is probably the size of the mouth of the chameleon," Pascal Damman, a physicist at the University of Mons in Belgium told the Christian Science Monitor.. Unlike other reptiles whose feeding strategy is to chase the prey, chameleons sit and wait. Once the prey is in sight, they use their deadly tongue, which is not only sticky, but can stretch twice their body length. As to how the chameleons are able to loosen the tie once the prey is on their mouth, the researchers said they can only hypothesize that between the feeding stage, a non-sticky saliva is used so they can eat and swallow the prey. The Great Pyramid of Giza, one of the seven wonders of the world, is a bit lopsided, scientists said. Researchers from the U.S.-based Glen Dash Research Foundation and the Ancient Egypt Research Associates (AERA) scanning and mapping the Giza pyramids found the structural error in The Great Pyramid of Giza, known to be one of the world's most majestic and well-built ancient structures. According to scientists, the west side of the pyramid is slightly longer than the east side, creating a base that is not perfectly square. This discovery sheds light to some of the methods used by the ancient Egyptians in constructing these pyramids. Pyramids used to be encased in white limestone back when they were first constructed 4,500 years ago. Over the years, the limestone outer layers were stripped off and the result is the pyramid form we are seeing today. "Most of those casing stones were removed centuries ago for building material, leaving the pyramid as we see it today, without most of its original shell," Glen Dash, head of the Glen Dash Research Foundation, said in a report published on Science Alert. Without the outer layer, the researchers used a new measuring technique that involved finding any surviving remnants in the casing to see where the original edges had been. The researchers then plotted these points on a grid and calculated the lengths of each side. The scientists found that the west side was 5.55 inches longer than the east side, making the structure look slightly tilted to one side. "We can only speculate as to how the Egyptians could have laid out these lines with such precision using only the tools they had," Dash said. According to Dash, the Egyptian builders would have likely laid out the pyramid's design on a grid and applied it to the ground during construction. However, they said that more research needs to be done to figure out how this could have worked. More discoveries were being made about ancient Egyptians. Just recently, researchers from Italy discovered that Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun's dagger was made of iron taken from a meteorite. Jupiter is ready to reveal its best-kept secrets. In the Juno Mission trailer released by NASA, Jupiter was regarded as the "biggest and baddest" planet in the Solar System. Juno is about to face the harshest conditions within Jupiter's atmosphere known for its radiation and other mysterious factors that the spacecraft will have to withstand in order to fulfill its mission of observing and understanding the planet's composition. For science! On July 4, I'll risk getting closer to #Jupiter than any spacecraft ever before https://t.co/RPUGD5Zhrw pic.twitter.com/t3kHBy2mqk NASA's Juno Mission (@NASAJuno) June 16, 2016 The Juno spacecraft launched in 2011 will arrive at Jupiter's atmosphere on July 4. But after successfully completing its long-haul flight to the planet, Juno's predicament doesn't stop there. Jupiter's environment is known to be vicious and experts are worried if Juno can withstand it. "It's a monster, it's unforgiving, it's relentless," a NASA official said in the Juno Mission trailer video released by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "It's spinning around so fast, its gravity is like a giant slingshot slinging rocks, dust... anything that gets close to it becomes its weapon," the NASA official added. 15 days till #Jupiter. This July 4th, I'll enter orbit around the gas giant. Mission trailer https://t.co/v1mqFmX3AR pic.twitter.com/sZrjg6R4Qj NASA's Juno Mission (@NASAJuno) June 18, 2016 Juno's attempt, if successful will be the closest a spacecraft had gone near Jupiter. But according to experts, it will all be worth it, since Jupiter's secrets are worth the shot. It is believed that the planet is home to water content, helium, methane, hydrogen and ammonia. But the experts fear that the "biggest and baddest" planet in the Solar System also possesses the biggest and baddest radiation there is. The magnetic field of Jupiter is also expected to be massive. Juno's role in studying Jupiter plays a big role in the understanding of the Universe. According to NASA, to understand how the Solar System was formed, mankind needs to understand first how Jupiter was formed. "Underneath its dense cloud cover, Jupiter safeguards secrets to the fundamental processes and conditions that governed our solar system during its formation" a NASA official said in a press release. If Juno survives the cruel environment of Jupiter, the $1.3 billion spacecraft will orbit the planet for 20 months, according to Popular Science. Juno will have to complete 37 orbits around the planet to beam back pivotal findings to Earth. The mission will finish by February 2018, providing that the spacecraft survives the harsh environment in Jupiter upon its entry into the planet's atmosphere in July. The controversial 10-day dog meat festival has begun in China's southern city of Yulin. This year, about 10,000 dogs and cats are expected to be butchered amid extensive opposition from animal rights activists from all over the world. A report from Global Times said ahead of the dog meat festival, restaurants in Yulin covered and hid "dog" signages on their restaurants to avoid trouble and being mobbed by protesters. "They know it is something disgraceful, so they try to cover the name," Wang Xiaojun, senior communications manager at international animal rights group World Animal Protection, told the Global Times on Sunday. The extreme weather conditions are making abrupt changes to the water level of the Dead Sea, reducing three feet a year to be exact, BBC reported. The article reported that in 1972, British engineers scratched initials on a rock to the mark the level of the water. Years later, the marks were left high and dry. "The sea was right here when I was 18 years old, so it's not like we're talking about 500 or a 1000 years ago," Nir Vanger, who runs the business side of Ein Gedi's tourist operations, told BBC. Although the Dead Sea cannot be totally dry, the drying of the salt lake has caused sinkholes to appear on the towns nearby. Aside from evaporation due to high temperatures, over exploitation of the lake water is also the reason behind the water level drop. According to the Daily Mail, environmental group EcoPeace Middle East estimates around 3,000 sinkholes beside the Dead Sea. These sinkholes have economical impacts on the tourism of Israel and Jordan. Warning signs have been placed to underline the risk of the open pits that have been appearing as a result of the sea's shrinkage. Furthermore, the roads and infrastructure that run alongside the Dead Sea are also threatened by the sinkholes. Aside from affecting tourism, the situation has deeply affected the people living in the area, as the place has been deemed significant to their belief and culture. Here are some interesting facts about the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea isn't actually a sea, but a saltwater lake. Sitting nearly 1,300 feet below sea level, the Dead Sea is the lowest inland area in the world. It has a salinity of almost 33 percent, making it the saltiest body of water on earth. It is roughly 8.6 times saltier than the ocean. Because of its high salinity, people can easily float in its water. The Dead Sea is filled with minerals including calcium, iodine, saline, potassium and bromide, making it an ideal site for research. And finally, it is named the Dead Sea because no life can flourish in it because of its extreme conditions. There's a new discovery about Saturn's most intriguing moon, Enceladus. Researchers have revealed that there's a global ocean lying a few kilometers beneath its icy surface. The study from Charles University in Prague and the Royal Observatory of Belgium published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters used data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft to create a new model that reconciles contradictory information about Encedalus, revealing that the moon's south pole may have an icy shell that's only a few kilometers thick. The particular thinness of the icy shell suggests that Encedalus' interior is hot, creating a possibility that an ocean may exist on its surface. According to Science Daily, previous flybys of the Cassini Spacecraft estimated the thickness of the icy shell from 30 to 40 kilometers. However, in 2015, an oscillation in the moon's rotation showed a much thinner icy shell than estimated at around 20 kilometers. The researchers' model shows that Enceladus is covered with an elastic icy shell and a rocky core of about 185 kilometers. The model also shows that the thickness of its elastic icy shell varies in location. In the moon's south pole, the ice is only 5 kilometers thick, and underneath it is an internal ocean that's approximately 45 kilometers deep. The said ocean makes up 40 percent of the moon's surface with a salt content that's similar to the oceans on Earth. The newly created model further supports the idea that Enceladus produces strong heat from hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor. Complex organic molecules have also been detected in Enceladus' jets, which suggest the emergence of new life forms. Because of the thinness of ice and the conditions of the moon, future explorations will also be possible. I think its a very nice piece of work. On the one hand, you have the gravity and topography, and on the other hand you have the librations. Theyre using both those pieces of data, which hasnt been done before," Francis Nimmo, a planetary scientist at the University of California Santa Cruz, told the AGU Blogosphere. About 300 people in more than half the states have been charged in the largest crackdown to date on health care fraud, federal authorities announced Wednesday. According to the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services, those arrested account for more than $900 million in false billings to Medicare and Medicaid, NBC News reported. The crackdown ensnared 60 licensed medical professionals, including 30 doctors, officials said. The billings were for treatments or services deemed medically unnecessary or for services that were never provided at all, including home care, medical equipment and phony prescriptions. A growing group of Bay Area legal professionals are publicly opposing the so-called recall efforts aimed at Judge Aaron Persky. The grass roots effort is spearheaded by Sajid A. Khan, a Santa Clara County public defender. As NBC Bay Area has been reporting, Persky has been the target of several recall movements after he sentenced former Stanford swimmer Brock Turner to six months in jail for two sexual assault convictions in late May. Turner was arrested, in 2015, after he was caught on top of an unconscious half-naked woman, near a campus party. At the trial, the alleged victim wrote a letter read in court that went viral talking about how much the assault had impacted her life. The national women's advocacy group UltraViolet launched an online petition drive to get Persky removed and supported other efforts to collect about one million signatures. The groups accuse Persky of "being more concerned with 'rapists' than 'survivors.'" Persky has not commented. UltraViolet turned the petitions into the California Commission on Judicial Oversight in hopes of getting Persky removed. Khan's group started an online petition of its own to support Persky and has gathered more than 200-signatures, including other public defenders and local attorneys. Khan reached out to NBC Bay Area after UltraViolet put up a billboard on Highway 92 calling for Persky to be taken off the bench. "Judge Persky followed the recommendations of the probation department and has a reputation for being fair in sentencing," Khan said. "It's not good for judges to be concerned about public opinion or threats of recall when making their decisions. "Our petition or letter is designed to offer some counter perspective to those calling for his removal." The Persky controversy also led the Santa Clara County District Attorney's office to call for the court to pull him off another sexual assault case. The DA has also called a news conference on the Persky matter for Wednesday morning. Angry neighbors of San Francisco's Ocean Beach are accusing the feds of trashing the beach - by removing garbage cans. In October, the National Park Service removed all garbage cans from about half of a 3-mile stretch of the beach in an experimental move that officials thought might motivate beach-goers to take their trash with them. Its not working, neighbors say. "If youre here at 7 a.m., it looks like Tijuana," resident Mike Martinovich said. "Its the worst run beach in California, right here." Martinovich has lived his whole life a few blocks from Ocean Beach and has been documenting the garbage. The summer season has always been bad, he said - even with the trash cans. Now, it it has become worse, said another longtime resident, Jennifer Murphy. "This is an urban area; this is a heavily utilized beach," she said. "I dont see the garbage cans being taken out of Crissy Field." The park service said maintenence crews have been reporting that the experiment is working. "They found that actually theres less trash than there had been during the period that trash cans were in that area," said Howard Levitt, a park service spokesman. "It may seem counterintuitive, but thats the experience with it." At Baker Beach, near the affluent Seacliff neighborhood, the park service covered trash cans, and one resident said trying to get people to take their trash home is silly. "Nowadays, people are so lazy they dont do that," said Amanda Gabaldon. "Youre lucky to get them to walk to a trash can, let alone take it with them." Despite the complaints, the park service plans to keep the stretch of Ocean Beach without trash cans through the summer, a move Levitt said will be reversed if reports from maintanence crews indicate it isnt working. Orlando gunman Omar Mateen purchased tickets for his family to travel to the San Francisco Bay Area two days before he went on a deadly rampage at the Pulse nightclub in Florida Federal officials confirmed to NBC News Tuesday that Mateen purchased three tickets for himself, his wife, Noor Zahi Salman and their son to visit his mother-in-law, who lives in the Bay Area suburb of Rodeo, California on July 14. But on June 12, he killed 49 people and injured dozens in what is the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history. Two officials told NBC News that after the shooting, Salman called the airline and sought a refund for the trip to San Francisco. Salman allegedly told the airline that, because her husband had died, they would no longer be making the trip. Salmans mother, Ekbal Zahi Salman, recently had an operation and was not getting better; the family was planning on spending an extend period of time with her, NBC News reported. The tickets were purchased Friday, June 10, and the family would have stayed in the Bay Area for two weeks, according to NBC News. Its not clear why Mateen would have purchased tickets for the trip if he had been planning the shooting at the Pulse nightclub, in which he ended up dying. [[383942051, C]] A source close to Noor Salman said she was not successful in trying to refund the tickets, which she attempted to do after being meeting with FBI investigators, and notifying them about the travel and her plans to try and refund the tickets, NBC News reports. Salman told the FBI she was with Mateen, when he bought ammunition and a holster, several officials familiar with the case have told NBC News. She also apparently told the FBI she once drove him to Pulse nightclub, because he wanted to check it out. Salman, who told the FBI she tried to talk her husband out of the shooting, is not facing any charges at this time for failing to report her husband to law enforcement. She continues to cooperate with the investigation. A source close to the family told NBC News Mateen sent his wife a text message during the rampage, asking her, "Do you see what's happening?" After swapping texts, she tried to call him. A source close to the family said Mateen sent his wife a text message during the rampage, asking her, "Do you see what's happening?" After swapping texts, she tried to call him. Her mothers neighbors in Rodeo, 45 minutes from San Francisco, have told NBC Bay Area that Salman was the daughter of Ekbal Zahi and Bassam Abdallah Salman, who died of a heart attack several years ago. The couple has three other daughters the youngest is 14. Salman's mother still lives at the home with her youngest but has not spoken out publicly about the shooting. According to neighbors, Salman attended John Swett High School in nearby Crockett, California. Salman married Mateen, neighbors said, and moved to Florida about five years ago. Rodeo neighbor Sarwan Kaur said Mateen apparently wouldn't let Noor Salman's mother visit her in Florida. "Like, even when she was in the hospital, her husband wouldn't let her come see her own mother," Simrat Chahal said on behalf of his grandmother, Kaur. NBC News and Pete Williams contributed to this report. A U.S. pipeline safety agency engineer testified Tuesday that the agency's website offers specific instructions about what utilities should do to inspect pipes following pressure surges, something prosecutors say the utility failed to mind so as to maximize profits. The federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration website offers guidance on overpressurization events on gas pipelines, said Steve Nanney, who left private industry to become a regulator. Nanney told the jury who will decide the 13-count case against the utility for pipeline safety and obstruction charges that a section of the Frequently Asked Questions part of the web page was clear: Any pressure increase above specified historic levels triggered inspections for damage such a surge might inflict. "Everyone can see the answer to that?" federal prosecutor Jeff Schenk asked Nanney on the stand. "Yes," Nanney replied. Prosecutors contend the company ignored pressure overages, preferring to inspect its lines with a method capable of finding only rust, not cracking or other damage that could be caused when pressure surged above normal levels. The company deliberately took the wrong path, violating pipeline safety laws, they say. Defense attorney Steve Bauer pointed out that the regulatory scheme allowed engineers to use their judgment on other matters, something Nanney agreed on. He then asked Nanney if the instructions in the Frequently Asked Questions advice amounted to "your agencies viewpoint on the law?" "Correct," Nanney replied. Before Nanney took the stand, Judge Thelton Henderson issued instructions to the jury he said were intended to correct the law. PG&E's lawyer said the company had to destroy records to violate the law, but Henderson told the panel that statement was not true. Testimony continues Wednesday. President Barack Obama will arrive in the Bay Area on Thursday to participate in the 2016 Global Entrepreneurship Summit at Stanford University, which kicked off this morning and lasts through Friday. The summit, now in its seventh year, gathers government leaders, entrepreneurs, business leaders and investors for three days of speeches and programs. This is the second year that the United States has hosted the event. It hosted the inaugural event in 2010 and subsequent summits have been held in Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, Morocco and Kenya. The U.S. has invited more than 700 entrepreneurs from 170 countries and territories and 300 investors to participate. More than 400 journalists are expected to attend, according to organizers. Obama will arrive on Air Force One at Moffett Federal Airfield in Mountain View on Thursday afternoon and spend the night in the San Jose area before his speech on Friday morning. He will depart from Moffett Field on Friday afternoon. In addition to Obama, other government officials scheduled to speak include Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker. Business leaders scheduled to speak at the event include Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. While the summit is closed to the public, portions of it are being livestreamed at http://www.ges2016.org/live/. A 44-year-old man was sentenced Wednesday to nine years in state prison for his felony child abuse conviction for burning his 2-year-old son's hands in boiling water at a home in San Leandro in 2011. Prosecutors said Dante Roberson's boy suffered burns to both of his hands while he was under Roberson's care during his scheduled monthly visit at a home in the 2300 block of Jamaica Way west of Doolittle Drive on Sept. 15, 2011. The boy's mother, who has custody of the boy, wasn't at home when the incident occurred. Prosecutors said Roberson didn't return the boy to his mother for about two hours after the injuries occurred even though he was in extreme distress. Once the mother saw the boy's injuries, she took him to San Leandro Hospital for treatment but his burns were so severe that the child was transferred to the burn center at Saint Francis Memorial Hospital in San Francisco to get treatment, prosecutors said. A child abuse expert testified at Roberson's trial last fall that the boy's injuries weren't consistent with an accident and were the result of forcible submersion, according to prosecutors. Roberson, who also was convicted of an enhancement that he inflicted great bodily injury on his son, faced up to 12 years in state prison but Alameda County Superior Court Judge Stuart Hing decided that a nine-year term would be appropriate. Roberson originally was scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 1, but Hing said at a hearing that day that he wanted to get more information before deciding whether to send Roberson to prison or place him on probation. The judge sent Roberson to a state Department of Corrections facility to be evaluated. In asking that Roberson be sentenced to prison, the boy's mother Lakesha Harrison said at the Feb. 1 hearing that the boy has had to undergo multiple reconstructive surgeries to repair his hands and faces more surgeries this summer. Harrison said her son is "emotionally, physically and psychologically scarred" by what happened to him, suffers from nightmares and panic attacks, and is undergoing therapy. She also said that her son "wants an apology from his dad for his injuries" and wonders "if the judge can make him say he's sorry." Roberson said at the Feb. 1 hearing that he didn't realize how badly his son was injured until he saw pictures of him afterward and recalled "how emotional the pictures were when I first saw them." "I'm sorry he got injured in this accident," he said. "If I could go back in time to that day I never would have left him." Roberson, who has two other children with two other mothers, said, "I love my son and I love all of them the same." A former Stanford swimmer's six-month sentence for sexual assault sparked nationwide outrage this month, and it's now the driving force behind new legislation that would set a mandatory minimum sentence for convicted rapists of unconscious victims. The proposal, for a three-year minimum sentence, is being supported by Santa Clara County's top prosecutor, District Attorney Jeff Rosen, whose criticism of the sentence helped spur the outcry. Rosen is a sponsor of Assembly Bill 2888, which was introduced Tuesday by Assemblymen Evan Low, D-Campbell, and Bill Dodd, D-Napa, and co-sponsored by state Sen. Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo. Rosen made the announcement on the steps of the same Palo Alto courthouse where Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky sentenced Brock Turner to six months in jail for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman outside a Stanford campus party in 2015. Standing next to him was Deputy District Attorney Alaleh Kianerci, the prosecutor in the case. Turner will end up serving three months, having faced a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison. Online county jail records show he is scheduled for release on Sept. 2. That sentence ignited a nationwide firestorm and calls to recall the judge. Over a million people have signed a petition pushing for a state judicial commission to take action. "We need to change the law to protect the next Emily Doe from the next Brock Turner," Rosen said. "Let's give the next campus sexual assault victim no reason to fear that her attacker will end up walking around free after spending less time in jail than it takes to finish a single college semester," he said. On June 2, Persky declared that there were "unusual circumstances" in the case and sentenced Turner to six months in jail for his sexual assault convictions. The victim read a 12-page letter to the judge that documented her anguish; it went viral after it was posted online, and in a historic move, was even read aloud by congressional leaders on the floor of the U.S. House. In the letter, she identifies herself simply as "Emily Doe." "We've read her letter, now let's give her back something beyond worldwide sympathy and anger," Rosen said. Currently, state law allows a defendant convicted of sexual assault on an unconscious victim to be eligible for probation. The proposed legislation would require a state prison sentence regardless of the victim's awareness of the act, Rosen said. "This means that a judge can't look at relative youth, nominal criminal history and means characteristics shared by many college students as mitigating factors and give probation," Rosen said. He said the bill would make the sentence for sexual assault on an unconscious victim the same as for a conscious victim: three to eight years in prison. "Sexually assaulting an unconscious woman is as serious as sexually assaulting a conscious person," Rosen said. "There should be no distinction between those because rape is rape. The trauma to the victim, whether conscious or unconscious, is often life-long." Deputy Public Defender Sajid Khan, however, is opposed to increasing the minimum sentencing for all sexual predators. He counted himself among more than a dozen public defenders who are concerned that stricter sentencing guidelines will lead to mass incarceration. "Were limiting judicial discretion and their ability to take into account individualized circumstances into sentencing," Khan said. "We want a more holistic analysis of each case." Rosen also responded to questions from reporters on a petition to recall Persky, reiterating his belief that while Turner's six-month sentence was wrong, the judge had every right to issue the punishment. Ultraviolet, an advocacy group against sexism and supportive of women's rights, initiated a campaign calling for the state Commission on Judicial Performance to remove Persky from the bench. Nearly a million people have signed the petition, which was sent to the commission's office in San Francisco earlier this month. Another petition seeking Persky's removal, on change.org, has about 1.25 million signatures. In a statement Wednesday, Ultraviolet co-founder Nita Chaudhary said the group agrees with Rosen's stance on the sentence, but doesn't support his proposal for rapists to receive mandatory prison sentences. "We agree ... that Judge Persky's sentencing of Brock Turner is an outrage, and that too often rapists spend little to no time in jail for their crimes. However, his proposal of mandatory minimum sentencing for rapists is not only bad policy generally, but also the wrong solution for this case," Chaudhary said in the statement. She continued: "Rosen's proposal also does nothing to hold Judge Persky - a man who chose to protect a privileged white athlete and rapist over the survivor of his crimes - accountable for his decision. "While it is long past time that our justice system take the crime of rape seriously, we need judges who focus on finding justice for rape survivors, not the re-hashing of bad policies that rig the system against poor people and people of color," she said. A hearing in Sacramento next week will focus on Rosen's proposed law. Meanwhile, Assemblywoman Nora Campos of San Jose is expected to introduction legislation that would require sexual predators to serve their entire sentence and eliminate their eligibility for early release. The Castro is dressing up for SF Pride this weekend and a good part of the wardrobe will be a special tribute to the victims of the Orlando shooting. Members of the LGBTQ community say SF Pride is more important than ever on the heels of a terrorist attack that killed 49 people at a gay nightclub in Florida. Richard Sizemore decided last week to form an SF Pride Orlando memorial contingent for this weekend's parade. Volunteers are signing up to carry 49 memorial boards adorned with the faces and names of the Orlando victims. "It's gonna be a very heavy Pride; I just feel like there's this tension hanging in the air, and sadness," Sizemore said. Elsewhere, Ray Tilton, of Santa Rosa, also is turning his grief into action, organizing the LGBTQ United March Against Gun Violence in Washington, D.C. The group is waiting for permit approval for an October event, he said. "I just felt we've gotta do something," Tilton said. SF Pride events begin Saturday with a free festival at San Francisco's Civic Center Plaza then culminate with the 46th annual SF LGBT Pride Parade on Sunday. Security already is being stepped up at LGBTQ bars and clubs this week, and SF Pride organizers recently announced increased security measures for the weekend celebration, including screening and metal detectors at all points of entry. There will be a signicant police presence at all activities, with both uniformed and plain-clothes officers on duty, according to the SF Pride website. Rebellious Democrats staged an extraordinary round-the-clock sit-in on the House floor Wednesday to demand votes on gun-control bills, shouting down Speaker Paul Ryan when he attempted to restore order as their protest stretched into the night. The stunning and unruly scene was broadcast live to the world from Democrats' cell phones, feeds picked up by C-SPAN after Republicans shut down the network's cameras. The sit-in was well into its 10th hour, with Democrats camped out on the floor stopping legislative business in the House, when Ryan stepped to the podium to gavel the House into session and hold votes on routine business. Angry Democrats chanted "No bill, no break!" and waved pieces of paper with the names of gun victims, continuing their protest in the well of the House even as lawmakers voted on a previously scheduled and unrelated measure to overturn a veto by President Barack Obama. Ryan attempted to ignore the outbursts and announce the business of the day, pounding down his gavel over shouting. "Shame! Shame! Shame!" Democrats yelled, but Ryan left the lectern and the voting continued. Then Democrats began singing "We Shall Overcome," still holding up the names of gun victims. The scene presented a radical, almost shocking departure from the normal orderly conduct of the House. As the night stretched on Republicans signaled plans to push through a bill to deal with the Zika outbreak and then adjourn until after July 4 to shut Democrats down, a plan Democrats furiously denounced as "cowardly". Republicans hoped to present themselves as soberly attending to business and Democrats as disruptive. Democrats said they would stay until Republicans yielded to their demands to hold votes on bills to strengthen background checks and prevent people on the no fly list from getting guns in the wake of last week's massacre in Orlando, Florida. "Are they more afraid than the children at Sandy Hook?" asked Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif., referring to the 2012 shooting that killed 26 people, including 20 elementary school children, in Newtown, Connecticut. "What is so scary about having a vote?" Rep. John Lewis, a veteran civil rights leader, asked what Congress has done, then answered his own question: "Nothing. We have turned a deaf ear to the blood of innocents. We are blind to a crisis. Where is our courage?" Ryan dismissed the protest as "nothing more than a publicity stunt," and in an interview with CNN, made clear there would be no vote. "We're not going to take away a citizen's constitutional rights without due process," he said. The protest began around 11:30 a.m., interrupted briefly when Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, tried to start the House's work at noon. The customary prayer and Pledge of Allegiance went ahead, but Poe was forced to recess the House when dozens of Democrats refused to leave the well. By evening, 168 House Democrats out of 188 and 34 Senate Democrats joined the protest, according to the House minority leader's office. One after another, they spoke of the need for gun control and talked of constituents who had been killed. Scattered around the House floor were signs reading "Disarm Hate." Visitors watched from the galleries. A crowd of several hundred gun control advocates gathered outside the Capitol and cheered as Democrats addressed them. Congress remains gridlocked over gun control, a divide even more pronounced in a presidential election year. The sit-in had the feel of a 1960s-style protest, as some lawmakers sat on the floor, others in their seats. Republicans had staged a similar protest in 2008. Democrats controlling the House at the time turned off the cameras amid a GOP push for a vote to expand oil and gas drilling. Republicans occupied the floor, delivering speeches after then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi sent the House on its August recess. Pelosi ordered the cameras turned off. Republicans ultimately forced the drilling provision to be attached to a stopgap spending bill. C-SPAN, a cable and satellite network that provides continual coverage of House and Senate floor proceedings, does not control the cameras. They're run on authorization by legislative leaders. Although the cameras were turned off Wednesday, lawmakers relied on social media to transmit video, using Facebook, Twitter and Periscope. C-SPAN broadcast live video streamed on Periscope and Facebook from lawmakers' accounts. Democrats posted the Capitol's main telephone number, which was overwhelmed, and urged constituents to call and request a vote. They also encouraged tweeting under the hashtag #NoBillNoBreak. Democratic senators joining the protest included Minority Leader Harry Reid, Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Chris Murphy, D-Conn., who had waged a nearly 15-hour filibuster last week to force votes in the Senate on gun legislation. Those votes failed Monday night. The Chicago Teachers Union demonstrated downtown Wednesday demanding a long-term funding solution for public education. Union members said more funding cuts were not acceptable and blamed politicians from City Hall to Springfield. Its been a litany of one cut after another, CTU Vice President Jesse Sharkey said. CPS responded to the protest Wednesday, placing blame on Gov. Bruce Rauner for the districts financial woes. The CTU leadership could not be more counterproductive at a time when our students desperately need equal funding from the state, CPS spokeswoman Emily Bittner said in a statement. Instead of holding Governor Rauner accountable for his abject failure to fully and equitably fund education, the CTU leadership is trying to triple tax Chicago taxpayers. "Since the General Assembly has come so far in advancing education funding reform, now is not the time for the CTU leadership to let Governor Rauner off the hook, Bittner added. Meanwhile, Rauner wrote an op-ed for the Daily Herald Wednesday claiming suburban and downstate taxpayers shouldnt pay for Chicagos mess. In the piece, Rauner said he pushed an education funding bill to fully fund schools and blamed Democrats for not enacting it before the end of the spring legislative session last month. Rauner also pushed his education stopgap in the article, claiming it would increase the states school funding by $240 million. Again, the governor blamed Democrats for not enacting the legislation. Democrats want to force suburban and downstate taxpayers to bailout CPS from years of financial mismanagement and declining student enrollment - to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars, Rauner said in the editorial. Rauner noted that CPS was receiving less money through the states school funding formula because enrollment has dropped. Nevertheless, he also called for changes to the formula, but claimed there was not a consensus on the matter within the General Assembly. Rauner claimed some Democrats were holding up school funding in order to force a change in the formula. To hold districts hostage in an attempt to sneak in a new school funding formula that will disproportionately send more money to CPS will not solve our inequitable funding formula for the long term, Rauner added. On Wednesday, CPS announced a plan to file an unfair labor practice charge against the union on behalf of the teachers who didnt participate in the April 1 strike. CPS holds that the strike was illegal and that teachers shouldnt be expelled from the union for reporting to work. Teachers came to work on April 1 because their calling is educating their students, CPS CEO Forrest Claypool said in a statement. These dedicated professionals should not be expelled for exercising their right to refuse participation in an illegal strike - especially when they came to school to put their students first. The unfair labor practice charge is based on the right of education personnel to refuse to engage in an illegal strike, under the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act. Thousands of teachers demonstrated for the one-day strike in April against inaction in the city and Springfield, as well as the fallout from the states lingering budget impasse. April 1 was about long-term progressive revenue for our schools, CTU spokeswoman Stephanie Gadlin said in a statement. Educators chose to strike to illustrate the lack of political will in city hall, the Illinois General Assembly and the governors mansion to stand up for 300,000-plus school children. An ordinance regulating the proposed plaza next to Wrigley Field was approved by the Chicago City Council Committee on License and Consumer Protection Tuesday, although the Cubs claim the measure limits the area's potential. Under the plan, the Cubs will now be allowed to operate the plaza next to the stadium. The ordinance restricts hours of operation and alcohol sales on the plaza. Mayor Rahm Emanuel lauded the ordinances passage Tuesday. This is a significant step forward on a reasonable agreement that will allow the Cubs to offer new opportunities to their fans, while maintaining a high quality of life for those who live in the neighborhood, Emanuel said in a statement. This is further proof of the progress that is possible when you choose compromise over combat and the City of Chicago will be better off as a result of all sides coming together. According to the Chicago Tribune, Cubs executive Mike Lufrano told officials before the vote that the ordinance "places limits which will lessen the promise of this plaza." Lufrano also said the team envisions a family friendly plaza and hoped the ordinance would remain a work-in-progress. Under the plan, beer and wine would be sold until one hour after day games end and until the end of night games. If there is a rain delay, sales would be cut off by 11p.m, the Tribune reported. Additionally, the Cubs would be allowed to hold up to 12 other events in the plaza, including five large concerts. Alcohol sales would be cut off one hour before the end of events, which would run no later than 10 p.m. from Sunday to Thursday and 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. The plaza would only be open to ticket holders for games and events and would be required to close 45 minutes after the end of a game or event. To be considerate of parents and children during the school year, there is a provision in the legislation that prohibits the team from holding concerts at the stadium from Labor Day to June 15. Other events between Sunday and Thursday during that time are required to end by 9 p.m. According to the Tribune, Cubs spokesman Julian Greene brought up the possibility of legal action after the vote, claiming the concert ban might violate the city's 2013 agreement with the Ricketts family, who own the team. The agreement launched the family's $750 million renovation of Wrigley Field and its surrounding area. Ald. Tom Tunney, who first introduced an ordinance for the plaza in 2013, unveiled the updated plan earlier this month. The Cubs called some rules unfair, namely the caveat that only allows ticketed patrons in the plaza during games. The team originally envisioned a plaza that could possibly available 365 days a year. On Tuesday, Tunney said the revised plan includes input from the mayor, the neighborhood and the team. If passed, the ordinance would lapse in three years. What one mother said first seemed like an adorable photo of her young preschooler being mischievous, quickly turned into a wake-up call for many. Stacey Wehrman Feeley took a photo of her 3-year-old daughter standing on a toilet at first because she thought it was funny, she wrote in a now-viral Facebook post. The photo shows the little girl in a bright dress standing on a toilet with her arm against the wall. The moment she told me what she was doing I broke down, Feeley wrote. She was practicing for a lockdown drill at her preschool and what you should do if you are stuck in a bathroom. At that moment all innocense [sic] of what I thought my three-year-old possessed was gone. The Michigan mom went on to talk about how the photo speaks to the issue of gun control currently sweeping the nation. Politicians - take a look, she wrote. "This is your child, your children, your grandchildren, your great grand children [sic] and future generations to come. They will live their lives and grow up in this world based on your decisions. They are barely 3 and they will hide in bathroom stalls standing on top of toilet seats. The post has since been shared more than 22,800 times and received nearly as many likes. Just over a week after the massacre at an Orlando nightclub, gun control has been at the forefront of a national debate. Most recently, a divided Senate voted down four gun control measures proposed from both sides. Monday's votes came after Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., led a near 15-hour filibuster last week demanding a Senate response to the Orlando killings. Murphy entered the Senate shortly after the December 2012 massacre of 20 first-graders and six educators in Newtown, Connecticut, but that slaughter and others have failed to spur Congress to tighten gun curbs. The last were enacted in 2007, when the background check system was strengthened after that year's mass shooting at Virginia Tech. I am not pretending to have all the answers or even a shred of them, but unless you want your children standing on top of a toilet, we need to do something, Feeley wrote. A Chicago police officer is credited with saving several lives after she ran into a burning building Tuesday to get several residents and their pets out safely. Officer Jennifer Jacobucci, a 10-year veteran of the Chicago Police Department, was traveling on the expressway finishing up her shift around 11:30 a.m. when she noticed massive flames shooting out of a home in the citys Logan Square neighborhood. She immediately drove off the expressway and to the home quickly being overtaken by the blaze. As I approached, the building was totally engulfed in flames, she said. She immediately ran inside and was able to help four residents and three pets get out safely. For me, I wouldnt want my family to go through that so I wanted to make sure they got out safe, she said. Residents say Jacobucci went from room to room, helping them exit unscathed. Joe Galindo said hi 17-year-old Australian Shepherd was among the animals rescued Tuesday. Im very thankful for her to save my dog, he said. It wasnt until after Jacobucci got out and saw the destruction she realized how horribly the blaze could have ended. We're all police officers, she said. Doesn't matter where stuff is happening in the city, if you see something going on I would that hope everybody would step up to plate and do what we need to do. Fire officials said the extra-alarm fire was put out around 12:45 p.m. and had been caused by unsupervised cooking on a back porch. A firefighter suffered a minor injury to her hand while battling the blaze, but no other injuries were reported. One family dog living in the building did not survive, authorities said. As summer begins, the potential for severe storms and tornados becomes more common. Whether you live in a house or a high-rise, it is important to make a decision about where you and your family should seek shelter in severe weather. The National Weather Service (NWS) in Chicago has several tips on how to stay safe during an emergency weather situation. 1. Create a plan ahead of time where your family will seek shelter when a tornado warning is issued. 2. If you are living in a high-rise building, you do not have to get into a basement if there is limited time before the tornado reaches your location. Identify a small interior room in order to maximize the number of walls and minimize the number of windows between you and the outside. 3. Get under a heavy table or work bench if a small interior room is not available to you. 4. Go underneath a stairwell if there are no other safe options. The stairwell provides stability and concrete walls as protection. 5. Avoid long corridors with windows and large openings. If the walls and roof are taken out by extreme winds, it will collapse and the broken glass will fly down the corridors. 6. Do not open windows as it will give wind a way into the building. 7. If you are in a location with a lot of glass, find something, whether a piece of clothing or firm object to cover your head. 8. Crouch as low as possible to avoid debris from hitting you. 9. Bring a flashlight in case the power goes out. 10. Do not rely on sirens. They are directed to those outdoors and if the wind is blowing in the opposite direction, the sound waves wont get to you. A weather radio can notify you in the event of a tornado as well as wireless emergency alerts on your phone. Having multiple ways to get warnings is helpful in case power is lost. According to meteorologist Jamie Enderlen at the NWS Chicago, there are 13 minutes between when the NWS issues a warning and when a tornado hits. Execute your plan into action immediately and seek safety as soon as a warning is issued. An attorney has filed notices on behalf of two men who allege police used excessive force while arresting them earlier this month. Attorney Corey Brinson says his clients, Emilio Diaz and Ricardo Perez were physically beaten and mentally traumatized during the arrest by Hartford and West Hartford officers on June 4. On that night, Hartford police began chasing a driver in a stolen car. The chase continued through several residential streets, before coming to an end on Flatbush Avenue in West Hartford, according to police. A dashcam mounted in a West Hartford police cruiser appears to show Hartford officers kicking and stomping one of the suspects, who was in handcuffs at the time, police said. The Hartford Police Department launched an internal investigation into the incident the following day after the suspects' faces appeared bruised and cut in their mug shots and raised concerns in the department. Police also asked the Chief State's Attorney's Office to investigate. In letters to Hartford and West Hartford last week, Brinson notified both municipalities of his intent to sue to "recover for the losses" caused by the actions of the officers. Hartford and West Hartford would not comment on the pending lawsuit. Donald Trump launched a broad rebuke of his presidential rival Hillary Clinton Wednesday, accusing her of being "a world class liar" who personally profited from her tenure at the State Department. "She gets rich making you poor," Trump said. Seeking to steady his campaign after a difficult stretch, the presumptive Republican nominee cast himself as the White House candidate best positioned to address Americans' economic interests. "This election will decide whether we're ruled by the people or the politicians," Trump said during an address at his hotel in New York's SoHo neighborhood. He made his arguments in a pointed yet measured tone, less loud and strident than has been typical in most previous campaign speeches. The speech marked an opening salvo against Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, in the general election campaign. It came as the real estate mogul faced growing questions about his readiness not just for the presidency, but for the campaign he will need to run to get there. Trump made a direct appeal to supporters of Clinton's primary rival Bernie Sanders, urging them to help him fix a "rigged system." He also argued his trade and immigration policies would be more beneficial than Clinton's for blacks and Hispanics, two groups that have overwhelmingly voted for Democrats in recent presidential elections. Still, the central goal of Trump's speech appeared to be uniting the Republican Party and appealing to people who may be skeptical of him but vigorously oppose Clinton. He unleashed a grab bag of Republicans' favorite criticisms of Clinton, including her use of a private email server while she was secretary of state, her response to the deadly 2012 attacks on Americans in Benghazi, Libya, and accusations that she and former President Bill Clinton profited from their family foundation. "Hillary Clinton may be the most corrupt person ever to seek the presidency," Trump said. The Republican candidate also argued that Clinton's opposition to a massive Asia-Pacific trade pact was an example of her political opportunism, noting that she had worked on the agreement while at the State Department and has previously backed free trade accords. And he took aim at her immigration policies, saying her call for providing those in the U.S. illegally with a path to citizenship amounted to "mass amnesty." Trump's remarks came one day after Clinton launched her own blistering attacks on her White House rival. She moved to undercut Trump's argument that his business record would help him create jobs as president, arguing instead that he had been "reckless" with his companies and "shouldn't have his hands on our economy." The only thing Donald Trump offered today was more hypocritical lies and nutty conspiracy theories," Clinton said in a response on Wednesday. "This is more distraction from a candidate that cannot answer or dispute any of yesterdays criticism of his business record." Trump also tried to turn Clinton's strengths into negatives. He spent much of his speech trying to undercut her foreign policy record, highlighting her early support of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, which she now says was a mistake, and linking the policies she promoted at the State Department to the rise of the Islamic State terror group. "The Hillary Clinton foreign policy has cost America thousands of lives and trillions of dollars and trillions of dollars and unleashed ISIS across the world," Trump said. Trump's speech came on the heels of his firing Monday of campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, a controversial figure who was seen as an impediment to efforts to build out a more robust campaign organization. A new fundraising report released hours after Lewandowski's firing underscored how much ground Trump has to make up: he started June with just $1.3 million in the bank. Trump allies cast Lewandowski's firing this week as the start of a new phase for the campaign. Paul Manafort, the campaign chairman and Lewandowski's internal rival, signaled on a conference call with aides that a rapid staffing expansion would be coming soon. Tennessee Republican Sen. Bob Corker, who has been seen as a potential vice presidential pick, said he was "pretty excited" to learn of the changes. "I think that what appears to be occurring over the last 24 hours is a movement in a direction that I think could be very, very positive," Corker said. NBC 5 invites you to make plans now to celebrate our nations independence on and along the Trinity River at Fort Worths Fourth! The family-friendly festival will take place July 4th at Panther Island Pavilion. As always, general admission is free along with tubing and an entire kids zone. A favorite addition from last year, the event will bring back the option for event patrons to experience the festival in style with VIP tickets. VIP tickets are on sale now and amenities include: prime fireworks and water show views, reserved seating, a shaded lounge area, private bathrooms and a cash bar, VIP parking and more. The free kid zone will include pony rides, face painting, bounce houses, interactive exhibits, zip lines, levee slide, water slides and more. The celebration will take place all afternoon with family activities, tubing, water shows plus live music from Texas Country artist Gary P. Nunn and high-energy cover band, Party Machine. Tickets to the VIP area will cost $40 and seating is limited. Tickets sold out quickly last year, we encourage purchasing tickets online in advance. Tickets can be purchased at FortWorthsFourth.com. Food, soda, water and beer will be for purchase on site. Gates open at 2:00 p.m., live music will be from 6:00 p.m. - 9:30 p.m. and the largest fireworks show on the Fourth of July in North Texas will begin at approximately 10:00 p.m. Fort Worths Fourth is made possible thanks to presenting sponsors Tarrant Regional Water District, Andrews Distributing and Lockheed Martin. As well as supporting sponsors Tarrant County College, City of Fort Worth, Oncor, Streams & Valleys, Inc., NBC 5, 95.9 The Ranch, 92.1 Hank FM, Telemundo 39 and the Star-Telegram. The festival is produced by the Trinity River Vision Authority. Fort Worth's Fourth 2016 Monday, July 4 2 p.m. Gates Open 6 p.m. Live Music 10 p.m. Fireworks Panther Island Pavilion Banks of the Trinity River 395 Purcey Street Downtown Fort Worth, TX 76102 www.FortWorthsFourth.com Advertising sponsored in part by: What to Know Police are warning DFW residents about a scam. It's called "virtual kidnapping." Scammers will do whatever it takes to try and get you to wire them money over the phone. Cedar Hill police are warning North Texas residents about a kidnapping scam but it's one that doesnt actually involve any stolen children. "Virtual kidnapping" is the term police use in reference to a con where scammers use fear and threats over the phone to force people into wiring them money. Just Tuesday afternoon Cedar Hill police said a case of virtual kidnapping was nearly a success for one scammer. Police described a resident who received a phone call from a man who claimed he had his daughter held at gunpoint. The man threatened to kill his daughter if he didn't leave the house to go to a bank in the next 30 seconds and wire him money. The resident left his house immediately, police said. Luckily, the resident's wife was home and she went to check their daughter's bedroom where she found her safe and sound. The scammers hung up after being caught in the act by the resident, police said. This is a type of scam "in which no real physical harm or danger exists but scammers use time and intimidation tactics to force their victims into wiring them money," Cedar Hill police said in a statement. Police added that the scam has been around for quite a while, and they warn anyone who thinks they may have been scammed to contact police as soon as possible. Here is some more information from the Cedar Hill Police Department about virtual kidnapping: The scammers may know your name and the name of a loved one who's being threatened. They may even know the area where you are and they'll prove it by telling you what exit to take or even the exact bank to go to. They will do everything they can to keep you on the phone. In many cases, they get this information from social media profiles which are open for public viewing. Be sure to check your privacy settings on all of your social media accounts. A former American Airlines operations manager who learned of the first Sept. 11 hijacking before the jet struck the World Trade Center is set to plead guilty to a federal interstate child-sex charge in Pittsburgh. Frank Walker, the attorney for 55-year-old Ray Howland, confirmed his client will plead guilty Wednesday afternoon. Howland, of Arlington, was arrested near Pittsburgh International Airport last June by an undercover state attorney general's agent who posed as a woman with a 10-year-old daughter. Howland used an iPad and a cellphone to send explicit messages after posting online that he was "looking for a family or a couple of girls" for sex while in town on business, Walker said the plea deal includes an agreed-upon 10-year prison sentence. He says Howland has undergone counseling and has his family's support. Authorities said one person was injured in a crash involving a Dallas police officer Wednesday morning. [[383922691,C]] Dallas police said officer and another vehicle involved in the crash near the intersection of Marsh Lane and West Northwest Highway at about 5 a.m. Dallas Fire-Rescue officials said one person involved in the crash was transported to a hospital. There is no word yet if the officer was transported. No further details have yet been released. An unattended bag found near a Terminal D ticketing desk Wednesday at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport was not dangerous, airport officials say. The bag was reported near the check-in area for Korean and Emirates airlines, in the south ticketing hall of the international terminal at about 10 a.m., according to travelers who spoke with NBC 5. DFW DPS responding to an unattended bag at a Terminal D ticket counter. Customers have been moved from the area. D22 & D30 checkpoints open. DFW Airport (@DFWAirport) June 22, 2016 Passengers in the terminal told NBC 5 that security cleared everyone from the area and brought in dogs to investigate the bag. Airport officials said shortly before noon that "the investigation of the unattended bag didn't reveal anything of concern." Departure entrance closed at @DFWAirport terminal D, because of security concern, command post set up. #NBCDFWNow pic.twitter.com/W4wLyEByiV Alice Barr (@AliceBarrNBC) June 22, 2016 "The situation in Terminal D is all clear and operations are returning to normal," airport officials said in a statement. "Customers have been allowed back into the south ticketing hall and all areas of Terminal D, and check-in and security checkpoint operations are resuming." While the bag was investigated, the south hall and D18 security checkpoint were closed and travelers were diverted to security checkpoints at D22 and D30, which remained open and operational. News about 10 pregnant women in Dallas County who preliminary tested positive for the Zika virus has many North Texas families concerned. Pregnant women are calling their doctors and looking for guidance. "Those are issues we are facing in our office these days and phone calls that we're receiving," said Dr. Ashley Zink, a maternal fetal medicine specialist. "The recommendations are evolving." Veronica Riojas had a routine visit with her doctor at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Plano on Tuesday. Her baby is due next week. "I had a mosquito bite and I showed it to my doctor. Thankfully, he reassured me it was OK," said Riojas. "I asked him three or four times." Riojas postponed a trip to Mexico and has taken extra precautions. "My dad got a big fog spray and did my whole backyard. We don't have any standing water. We got rid of our fountains," Riojas said. "I'm not outside as much. I have bug spray and I don't go anywhere." Dr. Richard Kaye will deliver Riojas' baby. "We're in Texas in the summer. It has been raining here. People are going to get bites. Until we get mosquitoes here with the Zika virus, they (pregnant women) should just consider those bites," said Kaye. "The primary question I get relates to travel, and I've had patients with travel plans to go to Mexico. Some have canceled and some have not." "It's a risk you can't recover from. There's not treatment for it. It is too high of a risk to take. Don't go," Kaye added. The city of White Settlement is set to reopen its troubled water park months after it was shut down. As NBC DFW reported in April, news that the Hawaiian Falls park was closing came as a shock to the 150 employees signed up to work there this summer. The city ended its operations agreement with Hawaiian Falls because the park was late with the rent. "They were supposed to pay us $600,000 last October and another $300,000 this April," City Manager Jim Ryan told NBC DFW last spring. "We have been working around the clock to make the park better than it's ever been," said Ryan. "The Park was in shambles when Hawaiian Falls left, but our city employees and staff mobilized to do six months of work in 60 days." The city is giving away a limited number of free tickets on opening day, which is set for Friday, July 1. Park hours are 11 a.m. through 8 p.m. until Aug. 21, when it will be open on weekends-only through Labor Day. A new food operator was hired to improve food quality and service in all four concession areas of the park, and overall pricing on admission, food and beverages will be lower than in previous years. Alcohol is banned from the park, but visitors can bring in their own outside food and drink in a small cooler. The headmaster of Boston Latin School has resigned amid federal and city investigations into the handling of racially charged incidents at the prestigious public school. Dr. Lynne Mooney Teta is resigning after nine years at the helm, according to Boston Public Schools. "We have faced challenges this year, and I have been greatly encouraged by the commitment of students, faculty, families and alumni to work together to collaboratively address issues of racism and discrimination in our community," Teta said in a letter to Boston Latin's community. The nation's oldest public school was thrust into the spotlight in January when minority students publicized their complaints about alleged racial harassment and discrimination. Boston's NAACP branch called on Teta to resign. "Boston Public Schools now has an opportunity to embed leadership that values diversity and inclusion, rejects racial bigotry, and is responsive to every student, parent, teacher, and alum," said Michael Curry, president of the NAACP's Boston branch, in a statement to the Boston Globe. "Now is the time to finally address the diversity of the faculty and the student body." The U.S. attorney in Massachusetts launched an investigation in March after community members and civil rights organizations submitted a written complaint. A Boston Public Schools report released earlier this year found seven incidents related to race and ethnicity at Boston Latin between November 2014 and January 2016. According to the school district's Office of Equity, the school failed to adequately respond to a student's threat to lynch a 15-year-old black classmate. "After weeks of self-reflection and frank conversations, I realize that in important ways I have not succeeded," Teta wrote in an open letter to the school community in February. "I am truly sorry." The office issued a set of recommendations to Superintendent Tommy Chang in an effort to "improve the culture and climate" at the school, which Chang pledged to implement. Chang thanked Teta for her work in a statement issued Tuesday. "In recent months, several students bravely shined a light on the issue of cultural proficiency at BLS, illuminating a problem that exists not only at this school but across our city and country. Under Lynne's guidance, BLS faculty worked with student leaders to develop a comprehensive plan to create a more welcoming and inviting environment for all students," he said. "These efforts must continue, but I feel confident that the steps taken have firmly put BLS on a path of continued growth." Boston Mayor Marty Walsh also issued a statement thanking Teta for her "nine years of dedication." Walsh said he looks forward to working with the next headmaster to "carry on the school's tradition of academic excellence, while creating a positive environment for all." Boston Latin was founded in 1635 and names among its notable alunmni five signers of the Declaration of Independence, including John Hancock, Samuel Adams and Benjamin Franklin. A friend of Omar Mateen told NBC News the Orlando shooter began listening to jihadist propaganda after a mutual friend was killed in a suicide bombing in Syria. Prior to 2014, Mohammad Malik says, he never heard Mateen express extremist views or say anything homophobic. But after the bombing, Mateen began listening to recordings of Anwar al-Awlaki, the radical Islamic cleric killed by a U.S. drone strike in Yemen three years earlier. A suicide bomber, Moner Mohammad Abu-Salha, had said in videos that al-Awlaki inspired him. Mateen told Malik that he thought the messages were "very powerful," and that's when he called the FBI. After the agents investigated Mateen, they determined that his comments to co-workers were not a threat. After the mass shooting in Orlando, Malik is trying to make sense of the friend who became a killer. The last Democratic primary is done, President Obama, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Oprah have all endorsed Hillary Clinton, and Sen. Bernie Sanders is increasingly out of the limelight. With the country now focused on the race between Clinton and Republican Donald Trump, how much bargaining power does Sanders still have? Can the Democratic socialist from Vermont push the Democratic party any further toward the left? "People are paying less attention to him with each passing day," said Seth Masket, an associate professor of political science at the University of Denver. "Without contests, without media attention, he doesn't have anything. He has every incentive to try and make some sort of deal pretty quickly." Sanders still has not ended his campaign two weeks after Clinton became the Democrats' presumptive nominee, the first woman to do so for either major party. But in a C-SPAN interview on Wednesday, Sanders conceded, "It doesn't appear that I'm going to be the nominee." He will address his supporters about what comes next for his campaign in a speech in New York on Thursday called "Where We Go From Here." "Real change never takes place from the top on down or in the living rooms of wealthy campaign contributors," he said last week when he talked about continuing to press for economic and social justice. "It always occurs from the bottom on up when tens of millions of people say loudly and clearly, 'Enough is enough,' and they become engaged it the fight for justice." Leah Wright Rigueur, an assistant professor at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, said it continued to be important for Democrats to get the support of Sanders and his backers. He will campaign energetically against Trump, she said. Clinton met with Sanders last week and in an interview with USA Today the former secretary of state appeared to acknowledge Sanders' success in the primaries when talking about "progressive" Democrats being vetted as vice presidential candidates. Sanders said on C-SPAN that it would be a terrible mistake for Clinton to pick someone with roots in Wall Street. The Vermont senator could force fights at the convention over positions where he differs with Clinton -- over the U.S. relationship with Israel, whose prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, he has criticized, and the Glass-Steagall Act's banking regulations, which he would reinstate. He has called for imposing a ban on fracking and for federally administered single-payer health care, neither of which Clinton supports. He would raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour -- Clinton has said she backs $12 an hour though would encourage some states and cities to go higher. And Sanders opposes the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade deal Clinton championed while it was being negotiated but now is against. Sanders has already won an unprecedented say over the party's platform. He was awarded almost as many members on the committee writing the platform as Clinton, five to her six of the 15, and among his picks are James Zogby, an advocate for a more even-handed approach to Palestinian rights, and Cornell West, who challenged former Attorney General Eric Holder on why no banks were held accountable for the economic collapse in 2008. "His delegates to the platform committee are going to put forward a radical vision of what they imagine the Democratic Party to be," Rigueur said. "And so what happens after that is the hammering out of the platform." But presidents are not bound by a party's platform and most voters know little about them, said Keena Lipsitz, an associate professor at Queens College in New York City. Activists use them when they try to win over lawmakers and they can show how a party has evolved over time, but ordinary people care little about what's in them. "They dont really matter," she said. John Hudak, a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution, said that although Sanders' performance in the primaries gave him some power to seek changes, he needed to be careful not to overplay his hand. "He is not going to get everything he wants because at the end of the day he did not win the nomination," Hudak said. "The longer that he holds out on endorsement and a sign of party unity, the less eager Democrats will be to meet whatever demands he has." House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi told reporters on Wednesday that she hoped Sanders would endorse Clinton before the convention. Sanders knows what is at stake in November, she said. "Two words: 'Donald Trump.'" Sanders persists in calling for a fundamental transformation of the Democratic Party. He wants a change in its leadership, primaries open not just to registered Democrats, same-day registration and the elimination of super delegates, the party officials and leaders who are free to vote for any candidate at the national convention at the end of July in Philadelphia. Sanders wants the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, to be replaced. In the USA Today interview, Clinton noted that she did not choose Wasserman Schultz but also praised the congresswoman's commitment to defeating Trump. Masket said that he thought that the party would resist open primaries, which could enable voters other than Democrats to pick the nominee. Sanders might win a commitment for a task force to study the nominating process, maybe with Sanders as the chairman, he said. The national party has traditionally given state parties latitude about how to conduct their primaries. "It's not as if and it's important for Sanders supporters to understand this the DNC can wave a magic wand and change every nominating contest in the United States overnight," Hudak said. That said the Democratic Party could prompt nationwide changes if it wanted to, Masket said. The national committee protects Iowa's and New Hampshire's first in the nation voting status, for example. Eliminating super delegates could also be a sticking point, especially considering Trump's success in the Republican primaries. The Republican Party does not have super delegates. "It's sort of a tough sell for Sanders because in one sense there's a lot of skepticism of super delegates in the Democratic Party but if you look at what Republicans are doing this year, I imagine they wish to God that they had super delegates," Hudak said. "So I think the irony might be that if anything undermines Sanders desire to get rid of Democratic super delegates, it's the Republican nominee who is standing in the way." The Vermont senator should focus on building his movement, supporting candidates who share his views, finding a position that would allow him to further his goals, Lipsitz said. Were Democrats to regain control of the Senate, she could imagine him head of its budget committee. "Ultimately what matters is what Bernie Sanders does with all the excitement he's created and all these people who are following him," she said. "He needs to somehow turn that into something thats more long term." Only about half of his supporters plan to vote for Clinton in the national election, according to a Bloomberg poll of likely voters conducted earlier this month. Some of his supporters plan to demonstrate in his favor at the convention in Philadelphia from July 25 to 28. A group called Occupy DNC Convention, whose goal is to swing super delegates in Sanders' favor, has more than 28,000 members on Facebook. And more than a dozen former staff members from his campaign already have joined NextGen Climate, the group founded by billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer to build political power to fight climate change. The question now for Sanders is whether he becomes an integral part of the Democrats' strategy, Rigueur said. "Given how exciting this primary season has been, I don't think Bernie Sanders is going to walk off into the sunset and disappear," she said. After an 80-year-old woman fought off a man who beat her and attempted to sexually assault her in her Hollywood apartment, Los Angeles police Wednesday were seeking the public's help in identifying the man accused in the attack. The man entered the womans apartment building about 4 a.m. Saturday at the Hollywood Knickerbocker Apartments near the Pantages Theatre, the Los Angeles Police Department said. The accused attacker was caught on surveillance video pressing buttons on the call box until somebody buzzed him in. Somehow, the man made it past a security guard in the lobby of the senior subsidized housing complex. He knocked on the victim's door and pushed his way in when she opened it, police said. The woman lives alone. He then beat her and tried to sexually assault her, LAPD said. "He attempted to sexually assault her and she fought back - he became aggressive and significantly beat her up," LAPD Captain Matt Blake said. The man eventually ran away, and the woman managed to get help at a neighbor's apartment. She was critically injured, police said. The attack was random and the woman had never seen the attacker before, LAPD Captain William Hayes said. The break-in had residents on edge as police posted a flier on the door, warning seniors of the attack. "Oh, that's indefensible," Philip Park, a resident at the apartment building, said. "He's the scum of the earth." Detectives with the Robbery-Homicide Division described the man as a 25-year-old, 6-feet tall and weighing 220 pounds. Anyone who spots him is encouraged to call LAPD at at (213) 486-6910. Summertime, above all seasons, handily taps into our longing for the simpler pleasures of youth. That might be a cooling sprinkler with an oscillating head, or a late-night campout in the yard, or a trip down to the stand on the corner, the one swirling softserve into crunchy cones. Finding that summery softserve dream, with a side of swanky nowness, is about to be a reality 'round Silver Lake, and a very money-saving reality at that. For on Thursday, June 23 Magpies Softserve will be giving away "treats on the house!" in celebration of their grand opening. Oh yeah. Free softserve. Summer really must be here. And, yes, we did throw down "swanky nowness," which means that the flavors of ye olde aren't really what Magpies is all about. You'll definitely find spins on chocolate and vanilla in the form of Malted Milk Chocolate and Sweetened Cream, of course. But look for au courant flavors like Green Tea Brown Rice, Yuzu Honey, Thai Iced Tea, Horchata, and Cuban Espresso. To top off all of the lickable loveliness? Look for Salted Caramel Sauce, Toffee Rice Krispies, Graham Cracker Streusel, and more. Chefs Warren and Rose Schwartz first had the idea of an old-school softservery while visiting Palm Desert, which is, of course, a primo, good-golly-it's-hot place to enjoy such a cool-down dessert. If you can't make June 23's gooey giveaway, you can still pop in and buy a cone, the better to see the leaps and bounds softserve has made since your youth. Find Magpies near the corner of Hyperion and Griffith Park, and visit any day of the week but Monday. Now, your softserve summer dreams are taken care of; where to buy an oscillating sprinkler, plus a puptent for a backyard campout. A frequent City Hall gadfly brought a box cutter to a Public Safety Committee hearing at City Hall Tuesday, a councilman confirmed. Councilman Mitch Englander, who chairs the committee, said he ordered the gadfly who goes by the name "Herman," and sometimes "Batman" in reference to the mask he sometimes wears to be removed from the meeting after he refused to stop dancing in the aisles while holding a doll adorned in a Ku Klux Klan outfit. Council aides said the gadfly's full name is Armando Herman. Los Angeles Police Department officers who were escorting Herman from the meeting noticed "a sharp object protruding from his pants" that turned out to be a box cutter, Englander said. Englander told City News Service he is not sure if Herman walked through City Hall's metal detectors to get into the building, but said it is "very concerning" when weapons are brought into a government building, given recent incidences in San Bernardino and other places. Police spokeswoman Liliana Preciado said a box cutter is not considered a weapon, and police did not arrest Herman. Englander acknowledged City Hall's metal detectors are "old," but added "that doesn't mean they're not functioning." He noted that an "updated security plan" was recently approved, but declined to discuss the plan. He said it included equipment replacement, but did not specify what would be replaced. While KKK garb and imagery are often allowed at City Council meetings under free speech and public meeting laws, council members in recent weeks have pushed back on speakers who employ such references. Englander said signs and props that serve as distractions are not allowed at meetings, which prompted him to dismiss Herman from this morning's committee hearing after his use of the KKK-style doll. Wayne Spindler, another gadfly, was arrested last month on suspicion of making criminal threats. Spindler had allegedly submitted a comment card at a meeting chaired by Council President Herb Wesson that was covered in pictures of a man hanging from a noose and a caricature of a KKK member carrying a sign that says "Herb=(N-word).'' No charges have been announced against Spindler. Wesson has since obtained a temporary restraining order that requires Spindler to stay a certain distance away from him, but still allows Spindler to attend and speak at public meetings. A group of "highly-prolific" burglars are in custody in connection with a string of crimes including "knock-knock" home burglaries across Los Angeles County and a violent home-invasion robbery in Duarte, sheriff's officials said Wednesday. On March 4, four men pulled into the driveway of a Duarte home in a luxury SUV. One of them got into a struggle with the homeowner in the carport, while the three other men forced their way into the home, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said in a news release. Inside, the men punched and kicked the homeowner's wife as she tried to fight them off, detectives said. The men grabbed the couple's belongings from a bedroom and began to take off. A driver who had stopped in front of the home when he noticed what was going was nearly carjacked by one of the robbers. Surveillance video and witness accounts helped detectives identify the robbers and their SUV. In addition to the home-invasion robbery, the men were believed to be responsible for two burglaries and two attempted burglaries that same day. The men were identified as Los Angeles residents Ronald Wayne Johnson and Dion Andre Smith, both 24, and Timothy Dwayne Johnson, 29. The suspects are believed to be involved in numerous other residential burglaries in Los Angeles, Arcadia, Downey, Burbank, Glendale, Pasadena and Glendora, detectives said. "All three suspects are experienced, calculating and violent criminals, and documented South Los Angeles-area criminal street gang members," the sheriff's department said in the news release. The fourth man has yet to be charged, deputies said. Timothy Johnson, who is not related to Ronald Johnson, was already serving a four-year prison term in a Pasadena burglary and police pursuit case that led to his arrest four four days after the Duarte home-invasion. He faces additional charges including robbery, attempted carjacking and residential burglary, plus a criminal street terrorism act enhancement. If convicted, he will face a maximum prison sentence of more than 180 years. On June 14, Ronald Johnson was arrested at Los Angeles Airport Courthouse, where he was appearing on another residential burglary charge from a recent arrest by Beverly Hills police, detectives said. He faces 13 new charges including burglary and robbery, along with a criminal street terrorism act enhancement. If convincted, he could receive a maximum sentence of more than 200 years. He is being held in lieu of $1.42 million bail. On March 18, Smith was arrested. Charges filed against him include robbery, attempted carjacking and residential burglary, plus a criminal street terrorism act enhancement. He faces a maximum prison sentence of more than 165 years if convicted. He is being held on $1.04 million bail. Sheriff Jim McDonnell advises homeowners not to ignore a suspicious knock at the door. "If you hear a knock don't just stay quiet inside the house," McDonnell said. "Acknowledge it, let them know you're there and you're not interested in whatever it is they're selling." Two Southern California men were convicted Tuesday of federal charges for attempting to aid the Islamic State terrorist group. Nader Salem Elhuzayel and Muhanad Elfatih M.A. Badawi who are both 25 years old were convicted of conspiring to aid a foreign terrorist organization. Elhuzayel was also convicted of bank fraud while Badawi was convicted of aiding and abetting an attempt to provide support for terrorists, as well as financial aid fraud. Badawi's mother cried as the verdicts were announced. She declined to comment later. Jurors deliberated for just over an hour before reaching verdicts Tuesday morning. During the trial, prosecutors characterized the Orange County men as obsessively praising Islamic militants in Iraq and Syria on social media as they shared photos of beheadings of "unbelievers." Badawi's attorney, Kate Corrigan, conceded that her client engaged in a great deal of "un-American" and at times "repulsive" speech, but said Badawi "was a lot of talk and absolutely no action." She claimed her client was duped by a dishonest Elhuzayel about what he intended to do with money Badawi loaned him. Elhuzayel's attorney, meanwhile, argued that his client should be acquitted on the legal technicality that the United States did not recognize the Islamic State as a terrorist organization at the time of the defendant's arrest. Elhuzayel used the ISIS flag as his profile picture on a Facebook account, according to prosecutors, who said Badawi in October 2014 made a video of Elhuzayel swearing allegiance to the leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and pledging to travel to Syria to be an ISIS fighter. In March 2015, Badawi received a $2,865 Pell grant, which prosecutors said he used two months later to purchase a one-way airline ticket for Elhuzayel from Los Angeles International Airport to Tel Aviv, Israel, with a six-hour layover in Istanbul. Elhuzayel, who operated a scheme to rip off banks by depositing stolen checks into his personal accounts and then withdrawing cash from automated teller machines, was arrested at the airport. Assistant U.S. Attorney Deirdre Eliot told jurors the two would post provocative comments on social media, such as Badawi saying, "Either you're with (al-Baghdadi) or you're with Barack Obama." Elhuzayel posted at one point, 'May God grant us 72 virgins" for martyring themselves, Eliot said. Elhuzayel's attorney, Pal Lengyel-Leahu, characterized his client's social media activity as "cheerleading," which would be protected free speech "even if it makes you cringe." He likened it to "picking sides'' between the Yankees and Red Sox. Elhuzayel is an Israeli citizen and was flying there to marry a woman he had met online, Lengyel-Leahu said. His baggage was checked through to Israel, the attorney said. Lengyel-Leahu told reporters after the verdicts that his client would have run into trouble if he tried to enter the Islamic State with an Israeli citizen's ID and passport, indicating he was traveling to get married, not aid terrorists. Badawi's attorney said his "misguided friendship" led him to give Elhuzayel his Pell Grant money to buy the plane ticket. Badawi, at 6-foot-4 and about 125 pounds, is in no physical shape to be an Islamic State fighter, Corrigan said, joking, "I could take him." Badawi had no idea his friend was allegedly stealing money in the check-cashing scheme, Corrigan said. Badawi made headlines in December when he lost so much weight while in custody that U.S. District Judge David O. Carter issued an order to force-feed him. At one hearing, Carter even reached into his pocket to buy peanut butter, bread and other groceries for Badawi at a local store so he could have something to eat in court and avoid the force-feeding. Elhuzayel, who is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 19, could face hundreds of years in prison. Prosecutors have also filed an assets forfeiture action against the defendant, meaning he could have to pay up to $5,000 to the government, his attorney said. Badawi, who is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 26, faces up to 35 years behind bars. The mass shooting of 49 victims in Orlando in which the killer called 911 pledging allegiance to the Islamic State prompted Carter to question jurors again about their ability to remain neutral as evidence was being presented. One woman said she could no longer serve on the jury, so she was excused, Corrigan said. Corrigan said the verdicts should give "a clear signal to all young people" to watch what they say on social media. "Ultimately, it was their Twitter feeds, Facebook posts, texts and calls that took these young men down," Corrigan told reporters. Badawi's family fled the genocide in Darfur and were "educated, hardworking folks," Corrigan said, adding her client is "gentle" and soft-spoken and that his friend, Elhuzayel, led him astray. If Badawi hadn't have used his Pell grant money to buy the ticket for his friend, he might not have ended up in court, Corrigan said. "He made a critical error," she said. Corrigan characterized Elhuzayel as "stupid" and a "gutless wonder," and she ridiculed his attorney's argument that the government had not yet recognized ISIS as a terrorist organization. Badawi faces an even greater threat than prison if he is deported as expected, Corrigan said. She said that could amount to a "death sentence" for her client. Joining together, in song, has long been a way to heal, to raise hope, and to honor the memory of those who have gone. The Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles responded to the shooting at Pulse nightclub in Orlando with an emotional appearance at a Los Angeles City Hall gathering on Monday, June 13. The spirit of "Gentle Angry People" imbued the large crowd, with the chorus hewing close to the idea that the victims will remain at the forefront of people's hearts and minds. The honoring of their legacy and lives will continue at Saturday, June 25 and Sunday, June 26 when the Mano a Mano, a gay men's chorus from Cuba, joins the Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles on stage at the Alex Theatre in Glendale. Pulse Victims Fund will receive a portion of the proceeds from both shows. "Oye Mi Canto From LA to Havana" will dovetail with "the GMCLA's mission of changing hearts and minds through the power of music." Rhythms described as "muy caliente!" and soaring ballads with roots in Cuban tradition are on the stirring setlist. Look for a few "modern American pop songs reinvented with a Latin twist" that will also keep the energy strong. It's a joint concert that can be enjoyed twice, on the evening of the 25th and at the matinee the following day. If you can't make the show, or you can but want to donate an additional sum to the Pulse Victims Fund, you can do so through the fund's GoFundMe page. A teenager who had a role in a leaf blower prank that sent moviegoers into a panic at a Newport Beach theater last summer was sentenced Tuesday to 100 hours of community service and three years of probation. Colin Hunter Davis, 19, pleaded guilty to participating in an unlawful assembly, disturbing the peace and trespassing with the intent to interfere with business all misdemeanors. Police also questioned a 16-year-old boy, a 16-year-old girl and a 17-year-old boy in connection with the Aug. 8 prank at the Edwards Big Newport 6 theater, but it was not immediately known if the teens were named in a juvenile petition. During a screening of "The Gift," a psychological thriller, one of them entered the theater through an emergency door, holding a leaf-blower over his head, police said in a news release. He yelled, shook the leaf-blower, revved its engine to "create a loud and disturbing noise," and left through an emergency exit. The audience panicked and scrambled for the exits, causing three people to sustain minor injuries. One theatergoer suffered a broken toe, according to prosecutors. The prank came after a massacre that claimed 12 lives and wounded 70 during a midnight screening of a Batman movie in Colorado in 2012. City News Service contributed to this report. A North Texas man fatally shot his wife and her twin sister in a case of domestic violence Monday night, McKinney police say. [[383713921,R]] McKinney police said they found 49-year-old Karen Bigham and Kathy Boobar dead inside a house on the 2800 block of High Pointe Boulevard about 5:20 p.m. "All they seem to do was give, give, give," said Tim Boobar, Kathy's husband. "Both of them were very active in the community." Their giving spirits and celebrating their lives are what Boobar says family wants to focus on right now. "We have hope that we'll see them again one day in Heaven, and we know that we might not understand why they had to leave us so soon, but we're going to cherish the time that we had with them," said Carly Boobar, Kathy's daughter. "Look back at all the fun memories and laughs and smiles and all the good times we had together." Karen Bigham was very active in her children's lives and ran a salon out of her home. Kathy Boobar was President of a Dallas investment firm and active in the Collin County Junior League and Womens Auxiliary to Childrens Medical Plano. "We just want everybody to know what giving people they were and how much they gave both to their families, as well as, their community," Tim Boobar said. An arrest affidavit obtained Tuesday reveals more about what led to their deaths. Bigham's estranged husband, 50-year-old Kelley Eugene Bigham, of McKinney, was detained in Rains County, east of Dallas, and charged with murder, according to McKinney Police Officer Sabrina Boston. [[383722401,C]] Bigham's bond is set at $1.5 million. No attorney information for Bigham is available. The couple's college-age daughter, Kylie, ran to a nearby house to ask for help as the shooting happened, neighbors said. According to the arrest affidavit, Kylie told police her mother told her she was divorcing her father and that he threatened to kill her on June 15 while holding a gun. Kylie told police her mother asked her to come to her house on Monday while her father was there to pick up some belongings, the affidavit said. Kylie said she was there with her young son and her mother and was doing her aunt's hair in a room of the home used as an in-home salon. In the affidavit, police said Kylie reported being in the kitchen with her father when he abruptly pulled out a handgun and told her she needed to leave. Kylie said she grabbed her son and ran out of the rear door as she saw her father enter the salon, according to the affidavit. She said she heard her mother yell for 911 to be called shortly before hearing two gunshots and a woman's scream. Kylie later told police that after the shooting, her father texted her a message that said, "I'm sorry," according to the affidavit. You can read Bigham's full arrest warrant here. NBC 5's Frank Heinz and Jocelyn Lockwood contributed to this report. What to Know Coast Guard officials are still searching for a Florida man and his three kids who still have not returned to shore or been heard from. A body found by Coast Guard crews has been identified by family members as one of three missing children who were last heard from on Sunday when they set sail with their father in the Gulf of Mexico. The children's aunt, Sadie Dilts, told NBC News via telephone the body was that of 17-year-old Rebecca Kimberly. Dilts said that the teen's mother was notified that the body was found 44 miles off the Florida coast wearing a life vest. The Coast Guard is expected to hold a 10 a.m. press conference to give more details. The body was spotted by a Coast Guard helicopter at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Case said, and sent to local authorities to be identified. Earlier in the day, six life jackets, four water bottles and at least one tennis shoe were found. A yellow kayak and a green kayak were also discovered Wednesday afternoon, authorities said. Case said an aircraft spotted the field of debris "a dire finding" 33 miles off the coast of Sanibel. A basketball, tarp and propane tank were also found, but the family members and their 29-foot sailboat remain missing. #USCG search-and-rescue crews continue to search for missing family west of Sanibel Island, FL. pic.twitter.com/0LLfphBwGJ USCGSoutheast (@USCGSoutheast) June 22, 2016 Case identified the father as 45-year-old Ace Kimberly, who has lived on the boat for about a year with his three children, including sons Roger, 13, and Donald, 15. The boat, which was anchored in Sarasota, departed Sunday morning for Fort Myers. The cities are about 60 miles apart. The family had planned to meet Kimberly's brother and make repairs to the sailboat, according to the Coast Guard. Kimberly told his brother Sunday afternoon "he was experiencing rough seas and thunderstorms and that he was worried and wanted his brother on land to send him some weather reports and that's the last that he heard from him," Case said. "The vessel was not in the best of shape." That afternoon, Kimberly called his brother to say the boat had been caught in squalls and 6-foot surf. He said he was "attempting to survive with his children" off the coast of Englewood, according to the Coast Guard. His brother contacted the Coast Guard on Tuesday to report them missing, Case said, adding that no distress call was placed. The Coast Guard activated its Maritime Emergency Response Team out of Fort Myers and continues to search the area by land and sea. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Charlotte County Sheriff's Office and Lee County Sheriff's Office are assisting in the search. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family," Case said. "I know this is a super difficult time for them, and we are doing everything we can and throwing everything we have at this search." Kimberly's brother said the boat had been towing two kayaks and had at least seven life jackets on board, according to Case. Anyone who enters the Gulf of Mexico is asked to keep a lookout and contact Coast Guard Sector St. Petersburg at 727-824-7506 with any information. Ari Mason contributed to this report. Broward Sheriff's Office officials are investigating a shooting in Oakland Park that claimed the life of one victim. Authorities responded to a reports of shots fired at a vehicle near West Cypress Creek Road and I-95 in Oakland Park around 4 a.m. Wednesday. Christopher Washington, who was near the scene during the time of the shooting, said he heard a loud explosion and thought it was a crash. Washington added that he saw people standing in he middle of the road when they suddenly dashed away from scene. "I heard a big explosion last night and then minutes later people were running from the scene and I dont know exactly what happened but it was a big explosion," Washington said. Deputies say two people were taken to Broward Health North. One victim was pronounced dead at the hospital. Friends identified the victim as 24-year-old Leonard Hankins. The driver of the vehicle lost control and drove into a ditch near West Cypress Creek Road. The incident had traffic closed down in both directions. Authorities said the shooting could have resulted from an incident at a bar where the people in the car had been. Anyone with information is asked to call Broward Crime Stoppers at 954-493-TIPS. What to Know Passengers on a Delta Airlines flight bound for Miami International Airport experienced a slight delay after a potential threat. Passengers on a Delta Airlines flight bound for Miami International Airport experienced a slight delay while a potential threat was investigated. Flight 2057 was scheduled to leave New York Citys LaGuardia Airport around 7:50 PM Tuesday, but was delayed while authorities determined whether a threat made was credible. "The police officer said something about a bomb threat and they weren't sure," passenger Lety Perez said. "They don't think it was something accurate but they still have to check the whole plane and everything. After determining all was safe, the flight took off and arrived in Miami shortly after midnight, about an hour after its scheduled landing time. Delta Airlines releases a statement, saying in part that "as a precautionary measure, a security sweep of the aircraft was conducted. No security issue was identified and the aircraft was cleared to return to service." The FBI have arrested a woman who robbed a Fort Lauderdale bank Tuesday afternoon and a Miramar bank earlier this month. The FBI announnced that Ashley Cambridge, 27, was arrested for her alleged involvement in multiple bank robberies. The robbery happened around 1:15 p.m. on Tuesday at the Suntrust Bank at 501 E. Las Olas Boulevard, officials said. The first robbery occurred a Spacecoast Bank branch in Miramar on June 16. Authorities say she fled with money but the amount wasn't released. There were customers in the bank at the time but no one was injured. Authorities have arrested a karate instructor they say solicited an 11-year-old boy for sex. Orlando police tell news outlets that authorities arrested 21-year-old Stephannie Figueroa last week on charges including attempted lewd or lascivious conduct, solicitation of a minor via computer and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Police say the boy's mother contacted officials after finding inappropriate text messages including nude images from Figueroa on her son's phone. Figueroa was booked at Orange County Jail. It's unclear if she has an attorney. A contest to give away a semi-automatic rifle is still on despite the original post being taken down by Facebook. Greg Evers, who's running in the Republican primary for the open seat in Florida's 1st Congressional District, announced Monday he's giving away a "Homeland Defender" AR-15 rifle on July 4. But Monday night, Facebook pulled a post about the contest showing the rifle for "promoting graphic violence." The Evers campaign says someone based in California reported the post. Campaign spokesman Brian Burgess said they had anticipated someone would object and that all contest entries have been saved. Anyone in Evers' district can still enter by liking Evers' Facebook page or by liking and sharing one of Evers' posts. Burgess said the original post had more than 1,100 likes and nearly 900 shares. Evers announced the giveaway barely a week after a shooting at a gay nightclub killed 49 people in Orlando, which is about a five-hour drive from the Florida Panhandle congressional district Evers seeks to represent. "With terrorism incidents on the rise, both at home and abroad, protecting our constitutional rights has never been more important," Evers said. "With all that's happening in the world today, I've never felt stronger about the importance of the second amendment in protecting our homeland than I do now." Evers has served in the Florida Legislature since 2001, including the Senate the past six years. The National Rifle Association has given him an A-plus grade for the past 15 years Authorities are investigating a bizarre burglary at a Tamarac home where a pair of suspect stole an empty wine bottle. The burglary happened the night on May 18 at a home in the 8400 block of Northwest 80th Court, Broward Sheriff's Office officials said Tuesday. The home's surveillance cameras were rolling when the suspects smashed a rear sliding glass door to get inside and remove the empty bottle from the wine rack. Both suspects left the home and put the bottle on the pool deck before fleeing the home. Authorities described the suspects as white males. Anyone with information is asked to call Broward Crime Stoppers at 954-493-TIPS. A principal and teacher have been reprimanded for a South Florida high school pep rally that ended with a fire-breather accidentally setting himself ablaze. Local news outlets reported Tuesday that Atlantic High School Principal Tara Dellegrotti-Ocampo and Student Government Association adviser William Durgin have both received verbal reprimands for the March incident. Doctors say 52-year-old Ricky Charles, who runs a company in Pembroke Pines called Inferno's Challenge Inc., suffered second-degree burns over several parts of his body. He had been performing before hundreds of students in the Delray Beach school's gym. Dellegrotti-Ocampo said she never knew fire would be part of the $500 performance, which was planned by the school's Student Government Association. Durgin said Charles told him the performance would include a small flame but never mentioned fire breathing. A Tampa youth pastor is facing sexual battery charges after authorities say he had sex with an underage girl. The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office reports in a news release that 26-year-old Samuel Sutter was arrested Saturday and charged with five counts of lewd and lascivious behavior with a victim aged 12 to 16 and five counts of sexual battery. Authorities say Sutter began a relationship in October with a girl who attended Openwater Church, and the relationship escalated into numerous sexual encounters at Sutter's home and twice in the church's bathroom. The release says the girl's mother called police after she found evidence of the relationship and confronted her daughter about it. Sutter remained jailed Monday on $100,000 bail. Jail records didn't list an attorney. Miami-Dade Police are looking for a woman who they say was caught on camera robbing a Westchester drug store last week. The robbery happened at the Walgreens at 8665 Bird Road on June 13 when the suspect entered the store and picked up several items, police said. When the woman approached the cashier as if to pay and the cashier opened the register, the woman put her hand inside her jacket and implied she had a weapon, police said. The woman demanded the cashier give her all the money in the register, then fled the store on foot with just over $1,000, police said. Police described the suspect as a black female, 30-35 years old, with a heavy build. Anyone with information is asked to call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS. Three people were arrested with multiple loaded guns, knives and ballistic vests at the Holland Tunnel Tuesday when police stopped them for driving with a cracked windshield, authorities tell NBC 4 New York. John Cramsey, 50, and Dean Smith, 53, both of Zionsville, Pennsylvania, and Kimberly Arendt, 29, of Lehighton, were stopped on the New Jersey side of the tunnel around 8 a.m., authorities said. A search of their vehicle -- a brightly colored Dodge utility vehicle with logo decals for Tonka, Monster energy drinks and another one that read "Higher Ground Tactical", apparently a gun range and shop in Emmaus, Pennsylvania -- revealed the weapons cache. The guns seized included long-range weapons as well as handguns. A camouflage helmet with what appeared to be night goggles was also recovered. The Feast/Collin Flatt Two senior law enforcement officials say the three suspects are so-called "gun enthusiasts" and have no nexus to terror. There is no known threat. A Colorado man is accused of pouring gas on his girlfriend and setting her ablaze in front of her two young sons. Court records say the victim sustained burns on 60 percent of her body and is hospitalized in serious condition. KUSAs Anastasiya Bolton reports. Drugs were in the vehicle along with the guns, according to one law enforcement official. Cramsey wrote on Smith's Facebook page early Tuesday morning that he was driving to New York to "do an extraction" of a 16-year-old girl from a hotel room in Brooklyn after an issue involving drugs, The Associated Press reported. Smith replied, "I'm there." It was unclear what, if anything, the weapons had to do with their plans. Cramsey's 20-year-old daughter died from a heroin overdose four months ago Tuesday and he has since attended town hall meetings around the Allentown area to voice his concerns over the drug epidemic, The Morning Call newspaper in Allentown, Pennsylvania, reported. "This is a plague and we are losing our brightest and most brilliant minds," Cramsey told the newspaper shortly after his daughter was found dead of an overdose with another man inside an Allentown home. The truck, which had a picture of the U.S. Constitution and the Second Amendment on the side and sported an arrow as an antenna, was impounded after the stop. It's not clear if the truck was owned by Higher Ground Tactical. NBC 4 New York has reached out to the company for comment. The investigation is ongoing. [NATL] Top News Photos: Pope Visits Japan, and More Hillary Clinton pushed back against Donald Trump's questions about her religion and her competence Wednesday, casting him as a candidate with not much else to say about how he'd lead the nation. Over two consecutive days, Trump has sought to focus his struggling campaign on Clinton, as Republican leaders have demanded. On Tuesday, in a video clip of his remarks, Trump appeared to suggest the public doesn't know "anything about Hillary in terms of religion." Clinton, who has spoken and written about her faith, on Wednesday retorted with a quote from John Wesley, the founder of Methodism. "As we Methodists like to say: do all the good you can for all the people you can in all the ways you can." Clinton also went after Trump for remarks in which he accused her of being "a world class liar" who personally profited from her tenure at the State Department. "She gets rich making you poor," Trump said hours earlier during an address in New York. "Think about it. He's going after me personally because he has no answers on the substance," Clinton told supporters at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds in Raleigh. "So all he can try to do is try to distract us. That's why he's attacking my faith. Sigh." Both presumptive presidential nominees are attempting to unite their fractured parties ahead of the nominating conventions. As Trump works to right his campaign from weeks of turmoil and poor fund-raising, Clinton was addressing her own challenge: drawing the supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders. She's vanquished him in the critical hunt for enough delegates to clinch the Democratic presidential nomination, but Sanders has not endorsed Clinton. On Wednesday, he allowed that it's apparent he will not be the party's nominee. On Capitol Hill, Democrats nudged Sanders to go further. "I know he knows what's at stake," said House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of California. "Two words: Donald Trump." Added Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina, "I would love to see Mr. Sanders endorse. Go all in." Clinton, assured of her party's presidential nomination, paired her response to Trump with a populist pitch aimed at white, working class voters who backed Sanders and are now being courted by Trump. The nation, she said, needs an economy that, "works for everyone not just for the rich or the well-connected." She also castigated Trump's "reckless ideas that will run up our debt and cause another economic crash. I'm here today to offer an alternative." Noting his famous catch-phrase from NBC's "The Apprentice" "You're fired!" Clinton said if elected president, "I'm going to make sure you hear, 'You're hired!" The former secretary of state said she would push an array of economic policies aimed at creating better-paying jobs building roads and bridges, offering debt-free college to students and helping those with massive college debt. She also vowed to pressure companies to share their profits with workers and curb the influence of Wall Street. Earlier, Clinton received a rousing reception from House Democrats in her first stop on Capitol Hill since clinching the Democratic nomination. Greeted by chants of "Hillary, Hillary," Clinton promised to use her massive campaign infrastructure to help Democrats win congressional races as part of what she called a "50 state strategy." "She said: 'I know the difference between having the House and not having the House, and I want the House," recalled Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash. Clinton's and Sanders' campaigns are discussing ways of addressing key economic issues in the Democratic platform which will be approved at the Philadelphia convention, including trade, providing free college tuition and cutting student debt and expanding Medicare and Social Security. Democrats said there was little discussion of Sanders or Trump in the meeting, which was more like a pep rally for Clinton's campaign. At one point, the members ribbed Rep. Xavier Becerra who's been mentioned as a possible running mate when he poured Clinton a glass of water. Becerra later said that he is not currently being vetted as a potential running mate. Other potential contenders include Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who will campaign with Clinton on Monday in Cincinnati, Ohio, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro. The defense attorney for a woman accused of fatally sabotaging her fiance's kayak on the Hudson River says his client may have miscarried during an 11-hour interrogation. Angelika Graswald's attorney, Richard Portale, also said during a pretrial hearing that his client -- a Latvian immigrant -- asked investigators "Who's Miranda?" hours after being read her Miranda warning, which informs suspects that they can say nothing about a crime and obtain a lawyer. State police Investigator Donald DeQuarto said in the hearing on whether Graswald's interrogation could be used during the trial that he he believed Graswald understood her rights when she admitted to removing the drain plug of Vincent Viafore's kayak in April 2015. DeQuarto says she also admitted to tampering with his paddle. Viafore drowned after his kayak capsized. According to the New York Times, DeQuarto also testified that Graswold had suggested she may have been pregnant during the interrogation and that two hours in, she mentioned she might've had a miscarriage. Graswald has pleaded not guilty to the crime. The dangerous clinging jellyfish that began to invade Barnegat Bay in New Jersey a few weeks ago are now multiplying like rabbits in the Shrewsbury River. Researchers went to Monmouth Beach Tuesday to collect dozens of the jellyfish that have been collected floating freely in the town's lagoons in the past three days. NBC 4 New York was the first to report the discovery of the invasive species in Monmouth Beach and Oceanport earlier this month. The swimmer who was stung in Oceanport landed in the hospital for two days after being stung by what he thinks was one of the jellyfish. The sudden population explosion is not encouraging for the Jersey Shore. "I'm not going into the river for the rest of the summer," said Emily Sgro. While the invasive creature is turning up in the back bays of New Jersey, the creature has not been found on the ocean beaches. Elmo, Elsa and other costumed characters are getting boxed in at Times Square. New rules went into effect Tuesday that restrict street performers to designated painted rectangles on the pedestrian plaza. The boundaries apply to anyone who is performing a service where there can be an exchange of money, including the costumed characters who for pose for pictures for tips and vendors selling tickets to bus tours or comedy shows. Those caught out of bounds could be arrested and face a fine of up to $500 or jail time. The color-coded zones are meant to rein in pushy panhandlers who have flooded the area, in some cases harassing passers-by and leading to assaults and arrests. Carmen Peles, from New Jersey, was dressed up as Elsa from "Frozen" and said she was already feeling locked up. "Everybody agrees, we feel like we are in a jail," she said. "You spend an hour in a box and see how you feel." Police Capt. Robert O'Hare, who heads a special Times Square unit, was out on patrol accompanied by police department lawyers as the new rules took effect. "We're not looking to hurt people here," O'Hare said. "If there's someone who's confused, we're here for clarification as well as enforcement." Sandy Kane, the Naked Cowgirl, lives in Manhattan. She has been playing guitar while wearing only pasties and underwear for nine years and thinks the rules are unfair. There are really only a few troublemakers and "the police should do their job and arrest them and leave the rest of us alone," she said. Michelle Wallin was visiting from Minneapolis and enthusiastically took a picture of her son with Elmo. As soon as the picture was snapped, Elmo pulled out a small laminated card that just said "Tips!" and presented it to Wallin, who retrieved a few coins from her purse and dropped them in the furry outstretched hand. "I think (the designated squares) are a great idea, especially when you have kids," said Wallin. "You get the choice of whether or not you want to engage." Around lunchtime, Titus Gandy, a protege of the famous Naked Cowboy, stood alone in one of the teal squares wearing only underwear, boots and a cowboy hat. He says he doubts his bottom line will suffer. "Nothing can affect my business unless they tell me I have to go home," said Gandy. New York's governor demanded an investigation Tuesday into allegations that a lane in one of the traffic-clogged tunnels connecting Manhattan to New Jersey was shut down as a special favor to a politically connected businessman accused of paying bribes to police commanders. Gov. Andrew Cuomo directed the inspector generals for both the state and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to conduct investigations to figure out what role, if any, the Port Authority played in allowing the closure at the Lincoln Tunnel. "If members of the Port Authority or PAPD (Port Authority Police Department) participated in any fashion - through purpose or neglect - the State will deliver immediate and severe consequences," Cuomo said in a letter Tuesday. "We will simply not allow Port Authority facilities to be chips in some nefarious pattern of deceit." The closure was revealed Monday in a federal criminal complaint that charged the fundraising businessman, Jeremy Reichberg, and two high-ranking New York Police Department officers with conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud. They have all denied wrongdoing. U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said the officers accepted free flights, prostitutes, expensive meals and other bribes in exchange for "a private police force for themselves and their friends." Court documents said a cooperating witness told the FBI that Reichberg "using his connections in local law enforcement agencies was able to arrange for the closure of a lane in the Lincoln Tunnel and a police escort down that lane for a businessman visiting the United States." The court papers did not identify the businessman who was being escorted and did not disclose when the closure occurred. "If this is true, it is deeply troubling," Cuomo said. Spokesmen for the New York Investigator General and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday. When asked to comment Monday on the lane closure and other allegations, Reichberg's lawyer, Susan Necheles, said her client "did not commit a crime." She said his "only mistake" was befriending a government cooperator "who is desperately trying to get others in trouble in order to curry favor with prosecutors and save his own skin." A former Port Authority of New York and New Jersey official and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's former deputy chief of staff face federal charges in connection with the 2013 lane closures of the George Washington Bridge. The scheme was alleged payback when a Democratic mayor didn't endorse Republican Christie's re-election bid. One defendant has pleaded guilty in the case; two others still face numerous charges. Christie has denied any involvement and not been charged. Five people were injured after two cars collided in Westchester, police said. A BMW and Toyota slammed into each other in New Rochelle just after 9:30 p.m. Tuesday. The crash was in a residential area near Lincoln Avenue and Wood Place. Two people were rushed to Jacobi Medical Center in critical condition and two others were taken to Westchester Medical Center in serious but stable condition. A fifth person was taken to Montefiore Medical Center. All of the victims were said to be in their early 20s. The driver of the Toyota had a broken leg. A passenger in that car had numerous injuries and was semi-conscious when first responders arrived. A third passenger was unconscious, police said. The BMW's driver was uninjured, but a passenger suffered injuries to his or her hand and leg. Police were investigating what caused the crash Wednesday morning. The drivers of both cars were cooperating with police. There were also several witnesses at the scene. The trio stopped at the Holland Tunnel with a trove of weapons and tactical gear pleaded not guilty in court Wednesday, a day after they allegedly posted to Facebook that they were heading to New York City to "do an extraction" of a girl involved with drugs. John Cramsey, 50, and Dean Smith, 53, both of Zionsville, Pennsylvania, and Kimberly Arendt, 29, of Lehighton, each face multiple weapons charges, including unlawful possession of a shotgun and handgun, possession of high capacity magazines and transportation of an assault rifle.[[384197261, C]] The trio appeared in the Hudson County Courthouse in Jersey City, where they made their first appearance since their colorful Dodge was stopped on the New Jersey side of the tunnel for a cracked windshield around 8 a.m. Tuesday, authorities said. Lawyers for the suspects said the search that uncovered the weapons was illegal and that they planned to challenge the seizure. The three suspects are each being held on $75,000 bail. Police found a weapons cache inside the truck, which was emblazoned with a photo of the U.S. Constitution and second amendment along with multiple decals that said Higher Ground Tactical -- an Emmaus, Pennsylvania, gun range and shop reportedly owned by Cramsey. The guns seized included long-range weapons as well as handguns. A camouflage helmet with what appeared to be night goggles was also recovered. The Port Authority and other law enforcement officials said that the trio were gun enthusiasts who had no link terrorism. The Feast/Collin Flatt Cramsey wrote on Smith's Facebook page early Tuesday that he was driving to New York to "do an extraction" of a 16-year-old girl from a hotel room in Brooklyn after an issue involving drugs, The Associated Press reported. Smith replied, "I'm there." The Morning Call of Allentown reported that Cramsey allegedly posted to Facebook shortly before his arrest that he was 11 miles outside Brooklyn and that the girl was scared to come home after "she woke to find her friend's body next to her in the same bed were [sic] her friend died from another heroin overdose." One of the suspects allegedly later told investigators that they were heading to Brooklyn to "rescue" the girl before they were stopped, officials said. It was unclear what, if anything, the weapons had to do with their plans, but an ammo box that was seized by police had a sticker that read "shoot your local heroin dealer." Three people were arrested with multiple loaded guns, knives and ballistic vests at the Holland Tunnel Tuesday when police stopped them for driving with a cracked windshield, authorities tell NBC 4 New York. Ida Siegal reports. Cramsey's 20-year-old daughter died from a heroin overdose four months ago Tuesday and he has since attended town hall meetings around the Allentown area to voice his concerns over the drug epidemic, The Morning Call newspaper in Allentown, Pennsylvania, reported. "This is a plague and we are losing our brightest and most brilliant minds," Cramsey told the newspaper shortly after his daughter was found dead of an overdose with another man inside an Allentown home. Higher Ground Tactical declined to comment to NBC 4 New York. [NATL] Top News Photos: Pope Visits Japan, and More A New Jersey black bear that walks upright on its two hind legs and has become a social media darling has re-emerged and has been captured on video months after its last sighting. The bipedal bear nicknamed Pedals was spotted in the town of Oak Ridge, NJ.com reported Wednesday. The bear appeared to be in relatively good health and was moving briskly in a video posted to Facebook featuring the bear. The man who posted the video wrote that he spotted the bear Monday. Pedals apparently has an injured leg or paw that doesn't allow it to walk comfortably on all fours, according to experts. Prior to the latest video, there had been no reported recent sightings and officials asked the public for help in locating the bear. Lawrence Hajna, spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Protection, said officials expect the bear to make it through next winter. "The bear has an indomitable spirit," Hajna said. [NATL] Unbelievable Animal Stories: Dog Befriends Abandoned Baby Giraffe The bear first gained fame after it was spotted ambling around neighborhoods and was caught on videos that were posted on social media and shown on national television. Last year, supporters pushed for Pedals to be moved to a sanctuary in New York state, but New Jersey officials have said they won't allow the bear to be captured and transferred to the facility. Hajna said at the time that the bear would do better in its natural habitat and the agency would step in if its condition deteriorated. Two motorcycles collided while traveling on the Taconic Parkway in the Hudson Valley Wednesday afternoon, prompting authorities to shut down the southbound lanes of the highway, according to the New York State Police. Investigators crowded the scene near Bryant Pond Road in Putnam Valley shortly after the 1:30 p.m. accident; one of the motorcyclists was airlifted to a hospital with life-threatening injuries, authorities said. Commuters are asked to detour from the Taconic State Parkway to Peekskill Hollow Road to Bryant Pond Road to Barger Street, onto US Hwy 6, and return to the southbound lanes of the Taconic State Parkway. After one day, Elmo says the new blue activity zones in Times Square make him "feel like a caged animal." Luis Martinez, the Elmo impersonator and New Jersey native, said, I came here because it felt free, it felt good. But now that he is restricted in eight painted zones, he has one clear thought: they suck. The so-called Designated Activity Zones went into effect Tuesday. Costumed characters and street performers are only allowed to ask tourists for money in those zones, and movement outside the zones results in tickets and jail time. Some characters are happier about the zones than others. Robert Burck, also known as the Naked Cowboy, said Wednesday that the blue-area zones are the greatest thing that ever happened. https://www.instagram.com/p/BG-EMy3QwYN The 45-year-old Burck has been working in Times Square for 18 years. Burck says he makes more money in less time with the zones, and is able to stay in one place while people come up to him. Theres rules everywhere, not a big deal, Burck said. Just dont step out of the box. But Laura Suarez, a Gray Line City Sightseeing worker, said the zones are inhibiting. "We cant move around and do our thing, she said. Suarez says some tourists do not know about the zones and we cant go up to them. Suarez explains she gets paid for commission on tickets sold, and the new restrictions do not allow her to engage with people and explain the bus tours -- unless they talk to her first. She says she will respect the laws because she does not want to cause any problems. Tourist Lynn Conley, from Lakewood, New Jersey, likes the change. She said the "characters harass people" and she plans to stay away from the zones. A Springfield, Massachusetts, zoo remained closed on Wednesday as employees continued working to return an escaped monkey to its enclosure. Dizzy, a Guenon monkey, escaped while a staff member was caring for and cleaning out the monkey's enclosure at the Forest Park Zoo on Tuesday. Officials say it could be days before they get him back in the enclosure after someone threw something at the monkey, scaring him off. For safety reasons, the zoo was temporarily closed. It will remain closed until further notice. Dizzy got out when a zoo staff member exited the enclosure to answer a guest's question and the monkey manually twisted the door knob and let himself out. The zoo said this has never happened before. Zoo officials said they have located Dizzy inside the zoo and are working to return him to his enclosure. But the zoo has asked that the public and news media not approach the animal. "Dizzy Update: we are so very close to returning Dizzy to his home! There have been some misunderstandings, please note that the zoo has been closed all day and will continue to remain closed until further notice. We are inside Forest Park, but the park is run by city officials and we are not in a position to close the park. However, we are asking for the continued cooperation of the media and the public and to please stay back, do not come to the park if you do not need to, and if you are here and happened to see Dizzy, do not approach. We thank you for your help." the zoo said on Facebook on Wednesday afternoon. Dizzy weighs approximately 12 pounds and zoo staff said he poses no harm to the public. One year ago, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio announced his bid for the Republican presidential nomination while promising to not seek re-election. After failing in his run for the White House, the Florida senator is now reversing his stance and announcing that he will indeed run for a second term. The news was initially reported by the Washington Post and confirmed by NBC News. Rubio was elected in 2010 as part of the Tea Party movement that put several Republicans into both chambers of Congress. After dropping out of the running for the GOP nomination, Rubio was approached by Senate leadership in an effort to convince him to reconsider his initial pledge. Republicans who had announced they would run for the office said they would drop out if Rubio did run, including U.S. Rep. David Jolly and Lt. Gov.Carlos Lopez-Cantera. Several potential opponents on both sides of the aisle came out against Rubio for not keeping his promise to stay out of the race. Businessman and GOP candidate Carlos Beruff said that Rubio is more worried about keeping the job than doing the job, while U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy, a Democrat, said Rubio is treating Floridians like "a consolation prize. Rubio released a statement admitting that he changed his mind and said he has no problem with potential opponents using it against him, saying "I have never claimed to be perfect." Rubio went on to say that he is running because he feels Washington needs "principled, persuasive leaders" no matter who is elected President. Recent polls show Rubio easily winning the Republican primary despite his late decision, while being a slight favorite against both Democratic contenders. "Keeping Floridas US Senate seat Republican is a top priority for our party and for hardworking Floridians who reject Democrats policies of ineffective government that put Washington first. That is why we welcome Senator Rubios decision to run for reelection," Republican Party of Florida Chairman Blaise Ingoglia said in a statement. "From the chambers of the Florida House to the U.S. Senate, Marco Rubio has proven himself as bold leader who is focused on real solutions to the issues facing Floridians across the state and to the nation." The current presidential race embodies the cliche "truth is stranger than fiction" even when that fiction includes the latest, wildest and strongest run yet of "Veep." The fifth season of TV's best comedy ends Sunday with president-via-resignation Selina Meyer facing ouster from office after a tie election and subsequent back-room backstabbing by her own veep, who stands to succeed her (and wants her to return to the No. 2 spot). The HBO show, starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, offered another sitcom master class this go-around as hilariously foul-mouthed Selina's single-minded quest to become the first woman elected president appeared cursed. There's nothing cliched, though, about the program, which put its own comic twist on old political sayings, among them: All Politics is Local Selina pinned her presidential hopes on gangly, ruthless and idiotic political operative Jonah Ryan (Timothy Simons), who her minions put up as a congressional candidate in his New Hampshire home district, hoping to sway the state to her. Jonah, who stomped over his former second grade teacher to win, of course, screwed up when Selina needed him most. But he outdid Selina by one measure: making the most obscene utterance yet on "Veep" in front of a class of grade-schoolers. Politics Make Strange Bedfellows Selina went all the way with her treacherous vice president, Tom James (Hugh Laurie) likening the act (in coarse terms) to his attempt to snatch away the presidency. She previously bedded a Wall Street titan (John Slattery) who was advising her presidential opponent and whose firm she shafted out of a bailout. Meanwhile, Selina's hapless daughter, Catherine (Sarah Sutherland), exposed her mother's dalliances (and power obsession) with a documentary. The attention-starved first daughter also found love: with a Selina look-alike Secret Service agent (Clea DuVall). The Buck Stops Here After a damaging news story in which an unnamed staffer calls Selina a very, very bad word, the president orders an internal investigation. Everyone denies guilt, but it turns out they all said it at one time or another except for Selinas naive and loyal bagman Gary (Tony Hale), who fears hes going to be fired for calling her a crone. Selina, who casts blame constantly, leads by example. She set up an unpopular (Diedrich Bader) staffer to take the fall and prison time for a scandal. He came back, of course, to haunt her at election time. Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick A recurring "Veep" delight has been Selina whispering insults through her forced smile during public events and private diplomatic sessions. This seasons best case-in-point: when she charmed, then bullied a folksy rep (Stephnie Weir) into supporting her reaming out the lawmaker with foul language before making her give in with a cheery: "Okeydokey, Annie Oakley!" It Ain't Over Til It's Over Yogi Berra's famous saying, long ago co-opted by all spheres of competition, seems appropriate as the "Veep" season heads to its final installment. Whenever it looks like there's no hope, Selina finds new ways to defy conventional wisdom and wring much-needed laughs out of presidential politics. Jere Hester is Director of News Products and Projects at the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism. He is also the author of "Raising a Beatle Baby: How John, Paul, George and Ringo Helped us Come Together as a Family." Follow him on Twitter. The first case of the Zika Virus in Chester County was confirmed on Tuesday. The Chester County Health Department released a statement notifiying residents of the case, involving a woman who had recently traveled to an area affected by mosquitos that carry the virus. The woman was not hospitalized and has since recovered. An alert was issued to all county heath care providers to remind them of the importance of following the testing and risk reduction guidance. Chester County Health Department Director, Jeanne Casner, reminds citizens that chances of contracting Zika in Chester County is minimal. Zika Virus is mainly transmitted though the bite of an infected Aedes mosquito, which are found primarily in warmer climates. The virus poses a larger risk to pregnant women, as the virus is shown to have a connection to birth defects. To date, 23 cases of travel-associated Zika cases have been confirmed in Pennsylvania, but the health department said no locally-acquired cases. For more information on the Zika Virus, residents can visit the Chester County Health Department website or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's website. A man who threatened to kill his girlfriend escaped from a work-release program about 50 miles north of Philadelphia, said auhotirites. Police in Norristown said 25-year-old Aaron Creekmore escaped a work-release facility in Easton Monday. The program is run by the Northampton County Department of Corrections. Creekmore previously threatened to kill his Norristown girlfriend, said police. The (Easton) Express-Times reports he was arrested last month in Montgomery County on simple assault and harassment charges after authorities said he choked his girlfriend, who is the mother of his children. [[383916331, C]] Creekmore was serving a six-month sentence for civil contempt in a domestic-relations case. It wasn't immediately known if the Montgomery County charges led to the civil-contempt charge in Northampton County. Police asked anyone who spots Creekmore to call 911. You can also leave an anonymous tip with Norristown police by emailing npdtips@norristown.org or calling 610-278-TIPS Republican Gov. Chris Christie on Tuesday proposed redistributing billions of dollars in educational aid from the poorest districts to hundreds of other schools, calling the current funding formula "immoral" and a factor in the state's highest-in-the nation property taxes. Christie, a high-profile adviser to presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, focused on a classic New Jersey boogeyman high property taxes, which the nonpartisan Tax Foundation rates as the country's highest and a long-simmering frustration that the state's school funding unfairly helps some residents while burdening others, with little to show for it. Christie wants to scrap a state formula that goes back to a 1985 state Supreme Court ruling requiring that 31 mostly urban, poorer school districts get a "thorough and efficient" education because, he says, results show the plan isn't working. The proposal drew opposition from Democrats and praise from Republicans. New Jersey distributes about $9.1 billion to schools, which get much of their funding from property taxes. More than $5 billion goes to the poorer school districts, with about $4 billion going to 546 remaining districts, according to Christie. Under his plan, each district would get $6,599 of state aid per student. That's a change from the current formula that applies to pupils in cities like Asbury Park, Camden, Newark and Trenton, where per-pupil funding is nearly $21,000. "That is an unacceptable, immoral waste of the hard-earned money of the people of New Jersey," Christie said during remarks at Hillsborough High School, one of the schools that would benefit under his proposal. The proposal could run into a brick wall, though, in the Democrat-led Legislature. Democratic Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto called the idea "unconstitutional" and "harmful," while Democratic Assembly budget chairman Gary Schaer called the idea "radical." "We're not just creating winners here. There are significant losers," Schaer said. "To suggest every child is the same is just not the case. To suggest every community is the same is just not the case." Republicans rushed to applaud Christie's proposal. "Nothing is more fair than treating students equally no matter where they live," said Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnick. But it's not that black-and-white, says the group that brought the case before New Jersey courts that resulted in the current funding formula. The plan is contrary to the Legislature's wishes and unconstitutional, Education Law Center executive director David Sciarra said. Christie's concentration on school funding and property taxes comes as polls show record-low approval ratings in New Jersey and as Trump, who named Christie to lead his White House transition team, endures a rough patch, including the firing of his campaign manager and a low monthly fundraising report. Christie did not take questions Tuesday. His proposal comes as the fiscal year near a close and his proposed roughly $35 billion 2017 budget still pending. Lawmakers are also hashing out a plan to fund road and bridge work, which is paid for through a fund that runs out of borrowing authority on July 1. It's also Christie's final year and a half as governor. "I have 18 months left in office, and I will not permit these fundamental truths to not be spoken and acted upon," Christie said. A brush fire that started in the range area of Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst led to the evacuation of homes in Pemberton Townships Browns Mills community Wednesday afternoon. The fire started on the ranges of Joint Base MDL and spread to the Browns Mills area off Pemberton Browns Mills Road. Officials evacuated a small number of isolated homes in the area as a precaution. Although the fire is still on the MDL range area, the decision to evacuate the homes was a precautionary measure taken by officials to ensure the safety of everyone in the area, a spokesperson for the base wrote. Joint Base officials are currently working closely with the New Jersey State Forest Service and the Burlington County Fire Department to contain and extinguish the fire. As of 6:30 p.m., officials had an estimated 25 percent containment on 40 acres. No injuries have been reported and so far there are no reports of structural damage. Pemberton, Browns Mills and Livingston roads are all closed as firefighters continue to fight the flames. There were no mass shootings in Australia in the 20 years since the country enacted gun law reforms, according to a study, NBC News reported. Researchers at the University of Sydney conducting the study said they cant prove the measures caused the fall in gun-related deaths, but say they are worth discussing. Australia banned certain weapons in 1997, forcing owners to sell nearly 660,000 back to the government, according to the researchers. Another study showed that gun-related homicides dropped 7.5 percent per year following the reforms. The University of Sydney study was done to mark the 20th anniversary of the Australian law. It also coincides with a push in U.S. Congress to enact some reforms after the deadly mass shooting in Orlando in which 49 people were killed. Two local congressmen who are taking part in a sit-in on the House floor are speaking out about the protest and continued push for gun control in the wake of last week's mass shooting in Orlando. Rep. Bob Brady of Pennsylvania and Rep. Donald Norcross of New Jersey are among the 168 House Democrats who sat down and occupied the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives Wednesday. The democrats are demanding a vote on measures to expand background checks and block gun purchases by suspected terrorists. The lawmakers chanted, No bill, no break, and called on speaker Paul Ryan to keep the House in session through a scheduled recess next week to debate and vote on gun legislation. The protest is being staged in the wake of a shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando that led to the deaths of 49 people. On Monday four gun control measures were voted down in the Senate on largely party line votes. Here we are waking up this morning and obviously having been back in the district the last few days and listening to our constituents who are absolutely outraged over the lack of progress in congress, particularly after the murders in Orlando, Congressman Norcross told NBC10. They just cant understand why we cant get something done. The protest is being led by Rep. John Lewis of Georgia who was also a prominent figure during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. A group of individuals very simply got together to say enough is enough, said Norcross. Were going to try to force this vote and this is where we are today. Norcross described the type of measures the House Democrats wanted to enforce. There are 32,000 people a year who are killed by guns in this country, he said. Unacceptable by any measure. If youre on a terrorist watch list you should not be allowed to purchase a gun. Simple background checks to make sure that those people who are convicted felons or have other criminal backgrounds arent allowed to buy guns. Thats a success but this is just a step in the direction of making sure we cut down on those 32,000 people a year who are being butchered. Congressman Brady said theyre not pushing to take away weapons from responsible gun owners but simply want more extensive background checks. Were not trying to take anybodys gun away, Brady said. Just an extensive background check. People have been killed and what do we do? A moment of silence? Thats not good enough. We cant keep telling people that we cant try to do something to control this gun violence and when it happens were going to give you a moment of silence. Were just asking for some more. Brady urged Republican lawmakers to help them in pushing for the gun control measures. Its a Republican bill, Brady said. Put it on the floor and lets put a vote on it. Lets see what happens. They dont have the conscience to vote? Im sure the Republicans have the conscience to take the NRA money! Lets put a vote on the floor. Thats all were asking for. Brady said the protest will continue until they see some type of action. I dont know what theyre going to do or what they can do but whatever it is, were committed to staying on the floor until we get some kind of bill or some kind of commitment to put on the bill on the floor that we can vote on," he said. CLICK HERE for continued coverage of the sit-in. The littoral combat ship USS Coronado has departed for the first time from San Diego on an independent deployment to the Western Pacific. The USS Coronado is designed to operate near the shore and around shallow water to counter mines, submarines and fast surface craft threats. USS Coronado along with 70 sailors and crew members will participate in the Rim of the Pacific Exercise (RIMPAC) which provides a unique training opportunity that helps participants foster and sustain cooperative relationships that are critical to ensuring the safety of sea lanes and security on the world's oceans. "This ship will play a critical role in the fleet and in our nation's defense, said Vice Adm. Nora Tyson, U.S. Third Fleet commander. RIMPAC provides a good opportunity for our partner navies to work with the ship and see how it can contribute to collective regional security." Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron Two Three (HSC-23) deployed with the ship along with the MQ-8 Fire Scout, an autonomous helicopter that works for surveillance and tracking off of the naval vessel. A proposed budget for a yoga curriculum in the Encinitas Union School District was passed during a board meeting Tuesday. The superintendent of the school district proposed a $500,000 budget to fund the program which would include paying for yoga instructors in the enrichment teacher program. During a meeting Tuesday, board memebers votes 4 to 1 to set aside $800,000 to pay for enrichment program instruction which includes yoga. The money for the program would come out of a general fund. But not everybody was on board with the idea. Approximately 40 to 50 demonstrators gathered outside of the district offices on Rancho Santa Fe Road before the meeting began. "It can be an enrichment but it doesn't need to be the crux of our curiculum," parent Sarah Mackay said. Parents say its unfair the district has asked them to help raise money for science, music and physical education but wants to spend district tax dollars for a yoga curriculum. "The district needs to be focused on the best interest of the kids and focus on, in school hours, on academics and that needs to be first, said parent Rebecca Thompson. But some parents and students told NBC 7, they are for the program. "I wanted them to know that it is a good program to have and it is good for kids," 4th grader Georgia Sporrer said. The Yoga class requirement will now be reduced from two classes a week to just one. That gives each school the opportunity to choose another day of yoga or some other wellnes program. A three-year grant that originally funded the program recenty expired. Two years ago, the district was sued over the program. But in April 2015, an appeals court ruled that teaching yoga does not represent an attempt at illegal religious indoctrination. On the districts web site, the board states the program received an 83 percent approval rating among participants and it has proven to be beneficial to students. The Border Fire is now 10 percent contained as more than 1,500 firefighters continue to fight to bring it under control. Cal Fire tweeted the fire had burned 7,500 acres Monday evening. But fire officials said better mapping showed the fire had burned around 6,020 acres on Tuesday. The fire broke out Sunday morning around 11:30 a.m. near Highway 94 and Highway 188, north of Tecate, Mexico, and west of Campo. The community of Potrero was the first to evacuate Sunday afternoon when officials issued the mandatory order. Since then, mandatory evacuations were also ordered for Forest Gate, Star Ranch, Cowboy Ranch, Dog Patch and Canyon City. [G] Border Fire Scorches 7,609 Acres East of San Diego On Tuesday around 1:30 p.m., Cal Fire reported the fire was moving to the north and northeast and threatening 800 structures. The evacuation orders were extended to people living in a two-mile radius around Lake Morena Drive and Oak Drive west of Buckman Springs Road. Sheriffs Deputies went house to house in Lake Morena Village on Tuesday afternoon, informing residents to pack up their things and head for safer locations. They tied yellow caution tape around street signs and mailboxes in areas where people had already been notified. Some homeowners told NBC 7 they are choosing to stay in their homes until the fire is close. Until I start seeing the flames, then I'll start packing up, Lisa Murphy said. "We've all lived in the neighborhood for a long time in this community. We know the drill and how it goes with the wildfires." But others packed up their valuables and headed to safer ground. A little bit worried, said resident Aaron G. I think the fire departments got it under control but figured we'd do what they asked us to do and be safe. Mountain Health located at 31115 CA-94 in Campo has opened up their community center for displaced residents. Evacuees are being directed to Los Coches Creek Middle School, where an overnight shelter was set up. The school is located on 9669 Dunbar Lane in El Cajon. You can find information on shelters here. The San Diego Humane Society also set up pet shelters for companion pets and livestock. Large animal shelters were available at the Boulevard Customs and Border Protection station on 2463 Ribbonwood Rd. in Boulevard and Circle T Ranch at 24215 Viejas Grade Rd in Descanso. But as of 8 p.m., the Circle T Ranch had reached maximum capacity. You can find more information here. The attorney for a Coronado-based Navy SEAL accused of a homicide in Santa Monica says the Navy officer was attempting to stop the victim from taking pictures of girls. Theo Andrew Krah, 28, was arrested near his home in San Diego last Monday and charged with the homicide of Kris Anderson. NBC 7 spoke with Attorney Anthony Salerno on Monday. Salerno alleges Krah was at the Santa Monica Pier on June 11 and saw Anderson taking pictures of possibly young girls. He says Krah and Anderson got into a struggle but no one was injured or arrested. He has not been identified by witnesses as being the person that was even there who allegedly assaulted this person, Salerno said. According to Salerno, Krah noticed Anderson taking the pictures and confronted him about them. He demanded to see the pictures but the man did not want to show him. I want to know whats in that phone because I strongly believe that if youre out as an old guy, taking pictures of underage girls in bathing suits, it doesnt take Sherlock Holmes to figure out what else that guy mightve been up to and what he intended to do, Salerno said. He alleges that Krah did not get into a fight with Anderson but just held him down until police arrived. If you saw someone taking pictures of underage people, youd hope that someone would have the character and the courage to confront him, he said. Salerno claims that it wasn't until about an hour later that Anderson was found suffering from head trauma and a stab wound. Santa Monica police said they arrested Krah on June 13 for homicide. Krah is being held on a $2 million bail. Salerno says he trying to get hold of the victims camera to show what Anderson was doing before his death. Krah is due in court July 13. A man was arrested on Monday evening in Campo, California, after discharging a shotgun when an animal control officer responded to an emu in distress outside his home, sheriffs officials said. Sean Michael Shepherd, 31, was taken into custody on suspicion of negligent discharge of a firearm and felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition. He was being held on $30,000 bail on Tuesday evening. It wasn't immediately clear if he has an attorney. Sheriffs deputies said the bizarre situation surfaced about 6 p.m. Monday in the 28000 block of State Route 94. An animal control officer on patrol spotted an injured emu. As he approached the animal, a man came out of his home and exchanged heated words with the officer, deputies said. The emu doesn't belong to the suspect, but is his neighbor's animal, officials said. Thats when the man went inside and returned with a shotgun, firing it into the air, deputies said. No one was hurt. The emu ran away and disappeared, according to authorities. The animals feathers were apparently burnt. While it wasn't clear what caused the emu's injuries, the incident happened in the area of the Border Fire, which has spanned 7,500 acres near Potrero and caused some injuries to animals. A Chicago graduate student posing for a picture fell to her death at a popular tourist destination along the coast of San Diego Sunday evening, according to police. Police say 25-year-old Anna Bachman fell between 40 and 50 feet down the coastal cliffs known as Sunset Cliffs west of downtown. Police, firefighters and lifeguards responded to a cliff rescue on Ladera Street and Sunset Cliffs Boulevard around 5:30 p.m. Bystanders, including two nurses, rushed down the cliffs and performed CPR, but were unable to revive Bachman. Bachman is from Cotati in Sonoma County but was working on her masters degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She was in San Diego visiting her sister, who was with her at the time of the fall. At this time, police do not believe alcohol was involved. "All indications are this was just a terrible, tragic accident," San Diego Police Lt. Paul Phillips said. Police shut down streets in the area as crews retrieved the body. Crisis counselors were also called for the victim's sister and for people who witnessed the horrific accident. Sunset Cliffs is a dangerous stretch of jagged coastline known to attract tourists and locals alike. The stretch of cliffs bordering the ocean in San Diego's Point Loma neighborhood is a popular spot for recreation and watching the sunset. Resident Alycia Van Dover says people don't understand how dangerous the cliffs can be. "I haven't see anyone fall off a cliff, but I have seen people get way too close," Van Dover said. "My worry is they're ignorant about how the cliffs work. Some of them are overhangs and if you get too close, you don't want it to erode underneath you," she added. Phillips emphasized the need for caution when visiting the cliffs. "You never know if there is some moisture on the rocks or what the case may be, but you've got to be careful," he said. Bachman was seeking a Masters Degree in Urban Planning at University of Illinois at Chicago, according to school officials. Jerry Frederick was helping a friend paint his house in Potrero, California, when he first saw the smoke Sunday afternoon. "I seen the smoke start up," Frederick said Tuesday from a Red Cross shelter in unincorporated El Cajon. "A couple more hours, and next thing I know, the Sheriff's coming in saying, 'you got to evacuate.'" Frederick was one of hundreds told to leave their homes as the so-called Border Fire, which started as a two acre blaze at 11 a.m. Sunday, quickly grew hundreds of acres large in the face of record-breaking heat and strong winds. A few hours after the blaze first started, it burned 7,500 acres, prompting a mandatory evacuation notice for residents of Potrero. At first, Frederick evacuated to Campo, where the first evacuee shelter was set up. A day later, evacuees moved to several different shelters as the fire spread before ending up Tuesday at the Red Cross shelter at Los Coches Creek Middle School. At noon Tuesday, the fire was 5 percent contained. Frederick said he still isn't sure if his home went up in flames. In his rush to leave, he did not stop home -- he brought nothing with him. "I have what I have. My clothes on, and thats it," he said. "Left the paintbrush in the paint cans and hauled out." He worries his home won't be there when the fire is contained and the evacuation order lifted. "It's stressful," Frederick said. "I wanna go home, but I dont even know if I got a home to go to." He said he worries about his roommate, Buster, who he believes may have had difficulty getting out of the house. He has yet to hear from him. As he drove out and away from Potrero, Frederick described some of what he saw. "All I seen is smoke, smoke, and black smoke, and getting worse and worse," he said. Cal Fire officials said steep terrain, dry vegetation due to the drought, winds, and hot temperatures have made the fire difficult to contain. Frederick praised the firefighters working day in and day out to contain the fire. "I'm amazed with them, working in that heat," Frederick said. "It amazes me that they can even survive. It's not an easy fight." He said he hopes everyone can go home soon. For the latest updates on the fire, click here. Hundreds of residents were forced from their homes near the San Gabriel Mountains remain out of their homes Tuesday evening as two wildfires erupted in the foothill suburbs of Los Angeles, growing fast and surging closer to each other. The San Gabriel Complex fires in Azusa and Duarte have scorched more than 8 square miles with no containment of the spreading flames, according to the Los Angeles County Fire Department. Hundreds of firefighters, deputies, police agencies and volunteers were battling the blaze and helping residents leave the area. By Tuesday evening, 770 homes had been evacuated and more than 5,400 acres burned. By nightfall, fire officials determind the fires were 10 percent contained, and the acreage was revised to 4,900. Firefighters from the Santa Barbara and San Diego are expected to join the fight. The first fire erupted around 11:15 a.m. Monday on Highway 39 near the Morris Reservoir dam north of Azusa, according to the U.S. Forest Service. The fire was believed to have been started by a vehicle that veered off the road. The second fire ignited about 4 miles away by Opal Canyon and Brookridge roads, bordering a neighborhood on the foothills near Duarte. The fire near Duarte threatened homes overnight due to shifting winds. "We had fire on the hillsides above those structures," said Chief John Tripp, of the Los Angeles County Fire Department. "Most of the night, that fire creeped down and came to the bottom of the slope. "We made tremendous progress on the east side of Duarte. Our big threat today is the west flank. There's a fire line that goes from the bottom of the slope all the way to the top of the mountain." At about 4 a.m., a wind shift pushed the fire down the slope, Tripp said. Firefighters used water dropping helicopters to slow the fire, but communities to the west, including Bradbury and Monrovia, should be ready to evacuate, Tripp said. "That's still an uncontrolled flank of the fire," Tripp said. Chief Robert Garcia, of the Angeles National Forest, said the fires are in areas of the forest that "have not burned in a number of years." Triple-digit heat has fueled similar fires from the Pacific Coast to New Mexico, including one near Portero, a small desert town close to the Mexico border. The continuing drought and lack of significant rain from the winter El Nino has made Southern California ripe for what could be one of the worst wildfire seasons on record. An El Nino weather pattern brought near-normal snowfall to parts of California last winter, but most of the precipitation stayed to the north of Southern California. A five-year drought has left 40 million dead and dried-out trees in California, including 29 million that died last year alone, according to the U.S. Agriculture Department. Evacuation Orders in Foothill Communities Charlie Downing, out of breath and with his shirt off because of the heat, said when he first smelled fire and felt heat that he ran outside of his house in Duarte and was astonished by size and nearness of the flames. "I came running over just to look and it was 15 to 20 feet in the air," Downing told reporters. "By the time I came back and told my grandma and my kids to get in the car, it was right by the car." He and two neighbors sprayed the flames with their yard hoses until firefighters arrived minutes later. Evacuation orders were issued in Azusa for the Mountain Cove, El Encanto and Rainbow Ranch areas, with an evacuation center established at Memorial Park, 320 N. Orange Ave. Voluntary evacuations were in effect for the Mirador and Crystal Canyon areas. Mandatory evacuation orders were issued for Duarte Mesa residents living above Markwood Street between Westvale Road and Tocino Drive, and above Conata between Tocino Drive and Mountain Crest Road. Mandatory evacuation orders were issued earlier for residents on Brookridge Road, with voluntary evacuations in effect for residents north of Fish Canyon Road from Greenbank Avenue to Encanto Parkway. Monrovia residents whose homes are located north of Foothill Boulevard and east of Myrtle Avenue and the Bradbury area were advised that evacuations could be implemented, sheriff's deputies said. Residents in Bradbury and Monrovia were at the ready to evacuate at any time, though some who had already evacuated were frustrated. "If you evacuate, you can't get back in. If you stay, you can't get out," Theresa Allain, a Duarte resident, said. Additional road closures were announced Tuesday. Mount Olive Drive at Royal Oaks Drive Vineyard Avenue at Markwood Street Woodbluff Street from Sunnydale Drive Greenbank Avenue from Deerlane Drive Conata Street at Bettyhill Avenue Mel Canyon Road at Opal Canyon Road Mountain Crest Road at Fish Canyon Road Encanto parkway at Markwood Street Mount Olive Drive at Woodlyn Lane Mount Olive Drive at Elda Street NBC4's Annette Arreola and Toni Guinyard contributed to this report. A Maryland mother sharing a bed with her 7-year-old son awoke to his screams as a person attempted to kidnap the child through a window early Tuesday morning. Police in Prince George's County, Maryland are still searching for a person who tried to snatch the child while he slept at about 4 a.m. at a home in the 5900 block of L Street in Fairmount Heights. "It's real sad," said the boy's father, who asked not to be named. "You see it on TV all the time, but you don't feel it until it hits home." Police dusted the bedroom windowsill for fingerprints, but they have only a vague description of the suspect. Officers spent Tuesday afternoon knocking on neighbors' doors to try to uncover more information. "Children in our community are always vulnerable," said Officer Tyler Hunter. "When the child is the victim of any crime it's frightening." "Somebody's always doing something to children," said Sherry Allen, who lives in the area. She said she worries about children getting abducted from the library or from being outside without adult supervision. Police have also posted a sign in the area to urge residents to call the Prince George's County station with tips. The boy's father said he hopes police are able to identify a suspect in the case. "I would like to see some justice," he said. Two people have been arrested after a brawl involving rival motorcycle clubs outside a bar in Worcester, Massachusetts, last month. Jake Doherty, 32, of 84 Sears Island Dr., Worcester, and Michael Blair, 37, of 1039 Main St., Worcester, are each charged with one count of armed robbery, two counts of aggravated assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon (flashlight) and one count of aggravated assault and battery. The charges stem from an incident on the evening of May 8 at Suney's Pub at 216 Chandler St. Worcester Police were called to the bar at 7:20 p.m. for a reported assault, and upon their arrival they found two men - ages 25 and 54 - suffering from head injuries. They were treated by EMTs and taken to a local hospital. The younger victim said he was standing outside Suney's Pub when he was accosted by several men, who began to punch him and strike him with a large flashlight. The older victim was inside the pub and went outside to help, at which point he was attacked by the same group of men. He told police he was also struck on the head with the flashlight and punched numerous times. Witnesses told police there were approximately seven men attacking the two victims. In addition to being assaulted, the victims said their jackets and a cell phone were stolen from them. The victims were uncooperative when asked about the motive for the attack and the identities of the suspects. But investigators were able to obtain information that the two groups belong to rival motorcycle clubs. Both clubs had been having issues on social media and physical confrontations when they encounter each other. Police said the investigation is ongoing, and they are attempting to identify the other suspects. Anyone with information can call 508-799-8651 or send an anonymous text to 274637 (TIPWPD) or go to worcesterma.gov/police. Two men have been arrested and police say additional charges are possible in the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Raekwon Brown and non-fatal shootings of three bystanders earlier this month near a school in Boston's Dorchester neighborhood. Jonathan Aguasvivas, 23, of Roxbury, and Benzy Bain, 24, of Mattapan were arrested Wednesday in connection with Brown's fatal shooting on June 8 near the Jeremiah E. Burke School. Two other teens - ages 16 and 17 - and a 67-year-old woman also suffered non-life-threatening injuries in the shooting. Police said at the time that the shooting was believed to be gang related. Both Aguasvivas and Bain, represented by attorneys James Greenberg and Brian Kelley respectively, were held without bail by Judge Serge Georges at the prosecution's request during their arraignment at Dorchester Municipal Court Wednesday afternoon. Details of their involvement during the arraignment were kept spare because of the ongoing investigation; however, investigators said camera footage and other digital evidence, along with witness statements, helped contribute to the arrests. Last year, Aguasvivas was a passenger in a car whose driver shot Boston Police Officer John Moynihan in the face. He was arrested at the scene on outstanding warrants. The driver, Angelo West, was shot and killed by police. Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel Conley and Boston Police Commissioner William Evans said the investigation remains active and more charges could be forthcoming. "These arrests mark a step toward justice for Raekwon's family, but it is not the last step," Conley said in a statement. "We will not rest until those responsible for this homicide have been held to account for it." Evans added that he hopes the arrests bring "some small measure of comfort and solace" to Brown's family. But family members said Wednesday that nothing can numb the pain of their loss. "Our house is empty. Our hearts are broken," said Latasha Allen, Brown's sister. "It's still not justice because it is not bringing Raekwon back." "It's never going to feel comfortable. We're always going to be hurting. We're always going to be sad," added Patrice Velol, another of Brown's sisters. "We're always going to miss him and at the end of the day that's not going to bring him back. We're hoping to have justice but the question is why. He was 17." Anyone with additional information can call Boston Police at 617-343-4470 or submit a tip anonymously by calling the CrimeStoppers Tip Line at 1-800-494TIPS or by testing the word "TIP" to CRIME (27463). Burlington, Vermont, police say a fifth person is facing murder charges for the beating death of a man at a homeless encampment in the Vermont city. Police say 29-year-old Amber Dennis was arrested Monday and charged with second-degree murder for her role in the assault, which led to the death of Amos Beede. She's being held on $100,000 bail and is due to appear in court Tuesday. It's unclear if she has a lawyer. Police say Dennis was living in the encampment when Beede was assaulted May 22. He died six days later. Four other suspects who fled Vermont after the assault are being brought back to Vermont from San Diego to face murder charges. Investigators say Beede was attacked as part of a dispute within the homeless encampment. Police say the body of a 23-year-old Scarborough, Maine, man has been recovered from Portland Harbor. Police believe the man to be Matthew Foster, who was last seen on June 10. The Portland Fire Department recovered the body, which is going to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner to determine the cause of death. Witnesses saw the body in the water between Union Wharf and Widgery Wharf. Authorities used sonar to assist divers in trying to find Foster during a search last week. The search was suspended on Friday. A Maine police officer has been arrested for allegedly sending obscene material to an individual who he believed to be a 14-year-old girl. Garrett G. Brosnan, 25, of Bath - a police officer in Brunswick - was arrested Tuesday and charged with attempting to transfer obscene material to a minor, according to U.S. Attorney Thomas E. Delahanty II. Authorities say their investigation began when the family of a 13-year-old girl in Flagstaff, Arizona, reported she had an intense, 5-day conversation with a man online that turned sexual. Federal agents took over and tracked down the IP address, and eventually zeroed in on Officer Brosnan. The agent created a fake online account to pose as a 14-year-old girl and messaged Brosnan. Court documents detail explicit conversations and images Brosnan allegedly sent earlier this month. Brunswick Police Chief Richard Rizzo says Brosnan has been placed on administrative leave pending the department's internal investigation. "The allegations, if true, are extremely concerning, disappointing, and are not in accordance with the high moral standards that I expect of my officers," Rizzo said in a statement. Chief Rizzo says Brosnan, who has served on the force for three years, passed a thorough background check and has never been disciplined before. He adds that Brosnan's fellow officers feel betrayed. He's due in U.S. District Court in in Portland on Wednesday. It's not clear if he has an attorney. A man who was allegedly pushed into the Charles River has died and the man accused of pushing him in is expected in court Wednesday for a charge of manslaughter. Massachusetts State Police arrested 27-year-old Lenny Quintero-Flores, of Malden, Tuesday. Investigators say the two men were drinking alcohol on a dock and the victim was sleeping or passed out when Quintero-Flores allegedly pushed the victim, 26-year-old Mitchell Harrison of Watertown, into the water intentionally. necn Harrison was rescued from the water and was transported to Brigham and Women's Hospital, where he later died. Lenny Quintero-Flores says victim was his best friend, they were just playing around @NECN pic.twitter.com/TX4yeAvqyf Monica Madeja (@MonicaReports) June 22, 2016 Quintero-Flores is expected to face a judge in Charlestown District Court. He is currently being held in lieu of $100,000 bail. It is not clear if he has an attorney. A sailor from Massachusetts died overseas from a non-combat related injury, according to the Department of Defense. Petty Officer 2nd Class Andrew J. Clement, 38, died Tuesday while deployed to Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti. The Pentagon says officials are still investigating his death. Defense officials say Clement was a mobilized Navy reservist who was assigned to the Navy Reserve Unit Tactical Air Control Squadron 22 in Quincy that was deployed to Camp Lemonnier. Clement lived in Peabody when he entered the Navy, but was a resident of Topsfield at the time of his death. Rev Nigel Fox, who has served as a Methodist Minister for 15 years in Norwich, shares an open invitation to pray for the nation at a crucial moment. Rev Nigel Fox, who has served as a Methodist Minister for 15 years in Norwich, shares an open invitation to pray for the nation at a crucial moment. Norwich church seeks musicians Kingdom Ambassadors International Church is appealing for instrumentlists, keyboardists and guitarists to be part of their worship experience. Read more Please keep Rishi in your prayers Andy Bryant urges us to pray for our political leaders, especially the new Prime Minister, and avoid unhelpful judgementalism. Read more Dereham churches help people to help themselves A group of churches in Dereham have launched an ambitious project which aims to meet needs in the town, including the provision of food and skills training. Read more Emilys art boosts growing Yarmouth foodbank A pupil at a primary school in Bradwell has been selling her pictures in order to raise money for the Yarmouth and Magdalen Foodbank, which is expanding its capacity and is seeking more volunteers. Read more Patrick Regan helps Norwich to bounce forwards On Saturday St Stephens in Norwich hosted Bouncing Forwards as part of a national tour by the mental health charity Kintsugi Hope. Read more Painting and biblical feasting in Overstrand There will be opportunities to improve your painting skills and indulge in some biblical feasting next month at the Pleasaunce in Overstrand in North Norfolk. Read more Latest Norfolk Christian community events Events of interest to the Norwich and Norfolk Christian community happening over the next few weeks are listed. Read more National award for Dereham Christian bookshop The Green Pastures Christian bookshop in Dereham has won a national award for providing boxes of Christian books to 21 local schools. Read more Norma's care home jigsaw challenge complete A resident at Norwich-based care home Corton House has completed an incredible 70 jigsaw puzzles in celebration of the homes 70th anniversary this year. Read more Norwich charity's appeal to support Palestinian students A Norwich educational charity, set up in memory of a Norwich Anglican priest, to support students from a Palestinian refugee camp, is inviting people to support its Christmas appeal to be launched on November 29. Read more Norfolk drug and alcohol charity pays tribute to its founder Andy Sexton, CEO of the Matthew Project, introduces a series of tributes from the charity to its founder, Peter Farley. Read more Cliff look alike at Cromer Church breakfast Cliff Richard tribute performer Will Chandler will be the speaker at a special Mens Breakfast at Cromer Parish Hall next month, and all men are welcome to come along. Read more Heartsease Lane Methodist church to close As part of a reorganisation of the Norwich Methodist Circuit, Heartsease Lane Methodist Church will be closing towards the end of the year. Read more Free Julian of Norwich reflection and prayer day The Friends of Julian of Norwich present a free Quiet Half-Day with Robert Fruehwirth, author and former Priest Director of the Julian Centre, on Saturday November 12, 10.30am-2pm. Read more What it means for us to repent Nigel Fox believes that now is the time for a tide of repentance, and shares his thoughts about what that actually means for our society. Read more Christmas card shop opens in Norwich church Thousands of Christmas cards from around 30 local Norfolk charities have gone on sale today (October 19) at the Original Norwich Charity Christmas Card Shop inside St Peter Mancroft church in Norwich city centre. Read more Revelation Christian Resource Centre and Cafe Revelation in Norwich is a Christian resource centre, offering a bookshop, a meeting place and a welcoming refuge for refreshment open to visitors of any faith or none. Read more Earlier this month I wrote a post asking the question: Who speaks for multi-vendor environments? Since then, Ive had a few vendors reach out to me about their solutions that could indeed meet the needs of a vendor-agnostic data center. One of the most interesting, Apstra, came out of stealth mode this week and has a solution thats certainly up to the challenge that I laid out in my blog. Apstras solution automates the data center operations across the lifecycle of the networkfrom the design/build phase through deployment/operate. The Apstra Operating System (AOS) takes an integrated approach to managing the data center that starts with business intent and is fed into a closed loop system. The data center operator then selects a pre-configured, and a validated template applies any constraints to it, which creates a blueprint for deployment. + Also on Network World: Where does SDN make sense? + AOS uses this blueprint to deploy a configuration to the physical network, which gathers telemetry and enforces intent, ensuring the deployment is in line with business requirements. AOS can be thought of as a soup to nuts management system that fully automates data center operations. Key benefits of the Apstra solution: Operational simplicity and network agility. Apstra offers templates that are turnkey in nature and built with DevOps in mind. The inputs to the solution are based on business intent, so it addresses the needs of the organization and not just technology requirements. The solution addresses the needs of the entire network lifecycle, including day 0, 1 and 2+. Apstra offers templates that are turnkey in nature and built with DevOps in mind. The inputs to the solution are based on business intent, so it addresses the needs of the organization and not just technology requirements. The solution addresses the needs of the entire network lifecycle, including day 0, 1 and 2+. Greater control and visibility. Apstra offers real-time, high-resolution telemetry information. The telemetry enables intent-based anomaly detection to give data center operations the ability to move to a proactive management model. Also, the rich information enables the solution to continuously validate configurations and network topology. Apstra offers real-time, high-resolution telemetry information. The telemetry enables intent-based anomaly detection to give data center operations the ability to move to a proactive management model. Also, the rich information enables the solution to continuously validate configurations and network topology. Hardware-agnostic solution. Apstras strength lies in the fact that it is a hardware-agnostic data center management tool. AOS treats every network device as a simple component with assigned roles. The solution has all the necessary drivers for supported hardware and is able to gather telemetry information directly from the network devices. Supported hardware includes: Arista Broadcom-based hardware Cisco Cumulus Dell HP Juniper Linux-based hardware Open Compute Project Solutions Open Switch Apstras strength lies in the fact that it is a hardware-agnostic data center management tool. AOS treats every network device as a simple component with assigned roles. The solution has all the necessary drivers for supported hardware and is able to gather telemetry information directly from the network devices. Supported hardware includes: Community-based innovation: If executed on correctly, this capability can give Apstra a huge leg up on the competition. Apstra has opened its platform up and made it accessible to developers. The community of developers can build new templates, integrate into third-party systems and create drivers to other legacy network devices, creating value above and beyond what Apstra has built. Also, the telemetry and state streaming has been made available to analyze the data and gather insights that could not have been realized before. The power of the community can grow the value of the solution exponentially. Apstra Apstras solution is unique in the networking industry and enables data center operations to align with the goals of the CIO and the business. The vendor-agnostic, agile, intent-based platform can deliver on the vision of SDN without the associated risks. This is certainly a big undertaking, but Apstra has a strong management team (pictured at the top of the page). Mansour Karam (middle) has spent the last decade focusing on the needs of the CIO and making the engineer more agile through his roles at Arista where he worked with the first customers to define the companys user requirements. He also spent time at Big Switch Networks and their early attempts at SDN. David Cheriton (right) is the distributed systems expert. He is also a Google and VMware investor, as well as co-founder of both Arista and Granite. He understands the need for extensibility and has given the Apstra team a similar funding structure as Arista, helping the company attract a top-notch engineering team. Sasha Ratkovic (left) is an abstraction expert and Distinguished Engineer from Juniper who was the first to present group policies to OpenStack back in 2012. Theres a clear need for an end-to-end, vendor agnostic management tool. Apstras platform simplifies operations, brings a higher level of visibility, masks complexity and enables multi-vendor data center. It will help move SDN from vision to reality. Data science is a hot new industry, but what skills and background do you need to break into the field? Essentially, data science, data engineering and data analytics are broad -- and sometimes ambiguous -- terms that describe a litany of skills and job titles in the world of data analytics. "The title of 'data scientist' is broadly applied within different organizations, making it difficult to provide a complete and noncontroversial list of required skills. At a high level, a data scientist needs a mastery of the tools and techniques to access, transform, analyze and leverage the data of their organization," says Kyle Polich, principal data scientist at DataScience. If your company is looking to hire data scientists or analysts, it's important to know what you're hiring for. Data jobs often encompass a lot more than just data; there are people specifically dedicated to each stage of the process from collecting, to warehousing, to analyzing and to using that data to transform the business. Ultimately, a good data strategy relies on a number of qualified individuals who can write algorithms, manage and collate data, interpret the data and communicate it to key stake holders. Data warehousing Warehousing data is a task in and of itself, because the more data you have, the more servers, hardware and third-party services you will need to store it. However, data warehousing skills include more than just the ability to capture and store data, it's also about interpreting the data and possibly even making critical decisions and tough choices to make sure data retrieval and analysis can remain cost-effective, according to Polich. "Data warehousing roles, which focus on Extract, Transform and Load (ETL) and data ingestion, are generally distinct from data science roles. The former focus on capturing, storing, and pre-processing the data while the latter focus on extracting insight from the data," says Sham Mustafa, CEO of Correlation One, a company that is focused on matching data scientists and hiring companies. Ashish Thusoo, co-founder & CEO, Qubole, a cloud-scaling data processing company, has worked in data science roles throughout his career. For him, one of the most important skills around data warehousing includes "understanding the capabilities and limitations of the technology." Beyond that, he says it's crucial that employees working in this area also understand how to translate business requests into SQL queries, so that data can be quickly retrieved when it's needed. Essentially, hiring the right person for data warehousing will mean finding a candidate who can strike a comfortable balance between understanding how to capture and store data and how to meaningfully interpret it, rather than being completely focused on one or the other. "They do not necessarily have to be experts in the subject, or know how to create, run and maintain the warehouse independently, but they need to know how to inspect them and query efficiently to get their results," says Thusoo. [ Related story: CEOs force CIOs, CMOs into digital transformation bunker ] Data collection Data collection is an enormous undertaking, especially considering that companies tend to collect far more data than they can actually use or need. Before you can hire the right employees to help with data collection, you actually need to know what data you want to collect, says Mustafa. But the biggest problems in data collection arise when businesses are faced with the "four V's of big data: volume, variety, velocity and veracity," says Polich. And one person can't deal with all four. For example, figuring out a strategy to deal with the velocity and volumes of data is typically an area for data engineers, rather than data scientists or data analysts says Mustafa. And before you can even determine what skills you need for data collection, it's important to first consider your audience and customer base. Polich gives the example of a bank, which can't withstand any down time or lag in data retrieval, so companies need to hire accordingly. That might mean hiring people who have worked in similar high-stress environments, where certain aspects of data matter more than in other industries. Alternatively, he also gives the example of a social media network, which can probably withstand a minimal amount of lag or inconsistency in data retrieval, especially if it results in cost-savings. That might mean you can hire someone with other skills that are important to your business or someone more accustomed to working in agile and innovative environments. Taking time to consider how your businesses can use data and what data you actually need to collect will help you hire the right person for the job. Thusoo says he looks for workers who understand the intricacies of data collection, and everything that can go wrong with or taint data. "There is an old saying in computing, 'Garbage in, garbage out'. More than anything else, this applies to data. Your resume should not only show that you have worked with systems that are involved in this process, but also that you are adept at finding data quality issues and resolving them." [ Related story: How digital transformation is disrupting IT outsourcing ] Data analysis Having data is great, but if you can't understand what it means for your company, then it's ultimately a waste of resources. In the past, Thusoo says that it was important to find data analysts with skills in SQL and statistical and modeling tools like SAS and SPSS. But now, he says, as programming becomes more ubiquitous in the industry, and easier to learn, companies will want to look for other skills. "Companies building modern data science capabilities should look for employees with programming abilities in Python, deep learning libraries and who can work with big data tools and infrastructure such as Spark, Hadoop and Hive apart from the traditional tools such as SQL," says Thusoo. Part of hiring the right person to assist in data analysis also includes determining how high-level you want your data analysis. For example, Mustafa says for companies interested in a high-level interpretation, one that looks at user activity and engagement, or to predict trends, you might want someone with a broader knowledge of data science. However, for businesses that want to hone in on large amounts of data, or focus on predictions, you'll want to hire people with more specific skills. Mustafa says candidates with knowledge of optimization theory and machine learning will help build sound prediction models. Meanwhile, businesses that are tackling large amounts of data, you'll want people well versed in tools like Hadoop and Apache Spark. Data transformation The impact of data on businesses has been huge, and it's ushered in the age of digital transformation, and companies are scrambling to keep up with the rapid pace of technology. Part of that digital transformation revolves around data and properly integrating it into the day-to-day business. It's something that requires not only a solid foundation in technology, but also a deep understanding of the business side of the company. Transformation is about how data can help shape the future of the business and keep the company modern and innovative. That means, you'll want to hire people who can show their ability to assess a complex data situation, oftentimes from multiple sources, and determine important, says Thusoo. "Moreover, a data scientist must be able to visualize data in an informationally compact way. Visualization skill is the key to telling a story with data, which is the single most important skill for a data scientist. Telling a story with data, or communicating what the data is saying, is how data scientists ultimately add value for their employers," says Mustafa. [ Related story: Businesses lack a streamlined approach to digital transformation ] Soft skills While most of the skills mentioned are, for the most part, technical, it's important not to overlook soft skills. The people you hire who are tasked with collecting, housing and interpreting that data are also going to be responsible for communicating it effectively to business executives. You'll want to hire someone with strong communication skills to help balance out the more technical side, especially as big data is an emerging trend in businesses -- not everyone in the company will be up to speed. You want people with the right technical skills, of course, but it's just as important to make sure you have employees that are willing to challenge the status quo in data, and push boundaries. "Companies need to hire new team members based not just on their skillset and tool knowledge, but on their dedication to staying on top of the field. A candidate who is a good match should be familiar with the tools that are currently employed in the organization, but also bring something innovative to the table," says Polich. Related Video This story, "How to hire for the right big data skill set " was originally published by CIO . And then there was one. Out of the seven finalists in the U.S. Department of Transportations Smart City Challenge, Columbus, Ohio, emerged the winner this week. The city will receive $50 million in grants from the DOT and Vulcan Inc. to implement its smart city plan. Columbus will also receive about $90 million in local matching funds, including $19 million in public money. That gives the city a total of $140 million to upgrade its transportation network. This grant, combined with its public-private investment, will help reshape the transportation sector in central Ohio for decades to come, U.S. Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) said in a statement. It will help meet the transportation needs of Ohioans who live in the low-income neighborhoods in and around Columbus to ensure they can get to their job, or receive a good education. Columbus beat Austin, Texas; Denver; Kansas City, Missouri; Pittsburgh; Portland, Oregon; and San Francisco in the final round for the prize. Seventy-eight cities total participated in the challenge. Also of note, in 2015, Columbus won the Intelligent Community of the Year award from the Intelligent Community Forum (ICF). Columbus smart city initiatives With two smart city awards under its belt, what is Columbus doing that makes it stand out among other cities? It could be its focus on improving access to jobs, training and healthcare for low-income residents via shared cars and autonomous buses. People in poorer communities are being left out, the city says. In its Smart City Challenge application, the city said it wants to tie together all of its neighborhoods to connect people to jobs, training opportunities, higher education and healthcare. It also wants to design safer streets, ensure all residents have access to quality and affordable transportation, and reduce consumption and emissions. Improving access to jobs, the efficient movement of goods and increased access to services is critical to the sustained growth and prosperity of the Columbus region, said Mayor Andrew J. Ginther in the citys application. "Columbus neighborhoods, new Americans, disadvantaged residents and visitors to the region will all benefit from a smarter, safer and more accessible community. Columbuss initiatives include: A self-driving fixed-route transit line in Easton, one of Ohios largest job centers. Self-driving electric vehicles will circulate on a fixed route from the existing Easton Transit station and include residential, commercial and retail facilities in the Easton office/shopping park and Port Columbus areas of the city. Smart corridors to improve transit service and efficiently. This may include traffic information boards and electronic signs warning of incidents and providing detours. Expanded usage of electric and smart vehicles. Real-time information about traffic and parking conditions and transit options to minimize traffic issues associated with major events or incidents. A smart card and app that allows people to pay for bus fares, as well as ride- and car-sharing services. Columbus also may have had an advantage because it is seen as representative of typical U.S. cities and makes it more likely to be emulated by other cities. It has a mix of worker typeswhite collar, blue collar and older workersand it has a diverse population. Because of that, many companies and brands consider Columbus the test marketing capital of the world, Ginther said in a Washington Post blog post. Now the city wants to be the place other cities turn to when they begin implementing smart city initiatives. As it says in its video for the challenge: Kennet pupil seeking sponsorship to Ecuador A THATCHAM schoolgirl has been fundraising to help people in Ecuador. Kennet School pupil Jemima Unsworth is part of a group of pupils and teachers heading off on the expedition arranged by the school and Camps International. The organisation takes pupils to Africa, Asia and South America, where they help in disadvantaged communities. I have always found other cultures so interesting, Miss Unsworth said. There are so many places we can explore and go to. We are so privileged and we have so much that we take for granted on a daily basis. A 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck the country in April and at least 661 people were killed and more than 27,000 were injured, leading to state of emergency being declared. Miss Unsworth said that the earthquake had made her want to help even more. Miss Unsworth needs to raise 4,000 for the expedition, which sets off in July next year, and has raised 1,700 through a series of events. I wanted to start fundraising as soon as possible, she said. My mum is quite a keen baker so we started cooking brownies and as its a trip to Ecuador we used Fair Trade ingredients. The brownies went down a treat with friends, family and Kennet teachers, raising 200. Miss Unsworth has also secured a part-time job, raised funds through a car boot sale and has booked a stall at the Christmas Market. And the Year 11 pupil has been doing all this while sitting her GCSEs. However, she is looking for businesses to sponsor her and who would be willing to have their logo printed on a T shirt. She said, Im just trying my best to earn as much money as possible. Im getting a lot of help from my family and friends. Its a long road ahead but Im happy with the progress Ive made in only a few months. To sponsor or contribute, contact jemimaunsworth@gmail.com Spooky events, stomp grapes and the return of the Kings this weekend Its the spookiest time of the year, and there are a few events happening this weekend in Newport County to mark the occasion. Columnist Tom Kacich is a columnist and the author of Tom's Mailbag at The News-Gazette. His column appears Sundays. His email is tkacich@news-gazette.com, and you can follow him on Twitter (@tkacich). One of Editor & Publishers 10 That Do It Right 2021 Offering medical assistance in dying to people in Canada on the basis of psychiatric illnesses could put vulnerable people at risk, argues a commentary in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). "There is a serious gap between the idealized basis upon which assisted dying for patients with psychiatric conditions is advocated and the reality of its practice, as reflected in evidence from Belgium and the Netherlands. A policy for access to assisted dying by nonterminally ill patients with psychiatric conditions will put many vulnerable and stigmatized people at risk," writes Dr. Scott Kim, a physician and bioethicist at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, Maryland, United States, with Dr. Trudo Lemmens, a professor at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law & the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. Canada has been grappling recently with conflicting recommendations over legalizing assisted dying. The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that competent adults suffering from a "grievous and irremediable medical condition" should be able to access assisted dying. It invited Parliament to develop a strict regulatory regime to enable this. A Special Joint Parliamentary Committee recommended that people with psychiatric illness should be eligible. Bill C14, now adopted by both the House of Commons and the Senate, restricts assisted dying to persons near the end of their natural lives (whether or not they have psychiatric disorders). This would generally rule out assisted dying for psychiatric conditions. But the government will be studying this issue further in the coming years. The authors argue that there are substantial challenges to deciding who would be eligible for assisted dying for psychiatric patients. Evidence from Belgium and the Netherlands indicates that doctors disagree when applying criteria for who is eligible for assisted dying for psychiatric disorders. As well, although most of the discussion has focused on persons with difficult-to-treat depression, legalizing assisted dying for psychiatric disorders would mean that persons with schizophrenia, autism, eating disorders, PTSD, personality disorders, and even prolonged grief would be eligible to receive assisted dying. "Perhaps those who advocate for extending access to people with psychiatric disorders may be willing to tolerate a number of potentially avoidable premature deaths as acceptable because access to assisted dying is felt to be so important in principle. However, that argument must be made explicit and debated publicly," the authors conclude. Source: Canadian Medical Association Journal When people seek information on health-related symptoms, many turn to the internet, and Google in particular, as the first stop. Now, when consumers access Google's mobile search for information about certain symptoms, they will get facts on relevant related medical conditions up front on their smartphone or other mobile device. For example, a symptom search even one using common language free of medical terminology like "my tummy hurts" or "nose blocked" will show a list of related conditions. For individual symptoms like "headache," searchers will see overview information as well as have the ability to view self-treatment options and suggestions of when to seek help from a healthcare professional. To ensure quality and accuracy, teams of doctors, including expert clinicians at Mayo Clinic, have written or reviewed individual symptom information and evaluated related conditions. The goal of this new symptom search feature is to help searchers explore and navigate health conditions related to symptoms, get basic answers quickly and lead to more in-depth research on the web or contacting a health care professional. Google will navigate searchers to information about symptoms and treatments. For many common conditions, this will include key overview information provided by Mayo Clinic. This can include details about how common a condition is, risk factors associated with the condition, self-treatment options and guidance on when to seek medical care. "At Mayo Clinic, we constantly seek to discover and share medical knowledge for the benefit of everyone," says Sandhya Pruthi, M.D., chief medical editor, Mayo Clinic Global Business Solutions. "Providing reliable and accessible health information at the digital consumers' initial point of need such as through Google search is a natural extension of Mayo Clinic and our health information website, MayoClinic.org." Google reviewed health conditions mentioned in online search results and checked them against medical information it compiled from physicians. Google worked with teams of physicians to review individual symptom information, and expert clinicians at Mayo Clinic evaluated related conditions for a representative sample of searches to help improve Google's lists. "Mayo Clinic has the opportunity to share useful and concise information with consumers," says Dr. Pruthi. "Google symptom search should be viewed as a more efficient exploration tool for individuals needing accurate health information, and as they seek more in-depth knowledge, they can quickly connect to trusted health information sources like MayoClinic.org." The information is not intended to be medical advice or a diagnostic tool, and it is presented for informational purposes only. According to Dr. Pruthi, cases may vary in severity from person to person, and there are bound to be exceptions. She adds, consumers searching new symptoms and other health information should consult a health care professional if they have a medical concern or seek emergency medical care for more serious symptoms. By Eleanor McDermid Researchers have screened over 1000 plasma proteins to develop a predictive score in patients with stable coronary heart disease (CHD). As reported in JAMA, the researchers screened plasma samples from 938 participants of the Heart and Soul study using aptamers, which are made of modified DNA and bind specific proteins, so they essentially function as synthetic antibodies. From this, Peter Ganz (University of California-San Francisco, USA) and team identified nine proteins that were prognostic for myocardial infarction, stroke, heart failure and all-cause death over the 4 years after a sample was taken. The nine proteins were angiopoietin-2, matrix metalloproteinase-12, chemokine ligand 18, complement 7, 1-antichymotrypsin complex, angiopoietin-related protein 4, troponin I, growth differentiation factor 11/8 and 2-antiplasmin. When the researchers adjusted for the variables in the Framingham risk prediction model (refit in the Heart and Soul cohort), the nine-protein model remained predictive of cardiovascular events, "suggesting that the 9 proteins contained prognostic information that was at least partly independent of traditional risk factors." However, the nine-protein model had only modest discriminative accuracy, with a C-statistic of 0.74 (where 1.0 is perfect discrimination) in the derivation cohort and 0.70 in a validation cohort of 971 participants of the HUNT3 study. Discriminative accuracy was greater than for the refit Framingham model alone, but combining the two models improved the C-statistic only slightly, to 0.75 and 0.71 in the derivation and validation cohorts, respectively. Lab Diagnostics & Automation eBook Compilation of the top interviews, articles, and news in the last year. Download a copy today However, editorialist Marc Sabatine (Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA) suggests that "this modest accuracy should not necessarily dampen enthusiasm for their results." Although a diagnostic test demands high accuracy, the usefulness of a predictive test is based more on its ability to categorise patients according to their risk level, he says. The 4-year event rate predicted by the protein score was within 2 percentage points of the observed rate in the validation cohort. And when participants were divided into deciles according to protein risk score, the expected and observed event rates for each decile were within 5 percentage points of each other. Expected rates rose from 7.8% in the first to 59.2% in the 10th decile. "These data would be important to physicians and patients alike", says Sabatine, but he suggests that the score be tested on samples from patients who underwent active treatment in a clinical trial. "Although more accurate risk prediction is always welcome, clinicians more readily embrace measuring a prognostic biomarker or calculating a risk score if the results could alter therapeutic decision making." Licensed from medwireNews with permission from Springer Healthcare Ltd. Springer Healthcare Ltd. All rights reserved. Neither of these parties endorse or recommend any commercial products, services, or equipment. By Eleanor McDermid Patients treated for hypercholesterolaemia in clinical practice may not derive additional benefit from very intensive statin treatment, say researchers. In their retrospective analysis, patients who achieved a low-density-lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol level of 70 mg/dL or lower had no better cardiovascular outcomes than those who achieved levels between 70 and 100 mg/dL. "Our results do not provide support for a blanket principle that lower [LDL cholesterol] is better for all patients in secondary prevention", writes the team. The findings, which appear in JAMA Internal Medicine, are based on the LDL cholesterol levels achieved after 1 year of statin treatment by 31,619 Israeli patients with ischaemic heart disease and at least 80% medication adherence. Lab Diagnostics & Automation eBook Compilation of the top interviews, articles, and news in the last year. Download a copy today During an average 1.6 years of follow-up, the major adverse cardiovascular event (MACE) rate was 78.1 per 1000 person-years among the 29% of patients who achieved LDL cholesterol levels of 70 mg/dL or below. And the rate among the 53% of patients who achieved levels between 70 and 100 mg/dL was 71.0 per 1000 person-years, with no significant difference between the two groups after accounting for confounders. However, people who achieved these moderate LDL cholesterol levels were a significant 11% less likely to have a MACE than patients who failed to achieve even that target. The rate among the 18% of patients whose LDL cholesterol levels remained above 100 mg/dL was 81.3 per 1000 person-years. Indeed, the lowest MACE risk was observed in patients with achieved levels of around 90 mg/dL, with the risk rising steeply from 100 mg/dL. The average age of the patients was around 67 years, which researcher Morton Leibowitz (Clalit Health Services, Tel Aviv, Israel) and colleagues say is generally older than the age of patients in randomised clinical trials. In addition, they say that the trials from which the low LDL cholesterol targets emerged did not address "the extent of comorbidities or polypharmacy" among their patients, "which are factors that increasingly affect therapeutic decisions facing physicians." When the researchers repeated their analysis in 54,884 patients with at least 50% statin adherence, the findings were broadly similar except that the group with the lowest achieved LDL cholesterol levels had a slightly but significantly increased risk of MACE, relative to the moderate levels group. They therefore conclude that clinical trial evidence in support of very low LDL cholesterol targets "is not yet definitive for everyday community-based practice." Source: JAMA Intern Med 2016; Advance online publication Licensed from medwireNews with permission from Springer Healthcare Ltd. Springer Healthcare Ltd. All rights reserved. Neither of these parties endorse or recommend any commercial products, services, or equipment. The 2016 season of Honda One Make Race will also have a women's edition. (Photo: Honda Motorcycles and Scooters) Honda One Make Race 2016 Calendar Round Race Track Date 1 Kari Motor Speedway, Coimbatore 24th -26th June 2 Madras Motor Race Track, Chennai 8th -10th July 3 Madras Motor Race Track, Chennai 12th -14th August 4 Madras Motor Race Track, Chennai 2nd -4th September 5 Buddh International Circuit, G.Noida 30th Sep-2nd October Honda One Make Race, currently in its ninth edition, will commence from June 24 onwards. The company has also announced the schedule for this years event.The biggest highlight this year though, will be the first-ever full-fledged season of the Honda All Women Race. In a step towards encouraging more women participation, Honda had conducted the first-ever All Women Race during the Round 5 of 2015 season. Building on the success, 10 women riders will compete in the First Round of the Honda exclusive women racing event. The woman riders have been trained at the Honda Ten10 Racing Academy.Honda also unveiled new race-prepped racing versions of CBR 250R and CBR 150R. Developed with technical know-how provided by Hondas Indian R&D team, both the motorcycles are set to scorch the Kari Motor Speedway, beginning this weekend. The new racing version of the CBR 250R gets an upgraded Honda racing kit, including wiring harness with remapping option, advanced racing body cowl kit & equipped with endurance exhaust. The new CBR 150R gets a reprogrammed ECU & Endurance exhaust.Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India Pvt. Ltd. (HMSI) has also announced a helpline number 0124-6712863, through which any rider who wishes to take up motorsport professionally, can reach out to the Honda Racing Team. The deserving candidates will then be given training on the nuances of two-wheeler racing at the Honda Ten10 Racing Academy. Honda will also provide all technical support as well race-prepped motorcycles to all the aspirants. New Delhi: The government on Wednesday approved Rs 10,000 crore 'Fund of Funds for Startups' to support them with an aim to generate employment for 18 lakh persons. "The fund is expected to generate employment for 18 lakh persons on full deployment...A corpus of Rs 10,000 crore could potentially be the nucleus for catalysing Rs 60,000 crore of equity investment and twice as much debt investment," an official statement said. The decision was taken in the Union Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "The Cabinet has approved the establishment of 'Fund of Funds for Startups' (FFS) at Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) for contribution to various Alternative Investment Funds (AIF), registered with SEBI which would extend funding support to startups," it said. This is in line with the 'Startup India Action Plan' unveiled by the government in January. The corpus shall be built up over the 14th and 15th Finance Commission cycles, subject to progress of the scheme and availability of funds, it said. "This would provide a stable and predictable source of funding for startup enterprises and thereby facilitate large scale job creation," it added. An amount of Rs 500 crore has already been provided to the corpus of FFS in 2015-16 and Rs 600 crore earmarked in the 2016-17. Further provisions will be made as grant assistance through gross budgetary Support by Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) which will monitor and review performance in line with the 'Start up India Action Plan', it said. Further, the statement said the expertise of SIDBI would be utilised to manage the day-to-day operations of the fund. The monitoring and review of performance would be linked to the implementation of the action plan to enable execution as per timelines and milestones. The move assumes significance as startups face several challenges such as limited availability of domestic risk capital, constraints of conventional bank finance, information asymmetry and lack of hand holding support from credible agencies. A majority of successful startups have been funded by foreign venture funds and many of them are locating outside the country to receive such funding, it said. "A dedicated fund for carrying out 'Fund of Funds' operations would address these issues and enable flow of assistance to innovative startups through their journey to becoming full fledged business entities," it added. This would encompass support at seed stage, early stage and growth stage, it said. New Delhi: On the eve of the crucial 'Brexit' referendum, both the government and the RBI said they are ready whatever the outcome. The finance ministry said on Wednesday the country has sufficient foreign exchange reserves to handle any impact. RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan said the central bank will infuse whatever liquidity is needed into the Indian market to keep it "well behaved". Brexit refers to the exit of United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU). The UK will on Thursday vote to decide whether to remain in the 28-nation EU or to leave. On Tuesday, even US Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen warned that Britain's exit from the EU would have significant economic repercussions. India's economic affairs honchos are a tad more positive. "Current indications are that perhaps Brexit won't happen. In the event of Brexit happening, let me say very categorically that we are prepared to deal with all eventualities and I am saying so on the basis of three specific factors," said economic affairs secretary Shaktikanta Das. The three factors: An adequate foreign exchange reserve of $360 billion, the fact that India continues to be an attractive FDI destination globally and that India's trade will likely be impacted only minimally. "So all these things put together ... if there is any currency volatility, we should be able to deal with that," he said. India has a significant trade volume with the UK as well as with the EU. It also receives large investments from Europe. When asked about the possible impact of the key referndum on India, Raghuram Rajan said, "We are watching the situation and we will infuse whatever liquidity is needed to keep markets reasonably well behaved." Naughty Cat worries we'll be on the outside looking in, missing influence we once had #CatsAgainstBrexit pic.twitter.com/v1bibhc1Y9 Nicola Blackwood (@nicolablackwood) June 20, 2016 Honestly I think cats would vote out, but then immediately miaow loudly to get back in again. #CatsAgainstBrexit pic.twitter.com/5KtFfWVB9g Louise Johnson (@LouiseJJohnson) June 20, 2016 #CatsAgainstBrexit Because workers rights are protected by remaining inside the #eu pic.twitter.com/o42kWK9Jmq April PrestIN (@OldmoatLibDem) June 20, 2016 Oscar is shocked and offended by the anti-EU myths he's seen online #CatsAgainstBrexit pic.twitter.com/Z2Or3513PQ lara (@creepygrrl) June 20, 2016 Daphne is worried about trade restrictions on catnip #CatsAgainstBrexit pic.twitter.com/RSJO4O27tj Kate Bevan (@katebevan) June 20, 2016 Emily's grandmother is Turkish. Here's what she thinks of your racist billboards #CatsAgainstBrexit pic.twitter.com/CeQaakHuvH martyn #VoteRemain (@martynhett) June 20, 2016 Bea and Minnie are in full solidarity with their cosmopolitan counterparts across the pond. #CatsAgainstBrexit pic.twitter.com/PzpQxikpAo Alex Ross (@alexrossmusic) June 20, 2016 Hunters face on hearing yet another repeat of the bare-faced 350m lie #CatsAgainstBrexit pic.twitter.com/od237v1TUp Tom Royal (@tomroyal) June 20, 2016 The fur is flying on social media as Britons prepare to vote Thursday on whether the United Kingdom should remain in the European Union.The hashtags #CatsAgainstBrexit and #CatsForBrexit flooded Twitter [TWTR.N] on Monday and Tuesday, as pro- and anti-independence citizens tweeted feline photos and messages imploring voters to side with them in the referendum on Thursday on a British exit or "Brexit."The vote comes amid warnings from world leaders, investors and companies that a decision to leave the 28-nation bloc would diminish Britain's influence, unleash turmoil on markets and send shock waves around the Western world."Naughty Cat worries we'll be on the outside looking in, missing influence we once had #CatsAgainstBrexit," tweeted Nicola Blackwood (@nicolablackwood), a conservative politician and member of parliament for Oxford West and Abingdon, late Monday. The tweet included a photo of a cat looking through a glass window."My cat is praying for #Brexit #CatsForBrexit," tweeted Maria Caulfield , a member of parliament for Lewes, along with an image of a cat covering its face with its paws.Others found comic relief in the hashtags, likening the Brexit debate to cats' sometimes fickle behavior."We're voting in. Are you sure? In. Or out? Definitely in. In, okay. Don't shut the door. #CatsAgainstBrexit #fickle," tweeted GF Davies , with a photo of two cats standing in a doorway.Several others and their cats posted their thoughts against Brexit on Twitter.The probability of a Brexit by 2017 was at 26 percent Tuesday, according to the online betting platform PredictIt.(With inputs from Reuters) Just two weeks ago, a Manipal University student bagged the second prize at an all-India competition for his innovative design for a waterless, odorless toilet. for the Indian Railways. This time, another student, Vishnupriya Viswanathan, has made not just her university, but also the country proud.The sixth semester student of the Faculty of Architecture(FOA), Manipal university, won the first prize in the 18th Annual Berkeley Prize Essay Competition under the International Undergraduate Prize for Architectural Design Excellence, endorsed by Department of Architecture, University of California, Berkeley, USA.(Photo: Vishnupriya Vishwanathan/Facebook)The topic was Architects Confronting Homelessness and it was to be written in two parts : Who is doing what in your community to confront the issue of the men, women, young people and children without shelter; and, as both an individual and as a professional, how do you see yourself assisting in providing shelter to those in need?Being from Chennai, Vishnupriya based her essay on a script taken from the lives of hapless children under the care of Karunalaya, a social service organization run by Dr Paul Sunder Singh. Karunalaya transforms the lives of the ill-fated children of Chennais beaches, streets, railways stations, bus stops and harbour. Its two shelters house 36 boys and 29 girls.Vishnupriya's 2500-word essay titled, Paving Better Paths for Little Feet won the first prize and $6000 in cash.It means a lot to me, says Vishnupriya, who is keen to pursue a post-graduation in Architecture Criticism in the US or the UK after completing her graduation at FOA.I was always interested in writing and this is going to be a big boost, she says, adding, I want to be in architecture journalism and that is why I took part in the essay to see for myself how best I can do it. I am surprised at the result.Vishnupriya believes the Berkeley Prize essay competition has helped her become more aware of the living conditions of the underprivileged sections all over the world. It has given her the vista to realise how her contribution can affect them.Prof Nishant Manapure, Director FOA, who was all praise for his students, said, Being the biggest competition of the kind for architecture students, it is a great achievement. We are proud of her. Vishnu is one of the bright students and we are extremely thrilled at her achievement. She has brought laurels not only to the Manipal University, but also to the country, he said.Her aim is to create a difference in society for the betterment of the lives of the under-privileged and the differently-abled. She wishes to do this as an architect, writer and an active citizen to create spaces that are sustainable and universally accessible.Reading is Vishu's greatest passion, and she also harbours a keen interest for travelling and learning new languages and practices. With its naturally extreme temperatures, Arctic is probably one of the most beautiful places on Earth. Its beauty is truly overwhelming. Its white floating ice, the silence and flawless surrounding, makes the place a unique world in itself. An extraordinarily beautiful world which people want to protect.And with this sole purpose in mind, acclaimed Italian composer and pianist Ludovico Einaudi chose to perform on a small floating platform in the Arctic Ocean off the coast of Norway, surrounded by ice. And for the occasion, Einaudi wrote an original composition, Elegy for the Arctic. Through his music Einaudi wanted to raise awareness about the real danger to the Arctic - the early melting of glaciers, which could have serious implication in the future.The Arctic Ocean is the least protected sea in the world, its high seas currently have no legal safeguards, Greenpeace wrote on releasing the video of Einaudis performance. As the ice cover decreases with rising temperatures, this unique area is losing its frozen shield, leaving it exposed to reckless exploitation, destructive fishing trawlers and risky oil drilling.The pianist's performance was part of a campaign by the organisation Greenpeace to convince world leaders to come together to protect the Arctic.This video of Einaudi playing his grand piano with ice crumbling in the backdrop of the Wahlenbergbreen glacierin Svalbard, Norway, will leave you stumped. My thoughts & prayers are with those who lost their near & dear ones due to the lightning. May the injured recover quickly: PM @narendramodi PMO India (@PMOIndia) June 22, 2016 Deeply anguished by loss of lives due to lightning in parts of UP, Bihar, Jharkhand & other parts of the nation over the last few days: PM PMO India (@PMOIndia) June 22, 2016 At least 56 people were killed in lightning strikes at separate places of Bihar's Aurangabad district over the last 24 hours.Lightning storms hit many parts of the state along with heavy rains. Police sources said eight people were critically injured and the death toll may increase.In Darmikala village, a man and his son became victims of the lightning strike while they were returning home from their field. Two more people were killed in Aarai and Pansa villages.Principal Secretary of Disaster Management in Bihar Vyas Ji, said, "Most of them victims used to live in mud houses. Our officers are there on the spot and assist the victims."Government officials said the families of the victims would get Rs four lakh each as compensation for death in natural calamity.Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi while expressing his condolences, tweeted, "Deeply anguished by loss of lives due to lightning in parts of UP, Bihar, Jharkhand & other parts of the nation over the last few days.""My thoughts & prayers are with those who lost their near & dear ones due to the lightning. May the injured recover quickly," his tweet reads. New Delhi: BJP's East Delhi Member of Parliament Maheish Girri, who was protesting outside Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's residence since Sunday, broke his fast-unto-death on Tuesday on the urging of Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh. Rajnath Singh on Tuesday evening reached the Civil Lines where Girri was sitting on a hunger strike and persuaded him "not to put his life at stake". Girri was on fast-unto-death since Sunday after Kejriwal declined to join an open debate over his accusation that the Bharatiya Janata Party Member of Parliament was involved in the murder of a New Delhi Municipal Council estate officer MM Khan. Rajnath Singh assured Girri that the police in its investigation has not find anything against him and hence he should not be disturbed by the allegations levelled due to political malice. "Everywhere in the society people are praising the moral courage and the works of Maheish Girri. It is necessary that he should disregard the allegations levelled due to political malice and concentrate on human service," he said, while addressing the gathering. The Home Minister offered Girri a glass of juice, which he drank to break his two-day fast. "I challenged Kejriwal for a debate over his accusation. It has been three days but he didn't turn up. So, its their defeat. I am going to end my hunger strike," Girri said in presence of Rajnath Singh. Union Minister Harsh Vardhan, who also reached the venue said "Delhi is passing through a phase of anarchy and if this does not end soon, then there will be constitutional crisis in Delhi." He, too, requested Girri to continue his fight against the mis-propaganda of Kejriwal government but end his hunger strike in view of human life being precious. Earlier in the day, Girri performed yoga at the agitation venue to mark the second International Yoga Day in New Delhi. "On International Yoga Day 2016 on Tuesday, participated in a Yoga Session with all karyakartas, here at the venue of my Anshan," he tweeted. BJP's Delhi unit President Satish Upadhyay, Member of Parliament Pravesh Verma and several other leaders joined the hunger strike led by Girri. Khan was shot dead in Jamia Nagar in New Delhi on May 16, a day before he was expected to pass an order on the terms of the lease of The Connaught, a four-star hotel. Kejriwal had reiterated his demand for the arrest of Girri and urged Delhi Police to probe the relationship between Girri and hotelier Ramesh Kakkar, who ran The Connaught and is the main accused in the murder of Khan. Beijing: China on Wednesday continued to make ambivalent statements on India's bid for NSG membership amid clear indications that it was unrelenting in its opposition. Clubbing India and Pakistan once again, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said members of the 48-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group have had three round of unofficial discussions on the membership of the two countries. China is seeking to equate India with its impeccable non-proliferation record with that of Pakistan for which it is batting. But Beijing maintained that the entry of the two countries was not on the agenda of the two-day NSG plenary in the South Korean capital Seoul starting tomorrow. India's Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar will be in Seoul but a breakthrough on India's entry is unlikely. Pakistan on Tuesday claimed that it had successfully blocked India's bid for NSG membership, and China's clubbing of the two countries is seen as a ploy to block New Delhi. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying also underlined the differences within NSG members, saying "parties are yet to see eye-to-eye on this issue". On it's part Beijing will play a constructive role in the discussions, she said. The NSG works under the principle of unanimity and even one country's vote against India will scuttle its bid. New Delhi: Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar on Wednesday headed for Seoul ahead of the crucial Nuclear Suppliers Group Plenary from Thursday, where India is hoping to clinch membership which is strongly opposed by China and some other countries. Jaishankhar, who was closely monitoring the goings-on during the officials' level meet of the 48-nation grouping which started on Monday, left for the South Korean capital to lobby with members to boost India's prospects of getting membership. Senior External Affairs Ministry Official Amandeep Singh Gill, in-charge of 'Disarmament & International Security' division, is already in Seoul to "garner" support as well as "explain" India's case, sources said. However, China continues to stonewall India's bid for Nuclear Suppliers Group membership with the members divided over the entry of a non-NPT signatory country like India. The Nuclear Suppliers Group works under the principle of unanimity and even one country's vote against India will scuttle its bid. While majority of the elite group members backed India's membership, it is understood that apart from China, countries like Turkey, South Africa, Ireland and New Zealand were not in favour of India's entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group. China maintains opposition to India's entry, arguing that it has not signed Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). However, it has been batting for its close ally Pakistan's entry if NSG extends any exemption for India. India has asserted that being a signatory to the NPT was not essential for joining the Nuclear Supplies Group as there has been a precedent in this regard, citing the case of France. India is seeking membership of Nuclear Supplies Group to enable it to trade in and export nuclear technology. The access to the Nuclear Supplies Group, which regulates the global trade of nuclear technology, is expected to open up the international market for energy starved India, which has an ambitious energy generation programme. India is looking at 63,000 MW energy requirement through nuclear programme by 2030. The Nuclear Supplies Group 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. Hyderabad: Guntur District Collector Kantilal Dande ordered a probe into caste status of research scholar Rohith Vemula who committed suicide in the University of Hyderabad in January. Dande said, "We will soon conduct a comprehensive inquiry to find the actual community status of Rohith Vemula." Earlier, the National Commission for Scheduled Castes had certified that Rohith belonged to the Mala community, which comes under Scheduled Castes category in Andhra Pradesh. It was learnt that the University Grants Commission (UGC) too has sought a report from the Tahsildar, Guntur, on the issue. Rohith was one of the five Dalit scholars who was expelled by the University of Hyderabad in August 2015 for allegedly attacking a student activist belonging to Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). He was doing his PhD in science technology and society studies for the past two years. On January 17, Rohith managed to enter the NRS hostel, locked himself and hanged himself reportedly after being depressed over his expulsion from the university. A man in Hassan district of Karnataka was stabbed brutally at a crowded bus stop on Tuesday evening after he objected to a man allegedly staring at his girlfriend. Several onlookers filmed the entire attack on their cellphones but nobody came forward to help the man apart from his friends. 5 persons have been arrested and a case has been registered against the accused. Here is what is making news on a Tuesday morning All-women combat group in Metro trains The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) gave a new form of security to women on International Yoga Day in the form of a new combat group for Delhi Metro. The step was taken after multiple cases of molestation were registered at Metro police stations. The all-women combat group has been especially trained to fight in narrow enclosures, like Metro trains, with multiple opponents using a combination of Pekiti-Tirsia Kali, a Filipino martial art, as reported in The Times of India. NSG: US standing by India, publicly and privately The Obama administration on Monday again put its weight behind India's admission to the Nuclear Suppliers Group, calling on member sates to support New Delhi's application even as China, the main hurdle, appeared to soften its position. The administration used both its White House and state department pulpits to voice its support for India's membership as the 48-country cartel began its plenary session in Seoul. "India is ready for membership. And the United States calls on participating governments to support India's application," President Barack Obama's spokesman Josh Earnest said at his daily briefing. Read full article in The Times of India. Scrap railway budget: Niti Aayog panel The British-era practice of presenting a separate railway budget may be discarded by the Narendra Modi government after a high-powered panel headed by Niti Aayog member Bibek Debroy recommended that the annual exercise should be scrapped. Niti Aayog was mandated by the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) to work out a detailed plan for integration of rail budget with the general budget. Debroy had made similar recommendations in a report on restructuring of railways. But only some of the proposals were implemented, as per a news report in The Times of India. Story of lion cub, its ticking teddy bear ends in tears A Lion cub cuddles up to a teddy bear in a crib, a ticking clock inside the soft toy imitating the heartbeat of the mother who abandoned him. At the Machia Safari Park in Jodhpur, it was as if a fairy tale had just turned real. Until the wake-up call came just five days later, as reported in The Indian Express. On Sunday, the two-week-old cub succumbed to the punishing summer heat and weak immunity. "On June 14, he fell ill. We tried to revive him by putting him inside a crib with a teddy bear. We even put a ticking clock inside the toy to simulate heartbeat," said Sharavan Singh Rathore, wildlife veterinary doctor at the park. He was building dream home, just like he saw in Kabul: Brother of Indian killed in Afghanistan terror attack Mounds of sand fill up three rooms of a bungalow that has yellow French windows. On its red roof is a black clay mask to ward off evil spirits. The sand would have soon made way for black tiles on the floor. But the incomplete construction now stands next to Govind Singh Thapa's (48) house in Bhuttuwala area of Dehradun as a reminder of his unfulfilled dream and his untimely death. The news of the death of Govind Singh and Ganesh Thapa (51), both ex-servicemen from Dehradun, in a terror attack by a suicide bomber in Kabul on Monday shattered their wives living over 1,200 km away. One expressed it with unstoppable tears, the other with unbreakable silence. Read full article in The Indian Express. Protest at Noida hospital: 'Ultrasound showed twins, woman gave birth to one child' Dramatic scenes were witnessed at B R Ambedkar Multi Speciality Hospital in Noida Monday after a woman, whose ultrasound reports had shown she was pregnant with twins, gave birth to only one child, prompting her family to protest at the hospital. "We admitted her to the hospital on Sunday afternoon. The doctors had said a surgery would be required because the babies cannot be delivered normally," said Devendra Kumar, the brother-in-law of 25-year-old Sangeeta Devi, as repprted in The Indian Express. Will bring tapping to SC notice, make it part of Essar leaks case: Prashant Bhushan The recent revelations regarding alleged tapping of VVIPs by an ex-Essar employee should be made part of ongoing proceedings in the Essar leaks case in the Supreme Court. The latter relates to emails "leaked" by a whistleblower that show an alleged nexus between the company and politicians, bureaucrats and journalists. Calling for this, the petitioner in the Essar leaks case, Prashant Bhushan, Supreme Court lawyer whose Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) has filed a PIL in the matter, said Tuesday that reports of alleged phone-tapping done by Albasit Khan, as first reported in The Indian Express, were "groundbreaking." Hindus in Pakistan protest sale of Om-inscribed shoes Hindus in Pakistan's Sindh province are protesting the sale of shoes inscribed with sacred religious symbol 'Om' and described the actions of shopkeepers selling them as "unfortunate" and "blasphemous", as per a news report in the Hindustan Times. The patron-in-chief of the Pakistan Hindu Council (PHC), Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, said that they have lodged protests with the Sindh government and local authorities in Tando Adam Khan after the sale of such shoes was brought to the notice of his community. 'Made in India' F-16s on radar, thanks to FDI American military manufacturer Lockheed Martin could soon be producing F-16 fighters in an assembly line based in India, taking advantage of the new liberalised FDI conditions announced by the government on Monday. If the legendary American fighter is deployed with the Indian Air Force after local production, it would signal a historic shift in India's military posture that could dramatically affect the country's relations with China, Pakistan and other nations. It could also draw much criticism to the fact that India was inducting a fighter that first took to the skies more than 40 years ago, as per a news report in The Hindu. Why Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal and ShopClues fight and cant stand united against offline retailers and government rules India's ecommerce blue chips are disunited and fractious, even when confronted with a constricting set of central government rules - the April-announced policy on etailers and marketplaces - and various state-level taxation threats, as per a news report in The Economic Times. Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal, ShopClues and others face a determined and united brick-and-mortar retailers' group, Retailers Association of India (RAI), but the stars of ecommerce can't lobby the government with one voice. And the impact of this on the etailing business is at best uncertain. PM Narendra Modi's dream project 'Startup India' to be revamped to woo more participants Five months after its launch by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the government's Startup India initiative is due for an overhaul to improve participation. The government recently held a review after fewer-than expected startups applied for recognition and only one made the final cut for the incentives that are available under the programme. Subsequently, the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) chalked out a strategy to upgrade the action plan and get more enterprises to take part, said a senior official. About 200 companies had applied for recognition, of which, 30 were shortlisted for consideration last month by the inter-ministerial board formed by DIPP, as per a news report in The Economic Times. Nagpur: A woman sub-inspector attached to Ambazari Police Station here was caught red-handed accepting a bribe of Rs 20,000 from an accused in a domestic violence case, the Anti-Corruption Bureau said on Wednesday. According to the ACB, the policewoman - Archana Laxmanrao Waghmare (33) - demanded a bribe of Rs 50,000 from accused Hardeep Singh Arora, who is facing a domestic violence case. Waghmare demanded the sum to offer a positive opinion in hearing on confirmation of bail before the Bombay High Court, Nagpur bench. Arora and his family had been booked for torture and harassment on a complaint by his wife. The High Court had granted Arora ad-interim bail and fixed hearing for the confirmation later this week. Fed up by the constant demands, Arora approached the ACB and offered her the initial installment amount as per the trap set by the agency. She was nabbed on Tuesday while accepting the amount in the presence of witnesses at an eatery within the jurisdiction of her police station, the ACB said in a release. The woman policeman demanded a bribe of Rs 50,000 from the accused facing a domestic violence case. New Delhi: Bollywood's drug-themed movie Udta Punjab, which braved a tough battle for release in India, will now see the light of the day in Pakistan, albeit with cuts and mutes on expletives and references to the country. "All the foul language, including swearing at and derogatory words, remarks have been muted along with certain excisions of scenes. The movie has been granted 'A' rating by the Full Board of CBFC (Central Board of Film Censors)," Mobashir Hasan, chairperson, CBFC, told from Islamabad in response to queries through social media. He also said that references to Pakistan 'have been excised'. Hasan added: "Scenes which even subtly refer to Pakistan, word '786', words 'Maryam kee seerat' and all the foul language and such words have been excised, muted and beeped." A well-placed source in the neighbouring country's film distribution market said that about eight minutes of "basically abusive language" have been cut. However, a release date is yet to be fixed. Meanwhile, the Sindh Board of Film Certification, which works independent of the CBFC, is yet to grant a release certificate to the movie. "We have asked a local distributor and importer to mute all abusive language as that is a direct violation of the existing censor code, and a few cuts. The film will be certified soon and hopefully released soon," Fakhr-e-Alam, chairperson of the Sindh censor board, told IANS from Karachi. They are now waiting for the film's Pakistan distributor to do the needful. "Only after that, the certificate will be issued," Alam said. A hard-hitting but entertaining message-based drama, Udta Punjab features power-packed and convincing performances by Shahid Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Kareena Kapoor Khan and Diljit Dosanjh. "It's powerful cinema," Alam said, adding: "Alia Bhatt has just set the bar too high for all the leading ladies." The film's story delves into the drug problem that the youth in Punjab is facing, and this has been told through actors Shahid, a youth icon and music star who remains high on drugs; Alia, a Bihari woman who falls in the trap of drug peddlers; Kareena, a doctor on a mission to break the drug nexus in the state; and Diljit, a police officer who dares to take on the system after his brother falls victim to the drug menace. With its unapologetic use of abusive language, Udta Punjab wasn't deemed fit for release even with an 'A' certificate by the Indian censor board which initially ordered 89 cuts and removal of reference to the state. The makers -- led by Anurag Kashyap who has been credited as being the face of a new wave of cinema in India -- moved the Bombay High Court, and walked away victorious after agreeing to make one cut and adding three disclaimers. The controversy stretched for almost two weeks, and became a larger issue when political bigwigs stepped in with their comments. The row also raised questions -- once again -- about the feasibility of having a censor board -- and brought filmmakers to demand an organisation which only certifies films and not excise parts of it. The movie got a favourable response in India for its anti-drug message and also for its strong performances. It made Rs 38.30 crore in four days of its release. The government is not worried about the serious charges raised by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Subramanian Swamy against Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian, sources said on Wednesday. All attacks were welcome, there is nothing to worry, a source in the government told Network 18. Clearly backing the CEA, sources said the government took a very considered view at the time of appointing Arvind Subramanian. In a series of tweets attacking the Chief Economic Adviser, who is an NRI, Swamy said, "Who said to US Cong on 13/3/13 the US should act against India to defend US Pharmaceuticals interests? Arvind Subramanian MoF !! Sack him!!!," he tweeted. "Now PTs (Patriotic Tweeples) can understand why our core economic sectors could not perform last two years. Trojan horses galore in MoF/Fin Institutions." "Was AS (Arvind Subramanian) deposing before US Cong Committee against India as a US citizen or Indian? Does any PT know?," he asked. Swamy's attack comes in the wake of reports of Arvind Subramanian being among the probable successors of Rajan as the country's central bank chief. Swamy had earlier launched a scathing attack on Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan, saying he is 'unfit' for the job and is 'mentally not fully Indian'. Ending all speculations, Rajan announced last week that he will return to academics after his current tenure as RBI Governor ends on September 4. Incidentally, both Rajan and Arvind Subramanian have worked at the IMF. While Rajan was a UPA appointee, Arvind Subramanian was appointed by the Narendra Modi government. Dr Subramanian Swamy is a master of irony. In the early 1970's, the young Harvard-educated Swamy was dismissed by the then prime minister Indira Gandhi as a Santa Claus with unrealistic ideas. As a Jan Sangh member of the Rajya Sabha, he had fiercely advocated an open economy criticising Indira Gandhis government-controlled socialist form of governance. He was even accused of promoting American capitalist interests in India. Much water has flown under the River Yamuna since the 1970s. The same Swamy is now describing US-educated Indian financial experts as American stooges sent to destroy Indian economy. First training his guns on Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan, he said the former IMF chief economist was not 'fully-mentally Indian'. Swamy made several such attacks on Rajan, who last week informed the RBI that he was not seeking a second term. After taking care of Rajan, Swamy has now trained his guns on Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian, another US-educated economist. In his tweets, the senior BJP leader attacked Subramanian, demanding his removal. He said, Subramanian used to work for the US. He must be having a Green card. He told the US Congress that US should act against India to defend the US pharmaceuticals' interests. Reacting to Swamys comments on Subramanian, Congress leader Digvijaya Singh said he was eyeing the Finance Ministers chair and making such statements to realise his dream. However, Swamy defended his remarks saying that he was speaking in the interests of the nation. In the last six months, maverick mathematician Swamy has embarrassed his own party's government by openly attacking Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar and Lieutenant Governor of Delhi Najeeb Jung. After the bungling in the Supreme Court over the government's stand on bringing back the Kohinoor Diamond, Swamy tweeted that both the Attorney General and Solicitor General should be removed from their posts. A few days later he pounced on Najeeb Jung calling him a Congress stooge. A few years ago, Wikileaks tweeted that Swamy was giving political intelligence on Indira Gandhis election strategy to the US. When the Congress made it a big issue, Swamy hit back demanding an apology. Finally, Congress spokesperson Sanjay Jha said sorry for calling Swamy a CIA agent. A victorious Swamy confirmed this on Twitter and wrote, "My legal eagles Supriya Manan, Ishkaran Bhandari and my wife Dr. Roxna Swamy inform me that Sanjay Jha has sent an email letter." Swamy, who completed his PhD in Economics at 24 from Harvard University was a vocal votary of free markets during the licence permit system that exited in the country till the 1990s. He published a Swadeshi Plan as an alternative to the Five Year Plan. He advocated a market economy with self-reliance for India, "in which full employment, minimum sustaining consumption, and defence expenditure of the nation be integrated with development planning to generate a 10 percent growth rate." Since the 1970s, he has also been demanding that India should have a close strategic relationship with USA, Israel and China. The videshi-educated lone ranger Swamy has now transformed himself into one of the most vocal supporters of Swadeshi. The BJP which has appointed him to the Rajya Sabha after dillydallying for years knows that it has to live with him. Because Swamy is a reality in Indian politics, with few friends and a lot of foes. New Delhi: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday dismissed Subramanian Swamy's attack on Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian and strongly defended him saying the government has full confidence in him and his advice is of "great value" to it. "Government has full confidence in the CEA, he has provided valuable insights from time to time. The party does not endorse Swamy's view," Jaitley said. In a series of tweets attacking the Chief Economic Adviser, who is an NRI, Swamy said, "Who said to US Cong on 13/3/13 the US should act against India to defend US Pharmaceuticals interests? Arvind Subramanian MoF !! Sack him!!!," he tweeted. "Now PTs (Patriotic Tweeples) can understand why our core economic sectors could not perform last two years. Trojan horses galore in MoF/Fin Institutions." "Was AS (Arvind Subramanian) deposing before US Cong Committee against India as a US citizen or Indian? Does any PT know?," he asked. Swamy's attack comes in the wake of reports of Arvind Subramanian being among the probable successors of Rajan as the country's central bank chief. Swamy had earlier launched a scathing attack on Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan, saying he is 'unfit' for the job and is 'mentally not fully Indian'. Ending all speculations, Rajan announced last week that he will return to academics after his current tenure as RBI Governor ends on September 4. Incidentally, both Rajan and Arvind Subramanian have worked at the IMF. While Rajan was a UPA appointee, Arvind Subramanian was appointed by the Narendra Modi government. Whats Cool The Huawei Honor 5C features a rear fingerprint sensor. It comes with a 13 megapixel rear camera with LED flash and an 8 megapixel front snapper. Whats Not So Cool The speaker is placed at the bottom of the Honor 5C. Verdict Launched in China earlier this year, Huaweis sub-brand Honor has brought its Honor 5C budget smartphone to India. At Rs 10,999, we find out if the Honor 5C holds true to its aim of focusing on battery, photography, and core technology.First thing to notice about the Honor 5C is its ergonomic design. At 5.2-inches, the unibody phone is not only comfortable to hold but the metallic design adds to its charm. The full HD (1920x1080p) display is bright and responsive under varied light conditions.The Huawei Fingerprint 2.0 sensor placed right under the rear camera has been built to enroll fingerprints in just 6 attempts, which is one of the lowest number of attempts required to set up biometric authentication.The phone packs a 13 megapixel rear camera along with an 8 megapixel front camera. The best part about the camera app is that it comes with a lot of customisation options. There is a Pro Mode even for shooting videos. This ensures that no matter what the subject is, with a little tweak of settings, you can get professional looking results.The phone comes only in one storage choice of 16 GB which is expandable up to 128 GB via microSD card. But it comes with a hybrid slot, which basically means you can either operate a second SIM or expand the storage. Also, out of the on-board storage only about 10.39 GB is available to user.With a 3000mAh battery, the Honor 5C survives a day of average use but given that it doesnt support fast charging, it takes a little over two hours to reach from 0 to full.Highlight of the Honor 5C is the Kirin 650 64 bit octa-core chipset (four 2.0GHz+ four 1.7GHz) coupled with LPDDR3 2 GB of RAM. The 16nm processor is touted to bring more efficiency to the device at relatively lower battery consumption. Huawei says that the newest chipset leads to a cooler device. But we did notice that the Honor 5C got a little warm. We also think that the metal design also works as a catalyst for all that heat.Mono speaker, placed in the bottom of the device, offers clear output but is not exceptionally loud. So, it is safer to not call it a music phone.Huawei says that the new type of processor is VoLTE ready, but this budget smartphone doesnt support the function yet.In the same price bracket, the Honor 5C competes with the likes of Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Motorola Moto G4 and the new Asus Zenfone Max . The differentiating feature between the devices remains the chipset and the expandable storage option.The Honor 5C is a good deal only if the consumer version (as promised by Huawei) gets rid of the heating problem. The phone is easy to use, offers expandable storage option, and gives you a host of camera customisation options. At Rs 10,999, the Honor 5C is just like another budget device in the already flooded market but one that doesnt come with any frills like USB Type-C, a bumper battery, or a huge size. Jakarta: The central banks of Indonesia and South Korea have been hit by cyber attacks on their public websites since activist hacking group Anonymous pledged last month to target banks across the world, senior officials in the two countries told Reuters. In response to the attempted hacks, Bank Indonesia (BI) has blocked 149 regions that don't usually access its website, including several small African countries, Deputy Governor Ronald Waas said in an interview late on Monday. He said several central banks were hit by similar attacks and were sharing the IP addresses used by the perpetrators. Central banks have been on high alert in the wake of revelations that hackers issued fraudulent money transfers to steal $81 million from the Bangladesh central bank in February. No money was lost in the attacks on Bank Indonesia and the Bank of Korea, which were mainly DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attempts, the officials said. There was no word on who the hackers were. Waas said the cyber attacks were unsuccessful because of the cooperation between central banks. "There is regional cooperation between central banks. Those who have gotten hit are sharing their experiences," he said. Anonymous, a loosely associated international network of activists and hackers, originated in 2003. It said in a YouTube video posted in early May that it would launch a 30-day campaign to attack central bank sites in what it dubbed as Operation Icarus. DDoS is its preferred method of attack, disabling websites by flooding them with internet requests, overwhelming the servers temporarily. Sometimes the hackers succeed in gaining access to data, but rarely do they penetrate more critical systems in such attacks. Bank of Korea officials told Reuters there was at least one DDoS attack on the bank's website in May. No harm was done, they said. "In May, we've had so many disturbances," Benny Sadwiko, who is leading Bank Indonesia's cyber security efforts, told Reuters. "They are trying to attack the reputation of the banks. So we're blocking IP addresses from countries that don't usually access us." In just half a day on Monday, Bank Indonesia detected 273 viruses and 67,000 spam emails to its email server and website, officials said. In early May, Greece's central bank said that its website became the target of a cyber attack by Anonymous for a few minutes before the bank's security systems managed to tackle it. The Central Bank of Cyprus has also said its website briefly came under attack in May. 3 things about this photo of Zuck: Camera covered with tape Mic jack covered with tape Email client is Thunderbird pic.twitter.com/vdQlF7RjQt Chris Olson (@topherolson) June 21, 2016 It seems the recent breach of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's other social media accounts has left him a little paranoid.In a latest photograph posted on Facebook, Zuckerberg is holding an Instagram frame celebrating the 500 million monthly users benchmark. The interesting bit here isn't reaching the milestone but the billionaire CEO's laptop that has its webcam and mic jack taped up.Soon after he shared his photo on Facebook, one observant Twitter user pointed out the extra security step taken by Zuckerberg.The Facebook boss has insisted in his previous videos, where he is showing around the Facebook headquarters, that the company believes in an open culture and hence there were open work stations and all-glass conference rooms.However, in times of increased risk of cyber attacks especially targeted at high-profile people, this seems like a wise decision to protect privacy. Beijing: In an apparent climb down, China on Wednesday said it will play a "constructive" role in the discussions on India's bid for membership of the 48-member NSG but at the same maintained that the issue was not on the agenda of the NSG meeting in Seoul. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said that NSG members had three rounds of unofficial discussions on the entry of India and Pakistan into the grouping. "China hopes to discuss further this issue and will play a constructive role in the discussions," she said. "Although parties are yet to see eye-to-eye on this issue, such discussions help them better understand each other," she said. At the same time, Hua said the entry of India and Pakistan is not on the agenda of the NSG grouping's meeting in Seoul. "Deliberation on the entry of specific countries is on the agenda of the Seoul Plenary meeting. However, it is worth noting that the NSG Plenary meeting in Seoul is only to deliberate on the entry of members who signed the NPT," she said. "As for the entry of non-NPT countries, the group has never put that on its meeting agenda. Based on what we have at hand, the agenda of this year's Seoul Plenary Meeting circulated by the Chair does not include this issue either," she said. The NSG has never put the entry application of the non-NPT (Non-Proliferation Treaty) countries on its agenda, so it makes no sense to say that discussions are blocked, Hua said. "It is true that all parties attach great importance to the entry of non-NPT countries," she said. The Chinese Foreign Ministry has been singing different tunes, first saying that it was not targeting any country such as India or Pakistan and then taking a swipe at the US for backing India's case citing the rule that countries which have not signed the NPT should not be allowed into NSG. China had on Tuesday said the "door is open" for discussions on the issue but then emphasised on whether criteria for memberships should be changed instead of making exceptions. In other words, China is seeking to equate India with its impeccable non-proliferation record with that of Pakistan for which it is batting. The US, which has been supporting India's NSG bid, has said New Delhi is "ready" for NSG membership and asked participating governments to support its application at the plenary session of NSG in Seoul. GamesRadar+ is supported by its audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Heres why you can trust us. Is the Marvel Universe any different after AXE: Judgment Day than before? Didn't read AXE: Judgment Day? Here's everything you missed (or didn't) with its final issue now on sale Celebrating Andall, Rodney and Tanker Titled Mayeya 2016, the music festival from June 24 - 26 will mark the close of the 2015/2016 performance season for Esdelle and her ensemble - a season which unfolded into a successful showcase produced by her own management company, Ethnic Jazz Club. In many ways the music that we compose and perform charts the African experience in the Americas. Mayeya, therefore, is about heritage, continuity, history and connection, said a media release. The mini concerts will be hosted at the Jazz Studio on Cornelio Street in Woodbrook a dwelling house which Esdelle has converted into an intimate and endearing performance space. Since there are seating limitations, two performances will be staged on each evening. It is not the first time that Esdelle has presented composer and arranger Rodney in concert; and she vows to continue once he is willing and able to do live performances. Rodney played a pivotal role in the developmental stages of the music hybrid, pan jazz, and in 1972, composed and produced the first ever solo album by a local pan player titled Friends and Countrymen. The album served to establish Rodney as one of Trinbagos finest musical minds, rendering him a much sought-after arranger and propelling him to Panorama victory on several occasions, the release said. Earl Rodney is an active, living maestro and elder whose artistry we hardly ever get to enjoy live. As long as he is able to, and wants to play, I will honour the privilege to present him in concert to people who want to listen to great music, Esdelle said. In the 1990s Andr? Tanker and his group Contraband provided a welcome learning ground for the then youthful Esdelle, fresh out of Berklee College in Boston and yearning for meaningful outlets for her own emerging expression. Last year Moyenne performed their interpretations of the Bim film score, originally composed by Tanker for the 1974 movie. The shows were well-received by the still sizeable Tanker fan base, and the group knew then that they were on to something worth sharing repeatedly. While growing up, it was Andalls distinctive voice that spoke to Esdelle through her soul-stirring songs and chants to the Orisha deities. Her fellow Moyenne members Douglas Redon (bass), Glenford Sobers (pans) and Darren Sheppard (drums) felt no differently and the idea for Mayeya 2016 was birthed in celebration of three music icons. Joining Moyenne for the three-day concert series are special guests Natasha Joseph (pans), calypsonian Stacey Sobers (vocals), Michelle Marfan (flute) and Gary Haywood (African drums). Double second pannist Joshema McIntosh and drummer Kyle Noel will add their considerable talents to Rodneys set. On the final night of performances, patrons can look forward to hearing Esdelles award-winning arrangement of Black Stalins Kaiso Gone Dread from his Caribbean Man album (1979) arranged by Rodney. Proceeds from the first show on June 24 go towards Bishop Anstey Old Hilarians Student Health Intervention Programme. Mayeya 2016 June 24: The Music of Ella; 7.30 pm and 9 pm. June 25: Earl Rodney in concert; 7.30 pm and 9 pm June 26: The Music of Andr?, Ella and Earl; 6 pm and 8 pm For more details, check the Facebook page or e-mail: ethnicjazzclub@ gmail.com 21 days jail for bomb threat Glen Dalrymple of Sangre Grande, appeared before an Arima Magistrate yesterday charged with misusing a phone to convey knowingly false information which caused uneccessary anxiety and inconvenience. Dalrymple, 42, a father of three pleaded guilty before Magistrate Indar Jagroo. Sgt Ishmael Pitt of the Arima Police Station read the charges aloud before the court. Dalrymples attorney Adrian Thompson urged the Magistrate to show leniency, explaining that his client had cooperated with the authorities throughout their investigation, adding that his client is a father of three aged seven, 17 and 19, and was remorseful of his actions. However, Magistrate Jagroo sentenced Dalrymple to serve 21 days imprisonment with hard labour. He explained that due to the magnitude of the situation, and extent of the disturbance caused by the call, he could not understand why someone would do such a thing. This gentlemans action caused such a stir in Trinidad and Tobago, I cannot come to terms with how one can do such a thing, when terrorist activities are now a global concern. To cause such a state of affairs in this time or any other time is incomprehensible, Magistrate Jagroo said. After the hearing, Dalrymples relatives told Newsday they were dissatisfied with the ruling with one relative claiming Dalrymple was coerced into entering a guilty plea by police. According to the charge, Dalrymple who worked as a driver with WASA, made a call to the Police E999 centre shortly before midday on Corpus Christi (May 26), in which he claimed that terrorist group ISIS, had intended to carry out attacks on Trincity Mall that day. The mall was evacuated and a search carried out, but no explosive device was found. Dalrymple was arrested by officers of the Northern Division last week Thursday following an intense investigation. Weve started preliminary talk with Sandals Speaking after the Budget presentation at the Assembly Legislature, THA Chief Secretary Orville London said information in the public domain is untrue, noting that even at this time, it is still not safe to say Sandals is coming. What we have done is started a conversation... that is all. I think people have a right to protect what they perceive as their interests, but I think they have to do so based on facts. We have started a conversation and basically, the conversation is in its initial stages. It would be presumptuous of me to make statements about the details because all that has happened is just a conversation. Interest has been expressed, very keen interest on both sides and therefore that interest has sparked a conversation, London said. He noted that anyone who understands the process of development, would recognise that there are different stages. Questioned about contradicting the Prime Ministers revelation, London said the Prime Minister never mentioned no mans land. Were talking about 600 acres, which is what this whole process is all about and what this whole project is all about. I think the discussion that is going on is as though this is about No Mans Land. This project is about 600acres of real property, no mans land is about three or four acres and this Assembly has always said that No Mans Land will remain public space, London said. Meanwhile, during his fiscal 2017 budget package delivery, Finance Secretary Joel Jack said that within the next three years, Tobagos room stock would be increased with the introduction of Sandals. Questioned immediately after the presentation, Jack said nothing has been signed. Following the meeting of the Sandals group with the THA executive council two weeks ago, nothing has been signed or cemented as yet but it is more than likely and we do look forward to it. You might recall in my 2014 budget presentation, I intimated that there was a gap of 1500 and 2000 rooms on the island and the problem that were having with airlift is that we do not have the rooms to satisfy the airlift load and if you look at what transpired in the Grenada situation and in Barbados with the introduction of Sandals. I recall during in 1999-2003 period when I was in Grenada, everyone was up in arms about sandals coming to the island but now Sandals has one of the best hotels in Grenada, whereas in the past the Grenadian government had to look for $56,000US monthly to support the airlift and to ensure the continuous airlift to the island. Now with Sandals coming in, what you have is a more dynamic and robust tourism industry. We have had the Tourism stakeholders indicating that we need more high quality rooms and now we are looking to have one of the most successful Caribbean brands in Tobago. More criticism than praise for Budget Chairman of the Tobago Forwards Hewlett Waldron described the $5.3B budget as an echo. I felt like I was hearing an echo from ten years ago. It is a total rehash of everything that was said in the past. There are no new activities or initiatives. All these things were said ten years ago. I am even more disappointed as most of the blame was placed on the last government... the Kamla Persad-Bissessar government and the fact is, the tenure of this Chief Secretary goes back as far as fifteen years. So what has really happened beyond the last five years? That is why I am disappointed, Waldron said. Meanwhile, Chairman of the Tobago Division of the Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce Demi John Cruickshank described the presentation as, wishful thinking. You looking at a five point something billion dollar budget in an economy that is retracting, so I am not too sure how the Secretary of Finance expects funding to be raised. The Secretary said 55 percent of the workforce is now employed by the THA and 45 by the private sector. I am concerned as to where he got that information and I want the Secretary or more so the Assembly to provide us with where they get those figures. Vice Chairman of the Chamber Jason Arthur said, this budget had two parts; what they previously did and what they intend to do. With respect to the previous part, in terms of what they did my problem is that I dont know what success looks like, none of the numbers are pegged to anything. Daniel Nicholson said he was highly impressed with the budget. I look forward to seeing this executive carry out the promises made and that the funds will be allowed and granted to the Assembly to carry out these functions. Senator: Nothing wrong with frozen chicken Earlier in the sitting yesterday, Trade and Industry Minister Paula Gopee-Scoon spoke about that matter as she responded to a question by Opposition Senator Wade Mark. During his contribution to debate on the Family and Children Division Bill 2016, Mahabir said he checked the website of the US Department of Agriculture and found that frozen chicken parts, may only have a little freezer burn. He added, We have to be very careful as we need our institutions to make these statements... not vested interested groups. The senator claimed these groups would, make a lot of money if we ban the importation of chicken. The senator said this spoke to the wider issues of the need to build our institutions such as the Chemistry, Food and Drug Division which should be able to make pronouncements on matters such as this. Mom of 7: Help me find a home Presently, they are staying with a former co-worker of Huntes. We were set to get married on May 1. Just before the wedding date, we moved in with his family, Hunte said. This is the first time he tried to hit me. I had to take the kids and leave in a hasty manner and most of our stuff was left behind. When I tried to make contact to get my things at least secured, I was told that they were already put out, so were starting over from scratch. Hunte is appealing to the public to assist her in finding housing and clothing for her children. She said that above all else, they need a place to live. I am currently unemployed, because in the previous relationship, we had our own business. It is a registered partnership and hes the one with the skills. I did the administrative and marketing aspect of the business. I have administrative skills. I have CXC and ALevels. I need help so I can take care of my children. Hunte has already received some help from Councillor Martin Terry Rondon, Chairman of the Sangre Grande Regional Corporation in the form of a temporary food card, some clothing and some food stuff. However, more help is needed. Rondon told Newsday I got a call from the Church of the Open Bible in Bon Air. A lady called and told me about the situation this woman and her children are in. I went across and saw the situation, and I took them to my office in Sangre Grande where I took them to Social Services where they got a temporary food card, and I gave them some clothing and foodstuff. So Im appealing to anybody to help this lady who is a victim of domestic violence. Huntes children range in ages between one to ten-yearsold. Anyone interested in helping may contact Rondon at 668-3969. Thanks to FDA, Women Will Be Told of Their Breast Density (Newser) A man who created a revenge website to "destroy" his ex-wife is now in custody and facing charges of criminal harassment. His ex says her only hope is that he'll be held long enough to give her time to change her identity and "disappear" before he is freed, reports the National Post. Vancouver resident Patrick Fox, also known by his birth name Richard Riess, was arrested by US border patrol agents in Washington state after trying to cross into the US illegally. He has since been deported to Canada, where he is facing weapons charges in addition to the harassment charges. Previously, he told the CBC that he'd keep his website up and running until ex-wife Desiree Capuano is dead or "destitute and homeless." Capuano lives in Arizona with their teenage son, and says she's lost job opportunities and is "more scared now than I've ever been in my entire life." The revenge site, which is still live, harasses and defames Capuano, accusing her of being a stripper, a drug addict, an unfit mother, a white supremacist, and more. Fox also posted emails between himself and his teenage son that include him writing that he'd have "no qualms" killing Capuano if it were legal to do so. A judge in Arizona has upheld Capuano's protection order against Fox, calling his actions "domestic abuse." Fox emailed Capuano when the site went up last year, writing that he would "do everything in my power and capabilities to make your life as miserable as possible ... to the point that you ultimately commit suicide." Fox is in custody awaiting a bail hearing in Vancouver. Says Capuano: The only chance I have of having a normal life is to disappear." (This man got 18 years for running a massive revenge porn site.) (Newser) Early Saturday evening, just weeks before her July 30 wedding, college counselor Amanda Strous was pulled from her fiery apartment in Charlotte, NC. The fire, says Strous' dad, was a cover-up to hide her murder. Police say that a man who lives in the same complex confessed to the killing the 27-year-old when they found him near Las Vegas two days later. Mathew Thomas Benner, 28, works for an air traffic control software company; his brother, Christopher Benner, who is an attorney in Las Vegas, is refusing to comment beyond telling the Charlotte Observer that he is "addressing legal matters" for his brother. Police have not yet announced a motive in the murder but say Benner will be charged with murder and first-degree arson. Strous' father tells People that Benner lived above Strous, who was home alone the night of the murder writing bridal shower thank-you cards. Her mother tells the Observer, "This was the only weekend that she was alone," as her roommate was attending an out-of-state wedding and her fiance, whom she met in college in 2008, was at a pre-wedding guys' weekend in Maryland. More than 300 people attended a candlelit vigil in her home town of York, Pa., on Tuesday, and a GoFundMe page had raised nearly $28,000 as of this writing to "give Amanda's family, fiance, and friends the tools/resources they need to begin overcoming this awfulness." "My daughter was in love and [as a dad] that's great," her father says. "She was full of life." Authorities found Benner via his cell phone's GPS. He confessed, but no further details have been released. (This groom was killed hours after his wedding.) (Newser) New York City is on track to become the nation's first city to require free tampons and sanitary pads in public schools, homeless shelters, and jails after lawmakers approved the idea Tuesday amid a national discussion of the costs of having a period, the AP reports. The proposal marks a new direction in activists' push to dismantle what they see as unfair financial barriers between women and needed sanitary products. New York state lawmakers voted last month to become the sixth state to eliminate sales tax on the items. It would make pads and tampons free in restrooms that serve 300,000 schoolgirls, it would guarantee the products' availability to 23,000 women in homeless shelters, and it would add the force of law to jail standards about sanitary supplies. Supporters say New York would lead cities by having a law, rather than more changeable policies, in a wide range of locales. "They're as necessary as toilet paper," so they ought to be just as freely accessible, says Julissa Ferreras-Copeland, the councilwoman who proposed the law. Once dispensers are installed, the proposal is expected to cost about $2.5 million annually. Advocates say the measure also would make the free sanitary supplies more readily available by putting them in restrooms, instead of nurses' offices, in schools with female students in sixth grade and up. Girls who need pads or tampons now have to scramble to try to get to the nurse and then the restroom in breaks between classes, says Lineyah Mitchell, a graduating senior at Brooklyn Technical High School. (Read more tampon stories.) (Newser) It was announced in April that abolitionist Harriet Tubman would be replacing Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill, but at least one Iowa lawmaker says it's "racist" and "sexist" to even consider adding a woman of color to US currency. "It's not about Harriet Tubman, it's about keeping the picture on the $20," Rep. Steve King said Tuesday while pointing to a pic of Andrew Jackson on a $20 bill he pulled out of his pocket, per Politico. "I am a conservative, I like to keep what we have." He also came to Jackson's defense, noting he was "in fine and good standing" as president, per the Omaha World-Herald, and adding that putting Tubman on the bill was nothing more than a "divisive proposal" on the part of Obama & Co.; he called his own status-quo solution "unifying." Kingwho filed an amendment that would have prohibited the Treasury Department from spending money to revamp US paper currency or coins, per CNNisn't alone in his anti-Tubman stance: Donald Trump has also blasted the icon switcheroo, calling it "pure political correctness" and maintaining Tubman should be relegated to the $2 bill instead. But the Republican-dominated House Rules Committee smacked down King's amendment Tuesday evening, deciding it woudn't be subject to a votea move Politico says shows a GOP "desire to avoid controversial votes in an election year." Meanwhile, Kim Weaver, King's Democratic competitor in Iowa, called his attempt a "headline-grabbing piece of stunt legislation." (Read more Harriet Tubman stories.) (Newser) Some 35 years after police targeted gay men in a series of raids on bathhouses, Torontos gay community will finally get an apology. Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders is expected to deliver an official apology Wednesday for the Feb. 5, 1981, raids on four bathhousesknown as Operation Soapduring which 160 officers armed with crowbars and sledgehammers arrested 286 men on charges of indecency and prostitution, reports CTV News. About 90% of charges were dropped, but not before closeted men had their names and photos broadcast around the country. Many lost relationships and jobs as a result, a LGBT researcher tells the Globe and Mail. "It was incredibly scary," one man tells the CBC. "We thought this was a safe place just like the LGBT people in Orlando thought that they were in safe place." But "in a way, it was our Stonewall moment in Canada, and really, the beginning of the major push for equality of LGBT rights." Thousands protested the next day, leading author Margaret Atwood and others to speak out in support of the gay community. The city's first Pride event came that June, per the CBC. Toronto police are also expected to apologize for a 2000 raid on a womens bathhouse event, which saw male officers encounter nude women, reports the Toronto Star. While many say the apologies will be a step in the right direction, others say the focus should be on eradicating what some view as homophobic legislation. (Read more LGBT stories.) (Newser) If you used Ticketmaster between 1999 and 2013, you could be eligible for up to 17 vouchers for free concertsbut there's a strong chance you'll have to settle for a band you don't like that's playing in a distant city. Fans were outraged Tuesday when Ticketmaster, which is giving away the vouchers as part of a class-action lawsuit, released a list of eligible concerts that heavily featured '90s acts like the Barenaked Ladies, failed to include A-list acts in many areas, left out the better venues in some cities, and omitted 31 states entirely, the New York Daily News reports. Users can check here to see if they received vouchers. The company is also giving out vouchers for a $2.25 discount on any ticket or a $5 discount on UPS delivery, the New York Times reports. As part of the settlement in the $400 million class-action lawsuit brought over excessive fees, Ticketmaster must give out $42 million in vouchers. An estimated 57 million people are eligible, meaning many will never get to use the vouchers, the Times notes. Amid reported IT glitches, fans took to social media to mock the scheme. "The good news is we all have free Ticketmaster vouchers," tweeted Jessica Roy. "The bad news is they're only valid for concerts you wouldn't even go to for free." "These Ticketmaster vouchers are like finding money in your couch cushions, then realizing it's foreign currency from a failed state," tweeted Brian Beutler. Ticketmaster says it's going to continue adding new concerts to the list. Mashable has rounded up some of the better options. (Read more Ticketmaster stories.) (Newser) The Antikythera shipwreck is a gift that keeps on giving. First discovered in 1900 by sponge divers and dating to about 65BC, it has been explored multiple times in the decades since, including in 1976 when Jacques-Yves Cousteau and his crew surfaced with almost 300 objects, including human remains. Now a May 22-June 11 return to the shipwreck off the Greek island of Antikythera in the Aegean Sea has yielded 60 new artifacts, including a gold ring, luxury glassware, and a bronze spear that would have been part of a statue. The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, which led the effort with the Hellenic Ministry of Culture, also flags one particularly unusual item that may have served to protect the ship from pirates. The lead and iron artifact weighs about 220 pounds and is believed to be what's known as a "dolphin," reports the Huffington Post. The idea is that it would be dropped from high up on the mast onto an enemy ship's deck. "Our new technologies extend capabilities for marine science," marine archaeologist Brendan Foley says, technologies that in this instance included using an autonomous robot to detail 2.6 acres of the site in advance of the dive. The AP reports none of the latest finds are linked to the shipwreck's best-known artifact, the Antikythera Mechanism, which the Atlantic calls "one of the most intriguing objects in the history of technology" and Gizmodo describes as a "freakishly advanced" analog computer more than 1,000 years ahead of its time. After 12 years of work, some 3,500 characters of text found on the bronze remnantsas delicate as phyllo dough, says Foleyhave been deciphered. The team that read the text earlier this month likened the Mechanism to "a textbook of astronomy ... something that you would use to teach about the cosmos and our place in the cosmos." More on that here. (Read more shipwreck stories.) (Newser) The mystery that was Omar Mateen is still unraveling more than 10 days after the Orlando nightclub massacre. In a Univision interview that aired Tuesday night, a man who gave his name as Miguel came forward claiming to be Mateen's lover, CBS News reports. He said he met Mateen on the gay dating app Grindr and that they met in an Orlando hotel 15 or 20 times over the course of a two-month relationship. He said Mateen was in an arranged marriage and his wife knew he was gay. Miguel said Mateen carried out the shooting rampage after discovering that a Puerto Rican man he dated was HIV-positive. "He [hates] gay Puerto Ricans for all the stuff he did to him," Miguel told interviewer Maria Elena Salinas. "I believe this crazy horrible thing he did was for revenge." A law enforcement official declined to confirm or deny to CBS that the FBI had spoken to Miguel, but he said Mateen was a frequent user of dating sites and authorities have interviewed both men and women who say they had relationships with him. In another twist, a federal official tells NBC News that two days before the June 12 attack, Mateen bought plane tickets for his family, apparently including himself, to visit California, where his ailing mother-in-law lives, on June 14. Investigators say that on the night of the attack, Mateen first visited the Pulse nightclub around midnight and left soon afterward. They are trying to figure out what he was doing between then and 2am, when he returned to carry out the massacre. (Mateen spent $9,000 on jewelry days before the attack.) (Newser) A disturbing video getting attention on social media shows a row of eight Chinese bank employees on a stage being told to "get their butts ready" then spankedhardin front of their colleagues for "not exceeding themselves." The employees had been in a "Breakthrough in Performance" training class, and a man with a microphone asked them each to explain why they ranked lowest in the class, the South China Morning Post reports. After they all gave reasons like "failing to make a personal breakthrough," he whacked each of them on the behind with a thick stick four times. (After the third time, when one woman tried to cover herself with her hands, he yelled, "Take off your hand!") After the 75-second video, taken by someone in the audience, appeared online Monday and went viral, the president and another executive from the bank were suspended. Shanxi Rural Credit Cooperatives Union confirmed the video was taken during Zhangze Rural Commercial Bank's training on Saturday. NPR, citing People's Daily, says at least 200 people were in the audience. An anonymous staff member says that another punishment involved 16 employees whose heads were forcibly shaved. The man doing the spanking was a trainer, not a bank executive, and reportedly charges more than $15,000 per day for his classes. He has publicly apologized, though he insists spanking is "one of the most effective ways to raise consciousness." (Read more strange stuff stories.) (Newser) Federal prosecutors are investigating whether a Department of Homeland Security employee with top-secret clearance was planning an attack at the agency's Washington headquarters when he entered the building with a gun, a knife, an infrared camera, pepper spray, and handcuffs. Jonathan Wienke, an analyst in the Office of Intelligence and Analysis, allegedly carried the weapons into the building on the morning of June 9, the AP reports. Court documents filed by the federal government state that investigators have probable cause to believe Wienke "was conspiring with another to commit workplace violence" and "may have been conspiring or planning to commit violence against senior DHS officials in the building." A DHS spokesman says Wienke has been placed on administrative leave. The federal government searched his home in Martinsburg, W. Va. In the affidavit for the search warrant, Department of Homeland Security Special Agent Eric Mann listed the potential crimes as an attempt and conspiracy to assassinate, kidnap, or assault a member of the executive branch of the government, false impersonation of a federal officer, and possession of a firearm in a federal facility. It's unclear in the documents what officers found in his home, or whether prosecutors intend to pursue additional charges. Wienke was charged on June 10 with carrying a pistol without a license and was released on June 13 pending further court proceedings, authorities say. (Read more Department of Homeland Security stories.) (Newser) North Korea is not only continuing to defy international warnings to stop testing ballistic missiles, it's starting to get pretty good at launching them. Relatively speaking, anyway: Pyongyang launched two intermediate-range Musudan missiles in the direction of Japan on Wednesday, reports the BBC. The first one flopped almost immediately, just like four previous launches. But the second one reached an altitude of about 620 miles before plunging into the sea, raising concern in both South Korea and Japan, reports Reuters. The missile also covered about 250 miles, getting more than halfway to Japan's coast. The BBC notes the missile's range is much further; it's unclear whether it fell short due to failure or was intentionally kept from reaching Japan. "This is a very important milestone because the previous launches had blown up either very shortly after launch or possibly even right at launch," an analyst at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in California tells the Voice of America. "So this is a real sign of progress." Japan's defense chief put it more succinctly: "The threat to Japan is intensifying." South Korea and the US are still assessing the test, but South Korean President Park Geun-hye denounced the "reckless provocation." UN resolutions forbid the North from working on ballistic missile technology, notes the BBC, but the launches suggest that Pyongyang is having little trouble obtaining the technology and the know-how. (Read more North Korea stories.) We use cookies. By Clicking "OK" or any content on this site, you agree to allow cookies to be placed. Read more in our privacy policy (Newser) Less than a week after Sen. Chris Murphy's filibuster for gun control on the Senate floor (and two days after the Senate voted down a series of gun control measures), another power move, this time by House Democrats: a sit-in protest Wednesday, per the AP. With Georgia Rep. John Lewis leading the way, an initial group of 30 or so Democrats marched into the House chambers shortly before noon, Politico reports, first calling for a vote to expand background checks and ban firearms purchases by suspected terrorists, then "occupying" the floor. "We have been too quiet for too long," Lewis said. "There comes a time when you have to say something. This is the time." (His speech is here.) The group also demanded that Speaker Paul Ryan nix next week's recess and make the House debate and vote on gun control measures, chanting, "No bill, no break" (which also quickly became a Twitter hashtag). Confusion seemed to follow, with one GOP lawmaker shutting off the microphones and declaring the House to be in recess, while a Ryan spokesman said, "The House cannot operate without members following the rules of the institution, so the House has recessed subject to the call of the chair." Hillary Clinton gave a thumbs-up to the gun control goings-on, retweeting an Igor Volsky tweet imploring people to "stop watching Trump" rip into Clinton during a Wednesday morning speech. Meanwhile, in an added bit of drama to the day's events, some Democrats accused GOPers of shutting off House cameras broadcasting the sit-in, Jezebel reports, with C-SPAN itself tweeting shortly before noon, "C-SPAN has no control over the US House TV cameras" (though it did tweet a short video showcasing tweets from Congress members during the protest). As of this writing, the House cameras were still not on, as noted by Vox, and the House was said to be in recess until Ryan deems otherwise. (Read more gun control stories.) (Newser) Sex scandals are nothing new to politics, but GQ digs in to one more unusual than most that rocked Alabama politics earlier this year. It involves the state's grandfatherly 73-year-old governor, Robert Bentley, and his relationship with Rebekeh Mason, an aide 30 years his junior. Bentley remains in office, though he had to publicly apologize after a recording surfaced of him saying things to Mason such as, (When) I put my arms around you, and I put my hands on your breasts, and I put my hands on you and pull you in real close, hey, I love that, too. Writer Jason Zengerle provides the back story of the affair, including its innocent origins: Bentley first hired Mason because they were members of the same church and the former news anchor and her husband were struggling financially. She would eventually become his press secretary and then a top adviser, as whispers grew. Other aides were worried because Bentley was new to this kind of attentionhe was "an awkward man with a heart-rending comb-over who'd married young and come late to his lofty position," writes Zengerle. Perhaps the most suspicious was Bentley's wife, Dianne, who noticed a shift in her husband's behavior. He started dressing flashier, treating her curtly, and blocking out chunks of his day for unspecified purposes. He even texted her rose emojis, which was out of character, causing her to suspect he meant them for someone else. That led her to leave behind her iPhone in record mode one day when she left their weekend home for a walkand it quickly picked up Bentley calling Mason. The scandal intensified from there as the seemingly lovestruck governor refused to ditch Mason, until the affair (they both deny it was physical) became public. He's divorced now, and Mason resigned from her post. Click for the full, messy story, which includes, yes, burner phones. (Read more Robert Bentley stories.) (Newser) A Polk County, Tenn., restaurant owner running for a congressional seat is outraging neighbors and the internet with an exceptionally racist campaign billboard, WTVC reports. I am so enraged I can barely express myself without copious amounts of profanity," Amy Hines Woody captioned her photo of the billboard on Facebook in a post that has apparently since been taken down. The billboard, which reads "Make America White Again," was erected near her home by Rick Tyler. Tyler, who says he's inspired by Donald Trump, is running a campaign of explicit white nationalism," according to Gawker. On his campaign website (which is also down; cached version here), Tyler says Trump has loosened up the overall spectrum of political discourse. He goes on to claim the white American super majority," needed to fight tyranny, is being destroyed. While the "Make America White Again" billboard was removed Tuesday, Tyler is asking for donations to fund his other billboard ideas, including ones that read "Stop the Muslim invasion" and Mamas, dont let your babies grow up to be miscegenators. Tyler, who is running as an Independent and got a whopping 0.4% of the vote when he previously ran in 2014, has no realistic shot at winning. Therefore, Gawker states that his candidacy is probably best read as an example of that which Donald Trump hath wrought. Meanwhile, calls for a boycott of Tyler's business, the Whitewater Grille, are coming from former customers and the Kiwanis of Ocoee, which calls his billboard "repugnant." (Read more racism stories.) (Newser) A pedestrian walking down a busy commercial strip of a New Orleans suburb in the middle of the afternoon shot a sheriff's deputy multiple times, killing him, after being stopped by the officer Wednesday, an official said. Col. John Fortunato, a Jefferson Parish Sheriff's spokesperson, announced the officer's death as police flooded a nearby neighborhood, searching for the suspect by helicopter and combing the area with dogs. The deputy, who was not identified, was pronounced dead after being rushed to a New Orleans hospital, the AP reports. The reason the pedestrian was stopped was not immediately available, and it was unclear what prompted the shooting. Fortunato described the deputy as a member of a street crimes unit. "The normal operational tour of duty for these guys who work in street crimes is to drive around certain neighborhoods that we know are high-crime areas and make pedestrian stops and make vehicle stops as well," Fortunato said. The shooting happened on Manhattan Boulevard near its intersection with Lapalco Boulevard, both heavily traveled thoroughfares in the area known as the West Bank, across the Mississippi River from New Orleans. It was the year's second shooting of a Jefferson officer. (Read more police shooting stories.) New Delhi: Ever since Abhishek Varman announced his upcoming project Shiddat, there have been a lot of buzz in E-world for it. If latest reports are to be believed then the 2-States director has approached Madhuri Dixit Nene for one of the key roles. The period drama, which was earlier titled as 'Kalank', features a love triangle between Alia Bhatt, Varun Dhawan and Arjun Kapoor. According to the buzz, Madhuri Dixit has been roped in for the role of Alia Bhatt's mother in the film. If she accepts the offer, then this will be the first time when she will play on-screen mother. Earlier, she had refused to don the character of Sonam Kapoors on screen mother. Mrs Nene had returned to silver screen with Gulaab Gang and was also featured in an item number (Ghagra) for Karan Johars Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani. For all the Latest Entertainment News, Bollywood News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday posted a series of tweets on his Twitter handle to congratulate the scientists after the successful launch of 20 satellites in a go. ISRO created history on Wednesday as its workhorse PSLV-C34 successfully injected 20 satellites into the orbit. 20 satellites in a go! @isro continues to break new barriers. Hearty congratulations to our scientists on the monumental accomplishment, tweeted the prime minister. Our space programme has time and again shown the transformative potential of science & technology in people's lives. Over the years we developed expertise & capability to help other nations in their space initiatives. This is the skill of our scientists. PM Modi also hailed the students from Pune and Chennai institutes for their contribution in the making of the satellites. Saw with immense joy that students from institutions in Pune & Chennai played a role in the making of satellites. This touched me. As a common citizen, was totally immersed in happiness to see our youngsters excelling & taking so much interest in science. Witnessed with immense pride and delight the brilliant moments on TV & took photos for my Instagram account. pic.twitter.com/lfGSkCUmjk Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 22, 2016 For all the Latest Science News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: With ISROs historic launch of no less than 20 satellites in single mission, India has joined a select elite group of nations US, Russia, Japan and Europe. India has developed its own global navigation satellite system called the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS). Once it gets operational, India will join the select group of nations owing such system. IRNSS is similar to US GPS (global positioning system), Russias Glonass and Europes Galileo. GPS and Glonass are fully functional, while Chinese and the Japanese systems offer regional coverage. Galileo is yet not operational. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: After facing censorship issues in India, 'Udta Punjab' now faces troubles with release in Pakistan. Neighbouring nation's censor board has approved release of the film after suggesting 100 cuts to remove "objectionable and anti-Pakistan" content. All 10-members of the CBFC have unanimously allowed Udta Punjab to be released after editing objectionable content, Mubashir Hasan, the Central Board of Film Censors (CBFC) head, told PTI. Hasan said almost every dialogue had offensive words so they asked for major cuts in the Punjab-set drug drama. We have cut all derogatory and offensive words/dialogues and anti-Pakistan content from the film. More than 100 cuts, mutes, beeps have been suggested to the films distributor. Once he will complete the editing as per the requirement of the board, it will again be presented before it for final approval, Hasan said. The Abhishek Chaubey-directed movie, starring Bollywood A-listers Shahid Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor, Alia Bhatt and Punjabi star Diljit Dosanjh, had run into trouble with the Indian censor board which demanded 89 cuts from the movie. Not to ready to relent, the producers moved the Bombay High Court against the board to get their film cleared for its scheduled release on June 17 while also gathering support from Bollywood. The court passed the movie with just one cut and a revised disclaimer. Earlier, the five-member panel of the board declined to pass Udta Punjab for screening in Pakistan, citing objectionable content but Hasan said they later decided to give it conditional approval. We had not banned this movie. On the appeal of the distributor the full board sat together today and gave conditional approval for its screening here, Hasan said. He said the board never compromises on anti-Islam, anti-Pakistan and anti-society contents in a film and bans it forthwith. Udta Punjab does not fall in that category. We have asked the distributor to delete those scenes which even slightly refer to Pakistan and words like 786 (which refers to Bismillah) and words Maryam. The films distributor is likely get the content edited in Dubai in a day or two before presenting it again before the CBFC for final approval. Udta Punjab is likely to be screened across Pakistan this weekend, the distributor said. For all the Latest Entertainment News, Bollywood News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Washington: In a most melodious way possible to raise awareness about the real threat to the Arctic, famous pianist Ludovico Einaudi played a breath-taking composition while floating in the Arctic Ocean off the coast of Norway. The video shows him performing on a small platform that floats in the Arctic. Greenpeace, a global environmental activist organisation, had launched a campaign to convince the world leaders to protect the Arctic. Einaudis performance was part of this campaign. Elegy for the Arctic is the original composition by Einaudi, specially written for the campaign. In a mesmerising scene, the pianist plays a piano even as pieces of a sprawling Wahlenbergbreen glacier crumble nearby. The Arctic has been melting faster than expected and scientists have been cautioning that this could lead to disastrous consequences for wildlife as well as human beings in the future. "The Arctic ocean is the least protected sea in the world, its high seas currently have no legal safeguards," Greenpeace wrote in releasing the video of Einaudi's performance. "As the ice cover decreases with rising temperatures, this unique area is losing its frozen shield, leaving it exposed to reckless exploitation, destructive fishing trawlers and risky oil drilling." For all the Latest Viral News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Beijing: In an apparent climb down, China today said it will play a constructive role in the discussions on Indias bid for membership of the 48-member NSG but at the same time maintained that the issue was not on the agenda of the NSG meeting in Seoul. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said that NSG members had three rounds of unofficial discussions on the entry of India and Pakistan into the grouping. Here are the 10 developments: 1. The Chinese Foreign Ministry has been singing different tunes, first saying that it was not targeting any country such as India or Pakistan and then taking a swipe at the US for backing Indias case citing the rule that countries which have not signed the NPT should not be allowed into NSG. 2. China yesterday said the door is open for discussions on the issue but then emphasised on whether criteria for memberships should be changed instead of making exceptions. In other words, China is seeking to equate India with its impeccable non-proliferation record with that of Pakistan for which it is batting. 3. The US, which has been supporting Indias NSG bid, has said New Delhi is ready for NSG membership and asked participating governments to support its application at the plenary session of NSG in Seoul. 4. While majority of the elite group members backed India's membership, it is understood that apart from China, countries like Turkey, South Africa, Ireland and New Zealand were not in favour of India's entry into the NSG. 5. The NSG remains divided over non-NPT countries like India becoming its members, Chinas Foreign Ministry had said yesterday less than 24 hours after External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had exuded hope that we would be able to convince China to support our entry to the NSG. 6. Last week as well, the US had called on members of the nuclear trading club to support India's membership. 7. Pakistan applied for NSG membership, a week after India submitted its membership application. 8. 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. India is seeking membership of NSG to enable it to trade in and export nuclear technology. 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 countrys vote against India will scuttle its bid. 9. The access to the NSG, which regulates the global trade of nuclear technology, is expected to open up the international market for energy-starved India, which has an ambitious energy generation programme. India is looking at 63,000 MW energy requirement through the nuclear programme by 2030. 10. 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. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi : Debris that was found earlier this month in an Australian island does not belong to the missing MH370 plane, investigators said on Wednesday. A piece of debris had washed up on a remote island off Australias coast, resembled part of a plane which raised the hopes of it belonging to the missing flight MH370. But Australian Transport Safety Bureau which is running the search for the ill-fated flight MH 370 after examining the debris reported that it did not belong to the plane that had vanished on March 8, 2014 carrying 239 people after flying off course from Kuala Lumpur to Malaysia. Information received from the manufacturer indicates the item is not consistent with the manufacturing specifications of a Boeing commercial aircraft, the bureau said in a statement. Authorities say that the plane crashed in Indian ocean but despite extensive search nothing substantial came out. So far 105,000 square kilometres of the designated 120,000-square-kilometre seafloor search zone has been covered without success. Though China, Malaysia and Australia have jointly said that the search will be abandoned if nothing come out of it. These are the countries that most of the passengers came from. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Director Abhishek Chaubey says there is an immense sense of relief to see his film Udta Punjab in theatres on time and intact, something which looked impossible while they were at loggerheads with the censor board. Chaubey, who wanted to make an anti-drug movie, said the CBFCs version of his film was so different that he even thought of removing his name from the credits. I am just happy and relieved that we could relese the film on June 17 considering all that happened. The version that was cut was so different that I thought if this is the film that is going to come out then should I even give my name to it? Chaubey told PTI in an interview. The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) had demanded 89 cuts from the drug drama that is set in Pujab. The producers had to finally move the Bombay High Court where it was cleared with just one cut and a revised disclaimer. Despite the courts verdict, we were not sure till the afternoon of June 15 whether our film was going to release on time or not. Things were being thrown at us and we were just responding to it. We went through lots of ups and downs. I really want to leave that behind me and I hope that it never happens to any of my films or anyones film. The censor battle is not the only worry that Chaubey had to deal with. The movie leaked online just a day before its release. It was really disheartening because it was not the final film. It needs to be experienced with the final sound and everything. We worked so hard on the film and some people will not even see the real film. It has also affected our numbers. It is very heartbreaking. I hope the person responsible for it is brought to book. Such was the uncertainty around the release of the film that Chaubey did not even think about the post-release reaction of the audience that normally leaves filmmakers sleepless. I was not thinking about how the audience is going to react to the film. It just did not occur to me. From what I hear, people have really liked the film and have responded to it and thats very satisfying. I worked on the movie for three year. I just want to go on a holiday now. For all the Latest Entertainment News, Bollywood News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: In an appreciable move, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) banned the use of potassium bromate across the country, in its latest notice issued on June 20, 2016, for operationalization of standards for food additives. The ban on the use of potassium bromate as a food additive will reduce risk from cancer-causing chemicals and safeguard public health, the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) said and also sought a ban on potassium iodate, another chemical used as a flour treatment agent in bread-making. The Food Safety Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has banned the use of potassium bromate as a food additive following a study by CSE which had found its presence in bread as causing cancer. The national food regulator however, referred potassium iodate, also claimed to be carcinogenic used as a food additiveto a scientific panel. We are happy to know that the FSSAI has banned the use of potassium bromate. Our study on bread last month raised this issue and FSSAI had announced to ban it soon. We welcome the prompt action. The chemical was banned in most parts of the world but allowed in India until now. The new law will reduce public health risk from a possible cancer-causing chemical, said Chandra Bhushan, deputy director general, CSE. We had also recommended a ban on the use of potassium iodate as a flour treatment agent in bread-making. The industry has already declared not to use both these chemicals in public interest. We hope that the FSSAI soon prohibits use of potassium iodate as well, added Bhushan. The CSE study in May had highlighted the use and presence of residues of potassium bromate or potassium iodate in bread-making in India. The study said these chemicals have been banned in several countries worldwide due to their possible adverse health effects. Potassium bromate is a known possible cancer-causing chemical while the use of potassium iodate in bread can lead to excess iodine intake which could be linked to certain thyroid-related diseases, the CSE study had said. Subsequently, the All India Bread Manufacturers Association representing the organized industry had declared its intention to withdraw the use of potassium bromate and potassium iodate in bread-making. Some of the points to ponder, CSE says: The move will significantly reduce risk and safeguard public health The potassium bromate is a possible human carcinogen used in bread-making in India, but banned in most parts of the world FSSAI should also ban use of potassium iodate in bread-making at the earliest For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Islamabad: Pakistans National Security Adviser Nasser Janjua has alleged that Americas efforts to include India in the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) was part of a greater design to contain China and prevent the resurgence of Russia. Its (part of) a greater design, Janjua said at a seminar on Pakistans case for NSG membership yesterday. Janjua said the current move by the US to induct India into the 48-nation exclusive nuclear club should be seen in the context of global power politics trends. He then listed contain China, prevent the resurgence of Russia and keep the Muslim world in a controlled chaos as some of the leading trends in the current global power politics, The Express Tribune reported. The paper reported that it is unprecedented that a top Pakistani official publicly made such a candid statement about a sensitive issue. Talking about the implications of these developments, Janjua cautioned that American policies would ultimately bring Pakistan even closer to China. Pakistan is upset at the US decision to aggressively campaign for India while ignoring Islamabads aspirations to become an NSG member, the paper said. Last month, Pakistan formally applied for NSG membership, setting the stage for a showdown with India at the elite groupings plenary session Seoul. The campaign for Indias membership into the group is seen as carrying the risk of antagonising Pakistan as well as China, which could veto any Indias application, the paper said.Pakistan fears that the induction of India into the NSG would disturb strategic balance and trigger a new arms race in South Asia, according to the paper. Meanwhile, Pakistans former permanent representative at the UN in Geneva Zamir Akram said that Pakistan was only opposed to exclusive membership of the NSG for India.He was speaking at a seminar organised yesterday by the Strategic Vision Institute (SVI), a think-tank, in Islamabad. Dawn reported that Akrams comments follow remarks by Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj that India does not object to any country, including Pakistan, joining the NSG on merit. Pakistan supports the evolution of criteria that can be applied across the board, Akram said.The Indian and Pakistani comments suggest that their respective campaigns for NSG entry had boiled down to merit versus criteria, the paper said. Akram warned about the likely implications of a scenario in which India alone was admitted into the NSG, include dimming of future prospects for Pakistans entry into the club and likely growth in Indias nuclear arsenal. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Clearing all doubts over its stance on Indias entry into NSG, France today strongly backed New Delhis case, saying it will bolster global efforts against nuclear proliferation and asking the members states to take a positive decision in the Seoul plenary meeting. A key member of the 48-nation grouping, France also asserted that Indias participation in nuclear control regimes will help better regulate the export of sensitive goods, whether they are nuclear, chemical, biological, ballistic or conventional materials and technologies. France considers that Indias entry into the four multilateral export control regimes (NSG, MTCR, The Australia Group, The Wassenaar Arrangement) will bolster international efforts for combating proliferation. Indias participation in these bodies will help better regulate the export of sensitive goods, whether they are nuclear, chemical, biological, ballistic or conventional materials or technologies. In line with its active and long-standing support to Indias entry to the NSG as a full-fledged member, France calls on its members, who are meeting on 23 June in Seoul, to take a positive decision, the French Foreign Ministry said in a statement. The Ministry also mentioned that strategic partners since 1998, France and India share common goals regarding the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems. These goals were reaffirmed during the visit of the President of the French Republic to India, from 24 to 26 January 2016, it added. The French President was the Chief Guest at the Republic Day celebrations here. Yesterday, the US White House had in a statement said India was ready for NSG membership and asked participating governments to support Indias application at the plenary session of NSG in Seoul starting tomorrow. China maintains opposition to Indias entry, arguing that it has not signed Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). However, it has been batting for its close ally Pakistans entry 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. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: For the first time in 4 million years, the Earth passed another unfortunate milestone when carbon dioxide levels surpassed 400 parts per million (ppm) at the South Pole, according to US scientists. Carbon dioxide levels in the Earth's atmosphere have hit the highest point in human history, scientists have announced. The researchers said that the South Pole has shown the same, relentless upward trend in carbon dioxide (CO2) as the rest of world, but its remote location means it is the last to register the impacts of increasing emissions from fossil fuel consumption, the primary driver of greenhouse gas pollution. Besides, scientists say it's highly unlikely that levels will go back under this point in our lifetime. Crossing the 400 ppm boundary was predicted but it serves as a reminder of the growing threat from climate change. The far southern hemisphere was the last place on earth where CO2 had not yet reached this mark, said Pieter Tans, the lead scientist of US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)s Global Greenhouse Gas Reference Network. Global CO2 levels will not return to values below 400 ppm in our lifetimes, and almost certainly for much longer, said Tans. Over the course of the year, CO2 levels rise during fall and winter and decline during the Northern Hemispheres summer as terrestrial plants consume CO2 during photosynthesis. However, plants only capture a fraction of annual CO2 emissions, so for every year since observations began in 1958, there has been more CO2 in the atmosphere than the year before. Last years global CO2 average reached 399 ppm, meaning that the global average in 2016 will almost certainly surpass 400 ppm. The only question is whether the lowest month for 2016 will also remain above 400 metres, researchers said. The annual rate of increase appears to be accelerating. The annual growth rate of atmospheric carbon dioxide measured at NOAAs Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii jumped 3.05 ppm during 2015, the largest year-to-year increase in 56 years of monitoring. Part of last years jump was attributable to El Nino, the cyclical Pacific Ocean warming that produces extreme weather across the globe, causing terrestrial ecosystems to lose stored CO2 through wildfire, drought and heat waves. Last year was the fourth consecutive year that CO2 grew more than 2 ppm which set another record. This year promises to be the fifth. We know from abundant and solid evidence that the CO2 increase is caused entirely by human activities, Tans said. Since emissions from fossil fuel burning have been at a record high during the last several years, the rate of CO2 increase has also been at a record high. And we know some of it will remain in the atmosphere for thousands of years, he said. (With inputs from PTI) For all the Latest Science News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New York: Billionaire Republican candidate for president Donald Trump went on a blistering offensive against Hillary Clinton today, calling her disqualified to run for president and savaging her record on trade, foreign policy, human rights and immigration. Trump who has denounced Clintons USD 42 million war chest as blood money, sharpened his attacks on the polarizing Democratic nominee after disastrous headlines have fueled speculation that his controversial campaign is unravelling. Hillary Clinton may be the most corrupt person ever to seek the presidency, he said in a speech at Trump SoHo, his five-star hotel in Manhattan to shouts of Trump, Trump, Trump from supporters. He said the stakes in the November general election could not be higher, presenting himself as an innovative thinker who could get things done and protect voters from an economic and political system rigged against them by career politicians, Clinton included. Trump attacked Clinton as a world-class liar who had perfected the politics of personal profit and theft and lacked the judgment to be Americas first woman commander-in-chief. She ran the State Department like her own personal hedge funddoing favours for repressive regimes, and many others, in exchange for cash, he alleged of her tenure as Americas top diplomat. He alleged that her disgraceful foreign policy had cost America thousands of lives and trillions and trillions of dollars in reference to her support for the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. In just four years, secretary Clinton managed to almost single-handedly destabilise the entire Middle East, he added, calling the Islamic State extremist group a threat because of her decisions. On economics, he assaulted her support for trade deals, saying they had wrought total devastation for working Americans and cost the country nearly a third of its manufacturing jobs. Americas trade deficit with China had soared by 40 percent while she was secretary of state, he said: Hillary Clinton gave China millions of jobs and in exchange Hillary Clinton got rich. Trump claimed that Clinton and her husband, former president Bill Clinton, had made $153 million in speeches to lobbyists, foreign governments and CEOs since 2001 and castigated her for refusing to release the transcripts of her closed-door speeches to Wall Street. He also claimed that her familys Clinton Foundation had taken millions from countries in the Middle East that abuse women and members of the LGBT community. 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